Puppet Masters

China considering cutting exports of rare earths as retaliation in trade war

Jason Rogers, David Stringer and Martin Ritchie
Bloomberg
Wed, 29 May 2019 20:00 UTC

Beijing is gearing up to use its dominance of rare earths to hit back in its deepening trade war with Washington.

A flurry of Chinese media reports on Wednesday, including an editorial in the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, raised the prospect of Beijing cutting exports of the commodities that are critical in defense, energy, electronics and automobile sectors. The world's biggest producer, China supplies about 80% of U.S. imports of rare earths, which are used in a host of applications from smartphones to electric vehicles and wind turbines.

The threat to weaponize strategic materials ratchets up the tension between the world's two biggest economies before an expected meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump at the G-20 meeting next month. It shows how China is weighing its options after the U.S. blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co., cutting off the supply of American components it needs to make its smartphones and networking gear.

"China, as the dominant producer of rare earths, has shown in the past that it can use rare earths as a bargaining chip when it comes to multilateral negotiations," said George Bauk, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Minerals Ltd., which is producing rare earth carbonate from a pilot-scale project in Western Australia.

Vice-president of India: 'We want permanent seat at the UN Security Council'

RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 20:40 UTC

Democratically-speaking, the second most powerful man on Earth

India must have a permanent seat on the UNSC to ensure proper representation of the country on the international stage, the vice president stated, as New Delhi continues to promulgate the council's reform.

"We must renew our efforts to gain a permanent membership of the UN Security Council by further enhancing support from world nations and building a sustained dialogue in favor of UNSC reforms," Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu said on Tuesday. "India has emerged as the fastest growing economy with global powers acknowledging India's growth story."

At present, there are five permanent members of the Security Council - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the US - which all have veto powers to cast aside any resolution which could compromise world stability and security. In addition to the victorious powers in World War II, the chamber also has ten seats for non-permanent members that are elected by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for two-year terms to better represent their geographic regions. These states, however, lack the veto powers awarded to permanent members of the council.

Comment: Give India Britain's seat?

Comparing populations: 60 million vs 1.3 billion...

Huawei to 'reassess relationship' with FedEx after delivery service diverted packages to US

Brian Heater
Techcrunch
Tue, 28 May 2019 00:00 UTC

“The recent experiences where important commercial documents sent via FedEx were not delivered to their destination, and instead were either diverted to, or were requested to be diverted to, FedEx in the United States, undermines our confidence."

Huawei is understandably reexamining a number of relationships in the wake of a recent U.S. trade ban. While various component and software providers, including Google and ARM, have suspended dealings with the Chinese hardware giant, the latest issue comes from an altogether different source.

The company told Reuters this week that it's reassessing its relationship with FedEx after the delivery company misrouted a handful of packages. Huawei says the packages contained documents, rather than specific technologies covered by the current Trump ban.

"The recent experiences where important commercial documents sent via FedEx were not delivered to their destination, and instead were either diverted to, or were requested to be diverted to, FedEx in the United States, undermines our confidence," a rep for the company said. "We will now have to review our logistics and document delivery support requirements as a direct result of these incidents."

Comment: See also: Till Trump do they part: Top tech firms cut ties with Huawei, Chinese drop iPhones

Huawei files motion to have National Defense Authorization Act declared unconstitutional for 'targeting company without opportunity of rebuttal'

CGTN
Wed, 29 May 2019 09:08 UTC

China's telecom giant Huawei has hit back at the U.S. ban by filing a motion on Tuesday to ask the court to declare a law which places bans on the company equipment "unconstitutional."

The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, enacted last summer, has directly and permanently targeted Huawei "without opportunity for rebuttal or escape," Song Liuping, Huawei's chief legal officer said in a statement issued on Monday.

"The law provides Huawei with no opportunity to rebut the accusations, to present evidence in its defense, or to avail itself of other procedures that impartial adjudicators provide to ensure a fair search for the truth," Liu said. "The ban is a quintessential bill of attainder and a violation of due process."

Comment: Recent developments in the ongoing US / Huawei spat:

George Galloway: My encounter with a Quiet American (and a not so quiet American)

George Galloway
RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 19:45 UTC

James Woolsey, swamp creature, and Steve Bannon, 'economic nationalist'

In the wee small hours of the morning, last week in Kazakhstan, my wife and I encountered every hotel guest's worst nightmare.

Asleep in our night clothes we both woke to the sound of someone trying to enter our room. First, a gentle then ever-more forceful turning of the handle. Then, the unmistakable noise of a shoulder repeatedly thumping against our door - the strength of which we had no way of knowing.

With estimable alacrity Mrs. Galloway was out of bed like a shot and hurling anything and everything with wheels in front of the door. The barricade built, she was then on the phone to the front desk calling for help, not the easiest thing to communicate in the middle of the night in Almaty, as you can imagine.

Being 'the man of the house' I could really only offer brute force, with my two hands applying countervailing pressure on the door (which was beginning to literally bend) and my brute Scottish accent demanding the interloper cease and desist (or Scottish street words to that effect). Of course I looked through the spyhole in the door and could see enough to be sure that this was no nightmare, this was a clear and present human danger.

Comment: That's some tale!

Besides the specifically bizarre encounter, it's also generally bizarre that Americans even attend these events.

And not just 'dissidents' like Bannon, but establishment cronies like Woolsey. Yes, he was a guest speaker at one of the panels on 'Media in the Digital Age'!

Truly a sign of the times.

Here's the Eurasian Media Forum website. The line-up of speakers included a lot of Russian journalists working for Russian news agencies and media outlets, as well as journalists from former Soviet states. As in, The Enemy that 'meddled in our democracy'.

So, while bashing Russian media to American audiences, American experts are participating with them at international forums, discussing world affairs with their peers in a civilized manner. Who knew?!

Merkel says every Jewish institution in German must be guarded by police

i24News
Wed, 29 May 2019 19:11 UTC

© Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse/File
Under the banner "Stand Up: Jew Hatred - Never Again!" German Chancellor Angela Merkel will join political and religious leaders at a rally against anti-Semitism at the iconic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

"We have to deal with the ghosts out the past," Merkel said.

Days after a warning to Jews who wear skullcaps that they may not be safe when donning them publicly, Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested stationing police officers at every Jewish building or institution in Germany.

"Unfortunately there is to this day not a single synagogue, not a single day care center for Jewish children, not a single school for Jewish children that does not need to be guarded by German policemen," Merkel said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.

Comment: Merkel's grip on power has been slipping for a while now over her stance on immigration. Is this an attempt to shore up part of her base?

Iran shattered US 'psyops' and dried up its 'capacity for war,' says head of Iran's Rev Guards

RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 19:51 UTC

Washington has unsuccessfully exhausted all of its avenues in trying to provoke conflict with Iran and its capacity to wage a successful war has dried up, the leader of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards has said.

"Today, we are a great and invincible power because we have experienced and defeated all of the enemy's scenarios," Major General Hossein Salami said, according to Iranian broadcaster Press TV. He added that Tehran had resisted US efforts to destabilize Iran with political and economic measures and this had effectively eliminated Washington's pretext for military conflict.

We have been able to shatter enemy psyops and dry up the enemy's capacity for war.

The commander's comments came as National Security Advisor John Bolton arrived in the UAE late on Tuesday, ahead of meetings with Emirati allies on security in the region. Speaking on Wednesday, Bolton accused Iran of "almost certainly" being behind recent attacks on oil tankers off the coast of the UAE, however, he has given no evidence to support the accusation.

'Nuclear' option? Xi sends Trump a message - Rare-earth export ban is coming - UPDATE

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Tue, 21 May 2019 09:10 UTC

Back in April of 2018, when the trade war with China was still in its early stages, we explained that among the five "nuclear" options Beijing has to retaliate against the US, one was the block of rare-earth exports to the US, potentially crippling countless US supply chains that rely on these rare commodities, and forcing painful and costly delays in US production as alternative supply pathways had to be implemented.

As a result, for many months China watchers expected Beijing to respond to Trump's tariff hikes by blocking the exports of one or more rare-earths, although fast forwarding one year later this still hasn't happened. But that doesn't mean it won't happen, and overnight President Xi Jinping's visit to a rare earths facility fueled speculation that the strategic materials will soon be weaponized in China's tit-for-tat war the US.

As Bloomberg reported overnight, shares in JL MAG Rare-Earth surged by the daily limit on Monday after Xinhua said the Chinese president had stopped by the company in Jiangxi, a scripted move designed to telegraph what China could do next.

Comment: Just one of the ways China has the US by the proverbial sack.

UPDATE May 29: RT reports that stocks of rare-earth miners have surged upon speculation that China may ban exports:

Hong Kong-listed shares of China Rare Earth Holdings Ltd skyrocketed around 40 percent after the opening bell before slightly falling back later in the day. At the same time JL Mag Rare-Earth Co, the plant Chinese President Xi Jinping visited last week, jumped more than 10 percent. The miner's stock has been rising for several consecutive trading sessions and hit a record high on Wednesday.

Other rare earth-related companies also enjoyed gains, with China Northern Rare Earth Group High-Tech Co. soaring around 9 percent Xiamen Tungsten Co. climbing nearly 5 percent.

Not only Chinese miners enjoyed gains on Wednesday, as shares of Australian rare earths producer Lynas reached a historic peak after they gained more than 15 percent in one day. Australia is one of the top global rare-earths producing countries, with annual output of 20,000 tons, but it is far behind Chinese yearly production of 120,000 tons.

Signalling the mood in China, People's Daily, China tweeted a response from a National Development and Reform Commission spokesman:

Seriously? Top IDF lawyer tells The Hague to back off, says Israel can probe own alleged war crimes

RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 17:02 UTC

protestors great march return Gaza fence

© Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Palestinian demonstrators in front of Israeli forces during protests marking the 71st anniversary of the Nakba

The Israeli military wants the International Criminal Court to butt out of its affairs, its top military prosecutor has declared in response to efforts to hold it to account for its use of live fire against Palestinian protesters.

"Israel is a law-abiding country, with an independent and strong judicial system, and there is no reason for its actions to be scrutinized by the ICC," Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek, Israel's military advocate, declared at an international conference on warfare laws in Herzliya. "The position of Israel is that the International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction to discuss the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Comment:

Craven western media outlets ignoring reports that Assange is gravely ill - supporters have no contact

Caitlin Johnstone
caitlinjohnstone.com
Wed, 29 May 2019 16:37 UTC

Julian Assange's Swedish lawyer Per Samuelson has told the press that "Assange's health situation on Friday was such that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him."

This jarring revelation has been reported by a small handful of outlets, but only as an aside in relation to Sweden refusing Samuelson's request for a postponement of a scheduled hearing regarding Assange's detention en absentia for a preliminary investigation of rape allegations. The fact that the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder is so ill that he can't converse lucidly is itself far more significant than the postponement refusal, yet headlines mentioning Samuelson's statement focus on the Swedish case, de-emphasizing the startling news from his lawyer.

As of this writing I've been able to find very few news outlets reporting on this at all, the most mainstream being a Reuters article with the very tame headline "Swedish court rejects delay of Assange hearing over ill-health: lawyer". The Sydney Morning Herald also covered the story without even mentioning illness in headline, instead going with "Swedish court rejects effort to delay Assange hearing". The much smaller alternative media outlet World Socialist Website has been the only outlet I've found so far which reports on Samuelson's statement in anything resembling its proper scale, publishing a good article titled "Despite Assange's ill-health, Swedish court rejects delay to hearing" a few hours ago.

Comment: Is anyone surprised that Julian Assange is being treated in such a callous way. It would be very convenient for the PTB to have him die in prison before being put on trial. Too many messy details might be exposed.

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Puppet Masters

China considering cutting exports of rare earths as retaliation in trade war

Vice-president of India: 'We want permanent seat at the UN Security Council'

Huawei to 'reassess relationship' with FedEx after delivery service diverted packages to US

Huawei files motion to have National Defense Authorization Act declared unconstitutional for 'targeting company without opportunity of rebuttal'

George Galloway: My encounter with a Quiet American (and a not so quiet American)

Merkel says every Jewish institution in German must be guarded by police

Iran shattered US 'psyops' and dried up its 'capacity for war,' says head of Iran's Rev Guards

'Nuclear' option? Xi sends Trump a message - Rare-earth export ban is coming - UPDATE

Seriously? Top IDF lawyer tells The Hague to back off, says Israel can probe own alleged war crimes

Craven western media outlets ignoring reports that Assange is gravely ill - supporters have no contact

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