Why civic values are Taiwan’s best defense

Supporters of the opposition Nationalist Party cheer during a November election campaign in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (AP)

 

In a public debate, the leaders of China and Taiwan reveal what it takes to create a national identity rooted in shared ideals.

In a rather public debate, the leaders of China and Taiwan have revealed what it takes to create a national identity rooted in shared ideals. Let’s just say the small island nation off China’s coast won, as its president’s statements make clear.

All or Nothing

 

BERLIN/LONDON/PARIS/ROME (Own report) – London’s government crisis escalated yesterday under the pressure of Berlin and the EU’s unaccomplishable Brexit requirements. Prime Minster Theresa May has barely survived a vote of confidence, which was ultimately triggered by the so-called backstop. Brussels insists on a regulation, which could indefinitely subjugate Great Britain to a customs union, without an option for a unilateral withdrawal and erect a trade border between two areas of the United Kingdom. These provisions are in Germany’s interests, but they will plunge Great Britain into chaos. The current government crisis in France is largely due to the austerity programs imposed by Berlin on Paris – while refusing to make any concessions at the EU level. In France and Great Britain, the extreme right is profiting, like in Italy, where Berlin’s drastic austerity dictates, have already crushed the traditional political establishment.

Populism and paralysis in the West

By spring 2019, ‘our politics will be even more poisonous than now’

Is it coincidence or contagion, this malady that seems to have suddenly induced paralysis in the leading nations of the West?

With lawyer-fixer Michael Cohen’s confession that he colluded with Donald Trump in making hush money payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, America’s stage is set for a play that will run two years.

Mayday! British PM’s Brexit Deal on Verge of Collapse

(Photo Credit: Office of President of Estonia)

 

Two Cabinet secretaries have resigned and long knives have come out for Theresa May.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is on the political brink tonight after presenting her government’s draft withdrawal agreement with the European Union that has been almost universally panned, despite her assertion it is the best deal that can be had.

Britain and Germany Sign Military Pact

Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), Minister of Defence, and Gavin Williamson, British Minister of Defence, talk during an exercise of tank pioneering. (Ralf Hirschberger/picture alliance/Getty Images)

 

‘The UK is just as committed to Europe’s security in the future as it has been in the past.’

Germany and Britain signed a military pact on October 5 that ensures Britain will retain a military relationship with the European Union after Brexit. The agreement, signed in Germany by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, is intended to strengthen military cooperation between the two parties.

Von der Leyen called the agreement a “symbolically important sign” that the strategic partnership between Germany and Britain will continue after Brexit. The pact will reinforce British-European military cooperation “in the navy, the air force, and in cyber capabilities.” The agreement states that Germany and Britain are “determined to deepen and strengthen” their relationship by working together on their “common defense and security goals.”

Did the President Just End Theresa May’s Career?

 

He insists his comments to The Sun newspaper critical of the UK prime minister were ‘fake news’ that didn’t demonstrate his complete views.

The United Kingdom’s The Sun newspaper published a report today following an exclusive interview Thursday in which President Donald Trump criticized Prime Minister Theresa May’s approach to Brexit and how it may impact trade with the U.S.

The Grand Troika: A Chance for a World New Order

 

Back in the late summer of 2017 I wrote an analysis of the state of world affairs and international relations after two seismic geopolitical world events occurred almost simultaneously in 2016 – the UK Referendum result to Leave the European Union and the defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton by Republican Donald Trump for the White House in the US 2016 Presidential Election. Those twin political events were like major earth shaking bombs going off creating all kinds of disturbances and tremors, aftershocks and creating the greatest of shock and bewilderment within the international political order that had held sway since the defeat of Nazism in 1945.

It had become clear to me by the summer of 2017, as I had thought for some time, that politics in Britain – and global geostrategic politics within the broader historical framework of civilizational and human development – had changed profoundly and significantly from were we had been during the 1990s-2012 period, perhaps even from where I started off life in the most intense but ending days of the Cold War in the mid 1980s.

Russian reinforcements head for Syria: Warships laden with tanks, military trucks and armoured patrol boats sail towards the Middle East as the world awaits Putin’s response to airstrikes

On its fourth deployment of Russian military equipment to Syria the ship was seen laden with tanks, trucks, ambulances and a bomb radar

 

• Project 117 Alligator-class landing ship was spotted at Bosphorus, Turkey en-route to Syria on Sunday
• The Russian vessel was laden with tanks, ambulances and IED radar after Friday’s US-led Syrian air strikes
• A RoRo Alexandr Tkachenko was also seen carrying high-speed patrol boats, temporary bridge and trucks
• US, UK and French forces backed strikes that obliterated three targets in response to chemical weapon attack
• Vladimir Putin warned there would be ‘consequences’ to military action against him and Bashar al-Assad

Two Russian warships laden with military vehicles have been spotted en route to Syria after Friday’s US-led airstrikes obliterated three suspected chemical weapons sites.

An Alligator-landing ship was pictured cruising down The Bosphorus on Sunday as the world awaits Vladimir Putin’s response to this week’s co-ordinated military action against Syria.

The vessel was spotted on its way to the Russian naval base at Tartus on the north Syrian coast.

Trump announces strikes on Syria following suspected chemical weapons attack by Assad forces

Damascus sky lights up with surface to air missile fire as the U.S. launches an attack on Syria targeting different parts of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria, early Saturday, April 14, 2018. (Hassan Ammar / AP)

 

The president did not specify a target for the strikes, but said the United States would aim to hit sites “associated with the chemical weapons capabilities” of Assad’s regime.

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the United States military — in conjunction with France and the United Kingdom — to launch strikes on Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad on a Damascus suburb last week.

The president did not specify a target for the strikes, but said the United States would aim to hit sites “associated with the chemical weapons capabilities” of Assad’s regime.

Bolton And Mattis Feud Over Syria Strike As Assad Evacuates Weapons

Several local sources report that both the regime and Hezbollah evacuated weapons and some personnel from the Qamishli airport to Damascus #Syria

— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) April 12, 2018

 

• The Syrian government and Hezbollah have reportedly evacuated weapons from key locations
• Assad has moved planes to a Russian-operated base
• The UK Cabinet has agreed to back military action against the Syrian government
• US National Security Advisor John Bolton and Defense Secretary James Mattis are reportedly feuding over the strategy in Syria, with Mattis favoring a more cautious approach
• The U.S., France and Britain are crafting broad strike plans
• A readout of a Thursday phone conversation President Trump and UK Prime Minister Theresa May suggests that military action may be days away, instead of hours

The latest reports rolling in from Syria suggest that both the Assad regime and Hezbollah have evacuated weapons from likely targets, after CNBC revealed that the U.S. has selected 8 targets to strike, including two airfields, a research center and an alleged chemical weapons facility – after US officials told a reporter they were “fairly confident” the Syrian regime had been behind a gas attack in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

Mr. Assad was moving to protect his air force by moving planes to a Russian-operated base equipped with sophisticated air defenses, according to pro-regime media. –WSJ

‘Don’t threaten a NUCLEAR power’: Putin REJECTS British ultimatum on Russian spy attack

Putin’s envoys in the UK have refused to respond to Britain’s ultimatum over the Russian spy attack (Getty-EPA)

 

VLADIMIR Putin’s envoys in the UK have refused to respond to Britain’s ultimatum over the chemical attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. In a statement on Twitter the Russian embassy threaten retaliation if Theresa May was to respond with “punitive measures”.

Theresa May earlier issued Russian President Vladimir Putin  24 hours to respond to claims that Russia was “highly likely” behind the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

The ultimatum has sparked World War 3 fears as Whitehall sources revealed the Prime Minister could launch a cyber attack on Russia in the wake of recent events.

Theresa May threatens US with trade war over Bombardier row

Theresa May threatens US with trade war over Bombardier row CREDIT: AP

 

Theresa May has threatened a trade war with the US after it slapped punitive tariffs on British-built aircraft, casting doubt on a key plank of her Brexit strategy.

The US Department of Commerce decided Bombardier aircraft, built in Northern Ireland, should be subject to 219 per cent import duty after the American aviation giant Boeing complained that Bombardier had been given unfair state aid.

The Government responded by warning that Boeing’s behaviour “could jeopardise” future Ministry of Defence contracts for its aircraft such as Apache helicopters.

Revealed: City of London accuses France of plot to ‘wreck Britain’ – even if it gains nothing itself

The ‘giddy’ effect of newly elected Emmanuel Macron is said to be blamed for the new French plot to ‘actively disrupt’ the City [Getty Images]

 

• A leaked memo says French bankers are plotting to ‘actively disrupt’ the City
• The London financial centre is worth £66 billion a year to the Treasury
• The City’s Brexit envoy says Macron has declared ‘open war’ on the Square Mile
• French representatives are now offering firms big money to move to Paris

France has boasted to City of London chiefs that it will use Brexit to sabotage the British economy, according to a bombshell leaked memo.

The memo, sent to Ministers, says the French government and banking chiefs are plotting to ‘actively disrupt and destroy’ the UK’s multi-billion-pound financial sector when Britain leaves the EU – even if France gains nothing.

Brexit under threat: Macron set for landslide victory that may drastically alter EU exit

Emmanuel Macron is facing election success while Theresa May faces chaos (Reuters)

 

EMMANUEL Macron is on course for another landslide win as voting on Sunday opened in parliamentary elections that will have huge implications for Brexit.

According to final opinion polls, the 39-year-old head of state’s Republique En Marche! (REM) party could win between 395 and 425 seats in the National Assembly.

If the CEVIPOF-Le Monde figures prove correct, this would be far above the 289 needed to secure an absolute majority.

EU mulls joint defence spending

Commission keen to develop EU’s own surveillance UAVs (Photo: EADS)

 

The EU budget should be used for military research and the bloc could become a defence alliance akin to Nato, the European Commission is poised to say.

The Commission is to outline its ideas in a legislative proposal on spending and in an ideas paper on defence due out on Wednesday (7 June).

“The development of a new generation of many major defence systems is today beyond the reach of a single EU member state … ‘More Europe’ in defence and security is clearly needed”, the draft proposals, seen by Bloomberg, a US news agency, said.