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Egyik 19

Magyarországról, utódállami területekről, Európáról, Európai Unióról, további földrészekről, globalizációról, űrről

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Danube photos

2023.07.18. 20:21 Eleve

 

Budapest, 2023. VII. 18. Városkép lapátkerekes gőzhajóval.

Az első balatoni, 1846. évi gőzhajó, a Kisfaludy 2013-ban megépített replikája

 

3 8 12 3:48

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Címkék: balaton magyarország hungary nyár duna photos építészet víz hajó fák városkép fényképek

2023. VII. 1. France, Poland, Romania, Spain, Európai Bizottság - European Commission, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Vatican, Japan, Canada, United States, International Atomic Energy Agency

2023.07.04. 04:25 Eleve

.

Europe    Európa   

France
Friday, 01/07/2023.  Paris time: GMT+2  Poverty, lack of jobs and lack of opportunities are problems
that have plagued many of the poorer suburbs surrounding Paris and other French cities for decades despite efforts to improve conditions by multiple French presidents, says following a third night of violence FRANCE 24's international affairs commentator Herbert, at 4:34pm. A 17-year-old victim was shot at point-blank range by a police officer on June 27, Tuesday morning in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. He was driving a Mercedes when he was pulled over for traffic violations. Police initially reported that he was shot after driving his car at police, but this was contradicted by a video that rapidly went viral across social media and was later authenticated. The footage shows the two policemen standing by the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver. A voice is heard saying, "You are going to get a bullet in the head.' The police officer then appears to fire as the car abruptly drives off before gradually coming to a stop. The incident has sparked nights of violent unrest in the capital and cities across France that have seen protesters clash with police. On Thursday night public buildings were the target of violence throughout France. The country engulfed in a third night of riots with unrest across major cities. Police officers faced new incidents in Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse and Lille, including fires and fireworks. Videos on social media showed numerous fires across the country, including a bus depot in a suburb north of Paris and a tram in the eastern city of Lyon. 40 000 police officers were deployed across France - nearly four times the number mobilised on Wednesday - but there were few signs that government appeals to de-escalate the violence would quell the widespread anger. According to Le Figaro newspaper, there have been 421 arrests so far nationwide, more than half of them in the Paris region with the majority between 14 and 18 years old. 667 people were arrested during third night of unrest in France, said Interior Minister Darmanin at 7:45am. 249 police officers and gendarmes were injured on Thursday night amid protests that erupted for the third consecutive night in France, the interior ministry announced. The rioting has escalated. Looting of businesses, shops were seen during third night of violent unrest, protests in France. In the suburb of Drancy, rioters used a truck to force open the entrance to a shopping centre, which was then partly looted and burned. An elementary school and a district office was set on fire in Lille. In the city centre of Marseille, France's second city, a library was vandalised. Scuffles broke out nearby when police used tear gas to disperse a group of 100 to 150 people who allegedly tried to set up barricades. Police fired tear gas grenades during clashes with youths in the tourist hotspot of Le Vieux Port. In Nanterre, 'the working-class town on the western outskirts of Paris", the epicentre of the unrest, residents expect more of the same to come over the weekend, after third night of violent protests. Tensions rose around midnight, with fireworks and explosives set off in the Pablo Picasso district. Protesters torched cars, barricaded streets and hurled projectiles at police following a peaceful vigil. In central Paris, a Nike shoe store was broken into, 14 people were arrested, and 16 more were arrested with stolen objects after store windows were smashed along the rue de Rivoli shopping street. Protesters scrawled  "Vengeance for Nahel" across buildings and as night set a bank was lit on fire before firefighters put it out and an elite police unit deployed an armoured vehicle. Firefighters in the northern municipality of Roubaix, dashed from blaze to blaze throughout the night, with a hotel near the train station also catching fire, sending its dozen or so residents fleeing into the streets. Multiple public buildings were also targeted in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the Paris metro area. Today at 9:51am French Prime Minister Borne said she had gathered ministers at her office to discuss a third night of "unbearable and inexcusable" rioting. The government was getting an update on the violence and abuses overnight, Borne wrote on Twitter, posting pictures with figures including Interior Minister Darmanin and Justice Minister Dupond-Moretti. At 11:24am she said that the government was considering all options, including declaring a state of emergency, with one priority: restoring order after a third night of unrest across the country. Some right-wing opposition parties have demanded state of emergency being considered. Public transport in Paris was disrupted today after protesters destroyed a dozen buses in a depot in the north of the French capital overnight. There was very significant damage but no one was hurt as the buses were torched after Molotov cocktails were hurled into the depot in Aubervilliers north of the centre of Paris. Today morning some 23 bus lines out of a total of 350 in the city were not working while two tram lines were completely closed and others offered partial service or had major delays. The metro has largely continued working without problem. Services were resuming bit by bit, based on the state of the routes and the local security situation. "Traffic on the bus and tram networks will be very severely disrupted today," the IDFM regional transport authority said on Twitter. Bus and tram services in the Paris region will stop at 9:00pm each evening until further notice, after three nights of violent protests. The early shutdown was for the safety of workers and passengers, following attacks on transport and public infrastructure during the violence. Marseille, France's second-largest city, bans public demonstrations today at 1:12pm and all public transport in Marseille will also stop from 7pm local time today. 875 people were arrested yesterday night during the third night of violent protests in France, the interior ministry has said at 1:15pm. At 4:12pm it said that bus and tram services would be halted nationwide at 9pm from today and sales of large fireworks would be banned, under measures intended to tamp down on violent protests. Regional prefects, who are in charge of security around the country, would also be asked to ban the sale and transport of petrol cans, acids and other inflammable liquids. 4:55pm: The French gendarmerie will use armoured vehicles to suppress riots, Prime Minister Borne said. Additional mobile forces would be deployed along with the vehicles. She was also announcing the cancellation of large-scale events binding personnel and potentially posing risks to public order. France 24's  Jacinto talks at 6:30pm about the 'current' crisis in France and 'the repetitive' cycle of 'police violence'. 45,000 police and gendarmerie officers will be deployed throughout the country today evening to suppress riots today night, says Interior Minister Darmanin at 8:32pm, as the country braces for more violence on the streets. On the fourth night of violence in France, by 8pm in Lyon, despite the ban by the Rhône prefecture, the crowd swelled to 1,300 The police responded with tear gas to fireworks mortars fired by hooded demonstrators. The former presidential candidate, leader of France's left-wing political party France Unbowed (La France Insoumise), Mélenchon, in a video released on social networks around 8:55pm insisted on the youngest especially not to touch schools, libraries or gymnasiums, "everything that belongs to us all, our shared property". About 9pm: In the centre of Grenoble, shopfronts were smashed and shops looted by hooded youths. After 9pm clashes broke out between demonstrators and the police in front of the Hôtel de Ville in Lyon, at the start of a rally against police violence that had been banned. After 10pm police in Marseille announced 49 arrests at around 10pm among small, highly mobile groups near the center of the city, some of whom were attempting to loot several thoroughfares. Two police officers were slightly injured. Before 11pm rioters looted a gun store in the centre of Marseille, France's second city, and took away some hunting rifles but no ammunition. One individual was arrested and the store is guarded by police. Around 9pm in Nanterre, presence of quite a few police officers stationed throughout the streets there. Flowers have been laid at the site of youth's killing. 'Relative quiet for the moment' despite bands of young men driving by shouting insults and warnings about violence to come. 9:22pm: Police started clearing protesters from the central Paris square of Place de la Concorde today evening after an impromptu demonstration started amid nationwide unrest. A police station in the Pyrenees city of Pau was hit with a Molotov cocktail. Around 10:30pm a young man died after falling from the roof of the Bruyeres shopping centre, a supermarket being looted by rioters during overnight riots in the suburb of Petit-Quevilly of the northern French city of Rouen. Today at 11:22am President Macron cancelled a media conference scheduled for the second and last day of an EU summit in Brussels and left early to return to France, to go back to Paris. He made no comment to reporters as he left. A total of 492 buildings were damaged, 2,000 vehicles were burned and 3,880 fires were started, according to figures given by President Macron at the start of a crisis meeting. Denouncing the "unacceptable exploitation of a death of an adolescent," he said that additional security forces would be mobilised by the interior ministry to contain nationwide unrest. He also called on social media outlets to remove sensitive rioting content and called on parents to keep teen rioters off the streets today, adding that around a third of the 875 people arrested overnight for rioting were young, or very young. It's the responsibility of parents to keep them at home, Macron told reporters. 'It's not the state's job to act in their place,' he added. Citing TikTok and Snapchat, he said in televised remarks that social media play a significant role in the events of the past few days, help rioters organise themselves but also contributed to "mimicking" behaviour by some young people, who repeated what they saw online and lost track of reality. It sometimes feels like some of them re-live in the streets the video games that have intoxicated them, he said. Today the UK updated its official travel advice to warn citizens planning to visit France about unrest. "Locations and timing of riots are unpredictable. You should monitor the media, avoid areas where riots are taking place," said the latest advice issued by the foreign ministry. Geneva's cross-border public trams and buses were not running across the Swiss frontier into France today evening following riots. The decision had been made in response to the French restrictions on public transport this evening. The city is surrounded by France on three sides. Many of its public transport lines run across the border into dormitory towns on the other side. Some lines were stopping at the border while three cross-border routes were stopped altogether. The United Nations rights office said today it was concerned by the fatal shooting of a teenager by police that has sparked unrest across France. 'This is a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and racial discrimination in law enforcement,' spokesperson Shamdasani said. "We also emphasize the importance of peaceful assembly. We call on the authorities to ensure use of force by police to address violent elements in demonstrations always respects the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability.' France rejected UN accusations of racism among its police. "Any accusation of racism or systemic discrimination in the police force in France is totally unfounded," the foreign ministry said. /Videos, photo/ (Source: Frnce24): https://tinyurl.com/yc78ydrp

Poland
1 Jul 2023 
Siewiera, head of Poland’s national bureau of security, fears the relocation of Wagner mercenaries to Belarus could see the destabilisation of Central and Eastern Europe, Financial Times reported. (Source: AlJazeera)

Romania
01.07.2023  A Russian plane landed at the Henri Coanda airport in Bucharest today
despite EU airspace ban. Romania made an exception for Russian aircraft, the approval was obtained from the National Defense Ministry. A total of 40 personnel at the Russian embassy in Bucharest will leave Romania with their families on the civilian plane. Romania had asked Russia to reduce the number of staff at its embassy in Bucharest on June 8, and that accreditation of some employees would be canceled if the decision is not followed. (Source: Anadolu Agency)

Spain
July 1, 2023  Spanish Prime Minister
Pedro Sánchez arrived in Ukraine today to meet with Zelensky, as his country takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union council. Sánchez tweeted: “I wanted the first act of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the E.U. to be in Ukraine,' as he expressed European solidarity. Zelensky tweeted his appreciation after a joint news conference, thanking Spain "for supporting Ukraine on the way to joining the European Union.' Zelensky told a Spanish broadcaster that Kyiv wants to 'show results' on the battlefield before the next NATO summit, which starts July 11 in Lithuania. In May NATO nations were divided over how quickly Ukraine should be brought into the Western alliance. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)

Európai Bizottság
2023. július 01. 04:39  "Megszegte a magyaroknak tett ígéretét Brüsszel, és most még fizuemelést is kér (Videó).  A Bizottság szerint higgyük el: noha a kassza üres, a mi pénzük 'megvan, náluk van'. És majd oda is  adják, ha 'jól viselkedünk”. Az uniós tagállamok azonban „fenik a kést”. Teljesen jogosan. (Forrás: Mandiner): https://tinyurl.com/mpj2kw6p
Ugyanott: A magyar kormányfővel a közmédia brüsszeli stúdiójában készített 26 perces video-interjú. Részlet:
"Mi, magyarok, nem tudjuk elfogadni, hogy a rezsi-csökkentést megszüntessék Magyarországon, nem adunk pénzt arra, hogy itt a bürokraták fizetését megemeljék, nem adunk pénzt Ukrajnának addig, többet, amíg meg nem mondják, hogy hová lett az a 70 milliárd, amit korábban adtunk, és teljesen nevetségesnek, abszurdnak, lehetetlennek tartjuk azt a kérést, hogy adjunk oda egy olyan hitelhez kamatnövekmény céljából plusz pénzt, amelyből a nekünk járó összeget soha nem kaptuk meg". /Orbán Viktor

European Commission
1 Jul 2023  European Union leaders have declared they will make long-term commitments to bolster Ukraine’s security, following a summit in Brussels. Belgium’s prime minister said Russia’s frozen assets could provide 3 billion euros ($3.27bn) a year to rebuild Ukraine. Hungary has rejected the European Commission’s plans to grant more money to Ukraine and is not willing to contribute additional funds to finance the EU’s increased debt service costs, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said. (Source: AlJazeera)

Belarus
1 Jul 2023  Belarusian journalist
Padabed was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of “aiding extremist activities”. (Source: AlJazeera)

Russia
1 Jul 2023 
Putin discussed with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi the situation around Ukraine and how Moscow had resolved an armed mercenary mutiny, the Kremlin and Indian government said. Russia has said it saw no reason to extend the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine beyond July 17 but assured poor countries that grain exports would continue. “If the Black Sea Initiative ceases to operate, we will provide grain deliveries of a comparable or larger size to the poorest countries at our own expense, free of charge,” Russian foreign minister Lavrov said. The Russian government will increase salaries for military servicemen by 10.5 percent from October 1, a decree published on an official web portal has shown. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov denied that Russia intentionally attacked civilian targets in Ukraine, saying it only targeted military infrastructure or other military targets. Lavrov also said he believed the West wants to freeze the conflict in Ukraine to buy time to send more weapons to Kyiv. In response to a question about the Wagner Group’s aborted mutiny last weekend, Lavrov said his country has always emerged stronger and more resilient from any difficulties. Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Zakharova said Ukraine was preparing to commit a “terrorist” attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor blocked media outlets linked to Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner mercenary force, newspaper Kommersant reports. Russia introduced a ban on Polish trucks transporting cargo in its territory, with some exceptions. Russia demanded an explanation from Poland over its arrest of Russian citizens, state news agency RIA reported, citing foreign ministry spokeswoman Zakharova. Poland arrested a Russian ice hockey player on suspicion of having spied for Moscow while playing for a Polish club. (Source: AlJazeera)

July 1, 2023  After mutiny, Kremlin looks to unwind holdings tied to Wagner mercenary boss. It has begun dismantling and taking control of Prigozhin’s sprawling empire, which included not only the army-for-hire but also a propaganda media wing and internet troll factories. But handling his operations poses a challenge for the Russian government. Belarusian President Lukashenko said he offered Wagner troops an abandoned military base in Belarus, the country where Prigozhin, the mercenary group’s leader, relocated this week, although he has not made a public appearance there yet. Lukashenko signed a law allowing the ban of media outlets based in countries that he deems unfriendly to Belarus. Satellite imagery captured yesterday showed what could be the rapid construction of a new camp in Belarus to house Wagner forces. Prigozhin represents a structure that is trying to work on the ideological front, on the political front, said Korotkov, a Russian investigative journalist who first uncovered the Wagner Group. 'All this works in a tight ecosystem with other sides of his business.' The Russian military, for instance, relies on Prigozhin’s businesses to feed soldiers fighting in Ukraine and cannot afford disruptions. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)

Ukraine
1 Jul 2023  The World Bank
approved a $1.5bn loan to Ukraine to support reconstruction and recovery, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. Human Rights Watch said it uncovered new evidence of indiscriminate use of antipersonnel landmines by Ukrainian forces against Russian troops. The group called on Ukraine to follow through with a commitment to not use the banned weapons, investigate their suspected use and hold accountable those responsible. A Russian missile attack on a village school near the front line in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region killed two women and injured six, Ukrainian police said. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Russia is reducing the number of personnel at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power. Ukrainian prosecutors charged a Russian politician and two suspected Ukrainian collaborators with war crimes over the alleged deportation of dozens of orphans from Ukraine’s Kherson region. Ukraine hopes to use Spain’s rotating EU presidency to try to “gain influence” in Latin America, where several countries have opposed Kyiv’s efforts to retake territory occupied by Russia, President Zelenskyy has told Spanish media. (Source: AlJazeera)

1 Jul 2023  Ukraine’s counteroffensive plans have been slowed by a lack of adequate firepower, from modern fighter jets to ammunition for artillery guns, the country’s military commander-in-chief Zaluzhny has said in an interview with the Washington Post published yesterday. Complaining about the slow deliveries of weapons promised by the West, Zaluzhny said that Kyiv’s Western supporters would not themselves launch an offensive without air superiority, but Ukraine is still awaiting F-16 fighters promised by its allies. 'I do not need 120 planes. A  very limited number would be enough,' he told. 'They are needed. Because there is no other way. Because the enemy is using a different generation of aviation,' he said. He also complained he has a fraction of the artillery shells that Russia is firing. Zaluzhny said he is in constant contact with Western partners, like Pentagon Joint Chiefs Chairman General Milley, who are keenly aware of Ukraine’s needs. 'We have an agreement: 24/7, we’re in touch. So, sometimes I can call up and say, ‘If I don’t get 100,000 shells in a week, 1,000 people will die. Step into my shoes,’' he told. But Milley alone can’t make the decision, and the delays are deadly, Zaluzhny said. 'It’s just that while that decision is being made, in the obvious situation, a lot of people die every day – a lot. Just because no decision has been made yet,' he said. 'Every day, every metre is given by blood,' he said. The Washington, DC-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said yesterday that Zaluzhny responded to a question regarding military equipment losses in battles with Russian forces saying that Ukraine used its tanks and armoured cars in combat and did not save them up for 'parades'. Speaking later yesterday in Washington, Milley said the United States and allies were working hard to supply Ukraine. 'We are giving them as much help as humanly possible,' he said. Milley said the US was still in talks on providing Ukraine with F-16s and ATACMS, precision missiles that could more than double the range Ukraine forces are able to target. He acknowledged that some people had expressed impatience with the pace of the counteroffensive. Milley told an audience at the National Press Club in Washington that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was “advancing steadily, deliberately working its way through very difficult minefields … 500 metres a day, 1,000 metres a day, 2,000 metres a day, that kind of thing”. He said he was unsurprised that progress was slower than some people and computers might have predicted. 'War on paper and real war are different. In real war, real people die. Real people are on those front lines and real people are in those vehicles. Real bodies are being shredded by high explosives,' he said. 'What I had said was this is going to take six, eight, 10 weeks, it’s going to be very difficult,' he added. 'It’s going to be very long, and it’s going to be very, very bloody. And no one should have any illusions about any of that.' Yesterday, President Zelenskyy said his forces advanced 'in all directions of our active operations'. Maliar, the country’s deputy defence minister, said Ukraine’s military assessed progress as 'going according to plan', and that the counteroffensive should be evaluated by 'a lot of different military tasks.' Zelenskyy also ordered security to be beefed up at the country’s border with Belarus, where fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner have been offered exile. Zelenskyy said he had been informed yesterday of the situation in Belarus by the Ukrainian intelligence service GUR, foreign intelligence services and border guards. 'By the decision of the Stavka [chief of staff], Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny and General Nayev were instructed to strengthen the northern direction in order to guarantee peace. There are appropriate deadlines,' he said in a video posted on Telegram. Western officials now fear that Wagner forces could destabilise Central and Eastern Europe from the soon-to-be bases in Belarus. The ISW said yesterday that sources report that Wagner will operate three large field camps in Belarus, and media reports have claimed that recruitment centres for the private mercenary force are still open in Russia and accepting new recruits. (Source: AlJazeera)

Vatican
1 Jul 2023  Pope Francis said there is no apparent end in sight to the war in Ukraine as his peace envoy completed three days of talks in Moscow. “The reality of this war, that seems to have no end, demands of everyone a common creative effort to imagine and forge paths of peace,” the pope told a religious delegation from the patriarchate of Constantinople. (Source: AlJazeera)

Asia

Japan
July 1, 2023  Japan said it spotted two Russian Navy ships in the waters near Taiwan and Japan’s Okinawa islands over the last four days, according to its Defense Ministry. Tokyo said last month that repeated Russian military activity near Japanese territory posed a “serious concern” for the country’s national security. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)

North America

Canada
Saturday, (July 1, 2023)  Canada is experiencing its worst fire season on record. Right now, a map from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) shows a country spotted red with blazes. Some of the fires active now have been burning for weeks; others are just beginning: In the past 10 hours alone, CIFFC logged three  additional fires. These fires aren’t clustered in a single region: Their spread is the northern equivalent of New York and California burning at the same time, with additional fires stretched in between. According to the CIFFC, more than 509 fires are active in Canada, 253 of which are classified as “out of control.” It has burned through a record-breaking 8.2 million hectares so far this year, sending smoke plumes as far as Europe. Despite the best efforts of  hundreds of firefighting personnel who have come from all over the world to pitch in, the fires don’t look like they will be winding down anytime soon. Every single fire has its own behavior. Different fires burn at different speeds and for different lengths, depending on where they are located and what is burning. In 2017, Canada’s Elephant Hill fire burned for well over two months. California’s largest fire on record, the August Complex, burned for 87 days, while its second-largest, the Dixie fire, burned for more than 100 days. Fires tend to burn uphill, and may struggle to jump a lake or a river. The area’s  topography also changes how accessible it is to firefighters. Remote, hard-to-access areas sometimes call for parachuting firefighting squads, known as smokejumpers. What vegetation is burning, how much, and how dry it is can speed up or slow down fires. Grasslands burn rapidly. A more forested area, with thicker, denser brush, might linger. Most of Canada is classified as boreal forest -  chilly, northern forest - and much of the fire is happening in that kind of ecosystem. This type of forest tends to burn at higher intensity and over larger areas because of the kinds of trees and how densely packed they are. Some boreal forests contain peat, which can slow fire - if it’s wet. But if that peat is dry, it can burn underground and spread fires even farther. Weather matters, too. Hot temperatures supercharge fires; the wind spreads them. Snow and rain help dampen flames, sometimes ending fires altogether. Though precipitation doesn’t always put them out entirely: In recent years, zombie fires in the Arctic have quietly smoldered under the snowpack throughout the winter, only to reignite in the following spring. In Canada, the mean duration of a fire that’s more than 1,000 hectares is 23 days - or a little over three weeks, according to Jain, a research scientist at the Canadian Forest Service. A fire that’s more than 10,000 hectares, burns for a mean duration of 39 days. The smoke that’s been descending over America is the cumulative effect of all those burns. Particularly nasty fires can certainly take weeks or months to resolve. For some of these enormous fires would take some huge rain events to completely stop them, MacNab, the head of Wildland Fire Information Systems with Natural Resources Canada, told. Pelletier of SOPFEU, Quebec’s forest-firefighting agency, told that this year, barring many heavy periods of rainfall, the agency expects firefighting operations to last until September. Broadly speaking, Canada’s fire season tends to start waning by the fall. Millions of Americans will have to brace themselves for more extreme smoke days. (Source: msn)

United States
July 1, 2023  In April, President
Biden told a group of children that he had 'six grandchildren". 'And I’m crazy about them. And I speak to them every single day. Not a joke.” The story surrounding the president’s grandchild in Arkansas, who is not named in court papers, is a tale of two families, one of them powerful, one of them not. The story is about money, corrosive politics and what it means to have the Biden birthright. There is a 4-year-old girl in rural Arkansas, aware that her paternal grandfather is the president of the United States. She has not met them. Her maternal grandfather, Roberts, described her as whip-smart and funny. In strategy meetings in recent years, aides have been told that the Bidens have six, not seven, grandchildren. A trial planned for mid-July has been averted - Ms. Roberts, 32, the daughter of a rural gun maker said she dropped a request to have the girl’s last name changed from Roberts to Biden. Ms. Roberts graduated with honors from Southside High School in Batesville, played basketball for Arkansas State University. Her father is a 'red-state' gun manufacturer. After graduating, she moved to Washington to study forensic investigation at George Washington University. She never completed the program. Along the way, she met the son of a future president who was sliding into addiction and visiting Washington strip clubs. In mid-2018, Ms. Roberts was working as a personal assistant to Mr. Biden. Shortly after their daughter was born in November 2018, he removed Ms. Roberts and the child from his health insurance. Her public Instagram account tells its own story. She filed a lawsuit in May 2019, and DNA testing that year established that Mr. Biden was the father of the child. In a photo, shared to her account in April 2022, her daughter wore an Air Force One baseball cap. She said she brought her to Washington because not many little girls get to say that their grandfather is the president. Before Thursday’s settlement, Mr. Biden had paid Ms. Roberts upward of $750,000, according to his attorneys, and had sought to reduce his $20,000-a-month child support payment on the grounds that he did not have the money. The parents ended a yearslong court battle over child support on June 29, agreeing that Mr. Biden, 53, who has embarked on a second career as a painter whose pieces have been offered for as much as $500,000 each, would turn over a number of his paintings to his daughter in addition to providing a monthly support payment. The little girl will select the paintings from Mr. Biden, according to court documents. The most recent round kicked off after he struck a deal with the Justice Department to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and accept terms that would allow him to avoid prosecution on a separate gun charge. On top of that, Mr. Biden has been the subject of multiple congressional investigations, and the contents of the laptop he left at a repair shop have been pored over and disseminated by activists, who say his private communications show criminal wrongdoing. 'I’m very proud of my son,” the president told reporters recently. The younger Mr. Biden is recovering from crack cocaine addiction. The Republican pollster Luntz said voters do not care about Hunter’s legal and personal problems as much as they care about other issues, including Ukraine and inflation. (Source: dnyuz)

1 Jul 2023  Former US President Trump, 'a longtime admirer of Russian President Putin', says Putin had been “somewhat weakened” by an aborted Wagner mutiny and that now is the time for Washington to try to broker negotiated peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine. (Source: AlJazeera)

July 1, 2023  Today, speaking in a lecture at Britain’s Ditchley Foundation, CIA Director Burns reiterated the Biden administration’s insistence that the United States “had and will have no part” in last week’s rebellion by Prigozhin and his Wagner Group. The impact of Prigozhin’s "scathing indictment of the Kremlin’s mendacious rationale' for the Ukraine invasion and the conduct of Russia’s military leadership in the war 'will play out for some time, a vivid reminder of the corrosive effect of [President] Putin’s war on his own society and his own regime.' 'Disaffection with the war will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership' and create a 'once in a generation opportunity' for U.S. intelligence, said Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia. 'We’re not letting it go to waste,' Burns said today. Intelligence initiatives have included the unprecedented release of classified information on Putin’s war plans before the invasion and subsequent intelligence sharing with allies and Ukraine, and the use of  social media through the Telegram channel “to let Russians know how to contact us safely on the dark web,' he said. 'We had 2.5 million views in the first week, and we’re very much open for business.' The United States has seen an 'increasing need' for cluster munitions, which could help address ammunition shortages in Ukraine, a U.S. official told. The Biden administration is weighing whether to supply Kyiv with cluster bombs. Senior U.S. administration and defense officials have contacted lawmakers to assess their comfort with sending the munitions. The Biden administration has concerns about the optics of the move and the potential for long-term harm to civilians because the munitions can leave behind unexploded bomblets that remain deadly for decades. 'We’ve always said our security assistance would evolve as battlefield conditions have evolved, and that continues to be the case,' the official said. The United States is not among the more than 120 nations that have signed an international convention banning the use, transfer or production of cluster munitions, which international rights groups and other governments have long condemned as inhumane. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)

Saturday(, July 1, 2023)  During a secret visit to Ukraine by CIA Director Burns earlier this month, Ukrainian officials revealed an ambitious strategy to retake Russian-occupied territory and open cease-fire negotiations with Moscow by the end of the year. Burns’s trip occurred just before the aborted rebellion by Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin against Russia’s defense establishment. Although the U.S. intelligence community had detected in mid-June that Prigozhin was plotting an armed assault of some kind, those findings were not discussed during the meetings with Zelensky and others, an U.S. official said. Biden administration officials have repeatedly emphasized that Washington and Kyiv had nothing to do with the failed march on Moscow, a rare challenge to Russian President Putin that the United States has characterized as an internal matter. In an effort to reinforce that line, Burns made a phone call to his Russian counterpart, Naryshkin, after the event and underscored that the United States was not involved in any way, the Wall Street Journal reported. 'Director Burns recently traveled to Ukraine, as he has done regularly since the beginning of Russia’s recent aggression more than a year ago,' said a U.S.official. Its purpose was to reaffirm the Biden administration’s commitment to sharing intelligence meant to help Ukraine defend itself, the official added. Publicly, Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration with critics of the pace at which the counteroffensive has played out thus far. But in private, military planners in Kyiv have relayed to Burns and others bullish confidence in their aim to retake substantial territory by the fall; move artillery and missile systems near the boundary line of Russian-controlled Crimea; push further into eastern Ukraine; and then open negotiations with Moscow for the first time since peace talks broke down in March of last year. Whether Ukraine can deliver on those plans, on such a truncated timeline, remains to be seen. Ukraine faces mines and manpower challenges in offensive’s early weeks. Zelensky and his military commanders, facing deeply entrenched Russian forces in occupied parts of Ukraine’s east and south, are under pressure from the Western nations that provided Kyiv with billions of dollars in advanced weaponry and training ahead of the counteroffensive. Ukraine has taken heavy casualties as its troops and armored vehicles navigate thick minefields and fortified trenches across wide-open territory. The challenging terrain has left troops vulnerable to Russian airstrikes and missile attacks. The Zelensky government has pushed hard for the United States and Europe to make firm commitments on Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the European Union - but the U.S. and Western European governments remain cold to the idea, more interested in offering pledges of long-term security assistance instead of the expansion of NATO, which  risks a direct conflict with Russia. While U.S. and Ukrainian officials differ on the topic of NATO membership, they say there is broad agreement on Kyiv’s aims for the offensive. 'The U.S. agrees that Ukraine should enter the negotiations from a strong position,' said a senior Ukrainian official. 'The U.S. is satisfied that our command does not do anything stupid, it keeps soldiers and equipment. The support is strong, and it makes our motivation higher.' Still, signs of stress are abundant. Zelensky has acknowledged that the counteroffensive is going 'slower than desired,' and officials have confirmed the destruction of some Western-provided Leopard 2 tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. But Defense Minister Reznikov has dismissed skeptics, saying the “main event” is yet to come. The country’s top military commander, Gen. Zaluzhny, has called for patience, saying the offensive is being 'carried out' as diligently as possible. 'Yes, maybe not as fast as … the observers would like, but that is their problem,' Zaluzhny told The Washington Post this week. While U.S. military leaders want to see Ukraine accelerate its offensive, Zaluzhny has begun venting that the West has not sent ammunition and fighter jets to the battlefield fast enough. Military analysts say Ukraine’s goal of forcing a negotiation is ambitious given Russia’s fortified defenses, but not out of the question. If Ukraine can inflict enough losses on Russian forces and equipment, and interdict the movement of reinforcements, Ukraine may be able to weaken Moscow’s defenses enough to achieve a breakthrough, said Lee, a military analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.'It’s possible they can cut off the land bridge to Crimea, either by seizing the terrain or putting it within range of HIMARS and other artillery, but much depends on the level of attrition,' Lee said. In preparation for the fall, Zelensky and top aides have begun thinking about how Kyiv can force an end to the fighting on terms that are acceptable to Russia and the Ukrainian people. If Ukraine sustains too many losses, its offensive could culminate early, Lee added. (Source: msn)

(Saturday), July 01, 2023  The U.N. expressed concern yesterday that no new ships have been registered since June 26 under a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine. Russian President Putin spoke by phone with Indian Prime Minister Modi yesterday. Moscow said Modi expressed support for what the Kremlin called the Russian leadership's decisive actions in handling the mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group last Saturday. India has yet to condemn ally Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. The call comes after the U.S. and India declared themselves "among the closest partners in the world' last week during a state visit to Washington by Modi. CIA Director Burns held secret meetings in Ukraine in June with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and  intelligence officials to discuss Ukraine’s counteroffensive strategy. The clandestine discussions are reported to have occurred before Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin’s thwarted rebellion against Russian President Putin and the Russian defense establishment. Ukrainian officials have expressed frustration in recent days, calling on Washington and the West to provide it more advanced weaponry to help dent Russian defensive positions and allow for Ukrainian troops to retake more territory. They have repeatedly called on the U.S. and its other allies to provide not just tanks and armored vehicles, but cluster munitions, long-range missiles, and modern fighter jets, such as F-16s. Reports of the secret meetings emerged yesterday. Earlier yesterday, Ukraine’s top general Zaluzhny told The Washington Post his forces are in desperate need of ammunition and other advanced weaponry. It “pisses me off,” said Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny. 'This is not a show … It's not a show the whole world is watching and betting on or anything. Every day, every meter is given by blood.' “Without being fully supplied, these plans are not feasible at all," he added. The failure of Ukraine’s  counteroffensive against Russian troops to make rapid advancements 'is not causing any panic' among top U.S. military officials. 'The United States is confident Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia is making progress despite the lack of any significant break in the Russian lines'. Joint Chief of Staff Chairman General Milley told in Washington yesterday the slow pace of Ukraine’s advance is 'part of the nature of war.' Ukrainian forces are “advancing, steadily, deliberately," Milley said during an appearance at the National Press Club. U.S. officials remain confident Ukraine’s counteroffensive will make  headway, even if it takes six to eight weeks before Ukrainian forces see more substantial gains. "It’s going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very long. And it’s going to be very, very bloody and no one should have any illusions about any of that,' he said. Milley also said the U.S. is openly considering providing Ukraine with cluster-munitions - despite concerns by some allies about the nature of the bombs - long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles and even some of its own F-16 fighter jets. 'These things are on the table,' he said. “There's no decision at this point.” A number of humanitarian groups say cluster-munitions have a high rate of failure and often lead to civilian casualties. So far, the U.S. has said it will allow its allies to provide Ukraine with the U.S.-made jets and is training its pilots to fly them. Washington says the focus has been on giving Ukraine systems and weapons it can immediately deploy to the front lines. The U.S. will “continue to monitor Wagner's activities wherever they are around the world, and we're going to continue to hold them properly accountable for the kinds of egregious violent, deadly and illegal conduct ... that they are still capable of conducting,” White House national security spokesperson Kirby told. Ukraine took steps to tighten the defense of its border with Belarus, a close ally of Russia. President Zelenskyy has asked his senior military leadership to strengthen Ukraine’s northern military sector after mercenary leader Prigozhin  flew from Russia into exile in Belarus. "The decision … is for Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny and 'North' commander [General] Naev to implement a set of measures to strengthen this direction," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app. Defense Minister Reznikov has said Kyiv’s forces have liberated nine settlements in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, though the main attack is yet to come. (Source: VOANews)

International Atomic Energy Agency

July 1, 2023  There is no visible evidence of 'mines or other explosives' at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said. However, additional access and checks are still required, said Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He added that the agency takes seriously reports that the area has been mined, and he said that mines were previously placed inside and outside the perimeter of the plant, which is occupied by Russian forces. Russia is reducing its presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and Ukrainian employees have been told to evacuate, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate said yesterday. Last week, Zelensky warned that Russia was planning a 'terrorist act' at the plant. He reiterated that assertion todays. Russia has denied the claims, including in a letter to the United Nations this week, Russian state media reported. (Source: TheWashingtonPost)

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2023. VI. 30. European Council, Russia, India, United States

2023.07.04. 04:21 Eleve

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Europe

European Council
30 June 2023  EU leaders broke off migration talks early Friday (30 June)
as Poland and Hungary blocked 'progress'. Migration has been one of the most contentious issues for the EU since the 2015 "migration" crisis, since when the bloc had tried and failed to overhaul the bloc’s process for welcoming and relocating 'asylum' seekers. On the eve of the summit, Italy was among nine EU countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea have urged the bloc to create a formal ‘southern partnership’ with African countries based on cooperation on energy and migration. Earlier this month, Warsaw and Budapest were outvoted when EU home affairs ministers, after months of tense negotiations, 'agreed' on reforming the bloc’s rules on the relocation of migrants and procedures for processing asylum seekers. 'The final compromise' had set quotas for willing countries and mandatory financial contributions of €20,000 for each migrant for countries that refuse to relocate migrants. The blueprint, which still needs to be approved by the European Parliament, gives a derogation for countries that have accepted at least one million asylum seekers. Poland and Hungary voted against the position adopted by a qualified majority, meaning 55% of member states, representing at least 65% of the EU population, voted in favour. EU leaders called off yesterday’s summit talks after last-ditch efforts by France and Germany and European Council President Michel to break the stalemate with Poland and Hungary. Warsaw and Budapest used the summit to express their discontent. Warsaw argues that since an estimated 1.5 to 2 million refugees fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion last February are still housed in their country, they should be exempted. “We don’t have to be taught what solidarity is,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters before heading into the summit talks, pointing to his government’s support for Ukrainian refugees for which he later demanded financial support from the EU. “We cannot treat in a discriminatory manner people from Ukraine and people from the Middle East or Africa,” added the Polish premier. Warsaw had also proposed to hold a referendum on the issue. Budapest, meanwhile, has consistently opposed any attempts to create a compulsory EU policy on relocations. “The Poles and Hungarians en bloc are saying that they do not recognise the validity of the agreement, they want to return to the logic of 2018 whereby decisions are taken by consensus,” a French diplomatic source said. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte proposed to counterparts to discuss the issues again at their next summit. Viktor Orbán’s political director, Orbán, summed up the discussions by tweeting: “Heavy fight against the pro-migration forces of Brussels!” But some EU diplomats suggested the topic will likely stay - the migration deal struck earlier this month will remain in place. 'Although neither country can veto the position which has been agreed by ministers' and will now be negotiated in trilogues with the European Parliament, Poland tabled an amendment to the post-summit conclusions stressing the need for a voluntary approach to relocations and for unanimity among EU governments. The proposal was rejected 'by all other EU leaders'. Alongside the debate on migrant relocations, EU leaders also discussed the prospect of striking more cash for migrant control and deals with African states following the agreement of a €1 billion pact with Tunisian President Saied. The details of a memorandum of understanding for Tunisia are still being thrashed out. A separate group of member states have been working on 'innovative solutions' to address migration flows, including third-country agreements. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told reporters in Brussels that “on migrants, Tunisia and flexibility of resources allocation, the Council’s conclusions are quite a satisfactory starting point.” “We are very pleased to have a paragraph on Tunisia, not only regarding migration but also on establishing a strategic partnership with North African countries,” she added. A draft of the post-summit communiqué suggested that EU leaders were expected to endorse the European Commission’s ambitions to broker further agreements with Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria. 'We have made a lot of progress on migration, and in the area of the migration pact, there has been clear progress,' Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo told reporters. (Source: euractiv)

Russia
June 30, 2023  Western accounts often fall victim to a lack of documented factual information and the same Western analytic bias,
which stubbornly believes that Russia and Russians are just like Westerners, only with crappy weather and better literature and ballet. Russia functions in a manner foreign to Western expectations. Those who tried to ascribe deep political astuteness to Prigozhin on Saturday woke up with egg on their face on Sunday, when it turned out that there was no real thought, much less political, in any of his actions. A coup that really wasn’t in a country that resembles a functioning state less and less. Prigozhin’s tantrum over the weekend made everyone look ridiculous, most of all his patron in the Kremlin and all those trying to find method to his madness. Even those closest to the halls of power privately acknowledge that they have no idea of what is happening and what, if anything, Putin is thinking. The most interesting, if completely farcical, explanation of the entire affair was offered by Kadyrov, whose troops, invariably, were once again last to the battle and first to claim success. He wrote an extensive post claiming that Prigozhin’s actions were driven by recent business deals gone bad, including his daughter not getting a coveted piece of land in St. Petersburg. The claim is silly and irrelevant. The more they speak in an effort to explain or downplay what happened, the more lies are revealed, and the  clearer the picture of a criminal rather than a statesman mentality is revealed. The fact that the Police, National Guard and military either laid down their arms or refused to fight altogether or simply evacuated cities in anticipation of Wagner’s arrival has already been forgotten. In his effort to deflect blame, Putin stumbles into openly acknowledging that the Russian state has allocated $1bn in 2023 to finance the Wagner group. To put this into perspective, here are the annual budgets of some of Russia’s largest cities: Kazan ($473mn), Voronezh ($490mn), Rostov ($675mn), Krasnodar ($812mn), Ekaterinburg  ($828mn) and Novosibirsk ($952mn). The ruthless world depicted in the mafia epic "The Godfather," offers a more authentic lens through which to examine and comprehend Russia than the dry analysis of scholarly treatises. It transcends the limitations of guesswork and fabricated narratives. It stands as an enduring masterpiece, meticulously chronicling the rise of Corleone from the depths of poverty to the heights of the criminal world and the subsequent descent of son Michael from a wartime hero into its treacherous underworld. The vivid characters in the film are true political powerhouses. They have clear goals, formulate brilliant strategies and employ surgical tactics to achieve their ultimate vision. Putin’s refusal to treat Prigozhin in a manner befitting a traitor only highlights his weakness and the lack of unity within the regime he created. His refusal to put down a rabid dog does not seem to be a reflection of his desire, as he is infamous for his intolerance of treachery. It is rather an affirmation of his weakness and of powerful elements within his government that may be holding back his hand. The same can be said of his inability to deal with Shoigu, a man who has proven his abject incompetence as a Defence Minister time and again, yet Putin either refuses or is unable to replace him. The labyrinth of lies that have been created to keep Putin isolated and docile has come back to bite him and his handlers at the worst possible moment. Woltz understood that anyone in a position of power cannot afford to look ridiculous if they are to stay in power. Putin and the political machine he created cannot seem to look ridiculous and incompetent. It resembles less a state and more like a criminal organisation, and that leads to failure to draw the right conclusions. Prigozhin’s outburst shattered the last remnants of Putin’s regime as a political entity, further exposing the lies and reinforcing the image of a criminal mentality rather than statesmanship. In any other situation, if tens of thousands of lives were not on the line, this would provide exceptional theatre; in the current environment, not so much. Prigozhin signals the start of Putin’s problems, not the end, and the West needs to wake up to the fact that it is dealing with a fragmented criminal clan and not a functioning country. (Source: bneIntelliNews)

Asia

India
June 30, 2023  Christians make up 41.29 percent of the hilly northeastern Manipur state’s 3.2 million people. Manipur is gripped by violence and bloodshed since May 3. Tribal groups, comprising mainly Christians, are fighting against the majority Meitei Hindu community opposing the Meitei demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category. Christian leaders say some 50,000 Kuki people are displaced and live in some 300 relief camps, and they get little support from the state administration, headed by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Many have taken shelter in the forest and close to 300 churches have been set on fire. Indian prelate Catholic Archbishop Pamplany of Tellicherry has termed the ongoing sectarian violence in Manipur state “ethnic-cleansing of Christians” and criticized BJP-led government for its failure to restore peace after nearly two months and more than 130 deaths. A realistic head count could increase the number considerably. The prelate, in one of the strongest criticisms of the BJP from any Church leader in India, equated the sectarian violence in Manipur to the 2002 riots in the western Gujarat state, where some 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was its chief minister. “When such ethnic cleansing is happening in our country, our prime minister told the American Congress that there is absolutely no discrimination in India,” Pamplany told a solidarity meeting in Kannur, in Kerala, on June 28. In an official release from the Syro-Malabar Church today, Archbishop Pamplany from the southern Kerala state dared Modi to repeat his claim in the US during a press conference with President Biden that “there was no religious discrimination in India.” Archbishop Pamplany had courted controversy in March after he offered the BJP help to win a parliamentary seat from Kerala in exchange for increasing the rubber prices to Rs. 300 (US$4) for a kilogram. Syrian Christians in Kerala are mostly farmers, a majority of them engaged in rubber cultivation. Antony, a lay Catholic leader of the Archdiocesan Movement for Transparency (ATM) in Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, lauded the prelate for his stand in a video message today. “At least now, the Syro-Malabar Church leadership understood the reality in Manipur and responded positively.” "It is better to be late than never.” The Syro-Malabar Church was seen as hobnobbing with the pro-Hindu party ahead of the 2024 national elections while ignoring its agenda of turning India into a theocratic Hindu nation. Amid the rising persecution of Christians and Muslims, Cardinal Alencherry, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, too, had given a clean chit - a controversial statement in an interview published by The New Indian Express on April 9 - to the BJP, saying Christians do not feel insecure under its rule in the country. Many influential BJP leaders have met Eastern rite bishops as part of an outreach program to woo Syrian Christians in the tiny state. Their bonhomie had invited criticism from within the Church as Archbishop Machado of Bangalore along with other Christian groups had filed a petition in the country's  top court seeking direction to end the persecution of Christians. (Source: UnionofCatholicAsianNews)

North America

United States
June 30, (2023)  This week CIA Director Burns called the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service Naryshkin after last week's aborted mutiny in Russia to assure the Kremlin that the United States had no role in it. The phone call was the highest-level contact between the two governments since the attempted mutiny, the Wall Street Journal said. President Biden said on Monday, June 26, the brief uprising by Russian mercenaries against the Kremlin was part of a struggle within the Russian system and that the United States and its allies were not involved in it. (Source: Reuters)

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2023.07.01. 12:03 Eleve

 

München, 2023. VII. 1. Májusfa

 

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2023. VI. 1. Poland, Slovakia, European Commission, Kosovo, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, United States.

2023.06.01. 09:54 Eleve

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Europe

Poland
June 1, 2023  Despite a significant cooling of relations due to their different stances on the war in Ukraine, Poland and Hungary remain united
in opposing what they see as undue interference from Brussels over reforms that critics say undermine judicial independence. Poland rebuked today the European Parliament backing a resolution that questions Hungary's ability to hold the European Union presidency next year due to concerns about judicial independence. "It is a clear violation of European rules in their most important form, that is treaty rules," Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a conference in Moldova. "Destroying the entire way of managing the EU in this way is not only a road to nowhere, but it is a road to the abyss." The resolution, which was approved 442-114 with 33 abstentions, questioned how Hungary could hold the presidency 'in view of incompliance with EU law and the values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union as well as the principle of sincere cooperation'. According to a calendar agreed by all EU governments in 2016, Hungary is to hold the presidency of the bloc between July and December 2024. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's chief political aide Orbán, who is not related, said on Twitter that Hungary was being "blackmailed by Brussels because of its antiwar position". Hungary has refused to provide any military equipment to its neighbour to help it fight off a Russian invasion, and Hungary has criticised EU sanctions against Moscow. The EU has frozen billions of euros in funds for Budapest and Warsaw 'due to its concerns'. Hungary could receive some 5.8 billion euros in free grants and a further 9.6 billion euros in cheap loans from the EU, but the bloc has suspended any payments 'until Budapest's government implements reforms to improve judicial independence and tackle corruption'. Hungary and Poland have long been at odds with the EU over multiple issues, such as the rule of law, media freedoms and LGBTQ rights. (Source: Reuters)

Slovakia
1 June 2023  Bratislava faced massive cyber-attack
during GLOBSEC conference. Electronic systems and parking services were down during an international security conference, GLOBSEC, yesterday, with an anti-NATO group claiming responsibility for the attack. GLOBSEC’s conference covers a range of security topics, including hybrid threats and supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression. The massive DDoS cyber-attack disabled city hall’s website in the early morning. Bratislava Mayor Vallo said that no data was breached. The attack also disabled Bratislava’s parking services. As a result, City Hall stopped giving out parking tickets for the day as people could not pay for them. A cyber group claimed responsibility early morning on Twitter. It used #GLOBSEC in its posts, connecting the attack to the conference attended by von der Leyen and Macron, among others. The group also said it was responsible for the cyber-attacks on Hiroshima on the occasion of the G7 summit, which was attended by President Zelenskyy. “We can no longer watch as the US and NATO lead society into WWIII. We are to stop it!" wrote the group earlier in May. (Source: euractiv)

1 June 2023  The EU Commission plans to organise and finance a purchase of firefighting aircraft. In 2022 Europe experienced one of the worst wildfire seasons on record, scorching more than 700,000 hectares of land in more than a dozen countries from June to August. The impact of climate change has made wildfires more catastrophic than ever before and with a larger geographic spread – now commonly appearing in areas of central Europe as well. Last year, the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) under the rescEU scheme had a fleet of 13 firefighting aircraft at its disposal. Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain provided two water bombers each, Sweden provided two air tractors, and Greece provided one helicopter. This year, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Portugal have decided to make their aircraft available as well. In addition, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia pledged to send some 450 firefighters for standby duty in areas at risk from forest fires in France, Greece, and Portugal. Croatia is one of six EU countries that applied to get new firefighting aircraft through the EU Commission’s plan to negotiate a joint purchase of planes. The entire European order is for 22 brand-new aircraft, intended to be used by Mediterranean countries including Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. This includes 12 planes which will be financed entirely by EU funding, with the price of each unit estimated at €52 million. The operational costs of the amphibious firefighting fleet – which includes pilot salaries, fuel costs, and standby duty – are also covered by the European Commission. Although the production of large amphibious Canadian-made Canadair CL-415 water bombers ceased in 2015, the Commission is reportedly negotiating with the Canadian aerospace company De Havilland, which is expected to relaunch production. The production is expected to start in 2026, and the deliveries are reportedly expected in early 2028. (Source: euractiv)

Kosovo
June 01, 2023  North Kosovo crisis persists.
The situation in Zvecan, Leposaviq, and Zubin Potok was calm on May 31. On the ground in Zvecan on May 31, members of the NATO-led KFOR protection force put up razor-wire barricades to further secure the area. Kosovo police and KFOR troops have installed barbed-wire barricades around municipal buildings to keep protesters at bay. Mayors of the three towns were sworn in despite a turnout of under 3.5 percent in the April 23 by-elections amid the Serb boycott. The Belgrade-backed Serbian List (Srpska Lista) said the protests will stop only when their demands for the removal of Kosovar Albanian mayors and the withdrawal of special police units from the north are met. Ethnic Serbians gathered again on June 1 in the town of Zvecan, the theater of violent clashes on May 29, but in smaller numbers than in the previous days, amid a vow from the largest Kosovar Serbian party to continue protests over the presence of the mayors elected in a vote boycotted by ethnic Serbs. Serbian structures have been operating in the north of Kosovo since the 1998-99 war that led to Kosovo declaring independence from Serbia in 2008. During a summit taking place in Moldova, European Union leaders are due to discuss the situation in Kosovo on June 1 as part of international efforts to end a crisis that for days has drawn ethnic Serbian demonstrators into the streets of northern towns of the former province of Serbia. The leaders of France and Germany have announced plans to meet with top Serbia and Kosovo officials at the summit. EU foreign policy chief Borrell is expected to meet there with Serbian President Vucic and Kosovar President Osmani. On May 31, Borrell and the EU envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue met Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti on the sidelines of a security conference in Bratislava. Kurti has rejected a demand by the protesters in ethnic Serb-majority northern Kosovo to remove ethnic Albanian mayors whose forced entrance into municipality buildings in three towns in the region triggered a standoff after violent clashes with Kosovar police and KFOR troops. Kurti has insisted that the ethnic Albanian mayors have the legal right to take over municipal buildings in the towns where they were elected. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken reiterated that the Kosovar government's decision to forcefully install the mayors had escalated tensions "sharply and unnecessarily." Kurti and his government "should ensure that elected mayors perform their interim duties from alternative locations, outside municipal buildings, and withdraw police forces from there," Blinken said. Blinken also said Serbian President Vucic and the Serbian government 'should downgrade the security status of the Serbian Armed Forces and call on the Kosovo Serbs to stop defying KFOR and refrain from further violence." NATO said it would send 700 additional soldiers to Kosovo and place another battalion on high alert. (Source: RfeRl)

Moldova
Thursday, 1 Jun 2023  47 European leaders meet in Moldova to discuss war in Ukraine. It is the second gathering of the so-called European Political Community, brainchild of French President Macron, established last year to allow continental leaders to discuss areas of mutual concern, such as migration, energy and cyber security. EU and non-EU leaders meet twice a year to discuss the pressing challenges of the day. Moldova, the small, impoverished country which has a breakaway region of Russian speakers presses for EU accession negotiations to begin. President Zelensky has been invited to attend the meeting, but other regional conflicts, such as those between Kosovo and Serbia and between Armenia and Azerbaijan, will be under the spotlight. In a statement, NATO said it was providing surveillance aircraft to watch the skies over the venue. (Source: RTÉ)

Russia
1/06/2023 Thursday  Ukraine rejected all proposals for ensuring the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant put forward by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) because the country does not have the capacity to make such decisions, senior Russian diplomat Grushko said yesterday. “In this question, as in many others, Ukraine is deprived of legal personality. The leadership of this country fulfills the demands of Washington and London, which, for the sake of political interests, easily sacrifice both people's lives and the safety of nuclear facilities on the European continent,” he said. The diplomat said that Russia will continue to take measures to provide security for the Zaporizhzhia plant. “We have never deployed and do not plan to deploy military contingents and military equipment intended for offensive operations on the territory of the nuclear power plant. There are only those forces at the nuclear power plant that are necessary to protect it from Ukrainian attacks, as well as to eliminate their possible consequences,” he said. Grushko also urged the IAEA to “openly condemn” and disclose information about Ukrainian attacks on the nuclear power plant. “We hope the IAEA’s management will demonstrate the agency’s impartiality and non-involvement in this matter,” he said. (Source: YeniSafak)

01/06/2023  Russia's defence ministry said it had repelled three cross-border attacks today near the town of Shebekino, and it accused Ukraine of using what it said were "terrorist formations" to carry out attempted attacks on Russian civilians. "No violations of the state border were allowed." Russian army units, border guards and units of the Federal Security Service, repelled the first attack at around 0100 GMT as two units with vehicles and tanks tried to penetrate the border near Novaya Tavolzhanka and Shebekino, the defence ministry said, adding there were three attacks from the Ukrainian side. Ukraine says the incursions into Belgorod are conducted by Russian volunteer fighters. Russian officials say the group of fighters is a proxy run by Ukraine. More than 50 Ukrainian fighters were killed and four armoured vehicles were destroyed, the ministry said. It added that up to 70 fighters, five tanks and four armoured vehicles were involved in the attack. (Source: France24)

1 Jun 2023  Shelling of the border region of Russia’s Belgorod is intensifying. Today, one person was reportedly killed and two others were wounded in a strike on a centre for displaced people in Belgorod. “We have not heard a single word of condemnation from the West so far,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov said of the attacks which have affected Russian civilians in the region. The Kremlin also said yesterday that it was not considering the introduction of martial law in Russia despite the drone attacks on Moscow and the ongoing shelling of border regions. The Kremlin’s Peskov said the imposition of martial law in Russia was not currently being discussed. According to media reports, Peskov was reacting to Chechen leader Kadyrov’s demands for harsher attacks on  Ukraine and the declaration of martial law after the drone attacks on Moscow. Peskov said such a decision was up to Moscow and not the regions. “Measures are being taken,” Peskov said. Authorities have begun evacuating children from the districts of Shebekino and Graivoron. Governor of Russia's Belgorod region said that the situation in Shebekino was deteriorating amid ongoing cross-border attacks from Ukraine. Evacuation of children from the Shebekinsky and Grayvoronsky districts of the Belgorod region was set to begin on 31 May. The first group of 300  people will be sent to the city of Voronezh, a city about 250km further into Russia. Buses had arrived with about 150 people on board yesterday. Another 1,000 children will be removed from border areas to other provinces over the coming days, he said. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), DC-based think tank, said in its latest report today that Russian military commanders had likely ordered the Chechens into battle following the withdrawal of Wagner Group mercenary forces from the destroyed city of Bakhmut. According to the ISW, Kadyrov claimed  yesterday that his forces had received new orders and would be deploying to “active combat activities” to “liberate” a series of settlements after assuming responsibility for the front line in Ukraine’s southeast Donetsk region, which includes the contested city of Bakhmut. Chechen fighters have primarily operated in areas behind the front line following their involvement in the bloody battles in Ukraine’s cities of Mariupol, Severodonetsk and Lysychanak, the institute said. Describing himself as a “foot soldier” of Russian President Putin, Kadyrov had previously deployed his Chechen forces in support of Russian military operations in Syria and Georgia. The ISW also noted that if reports of 7,000 Chechen troops in Ukraine are correct, Kadyrov’s forces will not have the numbers “to mount multiple significant offensive operations successfully'. 'The governor of Belgorod region also urged Russian forces yesterday to launch attacks and capture Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, including Kharkiv city, to create a buffer zone between Belgorod and Ukraine', according to the ISW. (Source: AlJazeera)

Ukraine
01/06/2023  President Zelensky said today he had received a strong show of support from allies attending a summit in Moldova on the question of supplying fighter jets to Kyiv. He made the comments at a news conference after a summit of over 40 European leaders in Moldova but gave few details. He has long been asking allies to provide Ukraine with fighter jets. Zelensky warned European leaders today that any doubts they show before admitting Kyiv into the NATO alliance 'will embolden Russia to attack more countries'. He said today in Moldova that Ukraine 'was ready to join the NATO military alliance', and that Kyiv was waiting for the bloc to be ready to admit his country. 'Our future is in the EU. Ukraine is ready to join NATO,' he said. Moldova is hosting the EPC summit at a castle about 20 kilometres from Ukrainian territory. Zelensky arrived in Moldova for European summit to discuss Ukraine defence. He said he was working on building support for a coalition of powers to supply fighter jets to help Ukraine repel Russian forces, and that he would also discuss his peace plan as well as Kyiv's aspirations to join NATO and the European Union. (Source: France24)

01/06/2023  Ukraine's air force said that air defences shot down all 10 ballistic and Iskander cruise missiles launched from Russia's Bryansk region in the 18th attack on the capital since the start of May. Police said a medical clinic, kindergarten, residential buildings and cars were damaged. The Kyiv military administration said three people - a young girl, her mother and another woman - were killed and 10 hurt in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv's Desnyansky district, early today. The attack began around 3am local time (0000 GMT). 'It is international children's day. At night, Russia again killed a child in Kyiv,' said Yermak, chief of President Zelensky's office. There's quite a lot of anger in Kyiv because the shelter that they were trying to get into was closed. The mayor of Kyiv, Klitschko, has ordered all of the shelters to be open at all times and for an examination of all the shelters to be carried out. There have been many complaints actually about shelters not being open or not being properly set up. (Source: France24)

North America

United States
01/06/2023  The US said it would stop giving Russia some notifications required under the New START arms control treaty from today, including on its missile and launcher locations, to retaliate for Moscow's "ongoing violations" of the accord. The State Department said the United States would also stop giving Russia flight telemetry information - remotely gathered data - on launches of US intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. (Source: France24)

1 June 2023  According to the Pentagon, the Biden administration has allocated more than $37.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022. In a meeting last week, US Defense Secretary Austin at the 12th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Liaison Group that it is important to enhance Ukraine's air defense capabilities. The Biden administration announced a new military aid package to Ukraine yesterday. This latest $300 million in military aid is the 39th draw of Defense Department supplies to Ukraine since August 2021. The package will use the president's recall authority, which allows the Pentagon to take weapons from its own stockpiles and quickly deliver them to Ukraine. It includes more ammunition for Patriot missile batteries and high-mobility artillery missile systems, as well as Avenger air defense systems, Stinger air defense systems and air defense AIM-7 missiles. It also includes multiple artillery and anti-tank capabilities, precision air munitions, demining equipment, unguided Zuni anti-aircraft missiles, night vision goggles and more. Citing the danger of escalation, the Biden administration made it clear to Ukraine that US-made weapons should not be used for attacks inside Russian territory, said Kirby, the National Security Council's strategic communications coordinator. (Source: EpochTimes)

June 01, 2023 The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted yesterday night, with wide support from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike, to allow the government to continue to borrow more money over the next year-and-a-half to meet its financial obligations, exceeding the current $31.4 trillion debt limit. The House approved the legislation on a 314-117 vote. Seventy-one lawmakers from the majority Republican party in the House voted against the bill, as did 46 Democrats. The U.S. Senate could vote as soon as today on a measure to suspend the government’s borrowing limit until early 2025 to avert a first-ever default when the United States in four days runs out of cash to pay its bills. The borrowing authority would extend to January 2, 2025, two months past next year’s presidential election. The legislation calls for maintaining most federal spending at the current level in the fiscal year starting in October, with a 1% increase in the following 12 months. Both Democratic Senate Majority Leader Schumer and McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, support suspension of the debt limit and are calling for swift passage of the legislation so it can be sent to President Biden for his signature. The measure does not raise taxes, nor will it stop the national debt total from continuing to increase, perhaps by another $3 trillion or more over the next year-and-a-half until the next expiration of the debt limit. Other pieces of the legislation include a reduction in the number of new agents hired by the country's tax collection agency, a requirement that states return $30 billion in unspent coronavirus pandemic assistance to the federal government and extending from 50 to 54 the upper age bracket for those required to work in order to receive food aid. (Source: VoANews)

1 June 2023  The president has suffered a series of near falls while in office, often while navigating stairs. White House blames a sandbag and insists commander-in-chief Biden, 80, wasn't injured when he fell again on stage. The fall came while Biden was handing diplomas to graduating Air Force Academy cadets in Colorado today. After his fall, the president walked away without help. He was helped up after falling during the graduation ceremony. It comes at the start of a presidential campaign where the White House is already fielding questions about why Biden has not been on the road more or held any formal campaing rallies. (Source: DailyMail)

1 June 2023  US News sources say Mr Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to be the next US President. As the situation in Ukraine remains volatile, the intentions and actions of former President Trump regarding financial and military support continue to be subjects of speculation. The quest for peace and the reduction of bloodshed appears to shape his approach, leaving room for potential shifts in strategy in the future. In an interview with Ferrari, Johnson, the former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, discussed the extent of former President Trump's commitment to providing financial and military support to Ukraine. Johnson suggested that Trump's focus is on achieving peace. "He wants to reduce the killing and the bloodshed. He said that over and over. And so I don't think he's going to commit to anything like that until he gets in." Ferrari inquired whether this means leaving President Zelenskyy to rely solely on other Western partners for support. Zelenskyy has forged close ties with many world leaders since the war in Ukraine began. The former diplomat said he though Trump would prioritise avoiding further bloodshed and the expenditure of US dollars. Stating, "I think that's his number one goal, is to reduce the bloodshed on both sides. And so he'll probably hold to that position until he decides to change it, whether as President or not." (Source: LeadingBritain'sConversation)

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2023. V. 31. Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Russia, China, North Korea, South China Sea, NATO, globalization

2023.05.31. 17:44 Eleve

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Europe

Bulgaria
31 May 2023 
Bulgaria has refused political asylum to Russian citizen Stotzky. He arrived in Bulgaria legally with a one-year visa but submitted documents for refugee status. Since he has been in Bulgaria, he has participated in protests against Russian aggression and made media appearances in which he declares himself against Putin’s actions. Last year, when considering other cases, the Bulgarian courts paid attention to the resolutions of the European Parliament regarding the intensifying repressions against civil society and human rights defenders in  Russia. On 29 May, the Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court refused to grant the individual refugee status. “There is no reason to assume that the official authorities in the Russian Federation are undertaking massive repression against citizens who express dissatisfaction with the president’s (Putin) policy,” the court said. In December 2022, the Russian citizen reported receiving a notice of mobilisation at his home address, which the Bulgarian authorities ignored. “His fears that upon returning to the country he will be persecuted for his different political views or be mobilised. These are only assumptions that are not supported by evidence,” the court decision said. “There is no persecution in Russia because of a different race, religion, nationality, belonging to a certain social group or because of political opinions or convictions,” the Bulgarian court said. Stotzky says that the Bulgarian court and the State Refugee Agency have ignored the fact that he received a call-up letter for the army. (Source: euractiv)

Finland
2023. máj. 31. Finland’s Defence Forces have suggested raising the age limit for military reservists to 65 as the parties set to form the new Finnish government continue with their negotiations. Finland’s NATO membership and the need to have more experienced personnel in the ranks domestically and abroad were cited as reasons for the proposal. Another reason cited was that people are now more physically capable the longer they live. Under current legislation, enlisted personnel remain in the reserves until 50 and officers until they turn 60. The Finnish Reservists’ Association, long in favour of raising the age limit, welcomed the Defence Forces’ proposal. Compared to the previous survey published three years ago, around 30% of people now believe aggression against their country to be possible, an increase of 15% from 2020. (Source: euractiv)

Germany
May 31 2023  The German government
will deploy additional police forces at the Polish border to crack down on increasing traffic from the Belarus route. Germany has been facing a new surge in irregular migrant crossings, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan by way of irregular migration at the Polish border. Authorities suspect much of the migration is being driven by the Belarusian and Russian governments to cause social disruption in European countries that support Ukraine. Already in 2021, Belarusian President Lukashenko opened his country’s borders to Poland for migrants to retaliate for EU sanctions after he crushed post-election protests. The situation at the Polish-Belarusian border has since remained tense. Migrants frequently stuck between the borders of Belarus and Poland, with neither of the two sides showing a willingness to admit the refugees. A similar case also made headlines on Monday, May 29, when Poland refused to take in refugees who were left stranded between the two countries. Regional governments in Germany’s border region have called for reintroducing continuous controls at fixed checkpoints. Stationary controls are already in place at the border between Germany and Austria. “We have by every definition a last-resort situation,” Saxony’s Interior Minister Schuster told. The police registered more than 8,000 illegal border crossings related to the migrant route from Belarus to Poland nine months before March, Welt reports. “We’re acting as is required by the current situation and hand in hand with our neighbours,” Interior Minister Faeser said after a visit to the joint centre for German-Polish Police and Customs Cooperation in Poland in  May 30. “Several police units” will be deployed to conduct mobile checks in the area. Faeser criticised Belarus for orchestrating a - "to some extent controlled" - migratory pressure. Faeser had previously called stationary controls “a last resort measure”. Yesterday, the interior minister reaffirmed her opposition to this step for their disruptive effect on everyday cross-border interactions. (Source: euractiv)

Russia
31 May 2023  The mothers going to get their children back from Russia.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russia's president in March, accusing him and his children's ombudswoman, Lvova-Belova, of the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. Russia insists that its motives are purely humanitarian, evacuating, saving children to protect them from danger. Senior officials scorn the ICC indictment, even threatening retaliatory arrests against its representatives. The Telegram channel of the children's ombudswoman is full of videos showing her escorting groups of Ukrainian children, where bewildered youngsters are greeted by Russian foster parents with gifts and hugs as the cameras roll. She adopted a teenager from Mariupol herself, posting pictures with his new Russian passport. Officials in Kyiv maintain that more than 19,000 children have been taken from occupied areas since the full-scale invasion. We understand that many have come from care homes and residential schools.    Sasha and Artem were among 13 children taken from their special educational needs school in Kupyansk, north-eastern Ukraine last September by armed Russian soldiers. Scrolling through the website of Perevalsk Special School, the photograph of Artem on public display was taken in February 2023, in a class to mark Defenders of the Fatherland Day. Ukrainian children were dressed in Russian military uniforms, and taught the Russian curriculum. The lesson was dedicated to learning "gratitude and respect" for Russian soldiers. Russian officials made minimal or zero effort to locate any relatives. Ukrainian children were frequently told there was nothing in their country to return to and were subjected, to varying degrees, to a "patriotic" Russian education. There is also a clear, overriding ideology: Russia, led by Putin, openly proclaims everything in occupied areas of Ukraine as its own, including the children. The 15-year-old Sasha even has grey hairs from all the stress. He and his mother, Tetyana're now are living in the western German town of Dinklage as refugees. Tetyana wants nothing more than to go home to her husband, but Kupyansk is under heavy fire again. Before the war, Sasha went to Kupyansk Special School. He would board during the week, returning home at weekends. When Russia invaded in February 2022, much of the Kharkiv region was overrun immediately and Tetyana kept her son home for safety. As September approached, the occupying administration, often using teachers from Russia to replace those locals who refused to collaborate, began insisting that all children return to school, now with the Russian curriculum. The teenager was bored stiff after seven months in their village, so on 3 September she dropped him off in Kupyansk. Days later, Ukrainian forces launched their operation to re-take the region. The armed Russian soldiers didn't care about taking any documents or contacting parents, they just shoved the kids in a bus with some refugees and left. Russia's defence in such cases: that it was removing children from danger. Tetyana went six weeks not knowing what had become of her son when a friend spotted a video on social media, dated early September 2022. It reported that 13 children from Kupyansk Special School had been moved east to a similar facility in Svatove, still under Russian control. Another fortnight after that, Tetyana's phone beeped with a message: Sasha was at a Special School in Perevalsk, she read, and his mum could call to talk to him. Communication with areas of heavy fighting is not easy. There Kupyansk children passed through three institutions before anyone tried to reach any relatives. Tetyana would have to return Sasha home in person, but the direct route crossed the frontline. Instead, Tetyana travelled from Ukraine through Poland and the Baltics before crossing on foot into Russia, where the FSB Security Service then interrogated her about Ukrainian troop movements. She had another reason to be frightened. By then, Russia has changed its laws to make it easier to get Russian citizenship and to adopt Ukrainian children. In late September Putin announced the annexation of four regions of Ukraine, including Luhansk where Sasha was then located. When Tetyana finally reached Perevalsk, after an exhausting five days on the road, she hugged her son who was crying from happiness.    Kherson city, in southern Ukraine had been occupied since the very start of the invasion. When Alla packed her 13-year-old son off to camp in Crimea, she thought Danylo was heading for two weeks by the sea. It was meant to be a break from the stress of war: other kids from Kherson had been to camp and come back, so Alla wasn't worried. But days after Alla waved Danylo off, the officials responsible for him announced that the children would not return. The Russians had begun retreating from Kherson. If the children's parents wanted them back, they were told they should come for them. They talked of being taken on excursions at the start, and being reasonably fed and clothed. On Russian-controlled territory they were treated and taught as Russians. When inspectors visited from Moscow, the Ukrainians had to line up beside the Russian flag and sing the Russian anthem. Alla pleaded with the regional administration but was told they would only return the children "when Kherson is Russian again." She called the Prosecutor's Office in Crimea, but they insisted she had to get Danylo herself. And so for weeks, Alla reassured her son that she was coming for him even as she tried to work out how. The distance from Kherson to Yevpatoria is short but the direct route was closed by the Russian military and a far longer route through Zaporizhzhia was too dangerous. "There was a less than 5% chance of getting there and back safely," Alla was told. She would also need around $1,500 for a driver, as well as her first ever passport and all the paperwork the Russians were demanding to prove her link to her son. Alla was already starting to despair when Danylo said officials at his camp were threatening to place the children in care if their parents didn't hurry. She finally set off in a train carriage full of other mums and grandmothers on the most anxious journey of their lives. The women were being helped by a group called Save Ukraine. Some were from broken homes or struggling with the logistics and funding for the trip. Other parents had been hesitant about returning their children to cities under heavy Russian fire. Save Ukraine had instructed the women to turn off their phones when they entered Russia. 'They kept us like cattle, separate from anyone else. Fourteen hours with no water, no food, nothing," Alla described being held by Russia's FSB security service at a Moscow airport. "They kept asking us what military equipment we had seen, they checked our phones a million times and asked about all our relatives." The women continued the 24-hour drive south to Crimea. "The moment I saw my child running towards me in tears, it made up for everything we'd been through," Alla described her reunion, at last, with Danylo. Over a week later, Alla was one of the last to cross the border back from Belarus, dragging a big suitcase into Ukraine past concrete boulders and anti-tank defences. Danylo, with his dimpled grin, was finally safe beside her. She admits there was some bad feeling towards the summer-camp mums at the start, seen as 'collaborators' for sending their children to Russian-run facilities in the first place. But Alla feels that has faded. Danylo is still in a group chat with the other children from camp and most who remained have now been collected. But he says five were transferred to a care home somewhere in Russia. (Source: BBC)

May 31, 2023  Drones attacked two Russian oil refineries near major oil port Novorossiisk in southern Russia today, sparking a fire at one and causing no damage to the other, according to Russian officials. Russia has accused Ukraine of increased attacks on targets inside the country. At around 0100 GMT a drone struck the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region, causing a fire which was later extinguished, Governor Kondratyev said. Another drone crashed into the Ilsky refinery, which lies around 40 miles east of Novorossiisk. The Afipsky refinery lies 50 miles east of the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, one of Russia's most important oil export gateways. The plant can process around 6 million tonnes (44 million barrels) of oil each year. Novorossiisk, together with the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal, bring about 1.5% of global oil to market. Last year, CPC exported via the South Ozereyevka terminal 58.7 million tonnes of oil, mainly from Kazakhstan, while the terminal of Sheskharis at Novorossiisk handled about 30 million tonnes of oil. According to the Ilsky refinery's web site, its five processing units have the combined capacity of 3 million tonnes per year. Refineries across Russia have been frequently attacked by drones following the start of what the Kremlin casts as the "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022. (Source: Reuters)

31 May ,2023  Five people were killed and 19 wounded in Ukrainian shelling of a village in the Russian-controlled region of Luhansk. Ukrainian forces had used HIMARS rocket launchers to attack a poultry farm in the village of Karpaty. (Source: Alarabiya)

Wed, May 31, 2023  "The last warship of the Ukrainian navy, the Yuriy Olefirenko, was destroyed at a warship mooring in the port of Odesa," Defence Ministry Spokesman Konashenkov said. He said the vessel had been hit with "high-precision weapons" - a phrase he uses to mean missiles - on May 29. Ukrainian officials said on Monday that Russia had put five aircraft out of action in an attack on a military target in western Ukraine and caused a fire at the Black Sea port of Odesa in heavy air strikes early on Monday. The Russian defence ministry also said today that its forces had pushed Ukrainian units out of positions around the settlements of Krasnohorivka and Yasynuvata in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow claims to have annexed. The ministry said "fierce fighting" was continuing around Avdiivka, a town located between the two settlements, which has been largely razed to the ground during months of fighting. (Source: Yahoo)

31 May 2023  The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has again criticised the Russian military and political elite following the drone attack on Moscow that injured two people, damaged property. In an expletive-drenched statement posted on Telegram by his press service yesterday, Prigozhin blamed the drone attack on out-of-touch officials living in Moscow’s western affluent suburbs of Rublyovka. Russian military blogger Girkin – whom a Dutch court found guilty of the murder of 298 people who were killed when flight MH17 was shot down over Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine in 2014 – also criticised Rublyovka residents yesterday who, he said, had “never thought about the country”. In a post on Telegram after the attack yesterday, Khinshtein, a prominent member of Russia’s parliament from the ruling United Russia bloc, said three of the eight drones had been downed over three Rublyovka villages, one of which is located just 10 minutes drive from Russian President Putin’s residence at Novo-Ogaryovo. Rublyovka, a patchwork of elite gated communities in the forests west of Moscow, which once boasted some of the world’s highest real-estate prices, is home to much of Russia’s political, business and cultural elite. Former President Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin have been reported to own homes in Rublyovka, alongside many of Russia’s richest business figures. Following the drone attacks, Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the Russian province of Chechnya, urged the Kremlin to declare martial law nationwide and use all its resources in Ukraine “to sweep away that terrorist gang”. Some Kremlin watchers noted that Putin’s calm reaction to the drone attack contrasted starkly with angry statements from Russian hawks and appears to reflect his belief that the Russian public will not be unsettled by the attack. Putin said it was clear that Moscow’s air defences need to be improved against what he described as Ukrainian “terrorism”. (Source: AlJazeera)

May 31, 2023  Washington is encouraging Kyiv by publicly ignoring the drone attack that struck several districts of Moscow yesterday, Russia's envoy to the United States said today. The attack on Moscow came after Russia launched three air assaults within a day on Kyiv and 17 in May so far, killing, sowing destruction and fear. The White House said it did not support attacks inside of Russia and that it was still gathering information on the incident. Russia has long accused the "collective West" of staging a proxy war against Moscow by supporting Ukraine with military and financial aid. Putin yesterday cast the assault, which brought the 15-month war in Ukraine to the heart of Russia, as a terrorist act. Moscow calls the war a "special military operation" to "denazify" Ukraine and protect Russian speakers. Kyiv and its allies say it is an unprovoked land grab. A Ukrainian presidential aide denied Kyiv was directly involved in the drone attack on Moscow, but said Ukraine was enjoying watching events and forecast more to come. (Source: Reuters)

May 31, 2023  A woman who accused Biden of sexual assault has turned up in Moscow, announcing plans to seek Russian citizenship. “I just didn’t want to walk home and walk into a cage or be killed, which is basically my two choices,' Reade suggested in a statement published on Kremlin-owned Sputnik overnight. She is also receiving the help of a woman convicted of spying for Russia. Butina had sought to infiltrate conservative US political groups and promote Russia’s agenda without registering as a foreign agent. Butina pleaded guilty in the US to acting as an agent for Russia in 2018. She was jailed for 18 months. After being released from jail in 2019, she was deported back to Russia. Butina, who appeared with Reade, has pledged to “discuss the possibility of granting Russian citizenship” to Reade, and ask Russian President Putin to “fast track” her citizenship application. Sputnik reported Butina’s current role as a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs. Reade, who had once served on Biden’s Senate staff, filed a complaint against the then-presidential candidate in April 2020, accusing him of sexual assault in 1993. In 2020, Reade told media interviewers she complained in 1993 about sexual harassment, though not sexual assault, to three of Biden’s Senate aides. (Source: WAToday)

Asia

China
Wed, May 31, 2023  The ruling Communist Party hardens efforts
to counter any perceived internal and external threats. Beijing faces a host of challenges, from a struggling economy to what it sees as an increasingly hostile international environment. “The complexity and difficulty of the national security issues we now face have increased significantly,' Chinese leader Xi, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party said yesterday at a meeting of the party’s National Security Commission. 'We must adhere to bottom-line thinking and worst-case-scenario thinking, and get ready to undergo the major tests of high winds and rough waves, and even perilous, stormy seas,” he added. In face of what he called a 'complex and grave' situation, Xi said China must speed up the modernization of its national security system and capabilities, with a focus on making them more effective in 'actual combat and practical use.' He also called for China to push ahead with the construction of a national security risk monitoring and early warning system, enhance national security education and improve the management of data and artificial intelligence security. Since coming to power a decade ago, Xi has expanded the concept of national security to cover everything from politics, economy, defense, culture and ecology to cyberspace - it extends from the deep sea and the polar regions to space, as well as big data and artificial intelligence. China has introduced a raft of legislation to protect itself against perceived threats, including laws on counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, cybersecurity, foreign non-government organizations, national intelligence and data security. Most recently, it broadened the scope of its already sweeping counter-espionage law from covering state secrets and intelligence to any “documents, data, materials or items related to national security and interests.' The perception that security has replaced economic growth as Beijing’s top priority is compounded by multiple recent raids on foreign companies, including American consultancy Bain & Company and due diligence firm Mintz Group. At a time when the Chinese government is trying to woo foreign investment to help revive a slowing economy hampered by three  years of zero-Covid restrictions, the raids have spooked international businesses. (Source: Yahoo)

May 31, 2023  Musk hailed as "Brother Ma' during a trip to China, where he's been lavished with a 16-course meal and treated like a king. He is making his first trip to China in three years. The nation heaped praise on the billionaire, holding him in the same high esteem as business magnate Ma. Musk's views on electric vehicles and artificial intelligence are of particular interest. He arrived in Beijing by private jet yesterday. Since arriving, Musk has been greeted by top ministers from the Chinese government's foreign, commerce, and industry departments, with social-media users labeling him a 'global idol."  Musk has made China a critical part of Tesla operations in recent years, seeing a big opportunity to sell electric vehicles to Chinese consumers. However, Tesla is facing increased pressure in China from growing domestic competition. The visit to China by Musk comes at a low point in US relations with China, as tensions over Taiwan and Xi's stance over Russia's invasion of Ukraine are threatening to boil over. The billionaire, who has previously called himself a "free-speech absolutist," has not commented publicly about his trip to the country. Twitter is blocked in China. (Source: BusinessInsider)

North Korea
May 31, 2023  Wailing air raid sirens and mobile phone alerts calling for rare evacuations rattled residents of the South Korean capital, Seoul, the densely populated city of 9 million early today, at 6.32am after North Korea launched what it said was a satellite. The North launched the rocket - a purported space-launch vehicle - towards the South, prompting emergency alerts and evacuation warnings in parts of South Korea and Japan. The rocket was launched from North Korea’s north-western Tongchang-ri area, where the country’s main space-launch centre is located. Seoul issued a “Presidential Alert” asking citizens to prepare for potential evacuation. Then came a second mobile alert minutes later calling for an actual evacuation, which remained in place for at least 10 minutes until the city said it was a false alarm sent in error. Residents of Seoul are used to living in the shadow of threats from their nuclear-armed neighbour. The two countries are still technically at war seven decades after the Korean War ended in an armistice. In a statement published on state media North Korea said today that it attempt to launch the country’s first spy satellite had failed. The Kim regime said a rocket carrying the spy satellite crashed into waters off the Korean Peninsula’s western coast after it lost thrust following the separation of its first and second stages. The Japanese government activated a missile warning system for its Okinawa prefecture in south-western Japan, believed to be in the path of the rocket. Ri, a top North Korean official and close associate of leader Kim, had said a day earlier that the North would launch a spy satellite in June. A satellite launch by North Korea is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that ban the country from using ballistic technology because it’s regarded as a cover for missile tests. (Source: TheSydneyMorningHerald)

South China Sea
May 31, 2023  The US is looking to arrange high-profile visits to China by senior officials to reengage with Beijing on substantive issues but yesterday the Pentagon said China had rejected a proposal for Defence Secretary Austin to meet with his Chinese counterpart Li at the Shangri-La Dialogue Security Forum in Singapore this week. A Chinese fighter jet conducted an "unnecessarily aggressive manoeuvre" during an intercept of a US spy plane in international airspace over the South China Sea on May 26, the US military said today. The Chinese J-16 fighter cut directly in front of the nose of the US RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft, forcing it to fly through the wake turbulence of the intercepting aircraft. The RC-135 was conducting 'safe and routine operations' in international airspace, US Indo-Pacific Command said. A Chinese Navy J-11 fighter jet intercepted another RC-135 Rivet Joint over the South China Sea in late December in what the US called an "unsafe manoeuvre.' The Chinese fighter came within six metres of the nose of the US spy plane, forcing the larger, heavier US aircraft to take evasive manoeuvres, US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) said at the time. Over the past several years, the South China Sea has emerged as a major potential flashpoint in the Asia Pacific. China claims historic jurisdiction over almost the entirety of the vast sea, and since 2014 has built up tiny reefs and sandbars into artificial islands heavily fortified with missiles, runways and weapons systems - sparking outcry from the other claimants. (Source: 9News) 

NATO

31 May 2023  NATO aircraft and troops are participating in arctic military exercises. Finland is hosting its first joint training since becoming part of the Western alliance in April. Nearly 1,000 allied forces from Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States - as well as NATO applicant Sweden - joined approximately 6,500 Finnish troops and some 1,000 vehicles for exercises this week. Finland formally joined NATO on April 4. Sweden has been what NATO describes as an “official invitee” since 2022, which allows attendance at meetings and the coordinating of  activities with other NATO allies. Sweden hopes to be a NATO member by the time of the alliance’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania in July 11-12. Full membership will take place once all NATO allies have ratified Sweden’s accession application. Turkish President Erdogan says Sweden has not yet met all of his country’s demands on securing his support for membership, particularly because of what he sees as Sweden providing safe haven to members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, both of which Ankara considers 'terrorists'. Overseeing NATO exercises just a two-hour drive from the Russian border at one of Europe’s largest artillery training grounds in Rovajarvi, northern Finland, US Army Major-General Anderson from the 10th Mountain Division said his country stood ready to defend Finland. Some 150 aircraft from 14 NATO members and partner countries are also participating in Arctic Challenge 2023 exercises. (Source: AlJazeera)

Globalization

31 May 2023  While current AI has yet to achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), potentially allowing it to make independent decisions, researchers at Microsoft in March said that GPT-4 showed “sparks of AGI” and was capable of solving 'novel and difficult tasks that span mathematics, coding, vision, medicine, law, psychology and more, without needing any special prompting'. Since then, warnings about the potential dangers of AI have grown. Last month, Hinton, a renowned computer scientist, quit his job at Google so he could spend more time advocating about the risks of AI. In an appearance before the United States Congress earlier this month, chief executive of OpenAI, Altman called on legislators to quickly develop regulations for AI technology and recommended a licensing-based approach. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” a group of AI experts and other high-profile figures said in a brief statement released by the Center for AI Safety, a San Francisco-based research and advocacy group, yesterday. The signatories include technology experts such as Altman, Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI”, and Tang, Taiwan’s digital minister, as well as other notable figures including the neuroscientist Harris and the musician Grimes. The warning follows an open letter signed by Musk and other high-profile figures in March that called for a six-month pause on the development of AI more advanced than OpenAI’s GPT-4. “Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable,' the letter said. The rapid advancement of AI has raised concerns about potential negative consequences for society ranging from mass job losses and copyright infringement to the spread of misinformation 'and political instability'. Some experts have raised fears that humanity could one day lose control of the technology. (Source: AlJazeera)

May 31 2023  Earlier this month OpenAI CEO Altman testified at Congress saying AI could "cause significant harm to the world" by spreading disinformation and emotionally manipulating humans. Despite the incredible leaps in capabilities that "generative" chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Bing and Google's Bard have demonstrated in the last six months, they still have a major fatal flaw: They make stuff up all the time - the "hallucinations." "Hallucinations' are both a feature and a bug of large language models. 'Hallucinations' have now become a key focus for the AI community. When Microsoft launched its Bing chatbot, it quickly started making false accusations against some of its users, like telling a German college student that he was a threat to its safety. The bot adopted an alter-ego and started calling itself "Sydney." It was essentially riffing off the student's questions, drawing on all the science fiction it had digested from the internet about out-of-control robots. Microsoft eventually had to limit the number of back-and-forths a bot could engage in with a human to avoid it from happening more.In Australia, a government official threatened to sue OpenAI after ChatGPT said he had been convicted of bribery, when in reality he was a whistleblower in a bribery case. And last week a lawyer admitted to using ChatGPT to generate a legal brief after he was caught because the cases cited so confidently by the bot simply did not exist. 'Hallucinations' have also been documented in AI-powered transcription services, adding words to recordings that weren't spoken in real life. Microsoft and Google using the bots to answer search queries directly instead of sending traffic to blogs and news stories could erode the business model of online publishers and content creators who work to produce trustworthy information for the internet. Hallucinations are part of what allows the bots to be creative and generate never-before-seen stories when they do not have an internalised understanding of the world around them. The issue is mentioned in dozens of academic papers posted to the online database Arxiv and Big Tech CEOs like Google's Pichai have addressed it repeatedly. As the tech gets integrated into critical fields including medicine and law, understanding hallucinations and finding ways to mitigate them has become even more crucial. The most apt thing to say is based on the huge amounts of data they've digested from the internet, but don't have a way to understand what is factual or not. The model itself also trains on a set amount of data, so anything that happens after the training is done doesn't factor into its knowledge of the world. Clever ways to decrease the rates of false answers: A popular approach is to connect chatbots up to databases of factual or more trustworthy information, such as Wikipedia, Google search or bespoke collections of academic articles or business documents. Some firms are using human trainers to rewrite the bots' answers and feed them back into the machine with the goal of making them smarter. When Google generates search results using its chatbot technology, it also runs a regular search in parallel, then compares whether the bot's answer and the traditional search results match. If they don't, the AI answer won't even show up. The company has tweaked its bot to be less creative, meaning it's not very good at writing poems or having interesting conversations, but is less likely to lie. Manakul and a group of other Cambridge researchers released a paper in March suggesting a system they called "SelfCheckGPT" that would ask the same bot a question multiple times, then tell it to compare the different answers. If the answers were consistent,  it was likely the facts were correct, but if they were different, they could be flagged as probably containing made-up information. Researchers proposed using different chatbots to produce multiple answers to the same question and then letting them debate each other until one answer won out. This "society of minds" method made them more factual. "Language models are trained to predict the next word," said Du, a researcher at MIT. "They are not trained to tell people they don't know what they're doing," Du, who was previously a research fellow at OpenAI, and one of the authors of a paper released by a team of MIT researchers last week, said. (Source: Stuff)

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2023. V. 1. Hungary, France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Vatican, Syria, United States

2023.05.01. 20:52 Eleve

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Europe

Hungary
01 May 2023  At the conclusion of Pope Francis’ 41st Apostolic Journey abroad,
the Primate of Hungry said the “people felt the Holy Father’s warmth and responded to it, and that the Holy Father, amid these troubling times, truly came as a pilgrim of peace and man of faith." Cardinal Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, reflects on Pope Francis' Apostolic Journey to Hungary, and says the Pope brought the faithful a sense of immense joy and a call to work for peace. "I have the feeling that the Holy Father came here first of all with great love, specifically love for us,” according to him. "The visit of Pope Francis was a special joy for the Hungarian Catholic community in particular, but I believe also for the whole nation," said Cardinal Erdő. “It is not some international event or other purpose that has brought him here, but specifically pastoral love; that he wanted to visit us,” he said, noting, “This is a great encouragement for us.” “When we went to St. Stephen's Basilica, the city was full of people. Not only in the square in front of the basilica, but also along the streets, crowds were greeting him," he said, adding that the Pope expressed great affection for those whom he met. Pope Francis frequently stopped his popemobile - or papal golf cart - to shake hands with the faithful and to show his affection for babies and young children. "It was really a great, loving relationship with the faithful community," he said. “There were numerous ecumenical guests, representatives of social life, many of whom were not Catholics or non-believers," he said, “who were overjoyed to receive the Holy Father, because they saw that this journey is for us,” he said. “Through the person of the Pope we experience that Christ is coming to us - and that is a very great thing," said the Cardinal. "Jesus comes in every Mass. We see Him in the poor person. And yet, when the Pope comes, we are emotionally affected by this reality." In his Regina Coeli address at the end of Mass on Sunday, Pope Francis offered Hungary and Europe to the protection of the Virgin Mary and prayed for peace. "It was especially beautiful at the end of the Mass," said the Cardinal, "because we know that it was he who last year called on the bishops of the world to consecrate Ukraine and Russia to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And we Hungarians have a very old tradition of this, because it was Saint Stephen who, according to historical tradition, dedicated the whole country, the whole nation, to the Virgin Mary." A statue of St Stephen, he recalled, still stands in Fatima in memory of that historic event. "We made this gesture last year, and the faithful - Eastern and Western Christians - have come to understand that here we are truly entrusting this situation to Divine Providence and the intercessory love of the Virgin Mary, which we cannot resolve by human power alone," said the Cardinal. He recalled that Pope Francis prayed before the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the end of Mass on Sunday. "This is the icon which, according to historical tradition, found its way to the Bakócz Chapel when the city of Esztergom was liberated from the Turks, and this old icon was found under the ruins of the basilica," he said. “They displayed and prayed before it, and many of them thanked the Virgin Mary." The Cardinal concluded the interview by reflection on a few highlights of the Apostolic Visit. "Great encouragement was felt by bishops, priests, deacons, religious, teachers of the faith, and all those actively involved in the life of the Church, as well as by the poor, the disabled, the blind children, the homeless, and of course, refugees, and those who care for refugees," he said. The Hungarian faithful will never forget the unforgettable testimony offered by a refugee family in St. Elizabeth's Church, the Pope's reverent and moving visit to the Greek Catholic Community, and the contagious joy and peaceful and prayerful atmosphere of the Holy Mass in 'Parliament Square" on Sunday morning, Cardinal Erdő said. (Source: VaticanNews)

France
1 May 2023  Protestors and police clashed during demonstrations over the French governments plans over pension as groups of extremists allegedly caused chaos in Paris, France. Bank windows and bus stops were smashed, bicycles were torched and cops were also hit by objects after Mr Macron raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 last month. Around a million marched across France as part of the protest with 500,000 pouring onto the streets of Paris. The General Confederation of Labour (France) claim the figure is much higher with 2.3m demonstrators across the country. French union members were joined by labour activists from other countries, environmental activists and other groups fighting for economic justice, or just expressing anger at Macron. Activists are also opposed to the 2024 Paris Olympics and their impact on society and the environment also demonstrated. Clashes with police were also reported in Lyon and Nantes. Around 108 police officers were reportedly injured across France, including 20 in Paris. French police deployed drones exceptionally to film unrest, a move that has raised concerns among privacy defenders and activist groups. (Source: DailyStar)

Germany
May 01, 2023  In spring 2022, Germany had expelled some 40 Russian diplomats who Berlin believed to represent a threat to its security. Last October, the head of German's cybersecurity agency, Schoenbohm, was fired after news reports revealed his proximity to a cybersecurity consultancy believed to have contacts with Russian intelligence services. A month later, a German reserve officer received a suspended prison sentence of a year and nine months for spying for Russia. Germany expelled Russian diplomats mid-April in order "to reduce the presence of intelligence services" in the country, the government said today. The Foreign Ministry had been in contact with Russia in recent weeks about the matter. The departure of the diplomats triggered the expulsion of some 20 German embassy staff in Moscow. They left Moscow today. (Source: VoANews)

Russia
01.05.2023  A freight train derailed
in the western Russian region of Bryansk, around 60 kilometers north of Russia's border with Ukraine, after an "explosive device" detonated on the rail tracks, local governor Bogomaz said on Telegram, adding there were "no casualties." The incident occurred at 10:17 Moscow time (0717 GMT). The locomotive and seven freight wagons were derailed and the locomotive caught fire. The governor of Russia's Leningrad region near St. Petersburg said a power line had been blown up overnight and an explosive device found near a second line. (Source: DW)

May 01, 2023   Imagery shows that Russia “has made a particular effort” to strengthen the northern border of occupied Crimea, “including with a multi-layered defensive zone near the village of Medvedevka,” the British Defense Ministry posted on Twitter today. In addition, Russia has dug “hundreds of miles of trenches well inside internationally recognized Russian territory, including in the Belgorod and Kursk regions.” (Source: VoA)

May 01, 2023  'More than 19,000 children from Russian-occupied territories have been subjected to forced deportations to Russia', according to Children of War, a Ukrainian national database. Ukraine has retrieved 364 of them. Earlier this month at a Moscow news conference, Lvova-Belova, the Russian official 'overseeing the deportations of Ukrainian children' to Russia was saying her commission acted on humanitarian grounds to protect the interests of children in an area where military action was taking place. (Source: VoA)

May 1, 2023  Russia's defence ministry said today its forces had carried out missile strikes overnight against Ukrainian military sites, including weapons depots and ammunition factories, and that all its designated targets had been hit. "The work of enterprises making ammunition, weapons and military equipment for Ukrainian troops has been disrupted," it said. Ukraine said 15 of 18 cruise missiles launched by Russia were successfully shot down, shielding the capital Kyiv and other major cities. The air strikes - the second such wave in three days - had caused a fire in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, a railway hub behind the southern and eastern fronts, wounding at least 34 people and damaging dozens of homes. (Source: Reuters)

Ukraine
May 1, 2023  Thousands of fighters from across the post-Soviet world
have come to Ukraine’s aid since the Russian invasion. Foreigners from Chechnya and former Soviet republics Belarus and Georgia say their countries will never enjoy freedom or democracy unless Russia is defeated in Ukraine. And so Ukraine’s war is their war. Cmdr. Mamuka “Ushangi” Mamulashvili heads the Georgian Legion of Ukraine. He has some 1,800 men under his command, 65% of them battle-hardened Georgians. “The guys are very experienced,” he says. 'They were prepared by NATO instructors. They can use NATO equipment. They can use post-Soviet equipment, and that makes them effective.' Moscow invaded Georgia in 2008, capturing Abkhazia and South Ossetia in an operation that foreshadowed the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 'Ukrainian volunteers also fought in Georgia against Russia in 2008'. The Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment (named for a Polish-Belarusian 19th-century revolutionary) was formed in March 2022 and is made up entirely of Belarusian opposition volunteers. The Belarusian regiment is less experienced in warfare than its Georgian counterpart. The Belarusian government’s close ties with Moscow complicate Belarusian volunteers’ efforts to join the fight in Ukraine. On the one hand, President Lukashenko’s security forces seek to track down potential combatants; on the other, Ukrainian security forces are suspicious of  would-be fighters. They found three people who were agents of the Belarusian KGB. The Chechens fighting with Ukrainian forces are in a particularly unusual position. Those continuing the battle against Russia alongside Ukrainian troops in the Dzhokhar Dudayev Chechen Peacekeeping Battalion find themselves up against other Chechen troops, loyal to Chechen strongman and close Putin ally Kadyrov. Both sides hate each other and see each other as traitors who betrayed the idea of the nation. Chechens who come to Ukraine get screened by security services. For young Chechens, the war in Ukraine offers an opportunity to gain the kind of military experience their elders earned in the two Chechen wars against Moscow, or more recently in Iraq and Syria, where  some Chechens fought with radical Islamist groups. (Source: TheChristianScienceMonitor)

Vatican
May 01, 2023  The Holy See has a project underway related to peace between Russia and Ukraine. "There is a mission underway that is not public yet; when it is public, I will tell you about it," Pope Francis told reporters traveling with him from Budapest, Hungary, back to Rome on his two-hour flight April 30. Pope Francis spent about 20 minutes answering five questions from reporters traveling with him. Asked if he had discussions in Budapest with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and with Russia Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary about peace in Ukraine or sought contacts with Moscow during his meetings with them, the pope responded that "peace is made by opening channels. You cannot create peace with closure. I invite everyone to open doors, channels of friendship." As for his conversation with Metropolitan Hilarion, the pope said, "well, we weren't talking about Little Red Riding Hood." "I am willing to do anything that must be done" to promote peace, he said. He also said discussions already were underway with Indigenous communities in Canada for the repatriation of cultural artifacts held in the Vatican Museums. What can be returned to its rightful owners should be, the pope said. "This is good for everyone, so no one gets used to putting their hands in someone else's pocket." Other topics included his health and his travel plans. Pope Francis said that when he got sick in late March, he did not lose consciousness, as some media reported, but he was in such pain that he skipped lunch and went to take a nap. He spent three  nights March 29-April 1 in Rome's Gemelli hospital. "It was a strong case of pneumonia in the lower part of the lungs," he said. The day before the trip to Hungary, Pope Francis said, he had seen his doctor, "who came to look at things a bit," and they spoke about his travel plans, which include Lisbon, Portugal, in early August for World Youth Day. "Then there is the trip to Marseille (France), a trip to Mongolia and there's another one that I don't remember." During the inflight news conference, Pope Francis refused to criticize Orbán directly on migration even though the prime minister has enacted a tough "no migrants" policy and built fences along Hungary's borders with Serbia and Croatia. Asked about Hungary's policy, Pope Francis insisted - as he has before - that the European Union must act. Currently, he said, only five countries - Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Malta - are bearing a disproportionate burden in taking in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing poverty and civil strife. After Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal met Pope Francis at the Vatican April 27, the prime minister told reporters he had asked for the Vatican's help in returning to Ukraine children taken by force to Russia. Asked on the plane if he thought the Vatican could help, Pope Francis responded, "I think so because the Holy See has been a go-between in some of the prisoner exchanges" between Russia and Ukraine. "The Holy See is willing to try because it's the right thing and we have to help," the pope said. He explained it's not about helping with the war effort, but with a humanitarian cause. "All humanitarian gestures help," he said. "Gestures of cruelty do not." (Source: UnionofCatholicAsianNews)

Asia

Syria
Monday 01/05/2023  Turkish President
Erdogan said Sunday that Turkish intelligence forces killed islamic state (isis) leader al-Quraishi in Syria. “This individual was neutralised as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organisation in Syria yesterday,” Erdogan said in an interview. In some cases, senior isis figures have been targeted while hiding out in areas where Turkey has major influence. Syrian local and security sources said the raid took place in the northern Syrian town of Jandaris, which is controlled by Turkey-backed rebel groups and was one of the worst-affected in the February 6 earthquake that hit both Turkey and Syria. Isis selected al-Quraishi as its leader in November 2022 after the previous isis leader was killed in a US operation in southern Syria. The isis' remaining thousands of extremist fighters have in recent years mostly hid out in remote hinterlands of Syria and Iraq, though they are still capable of carrying out major hit-and-run attacks. The US-led coalition alongside a Kurdish-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is still carrying out raids against is officials in Syria. (Source: TheArabWeekly)

North America

United States
May 1, 2023  More than 20,000 Russian troops have died and another 80,000 were wounded in five months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, particularly in Bakhmut, White House official National Security Council spokesman Kirby said today. Citing newly declassified US intelligence, he said that about half of those killed were soldiers recruited by the private military company Wagner. Kirby said he was not giving estimates of Ukrainian casualties. The White House will not put “information in the public domain that makes it any harder” for the 'close Western ally', whose army is being armed and trained by a US-led coalition of countries, he said. (Source: TheDefensePost)

May 01, 2023  The First Republic Bank was closed by regulators today in the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.  It was seized by California regulators and sold to JPMorgan Chase, which will assume responsibility for all deposits and assets. Depositors with First Republic Bank will have their accounts switched over to JPMorgan Chase and can still access their money. This is the third central bank failure of 2023, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. (Source: macon)

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2023. IV. 30. Magyarország. Látogatása harmadik napján, Ferenc pápa szentmiséje Budapesten, a Kossuth Lajos téren

2023.05.01. 00:21 Eleve

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Ferenc pápa szentmiséje Budapesten

(Forrás: YouTube / EWTN):

https://tinyurl.com/33nrekjc

*****

Pope Francis in Hungary

Homily of His Holiness

Kossuth Lajos' Square (Budapest)
Sunday, 30 April 2023

// AR - DE - EN - ES - FR - IT - PL - PT //

(Source: Vatican):

https://tinyurl.com/2s3zw68s

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Címkék: video tavasz magyarország hungary duna ének építészet fák vatican

2023. IV. 28. Magyarország. Látogatása első napján, Ferenc pápa Budapesten

2023.04.28. 18:20 Eleve

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Novák elnök asszony köszönti a vendéget, majd Ferenc pápa beszéde

(videón, olasz nyelvű beszéd szövegének magyar nyelvű tolmácsolásával)

(Forrás: Híradó):

https://tinyurl.com/m76nuu7d

Kulcsszavak:      II. Guerra Mondiale    II. Világháború    Alaptörvény     comunista     Danubio     Duna     ENSZ    Europa     Európa     híd     Hungría     Impero Romano     Kárpátalja     kommunista     kommunizmus     Legge Fondamentale     Libano     Libanon     Magyarország     Monarchia Austro-Ungarica     ONU     Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia     Pannonia    Pannónia    ponte     Római Birodalom     Siria     Szíria     Ucraina     Ukrajna     Vatikán     video     virág

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2023. IV. 1. Magyarország, Ukraine, China, United States, the International Monetary Found, United Nations

2023.04.01. 23:49 Eleve

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Európa    Europe

Magyarország
2023. április 1. Az Országgyűlés 5/2023. (III. 31.) OGY határozatának szövege:     "Az orosz-ukrán háború egyéves évfordulójáról. Egy éve zajlik a háború Oroszország és Ukrajna között, és nincs jele annak, hogy rövid időn belül véget érne. A következmények drámaiak: a háború már eddig is több százezer emberéletet követelhetett és az elmúlt évek legnagyobb európai humanitárius válságát okozta. Európa a háborúba sodródás napjait éli. Az Európai Parlament további fegyverszállításokat követel. Vadászgépeket, helikoptereket, rakétarendszereket, harckocsikat és még több lőszert küldenének a hadszíntérre. A tagállamok egy része már el is kötelezte magát a további fegyverszállítások mellett. Ezek a lépések világháborúhoz vezethetnek. Mindezekre és a 2022. évi áprilisi választás egyértelmű üzenetére tekintettel az Országgyűlés az alábbi megállapításokat teszi:    1. Kifejezzük elkötelezettségünket a béke mellett. Azt várjuk el a nemzetközi közösség minden tagjától, hogy a mielőbbi béke érdekében lépjenek fel, és kerüljék azokat a lépéseket, amelyek a háború kiterjedésével járnak.    2. Ismételten elítéljük Oroszország katonai agresszióját, és elismerjük Ukrajna jogát az önvédelemhez.    3. Álláspontunk szerint a Brüsszelben elfogadott gazdasági szankciók nem csillapították a háborút, és az orosz gazdaságot sem kényszerítették térdre, sőt a szankciók eredményezte magas energiaárak megfizetésével Oroszország háborúját finanszírozza Európa. Az energetikai szankciók egekbe lökték az energiaárakat, gazdasági károkat és tomboló inflációt okoztak minden uniós tagországban. Nincs olyan család, amely ne érezné a szankciós infláció terheit.    4. Ellenezzük azokat a brüsszeli terveket, amelyek tovább szélesítenék az energetikai szankciók körét. A gáz- és olajimport teljes befagyasztása, a nukleáris fűtőelemek behozatali tilalma jelentős ellátásbiztonsági zavarokat és még nagyobb inflációt okoznának számos tagországban, így Magyarországon is. Elvárjuk a brüsszeli döntéshozóktól, hogy ne hozzanak olyan döntéseket, amelyek gazdasági kárai nagyobbak, mint nehezen jósolható előnyei. Elfogadhatatlan, hogy Európa, és benne Magyarország legyen a háború fő gazdasági teherviselője.    5. Magyarország a háború kirobbanása óta történetének legnagyobb humanitárius segélyakcióját hajtotta és hajtja végre. Felhívjuk a Kormányt, hogy továbbra is minden lehetséges módon folytassa az Ukrajnából menekültek megsegítését.    6. Felhívjuk a figyelmet arra, hogy a katonai konfliktus súlyosan érinti a kárpátaljai magyar közösséget. Már eddig is sokan adták az életüket a háborúban, miközben jelenleg is zajlik a sorozás annak érdekében, hogy további kárpátaljai férfiakat vigyenek a frontvonalba.    7. Magyarország a NATO és az Európai Unió elkötelezett tagja. Teljes jogú tagként és szuverén államként Magyarország mindent meg fog tenni a béke előmozdítása érdekében. A 2022. évi áprilisi választások és a szankciókról szóló konzultáció eredményei egyértelműek, ezek alapján megerősítjük: fegyverszállítások és további szankciók helyett mielőbbi béketárgyalásokra van szükség.    8. Felszólítjuk a magyar közéleti szereplőket, hogy tartózkodjanak az olyan állásfoglalásoktól és politikai akcióktól, amelyek jelentős gazdasági károkat okozhatnak hazánknak, vagy Magyarország háborúba sodródását eredményezhetik. A háború folytatása, a halált okozó fegyverek szállítása emberek ezreinek életébe kerülhet. Csak azonnali tűzszünettel, tárgyalásokkal és békével lehet életeket menteni!    9. Ez a határozat a közzétételét követő napon lép hatályba".   Kövér s. k., az Országgyűlés elnöke; Dr. Aradszki s. k., az Országgyűlés jegyzője; Dr. Vadai s. k. (Forrás: InfoStart)
Megjegyzés: A határozati javaslatot az Országgyűlésnek  2023. II. 28-án nyújtotta be két frakcióvezető: Kocsis (Fidesz) és Dr. Simicskó (KDNP). A javaslat szövegét lásd: "Az orosz-ukrán háború egyéves évfordulójáról" címmel: https://www.parlament.hu/irom42/03086/03086.pdf

Ukraine
Saturday, April 1, 2023  Persecution of Christians. Ukraine’s top security agency notified a top Orthodox priest, Metropolitan Pavel today that he was suspected of justifying Russia’s aggression amid a bitter dispute over the Ukraine’s famed, most revered Orthodox site, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Orthodox monastery. The monks in the monastery belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The dispute surrounding the property, also known as Monastery of the Caves, is part of a wider religious conflict that has unfolded in parallel with the war. The Ukrainian government has cracked down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church over its historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader, Patriarch Kirill, has supported Russian President Putin in the invasion of Ukraine. The monastery is owned by the Ukrainian government, and the agency overseeing it notified the monks that they had until Wednesday to leave the site. Metropolitan Pavel, the abbot of the monastery, has strongly resisted the authorities’ order to vacate the complex. During a court hearing in the Ukrainian capital, the metropolitan strongly rejected the claim by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), that he condoned Russia’s invasion. SBU agents raided his residence. Prosecutors asked the court to put him under house arrest pending the investigation. Pavel described the accusations against him as politically driven. Many Orthodox communities in Ukraine have cut their ties with the UOC and transitioned to the rival Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which more than four years ago received recognition from the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Bartholomew I is considered the first among  equals among the leaders of the Eastern Orthodox churches. Patriarch Kirill and most other Orthodox patriarchs have refused to accept his decision authorizing the second Ukrainian church. Earlier in the week, Metropolitan Pavel cursed President Zelenskyy, threatening him with damnation. (Source: AP)

Asia

China
04/01/2023  Two contradictory news stories have emerged from China that - when read together - perfectly demonstrate the two faces of the situation of Christians in the country. The general secretary of the Universal Bible Alliance on a visit to China - in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing - met with the leaders of the official churches, reviving cooperation. Gevers, the Pentecostal pastor from South Africa since last November has been secretary general of the Universal Biblical Alliance, the body that sees Biblical Societies from all over the world collaborating with one another with the aim of spreading Scripture in every language in every part of the world. Promoted by the Chinese Christian Council and the Three Self Patriotic Movement - the official bodies of the Protestant world in China - the visit is certainly not unprecedented. In fact, there has been a collaboration that has its most obvious face in the Nanjing Amity Printing Co. plant, a large printing house in Nanjing that is the result of a joint venture between a Chinese foundation directly linked to the Three Self Patriotic Movement and the Universal Biblical Alliance. Active since 1988, it produces Bibles not only for Chinese communities but also for Christian denominations around the world. On its website, a counter offers a real-time update of printed copies: as of April 1 there were more than 246 million: 89 million for China, the others in every language in 140 countries around the world. Gevers'  visit was an opportunity to consolidate this cooperation project, which now also has a satellite plant in Ethiopia. In Beijing he had the opportunity to meet with Chen, the new of the Religious Affairs Administration (Sara), as well as with the leadership of official Catholic bodies. The official website of the Patriotic Association reported Gevers' meeting with Shen, the bishop of Haimen who is chairman of the Chinese Council of Bishops (the collegial body not recognized by the Holy See). Indeed, the Catholic community, too, has been able to benefit from the effort made by the Universal Biblical Alliance to disseminate Scripture in China. In the interview with Shen, there was no shortage of emphasis on how translations are an aspect of "Sinicization,' the watchword given to the world of religions by President Xi. But just as all this was happening, however, in Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, some Christians go on trial for "illegally' buying and distributing copies of Scripture printed in Nanjing at the plant visited by Pastor Gevers. Bitter Winter issued a call to prayer circulating in China these hours among "domestic," that is, unofficial, Protestant communities. It concerns a legal proceeding underway in Hohhot, where this month some local Christians belonging to these communities will go on trial for "illegally" distributing Bibles and face up to 15 years in prison. In their defense the defendants report these are precisely copy Bibles printed by the Nanjing Amity Printing Co. purchased in bulk and distributed to those who could not afford them, without any commercial activity. In this case, therefore, the "illegality' would simply lie in the fact that promoting the dissemination of Scripture in Chinese are communities that are not registered and controlled by the government. Which confirms - once again - what the real meaning of Beijing's insistence on "Sinicization" is. (Source: AsiaNews)

North America

United States
April 1, 2023  Trump, the embattled ex-president took to his Truth Social platform today to rage against Manhattan District Attorney Bragg, who brought the charges against him, and accused Democrats of weaponizing the FBI and Department of Justice. “I want to thank everybody for the tremendous support you have given me against this assault on our Nation. Our once beautiful USA is now a Nation in Decline,” Trump posted. “Radical Left Thugs & Insurrectionists have taken over our Country, & are rapidly destroying it. They are using the levers of Law Enforcement, and have completely Weaponized the FBI & DOJ to Interfere with, Rigg, and Steal our once Sacred Elections. “We are now living in a Third World Country, but we will Come Back & Make America Great Aagain” he raged. In the 24 hours after his indictment was announced, he raised over $4 million. Trump’s arrest could be a major catalyst for his reelection campaign, friends and foes of Trump alike have predicted. (Source: NewYorkPost)

1 April 2023  Weather expert and US Air Force veteran Helms is one of many digital volunteers worldwide. He publishes his forecasts on social media under the hashtag "#NAFOWeather," a likely reference to the North Atlantic Fellas Organization, an online anti-Russian propaganda movement. For the front in Ukraine, Helms has the following prediction: "The loss of moisture from the soil really picks up by May 1st and beyond". Helms also worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, where he studied the hydrological consequences of climate change - that is, changes in the composition of soils like what is going on just now in Ukraine. In southern Ukraine, the soil will be dry from around mid-April, then two weeks later in the Donetsk region, and from mid-May in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region further north, he explained. While Russian tanks are still stuck in the mud in Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army could begin a counteroffensive in the south toward the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol. He writes, for example, about when there will be "optimal optical satellite intelligence opportunities." When clear skies allow for the best photos from space, other activists then use donations to order satellite imagery from private vendors like Maxar, passing it along to Ukrainian commanders on the front lines. (Source: DW)

The International Monetary Fund

April 01, 2023  The International Monetary Fund's board in Washington has approved a 48-month Extended Fund Facility - worth $15.6 billion - support package for Ukraine yesterday. Russia's invasion has devastated Ukraine's economy, causing activity to contract by about 30% last year, destroying much of its capital stock and spreading poverty, according to the IMF. The two-step program will look to stabilize the country's economic situation while the war continues, before turning to 'more ambitious structural reforms' after the end of hostilities, IMF deputy managing director Gopinath said. It forms the IMF's portion of a $115 billion overall support package comprised of debt relief, grants and loans by multilateral and bilateral institutions, the IMF's Ukraine mission chief Gray told yesterday. 'The goal of Ukraine's new IMF-supported program is to provide an anchor for economic policies — policies that will sustain macroeconomic financial stability and support … economic recovery,' he said. $2.7 billion is being made available to Ukraine immediately, with the rest of the funds due to be released over the next four years. 'This program has been designed in such a way that it would work even if economic circumstances are considerably worse than ... the current baseline,' he said. If the conflict were to extend into 2025, it would raise Ukraine's financial needs from $115 billion to about $140 billion, Gray said. The program includes additional guarantees from some IMF members in the event that active combat continues beyond its current estimate of mid-2024. (Source: AgenceFrance-Presse)

United Nations

01/04/2023  The Russian Ambassador to the UN, Nebenzya will chair the Security Council for the next four weeks. On 1 April, Russia - a permanent council member - took up the presidency of the 15-nation UN Security Council. Each of the council's 15 members takes up the presidency for one month. Ukraine's foreign minister described the situation as 'the worst joke ever for April Fool's Day". The last time Russia was in charge was in February 2022. Russia is one of five nations, the others being France, UK, US and China, which can veto Security Council decisions. "The Security Council is responsible for maintaining peace worldwide'. Twice last year, Russia prevented the passage of resolutions calling for the end of the invasion of Ukraine and the restoration of territory occupied by Moscow's troops. Nebenzya, told the Russian news agency TASS that he intends to oversee several debates, including one on arms control. He said he hoped to discuss a "new world order' which would end global domination by the United States. (Source: rfi)

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2023. III. 31. European Commission, Russia, United States

2023.04.01. 23:32 Eleve

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Europe

European Commission
31 March 2023 
EU is cautious on summer payments of blocked funds to Hungary. On 30 November, the European Commission recommended freezing the disbursement of EU recovery funds until Hungary complies with 27 'essential milestones' linked to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. Commission recommends EU funds for Hungary remain frozen. While recommending the freezing of EU funds under the rule of law conditionality mechanism, the European Commission gave a formal green light to Hungary’s recovery plan. However, the disbursement of the recovery money would be linked to 27 ‘supermilestones’. Hungary has made progress on bolstering guarantees of judicial independence but is 'not quite there yet', and needs to improve democratic credentials in other areas before getting billions worth of blocked European Union funds, officials said yesterday. Four officials cautioned about expecting aid for Hungary from the bloc’s long-term budget, or up to €15.4 billion from the EU’s COVID recovery stimulus to start flowing this summer. “We are progressing well. We are reaching the end of the discussions on the judicial milestone,” said one. 'But we don’t only have the judicial reforms. There also is a whole list of corruption reforms” needed, including on improving public procurement, to get the money, they said. In more than a decade in power, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has had many bitter run-ins with the EU and its executive arm, the European Commission, over Budapest 'restricting the rights of gays' and migrants, as well as tightening state controls over non-governmental organizations, academics, media and courts. Last month, Hungary’s negotiator said ironing out remaining issues with Brussels over democratic reforms prescribed to win the recovery funds could last until the summer. “We are almost there, not quite there yet, but we are getting there” with the judicial reforms, said the second EU official, who is involved in negotiations between the Brussels-based Commission and Budapest. Hungary’s parliament passed the first of a series of anti-corruption bills on March 27, as Budapest seeks to avoid a loss of European Union funds when its economy is headed into recession, 'and the forint has plunged to record lows'. The person said that meeting those requirements would open Budapest’s access to up to €20 billion in development funds, but it was unlikely that any would be sent straight away. The lag is due to how these funds are spent, with member countries first financing projects on their own and only later asking the Commission for reimbursement. The officials said Budapest would unlikely have the bills ready to send in even if it unlocks access to the money mid-year. The sources said some recovery payments could be possible this summer but that mostly the money would come later in the year if Hungary meets the necessary conditions. Hungary and Poland are the only EU members lagging behind in getting the recovery funds, which the Commission has blocked over accusations that the countries’ governments 'damage democracy and the rule of law'. The Commission is withholding Hungary’s access to the development funds over the same concerns around corruption and freedom of courts. Under pressure from high inflation at home, Orbán has sought to strike a deal with Brussels on the money, while also 'wrangling' with the EU on issues including support for Ukraine and punishing Russia for invading its neighbour. (Source: euractiv)

Russia
31 March 2023  President Putin today signed new guidelines aimed at curbing Western "dominance" and identifying China and India as key partners for the future. The 42-page document - a de facto handbook for Russian diplomats - was published on the Kremlin's website. The document designated the United States as the greatest threat facing the country. It describes the US as "the main instigator, organizer and executor of the aggressive anti-Russian policy of the collective West." Russia's foreign policy, according to the document, should reflect that the US is "the source of the main risks to Russia's security, international peace and a balanced, just and sustainable development of mankind." "The Russian Federation intends to give priority to the elimination of vestiges of the dominance of the United States and other unfriendly countries in world politics,' the strategy document read. The doctrine also described Russia as a "state-civilization" tasked with defending what it called the "Russian world" and "traditional spiritual and moral values" against "pseudo-humanistic and other neo-liberal ideological attitudes." Russia would aim to "create the conditions for any state to reject neo-colonialist and hegemonic aims." Russia has sought to boost political and economic ties with countries in Asia such as China, India and in Africa, that taken a more neutral stance towards its offensive in Ukraine. The document stressed the importance of "the deepening of ties and coordination with friendly sovereign global centers of power and development located on the Eurasian continent." The doctrine singled out China and India as Russia's strategic partners and argued that Moscow will position itself towards other countries. Moscow has stepped up energy supplies to both China and India. Presenting the new strategy, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov told a televised meeting of Russia's Security Council that the country faced "existential threats" to its security and development from "unfriendly states.' 'According to Lavrov, the start of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine had ushered in 'revolutionary changes" in world affairs that now needed to be reflected in Russia's main foreign policy document. Putin said that updates to Russia's strategy for engagement on the global stage were necessary due to "radical changes" in the world. (Source: DW)

31 Mar 2023  Putin calling up extra 147,000 men aged between 18 and 27 from tomorrow. Russia is also planning to raise the draft age from 27 to 30 in 2024, while moving the younger age bracket from 18 to 21. Putin made the shock announcement  earlier this week to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus and said the move was triggered by Britain’s decision this past week to provide Ukraine with armour-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium. Russia plans to maintain control over those it sends to Belarus, and construction of storage facilities for them will be completed by July 1, Putin said. “We are doing what they (the West) have been doing for decades, stationing them in certain allied countries, preparing the launch platforms and training their crews, he said. (Source: DailyStar)

North America

United States
March 31, 2023  Former US president Trump has been indicted by a grand jury. He will be the first former president in US history to face criminal charges. Grand jury proceedings in the US remain secret until the defendant is in custody. The hearings focused on an alleged hush money payment made to adult performer Daniels in 2016. It's believed this jury was asked to decide whether it was illegal for Trump to order his former fixer Cohen to pay Daniels for her silence. In 2016, when Trump was running for presidency, the adult star went public with her claim that she had sex with him when he was married. Cohen alleged he was directed to give her $US130,000 and conceal the nature of the payment as a legal expense. In a statement, Trump declared "this is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history", describing the charges as part of a "witch hunt" by "the radical left". He did take direct aim at the Manhattan District Attorney Bragg, who has been overseeing the case. Trump is currently residing at his sprawling Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, so as part of that process he will have to make his way to New York City. In the unlikely scenario that Trump refuses to cooperate with authorities and surrender, he may choose to hunker down at Mar-a-Lago. Officials would need to negotiate with Florida for permission to extradite the former president to New York. DeSantis today announced on Twitter that Florida "will not assist" in an extradition request. Once Trump arrives at the New York court house, he will be processed as a defendant. He will be fingerprinted and photographed, and read his Miranda rights (have the right to remain silent). Trump will then wait in a holding cell to be called before a judge to enter a plea in what's called an arraignment - which will be open to the public. Trump will be accompanied by Secret Service agents throughout the process. It's likely Trump will be released on his own recognisance, which means he will get bail without having to pay a bond. Given he has publicly maintained his innocence in the lead-up to this indictment, it appears more likely Trump will plead not guilty, which would mean the case proceeds to trial. It could take more than a year for the trial to begin. If Trump is found not guilty, he would be acquitted. Bragg may be considering charges related to falsifying business records with the intent to conceal another crime, likely related to campaign finances. This would be considered a low-level felony, with a maximum sentence of four years in prison. However, it is entirely possible the charges could be downgraded, or a lesser sentence handed down. This means even if Trump is convicted of a felony charge, he may not spend any time in jail. In any event, a conviction would not legally prevent Trump from running for president again in 2024, though the pending case may complicate his campaign. (RNZ)

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Danube photos

2023.03.28. 15:40 Eleve

 

Budapest, 2023. III. 28.  A Budai Várban, kővé váltan védői szerepemben

 

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2023. II. 28. Russia, China, India

2023.03.01. 01:51 Eleve

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Russia
Feb. 28, 2023   Energy exporters are increasingly getting paid in yuan. Russia began cutting its dependence on the dollar in 2014 after its annexation of Crimea. By 2018, as the U.S. imposed additional economic sanctions, the country began to sell its holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds and explore trade in rubles and other currencies. De-dollarization went into overdrive, and widened to include the euro, last year. Western countries froze some $300 billion of Russia’s foreign reserves and banned some of its banks from the SWIFT messaging system that underpins most global payments in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China launched a cross-border payments system known as CIPS in 2015 that has been billed as an eventual competitor to the 50-year-old SWIFT  network. But its system hasn’t yet been widely adopted by other countries. China has become a major buyer of Russian oil that is shunned by the West, while Russia has grown more dependent on China for semiconductors and other technology. Russian and Chinese banks rely on networks of local branches and correspondent banks to process transactions without SWIFT. Russian companies issued bonds in the Chinese currency also known as renminbi worth the equivalent of more than $7 billion last year. Aluminum giant Rusal was the first company to issue yuan bonds inside Russia last August, and other commodity exporters like oil firm Rosneft followed. The share of Russian exports paid for in yuan rose to 14% by September, according to data from the central bank. That is up from 0.4% before the start of the war. Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund, which doubled the share of yuan it can hold to 60% in December, is using the Chinese currency to store its oil riches. The Russian Finance Ministry started selling yuan in January to plug its widening budget deficit. The first yuan-denominated exchange-traded fund launched on the Moscow Exchange in January. In recent weeks, the yuan-ruble was often the most traded currency pair on the Moscow Exchange based on daily volume.The Russian central bank this month set up an international settlements department it said would focus on expanding settlements in national currencies. Russian households are stashing savings in yuan. Russians don’t face an outright ban on using dollars or euros, and non-sanctioned banks continue to do business in foreign currencies. Russian financial blogger and consultant Gogaladze, who has more than 2 million Instagram followers, in October published a guide to the yuan after being inundated with questions about the currency last year. Russians have long bought dollars and euros to protect themselves against the ruble’s volatility. That changed last year as banks instituted fees on those accounts and many worried about the impact of Western sanctions. “Conversations were going around about the end of the dollar,” Ms. Gogaladze said. “The yuan was presented as an available alternative.” Households held almost $6 billion worth of yuan deposited at the end of last year at Russian banks, according to data from the central bank. That is up from zero at the start of the year, and is now more than a 10th of the $53 billion in foreign currency that households held. Nearly 50 financial institutions offer yuan savings accounts, according to comparison site Banki.ru. Bistrodengi, a Russian lending platform, started selling yuan bonds last year despite not doing any business in the Chinese currency. While Russia’s use of the yuan doesn’t mean the end of dollar supremacy, it may usher in the beginning of a more fractured system that could ultimately blunt the U.S.’s ability to use financial sanctions as a weapon, said McDowell, a professor at Syracuse University who recently wrote a book on the topic. “The more countries you force to find those alternatives,” Mr. McDowell said, “effectively what you’re going to do is increase economies of scale and experience in those areas.” (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)

China
2023.02.28  Party leader Xi - who is now serving a third term with no formal requirement to step down - told a high-level political meeting in Beijing today that the upcoming session of China's rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress, would see the party strengthen "unified leadership" over scientific and technological institutions, as well as over the country's financial institutions and over 'government responsibility.' The announcement suggests further internal crackdowns to come within the government and party. A draft institutional reform plan is currently under discussion that will "be more relevant, more intensive, have a broader reach and touch on deeper interests" than previous structures, state broadcaster CCTV quoted Xi as telling the meeting. The ministries of human resources and social security may integrate with the ministry of civil affairs, the pro-China Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao newspaper reported. The paper also quoted analysts as saying that the reform 'will further highlight the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and weaken the power of the government.' Japan-based China commentator Hong said the plans will likely include bringing the ministry for public security, which governs the police system, and the ministry for state security, which governs the state security apparatus and overseas intelligence operations, under the aegis of the party. "It will turn government departments into administrative offices, tasked with running errands and doing the gruntwork," Hong said. "They will carry out the basic administrative work, but the core of policy-making will be taken away, and go to strengthen the leadership of the party," he said. The reforms will likely include the setting up of a powerful internal affairs committee under the central leadership of the Communist Party in Beijing. China's reforms could create Soviet-style super-commission under party control. If the reforms do implement such a plan, the internal affairs committee could look fairly similar to the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs under the former Soviet Union, which was responsible for ensuring internal revolutionary order and the security of the state, as well as the internal safeguarding of state property, the guarding of national borders, and the registration of births, deaths, marriages and divorces, according to a July 11, 1934 report in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia. Such a plan, if implemented, comes at a time of unprecedented official control over people's personal and political lives, with the transfer of law-enforcement powers to local neighborhood committees and the setting up of local militias to boost "stability maintenance," a system of law enforcement aimed at forestalling dissent and nipping protest in the bud. Structural reforms by the ruling Chinese Communist Party leadership that could bring government security and intelligence branches under the direct control of the ruling party, at the expense of the state rather, suggest a further bid to consolidate political power in the hands of leader Xi as well as a possible preparation for war, analysts said. The Chinese state is already subordinate to the political power of the ruling party, but Xi has sought to amplify that principle still further in his own brand of political ideology. Veteran journalist Ma said the theme of the reforms appeared to herald more aggressive party control over every aspect of people's lives, a concept that is in line with reforms that have already taken place under Xi. Since taking power in 2012, Xi has already boosted his own personal power at the expense of other high-ranking leaders, particularly his premier, from whom he has taken back responsibility for running the economy in recent years. 'Now we're seeing that they need to sharpen their knives, for use both externally and internally.' 'They will control everything, plan everything and order everything.' They'll be taking China back to the 1950s by setting up the Commissariat for Internal Affairs, or rather putting China back on a wartime footing," Ma said. "The ministry of public security has always been obedient to the party, but now it's going to need to cooperate with decisions passed just a couple of days earlier, as part of a military-led system engaged in the mighty struggle," he said, in a possible reference to Xi's threat to invade democratic Taiwan. The Lianhe Zaobao quoted Lu, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, as saying that the restructuring will further blur the distinction between party and state. "The status of the State Council and the importance of the prime minister in the country's operation and decision-making process will be further weakened." "China is gearing up for the new development era [under Xi's leadership] while facing complicated domestic and international situations," the English-language Global Times newspaper said. The 14th National People's Congress will open in Beijing on March 5. (Source: RadioFreeAsia)

India
Friday, February 24th 2023  India abstains on UN resolution calling for ‘just and lasting peace’ in Ukraine. India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Kamboj, said it was important for the global community to ask itself some pertinent questions. “Are we anywhere near a possible solution acceptable to both sides?” she asked while explaining India’s decision to abstain. “Can any process that does not involve either of the two sides, ever lead to a credible and meaningful solution?” “Has the UN system, and particularly its principal organ, the UN Security Council, based on a 1945-world construct, not been rendered ineffective to address contemporary challenges to global peace and security?” The diplomat said that India continues to remain concerned about the situation in Ukraine. “The conflict has resulted in the loss of countless lives and misery, particularly for women, children, and the elderly, with millions becoming homeless and forced to seek shelter in neighbouring countries,” the Indian statement read.  “Reports of attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are also deeply worrying.” The Indian representative said that no solution could be reached at the cost of human lives. “In this context, our prime minister’s statement that this cannot be an era of war bears reiteration,” she said. Kamboj said that India’s approach to the Ukraine conflict continues to be people-centric and that it is providing humanitarian assistance to the east European country. (Source: Scroll)

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2023. II. 22 - 25. United States, NATO, globalization

2023.02.27. 02:33 Eleve

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United States
February 25, 2023  An independent analysis by Texas A & M University of Environmental Protection Agency data, released yesterday, found nine air pollutants at levels that could raise long-term health concerns in and around East Palestine, apparently contradicting statements by state and federal regulators that the air there is safe. A class-action suit filed on behalf of hundreds of residents alleges that Norfolk Southern went rogue when it decided to blow up the cargo in five train cars containing deadly vinyl chloride three days after the derailment, effectively poisoning the town and nearby region. About 1.1 million pounds of toxic vinyl chloride were spilled and later burned, sending thick, black plumes of smoke into the air and contaminating soil and water sources, the suit claims. A spokesman for Norfolk Southern told that the company consulted experts including Gov. DeWine after discovering, two days after the crash, that the pressure relief devices in one train car had stopped working. He also said it had to take action in the form of a controlled burn to avoid what the company called a potential “catastrophic failure of the cars.” The National Safety Transportation Board report backs up Norfolk Southern’s description of the rising temperature in the one train car and why the company decided to explode the chemicals over East Palestine. But there are many who wonder if there was a better way. “The company’s decision was very suspicious,” Rocha of the Morgan & Morgan law firm and one of the lead attorneys on the class-action case told. “Norfolk Southern discharged more vinyl chloride into a small area in eastern Ohio in a day than the entire industries combined of America discharge in a year.” Lester, a Harvard-trained toxicologist at the Center for Health, Environment and Justice with 40 years of experience, said the hot zone at East Palestine was among the most concerning he has ever seen - and stressed the dangers of the chemical dioxin that was released during the controlled burn and that will be embedded in the soil and water. “Until the government takes this seriously there are going to be real problems,” Lester said. “It’s criminal that the EPA didn’t come forward with information about dioxin and start testing for it.” The creeks that dot the town still ripple with the telltale rainbow color of contamination if you throw a rock in them. East Palestine residents’ shock illnesses after derailment. Evacuation orders were lifted on February 8, but many locals say they got unexplained rashes and sore throats when they returned home. Locals are frustrated and furious over what they say has been a lack of real information and help from both local officials and the Biden Administration. Last week, East Palestine Mayor Conaway ripped President Biden for heading to Ukraine for a surprise visit instead of the scene of the toxic train derailment, calling it “the biggest slap in the face.” (Source: TheNewYorkPost)

NATO
Feb. 25, 2023  Back in 1991, President Bush viewed Ukraine’s desire for freedom as a dangerous nuisance. That year, just months before the Soviet Union’s collapse, he delivered to the Ukrainian parliament his infamous “Chicken Kiev” speech, urging Ukrainians to abandon “suicidal nationalism” and permanently remain under the Kremlin’s rule. Ukraine, Mr. Obama said in an interview with the Atlantic in 2016, “is going to be vulnerable to  military domination by Russia no matter what we do.” All the evidence of the past 50 years, he added, suggested that Russian (and Chinese) decision-making wouldn’t be influenced by “talking tough or engaging in some military action.” Two days before the Russian invasion of his country, on Feb. 22, 2022, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba was welcomed to the White House. As he greeted President Biden and senior administration officials, Mr. Kuleba later recalled, he felt like a patient surrounded by doctors presenting him with a diagnosis of stage-four cancer. On the first morning of the war, Mr. Putin alluded to nuclear weapons to deter the West from helping Ukraine. “Whoever attempts to meddle, and even more so to create threats for our country, for our people, must know that Russia’s response will be immediate, and will cause you such consequences that you have never encountered in your history. We are ready for any turn of events. All required decisions have already been made,' Mr. Putin said. Since the war’s first days, Mr. Zelensky has taken advantage of his skills as an actor and communicator to speak directly to a variety of audiences worldwide. He has addressed university commencements, music festivals and sports tournaments in an effort to make Ukraine’s fight for freedom into a moral and emotional issue rather than yet another foreign-policy problem. His approach has clearly paid off. In the first several months after the Russian invasion, the Biden administration took a gradualist approach that White House officials have described as 'boiling the frog.' Javelin antitank missiles were among the first weapons the U.S. sent to aid Ukraine after the Russian invasion last February. Stinger portable air defense systems were also among the weapons the U.S. sent in the early weeks of the invasion. M777 howitzers arrived from the U.S. in the spring. The U.K., Poland, Germany, France and the Netherlands have also contributed large arsenals of comparable weapons, such as the French-made Caesar self-propelled howitzers - starting in May - and German-made Panzerhaubitze self-propelled guns. U.S.-made Himars (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) were sent to Ukraine during the summer. These supplies allowed Ukrainian forces to stop Russian advances in the Donbas region over the summer and to push back with offensives in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions during the fall. Over the past 12 months, the cumulative effect of these new weapons has transformed the balance of power on the battlefield. 'We have been slow in delivering certain capabilities,'said ret. Lt. Gen. Hodges, a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe. 'It has taken the Pentagon a long time to come to the realization that Ukraine can win, and will win, especially if we give them what they need'. The U.S. announced last month that it will send 90 Stryker armored fighting vehicles to Ukraine. The U.S. and Germany are both providing U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to Kyiv. Now, Patriot air-defense batteries, Abrams and German-made Leopard 2 tanks, Bradley and Stryker fighting vehicles are  on the way, 'aiming to enable Ukraine to regain more ground in another offensive this spring'. Some NATO allies, such as the Netherlands, are already pushing to provide Ukraine with a fleet of F-16 jet fighters. The initial reluctance of the U.S. and its allies to help Kyiv fight Russia has turned into a massive program of military assistance, which carries risks of its own. “The West is also the frog that is boiling itself.  With each incremental increase in assistance, qualitative or quantitative, we become accustomed to that being normal, and the next one doesn’t seem so extreme. There is a dynamic here where we become desensitized to what is going on. We are in a bit of a slow-moving spiral that shows no signs of letting up,” Charap, a senior political scientist at Rand Corp. who has urged caution on arming Ukraine, said. Ukraine’s own military industries have been shattered by Russian missile strikes, and its reserves of Soviet-vintage weapons are running out. By now, Kyiv can keep fighting only as long as Western assistance continues apace. U.S. defense contractors’ inability to quickly replenish weaponry such as missiles and munitions for Ukraine has led Pentagon officials to argue that industry consolidation has gone too far and raised questions about how  prepared America is for conflict. Ukraine is the west’s war now. 'True, no American or NATO soldiers are fighting and dying on Ukrainian soil'.  But the U.S., its European allies and Canada have now sent some $120 billion in weapons and other aid to Ukraine, with new, more advanced military supplies on the way. "If this monumental effort fails to thwart President Putin’s ambitions, the setback would not only undermine American credibility on the world stage but also raise difficult questions about the future of the Western alliance'. In Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere, the West’s geopolitical adversaries are calculating whether the U.S. and its allies have the stamina and cohesion to defend the 'rules-based international order' that has benefited the West for decades. "What is happening in Europe today can happen in Asia tomorrow,” NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg warned the Munich Security Conference this month. “If Putin wins in Ukraine, the message to him and other authoritarian leaders will be that they can use force to get what they want. This will make the world more dangerous and us more vulnerable." The Munich conference capped several weeks in which the U.S. and its allies have dramatically expanded the scope of their military aid, an indication that Mr. Putin’s expectation that the West will eventually tire of helping Ukraine hasn’t materialized just yet. 'In fact, they will deliver more weapons to Ukraine in the next few months than they did in the whole of 2022'. There is no guarantee that the mood won’t shift in the future, especially if there is a serious economic downturn. The war in Ukraine isn’t likely to end anytime soon. Both sides believe they can win on the battlefield, and little room exists for peace negotiations. 'Ukraine is preparing offensives to regain the roughly 18% of its territory still occupied by Moscow, including the Crimea peninsula and parts of the eastern Donbas region that Mr. Putin seized in 2014'. Russia has declared four Ukrainian regions, none of which it fully controls, to be its own sovereign territory and seeks, at the very least, to conquer those lands. “The next months will be very critical. If, say, another Ukrainian offensive fails, if it becomes the public narrative that it’s going to be a stalemate, support in the West might drop - perhaps not substantially, but some of the politicians will see the writing on the wall,” cautioned Gady, a senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London. Mr. Putin, in a speech on February 21, indicated that his aspirations remain much broader, referring to Russia’s “historical territories that are now called Ukraine.” (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)

February 22, 2023  Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, NATO has supported Ukraine through the 2016 Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine - which included nonlethal equipment, training, capacity building, cyber defense, logistics and interoperability with NATO forces - and the provision of training and defensive equipment by NATO allies. This package was strengthened at the June Madrid summit in two ways. First, with around $100 million of further nonlethal military assistance - such as fuel, medical supplies, anti-drone systems and counter-mine equipment. Second, to include longer-term support for postwar reconstruction and reform of Ukraine's defense and security institutions - such as helping Ukraine transition from Soviet-era equipment to modern NATO weapon systems. NATO also extended its support to help Ukraine rebuild its electrical infrastructure and cope with power shortages. NATO made several commitments in Madrid to strengthen conventional deterrence against armed attack, including more forward deployed combat formations, a much larger high readiness force, prepositioned equipment, and preassigned national forces. Eight months on, Madrid implementation looks mixed. Some progress has been made standing up new battlegroups and preassigning NATO response forces. An important Madrid pledge was to scale up the eight existing multinational battlegroups (around 1,000 personnel) to “brigade-size units where and when required” (up to 5,000 personnel). Yet none have yet been upgraded - even if Germany has deployed a 100-strong Brigade headquarters to Lithuania and the United Kingdom will surge one to Estonia in support of Exercise Spring Storm in May. In Romania, the French battlegroup appears at half strength given additional forces from other nations “are not integrated into the NATO battlegroup.” Meanwhile, minilateral formations like the Joint Expeditionary Force may offer a more flexible way of moving allied forces into areas of concern. One headline-grabbing commitment made by NATO in Madrid was to increase its response force of high readiness units from 40,000 to over 300,000 personnel through a new force model. There are few signs the ambition is on track to meet its goal of being completed this year. For example the scale of forces required by Germany will be difficult to generate given that “since 2014, Germany has been unable to provide NATO with a single brigade . . . providing two more brigades in the brief period remaining will require a superhuman effort.” Today’s NATO planners have now enshrined the Madrid level of ambition in the first step of the alliance’s four-year-long defense planning process. Deterring hybrid threats has seen progress with a new NATO-EU resilience taskforce and NATO Critical Undersea Infrastructure Coordination Cell. NATO defense ministers agreed to step up vital support to 'other partners at risk, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova' as they experience escalating pressure from Moscow.  The largest space project in NATO’s history will use a virtual constellation of national and commercial space assets to provide Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space. The NATO secretary general’s visit to South Korea and Japan demonstrates the concept’s increased focus on the Indo-Pacific. The alliance must implement the targets it set one year ago in Madrid by the Vilnius summit in July.  NATO allies have provided around $150 billion in military and financial assistance and levied massive sanctions on the Russian economy.  The main forum is the U.S.-led Ukraine Defence Contact Group of over 50 nations that met last week for the ninth time since the war began and has committed nearly $50 billion - or “more than eight combat brigades” worth - in military aid to Ukraine, including air defense systems, heavy artillery, modern main battle tanks, and now training for Ukrainian fighter jet pilots. 'Matériel is not getting there fast enough'. The second problem is the impact of weapons transfers on NATO’s own stockpiles of equipment and ammunition. This is compounded by allies’ limited industrial capacity to quickly produce more.  According to Secretary General Stoltenberg, Ukraine is using up ammunition much faster than its allies can produce it. Equipment or munitions shortages may result in NATO strengthening Ukraine’s deterrence at the expense of its own. Eight nations joined the Multinational Ammunition Warehousing Initiative to store the very munition stockpiles that are fast disappearing. (Source: CSIS)

February 22, 2023  US President Biden today held talks with leaders from the Bucharest Nine, NATO's easternmost members, before departing Poland. The Bucharest Nine grouping came together in response to the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. "Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has pledged to maintain ties with Russia, did not attend today's B9 meeting. Hungarian President Novák attended the summit instead'. 'The nine countries, who joined NATO after being dominated by Moscow during the Cold War, have had heightened fears that Russian President Putin would take military action against them in light of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine'. 'The nine countries have been staunch supporters of military aid to Ukraine, and have called for additional assistance to the war-torn country such as air defense systems'. (Source: DW)

Globalization
February 24, 2023  Global shipping is braced for accidents as vintage vessels join the fast-growing dark fleet, trading under the radar with worrying safety concerns. Seafarers have died in the cross-fire around the Black Sea, many more have been pressed into service on the ground in Ukraine.  As an industry, shipping had learned to be more flexible and collaborative during the covid pandemic, useful lessons that carried through in the wake of war. “When the war in Ukraine began, it was these qualities that meant our industry could mobilise quickly to tackle the challenges the industry faced. This included ensuring that seafarers impacted could be paid, ensuring that any sanctions did not inappropriately target shipowners and engaging at the highest levels to support the development of the grain corridor,” commented Platten, the secretary-general of the International Chamber of Shipping. For Dr Stopford, the world’s most famous maritime economist, the author of Maritime Economics, the war has not been a game changer per se for shipping. “It’s been more of an addition to the many disruptions caused by the pandemic and its aftermath,” said Stopford. Ships continue to deliver their cargoes, often much further away than before. The inefficiency is pushing rates up for many sectors including LNG, crude and product tankers. Tankers and LNG carriers have enjoyed very solid returns since war began. In January 2022, just before the war started, crude earnings had plunged to $5,000 a day. But once the war got started, they surged, with strong spikes in the second and fourth quarters of 2022, with earnings averaging over $40,000 a day over the past 12 months. “This has been almost exclusively a tanker market story,” commented Adland, shipping professor at the Norwegian School of Economics, a protégé of Stopford’s from their days together at Clarksons Research. “The past 12 months have highlighted once again how disruption is good from the viewpoint of shipowners. If you mess with an extremely efficient market by introducing constraints – either self-imposed or political sanctions – then the resulting supply-side inefficiencies and freight rate hikes can be substantial,” Adland added. Prices for tankers to keep Russian exports moving beyond the sanctions raining in have leaped. Clarkson Research’s secondhand tanker price index has recorded its sharpest-ever upwards movement over the last year, rising by 52% to the highest level since 2008.     “Russian crude oil production and seaborne exports have proved very resilient,” said Kilen, head of research at Norwegian broker Fearnleys. An average 3.21m barrels per day was loaded over the past 12 months, versus an average 3.06m barrels per day during the previous 12-month period, according to data from Fearnleys. This excludes Kazak Kebco and CPC grades loaded at Novorossiysk. Volumes to Europe started to decline shortly after the war broke out and were already limited by the time of the December 5 price cap. The vast majority of ton-mile changes relating to Russian seaborne crude oil flows were therefore witnessed last year. The biggest shift was in volumes heading to Asia, where an average 1.93m barrels per day has ended up over the past 12 months versus 1.04m barrels per day in the previous 12-month period, Fearnleys data shows. Excluding Russia Far East originating volumes to Asia would show 985,000 barrels per day in the past 12 months versus 102,000 in the previous period, hence around 880,000 barrels per day of Baltic and Black Sea volumes have been boosting the average distance tankers travel.     Volumes of clean oil products, predominantly diesel/gasoil and naphtha, have also been resilient at around 1.6m barrels per day, with it reaching as high as 1.9m barrels per day over the past two months, leading up to the February 5 price cap on oil products. An average 266,000 barrels per day has been loaded for European destinations after the February 5 price cap, versus an average 908,000 barrels per day during the period from when the war broke out until the price cap came to effect. Europe has shifted much of its sourcing from Russia to suppliers east of Suez, while Russian clean products now seek new homes in Asia and Africa predominantly. India has been the most eager buyer, accounting for 829,000 barrels per day of what has been loaded of Russian crude oil over the past year, compared with only 31,000 barrels per day during the 12-month period before the war broke out. China has taken a fair bit more with the past year showing 994,000 barrels per day versus 700,000 loaded in Russian ports a year earlier.     For dirty oil products, fuel oil predominantly, volumes have been around 870,000 barrels per day the past 12 months versus 1.1m barrels per day during the previous 12-month period. 31% of the past 12 month loadings has been for Europe while 4% has been for the US, versus 49% and 30% respectively during the previous 12-month period until the war broke out. While only 12% was shipped to Asia and 4.6% shipped to the Middle East during the previous 12-month period, this has changed to 42% and 15.4% respectively for the past 12-month period, according to Fearnleys.     In gas, as Europe lost pipeline volumes from Russia, down 55% year-on-year, LNG had to cover what increased North Sea piped volumes were unable to compensate for to Europe. LNG flows to Europe grew 70% year-on-year, according to Fearnleys. It was primarily US LNG that came to Europe, as around 61% of the US LNG cargoes ended in Europe, up from around 25% of the cargoes originating in the US to Europe in 2021. A similar trend was seen for Yamal LNG cargoes during the Northern Sea Route season. “Weaker Chinese and Asian demand sort of saved Europe, one could say,” commented Kilen from Fearnleys, adding: “With China reopening, Europe short of even more piped gas this year, and new liquefaction capacity being limited for a third year in a row, it could be another tight autumn on LNG availability as European buyers will have to compete more with Asian buyers, although a restart of Freeport LNG should help.”     For the ammonia trades, the loss of Ukrainian exports marked a significant shift in the global seaborne map. The port of Yuzhny in Ukraine was prior to the war one of the top suppliers of ammonia to the world market, accounting for around 11% of seaborne traded volumes in 2021. No shipments have been done after the war broke out, resulting in higher fertilizer prices and fear of food shortages. Much of the shortfall has however been covered by other suppliers, with seaborne traded volumes of ammonia declining just a moderate -2.1% in 2022 versus 2021. The top producer Trinidad & Tobago also produced less last year. This was more than compensated for through higher exports from other leading suppliers, such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Algeria.     For dry bulk, coal and grain were the headline changes in the 12 months of war. Ukraine’s dry bulk exports have plunged 77.8% during the first year of war with Russia, data from BIMCO shows. Prior to the war, more than one tenth of the world’s wheat and maize shipments came from Ukraine.     As Europe banned Russian originated coal, imports from Australia and South Africa reached the highest level in at least 10 years last year. There was also a significant increase in imports from Colombia and the US on 2021 levels. Minor increases were seen from Indonesia and Mozambique. The Russian volumes that previously went to Europe were sold in increasing quantities to China, India, South Korea, and Turkey. Due to longer sailing distances along with the second highest annual shipment volumes ever, coal ton-time reached all-time highs last year, according to Fearnleys.     On the grains side, Ukraine’s usual buyers had to source from other countries. However, this was and is almost impossible, which meant there was no significant shift in trade flows apart from volumes being lost. “The lower than previously expected growth in 2022 and following years will therefore have a lasting impact also on growth in shipping markets,” Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at BIMCO predicted, adding: “In addition, the war again elevated energy supply to a matter of national security, particularly in the EU. It has led to a renewed commitment to accelerate decarbonisation which will have a lasting impact on coal and oil shipments.” (Source: Splash247)

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2023. II. 18. Magyarország. Orbán Viktor évértékelő beszéde

2023.02.19. 00:29 Eleve

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Orbán Viktor évértékelő beszéde
(video)

(Forrás: Miniszterelnok):

https://tinyurl.com/5n76zecx


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Atlanti-óceán     Ausztria     Baltikum     Egyesült Államok     Európa     Európai Parlament     Európai Unió     film    Franciaország     Grúzia     Hunnia     Kárpát-medence     Kárpátalja     Krím     Lengyelország     Magyarország    NATO     Németország     Oroszország     Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia     Pannónia     Parlament     Svájc     Szíria     térkép     Törökország     Ukrajna     Vatikán     video     vírus

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2022. X. 11 - 20. China

2022.11.07. 22:08 Eleve

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China
2022-10-20  "These days, it seems to be a crime to be 'Taiwanese'," says a Taiwanese business owner who has worked in China
for two decades. Deteriorating relations between Taiwan and China have made the position of such "Taishang" very difficult. They cannot be seen as pro-Taiwan independence, but they also cannot offend Taiwanese sensibilities and openly swear fealty to the Communist Party. For most Taishang, besides hoping that the Chinese government can exercise greater “precision” in their efforts to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from spreading, their other greatest wish is that the business environment will not be irrevocably damaged by rifts in Cross-Strait relations. These concerns reached a boiling point when U.S. House Speaker Pelosi visited Taiwan. The new policy white paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era”, published by the PRC State Council a week after Pelosi’s visit, was an olive branch extended to Taishang. It specifically promises “regulations and policies that fully guarantee that Taiwanese compatriots will receive full benefits and equal treatment in China' and supports “Taiwanese efforts to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative'. An investment fund manager who frequently works all around China has an opposite take. He predicts that as China’s state enterprise advances and private sectors retreat, Taishang who lack connections will have a hard time winning the trust of Chinese companies and participating in the development of important industries. “Taiwanese people will have a hard time getting aboard China’s next big wave.” Another Taiwanese business owner in the traditional industries, who set up plants in China in the early nineties, also has a pessimistic outlook. He points out that the same level of control the Chinese government has exerted on mega corporations like Alibaba and Tencent may one day happen to Taishang. “If I could turn back time, I would not have come to China 30 years ago. As things stand, all I can do is try to survive.” Stay in the shadows; play by the rules - for Taishang trying to do business in the worsening political situation, this may be the only way for them to survive. (Source: cw *)
* CommonWealth Magazine, Taiwan

20 October 2022  Last year, the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that China's threat to move in on Taiwan would 'manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years.' China could invade Taiwan as early as this year, US Naval Chief warns as Xi solidifies his grip on Beijing and the Communist Party. 'It's not just what Jinping says, it's how the Chinese behave and what they do,' Gilday said at an event held by the Atlantic Council on October 19. 'What we've seen over the past 20 years is that they have delivered on every promise they've made earlier than they said they were going to deliver on it.' As Beijing launches fresh military exercises by air and sea off Taiwan's coast, the Navy has now adopted a 'fight tonight' mentality. Sec. of State Blinken backed up such predictions earlier this week at a forum at Stanford University with former secretary of state Rice, when he said China is speeding up its timeline to take back Taiwan. 'The wheels of history are rolling toward China's reunification' with Taiwan, Xi said at the Communist Party Congress, which gathers every five years. He said that while China preferred peaceful measures to retake the island democracy of 23 million people it would not rule out 'the option to take all necessary measures.' Xi has ramped up military drills along Taiwan's coastline in the Taiwan Strait in recent months. Last week, Biden released his official national security strategy that focused heavily on 'outcompeting' China. The president made it clear that despite Russia's nuclear threats, he is more concerned about China in the long-term. (Source: DailyMail)

Thuersday, October 20, 2022  China’s service members have virtually no combat experience - which some Chinese leaders have referred to as a “peace disease.” In 2015, Mr. Xi launched China’s most ambitious military reforms in decades. He overhauled the organizational structure of the PLA with the goal of allowing its armed services - army, navy, air force and rocket and support forces - to work more closely together. Such coordination would likely be needed for major operations such as an invasion of Taiwan. Mr. Xi also expanded the PLA’s budget, created new special operations units and stepped up efforts to draw in more qualified service members. Beijing extended free healthcare to troops and their families, improved military canteens and encouraged putting popular boy band members in military propaganda to drive recruitment. The People’s Liberation Army now has hypersonic missiles that evade most defenses, a technology the U.S. is still developing. Its attack drones can swarm to paralyze communications networks. China’s naval ships outnumber America’s, and it launched its third aircraft carrier this summer, the first to be designed and built in the country. Its defense budget is second only to the U.S.’s. China’s military has more serving members, at around 2 million, compared with under 1.4 million in the U.S. The question for Mr. Xi, which he has raised in public, is whether those forces are ready for battle. “We must comprehensively strengthen military training and preparation, and improve the army’s ability to win,' Mr. Xi said on Sunday at the opening of the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress. Mr. Xi reiterated that Beijing wouldn’t renounce the use of force in China’s effort to take control of the island. "The complete unification of the motherland must be realized, and it will be realized,” he said, drawing loud applause. Sorties close to the island by the Chinese air force have reached more than 1,200 so far this year. Yet PLA publications say some officers make flawed  operational decisions, struggle to lead their troops and sometimes don’t understand their own orders. Rank-and-file troops are caught in a top-down system of command, potentially leaving them ill-equipped to improvise in battlefield situations - a situation that has hobbled Russia’s military in its invasion of Ukraine. China’s political priorities mean that around 40% of new recruits’ training has involved studying about the Communist Party rather than learning how to be a service member. Leaders, some of whom see young Chinese as pampered products of the country’s one-child policy, question whether they are tough enough to fight. An effort to make China’s different military branches work more closely together - so-called “jointness,” which is considered crucial to modern warfare - remains untested. The PLA appears to be making progress in bringing forces together for more complex joint exercises, helped by interaction with other militaries, especially Russia’s. Since Mr. Xi took power, China has increased drills with Russia to as many as 10 a year from one or two previously. Last year, the PLA’s air force and army took part in the first major joint exercises with Russia inside China, involving more than 10,000 personnel. The drills included airborne troop assaults, drone attacks and precision fighter jet strikes, according to official reports. Mr. Xi’s ambition, according to China’s most recent defense white paper, is to complete a modernization of the military by 2035 and turn it into a 'world-class force' by 2049. Strategists outside China say the PLA’s short-range missile, air and naval power is now so well developed that it would be nearly impossible for other countries’ militaries to operate near China’s shoreline in a conflict. Beijing’s cyberwar capabilities are widely considered to be state-of-the-art. The U.S Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a report this year that China is almost certainly capable of launching cyberattacks that would disrupt critical infrastructure in the U.S., including oil and gas pipelines and rail systems. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on ballistic missile technology mean that China can now put U.S. bases in Asia under threat. Central to the PLA’s issues is a shortage of high-quality talent, including for officers. The lowest successful scores at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University in 2021 were in many cases nearly 10% higher than at the National University of Defense Technology, often referred to in China as the military Tsinghua. The PLA lacks a well-established system for bringing in and retaining talented noncommissioned officers, the backbone of most militaries. Military analysts say the PLA does have some highly proficient service members, including units similar to U.S. Navy Seals and Air Force commandos. The true test of PLA personnel will be when they’re called on to fight. (Source: msn)

17 Oct 2022  China locks down 10 lakh people near iPhone factory, from today. The iPhone manufacturing hub of Zhengzhou locked down one of its most-populated districts to tame a virus flareup. Almost 1 million residents of Zhongyuan district were ordered to stay at home starting today, except for when they need to undergo Covid testing, and non-essential businesses have been shut. The wider restrictions follow the lockdown of some neighborhoods last week. The city reported 6 new local cases for yesterday, down from a recent peak of 40 on Oct 9. Creeping restrictions throughout China are underscoring the constant threat of disruption companies face while the country sticks to Covid Zero. President Xi yesterday signaled no looming change to the approach. He avoided  mentioning the economic toll during a speech opening the twice-a-decade Party Congress in Beijing. He said the strict rules protect people’s lives. Nationwide, cases declined to 697, the lowest in two weeks, as outbreaks in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang came under control. Beijing posted 13 new cases, and Shanghai had 32. Several schools in Shanghai have suspended in-person classes as the fear of infection spread grows. The port city of Tianjin last week announced a lockdown of one district and the southern megacity of Guangzhou shut schools in one area. (Source: livemint)
Note: 10 lakh = 100 000 (India)

October 16, 2022  China will never renounce the right to use force but will strive for a peaceful resolution, President Xi said today at the opening of a major party meeting. 'The historical wheels of national reunification and national rejuvenation are rolling forward, and the complete reunification of the motherland must be achieved, and it must be achieved!" he added, to a long round of applause. 'Resolving the Taiwan issue is the Chinese people's own business, and it up to the Chinese people to decide,' he said. Beijing has offered Taiwan a "one country, two systems' model of autonomy, the same formula it uses for Hong Kong. But all mainstream Taiwanese political parties have rejected that proposal and it has almost no public support, according to opinion polls. Taiwan says only its people can decide their own future and that Beijing's claims are void as the People's Republic of China has never governed any part of the island. (Source: TheAsahiShimbun)

16/10/2022  In an opening address lasting about 100 minutes, Xi celebrated the party's continued efforts to eradicate Covid as a major achievement. He said the approach had "protected people's safety and health to the highest degree". Xi also highlighted as a success his graft crackdown. He said the anti-corruption campaign had eliminated 'serious latent dangers' within the Communist Party, the military and the state. Xi also focused on two of China's most sensitive security and sovereignty issues at the start of speech. He lauded Hong Kong's transition from 'chaos to governance', while his vow to 'never commit to abandoning the use of force' on the self-ruled island of Taiwan drew rapturous applause. Xi told the delegates that China would "actively participate in global governance on climate change'. He also reiterated that China opposed a 'Cold War mentality' in international diplomacy. "China... resolutely opposes all forms of hegemony and power politics, opposes the Cold War mentality, opposes interfering in other countries' domestic politics, opposes double standards,' he said. Xi did not reference the Ukraine war. (Source: RFI)

October 16, 2022  Chinese President Xi delivered a speech that lasted less than two hours focusing heavily on security and reiterating policy priorities during the opening ceremony of the week-long 20th National Congress of China's ruling Communist Party at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing today. He said China will strengthen its ability to build a strategic deterrent capability. Xi called for strengthening the ability to maintain national security, ensuring food and energy supplies, securing supply chains, improving the ability to deal with disasters and protecting personal information. Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said that as China's economy has slowed, Xi is attempting to shift the basis of legitimacy from economic growth to security. "His narrative is - China faces many dangers, the country is in a war-like state, figuratively, and he is the savior. With this narrative, he can get people to unite around him," he said. In recent days, China has repeatedly emphasized its commitment to Xi's zero-COVID strategy, dashing hopes among countless Chinese citizens as well as investors that Beijing might begin exiting anytime soon a policy that has caused widespread frustration and economic damage. 'We have adhered to the supremacy of the people and the supremacy of life, adhered to dynamic zero-COVID ... and achieved major positive results in the overall prevention and control of the epidemic, and economic and social development,' Xi said. On the economy, he restated support for the private sector and allowing markets to play a key role, even as China fine-tunes a 'socialist economic system', promotes "common prosperity" and gives 'better play to the role of the government'. The biggest applause came when Xi restated opposition to Taiwan independence. The congress is expected to reconfirm Xi as party general secretary, China's most powerful post, as well as chairman of the Central Military Commission. (Source: TheAsahiShimbun)

October 14, 2022  China’s Communist Party will on October 16, Sunday open its 20th Party Congress, the country’s most important political meeting, which is held once every five years. The CCP, which has ruled China since 1949, has held 19 congresses to fill its leadership ranks since it was founded in 1921. This year, about 2,300 delegates from across the country will descend on Beijing in a highly choreographed event to pick members of the Central Committee, which is made up of around 200 people. The committee will select members for the 25-person Politburo and its all-powerful Standing Committee - the country’s highest leadership body and apex of power, currently comprising just seven people. The amount of turnover within the Central Committee - generally around 60 percent - may signal how aggressively Xi intends to reshuffle, wrote Johnson, senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. The opaque process that will see major leadership changes is expected to bolster China’s leader Xi’s authority. Xi is all but certain to begin an unprecedented third five-year term as party general secretary. In 2018, he abolished the presidential two-term limit, set by former leader Deng in the 1980s to avoid another Mao-style dictatorship. A sweeping anti-corruption campaign since Xi came to power has brought down former ministers and Politburo members, weakening party factions and eliminating rivals. Since 2002, Standing Committee members aged 68 or above have stepped down, abiding by the unwritten retirement age first employed by former president Jiang to dump an ageing rival. If the informal rule is upheld, but as expected does not apply to Xi, two out of seven members will step down - leaving Xi, 69, Li, 67, Zhao, 65, Wang, 67, and Wang, also 67. Xi has already installed close allies in top positions this year, such as the new minister for public security Wang, 65. (Source: HongKongfp

14.10.2022  The anti-corruption campaign Xi launched after taking power in 2012, the yearslong crackdown, which has ensnared more than 4.7 million party officials, allowed the Chinese leader to remake the party leadership and place those loyal to him in key positions. Half of his targets appear to be politically motivated. Xi also implemented a series of ideological, institutional and organizational changes that led to the concentration of even more power around him. Xi's efforts to extend his term or remain in power indefinitely could have a destabilizing effect on the party. It could jeopardize the established procedure of transfer of power and aggravate the risk of intraparty power struggles. There will be a major leadership reshuffle at the congress, with several members of the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee - the CCP's most powerful organ - expected to step down. The final decision will be dictated by Xi, and his preference as well as these individuals' political loyalty will be the key criteria. Potential successors include current Vice Premier Hu and Wang, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, currently the party's fourth-highest ranking official. Wang may be more suitable than Hu as he has worked well with Xi over the last five years, handling issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet. Premier Li is set to retire in March 2023. (Source: DW)

Thursday 13 October 2022  A rare protest against Chinese leader Xi has taken place in China ahead of a historic Communist Party congress. The rally in Beijing's northwestern Haidian district today was swiftly ended by police and security personnel. The demonstrators unfurled banners bearing several slogans on a bridge. One banner read: "Overthrow the dictator and thief of the country Xi. Another called for an end to strict COVID-19 policies. "We don't want COVID tests, we want to eat; we don't want lockdowns, we want to be free, it read. (Source: SkyNews)

October 11, 2022  "For the first time in a generation, weakening China is now more important to the United States than working with China'. New measures will block sales of semiconductors vital for the development of artificial intelligence, supercomputers, and other critical technologies as well as expand prohibitions on the sale to China of equipment needed for making its own advanced chips. Such chips not only are vital to the latest weaponry but also have broad commercial applications, from health care to autonomous vehicles. And in a novel move, the actions also forbid U.S. companies and citizens from working with Chinese entities on advanced semiconductor design, research, or fabrication. Americans - mostly Chinese or Taiwanese dual citizens - work in some of the most important positions. The more the control regime expands, the more acute the conflict will become between the administration and U.S. companies. Shares in U.S. chipmakers plunged following the announcement; the stocks of the most affected companies, such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, are down almost 60 percent this year. They were notified in advance of the coming restrictions. China is the most important global market for semiconductor exports, and the commercial success of U.S. chip companies depends in no small part on access to China’s market. Chip sales to China are down 25 percent so far this year, and semiconductor equipment sales have fallen 15 percent. Boston Consulting Group has estimated that a complete ban on U.S. chip sales to China would cost U.S. semiconductor firms 18 percent of their global market share and 37 percent of their revenues. The goal appears to be to freeze China’s ability to make or acquire logic chips below the 14-nanometer node, well above the current leading-edge capabilities of 5 nanometers or less. (The smaller the node, the more advanced the chip.) The Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China’s largest chipmaker, announced in August that it had started shipping 7-nanometer semiconductors, just one generation behind the most advanced chips fabricated in Taiwan and South Korea. (Source: ForeignPolicy)

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2022. VIII. 1 - 10. United States

2022.08.14. 01:52 Eleve

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United States
08/10/2022  The FBI’s handling of the Pennsylvania Republican Perry represents a rare step against a sitting member of Congress. He said this week that the FBI had seized his cell phone. Perry took part in a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting at the White House with lawmakers in the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus, which Perry chairs, during which they discussed strategies to block or delay certification of Biden’s victory on Jan. 6. The Jan. 6 select panel received testimony from  Hutchinson, a former top aide to Meadows who told the select committee that Perry had been supportive of floated plans to call on Trump supporters to march on the Capitol. (Source: Politico)

August 10, 2022  Agents on August 8, Monday, searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which is also a private club, as part of a federal investigation into whether the former president took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence. What prompted the Justice Department to seek authorization to search the estate for classified documents now, months after it was revealed that Trump had taken boxes of materials with him when he left the White House after losing the 2020 election? The Justice Department has been investigating the potential mishandling of classified information since the National Archives and Records Administration said it had received from Mar-a-Lago 15 boxes of White House records, including documents containing classified information, earlier this year. The National Archives said Trump should have turned over that material upon leaving office, and it asked the Justice Department to investigate. There are multiple federal laws governing the handling of classified records and sensitive government documents, including statutes that make it a crime to remove such material and retain it at an unauthorized location. Current FBI Director Wray was appointed by Trump five years ago. Trump repeatedly criticized him, as president. Trump was in New York, a thousand or so miles away, at the time of the search. Trump faces an array of inquiries tied to his conduct in the waning days of his administration. A separate grand jury is investigating efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election - which led to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol - and it all adds to potential legal peril for Trump as he lays the groundwork for a potential repeat run for the White House. Trump and his allies quickly sought to cast the search as a weaponization of the criminal justice system and a Democratic-driven effort to keep him from winning another term in 2024. Trump, disclosing the search late Monday, asserted that agents had opened a safe at his home, and he described their work as an “unannounced raid” that he likened to “prosecutorial misconduct.” Trump’s Vice President Pence, a potential 2024 rival, tweeted today, “Yesterday’s action undermines public confidence in our system of justice and Attorney General Garland must give a full accounting to the American people as to why this action was taken and he must do so immediately.” (Source: AP)

Wednesday, 8/10/22  Monday, at about 10 a.m. EST, FBI agents and technicians showed up at Trump's Florida home to execute a search warrant to obtain any government-owned documents that might be in the possession of Trump but are required to be delivered to the Archives under the provisions of the 1978 Presidential Records Act. (In response to the Clinton email scandal, Trump himself signed a law in 2018 that made it a felony to remove and retain classified documents.) The act establishes that presidential records are the property of the U.S. government and not a president's private property. The law imposes strict penalties for failure to comply. "Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined" $2,000, up to three years in prison or "shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States." A year-and-a-half ago, there were immediate questions raised by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) as to whether the presidential records turned over to the federal agency for historical preservation were complete or not. The former president said that he was returning any official records to the Archives. In February, Archivist Ferriero testified before Congress that the Trump camp had returned 15 boxes of documents to the Archives and in those materials, the Archives discovered items "marked as classified national security information."  In the past week, Florida magistrate Judge Reinhart in West Palm Beach signed a search warrant allowing the FBI to look for relevant material. A convoy of unmarked black SUVs and a Ryder rental truck filled with about three dozen FBI special agents and technicians entered the gates in the early evening. Trump attorney Halligan was present during the multi-hour search. (Source: NewsWeek)

Mon, Aug 8 2022  Biden authorizes largest yet weapons package for Ukraine, bringing U.S. commitment to $9.8 billion. It includes munitions for long-range weapons and armored medical transport vehicles. The package consists of additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems or HIMARS, 75,000 rounds of 155 mm artillery ammunition, 20 120 mm mortar systems and 20,000 rounds of 120 mm mortar ammunition as well as munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems or NASAMS. The HIMARS, manufactured by defense giant Lockheed Martin, are designed to shoot a variety of missiles from a mobile 5-ton truck and have sat high on Ukrainian wish lists. ’The U.S. was not sending HIMARS in this latest package, only ammunition for the system’. The U.S. has thus far provided 16 HIMARS to Ukraine. The Pentagon will also send 1,000 Javelins, hundreds of AT4 anti-armor systems, 50 armored medical treatment vehicles, anti-personnel munitions, explosives, demolition munitions and demolition equipment. The weapons come directly from U.S. stockpiles. (Source: CNBC)

Sat, August 6, 2022  It’s like a random number generator. In the first two years of the pandemic, Congress passed three COVID relief packages totaling $190 billion in aid for education systems.  But schools were given little guidance on how to effectively use the money to keep their students safe. Instead, they frantically bought up whatever technology they were told could keep their doors open. In August 2020, with COVID-19 outbreaks proliferating and back to school plans shifting, U.S. tech vendors popped up, promising a solution. Companies came out of the woodwork, ready to make a pandemic profit. They were selling thermal imaging cameras and scanners that they said could screen large groups of students for virus-related fevers in real time. They didn’t work. Districts were sold technology by an industry which experts compare to the “wild west,” and how now in many instances, the scanners sit dormant in schools, gathering dust. X.Labs, run by a former fugitive and fraudster wanted in South Africa, and SafeCheck USA, started by two Miami real estate brothers who describe themselves as “power agents,” convinced schools to spend millions of federal funds on devices. Another company, Hikvision, half-owned by the Chinese state, has been widely condemned for supplying cameras for an intelligence program aimed at tracking and detaining the Uyghur population in China. In May of this year, it was reported that the U.S. was moving towards imposing sanctions on Hikvision for human rights abuses, which would be the first of its kind on a Chinese company. The company - along with surveillance manufacturer Dahua, another partly Chinese state-owned surveillance manufacturer whose thermal cameras are in U.S. schools - was banned from use by U.S. federal agencies in 2018 and blacklisted by the Department of Commerce in 2019. The Fayette County Public Schools District in north central Georgia spent nearly $500,000 on Hikvision cameras for its 40,000 student population - which ended up being used for only a year - in October 2020 the scanners were producing a lot of “false positives,” prompting a member of the education board to suggest they “should get a refund.” The security of Hikvision and Dahua’s camera software has been compromised in the past, with potential loopholes for malicious hackers to take control of devices remotely. Dahua admitted their devices were vulnerable to mass hacking. SafeCheck USA was another company that sprang up at the start of the pandemic, founded by brothers Kakon. According to their website, they specialize in luxury real estate, and also led a drug rehabilitation center and a cryptocurrency company. SafeCheck advertised walk-through body temperature scanners that could screen up to 70 people per minute. However: “Thermal imaging systems have not been shown to be accurate when used to take the temperature of multiple people at the same time,” the FDA told. SafeCheck has made nearly $2.2 million in sales across public agencies for 55 schools. The company received shipments from a Chinese company Shenzhen Jinjian Era Technology Co, similarly branded as “SafeAgle. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did alert the public about the improper use of thermal devices in March 2021. The agency agreed that thermal imaging “is not effective at determining if someone has COVID-19 and should not be used to identify/diagnose individuals that have COVID-19.” SafeCheck’s last sale was in August 2021. The global thermal imaging camera market was valued at $3.16 billion in 2020, and is expected to grow by further $1 billion in the next four years. It seems to be that surveillance companies will constantly pivot to sell their software as a solution to whatever we fear most. Now, with little trace of Feevr, X.Labs has pivoted back to selling weapon detection systems to schools.  (Source: Yahoo)

August 5, 2022  Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán yesterday told a crowd of conservatives in Dallas that the future of “Western civilization” is in peril - attacking progressives while imploring right-wing Americans and Hungarians to “know how to fight,” opening the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference. Making frequent attacks on progressives, communists and the “leftist media,” Orbán said the horrors of World War II were the result of European countries abandoning Christian values. “And today’s progressives are planning to do the same,” he said. “They want to give up on Western values and create a new world - a post-Western world.  Who is going to stop them if we don’t?” He painted himself as a defender of Christian values against migration from majority Muslim countries. He has also frequently demonized the LGBTQ community. While the cavernous exhibit hall was only about half-full, Orbán received a raucous welcome to the conference. “Welcome to Texas!” one woman shouted as Orbán took the stage. Some of the heaviest applause from the crowd came after Orbán mentioned a clause in the Hungarian constitution that defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. “To sum up, the mother is a woman, the father is a man, and leave our teens alone,” he said. “We decided we don’t need more genders.… Less drag queens, and more Norris. We believe there is no freedom without order. If there is no order, you get killed.” Orbán has become increasingly embraced by American conservatives - he’s a frequent guest of Carlson on Fox News and visited former President Trump in New Jersey before coming to Texas.  Some CPAC attendees tried distancing themselves and the American conservative movement from the strongman’s rhetoric. Tolles, 66, is attending the conference with wife, Maggie, who is Filipina. “We’re a mixed race marriage, so a lot depends on how far he goes with that rhetoric.” But Tolles added that he has “a lot of respect” for Orbán because he is trying to preserve European civilization “against the hordes trying to come in.” ’Unfortunately, he saw his political fortunes not in maintaining that early model of his party, but really quite the opposite - to play on society’s fear of  immigration, to promote a nationalist view of Hungary or even an emphasis on its Hungarian Christian roots that made many of us uneasy,” Rabbi Baker, the director of International Jewish Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, said. He first met Orbán in Budapest in the early 1990s, before Orbán’s first term as prime minister. “But it gave him success and we see what that has meant.” Baker said Orbán avoids explicit antisemitism, but “he’s often flirted with traditional antisemitic tropes.” “We’ve certainly seen in campaigns the way he’s used Soros as sort of an individual figure to hold up for special attack,” Baker said, referencing the Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire who frequently donates to progressive causes. ’It makes many people uneasy to see an international financier shoulder the blame for all the ills society might face.’ Orbán repeated some of those tropes at CPAC yesterday. “Let’s be honest, the most heinous things in modern history were carried out by people who hated Christianity,” he said.  “Don’t be afraid calling your enemies by their name. Consider for example Soros …  He believes in none of the things that we do, and he has an army at his service.” “He uses his army to force his will on opponents like us. He thinks that what is dear to all of us led to the horrors of the 20th century. But the case is exactly the opposite. Our values save us from repeating history’s mistakes,” Orbán said. After Orbán’s speech, about a half-dozen people held a small protest in the hotel’s atrium, (Source: TheDallasMorningNews)

Fri, August 5, 2022   The "Dark Brandon" vs lame duck debate goes on. A comically sinister cartoon character dubbed "Dark Brandon" started going viral on Twitter this week, invented by depressed leftists, angry that their centrist president was failing to get things done - and added death ray eyes. All of a sudden, mainstream Democrats are embracing "Dark Brandon" as their own, rebranding him to a kind of political terminator. "Dark Brandon cannot be stopped," reads one caption over a portrait of Biden with deeply tanned skin and fiery yellow eyes. Check the headlines: Friday, Biden gets a blockbuster jobs report showing US unemployment back to a half-century low.  Monday, Biden announces the United States has killed Zawahiri, the last big name of the 9/11-era Al-Qaeda leadership. A few days before that, Congress passes a $52 billion investment package boosting semiconductor manufacturing.  But a large majority of Americans - from left and right - don't think he's on the right track. They blame him for Democratic infighting in Congress, for declaring victory too soon over Covid last year, for the ugly exit from Afghanistan, and for four-decades-high inflation. The poll gives Biden a 35 percent overall approval rating, with just 30 percent on the economy, and only 26 percent believing he is "up to the challenges facing the US." The naysayers include a growing number of Democratic members of Congress. Biden would be a record 86 years old by the end of a second term. "The president intends to run in 2024," Press Secretary Jean-Pierre has repeatedly declared. (Source: Yahoo)

August 5, 2022  Monkeypox is disproportionately affecting men who have sex with men, latest CDC breakdown shows. There were 2,891 cases of monkeypox reported in the United States by July 22, about two months after the country's first case was reported. 94% were in men who reported recent sexual or close intimate contact with another man.  More than half (54%) of cases were among Black and Hispanic people, a group that represents about a third (34%) of the general US population.  And the share of cases among Black people has grown in recent weeks, according to the CDC analysis. A genital rash was more commonly reported in the current outbreak. It was the most common location for rash (46%), followed by arms (40%), face (38%) and legs (37%).  More than a third of cases with available data reported rash in four or more regions. Anyone with a rash consistent with monkeypox should be tested for the virus. A substantial proportion of monkeypox cases have been reported among people with HIV, who may be at higher risk of severe illness. (Source: CNN)

Thu, August 4, 2022  What went wrong with the monkeypox response? Testing was the first thing that went wrong early in the spread of COVID-19 and again has been a problem with monkeypox. Tests for monkeypox initially had to be sent to the CDC for confirmation, drastically limiting the number that could be done.  Some people tried for days to be tested, and others with obvious symptoms tested negative, possibly because health care providers aren't used to having to collect samples from skin lesions. Clinicians still have to get their state department of health to authorize every monkeypox test. Two smallpox vaccines were developed years ago and approved for use against monkeypox. The federal government has a large supply of one, ACAM2000, but that vaccine carries severe side effects and risks, so few doses have been administered. Officials have relied on Jynneos, a vaccine that seems to work well with few problems, though it has never been tried before during an actual monkeypox outbreak. The government did not immediately order Jynneos doses released. Officials apparently were afraid the doses might be needed someday against smallpox instead of recognizing that they were needed immediately against monkeypox. The government has since ordered more doses, and more than 1 million have been made available, but demand still seems to outstrip supply in many places. More doses won't be available for months. Similarly, an antiviral treatment called TPOXX that appears to work well against monkeypox has been tied up in bureaucracy and is difficult for patients to access. Officials have alternated between saying there's no problem and blaming the CDC. What will happen over Labor Day, when Black Gay Pride is celebrated in Atlanta?  If action isn't taken quickly to avert a superspreader event, you might expect to see the virus seed itself across the rural South. The Biden administration announced this week the establishment of a National Monkeypox Response Team with both logistical and public health experience - the fire department is getting organized 2½ months after the fire has started. (Source: USAToday)

Thursday, August 04, 2022  Sen. Paul, the Republican ranking member of a Homeland Security subcommittee that focuses on emerging threats and spending oversight, convened a congressional hearing yesterday to scrutinize gain-of-function research - a risky method used to manipulate pathogens that make viruses more transmissible or dangerous. Paul has accused the National Institutes of Health of funding such research that could have led to the global coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t think the people doing the research are able to adequately and objectively regulate themselves,” he said.  “I don’t think an absolute ban is what we want. We want better oversight of this.” Paul believes Covid-19 was accidentally leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Yesterday, Paul brought three scientists before his subcommittee to explain gain of function, its risks and rewards. Ebright, a microbiology laboratory director at Rutgers University, Quay, the CEO of Atossa Therapeutics and Esvelt, a professor at the MIT Media Lab, all agreed that gain of function research needs to be better defined and have more oversight. Ebright said a main reason gain-of-function research is performed is because it is fast, easy and attracts funding, but stopped short of saying it should be completely eliminated. Quay, on the other hand, said it would be appropriate for the U.S. to halt all gain-of-function research, at least temporarily. Besides Paul, only four other Republican senators attended the hearing to question the scientists. No Democratic senator appeared.  “Gain of function research has the potential to unleash a global pandemic that threatens the lives of millions, yet this is the first time the issue’s been discussed in a congressional committee,” Paul said.  He acknowledged the hearing was the beginning of a long process to produce legislation.  He said he welcomed other scientists, including virologists, to offer future testimony that could produce bipartisan legislation. (Source: McClatchyDC)

04.08.2022   The US-based Free Buryatia Foundation was founded in March 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine by opponents of the war in Buryatia and the global Buryatia diaspora.  It advocates for Buryatia's democratic self-determination, (Source: DW)

Thursday, 4 August 2022  Ukrainian top intelligence official reveals US involvement in missile strikes against Russia. Today, a spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry, Lt. Gen Konashenkov, stated that “contrary to White House and Pentagon claims, [the US] is directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine.” Konashenkov’s statement came in response to Monday’s interview by the British Telegraph with the Major General Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service. In the interview, Skibitsky acknowledged that Ukraine was not only using US-manufactured and -delivered HIMARS long-range missiles to target Russian fuel and ammunition depots and battlefield headquarters in eastern Ukraine, but that Ukraine was also relying on 'real-time information' in these strikes. The US is directly involved in the decision-making process for Ukrainian military strikes on Russian targets: The Telegraph paraphrased Skibitsky as saying that before every strike, discussions took place between the US and Ukraine 'that would allow Washington to stop any potential attacks if they were unhappy with the intended target.'  In his statement, Konashenkov declared that this represented an official recognition by Ukraine that “the Biden administration [that] is directly responsible for all rocket attacks approved by Kyiv on residential areas and civilian infrastructure facilities in settlements of Donbas and other regions that caused mass deaths of civilians.”  He added that the Russian military “has marked it and will keep in mind this official confession.” Following Skibitsky’s provocative revelations, the Pentagon issued a statement, merely declaring that the US was providing Ukraine with 'detailed, time-sensitive information to help them understand the threats they face and defend their country against Russian aggression.' The US involvement in the imperialist proxy war against Russia has become ever more overt and provocative in recent months. After ramming through a record $40 billion for weapons for Ukraine in Congress, on top of billions of direct military aid pledged by the White House to Ukraine since February 24 alone, the US began delivering HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) to Ukraine in late May. They are now being used for a major offensive by the Ukrainian army, which is seeking to reconquer parts of southern Ukraine that have been occupied by Russia. In July, a Pentagon spokesman refused to preclude that these missiles would be used to attack the Russian-built Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea with the Russian mainland. Since then, the US has publicly acknowledged that it is considering plans to send fighter jets to Ukraine, a move that, as US President Biden stated just a few months ago, could ’start World War III.’ The statements by Skibitsky to a leading British newspaper and the marked absence of an explicit denial by the Pentagon mark yet another major provocation of Washington against Russia. Skibitsky’s interview was published the same day as the first grain shipment from Ukraine since the start of the NATO-provoked war left the Black Sea city of Odessa, heading for the port of Tripoli, Lebanon. The ship’s departure marked the beginning of a 120-day deal brokered by the UN and Turkey and signed by Russia and Ukraine in July. A Joint Coordination Center (JCC) located in Istanbul is charged with overseeing the export of Ukrainian grain throughout the 120-day timeframe. The White House has been conspicuously absent from the negotiations around the deal with the US press insisting that it had no prospect of succeeding. (Source: WSWS)

Aug. 3, 2022  Eli Lilly & Co. said it plans to begin commercial sales of its Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment to states, hospitals and other healthcare providers beginning the week of Aug. 15t, as the federal government’s supply of the drug is nearly depleted. It will likely be the first test of whether the vaccines and treatments would remain accessible if shifted to a commercial market. Previously, Lilly sold all of its Covid-19 antibody doses for use in the U.S. via contracts with the federal government. But the government will exhaust its supply of Lilly’s Covid-19 antibody treatment, bebtelovimab - which was introduced in 2022 and has held up against the more transmissible Omicron variant and its BA.5 subvariant - as early as the week of Aug. 22. Bebtelovimab is authorized to treat mild to moderate Covid-19 in nonhospitalized people age 12 and older who are at high risk for severe disease, when the antiviral treatments Paxlovid and Veklury are unavailable or aren’t clinically appropriate for a patient. It is typically given via intravenous injection by a medical provider. Lilly’s list price for bebtelovimab is $2,100 per dose. In June, Lilly agreed to supply an additional 150,000 doses of bebtelovimab to the U.S. government for about $275 million. That was expected to meet demand through late August. The Biden administration had used congressional pandemic rescue funds to cover Covid-19 vaccines and treatments for people without health coverage, but the initiative’s funding ran out in spring. Eight percent of Americans lacked health insurance as of 2022. Without new appropriations from Congress, the government lacks funds to purchase more doses from Lilly, too. Lilly booked $1.47 billion in global sales of Covid antibodies in the first quarter of 2022, following $2.24 billion in sales for full-year 2021. The seven-day average of new hospital admissions for Covid-19 was 6,370 for the week ending July 29, up from 1,438 for the week ending April 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thirty-one percent of people age 50 or older. (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)

Tuesday, August 2, (2022)  The US announced a new tranche of weapons for Ukraine’s forces worth $550m, including ammunition for rocket launchers and artillery guns. The package will include more ammunition for the high mobility advanced rocket systems otherwise known as HIMARS. The assistance includes 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition. (Source: AlJazeera)

August 1, 2022  It was an intelligence operation. Rogan: Epstein may have been CIA or Mossad spy who was part of a plot to collect sensitive information about the rich and powerful. They were bringing in people and compromising them, to influence their opinions and the way they expressed those opinions. “And I don’t know why they would want to do that with scientists, which is really strange to me,” Rogan added.  In 2020, Harvard found that the university accepted more than $9 million from Epstein during the decade leading up to his 2008 sex crimes conviction in Florida state court, but barred him from making further donations after that point. It concluded that Epstein visited the Cambridge, Mass., campus more than 40 times after his conviction, including as recently as 2018.  Nowak, a Harvard professor who had close ties to Epstein and who allegedly gave him an office on campus, was disciplined by the school. The former director of MIT’s famous Media Lab, Ito, resigned in 2019 amid uproar over his financial connections to Epstein. Epstein allegedly assaulted dozens of girls, some as young as 14 years old. His madam, Maxwell, 60, was sentenced last month to 20 years in federal prison for procuring young girls in Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. Maxwell’s late father was rumored to have had ties with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. ’Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019’. Rogan's podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," commands an audience of some 11 million listeners. (Source: TheNewYorkPost)

Mon, August 1, 2022  More people are catching coronavirus a second time, heightening long COVID risk, experts say. According to a preprint study examining U.S. veterans, of which Al-Aly was the lead author, getting infected twice or more "contributes to additional risks of all-cause mortality, hospitalization and adverse health outcomes" in various organ systems, and can additionally worsen risk for diabetes, fatigue and mental health disorders. Another report, observing triple-vaccinated Italian healthcare workers who weren't hospitalized for COVID-19, found that two or three doses of vaccine were associated with a lower prevalence of long COVID. The official case tallies are probably vast undercounts, given that so many at-home tests are being used, and that could suggest that the burden of long COVID in subsequent months will be hard to predict. (Source: LosAngelesTimes)

1 August 2022  Pelosi's plane, a C-40 B/C plane is the military's version of the Boeing 737-700 business jet. The speaker's first stop was  in Hawaii, then on to Guam landing at Anderson Air Force Base before arriving in Singapore today morning.  (Source: DailyMail)
Some comments: 'Guess Nancy and Joe are neck deep in Chinese yuan they now need to pay it back. What better way than to create a reason for China to invade Taiwan.';
'Modern China is the USA,s and Britains creation. Decades training it's students, allowing China to buy technology companies, and outsourcing everything. Now you pay the price'

August 1, 2022 Aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) and big deck amphibious ships USS America (LHA-6) and USS Tripoli (LHA-7), with Marine F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters embarked, are operating in the vicinity of Taiwan, on the edge of the South China Sea ahead of a Western Pacific visit from U.S. House Speaker Rep. Pelosi (D-Calif.) to the region. Today, Japan-based Reagan is in the Philippine Sea after transiting the San Bernadino Strait in July 30 following a port visit to Singapore and operating in the South China Sea. Japan-based America is in the East China Sea. Its F-35Bs were not grounded as part of the ongoing ejection seat problems.  California-based Tripoli is in just south of Okinawa. Tripoli has been embarked with up to 20 F-35Bs, while America routinely deploys with Marine F-35Bs. Pelosi arrived in Singapore today as part of a congressional delegation to the region after a stop in Hawaii that included a brief with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Her official itinerary did not include Taiwan. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and discourages governments from dealing with Taipei directly. Pelosi would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. (Source: USNINews)

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2022. VIII. 2 - 10. China, Taiwan

2022.08.13. 01:10 Eleve

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China
August 10, 2022  China’s state council has proposed imposing Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” policy on Taiwan and said it would not renounce the use of force to take the island. The proposals, contained within the first state council white paper on Taiwan in two decades, reveal Beijing’s long-term plans for the democratic island. China’s state council said that after unification, Taiwan would be allowed to implement a social system that was different from that of the mainland and “continue to operate under a high degree of autonomy”. The same commitment was made to Hong Kong in 1997 but the semi-autonomous region has since had dozens of pro-democracy leaders thrown in jail, newspapers shut down, and patriotic education enforced through national security laws. The state council said today that Taiwanese compatriots “who support reunification of the country and rejuvenation of the nation will be the masters of the region”. It said peaceful unification would allow Taiwan to integrate into China’s economic and social development but warned that resistance could cause it to be taken by force. “We will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures,” the state council white paper said. “Use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances.” In a direct attack on the Democratic People’s Party, the paper accused Tsai’s government of being a key driver of the separatist movement and attempts “to prevent the Chinese nation’s great rejuvenation”. The government of President Tsai won a landslide re-election in 2020 on a platform of remaining separate but not officially independent of China. Tsai has reiterated Taiwan’s policy is to maintain the status quo. The number of Taiwanese in favour of unification with China has dropped sharply over the past decade as China has become more authoritarian under President Xi. A yearly poll conducted by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation shows only 11 per cent of Taiwanese favour unification, while 26.4 per cent want to maintain the status quo and 46.6 per cent want Taiwan to become officially independent. (Source: BrisbaneTimes)

Aug 8. 2022  Hong Kong will reduce the period of time people entering the city must spend in hotel quarantine to three days from seven. People arriving at Hong Kong’s international airport will be required to go to an approved quarantine hotel and, if they don’t have COVID-19, can then serve four days of health monitoring either at home or in a hotel. The reduction to the quarantine period follows the removal of flight suspensions last month. Arrivals also still face the prospect of being sent to a community isolation facility should they test positive on one of the copious number of tests they’ll be required to take. Rooms are in short supply and costs are high, while anyone who is infected in the days before their trip is forced to delay travel. Travelers will also face a busy schedule of tests. Officials also unveiled a tiered health-code system reminiscent of what’s used in mainland China. A yellow code will be given to inbound travelers, which they’ll keep until they finished health surveillance, while anyone testing positive will be given a red code. A blue code will be shown in the city’s LeaveHomeSafe app once the quarantine or health monitoring period has ended. An isolation facility with 3,000 units at the site of the city’s old airport has just been launched, with the security minister highlighting sea views from some of the rooms in a social media post. The city reported more than 4,000 infections yesterday. (Source JapanTimes)

Aug 8, 2022  New virus in China with animal to human transmission. Experts believe it could be lethal, though no death reports have come up so far. (Source: NTD)

8 August 2022  China's military says it is continuing large-scale military drills around Taiwan after its previously announced live fire exercises ended yesterday. The Chinese army's Eastern Theatre Command said that it would practice anti-submarine attacks and sea raids. The renewed activity around Taiwan comes after Chinese maritime authorities announced that drills would also take place in other locations. In the Yellow Sea - located between China and the Korean peninsula - new daily military drills were due to start from Saturday, August 6, until the middle of August, and include live-fire exercises. In addition, a month-long military operation in one area of the Bohai sea - north of the Yellow Sea - started on Saturday. (Source: BBC)

Sunday, August 7, 2022  COVID lockdown turns Chinese tourist hotspot Sanya into nightmare for stranded tourists. The tropical southern island of Hainan in the South China Sea recorded just two positive symptomatic COVID-19 cases in the whole of last year. This month the number of cases has suddenly soared, prompting a lockdown in the city of Sanya and leaving tens of thousands of tourists stuck on the island. Sanya, the island's main tourist hub, imposed a lockdown yesterday and restricted transport links to try to stem the outbreak, even as some 80,000 visitors were enjoying its beaches at peak season. Many are now stuck inside hotels until next Saturday, if not longer. Sanya reported 689 symptomatic and 282 asymptomatic cases between Aug. 1 and Aug. 7. Other cities around Hainan province, including Danzhou, Dongfang, Lingshui, and Lingao, have all reported over a dozen cases in the same period. Yesterday, the sale of rail tickets out of Sanya was suspended. More than 80% of flights to and from Sanya had been cancelled. Hainan has been closed to overseas tourists for the past two and half years since China, in response to the pandemic, stopped issuing tourist visas and implemented strict quarantine rules. Sanya's government announced yesterday that tourists who have had their flights cancelled would be able to book hotel rooms at half price. Dozens of tourists today complained that they were still having to pay rates similar to the original prices. A foreign tourist who lives in China and was on honeymoon in Sanya, said that additional issues for stranded tourists included massive price hikes in food delivery fees, meal prices at hotels, as well as flight tickets out of Hainan. Food supplies in his hotel were also running low, he said. Sanya authorities have said that stranded tourists can leave the island starting next Saturday, August 13, provided they have done five COVID tests and obtained negative results for all of them. (Source: Reuters)

Aug 6 2022  China's state controlled media boasted it has rehearsed sinking US aircraft carriers using hypersonic missiles as part of a massive war games amid simmering tensions over Taiwan. Hypersonic missiles such as the DF-17 could be used, it claimed, to hit  "moving targets at sea". (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

August 6, 2022   The Chinese government has reacted with Pelosi’s visit by ending dialogue with Washington in key areas, including military-to-military talks, climate change, cross-border crime and drug trafficking, and the repatriation of illegal migrants. The eight countermeasures announced yesterday specifically cancel China-US Theatre Commanders meetings, China-US Defense Policy Coordination talks and China-US Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meetings. White House spokesperson Kirby announced further anti-China provocations, with US naval and air transits of the Taiwan Strait in the “next few weeks.” Taiwan is not only critical to China strategically but is home to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has a virtual monopoly on the production of the most advanced semiconductors vital for countless commercial and military applications. US imperialism is consciously exploiting Taiwan and endangering its population, in the same way as it has used Ukraine to provoke a war with Russia. It is seeking to provoke a conflict over the island and drag China into a military quagmire that will weaken and fracture the country. (Source: WSWS)

August 6, 2022  Jiang, the party leader from 1989 to 2002, had dabbled in creating a Chinese equivalent of the United States’ National Security Council, but political inertia stood in the way. His successor, Hu, increased spending on the military and domestic security, but let their chiefs turn them into fiefs where they promoted cronies and collected kickbacks, including company shares and hoards of cash and gems. One year after Mr. Xi took office, he announced before hundreds of senior officials that China would establish a National Security Commission. At the commission’s first meeting in 2014, Mr. Xi told officials that the threats demanded a “comprehensive view of national security.” Under this approach, domestic and foreign dangers were often seen through a prism of ideological rivalry with the West. Mr. Xi is the chairman of the National Security Commission. Through new rules and personnel appointments, Mr. Xi has made sure that this expanding system stays firmly in his hands. In 2019, when demonstrations filled streets in Hong Kong for months, protesters clashed with the police, Beijing warned that Hong Kong risked succumbing to a “color revolution” backed by Western governments. A senior aide of Mr. Xi, Ding, is widely believed to be head of the Commission’s administrative office, steering its operations. The chief deputy in the office is Chen, the minister of state security. The commission is one of the most secretive bodies of a secretive state. Its size, staffing and powers remain unclear. Its officials rarely meet foreigners. The full membership gathers roughly once a year, like other top bodies of Chinese leaders. Mentions of the security meetings usually emerge only on local party websites summarizing its orders for officials. The national commission established local security committees across provinces, cities and counties. These local committees focus on domestic threats like protests and dissent. Chinese universities were pressed to observe and report on “ideological” problems among teachers and students, which included keeping track of their online comments. Security officials ordered cadres to closely monitor persistent protesters, people with histories of mental illness, former prisoners and others deemed risks to safety and stability. Party leaders approved China’s first full National Security Strategy, an internal document late last year, laying out broad goals through 2025. It calls for ensuring that China can provide more of its own food and core technology and for developing ways to defuse social unrest before it erupts. China must deepen its partnership with Russia to withstand international threats, says the new, 150-page textbook on Mr. Xi’s “comprehensive outlook on national security”, whose authors include officials from the National Security Commission. To Mr. Xi, national security is a “people’s war,” enlisting not just military officers, but also elementary schoolteachers and neighborhood workers. On each National Security Education Day on April 15, children have lessons about dangers that include food poisoning and fires, spies and terrorists. It reminded the pupils of the Ministry of State Security’s phone number for reporting anything suspicious. Neighborhoods have founded “National Security People’s Line-of-Defense” groups to ferret out potential dissidents and “suspicious” foreigners. The Ministry of State Security recently offered rewards of up to $15,000 for citizens who report information on security crimes. “This evil wind of ‘color revolution’ has never ceased,” Wang, a party official in China’s office for Hong Kong affairs, wrote recently in a new Chinese journal on national security. “Like the Covid virus, it constantly mutates.” Under these pressures, China is becoming a country where - as in grim eras in its past - vigilance can easily spiral into paranoia. Internally that’s how officials think now: behind every problem, every protest, is also a plot. As Mr. Xi prepares to claim a breakthrough third term as leader at a Communist Party congress this fall, he has signaled that national security will be even more of a focus. Strains over Covid and pandemic restrictions, superpower divisions deepened by Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as rising food and energy prices, are part of a constant onslaught of challenges. In the run-up to the congress, officials have been gathering in meetings to reverently study the new textbook that explains Mr. Xi’s vision. “Unless political security is assured, the country will inevitably fall apart, scattering like a box of sand, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will be out of the question,” the book says. “Pursuing absolute security is, first, unrealistic; second, too costly; and third, will harm the country in pursuing other values,” Jia, a professor at Peking University who is a senior member of a Chinese government consultative council, wrote in a Chinese journal this year. (Source: dnyuz)

Aug 5 2022   China is convinced it now needs to hit America "hard and early " in a surprise Pearl Harbor-style attack to invade Taiwan, Mastro, a fellow at Stanford University and a former China analyst at the Pentagon, told. Earlier this year, she suggested such an attack could see America lose a war to China in a week as it struggled to get its forces in place to prevent an invasion of Taiwan. Beijing increasingly views an invasion of the island as inseparable from a war with the US. “I met with some Chinese government officials this morning and they communicated to me that the status quo has been broken,” she said. “Now they have an opportunity to build a new status quo and that’s going to be one more beneficial for them in which they’re present and operating because this exacerbates the US problem of early warning. “There will be large scale mobilisations and exercises that are basically combat rehearsals. “If it becomes routine for China to be engaging in mass mobilisations then it’s harder for the United States to know if it’s a blockade of Taiwan or just an exercise.” Japan, South Korea and the island of Guam are just some of the locations which serve the US army, navy and air force near China and Taiwan. Guam has 6,000 servicemen on the island, South Korea hosts 26,000, while Japan has 56,000. And the main source of power for Washington in the region is the mighty Seventh Fleet. The fleet deploys between 50 to 70 warships, including aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers, cruisers and assault ships. Some 27,000 sailors and marines are service with the fleet - which also has around 150 aircraft. And at the core of the fleet is the Fifth Carrier Strike Group, currently headed by USS Ronald Reagan - which is currently operating close to Taiwan. In recent book Defending Taiwan foreign policy experts Brands and Beckley warned too, the war could begin with China launching a pre-emptive strike on US forces. The experts, who penned the chapter "Getting Ready for a Long War" in the book for the American Enterprise Institute, argue the US is preparing for the "wrong kind of war" over Taiwan. Both sides are readying their militaries for a "splendid little war". But they warn Chinese and US military leaders will instead end up getting a long, grinding conflict with an overt risk of a nuclear exchange. They warn the "most worrying" scenario would see Beijing attempt to launch a "surprise missile attack" on American forces in Asia. Chinese military doctrine demands that they attempt to "paralyse the enemy in one stroke" - and they warn "by the time the [US] was ready to fight, the war might effectively be over". Brands and Beckley describe how Beijing will seek to blunt any response by the US. The massive assault would then be followed by  cyberattacks and anti-satellite operations to try sow chaos and stop any effective response by Taiwan and the US. They go on: "And the PLA would race through the window of opportunity, staging amphibious and airborne assaults that would overwhelm Taiwanese resistance." "By the time the United States was ready to fight, the war might effectively be over." Military exercises have been launched just 12 miles from the island, with 100 warplanes, missiles being fired, and tanks gathering on beaches. State controlled media has been turning up the heat on the rhetoric, referring to the drills as "rehearsals for the reunification operation". (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

August 4, 2022  China says it conducted "precision missile strikes" in the Taiwan Strait today as part of military exercises that have raised tensions in the region to their highest level in decades. The drills are due to run from today to Sunday, August 7, and include missile strikes on targets in the seas north and south of the island in an echo of the last major Chinese military drills held in 1995 and 1996. China has given no word on numbers of troops and military assets involved. The exercises appear to be the largest held near Taiwan in geographical terms. The exercises involved troops from the navy, air force, rocket force, strategic support force and logistic support force. (Source: Nikkei)

2022-08-03  The English-language Global Times news outlet, which is aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, included in a post early today that conventional missiles are expected to fly over the island of Taiwan for the first time. It is clearly designed to intimidate the people of Taiwan and underscore the threat of Chinese missiles to the island. (Source: USNews)

Aug 3 2022   China has announced a series of live-fire military exercises around Taiwan, with the Eastern Theatre Command saying that "joint naval and air exercises will be conducted in the northern, southwestern, and southeastern sea and airspaces" of the island. It is also set tomorrow to begin further live-fire military drills in zones encircling Taiwan - at some points within just 12 miles of the island's shore. Commercial ships and flights have been warned to avoid these areas during these times. The drills will include "long-range live ammunition shooting" in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland China and straddles vital shipping lanes. China could potentially keep up this level of aerial war games for days if not weeks, stretching Taiwan's smaller airforce as it seeks to drive away planes. If China disrupts shipping in the Taiwan Strait, a key global trade route, this could harm its own economy. Rumours are flying of a possible missile test close to Taiwan as an act of provocation. (Source: TheU.S.Sun)

Tuesday, August 2, 2022  Beijing announced six exclusion zones encircling Taiwan to facilitate live-fire military drills from today to Sunday, with some of the areas crossing into the island’s territorial waters. The size and scope of the areas could set the stage for the Chinese military’s most provocative actions near Taiwan in decades. The Taiwan Strait is the primary route for ships passing from China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to points west. Almost half of the global container fleet and 88% of the world’s largest ships by tonnage passed through the waterway this year. (Source: msn)

Taiwan
August 09, 2022  Taiwan's military commenced a live-fire artillery drill simulating defence against an attack. (Source: TheWeek)

6 August 2022   A top Taiwan defence ministry official leading a missile production unit was found dead today morning in a hotel room, reported government-controlled Central News Agency (CNA). Ou, who was the deputy head of the Taiwan defence ministry’s research and development unit, died from a heart attack. (Source: TheIndependent)

Thu, August 4, 2022 Dire shortage of pilots. The PLA fired 11 missiles into waters near the island today, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said, as part of China’s most provocative exercises in decades. Japan said late today it estimated at least some of those missiles flew over Taiwan - which would be the first time that had occurred - and landed in waters in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. PLA aircraft made some 960 forays into Taiwan’s air-defense identification zone last year, compared with about 380 in 2020. The busy schedule prevents experienced pilots from helping to train new ones. Taiwan requires 250 hours of flight training before a pilot can fly a fighter jet like the F-16. Taipei is protected by a relatively large and modern fleet of fighter jets. But the democratically governed island could need as many as 50 years at the current rate to train enough pilots to fill the cockpits of the jets they expect to get by the middle of this decade. American military commanders estimate Chinese President Xi may have the capability to take action across the Taiwan Strait in as soon as five years, and the daily incursions are wearing down Taiwan’s pilots and the jets they fly. Taiwan will need to add at least 100 more pilots by 2026 to operate the 66 more advanced Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16Vs that President Tsai agreed to buy two years ago. The Air Force only netted 21 new F-16 pilots from 2011 to 2019. About 80% of university students in Taiwan have myopia, due to long classroom hours and high-levels of screen time on electronic devices. The Seventh Flight Training Wing on the Chihhang Air Base in eastern Taitung city, located on the Pacific coast, will house the new F-16Vs, as well as 33 locally developed “Brave Eagle” advanced jet trainers by 2024. More than half of the 70-80 trainees annually at the center are now being sent to the F-16 wing. (Source: Yahoo)

August 2, 2022   The plane took a circuitous route that studiously avoided the South China Sea - which Beijing claims - before heading up the east coast of the Philippines. So many people were tracking the US military plane ferrying her on FlightRadar that the website said some users experienced outages. The 82-year-old lawmaker, who flew on a US military aircraft, being greeted at Taipei’s Songshan Airport by foreign minister Wu. Moscow said it was “absolutely in solidarity with China”, calling the prospect of a Pelosi visit “pure provocation”. (Source: InsiderPaper)

August 2, 2022 12:46 IST Chinese planes were flying close to the median line of the sensitive waterway today morning. Since yesterday several Chinese warships had remained close to the unofficial line dividing the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan's defence ministry had "reinforced" its combat alertness level from today morning to today noon. The Taiwan dollar slipped to its lowest levels in more than two years on the weaker side of 30 per US dollar and investor worries about a potential Pelosi visit and China's reaction appeared to be behind today's declines in China's yuan and north Asian stock markets. Taiwan newspaper Liberty Times said Pelosi's delegation was due to arrive at 10:20 pm (1420 GMT) today. (Source: IndiaToday)

08/02/2022  Two Chinese warships - a missile destroyer and a frigate - were spotted in international waters off the coast of Lanyu Island in eastern Taiwan early today morning, 45 nautical miles southeast of Lanyu at around 4 a.m.. Over the past two days, PLA reconnaissance vessels, as well as missile destroyers and frigates, have been plying waters southeast of Taiwan's Hualien County and Lanyu. The Chinese vessels seen off Lanyu early today were likely a Type 055 stealth guided missile destroyer and a Type 054A guided-missile frigate. The Type 055 frigate has both aerial and maritime surveillance capabilities, and its radar has a high-altitude operating range of 560 kilometers. There has been quite a lot of activity east of Taitung County in the Pacific Ocean these past few days. An unusual number of Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jets stationed at Zhi-Hang Air Base in Taitung. (Source: FocusTaiwan)

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2022. VIII. 1 - 10. Kosovo, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Europe

2022.08.13. 00:38 Eleve

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Kosovo
August 07, 2022   Kosovar authorities have launched an investigation into the August 6 shooting incident, in which they say 10 shots were fired at a border-surveillance unit attempting to launch a patrol boat in Lake Uyman near the town of Zubin Potok. Municipalities in northern Kosovo - including Zubin Potok, northern Mitrovica, Zvecan, and Leposaviq - are inhabited by an ethnic-Serbian majority in the mainly ethnic-Albanian country. Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have risen recently after Kosovo said it would require Serbs living in the north of the country and using Serbian car license plates to apply for plates issued by Kosovar authorities. Ethnic-Serbian protesters blocked border crossings in the region in protest at the requirements. Kosovar authorities agreed to delay implementation of the requirements for 30 days after the border barricades were removed. About 50,000 ethnic-Serbs live in the north of Kosovo, but they do not recognize the country’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, and they maintain close ties to Belgrade. (Source: RadioFreeEurope)

Russia
August 10, 2022  Experts say the situation at Zaporizhzhia - where 500 Russian soldiers and 50 pieces of heavy machinery, including tanks, are stationed, according to Ukraine - doesn't warrant warnings of a Europe-wide disaster. The risks from shelling are limited given the reactors are protected by up to 10 meters of concrete, according to Cizelj, president of the European Nuclear Society. He estimated that only a barrage of targeted aerial bombings would be likely to breach the reactor walls. An attack on spent fuel storage sites, he added, would have a limited effect, as any released radioactive material would only travel around 10 to 20 kilometers. Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, agreed that shelling is not the real risk, pointing to the vulnerability of the plant's cooling systems instead. “The right analogy here is Fukushima not Chernobyl,” he said. Nuclear power plants are designed with multiple independent safety systems, including numerous grid connections and backup diesel generators. Zaporizhzhia also uses a spray pond for cooling, meaning hot water from inside the plant is sprayed into the air outside to lower its temperature. These are "actually going to be relatively vulnerable because they have to be in contact with the outside world," making them potential targets for attack, said Acton. Both stressed that even in the worst case scenario - if the cooling systems fail, leading to a reactor meltdown - it would cause serious damage at a local level. Cizelj estimated a 30-kilometer radius. “It will be a tragedy for the local people', he said, even if it would create no immediate casualties. (Source: Politico)

Aug. 10, 2022 "We demand that Russia immediately hand back full control to its rightful sovereign owner, Ukraine, of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant as well as all nuclear facilities within Ukraine's internationally recognized borders to ensure their safe and secure operations," the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations said in a statement today. The countries added that while under Russian control, Ukrainian staff operating the plant "must be able to carry out their duties without threats or pressures. " "It is Russia's continued control of the plant that endangers the region,' they said. Some 500 Russian soldiers are utilizing the facility as a base though it is still run by Ukrainian employees, and it has repeatedly come under shelling, causing damage. IAEA Director General Grossi said he is to brief the United Nations Security Council on the situation at the plant tomorrow as well as his effort to lead a mission to the site as soon as possible. "An accident at this plant could threaten public health and the environment both in Ukraine and neighboring countries, as well as further away," he said in a statement today. (Source: UPI)

August 10, 2022  Russia has "almost certainly" established a major new ground forces formation to support its operations in Ukraine, the British Defence Ministry said on August 9. This unit, called the 3rd Army Corps, is based out of the city of Mulino, east of Russia's capital Moscow. (Source: Reuters)

August 10, 2022  In the past two days alone, three senior Russian officers were reported dead: Lt. Colonel Gorban, a commander from the Foreign Security Service (FSB) special forces; army aviation commander Colonel Kleshchenko; and Colonel Tsikul of Russia's 90th Tank Division - reportedly the 100th Russian senior officer to die in the war. Russia has been chipping away at its leadership ranks just by firing them outright, too. General-Colonel Chayko, the former commander of the Eastern Military District, was dismissed in May, according to British intelligence. Russia has likely replaced General-Colonel Zhuravlev with General-Lieutenant Kochetkov to head up the Western Military District. General Dvornikov, who was heading up the operation in Ukraine, has also reportedly been dismissed. Putin is definitely adopting a strategy trying to find a fighting general that will succeed. (Source: msn)

August 10, 2022 Russian oil deliveries through the southern Druzhba pipeline servicing Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have been halted since August 4, Russian supplier Transneft said yesterday. Transneft said it had not been able to make a regular payment of transit fees to Ukraine, due to EU sanctions, and as a result Ukraine stopped the transit. Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz, the parent company of oil infrastructure operator UkrTransNafta, did not respond to a request for comment. (Source: Politico)

August 10, 2022  Russian shelling has killed 21 people in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, governor Reznychenko said today. Eleven people were killed in the district of Nikopol and 10 in the town of Marganets, he said on the Telegram messaging app. (Source: Reuters)

9 Aug 2022  Now Russian President Putin’s largest state-controlled TV channel has given airtime to the leader of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian movement Parus, Kot, who claimed it was Kyiv and the West jeopardising nuclear safety. “We are dealing with the reality. “We need to tell Ukraine and its supporting countries - Britain and America foremost…and make it clear. “If Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is damaged and a disaster occurs, two missiles will immediately strike your decision-making centres. “One in Washington, the other in London - nuclear ones. And that’s it, there won't be any more talk.' Another talkshow pundit Mukhin, head of Centre for Political Information said: “This would trigger the mutual destruction protocol, so I would honestly refrain from making such statements.” (Source: DailyStar)

August 9, 2022  On occupied areas of southeastern Ukraine, guerrilla forces loyal to Kyiv are killing pro-Moscow officials, blowing up bridges and trains, and helping the Ukrainian military by identifying key targets. They coordinate with the Ukrainian military’s Special Operations Forces, which helps them develop strategies and tactics. Those forces also select targets and set up a website with tips on how to organize resistance, prepare ambushes and elude arrest. A network of weapons caches and secret hideouts was established in occupied areas. Bombs have been placed near administrative buildings, at officials’ homes and even on their routes to work. An explosive placed on a tree went off as a vehicle carrying Kherson prison chief Sobolev passed by, although he  survived the attack. A police vehicle was hit by a shrapnel bomb, seriously wounding two officers, one of whom later died. The assistant of the head of the Kherson region’s Russia-backed temporary administration, Slobodchikov, was shot and killed in his vehicle. Another official, Savluchenko, was killed by a car bomb. Every day, special units from Russia detect two or three caches with weapons for terrorist activities. The Russians were offering 10,000 rubles ($165) to anyone applying for Russian citizenship to strengthen their grip on the region. Melitopol Mayor Fedorov, who spent a long time in Russian captivity, told that about 500 Ukrainian activists were detained, with many tortured. Some vanished for months after their arrest. In May and June, guerrillas blew up two railway bridges in Melitopol and derailed two Russian military trains, Fedorov said. During raids, they check phones and arrest those with Ukrainian symbols or photos of relatives in military uniforms. “In a mopping-up operation, the Russians seal the entire neighborhood, halt traffic to and from it,  and methodically go from one apartment to another. If they find any Ukrainian symbols or any link to the Ukrainian military, they put all family members in a filtration camp,” Fedorov said. Of Melitopol’s prewar population of 150,000, more than 60,000 people have left. The resistance ranges from radical activists to teachers and retirees who sing Ukrainian songs in parks and secretly wear yellow and blue ribbons. Although pro-Moscow sentiment is strong in Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland of the Donbas, a guerrilla movement also has emerged there. Observers say it varies by region and that it is in the interest of both sides to exaggerate its scope. (Source: AP )
Note: 'Reported from Tallinn, Estonia'.

August 9, 2022  Russia’s Defense Ministry denied the Saki Russian air base on the Black Sea in Crimea had been shelled and said instead that munitions had blown up there. If Ukrainian forces were, in fact, responsible for the blasts at the air base, it would mark the first known major attack on a Russian military site on the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin annexed in 2014. Russian warplanes have used the Saki base to strike areas in Ukraine’s south on short notice. Crimea’s regional leader Aksyonov said ambulances and medical helicopters were sent to the base and the area was sealed off within a radius of five kilometers. Officials in Moscow have long warned Ukraine that any attack on Crimea would trigger massive retaliation, including strikes on “decision-making centers” in Kyiv. (Source: AP)

8 August 2022  Russia has told the US it has "temporarily" suspended on-site inspections of its strategic nuclear weapons, under an arms control treaty known as New START. The Russian foreign ministry said the US was seeking advantages and had deprived Russia of the right to carry out inspections on US territory. The treaty came into force in 2011. The current one will expire in 2026. It caps at 1,550 the number of long-range nuclear warheads that each country can deploy. (Source: BBC)

08 augustus 2022  In mid-July, independent sociologists from the Chronicles research project noted that during a period of about six weeks, the number of Russians declaring support for the so-called special military operation decreased by 9%, from 64% to 55%. The head of the Center for the Study of Public Applied Problems of National Security, former GRU Colonel Zhilin, a hardliner and regular performer on state propaganda channels, recently argued in faintly apocalyptic terms that a protracted war would lead to 'the destruction of economies, the bleeding of armies, the inflicting of large losses on the potential of two warring countries', and that it risked Russia’s relegation 'to the sidelines' of world politics. He compared calls to increase the intensity of hostilities with US actions in Vietnam, acknowledged the fact that innocent unarmed people have died, and called for a non-military solution so that Russia can live next to Ukraine 'and have any prospects of normalizing relations'. At the end of July, several articles with a similar theme appeared on the Military Review website, which is close to the Russian Ministry of Defense. In one of them, author Odintsov pointed out that the Russian 'strategy of limited and remote strikes against the Ukrainian Armed Forces' has reached its limit, while the Ukrainian army has displayed unexpected resilience and is ready to die for its ideas. Accordingly, if the Russian army plans to cut off Ukrainian formations from the rear in order to completely deprive them of supplies, it needs to at least double its forces. If the Kremlin is planning an even broader attack in the direction of Nikolaev and Odesa 'with the aim of completely encircling them and opening the road to Transnistria', its forces will have to be at least tripled. The website Wartranslated, that translates relevant texts about the war into English, published a thorough interview with Pukhov, director of the Russian Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, founded in 1997. Pukhov is quite closely affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Defence and is a member of the board of experts within the  government of the Russian Federation. Pukhov in detail goes over the advantages and weak points of both the Ukrainian and the Russian armed forces and offers a sober view of the current situation with the Western weapon supplies to Ukraine. According to the military expert, in order to launch a decisive offensive, as described by propagandists, Russia will have to 'increase the number of [deployed troops] by at least 1.5 times and restore parity in the field of UAVs [drones] and counter-battery defense in short order'. Russia’s military operation faces real risks, Odintsov said. Its prolongation may start working against Russia, as Ukraine continues to increase its potential thanks to foreign weapons and a much wider call-up of manpower. Critically, Russian military experts fear that 'with the first major failure, society’s attitude to power will change', and that the Kremlin may simply not have enough resources for a long war (on August 1, it was recorded that Russia has now lost more than 5,000 armored vehicles in five months of the war.) Similar warnings were voiced by another writer for the Military Review, Staver. He criticized the propaganda myth of 'Slavic brotherhood', emphasized that the main task should be the seizure of Donbas, and predicted possible strikes by Ukraine on the Crimean bridge, Simferopol, and Sevastopol (where a Russian Navy headquarters was struck for the first time by a Ukrainian drone on July 31.) As noted by the American Institute for the Study of War, the Kremlin likely ordered Russian regions to form volunteer battalions to participate in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, instead of declaring partial or full mobilization. According to researchers, such battalions could generate around 34,000 new servicemen by the end of August if each federal area produces at least one military unit of 400 men. Another non-traditional method of attracting new soldiers is the recruitment of convicted criminals, conducted mainly through the Wagner mercenary group. For six months of service, these 'volunteers' are promised 200,000 rubles (about $3,200) plus an amnesty for those returning alive. Several hundred people can be recruited from each region. For now, the Kremlin appears to believe that the neatest way to escape this impasse is to rapidly incorporate the occupied territories into Russia. The Kremlin may hope that the annexation of new territories will lead to a new patriotic groundswell. (Source: RaamOpRussland / CEPA)

August 8, 2022  Russia's defence ministry says it shot down 19 HIMARS missiles across eastern and southern Ukraine, and destroyed HIMARS vehicles near the Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk. (Source: Reuters)

August 8, 2022  Ukrainian HIMARS strikes hit multiple military bases in Russian-occupied southern city of Melitopol in the early hours, killing troops and destroying hardware, the exiled mayor Fedorov said. (Source: Reuters)

7 August 2022  Moscow and Kyiv have been blaming each other for the bombings of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear site in southern Ukraine, which has been under Russian control since the early days of the February 24 invasion but is still run by Ukrainian technicians. Ukraine's state nuclear energy company Enerhoatom that operates the plant said 174 containers with spent nuclear fuel were stored in the open air at the plant's dry storage facility that was attacked. Russia's occupying authorities in the town of Enerhodar where the plan is located today said the Ukrainian army overnight 'carried out a strike with a cluster bomb fired from an Uragan multiple rocket launcher'. The projectiles fell 'within 400 metres of a working reactor,' Russia's state news agency TASS reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warns of 'the very real risk of a nuclear disaster'. Today, Enerhoatom, had already said parts of the facility had been 'seriously damaged' by military strikes the previous day and one of its reactors forced to shut down. (Source. DailyMail)

2022-August-7  On August 5, Kiev approved a decree that enables 903 Russia-owned assets in the country to be transferred to the state and Ukrainian people. According to Prime Minister Denis Shmygal, the property that the Ukrainian authorities intend to confiscate is divided into three categories: assets belonging to the Russian state, to sanctioned citizens and companies from Russia, and to Russian banks. 'It is proposed to confiscate 903 items belonging specifically to the Russian state. 79 items are corporate rights, 824 items are property,' he explained. According to Zelensky, this measure is only the first step in a government strategy for dealing with Russian assets. The next step will be the confiscation of Russian assets held in the West. As government officials reported, assets worth 28 billion hryvnias {about $765 million} have already been forcibly seized. (Source: FarsNews)

August 07 2022  Yesterday, the Moscow-installed deputy head of the town of Nova Kakhovka near Kherson was shot as he stepped out of his apartment block. Gur died on his way to hospital in Crimea, according to Russian media. Nova Kakhovka is a town of around 45,000 people that lies on the southern bank of the River Dnipro. It is a vital hub for Russian efforts to resupply Kherson city 56km further downstream on the northern bank of the river. It came a day after the pro-Russia mayor of Kherson city suddenly fell so ill he had to be put into an induced coma. Saldo was sent to Crimea and later flown to the Sklifosovsky Emergency Research Institute in Moscow for toxicology tests. (Source: Independent)

7 August 2022  Vulnerable Ukrainian women and children are likely being trafficked into sex slavery and domestic servitude in the United Arab Emirates. Some are reported to have been targeted at Polish refugee camps, but experts believe a large proportion who have been forcibly removed to Russia are also being approached. A report from the Washington Institute For Defence And Security and the New York Center For Foreign Policy Affairs has revealed that some of those 'lost' women and children may be being trafficked to the UAE. Researchers have said that many Russian oligarchs have sought refuge in the Gulf state to avoid international sanctions and are in need of Russian-speaking staff. This latest report, called Modern Slavery In Dubai, says that some victims could be going into sex work and domestic servitude. Charities were quick to warn that sex traffickers were targeting Ukrainian women and children who had fled Putin's bombs at Polish refugee camps. Earlier this year, a Mail on Sunday investigation exposed how the issue was so bad.. 'It seems highly likely that a number of them will end up being trafficked to the UAE and other countries', Schmitz, one of the report's authors said. (Source: DailyMail)

August 6, 2022  Heavy ground fighting continues on the front line only miles to the east, southeast and north of Sloviansk. Sloviansk is considered a strategic target in Moscow’s ambitions to seize all of Donetsk province, a largely Russian-speaking area, where Russian forces and pro-Moscow separatists control about 60% of the territory. Russia’s military would like to take control of nearby water treatment facilities to serve Russian-occupied cities like Donetsk to the southeast and Mariupol to the south. Attempts to secure Kherson come at the expense of (Russian) efforts to seize Sloviansk ... which they appear to have abandoned. Members of the Dnipro-1 Regiment are digging in after a week of relative calm. Col. Bereza, the head of the volunteer national guard regiment said he thought muddy conditions after recent rainy weather in the region, not the abandonment of Sloviansk as a target, were responsible for the pause in Russian artillery strikes. “In two or three days, when it dries out, they will proceed,” he said. Only around 20,000 residents remain in Sloviansk, down from over 100,000 before Russia’s invasion. The city has been without gas or water for months, and residents are only able to manually pump drinking water from public wells. (Source: AP)

Saturday, August 6, 2022  Shells hit a high-voltage power line at the Russian-occupied plant in Zaporizhzhia, prompting operators to disconnect a reactor despite no radioactive leak being detected. The plant is still run by Ukrainian technicians.    Russia's war in Ukraine is about to enter a new phase, with most fighting shifting to a nearly 350 km front stretching southwest from near Zaporizhzhia to Kherson.    Ukraine's southern front-line city of Mykolaiv will impose an unusually long curfew from late August 5 to early Monday morning as authorities try to catch people collaborating with Russia, the region's governor said.    Russia has banned investors from so-called unfriendly countries from selling shares in energy projects and banks until the end of the year, part of the stand-off with the West over sanctions imposed after the invasion. (Source: Reuters)

August 6, 2022   UK’s defence ministry says Russian forces are almost certainly amassing in the south of Ukraine, anticipating a counter-offensive or in preparation for a possible assault. Long convoys of Russian military trucks, tanks, towed artillery and other weapons continue to move away from Ukraine’s Donbas region and are headed southwest, the ministry said. Battalion tactical groups (BTG), which comprise between 800 and 1,000 troops, have been deployed to Crimea and would almost certainly be used to support Russian troops in the Kherson region, the update said. (Source: AlJazeera)

August 5, 2022  Up to 100,000 North Korean soldiers could be sent to bolster Putin’s forces fighting Ukraine, a leading defence expert in Moscow, reserve colonel Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of Russia’s National Defence journal on Rossiya 1 channel, told. “There are reports that 100,000 North Korean volunteers are prepared to come and take part in the conflict,” he said. “If North Korean volunteers with their artillery systems, wealth of experience with counter battery warfare and large calibre multiple launch rocket systems, made in North Korea, want to participate in the conflict, well let’s give the green light to their volunteer impulse.” He said: “If North Korea expresses a desire to meet its international duty to fight against Ukrainian fascism, we should let them.” It was the “sovereign right of the DPR and LPR to sign the relevant agreements”. North Korea has made it clear through “diplomatic channels” that as well as providing builders to repair war damage, it is ready to supply a vast fighting force, reported Regnum news agency. They would be deployed to the forces of the separatist pro-Putin Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] and Luhansk People’s Republic [LPR], both of which Kim has recently recognised as
independent countries. “The country is ready to transfer up to 100,000 of its soldiers to Donbas,” said the report by the pro-Kremlin news agency. “Pyongyang will be able to transfer its tactical units to Donbas.” In return, grain and energy would be supplied to Kim’s stricken economy - Russia should end its participation in international sanctions against Kim’s regime, he claimed. A Dad’s Army of men in their 50s and 60s is also being recruited with the offer of pay higher than many receive in Putin’s economy. (Source: TheDailyTelegraph)

Aug. 5, 2022  The Russian Supreme Court designated Azov a terrorist group, which could allow soldiers to be tried under strict antiterror laws.  Last week, an explosion killed more than 50 soldiers and injured dozens more in the building where they were being held at the prison, located in the part of the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk that is under the control of Russian-installed authorities. Russia hasn’t given the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the site where more than 50 Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Russia says the explosion was caused by a strike from a long-range rocket launcher provided to Ukraine by the U.S. Ukrainian military intelligence on August 3 in a preliminary assessment said that Russian mercenaries had blown up the building using a highly flammable substance, causing the fire to spread rapidly. Ukrainian officials and former prisoners say the Donetsk People’s Republic established a detention center at the abandoned Correctional Colony No. 120 in Olenivka earlier this year. The facility, converted by Soviet authorities from an agricultural school in the 1980s, had no water supply or heating, former prisoners said. Water was scarce and either had a bitter taste or smelled as if it had been collected from a river. The detainees were kept in overcrowded, lice-ridden cells, with as many as 35 people in a room designed for four. Captured soldiers had to run a gantlet of guards hitting them with wooden sticks, iron bars and belts. In the middle of May, the camp was prepared for new arrivals. The flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic was replaced with the Russian tricolor. Russian guards arrived. Many of the inmates were moved elsewhere in the Donetsk region to make space, and the rest were moved to another block. More than 2,000 new prisoners were brought to the camp from Azovstal. They shot to prominence by liberating Mariupol from Russian-backed separatists in 2014. The commander, Biletskiy, had led groups that espoused neo-Nazi ideas. Biletskiy left in 2016. The majority of the prisoners were bused to Olenivka prison camp, while those wounded were sent for treatment at a hospital in the town of Novoazovsk, both located in Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region. In late June, 95 injured Azovstal defenders were released as part of a prisoner exchange, 43 of them from the Azov Regiment. The swap outraged many in Russia. Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of the Russian Parliament, said that only seriously wounded soldiers of Azov were eligible for exchange. Girkin, a Russian former security-service officer who commanded Russian irregulars in Ukraine in 2014, called the exchange “treason.” The former prisoners said videos and photos from after the explosion showed the dead in a block in an abandoned part of the prison camp that wasn’t used during the period they were at the camp until early July. Ukrainian officials said they had evidence, including telephone intercepts, that showed the prisoners were moved to the building where they were killed not long before the explosion. (Source: TheWallStreetJournal)

4 Aug 2022  Ukraine’s southern command said that precision strikes had destroyed Russian stockpiles of fuel, lubricant and ammunition in Berislav district northeast of Kherson city, and “critically reduced” supplies in Nova Kakhovka, where Russian forces keep large stockpiles. Further east along the Dnieper river on the same day, Nikopol district administrator Yevtushenko said a Ukrainian strike destroyed a Russian ammunition warehouse across the river from Nikopol. Khlan, a Kherson administrative adviser, confirmed that Ukrainian HIMARS rockets destroyed a 40-car train with equipment in Brylivka, about 50km southeast of Kherson city. Some 80 Russian servicemen were estimated killed and 200 wounded in the attack. (Source: AlJazeera)

04.08.2022  'Refusniks.' From the age of 18, Russian men may sign a temporary contract with the Ministry of Defense to earn a living in the army for a limited time. These contract soldiers are currently fighting alongside professional forces in Ukraine. Many of them had signed their contracts before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian contract soldiers are being pressued to return to their combat missions. The 'refusniks' are being held at locations in Russian-controlled areas, including Brianka, Popasna, Alchevsk, Stakhanov and Krasnyi Luch, as well as near the frontline in Svitlodar. Soldiers cannot be arrested and detained without a trial. Only Russian courts on Russian soil can hand down such rulings. In early July, 500 soldiers from Buryatia had refused to fight in Ukraine and were asking to be sent home. Verstka, a news outlet banned by Russia, says there are 1,793 such soldiers. (Source: DW)

4 Aug 2022  Ukrainian presidential adviser Arestovych said Russia’s eastern offensive was aimed at forcing Ukraine to divert troops from the Zaporizhzhia region.   Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said three civilians were killed in Bakhmut, Maryinka and Shevchenko in the past 24 hours.    The governors of Mykolaiv, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk reported that their regions had been shelled overnight.    Russian Deputy Defence Minister Fomin said Kyiv and Moscow have exchanged prisoners and the bodies of those killed in the conflict 27 times since the war began on February 24. (Source: AlJazeera)

August 4, 2022  Russian airline companies are grappling with a shortage of spare parts as international companies refuse to sell to them because of sanctions put in place. S7 Airlines has told pilots to use engine reverse thrust and to avoid autobrake mode if the runaway is long enough, the Aviatorshina Telegram channel reported. Urals Airlines, Rossiya and Pobeda published similar memos instructing pilots to “pay close attention to a temporary policy of fuel efficiency and economising resources”. By the end of summer, domestic airline companies will have no choice but to pull apart some jets to get spare parts for other aircraft. (Source: WAToday)

August 4, 2022  Russian forces have almost certainly positioned pyramidal radar reflectors in the water near the recently damaged Antonivskiy Bridge and nearby rail bridge, Britain said in a defence update. "The radar reflectors are likely being used to hide the bridge from synthetic aperture radar imagery and possible missile targeting equipment. This highlights the threat Russia feels from the increased range and precision of Western-supplied  systems,' Britain said. (Source: Reuters)

August 3, 2022  Kiyiv said on yesterday it had already recaptured 53 villages in occupied Kherson region. "(Russia) has begun creating a strike group in the Kryvyi Rih direction. It's also quite likely that the enemy is preparing a hostile counter-offensive with the subsequent plan of getting to the administrative boundary of Kherson region," the southern military command said. The steel-producing city of Kryvyi Rih where Zelenskiy grew up lies around 50 km from the southern frontline. Ukraine's military said in a statement that Russian forces were scoping out basements in the region to turn them into bomb shelters to store military hardware. Yesterday Ukraine's military command acknowledged that Russia had had "partial success" in the "Donetsk-Pisky direction" around the city of Donetsk that is held by Russia and Russian-backed separatists. (Source: Yahoo)

8/3/22  Ukrainian forces said they hit an ammunition warehouse in Berislav, further up the Dnipro river from Kherson. On the night of August 2-3, several Russian bases and arms warehouses were attacked in the Kherson Oblast using U.S.-provided HIMARS advanced multiple-rocket launchers. A Russian base was hit in Chornobaivka, on the outskirts of occupied Kherson. The Ukrainians also reported three strikes on Russian "strongholds" in the Berislavsky and Bashtansky districts, along with another on an ammunition dump in the same area. Russian forces in occupied parts of the Kherson Oblast are also facing an insurgency from Ukrainian partisan fighters, with sabotage and assassination attempts against a number of local collaborators. One official in the Russian-installed local administration was killed in a car bombing, whilst a number of others have been injured. Kuleshov, a pro-Russian blogger, was shot and killed in Kherson during April in a suspected partisan attack. (Source: NewsWek)

August 02, 2022  Russia relaxed its pandemic-related travel restrictions at its external borders on July 15. In the period from July 15 to 31, a total of 2,732 travelers crossed the border to Norway in the north. Many Russians are now using the gateway via Norway in the north when traveling to other destinations in Europe. Kirkenes has several daily direct flights to Oslo. Norway, along with Finland, continues to issue multiple-entry tourist visas to  Russians in the northern regions, the so-called Pomor visa, an arrangement that does not require a prior invitation. Although the Norwegian Consulate General in Murmansk was shut down on July 1st, locals can still apply for visas via the privately operated visa center. In July 2019, more than 21,000 border crossings took place at Storskog, five times more than in July 2022. (Source: TheBarentsObserver)

Tuesday, August 2 (2022)  United States Secretary of State Blinken said Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was being used as a “nuclear shield” by Russian troops who established a base there. Ukraine’s deputy foreign affairs minister Tochytskyi said “robust joint actions are needed to prevent nuclear disaster' and called for the international community to “close the sky” over Ukraine’s nuclear power plants with air defence systems.    Ukrainian presidential adviser Arestovych said about 22,000 Russian troops were preparing to advance on the cities of Kryvyi Rih and Mykolaiv, where a 'sufficiently large' Ukrainian force lay in wait.    Haidai, 'governor' of Luhansk region, which is 'nearly all' under Russian control, said foreign fighters were arriving and that partisans were destroying key infrastructure, including gas and water networks, in battered Luhansk towns to slow Russian forces. (Source: AlJazeera)

August 1, 2022  Britain said today that Russia had continued to attempt tactical assaults on the Bakhmut axis in eastern Ukraine over the last four days, but had only managed to make slow progress. 'As briefed by the Ukrainian authorities last week, Russia is likely reallocating a significant number of its forces from the northern Donbas sector to southern Ukraine,' the British Ministry of Defence said. Russia was probably adjusting the operational design of its Donbas offensive and had likely identified its Zaporizhzhia front as a vulnerable area in need of reinforcement. (Source: Reuters)

August 1, 2022  Chubais fled Russia at the end of February and has been seen in Cyprus, Turkey and Israel. Kremlin insider is in hospital in a European clinic on life support in a suspected poisoning case. The former presidential advisor to president Yeltsin and so-called young reformer was one of the most senior pro-Western members of Russian President Putin government. He held a number of high-profile jobs including the CEO of Russia’s utilities holding United Energy Systems (UES), which was successfully privatised, and more recently was the CEO of Rusnano corporation, the state-owned tech promotion holding. The initial diagnosis is for Guillain-Barre syndrome, a neurological disorder and autoimmune disease that affects the peripheral nervous system. Tass reports that the syndrome can be brought on by the coronavirus vaccines, but reports that Chubais’ room was searched by officials in hazmat suits has led to speculation that he was poisoned. (Source: bneInelliNews)

August 1, 2022  The founder of Russian internet major Yandex, Volozh, could agree to a new shareholder and management structure for the company in exchange for the Kremlin’s permission to develop some of Yandex assets independently abroad. Reportedly now a new deal is being negotiated between Volozh and the Kremlin, mediated by the veteran policymaker, ex-Finance Minister and the head of the Audit Chamber Kudrin. Kudrin himself could reportedly join Yandex board, management, or even shareholders. Volozh himself has been living in Israel for several years now, with a few managers having joined him this year. In May Yandex had to deny the unofficial reports that Volozh was negotiating with Israeli authorities to accept a large number of his IT specialists in Israel with a possible opening of an HQ in Tel Aviv. Reportedly, the negotiations involve the split of the development teams, the transfer of intellectual property, and, most importantly, who will control Russian Yandex in the future. The projects that could be spun off include drones, cloud services and the Yandex.Practicum educational project. The deal granting Volozh the rights to develop some of Yandex's projects abroad would cost him control over the rest of the business. Volozh has already announced his resignation from all positions in Yandex and its board after being sanctioned by the EU. The family trust of Volozh owns an 8.6% economic and 45.3% voting stake in Yandex and is not a controlling shareholder of the company. Yandex previously saw a cascade of top-level resignations that followed the sanctioning of Yandex Deputy CEO Khudaverdyan. Yandex was Russia’s leading developer of AI and driverless technologies. Fitch Ratings has cut Yandex and other Russian TMT majors to junk-rate B. In 2021 Yandex for the fifth year in a row topped the list of most valuable tech and internet companies with a valuation of $23bn. Apart from e-commerce, its investment case previously rested on developments in transportation, FinTech and foodtech, with the developed ecosystem seen as a key advantage. (Source: bneInelliNews)

Ukraine
Aug 8, 2022  US: 70% of Western military aid don’t reach Ukrainian troops. Corruption in Ukraine affects arms supplies. The American news media CBS News published an article analyzing arms supplies in Ukraine. A large part of the arms supply passes through Poland. Ohman, the founder of a Lithuanian organization responsible for the logistics of non-lethal military aid to Ukraine, says only 30-40% of shipments crossing the border reach their final destination. He made this statement back in April. Today, Ohman claims that the situation has fundamentally changed. At the end of August, the US sent US Defense Attache Brigadier General Harmon to try to monitor what was happening with the supplies to Ukraine, to carry out control and monitoring of armaments in Ukraine. Ukraine also realizes and already admits that there is a serious problem with the delivered weapons. The Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine registered repeated sales of humanitarian aid coming from Western countries, as well as arms. This was announced by the director of the department, Melnik, on the air of the TV channel “Ukraine 24” on July 5. “Even military goods are sold for cash. We have such facts,” Melnik said. The department has already registered around ten such criminal cases. Melnyk stressed that this is an incomplete number of similar crimes, as other Ukrainian law enforcement agencies register similar violations. In Washington, they even admitted that the agency responsible for the sale and supply of American weapons abroad [DSCA] could not control the stockpiled supplies, their serial numbers, and their distribution among the Ukrainian armed forces because of the war. At this time, the US cannot send mobile teams to check availability, but DSCA is willing to open an office in the territory of Ukraine. DSCA says that the information they have about how the donated US weapons are used is based solely on assurances from Kyiv. A Javelin anti-tank guided missile system has appeared as a product for sale on the darknet with the location Kyiv. The value that the unknown seller had set was $30,000. The Russian armed forces used American Stinger missiles to shoot down Ukrainian helicopters that tried to evacuate Ukrainian soldiers during the siege of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. The online portal Donbas Insider claims, citing its military sources from France, that two Caesar self-propelled howitzers were sold to the Russian armed forces for $124,000 each. French MP and lawyer de Castelnau wrote on his official Twitter account: “Another success of Macron: 2 French Caesar guns were intercepted intact by the Russians. They are currently in the Uralvagonzavod factory in the Urals for study and possible reverse engineering. Thank you Macron, we are paying”. A few days later, on June 23rd, the Russian company [Uralvagonzavod] responded to the French lawyer, through its official Telegram profile and citing  de Castelnau’s tweet, writing: “Hello, Mr. Regis. Please convey our thanks to President Macron for the donation of the self-propelled guns. This material is of course not tip-top… not like our MSTA-S! But nevertheless, it will be useful. Send more – we’ll take them down.” France’s General Staff has denied reports of a French Caesar self-propelled howitzer being captured [or sold] by  Russian forces in Ukraine. “This information is false,” said the General Staff of France. 'We categorically deny it. We’ve discussed this with our Ukrainian partners.' According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, no evidence was provided to support the claim. (Source: BulgarianMilitary)

August 6, 2022  A very rare tank appeared in Ukraine – T-84 Oplot-M, Ukrainian production. This main battle tank is a new concept of the Kharkiv Armored Plant presented in 2008. The T-84 Oplot-M is a modernized and based version of the Soviet T-80 design. BM Oplot is armed with a 125mm smoothbore KBA-3 cannon with 46 rounds. This gun is a Soviet design. Depending on the ammunition, the operational range is from 3,000 to 5,000 meters. 5,000-meter range is achieved by firing an anti-tank guided missile [ATGM].  The tank also has secondary armament – a 7.62-mm KT-7.62 machine gun with a rate of fire of 700-800 rounds per minute. The ammunition for it is 1250 cartridges. Later, however, the Ukrainians replaced this armament with a 12.7 mm KT-12.7 anti-aircraft machine gun, remotely controlled by the tank commander. A 6-cylinder diesel engine -  1,200 - 1,500 horsepower - powers the tank. 500 km tank can travel after filling the tank with fuel. Its maximum speed on the road is 70 km/h, while off-road it is 45 km/h. It has an integrated Combat weapon system for firing anti-tank guided missiles. The tank has an integrated modern day and night firing system. Ukraine has only six manufactured T-84 Oplot-M tanks, one of them was recorded on video fighting in the war against Russia. Thailand has 64 units of the T-84 Oplot-M. (Source: BulgarianMilitary)

August 5, 2022  At least 5,237 civilians have been killed and 7,035 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, according to the UN. Some 10 million people have also fled to neighboring countries. (Source: AnadoluAgency)

August 4, 2022  Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians. Ukrainian forces have put civilians in harm’s way by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas, including in schools and hospitals. Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians, as they turn civilian objects into military targets. International humanitarian law requires all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas. Other obligations to protect civilians from the effects of attacks include removing civilians from the vicinity of military objectives and giving effective warning of attacks that may affect the civilian population. Most residential areas where soldiers located themselves were kilometres away from front lines. Viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians – such as military bases or densely wooded areas nearby, or other structures further away from residential areas. In the cases it documented, Amnesty International is not aware that the Ukrainian military who located themselves in civilian structures in residential areas asked or assisted civilians to evacuate nearby buildings. Amnesty International researchers witnessed Ukrainian forces using hospitals as de facto military bases in five locations. In two towns, dozens of soldiers were resting, milling about, and eating meals in hospitals. In another town, soldiers were firing from near the hospital. Using hospitals for military purposes is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. The Ukrainian military has routinely set up bases in schools in towns and villages in Donbas and in the Mykolaiv area. Schools have been temporarily closed to students since the conflict began, but in most cases the buildings were located close to populated civilian neighbourhoods. Russian forces struck many of the schools used by Ukrainian forces. In a town east of Odesa, Amnesty International witnessed a broad pattern of Ukrainian soldiers using civilian areas for lodging and as staging areas, including basing armoured vehicles under trees in purely residential neighbourhoods, and using two schools located in densely populated residential areas. Russian strikes near the schools killed and injured several civilians between April and late June. In Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces were using a university building as a base when a Russian strike hit on 21 May, reportedly killing seven soldiers. The university is adjacent to a high-rise residential building which was damaged in the strike, alongside other civilian homes roughly 50 metres away. Militaries have an obligation to avoid using schools that are near houses or apartment buildings full of civilians, putting these lives at risk, unless there is a compelling military need. If they do so, they should warn civilians and, if necessary, help them evacuate. This did not appear to have happened in the cases examined by Amnesty International. Armed conflicts seriously hamper children’s right to education, and military use of schools can result in destruction that further deprives children of this right once the war ends. Amnesty International contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence with the findings of the research on 29 July 2022. (Source: Amnesty)

August 1, 2022  On April 14, the Migration Service posted a note on its official Facebook page which advised foreigners to submit documentation to renew any expired residency permits. On the other hand, the post also said that foreigners would not be punished for missing any deadlines due to the Migration Service’s three-month closure. The number of Belarusians affected by this amount to tens of thousands of people. Many of those affected are human rights activists who fled Belarus in 2020 and 2021 in fear of political repression. Even those who have helped Ukrainian authorities, the Ukrainian army, or the Belarusian volunteers fighting for Ukraine have been affected. Ukraine’s cutting of financial ties with Belarus has also affected Belarusians in Ukraine, since after February 24, Ukraine’s National Bank blocked the bank accounts of Belarusian nationals and their Belarusian-issued bank cards. Belarusians are still met with hostile and negative comments and actions abroad, especially in Poland and Ukraine, both on the street and from government authorities. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Belarusians have been able to flee, obtain visas and stay in neighbouring EU countries this year. In early July, Poland agreed that Belarusians fleeing Ukraine would find shelter in Poland. (Source: bneInelliNews)

United Kingdom
10 August 2022   A quarter of sponsors of Ukrainians as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme do not want to continue the arrangement beyond six months, the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found. Sponsors agreed to provide accommodation in their own home for a minimum of six months. The scheme was set up by the government to help those fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and worked alongside the Ukraine Family Scheme - which allowed refugees to join relatives already living in the UK. Launched in March, the scheme has seen about 75,000 refugees arrive in the UK. (Source: BBC)

Europe
August 10, 2022  European history has taught us that isolating and punishing people solely on the basis of their nationality has rarely ended well. Calls are growing among some European leaders for the bloc to close its borders to Russian travelers. Yesterday, Estonia’s PM joined the leaders of Ukraine, Finland and Latvia in calling for a travel ban in response to Moscow’s war. 'Stop issuing tourist visas to Russians. Visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right,' Estonian Prime Minister Kallas tweeted. Kallas’ comment came a day after President Zelenskyy told he urged the West to introduce a travel ban on Russians. Those with big Russian diasporas, such as Germany and Spain, are less likely to support such measures. And remember this? When then-U.S. President Trump imposed his so-called travel ban on citizens from countries including Iran, Libya and Syria, EU leaders reacted with outrage. (Source: Poliitico)

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2022. VIII. 4. Egyesült Államok. CPAC, Texas - Orbán Viktor beszéde

2022.08.05. 02:29 Eleve

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Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Texas

- Orbán Viktor beszéde -

Forrás: YouTube / HírTv):

https://tinyurl.com/kjwac6hs

(2022. VIII. 4.): 7 907 megtekintés

Kulcsszavak:

1956     alaptörvény     alkotmány     Egyesült Államok     Európa     Föld     globalizmus     kommunista     kommunizmus     Magyarország     Német Birodalom     Oroszország    Országgyűlés     Szovjetunió     Ukrajna
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Címkék: magyarország ukrajna föld 1956 oroszország európa kommunizmus alkotmány kommunista globalizmus szovjetunió országgyűlés alaptörvény egyesültállamok németbirodalom

2022. VII. 23. Erdély. Orbán Viktor miniszterelnök előadása Tusnádfürdőn

2022.07.24. 02:12 Eleve

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Orbán Viktor miniszterelnök beszéde Tusnádfürdőn,

a XXXI. Bálványosi Nyári Szabadegyetemen

(Forrás: YouTube / HírTv):

https://tinyurl.com/mryc3b8j

(2022. VIII. 4.): 270 982 megtekintés

Kulcsszavak:

II. világháború     alkotmány     Ausztrália     Bosznia-Hercegovina     Brazília    Bulgária     Csehország     Dél-Afrika     Dél-Korea     Egyesült Államok     Erdély     Európa     Európai Bizottság     Európai Unió     Franciaország     Gazprom     Görögország     Horvátország     India     Kárpát-medence     Kína     kommunista     könyv     Krím     Lengyelország     Magyarország     Nagy-Britannia     NATO     Németország    Olaszország     Oroszország     Oszmán Birodalom     Románia     Schengeni övezet     Székelyföld     Szlovákia    Szovjetunió     Ukrajna     Visegrádi országok     vírus
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Címkék: kína könyv magyarország vírus franciaország horvátország szlovákia csehország ausztrália ukrajna románia görögország olaszország india németország erdély oroszország európa bulgária gazprom nato alkotmány brazília kommunista lengyelország szovjetunió székelyföld nagybritannia délkorea krím délafrika kárpátmedence európaiunió boszniahercegovina oszmánbirodalom egyesültállamok európaibizottság schengeniövezet másodikvilágháború visegrádiországok

July 12, 2022. Space. The James Webb Space Telescope is sending back its first full-colour images

2022.07.13. 00:20 Eleve

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Space
Jul 12, 2022  Six months after reaching its final destination in orbit around the Sun, more than one million kilometres above the Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is sending back its first full-colour images - photographs made from 2,000 different infrared colours. Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula, captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

https://tinyurl.com/ba5hpcd4

JWST is looking at light that has travelled billions of lightyears

- we are essentially looking at the past.

(Source: Cosmos)

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June 2022. Italy. Celtic music by Cortese

2022.07.01. 01:12 Eleve

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"The best Celtic mystique music for deep relaxation"

by Cortese from Tuscany (Italy)

(Source: YouTube):

https://tinyurl.com/bddvuyhm


(Since 2 June 2022): 7 319 336 views

Peaceful music, find peace.

.3 8 3  16:00

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Danube photos

2022.06.20. 09:57 Eleve

 

Umbriában: XX.

Városkép

Assisi, 2022. VI. 20.

 

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2022.06.19. 11:09 Eleve

 

Umbriában: XVIII.

Assisi, 2022. VI. 19.

 

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