Germán & Co 12/2/22 Germán & Co 12/2/22

Rysslands utrikesminister Sergej Lavrov varnade för den "enorma" risken för ett kärnvapenkrig.

“Potentialen för att ett kärnvapenkrig ska bryta ut är ganska stor, även om det startas med konventionella vapen".

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Moscow - Dec 01- 2022

Under konflikten i Ukraina varnade minister Sergej Lavrov för den "enorma" risken för kärnvapenkrig och försvarade Kremls bombningar av civil infrastruktur i Ukraina. Han förutspådde också att relationerna med Europa aldrig skulle bli desamma.

“Potentialen för att ett kärnvapenkrig ska bryta ut är ganska stor, även om det startas med konventionella vapen".

Lavrov var snabb med att påpeka att två internationella deklarationer, en av Vladimir Putin och Joe Biden i juni 2021 och en annan av de fem stora stater som har sådana vapen i januari i år, nyligen har främjats av stora länder som varnar för att ingen kan vinna ett kärnvapenkrig och att det därför måste undvikas. Trots dessa uppmaningar varnade diplomaten för att hotet fortfarande är reellt, en situation som han skyller på västländerna för deras stöd till Ukraina: "Vi var beredda att gå längre och säga att inte bara ett kärnvapenkrig inte får utlösas, utan att varje krig mellan kärnvapenmakter också är oacceptabelt. Potentialen för att ett kärnvapenkrig ska bryta ut är ganska stor, även om det startas med konventionella vapen".

Utrikesministern rättfärdigade ryska attacker mot kraftverk och annan civil infrastruktur på ukrainskt territorium med att "de ger stridspotential till de ukrainska väpnade styrkorna, till de nationalistiska bataljonerna, och på dem beror leveransen av de många vapen som väst överöser Ukraina med för att döda ryssar".

Efter bakslagen på slagfältet i Ukraina i september och oktober höjde Kreml kärnvapenretoriken. Å ena sidan sade man att man skulle försvara det annekterade territoriet "med alla medel". President Vladimir Putin tillade att detta beslut "inte är en bluff". Å andra sidan hävdade han att Kiev förberedde sig på att använda "radioaktiva smutsiga vapen", en anklagelse som Ukraina tillbakavisade.

Washington varnade för att en rysk attack med smutsiga vapen eller kärnvapen inte skulle förbli ostraffad, och formen för USA:s svar gavs skriftligen av CIA-chefen William Burns till sin motsvarighet i den ryska utrikesunderrättelsetjänsten, Sergej Narisjkin, i Ankara den 14 november.

Lavrov öppnade dörren för en återgång till dialog, men på ett villkor: "Om våra västerländska samtalspartner inser sina misstag och uttrycker sin vilja att återgå till diskussionen om de dokument som vi föreslog i december". Det vill säga att ta upp de krav som Ryssland lade på bordet före invasionen av Ukraina, som krävde att alla länder som anslöt sig till alliansen efter grundlagen 1997 skulle lämna Nato, vilket skulle innebära att alla nationer öster om Tyskland skulle uteslutas.

Lavrov var skeptisk: "Jag tvivlar på att de kommer att finna styrka och intelligens att göra detta. Men om detta sker plötsligt kommer vi att vara beredda att tala med dem igen". Chefen för den ryska diplomatin tillade att Moskvas förslag var "ärliga" eftersom de inte krävde att USA:s styrkor skulle dras tillbaka från Europa och att Atlantalliansen skulle upplösas från början.

Uttalanden mot Borrell och EU

I vilket fall som helst anser Moskva att förhållandet till EU är nästan obefintligt. "För att svara på om Moskva är avskuret från den europeiska diplomatin måste vi först ta reda på om den existerar", sade han, innan han angrep EU:s höge representant för utrikes frågor Josep Borrell för att han sade att "denna konflikt måste sluta med Ukrainas seger på slagfältet". Lavrov sade: "Vi måste veta när vettiga människor kommer att dyka upp i den europeiska diplomatin". Han sade sedan att han saknar "gester genom diplomatiska kanaler" utöver de besök som Frankrikes president Emmanuel Macron, Tysklands förbundskansler Olaf Scholz och andra europeiska ledare gjorde i Moskva för att träffa Putin innan kriget började.

Moskva anser att den tidigare hjärtligheten inte kommer att återvända och att det är nödvändigt att förhandla fram en ny säkerhetsram "på i grunden nya principer". "Det är klart att om våra västliga grannar, och det är omöjligt att sluta vara i kontakt som grannar, är intresserade av att återupprätta det gemensamma arbetet med europeisk säkerhet, så kommer återupprättandet inte att lyckas eftersom återupprättande innebär en återgång till det förflutna, men vi kommer inte att återgå till en situation av normalitet", förutspådde diplomaten.

Lavrov riktade också sin uppmärksamhet mot Organisationen för säkerhet och samarbete i Europa (OSSE), en organisation som uppstod under det kalla kriget som en plattform för kommunikation mellan de två sidorna. Den ryske utrikesministern ansåg att dess existens "har devalverats" av Natos expansion sedan 1990-talet. Sedan 2014 har Nato övervakat efterlevnaden av vapenvilan i Ukrainas Donbas-region, och dess dagliga rapporter visade alla attacker från båda sidor - den ukrainska armén och Moskva-stödda separatister - som hade registrerats fram till 2022. Uppdraget tvingades dock lämna landet efter den ryska offensiven i februari.

Kritiken mot OSSE kom från alla håll på torsdagen. Medan Lavrov hävdade att den oberoende organisationen påverkas "av västvärldens numeriska överlägsenhet" bland medlemmarna, sade Ukrainas utrikesminister Dmitrij Kuleba på Twitter att OSSE "är på väg mot helvetet" och krävde Moskvas uteslutning eftersom "allt har prövats när det gäller Ryssland: att ge efter för Ryssland, blidka det, vara snäll, vara neutral, kompromissa eller att inte kalla en spade för en spade".

Chefen för den ryska diplomatin fördömde också den isolering som hans land utsätts för. Lavrov kritiserade skapandet av institutioner parallellt med befintliga institutioner utan Moskvas medverkan, såsom Europeiska politiska gemenskapen, en ram för politisk dialog som främjas av den franske presidenten Emmanuel Macron, så att EU kan interagera med länder som inte är en del av EU-projektet. "President Macron sade stolt: 'Vi har bjudit in alla utom Ryssland och Vitryssland'", påminde den högt uppsatta tjänstemannen.

Den vitryske Alexander Lukasjenkos regim har också varit inblandad i kriget i Ukraina, och Lavrov sade att detta samarbete kan spela en mer aktiv roll i framtiden. Om landet under våren fungerade som en plattform för Rysslands offensiv mot Kiev, tillkännagav Vitryssland i september att man skulle skapa gemensamma styrkor med Moskva inom ramen för unionsstaten, en överstatlig enhet som skapades på 1990-talet för att uppnå större politisk och militär integration. "Våra presidenter ägnar ökad uppmärksamhet åt denna fråga (gemensam utplacering) på grund av pågående provokationer, bland annat från Ukraina", sade Lavrov.

Germán & Co 12/2/22 Germán & Co 12/2/22

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned of the "huge" possibility of nuclear war.

“The potential for a nuclear war to break out is quite high…

even if it is started using conventional weapons ".

Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.

“And he has prophesied too that connections with Europe will never be the same after the fight in Ukraine.”

— Germán & Co

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Sources Agencies

Moscow - Dec 01- 2022

During the Ukraine conflict, Minister Sergey Lavrov warned of the "huge" risk of nuclear war and defended the Kremlin's bombing of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. He also predicted that relations with Europe would never be the same.

“The potential for a nuclear war to break out is quite high, even if it is started using conventional weapons ".

Lavrov was quick to point out that two international declarations, one by Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in June 2021 and another by the five major states that possess such weapons in January of this year, have recently been promoted by major countries warning that no one can win a nuclear war, and therefore it must be avoided. Despite these calls, the diplomat warned that the threat remains real, a situation for which he blames Western countries for their support for Ukraine: "We were ready to go further and say that not only should a nuclear war not be unleashed, but that any war between nuclear powers is also unacceptable. The potential for a nuclear war to break out is quite high, even if it is started using conventional weapons ".

The foreign minister justified Russian attacks on power plants and other civilian infrastructure on Ukrainian territory on the grounds that "they provide combat potential to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to the nationalist battalions, and on them depends on the delivery of numerous weapons with which the West is showering Ukraine to kill Russians".

After the September and October battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, the Kremlin raised the nuclear rhetoric. On the one hand, it said it would defend the annexed territory 'by all means'. President Vladimir Putin added that this decision 'is not a bluff'. On the other hand, he claimed that Kiev was preparing to use "radioactive dirty weapons", an accusation rejected by Ukraine.

Washington warned that a Russian attack involving dirty or nuclear weapons would not go unpunished, and the form of the US response was given in writing by CIA Director William Burns to his Russian foreign intelligence counterpart, Sergey Narishkin, in Ankara on 14 November.

Lavrov opened the door to a return to dialogue, but on one condition: "If our Western interlocutors realize their mistakes and express their willingness to return to the discussion of the documents we proposed in December". That is, to take up the demands Russia put on the table before the invasion of Ukraine, which called for the exit from NATO of all countries that joined the Alliance after the Founding Act of 1997, which would mean leaving out all nations east of Germany.

Lavrov was skeptical: "I doubt they will find the strength and intelligence to do this. But if this happens suddenly, we will be ready to talk to them again". The head of Russian diplomacy added that Moscow's proposals were "honest" because they did not demand the withdrawal of US forces from Europe and the dissolution of the Atlantic Alliance from the outset.

Statements against Borrell and the EU

In any case, Moscow considers the relationship with the EU to be almost non-existent. "To answer whether Moscow is being cut off from European diplomacy, we must first find out whether it exists," he said, before attacking EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell for saying that "this conflict must end with Ukraine's victory on the battlefield". Lavrov said: "We need to know when sane people will appear in European diplomacy". He then said he misses "gestures through diplomatic channels" beyond the visits to Moscow to see Putin by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other European leaders before the war began.

Moscow believes that the past cordiality will not return and that it is necessary to negotiate a new security framework "on basically new principles". "It is clear that if our Western neighbors, and it is impossible to stop being in contact as neighbors, are interested in restoring joint work on European security, its restoration will not be successful because restoration means a return to the past, but we will not return to a situation of normality", the diplomat predicted.

Lavrov also focused his attention on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an organization that came into being during the Cold War as a platform for communication between the two sides. The Russian foreign minister considered that its existence "has been devalued" by NATO's expansion since the 1990s. Since 2014, NATO has monitored compliance with the ceasefire in Ukraine's Donbas region, and its daily reports revealed all attacks by both sides - the Ukrainian army and Moscow-backed separatists - that had been recorded up to 2022. However, the mission was forced to leave the country after the Russian offensive in February.

Criticism of the OSCE came from all sides on Thursday. While Lavrov claimed that the independent organization is influenced "by the numerical superiority of the West" within its membership, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Twitter that the OSCE "is on the road to hell" and called for Moscow's expulsion because "everything has been tried with regard to Russia: pandering to it, appeasing it, being nice, being neutral, compromising or not calling a spade a spade".

The head of Russian diplomacy also denounced the isolation to which his country is being subjected. Lavrov criticized the creation of institutions parallel to existing ones without Moscow's participation, such as the European Political Community, a framework for political dialogue promoted by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, so that the EU can interact with countries that are not part of the EU project. "President Macron proudly said: 'We invited everyone except Russia and Belarus'," the senior official recalled.

The regime of Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko has also been involved in the war in Ukraine, and Lavrov said that this collaboration could play a more active role in the future. If in the spring it served as a platform for Russia's offensive on Kiev, in September Belarus announced the creation of joint forces with Moscow under the Union State, a supranational entity created in the 1990s to achieve greater political and military integration. "Our presidents are paying increased attention to this issue (joint deployment) because of ongoing provocations, including from Ukraine," Lavrov said.

Germán & Co 11/30/22 Germán & Co 11/30/22

News round-up, Wednesday, November 30, 2022.

Mike Pence Is Having a Moment He Doesn’t Deserve
NYT
Ukraine pleads in Paris for the creation of a tribunal to judge Russian aggression
Le Monde
Putin Seeks to Destabilize Ukraine's Neighbor
Spiegel

Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.

“Why wouldn’t Trump — a man Pence invariably calls “my president” and “my friend” — assume that his vice president would help steal the election? Pence had agreed to so much else, had tolerated every other national and personal indignity with that faraway, worshipful gaze.”

— NYT

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Mike Pence Is Having a Moment He Doesn’t Deserve

NYT

Nov. 29, 2022

By Carlos Lozada

Mike Pence had a go-to line during his time as vice president of the United States. When his boss would ask him to carry out some task or duty — say, take an overseas trip or run the response to a pandemic — Pence would look President Trump in the eye, nod and say, “I’m here to serve.”

The phrase recurs in Pence’s new memoir, “So Help Me God,” which covers his years as a congressman, governor of Indiana and vice president, with a focus on Pence’s actions during the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. It is the tale of the loyalist who finally had enough, of the prayerful stand-taker who insisted that he did not have the power to overturn an election, no matter the arguments concocted by Trump and his air-quote lawyers.

With rioters calling for his hanging and Trump tweeting that Pence lacked “the courage to do what should have been done,” the vice president turned to the aides and family members with him in an underground loading dock at the Capitol. “It doesn’t take courage to break the law,” he told them. “It takes courage to uphold the law.” It is an inspiring scene, marred only by Pence then asking his daughter to write down what he said.

Pence has been busy promoting “So Help Me God” on television, distancing himself from Trump (urging him to apologize for dining with a Holocaust-denying white supremacist at Mar-a-Lago last week) and even teasing a possible White House run of his own in 2024. The book debuted at No. 2 on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list, and the Justice Department is now seeking to question Pence in its investigation of Trump’s efforts to remain in power after the 2020 election. Clearly, the former veep is having his moment.

Feel free to buy the book, but don’t buy the redemption tale just yet. Pence was indeed in the White House to serve, but he served the president’s needs more than those of the nation. In “So Help Me God,” Pence rarely contradicts the president, even in private, until the days immediately preceding Jan. 6. He rarely attempts to talk Trump out of his worst decisions or positions. He rarely counters Trump’s lies with the truth.

Most damning, Pence failed to tell the president or the public, without hedging or softening the point, that the Trump-Pence ticket had lost the 2020 election, even after Pence had reached that conclusion himself. Americans should be enormously grateful that the vice president did not overstep his authority and attempt to reverse the will of the voters on Jan. 6. But you shouldn’t get the glory for pulling democracy back from the brink if you helped carry it up there in the first place. And, so help me God, Pence did just that.

Why wouldn’t Trump — a man Pence invariably calls “my president” and “my friend” — assume that his vice president would help steal the election? Pence had agreed to so much else, had tolerated every other national and personal indignity with that faraway, worshipful gaze.

The irony is that Pence’s record of reliable servility was a key reason he was in position to be the hero at the end. And so the vice president became that rarest of Trump-era creatures: a dedicated enabler who nonetheless managed to exit the administration with a plausible claim to partial credit. If Pence got to do the right thing on Jan. 6, it was because he had done the wrong one for so long.

The purpose of the vice president, of course, is to serve as second banana, preferably without getting too mottled by lousy assignments, presidential indifference or embarrassing deference. (Pence fills his sycophancy quotas in the book, extolling the president’s physical stamina, likening Trump to Jimmy Stewart’s character in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and noting that he displayed a signed copy of “The Art of the Deal” in his West Wing office during his entire vice presidency.) Still, I searched through the 542 pages of this memoir for any instances in which Pence exercised enough character and independent judgment to tell Trump that he might have been on the wrong course about something, about anything. I found two such cases before the events surrounding Jan. 6. Two.

No, it’s not when the president fired F.B.I. director James Comey in May of 2017, an action Trump took not for self-serving reasons, he assured Pence, but because it was “the right thing to do for the country.” (Apparently Pence is so persuaded by this argument that he quotes it twice.) It’s not when Trump praised the “very fine people” on both sides of the Charlottesville tragedy in August 2017. (Any notion of a false equivalence between neo-Nazis and those opposing them, Pence explains, was an unfortunate “narrative” that “smeared” his good friend in the Oval Office.)

It’s not when the administration separated children from their parents at the southern U.S. border. (On immigration, Pence writes, Trump “led with law and order but was prepared to follow with compassion.”) It’s not when Trump pressed Ukraine’s leader to investigate a potential Democratic rival in the 2020 election. (“It was a less-than-perfect call,” Pence acknowledges, but its imperfections were stylistic, the product of Trump’s “casual” and “spontaneous” approach to foreign relations.)

It’s not when Trump confused a frightened populace with his nonsensical coronavirus briefings in the spring of 2020. In fact, Pence explains away those sessions by suggesting that Trump believed that “seeing him and the press argue was in some way reassuring to the American people that life was going on.” And it’s not when Trump shared a stage with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July 2018 and accepted the Russian president’s denials about election interference. Pence says he encouraged Trump to “clarify” his views, but the vice president seemed far more troubled by media coverage of the event. “The press and political establishment went wild,” he writes. “It sounded as though the president was taking Putin’s side over that of his national security officials.” If it sounded that way, it was because that was the sound the words made when they left the president’s mouth.

That is a standard Pence feint: When Trump says or does something wildly objectionable, Pence remains noncommittal on the matter and just condemns the “ever-divisive press” that covered it. When Trump derided Haiti, El Salvador and various African nations as “shithole countries” in an Oval Office conversation in early 2018, “the media predictably went into a frenzy,” Pence laments. The former vice president even faults journalists for drawing attention to Covid infection numbers in May 2020, “at a time,” Pence writes, “when cases in more than half of the states were dropping, and case rates were also in decline, numbering 20,000 a day, down from 30,000 in April.” As if 20,000 new Americans infected with a dangerous virus each day was not newsworthy.

The two meaningful disagreements that Pence expressed to the president in real time were these: First, Pence demurred when Trump considered inviting Taliban representatives to Camp David; he suggested that the president “reflect on who they are and what they’ve done and if they have truly changed.” Second, the president and vice president had a testy exchange when Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager, left a pro-Trump super PAC and joined Pence’s political action committee. Pence reminded Trump that he had encouraged the move, but Trump denied having done so. “By that point I was angry,” Pence acknowledges; he even admits to raising his voice. Somehow, the Taliban and Corey Lewandowski rated equally as lines that shall not be crossed.

Between Election Day on Nov. 3, 2020, and the tragedy of Jan. 6, 2021, while Trump and his allies propagated the fiction of a stolen vote, Pence enabled and dissembled. Describing the outcome of the vote in his memoir, he offers a gloriously exculpatory euphemism, writing that “we came up short under circumstances that would cause millions of Americans to doubt the outcome of the election.” (Circumstances could not be reached for comment.)

When Trump declared victory in the early hours of Nov. 4, Pence stood alongside him in the East Room of the White House, in front of dozens of U.S. flags and behind a single microphone, and “promised that we would remain vigilant to protect the integrity of the vote,” Pence recalls. In the days that followed, Pence addressed conservative audiences and pledged to continue the fight “until every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is thrown out!”

Note those slippery, wiggle-room formulations. Pence does not directly state that he believed the election had been stolen, yet his rhetoric still appears fully in line with Trump’s position. The ovations at his speeches were “deafening,” Pence notes. So was his public silence about the truth. Less than a week after the election, Pence had already admitted to Jared Kushner that “although I was sure that some voter fraud had taken place, I wasn’t convinced it had cost us the election.” Why not share that conclusion with the public? Why stand by as the big lie grew bigger and Jan. 6 grew inevitable?

The memoir revisits several conversations between Pence and Trump in the weeks immediately preceding Jan. 6 — all missed opportunities to convey the truth to the boss. Instead, Pence reassured Trump that “the campaign was right to defend the integrity of America’s elections.” (Pence often refers obliquely to the actions of “the campaign,” as if he played no role in it, as if his name was not even on the ballot.) He dances around reality, coming closest to it when he advised the president that “if the legal challenges came up short and if he was unwilling to concede, he could simply accept the results of the elections, move forward with the transition, and start a political comeback.”

On Dec. 14, 2020, state electors officially voted and delivered an Electoral College majority to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, leading Pence to acknowledge that “for all intents and purposes, at that point the election was over.” He says so now in the memoir; if only he had said it in public at the time. Yes, he told Trump repeatedly that the vice president lacks the authority to overturn the results of the election. But not once in his book does Pence say to the president that, even if I had the authority, I would not exercise it — because we lost.

Throughout “So Help Me God,” readers find Pence still running interference for Trump, still minimizing his transgressions. When he quotes the president’s video from the afternoon of Jan. 6, in which Trump finally called on the rioters to stand down, Pence makes a revealing omission. Here is how he quotes Trump: “I know your pain, I know your hurt … but you have to go home now, we have to have peace.” What did Pence erase with that ellipsis? “We had an election that was stolen from us,” Trump said in the middle of that passage. “It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side.” So much of Pence’s vice presidency is captured in those three little dots.

Sometimes the problem is not the relevant material Pence leaves out, but the dubious material he puts in. Pence writes, with an overconfidence bordering on overcompensation, that he was going to win re-election as Indiana governor in 2016, that his victory “was all but assured.” In fact, Pence’s approval ratings in the final stretch of his governorship were low and polls indicated a tight contest against his Democratic opponent.

Pence writes that Trump “never tried to obscure the offensiveness of what he had said” on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, perhaps forgetting that Trump dismissed his words as mere “locker room talk” and later suggested that the voice on the recording might not have been his own.

Pence also writes that the White House, busy with its Covid response, did not have “much time for celebrating” after the president’s acquittal in his first Senate impeachment trial in February 2020, even though the next day Trump spoke about it in the White House for more than an hour before a crowd of lawmakers, aides, family members and lawyers. Trump explicitly called the speech a “celebration” and referred to that day, Feb. 6, 2020, as “a day of celebration,” as Pence, sitting in the front row, no doubt heard. The day would indeed prove a high point in the administration’s final year, as a pandemic, electoral defeat and insurrection soon followed.

“I prayed for wisdom to know the right thing to do and the courage to do it,” Pence writes of the days before Jan. 6. Unsurprising for a book with this title, Pence’s Christian faith is a constant reference point. Raised Catholic, Pence describes being born again during his college years and joining an evangelical church with his wife. Throughout the memoir, Pence is often praying, and often reminding readers of how often he prays.

Each chapter begins with a Bible passage, and Pence highlights individuals he deems particularly “strong” or “devout” Christians, with Representative Julia Carson of Indiana, who died in 2007, Senator Josh Hawley, Representative Jim Jordan and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo making the cut. I kept wondering if he would consider the role that his outspoken faith may have played in getting him on the ticket in the first place. If Trump picked him to reassure Christian conservatives, how does Pence feel about that bargain?

In the epilogue, Pence provides a clue. Of all the Trump administration’s accomplishments, he writes, the “most important of all” was making possible the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which ended the constitutional right to abortion. “The fact that three of the five justices who joined that opinion were appointed during the Trump-Pence administration makes all the hardship we endured from 2016 forward more than worth it.” Pence, in other words, is the ultimate “But Gorsuch!” voter. That is what he got out of the bargain, plus a new national profile that he may leverage into a bid for the only higher office left to seek.

In the book’s appendix, Pence reprints several documents that emphasize different aspects of his public service. There is his 2016 Republican convention speech, in which he hailed Trump as both an “uncalculating truth-teller” and “his own man, distinctly American”; his 2016 State of the State of Indiana address; his letter to Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, in which he stated that the vice president’s role in certifying an election is “largely ceremonial”; and his letter to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, six days after the attack on the Capitol, refusing to invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. Pence also adds two texts in which he takes special pride, and which I imagine him citing in any future presidential run.

First is an essay titled “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner,” which Pence published in 1991 after his second failed run for Congress. “It is wrong, quite simply, to squander a candidate’s priceless moment in history, a moment in which he or she could have brought critical issues before the citizenry, on partisan bickering,” Pence wrote. He was describing himself, with regret. The second is a speech that Pence, then representing Indiana’s Sixth Congressional District, delivered at Hillsdale College in 2010. “You must always be wary of a president who seems to float upon his own greatness,” Pence declared. He was describing the Obama presidency, with disdain. The president, he wrote, “does not command us; we command him. We serve neither him nor his vision.” Pence warned that “if a president joins the power of his office to his own willful interpretation, he steps away from a government of laws and toward a government of men.”

These documents provide an apt coda to Pence’s vice presidency. One day, he may use them to distinguish himself from his president and his friend, to try to show that Pence, too, can be his own man. For now, he does not make the obvious connection between the sentiments in his essay and speech and his experience campaigning and governing alongside Donald Trump. Or if he does, he is calculating enough to keep it to himself.

After all, Mike Pence was there to serve.

Ukraine pleads in Paris for the creation of a tribunal to judge Russian aggression

Kyiv is trying to influence the French position, which remains in favor of the International Criminal Court, to judge this particular crime: the invasion of one country by another.

By Stéphanie Maupas (La Haye (Netherlands), correspondent)

Le Monde

Published on November 30, 2022 at 09h34, updated at 09h42 on November 30, 2022

Anton Korynevych, Ukraine's ambassador for international humanitarian law, and Oksana Zolotaryova, director of legal affairs for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speak to the International Court of Justice on March 7, 2022. PHIL NIJHUIS / AP

On a visit to Paris, the Ukrainian ambassador for international humanitarian law, Anton Korynevych, is trying to get French authorities to support the creation of a tribunal to judge Russia's aggression. The diplomat, who said he had to take three trains and a plane to reach the French capital, took part in a Monday, November 28 meeting organized at the request of the presidency of Ukraine by the think tank Synopia. The meeting took place behind closed doors, in the luxurious residential headquarters of the Circle of the Interallied Union club, a few meters from the Elysée Palace. French MPs, officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, representatives of the justice and defense ministries, lawyers and judges also attended.

While Paris has been the leading voice in refusing this French-British project launched by the lawyer Philippe Sands at the end of February, the United States and the United Kingdom are also opposed to a new tribunal. In recent weeks, however, French resistance to the idea seems to have waned. At a time when people are talking more and more about the post-war period, Paris is willing to talk about the challenges that such a tribunal would present.

Ukraine is disappointed by the ICC

Ukraine can judge perpetrators of aggression but cannot prosecute Vladimir Putin, who benefits from the immunity of heads of state. Kyiv is therefore calling for a special tribunal to judge the specific crime of invasion of one country by another – the crime considered to be at the origin of the others, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. For Oleksandra Drik, of the Ukrainian NGO Center for Civil Liberties and winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, the aggression tribunal "would allow justice to be rendered for all victims."

But, according to one of the experts at the meeting, which Le Monde attended, aggression, also described as a "crime against peace" during the Nuremberg trials, has become "the blind spot of international justice." In 2010, it took a diplomatic conference to include this crime in the penal code of the International Criminal Court (ICC). At the time, Washington, Paris and London drastically limited the Court's room for maneuver, to the point that today, authorization from the UN Security Council would be required to be able to try Russia for the crime of aggression, which Moscow would obviously veto.

The French government also believes that such a tribunal would compete with the ICC, which is already investigating crimes against humanity and war crimes in Ukraine. In recent years, France has consolidated its support for the Court, considered one of the key players in the multilateralism strongly promoted by Emmanuel Macron. "Our contacts with the ICC are daily, concrete and effective," said Mr. Korynevych. However, although Ukraine has made many declarations of good intentions toward the ICC, it has still not ratified its founding treaty.

Ukraine considers the ICC highly disappointing since, having received a filing from Kyiv as early as 2014, it only opened an investigation into Russian aggression in February 2022. Since the beginning of the war, prosecutor Karim Kahn has been careful not to use Vladimir Putin's name or describe Russia's crimes as "genocide," as he's concerned about the court's independence. He has also reminded the two armies of their responsibilities. And he's opposed to the project of a special tribunal, which he sees as redundant.

'No other solution'

In Ukraine, many believe that the prosecutor will only target secondary criminals. "Will the ICC really be able to prosecute [Vladimir Putin]?" asked Mr. Korynevych. "Idi Amin Dada died in his bed, but today this would not be possible," said Bruno Cathala, a judge and former ICC clerk. Unfavorable to a trial in absentia and aware that it will be difficult to judge the Russian president, "what counts is the indictment," said Mr. Korynevych, as well as the potential effects of future arrest warrants. "Maybe this will bring about changes in Russia, or even already has?" he suggested. It remains to be seen whether the challenge will prompt the ICC to speed up its investigation, and whether ICC-issued arrest warrants for Mr. Putin along with his defense and foreign ministers would end efforts to create the aggression tribunal.

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In any case, "creating a tribunal takes two years," said Mr. Cathala. "Building a political consensus will take time." More than a dozen European countries are now in favor of the special court, and supporters are looking for the broadest possible support because prosecuting Mr. Putin requires that the future tribunal put an end to his immunity. In New York, however, Ukraine war "fatigue" can be observed. On November 14, the UN General Assembly adopted by a very small majority a resolution calling for the creation of a register to record the claims of the Ukrainian population and government, with the aim of obtaining reparations from Russia. During the debates, several countries asked the West to pay for slavery, colonialism, interference and climate change. Still, for Ms. Drik, "there is no solution other" than the formation of the aggression court to "force Russia to pay." For Mr. Korynevych, "the participation of the oligarchs is indispensable." Despite the legal obstacles, Kyiv hopes that the frozen assets of the oligarchs will pay for the reparations.

Putin Seeks to Destabilize Ukraine's Neighbor

Moldova is seeking to join the European Union, but Russia is doing everything it can to destabilize the small republic. The Kremlin has radically throttled gas deliveries and is orchestrating protests in the country.

By Maximilian Popp in Chişinău, Moldova

23.11.2022, 21.15 Uhr

They have gathered in front of the Presidential Palace in Moldova’s capital city Chişinău, just as they have for weeks. Older men in sweatpants and peasant women in headscarves. There appear to be several thousand of them, protesting against energy prices, which have multiplied in Moldova since last year. The Moldovan flag is flying everywhere, and the demonstrators chant in Russian: "Maia Sandu must go!"

DER SPIEGEL 47/2022

The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 47/2022 (November 19th, 2022) of DER SPIEGEL.

SPIEGEL International

When the leader of the demonstration, the pro-Russian opposition politician Ilan Şor, is connected by video, a murmur goes through the crowd. A court sentenced Şor to seven and a half years in prison for fraud. But to escape his jail time, he fled to Israel. The United States government has imposed sanctions on him for fomenting unrest in Moldova with Moscow’s help. President Sandu has ruined the economy, Şor claims, and only his party can save the country.

A Proxy Conflict Between Russia and the West

Moldova, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, has a population of just 2.5 million. With a per-capita income of around 5,100 euros, it is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Yet despite its small size, it is at the center of the conflict between Russia and the West.

Ever since declaring independence in 1991, Moldova has been almost continuously ruled by pro-Russian political forces. Then, in November 2020, voters elected Maia Sandu, a Harvard graduate and former World Bank economist. She removed pro-Russian officials from the state apparatus and, after Russia's attack on Ukraine, she sided with Kyiv. This is likely one of the reasons the European Union moved in June to declare Moldova as a candidate country.

Moscow, on the other hand, is doing all it can to destabilize the country. Gazprom halved natural gas supplies to Moldova in November, according to Sandu. Meanwhile, Ukrainian intelligence reports obtained by the Washington Post provide evidence that the Kremlin has thrown its support behind Sandu opponent Şor.

Without help from Europe, the Sandu government could fall this winter and be replaced by a pro-Russian regime, with consequences for the entire region.

Sandu, 50, is sitting with her winter coat on at the Presidential Palace on a November morning. She has turned off the heat to save energy.

Until recently, Moldova drew 100 percent of its natural gas needs from Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned monopoly. About two-thirds of the flow came through Transnistria, an unrecognized breakaway region in eastern Moldova that is backed by Moscow, with the remaining third coming through Ukraine.

Now, though, Russia has partially cut off gas supplies to Moldova, and Transnistria is also refusing to continue supplying electricity to Chişinău. The problem is compounded by the fact that Ukraine hasn’t been exporting energy for several weeks because of Russia's attacks on its civilian infrastructure. "We are being blackmailed by Moscow," Sandu says. The government is trying to solve the problem by buying gas and electricity on the European market, with much of the power coming from Romania. But the prices are so high that Sandu is having trouble finding the money to pay for it. "We're at risk of a blackout this winter," she says.

Sandu took office two years ago as a reformer, aiming to fight corruption and break the power of the oligarchs. Many young people who had previously lived abroad came to work for her government after she won the election. Her chief of staff has worked for the former head of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in Brussels, and her foreign minister for a think tank in Paris.

Sandu has now become a crisis manager more than anything else. She has greatly reduced energy consumption in the country. In Chişinău, streets are barely lit, and public buildings are only partially heated. She has also scaled back government spending and postponed infrastructure projects. Inflation in Moldova is close to 35 percent, and the economy is expected to stagnate this year. "We reached the pain threshold long ago," says Sandu.

Sandu has placed a sheet of paper full of notes on the table in front of her - she has thought carefully about what she wants to say in our interview. She is widely considered to be a perfectionist, and she has clearly suffered from the fact that she doesn't have much leverage when it comes to influencing the energy crisis. "Everything we've worked for over the years is now at stake," she laments.

Sandu sees herself as a supporter of a unified Europe. A European flag hangs on the wall of her office, and her government embodies all the values the EU so enthusiastically claims to represent: It is democratic, it is open, and it is diverse. But during this crisis, Brussels has largely left Moldova to fend for itself. Still, Sandu shies away from open criticism of the EU. She does, though, make it clear in the interview that she expects more help from the Europeans. "We’re defending democracy under the most difficult conditions," she says.

While European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised Sandu 250 million euros in aid during a visit to Chişinău on November 10, government calculations indicate that Sandu needs at least twice that amount. And if the money doesn't arrive quickly, high-ranking Moldovan officials have warned, the state faces bankruptcy. Should that happen, the government would no longer be able to pay the salaries of civil servants, and the lights would go out in Chişinău and other cities.

That's the scenario Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is presumably hoping for. Russia's FSB domestic intelligence service has infiltrated the government apparatus in Moldova for years. Moldovan officials claim the agency worked primarily with Igor Chayka, the Moldovan envoy of Delovaya Rossiya, a pro-Kremlin business association. According to Ukrainian intelligence data, Chayka and his contact at the FSB communicated more than 6,000 times between December 2020 and June 2022.

The FSB Refers to Şor as "The Young One"

The U.S. Treasury Department added Chayka to its sanctions list in October. A statement from the Treasury Department claims he developed "detailed plans" together with Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov to undermine President Sandu's government and "return Moldova to Russia's sphere of influence." It further states that Moscow used Chayka's companies as a front to funnel money to collaborating political parties in Moldova. "Some of these illicit campaign funds were earmarked for bribes and electoral fraud," it states.

Chayka and the FSB relied primarily on exiled politician Şor. The 35-year-old became rich as the head of a bank and a duty-free chain. He also owns a football club. In 2015, voters elected Şor as mayor of the small town of Orhei, which is located about 50 kilometers north of the capital. Two years later, however, a court convicted him of having played a role in the theft of a billion dollars from Moldovan banks. He appealed the decision. Since 2019, he has led his party, named after himself, from exile in Israel. He is currently polling at around 15 percent.

A high-ranking Russian politician recently praised Şor as a "worthy long-term partner." The FSB, meanwhile, refers to him as "the young one," according to the Washington Post. Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russian strategists first traveled to Chişinău on behalf of the Kremlin last spring to advise Şor’s party. Şor himself claims that his party is independent. He considers the Americans' sanctions against him to be a "victory." He claims they demonstrate that President Sandu knows that her days are numbered.

Bags of Cash in Party Offices

Şor is seeking to ratchet up the pressure on the government by organizing protests against the high energy prices. In October, Moldova’s anti-corruption prosecutor arrested 24 people, including members of the Şor Party, on allegations that they had provided illegal funding to anti-government protests. Moldova’s Interior Ministry says investigators found bags of cash in party offices.

In late September, a Şor confidant gained control of the two largest pro-Russian television stations in Moldova, allowing the politician to spread his propaganda even more widely from exile.

"Moscow's campaign against the Sandu government is a prime example of hybrid warfare," says Iulian Groza of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, a think tank based in Chişinău. "Instead of tanks, the Russians are using energy and disinformation."

If the government under Sandu does indeed fall over the energy crisis, experts fear that this could also have consequences for the war in Ukraine. Aid regularly reaches Ukraine via Moldova, and war refugees also pass through the country on their way to EU countries, and some also stay. A pro-Moscow regime, could create problems for the aid and refugees alike.

On an early November morning, Moldova's Interior Minister Ana Revenco, dressed in sneakers, a fleece jacket and wearing her hair in a ponytail, is traveling in a van from Chişinău to the border with Ukraine. She makes these visits, she says, to gain the trust of her border officials. Revenco assumes that some in her department still mourn the fact that the Russia-friendly Party of Socialists-led government lost the last election.

Since the war began in February, 700,000 war refugees have crossed the border into Moldova; and about one in 10 has stayed in the country. Revenco has had a tent camp erected at the Palanca border crossing, as well as a bus station to register refugees if need be and transport them on to EU states. The minister wants to be prepared in case the war in southern Ukraine escalates. Odessa is only about 50 kilometers away from Palanca.

Update: At a bilateral donor conference in Paris between Germany and France on Monday night, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged 32.3 million euros in additional aid from Berlin, and French President Emmanuel Macros said his country would give further aid to the tune of 100 million euros. "It is Putin's intention to blackmail (countries) dependent on it through energy supplies," Baerbock said. "But this won’t work. Moldova has friends and partners in the EU."

In China, Xi Jinping's absolute power is being challenged

News analysis

Frédéric Lemaître

Beijing (China) correspondent

China's children love their country, writes Le Monde's correspondent in Beijing. But restricting their freedom only leaves them craving for democracy.

Published on November 29, 2022 at 11h40, updated at 12h59 on November 29, 2022 Time to 5 min. Lire en français

During a Shanghai demonstration against China's zero-Covid policy on November 27, 2022. AP

Like any self-respecting dictator, Xi Jinping is convinced that whoever holds the party holds the country. The facts have long proven him right. With its 96 million members (about one adult in 12), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is unparalleled in the world, physically present in the smallest neighborhoods and the smallest businesses in this continental country. Selected among the best pupils and students, its members constitute a technocratic elite that manages China according to Beijing's orders.

In President Xi Jinping's dream world, the CCP knows what is good for the people, since it itself comes from them. And since it makes the right decisions, the people are therefore grateful. One of the sentences he uttered at the 19th CCP congress in 2017 sums up his thinking quite well: "Party, state, military affairs, civil affairs, education, east, west, south, north, center – the party runs everything." His speech on October 16, at the opening of the 20th congress, is equally fascinating. The criticism of his predecessors occupied an infinitely greater place there than the management of Covid-19.

All evils come from abroad

The party was mentioned more than 140 times, far more than any other term. Similarly, following the congress, Mr. Xi did not go to a place symbolic of the China of 2022 to meet his people. Instead, he took the six other CCP leaders to the farthest reaches of Shaanxi, where Mao waited for his time from 1935 to 1949, in a region that is becoming a communist pilgrimage site. It's far from the China of tomorrow, but also from the China of today, which suffers from the zero-Covid policy, unemployment and bankrupt property developers.

Power isolates and absolute power isolates absolutely. Nothing illustrates this better than the demonstrations against the zero-Covid policy over the last few weeks and against the CCP dictatorship over the last few days. When Mr. Xi inspects a province – a communist leader does not "visit," he "inspects" – everything is organized so that he does not encounter any discontent.

A provincial teacher recently recounted how, one evening around 10 pm, the school principal called all the teachers to be present at 7 am because of an "important event." The next day, each teacher, accompanied by a policeman, had to go to a district in the city and give the order to each inhabitant to close and stay away from their windows. Still without knowing the reason for this strange instruction. It was only a few hours later that she realized that Mr. Xi was about to "inspect" the area and meet with a few hand-picked residents.

Similarly, in April 2021, the Chinese leader visited Tsinghua University, the most prestigious university in Beijing. After praising the experts "guided by Marxism," he left, greeted, according to the photos, by hundreds of young people waving small red flags. He probably concluded that the elite of tomorrow was satisfied with his standing. The problem is that these are the same students who, on November 27, demonstrated, sang "The Internationale" and demanded more democracy.

The young people of Generation Z are all the more courageous because many do not know what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989

It is believed that leaders are better informed than the common man. This is not true. The journalists of the China News Agency have two functions: to publish articles intended to spread the official truth among the population and, at the same time, to transmit "real information" to Beijing.

For example, in Wuhan in January 2020, the same reporters explained to the people that the new virus could not be transmitted from human to human while writing the opposite to the leaders. According to a recent Associated Press investigation, the most important dispatches used to land on the prime minister's desk. But Mr. Xi demanded to receive them directly. As a result, journalists no longer dare to bring up bad news.

In the story of the Chinese leader, all of China's ills come from abroad, from a West that wanted to "humiliate" it for more than a century (1839-1949) before the CCP "liberated" it. It's the same West that incited the Arab Spring and the color revolutions starting in 2011, just before Mr. Xi came to supreme power and saved the CCP and the country.

'The same poison as in Hong Kong'

Since this weekend, this little nationalist tune can be heard again. "It's the same poison as in Hong Kong: young people who don't have local characteristics, but have a Taiwanese or Hong Kong accent and a Western appearance – a typical style of the color revolutions," denounced a blogger from Fudan University. "The demonstrations hurt our national solidarity and strengthen our enemies from within and outside," said Li Guangman, another well-known nationalist blogger, who also denounced the Chinese pharmaceutical laboratories, which are private and therefore corrupted by the West. Since Monday, in some cities, the police have been checking young people's cell phones and removing Western apps.

The CCP knows how to crack down on protesters through arrests and intimidation. In the coming days and weeks, the families of the protesters will be visited by the police and told that, in the interests of everyone, they should keep a closer eye on their children.

But the regime is clearly worried by this movement that it did not see coming. "With the relaxation of pandemic controls and the monitoring of the measures [adopted], public sentiment will calm down. I can make an absolute prediction: China will not fall into chaos or [get out] of control," wrote Hu Xijin, one of the regime's top propagandists, on Twitter.

One option for the government would be to relax the zero-Covid policy, while presenting it as a "unique success in the world" and, at the same time, to crack down on protesters, strengthen censorship on social media and increase pressure on teachers. In recent days, the media have been putting more emphasis on the Omicron variant's low-mortality rate and, as Li Guangman's article shows, have found a new scapegoat: the pharmaceutical companies. "If the pandemic is to be controlled, the mess with PCR testing must be stopped," wrote The Health Daily on November 29.

A desire for the West

Beyond the health policy, the weekend demonstrations showed that, despite the propaganda, a segment of the youth is ready to fight in the name of human rights and those values that the regime continues to define as purely "Western."

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Born after 2000, the young people of Generation Z are all the more courageous because a significant number of them know little or nothing about what happened in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Xi Jinping's children are both nationalistic and liberal. They love China and are proud of its successes, but they also want to be able to listen to Korean K-pop, watch NBA basketball games and see Chinese or foreign films that move them. By restricting their freedoms and pursuing an economic policy that makes their lives more difficult, Mr. Xi is awakening in them a desire for rights and openness that in recent years seemed to have lost its power.

Frédéric Lemaître(Beijing (China) correspondent)

"The Regime's Legitimacy Is Eroding"Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression

The uprising against the Islamist dictatorship in Iran is entering a new phase and the regime is doing all it can to survive. For how much longer can the mullahs cling to power?

By Anne Armbrecht, Julia Amalia Heyer, Muriel Kalisch, Mina Khani, Maximilian Popp, Christoph Reuter, Omid Rezaee und Özlem Topçu

25.11.2022, 17.49 Uhr

There isn’t a single place where she is safe from the regime’s henchmen, says Anoush, not even in her dreams.

It has been just over a month since DER SPIEGEL first spoke with Anoush, a teacher from the Iranian capital of Tehran in her mid-20s. At the time, the protests that erupted following the September death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini had already spread throughout the country. Anoush says she began taking part in the demonstrations from the very beginning. Now, she has again decided to share her experiences, using long chat messages to do so. She has, however, changed the service she uses: She no longer feels that WhatsApp is secure enough.

DER SPIEGEL 48/2022

The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 48/2022 (November 26th, 2022) of DER SPIEGEL.

SPIEGEL International

The regime, she says, has drastically ratcheted up the pressure. The terror, she says, is everywhere, with only a fraction of it making it into the media. An acquaintance of hers, she says, was raped in prison after being arrested, with the guards having fired at her genitals with paintball guns. "Since then, I have been having a recurring nightmare of being raped myself," she says.

Despite the violence, people in Tehran and elsewhere in the country are continuing to take to the streets. Their primary focus this week has been the massacres in the Kurdish areas of the country. It is difficult, however, to determine where the demonstrations are taking place and how large they are since the internet has been blocked in many parts of the country.

"We cry ourselves to sleep and wake up with new hope."

Anoush, a teacher from Tehran

The fight against the dictatorship is no longer finding its expression only in street protests, says Anoush. "We are screaming from the windows, even if security forces are opening fire more frequently. We are boycotting companies that advertise on state television. We are using cash instead of credit cards, collecting money for the people in the Kurdish areas. It is difficult to get help to them, but some people are trying. When we cross the streets, we give each other the V for victory sign. We cry ourselves to sleep and wake up with new hope."

Fewer Mass Protests, More Flashmobs

The uprising against the mullahs has been underway for 10 weeks, longer than most thought possible – Iranian rulers, the international community, and even the protesters themselves. And the shape of the resistance is changing, according to reports from inside Iran. There are fewer mass protests, but more flashmobs. Small groups from a specific district, sometimes even just a single residential building, suddenly emerge and begin shouting: "Down with the dictatorship!," filming the event and then melting away. The anger, however, has remained just as intense. "Nobody is staying quiet," says a 41-year-old from the middle class Tehran district of Sadeghiyeh.

For many Iranians, the uprising has become a part of their everyday lives. In the social networks, images and videos are being shared by tens of thousands of people. You can see videos from Tehran showing people from all walks of life – from young hipsters to elegant, middle-aged women – strolling through the city with their hair uncovered and greeting each other with fist bumps. You can see embracing and kissing in front of their city’s landmarks.

In Iran at the moment, says the Bern-based Orientalist Reinhard Schulze – who is speaking on the phone with friends across the country almost daily – the definition of Iranian nation is currently at stake. The central question: Who represents the Iranians?

"We do," insists the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which continues to have its opponents sentenced to death.

"We do," counter those who have risen up against the regime. Initially, their insurrection came merely in the form of refusing to cover their hair, instead tearing off their headscarves. Increasingly, though, the rebellion is becoming more militant, including the use of Molotov cocktails.

Schulze believes that the character of the Iranian nation has changed over the past several weeks. The population, he says, believes less and less in the promises made by the Islamic Republic and its institutions, which has been in power for 43 years. Day by day, people are demanding a more liberal model in which the rule of law should also play a strong role, says Schulze.

A Slap in the Face for Tehran

The fact that political power in the country is at stake could also be seen on Monday, when the Iranian national team at the World Cup in Qatar demonstratively kept their mouths closed during the playing of their country’s national anthem. It was a clear protest with the world watching – and a slap in the face of the rulers back in Tehran.

Most of the players on the Iranian national team had long been wary of making clear political statements, in part no doubt because of enormous pressure from the regime. On the eve of their departure for Doha, the players even met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Did they have a choice? Images of the meeting distributed by the president’s office show the team sitting on chairs in a circle around Raisi. The players are wearing suits, with several of them bowing, hands over their hearts. Many began referring to them as "Team Mullah," and people on the streets of Tehran lit fire to World Cup posters and pictures of the team.

"The regime's legitimacy is eroding."

Reinhard Schulze, Orientalist

One can only guess at why the national team players ultimately decided to stage their silent protest. They provided no explanation following the match. Were they simply waiting for the largest possible stage for their gesture? Or did the pressure, after months of doing nothing, simply grow too heavy? Did they have a bad conscience vis-à-vis the millions who had idolized them? Or was it merely a desire to be on the "right side" of history?

It also isn’t clear how the regime will react to the anthem boycott. Ahead of the tournament, the national players were reportedly threatened. But it seems unlikely that the regime will exert the same force on the national team as they do against demonstrators on the streets. The players, believes the U.S.-based women’s rights activist Maryam Shojaei, are simply too popular. Shojaei focuses her work on gaining access for women to sporting events in Iran. Speaking of the players on the Iranian World Cup team, she says: "They enjoy an immunity that normal people don’t have."

That's why for Shojaei and other activists, the gesture of the national team players didn’t go far enough. "If you want to see real courage, then look at the young women who are risking their lives at the protests."

It is nevertheless clear that a significant shift is underway in Iranian society. "The regime’s legitimacy is eroding. They are no longer recognized by their own people,” says Orientalist Schulze. He believes that the mullah’s grip on power has become fragile. Of course, he says, it is difficult for many in the population to believe that the mullahs might one day be swept from power. But there is also a significant amount of hope and plenty of courage.

In the beginning, he was part of a group of four, says 23-year-old paramedic Ardalan, from the Kurdish north of the country, who told his story over the course of dozens of voice messages. They were an emergency response team tending to injured demonstrators. "Two were murdered and one was arrested. I’m the only one left." He says that he too was taken to prison and tortured, and charged with "insulting the Prophet" because he had helped the wounded. He was then released on bail, "and I’m still going! We have to treat the wounds immediately, otherwise many of them won’t survive." Early on, he says, they were fired at with teargas and buckshot, but that hasn’t been the case for some time. Now, he says, the regime is using snipers and "dushkas," – large-caliber machine guns that are frequently mounted on the beds of pickups.

Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini grabbed power in 1979, Tehran has been propagating the fight against purported American imperialism and against the discrimination of Shiite Muslims in Saudi Arabia and in other Gulf autocracies.

Even More Brutality in the Provinces

But the Islamic Republic has always been a state that oppresses minorities: the Kurds to the west, the Baluchis in the southeast and Sunni Arabs in the south. Since the first day of the unrest in September, protests in the Kurdish areas as well as those in Sistan and Baluchestan Province have been fired on with live ammunition.

"I don’t want to use the term 'state of war,'" says Ardalan, "because in a war, both sides are armed. But we only have bricks that we pile up to form barricades, while the other side is heavily armed."

Ardalan’s accounts cannot be independently verified, but they are consistent with the stories told by other sources. His identity is known to DER SPIEGEL. "We have established a network for the transportation of medical supplies and bandages," he continues. "We use side streets. All the main roads are monitored. At the roadblocks, they search for medical supplies. If you have any with you, you are arrested."

By law, the Red Crescent – the Muslim world’s version of the Red Cross – would be responsible for helping everyone. "Instead, those who are injured by the Revolutionary Guards are immediately taken to prison,” says Ardalan. "When they arrested me, they broke my fingers." Everyone knows the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, he says, "but far worse things happen in prisons in Kurdistan, more torture." That, he says, is the regime’s method for spreading fear.

Normal life on the streets has been extinguished, says Ardalan. On the one hand, fear has translated into a de facto curfew. "I know women who have been shot simply because they wanted to go out for some bread." On the other hand, almost all store owners are striking and people are boycotting the state-owned supermarkets. Even money is running short, he says. His account has been frozen and cash machines aren’t working. "There are no banknotes any more in Kurdistan!"

Lessons for the City

The brutality in the provinces is intended as a warning to the residents of larger cities in the heart of the country. But this time, the violence has actually triggered the opposite effect. "We sympathize with them. We understand that we are confronting the same enemy,” says a Tehran resident who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for her safety.

The old relationships between city dwellers and the rural population have changed, she says. "We can learn from them," the woman from Tehran says. "They have much more experience than we do when it comes to organizing street battles. How to immediately collect elsewhere when the first demonstration is crushed. How to organize help for the injured. How to transform a funeral into a rally."

In Iran, state institutions and, especially, the hundreds of thousands who are part of the Revolutionary Guard and their minions are holding firm, along with the huge number of private citizens who benefit from Iran’s parallel economy. The Revolutionary Guard has control of huge swaths of the economy: airports, oil terminals, hospitals and universities. And this parallel economy is nourished by the Western sanctions, resulting in an army of profiteers who would lose their privileges if the Islamic Republic were to collapse.

Afshon Ostovar, a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California, and the author of a book about the Revolutionary Guard, believes the regime is approaching its end. "What we are seeing right now is a generational revolution, the younger generation against the regime," he says. He doesn’t want to predict whether it will be successful now, or only in one, two or five years. "The undoing of the Iranian regime has begun." With every young person who is killed, Ostovar says, the Supreme Leader is also losing the support of the victim’s cousins, aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents.

German-Iranian political scientist Ali Fathollah-Nejad believs it will ultimately depend on how workers respond. There have already been protests among contract workers in the oil and gas sector. Fathollah-Nejad says they are debating whether and when to join the uprising. He says that such a coalition of demonstrators and workers would have good chances for success. "They have something in common: They don’t believe that their lives will improve under this regime."

In Iran’s south, to be sure, where the largest oil fields are located, there have thus far been fewer demonstrations than in Tehran or Kurdistan. But strikes and protests are on the rise there as well. Workers at an oil refinery, long-haul truck drivers and employees of the automobile producer Bahman Motor in Tehran are demanding change – specifically wages that they can survive on.

Ultimately, the slogan used thus far in these protests – Woman, Life, Freedom – could soon be expanded to include another word: Bread

Germán & Co 11/29/22 Germán & Co 11/29/22

Den otroliga Riddle Nord Stream-affären

"Jag tror inte att Putin är en Hitler-liknande person", svarar Kissinger. "Han kommer från Dostojevskij."

”Portafolio” Henry Kisssinger, Manhattan, NY, July 27, 2018.

“Avstå från att frestas att återuppliva ett projekt med en korrupt geopolitisk och omoralisk historia som har försatt den globala ekonomin i en kris utan någon utväg. ”

— Germán & Co

Vem är ansvarig för den mänskliga och ekonomiska katastrof som världen befinner sig i?

Tusentals civila dödsfall och 6,6 miljoner flyktingar: Beräkning av krigets kostnader
Sex månader efter Rysslands invasion av Ukraina är de mänskliga och ekonomiska konsekvenserna oöverskådliga. Men de siffror som har kommit fram ger en dyster bild.
A) Dag efter dag i 181 dagar blir den dystra boken över Rysslands invasion av Ukraina längre med varje missilattack, skottlossning och rapport om grymheter.
B) Ukrainska civila har betalat ett högt pris: 5 587 personer har bekräftats döda, och det verkliga antalet tros vara tiotusentals. Antalet flyktingar har överskridit 6,6 miljoner.
C) De militära förlusterna har varit tunga på båda sidor, med cirka 9 000 ukrainare och så många som 25 000 ryssar som uppges ha dödats.
D) Ukraina har förlorat kontrollen över 20 procent av sitt territorium till ryska styrkor och deras ombud under de senaste åren.
E) Förstörelsen har redan kostat Ukraina minst 113,5 miljarder dollar, och landet kan behöva mer än 200 miljarder dollar för att återuppbygga.
F) Givarländerna har lovat att ge Ukraina sammanlagt mer än 83 miljarder dollar.
G) Ukrainas jordbruksproduktion och andra länder som är beroende av den har drabbats hårt. Även om spannmålsfartyg återigen är på väg är hungerkrisen i världen allvarlig.
Yuhas, Alan. “Thousands of Civilian Deaths and 6.6 Million Refugees: Calculating the Costs of War.” NYT, www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-toll.html. Accessed 24 Aug. 2022.

**Hur kommer läckorna i Nord Stream att påverka klimatet?**
Tysklands federala miljöbyrå uppskattade att läckorna kommer att leda till utsläpp av cirka 7,5 miljoner ton koldioxidekvivalenter - cirka 1 procent av Tysklands årliga utsläpp. **Myndigheten konstaterade också att det inte finns några "tätningsmekanismer" längs rörledningarna, "så med all sannolikhet kommer hela innehållet i rören att läcka ut".**

`Nord Stream Gas Pipeline Leaks Lead to ‘Significant Climate Damage’ - Environment Agency.” Clean Energy Wire, 29 Sept. 2022.`
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

3.8.3.7 Nödavstängning
Landningsanläggningarna i Ryssland och Tyskland kommer att ha lokala system för nödstopp.
Systemen kommer att utlösas i händelse av att anläggningens branddetektion, gasdetektion eller
upptäckt av läckage i rörledningar. En fullständig riskanalys har genomförts för systemet.
Hur lång tid det tar innan ett läckage upptäcks beror, föga förvånande, på vilken typ av
av läckagesystem, parametrarna för den rörledning som övervakas och storleken på läckaget.
läckan. Typiskt sett kan det ta flera timmar att upptäcka en liten läcka på <10 cm. En större läcka på >10
cm kan upptäckas på så kort tid som några minuter.
Om en betydande farlig händelse inträffar, t.ex. en brand eller ett gasläckage, kommer rörledningen att
stängas av omedelbart (eller med en mycket kort tidsfördröjning). I händelse av ett läckage kommer nödsystemet att
stängningstiden för ventilen för nödstopp beror på läckans storlek och tiden för upptäckt av läckan.
Den tid det tar för nödstoppsventilen att stänga är cirka 3 sekunder.
per tum av rörledningen, dvs. cirka 150 sekunder (eftersom rörledningen är 48 tum).
Eftersom det inte finns några ventiler längs sträckan är det inte möjligt att stänga av delar av rörledningen. Detta innebär att vid en läcka och efterföljande avstängning kan vatten tränga in i
rörledningen.

Maintenance - Nord Stream AG (nord-stream.com)

Moskva, slutet av november 1986, nära den ryska vintern…

Landningen i Moskva på den dystra Sheremetyevo-flygplatsen var nervöst. När man klev av planet mötte man ett gigantiskt mausoleum av marmor i en gravskicklig tystnad. Sovjetiska soldater bevakade ständigt passagerarna, vilket skapade skrämsel och rädsla. Att stå i den där migrationskön i väntan på att få tillträde till landet var en riktig mardröm. Att känna hur man upprepade gånger blev auskulterad av den oförskräckta migrationshandläggaren blev den mest obehagliga upplevelse man kunde tänka sig. Efter några timmar var det dags att gå vidare till den andra punkten av påtryckningar: kontroll av bagage och alla personliga tillhörigheter. Det var en procedur som den sovjetiska tullpersonalen utförde mest noggrant. De inspekterade allting. Röntgenutrustningen i den flygterminalen skapade en perfekt scenografi för en science fiction-film. Så var också överenskommelsen. När dessa två omöjliga uppdrag väl var utförda gränsade önskan att ta sig till hotellet till vansinne. Kroppen längtade efter ett varmt bad. Jag kände akut ångest över att befinna mig i ett rum; febern och kylan som denguefebern gav upphov till knockade mig.

När jag anlände till hotellet fick jag veta att det inte fanns några lediga rum. "Vad?" Jag frågade något upprört. "Här har jag kupongen som visar att jag har bokat ett rum och att det har betalats." Leonid Brezjnevs era hade avslutats för några år sedan, och med honom försvann också en av de mest totalitära perioderna i Sovjetunionen. Omvänt främjade Jurij Andropov många reformer som betonade ekonomisk öppenhet och avskaffade den stora byråkratiska apparaten, även om hans mandatperiod var kort. Konstantin Tjernenko, hans efterträdare, fortsatte på samma linje. Hans mandatperiod varade dock i ett år och månader. Sedan, 1985, när Michail Gorbatjov kom till makten, inleddes perestrojkan och förändringarna gick in i en mer accelererande fas. Vid tiden för min korta vistelse i Moskva 1986 var det fortfarande komplicerat att förnimma någon väsentlig förändring i Sovjetunionen. När jag satt i hotellets lobby och väntade på någon lösning på problemet fick jag ett samtal om att de redan hade ett rum åt mig. Jag fick också kuponger för olika snacks. Jag gick genast upp till sjätte våningen, där mitt rum fanns. När jag kom ut ur hissen fanns det en reception med en äldre dam, märkbart överviktig, med en blommig halsduk på huvudet, en sorglig grå tröja och sliten som regimen, naturligtvis med en fientlig attityd, som jag gissar måste ha varit åtminstone från KGB. Hennes uppgift var att kontrollera ditt pass varje gång du kom in i eller lämnade rummet. När jag skulle hämta nyckeln såg hon fast på mig, och utan sympati sade hon: "Det finns inget varmvatten." "Vad menar du?" Jag frågade henne med en blandning av förvåning och ilska. "Nej, det finns inget varmvatten", upprepade hon med en godtycklig ton. I slutet av november är det i Moskva omöjligt att bada i kallt vatten. Vattnet kommer ut ur kranarna som is. "Fungerar bastun?" Jag frågade och letade efter ett alternativ. "Ja", svarade hon kaxigt. Det var det bästa alternativet jag kunde vända mig till i min desperation efter ett bad efter en resa som varade i mer än tjugoåtta timmar.

Den framstående gentlemannen och tidigare förbundskanslern Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (född den 7 april 1944 i Blomberg, Freistaat Lippe, Nazityskland) har inte haft turen att känna till den verklighet som det stoiska ryska folket lever i. Han (herr Schröder) har levt under de gyllene kupolerna i Moskvas Amur-citadell med ett överflöd av kaviar och Beluga-vodka, stackare!!!!
Verkligheten är att Fjodor Dostojevskijs livsfilosofi (född den 11 november 1821 i Moskva, Ryssland, död den 9 februari 1881 i S:t Petersburg) inte är en del av herr Schröders själ.

Varför bestämde jag mig för att börja med den här historien, artikeln och Henry Alfred Kissingers (född den 27 maj 1923 i Tyskland) påstående om president Vladimir Putins personlighet?

"Jag tror inte att Putin är en Hitler-liknande person", svarar Kissinger. "Han kommer från Dostojevskij."

`El Tiempo, Casa Editorial. “Henry Kissinger: ‘Estamos En Un Período Muy, Muy Grave.’” Portafolio.co, www.portafolio.co/internacional/henry-kissinger-estamos-en-un-periodo-muy-muy-grave-519509.`
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

Vad menar Henry Kissinger med detta uttalande om president Vladimir Putin?

Kissinger svarar på hans påstående på följande sätt: "Hans huvudpoäng är att västvärlden felaktigt antog, under åren innan Putin annekterade Krim, att Ryssland skulle anta en ordning baserad på västerländska regler. Nato missförstod Rysslands djupt rotade längtan efter respekt. Du menar att vi provocerade Putin... fallet Vladimir Putin och hans föreställning om Ryssland, och all denna efterföljande invasion och annektering som pågår i Ukraina. Enligt uppgifter är den ryske starke mannens två favoritförfattare Leo Tolstoj och Fjodor Dostojevskij. Båda verkar ha ställt honom inför ett val: att tro på den senares föreställning om Ryssland som ett slags slavisk civilisatorisk kraft som ska påtvingas underlägsna varelser, och Tolstojs mer humanistiska synsätt. Och det verkar som om Putin har valt det förstnämnda."

För att försöka vara så objektiv som möjligt i detta transcendentala ämne definierar Fjodor Dostojevskij människans liv på följande sätt: "Människan måste förtjäna sin lycka genom att lida: Det är landets lag.

Intressant är Henry Kissingers reflektion över ett kanske antropologiskt beteende (som kombinerar en intellektuell biografi med en förklaring av metodologiska principer). Här är det nödvändigt att vara specifik inte för det ädla ryska folket utan för dess ledare om den "slaviska civiliserande kraft som måste påtvingas underlägsna varelser". Vad som nu är säkert är att det ryska folket, sedan dess imperiala förflutna, som lever på det sovjetsocialistiska systemet och den nuvarande regimen, har varit tvunget att överleva inom ett samhälle som alienerar uppryckandet av den individuella identiteten genom den grymma exilpolitiken. Det vill säga, den avsiktliga migrationen av dess invånare till avlägsna områden som är kulturellt annorlunda än deras födelseort. Fjodor Dostojevskij kände till de svårigheter som Sibirien innebar för hans hälsa med irreparabla skador och därmed för hans liv. Putin, även om han inte har levt i exil, levde enligt lagen om den starkaste för att överleva i S:t Petersburgs undre värld.

Svaret är att jag ville skapa en parallell mellan dessa två föregångare. Under min resa till Sovjetunionen i november 1986 var det auktoritära kommunistiska systemet intakt. Och i intervjun i tidningen Portafolio med Henry Kissinger i den franska restaurangen Jubilee på centrala Manhattan i New York den 27 juli 2018, efter att ha träffat president Putin 17 gånger, definierade Kissinger honom som "en slavisk civiliserande kraft som måste påtvinga sig underlägsna varelser". Detta påstående kan tolkas på två sätt: i slutändan är det samma sak, på grund av ett överlägsenhetskomplex skulle den första vara inkarnationen av en tsar, och den andra, på grund av hans konspiratoriska karaktär, den av en sibirisk varg som är hungrig efter hämnd. Och det finns mer att berätta om bakgrunden till Nord Stream-kontraktet.

I 50 år har rysk gas försörjt tyska hushåll och företag med energi. Redan från början var handelsförbindelsen kontroversiell, men den skapade djupa ekonomiska band mellan de två länderna.
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

**"Vi måste tala om de miljarder och åter miljarder dollar som betalas till det land som vi ska skydda oss från", sade han.**

Editorial staff, BBC News World, 11 July 2018
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

**BORIS BLAST...**
Boris Johnson hävdar att Tyskland ville att Ukraina skulle FOLD snabbt efter Rysslands invasion - men säger att det skulle ha varit en katastrof.
**The Sun,**
**Noa Hoffman**,
**Published**: 9:21, 23 Nov 2022

`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

Första sammanfattningen:

ü Det finns betydande brister i systemet för säkerhet i rörledningar. Det finns t.ex. inga "tätningsmekanismer" längs med rörledningarna, vilket innebär att allt innehåll sannolikt kommer att läcka ut.

ü En beskrivning i breda penseldrag av det sovjetiska kommunistiska systemet i november 1986 har lämnats.

ü Genom Fjodor Dostojevskijs livsfilosofi har vi undersökt vissa aspekter av det ryska ledarskapets mänskliga genus i dess vision av politisk makt.

ü Vi försökte tolka specifika uttalanden av Henry Kissinger om president Vladimir Putins karaktär.

ü Den tidigare presidenten Donald Trumps påståenden om Nord Stream 2-projektet till den tidigare tyska förbundskanslern Angela Merkel införlivade USA:s idé.

ü Rysk gas har gjorts tillgänglig för Tyskland i 50 år.

ü Boris Johnson påstår att Tyskland ville att Ukraina snabbt skulle lägga sig efter Rysslands invasion - men han säger att det skulle ha blivit en katastrof.

Germán & Co

**Etik och integritet är grunden för att producera fria och ärliga texter, och samarbeta med denna strävan...**

DONERA

“Den ryska aggressionen har på ett flagrant sätt kränkt suveräniteten och territoriet för en oberoende europeisk nation, Ukraina, och detta gör våra allierade i Östeuropa nervösa och hotar vår vision av ett Europa som är helt, fritt och i fred. Och det verkar hota de framsteg som gjorts sedan det kalla krigets slut.
Den långsamma ekonomiska tillväxten i Europa, särskilt i söder, har gjort att miljontals människor är arbetslösa, inklusive en generation unga människor utan arbete som kanske ser på framtiden med minskande förhoppningar. Och alla dessa ihållande utmaningar har fått vissa att ifrågasätta om den europeiska integrationen kan bestå länge; om det kanske är bättre att separera sig och omarbeta några av de barriärer och lagar mellan nationer som fanns på 1900-talet.”

— “Remarks by President Obama in Address to the People of Europe.” whitehouse.gov, 25 Apr. 2016.

Den 20 februari 2014 inleddes den ryska militära operationen för att annektera den ukrainska halvön Krim, som pågick fram till den 18 mars samma år. Geografiskt sett har Ukraina spelat en viktig roll för Gazproms marknadsföring av naturgas. Denna position har gett landet ett förmånligt pris på den ryska gasmarknaden. Diskussionen om detta historiska faktum har dock fokuserat på Kremls expansionistiska politik genom Gazprom, vilket är logiskt. Ändå är det inte huvudfrågan i detta geopolitiska dilemma.

Om vi går djupare in i frågan, nio månader efter den militärkupp som Kreml underlättade i Ukraina (dvs. den 4 september 2015), tillkännagav Gazprom i ett pressmeddelande från Vladivostok att man undertecknat avtalet om att skapa det företag som ska driva den andra grenen av gasledningen Nord Stream 2: Nord Stream 2-avtalet har undertecknats. VLADIVOSTOK, den 4 september 2015 - Projektets aktieägare har undertecknat ett avtal om att bilda ett företag som ska driva Nord Stream II-gasledningen, rapporterade den ryska nyhetsbyrån RIA Novosti på fredagen. Gazprom kommer att ha 51 procent av aktierna i det nya bolaget, med namnet New European Pipeline AG. Det franska elbolaget Engie kommer att ha en andel på 9 procent och det tyska kemiföretaget BASF, den europeiska kraft- och gasfonden E.ON, det österrikiska olje- och gasbolaget OMV och Shell kommer att ha en andel på 10 procent vardera. I juni meddelade Gazprom att man för 9,9 miljarder euro kommer att förlänga Nord Stream-ledningen till havs som förbinder Europa med Ryssland och som planeras öka Rysslands gasflöde till Europa till 55 bcm (1,94 tcf) per år. "Nord Stream 2 kommer att fördubbla kapaciteten i vår direkta, toppmoderna gasleveransväg via Östersjön", sade Gazproms ordförande Alexey Miller till RIA Novosti vid Eastern Economic Forum, där avtalet undertecknades. "Det är viktigt att det främst är de nya gasvolymerna som kommer att efterfrågas i Europa på grund av den kontinuerliga minskningen av den inhemska produktionen".

Affärsförhandlingarna för att bilda det företag som skulle ansvara för Nord Stream 2-operationen pågick alltså samtidigt som förberedelserna för den militära operationen för invasionen av Krim pågick. Det är här som den stora frågan uppstår: Vilken information hade den förre förbundskanslern Gerhard Schröders store vän - överstelöjtnant kamrat Vladimir Vladimirovitj (Platov) Putin, en före detta KGB-agent, som 1984-1990, mot slutet av det kalla kriget, tjänstgjorde som spion i Dresden i f.d. Tyska demokratiska republiken - om att Tyskland, trots denna allvarliga geopolitiska milstolpe, inte skulle överge detta strategiska projekt för Kreml?

Jag tror inte att frågan är svår att besvara om man ser till president Vladimir Putins meritförteckning:

Vladimir Putin→→→→ år av informationsutbyte inom ramen för en lång "manlig" vänskap och Omerta-lagarna ←←←←Gerhard Schröder. Sedan är retoriken att överstelöjtnant Putin räknade all förstahandsinformation från förbundsdagen.

Med denna fasta överenskommelse skulle Vladimir Putin få en gasledning med en längd på cirka 1 200 km nedgrävd på 60-80 meters djup på internationellt vatten i Östersjön, där ingen, absolut ingen, skulle kunna göra något intrång på röret, som tillhör Moskvas citadell. Detta är Putins första seger i sin strategi att böja Europa genom att öka det giftiga beroendet av Gazprom, en utomordentlig schack matt för väst.

Hittills har president Vladimir Putins politik genomförts felfritt på en tysk motorväg utan hastighetsbegränsningar. Så långt, så bra - åtminstone för Kreml.

Gåtan:

Politisk risk avser de svårigheter som regeringar och företag kan ställas inför på grund av vad som brukar kallas politiska beslut - eller "varje politisk förändring som ändrar resultatet och det förväntade värdet och värdet av en ekonomisk åtgärd genom att förändra sannolikheten för att målen ska uppnås".
“Political Risks | MXB.” Political Risks | MXB, www.mexbrit.com/political-risks.

Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

Bennhold, Katrin. “The Former Chancellor Who Became Putin’s Man in Germany.” *New York Time*, 23 Apr. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/04/23/world/europe/schroder-germany-russia-gas-ukraine-war-energy.html.

To the article

Kreml var berett att sätta västvärlden i schack, och räknade med en ny invasion av Ukraina i kommandostil, en kortsiktig militär kampanj baserad på felaktiga militära antaganden. Slutligen, och förmodligen mest avgörande, skulle Tyskland trotsa utländska påtryckningar - särskilt från USA - och bevara starka förbindelser med Ryssland. Ingenting kunde vara längre från sanningen; det enda Putin provocerade med denna invasion var europeisk sammanhållning, trots Tysklands tveksamhet i början av denna kris. Efter att ha misslyckats med sitt försök att splittra Europa använder president Vladimir Putin Gazprom, närmare bestämt Nord Stream-ledningen, för att begränsa gasförsörjningen - ett förödande vapen för den globala ekonomin. Effekterna av denna grymhet mot mänskligheten och ekonomin är välkända.

Hur godkändes detta geopolitiskt farliga projekt?
Vad är det som ligger bakom det enorma löftet om att
Nord inte återvänder och den gåta som det innebär?

Gorko… Till det olyckliga äktenskapet Putin-Schröder...

Germán & Co 11/29/22 Germán & Co 11/29/22

News round-up, Twesday, November 29, 2022.

In China, Xi Jinping's absolute power is being challenged, Le Monde

"The Regime's Legitimacy Is Eroding"Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression, Spiegel

Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.

“‘The same poison as in Hong Kong’”

— Le Monde

SE4ALL Hero COP 27

Editor's Pick:

China Protests Over ‘Zero Covid’ Follow Months of Economic Pain

President Xi Jinping’s unbending approach to the pandemic has hurt businesses and strangled growth, squeezing the world’s second-largest economy.Give this article

Police presence was heavy on Sunday in an area of Shanghai where protesters had gathered the night before.Credit...The New York Times

By Daisuke Wakabayashi, Olivia Wang and Joy Dong

Nov. 29, 2022Updated 6:30 a.m. ET

The toll of China’s unwavering approach to fighting Covid has rippled through the world’s second-largest economy for months: Youth unemployment reached a record 20 percent, corporate profits sagged, and economic growth fell well below Beijing’s own projections.

The economic pain has intensified the pressure to ease pandemic restrictions to salvage the flagging economy and restore some semblance of normal life. Frustration with the government’s zero-tolerance Covid strategy, which has failed to prevent a big jump in cases, escalated over the weekend as a population tired of unpredictable lockdowns, extended quarantines and mass testing erupted into protests. Smaller, scattered demonstrations continued on Monday.

The current Covid outbreak, the most widespread since the start of the pandemic in 2020, has painted Xi Jinping, China’s president, into a corner. He has refused to budge on the government’s strict Covid approach. If he loosens restrictions and infections skyrocket, there is the risk of mass casualties and an overwhelmed health care system. But keeping the current policies in place and limiting infections with widespread lockdowns would inflict further damage to an already slowing economy.

“The government has no good options at this point,” said Mark Williams, chief Asia economist for Capital Economics, a research firm. “Whatever they do, it’s hard to see how there won’t be significant restrictions imposed across large parts of the country, which is going to have a huge impact on weakening the economy.”

More than 80 cities in China are now battling infections compared with 50 cities in the spring, when a smaller surge of infections prompted an eight-week lockdown in Shanghai and set the economy on its slowest pace of annual growth in decades. These cities account for half of China’s economic activity and ship 90 percent of its exports, according to Capital Economics.

Earlier this month, China announced plans to ease some pandemic policies, fueling speculation that it was the beginning of a transition to phase out its “zero-Covid” policy, much to the delight of investors who sent shares of Chinese companies soaring. But as the number of infections rose, the government reverted to a familiar playbook and held firm to what it has said all along: China is trying to eradicate Covid, not learning to live with it.

In a series of editorials in state media starting on Sunday, Beijing said that China still needed to “maintain strategic focus” in combating Covid, but it urged officials around the country to avoid extreme measures such as blocking fire exits or barricading communal doors during quarantine. It stressed the need for local officials to adhere to policy tweaks meant to “optimize” existing Covid policies and limit disruptions to people and businesses.

Even so, the authorities on Monday night deployed additional security to discourage another night of protests.

The growing unrest has threatened to jeopardize China’s hard-earned reputation as the world’s factory floor. Last week, workers upset about unpaid Covid bonuses and poor quarantine protocols rioted and clashed with police at a Chinese factory where Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn produces more than half of the world’s iPhones.

Andrew Fennell, an analyst who oversees China’s government credit ratings for Fitch, said the country’s uncompromising approach has “weighed heavily on the economy and elevated social tensions.” He said that he expects Beijing to relax the most restrictive measures under its zero-tolerance approach, such as citywide lockdowns, in 2023, but that many restrictions will remain in place because of relatively low vaccination rates among the elderly in China.

In a reflection of those low rates, China said on Tuesday that it would increase efforts to vaccinate its oldest citizens, a move experts see as a crucial precursor to reopening the economy.

Goldman Sachs estimated in a note on Monday that there was a 30 percent chance that China would abandon “zero Covid” before April as the central government is forced to “choose between more lockdowns and more Covid outbreaks.”

After the initial outbreak of Covid in 2020, China’s economy bounced back quickly. While the rest of the world remained in lockdown, China’s hard-line approach to keeping the coronavirus in check worked well and its economy roared to life. In particular, exports were a bright spot as Chinese factories manufactured many of the products that the rest of the world bought online during isolation. Last year, China’s economy grew by an impressive 8 percent.

Currently, many of China’s biggest trading partners are staring at a possible recession from runaway inflation, rising interest rates, and the war in Ukraine. Domestically, the usually reliable pillars of real estate and high technology have fallen on hard times, and making more credit available to businesses has not jumpstarted the economy.

For small businesses, the recent outbreak is already sapping demand.

Cai Zhikang, a cake shop owner in Shenzhen, said corporate customers, the main source of his business, are starting to cancel orders more frequently. He said that a customer had scrapped a large corporate catering order exceeding $500 on Monday, a day after residents in the city in southeastern China staged a protest there over some of the latest restrictions.

Mr. Cai, 28, said that each wave of infections had brought more austerity from corporate customers who cut back on spending for employee treats to preserve their budgets. He said that he was also forced to close his shop for a month when Shenzhen imposed restrictions on the park where he operates his store. There is no point, he added, in planning ahead anymore because everything is dependent on whether Covid is spreading or not.

“If there is no Covid, I can definitely earn. When there is Covid, I cannot,” Mr. Cai said.

The impact has also spread to larger companies. A decline in overall profits at China’s industrial firms accelerated in October, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Profit in China’s 41 industrial sectors fell by 3 percent in the January to October period, a steeper decline compared with a 2.3 percent slide in January to September, numbers released on Sunday indicate.

China’s initial success in containing Covid started to crumble this year with the spread of the more infectious Omicron variant. The government projected a modest 5.5 percent growth for 2022 in March, several weeks before a sharp rise in infections pushed Shanghai into lockdown and brought the economy to a grinding halt. A series of smaller subsequent outbreaks has continued to test the limits of China’s zero-tolerance strategy, putting the government’s economic growth target out of reach.

On Monday, Nomura, a Japanese brokerage, cut its forecast for fourth-quarter economic growth to 2.4 percent from an earlier estimate of 2.8 percent, citing “a slow, painful and bumpy road to reopening.” It also lowered its gross domestic product prediction for 2023 to a 4 percent increase from a previous estimate of 4.3 percent.

A slowdown in the economy is already apparent to Emma Wang, 39, who owns a store selling handbags and suitcases in a shopping mall in Langzhong, a city in Sichuan Province where there are a handful of infections.

When she opened her store two years ago, business was steady and profitable. But more recently, people have started avoiding malls even though the city is not under lockdown. She is considering moving her business online to sell off her inventory.

“In the pandemic, there are no customers,” said Ms. Wang. “It’s difficult to sell even one bag.”

Compounding the problems for the mother of two is that her husband, who works for a food manufacturer whose business also has been disrupted, has not been paid by his employer for a few months.

“We have a mortgage and credit card loans,” she said. “The situation is not improving and it really upsets me.”

In China, Xi Jinping's absolute power is being challenged

News analysis

Frédéric Lemaître

Beijing (China) correspondent

China's children love their country, writes Le Monde's correspondent in Beijing. But restricting their freedom only leaves them craving for democracy.

Published on November 29, 2022 at 11h40, updated at 12h59 on November 29, 2022 Time to 5 min. Lire en français

During a Shanghai demonstration against China's zero-Covid policy on November 27, 2022. AP

All evils come from abroad

The young people of Generation Z are all the more courageous because many do not know what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989

'The same poison as in Hong Kong'

A desire for the West

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Born after 2000, the young people of Generation Z are all the more courageous because a significant number of them know little or nothing about what happened in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Frédéric Lemaître(Beijing (China) correspondent)

"The Regime's Legitimacy Is Eroding"Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression

The uprising against the Islamist dictatorship in Iran is entering a new phase and the regime is doing all it can to survive. For how much longer can the mullahs cling to power?

By Anne Armbrecht, Julia Amalia Heyer, Muriel Kalisch, Mina Khani, Maximilian Popp, Christoph Reuter, Omid Rezaee und Özlem Topçu

25.11.2022, 17.49 Uhr

There isn’t a single place where she is safe from the regime’s henchmen, says Anoush, not even in her dreams.

DER SPIEGEL 48/2022

The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 48/2022 (November 26th, 2022) of DER SPIEGEL.

SPIEGEL International

"We cry ourselves to sleep and wake up with new hope."

Anoush, a teacher from Tehran

Fewer Mass Protests, More Flashmobs

"We do," insists the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which continues to have its opponents sentenced to death.

A Slap in the Face for Tehran

"The regime's legitimacy is eroding."

Reinhard Schulze, Orientalist

Even More Brutality in the Provinces

Lessons for the City

Ultimately, the slogan used thus far in these protests – Woman, Life, Freedom – could soon be expanded to include another word: Bread

Germán & Co 11/28/22 Germán & Co 11/28/22

The Riddle Of Non-Nord Stream Return

“I don`t thinks Putin is Hitler like-character, “ Kissinger riplies. “He come out of Dotoevsky ”Portafolio” Henry Kisssinger, Manhattan, NY, July 27, 2018.

“Germany is totally controled by Russia.” The President Donald Trump at the start at bilateral meeting whit NATO General Secretary Peter Stontelberg ahead of the summits NATO heads for state anf govermment” La Vanguardia, July, 17,2022

“Refrain from being tempted to resurrect a project with a corrupt geopolitical and immoral history that has the global economy mired in a crisis with no way out. ”

— Germán & Co

Who oversees the human and economic calamity in which the world is immersed?

Thousands of Civilian Deaths and 6.6 Million Refugees: Calculating the Costs of War
Six months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the human and financial tolls are incalculable. But the figures that have emerged paint a bleak picture. NYT, By Alan Yuhas, 24, 2022
A) Day after day for 181 days, the grim ledger of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grows longer with each missile strike, burst of gunfire and report of atrocities.
B) Ukrainian civilians have paid a heavy price: 5,587 are confirmed dead, and the true number is believed to be in the tens of thousands. The number of refugees has surpassed 6.6 million.
C) Military losses have been heavy on both sides, with about 9,000 Ukrainians and as many as 25,000 Russians said to be killed.
D) Ukraine has lost control of 20 percent of its territory to Russian forces and their proxies in recent years.
E) The destruction has already cost Ukraine at least $113.5 billion, and it may need more than $200 billion to rebuild.
F) Donor nations have pledged to give Ukraine more than $83 billion in total.
G) Ukrainian agricultural production and other countries that depend on it have been hit hard. Even with grain ships on the move again, the world hunger crisis is dire.
Yuhas, Alan. “Thousands of Civilian Deaths and 6.6 Million Refugees: Calculating the Costs of War.” NYT, www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-toll.html. Accessed 24 Aug. 2022.

**How will the Nord Stream leaks impact the climate?**
Germany's Federal Environment Agency estimated **the leaks will lead to emissions of around 7.5 million tons of CO2 equivalent — about 1 percent of Germany's annual emissions.** **The agency also noted there are no "sealing mechanisms" along the pipelines, "so in all likelihood the entire contents of the pipes will escape."**

`Nord Stream Gas Pipeline Leaks Lead to ‘Significant Climate Damage’ - Environment Agency.” Clean Energy Wire, 29 Sept. 2022.`
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

AG, Nord Stream. “Nord Stream AG.” Nord Stream AG, www.nord-stream.com/operations/maintenance. Accessed 28 Nov. 2022. — Maintenance - Nord Stream AG (nord-stream.com)

Moscow, late November 1986, on the Russian winter's eve...

Landing in Moscow at the gloomy Sheremetyevo airport was nerve-wracking. Stepping off the plane, one encountered a gigantic marble mausoleum in a sepulchral silence. Soviet soldiers constantly watched the passengers, causing intimidation and fear. Standing in that migration line waiting to be admitted to the country was a real nightmare. To feel oneself being auscultated repeatedly by that undaunted migration officer became the most unpleasant experience one could imagine. After a few hours, it was time to proceed to the second point of pressure: checking luggage and all personal belongings. It was a procedure the Soviet customs staff performed most thoroughly. They inspected everything. The X-ray equipment in that air terminal created a perfect scenery for a science fiction movie. So was the deal. Once those two impossible missions were accomplished, the desire to get to the hotel bordered madness. The body longed for a hot bath. I felt acute anxiety about being in a room; the fever and the cold produced by dengue knocked me down.

Arriving at the hotel, I was informed that no rooms were available. "What?" I asked, somewhat indignantly. "Here I have the voucher indicating that I reserved a room and that it has been paid for." The era of Leonid Brezhnev had ended a few years ago, and with him, one of the most totalitarian periods of the Soviet Union also vanished. Conversely, Yuri Andropov promoted numerous reforms emphasising economic openness and eliminating the large bureaucratic apparatus, although his term of office was short. Konstantin Chernenko, his successor, continued along the same lines. However, his period lasted one year and months. Then, in 1985, with Mikhail Gorbachev's coming to power, Perestroika began, and changes entered a more accelerated phase. By the time of my brief stay in Moscow in 1986, it was still complicated to sense any substantial change in the Soviet Union. Sitting in the hotel lobby, waiting for some solution to the problem, I got a call that they already had a room for me. I also received coupons for various snacks. I immediately went up to the sixth floor, where my room was. When I got out of the elevator, there was a desk with an elderly lady, noticeably overweight, with a floral scarf on her head, a sad grey sweater, and worn out like the regime, of course with a hostile attitude, who I guess must have been at least from the KGB. Her task was to check your passport every time you entered or left the room. When I was about to get the key, she looked at me fixedly, and without sympathy, she said: "There is no hot water." "What do you mean?" I asked her, with a mixture of surprise and anger. "No, there is no hot water," she repeated, with an arbitrary tone. At the end of November, in Moscow, it is impossible to bathe in cold water. The water comes out of the taps like ice. "Does the sauna work?" I asked, looking for an alternative. "Yes," she answered boldly. It was the best option I could turn to in desperation for a bath after a journey that lasted more than twenty-eight hours.

The distinguished gentleman and former Chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder (born April 7, 1944, in Blomberg, Free State of Lippe, Nazi Germany), has not been fortunate enough to know the reality in which the Stoic Russian people live. He (Mr. Schröder) has lived under the golden domes of Moscow's Amur citadel with an abundance of caviar and Beluga vodka, poor man!!!
The reality is that the Philosophy of Life of Fyodor Dostoyevsky (born November 11, 1821, in Moscow, Russia; died February 9, 1881, in St. Petersburg) is not part of the soul of Mr. Schröder.

Why did I decide to start with this story, the article, and Mr. Henry Alfred Kissinger's (born May 27, 1923, in Germany) assertion about President Vladimir Putin's personality?

**"I don't think Putin is a Hitler-like character," Kissinger replies. "He comes out of Dostoevsky."**

`El Tiempo, Casa Editorial. “Henry Kissinger: ‘Estamos En Un Período Muy, Muy Grave.’” Portafolio.co, www.portafolio.co/internacional/henry-kissinger-estamos-en-un-periodo-muy-muy-grave-519509.`
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

What does Mr. Henry Kissinger mean by this statement about President Vladimir Putin?

Kissinger responds as follows to his assertion: "His key point is that the West wrongly assumed, in the years before Putin annexed Crimea, that Russia would adopt the order based on Western rules. NATO misunderstood Russia's deep-seated yearning for respect. You mean we provoked Putin... the case of Vladimir Putin and his imagination of Russia, and all this consequent invasion and annexation going on in Ukraine. According to reports, the Russian strongman's two favorite writers are Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Both, it seems, presented him with a choice: belief in the latter's notion of Russia as a kind of Slavic civilizing force to be imposed on inferior beings, and Tolstoy's more humanistic outlook. And it seems that Mr. Putin has chosen the former."

To try to be as objective as possible on this transcendental subject, Fyodor Dostoyevsky defines the life of the human being as follows: "Man must earn his happiness by suffering: It is the law of the land."

What is interesting is Mr. Henry Kissinger's reflection on perhaps anthropological behaviour (combining an intellectual biography with an explanation of methodological principles). Here it is necessary to be specific not of the noble Russian people but of its leaders about the "Slavic civilizing force that must be imposed on inferior beings." Now, what is certain is that the Russian people, since their imperial past, subsisting on the Soviet socialist system and the current regime, have had to survive within a society alienating the uprooting of individual identity through the cruel policy of exile. That is to say, the deliberate migration of its inhabitants to remote areas is culturally different from their birthplace. Fyodor Dostoevsky knew the hardships of Siberia that affected his health with irreparable damage and, therefore, his life. Putin, although he has not lived in exile, lived the law of the strongest to survive in the St. Petersburg underworld.

The answer is I wanted to make a parallel between these two antecedents. That is, during my trip in November 1986 to the Soviet Union, the authoritarian communist system was intact. And in the Portafolio magazine interview of Mr. Henry Kissinger in the French restaurant Jubilee in downtown Manhattan in New York on July 27, 2018, after meeting 17 times with President Putin, Mr. Kissinger defined him as "a Slavic civilizing force that must impose on inferior beings." This assertion could be interpreted in two ways: in the end, it is the same thing, because of a superiority complex the first would be the incarnation of a czar, and the second, because of his conspiratorial character, that of a Siberian wolf hungry for revenge. And there is more to the story of the background of the Nord Stream contract.

“Russian Gas in Germany: A 50-year Relationship – DW – 03/09/2022.” dw.com, www.dw.com/en/russian-gas-in-germany-a-complicated-50-year-relationship/a-61057166. — For 50 years, Russian gas has powered German homes and businesses. From the start, the trade link was controversial, but it established deep economic ties between the two countries.
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

**"We have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that are being paid to the country we are supposed to protect ourselves from," he said.**

Editorial staff, BBC News World, 11 July 2018
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

BORIS BLAST Boris Johnson claims Germany wanted Ukraine to FOLD quickly after Russia invasion – but says it would’ve been a disaster Noa Hoffman Published: 9:21, 23 Nov 2022 — **BORIS BLAST…**
Boris Johnson **claims Germany wanted Ukraine to FOLD quickly after Russia invasion – but says it would’ve been a disaster**
**The Sun,**
**Noa Hoffman**,
**Published**: 9:21, 23 Nov 2022

`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

First recap:

ü There are significant weaknesses in the pipeline safety system. For example, there are no "sealing mechanisms" along the pipelines, so all the contents will likely leak out.

ü A description in broad brushstrokes of the Soviet communist system in November 1986 has been provided.

ü Through Fyodor Dostoevsky's philosophy of life, we examined some aspects of the Russian leadership's human genesis in its vision of political power.

ü We attempted to interpret specific statements made by Mr Henry Kissinger about President Vladimir Putin's character.

ü Former President Donald Trump's claims about the Nord Stream 2 project to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel incorporated the idea of the United States.

ü Russian gas has been made available to Germany for 50 years.

ü Boris Johnson claims Germany wanted Ukraine to fold quickly after Russia's invasion – but he says it would've been a disaster.

Germán & Co

**Ethics and integrity are the genesis for the production of free and honest passages, collaborate with this effort...**

DONATE

“Russian aggression has flagrantly violated the sovereignty and territory of an independent European nation, Ukraine, and that unnerves our allies in Eastern Europe, threatening our vision of a Europe that is whole, free and at peace. And it seems to threaten the progress that’s been made since the end of the Cold War.
Slow economic growth in Europe, especially in the south, has left millions unemployed, including a generation of young people without jobs and who may look to the future with diminishing hopes. And all these persistent challenges have led some to question whether European integration can long endure; whether you might be better off separating off, redrawing some of the barriers and the laws between nations that existed in the 20th century.”

— “Remarks by President Obama in Address to the People of Europe.” whitehouse.gov, 25 Apr. 2016.

On February 20, 2014, the Russian military operation to annex the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea began, which lasted until March 18 of the same year. Geographically, Ukraine has played an essential role in marketing natural gas for Gazprom. This position has given it a preferential price on the Russian gas market. However, the discussion about this historical fact has focused on the Kremlin's expansionist policy through Gazprom, which makes sense. Still, it is not the main issue in this geopolitical dilemma.

If we go deeper into the matter, nine months after the military coup facilitated by the Kremlin in Ukraine (i.e., on September 4, 2015), Gazprom announced in a press release from Vladivostok the signing of the agreement creating the company that will operate the second branch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline: Nord Stream 2 agreement signed. VLADIVOSTOK, September 4, 2015 – Project shareholders have signed a contract to establish a company to operate the Nord Stream II pipeline, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported on Friday. Gazprom will hold a 51-percent stake in the new company, dubbed New European Pipeline AG. French electric company Engie will have a 9-percent stake, and German chemicals company BASF, European power and gas fund E.ON, Austrian oil and gas company OMV, and Shell will each hold a 10-percent stake. In June, Gazprom announced a €9.9-billion offshore extension to the Nord Stream pipeline connecting Europe to Russia, planned to increase Russia's gas flow to Europe to 55 bcm (1.94 tcf) per year. "Nord Stream 2 will double the throughput of our direct, state-of-the-art gas supply route via the Baltic Sea," Gazprom chairman Alexey Miller said to RIA Novosti at the Eastern Economic Forum, where the deal was signed. "It is important that those are mostly the new gas volumes, which will be sought for in Europe due to the continuous decline in its domestic production."

Thus, the business negotiations for forming the company that would be in charge of the Nord Stream 2 operation were in progress simultaneously with the preparation of the military operation for the invasion of Crimea. It is here that the big question arises: What information did the great friend of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder – Lieutenant Colonel, Comrade Vladimir Vladimirovich (Platov) Putin, a former KGB agent, who from 1984 to 1990, towards the end of the Cold War, served as a spy in Dresden in the former German Democratic Republic – have that despite this serious geopolitical milestone, Germany would not abandon this strategic project for the Kremlin?

I think the question is not difficult to answer if one considers the resume of President Vladimir Putin:

Vladimir Putin→→→→ year of information exchange in the context of a long “male” friendship and the Laws of Omerta ←←←←Gerhard Schröder. Then, the retort is that Lt. Col. Putin counted all the first-hand information from the Bundestag.

With this firm agreement, Vladimir Putin would have a gas pipeline with a length of about 1200 km buried at a depth of 60 to 80 metres in international waters of the Baltic Sea, where no one, absolutely no one, could have any intrusion on the pipe, the property of the citadel of Moscow. This is Putin's first victory in his strategy to bend Europe by increasing the toxic dependence on Gazprom, an extraordinary checkmate to the West.

Until now, President Vladimir Putin's policy has been flawlessly executed on a German expressway with no speed restrictions. So far, so good – at least for the Kremlin.

The riddle:

Political risk refers to the difficulties that governments and businesses may face because of what are commonly referred to as political decisions - or "any political change that alters the outcome and the expected value and value of an economic action by modifying the probability of achieving the objectives."
“Political Risks | MXB.” Political Risks | MXB, www.mexbrit.com/political-risks.

The Kremlin was prepared to checkmate the West, counting on a new commando-style invasion of Ukraine, a short-term military campaign based on mistaken military assumptions. Finally, and probably most crucially, Germany would defy foreign pressure – particularly from the United States – and preserve strong relations with Russia. Nothing could be farther from the truth; the only thing Putin provoked with this invasion was European cohesiveness, notwithstanding Germany's hesitancy at the start of this crisis. After failing in his attempt to split Europe, President Vladimir Putin is using Gazprom, more specifically the Nord Stream pipeline, to limit gas supply – a devastating weapon for the global economy. The effects of this atrocity against humanity and the economy are well known.

How was this geopolitically dangerous project approved?
What's up with the tremendous promise over Nord's non-return and the riddle it presents?
Nobody is in jail. Why?

Gorko! To the ill-fated Putin-Schröder marriage…

Germán & Co 11/25/22 Germán & Co 11/25/22

News round-up, Friday, November 25, 2022.

Europe accuses US of profiting from war

POLITICO EU

Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.

“Allies or not?
Despite the energy disagreements, it wasn’t until Washington announced a $369 billion industrial subsidy scheme to support green industries under the Inflation Reduction Act that Brussels went into full-blown panic mode.
“The Inflation Reduction Act has changed everything,” one EU diplomat said. “Is Washington still our ally or not?””

— POLITICO EU

SE4ALL Hero COP 27

Editor's Pick:

Europe accuses US of profiting from war

EU officials attack Joe Biden over sky-high gas prices, weapons sales and trade as Vladimir Putin’s war threatens to destroy Western unity.

The Ukrainian flag and coat of arms is waved in front of the White House in Washington, DC | MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

BY BARBARA MOENS, JAKOB HANKE VELA AND JACOPO BARIGAZZI

NOVEMBER 24, 2022 7:09 PM CET

Nine months after invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is beginning to fracture the West.

Top European officials are furious with Joe Biden’s administration and now accuse the Americans of making a fortune from the war, while EU countries suffer.

“The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” one senior official told POLITICO.

The explosive comments — backed in public and private by officials, diplomats and ministers elsewhere — follow mounting anger in Europe over American subsidies that threaten to wreck European industry. The Kremlin is likely to welcome the poisoning of the atmosphere among Western allies.

By Jakob Hanke Vela

Germany and France join forces against Biden in subsidy battle

By Hans von der Burchard

“We are really at a historic juncture,” the senior EU official said, arguing that the double hit of trade disruption from U.S. subsidies and high energy prices risks turning public opinion against both the war effort and the transatlantic alliance. “America needs to realize that public opinion is shifting in many EU countries.”

The EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell called on Washington to respond to European concerns. “Americans — our friends — take decisions which have an economic impact on us,” he said in an interview with POLITICO.

The biggest point of tension in recent weeks has been Biden’s green subsidies and taxes that Brussels says unfairly tilt trade away from the EU and threaten to destroy European industries. Despite formal objections from Europe, Washington has so far shown no sign of backing down.

At the same time, the disruption caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is tipping European economies into recession, with inflation rocketing and a devastating squeeze on energy supplies threatening blackouts and rationing this winter.

As they attempt to reduce their reliance on Russian energy, EU countries are turning to gas from the U.S. instead — but the price Europeans pay is almost four times as high as the same fuel costs in America. Then there’s the likely surge in orders for American-made military kit as European armies run short after sending weapons to Ukraine.

It's all got too much for top officials in Brussels and other EU capitals. French President Emmanuel Macron said high U.S. gas prices were not “friendly” and Germany’s economy minister has called on Washington to show more “solidarity” and help reduce energy costs.

Ministers and diplomats based elsewhere in the bloc voiced frustration at the way Biden’s government simply ignores the impact of its domestic economic policies on European allies.

When EU leaders tackled Biden over high U.S. gas prices at the G20 meeting in Bali last week, the American president simply seemed unaware of the issue, according to the senior official quoted above. Other EU officials and diplomats agreed that American ignorance about the consequences for Europe was a major problem.

"The Europeans are discernibly frustrated about the lack of prior information and consultation," said David Kleimann of the Bruegel think tank.

Officials on both sides of the Atlantic recognize the risks that the increasingly toxic atmosphere will have for the Western alliance. The bickering is exactly what Putin would wish for, EU and U.S. diplomats agreed.

The growing dispute over Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — a huge tax, climate and health care package — has put fears over a transatlantic trade war high on the political agenda again. EU trade ministers are due to discuss their response on Friday as officials in Brussels draw up plans for an emergency war chest of subsidies to save European industries from collapse.

"The Inflation Reduction Act is very worrying," said Dutch Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher. "The potential impact on the European economy is very big."

"The U.S. is following a domestic agenda, which is regrettably protectionist and discriminates against U.S. allies," said Tonino Picula, the European Parliament's lead person on the transatlantic relationship.

An American official stressed the price setting for European buyers of gas reflects private market decisions and is not the result of any U.S. government policy or action. "U.S. companies have been transparent and reliable suppliers of natural gas to Europe," the official said. Exporting capacity has also been limited by an accident in June that forced a key facility to shut down.

In most cases, the official added, the difference between the export and import prices doesn't go to U.S. LNG exporters, but to companies reselling the gas within the EU. The largest European holder of long-term U.S. gas contracts is France's TotalEnergies for example.

It’s not a new argument from the American side but it doesn’t seem to be convincing the Europeans. "The United States sells us its gas with a multiplier effect of four when it crosses the Atlantic," European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton said on French TV on Wednesday. "Of course the Americans are our allies ... but when something goes wrong it is necessary also between allies to say it."

Cheaper energy has quickly become a huge competitive advantage for American companies, too. Businesses are planning new investments in the U.S. or even relocating their existing businesses away from Europe to American factories. Just this week, chemical multinational Solvay announced it is choosing the U.S. over Europe for new investments, in the latest of a series of similar announcements from key EU industrial giants.

Allies or not?

Despite the energy disagreements, it wasn't until Washington announced a $369 billion industrial subsidy scheme to support green industries under the Inflation Reduction Act that Brussels went into full-blown panic mode.

“The Inflation Reduction Act has changed everything," one EU diplomat said. "Is Washington still our ally or not?”

For Biden, the legislation is a historic climate achievement. "This is not a zero-sum game," the U.S. official said. "The IRA will grow the pie for clean energy investments, not split it."

But the EU sees that differently. An official from France’s foreign affairs ministry said the diagnosis is clear: These are "discriminatory subsidies that will distort competition.” French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire this week even accused the U.S. of going down China's path of economic isolationism, urging Brussels to replicate such an approach. “Europe must not be the last of the Mohicans,” he said.

The EU is preparing its responses, such as a big subsidy push to prevent European industry from being wiped out by American rivals. "We are experiencing a creeping crisis of trust on trade issues in this relationship," said German MEP Reinhard Bütikofer.

"At some point, you have to assert yourself," said French MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne. "We are in a world of power struggles. When you arm-wrestle, if you are not muscular, if you are not prepared both physically and mentally, you lose.”

Behind the scenes, there is also growing irritation about the money flowing into the American defense sector.

The U.S. has by far been the largest provider of military aid to Ukraine, supplying more than $15.2 billion in weapons and equipment since the start of the war. The EU has so far provided about €8 billion of military equipment to Ukraine, according to Borrell.

According to one senior official from a European capital, restocking of some sophisticated weapons may take “years” because of problems in the supply chain and the production of chips. This has fueled fears that the U.S. defense industry can profit even more from the war.

The Pentagon is already developing a roadmap to speed up arms sales, as the pressure from allies to respond to greater demands for weapons and equipment grows.

Another EU diplomat argued that “the money they are making on weapons” could help Americans understand that making “all this cash on gas” might be “a bit too much.”

The diplomat argued that a discount on gas prices could help us to "keep united our public opinions” and to negotiate with third countries on gas supplies. “It’s not good, in terms of optics, to give the impression that your best ally is actually making huge profits out of your troubles,” the diplomat said.

JESSE WEGMAN

Is Donald Trump Ineligible to Be President?

Nov. 24, 2022

By Jesse Wegman

NYT

Mr. Wegman is a member of the editorial board.

How does a democracy protect itself against a political leader who is openly hostile to democratic self-rule? This is the dilemma the nation faces once again as it confronts a third presidential run by Donald Trump, even as he still refuses to admit he lost his second.

Of course, we shouldn’t be in this situation to begin with. The facts are well known but necessary to repeat, if only because we must never become inured to them: Abetted by a posse of low-rent lawyers, craven lawmakers and associated crackpots, Mr. Trump schemed to overturn the 2020 election by illegal and unconstitutional means. When those efforts failed, he incited a violent insurrection at the United States Capitol, causing widespread destruction, leading to multiple deaths and — for the first time in American history — interfering with the peaceful transfer of power. Almost two years later, he continues to claim, without any evidence, that he was cheated out of victory, and millions of Americans continue to believe him.

The best solution to behavior like this is the one that’s been available from the start: impeachment. The founders put it in the Constitution because they were well acquainted with the risks of corruption and abuse that come with vesting great power in a single person. Congress rightly used this tool, impeaching Mr. Trump in 2021 to hold him accountable for his central role in the Jan. 6 siege. Had the Senate convicted him as it should have, he could have been disqualified from holding public office again. But nearly all Senate Republicans came to his defense, leaving him free to run another day.

There is another, less-known solution in our Constitution to protect the country from Mr. Trump: Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from public office anyone who, “having previously taken an oath” to support the Constitution, “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” or gave “aid or comfort” to America’s enemies.

On its face, this seems like an eminently sensible rule to put in a nation’s governing document. That’s how Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, who has drafted a resolution in Congress enabling the use of Section 3 against Mr. Trump, framed it. “This is America. We basically allow anyone to be president,” Mr. Cicilline told me. “We set limited disqualifications. One is, you can’t incite an insurrection against the United States. You shouldn’t get to lead a government that you tried to destroy.”

This was also the reasoning of the 14th Amendment’s framers, who intended it to serve as an aggressive response to the existential threat to the Republic posed by the losing side of the Civil War. Section 3 was Congress’s way of ensuring that unrepentant former Confederate officials — “enemies to the Union” — were not allowed to hold federal or state office again. As Representative John Bingham, one of the amendment’s lead drafters, put it in 1866, rebel leaders “surely have no right to complain if this is all the punishment the American people shall see fit to impose upon them.”

And yet despite its clarity and good sense, the provision has rarely been invoked. The first time, in the aftermath of the Civil War, it was used to disqualify thousands of Southern rebels, but within four years, Congress voted to extend amnesty to most of them. It was used again in 1919 when the House refused to seat a socialist member accused of giving aid and comfort to Germany in World War I.

In September, for the first time in more than a century, a New Mexico judge invoked Section 3, to remove from office a county commissioner, Couy Griffin, who had been convicted of entering the Capitol grounds as part of the Jan. 6 mob. This raised hopes among those looking for a way to bulletproof the White House against Mr. Trump that Section 3 might be the answer.

I count myself among this crowd. As Jan. 6 showed the world, Mr. Trump poses a unique and profound threat to the Republic: He is an authoritarian who disregards the Constitution and the rule of law and who delights in abusing his power to harm his perceived opponents and benefit himself, his family and his friends. For that reason, I am open to using any constitutional means of preventing him from even attempting to return to the White House.

At the same time, I’m torn about using this specific tool. Section 3 is extraordinarily strong medicine. Like an impeachment followed by conviction, it denies the voters their free choice of those who seek to represent them. That’s not the way democracy is designed to work.

And yet it is true, as certain conservatives never tire of reminding us, that democracy in the United States is not absolute. There are multiple checks built into our system that interfere with the expression of direct majority rule: the Senate, the Supreme Court and the Electoral College, for example. The 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause is another example — in this case, a peaceful and transparent mechanism to neutralize an existential threat to the Republic.

Nor is it antidemocratic to impose conditions of eligibility for public office. For instance, Article II of the Constitution puts the presidency off limits to anyone younger than 35. If we have decided that a 34-year-old is, by definition, not mature or reliable enough to hold such immense power, then surely we can decide the same about a 76-year-old who incited an insurrection in an attempt to keep that power.

So could Section 3 really be used to prevent Mr. Trump from running for or becoming president again? As a legal matter, it seems beyond doubt. The Capitol attack was an insurrection by any meaningful definition — a concerted, violent attempt to block Congress from performing its constitutionally mandated job of counting electoral votes. He engaged in that insurrection, even if he did not physically join the crowd as he promised he would. As top Democrats and Republicans in Congress said during and after his impeachment trial, the former president was practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of Jan. 6. The overwhelming evidence gathered and presented by the House’s Jan. 6 committee has only made clearer the extent of the plot by Mr. Trump and his associates to overturn the election — and how his actions and his failures to act led directly to the assault and allowed it to continue as long as it did. In the words of Representative Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair, Mr. Trump “summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.”

A few legal scholars have argued that Section 3 does not apply to the presidency because it does not explicitly list that position. It is hard to square that claim with the provision’s fundamental purpose, which is to prevent insurrectionists from participating in American government. It would be bizarre in the extreme if Mr. Griffin’s behavior can disqualify him from serving as a county commissioner but not from serving as president.

It’s not the legal questions that give me pause, though; it’s the political ones.

First is the matter of how Republicans would react to Mr. Trump’s disqualification. An alarmingly large faction of the party is unwilling to accept the legitimacy of an election that its candidate didn’t win. Imagine the reaction if their standard-bearer were kept off the ballot altogether. They would thunder about a “rigged election” — and unlike all the times Mr. Trump has baselessly invoked that phrase, it would carry a measure of truth. Combine this with the increasingly violent rhetoric coming from right-wing media figures and politicians, including top Republicans, and you have the recipe for something far worse than Jan. 6. On the other hand, if partisan outrage were a barrier to invoking the law, many laws would be dead letters.

The more serious problem with Section 3 is that it is easy to see how it could morph into a caricature of what it is trying to prevent. Keeping specific candidates off the ballot is a classic move of autocrats, from Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela to Aleksandr Lukashenko in Belarus to Vladimir Putin. It sends the message that voters cannot be trusted to choose their leaders wisely — if at all. And didn’t we just witness Americans around the country using their voting power to repudiate Mr. Trump’s Big Lie and reject the most dangerous election deniers? Shouldn’t we let elections take their course and give the people the chance to (again) reject Mr. Trump at the ballot box?

To help me resolve my ambivalence, I called Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who sits on the Jan. 6 committee and taught constitutional law before joining Congress. He acknowledged what he called an understandable “queasiness” about invoking Section 3 to keep Mr. Trump off the ballot. But Mr. Raskin argued that this queasiness is built into the provision. “What was the constitutional bargain struck in Section 3?” he asked. “There would be a very minor incursion into the right of the people to elect exactly who they want, in order to obtain much greater security for the constitutional order against those who have demonstrated a propensity to want to overthrow it when it is to their advantage.”

The contours of the case for Mr. Trump’s disqualification might get stronger yet, as the Justice Department and state prosecutors continue to pursue multiple criminal investigations into him and his associates and as the Jan. 6 committee prepares to release its final report. While he would not be prohibited from running for office even if he was under criminal indictment, it would be more politically palatable to invoke Section 3 in that case and even more so if he was convicted.

I still believe that the ideal way for Mr. Trump to be banished for good would be via the voters. This scenario is democracy’s happy ending. After all, self-government is not a place; it is a choice, and an ongoing one. If Americans are going to keep making that choice — in favor of fair and equal representation, in favor of institutions that venerate the rule of law and against the threats of authoritarian strongmen — they do it best by themselves. That is why electoral victory is the ultimate political solution to the ultimate political problem. It worked that way in 2020, when an outright majority of voters rejected Mr. Trump and replaced him with Joe Biden.

But it’s essential to remember that not all democracies have happy endings. Which brings us to the most unsettling answer to the question I began with: Sometimes a democracy doesn’t protect itself. There is no rule that says democracies will perpetuate themselves indefinitely. Many countries, notably Hungary and Turkey, have democratically undone themselves by electing leaders who then dismantled most of the rights and privileges people tend to expect from democratic government. Section 3 is in the Constitution precisely to help ensure that America does not fall into that trap.

Whether or not invoking Section 3 succeeds, the best argument for it is to take the Constitution at its word. “We undermine the importance of the Constitution if we pick and choose what rules apply,” Mr. Cicilline told me. “One of the ways we rebuild confidence in American democracy is to remind people we have a Constitution and that it has in it provisions that say who can run for public office. You don’t get to apply the Constitution sometimes or only if you feel like it. We take an oath. We swear to uphold it. We don’t swear to uphold most of it. If Donald Trump has taught us anything, it’s about protecting the Constitution of the United States.”

Surely the remedy of Section 3 is worth pursuing only in the most extraordinary circumstances. Just as surely, the events surrounding Jan. 6 clear that bar. If inciting a violent insurrection to keep oneself in office against the will of the voters isn’t such a circumstance, what is?

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https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2022/11/25/riots-at-world-s-largest-iphone-factory-in-china-reveal-the-limits-of-zero-covid_6005631_19.html

In China, riots at world's largest iPhone factory reveal the limits of zero-Covid policy

Workers at Foxconn, Apple's main subcontractor, have denounced the company's unfulfilled promises of bonuses and its strict quarantine conditions for new employees.

By Simon Leplâtre (Shanghai (China) correspondent) and Alexandre Piquard

Published on November 25, 2022 at 14h30, updated at 16h28 on November 25, 2022

In this Nov. 23, 2022 photo, protesters face security personnel wearing white protective clothing inside the Foxconn Technology Group factory, which assembles most of Apple's iPhones, in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province. AP

Illuminated by the dim light of street lamps, a compact crowd of workers brandishing iron bars pushes back a small troop of police officers, wrapped in protective white hazmat suits. In the many videos of these protests shared on social networks, blows rain down on workers and shouts resound: "the police are hitting people," "pay our wages," "down with Foxconn," and "defend your rights." Since Tuesday, November 22, and for at least 48 hours, thousands of workers at Foxconn, which assembles Apple's iPhones, have been protesting to demand the payment of promised bonuses for new recruits, while production has been disrupted by restrictions related to China's zero-Covid policy. Other videos, quickly censored, show workers being beaten up by those in hazmat suits, being taken away by the police, or being injured.

After two days of clashes, Foxconn decided to buy peace by offering, on Thursday 24 November, 10,000 yuan (€1,340), or about two months' salary, to those who would choose to return home. The company also apologized for "an input error in the computer system and guarantee that the actual salary corresponds to what was promised in the recruitment advertisements," they said in a statement. The error is expected to cost Foxconn and Apple, which depends on the Zhengzhou factory for 80% of its latest iPhone 14s. In early November, the Apple brand had already acknowledged production delays due to the outbreak of Covid-19 within the giant Zhengzhou campus, nicknamed "iPhone City."

At the end of October, tens of thousands of Foxconn employees fled the site where cases of Covid-19 were multiplying, denouncing the chaotic management of the situation: spartan conditions, a lack of food, and a lack of responsiveness to prevent the spread of the virus. A real city within a city, with about 200,000 employees, the Foxconn factory had been operating in a closed circuit since the first cases were recorded in mid-October. Images broadcast on local television networks showed workers climbing factory barriers before walking dozens of kilometers to get home. Since then, Foxconn launched a major recruitment campaign in the middle of the iPhone production season and in the run-up to Christmas. The company had increased wages and promised attractive bonuses of 3,000 yuan (€402) per employee.

Authoritarian management

In this November 23, 2022 photo, protesters face security personnel wearing white protective hazmat suits inside the Foxconn Technology Group factory, which assembles most of Apple's iPhones, in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province. AP

To meet the massive needs of the province's largest employer, the Henan authorities had even begun to intervene, pushing surrounding neighborhood officials to send their unemployed residents. To set an example, members of the Chinese Communist Party were the first to respond. For China, it's all about keeping its first position in global supply chains. But the efforts of local governments, combined with those of many private recruitment agencies that usually work for Foxconn, seem to have worked too well: in mid-November, the company claimed to have recruited 100,000 applicants, and on November 21, the company suspended its campaign in the face of an influx of applicants, all of whom had to undergo four days of quarantine off-site and then seven days on-site before they could be hired. "There are too many new people, the logistics are not in place, the beds are full. And if, after four days of quarantine, you are not deemed fit for work, you are fired without pay!" testified an employee on Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok). It's not hard to imagine the frustration of candidates traveling from far away, rejected without compensation after several days of quarantine...

In 2010, the company responded to a series of suicides at its Shenzhen site by installing nets under windows

Foxconn, the main subcontractor for Apple and other electronics giants, is known for its authoritarian management methods. In 2010, the company reacted to a series of suicides at its Shenzhen site (in southeastern China) by installing nets under windows. Since then, the Taiwanese outsourcing giant has been accused of other worrying working conditions, including the illegal employment of underage trainees. They're repeated scandals that call into question the responsibility of Apple. "We have representatives from Apple's teams on-site at the [Zhengzhou factory of subcontractor Foxconn]. We are examining the situation and working closely with Foxconn to ensure that the employees' claims are answered," the American company said on Thursday.

Apple's dependence on China

The tensions at the Zhengzhou factory once again highlight the problem of Western companies' dependence on foreign manufacturers, like Apple with China. Foxconn provides 70% of the production of its flagship product, the iPhone. And the Zhengzhou factory produces 80% of the iPhone 14, the latest iPhone model, according to technology market analysis firm Counterpoint. China's zero-Covid policy has been an "uppercut" for the US company, according to Wedbush Securities Analyst Dan Ives, predicting delivery delays and a drop in iPhone 14 production that could push the number of devices sold during Black Friday on down from 10 million to 8 million units.

Paris and Berlin are starting to move beyond their differences

After a week of bilateral meetings aimed at easing weeks-long tensions, France's prime minister is visiting Berlin for the first time on Friday, November 25.

By Thomas Wieder (Berlin (Germany) correspondent)

Published on November 25, 2022 at 14h00, updated at 14h00 on November 25, 2022

Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, during a meeting on the sidelines of the climate summit, in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt), on November 7, 2022. LUDOVIC MARIN / AP

After some serious malfunctions, the Franco-German engine is starting up again. Within the space of a week, no less than four German ministers (transport, foreign affairs, economy and finance) visited Paris. On Friday, November 25, the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, will head to Berlin where she will be received by the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, followed by the Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck. This visit was preceded by that of Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak who was in Berlin on Thursday for the opening of the 22nd Berlin French Film Week, alongside her German counterpart, Claudia Roth.

One month after the cancellation of the Franco-German Council of Ministers, scheduled for October 26 just outside of Paris, and Mr. Macron's stern words in Brussels on October 20 – "It is not a good thing for Europe for Germany to isolate itself" – there is a clear will to resume dialogue between the two countries. "We undoubtedly went too far in showing our disagreement," observed one French minister. "Therefore it is urgent to find our common ground again, especially after the G20 summit [on November 15 and 16, in Bali, Indonesia] which reminded us how important it is to be united at the European level, and therefore, above all, between the French and the Germans."

On both sides, there are many signs of respect. In Paris on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock not only met with her counterpart, Catherine Colonna, for an exchange with young people at a central Paris high school, but she also met with Mr. Macron at the Elysée Palace. On the same day, the Economy Minister, Bruno Le Maire, had dinner with Mr. Habeck, before accompanying him the next day to a meeting with the French president. He also had dinner on Thursday with Christian Lindner, the German finance minister, who was also visiting the French capital.

'Close ties'

On the German side, there is a clear desire to dispel misunderstandings. At the end of September, the French government did not appreciate not having been informed in advance of the €200 billion aid plan announced by Mr. Scholz to deal with surging energy prices. To settle the dispute, the German ambassador to France, Hans-Dieter Lucas, on November 19, wrote a column in the regional French newspaper Ouest-France, that this plan was not an "unfair attempt to benefit German industry," contrary to accusations that has been made in several European capitals, including Paris.

In recent weeks, a certain annoyance had also surfaced on the French side, with regard to Ms. Baerbock when she said she would be on vacation on the day scheduled for the Franco-German council of ministers in Fontainebleau. Since then, the head of German diplomacy has not missed an opportunity to put this blunder behind her.

At a hearing of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly on November 7, she stayed twice as long as planned to discuss with one hundred MPs from both countries gathered in the Bundestag. "Our ties with France are closer than with any other country," she said, before making an unexpected comparison: "You can sometimes yell at your spouse for not putting the cap back on the toothpaste tube. But the value of a relationship is that you don't get angry about these things. It is this trust that I feel every day in the partnership between our two countries."

While there have been no sensational announcements, the intense exchanges of the last few days have allowed France and Germany to show their closeness on a few issues. At a joint press conference on Tuesday at France's Finance Ministry, Mr. Le Maire and Mr. Habeck denounced with equal vigor the threat to the competitiveness of European industries posed by US President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

In a joint statement, the two ministers also emphasized the dominant role that Paris and Berlin have said they intend to play so that the European Union can strengthen "its strategic sovereignty in energy and industry." They also announced the launch of bilateral cooperation and working groups in sectors such as hydrogen, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, space policy, quantum computing and the supply of raw materials.

A 'new impetus for the Franco-German relationship'

This shared willingness to emphasize common ground rather than highlight disagreements obviously does not mean that disagreements no longer exist. "Issues that were complicated a month ago are still complicated despite some progress, such as on the Future Air Combat System [FCAS] where the pressure exerted by politicians has allowed manufacturers to overcome certain stumbling blocks," acknowledged one diplomat. "After the frosty spell of the last few weeks, everyone seems to have understood that it is urgent to revive the spirit of bilateralism. We had reached a point where the accumulation of misunderstandings made the Franco-German relationship sound like a broken record."

In Berlin as in Paris, this proliferation of ministerial meetings seems all the more necessary since relations between Mr. Macron and Mr. Scholz, while cordial, lack fluidity. Perceived in Paris as "cold," "distant" and "elusive," the chancellor remains a "complicated" interlocutor for the French president, according to those close to him. This explains why Mr. Macron also wants to maintain personal ties with other major figures in the German government, such as Mr. Habeck and Ms. Baerbock, whom he met at a dinner in Munich in February 2020, when they were co-chairs of the Greens. "On most European issues, except nuclear, the Greens are the best allies of France within the German government. It remains to be seen whether they will look a little more towards Paris, because their first reflex so far has been to turn towards Brussels," observed one diplomat.

Intended to give "new impetus to Franco-German relations," an expression used in both Paris and Berlin, this week, packed full of bilateral meetings, was, according to general opinion, more than necessary to prepare for the next major event that the two governments cannot afford to miss: the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, signed on January 22, 1963, by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer. The anniversary marks the signing of the treaty of friendship between France and West Germany and could coincide with the Franco-German Council of Ministers, postponed three times since July. It is hoped the meeting will result in major announcements, at the Elysée Palace even more than at the German Chancellery, on the two most complicated issues of the moment: defense and energy.

Germán & Co 11/24/22 Germán & Co 11/24/22

News round-up, Thursday, November 24, 2022.

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Crime agains humanity…
Le Monde

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“Russian Strikes
Millions remain without power in Ukraine even as some services are restored.
KYIV, Ukraine — Utility crews worked through the dark night in snow and freezing rain to stabilize Ukraine’s battered energy grid on Thursday after another destructive wave of Russian missile strikes, restoring essential services like running water and heat in many parts of the country even as millions remained without power.”

— Le Monde

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Russian-Ukraine WarUkraine Scrambles to Restore Services After Disruptive Russian Strikes

Millions remain without power in Ukraine even as some services are restored.

KYIV, Ukraine — Utility crews worked through the dark night in snow and freezing rain to stabilize Ukraine’s battered energy grid on Thursday after another destructive wave of Russian missile strikes, restoring essential services like running water and heat in many parts of the country even as millions remained without power.

Ukrainians have expressed defiance in the face of Moscow’s unrelenting campaign to weaponize winter in an attempt to weaken their resolve and force Kyiv to capitulate even as Russia heaped new suffering on a war-weary nation.

Surgeons were forced to work by flashlight, thousands of miners had to be pulled from deep underground by manual winches and people across the country lugged buckets and bottles of water up flights of stairs in high-rise apartment buildings where the elevators stopped running.

The State Border Service of Ukraine suspended operations at checkpoints on the borders with Hungary and Romania on Thursday because of power outages and Ukraine’s national rail operator reported delays and disruptions across a network that has served as a resilient lifeline for the nation over nine months of war.

Families charged their phones, warmed up and gathered information at centers set up in towns and cities during extended power outages. The police in the capital, Kyiv, and in other cities stepped up patrols as the owners of shops and restaurants flipped on generators, or lit candles, and kept working.

“The situation is difficult throughout the country,” said Herman Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister. But by 4 a.m., he said, engineers had managed to “unify the energy system,” allowing power to be directed to critical infrastructure facilities.

In Moldova, Ukraine’s western neighbor, whose Soviet-era electricity systems remain interconnected with Ukraine’s, the grid was largely back online after the country experienced “massive power outages,” the infrastructure minister said on Twitter. “We move on, stronger and victorious,” the minister, Andrei Spinu, wrote.

The barrage of Russian missiles on Wednesday killed at least 10 people and injured dozens, Ukrainian officials said, in what appeared to be one of the most disruptive attacks in weeks. Since Oct. 10, Russia has fired around 600 missiles at power plants, hydroelectric facilities, water pumping stations and treatment facilities, high-voltage cables around nuclear power stations and critical substations that bring power to tens of millions of homes and businesses, according to Ukrainian officials.

The campaign is taking a mounting toll. The strikes on Wednesday put all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants offline for the first time, depriving the country of one of its most vital sources of energy.

“We expect that nuclear plants will start working by the evening, so the deficit will decrease,” Mr. Galushchenko said.

Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the top commander of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down 51 of the 67 Russian cruise missiles fired on Wednesday and five of 10 drones.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking Wednesday night at an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, decried what he called a Russian campaign of terror.

“When the temperature outside drops below zero and tens of millions of people are left without electricity, heat and water as a result of Russian missiles hitting energy facilities,” he said, “that is an obvious crime against humanity.”

In Kyiv, around one in four homes still had no electricity on Thursday afternoon, and more than half of the city’s residents had no running water, according to city officials. Service was gradually being restored, city officials said, and they said they were confident that the pumps that provide water to some three million residents would be restored by the end of the day.

Transit was suspended in the southern port city of Odesa on the Black Sea so that the limited energy supply could be directed to getting water running again. In the Lviv region in Ukraine’s west, where millions displaced from their homes by fighting, power and water have fled, services were largely restored.

The national energy utility, Ukrenergo, said that given the “significant amount of damage” and difficult working conditions, repairs in some regions may take longer than others.

“There is no reason to panic,” the utility said in a statement. Critical infrastructure would all be reconnected, it said.

— Marc Santora

‘Every hour is getting harder’: Surgeons struggle to operate when the power goes out.

KYIV, Ukraine — The surgeons had made the long incision down the middle of the child’s chest, cut the breastbone to spread the rib cage and reach the heart when the lights went out at the Heart Institute in Kyiv.

Generators kicked on to keep life-support equipment running on Wednesday night as nurses and surgical assistants held flashlights over the operating table, guiding the surgeons as they snipped and cut, working to save a life under the most trying of conditions.

“The electricity went out completely in the operating room,” said Borys Todurov, the institute’s director, who posted a video of the procedure online to illustrate the difficulties doctors are facing.

“So far we are coping on our own,” he said. “But every hour is getting harder. There has been no water for several hours now. We continue to do only emergency operations.”

Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid are taking a growing toll on the nation as the damage adds up. After each strike, repairs become more challenging, blackouts can last longer and the danger for the public increases.

The scene in the Kyiv hospital echoes those in medical facilities around the country, a vivid illustration of the cascading toll Russia’s attacks are having on civilians far from the front lines.

Two kidney transplant operations were being performed at the Cherkasy Regional Cancer Center in central Ukraine when the lights went out, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said on the Telegram messaging app. The generators were switched on, and the transplants were successful, he said.

“Ukrainian doctors are invincible!” he said.

In the central city of Dnipro, an aeronautics and industrial hub with a population of around one million people, the strikes caused Mechnikov Hospital to lose power, a first since the war began, doctors said.

“We’ve been preparing for this moment for two years,” said one doctor, who requested anonymity because the doctor was not authorized to talk to the news media.

The hospital’s I.C.U. and operating rooms are working on generators, the doctor added, but the living quarters are without power.

Christopher Stokes, the head of Doctors Without Borders in Ukraine, said that the strikes on infrastructure were putting “millions of civilians in danger.” They can feed a vicious loop, in which people living without heat and clean water are more likely to need medical care but that care itself is harder to deliver.

“Energy cuts and water disruptions also will affect people’s access to health care as hospitals and health centers struggle to operate,” he said.

At the Kyiv hospital, surgeons donned headlamps and continued to work in the dark. The operation was a success, Mr. Todurov said.

“Thanks to all the staff for their well-coordinated and selfless work,” he said. “In this unusual situation, we did not lose a single patient.”

Russian missiles target Ukraine civilians and infrastructure

By Emmanuel Grynszpan Published on November 24, 2022 at 12h36, updated at 14h37 on November 24, 2022

FeatureA new wave of Russian missiles hit Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on Wednesday, plunging parts of the country, including Kyiv, into darkness and killing at least 10.

"What's the point of you observing the damage? The whole world already knows what's going on here, it doesn't change anything. People only understand when missiles fall on their heads."

Behind police tape, a volunteer was blocking the path to houses damaged by the explosion, an hour earlier, of a Russian missile, on Wednesday, November 23, in Vychhorod, a suburb north of Kyiv. This well-mannered and elegantly dressed 40-year-old said he was carrying out police instructions not to let anyone through. The entire neighborhood was cordoned off "until the rescue operations are completed".

As night fell, a crowd of local residents moved in small, cautious steps around the area, slipping on the ice and packed snow. Some were trying to see the damage, others hurrying to get home before dark.

"The entire city lost power immediately after the explosion," said the volunteer, in the same calm tone. Without the slightest hint of annoyance or fatalism, he continued: "Our [Russian] neighbors will not stop. To survive, we must defeat them and we must go all the way. When we defeated Hitler, we did not stop at the German border. We had to go all the way to Berlin and finish off the monster."

The district of Vychhorod, in the suburbs of Kyiv, was bombed on the afternoon of November 23 CHLOE SHARROCK / AGENCE MYOP FOR LE MONDE Residents wait behind a security cordon following a Russian bombardment of the Vychhorod district CHLOE SHARROCK / AGENCE FOR LE MONDE

A few minutes later, on the other side of the block, a lenient policeman allowed us to enter the scene. Two five-storey brick buildings on two sides of a children's playground were badly damaged, partially burned. The missile seemed to have pierced the roof of one. All the windows in the vicinity were blown out, including those of Vychhorod school, 50 metres away.

Russian saturation tactics

"It's a good thing there were no kids there when it happened," muttered a man in fatigues assisting the rescuers. "Six bodies have been pulled out of the rubble," he said. "One of them is still lying here," he added, gesturing to the entrance of a building. Firefighters continued to walk over the rubble with their hoses, skirting around the charred carcasses of vehicles, twisted metal sheets and other debris littering the ground.

The beams of their torches searched the darkness in the apartments of a nine-storey building, located perpendicular to the two most affected buildings. Its inhabitants were prioritizing their most urgent needs. The better equipped ones were attaching plastic film to the windows to insulate their homes from the bitter cold.

"I have no heat, no electricity, no water," Serhi Vartchouk said from his first-floor balcony. "Who is going to help us? No one will help us. Neither the government nor the rich people who have gone abroad to wait for this to pass. I don't believe in anything anymore, not even in [Volodymyr] Zelensky, who promised us peace," he shouted in frustration, before disappearing into the darkness.

A dozen Ukrainian cities and entire regions are in the same boat as Vychhorod. As of Wednesday evening, water and electricity were off in 80% of the capital's homes, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who was unable to give a date for when utilities would be restored. The November 23 attack left 10 people dead across Ukraine, according to a provisional death toll from the interior minister. Kyiv Region Governor Oleksiy Kouleba gave a figure of five killed and 31 injured in the city of Vychhorod.

Soldiers walk through the rubble after a Russian bombing in the Vychhorod district of Kyiv on November 23 CHLOE SHARROCK / AGENCE MYOP FOR LE MONDE The district of Vychhorod in the suburbs of Kyiv on November 23 CHLOE SHARROCK / AGENCE FOR LE MONDE

The Russian army launched several dozen missiles at the same time, in the mid-afternoon, repeating for the fifth time since the invasion a tactic of saturating Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses. "The Russian terrorist state fired missiles en masse at Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Unable to defeat the Ukrainian armed forces, the enemy is waging a war against peaceful citizens, power plants, hospitals and even babies," tweeted General Valeri Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces.

'Crime against humanity'

He was referring to a strike the day before on a hospital in the Zaporizhzhia region, in which a newborn baby was killed. According to him, Russia fired 67 X-101 and X-555 caliber cruise missiles, as well as five kamikaze drones. Some 51 missiles were reportedly shot down by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses. This new deadly wave has, once again, contradicted the claims by Ukrainian and western military experts that Russia has emptied its arsenal of cruise missiles.

It also came as the European Parliament voted in favor of a declaration that "Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism," with 494 votes for, 58 against and 44 abstentions. On November 23, the Russian missiles (at least those that were not intercepted) were all aimed at civilian targets located behind the front line. This is a "crime against humanity," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday, before the United Nations Security Council.

Deployed on the ground and powered by its own mobile infrastructure, the Ukrainian army was not affected by these strikes. The country's electrical infrastructure, identified by the Kremlin as UKraine's Achilles heel, is clearly being targeted. Its complete collapse at the beginning of winter should, according to Russian plans, create a massive wave of emigration to Europe, break the morale of the Ukrainian people and break the sacred union, in place for the last nine months, between the political leadership, the army and public opinion. However, there is no historical precedent for the effectiveness of such a tactic.

Germán & Co 11/23/22 Germán & Co 11/23/22

News round-up, Wenesday, November 23, 2022.

EU parliament declares Russia a 'state sponsor of terrorism'
The European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, with 494 MEPs backing the resolution.
Le Monde with AFP
Boris Johnson claims Germany wanted Ukraine to FOLD quickly after Russia invasion – but says it would’ve been a disaster
Noa Hoffman
Published: 9:21, 23 Nov 2022
The Sun
Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.

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BORIS BLAST

Boris Johnson claims Germany wanted Ukraine to FOLD quickly after Russia invasion – but says it would’ve been a disaster

Noa Hoffman

Published: 9:21, 23 Nov 2022
The Sun

BORIS Johnson last night accused Germany of initially wanting Ukraine to be quickly crushed by Russia, rather than fight a drawn-out war.

The ex-PM also claimed France was “in denial right up until the last moment” about Mad Vlad Putin launching a full-scale invasion.

Boris Johnson has claimed Germany initially wanted Ukraine to fold quickly after Russia invadedCredit: EPA

In a candid interview with CNN in Portugal, the BoJo said: “The German view was at one stage that if it were going to happen, which would be a disaster, then it would be better for the whole thing to be over quickly and for Ukraine to fold.”

Boris explained that Germany had “all sorts of sound economic reasons” for wanting to avoid a prolonged conflict.

But he added: “I couldn’t support that, I thought that was a disastrous way of looking at it. I can understand why they thought and felt as they did.”

Turning his attention to Italy, Boris said that former PM Marco Draghi at one stage thought he couldn’t offer UK-level support to Ukraine because of his country’s reliance on Russian hydrocarbons.

Johnson was PM when Russian tanks rolled across the border on February 24, triggering a major ramp up of the 8 year long conflict.

Rishi Sunak warns of winter of inflation, chaotic strikes & stretched NHS

The ex-PM's interview with CNN comes days after Rishi Sunak made his first visit to Kyiv, where he met hero President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Sunak announced the UK was to provide Ukraine with £50 million worth of weapons, including anti-aircraft guns to shoot down Russian drones.

The Ukrainian leader in turn praised Britain for its ongoing backing in the war with Russia.

“Since the first days of the war, Ukraine and the UK have been the strongest of allies," he said.

"With friends like you by our side, we are confident in our victory. Both of our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom."

In Kyiv, the PM laid flowers at a memorial for the war dead and lit a candle at a memorial for victims of the Holodomor famine, before meeting emergency personnel at a fire station.

He said it was "deeply humbling" to be in Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine continues to devastate the lives of millions of innocent civillians.

Just last night a newborn baby was reportedly killed after a Russian missile strike hit a maternity ward in the southern Zaporizhzhia region overnight.

EU parliament declares Russia a 'state sponsor of terrorism'

The European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, with 494 MEPs backing the resolution.

Le Monde with AFP

Published on November 23, 2022 at 13h24

The European Parliament on Wednesday, November 23, recognized Russia as a "state sponsor of terrorism," accusing its forces of carrying out atrocities during its war on Ukraine.

The move by the European legislators is a symbolic political step with no legal consequences, but MEPs urged the governments of the 27-nation EU to follow their lead. "The deliberate attacks and atrocities carried out by the Russian Federation against the civilian population of Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law amount to acts of terror," a resolution approved by EU lawmakers said.

The parliament said it "recognizes Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state which uses means of terrorism."

Kyiv has been calling on the international community to declare Russia a "terrorist state" over its invasion of the country, and the Strasbourg parliament's decision will likely anger Moscow. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the vote. "Russia must be isolated at all levels and held accountable in order to end its long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and across the globe," he said in a social media post.

The European Union – unlike the United States – does not have a legal framework to designate countries as a "state sponsor of terrorism." Washington has so far steered clear of putting Russia on its list, a move that triggers more sanctions and would remove the state immunity of Moscow's officials.

The resolution, backed by 494 MEPs and opposed by 58, calls on Brussels to put in place the "legal framework" to take the move and consider adding Russia. "We called a spade a spade. Russia is not only a state sponsoring terrorism, but the state, which is using means of terrorism," said Lithuanian MEP Andrius Kubilius, who spearheaded the push for the resolution. "The recognition of this fact by the European Parliament sends a clear political signal. Europe, Europeans do not want to remain passive, when their big neighbor violates all humanitarian and international standards."

Lawmakers in several eastern EU countries have already voted to condemn Russian "terrorism." The EU has imposed eight rounds of unprecedented sanctions targeting Russia's key oil exports and top officials since President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to attack in February.

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European diplomats say work is underway on preparing a new package of sanctions after Moscow unleashed a ferocious missile and drone blitz against Ukraine's energy infrastructure following losses on the battlefield.

The European Parliament resolution also urged the EU to include the Wagner mercenary group and troops loyal to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on the bloc's sanctions list of "terrorist" organizations.

Le Monde with AFP

Missiles for Poland Raise Questions on NATO Stance in Ukraine War

NATO is determined to help Ukraine battle Russia, but wants no direct part of the war. A new promise of air defense weapons for Poland may make that more complicated.

An American Patriot surface-to-air missile system at a military training center in Torun, Poland, in October.Credit...Tytus Zmijewski/EPA, via Shutterstock

By Andrew Higgins

NYT

Nov. 23, 2022, 12:01 a.m. ET

WARSAW — When a missile slammed into a Polish village just a few miles from Ukraine last week and killed two local residents, fears surged that Russia had attacked a NATO country and threatened a global conflagration — until it turned out that it was probably a wayward Ukrainian air defense missile that had fallen into Poland by accident.

Just how risky the situation remains, however, was put into focus this week when Poland announced that it had accepted a German offer of Patriot air defense systems and would deploy them “near the border” with Ukraine.

Poland, like the United States, has provided steadfast support to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February, supplying weapons and unwavering diplomatic backing, but it has no desire to get into a war with Moscow.

Still, even though the new missiles from Germany will not be fully operational for years, by which time the war in Ukraine may well be over, Poland’s plans to deploy them close to the conflict zone signals growing worries that its own security may be at risk, and that the war next door could spread, by accident or by design.

Putting American-made Patriot interceptor missiles, some of which should be working at least partially by next August, close to Ukraine raises a host of difficult questions rooted in NATO’s eagerness to help Ukraine while staying outside the conflict zone.

“What happens if our radar shows rockets are coming and they need to be intercepted inside Ukraine?” asked Jacek Bartosiak, the head of Strategy and Future, a Warsaw research group focused on security issues.

That scenario, he said, is unlikely to drag NATO into a direct clash with Russia, but would push it into an uncharted “gray zone.”

Russian warplanes, Mr. Bartosiak said, no longer venture into regions of western Ukraine next to Poland, so there is no real risk of their being hit accidentally by a missile fired from Polish territory. And the PAC-3 Patriot missiles offered by Germany have a range of around only 20 miles, which means they would not reach into areas of Ukraine where Russian air or ground forces now operate.

But, Mr. Bartosiak said, there is still the possibility of “Patriot missiles operating in Ukrainian air space.” That would undermine NATO’s hands-off approach to the war, and its strong commitment to support Ukraine with weapons while avoiding at all costs any involvement inside the country that could be used as a pretext by Moscow to escalate.

The State of the War

Dnipro River: A volunteer Ukrainian special forces team has been conducting secret raids under the cover of darkness traveling across the strategic waterway, which has become the dividing line of the southern front.
Evacuation Plans: The Ukrainian government is preparing to help evacuate residents from the southern cities of Kherson and Mykolaiv, where shattered infrastructure has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis when winter sets in.
A Race to Rebuild: Ukrainian attempts to stabilize some of the country’s battered electricity supply and make a dent in the seemingly endless task of demining swaths of the country offered a glimpse into the Herculean effort that lies ahead off the battlefield.
Visual Investigation: Videos circulating on social media have ignited a debate over whether Ukrainian forces committed war crimes or acted in self-defense as they tried to capture a group of Russian soldiers who were then killed. Here's what we know.

Russia, which has railed for years against American missiles deployed in Poland — the Pentagon says they are part of a program to defend against ballistic missiles fired by rogue states like Iran — has had no official comment on the Patriot systems being sent to Poland.

Russian military bloggers, who often reflect the views of Russia’s defense establishment, scoffed at the effectiveness of Patriot air defense missiles but accused NATO of using last week’s incident in eastern Poland as a pretext for deploying missiles close to Ukraine to help shoot down Russian munitions.

In a post on Telegram, Rybar, an unofficial but influential pro-war Russian blog, said that “a couple of additional air defense systems will not provide a ‘no-fly zone’ over Ukraine,” but warned against NATO’s “tacit potential participation in repelling missile attacks by the Russian armed forces on targets” in western Ukraine.

A NATO spokesperson, Oana Lungescu, said the alliance “welcomed” Germany’s offer to help Poland with new missiles but stressed that their mission was to defend alliance territory. “In response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, we are strengthening our defenses in the East,” she said.

Germany has already sent Patriot missiles to Slovakia, which also borders Ukraine, and the United States military in April installed its own Patriot batteries at the Polish airport of Rzeszow, a key transit hub near the Ukrainian border for Western weapons flowing into Ukraine.

None of these air-defense systems has been involved in clashes with Russia inside Ukraine.

Whether any of the additional Patriot missiles provided to Poland by Germany are fired into Ukraine could depend in part on who controls them: Polish or German military personnel.

The defense ministry in Warsaw did not respond to questions about who would be in charge. Normal procedures within the NATO alliance leave the nation providing air defense systems in control, not the host nation. The Patriots installed in April at Rzeszow airport, for example, are operated by American personnel.

Robert Czulda, a security expert at the University of Lodz in central Poland, said that Germans would most likely be in control of the new missiles, at least initially, because “our army is not trained in how to use Patriots.”

On Monday, Col. Michal Marciniak, who oversees air defense at the Polish defense ministry, told the national news agency, PAP, that the first battery of Patriot missiles offered by Germany had arrived in Poland and was being tested. Years of training will be needed, and the systems will not reach full combat readiness until 2024 or 2025, he said.

That postpones difficult decisions on whether the missiles can be fired into Ukraine and under what circumstances.

Colonel Marciniak said the main task of the Patriots from Germany would be to “protect population centers, critical infrastructure and army groups.” He did not address the question of whether this might mean firing them into Ukrainian skies. The American-operated Patriots in Rzeszow, he said, did not cover the Polish village of Przewodow that was hit last week by the errant missile.

The United States, to Ukraine’s chagrin, has been careful to avoid anything that would risk NATO getting sucked into the war directly. And Poland shares American wariness of any direct involvement in the conflict.

“We want Ukraine to win, but our priority is to keep Polish and other NATO territory safe,” said Mr. Czulda, the Lodz University expert. “We are happy to assist them and deliver arms, but there is no discussion of direct involvement. Nobody here wants that.”

That was clear, he said, from Poland’s swift response last week to claims by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that Russia had attacked Polish territory and that a firm response from NATO was needed. Poland’s president said the explosion was most likely an “unfortunate accident,” not an “intentional attack.”

“I understand Ukraine’s point of view, but they have their own goals and interests,” Mr. Czulda said. “Zelensky wants to get NATO involved, and we want to stay away.”

In the early months after Russia invaded, Mr. Zelensky called in vain for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukrainian territory. Washington dismissed the idea as a non-starter because it would have risked Russian and Western warplanes shooting at each other. But his plea for action last week after the missile hit a grain-processing plant in the Polish village shows that he has not given up on trying to get NATO involved.

Mr. Czulda said there was “very, very minimal risk” of the new Patriot systems dragging NATO into a confrontation with Russia in Ukraine.

“These missiles will not engage Russian aircraft in Ukraine,” he said. “But if Russians fly into Poland, that is their problem.”

He questioned whether the German-supplied Patriot missiles would add much to Poland’s military capabilities, saying they were “mainly a symbolic and political move to show that Germany is committed to Polish security” and to calm often-tense relations between Warsaw and Berlin.

Poland’s nationalist governing party, Law and Justice, has clashed repeatedly with the German government, mostly over disputes dating back to World War II. It keeps reviving what Berlin views as long-settled arguments over wartime reparation payments and has even accused Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and the dominant voice within the European Union, of working to establish a “Fourth Reich.”

If nothing else, the Patriot missile offer should help put relations back on a more even keel and curb Law and Justice’s desire to stoke the often anti-German sentiments of its political base.

Poland’s deputy prime minister, Jacek Sasin, on Tuesday hailed Germany’s offer of missiles as “an important gesture” that would ease tensions with Berlin and lead to a “real strengthening of Poland’s defenses.” Polish-German relations, he said, “are correct, although there are also a lot of problems.”

Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting from Warsaw, and Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia.

Germán & Co 11/22/22 Germán & Co 11/22/22

nruteR droN

“I don`t thinks Putin is Hitler like-character, “ Kissinger riplies. “He come out of Dotoevsky ”Portafolio” Henry Kisssinger, Manhattan, NY, July 27, 2018.

“Germany is totally controled by Russia.” The President Donald Trump at the start at bilateral meeting whit NATO General Secretary Peter Stontelberg ahead of the summits NATO heads for state anf govermment” La Vanguardia, July, 17,2022

It is a purely —political— as well as —immoral— project, challenging to resurrect?

“The eternal marriage - Putin/Schröder - bore fruit for both. Putin became the executor of the former chancellor, while Schröder took on the role of private secretary and spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin. This open and familiar relationship is not typical in politics, especially between two nations with a geopolitical weight of absolute responsibility. This friendship crossed the line, and by far... The question is why German intelligence did not act against a - financial society - that was as dangerous for its own country as it was for the world.”
**Germán & Co**

`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

Germán & Co

14/11/2022

Karlstad, Sweden

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It is a purely —political— as well as —immoral— project, challenging to resurrect?

**"I don't think Putin is a Hitler-like character," Kissinger replies. "He comes out of Dostoevsky."**

`Portofalio magazine interview of Mr. Henry Kissinger in the French restaurant Jubilee in downtown Manhattan in New York on July 27, 2018`
`Image Shutterstock license right to Germán & Co.`

Germán & Co 11/22/22 Germán & Co 11/22/22

News round-up, Tuesday, November 22, 2022.

E.U. ambassadors will need to approve the price per barrel by unanimity. The decision is expected on Wednesday, several diplomats said, but there could be delays. (NYT)
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IMF tells France to end its 'whatever it takes' policy

The Washington-based institution is urging France to funnel aid towards the least well-off in the face of the energy crisis and to accelerate public spending cuts.

By Elsa Conesa and Julien Bouissou

Le Monde

Published on November 22, 2022 at 10h04, updated at 10h04 on November 22, 2022

"Deficit reduction should not be a concern while the crisis is ongoing," the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in 2020, in the midst of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Two years later, while the war in Ukraine has slowed down the recovery, caused energy prices to soar and increased deficits, the Washington-based international organization has become much less complacent, particularly with regard to France. In its annual report on France, published on Monday, November 21, the IMF sent a thinly-veiled warning, calling on the country to speed up the pace of its public spending cuts and urging it to restrict its support measures only to its most vulnerable citizens in response to the energy crisis.

"We have supported the 'whatever it takes' measures, but now it is time" to end them, said Jeffrey Franks, IMF mission chief for France, at a press conference. Mr. Franks was presenting the conclusions of the mission which, each year, reviews France's economic, budgetary and financial situation, as provided for in Article IV of the organization's statutes.

The message is a clear warning, as the government is preparing to release an additional €50 billion to support households and businesses indiscriminately in 2023, as part of the budget currently being debated in Parliament, and as interest rates rise.

It also contrasts with the recommendations made to Germany in July. At that time, the IMF deemed the country's fiscal stance for 2022 "appropriate," and even urged Berlin "to overcome long-standing impediments to a rapid and decisive increase in public investment." Germany has since announced a €200 billion package to help households and businesses facing energy price inflation.

France has not, however, entered the energy crisis with its finances in the same state as those of its neighbor. Nevertheless, it has mobilized considerable sums (more than €100 billion since the fall of 2021, in total) to absorb the bulk of price rises for households. While the IMF admits that this has enabled it to keep inflation below the level of other European countries, this has come at the cost of a massive increase in spending, added to the hundreds of billions already spent to support the economy battered by Covid-19, and fueling a new "whatever it takes" response.

'Structural reforms'

"The measures implemented in 2021-2022 totaled more than 2% of gross domestic product [GDP]," the IMF pointed out. In any case, this amount would place France around the European average, according to the European think tank Bruegel. However, two-thirds of this spending is not targeted − freezing gas prices, freezing electricity rates, rebates at the pump. They have cushioned the impact, but "driven up costs, while reducing incentives to reduce energy consumption."

The budget law for 2023, currently being discussed by the Sénat, also postpones the bulk of the budgetary effort to 2024 and beyond, the IMF lamented. It will further increase the deficit, since it plans to abolish a tax on companies (the CVAE), the yield of which will not be compensated by the "exceptional revenues recorded in 2022." Paris should therefore reduce spending from 2023, reserving its aid for "those most affected" by energy inflation, the institution believes, which could allow a budgetary tightening of a quarter of a point of GDP.

Then, "in the following years," France could rely on "structural reforms," such as unemployment insurance and pensions, or training and education. It could also review its tax niches, such as the research tax credit, whose effectiveness is regularly questioned, and undertake a "rationalization of the civil service workforce."

The French Ministry of Finance welcomed the slight correction made by the IMF to its growth forecasts, raising them from 0.7% to 0.75% for 2023

Finally, the IMF is concerned about the rejection by MPs of the public finance programming law for 2027, a text that sets the fiscal path to return to 3% of public deficit by that time. "The adoption of the medium-term programming bill is essential for the new fiscal framework to become fully operational," the institution insisted. France expects a public deficit of 5% in 2023, after 4.9% in 2022, and expects to return to 3% in 2027, targets that its larger neighbors plan to reach more quickly.

The government's reaction to this budgetary solution was not long in coming. "We have stopped the 'whatever it takes' approach" said Bruno Le Maire, the minister of the economy, speaking on French 24-hour news channel BFM-TV a few hours after the IMF report was published. "We are targeting [aid] to the companies that need it most and targeting will be the rule for state aid in 2023." France's ministry of finance was especially pleased with the IMF's slight correction to its growth forecasts, raising them from 0.7% to 0.75% for 2023. France is betting on a GDP increase of 1% for next year.

'A thousand different situations'

The question of targeting public aid − one of the IMF's unchanging recommendations − has plagued the government throughout the Covid-19 crisis, and has come up again in the face of the energy crisis. Targeting aid means taking the risk of abandoning some of the economic actors that may be having difficulties, but helping them all means jeopardizing the country's public finances as a whole.

The executive has so far chosen to support the entire French population uniformly, partly to avoid criticism, but also because of the difficulty of building simple and effective targeted mechanisms. The finance ministry worked for months on the subject, almost systematically coming up against technical implementation problems. Added to this is the opposition's resistance to the plan. This summer, the right wing opposed any targeted aid for motorists in the face of soaring gas prices, because "this always leads to the exclusion of the middle classes," said Les Républicains MP Véronique Louwagie in July, during the vote on the purchasing power package.

Ministry officials have also looked for ways to better target the "tariff shield," which freezes gas and electricity prices, so that it goes to the least well-off households. One approach was to have the government pay for households' "basic" consumption of electricity, leaving the most energy-hungry to pay for their excess use, as Germany is planning to do. It was quickly abandoned. "How do you define what basic consumption is? There are a thousand different situations," said one person close to the discussions. "It risked becoming a huge mess."

Paradoxically, the IMF's message also gives the ministry political arguments, which by nature advocates greater fiscal rigor, and to the government to defend its reform program. "The IMF is playing its role," said Nicolas Véron, an economist at the Bruegel Center and the Peterson Institute in Washington. "It is not a question of being alarmist, but it is important that all countries, and France in particular, give out signals of fiscal discipline, because there is currently a great deal of instability. No one can say what the reference economic scenario is at the moment." Hence the widespread feeling, over the past few weeks, that "the risks of a crash are being underestimated by both politicians and the markets," the economist continued.

This feeling is further reinforced by the difficulties recently experienced by the United Kingdom, which remind us that "a financial crisis is not a theoretical risk, it can happen to any country, even a large country with a good rating from the agencies," stressed François Ecalle, a specialist in public finances. "Within a few days, the situation was turned upside down, because the new government was not credible, even though British public finances had not posed any particular problem until then. The markets can sleep for years and then suddenly wake up."

Elsa Conesa and Julien Bouissou

E.U. diplomats aim to agree on a price this week, clearing the way to enforce the measure before a Dec. 5 deadline.

Oil tankers off the coast of Novorossiysk, Russia. Next month, the European Union is set to impose a near-total embargo on Russian crude shipments.Credit...Associated Press

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Alan Rappeport

Matina Stevis-Gridneff reported from Brussels and Alan Rappeport reported from Washington, D.C.

Nov. 22, 2022Updated 9:53 a.m. ET

A complex effort by Ukraine’s allies to deprive Russia of billions of dollars in oil revenue by putting a cap on the price paid for its crude is reaching a crescendo this week.

European Union diplomats will meet on Wednesday to try to set that price after discussions with the United States and other Group of 7 industrialized nations, with two weeks to go before the cap is scheduled to take effect.

The diplomats’ meeting in Brussels will mark the last stage of implementing the policy that requires regulatory and logistical alignment in the complicated business of ferrying the fuel out of Russia to markets such as India and China.

The policy must be in place by Dec. 5, when the European Union’s near-total embargo on Russian oil begins, one of many actions the bloc has taken to hobble Russia’s economy and limit its ability to wage war in Ukraine.

The idea behind setting a price cap is to limit the revenue Russia can make from its oil exports while also averting a shortage of the fuel, which would force prices up and compound a cost-of-living crisis around world.

The way the G7 nations want to make this work is by putting the burden of implementing and policing the price cap on the businesses that help sell the oil: global shipping and insurance companies, which are mostly based in Europe.

This is why the regulatory framework to enforce this measure needs to be adopted in Europe as well as other G7 members such as the United States, Britain and Japan, which also host companies active in transporting or insuring Russian oil.

E.U. ambassadors will need to approve the price per barrel by unanimity. The decision is expected on Wednesday, several diplomats said, but there could be delays.

Because the cap would require a change in the European Union’s sanctions against Russia, unanimous consent among the 27 E.U. nations on the price is needed.

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Seven senior E.U. diplomats said there was political support for the policy, but opinions differed on where the price should be set. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to upset ongoing talks.

The idea is to set the price high enough over the cost of extracting oil to incentivize the Russians to continue selling, but low enough to make a meaningful dent in the profits they earn.

The cost of extraction per barrel in Russia is estimated between $12 and $20; Russian oil recently traded at nearly $70 per barrel on the global markets. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and several European diplomats have cited $60 per barrel as a potential price. But E.U. diplomats from nations closer to Ukraine who take an even stauncher pro-Ukraine line have indicated they would prefer a lower price.

The United States is letting the European Union take the lead in determining a price that can win approval there. A Treasury spokesman said that the United States has no plans to privately propose a price to European partners.

What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.

Diplomats from Poland and its neighbors in the Baltic Sea said they would also like to see the price cap come with commitments for sanctions that would target still-protected European trade with Russia, such as diamonds and fuel for nuclear reactors.

The European Union embargo on Russian oil that kicks in on Dec. 5 also includes a ban on European services to ship, finance or insure Russian oil shipments to destinations outside the bloc, a measure that would disable the infrastructure that moves Russia’s oil to buyers around the world.

To implement the price cap, these European shipping providers will instead be permitted to transport Russian crude outside the bloc only if the shipment complies with the price cap. In other words, it will be left up to them to ensure that the Russian oil they are transporting or insuring has been sold at or below the capped price; otherwise, they would be held legally liable for violating sanctions.

Dutch court sides with squatters of sanctions-hit Russian’s mansion

Ruling against Arkady Volozh in Amsterdam could set awkward precedent in Europe for rich Russians

The Guardian

Pjotr Sauer in Amsterdam

Tue 22 Nov 2022 13.45 GMT

Perched as it is in an upmarket neighbourhood overlooking the scenic Vondelpark, it is not hard to imagine why a Russian billionaire would have been interested in the 1879 five-storey Amsterdam property with a lush private garden.

That billionaire was Arkady Volozh, a co-founder of Russia’s biggest search engine, Yandex. He bought the £3m house in 2019, becoming one of the dozens of wealthy Russians who have invested in property in the Dutch capital.

But since October, the mansion, which had been undergoing extensive refurbishment, has been taken over by a group of squatters, who issued a statement saying they had done so in a protest against Volozh’s reported ties to the Kremlin, and the wider housing crisis in Amsterdam.

Last Wednesday, a Dutch court ruled the squatters did not have to vacate the property.

When the Guardian visited the house, it was hung with banners criticising the war in Ukraine. The Guardian was refused entry to the apartment by one of the squatters, who declined to give her name, citing security issues.

Lighting a cigarette, the squatter said she was relieved by the judge’s verdict. “The law is finally on our side,” she smiled.

Volozh was placed under EU sanctions in June after the bloc accused him of “materially or financially” supporting Russia as the country launched its invasion of Ukraine. For years, Russian opposition figures have argued that Yandex’s news aggregator, which has become a key source of information for many Russians, was censoring articles critical of the government and propping up Kremlin-friendly narratives.

Arkady Volozh was placed under EU sanctions in June. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

An EU statement at the time of Volozh being placed under sanctions accused Yandex of “promoting state media and narratives in its search results, and deranking and removing content critical of the Kremlin, such as content related to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”.

Volozh declared the European Commission’s decision “misguided” and quickly resigned from his position as chief executive to prevent Yandex from also being targeted by sanctions.

Heleen over de Linden, a Dutch lawyer who represented the squatters, said of the court ruling: “I was convinced we were in the right, but I was still somewhat surprised to see the judge agree with our arguments. These sanctions are new, so we haven’t had many cases like this before.”

De Linden said that traditionally the Netherlands had strict property rights that favoured owners, meaning the ruling could set an important precedent.

The west has imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian politicians and prominent businesspeople since the start of the war, often seizing their multimillion-pound properties and yachts. The ruling in Amsterdam exposes the increasingly difficult situation for Russia’s rich and powerful in Europe, a region where their money and investment were once welcomed with open arms.

As an individual under sanctions, Volozh is prevented from entering or transiting EU territory. The sanctions also mean all accounts belonging to Volozh have been frozen, and he is prohibited from making any profit from renting out property.

Volozh’s lawyer, John Wolfs, argued in court that his client was renovating the flat with the aim of subsequently moving into it with his family. “Their main residence is elsewhere. But because Mr Volozh’s activities take place in Europe, they regularly visit Amsterdam. They think it’s a beautiful city,” Wolfs said in court.

Although he is barred from entering the Netherlands on his Russian passport, Volozh acquired Maltese citizenship in 2016 through the controversial “golden passport” scheme, which could open the door for him to travel to and reside in the Netherlands.

Wolfs pointed to a section of EU law that permits individuals under sanctions to use their property for “personal consumption”.

“Assets which are only suitable for personal use or consumption, and therefore cannot be used by a designated person to obtain funds, goods or services, do not fall within the definition of ‘economic resources,’” the Council of Europe said in a report in June 2022. “Therefore they are not covered by the regulations and no authorisation is required to make them available to a designated person.”

De Linden questioned the idea that Volozh intended to move into the apartment. “The property is very nice, but would a Russian billionaire really move to the centre of Amsterdam with his grownup children? This property is not like a massive mansion or a private island that Russian oligarchs usually live on,” she said.

“Even if he would move to the property, his life would be severely restricted here. He can’t pay for food or other services. He isn’t even allowed to pay for a taxi,” the lawyer added.

There were also signs that Volozh was renovating the house in order to rent it, or part of it, out. According to information available on the Dutch public registry, a new address was added to the apartment in 2022, which property experts said could mean that Volozh may wish to rent or sell.

“You don’t add addresses if you’re going to live somewhere yourself, there is no reason to do that. This is usually done so that you can rent out the extra home or plan to split the building and sell it as separate flats,” said Gert Jan Bakker, an expert in the Dutch housing market.

Yvo Amar, a specialist in the field of sanctions and export control, said the refurbishment posed legal questions. “A sanctioned individual is not allowed to refurbish his flat unless his contractor received an exemption from the ministry of finance,” Amar said. “The house grows in value after you renovate it. That goes against the sanctions,” Amar added.

Having heard both sides, the court sided with the squatters. The judge ruled Volozh was unlikely to move into the property given the sanctions and the fact that he had no reason to travel to the Netherlands as he had resigned from his position at Yandex, a company that has its European headquarters in Amsterdam.

In a statement to the Guardian, Wolfs said he planned to appeal. “There is no legal basis whatsoever for squatters to take over a family home simply because it was empty while undergoing renovation. We are appealing the decision, and trust that the rule of law and facts will prevail,” he said.

In London, which according to one estimate has more than 1,895 Russian-owned properties, squatters have also been moving into the mansions of Russian billionaires who have been placed under sanctions. In March, police arrested four squatters who had moved into the £50m London mansion of Oleg Deripaska, an aluminium magnate and close ally of Vladimir Putin.

Germán & Co 11/21/22 Germán & Co 11/21/22

News round-up, Monday, November 21, 2022.

Inside the Saudi Strategy to Keep the World Hooked on Oil
The kingdom is working to keep fossil fuels at the center of the world economy for decades to come by lobbying, funding research and using its diplomatic muscle to obstruct climate action. (NYT)
Former Arab enemies re-united in VIP seats at World Cup opening ceremony (Spiegel)
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Inside the Saudi Strategy to Keep the World Hooked on Oil

The kingdom is working to keep fossil fuels at the center of the world economy for decades to come by lobbying, funding research and using its diplomatic muscle to obstruct climate action.

By Hiroko Tabuchi

Tabuchi reported from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to examine the kingdom’s vision for an oil-rich future.

Nov. 21, 2022

Shimmering in the desert is a futuristic research center with an urgent mission: Make Saudi Arabia’s oil-based economy greener, and quickly. The goal is to rapidly build more solar panels and expand electric-car use so the kingdom eventually burns far less oil.

But Saudi Arabia has a far different vision for the rest of the world. A major reason it wants to burn less oil at home is to free up even more to sell abroad. It’s just one aspect of the kingdom’s aggressive long-term strategy to keep the world hooked on oil for decades to come and remain the biggest supplier as rivals slip away.

In recent days, Saudi representatives pushed at the United Nations global climate summit in Egypt to block a call for the world to burn less oil, according to two people present at the meeting, saying that the summit’s final statement “should not mention fossil fuels.” The effort prevailed: After objections from Saudi Arabia and a few other oil producers, the statement failed to include a call for nations to phase out fossil fuels.

The kingdom’s plan for keeping oil at the center of the global economy is playing out around the world in Saudi financial and diplomatic activities, as well as in the realms of research, technology and even education. It is a strategy at odds with the scientific consensus that the world must swiftly move away from fossil fuels, including oil and gas, to avoid the worst consequences of global warming.

The dissonance cuts to the heart of the Saudi kingdom. The government-controlled oil company, Saudi Aramco, already produces one out of every 10 of the world’s barrels of oil and envisions a world where it will be selling even more. Yet climate change and rising temperatures are already threatening life in the desert kingdom like few other places in the world.

Saudi Aramco has become a prolific funder of research into critical energy issues, financing almost 500 studies over the past five years, including research aimed at keeping gasoline cars competitive or casting doubt on electric vehicles, according to the Crossref database, which tracks academic publications. Aramco has collaborated with the United States Department of Energy on high-profile research projects including a six-year effort to develop more efficient gasoline and engines, as well as studies on enhanced oil recovery and other methods to bolster oil production.

Aramco also runs a global network of research centers including a lab near Detroit where it is developing a mobile “carbon capture” device — equipment designed to be attached to a gasoline-burning car, trapping greenhouse gases before they escape the tailpipe. More widely, Saudi Arabia has poured $2.5 billion into American universities over the past decade, making the kingdom one of the nation’s top contributors to higher education.

Visitors to a Saudi forum at the United Nations climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, this month.Credit...Kelvin Chan/Associated Press

Saudi interests have spent close to $140 million since 2016 on lobbyists and others to influence American policy and public opinion, making it one of the top countries spending on U.S. lobbying, according to disclosures to the Department of Justice tallied by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Much of that has focused on bolstering the kingdom’s overall image, particularly after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 by Saudi operatives. But the Saudi effort has also extended to building alliances in American Corn Belt states that produce ethanol — a product also threatened by electric cars.

Understand the Latest News on Climate Change

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A landmark deal at COP27. Diplomats from nearly 200 countries concluded two weeks of climate talks by agreeing to establish a fund that would help poor countries cope with climate disasters made worse by the greenhouse gases from wealthy nations. The deal represented a breakthrough on one of the most contentious issues at the U.N. summit in Egypt.

U.S. midterm elections. The Democrats’ strong showing essentially ensures that President Biden’s signature climate change law will be fully implemented despite threats from some Republicans to block or undo it, though they’re likely to use their narrow House majority to try to slow it. Here are five main climate-related results from the midterm elections.

Tracking polluters. Climate TRACE, a nonprofit backed by Al Gore and other big environmental donors, is scouring data from satellites to track emissions down to individual power plants, oil fields and cargo ships. The group has cataloged 72,612 emitters and counting, creating a hyperlocal atlas of the human activities that are altering the planet’s chemistry.

U.S. climate threats. The effects of climate change are already “far-reaching and worsening” throughout the United States, posing risks to virtually every aspect of society, according to a draft report being circulated by the federal government. The United States has warmed 68 percent faster than Earth as a whole over the past 50 years, the draft report said.

A new response to rising seas. Consigned to marginal land more than a century ago by the U.S. government, some Native American tribes are trying to move to areas that are better protected from high water and extreme weather. In response, the Biden administration has created a program designed to help relocate communities threatened by climate change.

Behind closed doors at global climate talks, the Saudis have worked to obstruct climate action and research, in particular objecting to calls for a rapid phaseout of fossil fuels. In March, at a United Nations meeting with climate scientists, Saudi Arabia, together with Russia, pushed to delete a reference to “human-induced climate change” from an official document, in effect disputing the scientifically established fact that the burning of fossil fuels by humans is the main driver of the climate crisis.

“People would like us to give up on investment in hydrocarbons. But no,” said Amin Nasser, Saudi Aramco’s chief executive, because such a move would only wreak havoc with oil markets. The bigger threat was the “lack of investment in oil and gas,” he said.

A hydrogen vehicle fueling up in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.Credit...Maya Siddiqui/Bloomberg

In a statement, the Saudi Ministry of Energy said it expected that hydrocarbons such as oil, gas and coal would “continue to be an essential part of the global energy mix for decades,” but at the same time the kingdom had “made significant investments in measures to combat climate change.” The statement added, “Far from blocking progress at climate change talks, Saudi Arabia has long played a major role” in negotiations as well as in oil and gas industry groups working to lower emissions.

Saudi Arabia has said it supports the Paris climate agreement, which aims to prevent global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, and intends to generate half its electricity from renewables by 2030. The kingdom also plans to plant 10 billion trees in the coming decades, and is building Neom, a futuristic carbon-free city that features speedy public transit, vertical farms and a ski resort.

And Saudi Arabia is hedging its bets. The government has invested in Lucid, the American electric vehicle company, and recently said it would form its own electric vehicle company, Ceer. It is investing in hydrogen, a cleaner alternative to oil and gas.

Still, the green transition at home has been slow. Saudi Arabia still generates less than 1 percent of its electricity from renewables, and it isn’t clear how it plans to plant billions of trees in one of the world’s driest regions.

All the while, the climate threat is getting harder to ignore. At current rates, human survival in the region will be impossible without continuous access to air-conditioning, researchers said last year.

Among researchers at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, a space station-like compound powered by 20,000 solar panels where discussion focuses on solar and wind projects or technologies like carbon capture, the more immediate trade-off is clear.

“If we keep consuming our own oil,” said Anvita Arora, who directs the center’s transport team, “we won’t have any oil left to sell.”

Inside the King Abdullah research center in Riyadh.Credit...Iman Al-Dabbagh for The New York Times

Saudis and the Corn Belt

In early 2020, Rob Port, who hosts the podcast “Plain Talk” on politics and current events in North Dakota, got a call from people representing the Saudi Embassy. Would he be interested in interviewing a Saudi spokesman about oil markets?

The call came from Dan Lederman at the LS2 group, a lobbying agency in Iowa that has also worked for agricultural and ethanol groups, and one of the few lobbying firms that stuck with the Saudis as others cut ties after the Khashoggi murder.

In May of that year, Fahad Nazer, a Saudi Embassy spokesman, appeared on Mr. Port’s podcast. “They were talking about how they have the same interests we do,” Mr. Port said, particularly an interest in “a thriving global oil market.”

That outreach was part of a major effort by LS2group, on behalf of the kingdom, that has reached states including the Dakotas, Texas, Iowa and Ohio. For a retainer of more than $125,000 a month, LS2group targeted local radio hosts, academics, event planners, sports-industry officials, a former football player and a ski and snowboard club owner, according to filings with the Justice Department.

LS2, a lobbying firm in Iowa, has helped promote Saudi interests in corn-producing states.Credit...Kathryn Gamble for The New York Times

Much of that campaign has been on general topics, like the history of close relations with the United States. However, states like Iowa, the nation’s top ethanol producer, could be fertile ground for the Saudis’ view on electric vehicles, said Jeff M. Angelo, a former Iowa state senator who now hosts a talk show and was approached by Saudi representatives.

“Ethanol producers here in Iowa are saying the same thing: ‘Isn’t it terrible that the Biden administration is forcing you to buy an electric car when we could be producing biofuels right here in Iowa, and making money, and supporting our farmers, and being energy independent?’” he said.

Another facet in Saudi Aramco’s effort to perpetuate gasoline cars is the research center near Detroit. There, researchers are working on an innovative device. Attached to a car, it would suck some of the planet-warming carbon dioxide from the exhaust before it can rise into the atmosphere and warm the world.

The prototype, developed by an Aramco lab, traps only a portion of emissions. But it is part of an effort to keep gasoline cars competitive. Transportation uses two-thirds of the world’s petroleum, so any shift away from gasoline vehicles would greatly eat into oil demand.

It is a shift that Aramco does not want to see.

In Detroit, Aramco is working on carbon-capture devices that would fit on vehicles.Credit...Cydni Elledge for The New York Times

“Are electric vehicles going to doom oil?” Khalid A. Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s minister of investment and former chairman of Saudi Aramco, said at an energy forum in 2019. “The answer is no.”

Saudi Aramco has teamed up with major automakers, like Hyundai, to develop an “ultra lean-burn” fuel for hybrid gas-electric vehicles that would still use petroleum. And some Saudi funded research throws doubt on electric vehicles.

In June, the Department of Energy also released the findings of its six-year initiative to research cleaner gasoline engines and fuels, which said that gasoline cars “will dominate new vehicle sales for decades.” Aramco and the department have also collaborated on technical papers on methods to increase the flow of oil from wells.

Sequel to ‘La La Land’

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi energy minister.Credit...Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, was incredulous. The International Energy Agency, set up a half-century ago to ensure the security of global energy supplies, had just sounded oil’s death knell: It said the world would need to immediately stop approving new oil and gas fields, and to quickly phase out gasoline vehicles, to avert the worst effects of climate change.

Continue reading the main story

Prince Abdulaziz compared that notion to a Hollywood movie. “It’s a sequel to ‘La La Land,” he quipped at a news conference.

Saudi Arabia continues to explore for oil and gas. It pumps oil at an extremely low price of about $7.50 a barrel, beating almost every major rival. Compared to fracking in the United States, for example, and the extensive flaring of methane that entails, Saudi production is also cleaner than competitors.

Last year, Saudi Arabia joined the United States, Canada, Norway and Qatar on a plan to further reduce drilling emissions. Saudi Aramco said last year it would reach “net zero” by 2050, essentially pledging to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere from oil extraction and production. However, that pledge excludes oil’s main source of planet-warming emissions, those produced by burning it.

“They see that as an advantage. They think that if buyers start discriminating between dirtier barrels and cleaner barrels, Saudi Arabia looks a lot better than oil produced in the Permian Basin in the United States” or other places, said Ben Cahill, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Saudi officials say that a rapid transition to renewables and to cleaner electric vehicles would bring economic chaos, a view they say has been vindicated by he recent turmoil in the global energy market amid a supply shortfall and surging prices.

“Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy will lead in coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices, and rising unemployment and a worsening of serious social and security problems,” Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said in July at a United States-Arab summit in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia’s strategy is playing out at global climate talks.

Back in March, when, Saudi Arabia and Russia pushed to delete a reference to “human-induced climate change” from a policy document at a United Nations meeting, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, a French climate scientist leading the session, fought back and won.

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the climate,” she later said. “This is the reason why I took the floor to argue.”

The Saudi intervention was the latest example of what other negotiators describe as a yearslong effort to slow progress by homing in on scientific uncertainties, downplaying the consequences, emphasizing the costs of climate action and delaying negotiations on procedural points.

Last year, Saudi Arabia successfully helped strike a sentence from a United Nations report that called for an active phaseout of fossil fuels. The statement “limits options for decision makers,” a Saudi adviser to the kingdom’s minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said, according to documents leaked by the environmental group Greenpeace. “Omit the sentence.”

“They have a strategic agenda, said Saleemul Huq, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, “which is they don’t want anything to happen.”

At the latest round of talks in Egypt, Saudi Arabia highlighted an alternative vision, one that relies on large-scale carbon capture and storage. By 2027, the kingdom will build a facility capable of storing as much carbon dioxide as 2 million gasoline cars would emit in a year.

That would be a breakthrough, because carbon capture has yet to be proven at scale. Yet it was Saudi Arabia’s way of preparing for a warming world, said Adel al-Jubeir, the kingdom’s climate envoy. “In Saudi Arabia, we’re committed to being ahead of it.”

Former Arab enemies re-united in VIP seats at World Cup opening ceremony

On Sunday, the first day of the competition, the event allowed Qatari monarch Tamim Al-Thani to stage his country's return to prominence in the Middle East.

By Benjamin Barthe

Q atar's Emir Tamim Al-Thani makes a speech from the VIP section at the opening match of the football World Cup in Doha, November 20, 2022. MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

In major international events, who sits where in the VIP section is a diplomatic exercise requiring tact. Organizers want to avoid a faux pas, and bring people together. On Sunday, November 20, during the opening ceremony for the football World Cup in the Al-Bayt stadium in Al-Khor, Qatari monarch Tamim Al-Thani played the game with skill.

In the VIP section, the sovereign found himself alongside two leaders who, less than two years ago, dreamed of bringing his country to its knees: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as "MBS," and Egyptian President Abdal Fattah el-Sissi. Their presence, a nod to the World Cup slogan "Football unites the world," allowed Doha to stage its return to prominence in the Middle East.

Between 2017 and 2021, Saudi Arabia and Egypt contributed to the diplomatic and commercial blockade imposed on Qatar, which was stigmatized at the time as the Gulf's troublemaker, guilty of consorting with Islamists and doing deals with Iranian enemies. The cold war in the region reached such a peak that at one point the Saudi press reported on a project to dig a canal between the kingdom and Qatar and dump nuclear waste in it.

The resilience shown by Doha and the election of Joe Biden in the United States, who was highly critical of the Saudi leader, convinced MBS to lift the embargo, which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had also joined.

In a signal of the thawing of relations between Riyadh and Doha since that crisis, MBS wore a broad smile during the ceremony and even put a Qatari scarf around his neck. According to Le Monde sources, the heir to the throne, who is passionate about football, plans to attend several other World Cup matches, including Saudi Arabia's first game on Tuesday against Argentina.

Two important absences

In another sign of the détente thanks to football, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a supporter of Qatar during the blockade, was photographed greeting Egyptian President Mr. el-Sissi. This is the first direct contact between the two men, who have been at loggerheads for nearly a decade. Mr. Erdogan refused to recognize Mr. el-Sissi's legitimacy after he came to power in 2013, overthrowing President Mohamed Morsi from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Doha's carefully-orchestrated diplomacy nevertheless suffered from two important absences: that of Mohammed bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates and former mastermind of the blockade, who was represented by the Emir of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rachid Al-Maktoum; and that of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of Bahrain, who still has frosty relations with his Qatari neighbor.

No Western official was present on Sunday, a sign of the controversies caused by the tournament in Western countries. But the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken was expected in Doha on Monday for the United States' opening match against Wales. It was still uncertain on Sunday whether or not there would be an Iranian representative for the country's match against England, also on Monday.

According to a well-informed source, a few weeks ago the Qatari foreign minister half-jokingly suggested to Mr. Blinken that he arrange a meeting with his Iranian counterpart during the scheduled match between Iran and the USA on Tuesday, November 29, in an attempt to resuscitate the Iranian nuclear talks. Since then, given the intensification of anti-regime protests in Iran and the accompanying outrage, this suggestion has probably been filed under "faux pas to avoid."

Benjamin Barthe

The Winter World CupQatar Has Spent Years Preparing, But Is the World Ready?

Qatar has spent several years developing its national team ahead of the World Cup, which kicks off on Sunday. The global public, though, is skeptical of the event. Nobody quite knows what to expect.

By Marc Hujer und Gerhard Pfeil

It’s an afternoon about two weeks before the World Cup is set to begin and there is no one to be seen in the Doha Sports Park. No fans, no masses of people, not a soul around to hear the admonishments coming from the speakers.

Khalifa International Stadium, which will host England against Iran on Monday, the first full day of this year’s tournament, with Germany versus Japan to follow on Wednesday, lies shrouded in the haze of the midday heat. Aside from a couple of workers who have been assigned the task of painting a maze on the ground for children, the site is vacant.

The stadium loudspeakers are all dangling from their wires, but they are nevertheless operational. A man’s voice can be heard coming from them, reading out in English the "penalties" that accrue for various improprieties. An initial soundcheck ahead of the tournament.

DER SPIEGEL 47/2022

The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 47/2022 (November 19th, 2022) of DER SPIEGEL.

SPIEGEL International

The voice says: 10,000 rials for garbage thrown on the street.

The voice says: 10,000 rials for leaving behind leftover food.

It keeps going, listing other infractions, all related to littering, though when it comes to the penalty, it doesn’t really matter what one leaves behind: chewing gum, drink cans or newspapers, it all comes with a fine of 10,000 rials. Which is quite a chunk if change. The equivalent of 2,650 euros, to be precise.

But how strictly will it be enforced? How concerned are they about the crowds of foreigners that will soon be descending on their country?

On the one hand, you have Qatar, an inflexible host country that ignores human rights, treats workers like Western industrialized countries did in the distant past and still views homosexuality as a crime.

On the other is an indignant global public, with some having threatened to boycott the event, insisting they won’t be tuning in this time to watch the spectacle. In Germany, a number of bars and restaurants have said they won’t be showing the games in their venues.

It remains to be seen, however, if they will actually follow through once the games begin. What will happen if the German team is actually successful and advances beyond the group phase to the quarters, the semis and perhaps even the final? Will there still be people in the country like Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, who said in a recent interview that for her, mulled wine simply doesn’t fit with football? A statement, it should be said, that doesn’t make all that much sense given the fact that German football stadiums are just as full for December league games as they are in spring.

Will everyone continue to adhere to their principles once the ball actually starts rolling in Qatar?

The Qataris have said on a number of occasions that they have plenty of experience with Western double standards, not least from the Germans, who have never shied away from earning a bit of money in Qatar. A subsidiary of the German rail company Deutsche Bahn, for example, is heading up the construction of Doha’s subway system. Siemens, meanwhile, is taking care of the technology in the stadiums. Questions about human rights weren’t much of an issue in those deals.

Football Development Aid from Europe

The Germans, says one Qatari who has long had tight business relations with the country, are far more preferable to him than the French, who just want to sell their products. The Germans, on the other hand, he says, will also sell their technology if they find it advantageous.

Qatar has spent billions on preparations for the World Cup, but the country has also invested maximum effort in ensuring that its national team can actually compete. And part of that effort has entailed bringing in expertise from Europe.

Qatar is anything but a traditional football country, and it has never before qualified for a World Cup. It also doesn’t have a fan culture of the kind seen in Europe, with turnout for Qatari league games rarely more than 1,000 spectators. Which doesn’t mean, however, that the sport plays no role in the country.

By 7 a.m., the numerous artificial grass fields in Doha are already full, with players coming out early to beat the heat. On television, meanwhile, fixtures from the English Premier League are broadcast almost constantly, along with games from the Qatari Stars League, founded in 1963 as the country’s top league for men and home to 12 sides. But excitement alone isn’t enough to be able to compete in the World Cup.

Not far from where the Khalifa International Stadium now stands, the Qatari state opened up the Aspire Academy in 2005, a modern training center for top athletes. It was envisioned as a place to develop local players to compete at the highest levels without having to buy in talent from abroad – as Qatar did in 2015 when the handball world championships were held in the country.

When it came to football, Qatar wanted to go to battle with a team it had developed itself. Made in Qatar.

The decision to develop players in the country was taken following the failed attempt to improve the quality of local players by sending them overseas. Until just a few years ago, the Qatar Football Association had been sending its best players abroad to partner teams in Europe, such as Linzer ASK in Austria or the Belgian team KAS Eupen. But the association quickly realized that its players were having trouble establishing themselves and were spending most of their time on the bench.

So the QFA brought the players back home and imported well-known stars from European leagues, like Xavi from Spain or Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, to raise the level of play back home. The country’s own talent was given preferential treatment in the hopes that they would ripen into top players.

Once Qatar was chosen back in 2010 to host the 2022 World Cup, the QFA started the process of constructing a team for the tournament. European trainers were brought in, including German talent developer Stephan Hildebrandt. He would go on to spent five years in Qatar, before returning to Germany in 2019.

We visited Hildebrandt, 49, in early September at his lakeside home outside of Berlin. Earlier in his career, Hildebrandt was head of Hamburger SV’s youth academy and then sport director for Energie Cottbus before he went to Qatar in 2014. He says he was looking for a new challenge. "It was difficult early on," he says. In Qatar, he says, there are only around 55,000 registered players, in contrast to several million in Germany. Hildebrandt and his assistants scoured the country’s schools, sports halls and clubs for talented players. The best players received a spot in the Aspire Academy. For the trainer team of Félix Sánchez, a Spaniard who now coaches the Qatari national team, the facility offered first-class amenities, including watered, artificial grass fields and huge fitness rooms.

A Football App for the Emir

But the players, says Hildebrandt, would continually find excuses for why they couldn’t show up for practice. "A traffic jam, the heat, a sandstorm, anything they could think of," he says. Most Qataris, he explains, are wealthy and don’t need to work particularly hard to earn money or advance in society.

At some point, though, the coaches were able to awaken the ambition of their handpicked players. The prospect of achieving fame through football became a powerful motivation. They trained up to eight times a week at the academy. Hildebrandt says that Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, a football fanatic, was able to follow the team’s development through an app developed specifically for him.

“Please go, immediately! The Qataris aren’t joking!”

Austrian security guards

In 2019, Qatar managed the shocking feat of winning the Asian Cup. In preparation for the World Cup in their homeland, the Qatari team spent several months in training camps in Spain and Austria. The players, though, are almost completely shielded from the outside world. A team of ghosts.

When the team spent the summer in Leogang, an Austrian town not far from Salzburg, the football pitch on the outskirts of town was carefully surrounded by screens so that nobody could see what was going on inside. The coaches, including the German goalkeeper trainer Julius Büscher, stayed in hotels in town and would walk to the pitch each day. The players, many of whom were lodged with families in the surrounding area, would drive to practice in rental cars.

No spectators were allowed in. And those who tried to get inside anyway were immediately intercepted by guards. "Please go, immediately! The Qataris aren’t joking!" Later, when the team was in Vienna, attempts to speak with players or coaches likewise proved unsuccessful. Instead of presenting the team’s stars, like team captain Hassan Al-Haydos, as ambassadors for the country and allowing them to speak about football in Qatar, they were hidden from view – likely out of concern that they might trigger yet another debate by saying the wrong thing.

Hildebrandt isn’t surprised. He is a cosmopolitan type and kept a journal during his time in Qatar, which is full of bizarre and thoughtful observations. Hildebrandt is fully aware of the deficits in Qatar, like the lack of women’s rights and the exploitation of foreign laborers. He met his wife in Doha, a woman from the Philippines who worked in a hotel and who sued her employer for poor treatment. She spent time in a pre-deportation custody, but a court then ruled in her favor, and she found a higher-paid job in a different company.

Hildebrandt is familiar with the dark sides of Qatar, the gigantomania and the unbridled consumerism of the elites. But he is also bothered by "Western cultural imperialism," the ignorance he sees in many Europeans and their self-righteousness. "I have a problem with the expectation that what we developed over centuries – the rule of law, secularization, open societies – should work perfectly all over the world in the blink of an eye," Hildebrandt says. He would like to see more understanding for a country that he believes is on the right track.

Hildebrandt is optimistic about Team Qatar advancing out of its group, which also includes Ecuador, the Netherlands and Senegal. Many of the preparation matches ahead of the World Cup were rather disappointing. In September, Qatar lost to Croatia’s U-23 national team 0:3 in a match played in Vienna.

Many Qataris nevertheless have high expectations for their team, including a former businessman who is a member of the Consultative Assembly, the country’s legislative body. Sitting in the lobby of the InterContinental Doha – The City, he says he can’t understand why the world isn’t more excited about the beginning of the World Cup. Why German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is so critical of his country. And why Paris Saint-Germain, the team that the Qatar Investment Authority purchased, the team for which both Neymar and Messi play, didn’t advertise the World Cup even once. Not even with a patch on the arms of their jerseys, for example.

When asked if it would be a success if the Qatari team managed to make it out of the group phase, the assembly member quickly responds: "It would be a success if we made it into the final."

Is he serious? He smiles. But he doesn’t laugh.

Germán & Co 11/16/22 Germán & Co 11/16/22

News round-up, Wednesday, November 16, 2022.

1) Joe Biden questioned the possibility that the missile that hit Poland on Tuesday, in a rural region bordering Ukraine, was launched from Russia. (ABC.ES)
2) UK inflation hits 11.1%, a four-decade high, on the back of soaring energy prices (Le Monde)

“Joe Biden questioned the possibility that the missile that hit Poland on Tuesday, in a rural region bordering Ukraine, was launched from Russia. “There is preliminary information that contradicts that,” he said in a meeting with reporters after a meeting with G20 leaders in Bali, where they discussed Russia’s shelling of Ukraine and the incident on Polish territory. “I don’t want to say it until we have fully investigated it. But it’s unlikely, because of the trajectory, that it was launched by Russia. We will see.””

— www.abc.es

The latest **IEA's Monthly Gas Statistics** report including **August 2022** data shows that for Total OECD

Editor's Pick:

UK inflation hits 11.1%, a four-decade high, on the back of soaring energy prices

After millions of British households were hit hard by rising energy bills and an escalating cost of living, the UK's soaring inflation is even higher than feared and hits the poorest families the hardest.

Le Monde with AFP

Published on November 16, 2022 at 09h25

British inflation has accelerated to the highest level for 41 years, driven by soaring energy, food and transport prices in a worsening cost-of-living crisis, official data showed on Wednesday, November 16.

The Consumer Prices Index hit 11.1% in October, reaching the highest level since 1981, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement. That compared with 10.1% in September, which matched the level in July and was the highest in 40 years.

Domestic fuel bills rocketed further despite the UK government's energy price freeze as the market faced fresh fallout from key producer Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The October figure beat market expectations of 10.7% and was higher than the Bank of England's (BoE) forecast peak.

"Rising gas and electricity prices drove headline inflation to its highest level for over 40 years, despite the Energy Price Guarantee," said ONS Chief Economist Grant Fitzner.

Over the last year, gas prices have leapt by 130% and electricity prices by 66%, according to the ONS. Food prices and transport costs also propelled inflation higher.

Runaway inflation comes despite Britain's energy support, which sought to limit annual energy bills at an average of £2,500 per year. Finance minister Jeremy Hunt, speaking on the eve of his key government budget, blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine for spiking prices, as well as fallout from the pandemic. "The aftershock of Covid and Putin's invasion of Ukraine is driving up inflation in the UK and around the world," Mr. Hunt said.

"This insidious tax is eating into pay cheques, household budgets and savings, while thwarting any chance of long-term economic growth."

The Ukraine conflict has also sent inflation soaring to the highest level in decades worldwide, sparking economic turmoil and forcing major central banks to ramp up interest rates.

The Bank of England this month sprang its biggest interest rate hike since 1989 to combat sky-high inflation – and warned the UK economy may experience a record-long recession until mid-2024.

The BoE said it was lifting borrowing costs by 0.75 percentage points to three percent – the highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis – to cool UK inflation that it saw peaking at almost 11%.

Mr. Hunt added on Wednesday that "tough" decisions would be needed in Thursday's budget to help the BoE meet its 2.0% inflation target. "We cannot have long-term, sustainable growth with high inflation," he said.

Le Monde with AFP

NATO to Meet After Deadly Blast in Poland

Here’s what we know:

The Kremlin denies involvement in an explosion that killed two people near Poland’s border with Ukraine.

NATO envoys will gather as the explosion in Poland alarms the alliance.

A day after a deadly explosion in Poland raised anxieties that Russia’s war in Ukraine could spill into the territory of a NATO member, representatives of the alliance planned to meet on Wednesday morning in Brussels to discuss the blast.

The explosion on Tuesday, in a farming village about four miles from the Ukrainian border, killed two people, according to Poland’s government. The leaders of Ukraine, which is not in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called the incident an intentional Russian strike on a NATO member. But the Kremlin denied involvement, and no evidence has emerged that the strike was intentional, or that Russia was responsible.

The United States and its allies offered their “full support and assistance” for the Polish investigation into the blast.

While the Polish Foreign Ministry said the missile was Russian-made, the country’s president, Andrzej Duda, told reporters, “It was most likely a Russian-made missile, but this is all still under investigation at the moment.” Both Ukraine and Russia use Soviet-era Russian made missiles.

President Biden said on Wednesday that initial information about the missile’s trajectory suggested that it was “unlikely” that it was fired from Russia. But it was unclear from the president’s remarks whether he meant the missile had probably not been fired from inside Russia’s territorial borders, or had probably not been fired by Russian forces in Ukraine or elsewhere.

President Biden expressed sympathy for the two people who died in an explosion near Poland’s border with Ukraine but suggested that the missile that detonated there had probably not been fired from Russia.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Mr. Biden spoke to reporters on the Indonesian island of Bali after attending an emergency meeting of leaders from NATO and the Group of 7 nations on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit. That summit has been dominated by the war in Ukraine and its effects on the global economy, with Mr. Biden and allied leaders repeating on Tuesday their denunciations of Russia’s invasion. Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, skipped the summit.

The explosion in Poland happened on a day when Russia unleashed one of its broadest barrages of aerial strikes against Ukraine since its invasion began in February, firing about 90 missiles at targets across the country, primarily electrical infrastructure.

Russia’s Defense Ministry insisted that it had not fired at targets near the Polish border. But Russian rocket strikes were reported in Ukraine’s Volyn region, which lies across the border from Przewodow, the Polish village where the blast occurred.

The New York Times

Military analysts noted that both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries could be using Russian-made missiles, leaving open a number of possible causes for the explosion. It could have involved a Russian missile that flew off course or was knocked off its trajectory by an intercepting Ukrainian air defense missile, or a missile fired by Ukraine to shoot down an incoming Russian strike.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that he believed “this has nothing to do with Russia.” He told a news conference in Bali: “Maybe this is a technical mistake, or any other explanation will be found.”

The United Nations’ secretary general, António Guterres, said he was “very concerned” by the explosion. “It is absolutely essential to avoid escalating the war in Ukraine,” he said in a statement.

Since the beginning of the war, the United States and its allies have sought to keep the fighting limited to Ukrainian territory and to avoid direct confrontation with Russia, even as NATO members have supplied a steady stream of weapons to Kyiv.

But if the explosion is determined to have been a deliberate attack, it could have broad consequences. Article 5 of the NATO charter commits its members to mutual defense, stating that an attack on one is an attack on all. That could be taken as requiring a concerted response to the blast in Poland. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, eager for more NATO support, said Tuesday that Russia had committed an “attack on collective security,” hinting at Article 5.

Under Article 4 of the charter, any member country can request a formal consultation among all members on an issue of concern. A spokesman for the Polish government had said that it was considering invoking the provision.

Late on Tuesday, the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, and the secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, spoke with their Polish counterparts. Mr. Austin assured Poland’s defense minister “of the ironclad commitment of the United States to defend Poland,” according to a statement provided by the Pentagon.

Farnaz Fassihi, Edward Wong, Eric Schmitt, Chris Buckley and Jim Tankersley contributed reporting.

— Richard Pérez-Peña and Shashank Bengali

Here is what officials are saying about the explosion in Poland.

An explosion in Poland near the border with Ukraine on Tuesday sparked immediate and conflicting explanations from governments grappling with the potential for Russia’s war in Ukraine to spill over into a broader conflict.

Here is a look at what nations involved are saying:

Poland

President Andrzej Duda said the cause of the explosion was “most likely a Russian-made missile” but that it was still under investigation. Mr. Duda said it was “highly likely” that he would invoke Article 4 of the NATO charter, under which members confer when a nation’s territorial integrity or security has been threatened.

Zbigniew Rau, Poland’s foreign minister, summoned Russia’s ambassador to demand “immediate detailed explanations” for the blast, according to a statement from the ministry.

Russia

Russia’s Defense Ministry denied involvement. On Telegram, the ministry wrote that any statements by Polish officials or media outlets about Russian missiles hitting the village were a “deliberate provocation.” Russia launched a widespread missile attack on Ukraine on Tuesday, with roughly 90 missiles aimed primarily at the country’s electrical infrastructure.

“No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made,” the ministry said, although Ukrainian reports disputed that account.

Ukraine

The explosion’s proximity to the border — about four miles — has raised the possibility that it was caused by the remains of a missile shot down by Ukraine’s air defense systems, or by a Ukrainian air defense missile. Both Russia and Ukraine are believed to use Russian-made missiles.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in a Twitter post that the explosion in Poland was not caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, seized on the possibility of Russian involvement and called it evidence of “a very significant escalation.” He alluded to Poland’s membership in NATO by saying Russia had waged an “attack on collective security.”

United States

Speaking on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Indonesia, President Biden said that “preliminary information” indicated the missile had not been fired from Russia, without addressing whether it could have been launched by Russian troops in Ukraine or from the Black Sea. In response to a reporter’s question, he said, “I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate,” but “the trajectory” of the missile made it unlikely “that it was fired from Russia.”

— Victoria Kim

Germán & Co 11/15/22 Germán & Co 11/15/22

News round-up, Tuesday, November 15, 2022.

Following the gas group Uniper, the German government is now also taking over the German subsidiary of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The aim is to secure gas supplies, the Federal Ministry of Economics said on Monday. Otherwise, the over-indebted company would have been threatened with insolvency.
www.sueddeutsche.de

“Sefe still had profit and capital assets of over one billion euros. But equity most recently amounted to minus 2.1 billion euros. “There is therefore a commercial balance sheet over-indebtedness,” it now says in the justification for the takeover, which was published in the Federal Gazette on Monday afternoon. “A large number of business partners are showing reluctance to enter into and continue business relations with Sefe.” A change of ownership, including an increase in equity, is now intended to change that - and in such a way that no money flows to the Russian owners.”

— www.sueddeutsche.de

Editor's Pick:

Germany takes over Gazprom subsidiary

November 14, 2022, 4:01

Ukraine conflict : In future in German hands: the German Gazprom subsidiary, now under the name of Sefe.Open detailed view

In German hands in the future: the German Gazprom subsidiary, now under the name Sefe. (Photo: imago stock&people/imago/Steinach)

The German government uses legal tricks to secure the former Gazprom Germania - in order to provide it again with sufficient capital for the tough gas business

By Michael Bauchmüller

Following the gas group Uniper, the German government is now also taking over the German subsidiary of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The aim is to secure gas supplies, the Federal Ministry of Economics said on Monday. Otherwise, the over-indebted company would have been threatened with insolvency.

Gazprom Germania has been under federal trusteeship since June. The company trades in gas, operates gas networks and is responsible for around one-fifth of Germany's gas storage facilities. Since the Federal Network Agency took over the management, the company has been called Safe Energy for Europe, or Sefe for short. However, Sefe, like the gas importer Uniper, which was also nationalized, subsequently accumulated massive losses - if only because of the loss of Russian supplies in the face of significantly higher gas prices.

Sefe still had profit and capital assets of over one billion euros. But equity most recently amounted to minus 2.1 billion euros. "There is therefore a commercial balance sheet over-indebtedness," it now says in the justification for the takeover, which was published in the Federal Gazette on Monday afternoon. "A large number of business partners are showing reluctance to enter into and continue business relations with Sefe." A change of ownership, including an increase in equity, is now intended to change that - and in such a way that no money flows to the Russian owners.

To this end, the federal government is resorting to a number of legal tricks. For example, the revenue and capital reserves will be released "to reduce the balance sheet loss to be offset. The capital stock is reduced from 225 million euros to zero - only to be increased again to 225 million euros the very next moment. This time, however, this share capital is held by a specially founded "Securing Energy for Europe Holding". This step, in turn, is to be entered "ex officio without delay" in the commercial register of Sefe. The end result is a "debt-equity swap" that will give Sefe more than seven billion euros in equity in the future. "A complete change of ownership will take place," says the notice in the Federal Gazette. That's how fast it can happen when the federal government wants to take over the reins.

Until now, the federal government had shied away from expropriating Russian firms, partly for fear of retaliation against German companies. Now it argues potential threats to the commonwealth should Sefe collapse. But the Russian owners can sue, "within a month of the announcement."

Xi Jinping returns to diplomatic stage seeking dialogue with the West

The Chinese president met with US President Joe Biden on Monday for more than three hours, and on Tuesday morning with French President Emmanuel Macron. Next up is the Australian prime minister, for the first time in six years.

By Frédéric Lemaître (Beijing (China) correspondent), Brice Pedroletti (Bali (Indonesia), special correspondent) and Philippe Ricard (Bali (Indonesia), special correspondent)

Published on November 15, 2022 at 10h56, updated at 12h04 on November 15, 2022

Like a sportsman long absent from competitions due to a zero-Covid strategy, Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to make his international comeback in two stages this fall. First a warm-up in Uzbekistan, in mid-September, where he was to meet up with a group of friendly countries gathered within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. That was an opportunity to cross paths with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. This week, though, comes the real competition, the global arena: the G20 in Bali, Indonesia. In the absence of his Russian partner, the Chinese leader is confronting the West, more than eight months after the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As a curtain raiser, the meeting with US President Joe Biden on Monday, November 14, kept its promise. The two leaders, who have talked remotely five times since 2020, shook hands without masks. Their meeting lasted more than three hours.

They chose to start in a friendly matter. Mr. Biden, buoyed by the mid-term elections from which he emerged as a partial winner, is not the type to humiliate his opponents, unlike his predecessor Donald Trump. "I'm really glad to be able to see you again in person," he said at the beginning of the meeting in the hotel where Mr. Xi is staying. The latter, now assured of staying in power as long as he wishes, is in no hurry. His goal is to continue modernizing his country so that it becomes the world's leading power in 2049. "We need to find the right direction for the bilateral relationship going forward and elevate the relationship," the Chinese leader said.

Russia strives to avoid G20 isolation as China and India distance themselves

Traditional allies voice concern over Ukraine war as draft communique highlights damage to world economy

Patrick Wintour in Bali

Tue 15 Nov 2022 08.26 GMT

Russia has been battling to prevent diplomatic isolation at the G20 summit in Bali as its traditional allies – China and India – started to distance themselves from the war in Ukraine, which a draft communique said had caused untold economic damage to the world.

Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, and Xi Jinping, the president of China, both voiced concern about the war without breaking from their previous defence of Moscow.

US officials were still pushing for the final communique to pin more blame on Russia. The draft includes language noting “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine” and stresses that “it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy”.

The summit’s host, Indonesia, has been trying to keep references to the war to a minimum, arguing the G20 is not a security forum and that reiteration of well known positions will prevent progress on issues such as global debt and post-pandemic recovery.

The summit being held on the Indonesian island of Bali marks the first time the G20 leaders have met since Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow has described as a “special military operation”. The war and worries over global inflation, food and energy security have overshadowed the meeting.

In his address, Xi warned against the “weaponisation” of food and energy, adding that he opposed nuclear war in all circumstances, remarks that cast a shadow over Russia’s repeated threats to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

“We must firmly oppose politicisation, instrumentalisation and weaponisation of food and energy problems,” Xi said.

Modi said it was necessary to recognise the UN had failed as a multilateral institution, putting greater pressure on the G20 to find solutions. He said it was time for a ceasefire and for diplomacy to come to the fore.

G20: Zelenskiy calls for 'just' end to Ukraine war, with no compromises

In a video address that the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, carefully missed by staying in his hotel, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said it was time for the war to be stopped, saying it had caused thousands of deaths. But he stressed that a ceasefire was only possible when armed Russian troops left Ukraine territory.

Wearing his now-familiar green T-shirt, he said: “I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped. It will save thousands of lives.”

Speaking in Ukrainian to the single most influential audience he has addressed since the war started, Zelenskiy tried to pitch himself as a man prepared to reach an agreement with Russia but only on terms that protected Ukrainian sovereignty, and recognised the valour with which his troops had fought to protect their homeland.

In a pitch to Xi, he condemned “the crazy threats of nuclear weapons that Russian officials resort to. There are and cannot be any excuses for nuclear blackmail,” he added, pointedly thanking the “G19” – excluding Russia – for “making this clear”.

According to Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, Xi told the US president, Joe Biden, at their bilateral meeting on Monday evening that “nuclear weapons should not be used and nuclear wars should not be fought”.

The Ukrainian leader also called for the expansion and indefinite extension of a grain deal brokered by the UN and Turkey in July.

Much of the diplomatic arm-twisting at the G20 focuses on the terms by which Russia will allow the deal to continue. It has already suspended cooperation once, saying the west had not done enough to persuade insurers and shipping companies to distribute Russian wheat and fertilisers.

Russia and Ukraine account for about 30% of the world’s wheat and barley exports, a fifth of its maize, and more than half of all sunflower oil. The Russian invasion had blocked 20m tonnes of grain in its ports until the deal was reached in July. Russia says the export deal has only been partially implemented.

But Russia says the deal is lopsided because western sanctions have indirectly continued to cast a shadow over the exports of Russian grain by affecting payments, insurance and shipping.

The grain deal has been a rare patch of diplomatic sunlight, but is up for renewal this Friday.

The deal allowing exports past the Russian navy from three Ukrainian seaports has been critical to lowering grain prices.

The dispute over the future of the grain deal is part of a wider diplomatic battle between Russia and the west to convince sceptical opinion in the global south that right is on their side. In his speech, Zelenskiy, fresh from visiting Kherson, a city recaptured from Russia this week, gave little ground on the terms for any peace settlement.

He said such an agreement could be signed at an international conference, adding that Russia would be required to hand over some of its assets as compensation for the task of rebuilding Ukraine. In a symbolic vote, the UN general assembly voted on Monday to approve a resolution recognising that Russia must pay reparations to Ukraine, in a non-binding move backed by 94 of its 193 members.

Summary (BBC UK)

A draft G20 declaration, seen by news agencies, condemns the Ukraine war and says it is exacerbating fragilities in the global economy
We won't get to see the finalised statement until tomorrow - and Russia has already attacked the "politicisation" of the declaration
UK PM Rishi Sunak has specifically criticised Russia's "barbaric" war in Ukraine
Sunak tells Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - who is attending the G20 in Bali instead of President Putin - that his country should "get out" of Ukraine
It is the first time a British prime minister has directly confronted a senior Russian official since the invasion began
Earlier on Tuesday Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky appeared at the G20 via videolink, calling for the war to be stopped
Meanwhile, Sunak told reporters that China posed a "systemic challenge" to the UK - but stopped short of calling it a national security threat
On Monday Joe Biden held his first meeting with China's leader Xi Jinping since becoming US president

Germán & Co 11/15/22 Germán & Co 11/15/22

News round-up, Tuesday, November 15, 2022.

Following the gas group Uniper, the German government is now also taking over the German subsidiary of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The aim is to secure gas supplies, the Federal Ministry of Economics said on Monday. Otherwise, the over-indebted company would have been threatened with insolvency.
www.sueddeutsche.de

“Sefe still had profit and capital assets of over one billion euros. But equity most recently amounted to minus 2.1 billion euros. “There is therefore a commercial balance sheet over-indebtedness,” it now says in the justification for the takeover, which was published in the Federal Gazette on Monday afternoon. “A large number of business partners are showing reluctance to enter into and continue business relations with Sefe.” A change of ownership, including an increase in equity, is now intended to change that - and in such a way that no money flows to the Russian owners.”

— www.sueddeutsche.de

Editor's Pick:

Germany takes over Gazprom subsidiary

November 14, 2022, 4:01

Ukraine conflict : In future in German hands: the German Gazprom subsidiary, now under the name of Sefe.Open detailed view

In German hands in the future: the German Gazprom subsidiary, now under the name Sefe. (Photo: imago stock&people/imago/Steinach)

The German government uses legal tricks to secure the former Gazprom Germania - in order to provide it again with sufficient capital for the tough gas business

By Michael Bauchmüller

Following the gas group Uniper, the German government is now also taking over the German subsidiary of the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. The aim is to secure gas supplies, the Federal Ministry of Economics said on Monday. Otherwise, the over-indebted company would have been threatened with insolvency.

Xi Jinping returns to diplomatic stage seeking dialogue with the West

By Frédéric Lemaître (Beijing (China) correspondent), Brice Pedroletti (Bali (Indonesia), special correspondent) and Philippe Ricard (Bali (Indonesia), special correspondent)

Published on November 15, 2022 at 10h56, updated at 12h04 on November 15, 2022

Russia strives to avoid G20 isolation as China and India distance themselves

Traditional allies voice concern over Ukraine war as draft communique highlights damage to world economy

Patrick Wintour in Bali

Tue 15 Nov 2022 08.26 GMT

Russia has been battling to prevent diplomatic isolation at the G20 summit in Bali as its traditional allies – China and India – started to distance themselves from the war in Ukraine, which a draft communique said had caused untold economic damage to the world.

Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, and Xi Jinping, the president of China, both voiced concern about the war without breaking from their previous defence of Moscow.

“We must firmly oppose politicisation, instrumentalisation and weaponisation of food and energy problems,” Xi said.

G20: Zelenskiy calls for 'just' end to Ukraine war, with no compromises

Wearing his now-familiar green T-shirt, he said: “I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped. It will save thousands of lives.”

The Ukrainian leader also called for the expansion and indefinite extension of a grain deal brokered by the UN and Turkey in July.

But Russia says the deal is lopsided because western sanctions have indirectly continued to cast a shadow over the exports of Russian grain by affecting payments, insurance and shipping.

The grain deal has been a rare patch of diplomatic sunlight, but is up for renewal this Friday.

The deal allowing exports past the Russian navy from three Ukrainian seaports has been critical to lowering grain prices.

Summary (BBC UK)

A draft G20 declaration, seen by news agencies, condemns the Ukraine war and says it is exacerbating fragilities in the global economy
We won't get to see the finalised statement until tomorrow - and Russia has already attacked the "politicisation" of the declaration
UK PM Rishi Sunak has specifically criticised Russia's "barbaric" war in Ukraine
Sunak tells Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov - who is attending the G20 in Bali instead of President Putin - that his country should "get out" of Ukraine
It is the first time a British prime minister has directly confronted a senior Russian official since the invasion began
Earlier on Tuesday Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky appeared at the G20 via videolink, calling for the war to be stopped
Meanwhile, Sunak told reporters that China posed a "systemic challenge" to the UK - but stopped short of calling it a national security threat
On Monday Joe Biden held his first meeting with China's leader Xi Jinping since becoming US president

Germán & Co 11/15/22 Germán & Co 11/15/22

Vad händer härnäst för president Putin?

Dagens reflektion...

Är vi hoppfullt nära en fredlig lösning på denna vansinniga konflikt?

Germán & Co

14/11/2022

Karlstad, Sweden

Den 3 september publicerade jag i Dominikanska republikens tidning: "Dominican Today", artikeln: -Naturgasen är den nya "ryska vintern" som en krigsfaktor... -. I dess epilog hänvisas till Kinas roll i andra världskriget och effekterna av ett tyst deltagande som förmodligen kommer att ha varit mer avgörande än vad man hittills har trott på den asiatiska fronten. Den ryska vinterns grymma intensitet skylldes på de invaderande naziststyrkorna.

Kreml tycks ha glömt detta betydelsefulla historiska faktum... genom att förment - skickligt - fastställa Sidenvägens gamla huvudstad Samarkand i Uzbekistan för den ryske presidenten Vladimir Putins möte med Kinas premiärminister Xi Jinping vid toppmötet i Shanghai Cooperation Organization den 15 september i år. Man skulle kunna säga att Kinas ställningstagande om "neutralitet" i fråga om invasionen av Ukraina var den första förlorade striden i denna irrationella satsning.

Den 4 november uppmanade Xi Jinping också den tyske förbundskanslern Olaf Scholz, som var på besök i Peking, att verka för fredssamtal - och sade att det internationella samfundet bör "skapa förutsättningar för att återuppta förhandlingarna (och) motsätta sig användning eller hot om kärnvapen". Xi Jinping har direkt varnat Putin för att använda kärnvapen i Ukraina, vilket är Kinas hittills hårdaste tillrättavisning av Kreml. (Daily News)

Och i dag: - Xi uppmanade Biden att "staka ut rätt kurs" och "höja relationen" mellan Kina och USA. Han sade att han var redo för ett "uppriktigt och djupgående meningsutbyte" med Biden. (Pressmeddelande från Vita huset).

Enligt NYT har det också hållits möten mellan USA:s och Rysslands underrättelsechefer.

Och slutligen har president Zelensky inlett samtal om fredssamtal från den befriade staden Kherson...

Germán & Co 11/14/22 Germán & Co 11/14/22

What Next for President Putin?

Reflection of the day….

Are we hopeful close to a peaceful solution to this insane conflict?

Germán & Co

14/11/2022

Karlstad, Sweden

On September 3, I published in the Dominican Republic's newspaper: "Dominican Today," the article: —The natural gas is the new "Russian winter" as a war element... —. Its epilogue refers to China's role in World War II and the effects of silent participation that will probably have been more decisive than has been thought so far on the Asian front. The ferocity of the Russian winter was blamed on the invading Nazi forces.

The Kremlin seems to have forgotten this momentous historical fact... by supposedly — cleverly — fixing the ancient capital of the Silk Road, Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit on September 15 this year. One could say that China's position of "neutrality" on the invasion of Ukraine was the first lost battle in this irrational bet.

On November 4, Xi Jinping also urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was visiting Beijing, to push for peace talks - saying the international community should 'create conditions for the resumption of negotiations (and) oppose the use or threat of nuclear weapons.' And Xi Jinping has directly warned Putin not to use nukes in Ukraine in China's bluntest rebuke yet to the Kremlin. (Daily News)

And today: — Mr. Xi called on Biden to "chart the right course" and "elevate the relationship" between China and the US. He said he was ready for a "candid and in-depth exchange of views" with Mr. Biden. (White House Press Release).

Also, according to the NYT, there have been meetings between the intelligence chiefs of the United States and Russia.

And finally, president Zelensky has opened talk of peace talks from the liberated city of Kherson...

Germán & Co 11/14/22 Germán & Co 11/14/22

Honourable President of Senegal Macky Sall, not only the central figure for the supply of Natural Gas to Europe...

Europe Optimal Market for Senegal’s Gas, President Sall Says
H. President Macky Sall of Senegal, in his roll of Chairman of the AU because of the ties that this international forum represents with Russia and Ukraine, he can play a "key" role in finding the paths that will lead to an urgent peace process?
German & Co

Conclusion of the day's news:
Europe Optimal Market for Senegal’s Gas, President Sall Says
- Poland, Germany keen to buy liquefied natural gas from Senegal
- West African nation is set to become LNG exporter next year
Katarina Hoije, and
Diederik Baazil
8 de septiembre de 2022, 10:59 CEST
@cagankoc
@katarinah
Liquefied natural gas produced from a $4.8 billion West African project set to come online in the third quarter of next year will likely be exported to Europe and Asia, according to Senegalese President Macky Sall.
The Greater Tortue Ahmeyin project, straddling the border between Senegal and Mauritania, is being developed by BP Plc and Kosmos Energy Plc. It will produce an estimated 2.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually during a first phase of production, and a final investment decision is expected on a second phase, which could double its output.
“Talks are ongoing to determine which markets to supply, including the European market,” Sall said in a Sept. 6 interview in Rotterdam. “It’s the closest because it takes three, four days from Senegal by sea,” he said, adding that unspecified Asian countries would also be potential buyers.
The Tortue project is gathering pace at a time when the European Union is seeking to wean itself off Russian energy, in part by increasing LNG purchases from other producers. Germany, the biggest buyer of Russian gas in the EU, is building LNG import facilities, despite its goal of abandoning fossil-fuel power by 2035.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Senegal in May to discuss gas and renewable energy projects, following an earlier visit by EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson. Polish President Andrzej Duda is expected in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, this week.
Read: What LNG Can and Can’t Do to Replace Russian Gas: Quicktake
More than 40 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves were found in Senegal between 2014 and 2017, most of them jointly owned with Mauritania. They include the shared Tortue deposit and Senegal’s own Yakaar-Teranga, further south, with an estimated 15 to 20 trillion cubic feet of gas.
While gas from Tortue’s first phase is mainly destined for exports, more than half of Yakaar-Teranga’s production, set to start in 2023 or 2024, will go to the domestic market, according to Sall. Yakaar-Teranga’s output will be primarily used to fuel local power plants and industries, and produce fertilizer, urea and ammonia, he said.
Macky Sall and Olaf Scholz in Senegal.
Sall, who also holds the rotating chairmanship of the African Union, has championed gas as a fuel while countries transition to cleaner forms of energy. He plans to focus on securing external climate financing for the continent over the next two months and then push for the reallocation of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights from richer nations to African countries.
The IMF injected a record $650 billion into the global fiscal system last year to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus by releasing these reserve assets, which come with no conditions, to its member states.
Read: The Spiraling Debt Crunch Confronting Poor Nations: QuickTake
Allocations were based on predetermined quotas, which take into account the size of countries’ economies and other factors, meaning just $33 billion went to the 54 African nations -- as much as France and Italy combined, and less than half of what the US received. The IMF then urged wealthy states to redirect part of their allocations to more needy countries on a voluntary basis.
Progress on reallocations “has been very slow” despite initial pledges from countries such as France and China, Sall said. “There are bottlenecks somewhere. That’s why we need to rethink the problem, so that Africa and other developing countries that need the funds to jumpstart their economies can finally access them.”
Sponsored Content
At COP27, Climate Action Is Everyone’s Business
Green Collective
Back home in Senegal, Sall has faced political unrest in the last 18 months, partly fueled by uncertainty over whether he intends to run for a third term when his mandate expires in 2024. While the Senegalese constitution allows only two terms, other West African presidents have sought to justify extra terms after legal amendments over the past couple of years.
“I have never responded to this question in my country and I won’t answer it abroad,” Sall said when asked if he considered himself eligible to run again. “All I’ll say for now is that I’m not someone who seeks to threaten democracy.”

— With assistance by Gem Atkinson

Senegal: Macky Sall receives German Chancellor, discuss major gas project to europe

By Rédaction Africanews

Last updated: 23/05 - 10:07

SENEGAL

Senegal President and current chair of the African Union (AU) Macky Sall said Sunday he would travel to Russia and Ukraine soon on behalf of the AU.

The trip had been due to take place on May 18 but didn't go ahead due to scheduling issues and new dates have been put forward, Sall said at a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz whose trip is focused on the geopolitical consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Speaking at the news conference after meeting, Sall also said that Senegal was "ready to work" on supplying liquid natural gas (LNG) to Europe, but that "first we need to be supported in our participation under better conditions than those currently offered by our partners."

On the trip to Russia and Ukraine, Sall said "I have received a mandate from the African Union to undertake the trip, for which Russia had extended an invitation".

"As soon as it's set, I will go of course to Moscow and also to Kyiv and we have also accepted to get together all the heads of state of the African Union who want to with (Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelensky, who had expressed the need to communicate with the African heads of state," he stressed.

"That too will be done in the coming weeks."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has hit African economies hard due to rising cereal prices and fuel shortages, has met with a divided African response.

In early March, Senegal abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution -- overwhelmingly adopted -- that called on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.

However, a few weeks later it voted in favour of another resolution demanding Russia halt the war. Nearly half of African nations abstained or did not vote in the two resolution votes.

Ready to work on natural gas to Europe

Senegal is believed to have significant deposits of natural gas along its border with Mauritania at a time when Germany and other European countries are trying to reduce their dependence on importing Russian gas.

The gas project off the coast of Senegal is being led by BP, and the first barrels are not expected until next year.

This week's trip marks Germany's Scholz's first to Africa since becoming chancellor nearly six months ago. Two of the countries he is visiting - Senegal and South Africa - have been invited to attend the Group of 7 summit in Germany at the end of June.

Participants there will try to find a common position toward Russia, which was kicked out of the then-Group of Eight following its 2014 seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.

Leaders at the G-7 summit also will be addressing the threat of climate change.

Several G-7 countries, including Germany and the United States, signed a ‘just energy transition partnership’ with South Africa last year to help the country wean itself off heavily polluting coal.

A similar agreement is in the works with Senegal, where Germany has supported the construction of a solar farm.

Germán & Co 11/14/22 Germán & Co 11/14/22

Biden and Xi Jinping try to defuse tensions at G20 summit in Bali

_{Meetin on going in Bali…}
_{Ukraine war, inflation, energy crisis, recession and climate change on the tableGrowing global polarisation revolves around the new 'cold war' between the US and China.}

Ukraine war, inflation, energy crisis, recession and climate change on the table
Growing global polarisation revolves around the new 'cold war' between the US and China.

PABLO M. DÍEZ

Special envoy to Bali

13/11/2022

Updated 14/11/2022 at 09:09h.

ABC

If there is one place capable of calming the troubled international waters, it is undoubtedly Bali. This Indonesian island paradise, with its white sandy beaches, coconut palms and turquoise waters, hosts what is likely to be the most heated G20 summit of the year tomorrow and Wednesday. A forum that brings the richest and most industrialised nations of the West, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, and the major developing powers, such as China, India, Brazil and Russia, to the same table.

With a wide range of opinions and political systems, important issues such as the war in Ukraine, inflation, the looming energy crisis, the threat of recession, global warming and the growing global polarisation around the new 'Cold War' between the US and China will be on the table. To defuse the tension between the two countries, which have engaged in open economic and political hostility, their presidents, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, are taking advantage of their presence in Bali to meet today before the start of the G-20 summit.

Although they have spoken several times by videoconference, this is their first face-to-face meeting since Biden arrived at the White House in January 2020 and comes three weeks after Xi was perpetuated in power at the 20th Communist Party Congress. While Xi comes in as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao, as he proved by ousting former President Hu Jintao from Congress, Biden is bolstered by better-than-expected Democratic results in the recent midterm elections.

Red lines

Apart from this similarity, the differences between the two are so great that no agreement is expected and they may not even sign a joint declaration. But just the fact that they sit down to talk face-to-face is a step forward and, at the very least, will help them to agree on the issues that confront them. Or, as Biden put it last week, "to draw our red lines". Before leaving for the climate summit in Egypt and the Southeast Asian (Asean) summit in Cambodia, he explained that what he wants to do when he talks to Xi is to "understand what he thinks is in China's critical national interest and tell him what I think is in the US's critical national interest, and determine whether or not they conflict. And, if they do, how to work it out and make it work".

Although they spoke by videoconference, it was their first face-to-face meeting since Biden came to the White House.

Their biggest clash is Taiwan, the 'de facto' independent democratic island claimed by Beijing that Xi Jinping has vowed to reunify, by force if necessary. For China, it is such an important issue that last summer it conducted its biggest military manoeuvres in the Formosa Strait in retaliation for the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the face of threats of a hypothetical Chinese invasion, Biden has already repeatedly angered Beijing by promising that the White House would assist Taiwan militarily. A statement that his advisers have been forced to qualify by assuring that Washington has not changed its "strategic ambiguity" on Taiwan or its recognition of the 'one China' policy, but insisting strongly on the current 'status quo' and opposing Beijing's takeover of the island.

Adding to this military tension is the recently released US National Security Strategy, which identifies China as its 'greatest geopolitical challenge' and a more dangerous threat than Russia despite the war in Ukraine. To contain Beijing's military and technological rise, Biden has also banned the sale to Chinese companies of the most advanced microchips, which are manufactured in Taiwan. This veto, which could delay China's technological development by up to ten years, infuriates the regime, as its foreign affairs spokesman, Zhao Lijian, made clear in one of his recent press conferences: "The US must stop politicising, ideologising and weaponising trade issues and take real action to defend the market economy and the international trading system".

Technological independence

But, as Chris Hung, vice president of the Taiwanese consulting firm MIC (Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute) tells ABC, "the new US government regulation is trying to slow down the development of China's semiconductor industry by five to ten years. As such bans apply to highly advanced technology or technology with military applications, the impact on other countries will be quite limited.

Given the unease that the veto has provoked in China, which has suffered a "very precise and forceful" blow to its plan to achieve technological independence, according to Hung, the US president is confident that he will not have to make "fundamental concessions" in his meeting with Xi. At the same time, he will seek to give Taiwan security assurances, something Chinese foreign spokesman Zhao Lijian strongly opposes.

Nuclear weapons

Add to all this military tension their disagreements over the war in Ukraine and Xi Jinping's implicit support for Putin, with whom he signed a "friendship without limits" just before the Russian invasion, which Chinese propaganda refuses to define as such. Biden will try to wrest from Xi a commitment to oppose Russia's use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did earlier this month on his criticised whirlwind visit to Beijing.

His biggest shock is Taiwan, the 'de facto' independent island that Xi has vowed to reunify, by force if necessary.

It will be harder for Biden to get Xi to condemn the constant provocations of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who is feared to be ordering another nuclear test after spending the year firing all manner of missiles.

Although expectations for agreements are very low, it is hoped that the meeting will at least serve to resume talks between the two countries on global warming, military communication and the trade war. All of these collaborations, vital to the development of the economy and the future of humanity, were interrupted after Pelosi's trip to Taiwan and analysts hope that the Bali summit will help to unblock some of them.

An island paradise with an atmosphere conducive to deal-making

Smiles on every face, which are also unabashedly worn because few people wear Covid masks, dreamy beaches, luxury resorts, tropical heat and beautiful Balinese dances as a welcome. As Indonesian diplomatic sources privately acknowledge, the island of Bali brings all its charms to create the right atmosphere for G20 members to reach important global agreements. In addition to industrialised countries such as the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Australia and Spain as a permanent guest, developing powers such as China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey, as well as the European Union, are part of the forum. Held in the beautiful area of Nusa Dua, where Bali's best hotels are concentrated, the G20 is held under heavy security measures to prevent jihadist attacks like the one that killed 202 people in the bars of Kuta 20 years ago.

In 2019, when the G-20 was held in the Japanese city of Osaka, the occasion was used to bring together former US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, who signed a truce to the trade war. Although Biden has not lifted the tariffs imposed by Trump, he will try to use his long-standing relationship with Xi to bring positions closer together and build bridges. The two have known each other personally since 2011, when they were both vice presidents and paid several visits to each other, but times have changed as much as they have.

In fact, Biden has even had to clarify in a press conference that he is not an "old friend" of Xi's, but that the two were linked by a "purely working" relationship. Interestingly, the now US president was, during his time as a senator in the late 1990s, one of the biggest advocates of China's inclusion in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which has caused so many problems for certain Western industries.

Saviour of communism

For his part, the Chinese president has lost the smile he wore on his trips to the US, such as his 2012 return visit to Biden, and has become the most authoritarian leader since Mao Zedong. Traumatised by the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which he wants to avoid at all costs in China, Xi Jinping sees himself as the saviour of communism and champions its totalitarian model against the democracies of the West.

Returning to the international stage after almost three years without leaving China because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Xi meets with Biden to try to improve relations in Bali. If any place is conducive to soothing exalted global tempers, it is surely this beautiful and peaceful Indonesian island.

Germán & Co 11/13/22 Germán & Co 11/13/22

The Drought (1964)

Hopefully,may tomorrow be the day where this hellish war can find the beacon of peace... during the meeting president Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping face-to-face, their first in-person encounter since Biden took office and one that will offer a clarifying opportunity for the world’s most important bilateral relationship.

The Machiavellian war strategy in the supply side of the natural gas market ...

Rapid adaptation to change has always been seen as a virtue in human beings. Why is this the case? The answer is simple, because so-called human life is not a continuum of happiness and unhappiness or of stability and instability, fortunately, it is not... On the contrary, the itinerary of life is complex, with its encounters and misencounters, loves and dislikes, in short ..... Sometimes, our own ecosystem, jaded by pollution, reveals itself by provoking natural disasters of enormous proportions... and not to mention the deviations in the minds of some so-called men that lead to excesses that infringe all the moral canons of coexistence imaginable..., which is why our existence is constantly subjected to complex tests through extreme and always unforeseen changes, they say... which is very true..., because in the unique minds of the human being, we have to be aware of the fact that we have to face the same problems.... because in the unique minds of some writers throughout the history of mankind they have managed to visualise the plagues and changes in political systems that would affect us mercilessly, with the passing of time....

According to the journal Plos Pathogens of the University of Kent (England), on Friday 17 November 2019, in the city of Wuhan, China, the SARC-COv-2 virus was detected for the first time, an organism with a simple structure, composed of proteins and nucleic acids, and capable of reproducing only within specific living cells, using its own metabolism, according to the definition of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), all this in relation to the Coronavirus.

Perhaps the cruellest change that mankind has undergone as a result of the Coronavirus is in our affective behaviour. This tiny little creature awakened in us the paranoia of fear and undoubtedly, in a very mean way, let us know, and indeed it did, that being in the company of other individuals of our own species, by then already submerged by the sophistic evolution of the world 2.0, where genuine expressions of affection, handshakes and hugs... that do so much good to the intangible of the so-called soul, have been replaced by immaterial faces that flow at an infinite density (billions) per second, devoid of any merciful human contact, would cause us to die. What cruelty we have been subjected to. How many loved ones are not by our side today? And all because of a supposed human error in some laboratory in the remote province of Wuhan in millenary China...

Not even in the mind of that genius of science fiction storytelling, James Graham Ballard (JG Ballard, Shanghai, British International Treaty 1930-London, UK 2009) in his short story The Drought (1964), did he fail to visualise what would affect in the future the colony of individuals inhabiting a small, remote, and sick planet, called: Earth.

Not only the human sensory system has been affected by these new living conditions, but also industry in all its processes, a consequence of the forced confinement of human beings, which prevented them from going to their workplaces normally, is suffering from the non-existence of raw materials and components to keep the production chain in operation in order to supply the basic needs that man requires for his subsistence.

The lack of supply of essential goods... together with the excessive costs of international sea freight transport, triggers the poison known as inflation. Global Cumulative Inflation from January 2020 to December 2021 went from 1.9% to no less than 3.5%, practically doubling in one calendar year, and by the end of the period the prediction is close to 7%, according to World Bank indicators. In other words, in a short period of time, three years, accumulative inflation has tripled. There is no national economy or family wallet that can deal with this -financial storm-.

In addition to this undesirable economic context, to begin with caused by the SARC-COv-2 virus, this financial setback has been compounded since February this year by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has had a negative impact on the fossil fuel market, specifically on the stable and safe purchase price of natural gas from the Tsarist domain. The reason for this is Russia's sharp military strategy in the economic order in this conflict, using the systematic cuts of natural gas to its customers on the continent as a new element of warfare, known under the concept: Natural gas is the new "Russian winter" as an element of warfare?

Obviously, this clever (Machiavellian) strategy on the part of the imperial government of Russia has deepened the economic crisis to levels unprecedented in contemporary history, accelerating the inflationary process in such a way that it has the finances of almost all nations in check, (weakened by extraordinary expenditures (issuing public debt) through subsidies and investments in the health sector aimed at coping with the pandemic times) that drift to the fragile economy of hundreds of millions of families around the world, who are unable to cope with their basic financial commitments, payment of electricity bills, settlements on mortgage commitments, etc......

There is no doubt about the concern of the political authorities regarding the current economic crisis, that it is urgent and necessary to resort to emergency measures to deal with this unsustainable economic situation, however, these political actions in financial matters must be based on objective rationality, on the true origin of the crisis, the current inflationary process is the result of the result of the pandemic and the recent armed conflict. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a direct impact on the natural gas market, causing a disruption in prices due to a strategically planned restriction in supply.

In view of this, the electricity industry has no direct responsibility for the background of the current economic crisis (neither does the political authority), on the contrary, it is one of the most affected parties in the context because its production costs have increased exponentially. A financial intervention in the electricity industry by means of a cap-price is perhaps not the smartest economic measure, because they (the electricity industry) do not have any tools to influence the price of natural gas. This is a governmental issue, where politicians are responsible for finding mechanisms to solve the situation. In this sense, some European government officials have put forward valid proposals aimed at contributing to the relief of electricity supply to both the population and industry, without risking, firstly, social peace and, secondly, the financial health of the energy sector, which could lead to a domino effect on other sectors of the economy, on the basis of state guarantees, which could be one of the logical alternatives at this point in time.

Finally, we have to be very careful with the so-called -all in- of all installed electricity generation capacity to the system, in particular as far as the nuclear fleet is concerned, there are many plants in Europe that have not been dispatched for years, their current condition is unknown. I insist that we must be extremely cautious here, we must not look back too far: ...- an elaborate report on his visit, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that artillery attacks around the Zaporiyia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, must cease immediately. "This requires an agreement by all relevant parties for the establishment of a protective zone" around the plant, the report said. "We are playing with fire, and something very, very catastrophic could happen," warned Rafael Grossi, IAEA director general to the UN Security Council, days after leading an inspection visit to the plant. (Los Angeles Time, underwritten by Hanna Arhirova of Associeted Press, 6 September 2022) events to realise the risks of such an action, the worst that could happen is to throw the current crisis back into another horror as described by the great science fiction writers of the last century.

As an epilogue to these reflections, in the search for wisdom and good sense to prevail over the empire of destruction, in a call for clemency to the gods, in an inchallah of supplication, it is my duty to recall that China, the forgotten ally of the West during the Second World War, was one of the determining factors in bringing the conflict to an end. Now, equally, China, this undesirable economic situation is causing considerable financial holes in its public finances. Hopefully, out of necessity or common sense, the economic giant of the East will wake up and use the extraordinary key that its economic and political power confers on it to find a definitive way out of this situation that is wreaking havoc on the global economy.

AES Dominicana Foundation… Lend a Hand…. It´s Time to Reforest

Seaboard’s CEO in the Dominican Republic, Armando Rodriguez, explains how the Estrella del Mar III, a floating hybrid power plant, will reduce CO2 emissions and bring stability to the national grid…

Under konflikten i Ukraina varnade minister Sergej Lavrov för den "enorma" risken för kärnvapenkrig och försvarade Kremls bombningar av civil infrastruktur i Ukraina. Han förutspådde också att relationerna med Europa aldrig skulle bli desamma.

“Potentialen för att ett kärnvapenkrig ska bryta ut är ganska stor, även om det startas med konventionella vapen".

Uttalanden mot Borrell och EU

AES Dominicana Foundation… Lend a Hand…. It´s Time to Reforest

Seaboard’s CEO in the Dominican Republic, Armando Rodriguez, explains how the Estrella del Mar III, a floating hybrid power plant, will reduce CO2 emissions and bring stability to the national grid…

During the Ukraine conflict, Minister Sergey Lavrov warned of the "huge" risk of nuclear war and defended the Kremlin's bombing of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. He also predicted that relations with Europe would never be the same.

“The potential for a nuclear war to break out is quite high, even if it is started using conventional weapons ".

Statements against Borrell and the EU

AES Dominicana Foundation… Lend a Hand…. It´s Time to Reforest

Seaboard’s CEO in the Dominican Republic, Armando Rodriguez, explains how the Estrella del Mar III, a floating hybrid power plant, will reduce CO2 emissions and bring stability to the national grid…

Mike Pence Is Having a Moment He Doesn’t Deserve

Ukraine pleads in Paris for the creation of a tribunal to judge Russian aggression

Kyiv is trying to influence the French position, which remains in favor of the International Criminal Court, to judge this particular crime: the invasion of one country by another.

Ukraine is disappointed by the ICC

'No other solution'

Putin Seeks to Destabilize Ukraine's Neighbor

A Proxy Conflict Between Russia and the West

The FSB Refers to Şor as "The Young One"

Bags of Cash in Party Offices

In China, Xi Jinping's absolute power is being challenged

News analysis

All evils come from abroad

'The same poison as in Hong Kong'

A desire for the West

"The Regime's Legitimacy Is Eroding"Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression

A Slap in the Face for Tehran

Even More Brutality in the Provinces

Lessons for the City

"Jag tror inte att Putin är en Hitler-liknande person", svarar Kissinger. "Han kommer från Dostojevskij."

”Portafolio” Henry Kisssinger, Manhattan, NY, July 27, 2018.

Vem är ansvarig för den mänskliga och ekonomiska katastrof som världen befinner sig i?

Tusentals civila dödsfall och 6,6 miljoner flyktingar: Beräkning av krigets kostnader

Sex månader efter Rysslands invasion av Ukraina är de mänskliga och ekonomiska konsekvenserna oöverskådliga. Men de siffror som har kommit fram ger en dyster bild.

A) Dag efter dag i 181 dagar blir den dystra boken över Rysslands invasion av Ukraina längre med varje missilattack, skottlossning och rapport om grymheter.

B) Ukrainska civila har betalat ett högt pris: 5 587 personer har bekräftats döda, och det verkliga antalet tros vara tiotusentals. Antalet flyktingar har överskridit 6,6 miljoner.

C) De militära förlusterna har varit tunga på båda sidor, med cirka 9 000 ukrainare och så många som 25 000 ryssar som uppges ha dödats.

D) Ukraina har förlorat kontrollen över 20 procent av sitt territorium till ryska styrkor och deras ombud under de senaste åren.

E) Förstörelsen har redan kostat Ukraina minst 113,5 miljarder dollar, och landet kan behöva mer än 200 miljarder dollar för att återuppbygga.

F) Givarländerna har lovat att ge Ukraina sammanlagt mer än 83 miljarder dollar.

G) Ukrainas jordbruksproduktion och andra länder som är beroende av den har drabbats hårt. Även om spannmålsfartyg återigen är på väg är hungerkrisen i världen allvarlig.

Hur kommer läckorna i Nord Stream att påverka klimatet?

Moskva, slutet av november 1986, nära den ryska vintern…

Verkligheten är att Fjodor Dostojevskijs livsfilosofi (född den 11 november 1821 i Moskva, Ryssland, död den 9 februari 1881 i S:t Petersburg) inte är en del av herr Schröders själ.

Varför bestämde jag mig för att börja med den här historien, artikeln och Henry Alfred Kissingers (född den 27 maj 1923 i Tyskland) påstående om president Vladimir Putins personlighet?

"Jag tror inte att Putin är en Hitler-liknande person", svarar Kissinger. "Han kommer från Dostojevskij."

Vad menar Henry Kissinger med detta uttalande om president Vladimir Putin?

För att försöka vara så objektiv som möjligt i detta transcendentala ämne definierar Fjodor Dostojevskij människans liv på följande sätt: "Människan måste förtjäna sin lycka genom att lida: Det är landets lag.

I 50 år har rysk gas försörjt tyska hushåll och företag med energi. Redan från början var handelsförbindelsen kontroversiell, men den skapade djupa ekonomiska band mellan de två länderna.

"Vi måste tala om de miljarder och åter miljarder dollar som betalas till det land som vi ska skydda oss från", sade han.

BORIS BLAST...

Boris Johnson hävdar att Tyskland ville att Ukraina skulle FOLD snabbt efter Rysslands invasion - men säger att det skulle ha varit en katastrof.

Första sammanfattningen:

Germán & Co

Etik och integritet är grunden för att producera fria och ärliga texter, och samarbeta med denna strävan...

Hittills har president Vladimir Putins politik genomförts felfritt på en tysk motorväg utan hastighetsbegränsningar. Så långt, så bra - åtminstone för Kreml.

Gåtan:

Hur godkändes detta geopolitiskt farliga projekt?

Vad är det som ligger bakom det enorma löftet om att

Nord inte återvänder och den gåta som det innebär?

Gorko… Till det olyckliga äktenskapet Putin-Schröder...

In China, Xi Jinping's absolute power is being challenged, Le Monde

"The Regime's Legitimacy Is Eroding"Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression, Spiegel

AES Dominicana Foundation… Lend a Hand…. It´s Time to Reforest

Seaboard’s CEO in the Dominican Republic, Armando Rodriguez, explains how the Estrella del Mar III, a floating hybrid power plant, will reduce CO2 emissions and bring stability to the national grid…

China Protests Over ‘Zero Covid’ Follow Months of Economic Pain

In China, Xi Jinping's absolute power is being challenged

News analysis

All evils come from abroad

'The same poison as in Hong Kong'

A desire for the West

"The Regime's Legitimacy Is Eroding"Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression

A Slap in the Face for Tehran

Even More Brutality in the Provinces

Lessons for the City

“I don`t thinks Putin is Hitler like-character, “ Kissinger riplies. “He come out of Dotoevsky ”Portafolio” Henry Kisssinger, Manhattan, NY, July 27, 2018.

“Germany is totally controled by Russia.” The President Donald Trump at the start at bilateral meeting whit NATO General Secretary Peter Stontelberg ahead of the summits NATO heads for state anf govermment” La Vanguardia, July, 17,2022

Who oversees the human and economic calamity in which the world is immersed?

Thousands of Civilian Deaths and 6.6 Million Refugees: Calculating the Costs of War