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No worries? Germany's finance minister unconcerned its gold reserves are stuck in the US Federal Reserve


RT
Thu, 29 Nov 2018 10:39 UTC
German gold bars
© Global Look Press/Christian Ohde
For decades, the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank and custodian of the country's gold, has been storing over 1,200 tons of the precious metal worth nearly €50 billion in the New York vaults of the US Federal Reserve.

After a public outcry in Germany in 2013, authorities started the repatriation program, aimed at returning the country's gold reserves, which have been stored outside of the country since the Cold War. Berlin intended to get at least half of the country's gold from the US and France by 2020. The government had initially planned to complete the program within a five-year period, but the US Federal Reserve renegotiated the process to a seven-year timeline.

The country reportedly managed to ship only five tons of its gold in 2013 due to logistical difficulties. The following year, Germany repatriated 120 tons of the precious metal - 35 tons from Paris and 85 tons from New York. Some 110.5 tons were brought back from Paris and 99.5 tons from New York in 2015. Two years ago, the country repatriated total of 200 tons.

So far, the Fed has denied the German financial regulator access to the vast deposits that are literally being held hostage overseas. Thus, the Bundesbank has had no opportunity to audit the reserves that belong to Germany.

Comment: No raised eyebrows? Perhaps the German finance minister would benefit from extra research by reading the articles listed below. See also:

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Eye 2

US Labor Secretary and the prosecuting attorney softened charges against billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends


Sputnik
Thu, 29 Nov 2018 01:52 UTC
Jeffrey Epstein
© Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein attendingLaunch of RADAR MAGAZINE at Hotel QT on May 18, 2005
Ahead of a trial slated for December 4 over a lawsuit filed against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who is accused of enslaving dozens of underage girls for sex, a new report details US Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta's role in covering up the full scale of Epstein's crimes.

Epstein's teen sex trafficking ring worked like a pyramid scheme, according to victims, who say they were paid to give massages to Epstein, paid extra for sex acts and paid even more to recruit more girls between the ages of 13 and 16 into the ring. The girls were also, at times, allegedly offered up to Epstein's powerful friends.

"We had victims who didn't know each other, never met each other and they all basically independently told the same story," Michael Reiter told the Miami Herald. Reiter was police chief in Palm Beach, Florida - where Epstein resided - during the investigation. Two police officers also said that they were pressured by then-Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer to discontinue their investigation or downgrade the case to a misdemeanor.

In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution and served 13 months in prison following a plea agreement. His conviction followed a series of dismissals of other, similar lawsuits that same year.

Comment: You can check out the full article from the Miami Herald here.

Pedophiles in positions of power have been in the headlines constantly in recent years:


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Briefcase

'Manage your expectations': Wells Fargo optimistic about potential Trump/Xi trade deal at G-20 although it 'won't be what either side wants'

Huileng Tan
CNBC
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 06:58 UTC
Trump and Xi
© Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump, left, and Xi Jinping, China’s president, shake hands during a news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017.
Expect a deal between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Argentina, but manage your expectations, a Wells Fargo executive told CNBC on Friday.

"I am optimistic that they will strike a deal. I don't think it's going to be the deal that either side wants, but I think there will be some concessions," said Kirk Hartman, global chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Asset Management. "I think this is more about protecting U.S. technology as much as it is trade, so I think you will see some comments on that front. "

Hartman said the U.S. may delay on Chinese imports that were due to take effect in January. Washington and Beijing may also agree to meet for further negotiations.

Comment: See also:

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Cross

Creation of independent Ukrainian Church delayed as Ecumenical Patriarch fails to win support

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Ecumenical Patriarch delay independent Ukrainian church

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has been deliberately delaying the process of granting autocephaly to Ukraine because it has so far failed to win the support of other national Orthodox churches according to Priest Alexander Volkov, Spokesman for Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
When Patriarch Bartholomew lifted the anathemas on Filaret Denisenko and Makary and pledged his efforts to create an autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Church in Ukraine, he boldly proclaimed that everyone would go along with his decision. However, a piece in TASS published November 30 proposes that perhaps the reason this process has been delayed over and over is because the other Orthodox Churches in fact did not think this was the right move and that by extension, the Patriarch is complicit in creating a fake Ukrainian Church (edited for grammar and emphasis).
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has been deliberately delaying the process of granting autocephaly to Ukraine because it has so far failed to win the support of other national Orthodox churches, Spokesman for Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Priest Alexander Volkov, has told TASS.

On Thursday, it became known that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople [...] failed to set the date for the unification council in Ukraine during a meeting of its Holy and Sacred Synod in Istanbul, which was held on November 27-29.

"It is becoming clear that Constantinople's actions are being delayed on purpose and have not yet produced the result that some naive people expect them to," Volkov said. "In fact, it has long become clear that Constantinople has no real possibility and no real support for its project of [Ukrainian] autocephaly," he said.

Comment: Whose money instigated religious conflict in Ukraine - and who tried to steal it?
As explained by Valeria Z. Nollan, professor emerita of Russian Studies at Rhodes College:
'The real goal of the quest for autocephaly [i.e., complete self-governing status independent of the Moscow Patriarchate] of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a de facto coup: a political coup already took place in 2014, poisoning the relations between western Ukraine and Russia, and thus another type of coup - a religious one - similarly seeks to undermine the canonical relationship between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Moscow.'
In furthering these twin objectives (morally, the degrading of Orthodox Christianity; politically, undermining the Russian state as Orthodoxy's powerful traditional protector) it is increasingly clear that the United States government - and specifically the Department of State - has become a hands-on fomenter of conflict.
See also:

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No Entry

You shall not pass: Russia to require foreign warships navigating through its Northern Sea Route to give prior notice to Defense Ministry


RT
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 14:21 UTC
Russian Navy flag & russian warship Northern Sea Route
© Sputnik / Vitaly Ankov
A Russian Navy flag and a warship preparing for navigation through the Northern Sea Route.
Russia is updating its navigation rules for a contingency involving another nation's warships attempting to sail along the Northern Sea Route. Such a passage would require prior notification from the Defense Ministry.

The route, situated in the Arctic along Russia's northern coast, is becoming more accessible to sea traffic as the climate warms. With longer navigation seasons and fewer ice hazards, Russia hopes the path will be increasingly in demand for international commercial transit. Such navigation however more often than not requires Russia's cooperation, since an icebreaker usually is needed to pass through.

There is however a potential source of problems with Russia's northern side becoming more accessible. Foreign military ships may travel it too, even those lacking ice protection, as was proven by the Loire-class offshore support and assistance ship of the French Navy Rhône in October. It took the ship 17 days to traverse the route and she didn't ask for Russian icebreaker assistance for it.


Comment: The days of navigating the arctic sea route sans ice-breakers may not last much longer: Climate panic: Arctic and Antarctic ice are increasing, not decreasing


Comment: See also:

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NPC

Atlantic Council members McFaul and Polyakova appalled at seeing Russian media outlets listed in Kerch search results


RT
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 17:05 UTC
russophobia
© Global Look Press / Gabriele Holtermann-Gorden
A former Atlantic Council scholar and ex-envoy Michael McFaul - neither being big fans of Russia - are worried that Google is showing them RT stories on the Russia-Ukraine scuffle in the Kerch Strait, above the mainstream names.

Alina Polyakova, formerly a research director at the Atlantic Council, a NATO-sponsored think tank pushing an anti-Russian agenda, has some tough questions for Google, after finding Russian and Ukrainian media headlines, about the recent standoff between Russia and Ukraine in the Kerch Strait, a bit too high in her search results for her liking.
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Mr. Potato

Never go full Saakashvili! Desperate Poroshenko loses it

The Saker
The Unz Review
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 16:34 UTC
poroshenko
© Reuters
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
Petro Poroshenko is in deep trouble. His ratings have been in the single-digit range in spite of a vast propaganda effort, and his latest attempt to create a salvific crisis involving the usual "Russian aggression" has not only failed but appears to be backfiring.

It is now becoming abundantly clear that the Ukronazi provocation was not only breathtakingly stupid and irresponsible, but also breathtakingly poorly planned and executed. The documents seized by the FSB on the Ukrainian ships show that the Ukrainian captains were given the order to "covertly" sneak under the Kerch bridge. I have no idea what the Ukronazi junta leaders were thinking, maybe they were drunk or terrified to tell Poroshenko that this was a suicidal mission (most likely he was too drunk to care anyway), but the fact that they could even imagine that three old boats could somehow sneak around the Crimean Peninsula and then covertly pass under the Kerch bridge is just amazing (as is the fact that the crews failed to destroy this damning evidence!). One of the most heavily monitored sections of our planet, right next to a war zone, which has been the object of innumerable threats, and yet they thought that they could somehow avoid being detected and intercepted. Wow, just wow!


Comment: Unless that was the plan, and these sailors were bait, in the hopes that Russia would attack them with much more force than they ended up using. Ukrainian martyrs would play a lot better than the sad display the world was treated to.

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Bad Guys

Fascist Ukraine agitating for 'new measures' against Russia: EU, NATO say 'enough being done already'


RFE/RL
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 16:40 UTC
NATO patrol Black Sea Ukraine
© File
NATO says its ships routinely patrol and conduct exercises in the Black Sea.
European leaders and NATO have reacted coolly to calls by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for new measures to strengthen defenses and penalize Russia over its capture of Ukrainian ships and crew off Crimea.

A NATO spokeswoman said on November 29 that the military alliance already has a strong presence in the Black Sea region where the incident occurred, and it has no plans to send warships into the Sea of Azov, which lies between Ukrainian and Russian territory, as requested by Poroshenko on November 28.

Oana Lungescu said NATO ships routinely patrol and conduct exercises in the Black Sea, with NATO ships already present in the region for 120 days this year as compared with 80 days last year.

Comment: Ukraine is still trying to get mileage out of a transparent ploy engineered to draw Russia into a confrontation with NATO. Fortunately, cooler heads seem to be prevailing.

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Quenelle - Golden

Catching fire: French yellow vest protests spread to Brussels with calls for resignation of PM Charles Michel


RT
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 16:14 UTC
yellow vest protests Brussels
© AP
France's 'Yellow Vest' protests have now made their way to Belgium, with demonstrators in Brussels calling on the prime minister to resign. Some threw rocks and firecrackers at officers, prompting them to deploy water cannons.

Crowds of people protesting fuel prices and living standards disrupted traffic and walked the streets for around three hours on Friday.


Comment: Dissatisfaction with autocratic rule is a spreading contagion - it will be interesting to see if elites respond reasonably or push-back and risk greater conflagration.

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Bomb

Drones away: Trump outdoes Obama in drone-bombing the world


Sputnik
Thu, 29 Nov 2018 03:36 UTC
drone cartoon
US President Donald Trump is known to reference policies and actions of his predecessor Barack Obama's administration while patting himself on the back, but there is one particular topic 45 may not want to make into a numbers game during his rallies: drone strikes in undeclared war zones.

According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Obama surpassed George W. Bush's 57 drone attacks in the undeclared battlefields of Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia with a whopping 563 strikes by his 2017 exit from the White House. Trump, with only two years under his belt, has ordered 238, more than half the total carried out in Obama's eight years in office.
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