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Chess

Putin holds talks with Merkel to discuss conflicts in Syria & Ukraine

Putin Merkel
© Aleksey Nikolskyi / SputnikMay 2, 2017. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday to discuss key international issues such as the Syrian conflict, the situation in Ukraine and battling terrorism, as well as bilateral ties between Moscow and Berlin.

The pair is scheduled to hold two rounds of talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. They will also discuss economic cooperation and joint projects.

"The two leaders will discuss the current state and prospects of bilateral relations, including energy, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation," a Kremlin statement reads.

Bad Guys

A US war on North Korea would be 'greatest military challenge in 70 years'

Kim Jong Un
In case of war with North Korea, the US would face a military challenge as perhaps never before in the last seventy years. This is why a conventional deterrence is actually more important than the nuclear one if we break down a realistic war scenario. The downside is that the DPRK is fully aware that if it responded to a US attack, even in a limited way and only on military targets, it would be flagged as an aggressor, paving the way for a larger foreign intervention.

To answer this question, it is necessary to examine what would entail a US attack on North Korea. Suffice it to say that as the neocon Senator John McCain has admitted, the US would be unable to defend Seoul (as well as its US bases nearby) in the first 24 to 48 hours of a conflict. A city of 20 million inhabitants, together with military bases containing thousands of soldiers, would suffer untold loss of life.

The United States would certainly suffer huge losses, revealing weaknesses that could be exploited in future conflicts, a consideration that would need to be considered if contemplating shooting down DPRK missiles.

Comment: Also see:


Chess

Signs of good faith: Trump says he'd be 'honored' to meet Kim Jong-un

Donald Trump  Kim Jong-un
© ReutersSeparated at birth?
President Donald Trump has said he "would be honored" to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un under the right circumstances.

"If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it," Trump told Bloomberg News Monday. "If it's under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that."

"Most political people would never say that," Trump said. "But I'm telling you under the right circumstances I would meet with him."

"We have breaking news," he added, likely referring to the news coverage his comments would garner.

Chess

Reconciliation back on the table? Lavrov & Tillerson to meet next week

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, shakes hands prior to their talks in Moscow
© AP Photo/ Alexander ZemlianichenkoUS Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, shakes hands prior to their talks in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 12, 2017.
There are some subtle signs that the Russia-US relations are very slowly beginning to thaw.

A day prior to the resumption of the Astana Peace Talks on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have held a phone call to discuss each side's position on Syria and other pressing matters. America has no official role in Astana, but will be keenly interested in the results of this round of discussions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry released a summary of the conversation's subject matter as well as confirming a meeting between the two diplomats next week,

Treasure Chest

$1 trillion US budget hammered out, awaiting Congressional vote

US capital building
© Jason Reed / Reuters
With Republicans controlling both houses and the executive branch, Democrats were still able to challenge some Trump administration initiatives in a $1 trillion budget bill that calls for increased military spending but denies funding for the wall or cuts to Planned Parenthood.

"We're very happy with it," Trump said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg News.

The 1,665-page bill has $1.5 billion for border security, including for technology and fixing existing infrastructure but it doesn't allocate the money to build Trump's wall.

Laptop

Social media 'must pay to police internet' or face fines: UK parliament

Social media companies
© Alamy
Social media firms may be forced to pay for the cost of policing digital crimes and fined if they do not quickly censor illegal posts, under plans unveiled by an influential Parliamentary committee today.

The Home Affairs select committee says that the behaviour of Facebook, Twitter and Google has been "completely irresponsible and indefensible" and that they should now be presented with the bill for investigating crimes committed over their networks.

It is "shockingly easy" to find terrorist material online and companies should now face multi-million pound fines and sanctions unless they begin taking robust action.

Similar "policing" charges are levied on football clubs and late-night drinking establishments who are also blamed for fueling certain types of crime.

Attention

Saudis now fully own America's biggest oil refinery in Texas

Port Arthur refinery in Texas
© Robert King / Global Look PressPort Arthur refinery in Texas.
Saudi Aramco has become a 100-percent owner of Port Arthur, an oil refinery in Texas. Port Arthur has a capacity of 600,000 barrels per day, making it the biggest in North America.

The kingdom's national oil company previously owned 50 percent in the refinery before acquiring the full stake from Royal Dutch Shell on Monday. Complicated relations between the companies forced them to separate their assets. On Monday, Shell announced the divorce was complete.

Saudis also acquired 24 distribution terminals, Aramco said in a statement. The Saudi firm also got the exclusive right to sell Shell-branded gasoline and diesel in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, the eastern half of Texas, and the majority of Florida.

Comment: So it's okay for the Saudis to own American refineries (who also caused the oil shortage a few decades ago) but it is not okay for Russia who has not caused any gasoline shortages. Go figure.


Passport

Terror Tales: FBI agent 'went rogue' in 2013, married German rapper-turned-ISIS-leader in Syria, released from prison after just 2 years

daniela greene
Czech-born 'Daniela Greene', US FBI agent who 'married' German 'ISIS celebrity' in Syria, somehow got out, was sent to prison in the US, then was released
An FBI translator with a top-secret security clearance traveled to Syria in 2014 and married a key ISIS operative she had been assigned to investigate, CNN has learned.

The rogue employee, Daniela Greene, lied to the FBI about where she was going and warned her new husband he was under investigation, according to federal court records.

Greene's saga, which has never been publicized, exposes an embarrassing breach of national security at the FBI—an agency that has made its mission rooting out ISIS sympathizers across the country.

It also raises questions about whether Greene received favorable treatment from Justice Department prosecutors who charged her with a relatively minor offense, then asked a judge to give her a reduced sentence in exchange for her cooperation, the details of which remain shrouded in court-ordered secrecy.

Comment: One day later! Curious timing.

This story operation/incident has obviously been sanitized to produce the 'correct' sequence of events.

It's clear they were embarrassed by what she did, but rather than punish the agent in question, which they would normally do, they went to pretty extreme lengths to protect her and this latest version of the story...


Chess

Philippines' Duterte delays on Trump's White House invitation, cites packed schedule of meetings

trump Duterte
© Getty Images
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday he may turn down an invitation by Donald Trump to visit the United States, as he welcomed three Chinese warships to his home town.

Duterte, who has loosened the Philippines' long alliance with the United States while strengthening ties with China and Russia, said he could not commit to the American president because of a busy schedule that included a trip to Moscow.

"I am tied up. I cannot make any definite promise. I am supposed to go to Russia, I am supposed to go to Israel," he told reporters when asked about Trump's invitation made in a telephone call on Saturday.

Duterte expressed concerns about not being able to fit in a visit to Trump even though no firm date has yet been proposed for it.

Nevertheless, Duterte said relations with the United States were improving now that Trump had taken over from Barack Obama, who criticised the Philippine president for his anti-drug war that has claimed thousands of lives.

Wall Street

Glass-Steagall Act 2.0: Trump mulling breakup of Wall Street banks

Donald Trump
© Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
President Trump said Monday he's considering breaking up major Wall Street banks and could support bringing back a Depression-era law separating consumer and investment banking.

"I'm looking at that right now," Trump told Bloomberg News. "There's some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we're going to look at that."

Stocks initially tanked on the news before quickly rebounding.