Via AlMasdarNews.com

The President of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, vowed to help the Syrian Arab Republic amid their ongoing fuel crisis that is a result of the sanctions imposed on the country by western nations.

Aksyonov told Russia’s Sputnik News that there are plans to export wheat, petroleum derivatives and power tools to Syria as well as rebuilding railways there.

He pointed out that whether it is Crimea or Russia, they are willing to export products to Syria in order to help the war-torn nation.

The Crimean President noted that a shipment of wheat and other industrial products is being prepared and will be heading to Syria soon.

He also pointed out that a joint shipment company is being founded, adding that Syria will export citrus fruits, olive and olive oil to Russia.

The fuel crisis in Syria has forced the Syrian government to issue rations on gas in order to deal with the ongoing sanctions that are greatly effecting the country.

A robot named "Colossus" played a key role in helping save the lives of firefighters at the recent Notre Dame blaze, according to The Independent. When the commander of the Paris fire brigade told his firefighters to retreat because the building's temperatures had grown too high, he instead enlisted the help of a 1,100 pound tank-like robot with the ability to venture into places and conditions that would quickly kill a human being.

The robot utilizes a water cannon capable of firing more than 660 gallons per minute, which it sprayed at the walls of the cathedral in the midst of the blaze.

Gabriel Plus, a spokesman for the Paris fire brigade said: “Time was against us, the wind was against us and we had to get the upper hand. The priority we set was to save the two belfries. Imagine if the timber of the belfries had been weakened and the bells had collapsed. That was really our fear. In the beginning, it was not impossible to imagine that the cathedral structure could collapse.”

A former US Marine was arrested in connection with an "especially violent" raid on the North Korean embassy in Madrid, Spain.

Christopher Ahn - a member of a group which seeks the overthrow of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was expected to be arraigned on Friday in a Los Angeles federal court, according to Reuters, citing a law enforcement official and a source close to the group.

According to El Pais and El Confidencial, the group is tied to the CIA - however there has been no corroboration of this outside of their reporting. The CIA has denied any involvement, however Spanish government sources say their response was "unconvincing."

El Pais called the attack "especially violent."

As Washington’s grip on global affairs continues to loosen and more countries reject the western development model, the current order will progressively weaken clearing the way for a multipolar world badly in need of a new security architecture. Western elites, who are unable to accept this new dynamic, continue to issue frenzied statements expressing their fear of a future in which the United States no longer dictates global policy.
At the 2019 Munich Security Conference, Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger, underscored many of these same themes. Here’s an excerpt from his presentation:

“The whole liberal world order appears to be falling apart – nothing is as it once was… Not only do war and violence play a more prominent role again: a new great power confrontation looms at the horizon. In contrast to the early 1990s, liberal democracy and the principle of open markets are no longer uncontested….

SOURCE: INFORMATIONLIBERATION.COM

The United Constitutional Patriots, who made headlines on Thursday for helping catch hundreds of illegal aliens invading America through our southern border, announced Friday on Facebook they were banned by PayPal and all their funds have been frozen for 180 days.

The United Constitutional Patriots said they wanted to thank everyone who donated to their "Border Ops mission" but they "can no longer accept payments" through PayPal as "they have permanently suspended our account."

They said PayPal is holding $1,300 in donations "for 180 days."

White men and their ideas take up too much space in libraries, a social justice-obsessed librarian has declared, stopping just short of suggesting we burn all those oppressive white men’s books to make way for diversity.

“White dudes writing about white ideas, white things, or idea, people and things they stole from POC [people of color] and then claimed as white property” are hogging all the space in American libraries, and it’s perpetuating centuries of racial inequity, Massachusetts Institute of Technology librarian Sofia Leung has claimed in a post that tiptoes around the question of what is to be done with this “so-called ‘knowledge.’” Her outburst was retweeted by the Library Journal – a publication normally devoted to discussing the preservation of knowledge rather than the rejection of entire categories of it.

There are suggestions that the US and China may now sign a trade agreement in May. However, it seems unlikely that this will be the great victory over China that Trump promised, as recent events indicate.

Just a month ago, the European Union (EU) appeared to have jumped aboard the anti-Chinese bandwagon of the Trump administration, when it labelled Beijing a “systemic rival” over what it viewed as unfair trade practices. It also stated that it was rolling out its own strategy to counter China’s influence. While the EU is likely to want to pushback against China and counter it wherever necessary, recent developments do indicate that there is very little the EU and the US can do to scale back China’s influence without resorting to outright war, and are looking to cooperate and engage with China instead.

I don’t know if I’d have the nerve to be a whistleblower. I’d like to think I would. We all like to think we would, just like we all like to think we could catch the game-winning touchdown or fold a fitted sheet without cursing

But to blow the whistle on a huge organization with a lot of power, likely drawing that power to come crashing down on your head – that takes some serious spine-age. Now, imagine the organization you’re calling out is arguably the largest, most powerful, most secretive and most violent organization on planet Earth. I’m speaking, of course, of the US Department of Defense.

Israel has the full arsenal needed to take on Hezbollah in Lebanon and eliminate the Iranian threat in Syria, the outgoing IDF Northern Command chief boasted, warning Damascus against using S-300s to protect its sovereignty.

“If our freedom of movement is threatened, we will remove the threat. We know how to do that,” General Yoel Strick told Ynet News, adding that Israel will soon introduce “advanced weapons systems” to ensure it can continue to violate neighboring states’ airspace and to strike targets in Syria with impunity.

If the Syrians employ Russian S-300s against our planes, and we take them out, it will be seen as a legitimate move on our part.

Vietnam is again seeking justice for the victims of Agent Orange, inspired by the multimillion-dollar verdicts against Monsanto in California. The biotech firm had supplied the US military with the chemical during the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) has written a letter to a US court asking that it restart a class-action lawsuit by Agent Orange victims against American chemical firms, including Monsanto, which the Eastern District Court of New York dismissed in 2004, claiming a “lack of evidence” and asserting that “herbicide spraying.. did not constitute a war crime pre-1975.”

US President Donald Trump’s so-called “peace plan” has been dismissed by Palestinian authorities before its unveiling at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner said Wednesday that the plan would be unveiled until June.

“We will all have to look for reasonable compromises that will make peace achievable,” Kushner said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is “setting the stage for a war with Iran,” says a Bush-era official, claiming he sees the same pattern that developed ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Lawrence Wilkerson, who once served as chief of staff for former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, made the comments in an interview with nonprofit news organization The Real News Network.

“I’m looking at the same kind of trail, as it were, that happened just prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the same characters with a few new additions actually laying that trail down,” he said.

Pompeo was recently warned about going to war with Iran by Republican Senator Rand Paul, reminding him that he has no “permission” to do so without Congress approval.

Google has blocked Press TV and Hispan TV's access to their official accounts on the technology company's platforms, including YouTube and Gmail, without prior notice, citing “violation of policies”.

“Your Google Account was disabled and can’t be restored because it was used in a way that violates Google’s policies,” Google said in a message that appears after Press TV tries to log into its account.

Former South Carolina congressman Trey Gowdy believes the release of the Mueller report has not resolved the partisan debate over the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia in 2016, and that the real “verdict” on the situation will be rendered by the 2020 presidential election.

“I was within in a really smart universe of people that did not think this report should be made public. I didn't think it was going to change anyone's mind and resolve anything and for once in my life, I was right. It's resolved nothing,” Gowdy said Friday on “Your World with Neil Cavuto.”

Here’s a statement it might be hard to disagree with: American war is off the charts. Still, I’d like to explain — but I’m nervous about doing so. I know perfectly well that the next word I plan to write will send most of you tumbling elsewhere in a universe in which “news” is the latest grotesque mass shooting; the craziest tweet from you-know-who; celebrities marching into court over college-admissions scandals; or even a boy, missing for years, who suddenly turns up only to morph into a 23-year-old impostor with a criminal record.

How can America’s wars in distant lands compete with that? Which is why I just can’t bring myself to write the next word. So promise me that, after you read it, you’ll hang in there for just a minute and give me a chance to explain.

Okay, here goes: Somalia.

The arrival of Russian military planes in Venezuela in March 2019 spurred harsh criticism from the US, who has accused Moscow of destabilising the situation in the Latin American state, currently engulfed in a political crisis. Russia, for its part, has recalled that its planes arrived under a bilateral agreement with Caracas.

The US has called on the international community to deny Russian planes flying to Venezuela a right of passage through their airspace, following the example of such a move by Malta. Ortagus said that such a decision could help stop Russian support for the country's President Nicolas Maduro.

Yellow Vests demonstrators are taking to streets for the 23rd round of protests that have been rocking the county since mid-November. A major demonstration is set to take place in the capital city of Paris.

The police have warned protesters to stay away from the Notre Dame cathedral area Saturday in the wake of a deadly blaze that erupted there on Monday.

That same day, President Emmanuel Macron was supposed to unveil measures to quell the protests, but had to cancel the announcement due to the Notre Dame tragedy.

The French president is yet to reveal a new date for his address.