Updates: Trump, China, Russia, Iran, Britain, Ukraine, Turkey, Korea, Cambodia, Sudan & Brazil

CND in Britain last Saturday with protest at RAF Fairford where US bombers are deployed that have been used to attack Iran.

• Trump on Truth Social declares ‘economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale’ against Iran and anyone else worldwide doing business with Iran. The Chinese Foreign Ministry says it does not recognize US sanctions against Iran and that China will not comply with the ‘economic warfare’ campaign initiated by President Trump this week.

• Pepe Escobar on Empire of Chaos, Lies, Plunder, Piracy and Bribes: Mike Pompeo, former aspiring Tony Soprano, admitted: “We lie, we cheat, we steal.” And we bribe. A Transition Protocol source, as we revealed live, is unequivocal: The President of the US – despite having “won” the war on Iran countless times, at least in the Vociferation stakes – made a major attempt to induce IRGC Commander-in-Chief Gen. Ahmad Vahidi and senior Iranian military leadership to break with the government in Tehran through enormous financial inducements. So here we have POTUS playing good ol’ Divide and Rule – which the Brits learned from the Roman Empire – to fracture the IRGC from the inside. This was not a mere exploratory diplomatic contact. Trump did not merely want to determine whether Vahidi supported US-Iran negotiations. According to our source – placed in the tight inner circle of Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – this was a full leadership-buyout operation, modeled on the Venezuela playbook, to fracture the Iranian state. The attempt miserably failed. Because Ahmad Vahidi completely rejected it.

• The Turkish Ministry of Justice has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for Israel's attack on the Freedom Flotilla.
• According to sources from Iraq, the Iraqi Speaker of Parliament & his party are backed by the UAE. The UAE reportedly paid them $100 million in campaign support. A few days ago, the UAE had announced that it cut off all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran, reportedly due to pressure from the US and Israel. In response, the Parliament Speaker of Iran, Ghalibaf, said: “Every step that enemies have taken to drive Iran and Iraq apart, we have taken 2 steps closer together. History will record that we were 2 nations that refused to be footnotes in other people's narratives, and our destiny was not written in the capitals of Western governments.”
• The war has become "more expensive," Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelensky stated. "We need to find the funds. This is the main challenge," he added. 

• Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelensky on more ‘humane’ mobilization: “I am very much looking forward to a more humane and systematic approach to solving organizational issues in the military.” In Vinnitsa, Ukraine, speaking of ‘humane mobilization’, Zelensky’s meat hunters tried kidnapping another ‘Ukrainian patriot’. However, in a stunning twist, passers by strike back with pepper spray and the condemned man lives to see another day. 

• Die Zeit: Since 2022, more than 80 Ukrainian soldiers undergoing training in Germany to participate in the war in Ukraine have fled their training grounds in Saxony-Anhalt alone. Under Ukrainian law, these men are considered deserters. They face up to 12 years of imprisonment in their home country. “Many deserters in Ukraine did not join the army voluntarily; they were conscripted. When they were sent to the Altengrab military training ground in Saxony-Anhalt for training, they took the opportunity to flee,” the publication adds.

• Newsweek: A senior Russian official has warned that Trump's new defense plans, including for the vast Golden Dome missile shield currently in development, will lead to a new space "arms race" and could be "devastating." "The risks of turning outer space into an arena of armed confrontation have ceased to be hypothetical," Gennady Gatilov, Russia's envoy to the United Nations in Geneva, said in remarks reported by Russia's Tass state news agency on Thursday. "Its consequences will be devastating for all of humanity," he added. The Congressional Budget Office—the nonpartisan agency that advises American lawmakers on funding—said in May the "Golden Dome" will cost roughly $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years, far exceeding the initial $175 billion allocated to the project. 

• Pistol Pete Hegseth on ‘controlling space’: Secretary of War Hegseth speaking in Denver, Colorado as part of his recent 'Arsenal of Freedom Tour': “We’re leveraging the best and brightest, the most talented Americans to ensure that we do deliver space superiority and space dominance. We are running as fast as we can on Golden Dome to deliver for President Trump because we must defend our homeland. The fight for space is the fight for the future of the world as we know it. We cannot afford to have a fair fight in space — I’m not interested in orbital equity or orbital parity. We demand orbital dominance plain and simple. Whoever controls space controls the fight.”
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s 19–20 August visit to South Korea, the first by a Chinese foreign minister in five years, renewed efforts to strengthen bilateral ties amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Beijing and Seoul agreed to accelerate negotiations on the second phase of their Free Trade Agreement and expand cooperation in trade, supply chains, technology, and cultural exchanges. Wang called for South Korea to pursue external relations in an ‘independent, autonomous, balanced and non-conflicting manner’ and urged Washington to change its ‘hostile policy’ towards Pyongyang [North Korea]. China reaffirmed its commitment to peaceful resolution and regional stability; Seoul reiterated the one-China principle. Beijing is considering a Xi–Lee summit at November’s APEC in Shenzhen. 

• Odessa, Ukraine: A woman saved a condemned man from a death sentence by kicking and punching Zelensky’s meat hunters until they fled like the cowards they are. [Don't believe the mainstream media when they say the people of Ukraine want the US-NATO war on Russia to continue.]

• The US is interfering in the Brazilian presidential elections, pressuring the Brazilian electorate into voting for right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro. If that does not work and President Lula da Silva secures a fourth term in office, the groundwork is already being laid for a potential military intervention. From sanctions and economic warfare, to coaching influencers and journalists on how best to attack the left-wing government, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to overthrow Lula. 
• The longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes announced he’s stepping down weeks after the Pentagon installed an active-duty Navy captain at the military newspaper, an atypical appointment. Max Lederer, who spent more than 30 years at Stars and Stripes, announced Tuesday he was stepping away after nearly two decades as publisher. His email to staff about his departure included a parting shot at the Defense Department. “It has become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization,” Lederer wrote in an email obtained by the Washington Post. He said his retirement is effective Sept. 30.

• As Andy Burnham continues to give Britain’s support to Donald Trump’s global wars, the public continues to feel the effects. So-called “Iran war inflation” is pushing up energy and household bills in Britain, with the Office for National Statistics noting the largest jump in gas prices since 2022. In the Ukraine war, the British government's continued strategy of supporting military escalation is making this devastating conflict even more dangerous. With the campaign to shut down US bases in Britain growing, the spotlight next shines on RAF Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, in Yorkshire. Menwith Hill is the largest US overseas spy base in the world, capable of monitoring communications globally. The base is also part of the US’s National Missile Defence system. The system is made up of a global network of bases, designed to enable the US to use its nuclear weapons pre-emptively without fear of retaliation. 

• Phnom Penh Post: The US is seeking to move its renewed defence relationship with Cambodia into a more “operational” phase, with senior officials discussing the revival of joint military exercises, expanded training and military reforms. In addition, Washington has signaled renewed interest in further US naval visits to the strategically significant Ream Naval Base. Minister of National Defence Tea Seiha met with US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby on August 15, as Washington seeks to deepen military-to-military engagement after years of strained defence relations. The US has shifted away from overt color revolution in Cambodia and now prefers participating in the nation-state-building process in an attempt to pull Cambodia away from China.     

• Yves Engler: Add Sudanese to Ottawa’s list of expendable people. Twenty-eight years ago today the US bombed a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant causing tens of thousands of deaths. Canada’s backing for that war crime and ongoing support for UAE highlights Ottawa’s indifference to Sudanese lives. Canadian officials defended the illegal August 20, 1998, US bombing of the Al- Shifa pharmaceutical facility in Khartoum. Washington claimed the plant produced the deadly nerve agent VX. It didn’t. In a rare move, CIA analyst Mary O’Neil McCarthy sent a letter to President Bill Clinton expressing doubts about the factory’s ties to chemical weapons production or Al Qaeda. “Eventually,” reported the New York Times, “Clinton administration officials conceded that the hardest evidence used to justify striking the plant was a single soil sample that seemed to indicate the presence of a chemical used in making VX gas.” One employee was killed and 11 were wounded when US cruise missiles blasted through the factory. The Al-Shifa plant produced half of Sudan’s medicines and most of the country’s supplies of chloroquine, the standard treatment for malaria. The resulting lack of medicines is believed to have led to tens of thousands of preventable deaths.