MESOPOTAMIA NEWS INTEL : Kremlin spy participated in secret meeting to fund Italian separatist party

AN ALLEGED EMPLOYEE OF Russian intelligence was present during a secret meeting in Moscow, in which politicians and investors discussed a plan to fund a northern Italian separatist political party. The party, Lega Nord (Northern League, or LN) was established in 1991 as an amalgamation of northern Italian separatist groups whose members seek greater autonomy and are opposed to Italy’s membership in the European Union. Under its current leader, Matteo Salvini, the LN has adopted an hard-line anti-immigration stance and has associated itself with United Russia, the political home of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In July of 2019, the investigative news website BuzzFeed released audio recordings of a secret meeting that allegedly took place in Moscow’s Hotel Metropol, between members of the LN and Russian emissaries of the Kremlin. The discussion reportedly concerned a plan to sell Russian oil to an Italian firm connected to the LN at a markedly discounted price, which would allow it to compete with Italy’s state-owned energy supplier and at the same time enrich the LN’s election campaign coffers by nearly $70 million.

According to an investigation by Italian authorities, participants at that meeting were Salvini’s former spokesperson, Gianluca Savoini, as well as two other Italians, who managed investment banks and were also supporters of the LN. There were also three Russian participants, including a Kremlin lawyer who works for the Russian Ministry of Energy, and a Russian former banker and tycoon with clsoe ties to President Putin. But the third Russian had not been identified. Until now.

The Italian newspaper L’Espresso, which has led the investigative reporting into the alleged scandal, reports that the Milan Prosecutor’s Office has identified the third Russian participant as Andrey Yuryevich Kharchenko, an alleged employee of Russian intelligence. The paper said that Kharchenko’s identity was supplied to the Italian government by “another Western state” that has been targeted by Russian intelligence in recent years. The investigation into the alleged scandal continues.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 29 June 2021 | Permalink

MESOPOTAMIA NEWS „RED CHINA“: NEXT STEP TAIWAN ! /  The Plot Against China?

How Beijing Sees the New Washington Consensus – By Wang Jisi – FOREIGN AFFAIRS – July/August 2021

The United States and China are embroiled in a contest that might prove more enduring, more wide-ranging, and more intense than any other international competition in modern history, including the Cold War. In both countries, fears have grown that the contest might escalate into open conflict. In the past decade, the consensus in Washington has shifted decisively in favor of a more confrontational posture toward Beijing, a process that reached its peak during the Trump administration, which expressed open hostility to China and vilified the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The recent change in U.S. administration has produced a different tone, but not a dramatic shift in substance: the Biden administration’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, released in March, asserts that China “is the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system.” Many in Washington argue that this tougher new consensus on China has emerged in response to more assertive, even aggressive moves on Beijing’s part: in their view, China has forced the United States to take a firmer stance.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : JOE BIDEN’S STÄMME : Weiße Männer abwesend in Biden‘s Judicial Slate19 von Bidens ersten 24 Noms sind Minderheiten

Kevin Daley • 28. Juni 2021 05:00 Uhr WASHINGTON FREE BEACON

Nach sechs Monaten im Amt und vier Wellen von Richtern hat Präsident Joe Biden noch keinen weißen Mann vor den Bundesgerichten benennt.

Biden hat in den ersten sechs Monaten seiner Präsidentschaft 24 Kandidaten für die Bundesbank benannt, davon 19 Minderheiten. Er hat auch geschworen, die erste schwarze Frau vor den Obersten Gerichtshof zu benennen, und könnte die Gelegenheit dazu in diesem Sommer haben.

Die Auswahl ist ein klares Signal dafür, dass die gerichtliche Auswahl der Regierung von rassenorientierten Präferenzen getrieben wird. Die Priorisierung von Minderheitenkandidaten ist beispiellos seit der Regierung des ehemaligen Präsidenten Jimmy Carter, der offen einen Schwerpunkt auf weibliche und Minderheitenkandidaten legte. Biden und seine externen Unterstützer rahmen das Thema in Bezug auf die rechtliche Legitimität und argumentieren, dass die Gerichte nicht das Vertrauen der Öffentlichkeit gebieten werden, wenn sie die wachsende Vielfalt des Landes nicht im Großen und Ganzen widerspiegeln. Die Herausforderung, so fügen sie hinzu, habe sich in den Trump-Jahren verschärft, als etwa drei Viertel der Nominierten des Präsidenten männlich und mehr als 80 Prozent weiß waren.

Das Weiße Haus reagierte nicht auf eine Bitte um Stellungnahme.

Zehn von Bidens 24 Nominierten sind schwarz, vier sind hispanisch, zwei sind Asiaten, einer ist Inder, ein anderer Pakistani und einer ist Mitglied eines Indianerstammes.

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MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : WHITES ARE THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS – White Males Absent From Biden Judicial Slate – 19 of Biden’s first 24 noms are minorities

Kevin Daley • June 28, 2021 5:00 am THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON  – Over six months in office and four waves of judicial nominees, President Joe Biden has yet to name a white male to the federal courts. 

Biden has named 24 nominees for the federal bench in the opening six months of his presidency, 19 of whom are minorities. He has also vowed to name the first black woman to the Supreme Court, and may have the opportunity to do so this summer.

The selections are a plain signal that the administration’s judicial selection is driven by racial preference. The prioritization of minority nominees is unprecedented since the administration of former president Jimmy Carter, who openly placed a premium on female and minority candidates. Biden and his outside supporters frame the issue in terms of judicial legitimacy, arguing the courts will not command public confidence if they do not broadly reflect the country’s increasing diversity. The challenge, they add, was exacerbated during the Trump years, when about three-quarters of the president’s nominees were male and more than 80 percent were white.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Ten of Biden’s 24 nominees are black, four are Hispanic, two are Asian, one is Indian, another Pakistani, and one is a member of a Native American tribe.

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