Saudi Arabia And Russia Make Secret Oil Deal

 

Are Saudi Arabia and Russia helping Trump out by agreeing to increase oil production?

A new report from Reuters says that Russia and Saudi Arabia “struck a private deal” in September to increase production in order to suppress oil prices. Intriguingly, the pair apparently phoned the U.S. before the Algiers meeting in late September to relay the details of their plan.

The report is an indication that Saudi Arabia was trying to respond to pressure from President Trump to lower oil prices. If the White House was informed about the secret private deal, it didn’t seem to resolve Trump’s concerns.

The Transatlantic Liquefied Gas Dispute

 

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (Own report) – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has once again reaffirmed that the German government insists on continuing with the highly controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Despite persistent pressure from Washington, there will be no interference in the construction of the pipeline – which has long since begun – reiterated Maas at this years annual UN General Assembly in New York. At the same time, US efforts to promote the sale of US liquefied gas to Germany are stagnating. If the liquefied gas would be priced closer to the currently much cheaper pipeline gas, it could certainly be considered, according to the Uniper company (formerly EON). Uniper is currently contemplating the construction of a liquefied gas terminal in Wilhelmshaven. However, it would not even have one-fifth of the import capacity of Nord Stream 2. Plans for constructing a terminal in Brunsbüttel, which currently have the best chances of implementation, envisage the importation of only half as much LNG – primarily to fuel ships and trucks.

Russia declares electronic war on Israel ranging over Syria, E. Mediterranean

 

Within two weeks, Russia will arm Syria with S-300 air defense systems and start jamming navigation in the E. Mediterranean – two of the three measures announced by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on Monday, Sept. 24 “in response to Israel’s role in downing the Russian IL-20” on Sept. 17.

Syria’s air defense electronic capacities will be boosted to level that of Russian forces in the country. But the most significant measure announced by Shoigu was: “Russia will jam satellite navigation, on-board radars and communication systems of combat aircraft, which attack targets in the Syrian territory, in the regions over the waters of the Mediterranean Sea bordering with Syria.”

Mexican Radio to Beam Chinese Propaganda

 

U.S. probes links between buyer of Tijuana station and China’s Phoenix TV

A large Spanish-language radio station in Mexico will soon begin broadcasting in Chinese in a deal critics say will bring Beijing propaganda to Chinese Americans throughout Southern California.

A Federal Communications Commission filing on the sale of radio station XEWW AM 690 radio near Tijuana reveals the buyer has ties to Phoenix Satellite Television US, a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Phoenix TV.

The NSA’s Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities

A VERY long read that is worth your while.

It reminds you of how well you don’t know your city if you’re living in one of these eight.

 

420 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles

 

The secrets are hidden behind fortified walls in cities across the United States, inside towering, windowless skyscrapers and fortress-like concrete structures that were built to withstand earthquakes and even nuclear attack. Thousands of people pass by the buildings each day and rarely give them a second glance, because their function is not publicly known. They are an integral part of one of the world’s largest telecommunications networks – and they are also linked to a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program.

Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. In each of these cities, The Intercept has identified an AT&T facility containing networking equipment that transports large quantities of internet traffic across the United States and the world. A body of evidence – including classified NSA documents, public records, and interviews with several former AT&T employees – indicates that the buildings are central to an NSA spying initiative that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across U.S. territory.

The NSA considers AT&T to be one of its most trusted partners and has lauded the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” It is a collaboration that dates back decades. Little known, however, is that its scope is not restricted to AT&T’s customers. According to the NSA’s documents, it values AT&T not only because it “has access to information that transits the nation,” but also because it maintains unique relationships with other phone and internet providers. The NSA exploits these relationships for surveillance purposes, commandeering AT&T’s massive infrastructure and using it as a platform to covertly tap into communications processed by other companies.

Pentagon Puts Cyberwarriors on the Offensive, Increasing the Risk of Conflict

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has quietly empowered the United States Cyber Command to take a far more aggressive approach to defending the nation against cyberattacks, a shift in strategy that could increase the risk of conflict with the foreign states that sponsor malicious hacking groups.

Until now, the Cyber Command has assumed a largely defensive posture, trying to counter attackers as they enter American networks. In the relatively few instances when it has gone on the offensive, particularly in trying to disrupt the online activities of the Islamic State and its recruiters in the past several years, the results have been mixed at best.

Escalation Dominance

 

On March 1, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin delivered a speech that effectively declared Russia has overwhelming nuclear superiority and war-winning capability against the United States, NATO, and the entire world.

While President Obama neglected modernizing the U.S. nuclear deterrent, questing for a “world without nuclear weapons” – Russia achieved what the USSR never could against any U.S. president during the Cold War, the holy grail of nuclear superiority, what strategists call “escalation dominance.”

Infrastructure Emergency: 50,000 American Bridges Are “Structurally Deficient”

 

Last week, President Trump announced his proposal for a $1.5 trillion infrastructure program in his State of The Union address to the American people. He failed to mention that over the next decade, the federal government would provide very little money whatsoever for America’s crumbling bridges, rails, roads, and waterways.

In fact, Trump’s plan counts on state and local governments working in tandem with private investors to fork up the cash for projects.

In overhauling the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, the federal government is only willing to pledge $200 billion in federal money over the next decade, leaving the remainder of $1.3 trillion for cities, states, and private companies.

Exclusive: FBI Confirms Jihadi Training Camps in America

This knife was one of the many weapons found in the Fuqra compound in Colorado (Photo: video screenshot)

 

Newly-released FBI documents obtained by Clarion Project confirm Clarion’s reports that Jamaat ul-Fuqra is training members in isolated communes across America and Canada.

The group’s “Islamberg” headquarters in upstate New York is its most well-known “Islamic village.”

Fuqra, which now goes by the name of the Muslims of the Americas (MOA) among other titles, is a cultish Islamist group with a history of crime and terrorism. The group is led by Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani in Pakistan.

China builds world’s fastest wind tunnel to test weapons that could strike US within 14 minutes

The JF-12 hypersonic wind tunnel near Beijing is able to replicate hypersonic flight conditions. Photo: SCMP

 

Researchers want new facility to be up and running by 2020 as race to develop hypersonic technology intensifies

China is building the world’s fastest wind tunnel to simulate hypersonic flight at speeds of up to 12 kilometres per second.

A hypersonic vehicle flying at this speed from China could reach the west coast of the United States in less than 14 minutes.

Zhao Wei, a senior scientist working on the project, said researchers aimed to have the facility up and running by around 2020 to meet the pressing demand of China’s hypersonic weapon development programme.

Army Rangers Move to Expel Communists Within Their Ranks

Army Ranger’s ACU uniform with a Silver Star and a Purple Heart pinned on, Source: Department of Defense

 

Leaders of America’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment have ordered the thorough examination of every soldier within their ranks to expel any who share the anti-American beliefs of avowed Communist 2nd Lieutenant Spenser Rapone

VERO BEACH, FL (TruNews) On Friday the commanders of the U.S. Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment launched an unprecedented sweep of the social media accounts and dormitory rooms of approximately 2,400 to 2,800 soldiers assigned to the unit. 

What Are These Towers?

Mysterious towers began popping up at the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel—also known as the Brooklyn-Battery Tower—in New York City during its $100 million renovation project this year.

 

The Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, known colloquially as the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, in New York City has been undergoing a $100 million facelift over the past few months, but several new additions have citizens wondering if there’s something else going on.

Wary of robots taking jobs, Hawaii toys with guaranteed pay

Here what your very near future looks like. It’s actually already here in a sense with 3D printing, autonomous vehicles on the road, etc… The only thing keeping it from being on a full scale is a catalyst. Robotics and virtual reality are the fourth industrial revolution. Inventions such as HyperLoop will destroy businesses from airlines and taxi services (even Uber) to the postal service and automobile manufacturers.

Logistics will be changed forever — and that’s just one sector. Whatever is redundant will be taken over. This includes not only blue collar jobs such as restaurant services, but white collar jobs such as accounting and financial analysis. A good example would also be in the banking industry where tellers are already replaced with ATMs, and likely soon to be completely replaced and out of work.

A modern day feudal system will be built in response, where the politicians lord over the formerly employed, peasants of today’s times.

 

HONOLULU — Driverless trucks. Factory robots. Delivery drones. Virtual personal assistants.

As technological innovations increasingly edge into the workplace, many people fear that robots and machines are destined to take jobs that human beings have held for decades–a trend that is already happening in stores and factories around the country. For many affected workers, retraining might be out of reach —unavailable, unaffordable or inadequate.

What then?

Enter the idea of a universal basic income, the notion that everyone should be able to receive a stream of income to live on, regardless of their employment or economic status.

Germany Finishes Bringing Gold Reserves Back From France

 

Berlin (AP) — Germany’s central bank says it’s completed a plan to repatriate gold reserves it stashed abroad during the Cold War three years ahead of schedule.

The Bundesbank said Wednesday that 91 metric tons (100.3 tons) of gold had been returned from Paris.

The Truth About the Fort Knox Gold

[Shutterstock]

One of the little-known items on the Fed’s balance sheet is a vital asset it received from the U.S. Treasury a long time ago…

During the Great Depression, in 1933, President Roosevelt issued an executive order requiring anyone with gold to surrender it to a Federal Reserve bank or any member bank of the Federal Reserve system.

The Federal Reserve banks also required the commercial banks to hand over their gold to the Fed. Now, suddenly, the gold went out of the commercial banks into the Federal Reserve Bank.