RT News - January 25th 2023

Russian's FM Sergei Lavrov is in Angola for talks visiting his counterpart as part of his tour. This year the BRICS chair will be South Africa.
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China says the US better mind its own financial problems instead of accusing Beijing of being responsible for the economic crisis in African countries like Zambia. (QS: Yesterday China warned USA of "Catastrophic Debt" see post on channel). Washington is accusing China for Zambia's debt resolution problems. Katlego Msomi (a local reporter) discusses.
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The German government comes under heavy fire on the home front after Berlin reportedly decides to send its advanced tanks to Ukraine, after months of pressure from NATO allies. Not all lawmakers are content with the decision which has yet to be made official, who point out that few Germans at all are happy with the decision. The US is also said to be sending Abrams tanks to Ukraine (see below)
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Is anyone learning from history? Rachel Marsden talks about Pierre De Gaulle, grandson of Charles De Gaulle who is being attacked in France by politicians for reminding citizens of the WW2 tragedy.
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RT looks at the countries with the highest military spending as the U.S. FED issues a misleading chart and report.
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Palestinians urge the West to help stop the Israeli demolition of a key village in the occupied West Bank, as locals vent anger over the destruction of their homes.
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Canada: Pres. Trudeau has been chased by protesters whilst he was "on retreat" in Ontario. It's the 2nd day of protests against the President.
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Canada now wants Japan to stop buying Russian crabs and buy theirs instead. (QS in summer 2022, Boris Johnson met with Japan's leader Fumio Kishida, then announced that Britain was to start receiving food imports from Fukishima! Reports claim that the soil and water in the Fukushima area, in the northern part of Nakadōri, still contains high levels of radiation which makes the clean-up effort difficult. Was this deal part of the inducements for Japan to side with NATO against China? Is that food safe for consumption? Who else is it being sold to? I can't find any other country but I haven't looked extensively)
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Thirty years ago George Soros suggested using eastern Europeans to "fight the Russians" and to reduce the body-bag count" for NATO countries. The document is now back in focus. Caleb Maupin reports on the implications and potential consequences.
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Below Via RT website A) --- Kremlin comments on direct contact with Zelensky
1) --- ‘Doomsday Clock’ update triggered by Ukraine conflict
2) US to approve tanks for Ukraine soon – Reuters
3) --- Russian companies find new ways to service debt – Bloomberg
4) --- Classified documents found at another US politician’s home
5) --- NASA teams up with Pentagon for atomic spaceships
6) --- British MPs call for probe into massive spike in deaths
7) --- Argentina running out of space to store banknotes – Bloomberg
8) --- US government sues Google
9) --- Ukraine advises West on how to negotiate with Russia
9a) --- Arming Ukraine a 'big business' opportunity – Zelensky
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25 Jan, 2023 07:54

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A) --- Kremlin comments on direct contact with Zelensky

Vladimir Putin hasn’t spoken to the Ukrainian president in years, a spokesman confirmed

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not spoken to his Ukrainian counterpart for a number of years, his spokesman has confirmed.

Dmitry Peskov was asked about contact between the two leaders by RIA Novosti during a press conference. The news agency referred to the Russian president’s public itinerary, which suggests he last met Zelensky in person during “Normandy format” talks mediated by France and Germany in 2019. The following year, they spoke by phone twice, in February and June.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had previously revealed that Moscow and Kiev were on the verge of signing a truce during the early stages of the conflict on terms suggested by the Ukrainian side. However, the process was stopped by Kiev’s Western sponsors, who want to prolong the conflict to harm Russia, he said.

Since Zelensky’s government is not in control of its own foreign policy, it makes no sense talking with him, Lavrov suggested. And, in any case, talks with Russia are currently banned under Ukrainian law, he added.

The Russian diplomat was referring to an order of the Ukrainian national security council prohibiting any negotiations with Moscow so long as Putin remains in power. Zelensky signed it into law in October.

READ MORE: Ukraine advises West on how to negotiate with Russia
Ukraine agreed to a 2014-2015 peace roadmap as a ploy to rebuild its army, according to its former president Pyotr Poroshenko and the leaders of Germany and France at that time, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande.

The same approach was apparently used for the peace negotiations last year, which were partially mediated by Türkiye. Kirill Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, confirmed last week that he had used an asset in Ukraine’s team of negotiators to stall the process and win time for a military regrouping
https://www.rt.com/russia/570443-putin-zelensky-contacts-years/
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24 Jan, 2023 17:25

1) --- ‘Doomsday Clock’ update triggered by Ukraine conflict

The minute hand has inched forward to 90 seconds from midnight, the most perilous time for humanity ever, amid nuclear war fears

Humanity stands at its most perilous time on record, with the so-called Doomsday Clock advancing to within just 90 seconds of midnight as the Russia-Ukraine conflict stokes fears of a nuclear war, according to a leading group of atomic scientists.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists adjusted its Doomsday Clock on Tuesday, moving it 10 seconds forward to reflect the group’s view of how close the world has been pushed to widespread calamity. The clock, which is updated each January, is designed to alert people to the threats to their existence, including nuclear war, climate change and biotechnology.

The latest adjustment reflects “a time of unprecedented danger,” which stems largely – though not exclusively – from “the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine,” the group said. The bulletin’s Science and Security Board (SASB) accused Russia of making “thinly veiled threats” to use nuclear weapons, reminding the world that the conflict could spin out of control and escalate catastrophically.

“Even if nuclear use is avoided in Ukraine, the war has challenged the nuclear order – the system of agreements and understandings that have been constructed over six decades to limit the dangers of nuclear weapons,” said SASB member Steve Fetter, dean of the graduate school and professor of public policy at the University of Maryland.

The SASB predicted that – if the last remaining nuclear weapons treaty between Russia and the US, New START, is allowed to expire in 2026 – a nuclear arms race will ensue. Already, China is rapidly expanding its nuclear program, North Korea has ramped up missile testing, Iran is inching closer to nuclear weapons capability, and the US, Russia and India are modernizing their arsenals.

Former Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia said the common thread running through all of the world’s existential threats is “failure of leadership.” Mary Robinson, the former UN high commissioner for human rights, agreed, saying, “The Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice, but our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and livable planet.”

The Doomsday Clock last moved forward in 2020, when it advanced by 20 seconds, to within 100 seconds of midnight. It was left unchanged after the group's 2021 and 2022 reviews. (QS View on youtube as not available on Rumble yet https://youtu.be/KxB9dM0u4mU)

https://www.rt.com/news/570427-doomsday-clock-moves-closer-to-midnight/
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25 Jan, 2023 07:54

2) US to approve tanks for Ukraine soon – Reuters

Kiev could get dozens of M1 Abrams main battle tanks, sources told the agency

US President Joe Biden could formally launch the process of sending American battle tanks to Ukraine, for use in the conflict with Russia, as soon as Wednesday, unnamed US officials told Reuters.

The Biden administration has reversed its decision not to provide Kiev with M1 Abrams tanks under pressure from the Zelensky government, two sources, who spoke to the agency on Tuesday, claimed.

The lethal aid will likely be funded under the so-called Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows the US government to purchase arms directly from the defense industry, while leaving existing US military stocks intact.

According to one of the officials, Washington could buy dozens of US-made tanks from its allies, refurbish them, and then send them to Ukraine. However, he warned it could be a long process, taking months or years.

Several US news outlets have corroborated reports that the White House is about to greenlight deliveries of M1 Abrams, with Politico claiming some 30 tanks are being considered for Ukraine.

The alleged softening of the US stance follows reports in the German media on Tuesday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz has finally agreed to provide Kiev with enough Leopard 2s to equip a tank company, which usually consists of 16 vehicles. On Sunday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also said that if other countries, like Poland, officially ask for permission to supply Leopard 2s to the Zelensky government, Berlin “would not stand in the way.”

Germany had earlier been reluctant to send its tanks to Ukraine despite pressure from allies, insisting that Washington should do the same.

However, publicly the US continues to insist that M1 Abrams won’t be the best solution for the conflict in Ukraine, due to the 63-ton tanks being difficult to maintain, running on jet fuel and requiring lengthy training to operate. “The M1 is a complex weapons system that is challenging to maintain... that was true yesterday, that is true today and will be true in the future,” Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Pat Ryder reiterated on Tuesday.

Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said that – if they do occur – the deliveries of US tanks to Kiev would be “another blatant provocation” against Moscow by Washington, which is “the real aggressor” in the conflict in Ukraine. “American tanks without any doubt will be destroyed, as will be all other samples of NATO military equipment” that were given to the Ukrainian military, the envoy warned, echoing an earlier statement by the Kremlin.
https://www.rt.com/news/570444-us-abrams-tanks-ukraine/
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24 Jan, 2023 20:23

2a) --- Berlin to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine – media

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has agreed to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to prop up Kiev forces, Der Spiegel reports

Berlin has changed its stance on delivery of Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, finally agreeing to send in the hardware, Der Spiegel reported on Tuesday, citing sources.

According to the weekly, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has agreed to provide Kiev with enough armored vehicles to equip a tank company. While the outlet did not specify an exact number, a company is usually comprised of at least 16 tanks. The looming delivery is expected to involve one of the latest variants of the combat vehicle, namely Leopard 2A6 tanks.

The tanks in question will come from Germany’s Bundeswehr stocks, Der Spiegel noted. The Financial Times also reported on Berlin’s decision, citing sources “familiar with the matter.”

Earlier on Tuesday, a representative of German arms giant Rheinmetall told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) news website that the company could provide some 139 Leopard 2 variants to Ukraine, with a batch of 22 Leopard 2A4 expected to be ready in about a year.

The company also has an additional 29 Leopard 2A4 tanks in its inventory, which are being overhauled as part of Berlin’s weapons transfer program with other European nations. Those vehicles are nearly operational and are expected to be ready by April or May. The company could also provide 88 older Leopard 1 tanks, according to the representative, who did not provide any timeframe for when the armored vehicles from the 1960s would be operational.

In recent days, Berlin also signaled it has changed its stance on deliveries of German-made tanks to Ukraine by third countries. Speaking to France’s broadcaster LCI on Sunday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that, were countries like Poland to officially ask for such permission, Berlin “would not stand in the way.” The message was amplified by the country’s new Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, who encouraged countries in possession of Leopard 2 tanks to start training Ukrainian crews on how to operate them.

Berlin’s apparent change of heart on the tanks issue comes after some of its allies, namely Poland, harshly criticized the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz for its reluctance to authorize transfer of German-made combat vehicles to Kiev. Warsaw has signaled it was ready to do so without permission.

Moscow has repeatedly urged the collective West to stop “pumping” Ukraine with weaponry, maintaining it would reach its goals regardless of the enduring support for Kiev.
https://www.rt.com/news/570433-germany-ukraine-leopard-tanks/
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25 Jan, 2023 05:32

3) --- Russian companies find new ways to service debt – Bloomberg

Some firms have opted to substitute their eurobonds to ruble debt, the outlet has found

Russia’s biggest companies – including unsanctioned ones – are “bypassing Wall Street” for servicing their outstanding debt following Western sanctions that broadly disrupted critical financial operations needed to keep bonds functioning, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Restrictions have complicated a large number of financial processes for servicing bonds even if a borrower hasn’t been targeted by sanctions, the outlet said. Companies and investors now search for alternatives, including swaps, buybacks and direct payments to bondholders.

Some companies like fertilizer producer Uralkali, miner Norilsk Nikel and metals giant Metalloinvest have opted to change bond documentation and pay the debt directly to investors in rubles, the outlet said. The country’s energy major Gazprom and one of the world’s largest steel producers, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works PJSC, have swapped some of their eurobonds for ruble debt.

Gazprom Deputy Chairman Famil Sadygov told Bloomberg that replacement bonds were “the most reliable way” to service debt given the restrictions on financial infrastructure. He noted that holdings of ten of the bonds have already been substituted and another 12 will be replaced by the end of March, adding that Gazprom pays coupons on both the swapped Russian bonds and the remaining international bonds.

Following EU sanctions, Europe’s two major central depositories – Euroclear and Clearstream – have only been processing transactions verified by paying agents. The clearing houses have been reluctant to process corporate actions, forcing companies to find ways to bypass European depositories.

Companies have realized that sanctions have disrupted so many processes needed to keep bonds that it’s become necessary to take them out of the market.

A portfolio manager at Armbrok investment company, Dmitry Dorofeev, told Bloomberg that “in a couple of months everything is going to be bought out” by local investors, adding that “Russian companies will replace bonds and return to Russia.”

Russia’s international corporate bond market declined by about $12.7 billion from $85.6 billion since the imposition of Ukraine-related sanctions on Moscow, according to the outlet.
https://www.rt.com/business/570407-russian-companies-international-debt-servicing/
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24 Jan, 2023 19:34

4) --- Classified documents found at another US politician’s home

A lawyer for Mike Pence has reported the discovery of secret papers in the former vice president’s Indiana home

If controversy loves company, President Joe Biden may take comfort in the fact that classified documents have been found at the home of another US leader – this time, former vice president Mike Pence.

A lawyer representing Pence, Greg Jacob, last week reported to the National Archives and Records Administration that a “small number” of papers with classified markings were discovered at the ex-VP’s home in Indiana. Jacob wrote in a letter to the agency that the find was made during a search by a legal firm that Pence hired in the wake of this month’s scandal over Biden’s handling of state secrets. CNN, which obtained a copy of the letter, first reported the news on Tuesday.

The records in question “were inadvertently boxed and transported to the personal home of the former vice president at the end of the last administration,” Jacob said in the letter. “Vice President Pence was unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence.” He added that Pence stood ready to cooperate with “any appropriate inquiry” and wanted guidance from the National Archives on the “prompt and secure return” of the documents.

The FBI retrieved the documents last Thursday from a safe located in Pence’s home, where they had been placed after their discovery. CNN said the FBI and the Department of Justice have launched a review of the records and how they ended up at Pence’s home. Jacob delivered four boxes containing mostly copies of Pence’s vice presidential records to the National Archives on Monday, so the agency could conduct a review to ensure that no other classified documents were in his possession.

Official White House records are supposed to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of each administration. Biden became embroiled in controversy after news broke this month of four separate discoveries of classified documents at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and his namesake think-tank in Washington. Those papers were from Biden’s two terms as vice president and his years working in the Senate.

Both Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, are being investigated by special counsels over their handling of secret documents. The FBI raided Trump’s home in Florida last August, recovering papers that the president claimed to have declassified prior to taking them from the White House in 2021.
https://www.rt.com/news/570434-classified-docs-found-at-mike-pence-home/
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24 Jan, 2023 20:32

5) --- NASA teams up with Pentagon for atomic spaceships

DARPA will work with the US space agency to develop a nuclear-powered Mars vessel

The US space agency announced on Tuesday that it was reviving a 1960s partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aiming to develop a nuclear-powered spaceship for travel to the moon and Mars.

“NASA will work with our long-term partner, DARPA, to develop and demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027,” Administrator Bill Nelson said, adding that the two agencies will “ignite the future, together.”

While NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) will be in charge of the “technical development for the nuclear thermal engine,” the Pentagon’s research branch will be the main contractor for developing the reactor and the engine. The future vessel was dubbed the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations, or DRACO.

NASA and DARPA hope to have an “in-space demonstration” of the spaceship and the engine “as early as 2027.”

DARPA director Stefanie Tompkins noted that the two agencies have a “long history of fruitful collaboration,” from the Saturn V rocket used by the 1960s Apollo moon program to satellite refueling in modern times.

The DRACO program will enable “leap-ahead advances in space technology” in a domain that is “critical to modern commerce, scientific discovery, and national security,” Tompkins added.

A nuclear thermal engine would use a fission reactor to heat a liquid propellant, in a process “three or more times more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion,” according to NASA. While it has been decades since NASA last tried to develop such an engine, “recent aerospace materials and engineering advancements are enabling a new era for space nuclear technology,” said STMD associate administrator Jim Reuter.

Project Orion, a joint venture between NASA and DARPA in the 1960s, envisioned a spaceship powered by directed blasts of fission bombs. To get military funding, the project also attempted to develop a “space battleship,” an orbital platform for nuclear missiles, for the Pentagon.

Orion was abandoned for both practical and legal reasons. The 1963 partial test ban treaty prohibited the testing of atomic weapons in space, while the 1967 Outer Space Treaty banned the deployment of any weapons of mass destruction in earth’s orbit and beyond.
https://www.rt.com/news/570435-nasa-darpa-nuclear-mars/
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24 Jan, 2023 20:59

6) --- British MPs call for probe into massive spike in deaths

Nearly 3,000 more Britons are dying than average on a weekly basis, and it’s not Covid-19 that’s responsible

Troubled by national statistics showing 20% excess deaths per week, UK MPs have demanded an investigation, the Daily Mail reported on Tuesday. Unlike the last time excess deaths reached such levels, during the second Covid-19 wave, few of these deaths could be attributed to the virus.

Speaking before the House of Commons on Tuesday, Conservative MP Esther McVey skewered Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty for blaming the spike in non-Covid excess deaths on “patients not getting statins or blood pressure medicines during the pandemic,” pointing out that the monthly figures for statin prescriptions had remained constant.

“Where is the evidence? And if there isn’t one, what is causing these excess deaths?” she asked, demanding the minister “commit to an urgent and thorough investigation of the matter.”

Labour shadow public health minister Andrew Gwynne described health secretary Steve Barclay as “part man, part ostrich” over his refusal to confront the issue, accusing PM Rishi Sunak’s government of “denial and buck-passing.”
“There were 50,000 more deaths than we would have otherwise expected in 2022,” he told the House of Commons on Tuesday. “Excluding the pandemic, that’s the worst figure since 1951.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, 2,837 more people died in the second week of January than normal in England and Wales, with just 5% of those deaths being attributable to Covid-19.

The last time excess deaths were so high, during the second week of February 2021, Covid-19 deaths made up 37% of the total. Nor is the statistic an outlier – the last two weeks of December saw 21% and 20% excess deaths.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine reported as many as 500 people a week are dying because they cannot receive emergency treatment in time. A record 54,532 people waited more than 12 hours in emergency departments to actually be admitted to the hospital once the decision was made to admit them, according to NHS data, and only 65% of patients were seen within four hours.

Last month, Whitty warned that “postponement of elective and semi-elective care and screening” due to lockdowns and NHS delays would result in another wave of mortality after Covid-19 had largely subsided, with undiagnosed cancers and other chronic conditions claiming a larger than usual number of victims.

(QS ***** see also reports on Rumble by Dr. John Campbell https://rumble.com/c/DrJohnCampbell *****)

https://www.rt.com/news/570436-uk-excess-deaths-investigation-mps/
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25 Jan, 2023 07:03

7) --- Argentina running out of space to store banknotes – Bloomberg

The peso is rapidly depreciating as inflation in the country approaches 100%

Banks in Argentina are suffering from a shortage of space to store the quickly depreciating national currency banknotes, Bloomberg reported, citing sources in the banking industry.

According to the report, Banco Galicia and the local unit of Spain’s Banco Santander have been forced to install additional vaults to store peso bills. Banco Galicia has already added eight vaults for cash storage over the past year to the two it had since 2019, and reportedly plans to set up two more in the coming months.

Argentina, which boasts the second biggest economy in South America after Brazil, has been plagued by economic instability for decades but the situation has worsened in recent years. The country has once again defaulted on its debt in 2020, and has had to resort to capital controls to protect its currency. Inflation is currently approaching 100%, while Buenos Aires also owes roughly $40 billion to the IMF.

Argentina’s largest denomination banknote – 1,000 pesos – is currently worth around $5.40 on official exchanges, but barely reached $2.65 when valued at informal exchange rates last week. Amid the surge in prices, Argentinians have been forced to carry hundreds of banknotes to pay for ordinary purchases, with transactions becoming increasingly difficult due to the need to use a greater number of bills.

Since 2019, the amount of money in public circulation in the South American state has soared from 895 billion to 3.8 trillion pesos, according to the Central Bank. The country’s banks and business groups have been calling on the regulator to print higher-value bills for years, saying it would make the system more efficient for banks, businesses and citizens.

“Transporting, mobilizing and withdrawing a greater number of bills every time increasingly provokes unsafe situations beyond creating complications and expenses,” Fabian Castillo, head of the Federation of Commerce and Industry of Buenos Aries (FECOBA) said in a statement earlier this month.

The president of the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services (CAC), Mario Grinman, also stressed that there should be at least 5,000 peso bills.

“Since its appearance in November 2017, the 1,000 pesos has lost almost 100% of its purchasing power. In 2017 it covered almost half of the basic basket and today it does not reach 6%. Today to go to the supermarket you have to carry a bag of banknotes. Logistically it is a disaster,” he told news outlet La Nacion.

However, the central bank said last week that no announcement was expected on larger-denomination bills and declined to comment on the requests for them.
https://www.rt.com/business/570391-argentina-banknotes-storage-problems/
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24 Jan, 2023 22:00

8) --- US government sues Google

President Joe Biden’s administration has accused the Big Tech giant of abusing its dominance of the online advertising business

Google has used “anti-competitive, exclusionary” practices to illegally crush or diminish any major threats to its dominance over the online advertising industry, President Joe Biden’s administration has alleged in a lawsuit against the company.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed its antitrust lawsuit against Google on Tuesday in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, calling for the company to be forced to sell off parts of its advertising business. Advertising accounts for about 80% of the Big Tech behemoth’s revenue.

Google owns dominant services enabling customers to offer advertising space, create better ads and match publishers with advertisers. The company has leveraged its size and reach to buy out or disrupt “actual or potential” competitors and to leave advertisers and websites little choice but to use its services, the lawsuit alleged.

“Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry, taken supra-competitive profits for itself and prevented the free market from functioning fairly to support the interests of the advertisers and publishers who make today’s powerful internet possible,” the DOJ said.

Google argued that the government was trying to pick winners and losers in the “highly competitive” online advertising business. The DOJ’s flawed arguments largely duplicate those in a Texas lawsuit that was recently dismissed by a federal court, the company said in a statement.

Eight states, including Google’s home state of California, joined the federal government in Tuesday’s lawsuit. “We are taking action by filing this lawsuit to unwind Google’s monopoly and restore competition to the digital advertising business,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said.

The administration of Biden’s predecessor, then-President Donald Trump, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in 2020, alleging anticompetitive practices in the company’s dominant online search business. That case is scheduled to go to trial later this year.
https://www.rt.com/news/570439-us-sues-google-for-monopolizing-online-ads/
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24 Jan, 2023 19:15

9) --- Ukraine advises West on how to negotiate with Russia

Foreign minister claims Moscow used Minsk truce to buy time, against Franco-German evidence

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has claimed that Kiev negotiated in good faith for years, while Moscow used the Minsk process mediated by Paris and Berlin to buy time for war. He also argued the West is not enough for peace, which can only come when the Global South sides with Ukraine.

“For eight years, Ukraine and the West tried to end the war by means of politics and diplomacy,” Kuleba argued in a Politico op-ed on Tuesday, titled “How Not to Negotiate with Russia.” The Minsk process, initiated in 2014 by France and Germany, saw Ukraine agree to “years of fruitless negotiations” in order to “avoid escalation and preserve peace in Europe,” he wrote.

“While we were holding back, Russia was building up,” Kuleba said, claiming that Moscow was “preparing for a full-scale war on Ukraine” all along, in order to “destroy the democratic international order with a single devastating blow.”

Ukraine fully adhered to the Minsk process, while Russia “never sought fair peace and fair play,” Kuleba claimed.

The claims, for which Kuleba provided no evidence, contradicted the recent testimonies by German and French leaders at the time, as well as Ukraine’s own former president. Former German chancellor Angela Merkel said last month that the purpose of Minsk was to “give Ukraine valuable time” to build up its military. Former French president Francois Hollande confirmed this to Ukrainian media at the end of December.

Pyotr Poroshenko, who ran Ukraine between 2014 and 2019, said openly in June last year that Minsk “meant nothing” and was a ploy to “delay the war – to secure eight years to restore economic growth and create powerful armed forces.”

In Kuleba’s Politico history, none of this happened. Instead, the Ukrainian foreign minister claimed that “deception lies at the core of Russia’s foreign policy and the way it treats international partners — both in Europe, Africa, Asia and other regions” and that Moscow prefers to talk with “victims, weaklings, henchmen.”

On Monday, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned Moscow’s diplomats that the West was “trying to enlist as many votes as possible in support of their anti-Russian initiatives, using underhanded means such as economic pressure, extortion and political bribery.”

In Tuesday’s editorial, Kuleba claimed that “the voice of the West is not enough” to restore global security, and that peace in Ukraine now hinged on the countries of “Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America stepping up and using their weight and influence” at places like the UN, where their votes counted.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570430-kuleba-politico-minsk-negotiations/
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24 Jan, 2023 16:56

9a) --- Arming Ukraine a 'big business' opportunity – Zelensky

The Ukrainian leader touted ties to Blackrock, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in another weapons plea

Kiev is already working with some giants of the finance and military industry, offering “big business” opportunities to any American company interested in working there, President Vladimir Zelensky has boasted in a video message to an association of US enterprises.

Addressing the National Association of State Chambers (NASC) meeting in Boca Raton, Florida on Monday, Zelensky argued that “American business can become the locomotive that will once again push forward global economic growth.”

“We have already managed to attract attention and have cooperation with such giants of international financial and investment world as Blackrock, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs,” Zelensky said. “Such American brands as Starlink or Westinghouse have already become a part of our Ukrainian Way.”

According to Zelensky, “everyone can become a big business by working with Ukraine, in all sectors: from weapons and defense to construction, from communication to agriculture, from transport to IT, from banks to medicine.”

He also lavished praise on the weapons the US has showered upon Kiev.

“Your brilliant defense systems, such as HIMARS or Bradleys, are already uniting our history of freedom with your enterprises. We are waiting for Patriots. We are looking closely at Abrams. Thousands of such examples are possible,” Zelensky said in the video.

By the Pentagon’s own estimates, the US has sent over $20 billion worth of weapons, ammunition and supplies to Ukraine in 2022. However, most of that came out of the US military stockpiles. The Department of Defense did award contracts worth hundreds of millions to Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and other manufacturers to replenish some of the depleted supplies.

Russia has repeatedly warned the West that continued deliveries of weapons to Ukraine only prolonged the conflict and risked a direct confrontation between Moscow and NATO.

The Ukrainian president revealed in December that his government had hired Blackrock – a major US asset management company – to “advise” Kiev on how to use reconstruction funds provided by Western governments. He has estimated the cost of rebuilding Ukraine from the ongoing conflict would be at least $1 trillion.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570422-zelensky-ukraine-america-business/
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