Comment: The timing of this unusually strong earthquake is notable because, after many months of increasingly oppressive lockdown restrictions, just a few days ago Australia saw an eruption of protests ignited by the enforcement of vaccine mandates: Melbourne police fire pepper balls at thousands of protesters amidst growing discontent over vaccine mandates & endless lockdowns

The pattern of significant phenomena such as earthquakes, record rainfalls, meteor fireball events, and so on, amidst peaks of societal upheaval is becoming ever more apparent.

To further illustrate the point: about 15 days ago there was a significant M7.1 earthquake in Mexico that just happened to be the anniversary of an even larger M8.2 that rocked the country on the same date in 2017. In the run-up to the day many Mexicans reported feeling anxiety that a similarly large and devastating quake might occur; thankfully for them, the quake was not as destructive. A similar sequence was noted with the M8.0 quake on September 19th 1985 which was echoed in an M7.1 on the same date in 2017:

Rocks the size of small houses break off during landslide near Mexico City, 1 dead, 10 missing

For more on Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection, check out SOTT radio's:

• Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

• MindMatters: The Holy Grail, Comets, Earth Changes and Randall Carlson
• Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Interview with Laura Knight-Jadczyk and Pierre Lescaudron

As well as Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk's book the subject: Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection

Comment: Canberra has awakened a sleeping giant.

• 'F**k the jab!': CHAOS in Australia as construction workers violently protest vaccine mandate outside union HQ
• Australia's police now arresting citizens who were THINKING of protesting the lockdown

Comment: See also:

• Australia's police now arresting citizens who were THINKING of protesting the lockdown
• Thousands plan to protest against tyrannical 'Stage Four' lockdown measures in Melbourne
• Melbourne police force protesters to wear muzzles before arresting at 'Freedom Day' rally against fascist lockdown
• More than 400 people arrested at anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne

Comment: Bravo. If only more leaders would take the same attitude, we wouldn't be in the state we're currently in.

Comment: Note that construction workers across much of the locked down planet were considered 'essential' and so worked throughout this government declared 'deadly pandemic'. Is it any wonder they're are furious that, suddenly, they now must suffer an injection, that they managed quite fine without for the last 18 months and if they don't they'll lose their jobs? It's also likely they're well aware of the endless reports of injection injury, and deaths, as well as the suffocating police state they're living under. It seems the pathocrats in Australia may be pushing people to their limit.

Comment: This dire global supply-demand crisis is a direct result of mandated lockdown measures, not the virus. The focus was on calculated maneuvers to produce just such an outcome in order to cripple industry and reduce access to goods and services. Who does this serve? Not industry. Who benefits? Not the people.

Comment: Biden administration wonders why oil prices are rising...could it be supply can't reach the demand? That's what happens when the economy is disrupted, the population sequestered, transport is banned and you look for someone else to blame:

The Biden administration is looking into prices at the pump and why they are higher than they are supposed to be. Quoted by Bloomberg, Biden said on Thursday:

"There's lots of evidence that gas prices should be going down -- but they haven't. We're taking a close look at that. We're also going after the bad actors and pandemic profiteers in our economy."

U.S. gas prices have risen by as much as 50 percent since the start of the year. Earlier this week, the average reached $3.19 per gallon, Bloomberg noted, citing data from the AAA, which is the highest since October 2014. The reason for the rise appears to be a strong rebound in fuel demand as the U.S. reopened after pandemic lockdowns. Still, the Biden administration has signaled it had its suspicions about other factors at play.

Last month, the director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, has approached FTC head Lina Khan with a request to monitor the U.S. gasoline market and address any illegal conduct that might be contributing to price increases for consumers at the pump. At the time, President Biden also acknowledged the climbing prices at the pump, saying he wanted to make sure that there was nothing preventing gas prices from falling:

"Recently, we've seen the price that oil companies pay for a barrel of oil begin to fall, but the cost of gasoline at the pump for more American people hasn't fallen. That's not what you'd expect in a competitive market."

Also last month, the Biden administration called on OPEC+ to boost oil production in order to help U.S. retail gas prices to fall. The call caused a sour reaction in Alberta, which is the biggest supplier of foreign oil to the United States, and no reaction from OPEC+.

Meanwhile in Lebanon, gas prices rise...again:

The Lebanese energy ministry hiked petrol prices again on Friday - this time by almost 38 percent - as the country continues to dial back fuel subsidies to tackle crippling shortages. The price of 20 litres of 95-octane and 98-octane gasoline increased to 174,300 ($11.24) and 180,000 ($11.64) Lebanese pounds respectively. That is equivalent to just over a quarter of the country's minimum wage.

Mikati has said that lifting fuel subsidies is a crucial step towards pulling the country out of an economic crisis that the World Bank has ranked among the world's three worst over the past 150 years.

George Braks of the Petrol Station Owners' Syndicate told Al Jazeera that Lebanon is heading towards lifting all fuel subsidies by the end of the month.

"Hopefully, we will not be moving from one problem to a new one with whatever new pricing mechanism is adopted. If they decide to price the dollar at the market rate, then this is something we would welcome, because we would continue with the Lebanese pound and not struggle to find US dollars."

Fuel subsidies had allowed importers and distributors to sell fuel at an officially pegged rate of 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the US dollar. But as the value of the pound plummeted by roughly 90 percent, the pegged rate was replaced by an informal rate in the wider market. Economists and analysts say keeping the subsidies ultimately incentivised smuggling, notably into Syria, to sell at a profit. So far, diesel fuel subsidies have officially been lifted, as power cuts plague homes, hospitals and businesses.

Iran-backed Hezbollah delivered the first shipment of diesel fuel from Tehran on Thursday, to be donated to some institutions and sold to others at a discounted price in the local currency. It was one of four vessels of fuel expected to dock in Syria and be delivered to Lebanon.

Laury Haytayan, a gas and oil policy expert, fears that if gasoline is priced in dollars after subsidies are lifted, there would be greater demand for the gasoline distributed by Hezbollah and its web of institutions. He said:

"I don't know how the government would take care of that - having one product in Lebanese pounds and the other in dollars, one is smuggled the other is legitimate. Maybe next we'll see a monopoly in the Iranian product ... because it's priced in Lebanese pounds and discounted as we understood from Nasrallah, and the others are in the market price."

Comment: Winter is coming: European energy crisis 'could get very ugly' as EU delays Russian gas supplies