Elena Panina (Елена Панина) | The head of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol predicted a sharp intensification of the energy crisis at the presentation of the report "How can the European Union avoid natural gas shortages in 2023? Europe and Ukraine will be among the hardest hit, according to the Turkish Milliyet. ● The main negative factor for the EU is a complete rejection of Russian gas in 2023. The gap in supply and demand will be at least 30 billion cubic meters. Nor will LNG suppliers help, due to low capacity growth and increasing demand in China. The IEA head's prescription for Europe looks mocking - increase energy efficiency and change the consumer's behaviour. In other words, to reduce consumption even more and to develop renewable energy with more zeal. Plus we can try to get wasted gas from Algeria and Egypt. ● Note that this entire European crisis is entirely man-made. After all, the rejection of Russian gas was directed - at the behest of Washington. The EU decided to punish Russia, but it punished itself. That is why there is absolutely no pity. As for Ukraine, things will be much worse there. The country has lost its political sovereignty and allowed itself to be turned into a battering ram against Russia. Now it will lose everything, including statehood. (DeepL.com/)

Zelensky to Join World Economic Forum at Davos, Partner With BlackRock to 'Rebuild' Ukraine | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced his intentions to attend the World Economic Forum’s Davos summit next month, as well as a partnership with globalist private equity firm BlackRock Inc. to “rebuild” Ukraine after what Zelensky insists will be a victory over Russia. Zelensky told the people of Ukraine in a recent address to the nation that BlackRock “specialists” are already helping Ukraine to build a “reconstruction” fund, and that next month, he’ll take part in the World Economic Forum’s infamous Davos summit. “Specialists of this company (BlackRock Inc.) are already helping Ukraine to structure the fund for the reconstruction of our state,” Zelensky told his nation during his recent address.

Apart from sending arms to its NATO allies, the Biden administration also continues to supply Kiev with weapons, something that Moscow warns will only further aggravate the Ukraine conflict. | The number and price of arms sales approved by Washington to its NATO allies almost doubled in 2022 as compared to 2021, a US magazine has reported. The outlet noted that last year, the US government approved 14 possible major arms sales to its allies in the alliance, worth about $15.5 billion. In 2022, the figure soared to 24 potential major arms sales with price tag of around $28 billion, including $1.24 billion worth of arms sales to possible new NATO member Finland.

"ll s’agit par cet appel aux dons d’aider les personnes suspendues qui subissent une triple détresse financière, psychologique et juridique.” 💬 "Il y a déjà eu des suicides dans cette population, on voudrait éviter à tout prix que ça continue. Et surtout il y a des gens qui se retrouvent dans une détresse phénoménale : financière, psychologique, juridique." ● Dans ce "Pause", Jean-Louis, photographe et fondateur du collectif “Les Essentiels”, un collectif de photographes bénévoles, lance un appel aux dons pour soutenir les personnes suspendues de leurs emplois, auxquelles s’intéressent justement les 120 membres de son projet. ● Jean-Louis a mis sur pied son collectif pour “mettre en lumière le cas des suspendus. Il a beaucoup de soignants, des pompiers mais pas que. L’idée est de leur donner un visage, de leur donner la parole, et puis de les aider, évidemment”, explique-t-il. Les photographes de “Les Essentiels” partent, depuis une année, à la rencontre de ces personnes à travers toute la France pour récolter leurs témoignages : 💬 “Chaque photographie est accompagnée d’un témoignage dans lequel la personne raconte ce qu’il lui arrive et pourquoi elle ne souhaite pas se faire vacciner (...) Les gens ne comprennent pas”.

■ Lien internet : Les Essentiels : Regardez-les, écoutez-les, c’est notre conscience qu’ils interpellent

"The aim of this appeal for donations is to help the suspended people who are suffering triple financial, psychological and legal distress." 💬 "There have already been suicides in this population, we would like to avoid this continuing at all costs. And above all there are people who find themselves in phenomenal distress: financial, psychological, legal." ● In this "Pause", Jean-Louis, photographer and founder of "Les Essentiels", a collective of volunteer photographers, appeals for donations to support people suspended from their jobs, a project in which the 120 members of his project are keenly interested. ● Jean-Louis set up his collective to "highlight the case of the suspended. He has a lot of carers, firemen but others too. The idea is to give them a face, to give them a voice, and then to help them, obviously," he explains. The photographers of "Les Essentiels" have been meeting these people all over France for a year to collect their testimonies: 💬 "Each photograph is accompanied by a testimony in which the person tells what is happening to him or her and why he or she does not want to be vaccinated (...) People do not understand". (Trans.)

Ex-French leader agreed with former German counterpart's description of the real purpose behind Minsk agreements | The 2014 Minsk Agreement was indeed a ploy to buy Ukraine time and should be credited for Kiev’s “successful resilience” now, former French president Francois Hollande said on Friday. Confirming former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s assessment of the truce, Hollande also blamed US weakness for the failure to deter Russia. ● Earlier this month, Merkel described Minsk as “an attempt to give Ukraine time” to build up its military. Speaking with the Kyiv Independent, a pro-government Ukrainian outlet, Hollande agreed, saying Merkel was “right on this point.” 💬 “Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture. Indeed, the Ukrainian army was completely different from that of 2014. It was better trained and equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk agreements to have given the Ukrainian army this opportunity,” Hollande said, adding that it also stopped the advance of Donbass “separatists” on Mariupol.

■ Confessions by Hollande and Merkel are ‘formalization of betrayal’ – top Russian senator (RT.com)

Объясняет Readovka | Total ignorance - how NATO continued to expand despite Russia's warnings | The British National Archives has recently published a number of documents, including those relating to the Kingdom's relations with our country, as well as Moscow-NATO contacts in the noughties. Judging by these materials, the West ignored Russia's warnings even then. ● The Times journalists, referring to the papers made public by the Archive, focus their article on several episodes, one of which is a conversation between President Vladimir Putin and then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which Putin said he did not want to be opposed to the alliance. On the other hand, quotes former Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeev who warned against NATO's expansion to Russia's borders - Sergeev called the alliance's actions a major mistake and said that it would surely be followed by Moscow's response. ● Both the carrot and the stick were completely ignored by the West. Young Russia at the time was still under the illusion of a single European space in which the rule of law reigned and everyone coexisted on an equal footing. Meanwhile, the NATO bloc was actively moving towards our borders, listening to no one and paying no attention to anything. ● The West has always been a closed club hostile to us, in which the only place Russia can occupy is as a feeding ground for multinational corporations. NATO is the watchdog needed to maintain the status quo that benefits the West. Any treaties with these people are trivial not worth the paper they are written on. Fortunately, the time of mirages is finally a thing of the past, and such material only confirms the justifiability of the NWO. (www.DeepL.com/)

■ Russia warned NATO leaders about expansion in 2001 – Times

He spent his retirement as Pope Emeritus residing in a building of a former monastery in the Vatican | Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has passed away at the age of 95, a representative of the Holy See press office said on Saturday. The German cardinal and renowned theologian Joseph Ratzinger served as the head of the Catholic Church from 2005 until 2013. He became the first pontiff to resign in the past 600 years. He spent his retirement as Pope Emeritus residing in a building of a former monastery in the Vatican.

■ Benedict XVI (News25Now newsgenerator)

Холмогоров | A tragic figure. A major non-modern Catholic theologian who tried to keep the RCC at least somewhat on the rails of tradition and was effectively overthrown in his lifetime, something that hadn't happened in over seven centuries. ● Long before his pontificate I read his Introduction to Christianity. It was a very good book for a Catholic. ● I think he was the last pope in any "Tridentine" sense to live up to that name. ● Requiescat In Pace - this formula is more appropriate here than anywhere else. ● At the end there will be no Christianity other than Orthodoxy. Everything else will irrevocably turn into non-Christianity and anti-Christianity. In fact it already has...(www.DeepL.com/)