Puppet MastersS


Attention

Trump speaks with China's Xi and agrees to uphold 'One China' policy

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump
© Reuters
In a phone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, US President Donald Trump has vowed to honor Beijing's "One China" policy, the White House said. The two leaders exchanged state visit invitations in a sign of improving ties.

"President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our 'one China' policy," the White House statement said, following a lengthy conversation between Trump and Xi.

"They also extended invitations to meet in their respective countries. President Trump and President Xi look forward to further talks with very successful outcomes," the White House said. Without providing further details, the statement spoke of "discussions and negotiations on various issues of mutual interest" that the two plan to undertake.

Comment: Timeline of Trump's stance on the "One China" policy courtesy of Reuters.
  • Dec 2 - Trump speaks by phone with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, a move that is likely to infuriate China, which considers the self-ruled island its own, and complicate U.S. relations with Beijing. China lodges swift protest, blaming Taiwan for the petty move.
  • Dec 11 - Trump says the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one China," questioning nearly four decades of U.S. policy.
  • Dec 12 - China expresses "serious concern" after Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-held stance that Taiwan is part of "one China".
  • Dec 14 - In a veiled warning to Trump, China's ambassador to the United States says Beijing will never bargain with Washington over issues involving its national sovereignty or territorial integrity.
  • Jan 11 - Taiwan scrambles jets and navy ships after a group of Chinese warships, led by its sole aircraft carrier, sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the latest sign of heightened tension between Beijing and the island.
  • Jan 12 - Trump's then nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, says China should be denied access to islands it has built in the contested South China Sea, describing the placing of military assets there as "akin to Russia's taking Crimea" from Ukraine.
  • Feb 3 - China's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, tells Michael Flynn, Trump's National Security Advisor, that China hopes it can work with the United States to manage and control disputes and sensitive problems.
  • Feb 9 - Trump breaks the ice with Xi in a letter that says he looks forward to working with him to develop relations.
  • Feb 9 - Trump changes tack and agrees to honor the "one China" policy during a phone call with Xi.





Eye 1

Trump's wrong: US ally Saudi Arabia, not Iran is the world's 'number one terrorist state'

arabia saudita=ISIS
© independent.co.uk
Donald Trump is proving himself a President prone to unleashing inconvenient truths side by side blatant falsehoods. One of the most scurrilous of those falsehoods is his recent claim that Iran is the "number one terrorist state."

Throughout his campaign for the White House in 2016, and since assuming office in January, Trump has made Iran the focus of his ire, to the point where the Iranians are more than justified in preparing for the very real prospect of military confrontation with the US - and sooner rather than later.

The Trump administration's consistent and ongoing demonization of Iran flies in the face of reality in which Iran has stood, alongside Syria, Russia, the Kurds, and the Iranian-backed Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, as a pillar against the very same Salafi-jihadist terrorism that poses a threat to the American people. It is a struggle in which the Iranians have expended both resources and blood in recent years, and as such justice demands that the world, including the United States, acknowledges that it owes Tehran a debt of gratitude.

Comment: Further reading:


Sherlock

Fmr Uruguayan President: Middle classes 'frustrated' by elite but nationalism has consequences

José Mujica
José Mujica
The international community is currently facing big changes. US protectionist policy and China's desire for a dominant role in global trade gradually lead to a new geopolitical order.

In an exclusive interview with Sputnik Mundo, former president of Uruguay José Mujica commented on the issue.

"Sometimes, reality surpasses our imagination. Nevertheless, I believe that nothing happens by chance," Mujica told Sputnik, commenting on the new political situation in which Washington seeks to introduce trade berries, while Beijing, on the contrary, stands for the protection of open markets.

Comment: José Mujica is the president who gave away 90% of his salary to charity, and who urged politicians to 'live like the majority instead of the minority':
"I'm not against people who have money, who like money, who go crazy for money," Mujica said. "But in politics we have to separate them. We have to run people who love money too much out of politics, they're a danger in politics... People who love money should dedicate themselves to industry, to commerce, to multiply wealth. But politics is the struggle for the happiness of all."

Asked why rich people make bad representatives of poor people, Mujica said: "They tend to view the world through their perspective, which is the perspective of money. Even when operating with good intentions, the perspective they have of the world, of life, of their decisions, is informed by wealth. If we live in a world where the majority is supposed to govern, we have to try to root our perspective in that of the majority, not the minority."



Calculator

Cutting out the middleman: Japanese banks replacing SWIFT with China's CIPS payment system for inter-bank settlements

china money
"We takes the money, Amerika."
Ever since China began duplicating Western financial institutions in 2013, more and more nations have been matriculating towards the East, and away from dollar hegemony. And one of the most important of these new infrastructures is the Chinese CIPS platforms which functions for the RMB, the same way SWIFT does for the dollar.

Yet unlike the way SWIFT charges for swaps when nations have to use the dollar as a middleman since it still reigns as the world's singular reserve currency, CIPS allows for much lower transaction fees and the convenience of bypassing the U.S. currency through direct bi-lateral currency settlement.

Bizarro Earth

Palestinian leaders: Israel's new land-grab law effectively kills any possibility for a two-state solution

Palestinian land.
© Emil Salman The separation barrier near the Palestinian town Anata, near East Jerusalem.
PLO leader Saeb Erekat says 'Israeli settlement enterprise negates peace and the possibility of the two-state solution' after Knesset passes contentious bill retroactively legalizing expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land.

Palestinian officials decried the contentious bill passed by Israel's Knesset on Monday that would retroactively legalize the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land, saying it could kill the chances to reach a peace deal along the lines of a two-state solution.

"While thousands of Palestinians in besieged Gaza are being terrorized by Israeli bombardments, the Israeli parliament has just approved a law to legalize theft of Palestinian land. Looting is illegal," Dr. Saeb Erekat said, adding that "the Israeli settlement enterprise negates peace and the possibility of the two-state solution."

Attention

Top US general calls for 'a few thousand' more troops, blames Russia for Taliban resurgence

US troops on jet
© Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters
After 15 years, much bloodshed and hundreds of billions of dollars spent, the US should re-escalate its troop level in Afghanistan, a top US military commander says, to properly train Afghan troops amid ongoing advances of insurgent fighters.

Calling the situation in Afghanistan a "stalemate," Army General John Nicholson told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that while he has enough troops for counterrterrorism operations against the likes of the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Islamic State fighters, he would like several thousand more in order to boost capabilities of Afghan security forces. Nicholson said any troop injections could come from the US military or NATO nations.

"I have adequate resources in my counterterrorism mission," Nicholson said Thursday, according to reports. "In my train, advise and assist mission, however, we have a shortfall of a few thousand. This is in the NATO train, advise and assist mission, so it can come from America or its allies."

Jet5

Russia's Syrian military bases: Breaking the U.S.'s grip on the Middle East for the first time

khmeimim syria base
As a result of the Syrian war Russia is building a base complex in Syria which for the first time rivals that of the US in the eastern Mediterranean.


A reason frequently given by Western commentators for Russia's support for President Assad is Russia's supposed wish to protect its naval base in Tartus in Syria. Some commentators have suggested conversely that one of the reasons for the whole Syrian war was to drive the Russians out of Syria.

In my opinion neither of these claims is true, but there is no doubt that one consequence of the war is that it has hugely increased the scale of Russia's military presence in Syria beyond anything conceivable in 2011 when the Syrian conflict started.

Russia now operates two large bases in Syria which are definitely known about, and a third one whose existence is sometimes alluded to but which has never been publicly confirmed.

Jet3

Moscow wonders 'what's the big deal?' after UK scrambles jets over Russian bombers' routine flight

Russian Tu-160 bomber
© Sputnik
Two Tu-160 strategic bombers were monitored by British jets in neutral waters on Thursday, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman has confirmed, saying he was surprised that such attention was paid to a routine flight.

"We can confirm that quick reaction alert Typhoon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Coningsby scrambled to monitor two Blackjack (Tu-160) bombers, while they were in the UK area of interest," a Royal Air Force (RAF) spokesman said in a statement.

The strategic bombers were followed by RAF as they arrived from northeast of Britain and passed to the west of Ireland, over the Bay of Biscay and then turned back to Russian territory, Sky News reported.

Snakes in Suits

Half of Australia Post's $36 million profit last year went to just six executives

Australia Post managing director and Group CEO, Ahmed Fahour.
© Australia PostAustralia Post managing director and Group CEO, Ahmed Fahour.
Australia Post made a $36 million profit last financial year, but its top six executives, including managing director and group CEO Ahmed Fahour, banked nearly half that amount, around $17.4 million in combined salaries, bonuses and retirement benefits last year.

Fahour's $4.4 million salary was topped up by $1.2 million bonus in 2015-16, while another five executives were on annual pay packets between $1.3 million to $1.8 million.

Another $368,000 was paid last year in retirement benefit to the former chief operating officer, taking the total benefits to senior executives to $17.863 million.

Info

Lavrov confirms Moscow mediating talks between Assad and Syrian Kurds

Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed that Moscow has been mediating talks between Damascus and the Syrian Kurds to help maintain Syria's sovereignty and statehood, in an interview with Russia's Izvestia daily.

Russia "makes efforts to establish a common understanding between the Syrian government and the Syrian Kurds for the sake of a united Syria," the minister told Izvestia in an interview he gave ahead of Diplomat's Day, a Russian holiday celebrated on February 10.

Lavrov went on to say that four rounds of negotiations, brokered by Russia and including direct contact between the Damascus delegation and "representatives of the political and public structures of the Syrian Kurds," had already taken place between June and December in 2016. In addition, the gatherings also involved indirect talks between the two sides.