The EU could conserve energy in order to completely compensate for Russian gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.

"If we... decrease the heating in Europe by two degrees, or the cooling, less air conditioning, this would compensate for the whole delivery [from] Nord Stream 1," von der Leyen told The Irish Times, referring to the Baltic Sea pipeline that delivers gas from Russia to Germany.

The commission chief said Brussels has emergency plans to mitigate the impact of any disruptions of the supply, which include conserving energy and prioritizing needs. "It's a lot of work still. And the circumstances are serious."

Russian gas company Gazprom reduced the flow via Nord Stream 1, citing technical issues.

The EU plans to phase out Russian gas by 2030 as part of the response to Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine, which was launched in late February. However, several countries, including Germany, have repeatedly warned that their economies would suffer if the flow of gas stops immediately.

Let's cut to the chase and roll in the Putin Top Ten of the New Era, announced by the Russian President live at the St. Petersburg forum for both the Global North and South.

The era of the unipolar world is over.

The rupture with the West is irreversible and definitive. No pressure from the West will change it.

Russia has renewed with its sovereignty. Reinforcement of political and economic sovereignty is an absolute priority.

The EU has completely lost its political sovereignty. The current crisis shows the EU is not ready to play the role of an independent, sovereign actor. It's just en ensemble of American vassals deprived of any politico-military sovereignty.

Sovereignty cannot be partial. Either you're a sovereign or a colony.

Hunger in the poorest nations will be on the conscience of the West and euro-democracy.

Russia will supply grains to the poorer nations in Africa and the Middle East.

Russia will invest in internal economic development and reorientation of trade towards nations independent of the U.S.

The future world order, already in progress, will be formed by strong sovereign states.

The ship has sailed. There's no turning back.

How does it feel, for the collective West, to be caught in such a crossfire hurricane? Well, it gets more devastating when we add to the new roadmap the latest on the energy front.

Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, in St. Petersburg, stressed that the global economic crisis is gaining momentum not because of sanctions, but exacerbated by them; Europe "commits energy suicide" by sanctioning Russia; sanctions against Russia have done away with the much lauded "green transition", as that is no longer needed to manipulate markets; and Russia, with its vast energy potential, "is the Noah's Ark of the world economy."

For his part Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller could not be more scathing on the sharp decline in the gas flow to the EU due to Siemens' refusal and/or incapacity to repair the Nord Stream 1 pumping engine: "Well, of course, Gazprom was forced to reduce the volume of gas supplies to Europe by 20%+. But you know, prices have increased not by 20%+, but by several times! Therefore, I'm sorry if I say that we don't feel offended by anyone, we are not particularly concerned by this situation."

If this pain dial overdrive was not enough to hurl the collective West - or NATOstan - into Terminal Hysteria, then Putin's sharp comment on possibly allowing Mr. Sarmat to present his business card to "decision-making centers in Kiev", those that are ordering the current shelling and killing of civilians in Donetsk, definitely did the trick:

"As for the red lines, let me keep them to myself, because this will mean quite tough actions on the decision-making centers. But this is an area that shouldn't be disclosed to people outside the military-political leadership of the country. Those who deserve appropriate actions on our part should draw a conclusion for themselves - what they may face if they cross the line."

Since the creation of the US Federal Reserve over a century ago, every major financial market collapse has been deliberately triggered for political motives by the central bank. The situation is no different today, as clearly the US Fed is acting with its interest rate weapon to crash what is the greatest speculative financial bubble in human history, a bubble it created. Global crash events always begin on the periphery, such as with the 1931 Austrian Creditanstalt or the Lehman Bros. failure in September 2008. The June 15 decision by the Fed to impose the largest single rate hike in almost 30 years as financial markets are already in a meltdown, now guarantees a global depression and worse.

The extent of the "cheap credit" bubble that the Fed, the ECB and Bank of Japan have engineered with buying up of bonds and maintaining unprecedented near-zero or even negative interest rates for now 14 years, is beyond imagination. Financial media cover it over with daily nonsense reporting , while the world economy is being readied, not for so-called "stagflation" or recession. What is coming now in the coming months, barring a dramatic policy reversal, is the worst economic depression in history to date. Thank you, globalization and Davos.

Under pressure from Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, the incumbent chair of the African Union (AU), Macky Sall, tried to gather as many heads of state from the continent as possible for a meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

In the end, only two presidents were interested in what the ex-comedian had to say to Africa. AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, along with Macky Sall and his Congolese counterpart Denis Sassou N'Guesso, were the only ones interested in the meeting held on Monday 20 June.

For the AU, organizing the meeting with Zelensky was a way of highlighting the neutrality of the pan-African organization vis-à-vis the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Indeed, before and after his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Senegalese President Macky Sall was urged by his Western counterparts to travel to Kyiv to see Zelensky as well.

China accuses the US and UK of hypocrisy on press freedom for calling out Beijing's crackdowns while putting Australian Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on trial for espionage

China has branded US and UK hypocrites on press freedom over the looming extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges that could land the Australian in jail for life.

Assange's extradition to the US to face charges over the leaking of thousands of official secrets has been approved by British Home Secretary Priti Patel after a protracted legal battle.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin accused the US of pursuing 'trumped up' charges against Assange for exposing secrets about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about the CIA's cyber attacks against other countries.

Vanessa Beeley is an independent journalist who is exposing the shocking propaganda around the Uighur oppression in China. You might be stunned to learn the truth you've never heard before. Clayton Morris sits down with Vanessa to talk about the government campaign to turn China into enemy number one.

About Clayton Morris:

Clayton Morris is a former Fox News anchor. In Redacted, Clayton and his wife Natali take an in-depth look at the legal, social, financial, and personal issues that matter to you. They want to set the record straight and bring you the stories nobody else is telling. Along with the facts and the full picture, Redacted offers real-world analysis without an agency driven by corporate overloads. With Clayton's extensive journalism experience, he isn't afraid to demand the truth from authorities. Redacted is an independent platform, unencumbered by external factors or restrictive policies on which Clayton and Natali Morris bring you quality information, balanced reporting, constructive debate, and thoughtful narratives.

Moscow's retaliation to Lithuania's transport "blockade" of Russia's Kaliningrad Region will seriously affect Lithuanian citizens, Nikolay Patrushev, the head of Russia's Security Council, has said.

"Of course, Russia will respond to hostile actions. Appropriate measures are in the works, and will be adopted in the near future," Patrushev told reporters during a trip to Kaliningrad on Tuesday.

He added that the consequences of Moscow's response will "have a serious negative impact on the people of Lithuania."

Kaliningrad Region is a small Russian exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania. On Saturday, Lithuania's national railway operator banned the flow of sanctioned goods between the region and the rest of Russia, citing instructions from the European Commission.

Kiev is set to flush Russian literature out of education programs, as it has been deemed "too difficult" and overall unfit for Ukrainian students. Ukrainian Deputy Education and Science Minister Andrey Vitrenko provided the rationale behind the move on Monday as he spoke to the Ukraine 24 TV channel.

"Personally, I think that everything that somehow connects us with the Russian Empire should be thrown out. All works in which there is a mystical, some mythical power of Russian weaponry, all this should be thrown out. Everything related to, as they say, the suffering of the Russian soul should be thrown out, such difficult works for Ukrainians, in general, we don't need them," Vitrenko stated.

Last week, a ministerial workgroup held a meeting to debate changes to the country's school programs, the official confirmed. The changes will affect not only foreign literature, but also history and the so-called "patriotic education" as well. The workgroup has provided the ministry with its proposals and now the body is considering them, Vitrenko said, adding that a new foreign literature program was expected to be adopted ahead of the new academic year.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have agreed to dissolve parliament, triggering a new election, and Lapid will in the meantime take over as prime minister, an official said, confirming local media reports.

A vote will be held in parliament next week, after which Lapid will take over the premiership, the official said. Lapid and Bennett were expected to issue statements at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT).

Lapid and Bennett in June 2021 had formed an unlikely coalition after two years of political stalemate, ending the record reign of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The intelligence agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran has dismantled and arrested a large spy network working for the Israeli Mossad in the Sistan and Baluchestan province of southeastern Iran, according to a 21 June report from Iranian state news agency IRNA.

According to Mehdi Shamsabadi, the Prosecutor General of Sistan and Baluchestan, the arrest of this spy network came as a result of evidence that the Mossad operatives were devising plans to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientists.

"The arrest of these Mossad operatives came after a complicated intelligence operation that lasted for eight months of monitoring," Shamsabadi said.

The agents under suspicion are currently in custody where they are being investigated and interrogated, before court proceedings for potential criminal charges begin.