Friday, 30 September 2022

Putin proclaims Ukrainian annexation

Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia's annexation of a swathe of Ukraine in a pomp-filled Kremlin ceremony, promising Moscow would triumph in its special military operation against Kyiv even as some of his troops faced potential defeat.

According to Refuters, The Russian President's proclamation of Russian rule over 15% of Ukraine - the biggest annexation in Europe since World War Two - has been firmly rejected by Western countries and even many of Russia's close allies.

It comes as Russian forces in one of the four regions being annexed face being encircled by Ukrainian troops after Putin ordered a massive mobilization drive to get hundreds of thousands of Russian men to the front.

In one of the toughest anti-American speeches he has delivered in more than two decades in power, Putin signalled he was ready to continue a battle for a greater historical Russia using whatever tools he had at his disposal and slammed the West as neo-colonial and Satanist.

"Truth is on our side. Russia is with us!" Putin told his country's political elite, who had gathered in one of the Kremlin's grandest halls to watch him signing documents annexing four Ukrainian regions.

He said the United States had set a precedent when it had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, but stopped short of issuing new nuclear warnings against Ukraine himself, something he has done more than once in recent weeks.

The ceremony culminated in the 69-year-old leader chanting "Russia Russia!" as he clasped the hands of the four Russian-backed officials he wants to run the annexed regions, which Ukraine is fighting to win back.

Putin said Russia and the four regions would defeat Ukraine together.

"People living in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region are becoming our compatriots forever," said Putin, referring to the four Ukrainian regions which he said Russia was annexing.

"We will defend our land with all our strength and all our means," he said, calling on "the Kyiv regime to immediately cease hostilities and return to the negotiation table".

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy, speaking in Kyiv after Putin, said he was ready for peace talks if and when Russia got a new president and announced that Ukraine was formally applying for fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance, something Moscow fiercely opposes.

US President Joe Biden condemned what he called Russia's fraudulent attempt to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory, which he said was a flagrant violation of international law and said new US sanctions would hurt those who provided political or economic support to the annexation drive.

US planning new sanctions on Iranian oil sales

The United States is planning to impose new sanctions on Iranian oil sales, according to a tweet by Bloomberg TV’s Annmarie Hordern.

“The sanctions will focus on entities facilitating the oil trade, and will be part of a broader plan to set up sanctions on the regime in the coming weeks,” Hordern said on Thursday afternoon.

For months now, a new nuclear deal with Iran has kept the market on edge and has been routinely touted as “imminent.” However, a deal has yet to be struck. In just the last couple of weeks, the hope of reaching a deal seemed less certain.

It was often expressed by market pundits that reaching a new nuclear deal with Iran could send oil prices plummeting, with Iran finding it easier to export more oil barrels without the current sanctions.

A new round of sanctions from the United States on Iranian oil exports— termed secondary sanctions on those helping to facilitate Iranian oil trade—would likely have the opposite effect on oil prices.

While the United States prepares to announce additional sanctions on Iranian oil sales—the announcement alone which would certainly send prices upwards to some degree—it is sending the clear message to the US oil and gas industry that gasoline prices are still too high.

On Wednesday evening, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that motor gasoline prices should be 30 cents lower than the currently prevailing.

“Prices at the pump should be falling, not rising. Companies need to fix this,” Granholm said in a Tweet.


Thursday, 29 September 2022

Russia to annex four more areas of Ukraine

Russian Vladimir Putin will hold a signing ceremony on Friday formally annexing four more areas of Ukraine after a referendum. Russian-backed officials had earlier claimed the five-day exercise secured almost total popular support.

Voting was held in Luhansk and Donetsk in the east and in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south. The Russian president will make a major speech at the Kremlin.

A stage has already been set up in Moscow's Red Square, with billboards proclaiming the four regions as part of Russia. There were echoes of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, which also followed a discredited referendum and was heralded by a presidential victory speech from a stage.

The Western media says no independent monitoring of the process took place and there were accounts of election officials going from door to door escorted by armed soldiers.

The United States said it will impose sanctions on Russia because of the referendums and EU member states are considering an eighth round of measures.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday that people in occupied regions of Ukraine had been taken from their homes and workplaces by threat and sometimes at gunpoint. "This is the opposite of free and fair elections. And this is the opposite of peace, it is a dictated peace," she said.

The exercise began across 15% of Ukraine last Friday with only a few days' notice. Russian state media argued that the use of armed guards was for security purposes but it was clear that it had the added effect of intimidating residents.

"You have to answer verbally and the soldier marks the answer on the sheet and keeps it," one woman in Enerhodar told the BBC.

Russia does not fully control any of the four regions it has decided to annex. Although most of Luhansk remains in Russian hands, Moscow only controls 60% of Donetsk.

Seven months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine from the north, east and south, war is still raging on the front lines in all four areas. The capital of the southern region of Zaporizhzhia is firmly under the control of Ukraine's government, and a counter-offensive is underway in Kherson.

What US Military Base schools teach?

United States troops serving overseas find that government schools are indoctrinating their children and teaching them to keep secrets from their parents.

According to a report from the Claremont Institute, classes from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) teach children radical activism, gender ideology, and hiding gender questions from families.

The lesson plans aren’t about teachers helping children learn the basics; instead, they’re about teachers helping children hide facts from their parents.

“Maybe that student is not ‘out’ to other students in their gender identity,” seventh-grade humanities teacher Genevieve Chavez said in a video provided to Claremont by a whistleblower. “They may be out at school; but they may not be out at home.”

The video was part of a 2021 summit talk titled “Ally 101—Creating an Inclusive Classroom for LGBTQ+ Students.”

In the same talk, Chavez urged teachers to speak about new gender identities with young children.

 “You can talk about LGBTQ+ things in elementary school,” she says. “It’s actually the ideal time. Kids as young as 4 years old are already starting to develop a stable understanding of their gender identity. Elementary school is the perfect time because you can really show students the diversity of gender expression and gender activity.

Claremont notes in its report that many parents disagree with exposing children to gender confusion at an early age.

“Parents have long taken for granted that cultivating a stable sexual identity is a key to individual development. Our military schools think upsetting a stable identity is the key to education,” the report states.

The 2021 summit urged teachers to filter every aspect of school life through radical gender ideology, the report states.

Prom kings and prom queens should be homecoming court or royalty or partners of distinction, teachers should say their own pronouns to normalize it, and teachers can keep the preferred pronouns of students secret from parents, according to Lindsey Bagnaschi, who was teaching high school drama at Stuttgart High School in Germany, which serves local army bases.

It’s also a mistake to call a roomful of students ‘guys’ instead of ‘seventh-graders’,Chavez says.

This year, students rejected the idea of scrapping the old titles, the Claremont report states. But there’s always next year.

The DoDEA’s program also encourages students to activism, according to the Claremont report. The DoDEA’s Strategic Initiatives seek to provide equitable learning experiences for all students.”

To do so, the government suggests implementing “programs and supports to address achievement gaps between racial, ethnic, ability, and other identified groups” and provide “learning environments where students feel safe, secure, and supported by the entire learning community.”

The DoDEA also promises to “stand up and grow Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) structures to lead and implement DEI across the organization so that all students, employees, and families feel welcomed, respected, engaged, and empowered.”

The Claremont Institute notes that none of the DoDEA’s focus areas emphasize math, engineering, or any other form of academic excellence, and never define terms like “Key Performance Indicators.”

According to the report, encouraging students to restructure schools to hide the gender binary will teach them to restructure society as adults.

 “If students are used to restructuring their school environment, they will become activists for restructuring the general culture once they leave school,” the report states. “Future citizens, sons and daughters of military personnel, will become much more like their teachers than like their parents.”

A DoDEA presentation on equity and access tells teachers to instruct students in having conversations about critical race theory, the Claremont report states.

Such a conversation is one that “explores the relationship between identity and power, that traces the structures that privilege some at the expense of others, that helps students think through the actions they can take to create a more just, more equitable, world,” according to the presentation.

Tracy Shelton, a literacy coach at Feltwell Elementary, which teaches the children of Americans serving at Air Force bases in Great Britain, recommended that children study books to learn how to be antiracist, the report states.

Racism and antiracism allow no neutral party, Shelton says.

“Racists, Shelton said, following the work of Ibram Kendi, are those who do not fight for racial equity, while antiracists put the fight for racial justice at the center of their lives,” the report states.

Even white people being silent are damaging, according to presentations quoted by the report.

“I was reading ‘Me and White Supremacy’,” says one teacher, and what it teaches “about white silence, and I realized the damage I was doing by my white silence,” the report states.

If teachers can’t get radical books onto reading lists, they can get them to children through independent reading time, book clubs, and literature circles, says Merilee Debus.

Debus is a professional practice improvement specialist at the DoDEA, according to her LinkedIn page.

“We still have a lot of room for getting the right book in their hands when they need it.”

Another teacher, Betty Roberts of Robinson Barracks Elementary School, which serves five military bases in Germany, recommends reading books without critical race theory using critical race theory interpretations, the report states.

She urged students to “take a look at their textbooks and [to] identify … the biases and how underrepresented groups are represented in these textbooks.”

The Claremont Institute ended its report with a call for action from public officials and Congress. But if they don’t act, military parents have one last nuclear option, the report concludes.

“It seems that members of the military who object to such education are no longer welcomed in the military. Perhaps they should just walk out of the military schools with their children or walk away from the military altogether,” the report states.

Wednesday, 28 September 2022

US claims downing Iranian drone in Iraq

The US forces on Wednesday claimed downing of an Iranian drone that officials said appeared poised to attack American troops in Iraq.

It was claimed that the downing came as the Iranian military started a drone bombing campaign targeting the bases of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq, attacks that have killed at least nine people and wounded 32 others, according to the Kurdish Regional Government’s Health Ministry. 

The bombings follow Iraqi and Iranian Kurds protesting in Iraq’s northern city of Erbil over the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police. 

“US Central Command condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ unprovoked attack in Iraq’s Erbil Governorate this morning. Such indiscriminate attacks threaten innocent civilians and risk the hard-fought stability of the region,” command spokesman Joe Buccino said in a statement. 

In the midst of the bombing campaign, US forces brought down an Iranian Mojer-6 unmanned aerial vehicle “headed in the direction of Erbil as it appeared as a threat to CENTCOM forces in the area,” according to Buccino. 

He noted that no US forces were wounded or killed, no US equipment was damaged as a result of the strikes and that Central Command forces are assessing the situation. 

US and coalition troops are based in Iraq to advise and assist its military to counter ISIS militants and keep the terrorist group from resurging in the region. 

The US government has condemned the strikes, with national security adviser Jake Sullivan stating Wednesday that Washington stands with Iraq’s leaders in the Kurdistan region and Baghdad in condemning these attacks as an assault on the sovereignty of Iraq and its people.

“Iranian leaders continue to demonstrate flagrant disregard not only for the lives of their own people, but also for their neighbors and the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the UN Charter,” Sullivan said. “Iran cannot deflect blame from its internal problems and the legitimate grievances of its population with attacks across its borders.”

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry and the Kurdistan Regional Government have also condemned the attacks.

 

 

Saudi Arabia: Top 5 ship owners

Saudi Arabia is often classified as one of the largest oil producing country and it needs ships to deliver crude oil and/or POL products around the world. Many of our readers ask who Saudi Arabia’s biggest ship owners are.

When it comes to the answer by total fleet value it is little surprise to see Bahri coming out top, but looking at the largest number of vessels the ranking is somewhat different.

Ahead of the Saudi Maritime Congress which kicks off Kingdom’s top five owners are both by total value of their fleet and size in terms of numbers of vessels.

By value it is little surprise to see Bahri topping the list with its tanker fleet estimated to be worth US$2.28 billion.

Second in terms of value is MODU owner ADES International with a fleet worth US$947.62 million, with Bihar International with its fleet of LPG carriers, tankers and OSVs valued at $567.32 million.

In fourth and fifth spots are Arabian Drilling Co and Rawabi Holdings with fleets valued at US$503.08 million and US$445.13 million, respectively.

Ahead of the Saudi Maritime Congress which kicks off in Dammam we asked VesselsValue who the Kingdom’s top five owners are both by total value of their fleet and size in terms of numbers of vessels.

By value it is little surprise to see Bahri topping the list with its tanker fleet estimated to be worth US$2.28 billion. Second in terms of value is MODU owner ADES International with a fleet worth US$947.62 millio, with Bihar International with its fleet of LPG carriers, tankers and OSVs valued at US$567.32 million?

In fourth and fifth spots are Arabian Drilling Co and Rawabi Holdings with fleets valued at US$503.08 million and US$445.13 million, respectively.

However, if we look at the top 5 Saudi owners in terms of numbers of vessels in their fleet a rather different picture emerges.

Rawabi Holdings has the largest number of owned vessels with a fleet of 62 OSVs and offshore construction vessels (OCS). In second place is Zamil Offshore with an owned fleet of 50 OSVs and OCS. In third position is Bahri with an owned fleet of 44 tankers.

In fourth and fifth places are Hadi Hamad Al Hamman ADES International with an owned fleet of 38 and 30 vessels respectively.

Courtesy: Saudi Gazette


Tuesday, 27 September 2022

US mobilizing allies to reject Russian annexation effort

The United States and its allies are mobilizing the international community to reject Russian attempts to annex territory in Ukraine, in a move that Kyiv hopes will spur greater military support to deliver Moscow a decisive battlefield defeat.  

Hawkish supporters of Ukraine say now is the time for the US, Europe and NATO to increase the delivery of heavy artillery, tanks and war planes to Kyiv despite nuclear weapons threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  

Putin is under pressure in Russia because of the battlefield misfires and the chaotic rollout of his mobilization order for 300,000 troops. The Ukrainian military’s stunning counteroffensive in the northeast led Putin to move to mobilize more troops, which has received a negative reaction in Russia.  

William Taylor, a former US ambassador to Ukraine and vice president of the Russia and Europe program at the US Institute of Peace, said the news is helping the US effort.  

“My bet is that the [global] reaction would be to double down on support for the Ukrainians on the battlefield,” he said. “The Russians have a big manpower problem and now’s the time for the Ukrainians, reinforced by these weapons … to allow them to break through the Russian lines and push the Russians out.” 

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, told CBS News on Monday that the international community needs to speed up the supply of weapons.  

He specifically called for the delivery of weapons to protect Ukraine’s airspace, adding that Russia is “impotent when it comes to the offensive on the ground” but that the missile threat needs to be eliminated.   

“I have never had any doubt that Ukraine will militarily defeat Russia on Ukrainian territory,” he said.   

The US and Britain have warned that what they call “sham” votes in four Ukrainian territories are an effort to annex Ukrainian territory while justifying the war to the Russian public.  

The British Ministry of Defense tweeted on Tuesday that Putin is likely to use an address to the Russian Parliament on Friday “to formally announce the accession of the occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”   

“Russia’s leaders almost certainly hope that any accession announcement will be seen as a vindication of the ‘special military operation’ and will consolidate patriotic support for the conflict,” the ministry tweeted.  

There have been multiple reports of opposition to Putin’s military mobilization order, with angry protests popping up in Russia’s far-flung territories, a shooting at an enlistment center in a Siberian city and reports of long queues of military-age men looking to flee the country.   

The U.K. on Monday announced sanctions against 92 Russian officials and entities it says are involved in carrying out the referendums.  

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the US is readying sanctions if Russia moves forward on annexation.

“We are prepared and we will impose additional severe and swift costs on Russia for proceeding with the annexations,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday.  

“Ukraine has the absolute right to defend itself throughout its territory, including to take back the territory that has been illegally seized, one way or another, by Russia,” he added. “The weapons that we and many other countries are providing have been used very effectively to do just that.” 

Israel, which has maintained strategic ties with Moscow despite its invasion of Ukraine, released a statement Tuesday rejecting any results from the referendums.  

Taylor said the international community needs to follow up statements of anger with stronger military support.  

“All these expressions of outrage, of rejection, sanctions — that’s important to do, and it does send a message, but what’s really going to send a message, what really needs to happen, is the Ukrainians need to be able to push [the Russians] out of those places where they’re doing these referendum, pushing them out of these four provinces,” he said.  

The US has so far provided Ukraine with US$15 billion in security assistance, and lawmakers on Tuesday earmarked an additional $12.3 billion for Ukraine, included in draft text funding the government through December.   

But Ukrainian officials are frustrated that European powers with significant military reserves — Germany, France and Italy, specifically — have not matched commitments by the US, Britain and even the Baltic states, which are proportional to their size and military budgets.  

An analysis by the Kiel Institute for World Economy put the US as the number one donor for arms and equipment to Ukraine — citing about US$24 billion in commitments between January and August 03 — compared to pledges from Germany that equal about US$1.2 billion.  

France has committed less than $800 million in military assistance, and Italy around US$200 million, according to the tracker though it has counted US$2.4 billion in military commitments from European Union institutions.

Frustrations appear to be roiling in Berlin, where opposition lawmakers are demanding German Chancellor Olaf Scholz immediately send German tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine. 

Politico Europe reported heated and inflammatory debate within Germany’s Bundestag last week over the need to increase, and quickly, military supplies to Ukraine.   

“If, in the light of mass graves in Bucha and Izyum, we are serious in saying: ‘Never again! Germany must ensure that something never happens again’ — then we have to go a decisive step further here,” parliamentarian Johann Wadephul, Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, reportedly said.