Month: August 2022

Israel Boasts Its Pressure Campaign With White House Has Helped Thwart “Bad” Iran Deal

Israel Boasts Its Pressure Campaign With White House Has Helped Thwart “Bad” Iran Deal

Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday boasted that the Israeli pressure campaign with Washington over the Iran nuclear deal has had a positive effect in Israel’s favor. Throughout the Vienna talks over the past year, Israel has consistently spoken out against what it sees as the “bad deal” of restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Israeli leaders have charged that it just buys more time for the Islamic Republic to secretly build a nuclear bomb. 

“The Americans accepted a large part of the things that we wanted them to include in the drafts,” Lapid told a press briefing Thursday. “It is a welcome change, and the dialogue with them is good and we will continue it.” While telling the briefing that Israel has stepped up diplomatic intervention with the White House against an “unacceptable” final draft, he again stressed that “the current deal is a bad deal.”

Prime Minister Yair Lapid during a press briefing, file image.

Currently, Iran has said it received Washington’s response to revisions of the finalized text, but is still reviewing it; however, starting Wednesday there were unconfirmed reports out of Mideast regional media that the deal is unraveling based on Washington refusing additional Iranian requests. This remains to be seen on an official level at this point.

Starting all the way back in April at a moment Vienna talks had almost completely broken down, Tehran had touted that was enriching uranium to 60% purity, meaning it was well on its way to the 90% needed for weapons-grade if it wanted to, which of course pushed far past the original JCPOA constraints. This threat of quickly ramped up enrichment remains, making Israeli officials nervous.

Earlier this week Tel Aviv had dispatched Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata to Washington for “very intensive discussions” with Biden officials. Defense Minister Benny Gantz also arrived in the US Thursday to continue pressing Israel’s perspective on the nuclear deal. 

Per Lapid’s remarks, Israel now sees these efforts as having born fruit. The Jerusalem Post-owned Walla! news outlet subsequently reported that the White House “hardened” its position: 

Walla cited a senior Israeli official as saying that the US “hardened their position” in response to Iranian suggestions on the latest draft proposal of the nuclear deal being negotiated in Vienna between Tehran and world powers. The report also suggested that the series of public pronouncements emerging from Israel in recent days helped pressure the White House against making concessions.

The official told Walla that the US assured Hulata that it would not give in to Iranian demands over ending investigations by the International Atomic Energy Agency into its suspected nuclear activities nor would it lift sanctions on companies linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

This is in reference to the current key hold-up in the final text of the agreement – namely that Iran has demanded that international inspections requirements be dropped. But both Israeli and US hawks see this as but an invitation to allow Iran to covertly violate JCPOA constraints.

Meanwhile, many have argued that if no restored Iran deal is put in place, this will ensure that Tehran and Washington (plus Israel) are put on the path to war…

Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/25/2022 – 13:44

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Yields Tumble After Stellar 7Y Auction Prices At Record Stop Through

Yields Tumble After Stellar 7Y Auction Prices At Record Stop Through

After two ugly coupon auctions earlier this week, moments ago the Treasury sold $37 billion in 7y paper in what can only be described as a stellar auction.

Stopping at a high yield of 3.130%, today’s auction was softer than July’s 2.730% but well below June’s 3.280%. More importantly, the stop tailed the When Issued 3.158% by 2.8 basis points, which is the biggest stop through on our record going back to 2016 (and certainly far, far better than that catastrophic 4.4bps tail from Feb 2021 which sparked a multi-month Treasury selloff).

The bid to cover was also solid, jumping to 2.655 from 2.604 in July, and the highest since May (2.690), which in turn was the highest since March 2020.

Finally, the internals were also impressive, with Indirects awarded 75.7%, well above last month’s 70.9% and the six-auction average of 66.7%. And with Directs awarded 15.70%, Dealers were left holding on to just 8.6%, the second lowest on record with only May 2022 lower (at 6.4%).

Overall, a blockbuster auction which confirmed that at least in the bond market, nobody is afraid of a hawkish Powell surprise tomorrow (or if he does surprise, it will only accelerate the recession), and one which helped send 10y Yields, and the entire curve, down to session lows.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/25/2022 – 13:25

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How Much Do Supply And Demand Drive Inflation?

How Much Do Supply And Demand Drive Inflation?

Authored by Steven Vanelli via Knowledge Leaders Capital blog,

“How Much Do Supply And Demand Drive Inflation?”

That is the name of a recent research piece from the San Francisco Federal Reserve written by Adam Shapiro. The paper attempts to separate supply and demand factors to evaluate which is causing the elevated rate of inflation.

The paper concludes that supply factors are responsible for more than half of the current elevated level of the PCE deflator. It reflects supply constraints due to labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, the pandemic, and war in Ukraine.

Supply-related issues are contributing 2.5% more than the pre-pandemic average, while demand drive factors are 1.4% higher than the pre-pandemic average. So, supply-driven inflation explains a bit more than half of the 4.8% gap between the current level of the PCE deflator and its pre-pandemic average.

Looking at recent monthly PCE deflator measures, we can see how supply and demand factors have contributed to elevated inflation.

Fortunately, it appears that supply-related factors are improving. For this we look to two indicators of supply chain pressures, one from the New York Fed and one from Citigroup. They both paint the same picture of supply chain pressures easing.

As Fed Chair Powell stated in a recent interview, “What [the Fed] can control is demand, we can’t really affect supply with our policies…so the question whether we can execute a soft landing or not, it may actually depend on factors that we don’t control.”

Does Chairman Powell acknowledge this supply-side improvement in his speech on Friday? It surely would be an incomplete assessment of inflation not to take research like this into consideration.

The Fed can obviously impact demand, but the data suggests on balance, demand isn’t the main issue.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco “How Much Do Supply and Demand Drive Inflation” by Adam Shapiro

Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/25/2022 – 13:25

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Lawsuit: New Arizona Law Criminalizing Filming Police Within 8 Feet Violates First Amendment


An image of a TV camera filming police in riot gear

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona and multiple media organizations have filed a First Amendment lawsuit seeking to overturn a new law in Arizona that makes it a crime to film within eight feet of police.

The law, passed earlier this year, makes it a misdemeanor offense to continue filming police activity from within eight feet of an officer after receiving a verbal warning. The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, says that law “creates an unprecedented and facially unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech about an important governmental function.”

There are exceptions for filming the police in a private residence, during a traffic stop, and if the person filming is the subject of the police encounter. But the law qualifies those exceptions, saying they apply only if the person recording is “not interfering with lawful police actions” or “unless a law enforcement officer determines that the person is interfering in the law enforcement activity or that it is not safe to be in the area and orders the person to leave the area.” 

The law, the suit says, is too broad and vague, and it will have a chilling effect on the public and news organizations, especially when trying to record police activity in crowds, during protests, or on narrow sidewalks.

“We have a right to hold police officers accountable by recording their activities in public,” Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a press release. “Arizona’s law will prevent people from engaging in recording that doesn’t interfere with police activity, and it will suppress the reporting and advocacy that results from video evidence of police misconduct. The First Amendment does not permit that outcome.”

The right to film the police has been upheld by multiple federal appeals courts as a core First Amendment activity. In July, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Colorado police officer did not have qualified immunity from a lawsuit alleging that he illegally tried to stop a man from filming a DUI traffic stop. The court ruled that a reasonable officer would have known that he or she was interfering with protected First Amendment activity.

However, that hasn’t stopped police from threatening or detaining people who record them, nor has it stopped legislators from proposing restrictions on the public’s ability to film the police. 

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. John Kavanagh (R–Fountain Hills), wrote in a March USA Today op-ed that he introduced it “because there are groups hostile to the police that follow them around to videotape police incidents, and they get dangerously close to potentially violent encounters.”

“I can think of no reason why any responsible person would need to come closer than 8 feet to a police officer engaged in a hostile or potentially hostile encounter,” Kavanagh wrote. “Such an approach is unreasonable, unnecessary and unsafe, and should be made illegal.

In addition to Arizona, the South Carolina and Florida legislatures have also introduced bills over the past two years to restrict the ability to film the police.

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the Arizona Broadcasters Association, Arizona Newspapers Association, and the National Press Photographers Association.

The post Lawsuit: New Arizona Law Criminalizing Filming Police Within 8 Feet Violates First Amendment appeared first on Reason.com.

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Lawsuit: New Arizona Law Criminalizing Filming Police Within 8 Feet Violates First Amendment


An image of a TV camera filming police in riot gear

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona and multiple media organizations have filed a First Amendment lawsuit seeking to overturn a new law in Arizona that makes it a crime to film within eight feet of police.

The law, passed earlier this year, makes it a misdemeanor offense to continue filming police activity from within eight feet of an officer after receiving a verbal warning. The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, says that law “creates an unprecedented and facially unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech about an important governmental function.”

There are exceptions for filming the police in a private residence, during a traffic stop, and if the person filming is the subject of the police encounter. But the law qualifies those exceptions, saying they apply only if the person recording is “not interfering with lawful police actions” or “unless a law enforcement officer determines that the person is interfering in the law enforcement activity or that it is not safe to be in the area and orders the person to leave the area.” 

The law, the suit says, is too broad and vague, and it will have a chilling effect on the public and news organizations, especially when trying to record police activity in crowds, during protests, or on narrow sidewalks.

“We have a right to hold police officers accountable by recording their activities in public,” Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, said in a press release. “Arizona’s law will prevent people from engaging in recording that doesn’t interfere with police activity, and it will suppress the reporting and advocacy that results from video evidence of police misconduct. The First Amendment does not permit that outcome.”

The right to film the police has been upheld by multiple federal appeals courts as a core First Amendment activity. In July, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Colorado police officer did not have qualified immunity from a lawsuit alleging that he illegally tried to stop a man from filming a DUI traffic stop. The court ruled that a reasonable officer would have known that he or she was interfering with protected First Amendment activity.

However, that hasn’t stopped police from threatening or detaining people who record them, nor has it stopped legislators from proposing restrictions on the public’s ability to film the police. 

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. John Kavanagh (R–Fountain Hills), wrote in a March USA Today op-ed that he introduced it “because there are groups hostile to the police that follow them around to videotape police incidents, and they get dangerously close to potentially violent encounters.”

“I can think of no reason why any responsible person would need to come closer than 8 feet to a police officer engaged in a hostile or potentially hostile encounter,” Kavanagh wrote. “Such an approach is unreasonable, unnecessary and unsafe, and should be made illegal.

In addition to Arizona, the South Carolina and Florida legislatures have also introduced bills over the past two years to restrict the ability to film the police.

The post Lawsuit: New Arizona Law Criminalizing Filming Police Within 8 Feet Violates First Amendment appeared first on Reason.com.

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If Biden’s Trade Policy Was Really Driven by ‘Equity,’ Trump’s Tariffs Would Already Be Gone


Katherine Tai Joe Biden Kamala Harris White House trade policy free trade tariffs Donald Trump

If “equity” is the central principle guiding the Biden administration’s trade policies, you wouldn’t know it by looking at what has been done—or, rather, hasn’t been done—in the past 18 months.

Still, that’s what U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai claims. In a tweet on Wednesday, Tai wrote that Biden is taking a “whole-of-government approach to advancing equity.”

“Equity is also central to our trade and economic strategy to create sustainable growth that is equitably shared,” she wrote. “Addressing the challenges to communities of color is vital to that strategy.”

If that were merely a big pile of progressive pablum, it would be easy enough to ignore. But it’s also objectively inaccurate. If “equity” were the prime concern of the Biden administration, it would have long ago disposed of the tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump on steel, aluminum, and thousands of other products. Those tariffs are nothing more than taxes—and taxes that fall most painfully on people who can least afford to pay them.

And if the Biden administration truly cared about equity, it wouldn’t have stopped there. As research from the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), a left-leaning think tank, has shown, tariffs of all kinds are regressive taxes that hike costs for consumers and make it particularly difficult for poorer households to afford basic goods.

Eliminating many tariffs that serve little purpose “would ease financial burdens in a small but real way for American low-income and minority workers and their families, helping to raise their living standards without intensifying competitive pressure,” Ed Gresser, the PPI’s vice president and director for trade and global markets, wrote in a report published in April.

Trump’s tariffs have contributed to inflation and helped to artificially inflate the cost of everything from appliances to housing. About two-thirds of all imports from China are now subject to tariffs when they enter the United States, with the average tariff being 19.3 percent. That’s six times higher than the average tariff on Chinese-made imports before Trump’s haphazard trade war began. That’s certainly not helping poorer Americans improve their standard of living.

But, as Gresser points out, other aspects of the U.S. tariff code are also to blame for imposing regressive taxes on poorer Americans. Under the “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) system of tariffs that are applied to imports from countries with which the U.S. does not have a specific trade deal, many common consumer goods are subject to higher tariffs than their luxury alternatives. Stainless steel spoons are tariffed at a much higher rate than far more expensive sterling silver spoons, for example, and cheap sneakers are charged a tariff more than five times higher than leather dress shoes.

“This skew,” Gresser writes, means that America’s system of tariffs is not only “regressive, but actually discriminatory against the poor.”

For months, we’ve been treated to headlines promising that the Biden administration is considering lifting Trump’s tariffs. In June, administration officials told The New York Times that lifting tariffs might reduce inflation by a quarter of a percentage point—even though independent studies suggested the effect could be greater. Yet nothing was done, even after Biden promised that corralling inflation was his “top domestic priority.”

When Biden has taken action on tariffs, he’s maintained Trump’s strategy. Tariffs on solar panels and their component parts that were set to expire this year were extended by an executive order Biden issued in February. That’s despite the fact that Biden’s solar panel tariffs will make it more difficult for the country to meet Biden’s climate goals.

Now, Tai is claiming that equity is central to America’s trade policy. Hopefully, that signals a coming tidal wave of trade liberalization and tariff reductions that would make it easier for poorer American households to afford essential products.

With the Biden administration’s track record on trade, however, it’s more likely this is a bunch of cheap talk that will be followed by a disappointing lack of action.

The post If Biden's Trade Policy Was Really Driven by 'Equity,' Trump's Tariffs Would Already Be Gone appeared first on Reason.com.

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FBI Leadership Ordered Agents Not To Investigate Hunter Biden Laptop: Whistleblowers

FBI Leadership Ordered Agents Not To Investigate Hunter Biden Laptop: Whistleblowers

FBI leadership ordered agents not to investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop shortly before the 2020 US election so that it wouldn’t damage Joe Biden’s chances of unseating Donald Trump, several whistleblowers have told Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).

A letter from Johnson to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz asking for an investigation reads in part: “After the FBI obtained the Hunter Biden laptop from the Wilmington, Del. computer shop, these whistleblowers stated that local FBI leadership told employees, ‘you will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop’ and that the FBI is ‘not going to change the outcome of the election again,” according to the Daily Mail, which has obtained the letter.

“While I understand your hesitation to investigate a matter that may be related to an ongoing investigation, it is clear to me based on numerous credible whistleblower disclosures that the FBI cannot be trusted with the handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” the letter continues. “I hope you understand that the longer your office stands on the sidelines and delays investigating the FBI’s actions, the harder it will be for you to uncover the truth and hold individuals accountable for wrongdoing”

Horowitz previously told Johnson in Feb 2021 that he would not investigate the FBI’s handling of the laptop in order to avoid interfering with a DOJ investigation into Hunter’s tax matters.

The new claims come after whistleblower allegations emerged in July that in the lead-up to the 2020 election the FBI labeled the laptop as ‘disinformation.’  

In October 2020, one month before the election, ‘an avenue of derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed’ by Timothy Thibault, a senior FBI agent at the bureau’s Washington Field office, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who fielded the whistleblower complaints, claimed in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Thibault shut down the investigation despite evidence that some of the details were true, according to that whistleblower. -Daily Mail

“Allegations provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation,” wrote Sen. Grassley.

The letter comes on the heels of testimony earlier this month by FBI director Christopher Wray, who said he found allegations that the agency mishandled the laptop to be “deeply troubling.” It also comes as the DOJ probe in Delaware has reportedly intensified in recent weeks, with officials weighing whether to bring taxes on Hunter over tax violations or lying on a federal form while purchasing a gun – which he would have been prohibited from doing at the time due to his well-documented issues with drug addiction.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/25/2022 – 13:05

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Watch: Fauci Claims Lockdowns Have Not “Irreparably Damaged Anyone”

Watch: Fauci Claims Lockdowns Have Not “Irreparably Damaged Anyone”

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

In addition to claiming he has nothing to hide and was not responsible for shutting down anything, Anthony Fauci claimed Thursday that COVID lockdowns have not “irreparably damaged anyone”.

Fauci made the comments in an interview with FOX News host Neil Cavuto, who asked “do you regret that it went too far, whatever your original intentions were… particularly for kids who couldn’t go to school, except remotely, that it’s forever damaged them?”

In his response, Fauci even suggested that he tried to get kids back into schools, stating “I don’t think it’s forever irreparably damaged anyone. But I think, obviously, and you — if you go back — and people selectively, Neil, pull things out about me. I was also one of the people that said we have got to do everything we can to get the children back in school.”

Fauci is obviously preparing for the inevitable investigation coming his way.

Watch:

Fauci’s claims that children have not been damaged run contrary to a mountain of studies and evidence highlighting how lockdowns and masking in particular have had massively detrimental impacts.

A study in Britain found that many children entering elementary school have severely underdeveloped verbal skills, with many are unable to even say their own name.

According to speech therapists, mask wearing has caused a 364% increase in patient referrals of babies and toddlers.

Another study revealed how mean IQ scores of young children born during the pandemic have tumbled by as much as 22 points while verbal, motor and cognitive performance have all suffered as a result of lockdown.

A study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal found that lockdowns in the UK caused around 60,000 children to suffer clinical depression.

Figures show that 400,000 British children were referred to mental health specialists last year for things like eating disorders and self-harm.

Education experts have asserted that forcing schoolchildren to wear face masks has caused long lasting psychological trauma.

An Ofsted report also warned of serious delays in learning caused by lockdown restrictions.

“Children turning two years old will have been surrounded by adults wearing masks for their whole lives and have therefore been unable to see lip movements or mouth shapes as regularly,” states the report.

Another study out of Germany which found that the reading ability of children has plummeted compared to pre-COVID times thanks to lockdown policies that led to the closure of schools.

A study out of the renowned Johns Hopkins University earlier this year concluded that global lockdowns have had a much more detrimental impact on society than they have produced any benefit, with researchers urging that they “are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”

*  *  *

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Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/25/2022 – 12:45

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ZeroHedge Suspended Again By Twitter For Reporting Facts

ZeroHedge Suspended Again By Twitter For Reporting Facts

Just when we thought that after a tsunami of bipartisan blowback to Twitter’s ludicrous censorship implemented by woke 20-year-olds who chronically confuse the terms fascist and anti-fascist, yet who are “erudite” enough to be definitive experts in immunology and immediately ban anyone who speaks out against what even the CDC now admits was flawed covid “science”, that the social network had finally learned its place and would allow conversation to take place without constant intermediation (read propaganda), we were proven glaringly wrong.

You see, more than two years after twitter admitted it had made an “error” for “permanently” suspending ZeroHedge (for 133 days ) over its reporting on the origins of the Wuhan virus…

… but really in response to a ZeroHedge article which prompted none other than Anthony Fauci to scramble with damage control at the highest government echelons…

… a suspension which even Jack Dorsey eventually confirmed was a mistake…

… and 4 months after the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, offered to buy the company ostensibly to reverse Twitter’s transformation into a modern Gestapo…

… and a giant propaganda machine (one which is so critical to the outcome of elections, even the deep state has stepped in to “help” Musk scuttle him becoming the new boss now that he has cold feet over the excessive purchase price which he appears to have come up with in a rather mind-altered state), we woke up this morning to learn that we had received a 12 hour suspension for… well, see for yourselves. Here is the notification that Twitter sent us:

Now, we admit that Twitter would be absolutely in its right to suspend us if we had made up the numbers, or somehow planted malicious KGB code in a story about millions of illegal aliens entering the country, that would force anyone reading the tweet to, for example, go and vote against President Harris in 2024, ensuring a landslide victory for either Trump or se Santis, but we didn’t.

In fact, all we did was use the verbatim title that the Federation for American Immigration Reform used in its press release from August 16.

It gets better: our “hateful conduct” tweet is the exact same as Wisconsin Rep Tom Tiffany used one week before us.

And while one can blame Tiffany for being partisan, how about Mark Krikorian, who is an executive director at the independent, non-partisan, Center for Immigration Studies:

Or maybe since the tweet is clearly factual, the woke Twitter censor took offense at the use of the phrase “illegal alien”? Well, if so, can the twitter employee who defines “hateful conduct” please look up the Webster’s definition of “illegal alien” and tell us where it says this particular phrase is disparaging or “hateful”?

And if indeed it was this phrase that triggered at least one Twitter “snowflake”, why did Senator Ted Cruz not get suspended for using the exact same word:

It’s not just Ted Cruz:

Forget politicians: what about local authorities:

… and even “bluechecked” journos:

So what was the trigger – because we are genuinely confused? Or is Elon right that there is no greater modern Gestapo than twitter’s woke (and soon to be very much unemployed workers if a Delaware judge forces Twitter to consummate the contractual deal to purchase twitter) workforce?

While we doubt we will get an answer, and we certainly doubt that twitter will admit again that it was wrong in targeting us, we would urge Twitter’s snowflakes to actually go out into the world (after all they all work from home, right), see what it’s like, enjoy the sunshine (without triplicate masks), maybe watch an 80’s move like Aliens. And speaking of Aliens, Pvt Vasquez’ last words summarizes best how we feel toward Twitter’s increasingly laughable and desperate attempts to censor and control every conversation by its soon-learning-to-code they/thems.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/25/2022 – 12:30

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Ukrainian Nuclear Plant Was Cut From Power Grid For 1st Time In History

Ukrainian Nuclear Plant Was Cut From Power Grid For 1st Time In History

Things have gone from bad to worse at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, with the looming scenario of much of Ukraine facing a giant blackout. 

“The last two working reactors at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were disconnected from Ukraine’s electricity grid on Thursday after nearby fires damaged overhead power lines, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said,” Reuters reports, further giving subsequent confirmation that the whole power plant has been disconnected from the power grid Thursday for the first time in its history.

The connectivity monitoring group NetBlocks is also confirming a major disruption to all communications at the plant following Ukrainian state enterprise Energoatom announcing its been completely disconnected from the power grid. 

Via Reuters

Reportedly the disconnection was due to fires as nearby ash pits, which Energoatom in its statement blamed on Russian forces: “The actions of the invaders caused a complete disconnection of the ZNPP (Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant) from the power grid – the first in the history of the plant,” it wrote.

But in follow-up, the Russian-installed regional governor announced that “at the moment, the power supply to all cities and districts of the Zaporizhzhia region has been restored” following the disruptions, suggesting that there was a major temporary power outage across the region. It appears the power supply disruption was temporary:

IAEA SAYS UKRAINE TOLD IT THAT ZAPORIZHZHIA AT LEAST TWICE LOST CONNECTION TO THE POWER LINE DURING THE DAY BUT THAT IT WAS CURRENTLY UP AGAIN

According to further statements being reported by CNN:

In a separate statement, Ukraine’s State Inspection of Nuclear Regulation, which cited the nuclear operator Energoatom, said a power line from the plant was disconnected due to hostilities in the area.

As a result, one of the nuclear power units at the plant had also been disconnected, it said.

Among the Zaporizhzhia plant’s six reactors, only two are currently said to be operational. All of this comes amid a backdrop of negotiations for an IAEA emergency team to visit the complex.

While Russian President Putin said he has approved such a UN-IAEA visit, it’s yet to get off the ground. The latest statement from the nuclear inspection watchdog indicated the trip could come in “days”. 

“I’m continuing to consult very actively and intensively with all parties,” IAEA chief Rafael Grossi had said Tuesday. “The mission (to Zaporizhzhia) is expected to take place within the next few days if ongoing negotiations succeed.”

The greatest of all fears has been a ‘Chernobyl-style’ meltdown or event given for weeks there’s been active fighting and the site and shelling on sensitive parts of the facility, including which has in recent days taken out transformers.

Meanwhile, fears of larger blackouts as a result of these events and destabilization in Zaporizhzhia’s operations loom…

Tyler Durden
Thu, 08/25/2022 – 12:21

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