The World Blog by humble servant.

US retail gasoline prices have climbed to fresh all-time highs just in time for the traditional start of America’s summer driving season, the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Prices at the pump for regular-grade gasoline rose to $4.60 per gallon on Thursday and held around that level on Friday, according to data from the AAA motor club. The benchmark US fuel price has surged by 51% in the past year and more than 90% since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. Motorists are feeling the price pinch even more acutely in certain high-cost states. In California, for instance, gasoline set a new all-time high at nearly $6.08 per gallon on Friday. Hawaii and Washington also set new state records, averaging $5.43 per gallon and $5.22 per gallon, respectively READ MORE: US may waive smog rules to tame gasoline prices Diesel prices are even steeper, averaging $5.53 per gallon nationwide on Friday, less than a nickel below the all-time high of $5.57 set last week. Surging diesel costs...

The UN Security Council failed to reach common ground on new sanctions against North Korea (the DPRK), on Thursday. Washington proposed the penalties in the wake of Pyongyang's latest missile test this week, which came on the heels of US President Joe Biden's Asia tour. The vote took place just a day after North Korea was accused of test-launching its largest intercontinental ballistic missile and two others. Ahead of the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield called for unity in the face of “a threat to the entire international community.” However, China and Russia vetoed new sanctions on humanitarian grounds, pointing to their futility and even “inhumanity,” as North Korea struggles to contain a massive Covid-19 outbreak. The UNSC imposed sanctions on the country back in 2006, following its first nuclear test, and has tightened them over the years. Since the latest round of restrictions in 2017, Moscow and Beijing have increasingly been arguing that further pressure ...

Washington and its allies have turned into a new “collective ministry of truth,” rigorously preserving their narrative on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said on Thursday. The West has launched a massive smear campaign against Russia in the media and on the internet, the diplomat believes. Western governments seek to spread views that are “beneficial to them but do not always correspond to the reality,” Polyansky said, adding that they ultimately seek to put their own population into a “bubble of lies” that makes it hard for an ordinary person to distinguish between factual information and a distorted picture of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine. “That is behavior of a Ministry of Truth,” Polyansky said. The diplomat also said that Western governments try to dismiss any alternative information as fake or simply block access to it. He particularly pointed to the Western nations banning Russian outlets like...

A Democrat proposal to create a special task force for hunting down “white supremacists” in the US military and federal law enforcement agencies failed in the Senate on Thursday, after no Republicans voted for it. The ruling party invoked the recent mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York supermarket to argue such enforcement was necessary. An 18-year-old killed 10 people and wounded three more on May 14, in an attack that the authorities say was racially motivated. The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act would have set up an interagency task force within the FBI and the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to analyze and counter white supremacist infiltration in the military and federal law enforcement. “The bill is so important because the mass shooting in Buffalo was an act of domestic terrorism,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said on the floor ahead of the vote. “We need to call it what it is, domestic terrorism. It was terrorism that fed off the poison o...

Drivers with foreign license plates can no longer buy gas in Hungary at government-capped prices – the lowest in the EU, Budapest announced on Thursday. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said the measure is aimed at stopping "petrol tourists" abusing Hungary’s fuel supplies. Gergely Gulyas told journalists, during a regular press briefing, that “foreign buyers are exploiting the fact that Hungary is able to maintain petrol prices at 480 forints (€1.22) per liter, while they are at 700-900 forints elsewhere in Europe.” According to the official, “abuse” of the low gas prices by fuel tourists has become a real issue of late, threatening his country’s own supply. The decision means that motorists with foreign license plates are now charged higher market prices at Hungarian gas stations. Viktor Orban’s government originally introduced the gas price cap on November 15, 2021 amid accelerating inflation. Budapest has since extended the scheme several times, with ...

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday hit out against US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for “smearing the country” after he called for action to counterbalance Beijing’s growing global influence. The day before, Blinken had issued a 45-minute-long address raising concerns over China’s “intent to reshape the international order” in what some have called the most comprehensive statement to date on China by US President Joe Biden’s administration. “China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order – and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it,” said Blinken. “Beijing's vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world's progress over the past 75 years," he added, calling on the international community to defend the status quo and approach relations with Beijing “with more realism.” He also accused Beijing of raising tensions over Taiwan, blaming China...

The European Union is not prepared for a war such as the one in Ukraine, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell warned on Wednesday. He made the claim at a debate panel hosted by the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) lobby group. The top diplomat stated that he doesn’t believe it “realistic” that EU nations could substantially improve their military capabilities in a timely manner, since the process is “voluntaristic” and there is no “law of gravity to make things happen.” He explained that even though it is well known where the EU defense shortcomings are, there has to be a “wake-up call” for members to act in a coordinated manner and not end up wasting money. However, he expressed his dismay that the war in Ukraine was apparently not “the right wake up call.” “We should learn from this war. Look, the European armies couldn't maintain a war like the one in Ukraine for more than two weeks. They’ll run out of ammunition,” Borrel said. He also pointed to the fac...

Europe’s largest producer of atomic energy, Electricite de France SA (EDF), usually exports cheap power during the winter but may be forced to import it this year, Bloomberg reported on Friday. According to the report, about half of EDF’s 56 reactors are currently halted. Some of the company’s plants are offline for regular maintenance or refueling, while a dozen are idled for checks and repairs following the discovery of stress corrosion issues at units in late 2021. Cracks have been reportedly confirmed in key piping systems at four reactors. Output in 2022 is expected to be the lowest in more than 30 years, the company estimates. “We have a French problem which is taking place at the wrong time, given the geopolitical situation,” Nicolas Leclerc, co-founder of Paris-based energy consultancy Omnegy, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. “The whole European equilibrium may be threatened,” he added. France will import “heavily” this winter, and grid operator RTE may need to limit powe...

The current behavior of the Western nations amounts to “total war on the Russian world,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday during a meeting with the heads of the country’s regions. Russian society and major political forces support the government’s decision to face this challenge, he added. Western nations “are doubling, tripling, and quadrupling their efforts to deter our nation. They use a wide array of tools, from unilateral economic sanctions to totally deceitful propaganda in the global media,” Lavrov said, noting that “low-level Russophobia, which to our deepest regret is promoted by a number of governments, has risen to unprecedented levels.” “The West has declared total war against us, against the entire Russian world. Nobody even hides this fact now,” Lavrov stated. The ‘cancel culture’ targeting everything connected to our nation has become absurd. Russia responded to the pressure with a uniting of “all healthy patriotic forces” and a surge of public...

Iran and Russia may launch a barter trade mechanism that would allow Tehran to import Russian raw materials in exchange for Iran-manufactured goods, Press TV reported on Friday, citing Iran’s Trade Minister Reza Fatemi Amin. According to the minister, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of a meeting of the Russian-Iranian trade and economic cooperation commission, the countries have already agreed to introduce barter trade for certain categories of goods. The official stressed that Iran needs to import raw materials for its metallurgical and mining industry. These include steel, zinc, lead and aluminum. In exchange Russia will be getting car parts and gas turbines manufactured in Iran. The minister stated that a number of Iranian companies had already signed contracts for the supply and maintenance of gas turbines for Russian power plants. During a visit to Iran this week, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak urged Tehran to cooperate more with Moscow in trade. According...

The West is already feeling the “sweet consequences” of its sanctions against Russia, but these measures will remain in place “for a very, very long time,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday. Since the beginning of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine in late February, the US, the EU, the UK and many other countries have imposed harsh restrictions on Moscow. Russia considers the measures “unlawful” and “unjustified.” Speaking at the United Russia party’s forum on entrepreneurship, Medvedev, who currently serves as a deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, said that “the Western world is driving itself into a global crisis with its own hands.” “But, in fact, the Europeans have felt all the sweet consequences of anti-Russian sanctions – inflation, hyperinflation, rising prices for fuel, housing, utilities, food, everyday goods, job cuts,” he said. He admitted that Russia is also suffering because of the “stupid” restrictions but, according to him, ...

The United States is “a master of bullying” and should stop promoting a “hegemonic order,” the Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, Senior Colonel Wu Qian, said on Thursday. During a press briefing, Wu Qian was asked to comment on the US military leadership’s recent statements. On Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the necessity of countering “aggression and bullying from China” while the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Mark Milley, claimed several days ago that Beijing and Moscow “fully intend to change the current rules-based order.” In Wu Qian’s opinion, the United States is “the least qualified country to blame others.” “The US comments, as always, reflect a strong Cold War mentality, a hegemonic mindset and reveals its anxiety over the peaceful rise of China. Whichever expressions the US are using, whether it is ‘bullying’ or ‘undermining international rules and order,’ I think, every term applies to the US itself,” the Chinese military spokesman sai...

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday hit out against US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for “smearing the country” after he called for action to counterbalance Beijing’s growing global influence. The day before, Blinken had issued a 45-minute-long address raising concerns over China’s “intent to reshape the international order” in what some have called the most comprehensive statement to date on China by US President Joe Biden’s administration. “China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order – and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it,” said Blinken. “Beijing's vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world's progress over the past 75 years," he added, calling on the international community to defend the status quo and approach relations with Beijing “with more realism.” He also accused Beijing of raising tensions over Taiwan, blaming Chin...