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Boat

USS Carney responds to multiple attacks on commercial ships in Red Sea

Navy destroyer Carney
© Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Lau/Navy
The Navy destroyer Carney fires missiles to counter drone and missile fire by Houthi rebels in Yemen on Oct. 19, 2023, in the Red Sea. The ship fended off several attacks on Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023, officials said.
Commercial ships came under attack Sunday by drones and missiles in the Red Sea and the Navy destroyer Carney shot down multiple air drones during an hours-long assault claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, officials said.

The attacks potentially mark a major escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Israel-Hamas war as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict.

"We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran," U.S. Central Command said in a statement late Sunday afternoon U.S. time. "The United States will consider all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international allies and partners."

Comment: See also:


Info

Why are younger voters flocking to the far right in parts of Europe?

alternative for germany supporters
© Jens Meyer/AP
Supporters of the Alternative for Germany party. In several European countries, support for the far right is growing fastest among younger voters, studies show.
Many young people are not xenophobic but their lives are precarious, say experts, amid crises in housing and healthcare

Lunching on a tuna sandwich in the central market of Volendam, a picturesque fishing port north of Amsterdam, Gerald, 24, was lucid about his choice in last week's Dutch election.

"I voted for Wilders, and many of my friends did too," he said. "I don't want to live with my parents forever. I want my own home, and to be able to provide for my family later on. Wilders wants to figure out the housing crisis, and make our healthcare better. Those are the most important topics for me."

Comment: See also:


Black Magic

Cosmopolitan magazine shares steps for how to have a 'Satanic Abortion Ceremony'

Baphomet statue
© JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
The Baphomet statue is seen in the conversion room at the Satanic Temple. The Satanic Temple opened up an abortion clinic in New Mexico.
Cosmopolitan, a popular magazine for young women, shared with readers how they could have a ritualized abortion service via an abortion facility named after Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's mother.

Cosmopolitan explained on its Instagram page on Nov. 16 about the process of having a Satanic-themed abortion. It specifically addressed a "ceremonial" service provided at the "Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic," named as an insult to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

"What's it like to have a Satanic abortion? For Jessica* [a fake name to keep the woman anonymous], a 37-year-old mother of three who received abortion medication via Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Clinic, 'the experience was just very supportive,'" Cosmopolitan wrote in an Instagram post. "While she's not a Satanist, Jessica decided to incorporate a few ceremonial elements into her solo abortion experience. 'Why not?' she thought. The overall messaging just clicked with her."

The post shared a series of slides elaborating on the steps of how to have a ritualized abortion ceremony as prescribed by The Satanic Temple. This included steps such as staring at one's reflection before taking an abortion pill and saying, "One's body is inviolable, subject to one's own will alone."

The ritual is later concluded by declaring, "By my body, my blood; by my will, it is done."

Comment: Well, that's creepy as.... hell. See also: Satanic Temple opens abortion clinic where patients undergo 'religious ritual' before pregnancy termination


Gift

Somalia receives free wheat from Moscow

russian cargo ship
© sonna.so
Somalia has taken delivery of 25,000 tons of humanitarian wheat from Russia, according to the East African nation's news agency, SONNA. A cargo ship carrying the aid arrived in the country's port of Mogadishu on Thursday.

Russia's ambassador to Somalia, Mikhail Golovanov, who arrived in Mogadishu on Saturday ahead of the delivery, handed over the free grain to Somalia's minister of maritime transport and ports, Abdullahi Ahmed Jama.

Moscow has committed to assisting Somalia in dealing with a hunger crisis caused by prolonged droughts and recent floods that affected most of the country's governorates, displacing around 250,000 people. The UN food program said last month that an estimated 4.1 million people in the country will face acute hunger by the end of the year.

Last month, Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev announced that two shipments of free grain had left for Burkina Faso and Somalia as part of a pledge made by President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa summit in July.

Chart Bar

Growing number of Ukrainians want peace talks - poll

Ukraine tank
© Getty Images / Ozge Elif Kizil; Anadolu
Ukrainians are almost evenly split on how to proceed in the conflict with Russia, local media reported on Sunday, citing a survey conducted in November by the Rating group.

According to the results of the poll, 44% of respondents said it was important to look for compromise in negotiations with Russia and that other countries should be brought into the process.

At the same time, 48% of those polled were opposed to any negotiations with Moscow, and insisted on continuing hostilities until Kiev retakes full control of the territories it has lost.

The results indicated a marked downturn in the number of Ukrainians who support prolonging the fighting with Moscow. In similar polls conducted in July and February, negotiations were backed by just 35% of respondents, while 60% were in favor of prolonging the conflict.

Dollars

The federal government paid media outlets to promote the Covid vaccine

capitolscreen
© Unknown
After releasing my three-part series earlier this year showing how multiple media outlets refused to platform dissent on the Covid vaccine, I was asked on multiple podcasts why this was the case. Ideological groupthink, fear of exacerbating institutional distrust and financial motives were on my list of potential explanations, but I did not have concrete evidence.

As I highlighted in my first piece, the responses I got from editors claiming their publication's "pro-vaccine" allegiance was quite jarring. More than anything else, a publication should be "pro-truth" - whether that means highlighting the astounding benefits of a therapeutic or exposing its serious side effects. The idea that a whole media corporation would take a firm stance on a novel, experimental product is antithetical to the core purpose of journalism.

As it turns out, mainstream media's nearly monolithic coverage of mRNA vaccines and other Covid measures can be at least partially explained by a clear financial interest. Recently, independent journalist Breanna Morello - who left Fox News because of draconian vaccine mandates in New York City - alerted me to a FOIA request filed by the conservative media company Blaze, which found a number of major media outlets were paid to promote the Covid vaccine. Such venues included the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NBC, CNN, Fox News and several others. Blaze's report received little coverage - even in conservative media (perhaps because some of those outlets were also paid by HHS) ideologically predisposed to criticise government-fuelled narratives on the pandemic.

Dollar

Feds spent more than $600K hiring influencers in 2021

Point arrow

Canada Influence Consultants point the way!
In 2021 the Canadian government turned to social media influencers to promote federal initiatives on multiple occasions, from the COVID-19 vaccine rollout to Winterlude 'staycations,' spending more than $600,000 in the process, according to a CTV News analysis.

Seeking out influencerssocial media users, often with large followings, who often use their platforms to make money by promoting products or eventsto amplify government messages is a relatively new strategy being deployed by administrations across the world, and Canada is no exception.

According to a CTV News analysis of documents recently tabled in the House of Commons, more than a dozen federal departments and agencies employed influencers to help get their messages out in the last year.

Elizabeth Dubois, a University of Ottawa professor whose work focuses on the intersections of communications, technology, and politics, said:
"Influencers or creators online do a really good job of building a tight-knit community, a niche community, who have a shared interest, shared experiences. And we know that people are most convinced to change their minds on something or change their behaviors when they connect with the message. And so influencers and creators are really great at tailoring messages to particular audiences. A big pro of making use of these kinds of influencers to get government messages out is you can reach specific communities."
The figures, presented in response to an inquiry from the Conservatives, show that of the federal entities who disclosed their related spending between Jan. 1, 2021 and Jan. 31, 2022, Health Canada was the top spending department when it came to contracting influencers.

Comment: It's 'persuasion by identification' soft-sell advertising and a teensy part of your hotel bill...a growing industry at your expense.


Dollars

Bidenomics in Action

"We are at an inflection point, a threshold, where weak, brittle, effete personality structures are a threat to human civilization." — JD Haltigan
US Economy
© dzen.ru
If you're troubled at all about the state of our country, and even your own small role in it, you might be asking yourself whether the people running things have any idea what they're doing. Some of these doings happen in the metaphysical realm of finance, for instance America's national debt ($34-trillion and going up like mad), and the death of the US dollar, along with the bonds that underwrite it. Or the game of hide-the-salami with the repo and reverse repo markets played between the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury to give the broken banking system the appearance of stability when it is actually in deepening ruin.

Did you understand any of that? Probably not, but not because you're dumb. It's because all that action is meant to be incomprehensible even to people who went to grad school. The news media only amplify the mystification. The net effect is that increasingly nothing in the life of our nation is real. Every action taken is a swindle of one kind or another, a cavalcade of switcheroos aimed at zeroing out the consensus about reality.

What trickles down from all this cosmic activity is the dwindling possibility of a fruitful life for most Americans. You cannot make a living. You can't fix all the machines in your life or get new ones. You can't get married because there's no way you can fulfill your end of the contract. You search in vain for something purposeful to do. You are eventually faced with the choice: surrender to depression and hopelessness, or revolt against a ruling blob that is only good at one thing: depriving you of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Display

Cyberattacks in multiple US states disrupts factories, Israel's gov't adopts new 'wartime digital powers'

cyberattack israel palestine

This photo provided by the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa shows the screen of a Unitronics device that was hacked in Aliquippa, Pa., on Nov. 25.
An Iran-linked hacking group is "actively targeting and compromising" multiple U.S. facilities for using an Israeli-made computer system, U.S. cybersecurity officials say.


Comment: Not only are hackers difficult to identify, the US itself admitted that it is able to cover its own cyber tracks with the footprints of other actors, therefore any claims that these groups are 'Iran-linked' is questionable.


The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said on Friday that the hackers, known as "CyberAv3ngers," have been infiltrating video screens with the message "You have been hacked, down with Israel. Every equipment 'made in Israel' is CyberAv3ngers legal target."


Comment: Which means that the Israeli companies, and by default, Mossad, have the backdoors to these systems.


The cyberattacks have spanned multiple states, CISA said. While the equipment in question, "Unitronics Vision Series programmable logic controllers," is predominately used in water and wastewater systems, companies in energy, food and beverage manufacturing, and health care are also under threat.

Comment: A few years ago WEF-linked groups warned of a coming 'global cyber-pandemic', and, since then there have been regular hacks on government and corporate systems - notably, few of them were alleged to be linked to China/Russia/Iran - and it seems more reasonable to suppose that, whilst some of them may emanate from groups backed by, or in alignment with the multi polar world, it seems that the majority of these attacks most likely to benefit the West and its allies: See also: Turkey's intelligence organization foils Mossad attempt to kidnap Palestinian Iron Dome hacker


NPC

Disney admits 'misalignment with public and consumer tastes' has 'adversely impacted' the company, SEC filing reveals

Disney protest
© Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times
Protesters rally in opposition to The Walt Disney Company's stance against a recently passed Florida law outside of the company's headquarters in Burbank, Calif., on April 6, 2022.
After years of unsuccessfully trying to force its woke agenda upon its customers, the world's largest family entertainment company is finally admitting there may be some truth to the saying coined by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: "Go Woke. Go Broke."

According to its latest filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Walt Disney Company acknowledged that it faces "risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel, and consumer products," and that "revenues and profitability are adversely impacted" when their "entertainment offerings and products" don't "achieve sufficient consumer acceptance."

Conversely, it describes itself as "a diversified worldwide entertainment company" with "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" objectives that include "building teams that reflect the life experiences of our audiences, while employing and supporting a diverse array of voices in our creative and production teams."

According to the filing, the company's revenues for fiscal 2023 were $88.9 billion. While this was a seven percent increase over fiscal year 2022, The Hollywood Reporter noted that Disney was forced to cut spending on television and movie content from $29.8 billion to $27.2, and Business Insider reported in May that Disney entered its third round of layoffs, releasing around 7,000 employees, and scrapping plans to build $900 million corporate campus in Florida.