RT News - October 29th 2022

An RT crew comes under Ukrainian fire in Donetsk, narrowly avoiding casualties. That's amid new rounds of shelling of the city.

In Kherson, a hospital has been hit by missiles. Also in Kherson and other regions now accepted as part of Russia, finally western press has acknowledged the facts about residents wanting to return home.

In Haiti people have been forced to flee their homes after gang violence. Protests have been continuing for nearly two months and call on their Prime Minister to step down and stop foreign interference/intervention. Please see previous posts to catch up.

While Europe plans to switch to zero-emissions cars, countries in the Global South have to suffer the ecological consequences and labour rights abuses to fulfil others' ambitions. British and EU politicians are unaffected by the detrimental effects to citizens and lands exploited by the manufacturers.

(QueenStreet comment: Will Europe change to zero emission military planes? Almost two years of observations has shown that NATO planes alone, flying over Britain and Europe used more fuel and produced more emissions in five weeks than domestic citizens used to heat their homes and drive their cars in a single year.)

More weapons are sent to Kiev as more of those weapons end up on the dark web, available to just about anyone who wants them.

Iranians are enraged amid calls from some western nations to expel the country from the football World Cup, citing human rights violations. We hear from people in Tehran.

Shortages of diesel in USA continue and there is no solution in sight. There is reported to be just three weeks of diesel left.

Elon Musk is now the official owner of twitter. "The Bird is freed"
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After yesterday's announcement of Washington's "updated nuclear weapons strategy" China has reacted.

"China is seriously concerned about and firmly opposed to such a move. Let me make it clear that we have the capability and confidence to safeguard our national security interests. The US’s nuclear blackmail will not work on China."

via RT website 29 Oct, 2022 04:01

China blasts US ‘nuclear blackmail’

Washington’s updated nuclear strategy “hypes up major-power competition” and alleged foreign threats, Beijing said

China has said that any attempts at “nuclear blackmail” by the United States will fail, accusing Washington of encouraging confrontation after it issued its latest Nuclear Posture Review (NPR).

Asked about the recently published document, which lays out US nuclear weapons policies, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the NPR “smacks heavily of Cold War and zero-sum mentality” and “uses nuclear weapons as tools to advance [the US] geopolitical agenda.”

“I need to stress that in this latest NPR, the US has made irresponsible remarks and accusations as well as groundless speculations on China’s normal modernization of its nuclear forces,” Wang told reporters on Friday, adding that the United States has specifically “tailored” a “nuclear deterrence strategy” against Beijing.

The new US strategy, a declassified version of which was published on Thursday, breaks with campaign promises made by President Joe Biden, leaving the door open for a nuclear response to a non-nuclear attack. While Biden has insisted the “sole purpose” of America’s nuclear arsenal is to deter or retaliate against the first-use of the bomb, the White House-approved NPR concluded that such an approach “would result in an unacceptable level of risk, in light of the range of non-nuclear capabilities being developed and fielded by competitors.”

Wang went on to say that the updated American policy “lower[s] the threshold for using nuclear weapons” while at the same time “hyping up the so-called nuclear threat from certain countries.”

“The US has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and continues to upgrade its ‘nuclear triad’ and selectively advances the international nuclear arms control process only when doing so serves to suppress the countries it sees as rivals,” he continued. “What’s behind the US policy is its hegemonic logic of seeking absolute military superiority, which could stoke a nuclear arms race.”

The Biden administration has repeatedly declared China to be Washington’s top competitor and foremost concern, with the Pentagon saying the People’s Republic poses “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” in its new National Defence Strategy, also published Thursday alongside the new NPR and a Missile Defence Review.

Tensions have spiked between the two countries since August, when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan despite loud objections from Beijing, which sees the island as part of its own territory. Though the trip prompted an unprecedented round of Chinese military drills in the air and waters surrounding Taiwan, Western delegations have nonetheless continued to visit Taipei in the months since, with Germany sending lawmakers on a junket there earlier this week.