Truly, tectonic changes are happening before our eyes, and today I just want to list some of them but without going to deep into specific analyses, that I plan to do later in the coming weeks. But just looking at this list is impressive enough, at least for me. So, here we go:

The Anglos are circling the wagons:

The planned sale of US/UK SSNs to Australia is nothing short of a HUGE game changer. It is also just the tip of a big iceberg:

• The US seems to have de-facto given up on Europe, not only because the UK left or because the EU is crashing and unmanageable anyway, but because the political grip the US had on the continent is now clearly slipping: NATO is a paper tiger, the "new Europeans" have outlived their utility and Russia has basically successfully diffused the threat from the West by her titanic effort to develop capabilities which make an attack on Russia suicidal for any country, including the USA, whether nukes are involved or not.
• By screwing over France, the US has jettisoned a pretty useless ally which had a short hysterical fit, but is already going back to its usual groveling and begging (BTW - those who think that de Gaulle was the last French patriot capable of telling Uncle Shmuel to "take a hike" are wrong, Mitterrand was the last one, but that is a topic for another day).
• Of course, in political/PR terms, the US will continue to declare itself committed to NATO and the EU, but the "body language" (actions) of the US directly contradicts this notion.
• For all its immense progress since the 80s and 90s, China still has two major technological weak points: aircraft engines and SSNs. It just so happens that these are also two real US strong points. By deploying 8 more SSNs near China, the US is very intelligently maximizing the use of its best assets and hurting China where it will hurt the most. This does come with some very real risks, however, which I will discuss below.

We discovered there was not one set of rules for all, and that even the strictest medical advice could be trumped by political considerations

Early on during the pandemic, it was easy to accept that the politicians, guided by their selected cadre of experts, knew what they were doing. And there was likewise in the public mind a considerable reservoir of trust in their pronouncements, which was not diminished if — in the very early days — a caution or a recommendation put out one week was altered, revised, or even contradicted by a caution or recommendation the week following.

The recent article in The Guardian written by suspected MI6-linked Martin Chulov is a sign of the collapsing regime change project driven by the UK and US intelligence agencies since well before 2011. A war in a series of wars and coups that have plagued the region for decades. I recently wrote about the West being forced to partially normalise relations with President Assad after demonising him relentlessly since 2011. This is only the first in what will be a long line of climb-downs by the US/UK Coalition of intervention.

Europe needs to stop being naive when it comes to defending its interests and build its own military capacity, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday after Greece sealed a deal for French frigates worth about €3 billion euros ($3.51 billion).

The strategic defence and security cooperation pact signed by the French and Greek presidents is part of efforts to increase European military autonomy, something Macron has said is even more vital after the reversal of the submarine deal with Australia.

"It contributes to European security, to the strengthening of Europe's strategic autonomy and sovereignty, and thus to international peace and security," French President Emmanuel Macron told a news conference alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The 20th-anniversary summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, enshrined nothing less than a new geopolitical paradigm.

Iran, now a full SCO member, was restored to its traditionally prominent Eurasian role, following the recent US$400 billion trade and development deal struck with China. Afghanistan was the main topic - with all players agreeing on the path ahead, as detailed in the Dushanbe Declaration. And all Eurasian integration paths are now converging, in unison, towards the new geopolitical - and geoeconomic - paradigm.

Call it a multipolar development dynamic in synergy with China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The Dushanbe Declaration was quite explicit on what Eurasian players are aiming at:

"a more representative, democratic, just and multipolar world order based on universally recognized principles of international law, cultural and civilizational diversity, mutually beneficial and equal cooperation of states under the central coordinating role of the UN."

For all the immense challenges inherent to the Afghan jigsaw puzzle, hopeful signs emerged on Tuesday (September 21), when former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and peace envoy Abdullah Abdullah met in Kabul with Russian presidential envoy Zamir Kabulov, China's special envoy Yue Xiaoyong and Pakistan's special envoy Mohammad Sadiq Khan.

This troika - Russia, China, Pakistan - is at the diplomatic forefront. The SCO reached a consensus that Islamabad will coordinate with the Taliban on the formation of an inclusive government that including Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis ordered his secretary of state to investigate Facebook for "alleged election interference."

The move comes in the wake of a report in The Wall Street Journal, showing that "the tech giant put its thumb on the scale of numerous state and local races by exempting elite users from Facebook's own rules," according to a Monday statement from DeSantis.

In a Sept. 27 letter, DeSantis directed Florida Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee to investigate Facebook's alleged failures to comply with Florida's election laws. The alleged violations create a "privileged class of speakers" who are empowered to exert influence on elections. DeSantis, citing the Wall Street Journal report, wrote:

"While most people are subject to arbitrary censorship at the whims of so-called fact-checkers, Facebook grants select users the freedom to disregard the platform's own community standards without the threat of enforcement action."

The Deputy Premier of New South Wales (NSW) said this week that those who remain unvaccinated even after the draconian lockdowns are ended will "lose freedoms."

Deputy Premier John Barilaro made the statement after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed a new three-step plan to ending the lockdowns that includes 70% of the population receiving both doses of a vaccine. Barilaro said, according to Sky News:

"A further and final message to regional New South Wales ... that parts of regional New South Wales that are currently open. The 70 per cent road map does apply to the whole state so there will be individuals in regional and rural New South Wales who choose not to be vaccinated who will lose their freedoms on 11 October."

As Sky News reported, some areas of NSW are not under stay-at-home orders, which allows the unvaccinated to move about almost freely. But starting October 11, when the state expects it will reach 70% fully vaccinated, only those who are fully vaccinated will be freed from the lockdowns.

Iran and Venezuela have struck a deal to swap heavy Venezuelan crude for Iranian condensate, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deal.

The swaps are set to begin this week and last for six months, although they could be extended. The imports of Iranian superlight crude will help Venezuela revive its falling oil exports amid US sanctions that, among other problems, have cut off the country's access to the light oil that is used to blend with its superheavy to make it exportable.

For Iran, the deal will bring in heavy crude it could sell in Asia. The diluted Venezuela crude will also likely go to Asian buyers.

According to the US Treasury Department, the deal could constitute a breach of sanctions, to which both Venezuela and Iran are subjects.

"Transactions with NIOC by non-US persons are generally subject to secondary sanctions and the Treasury Department retains authority to impose sanctions on any person that is determined to operate in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy."

Citing "conversations with more than 30 former U.S. officials," a Yahoo News report has confirmed that the CIA not only spied on the WikiLeaks founder, but also discussed seizing, renditioning and killing him.

These plans were reportedly made in coordination with the Trump White House as then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo and then-Deputy CIA Director Gina Haspel raged over WikiLeaks' 2017 Vault 7 release which revealed that the CIA had lost control of an enormous digital arsenal of hacking tools. These included tools which enabled the surveillance of smartphones, smart TVs and web browsers, the hacking of computerized vehicle control systems, and the ability to frame foreign governments for cyber attacks by inserting the digital "fingerprints" of the hacking methods they employ for investigators to find. It was the single largest data leak in CIA history.

Normally we have to wait decades for confirmation that the CIA did something nefarious, and then people absurdly assume that such things no longer occur because it was so long ago, and because changing your worldview is uncomfortable. But here we are with an extensively sourced report that the agency plotted to kidnap, rendition and assassinate a journalist for publishing authentic documents in the public interest, just four years after the fact.

A shift in the world's power base, alliances and economic strength, will undoubtedly happen within the coming years. In fact, it's already ongoing. But not necessarily according to Klaus Schwab's (WEF) "The Great Reset".

"Not necessarily", because We, The People, can stop it. Plus, there are nations and their allies, who do not agree and won't accept the enslavement of much of the world through the self-anointed powers of an ultra-rich elite.

The Saker, in his blog "Big, huge changes, in the near future (a tentative list)" (26 September 2021) has covered most of the geopolitical transformations that are likely taking place in the foreseeable future.

Consider the SCO - the Shanghai Cooperation Organization - has just integrated Iran as new member. This - in the west - little-talked-about organization, association of eastern countries, created by China and Russia on 15 June 2001, started out with 7 Central and East-Asian members, Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Since then India, Pakistan have joined and now Iran. Associated members are Malaysia and Mongolia. Which makes the SCO one of the most powerful, possibly THE most powerful, socioeconomic and defense strategy organizations in the world - with nearly half the world's population and about one third of the world's GDP.

One could undoubtedly ask, what does India have to do in this club?