EU Fails to Comply w. Grain-Export Deal; Russia Will Do Likewise Starting March 18

Eric Zuesse

On Saturday, March 4th, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at the G20 meeting in Delhi, announced that because the EU has refused to comply with its side of the U.N.-brokered 27 July 2022 “Grain [and fertilizer] Deal” that the U.N. brokered in Istanbul on 27 July 2022, Russia will likewise not comply with it, starting on March 18th.

On February 8th, Reuters had headlined “Russia: EU not fulfilling promises on grain deal”, and reported that the deal was in jeopardy because of the EU’s continued violations of it that were supplying super-inexpensive food to the EU while continuing to block food going to Africa — for which latter purpose the deal had been mainly designed.

Then, on Saturday March 4th, Russia’s Tsargrad news site headlined “THE REJECTION OF THE GRAIN DEAL WILL FORCE RUSSIA TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE OF ODESSA. AND THIS IS A SIGNIFICANT EVENT.” By implication, it was interpreting Lavrov’s statement to reflect that Ukraine’s main Black Sea port of Odessa (which has historically been overwhelmingly pro-Russian), which is the port through which Ukraine’s agricultural exports are shipped, might soon be taken over by Russia, because the EU’s using it to provide economic benefits to the EU and to Ukraine while starving and/or soaring food-cost inflation in Africa, will no longer continue to be tolerated by Russia. In other words: Africa — and Russia were being cheated by the EU and Ukraine, and will cease that, starting March 18th.

On March 3rd, Tsargrad had bannered “AMMONIA INSTEAD OF WHEAT. WHAT WILL RUSSIA GAIN BY BREAKING THE “GRAIN DEAL”, and it explained that:

The grain deal, about the need for which “our Western partners” spoke so much, can be terminated without any possibility of renewal in the near future. If this happens, then Ukraine will lose the opportunity to earn money on dumped wheat exports, Turkey will lose a fair amount of profits from participating in the transit of this grain and a fair amount of political influence as an intermediary between Russia and its opponents. The European Union will lose a significant part of the grain in its market – the very one that it had promised the poorest African countries would be the deal’s primary beneficiaries, but which turned out to be much more necessary for EU bakers and confectioners, instead of gto Africans who need bread and fertilizers.

In general, it will be bad for everyone. Except Russia. Russia will not lose anything, because it didn’t gain anything from the deal.

If Russia takes over Odessa, then Ukraine could very well become an entirely land-locked country, without its only sea-access, which now is via Odessa. The EU and Ukraine would have — by their refusals to comply with the grain deal — considerably increased that likelihood (which would harm the longer-term interests both of Ukraine and the EU).

In any case, the status of Odessa is now going to be a far more important issue in this war that it had been until now. It will no longer be an issue for Africa, because the July 27th deal didn’t benefit Africa at all (which it had been promised to do). Odessa will instead be purely an issue between Ukraine and Russia.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

Governor assassinated during meeting with constituents

Attackers in “full battle gear” gunned down a provincial leader and five civilians in the Philippines

The governor of Negros Oriental province in the southern Philippines has been shot dead by men armed with assault rifles and wearing military-style camouflage and bullet-proof vests. The attack, the latest in a string of shootings targeting regional politicians, also left five civilians dead.

At least six heavily-armed gunmen wearing “pixelated uniforms” opened fire on Governor Roel Degamo in front of his house in Pamplona town on Saturday morning, fatally hitting him and the five other victims, police said. The civilians caught up in the shooting are said to be impoverished local villagers who had gathered in front of Degamo’s house to seek aid.

The suspects fled the scene in three sport-utility vehicles, which they later abandoned. Hours later, three men were arrested by Negros Oriental police, who identified two of the suspects as former Army soldiers.

Earlier this morning, a group of ‘heavily armed’ Mercenaries entered the home of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo, while he was having a meeting with his constituents. One of the armed men walked further and once he had eyes on Degamo, he then shot the guard in front of him… https://t.co/O9LgB19w0F pic.twitter.com/kAEcqf0FVM

— GianSanity  (@giansanityfps) March 4, 2023

“My government will not rest until we have brought the perpetrators of this dastardly and heinous crime to justice,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement.

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The country has a history of political violence, as well as Islamist and Communist rebellions. Over the last month alone, Lanao del Sur governor Mamintal Alonto Adiong Jr. was wounded in a brazen attack that left five of his bodyguards dead, while the mayor of Maguindanao del Sur, Ohto Caumbo Montawal, was wounded when two gunmen shot at his vehicle. In the northern Philippines, vice mayor of Aparri town Rommel Alameda and his companions were gunned down by men reportedly wearing police uniforms in yet another attack last month. 

The slain governor, who first took office in 2011, was forced out in an election last year – but reinstated following a recount in October. Just two weeks ago, the Supreme Cout supported the election officials’ decision to overturn the result and grant Degamo the votes that had been cast for a spoiler candidate with an identical surname.

Degamo’s wife, Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo, said in a Facebook post that her husband was serving constituents on Saturday, and “did not deserve that kind of death.”

Trump vows to end Ukraine conflict in 24 hours

The ex-US leader claims he is the only candidate that can prevent World War III

President Joe Biden is leading the United States “into oblivion,” Donald Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on Saturday, promising to stop wasting US taxpayer money on “stupid” foreign wars as he rallies support for a potential political comeback in 2024.

“I was the only president in decades that didn’t have a war,” Trump said in his nearly two-hour long speech at the annual conservative gathering at Gaylord National Resort, claiming that if he was in office right now, “Ukraine would have been thriving, there would have been no dead people, no obliterated cities that can never be rebuilt.”

Last month, Trump promised to immediately call Moscow and Kiev, if re-elected, insisting he knows exactly what to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky to stop the conflict.

“I know what to say,” he reiterated on Saturday. “Before I arrive in the Oval Office, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine ended… I will get the problem solved and I will get it solved in rapid order and it will take me no longer than one day.”

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At the same time, Trump blasted Biden for wasting billions of US taxpayer dollars instead of forcing Washington’s European allies to bankroll Kiev. 

“Is NATO putting up dollar for dollar with us?” he said. “We put up $140 billion and they put up just a tiny fraction of that. And you know, we all want to see success, but it’s far more important to them than it is to us because of that location.”

“We are never going back to a party that wants to give unlimited money to fight foreign wars that are endless wars, that are stupid,” Trump proclaimed.

Trump warned Americans that they are facing the “most dangerous time in our country’s history, and Joe Biden is leading us into oblivion,” claiming that the world will soon plunge into WWIII unless “something doesn’t happen fast.”

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“I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent world war three,” he said.

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly called for the US to lead the way in negotiating a peace settlement in Ukraine, while blasting the way President Biden has handled the conflict. He also condemned the US’ promise to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, saying the move could bring about a nuclear war – as Moscow continues to insist  that arms shipments make the West a direct party to the hostilities.

Colombia floats new plan to deal with ‘cocaine hippos’

At least 70 descendants of the animals smuggled by Pablo Escobar are set to get relocated to India and Mexico

Colombia plans to “translocate” some 70 of its so-called ‘cocaine hippos’ overseas, the governor of the country’s northwestern department of Antioquia, Anibal Gaviria, announced on Thursday. The animals, arguably the most bizarre legacy of the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar, will be sent to India and Mexico.

Currently, Colombia has an estimated population of 130 to 160 hippos, Gaviria told local Blu Radio. Some 70 of the animals, a mix of males and females, are expected to be relocated to Mexico and India in the first half of this year, with the latter country set to receive 60 of the hippos, the governor said.

The hippos will be transferred into their new home by plane, put inside specifically-built ‘crates,’ Gaviria added. The looming operation has been primarily payrolled by New Delhi, he revealed, noting that the new host countries “have the capacity to receive them, to accommodate them properly and to control their reproduction.”

Regarding Colombia itself, the transfer would drastically reduce the current hippo population, making it easier for the government, long-struggling with the issue, to control the remaining animals. The authorities are seeking to establish a sanctuary for hippos in the country, according to Gaviria, to be able to safely “keep the animals, control their reproduction and risks to the population.”

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Colombia’s hippo problem originates in the 1980s, when Escobar smuggled four animals, one male and three females, for the private zoo at his ranch of Hacienda Napoles, full of exotic – and illegal – species. After the drug kingpin was killed in a firefight with police in 1993, all the animals, except for the hippos, were relocated by the authorities, as the large mammals were deemed too bulky and difficult to transport.

Left alone, the ‘cocaine hippos’ thrived in the country’s moist and warm climate, with their population exploding and spreading well beyond the former ranch of Escobar. The animals have become popularly known as the ‘cocaine hippos,’ promptly becoming an environmental hazard and a deadly threat to locals, as well as making Colombia the only country outside Africa to have a wild hippo pack.

According to a study, published back in 2021, the hippo numbers could have ballooned to some 1,500 specimens if left unchecked. At the same time, environmentalists warned against a transfer of hippos to Africa, as the move would likely do more harm than good, both for the hippos themselves and local African animals, potentially exposed to foreign diseases.

Trump demands Covid ‘reparations’ from China

The former US president accused Beijing of “unleashing this plague upon the world”

Former US President Donald Trump has claimed to have been proven right on his early speculation that Covid-19 emerged from a Chinese lab, saying Beijing must compensate the rest of the world for “unleashing” the virus and “allowing” it to spread globally.

Citing statements in recent days by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the FBI that the virus “most likely” leaked from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, Trump said “the facts are now plain for all to see.” He blasted the Chinese government, writing on Saturday in a Daily Mail newspaper op-ed that Beijing’s “lies and deception killed any opportunity to stop this deadly global catastrophe at the start.”

However, neither the DOE nor the FBI provided any proof for its findings. Chinese officials responded by accusing President Joe Biden’s administration of politicizing the origin-tracing of Covid-19 and trying to smear China with unsupported claims.

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Why is the Covid-19 lab leak theory back in the headlines?

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Friday that politicization had turned the issue into a “political football,” making it more difficult to determine how the virus originated.

Undeterred, Trump said China should be financially on the hook for a pandemic that, according to some estimates, caused $50 trillion in damages. The virus has been blamed for nearly 6.9 million deaths globally, including 1.1 million in the US.

“Add to that the probability that the virus emerged from a Chinese government lab, and may even have been engineered by Chinese government scientists, and it is clear that the nations of the world are not just owed a massive apology; they are owed massive damages,” he wrote. 

To collect this compensation, nothing should be off the table – tariffs, taxes, and a global summit on reparations.

Trump said Biden has been “unbelievably weak on China – perhaps because his family has received millions of dollars from entities linked to the Chinese Communist Party.” He also faulted Biden for joining with legacy media outlets, social media platforms and public health authorities to squash any discussion of the lab-leak theory until recently.


READ MORE: Beijing responds to FBI’s Covid origin claim

“There must now be a reckoning,” Trump wrote. “The sinister censorship regimes in the United States and throughout the West must be dismantled and destroyed.”