Jackson Pollock Number 31 1949
We will miss you.. pic.twitter.com/UWAeUr4TzD
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) July 23, 2023
Putin Luka
President Putin noted the "stupidity" of foreign mercenaries.
Putin said that foreign mercenaries in the SMO zone suffer significant losses because of their stupidity.
The Russian leader also stressed that the public of countries whose governments send soldiers to the front… pic.twitter.com/LqNUHgjQpF
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) July 23, 2023
“The dismemberment of Ukraine and transfer of lands to Poland are unacceptable to us and if the western Ukrainian population needed it, we of course will support them” — Lukashenko
-> Sounds like western Ukraine will wind up under Belarus control …
Hm … pic.twitter.com/jzS4qs2ixr
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) July 23, 2023
Macgregor
There is no leadership in the White House, no one is in control..
This is clearly the case with Biden. pic.twitter.com/Ug353aGeFO
— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) July 23, 2023
Former Pentagon adviser Douglas McGregor:
NATO may not come out unscathed from this war in Ukraine, and I believe that there will be a change of governments in Europe and we will see the emergence of new leaders who will say: “Why are we going after these Americans?” If Russia was the aggressor against Ukraine, the situation would be different now, and we would see Russians on the borders of Poland after they destroyed Ukraine, but this did not happen, because the Russians do not want this.
Ukraine is to Russia what Mexico is to America. If there was an army in Mexico fully equipped to attack us, we would not hesitate to destroy it, which the Russians did. We lack diplomats and mature and moderate military leaders, and today we only have people whose ideology has blinded them to the truth, so it is difficult to do something good with us. The West wants to destroy Russia, plunder its resources.
“I wonder was everybody asleep over the last six-seven months?”
• Weird That NATO Failed to Foresee Botched Counteroffensive – Larry Johnson (Sp.)
The US mainstream press laments the fact that Ukraine’s “small territorial gains come at an outsize cost,” citing multiple obstacles in the path of the Ukrainian campaign, including weary soldiers, shortage of ammo, and, above all, Russia’s fortifications and minefields. One US media outlet quoted a former US Special Forces engineer as saying that Russia’s minefields are unlike anything he has ever seen and that battling these traps is “exhausting.”
Appearing on a web podcast on July 22, Larry Johnson, a veteran of the CIA and former analyst at the State Department’s Office of Counterterrorism, said he is perplexed that Russia’s fortification caught the West by surprise. “I wonder was everybody asleep over the last six-seven months?” Johnson asked.When Russia pulled out Kherson and pulled out Kharkov the last fall, it then publicly embarked on a plan of building a defensive line along the southern front, he recalled. Obviously, the Russians planted mines in front of their fortifications, according to him. Per the CIA veteran, there is nothing new in Russia’s tactics and NATO has enough reconnaissance and intelligence capabilities to monitor and see how Russia created those minefields. It was predictable that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would be stalled and trapped early in the counteroffensive effort, according to Johnson. The former CIA analyst highlighted that he had earlier forecast that the Ukrainian counteroffensive would be doomed without aviation, self-propelled artillery, installations and air defense systems.
Ukraine’s long-delayed counteroffensive kicked off on June 4. For five weeks, the Ukrainian military has been firing a great deal of shells and missiles and sending sappers to demine the fields in order to make some progress on the ground. However, they cannot boast of any successes, generating concerns in the West that the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky “may not deliver as powerful a blow as it could,” according to the US media.
Ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson: Poland plans to launch an operation. Perhaps against Belarus. To draw NATO into the fight.
Because now they understand that Ukraine is losing. And it loses a lot. No longer able to maintain the image that Ukraine is winning or Ukraine is fighting… pic.twitter.com/e64FEcqDz9
— Mats Nilsson (@mazzenilsson) July 23, 2023
But what’s 100,000 Ukrainian lives?
• West Knew Ukraine Wasn’t Ready For Counteroffensive – WSJ (RT)
Western military officials knew earlier this year that Ukraine lacked the supplies and training to launch a successful counteroffensive against Russian forces, but allowed Kiev to launch its disastrous operation regardless, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Nearly two months after it began, Ukraine’s counteroffensive remains stalled. Advancing through Russian minefields without air support or adequate anti-air weapons, the Ukrainian military has lost 26,000 men and more than 3,000 pieces of hardware, according to the latest figures from Moscow. In return, Ukraine has captured only a handful of hamlets and villages, while failing to penetrate Russia’s multi-layered network of defensive trenches and emplacements.
The US and its allies knew that such an outcome was inevitable, according to the Wall Street Journal. Citing leaked Pentagon documents, the newspaper claimed that US military analysts counted a “tiny number” of Ukrainian weapons capable of hitting Russian aircraft, and determined that Kiev would face an “inability to prevent Russian air superiority.” “America would never attempt to defeat a prepared defense without air superiority, but [the Ukrainians] don’t have air superiority,” John Nagl, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, told the paper. “It’s impossible to overstate how important air superiority is for fighting a ground fight at a reasonable cost in casualties.”
In public, American officials told a different story. “We believe that the Ukrainians will meet with success in this counteroffensive,” White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN on the eve of the operation. Several months earlier, Dan Rice, an Iraq War veteran who now serves as an adviser to the Ukrainian armed forces, declared that the counteroffensive would “shock the world” with its success. European leaders were similarly optimistic. Polish President Andrzej Duda, who has been one of Kiev’s most fervent backers, announced in early June that the operation would lead to “the ousting of Russian military forces from all occupied territories.”
Western officials have since downgraded their expectations, and are privately “alarmed” at the lack of results on the battlefield, according to recent media reports. Western governments are therefore at a crossroads, and will soon need to decide whether to commit the massive amounts of arms, equipment, and money necessary to support Kiev in a longer conflict, the Wall Street Journal explained, citing anonymous diplomats. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described Ukraine’s counteroffensive as “suicidal.” In a public address on Friday, he pointed out that despite the “colossal amounts of resources,” and “thousands of foreign mercenaries and advisers” that Kiev has received from the West, its counteroffensive has still resulted in failure.
“..And we are confident that the Ukrainians have what they need..”
• West’s Hopes for Breakthrough in Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Dashed (Sp.)
Western countries knew that Ukraine did not have enough weapons and training for the counteroffensive, but hoped that Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would save the day; however, these hopes have been dashed, the US press admits. Russia’s resistance, airpower, and extensive fortifications blocked the Kiev regime’s advance and eventually led to Ukraine’s counteroffensive stalling. There is a risk of Ukrainian lives and equipment being lost without any shift in momentum, as per a US mainstream media outlet. The media outlet noted that as the likelihood of any large-scale breakthrough by the Ukrainian forces this year fades, it raises the “unsettling prospect” for Washington and its NATO allies of a “longer war” which would require more armaments and even more training.
Under these circumstances, the political calculus for the Biden administration appears especially complicated given the forthcoming election in November 2024. While the EU is continuing to help Ukraine, European leaders are unlikely to make a significant increase in aid to Ukraine if they feel a lack of enthusiasm from the United States, the newspaper noted. At the end of June, the Pentagon stated that they initially understood that the counteroffensive would be tough and entail casualties among their ranks. Still, US war planners claimed the Kiev regime was well-equipped. “Our assessments have been pretty clear from the beginning. We know this is going to be a hard fight. We know this is going to take time. And we are confident that the Ukrainians have what they need,” claimed Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh on June 21.
“We have accounted for losses. We know there are going to be losses on the battlefield. That’s the unfortunate part of this war,” she added. However, it appears that Washington did not expect that the losses would be so heavy. The long-advertised Ukrainian counteroffensive in the South Donetsk, Artemovsk (Bakhmut), and Zaporozhye directions started on June 4 after months of delays. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained in an interview with the Western press earlier this month that the effort couldn’t start earlier due to a lack of weaponry. Kiev deployed NATO-trained brigades armed with Western equipment, including the much-touted Leopard tanks. Shortly after, images of burned and damaged NATO-grade weaponry started to pop up in the media and social networks.
Maybe not…
• Wagner Fighters Want To ‘Visit’ Poland – Lukashenko (RT)
Fighters from the private military company (PMC) Wagner want to “visit” Poland, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin on Sunday. According to Lukashenko, the PMC’S members want to reach the Polish capital Warsaw and the city of eastern city of Rzeszow, which they believe was a hub for providing Ukrainian troops with military hardware during the fighting for the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut). After the failed mutiny attempt in June, Wagner members were offered the opportunity to retire, sign contracts with the Russian military, or relocate to Belarus together with the group’s chief, Evgeny Prigozhin.
According to Lukashenko, the fighters hosted in the country are starting to “concern” local authorities, as they want to “go on tour to Poland” to visit Warsaw and Rzeszow, which they believe was a hub for providing Ukrainian troops with military hardware during the fighting for the key Donbass city of Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut). “They know where the military hardware [to support Ukrainian troops] came from during the fighting in Artyomovsk,” the Belarusian president explained on Sunday during his meeting with Putin. “So they have this internal feeling that Rzeszow is trouble.”
He also noted that the Wagner members know “what’s going on around the Union State [of Russia and Belarus],” so he wouldn’t like to have them relocated somewhere away from the center of the country, particularly given that they are in what he characterized as a “bad mood.” On Friday, Putin claimed that Polish leaders are planning to form a NATO-backed coalition to intervene in the Ukraine conflict and take over parts of western Ukraine. Belarusian territory might also be endangered, he added, promising retaliation in case of any aggression against the Union State member.
Lukashenko tells Putin that the #Wagner troops have begun to 'bother' him, reason being they want to advance towards Warsaw.
'I'm telling you, why head west? Well, take a tour to Warsaw, to Rzeszów,' Lukashenko shared during the meeting with Putin.
According to him, the mood… pic.twitter.com/PzidUWp2Jq
— Russian Market (@runews) July 23, 2023
Not mentioned: Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, aka Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, is also one of the main suspects in the MH17 downing.
• Putin Cracks Down On ‘Angry Patriots’ In Wake Of Wagner Mutiny (ZH)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has continued cleaning house in the wake of last month’s Wagner mutiny and short-lived uprising. In a bold move, he and his defense ministry are cracking down even on pro-Kremlin ‘patriots’—but who have publicly criticized top decision-making and how Moscow has handled the Ukraine war effort. On Friday a prominent blogger who has taken a critical stance on war strategy and Putin himself was arrested. Igor Girkin is a longtime proponent of the invasion of Ukraine, and is an ex-security official who led Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in 2014. He also helped Crimea enter under the Russian Federation that same year.
Shortly after last year’s start of the February invasion, he co-founded an ultra-nationalist political group called the Angry Patriots Club, and is a popular pro-war blogger. These are hardliners who tend to think the Kremlin has been too restrained in Ukraine. In the wake of the June 22-23 Wagner mutiny, he suggested Putin is “not ready” for difficult decision-making under war-time conditions. And this week, he went so far as to call Putin a “low life”. According to a CNN translation of some key quotes he’s posted publicly: The day after Wagner’s brief insurrection ended, on June 25, he said that if Putin “is not ready to take the leadership over the creation of war-ready conditions” in Russia, “then he really needs to transfer the powers, but legally, to someone who is capable of such hard work.”
But the final straw for Putin may have come on Tuesday, when Girkin called the president a “lowlife” and a “cowardly bum” in a blistering post on his Telegram channel. “For 23 years, the country was led by a lowlife who managed to ‘blow dust in the eyes’ of a significant part of the population. Now he is the last island of legitimacy and stability of the state,” the post read. “But the country will not be able to withstand another six years of this cowardly bum in power.” Girkin’s lawyer confirmed Friday that following his arrest a Moscow court has given him pretrial detention until at least Sept.18. The charge against him is “extremism”. Below is analysis via regional observer Tatiana Stanovaya, who points out that “This is a direct outcome of Prigozhin’s mutiny: the army’s command now wields greater political leverage to quash its opponents.”…
“This is a moment many within the siloviki have eagerly awaited. Strelkov had overstepped all conceivable boundaries a long time ago, sparking the desire among security forces — from the FSB to military chiefs — to apprehend him. The complaint came from a former commander of the Wagner Group. At this point, the source of the accusation is inconsequential — it does not come from Wagner in its current, let’s put it softly, difficult state.” “Strelkov’s arrest undeniably serves the interests of the Ministry of Defense. This is a direct outcome of Prigozhin’s mutiny: the army’s command now wields greater political leverage to quash its opponents in the public sphere. It’s unlikely that there will be massive repressions against ‘angry patriots,’ but the most vehement dissenters may face prosecution, serving as a cautionary tale for others.”
Just stop it.
• UK Media Now Admitting NATO’s Proxy War in Ukraine is a Disaster (21C)
After 18 months, it looks like the propaganda dam that’s been holding up the official NATO narrative on Ukraine – has finally begun to crack in the UK mainstream media. It seems that the bevy of journalists and military pundits who’ve been insisting for the last 18 months that “Ukraine is winning”, have finally convened and appear to have collectively decided that maybe it’s high time to begin facing reality and accept that the Ukrainian army’s much-vaunted ‘counter offensive’ came and went with no success. Truth be known: there was never any actual counter offensive, rather, it was strictly a media-driven mirage, specifically designed to help keep the money and weapons flowing into an increasingly disastrous proxy war ahead of this month’s lack-luster NATO Summit in Vilnius.
The legacy media’s belated acknowledgment of this epic failure is a symptom of their own chronic and misguided approach to the war from day one, which can only be described as a deluded, albeit shameless lockstep propaganda campaign that would make even Stalin’s information minister wince. Interestingly, throughout the conflict, The Telegraph has been one of the main pro-war propaganda echo chambers on social media, regularly host hosting Twitter Spaces frequented by NAFO “fellas” (NATO’s 100K strong online trolling army), with various ‘experts’ regularly coming on making outrageous and unsubstantiated claims about Russian military maneuvers manuevers and alleged war crimes. The MSM are now playing catch-up to reality… Robert Clark from the UK Telegraph writes in his recent piece, “Ukraine and the West are facing a devastating defeat”…
Since Putin’s tanks crossed into Ukrainian territory last year, three options have been on the table for how this war would end: victory for one side or the other, a frozen conflict or a negotiated settlement. The public comments made this week by Oleksiy Arestovych, a former advisor to Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, appear to indicate the last may be more likely than previously thought. Arestovych raised the prospect of Ukraine making territorial concessions in return for the rest of the country receiving the most cast-iron security guarantee there is: Nato membership. These comments have proved highly controversial. Not only would such an outcome be unpalatable to many in Kyiv and other European capitals, raising it as a possibility highlights a growing uncertainty about the long-term sustainability of the war – particularly amongst Ukraine’s western backers.
Arestovych’s suggestion comes at a crucial time. The long-planned counter-offensive, now in its second month, has run into several problems – not least that Kyiv is still waiting for approximately half of the western military equipment promised earlier in the year. Meanwhile, its forces are under increasing pressure to commit its reserves as Russian troops – despite reports of low morale across the front – remain dug-in, seemingly committed to defending every inch of Ukrainian ground captured since last year. As Russian minefields take their toll on western-supplied tanks and Ukrainian sappers, their forces have so-far retaken approximately five miles of the sixty miles they need to split the land-bridge connecting Russia to Crimea. The land between Mariupol in the east and Melitopol to the west is seen as the vital ground to achieving this.
“The sheer quantity of ordnance in Ukraine is just unprecedented in the last 30 years. There’s nothing like it..”
• Demining Ukraine Will Take 757 Years – WaPo (RT)
The conflict with Russia has turned Ukraine into the “most mined country” in the world, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing data from the nation’s government and several non-governmental humanitarian mine clearance groups. Almost one-third of Ukraine’s territory has been affected by heavy fighting and will likely require intense demining operations, the media outlet said, adding that over 67,000 square miles (173,529 square kilometers) have been contaminated with unexploded ordnance, according to Slovakia-based think tank GLOBSEC. That’s more than the size of Florida and roughly equivalent to Uruguay. “The sheer quantity of ordnance in Ukraine is just unprecedented in the last 30 years. There’s nothing like it,” Greg Crowther, the director of programs at British NGO Mines Advisory Group, told the Washington Post.
According to UN data, almost 300 civilians, including 22 children, died in Ukraine in incidents linked to unexploded ordnance between February 2022 and July 2023, the Post reported. Mines and other unexploded munitions also resulted in 632 civilian injuries over the same period, it added. Both sides of the conflict actively use mines in their operations, the media outlet noted. The US also contributed to the mining of Ukrainian territory by supplying Kiev with 155-millimeter artillery rounds that create temporary minefields, although their submunitions are technically supposed to self-destruct, the Washington Post reported. Another US-made ordnance that was sent into Ukraine was the M21 anti-tank mine, which does not self-destruct, it added.
Washington’s decision to provide Kiev with US-made “cluster munitions, which are known to scatter duds that fail to explode, can only add to the danger,” the media outlet said. According to some estimates, it could take 757 years to clear all of the unexploded ordnance scattered around the country, even if 500 demining teams were tasked with the mission, the Washington Post reported. World Bank estimates show that the cost of these operations could reach $37.4 billion in just the next ten years, it added. Washington has so far committed just around $95 million to demining operations in Ukraine, according to a 2023 State Department report.
On Friday, UN Under Secretary General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo warned the UN Security Council that huge swathes of Ukrainian territory have been covered in mines and cluster bombs that will “continue to pose danger to civilians for years to come.” Earlier this week, Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, blasted Washington for turning Ukraine into a “burial ground” for lethal waste.
“..there is no longer any use in continuing the ‘grain deal’ as it has failed to serve its original humanitarian purpose.”
• Putin Says Grain Deal Used to Enrich US, Europe, Lost Its Meaning (Sp.)
The grain deal did not justify its humanitarian purpose and was used only to enrich the United States and Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in an article titled “Russia and Africa: Joining Efforts for Peace, Progress and a Successful Future” published by the Kremlin on Monday. The Black Sea Grain Initiative, commonly known as the grain deal, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year, expired on July 18, as Russia did not extend its participation. Moscow has been repeatedly critical of the fact that the deal’s provisions pertaining to Russia had not been fulfilled.
“Many have probably heard of the so-called ‘grain deal,’ whose initial purpose was to ensure global food security, reduce the threat of hunger and help the poorest countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America – the reason why Russia undertook the obligation to facilitate its implementation in the first place. This ‘deal,’ however, while it was publicly advertised by the West as a gesture of goodwill that benefited Africa, has in fact been shamelessly used solely for the enrichment of large US and European businesses that exported and resold grain from Ukraine,” Putin said. The Russian president emphasized that, in almost a year, a total of 32.8 million tonnes (metric tons) of supplies were exported from Ukraine under the grain deal, with over 70% of the exports ending up in high- and upper-middle-income countries, while countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, as well as Yemen and Afghanistan, received less than 3% of the supplies.
“In the meantime, none of the ‘deal’ provisions relating to the exemption from sanctions of Russian grain and fertiliser exports to world markets, were fulfilled,” Putin wrote. The Russian president stressed that barriers have been mounted to Russia’s attempts to supply free of charge mineral fertilizers to the poorest countries in need. “Of 262,000 tonnes of goods blocked in European ports, only two shipments were delivered – one of 20,000 tonnes to Malawi and one of 34,000 tonnes to Kenya. The rest is still unscrupulously held by the Europeans. And this is a purely humanitarian initiative we are talking about, which should be exempt from any sanctions as such,” Putin said, adding that, considering all these facts, “there is no longer any use in continuing the ‘grain deal’ as it has failed to serve its original humanitarian purpose.”
“is a purely humanitarian initiative we are talking about, which should be exempt from any sanctions as such.”
• Russia Prevented From Giving Free Fertilizers To Poorest Nations – Putin (TASS)
While Russia has been sending fertilizers to the world’s poorest countries free of charge, the West has been mounting barriers by blocking a substantial portion of supplies and holding it `unscrupulously’, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in his article for the 2nd Russia-Africa Summit to be held in St. Petersburg later this week. “Barriers have been mounted even to our attempts to supply free of charge mineral fertilizers to the poorest countries in need. Of 262,000 metric tons of goods blocked in European ports, only two shipments were delivered – one of 20,000 metric tons to Malawi and the other of 34,000 metric tons to Kenya. The rest is still being unscrupulously held by the Europeans,” Putin lamented.
And this, the Russian leader said, “is a purely humanitarian initiative we are talking about, which should be exempt from any sanctions as such.” The second Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum is slated for July 27-28 in St. Petersburg. The first such event was held in Sochi on October 22-24, 2019 under the slogan “For peace, security and development.”.
“22 countries have formally applied to join the group..”
• More Than 40 Countries Willing To Join BRICS –Official (RT)
More than 40 countries have shown an interest in joining BRICS, Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador-at-large responsible for ties with the economic alliance and Asian countries, has said. The diplomat told reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday that 22 countries have formally applied to join the group, while “an equal number” of states “have been informally asking about becoming BRICS members.”= Speaking with RT on Sunday, Sooklal described BRICS as an “inclusive” organization that has always been open to dialogue with the larger global community. The group currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and accounts for over 40% of the global population and nearly a quarter of the world’s GDP.
Sooklal said that BRICS does not distinguish between the Global North and Global South and is ready to talk to any country that “has the same vision for a more inclusive and equitable global order where we do not marginalize large parts of the world,” including many developing nations. The diplomat went on to point out that while the United Nations has yet to embark on comprehensive reforms that would give emerging countries a greater voice, BRICS has charted its own path to remedy the situation. However, he stressed that the bloc “does not seek to become a dominant economic force,” but rather wants to have “a major influence in an inclusive manner to work for change.”
“We don’t want a world where we have one or two global hegemons,” he added, explaining that such a distribution of power sows division in the global community. Sooklal had earlier said in comments to journalists that Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were among those countries looking to join the bloc. South Africa will host the BRICS annual summit this year, which will take place in Johannesburg from August 22-24, with President Cyril Ramaphosa having sent invitations to nearly 70 global leaders.
Never talked to Hunter about his business…
• Hunter Phones A Friend (Miranda Devine)
Hunter Biden would dial in his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone into meetings with his overseas business partners, according to testimony expected before Congress this week from Devon Archer, the first son’s former best friend. Archer, 48, who is facing jail for his role in a $60 million bond fraud, is scheduled to testify to the House Oversight Committee about meetings he witnessed that were attended by Joe Biden either in person or via speakerphone when Hunter would call his father and introduce him to foreign business partners or prospective investors. “We are looking forward very much to hearing from Devon Archer about all the times he has witnessed Joe Biden meeting with Hunter Biden’s overseas business partners when he was vice president, including on speakerphone,” says Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee chairman.
One such meeting was in Dubai late in the evening of Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, after a board meeting of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which was paying Hunter $83,000 a month as a director. Archer, who also was a director, is expected to testify that, after dinner with the Burisma board at the Burj Al Arab Hotel, he and Hunter traveled six miles north to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach to have a drink with one of Hunter’s friends. While they were sitting outside at the bar, Vadym Pozharskyi, a senior Burisma executive, phoned to ask where they were because Burisma’s owner Mykola Zlochevsky needed to speak to Hunter urgently. Soon afterward, the two Ukrainians joined Hunter and Archer at the Four Seasons bar and Pozharskyi asked Hunter: “Can you ring your dad?” At the time it was early afternoon, Friday, in Washington, DC.
Hunter then called his father, put him on speaker, placed the phone on the table, and introduced the Ukrainians to Joe Biden by name as “Nikolai and Vadym.” He also said words to the effect that the Burisma bigwigs “need our support.” VP Biden greeted the Ukrainians but spoke only in vague pleasantries during the short call, and in other such interactions with Hunter’s overseas business partners, Archer is expected to testify. Congressional investigators are expected to probe the reasons for Zlochevsky requesting the urgent phone call with Joe Biden. They will note the context, that three days after the speakerphone call, the then-vice president, who was the Obama administration’s point man for Ukraine, was due to fly to Kyiv to address the Ukrainian parliament, known as the “Rada,” on Dec. 9, 2015, about the “poison of cronyism, corruption, and kleptocracy.”
Ten weeks before the call, on Sept. 24, 2015, US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt had given a speech about corruption in Odessa, in which he targeted Zlochevsky by name. By then, Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma for corruption and, within two months, on Feb. 2, 2016, would seize four houses in Kyiv, two plots of land and a Rolls Royce belonging to Zlochevsky, who was living in exile in Dubai. A month later, Shokin was fired, after Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US aid to Ukraine.
Not Biden but Trump faces trial.
• Trump To Face Trial Before Election (RT)
Former US President Donald Trump is to stand trial on charges of mishandling classified documents in May 2024, a court order issued on Friday suggested. The date pushes the court hearings deep into the 2024 US presidential race. US District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the trial to start on May 24. A pretrial hearing in Trump’s case is to be held on May 14. The dates place the hearings after most state primaries that are scheduled to be finished by mid-May, the US media report. Nebraska, Maryland and West Virginia are expected to hold their primary votes right on May 14, according to CNN. Oregon is to do it a week later and a few states, including New Jersey will vote on June 4, the network added.
According to AP, the Republican presidential nominee might be already clear by the time Trump is to arrive before the court, even though the official nomination would only take place at the Republican National Convention in July 2024. Two weeks ago, Trump’s lawyers demanded his trial be delayed until after the 2024 presidential election. The prosecutors also requested a four-month postponement and called on the trial to be moved to December 2023. Cannon ruled on Friday that “the Government’s proposed schedule is atypically accelerated and inconsistent with ensuring a fair trial,” adding that the amount of evidence that needs to be examined in this case is “voluminous and likely to increase in the normal course as trial approaches.”
“The Court finds that the interests of justice served by this continuance outweigh the best interest of the public and Defendants in a speedy trial,” she added. Trump’s campaign already hailed the decision as a “major setback to the DOJ’s crusade to deny President Trump a fair legal process.” The “extensive schedule” would allow Trump and his legal team to “continue fighting this empty hoax,” it added. Trump pleaded not guilty last month to 37 felony counts regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents following his departure from the White House.
The 300-plus documents were recovered by the FBI, including during a controversial raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate last August. They reportedly included classified national security material related to nuclear secrets and the country’s defense capabilities. Trump repeatedly argued he had “every right” to keep the documents in question. He also told Fox News earlier that he had no time to return them when asked by the federal officials. The indictment saw Trump’s polling lead double over his closest rival for the Republican 2024 nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The former US president was also polling ahead of the incumbent one, Joe Biden.
“Look at all the money we’re giving to Ukraine and yet Ukraine was paying the Biden family a fortune..”
• Trump Calls Biden ‘Stupid’ For Revealing US Has Run Out of Ammo (Sp.)
President Biden revealed earlier this month that the Ukrainian army was “running out” of 155mm artillery ammunition and that the US was “low on it,” and that this played a role in his controversial decision to send cluster munition to Ukraine. Biden’s talking points were echoed by Pentagon and White House officials. Former President Donald Trump has lashed out at Joe Biden for revealing that the United States is running low on ammunition amid its failing proxy-war with Russia in Ukraine. “We have a man that doesn’t understand what he’s doing. We have a man that yesterday stood up and told the whole world that we have no ammunition. You know I had every ammunition building full to the brim three years ago. We’ve given it all away. But if you gave it all away…the only thing worse than that is to tell the world that we have no [ammunition]. He has told China and these other places that are hostile that we have no ammunition,” Trump said in a TV interview Sunday.
“By the way you talk about classified documents – that’s worse than any document that you could give. So now these people are sitting back, in China and other places that hate us including North Korea where I had a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un and kept our country safe – they’re talking about the United States of America has no ammunition, think of it. How stupid can somebody be to say that?” Trump asked. Trump, who is currently leading in polling for the Republican nomination in 2024, and is five points ahead of Biden in polling for the general election, accused the sitting president of corruption in Ukraine. “Look at all the money we’re giving to Ukraine and yet Ukraine was paying the Biden family a fortune,” Trump said, presumably referring to reports that Biden and his son Hunter allegedly received millions of dollars from a Ukrainian businessman while Joe Biden was serving as Barack Obama’s vice president in an alleged pay-to-play corruption scheme.
Asked if he would cut off funding to Ukraine, Trump answered “I’d get the war settled. The money is – number one I’d tell Europe ‘you’re about $100 billion+ short. You gotta pay.’ Because Europe is smiling all the way to the bank…Europe is doing very little compared to the United States and it affects them more. No matter how you look at it, they’re right there, we’re an ocean apart. Why are we at $150 billion and they’re at $20 [billion]? You know their economy is almost exactly our size if you add it all up…They should be at the same number that we’re at if not more.” Trump also repeated his earlier warnings about the dangers of the current Russia-NATO proxy conflict in Ukraine owing to the existence of nuclear weapons.
“This is the most dangerous time in the history of our country because of weaponry. The nuclear power is so enormous – this isn’t two army tanks going and shooting each other in World War I, World War II, or soldiers standing behind a bunker and shooting people,” Trump said.
Local news :-). Makes the work on TAE a challenge.
• Greece Heatwave Likely To Become Longest Country Has Ever Recorded (RT)
A heat wave baking Greece is likely to become the longest the country has ever recorded, experts say, as the country battles wildfires and restricts access to its popular tourist sites, Report informs via CNN. Visiting hours for the Acropolis and other archaeological sites have been revised with temperatures soaring. Staff at some sites are on strike to protests working conditions. “We will probably go through 15 to 16 days of a heat wave, which has never happened before in our country,” the Director of Research at the National Observatory of Athens Kostas Lagouvardos told CNN.
He told CNN that the streak could go beyond those days, but at the moment “it’s hard to predict.” The longest continuous heatwave that Greece has faced was 12 days long, back in July 1987, Lagouvardos said. Lagouvardos said temperatures in Athens this summer could possibly break the city’s all-time record, which was set in June 2007, when Athens registered 44.8 degrees Celsius (112.64 degrees Fahrenheit). The authorities have been battling wildfires in several areas, including the island of Rhodes where Reuters said hundreds have been forced to evacuate.
Mother dog
Mother dog stands up to protect her little one!
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