Politics

In preparation for a possible conflict with the U.S., China has shown off its Dongfeng 16 (DF-16) medium-range ballistic missile during military drills. The Chinese Ministry of Defense released a video showing the Dongfeng in action at an unspecified forest setting during the Chinese Lunar New Year. The highly accurate ballistic missile system is nuclear capable, with a range long enough to threaten U.S. and Japanese bases in Asia. The DF-16 is said to be accurate to within a few meters of its target and has a range of over 600 miles.

One month ago we reported that Russia had deployed S-400 air defense missile systems in proximity to Moscow, which were then put on combat duty. “The SAM combat squads of the Moscow Region aerospace forces have put the new S-400 Triumph air defense missile system into service, and have gone on combat duty for the air defense of Moscow and the central industrial region of Russia,” the Defense Ministry’s Department of Information and Mass Communication told Interfax in early January. 

It appears US-Mexico relations are not as rocky as some (cough Vicente Fox cough) would like them to be. The peso is rallying back towards 20/$ (the same level as immediately after Trump's election) as The Hill reports the Mexican secretary of Foreign Relations will meet Trump administration officials Wednesday in Washington, D.C., (after a presidential visit was canceled in January following a public fight over who would pay for President Trump's proposed border wall).

Fake news?

Yesterday evening, The New York Times reported that:

Angry at the civilian casualties incurred last month in the first commando raid authorized by President Trump, Yemen has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country, according to American officials.

 

Grisly photographs of children apparently killed in the crossfire of a 50-minute firefight during the raid caused outrage in Yemen.

 

It's a story that has been told many times in part, but not in total. While Goldman Sachs' role in helping to create the environment for Greece's government-debt crisis is well known, less discussion is given to the role the Clinton family played in helping Angela Merkel to consolidate political control of Greece while also assisting Goldman as it continued to benefit from the meltdown once austerity measures had begun. The Clintons appear to have received funds from both Germany and Goldman Sachs during this period.