10-DAY NORDSTREAM PIPLINE MAINTENANCE CREATES PANIC IN EUROPE...One Opinion Writer states: Europe Must Declare a War Economy

Everything is now a weapon-of-war

23 Jun, 2022 14:49

Nord Stream pipeline to be switched off for 10 days

    

Planned annual maintenance will take place from July 11 to July 21

Gazprom’s Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline will not deliver natural gas to Germany for 10 days in mid-July as it undergoes annual maintenance. It was confirmed earlier this month that the work will take place from July 11 to July 21.

Germany is concerned over the shutdown, fearing that the flow of gas will not be turned back on, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

According to the paper, last week’s 60% reduction of gas flow by Gazprom due to a technical issue with parts has added to fears that the supply may be shut down completely. This comes as Europe is trying to top up its gas reserves ahead of the winter season.

In recent years, the maintenance-related shortfall in supplies via Nord Stream was compensated by increased flows through Ukraine or Poland. However, various officials and industry representatives told the FT they feared that Russia may not do that this time, leaving the continent to face gas shortages.

The German government on Thursday declared the second “alarm” level of its three-level gas emergency plan. According to the Federal Network Agency, the situation with gas supply is currently stable but if Russian supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline remain at the current low level Germany will struggle to fill its storage to 90% by December without additional measures.

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section 

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Opinion

Andreas Kluth

Europe Must Declare a War Economy

As Russia turns off the gas and Germany activates emergency plans, Europeans must become ants to avoid ending up grasshoppers.

Weapon of choice

Photographer: Dmitry Astakhov/AFP via Getty Images

By Andreas Kluth

June 24, 2022, 4:00 AM UTC

The next step in the conflict between the West and Russian President Vladimir Putin was supposed to be a European boycott on Russian coal, oil and natural gas. It may instead be a gas embargo by Putin on Europe. It comes to much the same. 

The countries of the European Union must accept what some of them — notably Germany and Austria — spent years denying. It’s that in the eyes of an amoral despot such as Putin, everything is a weapon of war. That includes nuclear and chemical arms, but also wheat, disinformation and, not least, energy. . ."

Gas crisis: Can Europe store enough gas this summer to get through the winter?

bne.eu | June 23, 2022

By Ben Aris in Berlin

“Winter is coming, and the night is full or terrors.” The Game of Thrones most famous quote would serve well as a morning greeting for gas traders as they come into work.

Russia has drastically cut gas supplies to European customers in the last weeks, raising the spectre of another and even worse gas crisis this winter. As the war in Ukraine got underway in March, the EU ordered that underground storage tanks be filled to 80% by October 1. It’s now not clear if that target will be hit.

Russia’s Gazprom announced on June 14 that it is slashing gas flow via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 60%, blaming Siemens’ failure to return compressor units on time that had been sent off for repair, as well as other technical difficulties at the Portovaya compressor station.

Dutch front-month gas futures, the European benchmark, rose as much as 7.7% to a one-week high of €137 ($144) per MWh in Amsterdam. The contracts have gained more than 50% since Gazprom cut flows, Bloomberg reports.

Earlier Gazprom has already cut off Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland after they refused to pay for natural gas in rubles, as demanded by the Russian government.

Germany alarmed

Germany is becoming very alarmed and called the reduction in gas flows an “attack.”

THE U.S. PROXY-WARS PLAYBOOK...Coordinating with 'partners'

Same strategies deployed over-and-over to avoid "direct-involvement"

17 Jun, 2022 08:16

Israel secretly coordinates Syria airstrikes with US – WSJ    

Americans are making sure IDF attacks don’t interfere with their operations in the country, US officials claim

RT International |

Israeli strikes against Iranian-linked targets in Syria have been carried out with the secret approval of the US military, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been coordinating their attacks on Syrian targets with the Pentagon and US Central Command, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday citing current and former US officials.

The dialogue was reportedly needed to ensure raids by Israeli jets didn’t interfere with the operations of the US contingent, stationed at the Al-Tanf base near Syria’s border with Jordan.

According to the sources, the vast majority of the IDF strikes have been reviewed by Washington. But the US didn’t help the Israelis pick their targets, they added.

Read moreDamascus Airport ‘disabled’ by ‘Israeli’ attack

It’s a “well-developed and deliberate process,” one former US official said.

The secrecy surrounding those contacts “shows how Washington has sought to support its Israeli ally without being drawn into Israel’s shadow war against Iran,” the WSJ noted. . .

 

 

Israel has struck numerous targets in Syria in recent years with the aim of reducing the influence of its arch-rival Iran. Together with Moscow, Tehran has been helping Damascus fight international terrorism.

Syrian authorities have protested the IDF raids, saying they violate the country’s sovereignty and international law. Damascus also considers the US presence at the Al-Tanf base an illegal occupation. . ."

TRUTH OUT...Another Killing of A Journalist by American Allies in The Middle East

UN: Israelis fired shots that killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh

Veteran Al Jazeera journalist was killed on May 11 while covering Israeli army raids in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

[Image credit: A mural of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh adorns a wall in Gaza City, on Sunday, May 15, 2022 [File: Adel Hana/AP Photo]

 

aljazeera.com 24 June 2022                        |

"The United Nations has said that information it had gathered showed that the bullets that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11 were fired by Israeli forces.

“All information we have gathered … is consistent with the finding that the shots that killed Abu Akleh and injured her colleague Ali Sammoudi came from Israeli security forces and not from indiscriminate firing by armed Palestinians,” UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

Shamdasani added that the information the OHCHR had gathered had revealed no “activity by armed Palestinians in the immediate vicinity of the journalists”.

Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces while she was covering an army raid on Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank.

Her killing led to outrage from Palestinians and around the world, with thousands attending her funeral in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli police attacked the pallbearers at the funeral, almost causing Abu Akleh’s coffin to fall to the ground.

Multiple witnesses said that Israeli forces killed the veteran reporter. Investigations conducted by several media organisations have also come to the same conclusion. . .

Al Jazeera Media Network announced on May 26 that it had assigned a legal team to refer the killing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Lawyers working on a case filed to the ICC over the targeting of Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces have also said they will add Abu Akleh’s killing to the case."

IN MALTA WOMEN ARE TREATED LIKE WALKING INCUBATORS

Preface: Malta, which joined the EU in 2004, likes to boast of its liberal credentials. After the (long overdue) legalisation of divorce in the country in 2011, it has since become possible for gay couples to marry, and for transgender people easily to update their birth records to reflect their chosen gender. But this is not, by any means, the whole story. . .

Malta is the only country in the EU where abortion is illegal for any reason, including rape and incest (even in Poland, where restrictions on abortion have been dramatically tightened, a woman who has been raped is still, in theory, entitled to an abortion). If a foetus is found to be unviable, or the baby likely to die at birth or soon afterwards, the pregnancy must continue. If the health of the mother is threatened – as in the case of an ectopic pregnancy – doctors will act, if at all, only when it may already be too late.

‘Women are treated like walking incubators’: Malta’s fight for abortion

Rachel Cooke Sun 19 Jun 2022 02.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 22 Jun 2022 06.05 EDT

the Guardian |

The island nation is the only country in the EU in which termination is still illegal under any circumstances, forcing women to have the procedure abroad or else risk prosecution. But women’s rights groups are pushing for change. . .

> Women who use abortion pills in Malta are advised to take them orally rather than vaginally, even though this is widely considered to be less effective, the idea being that should anything go wrong, they are not detectable by doctors. “What do I tell a patient if she tells me she’s taken the pills, and that she’s bleeding too heavily? I have to tell them to lie,” says Stabile. “I must tell them to go to casualty and to tell the doctors there that they are having a miscarriage. Can you imagine having to tell a patient to lie like that? It’s immoral.”

> What makes this situation all the more vexatious is the fact that contraception is neither free nor easily available in Malta – and there is widespread ignorance about conception (sex education in schools tends to focus on abstinence and marriage). “Some doctors are still very uncomfortable about prescribing contraception,” says Stabile. “What do you think is the most common form of contraception here? I’ll tell you. It’s withdrawal, because it’s free.”

> Those who seek help are of all ages and social backgrounds. The mean age of those ordering pills online is 29.3. Fifty-two per cent are mothers; 24% have two or more children. . .But however different their situations, they have the same things in common: a fierce sense of outrage at the risks that they and others have had to take; a shared determination that things must change . . ."

READ MORE >> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/19/the-fight-for-abortion-in-malta

 

 

 

Sun 19 Jun 2022 02.00 EDT

Last modified on Wed 22 Jun 2022 06.05 EDT

>

 

BOOKS BY WOMEN THAT EVERY MAN SHOULD READ

Probably some unsolicited advice, but give it a chance, guys

Books by women that every man should read: chosen by Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, Richard Curtis and more

(https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/28/books-by-women-that-every-man-should-read-chosen-by-ian-mcewan-salman-rushdie-richard-curtis-and-more

 

Mary Ann Sieghart

the Guardian |

Studies show men avoid female authors. Ahead of the Women’s prize for fiction, chair of judges Mary Ann Sieghart finds out why – and we ask male authors to redress the balance

The film-maker Richard Curtis realised during the first lockdown that he would at last have time to immerse himself in books. More specifically books by women, “to compensate for 63 years of male bias”, he explains. “It’s been an amazing two years: the glory of Anne Tyler, Ann Patchett, Ali Smith, Zadie Smith, Daphne du Maurier, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and so many others.”

Now, 32 books later, he has become positively evangelical. When a male friend had a birthday recently, Curtis gave him four novels by female writers. “I have given away more copies of Olive Kitteridge [by Elizabeth Strout] than you can imagine,” he says. “I spend my whole time romping through bookshops saying: ‘Why haven’t you got more Anne Tyler novels on your shelves?’ I’ve had a genuine epiphany in terms of the novels that I read.”

Women read roughly 50:50 books by male and female authors; for men the ratio is 80:20

Yet there are still many men who, like Curtis until recently, barely read books by women. On average, women will read roughly 50:50 books written by men and by women; for men, the ratio is 80:20. Why should that be? “I think subject matter has a lot to do with it,” the novelist Ian McEwan says. Men are said to be more interested in violence than relationships: they often prefer war or crime novels to ones about couples or families, or so the stereotype goes. “But of course there are loads of men writing about relationships and parents and despair and suicide, and all the ways in which love can go wrong. That’s been the engine of English literature for three and a half centuries.”

The broadcaster Andrew Marr points out that men have traditionally not been encouraged to talk about their emotional life. “And if you don’t talk about it very much, you’re less likely to read about it. So the bounce off into fantasy versions of the working life [such as stories about soldiers and spies] is more attractive, because you jump away from an area that you find hard to talk about, and you’re not quite sure of the words.”

Yet this is precisely why the novelist Howard Jacobson turns to fiction by women. “I like the fact that they write about love a lot,” he says. “Because I write about love a lot. And I think it is the most interesting subject. It’s more interesting than guns. It’s more interesting than policemen. It’s more interesting than adventures. It is the stuff of our life.”

It’s wrong to pigeonhole women’s novels as purely about relationships – often they’re cast that way, even when they’re not . . "

Please continue reading >>  

 

COPULATORY VOCALIZATION....Looks like The Brits Miss That! | Journal of Sexual Medicine

Intro: Where does moaning come on that list? According to a new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, it shouldn’t be there at all.

How can that be? On the BSOS scale, it was one of the least-reported items, to the extent that researchers suggested it was of no use at all as a measure.

The female orgasm: lots of throbbing and quivering – but no moaning

A woman enjoying a noisy end to sex is a cliche of TV and film. But is there any truth to it?

(Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. Photograph: Everett Collection/REX FEATURES)

 

the Guardian

Wed 22 Jun 2022 10.12 EDT

Last modified on Wed 22 Jun 2022 13.53 EDT

 

Name: The female orgasm.

Age: As old as humans.

Appearance: Widely variable.

You know one when you see one, though. Do you really?

Yes, it usually involves a lot of moaning. Is that right?

I watch a great deal of TV, and if a female character is moaning, it’s either because she’s having an orgasm or because she ate too much ice-cream after a bad breakup. It’s funny you should mention moaning, because researchers have just found that it’s not a reliable indicator of an orgasm.

As I said, it could also be the ice-cream thing. Sexual studies use two common methods for evaluating the female orgasmic experience – the orgasm rating scale (ORS) and the bodily sensations of orgasm scale (BSOS).

What do such devices for recording this information look like? They’re basically questionnaires for subjects to self-report different sensory and physiological sensations during orgasm.

Such as? The list of variables includes throbbing, flushing, quivering, pulsating, goosebumps and sweating . . ."

Continue reading >> https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jun/22/the-female-orgasm-lots-of-throbbing-and-quivering-but-no-moaning

 

FACEBOOK >> TAKE-THE-REVENUE-AND-RUN-THE ADS! ...'Strategic Transparency' to Deceive Users and Obscure How Little The Public Knows

Intro: Sarah Kay Wiley, a researcher at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, said that Meta’s reports identifying CIB networks of fake accounts and pages that aim to deceive users obscure how little researchers and the public still know about what goes on within the company, and on its platforms.

Between July 2018 and April 2022, Meta made at least $30.3 million in ad revenue from networks it removed from its own platforms for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB), data compiled by WIRED shows

Meta Made Millions in Ads From Networks of Fake Accounts

The social media giant banned accounts promoting disinformation, spam, or propaganda—and kept the money it made from ads.

Vittoria Elliott

Wired |

"When Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify before Congress in 2018, he was asked by Senator Orin Hatch how Facebook made money. Zuckerberg’s answer has since become something of a meme: “Senator, we run ads.”

Between July 2018 and April 2022, Meta made at least $30.3 million in ad revenue from networks it removed from its own platforms for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB), data compiled by WIRED shows. Margarita Franklin, head of security communications at Meta, confirmed to WIRED that the company does not return the ad money if a network is taken down. Franklin clarified that some of the money came from adverts that didn't break the company's rules, but were published by the same public relations or marketing organizations later banned for participating in CIB operations.

A report from The Wall Street Journal estimates that by the end of 2021, Meta absorbed 17 percent of the money in the global ad market and made $114 billion from advertising. At least some of the money came from ads purchased by networks that violated Meta’s policies and that the company itself has flagged and removed.

“The advertising industry globally is estimated to be about $400 billion to $700 billion,” said Claire Atkin, cofounder of the independent watchdog Check My Ads Institute. “That is a large brush, but nobody knows how big the industry is. Nobody knows what goes on inside of it.”

But Atkin says that part of what makes information, including ads, feel legitimate on social media is the context they appear in. “Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, this entire network within our internet experience, is where we connect with our closest friends and family. This is a place on the internet where we share our most intimate emotions about what’s happening in our lives,” says Atkin. “It is our trusted location for connection.”

For nearly four years, Meta has released periodic reports identifying CIB networks of fake accounts and pages that aim to deceive users and, in many cases, push propaganda or disinformation in ways that are designed to look organic and change public opinion. These networks can be run by governments, independent groups, or public relations and marketing companies.

Last year, the company also began addressing what it dubbed “coordinated social harm,” where networks used real accounts as part of their information operations. Nathaniel Gleicher, head of security policy at Meta, announced the changes in a blog post, noting that “threat actors deliberately blur the lines between authentic and inauthentic activities, making enforcement more challenging across our industry.”

This change, however, demonstrates how specific the company’s criteria for CIB is, which means that Meta may not have documented some networks that used other tactics at all. Information operations can sometimes use real accounts, or be run on behalf of a political action committee or LLC, making it more difficult to categorize their behavior as “inauthentic.”

“One tactic that's been used more frequently, at least since 2016, has been not bots, but actual people that go out and post things,” says Sarah Kay Wiley, a researcher at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. “The CIB reports from Facebook, they kind of get at it, but it's really hard to spot.”

[    ] (Meta’s public earnings documents do not break down how much the company earns by country, only by region.)

. . .

Many of the largest networks that Meta removed were run by public relations or marketing firms, like the Archimedes Group in Israel and Pragmatico in Ukraine. When this happens, Meta will remove and ban every account and page associated with that firm, whether or not it is involved in a particular CIB campaign, in an effort to discourage businesses from selling “disinformation for hire” services.

CIB campaigns and disinformation are not limited to Facebook and Instagram. Twitter, which labels such activity “information operations,” has identified and removed thousands of accounts on its own platform. Though researchers have identified disinformation campaigns on TikTok, the company’s Community Guidelines Enforcement Reports do not indicate whether or how the platform deals with artificially boosted content.

Wiley says that Meta’s reports obscure how little researchers and the public still know about what goes on within the company, and on its platforms. In a January report, Meta said that due to evolving threats against its teams, it would “prioritize enforcement and the safety of our teams over publishing our findings,” which could make transparency worse.

“Is this the tip of the iceberg? Unfortunately, I think it is,” says Wiley. . .

>

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