Turkey

In the latest snub of president Obama and the US State Department, on Wednesday Turkey and Russia reached an agreement for a ceasefire in Syria, Turkey's foreign minister said, and according to Anadolu News Agency, will aim to put it into effect by midnight. Anadolu, citing sources, said the two countries have reached a consensus that will be presented to participants in the conflict on expanding the ceasefire that was established in Aleppo earlier this month.

Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org,

The previous article focused on the definition of an international order, globalization, geopolitical theories and how this has changed the notion with which a nation exercises control over a foreign country. In this second part I intend to examine the various geopolitical theories, their translations into modern concepts, and practical actions that the United States have undertaken in recent decades to aspire to global dominance.

The Strategy Of Rimland

Russian authorities have confirmed that the assassin of Turkish ambassador Andrey Karlov has ties to an American CIA base in Iraq.  After President Putin ordered an 18-person investigation into the assassination of Ambassador Karlov last week, investigators say they found strong evidence that proves Mevlut Mert Altintas was connected to a CIA base in Erbil Governorate in Iraq, and had been connected to the attempted coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan in July.

Vladimir Putin has warned that he is prepared to go to war following Turkey’s decision to scramble 12 fighter jets on Wednesday.  In a clear act of provocation, Turkey scrambled the F-16 fighter jets in defiance to heightened tensions with Moscow. The jets took off from Eskisehir Air Base just one day after Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead by Turkish police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas. Express.co.uk reports: Moscow responded with fury, with a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry saying it regarded the assassination as an “act of terrorism”.

For evidence that the market bears are all but extinct look no further than the latest letter from erstwhile bear Bob Janjuah, in which the Nomura strategist throws in the towel in a near-term correction and predicts that "the trends over H1 2017 should be higher (especially US) equities and yields, steeper curves, a stronger USD, and mixed performance in credit (especially in the IG sphere) and EM.