Puppet Masters
The US and China signed the accord in January, bringing a partial truce in their lingering trade war and obliging Beijing to import an additional $200 billion in American products over two years, ranging from cars and machinery to oil and farm products.
But the Covid-19 pandemic has put pressure on the agreement and China's purchases of those goods have been lagging.
The two countries confirmed the talks in separate statements.
Washington said the parties "addressed steps that China has taken to effectuate structural changes called for by the agreement".

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, failed Belarus presidential candidate
On Monday, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, she met with US Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Biegun in a move that will have raised concern in the Kremlin. Russia has been asking Western states to keep out of the situation in Belarus, which is Moscow's chief military and political ally.
In a statement, the State Department said Biegun had discussed "strengthening democracy and human rights in the country" with Tikhanovskaya in Vilnius. The bulletin described her as "opposition leader" and continued by "affirming the US commitment to Belarus' sovereignty and territorial integrity and to the sovereign right of its people to elect their own leaders and determine their own future."
Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Oleg Khramov said in an interview that the majority of hacks are conducted utilizing American IT infrastructure.
From 2016-19, 40 to 75 percent of all attacks were launched from US territory, while Russia was home to no more than two to seven percent of such cases, Khramov told the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty. This "clearly demonstrates to any sensible person" that the West's painting of Russia as a "global threat to cyberspace" is baseless, he said.
Although Khramov didn't name the companies he was referring to, in June 2019, the National Computer Incident Response & Coordination Center (NCIRCC) announced that up to 71 percent of cyberattacks against Russian IT systems came from the US and only three percent were of domestic origin.
The motorcade carrying Navalny, whom Bild newspaper described as "the patient the world is watching," included several emergency vehicles, police buses and patrol cars.
The activist, who remained in a medically induced coma during the journey, was transported to Berlin's renowned Charite Hospital inside a Bundeswehr intensive care ambulance truck. The vehicle had military markings and a special license plate showing a code starting with the letter Y, which is used exclusively by the German military.
Comment:
UPDATE 24/8/2020 German colleagues congratulate Russian doctors for their efforts:
Anatoly Kalinichenko, the deputy director at the emergency clinic in Omsk, explained that "poisoning" was one of the initial suspicions when Navalny arrived there. That was why the activist was moved to the toxicology unit, [but] the final test results from two laboratories that found no toxic chemical substances that could be called poisons, or their residues.UPDATE 24/8/2020 German government is still suspicious Navalny was poisoned:
Head Doctor Alexander Murakhovsky said that Omsk medics continued to treat Navalny and allowed his transportation to Germany only after his condition had stabilized. Omsk clinic "saved Alexey Navalny's life due to its great efforts, there is no doubt about that. The activist remains in stable but 'serious' condition. Our German colleagues are very grateful and also have no doubts that the patient's life was saved [by the Russian team]."
Berlin believes there's a 'certain probability' that Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny was poisoned and that he requires personal protection. "We are dealing with a patient where there is a certain probability that he was poisoned," Steffan Seibert told a press conference.UPDATE 24/8/2020 Indications of poisoning:
However, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas sounded a note of caution, warning that it's necessary to wait for a statement by the doctors treating him before making judgements. Maas added that many facts relevant to the case are still missing. "I am one of those people who bases my views on facts," Mass said during a news conference. "Many facts are missing in the case of Navalny: medical and also likely criminological. We must wait for those (facts)."
German doctors are expected to talk about his condition later on Monday.
A medical examination of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a German hospital has found indications of poisoning, the Charite hospital said on Monday.UPDATE 24/8/2020 No definitive answers yet from the German medical team:
"The team of doctors examined the patient in detail after his arrival. The clinical findings indicate poisoning by a substance from the group of active substances called cholinesterase inhibitors," the hospital said in a statement.
The specific substance involved remains unknown. "Alexey Navalny's prognosis remains unclear; the possibility of long-term effects, particularly those affecting the nervous system, cannot be excluded."UPDATE 24/8/2020 Chancellor Merkel and FM Maas demand Russian investigation and find those responsible:
A statement signed by Chancellor Merkel and FM Heiko Maas:UPDATE 24/8/2020 Russian doctor is being threatened, targeting his family:
"According to a statement from the team of doctors at Charite, data from clinical studies indicates that Alexey Navalny was poisoned. Taking into account Navalny's prominent role among the political opposition in Russia, Moscow should thoroughly look into the exact circumstances in the case and "those responsible must be identified and held accountable."
The intervention may not go down well in the Kremlin, where it could be perceived as an ultimatum. Indeed, sources in Moscow suggest it could even be counterproductive, as Russia is notoriously prickly about external interference in its domestic affairs. It is also worth noting that Putin's press secretary has already promised a "full investigation" if it turns out Navalny has been poisoned. Doctors in Omsk had claimed that two different laboratories in Russia found no poisons in his system.
The deputy chief medic at the clinic in Siberia where Moscow protest leader Alexey Navalny was hospitalized last week says he received "dozens of threats" on social media, some of the more sinister ones even targeting his family. However, Dr Anatoly Kalinichenko says he bears no ill will toward Navalny. "This did not affect anything, we treated a man, and these [threats] were not his fault."See also:
The hospital's Chief Medical Officer Dr Alexander Murakhovsky said that while he wasn't personally the victim of threats, his office received over 1,000 phone calls in about two days [and] disrupted normal functioning of the hospital, he claimed. "There were very many people, ambulances sometimes had a hard time getting through, everything was blocked. They filmed patients, brought in by the ambulance, which is unacceptable under any circumstances."
- Alexey Navalny 'in coma' after falling ill on flight from Siberia, poisoning suspected UPDATES
- Russian doctors say Alexei Navalny wasn't poisoned, refuse transfer
- Revelation from British intelligence archives - Alexei Navalny is an MI6 & CIA agent
- Yale University 'educated' Russian color revolution agitator tool Alexey Navalny

Signs on a window at a public housing tower under lockdown in Melbourne, Australia July 10, 2020
I regret to report that Melbourne's answer to Mao Zedong has decided that he really rather enjoys being able to tell people exactly what they have to do and has no intention of stopping any time soon. Chairman, sorry, Premier Dan Andrews of Victoria is trying to railroad a bill through the legislature that would allow him to keep the current state of emergency going for another 12 months.
The trailer for the upcoming Showtime miniseries 'The Comey Rule' dropped Monday, right at the start of the Republican national convention. The 140-second clip is the Hollywood distillation of the 'Resistance' narrative of the past four years - which is not surprising, given that it's based on Comey's self-serving 2018 memoir, A Higher Loyalty.
As you can imagine I didn't hold back.
The idea that the scientists who have been the most vocal in advising President Trump and the other world leaders, would give Biden the honest answer about how to deal with COVID-19 at this point is beyond laughable.
I'm sorry but the official arbiters of "Science!" have done nothing but lie, delay, obfuscate and oversell the threat of this virus. And their miscommunication, intentional, well-meaning, or just incompetent, has cost humanity hundreds of billions if not trillions in accumulated wealth and time. Those things translate directly into lives lost, opportunities destroyed. Has Biden not looked around and seen the multiplying protests worldwide against these idiotic and tyrannical lock downs?
Comment: He should know best how to attest. He's been kept in a basement under management for personal insights into the tribulations of the masses.

President Trump speaks on stage as he visits the Republican National Committee convention site, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, in Charlotte.
The president, after an in-person roll call vote where Republicans officially renominated him to represent the party on the ballot in the Nov. 3 presidential election--and locking in the GOP ticket for the battle against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris--took the stage and warned that Democrats are trying to "steal" the election.
"What they're doing is using COVID to steal our election," Trump said Monday from Charlotte, N.C., warning also against potential widespread fraud with regard to mail-in ballots for the election.
Comment: Trump took some time out to unexpectedly compliment his media nemesis, CNN, on their coverage of the RNC:
Not historically a CNN fan, US President Donald Trump suddenly decided to thank the network for reporting on last night's Republican Convention - but the post stirred up a virtual bloodbath between his supporters and opponents.
Trump tweeted his appreciation earlier on Tuesday, saying the broadcaster's coverage of the "the vast majority of the Republican Convention last night" was "really good for CNN while at the same time being good for our Country."
"Thank you!" he wrote in the emotive tweet.
The comments section turned into an online battleground between those supporting the Republican cause and Trump's nomination, and those fiercely opposing it. "CNN covers disasters quite well,"one critic wrote, while another labelled the convention a "clown show."
Others disagreed, insisting CNN only did this because it failed to perform well while covering the DNC. Among its critics was Errol Webber, a Republican candidate for Senate, who wrote that "CNN wanted ratings. They know no one watched the DNC."
Moderate voices, meanwhile, complained about the difficulties of getting unbiased, bipartisan news these days.
Trump seems to have taken a short break from the years-long animosity between himself and CNN. He publicly accused the network of spreading a hostile narrative, with his campaign going as far as to sue it for "false and defamatory" coverage on a par with New York Times and Washington Post.
The US president and his team have never pulled their punches while taking CNN's reporters to the task. Jim Acosta has earned the title of a "rude, terrible person" directly from Trump, while host Brian Stelter was once called"one of the most dishonest propagandists in the media" by the president's lawyer.
Trump highlighted "spying" focused on his 2016 campaign, and said these efforts involved former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden. Several convention attendees can be heard in the video shouting out in agreement, and one can be heard shouting "spygate," the unofficial name given to the scandal. The Lincoln Project, among others, claimed they heard differently.
Comment: Political pundit Anne Coulter captured the moment perfectly:
And the circus rolls on. November can't get here soon enough.












Comment: Cue the familiar rhetoric of the Color Revolution™ machine: