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-- Napoleon Bonaparte

News and Opinion

US making big mistake when using dollar as sanction instrument — Putin

The United States is making a big mistake when it uses the dollar as a sanction instrument, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with CNBC journalist Hadley Gamble after the Russian Energy Week forum’s plenary session. The text of the interview was posted on the Kremlin website on Thursday.

"I think that the United States is making a very big mistake when it uses the dollar as a sanction instrument," he said, adding that Washington is doing it to stop settlements in dollars for sanctioned products.

"We cannot receive client’s money for delivered products in dollars. Where does it lead? We are simply forced, we have no other choice, we simply have to use other currencies," he said.

"When other countries, which use the dollar as a reserve currency or as a settlement instrument, see what is going on, they feel worry that the dollar can be used this way against them," Putin noted. "And they begin to reduce their dollar holdings too and make less use of it as a settlement unit. As a result, even the US’ closest partners and allies bring down the dollar’s share in their reserves. This is a statistical fact."

According to the Russian leader, Moscow is reducing the dollar’s share in its reserve and settlement. "It is not always possible but we are trying to use national currencies. So, it can be said that the United States is quarreling with its bread and butter because it is undermining the dollar’s absolute competitive edge as a universal reserve currency and is damaging its strategic economic interests for the sake of time-serving political reasons," he said.

The dollar "is undermining its positions as a global reserve currency and the volume of settlements in dollars is shrinking, as are the volumes of countries’ reserves in it," Putin stressed.

‘Brutal aggression’: Venezuela halts talks with opposition after envoy extradited to US

Venezuela’s government is halting negotiations with its opponents in retaliation for the extradition to the US of a close ally of president Nicolás Maduro, who prosecutors believe could be the most significant witness ever about corruption in the South American country. Jorge Rodríguez, who has been heading the government’s delegation, said his team wouldn’t travel to Mexico City for the next scheduled round of negotiations.

The announcement capped a tumultuous day that saw Colombian-born businessman Alex Saab placed on a US-bound plane in Cape Verde after a 16-month fight by Maduro and his allies, including Russia, who consider Saab a Venezuelan diplomat.

The Venezuelan government in September named Saab – who was arrested in June 2020 when his plane stopped in Cape Verde to refuel – as a member of its negotiating team in talks with the opposition in Mexico, where the two sides are looking to solve their political crisis. ...

Hours after Saab’s extradition, Venezuela revoked the house arrest of six former executives of refiner Citgo, a US subsidiary of state oil company PDVSA, two sources with knowledge of the situation and a family member told Reuters. ... The former Citgo executives, who were arrested in November 2017 after being summoned to a meeting at PDVSA headquarters in Caracas, were taken from their homes to one of the headquarters of the intelligence police, two sources said.

The US Has Placed Itself In Charge Over Which Nations Get To Eat

The globally influential propaganda multiplier news agencies AP and AFP have both informed their readers that a “fugitive” has been extradited to the United States.

“Fugitive businessman close to Venezuela’s Maduro extradited to US,” reads the AFP headline.

“Alex Saab, a top fugitive close to Venezuela’s socialist government, has been put on a plane to the U.S. to face money laundering charges,” AP announced on Twitter.

You’d be forgiven for wondering what specifically makes this man a “fugitive”, and what that status has to do with his extradition to a foreign government whose laws should have no bearing on his life. The Colombian-born Venezuelan citizen Alex Saab, as it happens, is a “fugitive” from the US government’s self-appointed authority to decide which populations on our planet are permitted to have ready access to food. His crime is working to circumvent the crushing US sanctions which have been starving Venezuelan civilians to death by the tens of thousands.

Saab is being extradited from the African nation of Cabo Verde where he has been imprisoned since last year under pressure from the US government. In an article published this past May titled “Alex Saab v. The Empire: How the US Is Using Lawfare To Punish a Venezuelan Diplomat“, Roger D Harris explains how the US uses its domination of the international financial system to crush nations which disobey it and outlines the real reasons for Saab’s imprisonment, which has included torture and draconian living conditions. Harris writes:

Special Envoy and Ambassador to the African Union for Venezuela Alex Saab was on a humanitarian mission flying from Caracas to Iran to procure food and gasoline for the Venezuelan CLAP food assistance program. Saab was detained on a refueling stop in the African nation of Cabo Verde and has been held in custody ever since June 12, 2020.

Saab’s “crime” — according to the U.S. government, which ordered the imprisonment — was money laundering. That is, Saab conducted perfectly legal international trade. Still, his circumventing of the U.S. sanctions – which are designed to prevent relief to the Venezuelans – is considered by Washington to be money laundering.

After a two-year investigation into Saab’s transactions with Swiss banks, the Swiss government concluded on March 25 that there was no money laundering. Saab is being prosecuted because he is serving his country’s interest rather than that of the U.S.

News agencies like AP and AFP are well aware that Saab is being extradited not for breaking any actual law but for daring to transgress Washington’s unilateral sanctions. As FAIR’s Joe Emersberger wrote back in July:

Reuters (3/15/21, 3/18/21) has casually reported that Saab “faces extradition to the United States, which accuses him of violating US sanctions,” and that he has been “repeatedly named by the US State Department as an operator who helps Maduro arrange trade deals that Washington is seeking to block through sanctions.” A Reuters article (8/28/20) about Saab’s case in 2020 mentioned in passing that “the United States this month seized four cargoes of Iranian fuel bound for Venezuela, where fuel shortages are once again worsening.”

Critics of the US empire have had harsh words for the extradition.

“Biden, picking up Trump’s baton, has kidnapped Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab for the crime of trying to feed Venezuelans in defiance of US sanctions designed to prevent that,” tweeted journalist Aaron Maté. “Venezuelans aren’t allowed to eat so long as the D.C. Mafia has marked their government for regime change.”

Yes indeed. The US government has appointed itself the authority to unilaterally decide which of the world’s populations get to eat and which do not, and to imprison anyone who tries to facilitate unauthorized eating in a US-sanctioned nation.

“The extradition of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab is a clear signal the Biden Administration has made no break with Trump’s all out assault on international law,” tweeted journalist Anya Parampil. “Also a worrying sign for the case of Julian Assange— another foreign citizen the US has essentially kidnapped and held hostage.”

This is true. It would seem that the primary difference between Assange’s case and Saab’s is that the US empire is working to extradite Assange because he transgressed its self-appointed authority over the world’s access to information, whereas Saab transgressed its self-appointed authority over the world’s access to food.

“The US rogue state just ripped up every international law, after imprisoning and now extraditing Venezuelan DIPLOMAT Alex Saab. Diplomatic immunity is dead; the US empire killed it. Now all foreign diplomats are fair game to be kidnapped and imprisoned, if Washington wants to,” tweeted journalist Ben Norton, adding, “The US accusations of ‘money laundering’ are absurd and politically motivated. The US claims anyone who violates its ILLEGAL sanctions is a ‘criminal’.”

Indeed, “money laundering” is a vague charge which basically just means trying to conceal the source or destination of money that is deemed to have been obtained illegally, and since the US government considers itself the arbiter of what financial transactions are lawful in nations it is sanctioning, it can apply that claim to anyone who tries to get around US sanctions financially.

The US government does not deny that its sanctions hurt Venezuelans by attacking the economy they rely on to feed themselves, in fact it has openly admitted that “sanctions, particularly on the state oil company in 2019, likely contributed to the steeper decline of the Venezuelan economy.”

The US government also does not deny that the starvation sanctions it has inflicted upon Iran are directed at its civilian population, with then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo openly admitting in 2019 that Washington’s economic warfare against that nation is designed to pressure Iranian civilians to “change the government,” i.e. make them so miserable that they wage a domestic uprising to topple Tehran.

The US government also does not deny that the starvation sanctions it has inflicted upon Syria are designed to hurt its civilian population, with current Secretary of State Tony Blinken reaffirming just this past Wednesday that it is the Biden administration’s policy to “oppose the reconstruction of Syria” as long as Assad remains in power. In other words the US will not allow Syria the funds to help rebuild itself from the devastating regime change proxy war the US and its allies waged against it, even as the UN reports that 60 percent of the nation’s population is close to starvation.

And of course there’s the US power alliance’s horrific blockade on Yemen which is murdering people by the hundreds of thousands via starvation and disease, with the UN reporting that a further 16 million people are “marching towards starvation.”

Starvation is the only kind of warfare where, because of the continual reframing of mass media propaganda, it is considered perfectly normal and acceptable to deliberately target a civilian population with deadly force.

The US empire is entirely open about the fact that it sees itself as the gatekeeper of the world’s food supply. If a population disobeys the empire its people will starve, and anyone who tries to obtain food for them will be arrested by US proxies and extradited to a US jail cell.

This is the imperialist’s vision of heaven on earth. A world where America’s stranglehold over global financial systems allows it to choke off entire populations if their governments disobey imperial decrees, without even firing a shot. A world where the PR nightmares of bombed civilians and destroyed nations are a thing of the past, where disobedient nations can simply be squeezed to death by modern siege warfare tactics while imperial propaganda firms like AP and AFP blame their starvation on their nation’s leaders.

That’s ultimate power right there. That’s total control. Having the world so bent to the will of the almighty dollar and the massive military force with which it is inextricably intertwined to such an extent that disobedience becomes impossible. That’s what’s being fought for in the slow motion third world war that the empire is waging against unabsorbed governments like Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia and China. And that’s why those unabsorbed governments are fast at work moving away from the dollar in response.

It should really go without saying, but a power structure that would openly starve civilians to death to ensure global domination is not the sort of power structure that humanity should want dominating the globe. The willingness to do such monstrous things exposes a depravity and a lack of wisdom which has no business determining what direction our world should take into the future.

As CIA Ramps Up Anti-China Actions, Why Doesn’t Congress Oppose Biden’s “New Cold War”?

Chinese military condemns US and Canada over warships in Taiwan Strait

The Chinese military has condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region. ...

The US military said the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Dewey sailed through the narrow waterway that separates Taiwan from its neighbour China along with the Canadian frigate HMCS Winnipeg on Thursday and Friday.

“Dewey’s and Winnipeg’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” it added.

China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said its forces monitored the ships and “stood guard” throughout their passage.

“The United States and Canada colluded to provoke and stir up trouble … seriously jeopardising peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” it said. “Taiwan is part of Chinese territory. Theatre forces always maintain a high level of alert and resolutely counter all threats and provocations.”

US urges UK to rebuild relations with Paris after submarine contract row

The US has urged Britain to follow its example and try to repair its relations with Paris in the wake of the row over France’s loss of its submarine contract with Australia. ...

[S]enior US diplomats including the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, spent two days in France and Brussels trying to repair relations after French leaders made clear they felt the trio of nations had gone behind their back to form the new alliance.

Blinken met the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in Paris on 5 October. The US’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also met the French foreign policy adviser, Emmanuel Bonne. French president Emmanuel Macron is also due to hold a bilateral face-to-face meeting with Biden at the G20 in Rome.

US diplomats have been disappointed that the British prime minister has not made any parallel effort to patch up relations with Macron. There has been one explanatory phone call while Johnson expressed his frustration with French complaints over the loss of the contract, saying “donnez moi un break”. ...

The French have now largely decided to capitalise on US political embarrassment to win concessions from Washington over a strengthened European defence pillar inside Nato, greater US cooperation in fighting terrorism in the Sahel, and a recognition of the legitimacy of the European Union’s role in the Indo-Pacific, which will be highlighted by a special conference convened by the French during its presidency of the EU in the first half of next year. But there is no parallel rapprochement between the French and the Australians or the British.

John Deere's EPIC Failure To Shut Down Worker Uprising

Hollywood strike averted after union and producers reach last-minute deal

An 11th-hour deal between producers and the union representing 60,000 film and television workers has averted a strike that threatened to cause widespread disruption in Hollywood.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which includes camera operators, makeup artists, sound technicians and others, said negotiators agreed to a new three-year contract on Saturday, ahead of a Monday deadline that would have seen them walk off the job. ...

The workers still must vote to approve the deal, but the strike has been called off with the tentative agreement, avoiding a serious setback for an industry that had just gotten back to work after long pandemic shutdowns.

Jarryd Gonzales, spokesperson for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represented the studios and other entertainment companies in negotiations, confirmed the agreement to the Associated Press. ...

Details of the new contracts were not immediately revealed.

Bernie CALLS OUT Manchin In WV Paper On Climate Agenda

Call Their Bluff Right Now

As millions of Americans are losing their jobless benefits, being pulverized by health care costs, losing their savings, and struggling to survive the intensifying climate apocalypse, the country has spent weeks watching Sen. Joe Manchin issue royal edicts from the deck of his luxury yacht, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema toggling between spa fundraisers and a European vacation. The Senate apparently has so little to do, it has time this week for a confirmation hearing to deliver disgraced Chicago mayor-turned-Wall-Street-mogul Rahm Emanuel a cushy ambassadorship — an insulting spectacle scheduled on the 7-year anniversary of Emanuel’s police force murdering teenager Laquan McDonald.

The interminable delay of an up-or-down Senate vote on President Joe Biden’s agenda serves no one other than Sinema, Manchin, and their corporate donors who want the bill gutted or killed. Every day Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stalls a vote on an already-scaled-back $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, Senate Democrats become more complicit in the betrayal of their party’s campaign promises, the evisceration of the working class, and the destruction of the climate.

They can make a different choice and hold a vote right now.

That’s not what Manchin and Sinema want - they and their corporate paymasters love the current slow-walk. As the process drags out, the pair get to keep making ever-changing, mercurial declarations about parts of the legislation they and their donors dislike, and then rake in campaign cash from industries that would benefit from hollowing out the bill. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats and the White House keep responding to the jeremiads by promising to whittle down the legislation all in the name of to appease the Wolf of West Virginia and the Arizona Attention Freak. ...

Their gamble is obvious. The pair is not only wagering that House Progressives will ultimately bail on their “no climate, no deal” pledge to hold out, but also that Democratic leaders will capitulate. More specifically, Sinema and Manchin are betting that concern trolling the bill in the press will prompt party leaders to once again hack away at the legislation before the two senators are ever put on the spot to vote for anything. And so far, the wager is working. In the name of appeasing the two apostates, the White House is reportedly firing up the legislative blowtorch to further incinerate the climate provisions, even as scientists are begging them to instead stop the incineration of the Earth’s ecosystem. ...

One way to stop playing the game Manchin, Sinema, and their corporate sponsors are playing is to schedule a vote on a bill. And to really up the ante, Democratic leaders could add a bunch of programs that will target aid and investment to West Virginia and Arizona. Holding a vote would make this terrible twosome go on record voting against paid family leave, universal pre-K, free community college, and every other wildly popular and desperately needed initiative in the legislation. Holding a vote would make Manchin try to explain why he would deny an expansion of dental care to seniors in West Virginia, who are facing a dental health crisis. It would compel him to explain why he takes orders from Exxon lobbyists, and is trying to kill climate initiatives when West Virginia is the most flood-threatened state in America, and only a tiny fraction of its jobs is actually in mining. Similarly, holding a vote would make Sinema head back to the desert and explain why she is betraying her own explicit prescription drug promises and killing drug pricing legislation for Arizona seniors, and make her explain why she’s voting down climate legislation when the climate crisis could soon make large regions of her state uninhabitable.

Biden administration to ask supreme court to halt Texas abortion ban

The Biden administration said on Friday it will turn next to the US supreme court its attempt to halt a Texas law that has banned most abortions since September.

The move by the justice department comes after an appeals court on Thursday night left in place the law known as Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions at roughly six weeks, or before most women know they are pregnant. The appeals court, the fifth circuit, is among the most conservative in the nation.

Kenosha police accused of ‘deputizing’ militia vigilantes during Jacob Blake protests

The police department in the Wisconsin city of Kenosha is facing new legal action after being accused of “deputizing” a group of militia vigilantes during anti-police brutality protests last year in which 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people. The action, brought by Gaige Grosskreutz, who was wounded during the incident, alleges that local police effectively deputized a “band of white nationalist vigilantes” during protests sparked by the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is now paralyzed from the waist down, by a white police officer.

According to the complaint, which names the city, county, Kenosha Police Chief Eric Larsen, County Sheriff David Beth and former Kenosha police chief Daniel Miskinis, as defendants, a law enforcement officer offered Rittenhouse “words of encouragement, appreciation, and thanks” for his support. ...

Grosskreutz’s suit against the Kenosha police follows a legal action brought by the family of Huber in August which claims the city of Kenosha and its police and county sheriff’s departments conspired with white militia members, giving them “license … to wreak havoc and inflict injury”.

Democrats Join Republicans To Sabotage The Left

New Filing Reveals Sinema Pads Campaign Coffers With More Pharma and Finance Funds

U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the right-wing Arizona Democrat obstructing her party's $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill, is the recent beneficiary of six-figure largesse from pharma- and finance-linked donors apparently rewarding her opposition to the flagship social and climate investment legislation, according to campaign finance disclosures filed Friday.

Politico and The Daily Poster report that Sinema raised over $1.1 million between July and September, with 90% of the campaign donations coming from outside Arizona. At least $100,000 of those contributions came from individuals or entities linked to the pharmaceutical and financial services industries.

According to Politico, Sinema has "raised more campaign money in the last three months than in any quarter since she became a senator."

Politico reports:

Her individual donors... included a who's-who of powerful people in the pharmaceutical industry. Top donors included the pharma giant Gilead's CEO, Daniel O'Day, who gave $5,000 this past quarter. Another $2,900 came in from Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks. The executive chair of Merck's board, Kenneth C. Frazier, also gave $2,900, as did the chair and CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb, Giovanni Caforio.

The CEO of Genentech, Alexander Hardy, gave $2,500. Meanwhile, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's executive vice president for policy and research, Jennifer Bryant, senior vice president for federal advocacy Anne Esposito, and executive vice president for public affairs Debra DeShong, each gave $1,000.

The Daily Poster adds that Sinema also received approximately $47,000 from executives at Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a private equity firm that owns a large stake in Abzena, a company providing "outsourced research, development, and manufacturing services... to biopharmaceutical companies."

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich noted earlier this week that Sinema has received over $750,000 from Big Pharma throughout her career.

While Sinema campaigned on a promise to "lower prescription drug prices," she has been one of the staunchest congressional opponents of allowing Medicare to leverage its tremendous purchasing power to negotiate lower medication prices.

Among Sinema's biggest financial services industry donors disclosed in the new filing are Goldman Sachs president John Waldron, who gave the maximum allowable amount of $5,800; Blackstone senior managing directors Giovanni Cutaia and Eli Nagler, who donated a combined $5,700; and Facebook co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who both gave the maximum amount. The Winklevoss twins have amassed a multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency empire; Sinema is a member of the Senate subcommittee charged with regulating digital currencies.

The new disclosures came as Sinema traveled to Europe to raise more campaign cash, and as the head of an advocacy group linked to the billionaire-backed Koch network urged her to "stay strong" in her efforts to torpedo her party's budget reconciliation package.

Colin Powell Dies of Blood Cancer, Covid Complications

Buttigieg warns Manchin of resistance to Biden’s climate plan: ‘It will cost lives’

The transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg delivered a blunt warning on Sunday to Joe Manchin and other Senate Democrats who are forcing Joe Biden to scale back his climate crisis agenda: your resistance is going to cost lives. Manchin, senator for the coal-dependent state of West Virginia, opposes elements of the president’s clean energy performance program (CEPP), a $150bn central plank of his Build Back Better plan and $3.5tn spending bill.

White House officials have acknowledged that clean energy and clean electricity provisions are likely to be dropped from the bill to secure the support of Manchin and fellow sceptic Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Both votes are critical in a divided 50-50 Senate.

Buttigieg appeared to express his disappointment in Manchin’s stance on Sunday, telling CNN’s State of the Union that the holdout politicians’ stonewalling of Biden’s ambitious climate plan could be deadly. “The longer you take to do something about it, the more it’s going to cost in livelihoods as well as lives,” he said. ...

Biden is attempting to broker a deal with Manchin and Sinema that would allow the bill to pass, though the president has already conceded that cuts will be made. “I’m convinced we’re going to get it done. We’re not going to get $3.5tn. We’ll get less than that, but we’re going to get it,” Biden said on Friday.

The US has a silent pig pandemic on its doorstep once again

A pandemic is silently sweeping across the globe – and it is not Covid-19. Since African Swine Fever (ASF) was confirmed in the Americas more than two months ago, the deadly pig disease is now on six continents and on the doorstep of the US.

Samples taken in the Dominican Republic tested positive for ASF in July and in neighbouring Haiti in September.

The virus does not affect humans or meat quality, but is an almost certain death sentence for pigs. The US pork industry – worth $23bn (£17bn) a year – is in a panic, Latin America is on alert, and pork producers in the Dominican Republic and Haiti are haunted by memories of the US-funded eradication of their entire pork population when ASF last hit more than 40 years ago.

Revealed: more than 120,000 US sites feared to handle harmful PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified more than 120,000 locations around the US where people may be exposed to a class of toxic “forever chemicals” associated with various cancers and other health problems that is a frightening tally four times larger than previously reported, according to data obtained by the Guardian. The list of facilities makes it clear that virtually no part of America appears free from the potential risk of air and water contamination with the chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Colorado tops the EPA list with an estimated 21,400 facilities, followed by California’s 13,000 sites and Oklahoma with just under 12,000. The facilities on the list represent dozens of industrial sectors, including oil and gas work, mining, chemical manufacturing, plastics, waste management and landfill operations. Airports, fire training facilities and some military-related sites are also included. ...

The tally far exceeds a previous analysis that showed 29,900 industrial sites known or suspected of making or using the toxic chemicals.

People living near such facilities “are certain to be exposed, some at very high levels” to PFAS chemicals, said David Brown, a public health toxicologist and former director of environmental epidemiology at the Connecticut department of health. Brown said he suspects there are far more sites than even those on the EPA list, posing long-term health risks for unsuspecting people who live near them. ...

In July, a report by Physicians for Social Responsibility presented evidence that oil and gas companies have been using PFAS, or substances that can degrade into PFAS, in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), a technique used to extract natural gas or oil.

The EPA said in 2019 that it was compiling data to create a map of “known or potential PFAS contamination sources” to help “assess environmental trends in PFAS concentrations” and aid local authorities in oversight. But no such map has yet been issued publicly.

“Racism Plays Major Part”: Like in Flint, Lead Pipes Leave Benton Harbor, Michigan, with Toxic Water

Cop26 corporate sponsors condemn climate summit as ‘mismanaged’

Companies that stumped up millions of pounds to sponsor the Cop26 climate summit have condemned it as “mismanaged” and “very last minute” in a volley of complaints as next month’s event in Glasgow draws near. The sponsors, which include some of Britain’s biggest companies, have raised formal complaints blaming “very inexperienced” civil servants for delayed decisions, poor communication and a breakdown in relations between the organisers and firms in the run-up to the landmark talks. ...

The UK is running its Cop26 presidency from within the Cabinet Office, under the leadership of the former business secretary Alok Sharma, who is the Cop26 president, and the businessman Nigel Topping who was appointed the government’s high-level climate action champion last year. Sponsorship is expected to help defray a policing bill estimated to reach up to £250m. ...

Organisers of Cop26 promised sponsors an “outstanding opportunity” and “unique benefits” in exchange for their support, including a chance to promote their brands at the conference “green zone” exhibition space and the participation of government ministers at their events. But in multiple emails and official letters the companies have complained to organisers about unmet expectations, and deepening concerns over delays to the green zone plans. They have also raised complaints that ministers have not always been available for their events in the run-up to Cop26, as agreed as part of the sponsor deals. ...

The energy company sponsors – Hitachi, National Grid, Scottish Power and SSE – are understood to be particularly frustrated because they were under the impression that no other energy brands would feature at Cop26. However, the “blue zone”, which is organised by the UN, will include rival brands. ...

A Whitehall veteran of Cop summits said: “It feels like some of these sponsors have forgotten the actual reason we’re in Glasgow. Cop isn’t about branding, it’s about tackling climate change. Keeping 1.5C in reach is the best thing you can do for your bottom line: they would do well to remember this.”

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

A US small-town mayor sued the oil industry. Then Exxon went after him

Revealed: how UK spies incited mass murder of Indonesia’s communists

What Baraitser Thought About the Plot to Kill or Abduct Assange

Refreshingly Honest Billionaire Says Media Purchase Will Be Used For Propaganda

Cherry-Picking Polls to Hide Public Support for Biden’s Spending Plan

Why Record Numbers of Workers Are Quitting and Striking

The SEC Is Taking a Hard Look at Dark Markets, Except for the Darkest of All – Dark Pools

Macron and the ‘French Trump’ trap Gaullism’s heirs in a political vice

Is Hunter Biden’s art project painting the president into an ethical corner?

New book debunks widespread claim that Hunter Biden laptop was 'Russian disinformation'

Humane: How Obama sanitized war and killed the US anti-war movement

Matt Stoller: How CORRUPT Monopolists Inflate Prices

Facebook Bans Criticism Of Establishment Journalists

Let's Go Brandon! Becomes National Trend

Kim Iversen: Is CIVIL WAR Looming? Americans SUPPORT Red States, Blue States Seceding From US

Subject Of VIRAL Joey Quits Video Has Advice For Fed Up Workers, STRIKETOBER Serves As Direct REBUKE

A Little Night Music

Cousin Joe - Take A Lesson From Your Teacher

Cousin Joe - It´s Dangerous to be a Husband

Cousin Joe - How Come My Dog Don't Bark?

Cousin Joe w/ Leonard Feather's Hiptet - Just Another Woman

Cousin Joe w/Earl Bostic Orchestra - Make Me Strong As Samson

Cousin Joe w/Mezzrow-Bechet Septet - Levee Blues

Cousin Joe - Railroad Porter Blues

Cousin Joe - Box Car Shorty's Confession

Cousin Joe - Box Car Shorty And Peter Blue

Cousin Joe - Life Is A One Way Ticket

Cousin Joe - Everything Made of Wood Once Was a Tree