Russian Journalist and Putin Critic Who Was ‘Shot and Killed’ in Ukraine Turns up Very Much Alive

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A Russian journalist who was “shot and killed” in Ukraine Tuesday turned up very much alive at a press conference Wednesday.

Ukrainian authorities reportedly faked his death in an effort to catch the murderers sent to kill him, Vasily Gritsak, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, introduced at the press briefing. The operation was apparently a success, according to Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian politician with close ties to security services.

Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist and Kremlin critic, was gunned down in his apartment in Kiev, local police revealed Tuesday. His wife reportedly found him bleeding out at their home in the Ukrainian capital, and he died on the way to the hospital. . .

“We know that many people are dying, many journalists are dying, journalists are thrown into prison for doing journalist work. We consider this unacceptable, we believe that this should be the topic for a very tough international reaction that will encourage the Ukrainian authorities to take effective measures to rectify the situation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

Babchenko, a renowned reporter who fled Russia last year after receiving threats for his writings critical of the Russian government, is definitely not dead. (Read more from “Russian Journalist and Putin Critic Who Was ‘Shot and Killed’ in Ukraine Turns up Very Much Alive” HERE)

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Terrorist Goes on Rampage Yelling ‘Allahu Akbar’

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By The Washington Post. A man killed two police officers and a bystander Tuesday in the Belgian city of Liege before he was fatally shot in what prosecutors are investigating as a terrorist attack, a prosecutor said.

The attacker, who was not immediately named by Belgian authorities, had been in prison since 2003 and was allowed out Monday on a two-day leave, Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said. The furlough put Belgian officials on the defensive about whether they should have been able to predict that the man was a security risk.

The incident unfolded at midmorning in the center of Liege, the third-largest city in Belgium, when the man came up behind two female police officers and attacked them with a knife, then grabbed one of their handguns and shot both dead, prosecutor Philippe Dulieu said.

Then the attacker shot a 22-year-old man who was sitting in the passenger seat of a nearby parked car. The assailant next walked into a school, where he took a woman hostage and forced a standoff with police during which students were evacuated. The man was subsequently killed in a gun battle with police officers who rushed to the scene, Dulieu said. (Read more from “Gunman Goes on Rampage Yelling ‘Allahu Akbar'” HERE)

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Belgium Terror Attack Leaves Two Cops Dead

By The New York Post. A prison inmate on an extremist watchlist was given a two-day furlough in Belgium — and promptly killed two female cops and a civilian while shouting “Allahu Akbar!’’ during the terror attack, police said Tuesday.

Drug con-turned-extremist Benjamin Herman, 36, walked out of prison near the eastern city of Liège on Monday night as part of the country’s rehabilitation program to help inmates assimilate back into society once they are released, authorities said. . .

The officers were identified as Soraya Belkacemi, 53, and Lucile Garcia, 45 — both the wives of fellow law-enforcement officers. (Read more from “Belgium Terror Attack Leaves Two Cops Dead” HERE)

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Trump Jr. Warns Americans After Arrest of Islam-Critic Journalist in UK; Wake up Call Heard Worldwide

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Donald Trump Jr. had a pressing warning for Americans in the wake of an arrest in England of an independent journalist.

UK protesters poured into England’s Downing Street this weekend demanding the release of Tommy Robinson, who was arrested for covering a story on the trial of a child grooming gang. Robinson was transported to jail without a trial and the government banned press coverage of the 35-year old journalist’s status.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Lennon, was arrested Friday while livestreaming a report on the trial of members of an alleged child grooming gang.

The 35-year-old activist and former head of the English Defense League, has long been active against Islam and Islamic migration. Robinson is now serving a prior 13 month suspended sentence for contempt of court after trying to film accused Muslims outside of a court last year. (Read more from “Trump Jr. Warns Americans After Arrest of Islam-Critic Journalist in UK; Wake up Call Heard Worldwide” HERE)

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FBI Is Asking Everyone to Reset Their Internet Routers, Here’s the Crazy Reason Why

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The FBI wants everyone to reset their internet routers to help fend off a malware attack by a Russian hacking group called Sofacy.

Resetting the router may help prevent the hackers from being able to strengthen the malware’s defenses, the agency said through an announcement.

The attack is done through something known as a VPNFilter that targets small office or home office routers, according to the announcement. The malware can collect information, exploit devices and block network traffic. . .

“The size and scope of the infrastructure impacted by VPNFilter malware is significant,” the announcement states. “The malware targets routers produced by several manufacturers and network-attached storage devices by at least one manufacturer. The initial infection vector for this malware is currently unknown.” . . .

“According to the FBI, rebooting your router will destroy the part of the malware that can do nasty things like spy on your activities, while leaving the install package intact. And when that install package phones home to download the nasty part, the FBI will be able to trace that because the US government says it’s seized a critical domain that the Russian hackers were allegedly using,” the website explains. (Read more from “FBI Is Asking Everyone to Reset Their Internet Routers, Here’s the Crazy Reason Why” HERE)

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Hero Climbs Side of Building to Save Child Dangling From 4th Story Balcony

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A Malian man is being hailed as a hero for saving a child in Paris from the balcony of a fourth story apartment.

The four-year-old had been left home alone, when he climbed or fell over the apartment balcony and ended up hanging from the outside of it. Neighbors in the apartment next to him could not reach over far enough to pull the child to safety.

22-year-old Mamoudou Gassama, who was granted French citizenship due to his heroics but who at the time was in the country illegally, saw a crowd gathering in the street below, and realized the danger that the child was in. With speed and agility that has earned him the name “spiderman” on social media, Gassama climbed from one balcony to the next before pulling the child to safety with one arm. . .

Macron personally met with Gassama at Elysee Palace, and awarded him a medal for his courage. Macron also told Gassama that he would be made a naturalized citizen for what he did. Gassama reportedly arrived in France last year, after crossing the Mediterranean and arriving in Italy.

Gassama told Macron that when he saw the child, “I just didn’t have time to think, I ran across the road to go and save him.” He continued, “I just climbed up and thank God, God helped me. The more I climbed the more I had the courage to climb up higher, that’s it.” (Read more from “Hero Climbs Side of Building to Save Child Dangling From 4th Story Balcony” HERE)

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Another U.S. Prisoner Brought Back Home

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U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence says sanctions will remain on Venezuela despite the release of a US prisoner and his wife on Saturday.

Joshua Holt and his Venezuelan wife Thamy arrived in the US accompanied by Senator Bob Corker, who helped negotiate their release. . .

Mr Holt and his wife had been imprisoned in Venezuela for two years on charges of concealing weapons.

“Very glad that Josh Holt is now back home with his family – where he has always belonged,” Mr Pence wrote in a tweet. “Sanctions continue until democracy returns to Venezuela.”

The couple were detained in 2016 at her family’s house in the capital Caracas while waiting for US visas, and accused of hiding weapons. Both were jailed for two years.

(Read more from “Another U.S. Prisoner Brought Back Home” HERE)

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Elon Musk Just Exposed the Oil Oligarchy’s Control Over Mainstream Media in Epic Rant

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Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, Space-X, and PayPal, recently posted a series of Tweets pointing out how media organizations have an obvious incentive to give bad press to electric cars and alternative energy in general.

Musk was unforgiving towards the mainstream media in his epic Twitter rant, calling them hypocrites and saying that the public no longer trusts them. He said that he doesn’t advertise for Tesla, his electric car company, which means that he contributes no money to the media, who depend on advertising dollars to stay in business.

On the other hand, the traditional auto industry and fossil fuel companies are among the world’s largest advertisers, meaning that they are one of the primary industries keeping the mainstream media in business. When it comes time to cover a story that involves these industries, journalists, and media organizations have an obvious bias and conflict of interest that will influence their coverage of the story even if they were not given explicit orders to create propaganda.

“The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie, is why the public no longer respects them. Problem is journos are under constant pressure to get max clicks & earn advertising dollars or get fired. Tricky situation, as Tesla doesn’t advertise, but fossil fuel companies & gas/diesel car companies are among world’s biggest advertisers,” Musk said.

One of the dark secrets of the advertising industry is the fact that commercials are not always intended to sell something, but are sometimes an undercover bribe, which corporations use to control the narrative on the sponsored news sources. An obvious example of this is how military arms suppliers like Boeing or Lockheed Martin will advertise on major networks despite the fact that their products are not available for sale to the people watching the advertisements.

It is no coincidence that international stories are covered with a pro-war slant on every major media platform when the arms dealers are advertising on each one—in fact, that is the very reason they advertise. The same goes for recruitment ads for the military, these serve the double purpose of recruiting and also controlling the narrative of the media outlet by becoming their sponsor.

Next, Musk announced that he was planning on creating his own media ranking website that would rate the credibility of journalists by crowdsourcing reviews from readers. He also put up a poll asking his followers if it would be a good idea, or gave the sarcastic option of “no, media are awesome.”

Musk suggested that he would call his site “Pravda,” and while it would seem that these were thoughts coming off the top of his head, one Twitter follower pointed out that one of Musk’s agents “incorporated Pravda Corp in California” in October 2017.

As opposed to centralized fact-checking sites like Snopes or Politifact, which have an obvious bias, a site that allowed the public to decide who they trusted could be an interesting way to rate journalists. Of course, any type of rating system is dependent upon the opinions of the masses, which can sometimes be wrong, and are almost always controversial. However, this seems to be the best model that has been proposed thus far, and it does not seem to favor the mainstream media as other popular “fact checkers” do. (For more from the author of “Elon Musk Just Exposed the Oil Oligarchy’s Control Over Mainstream Media in Epic Rant” please click HERE)

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Trump Plans to Reschedule North Korea Summit

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By The New York Times. President Trump said on Friday that the White House was back in touch with North Korea and that the two sides might reschedule his summit meeting with Kim Jong-un, a startling reversal that revealed not only Mr. Trump’s improvisational approach to diplomacy but also deep divisions among his advisers about the risks of going ahead.

Twenty-four hours after announcing that he was calling off the meeting in a letter to Mr. Kim, the North’s leader, Mr. Trump told reporters that he and Mr. Kim might yet meet in Singapore on June 12.

Before boarding Marine One on his way to deliver a commencement address at the United States Naval Academy, Mr. Trump said that he welcomed a conciliatory statement issued by North Korea in response to his announcement on Thursday. North Korea, it said, was “willing to sit down with the United States any time, in any format, to resolve the problems,” and urged the president to reconsider. (Read more from “Trump Plans to Reschedule North Korea Summit” HERE)

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It Is Welcome News That the Korea Summit Is Once Again Set to Go Ahead – Particularly for Those Living in the South

By The Independent. It is not impossible that Kim Jong-un is a master of diplomacy. Certainly, he is making the Americans appear if not amateurish then unsure, although that in itself may not be difficult.

The on-again, off-again nature of the summit between the leaders of the United States and North Korea may, paradoxically, be emblematic of Donald Trump’s confused presidency, but is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the vacillation is a consequence of Mr Kim’s manipulation of the scenario than part of a White House master plan.

That the proposed meeting between these giant egos is now seemingly set to proceed once more is welcome news, of course. Putting to one side the extraordinary theatre that surrounds these two strongmen of 21st century politics, it is unquestionable that the world – and especially the Korean peninsular – will be a safer place if Mr Kim curtails his nuclear ambitions.

To that end, the quiet resolve of South Korea remains crucial in bridging the divide (rhetorical or substantive) between Pyongyang and Washington.

Indeed, it is the people living in the South who – along with their neighbours in the North – have most to gain from full and lasting detente and from Mr Kim’s potential agreement to halt his nuclear weapons programme. (Read more from “It Is Welcome News That the Korea Summit Is Once Again Set to Go Ahead – Particularly for Those Living in the South” HERE)

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Top Iranian Official, John Kerry Meeting Partner, Caught Chanting ‘Death to America’

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By The Daily Caller. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, a key architect of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, was caught on camera chanting “Death to America,” “Death to Britain” and “Death to Israel,” Israeli outlet Ynetnews reported on Saturday.

Zarif participated in the violent chants on Thursday after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a speech in Tehran, according to Ynetnews.

Zarif’s call for the destruction of America came less than two months after he secretly met with former Secretary of State John Kerry in mid-April to try and save the Iran nuclear deal. (Read more from “Top Iranian Official, John Kerry Meeting Partner, Caught Chanting ‘Death to America'” HERE)

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China to Host Iran to Avoid Project Disruption Amid Nuclear Deal Doubt

By Reuters. China will host Iranian President Hassan Rouhani next month at a regional summit aimed at avoiding disruption of joint projects, its foreign ministry said on Monday, as major powers scramble to save Iran’s nuclear deal after the United States pulled out.

Rouhani will pay a working visit to China and attend the summit of the China and Russia-led security bloc the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the ministry said.

It did not give exact dates for his visit, but the summit is scheduled to be held on the second weekend of June in the northern Chinese city of Qingdao.

Iran is currently an observer member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, though it has long sought full membership. (Read more from “China to Host Iran to Avoid Project Disruption Amid Nuclear Deal Doubt” HERE)

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James Clapper Struggles to Explain Why Trump Campaign Wasn’t Warned of Russian Threat

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By The Daily Caller. . .During an interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Clapper seemed to argue that the Russian threat “had [not] reached the point” where the FBI would alert the campaign, but apparently had reached the point where the FBI would send in an informant.

“The first thing is just to determine what was going on,” Clapper said. “If there wasn’t a concern about the Russians…perhaps no reason to do that. You know, the FBI has rules and protocols for when they decide to do something like that and I don’t think that at that point it had reached the point where it would be appropriate to engage the head of the campaign or the nominee.” (Read more from “James Clapper Struggles to Explain Why Trump Campaign Wasn’t Warned of Russian Threat” HERE)

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Trump: Lives Have Been ‘Devastated and Destroyed’ by Russia Probe

By Politico. President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that the Russia probe has “devastated and destroyed” the reputations of people, continuing his weekend Twitter assault against the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt? They journeyed down to Washington, D.C., with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation. … They went back home in tatters,” the president wrote on Twitter.

Trump has repeatedly called special counsel Mueller’s probe a “witch hunt,” a charge that in recent weeks has been coupled with renewed calls from his allies to end the probe soon. Some House lawmakers have gone even further, arguing that reports stating a confidential FBI informant met with Trump campaign officials means the investigation is irrevocably tainted.

“With Spies, or ‘Informants’ as the Democrats like to call them because it sounds less sinister (but it’s not), all over my campaign,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday, “even from a very early date, why didn’t the crooked highest levels of the FBI or ‘Justice‘ contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?” (Read more from “Trump: Lives Have Been ‘Devastated and Destroyed’ by Russia Probe” HERE)

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