A statute allowing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/food" target="_blank" rel="noopener">food</a> producers to incorporate <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/insects" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cricket</a> powder into flour-based products will go into effect on Tuesday in the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/european-union" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Union</a>.
The decision follows a review launched three years ago by the European Food Safety Authority regarding the use of partially defatted house cricket powder; the agency found that mass market consumption of the material is “safe under the proposed conditions” of use levels.
Cricket powder will now be permitted in a number of food products, such as multigrain bread, crackers, cereal bars, biscuits, beer-like beverages, chocolates, sauces, whey powder, soups, and other items “intended for the general population,” according to the new <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32023R0005&amp;from=EN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">regulation</a>. Cricket One, a company that <a href="https://www.cricketone.asia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserts</a> that the insects are “nutritionally more efficient” and serve as a more reliable “source of alternative protein” than livestock, submitted the original application.
The regulation also referenced “limited published evidence on food allergy related to insects in general” and connected Acheta domesticus, the species of house cricket in question, to several “anaphylaxis events.” The European Food Safety Authority concluded that “consumption of this novel food may trigger sensitisation” to the insect’s proteins and recommended further study.
Because evidence linking cricket powder to allergic reactions is “inconclusive,” the European Commission decided that no specific labeling requirements should be included in the EU list of authorized novel foods, according to the regulation.
The New York Allergy and Sinus Centers has nevertheless <a href="https://www.nyallergy.com/cricket-allergy/#:~:text=Several%20allergic%20reactions%20to%20crickets,also%20a%20relation%20to%20cockroaches." target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that “several allergic reactions to crickets” have been reported in the past two years. Individuals allergic to shellfish such as shrimp, crabs, and lobsters “may develop an allergy to crickets” because the species share many of the same proteins. “While crickets are considered safe and healthy to eat, for those who are allergic, they pose a serious threat,” the group said. “When ingested, crickets can cause anaphylaxis and other serious reactions.”
Proposals for the increased consumption of crickets and other insects occur as many policymakers voice concern about the impact of meat production on climate change. Amanda Little, a professor at Vanderbilt University, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vanderbilt-professor-says-bugs-including-fly-larvae-must-be-a-bigger-part-of-the-human-food-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asserted</a> that the acceptance of insect consumption in the EU would not “translate to bugs in your burgers and mealworms in your macaroni,” but rather allow them to become a feedstock for other protein sources.
The World Economic Forum has frequently raised the possibility of finding alternative food sources to decrease carbon emissions.
“Insects are a credible and efficient alternative protein source requiring fewer resources than conventional breeding,” said one <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/why-we-need-to-give-insects-the-role-they-deserve-in-our-food-systems/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> from the organization. “Studies suggest that for the same amount of protein produced, insects, mealworms in particular, require much less land than other sources of animal proteins. A study on crickets suggests they are twice as efficient in converting feed to meat as chicken.”
Another <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/how-insects-positively-impact-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> from the World Economic Forum claimed that the “demand for protein will exceed our ability to procure it” by 2050, even though similar claims from environmentalists have been repeatedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bizarre-paganism-ben-shapiro-reacts-to-60-minutes-hosting-climate-alarmist-with-decades-of-failed-predictions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disproven</a> over the past several decades.
&#8220;For our long-term survival, we&#8217;re going to need to increase our food output and decrease our carbon emissions at the same time,&#8221; the group said. &#8220;The answer requires real innovation about food production and what we think about food.&#8221;

Cricket powder insect for eating as food items made of cooked insect meat in bowl and wood spoon on white background it is good source of protein edible for future. Entomophagy concept.

European Union Approves Cricket Powder As Component Of Flour-Based Foods Despite ‘Inconclusive’ Allergy Data

European Union Approves Cricket Powder As Component Of Flour-Based Foods

Agriculture

European Union

Food

Health

Insects

World

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European</a> Central Bank Executive Board Member Isabel Schnabel contended that monetary policy should be used to accelerate the “green transition” as <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/federal-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Federal Reserve</a> Chair Jerome Powell asserted the opposite.
The two policymakers presented their views on Tuesday during the Symposium on Central Bank Independence in Sweden. Schnabel remarked during her <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2023/html/ecb.sp230110~21c89bef1b.en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> that the European Central Bank should align policy decisions with the goals established by the Paris Agreement.
“While governments need to accelerate their efforts to put the economy on a path towards net zero emissions, the drastic change in the macroeconomic and financial environment over the past year also requires central banks to review the scale and scope of their own contribution to the green transition,” she told policymakers. “We will increasingly address climate risks in our risk control and collateral frameworks, including by eventually making climate-related corporate disclosures compulsory for bonds to remain eligible as collateral in our refinancing operations.”
Schnabel said that the European Central Bank should consider “reshuffling the portfolio” toward “greener” bond issuers, as well as “foster incentives” for companies to reduce emissions. She added that “fiscal policy needs to remain in the driving seat and accelerate the green transition.”
The remarks from Schnabel contrast with the approach advocated by Powell, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stick-to-our-knitting-federal-reserve-will-not-dabble-in-social-policy-jerome-powell-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> on fellow central bankers to “stick to our knitting” and not “wander off to pursue perceived social benefits that are not tightly linked to our statutory goals and authorities.”
“Some analysts ask whether incorporating into bank supervision the perceived risks associated with climate change is appropriate, wise, and consistent with our existing mandates,” he commented. “Addressing climate change seems likely to require policies that would have significant distributional and other effects on companies, industries, regions, and nations. Decisions about policies to directly address climate change should be made by the elected branches of government and thus reflect the public’s will as expressed through elections.”
The Federal Reserve has nevertheless introduced a number of programs in recent months to consider perceived “climate-related financial risks.” Officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-reserve-will-evaluate-climate-related-financial-risks-with-help-from-bidens-new-climate-officer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unveiled</a> an initiative with six American banks to examine various risk scenarios posed by climate change and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-treasury-advisory-committee-on-racial-equity-to-be-led-by-defund-the-police-advocate-former-philadelphia-mayor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> plans to work with the Treasury Department to consider the private sector’s approach to purported climate risk. Democratic lawmakers have <a href="https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-waters-gillibrand-reintroduce-their-bill-requiring-the-fed-to-close-racial-employment-and-wage-gaps" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> a bill to incorporate social issues such as racial equity into the mandate of the Federal Reserve.
The European Central Bank has explicit <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/climate/html/index.en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">objectives</a> to “better understand, monitor, and manage climate-related risks,” as well as “support an orderly transition to a carbon-neutral economy.” The Bank of England has likewise launched <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/stress-testing/2022/results-of-the-2021-climate-biennial-exploratory-scenario" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initiatives</a> meant to help executives foster an economy with net zero emissions.
Central banks across the world are currently working to maintain price stability amid inflationary pressures that follow government lockdown mandates. An <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimate</a> from the International Monetary Fund said that global inflation was expected to reach 8.8% in 2022 before a decline to 6.5% in 2023 and 4.1% in 2024. Policymakers at the Federal Reserve <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-federal-reserve-hikes-target-interest-rates-half-a-percentage-point" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised rates</a> by three-quarters of a percentage point on four consecutive occasions last year before implementing a half-percent increase last month, causing higher rates across the economy.

FRANCE-ENERGY-SOLAR-PHOTOVOLTAICS-ENVIRONMENT

European Central Bank Doubles Down On Climate Activism Even As Federal Reserve Backs Off

Central Bankers Spar On Climate Activism

Climate Change

Economy

Federal Reserve

A secret document from the European Union, an organization that has supported Palestinian efforts to take control of parts of Judea and Samaria that are legally under Israeli control, was revealed this week.
According to <a href="https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364651" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel National News</a>, the document indicates the EU will attempt to map land in order “to prove Palestinian Arab rights &#8230; without leaving traces of its activities” in Area C — which comprises 60% of Judea and Samaria — over which Israel has exclusive jurisdiction.
“The fight against the Arab takeover of open areas of Judea and Samaria is one of the most pressing and important challenges that the next government must address and one of the main reasons for my demand to receive authority for this in the Ministry of Defense,” Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, declared.
“The blatant involvement of the European Union in the Palestinian Authority&#8217;s efforts to establish facts on the ground and unilaterally establish a de facto Arab terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel is unacceptable, contrary to international law and law, and incompatible with basic rules of diplomacy in relations between states,” he added.
“The Arab takeover of Area C is the biggest strategic threat in our region. Its goal is nothing less than changing the borders of the country. Every week the State of Israel loses large areas, every day dozens of illegal homes are erected, roads are broken up and paved at significant points as part of an organized strategic plan,” Shlomo Ne&#8217;eman, Etzion Council head and chairman of the Yesha Council echoed.
“The document revealed tonight is important proof of what we have been strongly asserting for years: the European Union is working maliciously together with the Palestinian Authority against the State of Israel,” he continued. “The matter is nothing less than preposterous — our allies, European governments, are actively working to revise the borders of our country. In years past, this would be grounds for wars between nations.”
In 2016, the Jerusalem Post <a href="https://www.jpost.com/magazine/knowing-your-abc-448963" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the Palestinian Authority and the EU “have in the past decade sought to actively encroach on Israeli rule in Area C, where according to the accords, Israel has exclusive administrative and security control.”
In 2018, speaking at a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and vice president of the European Commission in the Juncker Commission, made clear the <a href="https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/38551/remarks-high-representativevice-president-federica-mogherini-joint-press-statements_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EU’s disdain</a> for President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, saying, “I want to, first of all, reassure President Abbas and his delegation of the firm commitment of the European Union to the two-state solution, with Jerusalem as shared capital of the two states — the State of Israel and the State of Palestine.”
Mogherini continued by attacking the building of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, the areas where virtually all of the Bible took place, stating, “We oppose the settlement activity that we consider illegal under international law.”

ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN-CONFLICT-JERUSALEM DAY

Secret EU Document Revealed Plans Undermining Israeli Control Of Biblical Areas

Israel

Palestinians

Secret

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/g7">G7</a> countries, the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/european-union" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Union</a>, and Australia committed on Friday to implementing a global $60 per barrel <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">price</a> cap on seaborne crude <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">oil</a> from Russia beginning on Monday.
Members of the G7, which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-and-other-world-leaders-want-a-global-price-cap-on-russian-oil" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the proposed move earlier this year. A <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1141" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> from the U.S. Treasury Department announced that the initiative will “maintain the supply of Russian oil to the global market” while reducing revenues for the nation, which is currently invading <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ukraine-russia-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ukraine</a>.
“This price cap will benefit directly emerging and developing economies, and it will be adjustable over time so that we can react to market developments,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a recent <a href="https://twitter.com/vonderleyen/status/1598734779750309888?s=20&amp;t=sjSZByyC-DfPC6LRlzeg1Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a>.
The price cap will only allow the maritime services industry, which includes sectors such as insurance and trade finance, to provide their services for Russian oil sold below $60 per barrel. Brent crude oil, the leading global price benchmark for crude oil drilled in the Atlantic Ocean, is approximately $83 per barrel as of Monday.
<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">TIRED OF THE LEGACY MEDIA&#8217;S BIAS CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE AND OBSCURING THE TRUTH? JOIN US AND SAVE 30%.</a>
The Treasury Department argued that the level of the price cap is “high enough to maintain a clear economic incentive for Russia to continue selling oil on global markets,” as Russia has “historically accepted” the rate. In order to spurn the price cap, Russia would have to rely upon service providers outside of the G7, which are more expensive and less reliable.
Russian officials, however, balked at the proposal. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the nation “won’t accept the price cap” in a <a href="https://tass.com/russia/1545269" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> provided to government-run news outlet TASS. Mikhail Ulyanov, the nation’s ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, <a href="https://twitter.com/Amb_Ulyanov/status/1599025369272979456">said</a> that Europe will live without Russian oil “starting from this year,” predicting that the European Union would accuse Russia of “using oil as a weapon.”
European officials have indeed argued that Russia is responsible for a precipitous rise in energy prices. The country paused natural gas shipments through Nord Stream 1 before the entire pipeline system was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nord-stream-pipelines-see-unprecedented-damage-after-cia-warned-german-government-of-sabotage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">destroyed</a> by an unknown actor. Some commentators have noted that a rapid transition away from fossil fuels among European Union nations, which adopted the official <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy</a> of becoming “a climate-neutral society” by 2050 in accordance with the European Green Deal, has contributed to unreliable energy supplies.
“Russia keeps on actively manipulating our energy market,” von der Leyen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-social-market-economy-might-redistribute-fossil-fuel-profits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarked</a> in September, noting that natural gas prices have recently increased more than tenfold. “But Europeans are also coping courageously with this.”
Multiple European countries are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/switzerland-may-jail-people-who-turn-heat-above-66-degrees-this-winter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imposing regulations</a> for thermostat and appliance usage; von der Leyen suggested that European Union member states reap windfall profits from fossil fuel producers. “In our social market economy, profits are good,” she continued. “But in these times it is wrong to receive extraordinary record profits benefitting from war and on the back of consumers. In these times, profits must be shared and channeled to those who need it the most.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-face-a-difficult-six-months-nato-chief-urges-europe-to-support-ukraine-through-russian-energy-blackmail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">characterized</a> Russian restrictions on fuel exports as “blackmail.” The former prime minister of Norway suggested that achieving victory for Ukraine would help Europe to “break free” from Russian energy.

G7 Leaders Convene For Summit At Schloss Elmau

Russia Balks As G7, European Union Implement Oil Price Cap

Russian Oil Price Cap Implemented

Oil and Gas

Ukraine-Russia War

Ministers in the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/european-union" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Union</a> reached a provisional agreement on Thursday to completely eliminate <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carbon dioxide</a> emissions on roads by 2035.
Lawmakers plan to increase incentives and subsidies for the producers of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/electric-vehicles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electric vehicles</a> and report every two years on the affordability of the new technology, as well as impacts upon consumption and employment. The policy is an effective ban on new vehicles powered by diesel and gasoline.
“With these targets, we create clarity for the car industry and stimulate innovation and investments for car manufacturers,” Jan Huitema, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, said in a <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20221024IPR45734/deal-confirms-zero-emissions-target-for-new-cars-and-vans-in-2035" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “In addition, purchasing and driving zero-emission cars will become cheaper for consumers. I am pleased that today we reached an agreement with the Council on an ambitious revision of the targets for 2030 and supported a 100% target for 2035.”
The European Union has adopted the official <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy</a> of becoming “a climate-neutral society” by 2050 in accordance with the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement. 
The new transportation plan would require immediate action from the European Parliament, including the construction of charging stations and access to raw materials, according to a <a href="https://www.acea.auto/press-release/car-co2-targets-no-time-to-waste-for-putting-conditions-for-zero-emissions-in-place-says-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, a trade association uniting the continent’s largest automakers. 
“This extremely far-reaching decision is without precedent,” BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said. “It means that the European Union will now be the first and only world region to go all-electric.”
In the United States, the governments of California, Massachusetts, Washington, and Virginia are following <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-expected-to-ban-sale-of-new-gas-cars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new rules</a> from the California Air Resources Board requiring 35% of new vehicles to produce zero emissions by 2026, a standard that will progressively rise to 100% by 2035. The Biden administration has likewise <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/13/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-electric-vehicle-charging-action-plan/">set</a> the “ambitious target” of ensuring that electric vehicles constitute 50% of car sales in the United States by 2030.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which contains $369 billion for climate initiatives, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/energy-sec-granholm-families-should-use-ev-tax-credits-weatherize-their-homes-finance-solar-panels-to-cope-with-inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">includes</a> tax credits for new electric vehicles. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/energy-secretary-lays-out-the-only-way-to-avoid-high-gas-prices-and-its-not-producing-more-oil" target="_blank" rel="noopener">urged</a> a transition from gas-powered vehicles as a solution for Americans experiencing high prices at the pump.
The new European Union policy comes as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-climate-bureaucrats-are-dooming-the-continent-to-a-very-dark-winter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy prices</a> across the continent soar to new heights due to fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and low production from some renewable sources. Russia severed natural gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline ahead of the system witnessing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nord-stream-pipelines-see-unprecedented-damage-after-cia-warned-german-government-of-sabotage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unprecedented damage</a>, tightening the availability of the critical fuel. 
Russian shipments accounted for 40% of the European natural gas supply last year, a rate that had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-social-market-economy-might-redistribute-fossil-fuel-profits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> to 9% as of two months ago. Germany, the continent’s largest economy, has seen dependence on Russian natural gas decrease from 55% to 35%.
The International Energy Agency recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-households-must-cut-power-usage-this-winter-energy-agency-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that a failure to reduce energy demand would bring power inventory to 18% of working capacity by March. Several nations, including France and Spain, have called for residents to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/french-president-calls-for-10-cut-in-energy-use-will-ration-power-as-a-last-resort" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reduce power consumption</a> ahead of the winter months.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-intends-to-flatten-the-curve-for-electricity-use" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that the European Union would introduce a “mandatory target” for reducing electricity consumption during peak demand. In a speech, she asserted that droughts which have lowered river capacity and therefore reduced hydropower production are among the “effects of climate change” and point to the need for “massive investments in renewables.”

Electric Vehicle

European Union Follows California, Will Ban New Gas And Diesel Cars By 2035

European Union To Ban All New Gas And Diesel Cars

Cars

electric vehicles

Energy

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/germany" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Germany</a> is set to legalize <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/marijuana" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cannabis</a> for recreational use, making it one of the only European Union nations to do so, while 19 states in the U.S. have taken similar action.
On Wednesday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/26/germany-to-legalize-cannabis-use-for-recreational-purposes.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-legalize-cannabis-use-recreational-purposes-2022-10-26/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">document</a> regarding plans for a measure on the subject. The legislation would create regulations for the controlled disbursement and consumption of cannabis for adults to use in a recreational manner. It would also be legal to get and hold onto up to 20 to 30 grams of recreational cannabis for personal use.
The country’s Federal Cabinet <a href="https://www.marijuanamoment.net/germanys-government-approves-marijuana-legalization-plan-but-reform-depends-on-european-union-sign-off/#:~:text=Germany's%20Federal%20Cabinet%20has%20officially,the%20country%20to%20move%20ahead.">reportedly</a> approved the plan, but now must be delivered to the European Commission and then legislators, so it isn&#8217;t a finished product yet.
Germany took steps to make this change in the past. The latest move comes after the coalition government secured a deal last year to put forward a measure to allow certain stores to carry cannabis. It’s not known how long it will take for the proposal to go into effect.
The only other European Union country that has legalized cannabis is Malta, making the United States an outlier on the practice when compared to Europe.
In the United States, Guam, Washington, D.C., as well as nineteen states, have <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/where-is-marijuana-legal-a-guide-to-marijuana-legalization">legalized</a> recreational use of marijuana. Colorado was the first state to take such action when Coloradans voted on a ballot measure to make its recreational use and the act of selling the substance legal in 2012.
President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2022-10-06/biden-pardons-thousands-for-simple-marijuana-possession-offenses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">took</a> further steps this month to pardon people who have been convicted of simple marijuana possession on a federal level. The move applied to around 6,500 people and was considered by some as an attempt to appease and draw support from the president’s leftist Democratic supporters. A senior White House official, however, told the press that no Americans are in jail for simple marijuana possession.
Multiple European nations have legalized marijuana use for restricted medicinal use. Germany also took this step, and has allowed such utilization since 2017.
Every EU Member State considers possessing marijuana for personal use as a violation, according to the <a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/topic-overviews/cannabis-policy/html_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction</a>. However, more than one-third of the states don’t permit imprisonment as a punishment for minor violations.
Last year, Malta <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59660856" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made</a> it legal for people to grow and use cannabis for personal purposes. Adults are permitted to have up to seven grams of marijuana on them and cultivate up to four of the plants in their houses. However, public smoking of marijuana or smoking the substance in the presence of children is not allowed.
The country’s Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech was originally in favor of the legislation, but then cautioned it would &#8220;only lead to the strengthening of the illegal market, with organised crime taking advantage.”

&lt;&gt; on August 13, 2016 in Berlin, Germany.

Germany Issues Plans To Become Second EU Country To Legalize Recreational Marijuana Use

Germany Issues Plans To Legalize Recreational Marijuana Use

Drugs

Europe

Germany

Marijuana

A top <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fda-authorizes-pfizer-and-modernas-updated-covid-boosters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pfizer</a> executive’s admission Monday to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-covid-19-cases-skyrocket-europe-now-leads-world-in-active-infections/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European lawmakers</a> that the pharmaceutical giant never tested its COVID vaccine to determine if it stopped transmission is raising new questions about the global effort to compel people to get the jabs.
Janine Small, Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, made the stunning admission while testifying before the European Union Parliament. She was asked by European Union Member of Parliament Rob Roos if the company tested its mRNA vaccine on stopping transmission before rolling it out.
“If not, please say it clearly,” Roos said. “If yes, are you willing to share the data with this committee? And I really want a straight answer, yes or no, and I’m looking forward to it.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 BREAKING:
In COVID hearing, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Pfizer?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Pfizer</a> director admits: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/vaccine?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#vaccine</a> was never tested on preventing transmission.
&quot;Get vaccinated for others&quot; was always a lie.
The only purpose of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#COVID</a> passport: forcing people to get vaccinated.
The world needs to know. Share this video! ⤵️ <a href="https://t.co/su1WqgB4dO">pic.twitter.com/su1WqgB4dO</a>
&mdash; Rob Roos MEP 🇳🇱 (@Rob_Roos) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rob_Roos/status/1579759795225198593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 11, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Small, who was sent to testify when Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla declined, said the company didn’t have time to see if its vaccine would stop the spread of COVID.
“Regarding the question around, uh, did we know about stopping the immunization [sic] before it entered the market?” she said. “No.”
She said no such tests were conducted because the world was facing a health crisis, and insisted that the vaccine, which Pfizer believes protects people from getting COVID, or at least makes it less deadly if they do, had to be made quickly available. She cited a <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/covid-19-vaccines-saved-20-million-lives-in-1-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from Imperial College London which claimed vaccines may have prevented nearly 20 million COVID deaths in their first year. The college has been heavily criticized for its allegedly inaccurate modeling, which drove lawmakers to lock down the U.K. economy.
“We had to really move at the speed of science to really understand what is taking place in the market, and from that point of view we had to do everything at risk,” Small said. “I think Dr. Bourla, even though he’s not here, would turn around and say to you himself, ‘If not us then who?’”
Roos, who represents the Netherlands, later shared a clip of Small’s response <a href="https://twitter.com/Rob_Roos/status/1579759795225198593" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on Twitter</a>, and said it showed that the global campaign to force vaccination to protect others was built on a lie.
“Millions of people worldwide felt forced to get vaccinated because of the myth that ‘you do it for others’,” he said in the video, which has been viewed more than eight million times. “Now this turned out to be a cheap lie. This should be exposed.”
Roos claimed the admission that Pfizer never tested its vaccination to determine if it prevented or even slowed the spread of COVID shows there was never a legitimate basis for vaccine mandates or passports which he said “led to massive institutional discrimination as people lost access to essential parts of society.”
“I find this to be shocking, even criminal,” Roos said.
Fellow EU Member of Parliament Cristian Terhes, of Romania, said the shocking admission calls into question other actions by the pharmaceutical giant.
&#8220;They haven&#8217;t tested the vaccine to see if it&#8217;s stopping the spread of the virus. So we&#8217;re asking again: what are they hiding?&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/cosminDZS/status/1579990000179228672?s=20&amp;t=PKk1gr3nhc__rNe__A7TYw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terhes asked in a tweet</a>.
In December of 2020, Bourla had said that the the vaccines effect on transmission was something that needed &#8220;to be examined&#8221; and said that they were &#8220;not certain&#8221; how it performed in that regard.
The protection that the COVID vaccines provide to contracting the virus has also been called into question. When the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Modera were first rolled out, pharmaceutical companies, government health officials and political leaders hailed them as powerful and effective. Bourla said in April 2021 that early testing showed its vaccine was “100 per cent effective against severe Covid-19.”
When vaccinated people began getting COVID anyway, their cases were initially deemed “breakthrough” cases. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/quadruple-vaccinated-pfizer-ceo-tests-positive-for-covid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bourla, who got COVID in August</a>, admitted in January his company’s vaccine provides “very limited protection, if any” against the Omicron variant.
Over the last year, many experts have acknowledged that the vaccines may not stop transmission of contracting of the virus, but may lessen the symptoms and prevent deaths.
“[While they] don’t protect overly well against infection, they protect quite well against severe disease leading to hospitalization and death,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, said earlier this year.
Pfizer made a reported $37 billion in revenue from its COVID vaccine in 2021.

Screen Shot 2022-10-12 at 7.57.46 AM

‘Scandalous’: Pfizer Exec Tells EU Lawmaker COVID Jab Was Never Tested To Show It Blocked Transmission

'Scandalous': Pfizer Exec Tells EU Lawmaker COVID Jab Was Never Tested To Show It Blocked Transmission

COVID-19 Vaccine

Pfizer

If you understand nothing else about Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum, get this: they are godless.
That matters. From your answer to the question “Does God exist?” flows the whole of your worldview. If your government thinks you are a product of random chance and necessity, and that there is no God to judge in the next life their actions in this one, history demonstrates with chilling clarity how that plays out.
In <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/klaus-schwab-the-world-economic-forum-and-the-new-fascism-3">Part 3</a> of this series, we saw how Schwab’s literary references in his books suggested a shallow understanding of the humanities and none whatsoever of religion.
There are, however, numerous philosophical references in which he reveals a more intimate knowledge: Friedrich Nietzsche, Antonio Gramsci, Steven Pinker, Yuval Noah Harari, and Peter Singer to name only a few. This is telling. All of them are atheists, and aggressively so.
Schwab quotes them favorably, and where the WEF has taken a little from each is obvious:
From Nietzsche, the idea of the Superman who can face the harsh reality of a world without any ultimate transcendent hope.
Gramsci, an evil little Italian communist, contributed the ideas for the overthrow of the Christian and democratic West; ideas that inform <a href="https://youtu.be/kqJRx7tvEO4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the subversive tactics of the radical Left</a> from Black Lives Matter to the sexualization of children.
Pinker, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard, sang the siren song of perpetual human progress in his books The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now, a tune irresistible to secular scientific elites.
Harari, a historian at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has written a personal mission statement reading: “Care about suffering.” And yet, according to <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/17/yuval-noah-harari-gives-the-really-big-picture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ian Parker of The New Yorker</a>, Harari nonetheless speaks of suffering with “nihilistic composure.” Adds Parker: “The subject of human suffering — even extreme suffering — doesn’t seem to agitate Harari in quite the way that industrial agriculture does.” Perhaps that’s because his original mission statement, “Embrace ambiguity,” leaves open the question of whose suffering he cares about.
And Singer.
Peter Singer, a bioethicist at Princeton University, is quite possibly the most influential philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century and beyond. In 1975 he published Animal Liberation, giving rise to the modern animal rights movement. 
Once, while dining with him in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, I listened as he explained his animal rights philosophy. A vegetarian for obvious reasons, he ordered gnocchi. Wordlessly, I expressed my views on animals and their place within creation by ordering kangaroo.
He is the most philosophically consistent atheist I have ever met, and I’ve known more than a few. In addition to debating the late atheist journalist <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Christopher-Hitchens-Restless-Notorious/dp/0718022173/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1664734347&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Hitchens</a>, Tuft’s cognitive scientist <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/third-rail/multimedia/2015/5/does-religion-do-more-harm-than-good1.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Dennett</a>, and Skeptic Magazine editor <a href="https://youtu.be/3S4x3gtkubY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Shermer</a>, I organized and chaired three of Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins’s debates. But Singer is, by far, the most dangerous of the lot, and that’s because he is willing to follow his atheism to its dark conclusions.
Journalist Kevin Toolis writes of him: “[W]hat is legitimate for Singer is just plain murder for other people.”
It is Singer’s view that man is an animal like any other and that he deserves no special status among the various species. That is, he argues, a residual of Christian thought. Worse, he has argued that parents should get twenty-eight days with a newborn child to determine if they want to keep it or euthanize it. This is where atheism, pushed to its logical outcome, takes you. And it’s where the WEF would like to take the rest of us.
This bring us to Dennis Meadows, Emeritus Professor of Systems Management at the University of New Hampshire. Meadows is an original member of the Club of Rome and one of the co-authors of Limits to Growth, a mega-bestseller that informs the WEF’s agenda. Meadows <a href="https://youtu.be/ojK05pVOlhs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thinks we must reduce the global population by, oh, a mere 6-7 billion people</a>. But no worries, he wants to do it “peacefully.”
These are the people from whom Schwab and the WEF take their cues. Pinker, Harari, Singer, and Meadows are WEF “agenda contributors.” (That’s a little more than what appears at the bottom of this article: The views expressed in this piece are those of the author …) 
Read their books. Watch them in smug conversation. They simply cannot resist telling you what they think and what they want to do. These are your would-be overlords.
Combine these murderous ideas with politicians who have the power to implement them — <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_AM22_List_of_confirmed_PFs.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than fifty government leaders attended this year’s WEF annual meeting</a> — and you have a toxic combination.
Take, for example, Ursula von der Leyen. Perhaps you saw her recently in the news. She is the unelected President of the European Commission <a href="https://youtu.be/a50pq2Dg6OQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">who threatened</a> Italy with unspecified sanctions should they elect a prime minister at odds with the EU’s vision for the continent. (<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/twitter-appears-to-shadowban-videos-of-italys-first-female-incoming-prime-minister" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I’m delighted to say the Italians defied von der Leyen</a>.) She is also a WEF agenda contributor and is front and center in <a href="https://www.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this WEF leadership photo</a>.
*     *     *     *     *
At bottom, the WEF has no actual power. They possess no armies, they hold no seat at the UN, and they are stateless. What they have is influence. 
Schwab is Mr. Networker Guy. He has managed to gather world leaders of disparate cultures, languages, of democratic and non-democratic countries, some who are enemies, all of whom have participated on a voluntary basis, and he’s given them an organizing vision. But it’s not Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People techniques that have enabled him to do it. 
It’s the product he&#8217;s selling and they all want it:
Absolute power.
It is a fact of history. We are always just a step from totalitarianism. Those politicians who would readily embrace it and the thugs who would readily enforce it are always there. It just needs someone to speak it into being, to offer a roadmap to get there.
That’s what the WEF offers, and it offers it all under the cover of environmental and humanitarian virtue.
Do you really think Xi or Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, both WEF participants, really care about “a sustainable future”? The WEF deals in the laundering of reputations, those of current or aspiring tyrants in particular.
In my considerable experience engaging men who posture as some of the world’s smartest, I’ve discovered when it comes to seductive but unworkable utopian ideas, intellectuals are not unlike football coaches with talented but troublesome players: they are confident they will be able to succeed where the last guy could not. As a consequence, Marxism and fascism live on like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nfl-wide-receiver-antonio-brown-responds-to-controversial-video-of-him-allegedly-exposing-himself-to-a-woman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antonio Brown’s career</a>.
With the threat of a climate apocalypse serving as Plato’s Noble Lie, Marxist-style government power grabs are taking place all over the Western world. But Marxism could never survive on its own because Marxist economics don’t work. So, it must always adopt a fascist element, loosening government restrictions on private property and a market economy; not totally, but as the Chinese have done it: “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” 
The addition of ESG — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/climate-risk-is-investment-risk-bill-clinton-and-blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-make-bold-claims-about-woke-investing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Environmental, Social, and Governance</a> — is that fascist element. A kind of coercive corporate social credit system, once compliance is fully in place, it will bring all industry to government heel.
The path to totalitarianism, you see, is quite clear.
I have visited the sites of past claimants to the utopian throne. They are not, as you might suppose, great works of architecture or museums housing their treasures. They are places with names like Auschwitz, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Babyn Yar, Lefortovo, and Lubyanka. 
They are the homes I have visited in Cuba, China, Russia, Vietnam, and half a dozen more where dissenters must hide from the regime. Because the most consistent feature of earthly utopias is their gulags and their gallows.
But there is, I think, a path to a “sustainable future” for freedom.
In his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061">Civilization: The West and the Rest</a>, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson quotes a scholar from the Chinese Academy of Sciences:
“We were asked to look into what accounted for the … pre-eminence of the West over all the world … At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”
For centuries, the Christian faith served as the West’s bulwark against moral and political evils. But with the decline of Christian belief has come a corresponding rise in perversions of every kind. Rather than a Christian culture, we’ve become Christian-ish.
Thus, concepts with a Christian foundation — love, freedom, tolerance, diversity, stewardship of the environment, care for the poor, etc. — are easily highjacked and harnessed to a destructive end.
If the West is to survive in any recognizable sense, it must be more than Christian-ish.
As T.S. Eliot observed, “If Christianity goes, the whole culture goes.”
Larry Alex Taunton is a freelance columnist contributing to The Daily Wire, USA Today, Fox News, First Things, The Atlantic, The New York Post, CNN, Daily Caller, and The American Spectator. He is also the author of <a href="https://larryalextaunton.com/books/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Faith of Christopher Hitchens</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Effect-Reverse-Corruption-Unbelief/dp/1595554408/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=1664139427&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Grace Effect</a>, and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Around-World-More-Than-Days/dp/1642935921/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&amp;keywords=around+the+world+in+more+than+80+days+taunton&amp;qid=1585871070&amp;sr=8-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Around the World in (More Than) 80 Days</a>. You can subscribe to his podcast at <a href="https://larryalextaunton.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">larryalextaunton.com</a> and find him on Twitter @larrytaunton.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

SWITZERLAND-DAVOS-WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

Klaus Schwab, The World Economic Forum, And The Atheists Paving The Road To Absolute Power

Klaus Schwab

Population

Readers Pass

World Economic Forum

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European</a> Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/european-union" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Union</a> might redistribute profits from <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fossil fuel</a> companies and impose <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy</a> consumption limits.
The bloc is currently weighing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-questions-russian-oil-price-cap-considers-making-fossil-fuel-companies-pay-a-solidarity-contribution">various measures</a> to help member states cope with a freeze in Russian energy exports — including natural gas shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which Russia <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/let-the-wolfs-tail-freeze-putin-doubles-down-on-halting-natural-gas-flow-to-western-europe">paused</a> in reaction to Western support of Ukraine. In her State of the Union <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_22_5493">address</a>, von der Leyen asserted that Russia is largely responsible for the energy crisis.
“Russia keeps on actively manipulating our energy market,” von der Leyen said, noting that natural gas prices have recently increased more than tenfold. “But Europeans are also coping courageously with this.”
Multiple European countries are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/switzerland-may-jail-people-who-turn-heat-above-66-degrees-this-winter">imposing regulations</a> for thermostat and appliance usage. However, von der Leyen announced that she would propose standards for European Union member states to reduce “overall electricity consumption,&#8221; funded by redistributing profits from energy companies.
“We are proposing a cap on the revenues of companies that produce electricity at a low cost. These companies are making revenues they never accounted for, they never even dreamt of,” von der Leyen said. “In our social market economy, profits are good. But in these times it is wrong to receive extraordinary record profits benefitting from war and on the back of consumers. In these times, profits must be shared and channeled to those who need it the most.”
Russian shipments accounted for 40% of the European natural gas supply last year — a rate that has since dropped to 9%. However, Germany — the continent’s largest economy — has seen dependence decrease from 55% to 35%.
Von der Leyen argued that fossil fuel producers have a “special duty” to aid with the crisis. “Major oil, gas and coal companies are also making huge profits. So they have to pay a fair share — they have to give a crisis contribution,” she added. “These are all emergency and temporary measures we are working on, including our discussions on price caps.”
The European Union, in accordance with the European Green Deal and the Paris Climate Agreement, abides by the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en">official goal</a> of becoming “a climate-neutral society” by 2050.
Though von der Leyen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-intends-to-flatten-the-curve-for-electricity-use">acknowledged</a> last week that low hydropower generation caused by droughts is partially responsible for high energy prices in Europe, she said that “the climate crisis” is the ultimate impetus for the weather conditions and called for the elimination of all fossil fuel dependence.
“Half a century ago, in the 1970s, the world faced another fossil fuel crisis. Some of us remember the car-free weekends to save energy. Yet we kept driving on the same road. We did not get rid of our dependency on oil. And worse, fossil fuels were even massively subsidized,” she continued. &#8220;This was wrong, not just for the climate, but also for our public finances, and our independence. And we are still paying for this today. Only a few visionaries understood that the real problem was fossil fuels themselves, not just their price.”
In a departure from other European leaders, however, incoming British Prime Minister Liz Truss <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/british-prime-minister-liz-truss-unveils-package-to-cut-soaring-fuel-prices-offers-reforms-so-we-are-never-in-this-position-again">proposed legislation</a> last week to open the North Sea for oil and gas drilling, as well as to facilitate the construction of more nuclear power plants. Other countries, such as Germany and Switzerland, have been slowly shuttering their remaining nuclear facilities in reaction to the 2011 meltdown in Fukushima, Japan.
“Energy policy over the past decades has not focused enough on securing supply,” Truss told the House of Commons. “All of this has left us vulnerable to volatile global markets and malign actors in an increasingly geopolitical world.”

CDU/CSU parliamentary group closed meeting

European Union ‘Social Market Economy’ Might Redistribute Fossil Fuel Profits

European Commission Chief Proposes Redistributing Fossil Fuel Profits

Fossil Fuels

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/nato" target="_blank" rel="noopener">North Atlantic Treaty Organization</a> (NATO) Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned his fellow <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Europeans</a> that the continent will undergo trials as it supports <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/ukraine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ukraine</a> in the midst of an <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy</a> crisis.
<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russia</a> severed <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">natural gas</a> flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last week, citing mechanical issues as the country continues its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ukraine-russia-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invasion of Ukraine</a>. While top ministers in the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/european-union" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Union</a> float policies such as a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/g7-finance-ministers-commit-to-russian-oil-price-cap-will-help-ukraine-for-as-long-as-it-takes">price cap</a> on Russian oil and a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-questions-russian-oil-price-cap-considers-making-fossil-fuel-companies-pay-a-solidarity-contribution">solidarity contribution</a> from fossil fuel companies, Stoltenberg encouraged his fellow Europeans that supporting Ukraine is worthwhile in an <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d5bbd979-ae7e-4125-abcb-16368be3dcaf">opinion piece</a> for the Financial Times.
“Our unity and solidarity will be seriously tested, as families and businesses feel the crunch of soaring energy prices and costs of living caused by Russia’s brutal invasion,” Stoltenberg wrote. “We face a difficult six months, with the threat of energy cuts, disruptions and perhaps even civil unrest. But we must stay the course and stand up to tyranny — for Ukraine’s sake and for ours.”
Nations in eastern Europe such as Estonia, Latvia, and Poland have contributed aid to Ukraine worth between 0.5% and 1% of their gross domestic product, according to <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/27331/countries-committing-the-most-of-their-gdp-to-ukraine-aid/">data</a> from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Other nations, such as the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, have contributed less than 0.25% of their economic output, while Germany — the largest economy in Europe — has contributed 0.08%.
“We are preparing more than a dozen new projects to help Ukraine face the winter,” Stoltenberg continued. “We see the decisive difference our support is making on the battlefield every day. The Ukrainian army has proved its ability to resist Russian aggression, strike back deep behind enemy lines and impose significant costs on the invading forces.”
The United States has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-sending-5-5-billion-more-in-aid-to-ukraine">sent</a> nearly $10 billion in military assistance to Ukraine as of early August. According to one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republican-lawmakers-demand-more-accountability-over-ukrainian-aid-after-cbs-report">report</a>, roughly 30% of the aid has not arrived to the front lines as various Ukrainian factions used equipment as political leverage.
With respect to the energy crisis compelling multiple European countries to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/switzerland-may-jail-people-who-turn-heat-above-66-degrees-this-winter">impose regulations</a> for thermostat and appliance usage, Stoltenberg said that the economic calamity will help Europe to “break free of Russia’s energy blackmail for good.”
“We do pay a price for our support to Ukraine. But the price we pay is counted in dollars, euros and pounds, while Ukrainians are paying with their lives,” he remarked. “And all of us will pay a much higher price if Russia and other authoritarian regimes believe they can invade their neighbours and trample on international law with impunity.”
Several member nations of the European Union, which abides by the official <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en">policy</a> of becoming “a climate-neutral society” by 2050, heavily regulate fossil fuel production even as they gradually close remaining <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/germany-reverts-to-burning-coal-will-keep-two-nuclear-plants-open-ahead-of-winter-months">nuclear plants</a>. In addition to the severance of Russian natural gas shipments — which Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/let-the-wolfs-tail-freeze-putin-doubles-down-on-halting-natural-gas-flow-to-western-europe">said</a> will continue as long as fulfilling orders contradicts the nation’s interests — low hydropower capacity emerging from drought conditions has impacted the continent’s electric grid, according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-intends-to-flatten-the-curve-for-electricity-use">speech</a> delivered last week by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
In a departure from other European officials, however, British Prime Minister Liz Truss reversed the nation’s ban on fracking and proposed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/british-prime-minister-liz-truss-unveils-package-to-cut-soaring-fuel-prices-offers-reforms-so-we-are-never-in-this-position-again">return to oil and gas</a> drilling in the North Sea following her succession of Conservative Party lawmaker Boris Johnson last week. “Energy policy over the past decades has not focused enough on securing supply,” Truss told the House of Commons. “All of this has left us vulnerable to volatile global markets and malign actors in an increasingly geopolitical world.”

Polish Politics And More (archives 2016-2022)

‘We Face A Difficult Six Months’: NATO Chief Urges Europe To Support Ukraine Through Russian ‘Energy Blackmail’

NATO Chief Warns Of Dark Winter As Russia Continues 'Energy Blackmail'

NATO

Officials in the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/european-union" target="_blank" rel="noopener">European Union</a> are eyeing a “solidarity contribution” from <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy</a> companies as the bloc grapples with rising power prices.
European nations are attempting to secure energy supplies as <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">natural gas</a> costs increase <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/back-to-the-dark-ages-tucker-carlson-details-europes-self-induced-energy-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than tenfold</a> compared to normal levels. After leading finance ministers floated a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/g7-finance-ministers-commit-to-russian-oil-price-cap-will-help-ukraine-for-as-long-as-it-takes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">price cap</a> on Russian oil, the nation severed gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last week, citing mechanical issues as the country continues its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ukraine-russia-war" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invasion of Ukraine</a>.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-intends-to-flatten-the-curve-for-electricity-use" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on Wednesday that member states would impose the price cap while seeking a “solidarity contribution” from fossil fuel companies. During a Friday meeting in Brussels, however, energy ministers failed to reach a consensus on the former policy and debated the specific terms of the latter.
“We can’t take this card off the table because the other, better way — namely bringing down prices — could certainly be complicated,” German Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-poverty-european-union-b3c5049fc902bf22da3b7eb3d2a64edf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters, according to The Associated Press. “We’re doing something that affects the heart of European energy supply — we’re intervening in the markets.”
Irish Climate Minister Eamon Ryan noted that policies must be implemented “within weeks, not months.” He added that citizens will “see the high prices having effect” as temperatures decrease this fall.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to double down on the restricted energy shipments, remarking at the Eastern Economic Forum on Wednesday that he is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/let-the-wolfs-tail-freeze-putin-doubles-down-on-halting-natural-gas-flow-to-western-europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prepared to ignore</a> existing supply agreements. “Will there be any political decisions that contradict the contracts? Yes, we just won’t fulfill them. We will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests,” Putin said. “We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil — we will not supply anything.”
European Union ministers concurred that Russia was attempting to “blackmail” its geopolitical rivals. “Russia has used its gas supplies as a weapon to foster an energy crisis next winter but also to weaken our economies and divide — politically — the European Union,” European Union Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said. “We have to ensure that their efforts will fail.”
Several member nations of the European Union, which abides by the official <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy</a> of becoming “a climate-neutral society” by 2050, heavily regulate fossil fuel production even as they gradually close remaining <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/germany-reverts-to-burning-coal-will-keep-two-nuclear-plants-open-ahead-of-winter-months" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nuclear plants</a>. Mentioning low hydropower capacity stemming from drought conditions throughout the continent, von der Leyen also said on Wednesday that the European Union would consider a “mandatory target” for cutting electricity consumption during peak hours.
“If you look at the costs of electricity, there are peak demands. And this is what is expensive, because, in these peak demands, the expensive gas comes into the market,” she said. “So what we have to do is to flatten the curve and avoid the peak demands. We will propose a mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours.”
France has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/french-president-calls-for-10-cut-in-energy-use-will-ration-power-as-a-last-resort" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> for a 10% reduction in energy consumption, while Spain and Switzerland <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/switzerland-may-jail-people-who-turn-heat-above-66-degrees-this-winter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">regulate</a> thermostat levels for households and businesses. In a departure from other European officials, however, British Prime Minister Liz Truss reversed the nation’s ban on fracking and proposed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/british-prime-minister-liz-truss-unveils-package-to-cut-soaring-fuel-prices-offers-reforms-so-we-are-never-in-this-position-again" target="_blank" rel="noopener">return to oil and gas</a> drilling in the North Sea.
“Energy policy over the past decades has not focused enough on securing supply,” Truss told the House of Commons. “All of this has left us vulnerable to volatile global markets and malign actors in an increasingly geopolitical world.”

Extraordinary Energy EU Ministers Council

European Union Questions Russian Oil Price Cap, Considers Making Fossil Fuel Companies Pay A ‘Solidarity Contribution’

European Union Debates Response To Russia As Country Severs Power Supplies

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russian</a> President <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/vladimir-putin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vladimir Putin</a> threatened on Wednesday to let <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Europe</a> “freeze” through the winter by refusing to continue <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy</a> shipments.
Russia severed <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">natural gas</a> flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last week, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-to-keep-nord-stream-pipeline-shut-citing-mechanical-problems-11662137957" target="_blank" rel="noopener">citing</a> mechanical issues as the country continues its invasion of Ukraine. During a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/08/putins-threatens-to-let-europe-freeze-raising-energy-rationing-risk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech</a> at the Eastern Economic Forum, Putin said that he is prepared to ignore existing supply agreements.
“Will there be any political decisions that contradict the contracts? Yes, we just won’t fulfill them. We will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests,” Putin remarked. “We will not supply gas, oil, coal, heating oil — we will not supply anything.”
The cutoff of natural gas supplies occurred as finance ministers of the G7 nations — which include France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/g7-finance-ministers-commit-to-russian-oil-price-cap-will-help-ukraine-for-as-long-as-it-takes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detailed</a> plans to impose a price cap on Russian oil.
“We would only have one thing left to do: as in the famous Russian fairy tale, we would let the wolf’s tail freeze,” Putin added. According to a <a href="https://english.pravda.ru/news/world/153887-putin_europe_freeze/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from Russian news outlet Pravda, the account centers upon villagers finding a wolf stuck in ice and beating it due to its actions over the summer. Though the wolf eventually escaped, its tail was left in the ice.
Indeed, many European nations find themselves constrained as the cost of natural gas increases <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/back-to-the-dark-ages-tucker-carlson-details-europes-self-induced-energy-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than tenfold</a>. Germany, the continent’s largest economy, imported roughly 55% of its gas from Russia before the invasion of Ukraine, although officials have since reduced dependence to 35%.
Yet several member nations of the European Union, which has endorsed the official <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/eu-action/climate-strategies-targets/2050-long-term-strategy_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy</a> of becoming “a climate-neutral society” by 2050, have placed heavy regulations upon fossil fuels even as they gradually <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/germany-reverts-to-burning-coal-will-keep-two-nuclear-plants-open-ahead-of-winter-months" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shutter nuclear power plants</a>. Mentioning low hydropower generation capacity stemming from drought conditions, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/european-union-intends-to-flatten-the-curve-for-electricity-use" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on Wednesday that the European Union would consider a “mandatory target” for reducing electricity consumption during peak hours.
“If you look at the costs of electricity, there are peak demands. And this is what is expensive, because, in these peak demands, the expensive gas comes into the market,” she commented. “So what we have to do is to flatten the curve and avoid the peak demands. We will propose a mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours.”
Several nations have already enacted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/french-president-calls-for-10-cut-in-energy-use-will-ration-power-as-a-last-resort" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy usage restrictions</a> or warned that such policies could soon be necessary. While the legislature of Spain mandated that public air conditioning be set no lower than 27 degrees Celsius — roughly 80.6 degrees Fahrenheit — through the summer months, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a 10% voluntary reduction in the nation’s power usage to avoid “last resort” consumption limits.
Switzerland, which is not a member of the European Union, may <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/switzerland-may-jail-people-who-turn-heat-above-66-degrees-this-winter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">impose hefty fines</a> for citizens who set their thermostats above 19 degrees Celsius — 66 degrees Fahrenheit — in the event of energy rationing. Possible sanctions include three years in prison for intentional offenders.
In a departure from other European officials, however, British Prime Minister Liz Truss reversed the nation’s ban on fracking and proposed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/british-prime-minister-liz-truss-unveils-package-to-cut-soaring-fuel-prices-offers-reforms-so-we-are-never-in-this-position-again" target="_blank" rel="noopener">return to oil and gas</a> drilling in the North Sea. “Energy policy over the past decades has not focused enough on securing supply,” Truss told the House of Commons. “All of this has left us vulnerable to volatile global markets and malign actors in an increasingly geopolitical world.”

Eastern Economic Forum In Vladivostok

‘Let The Wolf’s Tail Freeze’: Putin Doubles Down On Halting Natural Gas Flow To Western Europe

Vladimir Putin Doubles Down On Pausing Energy Flow To Western Europe

Russia

Vladimir Putin

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