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Trump Abruptly Cancels Meeting With Putin

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By Washington Times. President Trump on Thursday said he was canceling plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of escalating military tension in Crimea.

The announcement tweeted from Air Force One in route to the G20 summit in Argentina was an abrupt reversal of comments just 40 minutes earlier, when Mr. Trump said he would probably go through with the meeting.

“Based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia, I have decided it would be best for all parties concerned to cancel my previously scheduled meeting in Argentina with President Vladimir Putin,” the president said in a series of tweets.

He added, “I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!” . . .

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news services that the Kremlin learned of the cancelation from Mr. Trump’s tweet and had not received formal notification. (Read more from “Trump Cancels Meeting With Putin” HERE)

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Trump Cancels G-20 Meeting With Putin, Citing Ukraine Crisis; Decision Follows Michael Cohen Guilty Plea in Russia Probe

By CNBC. President Donald Trump on Thursday abruptly canceled his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at this weekend’s G-20 summit in Argentina.

Trump in two tweets blamed the cancellation of Saturday’s expected encounter with Putin on the failure of Russia to return three ships and their sailors seized from Ukraine last weekend in the Black Sea.

But the social-media scuttling of the sitdown came an hour after he personally told reporters that he would probably meet with Putin.

And it came just two hours after Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the president’s involvement in an aborted real estate deal in Moscow.

(Read more from “Trump Cancels G-20 Meeting With Putin, Citing Ukraine Crisis; Decision Follows Michael Cohen Guilty Plea in Russia Probe” HERE)

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Russia Opens Fire on Ukrainian Navy Ships

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By Washington Times. Russia’s coast guard opened fire on and seized three of Ukraine’s vessels Sunday, wounding two crew members, after a tense standoff in the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula, the Ukrainian navy said.

Russia blamed Ukraine for provoking the incident, which sharply escalated tensions that have been growing between the two countries since Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and it has worked steadily to bolster its zone of control around the peninsula.

Earlier in the day, Russia and Ukraine traded accusations over a separate incident involving the same vessels, prompting Moscow to block passage through the narrow Kerch Strait, which separates the peninsula from the Russian mainland.

The Ukrainian navy said two of its gunboats were struck and Russian crews boarded and seized them and an accompanying tugboat.

Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB and which oversees the coast guard, said there was “irrefutable evidence that Kiev prepared and orchestrated provocations … in the Black Sea. These materials will soon be made public.” (Read more from “Russia Opens Fire on Ukrainian Navy Ships” HERE)

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Tension Escalates After Russia Seizes Ukraine Naval Ships

By BBC News. Russia has fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels off the Crimean Peninsula in a major escalation of tensions between the two countries.

Two gunboats and a tug were captured by Russian forces. A number of Ukrainian crew members were injured.

Each country blames the other for the incident. On Monday Ukrainian MPs are due to vote on declaring martial law.

The crisis began when Russia accused the Ukrainian ships of illegally entering its waters.

The Russians placed a tanker under a bridge in the Kerch Strait – the only access to the Sea of Azov, which is shared between the two countries. (Read more from “Tension Escalates After Russia Seizes Ukraine Naval Ships” HERE)

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Trump Announces That the U.S. Will Leave a Cold War-Era Disarmament Treaty With Russia

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President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday that the United States would be leaving a Cold War-era nuclear disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. . .

The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF) was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1987. It bans either nation from creating ground-launch nuclear missiles capable of hitting a target within a range of 500 km to 5,500 km. The treaty led to the destruction of 2,700 nuclear missiles between the two nations. It also offered assurance to U.S. allies in Europe.

After finishing a rally in Nevada on Saturday, Trump told reporters “We’ll have to develop those weapons,” adding “we’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out.”

On Friday, The Guardian reported that National Security Adviser John Bolton was pushing for the U.S. to withdraw from this treaty. The treaty has an expiration date of 2021, but Russia has already expressed interest in renewing the pact.

The U.S. has accused the Russians of already violating the treaty with its 9M729 cruise missiles. On Oct. 2, U.S. ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said that Russia was “on notice” because of its use of these missiles, and that the United States “would be looking at the capability to take out a (Russian) missile that could hit any of our countries” referring to NATO member nations that would be in range of missiles banned by the 1987 treaty. (Read more from “Trump Announces That the U.S. Will Leave a Cold War-Era Disarmament Treaty With Russia” HERE)

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Russian Official Linked to Trump Tower Lawyer Dies

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By Market Watch. A Russian official who allegedly directed the lawyer who met with representatives of the Trump campaign at Trump Tower in the summer of 2016 has died, the Daily Beast reported Thursday, apparently in a helicopter crash. Saak Albertovich Karapetyan, a Russian deputy attorney general who reportedly had a hand in a number of notorious foreign intelligence operations at the orders of President Vladimir Putin, was killed when his helicopter crashed into a forest northeast of Moscow during an unauthorized flight. (Read more from “Russian Official Linked to Trump Tower Lawyer Dies” HERE)

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Russian Official With Ties to Lawyer in Trump Tower Meeting Dies in Helicopter Crash

By The Hill. A Russian deputy attorney general, who is thought to have directed Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya in her efforts abroad on behalf of Russia’s government, reportedly died Wednesday night in a helicopter crash. . .

Karapetyan was reportedly behind Veselnitskaya’s global efforts to lobby lawmakers to overturn anti-corruption acts such as the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which passed in 2012. The U.S. legislation is similar to others around the world which commemorate Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died while trying to expose a $230 million fraud scheme in Russia. The acts have reportedly incensed Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Daily Beast reported that Karapetyan signed a letter sent on behalf of Russia’s government to a U.S. court in 2014 refusing assistance into an investigation concerning Magnitsky’s death. The letter was drafted reportedly with aid from Veselnitskaya.

Two years later, Veselnitskaya was involved in a meeting with President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort at Trump Tower. The meeting, which occurred during the 2016 presidential election, was reportedly set up under the presumption that Veselnitskaya would present damaging information on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign. (Read more from “Russian Official With Ties to Lawyer in Trump Tower Meeting Dies in Helicopter Crash” HERE)

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Watch: Feminist Pours Bleach on Over 60 Men’s Crotches to Fight ‘Manspreading’

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Feminist activist and Russian law student Anna Dovgalyuk has taken to pouring a bleach and water mixture on the crotches of unsuspecting men on the St. Petersburg Metro for their anti-feminist sin of “manspreading.” . . .

In a “video manifesto,” Dovgalyuk dumps the mixture contained in a water bottle onto over 60 men’s crotches. Most are too stunned to react, but others attempt to confront her for her abhorrent actions.

“This solution is 30 times more concentrated than the mixture used by housewives when doing the laundry,” she claims in the video, per The Sun. “It eats colours in the fabric in a matter of minutes — leaving indelible stains.”

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Этот ролик — мой второй видеоманифест. С его помощью я хочу привлечь внимание к проблеме мэнспрединга — отвратительного явления, с которым борятся во многих странах. И которое до сих пор умалчивается в России. Для меня крайне важно привлечь внимание людей к этой проблеме, вызвать обсуждение. Потому что публичное неуважение к женщине — это позор для общества! Снять ролик мне помогли друзья, полностью разделяющие мою позицию. This is my new video manifesto, dedicated to the problem of manspreading. The disgusting act that is being fought with around the world and it is hushed up in us. Men demonstrating their alpha-manhood in the subway with women and children around, deserve contempt. If you publicly show what kind of macho you are, we will publicly cool you off! This video manifesto was created in assistance with friends who share my position.

A post shared by Anna Dovgalyuk (@anna_boni_lu) on

“This is my new video manifesto, dedicated to the problem of manspreading,” writes Dovgalyuk via Instagram. “The disgusting act that is being fought with around the world and it is hushed up in us. Men demonstrating their alpha-manhood in the subway with women and children around, deserve contempt. If you publicly show what kind of macho you are, we will publicly cool you off!”

(Read more from “Watch: Feminist Pours Bleach on Over 60 Men’s Crotches to Fight ‘Manspreading'” HERE)

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Report Blames Russia for Sonic Attacks

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U.S. personnel assigned to diplomatic missions in Cuba have over the past year or so complained about a “sonic attack” that produces in victims abnormal sensations of sound and pressure. . .

So the FBI, CIA and other agencies have been investigating, and their conclusion is that it may have been Russia using electromagnetic weapons against Americans. . .

“U.S. officials said in July they were still investigating health problems at the U.S. embassy in Cuba, and do not know who or what was behind the mysterious illnesses, which began in 2016 and have affected 26 Americans,” the report said.

“NBC has achieved the seemingly impossible, somehow managing to incorporate mysterious brain-zapping weapons, evidence-free accusations from anonymous U.S. officials, and Russia, into a juicy smorgasbord of journalistic excellence,” the publication said.

“The bombshell report opens with a phrase that every American schoolchild already knows by heart – ‘Russia is likely behind’ – but this is no ordinary, Pulitzer-prize winning morsel of security state stenography. This time, the Russians ‘likely’ targeted U.S. diplomats stationed in Cuba and China with a powerful brain-altering weapon (which has yet to be identified/confirmed to actually exist), resulting in various injuries, ranging from hearing loss to ‘problems with cognition.’” (Read more from “Report Blames Russia for Sonic Attacks” HERE)

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Russian Threat Forces U.S. Military Action in Syria

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As Russia and Syria attacked Syria’s last major region held by anti-government rebels, the United States sent a warning to Russia’s Syrian-based forces in the form of a contingent of Marines.

Hours before reports of bombing began to come in from Idlib province, located in the northwest of Syria, more than 100 Marines were sent to a coalition base in Al Tanf, which the U.S. protects with a 35-mile security zone around the town. Marines conducted live-fire exercises in the region.

Tanf is located in the south, near Syria’s border with Jordan. Twice this month, Russian leaders have threatened the U.S. with military exercises in the region, and twice the Russians have been told the U.S. will not permit that, Fox News reported.

“The United States does not seek to fight the Russians, the government of Syria or any groups that may be providing support to Syria in the Syrian civil war,” said Lt. Col. Earl Brown, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, the Los Angeles Times reported. “However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend U.S., coalition or partner forces.”

The U.S. uses the Tanf base to train Syrian fighters to oppose Islamic State militants. Officials said they sent the Marines in response to fears that Russia could use its upcoming offensive in Idlib province as a time to also attack Tanf.

Initial reports Saturday from Idlib province said Russian jets were bombing civilian targets. At least four people were reported killed, according to The Guardian.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported there were more than 30 air raids Saturday in southwestern Idlib and Hama province, Fox News reported.

Health official Munzer Al-Khalil said there was “great fear” in Idlib province, Sky News reported.

“I fear we are about to face the most catastrophic crisis in our war,” he said. “When they decide to take an area, they first attack hospitals. I am worried this has already started.”

Neighboring Turkey issued a warning against escalating the attacks.

“Idlib is a ticking bomb,” said Turkish government spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. “We can turn it off and start a new process in Syria if the international community gets serious about the Syrian war and shows that they do care about the Syrian people.”

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump warned Syria against attacking Idlib.

“President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!” Trump tweeted Monday.

With that in mind, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said conversations have begun to develop military response options for Trump, NBC reported.

Dunford said no decision has been made.

“But we are in a dialogue, a routine dialogue, with the president to make sure he knows where we are with regard to planning in the event that chemical weapons are used,” he said during a trip to India.

Trump “expects us to have military options and we have provided updates to him on the development of those military options,” Dunford said. (For more from the author of “Russian Threat Forces U.S. Military Action in Syria” please click HERE)

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Trump Issues Weighty Warning to Syria, Russia, Iran

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As Syria builds up forces for what is expected to be a battle to obliterate the last major pocket of resistance to the regime of dictator Bashar Assad, President Donald Trump is leading a battalion of American voices warning Syria not to make a mistake it will regret.

About 3 million people live in Idlib Province in northern Syria. Russian officials last week said an attack on the region was necessary. Russia and Iran have provided key military aid that has enabled Assad to score military victories over the rebels who have been fighting his government for the past seven years, according to The Hill.

“Idlib is the last major stronghold of terrorists who are trying to gamble on the status of the de-escalation zone and hold civilians as human shields and bring the armed formations ready for negotiations with the Syrian government to their knees,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week.

“So, from all standpoints, this ‘abscess’ has to be liquidated,” he said, according to the Voice of America.

Not so fast, Trump tweeted Tuesday.

“President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!” Trump tweeted.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley also sent a warning.

“All eyes on the actions of Assad, Russia, and Iran in Idlib. #NoChemicalWeapons,” she tweeted.

CNN reported Monday that Russian jets attacked targets in Idlib Province after Trump issued his tweet.

The United States has already launched two attacks against Syria for using chemical weapons against the rebels.

An attack on Idlib Province would take a heavy toll of civilian lives, one expert said.

“Idlib would see a humanitarian catastrophe that exceeds the level of any seen in the Syrian conflict so far,” said Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House in London, according to CNN.

“You have the potential for civilians to be not just targeted by the regime but also to be caught in battles through which these rebel groups aim to defend against regime attacks.” (For more from the author of “Trump Issues Weighty Warning to Syria, Russia, Iran” please click HERE)

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Bombshell: FEC Records Indicate Hillary Campaign Illegally Laundered $84 Million; Cohen Deletes Important Hillary-Related Tweet

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By The Federalist. The press continues to feed the dying Russia collusion conspiracy theory, spending Friday’s news cycle regurgitating Democrat talking points from the just-filed Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act lawsuit against the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russia.

Yet the mainstream media took no notice of last week’s federal court filing that exposes an $84 million money-laundering conspiracy the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign executed during the 2016 presidential election in violation of federal campaign-finance law.

That lawsuit, filed last week in a DC district court, summarizes the DNC-Clinton conspiracy and provides detailed evidence from Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings confirming the complaint’s allegations that Democrats undertook an extensive scheme to violate federal campaign limits. . .

Dan Backer, a campaign-finance lawyer and attorney-of-record in the lawsuit, explained the underlying law in an article for Investor’s Business Daily: Under federal law, “an individual donor can contribute $2,700 to any candidate, $10,000 to any state party committee, and (during the 2016 cycle) $33,400 to a national party’s main account. These groups can all get together and take a single check from a donor for the sum of those contribution limits—it’s legal because the donor cannot exceed the base limit for any one recipient. And state parties can make unlimited transfer to their national party.”

This legal loophole allows “bundlers” to raise large sums of money from wealthy donors—more than $400,000 at a time—filtering the funds to the national committees. Democrats and Republicans alike exploit this tactic. But once the money reaches the national committees, other limits apply. (Read more from “Bombshell: FEC Records Indicate Hillary Campaign Illegally Laundered $84 Million” HERE)

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Cohen Deletes Tweet Predicting Clinton Would Go to Jail

By NY Post. A day after pleading guilty to a swarm of criminal charges that will land him behind bars, President Trump’s longtime lawyer deleted a gloating 2015 tweet predicting that Hillary Clinton would end up in the slammer.

“@HillaryClinton when you go to prison for defrauding America and perjury, your room and board will be free!” Trump’s self-described fixer Michael Cohen tweeted that December.

Critics including comedian Kathy Griffin gleefully reposted the tweet, which was removed sometime Wednesday morning.

Cohen in court Tuesday described how he violated campaign finance laws by arranging hush-money payments to porn vixen Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal. (Read more from “Cohen Deletes Tweet Predicting Clinton Would Go to Jail” HERE)

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CIA-FBI-Deep State Plot Against Trump Thickens: Fusion GPS Spy Natalia Veselnitskaya Worked out of Obama Official’s Office, GOP and Dem Donor

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The Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya who set up Don Trump Jr. for a meeting in Trump Tower as part of a Fusion GPS plot was operating out of the Washington offices of Cozen O’Connor, a law firm run by an anti-Trump former Obama administration official whose super PAC donated to Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential election.

Veselnitskaya’s work from the Cozen O’Connor office provides more evidence of a Democrat and establishment Republican effort to set up the Trump campaign for a future Russian collusion case. Veselnitskaya was allowed into the United States by the Obama Department of Justice while the former Obama official who runs Cozen O’Connor publicly warned then-candidate Trump that if he became president he would be investigated by the DOJ for contacts with foreign leaders. Veselnitskaya reportedly had dinner meetings with Fusion GPS chief Glenn Simpson the day before she met in Trump Tower and also the day after she went inside Trump Tower. . .

Russian and U.S. citizen Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet military veteran, was present at Veselnitskaya’s meeting with Don Jr. in Trump Tower after leading a lobbying push supposedly to repeal the Magnitsky Act. Akhmestshin is believed by insiders to be linked to Russian government intelligence, a fact that the Washington Post seized on when reporting that he met with Don Jr. and Jared Kushner in Trump Tower. A nonprofit group (editor’s note: probably a front group financed by the CIA or FBI) focused on promoting Akhmetshin and Veselnitskaya’s cause to lawmakers actually hired Cozen O’Connor, which the law firm confirms. . .

James Comey’s friend, Columbia University professor Daniel Richman, leaked classified information that Comey gave him. During this leaking period, Richman was apartment-building neighbors with a partner at the Cozen O’Connor law firm that strategized with Fusion GPS operative Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian plant who set up Don Jr. in Trump Tower.

Veselnitskaya and Fusion GPS, led by Glenn Simpson, were part of John Brennan and Peter Strzok’s CIA-led “Operation Crossfire Hurricane” plot aimed at President Donald Trump and the Trump campaign. (Read more from “CIA-FBI-Deep State Plot Against Trump Thickens: Fusion GPS Spy Natalia Veselnitskaya Worked out of Obama Official’s Office, GOP and Dem Donor” HERE)

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Cohen’s Counsel Denies the Central Allegation of the Deep State Plot Against Trump

By Chuck Ross. For nearly 20 months, the allegations made in the infamous Steele dossier have hung like a cloud over the Trump administration and several of his former advisers.

The salacious 35-page document has become Exhibit A in President Donald Trump critics’ conspiracy theory that the campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. Numerous news outlets, pundits and lawmakers have also pushed the theory.

But the dossier arguably suffered its heaviest blow on Wednesday after Clinton-connected lawyer Lanny Davis emphatically denied one of the document’s most intriguing allegations.

Davis said the dossier’s claims that his client, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, traveled to Prague in August 2016 as part of a conspiracy with the Kremlin are “100 percent” false.

Davis’ comments received little attention from the both the mainstream press and the entities that have pushed the dossier. (Read more about this Deep State Plot HERE)

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