Turkey agrees to withdraw troops from Syria following Moscow talks

Turkish troops in northern Syria. © AFP / Omar Haj Kadour

Source: RT

The tripartite negotiations involving Ankara and Damascus were the first of their kind since the Syrian conflict began in 2011

Turkey has agreed to fully withdraw its troops from northern Syria following tripartite talks involving Moscow, Ankara and Damascus earlier this week, Syrian newspaper Al-Watan has reported.

The three countries’ defense ministers – Hulusi Akar, Ali Mahmoud Abbas and Sergey Shoigu – met in Moscow on Wednesday for the first meeting of its kind since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

According to the paper’s source in Damascus, the negotiations resulted in “Turkey’s consent to completely withdraw its troops from the Syrian territories that it occupies in the north of the country.”

Ankara and Damascus also expressed a common view that the Syrian-based Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey associates with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), “are agents of Israel and the US, and pose a grave threat to both Turkey and Syria.”

Turkey considers the separatist PKK and allied Kurdish groups to be “terrorist organizations” that threaten its national security. The Turkish military carried out airstrikes against YPG targets in northern Syria in November, with Ankara saying a ground operation in the area was also on the cards.

A special trilateral commission will be created by Russia, Turkey and Syria to ensure that the agreements reached in Moscow are honored, Al-Watan reported.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told local media on Saturday that “one shouldn’t expect that everything will be solved at once in a single meeting.”

In Moscow, Turkey “emphasized that we respect Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereign rights, and that our only goal is the fight against terrorism” including the PKK/YPG and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), he said.

Ankara and Damascus have agreed to continue talks to deepen reconciliation, Akar added. He also suggested that those negotiations could even result in a joint anti-terrorist operation involving the two countries, which would happen “if we can solve our problems related to defense and security, if we can meet our needs.

The Syrian side had earlier described the meeting in the Russian capital as “positive,” while Russia’s Defense Ministry said the talks had been conducted in a constructive manner and stressed the need for the continuation of such engagement.

Turkish defense minister speaks on Syria after Moscow talks

Turkey respects Syria's borders and does not have territorial claims on the neighboring state, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has stated. He also stressed that Ankara’s sole objective in the region is to defeat the groups it deems terrorist organizations. The comments were made following a meeting with his Syrian counterpart, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, on Wednesday in Moscow.

Akar’s press office quoted the minister as saying: “We emphasized that we respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty rights of all our neighbors, especially Syria and Iraq.” The Turkish official reiterated that Ankara seeks to “neutralize members of terrorist organizations” such as the Kurdish PKK, YPG, as well as ISIS.

Akar went on to say that the Turkish government is also aiming to “prevent further migration from Syria to Turkey.”

“Our wish is for peace, tranquility, and stability to come to the region as soon as possible,” he added.

On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu hosted a meeting between his Turkish and Syrian counterparts in the Russian capital. This was the first time Ankara’s and Damascus’ military chiefs had held official negotiations since the Syrian civil war broke out 11 years ago.

According to Syrian state media outlet SANA, both sides found the format to be “constructive” and indicated willingness to continue dialogue.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan severed diplomatic relations with Syria in 2012. However, the foreign ministers of the two nations met in October 2021, revealing that Ankara’s and Damascus’ intelligence services had resumed communications.

The latest ministerial meeting on Wednesday came shortly after Turkey revealed it had been in talks with Russia over the potential use of Syrian airspace for its military campaign against Kurdish militias in the neighboring country.

Ankara insists that Kurdish militants were behind a suicide bombing in Istanbul in mid-November, which killed six people and injured dozens more. Both the PKK and YPG deny any involvement in the attack.

Confessions by Hollande and Merkel are ‘formalization of betrayal’

 

The leaders of Russiam Ukraine, France and Germany take part in a 'Normandy Format' meeting in Paris in 2015. © Sputnik / Sergey Guneev

Source: RT

The West has proven it only cares about territory in Ukraine, not people, Konstantin Kosachev says

Thousands of people have lost their lives in eastern Ukraine since 2014 because the West treated the Minsk agreements as scrap paper, the vice speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament said on Saturday.

Senator Konstantin Kosachev was reacting to an admission by former French president Francois Hollande that the Minsk agreements were actually a ploy to buy time for the Kiev government to strengthen its military. This move should be credited for Ukraine’s “successful resilience” to Russia in the ongoing conflict with its neighbor, he added.

Hollande was echoing a statement by former German chancellor Angela Merkel, who described the Minsk accords in December as “an attempt to give Ukraine time” to build up its armed forces.

The Minsk-1 and Minsk-2 deals were signed in 2014 and 2015 following mediation by Germany, France and Russia. They were designed to put an end to fighting between Kiev and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk by giving them special status within the Ukrainian state. Kiev’s failure to implement those agreements has been cited as one of the reasons for Moscow launching its military operation on February 24.

“For the West, the territorial integrity of Ukraine is all about control over land and not about achieving social consensus. It’s about territory, not people. It’s about violence, not negotiations,” Kosachev wrote on Telegram.

This approach “directly contradicts so-called European values,” he said. The senator noted that Western attitudes towards the territorial integrity of the UK and Spain have been completely different in the face of Scotland and Catalonia’s push for independence.

“The confessions by Merkel and Hollande are a formalization of betrayal… The price of this betrayal is thousands of human lives lost over the past eight years of civil war in Ukraine. The civil war that the West didn’t stop by treating the Minsk agreements as scrap paper,” Kosachev wrote.

According to the UN estimates, more than 14,000 people were killed in Donbass between 2014 and early 2022.

The only co-author of the Minsk agreements that genuinely tried to act as a guarantor was Russia, the senator claimed. Moscow sided with the people and left the territorial issue aside for as long as “it was still possible to implement the Minsk accord,” he added.

The People’s Republic of Donetsk and Lugnask, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, joined the Russian state in autumn after holding referendums. Kiev and its Western backers have called the votes a “sham” and refused to recognize the results.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related:

[01] Hollande backs up Merkel revelation on Donbass peace
[02] Merkel confirms Ukraine peace deal was a ploy
[03] Merkel’s ‘confession’ may be grounds for tribunal – Moscow
[04] Minsk deal was used to buy time – Ukraine's Poroshenko – (June 17th, 2022)
[05] Poroshenko says Minsk agreement allowed Kiev military buildup (Aug 15th, 2015)
[06] (VIDEO) - Pacifism over!' Poroshenko presents tanks, Humvees, weaponry to Donbass forces - (Aug 22nd, 2015)
[07] Russians & Ukrainians not brothers, Ukrainian president claims (Aug 21st, 2015)

Serbian Army on standby amid Kosovo tensions – Belgrade

 

Serbian howitzers near the administrative border with Kosovo, December 26, 2022. © Serbian Defense Ministry Press Service / AP

Source: RT

The armed forces are ready to protect Serbs living in the country’s breakaway region, Defense Minister Milos Vucevic has said

Serbia has placed its army and police on high alert amid a tense standoff between Belgrade and the breakaway region of Kosovo. Officials say armed personnel are ready to intervene to defend the local Serb population.

“The president of Serbia, as the commander-in-chief, has ordered tonight that the Serbian Armed Forces be at the highest level of combat readiness, meaning the preparedness to use their armed potential,” Defense Minister Milos Vucevic told Tanjug news agency on Monday. He added that the government would ensure that “all measures are taken to protect the Serbian people in Kosovo.”

Kosovo is predominantly populated by ethnic Albanians, but has a Serb majority in its northern areas. Serbia pulled its troops from Kosovo in 1999 after NATO intervened in support of a local Albanian armed insurgency, bombing Belgrade and other Serbian cities. NATO peacekeepers have since been deployed to the region, which ultimately declared independence from Belgrade in 2008. Serbia still considers Kosovo to be part of its own territory.

Tensions have been brewing in recent months as the Kosovo authorities demanded that the Serbian community only use Kosovo-issued license plates instead of those issued by Belgrade. The situation deteriorated further this month when local Serbs erected roadblocks to protest the arrest of a former police officer accused of attacking municipal election commission offices.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has called for the barricades to be taken down.

Belgrade asked the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force to allow the deployment of Serbian military and police to Kosovo. According to UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which formalized the end of the 1999 NATO bombing campaign, Belgrade can send up to 1,000 personnel to protect the Serb-populated areas and border crossings if the request is approved by the leader of the peacekeeping force.
-------------------------

Related Links:

[01] Another Military Escalation in Europe
[02] Serbian President Vucic faces Neocon/NATO ultimatum – The Duran
[03] West Issues Ultimatum to Serbia
[04] Iconic Film Director Speaks Out on Kosovo Standoff

Twitter Files detail Covid censorship campaign

 

FILE PHOTO: - Administering the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 26, 2021 © AP / John Locher

Source: RT

The social media platform suppressed “legitimate content” on coronavirus at the behest of the White House, documents suggest [01]

The latest batch of Twitter files released by CEO Elon Musk show how the platform censored posts about Covid-19 that didn’t align with the White House’s message. Qualified doctors and epidemiologists were suppressed and banned at the direct request of the Biden administration, the documents suggest.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations pushed Twitter to moderate coronavirus-related content, journalist David Zweig reported on Monday, citing the company’s internal communications. While Trump’s team wanted to suppress rumors of shortages at grocery-stores to combat panic-buying, Biden switched focus to “misinformation” about vaccines once his team took over in January 2021.

According to files seen by Zweig, Biden’s staff directly pressured Twitter to ban “high-profile anti-vaxxer accounts,” including that of former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson [02], who has persistently claimed that the risks of vaccination outweigh the benefits.

Twitter complied and suspended Berenson in July 2021, but employees said afterwards that “the Biden team” was still “not satisfied” with the platform’s censorship efforts, and angrily demanded that it “de-platform several accounts.”

Twitter placed a warning label on the account of a Harvard epidemiologist who argued that “those with prior natural infection” do not need to be vaccinated, and flagged as “misleading” tweets that cited the Biden administration’s own data on Covid death rates. It used a combination of AI “bots” and contracted moderators in foreign countries to make these decisions.

A physician was flagged for sharing the results of a peer-reviewed study linking vaccination with cardiac arrests in young people, while another doctor was permanently suspended for referring to a published study suggesting that vaccination temporarily impairs male patients’ sperm count.

“Dissident yet legitimate content was labeled as misinformation, and the accounts of doctors and others were suspended both for tweeting opinions and demonstrably true information,” Zweig tweeted.

When former President Donald Trump urged his followers not to “be afraid of Covid” following his own recovery from the illness, Twitter’s senior moderators debated taking action against the tweet, before concluding that Trump’s “optimistic” assessment did not count as misinformation.

Since purchasing Twitter for $44 billion in October, Elon Musk has released batches of documents shedding light on the platform’s previously opaque censorship policies.

Published by several independent journalists, these document dumps have shown how Twitter suppressed [03] information damaging to Joe Biden’s election campaign, colluded [04] with the FBI to remove content the agency wanted hidden, assisted [05] the US military’s online influence campaigns, and censored [06] “anti-Ukraine narratives” on behalf of multiple US intelligence agencies.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

LINKS:

[01] The COVID Files: How Twitter Rigged the Covid Debate
[02] NYT Reporter Alex Berenson
[03] Musk’s Twitter files: What have we learned from the Hunter Biden laptop story?
[04] Twitter docs reveal FBI pressure to control speech
[05] Twitter ‘directly assisted’ Pentagon’s propaganda campaigns
[06] US spies pushed Twitter to censor ‘anti-Ukraine narratives’ – media

Medvedev outlines timeline for reconciliation with the West

 

Dmitry Medvedev © Sputnik / Ekaterina Shtukina

Source: RT

Trust has been broken for at least a generation by the US and its allies, who have cheated Russia, Dmitry Medvedev insisted

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has accused Western powers of lying, causing a rift that will remain for decades to come, and convincing Moscow that there is no sense in trying to reach an agreement with them.

Medvedev, who serves as deputy chair of the national Security Council, wrote in a keynote article on Sunday that the year 2022 has shattered illusions about the West, proving that its promises and principles cannot be taken at face value.

“Alas, there is nobody in the West we could deal with about anything for any reason,” he wrote.

Medvedev went on to say that nations that claim global leadership deceived Russia when they claimed NATO expansion in Europe posed no threat to it. They again lied when they backed a peace roadmap for Ukraine, which in reality was meant to give Kiev time to prepare for an eventual armed conflict with Russia, he added. The conflict in Ukraine is a war against Russia by a proxy, which was long in the making, Medvedev claimed.

The behavior of Washington and others this year “is the last warning to all nations: there can be no business with the Anglo-Saxon world [because] it is a thief, a swindler, a card-sharp that could do anything.”

For Russia, there will be no restoration of normal relations with the West for years or even decades to come, Medvedev predicted.

“From now on we will do without them until a new generation of sensible politicians comes to power there. We will be careful and alert. We will develop relations with the rest of the world,” he wrote.

However, Medvedev argued that the loss of Western leadership could be a net positive, considering what he called the moral bankruptcy of the US-led neo-colonial order. Elites that caused the financial meltdown of 2008 and the ongoing global crisis are unable to claim global leadership, he wrote.

“The West is incapable of offering to the world any new ideas, which would take humanity forward, solve global problems, or provide collective security,” the former president insisted.

Medvedev expects that several regional blocs will emerge in the near future, each with its own values and rules, and that Russia will have its place in the new order.
------------------------------

RELATED:

[01] Ex-Russian president issues ‘nuclear catastrophe’ warning
[02] Dmitry Medvedev - The results of 2022 changed the world order 
[03] Russia stands alone against NATO – ex-president
[04] Ex-Russian president names key reason for Ukraine conflict

Ex-Russian president issues ‘nuclear catastrophe’ warning

 

FILE PHOTO: Dmitry Medvedev visits the Avangard plant in Moscow, Russia, October 7, 2022 © Sputnik / Ekaterina Shtukina

Source: RT

The world will continue to teeter on the brink of disaster until Moscow receives the security guarantees it demands, Dmitry Medvedev believes

Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia and current deputy chair of the country's Security Council, has issued a reminder of the dangers of nuclear brinkmanship amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In a lengthy article [01] in the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, he summarized his thoughts on how the year 2022 has changed the world order forever.

“The only thing that stops our enemies today is the understanding that Russia will be guided by [the doctrine] on nuclear deterrence. And if there is a real threat, we will act,” Medvedev wrote in the article published on Sunday night. In such a grim scenario there will be nobody left to argue about whether that was “a retaliatory strike or a preventive one.”

“Therefore, the Western world is balancing between a burning desire to maximally humiliate, dismember and destroy Russia, on the one hand, and the desire to avoid a nuclear apocalypse, on the other,” he explained.

Until Russia receives the security guarantees it has demanded, the world “will continue to teeter on the brink of World War III and nuclear catastrophe,” Medvedev wrote, noting that Moscow is doing “everything we can to prevent it.”

Is the West ready, through Kiev proxies, to unleash a full-fledged war against us, including a nuclear war?

Russia presented a list of security proposals to the US and NATO last December, including urging the West to impose a ban on Ukraine entering the military bloc, while insisting that NATO should retreat to its borders of 1997.

After the US and NATO flatly refused, saying they would only be interested in limited strategic arms control talks, it became obvious that Moscow had “no one to talk and nothing to negotiate about” Medvedev argued.

And when in February “Ukrainian junkies announced their desire to revive their nuclear arsenal [02],” Moscow had no other choice but to act, he claimed.

“Our world has changed, forever. And the main question remains… what kind of future begins today?” he wrote.

“New disarmament agreements are currently unrealistic and unnecessary,” Medvedev reiterated. “The sooner the guarantees of maximum security that suit our country are received, the sooner the situation will normalize.”

Earlier this month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov [03] said that Moscow is willing to discuss the subject of security guarantees again, if the West is serious about it, but until then, Russia will continue to respond appropriately to any further NATO expansion. Since the conflict in Ukraine erupted in February, the bloc has moved to welcome Sweden and Finland into its ranks, though the expansion has yet to be finalized.
-----------------------------------------------------
LINKS:

[01] Dmitry Medvedev - The results of 2022 changed the world order 
[02] Ukraine makes nuclear status threat
[03] Russia responds to Macron’s security guarantees offer

RELATED:

[01] Russia stands alone against NATO – ex-president
[02] Ex-Russian president names key reason for Ukraine conflict

Only one nation benefits from sanctions on Russia – minister

 

Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov © Sputnik / Dmitry Astakhov

Source: RT

The US has capitalized on the restrictions, selling LNG to Europe at lucrative prices, the Russian Finance Minister said

The sanctions the West has slapped on Russia over the Ukraine conflict are taking a heavy toll on the European economy, while the United States is the only actor profiting from the restrictions, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Saturday.

Speaking to Asharq News daily, the minister claimed that Western sanctions had helped the Americans achieve what they wanted, saying “their supplies of oil and gas to the European market have increased.”

Energy shipments from the US, however, have proved costly for Europeans, resulting in skyrocketing inflation and decreased competitive power for European businesses, Siluanov said.

According to the minister, both Western sanctions and the blasts that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in late September “were orchestrated to provide Europe with more expensive liquefied [natural] gas from America.”

“America benefits, Europe loses,” he explained.

Moscow has called the sabotage a terrorist attack, claiming that the US stood to benefit the most from the explosions. While Washington has denied any involvement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the incident as a “tremendous opportunity” for Europe to wean itself off of Russian energy.

Siluanov went on to admit that sanctions have affected the Russian economy. “But they inflicted on the West no less, and perhaps even more pain,” he added, pointing to how sanctions rhetoric has now become routine.

The minister noted that the EU price cap on Russian oil “will certainly lead to price and market distortions,” reiterating Moscow’s position that it would not provide crude under contracts under Western-mandated restrictions.

Russian oil companies are rerouting their oil shipments from the West in other directions, the minister said. “We will be looking for new markets, looking for new logistics. It is possible that this would be more expensive,” he stated.

Earlier this month, the EU, G7 countries and Australia introduced a price limit on Russian seaborne oil, set at $60 per barrel. The measure also prohibits Western companies from providing insurance and other services to shipments of Russian crude, unless the cargo is purchased at or below the indicated price.

Following the move, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov warned that the restrictions would wreak havoc on global oil markets, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was not planning to sell oil to nations supporting the price cap.

Russia explains potential oil output cut

Moscow’s Finance Minister has said it may redirect supplies due to the EU price cap, even as costs rise

Russia will halt oil supplies to nations that impose a price cap on its crude exports, the country’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, said on Sunday. He also admitted the possibility of cuts to production.

The minister said that Russia would seek new markets and logistics solutions even if they are more expensive.

“We won't sell oil under contracts that will specify price limits offered by Western countries. This is out of the question,” Siluanov said in an interview with Saudi media outlet Asharq News.

“How will this affect the economy, the country's budget, and the volume of production? Yes, we will have to limit production somewhere,” the minister added.

A $60 per barrel ceiling on Russian seaborne crude, imposed by the G7 and EU, came into force on December 5. That measure, along with a ban on EU imports of seaborne Russian flows, is aimed at slashing Moscow’s energy revenues. Russian oil cargoes that are traded above the threshold cannot access key services provided by Western companies, including insurance.

Siluanov characterized the decision to set a price ceiling for Russian seaborne oil as the “dictatorship of a consumer.” He also said that, in theory, the nations backing the step could introduce similar price caps for other producers as well, explaining that Russia could not agree to such policies.

The minister additionally pledged all of Russia's budgetary obligations would be fulfilled despite price restrictions, sanctions and price fluctuations across the world's markets.

His statements echo comments made by Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak on the price-capping issue earlier this week. Novak said that Moscow wouldn’t sell crude to countries that impose a price cap, and may respond to the measure by reducing oil production by 500,000-700,000 barrels a day in early 2023.

Russia is the world’s third largest oil producer and the curbs would equate to roughly 5-6% of the country’s daily output.

The idea of oil production cuts was first voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 9. The Russian leader stressed that no decisions on the issue had been made as of then.

Russia has no choice but to defend its interests and people – Putin

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin © Sputnik / Russian Presidential Press Office

Source: RT

The country's opponents keep relying on the ‘divide and conquer’ principle, the president says

Russia's actions regarding the conflict in Ukraine are aimed at defending the country's interests and its people, President Vladimir Putin has stated.

“I’m convinced that we’re moving in the right direction. We’re protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. We simply have no other choice but to protect our citizens,” he told the Rossyia 1 channel on Sunday.

The Russian leader recalled that since 2014 Moscow has sought a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine. Kiev, however, directed by the West, has shown no willingness to negotiate.

“The policy of our geopolitical opponents lies at the core of it all, aimed at pulling Russia – historical Russia – apart. ‘Divide and conquer’ – that’s what they have always tried to do, and they are trying to do it now,” he said.

Meanwhile, Moscow has a different priority, as its goal is “uniting the Russian people,” Putin stressed. Russia remains eager to discuss “acceptable solutions” with all parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine, the president said. “It’s not us who reject negotiations, but them,” he added.

Putin was also asked about the planned delivery by Washington of a Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine. “Of course, we’ll wipe them out, 100%,” he responded. The US government pledged to supply Ukraine with one battery of the advanced MIM-104 Patriot long-range anti-missile system, which requires dozens of trained personnel to operate. The course usually takes months to complete.

Moscow has long decried deliveries of Western arms to Kiev, saying that they only prolong the conflict and increase the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and the US-led NATO bloc.

Putin sets out key political goal

Moscow wants to unite the Russian people, the president said

Moscow is seeking to bring together the Russian people, as opposed to the West, which has always been trying to dismantle the country, President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

Speaking to TV channel Rossiya 1, the Russian leader pointed out that, despite Moscow’s attempts to settle all emerging disputes with the West peacefully, some of its counterparts on the global stage have always had other plans.

According to Putin, the Ukraine crisis is a result of the policies of Moscow’s “geopolitical opponents” who have sought to split Russia.

“‘Divide and rule’ - they have always tried to do this, they are trying to do it now. But our goal is something else. It is to unite the Russian people,” he said.

At the same time, the president indicated that he does not believe that, amid the conflict with Kiev and a stand-off with the West, Moscow has found itself close to a red line.

“I don't think it's that dangerous. I believe that we are moving in the right direction, we are protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people,” he noted, signaling that Russia is still ready to talk about acceptable solutions “with all the participants in this process.” However, he added, “it’s they who refuse negotiations, not us.”

Earlier this week, Putin said that Moscow is facing almost all of NATO's military potential in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, adding that Russia’s “strategic opponents” have for many centuries tried to “cut down” and “break up” Russia, because they believe the country is “too big” and poses a threat.

Despite the ongoing fighting between Moscow and Kiev, he described Ukrainians as “a brotherly people.” “Everything that is happening is a tragedy. Our common tragedy. But it is not the result of our policies,” the president pointed out.

China calls US a ‘direct threat’ to the world

 

FILE PHOTO: China's defense ministry spokesman Tan Kefei © AP / Heng Sinith

Source: RT

Washington is making up excuses to preserve its “hegemony,” Beijing said

Washington intentionally hypes up the “China threat” as an excuse to boost its military spending in an effort to maintain its global dominance, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, after President Joe Biden signed the 2023 US National Defense Authorization Act into law.

“Facts have proved more than once that the US is the direct threat to the international order and the culprit of the regional turbulence,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Colonel Tan Kefei.

The statement went on to claim that in pursuit of its own interests, the US on multiple occasions “either waged wars against other countries or created conflicts, causing massive casualties and displacement of innocent civilians.”

The $858 billion US military budget for fiscal year 2023, which authorized $10 billion in security assistance and fast-tracked weapons procurement for Taiwan, is yet another in a series of provocative moves that “seriously jeopardize the peace and stability in Taiwan Straits and increase the risk of China-US military confrontation.”

The Chinese People's Liberation Army further vowed to “resolutely safeguard national reunification and territorial integrity of the country,” warning that Washington has no other choice but to “respect China’s core interests and major concerns.”

The island of Taiwan has been self-governed since 1949, but never officially declared independence from Beijing, with China viewing it as part of its territory. Tensions between Beijing and Taipei have been high since the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August.

Washington must drop its “old trick of unilateral bullying” that it plays with Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call earlier this week. “It has not worked with China in the past, nor will it work in the future.”

Chinese defense spokesperson remarks on US FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act

Source: Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China

BEIJING, Dec. 24 -- On December 24 Beijing time, the US President signed the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law, which contains a number of China-related provisions. "China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the US's move, and has lodged solemn representations with the US side," said Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, in a statement released on Saturday.

The FY 2023 NDAA involves a number of negative provisions regarding China, plays up the so-called "China Threat" in disregard of facts, interferes into China's internal affairs wantonly, and makes up excuses for expanding military expenditures and maintaining hegemony. In addition, it attempts to place a domestic act fulfilled with speculations and prejudices above the basic norms of international relations. "Such doing will not only harm the national sovereignty, security and development interests of China, but also poison the mil-to-mil relations between the two countries," said Tan.

He expressed that China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development and a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and has always taken concrete actions to safeguard the world peace, facilitate the common development and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Chinese military, which has been growing and going global, has always been a staunch force for protecting world peace and stability. This is a fact witnessed by the international community that can’t be denigrated. Quite the contrary, stuck to the idea of self-interests first, the US has either waged wars against other countries or created conflicts, causing massive casualties and displacement of innocent civilians. "Facts have proved more than once that the US is the direct threat to the international order and the culprit of the regional turbulence," he pointed out.

The settlement of the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese people and an internal affair of China. No outside interference is allowed. The US has no right to make a fuss on this question. For a certain period, the US has been constantly hollowing out and distorting the one-China principle, frequently selling arms to Taiwan, strengthening its military connection with Taiwan, and concocting Taiwan-related acts that damage China's sovereignty. These moves only seriously jeopardize the peace and stability in Taiwan Straits and increase the risk of China-US military confrontation. The Chinese People's Liberation Army will, as always, be ready to resolutely safeguard national reunification and territorial integrity of the country.

In the end, he stressed that the Chinese side urges the US to abandon its obsession with zero-sum game, adopt objective and rational recognition of China's building of its national defense and military, truly respect China’s core interests and major concerns, and work with China to implement the consensus reached by two heads of state. Only in this way, could the mil-to-mil relations between the two countries get back on track.

African gas heavyweight, Algeria hopes to join BRICS in 2023

 

FILE PHOTO. Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune © Nacerdine ZEBAR / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

Source: RT

As a member of the club that includes Russia and China, Algeria would undertake ambitious development projects, its president said

Algeria could become part of the BRICS alliance of emerging economies as soon late 2023, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has said. The North African country applied to join the group, which comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, in November.

Tebboune made the prediction while talking to national media on Thursday about his government’s plans for economic development. Alegeria will boost investments, improve human development and shift towards a more advanced export structure relying less on hydrocarbons, to qualify for BRICS membership, he said. Algeria is a major producer of natural gas and the biggest exporter of the fuel in the region.

Partnering with BRICS would help Algeria launch ambitious joint infrastructure projects, such as a transnational railroad that would improve the nation’s connection to the Sahel region, Tebboune said.

BRICS was originally “BRIC”, a term coined by economists to describe four nations with the potential to dominate the world economy in the 21st century. The said nations formed a group in the late 2000s and soon welcomed South Africa as a new member, adding “S” to the abbreviation.

Algeria formally applied to join it in November, months after Iran and Argentina did the same during the annual summit of the organization hosted by China in June. President Tebboune was among the guests of the event. Other nations that have shown an interest in becoming part of the club include Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Egypt.
----------------

Algeria's growing influence is putting it in the US crosshairs

Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune © Alain JOCARD / AFP

Source: RT - Robert Inlakesh

The energy crisis of 2022 has given Algeria a boost in wealth and political weight in the region

As Algiers continues to play a more prominent role in Middle Eastern and African affairs, will it face US pressure and even regime change attempts for its foreign policy stances that do not align with those of the West?

In September, US Congress members evoked the 2017 Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), to call for sanctions [01] to be placed upon Algeria over weapons deals with Moscow. This plea came shortly after the same argument was made by Republican Senator Marco Rubio in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken [02].

Since the days of the Cold War, the Algerian state has been outside the orbit of the West, lending its favor instead to national liberation movements and pursuing a more tailor-made foreign policy platform. This pitted it against its western neighbor, Morocco, which opted to align itself with the West. Today, tensions are boiling again between the neighboring North African leaderships over a similar alignment of sorts, especially since Morocco decided to normalize ties with Israel owing to pressure from the administration of then-US President Donald Trump. An arms race has been developing between the two nations since 2015, as both governments find themselves further tied to their East-West allegiances.

Against the backdrop of tensions with its Western-aligned North African neighbor, Algiers has emerged in 2022 as a revived regional player. As the global energy crisis continues amid the West’s standoff with Russia in Ukraine, Algeria has come off well and with more wealth. In the first five months of this year alone, Algeria’s oil and gas earnings skyrocketed by more than 70%, amounting to a total of $21.5 billion. This has given Algiers greater freedom to work on its defense [03] goals and infrastructure projects.

Algeria is making significant strides at building sustainable living and working on projects to provide more jobs to its citizens. One such project is the construction of a futuristic city called Boughezoul [04]. The city will not only house 400 new residents as part of its strategy to eliminate slums and derelict housing, but also seeks to host the Algerian space agency, a new railway station, and a new international airport. Efforts such as these, combined with the revival of military displays on the nation’s Independence Day, seem to represent a real effort to reassure the population of the government’s intentions after years of mistrust and mass demonstrations.

Along with the ongoing attempts to make the best of the new economic advantages domestically, Algiers also seems fixated on having its own impact on regional affairs. As the nation has cut off ties with neighboring Morocco, due in part to Israel’s intelligence and military influence [05], as well as the alleged Moroccan backing of Kabylie separatist groups, it now seeks to align itself with Tunisia to a greater degree.

Algeria, the third largest gas supplier to Europe, has attracted significant interest this year, becoming the top supplier now for Italy [06], as military ties also seem to deepen. In the case of Tunisia, Algeria has granted recognition to the nation’s president, Kais Saied, who relies on Algerian gas and is receiving supplies at a discounted rate. Tunis is facing an acute economic crisis and has been accused of trading its historically cordial relations with Morocco for closer ties with Algeria. The Tunisian president invited Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front – a movement that fights for the disputed territory of Western Sahara, against Morocco – to the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development [07] that was hosted in Tunisia in August. Inviting the sworn enemy of Morocco to the country triggered the subsequen withdrawal of ambassadors [08] between Tunisia and Morocco. Algeria supports the Polisario Front in its fight over Western Sahara.

For Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune, keeping Tunisia on its side is an important issue, as it fears [09] the UAE-Saudi-Egyptian bloc will assert its own dominance over Tunis’ policies. Kais Saied, who seized power in October of 2019, is clearly within the UAE’s sphere of influence, as opposed to his opponents in the Ennahda party that align with Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. Due to such a strong influence from Abu Dhabi in North Africa, Algeria is made to play a careful balancing game.

Another major issue that Algiers is now involving itself in is Palestinian reconciliation. It has hosted a number of meetings between rival parties Hamas and Fatah in order to bridge the gap and develop a stronger platform from which to argue for Palestinian statehood. The issue of achieving Palestinian statehood also played out as a central theme in the Arab League summit [10] in November, as Algeria attempted to bolster its position regionally by hosting the meeting.

Despite having to play a careful balancing act, both regionally and internationally, Algeria has emerged this year as a key player in Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. It has even held strong against its former colonizing power, France, forcing President Emmanuel Macron to change his rhetoric about Algiers and has paved the way to dropping French in the education system [11] and opting to adopt the English language instead, eroding France’s influence further.

All the moves being made by Algeria are signaling that it intends to continue along the lines of adopting policies that do not necessarily align with Western interests, sometimes coming into direct conflict with them. This is why threats from US congressmen and senators to impose sanctions on Algeria have begun to raise eyebrows. America’s ambassador to Algeria, Elizabeth Moore Aubin, has refused [12] to answer questions on hypothetically imposing sanctions, opting to focus on what her job entails, which may indicate that such decisions may not be on the immediate minds of high-ranking US officials. However, Republican party officials have certainly stirred the pot. The question now becomes how far Washington will go to punish Algeria for refusing to ditch Moscow and whether the strategy going forward may be to use Morocco against Algeria.

--------------------------------

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump's Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’.

Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47


LINKS:

[01] US Congressman Calls for Sanctions Against Algeria
[02] Rubio’s Letter Calls for Sanctions Against Algeria
[03] Algeria and Italy in Defence Talks
[04] The New Algeria is now Massive Housing and Infrastructure Projects
[05] Morocco and Israel Economic Opportunities, Military Incentives and Moral Hazards (PDF)
[06] Italy’s Draghi Visits Algeria for Gas Talks While Political Crisis Continues at Home
[07] The Tokyo International Conference on African Development
[08] Morocco Recalls Tunisia’s Ambassador Over Western Sahara
[09] Algeria Fears Tunisia Becoming an 8th Emirate of the UAE
[10] Algeria Hosts Divided Arab States Summit
[11] Algeria’s Move to English Signals Erosion of France’s Global Influence
[12] US Efforts to Impose Sanctions on Algeria Stir Debate

Elon Musk confirms major tweak for Twitter

 

A phone screen displays a photo of Elon Musk with the Twitter logo shown in the background, on October 4, 2022, in Washington, DC. © OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP

Source: RT

The current character limit will be increased significantly, the platform's CEO has indicated.

The character limit for Twitter posts will increase from 280 to 4,000, the platform's boss Elon Musk confirmed on Sunday, without providing any further details.

When asked by one user whether it is “true that Twitter is set to increase the characters from 280 to 4,000?” Musk replied, “yes.”

The billionaire has voiced similar plans before. In late November, he said the expansion of the character limit to 1,000 was on his “to-do list.” Around the same time, he described a user plea to put the threshold at 420 as “a good idea.”

The brevity of Twitter posts is considered to be one the platform’s signature features, with heated discussions raging among social media users on whether it should be changed.

At the time of its inception in 2006, Twitter’s character limit amounted only to 140 characters for one post, with another 20 reserved for the username.

In November 2017, the social media giant began allowing 280 characters per message, citing a disparity in tweet length between different languages. It also admitted that the restriction curbed users’ ability to express their thoughts.

Since Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter in late October, he has embarked on a flurry of reforms to reshape the social media platform. In recent months, the billionaire, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has unbanned several high-profile figures, including former US President Donald Trump. In late November, Twitter also rolled back its policies that sought to tackle misinformation linked to Covid-19.

More recently, Musk released the so-called ‘Twitter Files’ detailing the company’s censorship efforts. The first batch of documents showed how the social media giant made its decision to restrict the New York Post’s reporting on a trove of data from the laptop of Hunter Biden, the son of the incumbent US president.

The second release showcased concerted efforts by the platform to reduce the “visibility” of some users and limit their reach. Following the revelation, Musk promised that users would eventually be able to see their “shadowban” status.
------------------------------------------

RELATED:

[01] Twitters Secret Blacklists Exposed
[02] Twitter Reveals How it Banned Trump

[03] Twitter Files (Part 4) – The Removal of Donald Trump

[04] Twitter Files reveal blitz to contain Trump

[05] American Coup 2021

NATO chief warns Ukraine conflict could escalate

 

News Source: RT

A direct confrontation between Russia and the West in Europe could happen, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says

The Ukraine conflict could erupt into a full-fledged war between Russia and NATO, the military alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said. He also claimed that NATO has been focused on avoiding a new global conflict.

“I fear that the war in Ukraine will spiral out of control and become a major war between NATO and Russia,” Stoltenberg told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Friday, adding that “if things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong.”

“NATO’s most important task is to prevent a full-scale war in Europe, and that is something we work on every single day.”

The head of the US-led bloc however warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that NATO would defend its members. According to Article 5 of its founding treaty, an armed attack on one member state “shall be considered an attack against them all.” Stoltenberg said that Putin “knows that it’s one for all and all for one.”

After Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in late February, NATO deployed 40,000 troops to its eastern flank, nearly ten times more than a year before. Moscow, meanwhile, considers NATO military sites close to its border as a national security threat and has warned that sending heavy weapons from the West to Kiev risks a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this month that the US and NATO were already “directly involved” in the conflict by supplying Ukraine with arms and training its soldiers.

US greenlights Ukrainian attacks inside Russia – The Times

Washington now reportedly believes such strikes are less likely to trigger a direct clash between Moscow and NATO

The US has quietly given Ukraine the go-ahead to launch long-range strikes against targets inside Russian territory, The Times reported on Friday, citing sources. The Pentagon has apparently changed its stance on the matter as it has become less concerned that such attacks could escalate the conflict.

According to a US defense source interviewed by the outlet, the Pentagon is now “not saying to Kiev, ‘Don’t strike the Russians [in Russia or Crimea].’

“We can’t tell them what to do. It’s up to them how they use their weapons,” he said, adding that Washington only demands that Kiev conforms to international law and the Geneva conventions when using US-supplied weapons.

However, the Pentagon has revised the evaluation of threats linked to the Ukraine conflict, particularly on whether providing Kiev with arms might trigger a direct clash between NATO and Russia, the report says.

“We’re still using the same escalatory calculations but the fear of escalation has changed since the beginning,” a US official told the outlet, arguing that the calculus had changed due to “brutality the Ukrainians are being subjected to by the Russians.”

Against this backdrop, Pentagon officials are now reportedly “seriously” considering Ukraine’s requests for long-range weapons that could be used for strikes deep inside Russia. “Nothing is off the table,” a senior US defense official told The Times.

Earlier this month, Ukraine launched an attack on two Russian air bases in Ryazan and Saratov regions, both several hundred kilometers from Kiev-controlled territory, using a number of “Soviet-made” drones, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. The raid “fatally injured” three service members, with another four being taken to hospital.

On Tuesday, following the attack, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Washington had “neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia.”

The report comes as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba claimed on Thursday that, while Washington and Kiev agree that Ukrainian forces will not use US-supplied weapons to attack most Russian territory, this does not apply to Crimea.

In September, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned the US that, should it provide Kiev with long-range weapons, this would cross a “red line” and make America “a direct party to the conflict.”

Russia warns West about ‘consequences’ of arming Ukraine

Foreign-supplied rockets and shells are being used to strike schools and homes, Russia’s UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia says.

Western countries whose weapons are being used by Ukrainian troops to kill civilians in Donbass will face legal consequences, Russia’s envoy to the United Nations has warned.

Speaking at the UN Security Council on Friday, Vassily Nebenzia said HIMARS multiple rocket launchers and M982 Excalibur guided artillery shells were being used to indiscriminately fire on Donetsk and other cities.

“For example, the Druzhba sports arena [in Donetsk], where drinking water was being distributed to civilians, was attacked on December 4 with an Excalibur shell. The Ukrainian forces, emboldened by Western countries, are literally trying to level the city,” the Russian diplomat said.

According to Nebenzia, 22 civilians have been killed and more than 80 wounded in Donbass since November 27, and numerous homes and schools have been damaged. He added that HIMARS rockets have hit civilian sites, such as kindergartens and hotels.

“We are carefully recording all such criminal activities by the US and their allies. They will lead to concrete legal repercussions for all who are involved,” Nebenzia said.

The Pentagon announced an additional $275 million in security and military aid to Ukraine on Friday, including HIMARS rockets and 80,000 155mm artillery rounds.

Moscow has previously described deliveries of long-range and heavy weapons to Ukraine as “red lines,” warning it could lead to a direct conflict between Russia and the West. Washington and its allies insist they are not a party to the hostilities, but continue sending arms shipments to Kiev.

Twitter Reveals How it Banned Trump

 

FILE PHOTO ©  AP / Jenny Kane

Source: RT

Framework for removal of US president was set long before Capitol riot

A third series of “Twitter Files,” published on Friday evening, offered details into the platform’s decision to ban the personal account of Donald Trump while he was still the sitting US president, with more revelations promised for the weekend.

Journalist Matt Taibbi, who authored the first expose last week, began sharing the saga of Trump’s ban covering the period between October 2020 and January 6, 2021.

“We’ll show you what hasn’t been revealed: the erosion of standards within the company in months before J6, decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies,” Taibbi wrote.

The drop includes Twitter’s internal communications of clear historical importance, as the company employees recognized this was a “landmark moment in the annals of speech,” the first time they suspended a sitting head of state.

Trump was banned on January 8, after a “close review” of how his tweets were “being received and interpreted on and off Twitter,” the company said at the time. His last tweets had included a video message urging his supporters not to break the law and peacefully depart from the US Capitol, but also his claim that the 2020 election had not been legitimate, which Twitter had declared unacceptable.

The “intellectual framework” for the ban was already set up in the months before the January 6 riot at the Capitol. One internal message shows a Twitter executive saying that they need to look at the actions by Trump “over the course of the election and frankly last 4+ years.”

According to another internal message, if Trump tried to use the official POTUS or White House accounts, Twitter would “take action to limit their use” until they are “transitioned” to the new administration on January 20, but not suspend or ban them otherwise.

Another set of messages from Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth reveals he was using “generic” names in the calendar to hide the increasingly frequent meetings with federal officials ahead of the 2020 election. “DEFINITELY NOT meeting with the FBI I swear,” says one. A special channel was created on October 8, 2020 for senior executives like Roth, Vijaya Gadde and Jim Baker to coordinate election enforcement.

This “smaller, more powerful cadre” of senior executives made decisions “on the fly, often in minutes and based on guesses, gut calls, even Google searches,” while also “clearly liaising with federal enforcement and intelligence agencies about moderation of election-related content.”

According to Taibbi, Saturday’s revelations will focus on “the chaos inside Twitter on January 7,” while the “secret internal communications from the key date of January 8” will be published on Sunday.

Taibbi began disclosing the “Twitter Files” last week, with the help and endorsement of the platform’s new owner Elon Musk. The second part revealed the practice of “shadowbanning” that ended up affecting overwhelmingly conservative accounts. It was reportedly delayed by a senior lawyer at Twitter who had been “vetting” the drops without Musk’s knowledge or approval. That turned out to be Baker, former FBI general counsel whom Musk fired on Tuesday.

The White House has dismissed the revelations as a “distraction” from the real problem with the platform, which press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described as “hate speech.”


LINKS:

Matt Taibbi THREAD: The Twitter Files - THE REMOVAL OF DONALD TRUMP (Part One: October 2020-January 6th)


RELATED:

[01] American Coup 2021
[02] Twitter's ‘secret blacklists’ exposed
[03] How the 'Twitter Files' have exposed a senior FBI official’s role in manipulating the outcome of the 2020 US election
[04] Musk’s Twitter files: What have we learned from the Hunter Biden laptop story?
[05] Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter files’ make it impossible for Democrats to deny their censorship practices
[06] Elon Musk Announcement - The Twitter Files, Part Deux!!
[07] Bari Weiss – The Twitter Files (Part 2) - TWITTER’S SECRET BLACKLISTS
[08] Musk fires FBI-linked Twitter executive

Putin Talks Ukraine, Merkel and Nuclear War

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin answers questions from reporters after the Eurasian Economic Union's (EAEU) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. © Sputnik / Pavel Bednyakov

Source: RT

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with reporters after the Eurasian Economic Union summit in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek on Friday. Among the topics he addressed were the latest revelations from former German chancellor Angela Merkel, the military operation in Ukraine, the threat of nuclear war, the high-profile prisoner swap with the US, and Russian relations with the EU and Africa.

[01] Merkel’s comments vindicate Ukraine operation

Putin found German chancellor Angela Merkel’s confession – that the purpose of the Minsk agreements was to “buy time” for Ukraine – surprising and disappointing, but said it only means the decision to launch the special military operation was correct. “Their point was only to load up Ukraine with weapons and prepare it for hostilities. We see that. Honestly, we may have realized that too late, and maybe should have started all this sooner,” Putin said.

While he knew that Ukraine did not intend to implement the deal, “I thought other participants in that process were honest. Turns out they too were deceiving us,” said the Russian president.

[02] How to negotiate with “trust at zero”

The deception about Minsk now raises a “question of trust,” said Putin, noting that it is currently “almost at zero.” The real question now is whether negotiations about anything with anyone are even possible, and what would guarantee any eventual deal, he added. “In the end, there will have to be talks. We are ready for them, I have said that many times. But it does make us think, who we’re dealing with.”

[03] What he meant by Ukraine “taking a long time”

Asked about his earlier statement that the military operation might be a “long process,” Putin explained that he was actually referring to the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine. “The special military operation is proceeding apace, everything is stable, there are no questions or problems with it today,” he said. Resolving the whole situation will “probably not be easy and will take some time, but one way or another, all participants in this process will have to agree with the realities that are taking shape on the ground.”

[04] On launching a nuclear first strike

The US has long had a doctrine of a “disarming” attack against command and control systems, for which they developed cruise missiles the Soviet Union lacked, Putin said. Now Russia has hypersonic missiles that are “more modern and even more effective,” so “perhaps we should think about adopting the developments and ideas of our American partners when it comes to ensuring security.”

While the US doctrine envisions a pre-emptive nuclear strike, Russia’s doctrine is about retaliation, Putin explained. If the Russian early warning system detects a missile attack, “hundreds of our missiles will fly and it will be impossible to stop them.” While some attacking missiles will strike Russia, “nothing will remain of the enemy,” and that is how nuclear deterrence works, he explained.

[05] More swaps like Bout-Griner are possible

Russia does not consider the success of talks to trade Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout as an opening to discuss other subjects with the US. While the negotiations “created a certain atmosphere,” no other issues were brought up within their framework, Putin said.

He added that contacts between Russian and US security services “continue, and in fact never stopped,” but that this specific trade was initiated by US President Joe Biden.

“Are other exchanges possible? Yes, everything is possible. This is the result of negotiations and the search for compromise. In this case, a compromise was found,” the Russian president said.

[06] On the need for another mobilization

There are “no considerations” of another call-up, Putin said when asked if more Russians will need to take up arms in 2023. Of the 300,000 that were called up, some 150,000 have been deployed, but only 77,000 in the fighting units, while others are engaged in other duties at the moment. The remaining 150,000 troops are not yet deployed, but undergoing additional training, he explained.

“Half of those called up are a battle reserve, so why would anyone talk of an additional call-up?” Putin concluded.

[07] Answering Borrell’s Africa comment

Responding to the claim by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell that many Africans perhaps don’t know where Donbass is or who Putin may be, the Russian president said that the continent knows all too well who helped their liberation from European colonialism.

EU politicians should “stop talking about their love for the African peoples and start helping these countries,” Putin said. “If the people you spoke about knew where Africa was and what condition the peoples of Africa were in, they would not interfere with the supply of Russian food and fertilizers to the African continent, on which the harvest in African countries ultimately depends and the salvation of hundreds of thousands of people in Africa from starvation.”

Twitter's ‘secret blacklists’ exposed

Original Source: RT

A new investigation details the practice of “shadow bans,” known internally as “visibility filtering”

Twitter has created a series of barriers and tools for moderators to prevent specific tweets and topics from trending, or limit the visibility of entire accounts without users’ knowledge, according to internal correspondence and interviews with multiple high-level sources within the company.

Despite repeated public assurances by top Twitter officials that the company does not “shadow ban” users, especially not “based on political viewpoints or ideology,” the practice actually existed under the euphemism of “visibility filtering,” according to journalist Bari Weiss, who published the second installment of the so-called ‘Twitter Files’ in a lengthy thread on Thursday night.

“Think about visibility filtering as being a way for us to suppress what people see to different levels. It’s a very powerful tool,” one senior Twitter employee said, while another admitted that “normal people do not know how much we do.”

Twitter moderators have the power to add the user to categories such as “Trends Blacklist,” “Search Blacklist” and “Do Not Amplify,” to limit the scope of a particular tweet or entire account’s discoverability – all without users’ knowledge or any warning.

Weiss noted that the tools were even used to limit the reach of academics, including Stanford University’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who courted controversy after challenging the effectiveness of Covid-19 lockdowns and other pandemic mandates. He ended up on Twitter's “Trends Blacklist,” keeping his posts out of the site’s trending section, the documents show.

However, above the common moderators was another “secret group” that handled issues concerning “high follower,” “controversial” and other notable users. Known as “Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support,” the team included high-level executives such as former Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust, Vijaya Gadde, the Global Head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth and CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal.

In one notable example, the top-level moderation team was involved in decisions to repeatedly suspend the Libs of TikTok account, which routinely posted material mocking liberals and progressives, and has racked up more than 1.4 million followers. While the account was told it had violated Twitter’s policy against “hateful conduct,” an internal company memo circulated in October acknowledged that it had not “directly engaged in behavior violative of the Hateful Conduct policy” after all.

The ‘Site Integrity Policy’ group took up a new argument, instead saying the woman running the Libs of TikTok account, Chaya Raichik, “encouraged online harassment.” However, when Raichik’s personal information was exposed online, Twitter refused to take action, concluding that posts containing her home address and photos of her residence did not break any of the platform’s rules.

The release of the documents was endorsed by the company’s new CEO Elon Musk, who after taking over Twitter in October fired several top executives, including Gadde and Roth, and reversed some of Twitter’s previous decisions, such as permanently blocking former President Donald Trump’s account.

“We're just getting started on our reporting,” Weiss concluded, promising that the next installment of the Twitter Files will soon be published by journalist Matt Taibbi, who opened the series last week with revelations about a company-wide effort to suppress a damaging report about Joe Biden’s family.

Musk promises Twitter ‘shadow ban’ reform

The social media platform will soon tell users their “true account status”

Twitter owner Elon Musk has said users will eventually be able to see their “shadowban” status, after reporters published internal company documents showing that the company engaged in the practice despite years of denials under its prior management.

On the heels of the second installment of the ‘Twitter Files’ – which revealed that the platform previously engaged in concerted efforts to reduce the “visibility” of some users and limit their reach – Musk vowed to create new tools offering more transparency into their account.

“Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal,” he said on Thursday.

Published on a rolling basis by journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and others, the Twitter documents have uncovered a number of explosive revelations about the tech giant following Musk’s multi-billion buyout deal, completed in October.

While Twitter’s senior management under former CEO Jack Dorsey vehemently denied that the site engaged in ‘shadowbans’ to hide certain posts, the latest batch of files appears to show otherwise. Moderators were previously provided with a series of tools to blacklist content which did not explicitly violate Twitter’s policies, including options to prevent posts from appearing in searches, the ‘trending’ section and an overall “Do Not Amplify” feature.

The documents also indicate users were targeted for shadowbans based on their political affiliations, noting several examples of high-profile conservative accounts whose posts were hidden from a broader audience.

The first round of files, shared by Taibbi last week in coordination with Musk himself, revealed details about Twitter’s decision in 2020 to suppress the reach of a New York Post story on then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and his foreign business dealings. The call to ban the story – including in users’ direct messages – was made without the knowledge of Dorsey, who was reportedly kept out of the loop for many major decisions.

Taibbi has also posted material showing that hold-overs from Dorsey’s team have attempted to hobble the Twitter investigation, with the company’s top lawyer Jim Baker fired by Musk earlier this week after he was found to have held up the publication process without authorization. Baker previously served as the FBI’s general counsel under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and was heavily involved in allegations that Trump ‘colluded’ with Russia to win the 2020 presidential race.
-------------------------------------

Related:

[01] Elon Musk Announcement - The Twitter Files, Part Deux!!

[02] Bari Weiss – The Twitter Files (Part 2) - TWITTER’S SECRET BLACKLISTS

[03] How the 'Twitter Files' have exposed a senior FBI official’s role in manipulating the outcome of the 2020 US election

[04] Musk’s Twitter files: What have we learned from the Hunter Biden laptop story?