RT News - January 13th 2023 Late

Liberation of Soledar: Moscow confirms its military has taken full control of the Donetsk republic salt-mining town of Soledar, after months of grueling battles. The U.S. tries to downplay the strategic and important advance in Soledar and Artyomovsk and says it won't slow down the Ukraine troops. Roman Kosarev reports.

Families of those on the front lines meet up briefly when they can and some even manage to deliver important humanitarian aid. (QS God bless them all and get them home safe)

Global South Virtual Summit : India calls on developing countries to stand together against threats of globalization, as it hosts more than 120 nations for the Voice of Global South summit. Runjhun Sharma reports. (More info/links * below) Multipolar world.

China accuses the U.K. of a colonial mindset and interfering in Hong Kong policies. Meanwhile UK .gov is being accused of weakening human rights in Britain itself. Important report from Alexander McKay and Nikki Aaron (also post from RT website yesterday, see 9 below).

Fresh clashes in Palestine, after three residents are killed in 24 hours during Israeli army raids. RT speak to a mother who lost her 15 year old son in previous violence.

China's FM Qin Gang is still on his five-nations trip to Africa. Today he is travelling to Angola from Gabon. Ma Ke (CGTN) reports on the trip so far.

* https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/India-hosts-online-summit-to-amplify-voice-of-Global-South
* https://leadership.ng/at-global-south-meeting-buhari-seeks-common-agenda-to-reduce-debt-burden-inflation/
* https://currentaffairs.adda247.com/india-to-host-virtual-summit-of-120-countries-of-global-south/

==============================================
1) --- UK sets date for Ukraine tank announcement – Guardian
2) --- Hungary in ‘culture shock’ from German policies – Orban
3) --- EU looks for targets in tenth round of anti-Russia sanctions
9) --- UK may become ‘human rights abuser’ – NGO
===============================================

13 Jan, 2023 17:23

1) --- UK sets date for Ukraine tank announcement – Guardian

Kiev reportedly hopes the decision will convince Germany to donate its own Leopards as well

Britain will announce the donation of ten Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, The Guardian reported on Friday, citing Ukrainian sources. In doing so, the UK would become the first NATO member to send Western-designed tanks to Kiev, as pressure mounts on Germany to follow suit.

A formal announcement is expected on Monday, the newspaper’s sources said. These same sources said that while ten Challengers will likely have no impact on the tide of battle, they hope the decision will push Germany into allowing its European allies to export their stocks of Leopard tanks to Ukraine, which Berlin has thus far not authorized.

Poland and Finland both said this week that they would send Leopards from their own stocks to Ukraine, provided neither did so alone. The US has ruled out transferring its own M1 Abrams tanks, but last week announced that it would send Bradley infantry vehicles, as Germany and France simultaneously announced the transfer of similar armor.

News of the Challenger donation has already been drip-fed to the media by British authorities. Officials told Sky News on Monday that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had been discussing the possibility for “a few weeks,” and that the UK “might offer around ten” tanks. A spokesperson for Sunak then told reporters on Wednesday that the decision had been made, without providing a timeline for a formal announcement.

The German government’s official position is that it will not be swayed by any announcement from London. “There is no change in the situation now because of the step that the British government has announced,” a spokesman said after Wednesday’s news.

However, Ukraine expects the Germans to cave in the end. “Germany will do it anyway at a later date,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told the Tagesschau news channel on Wednesday. “We have already seen this with the self-propelled howitzers, with the IRIS-T anti-aircraft system and most recently with the Marder and Patriot systems.”

Russia has repeatedly warned Western countries against sending arms to Ukraine, arguing that doing so will only prolong the conflict. On Tuesday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov accused NATO and the US of “definitely taking part in this conflict, although indirectly, by proxy,” as they continue to send weapons
https://www.rt.com/news/569835-uk-challenger-tanks-ukraine/
==============================================

13 Jan, 2023 16:10

2) --- Hungary in ‘culture shock’ from German policies – Orban

The Hungarian PM says his people have lost faith in Berlin and Brussels after failed sanctions sparked an energy crisis in the EU

Policies introduced by Germany and German politicians within the European Commission and the way they “miscalculated” the effects of anti-Russian sanctions has caused a “culture shock” in Hungary. The EU doesn’t have the courage to admit the fallacy of its sanctions policies, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on Friday.

“I grew up with the feeling that the Germans are precise, engineers, they calculate, take their time, they know what they are doing,” Orban told Kossuth Radio, adding that now that perspective has changed.

“Now we see what they are doing, because the European Commission has a German chairman,” Orban continued, referring to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “They failed with the sanctions, miscalculated and did not count to the end from a professional point of view,” he added.

According to the PM, the EU doesn’t have the courage to admit the fallacy of its sanctions policies against Russia amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Orban noted, however, that Hungary lacked the strength to change the position of larger countries, meaning that sanctions on Moscow will likely continue despite their ineffectiveness.

Hungary, which relies heavily on Russian energy, has on several occasions criticized EU leaders for being responsible for the ongoing energy crisis by introducing “counterproductive” sanctions on Moscow. Budapest has repeatedly asked to scrap the “failed policy of Brussels” in order to stop Europe from “slowly bleeding.” Hungary has also been one of the few Western states that have so far refused to send any weapons to Ukraine or train its troops.

“If it were up to us, there would not be a sanctions policy,” Orban said last month. “It is not in our interest to permanently divide the European and Russian economies into two, so we are trying to save what can be saved from our economic cooperation with the Russians.”

Hungary’s relations with the EU have been particularly strenuous in recent months as Budapest has also clashed with several EU institutions on a number of issues, including LGBTQ rights and migration. Brussels, in turn, has accused Orban’s conservative government of eroding the rule of law while Western establishment media outlets have treated him like an authoritarian leader that is too sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
https://www.rt.com/news/569829-orban-germany-culture-shock/
================================================

13 Jan, 2023 17:53

3) --- EU looks for targets in tenth round of anti-Russia sanctions

Brussels is working on the next batch of penalties, which will reportedly target Russia’s nuclear industry and diamond trade

Poland and Lithuania are calling on the EU to impose restrictions on Russia’s nuclear industry as part of the tenth package of sanctions against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, Reuters reported on Friday, citing senior diplomats from the two EU countries.

Kiev has repeatedly urged the 27-nation bloc to impose sanctions on Russian state nuclear energy major Rosatom, but the move has been blocked by Hungary and other EU members.

The Russian nuclear industry, which has so far gone unsanctioned, is essential for the operation of many power plants in Europe. According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, of the 53 reactors under construction globally as of mid-2022, 20 were being built by Rosatom, 17 of which are outside Russia.

In the eastern part of the EU, nations such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Hungary are heavily reliant on nuclear energy from Russia to run the power plants that produce up to half of the electricity they need. Hungary has four Russian-built nuclear reactors and has plans for another two, to be built by Rosatom.

According to Reuters, the EU is mulling a proposal to blacklist Rosatom’s leadership as a first step that should then result in curtailing the bloc’s cooperation with Russia’s nuclear industry.

Other penalties that have been floated – the EU is rushing to symbolically implement the measures by February 24 – include cutting more Russian banks off from the SWIFT global messaging system and banning more of the country's media outlets.

Meanwhile, a number of European officials, including Sweden’s permanent representative to the EU, Lars Danielsson, admit that it is getting increasingly difficult to adopt new penalties against Russia.

One diplomat told Reuters that “it is more and more difficult to get the necessary unanimity in the EU for more sanctions.”

In the tenth sanctions package, the EU will also reportedly propose adding diamonds to the list of banned Russian exports and expand bans on trade in goods that can be used for military purposes.
https://www.rt.com/business/569836-eu-russia-tenth-round-sanctions/
==============================================

9) --- UK may become ‘human rights abuser’ – NGO (12 Jan, 2023 16:58)

Human Rights Watch condemned a slew of laws targeting illegal immigrants and protesters

The UK could become known as a “human rights abuser,” should it not reverse a series of controversial laws, a new report from Human Rights Watch warns. The NGO criticized Britain’s treatment of illegal immigrants, protesters, welfare recipients, and ethnic minorities, among others.

The organization’s yearly report hammered the British government for an agreement allowing migrants to be flown to Rwanda while their asylum claims are being processed, and for enforcing its own laws against illegal immigration, which activists say it shouldn’t be allowed to do.

Britain’s conservative leaders were also condemned for restricting the right to protest, for demanding that voters show identification, and for limiting judicial review of decisions in immigration and social security cases. Furthermore, the country’s police force, healthcare system, and sporting organizations were accused of “institutional racism.”

The government was further condemned for capping welfare benefits during a period of record food and energy costs, and for allowing a pandemic-era ban on evictions to lapse, triggering a rise in homelessness.

“When you come to the UK, you look at the very worrying trend we are seeing,” HRW Executive Director Tirana Hassan said. “A slew of legislation was passed last year where fundamental human rights are being challenged.”

The UK has a “very short window” to abandon these legal and policy decisions, she continued, warning that it would otherwise join “the countries listed as human rights abusers rather than human rights protectors.”

Founded as the explicitly anti-Soviet ‘Helsinki Watch’ in the late 1970s, Human Rights Watch has since rebranded and expanded its focus to the entire world. However, it remains anti-Russian and anti-Chinese in its leanings, with its 2022 report on the UK praising the British government for accusing Beijing of human rights abuses and sanctioning Moscow in response to the conflict in Ukraine.

Between 2010 and 2020, HRW received $100 million in funding from liberal megadonor and pro-immigration lobbyist George Soros, who described it as “one of the most effective organizations I support.”
https://www.rt.com/news/569769-uk-human-rights-abuse/
============================================