Society's ChildS

Oil prices hit $80 a barrel following US-UK strikes on Yemen, shipping costs tripled since November

Richard Partington
The Guardian
Fri, 12 Jan 2024 14:15 UTC

© US Central Command via X/Handout via REUTERSAn aircraft takes off to join the U.S.-led coalition to conduct air strikes against military targets in Yemen from an undisclosed location, in this handout picture released on January 12, 2024.

Oil prices have hit $80 (£62.83) as fears grew about the economic impact of disruption to international trade through the Red Sea and escalating tensions in the Middle East.

Raising concerns about a possible inflation shock for the world economy, Brent crude prices jumped by about 4% to a high of $80.75 a barrel on Friday, while US West Texas Intermediate crude also increased after US and UK airstrikes against Houthi rebel sites in Yemen.

The overnight strikes were in response to attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the missiles, drones and rockets fired by the Yemeni group at US and UK warships, as tensions mount in the region during the Israel-Gaza war.

Comment: Yemen started the blockade of Israeli shipping in response to Israel's unprecedented slaughter of Gazan civilians.

Comment: Other metrics show that, despite claims by the propaganda media of hopes economies will soon recover, they are instead on the precipice of a collapse unlike anything seen before:

Oxfam: Average daily civilian death toll in Israel's Gaza genocide highest recorded in any conflict in a century

Quds News Network
Fri, 12 Jan 2024 23:20 UTC

Beit Lahia in northern Gaza destroyed israel bombings

Amid the ongoing Israeli war of genocide in Gaza, Oxfam International revealed yesterday that Israel's military campaign is causing an average daily death toll of 250 Palestinians, surpassing any major conflict in the 21st century.

For comparison, Oxfam provided statistics of average daily deaths in other conflicts, highlighting the severity of the situation in Gaza. The crisis is exacerbated by Israel's restrictions on aid entry, resulting in a heightened risk of starvation for survivors. Only 10% of the required weekly food aid manages to enter Gaza.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) echoed these concerns in its World Report 2024, stating that civilians in Gaza have faced an unprecedented scale of bombardment, attacks, abuse, and killings over the past year.

Comment: A breakdown of the statistics from South Africa at the ICJ:

Israel's reps:

How Israel's war on Gaza exposed Zionism as a genocidal cult

Joseph Massad
Middle East Eye
Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:53 UTC

© Robin Utrecht/AFPHague Protest: Israeli demonstration against the hearing at the International Court of Justice on a genocide complaint by South Africa against Israel • The Hague, Netherlands • 11 January 2024

The question is no longer whether the Israeli government is racist and genocidal but whether the Israeli Jewish majority supporting its crimes against Palestinians also fit this description...

Ever since the current Israeli cabinet, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, came to power in December 2022, there has been a consensus, even in the western mainstream and among the Israeli political opposition, that it is a Jewish supremacist, racist government.

Characterisations of the government, which clearly expressed the preferences of a majority of the Israeli Jewish electorate, as "the most extreme", "the most fundamentalist", and "the most racist" in Israel's history, became common. Other descriptions deemed it Israel's "first fascist" government.

This is aside from the fact that two years before the rise of the current government, historically pro-Israel mainstream western human rights organisations had adjudged Israel a racist "apartheid" state since its founding. Palestinians and their supporters have also used this label to describe Israel since at least the 1960s.

Comment: Psychopathic markers have been triggered - out in the open for the world to see. Programming complete.

West's attempts at 'derisking' from China is failing, intermediaries selling Chinese goods at higher cost instead - WSJ

Nathaniel Taplin
Wall Street Journal
Sat, 06 Jan 2024 08:00 UTC

Steering manufacturing away from Chinese factories could mean higher costs for U.S. buyers.

"Derisking" the West's ties with China — shorthand for measures like tariffs to build up supply chains in friendly nations — has a nice ring to it. After all, who could argue against reducing risks?

Sometimes, however, the way economic concepts are framed can be misleading. New research is shedding light on how "derisking" is actually playing out. The preliminary conclusions are concerning: Much of the resiliency that supply-chain measures are designed to create may be illusory. Moreover, more-complicated global supply chains are creating new risks, which policymakers might not fully appreciate.

Pairing protectionist policies toward China with genuine trade opening toward friendlier nations would enhance their effectiveness, but may not be politically expedient.

African migration to Europe surged in 2023 - Le Monde

RT
Thu, 11 Jan 2024 17:36 UTC

African migrants landing in the port of Salerno aboard the

The number of Illegal arrivals rose by 67% compared to the year before, data has shown

Europe remains exposed to the ongoing flow of migrants at its borders, despite measures designed to mitigate it, a report by French publication Le Monde said on Tuesday, after data showed the upward trend of illegal migration to the continent continued last year.

Citing figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the publication noted that some 266,940 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe in 2023. The report added that some 97% of these came by sea, with many arriving in Southern European countries like Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta, and Cyprus.

Comment: The causes, results, and the range of comments on the migration into Europe can be illustrated by taking a look at some of the previous headlines.

If somebody wants war, for reasons of their own, or wishes to prepare it for invasion, of some sort, it does not matter how the opposition to war is weakened and how the ground is prepared. From that perspective, stimulated immigration into Europe can be one of many tools.

Neo-Nazis in the US no longer see backing Ukraine as a worthy cause

Ben Makuch
The Guardian
Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:00 UTC

Like mainstream Republicans blocking military aid, American rightwing extremists are disavowing a war they once admired.

Two years into the war in Ukraine, once a destination for American extremists, many within the underground far-right movement in the US are avidly disavowing it and advising followers to stay away. Extremists now see the upcoming election year as tailor-made for activism on the home front.

At the outset of the war, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an intelligence bulletin that far-right American extremists were heading to the conflict and could use it to hone terrorist skills to bring back stateside.

Comment: If even retarded Neo Nazis can see Ukraine is a lost cause, you have to wonder what the war hawks in Washington are thinking!

See also:

More military aid for Ukraine is pointless - ex-US army officer

RT
Thu, 11 Jan 2024 07:28 UTC

Additional funding of Kiev's military will only lead to more deaths, Lt. Colonel David Davis says.

Further military aid to Ukraine will prolong the conflict with Russia without yielding a positive result, a retired US Army officer has argued, amid a rift in Congress over whether to release more funds for Kiev.

The US administration has so far failed to get Congressional approval for $61.4 billion in support for Ukraine, which is part of a larger $106 billion supplemental spending bill.

Comment: While it seems that everybody knows at this point that the entire Ukraine debacle is absolutely doomed for the West, Western elites just can't seem to accept it. More aid to Ukraine just means prolonging the inevitable.

See also:

Pentagon report finds failure to track $1 billion in weaponry for Ukraine

RT
Thu, 11 Jan 2024 15:24 UTC

Nearly 40,000 pieces of highly sensitive military equipment were not adequately inventorized, a new report has concluded

More than $1 billion worth of sophisticated weaponry sent to Ukraine by the US was poorly tracked, according to a new report by the Pentagon's inspector general. The redacted version of the inquiry's findings was made public on Thursday, one day after it was submitted to the US Congress.

The investigation focuses on the implementation of enhanced end-use monitoring (EEUM) procedures by the Pentagon. These procedures apply to a limited range of highly sensitive and sophisticated equipment and weaponry, including shoulder-mounted missile systems, kamikaze drones, night-vision devices, and other hardware.

Comment: There is little surprise in this headline; it was obvious from the beginning, given the corruption prevalent in Ukraine, and the nature of the chaos that surrounds any war that weapons intended for Ukraine would begin to leak out of it. Furthermore, it was reported early on that European gangs were involved in smuggling weapons out for use in their local crime-related conflicts as well as for further sales. On the global level, there is no lack of people willing to trade. The arms dealers and the military-industrial complex also have few objections. More war is more business and better share prices for them. See also:

US scientists held secret talks with Covid 'Batwoman' amid drive to make coronaviruses more deadly... just before pandemic

Glen Owen
Daily Mail
Sat, 06 Jan 2024 23:30 UTC

Shi Zhengli has denounced the idea of a lab leak as baseless, including claims that several of her colleagues in Wuhan were infected with Covid-19 before the outbreak emerged.

The Chinese scientist who ran controversial experiments at the laboratory suspected of triggering Covid held a secret meeting with the US government to seek backing for a project that would go on to supercharge coronaviruses - shortly before the devastating outbreak started in her native Wuhan.

The June 2017 meeting at America's National Institutes of Health (NIH) held by Shi Zhengli - known as 'Batwoman' because of her work on sampling and sequencing the animals' viruses - will bolster fears of Western collusion in a Chinese cover-up after Covid resulted from a reckless laboratory experiment.

A new cache of documents, obtained by Freedom of Information campaigners and seen by The Mail on Sunday, reveal the extent to which the controversial work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was supported, and often funded, by America.

Comment: See also:

Spain reintroduces face mask rules after seeing a surge in Covid and flu cases

Elena Salvoni
Daily Mail
Wed, 10 Jan 2024 16:41 UTC

People wearing face masks as a precaution wait for a doctor appointment inside a hospital in Barcelona on January 8

Spain is bringing back face masks in hospitals and healthcare centres from today after a surge in Covid-19 and flu cases in the country, the Health Ministry said.

The new leftist minority coalition government is imposing the measure despite opposition from most of Spain's 17 autonomous regions.

'We are talking about putting on a mask when you enter a health centre and taking it off when you leave,' Health Minister Monica Garcia told Cadena Ser radio.

'I don't think it is any drama. It is a basic and simple measure of the first order,' she added.

Spain's hospitals have come under immense pressure in recent weeks following a spike in cases of flu, Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

They did worse in Libya. The crimes committed by the Zionist government of the US are unbearable for a civilized society.

Fool on the Hill

I wonder how fast things can fall...cause I think it's coming.

ReRan

I thought it was more common knowledge now after decades of rumors that weather modification was a real thing and not just some wild conspiracy...

Seeker101

I would be surprised if weather warfare has not been considered. And likely used.

How long before the rabid dog takes its last breath? It won't likely be overnight.

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