Breaking News, 23rd of August, 2018

Additional import duties on goods from China worth of $16 billions of dollars entered into force in the USA on Tuesday, just as Washington warned earlier, Interfax reports. Beijing announced a similar step to the imported American goods. The Ministry of Commerce of the PRC issued a statement underlining that «in this regard, China has to protest resolutely, and China is being forced to continue to take more retaliatory steps.» At the same time the statement mentions that, in response to the actions of the United States, China will file an action in the WTO arbitration court to «protect the free trade mechanism and their fundamental interests.»

John Bolton, an assistant to the US president for national security, announced that the US will introduce new sanctions against Iran that will be more severe than the sanctions from before the nuclear deal. According to John Bolton — the US do not intend to «just stop, like in 2015». The US want to have «no exceptions» to the implementation of sanctions, TASS reports. Wall Street Journal notes that earlier, the business with Iran was possible «under certain conditions». For example, if it was a matter of medicines and food.

An unknown man, armed with a knife and shouting Islamist slogans, attacked people in the French commune of Trap, located near Versailles, Interfax reports while referring to the BFM TV channel. According to the TV channel — one person died, two more were injured. The police «neutralized» the attacker. According to BFM TV — the attacker was a man, born in 1982. Earlier he was convicted for justifying terrorism.

Reporters of ANNA NEWS report with a reference to SANA Agency. The command of the radical groups in Syria openly declares the preparation of an offensive operation against the government forces, and refuses to have any negotiations on the settlement of the conflict. «The command of the National Liberation Army (»Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham», the former «Jebhat An-Nusra»), the National Liberation Front and the Liberation Front of Syria openly declare the preparation for the offensive actions against the government forces, and the refusal from any dialogue on the political settlement of the conflict.» — the Russian center for the reconciliation of the warring parties reported.

Fierce battles between the Saudi coalition and the Husits are taking place in the port city of Hodeida, through which Yemen receives 80 percent of all cargo deliveries. Including, as Saudi Arabia believes, weapons from Iran. Riyadh accuses Tehran of logistic and military support of the Husits. By attacking the city, Saudi Arabia wants to deprive the rebels of supplies, and isolate them in the northern part of Yemen. The offensive operation is being complicated by the fact that the locals support the insurgents. Saudi troops took positions in the airport of Hodeida.

In the »Patriot Park» near Moscow, the international military forum «Army-2018» continues. The exhibition presents about 750 samples of Russian military equipment. In addition to land armament — the leading Russian military enterprises demonstrated projects of warships, drones and small arms. In particular, the mockups of the multipurpose aircraft carrier, an Orion UAV, prototypes of the AK-308 assault rifle and the sniper rifle KSV were shown to the general public.

Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.