Cervelli al macero - Oltre agli apprezzamenti graditi per il lavoro non retribuito che svolgo, non passa giorno che io non riceva critiche di qualche tipo, le piu' assurde in italiano. Si tratta ovviamente di persone che trovano sostegno psicologico nel vedere confermate le loro convinzioni e i loro pregiudizi, cosa che in se' non sarebbe un grosso problema ma che lo diventa quando perdono la capacita' di interagire con chi e con tutto cio' che esiste fuori dalla loro bolla, il diverso da se' e dal proprio gruppo di riferimento. A quel punto scatta un meccanismo difensivo che li porta a rubricare come nemico chiunque non aderisca alla loro ortodossia. La complessita' fa paura, analizzarla richiede impegno e un notevole sforzo intellettuale, quindi si preferiscono le narrazioni semplici e preconfezionate, il comfort della propria bolla impermeabile, una sorta di realta' parallela che si alimenta di illusioni, fantasie compensatorie, il culto di vari personaggi, liturgie e rituali di appartenenza. Come e' stato ampiamente studiato, queste bolle producono estremismo, definito da Lenin malattia infantile del comunismo, ma il discorso vale per ogni ideologia, e radicalizzano i loro membri fino al punto che essi, perdono lucidita' e capacita' di analisi. Nelle bolle l'emotivita' domina sovrana e chi vi abita non riesce ad uscire dalla logica amico/nemico. Chi non capisce la differenza tra uso critico/analitico e uso propagandistico delle fonti che cito forse ha sbagliato canale. Se tanto vi turba che un giorno io citi Foreign Affairs, Politico e il Guardian, e il giorno dopo RT, RIA Novosti, Global Times, China Daily, Press TV, scegliete un canale piu' allineato del mio e cullatevi nella beata ignoranza di quello che scrivono i vostri avversari, chiunque essi siano. @LauraRuHK

😂 Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan snubbed the European Security summit in Spain. This is not simply a failure of "European diplomacy", which has become an oxymoron, but also a product of the EU's risky gamble: supporting Western puppet Pashinyan to wrestle Armenia away from its ally, Russia. This gamble angered Aliyev who now sees the French and German position as biased towards Armenia. https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231005-european-security-summit-in-spain-clouded-by-azerbaijan-snub?utm_term=France24_en&utm_campaign=twitter&utm_source=nonli&utm_medium=social

Here is a book that didn't age too well. 😂 Written in 2005 by Mark Leonard who, thanks to Soros' support, a couple of years later founded the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), it contains so many bombastic claims and exaggerations that anyone spouting them today would be mistaken for a stand-up comedian... or Josep Borrell, whose reference to Europe as an idyllic garden surrounded by the jungle drew both ire and hilarity. Mark Leonard argued that the EU embodies the most compelling idea of what the world will - and should - be like. Thankfully Soros' vision found few imitators outside Europe, and rather than making the idea of sovereign states anachronistic, it caused a backlash even within Europe itself. Leonard these days writes articles such as "The world is changing — and not in Europe’s favor". Reality is a bitch, isn't it? 😂 @LauraRuHK https://www.politico.eu/article/world-changing-not-europe-favor-european-union-gloabal-politics-strategic-autonomy/

Are Ukrainian Nazis going out of fashion in the West? Discrediting them now might be a clever move to prepare the ground for future developments: when the US throws Zelensky and his coterie under the bus very few tears will be shed. ▪️According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as many as 2,000 Ukrainian members of Hitler's Waffen-SS were admitted to Canada after the war. The Nazi soldiers posed as refugees and anti-Soviet freedom fighters to get admittance, and British authorities facilitated their escape from Europe. Now Canadian bureaucrats are reviewing the Deschenes Commission report — a 1980s-era independent inquiry that looked at Nazi war criminals in Canada — with an eye to making more of it public.

Governor General Mary Simon said Rideau Hall is sorry for honouring Peter Savaryn — a former chancellor of the University of Alberta who served in the same Nazi unit as Yaroslav Hunka — with the Order of Canada.

"We express our sincere apology to Canadians for any distress or pain his appointment may have caused," a spokesperson for Simon said.

The vice-regal office is also examining the Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals previously awarded to Savaryn, who also served as president of the Ukrainian World Congress, a group that represents the Ukrainian diaspora.

Struck by former prime minister Brian Mulroney, the Deschenes Commission's final report was released in 1986 and is composed of two parts.
The first, which included recommendations to make it easier to extradite war criminals, was released publicly. The second was marked secret and the names of Nazis who had found shelter in Canada were never released. @LauraRuHK https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-deschenes-commission-ex-nazis-1.6986364

Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has expressed his view that Ukraine is "unsuitable for EU membership," as reported by Die Welt.

▪️ During his interview, Juncker characterized Ukraine as a nation plagued by "widespread corruption across all levels of society." He also referenced past experiences of the EU dealing with rule of law issues in "so-called new members," and he believes such issues should be avoided in the future, indicating his reluctance for Kiev to become an EU member in the near future.

▪️ Additionally, he underscored the importance of avoiding "false promises" to the people of Ukraine, who he noted are facing significant challenges. He argued that such an approach would be unfair to the country itself. However, Juncker also suggested the possibility of a more limited form of EU integration for Ukraine.

@Slavyangrad

YET ANOTHER DEADLY PR STUNT- To coincide with Zelensky's visit to Granada where the European Political Community summit is underway, a missile strike was launched on civilians in the Kharkov region. Initial reports said a missile hit a grocery store and cafe in a village about 20 miles outside of the city of Kupyansk.
There was a wake in the cafe at the time, dozens of people were killed. Ordinary folks, farmers. They lost their lives so that Zelensky could deliver his usual lines about "Russian barbarians" and pressure the EU to transfer more weapons, more money. @LauraRuHK

Western prosperity based on worldwide pillage – Putin The Russian president made the remarks on Thursday as he spoke during the plenary session of the 20th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi. The entirety of Western history has been about “endless expansion,” and it still pursues such an approach with the whole world to keep its prosperity, he asserted.

“Western influence in the world is a massive military-financial pyramid. It constantly needs new fuel to support itself: natural, technological, human resources belonging to others,” Putin told the plenary session.

After the end of the Cold War, the collective West, led by the US, has been striving to establish and maintain its global hegemony, Putin noted, adding that such efforts were bound to fail from the beginning.

“The world is too complex and too diverse to be shaped under a single scheme, even if behind it lies the power, the enormous power of the West, accumulated over centuries of colonialism,” he said.

The ongoing global crisis is primarily a result of the “self-confidence” exhibited by the collective West and its refusal to take into account and even to hear the position of other international actors, Putin stated. At the beginning of the 21st century, there was hope that “states and peoples had learned lessons from the costly, destructive military-ideological confrontation of the last century,” but it proved not to be the case, Putin noted.

“Selfishness, conceit, and disregard for real challenges will inevitably lead us into a dead end, as well as the attempt of the stronger to impose their own ideas and interests on others. This should have become obvious to everyone – it should have, but it turned out that it was not the case,” the president stressed. The conflict with Ukraine is not the result of a territorial dispute, Russia is already the largest country in the world and therefore is not seeking to obtain new territory.

He noted that Russia still has a lot of work to do in developing Siberia and the Far East. (Source: RT) @LauraRuHK

China is rapidly getting rid of US securities, selling $300 billion worth of US Treasury bonds in a matter of months!

It is not hard to guess that China is aware of the impending US default and is getting rid of assets that will soon be devalued.

Only American colonies such as Japan and the European Union are now buying American securities; they have no choice but to go bankrupt along with the Empire of Evil. https://t.me/aklintsevich/1289

La Cina si sta rapidamente liberando dei titoli statunitensi, vendendo 300 miliardi di dollari di obbligazioni del Tesoro USA in pochi mesi!

Non è difficile intuire che la Cina è consapevole dell'imminente default degli Stati Uniti e si sta sbarazzando di asset che saranno presto svalutati.

Solo le colonie americane, come il Giappone e l'Unione Europea, stanno acquistando titoli americani; non hanno altra scelta che andare in bancarotta insieme all'Impero del Male. https://t.me/aklintsevich/1289

🇩🇪🇨🇳Siemens predicament: "de-risk" from China or lose access to credit, energy subsidies and any stimulus/rescue packages you may need now or in the future. As big business relies on the scandalously immoral "privatize profits, socialize losses" model, it goes without saying that such a threat is taken seriously. The Siemens case is paradigmatic: European companies are hostage to US diktats that are relayed to them by puffed-up EU mediocrities such as Gauleiter Ursula Von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, whose loyalty to their American bosses is truly tragicomic. ▪️Last July the federal government told German companies, among them Siemens, one of the world's largest conglomerates, to loosen their ties to China otherwise the government would not rescue corporates hit by trade shocks. That’s unsettling for the likes of Siemens, Volkswagen and BASF. ▪️China has been Germany’s biggest trading partner for seven years in a row: in 2022 exports and imports between the two states were worth 299 billion euros. The Middle Kingdom ranks as the Port of Hamburg’s largest customer and counts Chinese shipping conglomerate Cosco as a shareholder in one of its terminals. Around a third of German companies import critical materials like lithium and rare earths from China. While nearly half of Siemens’ revenue comes from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 13% emanates from China – similar to BASF’s share. ▪️According to Reuters, Siemens has vowed to “defend and expand” his company’s market share in China but that pits it against US diktats. Moreover, China ranks as Siemens’ largest research hub outside Germany and Siemens is building a new R&D centre in Shenzhen and expanding the company’s manufacturing network in Sichuan and Chengdu. Siemens was also looking to merge its rail business - China’s CRRC Corporation, the world's largest rolling stock manufacturer by revenue, was a prospective buyer. But again, that collides with the EU’s de-risking agenda. ▪️Europe's woes are largely caused by its lack of sovereignty and strategic autonomy. Unless the gauleiters and their power networks are removed, the economic and social decline will continue. @LauraRuHK

🇩🇪🇨🇳Siemens sotto ricatto: se non accetta il disaccoppiamento dalla Cina, eufemisticamente definito "de-risking" da USA e UE, rischia di perdere l'accesso al credito, ai sussidi energetici e ai pacchetti di stimolo/salvataggio di cui potrebbe avere bisogno ora o in futuro. Poiché le grandi aziende si basano sul modello scandalosamente immorale del "privatizzare i profitti, socializzare le perdite", è ovvio che una tale minaccia venga presa sul serio. Il caso Siemens è paradigmatico: Le aziende europee sono ostaggio dei diktat degli Stati Uniti che vengono recapitati da mediocri funzionari dell'UE come Ursula Von der Leyen e Josep Borrell, novelli Gauleiter la cui lealtà nei confronti dei capi americani è davvero tragicomica. ▪️Lo scorso luglio il governo federale aveva ordinato alle aziende tedesche, tra cui la Siemens, una delle più grandi conglomerate del mondo, di allentare i legami con la Cina, altrimenti il governo non le avrebbe protette da eventuali shock finanziari. Questo è ovviamente preoccupante per aziende come Siemens, Volkswagen e BASF. ▪️La Cina è il principale partner commerciale della Germania da sette anni consecutivi: nel 2022 le esportazioni e le importazioni tra i due Stati hanno raggiunto un valore di 299 miliardi di euro. La Cina è il principale cliente del porto di Amburgo e il conglomerato marittimo cinese Cosco è azionista di uno dei suoi terminal. Circa un terzo delle aziende tedesche importa dalla Cina materiali come il litio e le terre rare. Mentre quasi la metà delle entrate di Siemens proviene da Europa, Medio Oriente e Africa, il 13% proviene dalla Cina, una quota simile a quella di BASF. ▪️Secondo l'agenzia Reuters, Siemens ha promesso di "difendere ed espandere" la quota di mercato della sua azienda in Cina, ma questo la pone in contrasto diretto con i diktat degli Stati Uniti. Inoltre, in Cina ha sede il più grande centro di ricerca di Siemens al di fuori della Germania - Siemens ne sta costruendo uno nuovo a Shenzhen e sta espandendo i suoi stabilimenti nello Sichuan e a Chengdu. Siemens starebbe anche cercando un partner per il suo settore ferroviario - la cinese CRRC Corporation, il maggiore produttore di materiale rotabile al mondo per fatturato, sarebbe un potenziale investitore. Ma anche in questo caso, ci si scontra con la politica di de-risking imposta dalla UE su mandato USA. ▪️I problemi dell'Europa sono in gran parte causati dalla sua mancanza di sovranità e di autonomia strategica. Se non si affrontano questi nodi centrali e non si rimuovono i gauleiter e le loro reti di potere, il declino economico e sociale non potrà che continuare. @LauraRuHK

Iraq to fully de-dollarize cash transactions by year's end

The move is meant to prop up the Iraqi dinar and comes a month after US officials denied a request from Baghdad for access to an extra $1 billion in cash from Iraq's oil sales proceeds

Largest Dutch Shipbuilder Sues Government Over Russia Sanction Losses

The Netherlands’ largest shipbuilder is suing the Dutch government for losses inflicted on its business by sanctions against Russia.
Damen Shipyards Group NV is seeking compensation because it “suffers damages” as a result of sanctions, the company’s spokesperson, Rick van de Weg, told Bloomberg. The case hasn’t been publicly disclosed until now.
“Before the sanctions, Damen had signed contracts with Russian ship buyers, and after the invasion of Ukraine the Dutch government decided that such contracts may not be honored by the Dutch business community,” he said via email. “The government has not offered Damen compensation for that damage.”
Damen, based in the Dutch city of Gorinchem, filed its lawsuit at the Court of Rotterdam on May 10, according to the court’s spokesperson. The case has yet to move forward but is expected to proceed next year.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is in charge of the country’s sanctions oversight, declined to comment. As a member of the European Union, the Netherlands must comply with all the curbs imposed by the bloc.

The legal challenge will add a new twist to courtroom battles playing out over the sanctions by focusing attention on the toll taken on businesses that catered to a market once considered among the most promising in the emerging world.

Damen Shipyards is a family-owned Dutch company founded in 1927 that builds a range of vessels, from warships to dredgers.
It’s also been selling luxury yachts to the ultra-rich, including prominent Russian businessmen.

Damen had an engineering branch in Russia before the war, which provided services for shipbuilding projects next to “service hubs” in Novorossiysk and St. Petersburg. In February 2022 Damen delivered a dredger to Russia for use in the Arctic region.
The war was “having a major impact” on the company, according to a statement last year. Within a week after the war started, Damen said it had suspended the delivery of vessels and the signing of new contracts with Russian and Belarusian clients.
(Source: Bloomberg) @LauraRuHK

American auditor Martin Hart, who investigated corruption in arms supplies to Ukraine, was found dead in Kiev.

Near a residential complex under construction in the Shevchenko district, a cable broke and he was buried under the debris.

Well, of course it's an accident... 😐

@ukr_leaks_eng

🇨🇳🇺🇸 US chipmakers warn Biden's semiconductor spat with China could backfire

Three global giants in the chip-making industry - Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm – have reportedly been meeting with officials in the Biden administration, such as Antony Blinken and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, along with representatives of an array of think tanks to press the case for reconsidering additional chip restrictions regarding China.

The CEO’s of these companies have warned that Washington’s attacks on Beijing could result in China speeding up creation of its own independent chip industry. Thus, they claimed, America’s ill-conceived semiconductor trade war would result in Chinese-created chips dominating on a global scale. (Source: Sputnik) @LauraRuHK

Pepe Escobar: Putin and the Magic Multipolar Mountain
https://sputnikglobe.com/20231006/putin-and-the-magic-multipolar-mountain-a-valdai-chronicle---pepe-escobar-1113975618.html

This is a crucial column.

I had to leave so much out, including the panels on nuclear weapons and the Heartland, a fab off the record conversation with Karaganov, and some cracking Putin answers at the Q&A, especially on Nagorno-Karabakh. The discussions at Valdai were at the highest level - unreachable across the collective West.

🇷🇺⚓️🇨🇳 First ship from Shanghai arrives in Kaliningrad region via Northern Sea Route, Governor Alikhanov says

The Northern Sea Route is the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia, with the ability to shave upwards of 9,000 km off transit from the East China Sea to the North Sea, compared to shipments via the Suez Canal.

Once fully operational, the NSR is expected to allow the shipment of goods between Asia and Europe in as little as 19 days, 40% - 60% faster than shipments via the Suez Canal or the Cape of Good Hope, respectively. (Source: Sputnik) @LauraRuHK

Quando una foto vale piu' di mille parole. Zelensky trascina per un braccio il presidente del Consiglio europeo Charles Michel. Gli Stati Uniti e il Regno Unito hanno trascinato l'Europa in guerra con la Russia e ora vogliono scaricare i costi del fallimento sugli europei. https://t.me/nstarikovru/40561

When a picture is worth a thousand words. Zelensky drags European Council President Charles Michel by the arm. The US and UK dragged Europe into war with Russia and now want to pass on the cost of its failure to Europeans. https://t.me/nstarikovru/40561