Bejing's multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will complement the growth of Africa's continental free trade, according to Aboubaker Omar Hadi, chairman of Djibouti Ports and Free Zone Authority.

"I am expecting more movements of goods, infrastructure development from the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation slated for April in Beijing, as well as stronger interconnection between Africa and the rest of the world," he told Xinhua News on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum.

Hadi explained that projects involving cooperation with China (such as the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and the Doraleh Multi-Purpose Port and international free trade zone) are helping Djibouti promote trade in Africa as well as distribution across the East African region.

One of Asia's biggest security headaches since the end of World War II has been a potential choke point on crude oil shipments that sail through the Strait of Malacca.

China receives more than half its oil imports via the strait from the Middle East. Japan gets 90%; South Korea about 80%. A hostile navy could block the narrow waterway between Malaysia and Indonesia, paralyzing a foe's economy.

The 890 km strait that divides Indonesia and Malaysia is only 2.7 km wide (1.7 miles) at its narrowest near Singapore, forming a natural bottleneck. It is the second-largest oil trade choke point in the world after the Strait of Hormuz.

Beijing has long recognized this maritime Achilles heel, as do Tokyo and Seoul. It's one reason why China is building bases in the South China Sea and sending submarines into the Indian Ocean. The idea is to position military assets closer to the strait to deter potential foes like the US and India from closing the channel to oil shipments.

Recently, Boeing (NYSE:BA) reported earnings that smashed expectations and its guidance came in far higher than consensus. Boeing's share price then soared, taking out its all-time high as annual sales topped $100 billion for the first time in its 102-year history. Many analysts claimed the American airplane maker was set for even more gains in 2019 after bouncing back from production snarls with its 737 jetliners but with their airplanes falling from the sky everything rapidly changed.

The sales of jetliners are very important because they play into the bigger picture of world trade and trade imbalances and China is a massive battleground for Boeing and Airbus (OTCPK:EADSF) because of the sheer size of its market. China's air travel market is expected to surpass the United States by 2024, according to the International Air Transport Association which estimates that 927 million people will travel to or from China by air in 2025. This compares to the 904 million passengers to and from the United States. Translate that into actual orders, and you're looking at something on the order of 2,800 new planes with a book value of $329 billion. Boeing has projected it could sell China 6,330 planes worth $950 billion during the next 20 years. Nearly three-quarters of the planes for its civilian airlines will be single-aisle with about 700 widebodies. Boeing wants to sell China as many of those airplanes as it can and beat out its arch-rival, Airbus.

Unfortunately, Airbus won't be the only rival Boeing has to contend with because China is rapidly pushing its own aviation sector forward. The C919, being built by Chinese state-owned aviation manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC), is a perfect example of Chinese intentions and should send fear into the hearts of Americans. COMAC has spent 11 years and $6.5 billion developing the C919, which is seen as China's answer to the Boeing 737 and Airbus 320. The C-919 has a flight range of up to 3,451 miles (5,555 kilometers), which means it can fly non-stop from Shanghai to Jakarta or from Paris to Montreal and it can fit 158 to 168 seats. This hits right at the heart of its competitors, different models of Boeing 737 can seat 85 to 215 passengers, while an A320 can accommodate 100 to 240 people.

The conspiracy known as 'Russiagate' should have ended with the news that, after intense investigation, no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was found - but die-hard collusion truthers are finding it hard to move on.

Attorney General William Barr sent a four-page letter summarizing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's findings to Congress on March 24. Quoting the report directly Barr wrote that the investigation "did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government" in 2016.

That unambiguous conclusion was reached with the help of 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts and forensic accountants, among other professionals. In pursuit of any evidence to prove Trump colluded with Moscow, Mueller issued more than 2,800 subpoenas, executed nearly 500 search warrants, obtained more than 230 orders for communication records and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses.

But none of that was enough to satisfy or dent the resolve of the Russiagate true believers (on social media or in the mainstream media) who are still convinced that they were right all along and are coming up with new theories in a last-ditch effort to prove it.

A report in Huffington Post recently revealed the case of Wikipedia editor Ed Sussman, who was paid by media clients such as NBC and Axios to help diminish critical material. Paid editors operating in a similar manner to Sussman have worked on behalf of CNN contributor Hilary Rosen and the CEOs of Reddit and Intel, among other clients.

Other conduct by Sussman not covered by the Huffington Post shows him authoring fluff pieces for NBC executives and getting his proposed changes approved by another paid Wikipedia editor.

The report by Ashley Feinberg detailed former journalist Ed Sussman's work as a paid Wikipedia fixer for clients such as Axios, NBC, and Facebook. Sussman did this work through the firm WhiteHatWiki, which he argues follows Wikipedia policies. Sussman disclosed his paid editing on Wikipedia and ostensibly worked within the rules by having other editors approve proposed changes.

Germany is being pressurized to act against its own economic interests - and put those of US business first.

Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy leader of the opposition Free Democrats (FDP), called last week for the US Ambassador to Germany to be expelled for acting like a "high commissioner of an occupying power." And it isn't hyperbole.

We're coming up in a few months time to the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which began the liberation of western Europe by Allied forces from the Nazis. Who would have thought that in 2019, we'd have a high ranking German politician from a party, known for its strong support of the Atlantic Alliance, calling for the American Ambassador to his country to be booted out for interfering in his country's affairs?

Last week, Ambassador Grenell criticized Germany's military spending plans within NATO as insufficient - echoing President Trump's calls for European NATO members to spend more on defense.

Well, not exactly like that, but in a way, yes. Now, finally, 'the gloves are off'. The U.S. is openly threatening the historically timid ICC (International Criminal Court) and its judges. And unexpectedly, the ICC is hitting back. It refuses to shut up, to kneel, and to beg for mercy.

Suddenly, even the Western mass media outlets cannot conceal the aggressive mafia-style outbursts of the U.S. government officials. On March 15, Reuters reported:

"The United States will withdraw or deny visas to any International Criminal Court personnel investigating possible war crimes by U.S. forces or allies in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

The court, which sits in The Hague, responded that it was an independent and impartial institution and would continue to do its work "undeterred" by Washington's actions. The Trump administration threatened in September to ban ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the United States and sanction funds they have there if the court launched a probe of war crimes in Afghanistan.

Washington took the first step on Friday with Pompeo's announcement.

"I'm announcing a policy of U.S. visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any ICC investigation of U.S. personnel," Pompeo told a news conference in Washington. "These visa restrictions may also be used to deter ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without allies' consent."

And so it goes... Mike Pompeo's arrogant facial expression appeared above countless reports and it said it all: the world has to listen to the U.S. dictates, or else! Naturally, there is logic (even if twisted) behind the U.S. threats. This is an extremely dangerous slope!

No country in the post-WWII era has committed so many crimes against humanity, and supported so many genocides, as the United States of America. And in summary, no other part of the world has murdered more people on our planet, than Europe. And most North Americans are descendants of the Europeans. The 'foreign policy' of the U.S. is directly derived from colonialist policies of the former European powers. Therefore, crimes against humanity committed by the West have never stopped; never stopped for centuries.

Netizens were up in arms this week grilling CNN boss Jeff Zucker who awkwardly defended his network's coverage of the Mueller probe, saying their job was to report facts "as we know them," rather than, you know, investigating.

"We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did," Zucker said in light of the fact that the Robert Mueller investigation which CNN had harped on for the last two years found no evidence that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

"A sitting president's own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation," Zucker added in an apparent reference to Moscow. "That's not enormous because the media says so. That's enormous because it's unprecedented," he continued, seemingly moving back the network's goalposts with any hope of an actual conviction smashed.

Twitter users were relentless in commenting on Zucker's remark, mocking the company's lack of journalistic integrity along with their less than convincing excuse for it.

There needs to be a lot of soul-searching among many leading members of the media, says Fox News senior judicial analyst Brit Hume.

"It is the worst journalistic debacle of my lifetime and I've been in this business about 50 years," Hume said. "I've never seen anything quite this bad last this long. It was a terrible thing. There needs to be a lot of soul-searching among many leading members of the media today and going forward."

Hume said reporters, politicians and the public should "welcome any effort to go back and find out exactly how this debacle was launched.

The leader of a self-described dissident group that attacked the staff of the North Korean Embassy in Madrid, stealing troves of documents, fled to the US and offered the files to the FBI, court papers say.

A group of 10 men raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid on February 22. The intruders bound and gagged staff, placed hoods over their heads and interrogated the chief of the mission before escaping with hard drives, flash drives and documents.

A 14-page summary of the case, which is being investigated by Spanish police, sheds light on details of the brazen attack and on the identity of the perpetrators. The document, seen by El Pais and a number of other outlets, identifies the leader of the gang as Adrian Hong Chang, a US resident and Mexican national.

The court documents suggest that the crime was carefully plotted by Hong Chang, who had stocked up on combat knives, mock pistols, tactical flashlights, balaclavas, and handcuffs in preparation for the assault. Moreover, Hong Chang got to know the head of the North Korean mission, So Yun Sok, before the attack. The gang leader posed as a potential investor in the North Korean economy during their previous encounter, El Pais reported, citing court documents.