Inflaction hits Christmas dinner.

 

In late November many Mayors began to install Christmas decoretions along the pedestrian spaces. This year They began too early. But while people enjoy Christmas lights outdoors, food inflaction hits Christmas dinner. Actually, fruits, turkeys and fishes' prices have been rising by 45% since the first week of  December. 

According to Daily Mirror, food prices have been raising quicker than inflaction.

 

Meanwhile, on the ground in Ukraine the war still goes on, unfortunately. After the 2022 Qatar World Cup had been played, the mainstrean media quickly began to speak about the Ukraine-Russia war once again. Actually, we didn't hear such news from 20 November to 18 December, and since  19 December we have been hearing bad news about Moldova's people who fear new Russian offensive, Kyiv under attack and German government that freeze Russian assets worth more than $ 5 billion. It seems that while the 2022 Qatar World Cup was holding in Doha, media networks were not interested in spreading news about the Ukrainian war. I only heard something about the ongoing battle in the outskirts of Bakhmut. 

The good news is that volunteers are sending many gifts to Ukrainians boys and girls. In addition, with regards to Christmas holiday, I am so happy to hear Italians will not throw food and will not buy expensive gifts. But EU countries' governments have to shield people from the worst effects of surging prices related to the rising cost of imported natural gas.

Farmland in late Autumn

Just a few pictures of the hills that I saw yesterday while I was driving through the countryside. The owner of the farm (picture below) sells olive oil and veggies. I sometimes buy fruits and veggies that hasn't been shipped from other  continents.

I noticed that farmland shows its unusual brown and beige earthy colours in late Autumn, as it is systematic used to produced food for humans.

Some blogging friends, who live in Canada and North-East USA, are already showing, on their blogs, their environs covered with the first snow. Here, on the 42° parallel and close to the Mediterranean Sea, it is not the case. Probably we will see our environs covered with snow in early winter.

Meanwhile, Christmas decoretions are already along squares and streets.

On the Ukraine-Russia front, I am sorry to hear that the Russian government is ready for negotiations, but there's the USA's refusal to recognise new territories.  This shows that Ukraine government doesn't decide anything in terms of peace agreement. It's so sad! Poor Ukrainian people are suffering while their government isn't allowed to make any choice in terms of negotiations. Actually, other world powers, which are not directly involved in this war, will choose the terms of the peace agreement.

For instance, in my opinion Russians could leave some seized territories in East and South Ukraine if Ukrainians were not to join NATO. This is my thought that could be one of the terms of the negotiation table. 

The good news is that the USA's president would be ready to meet the Russian leader. 

Cleaning the bottom of the Sea

Since last Sunday many volunteers have been cleaning the bottom of part of Mediterranean sea off the Western coast of Italy (Santa Marinella, 50 km North from Rome). Various kind of wastes,  that had been accumulated on the bottom of the sea, such as metal scrap, plastic bottles, and waste glass, have been eliminated. Obviously, volunteers have also been cleaning beaches.

Glad to see that some boys and girls have been involved in the cleaning operation along the beaches. 

That's a great combination between volunteers organizations and the local Administration.

I do hope other local administrations will do the same.

Starting to doubt the warmongers

 

If Western governments were to continue to fund Ukraine and supply it with weapons and missiles, EU people would grow tired of the economic cost of war in East Europe. 

According to Washington Post, the USA government is privately pushing Ukraine to show openness to negotiate with  Russia, due to the fact that war takes a toll on world economy. As mentioned by the USA State Department spokeperson, "if Russia is ready for negotiation, it should stop its bombs and missiles and withdraw its forces from Ukraine".

But I don't understand why the USA didn't say that six months ago. That's an outright turnaround in the USA's policy, as American government had been claiming for months that it would support Ukraine for as long as the war goes on. This is the real and live example why USA's political friendship is sometimes fatal. Poor Ukrainian people have fallen in the same trap as we already saw with regards to Yemen, Syria, Libya, etc.  

Altare della Patria (Altar of the Fatherland)

 

A dear friend of mine, Luigi (that's his name), has just sent me this picture, which he made with his drone. The aerial image shows the "Altare della Patria" (Altar of the Fatherland) and its majesty. It's one of the main Rome's landmarks.  

This large national monument, which was built about 100 years ago to honour the first  king of a unified Italy,  can be reached easily in few minutes on foot or using public transport.

The picture above also shows another important Rome's monument, the Coliseum, with its yellow lights.  

Nice Sunday to all the blogging community!

Middle class and working class have nothing to gain from wars

Since the Ukraine-Russia war began early this year, most politicians in USA, UK, and EU have been calling for weapons and missiles to Ukraine. But they haven't sent any weapon in other countries that have been invaded. As mentioned by Clare Daly, Irish member of the EU Parliament, Western powers have never called for weapons and missiles for people of Palestine or for people of Yemen. 

Meanwhile, this morning four Palestinians have been killed and nearly 20 others injured by Israeli forces operating in an occupied  sovereign country (Palestine's West Bank). At least 164 Palestinians (civilians) have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories since January 2022. 

If USA, UK, and EU's policy-makers were interested in negotiation, we would see peace agreements in Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen, etc.

Burqa ban initiative

In early October Switzerland approved a new bill to ban women from wearing the burqa or niqab in public spaces. Other European countries had already introduced the same bill as we see now in Switzerland. 

The members of the Swiss lower Parliament approved the bill, which prohibits people from concealing their face, by a vote of 88 to 87.  This means that women may wear a hijab covering ther hair, but cannot wear clothes which only show the eyes (burqa or niqab) in restaurants, streets, buses, etc. Although the bill specifies that the eyes, nose and mouth must be visible, there are some exceptions to the law, such as wearing a mask to protect against viruses.

France is the first European country to introduce a ban on full face coverings. There are currently other European countries that have banned the burqa or niqab: Switzerland, as just mentioned, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Belgium, Denmark, and Austria. But there are also countries in Africa and Asia that have already banned clothes which only show the eyes. They are: Morocco, Tunisia, Congo, Gabon, Chad, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, China, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

We wait and see if other EU countries will approve the same bill. 

Energy crisis

 

The fact that the ongoing war in Ukraine will not soon go to an end is well known, unfortunately. And this indicates that EU countries can't continue to be reliant on Russian gas. With more than 22% of the world electricity generation coming from gas, many depeloped and developing countries are still reliant on such fossil resource.  In addition to power plants, another huge quantity of world gas production is used for other purposes, such as urban utilities, service sector, and industrial use.  In this perspective, the demand for LNG has grown exponentially in many countries, such as China and India. On the other hand, gas consuption has been decreasing sharply in some countries, like Japan and South Korea, due to the reopening of nuclear power plants. Actually, such countries have been implementing a policy of energy conservation. 

In the late 1960s, after the discovery of the Yamburg gas-fields in West Siberia, which is the world third largest one, Austria became the first European country to sign a long-term gas supply deal with Russians. We have to consider the fact that Austria was, and still is, both landlocked and neutral from a geopolitical point of view. Since then, Russian gas has been attractive to Europe because of its availability. Moreover, it was cheaper and easy to transport from West Siberia to Central Europe. That's way its importance have been growing in the last three decades, as some EU countries moved to end coal and nuclear power plant production.

Now EU countries are going to increase purchases of liquefied natural gas from other producers, as they are compelled to replace Europe's import of Russian gas. Moreover, as we have already seen since early this year, the wars have been fought differently: on 18 February 2022 and on 27 September 2022 three Russian gas pipelines were damaged by explosions. The military operations just mentioned interrupted the gas delivery to many EU countries.

But, as it is known, the EU isn't yet equiped to replace Russian gas entirely. And in this perspective, Southern Europe's territory is so important for supply of gas to EU countries, because of its geographical location. In addition to the Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline, which already delivers Algerian gas to mainland Italy and Slovenia (through Tunisia and the island of Sicily), a shelved gas pipeline is under construction. It would link gas from Algeria to Italy via the island of Sardinia. Not to mention of the Trans Saharian gas pipeline that will be then connected to the existing pipelines that already run to Europe. The Southern Gas Corridor also delivers gas to Europe from the Caspian area (Azerbaijan). It connects the Trans Anatolian pipeline at the Turkish-Greek border, crosses Greece, Albania and the Adriatic sea, before coming ashore in South Italy.

This mean that we have to switch to renewable energy as soon as we can: experts of the Snam SpA, an Italian energy infrasctucture company, say that the amount of energy that hit our planet in an hour is enough to meet global energy needs for an entire year. But while world population has reached 7 billion, current technologies don't allow for huge harnessing of this potential yet. 

Sources: 

https://www.offshore-technology.com/

https://www.agenzianova.com/

https://www.tap-ag.com/

https://www.inspirecleanenergy.com/

https://www1.cbn.com/

https://www.snamatlas.it/

New military targets

With regards to my previous post, concerning the military attack on the two gas pipelines in the Baltic sea, I think that a fifth grade boy would understand that Russia and the EU couldn't be interested in hitting their own underwater infrastructure. And the same boy would also understand that other world powers may be interested in a neverending war in East Europe, from East Ukraine to the Baltic sea. 

As it is known, the Russian company Gazprom owns 51% of the Nord Stream pipelines, with EU countries holding the remaining 49%. So we can easily make the first step of an investigation, which means that the two owners, Russia and the EU, couldn't be interested in destroying their own underwater infrastructure.

Since the world noticed the attack on the two gas pipelines, journalists, bloggers and normal people haven't been talking about the author of the sabotage, although everybody knows that there were military ships close to the point of the explosions. They have mentioned the damage from an environmental point of view and the rising price of gas. But they are all afraid of saying or writing something about the government that planned the attack. Silence! Although journalists and bloggers understand exactly who planned the attack. That's typical of authoritarianism! 

Unfortunately, hitting underwater infrastructures may become a new way of fighting a war. And in this perspective, the problem is that there are many undersea fiber optic cables and electrical grid pipes, which stretch across the world from one country to another through oceans and seas. I hope that these underwater infrastructures do not become new military targets.

Still blaming each other

As it is known, the two gas pipelines through the Baltic sea, which were recently damaged, don't belong entirely to a Russian company or Russia's government. European companies and Russian company Gazprom invested Billions of dollars to set up the infrastructure that probably faced sabotage attack. And according to seismologists, the two pipelines were hit by strong underwater explosions.

Although the USA have always been a strong opponent of EU's energy dependance on Russian company Gazprom, it isn't easy to understand who planned the attack. 

Italy's first female Prime Minister

 

Far-right Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing alliance will have control of both houses of the Italian Parliament. Election night victory is Mrs. Meloni first step to become Italy's first female Prime Minister. 

But don't worry! This doesn't change anything, as unemployment will continue to rise and weapons & missiles will be shipped to Ukraine again and again. And migrants smugglers will continue their dirty job. Not to mention that many so called migrants, who arrive in South Italy from North Africa (who are only men), wear Adidas & Nike shoes and have Sansung smartphone. 

We see what she will be able to do.  

In the meanwhile, the outgoing Italy's Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, has been honoured with the World Statesman Award by Rabbi Arthur Schneider. The latter is Appael of Conscience Foundation's president and founder. During the gala cerimony, in New York early last week, the former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger sat beside Draghi at the reception in the Pierre Hotel. 

It's easy to see who rules the Western World!

Italy's 2022 general election

 

It seems a right-wing coalition will win the Italy's election which will be held on 25 September 2022. This means that far-right leader, Giorgia Meloni, should be the new prime minister.

The rise of energy prices, which is strictly related to the Ukraine war, has become a key issue in the election, due to cost of living crisis. That's the main raison why many Italians hope next government will drop Russian sanctions. There are some countries, like India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, that continue to hold financial dealings and economic relationships with both Russia and the EU (and US & UK). This means that the politicians of the three countries just above mentioned are strongly interested in their own people. And, most importantly, they are not compelled to follow any puppeteer.

Many Italians hope their govenment (and the EU) will do the same. Unfortunately, there are proofs of some Western multinational companies interest in drawing the fighting in Ukraine for as long as possible. They can continue to do this thanks to their puppets.

Importance of posidonia oceanica

The water in the picture above seems polluted, considering those dead leaves. But it is not the case, as it is not polluted. It's clean. Posidonia oceanica is a seagrass that constitutes extensive meadows throughout virtually the whole Mediterranean sea. And the accumulation of Posidonia oceanica dead leaves on the beaches of the Mediterranean shores represents a valuable resource. 

The presence of Posidonia Oceanica's dead leaves on the beaches of the Mediterranean sea is a natural phenomenon, which indicates high-quality marine coastal environment.  In addition,  it also has a protective role.

The mechanical removal may affect the integrity of the beach ecosystem, due to the fact that it can lead to a loss of sediment and coastal erosion.

In Mallorca (Spain) and Sardinia (Italy) we saw a severe impact on the beach profiles due to the mechanical removal and displacement of the posidonia beach-dune system.

Last month I took the five pictures above along Italian beaches located in Central Italy. 

The picture  below of underwater posidonia oceanica had been downloaded from the internet (It has no copyright).

Local administrations across the whole Mediterranean sea are often the only body responsible for the management of the seagrass beach casts. 

The last picture just above reminds me that people who own houses so close to the see are very lucky. 

Laundering Russian gas

Since Ukraine invasion (and Western sanctions) began early this year, Russia has been gradually reducing gas supply to Europe, first to 40% of total capacity, and then to 20%. Consequently, some EU countries have been looking for alternative sources. And Europe's companies have started to buy gas from Chinese refineries, that are the largest importers of gas from Russia (up to 60%). 

This means that Russians sell liquefied natural gas to China, that has no use for such imported product. That's why China has no choice but to resell Russian gas to Europe. In other words, Europe's countries don't buy Russia's gas directly, but they're buying the same Russian product from elsewhere. The world is filled with so much hypocrisy!

Black sheep

A dear friend of mine has just sent me the picture below. But I haven't understood if it is related to the pandemic (and its vaccine's moral obbligation) or the energy crisis. Otherwise, the picture may also be related to the ongoing war that began in late February close to EU borders. Does the Ukraine-Russia war become a never ending war? ... as we've already seen in Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc.

Meanwhile, people who rule the world are trying to trigger another war on the Pacific front (East Asia) ... $ 1,100 Billion missiles will be shipped to the island of Taiwan as soon as possible.  

Nice weekend to the blogging community :-)

Gaeta's split mountain

 

On 15th June this year I already showed an image of the split mountain which I took while I was sailing close to that evocative place located in Gaeta (South Italy).

https://blacknight2.blogspot.com/2022/06/

This week my nephew walked the whole path that leads to the split mountain's promontory, which is visited every year by tourists who are captured by this magic itinerary. He sent me these beautiful pictures.

If you visit South Italy, don't forget to see this magic place :-)    

1 in every 246 vaccinated people

An article published early this month by https://expose-news.com/ revealed that 1 in every 246 vaccinated people in the UK died within 60 days of Covid-19 vaccination. According to the UK's Office for National Statistics, 9 in every 10 Covid-10 deaths were among the vaccinated population. The article also shows that in April and May 2022 90% of Covid-19 deaths were among the triple vaccinated people. 

Data above mentioned, with regards to deaths in England by vaccination status, were published in early July while Boris Johnson was resigning as Prime Minister of the UK.

https://expose-news.com/2022/08/09/1-in-246-people-die-shortly-after-covid-vaccination/

This shows us that the "bought and well paid" mainstream media had been helping Western politicians to justify pharma multinationals' earnings and restictions in the name of Covid-19. It gives us once again a beautiful example of how we have been lied since the very beginning of the alleged Covid-19 pandemic.

Fire on the hills

I've got many comments and emails from blogger friends who support us and pray the rain will come soon in Italy. Thanks for that :-) 

Unfortunately, things are worsening in terms of hot weather and drought. And last but not least we have had many fires every day since late July. In addition to this, warm sea water brought here jellyfishes that are dangerous because the toxicity to humans varies widely. As it known, some Jellyfish's stings are irritating. I was so sorry to see many German tourists who couldn't swim as they were afraid of Jellyfish's stings.

I took the two pictures above this week while I was in the hills close to Gaeta (South Italy).  

A big sailing ship on Wednesday

 

On this warm and sunny Wednesday, a large white sailing ship docked at the port of Civitavecchia. It gives a different image of the port, as it seems the picture was taken one century ago. But it isn't the case. I took it this morning.

Meanwhile it isn't raining, and we're worried as we can see dried grass in our environs and countryside without rain for a long time. 

Enjoy the rest of this sunny week!

Restaurant on the bank of the major river in Thailand

Since 2020 a restaurant on the bank of the Chao Phraya river near Bangkok, Thailand, have had big problems because of Covid-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, more problems have come when water in the river started to rise in 2021.

The owner of the restaurant wanted to close, but he decided to wait. So the restaurant stayed open, and customers enjoyed dining while the river washed their feet. People shared funny videos on social media, which probably saved the restaurant. More people wanted to visit the place and enjoy its special atmosphere.

It seemed that the floods would destroy the business, but they made it grow again.  

The food in the pictures above above is not typical of Thailand. A friend of mine made the two pictures at a restaurant in China, Jiangsu province. He went there for job four years ago.

Madrid's NATO summit

Good news from the Madrid's NATO summit: the North Atlantic intergovernmental military alliance at the moment doesn't have specific plan in deploying weapons to Sweden and Finland, for the simple reason that the two nordic countries are not members of NATO for now.

The problem is that Putin said Russia would have to answer in kind if NATO infrastructure were to be deployed to Sweden and Finland.

A friend of mine took the two pictures above some years ago in Sweden. 

Flames close to Rome

 

There is bad news in Rome and its surrondings from an environmental point of view. Last week, more than 90 firefighters were on the waste management centre located close to Rome, as flames engulfed the site. The picture above shows the fire in the waste storage facility. It wasn't easy to extinguish. There is evidence that the fire in the Rome's municipal waste produced high levels of emissions of environmetally significant chemical species, such as dioxins.

Exit of the biggest Italian energy company from Russia

 

This week the great news is that Italy's biggest manufacturer and distributor of energy and gas, Enel SpA, will sell in the next three months its 56.43% stake in Russia to local investors. Established in Russia in 2004, the Italian group will follow similar moves by the world's biggest energy companies, such as Shell and BP after Russian government's invasion of East Ukraine.

In addition, the deal is expected to have a positive effect on the group's consolidated net debt of about 550 million euros. The global reach of the Italian biggest utility extends from Europe to Latin America and India, that's why the company's ordinary financial results would not be affected by the deal to sell the stake in the Russian subsidiary.

Its easy to forecast that other Western multinational companies, which have been established in Russia since long time, are going to do the same.

Wheat shortage crisis

 

There is a great talk about global food crisis fueled by the war in East Europe, as Ukraine plays a major role in the global food system. So while the Ukraine-Russia war directly threatens global food security, wheat prices hit record high in recent days. According to Wionews.com, Russia and Ukraine are two of the top wheat exporters, with respectively 17% and 10% of global export. 

The big question is when will wheat prices come down? Russia and Ukraine have been exchanging accusations over obstructing the movement of wheat shipment through the Black Sea. In my opinion this is a false problem rather than a real barrier, which can't be solved thanks to Intermodal transfer. 

With regards to Ukraine, the wheat could be shipped from the two ports of Costanta (Romania) and Varna (Bulgaria), considering there is an efficient railway system from Odesa (Ukraine) to the two towns just mentioned. Intermodal transfer may involve rail and ship, due to the fact that the four biggest wheat importers (Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen) are located close to the Mediterranean area.

China's military drills

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, two Western governments have been pushing for Taiwan to order missiles and smaller arms. In the meanwhile, China is conducting military drills near Taiwan, as it seems Chinese are practicing how to invade the island. 

According to WionNews, in the first week of May 2022 China carried out another round of drills near Taiwan. A large number of Chinese warplanes, warships and conventional missiles surrounded the island.

The U.S. has never officially supported Taiwan independence. And the sentence "Taiwan is part of China" had been written on U.S. State Department's website for decades. The fact that this sentence has been recently removed signals a shift. Consequently, the message is clear: America is ready to back an independent Taiwan. In other words, the U.S. would be ready to supply their weapons to Taiwan.

New arms race in Europe

I've noticed that world's policy-makers are not worried about the new arms race that has been triggered in East Europe. On the contrary, since Russia-Ukraine war began about three months ago the US has sent more the $ 3 billion in military equipments to Ukraine. Not to mention of other countries, such as China and the UK that are also involved in shipping weapons respectively to Russia and Ukraine. 

In addition, other European countries located close to Russian and Ukrainian border, such as Poland, Estonia, and Romania, have also been buying weapons and missiles. With its 37% of global arms export, the U.S. is world's largest weapons exporter. There are no doubts that military-industry complex and contractors are winning this war.

The picture above, which shows the Azovstal steelworks in the devastated Ukrainian city of Mariupol, was published on 6th May, 2020 by the BBC website: 

https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-61348541 

I have got that powerful picture via email from Willie, our blogging friend from Blandford.