The Times is just the latest among a series of left-wing activist outlets to tacitly come clean about the lies it spread in October 2020, coming around almost two years later to "confirm" what we all already knew — that my original reporting on the laptop and its contents was accurate and true — but stopping just short of taking responsibility for its own role in spreading "disinformation" about a critical story in the run-up to a presidential election.

Now, the paper is trying to pretend all of that just didn't happen — burying in paragraph 24 of a multiple-byline piece the scandal-scarred Biden's legal woes

:People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation [Emphasis added].

Michael Hayden, it is worth noting in case this tale needs an extra shot of cynicism, serves on the board of NewsGuard — the supposedly "neutral" project that claims to fight untrustworthy and "fake news" but employs strictly establishment mainstays such as Hayden, Condoleezza Rice, and fellow Bush alum Tom Ridge.

Like the rest of the establishment media, NewsGuard misled the American public about the authenticity of the laptop. Its cofounder, Steve Brill, took to cable news to claim, apparently based on a hunch, that the laptop was "a hoax, maybe even a hoax perpetrated by the Russians again."

These so-called journalism outfits lied to and deceived the American people in a scramble to protect their preferred presidential candidate, and they continue to do so as they now insist on gaslighting about their past behavior — which is exactly why the American people, in turn, find them so loathsome.

© New York Post

They are the supposed nonpartisan group of top spies looking out for the best interest of the nation.

But the 51 former "intelligence" officials who cast doubt on The Post's Hunter Biden laptop stories in a public letter really were just desperate to get Joe Biden elected president. And more than a year later, even after their Deep State sabotage has been shown again and again to be a lie, they refuse to own up to how they undermined an election.

The officials, including CNN pundit and professional fabricator James Clapper — a man who was nearly charged for perjury for lying to Congress — signed a letter saying that the laptop "has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

[...]

Keep in mind that Twitter already had banned The New York Post a few days before. The rationale was that this was "hacked materials," even though it wasn't — and Twitter had no evidence to think it was. A Facebook official, meanwhile, said it wasn't going to allow the sharing of The Post's story until it was "fact checked" by a third party — a check that never happened.

[...]

Thus, Big Tech, former government officials, and the media conspired together to bury a story.

In short, they peddled online disinformation to sway an election.

No one actually proved The Post's reporting was wrong. Media outlets showed up at the doorstep of the computer repairman who had gotten the laptop, and he confirmed it. People who exchanged e-mails with Hunter Biden attested to their accuracy in the days and weeks that followed.

Only after the election was safely over did Hunter tacitly admit the laptop was his. Last year, a Politico reporter confirmed that the laptop's materials were real. And now, the coup de grace: The Times said it's "authenticated" material from the laptop.

There have been no consequences. Twitter and Facebook still censor information based on political bias, and Congress takes no action. Many of the letter signers continue to be used as "experts" by the media. Clapper, for instance, spent years on CNN calling Donald Trump a "Russian asset," a lie invented and fed by political operatives of Hillary Clinton. He's still there. Guess accuracy is not a condition of employment.

Do the officials who tried to flip the 2020 election feel any regret for their actions? The Post reached out to those who signed the letter. Most would not answer the question. A few doubled-down, including Clapper. No remorse. No shame. And no apologies.
[...]

• Petrodollar cracks: Saudi Arabia considers accepting Yuan for Chinese oil sales
• US dollar is 'a huge black hole that threatens wealth of countries and individuals' - expert
• Pentagon justifies rejection of Zelensky's goading for a no-fly zone

• A single Ukrainian billionaire funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the neo-nazi Azov Battalion
• Zelensky: The Man Who Sold Ukraine
• Ukrainian 'Nazis' have taken control of Zelensky - Putin
• Ukrainian President Zelensky gives speech praising Nazi collaborators

• Stooge Psaki repeatedly refuses to answer questions about BOMBSHELL Hunter Biden laptop truth
• A single Ukrainian billionaire funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the neo-nazi Azov Battalion
• Hunter Biden is seen in unearthed footage telling prostitute that Russian drug dealers stole ANOTHER of his laptops
• Trump: Hunter Biden is worse than Al Capone, more 'crimes on his laptop' than the mobster ever committed

• DOJ letter reveals scope of John Durham's Russiagate investigation is 'much larger than thought'
• Fake news: Durham did not 'distance' himself from Hillary-Campaign spying claims
• Durham probe has 'accelerated', with more people 'cooperating,' coming before grand jury
• Durham shreds Sussmann's motion to dismiss and lays out the Clinton connection
• Poll: Majority of Democrats want Hillary Clinton investigated for link to Russia hoax

On March 8, President Joe Biden announced his administration was banning Russian oil, natural gas and coal imports to the US as part of a sanctions package in response to Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Two days later, the House of Representatives passed a bill to ban Russian energy imports. The media, which speculated how long it would take for sanctions to turn toward energy carriers, quickly picked up the news, with some Western experts saying the US move could be followed by other countries.

However, according to CNN, US Senate sources are now saying it's unlikely their chamber will move on the bill to turn it into law. The sources explain that the move by the Senate is considered unnecessary after the president took executive action to ban the imports. Also, according to Senator Joe Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, the House bill is weaker than Biden's executive action, so the Senate is reluctant to move on the measure.

If the Senate does not approve the bill, the import ban won't turn into law, and US importers can continue buying Russian energy.

The US has not stopped buying Russian oil.

According to official data, Russia supplied 8% of US imports of crude oil and petroleum products last year. With gasoline prices in the country hitting record highs this month, any disruption could push prices higher.

At the same time, the loss of the US market would barely impact Russia's oil earnings, because the country has much bigger importers across the globe. To be effective, individual country bans would need to be mirrored by a number of states to actually affect the Russian energy export sector. Some analysts say that may be the reason Washington decided to introduce the ban in the first place - as a symbolic gesture to raise pressure on other countries and oil companies to follow suit and cease energy purchases from Russia.

However, widely banning supplies from the globe's second-biggest crude producer would hurt Western countries as much as Russia. Higher oil prices would inevitably lead to higher levels of inflation and be a strain on consumer budgets. And this, in turn, could lower the readiness of voters to support the sanctions policy.

• Why the UAE is shrugging off Washington's diktats
• UK PM returns from Saudi Arabia empty handed after begging dictators for oil increase

South Korea plans to open temporary settlement lines between domestic banks and their units in Russia in order to help local firms finance trade that's been made difficult by international sanctions against the country over its military operation in Ukraine, Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday.

The measure - to be introduced at the end of this month - is aimed at minimizing the use of global intermediary banks that avoid dealing with Russia due to sanctions, causing the transactions to be delayed or rejected.

"The method is expected to enable swift payments as it will minimize the use of intermediary banks," Yonhap quotes from a statement by the Financial Services Commission (FSC).

The new settlement lines, however, will not be used for transactions with Russian banks or to trade in items that are on the list of global sanctions against Moscow.

Last December, trade between Russia and South Korea was reported to have increased by nearly 60% as economies started to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, totaling roughly $22 billion in the first nine months of 2021. The biggest areas of cooperation included energy, transport, agriculture and health-care sectors.

Russia supplies 62% of the world's fertilizer:

South Korea joined the US, the EU and other nations in imposing sanctions against Russia, banning transactions with Russia's Central Bank, introducing export controls and removing Moscow from the SWIFT global payment system, among other measures.

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has urged European authorities to take their time when it comes to escalating sanctions against Russia over the military standoff in Ukraine, saying that the measures may have negative impact on the bloc as well.

"We should first let the announced sanctions take effect," Sewing said, in an interview with Welt am Sonntag, adding that the penalties have been causing enormous damage to the Russian economy.

"However, these sanctions also have a negative impact on us, and we must endure this," the head of Germany's largest financial institution said, adding states should be thinking "again and again" before introducing tougher ones.

Sewing stressed that any decision to be taken by European authorities would be supported.

The top manager also criticized the latest proposal to shut down the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, as such a development would pose a threat to the energy security of the entire bloc.

"If we curtail Nord Stream 1, although this will not mean the end of Russian gas supplies to Germany, this will soon lead to serious problems with energy supply, and a significant increase in prices in our country," Sewing said.

'Price increases' sounds rather innocuous, because the real impact could ultimately result in the economy grinding to a halt and slide ever closer towards collapse.

In February, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki asked operators of the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline, which carries more than a third of Germany's natural gas imports, to shut the route down. German energy giant E.ON, which operates the pipeline, has rejected the calls.

German CEO has called for increasing investments in renewable energy sources and to "expand their use as quickly as possible." Sewing also said that a technology-intensive nation such as Germany shouldn't rule out nuclear energy in such a decisive way.

More than anyone Germany has tried green energy, and it has (predictably) failed miserably: Energy crisis bursts multi-billion green shares bubble

Earlier this month, Deutsche Bank said it would shut down its business in Russia due to Moscow's offensive in Ukraine.

Germany's vice chancellor has said that next winter's gas supplies to his country have not so far been secured. Robert Habeck, who also serves as the economy and climate minister, hasn't ruled out there being a so-called domino effect, with a setback in the gas supply chain causing a knock-on shortage in other facilities.

"If we don't receive further gas supplies ... and the deliveries from Russia are capped or stopped, we wouldn't have enough to keep all our houses warm and to keep all our industry running," Habeck said, in an interview with the German radio station Deutschlandfunk.

The vast majority of these politicians don't care whether the average person will be able to keep their homes warm, because if they did they'd know that the costs have meant that people are already having to choose between heating and eating.

The warning comes ahead of his visit to the Persian Gulf, which begins on Saturday. In Qatar, one of the world's largest exporters of liquefied natural gas, Habeck is scheduled to meet with the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and other government officials. On Monday, he is expected to participate in talks with United Arab Emirates ministers.

The visit is part of Germany's efforts to diversify its gas imports as it seeks to reduce its dependency on Russia in the wake of the latest escalation in the conflict with Ukraine. Earlier this week, Habeck traveled to Norway on a similar mission.