A resolution was submitted for a vote to the United Nations Security Council by Kuwait condemning the use of violence by Israeli forces on Palestinian civilians, but was vetoed by the US, who considered it to be ‘one sided’. Since the ‘Great March of Return’ began, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured by Israeli forces. So far, there have been no Israeli casualties.
Deutsche Welle reports:
With America’s increasing unreliability and erratic behaviour both as it relates to international accords and relationships with its allies and partners, especially as regards trade, some within the EU have been looking to better relations with Russia, often considered a villain by the West.
With the advent of the Trump administration, Washington has withdrawn from multiple multilateral agreements, conducted extremely controversial maneuvers and not only threatened but actually applied trade sanctions and tariffs against its partners and allies.
With tariff exemptions having run out, meaning that many of America’s trading partners are to face tariffs on their aluminum and steel, as of today, and many, including Canada, France, Germany, and others, having already condemned the tariffs and threatened countermeasures, as well as WTO disputes, Britain is also a part of that list. Responses range from calling Trump’s logic ‘based on a lie’ to ‘stupid’.
The BBC reports:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed to North Korea’s Foreign Minister not only that Russia was supportive of whatever solid agreements might manifest between talks with the US and South Korea, but that Russia would not interfere in the process. He also pointed out that denuclearization cannot be fully realized as long as sanctions remain in place on North Korea.
RT reports:
USAF MQ-9 Reaper drones have made their debut in Poland and will be stationed at a Polish air base. What’s more, they’ve already started flying missions in the area, apparently to patrol for any possible threats to Poland’s southern region.
Sputnik reports:
Much like those in Europe who have been expressing their displeasure with Trump’s decision to levy tariffs on them despite their please, such as the EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau is lashing out against Trump’s foreign economic policy and threatening a retaliatory response.
Tomorrow, a no-confidence vote could be held in the Spanish Parliament. The present situation is such that it appears that the sitting Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, could end up losing that vote, as the socialist contender, Pedro Sanchez, is already staring down the barrel of an absolute majority in backing from the members of the parliament. The absolute majority victory of 176 votes would allow Sanchez to immediately assume power, while he is presently expected to see better results than that.
It is known that torture and extrajudicial executions are part of the CIA’s operating procedure for its blacksite ops, often conducted in other nations throughout the world. Based on a Senate report from 2014, the European Court of Human Rights is ruling against the nations of Romania and Lithuania for knowingly hosting CIA torture sites, despite the fact that torture and extrajudicial executions are banned practices.
France, and the EU, have been getting a tough political and economic experience from Washington lately. The biggest issues, and the ones driving the wedge that is presently making a rift in the relations between the long time partners and allies on both sides of the Atlantic, are those of America’s withdrawal from the JCPOA Iran nuke deal, which included the reimposition of nuclear related sanctions on Iran, and the trade tariffs that Trump levied back in march, to which the exemption that the EU has been enjoying has just run out.
Back in March, US President Donald J. Trump decided to levy tariffs on those of its trade partners who were ‘treating us unfairly’. Those tariffs included a 10% tariff on imported aluminum and 25% on steel imports, perceiving those of the entire globe.
But some countries, including the EU, Canada, Mexico, and others, managed to secure a brief exception to those measures, as well as harsh rhetoric from Trump about the EU’s nature being that of ripping America off, which was extended for May.
