As Russia's grip on Kherson continues to weaken, fears grow of it deploying a "scorched-earth" policy. More recently, on October 5, the Saudi- and Russian-led OPEC+ cartel announced its plans to reduce oil production. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, maintains the decision was strictly about its financial and commercial interests, as well as market stability. http://irannews.ru/ - irannews.ru His Chongqing model, however, was arguably the prototype for what Xi would soon unleash on the whole of China. So his ruinous legacy was covered up with reverence. And now, Xi loses no opportunity to channel Mao, even usurping his defunct titles - Great Helmsman, People's Leader, Chairman. But what he seeks is much bigger. To the right, piles of dug earth stretch for miles next to the road - a Ukrainian defensive measure to force Russian forces up a single route. In one school which they used as a base, their supplies, ammunition, and rubbish are scattered in all directions. These are not the traces of a disciplined force. It's evidence they'd been fighting in squalor and left in a hurry. I was told that the MP John Penrose, who is backing Mordaunt, said that for the good of the party, the vote must go to the Tory members - in other words, Penny Mordaunt should not drop out. It was at this time - during a trade war between China and the EU over textile quotas - that I got a rare invitation to interview the commerce minister. Such interviews with top Chinese officials were excruciatingly dull, but this was the opposite. He deliberately echoed Mao's words in 1949 atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Tiananmen Square: "The Chinese People have stood up."