Global News Synopsis | Week 24 | 10th - 16th June 2018

Steemians - Check out my synopsis and curation below of significant global happenings during week 24. All sources have been provided in "Reference Links" section at the end of this synopsis.

Geo-Politics

1. “Rocket Man” turned “Chairman Kim” and Trump met at Singapore on 12th June. Although US neocon and humanitarian imperialist factions are ridiculing the absence of “meat” in the joint statement issued after the summit, the matter of fact is that the summit reaffirmed the critical Panmunjom Declaration, which is essentially a "double freeze" - The DPRK holds off on any new nuclear and missile tests while the US and South Korea stop the “war games”.

Shortly after the one-on-one with Kim, when asked if there was talk of pulling U.S. troops out of South Korea, Trump said the topic didn't come up, however he said the following:

"We didn't discuss that, no. We're not going to play the war games... I thought they were very provocative. I also they're also very expensive."

As Pepe Escobar observed -

By signing the Singapore joint statement, Washington has been put on notice of the Panmunjom Declaration. In law, when you take notice of a fact, you can’t ignore it later. The DPRK’s commitment to denuclearize in the Singapore statement is a reaffirmation of its commitment to denuclearize in the Panmunjom Declaration, with all of the conditions attached to it. And Trump acknowledged that by signing the Singapore statement.

Representatives Christian Tybring-Gjedde (Frp) and Per-Willy Amundsen (Frp) of Norway believe this summit and the agreement qualifies Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize and have nominated him for the same immediately after the Singapore summit. Trump's nomination this year will be for the 2019 Nobel.

2. The humanitarian crisis in Yemen got a major escalation this week when Saudi led (US backed) coalition conducted airstrikes on the Houthi held port city of Al Hudaydah. The city of half a million people is one of the sole lifelines of support from the outside world, thus analysts are predicting this to be a catastrophe for the country's civilian population, across Yemen, with eight million people are already at risk of starvation. In response, the Houthis attacked and sunk a naval vessel belonging to the United Arab Emirates in the Red Sea.

3. Italy is starting to deliver on its anti immigrant rhetoric. Matteo Salvini, Minister of the Interior for Italy, wrote an urgent letter ordering Malta to accept a ship ( MV quarius) carrying 629 shipwrecked North African migrants currently sitting off the Italian coast - calling Malta the "safest port" for the passengers, and advising that Rome will no longer offer refuge. Worthwhile to note here that Italy's vocal resistance to accepting further migrants even prompted prominent globalist George Soros, the person many have accused of being behind Europe's forced migration patterns, to urge the EU to compensate Italy for the 100,000+ migrants landing there. In latest development, France has agreed to accept some of the 630 migrants from 26 countries rescued by the MV Aquarius following an international spat between French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian authorities which led to Spain agreeing to take them in.

4. Once again, the presstitute MSM has conveniently chosen to stay silent on the exposing of Israel's efforts in aiding Saudi become nuclear capable. As per Ami Dor-on, a senior Israeli official at iHLS (Israel’s Homeland Security), Saudis have been covertly receiving nuclear information from Israel. While the eyewash for Saudi nuclear ambition is to counter the Iranian threat, the truth is Iranians – unlike the Israelis – have not developed a single nuclear warhead and have played by every single rule of the JCPOA which the US unilaterally exited, clearly at the behest of Israel. It is also important to mention here that Israel is not a legitimate nuclear power, hasn't signed the Nuclear Non-profileration treaty, and acquired nuclear power from covert thefts of nuclear material from countries such as the United States and Belgium.

5. Julius Malema, aka the Hitler of South Africa, who is at the forefront of a movement to confiscate white properties, reprtedly told white people in his country that he’s not going wage genocide against them. Yet. Zerohedge reports-

When the reporter mentioned that some people might view these remarks as a call to genocide, Malema responded, “Crybabies. Crybabies,” but later warned white South Africans that “the masses are on board” for “an un-led revolution and anarchy”.

6. Syed Shujaat Bukhari, the founding editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir, a leading newspaper in India’s conflict-ridden Kashmir, was shot and killed by as yet unidentified terrorists near his office on Thursday, on the eve of the holy festival of Eid ul-Fitr. Bukhari’s killing adds a new level of complexity to the Kashmir conflict, which has devoured over 100,000 lives in the last 28 years. Multiple government sources told Asia Times in Srinagar and Delhi that the Track 2 dialog, which Bukhari had attended along with large delegations from India and Pakistan, led to his assassination.

7. A lawmaker from Merkel's own party said the Chancellor could be removed from office by the end of next week during an appearance on BBC World at One (via Express). On Friday, German media reported that Merkel's junior coalition partner, the CSU, had announced the end of its alliance with Merkel's CDU - though that report was quickly denied.

Geo-Economics

1. The proverbial Dragon and Eagle are wrestling at the Trade table again. Earlier this week, US Announced Target List On $50BN In Chinese Tariffs (full list of goods here). Beijing got even with a retalliatory tariff of $50 Billion Tariffs On US Goods, including soybeans, light aircraft, orange juice, whiskey and beef, starting July 6th.

2. India jumps on the Trade war bandwagon - India will suspend trade concessions and raise import duties on 30 products from the United States by up to 50 percent, in a mirror response to Washington’s impetuous move to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.The new measures will see a 50 percent tariff increase on motorcycles with engine capacities of over 800cc, while apple imports would be charged with a 25 percent levy. Imports of almonds and walnuts would see a 20 percent levy.

3. Russia continues on its " ditch dollar" mission - major selloff of US Treasury bonds, dumping some $47bn-worth of papers and momentarily dropping six places on a list of major foreign holders of US securities, recently released statistics for April have shown. In last week's synopsis, we reported how Russia is hoarding up on gold at the same time, clearly signalling the end of days for dollar as global reserve currency.

4. US-Canada trade war heats up : Canadian publications and citizens groups are calling for a boycott of US goods in response to President Trump and members of his administration's attacks on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada is the biggest market for US goods. The country imports a total of $90 billion during the first four months of this year alone. For 35 US states, Canada is the top export market. As a whole, Canada is the destination for 18.3% of US exports - putting it ahead of China and Mexico. So a boycott of US goods is easier said than done.

Crypto News

1. Chinese-based Tron, the 10th largest crypto-currency in the world by market capitalization, buys the p2p file-sharing protocol Bittorrent.It will be interesting to see how Tron can revive the ailing Bittorrent given the myriads of IP and internet censorship acts being passed in EU and globally.

2. The US Securities and Exchange Commission says the 'dApp'/'Ethereum' is not a security as it's decentralized and cannot be controlled by a outside third party, which provided some relief to crypto trading markets.

3. The record growth in bitcoin last year was actually a coordinated market manipulation, according to recent research by University of Texas Finance Professor John Griffin. In his paper, Griffin says that the US dollar-pegged cryptocurrency tether was used to buy bitcoin at the times that the latter was falling, which helped “stabilize and manipulate” the cryptocurrency's price.

Miscellaneous / Of Note

1. Federal Judge Richard Leon has blocked a DOJ lawsuit intended to scuttle telecom giant AT&T's planned $85 billion buyout of media conglomerate Time Warner - a ruling that is expected to launch a flood of mega-mergers. The deal will allow AT&T to compete with Internet companies like Facebook and Google in the world of digital advertising. Meanwhile, the decision hands the DOJ one of its most embarrassing losses in recent memory. The case was the first time in 30 years that a court had presided over a fully litigated challenge to a vertical merger.

2. CRISPR causing Cancer - Medical researchers say two new studies suggest that a cutting-edge therapy to repair defective genes could promote cancer-causing mutations in cells, a possible safety concern that some of the hottest companies in biotechnology may have to account for as they start human trials. Technocrats believe their science is infallible and reject all criticism until forced to do otherwise.

3. According to Reuters and local news agency Kryminform, on Wednesday the entire peninsula of Crimea lost power around 3:25 p.m., local time.

“All Crimea and Sevastopol are without power. It's down everywhere. We're looking into the cause,” a source told the website. Locals have also reported problems with mobile phone service.

MAIN CITIES IN CRIMEA SUFFER POWER BLACKOUT - TWO WITNESSES - Reuters
HEAD OF CRIMEA CONFIRMS POWER BLACKOUT ON THE WHOLE TERRITORY OF CRIMEA

4. Skunk Bay Weather, a local weather website that runs camera enabled weather stations on the northern Kitsap Peninsula; Kitsap County, Washington, recorded a mysterious object early Sunday morning, which looks like a missile blasting off from what seems to be the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. However, the spokesperson for the NAS said “It wasn’t a missile launch from the facility. There are no missile launch capabilities on the Navy base at Whidbey Island.” If it indeed was a missile launch, why is it being kept a secret and what is the purpose?

5. A global shortage of sand is prompting black-market gangs to steal large amounts from rivers and beaches. Scientists are warning that the global supply of sand is slipping through our fingers. Statistics show that worldwide, we go through 50 billion tons of sand every year – twice the amount produced by every river in the world during the same period. RT reports-

China has used more sand in recent years than the United States did throughout the 20th century. In India, sand has become such a hot commodity that it has been taken over by organized crime, which illegally mines and sells it on the black market. The Sand Mafia, India's strongest criminal organization, employs 75,000 people to dive for sand in rivers. Divers work 12-hour days, diving up to 200 times and making only $15 per boatload.

6. US lawmakers have introduced bipartisan bill S. 2980 – Integrated Missile Defense Act of 2018, which aims at further accelerating hypersonic missile defenses and space-based sensors, as the cold war for emerging technologies, including hypersonics be well underway against China and Russia.