(2019-12-28). Pakistan, Afghanistan reopen consulates after three months. yenisafak.com Pakistan and Afghanistan on Saturday announced the mutual resumption of visa services after a three-month diplomatic row over the alleged harassment of diplomats.In a statement on Twitter, Pakistan's Embassy in Kabul said: "Pakistan Embassy @PakEmbKabul is happy to announce that it would be resuming its full consular services with effect from Sunday, 29 December, 2019."Afghan authorities also announced the reopening of its Peshawar consulate after nearly three months closed.Tension mounted between the two countries after Afghanistan closed its consulate in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border pr…
(2019-12-28). Decades-old Istanbul record store set to close its doors. yenisafak.com After decades serving Istanbul music lovers, a historic record store is shuttering its doors at the end of this year due to "family reasons.""Our adventure, which started on May 13, 1954, will end on Dec. 31, 2019," said the store's Twitter account last week, saddening its longtime customers as well as musicians and music lovers everywhere."Through Lale Plak, we've touched the souls of thousands of our friends with quality music for 65 years," it added.Located in the city's teeming Beyoglu district, the 35 square-meter (4,020-foot) store is credited with providing top-notch vinyl records and CDs to its customers.
(2019-12-28). TOGG: | All you need to know about Turkey's first fully indigenous car. yenisafak.com Turkey unveiled the prototype of its first fully domestically-produced car on Friday with a grand ceremony in the industrial province of Kocaeli.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showcased a red SUV model and another grey sedan model of the automobile and shared a footage on social media in which he took a test-drive of the first-ever electric car.The project is seen as a significant step forward to realizing a long-held dream of manufacturing Turkey's first "national" automobile.TOGG CEO Gàºrcan Karaka≈ü said on Saturday that the car's official brand name and emblem will be determined by the end of…
(2019-12-28). Ride's too hot? Stolen STALIN LIMO found in Moscow day after the heist. rt.com 
A luxurious, heavily-armored limousine that purportedly carried around Joseph Stalin himself was reportedly found stashed in a garage in Moscow. The armored vehicle is estimated to be worth $2.8 million. | The grand theft rocked the Russian media on Friday, when it emerged that the ZIS-115 was snatched by a crew of six from a garage in the north of Russia's capital. The suspects broke into an ordinary car shed where the limo sat and towed the 4.2-ton vehicle away. | But they apparently did not make it far. The car was recovered on Saturday in another garage in the capital, social media outlet BAZA reported.
(2019-12-28). "Un Violador En Tu Camino" and the Virality of Feminist Protest. zcomm.org How does a song about the ubiquity of sexual and gendered violence perpetrated by the state against women become an earworm?
(2019-12-27). NYC Ups Policing in Jewish Areas After Spate of Attacks. truthdig.com 
NEW YORK — New York City is increasing its police presence in some Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Jewish populations after a string of possibly anti-Semitic attacks during the Hanukkah holiday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said after the latest episode happened Friday. | Besides making officers more visible in Borough Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg, police will boost visits to houses of worship and some other places, the mayor tweeted. | "I feel pained that in this soc…
(2019-12-27). Wikileaks Still Holding Powerful to Account as Founder Julian Assange "Slowly Dies" in Prison. mintpressnews.com Julian Assange is dying inside Belmarsh Prison in London. Those are his own words, relayed through English journalist Vaughan Smith, who revealed that the Wikileaks founder called him on Christmas Eve to share his greetings. Smith also divulged that Assange told him he is kept in solitary confinement 23 hours per day and is often sedated. | His treatment has elicited protests around the world, from journalists, news organizations, human rights groups and celebrities. Last week a group of Australian doctors asked Foreign Minister Marise Pay…
(2019-12-27). Cuba: "We Condemn the Aggression of the Mexican Embassy" telesurenglish.net The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, condemned the aggression to the Mexican embassy in Bolivia and reiterated his support for the Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Government. | RELATED: | Mexico Reiterates Demand that Bolivia End Siege on Embassy | Díaz-Canel shared in his official Twitter account an article from the Cuban press that stated that the "police operation before the Mexican embassy in Bolivia 'is out of proportion." | The Aztec nation has denounced the siege of its di…
(2019-12-27). Bolivia's De Facto Regime Harasses Spanish Diplomats. telesurenglish.net Mexico's Ambassador to Bolivia Teresa Mercado reported that Bolivian security officers harassed Spanish diplomats as they were trying to enter her official residence in La Paz on Friday morning. | RELATED: | Mexico Reiterates Demand that Bolivia End Siege on Embassy | "I am with the Spanish consul and charge d'affaires at the residence. Besides having assaulted them, they stopped their car, which has diplomatic plates," the Mexican ambassador tweeted. | The diplomats were accompan…
(2019-12-27). Trump Threatens Syria: Will POTUS Come to the Rescue of Al-Qaeda Terrorists in Idlib? globalresearch.ca Trump wished the Syrian Arab Republic a belated Merry Christmas by tweeting yet another threat, warning the Syrian Armed Forces not to liberate Idlib from the approximately 10,000 al Qaeda terrorists who have occupied this area of the country, since …
(2019-12-26). Trump Warns Syria, Russia, Iran Over Idlib Campaign. telesurenglish.net U.S. President Donald Trump took a shot at the governments of Syria, Iran, and Russia on Thursday, warning them against renewing their assault on the Idlib province. | RELATED: | Syria: Trump Administration Builds Military Base in Oil Field | Trump, who praised Turkey in the tweet, was relatively silent during Ankara's "Operation Peace Spring" in northeastern Syria, despite the fact it displaced thousands and killed and wounded many civilians. | "Russia, Syria, and Iran are kill…
(2019-12-26). Colombian Attorney Asks to Stop Murder of Social Leaders. telesurenglish.net The Colombian attorney general, Fernando Carrillo, urged the government of Colombia led by Iván Duque to stop the systematic murder of social leaders in that country. | RELATED: | Colombia: Farmers Leader Shot to Deat in Front of His Family | The official urged the Government, through his Twitter account, to convene the National Security Guarantees Commission "immediately and ensure its operation." | He added that the threat against social leaders in Colombia "is latent and must…
(2019-12-25). Social Media and Social Control: How Silicon Valley Serves the US State Department. mintpressnews.com 
Facebook isn't the only Silicon Valley firm with partisan oversight of what we see: the bipartisan billionaire class and their security state have partnered with tech firms since the dawn of the internet to control the parameters of users' thinking.
(2019-12-24). 'Kill them with kindness': Kevin Spacey brings back Frank Underwood in puzzling Christmas message. rt.com 
Disgraced actor Kevin Spacey has emerged from reclusion to post a cryptic Christmas video message, in which he channels the subtle malice of 'House of Cards' politician Frank Underwood. | The video, entitled 'KTWK' and posted to Spacey's YouTube channel on Christmas Eve, resembles a similar clip published almost exactly one year ago. In the latest one, Spacey appears as a genial old man, stoking a roaring fire as Christmas stockings hang from the mantelpiece. | "You didn't really think I was going to miss the opportunity to wish you a merry Christmas, did you?" Spacey asks, turning to the camera with Underw…
(2019-12-23). Chile: TV broadcast live when two armored cars crushed citizen. mronline.org 
Real-time scenes evidenced once again how the Chilean state acts with rampant and absurd violence. | Source
(2019-12-23). 'I've got a lot of problems with you people': Rand Paul unloads on Washington in Festivus Twitter tirade. rt.com 
Government waste, neocon warmongers, and the ongoing impeachment circus: Senator Rand Paul is mad about a lot of things, and channeled his inner Seinfeld to air his grievances with the world. | Republican Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky) celebrates the fictional December 23 holiday of Festivus – immortalized by 'Seinfeld' in 1997 – with an annual "airing of grievances." After releasing his annual ' Festivus Report' on government overspending last week, the deficit-hawk Senator took to Twitter on Monday to air some more p…
(2019-12-22). 13 people shot at Chicago house party, four critical. rt.com 
Thirteen people have been shot at a possible house party on Chicago's south side. All have been brought to hospital, with four in critical condition. | Police responded to the gunfire at around 12.35am on Sunday morning. According to police, the victims were attending a house party held in honor of a 22-year-old man fatally shot during an attempted carjacking in April, when a fight broke out. | Chicago: @Chicago_Police are investigating a #MassShooting after 1…
(2019-12-21). CIA torture is 'snow secret': Edward Snowden roasts CIA's feelgood holiday tweet. rt.com 
Every now and again the CIA does its best to appear relatable, and every time the agency gets put back in its place. Now, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden hijacked a festive tweet to slam the CIA's torture practices. | "It's *snow secret* that we love winter," the clandestine agency tweeted on Saturday, marking the first day of winter in the US. | Snowden was acerbic in his response. "It's *snow secret* that you tortured Gul Rahman for weeks at a black site, then chained him naked to a concrete floor until he died in the near-winter cold," he tweeted. | It's *snow secret* you tortured Gul Rahman for weeks at a…
(2019-12-18). Tories spent over £950,000 on Facebook adverts in late election blitz. thecanary.co 
The Conservative Party spent more than any other party on Facebook and Instagram adverts in the run-up to last week's General Election, analysis by the PA news agency has found.It largely came in a spending blitz in the final two weeks of the campaign.Across their two main pages — named Conservatives and Boris Johnson — the party spent a total of £959,329 in the four weeks up to the vote.In comparison, Labour spent £552,035 on its Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn pages between 14 November and 12 December, the fourth most of the major UK parties.The Liberal Democrats were the second biggest spe…
(2019-12-16). Viral Chilean feminist anthem reveals powerful international sentiment against sexual violence. liberationnews.org 
The protest song was first performed for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 20 in Valparaíso, Chile.
(2019-12-02). The War on Truth: How Israel's Social Media Trolls Conquered Facebook. zcomm.org Israel may have found a way to circumvent the influence of Facebook on the discussions pertaining to Palestinian rights and the Israeli occupation…
(2019-12-01). The Usual Incoherence on Student Benefits Is Back. peoplespolicyproject.org 
Of all the welfare state topics, student benefits manages to consistently attract the most incoherent and weird arguments, and the recent spate of arguments on this front are no exception. In the last week, a student benefit dustup has been instigated by Pete Buttigieg ostensibly being against free public college for millionaires and billionaires while Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are ostensibly for it. | This has set off the usual round of commentary about how Buttigieg is arguing for means-testing while Warren and Sanders are arguing f…
(2019-11-17). CAP's Topher Spiro Is Trying to Deceive Journalists By Lying. peoplespolicyproject.org 
It's been fun to see how the Center for American Progress (CAP) navigates this year's presidential election. For insider political reasons, they can't support Biden or Sanders. But for a long time, it was unclear who the alternative candidate they could support would be. | When Kamala Harris was rising, CAP's staff was doing overtime boosting her on Twitter and in the press, including boosting Harris's absurd health care proposal. But Harris's collapse put an end to that strategy. Recently Warren has risen as the alternative and so CAP has been working to promote her campaign, which puts CAP in the comical positi…