Washington has harmed the bloc to serve its own interests, a top Putin ally has warned
“Gas in the US costs $333 per 1,000 cubic meters.. Washington sells it to Europe for a price which is 7.3 [times] higher”. (jumping today Aug 19 by another 7% to above $2,600)
/Beppe Gasparro
The United States has doomed the EU to hunger, cold and isolation by pressuring the bloc to cut its ties with Moscow, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Friday.
He wrote on Telegram that Washington would “stop at nothing to cling to its power over the world as it throws under the bus the citizens’ welfare and the economies of European countries to achieve this end.”
He noted that natural gas in the US costs $333 per 1,000 cubic meters. “At the same time, Washington sells it to Europe for a price which is 7.3 [times] higher, rendering the EU economy uncompetitive,” he wrote, adding that the eurozone’s annual inflation rate had hit a record 8.9%.
Volodin said Europe had been hit by a heatwave that triggered huge problems in the agriculture sector, as well as an energy crisis which had seen prices soar six times in one year.
The EU’s decision to phase out Russian energy supplies and cut economic ties with Moscow “have been made under Washington’s pressure,” the State Duma speaker claimed.
“US policies in Europe are enforced by England that has left the EU high and dry, as well as by a number of countries that are sovereign in name only – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine – with Poland, the Czech Republic and Finland joining this Russophobic coalition in the hopes of getting an American handout,” Volodin wrote.
His comments come as the EU is plagued by an energy crisis due to rising global prices. Earlier this month, the bloc approved a plan that would see its member states reduce gas consumption by 15% in a bid to tackle the crisis.
Another factor that has exacerbated the energy crunch was the EU’s decision to wean itself off natural gas from Russia, as the bloc considers these supplies to be unreliable.
However, President Vladimir Putin has rejected accusations that Moscow could cut off gas supplies to the EU, stating that Russian energy giant Gazprom is “ready to pump as much as necessary” but that the bloc has “closed everything themselves.”
Berlin should certify the gas pipeline from Russia to ensure there’s enough winter fuel, the Bundestag vice speaker said
Germany should certify the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and use it to get enough fuel from Russia to get through the upcoming cold season, Wolfgang Kubicki, the deputy speaker of the German parliament, said.
The move must be taken “as soon as possible to fill our gas storage for the winter,” the politician from the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) in an interview published on Friday. The party is part of the German ruling coalition.
Berlin suspended certification of the fully complete route for Russian natural gas to put pressure on Moscow amid the crisis in Ukraine. The German government said under no circumstances should it be used, even though the country faces gas shortages…..
Tras una extensa jornada de negociaciones, la huelga de hambre de los PPM de la cárcel de Angol llega a su término luego de alcanzar acuerdo entre los PPM, pu werkén y gendarmería.
Dos prisioneros politicos mapuche en estos momentos van con sus familias rumbo al CET angol.
This chart shows which Biden Cabinet members have had Covid. Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, and Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of Health and Human Service, have each had it twice.
Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Kamala Harris have each had Covid. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have had it.
There is a non-trivial chance that a Covid infection will result in organ damage, including brain damage, even if you’re vaccinated. Read Lambert Strether’s article for details.
I don’t rule out the possibility that brain damage is already occurring at high levels of government. This is not sarcasm (well, not completely).
More public- and private-sector unions are planning strikes as Britain faces its worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. Postal workers, lawyers, British Telecom staff, dock workers and garbage …
“The working class is back. We’re not just back as an idea, we’re back as a movement. They act in their class interests, it’s time we acted in ours.”
Wildfires have killed at least 42 people and injured dozens more across northern Algeria, with the fires continuing to rage in several areas. Summer 2022 temperatures in much of North Africa have exceeded 40C every day for months.
Indeed the record heatwave in Europe was caused by a stream of hot air escaping from the Sahara for weeks on end. El Tarf, the small coastal province, where most died, is famed for its beautiful forests, mountains and beaches.
The blazes on Wednesday ravaged 14 of Algeria’s provinces, with residents having previously complained of a lack of government support and readiness during its annual, and deadly, wildfire season.
Most of the victims were reported in El Tarf province, near the northern Algeria-Tunisian border, where 34 people were found dead.
The death toll included a family of five found in their home and eight people on a public bus whose driver was surprised by flames while traveling in a mountainous region.
“Most of the victims in El Tarf are vacationers who came to enjoy paradisiacal beaches and enchanting landscapes,” Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane said.
He and several government members arrived in El Tarf on Thursday. The prime minister said the Algerian state would support the victims’ families and pay for renovation work and compensation for the loss of livestock and beehives. The region is also known for its farming industry.
One person died in Souk Ahras, south of El Tarf. Two other people died in the region of Setif, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Algiers, the North African nation’s capital.
At least 200 more people have suffered burns or respiratory problems, according to various Algerian media.
Algerian television showed people fleeing their burning homes, women carrying children in their arms.
People were also seen fleeing in Souk Ahras province, which also borders Tunisia, with local media reporting that 350 residents had been evacuated.
The fire service said Thursday afternoon that 1,700 firefighters had been deployed to battle the fires, of which 24 were still raging.
Earlier, Algerian Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud said 39 fires broke out in 14 regions on Wednesday alone and that blazes have ravaged 3,200 hectares (over 12 square miles) of forests and brush since the beginning of August.
Fire trucks are seen in Setif, Algeria [Algerian Civil Defense/Anadolu Agency]
Using vaccine “shortages” as an excuse, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arranged a liability shield for the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine by issuing a new Emergency Use Authorization for “fractional doses” using a different mode of administration, and allowing the vaccine’s use in “high risk” children under age 18.
[…]
Just like the coronavirus Event 201, the reported monkeypox outbreak was prefigured by a “tabletop simulation” one year prior and by “suspiciously” timed, before-the-fact clinical trials of monkeypox treatments and vaccines.
With the “outbreak” thus positioned in the headlines, what happened next?
After allowing suspense to build for a couple of months but with fewer than a dozen deaths worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in late July “side-stepped” his own advisors to pronounce monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern,” the WHO’s first such
The Free 
