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No nukes for Iran, no tariffs on French wine and possible China trade deal discussed: Macron, and Trump summarize G7 talks at joint press conference


Sputnik
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 17:39 UTC

Comment: We're not really bothered reporting about this. Most other media seem excited about it, but as far as we can see the G7 is just a gathering for has-beens hanging on to their illusion that Big Brother USA loves them...


Trump and Macron
© REUTERS / Carlos Barria
The Presidents of France and the United States have organised a joint press conference on the third day of G7 summit, taking place in Biarritz, France, after having discussed a number of topics in bilateral and international relations.

During the joint presser with the US head of state, French President Emmanuel Macron shared that he had discussed the issue of Iran with Trump, agreeing that Tehran must not obtain nuclear weapons and needs to comply with international obligations in this area.

Macron further said that in his opinion, the "conditions [were] created" for a meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss a possible new agreement that would reduce the tensions between the two countries. The French president said that such a meeting could be arranged in the coming weeks and that he had spoken about this possibility with Rouhani on the phone, telling him that he believes an agreement can be reached between the US and Iran.

Trump commented on possible talks with Iran by saying that he would agree to them if the "circumstances were correct or right". He added that he still has a "good feeling" about negotiations with Iran.

Comment: Trump also reiterated his desire to see President Putin rejoin the group:
US President Donald Trump said he would "certainly" invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to next year's G7 summit as a guest. However, Trump noted that as a "proud person" Putin might not accept the invite.

Trump told reporters Monday that as the summit host next year, he would "certainly" invite the Russian leader along, speaking at a press conference following the G7 summit in Biarritz, France.
There were a lot of things that we were discussing and it would have been easy if Russia were in the room... Yesterday we were discussing four or five matters, and Russia was literally involved in all of those matters.


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Jet1

Israel is now more visible in the geopolitical mix

Steve Brown
The Duran
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Israeli air force
Take it as given that Israel tends to operate behind the scenes and would prefer to influence affairs covertly rather than overtly, so when Israel admits to resuming air strikes vs Syria and Iraq that's worth a look.

Israel has resumed air strikes on Syria and Iraq, claiming to strike Iranian military emplacements in both countries. Perhaps significantly, the Israeli strikes have resumed just subsequent to serious setbacks for terrorist militias in Idlib and Hama; where Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, Ahrar al Sham, al Nusra, the NLF, and many other terrorist groups are based and backed by the US, Turkey, and Israel.

One basis for hope to end foreign adventurism in Syria was the liberation of Khan Sheikhoun, which cut a major terrorist supply route between Hama and Idlib. Considering the Syrian forces in that region, it would be logical for the IAF to strike there, however the New York Times reported Israeli bombing in the vicinity of al Aqraba which is in southern Damascus (and unlikely to have been a real target) while the IAF report says that Dama near As-Suwayda was hit. Most likely, neither report is accurate.

Where Israel truly bombed is anyone's guess since the normally reliable liveua conflict map shows just the one Israeli report for August 25th with no verifiable evidence, an unusual occurrence in itself. Only the New York Times and Israeli press are reporting the specifics of the attack, and those sources are generally doubtful. Reports this author has seen indicate that Israel bombed a corridor north of Hama used by Syrian security force reinforcements at a time when the Syrian air force and its allies were relatively inactive.

Comment: See also:

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Pirates

Don't be fooled by the protests in Hong Kong - they are made in the West

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers
Dissident Voice
Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Agnes Chow and Nathan Law
© Facebook
Agnes Chow and Nathan Law accept the 2018 Lantos Human Rights Prize on behalf of Joshua Wong in Washington, DC.


Update: Protests continued in Hong Kong this weekend. The protesters returned to the use of violence and the police responded. The South China Morning Post reported:
In a now familiar pattern, the protesters threw bricks, petrol bombs, corrosive liquid and other projectiles at the police, who responded with tear gas, pepper balls and sponge grenades. Twenty-eight people were arrested, including an organiser of an approved protest march. At least 10 people were hospitalised, including two men in serious condition.
Some people in the United States are confused about the protests going on in Hong Kong. Whenever the corporate media and politicians, especially people like Marco Rubio, applaud a social movement, it is a red flag that the protests are not a progressive people's movement, but serve other purposes. Is this really a democracy movement? Are workers protesting the deep inequality and exploitation there? If not, what are these protests really about?

Fortunately, a more complete narrative of what is happening in Hong Kong and how it relates to the geopolitical conflict between the United States and China is developing among independent and movement media. The following is a description of what has been learned recently.

Comment: See also:

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Tornado1

More fake news? Report alleges Trump suggested using nukes to stop hurricanes from hitting US

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 09:48 UTC
trump
© KEVIN LAMARQUE/ REUTERS
Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office, Washington D.C., August 20, 2019
When it comes to unconventional proposal to control the weather, NBC News probably holds the prize with this gem, which we discussed back in January: "A last-ditch global warming fix? A man-made 'volcanic' eruption" to cool the planet. Scientists and some environmentalists believe nations might have to mimic volcanic gases as a last-ditch effort to protect Earth from extreme warming."

Another just as ridiculous proposal to "control" atmospheric events emerged during the Eisenhower era, when a government scientist proposed detonating a nuclear bomb over the eye of a hurricane to counteract convection currents.

Why do we bring it up? Because according to an Axios report late on Sunday (which if capital markets weren't collapsing and China wasn't on the edge of invading Hong Kong would have been the top watercooler discussing point tomorrow, but as it stands will hardly make the top 10 most shocking weekend developments) President Trump "suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States."
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Wall Street

Trump says he could 'declare a national emergency' due to US-China trade war

Amanda Macias
CNBC
Mon, 26 Aug 2019 09:48 UTC
Trump, recesión económica
© Desconocido
President Donald Trump said Sunday he could declare the escalating U.S.-China trade war as a national emergency if he wanted to.

"In many ways this is an emergency," Trump said at the G-7 leaders meeting of the ongoing trade battle between the world's top two economies.

"I could declare a national emergency, I think when they steal and take out and intellectual property theft anywhere from $300 billion to $500 billion a year and when we have a total lost of almost a trillion dollars a year for many years," Trump said, adding that he had no plan right now to call for a national emergency.
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Star of David

Israel opens new front against Lebanon, with two drones hitting Hezbollah targets in Beirut - Zionist entity now bombing 4 ME countries UPDATES


RFE/RL
Sun, 25 Aug 2019 08:14 UTC
israeli drones

File photo: Israeli drones dropping tear gas against Palestinian protesters last year
Lebanon's military says two Israeli drones hit Hizballah's stronghold in south Beirut, while the Iran-backed Shi'ite movement says one of the aircraft damaged its media center.

The two aircraft violated Lebanese airspace at dawn over the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, an army statement said on August 25, adding: "The first fell while the second exploded in the air causing material damage."

Prime Minister Saad Hariri called it a "blatant attack on Lebanon's sovereignty" and said this "new aggression" represents a threat to regional stability.

A Hizballah spokesman, Mohamed Afif, said that one of the two drones was rigged with explosives and "exploded causing huge damage to the media center. Hizballah did not shoot down any drone," Afif said.

Israeli officials did not comment on the incident, which came hours after Israel said it had struck Iranian forces in neighboring Syria to prevent a pending attack "using killer drones."

Comment: From RT 25/8/2019: Lebanese PM accuses Israel of 'open attack' on sovereignty
Israeli drone flights were "an open attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and an assault on UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, Hariri said on Sunday.

Hariri called the drone incursion a "threat to regional stability and an attempt to increase tensions."

He said there's a heavy presence of planes in the airspace over Beirut and its suburbs, adding he will consult with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on what could be done to repel the "new aggression."

Separately, Israeli combat aircraft have reportedly flown mock sorties over the Lebanese city of Sidon. Local media described warplanes flying at low altitude over the country's third largest city, which lies about 40km south of Beirut.
From Sputnik, 25/8/2019: Israeli fighter jets fly over Lebanon after drones crash in Beirut
A group of Israeli fighter jets have conducted an flyover of Beirut and southern Lebanon following a mysterious crash of alleged Israeli drones in the southern outskirts of the Lebanese capital, an informed source at the Beirut International Airport said on Sunday.

"Four Israeli Air Force aircraft invaded Lebanese airspace. We saw them flying over Beirut and southern Lebanon. Having made a number of maneuvers, they left Lebanese airspace", the source said.
From Sputnik, 25/8/2019: Nasrallah denounces Israeli drone attack in Beirut, vows to confront such incidents in future
Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, said on Sunday that the Israeli drone attack is the first dangerous incident and breach of rules between the two countries since August 2006. He went on to say that one of the drones that crashed over the Lebanese capital was on a "suicide mission".

While Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah didn't down the two crashed drones on the night between 24 and 25 August, he vowed that the movement would "do everything to prevent" such attacks in the future, saying that the time when Israel could bomb Lebanon "is over". The Hezbollah leader warned the Israeli military stationed at the country's border with Lebanon of an imminent response to the drone attack.

Nasrallah said in his statement that the group had entered a new phase in its conflict with Israel, vowing to retaliate for the deaths of two Hezbollah members in an IAF strike in Syria that took place on the same night.
Nasrallah also called "The latest Israeli development very, very, very dangerous," in a televised speech.

Things are finally opening up in the Middle East. Israel is now directly engaged in airstrikes against Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and - possibly very soon - Yemen. If it starts serious bombing in Lebanon, and Hezbollah - armed to the teeth this time around - fights back, it's curtains for the modern incarnation of Judea.

The Israeli govt justifies its utterly insane belligerence by saying 'the Iranians are everywhere'. But calling everyone it hates 'Iranians' is the Israeli equivalent of Western leaders calling all dissenting opinion 'Russian trolls'.

What's actually happening is that the largest (population-wise) countries in the region are coordinating their military actions to encircle and eventually contain Israel. This is their (belated) pushback against the Neocons' Yinon plan to 'balkanize' the region.

Israel - blinded by pathological hatred - doesn't see that its wild, preemptive actions are just tightening the noose around its neck...

UPDATE 26 Aug 2019

From RT, 26/8/2019: Israel strikes Palestinian group in Lebanon after punishing Hamas for Gaza rocket fire
Israeli air strikes targeted the headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Lebanon's Bekaa region, local media report. Earlier the IDF struck several targets in Gaza, in retaliation to rocket fire.

"Three Israeli air strikes targeted the Lebanese-Syria border east of Zahle... explosions were heard in several parts of the Bekaa valley," An-Nahar news channel said as unverified footage of the strike apparently targeting the PFLP office spread across social media. The strikes seem to be limited as the PFLP said initial reports indicate no casualties.

The alleged raid on the Lebanon-Syria border area follows a confirmed Israeli attack against Hamas targets in Gaza Strip that targeted a military compound and the militant group battalion commander's office. Earlier, Tel Aviv accused the organization of firing three rockets into Israel, two of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

See also:

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Windsock

Labour to propose no-confidence vote as 'fail-safe' way to stop no-deal Brexit


RT
Sun, 25 Aug 2019 10:12 UTC
Brexit
© REUTERS/Hannah McKay
An anti-Brexit protester is seen outside Boris Johnson's office in London, Britain July 23, 2019.
The Labour Party is proposing a no-confidence vote in Parliament to dethrone Boris Johnson and force new elections. The strategy has been billed as a "fail-safe" way of preventing a no-deal Brexit from moving forward.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will meet with leaders of other political parties on Tuesday to discuss the looming October 31 Brexit deadline - and how to ensure Britain doesn't leave the EU without a deal.

"We are offering a fail-safe procedure in order to stop no deal, and that is by a vote of no confidence in the government, a temporary government to set up a general election," Labour's trade spokesman Barry Gardiner told Sky News on Sunday. He said that Labour wanted new elections so it could offer to hold a second Brexit referendum, which would include options to leave the EU with a deal or remain in the bloc.

Comment: See also:

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Newspaper

Inside The Submissive Void: Propaganda, Censorship, Power, And Control

Greg Maybury
Pox Americana
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 20:42 UTC
"Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers."

~ David Hume, Of the First Principles of Government, 1768
Leni Riefenstahl hitler

Leni Riefenstahl & Friend — She was his 2nd favourite propagandist!... and the original 'feminazi', perhaps?
Controlling the Proles

The following yarn may be apocryphal, but either way the 'moral of the fable' should serve our narrative well. The story goes like this: sometime during the height of the Cold War a group of American journalists were hosting a visit to the U.S. of some of their Soviet counterparts. After allowing their visitors to soak up the media zeitgeist stateside, most of the Americans expected their guests to express unbridled envy at the professional liberties they enjoyed in the Land of the Free Press.

One of the Russian scribes was indeed compelled to express his unabashed 'admiration' to his hosts...in particular, for the "far superior quality" of American "propaganda". Now it's fair to say his hosts were taken aback by what was at best a backhanded compliment. After some collegial 'piss-taking' about the stereotypes associated with Western "press freedom" versus those of the controlled media in the Soviet system, one of the Americans called on their Russian colleague to explain what he meant. In fractured English, he replied with the following:
"It's very simple: in Soviet Union, we don't believe our propaganda. In America, you actually believe yours!"
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Newspaper

Japan protests South Korea's expanded military drills

Josh Smith
Reuters
Sun, 25 Aug 2019 20:20 UTC
South Korean Marine
© South Korean Navy/Yonhap via REUTERS
Members of South Korean Marine Corps take part in a military exercise in remote islands called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, South Korea, August 25, 2019.
South Korean forces began two days of expanded drills on Sunday around an island also claimed by Japan, prompting a protest from Tokyo only days after Seoul said it would scrap an intelligence-sharing pact with its neighbor amid worsening relations.

Tokyo and Seoul have long been at loggerheads over the sovereignty of the group of islets called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean, which lie about halfway between the East Asian neighbors in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea.

The latest military drills began on Sunday and included naval, air, and army forces, as well as marines, a South Korean ministry of defense official said.

The Japanese foreign ministry called the drills unacceptable and said it had lodged a protest with South Korea calling for them to end.

Comment: See also:

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No Entry

UK PM Johnson nixes £39 billion divorce bill in no-deal Brexit: 'Not due'


Reuters
Sun, 25 Aug 2019 19:47 UTC
Boris Johnson Donald Tusk
© Neil Hall/Pool via Reuters
European Union Council President Donald Tusk looking a little miffed with Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in Biarritz, France August 25, 2019.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, it will no longer legally owe the 39 billion pound ($47.88 billion) divorce bill agreed by his predecessor Theresa May.

Earlier British media reported Johnson would use a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk on the sidelines of the G7 Summit to set out that Britain would pay less than 10 billion pounds of the settlement if it leaves without a deal.

Sky News said the figure was 9 billion pounds, while the Sunday Times reported British government lawyers had concluded the amount Britain was legally obliged to pay could be as low as 7 billion pounds.

Comment:

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