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UN envoy: Israel 'moving rapidly' towards annexation in Hebron

Mersiha Gadzo
Al-Jazeera
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 20:57 UTC
hebron settlement
© Mersiha Gadzo/Al Jazeera
The Ewaiwe family home in Hebron's H2 district has been heavily fortified to protect them against the settlers living just next door in the illegal Avraham Avinu settlement.

Rubbish thrown by settlers hangs on the wire mesh that shields the open courtyard in the centre of their home, set up by the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC) four years ago.

Prior to that, their settler neighbours would push large water tanks from the roof of their three-story building into the open stairwell of their home, which could have seriously injured or killed someone if they had been standing there.

Other times they would throw large rocks from the same spot above, which on one occasion hit their sink, splintering it into pieces.
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Toys

'Wants to please big brother': Czech's MEP explains their new FM's 'dangerous Russia' comment


RT
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 15:35 UTC
Tomas Petricek
© Reuters / Mohamad Torokman R
Czech foreign minister, Tomas Petricek
The newly-appointed Czech foreign minister lacks experience and tries to please the 'Big Brother'. That's how his own country's MEP characterized Tomas Petricek, who dubbed Russia a threat.

37-year-old Petricek, who was put in charge of the Foreign Ministry less than a month ago, said on Saturday that Russia posed a danger to the Czech Republic and the EU because it was spreading disinformation and creating various hybrid threats.

"The foreign minister is still a young guy. So far, he's just repeating exactly what has been said to him by others. I haven't yet noticed any signs of his own ideas that he'd introduce in our foreign policy," Jaromir Kohlicek, who represents the Czech Republic in the European parliament, told RIA-Novosti.

Comment: See also:

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Jet2

Russia beefs up defense: 500 combat aircraft deployed along Ukrainian border

Joaquin Flores
Fort Russ News
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 20:18 UTC
Russian Mi-24 helicopters
© Pavel Lisitsyn / Sputnik
Russian Mi-24 helicopters.
As events continue to intensify, Russia has just deployed about 500 tactical aircraft combat aircraft along the border with Ukraine.

This was announced today at a briefing by the representative of the Department of Defense of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Vadim Skibitsky.

"Today, about 500 tactical aviation combat aircraft and up to 340 army aviation helicopters have been concentrated along the borders of Ukraine," Skibitsky said.

Comment: Ukraine is being put in a very uncomfortable position by its Western masters. Russia will likely forbear if the Ukrainian government doesn't do anything stupid. One would hope that despite pressure, Poroshenko's sense of self-preservation will prevail.

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Question

China's conundrum: What to do with the 'Young Marxists'?

Andrew Korybko
Eurasia Future
Thu, 22 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
CHinaYoungMarxists
© Screen Shot
China's Young Marxists
The constitutionally communist People's Republic of China has found itself in a conundrum about what to do with the student activist groups popularly known as "Young Marxists", since their well-intentioned attempts to carry out grassroots reform of the country's current variant of communism inadvertently risks destabilizing the entire system.

A seemingly unexpected story is making the rounds on NPR about how the Communist Party of China has supposedly had to crack down on the student activist groups popularly known as "Young Marxists", with the report stating that their grassroots efforts to reform the country's current variant of communism have put them on a collision course with the authorities. This might initially sound surprising to those who don't have any background knowledge about communism and wrongly assume that its adherents are ideologically homogenous, as well as those who fell for the foreign fear mongering about what China's system supposedly entails. In truth, while China is a constitutionally communist country run by the Communist Party of China (CPC), its domestic situation and the rapidly changing international environment that it's operating in have compelled it to move beyond the dogmatic teachings of Engels, Marx, Lenin, and Mao to "flexibly improvise" its socio-economic policies into what has since been described as socialism with Chinese characteristics and Xi Jinping Thought.
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Arrow Up

UK to supply extra military forces to Ukraine: An irresponsible policy with dangerous repercussions

Arkady Savitsky
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Ukraine army guys
© Unknown
Ukraine's Constitutional Court green-lighted a bill on amending the country's main law by enshrining into it the final goal of obtaining NATO and EU membership. The decision was announced the next day after the UK and Ukraine's defense ministries made a joint statement, stressing the need to expand military cooperation. The defense chiefs agreed that Operation Orbital, the Army training program started in 2015, was a success to be continued at least till 2020. Instructors from the British Army, most of who have significant experience in participating in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, have trained over 9,500 Ukrainian servicemen. An unspecified number of UK soldiers would be sent to train Ukrainian special forces and marines, in addition to the 100 personnel deployed currently in the country.

A multi-role hydrographic survey ship will be deployed in the Black Sea next year to demonstrate Britain's support for Ukraine and ensure "freedom of navigation". HMS Echo is not a warship but it flies the naval ensign. In September, Great Britain made known it planned to increase the warships' presence in the Black Sea next year with increasingly frequent port calls to Odessa.

NATO naval presence there is seen as provocative by Russia amid increasing tensions in the Azov Sea. A conflict appears to be imminent and the West has taken the side of Ukraine despite the fact that it was Kiev who has been provoking it. EU High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini believes many vessels flying European Union flags were threatened to make Brussels consider "appropriate targeted measures" to be taken as a signal to Moscow.

Comment: The region is becoming a flashpoint in the making. See also:

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Stock Up

Despite Trump's trade war, US trade deficit with China INCREASED in 2018

Jeffrey Bartash
Market Watch
Tue, 20 Nov 2018 01:39 UTC
us china trade chart
© US Census
The U.S. is on track to post the largest trade deficit ever with China in 2018

President Trump and his Chinese counterpart might find it impossible to resolve a hardening dispute over trade at an upcoming meeting, with the U.S. on track to record its largest deficit ever with the Asian economic powerhouse.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet at the end of the month at a G20 summit in Argentina that brings together leaders of the world's largest economies. The two recently held a phone conversation that raised hopes for an end to growing trade tensions, but now those hopes seem misplaced.

Both Trump and Xi have since been more critical of each country's stance on trade and diplomats from both countries exchanged barbs at another international event in Papua New Guinea over the weekend at which Vice President Mike Pence attended.

Stiffer U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made goods are set to go into effect on Jan. 1 absent a deal, though analysts say it's possible the two sides could agree to a delay in order to keep talking.

Comment: Trade deals, schmade deals. China is way too big. Yes, even bigger than Trump's ego.

Remember, we're witnessing a country with 4 times the US population industrialize AND modernize simultaneously in a quarter of the time it took the US.

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Handcuffs

Tijuana government is reeling, 100+ caravan migrants arrested on criminal charges

Benjamin Arie
Conservative Tribune
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 06:21 UTC
Central Am migrants
© Mario Tama/Getty Images
Central American migrants who arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, as part of a caravan trying to enter the United States line up for breakfast Saturday.
Are the migrant caravans currently in Mexico harmless and innocent, or are they full of problems and troublemakers? That's the question that many people both in the United States and south of the border are asking after thousands of immigrants began arriving in the border city of Tijuana.

Liberal voices, predictably, have insisted that it's the former while yelling "racist!" any time somebody suggests otherwise.

More and more, however, there is mounting evidence that there are far more delinquents in the caravans than was previously reported ... and now even Tijuana residents are starting to question the "open borders" narrative.

Comment: As more arrests and deportations are made, Mexico continues to validate Trump's warnings regarding 'problematic' members of the march. See also:

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Cross

The Ukraine govt seizes religious site

Seraphim Hanisch
The Duran
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 00:00 UTC
Pochaev Lavra in Kyiv
© Unknown
Holy Dormition – Pochaev Lavra in Kyiv
Ukraine uses its historical training in Communism technique to usurp one of the Orthodox Church's most holy sites for nefarious purposes.

OrthoChristian.com reported a recent development in the ongoing effort to throw the Russian Orthodox Church out of Ukraine by techniques used under Communism.

The Union of Orthodox Journalists reported on November 23rd that the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice canceled an existing agreement to allow the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate the right to live and serve at Holy Dormition - Pochaev Lavra in Kyiv, which is one of the most holy sites in all of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. This move is ostensibly the continuing effort by powers within the Kyiv government led by Petro Poroshenko and aided and abetted by powers in Europe and the United States.

At the center of this as far as the West is concerned, is the creation of an "independent Ukrainian Church". But the real story is far darker. The goal is to use this "church" which is at its center comprised of schismatics who don't honestly say one single thing about Jesus Christ. This church will serve the government of Ukraine and the West as an Orthodox-resembling vehicle, in which to import all the secularization that has taken place in the West.

Comment: One more avenue to repression. See also:

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Arrow Up

Iran claims China's CNPC is replacing France's Total in gas project


Reuters
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 06:30 UTC
CNPC company
© scmp.com
China's state-owned CNPC has replaced France's Total in Iran's multibillion-dollar South Pars gas project, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said, according to the semi-official news agency ICANA on Sunday.

"China's CNPC has officially replaced Total in phase 11 of South Pars but it has not started work practically. Talks need to be held with CNPC ... about when it will start operations," Zanganeh told ICANA, without giving further details.

Total, which had a 50.1 percent stake in the project, and CNPC could not immediately be reached for comment.

The French company said in August it had told Iranian authorities it would withdraw from the South Pars gas project after it failed to obtain a waiver from U.S. sanctions against Iran. In May, industry sources said CNPC was ready to take over Total's stake in the project.

The offshore field, which Iran calls South Pars and Qatar calls North Field, holds the world's largest natural gas reserves ever found in one place.

CNPC already holds a 30 percent stake in the giant field, while National Iranian Oil Company subsidiary PetroPars holds the remaining 19.9 percent.

Comment: Financial partnerships are in shake-up mode as sanctions take their bite.

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Bomb

Ukrainian forces shell Donbass residential areas with heavy artillery


Sputnik
Sun, 25 Nov 2018 23:40 UTC
Donetskbombing
© East News/AP
The Ukrainian army on Sunday opened up with massive artillery fire, shelling residential areas of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), an RIA Novosti correspondent has reported.

The shelling began at about 19:50 GMT, according to the correspondent. The Ukrainian army is using various weapons, including heavy artillery.

The number of attacks by the Ukrainian army in the Donbass region is likely to increase following new deliveries of Polish weapons to Ukraine, Eduard Basurin, deputy commander of the DPR Operational Command, said Friday.

According to Basurin, in mid-November, a Polish company supplied Kiev with over 23,000 60-mm mortar shells and noted that Ukrainian forces in Donbass would receive this ammunition in the near future.

Comment: See also:
Sea of Azov provocation: Kiev declares martial law, Russia warns of 'consequences'- UPDATE

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