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Trade truce? Trump and Xi put tariff war on hold for 90 days at G20 dinner in Argentina


RT
Sun, 02 Dec 2018 15:46 UTC
Xi Jinping and Donald Trump
© Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
The two-and-a-half-hour dinner shared by Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Argentina, where they repeatedly emphasized their great friendship, has ended with an apparent 'trade truce'.

The leaders have reached a consensus that trade talks should continue and have agreed not to impose any additional tariffs, at least for now.

"President Trump has agreed that on January 1, 2019, he will leave the tariffs on $200 billion worth of product at the 10% rate, and not raise it to 25% at this time," the White House said in a statement.

For its part, Beijing has consented to purchase a "very substantial amount" of American agricultural, energy and industrial products, to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries, which amounted to $375 billion last year. While the list of American items to be purchased by Beijing has yet to be finalized, China agreed to start purchasing "agricultural product from our farmers immediately," the US administration claimed.

Comment: As Tyler Durden from Zerohedge remarks:
Despite the lack of material progress on the fundamental divide, the market will cheer that the deal helps to alleviate immediate concerns that trade tensions would further stoke geopolitical tensions, a prospect that has raised worries of a new Cold War. The White House emphasized that Xi agreed to continue pushing for a nuclear-free North Korea, while Beijing said Trump would respect the One-China policy regarding relations with Taiwan -- one of the biggest potential flashpoints between the nations.

More importantly, the summit showed that both sides could be pragmatic when needed, and refuted Goldman's bearish forecast that more escalation would be the immediate conclusion.


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Info

Putin and Abe agree on 'framework' to finalize WWII peace treaty


RT
Sun, 02 Dec 2018 15:40 UTC
South Kuril Islands
© Reuters / Yuri Maltsev
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have agreed to set up a framework to intensify peace treaty negotiations that were stalled decades ago, after Japan aligned militarily with the US.

"We talked about the need to set up additional mechanisms for interaction, about the need to increase the level of confidence on both sides, to expand our humanitarian contacts and our economic ties," Putin said in Argentina, following talks with the Japanese leader there.

During their brief exchange on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Putin and Abe agreed that the Prime Minister would visit Russia next year, in the hope of finalizing an accord that has been stalled for decades.
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Document

New report shows that Britain has violated every single article in the Declaration of Human Rights

T.J. Coles
RT
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 14:53 UTC
homeless girl
© Global Look Press / Peter Arkell
A homeless girl inside her shelter made from crates and cardboard, London, England.
A UN report on the shocking levels of child poverty in the UK is the tip of the iceberg. Since 2000, when UNICEF raised concerns over the state of British children, UN agencies have condemned British governments multiple times.

They have found that social policies violate the rights of women, disabled people and those needing legal assistance. This year, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, one of the treaties supposedly designed to prevent these social crimes, turns 70. The individual articles of the Declaration are supposed to safeguard everything from the right to life and freedom of expression, to civil and economic rights, such as the right to decent work and pay, education and housing.

As I document in my book Human Wrongs, the Declaration is a rather odd document. It was drafted by lawyers and championed by politicians on the winning side of the Second World War. The politicians said that the Declaration was merely aspirational and not to be taken as a legally-binding text. The lawyers, on the other hand, disagreed with the politicians and said that it should be legally binding. It was adopted in 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, meaning that it had no enforcement mechanism. However, in 1976 the Declaration was finally adopted into British law as part of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Despite this, successive British governments have violated, in different ways, each of the Declaration's 30 articles.
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Megaphone

Supreme Court decision on Vice Media a major 'setback' for investigative reporting in Canada: experts

Andrew Russell
Global News
Sat, 01 Dec 2018 20:05 UTC
Supreme court of canada
The Supreme Court of Canada's decision to compel a Vice Media reporter to hand over material about an accused terrorist will have a damaging effect on investigative reporting across the country and weaken Canadian democracy, say experts and press freedom advocates.

On Friday, Canada's highest court ruled in a 9-0 decision that Vice reporter Ben Makuch will have to turn over any communications with Farah Mohamed Shirdon, a Calgary man who left Canada to join the so-called Islamic State.

Jeffrey Dvorkin, director of the journalism program at the University of Toronto Scarborough, said the decision is a major "setback for journalists in Canada" as it could leave them open to being perceived as operating as "police agents."

Comment: 'Dark day for press freedom' in Canada? Supreme Court rules reporter must give RCMP material on accused terrorist

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Stormtrooper

After 67 days in solitary confinement - and close to breaking - Russian hostage Maria Butina offered plea deal by US


The Saker
Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
maria butina
© Desconocido
I guess she should be grateful that she is not beaten to death or water-boarded by "The Greatest Democracy On Earth"...

The Saker


Comment: Utterly barbaric treatment by the US. It's literally just because she's Russian.

Previously:

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Arrow Down

Brexit unraveling: Science minister Gyimah resigns over Theresa May's 'naive' deal


BBC
Sat, 01 Dec 2018 20:31 UTC
Sam Gyimah minister Brexit
© UK Parliament
Mr Gyimah said he would be voting against Mrs May's Brexit deal
A minister has resigned saying a row over involvement in the EU's Galileo satellite-navigation system shows the UK will be "hammered" in negotiations over a Brexit deal. Science and universities minister Sam Gyimah quit after Mrs May said the UK was pulling out of Galileo.

The UK wanted to stay part of it but the EU said it would be banned from extra-secure elements of the project.

Mr Gyimah said it was a foretaste of the "brutal negotiations" to come. He's the 10th member of government to resign over the agreement, which he dismissed as a "deal in name only". He said he intended to vote against the deal negotiated with Brussels, and called for another referendum.
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Arrow Up

As US empire is in decline, Putin advocates for WTO reform at G-20 summit

Joaquin Flores
FRN
Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC
Putin G-20
© AP/ABC News
President Putin at G-20
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the G-20 summit in Argentina about the need to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO). For a number of years, several world leaders have spoken on the same subject, citing similar concerns. Chief among these are the the inability of the by-laws and governing rules of the WTO to keep up with the new global economic reality, a reality which sees the U.S empire in stark decline.

As the head of the Russian Ministry of Economy Maxim Oreshkin told reporters, the Russian leader made this statement at the opening of the second working meeting of the G-20 summit, which was devoted to the subject of risks and the current state of the global economy.

He stressed that at present the work of the WTO does not reflect current realities. In particular, it is not quite effective in regulating such new trade areas as electronic commerce, trade in services or investments.

According to the minister, those present at the meeting supported Putin's position. "This position was fully supported by the Europeans, as well as other speakers," RIA Novosti quotes Oreshkin as saying.

There is nothing strange about such support. Earlier, the countries of the "group of seven" called for reform of the WTO - the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, the USA, France and Japan. Following the June summit, the leaders of these countries also opposed protectionism in international trade.

Comment: The only constant is change - no better exemplified than in the current expansion of traditional trade parameters and revisions in fulfillment protocols.

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Arrow Down

Failed deal: Putin was to receive $50M penthouse in Trump Tower Moscow according to Cohen and FBI informant

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 05:11 UTC
Cohen/Sater
© Unknown
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen • FBI/CIA undercover agent Felix Sater
President Trump's ex-longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen worked with an FBI informant known as "The Quarterback" to negotiate a deal for Trump Tower Moscow during the 2016 US election, according to BuzzFeed News.

"The Quarterback," Felix Sater - a longtime FBI and CIA undercover intelligence asset who was busted running a $40 million stock scheme, leveraged his Russia connections to pitch the deal, while Cohen discussed it with Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, according to BuzzFeed, citing two unnamed US law enforcement officials.

Sater told BuzzFeed News today that he and Cohen thought giving the Trump Tower's most luxurious apartment, a $50 million penthouse, to Putin would entice other wealthy buyers to purchase their own. "In Russia, the oligarchs would bend over backwards to live in the same building as Vladimir Putin," Sater told BuzzFeed News. "My idea was to give a $50 million penthouse to Putin and charge $250 million more for the rest of the units. All the oligarchs would line up to live in the same building as Putin." A second source confirmed the plan. -BuzzFeed

The Trump Tower Moscow plan is at the center of Cohen's new plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller after he admitted to lying to congressional committees investigating Trump-Russia collusion.

Comment: The deal never went through. The building wasn't built. And, it doesn't constitute Russian election meddling. See also:

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Folder

Protecting the swamp: Clinton Foundation whistleblower's home raided by the FBI

Richard Pollock
The Daily Caller
Thu, 29 Nov 2018 10:30 UTC
FBI raid
© Reuters/Alvin Baez
FBI agents raided the home of a recognized Department of Justice whistleblower who privately delivered documents pertaining to the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One to a government watchdog, according to the whistleblower's attorney.

The Justice Department's inspector general was informed that the documents show that federal officials failed to investigate potential criminal activity regarding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, the Russian company that purchased Uranium One, a document reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation alleges.

The delivered documents also show that then-FBI Director Robert Mueller failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct pertaining to Rosatom and to other Russian government entities attached to Uranium One, the document reviewed by TheDCNF alleges. Mueller is now the special counsel investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

"The bureau raided my client to seize what he legally gave Congress about the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One," the whistleblower's lawyer, Michael Socarras, told TheDCNF, noting that he considered the FBI's raid to be an "outrageous disregard" of whistleblower protections.

Comment: So how high and how low does the Clinton influence command? And is this a warning to all whistleblowers that 'protection' is one hell of a farce? Assange, Snowden and Manning might adamantly agree. Begs the question how Mueller could legitimately be in charge of the Russiagate investigation when as FBI director, he let slide an investigation into Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation - given its connections in the current case and his past negligent involvement.

Additional from RT:
What were the agents looking for? According to the Daily Caller, they were after the document suggesting that Robert Mueller - now special counsel in charge of the "Russiagate" probe targeting President Donald Trump, but FBI director back in 2001-2013 - failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct in the case of Uranium One.

The Canadian-based mining company controls over 20 percent of the US uranium supply, and was sold to the Russian conglomerate Rosatom in 2010. The sale needed to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CIFUS), which was chaired by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Since then, multiple whistleblowers have revealed claims of misconduct, bribery and fraud on part of the people involved in the sale, even suggesting a "pay for play" scheme in which the Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars in donations in exchange for greenlighting the deal. Republicans have also pointed to Bill Clinton's $500,000 fee for a speech in Moscow in 2010 as evidence the Clintons were peddling influence for Russian money.
Democrats have dismissed the apparent scandal as a right-wing conspiracy theory, and Clinton herself called the accusations of wrongdoing "baloney."

In April this year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Utah-based US Attorney John Huber to investigate both the Uranium One probe and the FBI investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server. That second probe was the subject of a scathing report in June by the DOJ IG Michael Horowitz, the same official to whom Cain gave the documents as a whistleblower. The status of that investigation is currently unknown.


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Attention

Cohen's guilty plea: What comes next for Trump?


RT
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 04:24 UTC
TrumpCohen
© Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Donald Trump's long-time attorney Michael Cohen's guilty plea is bad news for the US President. However, it's not the hammer blow that his adversaries think it is.

In a federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, Cohen pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress in 2017. In statements given to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Cohen said that Trump's efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016 and were not discussed with other members of the Trump company. He also said that he never planned to travel to Moscow to pursue the project, and had received no word from the Russian government regarding approvals for it.

Now, Cohen admitted that the project actually lasted until June 2016 and was discussed extensively with members of the Trump company. Cohen said he discussed traveling to Moscow with Trump, and that he had been contacted by a press secretary to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Cohen had asked for assistance in moving the construction project forward.

Cohen's admission appears to contradict Trump's repeated assertions that he had no business dealings in Russia during his campaign. Trump has denied the Russia connection multiple times, including during a televised debate with Hillary Clinton that October.

Comment: See also:

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