The ”agreement” contains a plethora of provisions so outrageous they are almost impossible to believe:

• In the event of an emergency declared by the WHO, the United States will be required to hand over 20% of its medical supplies, to the WHO for global distribution.
• The WHO will decide which countries get what supplies.
• Whenever the WHO decides there is a pandemic all patent protections go out the window. The world gets all your intellectual property.
• The United States and other designated “wealthy countries will be required to pay a fixed percentage of gross domestic product yearly into a WHO pandemic-preparedness fund. The WHO will then decide how that money is spent and where.
• The WHO would have the authority to declare a public health emergency in any country overriding the decisions of the national government. The WHO would also have the power to counter “disinformation” spread during a public health emergency.

• [D]espite the clear and present threat Iran poses to the security of both the Middle East and the wider world, Western governments are still proving reluctant to take any measures needed to cripple the Iranian economy.
• A key factor in the reluctance of Western leaders to punish Iran for its aggression is the appeasement policy the Biden administration has pursued towards Iran in recent years in the naive hope that, by going easy on Iran, the Iranian regime might be persuaded to agree to a new deal on its nuclear activities.
• “The Iranians have mastered the art of sanctions circumvention. If the Biden administration is really going to have an impact, it has to shift the focus to China.” — Fernando Ferreira, head of geopolitical risk service at the Rapidan Energy Group, Financial Times, April 17, 2024.
• If the West is really serious about holding Iran to account for its aggressive activities, then it… should include the possibility of imposing secondary sanctions against any country that continues to do business with Tehran in defiance of Western sanctions.
• (more…)

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority called off contract negotiations with three wind developers after turbine manufacturer GE Vernova said it couldn’t deliver 18-megawatt turbines for the projects. As a result, the projects would have to be redesigned with more and smaller turbines that would make them noneconomic.