TYB
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/china-restructures-ecuador-debt-amidst-countrys-economic-cha
China restructures Ecuador debt amidst country's economic challenges
The government of Ecuador announced on Monday that it has reached a deal with China to restructure debts.
The new agreements with Chinese Banks will provide Ecuador with a $1.4 billion debt relief till 2025.
Last February, President Guillermo Lasso announced plans to restructure the country's debt as it faces the economic fall-out of the Covid period and challenges in the current world economy.
The agreements would allow Ecuador to reduce the amortization and extend the maturity on a $1.4 billion loan from the China Development Bank while extending the maturity of a loan worth $1.8 billion to the Export-Import Bank of China (Eximbank) as well as suspending all amortizations and reducing some interest rates for a six-months grace period.
In a statement, the President's press team said, "As a result of these agreements, the maturities are extended to 2027 for China Development Bank and 2032 for Eximbank, allowing the cash-flow relief to support government priorities."
Oil contracts were also revisited, as state-owned company Petroecuador announced last week reaching a deal with Chinese Oil Company CNPC to extend oil deliveries from 2024 until 2027, which would allow Ecuador to sell certain amounts to the market, and given current high oil prices, Petroecuador stated that this deal will bring in around $709 million in revenue through 2027.
Ecuador's economy is heavily reliant on oil earnings, with exports accounting for 65% of total output in the first four months of 2022.
President Lasso said that the agreements are expected to save the country $1 billion.
It's noteworthy that in the past few months, tens of thousands of protesters took part in a statewide demonstration against mounting hardship in the economy.
The powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) - which represents more than one million of Ecuador's 17.7 million inhabitants - called for the protests to demand cheaper fuel and food price controls that were joined by students, workers, and others.
Protesters called for a reduction in already subsidized gasoline costs, which have risen substantially in recent months, as well as jobs, price restrictions on food, and increased government investment in healthcare and education.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/zelensky-nato-explain-how-ukraine-could-become-a-big-israel
Zelensky, NATO explain how Ukraine could become a 'big Israel'
The Atlantic Council, a NATO-backed think tank, is openly proposing that Ukraine embody a more enhanced version of the Israeli political model, based on hyper-militarization, intelligence superiority, and technological innovation.
In other words, Ukraine is crystallizing into its most fascist form, a blow to the so-called claims of “democracy” that NATO and Western powers are marketing.
The paper, titled "Zelenskyy wants Ukraine to be ‘a big Israel.’ Here’s a road map.," was published in early April, and is written by Daniel Shapiro, former US ambassador to “Israel,” who has worked for Israeli intelligence and enjoys close ties with Israeli think tanks. Shapiro is currently an Israeli spy-tech consultant.
This suggestion was not born from a vacuum. Within the same timeframe, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky divulged to reporters that in the future, he’d like Ukraine to be “a big Israel,” after which NATO released the article which roughly explains how the model could be executed.
Zelensky articulated that Ukraine would never be like Switzerland (as of February 24), which has remained neutral when it came to regional conflicts. Rather, he said: “we will definitely become a ‘big Israel’ with its own face.”
The Jewish president, who paid no heed to his neo-Nazi battalions (quite ironically), went on to explain what a “big Israel” would look like:
“We will not be surprised that we will have representatives of the Armed Forces or the National Guard in all institutions, supermarkets, cinemas — there will be people with weapons,” Ukraine’s president said, predicting a bleak existence for his citizens. “I am sure that our security issue will be number one in the next ten years.”
The future of Ukraine, according to Zelensky, will not be “absolutely liberal, European.”
Shapiro explained that the “two embattled countries share more than you might think.” The vision to create a ‘big Israel’ out of Ukraine, according to the former ambassador, would be to militarize Ukraine so much to push US interest in Eastern Europe against its rival, Russia.
Although in 2018, 40 human rights activists petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to stop arming Ukraine after Azov Battalion members were caught brandishing Israeli-made weapons, the military entity has been sending mercenaries to Ukraine and providing weapons since February.
Zelensky has cried anti-Semitism in recent months, citing that “Putin’s war” is a war on Ukrainian Jews, although they make up less than 0.5% of the population. However, the Ukrainian president seems very much unfazed by the openly Nazi battalions in this country. Perhaps the two do, indeed, have very much in common.
The ground-breaking model
The proposed model, first and foremost, suggested increasing security – in other words, ramping up surveillance and intelligence – in Ukraine. He explains that the basis for security in “Israel” is that the entirety of the population participates.
“Civilians recognize their responsibility to follow security protocols and contribute to the cause,” Shapiro wrote of Israeli settlers. “Some even arm themselves (though under strict supervision) to do so. The widespread mobilization of Ukrainian society in collective defense suggests that the country has this potential.”
To draw the parallel, this idea aligns with Zelenksy’s vision: “People with weapons,” as the president explained, will be existent in every aspect of civilian life.
Shapiro furthermore seconded Israeli “high-tech innovation” in military and intelligence, which are highly assisted and backed by the US and citizens' taxpayer money as Washington allocates billions for the settler-colonial regime on a yearly basis.
It is striking that Zelensky undermined the role of foreign aid in cementing "Israel’s" feet in settler-colonial activities, explaining – either naively or purposely – that “Israel will defend itself, by itself—and rely on no other country to fight its battles.”
Ukraine, to become "Israel 2.0", “will need to upgrade its intelligence services”, as “Tel Aviv” “has invested deeply in its intelligence capabilities to ensure that it has the means to detect and deter its enemies—and, when needed, act proactively to strike them.”
Shapiro would know. In 2017, the former ambassador joined the Israeli spy company NSO as an independent advisor, where he assisted clients with the evaluation of Pegasus packages. The clients include multiple European Union nations and the Saudi monarchy.
Part 1
Shapiro has also worked for WestExec Advisors, which is a consulting firm founded in 2017 by current Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Before Biden’s election, Shapiro did some media work after the Democratic Party’s platform removed language opposing land annexation in the occupied West Bank in Palestine.
NATO, furthermore, would benefit greatly from a hyper-militarized Ukraine. Major weapon corporations in the US are core donors to the alliance and their bodies, including the Atlantic Council. Companies include Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon. Gregory J. Hayes, the Raytheon Chairman, is on the Atlantic Council’s international advisors board.
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin’s anti-tank Javelin missiles have been called the “symbol of Ukraine’s resistance”, with Washington providing over 8,500 missiles to Ukraine since the beginning of the war.
If Zelensky were to really make his dream come true, there will need to be behemoth-size investments into Europe’s poorest country for the working class, with hysterical weapon and surveillance tech investments… just like “Israel.”
Part 2 - End
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/israel-made-concessions-to-avoid-escalation-in-karish:-iof-o
'Israel' made concessions to avoid escalation in Karish: IOF official
"Israel has made concessions in favor of Lebanon to demarcate the border to ward off the danger of escalation," said Amos Yadlin, former IOF Military Intelligence Directorate, according to the Israeli Maariv newspaper.
"Israel is showing leniency in the demarcation of the maritime borders," he said, threatening Lebanon that the IOF does not want it to turn into Gaza.
He highlighted the prominent role played by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in this case, "which is indicative of the fact that he controls what is happening in Lebanon politically and militarily, which may push the Lebanese and the Israelis to a place that the two do not want," as he put it.
He explained that "Israel today has accepted the Lebanese line, and therefore, there is no place for Nasrallah's demands concerning the Ras Al -Naqoura area."
Referring to the area adjacent to an area the IOF usurped from the Palestinians and consequently occupied, Yadlin insolently demanded "compensation for ceding the maritime economic zone in Ras Al-Naqoura and all the region to the south Qana field."
"We insist on these points," he said, claiming that Sayyed Nasrallah "here has been trying to cause distortion."
"Let's give the Americans a few days, I'm ready to give them weeks, but no more than that," he said.
Furthermore, Yadlin claimed that Karish is "purely Israeli" and that "we have to pump gas from there," continuing to say, "The moment you concede to Nasrallah just once, you have to follow it with setting limits, because if the situation deteriorates toward an inevitable war, we know that we have done everything we can to prevent it."
Yesterday, Monday, Israeli media reported that the signing between "Israel" and Lebanon of the agreement “on the maritime borders” is very close, stressing that what remains are “some technical details.”
On Monday, Lebanese President Michel Aoun confirmed that negotiations related to the demarcation of the maritime border with "Israel" are in their final stages.
Fearing escalation, IOF request clarification on Karish statement
Last week, Israeli media said that "it was the Israeli army that requested that clarification be issued regarding [an Israeli statement regarding] the Karish field, in order not to provoke tensions against Hezbollah."
Israeli Channel 13 stated that “the fear of a confrontation with Hezbollah has increased in recent weeks regarding the Karish gas platform. Despite Israel’s announcement that the next stage regarding the activation of the platform will begin soon, it has indicated, exceptionally, that the talk is not about extracting gas from it,” commenting that “this message was drafted at the request of the security establishment.”
Channel 13 political affairs correspondent Moriah Wahlberg pointed out that "this clarification was not made in vain, but is rather aimed primarily at the ears of Hezbollah, as they in Israel do not want to create, provoke, and increase tensions, especially since these tensions already exist on this issue."
Wahlberg pointed out that “there is a disagreement in the Israeli leadership regarding the text of this statement, which was issued by the Ministry of Energy,” stressing that “some parties believed that this clarification should not be given in the matter of natural gas extraction, but parties in the army requested that this clarification be issued in order to avoid tensions with Hezbollah."
It is noteworthy that a source familiar with the matter revealed to Al Mayadeen, on September 11, that the US envoy for the demarcation of the maritime border, Amos Hochstein, handed Lebanon the coordinates of the line of maritime buoys, explaining that these coordinates constitute the "last point that is being negotiated," in preparation for sending his [Hochstein's] "full offer" next week.
Isn't it close to 8 million worldwide per year?
Dark to Light.
Everything was confiscated, not just this.
I know it was a funeral, but most were wearing black hats while Jill Biden was not wearing one.