Russia

With Presidents Trump and Putin having spoken for over two hours on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, well over the 30 minutes initially scheduled, the US press was going berserk with speculation what the two asre discussing for so long - surely CNN's anonymous sources had already disclosed that Trump was about to announce some tax-efficient handover of the US to Moscow...

... there was a surprise announcement, because as AP reported, the US and Russia did announce a cease-fire agreement in southwest Syria. 

Authored by Pepe Escobar via Counterpunch.org,

The Russia sanctions bill that passed the US Senate by 98:2 on June 15 is a bombshell; it directly demonizes the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, under the Baltic Sea, which is bound to double Gazprom’s energy capacity to supply gas to Europe.

The 9.5 billion euro pipeline is being financed by five companies; Germany’s Uniper and Wintershall; Austria’s OMV; France’s Engie; and Anglo-Dutch Shell. All these majors operate in Russia, and have, or will establish, pipeline contracts with Gazprom.

Update: The meeting seemed more cordial than many had hoped for:

#BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump speaks with President Putin pic.twitter.com/tr0hV1XQO1

— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) July 7, 2017

Putin’s Assessment of Trump at the G-20 Will Determine Our Future

Paul Craig Roberts

The backdrops to the Putin/Trump meeting are the aspirations of Israel and the neoconservatives. It is these aspirations that drive US foreign policy.

Authored by James Rickards via The Daily Reckoning,

The Group of Twenty, known as G20, is an unaccountable and powerful organization that is the closest thing on earth to a true world government. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the rotating President of the G20, will host the next G20 meeting in the city of Hamburg, on the mouth of the Elbe River near the North Sea Coast.