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Scholz blames Putin for high energy prices in Europe!

Chimauchem Nwosu
Sputnik International
Sun, 10 Dec 2023 05:56 UTC
Nazi Scholz
© Sputnik / Sergey Guneev
The leader of Germany's coalition government attempted to scapegoat Russia for his country's self-inflicted economic woes as Berlin faces the threat of deindustrialization.

In a recent address at the Social Democratic Party (SPD) congress, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz blamed Russia for halting gas supplies to Europe amid rising energy costs.He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of stopping gas flows through a functional pipeline, significantly reducing Germany's gas intake and contributing to a shortfall in Europe's energy reserves.
"Russia: Yes, Russia stopped supplying energy to Europe... It was the Russian president who halted gas supplies through a working gas pipeline," Schoz stated. "This has implications for energy prices."
But that narrative collapses in light of his country's role in imposing sanctions on Moscow and restricting the flow of Russian energy to Western Europe.

Scholz's decision to align with the US and Britain in sanctioning Russian energy sources worsened Germany's problems.
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Russian Flag

Russia's FM say Israel cannot carry out 'collective punishment' of people in Gaza


PREETV
Sun, 10 Dec 2023 19:15 UTC
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
© Reuters
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
The Russian foreign minister says it is unacceptable that Israel is using Palestinian resistance movement Hamas's October 7 operation as justification for a collective punishment of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Speaking virtually at the Doha Forum on Sunday, Sergei Lavrov called for international monitoring of the situation on the ground in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The top Russian diplomat also said the unprecedented attack by Hamas inside the Israeli territory did not happen in a vacuum.

It was due to "decades and decades of a blockade [in Gaza] and decades and decades of unfulfilled promises to the Palestinians that they would have a state, living side to side with Israel in security and good neighborliness", he said.

Comment: See also:

NewsReal: Livid at Russian Victory in Ukraine, Anglo-Americans Facilitate Israeli Genocide of Palestinians The comments on the conflict begin at the time link:



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Light Sabers

China's coast guard blasts Philippine boats with water cannons for 2nd day in South China Sea dispute


NPR
Sun, 10 Dec 2023 11:03 UTC
south china sea
© Philippine Coast Guard/via AP
In this photo provided by the Philippine Coast Guard, a Chinese coast guard ship uses water cannons on Philippine navy-operated supply boat M/L Kalayaan as it approaches Second Thomas Shoal, locally known as Ayungin Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023.
The Chinese coast guard targeted Philippine vessels with water cannon blasts Sunday and rammed one of them, causing damage and endangering Filipino crew members off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just a day after similar hostilities at another contested shoal, Philippine officials said.

The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, immediately condemned the latest confrontation near the Second Thomas Shoal, where two Philippine navy-operated supply boats and two Philippine coast guard escort ships had sailed to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino forces in a long-marooned navy ship that serves as a territorial outpost.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Hypocrisy in The Hague: Why is it so easy for the International Criminal Court to charge Russians, but not Israelis?

Robert Inlakesh
RT
Fri, 08 Dec 2023 13:42 UTC
airstrike damage
© Abed Khaled/AP
Targeted Israeli airstrike in Jabaliya refugee camp • Northern Gaza Strip • November 1, 2023
The reputation of the ICC could be completely destroyed if crimes against Palestine are not thoroughly investigated, says American attorney Stanley Cohen...

In the first weeks of the Gaza-Israel war, the ICC's prosecutor issued a statement in which he said that impeding aid to Gaza could be a crime, but was later revealed to have traveled to Israel and is being accused of stalling the courts investigation into war crimes.

American attorney Stanley Cohen, speaking to RT, said:
"If this is not a case that calls for an international tribunal, then the Rome Statute should be null and void."
On October 29, International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Karim Khan, issued a warning to the Israeli government that impeding the transfer of aid into Gaza could give rise to "criminal responsibility" under the Rome Statute. However, during his speech delivered in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, Karim Khan notably placed much greater focus on the Hamas-led attack of October 7 than on anything the Israeli military had committed in the Gaza Strip. Following the ICC prosecutor's remarks, there have been questions raised as to whether the court will prove useful in addressing crimes committed across Palestine-Israel.
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Footprints

Fears of a NATO withdrawal rise as Trump seeks a return to power

Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, Maggie Haberman
New York Times
Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:00 UTC
TrumpNYT
© Doug Mills/New York Times
Former US President and Candidate for President Donald J. Trump
For 74 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been America's most important military alliance. Presidents of both parties have seen NATO as a force multiplier enhancing the influence of the United States by uniting countries on both sides of the Atlantic in a vow to defend one another.

Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he sees NATO as a drain on American resources by freeloaders. He has held that view for at least a quarter of a century.

In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Mr. Trump wrote that "pulling back from Europe would save this country millions of dollars annually." As president, he repeatedly threatened a United States withdrawal from the alliance.

Yet as he runs to regain the White House, Mr. Trump has said precious little about his intentions. His campaign website contains a single cryptic sentence:
"We have to finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally re-evaluating NATO's purpose and NATO's mission."
He and his team refuse to elaborate.

That vague line has generated enormous uncertainty and anxiety among European allies and American supporters of the country's traditional foreign-policy role.
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Briefcase

Weiss charges Hunter Biden with three tax felonies but ignores foreign influence-peddling to protect Joe

Tristan Justice
The Federalist
Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:00 UTC
HBiden

Hunter Biden
Special Counsel David Weiss unveiled nine federal tax-related charges against Hunter Biden on Thursday more than four months after a plea deal was derailed by a federal judge.

The Biden son will return to court facing three new felony charges and six misdemeanor counts relating to tax evasion and filing false returns, but he will escape penalties related to foreign influence-peddling that involves his father in the White House.
Hunter Biden's plea deal fell apart in July after confusion over whether Biden would have broad immunity from future potential charges. The initial plea agreement was limited to two misdemeanor tax crimes and a felony firearm charge, the latter of which would have been dismissed if he remained sober and didn't commit any more crimes for 24 months.
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Footprints

Biden reveals surprise NATO drawdown in Europe


RT
Fri, 08 Dec 2023 14:41 UTC
Strykers
© Armin Weigel/Getty Images
US Army • Stryker wheeled tanks • Granfenwoehr training area, Bavaria
The number of US troops on the continent has decreased by 20,000 since 2022...

Some 80,000 US troops are currently stationed in Europe, ostensibly there to protect the EU from a potential invasion. That figure is down from 100,000 deployed last year, according to a letter sent to the US Congress by President Joe Biden on Thursday.

In a document addressed to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives and the Senate's President pro tempore, Biden provided an overview of the current position of the US military across the globe. The letter reads:
"Approximately 80,000 United States Armed Forces personnel are assigned or deployed to North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries in Europe, including those deployed to reassure our allies and to deter further Russian aggression."
By comparison, in June 2022, several months into the Ukraine conflict, the Pentagon said that it had deployed an additional 20,000 troops to Europe, bringing the total to more than 100,000.

Comment: So much for the glorified global US military footprint. Individual foreign deployment locations make American troops sitting ducks.

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Attention

EU leaders panicking over potential Trump return - NYT


RT
Sat, 09 Dec 2023 15:44 UTC
Trump
© Evan Vucci/AP Photo.jpg
Former US President Donald Trump
Bloc governments have reportedly dispatched envoys to the US to figure out the former president's stance on NATO...

EU diplomats and think tank officials have been contacting former US President Donald Trump's associates to figure out whether he would pull the US out of NATO if he returns to the White House, the New York Times reported on Friday.

With less than a year to go until the 2024 US presidential elections, Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee and is leading President Joe Biden in most polls. A host of former Trump administration officials and anti-Trump pundits have claimed in recent weeks that a second Trump presidency would herald the collapse of NATO, and that panic has reportedly spread to the EU.

"European ambassadors and think tank officials have been making pilgrimages to associates of Mr. Trump to inquire about his intentions," the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources. These officials included Finland's ambassador to the US, Mikko Hautala, who the newspaper said "reached out directly to Mr. Trump and sought to persuade him of his country's value to NATO as a new member."

Other countries are expected to try and win Trump's support with "flattery and transactional tributes," the Times stated, citing interviews with current and former diplomats.
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Whistle

Jordan's foreign minister says Israel aims to expel Palestinians from Gaza


PRESSTV
Sun, 10 Dec 2023 17:49 UTC
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi
© PRESSTV
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi
Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says Israel is implementing a systematic policy of pushing Palestinians out of Gaza through a war that has killed thousands of civilians.

Safadi said at a conference in Doha on Sunday that Israel is pressing ahead with its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip and more people in the besieged territory are falling victim to the regime's onslaught.

"What we are seeing in Gaza is not just simply the killing of innocent people and the destruction of their livelihoods (by Israel) but a systematic effort to empty Gaza of its people," he said.

Safadi said the world has not yet reached the point it should reach, with an unequivocal demand for ending the war, which he described as a war falling within the 'legal definition of genocide.'

Comment: For current comment on the conflict in Israel, there is: NewsReal: Livid at Russian Victory in Ukraine, Anglo-Americans Facilitate Israeli Genocide of Palestinians


It is unlikely that the statements of the Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi are quoted much in the Western press. Understandably, from their perspective he may also have an attitude problem.

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SOTT Logo Radio

NewsReal: Livid at Russian Victory in Ukraine, Anglo-Americans Facilitate Israeli Genocide of Palestinians


Sott.net
Sun, 10 Dec 2023 20:40 UTC
ukraine gaza newsreal
© Sott.net
Russia's success in absorbing everything NATO and the Kiev regime has thrown at its military defenses in the newly-acquired regions is now all but confirmed in Western capitals. Though they lament that "Putin's victory is terrifying," they nonetheless acknowledge that Russia has won. The US government may yet extend the war with further weapons dumps in Ukraine, but Washington knows this won't substantially change anything.

Meanwhile, American weapons are pouring into Israel, where they're duly dumped onto defenceless Palestinians in Gaza. This week on NewsReal, Joe & Niall highlight the extreme contrast between the two wars: one is a war between two armies on civilian-evacuated, fixed terrain, and the other on densely civilian-populated terrain - a 'war' so evil that its genocidal intent is laid bare for all to see.


Running Time: 01:24:09

Download: MP3 — 57.8 MB

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