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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has been in politics since 1982, so he knows a thing or two about wheeling and dealing. Manchin was sitting pretty, holding the fate of the entire Democratic Party in the palm of his hand because it was his vote that was absolutely necessary to keep Joe Biden’s agenda alive. When Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer doggedly pursued Manchin’s vote for the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” he didn’t arrive at the negotiations empty-handed. Schumer came to the table bearing gifts — the kind of gifts that a politician like Manchin couldn’t refuse. Schumer and Manchin crafted...

A former National Security Agency contractor jailed for leaking a document about Russian hacking in the 2016 election has spoken out about her experiences, insisting that she is "not a traitor." Reality Winner, now 30, was arrested in 2017 and admitted to taking classified intelligence documents that same year. She was accused of mailing top-secret NSA information to the media outlet The Intercept. The classified document detailed Russian government efforts to hack a Florida-based US voting software supplier. In 2018, Winner was sentenced to more than five years in prison. She was released in June 2021 for good behavior. Speaking...

Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) is seeking to codify a Trump-era rule that limits states throwing up regulatory roadblocks to pipeline construction, Breitbart News learned exclusively on Wednesday.The congressman and Trump-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate is set to introduce a bill on Thursday which would cement the 2020 Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule. The rule was created to limit states’ review power after Republicans in Congress reported that some states were using the permitting process detailed in Section 401 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to stop new energy projects.The bill is the House companion to Sen. Shelley Moore...

https://m.news1.co.il/Archive/0026-D-155442-00.html Hamas concerned about the relations between Turkey and Israel Yoni, Ben-Menachem, 11/07/2022 Hamas is trying to damage the good relations between the Israeli Mossad and the Turkish intelligence through a fabricated investigation at the Al-Jazeera Channel... An attempt to discredit the activity of the institution in Turkey At Hamas they understand that the Israeli Mossad has excellent intelligence capabilities and that it also provided the Turkish intelligence evidence that Hamas extension is engaged in terrorism and also in undermining the Palestinian Authority. Therefore, Hamas leadership is now trying to bring a wedge between the Israeli institution and the Turkish...

Although Russia has reportedly invested $55 billion into its pipeline deal with China, natural gas imports through the pipeline have only totaled $3.81 billion since December 2019, according to China customs data as of June, accessed through Wind Information. The pace of Chinese purchases picked up in the first half of this year — nearly tripling from a year ago to $1.66 billion, the data showed.

An illegal “vodka pipeline” has been discovered by a group of patrolling Ukrainian border officials near the southeastern city of Podilsk. According to the Ukrainian government, the pipeline was used to transport bootleg alcohol from Ukraine into Moldova. “Three hundred meters of polyethlene pipe stretched from the state border underground in the direction of the private home of a 32-year-old citizen of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian government said in a statement. ***** The recently discovered vodka highway is part of a network of pipelines built under the former Soviet Union that was built to transport cheap Russian vodka out of the...

BERLIN — Natural gas started flowing through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe on Thursday after a 10-day shutdown for maintenance, the operator said. But the gas flow was expected to fall well short of full capacity. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany had been closed since July 11 for annual maintenance work. Amid growing tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, German officials had feared that the pipeline — the country’s main source of Russian gas, which has accounted for around a third of Germany’s gas supplies — might not reopen at all. Operator Nord Stream AG said...

The Biden administration has abruptly withdrawn American support for the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed) pipeline, a project aimed at shipping natural gas from Israel to European markets. The White House said the project was antithetical to its "climate goals." In reaching its decision, which effectively kills EastMed, the White House appears to have caved to pressure from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has vociferously opposed the underwater pipeline because it would bypass Turkey. Biden's decision — reportedly coordinated with Turkey but reached without consulting Israel, Greece or Cyprus, the main countries involved in the project — undercuts three of the...

MOSCOW. July 18 (Interfax) - Ukrainians will never accept Canada's decision to return a turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. "I talked today with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. We discussed our cooperation, and I thanked him, thanked Canada for support. But I also pointed out that the Ukrainians would never accept Canada's decision regarding a turbine for Nord Stream, which it decided to transfer to Germany essentially in violation of the sanction regime," Ukrainian media quoted Zelensky as saying in a video address on Sunday evening. Gazprom has officially addressed Siemens...

In a time when many Americans are struggling to make ends meet, President Joe Biden is ensuring that terrorist-sponsoring regimes stay well-funded. Biden made a commitment to provide hundeds of millions in taxpayer dollars to the Palestinians at a meeting with Palestinian authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on his Israel trip while reaffirming his commitment to the “two-state solution.” “Now, as president of the United States, my commitment to that goal of a two-state solution has not changed in all these years,” he said. “Two states along the 1967 lines were mutually agreed. The swaps remain the best way to achieve...

President Joe Biden’s administration is supporting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to ship natural gas pipeline equipment to Germany, which will lead to the European economic hub importing more Russian natural gas. State Department spokesman Ned Price expressed Washington’s support for the move in a statement Monday. Trudeau’s government plans to ship the equipment for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline back to Germany after it had been kept in Montreal due to sanctions on Russian gas, according to Bloomberg. The decision is aimed at preventing serious economic turmoil in Germany due to high energy prices.

The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Iran next week.

BERLIN - The main natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany shut down for scheduled maintenance Monday, raising concerns that Moscow could use the repairs as a pretext for a longer shutdown as it wields energy supplies as leverage in the Ukraine war.European ministers warned that it was unclear whether Moscow would turn the taps on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline back on after the 10 days of scheduled work. Germany's economy minister, Robert Habeck, said Berlin was concerned about a "nightmare scenario" this winter if Russia decides against doing so."Everything is possible, everything can happen," he told Deutschlandfunk radio...

Saudi Arabia, the largest U.S. export market in the Middle East, invited Chinese President Xi to visit Riyadh in March as relations with the U.S. have faltered since Joe Biden was elected, The Wall Street Journal reported.According to a report from CNN, U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Saudi Arabia is now actively manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, a relationship that could lead to domino effects across Middle East countries. (snip) Saudi Arabia announced in March it was considering accepting the Chinese yuan instead of the US dollar in future transactions. (snip) It will end...

NATO leaders meeting in Madrid issued a formal invitation to Finland and Sweden to become members, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted the two to end decades of military non-alignment and seek accession... Joining NATO marks a significant shift for both countries. Sweden would end more than 200 years of non-alignment, while Finland, which shares an 810 mile border with Russia, would end a policy of neutrality adopted as a Soviet-imposed condition of peace following World War Two. The process to finalize now requires ratification by all 30 current allies. That could take months, but the alliance stressed that “the...

Joe Biden’s disastrous oil and gas policies in America are creating massive food shortages across the country, putting Americans at risk of famine. One America’s Pearson Sharp has more.Video Link

Today the representatives of Turkiye, Finland and Sweden, under the auspices of the NATO Secretary General, have agreed the following. NATO is an Alliance based on the principles of collective defence and the indivisibility of security, as well as on common values. Turkiye, Finland and Sweden affirm their adherence to the principles and values enshrined in the Washington Treaty. One of the key elements of the Alliance is unwavering solidarity and cooperation in the fight against terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, which constitutes a direct threat to the national security of Allies as well as to international peace...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has removed his objections to the applications for NATO membership submitted by Sweden and Finland, guaranteeing those two previously unaligned nations will join the West’s bulwark alliance against Russian aggression.In May, Sweden and Finland announced they would ask to become members of the NATO military alliance. This was an unprecedented step that even the threat of the USSR had not been able to accomplish (Finland Announces It Will Join NATO, Sweden to Follow, While Moscow Makes Its Usual Threats). Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine did accomplish what Joe Stalin couldn’t in no small...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher argued that when people try to get off fossil fuels before there is a replacement ready, “they wind up going back to even worse fossil fuels.” And that this has happened in the United States and President Joe Biden going to Saudi Arabia “hat in hand, begging them for oil” after vowing to reduce oil drilling is an example of that. After citing Biden’s pledge to end drilling on federal lands, Maher stated, “Let’s just talk about why these things really happen, it’s because people think that they can —...

At Greece's largest coal mine, controlled explosions and the roar of giant excavators scooping up blasted rock have once again become routine. Coal production has been ramped up at the site near the northern Greek city of Kozani as the war in Ukraine forced many European nations to rethink their energy supplies. Coal, long treated as a legacy fuel in Europe, is now helping the continent safeguard its power supply and cope with the dramatic rise in natural gas prices caused by the war. Electricity generated by coal in the European Union jumped by 19% in the fourth quarter of...