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It can be difficult to keep up with everything going on in the world right now. But with the Substack Daily Dose, you will have easy access to important news and happenings from the day, as well as what was covered during our shows, all in one place.
Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,
Money and loan data from China continue to show few signs of a sustained upturn.
Notably, though, stock futures in China are only marginally lower, suggesting they are reaching their saturation point with bad news.
China’s M1 came in below expectations at 1.9% year-on-year (2.5% was expected), while M2 was in line at 10.3%.
As the chart below shows, real M1 is stagnant, and in order to have confidence China is on the cusp of a sustainable upturn, it would need to show a more decisive rise.
Loan growth also disappointed expectations, however month-to-month data is noisy. To see trends, it is best looked at as the annual percentage change of its 12-month rolling sum. On that basis, total new loans are falling, but the deceleration might be easing off.
More unequivocally positive is household loan growth, which while still negative, is rising, and at the current rate growth will be positive in a few months. This reflects a redressing of the imbalances that were worsened in the pandemic, as policymakers focused on supporting the industrial and export sectors at the expense of the household sector.
Real estate continues to be one of the biggest risk factors to a recovery in China, and thus bears watching. The debt of real estate is currently bouncing around the new lows it recently made.
China property-development Country Garden company failed to pay interest on dollar bonds a few weeks ago.
On the other hand, there are positive signs too, such as rising growth in floor-space of newly started houses, and an increase in the annual-growth rate of house prices, especially in tier-1 cities.
Stocks though, look like they may have absorbed all the bad news they can, and are bottoming. Incrementally less negative news may be sufficient for them to continue rising.
Over 100 staffers from the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development have reportedly signed an internal memo accusing President Joe Biden of “spreading misinformation” regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The memo, organized by a junior State Department diplomat who has been vocal on social media about Biden’s pro-Israel stance, criticizes the President for his October 10 speech. In the address, Biden supported Israel following the deadly attack by Hamas.
The dissent, reported by Axios, represents a significant internal challenge to the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. The memo does not specify the misinformation but implies that Biden’s narrative is skewed regarding the Middle East.
In the memo, the staffers expressed their deep concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the Biden administration’s response to Israel’s actions. They allege that Israel’s measures, such as cutting off electricity, limiting aid, and conducting attacks in Gaza, which have displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law.
The memo asserts, “Yet we have failed to reassess our posture towards Israel,” continuing, “We doubled down on our unwavering military assistance to the (Israeli government) without clear or actionable redlines.”
“Members of the White House and (the National Security Council) displayed a clear disregard for the lives of Palestinians, a documented unwillingness to de-escalate, and, even prior to October 7, a reckless lack of strategic foresight.”
The memo calls for the U.S. government to reevaluate its approach towards Israel and to advocate for the release of hostages held by Hamas and Israel. It also criticized Biden for questioning the reported death toll in Gaza and accused some members of the White House and National Security Council of neglecting Palestinian lives and lacking strategic vision.
The State Department has recognized the existence of a dissent channel, which allows diplomats to voice policy disagreements.
On November 2, the House approved a $14.3 billion federal aid package to Israel by a vote of 226 to 196, with two Republicans voting no and 12 Democrats joining Republicans to vote yes.
Under the Republican-proposed bill, funding for the package will be reallocated from money previously set aside for the IRS under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Republicans have stated that the legislation will allow the U.S. to stand with Israel while fulfilling a campaign promise to GOP voters.
“Israel has every right to defend itself from the brutal attacks we have been witnessing over the past month,” Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer told Fox News.
The Biden Administration called on lawmakers to pass a massive $100 billion aid package that includes $60 million to Ukraine, tethering funding for both nations together. “It’s a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations,” Biden said when announcing the package during a rare Oval Office address.
House Republicans have called for increased oversight, as well as a formal plan of action, before allocating additional funding for Ukraine.
Biden has stated that he will veto a standalone funding bill for Israel if it arrives on his desk.
A new poll released by Stack Data Strategy indicates a significant lead for former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden in a potential 2024 presidential rematch.
The findings, atop the Politico Playbook this morning, suggest a seismic shift in the political landscape, with Trump not only leading in crucial battleground states but also outperforming other potential Democratic contenders.
The poll, which surveyed 15,000 respondents, projects Trump to secure 292 electoral votes compared to Biden’s 246 if the election were held today. This forecast, based on the Multi-level Regression and Poststratification (MRP) model, shows Trump reclaiming pivotal swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – that he won in 2016 but lost in 2020.
These swing states, often characterized by their exceptionally close voting outcomes, are vital for the former president’s route to reclaim his presidency. Even though Trump has an advantage in the electoral college, poll results suggest that his opponent might again secure a slim majority in the popular vote, with percentages at 49% to 48% in favor of Biden.
Late polls have reportedly raised concerns among groups within the Democratic Party, leading to calls from high-ranking members for Biden to reevaluate his decision to run. The polls also indicate that Trump would likely defeat both Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom, reinforcing his standing as the Republican Party’s leading contender.
Newsom has been actively taking steps that suggest he might be considering a potential run for the presidency, despite repeatedly denying any interest in such a pursuit. However, he has repeatedly stated that he would “never, ever, ever run for president.” Political analysts believe that the funds raised would be available to him if he changes his mind.
The poll also indicates a challenging scenario for other Republican candidates. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once considered a possible successor to Trump, is predicted to suffer a considerable loss against Biden, an anticipated division of 359 to 179. Some Republican Party members seem to be getting the message.
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), announced Sunday that he would be suspending his presidential campaign in a surprising statement. According to a report from Politico, Scott’s announcement was so unexpected that it even shocked members of his own staff. Multiple campaign staffers told the outlet that they did not know about the announcement before the Fox News interview.
Last week Peter Doocy tailed Biden to ask for his thoughts on the latest polls that showed him trailing Trump in five of six key swing states.
“Because you don’t read the polls,” Biden told Doocy. “[Unintelligible] Ten polls! Eight of them I’m beating him in those states. Eight of them. You guys only do two, CNN and New York Times.”
The polls have represented a potential turning point in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. With Trump’s commanding lead in key battleground states and his ability to outperform other Republican candidates, the GOP appears to be rallying behind the former president as their best chance to reclaim the White House.
Last month, the New York Times, Bloomberg, and Morning Consult released a devastating dataset showing Biden trailing Trump by up to 10 points with third-party candidates on the ballot and eight points behind in a head-to-head matchup. Overall, Biden is behind Trump 43 percent to 47 percent among voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The poll of more than 5,000 registered voters has an error margin of just 1 percent.
Jacob Chansley, widely known as the “QAnon Shaman” who became an enduring symbol of the January 6th, 2021 breach at the Capitol building, announced that he intends to run for Congress in 2024.
Chansley, 35, filed paperwork with Arizona officials indicating he plans to run as a Libertarian in the state’s 8th Congressional District. The incumbent, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ), announced she does not intend to run for reelection. So far the only other general election candidate in the race is independent Jeremy Spreitzer, though multiple Democrats and Republicans will compete in their respective primary elections for the seat in August 2024.
In the days after J6, Chansley received disproportionate coverage from the mainstream media for entering the Capitol while wearing red face paint and a fur outfit that included buffalo horns. Video from that day shows him carrying an American flag through the building while accompanied by Capitol police officers.
Federal prosecutors, seeking to make an example out of Chansley in the months following the riots, charged him with crimes related to civil disorder and violent entry into the Capitol building. Despite pleading guilty, Chansley was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison; he served 27 months before transferring to a Phoenix halfway house in March 2023.
In a statement at his sentencing, Chansley acknowledged the wrongfulness of his actions.
“I am in no way, shape or form a violent criminal… no way a domestic terrorist,” Chansley said, according to Fox News. “I’m a good man who broke the law. … I am truly repentant for my actions.”
Chansley is one of more than 700 individuals charged with crimes resulting from J6. Leaders of the Proud Boys organizers were given sentences of up to 22 years in prison while Ray Epps, an instigator who avoided prosecution for years, was finally charged in September with a single count of disorderly and disruptive conduct in an official building.
Treatment of Chansley and others awaiting sentencing has been the focus of Republican lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who organized visits to their jail cells while arguing that the inhumane treatment was unfair given the largely nonviolent actions of J6 participants.
The New Georgia Project is being exposed for its shady finances and suspect expenditures.
According to a six-month long Politico investigation, the New Georgia Project, a “voting rights” organization founded by failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and supervised by Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock for over two years, is facing serious allegations of financial misconduct and spending irregularities.
One of its two board chairs, Frank Wilson, stated that the organization is conducting an internal investigation into its finances in response to allegations of misappropriation of funds. The organization was instrumental in registering the new voters required to transform Georgia from a red state to a swing state with two Democratic senators.
The decision is made in light of the fact that the organization’s tax returns reveal that its former executive director, whom Abrams personally selected in 2014 but terminated without cause last year, owes the group “non-work-related” reimbursements totaling thousands of dollars. Nsé Ufot, the organization’s former director who departed last year after eight years in charge, refutes any financial obligations and dismisses the allegation as a “f**ing lie.”
The debt ascribed to Ufot, a prominent political commentator and nationally acknowledged leader in voting rights advocacy, is among several instances of inadequate financial record-keeping and accusations of fund misuse that Politico has exposed.
The New Georgia Project failed to account for salary advances and other expenditures, as well as improperly tracked company expenses that were allegedly prepaid to employees with Visa gift cards, according to an analysis of financial disclosures, internal documents, and interviews with twelve current and former employees, including senior leadership. Anonymity was granted to the majority in order to discuss sensitive internal matters.
In addition, the organization has been under siege for administrative conflicts, such as a state ethics investigation into whether its election advocacy violated rules limiting direct political activity by nonprofits, which it has filed a lawsuit to terminate, and a recently resolved dispute with the IRS regarding payment of payroll taxes, according to the organization’s new CEO, Kendra Davenport Cotton.
The New Georgia Project, akin to analogous nonprofit organizations, functions under two distinct federal tax designations: 501(c)3, which proscribes political activity, and 501(c)4, which permits the allocation of up to half of its efforts to political activities. However, it shares a single CEO and a common staff leadership.
Wilson, chairman of the 501(c)4 branch of the organization, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, stated that the organization is dedicated to identifying any irregularities and more closely monitoring expenditures.
“We’re going to do a forensic look at our records,” said Frank Wilson, a retiredscholar at Albany State University. “We’ll start at the beginning, and just lay it out, clean it up and redirect as necessary … so we’ll be in a position where anybody who will come — be it authorities, be it media, be it whomever — we will not be concerned about who looks at our records because we’ll have all our i’s dotted and t’s crossed. So I’m comfortable with that, you know, and I’ll almost welcome it.”
The challenges faced by the organization are more noticeable in the realm of Democratic advocacy due to the tremendous national attention brought about by Abrams and her network, which has worked to turn Georgia into a swing state. Advocates and organizers from different states have tried to replicate her achievements.
Abrams, which established the New Georgia Project in 2014 as a subsidiary of Third Sector Development, another nonprofit it founded, declined to comment. Abrams has not been a member of the organization’s leadership since her initial campaign for governor in 2017.
When the organization first registered as an independent 501(c)3, in 2017, Warnock assumed the role of chair. He remained in that position until January 2020, when he commenced his inaugural Senate campaign. Interview requests directed to his office went unanswered. His response to a question in the Senate subway regarding his knowledge of any malfeasance at the New Georgia Project was categorically “not at all.”
It looks like the thing these radical activists fear the most is actual sunlight.
San Francisco last week proved the city is capable of cleaning up its streets.
However, it takes the arrival of a foreign dictator to incentivize public servants to do their jobs and serve the men and women they represent.
With the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, San Francisco took action to relocate homeless individuals and get drugs off the streets.
Government officials won’t take the initiative to clean up the streets for the people, but they waste no time appeasing Chinese communist dictator Xi Jinping.
Footage from San Francisco’s APEC preparation resembled a communist city welcoming a communist dictator.
With government officials in California proving they can clean up San Francisco almost overnight, it will be interesting to see if the people will tolerate the city’s usual filth-covered streets after APEC’s conclusion.
“So when Xi leaves will they just release a million homeless people back into the streets of San Francisco? Will the locals accept the needle infested sh*t-covered streets again now that they know it can be cleaned up in a week?” Clint Russell wrote.
For decades, and with increasing severity, residents of San Francisco have been forced to navigate through s**t-covered streets, drug dens and criminal elements, all while the city feigned the inability to do anything about it (despite employing 6-figure ‘poop patrollers’ to regularly pressure-wash the sidewalks).
Now, with the announcement that the world’s top commie, Chinese President Xi Jinping, will meet with President Joe Biden in The Golden City, and San Francisco was miraculously able to clean itself up, seemingly overnight.
Chinese state-run media expresses cautious optimism about General Secretary Xi Jinping’s upper hand in the upcoming talks with U.S. President Joe Biden. According to the Global Times, experts anticipate that Xi may raise various issues significant to Beijing during their meeting at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Week in San Francisco on November 15.
The APEC forum, an intergovernmental economic and trade forum, aims to promote “free and open trade and investment” for “sustainable economic growth and prosperity” in the Asia-Pacific region, as stated on its website.
Global Times reported that analysts maintain a cautiously optimistic stance on the potential for the Xi-Biden meeting to stabilize bilateral ties, especially with the looming U.S. 2024 elections. These experts told Global Times that the Taiwan issue would be a primary topic for China, and they hope to enhance communication to help the U.S. have a more objective view of U.S.-China relations.
Beijing, which rejects Taiwan’s sovereignty, has often threatened “reunification-by-force,” labeling Taiwan as ruled by “separatists.”
Additionally, experts foresee Xi calling for increased people-to-people exchanges, such as more flights and student exchanges, to strengthen ties. The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a U.S. nonprofit, defines “people-to-people diplomacy” as non-governmental exchanges that contribute to stronger bilateral relations, exemplified by the 1971 U.S.-China ping-pong games.
In July 2022, the Director of National Intelligence warned of the deceptive and coercive nature of PRC influence operations, where benign activities could mask political agendas.
The State Department announced that Biden’s meeting with Xi will cover bilateral relations, open communication, and various regional and global issues. They aim to manage competition and collaborate on transnational challenges affecting the international community.
Global Times highlighted the positive signals from recent bilateral talks, particularly the consensus against decoupling, referencing U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s recent meetings with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
In September, Biden insisted that the U.S. does not seek to contain China, emphasizing that “de-risking is not decoupling” at the U.N. General Assembly. Meanwhile, China is experiencing sluggish economic growth, with Xi opposing economic decoupling, as reported by Reuters.
Both the Chinese Embassy and the White House have not immediately responded to requests for comment.
Maryanne Trump Barry, former President Donald Trump’s older sister, passed away on Monday at the age of 86, according to the New York City Police Department. Barry was a retired federal appellate judge, having stepped down in April 2019. Despite political disagreements, Donald Trump has historically referred to his sister as a “highly respected judge.”
In her legal career, Barry served as a federal prosecutor before receiving a nomination from then-president Ronald Reagan to the Federal District Court in New Jersey in 1983.
She was later appointed by then-President Bill Clinton to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1999. Barry ceased hearing cases shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president in 2017.
It's the old leftist anti-gun standby: Pretend as if the 2nd Amendment was drafted only to protect hunting and self defense against criminals. Ignore the fact that the Founding Fathers explicitly created gun rights for the purpose of repelling and overthrowing a corrupt government. Pretend as if Americans are not supposed to have access to military grade weapons when that is exactly what the 2nd Amendment was enshrined to protect.
Under the Constitution, the American militia was intended to act as the defense force for the nation. And, the militia was made up of every able bodied male citizen. The militia was the military (in a sense), and the militia had access to all the weapons needed to fulfill their role. This included repeating rifles (automatic rifles), cannons, explosives and even naval ships in private hands. The Founders never intended for a standing military to exist, nor did they ever intend for a standing military to act as a proxy in place of an armed citizenry.
As James Madison noted:
“Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.” - James Madison, January 29, 1788, Federalist No. 46
And, as George Mason asserted:
“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers.” - George Mason, June 4, 1788, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention
It should be treated as a revealing condition that the establishment and corporate media consistently attack the civilian ownership of guns which they argue are “made for war.” These guns which they refer to as “assault rifles” (because it sounds scary) are used in less than 3% of all gun crimes in the US. They are also a small percentage of overall mass shootings in the US, yet they garner almost 100% of the anti-gun lobby's attention.
None of these facts mean anything to the leftist propagandists at Rolling Stone, however. They pursue the same mission as any other gun grabbing group, which is to misrepresent the gun issue with as much enthusiasm as possible. In an article titled 'Mass Murder Is A Choice, The Gun Industry Made It', Rolling Stone seems to assert that the big bad bogeyman behind gun deaths is the gun industry (a throwback to the old 1990s narrative of an evil conspiracy of gun makers forcing poor Americans to buy guns they don't need). Rolling Stone claims:
“The industry is increasingly pushing weaponry on civilians that rivals or even exceeds the firepower commonly entrusted to soldiers. This includes not only AR rifles, but also AR-style shotguns. Other gun-makers invoke dark notions of social collapse or civil conflict that could give heavily-armed civilians the opportunity to engage in battle.
...A more noble, or less brazen, industry might be inhibited by good conscience — or by the threat of litigation — to curb such messaging...”
On Monday, Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, testified in the federal trial of David DePape, the man accused of attacking him with a hammer in October 2022.
Pelosi said that he woke up on the night of the attack when "the door opened and a very large man came in with a hammer in one hand and some ties in the other hand. He said 'where’s Nancy' and that woke me up."
DePape, Pelosi said, was around 2-4 feet away from him when he woke up.
He said it was a "tremendous shock to realize someone broke into the house … I recognized that I was in serious danger … I tried to stay calm as possible."
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins stated in 2022 that DePape allegedly broke in through a rear glass door and snuck into the Pelosis' bedroom, where Paul was sleeping.
According to NBC News, Pelosi testified that DePape allegedly said he would tie up Pelosi while they waited for Nancy Pelosi’s return from Washington DC.
Pelosi was able to get his cell phone and call from the bathroom, but his phone was snatched away. He said his best chance to survive was to meet the responding police downstairs, telling DePape, "Since all your stuff is downstairs why don’t we go downstairs, you can tie me up and you can get some sleep."
Pelosi said he reached for DePape’s hand when police arrived, the hand which held the hammer, before he was pushed away and struck with the object.
Pelosi testified that once DePape hit him in the head with a hammer, the next thing he remembered was waking up in a pool of blood. He could not recall specific details, but said he remembered being put into an ambulance and being taken to the hospital.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) brought Dr. Robert Malone to the stand during a hearing on injuries stemming from the Covid-19 mRNA jabs. Malone is well-known for being a collaborator in the creation of the mRNA inoculation technology, and was infamously banned from then-Twitter after he had gone against the mainstream narrative surrounding Covid-19. His account was later restored after the platform, now called X, was acquired by Elon Musk.
Malone notably decried the "coercion, compulsion and enticement" seen during the pandemic, as well as "the lack of informed consent" that he claims occurred.
Malone kicked off the hearing with a detail of his background.
The doctor explained, "I was trained at Northwestern University for medical school, also Harvard University for a postgraduate fellowship, UC Davis clinically, and UC San Diego in the Salk Institute of Molecular Biology and Virology. I made a series of discoveries as a graduate student in the late 80s that gave rise to nine issued patents that cover the platform technology of the use of mRNA and these lipid nanoparticles for purposes of vaccination other indications."
He added that he has "testified widely here and throughout the world over the last three years" in regard to the Covid-19 shots.
Malone said during the hearing that he had taken two doses of Moderna's Covid-19 inoculation.
"My second dose was one of the hot lots or bad lots and I suffered significant adverse events, I still continued to be medically treated for those," he explained, "nowhere near as significant as that of many of the vaccine injured, but nevertheless, that's the case. Cardiac damage, etc."
Malone also discussed a technical document from the government of Japan about Pfizer's shots which "disclosed a wide range of adverse events" and talked about the backlash he faced for speaking out about it.
"I became alarmed and spoke out about this on a podcast that was widely viewed in the face of all of the suppression of information that was occurring in corporate media. This was the infamous DarkHorse podcast, in which I mentioned that the spike protein was a toxin. This is another thing that I was ridiculed for. But now the data clearly demonstrate that in fact, the spike protein, the payload that is produced in your body by these inoculations is in fact toxic to you."
At another point in the hearing, the longtime scientist explained that his initial objection to the mRNA shots is "that they were being deployed without true informed consent."
"I wrote about that very early on in 2021 in an article in TrialSiteNews, where I objected to the lack of informed consent in the coercion, compulsion and enticement that were being deployed, both for adults and then for children, particularly in Canada at the time."
Other special witnesses to join the stand were Dr. Kimberly Biss and Thomas Renz.
In a Substack article he penned about the event, Malone said that "MTG has been a true hero in this fight against mandates, masks, lockdowns and fighting for justice for those injured. She has been on our side for years."
He added, "I am proud to stand by her in this endeavor. She is one of the few members of Congress willing to stand up and fight."
Malone noted that the House's Covid-19 commission, which Greene is a member of, is solely focused on finding where the virus came from. He said that while "this is important to bring those responsible for the release of this man-made virus to justice, it is not the only issue."
"MTG is a fighter. MTG knows the harms done. She is working to expose them," Malone said.
Donald Trump Jr. was back in court on Monday to testify for the defense in the civil case against the Trump Organization in New York. After his testimony, he spoke to reporters outside the court detailing the absurdity of the case. "This is about the attorney general going after and prosecuting her political enemies," he said. He also said that he and Eric Trump had nothing to do with the financial statement at the center of the case.
"My brother and I had nothing to do with it, but it doesn't matter because it's a witch hunt," Trump said.
He called Attorney General Letitia James "an overzealous attorney, an overzealous attorney general who would destroy all of New York business by going after transactions where there are no victims." In Trump's view, the biggest issue in this case is the chilling effect it will have on businesses in New York.
"That's what you get from the Democratic Party in New York these days, it seems," he told reporters. "It's a scary precedent. I don't know how anyone could do business in this city with that. Anyone you speak to who's actually in banking, who's actually in real estate understands that, but again, they don't want to put themselves in the crosshair so perhaps they'll be silent. So it's a disgrace that this is happening right now."
"Hopefully one day the people of this great city will realize what's going on," Trump said. "They'll realize the destructive practices here. They'll realize just how insane that is. And they'll be begging for guys like Donald Trump to come back to New York City to reshape the skyline as he's done for decades."
Trump's aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry, passed on Monday morning, and Trump said that he only learned about her passing as he entered the courtroom.
There have been some major developments in the war in the Middle East. Fighting is heating up along Israel’s northern border, and the Biden administration has decided to bomb facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for a third time in retaliation for new attacks on U.S. forces in the region. This war threatens to spiral out of control at any moment, but there is no turning back now.
Israeli ground forces on Sunday battled Hamas militants near Gaza’s largest hospital, where health officials said thousands of staff, patients and displaced people remain trapped with no electricity, dwindling supplies and some gunfire coming inside.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed growing international calls for a cease-fire unless it includes the release of all the nearly 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas in its bloody Oct. 7 rampage that triggered the war, saying Israel was bringing its “full force” with the aim of ending Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza.
The IDF has been making steady progress, and it is being reported that they have even killed the Hamas commander that was keeping staff and patients from leaving the hospital…
Israeli forces on Saturday night claimed to have killed a Hamas commander who held 1,000 Gazans “hostage” in a hospital as human shields.
The Israel Defense Forces said that Ahmed Siam, a leader in Hamas’s al-Furqan Brigade, had blocked civilians from evacuating the Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City earlier this week.
Meanwhile, fighting continues to intensify on the northern front.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah has issued a rare announcement Friday, saying that seven of its fighters have been killed, describing that they were “martyred on the road to Jerusalem” – which is code for fighting Israel.
But it’s being widely reported that at least some of the slain Hezbollah members were killed inside Syria, after a new Friday Israeli airstrike on central Homs. In total on Friday, Hezbollah released seven death notices.
Hezbollah as well as international sources have cited a death toll of at least 68 Hezbollah fighters since the Oct.7 conflict began, centered on southern Israel and Gaza.
Earlier this morning, Lebanese media outlets reported that an IDF drone struck a truck near the coastal village of al-Zahrani, some 40 kilometers from the Israeli border, just south of Sidon.
There were no reports of injuries in the strike.
The IDF had said it had carried out a strike on a site from which surface-to-air missiles were fired at military drones over the Israel-Lebanon border, without specifying the exact location.
The fact that this strike happened so deep inside Lebanon has greatly infuriated the Islamic world.
The Biden administration may approve a sanctions waiver on Tuesday that will allow Iran to access at least $10 billion in previously frozen funds held in Iraq, a closely watched decision that comes just a month after the Tehran-backed terror group Hamas launched an attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead.
The waiver would extend the multibillion-dollar sanctions relief first issued in July that expires tomorrow. It allows Iraq to transfer frozen electricity payments into Iranian-owned bank accounts in Europe and Oman. The waiver renewal is driving concerns that the Biden administration is maintaining financial avenues for Tehran as the country’s terrorist proxies foment chaos across the Middle East.
"The world is living in a post-Oct. 7 world, but the White House is still running an Oct. 6 policy toward Iran," Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and sanctions expert who previously served on the White House National Security Council, told the Washington Free Beacon, referring to Hamas’s attack last month. "Why should Iran have any access to more than $10 billion after sponsoring one of the worst terrorist attacks against American citizens and the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust? It would make more sense to freeze all of these accounts and keep every penny out of Tehran's hands."
While the Biden administration paused a $6 billion ransom payment to Iran following a pressure campaign in Congress, the Iraq-Europe-Oman sanctions waiver would signal the United States is still trying to provide financial relief to the hardline regime. Iranian military officials warned Monday that the Gaza war has already "spilled over into neighboring Lebanon and may even widen in scope" as Iranian-armed Hezbollah fighters become more active in the conflict. Tehran also has been rallying Arab nations against Israel, threatening to prolong the war and open more fronts.
The Trump administration first allowed Iraq to import electricity and gas from Iran, but only on the condition that the payments were kept in an escrow account in Baghdad. The Biden administration continued to issue that waiver, and then broadened it in July so that Iraq could move more than $10 billion outside the country, enabling Tehran to draw on the funds for its budget and humanitarian needs. In late October, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran reportedly discussed expediting Iran's access to the funds with his Omani counterpart.
In testimony before Congress late last month, Goldberg advised Congress to lock down the $10 billion as punishment for Tehran’s role in supporting Hamas’s war on Israel.
The Biden administration insists that, like the $6 billion held in Qatar, Iran can only use the $10 billion for non-sanctioned purposes.
Critics argue that since money is fungible, the access allows Iran to free up cash in other places for illicit activities.
Republican lawmakers in Congress made this argument when they pressured the Biden administration to halt its $6 billion ransom payment to Iran, arguing that even though the money was allocated for humanitarian purposes, it helped the hardline regime divert funds into terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Iranian leaders in recent days have emphasized the importance of the electricity payments, reportedly telling Omani leaders they should "accelerate the use of these new foreign exchange resources" and signaling the regime is relying on the Biden administration to continue freeing up this cash.
The State Department declined to comment on the sanctions waiver or confirm whether it will be renewed this week.
Since Israel launched a full siege on Gaza on Oct. 9 as retaliation to the violent Hamas attack two days prior, the blockade it imposed cut off food, water, fuel, electricity and other necessities to the besieged enclave.
Following more than 30 days of non-stop attacks, resources have been exhausted. Generators can no longer function due to lack of fuel and even emergency food supplies are no longer available. Thousands of Palestinian civilians have been trapped in the enclave since then and are facing starvation – which has particularly impacted the elderly, sick and young children. People are becoming frustrated by the lack of food and unsanitary conditions.
"Yes, I can have a small amount of food to keep me going today, but there's the constant worry of whether I will have food tomorrow," one resident of the Jabalia refugee camp told the news outlet Middle East Eye (MEE). "I went to get dates so I could eat one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening."
Another Jabalia resident said that mosques, which had water, had been bombed as well as water points and solar panels. "If we are not bombed to death, we are going to die of starvation. This is a huge fear; I don't need to explain how painful that would be" he said. "During these times of crisis we are being forced to drink any water we can find, even if it's not clean."
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that as days pass by, "hunger and despair are turning into anger." Worse, rights group Euro-Med Monitor confirmed that Israel is indeed waging an "extensive war of starvation" against Gaza's civilian population. "Israel has deliberately focused its attacks over the past few hours on targeting electrical generators and solar energy units, on which commercial facilities and restaurants depend to maintain the minimum possible level of their work," the group said in a statement published on Nov. 5.
The Geneva-based independent organization added that Israeli attacks have also targeted agricultural areas east of Gaza, flour stores and fishermen's boats, leaving no sources of food. "It's been five days since we last found and ate bread. It's getting harder to find food in markets. Items that completely ran out include cheese, yogurt and mortadella," Maha Hussaini, MEE's correspondent in Gaza, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "A real starvation catastrophe has already started in Gaza while Israel persists on cutting off food and fuel supplies."
The food shortage in Gaza has also caused various health problems. People have reported feeling kidney pain due to the intense dehydration. Others have said they are mixing salt water with other things to drink.
Showering has also become a luxury, with families heading to the sea to bathe and wash their clothes. In schools-turned-shelters, there have been reports of widespread skin diseases and conditions due to the lack of clean water and overcrowding, In one site around 600 people are using one toilet, UNRWA reported.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is gearing up to launch a "global initiative" aimed at ending the conflict in the Gaza Strip and is on the verge of officially designating Israel as a war criminal, as reported by the pro-government newspaper Hurriyet.
Erdogan, who has previously endorsed Hamas as "freedom fighters," is now taking steps to initiate a worldwide effort to secure a ceasefire in Israel, condemning what he perceives as war crimes against Palestine.
In a recent statement, Erdogan declared: "I will call each of the world leaders, negotiate with them and meet with them if necessary."
This reflects his intention to collaborate with global leaders on a joint initiative specifically addressing the situation in Gaza.
Erdogan's position on Hamas has caused a rift with NATO and European Union allies that have consistently supported Israel's right to self-defense.
The European Commission released a report highlighting "serious deficiencies" in Turkey's democratic institutions, along with a "deterioration of human and fundamental rights" within the country.
Erdogan’s assertion that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but a group of mujahideen defending their land, did not sit well with Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
"Hamas is a despicable terrorist organization worse than ISIS," said MFA spokesman Lior Haiat. "Even the Turkish president's attempt to defend the terrorist organization and his inciting words will not change the horrors that the whole world has seen."
The escalating tension between Ankara and Jerusalem could potentially impact the recently restored diplomatic ties between the two nations.
In response to heightened tensions, Israel has taken the unprecedented step of recalling its diplomats from Turkey, stating the need for a comprehensive reassessment of diplomatic relations.
The decision follows Erdogan's inflammatory remarks at a massive pro-Palestinian rally in Istanbul, where he announced plans to designate Israel as a "war criminal" for its actions in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen affirmed that the decision to recall diplomats was a direct response to the escalating rhetoric from Turkey.
Erdogan slammed over pro-Hamas remarks.
Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz condemned Erdogan's statements, claiming that the Turkish leader had laid bare his true intentions.
Katz, set to become the foreign minister, accused Erdogan of supporting terrorism, emphasizing that even symbolic gestures like wearing a kaffiyeh would not conceal what Katz termed as "shame."
"The man of the Muslim Brotherhood supports Hamas-Daesh terror," Katz wrote on X.
Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, told Army Radio: "A snake will remain a snake. Erdogan tried to improve his image, but remains an anti-Semite."
Participants at the rally waved Turkish and Palestinian flags, chanting slogans like "God is great." Renowned musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, also participated in the rally.
Erdogan's recent rhetoric marks a significant departure from the diplomatic thaw that began a year and a half ago, with efforts to improve ties between the two nations after years of strained relations.
While Israel and Turkey had been regional allies, their relations soured after the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, leading to a series of mutual accusations and diplomatic fallout.
The recall of Israeli diplomats signals a fresh strain in the delicate diplomatic balance, impacting the recent attempts at normalization between the two countries.
The move underscores the complexity of maintaining diplomatic ties, particularly in the context of ongoing geopolitical challenges in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the backdrop of these geopolitical maneuvers is the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with Hamas-run health authorities claiming a staggering toll of more than 10,000 lives since the war's commencement.
The situation remains fluid, and the implications of Erdogan's proposed "global initiative" are closely watched by the international community.
On May 19th, an article was written about the Khmelnitsky explosion, analyzing gamma radiation data from detectors positioned to the North West of the attack site. The data indicated heightened radiation levels in areas of Poland near the Ukraine border and extending through Germany. The conclusion drawn suggested the possibility that a warehouse, purportedly storing Uranium weapons supplied by the UK, had been impacted. It was hypothesized that the Uranium exploded, generating a substantial fireball, and the resulting particles from the explosion dispersed with the prevailing wind across Europe at the time.
The article sparked significant debate on the internet, with numerous self-proclaimed fact-checkers and “experts” disputing the conclusions. This illustrates the current state of internet discourse. The article was dismissed as a “Russian Fake” (e.g., fakenews.pl).
However, it’s crucial to note that while Uranium emits weak gamma radiation, the daughter element Thorium-234 can contribute to increased gamma signals. Additionally, natural radioactive gas, radon, can elevate gamma signals during rainfall and low-pressure systems. A Polish laboratory attributed the heightened signal to radon, specifically reporting the presence of the radon daughter Bismuth 214, seemingly dismissing the claim of a Uranium cloud over Poland. Nevertheless, it was pointed out that there were no concurrent low-pressure systems that could explain the abrupt increase in gamma signals, leaving the matter unresolved.
Uranium levels in the air across Europe are generally not systematically monitored. Available data on Uranium in the air is derived from the High Volume Air Samplers (HVAS) at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, Berkshire. These samplers were established in the early 1990s following a public inquiry into a child leukemia cluster near the site. Legal obligations mandate AWE to regularly measure Uranium, Plutonium, and Tritium at various locations, both near and far from the weapons factory. This data has been previously used to identify Depleted Uranium from the Iraq wars that had dispersed to England.
In relation to the Khmelnitsky incident, recent Uranium data from AWE was obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The data, presented in an Excel file, was graphically represented using Excel’s functions. Figure 1 illustrates the filter levels for three offsite locations during the period from May 15th to June 15th, coinciding with the explosion. The results confirm an increase in Uranium levels during that timeframe. Data from onsite locations also reflects a similar rise.
Challenges observed in the scientific peer-review process mirror those in media. Two journals, namely the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and Conflict and Health, either declined to consider or publish the paper on Uranium increases during the Ukraine war, despite the provision of raw data. The paper was subsequently shared on a preprints site where it gained attention.
Figure 1 depicts a rise of approximately 600ng/cubic meter in Uranium levels in the air in South East England due to particles released from the Khmelnitsky explosion. While seemingly inconspicuous, considering the mean size of a Uranium particle is below 1 micron, individual inhalation of about 24 cubic meters a day results in an average lung intake of 0.432mg over a month. This translates into 200 million particles per person in the area and along the plume’s trajectory in the UK. Considering findings in Fallujah, a 2010 study demonstrated a substantial increase in cancer and congenital malformations in babies, indicative of genetic damage, following the use of Uranium weapons in the second 2003 Iraq war.
Subsequent identification of excess Uranium in the mothers of birth defect children using hair samples and mass spectrometry further supports the long-term effects of Uranium exposure. This study, resembling a historic ice core examination, traced the increases back to the 2003 exposures. Research in Iraq underscores the significant genetic and cancer health effects of Uranium particles, potentially a primary cause of cancer in the Hiroshima victims exposed to Uranium particles in the “black rain.”
Figure 1: Four-weekly air filter results for Uranium from offsite samplers at Aldermaston, Tadley, and Reading. The Khmelnitsky Ukraine explosion occurred on May 14th, 2023 (1805-1506). The normal background is 200.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters descended upon the Texas Capitol to demand an end to humanitarian blockade in Gaza and America’s funding of Israel’s “genocide.”
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of Austin and surrounded the Texas Capitol on Sunday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Video shows a massive group of protesters igniting smoke flares fireworks and waving Palestinian and Hamas flags downtown while calling for an end to the humanitarian blockade of Gaza and to America funding Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinians.
“The protest was organized by a coalition of pro-Palestine groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Party for Socialism and Liberation,” the Texas Tribune reported.
As usual, the world's economic overlords are gushing their support for Israel, prompting major backlash from the BDS Movement – BDS stands for boycotts, divestment and sanctions.
Pro-Israel corporations like Starbucks and McDonald's, to name just a few, are in the crosshairs of BDS Movement members who say they want to put "pressure" on these companies for supporting Israel's apartheid and genocide against Gaza.
Further describing Israel as "settler colonialists," members of the BDS Movement are spreading their message across social media, with some even targeting retail locations with vandalism.
In one incident at a McDonald's location in Keighley, West Yorkshire, protesters draped in Palestinian flags entered the building to release stick insects. Video footage of the aftermath showed that several windows also got smashed.
At another McDonald's in Birmingham (U.K.), protesters released mice into the store, followed by calls for a "boycott" against the company – McDonald's in Israel is offering discounts to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and security forces, in essence taking a side in the melee.
Ben & Jerry's, Sam Smith and many others have boycotted Israel over the years due to mistreatment of Palestinians.
As for Starbucks, the BDS Movement is targeting the burnt coffee chain for threatening to sue its labor union for copyright infringement after a "Solidary with Palestine" message was posted on social media using the Starbucks logo.
Founded in 2005, the BDS Movement has seen past successes with such campaigns, including in 2021 when Unilever-owned ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's agreed to stop selling its products in the "occupied Palestinian territories," referring to Israel.
BDS campaigning also convinced Sam Smith to cancel a show in Israel earlier this year, though even organizers claimed this was "due to unforeseeable technical and logistical problems."
In 2010, Elvis Costello cancelled his concerts in Israel for the stated reason that he does not approve of the regime's mistreatment of Palestinians. Lorde did the same thing in 2017 after receiving an "overwhelming number of messages and letters" from pro-Palestinian activists.
One year later in 2018, Lana Del Rey canceled a performance at an Israeli kibbutz because Palestinians would not have been able to watch it.
According to reports, the BDS Movement was founded in 2005 by Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath and Omar Barghouti, a graduate of Columbia University. The group's structure is modeled after the South African resistance movement to apartheid.
A newly proposed law in Australia would make it a crime to say "unapproved" things online, effectively eliminating internet free speech.
The so-called "Communications Legislation Amendment (Combating Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023," the legislation creates a new framework for the broad-scale censorship of "misinformation" and "disinformation," at least as the Aussie government defines such things.
The law is so broad and vague in its far-reaching directives that online "harm" could include just about anything the government decides one day is "untrue" or "dangerous."
Section 2 of the proposed legislation, which provides a bedrock for the full empowerment of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to directly interfere with "harmful" online free speech, defines "harm" as:
1) Hatred against a group in Australian society based on their ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, or physical or mental disability
2) Any disruption to the public order or society in Australia
3) Anything that damages the integrity of Australian democratic processes or of the commonwealth, territory, or local government institutions
4) Anything that harms the health of Australians
5) Anything that harms the Australian environment
6) Anything that causes economic or financial harm to Australians, the Australian economy or a sector of the Australian economy
Australia is no longer free
As you can see, the concept of "harm" based on the language in this bill can include just about anything. The average Aussie will have no concept about what these definitions even mean since they are wildly subjective in their scope.
"The concept of 'harm' peddled by the bill is illusory, and its content would be subjectively determined by a powerful government agency," is how one media outlet describes the bill's implications. "The definition of what is and what isn't harm is malleable and can expand and contract depending on ACMA's prevailing views."
"Ultimately, any type of speech with which the government is uncomfortable could be deemed 'harmful.' For example, describing 'disrupting social order' as serious harm could be interpreted to stop the organization of legitimate political protests. This could certainly be used to suppress legitimate political speech that should be part of a functioning democracy."
What is worse, the bill allows the ACMA to basically order any Aussie it wishes to appear at a time and place of the government's choosing to answer any and all questions in an inquisition about "misinformation" or "disinformation" that may have been spread.
"These powers include infringement notices, remedial directions, injunctions and civil penalties, including fines of up to AU$550,000 ($358,000) for individuals and AU$2.75 million ($1.75 million) for corporations. Criminal penalties, including imprisonment, may also apply in cases of alleged 'extreme harm.'"
What this means is that journalism is about to be dead in Australia, as is defending human rights and thinking freely without the government making all your decisions for you.
On the matter of human rights in particular, international human rights experts actually warn against this kind of legislation, or any other that contains "general prohibitions on the dissemination of information based on vague and ambitious ideas, including 'false news' or 'non-objective information,' are incompatible with international standards for restrictions on freedom of expression ... and should be abolished."
Disturbingly, the Australian government is completely exempt from the proposed legislation – because government's never spread misinformation or disinformation, we are told.
"It is certainly ironic that views incompatible with the government's preferred narrative could be deemed to 'harm' the integrity of Australia's democracy since it would disallow speech and expressive conduct that is integral to the maintenance of democratic processes," says RT's Augusto Zimmermann.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the State of New York will increase staffing to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and allocate an additional $2.5 million to the New York State Police to combat ‘hate speech.’
Hochul’s administration will deploy “ten additional investigators in New York City, Albany, Buffalo and Rochester, ensuring the State Police has a presence in all JTTF investigative groups and areas.”
The Democrat governor blamed the Hamas-Israel conflict for a rise in hate crimes.
“It’s painful to me as the Governor of this great state, that has been known for its diversity, and how we celebrate different cultures, different religions, different viewpoints, it’s painful to see the cruelty with which New Yorkers are treating each other. Everywhere from college campuses, to our streets, to schools, to playgrounds; even as they’re entering their houses of worship,” Hochul said.
“If anyone thinks that they can get away with spreading hate and harming other New Yorkers and violating the law, you will be caught. You will be caught here in the State of New York because we are ramping up our resources to ensure that everyone can live freely… I want to get back to that time, that space, where New Yorkers can trust each other, be friends on a college campus again, be friends at a playground, in a workplace. Let’s get back to that commonality that we’ve always shared throughout our history as New Yorkers,” she continued.
Hochul said the state government is “focused on the data we’re collecting from surveillance efforts.”
If you say something considered ‘hate speech’ on social media, Hochul’s administration will try to contact you.
“What’s being said on social media platforms. And we have launched an effort to be able to counter some of the negativity and reach out to people when we see hate speech being spoken about on online platforms,” a transcript of Hochul’s Monday press conference read.
The “media trouble” of how to best “present” (not necessarily facts, but narratives) regarding the “big” US elections frenzy (namely that to elect a president to front a fairly consistent policy that may, or may not ever change) are now hitting individual states.
Not to discourage anyone from following the goings-on relevant to the issue – but there are “at least” 50 such states. In other words, a skeptic might say that you can expect a lot of campaigning disguised as proper journalism, heightened rhetoric, and just some plain nonsense.
But, how in the world Bill Gates – an ominous billionaire presence by any other standard, but who somehow manages to maintain his image of a “good guy” at least in the legacy media narratives all these decades, crops up here in the “flyover states” must be a mystery.
That’s because – in this case, “the Bill” has a namesake – Bill Gates, representing District 3 on the Board of Supervisors, Maricopa County, Arizona.
Funny though the coincidence may at first seem – the “Big Bill Gates” – and the, well – littler – version, do happen to share some things.
From here on out we’re talking Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, and what is the first thing out of his political mouth, in this long election campaign season? It’s “misinformation.”
Reports local media: Local Bill Gates is aware of his own “misinformation” labors, inside and out. During the 2022 elections, as an overseer, Gates was accused of election interference. There were reportedly even threats.
And instead of, say, reexamining the role of such controversial officials, the state sticks to giving them the same job, and then looking into the “ether” for possible things to blame.
Such as “misinformation.”
The “Arizona Gates” doesn’t appear to be a man of many words.
“It’s not accidental. There is some intent in spreading this misinformation. That’s sort of what makes it misinformation.”
Okay. How about President Donald Trump? Here it gets very local. It wasn’t Trump to blame for “misinformation” in Arizona elections, but some other Republicans.
What is the world… is it even going on here?
It’s good to remember that save for 1996 (Clinton) and, controversially, 2020 (Biden) – Arizona, and Maricopa County in particular, were considered Republican strongholds.
So no wonder that the “fine-grained” fight for each constituency begins now, and at the local media level, where there are calls to control online “misinformation.”
“The Gates of Maricopa” seems to be telling one side all they need to hear now.
“(…) dealing with misinformation is now a way of life in Maricopa County and beyond. He adds that the Board of Supervisors aims to make next year’s election even more transparent than before as they expect fake news to be a factor in races,” local news outlets say.
America’s power grid is at escalated risk of faltering due to the imminent major storms or prolonged cold snaps this coming winter, warned the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), the regulator that monitors the electricity system.
As per NERC’s “2023–2024 Winter Reliability Assessment” published November 8, a sweeping portion of the country that extends from Texas to the Canadian border is not adequately equipped for tough winter conditions. The report indicated that the power grid continues to fray and suffer from underinvestment, despite promises by politicians and regulators to shore it up following deadly blackouts in recent years. “As observed in recent winter reliability events, over 20 percent of generating capacity has been forced offline when freezing temperatures extend over parts of North America that are not typically exposed to such conditions,” the report alerted. “When electricity supplies become constrained, [bulk power system] operators can face a simultaneous sharp increase in demand.”
In a call, NERC told reporters that the grid has traditionally faced its greatest challenges in the summer heat but a confluence of factors in recent years has led the grid to be equally unstable during severe winter weather. “We’ve seen the system become more vulnerable to winter conditions,” said John Moura, NERC’s director of reliability assessment and performance analysis. “For decades, the system had been built and planned around summer peaks.” However, during summer this year, the non-profit also warned that two-thirds of the grid was actually at risk of experiencing summer outages during peak energy use.
Back in February, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved new cold weather reliability standards for U.S. generators. NERC proposed the standards in response to Winter Storm Uri in 2021, which left almost 250 dead and made Texans face widespread blackouts. “Additional cold weather standards recently adopted by NERC’s Board have been filed for FERC approval,” Moura said in a statement. “This is a positive development in ensuring industry is prepared for extreme cold weather.”
Other issues NERC identified include the growing complexity of forecasting winter load and the curtailment of electricity transfers between reliability coordinators and balancing authorities. “While the curtailments alleviate an issue in one part of the system, curtailments can contribute to supply shortages or affect local transmission system operations in another area,” NERC said.
Meanwhile, as the grid continues to be unstable as winter season approaches, NERC warned Texas, – where voters earlier this week approved a plan to fund more power generation – to be at higher risk of energy shortages this year than last. This is because it is not bringing enough new power online to meet the state’s surging demand, and its existing infrastructure has not been adequately weatherized.
Similar challenges plague areas north of the Lone Star state, according to the report. The regional grid that serves 15 states from Arkansas to Wyoming will be operating with significantly lower backup energy reserves than last year. NERC warned that while the region has the resources it needs to make it through a normal winter, extreme cold weather could “result in shortfalls that can trigger energy emergencies.”
The authors warned that a winter storm of similar scale in the region could result in a repeat of the outages that disrupted last year’s holiday season for millions. The report also concluded that power grid operators are struggling to bring on new generation and weatherize equipment at the pace required to meet the challenges of increased demand and the more extreme and unpredictable weather patterns created by climate change. “This forecast again shows that our nation faces looming grid reliability challenges while electricity demand continues to soar,” said Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which represents 900 local electricity providers. “That’s unacceptable and should be cause for concern for all Americans.”
The looming grid disruption is due to neglect and not because of greenhouse gas emissions
According to Mark Spurr, legislative director at the International District Energy Association and president of engineering and consulting firm FVB Energy, a massive grid disruption is inevitable due to three trends that are “getting worse, not better.” He listed the increase in severe weather events due to climate change, rising peak electricity demand, and a growing dependence on natural gas.
“We’re thrilled to see NERC acknowledge what everyone already knows: failure of fossil-fueled power plants, especially gas-fired ones, during the winter, is the greatest threat to grid reliability today,” said Tom Rutigliano, senior advocate for the Sustainable FERC Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council. But he said that NERC’s focus on fuel supply risk “hides that the root cause is simply poor maintenance by power plant owners and the gas industry.” He further pointed out that grid operators must plan for the poor reliability gas plants have demonstrated time and again and hold non-performing plants accountable. “Congress should follow FERC’S recommendation to set reliability standards for the gas industry,” he added.
The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association reportedly warned the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-, gas- and oil-fired power plants could worsen the grid’s precarious situation. NERC’s reliability assessment showed that our “nation faces looming grid reliability challenges while electricity demand continues to soar,” Matheson said. EPA’s “unlawful, unrealistic and unachievable proposal will result in less electricity, more power outages and higher costs for American families and businesses.”
This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog.
All of a sudden, the giant rock that we all live on is starting to go a bit nuts. Unusual volcanic activity is happening all over the globe, but the “experts” are assuring us that there is nothing to be concerned about. But could it be possible that they are wrong? After you have reviewed the information that I provide in this article, come to your own conclusion. To me, it definitely appears that what we are currently witnessing is not normal.
A newborn island that recently emerged from the Pacific Ocean after an underwater volcanic eruption is now visible from space, images from the European Space Agency (ESA) reveal. The satellite images show the new landmass sitting around 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) off the coast off Japan’s Iwo Jima island.
The submerged volcano began erupting on Oct. 21, with activity ramping up over the next 10 days. By Oct. 30, explosions were taking place every few minutes, according to a translated statement. The eruption threw large lumps of rock into the air, and shot a jet of gas and ash over 160 feet (50 meters) almost vertically above the water’s surface.
Needless to say, a new island is not born very often.
I have been warning my readers about the alarming rise of volcanic activity in our oceans, and this is yet more evidence that something really strange is taking place down there.
But when it comes to Japan, there is another volcano that I believe is far more of a threat.
Let’s keep a very close eye on Mt. Fuji in 2024 and beyond because when it finally blows it is going to cause death and destruction on an absolutely massive scale.
Some residents of the southwestern Iceland town of Grindavík were allowed to briefly return home Sunday to quickly gather essential belongings and pets left behind when evacuations were ordered amid thousands of earthquakes that have rattled the region and raised concerns that a volcanic eruption may be imminent.
Iceland’s government declared a state of emergency and began the mass evacuation of Grindavík on Friday.
Overall, that region has been hit by more than 4,000 earthquakes in recent days, and at least 1,000 of those quakes were actually “recorded within the magma tunnel”…
An interesting situation is developing in the Banda Sea just North of the small Rumadai Island. A mag 7.1 quake, reduced to a 7.0 by USGS has been reported in the Banda Sea, Indonesia. Two large aftershocks, a 6.9, reduced to a mag 6.7, followed by another 6.7 have been reported along with 5 other med-sized aftershocks.
The major quakes, (mag 6 or higher) are very shallow, 10km in depth, however, no tsunami warning has been announced.
Today's three major quakes, (mag 6 or higher) bring the total for the month of November to 4, all in the Banda Sea area shown above. The total so far in 2023 is an average of 126.
A solar superstorm might wipe out the internet for weeks or even months, warns a scientist, Fox Weather reported.
Scientist warns about an “internet apocalypse” caused by the energy from a potential solar superstorm
While we enjoy the beauty of the Northern Lights, the energy from these solar storms could potentially cause what a researcher calls an “internet apocalypse.”
Professor Peter Becker and his team are on a mission to develop a warning system that can alert us about risky solar activity that might harm important technology.
“The internet has come of age during a time when the sun has been relatively quiet, and now it’s entering a more active time,” said Professor Peter Becker of George Mason University.
“It’s the first time in human history that there’s been an intersection of increased solar activity with our dependence on the internet and our global economic dependence on the internet.”
The latest update from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center suggests that Solar Cycle 25 might be more intense and hit its peak earlier than initially anticipated. Initial projections pointed to a peak around July 2025, but the center now hints that the most intense phase could happen as early as the beginning to the middle of 2024.
How is the Earth at risk from a solar superstorm?
The researcher explains what solar flares can do to the Earth. “When the sun brightens, and we see the radiation, and that’s kind of the muzzle flash. And then the cannon shot is the coronal mass ejection (CME). So, we can see the flash, but then the coronal mass ejection can go off in some random direction in space, but we can tell when they’re actually going to head towards Earth. And that gives us about 18 hours of warning, maybe 24 hours of warning, before those particles actually get to Earth and start messing with Earth’s magnetic field.”
The power grid, satellites, underground fiber optic cables with copper coatings, navigation and GPS systems, radio transmitters, and communication gear are all at risk.
“And then you get this kind of insidious thing where you could actually get current from ground,” Becker said. “So everybody thinks, ‘Oh, my computer’s grounded, I’m okay,'” but in an event like this, if you drive inductive currents to the surface of the Earth, it can almost work backwards, and you can end up actually frying things that you thought were relatively safe.”
“If we have a warning, every minute counts because you can put satellites in safe mode. You can take transformers off-line from the grid, so they don’t fry,” Becker said. According to him, the majority of big companies currently lack the financial motivation to fortify their systems.
According to life expectancy data, one thing is glaringly obvious: the experts are trying to kill us. At the commands of the ruling class, the experts are doling out advice that is harming the general population, and that’s become rather apparent in countries like the United States, where obesity and diabetes are now common diseases.
The U.S. life expectancy is at near-three-decade lows, per recent data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The last time Americans on average were living shorter lives than they are today was in 1996. In truth, life expectancy has been declining for quite some time.
Finally, it appears that some blame is being given to the “vaccines” and how many the ruling class demands we get from birth to death. But a lot of focus has been on the new “vaccines” for COVID-19. So while Americans’ actual base-level health was getting steadily worse and worse, our scientific betters were demanding universal masking and vaccine mandates, closing our businesses, shutting our schools, and letting the elderly die isolated in hospitals and care homes.
In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s own data, getting the COVID-19 “vaccine” could reduce your lifespan by at least 24 years.
But it isn’t just the vaccines that are to blame. According to a report by The New York Post, given our high rates of alcohol consumption, something social isolation can worsen, the COVID measures may even have had a hand in lowering life expectancy.
But it isn’t just COVID. Most Americans suffer from some kind of metabolic dysfunction, which leads to diabetes, obesity, heart conditions, and more. In fact, just 12% of Americans are actually metabolically healthy. That was before the scamdemic. Those numbers are likely below 12% now. This isn’t a problem with “vaccines,” although those don’t help when contributing to overall health, but an issue with diet.
Americans eat a highly processed, sugar-laden, and carbohydrate-fueled diet, which is making them sick before they even come down with a cold or COVID-19. But Americans are also addicts, addicted to the food they think is fueling their bodies.
Another scary fact is that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. The average American consumes more than 17 teaspoons of added sugar each day, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). That’s nearly double what most of us should eat. And that’s “added” sugar, so that’s not including the sugars from fruit that are naturally occurring.
“There is no essential carbohydrate,” says Dr. Bessler. “Everything your body needs can be made from proteins and fats that you eat. You don’t need to eat a single carb to live a normal life.” In fact, carbs can actually prevent some people from leading normal lives. A growing body of research is showing that carbs can be highly addictive. “Carbs release dopamine in the brain, and sugar can act like a drug for some people,” says Dr. Bessler according to Columbia Surgery.“There is a reason these foods are called comfort food.”
Humans have been told an ungodly amount of lies in order to keep us from living long healthy lives because long healthy lives don’t make the ruling class or those who lobby it any money.
The Justice Department has just posted a new jobs ad — it’s looking for eight new attorneys to defend the federal government in vaccine injury cases.
Presumably, the hiring spree is in anticipation of a surge of COVID vaccine lawsuits, as people who were forced by government mandates to take the jab, and suffered serious side effects as a result, try to extract compensation from a system that is stacked against them.
“The office is currently expanding to address workload created by an increase in cases filed under the Vaccine Act,” reads the ad posted by the Torts Branch of the DOJ on the USAJobs website.
The recruitment drive comes on the heels of a little-noticed lawsuit filed in Louisiana last month by six vaccine-injured plaintiffs against the federal government.
The suit aims to overturn the legal immunity that pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and Moderna enjoy on their COVID shots.
Not that any of the lawyers involved expect Big Pharma to pay up, but at least if they win, it should force Congress to reform inadequate vaccine injury compensation schemes that were instituted almost 40 years ago as an alternative to suing drug companies out of existence but that have not kept up with the times.
Mandates and misery
Meanwhile, almost 13,000 Americans who claim the COVID vaccine caused them or their dead loved ones adverse reactions — such as the life-threatening heart ailment myocarditis or the debilitating immune disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome — remain in limbo after doing what they were told was “the right thing”: heeding government mandates to submit to the jab.
The unaccountable, understaffed government tribunal that presides over the so-called Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), for vaccines administered under emergency measures, is a “kangaroo court,” says the lawsuit filed by attorney Aaron Siri, partner at New York firm Siri & Glimstad.
“The CICP is akin to a Potemkin village … an elaborate façade designed to hide an undesirable reality.
“Claims are consistently lost, ignored, denied, or caught up in the years-long purgatory of government bureaucracy. The compensation, if any, is neither timely nor adequate.”
Just six people had been compensated by October this year, of more than 12,775 COVID injury claims submitted to the CICP since Jan. 31, 2020, when the Trump administration declared a public health emergency.
Those lucky people reportedly received an average of $2,148 each.
Of the 1,800 decisions made by the CICP, just 72 have been found eligible for compensation. Another 1,728 have been denied.
That means 96 percent of claims are unsuccessful, and just 14 percent of total claims have even been adjudicated.
Tragic jab cases
Among the plaintiffs in the Louisiana case is Emma Burkey, who was a healthy 18-year-old Nevada high school student when she received the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine in April 2021 and suffered a devastating brain injury.
“Now, after three brain surgeries and thousands of hours of physical therapy, she struggles to walk, write, and care for herself,” says the lawsuit.
Victim advocacy group React-19, which has joined the plaintiffs, also represents Ernest Ramirez, a car wash technician in a small South Texas town who lost his only son, Ernest Jr., a healthy 16-year-old athlete who died of a heart attack five days after receiving his first Pfizer dose in April 2021.
The weeping testimony of the single father at a congressional hearing in Washington, DC, in November that year was heartrending.
“I’ve raised my boy since he was a baby,” said Ramirez. “Me and my son have never been apart. He was my best friend … We got the Pfizer vaccine because I thought it was the right thing to do. It was like playing Russian roulette. My government lied to me. They said it was safe. Now I go home to an empty house …
“I love the hell out of my country but I don’t trust my government anymore.”
Ramirez couldn’t even grieve in peace. Twitter censored the photo he posted of his son’s coffin under the caption: “My good byes to my Baby Boy” and three broken heart emojis, and GoFundMe deleted his account to raise money for the trip to Washington.
A new taxpayer-funded lab is being built in Colorado that will import bats from around the world and experiment on dangerous diseases, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The multi-million-dollar project is a collaboration between Dr Anthony Fauci's old department at the National Institutes of Health, Colorado State University (CSU) and EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), a controversial research group at the center of the Covid lab leak theory.
Proposals seen by this website show how the 14,000sq-ft facility could store and study some of the most transmissible pathogens on the planet - including Ebola, Nipah virus and Covid-19.
Researchers behind the plans said the lab will boost America's 'ability to study the role of bats in disease transmission and help us become even stronger in researching emerging zoonotic pathogens.'
But Republican Senators still reeling from a lack of answers about the origins of Covid told DailyMail.com they fear the facility - which has not started construction but is due to open in 2025 - could start a 'pandemic on US soil.'
The lab is proposed to import, house, breed and experiment on dozens to hundreds of bats and will be located on Colorado State University's Foothill Campus, in the city of Fort Collins.
The above are draft floor plans of the 14,00sq-ft bat facility. The floorplan was included in documents obtained by the White Coat Waste Project and provided to DailyMail.com.
Photos of bats used at a separate NIH lab exposed by DailyMail.com.
Sen Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, told DailyMail.com: 'We cannot allow any batty experiments of pandemic potential to be unleashed on our own shores.
'Americans have suffered enough from Fauci-funded risky research, which is why I am working to defund EcoHealth that funneled taxpayer dollars to the Chinese state-run Wuhan Lab.
'The world cannot afford another lab leak, especially one on U.S. soil or near our military bases.'
The facility will be built on the CSU's Foothill Campus campus in Fort Collins, which is around 60miles north of Denver and has a population of around 168,000.
Fort Collins residents have already voiced their concerns over its construction at planning committee meetings.
They fear the lab could spread diseases like Covid-19 and spark another pandemic.
The site, referred to as the Chiropteran Research Facility in documents, is slated to be built just 380 feet from the border fence of university land to neighboring houses.
The lab is proposed to import, house, breed and experiment on dozens to hundreds of bats. On CSU’s website for the lab, it lists the facility as a biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) research center.
BSL-2 labs work with pathogens associated with human disease that pose a 'moderate' health hazard, such as Hepatitis, HIV and salmonella.
However, older documents reviewed by DailyMail.com suggest scientists wanted to infect bats with Covid, Ebola and Nipah virus.
A document submitted by CSU researchers in December 2022 states: ‘We will infect horseshoe bats with SARS-CoV2 and a SARSr-CoV detected in these bats.’
Climate change’s toll on human health is undisputed: Cardiovascular diseases, respiratory illnesses, liver diseases, diabetes, preterm births, and behavioral health issues have all been associated with the presence of extreme temperatures.[i],[ii],[iii],[iv],[v],[vi],[vii],[viii] Children, older Americans, and low-income communities remain especially vulnerable.[ix],[x],[xi],[xii],[xiii],[xiv],[xv],[xvi]
The nation’s health care sector has an important role to play in reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are contributing to a warming planet. The United States remains the top emitter of health care GHG emissions globally, accounting for 27% of Earth’s total health care emissions.[xvii] Hospitals generate the most emissions in the U.S. health care sector at 36%, followed by physician and clinical services at 12%, and prescription drugs at 10%.[xviii]
This report focuses on the immediate actions that hospitals can take, but BPC recognizes that the GHG emissions originating from health care supply chains must be addressed as well, given that they account for nearly 80% of U.S. health care emissions.[xix] Although the problem extends well beyond the health care system, addressing the unique features of the health care system’s supply chain—such as the development and manufacturing of health care goods and services (e.g., pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices)—is also essential to lowering emissions and will require input from a much larger set of stakeholders.
Promisingly, experts and policymakers at all levels of government increasingly acknowledge the need to reduce the GHGs emitted by the health care system, starting with the nation’s hospitals.[xx],[xxi],[xxii] Indeed, many hospitals and health care entities have already begun to act.
And now is a propitious time to act: The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (P.L. 117-169) and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58) both offer significant incentives for hospitals and health care systems to lower their greenhouse gas emissions.
To help hospitals reduce their emissions in a way that is consistent with both the effects of a changing climate on human health and the nation’s larger transition to clean energy, the Bipartisan Policy Center recommends the following federal actions:
At least every three years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should publicly post on its website a report (1) detailing whether CMS deems any building code changes to be “significant” as they relate to the potential for reducing GHG emissions, and (2) describing how hospitals are utilizing categorical and noncategorical waivers granted since the previous report, including whether GHG emissions reductions have resulted.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—in coordination with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—should research ventilation strategies in hospitals to determine ways to use the lowest energy ventilation while balancing risk reduction from infectious aerosols, given that ventilation technologies represent a significant portion of energy usage within hospitals. NIOSH should publish and promote this research utilizing its existing processes.
CMS, via the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, should require hospitals to report whether they utilize ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager or a similar measuring tool.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) should issue a report detailing the various clean energy workforce development programs within the Departments of Energy, Labor, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services (HHS), and provide recommendations, if warranted, on where programs could be adjusted or developed to strengthen workforce expertise specific to health care settings. A member of Congress will likely need to request that GAO complete this report.
These recommendations are designed for immediate action and implementation, primarily by utilizing existing statutory and regulatory authorities, except for two areas that might require more congressional engagement—(1) at least one member of Congress will need to request a GAO report; and (2) Congress might need to act to provide CMS with the authority to collect information regarding hospital utilization of ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager or a similar measuring tool.
Given the current congressional environment—and to make it more likely for Congress to act, if necessary—BPC’s recommendation related to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is narrowly tailored and represents simply a first step—that is, only requesting that hospitals report if they are utilizing an energy and emissions measuring tool.
BPC also offers the following best practices for hospitals to begin reducing their GHG emissions:
Hospitals should leverage federal funding opportunities, including those created by the Inflation Reduction Act. To do so, hospitals are encouraged to follow real-time updates from the HHS Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE).
Hospitals should employ C-suite personnel and, to the extent needed, contract out for additional services dedicated to driving and supporting organization-wide efforts to reduce GHG emissions.
Hospitals should reduce their GHG emissions from anesthetic gases by gradually reducing, with the goal of eliminating, the use of desflurane gas and nitrous oxide—both of which are particularly potent greenhouse gases. They should also work to reduce their GHG gas emissions from anesthesia-related sources overall.
Hospitals should reduce their GHG emissions from food waste by:
devoting resources to sourcing more locally grown, healthier, and fresher fruits and vegetables options;
providing more tailored meal options to patients;
taking immediate advantage of opportunities for composting or otherwise repurposing food waste and unused food products.
BPC developed these recommendations through expert and stakeholder interviews and reviews of relevant literature. For hospitals to achieve success, and in addition to supportive federal policies, they will need significant support from their C-suites and other leaders.
-Marc Morano, Climate Depot
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