🇨🇳 SEX AND THE PARTY - The 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top advisory body, will start its first session on Saturday, and the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), the national legislature, will open its first annual session on Sunday. They are collectively known as the two sessions, during which Chinese officials and representatives of Chinese people of all walks of life usually set out economic and social development goals and plans to achieve them, among other tasks. 📍And talking about social development, no topic is out of bounds. Take sex, for example. A motion will discuss sex education and the need to compile teaching materials in line with China's social values and the laws of natural science rather than education models based on Western ideological bias. Some Western countries have infiltrated sex education in China and instilled some so-called 'politically correct' ideas into the younger generation through foundations, agencies and NGOs, experts noted, adding that this constitutes Western interference in China's social development.

This motion will take into account the growing debate among parents both on and off the Net. Many parents encourage and support the idea of children receiving sex education, but only if the content is consistent with children's cognition, social cognition and legal constraints.

They argue that sex education in kindergarten can start with a simple understanding of the body, so that children can gain basic judgment and awareness of self-protection. More specific sex education and gender knowledge should be strengthened through courses at high schools and universities as sex education content must be appropriate for the age and cognitive level of children. (Source: Global Times) @LauraRuHK

🇨🇳 IL PARTITO E IL SESSO - Il 14° Comitato nazionale della Conferenza consultiva politica del popolo cinese (CPPCC), il massimo organo consultivo della Cina, inizierà la sua prima sessione sabato e il 14° Congresso nazionale del popolo (NPC), l'organo legislativo nazionale, aprirà la sua prima sessione annuale domenica. Durante le due sessioni i funzionari e i rappresentanti del popolo di tutti i ceti sociali solitamente definiscono gli obiettivi di sviluppo economico e sociale e i programmi per raggiungerli. 📍E parlando di sviluppo sociale, nessun argomento è escluso. Neppure il sesso. Una mozione discuterà dell'educazione sessuale e della necessità di preparare materiali didattici in linea con i valori sociali della Cina e con le leggi delle scienze naturali, piuttosto che con modelli educativi basati sull'ideologia gender e sui valori occidentali. Alcuni Paesi occidentali si sono infiltrati nel campo dell'educazione sessuale in Cina e hanno instillato alcune idee cosiddette politicamente corrette nelle giovani generazioni attraverso fondazioni, agenzie e ONG, hanno osservato gli esperti, aggiungendo che ciò costituisce un'interferenza occidentale nello sviluppo sociale della Cina. La mozione terrà conto del crescente dibattito tra i genitori sia in rete che fuori. Molti genitori incoraggiano e sostengono l'idea che i bambini ricevano un'educazione sessuale, ma solo se i contenuti sono coerenti con lo sviluppo cognitivo dei bambini, i valori sociali e i vincoli legali.

Essi sostengono che l'educazione sessuale nella scuola materna può iniziare con una semplice comprensione del corpo, in modo che i bambini possano acquisire una capacità di giudizio e autoprotezione. L'educazione sessuale più specifica dovrebbe essere rafforzata attraverso corsi nelle scuole superiori e nelle università, poiché i contenuti dell'educazione sessuale devono essere adeguati all'età e al livello cognitivo degli studenti. (Fonte: Global Times) @LauraRuHK

🇷🇸🇷🇺 Polling data in Serbia, as it relates to the war and its friendship with Russia.

EU Membership

Support: 34%
Oppose: 51%

Who Started Ukraine War?

The West: 59%
Russia: 23%
Equal Blame: 18%

66% in Serbia also feel closer to Russia than the West and 40% are explicitly rejecting Vucic's European path rhetoric and want an end to Serbia's EU accession talks.

An important reminder in light of recent moves by Serbia’s government.

Europe is being prepared for divorce from China - The US intends to attack China's trade to deal a blow to its economy in the hope that it might lead to political instability in the country. The arguments used to persuade Europe to reduce ties with China are absolutely fraudulent, just as were the arguments used to break Europe's reliance on affordable energy from Russia.
Of course, so far, European elites have been trying to resist an accelerated divorce from China because they understand the price they will have to pay for it, and because they do not see any serious "Chinese threat" to Europe. But the growing US interference in EU policy-making has reduced the scope for manoeuvre. The destruction of European-Russian ties, not to mention the conflict between Europe and Russia, has been a shot in the foot for the EU. The destruction of European-Chinese ties will be much worse than a shot in the other foot – it will bring the EU to its knees. @LauraRuHK

Gli USA vogliono il divorzio tra Europa e Cina - Gli Stati Uniti intendono attaccare il commercio cinese per infliggere un colpo alla sua economia, nella speranza che ciò possa portare all'instabilità politica del Paese e al suo indebolimento. Le argomentazioni utilizzate per convincere l'Europa a ridurre i legami con la Cina sono assolutamente fraudolente, così come quelle utilizzate per spezzare la dipendenza dell'Europa dall'energia a buon prezzo che arrivava dalla Russia.
Naturalmente, finora le élite europee hanno cercato di resistere a questo divorzio dalla Cina perché comprendono che il prezzo da pagare sarebbe altissimo e perché non vedono nessuna seria "minaccia cinese" per l'Europa. Ma la crescente interferenza degli Stati Uniti nella politica europea ha ridotto il margine di manovra. Distruggendo i legami con la Russia, l'Europa si è data la zappa sui piedi. La distruzione dei legami con la Cina metterebbe completamente in ginocchio l'UE. @LauraRuHK

Russia reveals position on Istanbul grain deal
The EU hogs grain from Ukraine while blocking the other half of the arrangement, Moscow said.

The Black Sea “grain deal” arranged last August is not working as intended, because the grain from Ukraine is not going to the needy countries of Africa and Asia, while the West continues to block all Russian food and fertilizer exports, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.

The arrangement, negotiated by the UN and signed on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul, established a safe corridor for ships bringing corn and wheat from Odessa to countries facing food insecurity. It was also supposed to re-establish the export of grain and fertilizer from Russia, the ministry noted in a statement.

Eight months later, only the first part of the deal has been implemented, and in a way “far from the declared humanitarian goals,” the ministry said. Since August 1 last year, Ukraine has exported over 23 million tons of grain, of which 70% was animal feed. Of that, the EU accounted for 47% and “upper-middle income countries” for another 34%, Moscow said, while only 2.6% is currently going to countries needing food the most.

Meanwhile, there has been “close to zero” progress in unblocking the delivery of Russian grain or fertilizer, badly needed elsewhere. Kiev has continued to block the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline “for purely political reasons,” resulting in a shortage of 2.5 million tons of raw material that could produce seven million tons of fertilizer and feed 200 million people, the ministry said.

The US and its allies have said their sanctions do not include Russian food and fertilizer – but they have banned all Russian ships from docking in their ports or accessing insurance and brokerage service, imposing a total blockade on commercial shipping in effect, if not in name.

“It’s time to stop playing the food card. The lion’s share of grain from Ukraine goes to the European Union as fodder at dumping prices, and not to the poorest countries,” the ministry noted. “Russian agricultural exports are being blatantly hindered, no matter how much the Europeans and Americans, who are used to telling lies, try to convince everyone otherwise.”

As an example, the ministry said that 262,000 tons of Russian fertilizer has been blocked in the Dutch and Baltic state ports for months. Moscow has offered the fertilizer to African countries absolutely free of charge, yet only one shipment of 20,000 tons, destined for Malawi, has managed to depart so far.

Russia is working on its own to organize deliveries to Africa, since the UN process is plagued by such difficulties and delays, the ministry added.

Moscow is therefore forced to conclude that the grain deal “does not work,” identifying the main problem as “sabotage by Western countries” of the Russia-UN memorandum.

“It is obvious that Americans and Europeans do not care about the needs of countries in need, nor about the efforts of the UN, which they have long and persistently tried to turn into a tool for serving their political goals,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. (Source: RT) @LauraRuHK

Sembra che le armi usate ieri dai terroristi che dopo essere penetrati in territorio russo hanno fatto vittime civili nella regione di Bryansk siano di fabbricazione tedesca. Dopo il raid omicida contro civili scelti a caso (una macchina con tre bambini!) i terroristi sono rientrati in Ucraina. L'artiglieria russa ha colpito la zona dove si nascondeva questa cellula terroristica. @LauraRuHK

https://t.me/MFARussia/15060

🎙 Osservazioni del Ministro degli Esteri Sergey Lavrov alla riunione plenaria del Consiglio ministeriale del G20 su multilateralismo, economia globale e sviluppo

📍 Nuova Delhi, 2 marzo 2023

💬 Siamo solidali con l'appello di Nuova Delhi a costruire un futuro comune per l'umanità, particolarmente importante nel contesto di un crescente confronto geopolitico. Condividiamo gli obiettivi pratici di rafforzamento del multilateralismo e di superamento delle crisi economiche globali fissati durante la Presidenza indiana.

❗️Vorrei scusarmi con la Presidenza e con i colleghi del Sud globale per il comportamento scorretto di alcune delegazioni occidentali, che hanno trasformato la discussione sull'agenda del G20 in una farsa nel tentativo di scaricare su altri, in primis la Russia, la responsabilità dei fallimenti della politica economica.

La formazione di un mondo policentrico richiede il riconoscimento delle diversità civili e il rispetto reciproco degli interessi. È imperativo smettere di farsi guidare dalla logica fallace del dominio, del diktat e delle sanzioni. Accogliamo con favore l'ascesa di nuovi centri di influenza in Asia, Medio Oriente, Africa e America Latina.

☝️ Ci impegneremo per democratizzare la gestione economica. Sosteniamo l'adesione dell'Unione Africana al G20. Sosteniamo l'aumento del ruolo delle economie in via di sviluppo nel FMI, nella Banca Mondiale e nell'OMC e l'eliminazione del monopolio occidentale nelle organizzazioni per l'ambiente e i diritti umani.

⛔️ È ora di smettere di giocare la carta del cibo. Oggi, la maggior parte delle forniture di grano dall'Ucraina viene spedita a prezzi stracciati alla UE, piuttosto che ai Paesi più poveri che ne hanno bisogno. Senza alcuno scrupolo, l'Occidente sta insabbiando la nota iniziativa umanitaria del Segretario generale delle Nazioni Unite.

🤝 Continueremo a dare un contributo importante per garantire la stabilità economica. Siamo aperti a un dialogo equo in seno al G20. Ci auguriamo che il vertice di Delhi di settembre possa almeno mitigare i rischi creati dalle politiche egoistiche dell'Occidente.

(Ministero degli Esteri russo)

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions following the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting

📍 New Delhi, March 2, 2023

🌍 It was agreed that from now on the African Union will be a full-fledged member of the G20, just as the EU that has been working in this capacity for several years now.

🌐 We reaffirmed Russia’s position on the importance of this by expanding the representation of the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

🔹 All multilateral institutions are being tested for compliance with the new geopolitical realities. Given the new circumstances, the associations (this includes the UN and the G20 alike) which act as platforms to find a balance of interests rather than to present their approaches or to make claims to justify their alleged entitlement to hegemony, will remain in high demand.

🔹 Like any document adopted by the entire international community, the UN Charter cannot be fulfilled selectively. It is not a menu to choose from.

🔹 The West continues to advance its interests by other means and methods in the new environment without taking into account the opinion of the vast majority of the world community. Developing countries see it all perfectly well.

🔹 We always support the right of any country to choose its own priorities. We don’t just proceed from understanding, but we know that our neighbours, partners and allies in the CSTO, the EAEU and the CIS confirm, in all of their contacts, their commitment to the obligations assumed in these integration structures.

❗️ We will continue fighting for justice for the Ukrainian people, protect the interests of ethnic Russians in Ukraine, and ensure the interests of the Ukrainian republics and regions that spoke out at the referendum in favour of reuniting with the Russian Federation.

Read in full

Multiple outlets have claimed this week that Serbia supplied 122-mm rockets for Grad MLRS to Ukraine. Some Russian TG channels, as well as media in Serbia (mostly owned by the West) have jumped on it, and even showed documents purporting this to be the case.

Krusik, the factory that makes the rockets, swears the documents are photoshopped. Defense Minister Milos Vucevic insisted that Serbia doesn't sell to either Russia or Ukraine. But he also made a convoluted argument about Serbia having a legal right to sell to legal end-users, and if someone sells to a third party, well, what can one do? Sorry Milos, that's BS.

However, my gut tells me the report is mostly or entirely fake news. Here's why.

First, the timing — right as the GAE is pressuring Serbia to bend the knee on Kosovo and sanctions against Moscow, and what better way to do so than manufacture a pretext? Secondly, to cover for actual, documented illegal ammunition shipments from neighboring Bulgaria, which — curiously — also involve the 122-mm Grad rockets.

Third, this scandal sounds a lot like repackaging of the 2019 accusations by a reputable investigative journalist that the West was buying Krusik ammunition for ISIS in Syria, which seemed more legit (but nothing came of it in the end).

Fourth, if the story is legit, why make up quotes? One TG channel in Russian actually claimed that Ukrainian intelligence chief Kirill Budanov had brought up Krusik to say Serbia is sending weapons to Kiev, but refusing to arm Moscow. Except the actual interview (VoA in 'Ukrainian') shows no such thing.

The usually reliable Russian open-source intel analysts Rybar also believe this is fake.

Last, but not least, the GAE has been experimenting with seeding fake news in Serbia for over a decade (one of these days I'll tell you how some of my colleagues debunked the infamous "Tom Hanks incident"). Much of their war effort in Ukraine is psyops.

All that said, Serbia really should not be selling weapons and ammo to countries who are likely to send it to Ukraine — especially since those very countries are busily trying to destroy it (Kosovo, etc). There's business, and there is being an idiot.

Lavrov:

Russia is determined to form independent payment systems and expand settlements in national currencies within the framework of BRICS, SCO and EAEU.