Fintan O'Toole finally gets the message about what is really at stake over the protocol conflict: Truss's latest take on NI protocol reveals what is really going on.

Basically his take on Truss' recent speech is that she wants to use N. Ireland as a back door for southern hemisphere food conglomerates into the Single market. She is trying to negotiate trade deals with them and has few carrots to offer, so she is offering back door access  to the Single Market in return for "Global Britain's" access to their markets.

Surprisingly, the Commission is not enamoured with the idea... Neither should N. Ireland farmers be too keen on the idea if they weren't so blinded by their need to maintain their "British" identity. This was never about N. Ireland or its best interests. The UK government can't afford N. Ireland to succeed while the rest of the UK fails for lack of access to markets. That might show up the fallacy of Brexit.

But as usual, the UK government can rely on the DUP to act as useful idiots.

Erdogan is obsessed with extraditing his political opponents, wherever in the world they find refuge from his "justice" system.

VDL Fails In Sixth Round of Anti-Russia Sanctions

EU fails to finalise embargo on Russian oil imports as Hungary vetoes proposal [_link] via @IrishTimesWorld

— Irish Times World (@IrishTimesWorld) May 16, 2022

Statement concerning the violence at St Joseph hospital during Shireen Abu Aqleh's funeral [_link]

— Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (@medialpj) May 16, 2022

Erdogan not yet satisfied ... wants fighter jets delivery ... F16 instead of the blocked F35s and the harsh US sanctions lifted ... tough negotiations ... at least a bit of de-escalation 💪🏼 #WeAreEurope
 ☮️

Turkey vetoes SE, FI application to NATO

President @ZelenskyyUa: "A difficult day. But this day, like all others, is aimed at saving our country & our people. I want to emphasize that Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive." The leader who values human life. 266 Ukrainian servicemen were evacuated from Azovstal as of now pic.twitter.com/XlO9usWo4W

— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) May 16, 2022

Russia says evacuation of wounded Ukrainian troops from Azovstal plant started:[_link] pic.twitter.com/NPtac0R9tB

— TASS (@tassagency_en) May 16, 2022

Russia takes the defenders of #Azovstal to occupied territories. The garrison surrendered today. Keep these people in mind as their lifes are in serious danger. Call on your government to intervene and help to free them all! #UkraineRussiaWar #StopPutin #PutinWarCriminal [_link]

— Iraira (@Irina88851115) May 16, 2022

Ukrainian President Vladimir #Zelensky will make a special statement on Azovstal tonight. - @Oleksiy Arestovych, presidential adviser 🇺🇦
According to reports, an emergency meeting of the leaders 🇺🇦 is currently under way in Bankova.

It cannot be repeated too often. The EU has never had the slightest intention to raise border infrastructure in Ireland. It is the UK that decided to leave the SM/CU creating the need for a border. The row is about how far the EU should go to accommodate its neighbour. #fixedit https://t.co/Ayo7HClJ9Z

— Rem Korteweg (@remkorteweg) May 16, 2022

This is an actual opinion piece. Theyre not even trying to hide the hatred. pic.twitter.com/A4MqRPSNUB

— Hebh Jamal (@hebh_jamal) May 16, 2022

Moshe Phillips, a veteran Zionist activist, was National Director of the U.S. division of Herut North America - The Jabotinsky Movement until September 2021.

DUPes have yet to figure out Tories need the Protocol to remain in place so they can blame everything on it.

LNG Prices Still Bearish on Limited European Delivery Slots [_link] #NatGas #ONGT

— Natural Gas Intel (@NGInews) May 13, 2022

Gazprom fully halts gas supplies to Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Poland's PGNiG due to their failure to pay in rubles [_link]

— Gazprom (@GazpromEN) April 27, 2022

Ukraine halts Russian gas exports to Europe at eastern transit point

Leading nations: Estonia - Bulgaria - Malta

🏭 In Q4 2021, #GreenhouseGas emissions increased in all EU Member States compared with Q4 2020.

Lowest increases: 🇨🇾 Cyprus (+0.3%), 🇳🇱 Netherlands and 🇸🇮 Slovenia (both +2%)

Highest: 🇪🇪 Estonia (+28%), 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (+27%) and 🇲🇹 Malta (+23%)
👉 https://t.co/wEsZZuS4PN pic.twitter.com/cz77Nba78m

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) May 16, 2022

Berlin Bulletin: Lindner's hawkish dreams -- German swing state -- Scholz the campaigner | Politico |

Believe me I'm a hawk: Christian Lindner wants to be known for hawkish fiscal policies again. The finance minister this week presented his fiscal policy strategy: a 22-page paper, drafted by his chief economist Lars Feld, which advocates for short-term measures against the current crisis but aims, in the long run, for growth-oriented -- not intervention-driven -- supply-side policies. "Fiscal resilience," respecting German and EU debt and deficit caps that is, is the third pillar: No surprise here, that's the trinity Lindner believes in. But reality looks quite different.

New era, new debt: Fiscal policies in times of Zeitenwende, the paper is titled. And indeed Lindner might well go down in history as the finance minister amassing the highest debt pile in the shortest amount of time ever: Chancellor Olaf Scholz's special defense fund envisages borrowing €100 billion. The 2022 ordinary budget foresees almost the same amount of fresh debt; an additional budget -- fresh debt of almost €40 billion -- is meant to cushion the impact of the war. And there's another €60 billion, originally meant to fight the coronavirus economic crisis but repurposed by the new government into a broader transformation fund. Not so bad for not even six months in office.

Political danger: Lindner had been wary about the consequences of going into government. Concern was that his Free Democrats -- an ordoliberal, market-loving liberal party which ended its last coalition with the Social Democrat's in 1982 by moving over to the CDU -- would suffer from being part of a center-left coalition (and so they did, and badly, in every state election since.) Lindner, the party leader, insisted he get the Finance Ministry for himself and detailed reassurances in the coalition treaty that the new government would pursue sound and conservative fiscal policies.

Heinrich von Stackelberg and the Diffusion of Ordoliberal Economics in Franco's Spain

Watch: Inside Israeli Apartheid [_link]

— Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) May 6, 2022

#OnThisDay 74 years ago the #Nakba took place in Palestine.

For Palestinians it is the most solemn day in their calendar that symbolises their struggle for justice and an end to Israeli occupation.

But what is the #Nakba? Here's an explainer from the #AJArchive 👇 pic.twitter.com/L4TYHW8o83

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 15, 2022

Al-Nakba: The Palestinian exodus of 1948 to the present | Al Jazeera - May 2017 |

Every year on May 15, Palestinians around the world, numbering about 12.4 million, mark the Nakba, or "catastrophe", referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society in 1948.

The Palestinian experience of dispossession and loss of a homeland is 69 years old this year.

On that day, the State of Israel came into being. The creation of Israel was a violent process that entailed the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland to establish a Jewish-majority state, as per the aspirations of the Zionist movement.

Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state. Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres.

...
Israel continues to oppress and dispossess Palestinians to this day, albeit in a less explicit way than that during the Nakba.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine| by Ilan Pappe | (2006)

Jewish atrocities in the Holy Land memorandum Arab Higher Commission for Palestine at U.N.O.

Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia

Results last 3 elections ... was a SPD stronghold.

SPD - 39.1% - 31.2% - 26.7%
CDU - 26.3% - 33.0% - 35.7%
FDP -  8,6% - 12.6% - 5.9%
Green - 11.3% - 6.4% - 18.2%

See party polling of May 2021 ... Green the largest with 26% of votes.

It would in that case be for the same reason as to why they tapped Merkels phone, and all the data on politicans they got through Denmark. And if Denmark is not special, realistically they have the same deal with all EU countries they have collaboration with. Most likely they have surveilliance on all important EU politicians all the time if they can.

The main reason that it wouldn't be the US - or that the US wouldn't piggyback on Morocco if it is Morocco - would be that they didn't need to use Pegasus because they already had better tools in place.

A global empire has a tendency to be involved in most conflicts, because to not get involved is to not use certain conflicts to advance the interests of the empire. And why would an empire do that?

UK economy 'only going to get worse' as growth slowdown begins | CNBC |

Sterling hit a two-year low versus the U.S. dollar following the data as traders digested growing uncertainty about the U.K.'s economic outlook.

The surprise monthly contraction in March -- economists had expected the figure to come in flat -- presents a worry for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government as the country's cost-of-living crisis is yet to reach its peak.

"Ultimately, things are only going to get worse for consumers. Energy bills are expected to soar again later this year when the price cap is reassessed, while inflation is proving stickier than expected," said Hinesh Patel, portfolio manager at Quilter Investors.

U.K inflation hit a 30-year high of 7% in March and in April, the country's energy regulator increased its price cap by 54% [modest increase compared to other nations with no price cap and energy cost more than doubled] to accommodate soaring prices. In the Queen's Speech to mark the state opening of parliament on Wednesday, the government promised to focus on economic growth in order to address the spiraling cost of living..

National policies to shield consumers from rising energy prices | Brueghel |

The Dutch abide by the free-market concept set as policy by the EU in Brussels.

'Cost-of-living' crisis hits consumers as UK economy struggles with inflation | DW News |

I think Caitlin Johnstone makes a good point about visibility, perception management and why journalists are killed and imprisoned.

Public approval of the Israeli apartheid regime, like approval of the US police, has plummeted in direct proportion to the ubiquitousness of video cameras. In much the same way DNA testing vindicated prisoners who'd insisted on their innocence for years, a new technological development proved true what a marginalized population had been saying all along.

So in that sense the increasingly mainstream opposition to the Israeli status quo has been a rare victory for alternative media and citizen journalism: ordinary people recording and spreading the truth without the permission of establishment narrative managers.

I think it's basically accurate to say that the human adventure is mostly about becoming more and more conscious, of both our inner and outer worlds. And it doesn't get much more conscious than raw video footage circulating on a global mind network.

That's why the Israeli regime kills journalists, and that's why the US-centralized empire is working to legalize and normalize extraditing and imprisoning them. In a weird way it really is kind of a fight between the forces within humanity who want to switch the lights on versus the forces who wish to keep the lights off.

UK economic growth slows, raising recession concerns

The figures "suggest the economy had less momentum than we thought even before the full hit from the cost of living crisis has been felt," said Paul Dales, chief U.K. economist at Capital Economics. "The risk of recession has just risen."

Growth is slowing as manufacturers and retailers struggle to overcome supply bottlenecks following the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine fuels rising food and energy prices. Retail sales figures show British consumers are already reducing spending as economists forecast the U.K. will see the biggest drop in living standards in more than six decades this year.

Thursday's figures underscore how the U.K.'s recovery from the pandemic has slowed over the past year.

Astonishing unity among headline writers of the free world :)
All wrong in unisson.
The SPD lost NRW in ... 2017. It's the CDU who lost their majority in NRW this weekend (because of the collapse of their partner, the "business-friendly FDP". What's that about?

The result is a big win for the climate, because the Greens can go into coalition with either the SPD or the CDU, depending on which is better in terms of closing down coal mines etc...

#Euro starts the week <1.04 Dollar after a key German state election brought another blow to chancellor Olaf Scholz. Some 5 mths after taking office, Scholz's centre-left SPD has fallen to a record low of ~26.6% in NRW (Germany's most populous state), well behind CDU w/~36%. pic.twitter.com/IcugNdt0FK

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) May 15, 2022

Biden's Blitzkrieg Across Europe

MAGA

When is a 62-25 parliamentary vote not good enough for victory? When it's the Northern Ireland Assembly and the outnumbered Democratic Unionists wield their veto on power-sharing.https:/t.co/KqwkfpvjWD

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) May 13, 2022

Northern Ireland could lose access to the EU's single market for goods if the UK walks away from post-Brexit rules.
https:/t.co/2imbZnwS8v

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) May 15, 2022

Results

The biggest election winner was the Greens, who nearly tripled their result from just 6.4 percent in 2017 to 18.1 percent, according to the projections.

"This is a huge, huge mandate for us," said Green lead candidate Mona Neubaur.

In contrast, the FDP, which has governed in North Rhine-Westphalia in a coalition led by the CDU, is projected to lose 7 percentage points and come only fourth at 5.5 percent -- a devastating result that is only barely above the 5-percent hurdle that is required for entry into parliament. The far-right Alternative für Deutschland got 5.6 percent of the votes.

Looks like the SPD bounced back after the disastrous Schleswig-Holstein result.

Scholz's Social Democrats suffer crushing defeat in northern German state vote | Politico - May 8. 2022 |

Germany's center-right opposition scored a strong victory in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, dealing a blow to the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which lost power at the national level in last year's general election, got 43 percent of the votes in Schleswig-Holstein, according to initial projections by public broadcaster NDR. That's a gain of 11 percentage points from the last state election in 2017, which means incumbent CDU state premier Daniel Günther will be able to rule for another five years.

In contrast, the SPD suffered a crushing defeat in the northern state, getting only 15.5 percent of the votes, nearly 12 percentage points less than five years ago, according to the projections. The SPD was even overtaken by the Greens, which came second at 17 percent, gaining about 4 points. The liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) fell back about 4.5 points to 7 percent. Scholz's SPD governs with the Greens and FDP at the national level.

Role Schleswig-Holstein, Nord Stream 2 and LNG terminal  ...

Merkel and Biden push for Ukraine to become a green energy exporter | June 2021 |

Related reading ...

Nord Stream 2 - a red herring at the bottom of the sea | CEPS - March 2021 |