RT News - December 10th 2022 15:00 MSK

Update on hostage situation in Germany

On Friday, more than 200 US made shells fell on Donetsk and Donetsk city centre. This can only be seen as Ukraine's ongoing attempt to destroy the city. One civilian has been killed and two wounded.

In the United Nations Security Council, Russia's Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia has brought up the massacre of civilians over the past months by Ukraine forces who have conducted daily attacks on residential-only areas, shopping centres and markets. (QS: the council and NATO member countries must be more than aware of this, simply by counting the number of expended weapons and rockets, not to mention the daily news updates - is this why they are so keen to silence Russian media? I think so). Amb. Nebenzia also pointed out that the use of himars involves the deployment of NATO/U.S. satellites as NATO/U.S. military personnel intelligence coordinate with and play a part of the installations in Ukraine. All attacks using himars takes place "with the consent of U.S. "

Amb. Nebenzia pointed out once again, the "missing weaponry" supplied by US and NATO member countries are more than just likely to end up in the hands of terrorists or criminals, posing a threat to the world.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, has found himself in hot water after he insulted the intelligence of Africans who express support for Russia, saying they probably don’t know ‘where Donbass is’ – or even who Putin is; report by RT's Karabo Letlhatlha.

RT speaks exclusively to Viktor Bout, the Russian businessman who was behind bars in the US for over a decade and was released in a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington this week.

China's President praises his country's collaboration with Gulf states, and says Beijing will help establish a nuclear research and security centre as part of a strengthening partnership in the region. Three summits have been held so far.

Iran: Iran's nuclear chief says that the traces of uranium "found" by inspectors were brought in from abroad. In depth report by Rachel Marsden.

Update on the protests in Peru where Pedro Castillo has been ousted. Catch up on previous posts.

On French TV, a guest is asked why he is wearing a kippa (head covering, skull cap, yarmulke) during the broadcast. Many Jewish men wear the kippa all the time, even at home ("Cover your head in order that the fear of heaven may be upon you.", Talmud) (QS: thinking about this more carefully it's really worrying, esp. in the light of Nazism be so tolerated by "the powers that be". Today I read an article by The Grayzone showing just how "tolerated" Nazism seems to now be https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/08/adl-ukraines-azov-battalion-far-right/

Stop press. An explosion on the Island of Jersey has left one person dead and many missing. The explosion happened early Saturday morning.
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below via RT website a) ---- Ukraine ramps up crackdown on Orthodox Church
1) Russia and US discuss ‘irritants’ – Moscow
2) --- Twitter (two articles)
3) Analysis: How the US has placed Western Europe in a trap over Russia and China
4 - Bizarre hypocrisy? : EU trade increases in many countries with Russia
5) Merkel's revelations and compensation for Donbass
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10 Dec, 2022 15:20

a) ---- Ukraine ramps up crackdown on Orthodox Church

The nation’s domestic security agency raided more than a dozen religious sites in Kharkov Region

Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the SBU, conducted a new series of raids on Orthodox Christian churches in north-eastern Kharkov Region on Saturday. The operation, which targeted 14 religious institutions, comes amid Kiev’s crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) over its alleged links to Russia.

The SBU directorate in Kharkov Region claimed it had conducted “counterintelligence activities” as part of the agency’s efforts to “counter the subversive activities of Russian special services in our state.”

The raids are also meant “to prevent the use of religious communities as a cell of the ‘Russian world’” the SBU noted in a post on Facebook, adding that it was searching for individuals who may be undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty as well as for various prohibited actions.

These raids coincided with similar efforts in Kiev Region. On Friday, SBU agents inspected a small monastery in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, identifying 16 “suspicious figures.” The agency claimed that their presence there was illegal.

A similar operation took place in the part of Russia’s Kherson Region currently under Ukrainian control. During the raid on a premises in the Kherson diocese, the SBU claimed it found an unregistered gun, a Russian golden coat of arms, as well as “materials glorifying Russia.”

Ukrainian authorities have been engaged in a campaign against religious institutions allegedly linked to Moscow for months now, raiding Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the country’s main Orthodox Christian monastery, in late November.

The crackdown was supported by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who last week announced new measures seeking to ban religious institutions deemed to have links to Russia in a bid to safeguard the nation’s “spiritual independence.”

His principal target is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been historically tied with Russia, but declared independence from Moscow after it launched its military operation against the neighboring state in late February.

Ukraine has long experienced religious tensions, with a number of entities claiming to be the true Ukrainian Orthodox Church, challenging the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate. The two main rival factions are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is considered by the Russian Orthodox Church to be schismatic.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568014-ukraine-raids-churches-kharkov/
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1) Russia and US discuss ‘irritants’ – Moscow

Diplomats from the two nations held ‘routine’ talks on a number of issues in Istanbul

Moscow and Washington held talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists at the Valdai discussion forum, adding that the meeting was aimed at discussing what he described as “irritants” in bilateral relations.

“Relevant department heads” were involved in the talks, Ryabkov said, without revealing any names though adding that it was a regular meeting. According to the deputy minister, “irritants” refers to issues relating to the functioning of the Russian diplomatic missions in the US and vice versa.

Russia and the US resumed these “technical” diplomatic contacts following a pause, the official said. “This is not a political signal that we are resuming dialogue with the US on major issues,” Ryabkov explained, adding that “it is merely a routine issue.”

A US diplomatic source confirmed to the TASS and RIA Russian news agencies that the talks did take place. The source told the outlets that a “senior State Department official” was in Istanbul for talks and that a “narrow range of bilateral issues” had been discussed.

The two sides did not discuss the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, RIA added. The US State Department has not provided any official public comments on the meeting.

The news came in the wake of a high-profile prisoner exchange between Russia and the US, which saw women’s basketball star Brittney Griner exchanged for jailed Russian businessman Viktor Bout on Thursday.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed some details about the deal, adding that talks about the exchange were held between the Russian and American security services, which have “never” severed any contacts and continue to talk to each other.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also warned that the exchange should not be viewed as a sign of improving bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington.
https://www.rt.com/russia/567982-russia-us-discuss-irritants-talks/
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9 Dec, 2022 23:55

2) --- Twitter reveals how it banned Trump

The framework for blocking a sitting US president was set long before the Capitol riot

A third series of “Twitter Files,” published on Friday evening, offered an insight into the platform’s decision to remove the personal account of Donald Trump while he was still US president, with more revelations promised for the weekend.

Journalist Matt Taibbi, who authored the first expose last week, began sharing the saga of Trump’s ban covering the period between October 2020 and January 6, 2021.

“We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies,” Taibbi wrote.

The drop includes Twitter’s internal communications of clear historical importance, as the company employees recognized this was a “landmark moment in the annals of speech,” the first time they had suspended a sitting head of state's account.

Trump was banned on January 8, after a “close review” of how his tweets were “being received and interpreted on and off Twitter,” the company said at the time. His last tweets had included a video message urging his supporters not to break the law and to peacefully depart from the US Capitol, but also his claim that the 2020 election had not been legitimate, which Twitter had declared unacceptable.

However, the “intellectual framework” for the ban was already set up in the months before the January 6 riot at the Capitol. One internal message shows a Twitter executive saying that they need to look at the actions by Trump “over the course of the election and frankly last 4+ years.”

Trump’s tweets criticizing mass voting by mail – an unprecedented measure Democrats had rolled out citing the pandemic – were being “visibility filtered” as late as a week before the election, with Twitter executives making up rules to do so and congratulating themselves for it.

A special channel was created on October 8, 2020 for senior executives, including former head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, Trust and Policy chief Vijaya Gadde, and top lawyer Jim Baker, to coordinate election enforcement. This “smaller, more powerful cadre” acted as a “high-speed Supreme Court of moderation” often making decisions “on the fly,” while also “clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content.”

While Twitter was already deploying a broad arsenal of visible and invisible tools to rein in Trump’s engagement “long before” the Capitol riot, Taibbi noted how on December 10 some executives wanted to use a newly created deamplification tool, before its official rollout, to silently limit Trump’s reach even further. The moderators became so tired of censoring Trump manually that by January 6 his account was “covered in bots” to automate the process of slapping warning labels on his tweets.

When the protest at the Capitol escalated into a riot, the moderation team initially seemed to be in “panic” and “despair,” amid “frantic calls” to “start deploying its full arsenal of moderation tools” – until Roth eventually “executed the historic act” of temporarily locking Trump's account. Gadde then sent a company-wide email, in a first indication that a permanent suspension was likely imminent.

According to another internal message, if Trump tried to use the official POTUS or White House accounts, Twitter would “take action to limit their use” until they are “transitioned” to the new administration on January 20, but not suspend or ban them otherwise.

“Examining the entire election enforcement Slack, we didn’t see one reference to moderation requests from the Trump campaign, the Trump White House, or Republicans generally,” Taibbi noted. While they may exist, “they were absent” from the files provided.

According to Taibbi, Saturday’s revelations will focus on “the chaos inside Twitter on January 7,” while the “secret internal communications from the key date of January 8” will be published on Sunday.

Taibbi began disclosing the “Twitter Files” last week, with the help and endorsement of the platform’s new owner Elon Musk. The second part revealed the practice of “shadowbanning” that overwhelmingly impacted conservative accounts. It was reportedly delayed by a senior lawyer at Twitter who had been “vetting” the drops without Musk’s knowledge or approval. That turned out to be Baker, former FBI general counsel whom Musk fired on Tuesday.

The White House has dismissed the revelations as a “distraction” from the real problem with the platform, which press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described as “hate speech.”
https://www.rt.com/news/567990-twitter-files-trump-ban/

10 Dec, 2022 03:22 Twitter files unveil more FBI collusion

2) ---- A top executive coordinated US election “enforcement” with federal agents

US federal agencies worked closely with Twitter moderators to clamp down on what they saw as “disinformation” during the 2020 election. Executives went to great lengths to scrub certain content they deemed false and dangerous, following increasingly frequent sit-downs with law enforcement and intelligence orgs, according to the third installment of the “Twitter Files.”

Published on Friday by journalist Matt Taibbi, the trove of files includes messages from Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, revealing he was running out of “generic” names to disguise his increasingly regular meetings with federal officials ahead of the 2020 election in the company calendar.

“DEFINITELY NOT meeting with the FBI I SWEAR,” he quipped in response to a colleague who suggested calling it a “Very Boring Business Meeting That Is Definitely Not About Trump.”

Another missive speaks of Roth’s “weekly sync” with officials from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), suggesting he consulted with three-letter agencies to discuss “election security.” The message also mentions a “monthly meeting” with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), a unit created to “identify and counteract malign foreign influence operations targeting the United States” in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential win.

The FBI even went as far as to flag individual tweets thought to be problematic, in one case urging Twitter to censor a former Republican official – apparently on the basis of a Politifact article alone. The DHS, ODNI and “some NGOs that aren’t academic” were also involved in the process.

A special channel was created on October 8, 2020 for senior executives like Roth, Trust and Policy chief Vijaya Gadde, and top lawyer Jim Baker – who previously worked as general counsel for the FBI – to coordinate election-related decisions, given the name “us2020_xfn_enforcement.”

This “smaller, more powerful cadre” of senior executives made decisions “on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, even Google searches,” while also “clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content,” Taibbi wrote, dubbing the group a “high-speed Supreme Court of moderation.”

Taibbi started publishing the “Twitter Files” on a rolling basis in collaboration with other reporters last week, having received direct authorization from the platform’s new owner Elon Musk. The first batch of records focused on Twitter’s decision to ban a controversial New York Post story on the foreign business dealings of then-candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, published in October 2020. “Shadowbanning” featured prominently in the second installation, showing that Twitter engaged in the practice despite repeated denials, while Friday’s trove largely centered on the permanent suspension of Trump, who was at the time president of the United States.
https://www.rt.com/news/567991-twitter-files-fbi-collusion/
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9 Dec, 2022 12:55

3) Analysis: Fyodor Lukyanov: How the US has placed Western Europe in a trap over Russia and China

Emmanuel Macron has held extensive talks with Joe Biden but, behind the smiles, this is not an equal relationship

Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and research director of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

Last year, France was left out in the cold by the creation of the Anglo-Saxon AUKUS defense grouping of Britain, Australia and the United States. Firstly, NATO members had not been notified. Secondly, the consequence of the arrangement was the breakdown of a contract for Paris to build a large batch of submarines for Australia.

Instead of conventional French-made submersibles, nuclear vessels of American design were now planned. Paris’ anger was so great that the ambassadors from Washington and London were even recalled, although not for long.

The grievances of last autumn seem to have faded this winter as the transatlantic relationship has moved into the category of a “brotherhood of war.” The idea of an indestructible unity of Western Europe and America in the face of the Russian threat is a thesis that is repeated literally daily. According to the interpretation accepted in the West, President Vladimir Putin severely miscalculated in expecting a rift between the Old and New Worlds. And now the Atlantic community has found a new lease of life and a fresh raison d’être.

How prepared Moscow was for such a sharp reaction from the “collective West” to the Ukrainian campaign is an open and difficult question. However, as the aftermath of the crisis is unfolding, cracks are beginning to appear in the monolith of the Western coalition. That said, we shouldn’t get too optimistic – the divergence is not driven by attitudes to Russia, but mainly on the question, if I may say so, of the distribution of the burden.

In this case, it seems that the Western Europeans are starting to develop an unpleasant suspicion.

Biden’s arrival in the White House almost two years ago was greeted with glee in Brussels, Paris, Berlin and beyond. Donald Trump, who himself made no secret of his disdain for the Old World, was a pariah for most of the continent’s leaders. Trump was the perfect embodiment of what disgusts Western European elites and his presence highlighted the differences between Europe and America.

However, this divergence began earlier in the century, when Bill Clinton was replaced in Washington by George W. Bush. It was then that American priorities began to shift from a seemingly benign and relatively unproblematic Europe to an increasingly important Asia, which was becoming the center of events.

Bush and his neocon associates were disliked in most of Europe, but Barack Obama was greeted as the messiah of a New Atlanticism, though the restoration of trust didn’t happen in full.

Trump shocked those across the ocean with his outspoken dislike, so Biden's victory was perceived as a return to, if not the norm, decency. Indeed, the Democratic administration’s rhetoric was reminiscent of the Clinton era, which was arguably the golden era of US-European symbiosis. Back then, Washington regarded the continent as an important priority and made considerable efforts to beautify it in a pan-Atlantic spirit, which was then in line with the overwhelming European sense of what was beautiful.

The current US president, Joe Biden, is an old-school politician, from a time when Europe was the center of American interests. But the old school involves a sober analysis of costs and benefits. And the ability to optimize the former by maximizing the latter.

After the Second World War, and especially the Cold War, Western Europeans abandoned strategic thinking and instead followed policies which ensured a comfortable existence. The US, on the other hand, has retained the ability, if not to think, then, at least, to feel strategically.

Hence an understanding (or rather an instinct) of the changing geopolitical realities. Of course, gut feelings don’t guarantee the correctness of policy, but they do imply an alignment with current needs and circumstances. Ironically, Western Europe, historically famed for its rationalism, is now much less correlated with the consequences of its actions.

Whether Washington had a cunning plan to shift the brunt of the confrontation with Russia onto its European allies, we may someday find out. However, the behavior of the United States can perhaps be explained not by scheming, but rather by clever opportunism. The fallout from the Ukrainian crisis is spreading all over the place, with the US making decisions to manage the consequences or even to exploit them for the future. This causes consternation amongst the Western Europeans: the Americans can do it, but they themselves can not.

Thus, when the Biden administration passes the Inflation Reduction Act, putting American citizens in a much better position than Europeans, it is perfectly in the interests of the US. So?

Western Europe is caught in a trap and it’s unclear how it can escape. Absolute solidarity with the US on the Russian question implies subordination to a stronger partner. That said, the EU and UK are ready for this, but it means (for objective reasons): 1) that they must bear most of the costs, and 2) they should follow a common strategic position on the other issues of principle for their patron. And the main one here is China.

Beijing will be Washington’s strategic rival for decades to come. However, it’s not a threat to Western Europe, and it’s not a challenge. Indeed, cooperation with it is advantageous. But why should the big brother allow his little sidekick to help someone who is at odds with him?

Biden and Macron shook hands at length in a sign of incredible cordiality. In fact, the US President assured him that the US did not want to offend its European allies. That is all. No more than that.
https://www.rt.com/news/567958-fyodor-lukyanov-western-europe/
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10 Dec, 2022 15:25

4) ---- EU nations multiply trade with Russia – RIA

Some member states have boosted trade turnover by more than 200%, the news agency says

Three quarters of EU member states boosted their trade turnover with Russia in the first eight months of 2022, RIA Novosti is reporting on Saturday, citing data collected from the bloc's various national statistics departments.

Russia’s trade with Bulgaria and Greece reportedly soared 240% and 230% respectively, while trade turnover with Slovenia doubled during January-to-August period this year. At the same time, Austria and the Czech Republic boosted their trade with the sanctions-hit nation by 80%. Meanwhile, Russia’s trade turnover with both Hungary and Italy surged 70%. Belgium and Cyprus also registered increases, of 60%.

All-in-all, 20 out of the 27 bloc members saw a year-over-year increase of 34% in mutual trade with Russia. In monetary terms the trade turnover surged to €177.3 billion compared to €132.4 billion recorded for the same period a year ago.

At the same time, Russia’s mutual trade with Malta saw a dramatic decline of 80%, while both Denmark and Sweden reduced their trade with the nation by 49%. Luxembourg’s trade turnover with Russia also declined, by 28%. Drops in Russia’s mutual trade with Finland and Lithuania totalled 7% and 6% respectively. Portugal reduced its trade turnover with the nation by 3%.

Trade between these seven countries and Moscow amounted to €14.2 billion, against €17.3 billion a year earlier.

As a result, Russia-EU trade turnover saw an increase of 28% in January-August 2022 compared to the same period a year ago, and amounted to €191.5 billion. Of these, EU exports to Russia totalled €36.2 billion, while imports from Russia amounted to €155.3 billion.

Thus, the EU's trade deficit for the first eight months of the current year amounted to €119.1 billion, reaching its highest since 2008, when it amounted to €151 billion for the entire year.
https://www.rt.com/business/568017-eu-trade-russia-sanctions/
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10 Dec, 2022 14:04

5) ---- Merkel's revelations: France and Germany owe ‘genocide compensation’ to Donbass – Moscow

The Ukraine crisis is a result of the EU nations’ deceitful policies, Vyacheslav Volodin claims

Berlin and Paris should pay reparations to the Donbass civilians who have been suffering Ukrainian attacks since 2014, according to Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma – Russia’s lower house of parliament.

His comments came after former German chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that the Minsk peace agreements had been just a ploy to provide Kiev with enough time to build up its military.

Merkel’s confession means that Berlin and Paris – who brokered the deal – “bear moral and material responsibility for what is happening in Ukraine,” Volodin wrote on Telegram on Saturday.

The premeditated failure to fulfill obligations under the accords constitutes “not only a loss of trust, but also a crime for which the signatories of the Minsk agreements – Merkel, [former French president Francois] Hollande, and [former Ukrainian president Pyotr] Poroshenko – must answer,” he stated.

They will have to pay compensation to the residents of Donbass for eight years of genocide and damages,” Volodin added.

According to the MP, the ongoing Ukraine crisis has been brought about by “the deceitful policies” pursued by the French and German leaders.

Volodin recalled that in 2014, Berlin and Paris also brokered a deal between the government of the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and the nation’s opposition to stop violent riots in Kiev. The unrest erupted in Ukraine’s capital after Yanukovich refused to sign an association agreement with the EU.

“It all ended with a coup d’etat in Kiev,” he stated, and “the genocide” of people in the Donbass.

When the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics broke away from Kiev, Germany and France took part in signing the now-defunct Minsk agreements, which were supposed to pave the way for peace by giving the two territories a special status within the Ukrainian state. However, Russia has repeatedly accused Kiev of failing to implement the terms of the accords.

Volodin’s comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was disappointed and shocked when he heard Merkel’s statement, adding that this was further proof that Moscow made the correct decision when it started its military operation in Ukraine.
https://www.rt.com/russia/568011-france-germany-genocide-donbass/
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