'The noose is tightening': 5 takeaways from Michael Cohen's plea deal — and what it means for Trump
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November 30, 2018
Saudi Arabia Murder G20 : Macron to meet with Crown Prince at G20 to get more information on Prince's involvement
Macron to meet Saudi crown prince despite Khashoggi uproar French
President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Argentina in
what would be a first meeting with a Western leader since the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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November 29, 2018
Ukraine Russia Conflict: Trump refuses to condemn Russian aggression - by Nicole Gaouette
As world leaders denounced Russia's aggression against Ukraine,
President Donald Trump waited more than a day before offering a muted
response about the clash, leaving the task of criticizing Moscow to the
outgoing US ambassador to the UN.
When asked how he felt about the clash, Trump said, "not good. Not happy about it at all." He seemed reluctant to blame Russia, adding, "we do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out.
Trump spoke to reporters just days before he is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin at a G20 meeting in Argentina.
In the 24 hours after Russian ships opened fire on and seized three Ukrainian vessels near Crimea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May, the foreign ministers of Germany, the UK and Canada,
European members of the Security Council, including France, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as several US lawmakers expressed grave concern and called for a de-escalation.
During that time, the President and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remained silent on the serious escalation in tensions between the two countries. After Trump spoke to reporters, a day and a half after the confrontation, Pompeo released a statement expressing "deep concern," condemning Russia and calling for restraint from "both parties.
But it fell to Ambassador Nikki Haley to reprise her role as the administration's leading and toughest voice on Russia, leaving analysts concerned that the White House silence and then Trump's low-key response would be read as encouragement, if not acquiescence.
Read more: Ukraine Russia: Trump refuses to condemn Russian aggression - CNNPolitics
When asked how he felt about the clash, Trump said, "not good. Not happy about it at all." He seemed reluctant to blame Russia, adding, "we do not like what's happening either way. And hopefully it will get straightened out.
Trump spoke to reporters just days before he is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin at a G20 meeting in Argentina.
In the 24 hours after Russian ships opened fire on and seized three Ukrainian vessels near Crimea, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May, the foreign ministers of Germany, the UK and Canada,
European members of the Security Council, including France, Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands and the UK, as well as several US lawmakers expressed grave concern and called for a de-escalation.
During that time, the President and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remained silent on the serious escalation in tensions between the two countries. After Trump spoke to reporters, a day and a half after the confrontation, Pompeo released a statement expressing "deep concern," condemning Russia and calling for restraint from "both parties.
But it fell to Ambassador Nikki Haley to reprise her role as the administration's leading and toughest voice on Russia, leaving analysts concerned that the White House silence and then Trump's low-key response would be read as encouragement, if not acquiescence.
Read more: Ukraine Russia: Trump refuses to condemn Russian aggression - CNNPolitics
November 28, 2018
Ukraine: Trump Administration wants to throw the EU under the Russian bus: Trump's Ukraine Response Muted as He Punts the Problem to Europe - by Nick Wadhams
 |
| Trump wants to throw the EU under the bus of Buddy Putin |
After almost a day of silence from the White House and State Department, Ambassador Nikki Haley went to the United Nations Security Council on Monday to condemn Russian forces for firing on Ukrainian ships near Crimea. But she also made clear that the U.S. would refrain from further action and would instead play a supporting role to European efforts to ease tensions.
Though Ukraine warned of a potential new Russian invasion and imposed martial law in some areas of the country for 30 days, Haley’s muted response reflected President Donald Trump’s inclination to distance himself from a conflict that he’s long blamed on predecessor Barack Obama. Trump says Obama failed to stop Russia from annexing Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2015.
Obama “allowed a very large part of Ukraine to be taken,” Trump said at a news conference this month. As a presidential candidate, Trump tweeted in 2016: “Russia took Crimea during the so-called Obama years. Who wouldn’t know this and why does Obama get a free pass?”
That the U.S. was so slow to condemn the incident suggested that the administration was wrestling with how to best to navigate the president’s ambivalence.
Note EU-Digest: This once again shows very clearly that the EU must stop pussyfooting with the US, specially now it is very clear that Donald Trump wants to throw the EU under the Russian bus of his buddy Vladimir Putin.
Priority number one for the EU is to set a unified and independent course, when it concerns, international relations, trade and military preparedness.
European Council President Donald Tusk on Monday condemned Russia's seizure of Ukrainian navy vessels in the Kerch Strait.
"I condemn Russian use of force in the Azov Sea. Russian authorities must return Ukrainian sailors, vessels and refrain from further provocations," Tusk said after a phone call with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Read more: Trump's Ukraine Response Muted as He Punts the Problem to Europe - Bloomberg
November 27, 2018
World War III ? Russia vs Ukraine War? Ukrainian President Says Neighbor Is Preparing Ground Attack - by Cristina Maza
During a televised speech on Monday in which he outlined his case for
imposing martial law, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko claimed that
his country’s intelligence service had evidence that Russia was
preparing a ground attack.
Poroshenko's speech was given after Russia blocked three Ukrainian navy vessels from passing from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The incident was a major escalation of the tensions that have existed between the two countries ever since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and began backing armed separatists in the country in 2014. Poroshenko is close to imposing martial law in Ukraine, which would allow the military to run the country, saying it was necessary for Ukraine’s security.
Many experts said Russia’s attack on Ukrainian naval ships on Sunday was a game changer.
“The big story here is that Russia’s armed forces, in broad daylight, launched an attack on Ukrainian navy ships. This crosses a new line. Moscow, of course, seized Crimea with its military, but under the guise of unidentified ‘little green men.’
Moscow has been conducting a not-quite-covert war in Donbass. Yes, there are thousands of Russian officers there and they control the fighting, but Moscow denies it. In this case, there is no denial,” John Herbst, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, told Newsweek.
Note EU-Digest : For those of us remembering our history classes, this is starting to resemble very much how the second world war started, when on October 1, 1938, Adolf Hitler's army marched into the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
This accelerating Nazi Germany's aggressive World War II offensive.
At that time Europe also was divided, as it is now over Brexit, and to make natters even worse, the US, which used to be the West's major defender of Democracy, has now taken an isolationism turn under the leadership of a not too bright, ego-maniac President, who is in charge of a dysfunctional government, and a population, divided in two polarized camps.
Putin looking at this picture is probably thinking in the same way as Hitler thought back in 1939. "this is a window of opportunity and it appears there is no need to pull down the shades." Bottom-line, we in the West, and specially the EU, could become involved in a major war pretty soon, if we don't get our act together.
Read more: Russia vs. Ukraine War? Ukrainian President Says Neighbor Is Preparing Ground Attack
November 26, 2018
EU Defence Force: Germany may increase troop numbers to 203,000 by 2025
Germany's military is planning to increase the number of active soldiers to 203,000 by 2025 — some 5,000 more than originally planned, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper has reported.
The plan by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen foresees creating a total of 20,000 active duty and reservist jobs to bolster Germany's cyber defense capabilities and meet the country's NATO and European commitments.
Read more: Germany may increase troop numbers to 203,000 by 2025 | News | DW | 26.11.2018
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