Majorityrights News > Category: World Affairs

This is the exchange which triggered the astonishing and graceless performance in the Oval Office this afternoon by Donald Trump and JD Vance:

Vance: For four years, the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is, maybe, engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing.

Zelenskyy: Can I ask you?

Vance: Sure, yeah.

Zelenskyy: OK. So he occupied it, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of east and Crimea. So he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years — I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now, President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. You know what the ...

Trump: 2015?

Zelenskyy: 2014.

Trump: Oh, 2014? I was not here.

Vance: That’s exactly right.

Zelenskyy: Yes, but during 2014 ‘til 2022, the situation is the same, that people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation. And we signed with him, me, like, you, president, in 2019, I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, Macron and Merkel. We signed ceasefire. Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go. But after that he broke the ceasefire. He killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?

Vance: I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.

Zelenskyy: Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?

Vance: I have been to ...

Zelenskyy: Come once.

Vance: I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know that what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems, bringing people into your military?

Zelenskyy: We have problems ...

Vance: And do you think that is respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?

From this point Trump and Vance became increasingly loud and offensive.  It was astonishing that the world’s press should witness such low and stupid behaviour from the two most powerful politicians in America.  The plain truth, of course, is that with or without a signature on a minerals agreement they have absolutely no intention of lifting a finger to dissuade Vladimir Putin from re-starting his attacks.  They are pretending that a ceasefire agreement without security is just as solid as one with security, and they know that’s simply not true.  When Zelensky exposed the deceit with his history lesson they responded with chaff about his supposed lack of gratitude for past support, and about his not wanting peace.  It was a deflection technique - and it might also have contained an element of revenge after Zelensky roasted a White House emissary sent to Kiev last week with a third completely worthless draft agreement.

The passive-aggressive demand that Zelensky apologise to Vance constituted a new and weirdly wrong-headed take on victim-blaming.  All the noise and arrogance - and mafia-like threats - had come from the American pair.  In Moscow the reborn nuclear thug Dmitry Medvedev found time to celebrate by calling Zelensky “the insolent pig”.  The Trump White House and the Kremlin deserve each other.

Another old and wise hand who understands the global contest in which the war in Ukraine is a key element.  As he says, “The question is: will the world in the 21st century be based upon force and tyranny, or not?

Andrei Illarionov, who worked as a senior policy adviser to Vladimir Putin at the start of his term, supplies his insights into the Russian dictator and the global strategy he is advancing.
Interviewer Dr Jason Jay Smart of Kyiv Post.

The American diplomat and academic Mitchell Reiss airs his views of Donald Trump’s forthcoming conversational intervention in Ukraine, indicating that Trump has a degree of realism that will disappoint the bravado-filled pro-Putin right.  Interview by Times Radio.

ATP Geopolitics explains:

So far, four large-scale ammunition storage sites have been hit in under two weeks. The first attack was on the morning of September 7.  The depot is in Soldatsky, Voronezh region, only about seventy-five miles from the Ukrainian border.  It is where North Korean-made KN-23 missiles were held.

Next, on the night of September 18 the SBU security service, GUR defence intelligence, and Special Operations Forces hit Military Unit 11777, the headquarters of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Russian Defence Ministry in Toropets, Tver region.  As many as 100 drones may have been used.  The depot is vast, and said to have held missiles for Iskander operational-tactical missile systems, Tochka-U tactical missile systems, as well as KAB aerial guided bombs, and artillery rounds.

On the night of September 21, the Defence Forces of Ukraine struck the Russian arsenal of Tikhoretsk, in the Krasnodar region.  This facility is one of the three largest ammunition storage hubs in Russia and one of the key ones in the logistics system of the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.  According to reports the arsenal had received at least 2,000 tons of ammunition, including from North Korea. The Podliot radar station, which detected air targets in the direction of the arsenal, was also attacked.

The same night the 23rd Arsenal of the Main Artillery Department of the Ministry of Defence, again in the Tver region.  This was another warehouse where the Iskander and Tochka-U ballistic missiles were located. It is about 15 km from Toropets.

All four were major hits.  There are claims from the front in Donetsk that Russian Army logistics have already been affected, and the rate of artillery fire is reducing.  Can the pressure be sustained by the Ukrainians (for example, if the Russians now have to move to a multiplicity of smaller but less secure storage sites)?  What would be the potential effect on the Russians ability to continue their current offensive war?

Alexey, a 47-year-old Russian and a teacher by profession, shares his perspective on Putin’s war in Ukraine.  Among other things, he explains why he believes Ukraine should not cede territory, and questions whether the West is really the great enemy to Russia:

“We have China right next door and it’s many times scarier.

... China’s policy is that the whole world, that is, the globe, is China.  And all those who think otherwise simply do not understand the magnitude of the imperial scheme of the Chinese and their emperor”

Video from HEADSHOT, who specialise in bringing the vox populi of that vast country to the internet.

This last week the Oklahoma legislature has joined Louisiana in passing a law prohibiting the enforcement of dictates from supranational bodies within state boundaries.  Most particularly, it nullifies the monopoly power over global health sought by the World Health Authority.

SECTION 1. NEW LAW

A new section of law to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section 6301 of Title 74, unless there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows:

A. The World Health Organization, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum shall have no jurisdiction in the State of Oklahoma. The state and its political subdivisions, including, but not limited to, counties, cities, towns, precincts, water districts, school districts, school administrative units, or quasi-public entities, shall not engage in the enforcement of, or any collaboration with the enforcement of, any requirements, instructions, mandates, recommendations, or guidance provided by the World Health Organization, the United Nations or the World Economic Forum.

B. Any mandates, recommendations, instructions, communications or guidance issued by the World Health Organization, the United Nations or the World Economic Forum shall not be used in this state as a basis for action, nor to direct, order or otherwise impose, contrary to the constitution and laws of the State of Oklahoma any requirements whatsoever, including those for masks, vaccines or
medical testing, or gather any public or private information about the state’s citizens or residents, and shall have no force or effect in the State of Oklahoma.

SECTION 2.

This act shall become effective June 1, 2024.

SECTION 3.

It being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, by reason whereof this act shall take effect and be in full force from and after its passage and approval.”

Passed the House of Representatives the 24th day of April, 2024.

In a number of countries there has been opposition to the WHO’s pandemic treaty, some governmental, some not.  All see in it a naked bid for technocratic totalitarianism in health:

■ New Zealand’s new coalition government will reserve against proposed amendments to IHR.
■ Slovakia’s prime minister announced the government will not support strengthening the WHO.
■ A comprehensive bill by a congressman is gaining traction and public support in the Philippines.
■ Two South African parliamentarians champion the WHO Withdrawal Bill and mobilise on it.
■ A Parliamentarian in the Netherlands filed a letter making a reservation due to lack of due process.
■ Eleven European Union parliamentarians are formally challenging procedural failures in IHR amendments.
■ Bill HR 79 (to defund and exit WHO) was introduced by United States Congressman Andy Biggs.
■ Parliamentarians continue advocating to reject IHR amendments and question the WHO in Japan.
■ A letter from the Australian people communicates rejection of the WHO’s proposed amendments to the IHR.

Inevitably, the British government describes itself as a leading force in the formation of the pandemic treaty.  It was a signatory to the original joint-letter proposing the treaty.  The other signatory governments were a motley group of twenty-two, namely Fiji, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Kenya, France, Germany, Greece, Korea, Chile, Costa Rica, Albania, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Netherlands, Tunisia, Senegal, Spain, Norway, Serbia, Indonesia, and Ukraine.  The Chinese and US governments did not sign but indicated strong support.

The date for agreeing the text of the new instrument is at the World Health Assembly at the UN in New York in May 2024.

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Moscow’s concert terror, as seen by one of those in the hall.

Just before the start of a performance by the popular band Piknik at the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow, as many as five armed men, said to be heavily bearded and in camouflage, entered the building and opened fire on the crowd. An expanding fire has led to the collapse of the building’s roof.  The Moscow Region Health Ministry published a list of 145 casualties of the attack.  At least forty are dead.  Nine of those hospitalized are reported to be in a critical condition.  An unknown number are still in the building.

Dmitry Medvedev has jumped in as usual, which is only to be expected:

“Terrorists understand only reciprocal terror. No trials or investigations will help if force is not answered with force, and deaths with total punishment of terrorists and repression of their families. That’s our worldly experience. If it can be established that these terrorists were from the Kyiv regime, it’s impossible to deal with them and those who have been inspired by their ideology any other way. They must all be located and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists. Including official representatives of the state that committed such an atrocity.”

Office of the President of Ukraine immediately stated: “Let’s get it on the record. Ukraine had absolutely nothing to do with these events.”  Likewise the Russian Volunteer Corps, which is fighting for Ukraine in the Belgorod region, stated that “It definitely wasn’t us, of course.”

An Islamic State group has claimed responsibility.

Earlier this month, the US embassy in Moscow issued an alert warning of a potential terror attack.  The alert advised US citizens to avoid large gatherings, including concerts.  The Kremlin duly dismissed the warning as a “provocation” designed to destabilise Russian society.