The Reason Russia Invaded Ukraine; Air You Breathe Could be Killing You
The latest Trends Journal was 172 pages of ad-free articles on finance and geopolitics. Here are two stories found in this week's issue.
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Russia’s top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, said Monday that a primary reason Moscow invaded Ukraine was its attempt to end the U.S. drive for world domination. A trend that the United States has been on since the beginning of the 20th century. (See “War Is A Racket” by Major General Smedley Butler.)
“Our special military operation is meant to put an end to the unabashed expansion [of NATO] and the unabashed drive towards full domination by the US and its Western subjects on the world stage,” Lavrov said.
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“This domination is built on gross violations of international law and under some rules, which they are now hyping so much and which they make up on a case-by-case basis.” The Trends Journal has long reported that Russia submitted security demands prior to the war that it sees as existential, but the U.S. and Western allies refused to make any concessions.
Lavrov accused the U.S. of not following international law, The Moscow Times reported.
“In Iraq … they saw a threat to their American security, they bombed it. And when neo-Nazis and ultra-radicals are being grown right on our borders …we are not allowed to react to this threat on our borders,” Lavrov said.
TRENDPOST: In 2013, we published a report titled, “NO NEED FOR NATO,” that said the alliance had gone on for too long. We wrote, “The only dangerous ideology in the world today is Washington’s ideology of neoconservatism. This ideology proclaims the U.S. to be the “indispensable nation,” with the right and responsibility to impose its economic and political system on the world.”
As detailed in the Los Angeles Times back in May of 2016, while the U.S. and NATO deny that no such agreement was struck, “...hundreds of memos, meeting minutes and transcripts from U.S. archives indicate otherwise.” The article states:
“According to transcripts of meetings in Moscow on Feb. 9, then-Secretary of State James Baker suggested that in exchange for cooperation on Germany, U.S. could make ‘iron-clad guarantees’ that NATO would not expand ‘one inch eastward.’ Less than a week later, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to begin reunification talks. No formal deal was struck, but from all the evidence, the quid pro quo was clear: Gorbachev acceded to Germany’s western alignment and the U.S. would limit NATO’s expansion.”
Russia also warned Finland and Sweden that a NATO membership would add tension in the region.
“If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the land borders of the alliance with the Russian Federation will more than double. Naturally, these boundaries will have to be strengthened,” said Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said.
Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, said she expects a decision soon.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused Finland to review our security strategy. I won’t offer any kind of timetable as to when we will make our decision, but I think it will happen quite fast. Within weeks, not within months. The security landscape has completely changed,” she said.
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ABOUT 99 PERCENT OF PEOPLE BREATHE IN POLLUTED AIR THAT CAN IMPACT THEIR HEALTH
About 99 percent of the world’s population lives in an area where air quality could reach levels of pollution that may be harmful to their health, the World Health Organization said.
Maria Neira, the director of environment at the WHO, called it “unacceptable” that there are seven million “preventable deaths and countless preventable lost years of good health due to air pollution.”
The BBC, citing the 2021 World Air Quality Report, said 21 of the world’s 30 cities with the worst levels of pollution are in India. The number includes six Indian cities that are in the top 10. The WHO made its guidelines tougher and pointed out that people in low and middle-income countries suffer more exposure to PM10 and PM2.5 pollutants.
The Financial Times reported that even wealthier countries are impacted by air pollution. About 400,000 deaths in Europe are caused by air pollution.
TRENDPOST: A 2021 study from the WHO found that more than 10 million people die each year from air pollution, compared to the 6.2 million who died from COVID since the outbreak in 2020.
We have pointed out that the COVID War still increases newspaper sales and boosts TV, but killer pollution emissions do not. Micheal Greenstone, one of the scientists who created the AQLI, agreed.
He called air pollution the “greatest external threat to human health on the planet." He also pointed out that it is not “widely recognized, or not recognized with the force and vigor that one might expect.”
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