Puppet MastersS


Footprints

Mass exodus: US firms leaving China due to trade war doesn't mean they are coming home


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 11:16 UTC
MAGA
© Global Look Press/Chirag Wakaskar
Nearly 40 percent of US corporations operating in China are mulling leaving the country amid the ongoing trade dispute between the two countries, the latest poll carried out by two American business lobby groups in China reveals.

"The negative impact of tariffs is clear and hurting the competitiveness of American companies in China," a press release from the lobbying bodies reads.

However, less than six percent of the surveyed firms are ready to move their manufacturing facilities back to the US with 24.7 percent of those who are thinking of relocation expected to settle in South East Asia. Mexico is reportedly the destinations for 10.5 percent of the respondents. Nearly 8.5 percent may move their production lines to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Sri Lanka.

The poll, conducted jointly by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce in China, covers 250 firms, 61.6 percent of which are manufacturing-related, 25.5 percent represent services, 3.8 percent retail and distribution, and the remaining 9.6 percent are focused on other industries.

The survey, held from May 16 to May 20, also shows that 75 percent of the respondents claimed that tit-for-tat tariffs, by the world's two strongest economies over the past years, have had a negative impact on business. The increase in import duties reportedly dragged down demand for products, boosted manufacturing costs, and resulted in higher sales prices for products.
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Jet2

US-backed terrorists fire missiles at Russian airbase in Syria as they mount major offensive against state forces in Idlib province


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 12:27 UTC
Khmeimim airbase
© Russian servicemen at the Hmeimim airbase in Syria. Sputnik/Maksim BlinovRussian servicemen at the Khmeimim airbase in Syria.
Al-Nusra terrorists on Wednesday fired 17 missiles at Russian Khmeimim airbase in Syria, all of which were either intercepted or fell short. The attack came as the Syrian Army faced a mass militant offensive in the Idlib province.

Nine missiles were intercepted by the Khmeimim's air defense, Russia's Defense Ministry said, while eight others hit the ground before reaching the base. The attack, carried out with the use of multiple rocket launcher systems, originated from a terrorist held area in the Idlib province.

The attack came amid a large-scale offensive against the Syrian military launched by the Hayat Tahrir ash-Sham terrorist group (formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate).

More than 500 militants, seven tanks, four APCs and 30 trucks with mounted machine guns and two explosive-laden vehicles, driven by suicide bombers, took part in the assault, on Wednesday morning. They were backed by another 200 gunmen, and hardware, attacking the government forces from the other side.

The offensive failed as the Syrian military killed 150 terrorists and destroyed three tanks, as well as 24 trucks with mounted machine guns during the heavy fighting.

Comment: Every time, without fail, that Russian and Syrian forces engage with the jihadi mercenaries, the US cries 'chemical weapons attack!'

This time is no different.

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Horse

Dark horse candidate Rasmus Paludan: Bring Danish troops home to patrol a wall on German border


RT
Tue, 21 May 2019 19:57 UTC
Rasmus Paludan
© Reuters/Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus RasmussenRasmus Paludan of Stram Kurs ("Hard Line") party
A dark horse right-wing candidate in Denmark's national elections who has called to militarize the country's land border and to build a wall to keep out migrants just might earn enough votes to enter the parliament.

Immigration is already defining the contours of the upcoming national elections in Denmark, but one party is literally following the "hard line" on the issue, with calls going as far as to strip Muslim Danes of their citizenship, and deport them.

Now, debating two government ministers on Denmark's Channel 2 TV, Stram Kurs party leader Rasmus Paludan has called for Danish troops to be pulled from overseas peacekeeping missions and to instead be stationed on the country's border with Germany - all to prevent the entry of Muslim migrants. He stated:
"Instead of making invasion wars, where you put Danish help out, to meddle in foreign affairs of other countries, where we cannot perceive the consequences, and where the consequences are mostly awful - Libya, Iraq and Syria, etc. - I think that we should use the defense forces in order to protect our own border, and not meddle in other countries' affairs. Because we do not want other countries meddling in our affairs."
Facing off against Interior Minister Emil Amnitzbøl of the Liberal Alliance party and Integration Minister Inger Støjberg of the Venstre party, Paludan called for the construction of a physical border wall that would prevent the entry of asylum-seekers, according to Danish journal Der Nordschleswiger.
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UFO 2

The Pentagon finally admits it investigates UFOs

Steven Greenstreet
NY Post
Wed, 22 May 2019 16:58 UTC
mother ship
© National Air and Space Museum/The Smithsonian InstitutionThe mother ship model used for the 1977 film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"
The Pentagon has finally uttered the words it always avoided when discussing the possible existence of UFOs - "unidentified aerial phenomena" - and admits that it still investigates reports of them.

In a statement provided exclusively to The Post, a Department of Defense spokesman said a secret government initiative called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program "did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena."

And while the DOD says it shut down the AATIP in 2012, spokesman Christopher Sherwood acknowledged that the department still investigates claimed sightings of alien spacecraft.

"The Department of Defense is always concerned about maintaining positive identification of all aircraft in our operating environment, as well as identifying any foreign capability that may be a threat to the homeland," Sherwood said.

"The department will continue to investigate, through normal procedures, reports of unidentified aircraft encountered by US military aviators in order to ensure defense of the homeland and protection against strategic surprise by our nation's adversaries."
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Light Sabers

Russia calls US ultimatum to Turkey over S-400-deal 'unacceptable' as Turkey braces for US sanctions


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 16:42 UTC
s-400
© Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin
Moscow has said that Washington's decision to set a deadline for Turkey to pull out of the S400-deal with Russia is an "unacceptable" ultimatum.

On Tuesday, reports in the US media suggested that the White House was urging Ankara to abandon the deal to purchase the S-400 air defense system by the end of the first week of June, or it would face consequences including sanctions.

"We have a negative view of ultimatums in general, we consider them unacceptable," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, calling the S-400 agreement with Turkey a done deal.

As a NATO-state, Ankara has been trying to buy four batteries of the Russian S-400 systems, the first of which should arrive in July, despite the strong opposition from the US. Washington wants Turkey to purchase American defence systems, arguing that the S-400 is not compatible with NATO systems and also citing security concerns over Russian equipment working alongside their own.

The US fears that Turkey's deal with Russia would compromise the security of the F-35, threatening to kick Turkey out of participation in the program and cancel its order for the jets.

Comment: Turkey's Defense Minister did say there was an improvement in negotiations between the US and Turkey regarding the purchase of the S-400 and US F-35 fighter jets, so perhaps the obstinate West is just playing The Art of the Deal:
"In our talks with the US, we see a general easing and rapprochement on issues including the east of the Euphrates, F-35s and Patriots"


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Heart - Black

Seizure of Caracas' oil assets by US endangers lives of sick Venezuelan kids treated abroad - FM


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 15:25 UTC
venezuelans
© Global Look Press / ZUMA Press / Juan Carlos Hernandez
Venezuela's foreign minister has said that the freezing of some $7 billion in assets belonging to the Venezuelan oil giant PDVSA in the US has made it impossible to pay for the treatment of young transplant patients abroad.

The crippling US sanctions and economic embargo that has been in place for several years have already cost the Venezuelan economy a staggering $130 billion since 2015, and now threaten to cut short the lives of at least five young patients that have received liver transplants in Argentina and are in need of costly post-surgery treatment. They cannot afford it due to the blockage of PDVSA funds by Washington, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said.

"The criminal US financial blockade on Venezuela risks the lives of Venezuelan children that received transplants in Argentina thanks to the support of PDVSA," Arreaza tweeted on Tuesday, adding that it "has been impossible" to transfer the necessary funds to proceed with the ailing children's treatment.
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Nuke

UN disarmament chief says risks of nuclear-weapons use 'higher than at any time since WWII' thanks to Western aggression


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 15:15 UTC
nuke
© Reuters / US Library of Congress / Handout
The director of the UN disarmament think tank has said that the risks of a nuclear strike are now higher than ever since the World War II ended, partially due to the erosion of old arms control mechanisms.

Renata Dwan, director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), an autonomous institution set up by the UN General Assembly in 1980 to assess risks to international security arising from militarization, told Reuters in an interview that the world has never been closer to crossing the nuclear threshold since the end of the WWII.

"I think that it's genuinely a call to recognize - and this has been somewhat missing in the media coverage of the issues - that the risks of nuclear war are particularly high now, and the risks of the use of nuclear weapons are higher now than at any time since World War II," Dwan said.

The growing likelihood of a nuclear attack brought about the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding agreement prohibiting all types of nuclear weapons as well as their transfer, stationing and threat of use. The treaty passed by the UN General Assembly by a majority of votes in July 2017, with all nuclear weapons states abstaining from the vote and only one NATO member, the Netherlands, taking part in the procedure but voting against.
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Snakes in Suits

Imperial puppet Trudeau warns China against 'arbitrary detention'... as Canada holds abducted Huawei CFO as bargaining chip in dirty trade war


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 15:11 UTC
trudeau
© Global Look / Arindam Shivaani
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has called on the West to counter China's "aggression," as Ottawa tries to get back two alleged spies arrested by Beijing. Canada, meanwhile, is working to extradite a Huawei executive to the US.

"China is making stronger moves than it has before to try and get its own way on the world stage," Trudeau complained to a press conference on Tuesday after he was asked about two Canadian citizens currently imprisoned in China on espionage charges. He claimed the prisoners were being held for political reasons and warned China the whole world was watching.

While Canada has denounced China's detention of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor as arbitrary and illegal, and the US has piled on with support for its northern neighbor, the Canadian government earlier this month granted authorization to the US to extradite Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who faces 23 counts of bank and wire fraud and theft of technology in the US. Prosecutors have admitted the US government surveilled Meng extensively under FISA, hoping to find evidence she (and by extension Huawei) were acting as an agent of the Chinese government.
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Cardboard Box

Garbage War: Duterte threatens to dump Canadian trash on its shoreline if they don't pick it up from the Philippines


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 14:56 UTC
trash sorting
© Reuters / Romeo RanocoFilipinos sort plastics in Manila, March 10, 2015
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered containers of trash from Canada to be shipped back. The "uncompromising" leader threatened to leave it in Canadian waters if Ottawa refuses to take it back, a spokesman has said.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Salvador Panelo said Duterte had been left "upset" by Ottawa's "inordinate delay" in receiving the waste, after they missed an agreed deadline of May 15. Officials are now looking to hire a private shipping firm to facilitate the immediate return of the waste, with Manilla covering the expenses.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Top Chinese CCTV manufacturers Hikvision & Dahua named as next US blacklist targets


RT
Wed, 22 May 2019 14:50 UTC
hikvision
© REUTERS/Jason Lee
Two of the world's largest video surveillance products manufacturers, China's Hikvision and Dahua, are likely to follow Huawei onto the US blacklist, according to reports. The sanction may be announced "in the coming weeks."

Washington is considering denying more Chinese companies a share of the US market. Limiting access to American technology is being considered for the surveillance equipment giant Hangzhou Hikvision, the New York Times reported. A later Bloomberg report included up to four more companies on the list of potential outcasts, including China's second largest producer of surveillance equipment, Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co.

Beijing has criticized the move and said it won't let Washington smear Chinese companies. The Foreign Ministry of China has called for a fair and equal environment for its businesses in the US.
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