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Crude prices surge as Russia and Saudi Arabia agree to extend supply cuts, stabilize oil market


RT
Mon, 15 May 2017 15:37 UTC
Saudi Russian oil supply cuts may 2017
© Aly Song / Reuters Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih (L) and Russia's Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak attend a joint briefing in Beijing, China May 15, 2017.
Oil prices jumped over two percent on Monday, as the world's two largest producers announced the crude production cut would be extended from the middle of this year until March 2018.

North Sea Brent crude gained $1.25 or 2.46 percent to $52.06 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate was up by $1.21 or 2.53 percent to $49.05.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih and his Russian counterpart Aleksandr Novak met on Monday in Beijing to announce crude supplies would be cut at least until March next year.

"We've come to the conclusion that the agreement needs to be extended," the statement said.

"The two ministers agreed to do whatever it takes to achieve the desired goal of stabilizing the market and reducing commercial oil inventories to their 5-year average level," it added.

Comment: See also: Crude oil rises on falling US stockpiles, Saudi cuts to Asia

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Colosseum

EU breakup? 'Mr. Europe' Emmanuel Macron may yet bring it about

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 15 May 2017 15:22 UTC
EU breakup european Union flag
Marine Le Pen wanted to restructure Europe on a democratic and sovereigntist basis. The current French President may have something even more earth shaking in mind.

In the recent French election, it was received wisdom, based largely on the statements from the candidates themselves, that a vote for Marine Le Pen was a vote for Euroscepticism, some even went so far as to say that Le Pen wanted to break-up the EU.

Emmanuel Macron by contrast was painted as 'Mr. Europe', the man who wanted to preserve the status quo with gusto.

However, in preserving the status quo at a time when much of Europe is tending to favour a looser more confederate Europe, the kind about which Marine Le Pen spoke, one is witnessing the odd irony, that Macron may do more to break-up the EU as it is currently comprised, than Le Pen would have even attempted to do.

Comment: The demise of the EU, coming about through Macron or any other visible element, will not be an accident. It has been a stage and a laboratory for the globalists in their quest for one-world governance.

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Network

APT32 group cyberattacks on foreign companies is allegedly aligned with Vietnamese government


Sputnik
Mon, 15 May 2017 15:26 UTC
computer hacker graphic
© REUTERS/ Kacper Pempel/Illustration
A group of hackers allegedly linked to the Vietnamese government have targeted transnational companies, foreign governments, journalists and others in a cyberattack, the motive behind which was espionage, US cybersecurity company FireEye said in a report.

"Based on incident response investigations, product detections, and intelligence observations along with additional publications on the same operators, FireEye assesses that APT32 is a cyber-espionage group aligned with Vietnamese government interests. The targeting of private sector interests by APT32 is notable and FireEye believes the actor poses significant risk to companies doing business in, or preparing to invest in, the country," the report, published on Monday, reads.

According to the report, Vietnamese, US, Philippine and European companies fell victim to the attacks by the so-called APT32 group (also known as the OceanLotus Group) from 2014 to 2017.
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Info

Turkey still contemplating military base in Syria near former ISIS stronghold al-Bab


RT
Mon, 15 May 2017 15:19 UTC
Turkish soldiers
© Murad Sezer / Reuters
The Turkish military are considering establishing a base near the Syrian city of al-Bab, which was the focus of Turkey's cross-border operation against terrorist group Islamic State, says Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak.

The location of the base currently being considered by the Turkish General Staff is Aqil Hill, west of al-Bab, the official told Hürriyet Daily News. The Turkish military established a temporary base at the strategic site after capturing it in February and has been considering turning it into something more permanent since.
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Pocket Knife

Glimmer of sanity? Mattis to NATO: 'Problems we have with Russia will be solved by diplomats and no other way'

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Mon, 15 May 2017 00:00 UTC
Mattis Nato
Bad news for NATO warmongers?

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and discussed NATO's "democracy spreading wars" and of course "Russian aggression" with Russian President Putin's fantasy plan to take over the tiny NATO Baltic nations, that no one wants or cares about.

Jim Mattis did note...
"In terms of our commitment to defense, year 2014 was an eye opener for all of us I think. And we now confront concerns from the East and threats from the South . And we're going to have to stand visible, but also indivisible as we deal with these issues. I'm on my way from here, sir, to Lithuania where I'll observe the NATO troops together under the German framework nation there, as we make very clear that these problems we have between us and Russia will be solved by diplomats and no other way."

Comment: Overheard this morning at a Deep State intelligence office somewhere in the recesses of Washington DC:

"Has Mattis gone crazy? Didn't he get the memo!? Russians are the source of all evil today!!! Why would he even talk about diplomacy! We may have to neutralize him soon... Agent B. -- what have we got on Mattis? Oh, wait a minute. I know what he's doing - he's playing reasonable so as to take the Russkies off their guard and to calm the damned peaceniks. Smart Mattis, smart. But let's have a look at the Mattis file just in case, Agent B."

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Info

Philippines tempted with $500mn loan to buy Chinese arms, says strings attached to US weapons


RT
Mon, 15 May 2017 14:42 UTC
Chinese machine gun
© Erik De Castro / Reuters
The Philippines is shopping for Chinese-made weapons in Beijing, which offered up to $500 million in loans for such deals. The archipelago's defense minister complained about strings attached to deals with its traditional partner, America.

Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana reminded of the offered credit line on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. He is there to sign a letter of intent with Chinese state-owned arms company Poly Technologies.

"We are not saying that we will buy from them or we will not buy from them, but if we need anything from the Chinese defense industry, we are going to procure using the loan that they are going to offer to us," he said.

China offered the $500 million loan and donated $14 million worth of small arms and speed boats to the Philippines in December.
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USA

Manipulative Lies and Fabricating the American Worldview

William Willers
Counterpunch
Mon, 15 May 2017 00:00 UTC
organized crime
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis;..... Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties, but it's very comfortable"

-From Harold Pinter's Nobel speech, 2005
Much of world opinion considers Americans stupid. Are we really, or is it that the people an empire needs most to propagandize are its own? Have we been duped, or have we decided, in the interest of "getting along", or perhaps moral laziness, that it's easier to feign acceptance of an unending stream of lies?

"Yellow journalists" William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer refined techniques for whipping the public into war fever. Their competition to sell newspapers led to wildly inflated stories of Spanish incursion into Cuba — "our" sphere of influence — and stimulated anti-Spanish sentiment integral to the Spanish-American War.
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Bullseye

Nikki Haley changing her tune: US needs Russia in war against ISIS, should find more avenues for cooperation


Sputnik
Mon, 15 May 2017 12:34 UTC
Nikki Haley
© www.globallookpress.com
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that Washington needs Moscow in its anti-Daesh fight, adding that the both parties are currently "testing each other" to understand how to build cooperation.

The United States considers it to be very important to cooperate with Russia in fight against Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in Russia, and it is important to find out, in which other areas the bilateral cooperation will be useful, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said.

"Now we have to move forward and figure out what can we work with them on, and what we absolutely cannot work with them on... However, it is very important to work with Russia on our fight against IS [Daesh]," Haley told the ABC News broadcaster in an interview on Sunday.
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Bad Guys

Peak Trump Hysteria: Appoint Russian Ambassador Kislyak For FBI Chief

John Derbyshire
VDare.com
Mon, 15 May 2017 12:36 UTC
Mainstream media assassinating Trump
© Russia Insider
I don't know whether Trump Derangement Syndrome has reached Peak Hysteria yet, but this week it definitely attained what we math geeks call a "local maximum." That means, while it may not be the tallest peak in the mountain range, it's taller than anything in its immediate vicinity.

This is of course all about President Trump firing FBI Director James Comey. Prior to this week, the most famous episode in U.S. history concerning a President and his FBI Director was Lyndon Johnson's apothegm about J. Edgar Hoover, slightly bowdlerized quote: "It's probably better to have him inside the tent peeing out, than outside the tent peeing in."

This week our President decided that FBI Director James Comey had been doing somewhat too much inward micturition and not enough of the outward kind, so he fired him.

Comment: Further reading:

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Chess

Trump firing Comey is a gift to the FBI

Michael Walsh
New York Post
Mon, 15 May 2017 12:34 UTC
James Comey
Let's cut right to the chase: James Comey should have been fired immediately following his disastrous press briefing last July, in which he candidly laid out the case against Hillary Clinton over her mishandling of classified information and then refused to recommend charges. Overstepping his authority while radiating sanctimony, arrogating power while clumsily intervening in the election, Comey deserved to be sacked on the spot.

Everything since has been one long slow twist in the wind for Comey, a former US attorney in Manhattan, where his most notable accomplishment was sending Martha Stewart to jail.

Ignore for the moment Comey's series of missteps resulting from the Clinton investigation and his increasingly erratic and unconvincing public fan dance as he sent the nation into electoral paroxysms over the past 10 months.
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