Síntesis informativa - 1, 2 de noviembre 2018
THE NEW YORK TIMES
1° de noviembre
U.S. and Britain Seek Yemen Cease-Fire as Relations With Saudis Cool
WASHINGTON — The United States and Britain, Saudi Arabia’s biggest arms suppliers, are stepping up their pressure for a cease-fire in the Yemen war, the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster.
The calls for a halt to the conflict — by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday night, his British counterpart, Jeremy Hunt, on Wednesday, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis starting last weekend — came as criticism of Saudi Arabia has surged over its bombing campaign in Yemen and the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi writer.
The Saudi-led bombings have been a major cause of civilian deaths and destruction during the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.
“It is time to end this conflict, replace conflict with compromise, and allow the Yemeni people to heal through peace and reconstruction,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement posted on the State Department website Tuesday night.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-yemen-cease-fire.html
HOW THE WAR IN YEMEN BECAME A BLOODY STALEMATE
Dahyan, a town in the far northwest of Yemen, is a farming settlement about two hours’ drive from the Saudi border. On its dusty, unpaved main street, a large crater is still visible near a fruit-and-vegetable stand, marked out by flimsy wooden stakes and red traffic tape. It was here that a laser-guided bomb dropped by a Saudi jet struck a school bus taking students on a field trip on the morning of Aug. 9, killing 44 children and 10 adults. Even for a population that had grown accustomed to tragedy after more than three years of war, the bus bombing was shocking. Shrapnel and tiny limbs were scattered for hundreds of yards around. The bomb that hit the bus, several local people told me, bore markings showing it was made in the United States. The site has now become something of a shrine. On a brick wall a few yards from the crater, large painted letters in both English and Arabic proclaim, “America Kills Yemeni Children.”
Not far away was a fresh graveyard where the victims were buried. At each grave, a color portrait of a victim stood over a coffin-shaped mound of dry, rocky earth. Beyond a low stone wall was the carcass of the bus, a mass of twisted and burned metal. A boy was standing silently by a grave as I arrived, staring down at the headstone. “We were all in school together,” he told me. He was 14. He might easily have been on that bus, he said, but he’d already gone on the school trip. He was on the way to the market to help his father when the bomb struck. His father wasn’t hurt, but he soon found out that most of his friends and teachers were dead. He now goes to the graveyard almost every day to visit them, he told me quietly.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/31/magazine/yemen-war-saudi-arabia.html
‘We’ll Dig Graves’: Brazil’s New Leaders Vow to Kill Criminals
RIO DE JANEIRO — Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s next president, won over millions of voters by vowing to make it easier for the police to kill criminals and crush the nation’s violent gangs, often flashing a gun sign with his hands.
A “good criminal is a dead criminal,” Mr. Bolsonaro said on the campaign trail.
The type of draconian approach Mr. Bolsonaro promised has already been employed for months in Rio de Janeiro, his home state, where the military has overseen security operations since February. It has led to a surge in killings by the authorities — and a debate over whether the tactic is working.
Between March and September, the police and the army killed at least 922 people in the state of Rio de Janeiro, a 45 percent increase from the same period last year. Nearly one in every four people killed here since March have died at the hands of the state.
Opinion polls suggest a broad majority of people in Rio de Janeiro support the military intervention. But while reports of crimes like robberies and cargo theft have declined in the first seven months of the military takeover, the total number of violent deaths in the state has increased.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/world/americas/bolsonaro-police-kill-criminals.html
New Migrant Caravans Trek North, Ignoring Political Repercussions
TAPACHULA, Mexico — It was only last week that a caravan with thousands of Central American migrants hunkered down for the night here in Tapachula, in southern Mexico.
Days later, a new group numbering in the hundreds arrived, fanning out across the central plaza and surrounding sidewalks.
Now, two more caravans are on their way, as well.
The fact that the first of these caravans was able to move from Honduras into Guatemala and then into Mexico is inspiring other migrants to travel in large groups, reversing the long-established logic of Central American migration to the United States: Rather than trying to travel undetected, some migrants are trading invisibility for safety in numbers.
“Everybody wants to form another caravan,” Tony David Gálvez, 22, a Honduran farmworker, said Tuesday as he rested in Tapachula’s central plaza after walking into the city with hundreds of other migrants, part of the second caravan to arrive here this month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/world/americas/migrant-caravans-border-mexico-usa.html
2 de noviembre
Bolsonaro’s Cabinet Will Include Brazil Judge Who Convicted Lula
RIO DE JANEIRO — The federal judge who doomed former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s bid to return to power by convicting him on corruption charges last year, agreed on Thursday to take a cabinet post in the government of the country’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The decision by the judge, Sérgio Moro, to take the helm of the Justice Ministry was met with both outrage and jubilation, a reflection of how polarizing he has become.
The position is newly reconfigured to oversee efforts to fight organized crime and corruption. Mr. Moro, the most visible law enforcement figure in a sweeping corruption inquiry that began in 2014, has been hailed at home and abroad as a crusading disrupter of a political class many saw as descending into kleptocracy.
Yet some Brazilians also came to regard him as a political operator doing the bidding of conservative politicians, particularly as he oversaw the swift prosecution of Mr. da Silva on corruption and money laundering charges.
Afghan War Casualty Report: Oct. 26-Nov. 01
The following reports compile all significant security incidents confirmed by New York Times reporters and stringers throughout Afghanistan. It is necessarily incomplete as many local officials refuse to confirm casualty information.
In the past week, the Times confirmed that 18 members of the security forces and 36 civilians were killed in Afghanistan as fighting spread to eight provinces. An additional 21 people were killed in clashes between a local militia and the Taliban in Uruzgan, but the breakdown of security force and civilian deaths was unclear. This was the least violent week in Afghanistan since the Times started tracking casualties in September.
Russia-Ukraine Ties Sour Further as Moscow Imposes Sanctions
MOSCOW — The bitter relations between Moscow and Kiev continued their downward spiral on Thursday, as the Russian government imposed economic sanctions against a broad cross-section of Ukraine’s political and business elite.
The Russian prime minister, Dmitri A. Medvedev, issued a decree freezing the assets of 68 businesses and 322 individuals, with the list reading like a who’s who of the Ukrainian government. The decree specified that those sanctioned would not be able to repatriate any financial holdings in Russia to Ukraine.
The decree said that the step was being taken now to “counter Ukraine’s unfriendly activities toward Russian citizens and entities,” a reference to similar sanctions that Kiev imposed on Russians earlier this summer.
With economic and political relations between the countries crumbling, the impact of the sanctions was likely to be muted, analysts said. In an echo of the Nixon-era “enemies list,” the Ukrainians singled out, especially those running in next year’s elections, generally boasted about being sanctioned.
The Weaknesses in Liberal Democracy That May Be Pulling It Apart
For anyone curious about the future of democracy, two developments out of Brazil and Germany pose something of a mystery.
The election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil looks too similar to the wave of right-wing, anti-establishment populism sweeping Europe and the United States to be dismissed as coincidence. Mr. Bolsonaro, known for praisinghis country’s former military dictatorship and insulting minorities and women, has championed anger at Brazil’s establishment by promisingstrong-fisted rule.
Underscoring the sense of a global shift, within hours of Mr. Bolsonaro’s victory, Angela Merkel, Germany’s longtime chancellor and pillar of European stability, announced she would not seek re-election.
Yet there is no obvious link between Mr. Bolsonaro’s rise and that of Western populists. Figures like Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and German populist parties rose by railing against the European Union and immigration, neither of them issues in Brazil. Mr. Bolsonaro rode a backlash against corruption and crime epidemics that are distinctly Latin American.
U.S. Reimposes Sanctions on Iran but Undercuts the Pain With Waivers
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced the re-imposition of punishing sanctions on Iran on Friday, highlighting a hard-nosed foreign policy popular with Republicans and many Jewish voters days before crucial midterm elections.
But the United States will undercut the economic pain intended to hobble Iran by waiving the sanctions on Iranian oil purchases for what Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, described as eight “jurisdictions.”
He did not identify which entities would receive temporary exemptions, but said they included two countries that are expected to end their imports of Iranian oil “within weeks.” He also said the list of waivers is far smaller than the 20 nations that were exempted from American sanctions under President Barack Obama, and that the Trump administration had demanded much greater concessions in exchange.
The sanctions are “aimed at depriving the regime of the revenues it uses to spread death and destruction around the world,” Mr. Pompeo said. He added that he hoped to force changes that give “the Iranian people the opportunity to have the government not only they want but that they deserve.”
Nigerian Army Uses Trump’s Words to Justify Fatal Shooting of Rock-Throwing Protesters
DAKAR, Senegal — The Nigerian Army, part of a military criticized for rampant human rights abuses, on Friday used the words of President Trump to justify its fatal shootings of rock-throwing protesters.
Soldiers opened fire this past Monday on a march of about 1,000 Islamic Shia activists who had been blocking traffic in the capital, Abuja. Videos circulated on social media showed several protesters hurling rocks at the heavily armed soldiers who then shot fleeing protesters in the back.
The Nigerian military said three protesters were killed but the toll appears to have been much higher.
Amnesty International as well as leaders of the protest said more than 40 people were killed at the march and two other smaller marches, with more than 100 wounded by bullets. A Reuters reporter counted 20 bodies at the main march.
Behind the Reporting: How the War in Yemen Became a Bloody Stalemate
Getting back to Yemen was probably the hardest trip I’ve ever had to arrange. It took months of work, two separate visas, talks with three different governments and endless negotiations with Yemeni friends and helpers. We had to overcome the understandable doubts of The Times about the safety of our travel plan. But in the end, the 11-hour drive from Aden to northern Yemen — the most dangerous stretch — proved strangely anticlimactic. Every time we approached one of the checkpoints manned by young Yemeni gunmen, I’d slink lower in my seat and take off my shades, in hopes of looking a bit less like a Blackwater mercenary. (Lynsey Addario, in a full black niqab, was less conspicuous.) We were traveling through a lawless desert where all kinds of gangs and jihadists, including Al Qaeda, are active. But our 19 year-old driver just looked over at me and laughed. “You can keep them on,” he said.
The key to safety in Yemen is social networks. If you know a family with local and tribal connections, they can protect you in almost any situation. Our trip was made possible by a southern family I’ve been close to for more than a decade. Their knowledge of the terrain, and their ties to various factions across the south, were worth more than any number of bodyguards or cars. But their influence extended only to the south, the non-Houthi areas of Yemen. In the north, I depended on another old friend named Nasser, who has negotiated Yemen’s chaotic politics with unusual skill (and some luck). He always maintained a good relationship with Yemen’s longtime ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh. After the Houthis captured Yemen’s capital, Sana, in 2014, he made sure to stay on their good side. He helped link me to the people I needed to meet, as did a couple of other old Yemeni friends.
DEUTSCHE WELLE
Sri Lanka: A battleground for India-China rivalry
India and China are closely watching the political unrest engulfing Sri Lanka, a country they both regard as a critical player in their geo-strategic game for dominance in South Asia.
It's unclear which party will come out on top when the dust settles in Sri Lanka. Given its strategic location, straddling key global shipping lanes, the country's political upheaval is being closely monitored by major regional powers like India and China.
https://www.dw.com/en/sri-lanka-a-battleground-for-india-china-rivalry/a-46101828
OSCE drone shot down while spotting Russian surface-to-air missile in Ukraine
A drone operated by the OSCE's monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine was shot down after spotting a surface-to-air missile system in an area not controlled by the Ukrainian government near the Russian border.
Germany and France said on Thursday that it appears that Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine had shot down a drone being used by the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM).
Arabia Saudí ataca el Aeropuerto de Saná en Yemen
El portavoz de la coalición saudí afirma que desde allí se lanzaban ataques con drones y cohetes, además de fabricarse bombas, aunque no explica si hubo víctimas o daños.
a coalición liderada por Arabia Saudí lanzó ataques aéreos sobre el Aeropuerto Internacional de Saná, capital de Yemen, y una base militar cercana, según informaron medios saudíes estatales.
Las fuerzas de la coalición atacaron la base aérea Al Dulaimi, que estaba siendo utilizada por los rebeldes para lanzar misiles balísticos, dijo el portavoz Turki al Malki a al-Ekhbaria TV el viernes (02.11.2018), sin mencionar si ha causado víctimas o daños.
https://www.dw.com/es/arabia-saud%C3%AD-ataca-el-aeropuerto-de-san%C3%A1-en-yemen/a-46126358
XINHUA
Gobierno de Yemen apoyado por Arabia Saudí anuncia disposición para reanudar diálogo con hutíes
ADEN, 1 nov (Xinhua) -- El Gobierno de Yemen apoyado por Arabia Saudí anunció hoy su disposición para reiniciar las estancadas conversaciones de paz con los hutíes chiitas para encontrar soluciones que pongan fin al conflicto que se ha prolongado durante años en el país.
En un comunicado publicado por la agencia estatal de noticias Saba, el Gobierno acordó y renovó su disposición para participar activamente en las conversaciones auspiciadas por la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) con los rebeldes que se negaron a asistir a las anteriores conversaciones que colapsaron en septiembre.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/02/c_137575219.htm
Turquía y EEUU comienzan patrullajes conjuntos en Manbij, Siria
ANKARA, 1 nov (Xinhua) -- Fuerzas de Turquía y de Estados Unidos comenzaron hoy los patrullajes conjuntos en la región de Manbij, en el norte de Siria, informó el ministro turco de Defensa, Hulusi Akar.
Tropas de Turquía y de Estados Unidos patrullaron alrededor del Arroyo Saju, que separa la línea del frente de Manbij de la ciudad de Jarabulus, un área incluida en la Operación Escudo Eufrates de Turquía, indicó la agencia estatal de noticias Anadolu.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/02/c_137575340.htm
AGNU adopta resolución para demandar fin de embargo de EEUU contra Cuba
NACIONES UNIDAS, 1 nov (Xinhua) -- La Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas (AGNU) adoptó hoy jueves una resolución no vinculante que pide el fin del embargo de Estados Unidos contra Cuba.
El proyecto de resolución, presentado por Cuba, recibió 189 votos a favor y dos en contra en la Asamblea General de 193 miembros. Sólo Estados Unidos e Israel votaron en contra.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/02/c_137575433.htm
AL JAZEERA
1° de noviembre
Afghan government continues to lose ground to Taliban: SIGAR
Government control falls to 55 percent of districts amid record casualty levels for Afghan forces, says US watchdog.
The Taliban have still not succeeded in taking a major provincial centre despite assaults on Farah in western Afghanistan and Ghazni in the centre this year but they control large stretches of the countryside.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which has documented civilian casualties in Afghanistan since 2009, said in its latest October report that there were 8,050 civilian casualties during the first nine months of the year, including 313 deaths and 336 injuries caused by US and Afghan air attacks.
Nearly 60,000 migrants have died or gone missing since 2014: AP
Figure is almost double the number recorded by the UN's IOM agency, which mainly tracks migration to Europe.
Asia, the leading region for migration.
Despite talk of the 'waves' of African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean, as many 16 million people migrate within Africa, the APsaid.
Since 2014, at least 18,400 African migrants had died travelling within the continent, according to the figures compiled from AP and IOM records.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/56000-migrants-died-missing-2014-ap-181101072428378.html
No-fly zone, military-drill ban near Korea border take effect
Deal includes halt to 'all hostile acts' and gradual removal of landmines and guard posts in the Demilitarised Zone.
Moon said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will "soon" visit Seoul as part of a flurry of high-profile diplomacy.
He added a second North Korea-US summit is "near at hand" and that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit North Korea soon. Moon also said he expected Kim to visit Russia in the near future and North Korea's leader may meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
2 de noviembre
Saudi-UAE alliance attack airbase, missile sites in Yemen capital
More than 20 raids target the al-Dulaimi airbase in Sanaa after the US demands warring parties enter into peace talks.
On Tuesday, the Saudi-UAE alliance sent more than 10,000 troops to the port city of Hodeidah in a new offensive aimed at securing so-called "liberated areas".
Hodeidah port is the main gateway for commercial imports and relief supplies into the country, and also carries strategic importance for the alliance.
Saudi and Emirati officials have alleged it is the main entry point for Iranian arms shipments to the Houthis, a charge Tehran and the rebels deny.
Turkey, US lift sanctions on officials after pastor's release
US pastor Andrew Brunson was freed in October, easing tensions between NATO allies Washington and Ankara.
The Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday the sanctions on Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which included a travel ban into the country and freezing of assets in Turkey, had been lifted in response to the earlier US move.
'No chance against China': Gas deal worries Filipino fishermen
Pact expected to give China exclusive South China Sea exploration rights would put Filipino fishing communities at risk.
Santiago Arnaiz & Vittoria Elliott. … a new oil-and-gas deal between China and the Philippines is set to make Chinese control over the Philippine maritime territory essentially permanent.
The deal will reportedly give China exclusive rights for exploration in the South China Sea, essentially undermining the international ruling and making fishing communities like Drio's a thing of the past.
But by the time the PCA ruling was released, China had a new ally in the recently elected President Rodrigo Duterte, whose administration has sought to build friendlier ties with Beijing.
US indicts Chinese, Taiwanese firms for trade espionage
Two companies and three individuals are alleged to have conspired to steal computing technology China does not possess.
The charges against Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp, China state-owned Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, Co, Ltd, and three individuals mark the fourth case brought since September as part of a broader crackdown against alleged Chinese espionage on US companies.
The indictment alleges China was interested in gaining access to dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, a type of technology it did not possess. Micron is the only US-based company that manufactures DRAM.
RT
1 de noviembre
Saudi-led forces conduct mass strikes on Yemeni capital & beyond, despite US ‘calls for ceasefire’
The Saudi-led coalition has carried out a series of airstrikes against “legitimate military targets” in Sanaa and elsewhere across Yemen, several days after senior US officials somewhat hypocritically called for a ceasefire.
The coalition claimed that it targeted the launch sites of ballistic missiles and drones, noting that overall more than 12 raids were carried out across Yemen in the early hours on Friday. Insisting that no civilian infrastructure was targeted, Saudi-led forces said that Sanaa airport is still operating as usual.
So far there have been no official reports of casualties from the raids, which come in the midst of a renewed UN-led peace effort, which is this time backed by the United States. Local reports indicate that the raids are continuing.
https://www.rt.com/news/442903-yemen-mass-saudi-airstrikes/
Russia, India & Iran want to create alternative trade route to Suez Canal – report
Officials from India, Iran, and Russia are going to meet next month to negotiate a large joint project aimed at launching a new cargo transport corridor that could become a cheaper and shorter alternative to the Suez Canal.
The new shipment passage, North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), is set to connect the Indian Ocean with the Persian Gulf through Iran to Russia and Europe, according to Iranian state-owned news outlet Press TV. The 7,200-kilometers long corridor will combine sea and rail routes.
The new transport artery will potentially reduce the time and costs of shipping by up to 40 percent. Transport time between Mumbai and Moscow will reportedly be reduced to 20 days. Annual capacity of the transport artery is expected to reach 30 million tons.
https://www.rt.com/business/442832-india-iran-russia-suez-alternative/
Turkey to start oil & gas drilling in the Mediterranean
Turkey sent a ship to begin drilling for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean on Wednesday, two weeks after the latest tension between Turkey and Greece over jurisdictions and over hydrocarbon exploration in the area. Turkish drilling ship Fatih will start drilling at the Alanya-1 borehole, 100 kilometers (62 miles) off the southern Turkish province of Antalya, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said on Tuesday.
The Turkish drilling site is at some distance from the disputed waters with Greece and with Cyprus, both of which Turkey has admonished in recent weeks over disputes with maritime borders and drilling for oil and gas, respectively.
https://www.rt.com/business/442819-turkey-energy-drilling-mediterranean/
Bolsonaro gives top justice role to judge who jailed his rival Lula, sparking outrage
A Brazilian anti-corruption judge who helped imprison president-elect Jair Bolsonaro's main political rival has been appointed to lead the country’s justice ministry, in a highly controversial political move.
Bolsonaro announced on Thursday that Sergio Moro would take on the powerful role of justice and security minister when he takes office in January. Moro was the judge responsible for jailing former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who, polls showed, would have easily beaten Bolsonaro had he been allowed to run again.
https://www.rt.com/usa/442898-bolsonaro-judge-sergio-moro/
Cuba's new president reaches out to old allies Russia & China, seeking trade deals
Diaz-Canel will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. After the visit to Moscow, he will continue his trip to China, Vietnam, North Korea and Laos.
Moscow and Havana have inked deals worth more than $260 million, said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, adding that more new agreements are expected to be reached soon. Among the agreements was a contract to deliver 837 rail cars to Cuba in 2019-2021 and supplies of 15,000 LED lamps and their parts manufactured in Russia.
Moscow plans to continue signing contracts with Cuba, according to Borisov. “Our project on modernizing Cuba’s railways is vital and in high demand,” he said, adding there are still some issues to be solved, including tax benefits for Russian enterprises.
https://www.rt.com/business/442836-russia-cuba-new-contracts/
2 de noviembre
US touts interception of a medium-range ballistic missile it should not have (VIDEO)
Less than a week after President Donald Trump announced his plans to withdraw the US from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the US Navy has conducted a successful test of its Aegis Combat System by firing and intercepting a “medium-range ballistic missile,” which is technically banned by the INF treaty.
https://www.rt.com/usa/442913-us-intercepts-medium-range-ballistic-missile/
At least 7 killed as bus carrying Christians attacked in Egypt
At least seven people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in an attack on a bus transporting Coptic Christians to a monastery in Minya, Egypt, a local archbishop told Reuters.
Heavy gunfire reportedly broke out as a bus carrying Coptic Christian pilgrims was on its way to the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor. Coptic Christians have been repeatedly targeted by terrorists. In August, a would-be suicide bomb attack against Copts in Cairo was thwarted after the attacker’s explosive device detonated en route to a Christian church, killing only himself. But other attacks carried out by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) have been far more deadly.
https://www.rt.com/news/442961-egypt-bus-christians-attack/
Breaking Dawn: NASA’s asteroid belt mission runs out of fuel
After 11 years, 4.3 billion miles (6.9 billion kilometers) and two planetary orbits, NASA’s Dawn mission has been declared over after the craft failed to communicate with Earth for two days in a row.
The 11-year mission to investigate “time capsules from the solar system’s earliest chapter” in the asteroid belt concluded after Dawn finally ran out of hydrazine fuel, which meant it could no longer turn to face Earth, to communicate, or the sun, to recharge.
https://www.rt.com/news/442928-nasa-dawn-mission-ends/
After 17 years of war, top US commander in Afghanistan admits Taliban cannot be defeated
The Afghanistan war cannot be won militarily and peace will only be achieved through a political resolution with the Taliban, the newly-appointed American general in charge of US and NATO operations has conceded.
In his first interview since taking command of NATO’s Resolute Support mission in September, Gen. Austin Scott Miller provided NBC News with a surprisingly candid assessment of the seemingly never-ending conflict, which began with the US invasion of Afghanistan in October, 2001.
The new US commander has experienced the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan first-hand. In October, Miller survived a Taliban attack in Kandahar, which left a prominent Afghan warlord and local intelligence chief dead.
https://www.rt.com/usa/442939-miller-afghanera ristan-war-lost-taliban/
Russia’s gold reserves smash Soviet-ecord as part of Moscow's de-dollarization drive
The Central Bank of Russia bought over 92 tons of gold in the three months to the end of September breaking the Soviet peak of 2000 tons in gold reserves seen in 1941, according to a new report by the World Gold Council (WGC).
The Central Bank of Russia will keep adding bullion to its reserves, while reducing the share of US sovereign bond holdings at the same time, according to Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets. The regulator started a gradual sell-off of the US sovereign debt shortly after Washington introduced economic sanctions against Russia, threatening to fence off the country from dollar transactions, as well as from the SWIFT global payment network. The share of Russian investments in US Treasuries, which totaled nearly $176 billion in 2010, has dropped to a record low of $14 billion as of August.
Russia reportedly purchased more gold than any other country in the world, followed by Turkey, Kazakhstan, and India, which bought 18.5 tons, 13.4 tons and 13.7 tons respectively.
https://www.rt.com/business/442934-russia-central-bank-record-gold/
US threatens to smack SWIFT with sanctions if it fails to cut off financial services to Iran
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has warned Belgian-based financial messaging service SWIFT on Friday that it could be penalized if it doesn’t cut off financial services to entities and individuals doing business with Iran. The warning comes as the Trump administration announced the re-imposition of all US sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal. The latest sanctions take effect November 4 and cover Iran's shipping, financial and energy sectors.
Washington has been pressuring SWIFT to cut Iran from the financial system as it did in 2012 before the nuclear deal. Six years ago the EU imposed sanctions on Iranian banks, forcing SWIFT, which is subject to EU laws, to cut financial transactions with at least 30 of Iran’s financial institutions, including the central bank.
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is a financial network that provides high-value cross-border transfers for members across the world. It is based in Belgium, but its board includes executives from US banks with US federal law allowing the administration to act against banks and regulators across the globe. It supports most interbank messages, connecting over 11,000 financial institutions in more than 200 countries and territories.
https://www.rt.com/business/442970-us-threatens-to-smack-swift/
AL MAYADEEN
1° de noviembre
OLP condena anuncio de Bolsonaro de reconocer a Jerusalén como la capital israelí
31 de octubre. Washington no solo quiere acabar con el proyecto de un Estado palestino unido, también busca el auge del nacionalismo de derecha en América Latina y Europa. El mundo debería ser consciente de todo lo que hace, dijo el funcionario.
National Interest: Caso Khashoggi complica política de EE.UU. en Siria
31 de octubre. Según National Interest, esto presenta un dilema. Los socios estadounidenses en Siria son vistos por Turquía como enemigos, mientras que Washington y Ankara buscan hacer patrullas conjuntas. Al mismo tiempo, Arabia Saudita se encuentra en medio de una crisis en el momento preciso en que se aplican las sanciones de Irán y Estados Unidos quiere más financiamiento para Riad para el este de Siria.
Ambos dilemas proporcionan el apalancamiento de Turquía y Arabia Saudita. Sin embargo, Estados Unidos también puede exigir más apoyo para Arabia Saudita a cambio de su alianza y exigir concesiones de Turquía a cambio de exenciones en las sanciones de Estados Unidos a Irán. Esto es posible ya que el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Turquía, Mevlut Cavusoglu, dijo el 24 de octubre que Ankara quiere exenciones.
Geir Pedersen, nuevo enviado especial de las Naciones Unidas para Siria 31 de octubre
El diplomático, actualmente embajador de Noruega en China, sustituirá a Staffan de Mistura, quien renunció y abandonará el cargo a finales de noviembre.
En 1993, Pedersen fue parte del equipo noruego que participó en las negociaciones de los Acuerdos de Oslo entre Israel y la Organización para la Liberación de Palestina (OLP).
2 de noviembre
ONU: el mundo otra vez contra el bloqueo a Cuba
1 de noviembre. Solo Estados Unidos e Israel votaron en contra del levantamiento del bloqueo, y no hubo ninguna abstención.
EE.UU. introduce nuevas sanciones contra Venezuela y arremete contra Cuba
1 de noviembre. El asesor de Seguridad Nacional de Estados Unidos, John Bolton, anunció que Washington impone nuevas sanciones contra Venezuela que afectarán sobre todo el sector aurífero. Las sanciones pretenden trastocar las exportaciones de oro del país.
Durante su discurso en Miami, Bolton subrayó que la Casa Blanca no tolera a los "dictadores y déspotas" en América Latina y tachó a Venezuela, Cuba y Nicaragua de ser la "troika de la tiranía" que genera inestabilidad regional y causa sufrimiento humano.
Tras arremeter contra esos tres gobiernos, Bolton alabó al nuevo mandatario de Colombia, Iván Duque, y al presidente electo de Brasil, Jair Bolsonaro, "con ideas afines", y agregó que EE.UU. colaborará también con los líderes de México, Argentina y otros países latinoamericanos con el fin de fortalecer la seguridad e impulsar el desarrollo económico en la región.
