Dec 18

Today’s News 18th December 2024

  • The Indian Model Of Financial Multipolarity Is The Most Relevant For The Global South
    The Indian Model Of Financial Multipolarity Is The Most Relevant For The Global South

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    Few can afford to be massively tariffed by the US, let alone sanctioned, and most aren’t willing to burn their bridges with the US for ideological reasons at the expense of their immediate economic interests…

    Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar clarified earlier this month that “India has never been for de-dollarization. Right now there is no proposal to have a BRICS currency. BRICS do discuss financial transactions, [but] the United States is our largest trade partner and we have no interest in weakening the dollar at all.” This was in response to Trump threatening to impose 100% tariffs on any country that de-dollarizes.

    Here are three background briefings for those who haven’t followed this:

    * 6 September 2024: “BRICS Membership Or Lack Thereof Isn’t Actually That Big Of A Deal”

    * 1 November 2024: “Did The Latest BRICS Summit Achieve Anything Of Tangible Significance At All?”

    * 2 December 2024: “Trump’s Threats Against BRICS Are Based On False Premises”

    As the first explained, “BRICS can be compared to a Zoom conference: members actively participate in talks on financial multipolarity, partners observe their discussions in real time, and everyone else with an interest in them hears about the outcome afterwards.” The second one confirmed the veracity of this assessment after the last BRICS Summit had no tangible outcome other than a joint statement. And finally, the last reaffirms the preceding two’s insight, which corrects false perceptions about BRICS.

    India is on pace to become the world’s third largest economy by 2030, which requires continued flows of American investment and maintaining access to its enormous market. At the same time, however, it also wants to internationalize the rupee. That last-mentioned policy isn’t de-dollarization per se, but pragmatic and a form of hedging, so Trump shouldn’t be too perturbed. He’s also expected to have the most Indophilic administration in history that’ll be reluctant to sanction India anyhow.

    The Indian way represents the model for other Global South countries to follow. Few can afford to be massively tariffed by the US, let alone sanctioned, and most aren’t willing to burn their bridges with the US for ideological reasons at the expense of their immediate economic interests. Furthermore, those that take this chance are making themselves dependent on someone else, namely China. Therefore, this policy comes at the expense of sovereignty, though it’s ironically supposed to strengthen such.

    The middle ground between remaining trapped in the dollar system and experiencing its wrath after trying to liberate oneself is to gradually increase the use of one’s national currencies. In parallel with this, having access to alternative non-Western platforms like Chinese ones and whatever BRICS may or may not unveil can help, but they mustn’t become replacements. The goal is to diversify currencies and platforms, not replace one dependency with another, and it’ll take time implement.

    Barring a black swan that completely revolutionizes the global financial system, the dollar will likely remain the world’s reserve currency, and Trump will take drastic action against China if it dares to unveil the so-called “petroyuan”. Those suppliers and clients who also decide to use it will face his fury as well. The “petroyuan” might therefore only remain a euphemism for China’s potential use of this currency in some of its bilateral energy deals while probably falling fall short of expectations in the medium-term.

    The long term is too far out to forecast, but if the US keeps de-dollarization trends in check under Trump and institutionalizes the means that he’s expected to employ, then that’ll naturally have an adverse effect on internationalizing the yuan. At most, it might begin to be used more in bilateral trade deals too, but the US’ grand strategic goal is for the dollar to remain the currency of choice in energy deals. Internationalizing the ruble like Russia has done with its energy deals isn’t a threat to the dollar at all.

    The only reason it even happened was because the US prohibited the use of dollars by others when purchasing Russian energy products, but curtailing and eventually even lifting these sanctions (as well as the associated one banning Russia’s use of SWIFT) could likely reverse this trend to a large degree. After all, it’s much more convenient for everyone to go back to the old order of business, though the US’ weaponization of the financial system since 2022 left an impression that’ll lead to continued hedging.

    As “politically incorrect” as it may sound, China already complies with some of these same Western sanctions against Russia despite still officially criticizing them as hegemonic. This is proven by the Chinese-based BRICS New Development Bank and the SCO Bank suspending projects in Russia and not allowing the transfer of Russia’s dues respectively as proven here and here. RT also drew attention to Russia’s payment problems with China in early September, which were analyzed at length here.

    It might therefore be unwise for any country to make itself dependent on China by promulgating radical de-dollarization policies since there’s no guarantee that the People’s Republic will have its back. The fact of the matter is that China’s complex interdependencies with the West are too deep, and this places major limits on its financial policymaking capabilities, thus explaining why it hasn’t fully supported Russia. This observation could lead to self-imposed restraints among aspiring de-dollarizing states.

    No responsible country like India would feel comfortable fully returning to the former system so the increased use of national currencies and utilization of alternative platforms will persist into the future. So long as these trends remain manageable, and Trump is expected to do his utmost to this end, then no radical changes are expected anytime soon. Everything will continue moving more or less in the same direction, but at a gradual pace, and that’s best for the West and the Global South at this point in time.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 23:25

  • BDNF May Be A Key Compound For Healthy Brain Aging, Neuroplasticity
    BDNF May Be A Key Compound For Healthy Brain Aging, Neuroplasticity

    Authored by Theresa Sam Houghton via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Cognitive health depends on impulses that constantly pass between the 100 million brain cells (neurons) in your brain. One particular protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), is instrumental in maintaining the connections that make the symphony of brain communication possible.

    Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

    BDNF is just one player among many, but its role is essential for lifelong cognitive health. Optimizing BDNF with diet and lifestyle changes could help support brain volume, function, and adaptation, especially as you age.

    Fertilizer for Brain Health

    BDNF is a neurotrophin, a type of protein called a growth factor that supports the survival of the neurons in your brain’s communication network. As the most abundant neurotrophin in the brain, BDNF is found in high concentrations in the hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex. These areas are responsible for memory, emotions, spatial recognition, language processing, and movement.

    For your brain to work properly, the functions of each region must remain separate from each other. According to J. Carson Smith, professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland at College Park, the distinctions between regions start to break down as you age, causing interference that can distract you when you’re trying to pay attention to or remember something.

    “As we lose function in our brains, all of our brain regions tend to become activated all at once because we’re trying to compensate for this loss of neural function that we have as we get older,” Smith told The Epoch Times in an interview. 

    BDNF is key in maintaining this neural function, and its role begins during development as it helps brain cells mature and survive. The protein continues to be active in brain cell growth, maturation, and maintenance throughout life. BDNF is also essential for plasticity, the adaptive process that allows your brain to form fresh connections in response to new information and challenges.

    However, Smith said that, rather than helping the brain create new connections, BDNF’s primary function may be related more to maintaining structures called dendrites, projections at the ends of neurons that enable information to pass between cells in your brain’s network.

    “BDNF is like a fertilizer,” he said. “So it’s going to help stimulate connectivity and make sure that dendritic branching is intact instead of deteriorating and falling away and losing connections in the brain.”

    Effects of BDNF Decline

    BDNF levels decrease with age, leaving less “fertilizer” to support brain cells and the connections between them. Research suggests a correlation between lower BDNF levels and age-related changes in the brain, including lower cognitive test scores, a reduction in hippocampal volume, and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In this condition, difficulties with memory, judgment, and decision-making are more significantly pronounced but don’t reach the level of dementia or Alzheimer’s. Other changes like decreased neurogenesis and the beta-amyloid buildup seen in Alzheimer’s disease may also be related to BDNF decline.

    However, the picture is more complex, and there may not be clear associations between BDNF levels and cognitive decline. A 2023 study published in Biomolecules showed that BDNF levels are higher in people with Alzheimer’s than those with MCI but cited other research showing that Alzheimer’s and MCI patients have lower BDNF levels than healthy people.

    According to the study’s authors, “It has been suggested that BDNF levels vary with disease severity, with higher levels associated with MCI and early stages of AD and lower levels reported in patients with severe AD symptoms.” While the reasons for this are unknown, researchers hypothesize that the body may produce more BDNF in the early stages of cognitive decline in an attempt to repair brain cells or protect against disease progression.

    How BDNF is measured can influence study results. Smith told The Epoch Times that measuring BDNF in human brains can be difficult and invasive, so researchers often rely on levels of circulating BDNF. These levels may not accurately reflect the amount of BDNF in the brain because the protein is also present in other tissues like muscle.

    Factors That Affect BDNF

    Despite these complexities, patterns across studies point to modifiable factors that may promote or interfere with BDNF. According to Gina Nick, a leading naturopathic physician and formulator of glutathione-based health products, including Best Daily Ever Pixie Sticks, inflammation is one of the most important.

    She told The Epoch Times in an interview that exposure to potential toxins in food and the environment can cause inflammation to increase with age. These exposures create unstable molecules called reactive oxygen species (ROS). As a type of free radical, ROS stabilize themselves by taking electrons from molecules in healthy tissues, which sets off chain reactions that produce more free radicals.

    The resulting tissue damage, known as oxidative stress, appears to promote inflammation throughout the body, including in the brain. As oxidative stress increases, Nick said, BDNF levels go down. The effects may be more pronounced in the brains of older people due to a decrease in the body’s ability to repair damage to cells and DNA.

    The Diet-BDNF Connection

    Inflammation may be driven by dietary factors like salt, fat, and additives in ultra-processed foods. Nick said that such foods can deplete glutathione, the body’s most abundant protective antioxidant, and start a cycle that promotes chronic neuroinflammation.

    “Glutathione, when it’s manufactured in the body, it’s naturally occurring in the body, it eats up a lot of other antioxidants when it’s making it,” she told The Epoch Times. “And when you’re exposed to a bunch of toxins in the environment, that triggers neuroinflammation—it reduces the amount of glutathione in your brain.”

    She said it’s important to replace the stores of antioxidants you need to make glutathione so your body can continue to protect brain cells from damage.

    Research suggests that other antioxidants may also increase or maintain BDNF levels. In a 2021 study published in Nutritional Neuroscience, researchers found that foods and supplements containing plant-based nutrients called polyphenols were associated with increased BDNF. There may also be a potential connection between higher BDNF levels and anti-inflammatory compounds like flavonoids and the omega-3 fatty acid DHA.

    Exercise for Cognitive Health

    Staying active may provide additional benefits for BDNF and overall brain health. According to a 2023 review, BDNF appears to be one of the major factors responsible for the cognitive benefits observed in many exercise trials. The researchers concluded that exercise, particularly aerobic activity commonly known as cardio, is associated with better cognition in cases of MCI and dementia.

    The review linked several effects of exercise to better cognitive outcomes, including the release of lactate and proteins from muscle and the stimulation of osteocalcin. This protein promotes bone growth and helps muscles adapt to exercise. These molecules promote the production of BDNF and appear to be the factor that connects these processes to improvements in mood, cognition, learning, and memory.

    As with diet, the process is complex. Factors like intensity and duration may influence the extent to which exercise affects BDNF and brain health, and long-term exercise may decrease blood levels of BDNF without causing changes in cognitive function or memory.

    Support BDNF for Healthy Brain Aging

    Following diet and lifestyle patterns consistently shown to promote cognitive well-being may support BDNF production and help keep the symphony of interactions in the brain playing in harmony.

    The popular Mediterranean diet, for example, focuses on whole and minimally processed plant foods, lean proteins, and unsaturated fats. This combination increases antioxidant intake while reducing or eliminating pro-inflammatory factors like saturated fats and refined carbohydrates, which may increase the risk of oxidative stress.

    Nick recommends incorporating foods that contain glutathione or promote its production, including cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, fruits like peaches, cherries, and strawberries, and unprocessed grass-fed red meat. She’s also a fan of walnuts for their omega-3 content.

    “A handful of walnuts a day will provide you with sufficient omega 3 fatty acids for helping to maintain BDNF levels,” she told The Epoch Times.

    As for exercise, research shows that single sessions and consistent habits may boost BDNF levels. To build a habit for healthy brain function, Smith recommends that people do whatever type of exercise is most accessible and enjoyable for them.

    Even simple activities like climbing stairs or gardening can improve BDNF, so be on the lookout for opportunities to skip the elevator or take a quick walk after dinner. If weather or safety is an issue, try free online resources like indoor walking videos or follow-along bodyweight workouts.

    Making these changes with help from family and friends may provide additional cognitive support.

    As Nick said, “There are always things that you can do to impact BDNF.”

    Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    That said…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 22:35

  • Watch: China Shows Off Mach 7 Hypersonic Drone, Launched From Near-Space Balloon
    Watch: China Shows Off Mach 7 Hypersonic Drone, Launched From Near-Space Balloon

    China has released a military propaganda video boasting its hypersonic weapon capabilities as the military arms race between global superpowers kicks into high gear and the world splits into a dangerous multi-polar state, prompting some global observers to ask the daunting question: “Is World War III already here?“

    According to the Shanghai Morning Post, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released a new video this week showcasing how China continues pushing the boundaries of hypersonic technology.

    The full video, released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), showcases the trials of the MD series and the drone developers behind the aircraft. The team from the Institute of Mechanics (IMECH) at CAS, known as the “Qian Xuesen Young Scientist Task Force,” were the same specialists who achieved the first horizontal landing of a hypersonic drone in 2020.

    …

    The MD-22 – the latest known model in the series – was first unveiled at the 2022 Zhuhai air show. The aircraft boasts a maximum range of 8,000km (4,971 miles) and can carry payloads of up to 600kg (1,323 pounds), delivering substantial strategic capabilities.

    A video of the test shows the unmanned Chinese MD series drone launched from a high-altitude balloon, reaching speeds of as much as Mach 7 before landing safely. 

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    “From a tactical perspective, the MD-19 could serve as a stepping stone to operational hypersonic platforms. Its current role as a technology demonstrator likely focuses on testing high-speed flight dynamics, thermal management, and recovery procedures,” news website BulgarianMilitary wrote in a note. 

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    The new website continued, “China is making it clear it has no intention of falling behind in the race for hypersonic supremacy. The MD-19 is further proof that the country isn’t just testing technologies but integrating innovations with real-world battlefield potential.” 

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    Meanwhile, hypersonic missiles, kamikaze drones, and stealth fighters have become cornerstones for militaries around the world as the modern battlefields in Eastern Europe and the Middle East show no limited signs of peace in the near term.

    The Free Press’ Jay Solomon recently asked: “Is World War III Already Here?”  

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 22:10

  • The US Is Left Out In The Cold As China And Russia Develop Arctic
    The US Is Left Out In The Cold As China And Russia Develop Arctic

    Authored by Conor Gallagher via Naked Capitalism,

    The RAND Corporation, one of the more influential US think tanks that help craft US foreign policy, is out with a new paper arguing that it’s time the US use a divide and rule strategy with Beijing and Moscow in the Arctic. Years of sanctions, threats, and general belligerence from Washington helped organize the wedding of China and Russia’s complementary economies, and that’s increasingly evident in the Arctic where the two are cooperating on development, trade routes, and oil and gas projects. Here’s RAND now sounding the alarm:

    What might be done to limit China-Russia cooperation in this geopolitically important region? RAND researchers consider this question in a new paper, concluding that Western policies focusing on the differences between Beijing and Moscow may be effective. To put such a strategy into action, the United States and its northern NATO allies could develop separate approaches for dealing with China and Russia when it comes to Arctic affairs.

    The authors (Dr. Abbie Tingstad ,a visiting professor of Arctic research at the Center for Arctic Study and Policy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Stephanie Pezard, an associate research department director, Defense and Political Sciences, and a senior political scientist at RAND; and Yuliya Shokh, a U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst and technical analyst at RAND.) also note the following:

    …there may be no need to drive a wedge between Russia and China in the region. That’s because one may already exist: The two countries have very different Arctic interests, influence, and postures—not to mention a difficult history together.

    My first thought was that these people are crazy — or are paid to be so. You could maybe convince yourself it would be feasible if the US wasn’t doing its best to bring Moscow and Beijing together with all its sanctioning, bombing, and arming as it’s unlikely that Communist differences from decades ago are going to be a bigger factor than the immediate threat posed by an unhinged and violent US.

    Yet in the aftermath of the Syria shock, maybe it’s not a bad time to doublecheck RAND’s details of the Russia-China relationship. Not only is the Moscow-Beijing “no limits” partnership one of the biggest geopolitical developments of recent years, but it is also one that the US continues to help bring about. And it looks set to continue to do so whether following a path set forth by RAND or one of even more doubling down as laid out in a December special report from the Council on Foreign Relations.

    Let’s look at what RAND highlights as signs of present and potential friction between Russia and China over the Arctic and Russia’s Far East.

    Is the relationship headed toward benign neglect or even divorce because China increasingly sees Russia as a destabilizing influence that counters its Arctic aspirations? A potential breakdown in Sino-Russian relations has been foretold by the still low or nonexistent numbers of Chinese vessels transiting the [Northern Sea Route], Beijing’s apparent growing apathy to Russia’s Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline proposal, and the 2020 arrest of Russian lecturer Valery Mitko on spying charges.

    Let’s look at each one of these points:

    Despite the holdup on Power of Siberia 2, Russian pipeline gas exports to China are at new records. As of December 1, Gazprom increased supplies to the equivalent of 38 billion cubic meters per year. That’s roughly nine percent of China’s consumption this year.

    Mitko, a researcher of the Arctic region and one of Russia’s leading hydroacoustics experts, was accused of revealing sensitive data during a 2018 academic trip to China. He denied the charges but was under house arrest from 2020 until his death in 2022. The issue never posed any serious threat to expanding ties between the two countries, although it’s feasible that continued future similar cases could cause headaches.

    How about the lack of Chinese vessels on the Northern Sea Route (NSR)?

    While the authors are correct that traffic remains low on the shortest route between the western part of Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific region, that doesn’t mean it will remain that way, and they also omit recent milestones. Here’s one from late 2023 courtesy of Maritime Executive:

    In another demonstration of the efforts to expand shipping along Russia’s Northern Sea Route, the Chinese-owned containership Newnew Polar Bear (15,950 dwt) became the first to reach the Russian port in Kaliningrad after a six-week passage. The governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov hailed the achievement on his Telegram account.

    The vessel was acquired earlier this year by a new Chinese shipping company, Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping Co., and ushered in the route sailing from St. Petersburg at the beginning of July. She started the return trip from China in late August, reaching Kaliningrad on Tuesday and spending three days on dock. The ship registered in Hong Kong is 554 feet long with a capacity of 1,600 TEU.

    She is part of the effort to expand trade between China and Russia and grow traffic along the Northern Sea Route. President Vladimir Putin has ordered the authorities overseeing the route to boost annual shipments to 80 million metric tons in 2024.

    “Transport companies plan to make this logistics product permanent. It turns out cheaper and faster than through the Suez Canal,” writes Alikhanov touting the party line on his Telegram account.

    Additionally in June Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom signed an agreement with Chinese line Hainan Yangpu New Shipping to potentially operate a year-round route. The deal also involves collaboration in the design and construction of new ice-class container ships. In a historic first, two Chinese container ships crossed paths on the route on September 11. It might not be the last time — although much work remains to be done building up infrastructure along the NSR. Yet the US is providing both Moscow and Beijing with incentives to pursue just that with its isolation efforts. While the NSR might not become a primary route for China, it does provide another option, and it also shortens shipping times with Europe by up to 50 percent compared to the Suez route, and Russia will rake in profits from transit fees.

    The RAND authors continue:

    Russia has been wary of the presence of non-Arctic countries in this region, especially regarding military activity. Despite the declaration of a limitless friendship with China, Russia has not provided Beijing with opportunities to conduct overt military operations directly in and around the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF). Compared with the growing frequency and scale of U.S. cooperation with Norway on Arctic military training and exercises, sailing a few destroyers well below the Arctic Circle pales in comparison.

    I’m unsure how much a contest over military exercises tells us. Nonetheless, what’s indisputable is that China’s footprint continues to grow even if it’s not to the level of US training and exercises in Norway.

    In October, for example, China’s Coast Guard entered Arctic Ocean waters for the first time as part of a joint patrol with Russia. Four vessels from the Russian Border Guard and Chinese Coast Guard were spotted by the US in the Bering Sea – the northernmost location it said it had ever observed the Chinese ships. And in July US and Canadian forces intercepted Russian and Chinese bombers flying together near Alaska for the first time.

    Part of the reason for such moves is to send a message to Washington whose military activities in the South and East China Seas and arming of Taiwan are not well-received in Beijing.

    Energy and the Far East

    Here’s RAND on the proposed Power of Siberia 2 pipeline:

    Similarly, China has not written a blank check for Russia to develop its Siberian energy reserves. To the contrary, Moscow has been unable to convince Beijing, as of the time of this publication, to fund the larger capacity Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, despite numerous meetings between these countries’ leadership. There are several potential reasons for this lack of funding: One is that China is waiting for an even better deal on energy resources; another is that Beijing could be wary of being overly dependent on Russia for energy…

    Power of Siberia 2 (PS2) is a proposed pipeline that would have the capacity to carry 50 billion cubic meters per year from Russia to China, but the two sides are struggling to come to an agreement on price.

    PS2 is often overblown in the Western media. While Russia has both economic and geopolitical reasons for wanting to get a deal done, it doesn’t want to give the gas away.

    And China currently has other options, including pipeline gas from Central Asia and LNG suppliers such as Qatar. Its demands are currently met by existing contracts and might not need the gas from PS2 prior to the mid-2030s. It could be attractive, however, due to US efforts to control China’s rise and its energy supply and Beijing’s reluctance to rely too heavily on LNG from the likes of Australia and the US.

    Less mentioned is that Russia also has options. It continues to increase LNG exports — largely to China — and has a goal to triple overall exports by 2030. China would play a huge real in achieving that goal, but that would make PS2 unlikely. Either way the gas is getting to China, and Russia is doing just fine with its energy exports:

    The problem for the US is that further tightening sanctions on Russia makes Moscow more dependent on China, which benefits Beijing.

    Any attempt to isolate China (say by cutting LNG from Australia and Middle East or pipelines from Central Asia) makes China more dependent on Russia.

    Even without PS2 China is already getting 38 bcm through the original Power of Siberia. Starting in 2027, gas will also go to China via the Far Eastern route, which is set to have a capacity of some 10 Bcm/year. That’s 48 bcm per year is already a massive amount. A useful map from S&P Global:

    With the heavy focus on PS2, RAND (and others) also miss all the other developments in Russia’s Far East. Let’s take a quick look.

    Over the past ten years, Russia has laid more than 2,000 kilometers of railway tracks and renovated more than 5,000 kilometers on the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Mainline.

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    By the end of this year, the carrying capacity of these networks is expected to reach 180 million tonnes — an increase of 36 million since 2021. More than 3,100 kilometers of tracks are planned for the next eight years, as well, which will help Moscow meet international demand for resources from its East.

    China and Russia are also working together to increase the capacity of resources heading to the former. In 2022, they opened the lone vehicle bridge crossing the Amur River, which forms more than 1,600 of their roughly 4,000 border kilometers. Later that year they opened the Tongjiang Bridge, currently the only railway bridge connecting the two countries. It shortens the journey between China’s Heilongjiang region and Moscow by more than 800 kilometers over previous routes, saving 10 hours of transit time. This helped rail transport between the two countries jump to 161 million tonnes in 2023, a 36 percent increase from 2022. Over the first five months of this year, it grew another 20 percent.

    A second railway bridge over the Amur is coming soon and will provide Russia’s resource-rich Sakha Republic with direct access to China. The new route will be 2,000 kilometers shorter than the current one which involves the use of sea ports. Beijing is investing in this railway construction in the Sakha Republic as part of a new international corridor in the Russian Far East: the Mohe-Magadan railway line.

    RAND wraps up its rundown of China-Russia trouble in paradise with hypotheticals that, while possible, start to sound a little desperate:

    The Arctic relationship between Russia and China could be damaged by a hypothetical diplomatic clash – for instance, if China were to precipitate a major safety or environmental incident in the vicinity of the Russian Arctic or somehow publicly embarrass Moscow by undermining the perception that Russia exerts full control over its Arctic region. More broadly, some serious indications that China might represent a direct and immediate military threat to Russia in the Arctic could lead to a backlash from Moscow.

    How is the US supposed to exploit these points of contention? RAND argues the following:

    Western policies that focus on differences between Russia and China may ultimately be more successful in shaping the Arctic’s future than those that emphasize their similarities or their relationship itself as the primary driver of regional outcomes….

    Chinese growing interest in Arctic resources does not necessarily translate to a stronger dependence on Russia alone…China’s relationship with the United States is a big influence on this scenario’s probability; six of the seven other Arctic countries (except Russia) are allies, militarily and otherwise, of the United States. This scenario would assume a reversal of these countries’ existing preference to watch closely—and deny more often than not—China’s efforts to invest in such sectors as real estate and critical technologies. This scenario also offers a reminder that although the Sino-Russian relationship is important, the mere existence of their relationship is not the only determinant to how China can potentially extend its influence in the region…

    One key policy decision by the United States and its northern NATO allies could be to develop separate strategies for dealing with Moscow and Beijing when it comes to Arctic affairs.

    What does that look like? Conveniently, more of the same, which means the US doesn’t have to do much of anything other than stay the course and wait:

    The Western Arctic countries yield strong potential to realize their interests and diminish the power of the Sino-Russian relationship by developing policies that (1) recognize Russia as an aggressive, risk-taking, but ultimately legitimate Arctic state and (2) recognize that China has no innate influence in the Arctic and pursues a vested interest in maintaining good economic and scientific relationships with all Arctic nations. There may be no need to drive a wedge between Russia and China in the Arctic because it already exists through their differences as Arctic actors and difficult history together.

    RAND, to its credit, does admit is that much of the Russian-Chinese cooperation is mutually beneficial:

    …the Sino-Russian relationship is driven by Russia’s need for funding and technology to develop its Arctic region, especially because its pool of investors waned with the invasion of Ukraine and sanctions, and by China’s desire to gain a foothold in the region and tap into Russia’s hydrocarbon resources and access to the NSR for Arctic navigation.

    Furthermore:

    Russia and China have forged a cooperative relationship that has (at least to some measure) helped Russia to further develop its northern economy and afforded China tangible opportunities to establish itself as a recognized stakeholder in the region. The most prominent example is the investment of Chinese companies in two liquid natural gas (LNG) projects in the Yamalo- Nenets Autonomous Okrug in northern Siberia and the Power of Siberia 1 pipeline.27 Overall, China has invested billions of dollars in energy and mining projects in Russia’s Arctic, although the bulk of its investment in Russia (and across the Arctic writ large) is in Yamal LNG, which is a massive undertaking.28 In addition, the Chinese transportation company COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co., Ltd., has been exploring the use of the NSR running along Russia’s Arctic coastline as an option for future global logistics.

    RAND does not, however, consider one the driving forces behind the increased cooperation: the current policy of the US and its vassals. And when you add that factor to the mix, it shows why a Moscow-Beijing split is unlikely. Even if the US and its Arctic allies try to develop separate policies for Beijing and Moscow, the latter two would still have the incentive to work together. Indeed, what makes the NSR more attractive isn’t just how short a route it is between Europe and Asia; it’s that its 5,600 kilometers are controlled by just one country (Russia), which means it faces less potential chokepoints than others.

    A big part of that is because of how the West bailed on Russian Arctic projects.

    Much of Russia’s plans for the extraction and delivery of its Arctic resources previously involved the West, but that, of course, is no longer the case. European shipping companies mostly cut ties with Russian operators in 2022. As part of the economic war against Russia, Western partners abandoned Northern Sea energy projects. At first, traffic fell off a cliff, but it has since rebounded and now looks set to grow exponentially into the future with both Beijing and Moscow being the biggest winners. According to Silk Road Briefing, “a central hub for building large-capacity offshore structures to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG) on a very large scale is underway based in Murmansk. Russia is active in boosting the production of sea-borne super-cooled gas as its pipeline gas exports to Europe, once a key source of revenue for Moscow, have plummeted amid the Western sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine. Those resources are now being directed East, where consumer demand is far greater.”

    And yet the RAND authors propose the US keep up the very policies that are driving Moscow and Beijing together in a bid to drive a wedge between them.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 21:45

  • Former F-18 Pilot Tells Joe Rogan Drones Aren't WMD 'Sniffers' As Dronegate Intensifies
    Former F-18 Pilot Tells Joe Rogan Drones Aren’t WMD ‘Sniffers’ As Dronegate Intensifies

    Former US Navy Lt. and F/A-18F pilot Ryan Graves appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast to start the week, dismissing rumors that drone sightings in the New Jersey-New York skies were “sniffers” searching for radioactive devices. Still, he described the situation as “dangerous and scary” as the mystery surrounding drone sightings fuels suspense among the public. 

    Graves told Rogan he spoke with high-level individuals who work on teams surrounding weapons of mass destruction. He asked them: “What’s the sense here?” 

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    Graves summarized his conversations with those government officials, stating that WMDs “are not the case—that there is no loose nuke or WMD that these objects, whatever they are, are pursuing right now.”

    “I have a high confidence level that this is not a response to a massive imminent WMD threat on the Eastern Seaboard,” the former pilot said, adding, “Although this is a dangerous and scary situation right now – from at least that particular angle – that’s not the indications I’m receiving.” 

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    On Monday, we coined the situation “dronegate” after President-elect Donald Trump told reporters from his Mar-a-Lago Club in South Florida… 

    “The gov’t knows what is happening … look … our military knows where they took off from … and for some reason, they don’t want to comment. And I think they would better off commenting on what it is … our military knows and our president knows … and for some reason they want to keep people in suspense,” Trump told reporters. 

    Trump said, “I can’t imagine it was the enemy because if it was the enemy, we would blast it. Something strange is going on and for some reason they don’t want to tell the people.” 

    “I decided to cancel my trip to Bedminster (Trump National Golf Club Bedminster),” he said. 

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    Certainly, the plot is thickening by the day as drongate becomes a major headache for the federal government, leaving the American people in a state of panic just before Christmas. 

    On Saturday, we explained one theory of how the purported drone sightings could be psyop to manipulate lawmakers into passing the new H.R.8610 (Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act of 2024), which will include appropriations and enhanced government counter-drone powers. 

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    Oddly, Trump canceled his trip this weekend to his beloved Bedminster golf course, a decision that, in itself, suggests the possibility of an ongoing national security threat. Remember, Trump reads national security briefings… 

    One question we have is what motivated – actually – who motivated Graves to go on Rogan’s podcast? 

    Recall the former pilot said he has a number of government contacts after his work of testifying in a 2023 House hearing about Unidentified Aerial Phenomenons. 

    Does he have contacts at US Special Operations Command, the FBI, or other agencies that oversee WMD threats?

    The lack of disclosure by the feds is quickly damaging public trust. It’s time for the feds to come clean about what’s really happening… 

    If we had to speculate – it’s entirely possible this could be a manufactured crisis/psyop designed to advance H.R. 8610…

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    This is dronegate.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 21:20

  • How The West Rebranded Al-Qaeda's Jolani
    How The West Rebranded Al-Qaeda’s Jolani

    Authored by Alan Macleod via ConsortiumNews.com,

    Corporate media is heralding the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the emergence of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani as the new leader of Syria, despite his deep ties to both Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

    “How Syria’s ‘diversity-friendly’ jihadists plan on building a state,” runs the headline from an article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph that suggests that Jolani will construct a new Syria, respectful of minority rights. The same newspaper also labeled him a “moderate Jihadist.” The Washington Post described him as a pragmatic and charismatic leader, while CNN portrayed him as a “blazer-wearing revolutionary.”

    Meanwhile, an in-depth portrait from Rolling Stone describes him as a “ruthlessly pragmatic, astute politician who has renounced ‘global jihad’” and intends to “unite Syria.” His “strategic acumen is apparent,” writes Rolling Stone, between paragraphs praising Jolani for leading a successful movement against a dictator.

    CNN even scored an exclusive, sit-down interview with Jolani, even as his movement was storming Damascus. When asked by host Jomana Karadsheh about his past actions, he responded by saying, “I believe that everyone in life goes through phases and experiences … As you grow, you learn, and you continue to learn until the very last day of your life,” as if he were discussing embarrassing teenage mistakes, not establishing and leading the Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s franchise in Syria.

    This is a far cry from the first time CNN covered Jolani. In 2013, the network labeled him one of “the world’s 10 most dangerous terrorists,” known for abducting, torturing and slaughtering racial and religious minorities.

    Still on the U.S. terrorist list today, the F.B.I. is offering a $10 million reward for information about his whereabouts. Washington and other Western governments consider Jolani’s new organization, Hay?at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as one and the same as Al-Qaeda/Al-Nusra.

    This poses a serious public relations dilemma for Western nations, who supported the HTS-led overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad. And thus, Politico and others report there is a “huge scramble” in Washington to remove HTS and Jolani from the terrorist list as quickly as possible.

    The Making of a Radical

    Jolani has sought to distance himself from his past and present himself as a moderating force that can attempt to unite an intensely divided Syria. While he has, in recent years, displayed a willingness to compromise with other forces and factions, it is far from clear whether the tens of thousands of soldiers he commands — units made up primarily of former fighters from al-Qaeda/al-Nusra and ISIS — will be in a charitable mood once they cement their power.

    “Syria is being purified,” he told a crowd in Damascus on Dec. 8. “This victory is born from the people who have languished in prison, and the fighters broke their chains,” he added.

    Jolani — whose real name is Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a — was born in 1982 in Saudi Arabia to parents who fled the Golan Heights area of Syria after the 1967 Israeli invasion. In 2003, he went to Iraq to fight against American forces. After three years of war, he was captured by the U.S. military and spent over five years in prison, including a stint at the notorious Abu Ghraib torture center.

    Mugshot of al-Julani in 2006, after his capture by U.S. forces in Iraq. (DoD, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

    While in Iraq, Jolani fought with ISIS and was even a deputy to its founder. Immediately upon release in 2011, ISIS sent him to Syria with a rumored $1 billion to found the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda and participate in the armed protest movement against Assad that arose out of the Arab Spring.

    Realizing the extremely poor reputation al-Qaeda had in the region and across the world, Jolani attempted to rebrand his forces, officially shuttering the al-Nusra Front in January 2017 and, on the same day, founding HTS. He claimed that HTS preaches a very different ideology and that it will respect Syrian diversity. Not everyone is convinced of this, least of all the British government, who immediately proscribed HTS, describing it as merely an alias of Al-Qaeda.

    “Al-Qaeda/ISIS man didn’t ‘reinvent himself.’ He had the whole propaganda and intelligence apparatus of the ‘West,’ including the BBC, doing it for him,” remarked co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah.

    New Government Likes Israel, Hates Hezbollah

    The name “al-Jolani” translates to “From the Golan Heights.” And yet, the leader appears distinctly unconcerned with the Israeli invasion of his homeland. The IDF has taken much of southern Syria, including the strategic Mount Hermon, overlooking Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that this is part of a permanent operation. “The Golan Heights…will forever be an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” he proclaimed.

    Jolani has already said that he has no intention of confronting Israel. “Syria is not ready for war and does not intend to go into another war. The source of concern was the Iranian militias, and Hezbollah, and the danger has passed,” he said — a strange thing to say while Israel is carrying out the largest Air Force operation in its history, pounding military targets all over Syria. Other HTS spokespersons have also categorically refused to comment on Israel’s attack on the country, even when pressed by incredulous Western journalists.

    Jolani’s comments, singling out two Shia forces rather than Israel as enemies of the state, will have many concerned that this could signal a return to the process of Shia slaughter ISIS waged over much of Syria and Iraq. In 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 383-0 to classify this process as a genocide.

    Fortunately, the new government will likely be a coalition of disparate and moderating forces. However, these groups seem to share a common thread: they all appear to be pro-Israel. A commander of the secular Free Syrian Army, for example, recently gave an interview to The Times of Israel, where he looked forward to a new era of “friendship” and “harmony” with its neighbor to the south. “We will go for full peace with Israel… Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, we have never made any critical comments against Israel, unlike Hezbollah, who stated they aim to liberate Jerusalem and the Golan Heights,” he said.

    The commander added that “Israel will plant a rose in the Syrian garden” and asked for the country’s financial support in forming a new government.

    Israeli soldiers from the Shaldag Unit on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon earlier this month. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

    Other anti-Assad forces have gone even further, with one individual stating that Israel

    “Isn’t hostile to those who are not hostile toward it. We don’t hate you, we love you very much…we were quite happy when you attacked Hezbollah, really happy, and we’re glad that you won.”

    Statements like these might surprise a casual observer. But the reality is that Israel has been funding, training and arming much of the Syrian opposition since its inception. This includes Al-Qaeda, whose wounded fighters are treated by Israel.

    And while radical Islamist forces appeared to be enemies with everyone, the one group they fastidiously avoided any confrontation with was Israel. Indeed, in 2016, ISIS fighters accidentally fired upon an Israeli position in the Golan Heights, thinking they were Syrian government forces, then quickly issued an apology for doing so.

    From the Golan Heights, the year-long Israeli campaign against Hezbollah and Syrian Army positions also seriously weakened both forces, aiding the opposition in their victory.

    Al-Qaeda & US — Complicated Relationship

    While both journalists and politicians in the U.S. are scrambling to change their opinions on Jolani and HTS, the reality is that, for much of its existence, Washington has enjoyed a very close relationship with al-Qaeda.

    Mujahideen in Kunar, Afghanistan, Jan. 1, 1987. (erwinlux, Flickr, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)

    The organization was born in Afghanistan in the 1980s, thanks in no small part to the C.I.A. Between 1979 and 1992, the C.I.A. spent billions of dollars funding, arming, and training Afghan Mujahideen militiamen (like Osama bin Laden) in an attempt to bleed the Soviet occupation dry. It was from the ranks of the Mujahideen that bin Laden built his organization.

    During the 1990s, bin Laden’s relationship with the U.S. soured, and it eventually became a principal target for al-Qaeda, culminating in the infamous Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

    The Bush administration would use these attacks as a pretext to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq, claiming that America could never be safe if al-Qaeda were not thoroughly destroyed. Bin Laden became perhaps the most notorious individual in the world, and American society was turned upside down in a self-described effort to rout Islamic extremism.

    And yet, by the 2010s, even as the U.S. was ostensibly at war with al-Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was secretly working with it in Syria on a plan to overthrow Assad. The C.I.A. spent around $1 billion per year training and arming a wide network of rebel groups to this end. As Jake Sullivan, now the U.S. national security adviser, told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a leaked 2012 email, “AQ [al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.”

    Jake Sullivan, second from left, as deputy chief of staff to the secretary of state, with his boss Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, November 2012. (White House, Pete Souza)

    Thus, while many casual observers may be shocked to see the media and political class embrace the leader of al-Qaeda in Syria as a modern, progressive champion, the reality is that the U.S. relationship with the group is merely reverting to a position it has previously held. Consequently, it appears that the War on Terror will come to an end with the “terrorists” being redesignated as “moderate rebels” and “freedom fighters.”

    Who Gets to Define ‘Terrorist?’

    Of course, many have argued that the U.S. Terrorist List is entirely arbitrary to begin with and is merely a barometer of who is in Washington’s good books at any given time. In 2020, the Trump administration removed Sudan from its state sponsors of terror list in exchange for the country normalizing relations with Israel, proving how transactional the list was.

    A few months later, it removed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (a Uyghur militia currently active in Syria) from its list because of its hardening attitude towards China, seeing ETIM as a useful pawn to play against Beijing.

    Washington also continues to keep Cuba on its terror list despite there being no evidence of the island supporting terror groups.

    And the U.S. refused to remove Nelson Mandela from its list of the world’s most notorious terrorists until 2008 — 14 years after he became President of South Africa. In comparison, Jolani’s redesignation might take fewer than 14 days.

    A giant rebranding operation is taking place. Both corporate media and the U.S. government have attempted to transform the founder and head of an al-Qaeda affiliate organization into a woke, progressive actor. It remains to be seen how exactly Jolani will govern and whether he can maintain support from a wide range of Syrian groups. Given what we have seen so far, however, he can be confident of enjoying strong support from the Western press.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 20:55

  • The Danger Of White Knight Pardons: Biden Could Fundamentally Change Presidential Power
    The Danger Of White Knight Pardons: Biden Could Fundamentally Change Presidential Power

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Below is my column in the New York Post on the news reports that President Joe Biden is seriously considering preemptive pardons for political allies. In granting what I have called “White Knight pardons,” Biden would achieve more of a political than legal purpose. Democrats are worried about the collapsing narrative that President-elect Donald Trump will destroy democracy,  end future elections, and conduct sweeping arrests of everyone from journalists to homosexuals. That narrative, of course, ignores that we have a constitutional system of overlapping protections that has blocked such abuses for over two centuries. Ironically, preemptive pardons would do precisely what Biden suggests that he is deterring: create a dangerous immunity for presidents and their allies in committing criminal abuses.

    Here is the column:

    There are growing indications that President Joe Biden is about to fundamentally change the use of presidential pardons by granting “prospective” or “preemptive” pardons to political allies.

    Despite repeated denials of President-elect Donald Trump that he is seeking retaliation against opponents and his statements that he wants “success [to be] my revenge,” Democratic politicians and pundits have called for up to thousands of such pardons.

    While there is little threat of any viable prosecution of figures like the members of the January 6th Committee, the use of “White Knight pardons” offers obvious political benefits. After many liberals predicted the imminent collapse of democracy and that opponents would be rounded up in mass by the Trump Administration, they are now contemplating the nightmare that democracy might survive and that there will be no mass arrests.

    The next best thing to a convenient collapse of democracy is a claim that Biden’s series of preemptive pardons averted it. It is enough to preserve the narrative in the face of a stable constitutional system . Indeed, Biden’s pardon list has replaced the usual Inauguration Ball lists as the “must-have” item this year. Pardon envy is sweeping over the Beltway as politicians and pundits push to be included on the list of presumptive Trump enemies.

    The political stunt will come at a cost. Preemptive pardons could become the norm as presidents pardon whole categories of allies and even themselves to foreclose federal prosecutions. It can quickly become the norm in what I recently wrote about as our “age of rage.”

    It will give presidents cover to wipe away any threat of prosecution for friends, donors, and associates. This can include self-pardons issued as implied condemnations of their political opponents. It could easily become the final act of every president to pardon himself and all of the members of his Administration. We would then have an effective immunity rule for outgoing parties in American politics.

    Ironically, there is even less need for such preemptive pardons after the Supreme Court recognized that presidents are immune for many decisions made during their presidencies. Likewise, members have robust constitutional protections for their work under Article I, as do journalists and pundits under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

    We have gone over two centuries without such blanket immunity. In my book The Indispensable Right, I discuss our periods of violent political strife and widespread arrests. Thomas Jefferson referred to John Adams’s Federalist government as “the reign of the witches.” Yet, even presidents in those poisonous times did not do what Joe Biden is now contemplating.

    Moreover, presidential pardons have a checkered history, including presidents pardoning family members or political donors. Bill Clinton did both. Not surprisingly, Clinton last week attempted to add his own wife’s name to the sought-after Biden pardon list. He added, however, “I don’t think I should be giving public advice on the pardon power…It’s a very personal thing.”

    That is precisely the point. The power was not created to be used for “very personal things,” like pardoning your half-brother and a fugitive Democratic donor on your last day in office.

    Yet, despite that history, no president has seen fit to go as far as where Biden appears to be heading.

    We have a constitutional system that allows for overlapping protections of individuals from abusive prosecutions and convictions. It does not always work as fast as we would want, but it has sustained the oldest and most stable constitutional system in history.

    These figures would prefer to fundamentally change the use of the pardon power to maintain an apocalyptic narrative that was clearly rejected by the public in this election. If you cannot prove the existence of the widely touted Trump enemies list, a Biden pardon list is the next best thing.

    After years of lying to the American people about the influence-peddling scandal and promising not to consider a pardon for his son, Biden would end his legacy with the ultimate dishonesty: converting pardons into virtual party favors.

    In doing so, he has ironically lowered the standard and expectations for his successors. Joe Biden has become the president that Richard Nixon only imagined. He would establish with utter clarity that this power is not presidential, but personal and political . . . and many in the Beltway are waiting to give him a standing ovation.

    *  *  *

    Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 20:05

  • Russia Says Ukraine Allies Are 'Accomplices' In Moscow Assassination Of A Top General
    Russia Says Ukraine Allies Are ‘Accomplices’ In Moscow Assassination Of A Top General

    Update(1405): Russia has blasted the West for staying quiet after Ukraine openly boasted of assassinating a top Russian general earlier in the day, identified as Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who was killed when a scooter bomb detonated remotely upon his leaving his apartment in the early morning hours:

    Russia on Tuesday criticised Ukraine’s allies over what it called insufficient reactions to the assassination in Moscow of the Russian army’s chemical weapons chief, an attack claimed by Kyiv.

    Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the West in a Telegram post of “approval for war crimes by fighters of the Kyiv regime” and said “all those who welcome terrorist attacks or deliberately hush them up are accomplices“.

    This also brings up questions of past reports exposing a CIA program to train and assist Ukraine’s special forces and intelligence in sabotage and cross-border targeting…

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    American media consumers might have a short memory span, but the Russians sure don’t. The Kremlin is now calling Ukraine’s NATO backers ‘accomplices’ in a clear escalation of rhetoric.

    President Putin had just this week warned that the West is going ‘beyond’ Russia’s red line in its support to Ukraine, and said things are escalating at a dangerous pace. As for this latest ‘scooter bomb’ assassination, the Kremlin is likely to immediately suspect that CIA and Western intelligence services may have assisted.

    The bomb which was detonated remotely had a large blast radius (see video below) and was clearly a very sophisticated device, given the smallness of what was a literal children’s scooter apparently used in the plot.

    * * *

    In another scary escalation which will lead to unpredictable consequences, a top military general and head of the Russian military’s chemical weapons forces was killed in Moscow in a targeted blast which Ukraine quickly owned up to. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov has been confirmed killed in an assassination bombing, and is the most senior Russian official killed since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.

    According to emerging details confirmed in state TASS news agency, citing Russia’s emergency services, a bomb was hidden in an electric scooter parked outside Gen. Kirillov’s apartment. As he and his assistant walked by, the explosive was remotely detonated. The assistant was also immediately killed. Footage showed a large blast outside the residential building.

    Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, via TASS.

    The 54-year old oversaw Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops – and Kiev and Western sources have accused him of ordering deployment of chemical weapons in the conflict.

    An official Kremlin statement reads: “On the morning of December 17, an explosive device planted in a scooter went off near a residential building entrance on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow, the investigation showed. Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and his aide were killed in the explosion.”

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is openly boasting to being behind the killing and Ukrainian sources have acknowledged this to American media.

    “Kirillov was a war criminal and an entirely legitimate target, as he issued orders to use prohibited chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops,” an SBU source told ABC. “Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable.”

    “By order of Kirillov, more than 4,800 cases of the enemy’s use of chemical munitions have been recorded since the beginning of the full-scale war,” the SBU added, but only cited that grenades equipped with substances like CS and other riot control type irritants have been used.

    Video of the bombing has also been released by the SBU. Clearly the hit was carefully planned an choreographed as the attack seems to have been filmed with a ground view from a nearby vehicle.

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    “The footage shows Gen. Kirillov and his aide exiting a building, with the infamous scooter standing nearby,” an unnamed Ukrainian source has described. “The moment they enter the blast zone of the explosive device, the scooter is blown into the air, delivering a ‘verdict’ to the war criminal.”

    Moscow is vowing that Ukraine will pay dearly, with Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and former president Dmitry Medvedev warning in a fresh statement in the aftermath of Kirillov’s death, “Attempts to intimidate our nation, stop the Russian offensive or sow fear are doomed. Certain punishment awaits Banderite Nazis, including the top military and political leaders of a crumbling country.”

    Medvedev characterized the assassination it as done in desperation given that Kiev forces are steadily being beaten back on the Donbas. Indeed such cross-border acts have only gotten more brazen of late.

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    Medvedev continued: “This terrorist attack demonstrates the agony of the Banderite regime, which is struggling to justify its shaky existence in the eyes of its Western patrons and prolong the deadly hostilities while delivering cowardly attacks on civilians in cities and towns.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 19:55

  • Watch: Syrian 'Moderate Rebel' Removes ISIS Patch At Prompting Of American Journalist
    Watch: Syrian ‘Moderate Rebel’ Removes ISIS Patch At Prompting Of American Journalist

    Video footage has recently emerged taken by journalist James Longman advising ‘rebels’ in Syria that the ISIS logo on their uniforms will be misunderstood by Western audiences. Longman, who is ABC News’ Chief International Correspondent, demonstrates a trend of American journalists going to war zones to essentially coach combatants on how to better present themselves to the outside world. Mainstream media has for many years pushed the myth of “moderate rebels” in Syria seeking to topple Assad, which they finally did this month.

    One of the militants, who might be a member of the US-designated terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or possibly another hardline Islamist faction, attempts to claim to the US journalist that the emblem does not represent ISIS. Still, the man wearing the ISIS patch seems to take the hint and dutifully removes it for the camera. They swear to ABC’s Longman that they are not Daesh (or ISIS), even while openly sporting its symbols.

    Having examined the disturbing video, Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada – who speaks Arabic – has issued the following reaction: “I’ve seen this video circulating today, along with the claim that James Longman told the fighter to remove the ISIS patch. He does not do that in this video clip. But it’s not much of a ‘confrontation’ either. And however Longman intended it, the fighters appear to interpret his comments as friendly advice on how to present themselves and in fact remove the patch. Understandable that this is reminding people of how Western media colluded in the rebranding of the Azov Battallion in Ukraine that they had been accurately describing as hardcore Nazis just months earlier.” Watch:

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    And below is a version of the video with English translation captions added:

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    Meanwhile, for a trip down memory lane in another raging conflict zone, a highly revealing and deeply ironic June 2023 NY Times story…

    Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 19:40

  • New Study Illustrates Coffee's Unique Influence On Your Gut
    New Study Illustrates Coffee’s Unique Influence On Your Gut

    Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Coffee drinkers consistently harbor up to eight times more of a specific gut bacterium than nondrinkers, according to recent research.

    Photo Smoothies/Shutterstock

    The international study, which tracked the drinking habits of nearly 77,200 people across 25 countries, found that coffee consumption leaves a distinct microbial signature. Researchers can identify coffee drinkers with 95 percent accuracy by examining their gut bacteria alone.

    How Your Brew Affects Gut Microbiome

    A 2021 study established that coffee had the strongest correlation with microbiome composition among over 150 studied foods, notably affecting levels of Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus in approximately 1,000 people.

    The latest study by researchers from the CIBIO Department at the University of Trento in Italy and Harvard University, published in Nature Microbiology in November, aimed to deepen understanding of how coffee affects gut health.

    To achieve this, researchers analyzed diet and medical data from nearly 23,000 people in the United States and UK, along with publicly available data from almost 54,200 people worldwide. They compared stool samples from coffee drinkers and nondrinkers to identify differences in their gut bacteria composition.

    The study found a strong association between coffee consumption and the levels of L. ​asaccharolyticus, with coffee drinkers exhibiting about five to eight times higher levels of this bacterium than nondrinkers.​

    This trend was globally consistent, revealing that in coffee-consuming regions such as Luxembourg, Denmark, and Sweden, L. asaccharolyticus is prevalent. Contrastingly, it is nearly absent in countries like China, Argentina, and India.

    The findings offer insights into how individual foods interact with our microbiomes and their potential effects on health.

    The research team demonstrated that individual microbiome profiles could predict coffee consumption with 95 percent accuracy. A lab experiment confirmed that its growth rate increases when L. asaccharolyticus is grown in an in vitro environment with coffee. Further observations indicated that people who drank a lot of coffee exhibited a greater abundance of this bacterium.

    Despite these findings, the role of L. asaccharolyticus in human health remains uncertain. Its presence in the gut microbiome correlates with increased levels of hippurate, a marker of metabolic and gut health produced by gut microbes that metabolize plant compounds called polyphenols found in coffee.

    “We do not have conclusive evidence regarding Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus as a beneficial or detrimental bacterium,” Nicola Segata, professor of genetics and head of the Computational Metagenomics Laboratory at CIBIO, told The Epoch Times. He noted that the research team is conducting specific additional experiments to better address this question.

    Future of Microbiome Testing

    The research team aims to expand their inquiry into the effects of other foods on gut microbiota, although they recognize the challenges of accurately quantifying food intake.

    These findings suggest a potential for using individual foods to increase the abundance or prevalence of specific gut microbes that are supposed to have beneficial effects, according to Segata. “To achieve this, we need to expand this work to many other foods and other microbes, and this is exactly what we are also working on right now,” he said.

    The researchers envision a future where microbiome testing can enable personalized dietary recommendations tailored to the presence of specific bacteria associated with certain foods. This approach has the potential to help people optimize their diets for better health by considering the intricate relationships between our food intake and microbiome composition.

    “When looking at a food like coffee that is easy to collect information for, and that it is consumed either very frequently or never, then these links are popping out as very strong and very clear,” Segata said.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 19:15

  • World's Smallest Violin Plays As "Depressed" Biden Bureaucrats Can't Find New Jobs
    World’s Smallest Violin Plays As “Depressed” Biden Bureaucrats Can’t Find New Jobs

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    This is a corker.

    Politico is reporting that Biden Administration bureaucrats are depressed because they can’t find new jobs, and members of Biden’s “national security team” are “frantically” scrambling to find new careers before Trump dismantles the deep state.

    “Our side is just battling depression while we update our resumes,” one White House official stated, while another staffer declared that “Everyone is willing to take a demotion because there aren’t enough jobs.”

    Boo hoo. Cry harder.

    While the higher ups are all abandoning ship for Defence contractors, think tanks and consulting firms, the lower level dogsbody bureaucrats are whinging that they face taking “unglamorous jobs” with pay cuts.

    “There’s a lot of good career people here who went through the first Trump administration and are saying, ‘Can I really go through that again?’” said one Biden appointee at the State Department.

    Oh my God, the hardship of having someone you don’t agree with running things.

    “It’s going to be very saturated and crowded and so beggars can’t be choosers, I guess,” said another Biden State Department appointee, adding “The crazy thing is none of these jobs we’re desperate to get are particularly glamorous, unless you want to go lobby for some autocratic foreign governments.”

    The world’s tiniest violin is playing for them.

    Politico notes that “Wherever they land, a wave of Democratic national security and foreign policy staffers will continue the tradition of patiently treading water for four years until, just maybe, a Democrat can win the presidency again in 2028.”

    Yeah. Maybe learn to tread water a lot longer.

    Or perhaps learn to code.

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    Welcome to the real world, losers.

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    Get to the back of the line.

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    Trump is going to provide a lot of opportunities for you.

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    Maybe just don’t mention your last job on your resumé.

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    *  *  *

    Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 18:25

  • Trump Team Begins Back-Channel Talks With Mexico, El Salvador On Deportation Plans
    Trump Team Begins Back-Channel Talks With Mexico, El Salvador On Deportation Plans

    President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has begun reaching out through back channels to the governments of Mexico and El Salvador to prepare for his mass deportation plan, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The conversations, which involve Trump advisers and informal intermediaries, are part of an effort to lay the groundwork for returning millions of undocumented immigrants as soon as Trump takes office.

    While Trump has addressed migration broadly with Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, his team has held more detailed discussions through intermediaries, including businesspeople, to ensure deportation plans can proceed swiftly, the people said on condition of anonymity.

    “We’re already talking,” said Tom Homan, Trump’s designated “border czar,” during a November visit to Texas alongside Governor Greg Abbott. “We’re already planning. We’re going to put a plan in place and secure this nation at the highest levels ever seen.“

    The Challenge of Deportations

    Trump’s deportation push—aiming to target millions of undocumented immigrants, including over 1 million with final orders of removal—relies heavily on the cooperation of other countries. While Mexico and El Salvador have longstanding repatriation processes, Trump’s advisers acknowledge that reaching agreements with other governments, such as Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and China, will be far more challenging.

    “Unless they can strike a deal with the governments of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua on deportations, it seems likely they will look for alternate destinations,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank. “That’s a really hard ask. If the Trump administration arrives just with a stick and no carrot, it’s going to be a tough negotiation.”

    Trump addressed this difficulty Monday when asked about countries like Venezuela resisting deportation flights.

    “They’ll take them back,” Trump said. “They’re all taking them back, yeah. And if they don’t, they’ll be met very harshly economically.”

    Trump advisers involved in the outreach include incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, according to sources. Homan, while focused on domestic enforcement, has supported these efforts to build deportation infrastructure ahead of Trump’s January 20 inauguration.

    Negotiations after Trump takes office are expected to be led by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, and Christopher Landau, Trump’s former ambassador to Mexico who has been tapped as Rubio’s deputy.

    The conversations with Mexico have included preparations for deporting Mexican nationals, but the Mexican government has been clear it won’t accept deportees from other countries. “Mexico’s Sheinbaum has said the nation is ready to welcome back its own citizens,” said a senior Mexican official, “but it won’t accept those from other countries.”

    El Salvador presents a different dynamic. Trump’s family maintains a close relationship with President Nayib Bukele, whose administration has remained friendly with Trump allies. Donald Trump Jr. attended Bukele’s second inauguration in June, and Trump’s ambassador nominee for Mexico, Ronald Johnson, has kept in close contact with Bukele since serving as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador.

    Focus on Immediate Enforcement

    Trump’s deportation strategy will begin with targeting individuals already facing deportation orders. “The priority will be those with no legal basis to stay,” said a person familiar with the plans, pointing to undocumented immigrants who have either committed crimes or exhausted their appeals and asylum processes.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not responded to requests for updated figures, but Migration Policy Institute data shows that Mexico has received more than 1.7 million deportees over the past decade—more than the next nine countries combined.

    Homan and Trump’s advisers argue that aggressive early action will set the tone for enforcement. “The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s transition spokeswoman, said in a statement. “When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that.”

    While Trump’s relationships with Mexico and El Salvador remain relatively stable, cooperation from other nations remains uncertain. Trump’s transition team recognizes that countries like Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, which are often the origin points for migrants, have fraught diplomatic relations with the U.S. These nations rarely accept deportation flights, posing a major obstacle to Trump’s mass deportation plan.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 18:00

  • Congress Unveils Short-Term Funding Bill To Avoid End-Of-Year Government Shutdown
    Congress Unveils Short-Term Funding Bill To Avoid End-Of-Year Government Shutdown

    Update (1900ET): House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Dec. 17 unveiled a bipartisan bill that would keep the government funded until March 14, punting the issue of permanent funding to the incoming 119th Congress in the early days of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.

    This bill is known as a continuing resolution, or CR.

    As Joseph Lord reports for The Epoch Times, aside from extending the deadline to mid-March, the proposed CR—coming in at 1,547 pages—includes disaster relief in the aftermath of hurricanes in the South, environmental provisions, the Second Chance Reauthorization Act, veterans’ measures, foreign affairs-related legislation, and the Hotel Fees Transparency Act.

    The CR also includes restrictions on investments in China and a one-year extension of the farm bill that consists of various initiatives, including food nutrition programs in schools, crop insurance, and disaster assistance. It usually gets extended for five years.

    While the bill usually gets bipartisan support, a point of contention surrounding it is the GOP’s desire to strengthen requirements for recipients of food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Democrats oppose making changes.

    The CR includes a measure to transfer control of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to the District of Columbia from the federal government as the site could be the new home of the NFL’s Washington Commanders.

    The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House in February but has been stuck in the Senate amid objections from Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

    Despite a House rule requiring 72 hours for lawmakers to read legislation, it’s expected that the CR could see a vote on the floor as early as Wednesday, defusing the threat of a government shutdown that would otherwise begin on Friday, Dec. 20.

    Congress was supposed to enact 12 full-year appropriations bills by Sept. 30, which would fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2025. However, as has happened every year since 1997, Congress failed to pass them in time and, therefore, enacted a continuing resolution (CR).

    The current version will temporarily keep the government funded at prorated levels set for Fiscal Year 2024. The last CR was signed into law on Sept. 26 and authorized funding until Dec. 20.

    With that deadline now fast approaching, Congress will need to move quickly to avoid a shutdown.

    For some Republicans, the added content in the CR makes it look more like the long-despised end-of-year “omnibus” spending bill, which has historically wrapped all government funding into one large, single package.

    “The CR is looking more and more like an omnibus in the sense that we don’t know what’s in it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters on Dec. 16. “They need to saddle up and ride and get this thing put together and keep it to the bare minimum, in my opinion.”

    Kennedy indicated he would be a “no” vote on the legislation.

    Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who veers toward the right flank of the House GOP conference, was also critical.

    “Another CR will be dropped on our desks compliments of the DC Sewer Uniparty. This is not what America voted for,” Burchett said in a post on X prior to the release of the CR.

    Ultimately, its fate will come down to how Democrats cast their ballot: historically, CR bills have won substantially more support from Democrats than Republicans.

    However, Democratic leaders—including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)—will likely take time to review the legislation before making a commitment either way.

    Due to the long congressional recess in the final weeks leading up to the 2024 election—including all of October—it was considered unlikely that Congress would have time to pass the 12 required appropriations bills prior to the Dec. 20 deadline.

    Many Republicans in Congress told The Epoch Times in September that they wanted to delay the question of appropriations to the 119th Congress—expecting that Republicans would control Congress and the White House, and that this would enable passage of more fiscally conservative spending bills.

    Those electoral aims have been fulfilled; Republicans will hold a three-seat majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives in the 119th Congress, along with control of the executive branch through the incoming Trump administration.

    Restarting the whole appropriations process will not require exhaustive committee work, as was done before September when House Republicans attempted to pass several of the 12 appropriations bills.

    It remains to be seen how the Trump administration will influence the passage of permanent spending bills in March, which—if highly partisan—will likely not receive enough Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

    The Trump administration has proposed using the budget reconciliation process, a limited method of overcoming the filibuster, to enact other policy priorities. This mechanism can be used to pass legislation related to taxing, spending, and the debt.

    Additionally, its chartering of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) initiative, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, could influence the composition of the bills.

    *  *  *

    With less than four days to avoid a government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-LA), and congressional leaders are working to finalize a bipartisan short-term funding bill, though delays and mounting frustrations within the House Republican caucus are complicating the effort.

    Johnson, who initially expected to release the text of the bill over the weekend, then on Monday, said Tuesday that it would be unveiled by the end of the day.

    “We’re almost there,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday following a press conference. “We do expect text today.”

    The proposed legislation would keep the government funded through March 14 while addressing specific priorities, including disaster relief and $10 billion in assistance to farmers. Johnson emphasized that he intends to honor the House’s 72-hour rule, which requires time for lawmakers to review the bill before a vote. However, this would push the process close to the Friday midnight deadline for avoiding a shutdown.

    Johnson said he remains focused on securing broad Republican support for the measure – which we’re sure will contain more pork than a barbecue pit.

    Senate Leaders Echo Urgency

    In the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-NY), struck a cautiously optimistic tone but stressed the need to finalize the agreement quickly.

    “There continues to be good progress, but appropriators are still working on finalizing an agreement,” Schumer said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “Obviously, we’re getting closer to the December 20 deadline, so time is of the essence for Republicans to reach an agreement with us that we can act on quickly.”

    Both chambers of Congress are facing pressure to wrap up funding negotiations before they adjourn for the Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year holidays.

    Frustration Grows Among House Conservatives

    While negotiations continue, conservative House Republicans are growing increasingly critical of Johnson’s handling of the bill and its timeline.

    “This is not the way to do things,” Rep. Chip Roy, (R-TX), said in a post on X.

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    Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., delivered a scathing critique, calling the emerging legislation “a total dumpster fire” and expressing deep disappointment in Johnson’s leadership.

    “I think it’s garbage,” Burlison told reporters. “This is why I ran for Congress, to try to stop this. And sadly, this is happening again… I’m disappointed. I think that he can do better. He can communicate better. The fact that we haven’t seen the language today and we’re supposed to vote on it this week is unacceptable.”

    When asked if the situation makes him hesitant to support Johnson in the upcoming January 3rd vote for House speaker, Burlison deflected, saying, “That I won’t say.”

    Johnson, however, brushed aside concerns about his leadership.

    “I’m not worried about the speaker vote,” Johnson told reporters. “We’re governing. Everybody knows we have difficult circumstances. We’re doing the very best we can under those circumstances.“

    Leadership Focused on Farmers, Disaster Relief

    House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, (R-LA), offered support for Johnson’s efforts, underscoring the bill’s priorities while projecting optimism about the path forward.

    “We plan to pass a bill to get the government funded,” Scalise said, “and ensure that we take care of disasters and our farmers here in America.”

    Looking ahead, Scalise emphasized the urgency of finishing the week’s work while expressing hopes for a smoother 2024.

    “We have a lot to do the rest of this week, but we all look forward to getting back home to our families and enjoying a great Christmas as we get ready for what will be a very busy and productive New Year,” Scalise said, standing alongside Johnson.

    Stay tuned for updates…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 17:50

  • US Conducts New Strikes In Syria & Yemen, Still With No Congressional Authorization
    US Conducts New Strikes In Syria & Yemen, Still With No Congressional Authorization

    Congress has not authorized war, and yet the United States on Monday bombed two countries: Yemen and Syria. US Central Command (CENTCOM) earlier confirmed an airstrike on a military facility of the Houthis in northern Yemen.

    A Houthi defense ministry building in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa was reportedly among those targets which came under attack by US warplanes. “On Dec. 16 Yemen time, US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted a precision airstrike against a key command and control facility operated by Iran-backed Houthis within Houthi-controlled territory in Sana’a, Yemen,” CENTCOM said in a fresh statement.

    Via Reuters

    Separately, CENTCOM said Monday that American forces bombed ISIS camps in Syria, killing at least 12 Islamic State fighters. 

    The Pentagon said further that the strikes “were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS, preventing the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek opportunities to reconstitute in central Syria.”

    So now it appears the Pentagon is in a renewed fight against both the ‘Iran axis’ in Yemen and hardline Sunni terrorists in the heart of Syria. 

    Interestingly the Syria strikes were in areas previously understood as the Russian military’s area of responsibility, as well as the now defunct Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. 

    The US designated terror organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in its prior iteration was as an al-Qaeda offshoot, was once an open ally of ISIS, and is now in control of Damascus and major Syrian cities. 

    Turkey and Israel have also been involved in bombing Syria, but Israel has focused its literally hundreds of strikes on degrading and destroying leftover Syrian Army missiles, planes, equipment, and bunkers.

    At this moment, the Pentagon also has at least 900 troops occupying the northeast Syrian oil and gas fields, but the Syrian Kurds it supports have increasingly been clashing with Turkish-aligned forces, and directly with the Turkish army, which is still mustering forces along the northern Syrian border. 

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    AntiWar.com’s Dave DeCamp approached Biden administration officials to ask about the pesky question of Congressional authorization to bomb foreign militants in no less than two conflict theatres. 

    The response was as follows: “Biden and Harris told me the US wasn’t at war but today they bombed Syria and Yemen,” DeCamp wrote on X.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 17:40

  • An Open Letter To Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
    An Open Letter To Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

    Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

    Dear Mr. Kennedy,

    Of the many issues you will tackle as Secretary of Health and Human Services, we implore you to work with FCC Commissioner Brenden Carr and immediately put an end to pharmaceutical companies advertising prescription drugs on television. This should be one of your earliest moves in the Trump administration. Why is this so timely?

    The sheer amount of dollars being spent on TV advertising by “Big Pharma” should raise suspicion among those who care about accuracy in media and information being consumed by the public.

    It is an old trick for an industry to buy off the news media for favorable coverage.

    Historic Precedent to Ban Unhealthy Ads on Television

    When evidence of the dangers of smoking cigarettes began to emerge in the 1950s, news organizations were reluctant to expose “Big Tobacco” because it was responsible for an abundance of media ad revenue. The same synergistic relationship exists today with “Big Pharma” and television news.

    Similarly, as Big Tobacco began buying off the TV news more than 70 years ago, Big Pharma is doing that today.

    The incessant drumbeat of COVID boosters, RSV injections, and flu shot ads is run alongside news reporters covering up vaccine side effects, including increased cases of myocarditis, anaphylaxis, psychosis, and/or early death.

    Nowhere is this more evident than with Novo Nordisk A/S’s type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic. While this drug may offer benefits to the millions of Americans who suffer from type 2 diabetes (some surveys place the number of Americans afflicted with type 2 diabetes at nearly 10%, with more than 30% considered pre-diabetic), at what cost? If your insurance doesn’t cover Ozempic, your monthly cost will be nearly $1,000. And you will be “hooked” for life.

    Concurrently, what about the shameless promotion of Ozempic as an aid for weight loss? Can you watch a program on the nightly news on one of the alphabet networks or cable news without seeing ads for Ozempic touting its benefits to lose weight?

    And what about the genre of late-night so-called comics like vax-shill Stephen Colbert? The late-night TV category is dying, with Colbert (CBS), Jimmy Fallon (NBC), and Jimmy Kimmel (ABC) suffering historic low ratings. If not propped up by “Big Pharma” ad dollars, will a ban on ads for prescription drugs be the final nail in their coffins? Let’s hope so, as all three ceased being funny years ago.

    The Long-term Cost of the Chemicals in Our Food Chain

    We know you are already on the record as having intentions of outlawing Big Pharma ads for prescription drugs on television. Today, among high-income countries, only the U.S. and New Zealand allow for such advertising. Almost all other countries are fully knowledgeable of the conflict between ad dollars and news reporting.

    The longer this obvious conflict persists, the more the public will be misled and lied to about the real dangers of prescription drugs and the intentions of Big Pharma to buy off the news media to hide these dangers. A ban on this type of advertising will go a long way toward keeping the news media honest—or perhaps putting the worst of them out of the misinformation business altogether.

    Among the many items on your agenda, once you take office, this is probably the easiest of them. Our broadcast news outlets operate under a license from the FCC and are obligated to serve the public interest at all times. Taking money from Big Pharma to cover up or lie about the potential damage the public will suffer through the use of their products cannot be tolerated any longer.

    We both applaud your passion to Make America Healthy Again. Count us in.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 17:20

  • "This Is A Bloodsport For Them" – Lara Logan Exposes "The Age Of Information Warfare"
    “This Is A Bloodsport For Them” – Lara Logan Exposes “The Age Of Information Warfare”

    Lara Logan is a South African-born journalist and war correspondent known for her extensive work in conflict zones. She gained significant recognition while working for CBS News, particularly for her coverage of the Iraq War and the Arab Spring.

    Logan’s career includes notable moments such as her 2002 Peabody Award for her report on the abduction of Daniel Pearl.

    However, her career has also been marked by controversy, including a high-profile assault in Egypt in 2011, and later, scrutiny over her reporting methods and political views as she started to shed light on the ‘not mainstream’ narratives that are the hidden realities of our time.

    She, better than most, can attest to the powers of the Deep State and the weaponization of establishment-based entities in the age of information warfare.

    “We are once again watching the lights of freedom going out all over the world. And it is up to us to determine if they will be lit again, ever.”

    Watch Logan’s impassioned speech below:

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    Full Transcript (emphasis ours)…

    “We live in the age of information warfare, where propaganda is not simply a weapon, it is the entire field of battle. This is a war for our minds that is aided by advanced technology, and we have never been here, not in all of human history.”

    “It is a moment when we as journalists should stand together, united, and regardless of politics, we should fight for the truth and we should fight for freedom. Yet, not very long ago, we allowed one of our own, Tucker Carlson, to be branded as a traitor simply for doing his job. In fact, there were many so-called journalists who were leading the charge against Tucker, accusing him of treason for the simple fact of interviewing the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.”

    “And to my knowledge, there was not a single legacy media institution that spoke up. This was more than a politically motivated attack on one man. It was a betrayal of the most sacred principles of a free press. And my media colleagues know this to be true, no matter what they say. My fear is that they either no longer care or that they lack the moral courage to be honest, including with themselves.”

    “I have worked at the highest levels of the media as a full-time correspondent for 60 Minutes, chief foreign correspondent for CBS News, chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News. That was my home for 16 years. And as a journalist, I have sat down with world leaders, mass murderers, and terrorists. And I have held people on both sides of the aisle accountable. I have seen suffering and I have faced evil and I have walked through the fires of hell on distant battlefields.”

    “I faced my own death at the hands of a mob of some 200 men in Egypt when I was gang raped and sodomized and beaten almost to death while on assignment for 60 minutes. And yet for almost a decade I have been targeted and falsely branded and accused of many things. that I did not do. They have attacked my work, my character, my sanity, and my marriage. And I am not alone. We are many.”

    “And we will not give up, and we will not give in. To those who wish to sense of the idea of free speech in America and all over the world, media companies. Institutions and journalism schools have failed all of us.”

    “And for too long we have allowed nonprofit organizations to masquerade as nonpartisan media watchdogs, when in fact they are little more than highly paid political propagandists and assassins whose entire reason for being is to crush anyone who stands in their way and along with them the long held and cherished ideas of free speech, free thinking, and free minds.”

    “This is a blood sport for them. their political allies and their puppet masters. They know how to kill a journalist without murdering them. We call it cancel culture. In truth, it is a death sentence. And they get away with it because they have information dominance. Some are strong enough to survive, but only a few, like Glenn Greenwald, Tucker Carlson, Matt Taibbi.”

    “Only a few like them are able to reach greater heights and thrive. These nonprofits that I’m talking about are part of a vast censorship network that includes government agencies. They use deception to mask their actions with lofty goals like preventing the spread of misinformation, disinformation, hate speech. They use phrases like protecting democracy and make no mistake, words matter.”

    “The media is collaborating with government agencies and operatives to censor and shape the information battlefield, to justify certain actions. For example, when the President of the United States threatens the unvaccinated, saying, our patience is wearing thin, and accuses them of putting communities at risk, his words are designed to justify hatred, censorship, and intimidation.”

    “And when the Vice President compares January 6th to 9-11 and Pearl Harbor, it is a predicate to silence the opposition and justify the weaponization. of the justice system. We are already witnessing another shaping operation to influence the outcome of the 2024 election. This time with the false claim that if one side wins, it will be the end of democracy.”

    “This lie contrived to ensure a particular outcome and to sabotage free speech yet again. Overseas taxpayer funds from hardworking Americans are being doled out by contractors under the Office of Transition Initiatives at USAID, or the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.”

    “These contractors, many of them ideological zealots, who are not even US government officials, often make over a quarter million dollars a year, and are outside the reach, Senator, of yourself and committees like this. They hand out taxpayer dollars to programs that are shaped by highly partisan NGOs, who hide behind terms like interreligious dialogue, when in fact they are funding Muslim schools that train Islamic terrorists, like they did in Malaysia.”

    “Another example is Humanist International. Through them, the State Department is funding atheism grants that actively cultivate an atheist advocacy network in Nepal. This is not just to attack religion and manipulate foreign politics. It is an attack on free speech, faith, and God. While propaganda and censorship are not new, technology means unprecedented power and reach in the hands of a few.”

    “Companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Google, as you have heard many times today, have been allowed to amass monopoly power. And as a result, they not only reach billions of people across the world, every second of the day, they have absolute control over what we see and what we hear. Imagine those tools in the hands of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler.”

    “When the Founding Fathers put freedom of speech first, it was not by chance, it was by design. The rights that followed were in part created. to protect the First Amendment. Without it, they knew that freedom itself would perish. I am reminded today of the words spoken by the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Gray, in 1914, at the beginning of the First World War.”

    “He said, the lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. We are once again watching the lights of freedom. They’re going out here and all over the world. And it is up to us to determine if they will be lit again, ever.“

    h/t Camus

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 17:00

  • All Three Pillars Holding Up The Economy Have Cracked
    All Three Pillars Holding Up The Economy Have Cracked

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

    All three pillars propping up workforce spending are cracking. Plan accordingly.

    Karl Marx and Henry Ford both understood the key pillar of an industrial economy: the workforce has to earn enough to buy the output of the economy. If the workforce doesn’t earn enough to have surplus earnings to spend on the enormous output of an industrial economy, then the producers cannot sell their goods / services at a profit, except to the few at the top as luxury goods–and that’s not an industrial economy, it’s a feudal economy of very limited scope.

    Marx recognized that capitalism is a self-liquidating system as capital has the power to squeeze wages even as the output of an industrial economy steadily increases due to automation, technology, etc.

    Henry Ford understood that if his own workforce couldn’t afford to buy the cars rolling off the assembly line, then his ambition to sell a car to every household was an unreachable chimera. (There were other factors, of course; the work was so brutal and mind-numbing that Ford had to pay more just to keep workers from quitting.)

    If we say the three pillars holding up the economy, the conventional list is: 1) consumer spending (i.e. aggregate demand); 2) productivity and 3) corporate profits. These are not actually pillars, they are outcomes of the core pillar, wage earners making enough to buy the economy’s output.

    As the statistics often cited here show, the purchasing power of wages has been declining for almost 50 years, since the mid-1970s. This means the workforce’s surplus earnings have bought less and less of the economy’s output.

    There are three ways to fill the widening gap that’s opened between what the workforce has to spend as surplus earnings and the vast output of the economy:

    1. Government distributed money. The government distributes “free money” to the workforce via subsidies, tax cuts and credits, or direct cash disbursements.

    2. Cheap abundant credit. The cost of credit is lowered to near-zero and credit is made available to virtually the entire workforce so workers can borrow money to buy goods and services they cannot afford to buy from surplus earnings. If auto loans are 1.9%, the interest is a trivial sum annually.

    3. Asset bubbles. Boost the value of assets via monetary policies to generate unearned “wealth” that can be spent (by either borrowing against the newfound wealth or by selling assets). This expansion of “free money” also generates the “wealth effect,” the feel-good high of feeling richer, which increases the confidence and desire to spend more money.

    There are intrinsic, unbreachable limits to each of these solutions.

    1. The government either “prints” or borrows the money it distributes to the workforce. Over time, low interest rates are unsustainable, despite claims to the contrary, and the interest paid on the state’s vast borrowing consumes so much of the state’s revenues that it starts limiting how much the government can spend. Once state spending stagnates or declines, this pillar breaks and the economy crumbles into recession / depression.

    In other words, depending on the government to fill the gap between wages and the economy’s output is a self-liquidating system.

    2. The expansion of credit leads to defaults and bankruptcies. Relying on the ceaseless expansion of credit based on the declining purchasing power of wages is also a self-liquidating system, as the number of marginal borrowers steadily increases, as does the volume of marginal loans issued by lenders. Marginal borrowers default, triggering losses that push lenders into bankruptcy. This is a self-reinforcing cycle, as the economy rolls over into recession as credit contracts. More workers lose their jobs and default, more loans become uncollectible, and so on.

    3. Asset bubbles concentrate the newfound wealth in the top 10%, exacerbating wealth-income inequality and pushing those left behind to gamble in an increasingly speculative financial sector as the only available means of getting ahead. Speculation is also a self-liquidating system as risky bets eventually go bad and the losses trigger a self-reinforcing feedback of selling assets to raise cash which then pushes valuations lower, triggering more selling, and so on.

    All three of these pillars propping up the economy are self-liquidating systems, and they’re all buckling. Federal borrowing is pushing up against the limits posed by the interest payments on soaring debt. Credit costs are rising and cannot return to near-zero due to inflationary forces. All asset bubbles eventually pop, and the higher they ascend, the more devastating the collapse.

    Wages’ share of the economy have been in structural decline since 1975:

    Federal debt: and no, we can’t “grow our way out of debt” by inflating asset bubbles and subsidizing consumer spending with federal debt:

    Total debt, public and private: the acme of a self-liquidating system:

    The pillars of consumer credit and federal borrowing are reaching intrinsic breaking points, and so everything is now depending on the asset bubbles in housing and stocks to keep inflating phantom wealth at rates high enough to support more borrowing and spending.

    The problem is all asset bubbles pop, despite claims that “this is a new era.” That was widely held in March 2000, too, just before the dot-com bubble burst and the Nasdaq fell 80%.

    All three pillars propping up workforce spending are cracking. Plan accordingly.

    *  *  *

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    Subscribe to my Substack for free

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 16:40

  • NY Hits Luigi Mangione With Terror-Related Charges In UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting Death
    NY Hits Luigi Mangione With Terror-Related Charges In UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting Death

    The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from Hunt Valley, Maryland, who is charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel earlier this month, was formally indicted in New York on Tuesday afternoon.

    Luigi Mangione was indicted on one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, seven counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and one count of possessing a forged driver’s license, according to Bloomberg.

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    The case was elevated to first-degree murder because Thompson was killed “in furtherance of an act of terrorism,” NY prosecutors wrote in the indictment. 

    We suspect the first-degree murder charge in furtherance of terrorism stems from Luigi’s alleged manifesto, which stated, “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world…”

    Essentially, “furtherance of terrorism” refers to the use of violence or threats of violence to achieve political or social goals.

    “We allege that Luigi Mangione carried out the brazen, targeted and fatal shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan. This type of premeditated, targeted gun violence cannot and will not be tolerated, and my office has been working day in and day out to bring the defendant to justice,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote in a statement. 

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    Bragg said, “I want to extend my heartfelt prayers to Mr. Thompson’s loved ones as they continue to grieve. This ongoing investigation is the product of an incredible partnership at all levels with the NYPD, and I want to thank Commissioner Tisch and the prosecutors and detectives who worked collaboratively to apprehend Mr. Mangione.” 

    During a news conference, Bragg blamed ghost guns for many of NYC’s troubles. Let’s not forget that far-left Democrats in the metro area have transformed the city into a mecca for illegal aliens. But, of course, don’t blame criminals and illegal alien gangs … blame ghost guns. 

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    Last week, Manhattan attorney Karen Friedman Agnifilo was hired by Mangione to defend him on the murder charges. 

    NY Prosecutors have been working on extraditing Mangione from Pennsylvania to Manhattan to face charges formally. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 16:20

  • Russia's Crude Oil Shipments Slump By 11% In Two Months
    Russia’s Crude Oil Shipments Slump By 11% In Two Months

    By Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com

    Russian crude oil exports by sea have dropped by 11% from a recent high in October, due to maintenance at the Baltic port of Primorsk, pressure for Russia to align with its OPEC+ quota, and increased sanctions pressure.

    In the four weeks to December 15, Russia’s seaborne crude exports averaged 3.06 million barrels per day (bpd), tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg showed on Tuesday.

    That’s 11% lower compared to a recent peak of a four-week average volume of 3.46 million bpd in early October, according to the data reported by Bloomberg’s Julian Lee.

    In the most recent week to December 15, observed Russian crude oil exports from Primorsk have slumped as the port saw a halt of four days in departures, according to data from port agents seen by Bloomberg. The partial halt to the loading program suggests that there has been either maintenance work on the loading terminal or the pipeline that serves it, according to Bloomberg.

    Apart from physical disruption to loadings, Russian crude oil exports have fallen as Moscow has been under increased pressure to fall in line with its OPEC+ quota as part of the group that looks to support oil prices.

    Moreover, the UK and the EU have ramped up sanctions on the so-called shadow fleet used by Russia to ship its crude oil and petroleum products.

    At the end of November, the UK sanctioned as many as 30 tankers identified as belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet that circumvents the Western oil sanctions, in its single largest sanctions package aimed at Russia’s dark fleet and at stifling Putin’s oil revenues.

    The EU on Monday adopted the 15th package of sanctions against Russia, which targets 52 new vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet, increasing the total number of such listings to 79. These non-EU vessels are subject to a port access ban and a ban on provision of services.

    Moreover, the Biden administration is said to be mulling over additional sanctions against Russia’s oil industry ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 12/17/2024 – 15:45

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