U.S. Endorses expansion of Military Force used by U.N. Peacekeepers

U.S. ENDORSES EXPANSION OF MILITARY FORCE USED BY U.N. PEACEKEEPERS IN COMBAT ZONES (Source blacklistednews.com) In yet another step towards the establishment of a world military force that seeks peace through the absence of dissent, the United States announced its support in May for a set of principles that will allow the United Nations’ peacekeeping troops and UN police to use force in order to “protect civilians” in combat zones and areas of armed conflict. U.S. Ambassador the U.N. and notorious warmonger against Libya and Syria, Samantha Power stated that the Kigali Principles would “make peacekeeping missions more effective, improve security and save lives.” “The Kigali Principles are designed to make sure that civilians are not abandoned by the international community again,” said Power. The Kigali Principles call for countries who contribute troops to UN missions to give UN Peacekeeping Commanders the authority to use military force against “armed actors with clear hostile intent to harm civilians” without waiting for approval from the United Nations and its member states. “If a commander has to wait hours and hours for guidance from capital, it may mean not being able to react in time to repel a fast-approaching attack on a nearby village,” Power added.

 

Europe’s Economic Crisis

Europe’s Economic Crisis Has Spread from the Periphery to the Core (Source washingtonsblog.com) We’ve noted for more than 5 years that the European crisis would spread in the following order … more or less: Greece → Ireland → Portugal → Spain → Italy → UK. We also warned that the EU’s approach to economic problems in the periphery would lead the cancer to spread. Britain is – of course -in trouble.  But it’s not just Brexit …Europe has been stuck in a downturn worse than the Great Depression for years.  The former Bank of England head Mervyn King said recently that the “depression” in Europe “has happened almost as a deliberate act of policy”. Specifically, King said that the formation of the European Union has doomed Europe to economic malaise. Even Germany’s largest bank, and the bank with the highest exposure to derivatives anywhere in the world – Deutsche Bank – is in big trouble. Deutsche Bank’s chief economist just said: Europe is extremely sick and must start dealing with its problems extremely quickly, or else there may be an accident. He’s calling for a $166 billion dollar bailout of European banks. Europe has made bad choices since the 2008 crisis … so Europe’s economic crisis has spread from the periphery to the core.

 

Video capturing aftermath of man shot by Minnesota police officer

Video capturing aftermath of man shot by Minnesota police officer sparks outrage (Source Yahoo)

Police fatally shot 32-year-old Philando Castile during a routine traffic stop in a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., late Wednesday. The aftermath of the incident was captured on video by the victim’s girlfriend and live-streamed on Facebook under the name Lavish Reynolds. The video was viewed by millions overnight and sparked protests outside the Minnesota’s governor’s mansion in St. Paul. This is the second fatal shooting this week of a black man by police officers, following the death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton spoke out Thursday following the shooting of Philando Castile at the hands of a police officer, saying the victim’s fate would have been different had he been white. “Would this have happened if the driver and the passengers had been white? I don’t think so,” the governor declared. Dayton added: “I can’t say how shocked I am and deeply, deeply offended that this would happen to somebody in Minnesota. No one should be shot in Minnesota for a tail light being out of function. No one should be killed in Minnesota while seated in their car.” Castile died Wednesday night after being shot by an officer in Falcon Heights during a traffic stop. His girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, recorded the aftermath of the shooting, broadcasting it on Facebook Live. The shooting occurred after Castile allegedly told the police officer he was carrying a permitted firearm. Castile, who would have been 33 in 10 days, was shot multiple times as he reached for his license and registration that the officer had requested, Reynolds said.

NATO Can Reduce the Threat of Escalation with Russia

NATO  Can Reduce the Threat of Escalation With Russia (Source Bloomberg) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit starting in Warsaw on July 8 will probably lead to increased — and unnecessary — tension between NATO and Russia. Yet it may also yield good results: Acknowledging the increased hostility might make it possible for the two sides to ensure there are fewer dangerous incidents. The most imminent threat to NATO countries today has little to do with Russia. Rather, it’s instability in the Middle East — the chaos that has created the refugee crisis and spawned well-funded human-trafficking networks. This threat is killing people right now, in Syria and Iraq but also in the West, in terrorist attacks and in leaky boats on the Aegean Sea. Yet NATO is doing little to counter these threats. As an organization, it is not involved in operations against Islamic State, and though it’s dispatched a maritime force to the Aegean, it’s not playing a particularly active role there. It should be clear to NATO members that they had been wrong to suspend the so-called Cooperative Airspace Initiative (CAI) with Russia at the previous summit two years ago. The CAI was about the joint monitoring of airspace, mainly to prevent terrorist threats. It can also be used to make Russia and NATO’s shared area safer, though: The technical capability has existed since 2011. It won’t be easy to agree on how to use it, since the Baltic states would be wary of any information-sharing between Russia and NATO, but the inevitable escalation makes it necessary to set up reliable security protocols. NATO and Russia will hold a high-level meeting in Brussels after the Warsaw summit to discuss these arrangements, and, despite Putin’s unpredictability, this could be the most positive result of this weekend’s discussions. If NATO is going to concentrate on a theoretical threat in the Baltic region rather than the existing deadly threats elsewhere, it certainly makes sense to take every precaution to stop theory from turning inadvertently into practice and symbolic deterrence from growing into a real war.

Beijing ‘won’t flinch if US, allies encroach on South China Sea

Beijing ‘won’t flinch’ if US, allies encroach on South China Sea: Paper (Source CNBC) China “must be prepared” for any military confrontation in the South China Sea, the country’s Global Times newspaper said in an editorial. The editorial comes amid rising tensions as China conducts a military drill in the disputed waters ahead of an international court judgment on July 12 on the Philippines‘ case against China. Manila is contesting China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, which the Philippines contends are invalid under international law.China however has said the arbitration tribunal has “no jurisdiction” over the matter and will resolve such disputes directly with the countries involved. Control of the region is valuable because more than $5 trillion worth of global trade passes through the South China Sea each year, and China has been accused of ramping up tensions over control in recent years by building artificial islands on reefs, on which it has added airstrips and other military-style installations. Global Times said the dispute had been “greatly complicated” by heavy U.S. intervention and the involvement of the international tribunal

Deutsche Bank Says the U.S. Is Likely Headed for a Recession

Deutsche Bank Says the U.S. Is Likely Headed for a Recession (Source fortune.com) The U.S. has a 60% of entering a recession in the next 12 months—the highest probability since the Great Recession. That’s according to a team of Deutsche Bank analysts looking at the fact that the difference between yields for long-term and short-term bonds has been shrinking. A so-called flat yield curve, which is the term for when there isn’t much difference between short and long-term rates is often an indicator used by economists to predict an oncoming recession. Short-term interest rates have risen above long-term interest rates before each of the last seven recessions. Typically, bonds with longer maturities have higher yields; bonds with shorter maturities, lower yields. When demand for a bond with a particular maturity rises however, its yield falls as the price of the underlying bond rises. Long-term U.S. Treasury bonds are viewed as something of a safe-haven—like gold. Investors also tend to flock to it when they expect economic weakness in the longer term alongside low inflation. So investors are willing to hold long-term bonds with lower yields because they expect future short-term rates to also fall as a result of looser monetary policy, needed to stimulate the economy in the event of a recession. And in recent months, the gap between the three-month and 10-year Treasuries have begun to close rapidly—a signal to some investors that a recession may be on its way. “This relentless flattening of the curve is worrisome,” the team of analysts led by Dominic Konstam wrote, referring to the graph that plots bonds of different maturities against their yields. “Given the historical tendency of a very flat or inverted yield curve to precede a U.S. recession, the odds of the next economic downturn are rising,”

And What’s Next for Europe?

… And What’s Next for Europe? (Source thetrumpet.com) Brexit is a wake-up call to Europe’s leaders. They need to transform the union from the ponderous unpopular bureaucratic machine, or they’ll be faced with Spexit, Frexit and Departugal. Some in Europe are preparing for others to leave. Schäuble has called for Europe to change course to a core Europe. Former Vice President of the EU Commission Viviane Reding said, “We need a ‘core Europe,’ this must be imposed quickly”. Europe’s six founding members held a crisis meeting the day after the Brexit result was announced. In that response and its need for a quick decision, we can already see the direction the EU is heading: a smaller, leaner, quicker union with more punch. Part of the reason for the EU’s unpopularity is that it is stuck halfway toward a superstate. It is powerful enough to cause problems but not powerful enough to solve them. Europe’s open borders spread the migrant crisis across the Continent, for example, but the EU lacks any common border control. One area where Europe could move the quickest is defense. France has been pushing for unity on this issue since the November 2015 terrorist attacks. Germany is also keen for greater pan-European defense, but talk on this was delayed until after the Brexit vote. The turmoil in the wake of Brexit may delay it a little further, but Europe will not put off the discussion much longer. Bible prophecy is clear that this power will be made up of 10 nations or groups of nations. The EU, minus Britain, has 27. Could that happen in the wake of Brexit? This shrinking of the EU, or the formation of a new 10-nation European body, certainly implies the EU has a tumultuous time ahead of it. Going from 27 nations to 10 may not be easy. The Bible also forecasts the arrival of a stronger leader in Europe—something the EU sorely lacks. The union will require a “confidence-inspiring leader. The nations of Europe have been striving to become reunited, they desire a common currency, a single combined military force, a single united GOVERNMENT. They have made a start in the Common Market.

Global Financial Turmoil: A Severe Worldwide Economic Recession in 2016-2017

Global Financial Turmoil: A Severe Worldwide Economic Recession in 2016-17 (Source globalresearch.ca) The first month of 2016 has witnessed the most severe drop in financial stocks ever, with the MSCI All-Country World Stock Index, which measures major developed and emerging stock markets, dropping more than 20 percent, as compare to early 2015. For sure, there will be oversold rallies in the coming weeks and months, but one can expect more trouble ahead. The current unfolding crisis is essentially a continuation of the 2007-08 financial crisis which has been temporarily suspended and pushed into the future by the U.S. central bank, the Fed, with its aggressive and unorthodox monetary policy of multiple rounds of quantitative easing (QE), i.e. buying huge quantities of financial assets from commercial mega-banks and other institutions, including mortgage-backed securities, with newly created money. As a consequence, the Fed’s balance sheet went from a little more than one trillion dollars in 2008 to some four and a half trillion dollars when the quantity easing program was ended in October 2014. Other central banks have followed the Fed example, especially the central bank of Japan and the European central bank, which also adopted quantity easing policies in monetizing large amounts of financial assets. The Bernanke Fed was very worried that the 2007-08 banking crisis would lead to a Japanese-style deflation that would wreak havoc with an overleveraged economy. The hope was to avoid a devastating debt-deflation economic depression like the one suffered in the 1930s. By injecting so much liquidity in the system, the Bernanke Fed created a gigantic financial bubble in stocks and bonds, even though the real economy has grown at a somewhat languishing 2 percent growth rate. Stock prices went into the stratosphere while interest rates fell as bond prices rose. Last December 16, the Fed announced officially that it will no longer blow into the financial balloons and that it was raising short-term interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis, setting the target range for the federal funds rate to between 1/4 to 1/2 %. This was a signal that the financial party was over. And what’s more, this means that the stock market and the bond market will once again go in different directions, as a reflection of the state of the real economy, no matter what the Fed does. Since 2008, the U.S. Fed has painted itself into a financial corner from which I personally felt it would be difficult to extricate itself. Indeed, it would be extremely difficult to correct the financial bubbles it has created —as an unintended consequence of salvaging the mega-banks in creating trillions of free money —without damaging the real economy of production and employment. If global stock markets collapse and if price deflation accelerates, making it more difficult to service the debt of consumers, corporations, and government alike, a repeat on a larger scale of what has happened in Japan over the last twenty-five years can be feared. This, at the very least, could lead to a global economic recession in 2016-17. If we go back in history, it could also be a repeat of the 1937-38 crash and recession, eight years after the crash and financial crisis of 1929-32. One thing can be made clear: The creation of the Fed in 1913, as a semi-public American central bank, has not prevented the occurrence of financial crises. It has, however, been a boon to large banks because it has served as an instrument to socialize their losses.

Taiwan ‘to test-fire missiles in US’ as China tensions rise

Taiwan ‘to test-fire missiles in US’ as China tensions rise (Source AFP) Taiwan plans to test-fire its newest anti-missile system for the first time in the United States next month as relations with rival China deteriorate, a defence source and media reports said Monday. Relations between China and Taiwan have cooled rapidly under the island’s new Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen, who took office in May, ending an eight-year rapprochement. The test of the US-made Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system will be launched at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in early July, a defence ministry source told AFP, in a move likely to irk Beijing even though it was arranged before Tsai took the helm. According to the source, the test will be conducted in the US to avoid China collecting information about it, and due to space restrictions in Taiwan. The American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy, would not comment on the test, which was also reported in Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper. Despite having no official diplomatic ties with Taipei after recognising Beijing in 1979, the US is still Taiwan’s greatest ally and main arms supplier. The missile system was purchased in 2008, well before Tsai’s leadership, and the test was approved by the US last year, according to the Liberty Times. Taiwan bought three earlier model PAC-2 systems in the 1990s and also tested them in the US. They were deployed in the densely populated greater Taipei area. It then bought the new PAC-3 — a system designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles near the end of their trajectory — as part of a $6.5 billion arms sale by the US in 2008, which infuriated Beijing at the time. The system is already partly operational and will shield Taipei, as well as central Taichung and southern Kaohsiung from any Chinese missile attacks, according to the defence ministry. The Taiwanese missile unit involved in the July drill will fire two missiles to intercept a missile launched by the US military, which simulates an incoming Chinese ballistic missile.

Why Britain’s Vote on EU Membership is So Momentous

Why Britain’s Vote on EU Membership Is So Momentous (Source thetrumpet.com) Getting 28 nations—each with its own proud and separate history, in many cases a history largely comprised of fighting other European nations—to form a superstate was always a tall order. Practically speaking, it will only be possible with a smaller group of nations. And even then, they will only be able to stick together for a short time and in the face of a common enemy. But if the EU falls apart in the wake of a Brexit, Germany will remain Europe’s richest and preeminent power. With Russia rising, Central and Eastern Europe will continue to look to Germany for defense. The prosperous, northern European nations immediately surrounding Germany will still have strong trade links with Germany, and there will be a strong incentive for Germany to form an open-border zone with these nations. Last year, Britain’s government borrowed an equivalent of 4.4% of its gross domestic product. The only EU nations with a higher level of borrowing are Spain and Greece, both troubled economies that have required some form of bailout. Britain’s trade is in a dire position. Its current account deficit is at 7% of GDP—the highest peacetime level since records began in 1772. At the heart of this problem is the simple fact that Britain is importing far more than it is exporting. The state of a nation’s society is much harder to quantify than the state of its economy, but here too the situation is dire. In the Aug. 11, 2011, Australian, Theodore Dalrymple wrote: British youth lead the Western world in almost all aspects of social pathology, from teenage pregnancy to drug taking, from drunkenness to violent criminality. … British children are much likelier to have a television in their bedroom than a father living at home. One third of them never eat a meal at a table with another member of their household—family is not the word for the social arrangements of the people in the areas from which the rioters mainly come. These problems are all unconnected with the European Union. Many EU nations do not share them, and leaving the EU won’t fix any of Britain’s social problems. The soon-coming resurrected “Holy Roman Empire”—a sort of soon-coming “United States of Europe”—a union of 10 nations will rise up out of or following the Common Market of today (Revelation 17). Britain will NOT be in that empire soon to come. Germany is the economic and military heart of Europe. Probably Germany will lead and dominate the coming United States of Europe. But Britain will be no part of it!