Новости за 15.05.2019

The campaign is on for Syrian national forces to retake the last-remaining redoubt of militants in northwest Idlib. That might explain why the New York Times was prompted to publish a 5,000-word article based on flimsy anti-Syrian propaganda.

An anti-homosexual bakery has been opened in Kemerovo, Russia. Same-sex couples are not allowed to be customers there. The owners call the business,“Bread from a Russian Oven, by the Ipatov Brothers”. One of the owners of the bakery, Anton Ipatov, says that so far he has heard only praise about his business.

James Clapper, in an interview with John Berman on CNN, was asked about the attorney general appointment of U.S. Attorney John Durham for the job to investigate how the “FBI Russia Investigation started”.

Thus was born Operation Pike. Flying from Allied bases in Iran and Syria, as well as neutral but anti-Soviet Turkey, more than a hundred British and French bombers would continuously attack Soviet oil fields in the Caucuses in a night strategic bombing campaign. This was more than idle planning. Unmarked British reconnaissance planes flying from Iraqi airfields actually photographed oil installations at Baku and Batumi in March 1940.

The Trump administration unilaterally cheated on the 2015 multinational, UN-endorsed JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal. It has imposed an illegal, worldwide financial and energy blockade on all forms of trade with Iran — from oil and gas to exports of iron, steel, aluminum and copper. For all practical purposes, and in any geopolitical scenario, this is a declaration of war.

While President Donald Trump is gambling that the US can get the better of China in a trade war, Putin is making deals with Beijing. Russia is cooperating enthusiastically with the Chinese-led "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which seeks to turn Eurasia into the central hub of world trade. The more trade is concentrated on the Eurasian super-continent, the weaker the US becomes, as its power is based on control of critical sea-lanes.

Unlike a regular corporation, the corporations that manufacture and sell weapons to their government are virtually 100% dependent upon their government and its military allies, for their own success; their markets are only those governments, not individuals (such as is the case for normal corporations).

Unlike a regular corporation, the corporations that manufacture and sell weapons to their government are virtually 100% dependent upon their government and its military allies, for their own success; their markets are only those governments, not individuals (such as is the case for normal corporations).

Checkpoint Asia is an excellent news site by a former deputy editor of ours crucial to RI between 2014 and 2019. Best news and commentary ranging from Russia, to China, to Imperial misadventures in the Middle East. Smart, incisive, and with an anti-Empire bent.