United States

Submitted by Wayne Madsen via Strategic-Culture.org,

US Senator Richard Black says that it is inconceivable that the US-led coalition could have overlooked the regrouping and advance of ISIS terrorists from Mosul in Iraq to Palmyra in Syria. He suggests that ISIS is being used as tool by Saudi Arabia, the US & Turkey when it suits their interests.

The Syrian war is on the verge of the biggest shift in the balance of power since 2011, with the Assad regime - with support from Russian forces - having retaken Aleppo. And, as Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin notes, an arrangement has been reached for militants to leave the besieged areas of eastern Aleppo “within hours”, confirming earlier media reports that Assad is about to have full reign of the hotly contested city - a symbolic center of the anti-Assad insurgency.

Donald Trump is appointing oil chief Rex Tillerson as the next US Secretary of State. I have chosen one of the truly great business leaders of the world, Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, to be Secretary of State. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2016 The President elect nominated the Exxon Mobil CEO for the position ignoring ‘concerns’ about Tillerson’s alleged close ties with Russia. Republican Senator John McCain expressed “concern” about Tillerson’s links to Putin, whom the senator called “a thug, a bully and a murderer” during an interview with Fox News.

Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

I have been warning about the increasing likelihood of a serious global trade war for quite some time.

That warning is now my baseline scenario. Unless there is an immediate deescalation of rhetoric and a return to rational thinking, a very destructive global trade war is baked in the cake.

I seek ways that a global trade war does not start, but I come up short.