The World Blog by humble servant.

The ‘Stand Up for Ukraine’ pledge drive and concert event has already netted over $11 billion (€10.1 billion) for Ukrainian refugees, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Saturday. In addition to the $9.9 billion (€9.1 billion) pledged by European leaders and their supporters, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has promised $1.1 billion (€1 billion). Ukraine preparing for ‘decisive’ battle against Russia Read more Ukraine preparing for ‘decisive’ battle against Russia Organized by von der Leyen, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, and the NGO Global Citizen streaming online from Warsaw, the Saturday event is set to include dozens of musical performances in support of Ukrainian temporary migrants. Among the participating artists are U2, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Pearl Jam, Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stevie Wonder, Ozzy Osbourne, and Celine Dion. Some 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since the invasio...

A key opposition party in Sweden will reportedly look to switch its stance on whether the country should join NATO if neighboring Finland applies for membership, potentially clearing the way for legislation calling to end the country’s long history of military neutrality. Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson told Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet on Saturday that he’s considering a change in stance on NATO membership in light of Russia’s attack on Ukraine. If Finland seeks to join the Brussels-based alliance, he said he will recommend that his party advocate doing the same. If Finland applies, Akesson said, “then my ambition is to go to the party council with a request that we change our mind. What’s changed now is that Finland is very clearly moving toward a NATO membership, and there are many indications that this may happen in the near future. That, and the fact Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, is completely alone, has made me turn.” NATO makes offer to Finland and Swed...

A holding tank containing hazardous materials has been destroyed at a chemical plant in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) town of Rubezhnoye, both local and Kiev-appointed officials said on Saturday. The blast comes days after a similar incident occurred at the facility amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “Today, once again, a tank with nitric acid was blown up on the territory of the Zarya chemical plant in the town of Rubezhnoye, which resulted in a release of toxic substances into the environment,” the LPR’s militia said in a statement, accusing Ukrainian nationalist units of using “terrorist tactics” against the civilian population and destroying infrastructure. The incident has been confirmed by the Kiev-appointed governor of Lugansk, Sergey Gaidai. However, he blamed the blast on artillery shelling by the “orcs” – a derogatory term commonly used in Ukraine to describe forces of the Donbass republics and the Russian military. “Nitric acid is dangerous if inh...

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an unannounced visit to Kiev on Saturday, during which he pledged 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime. Johnson authorized a separate military aid package the day before, and also promised Ukraine $500 million in World Bank loans. “Today I met my friend President Zelensky in Kiev as a show of our unwavering support for the people of Ukraine,” Johnson tweeted, shortly after news of his unannounced trip to the Ukrainian capital broke. “We're setting out a new package of financial and military aid which is a testament of our commitment to his country's struggle against Russia’s barbaric campaign,” he added. According to Downing Street, Britain will supply Zelensky’s forces with 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems. This tranche of military equipment is in addition to a £100 million ($130 million) military aid package announced on Friday, which includes Starstr...

Pakistan’s National Assembly has passed a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday, with 176 lawmakers out of 342 voting against him. The speaker of the parliament’s lower house Asad Qaisar, who is also a member of Khan’s party, announced his resignation after adjourning the house three times throughout Saturday. Khan PTI’s party effectively lost its majority in the National Assembly in March when seven MPs from its coalition partner decided to join the opposition’s ranks. The rivals accused the cricket star-turned-politician of mismanaging Pakistan’s economy, battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as mishandling Islamabad’s foreign and internal policy. Sunday’s motion means that Khan’s five-year term has ended early, much like that of all previous prime ministers of the country. The opposition will now put forward their own candidate to replace Khan as PM. On March 21, Maryam Nawaz, the vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party – the co...

The European Union has devolved to the level of “NATO’s economic relations department,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed on Saturday. Following his visit to Ukraine, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, tweeted: “This war must be won on the battlefield.” The militant remarks coming from a diplomat prompted a reaction from Moscow. “So much for ‘economic organization.’ This is no longer the European Union. It's just NATO's economic relations department,” Zakharova wrote. Since the launch of the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, NATO countries have significantly increased their already hefty supplies of weapons and ammunition to Kiev. However, they have stayed clear of entering direct military confrontation with Russia. Two days ago, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba urged NATO countries to keep providing Kiev with “weapons, weapons, and weapons,” explaining that by fighting Russia, Ukraine is not only defending itself but al...

Iran has announced sanctions against an additional 24 Americans, including officials who served in former President Donald Trump’s administration, for allegedly supporting terrorism and human rights violations. Iran’s Foreign Ministry announced the measures on Saturday, saying they stem from efforts by US officials to impose or intensify “criminal sanctions” against the Islamic republic, as well as supporting terrorist groups and Israel’s “repressive actions” in the Middle East, especially against the Palestinians. Those sanctioned included former US Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, ex-CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel and Army General Scott Miller, formerly commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Top aides in the administrations of Trump and then-President Barack Obama, including lawyer Rudi Giuliani, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, also were named. In addition, Iran cited former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte spoke of the need to maintain diplomatic calm in the contested waterways of the South China Sea during an hour-long telephone summit on Friday. “The leaders stressed the need to exert all efforts to maintain peace, security and stability in the South China Sea by exercising restraint, dissipating tensions and working on a mutually agreeable framework for functional cooperation,” Duterte’s office said in a statement, adding that both nations’ leaders were willing to “broaden the space for positive engagements” despite existing disputes. The Philippines clashed with China last month over a Chinese Coast Guard vessel allegedly engaging in “close distance maneuvering” in the South China Sea, claiming the ship’s activities increased the risk of collision. It was the latest of 200 such diplomatic protests Manila has filed over its neighbor’s activities in the disputed waterway. The two nations have both claimed rights to t...

What is the US dollar hegemony? The term monetary hegemony appeared in Michael Hudson's Super Imperialism, describing not only an asymmetrical relationship that the US dollar has to the global economy, but the structures of this hegemonic edifice that Hudson felt supported it, namely the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Weaknesses of the U.S. Dollar The fundamental weakness of the U.S. dollar is that it is only valuable through government fiat. This weakness is shared by every other major national currency in the world and is perceived as normal in the modern age. However, as recently as the 1970s, it was considered a somewhat radical proposition. Without the discipline imposed by a commodity-based currency standard (such as gold), the worry is that governments might print too much money for political purposes or to conduct wars. ...

Polish Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, one of the top politicians of the Eastern European nation, said on Friday that cooperation with Hungary would not be possible unless Prime Minister Viktor Orban aligns himself with Kiev. Prior to the conflict in Ukraine, Poland and Hungary were staunch allies. Kaczynski said in a radio interview that he has an “unequivocally negative” opinion of Orban’s refusal to take a harder stance on Russia following the latter’s military offensive on Ukraine. “When Orban says that he cannot see what happened in Bucha, he must be advised to see an eye doctor,” Kaczynski said, referring to Orban’s refusal to blame Russia for the killing of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Russia has strongly rejected the allegations, claiming Ukrainian forces staged a “crude and cynical provocation,” and has demanded a UN investigation into the incident. Orban’s Fidesz party won a resounding victory in the election last weekend, and Orban declared afterwa...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed that an EU member state’s leader called into question Kiev’s version of events surrounding the Bucha killings, asking for proof that the atrocities were not staged. Speaking to German newspaper Bild on Friday, Zelensky described how a leading EU politician asked him for evidence proving that the Bucha massacre had not been staged. The remark came after the Bild journalist asked what the worst thing he had heard in recent days was. When the interviewer probed further, asking whether it was the head of state of an EU nation, Zelensky replied in the affirmative, though he refused to name the official. Ukraine claims Russian troops committed atrocities against civilians in the town of Bucha northwest of Kiev before retreating last week. Russia has rejected the accusations, and claims Kiev manipulated evidence in what it calls a “provocation.” Commenting on Berlin’s support for Kiev, the Ukrainian president lamented Germany’s apparent ...

Fauci: US ‘likely’ to see fall COVID-19 surge http://hill.cm/WCKc2Hp johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 25m Yea when you and the military and the fauci bio labs go to work. SPREADING it among the unsuspecting citizens. In your new round of test. AS YOU DO in setting them up overseas .Known by Mrs. Nuland testimony under oath. So stop pretending you some kind of seer. johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 24m Dog torcher johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 22m Your a very evil opportunist and the highest paid person in government who never had a real job and your history is fill with bully tactic of others work you claim evil dr. Frankenstein johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 18m imagine a worker for the government is the loaded with seats and invested in the shots and options. johnnie ellington @e7johnny · 15m he is not special as far as his degrees and what not he mediocre. so all his defender in the shots that are not a vaccine we can start there. him and the booster of what don't work...

Ukrainians on a cargo vessel in February have now been rescued, according to Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s top human rights official. The crew of the cargo ship Azov Concord “has been freed and is being evacuated to safety by our troops,” Moskalkova wrote on social media on Saturday. She said that the sailors were captured by the Ukrainians in the Azov Sea port of Mariupol on February 24, the day Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine. The ship could not leave the port due to naval mines, she added. Moskalkova said the sailors had their cell phones and other belongings seized and had not been properly fed in captivity. Moscow attacked Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state. Russia has s...

Naval forces of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have intercepted a foreign ship carrying smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf. The arrest of the unnamed vessel was announced by the chief justice of Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, Mojtaba Ghahremani, on Saturday. “Naval forces have seized a foreign vessel carrying smuggled fuel in Persian Gulf waters,” Ghahremani said, according to local media. “Over 220,000 liters of smuggled fuel were seized, and 11 foreign crew members were detained for investigation.” The official did not provide any further details on the vessel, its origins or the nationality of the detained sailors. The intercepted vessel was set to meet with an Iranian boat “carrying 20,000 liters of smuggled diesel” to refuel the larger ship, according to Ghahremani. The smaller boat was intercepted in Iran’s territorial waters and its three crew members were arrested. Iran has repeatedly intercepted fuel tankers suspected of fuel smuggling in the Persian ...

A complete cessation of Russian gas supplies could damage Germany’s energy-intensive enterprises, especially glassmakers, German TV channel Das Erste reported, citing industry insiders. According to the publication, producing glass involves the raw materials at glass-producing factories being heated to 1,600 degrees Celsius, and then maintained at this temperature around the clock to prevent the raw glass from hardening. The process demands a significant amount of energy, a large amount of which is derived from Russian-sourced natural gas. Germany is in fact the EU’s biggest buyer of natural gas from Russia, which covers 58.9% of the country’s needs, according to the statistics agency Eurostat. Recession bell tolls for Europe’s top economyREAD MORE: Recession bell tolls for Europe’s top economy However, after the EU placed heavy sanctions on Russia in retaliation for its military operation in Ukraine, these imports are now in jeopardy. Russia, meanwhile, has replied by demanding th...

North Korean state media issued a scathing condemnation of US President Joe Biden on Saturday, decrying his “senility” and diagnosing a “problem in his intellectual faculty.” US sanctions on Russia will backfire, the article by the official KCNA news agency claimed, with Washington being the “final loser” on the world stage. By accusing Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, the US is attempting to defame Russia and “achieve the collapse of its regime,” the article read. “This reminds one of ‘a guilty party filing the suit first’,” it continued, before accusing the US of the “merciless” killing of “millions of innocent civilians” in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yugoslavia. Recently, Kiev and its Western backers floated ‘war crimes’ accusations against Russia, when they accused its troops of having killed scores of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Moscow has vehemently denied the allegations, claiming instead that the evidence was manipulated by Ukraine as part of a propaganda campaign. ...

The German military can no longer supply Ukraine with weapons from its stockpiles, Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has said. In an interview with Die Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung published on Saturday, Lambrecht said that while “we all have an obligation to support Ukraine in its courageous fight,” in terms of “supplies from the Bundeswehr’s stockpiles” Germany has “in the meantime reached a limit.” She explained that the German military had to “be able to ensure” the country’s own defense. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do more for Ukraine,” Lambrecht stressed, suggesting that Kiev could buy equipment it needed from German manufacturers directly. The m inister pointed out that the German government “was constantly coordinating” with the authorities in Kiev to facilitate such purchases. When asked exactly what kind of weaponry was being considered for delivery to Ukraine, Lambrecht refused to go into detail, adding that “there are good reasons why we have classified...

Former US President Bill Clinton says he told the Russian leadership that Moscow could one day join NATO. Clinton said he brought this point before the late Boris Yeltsin, who governed Russia between 1991 and 1999, and then before President Vladimir Putin. “We left the door open for Russia’s eventual membership in NATO, something I made clear to Yeltsin and later confirmed to his successor, Vladimir Putin,” the former US president wrote in an op-ed published in The Atlantic on Thursday. In late February, Putin recalled the conversation he had with Clinton about NATO in 2000, but his account painted a different picture. According to the Russian president, he asked Clinton how the US would respond if Russia joined NATO, and Putin described Clinton’s reaction as “rather restrained.” In an interview with the BBC in 2000, Putin refused to rule out Russia’s potential membership, but only “as an equal partner.” In his op-ed, Clinton defended the bloc’s expansion eastward after the breaku...

The US intelligence community has long claimed that integrity in the search for truth was its core value. In March 1992, Robert Gates, who at that time was serving as director of Central Intelligence, addressed the CIA’s analytical community on the issue of politicized intelligence. “Bourne Cockran [note: an Irish-American politician known for his oratory skills who mentored Winston Churchill],” Gates noted, “wrote to Winston Churchill in 1895 that, ‘What the people really want to hear is the truth – it is the exciting thing – speak the simple truth. Twenty years later, Churchill himself wrote, ‘The truth is incontrovertible; panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may destroy it, but there it is.’ Truth, insofar as we can determine it, is what our [i.e., the CIA’s] work is all about.” Moreover, Gates pointed out, “because seeking truth is what we [the CIA] are all about as an institution, as professionals, and as individuals, the possibility – even the perception – tha...

Russian banks saw a sharp increase in the number of Chinese yuan accounts last month, a survey by financial daily Kommersant has found. According to the publication, Russian citizens were actively converting their forex savings to the Chinese currency, while the number of new accounts denominated in yuan also grew significantly. At Tinkoff Bank, for instance, the volume of funds held in yuan has surged eight times. MTS Bank reported a four-fold increase, as did the Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development, while Bank Saint Petersburg saw a 3.5-fold rise. Tinkoff Bank also reported that many wholesale companies were switching to settlement in yuan, whereas previously they considered US dollar settlements to be easier and faster. According to the bank’s data, the share of business settlements in yuan has grown from 15-25% last year to 25-30% now. The transactions involve firms trading in goods such as spare parts, peripheral equipment, textiles and food products, MTS Bank stated,...

Red Star Belgrade fans demonstrated support for Russia by holding up an anti-Nato and EU banner during a Euroleague basketball match on Friday. A pocket of the Serbian outfit's supporters responded to an incident during a postponed match against Lithuanian team Zalgiris on April 3. Before the 103-98 loss for visiting Red Star, their starting five players were booed for refusing to hold a Ukrainian flag banner that had a 'Stop War' message printed on it. Last night, during their home game against Andalou Efes, Red Star fans reacted to the treatment by holding up their own banner with a crossed-out Nato symbol on an EU flag backdrop. Throughout the 93-85 win for the hosts, they also reportedly chanted "Serbia-Russia". Red Star are yet to comment on the incident but said after the attention brought to the Zalgiris game that they wished to "prevent any speculation and politicization of the players' gesture". "In our official communication...

On April 2, Lithuania became the first EU country to declare that it was completely abandoning Russian gas. The announcement was made amidst Moscow's ongoing military assault in Ukraine and came after the Kremlin announced a new payment procedure for countries deemed “unfriendly." Under the new rules, importers from the EU will have to open a ruble account in Gazprombank, and lodge payments there. Moscow says the measure is needed because it can no longer trust the euro and dollar, due to sanctions. At the same time, there is no unified position in the European Union on whether it is realistic to impose a full embargo on Russian gas imports that would cover all countries of the bloc. Poland claims it's ready to follow Lithuania’s path. Its government representative on strategic energy and infrastructure issues, Peter Naimsky, has already announced that Warsaw will stop buying gas from Russia after 2022. However, landlocked Slovakia and the Czech Republic are apparent...

The Bank of Russia is lifting temporary capital control measures that banned individuals from buying foreign currency, the central bank said in a statement on its website on Friday. Starting April 18, Russian citizens will once again be allowed to buy foreign currency at banks, as well as withdraw funds from their foreign currency accounts in both US dollars and euros up to $10,000 or its equivalent in euros, while amounts above this limit can be withdrawn in rubles. This limit is in place until September 9. The central bank noted that banks are only allowed to sell foreign currency banknotes that they received after April 9, 2022. The regulator also scrapped the previously introduced 12% commission for buying hard currency through brokerages. Last month, Russia placed restrictions on buying and withdrawing foreign currency to stem the drop in the ruble, which slid to historic lows after a number of Western nations slapped Russia with sanctions in retaliation for Moscow’s military ...

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Saturday that Ukraine will use the bodies of captured Russian soldiers to manipulate Western reporters in Irpin, a town near Kiev. Ukraine previously accused Moscow of killing hundreds of civilians in the area around the capital, which Russia denies. Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said Kiev is “preparing another provocation with the goal of accusing Russia of mass killings of civilians.” Konashenkov claimed that Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officials are planning to take the bodies of people who “died from Ukrainian artillery” from a morgue to the basement of one of the buildings on the eastern outskirts of Irpin. “The SBU will then stage the ‘neutralization’ of a ‘Russian reconnaissance unit’ at the Pushcha-Vodytsia forest, which will [according to Kiev] arrive in Irpin to ‘kill the witnesses of Russia’s war crimes.’” The spokesman claimed that the Ukrainian forces will present the “bodies of captured Russian...

A new report by British asset manager Janus Henderson said that global sovereign debt is expected to surge by 9.5% this year to a record $71.6 trillion. The increase in debt will primarily be driven by the United States, Japan and China. According to the research published on Wednesday, governments across the world have ramped up borrowing since the Covid-19 pandemic as they try to shield their economies from the fallout. China’s debt rose the fastest and by the most in cash terms, up a fifth or by $650 billion last year, Janus data shows. Among the large, developed economies, Germany saw the biggest increase in percentage terms, with its debt skyrocketing by 15%, almost twice the average global pace. The research reveals that global government debt has tripled in the past two decades but a mitigating factor was low debt servicing costs. However, these costs are now set to rise sharply, climbing around 14.5% in 2022 on a constant-currency basis to $1.16 trillion. “The biggest impa...

Western countries, by “pumping” weapons into Ukraine, risk leading the US and Russia “onto the path of direct military confrontation,” Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said earlier this week. Since the launch of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, NATO countries and their allies have refrained from direct military involvement in the conflict, but have been actively providing Kiev with weapons and ammunition. By doing so, the ambassador said in an interview with Newsweek, Western states are “directly involved in the current events” and are inciting “further bloodshed.” Antonov called these actions “dangerous” and “provocative.” “They can lead the US and the Russian Federation onto the path of direct military confrontation. Any supply of weapons and military equipment from the West, performed by transport convoys through the territory of Ukraine, is a legitimate military target for our Armed Forces.” Two days ago, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmitry Kuleba, urge...

The US on Friday broadened the list of export sanctions against Russia and Belarus in connection with Moscow’s operation in Ukraine. According to the list published on the website of the US Department of Commerce, Washington is banning US-made fertilizers, pipe valves, ball bearings, and hundreds of other materials and chemicals from being sold to the sanctioned countries directly. Russia and Belarus would have to apply for a special license if they wish to buy the listed goods from US suppliers, which Washington plans to deny. “This rule expands license requirements for Russia and Belarus under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to all items on the Commerce Control List (CCL),” the document reads. Similar procedures will apply to products made outside of the US but with American tools. The sanctions list is the latest addition to multiple restrictions already placed on Russia and Belarus, banning a broad range of commodities, software, and technology from being exported ...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused the West of trying to “dismember” Russia amid sweeping sanctions on Moscow over its military campaign in Ukraine. Maduro’s country has been living under major US embargoes since 2019. “They are lining up, economically, politically, and diplomatically [in the West] for a big war against Russia. From Venezuela, we denounce it,” Maduro said in a televised speech on Friday. “They want a war to dismember Russia, destroy it in pieces and end the hope of a multipolar world where we can all live.” The South American country condemned Thursday’s vote in the UN General Assembly to suspend Russia from the global organization’s Human Rights Council. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia said the move “destroys bridges” necessary for dialogue and “seriously threatens security, order and global peace.” The US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Venezuela, hitting its oil industry, among other things. Washington has openly supported Madur...

The thousands of sanctions introduced against Russia since 2014 over the crisis in Ukraine by the United States and its allies have put the country at the top of the most targeted nations list. Russia has officially become the most sanctioned country in the world, surpassing Iran, Syria and North Korea. The penalties include punishments against individuals, companies, confiscation of assets, and even the freezing of the country’s foreign currency reserves. So, which are the most-sanctioned nations? Let’s take a look. Russia Moscow says it is now subject to more than 6,000 different targeted restrictions. That is more than Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar and Cuba combined. European nations, historically more wary of imposing sanctions, have led the way, even surpassing the US in some cases. Russia is now the single largest target of global sanctions, according to some economists. The crippling economic measures which have targeted Iran in the last 10 years have been implemented in the course...