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Business as Usual: US Pursues Research Linked to Weapons of Mass Destruction

Sputnik – 23.12.2024

The US government plans to spend nearly $35.9 million over the next four years on research related to weapons of mass destruction, quietly slipping this information into an otherwise bland online statement.

The FY25-29 Strategic Trends Research Initiative Broad Agency Announcement invites “strategic research on challenges related to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) 5-10 years in the future,” aligning with the mission of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

The announcement paints a noble picture of DTRA’s focus on countering WMD threats and preparing for conflict involving chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) adversaries.

However, this is the same DTRA responsible for the so-called Biological Threat Reduction Program in Ukraine, which conveniently translated into operating a network of questionable biolabs accused of covert biowarfare research and conducting ethically dubious experiments on local populations.

With that track record, one can only speculate what kind of “research” this new WMD initiative will fund.

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | | Leave a comment

The West Bank’s CIA men: Why is the PA killing Palestinians in Jenin?

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | December 23, 2024

Following a ten-day siege, the Palestinian Authority began a violent raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on 14 December. The PA security forces used tactics similar to those used by the Israeli occupation forces in their routine attacks on the area.

The camp, which is a mere half a square kilometre in size, hosts an ever-growing population of 24,000 refugees, mostly the descendants of Palestinians ethnically cleansed by Zionist militias during the great catastrophe, the 1948 Nakba.

The raid began with a tight siege, followed by an attack from multiple directions that resulted in the killing of an unarmed youth, Rebhi Al-Shalabi, 19, then a 13-year-old boy, Muhammad Al-Amer. The PA forces also killed Yazid Ja’ayseh, the commander of the Jenin Brigades, who had evaded Israeli assassination attempts for his leadership role in unifying all Palestinian Resistance fighters under the umbrella of a single group.

Unsurprisingly, Israel is largely pleased with the PA’s action against the Palestinian Resistance, although it expects more. “The Palestinian Authority has been acting resolutely against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters over the past several weeks, army and Shin Bet sources said, but the Israeli officials expressed the hope that their effectiveness could be enhanced,” reported Haaretz.

Indeed, Israel has attempted to subdue Jenin 80 times in the past year alone, killing more than 220 people, Al Jazeera has reported, citing Palestinian Ministry of Health sources.

By attacking Jenin, the PA is helping the Israeli army in more than one way.

It is killing and detaining anti-Israeli occupation Resistance fighters, for example; consuming the energy and resources of the Resistance; and allowing Israel to spare thousands of soldiers so that they may carry on with the genocide in Gaza.

For many, especially supporters of Palestine around the world, the PA’s action is confusing, to say the least. Those surprised by the anti-Resistance policies of Mahmoud Abbas and his Ramallah-based authority, however, are driven by the erroneous assumption that the PA is a legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and that it behaves in ways consistent with the collective aspirations of all Palestinians.

Nothing could be further from the truth. For many years, the PA has ceased to play any role that deviates from the interests of a small clique of a pro-US and pro-Israel wealthy elite who have enriched themselves, while millions of Palestinians continue to suffer an Israeli genocide in Gaza, and a violent system of apartheid and military occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The most telling and recent example is that, less than 70 kilometres from Jenin, illegal and violent Israeli Jewish settlers have burned the Bir Al-Walidin Mosque in the town of Murda, near Salfit. The PA security services did nothing whatsoever to confront the armed Jewish militias, nor any of the hundreds of settlers’ pogroms carried out against Palestinians in the West Bank in the past year and before; nor, of course, did the occupation army.

How did the PA turn from a supposed national project — at least in theory — into another branch of the Israeli occupation?

It could be argued that the PA was structured from the day of its establishment in 1994 as a body whose existence catered solely for the benefit of the Israeli occupation. There is much evidence to substantiate this claim, including the arrests, torture and killing of dissenting Palestinians soon after the creation of the PA.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) became directly involved in supporting the PA from the very beginning, expanding its role as early as 1996 following a series of retaliatory Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in major cities. It was then that CIA director George Tenet became an important player in shaping the policies of the PA security forces, preparing them for massive crackdowns on Palestinian Resistance groups. This involvement was a condition of US financial support under the Bill Clinton administration, the kind of support that sowed the seeds of the Fatah-Hamas conflict, which reached its zenith in the summer of 2007.

The involvement of the US — and other armed forces of US client regimes in the region — became even more apparent under the leadership of Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, who helped train, prepare and equip the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (NSF), producing several battalions of young recruits (between 20 and 22 years old) to fight fellow Palestinians in the name of restoring law and order.

That supposed restoration of “law and order” began in earnest as early as 2005 and continues to this day. Interestingly, this is the same language that the PA is currently using to justify its war on the Jenin refugee camp. A spokesman for the PA security forces, Anwar Rajab, told Al Jazeera recently that the objective of the raid on Jenin is to “pursue criminals” and lawbreakers, and to “prevent the camp from becoming a battleground like Gaza.”

Equating Resistance fighters with criminals and linking that supposed criminality to the Gaza Resistance is the typical PA discourse on legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation of Palestine. It is a discourse that took the US and Israel years to craft and perfect, making the PA arguably the greatest achievement of the occupation state and Washington in recent decades.

This behaviour and language can be traced to a famous statement by Dayton himself who, in a 2009 speech, celebrated the US’s greatest creation in Palestine: “And what we have created — and I say this in humility — what we have created are new men… upon the return of these new men of Palestine, they have shown motivation, discipline and professionalism, and they have made such a difference.”

Indeed, the “new men of Palestine” are making all the difference required by the US and Israel; they are fighting the very Palestinian Resistance that is defending Jenin against the Israeli onslaught, Nablus against the pogroms of armed settlers and Gaza against genocide.

None of these “new men” — whose numbers are counted in the tens of thousands — have lifted a finger to help their fellow Palestinians as they continue to starve to death in the Gaza Strip, are tortured and raped en masse, and are burned alive in Jabaliya and Khan Yunis while fighting and dying in their thousands without any assistance from the Ramallah Authority.

To say that the PA has betrayed Palestinians, however, is inaccurate.

The PA was never set up, financed and armed by the US and Israel as a liberation force; it was always intended to be an obstacle to Palestinian freedom. We are witnessing the final proof of this claim. It is taking place in Jenin now; in fact, all over the occupied West Bank.

Of course, the PA will not be able to crush the Palestinian Resistance, which the supposedly mighty Israeli army has failed to subdue over the course of many years. But the question remains: how long will the PA be allowed to serve the role as the enforcer of the Israeli occupation and the protector of illegal Jewish settlers, while simultaneously promoting itself as the guardian of Palestinian rights, freedom and statehood?

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

“Greater Israel” Metastasizes

By Kevin Barrett | American Free Press | December 22, 2024

“Israel is a cancer on the Middle East.” Resistance leaders across the region have used that metaphor for generations. The Zionists who dominate American politics, finance and media have attacked it as inappropriate.

But is the metaphor inaccurate? Cancer occurs when a diseased cell or cells begin uncontrollably expanding at the expense of neighboring cells and organ systems. Israel, a malignant body of extremist fanatics implanted into the heart of the Middle East, keeps mindlessly and voraciously expanding, not unlike a virulent tumor. Such pathological Zionist growth has caused untold pain, suffering, and hardship for the people of Palestine, the region, and the world.

Let’s chart Israel’s malignant growth. The original version of modern Israel, as set forth in the Balfour Declaration (1917) consisted of a mere “Jewish homeland” (not a state) guaranteed not to impinge on the rights of non-Jews—who constituted the vast majority of the population and owned virtually all of the land of historic Palestine. After the invading Jewish terrorists began running amok, as recounted in Thomas Suarez’s magisterial State of Terror: How Terrorism Created Modern Israel, Britain rewarded them with the 1937 Peel Commission partition plan, which would have created Israel on 33% of Palestine, leaving the other 67% for Palestinians.

The Peel Commission plan was outright theft. Palestinians owned well over 90% of the land of Palestine, yet the Commission wanted to steal almost one-third of their land and hand it to Eastern European Jewish terrorist invaders. But even such grand larceny wasn’t enough for the Zionists. They held out for more, and got it in 1948 by bribing US President Truman with a suitcase containing two million dollars in cash (as recounted by John F. Kennedy to Gore Vidal). That bribe, and others like it, produced the UN’s partition plan, which almost doubled the size of the Peel Commission’s Israel.

But even that outrageous robbery did not satisfy the Zionist terrorists, who immediately began massacring Palestinians and invading territory outside their UN borders. When the Nakba (Palestinian Holocaust) was over, untold thousands of Palestinians were dead, and more than 750,000 survivors had been robbed of their land and property and forced into exile as permanent refugees. After perpetrating the 1948 holocaust the Zionists refused to return to their UN-approved borders, which would have given them more than 55% of Palestine, and instead continued occupying almost 80%.

But even that didn’t satisfy them. The Zionist leadership spent the next two decades plotting what would become the 1967 war of aggression, in which they stole another 77,000 square kilometers consisting of the West Bank including Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. Together, those stolen territories are almost four times the size of pre-1967 Israel.

After 1967, Zionist leaders split between those willing to return stolen territory in return for peace, and those dedicated to endless wars of expansion. With the assassination of the land-for-peace Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, the issue was definitively settled in favor of the “forever wars” party.

Rabin was an anomaly—a mere speed bump on the road to Greater Israel. The Zionist leadership has always tacitly agreed that Israel will keep expanding to its Biblical mandate and beyond. David Ben-Gurion defined Zionism’s goal as follows: “to create a Jewish state in the whole of the Land of Israel.” That “whole” includes Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and part of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, northern Arabia, and arguably Turkey. Such conquests will require genocidal war against those countries and peoples.

2024 will go down in history as the year the Zionist cancer metastasized, sending its toxic tendrils even further into northern Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, and Syria. Netanyahu’s minister Smotrich is calling for the full annexation of the West Bank and Gaza and the murder or expulsion of all Palestinians from historic Palestine. That process is already underway as northern Gaza is being emptied and Israel has grabbed a full 6000 acres of the West Bank. Meanwhile Israel is violating its ceasefire agreement with Lebanon in an attempt to steal all of south Lebanon up to the Litani River. And in the wake of the US-Turkish-Israeli overthrow of the Syrian government, Israel has massively attacked Syria and grabbed vast swathes of Syrian land.

The ever-expanding cancer of Zionism poses a clear and present danger to the region and the world. The driving force behind Zionism is a virulent version of Jewish messianic millenarianism whose endgame is a Jewish military leader conquering not just the region, but the whole world, and then establishing a Jewish global dictatorship based in Occupied Jerusalem.

First they came for the Palestinians. Israel’s neighbors are next. But this isn’t just a regional problem. Metastasizing Israel threatens all of us.

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Moldovan President Sandu Plans to Seize Transnistria Power Station – Russian Intel Service

Sputnik – 23.12.2024

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said that Moldovan President Maia Sandu had demanded that the country’s government prepare a plan to take over the Cuciurgan power station in Transnistria.

Sandu held a meeting with the Moldovan government to discuss the country’s energy security issues, the SVR said in a statement on Monday. During the meeting, the president “lost her temper” after hearing a report by Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean on the potential energy supply problems Moldova could face after the expiration of the Russia-Ukraine natural gas transit agreement on December 31, the statement read.

“The president was not sobered by the reminder that the right bank of Moldova is almost entirely dependent on electricity supplies from the Cuciurgan power station in Transnistria. After ‘flying into a rage,’ the president demanded that preparations be made for a violent seizure of the power station,” the SVR said.

Sandu flatly refused to discuss the issue of Moldova’s energy supplies with the Ukrainian authorities after the gas transit agreement expired, the statement added. The president said that if Moscow did not supply Moldova with natural gas, Chisinau would “take revenge” on Transnistria, according to the SVR.

The meeting concluded with Sandu’s remarks about the need to develop a military operation plan to establish control over Transnistria and eliminate the Russian peacekeeping presence in the region, the SVR said.

Since December 2022, Moldovagaz has been sourcing natural gas from Moldovan energy utility Energocom and Gazprom. The Russian gas is supplied to Transnistria in exchange for electricity, which is used to power the rest of Moldova. Moldova’s Cuciurgan power station covers 80% of the country’s electricity needs.

Transnistria, where Russians and Ukrainians make up 60% of the population, sought to secede from Moldova even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, fearing that Moldova would join Romania amid a wave of nationalism. In 1992, after an unsuccessful attempt by Moldovan authorities to resolve the issue by force, Transnistria became a de facto territory outside Chisinau’s control.

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Hungary to Maintain Energy Ties With Russia As No ‘Better Offer’ Exists

Sputnik – 23.12.2024

Hungary does not intend to abandon its energy cooperation with Russia in the absence of a cheaper and more reliable alternative, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told RIA Novosti.

“Russia has been a reliable partner for us when it comes to energy supplies, that’s a fact, and in such serious issues like energy security, you only change your reliable source in case you have a better offer. But we don’t have a better offer, we don’t have an offer for more reliable or cheaper neither more reliable nor cheaper source to utilize. So why would we walk away from our energy cooperation with Russia?” Szijjarto said.

The minister emphasized that the issue of energy belongs to the realm of physical infrastructure and not politics.

“Not to speak about the fact that the energy supply is a matter of physical nature, so it’s very conservative thing to say, if there’s a pipeline, you can buy gas or oil. If there’s no pipeline, it’s just dream. So once you cut the Russian energy sources from Hungary, when it comes to natural gas or oil, simply the remaining infrastructure cannot supply the country, and it’s not a political question, if a pipeline has a certain capacity, you can make whatever statements it will not change,” he noted.

Paks II Nuclear Plant

The construction of the Russian-built Paks II Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary is moving fast, and changes to the budget will be negotiated, the foreign minister also told RIA Novosti.

“What is good news is that we are moving forward with the construction pretty quickly,” Szijjarto said.

The minister added that budget changes were nothing out of the ordinary when it came to the construction of a nuclear plant.

“Since the contract has been signed in 2014, so almost 11 years now, it is not too complicated to understand that during such a long period of time, prices of technologies, especially such complicated technologies and equipment, might have changed,” he pointed out.

The two sides will negotiate about that, the minister said.

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , | Leave a comment

Trump should leverage Arctic for Ukraine peace – analyst

RT | December 23, 2024

US President-elect Donald Trump would succeed in talks with Russia to end the Ukraine conflict by offering to lift sanctions on the Northern Sea Route and invite Western carriers to utilize Moscow’s project in the Arctic, an opinion piece in Responsible Statecraft magazine has suggested.

Trump’s campaign promise to swiftly stop the fighting between Moscow and Kiev “seemed increasingly out of reach,” Lyle J. Goldstein, a research professor at the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) at the US Naval War College wrote in his article on Friday.

As the Russian military “continues its slow but steady advance,” Putin could have decided “to push for a more complete Russian military victory and defy any near-term Western peace overtures,” he said.

“It is hard to imagine that dispatching more arms to Ukraine and slapping more sanctions on Russia will be successful at achieving peace,” Goldstein stressed.

However, Trump still has a chance “to break from the status quo and entice Russia to end the war” by making the situation in the Arctic – where a struggle for dominance between world powers has been intensifying in recent years – part of the negotiations, he wrote.

According to the analyst, the issue is “guaranteed to capture… Putin’s attention” because Moscow is interested in the effective functioning of the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which runs from the Barents Sea near Russia’s border with Norway to the Bering Strait between Chukotka and Alaska, and “holds the key to unlocking major development in the country’s vast, resource-rich interior and more broadly for Siberia.”

In order to see Russia making concessions, “the US would need to lift sanctions that have been applied against NSR projects… [and] facilitate major European shipping companies like Hapag Lloyd and Maersk to green light the route.” Another step to “sweeten the pot” for Moscow could be “the encouragement and even incentives for Western investment along the NSR” by Washington and Brussels, Goldstein stressed.

“By appending peace proposals with a carrot guaranteed to catch Putin’s attention, negotiations having a substantial Arctic component could gain Trump’s favor and find success,” he insisted.

Trump said on Sunday that he wants to resolve the Ukraine conflict through direct talks with Putin. “We must end that war,” he stressed.

During his end-of-year press conference last week, the Russian leader said that he is “ready to talk [to Trump] anytime; I will be ready to meet with him if he wishes.”

At the same event, Putin reiterated that Moscow is open to negotiating with Kiev without any preconditions, except for those previously agreed upon in Istanbul in 2022. These agreements include a neutral, non-aligned status for Ukraine and certain restrictions on the deployment of foreign weaponry. He also emphasized that any negotiations must take into account the current situation on the ground.

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Righty Tighty: A Simple Way Donald Trump Can End the Ukraine and Israel Wars

By Adam Dick | Ron Paul Institute | December 22, 2024

Upon his inauguration as president, Donald Trump will become the leader of a United States executive branch mired in two major wars via its continuing pumping of money, weapons, and intelligence into support of the Ukraine and Israel governments. Trump has declared his opposition to the continuation of these wars. But, how can he end them?

The means by which Trump can end the wars is simpler than many Americans think. This means just does not come to mind for many Americans because it is far removed from the course US presidents have tended to pursue over the last few decades.

Righty tighty. That’s it. Taking the US out of these wars is as simple as turning off a standard outdoor water faucet. President Joe Biden has turned the handle all the way lefty loosey. Trump should just turn it back all the way. Shut off the money flow. Shut off the weapons flow. Shut off the intelligence flow.

And there is no good reason for Trump to take his time about it. He should turn off the flow of aid in all forms promptly in his presidency.

Doing so would comport with Trump’s stated objectives regarding the Ukraine War and the Israel War during his campaign and since. Trump has repeated his promise to end the Ukraine War in a day. He has also commented on multiple occasions that he wants the Israel War over before he is even sworn in as president. Without US support, Ukraine and Israel lack the means to continue their wars. Deprived of the means to continue fighting in anywhere near the strength they have, both governments will immediately find themselves in a new situation where their best option is to seek peace.

Without critical US support, the Ukraine government will negotiate what it will give up in its loss to Russia. Meanwhile, Israel, also deprived of critical US support, will have to pare its ambition in its multifront war. Their only other option is suicidal fighting on in a lost cause. Sober military members would probably put a stop to that. No matter, it was never the cause — lost or otherwise — of America anyway.

What about negative political repercussions for Trump from his ending US participation in the wars?  Such participation lacks popular support, so ending it would seem a plus for Trump’s popularity. Further, since Trump won the presidential election portraying himself as the “peace candidate,” even people who dislike his extraction of the US from the wars would not be very convincing complaining of Trump acting inconsistently or hypocritically. Indeed, Trump could proclaim that his action is a promise kept.

There is even a political urgency for Trump to turn the faucet handle righty tighty. If he continues supporting the wars for weeks or, worse, months or even years, the wars will become Trump wars as they have been Biden wars. Americans would feel relief when Trump after significant delay terminates US involvement, but any effort then to praise him as a man of peace will be met with justified skepticism. There would be blood on his hands.

If President Trump quickly turns off the faucet for the Ukraine War, the defeat of Ukraine will be accelerated. Trump can portray such as the much-needed termination of Biden’s deadly folly, reminding Americans as Trump has over the past couple years that the entire conflict would have been avoided had Trump been president. Trump can also claim victory in stopping the killing of people — Ukrainian and Russian — something he has pointed to as his primary objective.

In turning off the war support for the Israel government, Trump is in a different position as he has expressed his particularly strong support for this government. But, Trump, as with the Ukraine war, has also expressed his strong desire for the carnage in the Israel War to end. Trump, when shutting off the faucet, can declare victory for Israel. He can claim the defeat by Israel of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He can claim also Israel’s elimination of threat posed to it from Syria. The war is over and won can be his message.

Trump will surely face difficult challenges as president, but on the major issues of the Ukraine War and Israel War, the solution is simple: righty tighty.

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Panama responds to Trump’s threat to retake vital waterway

RT | December 23, 2024

President Jose Raul Mulino has addressed the nation in response to US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to retake control of the Panama Canal, a vital waterway that contributes billions of dollars to the Panamanian economy annually and serves as a crucial artery for global trade.

In his video address on Sunday, Mulino emphasized that the sovereignty and independence of the country are “non-negotiable” and underscored the canal’s significance as part of the “history of struggle and an irreversible conquest.”

“Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama, and it will continue to be so,” Mulino declared.

Over the weekend, Trump expressed outrage on Truth Social and during a speech at the AmericaFest conference over what he called “exorbitant” fees charged for the passage of American vessels through the canal, accusing Panama of exploiting the United States with excessive fees.

“We’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal, just like everywhere else,” despite the “extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed on Panama,” he told supporters in Arizona on Sunday.

“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America. In full. Quickly and without question,” Trump proclaimed, warning officials in Panama to “please be guided accordingly.”

Trump also declared that he would never allow the canal to fall into “the wrong hands,” namely China’s, emphasizing that a “secure Panama Canal is crucial for US commerce and the rapid deployment of the Navy from the Atlantic all the way to the Pacific.”

Trump further emphasized his statements by sharing an image on Truth Social of an American flag over a narrow waterway with the caption, “Welcome to the United States Canal!”

Mulino strongly rejected these claims, stating that the canal’s rates are set publicly and transparently, considering market conditions, international competition, operating costs and maintenance needs. He highlighted that since the transfer of the canal from the United States to Panama on December 31, 1999, as per the Torrijos-Carter Treaties signed in 1977, there have been no objections or complaints regarding Panama’s control.

“These treaties also established the permanent neutrality of the canal, guaranteeing its open and secure operation for all nations,” he said, calling it the best tribute to the martyrs who fought for Panama’s sovereignty and dignity during the 1964 anti-American riots. Mulino rejected any notion that China, the European Union, or any other power has direct or indirect control over the canal.

The canal has become a source of strong national pride, managed by qualified Panamanian professionals who ensure its safe, continuous, efficient, and profitable operation, the president added. It also contributes billions of dollars to the Panamanian economy annually and serves as a crucial artery for global trade.

“Panama respects other nations and demands respect,” the president concluded, stating that he aspires to preserve good relations with the incoming US government on issues such as drug trafficking, terrorism, organized crime, and illegal migration, but the neutrality of the canal is “non-negotiable.”

December 23, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Sinophobia | , | Leave a comment

ATTORNEY DETAILS NY TIMES MISINFO ON ICAN POLIO PETITION

The HighWire with Del Bigtree | December 19, 2024

December 22, 2024 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

EU risks losing gas supplies from Qatar – energy minister

RT | December 22, 2024

Qatar will stop gas shipments to the EU if member states enforce new legislation on carbon emissions, the Gulf nation’s energy minister Saad al-Kaabi has told the Financial Times (FT). Qatar has become an important supplier to the bloc after Brussels resolved to wean itself off Russian gas following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

If any EU country imposes penalties on Qatar under the bloc’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, Doha would stop exporting its liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the bloc, al-Kaabi told the outlet on Sunday.

QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company, has long-term LNG contracts with several EU countries, including Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The EU’s corporate due diligence rules, adopted in May 2023, are part of the bloc’s strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The legislation states that non-compliance is punishable with fines of up to 5% of the company’s annual global revenue. Al-Kaabi argued that such fines would significantly impact QatarEnergy’s revenue, which directly supports the state of Qatar and its citizens.

”If the case is that I lose 5% of my generated revenue by going to Europe, I will not go to Europe… I’m not bluffing,” Kaabi said. “I cannot lose that kind of money – and nobody would accept losing that kind of money,” he pointed out.

It would be impossible for an energy producer like QatarEnergy to align with the EU’s net-zero target as stipulated by the directive because of the amount of hydrocarbons it produces, the minister explained.

If slapped with hefty penalties, QatarEnergy would not break its LNG contracts but would try and find legal avenues.

”I will not accept that we get penalized,” he said. “I will stop sending gas to Europe.”

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the EU started replacing Russian pipeline gas with more expensive LNG from the Middle East and the US. The bloc still gets pipeline gas from Russia via Ukraine’s transit network but the agreement between Moscow and Kiev is set to expire on December 31. The authorities in Kiev have repeatedly stressed that the deal will not be renewed.

December 22, 2024 Posted by | Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , | Leave a comment

Israel threatens residents of south Syria as troops expand occupation

The Cradle | December 22, 2024

Residents of the town of Baath in the southern Syrian governorate of Quneitra – currently under occupation by Israel’s military – have been ordered by Israeli forces to surrender all weapons present in the town or face invasion.

Israeli troops ordered Baath City’s residents to give up all arms within two hours on 22 December, according to a report by Israel’s Maariv newspaper.

The army has “issued an ultimatum to residents of Baath to surrender their weapons within two hours, threatening to enter the city,” the report says. It is unclear what weapons or military infrastructure are in Baath.

This came as part of a large-scale deployment across southern Syria.

Israel continues to solidify its occupation of southern Syria after expanding its presence beyond the occupied Golan Heights and strategic Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Sheikh) following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government on 8 December.

Al Mayadeen’s correspondent in Syria reported on Sunday “the entry of tanks and mechanized patrols of the occupation army from Al-Hamidiya in the Quneitra countryside towards the center of the governorate. “The entry of Israeli forces coincided with search campaigns that included some homes and farms in the villages of the central countryside.”

According to Al Mayadeen, Israeli troops also opened fire indiscriminately towards the forests of Al-Hamidiya and Al-Hurriya in the Quneitra countryside.

Israel has set up seven permanent outposts along the UN-monitored buffer zone, which Israeli forces expanded in the aftermath of Damascus’ fall.

Two of these outposts in Mount Hermon overlook Damascus and all its western suburbs. Since 8 December, Israeli forces have illegally occupied nearly 500 square kilometers of southern Syria.

Israel’s recent expansion has seen invading troops seize precious water sources such as the Al-Wahda Dam on the Yarmouk River Basin. Syrian and Israeli sources, including Carmel News citing an Iranian source, reported earlier this week that Israel now controls 30 percent of Syria’s water supply and 40 percent of Jordan’s.

After recently taking control of the freshwater basin of Yarmouk, Israeli troops have now reached three new bodies of water: Sheikh Hussein, Sahm al-Julan dam, and the western Baraka.

The Israeli army recently opened fire at protesters near the Yarmouk Basin as they were demonstrating against Tel Aviv’s occupation in Syria. At least one was injured.

The UN has expressed “deep concern” over Israeli violation of Syria’s sovereignty and the 1974 border agreement signed indirectly between the Syrian and Israeli governments. After the fall of Assad’s government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced the end of the agreement.

Israeli airstrikes have decimated the majority of Syria’s military capabilities in a brutal aerial campaign launched after the government fell to extremist groups.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israeli troops will occupy the recently seized territory in Syria for the foreseeable future.

December 22, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , | Leave a comment

Yemeni forces target USS Truman, down F-18, thwarting attack on Sanaa

Sputnik – 22.12.2024

Fighters of the Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthi) group have repelled joint US-UK air forces attack, shooting down a US Navy F/A-18 fighter jet during their attack on USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, the group’s military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said on Sunday.

“During the operation an F/A 18 jet was shot down attempting to repel the attack [on the US aircraft carrier],” Saree said on air of Almasirah TV channel.
Eight cruise missiles and 17 unmanned aerial vehicles were involved in the operation, the spokesman said.

He pointed out that the majority of fighter jets left Yemen’s air space and headed for the neutral waters of the Red Sea trying to repel the attack on the carrier. USS Harry S. Truman left its positions after the strikes, Saree said.

In early December, the Houthis attacked a destroyer and three army supply vessels of the United States with missiles and drones in the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.

Earlier in the day, the Associated Press, citing CENTCOM, reported that a US Navy F/A-18 jet was downed by friendly fire over the Red Sea during an attack on Houthi targets. Both pilots ejected safely, with one sustaining minor injuries.

December 22, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , | Leave a comment

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