Important Takeaways:
- American, British forces carry out large-scale strikes on Houthis in Yemen
- The U.S. and U.K. conducted large-scale air and missile strikes on Houthi rebel facilities across Yemen on Monday, according to a joint statement, stepping up operations against the militant group as it vows to continue attacking ships in the Red Sea.
- The U.S. and U.K. militaries, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, hit eight Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the Houthis’ continued attacks, according to a joint statement from the countries involved. The precision strikes were “intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners,” the statement said.
- The joint strikes targeted a Houthi underground storage site and targets connected to the Houthis’ missile and air surveillance capabilities, according to the statement. The underground bunker contained more advanced weapons than the facilities targeted in the coalition’s initial strikes this month, according to a senior military official, who like others interviewed for this story was granted anonymity to speak about sensitive operational details.
- “Our aim remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea,” the statement said, “but let us reiterate our warning to Houthi leadership: we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways in the face of continued threats.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Russia ‘will not be afraid to use NUCLEAR weapons in a war with NATO because it believes the US wouldn’t dare respond’
- Russia’s willingness to deploy nuclear weapons in a potential conflict with NATO is growing because the Kremlin believes the US and its allies would not dare to respond, a think tank warned yesterday
- ‘Knowing that the West is casualty- and risk-averse, Russia may seek to use enough non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNW) to inflict damage preventing its own defeat,’ the report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) read.
- ‘[Russia knows] the US would be unwilling to cross the nuclear threshold in retaliation, and may terminate the conflict early.
- ‘The Russian perception of the lack of credible Western will to use nuclear weapons or to accept casualties in conflict further reinforces Russia’s aggressive NSNW thought and doctrine,’ it concluded.
- The report said the logic of using such a nuclear weapon would be to escalate a conflict in a controlled fashion, ‘either to prevent the US and NATO from engaging, or to coerce them into war termination on Russian terms’.
- NSNWs include all nuclear weapons with a range of up to 3,400 miles, starting with tactical arms designed for use on the battlefield – as opposed to longer-range strategic nuclear weapons that Russia or the US could use to strike each other’s homeland.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Red Sea crisis: What it takes to reroute the world’s biggest cargo ships
- Hundreds of cargo ships are being rerouted around the southern tip of Africa to avoid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. But just how easy is it to divert the world’s biggest ships?
- Since November, Yemen’s Houthi rebel group has targeted vessels passing through the strait of Bab al-Mandab, a 20 mile (32km) wide channel that splits north-east Africa from Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula. They claim to be targeting vessels with connections to Israel following the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.
- They’ve used everything from heavily armed hijackers to missiles and drones. For seafarers caught up in the chaos, it must be terrifying. A tanker, for example, could carry around one million barrels of highly flammable oil.
- An estimated 12% of global trade passes through the Red Sea every year, worth more than $1tn (£790bn). But many shipping firms have begun avoiding the area altogether. Hundreds of giant container ships, some of them more than 300m (984ft) long, are now choosing a lengthy detour around the continent of Africa instead of heading up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal on voyages from Asia to Europe. But rerouting such large vessels is no easy task – the logistics involved can be enormous and time consuming.
- Elsewhere, the severe drought afflicting the Panama Canal and the war in Ukraine – which has curtailed grain shipments via the Black Sea – are also strangling global supply chains. There is an urgency to adapt and reroute, though it comes with serious financial and environmental consequences.
- Steering clear of the Red Sea and taking the lengthy detour around the Cape of Good Hope, however, adds around 3,500 nautical miles (6,500km) and 10-12 days sailing time to each trip. This requires extra fuel (an additional $1m/£790,000’s worth according to some estimates), possibly finding alternative ports of call, adjustments to delivery timetables, and rising costs. But many companies are making that choice rather than risk attack by missiles and hijackers.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The Biden administration is reportedly drawing up plans for “sustained” military action in Yemen against the Houthis after US strikes failed to stop rebel attacks on ships.
- American fighter jets have repeatedly struck Houthi sites in Yemen over the past ten days, with the latest on Saturday taking out an anti-ship missile that was preparing to fire, according to the US military.
- Despite the operations to destroy their radars, missiles and drones, the Iran-backed group – which has almost a decade of experience hiding its weapons from western-backed Saudi air strikes – has vowed to fight on, framing their attacks as an act of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack in Gaza.
- On Saturday the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration was crafting plans for a sustained campaign against the Houthis.
- No further details have been released on what they may look like though earlier this week Mr. Biden conceded the attacks would continue despite failing to deter the Houthis from their campaign.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- San Diego declares state of emergency as torrential rain overturns cars, topples trees and leads to dozens of rescues across California and Texas amid warnings of flash flooding and avalanches
- California and Texas were under flood warnings on Monday as torrential rain swept through a large swath of the country following a week of deep freeze.
- Flash floods inundated homes and overturned cars in San Diego, toppling trees and overflowing streets with videos showing vehicles buried beneath.
- All the way up north, early morning flooding hit the town of Guerneville, near San Francisco, where a creek overflowed after more than 4 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. The local school district canceled classes for the day.
- On the southern end of the state, the weather system unleashed a severe punch with the second major rain event of the winter.
- Floodwaters swept away vehicles and caused cars to pile on top of each other in parts of San Diego.
- In San Antonio, Texas, firefighters investigated whether five homeless people might have been swept away by rushing waters early Monday morning, according to fire department spokesperson Woody Woodward.
- They were camping in drainage tunnels next to a highway north of downtown, officials said.
- Some parts of the San Antonio area had received up to five inches of rain since Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.
- Rainfall was also soaking Houston, Dallas, as well as various parts of north and east Texas.
- In other parts of the country, as in Arkansas, there’s freezing rain. Forecasters warned that up to a half-inch of ice could coat parts of the state by Monday evening.
- That prompted an ice storm warning that includes much of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas and the cities of Fayetteville and Fort Smith.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Supreme Court Allows Federal Agents to Cut Razor Wire Texas Installed on US-Mexico Border
- The justices, by a 5-4 vote, granted an emergency appeal from the Biden administration, which has been in an escalating standoff at the border with Texas and had objected to an appellate ruling in favor of the state.
- The concertina wire along roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) of the Rio Grande near the border city of Eagle Pass is part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s broader fight with the administration over immigration enforcement.
- Abbott also has authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and allowed troopers to arrest and jail thousands of migrants on trespassing charges. The administration also is challenging those actions in federal court.
- In court papers, the administration said the wire impedes Border Patrol agents from reaching migrants as they cross the river and that, in any case, federal immigration law trumps Texas’ own efforts to stem the flow of migrants into the country.
- Texas officials have argued that federal agents cut the wire to help groups crossing illegally through the river before taking them in for processing.
- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the administration. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas voted with Texas.
- No one provided any explanation for their vote.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Robotic priests, AI cults and a ‘Bible’ by ChatGPT: Why people around the world are worshipping robots and artificial intelligence
- People around the world are turning to machines as a new religion.
- Six-foot robot priests are delivering sermons and conducting funerals, AI is writing Bible verses and ChatGPT is being consulted as if it was an oracle.
- Some religious organizations, like the Turing Church founded in 2011, are based on the notion that AI will put human beings on a par with God-like aliens by giving them super intelligence.
- An expert in human-computer interaction told DailyMail.com that such individuals who are following AI-powered prophets may believe the tech is ‘alive.’
- The personalized, intelligent-seeming responses offered by bots, such as ChatGPT, are also luring people to seek meaning from the technology, Lars Holmquist, a professor of design and innovation at Nottingham Trent University, told DailyMail.com.
- In 2015, French-American self-driving car engineer Anthony Lewadowski founded the Way of the Future – a church dedicated to building a new God with ‘Christian morals’ using artificial intelligence.
- Gabriele Trovato’s Sanctified Theomorphic Operator (SanTO) robot works like a ‘Catholic Alexa,’ allowing worshippers to ask faith-related questions.
- ‘The intended main function of SanTO is to be a prayer companion (especially for elderly people), by containing a vast amount of teachings, including the whole Bible,’ reads Trovato’s website.
- Other quasi-religious movements which ‘worship’ AI include transhumanists, who believe that in the future, AI may resurrect people as God-like creatures.
- Believers in ‘The Singularity’ hope for the day when man merges with machine (which former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil believes could come as early as 2045), turning people into human-machine hybrids – and potentially unlocking God-like powers.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- For a long time, many people had faith that the government would be able to keep society stable, but now that has changed. In fact, one recent survey discovered that a whopping 71.2 percent of all Americans “have no faith in the U.S. government to save them or prevent a doomsday event”…
- According to a survey of 6,200 Americans conducted by BonusFinder.com, 71.2 percent of Americans say they have no faith in the U.S. government to save them or prevent a doomsday event. Even more unnerving, many respondents believe Doomsday could come within the next year.
- If you actually believe that the government will be there to rescue you when things really start hitting the fan, you are just being delusional.
- Many Americans are realizing that they will be forced to rely on themselves as society collapses, and so an increasing percentage of the population is spending significant money on emergency preparedness…
- Last April, the financial-services firm Finder found that the number of Americans who said they’d recently spent money on emergency preparedness jumped from 20% in 2020 to 29% in 2023. They spent an average of $150 on items such as nonperishable food, medical supplies, and cases of water. Today you can’t turn on a streaming platform without catching recommendations for popular survivalist reality shows such as “Alone” or “Naked and Afraid,” and on social media, homesteading and disaster-prepping influencers have amassed millions of followers across various platforms.
- Disaster preparedness is on the rise, in large part, because disasters are as well: from the supply-chain shortages caused by COVID-19 lockdowns to the climate crisis, from wars in Ukraine and Gaza to tech-driven loneliness, from runaway disinformation to intractable political polarization. More people are asking: Am I better off being hyper dependent on the global industrial economy? Would it be safer to grow my own food, store my own water, and not depend on complex systems I don’t understand?
- Crime rates are already spiking all over the nation, and violent predators are seemingly everywhere. Earlier this week, Zero Hedge posted an excellent article about the vast hordes of psychopaths that are coming out of the woodwork these days…
- Discussions on collapse often turn to signs and signals – The economy, politics and social tensions have become increasingly unstable for many years now, and much like adding more and more weight to a man standing on a frozen lake, eventually the ice is going to break. The question is, how do we know when that moment will be?
- As cultural systems begin to dissolve due to political clashes and economic decline the real evil tends to slither out of the woodwork. It happens slowly at first, then all at once. A sure sign of accelerating collapse is the growing prevalence of psychopaths and psychopathic behavior in the open.
- US appears to have entered the middle stages of such a collapse with many sociopaths and psychopaths beginning to feel that they might be able to act out their worst impulses without consequences. They are beginning to test the waters to see what they can get away with.
- And I am entirely convinced that 2024 is going to be a historic turning point.
- This is not a game.
- The collapse of society really is coming, and most of the population will find themselves completely and utterly unprepared when it finally happens.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Shocking report from Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, indicates that federal law enforcement agencies wanted financial institutions to identify potential extremists by flagging otherwise benign purchases and search terms affiliated with former President Donald Trump in the wake of the incident at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
- On Wednesday, Jordan sent an alarming letter to Noah Bishoff, the former director of the Treasury Department’s Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, better known as FinCEN. According to the letter, Jordan’s committee and select subcommittee have collected documents which suggest that FinCEN was targeting law-abiding Americans “on the basis of protected political and religious expression.”
- One FinCEN document referenced in the letter allegedly urged financial institutions to query “Zelle payment messages” for terms such as “TRUMP” and “MAGA.” Another FinCEN analysis mentioned in the letter apparently suggested that these same institutions could identify possible “Lone Actor/Homegrown Violent” extremists by examining customers’ transactions, looking for the purchase of “religious texts” — including the Bible, Jordan said — or “bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets, for travel areas with no apparent purpose.”
- The letter also alleges that Key Bank created presentation slides about merchant category codes and keywords that financial institutions could use that might identify “potential active shooters” or other “dangerous International Terrorists / Domestic Terrorists / Homegrown Violent Extremists (‘Lone Wolves.’)” The MCCs Key Bank suggested supposedly included “3484: Small Arms” and “5091: Sporting and Recreational Goods and Supplies,” and the keywords supposedly included the names of notable national gun stores, such as “Cabela’s” and “Bass Pro Shops.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Nearly 75% of the U.S. could experience damaging earthquake shaking, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey-led team of more than 50 scientists and engineers.
- This was one of several key findings from the latest USGS National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM). The model was used to create a color-coded map that pinpoints where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur based on insights from seismic studies, historical geologic data, and the latest data-collection technologies.
- The congressionally requested NSHM update was created as an essential tool to help engineers and others mitigate how earthquakes affect the most vulnerable communities by showing likely earthquake locations and how much shaking they might produce. New tools and technology identified nearly 500 additional faults that could produce a damaging quake, showcasing the evolving landscape of earthquake research.
- Key findings from the updated seismic hazard model include:
- Risk to people: Nearly 75% of the U.S. could experience potentially damaging earthquakes and intense ground shaking, putting hundreds of millions of people at risk.
- Widespread hazard: 37 U.S. states have experienced earthquakes exceeding magnitude 5 during the last 200 years, highlighting a long history of seismic activity across this country.
- Structural implications: The updated model will inform the future of building and structural design, offering critical insights for architects, engineers, and policymakers on how structures are planned and constructed across the U.S.
- Unified approach: This marks the first National Seismic Hazard Model to encompass all 50 states simultaneously, reflecting a massive collaborative effort with federal, state, and local partners.
- Not a prediction: No one can predict earthquakes. However, by investigating faults and past quakes, scientists can better assess the likelihood of future earthquakes and how intense their shaking might be
Read the original article by clicking here.
