RT News - December 7th 2022

Overnight shelling of Donetsk city has killed at least six civilians and nineteen have been wounded. Earlier yesterday, shelling hit a local market, report on injuries not yet available. Grad rockets were used to bomb the market; they fragment and some contain around 4000 sharp fragments. Their intended use is not for anti-civilian use or for bombing civilian homes or cities. 122 mm rocket projectiles are intended for use against enemy manpower in the open and in field shelters, for making passages in minefields and defence wiring, against hostile artillery and for destruction of ARMOURED materiel. The rocket projectiles are equipped with MRV-U contact delay fuses or with a proximity fuse. When a proximity fuse is used, fragmentation effect is increased up to 6 times.

In the light of the above, the fact that no oversight of Washington's billions in military aid to Ukraine is just immoral. Especially in the light of Himars being the new weapon of choice for bombing civilian areas of Donbass and cost £100,000 each and are generally fired from cartridges in 12 at a time order. Cities and villages are often subject to several attacks of this nature each day.

Democrats say it's "not the right time" to begin an audit - blocking a resolution to investigate the immense flows of cash.

Leader: The Chinese president is set to arrive in Saudi Arabia for a summit to bolster Beijing-Gulf ties, that's as both countries' strained relations with the US leave Washington sidelined. In depth report.

In a drive for cooperation and economic growth, seventeen African countries sign up to a landmark Air Transport Market initiative. Open air arrangements boost traffic, drive economies and create jobs. An IATA survey suggested that if just 12 key Africa countries opened their markets and increased connectivity, an extra 155,000 jobs and $1.3 billion in annual GDP would be created in those countries. That survey was in 2014, the additional money benefit could be at least double that in 2022

In what could be the most serious of deliberate frauds and cover-ups, the White House press secretary is trying to downplay the release of the "Twitter files" as a distraction. (QS: remind me to write up properly "prebunking") More importantly citizens from all over the world must now consider the phoney Russiagate, which occupied most of the four years of the Trump administration as a DELIBERATE attack on them personally, wasting not only their time but treating them with complete, utter and sheer disdain. (QS: Trump may not have been the best or worst President USA ever had but Russiagate occupied his time as well as ours. Who knows what could have happened had he been allowed to get on with his job properly - maybe he could even have been better briefed and researched about Iran and have made good inroads - who knows. There are at least 100 important matters which did NOT get the time they deserved because of deliberate, anti-citizen, time wasting activities of the Democratic party)

Julian Assange case: A lawyer suggests that the people killed on the streets of Baghdad could have been enemies (and thus deserved to be shot?). Report including commentary from Max Blumenthal.

Papua New Guinea: Prime Minister Marape says he will not be party to any standoff between USA and China. He also remarked "keep your fights to yourselves"

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below 1) ------ Musk fires FBI-linked Twitter executive
2) ------ Jury delivers guilty verdict in Trump trial
3) ----- US issues denials after Ukraine strikes inside Russia
4) ---- Russia responds to Macron’s security guarantees offer
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via RT website 6 Dec, 2022 23:28

1) ------ Musk fires FBI-linked Twitter executive

Jim Baker was “vetting” the Twitter Files without management knowing, according to a journalist

Twitter’s top lawyer was “exited” from the company on Tuesday, after revelations that he had been holding up the release of files about the social media platform’s role in 2020 US election censorship. Prior to getting hired by Twitter, Jim Baker was general counsel to the FBI, where he was involved with multiple “Russiagate” controversies.

“In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today,” Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.

Shortly thereafter, journalist Matt Taibbi – who had published the first batch of “Twitter Files” last Friday – revealed that Baker had been involved in “vetting” those documents, and effectively holding up the release of the next batch, without Musk’s knowledge. Bari Weiss, who was supposed to publish the next drop, inquired who was in charge of releasing the documents and received the answer, “Jim Baker.”

“My jaw hit the floor,” Weiss told Taibbi.

Baker was hired in June 2020, as deputy to Vijaya Gadde – one of the first executives Musk sacked upon buying the company in October. The documents released last week showed him playing a major role in censoring the New York Post’s factually correct story about Hunter Biden’s laptop ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

The Biden White House dismissed the revelations published by Taibbi as a “distraction,” while most major US media outlets insisted it amounted to a “nothingburger.” Commenting on Baker’s name being mentioned, however, legal scholar Jonathan Turley quipped that the lawyer was “fast becoming the Kevin Bacon of the Russian collusion scandals.”

As FBI general, Baker was directly involved in applying for a FISA warrant to spy on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, based on the fictitious “Steele Dossier.” Baker also worked closely with Director James Comey, who leaked the dossier briefing to the press and set up the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel after getting fired by Trump. Democrat operative Michael Sussmann used Baker to have the FBI probe the false claim about a link between Trump and Russia’s Alfa Bank.

Having left the FBI in 2018 under a “Russiagate” cloud, Baker was hired by Brookings, a DC think-tank whose researcher Igor Danchenko had been Steele’s primary sub-source. He eventually ended up at Twitter, aiding the suppression of a story that could have helped Trump get re-elected – and then, according to Taibbi, Weiss and Musk, trying to cover it up.
https://www.rt.com/news/567797-twitter-fbi-baker-fired/
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via RT website 7 Dec, 2022 01:40

2) ------ Jury delivers guilty verdict in Trump trial

Two of the former president’s companies have been convicted in New York of tax fraud

New York prosecutors have won a criminal conviction against two of former President Donald Trump’s companies on fraud charges, convincing jurors that they conspired to help top executives dodge taxes by packaging part of their compensation as off-the-books perks.

The New York County Supreme Court jury delivered its verdict on Tuesday in Manhattan, finding Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. guilty on a combined 17 criminal charges. The companies face as much as $1.6 million in criminal fines.

The former president was not charged in the case and did not attend the trial. One of his lawyers, Susan Necheles, said evidence showed that Trump had no involvement in the actions in question.

Longtime Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg was the only individual who was charged in connection with the tax scheme. The 75-year-old former chief financial officer pleaded guilty in August under a deal with prosecutors that spared him a prison term of as much as 15 years if he had been convicted at trial. He will instead have to serve only 100 days after agreeing to testify against the two indicted companies.

Weisselberg's second-in-command, Jeffrey McConney, also testified after being granted immunity from prosecution. He admitted to following Weisselberg’s instructions to arrange the paperwork that enabled the CFO and other executives to avoid paying some of the taxes that they would otherwise owe.

At issue were thousands of dollars in non-cash compensation, such as company-paid apartments and cars, which executives failed to report on their income tax returns. Prosecutors claimed, without evidence, that Trump sanctioned the tactic because it kept top employees happy and reduced compensation costs.

“Today’s guilty verdict against the Trump Organization shows that we will hold individuals and organizations accountable when they violate our laws to line their pockets,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

The Trump Organization will appeal Tuesday’s verdict, defense lawyer Alan Futerfas told reporters. The appeal may challenge instructions to the jury on whether taxes were avoided on “behalf of” the Trump companies.

The defence argued that Weisselberg avoided taxes for his own benefit and was compelled to testify against the companies because prosecutors had him “by the b*lls.” The Trump team also called the case “politically driven,” saying such allegations are “always resolved in a civil context,” rather than pursued in criminal court.
https://www.rt.com/news/567799-trump-organization-tax-fraud/
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via RT website 7th Dec, 2022 02:12

3) ----- US issues denials after Ukraine strikes inside Russia

Washington “neither encouraged nor enabled” long-range attacks but won’t prevent Kiev from launching them

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has denied the US had anything to do with Ukrainian drone strikes on two airfields deep inside Russia, but vowed to continue supplying Kiev with anything it needs. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, meanwhile, sidestepped media reports about the US hobbling HIMARS launchers by saying the Pentagon won’t “prevent” Ukraine from developing long-range capabilities.

Austin and Blinken took questions from the press on Tuesday alongside their Australian counterparts who are visiting Washington, when Monday’s attack on two Russian airfields and the Wall Street Journal report about modifications to HIMARS rocket launchers came up.

“We have neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia,” Blinken told reporters, adding that what really matters is how Ukraine is coping with “ongoing Russian aggression.” The US is determined to give the Ukrainians “the equipment that they need to defend themselves, to defend their territory, to defend their freedom,” Blinken added.

According to the Russian Defence Ministry, two strategic bomber bases in Ryazan and Saratov regions came under attack by drones on Monday morning. Debris from drones shot down by air defences killed three servicemen and resulted in minor damage to two bombers, Moscow said, but did not disrupt a planned strike on Ukrainian military logistics later in the day. The drones used were reportedly modified Soviet designs, rather than anything the West has delivered to Kiev this year.

Asked about the report that the US had modified HIMARS launchers sent to Ukraine to be incompatible with longer-range missiles, Austin denied the US was trying to hobble Kiev.

“We are not working to prevent Ukraine from developing their own capability,” Austin told reporters. “We're absolutely not doing that.”

Earlier, Blinken’s spokesman Ned Price declined to comment on either the drone attacks or the HIMARS modifications, saying only that the US was providing Ukraine “with what it needs to use on its sovereign territory – on Ukrainian soil – to take on Russian aggressors.”

Back in June, when the US first sent HIMARS to Ukraine, Blinken told reporters he had received “assurances” from Kiev that they wouldn’t be used “against targets on Russian territory,” which he believed due to “a strong trust bond.” The US ambassador to Kiev, Bridget Brink, however, said at the time that the decision on the range of missile attacks would be “up to the Ukrainian side.”

According to anonymous US officials that spoke to the Wall Street Journal, however, all 20 HIMARS units sent to Ukraine had undergone hardware and software modifications that meant they could not use longer-range ATACMS missiles, even if Kiev managed to obtain them elsewhere, or somehow produce their own.

Moscow has repeatedly warned Washington that providing heavy weapons to Ukraine risks crossing Russia’s “red lines” and involving the US and NATO in the conflict directly. The US and its allies insist they are not a party to the hostilities, but continue arming Kiev.
https://www.rt.com/news/567800-pentagon-ukraine-long-range/
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via RT website 6 Dec, 2022 20:26

4) ---- Russia responds to Macron’s security guarantees offer

Moscow is willing to talk but the West must make the first step, Deputy FM Ryabkov said

The subject of security guarantees can be raised again if the West is serious about it, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Tuesday. Until then, he added, Moscow will continue to respond appropriately to any further NATO expansion.

Talks could begin “when they confirm that they are ready for some kind of more sensible and balanced dialogue in terms of interests,” Ryabkov said.

“If and when we hear that the West really has an interest in this, we will return to the topic,” the diplomat added. “But, as in the situation with the dialogue on strategic stability, which was unilaterally interrupted by the United States, we are not chasing anyone and we are not asking anyone for anything.”

His comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday – fresh from a visit to Washington – that NATO should be prepared to offer Russia security guarantees as part of any upcoming talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia sent a set of security proposals to NATO and the US in December 2021, with Ryabkov playing a key role in the talks. Among other things, Moscow demanded the withdrawal of NATO’s offensive weapons from its borders and guarantees that Ukraine would never join the bloc.

In January, the US and NATO refused, saying they would only be interested in strategic arms control talks. Since the conflict in Ukraine escalated in February, the bloc has also moved to expand to Sweden and Finland.

Ryabkov said this would receive a “corresponding response” from Russia. “Do the countries who wish to join NATO need that? Why? This is ultimately a question for them to address. We will draw conclusions for ourselves, as we have done so far.”

The “strategic stability” Ryabkov mentioned was a reference to the abortive talks between Russia and the US in Cairo last month, dealing with an impasse over New START. Moscow suspended its participation in the treaty inspections mechanism in August, saying the US sanctions gave Washington an unfair advantage by preventing Russian inspectors from doing their work. Further talks on the treaty are not possible so long as the US continues arming Ukraine, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last month.
https://www.rt.com/russia/567788-ryabkov-talks-security-west/
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