trick

President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic and President Joe Biden of the United States of America spoke on September 22, at the request of the latter, in order to discuss the implications of the announcement on September 15. The two leaders agreed that the situation would have benefited from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners. President Biden conveyed his ongoing commitment in that regard.

real mapEU wants to stand strong to force Russia to supply more gas

Josep Borrell wrote in his blog that EU's energy dependence was one of the key issues in relations with Russia.

"Russia is meeting its contractual obligations but does not deliver extra volumes to the EU, which led to the price increase, Borrell said. "Our energy dependency is one of the key issues in our relations with Russia. Russia is meeting its contractual obligations on gas deliveries, but is not putting additional gas into the European system as it could do, hence contributing to drive prices upward," he noted.

He lamented that in the past, EU states did not always show a unified approach in relations with the Russian Federation.

coffee

More Than Just a Coffee Shop: Ex-CIA Agent Says Spies Use Starbucks to Meet Handlers... 

 

In her book, the former recounts her eight years at the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) and reveals some interesting details. 

 

Spies use Starbucks coffee shops to meet their handlers, ex-CIA agent Amaryllis Fox writes in her book "Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA." 

Fox explains how such rendezvous were set up:

 

joyce

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is insisting the Nationals will not be bullied into backing a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, as he also ruled out supporting more ambitious short-term climate targets.

peter

Pyotr Velikiy (Russian: Пётр Великий) is the fourth Kirov-class battlecruiser of the Russian Navy.

 

screaming

Say what you like about Matt Canavan. At least he’s consistent.

That is, unlike his boss, the Prime Minister, News Corporation, and the Business Council of Australia.

We should be grateful they have finally seen the light, but it’s hard not to go into the back yard and shout at the Moon over their destructive, cynical, stupid, decades of intransigence.

 

The question now is whether the sudden enthusiasm for deep emission cuts from the Murdoch newspapers and the BCA will give Scott Morrison enough cover to come up with a proper climate change policy, as opposed to a non-policy.

grumble

The federal opposition likes to deride Scott Morrison as the Prime Minister for New South Wales.

But with a new leader in that state it's increasing clear that it's not the opposition causing him headaches but a man fast earning a reputation as the Premier of Australia, Dominic Perrottet.

Perrottet's decision to throw open the international border was done in a way that left Morrison on the political back foot and his office scrambling to catch up.

It brings with it a fundamental change to Australia's response to the deadly global pandemic. 

And in doing so, the NSW Premier managed to sideline a Prime Minister who's spent the last 18 months eager to announce any major change to Australia's handling of COVID-19.

queen

London: The Queen has been caught on camera expressing annoyance with “irritating” world leaders who won’t attend next month’s crunch climate summit in Glasgow.

The 95-year-old monarch, who has studiously avoided wading into contentious political matters during her reign, shared the unguarded views about COP26 during a conversation with Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Welsh politician Elin Jones.

Video and audio of the exchange shows the Queen revealing her displeasure that some world leaders are yet to confirm their attendance at the Glasgow talks scheduled to begin on November 1. The Queen’s spray will feature on the front page of most British newspapers on Friday.

 

Read more:

missiles

The United States unilaterally pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019 after accusing Moscow of breaching its terms. Moscow dismissed the allegations, and took the unprecedented step of declassifying the characteristics of the alleged Russian ‘INF-violating missile’. The US pulled out of the agreement anyway.

 

 

Russia should remove missiles which violate the terms of the INF Treaty from Europe, US special envoy for nuclear nonproliferation Jeffrey Eberhardt has said.

 

tshirt

The Australian government's entire vaccine supply agreement with AstraZeneca is being withheld from the public on the grounds that it would pose a "real and substantial risk" to national security if it were released.

coal...

China is the world’s biggest coal consumer. About 50% of all coal burnt on our planet is burnt in China. Although China is also the world’s leading coal producer, it needs to be its main importer as well.

Meanwhile China is worried by environmental issues. Chinese industry meets the needs not only of its own country, but also of all those countries that, first for the sake of cheap labor, and then for the sake of environmental protection, shifted their production capacities to the Chinese territory. As a result, while those countries can boast of relatively clean water and air some Chinese regions have accumulated such a concentration of hydrocarbon exhaust products that they pose a real threat to public health.

scomonoah

The federal government has been excoriated on Q+A by Labor and cross bench MPs for not having a climate policy that gets the nation to net zero emissions by the year 2050.

julian...The very contrasting treatment of whistleblowers willing to testify against Facebook with that of the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder shows us that the Establishment’s support of those ‘spilling the beans’ is highly selective. 

All whistleblowers are equal, but some are more equal than others. Or, we could more specifically say, whistleblowers whose revelations aid ruling-class agendas are put in front of Congress and handed the mic, while those whose revelations expose ruling-class agendas are persecuted and end up in maximum-security jails.

twigs

Frustrated mining magnate Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest has lashed out at Nationals politicians who he says are "capable of hearing the facts" on the coal industry, but have chosen to ignore them to chase votes.

rot...

There have been a number of suggestions online that the withdrawal of American soldiers from overseas is being undertaken to use the troops against those individuals and domestic groups that are being targeted by the Justice Department.