Moldova’s prime minister has stepped down amid allegations of crackdowns on dissent
RT | February 10, 2023
Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita resigned on Friday, which means that the entire cabinet of the economically-troubled and politically-unstable nation will have to change.
Gavrilita did not divulge the reasons behind her decision in her farewell speech, which focused on what she described as the achievements of her team during her short-lived tenure.
“I am proud to have accelerated infrastructure projects that were stagnating due to incompetence and corruption,” the politician said. Her government “preserved peace and economic stability” despite efforts by “agents of destabilization,” she added.
Gavrilita announced her resignation after holding a meeting with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who accepted it immediately. In a Facebook post, the president thanked the former PM for her efforts in governing Moldova at a time of “unprecedented challenges.”
The outgoing cabinet took the helm in August 2021, after the Sandu-founded Party of Action and Solidarity won a snap election a month earlier. Rumors about the government’s imminent collapse have been swirling in Moldova since Monday.
For months last year, the government in Chisinau faced mass protests over rising energy prices and worsening standards of living, which followed a feud with Russian gas giant Gazprom over the terms of fuel supplies. The demonstrations also had a political aspect, as the government was accused of cracking down on the opposition.
Former president Igor Dodon, whom Sandu beat at the ballot box in 2020, is facing a number of criminal charges, ranging from corruption and illegal campaign financing to falsifying medical documents. His supporters believe the investigations are politically motivated, since Dodon, an advocate of good relations with Russia, has been criticizing Sandu’s pro-Western stance.
Amid the protests, the government forced several Russian-language media outlets to go off air when it refused to renew their broadcasting licenses in December. Since October, Moldova has been living in a state of emergency, which the opposition claims is just a method of preventing mass gatherings of discontent citizens.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov assessed last week that Moldova may become “a new Ukraine” in the sense of adopting anti-Russian policies despite how much they may hurt the country. He said Sandu was a major factor, because she was ready to do “practically anything” to further her pro-Western agenda.
Last June, the EU granted Moldova a candidate status alongside fellow applicant Ukraine.
RT | February 9, 2023
Many foreign brands and businesses are leaving Russia not of their own volition but because they are feeling pressured to do so, and suffer financially as a result, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting of the supervisory board of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.
Moscow, however, will not force anyone to stay, according to the president.
“Many of them, as you know, under pressure from their governments, are leaving our market. Well, all the best to them. However, because of the loss of our market they incur huge losses. It’s their choice, it’s their decision,” Putin said, noting that many of those companies “do it without any pleasure.”
“Who wants to lose a well-established business in which they invested effort, money? It’s not even about the money sometimes – many have invested their hearts – but under pressure from their governments are forced to leave.”
According to Putin, Russia will not allow the varied assets and infrastructure these companies leave behind to go to waste, and domestic industries may even benefit from the situation.
“They leave behind a good legacy, so to speak, they leave behind production infrastructure, well-trained personnel. Perhaps someone thinks that all of this will immediately crumble and fall apart – nothing of the sort is happening. Our companies, our entrepreneurs are picking up these enterprises and businesses and continuing this work. And quite successfully,” the Russian president assured.
After Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine began, many major Western brands announced their withdrawal from the Russian market and the suspension of investment. According to economists from Switzerland’s University of St. Gallen, more than 1,400 companies decided to quit Russia over the past year, including electronics manufacturers, automakers, hotels, banks and restaurant chains.
However, Russia managed to secure supplies of goods through alternate routes – via the so-called ‘parallel imports’ – where products continue to be delivered to Russia through third countries without a brand license from the rights holder.
In addition to this, the Russian government has launched a number of programs and initiatives to support domestic manufacturers, which fall within the framework of ‘import substitution’. According to Putin, the country produces a lot of quality products, which until recently had a hard time making their way to the domestic market due to competition from global players.
However, the departure of Western brands means “our domestic manufacturers received unique opportunities for development and we must take advantage of them,” Putin stated.
By William Loneskie | TCW Defending Freedom | February 8, 2023
In seven years, diesel vans under 3.5 tons will be banned from sale. How will the switch from diesel to battery-powered vans affect business and commerce? Cost and range are factors of concern. A battery-powered Ford Transit costs over £10,000 more than a similar specification diesel van. The diesel, depending on fuel tank size selected, can carry its payload more than 500 miles, and takes only minutes to refuel. A laden battery Transit will manage 90 miles in summer, less in winter, and will take hours to recharge.
Then there is the question of service life. Looking at the Ford Transit Forum, the record for mileage is over 750,000 miles. While this is exceptional, figures of 200,000 are not uncommon. The trouble with battery vans is that the batteries degrade from the word go, and cost a huge sum to replace. I doubt if many will go further than 150,000 miles on the original battery, then they will probably be scrapped because the new battery will cost more than the value of the vehicle. Surely a cost-benefit analysis should be carried out about battery vans; after all, if the cost of transporting goods soars, so will the cost of living.
The reason for scrapping new dependable diesels and petrol vehicles is a supposed climate crisis, and the cause of this crisis, we are told, is anthropogenic global warming caused by CO2. Hence the ‘need’ to ban fossil fuels and move to a grid dependent on the vagaries of wind power. The irony is that building a wind farm without fossil fuels is impossible. The towers are made of steel which requires coking coal, the (non-recyclable) rotors consist of a composite plastic made from oil, and of course the gearboxes are filled with gallons of oil. The components are transported to site on land or at sea by diesel power. Even the hard hats, eye shields and hi-vis jackets used by the technicians are made from oil.
We need coal to make coke to make steel, and it makes sense to mine it in Britain rather than import it. Hence the go-ahead for the new colliery near Whitehaven. Production here will be sufficient to allow exports too; not only that but it will bring highly skilled, well-paid jobs to an area in sore need of them. Opposition to this project from ill-informed politicians and eco-zealots has held up this project for seven years. They say coal will ‘damage the planet’. But Germany, Europe’s powerhouse, is getting one-third of its electricity from coal-fired power stations – 37,000MW of reliable, cheap, weather-independent power. Japan produces over 50,000 MW from coal – and the UK a measly 4,000 MW, and zero by 2025. Not only should the Whitehaven mine go ahead in a rational world but we should be looking at opening new state-of-the-art collieries and power stations to tap the 3billion tons of UK coal reserves.
The science about AGW is not settled. Recent research using satellite temperature data has shown that warming has stalled, and indeed cooling is likely caused by the North Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. The Greenland ice sheet has grown. Arctic ice shrinking has stopped. The media has failed to keep up. Repeated apocalyptic predictions of climate-caused disaster have proved false. In July 2019 the then Prince Charles said: ‘I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival’. Oh dear.
A particularly virulent form of the Net Zero virus has been caught in Scotland by the SNP regime, governing in tandem with the separatist Greens. From 2025, Patrick Harvie, the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights, intends oil, solid fuel and LPG central heating should be ‘phased out’ from off-gas-grid homes. That will also apply to on-gas-grid homes from 2030. I have been unable to discover exactly what ‘phasing out’ means. Does it mean that from 2025 we will no longer be able to have a new LPG boiler fitted? Will we who just a love a blazing coal fire on a winter’s night, reflected in an amber glass of finest malt, no longer be able to enjoy that simple pleasure? Very likely. Perhaps Mr Harvie can explain in detail what it does mean and how much it will cost to have a heat pump fitted, which many experts say is a bad idea.
It is clear, however, that Mr Harvie and the SNP intend to force gas, oil, and coal use to be ended whether householders want it or not – just as they are keen to make farmers and foresters and gamekeepers give up their dependable diesel Land Rovers and pick-ups in favour of battery-powered vehicles. This is in line with the SNP/Green top-down Net Zero strategy which – even more than that of the Westminster government – is totalitarian in nature, where those in power dictate to hard-working men and women how they must live their lives.
They say this is to ‘save the planet’ from CO2 , but the fact is that if Britain were not to exist from tomorrow it would not make one iota of difference to climate change.
Press TV – February 6, 2023
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the United States is “playing with fire” with its activities on the common border between Iraq and Syria, especially by backing separatist militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and encouraging separatism.
Lavrov said at a press conference in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, that Washington “fosters separatism among locals of Kurdish-populated regions in Iraq and Syria. It is playing with fire.”
He added, “Americans encourage Kurdish separatism one way or another and ignore other matters, including the territorial integrity of Syria, warning that such an approach “exposes other countries in the region to ensuing dangers and threats.”
Security conditions have been deteriorating in the areas controlled by the US-led SDF in Syria’s northern and northeastern provinces of Raqqah, Hasakah, and Dayr al-Zawr amid ongoing raids and arrests of civilians by the US-sponsored militants.
Locals argue that SDF’s constant raids and arrest campaigns have generated a state of frustration and instability, severely affecting their businesses and livelihoods.
Residents accuse the US-backed militants of stealing crude oil and failing to spend money on service sectors.
Local councils affiliated with the SDF have also been accused of financial corruption. They are said to be embezzling funds provided by donors, neglecting services, and not meeting the basic needs.
The Russian foreign minister went on to note that Moscow continues to work on negotiations within the Astana format for the peaceful settlement of Syria conflict, and regards the peace talks as useful.
“We consider Iraq’s observer status at the Astana talks, with Iran, Russia and Turkey acting as the guarantor states, to be very useful. We will continue our interactions and welcome participation of Iraq as an observer. Jordan and Lebanon also play the same role,” Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister went on to speak of a “vital importance” to “safeguard” bilateral economic ties with Iraq against “illegal sanctions” imposed on his country by the United States and its allies due to the conflict in Ukraine.
Lavrov said Russia had already invested some $13 billion in Iraq, arguing that Russian oil companies have not received outstanding payments because of the West’s coercive measures.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the top Russian diplomat underlined the importance of the Palestinian issue, saying that the West is procrastinating resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hussein, for his part, termed Lavrov’s visit to Iraq as a remarkable development, stressing that Baghdad and Moscow will discuss problems linked to the work of Russian companies and Russian financial dues in the Arab country through meetings of the joint committee between the two sides.
The Iraqi foreign minister said he would discuss the issue of cooperating with Russian companies during an upcoming visit to the US.
Hussein said he would insist the US should refrain from imposing sanctions on Iraqi companies for working with Russian partners in Iraq.
He also touched on the Ukraine crisis, stating that Iraq demands a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and calls for an end to the crisis through sincere dialogue between the two countries.
By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge | February 5, 2023
The fake meat industry appears to be in a death-spiral as sales at plant-based ‘meat’ companies Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have imploded.
As Axios reports, “after years of hype, the tide is turning against the first generation of plant-based protein makers.”
Last year, both companies were riding high – with prime placement on supermarket shelves, and Burger King even adding an Impossible Whopper to its menu.
Impossible Meat even began to branch out – looking to expand offerings to highly processed meats such as chicken nuggets and sausages.
Sales have collapsed, however, which according to a recent Bloomberg report, has resulted in Impossible Foods planning to lay off around 20% of its workers.
Impossible Foods Inc., the maker of meatless burgers and sausages, is preparing to cut about 20% of its staff, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Redwood City, California-based company currently employs about 700 workers. The new round of dismissals could reduce that amount by more than 100.
Impossible Foods also offered voluntary separation payments and benefits to employees at the end of 2022, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing private information. An internal document viewed by Bloomberg confirmed the separation packages being offered. The company previously reduced headcount in October, cutting about 6% of its workforce at the time. – Bloomberg
Beyond Meat’s sales fell over 22% in the third quarter of 2022, as the company is preparing to similarly cut 20% of its workers. The company has also lost several executives.
According to the report, supermarket sales fell by 15% y/y as of Jan. 1, according to market-research firm IRI, while orders in restaurants dropped 9% in the12 months ended in November, according to NPD Group.
Meanwhile, data from consumer-experience strategy firm HundredX suggests waning interest in general – as the percentage of shoppers polled who have eaten Impossible products and say they won’t do it again has risen.
Beyond Meat stock is also down around 67% vs. one year ago.
By Jason Isaac | RealClear Energy | February 1, 2023
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” reads an inscription at the gate to Hell in Dante’s “Inferno,” but in the modern world, Dante might as well be referring to the gates of Net Zero. After walking through those gates for a few days—maybe just a few minutes—most people would recoil at the effects of Net Zero: higher prices for everything, unreliable electricity, and a plunge into poverty. But as in “Inferno,” there is hope: you just have to abandon Net Zero. Cases-in-point include San Antonio, Texas; Huntington Beach, California; and Orange County, California.
For the past four years, San Antonio has been, by some metrics, the most-impoverished large metro area in the United States, surpassing Detroit. Despite its community’s pressing needs, San Antonio enacted a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) in 2019, with a vote of 10-1, to focus on “reducing the carbon intensity” of San Antonio’s electric generation instead of reducing the city’s poverty by providing more affordable and reliable energy.
At the time, more than half of San Antonians polled said they were not willing to pay a single dime more for climate change programs. And yet, the city’s misguided climate plan was going to lead to higher utility bills by at least $1,000 a year per household.
That was in 2019. Regardless of whether San Antonians and Americans-at-large were willing to pay more for energy, inflation and the Biden administration’s war on fossil fuels has now caused energy prices to soar. A nationwide survey released in October 2022 said that “32% of Americans have paid a bill late in the past six months — and 61% of them say it’s because they didn’t have enough money to cover the costs.” A $1,000 a year increase—at least—with a net-zero campaign is not sustainable for a city already overrun by poverty and hurting from inflation and soaring energy prices.
In recent months, the city’s electric utility management and its rate advisory committee adopted a plan that will have the utility invest in significant new natural gas generation, eschewing calls from environmental groups to adopt a more wind and solar heavy mix. On Jan. 17, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg threw his support behind the proposal, noting that “People want to make sure that we can affordably keep the lights on in San Antonio,” and “In this scenario, we are owning more of that ability [to generate power] ourselves.” While not formally abandoning the city’s Net Zero by 2050 plan, the change is a tacit acknowledgement that the city’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, its electric utility, cannot affordably meet that goal.
Similarly, the Huntington Beach City Council just voted to pull out of its plan for 100% renewable energy with the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA). Like San Antonio, Huntington Beach has concerns for its residents, including the increasing homelessness in the community. Orange County had already bailed on the plan, claiming that “the authority failed to inform the public that their electricity bills were increasing.”
While citizens of San Antonio, Huntington Beach, and Orange County have averted the left’s woke Green New Deal for now, many cities and countries are still headed down the path of decarbonization to the detriment of their citizens’ livelihoods. Think about the countries that actually live at Net Zero. Malawi’s life expectancy is a full 20 years less than developed countries; a man can’t expect to live past 57. In Ethiopia, many girls walk more than three miles daily, spending eight hours walking to collect water, instead of attending school. Sri Lanka went from economic growth to plunging its people into hunger because of the (now former) president’s policies as the first ever Net Zero chief executive. He banned the use and importation of nitrogen-based fertilizer. Food production dropped 40% and prices rose 80%.
That’s the impact of Net Zero that the US will not have to feel if its cities and states continue to come to their senses about the impossibility of such a goal. Expensive energy hurts the poor; affordable and reliable energy has the power to lift millions out of poverty.
It’s time to abandon Net Zero.
RT | February 4, 2023
US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday the first transfer of assets, confiscated as part of anti-Russia sanctions, to Ukraine to pay for the country’s reconstruction.
The measure affects $5.4 million expropriated from Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev on charges of sanctions evasion, according to the top official.
“With my authorization today, forfeited funds will next be transferred to the State Department to support the people of Ukraine,” Garland said, adding that the funds were confiscated following an indictment against Malofeyev, issued last April.
Earlier this week, a federal court in New York allowed prosecutors to confiscate $5.4 million belonging to Malofeyev, paving the way for the funds to be used to help rebuild Ukraine.
In June, millions were seized from a US bank account belonging to Malofeyev, against whom the US Treasury Department announced sanctions in April “for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly” the Russian government.
The businessman, who owns Russian Orthodox Christian channel Tsargrad TV, has been on the US sanctions list since 2014. Malofeyev previously claimed that he had no holdings in the West since then.
In December, US President Joe Biden signed legislation allowing the Department of Justice to transfer some forfeited assets to the State Department to aid Ukraine. US law restricts how the government can use such assets.
RT | February 3, 2023
US officials have warned Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates against maintaining economic and financial ties with Russia because trade is undermining sanctions, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The warnings were reportedly voiced by the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Treasury, Brian Nelson, during meetings with Turkish officials on Thursday and Friday.
Nelson’s visit to Türkiye comes as part of a regional tour that included the UAE earlier this week, and is said to be aimed at discussing Washington’s concerns over rising exports to Russia that include US goods.
US officials have called on the two countries to clamp down on the flow of goods to Russia, the sources told the news agency, adding that millions of dollars’ worth of export-controlled items were reaching the sanctions-hit country, and could be used by the defense industry to extend the conflict in Ukraine.
Scores of Turkish exporters shipped over $800 million worth of goods to Russia, including $300 million in machinery and another $80 million in electronics in the eight months through October 2022, according to people who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Other areas of concern reportedly include Russian vessels either sanctioned or subject to export controls making port calls in Turkey.
Meanwhile, the UAE has maintained ties with both Ukraine and Russia. The Gulf state’s ruler, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, traveled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in October amid the continuing conflict in Ukraine. The leaders expressed Moscow and Abu Dhabi’s willingness to develop cooperation on all levels.
“We welcome non-governors and non-regents”
Press TV – February 3 2023
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has lashed out at the US ambassador to Budapest for meddling in the country’s internal affairs over its support for Russia, saying, “Nobody can tell us from the outside how to live.”
Szijjarto issued the scathing rebuke on Thursday after David Pressman, who has represented Washington in Budapest since September last year, censured Hungary’s push for the continuation of policies endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s opposition to Western-led anti-Russia sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine.
“Nobody can tell us from the outside how to live, so it is of no interest what a citizen of another country – be it an ambassador – thinks about the domestic political processes in Hungary,” Szijjarto said at a press conference. “We ask for more respect for the Hungarians, even from the ambassador.”
Stressing that it is not Pressman’s “job to interfere in the internal affairs of Hungary,” the Hungarian foreign minister said, “If he wants to use his stay in Hungary to qualify the activities of the government elected by the Hungarian people with a fairly clear majority… then he will have a very difficult time.”
Szijjarto said when Hungary receives foreign ambassadors, it expects them to behave appropriately and work to improve bilateral relations, emphasizing that the era of foreign envoys telling Hungarians how to live in their own country “is over.”
Hungary has on numerous occasions voiced opposition to Western sanctions against Moscow in response to Russia’s protracted military operation in Ukraine, arguing that the restrictions have wreaked havoc on the EU economy.
Last month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also slammed Germany’s decision to support Ukraine by supplying 14 Leopard 2 tanks, warning that such steps would make Western countries active participants in the conflict. Orban stressed that, instead of arming Kiev, the West should pursue “a ceasefire and peace talks” in Ukraine.
Russia launched what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, over the perceived threat of the ex-Soviet republic joining NATO and to “de-Nazify” Kiev. Since then, the United States and Ukraine’s other allies have sent Kiev tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including rocket systems, drones, armored vehicles, tanks, and communication systems.
Western countries have also imposed a slew of economic sanctions on Moscow. The Kremlin has said the sanctions and the Western military assistance will only prolong the war.
RT | February 3, 2023
Russia’s food exports jumped by 12% in monetary terms last year to more than 70 million tons, despite difficulties caused by Western sanctions, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture reported on Thursday.
The ministry highlighted that domestic agricultural products had been supplied to 150 countries, emphasizing that Russia’s contribution to world food security is constantly growing.
According to the latest report, exports of oil and fat products soared by 26%, meat and dairy products rose by 16%, and grain exports increased by 14%.
The ministry also noted good results in its work on reorienting export flows, building new logistics chains, and financial transactions, as well as facilitating conditions for providing state support. “This will help to further increase exports to priority markets,” it concluded on its Telegram channel.
Western sanctions imposed on Russia have been disrupting the country’s food supplies to the world market, threatening to exacerbate the global food crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that, despite the obstacles, Russia remains ready to help poor nations battle hunger, providing them with the “necessary assistance.”
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By Lisa Pease | Consortium News | September 16, 2013
More than a half century ago, just after midnight on Sept. 18, 1961, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others went down in a plane crash over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). All 16 died, but the facts of the crash were provocatively mysterious. … continue
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