The US economy and its financial structures have never recovered from the great financial meltdown of 2008 despite the passage of ten years. Little discussion has been given to the fact that the Republican Congress last year abandoned the process of mandatory budget cuts or automatic sequestration that had been voted in a feeble attempt to rein in the dramatic rise in US government debt. That was merely an added factor in what soon will be recognized as a classic debt trap. What is now looming over not just the US economy but also the global financial system is a crisis that could spell the end of the post-1944 dollar system.

First some basic background. When President Nixon, on advice of Paul Volcker, then at US Treasury, announced on August 15, 1971 the unilateral end of the Bretton Woods gold-dollar system, to replace it with a floating dollar, Washington economists and Wall Street bankers realized that the unique role of the US dollar as leading reserve currency held by all central banks and the currency for world commodity and other trade, especially oil, gave them something that appeared to be a gift from monetary heaven.

So long as the world needed US dollars, Washington could run government deficits without end. Foreign central banks, especially the Bank of Japan in the 1980's and since the turn of the century, the Peoples' Bank of China, would have little choice but to reinvest their surplus trade dollar earnings in interest-bearing AAA-rated US Treasury securities. This perverse dollar system allowed Washington to finance its wars in faraway places like Afghanistan or Iraq with other peoples' money. During the Administration of George W. Bush, when Washington's annual budget deficit exceeded annually one trillion dollars, Vice President Dick Cheney cynically quipped, "debt doesn't matter; Reagan proved that." Up to a point that appeared so. Now we are getting dangerously near to that "point" where debt does matter.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly threatened "military action" against Qatar should its neighbor acquire Russian S-400 missile defense systems, according to Le Monde, citing a letter from King Salman to the French presidency.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt, among other Gulf states, cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting and funding terrorism. Doha was also accused of "meddling" in the internal affairs of its neighbors and of expressing support for Saudi Arabia's historic rival Iran.

Now Riyadh is reportedly worried that Doha's planned acquisition of Russia's S-400 surface-to-air missile units will jeopardize the "national security" of its Persian Gulf neighbors. According to information obtained by Le Monde, King Salman has recently sent a letter to the French presidency, where he expressed his "deep concern" vis-à-vis the ongoing S-400 negotiations between Doha and Moscow.

Rear Admiral Douglas Fears has been named the new homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to the US president, filling the seat left vacant since his predecessor resigned shortly after John Bolton's appointment.

"Doug Fears brings more than three decades of experience across a range of vital homeland security areas including counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and disaster response to the NSC," White House national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement.

Fears, who spent more than 30 years in the US Coast Guard, currently serves on the National Security Council staff as a special assistant to the president acting as a senior director for resilience policy. Just prior to that, he served as Chief of Staff for the US Coast Guard (2015-2017) where he managed more than 24,000 members of the force. A graduate in public administration of Harvard Kennedy School, Fears also has a degree from the US Naval War College.

The US military has held preliminary talks with Germany to place its THAAD missile defense system in the country in order to boost European security, sources have told Reuters.

The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to Ramstein Air Base, which hosts the US Air Force in Europe headquarters and NATO's Allied Air Command, has been discussed, an unnamed US military official told the agency. "It would be a further political message to the Europeans that we're serious about protecting our allies," the official said.

Berlin was open to the move, which, it said, will help better protect civilian populations, another source added.

Reuters also cited a senior German military official, who underlined the need for more radars across the European continent, to better track and monitor potential threats.

Australia's consumer watchdog has announced that financial institutions ANZ, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup as well as several individuals will be prosecuted for an alleged criminal cartel arrangement.

The allegations concern arrangements for the sale of 2.5 billion of Australian dollars ($1.9 billion) worth of ANZ shares three years ago.

"The charges will involve alleged cartel arrangements relating to trading in ANZ shares following an ANZ institutional share placement in August 2015," chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

He added: "It will be alleged that ANZ and the individuals were knowingly concerned in some or all of the conduct." ANZ, one of Australia's so-called "big four" banks, said the charges related to a placement of 80.8 million shares. The shares were offered to the institutional investors at a discounted rate of $30.95 per share.

This week marks the 30-year anniversary of the INF treaty between the US and the Soviet Union, a deal that saw thousands of missiles destroyed and sped up the end of the Cold War. Now the US seems to want to torpedo the agreement.

The INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) treaty was signed in December 1987. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to Washington to put his signature next to that of US President Ronald Reagan, resulting in an unprecedented scaling down of the two superpowers' arsenals.

The treaty covers missiles of two range classes: short (500 to 1,000km, or 310 to 620 miles) and intermediate (1,000 to 5,000km, or 620 to 3,420 miles), with both nuclear and conventional payloads, but only those with land-based launchers. Further production and use by the two nations of other state missile types has since been banned.

The North Korea nuclear summit is back on.

President Donald Trump announced the decision after a historic and lengthy Oval Office meeting Friday with Kim Yong Chol, who is the top deputy to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"We'll be meeting on June 12th in Singapore," Trump told reporters at the White House. But he also said that it would be hard to reach a deal from a single summit in less than two weeks.

"I don't see that happening," he said. "I told him I think you could have probably [other meetings]."

The media wants you to believe that the Philippines is headed towards war with China. The truth may in fact be the opposite.

If you followed international headlines this week, you may have been alarmed to see the shocking revelation that, despite wanting a closer relationship with China, Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte was now ready to risk war with Beijing to 'protect the territorial integrity of his country'.

"Philippines' Duterte threatens war in South China sea if troops are harmed," Newsweek warns. "Philippines draw three hard lines on China," Asia Times outlines. "Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will go to war with China if it crosses 'red lines' and claims disputed resources, foreign ministry warns," the South China Morning Post (SCMP) explains. "Duterte will 'go to war' over South China Sea resources, minister says," according to CNN.

Those are indeed some shocking headlines as the last thing anyone in their right mind wants is a regional conflict, not least one that involves a rising nuclear power with the capabilities that China has.

So what did President Duterte actually say, and how close to a regional standoff are we at this current juncture?

Lithuania and Romania, which hosted secret CIA prisons for terrorist suspects, are responsible for knowingly allowing the torture of prisoners, a European court ruled. It comes after the appointment of Gina Haspel as CIA head.

The two European nations, which hosted clandestine CIA detention facilities after 9/11, have breached basic tenets of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights by allowing torture of prisoners to happen on their territory, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled on Thursday.

The ECHR ruling refers to the cases of Saudi-born Abu Zabaydah and Saudi Abd Al Rahim Husseyn Muhammad Al Nashiri, both of whom are currently held at the US Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Zabaydah, a suspected senior Al-Qaeda member, was held for two months in Lithuania in 2005. Al Nashiri, who is suspected of organizing the attack on the USS Cole, was held in Romania between 2004 and 2005. The case was brought before the court by lawyers, who lodged complaints against the European nations in 2011 and 2012.

America is telling Europe and Asia: "You have to go your own way, you can't depend upon us" because the US is going to do everything to hurt you in order to help itself, according to economic commentator Michael Hudson.

After months of postponing its implementation while simultaneously threatening a trade war, President Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The EU, as well as Canada and Mexico, has vowed to retaliate.

Domestic reaction in the US has also been negative with both Democrats and Republicans criticizing the move. Wall Street analyst and economic commentator Michael Hudson believes the US could actually suffer more than Europe from the tariffs.

RT: The EU has vowed to retaliate. What steps do you expect them to take?

Michael Hudson: The irony of all of this is that there is a good logic for protectionism. And the object to protectionism is to import the raw materials as cheap as you can and make all your profit in manufactures in high value added. What Trump has done by putting the tariffs on aluminum and steel is to raise the price of aluminum and steel to Americans. They've already jumped about 25 percent since he announced the tariffs a few weeks ago. And all of a sudden this oversupply is going to be sold to Europeans and Asians. So, their manufacturers can buy aluminum and steel more cheaply to make manufactured goods at much lower costs than American manufacturers can.

So, Trump has given Europe and Asia an opportunity to undersell American manufacturers of tinware, of anything industrial: beer kegs, people have talked about, frying pans, cars, anything made out of aluminum and steel. Now, the foreigners outside of America will have an advantage over the American producers. Trump has shot the American economy in the foot. That seems to be his guiding principle.