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Fri, 24 Mar 2023
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US 'extremely troubled' over Israeli law permitting more new settlements in Occupied Palestine


RT
Wed, 22 Mar 2023 18:45 UTC
settler outpost West Bank
© Keren Manor/Activestills.org
An illegal outpost in the West Bank
The newly approved bill is "inconsistent" with promises to ease tensions with the Palestinians, a senior State Department official has said

The US government has voiced major concerns after Israeli lawmakers passed a bill allowing for the construction of new settlements in the occupied West Bank, warning that the measure would facilitate the theft of Palestinian land.

The State Department's principal deputy spokesman, Vedant Patel, said Washington is "extremely troubled" by the law, which rescinds parts of a 2005 bill that ordered Israeli settlers to vacate Gaza and some areas of the West Bank.

"The US strongly urges Israel to refrain from allowing the return of settlers to the area covered by the legislation," he told reporters on Tuesday, noting that "At least one of the [former] outposts in this area... was built on private Palestinian land, which is illegal under Israeli law."
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Attention

Why hypersonic weapons change everything

Alex Krainer
Alex Krainer's TrendCompass / Substack
Wed, 22 Mar 2023 18:12 UTC
They can sink ALL of the U.S. aircraft carriers, all at once.
Hypersonic Weapon
© Vivekananda International Foundation

When it comes to all matters military, I have been following a handful of analysts among whom Croatian Admiral Davorin Domazet (retired) emerged as perhaps my favorite. He has deep and detailed command of technical matters (like Andreiy Martyanov he insists that you can't prevail in modern warfare without deep knowledge of of advanced mathematics and probability). More importantly, he has perhaps the clearest understanding of the broad historical context of today's clash between Russia and the western powers.

Unfortunately, Admiral Domazet does not give many interviews and none in English, but I thought that his last one was important enough to share more broadly in this article.

Admiral Davorin
© Alex Krainer's TrendCompass
If you happen to speak Croatian/Serbian languages, you can find the interview, published on 17 March 2023 at this link. It runs over 2 hours.
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Star of David

Delusional: Israeli minister claims there's 'no such thing' as Palestinians


RT
Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:44 UTC
Bezalel Smotrich
© GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP via Getty Images
Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli far-right lawmaker and leader of the Religious Zionist Party
Bezalel Smotrich has alleged that the notion of separate people is "an invention that is less than 100 years old"

There's no such thing as Palestinian history or culture, and the Palestinians are not a legitimate ethnic group, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has claimed. The hardline politician, who is tasked with the administration of the occupied West Bank, made the inflammatory remarks on Sunday during a visit to France.

Smotrich was speaking at a memorial event commemorating Jacques Kupfer, a prominent Zionist and activist with the right-wing Likud Party, who died back in 2021. The minister delivered his speech while standing at a lectern draped with a flag depicting a variation of the so-called 'Greater Israel' map that appears to include the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Jordan, footage of the event, which was widely shared online, shows.

Comment: Pure projection. Less than 100 years ago, there was no such thing as an 'Israeli'.

Israel's "culture" is a mishmash of eastern European traditions, and what has been stolen from the indigenous Palestinians. The average 'Israeli' has more connection to latkes and klezmer music than to hummus and ouds. And zero connection to the 'history' of the small tribal group recounted in the fictional Bible.



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Fire

The financial system is terminally broken, toast, kaput!

Egon von Greyerz
Gold Switzerland
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 00:00 UTC
bank run

Comment: Keeping in mind that the author is a goldbug, and the following is not financial advice, he does raise some excellent points.


Anyone who doesn't see what is happening will soon lose a major part of their assets either through bank failure, currency debasement or the collapse of all bubble assets like stocks, property and bonds by 75-100%. Many bonds will become worthless.

Wealth preservation in physical gold is now absolutely critical. Obviously it must be stored outside a broken financial system. More later in this article.

The solidity of the banking system is based on confidence. With the fractional banking system, highly leveraged banks only have a fraction of the money available if all depositors ask for their money back. So when confidence evaporates, so do the balance sheets of the banks and depositors realise that the whole system is just a black hole.

And this is exactly what is about to happen.

For anyone who believes that this is just a problem with a few smaller US banks and one big one (Credit Suisse), they must think again.

Comment: The UBS did end up purchasing Credit Suisse.

See: Shotgun marriage: Swiss bank UBS 'is prepared to take over troubled rival Credit Suisse but only for knockdown price' UPDATE

And don't miss: Ellen Brown: The Looming Quadrillion Dollar Derivatives Tsunami

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Dig

Trump unveils plan to 'dismantle the deep state'

Mary Lou Masters
Daily Caller
Tue, 21 Mar 2023 15:23 UTC
Trump
© Screenshot/Rumble/DonaldJTrump
Former President Donald Trump unveiled his new plan Tuesday to "dismantle the deep state" by firing "rogue" bureaucrats and career politicians, according to a new policy agenda video.

Trump released a list of ten items that indicate how he plans to "clean out the deep state," starting with re-instating an executive order that would give the president the authority to fire bureaucrats, according to the video posted on Rumble. The former president's plan would dismantle the "Washington Swamp," target corruption and ensure that federal bureaucrats and politicians are held accountable.

"The departments and agencies that have been weaponized will be completely overhauled so that faceless bureaucrats will never again be able to target and persecute conservatives, Christians, or the left's political enemies, which they're doing now at a level that nobody can believe even possible," Trump said in the video.

Comment: Sounds like a great plan. Any chance it will actually happen?

See also:

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Folder

Biden orders US intelligence to release ALL documents on COVID origins and any links to the Wuhan lab within 90 days

Katelyn Caralle
Daily Mail
Tue, 21 Mar 2023 01:58 UTC
wuhan lab

This specifically would include declassifying intelligence related to links between the COVID-19 leak and the infamous lab from which it allegedly came in Wuhan, China.
Joe Biden signed on Monday a new law that could shed light on the links between the coronavirus pandemic and a Wuhan lab in China from which it stemmed.

The move requires all U.S. intelligence related to that link and the origins of COVID-19 to be declassified within 90 days of the law's enactment.

'We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19's origins,' Biden wrote in a statement. He noted any released material should also 'include potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.'

Comment: More from Fox News:
The National Intelligence Council and four other agencies assess at "low confidence" that the COVID-19 pandemic originated due to natural transmission from an infected animal, while the CIA and another unnamed agency are undecided.

"It's been three years since COVID-19 upended our lives, and we're still asking basic questions about the origins of this virus. That's unacceptable," Chairman Mike Gallagher of the newly-formed House Select Committee on China, previously told Fox News Digital.

"The question of how this pandemic began is the most important question in the world, and we should not continue to waste precious time waiting for the Chinese Communist Party to suddenly cooperate with U.S. officials and open up access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology," he added. "It's time for Congress to act and force the administration to declassify the relevant intelligence surrounding the pandemic."

In a statement to Fox News digital, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said, "Today President Biden finally signed my bill to declassify what the government knows about Covid origins. Let the people see for themselves!"


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Arrow Up

Israel's uncertain future in the wake of Great Power conflict

Mohamad Hasan Sweidan
The Cradle
Tue, 21 Mar 2023 02:50 UTC
As global power dynamics continue to shift, Israel's close western alignment could limit its ability to engage with emerging powers in the east. Arch-rival Iran, which has established ties with Russia and China, will be better positioned to gain from the shifting geopolitical landscape.
Israel and the Big Powers
© The Cradle
Great-power competition has the potential to significantly impact the future of Israel. As a key player in West Asia, Israel is likely to be affected by the actions and strategies of major powers such as the US, China, and Russia.

The US has historically been a strong ally of Israel, providing significant military and economic aid. However, Washington's current strategy of thwarting growing Chinese and Russian political and economic influence around the world may lead to increased pressure on Israel, a western-creation, to align with US interests in the region.

At the same time, China and Russia are rapidly expanding their stakes in West Asia, which may set back Israel's recent rapprochement progress with neighboring states. In the past few years, Tel Aviv has offered itself to Arab states as a strong regional replacement for waning US presence, and a buffer against Iran's rise.

But Beijing's key role in brokering an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran is likely to impact Israel's dealings with both of those countries - and other Arab states. Will they need that Israeli military buffer if global power China - or Russia - can troubleshoot conflict and usher in peace?

Furthermore, as great-power competition intensifies, Israel, like other small states, will come under pressure to align with one side. This could impact Israel's ability to maintain its independence and pursue its own interests in the region.
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Blue Planet

Net zero must be brought forward by a decade to stop 'climate time bomb', says UN

Emma Gatten
The Telegraph
Mon, 20 Mar 2023 02:13 UTC
IPCC Report
© Corbett Report
Net zero targets must be brought forward by a decade to stop the "climate time bomb", the UN has said at the launch of a major new climate change report.

Rising emissions in recent years mean cuts in the next two decades will have to be more extreme than current plans, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.

An 80 per cent global reduction in CO2 emissions is needed to limit warming to 1.5C, the upper aim of the Paris Agreement, its new report says.

But the UN said richer countries must move faster than developing nations, by "super-charging" their net zero goals and helping poorer countries cut their own emissions.

The UK, like most other developed nations, has set a target for net zero emissions by 2050, and its climate change advisers have said getting there quicker will "stretch feasibility".

Comment: All of this confirms Michael Rectenwald's analysis of the WEF and UN climate catastrophism: "Sustainability" means de-civilization. It means undoing Western development and stalling development in the Third World. The project has little to do with climate change. It is a neo-Malthusian project, and it always has been.

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X

Hungary allegedly blocked joint EU statement on Putin's arrest warrant

Alberto Nardelli, Jorge Valero and Samy Adghirni
Bloomberg
Mon, 20 Mar 2023 02:03 UTC
hungary parliament
Hungary blocked European Union member states from issuing a joint statement about an international arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the matter.

Budapest's veto meant that the EU's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, instead released a statement in his own name 'taking note" of the decision by the International Criminal Court.

'The EU sees the decision by the ICC as a beginning of the process of accountability and holding Russian leaders to account for the crimes and atrocities they are ordering, enabling or committing in Ukraine," Borrell said in the statement published on Sunday evening. EU justice ministers issued their own statement supporting the ICC decision Monday, which Hungary did not sign.

Comment: RFE/RL adds this detail not included in the Bloomberg article above: Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mate Paczolay denied the report, telling Bloomberg, "It's a lie that Hungary vetoed an EU statement on the ICC case."

See also:

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Ambulance

Shotgun marriage: Swiss bank UBS 'is prepared to take over troubled rival Credit Suisse but only for knockdown price' UPDATE

Katherine Lawton
The Daily Mail
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 19:54 UTC
UBS Swiss bank Credit Suisse
© Associated Press
Swiss bank UBS is prepared to take over troubled rival Credit Suisse but only for a knockdown price, reports said March 19, 2023
Swiss bank UBS is prepared to take over its troubled rival Credit Suisse but only for a knockdown price, reports said today.

It comes amid urgent talks aimed at saving the embattled bank from a bloodbath when the markets reopen.

The two largest banks in the wealthy Alpine nation famed for its banking prominence have been in negotiations with the government throughout the weekend, with the central bank and financial regulators all involved.

The Financial Times, which was the first on Friday to report the prospect of Switzerland's biggest bank swallowing up Credit Suisse, said UBS had offered to buy it for up to $1billion.

The transaction would be worth 25 cents (0.23 Swiss francs) per Credit Suisse share, the FT said.

Comment: UPDATE 3/19/2023:
Credit Suisse has agreed to be bought by its arch-rival UBS at a discount to Friday's close price. "With the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, a solution has been found to secure financial stability and protect the Swiss economy in this exceptional situation," the SNB said in a statement.

UBS UBS, +11.97% will buy Credit Suisse CS, +2.46% for 3 billion francs ($3.25 billion), or 0.76 francs per share, in an all-stock deal, the bank announced.

UBS said it benefits from 25 billion francs of downside protection from the transaction to support marks, purchase price adjustments and restructuring costs, and additional 50% downside protection on non-core assets. The Swiss financial regulator said Credit Suisse's AT1 securities, worth 16 billion francs, will be entirely written down.

"This is a commercial solution and not a bailout," said Karin Keller-Sutter, the Swiss finance minister. "Bankruptcy would have been the highest risk."

UBS said the combination of the two businesses is expected to generate annual run-rate of cost reductions of more than $8 billion by 2027.


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