RT News - November 28th 2022 Late

Protesters across Europe have continued over the weekend. They are calling for peace negotiations and an end to sanctions to Russia and an end to the supply of arms to Ukraine. Paying so high for Ukraine may lead to political change. NATO's Chief Jens Stoltenberg insists EU state's citizens must tighten their belts and provide more support to Kiev despite many Europeans already being exhausted by the consequences of the crisis.

The Economist warns that those suffering from cold this winter in Europe could be higher than those killed in combat in Ukraine. Report.

Russia-US nuclear disarmament talks in Cairo have been postponed just hours before they were due to kick off, without any explanation. No explanation has been given. The "New Start" treaty is the only nuclear arms agreement left in place.

In Ukraine, there seems to be rifts in the political system with Kiev's May Vitaly Klitschko suggesting that there are political games going on. instead of helping their own citizens.

In Kharkov the mayor has been fined for speaking Russian.

In USA, Republicans say they are going to give arms shipments to Ukraine more oversight (they haven't said they will stop the shipments)

Anti-government protests continue in Moldova with up to 50,000 protesters outside the Prosecutor General's office on Monday.

Russia and Kazakhstan say nuclear war must never be fought as Pres. Putin and Pres.Tokayev met in Moscow on Monday. This year marks 30 years of relations between the two countries.

In Hawaii the world's largest volcano has erupted.

World Cup: Massive riots break out across Belgian and Dutch cities after Morocco's shock victory against the football giants in the Qatar World Cup. Dozens of people have been detained.
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Below: An Ugly Divorce : Julian Assange : Polish mercenaries to get US burials : BRICS to start using their own currency? : Monkeypox rebranded
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via RT website 28 Nov, 2022 16:24

---- US-EU alliance heading for ‘ugly divorce’ – ex-Russian president ----

Washington cheats on its partner, which lacks the resolve to break up, Dmitry Medvedev has said

The “marriage” between the US and EU will likely end in divorce, following the obvious “economic cheating” by the American “alpha-male,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said. The remarks were made on Monday amid media reports that EU nations are becoming increasingly angry over what they see as American opportunism amid the Ukraine crisis.

The US “has no intention to share his income. On the contrary, he steals the last savings of his aging partner and pockets the money without any qualms,” Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, wrote on his Telegram channel.

Washington increasingly makes the business conditions at home attractive to European companies and encourages other nations to buy its products, he noted. Meanwhile, the market for European goods is shrinking, in part because of its decision to decouple from Russia, he added.

“You can’t really trust those rich patrons. Just like that – Europe is off the allowance!” he said. The EU could “break up with its cheating … partner and start a new life of freedom,” but most likely they do not have enough resolve and “testosterone” for it, he added. In a nod to “political correctness,” Medvedev said he declined to define the genders of the characters in his metaphor.

The growing rift between EU leaders and their American counterparts has been reflected in public statements within the bloc and in Western media reports.

Last week, Politico described a growing anger in the EU due to the perception that Washington is profiting from the crisis among the member states. Some of the bloc’s senior officials are irritated by the fact that US energy suppliers are selling liquified natural gas to EU nations at a price four times higher than at home, while military contractors are benefitting by “selling more weapons” to Ukraine, the article said.

EU officials also point to the US Inflation Reduction Act and the impact that the financial incentives for eco-friendly businesses that it provides will have on European companies trying to compete, and which are finding it difficult to cope with the record-high energy prices at home, Politico added.
https://www.rt.com/russia/567325-medvedev-us-eu-marriage/
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via RT website 28 Nov, 2022 16:11

---- Poles killed in Ukraine to get ‘American’ burial – media ----

A news outlet suggests the grim reason for the sudden concern with burial efficiency

The controversial decision by municipal authorities in Olsztyn to create an “American-style” cemetery is due to the large number of military burials for the 1,200 Poles who have died fighting in Ukraine, according to the Polish news outlet Niezalezny Dziennik Polityczny (Independent Political Journal).

Olsztyn, in the Warmia-Masuria province, is home to Poland’s 16th Mechanized Infantry Division. Many of its current and former soldiers heeded the calls from President Andrzej Duda and Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and enlisted in Ukraine, where over 1,200 Polish citizens have been killed in action so far, according to NDP. Thousands more have been injured or disabled, the outlet reported, citing publicly available sources.

The outlet says that almost “daily” burials at the Olsztyn cemetery – including the volleys fired by the honor guard – have “irritated” the local residents and led to many inconvenient questions being asked of the city’s authorities. NDP suggested this was the true motive behind the announcement of an “American” cemetery earlier this month.

The proposal calls for 1,700 plots for urns with cremated remains, with “standardized tombstones” along the line of American war cemeteries, according to municipal graveyard director Zbigniew Kot.

Kot told Gazeta Olsztynska that there was “enough motley” in Polish cemeteries already, and that the new design aimed for a more orderly cemetery, along the minimalist lines seen in Germany and some Scandinavian countries. It is also supposed to help with the rising cost of burials, he added.

The Polish public has reacted poorly to Kot’s design, which envisions rows of 60-centimeter-square headstones surrounded by turf, with no trees, benches, or flower beds common in the mostly-Catholic nation.

NDP called the design a “disgraceful end to mercenaries who died in Ukraine,” and suggested the number of planned plots means many more are expected to perish.

Specific casualty numbers from the conflict have been hard to come by. In June, officials in Kiev admitted to losing 1,000 or more men per day in the heavy fighting. In September, the Russian Defense Ministry put the number of Ukrainian casualties at 61,000 dead and more than 49,000 wounded, including over 2,000 foreign mercenaries.
https://www.rt.com/news/567328-poland-american-cemetery-ukraine/
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via RT website 28 Nov, 2022 16:44

---- Russia-led free trade bloc seeks joint payment system with BRICS ----

Such a move could help cut dependence on Western financial infrastructure, Izvestia reports

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is interested in setting up a common payment system with BRICS nations, the newspaper Izvestia reported on Monday. The Russia-led free trade bloc aims to cut reliance on the Western monetary system.

The EEU was founded as the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. It was established in 2015, and was later joined by Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In 2016, Vietnam became a free trade partner with the EEU. The union is designed to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital and workers between member countries.

According to the report, citing the EEU’s regulatory body, the plan also envisages the issuance of a single payment card within the two trade blocs. That would unite the national payment systems of its member states, including Russia’s Mir, China’s Union Pay, India’s RuPay, Brasil’s Elo and others.

Vladimir Kovalyov, an adviser to the chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission, said the EEU is currently focused on establishing a joint financial market, with priority on developing a common “exchange space.”

“We’ve made substantial progress and now the work is focused on such sectors as banking, insurance and the stock market,” Kovalyov was quoted as saying by Izvestia.

According to the official, a regulatory body for the proposed joint financial system of the EEU and BRICS would also be established as part of the new infrastructure.

The EEU, which brings together countries in the post-Soviet space, has been increasingly looking for ways to deepen cooperation with the BRICS group of emerging economies. That bloc consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, accounting for more than 40% of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of global GDP. Efforts have already been made among some BRICS members to trade in local currencies in order to reduce dependence on the US dollar and euro.
https://www.rt.com/business/567315-russia-brics-joint-payment-system/
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via RT website 28 Nov, 2022 16:44

---- Monkeypox is rebranded ----

The disease will be called ‘mpox’ to avoid “racist and stigmatizing language,” the UN health watchdog has announced

The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially unveiled a new name for the monkeypox virus, recommending it be referred to as ‘mpox’ from now on. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year before ‘monkeypox’ is phased out, the UN health watchdog has said.

The new name was decided upon following consultations with “global experts,” the WHO said in a statement. The change was needed as “racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed and reported” amid the global outbreak of the viral disease earlier this year, the watchdog explained.

The new term is set to gradually replace the old one in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), released and maintained by the WHO. “Usually, the ICD updating process can take up to several years. In this case, the process was accelerated, though following the standard steps,” it said. The term ‘monkeypox’, however, will remain searchable in the index “to match historic information,” the watchdog noted.

The virus was first identified in macaque monkeys in the late 1950s. Human monkeypox received its name in the 1970s long before the WHO came up with its ‘best practices in naming diseases’ guidebook, released in 2015.

According to these best practices, new disease names should not be offensive in any way and should be given “with the aim to minimize unnecessary negative impact of names on trade, travel, tourism or animal welfare.”

In recent months, the WHO has reportedly faced mounting pressure from Washington over the term ‘monkeypox’, with the administration of US President Joe Biden allegedly threatening unilateral action unless the watchdog acted quickly. US officials have claimed that the name monkeypox is hampering vaccination efforts, particularly among people of color.

The disease entered the global spotlight earlier this year, after tens of thousands of cases were detected in North America and Europe. While technically not a sexually transmitted infection, it predominantly spreads through skin and mucosal contact, and has overwhelmingly affected gay men.
https://www.rt.com/news/567327-who-monkeypox-new-name/
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via RT website 28 Nov, 2022 16:29

---- EU moves to equate sanctions evasion with terrorism ----

The European Council has added ‘violation of restrictive measures’ to the bloc’s list of crimes

The EU has taken the first step toward making sanctions violations a bloc-wide crime on the same level as terrorism, human trafficking, and organized crime. On Monday, the European Council unanimously voted to add “violation of restrictive measures” to its list of “EU crimes” that carry universal penalties across all member states.

The move is meant to seal off any loopholes in member states’ individual interpretations of the anti-Russian sanctions packages adopted since the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine in February. Czech Minister of Justice Pavel Blazek praised the European Council’s decision as “an essential tool to ensure any attempts to circumvent [the EU’s sanctions against Russia] will be stopped.”

To ensure uniform obedience to EU sanctions across all member states, the European Commission must next propose minimum rules defining criminal offenses and penalties relating to the violation of restrictive measures, according to a European Council press release. That directive will then be discussed and subsequently adopted by both the European Council and the European Parliament.

The EU has the power to adopt and enforce bloc-wide “minimal rules” concerning the definitions of criminal offenses in areas of “particularly serious crime” that have a cross-border dimension.

In addition to terrorism, human trafficking and organized crime, illicit drugs and arms trafficking, counterfeiting of money and other forms of payment, money laundering, the sexual exploitation of women and children, computer crime, and corruption are all considered “EU crimes.”

EU member states have struggled to reach agreement on several aspects of the anti-Russian sanctions regime, such as a price cap on seaborne oil exports and the inclusion of Russian diamonds in future sanctions packages.

The European Council's decision to elevate sanctions violations to an “EU crime” level is seen as a necessary precursor to the bloc's efforts to confiscate hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian state and private assets currently protected under international law in the name of reconstructing Ukraine, according to Politico.

While it is not legally possible to unilaterally confiscate another country’s assets under existing regulations, the European Commission recently launched an initiative to identify “ways to strengthen the tracing, identification, freezing and management of assets as preliminary steps for potential confiscation,” a document seen by Politico earlier this month revealed.
https://www.rt.com/news/567331-eu-sanctions-violations-crime-international/
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via RT website 28 Nov, 2022 17:46

---- Media urges Biden to drop Assange charges ----

Prosecuting the WikiLeaks founder sets a “dangerous precedent,” according to the New York Times and four other outlets

Five major news outlets, including the New York Times, have called on the Biden administration to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Obtaining and publishing “sensitive information,” they wrote, “is a core part of the daily work of journalists.”

The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El Pais all published details from diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks in 2010. These documents revealed that the US spied on its allies, undercounted civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and waged a secret war in Yemen.

Assange has been detained in the UK since 2019, and is currently held in a maximum-security prison awaiting extradition to the US, where he is facing charges of espionage related to the publication of these cables, as well as a trove of documents alleging US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s first amendment and the freedom of the press,” the outlets wrote on Monday. “Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists. If that work is criminalized, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.”

“Twelve years after the publication of ‘Cablegate’, it is time for the US government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets,” the letter concluded.

The Obama administration opted not to charge Assange, arguing that to do so would open all newspapers up to similar charges. However, former president Donald Trump’s CIA director, Mike Pompeo, declared WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service” in 2017, and Assange was indicted by Trump’s Justice Department a year later.

Assange fell out of favor with the Democratic Party in late 2016, after WikiLeaks published emails revealing then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified communications during her time as secretary of state, and implicated her in a party-wide plot to sideline popular contender Bernie Sanders. Clinton would go on to accuse Assange of working for Russia, without any evidence.

President Joe Biden has given no indication that he intends to drop the case against Assange. After a British judge ruled against the WikiLeaks founder’s removal to the US last year, Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said that “we continue to seek his extradition.” UK Home Secretary Priti Patel went on to approve the extradition in June, after American authorities promised Assange would be treated humanely on US soil. Assange is currently appealing the decision.
https://www.rt.com/news/567336-assange-letter-newspapers-nytimes/
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