WASHINGTON, 03 December 2021, (TON): The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in response to the Lukashenka regime’s blatant disregard for international norms and the wellbeing of its own citizens, is designating 20 individuals and 12 entities and identifying three aircraft as blocked property pursuant to Executive Orders (E.O.) 14038 and 13405.

The persons designated today have enabled the regime’s migrant smuggling into the European Union (EU), have taken part in the ongoing crackdown on human rights and democracy, and have propped up the regime financially.

As part of today’s action, Treasury is also imposing restrictions on dealings in new issuances of Belarusian sovereign debt in the primary and secondary markets, aligning with actions recently taken by allies and partners.

These actions reaffirm the U.S. government’s commitment to impose costs on the Lukashenka regime for enabling corruption, human rights abuses, inhumane exploitation of vulnerable people and orchestration of irregular migration, and attacks against democratic freedoms and international norms.

Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control Andrea M. Gacki said “the United States stands alongside its international partners and allies in imposing costs on the Lukashenka regime for its deplorable behavior, including migrant smuggling.”

RIYADH, 03 December 2021, (TON): The secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Hissein Brahim Taha, received the permanent representative of Russia to the OIC, Ramazan Abdulatipov, in Jeddah.

Both parties valued the ties that connect the Islamic world and Russia and explored more ways to strengthen fruitful dialogue and cooperation between the organization and the Russian Federation in various fields.

Earlier, Taha met a number of foreign envoys to Saudi Arabia.

WASHINGTON, 03 December 2021, (TON): The National Space Council meeting chaired by Vice President Harris reaffirmed our national commitment to exploring and developing outer space in a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful manner.

The newly released Space Priorities Framework provides the American people and the international community with a clear understanding of the Administration’s views on the value of outer space exploration and underscores the need to bring the benefits of outer space to all humanity.

The Department of State looks forward to continuing fruitful dialogues with the commercial space industry, non-governmental organizations, and longstanding international space partners, as well as engaging new and emerging space nations.

Engage the international community to uphold and strengthen a rules-based international order for space, facilitate security and sustainability, and further explore and promote equitable access to the benefits of space for all.

Renew our commitment to using space-based assets to combat the climate crisis, nature loss, and ocean and plastic pollution.

Lead in the development and implementation of international standards, policies, and norms for spaceflight safety and global space traffic coordination.

BERLIN, 03 December 2021, (TON): The meeting of the German Bundestag, at which the deputies will vote on the candidacy of Olaf Scholz for the post of new chancellor, will take place next Wednesday, December 8.

This was announced on Thursday by the press service of the parliament.

The new government is expected to be sworn in on the same day, and the cabinet ministers of Angela Merkel, who are currently acting in the status of acting, will finally step down.

Scholz was the party-list leader of the Social Demo-cratic Party of Germany, which won parliamentary elections this year.

His government will also include the Free Democratic Party and the Greens.

These three parties have a majority in parliament, which is why observers consider voting in parliament as a formality.

The Foreign Ministry in the Scholz government will be headed by Annalena Berbock, while the Climate and Economic Affairs Ministry will be headed by Robert Habek. Both politicians lead the Green Party and are known for their criticism of Russia.

MOSCOW, 03 December 2021, (TON): The press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service said in a statement “after provocative and baseless statements by the head of British intelligence, Richard Moore, about alleged threats emanating from Russia, the atmosphere of a possible Russian-British dialogue at the level of intelligence services has been largely spoiled.”

Britain sees serious threats from Russia, British intelligence chief MI6 Richard Moore said “in his first major public appearance since taking office in October 2020. Lo-ndon will do its best to contain and repel the entire spectrum of threats from Moscow.”

The SVR press bureau points out “after such provocative, groundless insinuations about Moscow ‘s aggressive policy against Kiev, cyberattacks, imposed on teeth, etc., the atmosphere of a possible dialogue is largely spoiled.”

The statement said “from the head of the world ‘s most authoritative intelligence, such as MI6, we have the right to count on greater professionalism, an objective and dispassionate approach to assessing and presenting the British position on regional and international problems.”

Until the 1980s of the last century, the British authorities generally denied the very existence of their foreign intelligence service of the MI6 country, recalls the SVR.

WASHINGTON, 03 December 2021, (TON): US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that China’s pursuit of hypersonic weapons “increases tensions in the region” and vowed the United States would maintain its capability to deter potential threats posed by China.

Austin made the remarks in Seoul following annual security talks with his South Korean counterpart that focused on challenges from China and North Korea and other issues facing the allies.

Austin said referring to China’s latest hypersonic weapons test in July “we have concerns about the military capabilities that the PRC continues to pursue. Again, the pursuit of those capabilities increases tensions in the region.”

Austin said “it just underscores why we consider the PRC to be our pacing challenge.”

We’ll continue to maintain the capabilities to defend and deter against a range of potential threats from the PRC to ourselves and to our allies.

China’s growing military muscle and its drive to end American predominance in Asia has triggered unease in Washington.

China’s efforts to accelerate its military capabilities were highlighted by its July test of a hypersonic weapon capable of partially orbiting the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and gliding on a manoeuvrable path to its target.

WARSAW, 03 December 2021, (TON): According to a joint statement by the heads of state released “the presidents of Lithuania , Poland and Ukraine Gitanas Nauseda , Andrzej Duda and Volodymyr Zelen-skiy have called for new sanctions against Russia.”

The statement is timed to the 30th anniversary of the recognition of Ukraine’s independence by Poland and Lithuania.

The presidents called on the international community to strengthen sanctions against the Russian Federation in connection with its ongoing aggression against Ukraine and once again called on the Kremlin to de-escalate the situation by withdrawing its troops from the Ukrainian borders and temporarily occupied territories.

The parties also stressed that the relationship of a real strategic partnership between the countries “has successfully stood the test of time and continue to strengthen” and reaffirmed their commitment to further develop the strategic partnership between Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland based on common values and interests.

The statement said “reaffirmed their clear commitment to further expand their cooperation on a wide range of issues, such as security, defense, economy, energy and others, including within the framework of the Lublin Triangle format.”

BRUSSELS, 03 December 2021, (TON): The country’s Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said “the Council of Europe has decided to provide Ukraine with funds within the framework of the European Fund for Peace. The money was allocated to strengthen the defense capabilities of Ukraine.”

The minister wrote “the EU Council decided to provide Ukraine with € 31 million to strengthen its defense capabilities within the framework of the European Peace Fund. We highly appreciate this step, which once again testified to the strategic nature of relations between Ukraine and the EU.”

Kuleba specified that the financial package, in particular, will include the provision of material and technical assistance for the development and strengthening of the potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Such assistance, the minister added, will affect four areas – medicine, engineering capabilities and measures for mine clearance, mobility and logistics, and cyber security.

“It is expected that the implementation of these directions will begin in the near future,” the statement on the website of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry says. According to Kuleba, cooperation between Kiev and the European Peace Fund will be long-term.

In turn, the EU Council, in a published statement, confirmed that the Council adopted on Thursday a set of decisions establishing four assistance measures under the European Peace Facility (EPF) in support of Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and the Republic of Mali.

WASHINGTON, 03 December 2021, (TON): The United States urged Russia to pull back its troops from the Ukrainian border, warning that a Russian invasion would provoke sanctions that would hit Moscow harder than any imposed until now.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “we don’t know whether President (Vladimir) Putin has made the decision to invade. We do know that he is putting in place the capacity to do so on short order should he so decide.”

Blinken was speaking in the Latvian capital Riga after conferring with foreign ministers from Nato and Ukraine “should Russia follow the path of confrontation, when it comes to Ukraine, we’ve made clear that we will respond resolutely, including with a range of high impact economic measures that we have refrained from pursuing in the past.”

Russia seized the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 but denies aggressive intent in the current crisis and says it is responding to threatening behaviour by Nato and Ukraine.

The Kremlin said it feared Ukraine was gearing up to try to recapture by force areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region in the east of the country - something Kiev denies and accused it of “very dangerous adventurism”.

It said “Russia could not take any steps to de-escalate because of a large concentration of Ukrainian forces close to the border.”

TEL AVIV, 03 December 2021, (TON): Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz reiterated that a strike could be an option to bring Iran's nuclear program to a halt.

Gantz said in an interview "I do think we always have to prepare the option for the moment when we may find ourselves alone. I say again, an attack (on Iran) is an option. It doesn't have to be the first one.”

The minister said he is confident that "the US as a world leader will stand behind its promise and responsibility."

The report claimed that the Israeli government intends to purchase weaponry worth 5 billion Israeli shekels ($1.56 billion) in preparation for the possible Israeli attack on Iran.

It added that the purchase includes interceptor missiles for its Iron Dome defence system in addition to precise ammunition for the Israeli air force.