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Is there international action that can be taken now?
It appears increasingly likely that some forms of coordinated international action will be taken, mirroring responses to the global financial crisis, the eurozone debt crisis and the Covid pandemic.
The former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi floated the idea of “a cartel of buyers” at a meeting with the US president, Joe Biden, in May. This would involve large oil consumers working together to negotiate prices.
– Vladimir Putin will recognise Ukraine’s eastern regions as independent and sign a degree to that effect shortly
– Move would pave the way for Russian troops to roll in, on basis of ‚defending‘ them against Ukrainian ‚threats‘
– Mr Johnson said Putin’s decision to recognise the two separatist Ukrainian republics was an ‚ill omen‘ and a ‚dark sign‘ that things are moving in the wrong direction
– Putin spoke after an hours-long meeting of Russia’s security council, with aides laying out the case for war
– Having spent days staging what are widely thought to be false flag attacks and blaming them on Kiev, Kremlin officials presented them as ‚evidence‘ that ethnic Russians are at risk of ‚genocide‘ and must be protected
– All eyes will now turn to Ukraine’s border regions, where Russian tanks have been spotted in ‚battle formation‘
“On President (Volodymyr) Zelensky’s initiative I officially requested UNSC member states to immediately hold consultations under article 6 of the Budapest memorandum,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, citing the landmark 1994 deal, also signed by Russia, the United States and Britain.
The Kremlin announced Monday that Moscow will recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, a move that Russia could use to justify an attack in those areas.
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France today. They discussed ongoing diplomacy and deterrence efforts in response to Russia’s military buildup on the borders of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron at the French side’s initiative.
14 Senators (8 D’s, 6 R’s)
Democrat Reps. (not on this list) also attending: Speaker Pelosi, Adam Smith, Schiff, Deutch, Lee, McCollum, Himes, Keating, Maloney, Swalwell, Gallego, Moulton, Khanna, Kim
(Feb. 14, 2022)
Pelosi will head the congressional delegation set to visit the Knesset on Wednesday, over two years since her last official visit to Jerusalem, with the Iran talks in Vienna sure to be on the agenda. She will be accompanied by key lawmakers related to foreign relations, appropriations and intelligence — including Reps. Adam Schiff, Ted Deutch, Barbara Lee, Bill Keating, Eric Swalwell, Ro Khanna and Andy Kim.
Kiev has been locked in a civil war with the two breakaway territories since 2014, when separatists declared independent republics following the ousting of then-President Viktor Yanukovych during mass street protests. Ukrainian officials, along with Western countries, have accused Russia of supporting the rebels and fueling the conflict.
Russian troops have completed their training drills in Belarus, close to neighboring Ukraine, and will begin returning to their places of regular deployment, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow has announced amid fears in the West that the exercises could have been a precursor to an invasion.
“It’s not like we’re dealing with a terrorist organization. We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly,” he said.
Holt asked Biden what scenario could prompt him to send troops to rescue Americans fleeing the country. Biden replied: “There’s not. That’s a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another.”
“American citizens should leave, should leave now,” the president said in an NBC interview, adding that rescues in a conflict zone during a Russian invasion would risk “world war.”
For our part, we will do our best to find compromises that suit everyone. There is not a single point that we consider unachievable in the proposals we sent to NATO and Washington.
There is also the ongoing issue related to the situation in Donbass. The President said that Russia is conducting exercises and has amassed a large group of forces. But has Ukraine not amassed them also? They have the same 100,000 or 125,000 troops concentrated in Donbass.
To reiterate, they have tried to resolve the Donbass issue through military means twice, and they did not conceal this as they used equipment and aviation. Who will give us guarantees that this will not happen? This is also a legitimate question on our part.
Repeatedly thanking the French leader for coming to Moscow, Putin said at a joint press conference that Macron had presented several ideas worth studying.
„A number of his ideas, proposals… are possible as a basis for further steps,“ Putin said, adding: „We will do everything to find compromises that suit everyone.“
While President Joe Biden was unsuccessfully trying to strongarm German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House Monday into saying he would give up Russian gas if that country invades Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron was in Moscow actually making what appears to be some potential headway in defusing the crisis over Ukraine.
Domestic critics of Emmanuel Macron, Nato hardliners and the leadership in Ukraine will be suspiciously examining the French president’s late-night remarks at his Moscow press conference on Monday for signs of freelancing.
Kirby mentioned the documents in his opening remarks ahead of a news conference at the Department of Defense. “We did not make this document public, but now that it is, it confirms to the entire world what we’ve always been saying: there is no daylight between our public statements and our private discussions,” he said.
(02 Feb 2022)
The United States and NATO reject signing a bilateral agreement on security in Europe with Russia and also closing the door on the future incorporation of Ukraine into the Atlantic Alliance. Those were two of the main demands presented by Moscow to put an end to the crisis in Ukraine at a moment of maximum tension between Russia and the West and that threatened Euro-Atlantic security. By contrast, both Washington and the Alliance offer Putin negotiations on disarmament agreements and trust-building measures in different forums – such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the US-Russia Strategic Stability Dialogue, and the NATO-Russia Council – the success of which are conditioned on the start of a deescalation of the Russian military threat to Ukraine.
(Feb 3, 2022)
The plan for the fake attack on Russian territory or Russian-speaking people was revealed in declassified intelligence shared with Ukrainian officials and European allies in recent days. It is the latest allegation by the U.S. and Britain that Russia is plotting to use a false pretext to go to war against Ukraine.
The White House in December accused Russia of developing a “false-flag” operation to create pretext for an invasion.
(Jan 14, 2022,)
Friday morning, multiple Ukrainian government websites were affected by a “massive cyber attack” launched by an unknown actor, a foreign ministry spokesperson said. The affected websites were taken offline and hackers reportedly left messages warning the Ukrainian public to “prepare for the worst.” Ukrainian officials noted Russia has a “long record” of cyberattacks against the country.
But we have to face a grim reality which is that as we stand here today Volodmyr, more than 100,000 Russian troops are gathering on your border in perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility towards Ukraine in our lifetimes.
And the potential deployment dwarves the 30,000 troops Russia sent to invade Crimea in 2014. Since that time of course, as everybody knows, more than 13,000 Ukrainians have been killed and Ukraine has been plunged into nearly a decade of war.
It goes without saying that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would be a political disaster, a humanitarian disaster, in my view would also be, for Russia, for the world, a military disaster as well. And the potential invasion completely flies in the face of President Putin’s claims to be acting in the interest of the Ukrainian people.
Halfway into Tunisia’s 30-day „state of exception“ announced by President Kais Saied last month, he has yet to lay out a road map or appoint a government.
Somalia missed a deadline to hold an election by February 8, when President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known by his nickname Farmajo, was due to step down, sparking a constitutional crisis in the already-fragile state.
The Peruvian Congress on Monday elected Francisco Sagasti as the new leader of its Board of Directors, which at the same time makes him the new successor to the former president, Manuel Merino, at the head of the country’s presidency.
The EU is facing a crisis after Hungary and Poland vetoed the bloc’s historic €1.8tn (£1.6tn) budget and coronavirus recovery plan over attempts to link funding to respect for democratic norms.
The move unravels months of negotiations over the scale and terms of the EU’s spending and sets the stage for a stormy videoconference meeting of the bloc’s leaders on Thursday.
The United Nations stands ready to support a dialogue process toward a rapid and peaceful resolution of the crisis, it said
The Azerbaijani military continues to target the civilian population of Artsakh in artillery strikes, Armenian defense ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan told a news conference.
“Civilian settlements are under fire now. A while ago I saw images showing the Azerbaijani side shelling the Martakert city with artillery strikes,” he said.
The time for dialogue has run out and Armenia deserves an international repudiation, Peter M. Tase, US expert, strategic adviser on international affairs and public diplomacy to governments, universities and corporations in Europe and the Americas, told Trend.
According to the Decree, due to the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region and surrounding districts of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia, armed attacks against the Republic of Azerbaijan and regular military provocations, martial law is being declared throughout the country starting from 00:00 on 28 September 2020.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday issued a message celebrating Liberation Day on August 15, which marks the day Korea was liberated from Japan’s colonial rule.
Since bursting onto the Hong Kong Twitter scene, Kong Tsung-gan has been quoted by a who’s who of Western corporate media outlets. He has been described as an “author” (CNN, Globe and Mail, Time), “writer and activist” (New York Times, Washington Post), “activist and author” (LA Times),“activist” (AFP, Al Jazeera), “writer, educator and activist” (Guardian), “political writer” (Foreign Policy), “writer” (Vice), and “Hong Kong writer and activist” in an op-ed posted by the Nikkei Asian Review.
Kong has also been cited as a “Hong Kong journalist and rights activist” by Radio Free Asia and as a “rights activist and author” by Voice of America, two subsidiaries of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Tasked with a mission to “be consistent with the broad foreign policy objectives of the United States,” the USAGM budgeted around $2 million to support protests in Hong Kong in 2020.
Macron himself firmly rejected the idea of reviving the French mandate.
“You can’t ask me to substitute for your leaders. It’s not possible,” he said. “There is no French solution.”
But he made a point of noting that he plans to return to Lebanon to verify that promised reforms are being undertaken on Sept. 1, the 100th anniversary of the declaration of Greater Lebanon – and the beginning of French rule.
Prime Minister Diab calls for early parliamentary elections as over 200 protesters wounded, one police officer killed in clashes
In the coming months no less than five senior members of the security establishment face replacement.
They are: Yossi Cohen, head of Mossad (Israel’s foreign espionage agency); Nadav Argaman, head of the Shin Bet, (domestic security service); Major-General Tamir Hayman, chief of Military Intelligence, and its Research Directorate director, Brigadier-General Dror Shalom; and finally, Meir Ben Shabat, head of the National Security Council.
Others see a cynical political gambit at play, as with the return of the coronavirus: Netanyahu is either aiming for a crisis that will allow him to call for an early election while blaming Gantz and other rivals on the left for the failure of his annexation move – or is actually banking on a crisis, foreign, domestic or both, that will allow him to seize emergency powers, delay his trial, seize control of the legal system and so on and so forth.
As Dan Cohen reported for The Grayzone, Lai is a billionaire media tycoon widely referred to as the Rupert Murdoch of Asia who is a major financial and media backer of Hong Kong’s protest movement. In addition to pouring millions of dollars into Hong Kong’s opposition in recent years, the self-described “head of opposition media” and founder of the anti-government Apple Daily tabloid, has provided protesters with “unswervingly favorable coverage” according to The New York Times. Lai has received glowing coverage in US and Western media, with the oligarch often being praised as a “‘troublemaker’ with a clean conscience” who is “standing up to China.”
On June 2, Lai shared a video by Avi Yemini, a far-right YouTube personality and former Israeli army soldier, declaring that it was “bloody disgraceful” to liken the “riots in America” with Hong Kong’s protest movement.
Do what? Think for yourself at all times!
Crises are times when ruling authorities convince people to sacrifice personal freedoms for greater security — not realizing that both will be lost.
Ruling authorities take advantage of times like now by instituting draconian policies they’re unable to introduce during normal times without risking mass rebellion.
Josep BORRELL, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, meets with Heiko MAAS, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany; Jean-Yves LE DRIAN, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France; Luigi DI MAIO, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Italy; Dominic RAAB, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and First Secretary of State of the United Kingdom, on 7 January 2020, in Brussels.
HMS Montrose and HMS Defender – a Type 23 frigate and Type 45 destroyer – will be accompanying British ships to „take all necessary steps to protect our ships and citizens“ amid the tensions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the Tuesday attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad „state-sponsored terror“ in an interview with CBS News. But he emphasized that the embassy is „safe“ and that the U.S. „never contemplated“ evacuating the facility.
„This is state-sponsored terror, this is Iranian-backed terrorism that took place,“ Pompeo told CBS News‘ Major Garrett in his first broadcast interview since the attack.
President Donald Trump is suddenly faced on the first day of election year with hot foreign policy crises with Iran and North Korea that put American lives at risk and could weigh heavily on his own political prospects.
(30.12.2019)
Despite harsh language criticizing what Beijing calls U.S. interference in China’s domestic affairs, and a second summoning of the U.S. ambassador in a week, China’s leadership still wants a deal to help alleviate pressure on its fast-weakening economy.
(22.11.2019)
While claiming to fight for “self-determination,” Hong Kong opposition leaders are collaborating with regime-change neoconservatives in Washington to “preserve the US’s own political and economic interests.” A new DC lobbying front has become their base of operations.
Dozens of Hong Kong protesters staged a dramatic escape from a university campus sealed off by police on Monday night by shimmying down plastic hosing from a bridge and fleeing on waiting motorbikes as the police fired projectiles.
Speaking to the top-selling Bild newspaper, Wong said: “It makes me furious that the German Bundeswehr is apparently helping to train Chinese soldiers. Given the riots in Hong Kong, the defence ministry should have ended this programme long ago.”
Hong Kong as a dispute resolution centre and Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung’s shocking confession that he did not know why people are so angry are typical of the arrogance, self-entitlement and ignorance of the baby boomer leaders
Stopping violence and restoring order ‘most urgent task’ for the city, China’s defence ministry says
Chinese and US defence ministers discuss Hong Kong at Bangkok Asean meeting while clashes continue between police and radicals
Hundreds of pro-democracy protesters were surrounded by riot police on Monday inside a besieged Hong Kong college campus, as almost six months of intensifying anti-government unrest appeared headed for a bitter and perhaps bloody climax.
After nearly six months of escalating protests, Hong Kong is a mess, its reputation for efficiency in tatters, its economy in recession, its roads and rails often blocked. And there is no end in sight.
– Widespread day of chaos results in clashes across multiple districts as China marks 70th anniversary of People’s Republic
– Teenager hit by live bullet in Tsuen Wan in critical but non-life-threatening condition in hospital, after undergoing surgery
According to a so-called „exclusive“ Reuters report released Friday, Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), submitted a proposal to Beijing earlier this summer that asked for „5 key demands“ from the Hong Kong protesters to be taken seriously but was rejected.
The Global Times has since learned the Reuters story is fake. In fact, it intends to create an illusion by interweaving rumors with public events in an attempt to misguide public opinion.
The Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA) issued a statement on Thursday expressing opposition to reports of a possible blocking of selected internet services in response to recent unrest. The organisation warned that any such measures could cripple the local economy and urged the government to consult the community before imposing any restrictions.
– Protesters block major roads in Admiralty and Tsim Sha Tsui, having earlier lit huge fire on Hennessy Road in Wan Chai
– Police water cannons fire blue dye to clear demonstrators on Harcourt Road
Hong Kong police have deployed water cannon trucks against protesters in Admiralty, firing water with blue dye.
Officers on the scene said over loudspeakers that the dyed water will be used for identifying protesters for later arrest.
(Videos)
US president argues Putin should be included in discussions on Iran, Syria and North Korea
“We must recognize that China is a growing power and increasingly assertive towards its place in the international order. But make no mistake: we will always defend Canadians and Canadian interests,” Trudeau said in a speech to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.
Mitch McConnell, the US Senate majority leader, wrote a strongly-worded op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, titled “We Stand With Hong Kong.” It comes as the city enters its 11th week of protest against the ill-fated extradition law, amid wider calls for democracy.
The Civil Human Rights Front reiterated the five demands of the anti-extradition law movement. They called for a full withdrawal of the controversial bill and a retraction of characterisation of protests as “riots.” They urged for the unconditional release of all arrested protesters, the formation of an independent commission of inquiry into all events since June, and demanded universal suffrage.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clearly told Qureshi during their telephone call on Wednesday that it does not favour open UNSC session on Kashmir and the Russian mission in New York went along with closed session contrary to some reports that Moscow supported Beijing and asked for an open session, informed sources told ET. These reports are not incorrect, sources stressed.
“Public message of Russia was consistent from beginning. Also Russia supported no statement on the Kashmir issue at the UN,” sources said.
For India, the fact that no country agreed to the ChinaPakistan effort to force a formal meeting, the fact that the informal meeting had no minutes, no votes or show of hands, no resolution, no statements, and no outcome, showed the duo was isolated and was cause for satisfaction. Diplomats pointed out that barring China, not one among the 14 other UNSC members came out to speak on the matter.
A 90-minute private debate among Security Council members on Kashmir is notable. Asked whether the Council had left the Kashmir issue alone for too long, Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy, told CNN, „Well I was born in 1971.“
„Sometimes it’s best to not touch on every issue,“ he added.
Yes, the movement has evolved. The protesters and their wide base of supporters no longer simply want to see the complete withdrawal of the extradition bill and the establishment of an independent inquiry, and so on.
They want a real share of political power, the removal of the kind of governance that has plagued Hong Kong since the 1997 Handover to China — one where the government and their pro-establishment cronies ram through unwanted policies by manipulating an undemocratic political system that does not represent the wishes and the choices of the people.
Chinese ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming speaks during a press conference in London, Britain, Aug. 15, 2019. Hong Kong is part of China and foreign forces must stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs, Liu said here Thursday. Evidence shows that the situation in Hong Kong would not have deteriorated so much had it not been for the interference and incitement of foreign forces, Liu told a press conference at the Chinese Embassy in Britain.
“Thwarted,” said a top UN diplomat in a one-word response about Pakistan’s request for a formal meeting of the Security Council that garnered the support of only one of the body’s 15 members: China.
Soon after the nuclear blasts in 1998, India adopted the “no first use” policy in a bid to address global concerns of an impending nuclear arms race, especially as the Indian tests were followed by tit-for-tat tests by Pakistan.
The promise not to use nuclear weapons first, a policy adopted by several nations including China, addressed the escalation ladder. It also laid to rest apprehensions or misunderstandings about the possible use of nuclear weapons in a conflict.
NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh’s suggestion that India’s no-first-use nuclear posture may not be sacrosanct sparked intense speculation in the midst of heightened India-Pakistan tensions in the wake of the abrogation of special status to Jammu & Kashmir.
The defence minister’s comment, which he also later tweeted, came at Pokhran — the site of India’s nuclear tests.
Though Rajnath Singh didn’t name any country, it is understood the threat was directed at Pakistan. It shows Modi’s growing frustration at his ill-conceived move to strip Occupied Kashmir of its autonomy on August 5.
The Security Council met on Friday to discuss Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to scrap autonomy for Kashmir, though the body was divided on how to proceed, with the U.S. and France blocking a Chinese attempt to get the 15-member body to publicly urge parties to refrain from actions that exacerbate tensions along the line of control, diplomats said.
The Security Council met to consider the volatile situation surrounding Kashmir on Friday, addressing the issue directly within the UN body dedicated to resolving matters of international peace and security, for the first time since 1965.
Although the meeting took place behind closed doors in New York, the Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Jun, spoke to reporters outside the chamber following deliberations, urging both India and Pakistan to “refrain from taking any unilateral action which might further aggravate” what was an already “tense and very dangerous” situation.
Its response has been knee-jerk, unfathomable — and, above all, ironic. Every outburst and flailing against India only validates the Modi government and rallies Indian public opinion behind it. In other words, while claiming to lash out at him, Pakistan is only making Modi look better, even among those Indians who do not agree with the prime minister’s handling of Kashmir.
In a tweet Mr Trump said he was confident Mr Xi could deal with Hong Kong’s increasingly fractious protests „quickly and humanely“.
He wrote that Mr Xi „is a great leader who very much has the respect of his people“.
The president signed off the tweet with a question: „Personal meeting?“
CNN saw uniformed members of the People’s Armed Police Force (PAP) with riot shields and batons at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center.
The PAP is the 1.5 million-member paramilitary force the government regularly deploys to quell protests within its borders. It is under the command of China’s central military commission, headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
– Washington is not the ‘black hand’ Beijing believes it to be. But neither should it wash its hands of the crisis, as Trump has apparently done
– However limited its role, the US should be urging restraint on all sides and highlighting the credible repercussions beyond Hong Kong of any crackdown
The US has delayed the imposition of a 10 percent tariff on significant portions of Chinese imports until December 15 as top negotiators from the two countries spoke by phone for the first time since US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports.
– Hongkongers would almost certainly treat Chinese government forces as invaders, and resistance would be fierce and casualties unavoidable
– An exodus of expats and elites would follow, and the Hong Kong economy – still a bridge between China the rest of the world – would almost immediately collapse
(video)
For over three hours, the man was surrounded by protesters in Terminal 1 after they accused of being an undercover agent from mainland China.
Suspicions were raised after a message on Telegram messenger was shared that appeared to identify him as a public security officer – a charge he denied.
He was chased down and briefly attacked as several airport security officers sought to protect him.
Paramedics arrived to treat him after he appeared to faint at 10pm but were unable to take him away from angry crowds who demanded to see identification and the contents of his phone.
The man claimed he was simply seeing friends off at the airport.
It comes after Hong Kong police admitted the previous day that they had deployed undercover officers among pro-democracy demonstrators, potentially causing paranoia among protesters on Tuesday who attacked two different people suspecting them of being spies.
(5.6.2018) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel Monday that Iranian meddling in the Middle East could touch off massive new refugee flows to Europe, as they clashed about the future of the nuclear deal with Tehran.
The man tapped to head a neutral government in Italy after two populists failed in their bid is a former official at the International Monetary Fund who is a firm believer in the euro and in the necessity of Italy cutting its stubbornly high-debt load.
„No one ever thought about quitting the euro,“ Salvini told Radio Capital.
„It wasn’t in our programmes, it wasn’t in Savona’s programme.
„There was just the revision of the banking system and the taxes“.
„I’m not speaking about that,“ Salvini said when asked about a possible impeachment.
„At a time like this, everyone’s first duty is to defend the savings of the Italian people, safeguarding our country’s families and companies“ Berlusconi said.
The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) on Sunday backed President Sergio Matterella after his controversial rejection the nomination of Paolo Savona as economy minister.
„The League and the 5-Star Movement are using unheard of words and unprecedented threats,“ caretaker PD leader Maurizio Martina said via Twitter.
Italy’s two populist leaders forged a coalition from very different policy platforms. They found a prime minister that both could accept. Then President Sergio Mattarella vetoed their finance minister and their bid for power foundered, unleashing chaos and rage in equal measure in Rome.
Shortly afterwards, he summoned former International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior official Carlo Cottarelli for a Monday morning meeting — an indication he may be considering asking him to head a government of unelected technocrats.
5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Sunday that President Sergio Mattarella should be impeached after he rejected the nomination of Paolo Savona as economy minister.
„(What) if we have elections and we win and the we go to the president’s palace and they say we cannot form a government?“ Di Maio said on a telephone interview with RAI show ‚Che Tempo Che Fa‘.
(18.10.2017) The move to oust Visco comes at a sensitive time for Italy and the euro area. The ECB, where he sits on the Governing Council, is due to meet next week to try and agree on how and when it can wind down its bond-buying program.