Russia

With all of the massive hurricanes safely swirling far away from the continental U.S., for a few days at least, the New York Times and CNN has once again returned to their regularly scheduled programming: 24x7 Coverage Of Russian Collusion.  Of course, just like their prior coverage, today's 'bombshell' reports, which center around Paul Manafort, are heavy on the sensationalized story telling and light on the facts.

As reported last Thursday, Russia’s military is currently conducting its "biggest display of military power since the end of the Cold War", called Zapad-2017. The drill involves anywhere between 12,700 and 100,000 troops (depending on whether one believes Russia or NATO), 10 ships, 70 planes and helicopters, 680 equipment units, 250 tanks, and multiple launch rocket systems and mortars.

A day after US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley admitted that with the latest round of sanctions the Security Council has just about reached the limits of China’s and Russia’s tolerance – and that the US will now need to explore other diplomatic, and possibly military, options, US forces joined with their South Korea counterparts for another "show of strength" meant for North Korea.

Following Treasury Secretary Mnuchin's threat that the US could impose economic sanctions on China if it does not implement the new sanctions regime against North Korea:

"If China doesn’t follow these sanctions, we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the US and international dollar system, and that’s quite meaningful."

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times,

Moscow has been busy building agreements that would extend Eurasian connectivity eastward. The question is how to convince the DPRK to play along...

Chinese President Xi Jinping (centre) and his wife Peng Liyuan welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of a banquet dinner during the BRICS Summit in Xiamen, Fujian province, on September 4, 2017