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Russian President Vladimir Putin last week proposed an online gathering, featuring Iran, Germany and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Defusing tensions around Iran and making the region safer can be achieved "if our countries and the regional states combine their political will and creative energy,"said the Kremlin's statement on the matter.
According to Tehran, that part is the hardest to achieve. "We understand the good intentions of Mr Putin to reduce tensions. However, one way or another, we doubt that such a meeting will be effective in the absence of sincerity on the part of the American government," Iranian government spokesperson Ali Rabiei told Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
Probably, the US president [Donald Trump] will not dare to take part in the summit because he is convinced that he will again be isolated.
FILE PHOTO: Trump on Air Force One
The White House referred queries to the Pentagon, which confirmed that the incident, which was described by reporters aboard the plane as Mr. Trump was returning from his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J. Sunday evening, was being examined.
"The 89th Airlift Wing is aware of the report. The matter is under review," said a statement from the Air Force unit which oversees Air Force One operations at Joint Base Andrews, Md. "The 89th Airlift Wing's C-32A aircraft landed safely without incident."
Best of the Web: Our leaders cannot 'eradicate' much less 'mitigate' this Coronavirus. We grossly overestimate their powers
On the hunt for The Covid
But the spectacle of millions of masked-up Victorians, clinking elbows if they find someone else bold enough to have stepped outside, suggests our response is over the top, born of a mistaken belief that governments have more control over the course of events than they really do.
King Canute realised he couldn't control the tides. Outbreaks of the coronavirus in Victoria and New Zealand should remind us that controlling the spread of an invisible, highly contagious virus is not much easier.
Comment: Coronaviruses and many other types of highly contagious viruses are essentially designed by Nature to blanket the entire human population as quickly as possible.
In fact, we're MEANT to be infected by them because they're essentially 'system upgrades', without which the ever-changing near-Earth and planetary environment would REALLY kill us all!
Which means that trying to stop such system upgrades is the height of folly. Really, it's the stupidest thing the human race has ever attempted to do.
And that's saying something.
© Dreamstime/FT Montage
In the first quarter of 2020, the dollar's share of trade between Russia and China fell below 50 per cent for the first time on record, according to recent data from Russia's Central Bank and Federal Customs Service.
The greenback was used for only 46 per cent of settlements between the two countries. At the same time, the euro made up an all-time high of 30 per cent, while their national currencies accounted for 24 per cent, also a new high.
Russia and China have drastically cut their use of the dollar in bilateral trade over the past several years. As recently as 2015, approximately 90 per cent of bilateral transactions were conducted in dollars. Following the outbreak of the US-China trade war and a concerted push by both Moscow and Beijing to move away from the dollar, however, the figure had dropped to 51 per cent by 2019.
© MintPress/Antonio Cabrera
An online media company is suing social media giant Facebook for falsely smearing it as a Russian state-controlled propaganda outlet. Maffick, the owner of In The Now, Soapbox and Waste-Ed, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook in a Northern California district court for defamation, intentional interference and violating section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, unjustly causing them economic and reputational harm, claiming that Facebook's actions represent unfair competitive practices.
Go to any of the Maffick-owned Facebook pages, including In The Now (4.9 million followers), which focuses on light-hearted news and social justice issues, Soapbox (320,000 followers), featuring politically opinionated videos, or Waste-Ed (216,000 followers), with content on environmental topics, and you are greeted with a warning from Facebook: "This publisher is wholly or partially under the editorial control of a state." Maffick strenuously denies this, noting that its sole owner, Anissa Naouai, is a U.S. citizen living in California. "In doing all of these actions, Facebook has acted fraudulently, with actual malice and in reckless disregard for the truth," the complaint alleges.
© SIMON SCHLUTER/FAIRFAX/HEADPRESS/REDUX/Reuters/Jim BourgNew Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern • US Prsident Donald Trump
Ardern has postponed the elections in New Zealand for a month so the country can deal with a new spike in Covid-19 cases. The Kiwi PM has become something of a darling of liberal outlets around the world who larrup praise on her progressive outlook, being a female world leader and, most recently, the way she has dealt with the pandemic.
New Zealand has so far only had 22 deaths related to Covid-19, which is obviously all down to Ms Ardern and nothing to do with the fact that New Zealand is sparsely populated, over a thousand miles away from any other country and has five times as many sheep as people.
Comment: See also:
- New Zealand election postponed four weeks due to COVID-19 pandemic says PM
- With 22 deaths in population of 5M, New Zealand races to track origin as new COVID-19 cases jump to 13
- New Zealand acclaimed 'world leader' in handling Covid-19 as it announces enforced relocation of 'infected' to 'quarantine centers'
- Presidential election: A big push for mail-in voting will lead to chaos, allegations of fraud and worse
© file imageMembers of Taliban
According to CNN, the Iranian government has paid "bounties" to the Haqqani network, a terrorist group with close links to the Taliban, for six attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2019, including one on December 11 which targeted Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, which wounded four US personnel.
This explosive allegation was contained in a Pentagon briefing document which was reviewed by CNN. While the bounties mentioned were attributed to an unnamed "foreign government," CNN claims that sources "familiar with" the intelligence named the country as Iran. These bounties, and the attacks on US personnel they underwrote, played a role in the deliberations that led to the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Quds Force, by US forces in early January 2020, the network reported.
Comment: As the US increases deflection, it diminishes credibility. America's real enemies are operating from within.
Joe Biden is most pro-Israel nominee ever (and he will 'defeat' 'hypercritical' voices in the party)
© Israeli government press officeJoe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu in New Orleans in 2010.
"We've actually never had a nominee on any side of the aisle for president who has a longer and stronger record than Joe Biden," Halie Soifer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America said on an American Jewish Committee zoom call yesterday. "He was elected in 1972 to the Senate and has been working on these issues with nine Israeli prime ministers ever since. There is no one with a stronger record on Israel to run for president than Joe Biden and we can all rest asured that as president he would only strengthen the relationship."
Comment: Israel's supporters have skipped right to happy thoughts of a Biden presidency with nary a pause. Wishful thinking will get you every time.
© PETROV/BELTA/AFPPresident Lukashenko addresses employees of Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant in Minsk.
As massive anti-government rallies linger across Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko - the long-serving president who the opposition accuses of rigging the recent election - tried to win the hearts and minds of workers at MZKT, a key factory manufacturing an array of wheeled haulage trucks, including for the military.
Comment: Quick on the uptick, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya volunteered to be the interim leader if Belarus holds new elections:
Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania last week, said in a video message that she was prepared to take the reins in Minsk should the nation void President Alexander Lukashenko's election victory and return to the voting booth.Meanwhile, Lukashenko is prepping the third version of the constitution for vote as prior versions were unsatisfactory. He also eased his rhetoric on a new election:
"I am ready to take responsibility and act as a national leader during this period," Tikhanovskaya said, adding that opposition activists, who have been protesting for a week, should continue to push for change.
"We do need a new constitution. I was offered two versions. I rejected them because they differ little from this one. Work is underway on a third version." Protesters demand that Lukashenko step down and give way for a new election; the president himself says he is not against the change - but that it should proceed without coercion.Lukashenko relents, new elections but only after a new constitution is adopted:
"We're putting it for a vote, adopting the constitution, and I'm handing over my powers according to the constitution," he offered. "But not under pressure and not through street [action]!"
"This is what will happen... We need to adopt a new constitution - that is what you wanted. You need to adopt it via a referendum since this was how the previous constitution was approved. Under this new constitution, elections could be held - parliamentary, presidential and local - if that is what you want."See also:
Massive strikes prompted Lukashenko to hold some meetings with workers. The country's opposition media was quick to describe the events as a nationwide strike.
- Macron wants EU to back Belarusians standing up for 'rights & freedom'. But what about the Yellow Vests at home, Twitter users ask
- Belarus in the firing line for a colour revolution
- Belarus 'revolution' is imperialists running the same tired old script, day after day
- Belarus' Lukashenko says he is being targeted by 'color revolution', seeks to join forces with Putin
- Extensive foreign interference in Belarus attempts to 'destabilize' country, but it's not coming from Moscow - Russian MFA
- Not enough problems: Major Belarus manufacturers including auto-giant BelAZ hit by strikes as anti-govt protests keep rattling the country - UPDATES
- Korybko: Lukashenko isn't a dictator, but neither is he blameless
Comment: The truth about Sweden has been out there for some time now, but don't expect to hear anything about it from the talking heads in corporate media: