China's aggression is destabilizing its neighbors in the South China Sea. China never stops cheating on world trade. China's stock market is a trap for investors. China's devaluation of the yuan is a dirty trick. China is imploding. President Xi Jinping does not have any credibility left. And China is a major threat because the Pentagon said so.

Whatever.

Cue to clear blue skies over Beijing - engineered with a hefty dose of political will. Lots of glittering toys - aerial and terrestrial. Guests from all over the world (absent the predictable Western suspects). A made-for-TV spectacular dwarfing the Oscars (no teary-eyed acceptance speeches!) What's not to like?

And then, there it was, strutting its lethal stuff on the Tiananmen catwalk: the Dongfeng-21D. A cracking land-based anti-ship ballistic missile capable of destroying one of those multibillion-dollar US aircraft carriers with a single hit.

No wonder China's parade celebrating the end of WWII had to be demonized to oblivion.

There is an epic struggle occurring in British politics at the moment, which could have major repercussions for the country, and perhaps even the whole world. At first glance this may appear to be an exaggeration, yet the prospect of a real 'socialist' - Jeremy Corbyn - becoming Labour party leader is potentially very significant.

As well as exposing and undermining the efforts of the architects of 'New' Labour to destroy traditional, socialist values, it also affords us a microcosmic view of a larger battle being fought. US hegemony, in the form of the global capitalist system - which just isn't working (unless, of course, you are one of the psychopathic elite), versus a more socialist alternative, as represented by Russia, China and other BRICS countries, who are striving to create a 'multi-polar' world order.

There is ample evidence that the divide between the few who 'have' and the vast majority who 'have not' is increasing. The repeated claims by government officials and shills that more 'austerity measures' are necessary 'for economic prosperity' and the UK Tory party rhetoric that "we are all in this together" is nothing more than destructive propaganda and lies. New figures have emerged this week showing Britain has 41% more millionaires than it did five years ago. All this at a time of soaring inequality, rising house prices and in-work poverty. Britain really is the "European capital of inequality", and is even more polarized between rich and poor than the United States!

The sudden popularity of anti-austerity advocate Jeremy Corbyn is, therefore, no surprise, because more and more people in the UK are waking up to the fact that the ruling 'elite', presently incarnated in the political form of the Conservative party (and the Liberal Democrats in the previous coalition government, and 'New' Labour before them), do NOT actually represent the majority of British people.

Voting for the next Labour party leader has already begun, with the results to be announced on Saturday 12th September 2015. This realization of entrenched inequality is not limited to the UK, with anti-austerity parties in other countries (such as Syriza in Greece, and Podemos in Spain) gaining more prominence.

Russia has frequently warned of major problems which Europe would face as a result of Western policies in the Middle East and North Africa and jihadist groups terrorizing people, so the current refugee crisis in the EU doesn't come as a surprise, said the President of Russia.

"I think the crisis was absolutely expected," President Vladimir Putin told journalists at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

"We in Russia, and me personally a few years ago, said it straight that pervasive problems would emerge, if our so-called Western partners continue maintaining their flawed ... foreign policy, especially in the regions of the Muslim world, Middle East, North Africa, which they pursue to date," said Putin.

According to the Russian president, the main flaw of Western foreign policy is the imposition of their own standards worldwide without taking into account the historical, religious, national and cultural characteristics of particular regions.

The only way to reverse the refugee flow streaming into Europe is to help people resolve problems at home. And the first step should be by creating a common and united front against jihadist groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and fighting them at their core.


"We really want to form some kind of an international coalition, therefore we conduct consultations with our US partners," Putin said, noting that he spoke about it with President Obama.

Bloody clashes near the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev are no different from other violent skirmishes which became commonplace under the new regime, former PM Nikolai Azarov told RT, also criticizing constitutional amendments as having nothing to do with real decentralization.

"The developments near the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian parliament] show that Ukraine has eventually plunged into a state of permanent chaos, accompanied by 'absolutely natural' - from the participants' point of view - event," Azarov said.

"The extremist who threw the grenade at policemen is a participant of the so-called anti-terrorist operation [Kiev's military operation in Donbass region]. Just imagine what he had been doing in eastern Ukraine," he added.


While some Western countries condemned the violence in Kiev, Azarov wondered why they turned a blind eye to similar events last year. He was referring to the Maidan uprising and subsequent violent coup in February 2014, which brought down the previous president and government. Monday's events were, according to the former prime minister, a logical result of the West's policies.

Conducting a routine scientific study of ocean environments, a lone Russian research vessel has attracted a lot of attention from the Pentagon. Despite the fact that it's moving through international waters, the Yantar is being monitored by US Navy ships, aircraft, and even reconnaissance satellites.

Last May, the Russian Navy christened its latest oceanographic research vessel. Built for deep sea research and rescue operations, it's currently conducting operations in the Atlantic Ocean.

"The Yantar is equipped with a unique on-board scientific research complex which enables it to collect data on the ocean environment, both in motion and on hold," said Alexei Burilichev, head of the deepwater research department at the Russian Defense Ministry. "There are no similar complexes anywhere."

Argentina's central bank has ordered HSBC to remove its local CEO within 24 hours over his alleged failure to thwart terrorist financing, money laundering, and tax evasion.

In March, Argentinian authorities ordered HSBC to return a mammoth $3.5bn (£2.3bn) from an array of accounts nestled offshore.

Argentina had accused the scandal-ridden bank of assisting over 4,000 clients in evading taxes by funneling their illicit cash to secret bank accounts in Switzerland. But HSBC has consistently denied the allegations, insisting that it respects Argentine law.

Nevertheless, on September 1 the Central Bank of Argentina demanded that HSBC's regional president Gabriel Martino and vice president Miguel Angel Estevez both be removed from their roles. It argued neither Martino nor Angel Estevez had taken adequate measures to thwart "money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities."

The head of Argentina's tax authority Ricardo Echegary welcomed the move as a "healthy decision."

Russia isn't scared of the UK and US because Western troops aren't garrisoned in neighboring Eastern European states, a fact which Britain must assert itself militarily to overcome, according to a new report by the neoconservative Henry Jackson Society.

The report titled 'After Crimea: Towards a new British Geostrategy for Eastern Europe?' was published on Tuesday and focuses on how Britain should respond to the perceived Russian threat.

Timed for release one year after the NATO summit held in Wales, and shortly before the UK government's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), the report argues that, "For the first time in over two decades the UK faces, in Russia, a serious state-based competitor on the European continent."


The report comes to a number of key conclusions about frictions between Russia and the West, claiming that while Russia may not be carrying out a "neo-imperial" project it presents a serious threat. It also claims the lack of permanent UK and US military garrisons in the east has made Russia feel confident.

The report says Britain should plan in case it must relinquish global interests in favor of a relatively local confrontation with Russia.

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of Japan's capitulation in WWII, China has showcased hundreds of its newest military hardware in a remarkable parade which saw some 12,000 troops marching across Tiananmen Square in front of dozens of world leaders.


Some 30 foreign leaders attended the memorial event, representing countries from Russia and Belarus, to Egypt, South Korea and Venezuela. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also attended the parade, while the majority of "high-profile" Western leaders have passed on the event.

In what is being described as the worse refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War, tens of thousands of desperate migrants are streaming across EU borders. They have risked their lives to get there, only to be then attacked by EU «border police», or else targeted by racist street mobs. Welcome to Europe!

Destitute and carrying their worldly possessions in nothing but a haversack, men, women and young children are having to outwit truncheon-wielding police ranks in order to try to reach safety. This is in the European Union, whose treaties proclaim to the rest of the world the sanctity of human rights and dignity. Hungary, Romania and Greece have emerged as the new crisis points, replacing Italy as the formerly main refugee route.

Crying mothers run with petrified children jostled on their backs into forests or ditches just to escape from teargas-firing riot police. One distraught woman told a France 24 news crew how she had become separated from her family in the melee. She didn't know how she would ever find them because she was stranded on the other side of the police cordon. Her missing children and husband had to run away before they were captured by the cops.

One young boy from Syria told CNN reporter Awra Damon that his family and many others were forced back by a phalanx of helmet-clad police officers as they attempted to cross the Hungarian border. The little boy said his family fled an area in Syria that is under control of the Islamic State (or ISIS) terror group - the cult jihadist militia notorious for beheading civilians. (The CNN reporter didn't seem to notice the irony that her TV channel has previously made heaps of news stories out of accusing the Syrian government as being the one who is terrorising its people.)

What does that say about the Hungarian border police when beleaguered refugees are cowering before them? It's a graphic condemnation of the EU's border controls being scarier than blood-thirsty terrorists.

Last month alone, more than 100,000 migrants crossed EU borders. This is a humanitarian crisis on a scale that evokes the harrowing grainy footage showing wandering masses in the aftermath of World War Two.

The vast majority of the refugees to the EU are from war-torn Syria, according to the UN's International Organisation for Migration. Up to 12 million of Syria's population - half the total - have been displaced by more than four years of conflict in that country. A war that has been fuelled covertly by the United States, Britain and France seeking regime change against President Bashar al Assad. Also fuelling the war in Syria are Western allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey and Israel.

Britain's oversight of surveillance is "worse than a bad joke," UN Special Rapporteur on Privacy Joseph Cannataci told RT. He warned that the situation may be "downright dangerous."

Cannataci, who is also head of the department of Information Policy & Governance at the University of Malta, explained that the problem of the current oversight mechanism in Britain is rooted in lack of resources.

The mechanism is based on the actions of three commissioners which are "severely under-resourced," he said. Currently there are three bodies that are engaged in the oversight issues - the Information Commissioner's Office, the Intelligence and Security Committee and the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

"They are in no position to undertake an adequate oversight and random inspections of the agencies which come within their remit," he said adding that his comment has nothing to do with the personal qualities of the commissioners involved.