From Foreign Waters

The United States expects all NATO member countries to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP by 2024.   This was announced on Friday by a representative of the high-ranking US administration at a briefing on the participation of White House head Donald Trump in the alliance summit in London on December 3-4.   "The US president is committed to making NATO stronger, able to overcome threats and future challenges. In this regard, we urge all NATO countries to increase defense spending as part of the decisions of the Wales summit," he said.   “In 2016, only four NATO members spent on defense 2% of GDP. Now there are nine of such countries,” the briefing leader said. “We expect everyone else to do this by 2024.”   At the NATO Wales Summit in 2014, all European countries committed themselves to bring their military spending to 2% of GDP over 10 years.   Meanwhile, according to financial statistics published in March in the latest annual report of the Secretary General of

The Czech Republic will not accept the German proposal for the distribution of illegal refugees among the EU member states.   This was stated by Prime Minister Andrei Babish. “We Czech Republic fundamentally reject the mechanisms for distributing refugees in the European Union, reject any quotas,” the prime minister noted. “I am surprised that someone is raising this exhausted topic again. We will be against this Germany’s proposal to accept migrants.   The negative position regarding the introduction of migration quotas in the European Union, according to Babish, is taken by the countries of the Visegrád group Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland).   Prague consults on migration policy issues with partners in this regional EU association. Earlier was reported that Germany will launch a new initiative on the allocation of illegal refugees to the EU at a meeting scheduled for next week in Brussels by EU interior ministers.   Berlin will propose to reform the existing as

President Donald Trump responded Wednesday to a key witness in the House impeachment inquiry who claimed that Rudy Giuliani had been directed by the president to pursue a “quid pro quo.” U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland told the panel leading the proceedings that Giuliani was expressing Trump’s desires when he “demanded” Ukraine announce investigations involving Trump’s personal political rivals. Trump seized on Sondland’s recollection of a phone call the two men had in September, when Sondland asked the president directly about his plans for Ukraine. ·          President Trump responds to a key witness in the House impeachment inquiry who claimed that Rudy Giuliani had been directed by the president to pursue a “quid pro quo.” ·          Trump says he told U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland in a phone call: “I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell [Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy] to do the right thing.” ·        

Levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases have reached another record high, “with no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline”, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned. Despite pledges made under the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide all surged by higher amounts in 2018 than average for the past decade. Levels of CO2 – the main gas driving global warming – reached new highs of 407.8 parts per million (ppm) in 2018, up from 405.5ppm the previous year, a report by the UN body shows. This concentration is now 47 per cent higher than before the Industrial Revolution began in 1760, when CO2 levels were around 280ppm. “We need to translate the commitments into action and increase the level of ambition for the sake of the future welfare of mankind,” said WMO secretary general Petteri Taalas. The last time Earth experienced comparable concentrations of carbon dioxide in

Pro- Hezbollah protestors could be seen chanting anti American slogans outside the US Embassy in Lebanon recently. The protestors marched into Awkar, 11kms from Beirut and were protesting against US meddling with their government affairs. The demonstrators were seen burning US and Israeli flags with some trying to cut the barbed wire to break through the security cordon. This has led to riots and the crowd had to be dispersed by internal security forces with tear gas. Participants included young men from the Communist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and some Palestinian refugees participating in a demonstration where they gave out a message of “resistance and non conformity to US meddling expressed by former US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman.” Protests under a solid civil disobedience movement have been going on in Lebanon. Various protests are being seen across the country that are demanding the right to a proper government representation that works in favour of the

Internet access 'gradually being restored' as cyberspace official says the country will have full access in two days. Iran began restoring internet access in the capital and a number of provinces after a five-day nationwide shutdown meant to help stifle deadly protests over fuel-price hikes. The country's elite Revolutionary Guard security force said calm had now returned across Iran on Thursday.The internet is being gradually restored in the country," the semi-official news agency Fars reported, quoting unidentified. 'Horrific pattern': Amnesty says 106 killed in Iran protests The National Security Council that ordered the shutdown approved reactivating the internet in "some areas", it said. According to news reports, fixed-line internet was restored in Hormozgan, Kermanshah, Arak, Mashhad, Qom, Tabriz, Hamadan and Bushehr provinces, as well as parts of Tehran. "We again have internet as of an hour ago," a retired engineer, who decli

As per the speculation floating around, there are high chances of ‘phase one’ deal getting signed between the world’s biggest economies, US and China. The news of a deal coming through has infused confidence in the market, boosting trade, investments and stocks across the world. As a consequence of it many central banks including Federal Reserve of US, the European Central Bank and many across Asia have reduced interest rates to infuse growth. Many nations, such as China and India, have also brought down taxes to stimulate their economies. Beijing and Washington have been at loggerheads for nearly two years, over tariff issues and intellectual property rights. The trade war between the two created ripples across the world leading to major dip in stock market and manufacturing sector, stalling growth of various economies. On Wednesday, during a Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific Summit in Singapore, Gokul Laroia, co-chief executive of the group told CNBC, “A deal coupled with policy

On Tuesday, the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, announced that the company would be opening a plant near Berlin to build batteries for its electric cars to be be launched in the European Market. Musk also voiced the Brexit uncertainty as one of the key factors behind his decision to set up a plant in Germany instead of UK, which he was considering earlier. In an interview with a trade magazine, Auto Express , Musk said that uncertainty over Britain’s decision to exit or be a part of the European Union “ made it too risky” for the company to establish it Gigafactory there. Germany, which closely escaped recession with 0.1% growth in last quarter, is the right place for Tesla for more reasons than one. The big advantage which comes along the way of Tesla over its decision to move to Germany is the tag ‘made in Germany’, which takes care of the quality issues. The country is known for its engineering expertise and is home to two of the world’s biggest carmakers - Volkswagen and Daimler.