The EU may identify and possibly sanction more than a dozen companies based in China for providing Russia with goods that might be used in the Ukraine conflict, the bloc’s leaders have told reporters in Beijing.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council head Charles Michel were in China on Thursday, meeting with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. 

Von der Leyen said she had urged Xi “to prevent any attempts by Russia to undermine the impact of sanctions.” Michel handed the Chinese leader a list of 13 companies the bloc has accused of selling “dual-use goods” to Russia and asked him to “immediately” deal with the problem, according to Politico EU.

An armada of aging oil tankers is helping to keep Russian oil flowing. Hundreds of vessels are part of a “shadow fleet” that’s allowed the Kremlin to dodge Western sanctions over its war on Ukraine. Bloomberg set out to uncover the traders, intermediaries and investors that make up this network, and how they’re getting rich in the process.

The Shadow Fleet Fueling Russia’s War | Bloomberg Investigates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azm4yKKIlqE

 

 

You can leave your cap on: G7’s oil embargo backfires, fueling Russia’s resilience

Western attempt to curb Moscow’s revenues from crude exports have had the opposite effect

What Time’s 2023 Person of the Year reveals about the West

Taylor Swift’s victory, and her mostly unimpressive competitors, is a PR disaster for the establishment

 https://www.rt.com/news/588663-taylor-swift-victory-time/

 

 

by The Cradle

During a visit to the Israeli army headquarters, officers said an “invisible hand” deleted military surveillance videos & audio of the events of October 7.

US vetoes UN Security Council resolution demanding humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza

The United States on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in the intense fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The United States' deputy representative at the UN, Robert Wood, said the resolution was "divorced from reality" and "would have not moved the needle forward on the ground." Read our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).

 

 

The president of the United States has caused a stir. Speaking to Congress, Joe Biden brought up the possibility of “American troops fighting Russian troops.”

Biden, of course, has repeatedly had problems staying on script or keeping his thoughts straight, resulting in embarrassing gaffes, such as calling his Vice President Kamala Harris a “great president” or mixing up Ukraine and Iran.

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2023/12/07/scott-ritter-russia-gives-israel-a-final-warning-stop-the-attack-now/

Scott Ritter: Russia Gives Israel A FINAL WARNING – Stop The Attack Now!!

(SCOTT SPEAKS TO A JOURNALIST IN BULGARIA).....

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW...................

In late October, the liberal anti-establishment investigative site Consortium News filed a historic suit against the United States of America and Newsguard Industries, describing a state-funded effort to label, defame, and stigmatize “media organizations that oppose or dissent from American foreign and defense policy.”

 

 

ON THE OCCASION OF UNCOP28 IN DUBAI, ONE HAS TO REFLECT ON ANOTHER EVENT IN THIS MODERN CITY.

THE DUBAI SAILGP IS ON AND THE RACES WILL BE HELD ON SATURDAY 9TH AND SUNDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2023…

 

ONE HAS TO ADMIRE THE TECHNOLOGY WHICH A FEW YEARS AGO WAS NOT AVAILABLE — NOT EVEN DREAMED OF... 

THERE IS A BIT OF BITTER/SWEET TASTE ABOUT SAILGP — IN RELATION TO CARBON NEUTRAL. 

WHILE THE FORMULA ONE (F1) RACES ALL OVER THE WORLD CELEBRATE THE BURNING OF FOSSIL FUELS AND GETTING DRUNK ON OCTANES AND CHAMPAGNE... SAILGP TRIES HARD TO MINIMISE THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF RACING AND PARTICIPATES IN CLEAN UP OF THE ENVIRONMENT. YET THE WHOLE PROCESS ISN’T CARBON NEUTRAL. 

 

America is in the midst of a domestic political crisis with a literal madman and his cult/Party — heavily supported by some of America’s largest companies — threatening to turn America into a dictatorship. 

As Yahoo news reports this morning:

“Could a second Donald Trump presidency slide into dictatorship? A sudden spate of dystopian warnings has got America talking about the possibility less than a year before the US elections.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been named ‘The World’s Most Powerful Woman’ by Forbes magazine for the second year in a row. She beat off competition from European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde and US Vice President Kamala Harris to clinch the top spot.

Von der Leyen rose from eighth on the annual list in 2021 to first in 2022, with Forbes citing her “strong and decisive support of Ukraine, as well as her continued leadership in bringing Europe through the coronavirus pandemic.” 

Her support for Ukraine was cited again this year, with the magazine describing her as “one of the West's staunchest supporters of Ukraine amid Russia's unprovoked invasion.”

US Senator Bernie Sanders has urged his Democratic colleagues to pull more than $10 billion in military aid to Israel from an upcoming spending bill, arguing that the money would make Washington complicit in Israel’s “immoral” war in Gaza.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Monday that he would put a $106 billion spending bill to a vote on Wednesday. Requested by President Joe Biden, the bill includes $10.1 billion in direct military aid to Israel, more than $61 billion for Ukraine, and $13.6 for border protection at home.

“I do not believe we should be appropriating over $10 billion for the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military approach,” Sanders said in a speech on the Senate floor on Monday, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Euphemistically, the Prime Minister recently announced that he and President Biden have “inaugurated a new era of US-Australia strategic cooperation”. Presumably he meant to say he’d found new ways to surrender Australia’s sovereignty.

 

Australians need to know what lies beneath the new era of US-Australia strategic cooperation    By Mike Scrafton

 

Last week’s statements by David Arakhamia – who took part in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations to end the armed conflict a year and a half ago – have caused a stir. The leader of Ukraine’s parliament only said what had been uttered by others before, but his input, for the first time, delivered official confirmation from Kiev.

 

Fyodor Lukyanov: Here’s the grave diplomatic mistake Ukraine will eventually regret Kiev rejected ‘Finlandisation’, but it was almost certainly a better deal than the one it will get now

 

Fyodor Lukyanov

 

Imagine my horror discovering that American sign language equates Ireland to the potato. You don’t have to imagine at all as I find it hilarious, even though I understand the historical context as to how the Irish, rather than the Peruvians with their divine array of potatoes, or the Russians with their mastery of vodka, or indeed the good folk of Maine or Indiana who grow most of America’s potatoes, are synonymous with potatoes.

 

I live in the inner west/southwest of Sydney, traditional lands of the Gadigal, Wangal and Darug-speaking peoples. Our built heritage traces the area’s development and amplifies its desirability, economic viability, and people’s quality of life. According to Time Out, Marrickville and Enmore are some of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world.

 

Sydney YIMBY and the weaponising of heritage      By Marie Healy