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Venezuela talks will begin in Oslo, but US says focus must be on ousting Maduro


AFP
Wed, 29 May 2019 00:00 UTC
Guaido Maduro
© AFP/STF
Representatives of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, left, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are meeting in Oslo
Talks between Venezuela's government and opposition on ending months of crisis were under way in Norway, sources said Tuesday, but Washington insisted that the only item for discussion should be President Nicolas Maduro's removal.

US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who more than 50 countries recognize as interim president, had been leading a push to oust leftist firebrand Maduro, who presides over a crumbling economy.

But the opposition agreed to come to the table under Norwegian auspices after an army uprising coupled with street protests, which Guaido hoped would deal decisive blow, instead fizzled out a month ago.

Norwegian diplomats had said that the two sides would meet this week in Norway in their first face-to-face meeting since Guaido claimed power in January, without specifying a date or venue.

Sources close to the process told AFP that the talks were taking place in Oslo. The Norwegian foreign ministry declined to comment.
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No Entry

Ambassador: Palestine won't sell its 'land and rights' for Trump's skewed 'deal of the century'


RT
Tue, 28 May 2019 15:12 UTC
Palestine flag
© Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Palestine will not accept the "deal of the century" with Israel which is in the works in Washington and rejects all of the recent 'peacemaking' proposals, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia has said.

Abdelhafiz Nofal, speaking at a press conference in Moscow, has referred to the upcoming peace "deal of the century" advertised by US President Donald Trump, as a "strange agenda."
They are suggesting turning Palestinian refugee camps into some new cities, they are offering us money for our land, for our rights, but we will never accept that.

Comment: See also:

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Gold Coins

Russia's central bank takes steps towards establishing gold-backed cryptocurrency

Alex Kimani
Safe Haven
Sun, 26 May 2019 18:00 UTC
Russia central bank
First there was Tether; a controversial dollar-backed cryptocurrency by crypto exchange firm, Bitfinex. Then came Petro, the industry's first oil-backed crypto issued by the Venezuelan government last year. And now we might be about to see the first gold-backed cryptocurrency - by a central bank, no less. According to Russian news agency, TASS, Russia's central bank, the Bank of Russia will consider issuing gold-backed cryptocurrencies - a rather strange move considering how cryptocurrencies are generally anathema to central banks.

Shot in the arm

But before crypto bugs can start doing a round of high fives, the head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, has revealed that the cryptocurrencies are not meant for retail use but rather for conducting big mutual settlements for entities with global jurisdictions.

In other words, only the heavyweights will get to lay their hands on them. Further, she says that she still believes that it's better for countries to develop international settlement systems such as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) framework that use their own national currencies noting the said framework has demonstrated good dynamics.

Finally, she admonishes that the latest twist should not be interpreted to mean that the bank supports a scenario where cryptocurrencies eventually replace fiat in the monetary system.

Comment: Out of necessity, Russia has been ahead of the curve in shoring up its financial system for several years now:

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Bad Guys

'New' NATO strategy parrots hawkish US posture


RT
Tue, 28 May 2019 23:58 UTC
nato us
© Reuters/Laura Hasani
While details of NATO's new military strategy are still unknown, odds are the alliance is simply falling in line with recent updates to US doctrine and seeking to outgun all potential adversaries, a military expert tells RT.

Citing a "new security situation" as well as "challenges in the east and the south" and a "nuclear threat" from Moscow, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced last week that the alliance has adopted a new military strategy. Details of the document are not yet public.

"What's surprising is not that NATO has updated its military strategy, but that it took so long to do so," Mikhail Khodarenok, retired colonel in the Russian Aerospace Forces, told RT.

Comment: See also:

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Magnify

Is China's Belt & Road a decade too late?


Charles Hugh Smith
Sun, 12 May 2019 09:24 UTC
OBOR, china one belt one road
The world appears to be tiring of globalization and hegemons, and that trend may doom the Belt & Road to irrelevancy.

The conventional narrative holds that China's Belt & Road Initiative is cementing China's global superpower status. There's an alternative narrative, however: it's a decade too late. From this perspective, global trade has reached the top of the S-Curve and is in the stagnation phase, which will be followed by decline or collapse.

Why could global trade decline as a secular trend? The answer of the moment--trade wars-- is more a symptom than the disease itself, which is the benefits of globalization have declined and the negative consequences are becoming unavoidable.

Trade is never "free;" there are always losers to any trade, and if the benefits accrue to the few at the expense of the many, the gains no longer offset the losses. Resistance to globalization is rising, and national interests are gaining political ground.

Comment: It is true, the world cannot support the particular kind of elitist, warmongering, Western globalization that has been pushed for decades now. But China and Russia are at the forefront of helping bring about an alternative and, while it may not be perfect, and it may even fail, it's still a much more equitable offer that, currently, allows for national sovreignity and a future of many more possibilities that benefit the many and not the few:

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2 + 2 = 4

NATO 'Deep State' and Israeli interests both served by the collapse of the Austrian government

Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley
Sott.net
Wed, 29 May 2019 12:17 UTC
Strache Ibiza

Ex-vice Chancellor Strache (seated) and the hired Bosnian 'honey trap'.
Last week the coaltion government of the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's conservative and the vice-chancellor Strache's Freedom Party (anti-immigration) collapsed as a secretly recorded videotape of a meeting in July 2017 in Ibiza was leaked to the German media. The video showed the vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and the deputy of the Freedom Party negotiate with a woman who posed to be the 'niece of a Russian oligarch' to give government contracts against favorable media coverage of Strache's party and the coalition government.

The resulting 'scandal' forced Strache to resign and saw Chancellor Kurz (who officielly had no part in the scandal) forced to stand down in a no-confidence vote. The fact that the videotape had been withheld for almost two years and then released less than a week before the European parliamentary elections is obviously not a coincidence, and 'the scandel was clearly a set-up with the design to achieve exactly what it did.

But who was behind this?
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Eye 1

Report: Kissinger, Pompeo, Kushner to attend 2019 Bilderberg meeting in Switzerland


Sputnik
Wed, 29 May 2019 08:33 UTC
Jared Kushner
© AP Photo / Evan Vucci
The clandestine gathering is also expected to be attended by prominent business and political figures such as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, among others.

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, is expected to take part in a Bilderberg Meeting scheduled to take place this week in Montreux, Switzerland, according to CNBC.

The media outlet reported, citing local media, that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also attend the meeting, even though his name wasn't on the official guest list.


Comment: So, is that Mike Pompeo the Republican conservative, or Mike Pompeo the globalist?


Comment: No conspiracy to see here! Just honest, hard-workin' folks...

Also see:

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Chess

Russia slams US attempt to impose 'alternative vision' of Palestine-Israel peace process


Sputnik
Wed, 29 May 2019 08:33 UTC
bahrain manama city
© CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wadiia / Manama
Manama City in Bahrain
The preparation of a Bahrain economic conference as part of the proposed US plan to promote the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Washington's attempt to substitute the genuine peace process with imposed economic incentives, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"It is all about another US attempt to shift the priorities of the regional agenda and impose an ' alternative vision' of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement. The persistent desire to replace the task of achieving a comprehensive political solution with a package of the so-called 'economic incentives' while eroding the principle of creating two states for two peoples is causing deep concern," the ministry said in a commentary.

The US-sponsored "Peace to Prosperity" economic workshop will be held in Bahrain's capital of Manama on 25-26 June. The event seeks to explore political solutions for the entire region, and it also aims to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Comment: Also see:

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Bad Guys

After years of 'regime change' US State Dept to now give Syria $75mn grant to combat 'Iranian disinformation'


RT
Wed, 29 May 2019 08:33 UTC
us state department
© Sputnik
After spending years trying to topple Damascus, Washington has now pledged to protect war-scarred Syrians from Iranian "disinformation." The act of altruism is part of a grant aimed at "advancing US interests" in the country.

The US State Department wants to give $75 million to an eligible NGO as part of an initiative aimed at strengthening "credible governance and civil society entities" in Syria - at least in the areas controlled by illegitimate, US-backed forces.

The grant will also fund efforts to "counter extremism and disinformation perpetuated by Iranian forces," since that is apparently the major life-and-death issue facing Syrians after seven years of devastating war. Additionally, the grant aims to "ensure the enduring defeat" of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
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Star of David

Israel sets appalling new record for number of Palestinian homes demolished in a single day

Arthur MacMillian
The National
Wed, 22 May 2019 20:25 UTC
Jerusalem palestine home demolition
© Agence France-Presse
A Palestinian family watch from a balcony as Israeli bulldozers demolish shops in the Arab-inhabited Shuafat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem.
UN envoy says April 29 represented the biggest day for Israeli demolitions since records began in 2009

The number of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem that were demolished by Israel's military in a single day peaked on April 29, when 31 structures were flattened, the UN's envoy for Middle East peace said on Wednesday.
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