Yesterday, it was agreed upon at the European Council special meeting that Belarus will be sanctioned. However, the scope of the sanctions and the long path to agree on them, demonstrates that the European Union is in a crisis and cannot project its power as it wishes. German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the bilateral agreement on Belarus and the strategic approach to Turkey as a step forward. The chancellor stated that “we had many discussions today on the issues of Belarus and Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. In short, I can say that they were completely successful.”

Renewed clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have been underway since Sunday when both sides accused each other of aggression along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh. The two subsequently announced the marshalling of their respective forces, with Baku declaring partial mobilisation and Yerevan full mobilisation.

Fighting continues in Nagorno-Karabakh, as both sides publish numerous videos of enemy aircraft and miltary vehicles, destroyed during the clashes. Russia, France, and many other countries have called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to cease the hostilities and return to negotiations, while Turkey has supported Baku, promising aid "in talks and in combat", and warning that any aggression against Azerbaijani territory is an attack against Ankara.

It was a mistake that there was no dialogue between Europe and Russia over arms reductions, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a joint news conference with Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins on Wednesday.

"The disarmament agreements were concluded between the United States and Russia and we were not even a party to them, but in the recent 15 years those agreements have been scrapped," he said. "We are no longer protected. In particular, it concerns the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty that the United States quitted. And what is instead? Nothing."

According to Macron, "It could have happened as Europe failed to build dialogue with Russia over the Europe-related disarmament issues." "It was a mistake," he believes.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova of making “derogatory public statements” suggesting Hungarians are building a “sick democracy.”

Orban called for Jourova’s resignation in a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which was published on Tuesday.

“According to the vice president, in Hungary a ‘sick democracy’ is being built,” Orban said.

The majority of people tend to think of the concept of history as if it is something relegated only to the past. As if they are not living through what will become history in the future. Doing so allows them to maintain a thought process that convinces them that world wars and European wars, in general, are over.

After all, Europe learned its lesson in the Big One – and the Big One after that. Of course, with any such incident, there’s history, and there’s what actually happened.

If things between Greece and Turkey don’t cool down, a European/Mediterranean war will ensue.

Such a war would not be merely European but Euro-Asian and, at its furthest reach, global.

Activists with the right-wing “Flemish Interest” party drove their cars to the Belgian capital on Sunday in an effort to counter the formation of the country’s new federal cabinet.

Small family sedans, monstrous pickup trucks, flashy sports cars and even buses with yellow-and-black Flemish lion flags were spotted all over Belgium over the weekend, as right-wing “Flemish Interest” activists launched what they describe as one of their biggest demonstrations in decades.

Convoys from the country’s Flemish regions – over 5000 cars carrying more than 10,000 people according to organizers, arrived to an open-air parking lot in the suburb of the Belgian capital, where a rally was held.

As previous surveys have indicated, nearly four out of ten Danish Muslims would like to have the country's laws at least partly based on Sharia law, and over 10 percent even said Denmark's laws should be solely based on Sharia.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has strongly denounced recent examples of Sharia law practised by certain imams in the country.

Among others things, controversial imam Abu Bashar (civil name Mohamad Al-Khaled Samha) from the city of Odense has demanded than women sign divorce contracts, which is contrary to Danish law. According to them, a woman loses custody of her children if she remarries or behaves in a way that "violates her own or her family's honour", and additionally must provide her husband with money to obtain a divorce.

Odense Mayor Peter Rahbæk Juel was shocked and distressed by the news.

France has demanded that every EU country be forced to take in a share of illegal immigrants arriving on European soil.

Speaking to France Inter on Wednesday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asserted that “the migration question can only be settled at the European level” and that every EU nation must share the burden of resettling third world migrants.

“We still want a European solidarity. There is no reason why only Italy, France, and Germany, broadly speaking, with Greece share this solidarity,” Darmanin said.

The French minister made his remarks shortly before Brussels revealed that a “compulsory solidarity mechanism” would be part of plans to force a Europe-wide asylum and migration system on every country in the bloc.

We, Belgian doctors and health professionals, wish to express our serious concern about the evolution of the situation in the recent months surrounding the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We call on politicians to be independently and critically informed in the decision-making process and in the compulsory implementation of corona-measures. We ask for an open debate, where all experts are represented without any form of censorship. After the initial panic surrounding covid-19, the objective facts now show a completely different picture – there is no medical justification for any emergency policy anymore.

The current crisis management has become totally disproportionate and causes more damage than it does any good.

We call for an end to all measures and ask for an immediate restoration of our normal democratic governance and legal structures and of all our civil liberties.

Earlier this month, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban expressed support for incumbent US President Donald Trump in the upcoming election after the two officials held a telephone conversation.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has endorsed Donald Trump's re-election bid in the upcoming US presidential vote, saying that the Democrats have forced "moral imperialism" on the international community.

"We root for Donald Trump's victory because we know well American Democratic governments' diplomacy, built on moral imperialism. We have been forced to sample it before, we did not like it, we do not want seconds", Orban wrote in an essay.

Trump Administration officials have been saying this for weeks, but on Friday reiterated their intentions to try to enforce a UN Security Council resolution that includes broad sanctions against Iran. Officials say they expect every nation to comply.

The glaring problem with this is that the resolution doesn’t exist, at least not as an active resolution the US wants. The P5+1 nuclear deal gave the US the authority to reimpose sanctions on Iran, but the US had withdrawn from that pact years ago. Though the Trump Administration argued that didn’t matter, the UN has virtually unanimously rejected their interpretation, and rejected the UN Security Council resolution. The US believes the resolution becomes active Sunday, but the reality is it just doesn’t exist legally.

Via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Twice in the past week, the United States has clumsily weighed into mounting tensions in the East Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey.

First, Washington announced last weekend the opening of a maritime security base on the island state of Cyprus, which is allied with Greece.

Then the U.S. followed up by formally clearing the way to send weapons to Cyprus, ending a 33-year arms embargo. Washington claims the arms are “non-lethal”, but we have seen that semantic ruse played before with regard to U.S. weaponizing Ukraine and other places. Never mind the hairsplitting, the move is a military involvement whichever way it’s presented.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was forced to fly to Nicosia to discuss the situation in the Mediterranean Sea. The visit took place two weeks after the telephone talks between the presidents of the United States, Turkey and the Greek prime minister.

Donald Trump was unable to effectively resolve the Turkish-Greek controversy. During the talks, Kyriakos Mitsotakis complained about “destabilizing actions of Turkey, threatening peace and stability in the region, as well as testing NATO cohesion.” In response, Erdogan claimed the readiness to conduct a dialogue to resolve contradictions.

Asa result, Ankara sent another geological reconnaissance ship to the Mediterranean Sea. And exacerbated the already tense situation.

The essence of the conflict between Turkey, Greece and Cyprus lies precisely in the fact that Turkey is conducting geological exploration of minerals in the waters that Greece and Cyprus consider their exclusive economic zone.

The coronavirus crisis in previous months overshadowed the issue of terrorism and Islamic radicalism but as official reports from Germany and France show, the danger of terrorism has not disappeared, but is actually growing, writes Lukáš Lho?an in his commentary for Reflex.cz.

"The threat of terrorism is unusually high," French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin admitted a few days ago in connection with the trial of people accused of supporting Islamic terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo magazine.

According to Darmanin, Islamic terrorism remains the main violent threat. The minister added that the French authorities currently have 8,132 people on a special list of potential terrorists, the vast majority of whom are Muslims. This is a huge number, given the fact that there are "only" 700 people on a similar list in Germany.

After a solid nine-month stretch that was blissfully devoid of major Brexit-related news as the global COVID-19 pandemic raged on, we declared last night that Brexit talks "suddenly matter again" as the drop in the pound was blamed - incorrectly, as Bloomberg later determined - for triggering yesterday's intraday declines in US markets.

But on Friday morning, American traders awoke to some surprisingly positive trade news out of Great Britain. A trade deal with Japan had been agreed to in principle, which would - if finally ratified by both countries - allow 99% of the UK's exports to Japan to cross the border tariff-free.

What's more, the deal even gave Johnson the opportunity to gloat, as Reuters reported the digital and data provisions in the agreement went "far beyond" those in the EU's trade deal with Japan.

The deal also allowed BoJo to show voters that Brexit is already giving them new options to strike favorable free trade deals.

Yet another provocation sure to increase tensions between Russian and NATO has begun this week in the form of war games hosted by the Republic of Georgia.

On Monday the Noble Partner 2020 military exercises kicked off, which involves close to 3,000 NATO troops from the US, Britain, France and Poland. Centered on the capital of Tibilisi, the games will simulate an external invasion of the caucuses country.

The US Army began training exercises last week ahead of the main part of the games, which will go through September 18.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia sought to sidestep any accusations, describing the drills as “a guarantee of peace in our country” and “are not directed against anyone,” in an opening address to troops.

Embattled Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has remained defiant after weeks of mass protests have brought parts of the country, especially the capital of Minsk, to a standstill, following his disputed August 9 reelection to a sixth term. He's actually been seen walking the presidential compound grounds in combat fatigues while holding an automatic rifle, to show just how serious he is about resisting the unrest increasingly at the gates of his residence.

But on Tuesday he showed the first signs he might be willing to compromise as both domestic and international pressures grow toward holding a fresh election. The opposition claims the Aug.9 election was "rigged" as exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urges "international pressure on this regime" while issuing regular messages from neighboring Lithuania

Since August election, Belarusian President Lukashenko has accused NATO of building up forces to oust him.

Hundreds of US troops have arrived in Lithuania to take part in military drills near the border of Belarus, adding to the mounting tensions over the disputed Belarusian presidential election. On Saturday, about a dozen Abrams tanks crossed into Lithuania from neighboring Poland.

Since the August 9th presidential election in Belarus, the US and EU have rejected the results and called for a fresh round of votes. The official results gave incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko 80 percent of the votes. Since the controversy over the election started, Lukashenko has accused NATO of building up a military force on Belarus’ borders in an effort to oust the embattled president.

Last month, a Turkish warship came one step away from firing missiles at a French naval vessel off the coast of Libya. In response, Paris suspended its involvement in Operation Sea Guardian – a multinational maritime effort to provide security in the Mediterranean Sea and halt the arms trafficking fueling Libya’s ongoing civil war. Initially, only eight member states – notably excluding both the U.S. and U.K. – supported France’s official complaint. This was only the latest incident in the increasingly frequent – and exceedingly awkward – tensions between several of Washington’s core North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. Indeed, from South America to East Asia, NATO members stand divided over many critical foreign policy issues of the moment.

Once again, NATO is operating dangerous and bold military maneuvers in regions close to the European Russian border. This time, the country hosting the tests is Estonia, a Baltic State that in recent decades has been characterized by a strong pro-Western and anti-Russian stance. The small European country is occupied by a large contingent of American troops and will be in such a situation until at least September 10, when the operations end.

The tests started on September 1 are already causing a small diplomatic crisis between Russia and the United States. The Russian Embassy in Washington commented on the exercises with great antipathy:

The timing significantly comes amid Turkey's Mediterranean gas exploration standoff with Greece and Cyprus, which this past weekend very nearly resulted in shots fired, as the conflict gets increasingly militarized: the US has announced it will lift a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus.

For now, the US move will only allow "non-lethal" military items to be exported to EU member Cyprus. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo relayed the change to Republic of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades in a Tuesday phone call.

Pompeo further "reaffirmed US support for a comprehensive settlement to reunify the island" - given the arms embargo was imposed in the first place in 1987 in the hope it would encourage reunification, following Turkey's military invasion and occupation of the northern half of the island since 1974.

President Anastasiades welcomed the temporary sanctions lifting, while predictably Turkey sees it as a direct threat, immediately urging Washington to reverse course:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip accused European nations of using Greece as "bait" in the Mediterranean Sea confrontation while belittling Athens' military might on Tuesday.

Erdogan, who has threatened Greece with military action, described Turkey's activities in the eastern Mediterranean as the "pursuit of [its] rights and justice" and denounced what he said were Greek efforts to "imprison" Turkey to a small region surrounding its coast.

"Efforts to descend on the riches of the Mediterranean, which are the rights of every country around it, is an example of modern-day colonialism," Erdogan said.

He also accused some nations he did not name of pushing Greece into a confrontation with Turkey.

Russia has accused the US of "escalating tensions in Europe" by holding live-fire exercises "in the immediate vicinity" of its borders. The Defense Ministry also denied a NATO accusation that a Russian jet entered Danish airspace.

In a statement the Russian embassy in Washington said it considers the use of multiple launch rocket systems by US armed forces during the exercises in Estonia to be provocative and extremely dangerous for regional stability, "Russia has repeatedly proposed to the United States and its allies to limit training activities and to divert the exercise zones from the Russia-NATO contact line," the text reads. "Why do this demonstrative saber-rattling? What signal do the NATO members want to send us? Who is actually escalating tensions in Europe? And this is all happening in the context of an aggravated political situation in that region of Europe [in Belarus]."

Authored by Michael Leigh via Bruegel.org,

If the European Union can mediate effectively to resolve current Greek-Turkish tensions over energy in the Eastern Mediterranean, it could also provide an opportunity to tackle more deep-rooted problems.

But so far, the two most powerful EU nations have adopted a ‘good cop, bad cop’ approach that conveys different and confusing messages – and has not prevented escalation. Chancellor Angela Merkel, with the added authority of holding the EU’s six-month revolving presidency, has launched a German initiative to prevent escalation, reduce tensions and overcome longstanding conflicts. But French President Emmanuel Macron, while not eschewing mediation, has opted for a show of force, sending French naval vessels into disputed waters to counter the presence of Turkish warships.

Deep-rooted dispute
The dispute is ostensibly over ownership of offshore gas deposits and the delimitation of 200-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

The Greek Private Asset Utilization Fund (HRADF) will sell a 67% stake of Alexandroupolis Port in northern Greece near the border with Turkey and Bulgaria. Two American companies are believed to be interested in the deal. Selling a port of strategic importance to U.S. companies, coupled with the availability of the facility for U.S. and NATO troops, is raising many questions in Greece. The Mediterranean country remains only one in two countries surveyed in NATO where the civilian population is not in favor of the alliance and only 36% of Greeks view the U.S. favourably. An announcement issued by HRADF emphasized that the bid consisted of two phases – “in the first phase, interested parties are invited to express their intention to participate before 5:00 pm on October 2, 2020.”

Turkey said on Saturday it will hold a military exercise off northwest Cyprus for the next two weeks, two days after it intercepted six Greek F-16 jets in the Mediterranean amid growing tensions with Athens over energy exploration rights.

Video footage posted by the Turkish defence ministry on Friday purportedly showed Turkish Air Force planes preventing the Greek aircraft from entering the area where Turkey was operating. The F-16s had departed from the island of Crete and were heading towards southern Cyprus, the statement said.

A group of activists burned a copy of the Islamic holy book and uploaded the video, depicting it online after police arrested a leader of "Hard Line" political party was arrested by authorities.

Mass riots hit Malmo, Sweden after a public Koran burning. At least three hundred enraged people rallied in the Muslim-majority neighbourhoods, with a crowd torching cars and throwing stones at the police officers, who tried to ease the tensions.

"We have ongoing and violent riots right now that we have no control over", police spokesman Rickard Lundqvist told journalists.

Early this week the US State Department said there were no signs that Russia's military plans to intervene in ongoing chaotic events in Belarus where swelling protests in the tens of thousands have brought Minsk to a standstill as opposition activists and strikers demand 26-year ruling President Alexander Lukashenko step down, or at least hold "fair" and not "rigged" elections.

As of last Monday Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said there were no indications to suggest Moscow planned to intervene in the political crisis, which many see as resembling the 2014 crisis in Ukraine where the country was split between pro-EU and pro-Russian factions and interests.

That assessment might have changed by end of the week, as regional headlines have confirmed Russia's military is assisting Belarus in conducting war games on Thursday, Friday, and into next week.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog (originally posted at The Asia Times),

Beijing-Moscow is already on; Berlin-Beijing is a work in progress; the missing but not distant link is Berlin-Moscow..

We have seen how China is meticulously planning all its crucial geopolitical and geoeconomic moves all the way to 2030 and beyond.

What you are about to read next comes from a series of private, multilateral discussions among intel analysts, and may helpfully design the contours of the Big Picture.

In China, it’s clear the path ahead points to boosting internal demand, and shifting monetary policy towards the creation of credit to consolidate the building of world-class domestic industries.

Authored by Danny Sjursen via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

Last month, a Turkish warship came one step away from firing missiles at a French naval vessel off the coast of Libya. In response, Paris suspended its involvement in Operation Sea Guardian — a multinational maritime effort to provide security in the Mediterranean Sea and halt the arms trafficking fueling Libya’s ongoing civil war. Initially, only eight member states — notably excluding both the U.S. and U.K. — supported France’s official complaint. This was only the latest incident in the increasingly frequent — and exceedingly awkward — tensions between several of Washington’s core North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies.

Indeed, from South America to East Asia, NATO members stand divided over many critical foreign policy issues of the moment.

ANKARA (Reuters) - No threats can deter Turkey from seeking natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, adding that Ankara expects actors in the region to take steps to de-escalate tensions.

Greece and Cyprus are locked in a dispute with Turkey over overlapping claims to areas potentially rich in resources. Two Turkish survey vessels are in areas claimed by the three countries. On Tuesday, Cyprus said it was willing to engage with all its neighbours on defining maritime boundaries.

The EU already has a reputation of being Germany’s “Fourth Reich” in Greece. This is the same rhetoric used by EU sceptics all across Europe, with renowned historian and journalist, Simon Heffer, writing in the Daily Mail what many Europeans were feeling during the economic crisis in previous years:

“We are witnessing […] the economic colonisation of Europe by stealth by the Germans. Once, it would have taken an invading military force to topple the leadership of a European nation. Today, it can be done through sheer economic pressure.” Heffer continues by saying that the “rise of the Fourth Reich” stems from Germany “using the financial crisis to conquer Europe” as its policies “would make Europe effectively a German empire.”

The EU today announced sanctions for high-ranking officials responsible for the brutal crackdown in Belarus and rejected Alexander Lukashenko's election victory.

European Council President Charles Michel said that the August 9 election - which saw 80 percent support for the strongman leader - was 'neither free nor fair' and that the EU does not recognise the result.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel - who was yesterday warned by Russia's Vladimir Putin not to interfere in the former Soviet domain - said: 'There is no doubt that there were massive rule violations in the election.'

Belarusian state television has publicized what it says is the platform of the united opposition, with the document, the authenticity of which has yet to be independently verified, said to include elements which would dramatically weaken Belarus's relationship with Russia and move Minsk toward closer relations with the West and NATO.

The program, dubbed the ‘Emergency Package of Reforms for Belarus’, is said to have been approved by the main opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, during the election campaign. According to Belarus 1 TV, the document was recently pulled offline, but remains accessible in Google’s cache.

The program purportedly proposes abolishing the Union State with Russia and erecting a proper border with the country, leaving the Eurasian Union and Customs Union, and withdrawing Belarus from the Collective Security Treaty Organization military alliance, which in addition to Russia and Belarus includes Armenia, Kazakhstan,

The US increasing its military presence in Poland aggravates the situation near Russia’s western borders and facilitates the escalation of tensions, while claims from NATO that the expansion isn't significant aren't credible.

That's according to a statement posted on Monday by the Russian Foreign Ministry which dismisses the NATO argument “as an attempt to distort reality.”

“We would like to point out once again that increasing the US military presence in Poland does not solve any security issues, on the contrary, it aggravates the difficult situation near Russia’s western borders, facilitating an escalation of tensions and increasing the risk of inadvertent incidents,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote.

Zakharova added that NATO’s claims that the military expansion is not of a significant nature is taken by the Russian side “as an attempt to distort reality.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Poland Saturday at the conclusion of a four-nation tour of Europe, where crucially he inked a new defense pact with the Eastern European country at a moment Russia has consistently been accusing Washington of provocative and 'irresponsible' military build-up along its western border.

"Today, my Administration signed a historic Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the Republic of Poland," President Trump said in a written White House statement, The Hill reports. "This agreement is the culmination of months of negotiations with our Polish allies following the two joint declarations I signed with President Duda last year."

Sure to anger the Kremlin further is the key detail in the deal which adds at least 1,000 more American troops to Poland.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Asia Times

Facing oh so timely color revolution-style “protests”, the current Lebanese government led by Prime Minister Diab has already resigned. Even before the port tragedy, Beirut had requested a $10 billion line of credit from the IMF – denied as long as trademark, neoliberal Washington consensus “reforms” were not implemented: radical slashing of public expenses, mass layoffs, across the board privatization.

Post-tragedy, President Emmanuel Macron – who’s not even capable of establishing a dialogue with the Gilets Jaunes/Yellow Vests in France – has opportunistically jumped in full neocolonial mode to pose as “savior” of Lebanon, as long as the same “reforms”, of course, are implemented.

President Trump’s plan to withdraw about 12,000 troops from Germany has received enormous backlash from Congress and the media. The common criticism is that the move is a “gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But that argument ignores the fact that about half of the troops that are leaving Germany are moving closer to Russia’s border.

In an interview with Fox News, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the troop movement will “deter” Russia. “We are moving many troops further east, closer to Russia’s border, to deter them,” Esper said. The Pentagon chief took the line of argument President Trump is making and said Germany is not paying its “fair share.”

Esper also pointed out that despite the drawdown from 36,000 to 24,000 troops, Germany will still host more US military personnel than any other NATO ally. “It is collective security, it is about our collective responsibility to stand up to the Russians.”

President Trump’s plan to withdraw about 12,000 troops from Germany has received enormous backlash from Congress and the media. The common criticism is that the move is a “gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But that argument ignores the fact that about half of the troops that are leaving Germany are moving closer to Russia’s border.

In an interview with Fox News, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the troop movement will “deter” Russia. “We are moving many troops further east, closer to Russia’s border, to deter them,” Esper said. The Pentagon chief took the line of argument President Trump is making and said Germany is not paying its “fair share.”

Esper also pointed out that despite the drawdown from 36,000 to 24,000 troops, Germany will still host more US military personnel than any other NATO ally. “It is collective security, it is about our collective responsibility to stand up to the Russians.”

Authored by 'G2 Mil' via The Duran,

General Dwight Eisenhower was the first NATO supreme allied commander.

After assuming that post in 1951, General Eisenhower wrote about NATO’s goal:

“If in 10 years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project will have failed.”

It did fail because seven decades later, long after the Soviet Union dissolved, NATO still exists with thousands of American troops deployed throughout Europe.

The Warsaw Pact was disbanded in 1991 as Soviet troops withdrew from Eastern Europe. The American empire exploited this peace to expand NATO and absorb former Warsaw Pact nations and even former Soviet republics while deploying NATO forces to Russia’s borders.

While over a week ago it was looking as if Turkey might back down on its ambitious oil and gas exploration aims in the eastern Mediterranean amidst global pressure, especially coming from the EU and US, President Erdogan is defiant once again, announcing Friday the resumption of energy exploration work that Greece and Cyprus says violates their territorial waters.

Emerging from Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia - which Turkey recently declared a mosque (in another shot aimed at Greece) - Erdogan said: "We have started drilling work again," and added, "I don’t think we are obligated to talk to those who do not have rights in the areas of maritime powers.”

Authored by Martin Jay via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The EU is facing a crisis like never before. Even its own fanatic supporters are talking about an end game after recent concessions over a corona rescue plan have exposed how little grip Brussels has left. It’s all hidden in the small print.

A big sticking point is fisheries of course. France is putting huge pressure on Michel Barnier to negotiate something for the French. Before joining the EU, Britain had more or less a monopoly of the seas surrounding its shores – which it lost when it joined the European Union with now other countries fishing six times more fish than the UK. The trade deal itself also has a number of difficult areas which neither side wants to concede.

NATO members Turkey and Greece have long been at loggerheads over overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that Turkey has resumed energy exploration work in the eastern Mediterranean, saying Greece had not kept its promises regarding such activities in the region.

NATO members Turkey and Greece have long been at loggerheads over overlapping claims for hydrocarbon resources and tensions flared up last month, prompting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to hold talks with the country's leaders to ease tensions.

"We have started drilling work again," Erdogan told reporters after participating in Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia mosque. "We don't feel obliged to talk with those who do not have rights in maritime jurisdiction zones."

China has delivered six military drones to Serbia after the Balkan country moved to purchase them in a controversial deal a year ago which has put NATO on edge.

Though Serbia has an official policy of military neutrality vis-a-vis NATO, there's been increased cooperation over the past few years. However, both the Chinese drone acquirement and Present's Aleksandar Vucic recently signaling he'd like to acquire the S-400 anti-air defense system from Russia has caused Washington to threaten sanctions.

The US announcement of 12,000 troops leaving Germany now sees another scramble to secure US presences. Poland is reportedly keen to have a “permanent” US presence, complete with a command. They say at least 1,000 US troops will be involved.

Polish officials say the troops will be on the eastern border, and the command will manage all NATO troops on the Russian frontier. Poland has been courting a US presence for years, suggesting at times they’d joined NATO specifically for the opportunity to host US troops.

The opportunity to bring thousands of US troops back home, disappointingly, seems to have been short-lived hope. Worse still, the shaky suggestions from pullout critics that leaving Germany was a favor to Russia may well have played a role in a hasty scheme to dump some of the troops even closer to Russia, worsening the tensions in Eastern Europe.

Belgrade and Pristina have resumed dialogue in Brussels, but the recent delivery of American-made armored vehicles to Kosovo could make the talks difficult and signifies Washington is once again attempting to destabilize the Balkans. Serbia and Kosovo returned to the negotiating table on July 16 after a long hiatus; however the hopes of Josep Borrell, head of European diplomacy, to allow a constructive dialogue could now be in jeopardy. Washington’s delivery of Humvee armored vehicles to Pristina is a clear message to Belgrade that the U.S. will continue recognizing Kosovo’s independence. Washington purposefully sent the armored vehicles knowing it will create tensions in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Russia will not be on the updated list of countries the EU can open borders with, a source in the delegation of one of the EU countries in the EU Council told TASS. Brussels will make the updated "white list" public in the coming days, next time it will be revised in mid-August, the source said.

"No, Russia will not be included in this list yet. Unfortunately, statistics say that it is too early," the source said.

Via GreatGameIndia.com,

Huge foreign loans are given to sovereign nations by the World Bank, IMF and the likes. But the conditions that come attached to these loans are seldom told by governments to their citizens.

A recent case in Belarus has exposed the conditions laid by these agencies for loans being provided for COVID-19. The President of Belarus has exposed that the World Bank coronavirus aid comes with conditions for imposing extreme lockdown measures, to model their coronavirus response on that of Italy and even changes in the economic policies which he refused as being “unacceptable”.

Risking a further escalation of tensions, the United States is increasing pressure on European contractors to drop out of Nord Stream 2 - a major Russian pipeline project that would transport gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea, according to a report.

In recent days, a dozen US officials from the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Energy have held video conferences with European contractors to underline their concern about the energy project, the German Die Welt newspaper reported on Saturday.

The officials signaled that they want to stop the completion of the $11.7 billion project, threatening representatives of the European companies with “far-reaching consequences” if they continue cooperating with it, the paper said.

According to Norwegian Defence Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen, the US presence in the country will be made more dynamic. Instead of maintaining a force of 700 in the country, the US presence will soar during drills and diminish in peacetime.

Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway at the US Marine Corps Forces European Command has assured Norway that despite the restructuring of the US Marine Corps, which may have consequences for the allies' defensive capabilities, the US still promises to fully support Norway and meet it obligations.

“We will continue to develop our strong security cooperation with Norway,” Rankine-Galloway told the newspaper Klassekampen.

He added that American participation in Norwegian exercises will increase, while the continuous presence will be made more dynamic.