Europe Archives - The Connecticut Star

U.S. Wheat Farmers Stare Down Huge Losses as Foreign Goods Flood Market

April 18, 2024 Connecticut Star Staff

Many American wheat farmers may face losses in 2024 due to a glut of foreign supply coupled with soaring equipment and labor costs amid high inflation, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Wheat prices are near their lowest point in nearly four years as supply from the Black Sea and Europe has unexpectedly flooded the market after three years of droughts draining reserves, hitting winter wheat farmers in the Great Plains particularly hard, according to Reuters. Costs for transporting and producing American wheat have soared compared to foreign wheat suppliers, with high inflation increasing costs for farm equipment, repairs and labor for farmers.

Commentary: America Leaving NATO Would Be Good for Itself and Europe

March 6, 2024 Connecticut Star Staff

Donald Trump resumed his role as the “wise fool” in recent, off-the-cuff remarks about NATO. He suggested that free-riding NATO members who do not pay their fair share might have to fight Russia on their own. National security hawks and Trump’s media enemies responded with lots of pious talk about our sacred NATO obligations. Joe Biden even said Trump was “un-American.”

Trump is not the first to suggest NATO partners should pay their fair share. But unlike his predecessors, he is willing to employ some leverage to make it happen. The real dirty secret here, as evidenced by how long this situation has gone on, is that enabling the Europeans to neglect their own defense is a feature and not a bug of America’s dominance over the NATO organization.

Commentary: Far-Left Drives 44 Percent Hate Crime Increase Against European Christians

December 10, 2023 Connecticut Star Staff

Anti-Christian hate crimes in Europe have risen by 44 percent in just one year, with far-left groups behind a majority of the attacks, according to a shocking new report.

Published in October, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe’s Annual Report detailed a wave of violent attacks, church arson, and rising extremism battering Europe’s historic Christian communities.

Commentary: Europe Needs to Embrace Western Civilization Again

November 24, 2023 Connecticut Star Staff

For the first time in a millennium, Europe no longer plays a critical role in promoting Western civilization nor in world history at large.

Ostensibly it should. Some 750 million people live on the European subcontinent.

Vivek Ramaswamy Demands Answers After Biden Administration Calls Up 3,000 U.S. Reserve Troops to Europe

July 15, 2023July 14, 2023 Kaitlin Housler

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy requested more information from the Biden administration regarding its recent announcement of activating 3,000 U.S. troops of the Selected Reserve or Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) in Europe.

NATO Countries Talk Big About Beefing Up Defense Spending, But Most Haven’t Backed Up Pledges

May 25, 2023 Connecticut Star Staff

Most NATO countries have failed to meet pledges to inflate defense spending made in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite voicing concerns about the intense security environment in Europe, according to The Wall Street Journal.

NATO countries on the eastern flank, most notably Poland, are girding for war as the conflict in Ukraine shows no sign of abating in the near term, prompting renewed commitments to beefing up their own and Ukraine’s militaries in line with the U.S., according to the WSJ. Others believe that Russia’s poor performance in Ukraine, illustrated in recent days by an incursion of pro-Ukrainian partisans into a Russian border territory with little initial resistance, means there is less urgency to increase spending on weapons and military equipment than previously imagined, according to the outlet.

‘Extreme’ Gender Ideology Pushes U.S. to Provide Children Greater Access to Transgender Treatment than in Europe

January 18, 2023January 17, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

The prevalence of radical gender ideology in the United States has driven the nation to offer children greater access to transgender medical interventions than is available in Europe, a study by Do No Harm has found.

Compared to the United States, “Europe goes a safer and more scientific route,” states Do No Harm, a diverse group of physicians, healthcare professionals, patients, and policymakers seeking to “protect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology.”

Pete Buttigieg Vacationed in Europe amid Rail Strike Crisis

December 16, 2022December 15, 2022 Admin

While the country was facing a possible supply chain crisis due to the looming threat of a massive rail strike earlier this year, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was vacationing in Portugal.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Buttigieg was in Porto, Portugal in September, a tourist destination over 3,500 miles away from Washington, D.C., that is best known for its wineries. He began his vacation on August 29th, just one week before Amtrak started canceling long-distance trips ahead of a likely strike due to failed attempts to negotiate a deal that satisfied the rail workers’ unions.

Commentary: Europe Shows a Clear Link Between Immigration and Crime

December 2, 2022December 1, 2022 RealClearWire

Violent crime is becoming common in Sweden, shocking residents of the famously placid Scandinavian nation, where horrific acts of violence have become “all too familiar,” according to Common Sense Media, part of a Swedish nonprofit organization.

Since 2018, Swedish authorities have recorded an estimated 500 bombings, while what they describe as gang shootings have become increasingly common. The country reported a record 124 homicides in 2020 and many residents were shocked in April when violent riots injured more than 100 police officers.

German Authorities Fear Nord Stream Pipelines May Be Permanently Unusable Following Sabotage

September 30, 2022September 29, 2022 Admin

German security officials believe that both Nord Stream 1 and 2 could be damaged beyond repair as large amounts of corrosive saltwater flowed into pipelines following multiple leaks that were discovered on Tuesday, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

European countries found significant gas leaks at three separate locations in the Baltic Sea which caused the pipelines’ pressure to drop, forcing the pipelines to go offline. German authorities are concerned that the saltwater’s damage to the pipelines could make them permanently inoperable which would further cut fuel supplies to an energy-starved Germany, according to The Telegraph, which cited the German outlet Tagesspiegel.

Commentary: Europe’s Industrial Might Is Collapsing While Its Elites Deny Reality

September 2, 2022September 1, 2022 Admin

Germany, widely known as Europe’s industrial powerhouse, is now leading the continent in an alarming new trend — rapid de-industrialization.

Astronomical natural gas prices are forcing heavy industries, from smelters to fertilizer plants, to shut down or curtail production. Germany’s fabled “Mittelstand” — the collection of mid-sized firms that form the backbone of its economic might — is buckling under the weight of terrible decisions made by climate obsessed politicians going back decades.

Natural Gas Prices Hit 14-Year-High After Biden Signs Dems’ Climate Bill into Law

August 24, 2022August 23, 2022 Admin

The price of U.S. natural gas futures reached its highest point since 2008 as gas demand continues to spike amid the worldwide energy crisis and the passage of the Democrats’ climate bill, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Natural gas futures for November, December and January each surpassed $10 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) on Monday, reaching highs that have not been seen since 2008, according to the WSJ. High prices are largely due to the strong demand for gas in Europe amid uncertainty surrounding Russian natural gas flows, the WSJ reported; furthermore, the Democrats’ new climate bill includes regulations that will hike expenses for natural gas producers.

Putin Promises to Keep the Gas Flowing to Europe – for Now

July 27, 2022July 26, 2022 Admin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would continue to supply Europe with natural gas, but warned that deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline could become constrained if sanctions prevent further maintenance on the pipeline, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Putin asserted that the pipeline’s owner, the Moscow-controlled energy firm Gazprom, will honor and fulfill its responsibilities to Europe in remarks that he made late Tuesday after his visit to Tehran, reported the WSJ. Putin’s comments come amid the reduced flow of natural gas into Europe due to sanctions and other supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Commentary: Energy Myths Are Triggering a New Dark Age in Europe

April 21, 2022April 20, 2022 RealClearWire

Europe has an energy crisis. Factories are halting operations in the face of soaring energy prices; families are paying 50% more for heating (or opting to freeze in their homes), and Europe as a whole continues to destabilize its political position by making itself dependent on Russia for natural gas.

Europe shows what happens when you adopt policies based on false ideas—myths about energy that all but guarantee high prices, power blackouts, and a crashing economy.

Commentary: Loose Nuke Talk

April 18, 2022April 17, 2022 Admin

Americans, like the planet’s other 7.5 billion people, are not prone to talk or think much about nuclear weapons.

Of course, some of us are old enough to remember how “mutually assured destruction,” or MAD, was supposed to ensure the general peace.

Commentary: Sweden—Once Mocked for Its COVID Strategy—Now Has One of the Lowest COVID Mortality Rates in Europe

March 26, 2022March 25, 2022 Admin

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, I asked a simple question. Could Sweden’s laissez-faire approach to the coronavirus actually work?

Unlike its European neighbors and virtually all US states, the Swedes had opted to not shut down the economy. The country of 10 million people took what was at first described as “a lighter touch.”

Amid Global Energy Crunch, Biden on Track to Boost Iranian Oil, Impede Israeli Gas Exports to Europe

March 22, 2022March 22, 2022 Admin

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has thrown the global energy market into a state of turmoil, forcing the U.S. and Europe to look for substitutes for Russian oil and gas. In that process, the Biden administration has turned to Iran as a potential supplier — just two months after effectively killing an Israeli pipeline project that would have supplied natural gas to Europe.

The administration’s decision to engage Iran, a decades-long adversary of the U.S., about supplying energy while opposing a close ally’s energy project is feeding concerns among experts that he rewards foes and punishes friends in the Middle East.

Russia Reverses Gas Flow via Key Pipeline Serving Europe

March 16, 2022March 15, 2022 Admin

Part of a key pipeline transporting natural gas from Russia to Europe suddenly reversed its flow direction Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Flows in the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which sends natural gas to Germany via Poland, were recorded going eastward away from Europe on Tuesday morning, data from the European firm Gascade showed, Reuters reported, citing data from German network operator Gascade. Flows leaving Germany were moving at a whopping 4.3 million kilowatt-hours per hour at one section of the pipeline.

Russia Cuts Off Key Gas Pipeline to Europe Amid Rising Tensions

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022 Connecticut Star Staff

The flow of natural gas through a key Russian-controlled pipeline suddenly stopped Wednesday as tensions continue to increase between Russia and the West.

The Yamal-Europe pipeline’s liquified natural gas (LNG) flows, which are operated by Russian state-run firm Gazprom and have usually been pumped westward from Russia to Germany through Poland, were halted early Wednesday, European data showed, according to Reuters. The sudden stoppage reportedly represented a setback after leaders expected the pipeline to return to its normal flow pattern.

In December 2021, Gazprom slowed the pipeline’s gas flows, which represent 10% of the region’s supply, and the company reversed the flow direction from westward to eastward. The sudden reversal sent natural gas prices, which had already spiked amid a European energy crisis, even higher.