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Trump promises to get rid of 'lingering stench' at Justice Department


RT
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 13:15 UTC
Donald Trump
© Mike Segar / Reuters
President Donald Trump has promised to rid the US Justice Department of "lingering stench" and clean it of really "bad people," following claims that DAG Rod Rosenstein wanted to secretly record him and had discussed impeachment.

"Just look at what is being exposed in our Justice Department... We have great people in the Department of Justice. ... But you've got some real bad ones. You've seen what's happened at the FBI. They're all gone," Trump told a packed rally for Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley in Missouri. "But there's a lingering stench and we're going to get rid of that, too."

Trump's comments apparently came in response to an explosive New York Times report, which claimed that Deputy Attorney-General Rod Rosenstein had suggested secretly recording the president to potentially invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office.
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Green Light

The 'Power of Siberia': Russia to become China's top supplier of natural gas soon


RT
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 06:02 UTC
China oil
© Reuters
One of the world's longest gas pipelines - the Power of Siberia - which is being created to deliver natural gas from Russia to China, is almost complete. The sides are now getting ready to ink a contract on another major pipeline.

Agreement on the Power of Siberia 2 or the 'Western Route' for the supply of Russian gas from the Far East to China might be signed in the first half of 2019, according to Nur Bekri, director of the National Energy Administration of China. The new pipeline will deliver 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

"We continue consultations... If we agree on the 'Western Route', then it will be more than 80 billion cubic meters [for all supply routes, including LNG - Ed.] a year. This means that Russia will take the first place among gas suppliers to China," Bekri told TASS.

Russian energy giant Gazprom's CEO, Alexey Miller, said earlier that Russia and China have agreed to get approval for gas supplies via the 'Western Route' in the shortest possible time.
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Radar

Does the brouhaha over China's Haifa port deal highlight Israel's 'deep state' divisions?

Andrew Korybko
Oriental Review
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 13:33 UTC
China in Haifa
China will soon operate the Israeli port of Haifa if everything goes according to plan.

Haaretz reported on a conference late last month in Israel where the former navy chief of staff and chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Shaul Horev warned about China's forthcoming management of the strategic port of Haifa. The deal was agreed to three and a half years ago by the Transportation Ministry and Port Authority without what the outlet claimed was the input of either the National Security Council or the navy itself, the latter of which is supposedly concerned because Israel's submarine fleet is based next to the port. The impending implementation of the agreement has led to the usual fear mongering about "debt traps", military implications, and oddly enough, even whether Israel is pivoting away from the US.

What's clearly happening is that a faction of Israel's permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies - or "deep state" - wants to join China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) global vision of New Silk Road connectivity while the other wants to retain Tel Aviv's stalwart pro-American foreign policy by preventing this, hence the public friction over this issue. Unlike what many in the Alt-Media Community might imagine, Israel and China have become increasingly close over the past couple of years as Beijing has developed an interest in the so-called "Red-Med Railway" proposal of connecting the two bodies of water via a high-speed railway that could eventually complement the Suez Canal or possibly one day even become an alternative to it.
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X

India calls off meeting with Pakistan over 'brutal killing' of policemen in Kashmir


RT
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:21 UTC
Indian police
© Global Look Press/ Idrees Abbas
India has canceled a meeting with Pakistan over what it calls the "brutal" killing of three of its policemen on Friday morning. A Pakistani senator took a swipe at India for "running from talks."

India had on Thursday confirmed a meeting between the two countries' foreign ministers in New York after Pakistani PM Imran Khan wrote to his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi calling for the two countries to resume dialogue.

But on Friday, three Indian officers were shot dead by Hizbul Mujahideen militants in south Kashmir.
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Chart Pie

US sanctions aimed to squeeze 'main competitor' out of arms market


RT
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 13:12 UTC
Russian S-400 missile air defence systems
© Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
The new punitive measures the US imposed on buyers of Russian weapons - China in particular - is just a sign of unfair competition, aiming to get rid of "hyper-competitive" Russian-made arms, the Kremlin says.

Moscow is already "tired" of reacting to every single hostile move from Washington, but will not let the latest batch of restrictions go unpunished, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Friday.

The statement came after the Trump administration added 33 Russian defense and intelligence officials and entities to the sanctions list and also targeted the Equipment Development Department, China's leading arms acquisition body, for buying Russian arms.

Comment: There could be other reasons too: Lavrov: US sanctions are sign of dollar crisis & decline of confidence

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Wall Street

Turkey fines Google $15 million for breaching competition legislation


Sputnik
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 12:32 UTC
Google
© REUTERS / Mike Blake
The Turkish Antimonopoly Committee decided to make Google pay a 93-million-lira fine (some $15 million) over breaches of competition legislation in the sphere of software for mobile phones, the committee said on Thursday in a statement.

"It was decided to fine the companies of Google, Google International and Google Reklamcilik that will have to pay 93 million Turkish liras over the violation of the legislation on competition in the sphere of sales of software for mobile phones. These companies must remove the violations within six months and restore the effective competition on the market," the statement said.

Comment: Turkish authorities are doing their best to catch up with Google's information dominance. TRT World reports:
In Turkey, Google's Android operating system accounts for almost 82 percent of the smartphone market, while the Google search engine accounts for 96 percent.

In all, Google's position in the Turkish market has become well-cemented.

The Turkish competition authorities, like their Western peers are often playing catch up in a fast changing online market.

Earlier this year the EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager warned against Google's illegal attempts at global dominance.

"Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine. These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits," Vestage said.
Also see:

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Snakes in Suits

Need more suffering: Pompeo promises a 'series of actions' against Venezuela in the 'coming days'


RT
Fri, 21 Sep 2018 12:50 UTC
Riot security forces clash with anti-government demonstrators in San Cristobal, Venezuela
© Carlos Eduardo Ramirez / ReutersRiot security forces clash with anti-government demonstrators in San Cristobal, Venezuela.
Washington has promised to increase pressure on Venezuela in the coming days, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowing to take a "series of actions" against the government of Nicolas Maduro in the "best interest" of Venezuelans.

Refusing to specify the details of Washington's plan, Pompeo noted that the US is "determined to ensure that the Venezuelan people get their say."

"I think you'll see in the coming days a series of actions that continue to increase the pressure level against the Venezuelan leadership folks who are working directly against the best interest of the Venezuelan people," Pompeo told Fox News.


Comment: The US always uses that "best interest of the people" line when it really means the best interest of US hegemony. Hopefully the "series of actions" dοn't include violence.

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Attention

Glyphosate industry fails to stop funding for Global Cancer Agency


Sustainable Pulse
Sun, 16 Sep 2018 14:50 UTC
Glyhosate research
In a massive victory for independent science, it was announced Sunday that the U.S. Senate and Congress appropriations committees have deleted text from a controversial Bill, which would have cut all the U.S. funding to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), after they challenged the chemical industry by classifying the world's most used herbicide, glyphosate, as a probable human carcinogen in 2015.

The 'IARC rider' text on page 110 (sec.229) of the draft Labor Health and Human Services FY19 Appropriations Bill was removed after negotiations.

Currently, 25 Nations contribute to IARC's total budget of about USD $50 million (about EUR 44 million), with 7.5% (USD $3.8 million) coming from the U.S..

Following IARC's classification of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen in 2015, Monsanto and the American Chemistry Council launched a full-throttle attack on the international scientific body.
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Attention

Trump threatens Beijing with 'more bullets' if they retaliate against new US tariffs


Sputnik
Sat, 22 Sep 2018 11:14 UTC
US flag china america
© AP Photo / Andy Wong
Speaking during yet another rally, this time in Missouri, the US president warned about the spiraling tariff war with China and questioned whether the latter dared to challenge the US with retaliatory measures in response to the latest US tariffs affecting $200 billion of Chinese goods.

Donald Trump, who had come to Springfield, Missouri, to advocate for Josh Hawley, a Republican candidate at the upcoming elections, promised "to come back" with "a lot more" to China, if it retaliates against US tariffs targeting $200 billion of Chinese goods.

"We are cracking down on the unfair trade practices of China. ... We have rebuilt China. We have given them such wealth. And we are changing it. So we charged 25 percent on $50 billion worth of merchandise tariffs coming in. And then they said, 'We're going to do the same thing.' And I've said: 'That is okay. We have far more bullets,' he told a cheering crowd, as he discussed different points on the country's agenda.

This threat came shortly after China added tariffs on $60 billion of the US products as a countermeasure for the US implied 10% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods starting from September, 24. On January 1, 2019, the tariffs are expected to grow up to 25%.

Comment: It seems less and less likely that these tax measures will have a positive effect on the American economy. See also:

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No Entry

Yawn: US blacklists another 33 Russian individuals, companies linked to military, intelligence services

Mike Eckel
RFE/RL
Thu, 20 Sep 2018 09:27 UTC
YevgenyPrigozhin
© Mikhail Metzel/TASSYevgeny Prigozhin
The U.S. State Department said it was blacklisting nearly three dozen Russian people and companies with ties to military and intelligence agencies, in its latest effort to punish Moscow for "malign activities."

Among those targeted by the effort, announced on September 20, were the 12 military intelligence officers who had been indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller earlier this year for alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Many of those named have also been sanctioned or blacklisted previously, under different designations, meaning that the new measures were unlikely to have any significant effect.

In all, 33 Russians and Russian companies were added to the blacklist, which also included Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian tycoon known colloquially as "Putin's chef" for the catering contracts his company has with the Kremlin.
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