This Week's Must Reads - 23-29 October 2023

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

• Statistics Norway asks To what extent are temperature levels changing due to greenhouse gas emissions? Using theoretical arguments and statistical tests they find, as in Dagsvik et al. (2020), that the effect of man-made CO2 emissions does not appear to be strong enough to cause systematic changes in the temperature fluctuations during the last 200 years.

• Greta Thunberg: poster girl of eco-austerity. Climate protesters pose as radicals, while pushing a reactionary agenda. A near immediate end of fossil-fuel use, which is what the likes of Thunberg, Extinction Rebellion and the rest demand, would have a horrific impact on people around the world.

• Overcharged Expectations: Unmasking the True Costs of Electric Vehicles. The cost of producing electric vehicles (EVs) is far higher than the prices they are being sold for. Adding the costs of the subsidies to the true cost of fueling an EV would equate to an EV owner paying $17.33 per gallon of gasoline.

Covid

• Anti-COVID drug accelerates viral evolution. Molnupiravir, an antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19, induces numerous mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome that can increase the rate at which the virus evolves — yielding viral variants that might survive and be passed on.

• Dr. Anthony Fauci to be awarded 2024 Inamori Ethics Prize by Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence. “Dr. Fauci has cared not only for the nation’s health, but also the health of the world,” said Case Western Reserve President Eric W. Kaler.

• China CDC’s Chief Epidemiologist Wu Zunyou Dies at Age 60. China’s top epidemiologist, who advised Beijing’s efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic, died Friday due to illness. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995 with a Ph.D in epidemiology and worked for more than 30 years on infectious-disease prevention, including HIV and AIDS research, the center said.

Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

• Too Many Dead - An Inquiry into Australia’s Excess Mortality. In response to the globally declared COVID-19 pandemic, Australian medical and political authorities enforced unscientific and profoundly unethical public health measures such as extended lockdowns, border closures, school closures, forced masking and mandated novel vaccines still clearly in the experimental phase of development.

• On Broken Friendships. Coronamania presented a new reason for friendships to end. The majority, who bought into the overreaction, decided that if you didn’t support lockdowns, school closures, masks, shots, and massive government giveaways, you were evil and not worth talking to.

• Canada: Tory Private Member's Bill to Prevent Future COVID Vaccine Mandates Fails in Parliament. A Conservative private member's bill that would have prevented the federal government from imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates on government employees or restricting unvaccinated Canadians from boarding public transit has been defeated in the House of Commons.

Economy/Energy/Finance

• Car Owners Fall Behind on Payments at Highest Rate on Record. The risk of vehicle repossession is rising for many Americans facing a budget crunch. With interest rate hikes making newer loans more expensive, millions of car owners are struggling to afford their payments.

• A Financial Crisis Is Here! U.S. Banks Are Closing Down Hundreds Of Branches And Laying Off Thousands Of Workers. High interest rates and chaos in the real estate industry are combining to put an enormous amount of pressure on our largest financial institutions.

• Saving money to buy a house? Your dollar goes half as far as it did at the end of 2020, new data shows. Housing affordability drops and buyers shed buying power as home prices climb and mortgage interest rates hit long-time highs.

• Digital trust on trial. Banking on your biometrics. The controversy surrounding corporate-dictated digital identification. CBDC would most likely be the single largest assault on financial privacy since the creation of the Bank Secrecy Act and the establishment of the third‐​party doctrine.

• IEA Trims Global Gas Demand Outlook and Russia’s Role in It. The world’s demand for natural gas is set to be even lower than anticipated through 2040 as renewables take up a greater share of the energy mix, while Russia’s gas-market share is set to dwindle, according to the International Energy Agency.

• National Bureau of Investigation has clarified technically the cause of gas pipeline damage. The sequence of events has been established on the basis of evidence and data, and the vessel Newnew Polar Bear, flying the flag of Hong Kong, is believed to have caused the damage.

• Sweden’s Central Bank Needs More Than $7 Billion to Cover Losses. The bank needs a capital injection of almost 80 billion Swedish kronor ($7.3 billion) just to restore its equity to a basic level, according to preliminary results of an analysis of its financial position, Erik Thedeen told the parliament’s Committee on Finance, according to a statement.

• Billionaire predicts 'probably recession' in 2024, suggests US entering '7 lean years' of Pharaoh's dream. Cooperman suggests there are 'lean years' to come economically, using a famous Bible passage to explain. Omega Advisors billionaire CEO and chairman Leon Cooperman warned Wednesday that while the U.S. economy is "doing fine" at the moment, there is risk of a recession in 2024.

• Retirees appear to be heading back to work as inflation eats into savings. Employers have seen an uptick in older people applying for entry-level positions, according to a survey by staffing company Express Employment Professionals conducted by The Harris Poll.

• More than 1 million UK children experienced destitution last year, study finds. Severe material hardship no longer a rarity, as study reveals impact of benefit cuts and cost of living crisis. An estimated 1.8m UK households containing nearly 3.8 million people, including 1 million children, were destitute at some point in 2022, according to the study, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

• Americans are struggling to pay their debts as economy tightens. Americans are having a harder time making interest payments as savings are shrinking and a barrage of interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve has jacked up the cost of financing.

• The US Just Added $600 Billion In Debt In One Month, And What Comes Next Will Shock Everyone. As Goldman trader Jacob Gordon writes, "increasingly catching investors eyes is the surge in 2024 net (and certainly gross) government bond issuance, particularly in the US which is set to increase 60% yoy" from $727 billion to $1.166 trillion net supply.

• Siemens Energy is asking for state aid. DAX group under pressure: According to SPIEGEL information, Siemens Energy is to receive billions in guarantees from the federal government in order to be able to continue to handle major projects.

• Defense Spending Boosts US Economy With Fastest Rise Since 2019. US defense spending rose over the past year at the fastest pace since 2019, helping offset a slowdown in business investment from higher interest rates. National defense expenditures were up 4.9% in the year through September after adjusting for inflation, according to quarterly figures on gross domestic product published Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

• Global Fossil Fuel Demand Set To Hit Record High In 2024. A new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit shows global energy consumption rising by 1.8% in 2024, hitting a new record high. Despite high prices and supply disruptions, the report shows crude oil and natural gas demand climbing in 2024. Demand for renewable energy is also expected to rise in 2024, climbing by 11%.

• Foxtons says property sales have plummeted by almost a quarter. Foxtons said this morning that residential property sales in London generally fell by 23% in the third quarter of the year, though its own performance was marginally better.

Health

• Nanocarriers study shows antibodies against polyethylene glycol in 83% of the German population. It has long been known that people can form defenses and thus antibodies against viruses. But antibodies can also develop against polyethylene glycol (PEG), a substance used in cosmetics, food and medicine. These influence the effectiveness of drugs.

• Scientists claim to have found root cause of obesity for most people. Now researchers believe the most popular sugar in American food causes biological changes in the human body that makes it physically easier to get fat and harder to lose weight. High fructose corn syrup is used in countless food products in the US, even those considered to be healthy including protein bars, whole grain bread, and cereals.

• Chinese scientists discover EIGHT never-before-seen viruses... and now they plan to experiment with them. Researchers tasked with preparing the world for future pandemic took almost 700 samples from rodents living in Hainan, just off China's southern coast. Eight novel viruses — including one belonging to the same family as Covid — were uncovered in the project, funded by the Chinese Government.

• Statins: Most Prescribed Drug With Hyped Benefits and Downplayed Side Effects. Statins, one of the most commonly prescribed and bestselling drugs in history, have shaped Western society's approach to treating heart disease. The side effects of statins, coupled with the drugs’ “failure to address the the cause of cardiovascular disease,” have steered cardiologist Dr. Jack Wolfson to avoid prescribing them.

• Why Are Death and Disability Rising Among Young Americans? America's labor force is facing a crisis, and no one knows exactly why. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of American adults considered unable to work grew by more than 3.5 million since January 2020, with 1.5 million added just in the first nine months of this year.

• Ketosis Suppression and Ageing (KetoSAge): The Effects of Suppressing Ketosis in Long Term Keto-Adapted Non-Athletic Females. Evolutionary evidence suggests that ancestral populations were predominantly adapted to patterns of intermittent and time-restricted feeding, as opposed to continuous nutritional intake, rich in farinaceous and sucrose carbohydrates that stimulate bolus insulin secretion.

Middle East

• China deploys six warships to Middle East amid aggression on Gaza. China's 44th naval escort task force from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre has been conducting routine operations in the region and recently spent several days in Oman. The Chinese naval task force, which includes the guided missile destroyer Zibo, the frigate Jingzhou, and the supply ship Qiandaohu, had visited Oman last week.

• Israel's Defence Minister says 'Hezbollah has decided to participate in fighting'. Israel's Defence Minister said that Hezbollah would pay a "heavy price" for its recent attacks directed at Israeli military installations, soldiers, and towns.

• Why peace in Israel failed. Compromise has never seemed possible. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords, a landmark moment in the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And yet peace in the region has never been more elusive, as events in Gaza makes dramatically clear. Why have all attempts to bring an end to one of the world’s bloodiest and longest-running wars failed?

• At Least 2000 Children Killed in Gaza as Airstrikes Continue Unabated. A further 27 children were killed in Israel, according to Israeli media. With the Gaza Strip a small, densely populated urban environment, relentless airstrikes are continuing to kill and injure children indiscriminately.

• IDF shows foreign press Hamas bodycam videos, photos of murder, torture, decapitation. Government says it’s revealing horrific footage collected from various sources to the media in order to fight ‘Holocaust-like denials’ of Hamas’s massacres in southern Israel. Journalists were not permitted to record the screening, which took place on a closed military base.

• Intelligence shows Iranian-backed militias are ready to ramp up their attacks against US forces in the Middle East. There are “red lights flashing everywhere,” a US official in the region told CNN. Officials said that at this point, Iran appears to be encouraging the groups rather than explicitly directing them.

• Israeli ambassador demands resignation of UN chief after 'Hamas attacks did not happen in a vacuum' remark. Gilad Erdan strongly criticised the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, for saying that the 'Hamas attack did not happen in a vacuum' during a UN Security Council meeting on the Israel-Hamas war.

• Israel will flood Hamas tunnels with nerve gas under US navy supervision. Source tells MEE reports of delayed ground invasion part of misinformation campaign designed to obtain element of surprise in multi-pronged attack. “The plan hinges on the element of surprise so as to decisively win the battle, using internationally forbidden gases, particularly nerve gas, and chemical weapons.

• Weapons Flood Israel’s West Bank, Fueling Fears of New War Front. Iran and its allies operate a smuggling network that crosses hundreds of miles and at least four borders as part of an effort to broaden Palestinian military capabilities beyond Hamas.

• US-led forces begin live-fire exercises in Iraq, Syria after 14 attacks on American bases left 24 injured. US troops in Middle East have been attacked 14 times — 11 times in Iraq and three times in Syria — between Oct. 17-24.

• October 7 testimonies reveal Israel’s military ‘shelling’ Israeli citizens with tanks, missiles. Israel’s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas militants on October 7. How many Israeli citizens said to have been “burned alive” were actually killed by friendly fire?

• Qatar sentences 8 Indians to death on charges of spying for Israel. New Delhi expresses ‘shock’ over fate of ex-naval officers at a time when Gulf state is mediating in war with Hamas.

Politics

• Jonathan Sumption on Gaza, lockdown and the ECHR. Will humanity ever escape the shadow of war? Jonathan Sumption is a difficult man to define: revered historian, esteemed lawyer and one of Britain’s greatest public intellectuals. He came to greatest popular prominence during the Covid pandemic as one of the most lucid opponents of the Government’s lockdown policies.

• Media reports that Putin had a heart attack. Sky carries the report, although there has been chatter about on this. Putin had a heart attack on Sunday and has regained consciousness. Sky cited social media accounts. A few hours ago similar reports did the rounds. Interestingly US President Biden scurried off from a press conference saying he had to head to the White House Situation Room.

• Achtung! US Travel To Europe Will Require Prior Approval, Biometric Scanning. Traveling to most European countries is about to get more complicated and invasive for American citizens: In spring 2025, you'll have to first request permission. And you'll be saying adieu to passport stamps and ciao to facial and fingerprint scans -- and having your biometric data stored in an enormous government database.

• US & NewsGuard Sued for 1st Amendment Violations, Defamation in NY Federal Court. Court Papers: Media ‘Watchdog’ Joined With US Intelligence to Suppress Foreign Policy Dissent. In the course of its contract with the Pentagon, NewsGuard is “acting jointly or in concert with the United States to coerce news organizations to alter viewpoints” as to Ukraine, Russia, and Syria, imposing a form of “censorship and repression of views” that differ or dissent from policies of the United States and its allies, the complaint says.

• Peter Thiel: Starmer and Sunak have a ‘secret agreement’ to talk up culture wars. The billionaire warned that politicians were trying to avoid hard economic questions.

• FBI received 'criminal information' from over 40 confidential sources on Joe Biden, Hunter, James: Grassley. Grassley alleges that the FBI and DOJ sought to shut down investigations into the Bidens. Grassley learned that an FBI task force within the Washington Field Office sought to, and in some cases, successfully, shut down reporting and information from those sources by falsely discrediting the information as foreign disinformation. That effort "caused investigative activity to cease."

• Free speech is our best weapon against Jew hatred. We must confront anti-Semitism with more speech, not censorship. All those diversity workshops have left our elites woefully unprepared to face this threat – not least because Jew hatred has, if anything, been fuelled by the woke politics of our age, as it despicably treats Jews as ‘privileged’, ‘hyper-white’ and thus incapable of experiencing racism.

Science

• Neanderthals Might Not Be The Separate Species We Always Thought. In spite of the myriad of findings detailing their genetic and cultural similarities, our long-extinct 'cousins' are still all too often exiled into their own species, Homo neanderthalensis.

• Does a blood transfusion pass on the donor's personality, too? Organ transplants and blood transfusions are undoubtedly lifesavers: last year around 4,600 people in Britain received organ transplants, and nearly 200,000 gallons of blood given in transfusions. But now some scientists are starting to ask whether something unexpected may be transmitted at the same time as the organ or transfusion.

• The Moon Is Millions of Years Older Than We Thought, Scientists Say. A new study of tiny grains of zircon in Apollo lunar samples suggests that it's even older than we thought, by a good 40 million years. That means that the Moon is at least 4.46 billion years old, says a team led by geologist Jennika Greer, now at the University of Glasgow – just a hair younger than Earth, which is an estimated 4.54 billion years old.

Technology

• ‘Technology surprise’: Are China, Russia ahead of us in UFO retrieval, research? Last week, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency scientist became the 10th ex-government official, military officer or scientist to allege (or suggest) publicly that the U.S. government has recovered at least one UFO.

Ukraine

• Putin oversees Russian rehearsal of 'massive retaliatory nuclear strike'. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday oversaw ballistic missile drills remotely, the Kremlin said, hours after Russia moved to revoke its ratification of a landmark nuclear test ban treaty.

• This study analyzes which party of the conflict was involved in the 2014 Maidan massacre in Ukraine. The massacre of Maidan protesters and the police on 20 February 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics. This mass killing led to the overthrow of the Ukrainian government and spiraled into a civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, the Russian annexation of Crimea, and conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and between the West and Russia that Russia drastically escalated by launching its illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Vaccines

• mRNA COVID Vaccines Form Spike Protein in Heart Cells, but Cause Different Anomalies: Research Article. New research observing rat and human heart cells shows that within 48 hours of vaccination, the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines form spike proteins.

• Covid shots may slightly increase risk of stroke in older adults, particularly when administered with certain flu vaccines. The safety signal was detected by experts at the US Food and Drug Administration who analyzed data from Medicare claims. It is the second study to find an elevated risk of stroke for seniors after Covid-19 and flu vaccinations given together.

• Regulator Didn't Tell Public About Post COVID-19 Vaccination Myocarditis for Four Months. The MHRA said it needed to assess data from multiple sources before adding warnings to COVID shots. According to emails, the MHRA detected a safety signal for heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccination in early 2021, but did not tell the public about the issue for nearly four months until June 25, 2021, when it added warnings to the labels for the Pfizer and Moderna shots.