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China: Gold reserves up another 100 tonnes despite escalation of trade war with US


Sputnik
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 17:12 UTC
China Gold
© AP/Kin Cheung
Hong Kong China Gold
Earlier, market watchers reported that Chinese exports to the US had fallen by 16 percent year-on-year in August, while imports from the US sagged by over 22 percent in the same period. The slump came as the US slapped a 15 percent tariff on the remaining $300 billion-worth of goods imported from China, with the tax stepping into effect on September 1.

China's gold reserves climbed by some 99.91 tonnes over the past nine months, with total gold reserves standing at 2,141 tonnes as of August 30, and foreign exchange reserves growing to $3.1 trillion, according to fresh figures from the People's Bank of China released over the weekend.

Between July and August alone, the value of China's gold hoard is said to have climbed by over $7.5 billion, from $87.87 to $95.45 billion, with the country buying 5.91 tonnes of the precious metal in the last month. China's total gold reserves had stood at 2,042 tonnes of the precious metal as of the end of December 2018, with the August figures meaning China's total holdings in tonnes had grown by 4.85 percent.

Last week, Bloomberg reported that gold prices have climbed by a whopping 19 percent since the start of the year, in part due to central banks' purchase of the precious metal, and in part due to economic uncertainties stemming from global trade conflicts, and fears of a US recession. The metal hit $1,555 per ounce in trading in late August, its highest value since 2013, and investment banks including Goldman Sachs expect prices to continue their steady climb.
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Snakes in Suits

How Neocon money is funding the Hong Kong protests

Mnar Muhawesh
MintPress News
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 19:03 UTC
hong kong us
© Kin Cheung | AP
United States flags are reflected on glasses of a protester during a protest in Hong Kong, Sept. 8, 2019.
The West has more to do with the Hong Kong protest movement than it would like us to know. It's the ugly face of Washington's long-standing foreign policy directed at destabilizing one of its long-standing economic foes: China.

It's been a summer of unrest in Hong Kong, and the Western mainstream press has been in uproar providing non-stop coverage of what they've described as a "pro-democracy movement fighting for freedom" against the repressive Chinese government.

Since March, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets each week, clashing with police and security forces, escalating into a fight over who should control Hong Kong's future.

The protests erupted over a proposed amendment to an extradition treaty between Hong Kong, Macau, China and Taiwan.

Comment: See also:

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People

"If they need me": Trump ready to join Normandy talks on Ukraine


RFE/RL
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 06:17 UTC
Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump (file photo)
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he isn't averse to joining talks with Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Known as the Normandy format, Trump told Voice of America on September 9 in Washington that he'd join the talks if the participants needed him.

"I believe the fact that the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine took place...is a very big step, and a very positive step. If they need me to join, I would join [the Normandy format]," Trump said.

Comment: See also:

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Bullseye

'You're fired!' Trump sacks US National Security Adviser John Bolton


RT
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:46 UTC
bolton
© Reuters / David Mdzinarishvili
John Bolton
National Security Advisor John Bolton, one of the most prominent war hawks in Donald Trump's administration, has handed in his resignation, the US president has announced.

"I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House... I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning," Trump tweeted. The president said that he and others in the administration "strongly" disagreed with many of Bolton's decisions.

Comment: Twitter weighs in:





So has Trump finally started to clean house? Many have speculated that he was blocked from his first choice appointments for the most influential cabinet posts, and pressured into giving the jobs to those approved by the Deep State.

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Bulb

No return to 2015 agreement - Iran will probably completely scale down nuclear commitments by 2020

Elijah J. Magnier
ejmagnier.com
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:19 UTC
rouhani
French President Emmanuel Macron failed to promote successfully his Iranian initiative with the US administration despite the initial blessing of his US counterpart. This failure led Iran to make a third gradual withdrawal from its JCPOA nuclear deal commitment, raising two main issues. Iran has become a regional power to be reckoned with, so we can now scrap from reactions to its policies the words "submit," or "bow to the international community". Moreover, since Europe is apparently no longer in a position to fulfil its commitments, Iran will now be headed towards a total pull-out following further gradual withdrawal steps. Just before the US elections due in November 2020, Iran is expected to become a nuclear country with the full capability of producing uranium enriched to more than 20% uranium-235, weapons-usable and therefore in a position to manufacture dozens of nuclear bombs (for which uranium must be enriched to about 90%). However, this does not necessarily mean that this is Iran's ultimate objective.

Industry data shows that half of the effort goes into enriching from 0.7% to 4%. If Iran reaches the level of 20%, the journey towards 90% is almost done. A few thousand centrifuges are needed to reach 20% enrichment while a few hundred are enough to cross from 20% to the 90% needed for a nuclear bomb. When Iran announces it is reaching a level which is considered critical by the west, there is the possibility that Israel might act militarily against Iran's capability as it did in Iraq in 1981, in Syria in 2009, and in assassinating nuclear scientists. If this happens, the Middle East will be exposed to a mega earthquake whose outcome is unpredictable. But if Israel and the US are not in a position to react against Iran's total withdrawal from the JCPOA (nuclear deal), Iran will no longer accept a return to the 2015 deal. Its position will become much stronger and any deal would be difficult to reach.
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Pirates

Taliban vows jihad after Trump walks away from peace talks he dubs 'dead'


Sputnik
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:08 UTC
taliban
© AFP 2019 / FARIDULLAH AHMADZAI
The Taliban vowed on Tuesday to continue fighting against American forces in Afghanistan after the US president withdrew from peace talks with the group, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said as quoted by AFP.

"We had two ways to end the occupation in Afghanistan, one was jihad and fighting, the other was talks and negotiations", Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.

The spokesman added that as there's no further way of resolving the Afghan issue through negotiations, the Taliban will take the path of jihad - one the US will regret.

Trump said Monday, after calling off secret Camp David meetings with the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that the talks with the movement were "dead".


Comment: More from Trump's statement:
U.S. President Donald Trump, asked about the state of U.S.-Taliban peace talks, has said: "They're dead. As far as I'm concerned, they're dead."

Trump made the comments while addressing reporters at the White House on September 9, two days after he announced on Twitter that he had cancelled secret talks with Afghan and Taliban officials in the United States.

He reiterated earlier statements that he made the decision after the Taliban carried out a recent car bombing in Kabul that killed 12 people, including a U.S. soldier.

"They thought they had to kill people in order to put themselves in a little better negotiating position. When they did that they killed 12 people," Trump said.

"You can't do that can't do that with me," he added, saying that "we've hit the Taliban harder in the last four days that they've been hit in over 10 years. So that's the way it is."

Trump said that the plan to invite the Taliban, who have been involved in Afghan peace negotiations with the United States for months, to the U.S. presidential retreat Camp David "was my idea, and it was my idea to terminate it."
...
Trump, who has said he would like to reduce U.S. troop numbers to about 8,600, addressed promises made since his presidential campaign to leave Afghanistan.

"Yeah, we'd like to get out," he said. "But we'll get out at the right time."

Comment: As the Taliban made these threats, they followed them up by taking control over the Yangi Qala district in Afghanistan (the second district in 2 weeks, the first being Anar Darah). Local government troops retreated over fear of casualties, sent reinforcements, but lost the district after fighting.

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Chess

Turkey accuses US of stalling implementation of Syria 'safe zone' agreement


Sputnik
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 15:59 UTC
us soldier turkey syria
© Agence France-Presse/Delil Souleiman
A US soldier stands guard during a joint patrol with Turkish troops in the Syrian village of al-Hashisha on the outskirts of Tal Abyad town along the border with Turkey, on September 8, 2019.
On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, as quoted by Reuters, that Ankara has disagreements with Washington "at every step" amid negotiations on the establishment of a safe zone in Syria.

According to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Ankara wants to work with the US on safe zones, but for now, Washington's approach to the issue is unsatisfactory.

"Since we started negotiations, the first step was made with the United States - the creation of a coordination centre [on the safe zone]... We see that they started dragging it out again," Cavusoglu told reporters.

Comment: Notice no one's bothered to ask Syria about the continuing encroachment on its sovereign territory.

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Airplane Paper

Another Israeli drone crashes - this time in Gaza


Sputnik
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:01 UTC
heron tp drone
© AP Photo / Ariel Schalit
According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the UAV fell in the Gaza Strip last night. In the meantime, Hamas has claimed that it seized the aircraft.

"During the night the IDF drone fell in the southern Gaza Strip. The incident is being investigated", the tweet says.

The aircraft was downed amid a recent escalation of tensions in the region. The IDF struck positions of the Palestinian Hamas movement last week after a drone attack against an Israeli military vehicle.

The incident followed the reported deaths of two Palestinian teens in clashes with IDF soldiers along the border, where mass rallies have been held since March 2018. According to the local health ministry, another 46 protesters were injured.

The Hezbollah organisation earlier stated it had downed another Israeli unmanned aircraft over southern Lebanon near the settlement of Ramiyah. The IDF subsequently confirmed it had crashed, but didn't comment on the possible causes of the incident.

Comment: Like most politicians, Netanyahu is trying to ensure reelection by lighting as many fires as possible. Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine... Hezbollah and its allies are ready for war, and Netanyahu seems to be doing everything he can to make that a possibility. While he has been careful to push things only so far, avoiding all-out war, this kind of hubris is what leads to disasters. See also:

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Stock Up

JPMorgan launches 'Volfefe Index' tracking how Trump's tweets impact markets

Daniel Avery
Newsweek
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 16:53 UTC
trump tweets
© jpmorgan
PMorgan Chase has created a special index to track how President Donald Trump's tweets impact interest rates and other economic indicators.

The "Volfefe Index," as it's known, is a portmanteau of "volatility" and "covfefe," a term President Trump used in a 2017 tweet that soon became a viral sensation.

The firm's analysts found that Trump's Twitter activity has grown of late, as has its impact: Since taking office, the president has averaged more than 10 tweets a day, totally approximately 14,000 tweets since taking in January 2017.

"The subject of these tweets has increasingly turned toward market-moving topics, most prominently trade and monetary policy," JPMorgan Chase said in a statement. "And we find strong evidence that tweets have increasingly moved U.S. rates markets immediately after publication."

JPMorgan noted that Trump's "market-moving" tweets used similar keywords — China, billions, dollar, tariffs and trade — though they were less likely to be retweeted or liked.

"We can move toward a rough estimate of how much these market-moving tweets have pushed up volatility pricing in the swaptions market," JPMorgan said. "This index can explain a measurable fraction of moves in implieds, particularly in shorter tails (2-year rates, and 5-year rates, as opposed to 10-year rates)."
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Info

German FM's meeting with Hong Kong activist angers China


The Straits Times
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 16:43 UTC
wong haas
© AFP / Michael Kappeler
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong (L) talks with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas as they attend the "Bild100" event organised by Germany's tabloid Bild on September 9, 2019 in Berlin.
China expressed anger on Tuesday (Sept 10) after German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas met prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong, saying that no foreign country had a right to interfere in China's internal affairs.

Wong met Maas on Monday (Sept 9) in Berlin at an event hosted by the German newspaper BILD.

After being held for around 24 hours at the Hong Kong airport on Sunday for allegedly breaching the terms of his bail, Wong arrived in Berlin late on Monday evening, where he said he would "continue his battle for free elections".

The timing is especially awkward as German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Beijing last week. Hong Kong has been gripped by weeks of protests, initially against a now-shelved extradition bill and now focused more on securing greater freedoms for Hong Kong.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was "extremely dissatisfied and resolutely opposed" to German allowing Wong to visit and to allow him to meet the German foreign minister.

"China has already lodged stern representations with the German side," Hua told a daily news briefing.

Comment: What's more, Maas met Wong in the company of White Helmets (aka Al Qaeda) leaders and Kiev coup leaders...

wong germany white helmets
Color revolutionaries of the world, unite!

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