So Venmo for countries.

More like a standardized system for international bank communication.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
Someone please explain SWIFT…

Thanks…

Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication

It's a communications network that facilitates messages about financial transactions and payment processing between banks in different countries.

Thank you… the depth of knowledge on this site is astounding!

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
Why else would Ukraine, the buffer country of all buffer countries, ally with the west over the bear right next to them?

You might want to look over the last hundred years or so of relations between Russia and the Ukraine, and get back to us.

To save you the trouble, I can boil it down:
Russia purposely starved a few million Ukrainians, and put in a police state that exiled hundreds of thousands more into Gulags. It was so bad that when the Nazis invaded in 1941, many Ukrainians saw them as liberators. (They weren't, of course, and the Ukrainians figured that out pretty quick.)

Having known what being under the Russian thumb means, and having gotten out in recent memory, it is entirely rational for them to want any means of deterring Russian re-domination and getting help in the event they do attack, as they have done.

Am I saying they are perfect? No. What I'm saying is that there is no way on earth Ukraine would ever ally with 'the bear right next to them.'

I'm well aware of the history of Ukraine. Of course they don't want to be under Russia's thumb. Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania all joined NATO to prevent another Russian takeover, and now Finland and Sweden are about to join as well.

The problem with Ukraine is that they cozied up to corrupt American (any maybe other) politicians for a decade, and got nothing in return. All they got was an empty promise that after all the payoffs, they could join NATO and maybe the EU. Zelensky even helped the democrats impeach Trump. Who do you think leaked the info about the call? He did it to curry favor and help get rid of Trump who was accused (falsely) of being too friendly to Russia.

Russia annexed Crimea years ago, and the west did nothing. There was no question that Russia would continue to be a threat to Ukraine, and the west wouldn't intervene. If that is the situation, you DO NOT continue pissing off the nuclear power next door UNTIL you get NATO membership. Zelensky probably benefitted personally from all the corruption, so his judgement was clouded. Why would the west ever give him what he wanted as long as he kept paying them off? They milked him for everything and left him high and dry. But now the truth could come out, either from Zelensky or Putin, so they have to "help" Zelensky enough to keep him quiet and drag out the war long enough to get rid of the evidence...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Lefty Sig,

Israel rejects U.S. request to approve missile transfer to Ukraine

https://www.axios.com/2022/05/...raine-germany-russia

Israel turned down a U.S. request to allow Berlin to supply Ukraine with anti-tank missiles produced in Germany with Israeli technology under an Israeli license, two U.S. and Israeli officials said.

Why it matters: The issue of weapons supply is one of the last policy differences between the U.S. and Israel when it comes to the war.

Under pressure from the Biden administration, Israel has adjusted its policy toward Moscow and gradually taken a more pro-Ukraine position than it did when Russia began its invasion. But it has so far not supplied advanced weaponry to Ukraine.

Driving the news: Amir Eshel, director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Defense, visited Washington two weeks ago for talks with Pentagon officials on security cooperation between the U.S. and Israel.

Colin Kahl, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, met with Eshel and raised the Biden administration’s efforts to get countries around the world to supply Ukraine with weapons, according to the U.S. and Israeli officials.

Kahl asked Eshel if Israel would give permission to Germany to transfer “Spike” anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, the officials said.
The missiles are produced in an Israeli-owned factory in Germany. According to the license, Israel must approve any transfer of the missiles to a third party.
Eshel rejected the request, telling Kahl that Israel will only supply Ukraine with nonlethal military equipment, the officials said.

A senior Israeli official said Israel is concerned Russian soldiers will be killed by Israeli-made weapons, which could lead to Russia harming Israeli security interests in Syria.
Between the lines: Russia holds enormous influence in Syria but allows Israel to operate freely against Iranian activity there.

State of play: When Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Washington last week, the missile supply didn’t come up in his meetings with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to Israeli officials.

The officials said Gantz told Austin and Sullivan Israel is committed to supporting Ukraine and has started supplying it with nonlethal military equipment while also maintaining its security interests in the Middle East.

On the day Gantz arrived in Washington, Israel sent a shipment of 2,000 helmets and 500 protective vests for emergency and civilian organizations in Ukraine.
What they are saying: "We continue to discuss with allies and partners the ongoing situation in Ukraine and the need to support Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russian aggression, but we will not discuss the details of those conversations," Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told me.

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe class="rumble" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://rumble.com/embed/vudtmr/?pub=4" width="640"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Thanks for posting this. Seems to me that Leon’s analysis is an important perspective to hear.

Silent

IIRC Israel has strong ties to Russia and is in a precarious position here. There are a lot of Russian-speaking Israelis. About a million Russian Jews emigrated to Palestine/Israel after WWII.

Russia has given Israel almost free rein to attack Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria. There are Israeli air raids and missile attacks all the time against targets in Syria. The Russians haven’t used their air defenses against Israel.

Israel is in a precarious position.

Israel is very much it’s own country, with geo-political and strategic concerns. Sometimes those line up with the US, many times they do not.

Unlike Canada/UK/Aus etc, they are NOT our allies in the normal sense of the word. We have similar objectives, as democracies, but our paths diverge often.

EU fails to agree on Russia oil embargo, to try again Monday

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news...-to-try-again-monday

The proposed sanctions on oil imports are part of the European Union's sixth sanctions package on Russia

The European Union failed on Sunday to agree on an embargo on Russian oil, but diplomats will still try to make progress ahead of a Monday-Tuesday summit.

However, a senior EU diplomat said there was "still too much detail to sort out" to hope for an agreement before leaders gather in Brussels on Monday afternoon.

The proposed sanctions on oil imports are part of the EU's sixth sanctions package on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Cutting Russia's biggest bank Sberbank off from the SWIFT messaging system; banning Russian broadcasters from the EU; and adding more people to a list of individuals whose assets are frozen and who cannot enter the EU are all assets of the package.

The whole package is being held up by Hungary, which says an oil embargo would be a body blow to its economy because it cannot quickly get oil from elsewhere. Slovakia and the Czech Republic expressed similar concerns.

Talks on the oil embargo have been going on for a month with no progress, and leaders were keen to reach an agreement for their summit to avoid looking disunited in their response to Moscow.

The European Commission proposed that the ban would apply only to Russian oil brought into the EU by tankers in order to break the deadlock.

This would allow Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia to continue to receive oil via the Russian Druzhba pipeline.

quote:

The whole package is being held up by Hungary, which says an oil embargo would be a body blow to its economy because it cannot quickly get oil from elsewhere. Slovakia and the Czech Republic expressed similar concerns.

Hmmm, think of that. A country actually trying to weigh 'all' the consequences of their actions in terms of how they might impact the lives of their citizens. What a unique concept...

^^^ Yeah, because Orban wouldn't grab just any opportunity to negotiate with the lefties that dominate politics in Germany and France. After all, Poland and Lithuania might take weeks or even (gasp) months to become the new LNG importation hub, and liberating all of Ukraine would only guarantee Hungary a cheap, stable source of supply right next door.

(No, Omar, not all oil and gas transferred via Ukrainian pipelines comes from inside ol' Mother Russia. Before Putin's little jihad to revive the Soviets, plenty of it - and coal - were produced inside Ukraine. At the same time, the south coast of Ukraine would provide access points and ports for shipments (via sea or pipeline) from the south.)

Look for Austria to become the next squeaky wheel if Orban cuts a deal.

And don't forget that Turkey will want to be elevated to a grand imperial power too - just because.

And, finally, never forget: This is as much a bid by Russia to control oil and grain supplies in Europe as anything else. Do we really need to have this (or the next) Putin have that much tighter a grip on Europe's throat? How many more complications do we need to accept in order to maintain an alliance with Western, Central, and now portions of Eastern Europe to prevent overt Russian aggression in the future? Putin's trying to apply jiu jitsu on a continental scale, and the only possible response is to break his grip.

Or at least his kneecaps.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo Jones:
IIRC Israel has strong ties to Russia and is in a precarious position here. There are a lot of Russian-speaking Israelis. About a million Russian Jews emigrated to Palestine/Israel after WWII.

You're not wrong however, I wouldn't look too deeply into this one.

Israel when it comes to foreign relations is more sophisticated than the US, as their politicians are always viewing things from a defensive posture. US officials, depending on the political winds and their egos, are always look out for themselves. The Israelis, like the Indians, are keeping their distance from this whole mess; I don't doubt their own intelligence services has some provided some insight into the entanglements of various Western governments.

Its now over 3 months into this, Russia has shifted their offense into a more traditional, artillery-led ground attacks, which is slowly steaming over various areas of E.Ukraine. Ukraine can't win a war attrition with Russia, few can. There's a LOT more Russians that can be thrown into the meat-grinder than Ukrainians, who are starting to tire and exhaust all their stocks of munitions.

Per AP, the EU has cut a deal to embargo seaborne oil imports from Russia but leave pipelines open temporarily so that Hungary can continue to get 60% of its oil and 85% of its natural gas from Russia. Nevertheless, the EU swears up and down that EU's imports of Russian oil will be cut by 90% by the end of the year.

http://www.yahoo.com/finance/n...bargo-073529864.html

Actual mileage may, of course, vary.

No traction for a war-ending deal in Ukraine

https://asiatimes.com/2022/05/...ing-deal-in-ukraine/

U.S. suddenly desperate for a ceasefire as battlefield turns in Russia’s favor but Moscow isn’t taking the bait


As the US celebrates its Memorial Day weekend, remembering its fallen war heroes, the situation in Ukraine has shifted dramatically.

While a week ago Ukrainian leaders were confident that they could drive the Russians from Ukrainian territory, now it appears they are heading for a major defeat in the Donbass region, the area of Eastern Ukraine that stretches all the way down to the Azov Sea and beyond.

If the Russians do defeat the main force of Ukraine’s army, or trap them in an unfolding pincer operation, Ukraine will inevitably have to reach a settlement with Russia.

All of this could happen very quickly. The US and European press, in particular, has started to tell the real story of the unfolding battle, after weeks of disgorging Ukrainian propaganda on how they were slaughtering Russian forces.

Now, with the tables turned, leaders in the US and in NATO, and especially the British, are likely to be almost as unhappy as the Ukrainians.

No matter what deal may be made, and one seems likely if the Russians give a green light, the West will have another big black eye, and NATO membership will look less and less attractive.

The US is hurrying to send new types of weapons to Ukraine, including HIMARS, a high mobility precision rocket system. These will have to be yanked from war stocks, which could very well weaken US capabilities elsewhere, especially in East Asia.

But even if the US resolves to send HIMARS, it is probably too late for Ukraine’s resistance. Furthermore, the Russians have warned that there will be a price to pay if HIMARS is delivered and deployed.

Nevertheless, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is preparing the ground to reach a deal with the Russians. Whether he can do so, however, is altogether unclear.

For Zelensky, oddly enough, the good news is that the troops who could put a lot of internal pressure on him, the Azov Brigade of ultra-nationalists, are now mostly in Russian prisoner camps after losing in Mariupol.

They are not likely to be returned to action any time soon. While Zelensky has locked up his pro-Russian opponents and squeezed many others, the diplomatic front is a different kind of battlefield.

On May 13, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called his Russian counterpart, Defense Minister General Sergei Shoigu, where he reportedly asked Shoigu for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

On May 19, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (JCS) of Staff General Mark Milley called his Russian counterpart General Valery Gerasimov. Details of that discussion have not been publicly released, but it can be surmised it was another US push for a ceasefire.

So why is Washington suddenly in such a hurry to clinch a ceasefire? One explanation is that they already saw that the Russians were moving into a position to trap Ukraine’s army in Donbass and that there was no good way out.

Despite both phone calls – marking the first contact between Russia’s and America’s military since the Ukraine war started – no ceasefire was agreed. This probably touched off even greater alarm in Washington and among US allies who also are supplying tons of weapons to Ukraine.

It is easy to forget that part of the reason behind Biden’s almost irrational commitment to fight in Ukraine has been to cover up his massive failure in Afghanistan, marked by the hasty and chaotic retreat of American troops last August that allowed the Taliban to declare a clear victory.

The Ukraine gambit appears to have been a shrewd, if not cynical policy: NATO seems together as never before, the US and its allies are shipping in weapons at an unprecedented pace and Ukraine seems to be shoving the Russians back. It looked as if Biden could walk away a big hero, linking arms with Zelensky.

Biden was even desperate to go to Kiev to stand side by side with Zelensky. But intelligence sources were telling a different story. Instead, Biden sent his wife to meet Mrs Zelensky while he stayed home. His secretary of defense and JCS chairman pleaded with the Russians to stop and agree to a ceasefire.

Maybe they dangled some other incentives – we still don’t know – but Russia was not about to take the bait.

There are at least two reasons why Russia declined. The first, and easiest to understand, is that at last they thought they had turned around the Ukraine disaster and were heading for a win.

The second, closely related to the first, is that President Vladimir Putin needs a victory, not a ceasefire. He is under the gun at home and his job is very much on the line. Either Putin wins or he is out. A ceasefire is negative for him on both counts.

What this means for the Ukrainians is that they will get the war to end only after a full deal is agreed, not before. At that point, the fighting will stop, as it stopped on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the armistice, when Germany agreed to surrender.

There are certain things the Russians want that Ukraine will have to find a way to accept. The biggest one of all is no NATO, and no pseudo-NATO, presence on Ukrainian soil. Zelensky has previously signaled he is prepared for that.

But the Russians may go further, and want Ukraine in its pet security alliance, known as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), made up of Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The Russians might want that to replace Ukrainian NATO membership, and the CSTO could also offer Ukraine security assurances if Ukraine would accept them.

Alternatively, Ukraine might propose an association with the Committee on Security Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which is a party to both Minsk agreements, giving it credibility for both Ukraine and Russia.

But it will take movement by Putin to agree to it, especially since CSCE was unable to deliver a final deal under the Minsk II (2015) agreement, opening the door to NATO and the US to train up and supply the Ukrainian military and to begin setting up naval and air bases for NATO on Ukrainian territory.

Along with no NATO and possible security guarantees, there are two difficult questions. One of them involves the status of the two “republics,” Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russia recognized them as independent states just before Russia invaded Ukraine. Before that, their status was awaiting a solution under the Minsk II agreement, that promised these areas “autonomy” – but an autonomy realized under the Ukrainian constitution and supported by Ukrainian enabling legislation.

Whether that remains on the table in any way is an unresolved question. It is noteworthy that one of the key cultural issues impacting the Donbass region is that these are largely (or at least were before the war) Russian- speaking parts of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian parliament had banned the Russian language in all official correspondence, in hospitals, banks and other public entities, and pulled Russian language teaching in the schools. It was announced this week that the schools in Mariupol, or at least the ones that survive after Russia’s victory, will now once again be teaching Russian.

The second issue involves the territory of the two republics, which will be changed as a result of the war. If these two areas are broken off entirely from Ukraine, then they will be considerably larger if Ukraine is forced to agree to the armistice line as the border between these two regions and Ukraine.

Of course, it is less of a problem if these regions are autonomous but that is much more difficult to achieve now because between 2015 and now there have been no serious negotiations of autonomy under the Minsk framework.

There are plenty of other issues. The Russians will demand some form of Ukrainian demilitarization but Ukraine will surely try and avoid that outcome. Ukraine will also need economic concessions, particularly the ability to ship grain and other commodities out through the Black Sea. Oil and gas transit is also an important trade issue that will need to be resolved.

There is much more and any settlement will need to be worked out quickly. Neither Zelensky nor Putin can stand for a long and drawn-out diplomatic process. Each one has enemies within and a short timeline.

It is far from certain the war will end. After all, it could drag on for years, costing thousands more lives on both sides. But the country has all but been wrecked and recovery will be difficult and costly.

On top of everything else, while Ukraine may have prospects for raising Western capital, Russia has none. In both cases we are looking at decades, supposing the fighting is ended to restore normal life to now war-torn Ukraine.

https://www.newsweek.com/exclu...-report-says-1710357

Vladimir Putin's health is a subject of intense conversation inside the Biden administration after the intelligence community produced its fourth comprehensive assessment at the end of May. The classified U.S. report says Putin seems to have re-emerged after undergoing treatment in April for advanced cancer, three U.S. intelligence leaders who have read the reports tell Newsweek.

The assessments also confirm that there was an assassination attempt on Putin's life in March, the officials say.

The high-ranking officials, who represent three separate intelligence agencies, are concerned that Putin is increasingly paranoid about his hold on power, a status that makes for a rocky and unpredictable course in Ukraine. But it is one, they say, that also makes the prospects of nuclear war less likely.

"Putin's grip is strong but no longer absolute," says one of the senior intelligence officers with direct access to the reports. "The jockeying inside the Kremlin has never been more intense during his rule, everyone sensing that the end is near."

All three officials—one from the office of the Director of National Intelligence, one a retired Air Force senior officer, and one from the Defense Intelligence Agency—caution that the Russian leader's isolation makes it more difficult for U.S. intelligence to precisely assess Putin's status and health.

"What we know is that there is an iceberg out there, albeit one covered in fog," says the DNI leader, who communicated with Newsweek via email and requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

"One source of our best intelligence, which is contact with outsiders, largely dried up as a result of the Ukraine war," says the DIA senior official. "Putin has had few meetings with foreign leaders," the official says, cutting off the insights that can sometimes be gained in face-to-face encounters. "Putin's isolation has thus increased levels of speculation."

"We need to be mindful of the influence of wishful thinking," cautions the retired Air Force leader. "We learned—or didn't learn—that lesson the hard way with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein."

Horseback-riding, hockey-playing Vladimir Putin has been the image of masculinity and vitality for years, a persona carefully curated by official Moscow and one often used by Kremlin propagandists to contrast the Russian leader with his American counterparts.

Then came the very long table that Putin used in the Kremlin to record the photo ops of his important meetings, one that came to symbolize his paranoia and physical fear.

The table most recently was the venue for Putin's meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on February 7, just two weeks before the Ukraine invasion. For the intelligence community, the long table and Putin's behavior with Macron became a baseline against which to measure the Russian president's decline.

"There was no shaking of hands, no warm embrace, and we noticed that," says the DNI leader. He said that French intelligence had many observations from the meeting and the trip to Moscow, declining to elaborate on what was reported back to the U.S. government.

Then came Putin's April 21 meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, this time at a small table, the hue all green and peaceful. Many focused on Shoigu, who had been missing from the public eye. But it was Putin who had largely been absent for much of the month, and he was far from a picture of health, slouching in his chair and gripping the table with his right hand.

Some observers inferred that the Russian leader had Parkinson's disease. Others insisted it was just his KGB weapons training, referring to his rigid stance and walk, always with the right arm ready to reach inside a jacket for a gun. The video was closely scrutinized by intelligence community analysts, some trained in remote diagnosis and others in psychiatry. Many pieces of intelligence were analyzed for the White House: the consensus was that Putin was ill and probably dying. He seemed to be putting on a good show. But perhaps the isolation of COVID had masked a decline that was only now more vividly being exposed.

The May 9 "Victory Day" appearance was next, where a noticeably bloated Russian leader sat slumped. Putin's health, and his inability (or reluctance) to declare victory in Ukraine went together. The U.S. intelligence community agreed that his situation was graver than previously thought, and his physical exhaustion was matched by Russia's own exhaustion.

Three days later, Ukraine's head of intelligence Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov told U.K. Sky News that Putin was in a "very bad psychological and physical condition and he is very sick," adding that there were plans inside the Kremlin to overthrow the Russian leader.

A rumor that Kremlin security people had uncovered a Russian plot to assassinate Putin was confirmed at this time. The CIA and foreign intelligence services were picking up consistent stories of discord at the top of the national security ministries, as well as the desire on the part of Russian diplomats to defect to the west.

"Someone once seen as omnipotent was now mostly seen as struggling with the future, his own in particular," says the DNI leader.

more at link

quote:

Others insisted it was just his KGB weapons training, referring to his rigid stance and walk, always with the right arm ready to reach inside a jacket for a gun.

Huh?

Saddam Secretly Ill?

SEPTEMBER 16, 2000 / 1:22 PM / REUTERS-VARIETY

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saddam-secretly-ill/

The United States has confirmed that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is suffering from cancer, a Kuwaiti weekly said on Saturday.

Al-Zamen weekly said Washington first learned of Saddam's illness three years ago, "but the search ended in February, according to informed U.S. sources, after American intelligence obtained confirmed information."

The weekly is owned by Sheikh Nasser, who is an adviser to Kuwait's prime minister and crown prince, Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah. He is also a son to influential Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

"Observers noted that the United States appears to be waiting for Saddam Hussein's death from cancer as an alternative to its failed containment policy which Washington has been a hostage of for a decade," Zamen's report from Washington said.

In recent weeks, some Iraqi opposition sources and regional publications had said that Saddam was suffering from lymphatic cancer, but the Iraqi embassy in Bangladesh denied the reports.

Zamen said a Jordanian official had also received confirmation of Saddam's illness from a visiting Iraqi counterpart, "which explains the rushing of French, Cuban and other doctors to Baghdad through Amman."

The weekly's cover story was prepared ahead of the latest escalation in tension between Kuwait and former occupier Iraq.

Iraq on Thursday accused its much smaller southern neighbour Kuwait of stealing its oil from a border field, triggering a U.S. threat of military action.

^^^^^^^^^


CNN’s New Chief Says ‘Breaking News’ Banner Is Overused

In a memo sent to staffers Thursday, the news outlet’s new chief indicated he felt the too-frequent use of “breaking news” graphics on air had rendered the technique useless, and vowed CNN would scale back use of the phrase on screen. In doing so, CNN will tamp down use of a tactic that has become all but ubiquitous in the realm of cable news.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/ne...is-licht-1235283520/