₦airaland Forum

March 19 (UPI) -- Dozens of Ukrainian troops were killed Saturday in a missile strike on army barracks in Mykolaiv, local officials said.

At least 45 soldiers were killed in the Russian strike, BBC News reported .
Rescue operations took place at the scene of the missile strike of the barrack housing soldiers in the southern Ukrainian city and strategic Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, the region's Gov. Vitalli Kim told CNN .
CNN's Swedish affiliate Expressen reported that two Russian fighter jets dropped around five bombs on the buildings around 6 a.m.

Clinton, Bush lay flowers outside Ukrainian church in Chicago
A video filmed by Expressen showed rescuers pulling one Ukrainian solider alive from the wreckage.
Another survivor, identified only as 54-year-old soldier Serhill, told Expressen "of the approximately 200 who were there, I would guess about 90% did not survive."
"Glass flew everywhere," Nikita, a 22-year-old soldier whose first name was only given, told Expressen. "I prayed to God that I would have time to take shelter before bombs came. There are always more bombs."

Putin gives speech marking anniversary of Crimea annexation
Mykolaiv has been a critical target for Russian forces on the ground as they move to capture Ukraine's third largest city, Odesa, further west along the coast.

The Russian military, meanwhile, said it destroyed a military ammunition warehouse in the village of Delyatin using Kinzhal missiles Friday.
Overnight, there was also attack targeting an aircraft repair plant near the western city of Lviv, which has been receiving hundreds of refugees from Mariupol in the south. No casualties were reported.

Russia threatens response after four countries expel 20 diplomats
BBC News reported Mariupol is expected to fall after being battered by shelling for weeks under siege. Authorities said 130 people have been rescued from the bomb shelter under the city's theatre that was attacked two days ago, but hundreds more may be trapped in the rubble.
Still, Russia has been "surprised by the scale and ferocity of Ukrainian resistance," the British Defense Ministry said in its latest update.
The Russian military has been "forced to change its operational approach and is now pursuing a strategy of attrition," the update added. "This is likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis."

The British Defense Ministry also said in the update that Russian President Vladimir Putin has "reinforced his control over Russian domestic media," in attempt to "obscure high Russian casualty numbers."

MadamVanessa:



This war has really exposed Putin and Russia seriously. Prior before the war , the world respected Russia for nothing, because almost all the world think that Russia Military might is a top notch, only for small Ukraine to exposed this overrated country. As weak as Ukraine is, they still withstand this useless overrated country and give them a bloody nose.

Putin is finished. Even the Russians condemned Putin for invading Ukraine, China, their close ally now backup Ukraine after discovering that Russia they respected so much are weaklings that can be tossed and used any how like 10 and 11 spanner.


They only people you'll see supporting Putin's madness are those poverty stricken bastards here on nairaland that can't even afford three square meal a day like the one above me.

see as you carry white people for head like this... take it easy..all this white doesn't care about africa

The Biden administration made a carefully orchestrated gamble this week, issuing a series of public and private threats to Beijing that it will face consequences if it supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The strategy was capped by a tense, seven-hour meeting in Rome on Monday between U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi.
But having fired loud diplomatic salvos at Beijing, Biden administration officials are still debating the next steps to take to ensure China does not help Russia evade Western sanctions or supply weapons to Moscow as casualties mount in Ukraine.
One immediate result of the Rome meeting was an angrier Beijing, which was combative in the talks, people briefed on the interactions say. One U.S.-based person briefed on the meeting described Chinese officials' response as "tough" and "offensive." Another said simply that the talks did not go well.
Washington is now sorting through a host of unanswered questions, including where any "red line" regarding Ukraine that China would need to cross to trigger a U.S. response is, and what exactly that response would be, administration officials say.
The Biden administration is waiting to see what China does before deciding on a course of action. "We're going to be watching closely," said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki on Monday. A senior U.S. official said they would be looking at what military, economic, or other support is being provided to Russia.
The United States on Monday told allies in NATO and several Asian countries that China had signaled its willingness to provide military and economic aid to Russia to support its war in Ukraine.
Sullivan had warned before the talks that China would "absolutely" face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sweeping sanctions over Ukraine.
China, which announced a "no limits" strategic partnership with Russia in February, may find it hard to change course and back down after a threat was made public, said Kevin Gallagher, who leads the Global Development Project at Boston University.
"This wasn't a good strategic move," he said. "Like the United States, China has a domestic constituency."
He Weiwen, senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Beijing's Renmin University said: "The U.S. has an intention to crackdown on China, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict provides a reason for it to do so," describing the U.S. warnings as "blackmail."
Sources in the Biden administration and diplomats in Washington and Europe say Western countries had been sending private warnings to Beijing about China's support for Russian President Vladimir Putin for weeks before the Rome meeting.
Russia has denied asking China for military assistance, and China warned this week of "false information," in apparent reference to U.S. statements.
"China firmly opposes any words and deeds that spread false information and distort and smear China's position," Yang said, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Beijing's official newspaper, the People's Daily, carried a column noting the inaccurate U.S. intelligence that led to the Iraq invasion.
Some U.S. allies also quietly questioned the intelligence Washington was relying upon regarding the Russian and Chinese conversations, several European diplomatic sources said.

SANCTIONS DISCUSSIONS NOT ADVANCED
Discussions between the United States and its military allies of any coordinated sanctions that could apply to Beijing are not advanced, according to one person involved in those conversations.
A move to sanction China over Ukraine would have potentially dire consequences, not just for China, but for the U.S. and global economies, analysts say.
China trades vastly more with the United States and its NATO than it does with Russia, and the Chinese economy relies heavily on international markets and capital. However, the talks between Sullivan and Yang did not focus on trade, one U.S. official noted.
Biden entered office regarding China as the key foreign policy challenge of the era, one that required a more hardline defense of democratic values against autocratic competitors.
But Biden hoped that his candid personal relationship with China's leader Xi Jinping could defuse the likelihood of a Cold War or a direct military clash between the world's current superpower and its rising superpower, including over the status of Taiwan.
"China is either going to side with Russia and reinforce the sense that it has joined an 'axis of autocracy,' or it is going to put significant space between Moscow and Beijing and demonstrate that it genuinely cares about preserving even a basic relationship with the rest of the world," said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"If it turns down this opportunity, it's not clear to me there will be a next time to meet and set aside differences. The ball is entirely in Beijing's court

Russia’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that US President Joe Biden and a dozen other top officials had been banned from entering the country in a reciprocal response to US sanctions.
The measure, which also applies to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “is the consequence of the extremely Russophobic policy pursued by the current US administration", the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

South Africa abstained in a vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the resolution condemning the Russian invasion of the Ukraine , and demanding their withdrawal.
The South African government has explained that it enjoys good relations with both Russia and the Ukraine; hence it abstained in the UN General Assembly vote condemning the Russian invasion.
President Cyril Ramaphosa subsequently said South Africa abstained
At home, the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance lost no time in taunting the governing African National Congress (ANC) that its abstention was because a Russian oligarch, Victor Vekselberg, had donated R7.5 million to the ANC .
But one cannot assume that a billionaire’s personal views are pro-Putin, merely because he is Russian. Besides, after the Kremlin jailed and sequestrated the billionaire Mikhael Khodorkovsky in 2005, no “oligarch” will ever again express opposition views in public.
In fact, the moniker “oligarch” is misleading because it implies a wielder of great power in the inner circle. The reality is that Russia’s billionaires possess their wealth solely by the grace of the Kremlin. Like England’s Henry VII , the Kremlin seizes the property of its critics.
Further, reality has many dimensions. And in this case history is relevant. To summarise, the ANC remembers who were its allies during the Cold War , and who denounced it as “terrorists”. This has drowned the other considerations. This includes that South Africa, as a small country, depends on the UN charter principles opposing war and invasion to seize territory, and multilateralism to protect it from invasion by a great power.
Historic ties that bind
The ANC and the former Soviet Union have a long history together . The first visit by an ANC leader to the Soviet Union was by Josiah Tshangana Gumede, one of the founding members of the ANC, in 1927. His visit was a spin-off of his attendance in Belgium of the League against Imperialism .
After the apartheid regime was banned the ANC in 1960 it received aid from the Soviet Union for its exiled mission in the fight to liberate South Africa from minority white rule. This aid exceeded that from the pan-African Organisation of African Unity – now the African Union – or anyone else.
It was only from the end of the 1970s that Scandinavian donations became higher than Soviet funding. But Scandinavian aid remained limited to peaceful aid only . Only the Soviet Union provided weapons and other military aid to the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.
By 1988, sensing that victory over apartheid was coming, Moscow supplemented training in guerilla warfare with training in conventional warfare, including naval and air force training.
Historical links, such as these, were evident in the divide between African states during the UN General Assembly vote to condemn Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
Namibia, which is governed by Swapo , Angola, by the MPLA and Mozambique by Frelimo joined South Africa in abstaining .
Swapo, the MPLA, and Frelimo also received Soviet foreign aid during the 20th Century Cold War when they too were liberation movements fighting guerrilla wars.
By contrast, Botswana and Zambia voted to condemn the Russian invasion. Significantly, their ruling parties came to power peacefully, and did not have Russian alliances. This vote for the UN resolution condemning the Russian invasion and demanding its withdrawal, was also the position of 28 African Union members. Seventeen abstained.
Clearly, the liberation movements of Angola, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique regard Russia as the inheritor and custodian of the Soviet Union history and traditions.

Irony of history
There is some irony in this, as so often in history. While Russian President Vladimir Putin started his career in the Soviet KGB, the political police, he now merits the western saying that there is no one more anti-communist than an ex-communist. In 2017 Putin’s government, supported by his United Russia party, had absolutely zero centenary celebrations of the Bolshevik revolution .
To the contrary, today’s Kremlin ensures that today’s Communist Party of the Russian Federation faces two decades of rigged elections, cheating it of winning the vote in Vladivostok and other towns.
Why then do the ANC, Swapo, MPLA, and Frelimo, and the
South African Communist Party – the ANC’s governing alliance partner – continue to retain such bonds of deference to Putin’s anti-communist government?
One reason could be that Russia and those southern African governments have shared resentment of the international dominance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ( NATO) , especially that of the US and the former colonial powers – the UK and French. This is regardless of the sea-change in party politics within the Kremlin.
The relationship between South Africa and the US, especially, has a complex history. Not least because US governments designated ANC leaders fighting the apartheid regime as terrorists . There is also memory of the CIA’a unsavoury role in Africa .
Most of the anti-Ukrainian commentary in the South African internet and letters to the editors reflects the commentators’ stance against previous US government foreign policy of wars in Iraq , Afghanistan and elsewhere. They don’t reflect facts unfolding on the ground.
For the governments of South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and Mozambique, the historical alliances and enemies of the last century’s Cold War seem destined to tip the scales when it comes to their voting at the UN, the African Union, and in other forums. This is despite the fact that, as small countries with severely constrained defence capabilities, they depend on the support for multilateralism and the UN system against any invasions by a great power.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a fight, with nothing less than the fate of Ukraine, scene of Moscow's assaults, at stake.
The eccentric billionaire and founder of aerospace company SpaceX took to Twitter, where his messages are notoriously erratic, to see whether the Russian leader would test his mettle in person rather than through his country's forces fighting across the border.
"I hereby challenge Vladimir Putin to single combat. Stakes are Ukraine," said Musk.

An Iranian-American woman allegedly stabbed her date in Las Vegas as revenge for the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
On Saturday, Nika Nikoubin was charged with attempted murder for allegedly luring a man she met on the dating site Plenty of Fish.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal said Nikoubin and her date had rented a room at the Sunset Station Hotel in Las Vegas.
Nikoubin asked her date if she could blindfold him before having sex, and when he put it on, the 21-year-old allegedly went into her purse and pulled out a knife and stabbed him twice in the neck.
Police said Nikoubin had run out of the room and told a hotel employee that she had stabbed a man.
"Wanted revenge"
She later explained that her plan was not to kill the man but "wanted revenge" against "US troops for the 2020 killing of of Qassem Soleimani", according to a police report.
"She advised that there are injustices, in particular the killing of Qassem Soleimani in Iran," the police report said.
It remains unclear why she chose to stab her date and whether he has any connection to Soleimani.
The man's condition was not available, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Nikoubin, a Las Vegas resident, faces charges of attempted murder, battery, and burglary of a business.
In January 2020, Soleimani, who headed the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps's elite Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike after landing in Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.

Russia has said China refused to support them with the supply of aircraft parts, CNN reports

Russia said China rejected requests to support them with aircraft parts as Moscow looks to source components following tough aviation sanctions from the U.S and other Western countries.

Russian Head of the Aircraft Airworthiness Department, at the Federal Air Transport Agency, Valery Kudinov, said there were around 70 aircraft in the Russian register before the end of February.

According to him, the situation with the maintenance of aircraft and imports of spare parts is planned to be resolved, including through the re-export of components.

Kudinov added, “As far as I know … China refused,” adding that Russia would continue searching through other countries such as Turkey or India. “Each company will negotiate on its own,” Kudinov said.

It is no longer news that the world’s two biggest aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus, have both suspended supply of components to Russian airlines over the invasion of Ukraine.

Meta (formerly known as Facebook) has filed a joint lawsuit with Chime, a financial technology and digital banking company, against two Nigerian individuals who allegedly used Instagram and Facebook accounts to impersonate Chime and target its users in phishing attacks.
The two defendants, Arafat Eniola Arowokoko and Arowokoko Afeez Opeyemi, presumably used a network of at least five Facebook accounts and over 800 Instagram accounts to impersonate the fintech company, attempting to take over customers' accounts.
With the help of these accounts, they lured potential targets to Chime-branded phishing websites to harvest Chime credentials (email and password) and hijack the victims' accounts.
One such phishing website is still online at chime62.godaddysites[.]com , asking visitors to enter their phone number, email, Social Security Number, and Chime password.
The end goal of the scheme was to withdraw money out of hijacked Chime accounts without the victims' knowledge.
These phishing websites prompted users to enter their Chime usernames and passwords to compromise users' Chime member accounts and withdraw funds.
"Since June 2020, Meta has taken multiple enforcement actions against Defendants for violating its Terms, including as recently as October 22, 2021," according to the joint complaint Meta and Chime filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Meta disabled Facebook and Instagram accounts used to impersonate Chine and blocked the phishing websites from its services. On July 9, it also sent cease-and-desist letters notifying the two defendants that their conduct violated the platforms' terms and revoking their Facebook and Instagram access.
"Nonetheless, Defendants continued to create new Chime-impersonating accounts. In total, between June 5, 2020, and October 22, 2021, Meta disabled more than 800 Facebook and Instagram accounts and blocked phishing websites associated with Defendants and their scheme from being accessed on Facebook and Instagram."
This action is part of a broader series of lawsuits filed by Meta against threat actors abusing its platform for malicious purposes and targeting its users.
For instance, Meta filed a lawsuit in December against the operators of over 39,000 phishing sites targeting Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp users.
The same month, Meta also announced that it disrupted the operations of seven spyware-making companies by blocking their infrastructure on its platform, sending cease and desist letters, and banning their accounts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine dominates world attention. But with less global scrutiny, Putin is also busy advancing Russia’s presence in the Middle East and Africa -- an expansion that military and civilian leaders view as another, if less immediate, threat to security in the West.
Putin's strategy in the Mideast and Africa has been simple, and successful: He seeks out security alliances with autocrats, coup leaders, and others who have been spurned or neglected by the U.S. and Europe, either because of their bloody abuses or because of competing Western strategic interests.
— In Syria, Russia’s defense minister last month showed off nuclear-capable bombers and hypersonic missiles over the Mediterranean, part of a security partnership that now has the Kremlin threatening to send Syrian fighters to Ukraine.
— In Sudan, a leader of a junta that’s seized power in that East African country has a new economic alliance with the Kremlin, reviving Russia’s dreams of a naval base on the Red Sea.
— In Mali, the government is the latest of more than a dozen resource-rich African nations to forge security alliances with Kremlin-allied mercenaries, according to U.S. officials.
Especially in the last five or six years, “what you’ve seen is a Russia that is much more expeditionary and casting its military power further and wider afield,” retired U.S. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove told The Associated Press.
“Russia is trying to show itself as a great power, as at the seat in world affairs, as driving international situations,” said Breedlove, the second-highest military commander in NATO from 2013 through 2016, and now a distinguished chair at the Middle East Institute think tank in Washington.
But with Putin's hands already full battling the fierce resistance from a much weaker Ukrainian military, experts view his expansionist goals in the Middle East and Africa as a potential long-term threat, not a present danger to Europe or the NATO alliance.
“It’s threatening NATO from below,” Kristina Kausch, a European security expert at the German Marshall Fund think-tank, said of the leverage Russia is gaining. “The Russians have felt encircled by NATO – and now they want to encircle NATO,” she said.
To achieve its strategic aims, Russia provides conventional military or Kremlin-allied mercenaries to protect the regimes of often outcast leaders. In return, these leaders pay back Russia in several ways: cash or natural resources, influence in their affairs, and staging grounds for Russian fighters.
These alliances help advance Putin's ambitions of returning Russia's influence to its old Cold War boundaries.
Russia's new security partnerships also aid it diplomatically. When the U.N. General Assembly condemned Putin's Ukraine invasion this month, Syria joined Russia in voting against, and many of the African governments that have signed security deals with Russian mercenaries abstained.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Russia would bring recruits from Syria to fight in Ukraine. The threat was seen primarily as an intimidation tactic and U.S. officials say there's been no sign of Syrian recruits in Ukraine. Some security experts say Russian mercenaries are using Mali as a staging ground for deployment to Ukraine, but U.S. officials have not confirmed these reports.
Regardless of how imminent the threat is, U.S. and European leaders are paying increasing attention to Putin's moves in the Middle East and Africa — and Russia's growing alliance with China — as it formulates plans to protect the West from future aggression.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in mid-February that the West could no longer ignore the competition for influence across Africa, where China spends billions on infrastructure projects to secure mineral rights, and Russia provides security through Kremlin-allied mercenaries.
“We see and realize that if we withdraw from this competition as liberal democracies, then others are going to fill these gaps,” Baerbock said as Western diplomats huddled on the Ukraine crisis, in the last days before Russia's invasion.
Perhaps the boldest example of Russia flexing its global reach was when it sent defense minister Sergei Shoigu last month to Damascus to oversee Russia's largest military drills in the Mediterranean since the Cold War, just as Russia's military made final preparations for its assault on Ukraine.
The drills, involving 15 warships and about 30 aircraft, appeared choreographed to showcase the Russian military’s capability to threaten the U.S. carrier strike group in the Mediterranean.
Russia’s Hmeimeem air base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast has served as its main outpost for launching attacks in Syria since September 2015. Russia’s attacks in Syria, which leveled ancient cities and sent millions of refugees to Europe, allowed President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal government to reclaim control over most of the country after a devastating civil war.
“Hmeimeem base is now an integral part of Russia’s defense strategy not just in the Middle East but all the world,′' said Ibrahim Hamidi, a Syrian journalist and senior diplomatic editor for Syrian affairs at the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
In Africa, too, Russia is open to working with leaders known for anti-democratic actions and abuses of human rights.
On the eve of Russia’s invasion with Ukraine, Kremlin officials met in Moscow with an officer of a military junta that seized power in Sudan.
Isolated by the West, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo warmly responded to Russia’s overture of a new economic-focused alliance. Upon returning home, Gen. Dagolo announced that Sudan would be open to allowing Russia to build its long hoped-for naval base at Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
It’s far from certain that Russia would be able to take advantage anytime soon. The Ukraine invasion is straining its military and financial resources and showing Russia's military weaknesses, and international sanctions are crippling its economy.
But longer-term, a Red Sea port could help give it a greater role in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, increase Russian access in the Suez Canal and other high-traffic shipping lanes, and allow Russia to project force in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.
“They certainly could create enough havoc to cause problems,” said Breedlove, the former NATO commander.
Russia's expanding alliances aren't just about its conventional military.
From 2015 to 2021, Russian mercenary security outfits increased their presence around the world seven-fold, with operations in 27 countries as of last year, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The most prominent is the Wagner Group, which the U.S. and EU consider to be a surrogate of the Russian military, but which the Kremlin denies even exists.
From Libya to Madagascar, security contracts granted to Wagner Group and others give Russia access to mineral resources, staging grounds for deployments and substantial footholds challenging Western nations’ influence there.
In Mali, the U.S. and Europe expressed alarm in December at reports that the Wagner Group had signed a $10 million-a-month security contract with that government. Experts say Wagner took advantage of local unhappiness over the failures of a years-long French-led deployment in the sub-Saharan targeting extremist factions.
Mali denied any such deployment, but some in Mali saw the arrival of Russians as a slam to Mali’s colonial ruler France, which had struggled to protect them against armed extremists. They hope for better results from any Russian fighters arriving in the sub-Saharan. “Long live Russia!" cried one man in a crowd cheering the sight of a Russian delegation in the capital in January. “Long live the people of Mali!”

Within two weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies have collectively imposed a series of sanctions to isolate Russia’s financial system. Recent stringent Western sanctions are a stress test of Russia’s de-dollarization initiatives and an emerging nondollar financial system. Besides de-SWIFTing Russian banks, Western sanctions have targeted the assets of the Russian central bank and sovereign wealth funds, the Russian Ministry of Finance, and Russian oligarchs. These punitive measures effectively wiped out the thirty-year post-Cold War Western financial engagement with Russia. I have discussed a Russia-China de-dollarization partnership in the Foreign Affairs article titled The Anti-Dollar Axis . It seems that Putin’s Russia has more partners for de-dollarization in Asia, such as India.
So far, Putin has not been completely isolated, at least in Asia. Asian countries’ response to President Putin’s war in Ukraine has been far from unified. Japan and South Korea, two key U.S. allies in East Asia, have slapped severe sanctions on Russian entities. Although not a treaty ally, Singapore has also imposed sanctions on Russia. In contrast, the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, has decided to proceed with its purchase of 17 Russian military transport helicopters worth $249 million. India, a major U.S. ally, has neither condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nor imposed sanctions, although it abstained from the UN Security Council vote. Similar to India, China has not called Russia’s military action against Ukraine an invasion but abstained from the UN Security Council vote. China’s abstaining rather than casting a veto has been
considered a diplomatic victory by the West.
An unintended consequence of Western punitive sanctions could be strengthening a Russia-China de-dollarization partnership. Joining such a partnership may also appeal to India. India has reportedly
expressed interest in jointly exploring with Russia and China an alternative to SWIFT that would allow it to trade with countries under U.S. sanctions. While India currently does not have its own domestic financial messaging system, it plans to link a service currently under development with Russia’s SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages, Russia’s equivalent of SWIFT), which could connect with China’s CIPS (Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, the Chinese version of SWIFT). Once materialized, the linked systems would cover most parts of the world. The global coverage of this alternative system could appeal to countries that are either vulnerable to U.S. sanctions or discontent about the U.S. dollar’s dominance. China’s CIPS currently has three direct participants in Europe and none in the United States.

MOSCOW — Russia said Friday it was opening a criminal case against Meta for “calling for the murder” of Russians, saying the parent company of Facebook and Instagram had relaxed rules on violent messages aimed at Russia’s army and leaders.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was launching an investigation “due to illegal calls for the murder of Russian nationals by employees of the American company Meta.”
Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office also requested that the internet giant be branded “extremist” and called for Instagram to be blocked in the country.
The announcement came just over two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine, with Russia seeking to ban any criticism of the military campaign.
The General Prosecutor’s Office said “materials were being distributed on Instagram that contained calls for committing violent acts against the citizens of Russia, including military personnel.”
It said it had asked Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor to “restrict access” to Instagram.

Facebook and Instagram are widely used in Russia, the latter being the most popular social media platform for young Russians.
Since early March, Twitter and Facebook have been inaccessible in Russia.

Gospelpreacher1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjLRJ9IuoU

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/ukraine-war-millions-could-die-if-the-world-does-not-act-now-to-stop-the-bombing-president-zelenskyy-tells-sky-news-12561844

I think the whites believe or think the world begin and End in America and Europe...

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese stocks are getting knocked down in U.S. hours after suffering intense swings in Asia, with the group heading toward its worst session since the global financial crisis.
The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index plunged more than 10% on Thursday, heading toward its biggest slide since October 2008. American depositary receipts of megacaps like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. tumbled at least 6.5%, with electric-vehicle companies including Nio Inc. and XPeng Inc. each down over 10%.
Aside from the geopolitical concerns that have caught many global investors off guard, Chinese stocks have been under intense pressure after months of regulatory crackdowns. Thursday’s selloff is a swift change of fortunes for the nation’s shares traded in the U.S. Just a day before, the group jumped the most in more than a month amid a broad-based rally in risk assets and speculation that Chinese authorities had stepped in during the Asian day to support the domestic market.
Investors in Hong Kong were treated to an equally wild day of trading Thursday, with the Hang Seng Tech Index climbing as much as 4.4%, turning negative before closing higher by about 1%. That follows a similarly volatile session on Wednesday.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week identified five Chinese firms under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which it says the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board was unable to inspect. The newly identified firms -- BeiGene Ltd., Yum China Holdings Inc., Zai Lab Ltd., ACM Research Inc. and HUTCHMED (China) Ltd. -- could be subject to delisting from U.S. exchanges if they fail to comply with the HFCAA’s auditing requirements for three consecutive years.
“The renewed delisting concerns is the primary driver for the the brutal selloff in Chinese ADR companies,” said Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer at KraneShares. The combined with Russia-Ukraine tensions and smaller climb in Hong Kong shares overnight are also impacting U.S. trading, he added.
Still, some analysts aren’t convinced that the addition of these stocks constitutes an escalation in the U.S. crackdown on Chinese firms, with Nomura’s Donnie Teng, who called the addition a “non-event.”

WARSAW: US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin has only made the NATO Western defence alliance “stronger” through his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The NATO alliance is stronger and Russia is weaker because of what Putin has done. That is very clear to us,” Harris told reporters alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw.
The Polish head of state for his part said that “we must save Ukraine”.
“We must set additional sanctions against Russia. We cannot tolerate such military activity that carries with it hallmarks of genocide,” Duda added.

“Because no one has any doubts that… if regular people are being killed, if bombs and rockets are being launched at residential areas where there are no military installations, then that is barbarity.”
Both leaders condemned Russia’s bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s Mariupol on Wednesday, with Harris calling it “an act of violence – unprovoked, unjustified”.
“We have been witnessing for weeks and certainly just in the last 24 hours atrocities of unimaginable proportion,” she added.

Russia has denied attacking a Ukrainian maternity hospital, branding horrific video of the aftermath and reports of the destruction as "fake news".
Ukrainian authorities have said three people, including a child, died when the children's and maternity hospital i n the southern city of Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the target on the hospital was the "ultimate proof that what is happening is the genocide of Ukrainians".
But Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, claimed the building was no longer a maternity hospital and had been taken over by Ukrainian troops.
"That’s how fake news is born," he tweeted.
Polyanskiy said Russia had warned on 7 March that the hospital had been turned into a military object from which Ukrainians were firing.

The Coca-Cola Company has announced it will suspend all business in Russia due to the conflict with Ukraine.
In a statement released on Tuesday, March 8, the company said: "The Coca-Cola Company announced today that it is
suspending its business in Russia.
"Our hearts are with the people who are enduring unconscionable effects from these tragic events in Ukraine.
"We will continue to monitor and assess the situation as circumstances evolve."
Businesswoman and Dragons Den star Deborah Meaden spoke out against the firm after it continued to sell in Russia.
"Can you stop drinking Coca Cola please. They are refusing to withdraw from Russia. Let’s show them some people power," she wrote on Twitter.
Can you stop drinking Coca Cola please. They are refusing to withdraw from Russia. Let’s show them some people power.
— Deborah Meaden �� (@DeborahMeaden) March 4, 2022
The news comes after McDonald's announced it would temporarily close 850 restraints in Russia due to the ongoing war.
The two companies were facing pressure to pull out of Russia as they continued to operate in the country.
Other Western firms such as KFC, Pepsi, Starbucks and Burger King are also facing calls to close their outlets and stop sales in Russia.

Russia surpassed Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Myanmar to become the most sanctioned nation, according to a report by Bloomberg. The news agency in a report outlined that 2,778 new sanctions designations made against Russia by the US and its western allies made it the most sanctioned nation ever.
Russia faces 5,530 sanctions according to a report by Bloomberg which cited Castellum.ai, a global sanctions-tracking database. Iran follows Russia with 3,616 sanctions accumulated in the past decade.
Russia faced more than half of those sanctions over one week after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine.
Peter Piatetsky, while speaking to Bloomberg, highlighted that this is a financial nuclear war as sanctions have taken Russia from being a participant in the global economy to being a financial Pariah. The official, who served US president Obama and Trump, also founded Castellum.ai.
“Russia went from being part of the global economy to the single largest target of global sanctions and a financial pariah in less than two weeks,” Piatetsky was quoted as saying by news agency Bloomberg.
The sanctions are also a way, according to the report, to prevent NATO and US soldiers from directly fighting Russian forces for a non-NATO ally. Russia sounded warning over the sanctions of the Russian entities like Sberbank and state financial institutions as well as the oligarchs. “It is akin to a declaration of war,” Putin said earlier this weekend while responding to queries regarding sanctions by the western nations as well as the US.
Sanctions levelled against Russia are aimed more at the oligarchs than towards state entities. At least 2,427 individuals have been sanctioned by the US and the west compared to 343 entities i.e. Russian governmental agencies and companies. Switzerland has the most number of sanctions against Russia - 568, followed by the European Union (518) and France (512). The US has imposed 243 sanctions.

Russia also warned that in response to sanctions it will cut off natural gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

The unfolding tragedy in the Ukraine’s war with Russia deserves the universal attention it is receiving. Where better to discuss it than the United Nations, UN? Where best in the UN than the Security Council which has all the powers of the world body, has teeth and can bite. But when the matter was discussed at the Security Council, it suffered defeat because that exclusive club of five permanent members that dictates to the rest of humanity, runs on veto power. That group comprising the United States, US; China and three European countries: Russia, France and the United Kingdom, UK, decide what is best for the rest of the world irrespective of the opinion of the rest of humanity.
The war is a matter in which the members of the big boys club had differing interests and the rule is that if any of them objects, no binding decision can be taken.
So, calling a meeting of the castrated UN General Assembly on the issue became more a motion without movement; an academic exercise or more of moral suasion.
Also, the motive of calling the Assembly was more of the West showing that there are more countries that supports it than its rival Russia. A more meaningful objective would have been how the world can pressure both sides of the conflict to accept immediate ceasefire, a negotiated settlement and return of peace, more so when an escalation may have negative consequences on the world.
A non-legal or non-binding vote was taken of the 193-member assembly with 141 states voting against Russia, five in favour, 35 abstentions, while 12 did not vote. In a world supposedly wedded to democracy, this Assembly would have been an opportunity for the world to insist on changing the power relations in the UN to allow the equality of votes or the will of the majority to prevail rather than a world where the vote of a single country overrides that of the entire world. That was why the manifest evil called Apartheid in South Africa endured until 1994; because the US and UK would not allow the world take decisive steps at the UN against that Evil Empire.
When in 1976, Africa boycotted the Montreal Olympic Games because the International Olympics Committee refused to disqualify New Zealand that was making rugby tours in Apartheid South Africa, some Western countries denounced us for allegedly mixing sports with politics. Interestingly, the US boycotted the 1984 Moscow Olympic Games because the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan; the same country America was to invade 17 years later. Today, Russian sportsmen and women are being barred from international competitions; is this not mixing sports and politics? The point I am making is not to justify any attacks or invasion, including the war in Ukraine. Rather, it is to make the point that countries play international politics primarily based on the promotion and defence of their national interests. So in Nigeria voting against Russia at the UN Assembly, what interest was being served? National interest or a mindless casting of vote?
First, in taking sides in the intra-European squabble, we have lost the opportunity to play the needed mediatory role and lost relevance in the resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Secondly, we lost sight of the fact that unlike the West, Russia has never constituted a threat to Nigeria or Africa. Thirdly, the Buhari administration displayed a lack of historical knowledge. The defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, which was inherited by Russia, was in the forefront of the global struggles against colonialism. It applied pressure that colonies like Nigeria must be freed. Even while being colonised, the Soviets and their allies provided thousands of Nigerians scholarship to ensure an independent Nigeria has the trained manpower required to run a new country.
Moscow also provided African colonies fighting for liberation with funds, military training, arms, scholarship and vital international support. This it did in the bloody liberation wars in Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. The Soviets did not mind that the colonialists they armed us against were their fellow Europeans!
In the specific case of Nigeria, when the civil war broke out and countries like France and Israel equipped the then rebels with military hardware and training to secede, the UK refused to supply Nigeria needed air force equipment as it did not want the federal side to have air superiority, and the US declared itself neutral. It was Moscow that came to Nigeria’s aid. On August 2, 1967, then Information and Labour Minister, Chief Anthony Enahoro, was in Moscow to sign an arms deal, including the supply of aircraft. Soviet ally, Czechoslovakia followed six days later, agreeing to supply the federal side military aircraft and training.
The Soviet Union did not mind that Nigeria was opposed to socialism; its position according to Premier Alex Kosygin, was based on the Soviets desire to “prevent the country from being dismembered”.
Nigerian Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Brigadier George Kurubo, declared that Russian support was “responsible for the federal victory more than any other single thing, more than all other things put together”.
In November 1968, while the war was on, Moscow came to Nigeria’s aid by agreeing to provide the funds to build the crucial Kainji Dam.
Also, when in Nigeria’s quest for development it decided to build an iron and steel complex, the West refused on the basis that we did not need this mother of all industries. It was Moscow that came to our rescue by providing funds and building the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel complex.
Nigeria as the giant of Africa forgets that in the event of a conflict between a NATO member and an African country, like the one brewing between Mali and neo-colonial France, the Europeans will collectively fight against the African country. It forgets that with the shortage of gas from Russia, desperate European countries will turn on countries like Nigeria for gas they will want virtually for free even if it means subverting us or removing a non-compliant government. This is our experience.
The basis of Buhari’s foreign policy is truly amazing: from supporting the military coup in Chad to abstaining on December 31, 2020 in the UN Resolution on: “A global call for concrete action for the elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance…” In other words, it refused to vote for the universal elimination of discrimination and racism! At the UN General Assembly, Nigeria should either have abstained or not voted like its more sensible brothers such as Cameroun, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Morocco, Togo, Mali, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa. Like we say in Nigeria: Common sense is not common.

Russia warned that any country offering its airfields to Ukraine’s air force attacking Russian targets will be considered as having entered the conflict, state news agency TASS reported on Sunday.
“The use of the airfield networks of neighbouring countries to base Ukrainian military aircraft and their subsequent use against the Russian armed forces may be regarded as the involvement of these states in an armed conflict,” Russian defense military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
So far, the US and the EU have imposed crushing and wide-ranging sanctions on Russia to pressure it into ceasing its military campaign against Ukraine, but have shied away from any action that can be construed by Moscow as entering into direct confrontation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeated asked NATO to impose a no fly zone over Ukraine to help it protect its skies from Russian air strikes, but the Atlantic alliance refused over concerns of being dragged into direct conflict with Russia.
The Russian official added that Moscow's forces destroyed “practically all combat-ready aviation of the Kiev regime.”
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The UN also said the Russian invasion, now in its 11th day, has uprooted more than 1.5 million people, describing it as the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Sunday that more than 360 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, in addition to 759 injured civilians. The organization estimated that real figures are likely to be “considerably higher.”
Images of destructions due to Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities has attracted international condemnation, and the International Criminal Court said it has launched an investigation into possible war crimes committed by Moscow in Ukraine.

oluwaseyi0:
Great health at old age is sweet

swears �

NATO will defend all its allies and territory against a Russian attack, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, as he arrived for a meeting of the alliance's foreign ministers in Brussels.
"Ours is a defensive alliance. We seek no conflict. But if conflict comes to us, we are ready for it and we will defend every inch of NATO territory," he told reporters, while condemning what he called Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine.
"And overnight, we've also seen reports about an attack against a nuclear power plant. This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it and the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engaging in good faith in diplomatic Efforts

Former UFC champion Cain Velasquez was arrested in California Monday on suspension of attempted murder.
According to the San Jose Police Department , Velasquez allegedly shot a man near the intersection of Monterey Highway and Bailey Avenue around 3:14 p.m. local time.
The man was taken to a nearby hospital treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
"The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident are still under investigation at this time," authorities said.
Police said Velasquez has been booked into the Santa Clara County Jail.
According to online jail records, the 39-year-old is currently being held without bail.
The two-time UFC heavyweight champion hasn't competed in MMA since February 2019 when he lost to current heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in a 26-second knockout fight, CBS Sports and Yahoo! Sports reported.

KingEverest:
even Japan China no go fit with stand if only the West remove the restrictions it has on Japan

make your research and comeback

KingEverest:
Hmm chinko don get mind o

China is far Ahead of US

sotall:
Fake news from Putin ass-lickers

STFU

American support for Taiwan will be in vain, a
Chinese government spokesperson has said, as a
delegation of former U.S. officials landed in Taipei on Tuesday—a move seen as President
Joe Biden's way of reassuring the island nation's public following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Taiwan has been awash with news about Vladimir Putin's bloody military operation against Kyiv for six consecutive days.
Observers the world over were quick to predict that China's President Xi Jinping would soon attempt the same against Taiwan, which Beijing has claimed for more than 70 years, and about which successive Chinese leaders have created mythologies not dissimilar to those believed in the Kremlin about Ukraine.
"The will of the Chinese people to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a daily press briefing.
"Whoever the United States sends to show so-called support for Taiwan will be futile."

In this new month, all-round success, joy, happiness and blessings shall be yours today and throughout the month. Happy New Month EVERYONE ��.

Lukashenko denied that Belarus was taking part in the fighting, adding that no missiles were being fired from Belarusian territory.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that Western sanctions were pushing Russia towards a "third world war," as the Washington Post reported that Belarus was preparing to send troops into Ukraine on Sunday.
"In a situation like this, we should be aware that there are such sanctions. A great deal is being said about the banking sector. Gas, oil, SWIFT. It’s worse than war," said Lukashenko at a referendum on changing Belarus's constitution, according to the Belarusian president's website. "Russia is being pushed towards a third world war. We should be very reserved and steer clear of it. Because nuclear war is the end of everything."
Read more on the Russia-Ukraine War:
Day 5 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The Belarusian president stated that the retaliatory sanctions by Russia and Belarus would be very sensitive in order to ensure that they do not impact themselves.
Lukashenko claimed that America is the "only beneficiary" of the current conflict, saying that the US aimed to "put Europe in its place and remove competitors."
While casting a ballot at the referendum, Lukashenko stated that "Today we must stop the war. I would not even call it ‘war’ right now. It is still a conflict. Another day or two and there will be a war. In three days - a meat grinder." The Belarusian president added that Russia aimed to "restore Ukraine."
Lukashenko denied that Belarus was taking part in the fighting, adding that no missiles were being fired from Belarusian territory, except for "two or three rockets" which were fired on February 23 after Ukrainian missile batteries were allegedly detected near the country's border.

Russia has declared that offensive will resume after peace talks with Ukraine failed to materialise.
Aljezeera quoted the Kremlin to have said Russian troops have started advancing into Ukraine again after President Vladimir Putin allegedly paused Moscow’s offensive in anticipation of talks with Ukraine that failed to materialise.
Speaking to reporters at a news briefing at the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine’s leadership of “refusing to negotiate”.
Recall that on Friday, Peskov said the Russian leader was ready to send a delegation of officials to Belarus, where Russia has stationed thousands of troops, for talks.
He later claimed Kyiv had proposed Warsaw as a venue instead and that negotiations over a potential meeting ended without an agreement because the Ukrainian side went silent.
“Since the Ukrainian side refused to negotiate, the advance of the Russian forces resumed this afternoon,” Peskov said at Saturday’s news briefing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday that Russia is willing to hold high level talks with Ukraine, even as China refused to call Russia's action in Ukraine an "invasion" or critize the country over its military action.
According to a China's foreign ministry statement, Putin told Xi that the US and NATO had been ignoring the legitimate security concerns raised by Russia and continued to expand military deployment eastward, challenging Russia's strategic bottom line.
Putin reportedly told his Chinese counterpart that his country was forced by the NATO as well as the US to take action, as they have been ignoring Russia's concerns.
China has repeatedly called for the crisis to be resolved through dialogue. During the telephonic conversation between the two, the Chinese president told Putin that the country supports Russia in resolving the issue through negotiation, even as he urged both the sides to end the Cold War mentality.
China has also urged both the sides to respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries, and form a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism through negotiation.
Xi said China respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, according to the statement.
China had, on Thursday, said it is closely following the developments and hope that both the sides will not shut the door to peace and engage instead in dialogue and consultation and prevent the situation from further escalating.