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Instead of using trillions of euros the European Central Bank allocated for Covid response to help transform Europe into a sustainable and green economy, the head of the German Central Bank wants to keep sinking money into big polluters like Shell and Total. It is a feature of the bond purchase program that it supports existing players over new ones.

Read about the leading attorney against the Texaco/Chevron scandal who has illegitimately been put under house arrest for over 600 days. Texaco has deliberately dumped millions of liters of toxic waste from oil production into ponds and rivers in Ecuador instead of returning them to the subsurface as would have been state of the art. It's a long article, but if you start reading at “And they got a witness up to New York, who accused you of fraudulent behavior in relation to the case?” and also read the next paragraph, then you will know the most important things. Steven Donziger's homepage is here.

The rare immunological reaction that has occurred with some people vaccinated with AstraZeneca occurs, according to experts (newspaper: Salzburger Nachrichten), roughly estimated with a probability of 1:100,000. However if it is recognized it is now well treatable. New deaths as a result of cerebral vein thrombosis should therefore no longer occur. If there is a severe headache within the first 14 days and that for three days, often combined with nausea or dizziness, then a doctor should be consulted immediately. Symptoms such as skin bleeding or neurological symptoms such as speech or vision disorders are even less common. On the other hand, slight side effects within the first three days are nothing unusual. Other vaccinations like polio also have rare side effects.

While AstraZeneca's vaccine is not yet approved in the US, 30 million vaccine doses are gathering dust in refrigerators there. The Biden government has only approved small quantities for export to Canada and Mexico, but not to the EU. While AstraZeneca is not meeting its delivery obligations in the EU, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has asked the EU not to impose a ban on exports of AstraZeneca's vaccines to Britain (because of the necessary second vacinations), which up to now have received above-average supplies. It is a vaccine already paid for by the EU, with which AstraZeneca has built up corresponding export capacities.

The vaccine from Astrazeneca was originally developed with a non-profit initiative of the university of Oxford before AstraZeneca secured the exclusive rights to it, which is why the vaccine is significantly cheaper than the patented competition. That should also be the reason why competitors want to push the vaccination off the market with dirt bucket campaigns. As the EU noted in the case of the vaccination suspension, the thrombosis was caused by a very rare immune reaction, which does not justify suspension of use because of the benefit of a vaccination.

Germany is to pay compensation payments in the amount of 4.35 billion euros for the decommissioning of lignite power plants. The European Commission is now examining whether this is not illegal state aid. The amount of the compensation payments is under scrutiny because it concerns profits that are far in the future and because the coal and CO₂ prices are unlikely to stay that way in the future. However, the Commission does not seem to recognize that a change in the framework conditions constitutes a business risk. Meanwhile, the compensation payments for Germany's nuclear phase-out have been reduced to 2.4 billion euros.