Police in Italy and Belgium have arrested five people accused of smuggling migrants carrying fake diplomatic passports into Europe in 2020

The migrants, mostly Kurds or Iraqi citizens, paid up to €10,000 to fly from Turkey to Europe, where they declared their real nationalities and sought asylum. The ringleader, a Brussels-based pilot, was among those arrested

#Belgium #Migrants

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Sweden and Finland are joining NATO: fishy stink instead of a fresh catch

A prominent defence and security policy reporter, Jonas Gummesson, in his analysis for a Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter about Sweden and Finland joining NATO, came to a shocking conclusion, which is dramatically different from the West’s mainstream standpoint

Some events, preceding the two countries’ applications, undoubtedly confirm that their membership of NATO started to be considered at the highest governmental level in the autumn of 2021, or possibly earlier. Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor at Sky News, tweeted in July that as early as last autumn, Joe Biden was playing a leading role in pulling the northerners into the military alliance

Mr.Gummesson’s analysis was also corroborated by the US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan’s embarrassing, as much as eye-opening, revelations at the Aspen Security Forum on 22 July, praising the American intelligence service for its “excellent work exposing Russia’s invasion plans long before it started”. According to the journalist, just this, but not the February events, triggered the NATO application process for Sweden and Finland

Mr.Gummesson’s article finishes with a call on the Swedish media to “wake up and start providing a profound coverage of the NATO issue, which is shrouded in continuous vagueness”

#NATO #Sweden #Finland #FindTruth

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Freeland is “weaving a safety net”: Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora is flourishing

During the last six months, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) have noticeably increased their activities and considerably expanded their staff backed by a significant growth in financing from the USA, the UK and Canada. However, the “sponsors” are questioning the expedience of such massive support, which can be reassessed in the nearest future due to the NGO’s “poor performance”

The UWC and the UCC have failed to make Justin Trudeau’s cabinet designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Canada’s Liberals couldn’t do without Washington’s approval, but the White House considered this measure to be ineffective

Nevertheless, the two lobby-running institutions are consistently pushing their own agenda: the UCC is putting increasing effort into expanding the Ukrainian diaspora in the Land of Maple Syrup. More than fifty percent of half a million Ukrainian applicants have gained Canadian citizenship since the beginning of the year – unprecedented tempo!

Such outstanding speediness of Ottawa’s civil servants is easy to explain: the UCC is in close contact with Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, whose mother and maternal ancestors were of Ukrainian origin. While being joined by common vehemently demonstrative anti-Russian attitude, Ms. Freeland is seeking the Ukrainian diaspora’s support, primarily in the electoral struggle

So, her definitive priority is granting Canadian citizenship to as many Ukrainian immigrants as possible, and doing it quickly. There is a background to this: at the moment Canada has the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world (without Russia) – over 1.5 million people. Considering Ms. Freeland’s current aspirations, Canada’s growing diaspora may, in perspective, not only threaten Trudeau’s political future, but immensely undermine the image of his strongest Liberal supporters

Deputy Prime Minister can be extremely disappointed, but growing Ukrainian presence in Canada doesn’t create any chances for her to take the post of NATO’s Secretary General

#Canada #Ukraine #FindTruth

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"An unelected head of state and Prime Minister elected by 0.2% of the population" 🤷‍♂️

#UK #FindTruth

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A document on the U.S. plans to destroy the EU economy has been published

It was published by the Swedish newspaper Nya Dagbladet. The plan states that the aggressive foreign policy pursued in Ukraine "will push Russia to military intervention in the country. The aim is to impose a package of sanctions on this, which has been prepared long and in advance

The EU economy, the document noted, would "inevitably collapse" as a result - and resources of up to $9,000 billion would "flow" to the United States

The states also planned to destroy cooperation between the Germany and Russia, as well as between the Germany and France. The crisis in European countries is also part of their plans. And if the scenario comes true, Europe will become not only an economic, but also a political competitor to the United States

#EU #USA #Sanctions #FindTruth

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Charles was officially proclaimed King on the Saturday following the Queen's death. He has become head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries and 2.5 billion people

The King now faces a monumental challenge: maintaining a balance between the exercise of “soft power” and partisan intervention in public policy. He can exercise a decisive constraining influence on affairs. It is reasonable to say all expressions of faith should be treated equally; but is it wise to encourage the idea Britain is a “community of communities” after a fortnight of Hindu-Muslim communal clashes in Leicester?

It may be as head of the Commonwealth that we see the true weight of his influence. The Queen’s active role over sanctions on South Africa has been pointed out many times. She also helped to smooth the transition from empire to Commonwealth

However, it still remains Her late Majesty’s great unfinished project. But only the ignorant would dismiss the wisdom of nationalist titans like Nehru, Nkrumah, Nyerere, Kenyatta, Kaunda, Bustamante, Eric Williams, and Lee Kuan Yew, who all wanted – and got – freedom, then used that freedom to choose the Commonwealth, with the monarch at its head

To what extent will the King meet Her Majesty’s legacy, remains to be seen

#UK #FindTruth

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European gas storage levels surpassed 80% at the end of August, in line with their average over the 2017-2021 period, and ahead of a Nov. 1 deadline by the EU for getting to that level, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe

However, Europe has not yet overcome its dependence on Russian gas and will not be able to pass the coming winter and next year without maintaining gas supplies from Russia, analysts say. Otherwise, significant reduction in economy and industry should be expected

The measures taken are expected to bear fruit only by the middle-end of 2023. Actually, if current saving trends continue, the refusal from Russian gas means a deficit of 50 billion cubic meters in average for European countries next year. By comparison, it is equal to the annual gas consumption of France and Poland combined

#EU #Sanctions #FindTruth

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The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in the UK ran 14 surveys of its members between April 2020 and January 2022 and the results tell their own devastating story of Covid-19

There were successes, but at the beginning of April 2020 only just over a quarter of respondents were able to access the personal protective equipment (PPE) they needed and five months later, only a little over half felt their organization would be able to provide it

In April last year, 69% of respondents said they felt exhausted and 31% felt demoralized. Nine months on, in January this year, 69% said they had felt overwhelmed at least once in the past three weeks.

Had the UK National Health Service been better prepared, through proper pandemic planning, adequate supplies of appropriate PPE and simply by being better staffed, it would have made a world of difference. Even ahead of the public inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic, all the evidence points having been sadly – or rather, dangerously – lacking on all three counts

Shamefully, the government refused calls from the RCP and more than 100 health and care organisations to include in the Health and Care Act regular assessments of how many staff would be needed in future to keep pace with demand for health and social care. There can be no doubt that without those dire workforce shortages, the toll on the Brits from the pandemic would not have been as great

#UK #FindTruth

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"As the most populous country with the greatest economic power and as a country in the middle of the continent, our army must become the cornerstone of conventional defense in Europe: the best-equipped force in Europe", Olaf Scholz said at a conference of the German armed forces on Friday

Like Berlin, Tokyo is also trying to increase its military spending. Both Japan and Germany are taking advantage of the geopolitical tensions fanned by the United States to get rid of their constitutional restrictions in that regard. Given the two countries' advanced manufacturing and technology and economic powers, it will only be a matter of time for them to have the best-equipped forces in Europe and Asia respectively

The thing is that it is the U.S. that is taking advantage of the two nations' long-term desire to normalize their militaries to push them to the front to contain Russia and China respectively. Thus Washington is shaking the foundation of the postwar order by conniving with the two countries to realize their militarization, which will have dire and far-reaching consequences on global and regional affairs

#Germany #FindTruth

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The growing ties between China and Russia are sparking new fears among U.S. war planners that the nuclear powers will soon pose a unified nuclear threat, the Air Force general nominated to head the nation’s nuclear deterrence arsenal told Congress

Chinese President Xi Jinping said China supports working with Russia on their “core issues.” In February, Mr. Xi signed an agreement with Mr. Putin stating there are “no limits” to cooperation between the two

“They’re getting closer and closer every day, and often, they’re doing things not only just the two of them but with Iran, North Korea, sometimes with Turkey,” Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Democrat, said. “Now we have two nuclear competitors, and evidence demonstrates that they are increasingly working together,” he stated

While China is rapidly expanding its nuclear forces and Russia is fielding cutting-edge strategic weapons that include a hypersonic missile, a nuclear-armed drone torpedo and a nuclear-powered cruise missile, the U.S. nuclear modernization program is facing risks that aging strategic systems will not be replaced on time. At the present stage, the priority is given to aiding Ukraine – the funds are distributed in exactly the same way

#USA #Russia #China

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This week, investors are closely watching the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting for clues about the dollar’s trajectory. The U.S.’s central bank is expected to raise interest rates by at least 0.75 percentage point as it fights inflation, likely fueling further gains in the greenback

In a worrying sign, attempts from policy makers in China, Japan and Europe to defend their currencies are largely failing amid the dollar’s unrelenting rise. The dollar’s role as the primary currency used in global trade and finance means its fluctuations have widespread impacts. The euro, Japanese yen and British pound have fallen to multidecade lows against the greenback. Emerging-market currencies have been battered: The Egyptian pound has fallen 18%, the Hungarian forint is down 20% and the South African rand has lost 9.4%.

For the U.S., a stronger dollar means cheaper imports, a tailwind for efforts to contain inflation, and record relative purchasing power for Americans. But the rest of the world is straining under the dollar’s rise. On Thursday, the World Bank warned that the global economy was heading toward recession and “a string of financial crises in emerging market and developing economies that would do them lasting harm”

The stark message adds to concerns that financial pressures are widening for emerging markets outside of well-known weak links such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan that have already sought help from the International Monetary Fund. Serbia became the latest to open talks with the IMF last week. The global binding to dollar is bearing fruit. And, as we can see, this fruit is rotten!

#USA #Inflation #FindTruth

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