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Blue Planet

Finian Cunningham: Trump rises to occasion for peace

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 21:43 UTC
trump kim
© REUTERS
Stranger things can happen. Maybe - just maybe - the United States and North Korea can find a way towards securing a lasting peace - despite being sworn enemies for the last seven decades.

Recall how only a few months ago, President Trump and Chairman Kim were threatening to go to war. Trump infamously had said at one point that he was prepared to "totally destroy" North Korea.

All the bellicose rhetoric instantly faded when the two leaders met this week in Singapore in what was a truly historic meeting. No serving US president has ever met a North Korean head of state.

At 33-years-old, Kim Jong-Un achieved something that his father Kim Jong-Il and grandfather Kim Il-Sung might have only dreamed about.

The cordial handshakes, smiles and friendly words make it possible for people of the world to hope for a peaceful outcome to the long-running US-North Korean conflict.

Comment: Many of Trump's initiatives will draw down fire from the deep state but that may just expose their hand and, in the meantime, the multi-polar countries, led by Russia and China, are setting up a much more inviting alternative to the ailing, despotic US hegemon. Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Trump Ditches Europe, Europe Bluffs, Russia and China Carry on With Eurasian Integration

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Attention

EU will slap €2.8bn in retaliatory tariffs against US goods


RT
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 19:59 UTC
Merkel
© Zero Hedge"Smerkel"
The European Union will levy goods coming from America with tariffs worth €2.8 billion ($3.3 billion) after Washington applied tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe, AFP and Reuters have reported.

The measures will be adopted by the European Commission, whose next scheduled meeting is June 20, according to Reuters. The tariffs should be in place by late June or early July.

"Member states have today unanimously supported the commission's plan for the adoption of rebalancing measures on the US tariffs on steel and aluminum," a European Commission source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The EU will exercise its rights on US products valued at up to €2.8 billion ($3.3 billion) of trade, as notified to the WTO," the commission source added in an interview with AFP.

The retaliatory measures will hit emblematic American exports like Harley-Davidson motorcycles, bourbon whiskey, blue jeans and other goods.

The US recently imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum coming from its allies in the European Union, Mexico and Canada. The trade penalties, 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum, took effect on June 1.

Comment: Slap for slap, nobody wins. (But they are all awake now.) How will the jolts and adjustments benefit or hurt the little guy? Financial 'well-being' of any nation starts at the bottom.

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Stop

Reps and Dems join forces to stop US support of genocide and mass starvation in Yemen

Rachel Blevins
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
Starving child, explosion
© TheFreeThoughtProject.comA Child of Yemen
Republicans and Democrats are coming together to call for an end the horrific military action in Yemen that has mercilessly killed thousands of women and children and has left millions of innocent civilians at risk for starvation.

In a letter addressed to Defense Sec. James Mattis, Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan, Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee, and Ted Lieu; and Republican Reps. Justin Amash, Thomas Massie, and Walter Jones called for the United States to immediately end its support for the current military assault on a major port city in Yemen that is putting millions of lives at risk.

As Modern Diplomacy reported this week, the U.S.-Saudi-UAE plan is to destroy the Yemenese port city of Al Hudaydah, which is the only entry-way by which food reaches approximately seven million Shiites, members of the Houthi tribe, who occupy the western third of Yemen, and who had recently ruled all of Yemen. The U.S. provides the weapons and the training, and the United Arab Emirates supplies the pilots for this operation, which is financed mainly by the Saudis.
"We urge you to use all available means to avert a catastrophic military assault on Yemen's major port city of Hodeida by the Saudi-led coalition, and to present Congress with immediate clarification regarding the full scope of U.S. military involvement in that conflict. We remind you that three years into the conflict, active U.S. participation in Saudi-led hostilities against Yemen's Houthis has never been authorized by Congress, in violation of the Constitution."

Comment: ALL US senators and representatives have a responsibility for this genocide by not stopping the war. It's an unthinkable price to pay to kowtow to the Saudis.

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Star of David

In a 'leaked' video, IDF general warns Iran is prepping to attack Israel from Syria


Sputnik
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 00:50 UTC
Israeli meeting
© YouTube screenshot
Leaked video from a meeting between Israel's head of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Tamir Hyman, and a number of foreign security ministers shows him warning them that Iran's presence in Syria isn't meant to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's battle against terrorists, but instead to threaten Israel.

Hyman showed the crowd of foreign security officials a map of suspected Iranian bases in Syria. The leaked video wasn't of a high-enough quality to pick it up, but it "showed them spread throughout the country," according to the Times of Israel. The video was shot apparently in secret at a homeland security conference held in Jerusalem by Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan during the week of June 11.


Comment: Israel is once again twisting facts and creating its narratives based on what outcome or justification is relevant to the fantasy.

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Nuke

Keep it under control: Moscow warns against premature steps to universal nuclear disarmament


RT
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 13:28 UTC
Megabomb
© Ria Novosti/SputnikWorld's most powerful thermonuclear bomb - up to 100 megatons, on display in the Russian Federal Nuclear Center.
Any steps aimed at reducing the quantity of nuclear warheads and their carriers must be taken in conjunction with global nuclear disarmament under strict international control, deputy Russian foreign minister has said.

Moscow considers that it is too early to start the process of universal nuclear disarmament and urges maximum sobriety and realism in approaching the issue, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Thursday as he spoke at the conference dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the NPT.
"We call upon everyone to approach the task of nuclear disarmament with sobriety and realism. Any movement in direction of nuclear disarmament must be weighed and divided into stages," the Russian diplomat said.

"The stop to nuclear weapons production, the destruction of its existing reserves and exclusion of nuclear weapons and means of their delivery from national arsenals by definition cannot be organized separately from sealing a treaty on universal and full disarmament under strict and effective international control," Ryabkov noted.
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Star of David

Israel's three Gaza options

Adnan Abu Amer
Aljazeera
Wed, 13 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
Tear gas Palestinian
© ReutersTear gas attack, Gaza
Israel might either reoccupy Gaza, launch another massive military assault or lift the siege.

When Palestinians launched the Great March of Return on March 30, Israel sensed an opportunity for confrontation. It started sniping down one unarmed protester after the other while blasting propaganda about how these Palestinians constituted a "threat" to its security and how it had the "right to defend itself".

To date, Israeli soldiers have killed more than 120 peaceful Palestinian protesters. But the Israelis did not stop there.

As international public opinion swung dangerously against them, the Israeli occupation forces began to respond to the peaceful demonstrations by targeting armed resistance groups in Gaza, bombing their training grounds, arms storage, tunnels and logistics capabilities, as well as assassinating several of their members.

The Israeli army had no justification for these attacks; it simply wanted to enforce a new reality on the ground: That peaceful resistance would be met with brute force and any escalation would be followed by a broader military assault.

Comment: Israel didn't just 'sense' an opportunity, it planned and executed it, leaving over 120 dead Palestinians and hundreds of injured men, women and children, reporters, and humanitarians in its wake. It's nice this author thinks Israel has three options, and oops, a couple of them are not so beneficial. Palestinians, on the other hand, have no options except to die in mass to draw attention to their plight. In the broader context, Israel's 'hate on' for Iran might just solve the whole Palestinian issue permanently in an unfortunate, but timely crossfire if properly orchestrated. That would be 'option four'.

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Snakes in Suits

Erdogan wants 'joint production' of S-500 with Russia, while S-400 is still being delivered


RT
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 22:44 UTC
Inflatable decoy S-300
© Grigoriy Sisoyev / SputnikInflatable S-300 decoy
Turkey has proposed that it co-produce Russia's next-generation S-500 air systems, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. It comes as Washington is trying to dissuade Ankara - and prospective buyer Riyadh - from acquiring the S-400.
"Russia provided us with a loan for the S-400 systems on very reasonable terms. We will get to joint production during the second and third stages [of the contract implementation]. I've also proposed that Russia produce the S-500 jointly," Erdogan said on Wednesday.
While Russian officials have neither confirmed nor denied plans for joint production of the S-400 systems, Russia's president did not rule out such a possibility. "We don't have any military or political concerns over it, there are no limitations," Vladimir Putin said in April, stressing that the possible joint productions were not a political, but a "purely business issue."

The joint production of the next-generation S-500 system, however, appears to be more of a longer-term possibility, as it is still under development. It remains unclear when its production even in Russia might actually start. Putin revealed that the ambitious system will be able to strike targets at "extremely high altitudes, including low orbit," and the reported completion date is 2019-2020.

Comment: Putin said: "...the possible joint productions were not a political, but a "purely business issue." If there is a cooperative venture between Turkey and Russia to build the S-500 series, it becomes more than a purely business issue. A valued partnership and lucrative return on investment places a different emphasis on how countries engage and to what degree they are willing or not willing to sever ties for political obstacles.

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Gold Seal

Best of the Web: The war-loving Deep State is Trump's biggest obstacle to peace on the Korean peninsula

Finian Cunningham
RT
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 19:05 UTC
Apache helicopters
© Kim Hong-Ji / ReutersUS Army's AH-64 Apache helicopters fire during a US-South Korea joint live-fire military exercise, South Korea, April 21, 2017
President Donald Trump appeared to blindside everyone this week when he announced he was cancelling "war games" on the Korean Peninsula as a gesture of peaceful intent towards North Korea.

If Trump stands by that commitment then it will be key to a successful resolution of the decades-old conflict, with the specific result of North Korea fulfilling its vow to scrap nuclear weapons.

Significantly, following his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Trump referred to the annual joint military exercises between US and South Korean forces as "provocative" and "inappropriate" in the new context of peaceful exchange.

Until recently, the Trump administration - like previous US administrations - had refused to consider a reciprocal move over suspending its war maneuvers on the Korean Peninsula in return for North Korea's nuclear disarmament.
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Bad Guys

Congress wants to bind Trump's hands on troop removal from Korean peninsula

Frank Sellers
The Duran
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 18:43 UTC
USA eagle
When the President wants to wage a war somewhere, he just does it, and no one bats an eye. But for the first time in a very long time, as opposed to escalating tensions, invading, and bombing somewhere, a US president is proposing to deescalate a situation and establish peace somewhere.

That's a major thing in and of itself. But that's not alright in the minds of US congressmen, who are concerned that a peace arrangement might be brokered with North Korea if Trump withdraws American troops from the Korean peninsula.

Due to this worry, predicated on the reality that they simply don't trust Trump at his word, quite openly, they are drafting up some legislation, in both houses, that would bind the president's hands in order to prevent any meaningful reduction or removal of US military presence in Korea.
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Light Sabers

Trade War: Trump puts 25% tariff on $50bln worth of Chinese imports, Beijing responds in kind


RT
Fri, 15 Jun 2018 19:00 UTC
port tariffs
© Getty Images
The White House has announced a 25-percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods in what it calls a clampdown on unfair trade practices by Beijing.

The US trade representative's office said it issued a revised China tariff list covering 1,102 separate product categories. The first package of revised tariffs will apply to $34 billion of Chinese imports, on 818 product lines, and will enter into effect from July 6. The second package will target the remaining $16 billion of Chinese goods, on 284 product lines.

Since his presidential election campaign, US President Donald Trump has pledged to cut the trade deficit between the US and China and to curb Beijing's allegedly unfair trade practices. Trump has also accused China of stealing US technology and intellectual property.

Comment: China's immediate response was to impose tariffs on "US agricultural products, fish and automobiles worth some $34 billion worth of US goods, with another $16 billion worth of products subject to the 25 percent duty at a later date", Xinhua reported.

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