This Week's Must Reads - 15-21 January 2024

A summary of this week's most interesting news, studies, reports and articles

I spend a lot of time each day gathering new information and interesting articles. I then pick the most interesting topic and write about it but that leaves a lot of information that I’m not sharing.

Below is a summary of all the best articles and information from this week. This weekly summary is a slimmed down version for all subscribers but more comprehensive daily summaries will be for paid subscribers only.

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Climate Change

• Winter Woes – Green New Deal Turns Deadly. Over 150 million Americans are under a winter chill advisory due to life-threatening temperatures. Every state besides Hawaii has issued some form of caution to residents as nearly 80% of the nation faces below-freezing weather. Extreme weather highlights the importance of fossil fuels, as there is NO reliable alternative. The New Green Deal has become deadly in America and all climate change initiatives threaten civilization at large. The globalists will never convince free thinkers that they must save the planet by limiting indispensable resources that are essential for certain states and nations to remain inhabitable.

• Port Talbot has been sacrificed to the angry god of net zero. The Port Talbot steelworks is not part of Port Talbot, the steelworks is Port Talbot. They say 12 per cent of the residents work at the plant but, if you only count those of working age, it’s more like a third. The Indian owners Tata Steel announced the loss of up to 2,500 jobs, many of them the main breadwinner in their families. Why? The high price of UK energy makes Port Talbot uncompetitive but other countries heavily subsidise their steelworks. Ultimately, this human catastrophe is a political choice. Make no mistake; some 141,931 people (the population of greater Neath Port Talbot) have been sacrificed on the altar of net zero. That absurd and misanthropic creed which calls British workers losing their jobs “progress” while their carbon will now be emitted in India and China.

Covid

• Chinese lab had COVID-19 mapped two weeks before global outbreak: documents. A Chinese researcher isolated and mapped out COVID-19 — and submitted it to a US-run database — at least two weeks before Beijing officially identified the virus which has claimed more than 3 million lives worldwide, according to bombshell new documents. The documents, obtained from the US Department of Health and Human Services by House Republicans and first reported by the Wall Street Journal, show virologist Dr. Lili Ren uploaded nearly the entire sequence of COVID-19’s structure to a US government-run database on Dec. 28, 2019.

• US scientists proposed to make viruses with unique features of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan. The documents reveal for the first time that a virologist working with the Wuhan lab planned to engineer new spike proteins – in contrast with the collaboration’s public work to insert whole spike proteins into viral backbones. Language in the proposal indicates this work may have involved unpublished viruses, generating unpublished engineered spike proteins. The new documents reveal that the scientists planned to use new reverse genetics systems and test viruses in vivo — in other words, to engineer live novel viruses.

• ‘Deranged loner’ could unleash new pandemic on the world, top scientist warns. ‌Laboratories, equipment and expertise are becoming increasingly available globally due to the democratisation of science, with security experts cautioning that acts of bioterrorism are a concern of the same magnitude as chemical or nuclear warfare. Lord Rees, the Astronomer Royal, cautioned that developments in biotechnology have made it easy for rogue actors to obtain, manipulate and enhance a pathogen.

Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

• We Need Real Covid Inquiries. Nearly four years on since the onset of the pandemic and the rash of public policy interventions to manage and contain it, many more people have become sceptical of the range of policy responses by health officials, governments, and drug regulators. Yet, substantial numbers remain convinced that while mistakes might have been made, the interventions were mostly successful and generally well-intentioned in unprecedently challenging circumstances of a fast-spreading lethal new virus.

• The world’s richest men got $465 billion richer during the pandemic.

  

Economy/Energy/Finance

• Second Round of Inflation Is Coming. We just got the December Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed an overall increase of 3.4 percent unadjusted in the last year and 0.3 percent vs last month. This was above expectations of 3.2 percent for the year and above expectations of 0.2 percent for the month. The Core CPI which excludes food and energy was up 3.9 percent for the last year and up 0.3 percent from last month. The annual number was above expectations of 3.8 percent, and the monthly increase was in line with expectations. The difference is due to rounding. The annual number is still almost double the Fed’s 2.0 percent target.

• Repo and the Global Monetary Reset. In 2019, something happened to the repo market, before the Covid19 pandemic ripped through and locked down the world. On September 17, repo rates spiked hugely intraday, and the Fed turned on the dollar printer like never before, and they haven’t stopped. Perhaps things aren’t as they seem and the stakeholders in this credit system are in the process of transferring all their financialized wealth from the old broken credit system to something new. It’s easy to do with gobs of fiat being printed for war. Only when the transfer is complete, might they engineer a rug pull under the U.S. stock market, causing investors to run into bonds. This might stabilize the dollar for a while, but eventually bond holders would be bagged by either default or dollar devaluation. Out of this, banks would fail; many people would lose their jobs, pensions, and benefits; and the new monetary system would kick in.

• Seasonally adjusted annual rate of existing US home sales fell to its lowest point since the housing bubble burst in 2010.

  

• UK house prices fall at fastest pace in more than a decade. Average prices contracted 2.1 per cent in the year to November 2023, down from a 1.3 per cent fall in the 12 months to October and the largest annual drop since June 2011, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. London was the worst-performing UK region, registering a 6 per cent annual contraction, the biggest since 2009. But the capital remained the most expensive part of the country, with the average home costing £505,000.

• Occidental’s CEO Sees Oil Supply Crunch from 2025. The ratio of discovered resources versus demand has dropped in recent decades and is now at around 25%. Oxy CEO Hollub: “2025 and beyond is when the world is going to be short of oil.”. Oil industry executives have been warning that new resources, new investments, and new supply will be needed just to maintain the current supply levels as older fields mature.

• Electric cars suffer ‘unsustainable’ depreciation in secondhand market. Research from Auto Trader said there were “unsustainable levels of depreciation” in the electric car market, with used prices of battery-powered vehicles dropping by 23pc in the last year alone. It said that the price of used electric cars could come under further pressure this year as thousands of motorists return vehicles acquired on three-year leases and as manufacturers cut the price of new vehicles.

• General US business conditions aren’t looking great.

  

• IMF official warns central banks against fuelling market hopes for rapid interest rate cuts. Investor expectations of looser monetary policy could fuel another flare-up of inflation, says Gita Gopinath. “The job is not done,” Gopinath told the Financial Times during an interview in Davos, Switzerland. “[Central banks] must move cautiously. Once you cut rates, it solidifies expectations of further rate cuts and you could end up with much larger loosening — which can be counter-productive.”

Health

• Matt Le Tissier’s battle for the truth about footballer deaths. CONCERNS about the number of collapsing professional football players continue, but their governing bodies refuse to launch an investigation into the cause. This is despite pressure from nearly 100 footballing legends. Matt Le Tissier, 55, who played for Southampton and England, said: ‘During my 17 years on the pitch, I never witnessed professional footballers collapsing during play.

• Study discovers biggest cause of 'alarming surge' of excess deaths in UK. Heart failure is the biggest driver of an alarming surge in excess deaths, a study reveals, as MPs demand a "thorough investigation" into the trend. Research by scientists at Oxford University shows that while cancer and dementia deaths have fallen, deaths from heart and circulatory problems are spiralling. This includes deaths from heart disease, heart attacks, strokes and lung clots. The scientists say the rise cannot be accounted for by an ageing or growing population.

• Cause-specific excess mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020–2022: a study using nationwide population data. Besides deaths due to COVID-19 (a total of 32,491 during 2020–2022), all countries experienced excess deaths due to cardiovascular diseases (in total 11,610 excess deaths), and under-mortality due to respiratory diseases other than COVID-19 (in total 9878) and dementia (in total 8721). The excess mortality due to cardiovascular diseases was particularly pronounced in Finland and Norway in 2022, and the under-mortality due to dementia was particularly pronounced in Sweden in 2021–2022.

Middle East

• Ships Advertise Chinese Links to Avoid Houthi Attack in Red Sea. At least five vessels transiting the Red Sea are using their signals to say they have links to China — the latest unusual measure taken to try and avoid attack by Houthi militants in the Red Sea. Each of the ships is signaling “all Chinese crew” or something similar in a field that would normally contain its destination. Two are currently in the Red Sea, while two more have navigated the risky waterway and are now sailing to Asia. A fifth appears to be heading toward the Gulf of Aden.

• Israel-Gaza war: Palestinian envoy to UN thanks China, ‘a true friend’, for its support. The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations called China “a true friend ready to do everything they can to help the Palestinian people” on Thursday, days after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledged Beijing would provide more assistance and push for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. "We know the position of China very well. It is a principled position. We work very closely with them in the United Nations Security Council. They support every effort and every resolution that calls for immediate ceasefire and for providing humanitarian assistance."

Politics

• FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities. The Federal Aviation Administration is actively recruiting workers who suffer mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website. “Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

• Australian MPs pen letter urging UK government to stop Julian Assange's US extradition, citing health concerns. The parliamentary letter to U.K. Home Secretary James Cleverly is signed by the co-convenors of the Australian Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group. The letter cited the 2023 U.K. Supreme Court decision in AAA v Secretary of State for the Home Department, which found that courts in the U.K. cannot solely rely on third-party assurances by foreign governments and must make independent assessments of the risk of persecution to people before an order is made to remove them from the U.K.

• Poland You have 6hrs to Report for Duty. On January 13, Poland passed a completely radical new form of conscription card intended in the event of mobilization and during a war. The changes in this formula are significant, with the 6-hour notice and the drastic penalties for failing to report to the army in such situations clearly showing the backdrop intent for war. The governments of Europe are selling the nonsense that Putin wants to take Europe. The common Russian people no more want war than the average European. The common people lose everything, the elite profit, and the whole thing never solves anything. Hermann Göring was absolutely correct.

• NATO official warns West: Be ready for ‘anything’. NATO countries need to be on red alert for war and "expect the unexpected," the chair of the alliance's military committee of national chiefs Rob Bauer said Wednesday. “In order to be fully effective, also in the future, we need a warfighting transformation of NATO,” said Bauer during a meeting of military chiefs in Brussels. “For this too, public-private cooperation will be the key.” “The tectonic plates of power are shifting,” he added. “And as a result: We face the most dangerous world in decades.”

• Journalist Uncovers "Shadowy Network" Of NGOs Facilitating US Border Invasion. Journalist James O'Keefe uncovered a "shadowy network of secretive nonprofits" (some of which are funded by taxpayers) that are facilitating the invasion of illegals on the southern border. O'Keefe said "Alita's Angels" is a "brand-new nonprofit with no tax records on file" that operates inside an old Bank Building in the Arizona border town of Nogales. "These "Alitas" groups are part of a shadowy network of secretive nonprofits funding the mass migration of millions of people into the country, without truly vetting asylum seekers' claims and determining if they are eligible for refugee status," the journalist continued.

• The West’s Nightmare: How Russia and Hamas are Winning the Geopolitical Wars. Europe is suffering the consequences of the US hegemonic ambitions and its dependence on Washington. This time, the price will be higher than ever and will erode the reputation and influence of Europe in many parts of the world and even within its own continent. This is the familiar tale of Europe’s failures in recent years; failures that resulted from blindly following Washington. However, this time, the Europeans might want to heed the Chinese proverb “If you make a mistake and do not correct it, this is called a mistake” and avoid paying for the US greed again.

• NATO to hold biggest drills since Cold War with 90,000 troops. NATO is launching its largest exercise since the Cold War, rehearsing how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance's eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a "near-peer" adversary. Some 90,000 troops are due to join the Steadfast Defender 2024 drills that will run through May, the alliance's top commander Chris Cavoli said on Thursday.

• YoY change in the US population is worse than at any time in over 100 years.

  

• Conservative Speaker Slams Davos Globalists To Their Faces. Kevin Roberts, President of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, spoke to globalists at the World Economic Forum confab Thursday and told them directly that “You are part of the problem, you are not the solution.” When the discussion turned to Donald Trump, Roberts told the host of the panel, Sir Robin Niblett, ‘Distinguished Fellow’ of Chatham House, that “It’s laughable that you or anyone would describe Davos as protecting liberal democracy,” adding “It’s equally laughable to use the word ‘dictatorship’ at Davos and aim that at President Trump… I think that’s absurd.”

Science

• ‘It only takes one to be real and it changes humanity for ever’: what if we’ve been lied to about UFOs? The continuing lack of transparency about UFOs in the US is causing concern not only about the existence of aliens but about the psychological fallout of uncovering a conspiracy. If you thought that we were about to finally get the truth about UFOs, think again. At the end of last year, a US government bill that would have mandated the controlled release of all classified documents and artefacts relating to UFOs was significantly watered down at the last minute so that it would get through Congress.

• [The power or prime numbers] US to be inundated by swarm of cicadas for first time in over 200 years. Known as "heat bugs," cicadas make their annual presence felt across the country, but this summer millions of them from the XIX brood (emerging every 13 years) and the XIII brood (every 17 years) burst forth from underground. They will blanket the southern and Midwestern regions in search of a mate, as reported by the dedicated Cicadamania website. Illinois, Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia, are listed by the website as the most likely sighting locations. The last time these monstrous swarms synchronized their emergence was in the year 1803 when the US acquired the Louisiana Territory from France.

• 'A big cosmological mystery': Newfound cosmic corkscrew defies our understanding of the universe. The structure is so large, it defies one of the simplest rules of cosmology. Named the Big Ring, the gigantic spiral of galaxies and galaxy clusters is 1.3 billion light-years wide and has a circumference of 4 billion light-years, making it one of the largest objects ever seen. Both the Big Ring and the Giant Arc are so large they could lead astronomers to throw out old models of the universe's birth and evolution.

  

• A Massive Amount of Water Ice Has Been Found on Mars, Lurking Beneath The Equator. The surface of Mars may appear barren and lifeless, but it seems the red planet is keeping quite a few secrets hidden from prying human eyes. Luckily, we have technology – and a new radar survey of the Medusae Fossae Formation region on the Martian equator has revealed what appears to be giant layered slabs of buried water ice, several kilometers thick. It's the most water ever found around Mars' middle, and suggests the dry old dustball isn't quite as devoid of the stuff as we thought.

Technology

• What Could Possibly Go Wrong? British Government & World Economic Forum plan to replace clinical trials with AI projections. Five years ago the British Government announced a collaboration with the then little talked about World Economic Forum to research innovative methods of regulation. It is not exactly clear what administrative or financial role the WEF play in this project but in practice the UK Department of Business awards bursaries to research various futuristic concepts. Projects were announced in 2021 and 2022 among the craziest being “Using High-fidelity Synthetic Data as synthetic control arms and to boost sample sizes in clinical trials”. Against a background where the WEF, WHO and the British government propose to have a new “vaccine” ready within 100 days of their expected new pandemic this is presumably how they would model the safety and effectiveness of a product with few or no trial participants. Weep.

• Digital Kill Switches: How Tyrannical Governments Stifle Political Dissent. What’s to stop the U.S. government from throwing the kill switch and shutting down phone and internet communications in a time of so-called crisis? After all, it’s happening all over the world. Communications kill switches have become tyrannical tools of domination and oppression to stifle political dissent, shut down resistance, forestall election losses, reinforce military coups, and keep the populace isolated, disconnected and in the dark, literally and figuratively.

• OpenAI Changes Its Stance, Announces That It Is Working With the Pentagon. Less than a week after OpenAI made it easier for its chatbot technology to be used in military applications by deleting language out of its usage policy, the creator of ChatGPT announced its first partnership with the Pentagon. The previous usage policy banned ChatGPT users from activities like “weapons development” and “military and warfare.” On Jan. 10, OpenAI updated the page that users must comply with. It now says its chatbot tech cannot be used to “harm yourself or others.” The page lists “develop or use weapons” as an example of a way that ChatGPT cannot be used. Military uses and warfare are no longer listed.

Ukraine

• NATO: The German Armed Forces prepare for an attack from Russia. The German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) are preparing for a “full-scale hybrid attack” against the eastern flank of the Born. This is what emerges from a "classified document - exclusively for official use" of the Berlin Ministry of Defense, which the newspaper "Bild" claims to have seen. This is a "training scenario", according to which "an escalation between NATO and Russia". In the text, entitled "Defense of the Atlantic Alliance 2025", it is outlined "step by step, month after month", how the aggressor country would proceed and how NATO should react.

• President Zelensky asks Switzerland to organise 'high-level peace conference'. Swiss President, Viola Amherd, revealed during a joint press conference in Bern: 'I confirmed that Switzerland is ready to organize the conference. We agreed that the details of the further approach will be looked into in depth in order to make this peace process a success.' Zelensky added: 'We are open to all countries that respect our sovereignty and territorial integrity at the peace summit.' It is understood that Russia will not be invited to the conference. However, he expressed that he would be keen for China to attend.

• Oleksiy Arestovych: Zelenskyy’s challenger. At the start of the war in Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovych was the spokesman for President Zelenskyy and one of the most recognisable faces on Ukrainian TV. His nightly briefings on the status of the war earned him the nickname the “therapist-in-chief” and at one point his approval ratings were second only to the President. Since then, he has become a fierce critic of the Zelenskyy administration and has left the country to avoid multiple prosecutions. Now he plans to run for president against Zelenskyy at the next election.

Vaccines

• Do Covid19 injections with modified RNA risk generating inappropriate parasite proteins and prions? Injection technology mRNA COVID19 substitutes to all the natural Uracile bases by modified pseudo Uracile bases. These modified bases are sometimes ignored by the ribosome which skips them, thus causing a shift in the codon reading frame. Here we analyze the Spike protein when it is read following the second or third reading frame of the codons. We then discover parasitic proteins that we analyze, some of which may have the property of Prion or amyloid.

• CDC Drafted Alert for Myocarditis and COVID-19 Vaccines, but Never Sent It. In May 2021, CDC officials drafted an alert on myocarditis and the two most widely used COVID-19 shots, according to the newly obtained document, which is being made public for the first time by The Epoch Times. “This is the most recent draft of an alert as discussed. Happy to discuss,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the CDC’s top official for equity in COVID-19 data and engagement, told two other high-ranking CDC colleagues in the email. It was titled “draft alert on myocarditis and mRNA vaccines.” The CDC later sent multiple alerts encouraging COVID-19 vaccination. None mentioned myocarditis.

  

• Exposed: Moderna's Vaccine Against Vaccine Dissent. What Arpa Garay, Moderna’s then-chief commercial officer, hinted at during the call, but didn’t disclose, was that Moderna already had a sprawling media operation in place aimed at identifying and responding to critics of vaccine policy and the drug industry. A series of internal company reports and communications reviewed by RealClearInvestigations show that Moderna has worked with former law enforcement and public health officials and a drug industry-funded non-governmental organization called The Public Good Projects (PGP) to confront the “root cause of vaccine hesitancy” by rapidly identifying and “shutting down misinformation.”