Mereja.Forum

Zmeselo wrote: ↑

08 Oct 2021, 07:13

Unlike the idiotic Biden who still believes in Amerikan supremacy apparently knowing little about the growing sentiment of anti-Amerikan hegemony around the world. What a jerk!

EU can try to impose sanctions on Ethiopia for the latter's use of its god given rights to defend itself against meddling of external powers into its internal affairs, but itself is under risk of freezing the next winter, if it is not for the mercy of President Putin.

The European Union's natural gas reserves are well under normal levels — and if they don't fill up by October, the bloc could face a price squeeze if there's a repeat of last winter's cold snap, analysts warn.

"Going into the current winter with less in storage, Europe is walking a tightrope — and it wouldn't take a huge gust of wind to knock us off," said Jack Sharples, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. "All it would take is for some [liquefied natural gas] projects currently offline to not come back on, or some unplanned maintenance on a pipeline bringing gas into Europe, or just another cold winter."

The EU has the capacity to store over 117 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas, or roughly a fifth of its annual consumption, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.

EU itself is in a disarray und its unity is in tatters, a worthless collection of aspirants of neo colonialism.

They are going to feel it, soon enough.

Gas is precisely the reason why the likes of Germany will never collude with the arrogant America to sanction, or hurt any way, Russia, never in the near and foreseable future.



European natural gas prices shot to record highs on Tuesday, dragging down bond markets in a sign that investors were expecting wider economic damage.

European gas contracts for delivery in November leapt 23 per cent to €117.50 a megawatt hour, up from just €18 six months ago, on the prospect of supply shortages over winter. UK prices also soared, breaching £3 a therm for the first time, with prices tripling in the past two months.

The latest price gains mean gas in the UK and Europe is trading at more than $200 a barrel of oil equivalent — or almost three times the price of crude — with inflationary effects threatening to ripple through economies reliant on gas for heating and power generation.

Surging energy prices, which stem from a rapid increase in energy demand since lockdowns eased as well as government moves to cut reliance on highly polluting coal, have put pressure on governments and policymakers in Europe. Spain, Italy, France and Greece have already agreed subsidies to protect households from higher costs.

Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, said Brussels would explore setting up common storage facilities for gas, warning about the continent’s heavy dependence on Russia for imports, while praising Norway for taking steps to raise production.

“We are very grateful Norway is stepping up but this does not seem to be the case for Russia,” von der Leyen said.

Where is Putin's signature? It is a disrespect if it was written and sent out by the janitor without Putin's knowledge.

Zmeselo wrote: ↑

08 Oct 2021, 07:13

Educator wrote: ↑

08 Oct 2021, 13:10

Where is Putin's signature? It is a disrespect if it was written and sent out by the janitor without Putin's knowledge.

Zmeselo wrote: ↑

08 Oct 2021, 07:13

WORLD
Ethiopia lashes out at US over possible trade pact expulsion

PM Abiy's office releases video warning the US of the consequences of expelling Ethiopia from the African Growth and Opportunity Act


Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed addresses attendees at an inaugural event following his being sworn in for a second five year term as Prime Minister of Ethiopia on October 04, 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Bryant Harris

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/u ... utType=amp

Oct 7, 2021

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came out swinging on Thursday against US threats to remove Ethiopia from a key trade pact over the humanitarian crisis in Tigray.

The prime minister’s office released a video urging the United States not to expel Ethiopia from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which grants eligible participants in Sub-Saharan Africa duty-free access to the US market for thousands of products.

The video highlights a woman named Saron working in an Ethiopian garment factory using the Twitter hashtag #LetHerWork. It says, she is one of hundreds of thousands young women employed in Ethiopia’s AGOA-dependent industrial parks.

With the potential for AGOA sanctions, losing this opportunity not only means loss of occupation, but also driving millions into poverty,

a voiceover states.

And women like Saron would face forced marriage and illegal migration.

The video represents Ethiopia’s most public pushback against President Joe Biden administration’s threatened penalties on Addis Ababa over the Tigray crisis. https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/a ... in-tigray/

It comes after US Trade Representative Catherine Tai took the unusually rare step of warning her Ethiopian counterpart Mamo Mihretu in August that

the ongoing violations of internationally recognised human rights amid the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia

could

affect Ethiopia’s future [AGOA] eligibility if unaddressed.

Cameron Hudson, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Africa Centre, told The National that he expects the Biden administration to notify Congress of Ethiopia’s expulsion from AGOA by November 1.

It could have both a practical impact and also a symbolic impact,

said Mr Hudson.

This would put Ethiopia in a distinct minority in having been kind of unceremoniously removed from this programme, and so it’s just another measure of where the bilateral relationship is.

While most countries that benefit under AGOA primarily export raw materials, Ethiopia is unique in that it relies on the trade pact for tariff-free exports of its light manufacturing industry, including garments.

It’s a lot of money for them,

Karl Von Batten, the head of the consulting firm Von Batten-Montague-York told The National.

In five years, the projection was a few billion dollars.

Mr Von Batten has been lobbying the Biden administration and Congress to expel Ethiopia from AGOA in the hopes it will prompt Mr Abiy’s wealthy backers to pressure him to end the conflict in Tigray.

What it’s going to do is impact the power brokers who are making millions off this, who are grassroots supporters of Prime Minister Abiy,

( grassroots millionaires?)

said Mr Von Batten.

We’re hoping that it will compel them to come to the table to call for a ceasefire, negotiations, peace talks.

It pains me to do this because this is going to affect people’s lives, but it’s the law.

( what a joker)

AGOA stipulates that a country must

not engage in gross violations of internationally recognised human rights

in order to receive preferential trade status.

Under US law, the president must publish a determination as to whether AGOA beneficiaries such as Ethiopia continue to meet the eligibility requirements in the federal register every year.

The National first reported last month that the State Department is reviewing whether Ethiopia’s actions in Tigray constitute a genocide. A genocide https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/u ... rmination/ designation could make it hard to justify keeping Ethiopia in AGOA under the law’s eligibility requirements.

Mr Biden also signed a broad executive order last month paving the way for sanctions on all actors https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/u ... -ethiopia/ responsiva for human rights violations in the Tigray civil war, including the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments as well as the Amhara Regional Government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Before the threats of AGOA expulsion, the Ethiopian government previously had little to say as a public response to the Biden administration’s interagency pressure campaign over Tigray.

I look at this video in the context of what the Ethiopian government is doing more broadly, which is not responding to the overwhelming criticism with introspection, with the review of its own policy,

said Mr Hudson.

This video is a consistent policy of trying to spin their way out of this. And this conflict in Tigray, if it has been marked by anything, it has been marked by propaganda efforts to explain away what is going on through a very advanced and sophisticated propaganda campaign led in large part by the Ethiopian government.

Although Ethiopia has maintained an internet, phone and media blackout in Tigray, witnesses have described widespread human rights abuses, including the displacement and murder of civilians, gang rape, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the burning of crops.

The Ethiopian government has also blocked humanitarian aid to Tigray, recently expelling UN aid workers. https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2 ... officials/

An Amnesty International report released last month found that Ethiopian forces and their allies

subjected hundreds of women and girls to sexual violence,

war crimes that may also amount to crimes against humanity.

Fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front have also retaliated with their own abuses during raids on villages in Amhara, https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/a ... in-amhara/ including a massacre last month that killed 120 people.