“A significant percentage of the world’s violence could be prevented with a flick of a pen by ending the War on Drugs.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/the-war-on-drugs-is-far-deadlier-than-most-people-realize/
“There are six factors involved: Iran, sales of arms, Israel, the CIA, indifferent cruelty, and the system of empire.”
Read more: https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/55-u-s-senators-voted-genocide-yemen/
“Under Xi—the most powerful Chinese leader in four decades—China’s own one-party system is one that is ready to be exported to regimes everywhere.”
“An earlier theory had once speculated that this new mental disorder is actually the symptom of some sort of airborne virus, since it has infected the leadership of neighboring nations Iran, Iraq, and Syria.”
“California’s plan to deny pipeline permits for transporting oil from new leases off the Pacific Coast is the most forceful step yet by coastal states trying to halt the biggest proposed expansion in decades of federal oil and gas leasing.”
“More than a dozen former Pentagon officials, CIA analysts, US military officers, and think tank experts, as well as a retired South Korean general who spent his entire professional life preparing to fight the North, have all said variants of the same thing: There is a genuine risk of a war on the Korean Peninsula that would involve the use of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Several estimated that millions — plural — would die.”
Read more: https://www.vox.com/world/2018/2/7/16974772/north-korea-war-trump-kim-nuclear-weapon
“Citizens of the United States tend to have short memories. The historical reality is that Iran did have a secular, democratic government, led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh between 1951 and 1953 — but Mossadegh was removed from power in a coup organized and funded by the CIA and Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6.”
Read more: https://theintercept.com/2018/02/05/iran-cia-coup-mossadegh-ayatollah/
“The Russian government has purchased two-thirds of all the gold mined in country, buying it from local banks to add to reserves as the Kremlin sees the precious metal as a safe haven at a time of geopolitical turbulence. Russia is the largest gold buyer in the world, and purchases by Russian banks have increased substantially in recent years. The biggest buyers are VTB24, Sberbank and Gazprombank. All three banks have registered at the Shanghai precious metals exchange. In April, VTB announced plans to sell up to 100 tons of gold to China annually. Reserve diversification is one of the primary reasons driving Russia to buy gold, according to the Central Bank.”
Read more: https://www.rt.com/business/417592-russian-banks-gold-purchases/
“The Treasury Department warned in its report to Congress that Russia’s sovereign debt market is too important to sanction without risking global financial turmoil, Bloomberg reported on Friday. That note can be seen as a sign of relief for Russian debt. The State Department did not hint as to whether the classified portion of its sanctions memo to Congress called for fines against those holding or trading in Russian securities.”
“To defend his elites, the Russian president also announced a capital amnesty programme to incentivize wealthy Russians to repatriate their overseas assets. It is estimated that $200 billion in financial assets are held in offshore tax heavens, which constitutes 60% of Russia´s overall wealth. A ‘de-offshorization’ law, passed in 2014 before sanctions to encourage repatriation, had limited success among Russian tycoons, but under threat of blacklisting, they seem to be looking for new ways to bring cash home.”
Read more: https://globalriskinsights.com/2018/01/us-blacklist-oligarchs-russia-impact/