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Mr. Potato

So adorable: Kiev names condition for peace talks with Moscow


RT
Mon, 18 Jul 2022 18:56 UTC
Lavrov/Kuleba
© Russia-Ukraine News/Getty Images/С.В.Лавров/KJNRussian FM Sergey Lavrov • Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba
Ukrainian foreign minister appears to rule out talks anytime soon

Peace negotiations with Moscow will make sense only after Russia's defeat on the battlefield, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has declared.

In an interview with Forbes Ukraine published on Monday, Kuleba named Russia's "aggressive behavior" as a reason for the absence of peace talks, arguing that any negotiations "are directly linked to the situation at the front."

"I tell all partners a simple thing: 'Russia should sit down at the negotiating table after defeat on the battlefield. Otherwise, it will be the language of ultimatums again,'" Kuleba explained.

Comment: Anyone with two neurons firing knows that Ukraine is not in charge of this war. Even if Zelensky and Kubela actually did care about their citizens more than their own skins, they would still be powerless to do anything about how the war is conducted.

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Oil Well

Gazprom declares force majeure, will halt gas flows to Germany indefinitely. Why is anyone surprised?

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 18 Jul 2022 18:12 UTC
Zapolyarnoye gas field russia
© Wikipedia - Government.ru Novy Urengoy CC BY 3.0Zapolyarnoye gas field
Already days before the July 22 European "Doomsday" when the scheduled Russian 10-day maintenance of the crucial Nord Stream pipeline to Germany is slated to end - but which was thrown into deep doubt given Gazprom recently said it can no longer guarantee its "good functioning" due to crucial turbines being previously held up in Canada related to sanctions - the Russian energy giant has declared Force Majeure to one major European customer.

Simply put, Gazprom declared extraordinary and extreme circumstances to void itself from all contractual obligations to this customer, thus the gas will stop flowing indefinitely, as Reuters reports in a breaking development Monday,
"Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom has declared force majeure on gas supplies to Europe to at least one major customer starting June 14, according to the letter seen by Reuters."
The letter is dated July 14. "It said the force majeure measure, a clause invoked when a business is hit by something beyond its control, was effective from deliveries starting from June 14," writes Reuters.

Comment: After all the nonsense with trying to get a crucial part for the Nordstream 1 pipeline from Canada, Russia is fed up. It has plenty of other customers that are far less trouble. Germany has been playing on the edge between NATO and its own needs as a country.

Here was the state of German-Russian relations as of December 2021:
With NATO's unrelenting belligerence in Ukraine; Germany's blockage of Nord Stream II despite soaring gas prices at home; Germany's expulsion of Russian diplomats; the mysterious death of a Russian diplomat in Berlin; Germany's ban of Russian media; and, in response, Russia's increasingly frustrate and frank rhetoric - to name but a few of the recent news reports - it seems that the West is hell bent on further souring relations with Russia (and China), and so any hope that the situation will improve anytime soon seems rather unlikely.


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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: NewsReal: All Quiet on the Western Front: Covid Vaccines Still Don't Work, and Russia is Still Winning


Sott.net
Mon, 18 Jul 2022 18:55 UTC
heatwave vaccines clots deaths newsreal
© Sott.net
As western Europe bakes in a midsummer heatwave, scurrilous media has taken the opportunity to 'let folks know' that high temperatures can cause 'blood clots' and 'excess deaths'. Although technically true, we can't shake the icky feeling that they're 'not letting a (contrived) crisis go to waste' by using the fairly normal high temperatures to 'bury some CoVaxx dead'.

Also on this NewsReal, Joe and Niall discuss the 'surprising' Manitoba government data on hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19, as well as alarming new studies on the frequency of menstrual problems in vaccinated women. The Science is apparently not behaving as it's 'supposed' to.

In the second half, they switch to the ongoing titanic struggle between Russian and American Ukrainian forces in the Donbass, where escalatory measures are edging ever-closer to some kind of direct showdown between the superpowers.


Running Time: 01:27:49

Download: MP3 — 60.3 MB

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Quenelle - Golden

'There would be doomsday' for Ukrainians who attack Crimea says Russia's Medvedev

Jack Walters
Express
Mon, 18 Jul 2022 06:23 UTC
Dmitry Medvedev
© Global Look Press / Dmitry MedvedevFILE PHOTO: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
A former Russian President appeared to warn that Ukraine could face yet another onslaught if they attempted to reclaim the contested region. Dmitry Medvedev, who served as President from 2008 to 2012, made the remarks during a meeting with a group of Second World War veterans.

The deputy head of Russia's security council said: "Trying to snap back, and some exalted bloody clowns who pop up there periodically with some statements, are trying to threaten us — I mean an attack on Crimea, and so on."

He added: "The consequences are obvious that if something like this happens, there would be a 'doomsday' for all of them there, very fast and hard."

Comment: Footage of Medvedev's remarks:



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Oil Well

Hezbollah's power card over Israel's gas tyranny

Abdel Bari Atwan
The Cradle
Sun, 17 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
The Lebanese Resistance
© The CradleThe Lebanese Resistance has drawn a red line: they will not allow Israel to extract oil and gas until the issue of contested gas fields is resolved and Lebanon is free to extract its own.
How close is the Levant to war? Hezbollah's leader says it all comes down to whether Lebanon is permitted to extract its own energy resources to end the country's economic crisis. And not in the far future, but right now.

In his speech last Wednesday, which coincided with the arrival of US President Joe Biden to occupied-Palestine, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah may have set the "zero hour" for the next and imminent war with Israel.
"The Lebanese have only two months to take advantage of the golden opportunity available to extract gas and oil in the Mediterranean, otherwise the cost will be very high after that."
This was one of the few times Nasrallah has gone on the offensive, and he made clear the resistance was prepared to liberate Lebanon's gas and oil wealth. His speech came two weeks after Hezbollah sent three drones over the Israeli-erected gas platform in the Karish gas field - opposite the Lebanese-Palestinian maritime border - and transmitted photos of the platform to an operations room somewhere in southern Lebanon.

Comment: See also:

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Pirates

EU's chief executive heads to Azerbaijan in desperate search of gas deal


Reuters
Mon, 18 Jul 2022 11:30 UTC
Ursula von der Leyen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Baku on Monday to seek more natural gas from Azerbaijan, the EU's executive said, as the European Union seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian energy.

"Amid Russia's continued weaponisation of its energy supplies, diversification of our energy imports is a priority for the EU," the Commission said on Twitter.


Comment: It's not so much about 'diversification' as it is about finding a supplier than can substitute the huge amounts that Russia was supplying.


"President von der Leyen and [Energy] Commissioner Kadri Simson will be tomorrow in Azerbaijan to further strengthen the cooperation."

According to a draft document seen by Reuters on 14 July, the Commission has proposed to EU countries a deal with Azerbaijan to increase imports of natural gas and support the expansion of a pipeline to do this.


Comment: Meanwhile they have the ready to go Nord Stream II pipeline that was finished at the end of last year. Russia has even said it will pump gas through there whilst Canada holds the NS I turbine hostage, that has thus far nearly halved gas supplies to some countries in Europe.


Comment: Similar begging trips by Biden to Saudi Arabia, or the UK delegations trip to India haven't turned out very well: Saudi prince reminds Biden of US torture in Iraq



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Pyramid

What is the "Council For Inclusive Capitalism?" It's the New World Order

Brandon Smith
Alt-Market.us
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
New World Order
The idea that there is an agenda for global government among the financial and political elites of the world has long been called a "conspiracy theory" within the mainstream and the establishment media. And sadly, even when you can convince people to look at and accept the evidence that banking institutions and certain politicians work together for their own purposes, many folks will STILL not entertain the notion that the ultimate goal of these power mongers is one-world empire. They just can't wrap their heads around such a thing.

People will say that the establishment is driven by greed alone and that their associations are fragile and based only on individual self interest. They will say that crisis events and shifts in social and political trends are random, not the product of deliberate engineering. They will say that elitists will never be able to work together because they are too narcissistic, etc.

All of these arguments are a coping mechanism for the public to deal with evidence they cannot otherwise refute. When the facts become concrete and the powers-that-be admit to their schemes openly, some people will revert to confused denial. They don't want to believe that organized evil on such a scale could actually exist. If it did, then everything they thought they knew about the world might be wrong.

Comment: For a nuanced and complex discussion of world-influencing conspiracy, don't miss this recent article: A Conspiracy of Systems, A System of Conspiracies

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Stock Up

Kemi Badenoch - the anti-woke, pro-free speech candidate - jumps into lead among Conservative Party members, UK

Will Jones
The Daily Sceptic
Sat, 16 Jul 2022 21:54 UTC
Kemi Badenoch
A new poll by Tory Party website ConservativeHome has seen previous frontrunner Penny Mordaunt dramatically replaced by Kemi Badenoch, the anti-woke and pro-free speech candidate, and with a huge lead of 11%. This is significant because those polled are the Conservative Party members who will elect the winner out of the shortlist of two sent over by MPs. Fraser Nelson at the Spectator has more.
tory party popularity

Comment: See also:

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Laptop

Hunter Biden laptop shows dozens of meetings with dad, business partners

Jon Levine and Joshua Rhett Miller
New York Post
Sat, 16 Jul 2022 10:25 UTC
naval observatory washington
© AP Photo/Pablo Martinez MonsivaisHunter Biden allegedly used the Naval Observatory as his hub to meet foreign political and business leaders while Joe Biden was vice president for eight years.
Hunter Biden met with his father at least 30 times at the White House or the vice president's residence, often just days after he returned home from overseas business jaunts.

The breakfasts, lunches and other gabfests between 2008 and 2016 raise questions about whether Hunter was relaying messages to his father on behalf of foreign clients, and cast new doubt on the president's repeated denials that he had any role in his son's shady overseas business dealings.

The meetings were found in a review of the personal calendar on Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop.

Comment: See also:

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Monkey Wrench

Khamenei adviser says Iran 'capable of building nuclear bomb'


France 24
Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:08 UTC
iran nuclear
© West Asia News AgencyNew-generation Iranian centrifuges are displayed during the National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran, Iran, April 10, 2021.
Tehran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has yet to decide whether to build it, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Al Jazeera's Arabic service on Sunday.

Tehran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has yet to decide whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Al Jazeera's Arabic service on Sunday.

"In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one," Kamal Kharrazi said.

Comment: It's likely that Iran already has a nuke or two; and we know that Israel does: US may seal nuclear deal with Iran as sanctions ward off buyers from Russia's desperately needed oil supply

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