British Military To Send Warships To Black Sea As Tensions Increase

Brits Push Russia War

Finian Cunningham

The United States backed off sending two warships to the Black Sea last week after Russia warned of a naval showdown. Days later, however, Britain is reportedly stepping in with plans to send warships.

Talk about “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”, the proposed British military intervention is a reckless provocation in a situation that is already spiralling out of control. 

Violence is exploding in Ukraine’s seven-year civil war between the NATO-backed Kiev regime and ethnic Russians in the eastern Donbas region; Russia has mobilized its army for defence drills, and the US and European Union are expelling Russian diplomats, and vice versa. 

Then the British announce they are sending warships to the Black Sea in the coming weeks to “defend” Ukraine against alleged Russian aggression, according to media reports. 

Moscow has declared it is going to close off parts of the Black Sea in Russia’s territorial waters to foreign shipping as part of defensive measures. This includes the sea around Crimea, the peninsula which joined the Russian Federation after a referendum in March 2014. 

Since the US, Britain, and EU refuse to recognize Crimea as legitimate Russian territory – always referring to it as “annexed” by Russia from Ukraine – it is possible that British warships will try to ignore Moscow’s naval restrictions in the Black Sea. If an incursion occurs, it could spark a military confrontation between Russia and NATO-member Britain. Then in that case all bets are off for a wider war between nuclear powers. 

The folly evokes the Charge of the Light Brigade when British cavalry was slaughtered during the 1853-56 Crimean War fighting against Russia. 

British rulers are prioritizing the dispatch of warships “to confront” Russia in the Black Sea. The criminal recklessness of it is astounding. Of course, part to the logic is to distract public anger with an overseas adventure, in a time-honoured British imperialist fashion. 

In a recent foreign policy review, the British government labelled Russia as “an acute threat”. And it made all sorts of bravado statements about “deterring” Russia’s “hostility”. Moscow slammed the British depictions as baseless slander, demonizing Russia without any foundation. 

Britain has already sent naval forces to “support” the Kiev regime and recently deployed SAS commando units to back the Ukrainian army in its fight against ethnic Russians defending their Donbas territory. 

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Putin's State Of The Union Address: Warns Against Foreign Provocations, Crossing 'Red Lines'

Putin warns against crossing Russia’s ‘red lines,’ talks up military advancement

Natasha Turak

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against provoking his country in his annual State of the Union speech Wednesday, promising a swift retaliation against anyone who crossed Russian’s “red lines.“

Moscow will respond “harshly,” “quickly” and “asymmetrically” to foreign provocations, Putin told an audience of Russia’s top officials and lawmakers, adding that he “hoped” no foreign actor would cross Russia’s “red lines,” according to a Reuters translation.

Putin also touted the country’s planned investment in expanded military education, hypersonic weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. But Russia wants peace and arms control agreements, he stressed simultaneously.

The 68-year-old leader also condemned what he described as the constant tendency of international actors to blame Russia for wrongdoing, saying it had become like a sport.

The speech came against the backdrop of deteriorating tensions with the U.S. and EU, and follows the recent imposition of sanctions on Russia from the Joe Biden administration over alleged cyberattacks, human rights violations and activity in Ukraine.

Rumors Of War And Dangerous Times...

A Geopolitical and Economic Crisis is on the Horizon

 Britt Gillette

Rumors Of War Abound

Unfortunately, we’ve seen all this before. Shrinking global trade and collapsing markets were hallmarks of the 1930’s. And so were regional conflicts and the rise of imperial powers. Germany, Italy, and Japan invaded neighboring nations in the 1930’s. Totalitarianism swept across the globe. Like the 1930’s, we see similar developments today.

Today’s headlines tell of wars and rumors of war. For example, China recently flew more than 20 war planes over Taiwan’s airspace. They also threatened the Philippines, anchoring several hundred ships near a Philippine reef in the South China Sea. Meanwhile, the United States and Russia threaten to go to war over Ukraine, and Israel and Iran threaten to go to war over Iran’s nuclear program. Wars and violent conflict are nothing new. But frequent high stakes confrontations between nuclear powers are new to the post-Cold War era. Like the Cuban Missile Crisis and other Cold War moments of brinksmanship, any one of these situations could suddenly escalate into World War III.

These Are Dangerous Times

Despite media attempts to assure us all is well, these are dangerous times. A single bankruptcy, and global markets could collapse like a house of cards. One wrong decision, and superpowers could unleash a global war. Like 1914 and 1939, the world is on the eve of a new world order. The stage is set for a global economic crisis. International land disputes could trigger all-out war at a moment’s notice. It’s not a matter of if these events will happen, it’s only a matter of when. When they happen and the dust of war settles, the world will look different. The global power structure will be nothing like what we see today.

None of this should surprise you. The Bible says these same conditions will be present just before the Antichrist comes to power. The Bible says World War III (Revelation 6:4) and economic collapse (Revelation 6:5-6) will precede the rise of the Antichrist’s global empire (Revelation 13:7). Reading today’s headlines, it’s clear we’re drawing closer and closer to the events of the Tribulation. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic (Luke 21:11). Israel is back in the land (Jeremiah 23:7-8). The Jewish people are back in Jerusalem (Luke 21:24-28). And the Gospel is being preached throughout the world (Matthew 24:14). The end times approach.

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Russia To Begin Escorting Iranian Vessels Carrying Oil/Wheat: Will Break U.S. Sanctions

Russian fleet to secure sanctions-busting, Syria-bound Iranian oil shipments

DEBKA

Iranian vessels carrying oil and wheat supplies to Syrian ports will henceforth be escorted through the Mediterranean after exiting the Suez Canal, Iranian and Russian sources reveal. 

A recent trilateral meeting took place between Russia, Iranian and Syrian officials to find ways of breaking the US and European blockade against Syria. They launched “a joint mission to improve multilateral coordination to secure the delivery of oil to Syria.”

The decision did not cite Israel although, according to a report last month from US sources, Israel had in two years attacked 12 Iranian tankers on their way through the Mediterranean to Syrian ports. Nonetheless, although the Russian mission openly referred only to the US and European i.e., NATO blockade, Israel will certainly heed the deterrent effect implied by the Russian naval mission and make sure to avoid tangling with Russian warships securing Iran’s shipments to Syria.

A Russian source indicated that the naval escort would apply to four Iranian tankers plying the route to Syria with consignments of crude and gas: “The supply of oil will continue during the coming period,” the source stated, “by a number of Iranian ships to be sent to Syria in a single batch and assured by the Russian Mediterranean fleet of safe passage to Syrian ports – continuously until the end of this year.”

It was not clear whether all four Iranian tankers were to enter the sea in a single batch or run a continuous delivery route to Syria. The Russian statement also referred to ships carrying “foodstuffs and some basic commodities including pharmaceutical industry [products], in particular.”.

The Russian source stressed that Moscow and Tehran set up the naval escort mission in view of the appropriation of Syrian oilfields by US forces and the transfer of their output to Kurdish elements in northern Syria and Iraq. The Syrian oil minister Bassam Tomeh claimed that the Americans had pumped $92 billion (!) worth of oil from the Deir ez-Zour fields.

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that until now, Russian warships had been observed escorting only a single Iranian tanker to Syria after it passed through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean. (Picture: Russian cruiser Moskva.) Another Iran-Syria deal referred to a cargo shipping line to have opened up this month between Bandar Abbas and Latakia. But no sign of this has been detected.  

U.S. Drought Threatens Crop Failures In 2021

Farmers Warn Megadrought In Western US Threatens Devastating Crop Failures In 2021

Michael Snyder 

Throughout U.S. history, there have always been droughts in the western half of the country from time to time, but what we are dealing with now is truly alarming.  Scientists tell us that a multi-year “megadrought” has developed in the southwestern portion of the country, and this is the worst year of that “megadrought” so far by a wide margin.  If conditions do not radically improve soon, we are going to have a major agricultural disaster on our hands.  Some farmers have already decided not to plant crops at all this year, but many others have decided to plant anyway knowing that if enough rain doesn’t come their crops will certainly fail.

As I have discussed previously, the epicenter of this “megadrought” is the Four Corners region in the Southwest, but this drought is so immense it is even causing immense nightmares for farmers as far away as North Dakota.

The period of January to March 2021 was the driest in 126 years for North Dakota. Farmers are starting to make difficult decisions on planting and culling herds as the governor of the state declareda statewide drought disaster on April 8. Soil moistures across the state, particularly in western portions of North Dakota, are lacking sufficient moisture to sustain normal crop development growth. The first eight days of April 2021 offered little help as hot, summer-like temperatures, gustywinds, and low humidity across the state accelerated drying conditions.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, well over half the state is now experiencing “severe drought”.

Perhaps you don’t care about what is happening in North Dakota, but you should, because much of the wheat that we use for pasta and flour comes from that region…

Things are dry and dusty in the Upper Midwest, the Northern Plains states and the Prairie provinces of Canada.

This region, spanning states such as North Dakota and provinces such as Manitoba, is the most important one for spring wheat, the higher-gluten variety that’s used for pasta or mixed with other wheat for all-purpose flour. And that crop is at significant risk, because conditions in the region are pretty dire this year.

In a previous article I discussed the dramatic rise in food prices that we have been witnessing lately, and now drought fears are pushing futures prices for spring wheat quite a bit higher…

The US Drought Monitor shows around 70 percent of North Dakota in “extreme drought” conditions, with most of the rest in the slightly less scary “severe drought” rating. As a result, the futures prices of both spring wheat and canola are at their highest in years, with traders expecting a lower harvest this year.

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