Puppet MastersS


Light Sabers

US slaps 25% steel tariff on EU, Canada and Mexico - Brussels vows retaliation


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 16:00 UTC
steel factory
© Philippe Huguen / AFP
Unable to win concessions from from its trading partners ahead of the Friday deadline, the US has introduced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

The new 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico come into force at midnight (04:00 GMT, Friday), according to US Commerce Secretary Ross.

"We look forward to continued negotiations, both with Canada and Mexico on the one hand, and with the European Commission on the other hand, because there are other issues that we also need to get resolved," Ross told the reporters in a telephone briefing on Thursday. Ross offered little detail about what the enumerated states could do to have the tariffs lifted.

Earlier this week, Ross met with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and in Paris to discuss the issue as Brussels had been cherishing the hope for positive outcome with no tariffs or quotas.
Read More...
Yoda

The immense accomplishments of Putin in the Middle East cannot be ignored

Robert Fisk
Counterpunch
Thu, 31 May 2018 15:29 UTC
russia flags
The Islamist-friendly Robert Fisk is no fan of Putin but even he recognizes the "Kremlin cynic", as he calls him, did something absolutely extraordinary in Syria. He put an end to the western regime change war and arrested the Russian retreat from the Mediterranean all the while managing to remaining friends with all the interested regional powers (Israel, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia) all of whom seek his favor

Vladimir Putin will have paid very close attention to the location of the Syrian artillery battery where four Russian soldiers lost their lives at the weekend. The desert around Deir ez-Zour remains a dangerous place - politically as well as physically - in which the Americans and Russians play an extremely risky game of war.

Putin still suspects the Americans helped the artillery guidance of a mortar battery which killed the commander of the Russian Far East 5th Army in Deir ez-Zour, lieutenant general Valery Asapov, less than a year ago. Was the mortar fired by pro-American Kurdish fighters? Or by Isis? The Russians say that Isis mobile attackers stormed the Syrian artillery position this weekend at night - the Islamists' normal routine, streaming out of the desert wadis in suicide trucks and motorcycles - even though the little Syrian forts, hillocks of sand and cement strewn across the vast sand plateaus, are supposed to be invulnerable.

So now the Russians are directing artillery. First they were the air component to the Syrian army, their forward air observers on the ground with Syrian troops directing the Sukhois onto Assad's enemies. Then the Russians were the de-miners of Palmyra and Deir ez-Zour, Homs and Aleppo. Then the Russian military police escorted the beaten jihadists to the wastelands of Idlib province or the Turkish border. The Russians liaise between the Syrians and the pro-American Kurds on the Euphrates River.

Comment: The door was opened before Trump: Putin flipped the 'war on terror' on the West when Russia intervened in Syria in 2015.

Even though Fisk instinctively dislikes Putin, his 'analysis' as a 'geopolitical expert' - two terms he apparently frowns upon - brings him to the same viewpoint as those who support Putin.

To extend his final analogy: children can choose to whine or delight in Daddy taking charge, but things are as they are, and people are where they are at.

Read More...
Light Sabers

EU-US trade war could intensify as sources claim Trump wants German cars out of the US


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 15:25 UTC
trump limo
© Kevin Dietsch / Global Look Press
German carmakers may be pushed out of the United States as President Donald Trump wants to stop them from cruising America's highways, according to German magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

It cited several unnamed European and US diplomats claiming that Trump told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in April he would stick to his trade policy for long enough until no Mercedes-Benz models were rolling down New York's Fifth Avenue.

The Trump administration has opened a trade investigation into whether vehicle imports have damaged the US auto industry. Within the EU, Germany is the biggest exporter of cars to the United States. German carmakers control 90 percent of the US premium auto market. BMW owns the Rolls-Royce and BMW brands. Daimler has Mercedes-Benz while Volkswagen controls Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche and Audi.
Read More...
Star of David

Zionist cruelty: Israeli intelligence minister calls to end fuel, water supply to Gaza

Stuart Winer
The Times of Israel
Wed, 30 May 2018 14:23 UTC
Yisrael Israel Katz
© Tomer Neuberg/Flash90Transport and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz speaks at the Israel Aviation Conference at Airport City, on May 2, 2018.


Yisrael Katz says Israel should correct 'anomalous' responsibility for Palestinian enclave and sever all ties

A senior minister on Wednesday said Israel should rid itself of responsibility for the Gaza Strip by cutting all of its ties to the Palestinian enclave, including ending water and electricity supplies.

Intelligence Minister Israel Katz spoke to the Hebrew-language Walla news website several hours into a period of calm on Wednesday after Palestinian terrorists fired over 100 rockets and mortars at towns and cities in southern Israel since early Tuesday. The IDF responded with dozens of airstrikes on Hamas military targets.

"The time has come to change the rules of the game. I support the idea of separation from Gaza," said Katz, who is also transportation minister. "There is no compromise and no concession, we will not allow harm to our citizens and not a trickle [of rockets]. I estimate that soon that matter will be decided."

Comment: Gaza is effectively the largest open-air prison in the world. Nothing comes in or out without Israel's approval, so Gazans cannot engage in normal economic activities or commerce like any other country. Nor can they rely on their own infrastructure because Israel bombs it regularly. Effectively, they are under siege. So if Israel cuts out whatever fuel, water or goods it allows into Gaza, the worsening of the humanitarian catastrophe that will follow will be entirely their responsibility, contrary to Mr Katz's declarations. Once again, an Israeli official has spoken as a psychopath.

More on this topic:

Read More...
Eagle

US Commander in Afghanistan: Some Taliban interested in peace talks


RFE/RL
Wed, 30 May 2018 13:29 UTC
Army General John Nicholson
© Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)Army General John Nicholson
The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan says some elements of the Taliban are showing interest in peace talks.

U.S. Army General John Nicholson made the remarks on May 30, citing "offstage" contacts involving what he described as mid- and high-level Taliban leaders.

"A number of channels of dialogue have opened up between the various stakeholders in the peace process," Nicholson said.

Nicholson said he could not provide the names of specific Taliban members because the contacts are being pursued confidentially to improve the chances of advancing to actual peace talks.

"What you're seeing right now is a lot of the diplomatic activity and dialogue is occurring off the stage, and it's occurring at multiple levels," Nicholson said.

"You see mid-level, senior-level Taliban leaders engaging with Afghans," he said, adding that unspecified international organizations, foreign governments, and other interested parties also are involved.

Comment: This comes along with rumors that Nicholson is soon to be replaced by Army Lieutenant General Scott Miller. Is Nicholson's statement preparing the ground for a change in focus by Miller? Or is Nicholson just engaging in a little bit of last-minute truth-telling? We'll see. But the Taliban has expressed willingness to negotiate for years. The U.S. hasn't been interested. Trump took office advocating for withdrawal from Afghanistan - but reversed his position and led a more aggressive war with Nicholson at the helm. So Trump has the chance now of saying, "We tried, it didn't work, now I'm going to fulfill my campaign promise." Again, we'll see.

Read More...
Quenelle

Russia's Upper House exposes election meddling by US - and they actually have evidence


RT
Thu, 31 May 2018 12:19 UTC
Russia US flags
© Global Look Press
A special commission report on foreign meddling in the 2018 presidential election has been unveiled in Russia's Upper House. The document highlighted the main methods of the elaborate campaign, spearheaded by the US.

The report, presented on Wednesday in Russia's Upper House (the Senate), was prepared by the Commission for State Sovereignty Protection in cooperation with leading experts and analysts. The publicly available document was presented by the head of the commission, Senator Andrey Klimov.

The document pinned the blame for the meddling in Russia's election directly on Washington, linking the ongoing surge in hostile activities with the domestic political struggle in the US. Attempts to interfere in internal Russian affairs, however, are not new, as they have been going on since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Read More...
Megaphone

US protests Syria's turn at presidency of international disarmament conference

Frank Sellers
The Duran
Wed, 30 May 2018 06:09 UTC
nikki haley
Formed in 1979, the Conference on Disarmament is a multilateral disarmament forum established by the international community which rotates its presidency according to the alphabetical order of countries' English names every four weeks.

Now, it's Syria's turn to take a whack at the Presidency of the international forum.

The Americans, still sticking to the chemical weapons attack in Douma narrative, despite the overwhelming evidence that there was no chemical weapons attack in Douma, much less a CW attack carried out by the Assad regime, and which conducted a missile strike on Damascus and surrounding areas, to negligible effect, is walking out and speaking out in protest of Syria's turn at the forum's presidency.

The US is widely known to have employed depleted uranium munitions in its Iraq war, which war has led to the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis. Either the bad guys had a military of 1 million strong, or else lots of innocent people prematurely met their maker because America needed to make them more free and to find those WMDs Saddam happened to be hiding somewhere.

Syria is 'audacious' for taking up its role in the international conference, according to the Americans, who are 'outraged' at Syria's alleged malign activities, apparently for daring to attempt to purge its nation of destabilizing and murderous forces, preserve its territorial integrity and that of its government.

Comment: Their hypocrisy knows no bounds. If there are any 'regimes' to be outraged with it would be the US and Israel, with their long history of disregard for human life, armament of terrorists groups and violations international conventions.

Read More...
Megaphone

US meddled in Venezuelan elections, says Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza

Frank Sellers
The Duran
Tue, 29 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Election meddling is fine when America does it, just don't do it to them
Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza
Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza
Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, talked about how the US embassy and American diplomats meddled in Venezuela's elections, calling for the opposition to boycott the elections in a bid to undermine its legitimacy, in a recent interview with Deutsche Welle.

Western media, in attempts to parrot the illegitimacy claims, have often pointed to the boycotts that much of the opposition carried out.

But if we take Arreaza at his word, then it would seem to appear that these boycotts were an attempt by Western diplomats to meddle in the elections of Venezuela.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Propaganda

Friendly relations with Russia and anti-austerity: Why the West is interfering in Italy's democracy

Finian Cunningham
Sputnik
Thu, 31 May 2018 17:43 UTC
eu italy democracy
© AFP 2018 / Vincenzo PINTO
Italy's political turmoil tends to prove the wry old saying that "if voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal".

The country is facing a mounting constitutional crisis amid calls for the president to be impeached after he blocked the formation of a new government.

The crisis seems to be mainly about a clash over financial policy and a populist challenge to European Union economic austerity, according to to the Financial Times.

But lurking too is a concern among the EU establishment in Brussels that a new populist Italian government is proposing to radically restore friendly relations with Russia. That concern is no doubt shared by Washington and NATO.


Comment: Italy's leading political parties condemn government's expulsion of Russian diplomats, advocate for better relationship with Russia


Comment: While Italy is certainly in the spotlight right now, much of Europe is voicing its disdain for the centralised and corrupt authority of the EU and the deleterious relationship with the US: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Atlantic Trade War? How Trump Breaking Iran Deal Could Dismantle US Empire

Read More...
Chess

What Sanctions? Ignoring EU warning, President Radev pleads in Moscow for 'Bulgarian Stream' pipeline

Georgi Gotev
EURACTIV
Tue, 22 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Medvedev - Rumen Radev
© Press service of the Bulgarian PresidentRussian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev [R] and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev in Moscow on 21 May 2018.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev used the first day of an official trip to Moscow on Monday (21 May) to try and resurrect plans for a pipeline that would bring gas directly from Russia to Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, after it was cancelled in 2014.

Radev was initially received yesterday by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ahead of a meeting with Vladimir Putin today.

Radev, a former pilot of Russian MIG 29 jet fighters who is fluent in Russian and English, insists that as a NATO general his loyalty is with Bulgaria's allies, but he also says he is in favour of dialogue with Russia.

Medvedev was quoted as saying that Russia is expecting Prime Minister Boyko Borissov to visit Russia soon and expressed hope that the intensity of official Russian-Bulgarian contacts will grow.

Comment: See also:

Read More...