May 26, 2022

Kharkiv hit by fresh strikes amid fears city is still on Russian agenda

Artillery has pounded the city of Kharkiv for the first time in two weeks, just as life in Ukraine’s second city was starting to return to normal after Russian troops were pushed back from its outlying towns and villages.

Kharkiv’s regional governor, Oleh Synehubov, said at least seven people had been killed and 17 injured in the attacks on the northern part of the city.

“There’s no logic to it, it’s just terror against the local population, to sow panic and to destroy critical infrastructure,” said Synehubov, dressed in military fatigues with a pistol at his hip, in an interview with the Guardian in central Kharkiv shortly after the attacks.

The largely Russian-speaking city near the border of the two countries was heavily attacked during the first days of the war as Russian forces tried to take control, but they were pushed back to the suburbs. The Russians sent artillery and missiles into the city, on one occasion destroying the regional administration building, housed in a grand Stalin-era structure.

guardian live feed

May 26, 2022

Russia uses Orwellian propaganda news vans in Mariupol

Russia has deployed mobile propaganda vans with large-screen televisions to humanitarian aid points in the captured city of Mariupol as the Kremlin has pushed forward with efforts to integrate newly occupied territories across the south of Ukraine.

Videos published by the Russian ministry of emergency situations showed the vans, which it called “mobile information complexes”, playing state TV news segments and political chatshows where pundits support the invasion to locals in the ruined city that still lacks electricity and running water.

The Orwellian turn comes as much of Mariupol was destroyed in an artillery bombardment that left thousands dead. One of the vans was deployed near the ruins of the Mariupol drama theatre, where hundreds were killed in an airstrike in March.

Several of the trucks now patrol the city, mainly playing Russian television news segments. “The people of Mariupol have been held in a virtual informational vacuum for three months due to the lack of electricity,” wrote the emergencies ministry in a statement.

guardian live feed

May 24, 2022

U.S. to end Russia's ability to pay off international debt

Source: pbs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will close the last avenue for Russia to pay its billions in debt back to international investors on Wednesday, making a Russian default on its debts for the first time since the Bolshevik Revolution all but inevitable.

The Treasury Department said in a notification that it does not plan to renew the license that allowed Russia to keep paying its debtholders through American banks.

Since the first rounds of sanctions, the Treasury Department has given banks a license to process any dollar-denominated bond payments from Russia. That window expires at midnight May 25.

There had already been signs that the Biden administration was unwilling to extend the deadline. At a press conference heading into the Group of Seven finance minister meetings in Koenigswinter, Germany, last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the window existed “to allow a period of time for an orderly transition to take place, and for investors to be able to sell securities.”.


Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/u-s-to-end-russias-ability-to-pay-international-debt

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(in a nutshell: Without the license to use U.S. banks to pay its debts, Russia would have no ability to repay its international bond investors. The Kremlin has been using JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup as its conduits to pay its obligations.)

May 23, 2022

Tax Billionaire Wealth and Pandemic Profits, Says Oxfam, to End 'Inequality That Literally Kills'

In the shadow of the Davos summit of global elites taking place this week, a new report from Oxfam International details how skyrocketing inequality during two years of the global Covid-19 pandemic surged to a point where a new billionaire was created in the world nearly every day while over one million people are now being pushed into poverty at almost the same daily rate.

The new report—titled "Profiting From Pain"—is the latest accounting of how the pandemic has only deepened grotesque discrepancies between the haves and have-nots of the world, showing that while 573 new billionaires were created since the pandemic began, approximately one billionaire every 30 hours, an estimated 263 million are expected to "crash into extreme poverty" this year—a rate of one million people every 33 hours.

Such stark realities and gross injustice, the anti-poverty group concludes, is clear evidence that a tax on billionaire wealth and windfall pandemic profits is urgently needed to address crucial needs.

https://twitter.com/Oxfam/status/1528533141132042241

"Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. The pandemic and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have, simply put, been a bonanza for them. Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive," said Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/23/tax-billionaire-wealth-and-pandemic-profits-says-oxfam-end-inequality-literally

May 23, 2022

Biden admin considering sending US special operations forces to protect US embassy in Kyiv

Source: cnn

(CNN)The Biden administration is in the early stages of discussions about sending special operations forces into Ukraine to help guard the US Embassy in Kyiv, several US officials tell CNN.

The discussions are in very preliminary stages and a proposal has not been presented to President Joe Biden for a decision, the sources added.
For now, the embassy and its limited number of personnel are protected by State Department diplomatic security officials. The discussion centers around whether an increase in security is needed if the number of personnel increase, and whether special operations forces are best equipped to fulfill those requirements.


The Wall Street Journal first reported that special operations forces are being considered for embassy security.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/23/politics/us-embassy-kyiv-special-operations-forces/index.html

May 23, 2022

Lithuania has called for a naval coalition "of the willing" to lift the Russian Black Sea blockade

The Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, proposed the plan during talks with the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday in London.

“Time is very very short. We are closing in on a new harvest and there is no other practical way of exporting the grain except through the Black Sea port of Odesa,” he told the Guardian.

Landsbergis proposed that a naval escort operation – not run by Nato – could protect the grain ships as they headed through the Black Sea and past Russian warships. He suggested that, apart from Britain, countries that were affected by the potential loss of grain such as Egypt could provide the necessary protection.

In this endeavour military ships or planes or both would be used to ensure that the grain supplies can leave Odesa safely and reach the Bosphorus without Russian interference. We would need a coalition of the willing – countries with significant naval power to protect the shipping lanes, and countries that are affected by this.

guardian live feed

related news:

UK signs joint declaration with Lithuania to deepen defense ties
Britain and Lithuania have signed a joint declaration that will look to build on bilateral defence and trade ties, the UK foreign office said.

May 22, 2022

Typically at the World Economic Forum, Russia would have its own house to showcase business leaders

Typically at the World Economic Forum, Russia would have its own house to showcase its business leaders and investors.

This year, Reuters is reporting that Ukrainian artists have dressed up the space on the main street of Davos in Switzerland into a “Russian War Crimes House”.

“This is a place where all influencers and all decision-makers of the world come together,” the artistic director of Kyiv’s PinchukArtCentre, Bjorn Geldhof, told Reuters TV.

“What is happening in Ukraine will define tomorrow.”

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1528487112550522880

May 16, 2022

Erdoğan says Turkey will not approve Finnish and Swedish membership of Nato

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said he will not approve Finland and Sweden joining Nato.

Reuters is reporting he has said Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Turkey to convince Turkey to approve their Nato bids.

Finland and Sweden, while both Nato partners, have long viewed membership as an unnecessary provocation of Russia, their powerful eastern neighbor. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, however, has led to a radical rethink of their security policies.

Membership of Nato would require ratification by all existing members.




Erdoğan is a putin puppet just like tRump

May 16, 2022

The Moscow city government is to take over a factory belonging to the French carmaker Renault

The Moscow city government is to take over a factory belonging to the French carmaker Renault and use it to revive the Soviet-era Moskvitch in Russia’s first major nationalization of a foreign company during its war in Ukraine.

Moskvitch was a Soviet/Russian automobile brand produced by AZLK from 1946 to 1991

The development, which was met with ridicule by Russians with long memories, follows Renault’s decision to join the wave of western companies such as McDonald’s and Siemens leaving the Russian market as the war in Ukraine nears its fourth month.

Renault has ceded its 68% stake in Russia’s biggest carmaker, AvtoVAZ, with an option to buy it back within six years. According to media reports, the company’s Russian assets were sold for one rouble, meaning the city of Moscow has effectively taken control of the factory free.

Per Guardian live feed

May 16, 2022

Sweden follows Finland in confirming it will apply to join Nato

The Swedish government has confirmed it intends to apply for membership of Nato, joining neighbouring Finland in a dramatic decision that marks one of the biggest strategic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to date.

“There is a broad majority in Sweden’s parliament for Sweden to join Nato,” said the prime minister, Magdalena Andersson. “This is the best thing for the security of Sweden and its people. We will inform Nato we want to become a member of the alliance.”

Andersson told reporters after a parliamentary debate on Monday that Sweden would be “in a vulnerable position” while the application was processed, but that ministers saw no direct military threat from Russia at present. She said she felt “confident there is support for this among the Swedish people”.

The Finnish government confirmed its intention to join Nato on Sunday, shortly before Andersson’s ruling Social Democrats abandoned decades of opposition to back a Swedish bid for membership, making Monday’s debate in the Riksdag a formality.

per Guardian live feed