RUSSIA - Russia never wanted to turn away from the US dollar but American policies have forced it, as well as many other countries, to do so, President Vladimir Putin told participants of the Russian Energy Week forum on Wednesday. The US’ attempts to weaponize its national currency and use dollar settlements as an instrument of political pressure is a great mistake, according to the Russian president. He explained that Washington’s actions have already forced many countries, including US allies, to reconsider the greenback as a reserve currency, while dollar settlements have already slid from 50 percent to 45 percent.

USA - The United States will impose 10% tariffs on aircraft and 25% on other industrial and agricultural products from the European Union as part of a World Trade Organization penalty award in a long-running aircraft subsidy case, an official with the US Trade Representative’s office said on Wednesday. The aircraft duty, however, will not apply to aircraft parts, the official told reporters on a conference call, sparing Airbus’ (AIR.PA) production in Alabama from higher costs, as well as Boeing Co’s (BA.N) use of European parts in its US production. The tariffs are expected to take effect on October 15, the official said. He did not specify the total amount of EU goods to face tariffs. The WTO allowed the EU on Wednesday to slap import tariffs on $7.5 billion worth of European goods over illegal EU subsidies handed to Airbus.

EUROPE - Brexit party MEP Jake Pugh uncovered Brussels' latest attempt at "integrating" EU member states' armed forces into a united body independent from NATO. He explained: “What was extraordinary was that there was about 80 or maybe 100 people there, all rabid federalists. The key thing that struck me was that when they were talking about the future of European defence it said two things. One was they were looking to develop strategic autonomy, which means that basically, they want to have their own forces because they believe they can’t rely on NATO in the future. And secondly - and this was the most shocking thing - they said this was about military integration not cooperation.”

USA - Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (Democrat for California) rejected a request by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Republican for California) on Thursday that the full House vote on whether to authorize an impeachment inquiry, in keeping with precedent. On Thursday morning, McCarthy wrote to Pelosi to ask whether she intended to comply with the precedent set in three previous presidential impeachment inquiries (Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton) of having the full House vote to authorize an investigation. Pelosi responded that there was “no requirement under the Constitution, under House Rules, or House precedent that the whole House vote before preceding with an impeachment inquiry.” Pelosi did not respond to any of McCarthy’s requests that she adhere to precedent on other points, including rights for the congressional minority.

MIDDLE EAST - The war that now looms largest is a war nobody apparently wants. During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump railed against the United States’ entanglement in Middle Eastern wars, and since assuming office, he has not changed his tune. Iran has no interest in a wide-ranging conflict that it knows it could not win. Israel is satisfied with calibrated operations in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza but fears a larger confrontation that could expose it to thousands of rockets. Saudi Arabia is determined to push back against Iran, but without confronting it militarily. Yet the conditions for an all-out war in the Middle East are riper than at any time in recent memory.

CHINA - Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping called “the complete reunification of the motherland” – by which he meant the annexation of Taiwan and solidification of control over Hong Kong and Macau – “inevitable” and vowed to “unite all Chinese sons and daughters” on Tuesday.

USA - President Trump on Tuesday evening went all in and accused the Deep State and Democrat politicians of a coup intended to take away the power of the people. President Trump is correct. This is not impeachment, it is a COUP.

USA - US President Donald Trump hit back at the “dishonest” and “corrupt media” over reports claiming he wanted an alligator-filled moat, electric fence, and other death traps for migrants built into the Mexican border wall. “I don’t even use fake [news] anymore – I call the fake news, now, corrupt news because fake isn’t tough enough,” Trump lectured reporters during an Oval Office press conference on Wednesday with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, slamming the “crazy” story that he had demanded all manner of medieval booby-traps for the wall being constructed along the southern US border.

IRAN - The commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Monday that destroying Israel was now an “achievable goal.” Four decades on from Iran’s Islamic revolution, “we have managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the impostor Zionist regime,” Major General Hossein Salami was quoted saying by the IRGC’s Sepah news site. “This sinister regime must be wiped off the map and this is no longer a dream [but] it is an achievable goal,” Salami said. The remarks were made at a biannual meeting in Tehran for commanders of the IRGC amid rising tensions between Iran and the US and its allies. US President Donald Trump officially designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in April.

USA - Many believe that the mass media just tell whole-cloth, outright lies all the time, but that’s not usually how it works. What they do is selectively omit inconvenient facts, disproportionately amplify convenient facts, and uncritically report on dubious government assertions. Basically they only tell the truth when it’s convenient for them, and when it’s inconvenient they are silent. Only telling the truth when it’s convenient for you is effectively the same as lying all the time, only you can get away with it a lot easier.