• Russia buys 300,000 ounces of gold in March and nears 2,000t in gold reserves
• Russia now holds just over 1,861 tonnes, more than officially reported by China at 1,842t
• Both Russia and China have the power to destabilise US dollar by dumping dollar-denominated assets
• Turkey has removed all gold held in the U.S. opting for Bank of England and BIS
• Turkey follows trend set by both Germany, Netherlands and others to remove gold reserves stored in the United States
• Central bank decisions regarding gold reserves are examples of countries becoming nervous about the outlook for the dollar under the Trump administration

Russia bought another 300,000 troy ounces of gold in March bringing Russia's total gold reserves to 1,861 tonnes or 60.8 million troy ounces as of the start of April, the central bank announced loudly at the weekend.

The continuing robust and steady accumulation of gold reserves continues and it was notable how Russian media channels loudly (more loudly than usual it seemed with many outlets covering) pronounced the continuing diversification into gold bullion by the Russian central bank. It suggests that gold is being used as a bulwark to protect Russia from the stealth financial, trade and currency wars which appear to be deepening.

Russia is not the only country diversifying into gold and many other countries are doing so as they seek to protect themselves from the coming devaluation of the US dollar and U.S. dollar hegemony. This is evidenced both by gold purchases and also in many strategic decisions regarding the storage of national gold reserves.

One unexploded Tomahawk cruise missile and one high accuracy air-launched missile launched by the US and its allies on Syria on April 14 have been brought to Moscow, the chief of the Russian General Staff's main operations directorate Colonel-General Sergey Rudskoy said during a press briefing on April 25.

"Some of the missiles failed to reach the designated targets apparently due to technical failures, which created the risk of destroying civilian facilities and causing civilian casualties. Two of them, a cruise missile Tomahawk and a high-accuracy air-launched missile, have been brought to Moscow. You can see the Tomahawk's warhead in this slide," Colonel-General Rudskoy said.

The colonel-general added that Russian specialists are studying them.

"The results of this work will be used to improve Russian weapon systems," Rudskoy said.

So much for an abrupt U.S. pullout from Syria.

One month ago President Donald Trump surprised many, including some in his own administration, by announcing, "We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now." He insisted that the time had come for the U.S. military to shift its focus away from Syria.

But on Tuesday, it was clear that something or someone had changed Trump's mind.

The president said at a White House news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at his side that before the U.S. withdraws from Syria, "we want to leave a strong and lasting footprint." This long-term approach, he added, was "a very big part" of his conversation with Macron, who told reporters that he and Trump now agree that the Syria problem involves more than Trump's priority of ridding the country of Islamic State extremists.

The two leaders indicated that they see Syria as part of a broader problem of instability in the Middle East, which includes Iran's role in Syria and Iraq.

That kind of strategic thinking bears little resemblance to Trump's words in late March when he said it was time to leave Syria to others.

Washington is not planning to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal, but simply wants to expand its scope, a top US official has said. Tehran has blasted US efforts to alter the accord, warning that it's "either all or nothing."

The uncertain future of the 2015 nuclear deal has made headlines this week, as French President Emmanuel Macron lobbied US President Donald Trump not to abandon the agreement during his visit to Washington.

Asked whether the French president's efforts had been successful, Assistant Secretary for International Security Christopher Ford told Reuters: "I hope the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action; colloquially known as the 'Iran nuclear deal'] has been saved in the context of the challenge that President Trump set for us, of trying to remain within the deal but in the context of moving forward with our partners on an approach that stands a pretty good chance of turning what was in effect a temporary postponement ... into a more enduring answer."

All the handshakes, hugs and smooching between Trump and Macron this week made for cringing viewing. Not because two males were being cordial and affectionate.

No, the embarrassment stems from the French leader being such a pathetic poodle to the White House bully.

The "dandruff moment" was perhaps the most revealing. At one point in the Oval Office, the American president interrupted himself mid-sentence to lean over to his French counterpart and he began grooming his collar, saying he was removing "dandruff". Macron seemed unfazed and continued smiling.

Hannah Arendt noted that insanity is a prerequisite to imposing totalitarian rule

Thank God for Twitter. Were it not for the social media giant's decision to suspend Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich's account, his tweet clamoring for Palestinian teen provocatrice Ahed Tamimi to be shot - preferably in the knees - might have gone virtually unnoticed. The total lack of political reaction to an Israeli legislator's call for Israel Defense Forces soldiers to commit what is essentially a war crime was not only shameful: It provided yet another sign - one of many - of the accelerating spread of lunacy in Israel's public domain.

For what was the hysterical Israeli reaction to Natalie Portman's decision to boycott the Genesis Prize ceremony if not a manifestation of mass madness? Inside their cocoon, Israelis may view Likud MK Oren Hazan's call to strip Portman of her Israeli citizenship as par for the course. They can dismiss Homeland Security Minister Gilad Erdan's inclusion of a "Star Wars" analogy in his written protest to Portman as harmless if somewhat juvenile humor. And they may be indifferent to Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz's outrageous assertion that Portman's decision "borders on anti-Semitism."

Trump pulled the trigger, but instead of a "bang!" what the world heard was a demure "click". Considering that we are talking about playing a most dangerous game of potentially nuclear Russian AngloZionist roulette, the "click" is very good news indeed. But, to use the words of Nikki Haley, the US "gun" is still "locked and loaded".

There are a number of versions out there about what really happened, but I think that the most likely explanation for that "click" is a combination of two events:

1. The US did go out of its way to avoid even giving the appearance of attacking the Russian or Iranian forces in Syria. With these kinds of rules of engagement, the target list and flight trajectory of the US missiles was easy to predict for the Syrian air defenses.
2. The Syrian air defenses, now integrated with the Russian C4ISR networks and probably upgraded, performed way better than most people had expected.

The source's above statement and reporting by Israel's Channel 10 confirms that al Batsh was also killed by the Mossad.

Yesterday, Israel's Mossad assassinated Fadi al Batsh (English language report), a Palestinian Senior Lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Section, British Malaysian Institute, University of Kuala Lumpur (UniKL). He was originally from Gaza and earned his PhD in 2009 at the same institution. His school bio describes research interests:

He is the author and co-author of more than 25 publications in an international journals and proceedings in the area of Power Systems and Power Electronics. His research interests include FACTS devices, power converters, power quality, microgrid and renewable energy.

Israeli media are calling him an "engineer" which is Israeli security- speak for a weapons maker. In actuality, he was professor at a major Malaysian university.

They also escalate ongoing conflicts - incidents staged to deceive, one party falsely accused of something conducted by someone else.

They're a longstanding US tradition since at least the mid-19th century.

The mother of all 9/11 false flags launched one imperial war after another, pretexts to rape and destroy nations, no end of what's going on in sight.

Most Americans are none the wiser or indifferent about the highest of high crimes committed by their government - Republicans and undemocratic Dems pursuing the same imperial agenda.

It recklessly risks eventual nuclear war, the ultimate doomsday scenario.

It's possible and perhaps likely. JFK assassination documents declassified in 2016 (released last year) included a three-page memo initially marked "top secret."

Behind all the cuddles and bisoux for the cameras, what was French boy-president Macron's grande visite to the US of A all about? What the US and France can do to retain Western dominance of the Middle East, of course!

Trump is warning Iran not to "restart its nuclear program" while (again) yammering on about the 2015 JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) multinational agreement on Iranian nuclear development being "an insane, terrible deal that should have never been made."

Europe's very own 'stable genius' meanwhile spoke out of both sides of his mouth in an attempt to tame Trump's tantrum while not aggravating the Iranians, telling US officials the Iran deal can be "revisited" but should not be torn up. Iranian president Rouhani is meanwhile warning both of them about "grave consequences" if the 2015 deal is torpedoed.

What does all this bluff-and-bluster mean? And what is Trump's beef with the JCPOA anyway? Needless to say, it has almost nothing to do with the 'proliferation of nuclear weapons'...