China’s New Stealth Bomber a Game Changer in South China Sea

New pilots of Chinese air force attends the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) air force aviation open day at PLA Air Force Aviation University on August 30, 2018 in Changchun, Jilin Province of China. (Getty Images)

 

‘Shockwaves throughout the U.S. military and the American defense industry’

China’s Hong-20 nuclear stealth bomber is near to making its first flight, military experts told the government-run Global Times on October 9.

“The trial flight will come soon,” military analyst Song Zhongping was quoted as saying. Song said the avionics systems and hydraulics of the revolutionary Hong-20 bombers have apparently passed inspections, which will let the project advance to the next phase of testing.

EU, Iran agree to create ‘special vehicle’ to maintain trade

Iran has said it will not accept any attempts to halt country’s oil exports (Reuters)

 

To keep nuclear deal intact, EU establishes legal mechanism to keep trade with Iran, including in oil

The remaining parties to the Iran nuclear deal said on Monday that they agreed to continue work to create a special mechanism to maintain trade with Iran, including in oil, following the US withdrawal from the 2015 pact.

Official warns Iran will withdraw from nuclear deal if ‘no economic benefit’

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi / YJC

 

Iran has threatened to withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers if there is no economic benefit from it and major banks continue to fail to do business with Tehran.

China Deal Shows Iran Tilting East, Not West

Iran already has signaled that it plans to do more business with Russia now that the crippling Western sanctions have been lifted from its economy. Iran has also made it clear that it will reach even farther east by moving to a strategic partnership with China, including increasing bilateral trade with Beijing to $600 billion over the next 10 years.

Certainly Iran will resume its business ties with some Western concerns, but Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tehran on Saturday that Iranians don’t trust the West and would prefer to pursue closer relations with “independent and trustworthy countries” such as China.

What Happens After a Superpower Dies?

A necessary repeat, and from 2014:

 

 

What happens when a superpower dies? What happens when the geopolitical order that has stabilized the world for several decades crumbles?

We are all about to learn firsthand.

EU boosts ships, planes for border mission

The EU is proactively acting alone outside of NATO and, although it’s too early to tell, we could be looking at the beginning foundation and formation of an EU Army. The immigration crisis gives it the perfect cover for projecting power in the same way protecting strategic interests from ‘piracy’ does for China and Iran.

 

European Union leaders have pledged to double the size of the EU’s Mediterranean border operation Triton, tripling its budget and offering ships and aircraft to try to halt the migrant deaths.

Triton has four planes, one helicopter and seven ships in the Mediterranean on what is a border management mission, not a search and rescue operation.

While its assets will swell, the scope of the mission will not change anytime soon.

European ‘No-Go’ Zones: Fact or Fiction? Part 2: Britain

This is the second article in a multi-part series documenting so-called no-go zones in Europe. The first article in this series documents no-go zones in France. This second segment focuses on the United Kingdom. It provides a brief compilation of references to British no-go zones by academic, police, media and government sources.

An erroneous claim on American television that Birmingham, England, is “totally Muslim” and off-limits to non-Muslims has ignited a politically charged debate about the existence of no-go zones in Britain and other European countries.

Waging Financial War

The United States is no stranger to waging financial warfare, observes David Katz. What’s different now, however, is its unique position within global financial markets. It’s enabling Washington to project power in cutting edge ways.

Imagine warfare waged in financial cyberspace: electronic, remote, fought in hypervelocity with millions of engagements per second, and with nations forced to construct redundant systems, sacrificing billions in economic efficiency for survival capacity. Financial warfare strikes can blockade vital industries; delink countries from the global marketplace; bankrupt sovereign economies in the space of a few days, and cause mass exoduses, starvation, riots, and regime change.

Dutch scramble jets after Russian bombers approach

AMSTERDAM (AP) — The Dutch defense department says several NATO member countries scrambled jets Wednesday afternoon after a pair of Russian bomber planes approached their airspace over the North Sea.

Putin a rival who is not welcome back to G7, says Harper as Russia looks to replace Visa with its own credit cards

The BRICs nations are forming an alternative internet with a new undersea cable. Asian nations are talking about militarily banding together to face China because the US is becoming more and more unreliable as a protectorate. China has also in the last three years threatened to use the ‘nuclear option’ on the Dollar as well. Middle East nations talk about replacing the Dollar to break America’s global hegemony. Add this to Russia saying it could reduce itself to zero dependency on America just a couple weeks ago, and now an alternative credit payment system. However, Visa and MasterCard replacement is no longer just talk and is actually underway (like the BRICs cable), which will have a sizeable effect.

Fact is, in the bigger scheme of things, the world is getting fed up with America’s now-corrupt leadership which is abusive and drunken off its own power, is looking to isolate it and send it back into the stone age. The sanctions were not very well thought out as there doesn’t seem to be an exit strategy, as some would argue with Bush’s wars in the Middle East. America is shooting itself in the foot as it playing checkers with Putin — on a Russian rubicon game board. It could’ve also very well been Russia’s long-range strategic plan since the 60’s and earlier to, over the years, integrate itself with the U.S. so much that it could gain economic leverage and destroy the economy overnight if it wished. Much like the CCP in China, the ruling Russian oligarchy doesn’t care about its citizens anyways, which makes it more plausible.

BERLIN — Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel say they are united in their view that Russia has grossly violated Ukrainian sovereignty by annexing the Crimean peninsula.

Following a meeting Thursday between the two G7 leaders, Harper also opined that chances are slim that Russian President Vladimir Putin could ever be welcomed back to the G8.

The G7 nations — the U.S., Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan — effectively booted Russia from the G8 earlier this week over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula following a pro-Western uprising.

What Happens After a Superpower Dies?

What happens when a superpower dies? What happens when the geopolitical order that has stabilized the world for several decades crumbles?

We are all about to learn firsthand.

‘Geneva talks a facade, US-Iran worked secretly on deal for past year’

Channel 10 reports Obama team has been negotiating terms with Tehran, didn’t fully coordinate with Israel, intended to present a fait accompli in Geneva

The Geneva negotiations between the so-called P5+1 powers and Iran are a mere “facade,” because the terms of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program have been negotiated in talks between a top adviser to President Barack Obama and a leading Iranian nuclear official that have continued in secret for more than a year, Israeli television reported Sunday.

Nuclear accord ‘possible this week’, says Iran’s Zarif

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (pictured) told FRANCE 24 Tuesday that an agreement with the international community over the country’s nuclear programme could be reached at talks in Geneva later this week.

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Zarif also said that Iran could use it its influence to encourage non-Syrian forces fighting in Syria to withdraw from the country.

E.U. Takes Final Step on Unified Bank Regulation

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union on Tuesday took another step to shore up its battered banking sector after Britain agreed to new rules placing many of the largest lenders in the euro area under the supervision of the European Central Bank.

The British decision, which was announced at a monthly meeting of the bloc’s finance ministers here, clears the way for the E.C.B. to take over as the single supervisor late next year.

China reportedly just bought 5% of Ukraine (but the Ukrainian partner denies it)

Update (9:21 a.m. ET): Ukraine’s KSG Agro released a statement today, Sept. 24, denying reports that it had reached an agreement to sell 3 million hectares to a Chinese firm. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post had reported a deal between KSG Agro and China’s Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, (XPCC) in which China would be able to farm the area for up to 50 years. The paper cited a statement from XPCC as the source of its report. Quartz and other media also reported on the story.

In its statement, the Warsaw-listed agricultural firm said that it is only working with its Chinese partners on a project to install drip-irrigation systems over an area of 3,000 hectares in Ukraine next year. “KSG Agro does not intend or have any right to sell land to foreigners, including the Chinese,” the statement posted on their website said. China’s XPCC could not be immediately reached for comment.

Original (September 23): China has inked a deal to farm three million hectares (paywall), or about 11, 583 square miles of Ukrainian land over the span of half a century—which means the eastern European country will give up about 5% of its total land, or 9% of its arable farmland to feed China’s burgeoning population.