Headline News 01/07/2020

Headlines:

US could Buy Turkey’s Russian-made S-400 under Senate Proposal

Same Old Politics in Pakistan

Worst Global Recession in 80 Years

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• US could Buy Turkey’s Russian-made S-400 under Senate Proposal

The US would be able to buy Turkey’s Russian-made S-400 air defense system under legislation proposed in the US Senate last week. The proposal is one powerful lawmaker’s attempt to alleviate the impasse between Washington and Ankara over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., has proposed an amendment to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the purchase to be made using the US Army’s missile procurement account. The move comes a year after the US expelled NATO ally Turkey from the multinational F-35 program because it received the S-400 in a $2.5 billion deal. US President Donald Trump has held off imposing sanctions against Turkey for its purchase, but the sale remains a sticking point in the relationship. The US routinely buys foreign technology and could both exploit the S-400′s technology and test US tactics, said Jim Townsend, a former Pentagon official for European and NATO policy. If Turkey doesn’t go for the idea, he said, the two countries are still stuck.

“I think the US buying the S-400s from Turkey is a clever way of getting Erdogan out of the jam he put himself in,” Townsend said. “We just want to get the system out of Turkey ... and if it enables the Turks to take part in the F-35 then all the better.” Erdogan has served the US well in both Syria, the wider Middle East and now Libya, but differences emerged amongst US policy makers regarding his strengthening position and as a result policy makers were able to impose sanctions on Turkey, but they have struggled to dent Erdogan’s opposition as Erdogan has allied in the US who see Erdogan as a useful took in achieving US strategic objectives.

Same Old Politics in Pakistan

As Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is the latest of the many crisis he’s now facing, Internal rifts within the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government have surfaced. Prime Minister Imran Khan had to intervene and stop federal ministers from hurling allegations against one another during a cabinet meeting after one of the ministers raised the issue of federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry’s interview to Voice of America (VOA) in which the latter said rifts among senior party leaders allowed non-elected members, who were unaware of PM’s vision, to join the cabinet. Mr Fawad in his interview with VOA had discussed internal rifts within the party ranks and said PTI stalwarts managed to remove one another, as Jehangir Tareen was behind the removal of Asad Umar from the cabinet while the latter managed ousting of Mr Tareen. He said non-elected persons had replaced elected representatives in close circle of the prime minister, who were unaware of the basic aims and objectives of the party. Just two years into Naya Pakistan, the Tsunami is taking place within Imran Khan’s government rather then in the country at large.

Worst Global Recession in 80 Years

The prospects for the global economy are looking bleak with all major international financial institutions saying prospects for a quick global economic recovery are officially dead. All are now projecting huge losses and an uneven, prolonged recession, the world’s steepest recession in 80 years. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) now expects a cumulative $12.5 trillion economic loss from COVID-19 in 2020-2021, with a 4.9% fall in global production this year and a 5.4 percent recovery in 2021. But the IMF is one of the more optimistic institutes. The World Bank has predicted a 5.2% global economic contraction in 2020, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development foreseeing an even larger 6% decline. Private sector forecasts, meanwhile, foresee global declines of as much as 12 percent this year in their worst-case scenarios. The Capitalist economic order will need to find a way to solve this problem, especially as many still have not recovered from the global economic crisis from a decade ago.