Russia appears to be slowly constricting itself, albeit haphazardly, around the vital centers of Ukraine, their four biggest cities, but all is not going well for Russia, nor, obviously for the Ukrainians as well.
Putin has allegedly told French President Macron that the war in Ukraine is for total control of the country, and there is far worse to come. As this is being reported, we are also learning that a second round of talks has begun in Belarus.
A city in Ukraine that controls their biggest power station, a nuclear power plant, is at risk of falling soon. Perhaps the newly arriving Bayraktar TB-2 drones from NATO countries will stem the tide in their favor, or slow Russia down long enough to force a more advantageous settlement for Ukraine, one that includes their continued sovereignty.
China is denying the allegations they told Russia to hold off on invading Ukraine until after the Olympics, calling the accusation by the US Officials ‘fake news.’
The World Bank and other world financial institutions are doing what they can to ban, boycott, or impede Russian finance, but hurting Russia financially is not so simple due to the dependence on Russian energy from European countries. The United States itself is being accused of being a hypocrite for continuing to buy energy from Russia, fueling its military efforts (the allegations go). Poland wants Europe to ban Russian coal while Germany doesn’t want to ban Russia’s oil and gas businesses.
Russians are protesting their country’s war and using cryptocurrencies to fund Ukrainians. Both sides, Russia and Ukraine, are using NFTs to try fund their efforts.
The rippling effect of the war is reaching South Pacific Countries, that are making not so veiled threats to China in how they are supporting sanctions against Russia. The further formation of anti-China alliances are continuing to advance and even be accelerated thanks to Russia’s choice to invade Ukraine.
Putin vows ‘uncompromising fight’ as Ukraine war enters second week
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed no let-up in his invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, even as the warring sides met for ceasefire talks and Kyiv demanded safe passage for besieged civilians.
“Russia intends to continue the uncompromising fight against militants of nationalist armed groups,” Putin said, according to a Kremlin account of a call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Mar 03, 2022 08:49 PM IST
9 dead after Russian forces strike Ukraine’s Chernihiv city
Nine dead after Russian forces strike northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, reports AFP citing the Governor.
Mar 03, 2022 08:38 PM IST
Second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine kicks off, informs Belarus
The second round of Russia-Ukraine talks kick off in Belarus: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
Mar 03, 2022 08:08 PM IST
Second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian…
European countries are delivering the latest weaponry including anti-tank missiles to Ukraine to bolster its defense against the invading Russian troops. NATO member Turkey has also done its part and has reportedly strengthened Ukrainian offensive capabilities by sending more Bayraktar TB-2 drones.
On March 2, Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced that new combat-ready TB2s had arrived in the country as part of a larger international military assistance package.
“New Bayraktars have already arrived in Ukraine and have been put into service. More Stingers and Javelins are to come,” Reznikov said. Many European countries, including the UK, Germany, and Sweden, have recently pledged that they will send weapons to Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion, which began on February 24, 2022.
The minister’s comment came a day after the Turkish Air Force Airbus A400M transport plane was seen flying from Ankara to Poland. Ukraine was known to have received six TB2s…
China and Russia have been strengthening their economic, diplomatic and military ties for years. Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin met 37 times as national leaders before their discussions in Beijing ahead of the Olympics. The ambitious joint statement that the two nations issued during that meeting alarmed American and European officials, especially because it was the first time China had explicitly sided with Russia on issues concerning NATO and European security. European leaders have denounced China and Russia in recent weeks, including in speeches at the Munich Security Conference.
For months, some American officials tried to recruit China in efforts to avert war in Ukraine.
Days after President Biden spoke to Mr. Xi in a video summit on Nov. 15, senior American officials decided to present intelligence on the Russian troop buildup around Ukraine to senior Chinese officials to try to get them to persuade Mr. Putin to stand down. The Americans spoke to Qin Gang, the Chinese ambassador in…
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin has condemned the “fake” and “very despicable” suggestion that Beijing asked Russia to delay its invasion of Ukraine until after the 2022 Winter Olympics had finished.
Speaking at a daily briefing on Thursday, Wang told reporters that the allegation in the New York Times newspaper “is purely fake news, and such behaviors of diverting attention and shifting blame are very despicable.” He reiterated the country’s claim that the US provoked Russia by not ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine.
The report in the New York Times quoted a Western intelligence report as saying senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials to not invade Ukraine until the international sporting event in Beijing had concluded.
The article claims the “report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of direct knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started.”
While the West is growing increasingly concerned over Russia’s potential use of cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, some Russians are using their Bitcoin (BTC) to help Ukrainian people.
Pavel Muntyan, a renowned Russian animation producer and creator of the animated web series “Mr. Freeman,” has called on anti-war Russians to support Ukrainian citizens amid Russia’s ongoing military attack on the country.
Muntyan took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce the opening of a cryptocurrency donation address for Russians who want to support Ukrainian people anonymously as Russia has banned its citizens from helping people in Ukraine.
On Feb. 27, Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office officially warned that any assistance to Ukrainians amid Russia’s “special operation” in the country would be considered high treason, with Russians risking being jailed for up to 20 years.
As such, Muntyan is now urging Russians to provide financial support to those who have suffered from…
MOSCOW: Dozens of anti-war demonstrators were detained in Moscow and Saint Petersburg on Wednesday (Mar 2) after jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny called on Russians to protest President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Police in Putin’s hometown of Saint Petersburg violently dispersed protesters and detained around 100 people, an AFP journalist at the scene said.
In Moscow, law enforcement closed off Red Square near the Kremlin and detained at least seven people who gathered while loudspeakers warned people from convening.
The demonstrations Wednesday came hours after Navalny called for daily rallies against the military assault, saying Russia should not be a “nation of frightened cowards” and calling Putin “an insane little tsar”.
In Moscow, one woman in a red coat shouted “No war!” before being hauled off by police to a van, according to an AFP journalist.
“It pains me to see what is happening and to do nothing,” a man in his fifties told AFP, before being arrested with his son, 17.
“I couldn’t stay at home. This war has to be stopped,” student Anton Kislov, 21, told AFP in Saint Petersburg.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The World Bank on Wednesday said it had stopped all programs in Russia and Belarus with immediate effect, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and “hostilities against the people of Ukraine.”
In a statement, the multilateral development bank said it had not approved any new loans to or investments in Russia since 2014, the year Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine.
The bank said it had not approved any new lending to Belarus since mid-2020, when the United States imposed sanctions on the country over a disputed presidential election.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Ukrainian officials are reporting more than 2,000 casualties as Russia continues to shell major cities, including civilian areas.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “These aren’t military targets, they are places where civilians work and families live. This is shameful.”
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), who has family and friends in Ukraine, called Russia’s conduct in Ukraine, “barbaric and brutal to the level unbelievable. They are bombing civilians non-stop, non-stop from morning til night.”
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor announced an investigation into war crimes.
The Russians have reportedly taken the strategic port city of Kherson, the first large Ukrainian city to fall, and have four major Ukrainian cities surrounded. A massive…
Sanctions against Russia must be tough, including an embargo on non-Russian energy exports.
This was stated on Wednesday by the head of the Polish government, Mateusz Morawiecki, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“I once again call on the European Commission to dare to embargo Russian coal,” Morawiecki said.
The Polish prime minister has noted that Poland wants to immediately stop receiving coal from Russia. As a result, Morawiecki held talks with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday to have Australian coal exported to Poland.
The Polish prime minister also said that Poland was ready to impose an embargo on Russian coal at any moment, without waiting for an EU decision. At the same time, he added that the embargo is the competence of the European Commission, so Warsaw must receive assurances from Brussels that it would not face repercussions for taking this step.
Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine since…
The London Stock Exchange has rolled out a block on trading in 27 companies with close ties to Russia.
EN+, Gazprom, Lukoil, Rosneft and Sberbank are among the firms affected by the block, which comes into effect immediately.
London Stock Exchange Group said it was blocking trading in the companies “in light of market conditions, and in order to maintain orderly markets”.
On Monday the Deutsche Borse halted trading in 16 companies with links to Russia, while the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have taken similar action.
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) remain one of the few ways left to gain exposure to Russia as western sanctions punish Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
A Russia-exposed ETF rose by more than 100 percent in London on Thursday in a sign that some investors see current distressed levels as a potentially cheap entry point for Russian assets, even as the Ukraine crisis intensifies.
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) remain one of the few ways left to gain exposure to Russia in the wake of Western sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, as they continue trading even if liquidity in the underlying asset dries up, although this makes it difficult to estimate the correct value.
The Moscow bourse has been closed for four days in a row and Russian stocks and bonds are now “in the realms of utterly uninvestable”, said Peter Harrison, CEO of Schroders.
Like other asset managers, Schroders has pending sell orders on Russian stocks.
Ukraine is funding its war against Russia by appealing to the crypto-currency universe, as the country will soon release non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to help financially support its armed forces.
Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov announced the upcoming NFTs on Thursday. He also confirmed that the country was canceling the “airdrop,” which would have rewarded donors by distributing crypto tokens directly into their wallets. The free gift strategy is often used as a promotional tool to drive the usage of a token or donations to a project.
“Every day there are more and more people willing to help Ukraine to fight back the aggression. Instead, we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon,” Fedorov said.
The Russian military dwarfs Ukraine’s armed forces and Ukrainian officials have had to get creative to mount a strong resistance to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered weapons to anyone willing to fight, including…
Some key countries in East Asia are joining with the West to take what is for them the exceptional step of imposing significant financial sanctions, officials and analysts say, brought together by outrage at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and concern over China’s growing aggression in the region.
“We want to demonstrate what happens when a country invades another country,” said one Japanese official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
Not only did Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, freeze Moscow’s access to tens of billions of dollars worth of its currency reserves held in the central bank in Tokyo. It joined with other Group of Seven nations and Australia to cut some Russian banks off from a global interbank messaging system known as SWIFT and freeze the assets of Russian officials and elites. It is also targeting individuals and organizations from Belarus…..
Taiwan, a self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its own, said its world-leading chip companies will stop exports to Russia and align with the West on the SWIFT sanction. It’s an important moment for Taiwan, which wants to show it can join the democratic alliance of countries, analysts said.
“At the core of the Indo-Pacific’s response is the fact that they know very well that China will be watching what happens in Europe very closely for signals on what might occur were it to make a similarly aggressive move on Taiwan, or elsewhere,” said…
March 1 (Reuters) – As public schools around the United States lift COVID-19 mask mandates, parents are divided over the issue, with nearly 43% saying face covering requirements should remain in place to prevent virus transmission, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
Most parents who responded also expressed concern about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5, saying they do not have enough information, according to the KFF survey of 1,502 adults conducted between Feb. 9 and 21.
Support for masks in schools has been falling since September, when two thirds of people and over 60% of parents favored some level of mask requirements, KFF said.
Ukraine War February 28th, 2022- Source liveuamap.com
We are approaching one week since Russia invaded Ukraine allegedly to free up a newly declared breakaway country in Ukraine and to free the world from a Nazi scourge within. Since that time, Russia has made progress, but perhaps not nearly as fast as Putin’s reputation would like. The initial hard slog has already been a black eye to the Putin shirtless wonder on a bear meme image, but victory followed by full consolidation of power in Ukraine could make the world soon forget his uncivil war’s uncivil beginning.
Or so Putin hopes. But Zelensky’s cockiness in the face of death has caused Europe to rally to his side in ways that Russia must have imagined were not possible. Germany is now arming up and sending arms to Ukraine. Finland is sending arms to Ukraine. Even the Swiss are siding with Ukraine on this one.
And now, Zelensky has served notice that Ukraine intends to seek membership in the EU. This comes after Ukraine just demanded that Russia leave all of Ukraine, including the Crimea. Perhaps Zelensky is trying to draw other nations into the conflict, which is not implausible.
The fatty enticement of a corrupt Ukraine beholden to Western corporate powers (as it has been since Obama) could be enough to consider throwing in even harder, like providing air support. NATO could attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
This isn’t to suggest that this writer believes Europe will ever commit that much blood to the cost, but Zelensky has to throw whatever Hail Marys he has. What helps Russia short term, however, might hurt their chances of keeping other nations out of the fray.
The most likely next candidate to join in the fight would be Poland. After a long history of war between the two once great powers that goes back a few centuries, Poland and Ukraine, it seems, are one. That likelihood was significantly increased with Belarus now committing actual troops to aid the Russians in their invasion of Ukraine.
Leading up to this moment, Poland has been dealing with Belarus using ‘refugees’ (mostly healthy young men, fighting age and fighting fit kind of men) from the wars in the Middle East as weapons to attempt to break through Polish borders. So far, the Poles have stood. Now, the Poles must wonder if they should wait for Russia to build up power or move to stop Belarus from being a useful ally to Russia against Ukraine.
Of course, the nuclear missiles keep the Poles thinking, but, as the Poles are not a nation with nukes, and taking into consideration they would not be attacking Russian troops, let alone Russian soil, it would seem reasonable to presume Russia would not use nukes in response. Or so one would hope.
More likely, Western powers are activating dissenters from within Belarus, and there are plenty there, whether the West were involved or not, willing to throw in with anyone if they can get rid of their dictator, Lukashenko, who is now sending their boys to attempt to help Russia invade Ukraine.
Belarus is potentially an Austria of World War One for Germany, a weak ally that drags you down with the resources you will now need to keep that ally afloat. The question is, how much does Poland fear Russia won’t stop with Ukraine? How much does the rest of Europe, America, seek to risk with nuclear weapons at play?
It could be possible, however, that if Belarus were to destabilze, the Russians might quickly negotiate a deal that allows them to hold on to their southern gains but for Zelensky now moving to apply for EU membership. Now, the Russians have little reason to stop even if Belarus becomes a drain. This latest move by Zelensky puts an even bigger bounty on his head and puts a lot of super spies into deep action trying to unsettle regimes, specifically, those of Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus.
If a regime change cannot be affected in Belarus, one wonders if and when Poland might enter the war. If one hopes to avoid a nuclear war, one might hope for Poland to not join the war. At that point, nuclear-powered troops might have a hard time avoiding each other.
What is most startling is the amount of anti-Russianism seeming to sweep the world, with some notable exceptions like China (more on that to follow). From Israel to Africa, protests have been happening in support of Ukraine against Russia. Russia has somehow lost the global meme war.
As for China, their internet loves Russia, it would seem, but China’s lapdog, the International Olympic Committee, just threw Russian athletes under a fleet of buses, something that would not have happened without Chairman Xi’s approval.
China is all too happy to smile for Russia but see Russia weakened as well. China is also under a lot of boycott scrutiny as of late, so China coming out strong in support of Russia is something that would have to be done very diplomatically, let’s just say.
China will have to send conflicting messages to have plausible deniability depending on which audience they are speaking to.
Some key things to watch for are protests in both Russia and Belarus. Do they grow? Do the governments use violence to stop them? Is Zelensky still alive? That’s a pretty major one now all the more significant after the EU membership filing.
Does Kiev fall within the week? Does Russia avoid causing massive civilian casualties?
Here are the critical headlines I read to produce the analysis you’ve just read:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has officially signed an application for Ukraine’s membership in the European Union, according to a post from his verified Facebook page.
“[Zelenskyy] has just signed a historical document — Ukraine’s application for European Union membership,” tweeted Andrii Sybiha, the deputy head of the president’s office. Ukraine’s prime minister and head of parliament also signed a joint statement, he added.
At peace talks with Russia on the Belarusian border, a member of the Ukrainian delegation demanded the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukrainian territories, including Crimea and Donbass, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office Oleksii Arestovich said Monday.
Later, in comments to Ukrainian media outlets, Arestovich clarified that the demands were his personal opinion and not the official position of Ukraine.
Various sources reported that negotiations in Pripyat were going badly. Russia demanded the recognition of Crimea, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) within the boundaries of the regions and the federalization of Ukraine.
Cease-fire talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials began on the Belarusian border on Monday as Russia faced deepening economic isolation four days after invading Ukraine.
Russian forces seized two small cities in southeastern Ukraine and the area around a nuclear…
KYIV, Ukraine — Initial talks between Russia and Ukraine concluded without result on Monday evening, with both delegations returning from the site of the negotiations in Belarus to their capitals for consultations.
Kyiv is seeking a cease-fire in Ukraine and an end to hostilities, according to Mihailo Podolyak, a member of the Ukrainian delegation.
“The parties identified a number of priority topics in which certain solutions were outlined,” he said after the discussions ended. “In order to get some opportunities for implementation and logistical solutions, the parties are returning to their capitals for consultations.”
The Kremlin wants its security demands taken into account “unconditionally,” President Vladimir V. Putin told the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as talks were underway. Those include the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, and “demilitarizing and denazifying the Ukrainian state and ensuring its neutral status,” meaning that it gives up…
The IOC Executive Board “recommends that International Sports Federations and sports event organizers not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions,” the organization’s statement released on Monday read.
The Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, World Championships and World Cups are among the international sporting events the IOC is recommending Russian and Belarusian athletes be removed from, according to the statement.
Regarding how long the ban would last, “The IOC EB, assisted by the IOC Task Force, continues to closely monitor the situation. It may adapt its recommendations and measures according to future developments.”
Shell has pledged to sever ties with the Kremlin by exiting its joint ventures with the Russian state-backed energy colossus Gazprom.
The oil giant said it will end its tie-up with Gazprom by selling its 27.5pc stake in the Sakhalin 2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant and will stop working on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which Germany put on ice earlier this month.
Shell’s Russian assets were valued at $3bn at the end of last year.
The move came little more than 24 hours after BP announced that it would divest its near-20pc stake in Kremlin-controlled oil major Rosneft.
Shell’s announcement followed a crunch meeting between Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden and Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, earlier on Monday.
Shell has invested an estimated $1bn (£750m) in the 750-mile pipeline that was designed to double the amount of gas flowing from Russia to Germany.
Mr van Beurden said: “We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting…
Ukrainian officials have asked European citizens of all stripes to join their fight against Russia — and some nations are responding approvingly to the call.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his officials over the weekend announced a new volunteer force for foreign fighters, called the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, and urged volunteers to join through their local Ukrainian embassies. Zelensky said “anyone who wants to join the defense of Ukraine, Europe and the world can come and fight side by side with the Ukrainians against the Russian war criminals.”
Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries. Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.
HELSINKI: Finland will send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Monday (Feb 28), in a shift of policy.
The shipment will include 2,500 assault rifles, 150,000 bullets, 1,500 anti-tank weapons and 70,000 food packages, Defence Minister Antti Kaikkonen added.
“The anti-tank weapons can be used to fight armoured vehicles,” Kaikkonen told a news conference after a government meeting on Monday.
The decision means a shift in policy for Finland which has maintained an image of a non-aligned country since the Soviet Union in 1956 gave up a naval base it had leased in southern Finland after World War II.
Kaikkonen hinted at government scrapping Finland’s long-standing policy not to supply weapons to war zones on Sunday when he said the government was considering sending Ukraine material that could be used to kill.
The Nordic state on Sunday also decided it would supply Ukraine with helmets, bulletproof vests and first aid equipment and gave Estonia permission to donate Ukraine field guns previously owned by Finland.
Move comes as Belarus faces criticism for allowing Russian forces use its territory as a launchpad to attack Ukraine.
The European Union has warned that Belarus could start hosting Russian nuclear weapons after a “very dangerous” decision at a referendum to drop the country’s non-nuclear status.
“We know what does it mean for Belarus to be nuclear. It means that Russia will put nuclear weapons in Belarus and this is a very dangerous path,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.
The move by Belarus came as the country was being condemned internationally for being used as a launchpad by Russian forces to attack neighbouring Ukraine.
Borrell slammed the “fake referendum” on constitutional changes. The amendments allow the country to host nuclear weapons and Russian forces permanently. It also extended the rule of leader Alexander Lukashenko.
About 800 people were reportedly arrested after the vote sparked the biggest protests in months and thousands took to…
Russian billionaire businessman Roman Abramovich, who owns Premier League football club Chelsea, has accepted a Ukrainian request to help negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, his spokesperson said.
Word of Abramovich’s involvement in talks, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, first came from the Jewish News, which said Kyiv had reached out through Jewish contacts to seek his help.
“I can confirm Roman Abramovich was contacted by the Ukrainian side for support in achieving a peaceful resolution, and that he has been trying to help ever since,” an Abramovich spokesperson said.
“Considering what is at stake, we would ask for understanding as to why we have not commented on either the situation as such or his involvement.”
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine’s government.
A Ukrainian government official tells CNN that Ukrainian intelligence indicates Belarusian “readiness to maybe participate directly” in the invasion of Ukraine, “in addition to allowing Russians to use their territory as well as letting them cross the border.”
A second source close to the Ukrainian government told CNN that in addition to the Ukrainian intelligence, the Biden administration has also conveyed to the Ukrainian government that Belarus is preparing to join the Russian invasion.
The intelligence sparked fresh concern within the Biden administration. A senior administration official said the White House is watching actions taken by Belarus closely and is prepared to levy more sanctions on the country. In a sign of the escalating turmoil in the region, the US announced Monday that it was suspending operations at its embassy in Belarus.
A YOUNG girl has been shot by Russian troops alongside her parents as Putin’s forces have slaughtered 16 children amid the bloody invasion.
Polina, a 4th-grade pupil, believed to be around ten years old, was killed by a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group who opened fire on her family’s car in Kyiv.
According to the city’s mayor, Volodymyr Bondarenko the girl’s brother is at Okhmatdyt children’s hospital and her sister is in intensive care.
A devastating total of sixteen children have died so far in the brutal war, said Ukraine’s Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko.
MOSCOW, February 27. /TASS/. Russian armed forces have blocked the cities of Kherson and Berdyansk, took control over Genichevsk and an airport near Kherson, Chief Spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing on Sunday.
“Over the past day, the cities of Kherson and Berdyansk were completely blocked by the Russian armed forces. The city of Genichevsk and the Kherson airport were also taken under control,” the spokesman noted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people “who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.” The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.
When clarifying the developments unfolding, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not…
Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said on Sunday that the number of dead could be as high as 4,300, but it still needed to be clarified. She also said on her Facebook page that Russian troops lost about 146 tanks, 27 aircraft and 26 helicopters.
A network of social media groups and pages spreading disinformation in Ukraine has been taken down, Facebook owner Meta announced on Sunday.
In the days immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Meta said it had uncovered a “relatively small” network of around 40 accounts, pages and groups posing as news outlets and using fake identities on Facebook and Instagram.
The network, run by people based in Russia and Ukraine, created profiles on YouTube, Telegram, Russian Facebook equivalent VKontakte and Meta’s own platforms in order to promote websites that published “claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state,” Meta said.
“It mainly posted links to long-form articles on its websites, without much luck making them engaging. It got very few reactions, and under 4,000 followers,” Meta’s threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo said on Twitter.
The network also created fake Ukrainian user accounts using AI-generated profile pictures which posed as residents…
A network of social media groups and pages spreading disinformation in Ukraine has been taken down, Facebook owner Meta announced on Sunday.
In the days immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Meta said it had uncovered a “relatively small” network of around 40 accounts, pages and groups posing as news outlets and using fake identities on Facebook and Instagram.
The network, run by people based in Russia and Ukraine, created profiles on YouTube, Telegram, Russian Facebook equivalent VKontakte and Meta’s own platforms in order to promote websites that published “claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state,” Meta said.
“It mainly posted links to long-form articles on its websites, without much luck making them engaging. It got very few reactions, and under 4,000 followers,” Meta’s threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo said on Twitter.
The network also created fake Ukrainian user accounts using AI-generated profile pictures which posed as residents…
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday it has established “total air superiority” over Ukraine on the fifth day of President Vladimir Putin’s deadly invasion of the neighboring country.
The latest briefing claiming Russia’s military gains came as Russian and Ukrainian delegates were due to negotiate a ceasefire on the Ukraine-Belarus border at noon Monday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said it has destroyed eight Buk M-1 air defense system vehicles, an S-300 missile system, three radars and five aircraft in the past 24 hours.
“Since the beginning of the operation, Russian forces have hit 1,114 Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities, including 31 command posts and communications centers, destroyed 314 tanks and other armored vehicles, 57 multiple launch rocket systems, 121 field artillery pieces and mortars,” he said.
The US is set to send an additional $350m worth of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine to help it defend itself against the Russian invasion.
The move comes after US President Joe Biden authorised the military assistance.
According to the US Department of Defense (DoD) statement, the assistance will include anti-armour, body-armour, small arms, various munitions, and military equipment from DoD inventories.
The latest military aid marks the third time in recent months that President Biden used the Presidential Drawdown Authority to facilitate emergency security assistance for Ukraine.
The countries’ friendship has “no limits,” they declared.
Given that the leaders met just weeks before the invasion, it would be understandable to conclude that China should have had better knowledge of the Kremlin’s plans. But growing evidence suggests that the echo chamber of China’s foreign policy establishment might have misled not only the country’s internet users, but its own officials.
My colleague Edward Wong reported that over a period of three months, senior U.S. officials held meetings with their Chinese counterparts and shared intelligence that detailed Russia’s troop buildup around Ukraine. The Americans asked the Chinese officials to intervene with the Russians and tell them not to invade.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, there have been countless examples of citizens going above and beyond to defend their country.
Whether they’re towing tanks away with tractors, moving land mines off roads with their bare hands or tragically blowing themselves up on bridges to slow the Russian advance – the actions of everyday Ukrainians have been heroic.
But for every day the Russian invasion is frustrated, the chance that Vladimir Putin will unleash a nightmarish arsenal of weapons on the region increases.
Former KGB agent Putin has a vast supply of unconventional weaponry at his disposal including robotic tanks and fearsome crack dog units, reports the Mirror.
Like many commentators I was surprised (and heartened) to see a video of a drone strike carried out by Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 drones against a Russian supply convoy. Unlike some such videos this one seems to be genuine according to Rob Lee, senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The Ukrainian Air Force has since confirmed it has carried out such attacks; another video can be seen here. This simply could not happen if Russia was conducting its military operations properly, and points to a series of failings in the Russian war machine.
To rewind slightly: the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 – ‘Tactical Block 2’ — is approximately equivalent to the old U.S. Predator drone. It has a wingspan of 39 feet and a 105-hp engine giving it a cruising speed of around 80 mph, so it could…
Five Chinese historians have published an open letter condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in a move that breaks ranks with the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s ban on criticism of the move by Putin.
“As a country that was once also ravaged by war … we sympathize with the suffering of the Ukrainian people,” the letter, signed by history professors at five top Chinese universities, said. “The ruins of buildings, the sound of artillery fire, and the wounds of refugees in Ukraine have injured us deeply.”
Calling the invasion a “war that began in the dark,” Nanjing University professor Sun Jiang, Peking University professor Wang Lixin, Hong Kong University professor Xu Guoqi, Tsinghua historian Zhong Weimin and Fudan University’s Chen Yan call for an immediate end to the fighting.
“We emphatically call on the Russian government and President Putin to stop the war and resolve any dispute through negotiations,” it said.
A bonfire of EU shibboleths on the economy, conflict, finance, energy supply, migration, and even the bloc’s future shape and size, has been lit by the conflict raging in Ukraine.
Battlefield images, the leadership of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has framed the war as being between European democracy and brute bullying power, and the challenge of coordinating with UK and US allies who are pushing for more while having less to lose, has created a new political necessity.
The standard rational actor analysis of economic interests has gone by the wayside. And while during normal times, the EU’s deep economic ties with Russia had been a liability, with countries fearful of upsetting the Kremlin, those ties now offer leverage unmatched anywhere else in the world.
South Korea’s capital has joined a number of cities around the world lighting monuments in blue and yellow in support of Ukraine, reflecting the colors of its national flag.
Four landmarks in Seoul — the City Hall, Namsan Seoul Tower, Sebitseom on the Han River and Seoullo Media Canvas — were lit up on Monday.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians and supporters protested against the Russian invasion outside Moscow’s embassy in Seoul on Sunday and Monday.
New York’s Empire State Building was also lit up blue and yellow last week, with crowds gathering in Times Square on Saturday to protest the Russian invasion.
One protester, Olga Ladygima, told CNN she hadn’t slept for the past three nights. She is from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, she said — and…
HELSINKI, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Airlines on Monday braced for a potentially lengthy dispute after the European Union (EU) banned Russian airlines from its airspace and Moscow responded in kind, barring carriers from 36 countriesincluding all 27 members of the European Union.
Dozens of flights were cancelled or sent on costly detours as the crisis hit airline shares.
The rerouting meant Kazakhstan’s airspace saw a tripling of flights to more than 450. read more
Russia’s ban came after the EU and Canada on Sunday banned flights by Russian airlines as fighting raged in Ukraine. read more
Without access to Russia’s airspace, carriers will have to divert flights south while also avoiding areas of tension in the Middle East. read more
Shares in European airlines and airport operators were down 3-6% in early trade, while Finnish national carrier Finnair cut its guidance with its shares down 21% in afternoon trade. [nL8N2V32H1]
In the dingy basement of Okhmadet Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, mothers and babies find what comfort they can on makeshift beds and blankets laid out on either side of the concrete aisle, Reuters reports.
Older children who are too sick to go home or flee the capital with their families following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are also adjusting to life under siege, staying away from windows and lying in corridors on intravenous drips.
Staff, patients and their families share Ukrainians’ sense of shock at being caught in a conflict few could have foreseen even a few days ago.
Russian troops may soon attempt to jam communications (mobile and internet network) in the near-front zone.
The relevant statement was made by the National Guard of Ukraine on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“According to the intelligence data, the Russian military may soon attempt to jam communications (mobile and internet network) in the near-front zone to conduct a further disinformation campaign regarding Ukraine’s fake ‘capitulation’ with calls to surrender and not to oppose. Please be aware and do not trust the enemy,” the report states.
According to the National Guard of Ukraine, Ukraine will fight and defend itself as long as necessary.
A reminder that, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting a war. Russian troops are shelling and destroying the key infrastructure facilities, launching missile strikes on residential houses in Ukraine.
This weekend, as the Japanese government dramatically ramped up sanctions on Russia in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine, the Japanese people responded, too. With the help of Japanese social media influencers and celebrities spreading news about Ukraine and calls for action going viral on social media, Japanese residents have shown up for Ukrainians in droves.
Solidarity with Ukraine could be found in many Asian countries, with symbolic protests in several capitals and Singapore and South Korea joining the sanctions against Russia. People in Myanmar and Hong Kong also recognized the Ukrainians’ struggle as similar to their own fight against oppression.
In Tokyo, Japanese residents stood alongside Ukrainians and Russians in several protests for peace, including one that drew about 2,000 people in the popular district of Shibuya.
Japan will slap sanctions on Belarus over its “clear involvement” in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, zeroing in on President Alexander Lukashenko and other Belarusian individuals, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday just as talks between Kyiv and Moscow got under way.
Belarus, known for its close ties with Russia and serving as an entry point for Russian forces invading Ukraine, will also be subject to Japan’s export controls.
The scope of Japan’s sanctions regime in response to the military attack launched last week now expands beyond Russia and two pro-Moscow separatist regions in Ukraine. The move is in line with steps taken by the United States and other nations.
Along with the announcement on Belarus, Kishida said the government will limit transactions with the Russian central bank. It is the latest escalation of…
Feb 28 (Reuters) – Russia has employed hundreds of powerful and precise ballistic missiles in the first days of its Ukraine attack, but analysts and U.S. officials say many Ukrainian defences remain intact – effects that countries around the world are watching closely.
The use of short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) is likely being watched closely as a real-world case study by China, North Korea, and other countries that have been developing increasingly advanced arsenals of such weapons in recent years. And Western governments who see Russia as an adversary are eager to gather data on the missiles’ effects in combat.
Russia had fired more than 320 missiles as of Sunday morning, with the majority of them SRBMs, a U.S. official told reporters.
According to U.S. estimates, the initial hours of the Russian onslaught last week included more than 100 missiles launched from land and sea, mostly SRBMs but also cruise missiles and…
Those numbers seemed to reflect the mood of the conference-goers, many of whom said they felt bad about the situation in Ukraine, but they had other concerns that were of higher priority – issues like immigration, inflation, public schools and what they see as government overreach in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
BRUSSELS, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Energy ministers from European Union countries will on Monday discuss preparations for potential energy supply shocks and measures to shore up gas stocks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Europe’s top gas supplier, has sharpened concerns of disruption to energy supplies and increased scrutiny of European Union countries’ reliance on imported fossil fuels.
EU ministers will “take stock of possible additional actions in terms of safeguarding supply, the use of strategic oil stocks, the management of gas stocks” at the emergency meeting, according to a preparatory note by France, which currently chairs EU ministers’ meetings.
The Ukrainian military said on Monday that Russian troops had slowed down their offensive as Moscow’s assault against Ukraine went into its fifth day.
“The Russian occupiers have reduced the pace of the offensive, but are still trying to develop success in some areas,” the general staff of the armed forces said.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, sending shockwaves around the world.
Ukraine forces, backed by Western arms, have managed to slow the advance of the Russian army.
The Ukrainian military also accused Russia of launching a missile strike on residential buildings in the cities of Zhytomyr and Chernigiv, cities in the country’s northwest and north.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said that the European Union would close its airspace to Russian aircraft in response to the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, ABC News reported.
In a press conference, Von der Leyen said, “We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians. We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian-registered, or Russian-controlled aircraft. These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off, or overfly the territory of the EU.”
“So let me be very clear,” she continued, “Our airspace will be closed to every Russian plane, and that includes the private jets of oligarchs too.”
Von der Leyen also announced that the European Union would be prohibiting media backed by the Russian government.
Authorities in Kyiv have issued a call on social media for information about crypto wallets controlled by politicians in Russia and Belarus. On Saturday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced on Twitter that the country’s crypto community will reward those who provide details leading to their identification.
Ukrainian crypto community is ready to provide a generous reward for any information about crypto-wallets of Russian and Belarusian politicians and their surroundings. War crimes must be pursued and punished! To share info please contact in Telegram: https://t.co/XHidwUQ8bE.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson meets members of the Ukrainian community at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, Mayfair, on February 27, 2022 in London, England. Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed scores and prompted a wave of protests across Europe. | Jamie Lorriman/WPA Pool/Getty Images
As tensions remain high with Russia’s invading troops and tanks driving deeper into Ukraine, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday that Ukrainians fleeing the invasion will be welcomed into the country if they have family in Britain.
“The U.K. will not turn our backs in Ukraine’s hour of need,” Johnson said in a statement, announcing that visa restrictions are being eased for Ukrainians who have immediate family in Britain, Reuters reported.
Ukraine has demanded the withdrawal of all Russian troops, including from Crimea and Donbass, during the ongoing talks with Russian delegations in Belarus, according to Russian media Sputnik.
Russia’s foreign ministry demanded that Canada keep their diplomats safe
After hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Russian Embassy in Ottawa on Sunday to show their support for Ukraine, Russia’s foreign ministry demanded that Canada keep its diplomats safe — and threatened retaliation if they failed to do so.
The protesters, who then made their way to city hall, were called hostile in a statement by Russia’s foreign ministry. Russia called in Canada’s ambassador to Moscow to lodge a formal protest, Reuters reported.
Some 90 percent of Ukrainians support President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defense the country against Russia, while most believe they will be able to repel Russia’s attack, a new poll has found.
The poll conduct by the Rating Sociological group, a Ukrainian non-governmental polling organization, found that 70 percent of respondents said they believed Ukraine would be able to…
Retired Major General James “Spider” Marks explains how Belarus, a Russian ally which shares a border with northern Ukraine, could help capture the capital Kyiv.
On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, did not mention Russia once. Mr. Bennett said he prayed for peace, called for dialogue and promised support for Ukrainian citizens. But he did not hint at Moscow’s involvement, much less condemn it — and it was left, as preplanned, to Mr. Bennett’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, to criticize Moscow in a separate statement that day.
The pair’s cautious double act embodied the bind in which the war in Ukraine has placed Israel.
Israel is a key partner of the United States, and many Israelis appreciate longstanding cultural connections with Ukraine, which, for several months in 2019, was the only country other than their own with both a Jewish president — Volodymyr Zelensky — and a Jewish prime minister. But Russia is a critical actor in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, Israel’s northeastern neighbor and enemy, and the Israeli government believes it cannot risk losing…
Switzerland will adopt all the sanctions that the European Union has imposed on Russian people and companies and freeze their assets to punish the invasion of Ukraine, the government said in a sharp deviation from the country’s traditional neutrality.
“We are in an extraordinary situation where extraordinary measures could be decided,” President and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told a news conference in Bern on Monday, flanked by the finance, defence and justice ministers.
Busloads of Jewish orphans from the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr near the Belarus border have escaped to southwestern Ukraine, and hope to cross into Romania and from there fly to Israel.
On Sunday, missiles fired from Belarus hit an airport in Zhytomyr, according to Reuters.
Just under 100 children, ages four to 18, are in the care of Chabad’s Alumim orphanage based in Zhytomyr. In a country with serious problems of alcoholism and drug abuse, some have no parents while others are so-called “social orphans,” with one or two parents who, for a range of reasons, are unable to cope with child-rearing.
A number of the children had previously experienced war situations in Donetsk and Lugansk — areas declared independent by Russian-backed separatists in 2014 — and since the Russian invasion of Ukraine five days ago have been reliving the trauma, according to Alumim’s Israel-born director, Malka Bukiet.
It was the moment when a throwaway diplomatic mantra — “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” — actually made a giant difference.
A personal plea for help by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued directly to EU heads of state and government via video link as the leaders met at an emergency summit in Brussels last Thursday night is now being credited as the key intervention that led to a stunning acceleration of Western support, including weapons, officials and diplomats said.
Even after Zelenskyy’s speech, some EU leaders balked at imposing the most drastic economic sanctions, cutting Russia off from the SWIFT international payments system. They opted instead for a step-by-step approach.
But over the next 48 hours, with Ukrainian soldiers putting up fierce resistance to the Russian invasion, the EU shifted to the vanguard of action against Russia by imposing sanctions personally…
She says she was told by armed guards to wait as Ukrainians had to be let through first. She watched busloads of people, whom she described as white, being allowed through the border while only a handful of Africans were selected from the queue. After waiting for many hours, she was finally allowed to cross and made her way to Warsaw to fly back to Nigeria.
Until this week Daniel Mediakovskyi was a history student in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. Since Sunday, however, he has been sticking rubber bands and plastic tops on to homemade bombs. “It’s practical history. It’s time for this right now,” he explained, loading another molotov cocktail into a crate.
Around him, about a dozen students and young creative professionals stood around a makeshift table. All wore masks and washing-up gloves. Each had a role in a busy production line. The basement bomb factory smelled strongly of petrol and paint remover – two molotov ingredients, along with polystyrene and silver dust.
Mediakovskyi – who is 20 – said his mother had woken him early last Thursday to tell him Russia had invaded Ukraine. “I knew it was going to start. My hands started shaking,” he said. After spending a day doom-scrolling on social media, he decided he would try to help.
“My parents know I’m volunteering. I haven’t told my granny. She’s worried enough…
The U.S. Department of State Monday announced it has suspended operations at the U.S. embassy in Minsk, Belarus, and authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency employees and family members at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia’s capital, Moscow.
In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department took the steps due to security and safety issues stemming from “the unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces in Ukraine.”
He said the department continually adjusts its posture at embassies and consulates throughout the world based on the local security environment, and the health situation.
Blinken said, “We ultimately have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens, and that includes our U.S. government personnel and their dependents serving around the world.”
The UN has put civilian casualties in Ukraine since Russia invaded at more than 100, including children, while 400,000 have fled the fighting as the commissioner for human rights said the world was at a “tipping point”.
“The military attack on Ukraine is putting at risk countless lives,” said Michelle Bachelet, high commissioner for human rights, at the 49th session of the council in Geneva.
The UN’s Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights has recorded 102 killed in the conflict from Thursday morning to Sunday night, including seven children, with 304 injured.
“Most of these civilians were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and air strikes,” Bachelet said on Monday. “The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher.
“Meanwhile, millions of civilians, including vulnerable and older people, are forced to huddle in different forms of bomb shelters, such as underground…
ABC News is reporting that Donald J Trump must testify in the NY Attorney General Investigation attempting to find something, anything she can remotely charge him in.
Levi’s President Jennifer Sey has stepped down as the Global Brand President after having once been on the cusp of becoming the next CEO. Sey was a career woman at Levi’s, having worked her way up to Global Brand President and been considered to become, at one point, the next CEO.
Not only did Sey resign, she turned down any severance package because they were attached to her signing a non-disclosure agreement, preventing her from sharing her story with others after she stepped down. Sey chose to write a blog to express her reasons for leaving the company, which really boil down to the company becoming insanely, militantly woketarian, in the fullest DNC-CCP version of the sense of that term, the most authoritarian, unforgiving, thought-controlling version of what once was mostly called social justice.
In that blog, she documented how she went along with all the social justice activism the company has been engaged in over the last decade and more. She documented her authentic enthusiasm in engaging in all these causes, from global warming to LGBTIQQ rights, to black lives matter. She was there actively and consensually participating. But then came Covid, and the mandates. At some point, she decided she was not in support of the mask mandates, and opposition to mask mandates was considered racist in Levi’s activist land.
Soon, she was being accused of being racist, despite her history working for ‘black causes.’ It wasn’t enough. That’s what she learned. All of the sacrifices, lovingly given, were not enough to appease the great god Moloch, who was never interested in justice at all. She went from a potential CEO to being told she needed to come out and apologize to the black community for offending them by being against the vaccine mandates. It was too much.
Sey left, and spilled the beans. And thus the beast shakes off the agentic among us not willing to pay so high a price to have a career under these current rules. People of agency will not be told what to think or who to like. We can follow our civic code already in existence well before the morality police of the sjw variety ever arrived. It’s called our Bill of Rights standards, our recognition of the need to respect the rights boundaries of others if we ourselves hope to enjoy them. We need not like one another to exchange value with one another as assumed equals who share the same civic Bill of Rights standards and are willing to extend them to anyone who does so with them.
Perhaps Seir may come to realize how alien the sjw morality code as corporate and state law is antithetical to American Bill of Rights values.
If so, folks like Sey could be the vanguard of a new pushback that won’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. What man intends for evil can yet accomplish good. It does not give a pass to evil, but it gives hope to those suffering in the midst of it, that through evil acts we as a people will yet glean from their work gold they never intended on us keeping.
We as a people here in America must come to a physiological-level reality of power moment and count the cost of not being a people and the cost of not being a people bound by a unity under the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the republican form of representative governance of a government whose power begins with the people and ends with them as well. The question is this, can we, those of us simply not part of the DNC-defined left, find common ground enough under a Bill of Rights frame to do what must be done to restore republicanism and Bill of Rights standards, and even assure they are extended to the market and social spaces as well.
We must hold on to the liberties won for a great number of people thanks to the efforts of this same DNC-Woketarianism. Though they would never allow such liberties to hold once they consolidated power, we will. We will be a free people no matter how we define ourselves and how we biologically are so long as we respect the Bills of Rights of others, and recognize we do so not for their sake, but for own, for a nation with a spirit of the Bill of Rights is death to tyrants and fascists.
Former Levi’s Jeans’ global brand president Jennifer Sey resigned in an open letter Monday claiming the company lost sight of its values.
“If you told me that after achieving all that, after spending almost my entire career at one company, that I would resign from it, I’d think you were really crazy,” wrote Sey in an open letter on the Common Sense Substack. “Today, I’m doing just that. Why? Because, after all these years, the company I love has lost sight of the values that made people everywhere — including those gymnasts in the former Soviet Union — want to wear Levi’s.”
Sey said her time with Levi‘s was always the “most consistent” part of her life, writing in her letter that she always felt comfortable to be open about her life and politics until the pandemic hit.
More than 20 years ago I joined Levi’s. Yesterday I resigned my post as president so that I can use my voice. https://t.co/7UG6TCXqHU
I have been telling our readers for quite some time that the fundamental battle between those who control and those who wish to be free is over intellectual property and how control of information and use of technology could determine if the human future is a new serfdom or a new level of liberty for the vast majority of people in these lands. One path is covered with lawsuits and expensive lawyers trained to turn a parsed sentence in a white paper into a loss of an idea that someone truly did create. That path chokes off technological development and contains it behind paywalls, offering you nothing but subscription services to meet all our needs and desires.
That path leads to total control, a social credit score that could determine if you can even rent a car (for no one, if they have their way, will own cars in the future).
The oppressive nature of excessive intellectual property laws can be seen in how patent trolling is still rising in America, costing industry millions and leaving patent ownership to the most powerful among us almost exclusively.
The other path, open source technology, leads to the empowering of individuals and free associations to equip themselves to meet their own sustainably flourishing needs.
Section 337 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, meant to protect the US against unfair trade and … [+] illegal imports, is weaponized today by foreign non practicing entities or patent trolls. From Left,Rep. Willis C. Hawley, Senator Reed Smoot.
With supply chain shortages, the global race to 5G, and the need to ensure the US leads in information technology, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) has an important role to play. Indeed, the agency has experienced a record number of requests for fact-finding reports from Congress, and lawmakers of both parties and houses have praised the agency for valuable reports on topics like the effect of Covid-19 on supply chains. However, not all activity at the USITC is desirable. Sadly, the agency has become a hotbed for patent trolling, and USITC commissioners are driving the trend by allowing a robust stream of abusive section 337…
The Minnesota Senate Republicans are hoping to pass a bill that would make public school curricula more transparent to parents, and also equip parents to be able to challenge the schools when they find issue with what the schools are teaching. In many school districts, especially over the last ten years, what was once openly available, even online, is now behind firewalls. Parents must file a FOIA request to see their own school’s curriculum. What do the schools have to hide from us?
The push for more transparency and accountability is only going to increase across this country as more and more parents are coming to realize just how militant our own government schools have been in attempting to create revolutionaries and activists cut in the party’s image (the DNC) rather than equip people to build lives of their own choosing within an American republican reality, a Constitutional republic that affords its citizens the primary source of government power, even guaranteeing their right to bear arms should the state fail to recognize who the real government is (not the experts, not the elected officials, not the bureaucrats, the people, who have rights, even when they are in the minority).
Minnesota Senate Republicans on Monday unveiled a series of bills they say would empower parents to review and object to school curriculum.
Four GOP lawmakers, including two running for governor, said they want to enshrine in state law the principle that a parent has a right to direct their child’s education.
“Parents know what’s best for their kids in their education,” state Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, said during a news conference. The former majority leader is seeking his party’s endorsement for governor.
“Let’s make a syllabus available in every classroom in Minnesota,” said state Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, who is also running for governor.
Details about the proposals were scarce. Under current state law, school districts have to provide instructional materials for parents’ review upon request, as well as “alternative instruction” if parents object to the content.
Many Americans across this country are experiencing dramatic spikes in their electric heating bills this winter, and you can thank Joe Biden and the DNC for that. Their efforts to shut down major American natural gas projects like the Keystone Pipeline are the most significant factor for your spike in your heating bills this winter.
As usual, DNC policy is created by isolated, sheltered experts in sterile rooms, who never have to live the consequence of the high moral choices they suppose they are making for the rest of us.
The spike in natural gas prices because of Biden’s almost seemingly intentional crippling of American energy independence capacity comes at a time when all of the trillions of dollars this administration has printed is now producing 40-year-high levels of inflation. 80 million people can’t be wrong, can they?
My January electric bill is up about 40% from last year, which itself was about 20% higher than it was in 2020. Before you ask: No, I didn’t invest in any new Christmas lights; nor did I suddenly start mining bitcoin. In fact, my Con Edison bill conveniently points out I used slightly less power this year.
It turns out I am just one of millions of middle-class schlubs in New York whose wallets are lighter this winter thanks to the Democratic Party’s catastrophic climate policy — and my humble 40% increase is nowhere near some of the triple-digit horror stories out there.
If you listen to Con Ed, the spike in your bill is a direct consequence of the rising cost of acquiring natural gas, due to its global supply and demand. The past few months, the commodity price has hovered between $4.00 and $6.00/MMBtu, which are averages we haven’t seen since the 2008 financial crisis.
It would be criminal not to mention that President Joe Biden scrapping…
The Chinese are very upset at the recent decision by the Biden administration to sell arms to Taiwan, the nation that, according to China, doesn’t really exist. One China means no Taiwan, in case you’re all paying attention. They’ve issued some missives to the effect that how dare America and how weak America, blah blah blah, this is an existential threat to our very existence, blah blah blah.
As usual, the story is getting crickets on top folds across the MSMiverse, but it certainly bears noting. As an aside, if you read the Freedomist enough you know we couple the CCP and the DNC together often, but we also point out that this alliance is not really a perfect union, as both Machiavellian partners in the dance are seeking to help one another as much as they need to while pivoting to assure when the need for the union is no longer there, the other will have the advantage.
This move by the Biden administration is about assuring the billionaire class of California and New York have enough leverage to assure China follows through on the promise of allowing them continued and even extended access to that fatty gold billion people market.
Beijing lodged a protest with Washington over arms sales to Taiwan since these actions undermine China’s sovereignty, the Chinese Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
“The sale of armaments by the United States to Taiwan seriously violates the ‘One China’ principle and the provisions of three joint communiques between China and the US,” the statement published on the agency’s website said.
According to the Defense Ministry, the US “grossly intrudes into China’s domestic affairs, harming the country’s sovereignty and security interests, destroying military relations between China and the US, as well as threatening peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” “Due to this, China expressed strong displeasure and a resolute protest as well as made a strong diplomatic remonstrance to Washington.”
Reuters is reporting that a FOIA request they made to the US Federal Reserve for documents that would reveal the types of Covid-beneficial trades that our elected politicians and appointed experts have been engaged in has been summarily and fully and completely and finally DENIED.
That’s right, folks, we the American people and the ‘free press’ have no right to know just how the ones who have been orchestrating our Covid culture for the last two years may have or may not have benefited by the decisions they made that had such profound effects on hundreds of millions of the human beings they allege to be serving, most of which have been resoundingly negative.
While children have seen their lives upended and turned into mask ghost life floating on zoom calls, our politicians and experts have had free rein to trade in our markets as they saw fit, with no accountability, and with immunity from insider trading laws. The wealth shift in America has been astounding, and it happened under the so-called party of the poor, the Democrat Party. But that party has morphed into an elite club of mad billionaires who want to live forever and float around space from their giant enormity, lording it over the very poors the DNC once alleged to champion.
We have become their experiment in the religion of elite man makes poor man in his image and purges the unmakeable from the frame. This is the reality of power when the advantaged attain what I call Citadelian status, where they exist outside the socio-cultural consequences of action the vast majority of us find ourselves facing. These consequences are the result, mostly, of the opportunistic power-advantaged exapting any popular outrage ideology into a social control device designed to eliminate future competition to the power the advantaged currently hold.
From Christianity to Islam, from Confucianism to Buddhism, from every philosophical, theological, economical, scientific thought that gained an audience, the power-advantaged were ready to exapt the patterns from serving the cause to exploiting, commodifying, ‘tweaking’ the original code, preserving the language and the emotions, but creating new outcomes, outcomes designed to serve the very people that created the outrage from which the original ideas emerged in the first place.
The bible verse, Isiah 30:18 constantly comes to mind, and I will continue to repeat it wherever I see it lived out again.
As for the scoundrel, his devices are evil; he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words even when the plea of the needy is right.
Don’t expect our masters to expose the gosh derned business just yet, folks, but, nice try Reuters. Maybe your masters have realized their team may have gone too far, and there will be heck to pay when the inevitable happens and the truth of the colonization of the American lands in the Covid culture of the DNC using fear and hate to create just enough compliant, just enough willing to enforce the ‘new normal,’ which was, and is, nothing short of doing anything possible to dismantle the American culture of the Bill of Rights, where, no matter the vote or the good intentions, the state cannot violate the basic sovereignty of the individual, from which its fundamental authority and legitimacy is derived.
We are not a nation of priest-kings and gnostic-like shamans with gossamer-winged languages to mesmerize us to complacency. Our ploughmen know the Bill of Rights code and, so far, that spirit does not appear to have died in the majority of Americans, across all the divides the DNC would have you zealously fixate your whole heart and mind upon, as if your very life were nothing in comparison to ending hate once and for all, ending history, ending god and entering man, in total, in everything, in full equality, in ecstasy of union……etc……That spirit has names that go back thousands of years, with Balaam perhaps being the most often used, the spirit of sacrifice, where the new and the old are sacrificed to the now, the disciples of the social where human becomes all in all by all for all, and all non-human is purged from the living.
The ecstasy of the left was protected today by the Federal Reserve, for now, but lies beget lies beget enemies beget secret recordings, etc, etc, etc….It’s only a matter of time before Haman learns why he ordered the gallows made in the first place. Hint, it wasn’t for who he thought it was for.
Feb 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve, responding to a Freedom of Information Act request by Reuters, said there are about 60 pages of correspondence between its ethics officials and policymakers regarding financial transactions conducted during the pandemic year 2020.
But it “denied in full” to release the documents, citing exemptions under the information act that it said applied in this case.
The disclosure of trading by two regional reserve bank presidents during the pandemic led them to resign last fall, and prompted Fed chair Jerome Powell to overhaul Fed ethics rules and request the central bank’s inspector general to investigate.
The FOIA responses to Reuters for the first time quantify how much back and forth may have occurred over policymakers’ personal trading in a year when markets first cratered, then rebounded on the basis of both massive federal fiscal stimulus and an aggressive rescue effort by the…
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