This Week's Must Reads - 9-15 October 2023

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

Oct 15, 2023

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

Everywhere, there’s a growing public revolt against net zero, forcing politicians across Europe to renege on green virtue signalling. The headlong rush to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, pursued for so long by democratic governments across the globe regardless of cost, has finally hit the buffers of voter resistance.
Climate of fear. Soon you won’t even be able to talk about the weather. From school to the workplace, Cultural Marxism is gaining hold, instructing us that freedom of thought is a deadly sin. Like ancient witchcraft, the doctrine’s authors have twisted natural climate change to increasingly control human behaviour.
The green energy net-zero plan will require a command economy. And several technological impossibilities, and a massive drop in living standards. The idea that net zero can be achieved on the current timelines by any means short of a command economy combined with a drastic decline in standards of living – and several unlikely technological miracles – is a blatant falsehood.

Covid

Origin of COVID-19: The biggest cover up in medical history. When the COVID-19 pandemic spread all over the world in early 2020, the Chinese government covered up its origin. The Chinese cover up quickly extended to US academics with conflicts of interest, prestigious medical journals, the media, and the key advisor to the US President, Anthony Fauci.
Efficacy and safety of in-hospital treatment of Covid-19 infection with low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in hospitalized patients: A retrospective controlled cohort study. Treatment of COVID-19 using a combination of hydroxychloroquine plus azithromycin was safe and was associated with a statistically significant mortality benefit in the treatment of COVID-19 infection in hospitalized patients.

Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

Thousands of Covid generation under-fives excluded from schools in England. Nearly half of children in some areas arrive unable to talk and still not potty-trained as lockdown legacy take its toll, data shows. Children as young as four are being excluded from schools in England in increasing numbers as they struggle to cope in a classroom setting, with many still in nappies or unable to talk fully.
The hounding of an inspirational headmaster who spoke out on Covid. So, who complained about this popular and effective headmaster? The first investigation was launched in June 2021. It was made by a group of retired NHS workers on Twitter (now X) whose mission it was to find anyone in education who appeared to be antivax and anti-lockdown. Mr Fairclough does not know who made the second complaint but the third was made by a concerned group of parents and teachers.
Inflation and the Elephant in the Room. Silence still reigns on the true cause of the inflation: All current inflation can indeed be traced back to government mismanagement during the COVID era. There are two phases to inflation. First is the euphoria while the economic mistakes are being made, then comes the reckoning, as the value of the money is adjusted. It’s crucial to understand that once worthless money has been put into circulation, there’s nothing in this world that can prevent the ensuing inflationary spike. The damage is done, and the consequences are inevitable.

Economy/Energy/Finance

The Margin Call Moment: World Now Facing Up To $70 Trillion In Global Losses. So on a back of an envelope, Reid calculates that at index level some $16tn of global market value has been wiped out over the last couple of years. And if one applies the same negative total return to the entire global debt pile you see a value destruction of around $70tn over the last two years.
Something is breaking in financial markets — Here’s what’s behind the sell-off. Rates are expected to stay higher for longer, an idea Fed officials have tried to get the market to accept and which investors are only now beginning to absorb.
Only a Stocks Crash Can Rescue the Bond Market, Barclays Says. Global bonds are doomed to keep falling unless a sustained slump in equities revives the appeal of fixed-income assets, according to Barclays Plc.
The Economy is Sinking so Follow the Smart Money. Despite the “strong” non-farm payrolls report, the underlying well being of the American consumer and their ability to support over 70% of the economy has to be called into question. The ultimate outcome will be a increase in defaults, be it on homes, auto loans, or credit cards unless inflation is tamed (unlikely) or economic growth surges with wages to offset the impact of stubbornly higher rates of inflation.
Yellen: US likely to enforce oil price cap at $60 a barrel. United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that Washington will "likely" implement necessary measures to ensure that the crude oil price does not surpass the ceiling established by the Group of Seven (G7).
Threat of recession looming as firms grapple with ‘inflationary headwinds’, UK advisory group warns. Report says threat of recession looming amid fall in employment, business optimism, and output. Kaley Crossthwaite of BDO said: “An even more pessimistic outlook from businesses, declining output and the lowest reading on our Employment Index in nine years are mounting indicators of the slowdown in economic activity predicted over the winter months.
Home prices have soared so much that 98 out of 100 biggest US cities are overvalued relative to historical levels. Homes in 98 of the largest 100 US markets sold above their historical norms in August. Affordability remains strained as the supply of homes for sale stays lows.
IMF warns oil price surge sparked by Middle East war could hobble global recovery. The president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, said the conflict was ‘an economic shock we don’t need’. IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said a 10 per cent rise in oil prices could lop 0.15 per cent off GDP growth next year and add 0.4 percentage points to global inflation.
Quantitative Tightening continues apace at the Fed.
Nord Stream 2.0? Finland-Estonia Undersea Pipeline In Baltic "Has Been Deliberately Damaged". Months after famed journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh revealed the US blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 during a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise, yet another undersea gas pipeline, this time, connecting Finland and Estonia has allegedly come under attack.
We are one mistake away from a world oil crisis. The West faces an unholy alliance of Russia, China and Iran and a firestorm in the Middle East. The strange calm on world oil markets is unlikely to survive the blockade of Gaza, let alone an Israeli land invasion and the total eradication of the Hamas regime. The grand bargain between the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia is already a dead letter. This has large implications for oil at a time when the crude market is in deficit and prices are at the upper band of their historical range – pushed higher by Saudi and Opec production cuts of 2m barrels a day (b/d).

Health

FDA Warning: Gates, J&J-investor backed Probiotic Supplement Causes Sepsis, Preterm Infant Dies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now investigates a tragic fatality of a preterm infant who as a result of ingesting live bacteria from a probiotic supplement during hospital care of the mother.
People may suffer ‘long colds’ more than four weeks after infection, study shows. Results in the Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine journal found a ‘similar risk’ of long-term symptoms as those with Covid. The findings suggest there may be long-lasting health impacts after non-Covid acute respiratory infections such as colds, influenza, or pneumonia, that have been going unrecognised.

Middle East

The shameful gloating at Israel. Leftists love to fantasise about how heroic they’d have been when Jews were being rounded up in the 1930s. ‘I’d have said something’, they insist. Well, Jews are being rounded up again. They’re being kidnapped, humiliated, paraded through the streets, slaughtered. And leftists are definitely saying something. They’re saying: ‘Good’. These are war crimes.
Egypt intelligence official says Israel ignored repeated warnings of ‘something big’. Cairo official says Israel focused on West Bank instead of Gaza; Egypt’s spy chief said to warn PM of ‘terrible operation,’ Netanyahu denies it.
Defense minister announces ‘complete siege’ of Gaza: No power, food or fuel. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says he has ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, as Israel fights the Hamas terror group. “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant says following an assessment at the IDF Southern Command in Beersheba. “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he adds.
UK Allows Key Hamas Funder to Have Military Base in Northern England. The British government says it ‘stands by Israel’ and condemns Hamas ‘terrorism’ against it. But Hamas is being funded by Qatar, with whom the Royal Air Force operates two joint squadrons, allowing the Gulf regime to have a military base in northern England.
Israel war boosts Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, other defense stocks. U.S. defense stocks spiked Monday after the attack on Israel by Hamas left over 1,000 dead and even more wounded. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video on Saturday that Israel is "at war" and called for a massive military response.
Israel’s right to self-defence must be proportionate, lawful and humane. Gaza, already a sump of hopelessness, deprivation and subjection, is about to become a living hell. That will have lasting historical reverberations. The premeditated, evil barbarity unleashed on hundreds of innocent human beings by Hamas, a terrorist organisation, can never be justified or excused. Nor can the belief systems that conceived of the massacres and put them into effect. By any standard, they are heinous crimes against humanity and can only be viewed as such. The question that arises now is one of response.
11 UN staff, 30 pupils at UN schools, killed in Gaza, says spokesperson. Guterres calls for civilians to be protected, international humanitarian law upheld, as Israel targets Hamas in Palestinian enclave. The dead included five teachers, a gynecologist, an engineer, a counselor and three support staff, UNRWA’s deputy director Jennifer Austin said in a statement.
White Phosphorus Used in Gaza, Lebanon. Use in Populated Areas Poses Grave Risks to Civilians. Israel’s use of white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing a question and answer document on white phosphorus.
UK to deploy Royal Navy ships to eastern Mediterranean to 'bolster security'. Three Merlin helicopters and Royal Marines are also being dispatched. Rishi Sunak spoke to Israel's prime minister on Thursday to reaffirm the UK's support.
US and Israel should bomb Iran: Senator Lindsey Graham. Asked during an interview with CNN whether he wanted the US and Israel to “bomb Iran even in the absence of direct evidence of their involvement” in the attack by the Palestinian Hamas group on Israel, the Republican senator responded: “Yeah.”
Hamas Hides Behind Civilians. Anyone inciting more violence does not understand that the civilians are trapped. Hamas continually hides behind civilians because they are cowards pretending to be men who attack vulnerable children and women on BOTH sides.
Stunning State Department Memo Warns Diplomats: No Gaza 'De-Escalation' Talk. As Israel escalates its offensive, U.S. diplomats are being discouraged from publicly using three phrases that would urge calm. In messages circulated on Friday, State Department staff wrote that high-level officials do not want press materials to include three specific phrases: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm.”
Putin compares Israeli action in Gaza to WW2 Nazi tactics. Putin said there had been calls even in the United States for a blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on a par with "the siege of Leningrad during World War II."
Can the pro-Palestine Left redeem itself? Even progressive ghouls deserve civility. The response from certain corners of the progressive Left to the stories coming out of Israel has been extraordinary. The silhouette of a paragliding Hamas militant has been adopted by groups ranging from Black Lives Matter to the Democratic Socialists of America — a graphic successor to that Che Guevara block print that used to hang on every dorm room wall.

Politics

The Biden Family Tree: How Investigations are Exposing the Bidens’ Influence-Peddling Dynasty. Newly released evidence from the House Committee on Ways and Means reveals over $20 million coming from 23 separate countries on four continents to at least nine Biden family members. Not only are the Biden transfers becoming clear, so is the Biden family tree in this lucrative form of corruption.
White House plans to put Ukraine, Taiwan and border funding in its Israel request. The White House and some key lawmakers had been discussing linking Ukraine and Israel aid. Administration officials also said the request would aim to address the strain that providing additional military support for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan would put on the Defense Department’s stockpiles, the sources said, by asking for money to build more weapons. [They should call it the Money Laundering Pot]
Fury as Black Lives Matter group posts image of paratrooper and says it ‘stands with Palestine’. The image appeared to refer to the Hamas paragliders that invaded Israeli territory on Saturday before carrying out a killing spree. A Black Lives Matter chapter from Chicago said it “stands with Palestine” and posted an online graphic of a paratrooper in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel.
Judges told not to jail rapists as prisons are full. Crown courts ordered to delay sentencing hearings. Convicted rapists and burglars will be temporarily spared jail from next week after judges were told that the country’s prisons are full.
US must be ready for simultaneous wars with China, Russia, report says. The United States must prepare for possible simultaneous wars with Russia and China by expanding its conventional forces, strengthening alliances and enhancing its nuclear weapons modernization program, a congressionally appointed bipartisan panel said on Thursday.
Waving Palestinian flag may be a criminal offence, Braverman tells police. Home secretary also suggests clampdown on pro-Arab chants in letter that will concern free speech advocates. In the letter, Braverman said police should not restrict themselves to potential offences related to the promotion of Hamas, a proscribed organisation.
Europe’s Power Outage. How the Israel-Hamas war exposed the EU’s irrelevance: As global crises intensify, the ‘geopolitical’ Continent is left watching from the sidelines. At least Europe no longer has to endure that hackneyed Henry Kissinger quip about whom to call if you want “to call Europe.” No one’s calling anyway.
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Science

The Censoring of Science and the Road to Serfdom. Propaganda is not sufficient: ‘The plan itself in every detail . . . must become sacrosanct and exempt from criticism.’ Down the road to serfdom, in the sciences themselves, Hayek says, the “search for truth cannot be allowed” and “vindication of the official views becomes the sole object.”
Distant Objects Show Solar System Extends Further Than We Knew. A new method for scanning telescope images for the faintest signs of rock far beyond Pluto has uncovered evidence that our Solar System's disc of material extends far further into interstellar space than we thought.
Earth was hit by largest ever solar storm that would devastate civilisation today, tree rings show. Electricity blackouts could last for months and communications could be destroyed, scientists warn. Scientists were able to piece together the solar storm from ancient tree rings that were found in the French alps, and showed evidence of a dramatic spike in radiocarbon levels some 14,300 years ago. That spike was the result of a massive solar storm, the biggest ever found by scientists.

Technology

The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation. People who have turned to X for breaking news about the Israel-Hamas conflict are being hit with old videos, fake photos, and video game footage at a level researchers have never seen.
Space Force Gets Scared, Pauses All Use of Generative AI. The brave Guardians of Space Force, the American military unit created to protect us feeble terrestrial Americans from various space-related threats, has announced a new and Earthly foe: generative AI.

Ukraine

US Announces $200M Ukraine Arms Deal. The package includes additional air defense capabilities, anti-tank weapons, and other equipment, according to the statement. [Ukraine is no longer the current thing so watch is disappear as Covid did]
Kremlin planning winter onslaught, says Zelensky. The Ukrainian president has appealed for more western air defence systems, artillery and long-range missiles, saying that Moscow is intent on using winter “as a weapon of war”.

Vaccines

Quantitative evaluation of whether the Nobel-Prize-winning COVID-19 vaccine actually saved millions of lives. The paper examines recent theoretical scenarios predicting lives saved by COVID-19 vaccination and concludes that those scenarios are incorrect. There is no evidence in actual all-cause mortality data that the COVID-19 vaccine rollouts had any beneficial effect.
Not Nobel. Not effective, not safe. The long-term safety of the vaccines was raised at the announcement by a Chinese journalist. The committee members looked gob-smacked but they shouldn’t have been. BioNTech’s Chinese partner was never allowed to sell the Pfizer vaccine in China presumably due to safety concerns.
What's behind the spike in deaths among younger, working people? Life insurance data show a massive spike in excess deaths among younger, working-age people that began in 2021, even as COVID-19 deaths decreased, and continues today. So far, good explanations are elusive. A concerted, bipartisan investigation should explore this threat to America’s economic future and recommend a course of action. A report by the nonprofit Society of Actuaries found that 34% more 35- to 44-year-olds died than expected in the last three months of 2022.
Only 2 Percent of Americans Have Received New COVID Vaccine: CDC. The CDC provided an update on the new vaccine was rolled out last month. More than 7 million Americans have taken the updated shot, which is authorized for people aged 6 months and older, said an HHS spokesman. That's approximately 2 percent of all Americans.
Pfizer’s stock sinks after company slashes $9 billion from outlook, foreshadows layoffs. As Pfizer cut full-year earnings forecast by $1.80 a share, Moderna and Novavax shares fall after hours. Pfizer PFE said the new outlook calls for a reduction in expected revenue for COVID treatment Paxlovid of $7 billion. It further foresees a $2 billion reduction in revenue for the Comirnaty COVID vaccine it makes with BioNTech BNTX . Pfizer also said it will have to take a $5.5 billion charge for COVID-product inventory write-offs.