Miscellaneous News

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
It is what it is. Countries that were part and are the legacies of the colonial powers like Britain, France, Germany, and other European countries will almost always side with their fellow Anglo-Saxon countries like America. So this recent action by the PM of New Zealand should come as no surprise to most of us here and especially to China's leadership.

I think for the most part Chinese leadership is keenly aware of this dynamic along with the cultural affinities that countries like NZ share with America, after all NZ is part of the 5 eyes intelligence so it would have been very foolish and naive that economic entanglement or relationship would have been more than sufficient enough to nudge these countries closer to China.

These western countries love to make money off China and off Chinese people but feel dirty, disgusted, slimy at the same time for various reasons like cultural, societal, economic and political governance and China being the big bad commie isn't going to endear her to anyone in the west.

If NZ wants to become part of NATO lite then they simply have to be reminded that if worst comes to worst that island country would simply ceased to exist no two ways about it. The same can be said of Australia, Canada, America, U.K. and the rest of these western bullies that seek to rewind the past back to the present.

These countries want to do business with China but with them doing the dictating and setting up the rules for China not the other way around. They don't want equality despite their bullshit rhetoric, they want the upper hand always.

Some say that the pen is mightier than a sword, but if I cut your hands, feet and stab your mouth let's see if you can still write anything again. Likewise, if these countries want to make China the enemy then be prepared to be the enemy.
The pen is indeed mightier than the sword for backstabbing as it is more concealable and easier to maneuver in tight spaces.
 

Appix

Senior Member
Registered Member

More U.S. lawmakers visit Taiwan, in latest defiance of China​

Murphy's delegation to meet Tsai for talks on trade, security, supply chains

TAIPEI (Reuters) -- A delegation of U.S. lawmakers arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday on a previously unannounced trip, the latest group of senior officials from the country to visit the island and defy Beijing, which has reacted with anger to such exchanges.

The de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan said the eight lawmakers, led by Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat from Florida who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, would be staying until Friday as part of a larger visit to the Indo-Pacific region.

"The delegation will meet with senior Taiwan leaders to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, global supply chains and other significant issues of mutual interest," it added.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said they would meet President Tsai Ing-wen while there.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, dismissing the strong objections of the government in Taipei.

China carried out war games last month near Taiwan following a trip to Taipei by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and has continued its military activities around the island since then.

Other U.S. lawmakers have come since Pelosi's trip, as well as the governor of the U.S. state of Arizona.

Taiwan's top representative in Washington, Hsiao Bi-khim, has said Beijing's aggression in the wake of Pelosi's visit had spurred interest from parliaments around the world to send visitors to the island.

Separately on Wednesday, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council minister Chiu Tai-san told a Washington forum that Beijing could not use cross-strait peace and regional stability as bargaining chips.

"We count on all countries to unite more strongly in urging China to show rational restraint and adjust its practices," Chiu said in a video address to the Center for a New American Security think tank. "We also need to prevent improper and illegal coercion from being normalized as a result of our neglect or compromise."

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baykalov

Senior Member
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Calls for more radical response to Putin’s gas gamesmanship mount ahead of crunch EU ministers’ meeting Friday.

The proposed price ceiling on gas — €50 per megawatt-hour is floated, which is less than a fifth of the current spot price — would take the form of emergency legislation used earlier this year to pass gas rationing measures by qualified majority vote, or by creating a single European gas buyer to negotiate a specific volume of gas to purchase from Russia.

Such a move would be a gamble, the document warns: “The EU would have to be ready to give up immediately Russian gas” if Moscow retaliated by cutting all supply, although ongoing cuts make that risk lower by the day, it adds.

France has come out in favor of imposing an EU-wide price cap on gas supply from Russia and a windfall tax on excess energy profits as Europe looks to rein in sky-high energy costs and respond to provocations from Moscow.

European leaders are fighting to contain an energy crisis that is driving economic turmoil across the bloc, and piling huge cost pressures onto millions of consumers and businesses.

Brussels is gaming out radical measures to lower energy prices which will be discussed by EU country representatives on Wednesday ahead of an emergency meeting of energy ministers on Friday.

The proposals include a price cap on Russian gas, new benchmarks for EU-wide gas price setting and a command-and-control allocation of gas to needy countries in an emergency, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
 

martinwagner

Junior Member
Registered Member
BAYFOR…

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The real question is if European prisons are as great as they’ve been hyped, do they have ample heating in jail?
Theres been cases in the US of desperate people commiting certain types crimes in order to be sent to federal prison, where they get full healthcare that they wouldn't get anywhere else
 

Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
Last edited:

FriedButter

Brigadier
Registered Member
Desperation is setting in isn’t it.

I knew the EU was committed to their green policy. However, who would have thought they would choose the deindustrialization and depopulation route.

EU suggests price cap on US LNG (and everyone else)​

Brussels is examining the possibility of a price ceiling on all gas imported into the EU, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

LNG is scarce and can be rerouted to different regions… We [want to] stay competitive for LNG suppliers but make sure that the prices we pay are not extraordinarily high but in a decent range,” she told reporters. EU countries mostly import the costly LNG from the US and Qatar, using it to diversify gas imports in light of shrinking supplies from Russia. However, some analysts warn that producers might not be eager to supply the fuel to European countries if their profits are capped.

Von der Leyen noted that enacting the proposal is not imminent and that it would be discussed further at a later date.

She did, however, unveil a number of other proposals aimed at tackling the EU's worsening energy crisis, including a bloc-wide plan to reduce electricity consumption, a price cap on the excess revenues made by companies involved in renewable and nuclear energy, a mechanism to capture the profits that fossil-fuel companies make due to rising prices, a state aid program for utilities businesses, and a price cap on Russian pipeline gas imports.

Commenting on the last of these, she said the mechanism is necessary to “cut Russia's revenues which Putin uses to finance this atrocious war against Ukraine.” She noted that since Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, the share of Russian pipeline gas in the EU’s total imports has dropped from 40% to 9%, while Norway has replaced Russia as the bloc’s leading gas supplier.
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