Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,
Catalonia’s drive for “independence” has unleashed a chain reaction of viral social media support that’s frighteningly resurrected civil war-era rhetoric, but the most dangerous consequences of this domino effect are yet to come if the separatists are ultimately successful in their quest.
The Nostalgia Narrative
Revelations about the status of the various investigations into whether the Trump campaign actively colluded with the Russian government are making increasingly little sense.
Yesterday, leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that they’d “hit a wall” in their efforts to verify the contents of the infamous “Trump dossier.”
Over the past two months, China, North Korea’s economic benefactor and formally the source of 90% of its foreign trade, has been withdrawing financial support, ostensibly under the auspices of US sanctions, as Communist Party leaders try to rein in the North’s nuclear program to appease the US and prevent a potentially destabilizing conflict on its border – a development that would be particularly unwelcome during the Communist Party’s upcoming national congress.
Global markets came off record highs, trading subdued, with US index futures unchanged as traders are unwilling to make major moves ahead of today's ECB minutes and tomorrow’s NFP release, and before speeches by central bankers including SF Fed President John Williams and the potential next Fed chair Jerome Powell, as well as ECB executive board members Peter Praet and Benoit Coeure.
Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
"We stand for constructive, predictable and mutually beneficial cooperation," said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a ceremony in the Kremlin when Jon Huntsman, the new US ambassador to Russia, presented his diplomatic credentials. "The current level of the ties cannot satisfy us," he added.