22 Jul, 2023 19:57

China overtaking US – NATO member’s PM

The balance is shifting and Washington must accept that its hegemony is about to end, Viktor Orban has said

(Is Orban sending a message to Trump? Sounds like it!.)

The world is facing the biggest power shift in decades, with the US poised to lose its leading position to China, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday.

This could result in a major conflict between Washington and Beijing unless the US accepts that it cannot be the “winner” forever, he warned.

“[China] has become a manufacturing powerhouse and is now overtaking America,”Orban said in his annual speech in the town of Baile Tusnad in Romania’s Eastern Transylvania.

In just 30 years, China has undergone the industrial revolution that took the West around three centuries, the Hungarian prime minister said, adding that America is about to say ‘goodbye’ to its status as the world’s only superpower.

Beijing is also challenging the values Washington seeks to portray as universal, Orban said. China considers American values to be a “hostile ideology,” he said, adding that “there is some truth in it.”

Such a development would certainly not sit well with Washington, which will want to remain “on top of the world” forever, Orban warned. He said attempts to challenge existing hegemony had led to major conflict on multiple occasions in human history. “There are no eternal winners and eternal losers,” he added.

A conflict between the two great powers is likely but not unavoidable, the Hungarian leader believes. The world needs to find a new balance, and the two opposing parties should recognize each other as equals, he said. Major nations have to “accept that, today, instead of American dominance, there are two suns in the sky,” Orban added.

He also painted a grim picture of Europe’s future by saying it’s about to lose its dominant position in the global economy. Orban blamed the West’s anti-Russian policies for this development. The EU is already “rich but weak,” he said, adding that it would further lose its competitive advantages as a result of its determination to impose sanctions on Russia.

The idea that Russia can be separated from the world economy through various restrictions is an “illusion,” he warned. The EU has already witnessed the results of its erroneous decisions, Orban said, adding that “others buy Russian energy instead of us, and we pay more for energy than ever before.”

According to Orban, the UK and Italy would drop out of the world’s top ten economies, and Germany would fall to 10th place, down from its current fourth position. A significant part of the European economy is still linked to Russia despite all the rhetoric about sanctions, he said.

Hungary has emerged as one of the major critics of Western policies amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Budapest has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and peace deal in Ukraine, and has criticized the EU for sending arms to Kiev. In June, Orban told the German tabloid Bild that a Ukrainian victory on the battlefield was “impossible.”Hungary has also insisted that anti-Russia sanctions are hurting Europe more than they hurt Russia.

https://www.rt.com/news/580129-china-overtaking-us-hungary-orban/

22 Jul, 2023 22:10

Moscow slams Kiev’s ‘practice of terror’ over journalist’s death

The journalist killed in the shelling and his injured colleagues were to report on the use of cluster bombs by Kiev, Russia says

Ukrainian shelling that claimed the life of a Russian journalist and left several others injuredwas not a coincidence•=, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said on Saturday. Earlier the same day, a war correspondent of Russia’s RIA Novosti, Rostislav Zhuravlev, was killed in an artillery strike== in the Zaporozhye Region.

The reporter, together with his colleagues, who also suffered injuries in the strike, was collecting information on the Ukrainian cluster bomb strikes on the settlements in the region, Zakharova explained. "The Kiev regime is continuing its practice of criminal terror," she said in a statement on Telegram.

The ministry’s spokeswoman also accused Kiev’s Western backers of tacitly condoning such actions by the Ukrainian military. Washington, London and Parisexpress their concerns over journalists’ security "in words only," she said. Moscow has "no illusions"about the potential reaction of the "relevant international bodies," the official said, adding that those are likely to "turn a blind eye to this heinous crime."

Such a position only proves these bodies’ "political bias and dysfunctionality", Zakharova said, adding that their silence eventually makes them "accomplices to the terrorist rampage of Kiev." The ministry’s spokeswoman alsovowed "inevitable and well-deserved punishment" for all those behind the killing of the Russian journalist. Those who supply the Ukrainian military with cluster bombs "will share full responsibility" for his death, she added.

Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden’s administration decided to give Kiev the controversial cluster munitions in a move that sparked some criticism even among some US NATO allies, including Canada, Germany and the UK.

https://www.rt.com/russia/580132-kiev-practice-terror-journalist-death/

23 Jul, 2023 01:33

US ‘holds firm’ on long-range missiles for Kiev – WaPo

There has been “no substantive discussion” about the issue for months, the Washington Post has reported

Despite months of constant pleas from Kiev and pressurefrom some US lawmakers, President Joe Biden’s Administration isno closer to changing its policy on supplying Ukraine with the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing unnamed defense and administration officials.

Several officials “familiar with the issue” have dismissed the growing perception of a “slow, gravitational pull” toward approvalof longer-range munitions, saying that there has been no change in US policy or even any kind of substantive discussion about it for months, the newspaper wrote.

Ukrainian officials had been mulling a major counterattack for months, claiming that it would end in the recapture of all territories lost to Russia, including Crimea. The operation finally started in early June, but has so far failed to achieve any significant gains, despite heavy losses in manpower and hardware on the Ukrainian side.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed earlier this month that Kiev had hoped to launch its military pushback much sooner, but was hampered by a lack of Western-supplied weapons. He also complained that the Russian advantage in long-range weapons seriously complicates Kiev’s counteroffensive.

“At this point, it’s very clear and understandable. We need and are waiting for decisions on ATACMS,” the head of Zelensky’s presidential staff, Andrey Yermak, reiterated at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday.

ATACMS missiles can strike targets as far as 300 kilometers (190 miles) away. Officials in the Biden administration repeatedly said the US wouldn’t send such long-range missiles to Ukraine because such a precedent could provoke a wider conflict if used to attack targets in Russian territory. However, the UK has since supplied Kiev with an unspecified number of its own Storm Shadow long-range missiles, a decision that was apparently run by Washington first.

The Pentagon’s stockpiles of ATACMS are also extremely limited, according to the paper. Lockheed Martin reportedly made only about 4,000 ATACMS since production began in the 1980s, with at least 900 sold to allies and many more used by the US Army in the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

https://www.rt.com/news/580135-ukraine-atacms-substantive-discussion/

23 Jul, 2023 01:03

Twitter announces new restrictions

Unverified users will have a daily limit on sending DMs

The tech giant has claimed that the measure is being introduced in order to cut down on spam, while encouraging users to sign up for TwitterBlue to get unrestricted access to the messaging service.

“We'll soon be implementing some changes in our effort to reduce spam in Direct Messages. Unverified accounts will have daily limits on the number of DMs they can send. Subscribe today to send more messages,” read the message from Twitter Support.

Many users took to Twitter to criticize the move arguing that the restrictions make no sense and are just yet another attempt to make more profit from Twitter Blue, by pushing users to pay for a blue checkmark.

Earlier this month, Twitter “temporarily” limited unverified accounts to reading 800 posts per day, and new unverified accounts to 400 per day, while verified users were allowed to view up to 8,000 posts per day. The company said it was done to cut down on “extreme levels of data scraping”

The Twitter Support, however, argues that their anti-spam measures have been successful so far. The option to limit the Direct Messaging inbox to only verified users that was put in effect last week, has allegedly helped to reduce spam by 70%.

Twitter has been undergoing a major overhaul since being taken over by Elon Musk in October last year. One of the first moves was to introduce an $8 charge for the blue checkmark to make the network less reliant on ads.

“Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month,” tweeted Musk at the time.

(He shouldn’t lie about going bankrupt!)

https://www.rt.com/news/580134-twitter-direct-message-limits/

IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler told CNN's Jake Tapper that the Justice Department hindered the Hunter Biden probe

12:27 minutes

IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler told CNN's Jake Tapper that the Justice Department hindered the Hunter Biden probe by blocking felony charges, search warrants, and interviews with the Biden family.

Another IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley, also testified about the Justice Department preventing them from charging Hunter Biden with felonies, rejecting search warrants, and restricting witness interviews.

Both whistleblowers were denied access to Hunter Biden's laptop and the FBI report alleging bribery allegations.

Their testimonies were corroborated by an FBI agent in the Delaware office.

Furthermore, the Justice Department's indictment of President Biden's leading political rival highlights the concerning reality of a politicized and weaponized judicial system.

Americans should not have to accept two tiers of justice in this country – one for individuals with the last name Biden and another for everyone else.

(This is big since CNN and Tapper are interviewing him.)

https://rumble.com/embed/v2z3dey/?pub=4