Puppet MastersS


Oil Well

Saudi Arabia oil tanker attacked, vows to halt shipments until safety can be ensured


RT
Wed, 25 Jul 2018 21:36 UTC
French oil tanker Limburg off the coast of Yemen
© Aladin Abdel Naby / ReutersFILE PHOTO: French oil tanker Limburg off the coast of Yemen
Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting oil shipments through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the country's energy minister has said. It follows a Houthi attack on a Saudi oil tanker off Yemen's western coast.

The pause in shipments will last until the safety of shipments through the strait, which connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, is ensured, Khalid Al-Falih said in a statement.

The announcement follows an attack by the Yemeni militant force the Houthis on a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea west of Yemen's coast. According to the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen, the attack caused "minor damage".

Comment: See also:

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Brick Wall

Mass migration "greatest threat" to Austrian security says newly appointed Chief of staff


RT
Thu, 26 Jul 2018 16:21 UTC
Migrants wait to cross the border from Slovenia into Spielfeld in Austria, February 16, 2016
© ReutersFILE PHOTO Migrants wait to cross the border from Slovenia into Spielfeld in Austria, February 16, 2016
Mass migration is the greatest threat to Austrian security, the country's newly-appointed chief of the general staff said, adding that the problem of asylum seekers has now spread to all EU states.

"The migration problem has developed in a way that now all member states of the European Union are affected," Major General Robert Brieger told Ö1 radio station on Wednesday. He stressed that mass migration has become the "greatest threat" to Austria's security.

The top military official said that "as long as external border protection is not fully guaranteed, there is a need to act at the national level." Border controls can safeguard Austria from "terrorist threats," Brieger, who took on his post on Tuesday, insisted.

Austria has seen a large influx of asylum seekers, like many other EU states, ever since the refugee crisis kicked off in 2015. In June Austria's Defense Minister Mario Kunasek said that the EU Border Guard (Frontex) should be bolstered with soldiers and policemen. According to Kunasek, the beefed-up force would work in EU border countries, namely Italy and Greece, but might actually venture into "African countries with the consent of the respective state."

Comment: While the EU was quick to sanction countries that refused to kowtow to their migrant quotas, they're now facing a backlash, including from those countries that initially 'welcomed' them. It's becoming worryingly clear to many that the impacts of the migrant crisis are nuanced but that, if it continues as the bureaucrats in Brussels would like it to, the effects to Europe and its culture would be disastrous: Also check out SOTT radio's:




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Better Earth

The end of NATO? Italy to lower defense contributions - Even the US falls short of target


RT
Thu, 26 Jul 2018 18:46 UTC
Italian Army soldiers march during the Republic Day military parade in Rome on 2 June, 2018.
© Tony Gentile / ReutersItalian Army soldiers march during the Republic Day military parade in Rome on 2 June, 2018.
Italy will further lower its defense spending next year, its foreign minister has said. Rome currently spends 1.15 percent of GDP on defense, lagging far behind the two percent benchmark sought by Washington from its NATO allies.

Italy's defense spending is set to slightly fall next year, Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said on Thursday. As of 2018, Italy spends 1.15 percent of its GDP on military.

Minister Milanesi's statement appears to contradict earlier signals sent by the new Italian government. Late in June, Italy's Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta told the Defense News in an interview that she affirmed to US national security adviser John Bolton that Rome aimed to reach NATO's target spending of two percent of GDP. Trenta, however, did not give any time frame for reaching the envisioned target.

Comment: Trump's demand that NATO countries contribute more to the nefarious organisation has actually led to an outcry from many in the political sphere to question the relevance of NATO itself: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Trump on Tour! US President Takes Wrecking Ball to NATO & EU, Mueller Indicts Russians

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Bad Guys

An Obama era policy: US bolsters military presence in Australia to tackle 'China threat'


RT
Wed, 25 Jul 2018 23:00 UTC
U.S. Marines arrive on deployment at Darwin, 2017.
© Reuters/Tom WestbrookU.S. Marines arrive on deployment at Darwin, 2017.
The US continues to ramp up its military footprint in Australia, aimed at countering a perceived threat presented from China. With plans to station 2,500 Marines in Darwin, US military presence in the Pacific continues to expand.

Marine Corps presence in Australia has ballooned since the first rotation of 250 troops arrived in the country in 2012. There are currently 1,500 members of the Marine Rotational Force-Darwin stationed in Australia's Northern Territory along with an array of US weapons and aircraft. That number is to swell to 2,500 "as soon as practicable," the Department of Defense said following a meeting between the US and Australia this week.

The ever-increasing US military footprint extends across the Pacific region, with some 22,000 Marines stationed in Okinawa, Japan, 7,000 in Guam and 28,500 in South Korea.

US forces will also integrate in Australia's upcoming Indo-Pacific Endeavour exercise and will carry out a series of exercises in Fiji, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Comment: Trump considers stationing US troops around the world as a waste of good money, however these plans have obviously been in the pipeline since Obama's presidency and Trump seems powerless to stop it:

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Star of David

Russian military commends IDF for not falling for 'provocation' of ISIS in Syria


RT
Fri, 27 Jul 2018 04:46 UTC
Israeli F-15 fighter jet IDF air force
© Amir Cohen / ReutersAn Israeli F-15 fighter jet at a military exercise. May 16, 2017
The Russian military thanked Israel for foiling a daring ISIS plot in Syria. The militants attempted to lure the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) into striking Syrian government troops, but Israel did not fall for it.

Moscow "thanked the IDF leadership" for effectively destroying Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) targets and "preventing a large-scale provocation" staged by the militants, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. The militants attempted to trick Israel into striking the Syrian Army.

Earlier that day, the IDF had confirmed striking targets in Syria's southwestern Quneitra province, which borders Israel. The army said two rockets were launched over the Golan Heights from Syrian territory, and later identified the incident as "errant fire from the internal fighting in Syria." In response, the IDF conducted an airstrike on the launcher which fired the rockets, and shelled the surrounding area with artillery.

Comment: Further reading:

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Wall Street

President Xi to BRICS summit: 'There will be no winner in a global trade war'


RT
Fri, 27 Jul 2018 04:46 UTC
trump Xi Jinping
All parties in the trade conflict will only lose, according to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was talking at the BRICS summit in South Africa on Wednesday.

"A trade war should be rejected because there will be no winner," Xi said at the opening of the BRICS summit of emerging economies in Johannesburg.

"Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime," the Chinese president said, without naming the United States. "We are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening up and closed-door policy and between mutual benefit and a beggar-thy-neighbour approach."

Comment: Also see: Trump's "art of the deal" in play as he proposes removal of ALL EU-US tariffs and end to trade war

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Megaphone

Palestinian UN ambassador: Trump's Middle East peace plan 'dead upon arrival'


The New Arab
Wed, 25 Jul 2018 20:56 UTC
Riyad Mansour
© GettyPalestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour
US President Donald Trump's so-called "deal of the century" for Middle East peace is "dead upon arrival", the Palestinian envoy to the UN said on Tuesday.

Riyad Mansour told reporters on Tuesday that after President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December, the United States "lost the qualification to be the only party to supervise the political process".

The Trump administration has not yet set a date for the plan's reveal, with the official stating last month it wants to launch the proposal "when the circumstances are right".

Drawn up by Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner along with Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt, the roadmap is likely to be hugely favourable to Israel.
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Arrow Up

Putin: BRICS trade grew significantly in last year as influence of developing economies surges


RT
Thu, 26 Jul 2018 20:22 UTC
singapore port
© Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik
Russian trade with fellow BRICS countries has grown significantly in the last year, and the country wants to keep the momentum going, said President Vladimir Putin in his opening address at the BRICS Summit in South Africa.

The 10th annual BRICS summit takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 25-27, where the leaders of governments of the five member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) meet to discuss cooperation in political and socio-economic affairs.

"Strengthening trade and investment ties with BRICS partners is one of the key priorities for Russia, and by the end of 2017 our trade with other members of the association grew by almost 30 percent, surpassing $102 billion, and we are determined to do our utmost to further increase trade within the BRICS," Putin said on Thursday.
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Russian Flag

SOTT Focus: Grand Deception: From USSR to Russia - The Transition That Took Five Million Lives

Alex Krainer
The Naked Hedgie
Thu, 26 Jul 2018 19:40 UTC
In a recent appearance on FOX News, U.S. senator Ted Cruz stated categorically that Vladimir Putin was a KGB thug who said that the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 21st century was the dissolution of the Soviet Union (the quote and the warped timeline Cruz's own). The foregoing article should explain why Vladimir Putin may have said something of the sort. It is part 5 in a six-part series on Russia's 1990s transition from communism to capitalism, excerpted from Chapter 3 of my book, Grand Deception: the Truth About Bill Browder, the Magnitsky Act, and Anti-Russia Sanctions. The book's previous incarnation was banned last summer.

Links to previous posts: introduction, part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
russia 1990s
© rarehistoricalphotos.comA woman reaches into her bag, which rests on a fallen Soviet hammer-and-sickle on a Moscow street in 1991.
"Does America want Russia to raise its living standards and consume most of its fuels and raw materials domestically? Or, does it see a chance to nail down its Cold War victory by destroying Russia's potential power to be a rival, by turning it into an exporter of oil, gas and other raw materials?" ~ Dr. Michael Hudson speaking before the Russian parliament, 15 March 1999.

"To make ends meet, professors had to become taxi drivers, nurses became prostitutes and art museums sold paintings right off their walls. Nearly every Russian was cowed and humiliated..." ~ Bill Browder, Red Notice
The transition program engineered by the American deep state and its Wall Street patrons was nothing short of catastrophic for Russia. The perfect storm of sudden price liberalization, drastic curtailment of government spending and bank credit, and opening of domestic markets to unrestricted foreign competition produced a toxic brew that devastated the Russian economy, destroyed its currency, and plunged much of the population into poverty and hunger. After 1992, Russian middle class saw their savings evaporate and their real wages halve - if they were fortunate enough to receive them at all.1
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Fire

All aboard the Crazy Train: Mass media gone mad over Russia

Paul Street
Information Clearing House
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 19:55 UTC
William browder fraud russia magnitsky
© ReutersSome of hedgefunder William Browder's firms were caught involved in $230 million tax fraud in Russia
Flipping through the cable news stations last Saturday morning, I came across an amusing sight at Russia- frenzied MSNBC. There was the stern host Joy Reid ("#AM Joy") giving a concerned and sympathetic interview to William Browder, a worried multimillionaire financier who said that Vladimir Putin wants to murder him.

"Are you afraid, Bill?" Joy Reid asked, "are you taking precautions for your safety?"

"Am I at risk of being killed by Vladimir Putin's regime? ...Yes," Browder said, adding that there's not much he can do "if they're going to use chemical weapons to put poison on my door knob."

The grandson (hilariously enough) of former US Communist Party General Secretary Earl Browder (a dutiful servant of the Soviet Union during the Great Depression and World War II), Browder is one of at least two "Americans" (including former US Russian ambassador Michael McFaul) Putin told Donald Trump he wants sent to Moscow for questioning by Russian investigators. Trump nodded approvingly as Putin discussed Browder's theft of Russian assets during the Russian president's joint press conference with Trump in Helsinki last Monday. Trump initially said he was willing to consider Putin's request.

Comment: Yup, nothing to see there. Well nothing that mass media is interested in telling you about. They're not interested in 'informing' anybody. That's not their purpose anymore. It's all about repeating over and over again what the establishment wants you to focus on so while you're distracted with the sleight of hand, they can go on with their destructive policies of war and oppression. For more on media's favourite con-man, Bill Browder:

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