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Independent researcher/writer based in Hong Kong since 1997. Reformed academic. My long-form, analytical articles are collected here https://laura-ruggeri.medium.com/ email: lauraru852@yandex.ru
Who will finally hold Israel accountable for its crimes? UNIFIL has come under fire from Israel... again. The United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon confirms that Israeli forces struck its headquarters in Naqoura twice in 48 hours. Targeting UN missions is a war crime but Israel was never sanctioned when its army of psychopaths killed and injured UN peacekeepers in the past. Impunity has only emboldened the Zionist entity. Those who haven't denounced the colonial occupation and the genocide of Palestinians should spare us their faux outrage. @LauraRuHK
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The West wants ASEAN to work against Russia and China, Russia's FM Sergei Lavrov said following the summit in Laos, where the annual series of leadership meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries was held.
"We drew attention to the risks of militarization of the region pursued by the West, risks to the stability of the Asian part of our common continent and to sustainable development. We, in turn, reaffirmed that Russia invariably supports the efforts of the ASEAN countries aimed at preserving peace and ensuring equal cooperation with all partners of the association. The West wants to make ASEAN its main partner, and to target this partnership against the interests of Russia and China - first of all," the minister said.
As the diplomat added, the summit showed that Western countries are working to undermine the multilateral architecture of ASEAN. According to him, the US and their allies have set a course for the inclusion of the Asia-Pacific region in the zone of interest of NATO.
Thus, Lavrov pointed out that numerous narrow and closed military-political associations controlled by Washington are being created here, such as "USA - Japan - Korea", "USA - Japan - Philippines" and "Australia - New Zealand - South Korea- Japan". And all this is not conducive to teamwork. It fragments this common space, and divides it into friends and foes," the head of the Russian diplomatic department stressed.
Lavrov noted that the United States tried to promote the topics of escalation in the South China Sea and the conflict in Ukraine at the summit, but this did not find any response from ASEAN members. Participants from the Western group, including Japan, New Zealand and Australia, "agreed" with the American theses, the Foreign Minister added.
In addition, the Foreign Minister said that the final declaration of the East Asia Summit could not be adopted due to attempts by the US, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand to politicize it. He noted that in this way Washington and its allies sought to move away from the decades-old practice of not allowing the declarations of this event to be saturated with any geopolitical and confrontational issues.
According to Lavrov, the West demanded that the Russian authorities "takes responsibility for every evil under the sun in connection with what is going on in Ukraine, where the United States and its allies provoked a coup d'état and have since supported the actions of the criminal Kiev regime." (Source: RIA Novosti) @LauraRuHK 🔸https://ria.ru/20241011/zapad-1977521378.html
The Guardian, a real cesspit, occasionally publishes an article you can read without pinching your nose. Adam Tooze looks at the big picture and sees what is abundantly clear to anyone who isn't blinded by Western propaganda - A deranged revival of the ruinous Neocon ambition of the 1990s and 2000s. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/10/war-middle-east-ukraine-us-feeble-biden-trump
There is one school of thought that says the Biden administration is muddling through. It has no grand plan. It lacks the will or the means to discipline or direct either the Ukrainians or the Israelis. As a result, it is mainly focused on avoiding a third world war. But what if that interpretation is too benign? What if it underestimates the intentionality on Washington’s part? What if key figures in the administration actually see this as a history-defining moment and an opportunity to reshape the balance of world power? What if what we are witnessing is the pivoting of the US to a deliberate and comprehensive revisionism by way of a strategy of tension? In all three arenas – China, Ukraine and the Middle East – the US will say that it is responding to aggression. But rather than working consistently for a return to the status quo it is, in fact, raising the stakes. While insisting that it supports the rules-based order, what we are witnessing is something closer to a revival of the ruinous neoconservative ambition of the 1990s and 2000s. there is more going on here than simply muddling through. First the Trump and now the Biden presidencies are willing contributors to the controlled demolition of the 1990s post-cold war order.Читать полностью…
Imagination or precognition? - As someone who used to write fiction in her spare time, in 2015 i published a short story titled "Looting the Looters" in which teenage gamers were hired to fly drones in a military conflict. @LauraRuHK
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Origin Quantum is boosting its operations amid China’s nationwide drive towards technological self-sufficiency. That push has become more urgent as the US has ramped up efforts to thwart China’s progress by curbing its access to American technologies. Days after Origin Quantum landed on the US entity list, the company told Chinese media it had successfully created a “high-density microwave interconnect module”, enabling it to independently produce all core components of its quantum computers domestically. (Source: SCMP) @LauraRuHK
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Most US think tanks were created and are funded by the military-industrial complex. It goes without saying that their job is to conjure up or hype threats in order to justify increased defense spending. Their analyses have always been skewed but in recent years they have become dangerously detached from reality. Case in point the China's Global Influence Index, created by CESI (China Economic & Strategy Initiative) which was founded in 2022 and is led by Randall Schriver (Project 2049 Institute, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the Trump administration) and Dan Blumenthal (Senior Country Director for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia at the US Department of Defense during the G.W. Bush administration.) The organization operates under the auspices of the Project 2049 Institute. Schriver is a longtime advocate of massive, highly provocative arms sales to Taiwan. Of course his lobbying is propelled by financial support from arms contractors and Taiwan. @LauraRuHK
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China is supporting our enemy by trading with Russia, businesses should review their ties with China, re-evaluate their relationship with Beijing, BlackRock's Larry Fink told his Berlin audience a week ago. These days you don't find a decapitated horse head in your bed, the warning is delivered at business conferences. BlackRock and Deep State are joined at the hip, so Washington may have thought, this is the perfect time to send in the Taiwanese clown. Shows are scheduled in Prague and two other European capitals, starting on October 12. @LauraRuHK
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What shocks me the most when i travel to the West is that even the new generations dread the future and display many of the symptoms associated with anxiety about the future, including the inability to make plans and see them through. As they can't identify the root cause of their distress, they indulge in fantasies about themselves and the world around them. Thus the point we have already got to is that the self, detached from reality, free in its own way, comes to be anybody (and any gender) in fantasy, and nobody in reality. This self is related primarily to objects of its own fantasies. Being so much a self-in-fantasy, it becomes eventually volatilized. In its dread of facing the commitment to the objective element, it sought to preserve its identity; but, no longer anchored to fact, no longer conditioned by family and social relations, it comes to be in danger of losing what it was seeking above all to safeguard. Losing the conditioned, it loses its identity; losing reality, it loses its possibility of exercising effective freedom of choice in the world. As the West is experiencing the same fate suffered by its colonies - it is being subjugated and pillaged by robber barons (aka Deep State) with the help of lieutenants masquerading as politicians, an army of technocrats and agitprop units - it is hardly any surprise that it faces a grim future. A fractured society, a fractured identity and a fractured economy produce insecurity, fear and anxiety, and when a young person looks at the future s/he can only recoil in horror. @LauraRuHK
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Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out the root cause of the conflict: the presence of the United States and a number of European countries falsely claiming to advocate peace.
Khamenei made the remarks in a meeting with a group of Iranian elites, scientific talents and top ranks at the country’s university entrance exam, in the capital Tehran on Wednesday.
“If they get themselves out of this region, beyond a shadow of doubt, these conflicts, these wars, these clashes will come to a complete halt, and the countries of the region will be able to govern themselves, govern their region, and live together in peace, blessing and prosperity.” ◾️Khamenei's assessment is correct. The Zionist entity fits the definition of a colonial, imperial outpost. Though the establishment of Israel was certainly a great catastrophe for Palestinians and destabilized the whole region, it is its role as an American proxy that enables the U.S. to maintain control of West Asia, that is to dominate a strategic region between Europe, Asia and Africa, a key node of global trade and also one of the main oil and gas producing regions. The West tried to grab its natural resources through the age old “divide and rule” strategy, the result was decades of wars, regime change and chaos. As U.S. hegemony wanes and West Asia looks at China as a more promising partner for its development and as an honest peace broker, the region has become a new arena of China-US strategic competition. Setting West Asia on fire is the hegemon's desperate and vain attempt to contain the rise of China, derail its Belt&Road Initiative, deal a blow to the BRICS+ and forestall the inevitable creation of a multipolar world order. @LauraRuHK
The Russian Army has taken full control of Ugledar after two and a half years of intense fighting.
According to various estimates, the Ukrainian army lost at least 700 soldiers in the heavy urban battles for the "fortress" not to mention the units destroyed around Ugledar. The main losses were suffered by the 72nd and 58th brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that were ordered to defend Ugledar until the last Ukrainian. Their command reportedly allowed them to withdraw from the city only in the evening of September 30, when the garrison was completely surrounded and almost defeated. (Source: Southfront) Other sources report that a large number of Ukrainian soldiers surrendered. /channel/mash_donbass/7413
Israel's gas platforms in the Mediterranean Sea have reportedly been destroyed following Iran's missile attack
@PressTV
Smoke and mirrors. When careers are built on U.S. owned social media platforms i immediately smell a rat. Regardless of the content influencers share, which is hardly original, if they are given visibility, and that visibility is allowed to grow when most of us are either blocked or shadow banned on the same platforms, it is precisely because they are useful to the usual suspects. Obviously these influencers/pseudo-analysts say all the right things and stir emotions to build a following, but once they have built it, they can become a conduit for disinformation and play a crucial role in influence operations. Think of them as sleeper agents who are activated when necessary. @LauraRuHK /channel/Reality_Theories/21043
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If you can stomach expressions of American exceptionalism and want to get an example of the dangerous delusions that still shape U.S. foreign policy two decades after the Bush doctrine, read the article below. A better title would have been "Naked imperialism. We can't leave the world to itself" - Speaking to the inaugural Atlantic Council Global Future Forum in New York, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explained, “the U.S. has got to make both a statement and a reality of America’s willingness to remain engaged in the world, because great powers don’t mind their own business. And if we don’t shape the international environment, then others will . . . powers like China and Russia (...) I just hope that we in the United States can recognize it as such,” she added, “and not fall into a sense that we can simply leave the world to itself.”
▪️What can the United States and others do about China+Russia?
Rice laid out an approach for whomever is elected US president in November.
Instead of trying to pull China and Russia apart, as others suggested and tried, she instead would “slam them together and not only make them face the consequences of their actions, but also expose how little they have in common beyond their common cause against the United States and its allies." ▪️The Neocon hive mind is dangerously detached from reality, otherwise it would notice, as the Global Majority does, the West's decline. The U.S. has two options, tertium non datur: accept the new multipolar world order and coexist with other powers, or start WW3. But the latter option would simply wipe the human race off the face of the earth. @LauraRuHK https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/inflection-points/the-us-confronts-two-global-threats-china-russia-and-itself/
Last month, Gen. Zhang Youxia, one of the two vice chairs of the Central Military Commission, during a meeting with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan urged the U.S. to stop colluding with Taiwan.
“China demands that the United States stop military collusion between the U.S. and Taiwan, stop arming Taiwan, and stop spreading false narratives about Taiwan.” What did the U.S. do after that meeting?
Two weeks ago, the US State Department authorized a potential $228 million foreign military sale to Taipei and today, according to Reuters, Joe Biden authorized and ordered the provision of $567 million in military aid.
▪️As Washington keeps ignoring Beijing's red lines, China is enhancing its combat readiness. A few days ago it conducted an intercontinental ballistic missile test for the first time in 44 years, and Xi Jinping visited China's nuclear missile centers. @LauraRuHK
In Austria the Freedom Party (FPÖ) is set for a historic election win (see exit polls.) But it has fallen short of an absolute majority and will need help to form a stable government. Building a coalition is likely to be difficult, since all other major parties have ruled out working with the FPÖ. The FPÖ is highly critical of Western military aid to Ukraine, called to lift "damaging and pointless" international sanctions against Russia, and opposed sanctions on Russian energy. The party also proposed a complete overhaul of Austria's migration system, and it's precisely this electoral promise that propelled the party to victory. @LauraRuHK
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang at 27th China-ASEAN Summit stressed the need for connectivity and smooth flows in the economy as important foundations for development. China would like to enhance railway, port and other infrastructure cooperation with ASEAN, expedite the signing and implementation of the FTA 3.0, strengthen the linkage among cross-border payment systems, and scale up local currency settlement to boost the integrated development of regional economies.
The keywords are connectivity, integration and cooperation. China would like to join hands with ASEAN to seize the opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation to enhance the sustainability of growth for Asia in the future..
Beijing also intends to boost people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and ASEAN countries. @LauraRuHK 🔸https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202410/10/content_WS6707dcefc6d0868f4e8ebab0.html
Israhell, after killing 175 journalists in just a year, is charging US journalist Jeremy Loffredo with “aiding the enemy during wartime and providing information to the enemy” for reporting on the Israeli military targets hit by Iran. ▪️Since its establishment, the genocidal Zionist regime has crossed all the red lines under international and humanitarian laws, and its crimes are still unpunished. @LauraRuHK
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Zelensky's victory plan falls victim to hurricane Milton 😅 Feel free to quote from Paradise Lost. @LauraRuHK
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China announced on Tuesday that it would take temporary anti-dumping measures against brandy imported from the EU. The stocks of brandy companies such as Hennessy and Rémy Cointreau fell as a consequence. China is a key market for EU brandy sales and profits. Anyone who has been to China knows how popular brandy is in the country, so much so that XO is slang for something that is high quality and considered a luxury. The announcement comes just days after EU countries voted to slap duties on Chinese electric vehicles for five years. The move mainly targets French luxury Cognac brands, after Paris was viewed as the primary supporter of duties on EVs in a vote last Friday. @LauraRuHK
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Betting on Ukraine’s victory was a crazy, high-odds bet, a very risky bet even for the regular gamblers of the vast casino known as the Western financial system. So why did BlackRock and JP Morgan sign a MoU with Zelensky nearly two years ago? Because if the scammers lose Ukraine (very likely), they count on the EU (i.e. taxpayers) to pick up the bill. And of course they have set their eyes on Russian frozen assets. 👉The European Commission is pushing for an agreement to freeze sanctioned Russian assets for a longer three-year period to allow windfall profits from the assets to back a loan of up to €35 billion for Ukraine. The commission hopes the agreement will be in place by the end of this month. The proposal was discussed at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday. @LauraRuHK
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Sergey Lavrov - Eurasian security architecture
Today’s world needs to seek better ways of ensuring security in various regions, considering the unfortunate result of adopting Euro-Atlantic security models, which the West put in the service of its expansionist designs. It is of the essence to learn the lesson.
Russia has put forward an initiative to build an inclusive architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia. It is open to all states and organisations on our common continent that are willing to work out mutually acceptable solutions together, taking advantage of the interconnectedness and natural competitive advantages of our common Eurasian space. On October 31 – November 1, 2024, Minsk will host an international conference dedicated to this topic.
Establishing a space of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia is crucial amid the all-encompassing processes unfolding in the macro-region. Not only is the deterioration of the military-political situation caused by the policy of the collective West to undermine the sovereign development of the continent’s leading powers unacceptable to responsible Eurasian states. The fact is that the growing risk of local tensions evolving into a bigger regional conflict calls into question the further progressive development of the entire Eurasia, which is a major driver of global economic growth. Resolving security issues is an indispensable condition for the further dynamic development of the continent’s countries and unlocking the potential of multilateral projects they are part of.
Our initiative is based on the understanding of the need for states and multilateral organisations of the Eurasian region to assume responsibility for ensuring their own security under the ‘Eurasian solutions to Eurasian problems’ formula. Therefore, the strategic goals of the architecture that we propose call for resolving the existing disagreements on the continent by the efforts of the Eurasian countries themselves, preventing conflicts in the future, and terminating the destabilising military presence of extra-regional players in Eurasia.
In our view, achieving economic growth, social progress, integration and mutually beneficial cooperation, and addressing common problems are integral parts of ensuring Eurasian security.
At the same time, we are not fencing off or excluding European states from this dialogue – provided that they are genuinely interested and are not involved in any destructive actions directed against other countries of Eurasia, the continent stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok and from Moscow to Riyadh, New Delhi, Beijing and Jakarta. 🔸His full address to the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, here https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/un-must-central-role-lavrov/
For the last few centuries states have been the primary actors in global affairs. But when we look at the US we can't asses its foreign policy on the basis of its supposed national interest - the US has imperial interests and these interests often coincide with the interests of nonstate actors, with finance and technology companies in the lead. These are not merely large multinational corporations; they have taken control of aspects of society, the economy, and national security that were once the exclusive preserve of the state. It’s a form of Ultra-imperialism that demands a new strategy of contrast and resistance. These companies exercise a form of sovereignty over an expanding realm: finance and digital space. Although this isn’t the first time that private corporations and banking giants have played a major role in geopolitics—consider the East India Company, Big Oil, the Rothschilds etc. — but earlier giants could never match the pervasive global presence of today’s finance and technology firms. They do not operate or wield power exclusively in physical space. They have created a new dimension in geopolitics, digital space, over which they exercise primary influence as people are increasingly living out their lives in this vast territory, where the digital and the physical are enmeshed. Political scientists still rely on a classification system that has become obsolete: “democracies,” “autocracies,” and “hybrid regimes,” which combine elements of both. Techno-feudalism has been suggested as a new category, though it doesn't fully account for the totalitarian and opaque nature of this new form of government. Even as feudal subjects were separated through distinctions of class, guild, and estate, medieval vertical social relations and duties remained holistic. Economic obligations were derived from hierarchical bonds of political authority. While those bonds were unfree, they provided transparent recognition that one’s social position was embedded within the web of relations connecting the individual to the community.
US nonstate actors penetrate virtually all aspects of civic, economic, and private life. A generation ago, the Internet accelerated globalization. Now, in the context of great powers rivalry and the formation of a new multipolar world, the fragmentation of the digital landscape makes operating on a truly global scale increasingly difficult for these US companies. And they have only themselves to blame - the weaponization of information, culture, social media, finance etc. to wage a hybrid war and advance US imperial interests has backfired. @LauraRuHK
Moscow and Beijing expand cooperation in the Arctic as this alternative shipping route becomes viable. Yesterday, on China's National Day, state media released photos and footage to mark the country’s first coastguard patrol in the Arctic in a joint exercise with Russia.
@LauraRuHK
Barrage of missiles is raining down on Tel Aviv, occupied Palestine.
@PressTV
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which is funded by NED, Soros' Open Society, Omydiar Network, European Commission, Ford Foundation, UK/FCO, etc. launched "The Propaganda Monitor" on 30 September 2024. They claim that "this multimedia platform aims to expose the many faces and tactics behind propaganda worldwide." The first season is devoted to...drumroll please... Russian propaganda! Let me guess, is the second season devoted to Chinese propaganda? ▪️Vittorio Rangeloni's work speaks for itself, he is a reliable source and an experienced reporter who since 2015 has risked his life to cover the war in Donbass and for this reason ended up on the Ukronazis' kill list aka Mirotvorets. That's why I stand in solidarity with Vittorio. When NATO cheerleaders accuse you of being a "propagandist", it means you are doing a good job at debunking their lies. And they don't like that. @LauraRuHK
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Evidence of Chinese agents influencing the global financial market. Play it loud to maximise the positive effect on your portfolio 😆 Happy National Day! @LauraRuHK /channel/prchand/9703
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🇨🇳🇮🇷Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani met with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Hu Zhongming, in China.
They are discussing the promotion of maritime relations between the two countries, including bilateral/multilateral exercises and joint patrols. 🇮🇷🇷🇺 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in Iran on Monday where he will hold talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The two sides are set to discuss bilateral cooperation. Special attention will be paid to major joint projects in the transport, energy, and industrial sectors. @LauraRuHK
Who is Hashem Safieddine, Hezbollah’s potential next leader?
After Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, several media outlets and experts named Hashem Safieddine as Nasrallah’s most likely successor.
What is known about Hashem Safieddine?
🌏 Hashem Safieddine heads the Executive Council, which coordinates Hezbollah's political affairs and civilian activities, including communications, education, health, economics, and trade unions.
🌏 Safieddine also sits on the Jihad Council, which manages the group's military operations.
🌏 Overall, he has been part of Hezbollah's structure since the group's founding in 1982.
Early years and studies
🌏 Safieddine, a maternal cousin of Nasrallah, was born in 1964 in the town of Deir Qanoun En Nahr in southern Lebanon’s Tyre district.
🌏 Just like Nasrallah, Safieddine is recognized as a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, which grants him the title of sayyed and the right to wear a black turban.
🌏 He studied theology in Iraq and Iran alongside Nasrallah, and was summoned back to Beirut in 1994 to head the Executive Council.
🌏 Safieddine’s son is married to Zeinab Soleimani, the daughter of the late Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Prominent statements
Safieddine has appeared openly at political and religious events, as well as funerals of slain Hezbollah fighters. His public statements have reflected the Lebanese group’s commitment to the Palestinian cause.
“Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you. Everything we have is with you,” Safieddine said in October 2023 in Dahiyeh.
When the U.S. and its vassals indignantly denounce "disinformation campaigns and psyops” rest assured that they are projecting onto others the modus operandi they have mastered. Neither China nor Russia possess the manipulation arsenal that the U.S. has deployed to fight this hybrid war. https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/09/27/myth-russian-chinese-disinformation-and-us-informational-psyops/
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