It is no secret that the rise of the Belt and Road Initiative has created a positive dynamic for international relations, seriously challenging the Western technocratic system that has come to dominate the Trans-Atlantic region under financial and bureaucratic dictatorship.

While many branches of the Belt and Road Initiative - which officially united with Russia's Eurasian Economic Union in 2015 - have manifested across Europe in the form of rail lines and ports, to this day no actual agreement has been reached between European powers and China.

As President Xi Jinping's trip to Europe from March 22-28 has demonstrated, there is for the first time a sense that the post-industrial society dominant in the West since the 1971 floating of the dollar is no longer the dismal fate of nations.

Xi Jinping has carried the Belt and Road Initiative into the heart of Europe, a lifeline for all patriots who wish to survive the coming financial collapse. As of Saturday March 23, the first G7 country has officially joined this program, with Italy's Prime Minister Conte signing his country onto the historic Memorandum of Understanding with China, setting a great precedent for other member-states trapped within the Euro currency cage.

The German government cannot decide whether to continue its arms embargo against Saudi Arabia. The ban on exports is due to expire this week, and Paris is pressuring Berlin to lift it.

Germany's government coalition is split on whether to maintain the ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia in the face of increasing pressure from France.

The temporary embargo, imposed in November, is due to expire at the end of this week, but a meeting of the national security council (Chancellor Angela Merkel and her senior ministers) ended inconclusively on Wednesday, according to the dpa news agency.

The government parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), have agreed to discuss the issue further, though it remains unclear when the cabinet will meet again.

In the wake of the New Zealand mosque attacks, links have emerged between the shooter, Brenton Tarrant, and a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist, white supremacist paramilitary organization called the Azov Battalion. Tarrant's manifesto alleges that he visited the country during his many travels abroad, and the flak jacket that Tarrant wore during the assault featured a symbol commonly used by the Azov Battalion. Tarrant's transnational ties go beyond Ukraine, however. Tarrant claimed that he was in touch with Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist, and he took trips throughout Europe, including the Balkans, visiting sites that symbolized historical battles between Christians and Muslims. During the video of his attack he could be heard listening to a song that glorified Bosnian-Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic, and his gun featured racial messages and names of white supremacists from around the world.

The Azov Battalion is emerging as a critical node in the transnational right-wing violent extremist (RWE) network. This group maintains its own 'Western Outreach Office' to help recruit and attract foreign fighters that travel to train and connect with people from like-minded violent organizations from across the globe. Operatives from the outreach office travel around Europe to promote the organization and proselytize its mission of white supremacy. In July 2018, German-language fliers were distributed among the visitors at a right-wing rock festival in Thuringia, inviting them to be part of the Azov battalion: 'join the ranks of the best' to 'save Europe from extinction.' It has also established youth camps, sporting recreation centers, lecture halls, and far-right education programs, including some that teach children as young as 9 years old military tactics and far-right ideology. This aggressive approach to networking serves one of the Azov Battalion's overarching objectives to transform areas under its control in Ukraine into the primary hub for transnational white supremacy.

The U.S State Department special operator for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams has revealed that Venezuela is already in possession numerous highly effective S-300 (Antey 2500 version) systems. This makes a military campaign against Venezuela highly unlikely, given the high-importance of air-cover for any boots on the ground, and the high effectiveness of the S-300 system. It also explains the decision of OAS member states Columbia and Brazil not to resort to military intervention against the Bolivarian Republic - a jungle war without air-cover would be extraordinarily costly in terms of casualties and the resulting social and political unrest. While the U.S military has known of this, until Abrams statement today there was a reluctance to report the problems posed by this, amid Trump's war-drums surrounding his alleged 'all options' approach to Venezuela.

Previously, FRN relayed a report from a private Israeli satellite giving the locations of the S-300 systems then believed to be in movement to strategic locations. While the source was questionable regarding alleged piece movement, it led to some confusion as to whether Venezuela indeed possessed the systems at all.

Here's something that might surprise you. In the last few days, three separate surveys have been released showing that a majority (or near-majority) of Americans still think Donald Trump colluded with Russia. As you know, this does not square with the findings of the Mueller Report which were released (in part) over the weekend by Attorney General William Barr. The critical passage we are referring to is this:

"The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."

That's pretty clear, isn't it? No conspiracy, no coordination, no collusion. End of story, right?

Wrong. For some reason, the probe has failed to change people's minds even though the "investigation employed 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, issued 2,800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, and took 2 years. And even though special counsel Robert Mueller is widely regarded as a first-rate prosecutor and a man of unshakable integrity. Even so, a large percentage of Americans still believe Trump is guilty. Go figure? Take a look at this clip from a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released on Tuesday:

In an article from a few years ago, I noted the likelihood of a "myriad of new consequences induced by the U.S. and Russian interventions in Iraq and Syria. They are very unlikely to be good. One can only hope that they will be limited to a slight escalation of the 'new cold war' rather than its transformation into a hot one." It was feared that great power meddling in these regions' politics, intended to increase or maximize power, is likely to bring unintended, unmanageable, and potentially catastrophic consequences further down the road. While as yet not catastrophic in terms of its own consequences, U.S. President Donald trump's recent decision to recognize of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights appears to one of those consequences. Nonetheless, it is a regrettable decision driven by a combination of motives, some emotional, others ideological, others driven by geopolitical interests as understood by the present elite through its 'lone superpower' lens. The decision strikes a fifth, even fatal blow (if one has not already been delivered) to one of the post-Cold War - indeed post-Congress of Vienna principles of the international order (ironically laid down Russian Tsar Alexander I in league with Austria and Prussia after the Napoleonic wars): the inviolability of state borders.

Trump's emotions often get the better of him. One need only read a biography of him, watch him in debates, or his look at his less than presidential tweets. In this case, however, the emotional impetus, is more likely to have come from the old guardians of the neocon order. Such anti-Russian hawks around him sought revenge for Putin's annexation of Crimea, which somewhat foiled the West's 'capture' of Ukraine in the February 2014 Maidan uprising. Now, Washington has taken revenge for that and for Russia's supplanting it as the force that will decide the future of Syria. Put simply: Washington takes 'Russia's Kiev' - Moscow takes Crimea (and maybe Donbass?), Moscow takes Syria back from the clutches of Washington, Washington gives Israel the Golan. Take that. Trump likely went along because of some sympathies for Israel and the need to compensate for the decline in his own domestic political resulting from his decision to cut American losses and reverse a failed Obama administration policy, which he inherited.

The specter of Civil War has just been raised by a leading American politician. Just hours ago, U.S Democratic Party presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard stated that Trump's exoneration in the Mueller investigation has probably prevented a civil war. This speaks strongly about the times Americans live in, what many commentators are expressing as "surreal". Across social media, tweets and comments were observed expressing support for her statement, while a decade ago such a statement may have been considered shocking, relative to the pace and tempo of what was considered mainstream candidate discourse less than a decade ago.

Tulsi on Mueller Report: Put Aside Partisan Interests & Move Forward

At the same time, the entire Russiagate hysteria and the mainstream national discourse has been quite surreal itself. The allegation that Trump was in fact some Manchurian Candidate of the Russians has been put forward by mainstream television infotainment hosts, as well as mainstream print journalism connected to the Atlantic Council - all who have a broad-but-shrinking reach on legacy media networks.

The Lebanese President warned during his trip in Russia that the 1,5 million Syria refugees that his country hosts might be tempted to migrate en mass to Europe if Moscow doesn't 'more enthusiastically encourage' Damascus to facilitate their large-scale return in the near future, though it's unlikely that this so-called "Weapons of Mass Migration" scenario will materialize since it was probably rhetoric used by the Lebanese leader to ensure a quid-pro-quo with Russia in exchange for clinching forthcoming energy and military deals with it.

A "New Stage" In Russian-Lebanese Relations

Lebanese President Michel Aoun is in Moscow for talks with President Putin that the Mideast leader promised on Twitter would herald a "new stage" in bilateral relations with the Eurasian Great Power. Shortly before his big meeting, he warned that the 1.5 million Syrian refugees that his country hosts might be tempted to migrate en mass to Europe if Russia doesn't 'more enthusiastically encourage' (not a quote but the author's own euphemism) Damascus to facilitate their large-scale return in the future, immediately making headlines because of the fear that many have of a repeat of the 2015 Migrant Crisis.

In 2014, I was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada. The landscape wasn't looking good for my party that year. There were no high-profile national races to help boost turnout, and after the top candidate bowed out of the governor's race, "None of the Above" ended up winning the Democratic primary.

So when my campaign heard from Vice-President Joe Biden's office that he was looking to help me and other Democrats in the state, I was grateful and flattered. His team offered to bring him to a campaign rally in an effort to help boost voter turnout. We set the date for November 1, just three days before election day.

In a state as large but sparsely populated as Nevada, it takes nonstop travel to connect with all its residents. You're lucky to get properly fed, much less look properly coiffed as female candidates are often required to do. I was exhausted and short on time, so decided to not to wash my hair the morning of the rally. I sprayed some dry shampoo in my hair, raced off to the Reno airport, and flew back to Las Vegas.

US President Donald Trump has said that there is "a very good likelihood" he will shut down the border with Mexico next week, upping the ante over border security and arguing that the US would benefit from cutting off trade.

Trump has threatened to cut trade with Mexico to zero if that's what it takes to stop the influx of illegal migrants and drugs into the US. Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Friday afternoon, he mounted a verbal onslaught on the Mexican authorities, accusing them of doing nothing to stop the "horrible situation" at their border with the US.

"So there's a very good likelihood that I'll be closing the border next week, and that'll be just fine with me," Trump said.

Trump claimed it would be "very easy" for Mexico to stem the flow of people sneaking into the US if they "choose to do that."

He invoked the trade deficit the US has with Mexico to justify the reasoning behind his ultimatum, arguing that Mexico profits greatly from trade with the US and must therefore do its part by enforcing strict immigration laws.