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Tucker exposes neocon GOP candidates. UK air force ready to fight Russia. Macron booed. "IndyWatch Feed War"
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Former CIA Moscow Chief, By His Remarks, Shows Why The CIA Is Feckless "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
My first and only contact with Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, who served as the CIAs Chief of Station circa 2000, was at a conference hosted by my former CIA classmate, Valerie Plame, five years ago. Rolf is a very pleasant, soft-spoken man, but is blinded by an old Cold War view of the world and cannot see Russia straight.
In Rolfs world, Putin is bad. Very, very bad. And the United States? Clean as the driven snow on the Artic Tundra. He perpetuates the myth that Putin is weak and in trouble. Rolf also makes the ridiculous claim that the U.S. deployment of cluster bombs is a reaction to Russias use of increasingly lethal weapons. He is not a stupid person. Yet he ignores the fact that the United States and its NATO partners are the one deploying more sophisticated, lethal weapons. Who sent the HIMARS? Who sent the M777s? Who sent the Storm Shadow?
I was shocked by Rolfs cavalier dismissal of the West coming up short in its ability to supply 155 mm shells and effective air defense systems. The much ballyhooed Patriot system has been a complete bust. But that does not faze Rolf. He just rambles on about the West needing to show resolve and commitment. In fact he asserts that it is very possible that Russia will be defeated by Ukraine. We got to find out what mind altering substances he has been ingesting. That is the only explanation I can come up with to explain the nonsense spilling from his lips.
A cautionary warning please do not have any hard object at hand, like a baseball or a rock, as you watch this video because you will be tempted to hurl it at your screen in outrage over his so-called analysis.
I posted this in its entirety in order for you to appreciate that I am not taking any of his comments out of context. Officers like Rolf explain why the CIA is acquiring a reputation for being inept.
The post Former CIA Moscow Chief, By His Remarks, Shows Why The CIA Is Feckless appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Russia has right to mirror actions if Kiev uses cluster munitions - Putin "IndyWatch Feed World"
The Russian President underscores the significance of prioritizing humanitarian concerns and working toward a global ban on these indiscriminate weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia has not yet used cluster munitions, adding that if such weaponry is used against Russian forces; Moscow reserves the right to respond in kind. "Until now, we have not done this, we have not used it, and we did not have such a need, despite the known shortage of ammunition by us as well in a certain period of time, but we did not do this. But, of course, if they are used against us, we reserve the right to mirror actions," Putin said in an interview for Rossiya-1 broadcaster. Putin made these comments in response to the recent unveiling of a new US military assistance package for Ukraine, which includes cluster munitions.
A Cuppa For Conquest: UK Military Aid To Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"
Storm
Shadows [Before May 2023] (Employed by Su-24 strike
aircraft) 600+ Brimstone
1s [May 2022] (Employed by ground-based launchers)Gemini Links 16/07/2023: Rosy Crow 1.3.0 Released "IndyWatch Feed Tech"
Im happy its Saturday, and Im grateful for my life. I have met some amazing people and feel loved. I have everything I need, and realize most people cant say that. I have a great job, feel respected by my peers, enjoy who I work with, am paid fairly, and always have fresh challenges.
I havent had much time for computing today, with a 2.5 hour journey home, etc.. I might not have any time tomorrow either as Im seeing a good friend of mine from about midday
[...]
Emails have worked OK, though they have been fairly slow as my main email box for home stuff now has around 47000 messages in it, so the headers tak a while to download! I have still been able to use it though.
There are at least 3 types of people
One would treat the new way of doing stuff as bad, because they tried using the old way and it didnt work.
One would treat it as bad, not because its bad, but because its worse than the best.
One would treat it as good and bad, and would wonder why people dont see the good as they do after theyve go out of their way to try it out.
Thing is though; it works. If any part of the hardware would fail its not really reparable, but I happen to have another computer just like it (a hand-me-down) as a spare.
Its a trade-off to have a computer like this. The model is rare enough that there arent drivers for all of the hardware. WiFi has never worked on it. W...
Ukraine War: Irish fighter Rambo describes terrifying Russian tank chase "IndyWatch Feed War"
If Ukraines counteroffensive has moved more slowly than many in the West had hoped, it has also proven more costly in terms of human lives.
The fighting has been brutal and bloody as the Russians use mass artillery and minefields to defend territory seized earlier in the war.
An information blackout has been imposed by the Ukrainians to protect operational tactics, but post-battle accounts by individual combatants reveal the perilous nature of the fighting at the front.
The toll, both physically and emotionally, has been considerable.
Sky News has interviewed two foreign volunteers who have been fighting in the Ukrainian army for the past 17 months. Their accounts have been supported by additional testimony provided by several other foreign volunteers.
Rhys Byrne, codename Rambo, is a spirited 28-year-old from Dublin. He has fought for a number of units in Ukraine, including the 59th brigade in the Ukrainian territorial army where he operated a heavy machine gun.
He says the battle to reclaim territory has been horrific. On zero line its horror. Its horror. There is just a genocide. Its slaughter.
There are dead people everywhere. Russians dead. Ukrainian people dead. the biggest problem we get when were going into trenches is stepping over all the dead bodies that are already there from the last people [who] went in that kind of stuff really haunts you.
We met him at a respite centre in eastern Ukraine, a sanctuary used by army volunteers who have been granted leave from the front.
Byrne told us about an engagement that he called the final straw an encounter with a Russian tank and Russian troops that nearly got him killed.
He says: We were told there [was] a Russian trench line and our job is to go into the trenches and clear them out and hold them until the auxiliary units come and then we go back.
The unit, with 40 members including Ukrainians, Americans and Britons were taken to a staging area near the front or zero lin...
Kennedy accuses Biden of preparing for war with Russia "IndyWatch Feed War"
Biden trips not once but three times while trying to ascend the stairs to Air Force One.
The US leader should acknowledge his failure in Ukraine and focus on domestic issues, the presidential candidate has said US 2024 Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
By ordering the deployment of 3,000 more reservists to Europe, US President Joe Biden is preparing to fight Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said.
Biden has lost his way, Kennedy tweeted on Friday, arguing that the president should focus on Americas domestic problems instead of trying to achieve global military dominance.
I want people to understand what this troop mobilization is about. Its about preparing for a ground war with Russia, he said.
The idea of defeating Moscow in its conflict with Kiev is a futile geopolitical fantasy of the Biden administration, the Democratic presidential candidate added.
Thousands of Ukrainians have already lost their lives because Americas foreign policy establishment manipulated their country into war Now, rather than acknowledge failure, Biden admin prepares to sacrifice American lives too, Kennedy said.
On Thursday, Biden signed an executive order mobilizing 3,000 members of the US militarys Selected Reserve to boost the ranks of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which Washington launched in Europe in 2014 after Crimea rejoined Russia following the Western-backed coup in Kiev.
According to Army Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the Joint Staff director of operations, the move reaffirms the unwavering [US] support and commitment to defend NATOs eastern flank in the wake of Russias military operation in Ukraine.
The US European Command (EUCOM) spokesman, Navy Captain Bill Speaks, said the deployment of reservists will not change current force-posture levels in Europe.
The leading Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, also had some harsh words to say about Bidens decision to send more American troops to Europe. The reckless escalation in Ukraine pursued by the White House is straining the US military to the point of disaster, he said.
Joe Biden cant even walk up the steps of Air Force One without tripping. The last thing this incompetent administration should be doing is pushing us further toward World War III.
Trump reiterated his earlier claim that if he becomes president again, he would end the conflict in Ukraine in 24 hours. Not one American mother or father wants to send their child to die in Eastern Europe. We must have peace.
Another Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, said it is downright disturbing that the US media is largely ignoring the presidents order in its reporting. What is the justification now...
The March on the Kremlin "IndyWatch Feed Africa"
Russian generals are similar to the US generals depicted in Catch-22, the jolly novel by Joseph Heller: quarrelling, arrogant, caring more about their position and reputation than about the war. They too make their fighters fly more missions, perhaps leading their careers to greater glory. Fighters get killed, but who cares? They were greedy, too, and ready to bomb their own airfields if the enemy paid them enough to do it. The Russian general Ivan Popov was very popular with his troops for his panache, but he was forced out by general Gerasimov, the Head of General Staff. Wagner PMC head Eugene Prigozhin, the hero of Bakhmut, needed ammo, but Shoygu from the MoD lusted after another medal (to add to the 60 he has already amassed), and ammo for the Wagner group was not a priority for him. Prigozhin marched with his army to the gates of Moscow to get Putins attention, which he got along with his ammo after some delay. Some journalists accused Prigozhin of mutiny, but instead he was given millions in roubles and dollars, gold and guns that were taken from him in the aftermath of his escapade. Foreign minister Mr Lavrov described the event as peredryaga, meaning trouble, mess, or confusion. General Popov also wants to speak to Putin, to explain himself, but he has no soldiers to march with him.
Both Popov and Prigozhin openly criticized the way Mr Shoygu of the MoD, and General Gerasimov, his head of Staff, are managing the war in Ukraine. But some US officials and the Russian pro-Western opposition preferred to call their criticism a coup dtat. So many people wanted this coup to happen that now it is difficult to claim it was a nothing-burger. Lets examine in detail what happened between the Russian state, the General Staff, the Ministry of Defence and the proprietor of Wagner PMC, Mr Prigozhin.
Prigozhin is a Russian billionaire and entrepreneur. He did some catering for the Kremlin (a position of great trust), then delivered meals to schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and lately has expanded into media operations. He established the so-called Troll Factory: a major source of influence in Russian social media. Before this, it was the Western intelligence services that ruled supreme in Russian social media, be it Facebook, Instagram or VK. Prigozhins Trolls were able to quickly counteract the efforts of Western propaganda warriors, and as a result he became close to Putin personally. Around 2015, he moved from commanding internet trolls to commanding real warriors: he established a private military company called Wagner, after the nickname of its co-founder. They fought for Russia in many countries in Africa, in Syria, in Latin America. At some point, the Russian state turned to them for help. The head of the General Staff, General Gerasimov personally addressed Mr Prigozhin, and asked him to tak...
US wants neither peace nor dialogue "IndyWatch Feed War"
Uriel Araujo, researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
The US-led West is not interested in peace or in any kind of compromise to put an end to the current conflict in Ukraine. ...
Danila Medvedev, Cofounder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the cryonics company KrioRus, joins our Life Extension Board. "IndyWatch Feed Tech"
Danila Medvedev, Cofounder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the cryonics company KrioRus, joins our Life Extension Board.
No fertilizer exported from Russia under grain deal media "IndyWatch Feed Africa"
RT | July 15, 2023
Not a single vessel carrying Russian fertilizer has been dispatched since the adoption of the Black Sea grain deal last year, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) for the initiative.
Enabling fertilizer exports from the sanctioned country was one of the conditions for the UN-brokered agreement that allowed for the safe passage of ships carrying Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. The deal was extended several times and is due to expire on Monday.
The agreement of July 22, 2022 allows the export of [Russian] fertilizers, including ammonia, however not a single ship with fertilizers has been dispatched within the framework of the initiative, the JCC said, as quoted by RIA Novosti.
The Coordination Center also reportedly noted that fertilizer exports depend on the condition of a key ammonia pipeline on Ukrainian territory. A section of the Togliatti-Odessa pipeline was sabotaged last month, and according to the report, at the moment its status is unknown.
The conduit has been inactive since the start of the Ukraine conflict last year, and Moscow has repeatedly demanded that Kiev unblock the pipeline as a condition for renewing the grain deal. The route has big significance for agriculture, as ammonia is crucial to fertilizer production.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the grain deal has failed to remove the barriers to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer. Talking to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Putin added that the pact has also failed to deliver on its goal of supplying grain to the poorest nations.
Earlier this week, the Russian leader said that Moscow may suspend its participation in the grain deal until Western sanctions on its agricultural exports are lifted.
The Joint Coordination Center on the Black Sea Grain Initiative was founded in July 2022 in Istanbul. JCC comprises representatives of Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Trkiye, and the United Nations.
7/11/23 Daniel Davis on the Counteroffensive and Cluster Bombs "IndyWatch Feed War"
Download Episode. Scott was joined by Daniel Davis on Antiwar Radio this week to talk about Ukraine. In this interview, Davis gives an update on where things stand with the counter-offensive. They then refute some common arguments about how antiwar folks are responsible for Ukraines trouble breaching Russian lines. They then talk about some of []
20% of Ukrainian weapons destroyed in just two weeks "IndyWatch Feed War"
RT | July 15, 2023
The Ukrainian military lost 20% of the equipment it sent to the battlefield during the first two weeks of its counteroffensive, the New York Times reported on Saturday. This high attrition rate was reportedly a key factor in Kievs decision to pause the operation.
Beginning in early June, Ukrainian forces launched a series of attacks all along the front line from Kherson to Donetsk. Advancing through minefields and without air support, the Ukrainian military lost 26,000 men and more than 3,000 pieces of military hardware, according to the latest figures from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Ukrainian losses were at their highest during the initial two weeks of the offensive, the New York Times claimed, citing unnamed American and European officials. These officials said that up to 20% of Ukraines tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed in this period, including many Western-provided vehicles.
For some units, Western equipment was lost at an even higher rate, the Times continued, citing figures from a pro-Ukrainian organization. Ukraines 47th Mechanized Brigade a NATO-trained unit apparently lost 30% of its 99 Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicles in two weeks, while the 33rd Mechanized Brigade lost nearly a third of its 32 German-made Leopard tanks in a single week.
They all burned, said one Ukrainian soldier who witnessed at least six Western vehicles destroyed in a single Russian artillery barrage. Another Ukrainian fighter told the Times that his units Bradleys run over anti-tank mines on a daily basis. While the troops inside often survive, the vehicles are left immobilized long before they reach Russian lines.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian forces have destroyed a total of 311 Ukrainian tanks since June 4. At least a third of them, I believe, were Western-made tanks, including Leopards, Putin told Russia 24 TV on Thursday.
After the first two weeks, Ukrainian commanders decided to pause the counteroffensive, and losses subsequently dropped to 10%, the Times claimed. President Vladimir Zelensky acknowledged the pause this week, but blamed the West for failing to supply him with enough weapons and equipment for a successful operation.
With little territorial gain to show for Kievs losses, Western officials have expressed disappointment at the pace of the offensive, according to a steady trickle of media reports since mid-June. Zelensky and some of his top officials still insist that the decisive phase of their counteroffensive has yet to begin.
Meanwhile, Ukraines Western backers are running low on ammunition, particularly 155mm artillery shells. US President Joe Biden...
Kennedy accuses Biden of preparing for 'war with Russia' "IndyWatch Feed World"
The US leader should acknowledge his "failure" in Ukraine and focus on domestic issues, the presidential candidate has said... By ordering the deployment of 3,000 more reservists to Europe, US President Joe Biden is preparing to fight Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said. "Biden has lost his way," Kennedy tweeted on Friday, arguing that the president should focus on America's domestic problems instead of trying to achieve global military dominance. "I want people to understand what this troop mobilization is about. It's about preparing for a ground war with Russia. The idea of defeating Moscow in its conflict with Kiev is a futile geopolitical fantasy of the Biden administration. "Thousands of Ukrainians have already lost their lives because America's foreign policy establishment manipulated their country into war... Now, rather than acknowledge failure, Biden admin prepares to sacrifice American lives too."
Military Situation South Of Velyka Novosilka, Zaporozhie Front, On July 15, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"
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The post...
The digital ruble: Its finally here! "IndyWatch Feed War"
Riley Waggaman The wait is over! The Bank of Russias centralized, programmable digital token officially received the State Dumas blessing on Tuesday. Safe and convenient concepts such as digital ruble platform, digital ruble platform participant, as well as digital ruble platform user and digital account (wallet), now have concrete definitions provided by pages and pages of legal
Military Situation Near Antonovsky Bridge, Kherson Region, On July 15, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"
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The post Military Situation Near Antonovsky Bridge, Kherson Region, On July 15, 2023 (Map Update) appeared first on South Front.
Just asking questions "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
Heres the New York Post:
COVID-19. There is an argument that it is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately, Kennedy said. COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.
We dont know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact, Kennedy hedged.
I suppose one could also say there is an argument that Kennedy is secretly being financed by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Heck, there is an argument that I was created on one of Saturns moons and my consciousness was inserted into the corpse of a human killed in an auto accident back in 1955.
PS. Kennedy just passed DeSantis as third most likely to be our next president.
Who supplies the arms calls the shots: Ukraine's top general chafes under US restrictions "IndyWatch Feed World"
General Valery Zaluzhny is unhappy those who pay his army's bills get to set the rules of engagement Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine General Valery Zaluzhny told the Washington Post in an interview published on Friday that US has restricted his country's use of long-range missiles and forced his army to improvise in order to attack Russia. "To save my people, why do I have to ask someone for permission what to do on enemy territory?" Zaluzhny is quoted as telling the Post, in what was described as a rare interview, complaining about what the outlet called "figurative Western handcuffs on his military operations." "For some reason, I have to think that I'm not allowed to do anything there. Why? Because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will... use nuclear weapons? The kids who are dying don't care," the general is quoted as saying.
Russian Forces Counter-Attack In Bakhmut Region: Map Update On July 15, 2023 "IndyWatch Feed War"
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The post Russian Forces Counter-Attack In Bakhmut Region: Map Update On July 15, 2023 appeared first on South Front.
U.S. Soldiers Dont Belong in Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"
By Eve Ottenberg | CounterPunch | July 14, 2023
So how many American soldiers fight in Ukraine? The Biden bunch is careful not to reveal or refer to their presence, mercenary or otherwise, but the question keeps coming to mind. It popped up again June 27, when Russia bombed what the Ukraine press called simply a restaurant in Kramatorsk. However, this supposedly innocuous restaurant was part of a hotel complex that apparently attracted lots of western men of fighting age, specifically American soldiers and others from NATO countries. We know this because eyewitnesses heard them speaking American English and saw their U.S. military tattoos (3rd Ranger Battalion) and the American flags on their helmets. Also, American mercenaries were reported dead in twitter accounts. We also know that this missile attack killed 50 Ukrainian officers and two generals and at least 20 of the westerners, including Americans, proving yet again that one American soldier in Ukraine is one too many.
The problem is that we dont know how many U.S. soldiers to say nothing of American mercenaries are in Ukraine. The Russian ministry of defense estimates that there have been over 900 American mercenaries in Ukraine. Meanwhile Washington remains mum, closely guarding its knowledge of this secret for the obvious reason that not doing so might provoke an open confrontation with Moscow. And since they dont want a nuclear World War III, the white house and pentagon nurture an intense interest in concealing facts about the U.S. military footprint in Ukraine and their possible encouragement of it. Even if large numbers of American NATO officers were killed there, we, back in the so-called homeland, would doubtless be kept in the dark.
The scraps of news we do get indicate that the fighting goes poorly for U.S. troops. This is my third war Ive fought in, and this is by far the worst one, Troy Offenbecker told the Daily Beast July 1. Youre getting fucking smashed with artillery, tanks. Last week I had a plane drop a bomb next to us, like 300 meters away. Its horrifying shit.
The Daily Beast quotes another U.S. soldier, David Bramlette: The worst day in Afghanistan or Iraq is a great day in Ukraine. Regarding reconnaissance missions, he said, if two of them get injured theres no helicopter coming to get you shit can go south really, really frickin quickly. In other words, this is a different enemy, a very competent one, and U.S. soldiers in Ukraine sub rosa could die in large numbers that people back home never hear about.
Take the case of the March missile attack on Lvov. We have no idea if the rumors swirling around this assault, rumors of hundreds of NATO dead, includin...
Kennedy accuses Biden of preparing for war with Russia "IndyWatch Feed War"
RT | July 15, 2023
By ordering the deployment of 3,000 more reservists to Europe, US President Joe Biden is preparing to fight Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine, Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said.
Biden has lost his way, Kennedy tweeted on Friday, arguing that the president should focus on Americas domestic problems instead of trying to achieve global military dominance.
I want people to understand what this troop mobilization is about. Its about preparing for a ground war with Russia, he said.
The idea of defeating Moscow in its conflict with Kiev is a futile geopolitical fantasy of the Biden administration, the Democratic presidential candidate added.
Thousands of Ukrainians have already lost their lives because Americas foreign policy establishment manipulated their country into war Now, rather than acknowledge failure, Biden admin prepares to sacrifice American lives too, Kennedy said.
On Thursday, Biden signed an executive order mobilizing 3,000 members of the US militarys Selected Reserve to boost the ranks of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which Washington launched in Europe in 2014 after Crimea rejoined Russia following the Western-backed coup in Kiev.
According to Army Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the Joint Staff director of operations, the move reaffirms the unwavering [US] support and commitment to defend NATOs eastern flank in the wake of Russias military operation in Ukraine.
The US European Command (EUCOM) spokesman, Navy Captain Bill Speaks, said the deployment of reservists will not change current force-posture levels in Europe.
The leading Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, also had some harsh words to say about Bidens decision to send more American troops to Europe. The reckless escalation in Ukraine pursued by the White House is straining the US military to the point of disaster, he said.
Joe Biden cant even walk up the steps of Air Force One without tripping. The last thing this incompetent administration should be doing is pushing us further toward World War III.
Trump reiterated his earlier claim that if he becomes president again, he would end the conflict in Ukraine in 24 hours. Not one American mother or father wants to send their child to die in Eastern Europe. We must have peace.
Another Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, said it is downright disturbing that the US media is largely ignoring the presidents order in its reporting. What is the justification now [for sending reservists to Europe]? What are the operations? Where will they go? What will they do? We need answers, not sweeping this under the rug as Biden would prefer, Ramaswamy said in...
Military Situation In Southern Ukraine On July 15, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"
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The post Military Situation In Southern Ukraine On July 15, 2023 (Map Update) appeared first on South Front.
TWO EXCELLENT UKRAINE CHATS "IndyWatch Feed War"
https://sonar21.com/two-excellent-round-table-chats-on-ukraine/
I have had an interesting two days. Yesterday I was part of a Roundtable (please keep Gonzalo Lira in your prayers if youre a believer) with Andrei Martyanov and Ray McGovern that was hosted by Polit Wera (a lovely Russian lady with a nationally popular podcast). Andreis mastery of English and Russian is remarkable he translated everything that Ray and I said. That is very difficult work and he was flawless.
...Military Situation In Ukraine On July 15, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"
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AP Obfuscates The Real Black Sea Grain Deal Numbers "IndyWatch Feed War"
Just two days ago I wrote about Grain Deal Shenanigans and summarized: The grain deal had two parts. One was the access of ships to Ukrainian harbors. The other was the normal export of grain and fertilizer from Russia. While...
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West Bank: Outrage after Palestinian Authority forces arrest journalist "IndyWatch Feed War"
West Bank: Outrage after Palestinian Authority forces arrest journalist
Anger has spread across the occupied Palestinian territories following the arrest of a prominent journalist by the Palestinian Authority's security forces.
Aqil Awawdeh's family said that forces from the Palestinian Preventive Security Service raided his workplace in Ramallah on Thursday afternoon, arrested him and transferred him to an unknown destination.
The arrest came after he published a short video disputing a claim made by the spokesperson of the Palestinian security services that there were no political detainees in their prisons.
Hours after his arrest, the Lawyers for Justice group announced that Awawdeh's detention had been extended to Sunday.
The head of the group, lawyer Muhannad Karaja, told Middle East Eye that he was able to visit Awawdeh for a few minutes to obtain his approval to appoint a defence lawyer to follow up the judicial procedures.
According to Karaja, the journalist is being held by the Public Prosecution Office on charges of "inciting racial strife" on the basis of posts on social med...
Russian parliament bans gender reassignment surgery for trans people "IndyWatch Feed World"
Russia's lower house of parliament has passed a new law banning gender reassignment surgery, in the latest attack on LGBT rights in the country. The State Duma approved the bill, which will also ban people changing their genders on state documents, on Friday. It now needs approval from the upper house and President Vladimir Putin, moves normally seen as formalities.
NATO Lies, Jabs & Fries, Child Traffickers Rise, and a Man Steals a Womans Prize "IndyWatch Feed War"
As most compare Putin to Hitler, turn a blind eye to the U.S. sending cluster bombs to Zelenskyy the grifter, and witness the latest madness about Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), please remember:
During the 1990 discussions to re-unify East and West Germany, the Western parties sought to defuse Moscows fears that a reunified state in the heart of Europe would present a threat to the Soviet Union.
Mikhail Gorbachev only accepted German reunification over which the Soviet Union had a legal right to veto because he received assurances that NATO would not expand after he withdrew his forces from Eastern Europe.
These assurances came from folks like President George H.W. Bush, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the CIA Director Robert Gates, French President Francois Mitterrand, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister John Major, and NATO secretary-general Manfred Woerner.
...US wants neither peace nor dialogue: some voices call for disintegration of Russia "IndyWatch Feed War"
By Uriel Araujo | July 15, 2023
The US-led West is not interested in peace or in any kind of compromise to put an end to the current conflict in Ukraine. According to University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer, Western leaders have additional goals, which include regime change in Moscow, putting Putin on trial as a war criminal, and possibly breaking up Russia into smaller states. Journalist Anchal Vohra, writing for Foreign Policy, tells us that Western analysts and Russian dissidents have been publicly calling for the decolonization of Russia itself
Take, for example, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (an independent US. government agency): already in 2022, Vohra reminds us, it published a report called Decolonizing Russia, which declared that such decolonizing should be a moral and strategic objective.
This extreme stance is not a reaction to the escalation of the ongoing conflict (but rather one of its external causes); in fact, such views are nothing new at all. Take, for instance, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, the influential diplomat and foreign policy expert who served as a national advisor to former US President Jimmy Carter: he openly called for the further fragmentation of Russia (after the collapse of the Soviet state). In his 1997 Foreign Affairs piece, he called for a loosely confederated Russia composed of a European Russia, a Siberian Republic and a Far Eastern Republic. Brzezinski advocated all this while also speaking about Americas global primacy extending all the way over to the Eurasiatic landmass too, of course. According to him, the US should perpetuate the prevailing geopolitical pluralism on the map of Eurasia, so as to prevent even the remote possibility of any one state seeking to challenge Americas primacy. To put it simply, for the American establishment, Russian simply cannot be.
This attitude, distorted as it is, makes some sense, from a certain American perspective, focused on global supremacy and the pursuit and maintenance of unipolarity. This has been shaped by the geopolitical thinking of Sir Halford John Mackinder and his concept of the struggle for the Heartland, and also by US Navy captain Alfred Thayer Mahan (and his 1890 The Atlantic article The United Sta......
Russian lawmakers unanimously pass bill outlawing gender reassignment "IndyWatch Feed World"
Russian politicians have adopted a bill outlawing gender-reassignment procedures amid the Kremlin's push to protect what it views as the country's "traditional values". The toughened and final reading in Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma. The bill bans any "medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person," as well as changing one's gender in official documents and public records.
Iranians lash out at Russia after Moscow wades into Gulf territorial row "IndyWatch Feed Africa"
Iranians lash out at Russia after Moscow wades into Gulf territorial row
Russia has waded into a territorial dispute in the Gulf this week, provoking a rare outpouring of criticism from its regional partner Iran.
On Monday, Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a joint statement in support of the United Arab Emirates' claim on three islands in the Gulf that Tehran argues are Iranian. The move echoed a similar statement issued by China last year.
After over a decade of growing ties and partnership between Tehran and Moscow, this latest statement has pushed former government officials and prominent figures in Iran to question the effectiveness of the Islamic Republic's "Look to the East" policy.
The Gulf and the disputed islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa are matters of significant national pride for Iran, making the public highly sensitive to any positions taken on this issue.
The territorial disputes between Iran and the UAE over these islands have persisted for decades, with Abu Dhabi consistently asserting its claims.
Debt Rattle July 15 2023 "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
Vincent van Gogh July 14th in Paris1886 NATO Is The Real Troublemaker China (RT) Why Doesnt Moscow Try This Instead? (Zuesse) US Could Stop Ukraine Conflict Instantly Orban (RT) Inviting Ukraine To Join NATO Would Have Triggered WWIII Orban (TASS) A Fun Day (James Howard Kunstler)
The post Debt Rattle July 15 2023 appeared first on The Automatic Earth.
Nato isnt defending Ukraine. Its stabbing it in the back "IndyWatch Feed Pacific"
So far, Ukraines much-vaunted spring counter-offensive has turned into a damp squib, despite western media spin about slow progress. Moscow is holding on to the Ukrainian territories it annexed.
More than 110 states not including the US, of course have ratified a 2008 international convention outlawing cluster munitions. Many are in Nato.
Middle East Eye, Jonathan Cook. 14 July 2023
The US and its allies are sustaining the very war they now cite as grounds for disqualifying Kyiv from Nato membership .
he Nato summit in Lithuania this week served only to underscore the utter hypocrisy of western leaders in pursuing their proxy war in Ukraine to weaken Russia and oust its president, Vladimir Putin.
Both the US and Germany had made clear before the summit that they would block Ukraines admission to Nato while it was in the midst of a war with Russia. That message was formally announced by Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fumed that Nato had reached an absurd decision and was demonstrating weakness. Britis...
No More NUC: Intels Weirdly Named Mini PCs Seem to be Going Away "IndyWatch Feed Tech"
Intel has exited several side businesses as it tries to stop losing money:
Since 2012, Intel has designed and sold its own lineup of mini PCs. The Next Unit of Computing series (NUCrhymes with yuck) always most closely resembled Mac mini-like desktops, but over the years, it grew to encompass compact workstations and gaming systems as well as mini servers with multiple Ethernet ports.
But Intel is apparently throwing in the towel on the NUC, according to a statement given to The Verge earlier today.
[...] The NUC was an effort to bring the speed, size, and low power usage of an ultrabook into the desktop realm, replacing boxy, ugly office desktops with something you could hold in the palm of your hand. NUC-style mini PCs didn't take over the desktop market in the same way that ultrabooks came to dominate the laptop market, but the NUC is still survived by a large ecosystem of similarly tiny PCs, many of which are ultimately cheaper and easier to buy than most NUCs were. Models include but are not limited to Dell's Optiplex Micro, Lenovo's ThinkCentre Tiny, HP's ProDesk and EliteDesk Mini systems, Gigabyte's Brix systems, a number of models from PC motherboard-makers like Asus and ASRock, and Apple's Mac mini and Mac Studio.
The end of the NUC is due at least in part to Intel's recent financial strugglesthe company has had a few rough quarters since the end of the pandemic-era PC boom, losing billions of dollars as its consumer, workstation, and server businesses al...
Pentagon Dragging Its Feet Over F-16 Gifts To Ukraine "IndyWatch Feed War"
Pushed by the weapon industry the U.S. Defense Department is dragging its feet over the delivery of F-16 airplanes to Ukraine:
Pentagon: Ukraine battlefield situation currently not ideal for F-16 deployment
The battlefield conditions in Ukraine are currently not ideal for the employment of F-16 fighter jets, said Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the director of operations of the Joint Staff, on July 13.
The conditions right now for the employment of the F-16s are probably not theyre probably not ideal, the general said at a press briefing.
I mean, the Russians still possess some air defense capability. They have air capability. And the number of F-16s that would be provided may not be perfect for whats going on right now, he clarified.
Lockheed-Martin, which still builds and sells the F-16 to various countries, is obviously not happy that the markets will soon learn that the F-16 have no fu**ing chance against modern Russian fighter planes and air-defenses.
Their coming destruction will scream Buy Russian! to the world and several countries will probably switch their provider and do so.
Also see:
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Russian Lawmakers Approve Ban on Gender Reassignment "IndyWatch Feed War"
Lawmakers from the Russian parliaments lower-house State Duma on Friday approved a ban on legal and surgical sex changes.
The bill was passed in its third and final reading, banning medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person and the state registration of a change of gender without an operation.
According to the legislation, medical commissions will determine a list of allowed interventions related to the treatment of congenital anomalies, genetic and endocrine diseases associated with the impaired formation of the genital organs in children.
This decision will protect our citizens and our children, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on the Telegram messaging app.
He described gender reassignment as the path leading to the degeneration of the nation, adding that this is unacceptable for Russia.
Human rights activists warn that banning gender reassignment will lead to the emergence of an underground market for surgeries and an increase in the number of suicides among transgender people.
The new legislation must now pass a single reading in the upper-house Federation Council before it can be signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin, steps seen as formalities.
Once passed, the bill will prohibit child adoption by those who have had a sex change, while also allowing for the annulment of marriages where one of the partners has undergone gender reassignment.
Russian officials have frequently cast Western liberal values, particularly gender and sexual freedoms, as a foreign ideology that threatens Russias so-called traditional and spiritual values.
Last year, Russia imposed a law banning the propaganda of LGBT relationships and lifestyles toward all ages, effectively outlawing public displays and media portrayals of non-heterosexual identities.
July 14 Putin is Chabad Boy Toy "IndyWatch Feed War"
(Putin with his Chabad handler, Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar)
Putins dismissal of a top Russian official for criticizing Chabad Satanism has made me change my mind about Putin and the Russian war. But the clincher is that Putin and Medvedev always refer to the West as Anglo Saxons when they know perfectly well that anglo saxons are getting their bums paddled in the West which is totally controlled by Satanist Jews (Chabad) and Freemasons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Alexei Pavlov, the official who labeled Chabad as a neo-pagan cult, from his position as the assistant secretary of Russias security council. The Russian state TASS news agency reported that the Kremlin published its decision on Friday.
The Russian news agency reports that Pavlov will now be moving on to another job after having served as the Assistant Secretary of the Security Council since 2009.
The reasons for Pavlovs dismissal were unstated by the document announcing the move.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-729243
Russian chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, who is part of Chabad, called the column, posted last November, a piece of vulgar antisemitism. His top deputy warned that the column heralded a new era in Russias relations with Jews.
In the column, Aleksey Pavlov, secretary of the Security Council of Russia, a government committee of experts, spoke of the need to perform desalinization in Ukraine, which Pavlov claimed had hundreds of neo-pagan cults. He included the Chabad-Lubavitch sect, as he called it, on a list of various religious groups that he said proved his point.
Plastic Baggies and Prigozhins "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
The slapstick Secret Service has provided at least a weeks worth of global entertainment, and the greatest showman it aint. Weve all got a bitter taste on the tip of our tongues, and not the good kind.
Key #50 is missing. Still. What?
Kinda like the remote at our house, after the kid comes to visit. We always remind him to put it back where the Grandpa and Grandma can find it, and well, were all just doing the best we can.
No fingerprints, no way to trace anything, we simply have no idea which one of the 500 possible cokeheads (or practice terrorists) in the White House that weekend did the dirty deed. Getting some powder into that old moldy building almost sounds like a Squid Game challenge, and if so, did the Secret Service decide to change anything about their security practices?
Its likely that procedures around one particular White House guest are going to be altered as a result. We the people dont need to know.
Thats what government fact checkers and disinformatzia kontrol is all about. Its for our own good.
Is Hunter Biden our very own Prigozhin-lite? A close friend of the leadership for many years, who occasionally causes fireworks of national embarrassment and then disappears for a minute with an apparent slap on the wrist, that nobody seems to understand?
I cant speak for Prigozhin, and its certainly fun to watch and gossip about how other countries do their thing. But as connected oligarchs and their brats go, Hunter Biden is one of the brightest stars. Always stays out of jail, retains full contact with and public support of government leaders, has an uncanny ability to get his obligations paid, his art bought, his progeny denied, his coke supplies maintained, his crimes covered up, and all the while, the money flows not due to hard work and talent, but as true to type, through the family connections.
Hey, hes just a kid! Daddy loves him. Its a story of many families in this country, except without the foreign millions and the law enforcement top cover.
Who will Putin hunt down and kill as a result of the last Saturday in June in Rostov-on-Don? The gossip runs wild, and yet we already know the story in the US of our own home-grown cronies in and around the Biden family. If you have evidence against a Biden, its you who will be hunted down and imprisoned and silenced and even killed. Im not keeping count, but in recent months weve had several examples.
Tara Reade says she was raped by then-Congressman Biden in 1993. She was advised her life was in danger, and moved to Russia in May. Now, no offense to Tara, but there have always been a lot of criminals in Congress, including sexua...
City of Londons Desperado Edict: Nato Commits To Kievs Fast Track Membership and Cluster Bombing to WWIII "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the days leading up to Tuesday July 11ths two-day NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania appears to have dramatically pivoted back into the Western Deep State fold, on Saturday July 8th raising the issue of becoming an EU member again, advocating Ukraine join NATO, finally giving in to Sweden as a NATO member on the eve of the Vilnius NATO summit, and last Saturday releasing five neo-Nazi Ukrainian Azovstal commanders vowing to return to the combat zone who were held in a Turkish prison, breeching the original agreement between Ankara, Kiev and Moscow to hold off their release until after the Ukraine conflict.
In front of the cameras handing five commanders over to a beaming Volodymyr Zelensky in Ankara last weekend was optically a much-needed promotional big PR win for Ukraine, just ahead of the Vilnius NATO summit. With Ukraines counteroffensive a complete failure, optics means everything to this fake actor. But to Russia Erdogan and Zelenskys move was viewed as Erdogan stabbing his close ally Russia in the back. Right afterwards, the opportunistic actor Zelensky flew off to Snake Island to thank Ukraine troops, basking in more centerstage theatrics, reminding the world that southern Ukraines coastline access to the Black Sea is still controlled by Kiev, despite strong likelihood that Russia will soon militarily snatch Odessa and Ukraines sea access away for good. The shrinking nation and population of Ukraine will be without its fearless dictator puppet soon as well.
A further development explaining this abrupt switcheroo by turncoat Erdogan suddenly kissing US/NATOs ass again is the F-16 fighter jet deal with the US, announced on Tuesday July 11th at the Vilnius, Lithuania NATO summit. This deal had been held up until Erdogan caved in to agree on Sweden becoming the 33rd NATO member.
Considering that over nearly the last decade, Erdogan has consistently thumbed his nose at America, NATO and the West, overtly distancing himself from his NATO membership while defiantly strengthening ties with Putin, Erdogan in 2022 steadfastly refused to join the US/NATOs condemnation and sanction pile-on against Putin for his Special Military Operation in Ukraine. Less than two mon...
Pan-African News Wire "IndyWatch Feed Africa"
Russian Forces Wipe Out Ukrainian Ammo Depots by Seaborne Precision Weapons
It is reported that Russian forces struck Ukrainian army units in the Krasny Liman area, eliminating roughly 90 enemy troops over the past day
MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. Russian forces delivered a multiple strike by seaborne precision weapons, destroying Ukrainian ammunition storage sites over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Thursday.
"Last night, the Russian Armed Forces delivered a multiple strike by seaborne long-range precision weapons against the Ukrainian armys ammunition storage sites. The goal of the strike was achieved. All the designated targets were destroyed," the spokesman said.
Ukrainian troops attempt attacks in three directions over past day
Ukrainian troops made unsuccessful attempts to advance in three directions over the past day, Konashenkov said.
"During the last 24-hour period, Ukrainian armed formations continued unsuccessful offensive attempts in the Donetsk, Krasny Liman and south Donetsk directions," the spokesman said.
Russian forces destroy 30 Ukrainian troops in Kupyansk area over past day
Russian forces destroyed about 30 Ukrainian troops, two armored personnel carriers and two motorized artillery systems in the Kupyansk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kupyansk direction, operational/tactical and army aircraft and artillery of the western battlegroup struck the Ukrainian armys manpower and equipment in areas near the settlements of Krasnoye Pervoye and Liman Pervyi in the Kharkov Region and Novosyolovskoye in the Lugansk Peoples Republic. As many as 30 Ukrainian personnel, two armored personnel carriers, two motor vehicles, a D-20 howitzer and two Gvozdika motorized artillery systems were destroyed," the spokesman said.
Russian forces eliminate 90 Ukrainian troops in Krasny Liman area over past day
Russian forces struck Ukrainian army uni...
Moscow calls for German authorities to immediately stop stealing cars of visiting Russian citizens "IndyWatch Feed World"
Berlin must "immediately" stop using "coercive measures" against visiting Russian citizens and explain why it has been seizing Russian private cars, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. The demand comes as German Customs Service staff continue the practice at the country's borders. The steps taken by the German authorities "go beyond even the absolutely illegitimate demands of the anti-Russia sanctions packages," Zakharova told the Russian journal Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn. Both Russian and German media had earlier reported that customs officials there had started confiscating personal vehicles with Russian license plates upon their arrival in Germany. This was sometimes done to Russian tourists traveling through Europe using their personal transport.
Russia will treat F-16s in Ukraine as nuclear threat - Lavrov "IndyWatch Feed World"
Western plans to provide US-designed fighter jets to Kiev represent an "extremely dangerous development," Russia's foreign minister believes... Moscow can't ignore the nuclear capability of US-designed F-16 fighter jets that may be supplied to Ukraine by its Western backers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Lavrov warned in his interview with Lenta.ru on Wednesday: "By continuing to provide more sophisticated arms to Kiev, the US and its NATO satellites create the risk of a direct armed confrontation with Russia, and this may lead to catastrophic consequences." The plans to supply F-16s to Kiev is yet another example of an escalatory move by the West and in itself is "an extremely dangerous development," he stated. In the midst of fighting, the Russian military isn't going to investigate whether any specific jet is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not, he added. "We have informed the nuclear powers - the US, UK and France - that Russia can't ignore the ability...
NATO seeking global domination - Moscow "IndyWatch Feed World"
The North Atlantic alliance intends to use Ukraine as a proxy for endless war while expanding into the Arctic and Asia in pursuit of neocolonial objectives, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, after a NATO meeting wrapped up in neighboring Lithuania. "The 'collective West' led by the US is not willing to accept the formation of a multipolar world and intends to defend its hegemony by all available means, including military ones. What the West calls the 'rules-based order' is nothing but a 'license they granted themselves to violate international law', and has nothing to do with the UN, which NATO frequently invokes." The Russian Foreign Ministry said: "NATO's achievements are well known: the growing instability, destruction of countries, rampant terrorism, war crimes that are committed with impunity, the blood of civilians, including children, and the endless flow of refugees." The bloc is now determined to "NATO-ize" Ukraine, treating the country as an expendable...
Free Speech Upsets Powers that Be "IndyWatch Feed War"
By Sheldon Richman | The Libertarian Institute | July 14, 2023
The Biden administration, along with mainstream politicians and journalists, are really upset that U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty has forbidden the executive branch of the central government from communicating with social-media platforms for the purpose of censoring or otherwise suppressing constitutionally protected speech. Judge Doughtys action came in an important free-speech lawsuit filed against the government.
He wrote in an accompanying statement:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.
So-called respectable government officials, journalists, and pundits the alleged adults in a room consider the judges temporary injunction the worse thing that could possibly happen. The headline in the progressive publication The American Prospect screamed in panic: Trump Judge Effectively Names Himself President. (That Trump judge, by the way, was confirmed by the Senate 98-0.)
Imagine it: agents from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and other government agencies may not even suggest to Facebook, Twitter, etc., that they ought to take down or hide posts that take issue with the governments official line about whatever. Of course, when government officials suggest something to a private party, the suggestion may be interpreted as being accompanied by the subtle threat to retaliate legally if the suggestion is ignored. Think of protection racketeer telling a shop owner, You have a nice place here. It would be a shame if it burned down. Get the picture?
As we know, the government has been doing stuff like this for years, whether the matter was related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hunter Biden laptop, the Russia-Ukraine war, Russias alleged collusive 2016 election tampering, and who knows what else. According to a congressional committee, the FBI apparently even collaborated with Ukrainian intelligence to censor Americans frowned-on discussion of the Ukraine war on social media.
The posts that government agenc...
Kremlin clarification: Wagner does not legally exist, Putin tells media "IndyWatch Feed World"
The Russian president has opened up about his Kremlin meeting with the mutineers Russian law does not recognize the existence of private military companies, including Wagner, President Vladimir Putin told the newspaper Kommersant on Thursday, when asked about his recent meeting with commanders of the mutinous group. While attending a technology fair in Moscow, Putin was asked whether Wagner will continue operating as a combat formation. "Well, PMC Wagner does not exist," Putin told the Kommersant correspondent. "We don't have a law on private military companies. So it simply doesn't exist." "The group exists, but legally it does not," the president clarified. "It's a separate issue, related to legalization, that needs to be taken up by the State Duma and the government. A complicated question."
Another Act of Terror: How the Media do PR for Biden and Zelensky "IndyWatch Feed War"
The hypocrisy gets starker by the day. The same western media that strains to warn of the dangers of disinformation at least when it comes to rivals on social media barely bothers to conceal its own role in purveying disinformation in the Ukraine war.
In fact, the propaganda peddled by the media grows more audacious by the day as two stories last week from the frontlines illustrate only too clearly.
Dominating headlines has been the environmental catastrophe created by the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam under Russian control. Flood waters from the Dnipro river have ruined vast swathes of land downriver from the dam and forced many tens of thousands to flee their homes.
Rightly, the wrecking of the dam is being called an act of ecological terrorism the second major one associated with the war, following last Septembers blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines supplying Russian gas to Europe.
The costs associated with keeping this war going and avoiding peace talks so that Russia can be weakened, as Biden administration officials insist is the priority, have grown much steeper than most people could have imagined.
This is why a clear understanding of what is going on and what interests are being served by fuelling the fighting rather than resolving the war is so vitally important.
There have always been at least two narratives in Ukraine, even if western audiences are rarely exposed to the Russian one outside of mocking commentary from western reporters.
In the immediate aftermath of the breaching of the Kakhovka dam, the BBCs Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, visibly sneered as he reported that Russian media were insisting Ukrainian terrorists were behind the destruction. Russians, he suggested, were being brainwashed by their government and media.
He obviously failed to spot the irony that his own reporting, like that of colleagues, has served to reinforce the impression that the only plausible culprit in the dams ruin despite a lack of evidence so far is Moscow. Like the Russian media, Rosenberg has been hawking precisely the line his own government, and its Nato allies, want from him.
The BBC recently launched its Verify service, ostensibly to root out disinformation. In similar vein, western media have started appending to any report of Russian assertions...
Kiev city council bans 'Russian culture' "IndyWatch Feed World"
The Kiev city council has voted to impose a broad moratorium on public displays of "cultural products" made using the Russian language, citing the armed conflict with Moscow. "We must once and for all restrict the Russian-language cultural products on the territory of Ukraine's capital," Vadim Vasilchuk, chair of the council's education and culture commission, said on Thursday. He labeled Russian "the language of the aggressor state that has no place in the heart of our capital." Vasilchuk explained that the decision means an effective ban on "books, artwork, audiovisual products, musical recordings, arts and crafts, stage and circus performances, concerts and services." The ruling is part of a wider state-sponsored campaign to eradicate historical and cultural ties with Russia that began in Ukraine after in 2014, when Crimea voted to join Russia following the Western-backed coup in Kiev. The movement escalated in 2022, when Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine.
How would Canadians perceive Russian troops on its border? "IndyWatch Feed War"
The Canadian governments plan to double its semipermanent military force on Russias border ratchets up tensions that should be reduced. It highlights the Wests betrayal of promises made to Soviet officials and Canadas addiction to stationing troops in Europe.
On Monday Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will ramp up its military presence in Latvia. The government will add about 1,200 military personnel to the nearly 1,000 Canadians already deployed on Russias border. As part of the announcement Trudeau committed $2.6 billion over three years to expand Latvia-focused Operation REASSURANCE. Canada will also procure and pre-position critical weapon systems, enablers, supplies and support intelligence, cyber, and space activities, the prime minister said in a statement. Last month Ottawa announced the deployment of 15 Leopard 2 battle tanks to Latvia.
In 2017 Canada took charge of one of four Eastern European NATO battle groups. In June 2021 Canada opened a $19 million headquarters in Latvia and by the end of the current commitment Canadian Forces will have been stationed there for a decade.
The semi-permanent stationing of Canadian forces on Russias border represents a flagrant violation of the promises made to Mikhail Gorbachev at the end of the Cold War. In 1990 the Soviet/Russian leader agreed not to obstruct German reunification, to withdraw tens of thousands of troops from the east and for the new Germany to be part of NATO in return for assurances that the alliance wouldnt expand one inch eastward. A 1990 Ottawa Citizen wire article quoted West Germanys foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, saying, the West is agreed that with a unification of Germany, there will not be any eastward extension of NATO, which was ostensibly a defence arrangement against the Soviet Union.
As Ive detailed, Ottawa led the charge for NATO expansion despite the promises made to Gorbachev. Soon after taking office in 1993 Prime Minister Jean Chretien began promoting Polands adhesion to NATO and Ottawa has led the push to double the size of the alliance by expanding into eastern and northern Europe. Ottawa has also promoted Ukraines adhesion to the alliance and has trained its military to be interoperable with NATO.
Alongside ending the stated objective for NATO, the dissolution of the Soviet Union undercut Canadas ration...
July 14 - Putin is Chabad Boy Toy "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
US could stop Ukraine conflict instantly Hungary "IndyWatch Feed War"
RT | July 14, 2023
The US wants the conflict in Ukraine to continue and has failed to explain its reasons to NATO allies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.
Orban told national broadcaster Kossuth Radio that if Washington wished, it could stop the fighting at a moments notice, as Kiev is fully dependent on the West in the fight against Russia.
The Hungarian leader was speaking on Friday morning, after returning from the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. During the event, the US-led military bloc declined to extend to Kiev a roadmap for membership. Hungary has stood out among members of the alliance by consistently criticizing Western policies on the Ukraine crisis.
If the Americans wanted it, peace would come the next morning. Why Americans dont want that is a question that puzzles the entire world, Orban said. We didnt get an answer at the NATO summit.
At this point, Ukraine has lost any real sovereignty, Orban claimed, citing Kievs devastated economy, and heavy depende...
Drone Crashes Close to Kursk Nuclear Plant, No Damage Reported "IndyWatch Feed War"
Sputnik 14.07.2023
VORONEZH, Russia A drone crashed in the Russian town of Kurchatov a few kilometers from the Kursk NPP, no one was injured and no critical facilities were damaged, Kursk Region Governor Roman Starovoit said Friday.
At night, a UAV crashed in the town of Kurchatov. Fortunately, none of the residents were hurt. Critical objects were not damaged as a result of the drones crash and its subsequent detonation, Starovoit wrote in his social media account.
According to available information, an aircraft-type drone that exploded near a residential building in the city Kurchatov fell a few kilometers from the Kursk NPP. The head of Rosatom Russian atomic agency assured that all measures to ensure the safety of Russian nuclear power plants had been taken, and the situation is under control.
Earlier, in April, a drone attack on the Kursk NPP was repelled by air defense forces.
Another three drones were intercepted by air defenses in the Voronezh Region on Thursday, governor Alexander Gusev said.
Yesterday, air defense systems detected and destroyed three UAVs several kilometers off Voronezh. There are no victims, injured or destruction. I keep the situation under personal control, Gusev wrote on Telegram on Friday.
Kremlin Slams Ukrainian Drone Attack
Ukraine does not stop attempts to strike, but Russian air defense systems are working effectively, appropriate measures are being taken, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the situation.
Well, it is obvious that the enemy does not give up attempts to strike. But all our air defense systems are working, working efficiently, demonstrating their effectiveness over and over again, and appropriate measures are being taken, Peskov told reporters.
NATOs Vilnius Summit: Hints of a New Cold War "IndyWatch Feed War"
The Vilnius Summit, convened by the NATO Heads of State and Government on July 11-12, 2023, concluded with the release of an extensive communiqu. This document distinguishes itself from a typical summit declaration, serving instead as a strategic roadmap that outlines NATOs future direction in an ever-evolving world order.
The communiqu, detailed in its exposition of pivotal policy directions and strategic initiatives, encapsulates the collective vision of NATO members. Owing to its depth and breadth, this essay will focus on the salient points that underscore a significant shift in NATOs role and strategic posture.
The document signals the advent of a New Cold War, indicative of a shift in global power dynamics with NATO positioning itself against strategic competitors, notably Russia and China. Additionally, it broadens the traditional concept of security to incorporate the global commons, including oceans, space, technology, and cyberspace.
Released on July 11, 2023, the Vilnius Summit Communiqu heralds a new epoch in international politics. This era, while echoing past rivalries, is shaped by contemporary realities. The subsequent analysis dissects the communiqus main points and their implications for this emerging New Cold War.
NATOs Evolution and the Advent of a New Cold War
NATO, established on shared values of individual liberty, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law, was originally formed as a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union. Over time, NATO has had to redefine its role in a rapidly evolving world order, particularly in the post-Cold War era. This period brought into question NATOs identity and purpose in a world that seemed to have moved beyond the bipolar power dynamics of the Cold War.
The Vilnius Summit Communiqu describes NATO as the unique, essential and indispensable transatlantic forum to consult, coordinate and act on all matters related to our individual and collective security. This powerful reaffirmation underscores NATOs central role in preserving peace and stability across the Atlantic. Furthermore, it emphasizes NATOs commitment to defend each other and every inch of Allied territory at all times, thereby ensuring the protection of its one billion citizens and safeguarding freedom and democracy.
The communiqu, however, reveals a significant shift in NATOs strategic outlook. The Alliance is no longer merely a defensive entity but positions itself as a proactive force ready to confront emerging challenges in an increasingly multipolar world. The communiqu underscores a transition towards a broader definition of security that includes the global commons of oceans, space, technology, and cyberspace.
The document recognizes that the geopolitical landscape has evolved, ack...
Syrians condemn UN aid deliveries in 'coordination' with Assad government "IndyWatch Feed War"
Syrians condemn UN aid deliveries in 'coordination' with Assad government
Humanitarian deliveries will be allowed to be sent through a key crossing point from Turkey into northwest Syria, but only under the condition that they must be made in "full cooperation and coordination with the Syrian government".
The decision by Syria, which was sent in a letter to the United Nations Security Council by Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, on Thursday, will allow the Bab al-Hawa border crossing to be used for another six months, after Russia blocked a proposed nine-month extension at the Security Council.
Both the short extension and the condition to fully cooperate with the Syrian government have raised concerns amongst people in Syria and aid organisations.
Sherine Ibrahim, the Turkey country director for Care, an international humanitarian organisation, said the non-renewal of the previously operating cross-border aid mechanism could have serious implications.
"Bilateral agreements put power and control in the hands of a few parties, making such agreements inherently subject to far more influence by competing political interests and often come with little transparency, she said in a statement to Middle East Eye.
Western media calls Baltic Sea NATO lake after summit in Vilnius "IndyWatch Feed War"
By Lucas Leiroz | July 14, 2023
The Western mainstream media is enthusiastic about the possibility of Sweden joining NATO and consequently making the countrys Baltic coast a zone of control for the alliance. Analysts are saying that the Wests moves in Vilnius have made the Baltic Sea a NATO lake. The words are bold and somewhat inaccurate, as they do not seem to adequately echo the actual strategic situation in the region.
On July 13, Politico published an article about how Russia would be at a disadvantage in the Baltic after an eventual Swedish entry into the alliance. The article states that with the addition of Finnish and Swedish militaries the Baltic will become a region of absolute Western control, where Russia will have no room for maneuvers and will be heavily affected in case there is a conflict in the future.
[Sweden and Finland] make NATO much more geographically coherent. The Baltic Sea becomes a NATO lake, which is generally useful, also because of the Arctics increased importance, Ulrike Franke, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Politicos journalists.
In the same vein, Kristine Berzina, managing director for the German Marshall Funds Geostrategy North, stated:
You need to have enough in place that, in case of a Crimea or a Ukrainian scenario, theres actual ability to defend territory () With Finland and Sweden in, and [the Swedish Baltic island of] Gotland so close to Kaliningrad, in case of highly unlikely yet possible aggression from Russia, Russia cannot use the sea to its strategic advantage as it could right now.
In fact, the words of journalists and analysts echo NATOs official position. On the same day that the Politico article was published, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated at a press conference in Vilnius:
Sweden has a strong, professional, well-trained defense and is strategically located at the Baltic Sea The borders with Norway and Finland allow for better coordination of land troops. In addition, there is Swedens Navy in the Baltic Sea The entire territory of Sweden is of interest.
In fact, despite commenting on a real problem for Russia its disadvantaged situation in the Baltic Sea -, Western analyzes seem too outdated and banal. For example, this Russian disadvantage in the region did not start now, but between 1999 and 2004, when, breaking the promise of non-expansion, NATO granted access to Pola...
Top Intel Source to Seymour Hersh: Bidens Principal Issue in the War is that Hes Screwed "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
White House Resident Joe Biden bought the support of Turkish President Erdogan for Swedish NATO membership with $ 13 billion from the IMF, reports investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, citing a high-ranked intel source. There is currently a big power struggle going on within the dying administration faced with a failing war in Ukraine. Joe Biden is oblivious and Ukraine war hawk Victoria Nuland has been blocked. The source advised intil professionals to shelter in place, he said.
Bidens principal issue in the war is that hes screwed, a top intel official told Hersh. We didnt give Ukraine cluster bombs earlier in the war, but were giving them cluster bombs now, because thats all we got left in the cupboard. Arent these the bombs that are banned all over the world, because they kill kids? But the Ukrainians tell us they are not planning to drop them on civilians. And then the administration claims that the Russians have used them first in the war, which is just a lie.
In any case, the official told Hersh, cluster bombs have zero chance of changing the course of the war.
The real problem will come as early as August, when the Russians will counter-strike with a major offensive, Hersh cites his unnamed source: What happens then? The US has painted itself in a corner by calling for NATO to do something. Will NATO respond by sending the brigades now training in Poland and Romania on an airborne assault? We knew more about the German army in Normandy in World War II than we know about the Russian army in Ukraine.
The failing Ukraine war has taken a toll on the Biden administration, Hersh writes. On Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had cost 26.000 casualties and 3.000 units of material, as Gateway reported.
The increasingly unpopular war has come at the expense of Ukraine war hawk Victoria Nuland, currently serving as Unde...
Xi Jinpings Russian Albatross "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
Notwithstanding the tangible benefits that China derives from trade, military partnerships, and other forms of cooperation with Russia, it cannot ignore the growing political turmoil inside the Kremlin. Xi Jinping's big bet on his Russian counterpart has become much riskier.
US Plans to Restrict Chinese Access to Cloud Services "IndyWatch Feed War"
The post US Plans to Restrict Chinese Access to Cloud Services appeared first on The Clarion Project.
Debt Rattle Quatorze Juillet 2023 "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
Pablo Picasso Femme nue couche (Marie-Thrse Walter) 1932 NATO Ultimatum To Ukraine Win By Winter Or Die (Helmer) Putin Already Lost War In Ukraine, Biden Says (Hill) NATO Suffering Delusions Of Grandeur Lavrov Russia Will Treat F-16s In Ukraine As Nuclear Threat Lavrov (RT) Putin: Ukraine
The post Debt Rattle Quatorze Juillet 2023 appeared first on The Automatic Earth.
Saudi Arabia: Mohammed bin Salman invited to the UK, says report "IndyWatch Feed War"
Saudi Arabia: Mohammed bin Salman invited to the UK, says report
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The British government has invited Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to visit London later this year, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Citing people briefed on the trip, the newspaper said the visit is expected to take place in October or November.
A British government official confirmed the visit and said the exact timing will be up to them, given we need them more than they need us.
It would be the first trip by the Saudi Arabian crown prince to London since he became an international pariah in October 2018 following the murder of Middle East Eye and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul.
After a four-year enforced hiatus, he made his first trip to Europe since the murder in July 2022, visiting Greece and France.
Earlier that year, he met with then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Riyadh as London sought to lobby the Gulf kingdom for higher oil production in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia is one...
Russia will view the deployment of F-16 jets to Ukraine as a direct nuclear threat to Moscow, Sergei Lavrov warns "IndyWatch Feed War"
Russia will view the deployment of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as a direct nuclear threat to the Kremlin, Putins foreign minister has warned.
Sergei Lavrov says Russia has privately warned the US, Britain and France of the dire risks of the planned move to give Kyiv the advanced warplanes.
He implied that the use of F-16 for which Ukrainian pilots are now being trained could lead to Putin unleashing tactical nuclear weapons.
He said the move was just one example of an extremely dangerous turn of events is the United States plans to transfer F-16 fighter jets to the Kiev regime.
We have informed the nuclear powers, the United States, Britain and France, that Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.
No amount of assurances will help here.
The Lavrov warning comes despite the West denying it will supply nuclear weapons to Ukraine.
Lavrov said: In the course of combat operations, our servicemen are not going to sort out whether each particular aircraft of this type is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not.
We will regard the very fact that the Ukrainian armed forces have such systems as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere.
He warned: The United States and its NATO satellites are creating risks of a direct armed clash with Russia, and this is fraught with catastrophic consequences.
The ultra-loyalist chief diplomat said: The conditions for Russias use of nuclear weapons are clearly defined in our Military Doctrine.
They are well known, and I will not repeat them once again.
The US and its allies could deliver the F-16 jets to Ukraine in the coming months.
The Foreign Minister alleged that NATO which completed its summit in Vilnius on Wednesday is consistently lowering the threshold for the use of force and building up the nuclear capability in military planning.
He alleged in an interview with Lenta that the organisation has completely returned to Cold War schemes on the basis of the ideology dividing the world into democracies and autocracies.
Yesterday, he was quoted as saying that Russia would protect its own legitimate security interests...
Relations with West won't return to way they were - Russian FM "IndyWatch Feed Africa"
Unfriendly countries are creating an existential threat for Moscow, Sergey Lavrov says. Moscow's relationship with the West won't return to the way it was before 2014, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has predicted. The country's focus now is on working towards building a multipolar world together with Asian, Latin American, and African nations, he added. "After the launch of the military operation [in Ukraine], the US and other NATO and EU states drastically intensified the hybrid war against Russia, which they had started back in 2014," Lavrov said in an interview with Lenta.ru on Wednesday. "Aggressive steps by unfriendly countries create an existential threat for Russia," he continued, referring to unprecedented economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West, and extensive military support provided to Kiev by the US and its allies. The Russian state will "defend our right to free and sovereign development with all available means," the foreign minister added.
Biden Authorizes Deployment Of Up To 3,000 Reserve Troops To Augment U.S. Forces in Europe "IndyWatch Feed War"
Via: New York Post: President Biden on Thursday authorized US military leaders to deploy as many as 3,000 reservists to Europe in response to Russias invasion of Ukraine. The order is intended to augment US troops already overseas as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, the president said in a statement released by the White House []
Israel, After All, Fears Iran "IndyWatch Feed Asia"
Israeli experts, including former Israeli Ambassador to Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova Zvi Magen, point out once more that Tel Aviv and Moscow share a mutual understanding regarding the inadmissible Israeli arms transfers to the Kiev regime to use against the Russian Armed Forces in the future. It is well known that the Ukrainian authorities, through []
A Tale of Two Cities "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
The western conviction that Russias fragility is explained by its move away from the Anglo economic doctrines reflects wishful thinking.
The chaos that western experts were expecting, with libidinous excitement, to unfold in Russia which was certain to feature Russians killing Russians, and with Putin probably hiding somewhere. did arrive except that it exploded in France, where it was not expected, with Macron on the ropes rather than it being Putin in Moscow.
expectations and of events from a tale of two very different insurrections:On Saturday afternoon, after Prigozhin had reached Rostov, news broke across the U.S. that Prigozhin had struck a deal with President Lukashenko to end his protest and go to Belarus. Thus ended a largely bloodless affair. No support was forthcoming for Prigozhin, either from the political class, or from within the military. The western Establishment was left reeling; their expectations seemingly inexplicably crushed, within hours.
Equally shocking however to the West, were the videos coming out from Paris, and from cities across France. Cars burning; police stations and municipal buildings on fire; police attacked and shops widely looted and sacked. These were scenes, as if poached from the Fall of Imperial Rome.
Ultimately, this insurrection too, faded. Yet, it was nothing like the fading of the Prigozhin mutiny which ended with a show of support for the Russian State per se, and for President Putin personally.
In the French insurrection, precisely nothing was solved the State being seen as beyond remedy in its current iteration: A Republic no more. And President Macrons personal standing reviled, possibly beyond rehabilitation.
Unlike in the Russian instance, the French President saw much of the police turn against him (with the police union issuing a statement that reeked of an imminence of civil war, with the rioters labelled vermin). Senior Army Generals also warned Macron either to get a grip on the situation, or they would be forced to do it.
Clearly if only for nine days the means of state enforcement had turned its back on the Head of State. All history tells us that a leader who has lost the support of his enforcers maybe soon lost too (at the next insurrection).
This mutiny by the banlieues is all too easily dismissed as an ancient sore of Algerian/Moroccan origin re-surfacing, yet again. It is true that the killing of a young man of north African origin was the immediate trigger to rioting within several cities all in uproar within the hour.
For those keen to dismiss any wider significance (despite earlier mass protests not being by the banlieusards), it is waved...
Zelensky Mortgaged Ukraines Sovereignty to the Western Ruling Class "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
The 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania (a NATO member state with a population of 2.8 million people) wrapped up Wednesday evening with the parties to the alliance declaring their steadfast support for Ukraine, which is now over 500 days into their latest inter slavic skirmish with Russian forces.
The summit acted as a celebration of the Slava Slush Fund, with Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky who has presided over Ukraines transformation from a largely sovereign nation state into a subsidiary of a colonial empire on hand sporting his standard costume.
During the summit, a visibly powerless Zelensky begged and pleaded for Ukraines entry into NATO, expressing his frustration with the lack of movement on Kievs application into the alliance. But alas, NATO entry was not to be had.
Heres Joe Bidens explanation for why Ukraine cant be a part of NATO right now.
He told CNN this week:
I dont think there is unanimity in NATO about whether or not to bring Ukraine into the NATO family now, at this moment, in the middle of a war. For example, if you did that, then, you know and I mean what I say were determined to commit every inch of territory that is NATO territory. Its a commitment that weve all made no matter what. If the war is going on, then were all in war. Were at war with Russia, if that were the case.
Biden continued:
But I think its premature to say, to call for a vote, you know, in now, because theres other qualifications that need to be met, including democratization and some of those issues.
Yes, I realize that barely made any sense.
Thats because there is no legitimate application process for joining NATO. It is not a meritocracy or even something akin to a university application process. Whats happening in Vilnius is one big game of posturing and pretend. NATO entry to Ukraine is not on the table and it wont be until there is an end to kinetic hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.
Ukraines non admission to NATO has absolutely nothing to do with the countrys well known corruption and other anti-democratic practices, although those are good subjective excuses to buy indefinite amounts of time.
In short, the parties to the proxy war dont want Ukraine in NATO because they prefer to have Ukrainians and only Ukrainians to fight the battles for them.
While Ukraine has traditionally served as a buffer state between East (Russia) and West (NATO), the Zelensky government has gone all-in on the latter side. The decision to become the tip of the NATO spear has had devastating ramifications for actual Ukrainians, as the countrys fighting age males continue to bear the enormous burden of the Biden...
Vice Presidents Keep Getting Worse on Foreign Policy "IndyWatch Feed War"
Every vice president in this century has been terrible on foreign policy. In the race to be the least terrible, Mike Pence did himself no favors the other day. Pence was bragging to Fox News about how tough he and Donald Trump were with regards to Russia. He proudly announced that they killed over 100 Continue reading "Vice Presidents Keep Getting Worse on Foreign Policy"
The post Vice Presidents Keep Getting Worse on Foreign Policy appeared first on Antiwar.com Original.
NATO adopts new anti-Russia defense plan "IndyWatch Feed War"
RT | July 13, 2023
NATO passed a new defense plan at the Vilnius summit on Tuesday. The whopping 4,400-page document details the defense of critical locations in case of an emergency and lists a potential attack by Russia as one of the biggest threats, according to German media. The blocs secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed what he called the most comprehensive defense plans since the end of the Cold War.
The document addresses two main threats Russia and terrorism, and accuses the former of being the greatest and most immediate threat to the security of allies and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region, according to Germanys Bild tabloid.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also called on his country and the other NATO members to arm ourselves against a threat to our territory, Bild added. The new plan also lists the military capabilities the blocs members must demonstrate, including new member Finland and applicant, Sweden.
The document reportedly claims a violent and revisionist Russia could potentially attack NATO territory. We recognized that we could indeed be faced with an Article 5 situation again, in which part of NATO territory is under direct attack, a military bloc official told German news agency, dpa.
To counter the supposed Russian threat, the bloc plans to massively increase its Response Force (NRF) from the current 40,000 troops to over 300,000, comprising land, sea and air units, as well as rapidly deployed Special Forces.
The bloc also plans to significantly increase weapons production and stockpiling. The new strategy includes a new Defense Production Action Plan to accelerate joint procurement, boost production capacity, and enhance Allies interoperability, the NATO statement said.
According to Bild, the bloc would seek to build up armored heavy forces, and deploy more long-range artillery systems and missiles, as well as air defense systems.
NATO also plans to enhance what it calls deterrence measures by sending additional forces to the Baltics and Eastern Europe. Battlegroups comprising 1,000 soldiers are to support the national armies of the Baltic States and Poland, Bild reported, citing the document.
The UK will be responsible for Estonia, Canada for Latvia, Germany for Lithuania, and the US for Poland, the German media outlet said. Berlin also plans to station a brigade of 4,000 soldiers in Lithuania, according to the German media.
Germany is also reportedly expected to serve as the NATO logistics hub in case of a major conflict. The bloc is also considering establishing a second Land Command, in addition to the existing station in Trkiyes Izmir. Wiesbaden in Germany is being conside...
Biden mobilizes reservists "IndyWatch Feed War"
RT | July 14, 2023
President [?] Joe Biden announced on Thursday that up to 3,000 members of the US militarys Selected Reserve will be activated as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, the informal designation for Washingtons efforts to support Kiev in the ongoing conflict.
Biden has authorized the Defense and Homeland Security departments to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential by the department regulations.
The number of mobilized reservists is not to exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, of whom not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve, according to the White House.
Bidens executive order cites section 12304 of Title 10 of US Code (General Military Act), allowing the president to call up reservists for situations other than during war or national emergency, including named operations or cases of a use or threatened use of a weapon of mass destruction; or a terrorist attack or threatened terrorist attack in the US that results or could result in significant loss of life or property.
The US military, however, described the mobilizations as merely expanding entitlements and access to funding. Army Lieutenant General Douglas Sims, the Joint Staff director of operations, told the reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday that the order benefits troops and families with increases in authorities, entitlements and access to the reserve component forces and personnel.
This will not change current force-posture levels in Europe, European Command (EUCOM) spokesman, Navy Captain Bill Speaks, said in a statement about the order, explaining that it is intended to ensure long-term resilience in EUCOMs continued heightened level of presence and operations.
Operation Atlantic Resolve is the informal name for actions the US military has taken since April 2014, after Crimea rejoined Russia following the Washington-backed coup in Kiev.
The Selected Reserve consists of personnel who can be immediately mobilized in the event of an emergency. Members of the IRR are trained soldiers, some of whom have recently left active duty, but still have reserve obligations. Homeland Security is involved because the US Coast Guard is under its jurisdiction.
Venezuela and Sanctions: The Long Game "IndyWatch Feed Africa"
Ricardo Vaz Economic coercive measures have Venezuela negotiating in very unfavorable positions with corporations. (Shutterstock/Anton_Medvedev) In the past six years, US foreign policy towards Venezuela can be encapsulated in one word: sanctions. There have been other aspects to it, like the propping up of a self-proclaimed interim government. But economic coercive measures have been front...
Military Situation In Svatove-Kreminna Region, Ukraine, On July 13, 2023 (Map Update) "IndyWatch Feed War"
Click to see full-size image
The post Military Situation In Svatove-Kreminna Region, Ukraine, On July 13, 2023 (Map Update) appeared first on South Front.
Russia MOD says Wagner has handed over thousands of tonnes of weaponry "IndyWatch Feed World"
Vladimir Putin said mercenary group would be dismantled after Yevgeny Prigozhin's short-lived mutiny The Wagner group has handed thousands of tonnes of weaponry and ammunition to Russia's regular army, the country's defence ministry has said, as Moscow moves to bring the rebellious mercenary force under its control. The ministry said it had received more than 2,000 pieces of equipment, including hundreds of tanks and more than 2,500 tonnes of ammunition. The handover suggests that the Wagner head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is following through with at least some aspects of the deal he made with the Kremlin last month under which his forces called off their short-lived mutiny. Under the deal brokered by the Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin abandoned what he called a "march for justice" on Moscow by thousands of his recruits in exchange for safe passage to exile in Belarus. Criminal charges against Prigozhin were also dropped against his group as part of the agreement.
Saudi imports of Russian fuel soared tenfold in June "IndyWatch Feed Africa"
The Cradle | July 13, 2023
Saudi Arabia imported record levels of Russian fuel oil in June, bringing in 910,000 metric tons, a nearly tenfold increase from the same period last year, to meet summer power generation needs.
Since the start of 2023, Saudi imports of Russian fuel have nearly doubled from last year. As of June, the kingdom imported 2.86 million metric tons of fuel oil, exceeding the 1.63 million metric tons imported for all of 2022.
Alongside many countries in the Global South, the kingdom has been ramping up its purchases of discounted Russian fuel over the past several months, allowing Moscow to negate much of the effects of western sanctions and a G7 price cap imposed on their energy sector.
The news comes just over a month after Saudi officials announced plans to cut oil production levels by an extra one million barrels per day (bpd) in July a cut that came on top of a massive reduction in oil output implemented since last October by OPEC+ member states, including Russia.
In May, Bloomberg reported, Saudi Arabia is snapping up millions of barrels of Russian diesel that Europe no longer allows, while simultaneously sending its own supplies back to buyers in the EU.
Traders and analysts believe the kingdom has been conducting this scheme to generate higher profits by taking advantage of western sanctions.
India and China are two other nations taking advantage of the situation, buying as much as 80 percent of the oil that Moscow exported in May.
In May 2023, India and China accounted for almost 80 percent of Russian crude oil exports, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report.
Russian fuel exports to Africa have also skyrocketed over the past year, increasing nearly 14-fold since the start of the war in Ukraine. Before March 2022, Moscow exported 33,000 bpd of refined products to African nations; by March 2023, exports soared to 420,000 bpd.
Sven von Storch: Putin Has Called Joe Bidens Bluff Its Time to Negotiate "IndyWatch Feed Politics.us"
The much-ballyhooed Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed. In Vilnius, Volodymyr Zelensky had to realize the Ukraine will not be joining NATO anytime soon. Vladimir Putin has called the Biden administrations bluff, who set the deadly escalation in motion with their November 2021 U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership.
It is now time for Jill Biden to get Old Joe a blanket, sit him down by his vintage Victrola radio, and tune it to a country music station playing Kenny Rogers: You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em
It is now time to fold em, Joe. for the sake of every Ukrainian mother who has sons.
Commentary by Sven von Storch
While Western media have been hiding the truth about the disastrous Ukrainian counter-offensive from us for a month, Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu spelled out the horrific numbers Monday: The armed forces of Ukraine lost over 26,000 servicemen and more than 3,000 items of military hardware during their so-called counter-offensive, Shoigu told reporters, including 17 German Leopard tanks and 12 US Bradleys. Videos of burned-out Western tanks abound on the internet and now Putin wants to tow their charred remains outside the Western embassies in Moscow.
The only hope to break through the massive Russian defences is apparently to supply banned cluster munitions to Ukraine, whose use Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki called a war crime on Feb. 28, 2022.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov once again stressed his desire to hold peace talks, and search for ways to settle the Ukrainian crisis peacefully, TASS reports. Kiev and Moscow were already close to a cease-fire in April 2022, according to former Israeli Prime Minister...
Master trolling: Moscow mulls plan to display destroyed Western hardware outside embassies "IndyWatch Feed World"
The idea is being considered by parliament and the Defense Ministry Moscow could place destroyed military hardware on display outside the embassies of Western nations that supplied it to Ukraine. The idea was floated in Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on Wednesday. Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has tasked the parliament's Defense Committee with discussing the idea with the Defense Ministry to iron out the details of potential 'exhibitions'. "The proposal to place burned [military] hardware near the embassies of those countries that send it to Ukraine is particularly interesting," Volodin stated.
Kremlin tells Trkiye to wise up about EU "IndyWatch Feed World"
Nations of the 27-state bloc "don't want to see" Ankara as a member, Russia has warned... Russia has no illusions about Trkiye's commitments to NATO but would urge Ankara to look realistically about its chances of joining the EU, Moscow has said. The Turkish president had previously linked Sweden's accession to the US-led military bloc with his own nation's long-standing wish to become part of the European community. Russia realizes that Trkiye has commitments to NATO, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday. "We never put on rose-tinted glasses in that regard. But neither should Ankara wear the proverbial accessory when it comes to EU membership. Calling a spade a spade, nobody wants to see Trkiye in Europe. I am referring to Europeans." The remarks followed Turkey's apparent agreement to drop its objection to Sweden joining NATO. The process cannot be completed unless all members of the 31-strong military organization agree to it, and Ankara has voiced...
Putin comments on the future of the grain deal "IndyWatch Feed War"
RT | July 13, 2023
Russia is considering putting its participation in the UN-facilitated grain deal on hold until its food and fertilizer exports are unblocked, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. None of the promises made to Moscow under the agreement have been fulfilled as of yet, he said, adding that the deal has been a one-way street case.
Moscow may no longer be willing to extend the agreement just out of hope that the Western nations and the UN fulfill their end of the bargain, the president said. We can suspend our participation in this deal, he said, adding that everyone is once again telling [us] that all the promises made will be kept. Let them deliver on this promise first; then well immediately return to the deal again, Putin maintained.
Formally known as the Black Sea Initiative, the agreement between Moscow and Kiev was mediated by the UN and Trkiye back in summer 2022. The deal was accompanied by a Russia-UN memorandum aimed at facilitating unimpeded Russian agricultural exports.
The goals of the memorandum included allowing Russias major agricultural lender, Rosslekhozbank, back onto the SWIFT payments system, enabling deliveries of spare parts for agriculture machinery, reanimating the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, sorting out insurance and logistics, as well as unfreezing Russian assets.
According to Putin, none of those aims have been achieved as of now. Nothing and I want to underscore it nothing has been done. That was a one-sided game all along. Not a single goal linked to the interests of the Russian Federation was met, he said, adding that Moscow had repeatedly extended the deal in good faith despite those facts.
The president also said he had not seen a letter UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sent him earlier this week. The UN said earlier that the letter contained suggestions aimed at fulfilling the Russia-UN memorandum and preserving the deal. The international body also said that Moscow had allegedly received the letter and was reviewing it.
The deal was originally touted as a way to avoid a food crisis by steering grain toward poor nations. Yet, according to Moscow, only a tiny percentage of the grain exported from Ukraine as part of the agreement was shipped to such nations, while the bulk of it ended up in Europe.
Out of all the foodstuffs and grain in particular shipped away from the Ukrainian territory, only slightly more than three percent were delivered to the worlds poorest nations, the Russian president said on Thursday. Now, many European nations have started forgoing Ukrainian grain, he told the Russian media, adding that it is the West and not Russia that s...
Russia set to take over Saudi Arabia for top spot in Opec+ "IndyWatch Feed War"
Russia set to take over Saudi Arabia for top spot in Opec+
Russia is set to surpass Saudi Arabia as the largest oil-producing country in the Opec+ alliance, as the kingdom continues cutting crude output, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Riyadh, which has been the de facto leader of the consortium of oil-producing countries, has been slashing its oil output in recent months, as it seeks to put a floor on prices in an attempt to fund an ambitious spending programme at home.
Last week, Saudi Arabia said that a one million barrel oil production cut (which was announced in June) would be extended into August, and could be extended again. The cuts put the country's oil production at a two-year low of nine million barrels a day.
"The Kingdoms crude output is set to plunge to a two-year low of around 9 mb/d [million barrels a day] in July and August, leaving it trailing behind Russia as the blocs top crude producer," the IEA said in a report released on Thursday.
This is the first time the kingdom has fallen below Russia in terms of oil production since early 2022.
Villainy In Vilnius "IndyWatch Feed Economics"
Americas Brobdingnagian $1.3 trillion national security budget thrives on manufactured threats and falsely demonized foes. And nothing could be more demonstrative of that proposition than the utter villainy now emanating from the NATO summit in Vilnius. For crying out loud. Since the Munich Security Conference in 2007, the man (Putin) has said over and over, []
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