Author: thefreeonline

from thefreeonline on 11th Dec, 2023 by @GonzaloLira1968 and HomeRussia

A fierce critic of the Kiev and US government, tortured Gonzalo Lira is now facing trial in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov

US-Chilean journalist and filmmaker Gonzalo Lira has been in pre-trial detention in Ukraine since last summer on accusations of justifying Moscow’s military operation against Kiev. The blogger’s fate has caused concerns from none other than Elon Musk, the SpaceX, Tesla and X CEO.

‘Tortured’ US/Chilean journalist Gonzalo Lira re-arrested after attempt to flee Ukraine – The Free

In his posts on X (formerly Twitter), Musk demanded answers on the status of Lira from US President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky. He wondered how it was possible that an American citizen is in prison in Ukraine after “we sent over a $100 billion” to support the country amid the conflict with Russia. The entrepreneur also stressed that it would be a “serious problem” if it turned out that the journalist was being persecuted for “simply criticizing Zelensky.”

Who is Gonzalo Lira?

Lira is a journalist, blogger, writer, and filmmaker who has experience working in Hollywood. He’s the author of several novels in English and Spanish, including the 2002 spy thriller ‘Acrobat.’ The 55-year-old was also known online as ‘Coach Red Pill,’ offering lifestyle advice to a male audience.

He reportedly moved to Ukraine in 2010 and married a native woman. The blogger lives in Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city, located in the east of the country, not far from its border with Russia.

READ MORE: US journalist missing after attempt to flee Ukraine

After Russia and Ukraine’s long-simmering disputes turned to military confrontation in February 2022, Lira began actively covering the fighting on social media.

He said that he loved Ukraine and its people and that the whole thing was a tragedy, but insisted that the conflict had been provoked by the Zelensky government and its Western backers. The blogger said that Ukraine had no chance of winning against Russia and predicted failure.

Russia will not initiate a diplomatic dialogue. A sense of threat is very real in Russia. Diplomatic channels conveyed this message to the Americans.

from thefreeonline on 10th Dec 2023 By Pepe Escobar

And then, casually, almost as an afterthought while meeting Donbass heroes, Putin announces he will run for President again in next March’s elections. Considering his massive popularity – at least 80% nationally – he’s bound to remain in power until 2030.

Record-breaking snowstorm blankets Moscow

Welcome to VVP-2024. Plenty of time for serial meetings with his dear friend Xi Jinping. The Russia-China strategic partnership – in charge of paving the road to multipolarity – is scheduled to be rocking more progressively than Emerson, Lake and Palmer in Tarkus (“Have you walked in the stones of years?”)

These have been heady days in dazzling, snowy Moscow. To start with, let’s go on a roll call of all those indicators which are being reluctantly admitted even by rabid NATOstan media.

A manufacturing boom is in effect in a semi war economy. Investments are up, up and away – including by dodgy Russian oligarchs who can’t park their funds in the West anymore.

Tourism is up and up – including legions of Chinese tour groups and everyone and his neighbor from West, Central and South Asia. There’s an oil and gas export boom – as EU clients continue to buy gas via Turkey or to the delight of New Delhi, Repackaged in India oil.

The yuan replaces the U.S. dollar and the euro.

Import substitution rules – while in parallel Made in Turkey or Made in China products replace Europeans.

Last January, the IMF was betting that the Russian economy would shrink by 2.3%. Now this outpost of the Treasury Department admits Russian GDP will grow by 2.2%. Actually it’s 3%, according to Putin himself, based on figures provided by the “Disrupter” (as described by a Western rag), Madame Elvira Nabiullina.

Behind the Moveable Feast’s curtains

I have been privileged to be part of key meetings on everything from the latest in the Ukraine-Belarus front to still secret, top-flight studies on the ideal mechanism to bypass the U.S. dollar in payment settlements.

A small group of us, invited by the International Russophile Movement (MIR), were treated to a detailed visit to the astonishing Sretensky monastery complex, defined by mega cool guy Larry Johnson as an unparalleled architectural jewel where one may experience “the palpable presence of God.”

Genocide Joe celebrates going solo against 112 Countries– Sells $106.5m more tank ammo for Israel–

/from thefreeonline on 10th Dec 2023 by Al Jazeera/ Agencies

Top UN official says recent seven-day truce showed that humanitarian aid can be delivered if conditions allow.

Palestinians crowd together as they wait for food distribution in Rafah in southern Gaza [Hatem Ali/AP]

The World Food Programme (WFP) says its ability to supply basic necessities to the people in Gaza is on the verge of collapse amid escalating Israeli attacks.

“There’s not enough food. People are starving,” WFP Deputy Director Carl Skau wrote on X, formerly Twitter, following a visit to the besieged coastal strip on Friday.

Biden uses emergency authority to sell tank shells to Israel

1 day agoSat 9 Dec 2023 14.10 EST The Biden administration has used an emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review, the Pentagon said on Saturday.

• ‘We are dying here’: Terror in Gaza amid Israeli communications blackouts
• ‘Double standards’: World reacts to US veto on Gaza truce resolution at UN
• Palestinians displaced to south Gaza’s overcrowded areas living on streets
• Can Israel’s agricultural sector recover after the war on Gaza?

He said his team had reached more than a million people, “but the situation is untenable. We need to get our supplies in,” wrote Skau, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Only a fraction of the necessary food is reaching the Gaza Strip, there is a lack of fuel, and no one is safe, Skau continued in a WFP statement, adding: “We cannot do our job.”

Camps and emergency shelters were overcrowded, he wrote, as the muffled thunder of Israel’s bombing raids could be heard in the background every day.

[Saleh Salem/Reuters]

Pentagon Rules: 100 countries and all but the US backed UN Ceasefire of Gaza Genocide- Yet US made the rules and wins

from thefreeonline on 10th Dec 2023 by Ken Klippenstein at The Intercept

The Defense Department passed the same paltry number of sub-audits as it did last year — and would not say if would ever see a clean audit.

The U.S. military appears unfazed in its inability to account for billions of dollars. On Thursday, the Department of Defense failed its sixth consecutive audit — but hailed its “incremental progress.”

The Independent Report: Pentagon Spending Undermining US Economy

As the Pentagon budget nears a watershed $1 trillion — the largest of any federal government agency — it has never passed a single one of the annual audits mandated by Congress. In a press briefing, the Department of Defense said it had no timeline for passing an audit.

“We’ve heard the same platitudes about audit progress for years,” said Julia Gledhill, an analyst at the Project on Government Oversight’s Center for Defense Information. “They’re meaningless, especially since the Pentagon can’t even commit to a timeline for achieving a clean audit.”

Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder holds a press conference at the Pentagon on Oct. 19, 2023.Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

“We’ve heard the same platitudes about audit progress for years. They’re meaningless.”

Former Pentagon comptroller Thomas Harker, now the secretary of the Navy, had publicly set a deadline of 2027 for a clean audit, but officials have since distanced the military from that timeframe. “Former comptroller Harker signaled 2027 back in 2020, but the department has completely rolled that back,” Gledhill said. “There’s no incentive to improve.”

Beginning in 2017, the audits are conducted by the Pentagon inspector general along with independent public accounting firms. The Defense Department is auditing $3.8 trillion in assets and $4 trillion in liabilities.

State and populist Nationalism are not two opposing positions but rather two sides of the same coin with which Capital alternates its governance.

Argentina election: Does Milei differ from other neo-liberals?

The US Veto, Funding and Arms makes it Complicit in the Carnage in Gaza. Makes it a Mass Murderer. Guilty of Genocide for all the World to see..

from thefreeonline on 9th Dec 2023 by Aljazeera and DoctorsWithoutBorders

13 of the 15 current UNSC members backed the Ceasefire. Co-sponsored by over 100 other countries. Only the USA voted against. It’s proxy the UK abstained.

World leaders, international rights groups and United Nations officials have criticised the United States for vetoing a UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and failing to halt the war that has killed more than 17,400 Palestinians and about 1,100 people in Israel since October 7.

MSF calls US veto of Gaza ceasefire resolution “a vote against humanity”

NEW YORK, December 8, 6:06 p.m. ET—The United Nations Security Council today failed to adopt a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza—blocked by a veto from the United States.

The Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. This followed a letter from the UN Secretary-General invoking Article 99 to call on the Security Council to prevent further escalation and end this crisis.

Read the statement from MSF-USA executive director Avril Benoît

The United Nations Security Council must demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire, lifting of the siege, and unrestricted aid to reach the entire Gaza Strip.

To date, the inaction of the United Nations Security Council and vetoes from member states, particularly the United States, make them complicit in the ongoing slaughter of civilians. This inaction has given license to the mass killing of men, women, and children caught in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Repeated assurances from Israel and its allies, especially the US, that this war is being waged on combatants alone run counter to what we see on the ground. What we see is a total war that does not spare civilians.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical staff in the Gaza Strip have witnessed and treated the medical consequences of continued and systematic atrocities over the last eight weeks of all-out war. Israel’s campaign of indiscriminate killing, denial of access to food, water, and health care, and repeated forced displacements have made conditions for the more than two million people in Gaza unbearable.

People are sleeping on the streets, in the rain, with little to no sanitation or hygiene services. MSF’s teams have seen a significant increase in infectious diseases, including diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, skin infections, and outbreaks of hepatitis. Vital humanitarian aid must immediately be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip at a scale sufficient enough to meet the enormous needs. 

from thefreeonline2807 views 8 Dec 2023 9,42pm Paris time

#Security#ceasefire#Gaza The UN Security Council is expected to vote at 11:30pm Paris time (GMT+1) on a humanitarian ceasefire resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates.

The vote was postponed until the evening to give the 15-member body time to reach consensus.

The US and UK have repeatedly vetoed Security Council votes for a permanent Gaza ceasefire, depriving the UN of authority to take effective measures against the Israeli Genocide

“As it stands, at the moment, it seems that the United States is still unwilling to support the resolution as it is,” FRANCE 24’s Jessica Le Masurier said, reporting from New York. #Security Council #ceasefire#Gaza