❗️The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the IOC's initiative to admit transgender people to the Olympic Games.

"Such innovations threaten the existence of women's sports, because now men who have changed their sex and have a clear physical advantage can now be allowed to compete. What principles of fair play and access to sports without discrimination, which Thomas Bach cares about so much, can we talk about in this case?"

In 2021, Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender to compete in the Olympics. The representative of New Zealand failed to perform a single successful snatch in the weightlifting competition in the weight category over 87 kg.

EU schemes up sweeteners to woo countries away from Russia and China
A confidential briefing shows the EU’s individualized plans to win back — or not lose — four ‘priority countries’ on the Western alliance’s edges.

The EU is plotting how to win friends and influence people — in other countries.

Earlier this week, EU officials circulated a confidential briefing, obtained by POLITICO, that details several individualized plans to win back — or not lose — four key “priority countries” that sit on the edge of the Western-led alliance trying to isolate Russia, arm Ukraine and constrain China.

The countries: Brazil, Chile, Nigeria and Kazakhstan.

The document indicates where — and how — the EU thinks it can make progress in each one. There is the expected invocation of possible trade agreements, but the document goes well beyond that, suggesting tailored offers the EU can make on energy, migration, economic development or security coordination. The focus is distinctly on carrots, not sticks.

The unstated goal: To get more friends and build a next-generation economy without cozying up to autocrats. Indeed, Russia and China loom over the entire document, with several anxious mentions of the countries’ global influence or destabilizing behavior.

“We find ourselves in a competitive geopolitical environment: not only a battle of narratives but also a battle of offers,” the document argues. “We need to improve our offer and enhance our relationship with them.”

EU foreign affairs ministers are set to discuss the strategy at a meeting Monday in Luxembourg.

It is, said one senior EU official, “a huge reorientation … of the way we do foreign policy — not of our foreign policy, of course, but the way we do it.”

The memo shows how, fourteen months into the Ukraine war, the EU is still grappling with how to expand its influence. While the West’s core coalition has remained remarkably solid on the war, officials have struggled to make broader inroads in Latin America, Africa and Asia — especially in the face of the billions China is spreading around.

“It is not rocket science, but it’s good that it’s now being brought together into a somewhat coherent strategy,” one diplomat said. The “ultimate aim,” the diplomat added, “would be to somehow propose an alternative that could be more attractive than what China offers.”
...
#TransFormatorBuzzes : 💤
There is nothing new in that kind of policy — trying to influence the potential allies of your competitor. Maybe for now it is even a softer approach, than it used to be. I remember well the sensation in the 90s when it was obvious that the direction of the American aggression is pin-pointing those countries, which used to be in friendly relationships with the USSR: Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria. It was an American revenge for their former policy and pro-socialist orientation. USA were purposedly destroying those states and impoverishing their people... However, they did not touch Cuba and Vietnam — two places where they have been rebuffed previously. So it was not just mean, but also a cowardly policy.

Just want to clarify, that we very well distinguish between American people and American political and financial elites...

Join us 👉 @TrFormer 💤
Become a member of the @TransFormerChat
Read the complete version here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

😄 Poster at German demonstration: We are not afraid of Putin. We are afraid of you.

Thousands of German residents took to the streets demanding an end to arms deliveries to the Kiev regime.

In the cities of Magdeburg, Hamburg, and Fulda, residents staged demonstrations. They spoke out against their government's policies, media propaganda, and arms deliveries to Ukraine.

🔹 According to the demonstrators, Russia is not an enemy of Germany, but the German authorities are pumping modern weapons to the AFU, which only delays the end of the conflict, leads to its escalation and an increase in the number of victims.

@europeandusanews

The image above is obviously generated by AI

It is used by inept #Ukrainian/#NATO propagandists and presented as "real" in the propaganda story linked below.


NOTE that the bandage on the head of this AI-generated "Russian" is somehow blended into his skin.


The story claims to be reporting on:

"A #Russian from western #Siberia who volunteered to fight in #Bakhmut and elsewhere before being badly wounded says his unit suffered huge casualties, his documents were lost, his salary was stolen and he was dismissed from the army without explanation while in hospital. "

Original Propaganda story, in Russian:
https://uproar-crowned-964778.appspot.com/2023/04/24/my-dlya-komandirov-kak-spichki-odna-sgorela-vzyal-druguyu/

Twitter thread in English where the Twit posting this on twitter pretends it is factual:

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1653118053062680578

Note that the obviously fake AI-generated image of the imaginary Russian is published by the Twitter Twit without comment on its obvious fake-ness

🕯 May 2 marks nine years since the tragic events in Odessa, which culminated in the bone-chilling massacre in the House of Trade Unions.

On that day, Ukrainian radical nationalists intentionally set fire to the building where an opposition group against the new authorities had taken refuge. As a result, 48 people were burned alive, poisoned by carbon monoxide or died after falling from the windows of the upper floors.

The world watched the developments practically in real time, with the terrible footage of charred corpses circulating online.

⚠️ In fact, the Kiev regime repeated what Bandera’s death squads did to Khatyn in Belarus 80 years ago.

It is outrageous that the incident was never fully investigated. For appearance sake, the Kiev authorities found a scapegoat – former public security police chief Dmitry Fuchedzhi. No other perpetrators of the crime have been punished.

💬 Maria Zakharova (briefing of April 27, 2023): “Many of those who were caught on camera and could be identified as taking part in killing people not only remained free, but went on to become public figures in Ukraine, where the state positions itself as a “flagship of democracy” in the region. Only people of that kind could climb up the social ladder in this atmosphere of lawlessness, police brutality, authoritarianism and gross human rights violations.”

❗️ We will never forget the tragedy in Odessa. We will insist that everyone involved in this brutal crime be identified and held responsible.

#NoStatuteOfLimitations

I never forget, I was watching on news, they were beating up ppl till death who were jumping from windows. I never forget those 12 year old boy looking from window of that burning building. Animals , evil.
Look Ireland who invaded here!!! God help us all

🧿 'National Meme Coordination Body' sums up the coming Ukrainian offensive pretty well.

 - Exact name of goods  - Amount per unit
 - Transport Bodybags  - 60 000 pieces 

"Gentlemen, I wish to inform you that the Ukrainians have finished the final preparations for the start of the great offensive."

https://t.me/nmktelegram/1370

"I have never before seen how a whole nation is ready to go to war for the ultimate foreign interest."

This video is demonstrated on Republican TG channels in the US and very widely in Australia and New Zealand.

The video explains why the Chinese ambassador to France said that Ukraine has no legally recognized borders.

"Russia set conditions for Ukraine's independence on the basis of Ukraine's membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Under the CIS Treaty, Russia has treaty rights to Ukraine's borders in areas populated predominantly by ethnic Russians, including Crimea, the Donbass, and northern Kazakhstan.

So legally it can be argued that Ukraine has not actually established and ratified the borders with Russia, Belarus and Moldova.

Anna News editor-in-chief Anatoly Matviychuk commented on the drone attack on the Kremlin:

“I would like to reassure everyone. Despite the fact that the drone flew in, it was destroyed in the air by means that guard the Kremlin perimeter. One can ask the question: how did it fly to the center of Moscow, why did the air defense forces not notice it?

But it is unlikely that he flew from Ukraine. Most likely — from the nearest suburbs. And it was launched by a group associated with Ukrainian intelligence or the SBU. Maybe it consists of citizens of Russia, maybe citizens of Ukraine, who are registered as refugees. They carried out the task of creating such a provocative idea, they say, the Ukrainian special services can do anything.

But what did they achieve with this blow? Nothing. This strike is an invitation for Russia to strike at Kiev. If there would be such an answer, it would be possible to blame those damned Russians, their aggression, and ask for more money, more weapons.

Let's soberly assess the situation. This is not the last sabotage, not the last provocation, it is necessary to prepare to repel these attacks," Anatoly Matviychuk said.


Translated from Anna news

#TransFormatorBuzzes 💤 :
Well, that is a position which was comfortably adopted by the Russian officials. It means, that we should not adequately respond to the obvious challenge. There is some logic behind it. However, it reminds me about an order that was issued on the 22nd June 1941, "not to respond with fire to the provocations", when German Nazis' army was already unstoppably rolling into the Soviet Union... What do you think? Is a military response in the current situation appropriate?
Join us 👉 @TrFormer 💤
Become a member of the @TransFormerChat