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Seoul to strip Tokyo's trusted trade status in tit-for-tat measure


The Korea Herald
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 17:33 UTC
Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo
© YonhapIndustry Minister Sung Yun-mo
South Korea on Monday decided to remove Japan from its trusted trading partners, upping the ante in the trade haggling sparked by the neighboring country's export restrictions against Seoul.

The trade ministry said it will revamp its export list into three groups of trading partners from the current two, placing Tokyo in the newly established bracket, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Tokyo had been on Seoul's top-tier list of 29 countries subject to preferential export procedures, which are members of the world's top four export control agreements, including the Wassenaar Arrangement.

The newly established bracket, between the two existing groups, is for a country that participates in the four international agreements "but operates an export control system that violates international norms," according to the ministry.

"We need to put an export control system into operation considering the fact that it is hard to work closely with a country that frequently violates basic rules of export controls or that operates an unlawful system," Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo said.
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Bad Guys

China's central bank nearly ready to release new digital currency

Ryan Browne
CNBC
Mon, 12 Aug 2019 17:24 UTC
People’s Bank of China
© Giulia Marchi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesPedestrians walk past the People’s Bank of China headquarters in Beijing, China, on Monday, Jan. 7, 2019.
China's central bank is nearly ready to issue its own sovereign digital currency, according to a senior official.

Mu Changchun, deputy director of the People's Bank of China's payments department, said the institution's virtual currency was "almost ready" for release, according to Reuters. Mu's comments were also reported by Bloomberg.

Researchers at the bank have been working on the currency for five years. The PBOC hasn't been alone in exploring the possibility of issuing digital currency as an alternative to cash; Sweden's Riksbank is another central bank looking into the idea.
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Bullseye

Hong Kong phooey! Would you like any hypocrisy with that?

George Galloway
RT
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 17:18 UTC
hong kong protester
© REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Where to start? For nearly 40 weeks hundreds of thousands of French people have been on the streets in anti-government demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron's rule.

Some have lost eyes and hands in the police response. The public has begun to view the smell of tear gas as a normal part of a weekend in Paris. France is 29 miles from the coast of England. Siri just told me that "Hong Kong is about 5,992 miles from London as the crow flies."

So complete has been the British media blackout on the Yellow Vests that many believe, wrongly, that there is some British government order banning on any mention of "les événements en France." The truth is that there is no need for one.

Like a homing pigeon in reverse the entire UK media has flown like a bat out of hell away from France all the way to Hong Kong (as they had earlier flown to Caracas until the big protests turned into the wrong kind of protests).
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Bullseye

Shocker: US perfectly capable of insanity without any Russian influence!

Robert Bridge
RT
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 17:13 UTC
straight jacket
© Wikipedia
America, resembling a mental patient inside some government-run psychiatric ward, truly believes the Russian bogeyman is out to get it. What will it take to shake the superpower from its delirium?

The question must be finally asked - on the proverbial shrink's couch if necessary - if America's deep-seated Russophobia, which has been gnawing away at the nation's brain since Soviet times, is symptomatic of some deeper psychological disorder. After all, a nation that is loaded to the eyeballs on antidepressants, armed to the teeth with military-grade weaponry and bursting at the seams with random violence could never be confused as a model sovereign state. So at the risk of sounding politically incorrect, has the United States of America finally cracked?

Insanity has been described, albeit a bit simplistically, as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Does that not sound remarkably similar to the situation in which Russia now finds itself with regards to the United States? A number of Americans, and not the least educated ones, insist on seeing the distant Motherland as the evil engineer behind every problem to befall their country.
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Light Sabers

Currency wars: Beijing says it won't weaponize yuan in US trade conflict


RT
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 17:11 UTC
yuan
© Getty Images
China has pledged not to depreciate the yuan's exchange rate after Washington officially labeled Beijing a currency manipulator amid the escalation of the trade conflict between the world's two biggest economies.

The People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, fixed the yuan's midpoint reference at 7.0326 per dollar on Tuesday. It was the fourth consecutive session in which the Chinese currency was below the psychologically important 7-yuan-per-dollar level.

The yuan fell in the beginning of last week, reaching the lowest level since December 2008. Washington was quick to accuse China of deliberately devaluating the yuan and designating the trade war rival a currency manipulator - a claim that Beijing has repeatedly denied.

In an article for the Financial News, a central bank-backed newspaper, the vice governor with the People's Bank of China and head of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Pan Gongsheng, refuted the US' allegation once again, calling it a "political operation" that will be remembered as "a ridiculous case in global finance history."
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Magnify

Racist or protecting vulnerable Americans? What's in Trump's new immigration rules


RT
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 17:08 UTC
border wall
© REUTERS/Jorge Duenes
The White House says the new rules restricting the ability of legal immigrants to receive welfare are enforcing existing laws and protecting poor and vulnerable Americans. Critics are calling them un-American and racist.

Announced Monday by acting Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli, the rules would make most legal immigrants ineligible for welfare benefits, public housing and food stamps. Being considered a "public charge" would also make foreigners ineligible for entry into the US, and those already in the country ineligible for citizenship or permanent residence. The rules go into effect on October 15, with exemptions for refugees and asylum seekers.

The move aims to "ensure that non-citizens do not abuse our public benefit programs and jeopardize the safety net needed by vulnerable Americans," the White House said in a statement.
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War Whore

NATO F-18 'spooked away' from Russian Defense Minister's plane


RT
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 17:01 UTC
jet fighter
© Russian Defense Ministry
Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jets convoying a plane with the Russian defense minister on board chased away a NATO F-18 , which tried to shadow it over the Baltic Sea.

Sergey Shoigu was returning from Russia's Kaliningrad region guarded by two Su-27 escorts, according to Zvezda TV, the television channel of the Russian Defense Ministry.

In MoD footage, a NATO war plane is seen approaching Shoigu's jet, with the camera filming the F-18 up-close. Moments later, it swerves to the left as it's chased away by the Sukhoi.
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Eye 2

Warmonger Pompeo to UN: 'Time is running out' to kick Iran while it's down


RT
Tue, 13 Aug 2019 16:53 UTC
pompeo
© Global Look / Michael Gross
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned allies that time is running out to squash Iran while it's weakened by an arms embargo, urging them to halt Tehran's "destabilizing behavior" before it regains the ability to fight back.

Tweeting a countdown clock purporting to show the "time remaining before the UN arms embargo on Iran expires and Qasim Soleimani's travel ban ends," Pompeo urged "allies and partners" to step up their pressure on the bogeyman du jour before the embargo expires and the playing field levels somewhat.

The post received approving nods from "Iranian-American" accounts retweeting hashtags like "#PahlaviMadeIranGreat" and "#IranRegimeChange" (and, interestingly enough, a lot of Hong Kong protesters), but others pointed out that had the US not withdrawn from the JCPOA nuclear agreement, "there would be no problem." Still others noted that the US was clearly worried about Iran being able to arm itself and push back against American aggression, and that the "threat" was entirely imaginary.
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Quenelle - Golden

Uruguay warns of US meddling in elections in support of right-wing opposition


TeleSur
Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Uraguay warns
The U.S. will be hoping that the progressive Broad Front will not win reelection.
Uruguay's foreign minister warned Wednesday that the U.S. is attempting to damage Uruguay's economy as a means of interfering in the country's upcoming presidential elections in support of the right-wing opposition.

Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa, from the Broad Front, the party of progressive former President Jose Mujica, said the U.S. knows that security is a core issue in the country's October elections.

Novoa said that "The last 50 years of history" have led him to the conclusion that the U.S. is using this to intervene in national politics, in support of the right-wing opposition. His comments follow the U.S. upgrading Uruguay's security threat, which the government said had no grounds.

The tensions come just days after Uruguay issued Monday a warning to their citizens against traveling to the U.S. due to the rise in mass shootings and hate crimes. In retaliation, the U.S. upgraded Uruguay from a level 1 threat to a level 2.

Comment: Countries large and small - the world over - are now, more than ever, aware of manipulations, regime changes, color revolutions and other modes of subterfuge that the imperial US is engaged in - as it attempts to wrest control over as much as it can.

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Stock Up

Russia's investment rating rises even in the face of sanctions


Reuters
Fri, 09 Aug 2019 10:36 UTC
russia debt
Global rating agency Fitch upgraded Russia's investment grade rating on Friday to 'BBB' from 'BBB-', citing ‍strengthened policy mix, robust fiscal and external balance sheets, which it said will help the country cope with heightened sanctions risk​.

Russia's finance ministry welcomed the decision.

"We believe that the Fitch decision will become a legitimate reason for raising Russia's credit sovereign rating by the rest of the Big Three rating agencies," the ministry said in a statement.

Comment: Even with Western waged economic warfare Russia's economy not only remains stable but is actually improving. The same can't be said of the EU or the US:

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