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Cloud Precipitation

Best of the Web: Saudi Arabia: Devastating Jeddah storm sweeps away cars, cuts road to Mecca - 7 inches of rain in just 6 hours - 3 TIMES ANNUAL mean (UPDATE)


Middle East Eye
Thu, 24 Nov 2022 15:22 UTC
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Heavy rains in Saudi Arabia's coastal city of Jeddah on Thursday delayed flights, forced school closures and shut the road to Mecca, Islam's holiest city, state media reported.

Jeddah, a city of roughly four million people located close to the Red Sea, is often referred to as the "gateway to Mecca", where millions perform the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages each year.

Images posted to social media on Thursday showed cars being swept along streets through raging torrents of water.


Comment: Update November 25

Floodlist reports:
Severe flash flooding struck in western parts of Saudi Arabia after torrential rain on 24 November 2022. The city of Jeddah in Mecca Province recorded 179 mm of rain in 6 hours. At least 2 fatalities have been reported as a result of floods in the city.

Flooded streets caused havoc in the city of Jeddah in Mecca Province on 24 November. Police and Civil Protection were called to rescue drivers and remove stranded vehicles. Flights were delayed at King Abdulaziz International Airport and several homes were left without electricity. Authorities closed schools and universities in affected areas of the Province.

In a statement, the government of Mecca Province said 2 people had died in the floods in Jeddah and urged residents to remain indoors unless for urgent needs.

Saudi Arabia's National Center for Meteorology said the city of Jeddah recorded 179 mm of rain between 08:00 and 14:00 on 24 November. The total exceeded the amount of rainfall registered in 2009 when over 120 people died in flash floods in the city. Around 90 mm of rain fell in a 4 hour period on 25 November 2009.

According to figures from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the mean total rainfall for November in the city is 23 mm. The annual mean total rainfall is 55.6 mm.

Heavy rain also affected areas of the neighbouring Medina Province. Saudi Civil Defense said emergency teams rescued 5 people after a vehicle was swept away by flood waters in a rural area of Medina.


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Eye 1

Best of the Web: Tucker Carlson: No healthy society can tolerate pedophilia

Tucker Carlson
Fox News
Tue, 22 Nov 2022 21:43 UTC
Balenciaga photo shoot BDSM children
It is a stable of so-called conspiracy theories that at the highest levels of politics and finance, there is a shadowy cabal of pedophiles who use their power to hide the crimes they commit against children. People think that. Sounds pretty far out to us. Too dark and strange to be true and of course we are not, obviously, endorsing that idea. On the other hand, you can kind of see why people might believe it.

Jeffrey Epstein, for example. Epstein continued to dine with business moguls and heads of state long after he was arrested for having sex with minors. How did he do that? Why didn't nobody say anything? Why did people keep eating with him? Well, at the very least, we can conclude, based on the evidence that there is a tolerance for pedophilia among some, among the most powerful in our society, a tolerance that you would not find in, say, your average middle class American family. Some of the rich really are different that way. That's clearly true and in case you need more evidence of that, consider Balenciaga. Balenciaga is what they call a luxury brand.

Comment: See also:

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Snowflake

Best of the Web: Late heavy spring snowfall in Australia & New Zealand - foot of snow reported


snow-forecast.com
Tue, 22 Nov 2022 11:32 UTC
Mt Hotham
Mt Hotham on 22 November
There's been more snowfall for Australia and New Zealand just over a week until the start of meteorological summertime there.

In Australia, where the2022 ski season ended in early October, the latest snowfalls, although among the heaviest yet, follow a series of regular dumps that have continued over the past month.

Ski areas including Falls Creek (pictured below on 22 November), Mt Hotham (above) and Perisher reported 25-30cm (10-12") more snowfall in the past 24 hours.

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Bullseye

Best of the Web: 'All the real skinheads went to Ukraine': An American Neo-Nazi outlines the crimes of his Ukrainian 'colleagues'

Felix Livshitz
RT
Sun, 20 Nov 2022 17:41 UTC
Kent 'Boneface' McLellan
© RT DE Kent 'Boneface' McLellan says that Americans are being misinformed about the Ukraine conflict and they are led to believe 'Russia decides to bomb the f**k out of places for no reason'
Earlier this month, Juan Sinmiedo, who runs a popular Telegram channel documenting human rights abuses in Ukraine, published an explosive interview with 'Boneface' - real name Kent McLellan - a 32-year-old Neo-Nazi from Florida who joined the fascist volunteer Right Sector group during the Donbass war, and returned to fight alongside the Azov Battalion in January 2022.

The discussion with McLellan shatters many myths and lies that have been circulated about the Maidan coup, the current conflict in Ukraine, and the disturbingly strong influence of nationalist movements within the country.

McLellan, the son of the front man of Neo-Nazi rock band Brutal Attack, got involved with far-right activism while just a teenager, and had numerous run-ins with the law for subversive, racially-charged activities. He and other members of the racist organization American Front were detained by the FBI in May 2012, for preparing terrorist acts against ethnic minorities in Florida.

Comment: See also: Zelensky is Not in Charge of Ukraine, Nazis Are - And They Believe They Are on a Mission From God to 'Derussify Ukraine in Holy War'

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Igloo

Best of the Web: Western New York state slammed with more than 6 feet of snow, triggering road closures and flight cancellations (UPDATE)

Aya Elamroussi
CNN
Sat, 19 Nov 2022 11:31 UTC
Heather Ahmed uses a shovel to dig a path next to a vehicle after an intense lake-effect snowstorm impacted the area Friday in Hamburg, New York.
© John Normile/Getty ImagesHeather Ahmed uses a shovel to dig a path next to a vehicle after an intense lake-effect snowstorm impacted the area Friday in Hamburg, New York.

New Yorkers in the western part of the state are still being slammed with a massive snowstorm that has shut down roads, triggered driving bans and canceled flights the weekend before the Thanksgiving holiday.

By Friday evening, 5.5 feet of snow had covered streets in the town of Orchard Park, New York, near Buffalo in hard-hit Erie County, according to the National Weather Service. As the snowfall intensified, two county residents died from cardiac complications related to shoveling and attempting to clear the grounds, said County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

"We send our deepest sympathies and remind all that this snow is very heavy and dangerous," Poloncarz said.


Comment: Update

ABC7ny.com reports:
Snow totals across the Buffalo area and northern New York from lake-effect snow in November 2022

The Buffalo metro area was hit particularly hard by historic lake effect snow, with some areas south of the city receiving more than 5 feet by early Saturday.

According to the National Weather Service, the suburb of Orchard Park, home to the NFL's Buffalo Bills, reported 77 inches (196 centimeters) by early Saturday. About 80 miles (129 kilometers) northeast of the city, the town of Natural Bridge, near the Fort Drum Army base, reported just under 6 feet.


The top 5 snowfall locations as of early Saturday afternoon are:

ORCHARD PARK in Erie County with 77 inches

HAMBURG in Erie County with 73.7 inches

NATURAL BRIDGE in Jefferson County with 72.3 inches

BLASDELL in Erie County with 65 inches

ELMA in Erie County with 58.2 inches


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Fireball 2

Best of the Web: Impressive meteor fireball flares upon entry over Toronto, Canada - Object was observed in space several hours beforehand

Kelly Kizer Whitt
EarthSky
Sun, 20 Nov 2022 09:54 UTC
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Astronomers spotted an asteroid just hours before it impacted with Earth this morning (November 19, 2022), near Lake Erie. This is not the first time this year astronomers have discovered a rock from space just hours before it hit Earth.


Comment: When it's that small, it's a meteor, not an 'asteroid'.


But this time, it impacted over a populated area, crossing the skies of Toronto, Canada. So we have video and witnesses who said they saw, heard and felt the impact.

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Padlock

Best of the Web: Brazilian authorities block bank accounts of those allegedly driving 'anti-democratic acts'

Bala Chambers
AA.com
Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:01 UTC
banco do brasil
At least 43 people and companies targeted by Supreme Court.

Brazilian authorities blocked bank accounts Thursday of people and companies allegedly driving "anti-democratic acts" following Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's victory in a presidential runoff.

Federal Supreme Court (STF) judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered the move targeting at least 43 people and companies related to recent demonstrations.

"It is necessary, appropriate and urgent to block the bank accounts of those investigated, given the possibility of using resources to finance illicit and undemocratic acts, in order to stop the injury or threat to law," said De Moraes.

Comment: See also:

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Blackbox

Best of the Web: Is there a link between 'Aid to Ukraine,' the US Democratic Party, and the suspicious collapse of the FTX Crypto exchange?

Felix Livshitz
RT
Fri, 18 Nov 2022 22:50 UTC
FTX crypto collapse exchange ukraine democrats money launder
© Rafael Henrique / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
We don't know exactly how much money was raised for Kiev, and how much of it reached its intended destination

Breaking news throughout the first half of November has been dominated by coverage of the sudden collapse of FTX, one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges.

The crash has shaken the crypto market, lost institutional investors billions - and individual customers millions - led to official investigations of FTX in several countries, and made some question whether the Bitcoin sphere might crash and burn outright, and perhaps cause wider problems for the financial system.

Some take the view that FTX was a fraud all along, ever since its launch in April 2019. If that's the case, it has grave implications for the US Democratic Party and Ukrainian government, as the company's corrupt activity may have been used to fund both, openly and secretly.

Comment: The more conspiracy-minded would go with this:

The FTX crypto exchange debacle: The Dem money laundering, WEF-supported house of cards that will help usher in new crypto regulation

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Bacon

Best of the Web: Red meat is not a health risk. New study slams years of shoddy research

Ross Pomeroy
Big Think
Sat, 12 Nov 2022 20:54 UTC
red meat healthy
© niloo / Adobe Stock
Studies have been linking red meat consumption to health problems like heart disease, stroke, and cancer for years. But nestled in the recesses of those published papers are notable limitations.

Nearly all the research is observational, unable to tease out causation convincingly. Most are plagued by confounding variables. For example, perhaps meat eaters simply eat fewer vegetables, or tend to smoke more, or exercise less? Moreover, many are based on self-reported consumption. The simple fact is that people can't remember what they eat with any accuracy. And lastly, the reported effect sizes in these scientific papers are often small. Is a supposed 15% greater risk of cancer really worth worrying about?
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Vader

Best of the Web: NATO's hair trigger: The Polish missile incident was a close brush with nuclear annihilation

Scott Ritter
RT
Thu, 17 Nov 2022 17:27 UTC
Przewodow
© Wojtek RADWANSKI, Damien SIMONART / AFPAerial view of the site where a missile killed two men in the eastern Poland village of Przewodow, near the border with Ukraine on November 15, 2022
The world dodged a bullet this week, with some NATO members trying, but failing, to trigger Article 4 as a means of confronting Russia in Ukraine. We may not be so lucky next time.

The recent scandal surrounding what most of the world now agrees was an errant Ukrainian surface-to-air missile landing on Polish soil, killing two Polish citizens in the process, has exposed an ugly reality about the eastern reaches of NATO today: Despite the more reserved stance of the old NATO establishment (the US, UK, France, and Germany), the new upstarts in eastern Europe seem hell-bent on finding a mechanism that will justify NATO intervention in Ukraine.

This predilection for nuclear annihilation (no one should have any misgivings that a NATO-Russia conflict would end any other way) should send alarm bells ringing in the halls of power throughout NATO and the rest of the world, because left to their own devices, the Russophobic officials that dominate the governments of Poland and the three Baltic republics act like lemmings, running toward the Ukrainian cliff, oblivious to their fate as they chase the fantasy of NATO defeating Russia on a European battlefield.

The rush to judgment that accompanied the arrival of the Ukrainian surface-to-air missile on Polish soil serves as a stark reminder about how the supposedly defensive characteristics of the NATO Charter can be used to promote, rather than deter, conflict.
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