RT News - January 4th 2023

The number of Russian soldiers killed in a Ukrainian HIMARS rocket attack, in the city of Makeyevka near Donetsk, rises to 89.
The Russian Defence ministry says mobile phone signals gave away their location to enemy forces. (QS this is so, so sad but an important lesson to be learned from. Thousands of miles away from home, a message to loved ones on the most important family time of the year. I am moved to tears.... Payback will continue to be huge, I would imagine. Whose satellite system was being used to monitor would be another Q for me)

A new level of gas exports to China - Russian energy giant Gazprom hails record volumes in the first days of the new year amid plans to build more pipelines heading East.

Burkina Faso expels the French ambassador, as anti-colonial sentiment strengthens on the African continent as people seek to cooperate with countries other than France. France must accept new and changing realities in Africa.

India refuses to be dictated to and to be forced to take sides. India's FM Subrahmanyam Jaishankar continues his trip in Europe and was speaking to Austria's prime TV channel (ORF) in interview and pointed out hypocrisy. "Sanctimonious cocktails"

Why is the no outrage about Kiev's glorification of infamous Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera? (QS last month in the United Nations General Assembly, countries were asked to vote on the resolution "Combating Glorification of Nazism, Refugees, Displaced Persons, Protecting Children from Sexual Exploitation" 170 member states voted. 120 voted in favour of the resolution, 50 against and 10 abstained. It's worth noting that every NATO member state voted against the resolution, proving without question that NATO in no way reflects the interests of the public in the countries who are forced to pay for NATO, whether they like it or not and that includes Poland https://twitter.com/DontDenyThe/status/1604139100914810880 )

Russia: The most sanctioned country in the world.

RT looks at the biggest protests engulfing 2022 - and the marked difference in attitude various Western countries have shown toward the unrest.

Just a few examples of "open mics" gaffes - there were a lot this year.

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Via RT website Below 1) --- US making Europeans suffer – de Gaulle’s grandson
2) --- UK to suffer more than most this year — FT
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4 Jan, 2023 09:03

1) --- US making Europeans suffer – de Gaulle’s grandson

Washington is profiteering from the “economic war” against Moscow, Pierre de Gaulle has said

By fuelling the Ukraine conflict and waging a pre-planned economic war against Russia, the US is making Europeans suffer, Pierre de Gaulle, the grandson of former French President Charles de Gaulle, has said.

After leading the French resistance against Nazi occupation during World War II, Charles de Gaulle founded the modern French political system and served as president from 1959 to 1969. His grandson, a strategy and corporate finance consultant, said he believes that the Ukraine conflict was incited by the West.

“I revolt and protest this intellectual dishonesty in the Ukraine crisis because the triggers of the war are the Americans and NATO,” Pierre de Gaulle told the Franco-Russian Dialogue Association last week.

“The United States, unfortunately, continues the military escalation, making not only the Ukrainian population suffer, but the European population as well.”

The scale and the number of sanctions show that all of this was organized a long time in advance. It is an economic war, from which the Americans are the beneficiaries. The Americans sell their gas to Europeans for a price four to seven times higher than they do in their own country.

The Western sanctions imposed on Russian fossil fuel exports have exacerbated the financial and energy crisis in Europe, making “everyone suffer in their daily lives,” de Gaulle said.

He also accused former German Chancellor Angela Merkel of “knowingly contributing” to the conflict by “authorizing the Ukrainian nationalist expansion,” which came after the 2014 pro-Western coup in Kiev. The government that came to power that year sought to “annihilate Russian culture… and the ability to speak Russian” in the largely Russophone Donbass, he said.

The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) broke away from Ukraine following the 2014 coup. The 2014-15 Minsk accords, brokered by Germany, France, and Russia, were designed to provide a peaceful reintegration of the rebellious territories into Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the need to protect the people of Donbass and Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk peace accords as reasons for launching the military operation in Ukraine in late February. The DPR and LPR, along with two other former Ukrainian territories, joined Russia after voting overwhelmingly in favor of the move in September.

Merkel, as well as former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, stated last year that Kiev had used the accords to buy time in order to rebuild its military and economy.

Ukraine has adopted several laws since 2014 that restrict the use of the Russian language in the public sphere, including education and the media.
https://www.rt.com/news/569369-de-gaulle-ukraine-conflict/
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4 Jan, 2023 05:31

2) --- UK to suffer more than most this year — FT

Consumers reportedly face a “tough,” “grim” and “miserable” economic outlook

Britain faces one of the worst recessions among the world’s leading industrialized nations this year, the Financial Times has reported, citing economists.

In an annual poll of 101 leading UK-based economists, the majority told the outlet that the fallout from spiralling inflation, triggered by the pandemic and the Ukraine conflict, will persist for longer in the UK than in other G7 nations, and the country’s recovery will be one of the weakest. GDP will shrink for most of 2023, the government will have to run a tight fiscal policy, and the Bank of England will keep interest rates high, the report said.

John Philpott, an independent labour market economist, told FT that “the 2023 recession will feel much worse than the economic impact of the pandemic.” Other respondents described the outlook for consumers – especially those on low incomes – as “tough,” “bleak,” “grim,” “miserable” and “terrible,” the outlet writes.

Inflation hit double digits in the UK last year, peaking at 11.1% year-on-year in October, the highest level for over 40 years. The BoE raised rates by a combined 325 points last year to their highest since 2008. The spike in consumer prices was attributed to the global surge in energy costs.

Other nations will suffer economically as well, as the IMF predicted last week that a third of the global economy will be in recession this year.

However, according to the Financial Times, even once the recovery is underway, Britain will most likely continue to lag behind other nations, as mistakes made by the government have exacerbated existing problems such as poor productivity, weak business investment, government neglect of public services, and damage to trade inflicted by Brexit. *
https://www.rt.com/business/569335-uk-suffer-more-recession/
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* deliberately inflicted against the citizens by way of punishment, by the Brexit vote, which was never meant to happen and never will happen until Britain outlaws bank/corporate controlled, whipped parties.