(2022-02-09). European banks panicking over Russia-Ukraine crisis — reports. rt.com 
Banks in Italy, France, and Austria are most exposed | European banks are concerned that the payment system which connects them to Russia could become a casualty of the Ukraine crisis, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing its sources. The banks describe the potential disconnection of Russia from SWIFT as an "atomic bomb" for the industry because it would prevent the repayment of debts, it said. | According to research by JPMorgan, European banks with subsidiaries in Russia are most at risk from economic restrictions. The study said a handful of lenders, including UniCredit, RBI, France's Societe Generale, and…
(2022-02-09). France's Macron: Putin Says He Won't Escalate Ukraine Situation. news.antiwar.com On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron was in Kyiv after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier. Macron said the Russian president told him that Russia "won't be initiating an escalation" against Ukraine. "I think it is important," Macron said. Putin also had positive things to say about the talks and said that …
(2022-02-09). Yemen war: Turkey joins NATO ally France in shoring up UAE military. antibellum679354512.wordpress.com The Daily SabahFebruary 8, 2022 Turkey, UAE discuss improving defense, military cooperation Also see: French military provides United Arab Emirates assistance for genocidal war in Yemen Officials from Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday discussed the prospects of developing their bilateral defense and military cooperation. The UAE's minister of state for defense …
(2022-02-09). U.S. to deploy warship, fighter squadron to assist UAE's war in Yemen. antibellum679354512.wordpress.com The United Arab Emirates, a founding member of NATO's Istanbul Cooperation Initiative military partnership, supplied NATO with troops for its war in Afghanistan and combat aircraft for its war against Libya, and leading NATO nations — the U.S., France, Turkey among them — return the favor. The war in Yemen is one of several military …
(2022-02-09). US outlines position on Putin-Macron talks. rt.com 
White House happy to see 'efforts at diplomacy' between Russia and the West | Cooperative dialogue between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on a potential agreement for security guarantees in Europe is seen as encouraging by the White House, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. | Speaking to reporters, Psaki remarked that Washington had been heartened by the two presidents' discussion at Monday's meeting in Moscow, which showcased "efforts at diplomacy." She went on to say that interactions of such statesmanship "encourage" and "are encouraged by" the US governm…
(2022-02-09). Russia Can Increase Gas Supplies to EU if There Are Requests, Envoy Says. sputniknews.com BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – Russia can increase the volume of natural gas it supplies to European countries once there is a request for it, which is currently not being made due to high spot market prices, Russian Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told Sputnik in an interview.
(2022-02-09). Moscow on Potential Delivery of US THAAD Systems to Ukraine: Russia Urges to Avoid 'Stupidity'. sputniknews.com The statement comes amid a standoff between the Kremlin, Ukraine, and the West over the list of security demands Russian authorities made last year, which Moscow says are needed to defuse the crisis in Ukraine and lower tensions in Europe.
(2022-02-09). Petition in Germany gathers more than 125,000 signatures opposing deliberate mass infections in schools. wsws.org The only way to stop the herd immunity policy is the international struggle for a Zero COVID policy.
(2022-02-09). Britain is undermining the EU to upset China and please the US. rt.com 
Yesterday, the United Kingdom China has effectively placed a de-facto trade embargo and secondary sanctions reg…
(2022-02-09). Johnson lays out UK military offensive against Russia. wsws.org Just how deliberately inflammatory the UK's moves are was underscored by the Mirror reporting February 7 that the planned deployment of troops to Poland is part of a joint operation with the US.
(2022-02-09). Dewey Defeats Truman! Russia Invades Ukraine! davidswanson.org
(2022-02-09). Protest in Oakland Says No to War with Russia. indybay.org Rally part of a day of international action to protest US/NATO war plans against Russia…
(2022-02-09). United protest in New Orleans against US, NATO war on Russia. fightbacknews.org New Orleans, LA — Anti-war protesters gathered on February 5 in New Orleans at Lafayette Square Park to demand an end to NATO aggression against Russia. Activists carried signs and chanted slogans calling for peace and the disbandment of NATO. | The protest was organized by a coalition including the Communist Party USA, the Democratic Socialists of America, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. | Speakers decried the latest U.S. attempt to escalate the situation in Ukraine, which they said threatens us with a nuclear conflict with Russia. The protest also highlight…
(2022-02-09). No War With Russia; Yes to Diplomacy and Peace. indybay.org Protest at Berkeley Civic Center…
(2022-02-09). Medal ceremony delayed as Russian 'doping mystery' emerges in Beijing — media. rt.com 
The medal ceremony for the figure skating team event at the Winter Olympics has been delayed over a 'legal issue' | The Russian figure skating team which won gold in Beijing is reportedly at the center of scrutiny after the medal ceremony was delayed due to unspecified legal issues which "arose at short notice." | The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) wrapped up the figure skating team title earlier this week, with the USA claiming silver and Japan earning bronze. | However, the medal ceremony has been delayed indefinitely after originally being scheduled to take place on Tuesday. | The International Olympic Com…
(2022-02-09). Britain to provide Ukraine with anti-tank, anti-ship missiles. antibellum679354512.wordpress.com From The Guardian and RT, respectively. The Guardian, being The Guardian, of course spends most of the article, which is hypothetically a report on Britain shipping more arms to the Eastern Ukrainian war zone, to bash Russia and insist British weapons are of the most pacific nature, only meant to protect human and wildlife and …
(2022-02-09). US sees no need for new sanctions against Nord Stream 2 — White House. tass.com Jen Psaki did not answer directly to the question about whether the United States and its allies would view a powerful Russian cyberattack on Ukraine as a reason to undertake new measures against the gas pipeline project…
(2022-02-09). EU powers endorse NATO war threats against Russia as Macron visits Ukraine. wsws.org Visiting Kiev, French President Macron hailed the far-right militias fighting for the Ukrainian regime and backed NATO's hard-line demands against Russia.
(2022-02-09). Russia Strongly Condemns Israeli Airstrikes in Syria. sputniknews.com DAMASCUS (Sputnik) – Russia strongly condemns Israeli airstrikes in Syria and considers them illegal according to international law, Russian Ambassador to Damascus Alexander Efimov told Sputnik.
(2022-02-09). Selected Articles: Memo to Congress: Diplomacy for Ukraine Is Spelled M-i-n-s-k. globalresearch.ca Dear Readers, | As everyone faces difficult times, the company which deals with the fulfillment of book sales on behalf of Global Research is no longer able to provide its services. We are unfortunately suspending the sale of print books until …
(2022-02-09). Ukraine keeps dodging constructive dialogue on security in Donbass — Lugansk. tass.com No progress was made in the issue of mutual security guarantees as well, according to LPR diplomats…
(2022-02-08). Refugees in the Cluster of Humanitarian Disasters. journal-neo.org 
Recent years have been increasingly marked by numerous migration crises. Fleeing from wars, armed conflicts and various militant activities, migrants from Africa and Asia continue to make dangerous attempts to enter Europe by various, often risky and dangerous, means. As a result, many of them die at sea, and the coastguards of various countries have …
(2022-02-08). Despite US Warnings, Ukraine Says Diplomatic Solution More Likely Than Russian Invasion. news.antiwar.com Ukraine continues to send a much different message than what US officials are saying concerning a potential Russian invasion. On Sunday, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a diplomatic solution to the current tensions with Russia "An honest assessment of the situation suggests that the chance of finding a diplomatic solution for de-escalation is still substantially higher than the threat of further escalation," said preside…
(2022-02-08). Ukraine and Russia: History Matters. strategic-culture.org By Karsten RIISE | What is Ukraine? This is a difficult question. Russia was born in Kiev. The first historic Russian empire was Kievan-Rus, which was founded by the Vikings and the King Rurik, who sailed from the Baltic Sea through the rivers Daugava and Dnepr down to the Black Sea and Constantinople. In 882 CE they made Kyiv the capital of the first Russian kingdom. The Mongols put a final end to Kievan-Rus in the 13th century, but the Rurik dynasty then ruled from further north, in what was in the 15th century still just a small principality around another river city called Moscow. Only in 1598 did the ruling…
(2022-02-08). CIA veteran hosting anti-China 'Uyghur diaspora' podcast funded by US government. multipolarista.com 
The "WEghur Stories" podcast claims to speak on behalf of "the Uyghur diaspora," and uses intersectional feminist rhetoric to demonize China. But it's co-created and hosted by an ex CIA agent, with funding from the US embassy in France.
(2022-02-08). France's Macron claims he averted Russian invasion of Ukraine. rt.com 
According to the French leader, he managed to get a pledge from Putin that there will be no escalation in the conflict | French President Emmanuel Macron has claimed a breakthrough in the tense standoff between Russia and Ukraine, taking credit after supposedly obtaining guarantees from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the situation will not escalate further, following a crunch summit between the two heads of state. | Speaking to journalists in Kiev ahead of talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, Macron claimed that he has secured what he sees as a pledge from Moscow on the ma…
(2022-02-08). China's Gu Ailing takes historic women's freeski big air gold at Beijing 2022. ecns.cn China's prodigy Gu Ailing claimed the historic gold with a 1620 performance she had never done before in the women's freeski big air of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Big Air Shougang here on Tuesday, while Tess Ledeux of France and Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland took silver and bronze, respectively.
(2022-02-08). Biden, Germany's Scholz Try to Show United Front Amid Ukraine Tensions. news.antiwar.com President Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington on Monday as the two leaders tried to show a united front amid heightened tensions with Russia over Ukraine. | Germany has not been as eager to stoke conflict between Ukraine and Russia as some of its NATO allies and is not sending weapons to Kyiv, Berlin has cited historical reasons as to why they don't want to send weapons that could be used in a war in Eastern Europe. Another…
(2022-02-08). Woody Allen's Rifkin's Festival: A portion of life's complications makes its way through. wsws.org American film critic Mort Rifkin (Wallace Shawn) is in northern Spain in the company of his younger wife Sue (Gina Gershon), a film publicist, while she attends the San Sebastián Film Festival.
(2022-02-08). Turkish health workers strike as COVID-19 pandemic, living costs surge. wsws.org As COVID-19 cases explode and real annual inflation exceeds 110 percent in Turkey, many layers of the working class are increasingly taking strike action.
(2022-02-08). President JFK's Murder Is Graphic Proof of Entrenched Cold War Ideology and Why Peace Eludes U.S.-Russia Relations. dissidentvoice.org 
The Cold War is back with a vengeance. The current impasse between the United States and Russia over the Ukraine crisis is running the risk of an all-out war in Europe, a war that could escalate into nuclear Armageddon. The crisis is wholly manufactured by Washington's geopolitical power calculations — claims made against Russia about …
(2022-02-08). Macron: No security for Europeans if there is no security for Russia. peoplesworld.org 
If the diplomatic events of Monday showed us anything, they indicated with striking clarity that old assumptions about how European security is to be achieved will not, if they ever did, work and that NATO is incapable of bringing the people of Europe the peace they so desperately want and need. While President Joe Biden …
(2022-02-08). Washington pushes UK Conservatives to impose sanctions on Russian oligarchs. wsws.org Washington is intent on using the war threats against Russia as a stick to beat its European allies, forcing them to fall in line with its broader economic and financial demands.
(2022-02-08). Imperial joins European partners in call for finalising UK and Swiss association. imperial.ac.uk Imperial's President Professor Alice Gast is among 300 science leaders that have signed a call for an "open and inclusive European Research Area."
(2022-02-08). Putin voices concerns over discrimination of Russian-speaking population in Ukraine. tass.com Russian President expressed hope that following the talks Macron would also discuss the issues of security in Europe and the Ukrainian settlement with the Kiev authorities during his visit to Ukraine…
(2022-02-08). U.S.-EU hide their role in Afghan hunger crisis. iacenter.org By Zach Kerner February 7, 2022 On Jan. 24, U.S. and European Union representatives met with representatives of the Taliban in Oslo to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. The meeting's purpose, according to the U.S. State Department, was the "urgency in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan" and the need to "help alleviate the suffering of Afghans across the country." (state.gov, Jan. 27) Credit: sanctionskill.org The U.S.-E.U. statement focuses primarily on the Taliban's conduct, particularly charges of women's and human rights violations. It fails to acknowledge that the ongoing crisis in Afghanis…
(2022-02-08). Germany promises 'very tough sanctions' on Russia. rt.com 
If Moscow launches an invasion of Ukraine, it will be hit with "far-reaching" measures, Chancellor Scholz says | Russia will face serious consequences if it decides to launch a military incursion into Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned on Sunday, ahead of a trip to the US to meet President Joe Biden at the White House. | Speaking to German channel ARD, Scholz said that current Western efforts are aimed at ensuring there is no need to impose economic measures against Russia, but that a range of ideas had been discussed. | "We have very concrete preparations with our allies in the EU and the US. We ar…
(2022-02-08). Headlines for February 8, 2022. democracynow.org Biden Vows to Halt Russia-to-Germany Gas Pipeline If Russia Invades Ukraine, Several Democratic-Led States Announce Plans to Roll Back Mask Mandates, Biden Administration Tests Four-Legged Robotic "Dogs" on U.S.-Mexico Border, Costa Rican Presidential Candidates Appear Headed for April Runoff Election, Ex-Honduran President Added to U.S. List of Corrupt Officials over Drug Trafficking, Brazilian Antiracist Protesters Demand Justice for Immigrant Killed over Unpaid Wages, Supreme Court Will Allow Alabama's GOP-Gerrymandered Congressional Maps to Stand, Jill Biden Confirms Free Community College W…
(2022-02-08). Antiwar Groups Rally To Stop Us From Being Lied Into War With Russia. popularresistance.org Clearing the FOG provides excerpts from the speakers at the National Online Rally to stop war with Russia over Ukraine that was held on Feb. 5 as part of the national actions that took place in about 70 cities in Hawaii and coast to coast. The rally and actions were organized based on a unified call to action issued by 12 national and international antiwar organizations, which was endorsed by more than 200 more organizations. The demands include stopping the war with Russia, stopping the supply of weapons to Nazis in Ukraine, ending NATO, de-escalating the threat of nuclear war and resolving the current conflict…
(2022-02-08). Memo To Congress: Diplomacy For Ukraine Is Spelled M-i-n-s-k. popularresistance.org A December 2021 poll found that a plurality of Americans in both political parties prefer to resolve differences over Ukraine through diplomacy. Another December poll found that a plurality of Americans (48 percent) would oppose going to war with Russia should it invade Ukraine, with only 27 percent favoring U.S. military involvement. | The conservative Koch Institute, which commissioned that poll, concluded that "the United States has no vital interests at stake in Ukraine and continuing to take actions that increase the risk of a confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia is therefore not necessary for our securit…
(2022-02-08). Russia, Ukraine And The US: The Background They're Not Telling You. popularresistance.org In the winter of 2022, the news is dominated by growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Reports that Russia has amassed some 100,000 troops on its border with neighboring Ukraine have brought charges from the United States and NATO that Russia is planning to invade its neighbor, with whom it has had increasingly tense relations. | Will Russia invade Ukraine? And if it does, how will the United States and NATO react? Already, the U.S. and its allies are threatening new sanctions against Russia, sending massive amounts of military equipment to Ukraine and beefing up their military presence in bordering countri…
(2022-02-08). Times Square action says:'Fight racism, not Russia!'. liberationnews.org 
It wasn't Russia that was forcing us to go back to work during a global pandemic so our bosses could grind out a little extra profit … It was Wall Street.
(2022-02-08). Homeland Security's Attempts to "Combat Misinformation" Are Suspect. truthout.org 
During Donald Trump's campaign for president, claims of Russian misinformation and disinformation were ubiquitous on cable news, Twitter and op-ed columns. Public discussion of misinformation has since skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, usually focusing on harmful anti-vaccination media coverage on, for example, Fox News and Joe Rogan's popular podcast. There are, of course, no shortage of Fox News segments praising anti-vaxxers until they die, generally by hosts who themselves have gotten the vac…
(2022-02-08). Tomgram: Rajan Menon, War with Russia? warisacrime.org This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here. Progress? Let's see. We've gone from unending wars in distant lands against enemies capable of little more than wielding firearms and roadside bombs — and those conflicts were disasters — to the possibility of a war in the …
(2022-02-08). Vladimir Putin's Meeting With Xi Jinping Marks an Important Step in Eurasian Future. journal-neo.org 
The past week saw what was arguably the most important encounter for a considerable period of time. The Russian president Vladimir Putin travelled to Beijing as the honoured guest of Chinese president Xi Jinping . It was their first face to face meeting for more than two years. The two leaders did not waste the opportunity …
(2022-02-08). "Do You Want a War Between Russia and NATO?" strategic-culture.org Without deeper understanding of Chinese and Russian civilizations, and their way of thinking, Westerners simply are not equipped to get it, Pepe Escobar believes. | ISTANBUL — Emmanuel Macron is no Talleyrand. Self-promoted as "Jupiterian", he may have finally got down to earth for a proper realpolitik insight while ruminating one of the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs key bon mots: "A diplomat who says 'yes' means 'maybe', a diplomat who says 'maybe' means 'no', and a diplomat who says 'no' is no diplomat." | Mr. Macron went to Moscow to see Mr. Putin with a simple 4-stage plan in mind. 1. Clinch…
(2022-02-08). New Yorkers say 'No war with Russia'. fightbacknews.org New York, NY – Dozens upon dozens of organizers and anti-war activists gathered at two different rallies to protest the U.S. military threats against Russia. | | The first event began at 2 p.m. in Columbus Circle and was organized by Struggle-La Lucha. Organizers gathered near the USS Maine National Monument — the Maine warship exploded due to an accident and became a pretext for the 1898 Spanish-American War. Bill Doares of Struggle-La Lucha explained the important symbolism of the moment and likened it to a false flag operation, similarly to what's happening in Ukraine now. | Speakers denounced spendi…
(2022-02-08). War tensions mount as EU powers hold talks in Moscow, Washington. wsws.org After four hours of one-on-one talks in the Kremlin, the French and Russian presidents gave a press conference at which the latter baldly warned of the danger of world war.
(2022-02-08). Putin says doesn't rule out Ukraine will try to resolve Donbass problem by force again. tass.com Ukrainian authorities have made two attempts to resolve the Donbass problem by force, Russian President noted…
(2022-02-08). Macron Says Talks With Putin Helped Avoid Further Escalation on Ukraine Issue. sputniknews.com The French president arrived in Moscow on Monday to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in order to discuss Russia-EU and Russia-NATO relations amid the crisis in Ukraine.