Gonzalo Lira, a prominent commentator on the Russia-Ukraine war imprisoned in Ukraine for speech critical of the country's government, has died after weeks of medical neglect by Ukrainian authorities.

Chilean-American war commentator Gonzalo Lira died shortly before noon on January, 11, 2024 at a hospital in Kharkiv, where he had been imprisoned for eight months since he was accused of justifying Russian war efforts in Ukraine.

Lira came to prominence in 2022 when he emerged as a critical voice in an increasingly dictatorial Ukraine. His arrest in May 2023 on charges of "production and dissemination of materials justifying Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine" helped to galvanize domestic opposition to US funding for the war and led to calls for his release by tech baron Elon Musk and American political commentator Tucker Carlson.

A note written by Lira and provided by his father to The Grayzone indicates his death came after a nearly three-month battle with pneumonia, a condition which was apparently ignored by his Ukrainian jailers until just weeks before his death. Lira's death was revealed by his father, Gonzalo Lira, Sr., who had spent weeks pleading with the American embassy to intervene in his son's medical emergency.

Emails reviewed by The Grayzone show that after learning of his son's illness, the senior Lira urged the embassy to intervene on January 3. In a message to US officials, he noted that Ukrainian authorities appeared to make an effort to conceal information about Lira Jr.'s health from his family and legal representatives. "The medical warden in the pre-trial jail in Kharkiv is not giving information as to the state of his health," he wrote, concluding: "It has been 12 days since I knew his state."

Saudi Arabia's unilateral blockade of Yemen since late March 2015 has caused a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in the Arabian peninsula. It is extremely difficult for journalists, aid workers and diplomats to access the country, but from the little information that does leak out, it is clear the situation there is dire. From a population of 25 million - about the same as Syria's pre-2011 - at least 16 million Yemenis are without clean water, there is a critical shortage of medicine, and 6.5 million civilians are at risk of starvation, including 1.7 million children presently at risk of malnutrition. Peter Maurer, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said after visiting the country last August: "Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years."

Widespread aerial bombardment by air forces of the Saudi and Gulf states - with significant direct and indirect military assistance from the US and UK - has killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. During a press briefing early this year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that "the number of civilian casualties recorded between 26 March and 31 December, 2015 [is] 8,119 people, including 2,795 killed and 5,324 wounded." However, Dr. Judith Brown, who worked in Yemen for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, points out that the death toll resulting from this military intervention is probably much higher than reported.

Let's face it. Bigfoot is real. The only question is, what is it? With now thousands of credible encounters that would be difficult to ignore or dismiss, we know many individuals have also observed a host of seemingly paranormal phenomena that quite often accompany these large strange creatures. Orbs, ball lightening, strange smells, space-time anomalies, electromagnetic fluctuations; not to mention witnessing these cryptids moving at super-fast speeds, and morphing into different forms; making our conceptions of what Bigfoot are very likely obsolete.

But what if some of the experiences of these beings, and others like them, has something to do with our tentative understanding of cutting edge science? What if what many have seen has much in common with the way that "coherent matter" works? Are there correlations between cold fusion, or low-energy nuclear reaction, technology and access to other realms of reality? And what have a number of leading scientists in physics been known to say about the fluid nature of reality?

This week on MindMatters we are pleased to speak with Dr. Simeon Hein whose recent book, Dark Matter Monsters: Cryptids, Ball Lightning, and the Science of Secret Lifeforms, is a serious exploration of just such questions.


Running Time: 02:05:40

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Strong earthquakes in Japan, more Israeli war crimes and terrorism, and 'aliens' in downtown Miami - 2024's off to a rocky start! Joe and Niall are back with another NewsReal, opening with the freak-out over '8-foot-tall aliens' allegedly sighted at a mall in Miami on New Year's Eve, and ending on the return to news cycle of the Mossad-Epstein child-sex-blackmail operation.

The bulk of this show, however, discusses the latest developments in the Middle East: Israel's ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza, Israel's assassination of Hamas leaders in Beirut, Lebanon, Israel's terror attack against civilians at IRGC General Soleimani's grave on the 4th anniversary of his assassination, and the likely forthcoming condemnation of Israel at the ICJ.


Running Time: 01:34:35

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As Solar Cycle 25 is about to reach an unexpected peak, we observe an increase in electrical phenomena such as air-spirals, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

A massive solar storm that nearly reached "X-class" status hit Earth on the first day of the month, causing some minor radio and internet disruptions worldwide. This was followed by one of the largest solar flares since 2017 on December 15, which temporarily knocked out radio communications on Earth, affecting even the higher frequencies.

"These impacts were felt from one end of the Nation to the other," said the NOAA.

The strong and persistent magnetic storms have also affected the ozone hole in the southern hemisphere, which remains unusually large for this time of year when it normally shrinks. It has remained at a size of about 15 km² to become the third largest after November 30.

At the same time, record cold weather in the stratosphere produced polar clouds earlier and farther south than usual, with people from all over the Northern Hemisphere reporting or recording sightings. These are extraordinary excursions from the normal polar cloud habitat.

South Africa's 84 page long Application to the International Court of Justice to begin proceedings against Israel for its genocide in Gaza is a devastating document laying out Israel's genocidal acts and statements in horrifying detail.

On Thursday, December 28, South Africa filed an Application Instituting Proceedings at the International Court of Justice to commence proceedings in a legal forum against Israel for its genocide in Gaza, and to press for "provisional measures" - a preliminary order requiring the Israel Government and military to cease their genocidal acts in Gaza pending a full hearing by the court.

South Africa's Application is 84 pages long and devastating - to the State of Israel, to its Jewish political and military leaders and personnel committing the genocidal acts and speaking openly of their genocidal intent, to those in Israel, America, and Europe standing so firmly in support of them, and to the Jewish people in whose name Israel purports to act.

The Application lays out these genocidal acts and statements in horrifying detail, after noting the contextual background so often missing in diplomatic and mainstream media discussion of the Gaza war.

The ancient idea of spiritual gnosis has evolved and branched to reflect the time and place in which we live. Nowhere is this development more evident than in the writings and scholarship of author Arthur Versluis. In his groundbreaking new book American Gnosis: Political Religion and Transcendence, Versluis takes an in-depth look at the varieties of modern 'neo-gnosticism.' These include cosmological gnosticism - the worldly effort to escape from archons of darkness or hostile beings that would seek to subjugate the world through politics and other power structures. Another is metaphysical gnosis, or transcendence that is less a reaction to the perception of evil overlords than movement towards divine knowledge for its own sake.

Join us this week on MindMatters as we delve into the realm of cosmological gnosis with Arthur Versluis, and look at the plethora of ways in which some really old ideas have been reinvigorated (alongside some newer ones). How do these ideas present themselves in literature, TV and movies? Is there is a crossover between 'political awakening' and 'spiritual awakening'? And what, if anything, may this have to do with some developments we've been seeing with the so-called 'dissident right' in the US?


Running Time: 01:26:16

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Concerns about 'organ theft' by Israel's forces from dead Palestinians were raised by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

Israel's army has been accused of stealing organs from the dead in Gaza by an NGO, which called for an independent international investigation.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on Sunday it had "concerns" about possible organ theft from Palestinian corpses, following reports by medical professionals in Gaza who examined some bodies after they were released by Israel.

The NGO claimed it has documented Israeli forces confiscating dozens of dead bodies from the al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza, alongside others in the south.

As we approach the end of 2023, the SOTT.net team would like to wish all our readers and followers a peaceful and happy Christmas, and a prosperous and adventurous new year. We remain ever grateful for the continuing support we receive from this far-flung network of like-minded truth-seekers. Without your support, there would be no Signs of the Times, so thank you. If it's within your means to do so, please consider donating below so that we may keep bringing you the news and views that matter!

Israel's ongoing, shocking obliteration of Gaza is truly of 'biblical' proportions. The Israeli regime has already killed more Palestinians in the past six weeks than it killed during the Nakba ('catastrophe') that initially 'shaped' Israel in 1948-9. We say 'biblical' not just because, like the war in Ukraine, it looks set to generate another wave of refugees, and not just because it could potentially ignite a wider Middle East war. This war is 'biblical' because it's not really a war, but rather a shockingly inhuman, AI-powered, hi-tech orgy of atavistic terrorism - a viciously cruel military bombardment of a defenseless civilian population.

In a grotesque perversion of scripture, Israeli PM Netanyahu claims that, "We [Israelis] are sons of light, they [Palestinians] are sons of darkness," whereas, in fact, he is a modern-day mad 'king' leading a real-world 'massacre of the innocents', of children, all of whom are being sacrificed for his career and 'legacy'.

We cannot speak for the unfathomable suffering of Gazans, but the contrived events of October 7th and Israel's subsequent 'revenge' have been something of a 'test' of all people: who has a conscience, and who does not? Who Sees the crux of the matter, beyond ideological superficiality and what the Israeli regime claims happened outside Gaza on October 7th?

'Left vs Right' tribalism, as we've observed recently, isn't much of a guide in matters of Truth, and of the heart. Many on the erstwhile 'conservative-christian' Right, in cheering this, certainly appear to have 'gone over to the Dark Side'. But as appalling as it is that this is happening, with nothing being done to stop it, the 'cost' for the perpetrators is the exposure of their nature for all the world to see. The burst of 'truth-telling' this has spurred on social media and in public discourse generally (with the possible exception of the vaccine mandates) is unprecedented.

American President Joe Biden likes to talk about "inflexion points" when he is lecturing about world affairs and the supposed superiority of the United States. This year is indeed an inflexion point.

It was the year that the entire world saw the truly hideous and criminal nature of U.S. power.

Washington's fuelling of the futile conflict in Ukraine and the despicable slaughter in Gaza is a wake-up call for the entire world. The United States stands barefaced and grotesque as the primary purveyor of war. There can be no doubt about that. For many it is shocking, scandalous and frightening.

Tragically, it seems, for the world, every year's end is an occasion to witness and lament conflicts, wars and suffering over the preceding 12 months. Often the causes of wars and suffering are seemingly unfathomable.

However, this year seems to be unique. The year ends with a horrendous massacre in Gaza that is unprecedented and perpetrated by Israel with the full support of the United States. The scale of deliberate mass killing in Gaza makes it a genocide. The fact that this abomination is occurring at Christmas time when the world is supposed to celebrate the divine birth of Jesus Christ - the Prince of Peace - in the very place where he was born some 2,000 years ago makes the abomination all the more profane and damning.

What is particularly wretched is that the heinous destruction of children is happening in full view of the world. There is no remorse or pretence. It is full-blown premeditated murder done with cruelty and sickening impunity.

Virtually the whole world is horrified by the devastating, relentless violence and absolute violation of international law. The butchery by the Israeli regime cannot in any way be rationalized by the previous attack on Israel by Palestinian militants on October 7. Those killings by Hamas have been cynically used as a pretext for the subsequent and ongoing annihilation of Palestinian civilians.

This genocide could not happen without the crucial support of the United States for the Israeli regime. Financially, militarily and diplomatically, Washington is sponsoring the horror in Gaza as well as the Occupied West Bank.