RT News - November 14th 2022

The stage is set for the G20 conference in Indonesia with the Russian Foreign Minister in attendance. Western powers are reportedly preparing to snub Moscow at the forum, amid growing divisions over the Ukraine crisis.

RT follows the Russian army in their relentless artillery duels with Ukrainian troops, as Moscow repels Kiev's attacks on the Donbass frontline.

The African farming industry buckles under price pressure, as the continent is forced to use expensive Western fertilizers to replace sanctioned Russian supplies, leaving local farmers in desperation.

Life may not be so sweet for many, as India cuts sugar export quotas to ensure its own food security amid a world food crisis.

In Pakistan, massive rallies and marches continue in support of ousted PM Imran Khan. Earlier this month there was an assassination attempt on his life as the marches commenced to Islamabad.
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Via RT website 14 Nov, 2022 07:08

--- Russia explains what’s essential for NATO --

The bloc needs an enemy to exist and expands to find one, a senior diplomat said

Having an enemy to fight against is essential for NATO’s survival, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko has claimed.

“NATO is the kind of organization that cannot live without an enemy. If it had none, it would have died,” he was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency on Monday.

The diplomat added that the bloc’s expansion is largely motivated by the need to antagonize nations so they can fit the role of an enemy.

“They have declared Asia a zone of the alliance’s interest, pushed the zone of their defense right to the border of China,” he noted.

Grushko said the conflict in Ukraine stems from NATO’s declared intention to eventually accept Kiev as a new member, while ignoring Russia’s national security concerns. The alliance is still trying to bring in Ukraine, he said, adding that he doesn’t believe the US and its allies are acting rationally on the issue.

The NATO leadership claims to have an open door policy, saying that every nation has a sovereign right to choose it as provider of security. Its charter, however, requires all members to approve any expansion, a fact that came to the forefront after Türkiye stalled the accession of Finland and Sweden over their alleged sheltering of terrorism suspects.

The US-led military alliance declared the inclusion of Ukraine as one of its objectives in 2008, dismissing Moscow’s warning that such a move would cross a red line. After the 2014 coup in Kiev, the new Ukrainian government dropped the nation’s neutrality policy and said that joining NATO was its primary goal.

When Russia sent its troops into Ukraine in February, it cited NATO’s clandestine expansion into Ukraine as one of the key reasons. Organization members were training and arming the Ukrainian army and establishing military infrastructure in the country without formally accepting Kiev’s membership bid, Moscow said.
https://www.rt.com/russia/566483-nato-expansion-enemy-needed/
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via RT website 14 Nov, 2022 05:17

--- German retailers face nightmare before Christmas --

Businesses expect weak sales amid record inflation, a survey has found

Shop owners in Germany are worried about the upcoming Christmas season, expecting a slump in sales in price-adjusted terms, as double-digit inflation driven by energy prices forced people to shop less in the third quarter, the German Retail Association (HDE) says.

According to the latest report, sales will face a 4% drop in price-adjusted terms, despite an expected increase by 5.4% year-on-year in nominal terms projected for the last two months of 2022.

The association surveyed 500 companies, and 70% of the respondents said they expect worse business conditions in the upcoming Christmas season than last year.

“There is a great deal of uncertainty among both companies and customers in view of the difficult situation with enormous energy price increases. High inflation and poor consumer sentiment do not really bode well for the Christmas season,” HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth said.

In October, the German Federal Statistical Office reported that the harmonized inflation rate in Europe’s largest economy climbed to 11.6%, raising fears that the country will slide into a recession this winter.
https://www.rt.com/business/566282-german-retailers-christmas-sales-drop/
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via RT website 14 Nov, 2022 05:18

West African nation starts LNG exports

Mozambique reportedly has the capacity to become one of the world’s 10 biggest suppliers of the fuel

Mozambique has made its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipment, the country’s president announced on Sunday. The first batch of LNG produced at the country’s offshore Coral Sul facility has left Mozambique territorial waters, Filipe Nyusi said.

“Today, Mozambique enters the annals of world history as one of the exporting countries of LNG,” Nyusi said in a video statement, as cited by AFP news agency.

The plant is managed by Italian company Eni, and according to Nyusi, the shipment was ordered by British oil major BP.

Mozambique has the largest natural gas deposits south of the Sahara Desert, holding roughly 2.8 trillion cubic meters of proven reserves or around 1% of the world’s total. They were discovered in the country’s northern Cabo Delgado province in 2010. Estimates show that given the extent of the deposits, the country could become one of the world's 10 biggest LNG exporters. According to data from Statista.com, Mozambique could also become Africa’s third largest exporter of the fuel after Algeria and Nigeria.

Coral Sul can produce 3.4 million tons of LNG per year. However, the plant is the only one of three large energy projects in Mozambique currently in operation. The remaining two, operated by France’s TotalEnergies and US oil giant ExxonMobil, have been halted due to political instability in the country.

Eni's CEO Claudio Descalzi welcomed the first gas shipment from Coral Sul, calling it a “significant step forward” in the company’s work “to leverage gas as a source that can contribute in a significant way to Europe's energy security, also through the increasing diversification of supplies.” Securing energy supplies has become a key focus for the EU this year, due to a plunge in gas imports from the bloc’s former main supplier, Russia.
https://www.rt.com/business/566449-mozambique-starts-lng-exports/
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