Poroshenko is showing his power as the new Ukrainian president, but his options are narrowing. Is he just playing the role of translator from English to Ukrainian, under the influence of the US? How far will Washington go for such a "prize" as Ukraine? Or is the US just playing a game of double standards? CrossTalking with Don DeBar, Ivan Eland and Marcus Papadopoulos.

SCGNews: The U.N. Says 257 civilians Have Been Killed in East Ukraine but Refuses to Condemn the Ongoing Bombardment

All Russian forces in Siberia, the Urals and beyond have been put on combat-ready alert, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said after President Putin ordered surprise drills. ● Over 65,000 of Russia’s troops in the Central Military District have been put on alert to verify troops’ combat-readiness during massive war games of all branches of the armed forces. The exercises involve the relocation of military personnel and hardware, firing training and complex inspections. “In accordance with president’s order, today starting from 11:00 Moscow time [07:00 GMT] all troops of the Central Military District have been placed in a state of full combat readiness," Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at staff meeting. The drills will last for a week, from June 21 through 28, Shoigu said.

Itar-Tass: Putin supports ceasefire in Ukraine, calls for peace talks
Le Monde: Vladimir Poutine approuve le cessez-le-feu ukrainien
Le Monde: Ukraine: Petro Porochenko propose la paix mais est en guerre

Court Hands Google a Worldwide Site Blocking Injunction | a Canadian court has ordered Google to completely block a group of websites from its worldwide search results. The ruling was handed down despite Google's protestations that the court has no jurisdiction over Google locally or in the US. ● Google’s dominance of the Internet, particularly in search, has seen the company become embroiled in the disputes of countless other companies. Day after day, Google is expected to take action in third parties’ intellectual property complaints to avoid becoming liable itself. Prime examples can be found in the millions of DMCA-style notices the company processes each week. Google must remove those entries or face being accused of facilitating infringement. ● Another case that Google has become involved in, Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack, sees two Canadian entities face off (the latter previous employees of the former) over stolen intellectual property used to manufacture competing products. While Google has no direct links to the case, the plaintiffs claim that the company’s search engine is helping to direct people to a network of websites operated by the defendants which are selling the unlawful products. Google already removed links from its Google.ca results voluntarily, but that wasn’t enough for Equustek who wanted broader action. In a ruling handed down in British Columbia, Justice L.A. Fenlon agreed, ordering Google to remove the infringing websites’ listings from its search results. Despite protestations from Google that any injunction should be limited to Canada and Google.ca, the Judge targeted Google’s central database in the United States, meaning that the ruling has worldwide implications.

PhysOrg: Google removes Singapore hate blog against Filipinos

More than 400 large American drones have crashed since 2001, each accident causing from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in damage, according to the findings of new research by the Washington Post after examining more than 50,000 pages of federal and military records. ● Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, became a popular American weapon during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration plans to open up American airspace to commercial, police, and military drones. The government has argued the use of domestic drones is absolutely safe, but the recent data about drone crashes shows there are still significant problems to be solved. ● According to the Washington Post, UAVs have crashed into houses, farms, roads and, in one case, even an airborne Air Force plane. No one has died as a result of a drone accident yet, but on many occasions, disaster has only been avoided by chance. The US military divides drone accidents into two different categories: There have been 194 Class A incidents, each of which either destroyed the aerial vehicle or resulted in at least $2 million in damage. More than half of these accidents took place in warzones, in Afghanistan and Iraq, but nearly 25 percent were in the US. Class B accidents caused between $500,000 and $2 million of damage. There have been 224 such events in total.

The European Parliament, acting on a request by French prosecutors, voted Tuesday to strip far-right lawmaker Marine Le Pen of her judicial immunity so that she may be tried over a remark she made about Muslims in 2010. ● Le Pen, the leader of France‘s National Front party and a member of the European Parliament since 2004, faces charges of inciting racial hatred for comparing Muslims praying in the street to the Nazi German occupation of Paris during World War II. ● The remark led to protests at a Paris mosque, where people had been praying outside due to overcrowding. The conservative government of the day later banned Muslims from praying in the street, after helping to accommodate the overflow. ● On Monday, Le Pen repeated her 2010 comment, shrugging off the threat of a court case. She said her crime was to have "dared say what the French think, which is that street prayers - which are continuing to take place on French territory - are an occupation." "I will go to court with my head held high to explain that there have to be people in this country who tell the French the truth," she told LCI television, arguing that she was being pursued for a "thought crime."

Takfiri militants are seeking to destabilize Iraq at the service of imperialist powers and Zionists to help them lay hand on oil resources in the Arab country, a political analyst tells Press TV. ● In an interview with Press TV on Saturday, Kevin Barrett said the current tension in Iraq, just like Syria crisis, is part of a bigger plan aimed at breaking up the Middle East through destabilization. He said the United States, NATO and Israel along with Saudi Arabia have been creating and propping up extremist militant groups like the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to “massively destabilize” countries in the Middle East.