[Read with Looming British Voice] Crikey… deep within the Vietnamese rain forest we discover a large assembly of ferocious creatures… each followed closely by their tribal hierarchy.  Carefully, silently, we capture their stealthy movements amid the banana trees and deeply rich native vegetation… After four minutes and thirty seconds of breathless anticipation we finally got the footage we were looking for…
The largest of the beasts emerge from the brush… The predators. A giant panda, seemingly unaware of the cameras… Just then, there it is, the moment we never thought we would see, the apex predators – a bear and lion together just as the regional colluding myths have described through the ages; seemingly oblivious to our presence – fearless in their approach… we dare not move:



DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, in a joint statement on Syria, agreed to continue joint efforts on fighting Islamic State until it is defeated, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
The two leaders also confirmed their commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and called on all parties to the Syrian conflict to take an active part in the Geneva political process.
Moscow and Washington agree there is no military solution to the conflict, according to the text of the joint statement published on the Kremlin’s website.  (link)


[Via Daily Mail] […]  Trump did most of the talking, according to a person who witnessed the conversation.  An English translation of a Russian-language version of the statement issued afterward says the two leaders ‘confirmed their determination to defeat ISIS in Syria.’

It also confirmed that the U.S. and Russia agree that ‘that the conflict in Syria cannot have a military solution.’

Instead, the White House and the Kremlin are committed to forcing Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad to engage in a political transition out of power, as dictated by a resolution the United Nations Security Council passed in December 2015.

The Kremlin published a Russian-language ‘joint statement’ on its website Saturday afternoon while Trump and Putin were attending the APEC meeting. As of an hour later, the White House had yet to confirm that the statement was genuine, or release its own version in English.

But it was negotiated behind the scenes in Da Nang by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.  (read more)

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