UK admits it sent troops to Ukraine
RT | December 13, 2022
British Royal Marines conducted high-risk operations in Ukraine in April, Lieutenant General Robert Magowan wrote in the force’s official journal. Before Magowan’s admission, Russia’s claims that NATO troops were active in Ukraine had been dismissed by Western analysts and media.
Members of 45 Commando Group of the Royal Marines left Ukraine in January after evacuating the British embassy in Kiev to Poland. However, some 300 members of the elite unit were sent back into the country in April to reestablish the British mission in Kiev, before going on to conduct “other discreet operations,” Magowan wrote in the force’s magazine, according to a report by The Times on Tuesday.
These operations took place “in a hugely sensitive environment and with a high level of political and military risk,” Magowan, who formerly served as commandant general of the Royal Marines and is now deputy chief of Defense Staff at the Ministry of Defense, stated.
While Magowan did not elaborate on what kind of missions the commandos carried out, his statement marks the first time that the UK has admitted its troops conducted special operations in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defense refused to confirm earlier accounts of British special forces training Ukrainian troops in Kiev in April.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the conflict in Ukraine as one between Russia and the “entire Western military machine,” and claimed in September that there are entire military units in Ukraine “under the de-facto command of Western advisers.”
Putin’s words were rejected by Western media outlets. “There is no evidence of NATO ground forces participating in Ukraine,” Edward Arnold of the Royal United Services Institute think tank told the BBC at the time. “Nor of NATO commanders directing Ukrainian units on the battlefield. There is also a very low likelihood of this happening in the future as Nato seeks to mitigate escalation risks.”
Magowan’s admission proves Arnold incorrect, but the UK is not the only NATO country to acknowledge the presence of its forces in Ukraine. An unnamed Pentagon official told reporters in October that an unspecified number of US troops were inspecting American arms shipments somewhere within Ukraine.
Moscow’s response to oil price cap revealed
RT | December 13, 2022
The Russian authorities have “generally agreed” on a response to a Western coalition’s price cap on the country’s seaborne oil that took effect last week, the newspaper Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.
Moscow will ban oil sales under contracts that specify a price cap, according to the report, which cites government sources. Also, exports will be banned to countries that demand the price cap as a condition in their supply contracts, or if their reference prices are fixed at the cap price level of $60 per barrel.
A decree describing the mechanism is currently being finalized by the president’s administration, sources said. It will take effect immediately upon being issued and will be valid until July 1, 2023, with the possibility of extension. On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decree would be announced “in the next few days.”
The document will also reportedly contain a clause that allows buyers to bypass the restrictions if granted government approval. The measures will not apply to contracts that were concluded prior to December 5, the date when the price cap took effect. One of the sources said the final draft of the decree might include a provision on the marginal discount for Russian oil relative to international grades.
The price cap was introduced by the EU, G7 countries and Australia on December 5. The mechanism prohibits Western companies from providing shipping, insurance, and other services to tankers carrying Russian oil, unless the cargo is bought at or below the price limit.
UK government asked Twitter and Facebook to “tweak” algorithms during Covid
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | December 12, 2022
Former United Kingdom Health Secretary Matt Hancock, self-styled as an official who was at the forefront of Britain’s battle against Covid, didn’t seem to feel like he had done enough in 2020 and 2021, so he felt compelled to milk the pandemic cow by writing a book about that “battle.”
But he wasn’t laboring alone, since he had a co-author, Isabel Oakeshott, who reports say is actually opposed to Hancock’s policies and is a lockdown skeptic.
And now, Oakeshott, who had access to official records and Hancock’s notes exchanged with “all the key players in Britain’s Covid-19 story” – as the book’s blurb states – has penned her own “story,” an article based on the collaboration published by the Spectator, whose content draws from the material used for the book.
Oakeshott writes about the “key lessons” that include revelations about the details of UK’s vaccine and mask policies, but also the mechanisms to deal with dissenters, particularly online.
According to the journalist, Hancock genuinely considered those who disagreed with him on how to handle the situation as “mad and dangerous” and more importantly, as persons that “needed to be shut down.”
Judging by the article, his “response” to online skepticism effectively came even before pandemic restrictions themselves. Hancock had no problem revealing that in January 2020, his special adviser was already in conversation with Twitter about the ways to “tweak” the platform’s algorithms.
Another social media giant was co-opted somewhat later, and by Hancock personally, when he got in touch with former British PM and politician Nick Clegg – now president for global affairs at Meta.
Clegg, who was at the time Facebook’s VP of global affairs and communications, was reportedly “happy to oblige.”
And according to Oakeshott, Hancock’s department together with the Cabinet Office (PM and government), “harnessed the full power of the state to crush individuals and groups whose views were seen as a threat to public acceptance of official messages and policy.”
The Cabinet Office enlisted the help of a unit that previously worked on stifling the influence of Islamic State (ISIS) to now deal with “anti-vaxxers,” she writes, and notes that the policy of zero tolerance did not spare doctors, scientists, and academics, such as those behind the Great Barrington Declaration.
Even then PM Boris Johnson was not as ardent a “dissent suppressor” as Hancock, Oakeshott’s writing suggests.
Russia categorically rejects UK foreign secretary’s claim of military deal with Iran
Press TV – December 12, 2022
The Russian embassy in London has roundly dismissed the “inappropriate statements” of British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, who spuriously claimed Iran was sending armament and munitions to Russia for its military campaign in neighboring Ukraine.
“We categorically reject recent comments by Cleverly, who followed in the footsteps of US authorities and accused the Russian Federation and Iran of some ‘sordid’ deals concerning the Ukraine crisis. The United Kingdom is well aware of the fact that the allegations about Iran’s military supplies to Russia lack any factual basis,” the diplomatic mission said in a statement released on Monday.
“Russia, unlike certain Western governments, is invariably committed to compliance with national legislations as well as international principles as regards its cooperation with third countries,” it added.
The Russian embassy also emphasized that the top British diplomat should be reminded of London’s and its Western allies’ massive military, technical, financial and propaganda assistance to Ukraine when talking about “sordid” transactions between Moscow and Tehran.
The embassy underlined that supplying Ukraine with Western weapons, which is taking place in clear breach of fundamental norms of export control, only led to prolongation of hostilities and an increase in civilian casualties as Ukrainian army forces used the military equipment to launch “de-facto terrorist strikes against civilian targets” on Russian territory.
“We are carefully recording all cases of London’s and its Western allies’ financial and military supplies to the Kiev regime, as well as planned military operations against Russian facilities and military personnel. Such criminal acts will naturally have specific legal consequences for all those involved,” the statement said.
The embassy also drew attention to Cleverly’s “utterly unfounded speculations” that Tehran violated UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“If London is really concerned about implementation of the resolution, British authorities should pay meticulous attention to its true violator, the United States, whose unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal [in May 2018] has created serious challenges for global security,” the statement added.
Earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian rejected claims about the Islamic Republic’s arms sales to Russia to be used in the ongoing war against Ukraine, saying such allegations are aimed at legitimizing the West’s military assistance to Kiev.
In a phone conversation with Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres on December 2, Amir-Abdollahian said the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is rooted in the wrong policies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), namely its expansion toward the east.
The top diplomat reiterated Iran’s opposition to the dispatch of weapons to the parties involved in the war which he said would only increase human losses and financial costs for both sides.
He said Tehran would continue its efforts to stop the war and promote lasting peace in Europe.
Both Iran and Russia have repeatedly denied claims that Tehran has provided Moscow with drones to be used in the war in Ukraine.
The anti-Iran claims first emerged in July, with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan alleging that Washington had received “information” indicating that the Islamic Republic was preparing to provide Russia with “up to several hundred drones, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline” for use in the war.
What are these vaccines doing to the nation’s children and where is the benefit?
Latest approvals from MHRA
Health Advisory & Recovery Team | December 11, 2022
This week over one hundred health professionals wrote to the MHRA regarding Moderna’s application for a conditional marketing authorisation for Spikevax for babies from 6 months upwards. This baby dose has already been approved in the US and added to their routine immunisation schedule, thus removing any distinction between a novel technology gene-based vaccine rushed to market under the pretext of an ‘EMERGENCY’ and standard vaccines. Maintaining this distinction is vitally important, as there are still major unanswered questions about the long-term safety of mRNA products, which HART has discussed recently.
Meanwhile, in the UK, Pfizer’s Cominarty was quietly given full marketing authorisation for 5-11 and 12-adults, an event not announced by the MSM but instead ferreted out by the persistence of Sir Christopher Chope via a parliamentary question. The response to how the conditions had been met was chilling – basically, we’ve already given so many doses that we know it is ‘Safe & Effective’.
But most worrying of all is the fact that the MHRA have now given full authorisation to Pfizer’s 0-4s jab. They state that they have “authorised the vaccine in this new age group after it has been found to meet the UK regulator’s standards of safety, quality and effectiveness, with no new safety concerns identified. This decision has been endorsed by the Commission on Human Medicines, after a careful review of the evidence.” But the Pfizer trial for this age-group was a total shambles. They originally planned for 2 groups; one in which subjects received two 3mcg doses of the vaccine, and the other placebo. However, as with other trials, they very quickly went ahead and offered the vaccines to the placebo recipients. Thus by the time they realised this low dose was ineffective and they wanted to proceed to a third dose, they had to recruit more children to the placebo group in an attempt to create a valid comparator group. The report is thus very muddled and difficult to read.
The efficacy studies were based largely on so-called ‘immunobridging’ (essentially merely confirming that antibodies are created, without any need for testing clinically relevant endpoints). Even antibody testing, however, showed reduced titres against omicron variants (see table 18). In the only data that has been made public, clinical infections occurred after the third dose in only 10 of 1341 children whether active or placebo, nine of whom had been seronegative at trial entry, the 10th with unknown status (see p37). Thus, there were no clinical infections in children who already had naturally-acquired immunity. Moreover, “Seven cases in participants 2-4 years of age met the criteria for severe COVID-19: 6 in the BNT162b2 group, of which 2 cases occurred post unblinding, and 1 in the placebo group.”
(p38) This hardly suggests efficacy, and it could even represent antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). Twelve children had multiple episodes: all were vaccinated. As for safety, “the median duration of blinded follow-up for participants 6-23 months of age after Dose 3 was 35 days”.
The most extraordinary quote (remember this has been licenced!) on page 59 is :
“The uncertainties associated with benefits of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine when used in children 6 months through 4 years of age include the following:
- Duration of vaccine effectiveness: the blinded, placebo-controlled evaluation period for descriptive efficacy analyses was limited, and waning of protection following a primary series has been observed in older age groups.
- Need for a booster dose: based on experience with adults, it is likely that a booster dose will be needed in addition to the three-dose primary series to increase robustness, breadth, and duration of protection
- Benefits in individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2: descriptive post-Dose 3 efficacy analyses do not include cases in previously infected participants
- Effectiveness in preventing post-acute sequelae of COVID-19: available data are not conclusive
- Future vaccine effectiveness as influenced by characteristics of the pandemic, including emergence of new variants
- Vaccine effectiveness against asymptomatic infection and transmission…Available data also do not indicate high-level or durable effectiveness against transmission.
So what exactly is the purpose of this vaccine? An email has been sent to all members of the JCVI to ask them exactly that.
“It is hard to believe how far we have come from your deliberations in July 2021 when you said the benefit risk balance was too close for a vaccine for healthy under 18s. We are now in a situation where 99% of preschoolers have been infected, omicron variants are clearly much milder, the vaccine efficacy is poor and more and more evidence is coming to light about potential harms.
On behalf of myself and the 100 plus health professionals who have signed this letter, I beseech all of you to read our letter with an open mind and ask yourselves if this is what is needed for the children of the UK.”
Read the full letter here and please share it widely.
An initial reply has been received
“Thank you for your email and the copy of the letter that you sent to MHRA.
Following the emergence of Omicron in November 2021, population immunity has increased markedly across many age groups. As you observe, the vast majority of children have now had experience of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
JCVI will be taking these factors into account in any advice provided in relation to children aged 6 months to 4 years.
Best wishes, JCVI Secretariat”
Will the JCVI for once do the right thing and refuse to endorse vaccination of infants and toddlers? And how does the statement above fit with the ongoing vaccination of any healthy children? Maybe the toddler here has the right idea and may even make you smile!
Peak Demands For Natural Gas
By Paul Homewood | Not A Lot Of People Know That | December 11, 2022
Natural gas accounts for 43% of the UK’s primary energy consumption. In comparison, renewable energy only supplies 4%.
Our reliance on gas though is much greater in winter months:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/total-energy-section-1-energy-trends
And if you look at hour-by-hour data, the peaks are greater still, as the National Grid chart below shows:
https://mip-prd-web.azurewebsites.net/
This graph is for yesterday, Dec 10th. Demand for gas ramps up from around 310 mcm at night to 430 mcm in the early evening. One mcm = approximately 11 GWh.
So a rate of 430 mcm/day equates to 4730 GWh, or 197 GWh per hour.
While supply remains relatively constant, these peaks in demand are met by reducing what is known as the linepack – effectively the amount of gas within the gas distribution network. This, of course, is something that the electricity grid cannot do.
In comparison with the daily peaks and troughs of gas, electricity storage is miniscule. Pumped storage capacity is 2.8 GW, with the biggest, Dinorwig, rated at 1.7 GW with storage of 9.1 GWh. Battery storage is much tinier still.
Based on the decline in linepack, we would need about 70 mcm each day to top up at peak demand – that is 770 GWh.
In any event, all of the electricity storage we have will all be needed just to balance peaks in electricity demand.
Yet our policymakers continue down the road of electrification, seemingly oblivious to the realities.
HoHoHo… UK’s New Stealth War Machine to Warm Hearts of Poor and Freezing Britons
By Finian Cunningham | Strategic Culture Foundation | December 11, 2022
Poor and freezing Britons will no doubt be cheered by the BBC’s report that Britain is to build a new stealth fighter jet. How cozy to know the skies above are being protected while you and your children are huddled under dank blankets with ice on the inside of windows.
It’s surreal what people are being insulted with these days. The term “stealth jet” is well-named. The stealth of robbing people with a ridiculous boondoggle.
Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, announced the “good news” while visiting an RAF base as if it was an early Christmas gift to the nation.
The state-owned BBC was on hand like a helpful elf to lend some gloss to the news.
“The prime minister says the joint venture aims to create thousands of UK jobs and strengthen security ties,” chirruped the Beeb, adding, “It is hoped the new Tempest jet will carry the latest weapons.”
Why would any sane person “hope” for the “latest weapons”?
The new fighter jet is planned to phase out the existing Typhoon plane by the mid-2030s. The latter seems perfectly adequate at killing people, so why the need for improvement?
The newer killing machine will cost tens of billions of pounds to develop with private arms maker British Aerospace taking a lead role. British workers squeezed for more taxes can look forward to filling the coffers of already rich corporate capitalists and their investors. HoHoHo in reverse!
It is not explained why the existing Typhoon must be phased out or why more of them are simply not produced if there is an onerous need to “keep Britain secure”.
And if it is all about “creating thousands of jobs” then why doesn’t Premier Sunak invest tens of billions into building hospitals and schools? Now we would be talking about real social security, as opposed to fantasies, and that is why such talk must be eviscerated by the BBC.
The news of the fighter jet delivery – which the BBC gushes to tell us will have “artificial intelligence” on board (I mean, WTF!) – comes as British charities warn of a crisis in “fuel poverty” among Britons. Up to 7 million people (nearly one-tenth of the population) cannot afford to heat their homes this winter. Desperate parents are having to choose between feeding their children and heating houses.
This is also while workers across Britain are taking strike action every day this month to combat record levels of poverty and inflation. Teachers, nurses, rail and postal workers are all taking to the streets to condemn a crisis in living costs. And in sinister response to the rising protests, the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak is preparing “emergency legislation” that will criminalize industrial strikes while readying plans to have armed forces take over running essential public services like ambulance vehicles and power generation. If that sounds like creeping fascism it’s because it is.
Image and reality in Britain – as in many other Western states – are increasingly coming apart at the seams.
Sunak (42) became the “young and dashing” prime minister at the end of October. He is the first British premier of Indian heritage and photo ops were aplenty when he lit Diwali lights in Downing Streets to celebrate the Hindu festival for peace and goodwill. Oh, how diverse and liberal Britain is! This is the usual superficial and inane liberalism of Western states.
Sunak is a multimillionaire whose Indian wife doesn’t pay taxes in Britain for her family’s global business empire.
How exactly lighting Diwali lights fit with a new fighter jet armed with the latest weapons is not explained by Sunak or the BBC.
“The security of the United Kingdom, both today and for future generations, will always be of paramount importance to this government,” intoned Sunak as if he is the most patriotic Santa. “That’s why we need to stay at the cutting edge of advancements in defence technology – outpacing and out-manoeuvring those who seek to do us harm.”
Here is where Sunak sheds the Santa Claus image and takes up the role of telling spooky stories to frighten the public.
Who are those villains who “seek to do us harm”? Well of course there is Russia and Vladimir Putin’s “regime” whom Sunak tried to sound all gung-ho and tough against while at the G20 summit in Indonesia last month. Perhaps if Britain didn’t arm a NeoNazi regime in Ukraine and didn’t blow up Russian gas pipelines then international relations would be a bit more harmonious and Britons would not be freezing in their homes from extortionate fuel bills.
Britain’s new Tempest fighter jet will be built in a joint venture with Italian company Leonardo and Japan’s Mitsubishi.
“The international partnership we have announced today with Italy and Japan aims to do just that, underlining that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions are indivisible,” said Sunak.
“The next-generation of combat aircraft we design will protect us and our allies around the world by harnessing the strength of our world-beating defence industry – creating jobs while saving lives.”
Here we go again: creating jobs and saving lives… while striving to start wars.
The significance of Japan’s involvement is the geopolitical marker given to China as a target.
Sunak has read the script from the British establishment that relations with China must be aggravated. Hence last week he declared that a “golden era” of presumed friendly business relations between Britain and China was over. (The arrogance of Britain to presume any such thing!)
Sunak, the BBC, and British media generally are infiltrating the public mind with notions of hostility towards China in the same process of gaslighting against Russia.
So while British families are hungry and cold they are being extorted for more money to make British fat cats even fatter because building a new fighter jet is going to “keep us safe from those who want to do us harm”.
When image and reality are so divergent then perhaps the only thing that fills the void is total social collapse and popular rebellion. There is no longer any middle ground to meet on.
UK-Israel Tech Hub facilitates Zionists’ penetration into British governance
Press TV – December 11, 2022
A leading British academic has depicted the integration of the UK-Israeli tech industry as a tool of Zionist “operatives” to infiltrate into the “very fabric” of the British governance.
David Miller, a former professor at Bristol University and a scholarly critic of Israel, made the comments on Press TV’s Palestine Declassified aired on Saturday, clarifying on the UK Israel Tech Hub’s true mission.
The UK Israel Tech Hub is based in the British Embassy in the occupied Palestine and is funded directly by the British taxpayer.
The organization, committed to Israel’s economic and tech interests, receives its financial resources through the British Foreign Office along with departments for Trade and Media.
The UK Israel Tech Hub, Miller said, is there to encourage integration between the tech industry in the UK and Israel, which is already happening and “on many occasions, we are seeing a penetration essentially into the very fabric of British governance by operatives of the Zionist regime.”
“A large number of people have gone straight from working for the Zionist entity into effectively working for the British taxpayer,” Miller said.
Indeed, when glancing at the employees of this organization who sit inside the British Embassy, the picture of state capture becomes clearer.
Haim Shani, the chairman of the UK Israel Tech Hub, previously served as director general of the Israeli ministry of finance. The director of this suspicious organization is Keren Shurkin, who started in the liaison department of the Israeli military.
The deputy director of the UK Israel Tech Hub is Ella Caplan, who claims to have been directly behind all interactions between a specific foreign army and the Israel military during her time in the liaison department.
Avital Levitsky went from working in Israeli military intelligence to the cyber security sector lead at the UK Israel Tech Hub in the British Embassy. And the list goes on.
Miller also added that the tech contracts between the UK and the Zionist regime are being used simply as a sort of data grab for the Israeli intelligence, citing Benjamin Netanyahu’s previous efforts to send people from Israeli intelligence organizations, in particular the signals intelligence Unit 8200, into the tech startups.
“These are people who are intended by the regime to carry the interests of Israel into the startups that they are engaged in,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mick Napier, a co-founder of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, also described the UK Israel Tech Hub a “job creation program” for Israelis and a part of “100 percent full spectrum complicity” between the UK and Israel.
Napier stated that such projects “clearly” aim to defeat the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign “as far as it possibly can.”
It is worth mentioning that BDS works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.
Israeli firms infiltrate NHS
It is “very worrying that Israeli tech firms, staffed by people from former Israeli intelligence agencies, are able to get access to data in the British National Health Service (NHS),” Miller said of the Israeli tech industry penetration into the UK NHS.
The British Embassy-backed project, UK Israel Tech Hub, has been integral to the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Israel and the Northern Health Services Alliance (NHSA) to facilitate the expansion of the Israeli tech industry into the NHS.
Accordingly, the UK-Israel Tech Gateway, established through the tech hub, is set to grant the access of vast swathes of British citizens’ health data to Israeli tech companies.
Napier also voiced concerns over Israel’s access to British citizens’ health data saying that it allows “all sorts of blackmail” and “force people to collaborate and change their political behavior.”
Miller termed the extensive digital collaboration between Britain and Israel as “melding” rather than integration which is not merely limited to business activities but have an “intelligence component or interest.”
“There is integration increasingly between the interests of the Israelis and parts of the [UK] government apparatus, there are many other examples of people who are effectively operating for the interests of the Israelis inside the governmental apparatus in the [Palace of] Whitehall at Westminster,” Miller concluded.
In another episode of Palestine Declassified aired on November 26, Huda Ammori, a Palestinian activist and co-founder of the direct action network Palestine Action said that tech companies including Amazon and Google, are working with the Israeli military, and aiding in human rights violations and the colonization of the Palestinian people.
Ammori was making a reference to the notorious Project Nimbus Google’s $1.2bn artificial intelligence and surveillance contract with Amazon and the Israeli military.
US betrays EU allies’ interests skillfully using Ukrainian conflict to its advantage
By Uriel Araujo | December 9, 2022
This week London announced it has ordered thousands of new anti-tank weapons to restock, after sending thousands of its units to Ukraine. Meanwhile, it has been reported that Washington is weighing Kiev’s requests to provide the country with cluster munition warheads. Both the UK and NATO have been almost running out of weapons for Ukraine. Recently, US President Joe Biden has been struggling to maintain his international coalition to support Kiev, but hardly succeeded due to domestic problems (both in the EU and in the United States). The conflict in Ukraine aggravates Europe’s energy crisis and this is one of the very reasons Washington has fueled this conflict.
University of Chicago political science professor John Mearsheimer has written extensively on how NATO’s enlargement policies over the years plus its strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit by integrating it into the political West are the very root of the conflict which started in 2014 – and 8 years on, this is still the case.
For almost 8 years, the Donbass conflict was Europe’s forgotten war, even though in April 2021 Kiev escalated the violence there once more, with Washington’s full support. Since 2014, NATO has been aggressively provoking and encircling Russia (even in the Arctic), and its member states have been sending massive arms shipments to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Washington-led West, including media conglomerates, has white-washed Ukraine’s far-right problem and the blatantly neo-Nazi nature of its Azov Regiment, as well Kiev’s mass killings, its human rights infringements, genocidal policies, and chauvinistic nationalism aimed against ethnic Russians.
For example, on February 18, before the beginning of the current Russo-Ukrainian military conflict (February 24), Kiev started a nasty bombing campaign on Donbass, targetting civilian infrastructure and even a kindergarden in Lugansk. Ironically, the week before that, Moscow had withdrawn its troops from the area near the border, which should have de-escalated tensions – much to no avail.
Up to February 18, in a series of provocations, Ukraine’s military personnel often broke the cease-fire in Donbass and shelled the region so as to instigate the local militias into responding, thus providing a pretext for further Ukrainian aggression while NATO kept sending weapons and mercenaries to Kiev and further fueling tensions. All of that, one can argue, had been escalating to the point of potentially becoming casus belli for Russia. And here we are today. Whether one is critical of Moscow’s decision to launch its military campaign or not, all the above is part of the larger context that one should always keep in mind.
Why then has the US played such a destabilizing role and has supported all that? I’ve written on how the geopolitics of Washington’s strategies is intertwined with geoeconomics and energy interests. The United State’s persistent campaign against Nord Stream and against any Russian-European gas cooperation is part of that. Geoenergetic interests are one of the main issues and driving forces of the 21st century and Washington has been waging a largely unilateral economic war through sanctions and legislative measures.
Its goal has always been to have Europeans buying American LNG, which is more expensive, in fact, even though Russia is quite literally at the “doorstep” of the continent. The truth is that Europe’s energy crisis from the very beginning has served American interests well. In addition, the US-led “Green Agenda” which hampers African energy security quite ironically also hurts European’s own.
One could very well argue then that Washington’s economic war is being waged not only against Moscow, but in fact also against its own European allies. If this sounds far-fetched, one should consider the fact that Biden’s recent aggressive $369 billion subsidies package (which hurts Europe) has been described by French President Emmanuel Macron as an issue that could “divide the West”. EU diplomats have been quoted as saying that the American initiative “changes everything” to the point of making some of them ask “is Washington DC still our ally or not?”. EU industry chief Thierry Breton even stated Biden’s package poses an “existential challenge” to the European economy and industry.
The UK economy is also collapsing over the energy issue, while recession and even depression haunt Europe. Philip Pilkington, an Irish economist famous for his contributions on the empirical estimate of general equilibrium and other fields, has been writing on how post-Nord Stream Europe faces possible deindustrialization. If the high energy costs, related to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, make European industry uncompetitive, Washington’s subsidy package is a nail in the coffin. In this scenario, Europe’s industry might be “wiped out by American rivals”, as Politico journalists Jakob Hanke and Barbara Moens put it. As the US stands ready to absorb European industrial potential, EU countries will face increasing unemployment, inflation and a decrease in living standards. That scenario of course promises social unrest.
In April, defeated French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen promised to pull France out of NATO. As temperatures decrease with the coming winter amid rising energy prices, one should expect European populism and the far-right to gain more and more political influence, as they have been successfully capitalizing on growing popular discontent with NATO and with the EU bloc itself. It is quite unfortunate that, in Europe, opposition to NATO and to suicidal policies has been largely marginalized to the point of almost becoming a monopoly of so-called extremist discourse.
It remains to be seen how European political elites will respond to the new developments, as the reality of an American economic war against their continent becomes increasingly impossible to deny.
UK city defends new ‘climate lockdown’ policy
RT | December 7, 2022
The city of Oxford has embraced the concept of limiting citizens’ personal travel to fight climate change, an idea once dismissed as a conspiracy theory.
The Oxfordshire County Council’s so-called ‘traffic filter’ system, adopted last week, has gone viral, denounced as the first step toward “climate lockdowns” by climate skeptics and civil liberties activists.
The city will be divided into six “15-minute neighborhoods,” containing all local necessities, with residents required to register their cars so their comings and goings can be tracked by a network of cameras. They are allowed unlimited movement in their own neighborhood, but in order to drive through the filters, they must apply for a permit.
Even then, they are only granted access to other neighborhoods for an average of two days per week. Those who exceed their travel allotment will be fined.
Thousands of residents have expressed concern about the project, which has previously been rejected under a different name – including 1,800 who signed a single petition over worries it would actually increase congestion. However campaign director for Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, Zuhura Plummer, claimed that the initiative would “save lives and make our city more pleasant now and for future generations,” citing an “official analysis” that projected 35% less traffic, 9% fewer road casualties, 15% faster bus times, and 91% less air pollution.
The city will also benefit financially, with any driver caught passing through a filter without an exemption or a permit being charged a £70 penalty (just over $85) per violation. Planners expect the city could make as much as £1.1 million per year from fines.
Climate skeptics have attempted to raise the alarm about the measure since its passage, describing it as the first step toward the kind of “climate lockdowns” media outlets like The Guardian warned about at the height of the pandemic.
Economics professor Mariana Mazzucato outlined a grim future in which people would be required to submit to “climate lockdowns” for part of the year, barred from using personal vehicles and consuming red meat, while fossil fuel companies would be prohibited from drilling – all in the name of warding off catastrophic global warming.
When the essay was met with widespread public backlash, mentions of the phrase ‘climate lockdown’ were promptly scrubbed from news headlines, and the very notion of a government-mandated climate lockdown was declared a conspiracy theory.
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From the Archives
Alarmist climate science as a textbook example of groupthink
By Paul MacRae | May 1, 2012
A while ago, I received an email from a friend who asked:
How can many, many respected, competitive, independent science folks be so wrong about [global warming] (if your [skeptical] premise is correct). I don’t think it could be a conspiracy, or incompetence. … Has there ever been another case when so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?
The answer to the second part of my friend’s question—“Has there ever been another case where so many ‘leading’ scientific minds got it so wrong?”—is easy. Yes, there are many such cases, both within and outside climate science. In fact, the graveyard of science is littered with the bones of theories that were once thought “certain” (e.g., that the continents can’t “drift,” that Newton’s laws were immutable, and hundreds if not thousands of others).
Science progresses by the overturning of theories once thought “certain.” … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Iran consolidates Strait of Hormuz control in post-war power shift, leaving US in dark
- A pause, not a ceasefire: Washington stalls, Tehran recalibrates
- US blockade crumbles as Iran turns to overland routes
- Hidden costs of US Iran war push total far beyond $25bn Pentagon claim
- Iran Will Respond With Long-Term Strikes to US Attack, Even If It Is Short-Term – IRGC
- Fear Is the Mind Killer
- Israeli strikes kill 10 in southern Lebanon, including 3 rescue workers
- Israeli military ‘failed on all fronts’: Poll
- US at a crossroads: Iran’s firm positions leave Trump no option but to capitulate
- Iran signals decisive response to end US maritime bullying, piracy
- If Americans Knew
- Politico’s powerful parent company tells Politico they must support Israeli narrative
- How Tony Dokoupil Became the Face of ‘Zionist Fanatic’ Bari Weiss’s CBS
- Far Right Israeli Settler Movement Enters Syria in a Push for “Greater Israel”
- ‘People Have the Right to Be Buried’: In Gaza, Thousands of Palestinians Remain Trapped Under Rubble
- Born during Israel’s genocide: Gaza’s child survivors bear the scars of war
- Who are the women and girls behind Gaza war’s horrific casualty toll?
- Beloved Gaza doctor detained “indefinitely” without charge – Daily Update
- By Week’s End, Trump’s War Will Be Plainly Illegal
- CBS News Reportedly Ousts London Bureau Chief Over Differences With Bari Weiss Over Gaza Coverage
- State Department Says US Is in Conflict With Iran ‘At the Request’ of Israel
- No Tricks Zone
- Oversupply Of Volatile Solar Energy Leads To Record NEGATIVE Prices!
- New Study: Extreme Heat Records, Heatwaves, Extreme Cold Records Declining Across US Since 1899
- It’s The Cold, Stupid! Cold 20 Times More Lethal Than Heat, Multiple Studies Show
- European Institute For Climate And Energy: “Climate Debate is Seldom About Science”
- New Study: The Climate May Be 5 Times More Sensitive To Solar Forcing Than Commonly Assumed
- EV Industry Reached $70 Billion In Losses In 2024 Due To Delusional Green Ideologies
- Reality Check: Maldives Have Actually Grown In Size Or Remained Stable Over Recent Decades
- Abrupt Climate Change Also Occurred NATURALLY In The Past …25 Times During Last Ice Age
- Cave Discovery Reveals Today’s Desert Climates Were Recently Far Warmer, Wetter, Teeming With Life
- German Expert: Heat Dome Led To Record Temps In Western USA…Warmer In 1934, 1936
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