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Australia’s Biggest Renewable Energy Project, Snowy 2.0, grinds to a halt, with a stuck bore

By Jo Nova | February 14, 2023

Complexity has a price, and a renewables grid is a bit like a 240 volt moving Rubiks cube. Here we see an unnecessary project hit by a random factor that in turn will affect all the others, blowing out other costs and schedules.

Australia’s breakneck energy transition, driven like a crash test dummy by government subsidies, depends on finishing the massive pumped hydro scheme called Snowy 2.0. However it  has hit another delay no one apparently saw coming.

“Australia’s biggest renewable energy project” is the $6 – 10 billion plan to pump water uphill so it can run back down again to generate electricity every time the windmills and solar panels suffer a catastrophic failure, which is nearly every day. The entire project is superfluous in a grid with coal power — as we know from the last fifty years when we didn’t need it.

Unfortunately a 2,400 ton Tunnel Boring Machine called Florence is quite stuck under a cave-in.  According to the ABC she started ten months ago, and is supposed to be digging her way through 15 kilometres (10 miles) of mountain. The stuck bore can’t go forwards, but she can’t go back the way she came in either. The team has installed concrete reinforcing behind  Florence as she moved and the concrete reinforcing effectively locks her in. It’s meant to be a one way trip.

So we have the irony of a machine designed to carve through miles of rock trapped inside a pile of sand. But it gets worse.

Last month, the Snowy Hydro Corporation said it was monitoring a “surface depression” above the boring machine.  So a local man decided to go looking for the hole. As he says “technically, [Florence] should be 9 kilometers in but I thought I’d start about 3 kilometers out and start walking my way back in,” Mr Anderson said.

He spent four days looking for the hole only to find it, wow, barely 150 meters from the entrance.

His big shock was not the hole, but that the tunnel borer had barely achieved anything at all. These machines are designed to travel 30 to 50 meters a day, so this short tunnel is effectively one week’s work. The Snowy 2.0 scheme is supposed to be finished by December 2026, (just revised a week ago to Dec 2027) but at the current rate of 60 centimeters (2ft) a day it will take about 70 years to finish.

Looks like we will need those old coal plants for a bit longer. This delay could affect the rollout of new renewables.

The hole is only 150m from the entrance.

Future options include jacking it up (described as “a huge task”) or disassembling Florence — all 143 meters and 2,400 tons — and extracting the machine in pieces. But if they do that, they will have to start the whole tunnel again. Still they hadn’t got very far…

You’d never know Australia was a top mining nation, eh?

Pumped Hydro is giant appliance that sucks electricity and gives you back some later. In a system with reliable baseload generators it is superfluous, redundant, and entirely unnecessary. It is an expense we don’t have to have, didn’t need, and don’t want to pay for. It can only make things more expensive than the system we used to have. Not only do we have to pay for the giant infrastructure, every day it operates we also throw away 20 – 30% of the electrons (so to speak) that go through it.

Snowy 2.0, is twice the cost, half the value, wastes a quarter of the energy, and wrecks the environment too

The mammoth pumped Hydro scheme is a $10 billion dollar disaster that will never pay for itself, is already being superseded by battery technology, and will scar the land, infect pristine alpine lakes, risk critically endangered species, damage fishing grounds, and breach the Biosecurity Act in a National park. (Where are the environmentalists, Tim Flannery? Does anyone care?)

Thanks to Steve Hunter

UPDATE: A net-zero grid (without nuclear power) needs 23 Snowy 2.0 schemes for storage:

Australian Financial Review, April 2022

The Australian Energy Market Operator estimates that by 2050, without coal power plants, the National Electricity Market will require 45 GW and 620 gigawatt-hours of storage in all its forms to manage variations in fast-growing wind and solar generation, and to keep the grid stable. The figure rises steeply the closer the grid gets to 100 per cent renewables.

Snowy chief commercial officer Gordon Wymer points to an old estimate from ITK Services that some 8000 GWh – 23 times the capacity of Snowy 2.0 – could be needed for a fully renewable NEM, while Snowy’s own estimates signal that three to five times the capacity of 2.0 is needed for a 50-60 per cent renewable grid. (ITK principal David Leitch says his estimate is out of date and refers back to AEMO’s estimates.)

Snowy 2.0 needs huge transmission line construction as well (Humelink and VNI West):

There’s another $6 billion in transmission lines that we didn’t need for a coal fired grid.

Australian Financial Review, April 2022

“The cost/benefit analyses undertaken by TransGrid and also by AEMO makes quite clear that HumeLink plus Snowy 2.0 – they go together, the one is useless without the other – will destroy the wealth of New South Wales electricity consumers and Australian taxpayers,” says Bruce Mountain, director of longstanding Snowy 2.0 critic, Victoria Energy Policy Centre at Victoria University.

He says findings by AEMO and TransGrid that HumeLink provides net benefits only get to that conclusion by ignoring the cost of Snowy 2.0.

Broad argues the new transmission was required as long as 10 years ago, pointing to the bottlenecks in the system that prevent even the existing Snowy hydropower output reaching Melbourne and Sydney during demand spikes on hot summer days. Lack of grid capacity is also crimping new wind and solar generation, he notes, saying the critics are “missing the point” and getting caught up in “the politics of who’s doing what”.

Broad fears the $3.3 billion HumeLink will slide into 2027, while the $3 billion VNI West, which three years ago was expected by 2028, is now pencilled in for July 2031 in AEMO’s latest draft grid blueprint but may slip into 2032.

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | | 3 Comments

East Palestine train wreck may have created largest dioxin plume in world history

BY ETHANH | CITIZENS NEWS | FEBRUARY 17, 2023

The situation in East Palestine, Ohio, is much worse than the media is letting on, particularly as it pertains to the widespread release of chemical dioxins.

The 14 some-odd tanker cars carrying vinyl chloride that were intentionally blown up released a massive plume of these deadly chemicals, which were spread far and wide, including up the eastern seaboard through Pennsylvania, New York and beyond. Tens of millions of people stand to be affected by this dioxin release, which by and large appears to be the most disastrous dioxin incident to have ever occurred in world history. Water supplies, food crops, city parks, state forests – all of them stand to become toxified with dioxins due to this disaster.

“Burning vinyl is the most serious source of dioxin in the environment – whether from trash incinerators, house fires or chemical spills,” explained Eric Coppolino, writing for Planet Waves FM – Chiron Return. “While vinyl chloride is a precursor chemical to making PVC, any time chlorinated compounds burn there will be dioxins created. And dioxin is a manufacturing byproduct of any manufacturing process involving chlorine, from ‘disinfectants’ to the bleaching of paper. There was plenty of dioxin in those tanker cars before they caught fire.”

Dioxins are a hormonal toxin that builds up in the food chain

One of the most concerning things about dioxins is their persistence. They do not biodegrade and tend to remain wherever they lodge themselves for years and years.

Most people are unaware of what dioxins even are because the media rarely talks about them. Back in the day, a small release of them led to the closure of Times Beach, Mo., which was leveled and had its zip code removed over a dioxin release much smaller than the one that just occurred in Ohio.

“It is one of the most serious environmental issues, but the background is not known by nearly anyone (and that’s partly why I have posted the history below),” Coppolino wrote.

So where do dioxins come from? They are generated when chlorinated chemicals like vinyl chloride burn, explode or degrade. They are never an end product but are rather a contaminant and degradation byproduct.

“They are directly related to PCBs, which are considered dioxin-like compounds,” Coppolino explained.

“Dioxins were the extremely toxic component in the Vietnam War-era defoliant Agent Orange. They were at the Love Canal in Niagara Falls. They were the toxin involved in the evacuation and dissolution of Times Beach, Missouri. They are the cause of toxic shock syndrome from bleached paper tampons.

“Dioxins are acute toxins on one level. There will be a lot of dead fish and animals in the path of the Ohio plume – and people will get very sick immediately. Kids are extremely sensitive due to their low body weight.”

Their persistence in the environment and hormonal toxicity makes dioxins a very serious problem, especially when released at high levels like what happened in Ohio. We have not even begun to see the effects of what just occurred, which will manifest in the months and years to come as animals, humans and nature suffer over time.

“I guess a new disease is going to be invented soon,” one commenter wrote about how the establishment will probably invent some new made-up disease to explain away all the future cases of dioxin poisoning caused by the controlled explosion. “And a new ‘virus’ will be invented, too. And new vaccines. And the shame. People being intoxicated being shamed because they can ‘infect’ people.”

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Environmentalism, Timeless or most popular | | 2 Comments

JUDGE TELLS GUILTY JUST STOP OIL LOONS TO “FEEL PROUD” AND SAYS “YOU ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE”

Gaia Fawkes | February 17, 2023

Seven Just Stop Oil eco-loons who were found guilty of raids on an Esso Fuel Terminal in Birmingham last year have been spared jail by a sympathetic judge in Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court… and told by the very same judge they should “feel proud” that they “care” so much. “Thank you for opening my eyes”…

In his extraordinary closing statement at the trial, loony left Judge Wilkinson lavished the criminal activists with praise, claiming “it’s abundantly clear that [they] are all good people” and promising to go easy on them:

“It’s abundantly clear that you are all good people. You are intelligent, articulate and a pleasure to deal with. It’s unarguable that man-made global warming is real and we are facing a climate emergency. Your aims are admirable and it is accepted by me and the Crown Prosecution Service that your views are reasonable and genuinely held. Your fears are ably and genuinely articulated and are supported by the science.” […]

“No-one can criticise your motivations. You all gave evidence that was deeply moving. I certainly was moved. The tragedy is that good people have felt so much, without hope, that you feel you have to come into conflict with the criminal justice system. Thank you for opening my eyes to certain things. Most, I was acutely and depressingly aware of, but there were certain things.

“I say this and I mean this sadly, I have to convict you. You are good people and I will not issue a punitive sentence. Your arrests and loss of good character are sufficient. Good people doing the wrong thing cannot make the wrong thing right. I don’t say this, ever, but it has been a pleasure dealing with you.”

“You should feel guilty for nothing. You should feel proud that you care, have concern for the future. I urge you not to break the law again. Good luck to all of you.”

After hearing that glowing testimonial from the man expected to enforce the law on them, the seven protesters were eventually sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and made to pay a £22 surcharge each. Is it any wonder they’re not put off from making people’s lives miserable?

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , | Leave a comment

Journalist Receives $100,000 From Bank For Promoting Climate Alarmism

BY CHRIS MORRISON | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Another €100,000 (£88,000, $107,000) has been gifted to a climate journalist via the foundation of Spain’s second largest bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA). The money is an annual presentation and was recently given to the New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert. The bank said it gave her the cash “for her extraordinary ability to communicate in a rigorous, attractive manner the fundamental environmental challenges of our time”. BBVA is deeply involved in funding subsidy-heavy renewable technologies. It recently declared record profits for 2022 of €6.42 billion, and noted that it had channelled €50 billion into “sustainable business”. Past cash recipients include Matt McGrath of the BBC, the Guardian newspaper and Marlowe Hood of Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The foundation was particularly impressed with Kolbert’s 2016 seminal book, The Sixth Mass Extinction, which was awarded a ‘non-fiction’ Pulitzer Prize. This was said to have documented the dramatic loss of species that the planet is suffering. “One third of all reef building corals, a third of all freshwater molluscs, a third of sharks and rays, a quarter of all mammals, a fifth of reptiles and a sixth of all birds are heading towards oblivion,” she said. For good measure, she claimed that around a half of all living species on the Earth could disappear by the end of the century.

Kolbert is a Climate Catastrophist straight from central casting. She fervently believes that humans can control the climate by adjusting levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a proposition that is disputed by many scientists. She compares climate ‘deniers’ to flat-earthers. What ‘deniers’ think of climate science, or rather her take on said science, is “completely irrelevant“. Like most people in her world, she says, “I have low tolerance for people who deny facts and disregard truths”.

The sixth mass extinction scare is becoming very popular in climate Armageddon circles, and is heavily promoted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). But it suffers from a major flaw – a lack of proof. Most of the claims are produced by models and are just opinions. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 823 animals and plant species (mostly animals) that have gone extinct since 1500. If you are in the Pulitzer prize winning territory of a sixth mass extinction, you might expect to be able to show more than 823 extinct species in 522 years.

The WWF has been responsible for much extinction alarmism since its Living Planet Index has estimated at least a 50% vertebrate decline since 1970. But a group of Canadian biologists recently cast considerable doubt on this claim, suggesting that it was a cherry pick. They showed that the estimate was produced from less than 3% of vertebrate populations. “If these extremely declining populations are excluded, the global trend switches to an increase,” they point out. “More informative indices are needed,” they conclude. The finding is perhaps not surprising since the small increases in CO2 over the last 40 years has produced 14% more vegetation across the globe.

Five years ago, the eminent Smithsonian palaeontologist Doug Erwin dismissed sixth mass extinction talk as “junk science“. He went on to state that “many of those making facile comparisons between the current situation and past mass extinctions don’t have a clue about the difference in the nature of the data, much less how truly awful the mass extinctions recorded in the marine fossil record actually were”.

As regular readers are aware, MIT Emeritus Professor Richard Lindzen believes the entire climate narrative is “absurd”. However, he acknowledges it has near-universal acceptance, despite the fact that in a normal world the counterarguments would be compelling. “Perhaps it is the trillions of dollars being diverted into every green project under the sun, and the relentless propaganda from grant-dependent academics and agenda-driven journalists, along with the political control offered to elite groups in society by Net Zero, that currently says it is not absurd,” he suggests.

Neil Winton spent 34 years working for the international news agency Reuters, including four years as science and technology correspondent reporting on global warming. He wrote a recent article noting that anyone who abused people by calling them a climate denier “betrays the fact they know little about climate science, or are too lazy to do their own research”. They are more interested in forcing their views on the public and silencing debate, he added. The idea that the science is settled, he says, won’t last long if the reporter can be bothered to use a search engine revealing “scores if not hundreds of highly qualified scientists who beg to differ”.

In his new book on Net Zero, Winton notes, the author Ross Clark accuses Reuters of joining an organisation “which is dedicated to presenting a partisan view of climate change, and silences those who dare to disagree by activating the obnoxious ‘denier’ assertion”.

This organisation is called Covering Climate Now (CC Now), and it specialises in ready-to-publish climate scare stories. The Daily Sceptic wrote about it in December under the heading ‘How billionaires fill the Media with climate fear and panic’. CC Now feeds over 500 media operations and its ‘partners’ include some of the biggest names in news publishing such as ReutersBloomberg, AFP, CBS News, ABC News and MSNBC News.

Winston notes that CC Now issues the advice: “For God’s sake do not platform climate denialists.” Op-eds that detract from the scientific consensus or ridicule climate activism “don’t belong in a serious news outlet”, it says. Since when did Reuters require an outside organisation to advise it on how to report on controversial issues, asks Winton.

He adds: “If you dig deeper though you’ll find it uses weasel words only too familiar to those like me who’ve striven to provide real honesty and balance to the argument. It reveals itself as just another arrogant, warmist outfit dedicated to shutting down those with whom it disagrees. Not a thing Reuters should be associated with, surely?”

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Book Review, Corruption, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment

Potential Role of Spike Protein in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Long-term Exposure to Spike after COVID-19 Vaccines is Pathogenic

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH | Courageous Discourse | February 18, 2023

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign was launched in late 2020 with no assurances on long-term safety and full liability protection to those involved with mass vaccination via the PREP Act and the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. There is now abundant evidence that the synthetic lipid nanoparticles travel into the brain and install the genetic code (mRNA or adenoviral DNA) for the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. As this protein is produced and accumulates in the brain, it can cause inflammation and also fold into an amyloid plaque. Thus, there is strong rationale for some vaccine recipients to develop mild cognitive dysfunction, Alzheimer’s like dementia, and other forms of neurocognitive decline. Because seniors were heavily vaccinated, many families and doctors will attribute clinical changes to advanced age and not the vaccine. They should understand in each and every case, that COVID-19 vaccination should be considered a determinant of cognitive decline in a previously healthy person.

Seneff and colleagues describe the pathophysiological rationale for COVID-19 vaccines in the development of neurocognitive disorders. Key features are: 1) CNS penetration of the vaccines, 2) neuroinflammation, 3) Spike protein activation of toll-like receptor-4, 4) folding of Spike protein into amyloid plaques, 5) cumulative exposure with multiple shots connotes enhanced risk.

Seneff S, Kyriakopoulos AM, Nigh G, McCullough PA. A Potential Role of the Spike Protein in Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Narrative Review. Cureus. 2023 Feb 11;15(2):e34872. doi: 10.7759/cureus.34872. PMID: 36788995; PMCID: PMC9922164.

For people in your family and social circles who are experiencing premature or a precipitous decline in mental function, have the doctors consider and document COVID-19 vaccination as a potential explanation. If a senior citizen is already confused or has cognitive decline, any further vaccination is contraindicated. In patients such as this, further booster shots are likely to worsen the condition and should be avoided.

Seneff S, Kyriakopoulos AM, Nigh G, McCullough PA. A Potential Role of the Spike Protein in Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Narrative Review. Cureus. 2023 Feb 11;15(2):e34872. doi: 10.7759/cureus.34872. PMID: 36788995; PMCID: PMC9922164.

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | | Leave a comment

The climate scaremongers: Are hurricanes becoming more powerful?

By Paul Homewood | TCW Defending Freedom | February 17, 2023

If you believe what the media tell you, you would think so. But you would be wrong. As the chart below for 1980 to 2022 shows, there is no obvious trend in the frequency of major hurricanes worldwide during the satellite era.

http://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/Realtime/index.php?arch&loc=global

The IPCC, the UN climate panel, can also find no evidence either, stating in their latest climate assessment: ‘There is low confidence in most reported long-term (multi-decadal to centennial) trends in Tropical Cyclone frequency- or intensity-based metrics due to changes in the technology used to collect the best-track data.’

The US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration says the same about Atlantic hurricanes: ‘There is no strong evidence of century-scale increasing trends in US landfalling hurricanes or major hurricanes. Similarly for Atlantic basin-wide hurricane frequency (after adjusting for observing capabilities), there is not strong evidence for an increase since the late 1800s in hurricanes, major hurricanes, or the proportion of hurricanes that reach major hurricane intensity.’

But facts don’t matter to the climate warriors at the BBC, who published a ‘Reality Check‘ following Hurricane Ian last summer, which claimed that there was evidence that hurricanes were getting more powerful.

I fired off a complaint to the BBC at the time, which their Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) have now rejected. They presented no real data to counter any of the evidence I have outlined above. Instead they relied almost entirely on computer modelled projections of what might happen in future.

Their dismissal of my complaint sums it up better than I can: ‘The evidence would therefore appear to indicate climate scientists who have studied hurricanes and the effect of human-induced climate change agree the proportion of tropical cyclones which develop into hurricanes or major hurricanes is expected to increase, and those hurricanes are expected to have higher peak wind speeds ‘

Of course, it was not what could happen in the future which I was complaining about. It was their claim that such changes are already happening. In short, they created a straw man and knocked it down, while ignoring the actual complaint!

The real problem, of course, is that the ECU is part of the BBC, and will always back them up even when the evidence against them is overwhelming. The BBC will never be properly held to account until a truly independent complaints unit is set up.

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | , | 1 Comment

Rising Seas Threaten to Wipe Entire Nations Off the Map, UN Chief Warns

BY WILL JONES | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | FEBRUARY 15, 2023

An increase in the pace at which sea levels are rising threatens “a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale” and whole nations could be drowned under the waves, the UN Secretary General has warned. The Guardian has more.

The climate crisis is causing sea levels to rise faster than for 3,000 years, bringing a “torrent of trouble” to almost a billion people, from London to Los Angeles and Bangkok to Buenos Aires, António Guterres said on Tuesday. Some nations could cease to exist, drowned under the waves, he said.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Guterres said slashing carbon emissions, addressing problems such as poverty that worsen the impact of the rising seas on communities and developing new international laws to protect those made homeless – and even stateless – were all needed. He said sea level rise was a threat-multiplier which, by damaging lives, economies and infrastructure, had “dramatic implications” for global peace and security.

Significant sea level rise is already inevitable with current levels of global heating, but the consequences of failing to tackle the problem are “unthinkable”. Guterres said: “Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear for ever. We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale. And we would see ever fiercer competition for fresh water, land and other resources. People’s human rights do not disappear because their homes do,” he said. “Yes, this means international refugee law.”

The International Law Commission is assessing the legal situation. In 2020, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that ​​it was unlawful for governments to return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis.

A new compilation of data from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) shows that sea levels are rising fast and the global ocean has warmed faster over the past century than at any time in the past 11,000 years. Sea levels rise as warmer water expands and ice caps and glaciers melt. …

In fact, sea levels are not accelerating and have continued rising at a modest 10-12 cm a century – not something that is going to give any nation an existential crisis any time soon. I somehow think that countries might be able to adapt to a one metre rise per millennium.

But why let facts get in the way of a good disaster narrative that justifies lots of Government intervention and control?

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | | 8 Comments

Russia UN envoy: West hell-bent on destroying Russia, inciting deep Russophobia

Press TV – February 19, 2023

Russian ambassador to the UN has accused the West of instigating “deep Russophobia” and having a determination to destroy his country, saying that, “We had no choice other than to defend our country — defend it from you, to defend our identity and our future.”

Vassily Nebenzia made the remarks at a meeting of the UN Security Council, saying that Russia had no other choice than war. “We had no choice other than to defend our country — defend it from you, to defend our identity and our future.”

Friday’s meeting in the council — the only international venue where Russia regularly faces Ukraine and its Western supporters — put a spotlight on the deep chasm between the warring parties as the conflict is moving into its second year with no end in sight.

In the meeting, US deputy ambassador, Richard Mills, accused Russia of failing to implement “a single commitment it made” in the Minsk agreements while the other signatories — France, Germany, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe — “sought to implement them in good faith.”

France ambassador, De Riviere, claimed his country and Germany have worked “tirelessly” since 2015 to promote dialogue between parties, adding that the “difficulties encountered in implementing these agreements can never serve as justification or mitigating circumstances for Russia’s choice to end the dialogue with violence.”

In response, Nebenzia accused the Western nations, including France and Germany, of “holding back” on implementing the Minsk agreements brokered by the two countries to end the conflict between Ukraine and the separatists in Luhansk and Donetsk in the Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial east that flared in April 2014 after Crimea joined Russia.

“You knew very well that the Minsk process for you is just a smoke screen, so as to rearm the Kiev regime and to prepare it for war against Russia in the name of your geopolitical interest,” Nebenzia said.

He further accused the West of “deep Russophobia,” and a “determination to destroy my country, using others if possible.”

The envoy added that the West has no desire to “build a European and Euro-Atlantic security system together with Russia [because] for you such a system can only be aimed against Russia.”

“We have no trust left in you and we are not capable of believing any promises you make – not as regards a non-expansion of NATO in the east, or your desire not to interfere in our internal affairs, or your determination to live in peace,” Nebenzia said.

“You have shown that it’s impossible to negotiate with you,” he said. “You’ve shown how treacherous you are by creating on our borders a neo-Nazi, neo-nationalist beehive and then stirring it up.”

The Minsk agreements were a complex series of measures negotiated by Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine in 2014-2015 in a bid to put an end to the armed conflict between the Kiev authorities and the breakaway region of Donbas.

Moscow repeatedly stated that Kiev was not fulfilling the deal by not granting self-government to the Russian-speaking region of Donbas. In February 2022, Russia began the “military operation” to defend the territory from Ukrainian troops.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted he never intended to implement the Minsk agreements. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel also recently acknowledged that Minsk deal was simply “an attempt to give Ukraine time” so that its army could get stronger.

The revelation was confirmed by former French President Francois Hollande, and Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who said the Minsk agreement had been nothing but a “diplomatic imitation.”

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Russophobia | , , , , | 2 Comments

China Warns US ‘Not to Add Fuel to Fire’ of Ukraine Conflict

Sputnik – 19.02.2023

Beijing has warned Washington against fueling the conflict in Ukraine, where Russia continues its special military operation.

Meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the 2023 Munich Security Conference on Saturday, head of the Communist Party of China’s Central Foreign Affairs Office Wang Yi stressed that “As a great power, the US should contribute to a political solution to the crisis, not add fuel to the fire and look for opportunities to benefit from it.”

According to Wang, China has adhered to a constructive position in relation to the crisis in Ukraine and supported the negotiating process.

Wang also made it clear that Beijing “will never tolerate US instructions or even threats to put pressure on Russian-Chinese relations.”

He earlier told the Munich Security Conference that China would draft and present a document, in which its position on the Ukraine crisis will be outlined by the end of February.

“On the Ukraine issue, China’s stance boils down to supporting talks for peace. We will put forth a paper on China’s position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis and stay firm on the side of peace and dialogue,” he underscored.

For its part, the US State Department said in a press release that during talks with Wang, Blinken “warned about the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia or assistance with systemic sanctions evasion.”

This came after a US media outlet quoted unnamed sources as saying that Washington believes that Beijing may be providing non-lethal military assistance to Moscow for use in Ukraine and that the Biden administration is concerned China considers sending lethal aid.

The outlet added that the sources declined to elaborate on the non-lethal military assistance, only claiming that it could include gear for the Russian military’s purported spring offensive, including uniforms or even body armor.

The US and its allies slapped a number of sanction packages against Russia shortly after it launched its special military operation in Ukraine following requests from the Donbass republics to protect them from Kiev’s attacks. Apart from the sanctions, western countries ramped up their military assistance to the Zelensky regime in a move that Moscow warns will add to further prolonging the Ukraine conflict.

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , | 2 Comments

Jeffrey Sachs: Who really blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline?

UnHerd | February 16, 2023

UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers meets Jeffrey Sachs to debate who really blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Read the accompanying article: https://unherd.com/thepost/who-really…

Listen to the podcast: https://plnk.to/unherd?to=page

Follow UnHerd on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/unherd

Who Blew Up Nord Stream Pipelines? | A Mystery!

Matt Orfalea | October 23, 2022

February 19, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia, Timeless or most popular, Video, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment