Today's News: August 13, 2018

World News

Khamenei bans holding direct talks with USA
Reuters – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned holding any direct talks with the United States, state TV reported, rejecting an offer last month by U.S. President Donald Trump for talks with no preconditions with Tehran.
“I ban holding any talks with America … America never remains loyal to its promises in talks … just gives empty words … and never retreats from its goals for talks,” Khamenei was quoted as saying by TV. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

Iran Wants US to Pay $110 Bln in Compensation Amid Nuke Deal Collapse – Reports
Sputnik – Earlier this month, the first batch of US sanctions against Tehran, previously lifted under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, came back into effect under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.
The Iranian vice-president for legal affairs Laya Joneydi has announced that the US must pay Iran more than 100 billion dollars in unpaid compensation over the damages Washington inflicted on the Islamic Republic.
“Individuals and private firms damaged by the US’ moves in the past decades have filed complaints in Iranian courts and verdicts have been issued in their favor. By now, the amount of compensation the US must pay exceeds 110 billion dollars,” Joneydi told the Iranian news network Khabar Online.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

W.Va. Justice Impeached; Others in Crosshairs
Newsmax – A West Virginia Supreme Court justice facing a 23-count federal indictment was impeached Monday for spending $363,000 on his office renovations – part of an extraordinary move by lawmakers to consider putting the entire court on trial in the Senate.

U.S. judge allows Mueller case against Russian company to proceed
Reuters – A U.S. judge on Monday backed Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the federal Russia investigation, allowing a case to proceed against a Russian company accused of helping fund a propaganda operation to sway the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor.

Trump Slams Sessions: “He Is Scared Stiff And Missing In Action”
ZeroHedge – Ten days after Trump lashed out at Jeff Sessions, when on August 1st he demanded the Attorney General “should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now”, the president once again escalated his attacks on Sessions on Saturday, tweeting that Sessions is “scared stiff” and “Missing in Action” in a series of tweets questioning if there will be an Inspector General report about the Steele dossier, Steele’s meetings with former Deputy Attorney General, Bruce Ohr and Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr.

FBI Fires Agent Peter Strzok Over Anti-Trump Texts
Fox – The FBI fired agent Peter Strzok on Friday over anti-Trump text messages he exchanged with former agency lawyer Lisa Page during the 2016 presidential campaign, Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, confirmed Monday.
Strzok, who led the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election, was ordered dismissed by FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich, Goelman told CNBC.

White House exploring legal options against Omarosa Manigault Newman for making secret recording in Situation Room
ABC – Omarosa Manigault Newman’s former White House colleagues are looking into legal options to stop her from releasing more tapes and to punish her for secretly recording her conversation with Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, White House officials tell ABC News.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders responded to Manigault Newman’s appearance on Meet the Press during which she played one of the recordings she made in the Situation Room when she was being fired after working as an assistant to President Donald Trump and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison.
“The very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room, shows a blatant disregard for our national security –- and then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee,” Sanders said.

14-year-old runs for Vermont governor.
AP – One of the four Vermont Democrats seeking the party nomination to run for governor in the fall election isn’t old enough to vote, let alone drive.
Ethan Sonneborn, 14, of Bristol, met the requirements to be on the primary ballot and is taking his place with the state’s more age-appropriate candidates on the Tuesday primary ballot, to say nothing of numerous candidate forums and debates.
“I think Vermonters should take me seriously because I have practical progressive ideas, and I happen to be 14, not the other way around,” Sonneborn said in a recent televised gubernatorial forum. “I think that my message and my platform transcend age.”

‘Incredible maneuvers’ by airline ground agent who stole plane baffles employer. His only training appears to be ‘video games.’
CNBC – Airline executives say they are not sure whether Richard Russell, who stole a Q400 twin-engine turboprop from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, had formal flight training. The NTSB is reviewing the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.
Feds Collect Record Taxes; Still Run $683.9B Deficit
CNSNews.com – The federal government collected a record $1,415,150,000,000 in individual income taxes through the first ten months of fiscal 2018 (October 2017 through July 2018), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.
But the federal govenrment also ran a $683,965,000,000 deficit for those ten months, according to the statement.

Economy & Business

Roundup’s $289M cancer verdict opens up floodgates for thousands of other lawsuits
Fox – Bayer shares plunged Monday after subsidiary Monsanto suffered a huge blow last week following a jury awarding a California groundskeeper $289.2 million in a landmark lawsuit claiming the company’s weed killer Roundup causes cancer.
>> Related: Experts Bribed to Lie for Corporate Predators
Stephen Lendman – The Organic Authority reports “the truth behind America’s food supply and consumer products industries – pulling back the curtain on how America’s food is grown and processed.”
Earlier it reported how Monsanto (now Bayer after both companies merged) bribes academics to claim hazardous to human health GMOs are safe.
US Right to Know (USRTK) “work(s) for transparency and accountability in our nation’s food system.” Earlier it reported on how academics collaborated with a Monsanto PR campaign.
In July, it explained that “Monsanto was its own ghostwriter for some safety reviews.” It got the EPA to kill a cancer study.
It aims to neutralize and undermine the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) – part of its campaign to prevent cancer-causing Roundup glyphosate herbicide from being banned in America, Europe and elsewhere.
In June, Professor Sheldon Krimsky warned about Monsanto’s “ghostwriting and strong-arming, threaten(ing) sound science and society,” adding:
“To protect the scientific enterprise, one of the core pillars of a modern democratic society, against the forces that would turn it into the handmaiden of industry or politics, our society must support firewalls between academic science and the corporate sectors and educate young scientists and journal editors on the moral principles behind their respective professional roles.”
Action Item: Want To Stop Roundup Spraying? Then Tell Congress To Do Just That
Activist Post – Have you ever wanted to tell off someone in high places about something you really didn’t like? Well, you now have a chance to do so regarding the dangerous agricultural herbicide Roundup®.
The Organic Consumers Organization’s lobbying arm Citizens Regeneration Lobby is a 501(c)(4) organization, which has an online petition that allows consumers to tell their individual members of Congress what they think about Roundup®.
Go to CRL here https://us.e-activist.com/page/5899/subscribe/1 ; join and request a personalized petition to send to your members of Congress.

Russia Finance Minister: We May Abandon Dollar In Oil Trade As It Is Becoming “Too Risky”
ZeroHedge – One month ago, the bond market and political pundits did a double take when according to the latest Treasury International Capital report, Russia had liquidated virtually all of its US Treasury holdings, selling off the bulk of its US government bonds in just two months, March and April.
And with the US threatening to impose a new set of “crushing” sanctions on Russia, including in retaliation for the alleged Novichok nerve gas attack in the UK, Russia not only intends to continue liquidating its US holdings, but to significantly reduce its reliance on the US Dollar.
Speaking in an interview for the Rossiya 1 TV channel, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Russia “aims to keep reducing its investments in American securities” following new U.S. sanctions and said that the “US dollar is becoming an unreliable tool for payments in international trade.” The minister also hinted at the possibility of using national currencies instead of the dollar in oil trade.
“I do not rule it out. We have significantly reduced our investment in US assets. In fact, the dollar, which is considered to be the international currency, becomes a risky tool for payments,” Siluanov noted.

Mexican Radio to Beam Chinese Propaganda
Washington Free Beacon – A large Spanish-language radio station in Mexico will soon begin broadcasting in Chinese in a deal critics say will bring Beijing propaganda to Chinese Americans throughout Southern California.
A Federal Communications Commission filing on the sale of radio station XEWW AM 690 radio near Tijuana reveals the buyer has ties to Phoenix Satellite Television US, a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Phoenix TV.
According to government sources, signs that Phoenix is involved in the purchase of the radio station prompted the Trump administration last week to begin an investigation into the national security implications of the sale.
Phoenix TV has been identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as a major overseas outlet used to spread propaganda and promote the policies of the communist government in Beijing. The Hong Kong television station also has close ties to China’s intelligence service and military.

Saudi Cuts Oil Output as OPEC Points to 2019 Surplus
Newsmax – OPEC on Monday forecast lower demand for its crude next year as rivals pump more and said top oil exporter Saudi Arabia, eager to avoid a return of oversupply, had cut production.
In a monthly report, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said the world will need 32.05 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude from its 15 members in 2019, down 130,000 bpd from last month’s forecast.
The drop in demand for OPEC crude means there will be less strain on other producers in making up for supply losses in Venezuela and Libya, and potentially in Iran as renewed U.S. sanctions kick in.
Beijing printing foreign currency on massive scale
South China Morning Post – Chinese state-owned firm winning contracts to print foreign currencies as country seeks to expand global reach and influence
Multiple sources in the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation confirmed to the South China Morning Post last month that money production plants across the country were running at near full capacity to meet an unusually high quota set by the government this year.
Most of the demand comes from participants in the “Belt and Road Initiative” and one source, who requested not to be named due to the confidential nature of the information, said Chinese yuan bills only made “a small proportion of the orders”.

Musk still talking to Saudi fund, others as he seeks buyout financing
Reuters – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday a July 31 meeting with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund convinced him he could secure funding to take the electric car-maker private, but that he was still talking to the fund and other investors as he seeks to nail down financing.

Energy & Environment

Several fires burning in Glacier National Park
KRTV – Officials in Glacier National Park and interagency firefighters are responding to several fire starts following lightning activity on Saturday night.
Three known fires have started, according to a press release from Glacier National Park.
The Heavens Sake Fire, below Heavens Peak, is visible from the Going-to-the-Sun Road. Rappellers are on order to take suppression action on that fire.

Science & Technology

Action Item: Strongly Oppose US Senate Bill S.3157 — STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act of 2018
StopSmartMeters.org – The wireless industry is at it again. Not content with 4G and smart grid saturation into communities around the US, they now want to add another layer of high frequency 5G microwave radiation on top of that, being blasted from millions of powerful small cell 5G RF transmitters on utility poles.
You need to take this deadly seriously, as your future health, and that of your community, depend on it.
Local governments and communities, with direct experience of wireless radiation harm, remain the biggest impediment to the ignorant and shortsighted deployment of technology that has been shown to irreparably harm life.
The wireless industry is now pushing S. 3157 — the STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act of 2018. According to the National League of Cities:
“In addition to preempting local authority, the bill would make some major changes to current federal requirements for small cell siting by carving out a new category of “small personal wireless facilities” with new requirements, separate from existing wireless siting law.”
This means that if S. 3157 passes, small cells would no longer be required to comply even with the anemic and insufficient regulations currently covering the approval of larger (4G) cell towers. If you want to stop the unbridled proliferation of powerful 5G cells in our communities, and prevent the federal takeover of our residential and commercial streets, call the Senators on the Commerce Committee prior to this Thursday, and have everyone you know do the same.
Click on “Call Congress Now” for more information from Scientists for Wired Technology on how to take action:

GOOGLE tracks movements, like it or not
AP – Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to.
An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you’ve used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from doing so.
Computer-science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP’s request.

Scientists capture the speed of death as it rages through a cell
RT – For the first time ever, scientists have witnessed death itself moving through a cell and have measured its speed. The revolutionary finding could hold potential for the future treatment of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists from the Stanford University School of Medicine witnessed the wave-like motion of cell death and published their groundbreaking findings in the journal Science.
The team found signals that trigger death to travel through cells in a domino-like effect, at a rate of three micrometers per minute. A micrometer is equal to one-millionth of a meter.

Apocalypse by 2040? Shock as MIT computer model predicts END DATE for civilisation
Express.uk – A COMPUTER MODEL developed in 1973 by a team of MIT researchers has predicted the “end of civilised life as w

Health

Toxins turning up in dozens of public water systems
AP – Lauren Woeher wonders if her 16-month-old daughter has been harmed by tap water contaminated with toxic industrial compounds used in products like nonstick cookware, carpets, firefighting foam and fast-food wrappers. Henry Betz, at 76, rattles around his house alone at night, thinking about the water his family unknowingly drank for years that was tainted by the same contaminants, and the pancreatic cancers that killed wife Betty Jean and two others in his household.
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Tunisian dates keep your immune system strong… here’s how
Natural News – A new study reported that the seeds of the Tunisian dates are an untapped, rich, and inexpensive source of polyphenols. These bioactive compounds have powerful antioxidant properties that can strengthen the immune system by scavenging free radicals and preventing oxidative stress that damages cells.