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Chess

China asks Washington to deny Taiwanese president entry into US


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 15:48 UTC
Tsai Ing-wen
© Jorge Adorno / ReutersTaiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen
In the latest escalation after President-elect Donald Trump broke protocol with Taiwan, China is now asking Washington to deny Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen entry into the US prior to her upcoming Latin America tour.

Taiwan's new leader is scheduled to visit three countries in January - Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. There is speculation, however, that she will make a stopover in New York.

Although this has been denied by several Trump advisers, as well as Taiwan itself, news of the visit has become the latest lever China has tried to use to show its disappointment at what it believes to be warming relations between Taiwan and the US.

In a Tuesday statement to Reuters, Beijing says it has called on Washington to deny Tsai entry into the US en route to Latin America next month. The US visit is expected just ahead of Trump's inauguration on January 20, when he replaces outgoing President Barack Obama.

The US State Department appeared to reject the notion that China can dictate terms, and said Tsai's transit - if it is to take place - is based on "long-standing US practice, consistent with the unofficial nature of (US) relations with Taiwan."
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Network

Turkish PM Yildirim visits Kremlin for talks with Putin over gas pipelines and nuclear plants


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 15:43 UTC
putin and Binali Yildirim
© Sergey Karpukhin / ReutersRussian President Vladimir Putin shows a way to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, December 6, 2016
Gas pipelines and nuclear power stations were among the highlights of recent talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish PM Binali Yildirim. The two countries are mending their relationship in the aftermath of a Russian bomber being downed in 2015.

Turkish Prime Minister met Putin late on Tuesday in the Kremlin after holding talks with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev earlier in the day. The officials discussed various aspects of cooperation between the two countries and held a joint press conference afterwards.

Russia and Turkey are looking forward to further mending their relationship, which took a major hit after Turkey downed a Russian bomber jet near the Syrian border last year. The official visit became Yildirim's first to Russia since he entered office in May, and one of his first international visits in general.

"I am pleased to note that we are restoring our relations practically in all areas of our cooperation. However, due to certain circumstances - let us not mention them now - our trade has substantially dropped. I would like to hope that during your visit we will be able to make concerted efforts to overcome this negative trend," Putin told Yildirim.
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Bulb

Trump lays out military policy: End interventions and chaos overseas, build up depleted military


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 15:39 UTC
trump
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
Donald Trump has laid out a military policy which he says is aimed at ending "intervention and chaos" overseas. He promised to build up the "depleted" military, but said it would be done with prevention in mind, rather than aggression.

Speaking at the latest stop on his "thank you" tour of swing states, President-elect Donald Trump told a crowd in Fayetteville, North Carolina that he wants to "strengthen old friendships and seek out new friendships," stressing that the US will "stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn't be involved with."

"We don't want to have a depleted military because we're all over the place fighting in areas that we shouldn't be fighting in. It's not going to be depleted any longer," he said during the Tuesday event.

He spoke of the need to spend money "on ourselves" rather than continuing to run up an extremely costly tab in the Middle East.

"We've spent, at last count, $6 trillion in the Middle East, and our roads have potholes all over, our highways are falling apart, our bridges are falling, our tunnels are no good, our airports are horrible like third world countries," Trump said. "We're going to start spending on ourselves, but we've got to be so strong militarily like we've never ever been before."
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Megaphone

News accuracy site claims US blamed the wrong side for 2013 chemical attack in Syria


Sputnik
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 23:21 UTC
ghouta chemical attack
© Sputnik/ Andrei Stenin
A news-accuracy site launched Tuesday is claiming that the White House may have attempted to bomb the Syrian government in retaliation for an attack Damascus did not cause.

The site, Rootclaim, uses a mathematics-based fraud-detection system often used by small business to remove human bias and discern the veracity of news. According to their study, there is a 92.3 percent chance that the chemical-weapons attack attributed to the administration of President Bashar Al-Assad was actually conducted by rebels opposing the Syrian president.

After graphic footage surfaced of the aftermath of a 2013 sarin gas attack in Damascus that left hundreds dead, US President Barack Obama attempted unsuccessfully to authorize an airstrike without Congressional approval, saying at the time, "I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization."

Obama had warned Assad that using chemical weapons would trigger a military response from Washington, saying at a 2012 press conference, "We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized."

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Swedish islanders ready to strike pipeline deal with Russians in spite of 'security threats'


Sputnik
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 13:25 UTC
Nord stream
© Sputnik/Sergey Guneev
​"Making security assessments is not our cup of tea, it is the government's thing," Björn Jansson said.

Despite Sweden's chronic fear of Russia, which is being constantly hyped up by various politicians and security experts, local politicians on the Swedish island of Gotland are ready to rent the port of Slite to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline construction project in the Baltic Sea.

The preliminary decision on renting Slite is to be taken by the Gotland Technical Committee on December 15. The Regional Board will then make its decision in January, and the final judgment will be passed by of the Regional Council on February 19.
"We proceed from the assumption that the contract will be endorsed, as there is a majority in favor of it," president of the Gotland Regional Council Björn Jansson said, as quoted by the Finnish daily Hufvudstadsbladet.
For Gotland Municipality, the deal may create extra jobs and imply a profit of up to 60 million SEK (roughly $6.5mln), which is deemed to be a "welcome contribution that makes life easier." Jansson admitted, however, that a government clearance is yet pending.
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Propaganda

Kerry blames rebels for rejected Syria ceasefire in 2015


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 14:02 UTC
Rebel fighters stand near empty rockets in Syria
© Alaa Al-Faqir / Reuters
It was rebels who rejected the ceasefire in Syria which was proposed by foreign powers in 2015, US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed Tuesday. He also confirmed there was no agreement on the evacuation of civilians and militants from East Aleppo.

"When we assembled in Vienna ... to begin the process of trying to create a political direction for trying to resolve the war, we brought everybody to the table, including Russia and Iran, and we sought a ceasefire," Kerry told reporters, speaking at the NATO ministerial summit in Brussels, Belgium.

Comment: Kerry still speaks on the propaganda of Assad using 'barrel bombs' against his own citizens who wanted 'freedom'. These lies are being destroyed as Russia and Syria gain ground on the foreign jihadists and people begin to renew Syria.

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Snakes in Suits

Psychopathic CIA torture architect defends methods slamming 'political correctness'


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 13:44 UTC
James Mitchell
© American Enterprise Institute / YouTube James Mitchell
James Mitchell, one of two psychologists behind the CIA's enhanced interrogation program used under President George W. Bush, defended torture by saying the word has lost its meaning.

Mitchell, who is currently being sued by those subjected to his torture methods, was speaking at conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute to promote his new book 'Enhanced Interrogation - Inside the minds and motives of the Islamic terrorists trying to destroy America' on Tuesday.

Mitchell attempted to downplay torture by comparing it to the term racism, equating the two as being overused and exaggerated.

"The word torture has become like the word racist," he said. "It's been used so many times it's lost its meaning.

Comment: A deluded and sick psychologist!

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Camcorder

Best of the Web: Aleppo almost completely liberated - RT journalist first to enter eastern half since 2012 (VIDEO)


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 13:27 UTC
Civilians trapped in Old City finally reunite with families
© Lizzie Phelan / TwitterCivilians trapped in Old City finally reunite with families they've been separated from by frontline last 4 yrs.
Battles continue between pro-government forces and insurgents in Aleppo's Old City, with Damascus slowly winning back territory. RT's Lizzie Phelan and her crew were the first journalists to visit the regions just captured by the government.

"It is still not entirely safe here. The opposition forces are only a couple of hundreds of meters away. The area needs to be cleaned from unused weapons and mines left," she reported by phone.

She said her crew saw many weapons abandoned by the militants stashed in buildings, including the home-made gas cylinder rockets they have been using to shell government forces.

"The battle to take the old city over the last few days has been extremely fierce. Opposition forces have been desperate to fight back and prevent government advances. They have been relentlessly shelling the government-held areas of Aleppo. There have been many civilian casualties [there]," Phelan added.
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Nuke

Insane Radical Party MPs bid to make Ukraine nuclear again


RT
Tue, 06 Dec 2016 13:19 UTC
Soviet nuclear missile Ukraine
© ReutersA Soviet era SS-19 nuclear missile carrier is pulled out from it's silo at a military base in Krasilovo 300 km west from the capital Kiev May 14, 1997
The Radical Party faction of the Ukrainian parliament is seeking to withdraw Ukraine's membership of the 1968 international treaty which bans the development of nuclear weapons and keeps nuclear technology in check.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) recognizes only five nations as legitimate possessors of nuclear weapons: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. A handful of UN members are not signatories to the treaty, including Pakistan and India, which were never part of the NPT but have nuclear weapons of their own, and North Korea, which withdrew in 2003 to develop a nuclear arsenal.

Now Kiev may follow Pyongyang's example if the Radical Party faction in parliament has its way. The party's leader, Oleg Lyashko, has long called for the government to restore the country's nuclear capability, which Ukraine briefly possessed in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The number of nuclear warheads deployed on Ukrainian territory by the USSR was only behind those possessed by Russia and the US. But by 1996, all of them had been handed over to Russia, which was busy dismantling a large portion of the costly Soviet nuclear stockpile.

In 1994, Ukraine was given security assurances by Russia, the US and the UK in the so-called Budapest Memorandum in exchange for its accession to the NTP. Similar documents were signed with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which were in a comparable position. China and France gave milder commitments to Ukraine in separate statements.
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Attention

Russian MoD: Russian colonel helping to train Syrian Army servicemen dies after 'opposition' shelling in Aleppo


RT
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 09:13 UTC
A Russian soldier walks to a military vehicle in goverment controlled Hanono housing district in Aleppo, Syria December 4, 2016
© Omar Sanadiki / ReutersA Russian soldier walks to a military vehicle in goverment controlled Hanono housing district in Aleppo, Syria December 4, 2016
A Russian military adviser has died in Syria after shelling in Aleppo 'by the so-called opposition forces,' the Russian Ministry of Defense has stated.

The deceased serviceman, identified as Colonel Ruslan Galitsky, was working with a group of Russian military counselors, the ministry added.

"Colonel Ruslan Galitsky has died in the hospital from severe wounds. Russian military doctors had been fighting for his life for a few days. The serviceman was wounded during shelling of a residential neighborhood in western Aleppo by militants of the so-called opposition," the ministry's statement said as cited by RIA Novosti.

Comment: According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Colonel Ruslan Galitsky was in Aleppo helping the Syrian Army to train its servicemen. See also: Do or die: Syrian opposition militants prepare to break through Aleppo siege

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