Mens Tennis Forums banner

Global Affairs Thread

27K views 178 replies 31 participants last post by  Phantasoman 
#1 · (Edited)
I've created this thread as an effort to organise the various topics scattered on multiple threads.

On this thread, anything can be discussed regarding global and national affairs on: politics, economy & finance, industry, energy, pollution, war, terrorism, etc.

When a unique thread is created about a specific issue, I will add the respective link in this post.


Global Issues

Overpopulation may lead to 3rd world war and the end of humanity

What is your opinion on Climate Change?

MTF Debate I: This House Would Frack, Teams Posted!

EU Commission: CETA should be approved by national parliaments

Canadian Government Introducing Legislation to Legalize Euthanasia

Canada plans to experiment with giving people unconditional free money

Panama Papers Leak

Is a worldwide total financial collapse inevitable?

Chris Kuertens WWII


US

2016 US Presidential Election

Post 2016 US Presidential Election

State Dept dismisses question from RT, says won’t treat it like other media

Amy Goodman Is Facing Prison for Reporting on the Dakota Access Pipeline


Russia

Russian politicians want to ban FIFA 17 - homophobic motive


UK

The United Kingdom Politics thread

"BREXIT" - decision day


India

The Indian Politics Thread


Ukraine

"Ukraine cancels trade pact with EU" and "thousands gather in Kyiv for pro-EU rally"

Malaysian airlines flight crashes in Ukraine

61.1% of Dutch voters reject EU association agreement with Ukraine in referendum


Syria

Syria Crisis: Obama warns Assad faces "consequences" if he uses chemical weapons

White Helmets: Syrian Heroes or Lobbyists for American military interventionism?

Turkey shot down Russian jet near Syrian border, Putin calls 'stab in the back'

US backed rebels behead child in Syria


Turkey

Coup in Turkey?


Cuba

Fidel Castro has died, aged 90

So what do you think of Che Guevara?

Obama admits ''USA policies towards Cuba failed''


Spain

2015 & 2016 Spanish General Election


Colombia

Did Human Rights Watch Sabotage Colombia's Peace Agreement?


Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

http://www.menstennisforums.com/3-n...rces-abduct-16-year-old-palestinian-girl.html


Mass Murder, Terrorism & False Flag Attacks

Multiple terrorist attacks in Paris! / 128 dead

Again terror in Europe - Brussels attacked

ISIS back in Europe: 41 killed in explosions at Istanbul Atatürk Airport

250+ people killed in one of deadliest attacks ISIS has carried out worldwide.

Bastille Day attack in Nice

Explosion in Germany

ISIS kills priest in France

Shooting In Munich

12 killed and 59 wounded in Denver shooting at a Batman showing

Shooting in Florida

Japan: Man kills 19 and wounds 45 in knife attack. Worst attack in Japan since WW2
 
See less See more
#138 · (Edited)
Czech Trump won the election in a landslide

Czech election: Billionaire Babis wins by large margin - BBC News

The far right party also did surprisingly well. The leader of the party has Japanese origin.You can't make this stuff up.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...prise-success-in-czech-election-idUSKBN1CQ0T3

The establishment parties basically went down the toilet.

It is time for the world to meet again the wonderful life of Mitteleuropa, the historical hotbed of a specific form of 'petty bourgeoisie' fascism. :rolleyes:

 
#140 ·
The petro-yuan bombshell | The Vineyard of the Saker

The new 55-page “America First” National Security Strategy (NSS), drafted over the course of 2017, defines Russia and China as “revisionist” powers, “rivals”, and for all practical purposes strategic competitors of the United States.

The NSS stops short of defining Russia and China as enemies, allowing for an “attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries”. Still, Beijing qualified it as “reckless” and “irrational.” The Kremlin noted its “imperialist character” and “disregard for a multipolar world”. Iran, predictably, is described by the NSS as “the world’s most significant state sponsor of terrorism.”

Russia, China and Iran happen to be the three key movers and shakers in the ongoing geopolitical and geoeconomic process of Eurasia integration.

The NSS can certainly be regarded as a response to what happened at the BRICS summit in Xiamen last September. Then, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted on “the BRIC countries’ concerns over the unfairness of the global financial and economic architecture which does not give due regard to the growing weight of the emerging economies”, and stressed the need to “overcome the excessive domination of a limited number of reserve currencies”.

That was a clear reference to the US dollar, which accounts for nearly two thirds of total reserve currency around the world and remains the benchmark determining the price of energy and strategic raw materials.

And that brings us to the unnamed secret at the heart of the NSS; the Russia-China “threat” to the US dollar.

The CIPS/SWIFT face-off

The website of the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) recently announced the establishment of a yuan-ruble payment system, hinting that similar systems regarding other currencies participating in the New Silk Roads, a.k.a. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will also be in place in the near future.

Crucially, this is not about reducing currency risk; after all Russia and China have increasingly traded bilaterally in their own currencies since the 2014 US-imposed sanctions on Russia. This is about the implementation of a huge, new alternative reserve currency zone, bypassing the US dollar.

The decision follows the establishment by Beijing, in October 2015, of the China International Payments System (CIPS). CIPS has a cooperation agreement with the private, Belgium-based SWIFT international bank clearing system, through which virtually every global transaction must transit.

What matters in this case is that Beijing – as well as Moscow – clearly read the writing on the wall when, in 2012, Washington applied pressure on SWIFT; blocked international clearing for every Iranian bank; and froze $100 billion in Iranian assets overseas as well as Tehran’s potential to export oil. In the event Washington might decide to slap sanctions on China, bank clearing though CIPS works as a de facto sanctions-evading mechanism.

Last March, Russia’s central bank opened its first office in Beijing. Moscow is launching its first $1 billion yuan-denominated government bond sale. Moscow has made it very clear it is committed to a long term strategy to stop using the US dollar as their primary currency in global trade, moving alongside Beijing towards what could be dubbed a post-Bretton Woods exchange system.

Gold is essential in this strategy. Russia, China, India, Brazil & South Africa are all either large producers or consumers of gold – or both. Following what has been extensively discussed in their summits since the early 2010s, the BRICS are bound to focus on trading physical gold.

Markets such as COMEX actually trade derivatives on gold, and are backed by an insignificant amount of physical gold. Major BRICS gold producers – especially the Russia-China partnership – plan to be able to exercise extra influence in setting up global gold prices.

The ultimate politically charged dossier

Intractable questions referring to the US dollar as top reserve currency have been discussed at the highest levels of JP Morgan for at least five years now. There cannot be a more politically charged dossier. The NSS duly sidestepped it.

The current state of play is still all about the petrodollar system; since last year what used to be a key, “secret” informal deal between the US and the House of Saud is firmly in the public domain.

Even warriors in the Hindu Kush may now be aware of how oil and virtually all commodities must be traded in US dollars, and how these petrodollars are recycled into US Treasuries. Through this mechanism Washington has accumulated an astonishing $20 trillion in debt – and counting.

Vast populations all across MENA (Middle East-Northern Africa) also learned what happened when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein decided to sell oil in euros, or when Muammar Gaddafi planned to issue a pan-African gold dinar.

But now it’s China who’s entering the fray, following on plans set up way back in 2012. And the name of the game is oil-futures trading priced in yuan, with the yuan fully convertible into gold on the Shanghai and Hong Kong foreign exchange markets.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange and its subsidiary, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) have already run four production environment tests for crude oil futures. Operations were supposed to start at the end of 2017; but even if they start sometime in early 2018 the fundamentals are clear; this triple win (oil/yuan/gold) completely bypasses the US dollar. The era of the petro-yuan is at hand.

Of course there are questions on how Beijing will technically manage to set up a rival mark to Brent and WTI, or whether China’s capital controls will influence it. Beijing has been quite discreet on the triple win; the petro-yuan was not even mentioned in National Development and Reform Commission documents following the 19th CCP Congress last October.

What’s certain is that the BRICS supported the petro-yuan move at their summit in Xiamen, as diplomats confirmed to Asia Times. Venezuela is also on board. It’s crucial to remember that Russia is number two and Venezuela is number seven among the world’s Top Ten oil producers. Considering the pull of China’s economy, they may soon be joined by other producers.

Yao Wei, chief China economist at Societe Generale in Paris, goes straight to the point, remarking how “this contract has the potential to greatly help China’s push for yuan internationalization.”

The hidden riches of “belt” and “road”

An extensive report by DBS in Singapore hits most of the right notes linking the internationalization of the yuan with the expansion of BRI.

In 2018, six major BRI projects will be on overdrive; the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, the China-Laos railway, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, the Hungary-Serbia railway, the Melaka Gateway project in Malaysia, and the upgrading of Gwadar port in Pakistan.

HSBC estimates that BRI as a whole will generate no less than an additional, game-changing $2.5 trillion worth of new trade a year.

It’s important to keep in mind that the “belt” in BRI should be seen as a series of corridors connecting Eastern China with oil/gas rich regions in Central Asia and the Middle East, while the “roads” soon to be plied by high-speed rail traverse regions filled with – what else – un-mined gold.

A key determinant of the future of the petro-yuan is what the House of Saud will do about it. Should Crown Prince – and inevitable future king – MBS opt to follow Russia’s lead, to dub it as a paradigm shift would be the understatement of the century.

Yuan-denominated gold contracts will be traded not only in Shanghai and Hong Kong but also in Dubai. Saudi Arabia is also considering to issue so-called Panda bonds, after the Emirate of Sharjah is set to take the lead in the Middle East for Chinese interbank bonds.

Of course the prelude to D-Day will be when the House of Saud officially announces it accepts yuan for at least part of its exports to China. A follower of the Austrian school of economics correctly asserts that for oil-producing nations, higher oil price in US dollars is not as important as market share; “They are increasingly able to choose in which currencies they want to trade.”

What’s clear is that the House of Saud simply cannot alienate China as one of its top customers; it’s Beijing who will dictate future terms. That may include extra pressure for Chinese participation in Aramco’s IPO. In parallel, Washington would see Riyadh embracing the petro-yuan as the ultimate red line.


An independent European report points to what may be the Chinese trump card; “an authorization to issue treasury bills in yuan by Saudi Arabia”; the creation of a Saudi investment fund; and the acquisition of a 5% share of Aramco.

Nations under US sanctions such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela will be among the first to embrace the petro-yuan. Smaller producers such as Angola and Nigeria are already selling oil/gas to China in yuan.

And if you don’t export oil but is part of BRI, such as Pakistan, the least you can do is replace the US dollar in bilateral trade, as Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal is currently evaluating.

A key feature of the geoconomic heart of the world moving from the West to Asia is that by the start of the next decade the petro-yuan and trade bypassing the US dollar will be certified facts on the ground across Eurasia.

The NSS for its part promises to preserve “peace through strength”. As Washington currently deploys no less than 291,000 troops in 183 countries and has sent Special Ops to no less than 149 nations in 2017 alone, it’s hard to argue the US is at “peace” – especially when the NSS seeks to channel even more resources to the industrial-military complex.

“Revisionist” Russia-China have committed an unpardonable sin; they have concluded that pumping the US military budget by buying US bonds that allow the US Treasury to finance a multi-trillion dollar deficit without raising interest rates is an unsustainable proposition for the Global South. Their “threat” – under the framework of the BRICS as well as the SCO, which includes prospective members Iran and Turkey – is to increasingly settle bilateral and multilateral trade bypassing the US dollar.


It ain’t over till the fat (golden) lady sings. When the beginning of the end of the petrodollar system – established by Kissinger in tandem with the House of Saud way back in 1974 – becomes a fact on the ground, all eyes will be focused on the NSS counterpunch.

 
#142 ·
#144 ·
call me amber, yes i think he does, now theres two options, he will hold on to his chair and that may lead him to jail (like our previous president moshe katsav) or he Will resign when he will feel theres no chance and its best to close a Plea Bargain with the Prosecution Office
 
#146 ·
i think he is shaking, the legal system in here is quite clear and sharp. The prime minister before him was charged with bribery exactly a decade ago and ended a year and a half in prison, including the president before Shimon Peres and many other members of the government.


he is messing with fire :devil:
 
#150 ·
That's sad to read, no country can truly develops with that level of curroption
 
#153 ·
Israeli police find 'sufficient evidence' to indict Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli police find 'sufficient evidence' to indict Netanyahu on corruption charges - CNN

:hearts::hearts::haha::bigwave:

"Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; every one loveth bribes, and followeth after rewards; they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them."

Any connection between these two events? :devil:

Kerry to Abbas confidante: 'Stay strong and do not give in to Trump' - Arab-Israeli Conflict - Jerusalem Post
 
#154 ·
Nothing at all. This investigation is more then a year and a half old
 
#156 ·
#158 ·
Can you quote the post and elaborate more
 
#159 ·
#160 ·
#166 ·
Pakistan find themselves in the middle of yet another chaotic political situation. It is clear the opposition party were in bed with the Americans and possibly the Army as well but imran khan found a loophole in the constitution to allow him to force a new election.

The Biden administration keeps making blunder after blunder. They thought they could interfere and force a regime change and it has spectacular backfired. Support for imran khan is growing and what looked like a near certain change in regime now looks like a near certain re-election of the current government with perhaps a cabinet shuffle.

Pakistan’s foreign minister made a trip to China the day before the vote of no confidence was supposed to happen. The Chinese apparently phoned the Pakistani army shortly afterwards and whatever was said on that phone call, the army decided to take a neutral position. Bottom line is that America continues to make reckless decisions and futile threats.
 
#167 ·
So an American backed regime change has occurred. Pakistan has dismissed Imran Khan from the PM office through a no confidence vote. The sad part is the criminals and frauds who were in bed with the Americans in the past are back at the helm. People are not stupid they know exactly who has been bought.

Support for Imran Khan is growing, protests and perhaps riots are expected. If an election were held he would win probably with a majority. But the opposition snakes will conjure up something with the Americans to ensure IK is not allowed to fight at the next elections. At this point anything is possible up to and including the assassination of IK but there is a huge risk there because IK is perhaps Pakistan’s and most loved sporting hero.

The general sentiment in Pakistan was they hated America, they will hate them more now. If you asked the public they would always pick China over America because of the trade and other partnerships.

The sooner Pakistan becomes a neutral military state the better, the sooner America gets lost the better.
 
#168 ·
The people in Pakistan have spoken out. Massive crowds gathering all over the country last night. Crowds overseas too. These types of crowds haven't been seen in Pakistan in a long long time. Not in the last few decades at least. The people are saying together, we don't want your American installed puppet regime. We will endure financial hardship and all kinds of difficulties but we will not tolerate these criminal sell outs. Most people in Pakistan absolutely hates America and the hate has grown because of the wars in the middle east. They also hate america because they were using Pakistani bases to wage their wars.

To put things into context, I opened google maps and started searching for cities and towns and every single city/town had thousands if not tens of thousands of people protesting. Social media has it all. But sadly most of Pakistan's MSM is also like western MSM it seems, sold out to the highest bidder and these protests were a footnote. The messages written and being chanted are anti-America and anti regime change.

 
#169 ·
The situation in Pakistan is fragile. The huge popularity for the ousted leader Imran Khan is only increasing and the anti-American sentiment is growing. Even if America denies any involvement, the evidence is quite strong and the public have made up their minds. The economic situation in Pakistan is extremely delicate, inflation is high and it could increase even more once they announce a hike in the price of fuel and food. Most economists are saying that the price hike must come to save the country's economy. I'm not an expert in this area, so I'll just leave it at that. Isn't it better to be in the opposition when your country is in a huge crisis with no end in sight? That's why I think America's regime change timing is very questionable. Mind you what does America care about a population of 220 million on the other side of the world, provided they have puppets at the top they'll be happy.

Yesterday Imran Khan launched a long march, this is a gathering of huge numbers towards the federal area of the country to protest. Sadly though the opposition and the establishment put absolutely every barrier in their way to prevent it. There were blockades on all the major cities and their exit points. Thousands of rangers and police were armed with riot gas and rubber bullets. So in the end when over a million were expected with IK only about 100-200k arrived. In the heat, with children, women and the elderly being pummelled by riot gas IK had no choice I feel but to call off the long march. All but one mainstream media outlet has remained impartial on this and they are often blocked during protests. The internet providers also started to shut off services yesterday so people couldn't share their stories about being attacked.

It's actually kind of a win-win situation for him. As the ecvonomic situation worsens - he gains popularity. As the authorities target the public which includes women, the elderly and very young children they gain more support. The puppets know, everyone knows that IK will win the next elections so rumour has it the puppets are trying their best to get as much corruption charges dropped and other backdoor items pushed through before their inevitable fall.

The end result of all this, like everywhere around the world, when these things happen... the public are the ones who suffer.
 
#171 ·

I´m glad another dictator has been prevented, that khan is out and Pakistan is in peace, I think that populist fascist is overestimating his support
 
Top