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Venezuela regime-change champ Bolton says US won't tolerate foreign meddling in the country...say what?


RT
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 09:28 UTC
Bolton
© Reuters/Jim YoungU.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton
Washington abhors the thought of foreign actors intervening in the Western hemisphere, and calls on the Venezuelan military to support the US-backed opposition leader in Caracas, John Bolton has thoughtfully tweeted. Come again?

"The United States will not tolerate hostile foreign military powers meddling with the Western Hemisphere's shared goals of democracy, security, and the rule of law. The Venezuelan military must stand with the people of Venezuela," the national security adviser wrote on Monday.


The tweet was clearly directed at Moscow, which sent Russian military personnel to Caracas to discuss defense industry cooperation with Venezuela. The consultations, however, were not related to the political turmoil in the country, and had been scheduled long before Juan Guaido, with full backing from Washington, declared himself Venezuela's leader in January.
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Brick Wall

Pentagon tells Congress it transferred $1B to begin border wall construction

Barbara Starr & Jeremy Herb
CNN
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Shanahan
© Martin H. Simon/Pool via BloombergActing Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan
The Pentagon notified Congress Monday night that it has authorized the transfer of $1 billion to begin new wall construction along the US-Mexico border, drawing immediate objections from Democratic lawmakers.

A Pentagon budget reprogramming notification sent to Capitol Hill on Monday and obtained by CNN indicates that up to $1 billion will go toward building 57 miles of fencing, improving roads and other measures on the southern border.

The Department of Defense authorized the Army Corp of Engineers to begin planning and construction for the project Monday night. The department will direct the funds toward 18-foot-high fencing along the Yuma and El Paso sections of the border, according to a letter acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan sent to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

In February, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in order to funnel billions of dollars to wall construction. As part of his announcement, he directed the use of counterdrug monies to partially fund new wall construction. Under the national emergency, other funds can also be dedicated to building the wall and related infrastructure, including military construction funds.

Comment: So the Pentagon is the US government's treasury now?

See also: Pentagon says it's looking at ways to 'expand support to border security mission'

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Star of David

IDF confirms retaliatory strike targeting Hamas leader Haniyeh's Gaza office


RT
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 19:19 UTC
Gaza airstrike
© Reuters/Suhaib SalemIsraeli airstrike in Gaza
Israeli airstrikes have hit the office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, the IDF said. It confirms earlier Palestinian reports that the strikes, coming in response to a lone rocket fired into Israel had high-profile targets.

The bombed building, the Israel Defense Forces said, was previously targeted in a 2012 Israeli bombing campaign, codenamed 'Cloud Pillar,' and is regularly used by Hamas leadership to hold military meetings.


The strike on Haniyeh's office was initially reported on Hamas' radio network. Haniyeh himself had reportedly gone into hiding earlier on Monday, expecting an Israeli strike. In a written statement, the Hamas leader said the Palestinian people "will not surrender," and "will deter the enemy."

Comment: Press TV. 3/25/19: Hamas denies any involvement in the rocket attack on Tel Aviv
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has rejected Israel's claim that it launched a rocket which hit a house north of Tel Aviv and wounded seven settlers.

"No one from the resistance movements, including Hamas, has an interest in firing rockets from the Gaza Strip towards the enemy," a Hamas official, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Monday.

He added that the same message had been conveyed to Egypt, which intervened to broker a ceasefire and prevent Israel from launching another war on Gaza after tensions escalated last year.

His remarks evoked the possibility that the rocket strike may have been caused by "bad weather."

Earlier on Monday, Israeli authorities said a long-range rocket launched from the Gaza Strip had struck Mishmeret, a settlement north of Tel Aviv, wounding seven settlers.

Israel's military said the rocket was fired by Hamas from the Rafah area in the south of Gaza.

The incident had forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short his trip to Washington as he pledged to "respond with force" to the rocket attack.

The attack came a day after Israeli warplanes bombed the besieged enclave ahead of the anniversary of Gaza fence protests at the weekend.
See also: Israel launches another round of airstrikes against Gaza, in response to one rocket strike (which Hamas denies firing)

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X

After weeks of protest, Algerian army calls for President Bouteflika to be declared unfit to rule


RT
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 14:44 UTC
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
© Reuters/Zohra BensemraAlgeria's President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in May 2017.
Algeria's army chief has called for long-term leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika to be declared unfit to rule. The statement comes after weeks of massive protests against the extension of the president's fourth term.

"We must find a way out of this crisis immediately, within the constitutional framework," Lt Gen Ahmed Gaed Salah said in a televised speech.

Upper house chairman Abdelkader Bensalah will reportedly be caretaker president for 45 days. Salah referred to Article 102 of the Algerian constitution which provides for the appointment of the parliament chairman as interim head of state, and organization of a snap election in the event that the president's health prevents him from properly executing his duties.

Algerian crowd
© REUTERS/Zohra BensemraAlgerian protest calling on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit.
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Bulb

MPs vote to take control of Brexit through 'indicative votes'


BBC
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 18:30 UTC
UK MPs Brexit vote
© HOC
MPs have voted to take control of the parliamentary timetable in an unprecedented move to try to find a majority for any Brexit option.

The prime minister was dealt a fresh blow as the government was defeated by 329 votes to 302, setting up votes on Wednesday to find out what kind of Brexit has most support among MPs.

Theresa May has said there is no guarantee she will abide by their wish.

Thirty Tory MPs voted against the government, including three ministers.

Richard Harrington, Alistair Burt and Steve Brine resigned to join the rebels, with Mr Harrington accusing the government of "playing roulette with the lives and livelihoods" of Britons.

Former industry minister Mr Harrington said: "It's absurd that now we are in a position of political impasse and... Parliament hasn't actually talked about it on the floor of the House of Commons. That's what I call a democratic deficit."

Comment: The DUP dealt an additional blow to May's Brexit deal:
Writing in The Telegraph, Sammy Wilson, the DUP's Brexit spokesperson insisted that his party would not let "the PM or the Remainer horde in Parliament to bully us into backing a toxic Brexit deal."

Wilson argues that May's withdrawal agreement as it stands means "no Brexit" for the UK and is not averse to a long extension to article 50 of up to a year.


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Chart Bar

'Now to change Europe': Italy's Salvini sets sights on EU elections after major victory in regional elections


RT
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 18:28 UTC
salvini
© REUTERS / Remo Casilli/Italy's deputy prime ministers Luigi Di Maio (L) and Matteo Salvini (R)
Italy's government coalition partners have started separate fights for May's EU elections, after recent regional elections saw a resounding victory for Matteo Salvini's right-wing coalition at the expense of the left.

The deputy prime minister's coalition scored 42 percent of the ballot in the southern region of Basilicata in local elections on Sunday, with 18.8 percent coming from Salvini's League party supporter base.

It marked the end of center-left stewardship of the mainly agricultural region for the first time since 1995.

It also saw a sharp decline in local support for the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement (M5S), whose popularity in Basilicata halved from the 44.3 percent it gained in last year's general elections, to hover just over 20 percent following last weekend's regional poll.

Comment: A 'Europe of Nations', or some sort of 'regime-changed' EU, is Europe's only chance of preventing fratricide and regional war.

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Mr. Potato

Comey has 'so many questions' in wake of failed Russiagate probe, gets memed into oblivion


RT
Mon, 25 Mar 2019 17:51 UTC
James Comey
© Reuters / Joshua RobertsFormer FBI Director James Comey
Robert Mueller's report, concluding that President Trump didn't collude with Russia in 2016, has hit some establishment bigwigs hard. Spare a thought for poor James Comey, lost in the woods and ridiculed on Twitter.

After two years of investigation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller gave Attorney General William Barr his final report on Friday. Summarizing the report on Sunday, Barr revealed that Mueller couldn't find the elusive 'Russian Collusion' he was tasked with unearthing, and President Donald Trump declared his own "Complete and total exoneration."

After sustaining themselves for nearly two years on a diet of pure, unrefined Russian hysteria, America's liberal pundits and Democrat politicians began to melt down. It wasn't pretty. Former FBI Director James Comey, among Trump's most vocal opponents, took a more pensive approach, going for a walk in the woods to contemplate life post-Mueller.

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Bad Guys

US commercial and foreign policy: Succession of failures, or grand strategy?

Thierry Meyssan
Voltaire Network
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 18:01 UTC
grand strategy
The designers of the US Grand Strategy – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his advisor, Admiral Arthur Cebrowski; President Donald Trump and his commercial advisor Peter Navarro; and finally Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his advisor Francis Fannon.
It is commonly believed in the United States that the country has no Grand Strategy since the end of the Cold War.

A Grand Strategy is a vision of the world that one seeks to impose, and that all administrations must respect. So, even if you lose in one particular theatre of war, the fight continues in others, and finally ends in triumph. At the end of the Second World War, Washington chose to follow the directives set by ambassador George Keenan in his famous diplomatic telegramme. It proposed describing an alleged Soviet expansionism in order to justify containment of the USSR. Indeed, although the USA had lost the wars in Korea and Vietnam, it finished by prevailing.

It is very rare to be able to rethink a Grand Strategy, even if there were others during that period, in particular, with Charles De Gaulle in France.

Over the last eighteen years, Washington has been able to progressively set new objectives and new tactics with which to attain them.

Comment: It's hard not to look at the repeated 'failures' of U.S. foreign policy and think that no one can be that stupid. On the one hand, people can be that stupid, but on the other, you have to ask if perhaps the U.S. policy-makers got exactly what they wanted. That would fit into the Cebrowski strategy Meyssan describes above. And given Trump's obsession with Iran and Venezuela, it seems as if he is going along with the plan. But there are still inconsistencies. See, for example:

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Chess

Germany wants Europe to join China's new Silk Road (after criticizing Italy for doing the same)


RT
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:51 UTC
european leaders and xi jinping
© AFP / ludovic Marin
The Chinese "Belt and Road" initiative is an important project, which European states would be glad to join, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who stressed that cooperation should be based on reciprocity from Beijing.

"We, as Europeans, want to play an active part and that must lead to certain reciprocity and we are still wrangling over that a bit," Merkel said, as quoted by Reuters.

The comment comes shortly after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is currently paying a state visit to France.

Comment: Macron - in the days before Xi's arrival - was warning that 'China is trying to divide Europe'. When Xi got to Paris, they inked a deal for 300 Airbus planes - the European company's largest ever order.

They can say all they want about China, but they can't resist the powerful tidal force it is exerting on the world order.

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Stop

Hamas says agreement reached on mutual ceasefire with Israel


Sputnik
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 17:42 UTC
Israel Hamas
© Flickr / Israel Defense Forces
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said Monday that the movement has reached an agreement on a mutual ceasefire with Israel.

"Egypt's efforts to cease fire between the occupation forces and resistance factions have turned to be successful", Barhum said in a statement.

A senior Palestinian official told Reuters Monday on condition of anonymity that Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt. The truce went into effect at 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT), according to Reuters.

However, following the reported truce agreement, air-raid sirens went off across the southern part of Israel, the IDF said late on Monday. There was no immediate information about any damage caused by rockets in Israel following the rocket alarm, Reuters reported.

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