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Czech PM cold to Pompeo’s anti-China lobby

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis on Thursday refused to take sides against China and also would not rule out working with Chinese telecom company Huawei despite a push by visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“We are a sovereign country, we treat these countries quite standardly like everyone else,” Babis told Mlada fronta Dnes, one of the country’s largest newspapers, after Pompeo used his visit to take swipes at both Russia and China. 

Speaking to the Czech Senate on Wednesday, Pompeo called on European countries to rally against the Communist Party of China, which he accused of leveraging economic might to exert its influence around the world.

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Huawei, Oi to deploy 8,000km of fiber backbone in Brazil’s Amazon

The company announced that, since July, it has been supporting a project by Brazilian Oi to activate an additional 8,000km of fiber backbone crossing eight states in Brazil’s Amazon region. Oi’s national backbone already spans over 388,000km.

The announcement of the Amazon project was made by the president of Huawei in Brazil, Sun Baocheng, at the online event “Amazonia Conectada” (Amazon connected), promoted by the municipal institute of innovation (IMI), a Brazilian think-thank that supports municipalities in PPP projects.

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US hints at deploying land-based intermediate-range missiles in Japan to “contain China”

　　Reportedly, the U.S. President’s special envoy for arms control affairs Marshall Billingsley said in an interview on the 14th, the United States is developing medium-range missiles is the absolute necessity of Japan and other countries in the future defense force, and Japan is also a candidate to deploy this missile. Billingsley also asserted that China is an “imminent threat,” and revealed attempts to expand military cooperation with relevant Asian countries.

　　Billingsley stated that he would consult with the relevant Asian countries on the threat posed by China’s nuclear capabilities, as well as on matters related to the defense of allied capabilities. And Billingsley was the first to mention the possible deployment of medium-range missiles in Japan.

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U.S. Seizes Iranian Fuel Cargo for First Time

“Pirates Of The Caribbean” – The United States has seized four Iranian tankers on the high seas, U.S. officials said on Thursday (14). The tankers were allegedly carrying Iranian oil in violation of U.S. sanctions. The four tankers are currently en route to a major oil port in Houston, Texas.

　　The U.S. seizure of the Iranian tankers was reportedly motivated by the arrival of five Iranian tankers earlier this year carrying 1.5 million barrels of gasoline to Venezuela, which is also under restrictive U.S. economic sanctions.

　　On Aug. 10, Pakistan seized an Iranian tanker at the port of Karachi at the request of the U.S. government, but since the name of the tanker was never reported, it is unclear whether it is one of the four now en route to Houston.

　　The Trump administration began imposing strangling economic sanctions on Iran in August 2018, with the goal of reducing the country’s oil exports to zero, while also attempting to cripple other Iranian industries.