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FILE PHOTO: Port of Odessa, Ukraine.
Comment: If Russia wanted to bomb Ukraine's ports it would have done so at the beginning of the incursion, as it did to Ukraine's military installations, however, evidently, it had the foresight to know that the ports might serve as critical infrastructure, not just for Ukraine, but for much of the planet; the same can't be said for the pathological individuals running Ukraine.
Sergiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for Odessa's regional administration, in a statement on Wednesday, noted that Russia "dreams of parachuting troops" into the city and that Moscow's army "wants to attack" Odessa.
"The moment we clear access to the port of Odessa, the Russian fleet will be there," Bratchuk said. He had earlier said that any exports from Odessa must be "escorted by NATO countries."
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
López Obrador's snub of the continental event comes as no surprise, as he'd threatened to pull out for weeks, citing the U.S. refusal to invite the leaders of Cuba and Nicaragua and representatives of the Maduro government in Venezuela, which the United States does not recognize.
"I'm not going to the Summit because not all countries are invited," López Obrador said at his daily press conference.
López Obrador said Monday that Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard will attend in his place, as he'd previewed last month when the Mexican president first threatened to snub the event.
Comment: Four nations in the Americas snubbed from what the US claims to be a 'Summit of the Americas'...
© UnknownThe Banderists: Annihilate the 'Muscovites'
The war in Ukraine is interpreted very differently depending on whether one is Western or Russian. Each person's previous experience conditions their interpretation of words and events. In fact, no one reacts to the same things and seeks the same information as the others. In the end, the two camps no longer have the same perception of reality. This succession of misunderstandings and misconceptions leads to a misunderstanding that can unintentionally lead to major conflict.
Comment: Meyssan offers an interesting take on the the extremity of perceptions, thus actions, between the West and Russia.
© AFP/Justin SullivanRussia’s ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov
The message proposed that he should "give up on his motherland and condemn the actions of the Russian president," Antonov told Russia's Channel 1 on Tuesday.
"If I wanted to do so, I was told to contact the office of Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman," he added. The Russian Embassy has written to the US State Department demanding to know "what it all meant", the diplomat said.
Antonov also claimed that people have been handing out cards allegedly containing FBI contacts outside the Russian Embassy compound, and inviting staff to have a chat with US special services. He also noted that American media published articles calling on Russian service personnel and diplomats to betray their country.
"I stress my firm rejection of such policies and such treatment of Russian diplomats."
Comment: There is no honor nor respect in Washington D.C. This administration has drained it dry.
© Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesUS President Joe Biden: "I should get out more."
Soaring global inflation. Rising fuel prices. Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A Supreme Court poised to take away a constitutional right. A potentially resurgent pandemic. A Congress too deadlocked to tackle sweeping gun safety legislation even amid an onslaught of mass shootings.In crisis after crisis, the White House has found itself either limited or helpless in its efforts to combat the forces pummeling them. Morale inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is plummeting amid growing fears that the parallels to Jimmy Carter, another first-term Democrat plagued by soaring prices and a foreign policy morass, will stick.
Robert Gibbs, a press secretary under President Barack Obama, said:
"It's something that has bedeviled quite a few previous presidents. Lots of things happen on your watch but it doesn't mean there is a magic wand to fix it. The limits of the presidency are not well grasped. The responsibility of the president is greater than the tools he has to fix it."
© Tony Overman/The Olympian/APHigh Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS)
US President Joe Biden has approved the transfer of at least four M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine. In a "guest essay" published in The New York Times, Biden declared that
"[The United States has] moved quickly to send Ukraine a significant amount of weaponry and ammunition so it can fight on the battlefield and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table. That's why I've decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine."At least four of the HIMARS systems will be transferred to Kiev, part of a $700 million dollar military aid package sourced from the $8 billion authorized by Congress for direct drawdown from existing US military stocks. As configured for Ukraine, the M142 will be able to fire a pod of six 227mm artillery GPS-guided rockets, with a range of 43.5 miles (70 kilometers). What is known is that Biden will not be supplying Ukraine with the more advanced ATACMS short-range missile, with a range of 300 kilometers.
© Getty Images/Guy SmallmanFormer British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray
Turkey continues to be the centre of diplomatic activity on resolving the Ukraine war. It is therefore particularly revealing, and a sign of Western priorities, that I did not come across a single western journalist there trying to follow and cover the diplomatic process. There are hundreds of Western journalists in Ukraine, effectively embedded with the Ukrainian authorities, producing war porn. There appear to be none seriously covering attempts to make peace.
There was a sea change two weeks ago when Ukraine shifted to a public stance that it would cede no territory at all in a peace deal. On 21 May, Zelensky's office stated that "The war must end with the complete restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty." Previously while they had been emphatic that no territory in "the East" would be ceded, there had been studied ambiguity about whether that referred to Donbass alone or also the Crimea.
The New York Times in a May 7, 2022 article titled, "US Presses Taiwan to Buy Weapons More Suited to Win Against China," would claim:
The article also claims:The Biden administration is quietly pressing the Taiwanese government to order American-made weapons that would help its small military repel a seaborne invasion by China rather than weapons designed for conventional set-piece warfare, current and former US and Taiwanese officials say.
The US campaign to shape Taiwan's defenses has grown in urgency since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine ordered in late February by President Vladimir V. Putin. The war has convinced Washington and Taipei that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan in the coming years is now a potential danger — and that a smaller military with the right weapons that has adopted a strategy of asymmetric warfare, in which it focuses on mobility and precision attacks, can beat back a larger foe.
© AFPFrom the start of his premiership, Boris Johnson has been the creature of the big media owners acting in alliance with offshore financial capital
Welcome to British politics this overcast summer day.
A broken prime minister still in occupation of Downing Street and determined to stay there. This is a recipe for - at best - paralysis, at worst chaos.
More likely both. It's hard to see what will make Boris Johnson quit.
The prime minister, remember, has powerful allies. Tuesday's Daily Mail - Britain's most well-drilled and powerful popular paper - is an essential read for anyone wishing to understand the near-term trajectory of British politics
It contains a series of brutal hatchet jobs on former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt - "Theresa May in trousers" - who the Mail accuses of leading the plotters. On its front page, the Mail lacerates the 148 Tory rebels for pressing the "self-destruct button by opening the door to Smirking Starmer's coalition of chaos".
Comment: