Important Takeaways:
- Rice on cusp of fresh 15-year high in Asia
- Rice prices are on track for a new 15-year high, threatening to spark more angst in Asia and Africa where the grain is the staple for billions.
- …an Asian benchmark — has jumped by $57 over the past two weeks to $640 a ton following a period of relative calm, putting prices just short of the highest level since October 2008. That milestone was reached in early August in the wake of sweeping export curbs from top shipper India.
- Rice is vital to the diets of billions and contributes as much as 60% of the total calorie intake for people in parts of Southeast Asia and Africa. Rising prices have fueled higher inflation in major buyers Indonesia and the Philippines.
- The onset of El Niño, which typically brings drier conditions to growing areas in Asia, is poised to crimp supply even further. Thailand’s production is set to decline 6% in 2023-24 due to the climate phenomenon, while Vietnam directed some farmers to plant their new crop early warning of drought risks.
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Important Takeaways:
- Israel-Hamas War Day 56: Rockets rain down on Israel’s South
- Hamas in Gaza began firing rockets at Israel in the early hours of Friday morning, marking an end to the week-long ceasefire.
- Over an hour before the ceasefire was set to end at 7 a.m., a rocket was fired from Gaza toward southern Israel, with a second round of rocket fire reported a few minutes before the end of the ceasefire. The rocket fire continued throughout the day, with over 45 rockets fired into Israel as of Thursday afternoon.
- Three IDF soldiers were moderately wounded and two others were lightly wounded after a mortar fell near them near Nirim on Friday morning as the ceasefire ended
- After the ceasefire ended, intense clashes were reported in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City in northern Gaza, with Palestinian media reporting Israeli airstrikes throughout Gaza as well. The clashes expanded to additional areas in northern and central Gaza and Israeli airstrikes continued throughout the Strip.
- On Friday afternoon, the IDF stated that, in the wake of the Hamas initiated resumption of fighting, the IDF hit over 200 targets in Gaza since 7:00 a.m. that morning
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Important Takeaways:
- Amir Tsarfati: The Tide Is Once Again Turning Strongly Against The World’s Only Jewish State
- Global Attitude Toward Israel
- For the most part, the sympathy other nations felt for Israel as a result of the October 7 attack has run its course
- The United Nations General Assembly took time away from saving the world through peace and humanity to hold another vote to demand that Israel withdraws from all “occupied” territories and returns to its pre-1967 borders. Not only did it pass, it did so overwhelmingly. Only Australia, Canada, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, the UK, and the US voted against the ridiculous referendum. All others either voted yes or abstained.
- As the hostages have been released, stories have come out including one from a man who said that he was held in an attic for nearly fifty days by a teacher from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). How are we ever supposed to trust an agency whose own workers hold our people hostage?
- Throughout social media, cable and network news channels, the entertainment world, and academia, the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas sentiment is reaching hysterical levels. Marches, riots, and physical attacks stain almost every major city in the West. Last night, mobs of antisemitic Hamas supporters ran wild at the annual Christmas tree lighting in Manhattan. European governments, in particular, are going to have to make some very hard choices very soon as the militant element of the hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants is becoming more emboldened to express its hatred for western values and its desire to usher in Sharia law.
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Important Takeaways:
- Elon Musk’s Astounding AI Prediction for Next Three Years Shocks Community
- During his recent talk with CNBC anchor Andrew Sorkin at the Dealbook Summit…Elon Musk shared a prediction on AGI (artificial general intelligence) emerging and what it will be able to do less than three years from now.
- He believes that AGI will be created pretty soon, and it will be “smarter than the smartest human at anything” and will be able to “write as good a novel as J.K. Rowling, discover new physics, or invent new technology.” Musk believes that we are less than three years from this new reality.
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Important Takeaways:
- There is no rule of law. It is always the will of those in power – nothing more. Even Charles Dickens has written about how corrupt the legal system had become back in 1853. Dickens wrote in Chapter I of his famous novel Bleak House, “In Chancery”
- Our greatest mistake was the merger of Chancery (Queen’s Bench) and Law (King’s Bench) in American courts. This allows the judges to circumvent the law and deny equal protection of the law at will. So, they can prosecute Trump for a novel theory that was never applied or intended when the law was written. They shift the burden to prove it is unconstitutional to the citizen, and the expense to vindicate your rights becomes impossible, so the state will always win by default. Court-appointed lawyers lose 99% of their cases because to get that job, the government must win. They have NEVER defended a citizen that I have ever known or witnessed. They are beholding to the state for employment and will NEVER bite the hand that feeds them.
- There is no rule of law to protect us anymore. The government has stacked the courts with former prosecutors who rule in favor of the government, making the conviction rate in the USA now approaching 99%. Worse still, the government can do as it likes, and you must go to court to say – hey! I have constitutional rights! Good luck.
- The government uses the law to persecute those they disagree with. John Stuart Mill wrote in his On Liberty in 1859, and nothing has changed.
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Important Takeaways:
- Young Americans are losing faith in democracy — educators must act now
- In December 2021, a study of young people conducted by Harvard’s Institute of Politics showed that 52 percent “believe that the country’s democracy is either ‘in trouble’ or ‘a failed democracy.’” Just 7 percent said that democracy in the United States is “healthy.” Another poll, also conducted two years ago, found that “Not only do younger Americans express greater skepticism about American democracy, their doubts extend to feelings about being American and whether the US serves as a moral example in the world.”
- Younger Americans, it turns out, “express far less pride in their nationality than older Americans…. (S)eniors are more than twice as likely as young adults to say they are extremely proud to be American (23 percent vs. 55 percent).”
- A more recent study of the civic outlook of younger voters notes that “Young adults are dissatisfied with our political system (57%), and most have no or little trust in government institutions (52%).” Fewer than half (48%) plan to vote in the next general election, compared to about two-thirds of the general public.”
- But the erosion of support for democracy among young people is not just an American problem. As Freedom House, a democracy advocacy group, puts it, “Democratic backsliding has become a global trend. Amid this environment comes a rash of statistics suggesting that the world’s young people are increasingly disengaged from political life: they’re voting less, rejecting party membership, and telling researchers that their country’s leaders aren’t working in their interests.”
- A September 2023 survey of people in 30 countries found that 86 percent of its respondents “prefer to live in a democratic state and only 20% believe authoritarian regimes are more capable of delivering ‘what citizens want.’
- Back in this country, 55 percent of young people currently believe that “the country is heading in the wrong direction, with 16 percent saying it’s on the right track and the rest (28%) saying they’re not sure.”
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Important Takeaways:
- China defense report links high-altitude spy balloons to hypersonic missile program
- New Beijing command looks to dominate ‘near-space’ — domain the U.S. says does not exist
- China’s high-altitude balloon program is linked to the military’s hypersonic missile program and a new command for both systems is prepared to conduct “merciless” attacks in a future conflict with the United States, according to a Chinese defense research report.
- The report by a group of researchers at the National University of Defense Technology states that the military set up a new command for both hypersonic missiles and the high-altitude balloons — like the suspected surveillance balloon shot down in February off the South Carolina coast by an Air Force jet fighter after traversing much of the continental U.S.
- The report, “Near Space Operations Command,” made public during a Beijing conference on command and control in October, said the new operations command will direct hypersonic missiles against heavily protected targets, including communications equipment and hubs in the heartland of an adversary.
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Important Takeaways:
- Now DENMARK battles surge in same type of ‘white lung syndrome’ pneumonia sparking fears in China – after Netherlands warned of alarming spike in cases
- Denmark is currently being hit by a surge in the same type of pneumonia that has rocked China and sparked fears of a fresh pandemic.
- Danish health chiefs say rates of mycoplasma pneumoniae, a bacterial infection for which some antibiotics are useless, has reached ‘epidemic’ levels.
- Beijing has pointed to the same pathogen as being partly to blame for its ‘mystery’ wave of pneumonia — characterized by a dangerous inflammation of the lungs — in children.
- Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut (SSI) revealed rates have tripled over the past five weeks and warned more kids will be struck down this winter.
- It comes just days after the Netherlands reported its own alarming spike in children battling pneumonia, with similar reports in Denmark’s neighbor Sweden.
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Important Takeaways:
- Mystery wave of pneumonia hits AMERICA: Ohio county records 142 child cases of ‘white lung syndrome’ which it says ‘meets the definition of an outbreak’ – as China and Europe grapple with crises
- An ‘extremely high’ number of children are being diagnosed with pneumonia in Ohio — which is now the first US state to report an outbreak like the one in China.
- Health officials in Warren County, 30 miles north of Cincinnati, said there have been 142 pediatric cases of the condition — dubbed ‘white lung syndrome’ — since August.
- ‘Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak,’ the county’s health department said Wednesday.
- But a source at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, nationally, ‘nothing is out of the ordinary’.
- An ‘ongoing investigation’ is underway in Ohio into what is triggering the wave of illness, but officials do not think it is a new respiratory disease — and instead blame a mixture of several common infections all hitting at once.
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Important Takeaways:
- Another cadre of pro-Palestinian activists attempted to disrupt the much beloved Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting on Wednesday night.
- The protesters, estimated in the hundreds, swarmed the surrounding areas of Rockefeller Center and were seen clashing with police while chanting anti-Israel slogans like “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
- “Waving Palestinian flags and signs calling for the ‘end to genocide,’ the ralliers gathered along Sixth Avenue alongside hordes of tourists waiting in line to see the iconic ceremony,” reported the New York Post.
- The activists had been gathered outside the News Corp building, which also serves as home to the New York Post and Fox News. Video of the incident has been widely shared online:
- The disruption comes days after pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when they glued themselves to the street in the middle of the parade route.
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