IT'S ABOUT SOMALILAND

America Redeploys Troops To Somalia After Withdrawing Them During Trump’s Era



The United States of America has redeployed 500 troops to Somalia to help in the fight against militant Islamists.

The redeployment came after former US President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of the troops in December 2020 following years of strained relations with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s predecessor Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” who was voted out of office by Somalia’s lawmakers.

The US considered Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed “Farmajo” to be a failure both in terms of governance and the campaign against Islamist militant groups al-Shabab and the much smaller Somali branch of the Islamic State (IS) group.

The US Africa Command (Africom) said it will maintain a “small, persistent US military presence” in Somalia.

This comes as Somalis have experienced a surge of Islamist attacks since the departure of U.S. troops.

The number of al-Shabab attacks rose from 1 771 to 2 072 in the year following the US pull-out, according to The Africa Centre for Strategic Studies.

Last month, security officials said that about 450 al-Shabab fighters attacked an African Union base in southern Somalia, killing at least 40 Burundian soldiers.

United Nations experts have described al-Shabab as al-Qaeda’s most powerful and wealthy affiliate. They estimate it has as many as 12 000 fighters and the ability to raise a monthly revenue of about $10m (£8m).

A previous campaign of US air strikes disrupted the group’s activities, preventing senior militants from moving around and making it more difficult for al-Shabab infantry to carry out big attacks.

Some are sceptical about the return of the US military, highlighting that ordinary people have become victims of US drone attacks.

The UAE, Qatar, the UK, the European Union, Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti and others have also been involved.

This has led to a lack of coordination within the security forces. In some cases, troops trained by a particular country become aligned with a particular political group.

In April 2021, fierce fighting erupted between different factions of the security forces in Mogadishu sparking fears of a return to the catastrophic civil war of the 1990s.

Rumour is rife in Somaliland that America is planning to build a military base in Berbera.

There are plenty of reasons for the US to be interested in Somaliland, a territory that is in a highly strategic location, according to The Star.

i). Its 800km (500-mile) coastline stretches along one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

ii). Its neighbour, Djibouti, is “full” offoreign military bases, including Chinese and American ones.


iii). Berbera offers an attractive alternative as it is close to some of the world’s most unstable places, including Yemen, Somalia and Ethiopia, which has been a key US ally in the “War on Terror”.

Meanwhile, Somalia regards Somaliland as an integral part of Somalia which means the U.S. has to be cautious.

Planning Mass Protest at UK Parliament, Extinction Rebellion Halts Disruptive Tactics

The group's U.K. arm announced a New Year's resolution: leaving "the locks, glue, and paint behind" to organize a demonstration of 100,000 people and pressure the government to take climate action.

A demonstrator holds a sign during an Extinction Rebellion action in Melbourne, Australia.
(Photo: julian meehan/flickr/cc)

JULIA CONLEY
Jan 02, 2023

In preparation for a nonviolent mass direct action planned for April that Extinction Rebellion says will be "impossible" for policymakers to ignore, the global climate movement's United Kingdom arm on Sunday announced a resolution for the new year: temporarily ending its headline-grabbing, disruptive tactics including gluing protesters to government buildings and rush-hour trains and blocking traffic to draw attention to the climate crisis.

The U.K. group will no longer use "public disruption as a primary tactic," saying in a statement that "what's needed now most is to disrupt the abuse of power and imbalance, to bring about a transition to a fair society that works together to end the fossil fuel era."

"In a time when speaking out and taking action are criminalized, building collective power, strengthening in number, and thriving through bridge-building is a radical act."

"This year, we prioritize attendance over arrest and relationships over roadblocks, as we stand together and become impossible to ignore," Extinction Rebellion U.K. (XRUK) said.

The group announced the shift away from public disruption as it prepared for a mass protest called "The Big One," in which it's planning to mobilize 100,000 people to surround the Houses of Parliament in London on April 21 and demand climate action and an end to the government's support of the fossil fuel industry.

Instead of orchestrating actions in which demonstrators disrupt daily life, the group said, XRUK is urging supporters to spend the 100 days leading up to The Big One "holding millions of conversations with friends, family, colleagues, and strangers" to spread the word about the action as organizers work to partner with other environmental campaigns.

"A powerful targeted marketing campaign across all channels will reach new audiences with an accessible, inclusive, and easy-to-understand invitation while simultaneously bringing in funds," said XRUK.

The group's shift away from disruptive tactics follows the introduction of new protest restrictions in the U.K. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act made it an offense to "intentionally or recklessly [cause] public nuisance" and allowed police chiefs to impose start and finish times for demonstrations and set noise limits. A new bill proposed in October by the Conservative government would make "interference with key national infrastructure" punishable by imprisonment.

"In a time when speaking out and taking action are criminalized, building collective power, strengthening in number, and thriving through bridge-building is a radical act," said the organization.

While XRUK is targeting dialogue between communities and direct nonviolent pressure on policymakers—choosing 100,000 people for the April 21 protest because that is the number of signatories needed for a petition to force Parliament to address a demand—groups such as Just Stop Oil have recently drawn attention to their disruptive tactics, vandalizing works of art such as Vincent Van Gogh's "Flowers" at London's National Gallery.

XRUK argued in its statement Sunday that widespread anger in the U.K. over the cost of living makes it all the more likely that members of the public will be open to assembling at Parliament to voice their discontent with a government that is continuing to issue oil and gas licenses in the North Sea and subsidize fossil fuel companies, despite dire warnings about continued oil and gas extraction.

"This is a moment of huge potential," said XRUK. "Word on the streets is that the cost-of-living crisis is the price of climate inaction. The government's unlawful plans have never been so transparently flawed and widely understood... Worsening climate conditions are already impacting global food supplies and that will only further exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis, meaning that change is not only necessary, it is inevitable."

By leaving "the locks, glue, and paint behind" and assembling in large numbers at Parliament Square for as long as they are able, supporters of the protest "will create a positive, irreversible, societal tipping point," XRUK added.

"Recent history is full of examples of the power of people power—of your power. Here are just a few:Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, Manila, February 1986;Wenceslas Square, Prague, November 1989;Maidan Square, Kyiv, November 2004," said the group. "All that's missing from the list is Parliament Square, London, April 2023."

New York City nurses, hospitals resume contract talks as possible strike looms

By —Associated Press

Health Jan 2, 2023

NEW YORK (AP) — A possible strike by thousands of New York City nurses loomed Monday even as nurses at one hospital reached a tentative agreement hours before their contract was set to expire.

The pact affecting 4,000 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital awaits ratification.

WATCH: Why 15,000 nurses went on strike in Minnesota

Contract talks between nurses and seven other hospitals will resume this week to avert a strike by 12,000 other nurses as early as next Monday, Jan. 9. Their contracts expired Tuesday.

“Striking is always a last resort, but nurses say they are prepared to strike if hospital administration gives them no other option to protect their patients and their practice,” the New York State Nurses Association said in a statement over the weekend.

The union issued a 10-day notice that it intends to strike if an agreement isn’t reached. The advance notice is required by law to give hospitals to arrange for alternative staffing.

The nurses have been calling for what they described as safe staffing levels, fair wages, no cuts to their health coverage, and health and safety protections in light of the “tripledemic” of COVID-19, RSV and flu

Union nurses with the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) walk the picket line after walking out on strike outside Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital in New Rochelle, New York, U.S., December 1, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar.

They also want community benefits such as funding programs to recruit and train nurses from within the communities they serve.

The seven hospitals where the nurses could strike include Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Maimonides, BronxCare, Richmond University Medical Center, and Flushing Hospital Medical Center.

Representatives of several hospitals said Friday they remained hopeful contract agreements will be reached before a strike but said they are prepared to bring in outside workers as a precaution as they face high patient volume because of the triple health threats.

The union congratulated its members at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital on reaching a tentative agreement on what it called “a fair contract” hours before their contract expired.

The hospital said it was pleased to have reached a tentative agreement.

“With this agreement, which is still subject to ratification by the nurses, we are making a significant investment in our outstanding nursing team and ensuring that we can continue to deliver the highest level of care to our patients,” the hospital said in a statement.

Home Depot Founder ‘Worried About Capitalism’

January 2, 2023 

Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus told the Financial Times that he’s “worried about capitalism.”

Thanks to “socialism”, he says, “nobody works. Nobody gives a damn. ‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work — I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.’”

Republicans to End Unionizing Congressional Offices

January 2, 2023 

By Taegan Goddard 

“Republicans are set to end Capitol Hill’s short-lived experiment with allowing staffers to unionize,” Semafor reports.

“Last year, House Democrats voted to let congressional offices organize and collectively bargain for the first time, despite some nagging logistical questions about how it’d all work. But that measure will be revoked under that rules package the GOP is getting ready to introduce when it takes over this week; none of the offices that voted to unionize last year will be recognized in the new House.”

A PREVENTABLE INCIDENT

Three people are killed and two injured in 70ft scaffolding collapse at North Carolina construction site

Three people have died and another two were injured in a 'industrial accident' in Charlotte, North Carolina Monday morning

THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS JUST PREVENTABLE INCIDENTS

Sources at the scene said three construction workers were killed when the scaffolding they were on collapsed

The victims reportedly fell 70 feet to the ground with a wall falling on top of them
Another two were transported to a local hospital in the aftermath

NON UNION LABOR

By MELISSA KOENIG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED 2 January 2023 

Three people have died and another two are injured in a horrific 'industrial accident' in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Charlotte Fire Department officials said the 'industrial accident' unfolded at around 9am on Monday at a construction site in the 700 block of E. Morehead Street.

Sources at the scene have said that three construction workers were killed when the scaffolding they were on collapsed, and they plummeted 70 feet to the ground with a wall falling on top of them.

Another two victims were transported to a local hospital in the aftermath. Paramedics say they did not suffer serious injuries.

The accident is now being investigated by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Charlotte Fire Department officials are pictured at the scene of a construction site where three people died and another two were injured Monday morning


Dozens of first responders, as well as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department vehicles were pictured at the scene

Construction workers who remained at the scene said they were doing 'as good as we can be'

Dozens of first responders, as well as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department vehicles were pictured at the scene, as the Fire Department said it was working to secure the area.

All of the work at the site has been suspended while the incident is being investigated, and construction workers who remained on the scene told WSOC TV they were doing 'as good as we can be.'

A family reunification site has been established nearby.

Code Name Blue Wren

Author Jim Popkin joins Morning Joe to discuss 'Code Name Blue Wren,' about Ana Montes, one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history.

Jan. 2, 2023

Interview: Slavoj Zizek: 'Denazification Should Begin At Home, In Russia'

January 02, 2023 
By Vazha Tavberidze

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek

After a career in academic philosophy in the 1970s and 1980s, Slavoj Zizek began to write widely in English, publishing what many consider to be his masterpiece work, The Sublime Object Of Ideology. Once referred to as a "celebrity philosopher" by Foreign Policy magazine, Zizek is known for his chaotic delivery, stream of consciousness speech, and controversial rhetoric. Although he has previously identified as a communist, he said he would vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Zizek is currently the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for Humanities at the University of London. He spoke to Vazha Tavberidze from RFE/RL's Georgian Service.

RFE/RL: Before we talk about Ukraine and the war, I would like to ask you about Russia itself. Is Russia still an empire? Or a remnant of one? Or a country that would like to be one?

Slavoj Zizek: It's a very interesting question. I think it would like to be one, but I think, as it were, the "origin of evil" is also the way the West reacted to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. [By the way], I am totally anti-Putin. What I mean is that, in the 1990s, in the era of [Russian President Boris] Yeltsin…the implicit silent pact between Russia and the West was that Russia is formally recognized as a superpower on the condition that it doesn't really act as one. Like, we treat you as a great power, but let's face it, you are not one, and Putin then broke this rule. I also think that the way the West influenced the Russian economy in the 1990s wasn't very constructive in [the midst of the] economic decay in the Yeltsin years. Economic decay, distrust in democracy, corruption -- [all] created the conditions for Putin. But to avoid any doubt, Putin is a global catastrophe. But we [the West] are not blameless there.

RFE/RL: Where do Russian imperial ambitions end? And what do they include? Is it the Soviet Union? Is it Russia from the time of Peter the Great? Where do we draw the line and the boundaries?

Zizek: As it is with all imperial powers, they probably themselves don't have a precise plan. They just try to push it on and on and on. In the case of Ukraine, they mentioned the Russian minority, but do you remember the short war in Georgia?

RFE/RL: I am Georgian, so I have to.

Zizek: Russia took the southern part of Ossetia [in the war]. But Ossetians are not a Russian minority.… Some people claim that all this big imperial rhetoric and all this idea of a Russian third way, all these fantasies of [Kremlin-connected far-right ideologue Aleksandr] Dugin, are just rhetoric and, in reality, Russia just wants to grab some land in Ukraine. I unfortunately don't believe in this. As a kind of leftist Marxist, I think that rhetoric is never just words. Ideology is a terrible material force; don’t underestimate it…. Oh, they are just talking…[but] what they are talking about is horrible. You know that Putin in one of his speeches included not just the Baltic states, but even Finland and, with some hints, even Sweden….

In Russia, they are dangerously approaching a new version of Nazism.

What worries me also is the situation in [Bosnia-Herzegovina] and northern Kosovo. As I pointed out in some of my texts, some Serbian politicians already talk Putin's language, claiming that Kosovo should also be denazified. And now the ideology is approaching madness. Did you notice that now they don't only talk about denazification, but already about de-Satanization? Putin was proclaimed chief exorcist not only of Ukraine but basically the entire Western Europe. And here things get really worrying for me.

Did you notice during the last visit of [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskiy to Washington, but already before, a strong resistance from the extreme right, some Trump supporters, and so on…. This deep solidarity of the Western new populist right with Putin. We should never forget -- although I am against any racist Eurocentrism -- that Europe is something unique today. And I'm saying this as a leftist, my God! A vision of a corporation of states in a global emergency situation based on basic social democratic values, even if there are conservatives in power, global health care, solidarity, free education, and so on. That's why, did you notice how Europe annoys everybody today? From Latin American leftists to the American right, to Russians, to third-world fake anti-colonizers and so on….

SEE ALSO:
Mr. Zelenskiy Goes To Washington. So What Did He Get From It?

Now I will try to be as open as possible understanding the Russian view. Yes, there are some neofascist tendencies in Europe here and there. I know the situation in Ukraine very well and [neo-Nazism], it's marginal and so on. But I will draw a distinction here between fascism and Nazism. Fascism is horrible. But remember, regimes like [Italian dictator Benito] Mussolini till 1938, [Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira] Salazar, and [Spanish dictator Francisco] Franco. They were not this explosive, expensive fascism. They just tried to maintain order in their own land, while Nazism was something different. Hitler needed that war, constant tension and so on. So, I agree with the goal of denazification, but I think it should begin at home, in Russia. In Russia, they are dangerously approaching a new version of Nazism.

RFE/RL: Speaking of ideology, let me ask you this. When we talk about the imperial mindset, is it just Putin? Or is empire something ingrained in the Russian subconscious?

Zizek: It's a very interesting question. Many friends of Russia and admirers of Russian culture like to say, "Oh, this is just the present elite, Putin and so on. One shouldn't confuse this with Russian culture." I think it's always [been] more complex. One strand, one direction of Russian culture has this imperial ambition built in. For example -- and I know what I'm saying here because I think his danger is vastly underestimated but he's overestimated as a writer – [Fyodor] Dostoyevsky. Dostoevsky was, as far as I know, the first who formulated this idea of Russia as the eternal victim of Europe. Russia saved Europe from Napoleon first and so on. Well, if we may engage in some crazy retroactive speculation, I think that if Napoleon were to win, with a miracle, and control Europe, maybe it would have been a much better Europe, incidentally…. OK, [it would be] absolutism, but more enlightened absolutism, based, nonetheless, on the values of the French Revolution, freedoms and so on.

I think there is no ethnic cleansing and violence without poetry.

So, we have this idea, which was the ultimate idea of the fascist third way. This idea [where] the Far East, Asia is totalitarian, the West is individualist, and Russia, Russian Orthodoxy, is the right way in the middle…. Only a united Eurasia can save us. I think that Eurasia is the Russian term for neofascism and it can even be empirically proven. The father of all of this is, as we all know but is not emphasized enough, Ivan Ilyn, a Russian political philosopher thrown out by Lenin. Already then, in the 1920s, [when Ilyn] emigrated to Italy, then to Germany, he was sympathetic to fascism. But, very interestingly, he claimed that Western Europeans, they are already too marked by Western dynamics: industrial, individualist, even Nazism, fascism. [He thought that] only Russian Orthodoxy, with its unity of secular and spiritual power, can provide the original Russian fascism. I think that line is returning today….

RFE/RL: Russian exceptionalism?

Zizek: Yeah. But exceptionalism…in the sense that we are the exception that can provide the right balance between individualism and collectivism. This is an old fascist idea. Almost every power tries to present itself as somewhere in the middle. [According to] the idea of fascism, "we have communist totalitarianism, no private property, no freedom, and then we have Western liberalism [with] too much individualism. [But] we are in the middle, [we] fascists, [we] are the only real balanced power." I take these things very seriously….

What [is happening] today in the United States with Trumpian neoconservatives is that they are now also moving into this revolutionary phase. It will remain, I hope, a cultural civil war. But did you notice that recently Trump said in an interview that to return to true trust, democracy, [the cancellation of the] Biden election and so on, we are allowed even to violate the constitution, [to] delegitimize the entire system.

So, I think that the nightmare that I see, is a silent pact between Western alt-right neoconservatives, aggressive populists from France to England to Germany, [and] the United States and Russia. They have, they say, a vision of new sovereign state multiculturalism…. You remember when the Taliban won in Afghanistan (as the United States completed its troop withdrawal in 2021), the Taliban and China immediately made a pact, which brutally made sense: "we leave you alone to do whatever you want, terrorizing women, and so on. You leave us alone to do what we want with our own Muslims, Uyghurs, and so on." This is the new world vision, and they even call it the new decentralization, multiculturalism, which means you can cut women's clitorises, be against LGBT, whatever you want. You do it there. We do it here, whatever we want. This is the new vision of sovereign neofascist states and the whole world is at least on one level moving in this direction….

Flanked by military personnel, Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his annual New Year address to the nation at the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on-Don on December 31.

Now, I will say something to provoke our listeners. Maybe even you. I think there is no ethnic cleansing and violence without poetry. I don't dismiss all poetry. But a certain poetry was always ready to justify a nationalist, racist, totalitarian regime. Let's look at [American poet] Ezra Pound, a great modernist. [He] was in Italy working for fascism during World War II. T.S. Eliot was also on the edge, not to mention my own country, Yugoslavia. It is deeply significant that Radovan Karadzic, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, was a poet. But wait a minute, I'm not dismissing poetry. Poetry can be an authentic voice, but nonetheless, we should take now from today's experience with Russia a deeper look into the past and analyze the root of it all.

You know where I see one of the ideological roots?... Already in the late 1970s, [the KGB] clearly saw something: that Russia is losing [a] serious ideological war. That was the explosion of Western popular culture, rock music, and so on. So how to counter it?.... I remember they consciously began to build links with the Orthodox Church and Russian conservatives, which were, of course, till that point, oppressed. Because they knew that the only thing [that] could really oppose the…individualist, hedonist West was traditional Russian culture. This link, it's not just Putin and the patriarch, who is now the boss of the Russian Orthodox Church. This link has a deeper meaning. There is a pact between the darkest forces of the ex-KGB and a certain strand, again, in Russian Orthodox tradition.

RFE/RL: With all the points you have made, professor, I think the central point, the gist of the question, still remains unanswered. Because what I asked was, is it an ideology that is imposed by the Kremlin leadership? Or is it an ideology that is embraced by the nation? Because that leads us then to another question of collective guilt and the question of whose war is it that is now happening in Ukraine? Is it Russia's war or Putin's war?

Zizek: Maybe I'm even too optimistic here. I would like to find, maybe…a middle way. First, don't underestimate, even among ordinary Russians, this idea that we were a great power, with the Soviet [Union] and all that. This is a popular trend. But I nonetheless think that…Russia is deeply divided. The majority is neutral, but neutral in a cynical way. It will happen in the same [way] as with Milosevic in Serbia. He lost power, not because of his terrible politics of ethnic cleansing, but because he lost the war. If Putin will succeed, this will make him genuinely more popular. If not, then of course, he will be proclaimed a dictator who misused Russia and so on.

So, I am not ready…to blame Russian people as such, to brand them totalitarian, fascist and so on. They are somewhere in between, as most people are, but their tradition, the Orthodox Church, is, I claim, dangerous.

There are tremendous achievements of Russian culture. For example, if you ask me, the three greatest writers of the 20th century, I think they are [Irish novelist and playwright] Samuel Beckett, not [Irish writer James] Joyce -- he's pretentious, Finnegans Wake? Who wants to read that? -- [German-speaking Bohemian novelist] Franz Kafka, and [Soviet writer] Andrei Platonov. [Platonov was] a faithful communist -- he was fighting for the Red Army. But in his[novel], The Foundation Pit, they dig a big hole for a new socialist building, [and] all that remains is a hole. It's so fascinating [that] even before Stalinism, he saw the nihilistic dimension of the Bolshevik project.

So, as every culture, Russian culture is deeply divided. The struggle is going on, which is where I don't agree with my Ukrainian friends when they say let's boycott Russian culture as such, and so on and so on. Aren't we leaving them to Putin, by allowing him to present himself as the inheritor of Russian culture?…. So, Russia is in deep conflict with itself. That would be my answer…. We simply cannot say [whether] they are terrorizing the majority or [if it] has some roots also in the broad mass of people.

RFE/RL: You did say that the relationship of the Russian people with Putin will depend on whether he wins this war or not. And there's another particular interesting quote of yours. You swipe against those who advocate that the West should not support Ukraine, and they should put more pressure to negotiate -- their reasoning is that Ukraine simply cannot win a war against Russia. And then to my surprise, when you write about this, you do agree with that assessment. You say: "true, but I see this exactly as the greatness of the Ukrainian resistance. They risked the impossible, defying pragmatic calculations, and the least we owe them is full support." Now if you don't think Ukraine can win this, then how far does this assistance and support go?

Zizek: No, I wasn't precise enough there. [Ukraine] cannot win without very strong Western help. That's what I meant. My pessimistic assessment. Do you remember the beginning of the war? Although we nominally supported Ukraine, secretly, so many people from the left and the right admitted to me that the bad surprise was that Ukraine defended itself. They wanted the war to be over quickly. Because then, yeah, we will condemn Russia. After a couple of years of playing this boycott game, we will accept a new reality and so on and so on.

SEE ALSO:
Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine

I think that at the deepest subconscious level, this was the bad surprise for us -- not the attack, but the Ukrainian will to resist…. Instead of being afraid of this -- my God, will they push Russia too far? -- shouldn't we, especially the leftists, be glad of this? This is one of the few examples [of] authentic popular resistance -- they did the impossible, every leftist should be glad. And I don't get my leftist friends who nonetheless perceive Russia as some kind of successor of the Soviet Union.

RFE/RL: That was exactly the question I was going to ask you next. What's the root of this fascination with Russia, or let's call it obsession, of the leftists in the West, including very prominent thinkers like Noam Chomsky or Jeffrey Sachs. What's the root of this fascination with Russia, even Putin's Russia?

Zizek: I read a recent statement by Sahra Wagenknecht, the German leftist [parliamentary deputy] of Die Linke (The Left party), and she quite openly says: Why should we lose energy, money, and so on, putting ourselves in danger, fighting for some war far away…endangering our welfare, the welfare, as she puts it, of our working people?

So here, her idea is basically: Let Ukraine perish so that we don't have to pay higher prices for electricity or whatever. And this is pure egotism. Beneath there is still deep distrust of -- more than the United States – NATO. The dogma of the left is, whoever you are, no matter how brutal the dictatorship, if NATO is against you, there must be ultimately something not totally bad in you. NATO is the automatic opponent. And I find all this reasoning so stupid….

This is exactly the abstract pacifism that German propaganda was playing on in Europe just before World War II -- they [called] it…anti-imperialism. French, English, American imperialism tries to dominate Europe, we will provide Europe [with] autonomy, we will save Europe and so on and so on. And the paradox is that Chomsky, who proclaims himself politically an anarchist, ended up not supporting Russia. The popular term today is "understanding Russia."

And what de facto happens is…while still helping Ukraine hopefully, we are putting pressure on Ukraine, [saying] don't provoke Russia too much. What I find so sad here is that the pacifists are not even ready to admit one thing – now, the pacificists say, the front is more or less stabilized, let's push for peace negotiations, give Russia part of Ukraine. But are these pacifists aware that we arrived at this stage of relative stabilization of the front precisely because of the immense Western help in Ukraine?.... That's the paradox that they are not ready to accept, that the Western intervention [has] opened up the chance for peace. Without Western intervention helping Ukraine, [the country] would probably be occupied and then you can probably go on, to Moldova, the Baltic states, pressure on Finland and so on and so on

.

Vazha Tavberidze is a staff writer with RFE/RL's Georgian Service. As a journalist and political analyst, he has covered issues of international security, post-Soviet conflicts, and Georgia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations. His writing has been published in various Georgian and international media outlets, including The Times, The Spectator, The Daily Beast, and IWPR.

 

Virgin Islands Attorney General Loses Her Job Days After Suing JPMorgan Chase in Connection with the Jeffrey Epstein Probe

ADAM KLASFELDJan 2nd, 2023, 

Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George lost her job after suing JPMorgan Chase in connection with her Jeffrey Epstein investigation. (Photos via VI DOJ / US DOJ)

The Virgin Islands top prosecutor who reached a more than $105 million settlement with Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has lost her job days after suing JPMorgan Chase in connection with her probe.

The federal lawsuit, filed in New York, accused the bank of having “facilitated, sustained, and concealed” Epstein’s human trafficking network.

On Dec. 27, then-Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George filed a blistering and heavily redacted 30-page lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase.

“JP Morgan turned a blind eye to evidence of human trafficking over more than a decade because of Epstein’s own financial footprint, and because of the deals and clients that Epstein brought and promised to bring to the bank,” the lawsuit alleged. “These decisions were advocated and approved at the senior levels of JP Morgan, including by the former chief executive of its asset management division and investment bank, whose inappropriate relationship with Epstein should have been evident to the bank. Indeed, it was only after Epstein’s death that JP Morgan belatedly complied with federal banking regulations regarding Epstein’s accounts.”

Epstein victims, who sued anonymously in a pair of class action complaints, previously had accused JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank  of “complicity” in the sex trafficking scheme. Though Epstein died in jail before his trial, his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Days after the AG’s filing of the lawsuit — on New Year’s Eve — George was removed from her post. Local news outlets in the Virgin Islands reported that the attorney general had not informed the territory’s Gov. Albert Bryan about her impending enforcement action.

George’s office did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s email requesting comment on Monday, a federally observed holiday

The development was first reported by The Virgin Islands Consortium, citing anonymous sources. Bryan subsequently confirmed George’s termination — without providing an explanation for it — in a statement sent to multiple news outlet.

“I relieved Denise George of her duties as attorney general this weekend,” Bryan wrote in a statement sent to Law&Crime. “I thank her for her service to the people of the territory during the past four years as attorney general and wish her the best in her future endeavors.”

The governor’s spokesman declined to elaborate, telling Law&Crime: “I am not at liberty to discuss details on personnel matters.”

Bryan reportedly appointed Assistant Attorney General Carol Thomas-Jacobs to serve as acting attorney general. Thomas-Jacobs, who also did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s press inquiry, also worked on the Epstein investigation, court documents show.

George had led the office when Thomas-Jacobs signed her name to a complaint suing Epstein’s estate under the territory’s Criminally Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (CICO) enforcement action, the local equivalent of a racketeering lawsuit. That action accused the estate’s executors Darren K. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn of acting as Epstein’s “indispensable captains.”

Both denied those allegations and did not concede wrongdoing under the recent settlement, which called upon the estate to keep providing documents for the attorney general’s “ongoing investigation.”

The case that George filed against JPMorgan Chase before her departure has been marked as related to the proposed class action lawsuits filed in the same court against JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, currently pending before Senior U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. Those now-consolidated cases have been scheduled for trial in the Southern District of New York in the summer of 2023.

UK Civil servants threaten to coordinate strikes as union leader warns some workers are skipping meals

2 January 2023

Dave Penman said some junior civil servants were skipping meals due to the cost of living crisis. Picture: Getty/Alamy

By Henry Riley

Civil Servants have been skipping meals, and unable to heat their homes according to a union leader.

Dave Penman, the General Secretary of the FDA Union, which represents civil servants, has told LBC that civil servant graduates, some of whom are supporting government ministers, 'cant afford to eat, or heat'.

He added they were 'skipping meals' and 'not going out at night' because of the cost of living crisis.

The union, which is currently balloting some of its members, said that it was 'unprecedented' that 'some of the brightest and most able graduates in the country' were considering industrial action.

Mr Penman said his members were considering the action because of a 3% pay offer on top of a very low starting salary - adding that when the ballot closes on the 16th January 'we'll be considering what strike action our graduates will take', saying it was an 'embarrassment for the government'.

The Union also refused to rule out co-ordinated strike action, admitting 'of course we talk to other unions around their action, and whether co-ordination makes sense'.

Dave Penman went on to tell LBC that there were 'common themes with a lot of these disputes'. When pressed about whether this meant this meant the FDA would co-ordinate any future action, he said it 'may well be working with other unions... the responsibility for any co-ordinated action is with ministers, not the unions'.

The government said 'Unions should step back from this strike action so we can start 2023 by ending this damaging dispute.'