27 Feb, 2023 13:00

Kremlin comments on Chinese peace plan for Ukraine

Any call for peace deserves attention, but Russia doubts that de-escalation is possible now, Dmitry Peskov says

Russia is closely studying a China-proposed peace plan for Ukraine, but currently sees no opportunity for a political resolution of the conflict, the Kremlin spokesman has said.

“Any attempt to work out plans, which would encourage switching the conflict onto a peaceful track, deserve attention,” including the proposal from “our Chinese friends,”Dmitry Peskov said.

“As for the details, they should be the subject of careful analysis, taking into account the interests of the parties,” Peskov noted, describing it as “a very long and intense process.”

The spokesman, however, cautioned that Moscow sees “no preconditions for a resolution of this whole situation in a peaceful direction,” adding that the Russian military operation in Ukraine continues, as “we move towards achieving the set goals.”

The 12-point plan was released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry last Friday and involves a range of measures, from a ceasefire and peace talks to abandoning “Cold War mentality” and sanctions, while promoting global stability and international supply chains. Among other things, Beijing urged the parties involved to respect the “sovereignty of all countries.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the roadmap last week, with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressing appreciation for Beijing’s contribution to “to the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine by peaceful means.”

Ukraine’s backers have brushed off the Chinese proposal, with NATOSecretary General Jens Stoltenberg declaring that Beijing “doesn’t have much credibility” after refusing to side with the US on the issue.

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, which were designed to give Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014.

Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the agreement to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.” The idea was confirmed by then-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and then-President of France Francois Hollande.

https://www.rt.com/russia/572131-chinese-ukraine-plan-peskov/

27 Feb, 2023 13:50

Why are people afraid of ‘15-minute cities’? 1/2

The newly popular concept of having all you need within easy reach is seen by some as a step towards total control

In an effort to make towns more user- and eco-friendly, urban planners have unveiled the ’15-minute city,’ which hopes to keep residents close to home to battle climate change.But will this plan open the door to greater restrictions?

More than 2,000 protesters went out into the streets of Oxford, England earlier this month to express their hostility to the controversial concept of the 15-minute city, which has already been quietly unveiled in a number of major cities, including Barcelona, Melbourne, Paris and Milan.

Centered on the work of the French-Colombian urbanist Carlos Moreno, 15-minute cities are designed so that human necessities and services, like shopping, work, education, and healthcare are accessible with a short bike ride or walk from one’s front door. Such a city is divided into neighborhoods or zones, and local residents have little to no need to ever travel outside their immediate surroundings. When necessary, such trips can be taken via public transport or ring roads, keeping private cars’ harmful emissions into the city air at a minimum.

At first glance, it seems hard to argue with this proposal. After all, most people at one time or another have found themselves cursing at automobiles, maybe even chasing after them with a clenched fist (as an Australian friend of mine was prone to do when the cars didn’t stop for him in the crosswalks), wishing that the contraptions would just disappear.

In fact, something like that happened recently in the center of Moscow when the local government converted several lengthy streets around Red Square to pedestrian traffic only. The results have been spectacular. Along spacious roads once reserved for the fire-breathing machines, young people ride electric scooters, kids run without fear of becoming roadkill, and diners enjoy casual meals on patios minus vehicular noise and pollution. Meanwhile, the businesses do not seem negatively affected by the change. In fact, they seem to be flourishing like never before. So where exactly is the problem?

It seems that much of the skepticism and even paranoia about 15-minute cities stems from recent history, particularly humanity’s experience with the Covid pandemic and the restrictive methods that some world leaders chose for dealing with it. When given an inch of power, they took a mile, and that should surprise nobody. What started off as “15 days of lockdowns to flatten the curve” of the disease, which, incidentally, had a higher than 95% survival rate for those infected, turned into what many feel was a marathon in prison living.

Meanwhile, members of the World Economic Forum, who were enriching themselves like never before as small businesses went bankrupt, were promoting an extremely unsettling formula for modern living. This has absolutely nothing in common with free markets and capitalism: ‘You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.’ Features of the dreaded ‘Great Reset’ included “eating bugs” at a time when many people were literally going hungry. So when it comes to 15-minute cities, a significant portion of the general public are now asking the question: can people who promote such ideas be trusted with regulating day-to-day city life?

To further complicate matters, the rationale for imposing these restrictions on people is to curb climate change, an issue that seems to be as controversial as the great debate over abortion or gun control in the US. Some people, many of them on the political right, see this environmentalism as nothing more than an excuse for exerting more government control over people. Besides, the 15-minute city’s ability to help the environment has itself been called into question.

During the Oxford protest, one of the speakers, a 12-year-old girl named Jasmine, provided an imaginary scenario that reveals the overall futility of the plan: “Let’s say my friend lives in Zone 3 and I’m in Zone 1. If, for example, I went to my friend’s house in Zone 3. My parents normally come and pick me up in their car, it only takes 10 minutes. So does that mean that they’d have to go around the ring road and back into town again? If my mom or dad had to drive around the ring road, it would take 30 minutes, causing much more pollution and leaving a much bigger carbon footprint.” …

https://www.rt.com/news/572123-15minute-cities-control-protests/

>>18418720

2/2

Moreover, is it realistic to think that every material good and service will always be readily accessible by a 15-minute bicycle ride or casual stroll? After all, what government bureaucrats promise and what they ultimately provide seldom align. And let’s not forget that business failures happen on a regular basis and often with little notice. Will residents of Zone 1, for example, be forced to pay fines in the event they must travel to Zone 5 for essential products, like food, medicine and even water in the event of unexpected shortfalls?

Even if a self-contained neighborhood is ultimately able to maintain stable access to all the wants and needs of its residents, opponents of the idea have gone so far as to compare it to a gulag. They feel the 15-minute city would deprive them of the freedom of choice to leave their neighborhoods and venture to other businesses, schools, and health services without having to fork over money, time and nerves for the privilege.

“The idea that neighborhoods should be walkable is lovely,” Dr. Jordan Peterson commented over Twitter. “The idea that idiot tyrannical bureaucrats can decide by fiat where you're ‘allowed’ to drive is perhaps the worst imaginable perversion of that idea - and, make no mistake, it's part of a well-documented plan.”

Additionally, there are other socio-economic questions regarding equal opportunity, privilege, and even race. Nobody has been able to predict the consequences of imposing travel restrictions on more marginalized consumers who lack quality services in their poorer neighborhoods, and must now pay more to access them at a much greater distance.

Oxford’s 15-minute-city plans themselves do not actually include traffic restrictions or fines, instead focusing on making the scheme workable by ensuring that residents have access to everything they need. This includes boosting local retail, improving delivery services and other, equally benevolent measures with no encroachment on personal freedoms. Given this, the detractors of the 15-minute city have been dubbed conspiracy theorists.

However, Oxfordshire City Council also has a separate plan, a set of traffic-reducing measures that will go into trial mode next year. Under this plan, residents will not be allowed to drive on some city streets for most of the day unless they have a 100-day permit. They are encouraged to instead use the ring road or public transport. Traffic cameras will monitor compliance and fines will be imposed for violations.

The aforementioned ‘conspiracy theorists’ in Oxford have been accused of conflating the two plans to make the idea of the 15-minute city seem more ominous than it is. But their concerns are justified by the power creep they’ve seen during and after the Covid-related lockdowns – where we now know that digital tracking measures have been used for more than just reducing the spread of the virus.

Back in 1986, former US president Ronald Reagan famously told a group of journalists, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." Those protesting the idea of 15-minute cities believe they need to get a foot in the door beforethe power creep actually does start encroaching on personal freedoms – which they now feel is the inevitable outcome.

27 Feb, 2023 11:47

Impact of Ukrainian arms deliveries on German military revealed

The head of the German Armed Forces Association now doubts Berlin’s capacity to fulfill its commitments to NATO

TheGerman military is facing a shortage of essential hardware as a result of Berlin’s provision of weapons to Ukrainefor use in its conflict against Russia, according to Colonel Andre Wustner, the head of the German Armed Forces Association (DBwV).

Last February, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to invest €100 billion ($105.6 billion) in the Bundeswehr with the aim of making it the best-equipped military in Europe. However, Wustner told Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday that, one year on, Scholz’s promise remains unfulfilled.

“For the soldiers, nothing has noticeably improved since then,” said the head of the union, which represents serving and former German troops.

The Bundeswehrwasn’t in full operational readiness even before the conflict in Ukraine, but the deliveries of German weapons to the Kiev government have further increased gaps in its material supply, he explained.

“To date, we haven’t received a replacement for a single self-propelled howitzer that we handed over to Ukraine last year,” Wustner said. There’s also a shortage of spare parts and some of the few remaining German howitzers have to be decommissioned and dismantled for this purpose, he added.

The DBwV chief also revealed that “out of the approximately 300 Leopard tanks possessed by the Bundeswehr,only 30% are currently operational.” It’s essential that the 18 Leopard 2s that Berlin promised to send to Kiev earlier this year are swiftly replaced, he said.

“I doubt whether we’ll be able to meet our commitments to NATO for 2025,” he continued, noting thatGermany has pledged some 60 aircraft, 20 ships, 20,000 troops and 7,000 vehicles to the US-led militarybloc by that time.

The country needs to “finally accelerate” the production and procurement of military hardware to meet the Bundeswehr’s needs, Wustner insisted.

Germany provided more than $2 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine in 2022, including anti-aircraft tanks, multiple rocket launchers, the IRIS-T air-defense system, and self-propelled howitzers.

However, even after securing the promise of Leopard 2s in January, Kiev continues to demand an even greater contribution from Berlin. Last week, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister and former envoy to Germany Andrey Melnik urged Scholz “to cross all self-drawn red lines and provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with all available weapon systems.”The new arms deliveries by Germany could include fighter jets, as well as warships and submarines, Melnik suggested.

(What’s Joe gonna do now? Blow something else up to keep the EU to give all their armaments to Ukraine?)

https://www.rt.com/news/572125-germany-ukraine-weapons-nato/

27 Feb, 2023 11:24

Russia no longer at mercy of global elite – Lavrov

Moscow will determine its own external conditions for development, the diplomat said

Western political leaders will no longer have the power to dictate terms to Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. Speaking with the heads of the ministry’s regional offices, the diplomat stressed that Russia will now determine its own needs for development.

“Until recently, a couple of years ago, the external conditions that we needed for development were determined not by us, but by the Western minority,” said Lavrov. He added that all the foreign policy initiatives promoted by the so-called “golden billion” group serve the sole purpose of making sure that the world lives by rules that allow Western elites to continue their colonial policies and live at the expense of others.

“Therefore, we will no longer rely on someone when it comes to creating the external conditions for the development that we need,” Lavrov stressed, also pledging that Russia will not follow in the footsteps of the “selfish” West, and will take into account the interests of other independent states.

According to the diplomat, Moscow aims to create external conditions that are as favorable as possible for the development of the country, but stressed that these conditions must also reflect “the consensus of all independent states” and fully comply with the principles of the UN Charter, which have been “repeatedly violated by our former Western colleagues.”

During the meeting, Lavrov also noted that the number of countries wishing to join BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) economic blocs had increased to almost two dozen by the end of 2022. The diplomat noted that the countries wishing to join the alliances, such as Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia, Argentina, Mexico and several African nations, “play a very prominent role in their regions.”

“Just listing the names ofthese states already shows the failure of attempts [of the West] to isolate our country,” Lavrov observed, adding that the opposite has happened, with independent countries now uniting with other like-minded states.

https://www.rt.com/russia/572126-lavrov-russia-global-elites/

27 Feb, 2023 12:09

Fresh deadly quake in Türkiye

The Turkish emergencies agency AFAD reported a new earthquake in the east, with at least one fatality recorded

A new deadly earthquake hit Türkiye at around midday on Monday, the national disaster relief agency reported. According to preliminary reports, one person has been killed and 69 others injured in the eastern province of Malatya.

The Turkish disaster and emergency management agency AFAD said thetremor measured 5.6 in magnitude, with the epicenter located in the Yesilyurt district. The quake was estimated to have originated at a depth of approximately seven kilometers and could be felt in neighboring provinces, according to the rescue agency.

Initial reports indicate that over 20 buildings have been flattened in this latest disasterto hit Türkiye. Footage circulating online purports to show the collapse of some of the structures.

Some 20 people, including those rescued from the rubble, were taken to hospital in the aftermath, Minister of National Education Mahmut Ozer told the news agency Anadolu. The search and rescue operation continues, AFAD said.

Malatya was among the Turkish provinces that was seriously affected by the twin quakes on February 6, which claimed over 50,000 lives in Türkiye and Syria and caused massive damage in both nations. Many buildings were weakened by the initial disaster, increasing the risk of their collapse in subsequent tremors.

Hundreds of aftershocks followed the initial strike in the ensuing weeks, some lethal in their own right. Last Monday in the evening, several people were killed and hundreds got injured after the already devastated Hatay province was hit.

Türkiye is located in an area where several fault lines pass, making the country vulnerable to seismic events. After this month’s disaster, scientists warned that the risk of a quake similar in strength hitting near the city of Istanbul is increasing with time. The country’s most populous city underwent a period of rapid urbanization in the past decades, but the safety of newly constructed buildings remains in doubt.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday that the government “will do whatever it takes to prepare all our cities for disasters.” It will not permit the construction of high-rise buildings in areas damaged by the quakes and will ban all construction near fault lines, he said.

https://www.rt.com/news/572130-turkiye-new-quake-malatya/

27 Feb, 2023 07:30

Analysts reveal voracious buyers of Russia’s oil products – WSJ

North Africa boosts imports of Russian petroleum products, while volumes of oil refining remain the same, the newspaper says

North African nations have sharply increased imports of Russian diesel and other refined oil products, while petrochemical exports from the region have seen a significant uptick, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing trading analysts.

Industry experts are reportedly raising concerns that Russian sanctioned cargoes are being blended with other oil products and re-sold. The procedure effectively disguises the ultimate origin of the products, undermining Western states’ efforts to oust Russian fossil fuels from their economies.

Imports of Russian diesel byMorocco soared to two million barrels in January compared with some 600,000 barrels recorded during the whole of 2021, according to analysts from commodities market data firm Kpler, who stress that a further 1.2 million barrels will be shipped to the country this month.

Tunisia boosted purchases of Russian diesel, gas oil, gasoline and naphtha, which is traditionally used to make chemicals and plastics, to 2.8 million barrels in January and is projected to import another 3.1 million barrels in February. Kpler also recorded an uptick in imports by Algeria, Egypt and Libya.

The volumes absorbed by North African countries are too much for them to take on their own, according to Viktor Katona, Kpler senior oil analyst, who predicts that some of the Russian products will make their way to Europe.

“Trust me, we are not witnessing some renaissance in Maghrebi refining,” Katona told the Wall Street Journal, referring to the region of North Africa

North African ports are seen as convenient for Russian cargoes sailing from the Baltic Sea, as voyages are not much longer than the pre-sanctions trips to European ports. This allows Russia to keep shipping costs low, and prevents its limited fleet of tankers from getting tied up in lengthy voyages to Asia or elsewhere.

“Even if you wanted to regulate that, how would you?” Andreas Economou, head of oil research at The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, was quoted by the paper as saying. “If a cargo is 51% from Morocco, 49% from Russia, how would you referee that?”

Some of North Africa’s increased diesel imports from Russia have displaced the region’s typical suppliers in the Middle East and North America, suggesting some of the activity was bargain hunting, Jorge Leon, senior vice president at Rystad Energy, told the newspaper.

Earlier this week, EU sanctions envoy David O’Sullivan told the Financial Times that the bloc and its allies had begun investigating a surge in exports to countries in Russia’s neighbourhood. They suspected sanctioned products were entering Russia via the back door.

The EU has introduced 10 rounds of anti-Russia sanctions since the beginning of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. Kremlin has repeatedly said that the measures, supported by the US and its allies, are illegitimate and ineffective, and that the restrictions cause more damage to the initiators. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the penalties “crazy and thoughtless,”saying that no country had previously changed its political course due to sanctions pressure.

https://www.rt.com/africa/572094-north-africa-imports-russian-petroleum/

27 Feb, 2023 07:48

EU member blasts Brussels over sanctions on journalists

The bloc claims to support a free press but puts journalists on sanctions lists, Peter Szijjarto said

The EU’s declared support for media freedom clashes with its actions in a “confusing” way, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said,commenting on the blacklisting of Russian journalists in the latest round of sanctions.

In an interview with RIA Novosti news agency published on Monday, the diplomat also said the Hungarian government is criticized by Brussels for allegedly not protecting the media.

“The only reason for this criticism is that unlike in every other part of Europe, in Hungary the media is really colorful. If you look around in Europe, 98% of media is liberal, and the rest are the others,” he claimed, while acknowledging that his words may be “a small exaggeration.”

The foreign minister noted that in Hungary, themedia is split roughly into two halves, between liberal and conservative outlets, but the West and the liberal media consider that to show a lack of press freedom.

“So those who are judging us for media freedom, those are [the people] putting journalists on a sanctions list. For me it’s a bit confusing,” he concluded.

The 10th package of anti-Russian sanctions was adopted by the EU last week. It blacklisted Russian media organizations and individuals, in what the bloc described as targeting “disinformation outlets.” Among other things, Brussels added RT Arabic to the list of channels banned from broadcasting in the EU.

In the interview, Szijjarto also reiterated Hungary’s commitment to vetoing any attempts to sanction the Russian nuclear industry, and urged a thorough investigation into last year’s sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which he called a “terrorist attack”against EU energy infrastructure.

https://www.rt.com/news/572116-hungary-eu-media-freedom/

‘Crafting an illusion’: US rail firms’ multimillion-dollar PR push1/3

Norfolk Southern, the company behind the Ohio train crash, and other rail firms spent millions on marketing and lobbying

Adam Lowenstein

Six children, smiling and laughing, sit at a table with lunch boxes open in front of them. “Hey guys! My dad can stop a train with his finger,” one brags. “My mom can see into the future,” another says, holding up her hands as binoculars. “My mom? She speaks train,” a third claims.

Just then, her mom walks into the room. Another child asks if it’s true that she can talk to trains. “You betcha,” she says with a wink, as she stands in front of a sky-blue sign emblazoned with the logo of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

The kids’ conversation takes place in “Everyday Superheroes”, a 2018 video created for Norfolk Southern, the $12.7bn operator of the train carrying toxic chemicals that derailed earlier this month in East Palestine, Ohio, causing an environmental disaster of still unknown proportions.

The video, part of an ad campaign called “Reimagine Possible”, was produced by RP3, a Maryland-based public relations agency. RP3 said the campaign was designed to reach “policymakers and opinion elites… whose perceptions are vital to Norfolk Southern’s success.” The people targeted by the campaign “tend to support companies whose leadership helps spur innovation and growth”, the agency wrote, explaining in a case study how the campaign was designed to “convince people they’re actually innovative”.

The PR push is a window into a years-long, multimillion-dollar campaign by America’s biggest railroad corporations to win favor among federal regulators and policymakers andpush back against calls for tougher regulation– a successful campaign that is coming under closer scrutiny following the Ohio disaster.

Another video, set to its own version of School House Rock’s Conjunction Junction, starts with the lyrics: “Norfolk Southern, what’s your function? Hooking up the country, helping business run. Trains! They haul everything, safely and on time.”

Between 2015 and 2022, the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the trade organization representing large train companies,spent more than $39.4m lobbying the federal government, according to data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets. The AAR and its dues-paying members, who include Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, BNSF and CSX, have also made millions of dollars’ worth of political contributions.

But as Norfolk Southern’s “Reimagine Possible” campaign reflects, the industry also employs more indirect tactics to promote what the AAR calls “balanced regulation”, its euphemism for eliminating mandatory, government-enforced safety standards in favor of voluntary, industry-led oversight.

An analysis by the Guardian found that between 2015 and 2019, the most recent year for which data are available, the AAR paid Subject Matter, a Washington DC-based PR and government affairs firm,more than $23.3m for “paid media consulting + advertising,” according to the AAR’s annual filings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). That sum represents nearly as much as the group spent on lobbying during the same period….

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/27/ohio-train-east-palestine-norfolk-southern-pr-push

>>18418858

2/3

Subject Matter’s work for the AAR included “Freight Rail Works”, which the agency described as “a comprehensive campaign to help ensure this critical industry remains top-of-mind for Washington DC-area policymakers and influencers.” “Transforming for Tomorrow”, another campaign produced by Subject Matter, was designed to “showcase the surprising technological advancements that power America’s rail network” and “cover all major touchpoints for our DC beltway audience”. Neither Subject Matter nor RP3 responded to a request for comment.

According to the AAR’s 2019 tax filing, the trade association’s “integrated communications campaign” is designed in part to demonstrate “how railroads use modern technology to improve safety and provide public benefits”.

As part of its communications push, the AARhas paid for dozens of sponsored articles in the Washington Post and Politico, two publications widely read by the “policymakers and opinion elites” who the group targets with its messages of innovation and self-regulation. Under headlines such as “No need to fix a freight rail system that is thriving” and “How America’s freight railroads became great again,” the AAR touts its members’ impact on the US economy and warns of the consequences of new regulations.

Other stories, including “How freight rail is putting the brakes on human error,” argue that the industry is already making technology investments on its own, with the implication (and sometimes the explicit connection) that new safety requirements are unnecessary or even detrimental to those efforts.

The rail industry has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year funding GoRail, a tax-exempt 501(c)4 organization thatadvocates for the railroad industry before local, state and federal policymakers and officials. According to IRS filings, between 2015 and 2019 the AAR gave $2m to GoRail, a sum that represents more than one-fifth of GoRail’s total revenue during that period.

GoRail’s operations are tightly integrated with the country’s largest rail companies, and its agenda is closely aligned with their interests. GoRail’s board consists almost entirely of railroad executives and the president of the AAR, and the role of board chair rotates annually among executives from Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific and other firms. GoRail and the AAR, as well asRailpac, the AAR’s political action committee, all operate out of the same building in Washington DC.Neither GoRail nor the AAR responded to requests for comment.

Unlike the AAR, however, GoRail exists to generate grassroots support –or the appearance of grassroots support – for the industry’s policy agenda. GoRail’s annual reports and IRS filings regularly boast of how many letters it sent to Congress, social media “impressions” it generated and “lawmaker-advocate connections” and “educational meetings” it organized. As aNorfolk Southern executive who chaired the GoRail boardwrotein the organization’s 2017 annual report, “Via thousands of field meetings with key local influencers annually and a sophisticated media strategy, GoRail’s team is able to build the relationships that matter and then utilize these connections to impact policy decisions when it counts.”

One policy decision to which the industry remainsstrongly opposed is a proposal from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to require most trains, particularly those carrying hazardous materials, to have at least two crew members on board. The “train staffing” rule’s supporters, including railroad workers and their union representatives, argue that having multiple workers on board makes trains saferto operate and leaves them more capable of responding to accidents when they occur.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/27/ohio-train-east-palestine-norfolk-southern-pr-push

>>18418861

3/3

Individual companies such as Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, as well as GoRail and the AAR, have helped lead the industry’s opposition to the proposal, frequently using the same arguments that they deploy in their PR campaigns to argue that the rule is unnecessary because of their investments in new technologies.

During a 14 December FRA hearing about the rule, for instance, a representative for Norfolk Southern told the FRA that the company opposed the train staffing requirement in part because it would prevent the company from “redeploy[ing]” conductors from trains to “ground-based role[s]”. “Once again technology has supplanted the conductor’s traditional safety role,” the representative said.

A Union Pacific representative, meanwhile, told the FRA that while the company “has always been, and continues to be, a driver of innovation in this industry”, the train staffing proposal “is threatening to take us down the path of obsolescence”. A GoRail issue briefmakes a similar claim that “Mandating a specific railroad crew is a disincentive to research new technologies”.

In quarterly earnings calls and presentations to shareholders, however, the companies suggest that reducing the number of workers on trains is as much about cutting short-term costs as it is about developing new technology or promoting innovation. Even as Norfolk Southern’s PR campaign calls its workers “everyday superheroes”, over the past two decades the company has managed to cut more than 9,600 jobs while increasing shareholder dividends and stock buybacks by 4,500%, as More Perfect Union recently reported. “Crew staffing of trains…has remained consistent,” a company spokesperson told the Guardian in a statement. “Norfolk Southern continues to make substantial progress recruiting new crew members.”

“When [companies] think of railroad, they do not think of cutting-edge. They think of cutting crew size and cutting corners to do it,” said Vincent Verna, a representative of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and a former locomotive engineer for Union Pacific, during the 14 December FRA hearing. “Simply cutting the size of the crew for more profits has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with avarice.”

The railroad industry has deployed a similar two-step argument in opposition to other safety proposals, including a rule that would have required trains to use electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes, as the Lever reported. The publication found that during the Trump administration, Norfolk Southern and the AAR helped defeat a proposal to require ECP brakes on trains carrying hazardous materials – even though ECP brakes were one of the innovations that industry leaders, including Norfolk Southern, had “previously touted” as examples of the industry’s technological prowess.

While there is little doubt that railroad companies are indeed investing in and implementing new technology, the industry appears determined to use the idea of technology – as well as the prospect of future technology – to defeat new safety requirements and regulations.

Its approach was summed up in a 2017 blog post from the PR agency hired by the AAR to “deliver [the] message home to policymakers” that the industry’s technology investments are important for the US economy. The agency created a video of a hard hat- and yellow safety vest-clad spokesperson for Freight Rail Works being “cloned” dozens of times. The video’s header: “Association of American Railroads: Crafting an illusion to deliver a powerful message”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/27/ohio-train-east-palestine-norfolk-southern-pr-push

Ohio rail crash: toxic waste removal suspended amid contamination fears

Environmental Protection Agency orders rail company to ‘pause’ shipments from site pending a review of plans to dispose of waste near Houston and Detroit

Tom Perkins February 25, 20231/2

Federal environmental authorities have ordered a temporary halt in the shipment of contaminated waste from the site of the train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month, amid fears of further harm from the toxic waste.

Hazardous waste disposal facilities near Houston and Detroit are planning to receive most of the contaminated water and soil from the East Palestine train wreck site,raising the risk that some of the dangerous chemicals could end up in the environment elsewhere.

Debra Shore from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Saturday the agency had ordered rail company Norfolk Southern to“pause” shipments from the sitebut vowed that removal of the material would resume “very soon”.

“Everyone wants this contamination gone from the community. They don’t want the worry, and they don’t want the smell, and we owe it to the people of East Palestine to move it out of the community as quickly as possible,” Shore said.

Until Friday, Shore said, the rail company had been solely responsible for the disposal of the waste and supplied Ohio environmental officials with a list of selected and utilized disposal sites. Going forward,disposal plans including locations and transportation routes for contaminated waste would be subject to EPA review and approval, she said.

“EPA will ensure that all waste is disposed of in a safe and lawful manner at EPA-certified facilities to prevent further release of hazardous substances and impacts to communities.”

Shore said officials had heard concerns from residents and others in a number of states and were reviewing “the transport of some of this waste over long distances and finding the appropriate permitted and certified sites to take the waste”.

The revelation of the contaminated water’s destination drew outrage this week from metro Houston residents and officials who fear for their communities’ safety. But the concernis not just “why is it coming here?’’ said Bryan Parras, who is part of Sierra Club’s Gulf Coast’s healthy communities program.

“If some of these chemicals are so bad that the only way to get rid of them is to bury them in a deep hole, then why are we producing these chemicals in the first place?” he asked.

A Norfolk Southern train carrying vinyl chloride used to produce PVC plastic derailed on 3 February in the small industrial town of 4,700 people, located at the edge of the Appalachian hills in Ohio. Disposal of the leftover contaminated water and soil =raises new questions about toxic chemicals’ life cycle== as the waste heads to facilities with histories of problems.

EPA testing has confirmed that chemicals in soil and water include vinyl chloride, phosphene, benzene and a range of other volatile organic compounds – known as VOCs – and particulate matter…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/25/ohio-toxic-train-site-east-palestine-houston-material

>>18418878

2/2

Independent public health experts say water and soil are also likely ••contaminated with dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and other similar dangerous compounds==. But the EPA has so far resisted calls from them and Ohio’s US senators to test for those chemicals.

The soil was scheduled to go to aUS Ecology landfill in Belleville, Michigan, which sits at the edge of metro Detroit and just a few miles from Ann Arbor, two of the state’s most populous regions. The contaminatedwater is slated to be sent to a Texas Molecular deep well injection facility in Deer Park, in the same county as Houston, the fourth most populous US city.

The most likely contaminant to be released in the environment in Michigan in the near term is PFAs, a highly toxic class of chemicals widely used in firefighting foam that experts say was likely deployed in East Palestine. It’s also widely used in other industrial products and may have been in the train tankers.

The US Ecology landfill receives, treats and stores toxic waste from around the country, and such facilities are “carefully constructed units designed to protect groundwater and surface water resources”, according to the EPA.

However, theUS Ecology landfill has a historyof leaks and safety violations, though it is one of a very few sites east of the Mississippi River that can take the most dangerous of toxic waste. It is also near a Norfolk Southern-owned track where a freight train derailed last week.

If contaminated soil is sent to the facility, the chemicals wouldprobably end up in the property’s leachate, which is formed when rainwater filters through a landfill’s wastes. Some chemicals are removed from leachate by a wastewater treatment plant on site, but the facility is only required to test its discharge quarterly, said Denise Trabbic-Pointer, a toxics and remediation specialist with Sierra Club Michigan who has experience in hazardous waste management.

It is alsounclear if US Ecology is required to check for and remove chemicals that may be in East Palestine’s soil.State records show the company spits high levels of PFAs into a local sewer system where the chemicals can end up in local waterways.

East Palestine and Belleville have become “sacrifice zones for our nation’s most harmful wastes”, said Sierra Club of Michigan director Elayne Elliot.

About 2m gallons of contaminated water is set to be sent about 1,300 miles by truck and rail from the wreck site to Texas Molecular, news that caught local officials by surprise this week. Over 150,000 deep well injection wells exist nationwide, and they are controversial because they are prone to leaking toxic waste into groundwater and are thought to be causing earthquakes.

Local officials have questionedwhy the waste was sent so far.Entities that need to dispose of toxic waste need to provide storage facilities with a toxics profile of its waste, and in some cases the waste must be tested, Trabbic-Pointer said. But entities can choose to dispose of waste at any facility that can legally accept it.

The Texas Molecular site is in alargely low income neighborhood, most of whose residents are racial minorities, Parras said. Shipping the waste such a long distance is dangerous, and so is storing it in the ground, he added.

“These things require a lot of money and time and it begs the question, ‘Why do such risky things that put millions of people at risk without having answers?’” Parras said. “This is why we’re in the situation we’re in right now.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/25/ohio-toxic-train-site-east-palestine-houston-material

Mystery Surrounds Russian Plane Reportedly Blown Up in Belarus

By Brendan Cole 2/27/23 at 4:10 AM

A Russian plane at an airport near Minsk was reportedly attacked by partisans in Belarus in a move one expert told Newsweek will damage the reputation of its authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko as a reliable ally of Vladimir Putin.

Belarusian Hajun, a group that monitors the movement of Russian weapons into Belarus, said in a tweet that residents near the Machulishchy airfield reported hearing explosions at around 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Citing Aliaksandr Azarov, leader of Belarusian anti-government organization BYPOL, Belarusian opposition media outlet Nasha Nivareported that aRussian A-50 surveillance plane had been damaged in the blast.

Azarov said that the attack was carried out byBelarusian partisans using two drones as part of BYPOL's so-called "Victory Plan" and that those involved in the alleged act of sabotage were safe.

Belarusian Hajun said that theplane, worth $330 million, had arrived in Belarus on January 3 this year and made 12 flights in 54 days. The aircraft was previously in Belarus on February 24, 2022, the day the full-scale invasion started.

Franak Viacorka, chief political adviser to exiled Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, wrote in a Twitterthread that the front and central parts of the plane, along with the avionics and the radar antenna were damaged.

"This is the most successful diversion since the beginning of 2022," he wrote in the tweet which started in caps with the message "Glory to Belarusian partisans!"

The airfield, located about eight miles from the Belarusian capital, was "being actively used by Russian army for air attacks on Ukraine," Viacorka wrote.

Hanna Liubakova, a Minsk journalist and non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tanksaid that if Belarusian partisans had attacked the plane, it would present Belarus as "not safe" for the Russian army.

"The planned and successful drone attack as well as serious damage to the only such aircraft in Belarus would cause questions among the Russian command about the Lukashenko regime's ability to take care of Russian military equipment," she told Newsweek. His reputation "as a strongman who is able to keep the country with an iron fist is also injured," she added.

Despite repression in the country,there have been at least 80 acts of sabotage in Belarussince the war started, targeting railways as key supply lines for Russian troops.

Liubakova said it wasn't surprising that Russian military bloggers have been accusing Ukraine of conducting the latest attack. "It is more convenient than admitting that groups of Belarusians are against the presence of Russian troops and attacks from Belarus," she said.

"Secondly, it is done to justify the Lukashenko regime's participation in the war against Ukraine," she added.

https://www.newsweek.com/mystery-russia-belarus-plane-blow-anti-government-ukraine-war-bypol-1783925

U.S. and Russia Tussle for 'Neutrals' With Dueling Visits

By David Brennan On 2/27/23 at 9:39 AM1/2

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken set off Monday for visits to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and India as the U.S. seeks to bolster its influence with nations remaining "neutral" on Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, while Moscow's diplomats and officials look to do the same with visits to Azerbaijan and Algeria.

Blinken's visit willseek inroads in central Asian nations that have traditionally been in Russia's sphereof influence but that have been unsettled by Moscow's military gambit in Ukraine.

The secretary's first stop will be in theKazakh capital of Astana, where he plans to meet with senior government officials to "deepen bilateral cooperation," according to a State Department press release.

Blinken will then meet with representatives of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, followed by a visit to the Uzbek capital of Tashkent "to further advance our partnership on a range of bilateral and regional issues."

Russia's invasion, now in its second year, is blurring long-established geopolitical fault lines, including in post-Soviet Central Asia.Kazakhstan, for example, has pursued closer ties with the European Unionsince February 2022 and is now seeking to reduce its oil export dependence on Russia.

In September, Astana refused to recognize Russia's claimed annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions. One senior government official told Reuters the following month that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was re-evaluating bilateral ties with Moscow, a significant remark given Moscow's role in putting down serious Kazakh anti-government protests only a month before the Ukraine invasion began.

Tokayev has also spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky several times and welcomed tens of thousands of Russians fleeing President Vladimir Putin's mobilization order.

Uzbekistan, meanwhile, has warned its citizens about joining Russian armed units fighting in Ukraine, while state media simultaneously avoids most mentions of the escalating conflict.

Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon scolded Putin at a public meeting in October, accusing the Russian president of not accounting for the interests of Central Asia.

Central Asian nations are caught in a bind, hoping to avoid being tied to Russia's disastrous operation but also wary of undermining ties with Moscow, which still enjoys economic and cultural dominance of the region. The expanding regional reach of China adds another layer of complexity given Beijing's pro-Russian "neutrality" on the war.

India, meanwhile, is still a massive customer for Russian military equipment, and is enjoying low prices on much-needed Russian oil. New Delhi has sent large amounts of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and also called for all nations to respect national sovereignty.

The five Central Asian states and India abstained or did not vote on last week's United Nations General Assembly demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.

Donald Lu—the most senior American diplomat for South and Central Asia—told reporters that Blinken intends to show that the U.S. is a "reliable partner," but the U.S. does not expect a sudden isolation of Russia…

https://www.newsweek.com/us-russia-tussle-neutrals-ukraine-dueling-visits-1784054

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"It's clear to us that the countries ofCentral Asia and India have had long, complex relations with Russia," Lu said in a briefing last week. "I don't think they're going to end those relations anytime soon. But we are talking to them about the role that they can play in this conflict."

Russian outreach

The Kremlin is dispatching its own representatives to other neutral states this week. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he is expected to meet President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.

Baku-Moscow ties have been strained by the former's repeated attacks on the Armenian-controlled but disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, more recently despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers. Moscow has proved unable or unwilling to protect Armenia, even though the country is a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization.

Since last February, Baku has expanded ties with the EU, stepping in to help fill the bloc's natural gas deficit as it weans itself off Russian fossil fuels.

Azerbaijan is undertaking somewhat of a balancing act on Ukraine, seeking to avoid direct conflict with Russia while also supplying Kyiv with humanitarian aid and encouraging economic ties with the EU.

With strategic ally Turkey ensconced in the NATO camp—even if interalliance relations are not always cordial—Baku might be looking to keep Moscow at arm's length.

Still, its UN representatives did not take part in last week's UN vote demanding Russia's withdrawal from Ukraine. Plus, high-profile visits of U.S. lawmakers to Armenia—like that of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi in September—hint at possible future tensions between Washington, D.C., and the authoritarian government in Baku.

Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev—often cited as one of the more hawkish influences on Putin—is traveling to Algeria where he will "hold a number of meetings on the issues of Russia-Algerian security cooperation," according to a Security Council statement quoted by the state-run Tass news agency.

Algeria, sympathetic to the communist bloc during the Cold War and a longtime customer of Russian military equipment, abstained on last week's UN vote on Ukraine while also announcing the reopening of the national mission in Kyiv.

Algiers also stands to benefit from the West's energy hunger given its natural gas reserves. But closer U.S. ties with Morocco—driven in part by Rabat's normalization of ties with Israel—poses problems, given Algeria's long-running backing for the Polisario Front which claims sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory. The U.S. recognized Morocco's claim over the area in 2021.

Algeria's neutrality on Ukraine has prompted some U.S. lawmakers to demand action. A group of GOP politicians led by Representative Lisa McClain, a Michigan Republican, in September accused Algiers of "diplomatic support for Putin's tyrannical regime" and called for sanctions.

https://www.newsweek.com/us-russia-tussle-neutrals-ukraine-dueling-visits-1784054