Puppet Masters

Pakistani PM Imran Khan rejects calls to award him Nobel Peace Prize, says it should go to whoever resolves Kashmir dispute

Eleanor Rose
Evening Standard
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 20:01 UTC

Imran Khan

Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan has rejected calls to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after a flare-up in tensions with neighbouring India.

Tensions ramped up between the two countries last week in a series of military clashes in which Pakistan admitted gunning down an Indian jet after it crossed the Line of Control in disputed Kashmir.

But the hashtag #NobelPeacePrizeForImranKhan trended on Twitter in Pakistan last Thursday after the PM made what he said was a "peace gesture" to release captured pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

The move is widely thought to have eased the flare-up, although international observers are still worried about the ongoing fractious relationship between the two nuclear-armed countries.

Escalation: Pakistani drone shot down by Sukhoi-30 jet in Bikaner, India

Times Now News
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 16:48 UTC

The Border Security Force confirmed two blasts at 11:30 on the Pakistani side at the Gharsana border in Sriganganagar, debris falls across the international border

An unmanned aerial vehicle belonging to Pakistan was on Monday shot down by Indian security forces in Rajasthan's Bikaner, just east of the international border with Pakistan.

Sources have confirmed to Times Now that "at around 11:30 am, an unidentified flying object from the Pakistani side violated the Indian airspace near Bikaner". Indian Air Force jets immediately fired at the UAV and brought it down. The debris apparently landed on the other side, near Fort Abbas in Pakistan.

The Border Security Force confirmed two blasts at 11:30 on the Pakistani side at the Gharsana border in Sriganganagar, but no debris of the UAV has fallen on the Indian side. Reports in Pakistani media completely denied the occurrence of such an event.

Comment: RT reports:

A Pakistani aircraft, presumed to be a drone, was detected by Indian anti-air defense and subsequently shot down by a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet, local media reports.

The unmanned aerial vehicle has violated Indian airspace and was scouting military positions in a desert area of the state of Rajasthan, ANI news agency reported, citing sources.

The drone was spotted by ground radars and a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet was dispatched to the location. The plane has subsequently shot the drone down with an air-to-air missile.

The debris of the UAV apparently went down over Indian territory, yet local media issued conflicting reports on the exact location of the crash. The incident has not been officially confirmed yet.

The hostilities between India and Pakistan flared up last week when Indian forces conducted an air raid against suspected terrorist camps in Pakistani territory. The operation came in retaliation for a deadly suicide-bomb attack on an Indian paramilitary police convoy in the contested Kashmir region.

The air raid prompted Islamabad to retaliate by attacking targets in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir. The outcome of the military actions is disputed, as the two sides have provided conflicting accounts on the effectiveness of the strikes and losses. So far, only the loss of an Indian MiG-21 fighter jet was officially confirmed, while Islamabad firmly denies reports that its F-16 plane was shot down as well.

India West adds:

The Sukhoi-30MKI reportedly brought down the drone by using an air-to-air missile soon after it was detected by Indian radars, sources said. The debris of the missile reportedly fell inside Pakistan at Fort Abbas, near Bahawalpur, where proscribed terrorist Jaish-e-Mohammed's headquarters is located, sources said.

However, it was later clarified that these were extra fuel tanks dropped by PAF fighters on patrol. Fort Abbas is located close to Rajasthan border.

Meanwhile looking at the debris, panic buttons were pressed in Pakistan. Even speculation of the air strike 2 went viral on Pakistani twitter users.

Sources confirmed that this was the second drone which attempted to violate the Indian air space. On Feb 27, another Pakistani drone had tried air space violation in Anupgarh. However, it didn't come close, and hovered on Indian borders reportedly with an aim to divert the attention of Indian forces. "Later they intruded into Indian territories through J&K's Nowshera the same day. So this time, when we saw a UAV, we scrambled and shot it down," confirmed a source.

Earlier in the day, IAF chief B.S. Dhanoa had claimed that the operations were still going on as he refused to go into details about the aerial engagement between the two forces.

Sources said that the forces continued to be on high state of alert and that the air defense systems are manned to deal with any eventuality.

Kremlin: Russia suspends INF Treaty with the US

RT
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 14:00 UTC

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree enacting Russia's suspension of the INF Treaty, a move that was announced after a similar decision by the US. The weapons control agreement was set to expire in less than six months.

Russia is putting on ice the Cold War-era agreement, which resulted in significant demilitarization of the European continent. The US will be formally notified about the decision.

The INF Treaty may be revived if the US "eliminates its earlier violations of its obligations" under the deal, according to the decree published by the Kremlin on Monday. Otherwise it will simply expire and cease to exist.

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty came into force in 1988 and banned both the Soviet Union and the US from developing and deploying land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km. The agreement was signed to de-escalate tensions in Europe, where both countries had dozens of such missiles deployed, posing a risk of an accidental nuclear exchange. The missiles only needed minutes to reach their targets, leaving a very small window for the other side to decide whether a detected attack was a real one, requiring immediate retaliation, or a false positive.

The preservation of the agreement had been under threat for over a decade, with both sides complaining about the other not fully complying with its terms. The US claimed that Russia had secretly developed a missile that violated the INF - an accusation that Moscow denies.

Comment: See also:

Paul Craig Roberts: Is neoliberalism killing Russia?

Paul Craig Roberts, Michael Hudson
paulcraigroberts.org
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC

Putin's approval rating is high, but it has declined over the past year. The decline is mainly related to domestic policy. Apparently, the public perceives recent Kremlin economic policy as a continuation of the disastrous policies that Washington imposed on Russia in the 1990s when Russia was loaded up with foreign debt while state assets were privatized and plundered by oligarchs sponsored by the West who "cashed out" by selling the assets to foreigners.

The approval rating of Putin and the government dropped in response to the recent increases in the retirement age and value added tax. The former raised concerns about pension security and reminded Russians of the collapse of Soviet pensions. The latter reduced consumer disposable income and lowered consumer demand and the economic growth rate. These policies represent austerity imposed on the domestic population instead of on foreign creditors and reflect the neoliberal view that austerity leads to prosperity.

Russia is experiencing capital outflows due to the Russian private sector's repayment of loans to Western creditors. Russia has experienced over $25 billion a year of capital outflows since the early 1990s, accumulating to over a trillion dollars. This money could have been invested in Russia itself to raise the productivity and living standards of its citizens. The outflow puts the ruble under pressure, and the interest payments draw money out of the country away from Russian uses. If it were not for these outflows, the value of the ruble and Russian wages would be higher.

Son of Bin Laden may lead new generation of Al-Qaeda, the timing is perfect

F. Michael Maloof
RT
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:05 UTC

It appears that Hamza Bin Laden, a son of the late founder of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, may be the heir apparent to lead the militant group, based on what the US State Department now says. They declared Hamza - believed to be about 30 years old - the emerging leader of the terrorist group and announced a $1 million reward for information about him.

Despite trillions of American dollars spent and the enormous loss of life to try and eradicate Al-Qaeda, it has shown a remarkable resilience and now a resurgence with the demise of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

The current leader of Al-Qaeda, or AQ, is Ayman al-Zawahiri. Despite the State Department's announcement, Zawahiri remains in charge but sees Hamza as the next generation of leadership. What Zawahiri has been doing while the world's attention has been focused on the questionable destruction of IS has quietly been laying good ground work when AQ's leadership shifts to Hamza.

Zawahiri, who by his nature is old school and lacks total charisma unlike Bin Laden before him, has recognized the need to maintain a priority on the 'Far Enemy' - the West - while putting AQ's emphasis on the 'Near Enemy' by seeking "to create safe bases across the Islamic world for al-Qaeda and its affiliates to function," according to Sajjan M. Gohel, International Security Director for the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a think-tank based in London.

Comment: See also:

Soros Foundation demands EU increase pressure on Poland 'or EU won't survive'

Sputnik
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 08:11 UTC

The Foundation was founded in the 1980s by George Soros, a vocal proponent of globalism and open borders, and is now trying to portray Poland's drive for sovereignty as a threat to the entire European Union.

The Stefan Batory Foundation, a Polish NGO established by billionaire globalist George Soros and a group of Polish opposition leaders in the 1980s, has issued a paper calling on EU authorities to step up their antagonism towards the ruling party Law and Justice in Poland, saying that the entire survival of the Union depends on it.

"The battle for the rule of law in Poland sets a precedent and is effectively a battle for the survival of the EU", the document reads, defining the EU as a community in which each member nation's laws abide to a "similar standard".

The paper praises the European Commission for its efforts to thwart Polish judicial reforms that Warsaw says aims to overhaul a corrupt and unaccountable system.

The Foundation's call comes despite a growing frustration with the EU's interference in internal affairs, which has already resulted in Poland reviewing its legislation to determine whether EU laws are compatible with Polish domestic laws.

Comment: See also:

'Last nail in the coffin for US peacemaking': US merges Palestinian mission with its embassy in Israel

RT
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 03:17 UTC

Palestinian officials have denounced as hostile the US move to merge its consulate in Jerusalem, which mostly served Palestinians, with the embassy controversially inaugurated last year. The overhaul has been scheduled for Monday.

The US State Department on Sunday formally set a date for the previously announced merger of its embassy in Jerusalem with the consulate, which was operating as the de facto American embassy to the Palestinian Authority.

In his statement, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino argued that the long-planned merger is not intended as a political signal, but is a mere restructuring driven by Washington's efforts "to increase the efficiency and effectiveness" of "diplomatic engagements and operations."

"It does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip," Palladino said.

In a bid to assure Palestinians that the decision would not deal another blow to the already barely existent interactions between Ramallah and Washington, Palladino said that the US would "engage in a wide range of reporting, outreach and programming in the West Bank, as well as with Palestinians in Jerusalem" through a newly devised Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU) inside the US embassy, which would be located at the same place as the consulate.

'It's a Tory bribe, plain and simple': Labour MPs blast May over £1.6B pledge for 'left behind' towns

RT
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:16 UTC

PM Theresa May's announcement that £1.6bn will be given to towns in the Midlands and northern England, in a bid to win over politicians in 'leave-supporting' areas to back her Brexit deal, has been branded a "bribe" by Labour MPs.

A string of Labour parliamentarians have greeted the Tory government's pledge to hand a funding boost, worth £320 million a year over six years to areas severely hit by austerity cuts, with derision.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire denied accusations that this new money for poorer English regions was a Brexit bribe. However, many Labour MPs have interpreted the move as a sweetener from May's administration, in an effort to win support on her EU Withdrawal Agreement.

Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has taken to social media to brand it "a Tory bribe, plain and simple," and claimed May's party "think buying votes is the only way forward these days."

If France taxed tech giants it could earn hundreds of millions

RT
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 14:57 UTC

Additional taxes on Big Tech corporations like Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook could add up to €500 million ($568.3 million) to France's budget annually, according to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

The new levy, dubbed GAFA tax (named after Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon), is aiming to target foreign corporate giants with worldwide digital revenues of at least €750 million and revenue of more than €25 million in France. A draft law will be presented to the cabinet as soon as Wednesday before it is presented to parliament.

"A taxation system for the 21st century has to build on what has value today, and that is data," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper.

The extra tax of three percent will be applied to revenues of at least 30 corporations, most of which are American, including Uber, Airbnb, and Booking, according to the minister.

China's 'weak' annual economic growth is greater than the whole of Australia's economy

RT
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 10:08 UTC

Despite slowing growth over recent years, China's added gross domestic product last year was worth more than the value of Australia's total output, according to Chinese National Bureau of Statistics.

Last year, Chinese economic growth saw a slowdown to 6.6 percent compared to 6.8 reached in 2017, marking the lowest full-year growth rate since 3.9 percent in 1990. However, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) still grew well above those of the G7 economies, with China making up nearly 30 percent of global economic growth.

The value of the Chinese economy, the world's second largest, hit $13.6 trillion in 2018, according to the latest data compiled by the country's statistics agency.

"China remains a source of power for the global economy," said Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the statistics bureau, as quoted by the South China Morning Post. "China's additional economic output was worth $1.4 trillion last year, which is equivalent to the total economic size of Australia in 2017."

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Puppet Masters

Pakistani PM Imran Khan rejects calls to award him Nobel Peace Prize, says it should go to whoever resolves Kashmir dispute

Escalation: Pakistani drone shot down by Sukhoi-30 jet in Bikaner, India

Kremlin: Russia suspends INF Treaty with the US

Paul Craig Roberts: Is neoliberalism killing Russia?

Son of Bin Laden may lead new generation of Al-Qaeda, the timing is perfect

Soros Foundation demands EU increase pressure on Poland 'or EU won't survive'

'Last nail in the coffin for US peacemaking': US merges Palestinian mission with its embassy in Israel

'It's a Tory bribe, plain and simple': Labour MPs blast May over £1.6B pledge for 'left behind' towns

If France taxed tech giants it could earn hundreds of millions

China's 'weak' annual economic growth is greater than the whole of Australia's economy

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