Several European news outlets reveal video evidence of Bulgarian border guards illegally detaining refugees in a cage, under the watchful eye of Europe's border force agency Frontex. | Footage circulated by journalists suggests officials with the EU border service – also known as Warsaw-based Frontex – were aware of the situation but did not intervene. ● The news was broken by Le Monde, along with Lighthouse Reports, Monitor, Der Spiegel and several other outlets. The journalists managed to film migrants that were being kept in a makeshift cage made up of iron bars on five occasions between October 15 and November 25. The makeshift prison is located in the southeastern Bulgarian city of Sredets, close to the country’s border with Türkiye, on the premises of a local police complex. On every occasion, around a dozen people were kept in the cage, which was littered with garbage and construction debris, the footage shows.

Lebanese security forces have arrested 185 people suspected of spying for Israel since the start of the country’s economic crisis three years ago, the AFP reported on December 7, citing two security officials. | One of the unnamed officials told the news agency that the number is up from a previous average of four or five arrests per year. Between April 2009 and 2014, around 100 people were arrested on charges of spying for Israel. At the time, most of the suspects were either military personnel or employees of the telecommunications sector. ● Lebanon economic crisis started in 2019. Since then, the national currency has plummeted in value, banks have frozen accounts and most people have struggled to make ends meet amid never-ending shortages.

💬 "Our public health agencies are in a cover-up mode, and this is criminal negligence and malfeasance," asserted Ed Dowd. "The numbers are undeniable; they see what we see. Denmark had one of the most egregious excess mortality [rates]. ... They ended their vaccination program for those under 50 and said, 'It's better to get COVID than the vaccine,' which was kind of an Orwellian way to say, 'Your chances of dying with a vaccine are higher.'"

Объясняет Readovka | The Chinese leader plans to discuss both economic and military cooperation with the Saudis. The Middle Eastern countries are very important trading partners for China - they account for half of its oil imports. ● The key route for Middle Eastern oil products to China is by sea through the Strait of Hormuz. Xi Jinping seems concerned about protecting it. Recently joint military exercises of China, Russia and Iran have taken place in the region, and a Chinese naval base will soon be established in Pakistan. Xi and the Saudis' talks on joint military activities are therefore a logical extension of China's policy in the region. The Chinese plans in the Middle East could be thwarted by the Americans, who maintain a significant military presence there. ● On the other hand, China has already succeeded in securing its interests in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait in 2017. The Middle Kingdom has established a military base in Djibouti and has in principle expanded its presence in East Africa, despite its close proximity to US and French military bases. ● China's policy of protecting its trade routes and straits is thus becoming evident. China is gradually becoming a full-fledged superpower and is acting very intelligently to diversify its risks. For example, China simultaneously protects its energy supplies from the Middle East and expands cooperation with Russia in the same field. (www.DeepL.com/)

Объясняет Readovka | The union of the Arabian oil well and the conveyor belt from the Celestial Empire | Colleagues have rightly noted the importance to the PRC of the Riyadh talks, but, as they say, it is a double-edged sword. Companies from the two countries have signed contracts worth almost $30bn - mostly in energy, transport, construction and IT. ● Against the background of the Saudis' oil war and the sanctions war on microelectronics it is easy to identify a major loser: the US. It can be argued that menacing rhetoric from across the ocean has pushed the major economies of the Middle East and Asia towards closer cooperation - the opposite of what Washington would like to see. ● Sino-Saudi economic relations are going well, with trade reaching $80 billion in 2021 and surpassing the $100 billion mark this year. ● The two economic giants complement each other seamlessly in the energy market: OPEC, led by Saudia, produces 33 million barrels of oil per day (mboepd), with more than 20 mboepd available for export. China, on the other hand, provides only one-third of the oil it needs for its domestic industry. ● In this context, it is interesting that only the Gulf monarchies are currently able to increase production without incurring political and logistical costs. Because of the civil wars and sanctions embargoes imposed by the USA, Venezuela, Iran and Libya have withdrawn from the market and supplies from Russia could decrease in the near future. In such circumstances, it is Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE that can provide additional supply of up to 2m b/d. For the Chinese economy, which is growing at around 5% per annum, this would be a huge boon. ● The economic wars in recent years have led to increasing inflation, falling revenues and the disruption of supply chains. Against this backdrop, Sino-Saudi relations seem exceptional: the difference in culture, religion and political structure does not prevent cooperation when mutual economic benefits are at stake.(Translation: www.DeepL.com/)

Signed in 2014 and 2015 by representatives of Ukraine, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Russia, France and Germany, the Minsk Agreements failed to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Donbass. | Speaking at a meeting of the Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, mentioned the issue of the 2014 Minsk Peace Agreements. The Russian president said that western politicians prefer to remain tight-lipped when he reminds them of the accords, which were supposed to pave way for the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine but ultimately failed to do so. so what exactly were these agreements about and what prompted the parties involved to sign them? ● The first of these accords, the Minsk Protocol, was signed on September 5, 2014, with an updated version of it, known commonly as the Minsk-2 Accords, being signed on February 12, 2015, when the previous iteration of the agreement failed to bring an end to the fighting. The documents are in full known as “the Protocol on the results of consultations of the three-member Contact Group on joint steps aimed at the implementation of the peace plan by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the initiatives by Russian President Vladimir Putin.” Poroshenko became the president of Ukraine following the overthrow of Yanukovich during the Maidan coup.

NATO countries are increasingly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, with the United States intentionally proceeding with an escalation on this track, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel on Thursday. 💬 "NATO members are increasingly and directly involved in this conflict. Their support for Kiev is now much diversified than it was a few months ago. This is a reflection of Washington’s intentional policy, obediently pursued by the Europeans, of escalating the conflict. They are playing with fire. The risks are soaring," Ryabkov said. ● Moscow does not see that the West has any caps on the range of arms supplies to Ukraine. 💬 "The Westerners are pushing ahead with expanding the range of deliveries of ever heavier, longer-range weapons. At the same time, they slyly and deceitfully, by and large, try to create an impression that there is some kind of a border line, some kind of self-restraint in this regard. We do not see anything like that," Ryabkov emphasized.

■ Ukraine shifts armed forces to NATO system
■ US Weighs Giving Ukraine Cluster Bombs