The Chinese are keen to invest in new terminals, docks, yards, logistics platforms and industrial areas in the northern Italian port, given its deeper integration into EU rail networks than Piraeus, the Greek port taken over by Cosco in 2016.

A seaport city of just over 200,000 residents in northeast Italy could play a significant geopolitical role in promoting Eurasian integration. The port of Trieste is only the 11th busiest in Europe by tonnage, but nonetheless is designed to become the western end of the Maritime Silk Road, a key section of Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative to improve connectivity between China and Western Europe.

Zeno D'Agostino, president of the Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea, the public company that runs Trieste port and other facilities in the area, told Asia Times that the Chinese were ready to invest in the infrastructure. "They have been attracted by Trieste's geographic position, strong connectivity with the rest of Europe and robust supply chain," he said.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is set to meet President Vladimir Putin this week, their fourth meeting this year, displaying the pragmatic politics that are so badly needed right now in relations between Moscow and Europe.

Kurz is scheduled to make his second visit to Russia in less than a year and is expected to meet with Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday as part of a working trip. It will be the fourth meeting between the two leaders in less than nine months. Such frequent contacts have brought the already constructive and cordial relations between the two nations to a seemingly unprecedented level.

How these continue to improve might seem even more unusual against the backdrop of the ongoing cooling in relations between Moscow and the West, which has brought contacts between Russia and Europe to lows that are, at times, comparable with the Cold War era.

Austria's distinct approach to dealing with Russia has, so far, stood in stark contrast to that of other Western European nations, and are a sign of its cherished political neutrality and non-ideological approach to foreign policy.

In Europe and across the Atlantic, officials like to talk about the war in Yemen as a horrible humanitarian crisis. They also like to sell weapons to the Saudi-led coalition, which bears most of the blame for that crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron talks about "the risk of harm to civilian population" as $3.5bn worth of French Leclerc tanks roll across Yemeni deserts. A Canadian MP calls the Yemeni war the "worst humanitarian crisis in our time," and Prime Minister Trudeau talks about "transparence, openness and rigor" in dealing with the Saudis - but the $12bn armored vehicles sale stands. Spain "finds no reason" to not go forward with delivering $9.2 US-made missiles to Riyadh.


Compared with the streams of weapons and cash, humanitarian deliveries to Yemen are a trickle: over 20 million people there are in need of aid, more than five million are on the verge of starvation. Images from the Aslam region, one of the country's poorest, show people boiling and eating tree leaves to survive.

"The current leadership of Saudi Arabia feels empowered and enabled by the backing from the US, UK and France," says Robert Naiman, the director of the Just Foreign Policy organization. Which means that as long as massive dollar signs are dangled in front of Western leaders, and arms manufacturers hold sway over their judgment, the suffering in Yemen is likely to persist.

Newly elected Iraqi President Barham Salih asked former Minister of Oil Adil Abdul-Mahdi to form a government, the state television reported on Tuesday.

Salih, who served as the prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan in 2009-2012, was elected by the country's parliament earlier in the day. Salih, backed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), won in the second round of voting.

The parliament was formed after May 12 general election.

Abdul-Mahdi was the minister of oil in 2014-2016, under Prime Minister Haider Abadi, Salih's predecessor.

The news of Russia completing the delivery of its S-300 air defense system to the Syrian Army has provoked a nervous reaction in Washington, as the US State Department said it still hopes that the delivery had not taken place.

"I saw that report. I cannot confirm that it is accurate. I hope that they did not," the State Department's spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, said, referring to the Russian military, as she responded to a question about the S-300.

"That would be a sort of a serious escalation" of the situation on the ground in Syria, she added, while refusing to comment further on the issue. Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that the Russian military have completed the delivery.

It doesn't matter where you stand on the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. In the larger picture, our politicians have set a precedent that only promises to deliver much more tumult to our future political landscape: Any sexual-misconduct accuser must receive a congressional hearing upon demand, no matter when the allegation is raised, how long ago the alleged incident occurred, or whether it's supported by evidence. In fact, the hearing and an FBI investigation must occur even if crucial details are missing and if named witnesses deny the event or have no recollection. Although the charges may allege criminal conduct, the bar for having them pursued is far lower than what's required in a court of law.

There will be divided opinions as to whether this is just.

Many advocates will say this is as it should be, that sexual abuse survivors cannot be hemmed in by artificial boundaries or deadlines established for the convenience of our political governance. Whenever they may feel strong or motivated enough to come forward, even if it seems to be the most inconvenient time, it's the right time for them. These advocates also will say accusers must be afforded every benefit of doubt, assumed to be telling the truth and questioned gingerly (if at all) lest they and other alleged victims be intimidated into silence.

Many others will point to a long record of false accusations. False accusations can be so damaging that the presumption of innocence for the criminally charged is a sacred principle of the American criminal justice system. They will say that failing to treat unproven charges with appropriate skeptical uncertainty is unfair to the accused who may, in fact, be perfectly innocent. They also will claim this encourages the weaponization of sexual-misconduct charges by dishonest people for political or other nefarious purposes.

Whatever the case, it seems that we can now expect the following scenarios:

Every future Supreme Court nominee may face 11th-hour accusations that will stop the works and necessitate hearings and an FBI probe.

The range of show-stopping allegations may expand beyond sexual misconduct to other conduct deemed unbecoming of a future Supreme Court Justice. For example, we may hear that a future nominee was rumored to cheat on a high school exam, that someone witnessed him or her losing their temper in college, that they said something incredibly hurtful or inappropriate as a teenager, broke up with a high school sweetheart in a disrespectful way, or had a one-night stand.

These future accusations may be lodged on an even trickier timetable, such as during an actual confirmation vote, just before the swearing-in of a confirmed nominee, or even after the swearing-in occurs.

The accused targets may expand beyond that of Supreme Court nominees to other federal nominees and appointees, members of Congress and candidates, officials at federal agencies, and important staff and aides.

The most difficult part is the reality that some of the charges will be true and some will be false. Some targets will be deserving of the scrutiny and some will not. Some accusations will be genuine and some will be politically motivated. Some will be provable and some will be impossible to corroborate. And, depending on who has the most power or the best ability to gain the public sympathy, there will be times that corroborated allegations against some figures will be conveniently ignored or dismissed, while the thinnest innuendo against others will be treated as if it's a proven crime.

And many will be smeared.

In today's environment, I don't have the answers as to how the Kavanaugh case could have or should have been handled differently to account for both the possibility that the accuser is telling the truth and the possibility that Kavanaugh has been falsely accused. But we have lurched into new territory, indeed.

Fasten your seat belts.

Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, author of The New York Times bestsellers "The Smear" and "Stonewalled," and host of Sinclair's Sunday TV program, "Full Measure."

The S-300 air defense system and dozens of additional hardware pieces have been delivered to the Syrian military to boost security of Russian personnel there, Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu, told President Vladimir Putin.

"We have completed the delivery of the S-300 system," Shoigu said Tuesday. The hardware supplied to Syria consisted of 49 pieces of military equipment, including radars, control vehicles and four launchers, he added.

The delivery is meant to protect Russian troops in Syria, coming in wake of the downing of a Russian reconnaissance plane in mid-September.

Saudi Arabia feels empowered by the US, UK and France to carry on war in Yemen but if at least one of those countries voted to stop it, democracy would be contagious, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy Robert Naiman told RT.

On Tuesday, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are holding a debate in Strasbourg on the situation in Yemen, where a devastating war has been raging since 2015. Thousands of civilians have been killed in airstrikes by Saudi-led military coalition.

Meanwhile, German arms exports to Saudi Arabia since March this year are already close to the level of €254.5 million ($295 million) recorded throughout 2017. This is despite the German government's coalition agreement not to export arms to countries directly involved in the war in Yemen and strong criticism of the Saudis for their participation in the conflict.

The US Federal Reserve lifted its base interest rate on Wednesday, raising it above two percent for the first time since the US central bank began its low-interest-rate regime after the global financial crash of 2008. Explaining the rate hike, the Fed's Open Market Committee said it was closely monitoring and would quickly react to "indicators of inflation pressures and expectations."

The talk about inflationary pressures is a code word in ruling circles for the fear of rising wages. As Financial Times commentator John Authers noted in a recent article, "[W]age inflation is central to the Fed's reaction function."

The stupendous run-up on the global stock exchanges and vast increase in the personal fortunes of the financial oligarchy have depended on the relentless downward pressure on workers' wages and conditions.

Just minutes after reports stated that Ford's lawyers have sent a letter to FBI Director Wray, inquiring "it has been five days and no interview yet?" The Wall Street Journal reports that GOP aides on the Hill and another person familiar with the process said they were expecting the bureau to conclude its report as soon as late Tuesday or early Wednesday.