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The Flatline

The Stagnation of Life Expectancy

Biopolitiks by Dr. Alejandro Diaz | November 14, 2024

Life expectancy is one of the most relevant measures of health outcomes. Historical data on this issue tells the story of the revolutionary medical advancements of the last centuries. Over the last 100 years, life expectancy has risen dramatically. Rapid industrialization and scientific advancements have reduced the early mortality risk tremendously. Since 1900, life expectancy has doubled in nearly every corner of the globe. However, something extremely interesting happened at the turn of this last decade. For the first time in over 60 years, global life expectancy dropped. This wasn’t an isolated trend, by the way. Life expectancy had been flatlining for about the past 10 years globally, and 30 years in some developed nations, particularly the United States.

Life Expectancy Statistics according to Our World in Data

What’s the reason behind this flatline?

To dive into the hows and whys behind the stagnation, it is important to first understand how this data is measured and what it means for health outcomes. Life expectancy refers to the number of years the average person within a selected population can expect to live. Although there are various methods, the most common is referred to as “period life expectancy.” This method calculates the period during which a person born in the year of measurement can expect to live if the death rates stay constant.

Life expectancy is widely considered to be one of the most relevant indicators in the measurement of the health of a population. Experts believe that this is a more accurate measure than other comparable indicators, like total mortality. More broadly, some refer to it as a clear indicator of human progress.

Regardless of the many interpretations, it is clear that this is a relevant global health statistic.

Life expectancy is not only a health indicator—it’s a Biopolitikal indicator. It accurately quantifies the relationship between policy and the health outcomes of governed populations. This statistic can measurably grade the quality of public health policy. The coordination of those in charge of scientific/medical advancements, in conjunction with policymakers, has driven improvements. This outlines the importance of this measurement and how it is indicative of recent systemic failures on the Biopolitikal level.

Globally, the stagnation of this metric coincides with the increased incidence of chronic diseases. It seems that much of the detriment, not only in life expectancy data but in disease burden generally—particularly non-communicable disease burden—begins around the year 1990. The medical advancements of the prior century appear to have leveled off in their impact on health outcomes.

Among developed nations, the United States stands out, with life expectancy lagging behind comparable nations.

Life Expectancy vs Health Expenditures (Our World in Data)

The situation of the United States is quite particular in the sense that it represents some of the highest expenditures per capita on healthcare but lies around the mid-range of the spectrum in terms of overall health outcomes. In this specific chart above, it measures life expectancy. The United States has been the most affected country by the global chronic disease epidemic, by far.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report from earlier this year in February stated that around 130 million people suffer from some sort of chronic disease in the United States. The figure has risen by nearly 50 million in the last 30 years. This represents a clear Biopolitikal failure. One study out of California mentioned the increase in circulatory disease as one of, if not the main, contributors to the stagnation of American life expectancy “post-2010.”

This chronic disease data is reflected in life expectancy rates. From 1960 to 1990, the U.S. life expectancy rate rose nearly six years; in the next 30-year period from 1990 to 2020, it rose only two years. The correlation is clear.

The data is similar globally; however, the United States is a special case.

In the previously mentioned CDC report, they also estimate that around 90% of the over $4 trillion USD in yearly federal health expenditures go to managing chronic diseases. This shows that not only is the chronic disease epidemic costing the government trillions in taxpayer dollars, but also that some are making billions in treating them.

This, of course, is in the United States. But what does the global data suggest? In Europe, experts suggest that around 70% of all deaths on the continent originate from chronic diseases, specifically cancer and cardiovascular disease. Despite the economic disparities, data out of Latin America shows a very similar story. The WHO estimates that around 63% of men and 60% of women are considered overweight in the region.

These figures represent incentives for the system to keep the patient sick in perpetuity, contributing to stagnating life expectancy rates. However, this also represents an enormous opportunity for us to make a positive transformation in the Biopolitikal framework.

The Path Forward

To reverse this tendency we must course correct. The solution lies in the collective decision-making processes. A critical review of the current landscape is a necessity.

We must review certain aspects influencing the chronic health epidemic and the general detriment of health outcomes across the board. That means looking at the root causes. In my professional opinion, I would include in that list the current vaccine schedule. Is it really necessary for people to receive the nearly 70 vaccines that are on the recommended immunization schedules from the moment they practically leave the womb to adulthood? When most deadly infectious diseases have been eradicated globally. What effects are these having on children? Could this be why we’re seeing widespread immunosuppression in the global population?

Recommended child immunization schedule according to the CDC

Food and agriculture policy must be modified. Last week we discussed the effects of the dangerous chemicals and additives included in the global food supply. Many of these have been linked to long-term health issues, including hormonal disruption, obesity, ADHD, and chronic diseases. These additives compromise the nutritional value of food and contribute to the global rise in non-communicable diseases by promoting unhealthy dietary patterns.

Additionally, overmedication further exacerbates these ailments. Instead of addressing the root dietary issues, doctors resort to pharmaceuticals.

I would go so far as to argue that this critical review should extend to medical school curricula. Curriculums should be modified to include further training on nutrition, functional medicine, etc., giving medical graduates a new understanding to take on these public health crises.

Medical schools don’t teach you how to think; they teach you what to think.

Transforming, from a policy perspective, the way we look at public health is necessary. We as a society must collectively broaden our perspective to consider these alternative approaches.

Luckily, the point of inflection is now. Global attitudes toward this line of thinking are shifting rapidly. There is immense enthusiasm arising from the possibility of real reform coming to the highest levels of Biopolitikal decision-making.

With today’s announcement, it seems as though we are even closer than we think of it all coming to fruition. As of today, November 14th, President-Elect Donald J. Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, definitely the most qualified for the position. As I have mentioned repeatedly in my substack posts, whatever the United States does, the world will follow. Parting from this principle, Global Biopolitiks is set to experience a massive shift in the coming years.

About me (Dr. Alejandro Diaz)

I am a Pediatric Allergist / Immunologist and Global Health Expert with extensive international experience. I have delivered conferences in over 27 countries around the globe on topics of medicine, migration, biosecurity, and related topics. This includes prestigious venues such as the White House, the US Capitol, the Romanian Parliament, the European Parliament in Brussels, the Mexican Senate of the Republic, the United Nations in Geneva, Japanese Parliament, among others.

My career encompasses diverse roles in healthcare including private practice, health systems, and advisory positions for medical service companies, governments, and government entities worldwide.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , | 1 Comment

As Cancer Rates for Young Adults Continue to Climb, Are Doctors ‘Dancing Around the Elephant in the Room’?

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender |November 13, 2024

Cancer rates among Generation X (Gen X) and millennials are on the rise. A USA Today report cited environmental and dietary changes as possible contributing factors — but some experts say that’s only part of the story.

Dr. Mike Varshavski, a family medicine physician and health influencer, told USA Today the factors are “usually so complex and multifactorial” but that “one of the major drivers of cancers [are] the rising rates of obesity in the United States and across the globe.”

However, Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist at Children’s Health Defense, said the USA Today story “dismantles its own solution” — because some doctors noted that their younger cancer patients were frequently “healthy” before their diagnosis.

“The U.S. is ranked fourth in the world for age-standardized incidence of cancer — 367 per 100,000 — and 19th for adult obesity (42.7%),” Jablonowski said. “The cancer epidemic is way beyond diet and exercise.”

USA Today cited figures from an American Cancer Society (ACS) study, published in The Lancet in August. According to the study, 17 types of cancer — including breast, colorectal, liver, gastric, ovarian and pancreatic cancer — are rising among younger adults. Mortality trends connected to some cancers have also increased.

USA Today also listed celebrities with recent cancer diagnoses — including Princess Kate, Elle Macpherson, Jenna Fischer and Olivia Munn — all Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980) or millennials (born between 1981 and 1996).

The article recommended younger adults be vigilant about their health. Experts who spoke with The Defender welcomed this message. However, they criticized what they said was an attempt to normalize rising cancer rates among young adults while ignoring other possible underlying causes, including vaccines.

“If you normalize a disease, you will alter the health behaviors addressing the disease,” Jablonowski said. “If you believe cancer is inevitable or occurs at random, then you believe your health behavior has no impact on the chances of developing cancer.”

Dr. Margaret Christensen, a clinical educator and co-founder of the Carpathia Collaborative, said USA Today’s recommendations that younger people engage in “fine-tuning” their “diet and exercise routines,” stay up-to-date on cancer screenings and visit their doctor regularly, are important.

“But where is the information on prevention?” Christensen asked. “Nothing is mentioned about the toxic chemicals and ultra-processed foods and antibiotics in the food supply that are impairing our immune system to begin with.”

There’s been a ‘sea change in the cancer message’

Many doctors and scientists noted the timing of rising cancer rates among young adults.

Dr. Angus Dalgleish, professor of oncology at St. George’s, University of London, told The Defender, “Colorectal [cancer] has been slowly rising in young people for well over a decade and probably more. However, there has been an inflection in the rate of rise from mid-2021. This is worldwide.”

John Beaudoin Sr., author of “The Real CdC” and “THE CDC MEMORANDUM,” told The Defender that while incidence rates for such cancers have risen for a decade, “the change in rate or rise is what decries a new issue introduced into society.”

Beaudoin said that if the annual increase was 2% per year consistent with a 2% population increase, that is understandable. “But if the rate then goes to a 4% annual increase, then there is a major issue. The rate doubled and is not consistent with population increase.”

Dr. Pierre Kory, founder of the Leading Edge Clinic and president emeritus and co-founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), agreed. He said the USA Today report and the study in The Lancet mark “a sea change in the cancer message.”

Childhood vaccination ‘set the scene’ for rising young adult cancer rates

According to USA Today, there’s “no exact cause known for the rise in cancers among young people,” although “researchers are trying to figure it out.”

However, the article suggested that environmental factors, namely “changes to our microbiome over time — the environment, air, water, etc.” — may be partly responsible.

Christensen agreed, at least in part. “The same factors — environmental toxins in the food, water, air and many medications that cause insulin resistance and obesity — are causing cancers,” she said. “However, even in countries with lower rates of obesity, we are still seeing increased levels of cancers in younger folks.”

With environmental factors and obesity accounting only partially for the rising onset of cancer in younger adults, experts told The Defender vaccines likely contribute significantly to this increase.

“This has led me to look at childhood vaccines and I am afraid they have set the scene,” Dalgleish said. “There are now far too many. The adjuvants alone correlate with autism and ADHD,” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

“The chronic inflammatory states recorded after some of the joint vaccines are highly likely to boost the induction of early cancer,” Dalgleish said.

Dr. Paul Marik, co-founder of the FLCCC, said he believes COVID-19 vaccines may have contributed to the more recent increases in cancer incidence recorded by the CDC.

“The rapid increase in cancers was noted in 2021, 2022 and 2023 after the rollout of the mRNA jabs,” said Marik, author of “Cancer Care: The Role of Repurposed Drugs and Metabolic Interventions in Treating Cancer.”

He added:

“There is strong mechanistic data to explain how the jabs may lead to cancer. This association is strong. There does not appear to be another plausible explanation. Obesity rates have increased slowly [and] cannot explain the massive increase in cancers noted recently.”

Christensen said USA Today and organizations like the ACS “are dancing around the elephant in the room” by “not wanting to make the connection to the vaccines while stating the obvious problems we can’t ignore.”

“Mainstream media have been completely negligent, in my view, for not holding our concerns regarding the vaccines and cancer to account,” Dalgleish said.

Instead of ignoring the problem, “The concept of turbo cancer needs to be accepted,” Marik said. “More research is required to more precisely determine who is at risk, what the incidence is and how to prevent and treat this disease.”

“The best way to stop the young person’s cancer epidemic is to stop the cause,” Jablonowski said.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

Yulia Skripal Reveals the Biggest Secret of All at Novichok Show Trial…

… the Attack Was a British Operation, Not a Russian One

By John Helmer | Dances With Bears | November 16, 2024 

Yulia Skripal communicated from her bedside at Salisbury District Hospital on March 8, 2018, four days after she and her father Sergei Skripal collapsed from a poison attack, that the attacker used a spray; and that the attack took place when she and her father were eating at a restaurant just minutes before their collapse on a bench outside.

The implication of the Skripal evidence, revealed for the first time on Thursday, is that the attack on the Skripals was not perpetrated by Russian military agents who were photographed elsewhere in Salisbury town at the time; that the attacker or attackers were British agents; and that if their weapon was a nerve agent called Novichok, it came, not from Moscow, but from the UK Ministry of Defence chemical warfare laboratory at Porton Down.

Porton Down’s subsequent evidence of Novichok contamination in blood samples, clothing, car, and home of the Skripals may therefore be interpreted as British in source, not Russian.

This evidence was revealed by a police witness testifying at the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry in London on November 14. The police officer, retired Detective Inspector Keith Asman was in 2018, and he remains today the chief of forensics for the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTPSE) group which combines the Metropolitan and regional police forces with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Security Service (MI5).

According to Asman’s new disclosure, Yulia Skripal had woken from a coma and confirmed to the doctor at her bedside that she remembered the circumstances of the attack on March 4. What she remembered, she signalled, was not (repeat not) the official British Government narrative that Russian agents had tried to kill them by poisoning the front door-handle of the family home.

The new evidence was immediately dismissed by the Sturgess Inquiry lawyer assisting Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley), the judge directing the Inquiry. “We see there,” the lawyer put to Asman as a leading question, “the suggestion, which we now know not to be right, of course”. — page 72.

Hughes then interrupted to tell the witness to disregard what Skripal had communicated. “If the record that you were given there is right, someone suggested to her ‘Had you been sprayed’. She didn’t come up with it herself.” — page 73. Hughes continued to direct the forensics chief to disregard the hearsay of Skripal. “Anyway the suggestion that she had been sprayed in the restaurant didn’t fit with your investigations? A. [Asman] No, sir. LORD HUGHES: Thank you.”

So far in in the Inquiry which began public sessions on October 14, this is the first direct sign of suppression of evidence by Hughes.

Hearsay, he indicates, should be disregarded if it comes from the target of attack, Yulia Skripal. However, hearsay from British Government officials, policemen, and chemical warfare agents at Porton Down must be accepted instead. Hughes has also banned Yulia and Sergei Skripal from testifying at the Inquiry.

The lawyer appointed and paid by the Government to represent the Skripals in the inquiry hearings said nothing to acknowledge the new disclosure nor to challenge Hughes’s efforts to suppress it.

Asman described his career and credentials in his witness statement to the Inquiry, dated October 23, 2024. His rank when he retired from the regular police forces in 2009 was detective inspector. He was then promoted to higher ranking posts at the operations coordinating group known as Counter Terrorism Policing for the Southeast Region (CTPSE). By 2018 Asman says he was “head of the National Counter Terrorism Forensics Working Group since 2012, and was the UK Counter Terrorism Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) forensic lead.” In June 2015 Asman was awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) “for services to Policing.”

At page 19 of his recent witness statement, this is what Asman has recorded for the evening of March 8, 2018:

Source: https://dsiweb-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/INQ006140_strong-compression.pdf — page 19.

Asman’s went on to claim in this statement: “At this point Yulia Skripal was described as being emotional and fell unconscious. I made notes of my conversation with DI [Detective Inspector] VN104 in one of my notebooks, and in addition this information was confirmed to me in writing the next morning. The information she provided about being sprayed at the restaurant [Zizzi] was seemingly inconsistent with the presence of novichok at the Mill public house and 47 Christie Miller Road. On hearing this, I personally wondered whether Yulia Skripal knew more about it than she had alluded to and therefore whilst being fully cognisant of the SIO’s [Senior Investigative Officer] hypothesis and the need to be open-minded continued to prioritise her property.”

THE SCENE OF THE NOVICHOK CRIME

The Skripals reportedly spent 45 minutes at lunch in Zizzi’s restaurant. Witnesses described Sergei Skripal as upset when he left with Yulia to walk to the bench. Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/

THE EVIDENCE THE CRIME WAS BRITISH

Left: Yulia Skripal in May 2018, the scar of forced intubation still visible; read more here. Centre; Dr Stephen Cockroft who recorded the exchange with Skripal at her bedside on March 8, 2018; that was followed, Cockroft has also testified, by forced sedation and tracheostomy – read more. Right: read the only book on the case evidence.

Open-minded was not what the judge and his lawyers wanted from Asman when he appeared in public for the first time on Thursday, November 14. Referring precisely to the excerpt of Skripal’s hospital evidence, Francesca Whitelaw KC for the Inquiry asked Asman: “ We can take that [witness statement excerpt] down, but this information as well, was it consistent or inconsistent with what you had found out in terms of forensic about the presence of Novichok at The Mill and 47 Christie Miller Road? A. [Asman] It, I would say, was inconsistent on the basis that she said she was sprayed in the restaurant.” — page 73.

Asman was then asked by Whitelaw to comment on Yulia Skripal’s exchange with Cockroft. “My question for you is: how, if at all, this impacted on your investigations? A. It only very slightly impacted on it… It was information to have but not necessarily going to change my approach on anything.” — page 73.

Left, Francesca Whitelaw KC, counsel assisting Hughes, asked Asman about Yulia Skripal’s hospital evidence – click to watch from Minute 2:01:27. Right: Hughes interrupting the witness to dismiss Skripal’s evidence from Min 2:03:23. On Hughes’s order, Asman’s face was not transmitted during his testimony, and the audio record was delayed by ten minutes before broadcast.

In the Inquiry record of hearings and exhibits since the commencement of the open sessions on October 14, there have been eleven separate exhibits of documents purporting to record what Yulia and Sergei Skripal have said; they include interviews with police and witness statements for the Inquiry; they are dated from April 2018 through October 2024. Most of them have been heavily redacted. None of them is signed by either Skripal.

Neither Yulia nor Sergei Skripal has been asked by the police, by the Inquiry lawyers, or by Hughes to confirm or deny whether Yulia’s recollection of March 8, 2018, of the spray attack in Zizzi’s Restaurant is still their evidence of what happened to them.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism, Russophobia | | 2 Comments

US Democrats demand Musk be probed for Russia ties

RT | November 16, 2024

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk should be investigated over media claims that he communicated with several senior Russian officials in recent years, two top Democratic senators have demanded in a letter.

Jack Reed, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Jeanne Shaheen, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, raised concerns about the media allegations in a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland and Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch on Friday.

In October, at the height of the US presidential election, the Wall Street Journal claimed that Musk had communicated with several top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, as recently as this year.

Musk oversees billions of dollars in US government contracts as CEO of SpaceX. As the tech billionaire claims to hold top secret level security clearance, and manages extremely sensitive government contracts, his potential communication with Russia is a risk, the senators said.

“These relationships between a well-known US adversary and Mr. Musk, a beneficiary of billions of dollars in US government funding, pose serious questions regarding Mr. Musk’s reliability as a government contractor and a clearance holder,” they wrote.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blasted the pre-election WSJ claims about the billionaire’s alleged phone calls with Putin as “disinformation.” Historically, there has only been one call between the two, he said.

“It was before 2022, they spoke over the telephone,” Peskov stated, adding that they discussed Russia’s scientific progress, and likely future developments. “There were no contacts between Musk and Putin after that, and all claims otherwise are false.”

The spokesman noted the claims are likely related to the “extremely confrontational electoral political fight” in the US.

After his victory in the US presidential race, Donald Trump announced that Musk will head the future Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The initiative will aim to cut trillions of dollars in “waste and fraud” in annual US government spending, “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said on Thursday.

Musk said his role in DOGE “is going to be a revolution.”

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Russophobia | , | 2 Comments

Debbie Wasserman Schultz labels Trump’s pick for intel chief ‘Russian asset’

RT | November 16, 2024

Tulsi Gabbard, US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national intelligence director, is “likely a Russian asset,” according to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida). In an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Schulz accused Trump of making “irresponsible” choices for his new cabinet.

Gabbard is a former congresswoman from Hawaii and a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve. An outspoken critic of Washington’s military interventions, she left the Democratic party shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. Last month she announced that she had joined the Republican Party and was backing Trump. The president-elect announced her nomination earlier this week, saying that Gabbard “will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career” to the US intelligence community, which includes the NSA, CIA, and FBI.

Schultz claimed that appointing Gabbard to the post would be “dangerous,” as it would make her “a direct line” from the US intelligence community “to our enemies.”

“Tulsi Gabbard is someone who has met with war criminals, violated State Department guidance and secretly, clandestinely, went to Syria and met with [President Bashar] Assad. She’s considered to be, by most assessments, a Russian asset,” the congresswoman claimed, saying that she personally considers Gabbard “someone who is likely a Russian asset.” Schultz did not elaborate on her allegations.

Gabbard has not yet commented on Schultz’s accusations. She previously welcomed Trump’s nomination in a post on X, thanking the president-elect for the opportunity to “defend the safety, security and freedom of the American people.”

Twitter users were quick to lambast Schultz’s for her remarks, pointing out that she presented no evidence of Gabbard’s alleged spying on Russia’s behalf and calling her claims “defamatory.” One user noted that “whenever the left doesn’t like somebody – they’re a Russian asset.” Gabbard was not the first of Trump’s picks to be accused of having ties to Russia – earlier on Friday, two top Democratic senators demanded a probe into SpaceX CEO Elon Musk over media claims that he had contacts with senior Russian officials. Trump earlier announced that Musk would head the future Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with reforming the US government.

In her interview, Schultz called Trump’s entire cabinet reshuffle “the most extreme and dangerous” in history and a “Star Wars bar level craziness.” She noted that while a few of Trump’s picks are passable, most are “individually unqualified.”

Apart from Gabbard, the congresswoman was especially unhappy with the nomination of former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general. She claimed it was “breathtaking in its extremism” as Gaetz has “no experience whatsoever with the Justice Department other than being a subject of investigation for sex trafficking minors.”

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia | | 9 Comments

‘Tortured and left to die’: New details emerge about Israel’s murder of prominent Gaza surgeon

The Cradle | November 16, 2024

A Sky News investigation published on 16 November has revealed new details surrounding Israel’s torture and murder of the famous Palestinian surgeon from Gaza, Adnan al-Bursh, in the Ofer Prison in the occupied Palestinian West Bank last May.

A fellow Palestinian prisoner at Ofer told the British news channel that Israeli guards severely tortured Dr Bursh and then left him to die alone, naked from the waist down, in the prison yard.

The prisoner, who previously knew the doctor in Gaza, provided the new details in a deposition to lawyers from HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization.

“In mid-April 2024, Dr Adnan Al-Bursh arrived at Section 23 in Ofer Prison. The prison guards brought Dr Adnan Al-Bursh into the section in a deplorable state. He had clearly been assaulted with injuries around his body. He was naked in the lower part of his body,” the prisoner’s deposition states.

“The prison guards threw him in the middle of the yard and left him there. Dr Adnan Al-Bursh was unable to stand up. One of the prisoners helped him and accompanied him to one of the rooms. A few minutes later, prisoners were heard screaming from the room they went into, declaring Dr Adnan Al-Bursh (was dead).”

Dr Bursh was widely regarded as one of the best-qualified and well-known surgeons in Gaza.

When Israel’s war on Gaza began in October of last year, Dr Bursh worked at Al-Shifa Hospital as the head of orthopedic surgery. He worked around the clock, performing surgeries on Palestinians injured by Israel’s horrific bombing campaign.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1856940110308143197

When Israeli troops laid siege to Al-Shifa in November, the staff was forced to flee.

Bursh fled by foot to the Indonesian Hospital in Bait Lahia to continue serving wounded patients.

He documented his experiences on video, including when Israel shelled the hospital, killing 12 people.

He was then forced to leave the Indonesia Hospital as well and moved to the Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza’s north, where he was abducted by Israeli forces.

After the soldiers surrounded the hospital, “They told [Dr Bursh] that if all men do not come down… they will destroy the Awda Hospital with all the women and children in it,” a fellow doctor at Al-Awda, Mohammad Obeid, told Sky News.

After Dr Bursh left the hospital, Israeli soldiers “called his name out” and then “roughly” took him away, Obeid stated.

Dr Bursh was then taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev Desert.

The facility became notorious this summer after prison guards, doctors, and former inmates gave testimony of prisoners being tortured and raped there.

Dr Khalid Hamouda, a former inmate at Sde Teiman, told Sky News that of the 100 prisoners in the section of the camp where he was held, at least a quarter were healthcare workers.

Dr Bursh was beaten severely at Sde Teiman.

“He thought he may have broken ribs,” Dr Hamouda said. “He was unable to even go to the toilet alone.”

The doctor was then transferred to Ofer Prison in the Israeli prison system but was never charged with any crime or terrorism.

Since 7 October 2023, at least 43 prisoners have died in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Pro-Palestine organization enraged by Canadian police raid against activist

Al Mayadeen | November 16, 2024

The Canada Palestine Association strongly condemned the excessive police brutality the Vancouver police exhibited against local pro-Palestine activist Charlotte Kates, a director of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

The Samidoun network was recently blacklisted as a terrorist organization in Canada and the United States. Kates was also previously detained and charged with “hate speech” offenses in May.

The condition for her release was for her not to take part in any “protests, rallies or assemblies” until her court date of October 8, which was triggered by her stance of supporting the right of Palestinians to resist “Israel” and for saying “Long Live October 7” during a rally speech on April 26, the statement wrote.

However, Kates was arrested again on November 14 under claims of a “hate crime investigation” launched by the Vancouver police force, after a search warrant was issued for her home in Victoria Drive.

Kates’ neighbor expressed the neighborhood’s fear as police officers, who arrived at the location in an armored vehicle and full tactical gear, raided her home and broke a window at 9 am on Thursday.

“I’ve lived next to them for three years, and they’re absolutely lovely people. They’re just fighting for rights for people… I don’t think they’re dangerous or terrorists by any means,” another neighbor said.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , | Leave a comment

Iran ‘categorically’ dismisses NYT report about its envoy’s meeting with Musk

Press TV – November 16, 2024

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has “categorically” dismissed an American newspaper report on a meeting between Tehran’s ambassador to the United Nations and Elon Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump.

The New York Times on Friday cited two Iranian officials as saying that the meeting between Musk and Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani was held at a secret location in New York on Monday and lasted more than an hour.

The officials reportedly described the discussion as focused on how to defuse tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The Times said Musk, the world’s richest man, himself initiated the meeting, held at a location chosen by the Iranian side.

In an interview with IRNA on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei rejected the report of the meeting and expressed surprise over “extensive” media coverage by American outlets in this regard.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , | Leave a comment

The Islamic world reorganizes the strategy in Riyadh

By Lorenzo Maria Pacini | Strategic Culture Foundation |  November 15, 2024

On 11 November, an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on the question of Palestine was held in Riyadh. It was an extremely important event, from which the directives of the coming months for the Middle Eastern Islamic world and beyond will take their course. A shared international strategy emerged, even if contradictions and risks are not entirely absent.

A necessary window for dialogue

On Monday, 11 November, Riyadh invited the 22 countries of the Arab League and the 50 or so states that make up the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to take part in a summit dedicated to the ongoing conflicts in the region. The meeting focused on ongoing conflicts in the region, with a particular focus on Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office.

At the opening of the summit dedicated to Israel’s wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman used the term ‘genocide ’ to describe Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip: ‘We call on the international community to assume its responsibility […] by immediately ending Israeli attacks against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon’.

The assembled Arab and Muslim leaders took the same stance towards Israel, condemning the horrific and shocking crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza, denouncing torture, executions, disappearances and outright ethnic cleansing, as stated in the final communiqué of the meeting.

Mohammed bin Salman also called on Israel to ‘respect the territorial sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran” and to ”refrain from attacking its territory’. Most members of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will support these very firm statements. Although there are big differences between the countries that have normalised relations with Israel and those that oppose it, starting with the Islamic Republic of Iran. MBS explicitly said that not only the very existence of Palestine is now in question, but also the fate of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the second holiest shrine in Islam after Mecca, a statement reminiscent of the name of the Hamas operation entitled ‘Storm Al-Aqsa’. Evidently, Hamas leaders expected that such an emergency Arab-Islamic summit would convene much earlier, for instance soon after the start of Israel’s ground operation in Gaza.

In this regard, the Crown Prince referred to Iran as a ‘sister republic’, which made the press throughout the Islamic world rejoice, signalling a detente in relations between the two countries. Diplomatic relations were officially reopened in March 2023, after a seven-year blockade, thanks to an agreement brokered by China, and after the infamous 7 October 2023, dialogue resumed and intensified. Iran supports the Palestinian Islamist movement, while Saudi Arabia tries to contain the spread of the conflict.

At the summit, Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref called Israel’s assassination of the leaders of Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah ‘organised terrorism’, adding that ‘Operations misleadingly described as “targeted killings”, in which Palestinian elites and leaders of other countries in the region are killed one by one or en masse, are nothing but organised terrorism’. Similarly expressed by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who called on the international community to continue sending aid to Lebanon. It should be noted that Mikati spoke a few days ago of ‘interference by Iran’ in Lebanon, an accusation rejected by Tehran.

It is worth noting the simultaneous involvement of Assad and Erdogan. Only recently, such crossovers were impossible. The government in Ankara has spoken increasingly strong and clear words against the extermination that Israel is perpetrating, certainly favouring a round table with the neighbouring Islamic countries, at least from the point of view of positive intentions.

Why only now?

There is almost nothing left of the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah. This is a fact to be confronted with. Such a summit would have been very different if the leaders of the Resistance were still alive.

The reason for this delay is perhaps the American elections. While the BRICS+ summit in Kazan had paved the way and pointed in a direction of international cohesion in condemning Israel’s actions and the need to restore Palestinian autonomy, it is true that the final placet was missing to move from theory to action.

Donald Trump’s victory must be framed from an Arab-Islamic perspective. Trump is a supporter of right-wing Zionism, that of Netanyahu and certain radicals such as Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Rabbi Dov Lior, who have never shied away from proclamations of massacres, sacrifices and religious destruction. For Zionists, Jerusalem is as important as Al Quds for Islamists (Al Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem). In the election campaign, Trump never gave an inch about his pro-Zionist position and support for the government in Tel Aviv. It was he who proposed moving the capital of the Zionist entity to Jerusalem and it was he who ordered the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani. Trump’s election strengthened the prospects for US-Israeli collaboration, so much so that Smotrich immediately declared his intention to attack the Palestinians in the West Bank and blow up the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Trump has accelerated these processes. The next goal, which he personally supported and financed, is the construction of the Third Temple, an eschatological keystone for the entire American neocon world. The physical destruction of all of Israel’s enemies is not a side effect or minor harm, but a duty inherent in Jewish messianism.

The emergence of the Islamic pole in the multipolar world is acquiring an increasingly recognisable and identifiable form. Of course, there are still many problems to be solved: Saudi Arabia and Turkey do business with the US and Israel, continue to play on opposing sides, and are historically unreliable. The countries of South East Asia still have to define their position with regard to international relations with the West, in order to definitively emancipate themselves and make themselves safe from blackmail and retaliation.

The questions many are asking themselves are various: will the next American president commit himself to ending the ongoing conflicts as he has promised? Or will he be an unconditional supporter of Israel, both in the war and in his plans to torpedo any prospect of establishing a Palestinian state? Saudi Arabia makes any normalization with Israel conditional on the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The two-state solution is supported by much of the international community as a means to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab and Muslim leaders hold firm to the position, in accordance with UN resolutions and the 2002 Arab peace plan, that Israel must return all territories occupied since 1967.

The Abrahamic agreements are no longer enough. This time, however, the US can no longer decide the entire future of the Middle East on its own, because the chessboard has changed and the new positions taken by the Islamic countries will force Washington to weigh up more elements. Russia and China will not let the multipolar project be compromised. Not even the African countries, where the Palestinian cause is a deeply felt and shared issue of freedom, identity and anti-colonialism, are going to give way in the fight against this historic injustice.

The Muslim population of Islamic countries, seeing the passivity of the rulers, will not tolerate the ongoing extermination and attack on the holy places of their religion much longer.

Probably, only a common war against a common enemy can unite Muslims. And that could happen very soon.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Israel Wins the US Election

The new cabinet might be worse than the old one

By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • November 15, 2024

There are inevitably several jokes going around in the circles that I frequent that “MAGA” should instead be “MIGA” as the recent US national election only allowed one to choose between two parties that tried to excel in expressing their love for the Jewish state, with the winner Donald Trump’s Republicans ending up on top to “Make Israel Great[er] Again.” Another joke, more in line with dark humor, is the growing belief that Kamala Harris might have lost the election with the margin of difference being the perception that the Israeli genocide in Gaza, enabled by her party and President Joe Biden, turned many voters against her. Ironically, Donald Trump was more ambiguous and may well turn out to be even worse when it comes to developments in the Middle East.

Joe Biden’s cabinet and senior appointments were overloaded with Jews and while Trump’s choices are ethnically more mixed they all are truly dedicated to letting Israel have its way with its neighbors. Several high officials might well be considered demented when it comes to the arguments they make to protect the Jewish state, up to and including urging preemptive strikes carried out by the US against Iran, Syria and Lebanon. An Israeli newspaper has revealed that the Israeli government and Trump’s team are already in discussions regarding how to remove Iran’s government. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his part has claimed that he has already spoken with Trump several times since the election and that the two leaders see “eye-to-eye” on Iran. Netanyahu is convinced that a direct strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is feasible as long as the United States fully supports Israel if a war breaks out.

The new Trump cabinet lineup includes Congressman Marco Rubio of Florida as Secretary of State, FOX news journalist Pete Hegspeth as Secretary of Defense, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York as Ambassador to the United Nations, former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas as Ambassador to Israel, Congressman Mike Waltz as National Security Adviser, Governor Kristi Noem as head of Homeland Security, and Steven C. Witkoff as special envoy to the Middle East. Together they constitute a cohesive group that has delighted the president-elect Trump’s most hawkishly pro-Israel backers. All of those nominated share a passion for promoting Israeli interests as well as bemoaning Jewish concerns over issues like the constantly claimed “problem” of surging antisemitism. Matt Brooks, the longtime chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, called the nominees “a true dream team for those who care about a strong, vibrant, unshakable US-Israel relationship.”

For those of us who had hoped for something more like peace on earth it looks, however, quite a bit different. Paul Craig Roberts even jests that the lineup appears to have been appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Perhaps the most demented of the lot is also the individual in the most potentially threatening position, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Hegseth is a journalist with FOX news with one observer noting that he has never managed any organization larger than his three wives and five children prior to his upgrade to the $1 trillion budgeted 2.9 million Pentagon employees. Even by Christian Zionist standards, he might well be considered to be an extremist. An excerpt from Hegseth’s book, American Crusade, Our Fight to Stay Free (2020) includes “Simply put: if you don’t understand why Israel matters and why it is so central to the story of Western civilization—with America being its greatest manifestation—then you don’t live in history. America’s story is inextricably linked to Judeo-Christian history and the modern state of Israel. You can love America without loving Israel but that tells me your knowledge of the Bible and Western civilization is woefully incomplete… If you love America, you should love Israel. We share history, we share faith, and we share freedom. We love free people, free expression, and free markets.”

Of course, Hegseth is not plausible as neither the US nor Israel appear any longer to love either free people or speech. An over-the-top Christian Zionist, Hegseth, whose body is covered with Christian crosses tattoos, denies that Palestine or even the Palestinians actually exist. He calls the West Bank Samaria and Judea. He is also a so-called Third Temple activist who believes that the al-Aqsa mosque and other Muslim holy sites on the Temple mount in Jerusalem should be torn down to rebuild the Judaean Temple allegedly destroyed by the Romans in the Second Century. As al-Aqsa is a major Islamic religious site, such a move would automatically trigger a massive sectarian war in the Middle East, but it is also seen by Christian Zionists like Hegseth as a precursor step in the development of the Armageddon conflict that will lead to the rapturing of all true believers (Christians only!) into heaven and the Second Coming of Christ. Basically, we are looking at a Secretary of Defense who heads the largest military organization in the world wanting there to be a war which would destroy the world as we know it.

Evangelical Christian Zionist Huckabee and Congresswoman Stefanik are in some ways just as scary. Trump, clearly unconcerned about appointing senior officials possessing dual loyalty, said in a statement regarding Huckabee that “Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Huckabee believes God gave historic Palestine to the modern state of Israel, and is an outspoken advocate of Israel’s planned expansion in the occupied West Bank, which he calls Judea and Samaria. While visiting an Israeli West Bank settlement in in 2017, Huckabee claimed the land was not Israeli occupied. “I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It’s Judea and Samaria. There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.” In 2008, during his own presidential campaign, Huckabee said there was “really no such thing as a Palestinian.”

Another leading Israel Firster is Elise Stefanik, Congresswoman from New York, who will be United States Ambassador to the United Nations, where she will no doubt follow in the glorious footsteps of Nikki Haley, Trump’s totally Zionist first appointee to that organization back in 2016. Stefanik has been stridently using her bully pulpit on the House Education and Workforce Committee to destroy free speech on America’s college campuses, particularly when that freedom is used to criticize Israel and its behavior, which she liberally describes as antisemitism even when the protests are triggered by Israeli atrocities directed against Palestinians and Lebanese. Her witch hunt has led to several top resignations of college presidents and universities across the country have clamped down on pro-Palestinian protesters, who, for the record, Trump has pledged to deport together with all “Jew haters.” Per Australian Journalist Caitlin Johnstone “She’s a hawkish swamp monster whose political career was primed in some of the most odious neoconservative think tanks in Washington, and opposes placing any limits on US military support for Israel. Earlier this year Stefanik actually flew to Israel to give a speech before the Israeli Knesset vowing to help stop the ‘antisemitism’ of protesters against Israel’s genocidal atrocities at American universities.” Stefanik will undoubtedly be relied upon to represent Israeli interests at the UN and State Department rather than those of the United States or of American citizens. The same goes for the new president’s Middle East envoy, Jewish real estate mogul Steve Witkoff, who is a golfing partner of Trump but reportedly has no diplomatic or political experience. A Times of Israel profile describes Witkoff as a “conduit to the Jewish business community.” That is great news as in Washington those who have the most money are always able to speak loudest.

And so it goes. Turn a page in Washington and you find out that someone else has bought up all the remaining pages so all you can do is keep re-reading the same thing. Gosh, Presidents Biden and Trump, doesn’t it bother you to know, as you surely do, that another country owns us and that it carries out near continuous war crimes against an occupied people that are enabled through the use of our arms and money? Do you have no sense of shame? Where is the proud and honorable America that was once a beacon of liberty among all nations? Gone and forgotten, apparently.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , | 2 Comments

Can China Rise Peacefully?

By Professor Glenn Diesen | November 15, 2024

The spectacular rise of China will inevitably spark security competition with the US and create tensions between the two leading economies in the world. The peaceful rise of China is, however, not solely the responsibility of Beijing as the US must also manage the security competition by accommodating shifts in the international distribution of power. The US constructed an international system based on unipolarity / global dominance after the Cold War, and attempting to preserve this system when it no longer reflects realities on the ground will make it near impossible to manage the security competition.

A temporary strategy

China’s peaceful rise in its previous format was to a large extent a temporary strategy. China’s peaceful rise involved rapid industrialisation and building its strength without engaging much in international affairs to avoid attracting unwanted concerns from other great powers. In Deng Xiaoping’s own words, a peaceful rise meant that China’s objective was to “bide our time and hide our capabilities”. China pursued an export-driven development model to rapidly industrialise, build up vast amounts of foreign reserves, and gradually climb up global value chains. What would happen when China could no longer hide its capabilities?

This “mutually beneficial” partnership with the US was not sustainable as China would incrementally increase its industrial competitiveness vis-à-vis the US and the US would continue to send more money to China to buy Chinese goods. At some point, the US would want to exit the relationship as debt levels become untenable and the loss of production power prevents recovery. The Chinese side would similarly seek to restructure the partnership as the growing US debt becomes a vulnerability as the US would not be able to pay its debts. As John Maynard Keynes succinctly put it: “If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem. But if you owe your bank a million pounds, it has…”.

The breaking point for the relationship became the Global Financial Crisis in 2008-09 when the US discovered that borrowing and spending was not a sustainable economic model, while the Chinese took note that the US would not restore its fiscal discipline. Washington’s policy to “borrow and consume” its way back to prosperity implied that China could either invest more in an increasingly insolvent US, or alternatively accept the devaluation of its existing investments since the US Federal Reserve would print the money. The US effectively blackmailed China by demanding that China either lend them more money or the US would print the money. Washington also began to recognise that interdependence should not be measured by absolute gain, but by relative gain.

China was destined to outgrow the US-led international economic system and thus challenge the dominant position of the US. China would need to diversify away from the excessive reliance on the US by connecting with the other Eurasian giants, making inroads into Africa and even entering Latin America as the US “backyard”. The US would naturally view this challenge to its dominant position as a threat, at which point it would be very dangerous to be too reliant on the US. Chinese excessive dependence on US technologies meant that Washington could disrupt Chinese supply chains, excessive dependence on transportation corridors and choke points under the control of the US Navy meant China could be severed from the arteries of international trade, and excessive reliance on US banks, payment systems and the dollar meant that the US could shut down China’s finance. Furthermore, the US would begin to challenge China’s sovereignty over Taiwan, destabilise Hong Kong and Xinjiang with “human rights NGOs”, and pull China’s neighbours into a confrontational US alliance system. A confident US hegemon seeks to build trust in reliance on its international economic architecture and the possibility for peaceful coexistence, but a declining US hegemon is predictably extremely vicious and uses its administrative control over the international economic system to weaken or destroy rivals.

What would be good advice to China after the Global Financial Crisis? China should diversify its economic partners to reduce dependence on the US and prepare for increasingly aggressive US policies aimed at cutting China down in size. China subsequently began to launch ambitious industrial policies to take leadership in the most advanced technologies associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it developed the Belt & Road Initiative to connect with the wider world, and new financial instruments such as alternative development banks, payment systems and trade in national currencies. Furthermore, China began building a powerful military deterrent and prepared to push through the containment of the US island chains.

America Shared Responsibility

A “peaceful rise” can be considered a dual process, as China must be willing to integrate itself into the rules and structures of the international order, while concurrently the power dominating the existing system must be prepared to reform and adjust to accommodate China. Preserving a hegemonic strategy in a multipolar world entails abandoning any efforts to mitigate the security competition, as unipolarity requires the containment, weakening or destruction of rising rivals.

Washington has not accommodated China sufficiently in the existing structures, which compelled China to develop alternative economic structures. The US has for example been reluctant to accommodate China by relinquishing the mechanisms of US primacy within institutions such as the IMF, World Bank and Asian Development Bank. China’s technological development is sabotaged with economic coercion that clearly violates the rules of the WTO. The US no longer abides by the rules of the US-led international economic system.

The US is developing new rules that the other side cannot agree to and thus disrupts stability. The intention of marginalising China was made explicit in an op-ed by Obama in 2016, where he posited that “the world has changed. The rules are changing with it. The United States, not countries like China, should write them”. The economic warfare that further intensified under the Trump presidency and then Biden presidency was rooted in the failure to manage shifts in the international distribution of power. The efforts to build a Europe without Russia as the largest European state predictably led to conflict, and the effort to construct an Asia where China is a spectator will have the same consequences.

A New Format for a Peaceful Rise?

For decades, China has been open about its critical view of a system based on US hegemony, as it is inflexible in accommodating the rise of other powers and shifts in the international distribution of power. The mere rise of other powers threatens to disrupt a system of hegemony. China’s desire to develop alternatives is also not new. In 1990, Deng Xiaoping told members of the Central Committee that the world was moving towards multipolarity:

“The situation in which the United States and the Soviet Union dominated all international affairs is changing. Nevertheless, in the future when the world becomes three-polar, four-polar or five-polar, the Soviet Union, no matter how weakened it may be and even if some of its republics withdraw from it, will still be one pole. In the so-called multi-polar world, China too will be a pole. We should not belittle our own importance: one way or another, China will be counted as a pole. Our foreign policies remain the same: first, opposing hegemonism and power politics and safeguarding world peace; and second, working to establish a new international political order and a new international economic order”.

China has not necessarily abandoned its “peaceful rise”, but merely reformulated it. Peaceful rise no longer entails building and hiding its strength within the US hegemonic system to avoid unwanted attention. Rather, peaceful rise entails developing a multipolar economic system that is more capable of managing changes in the international distribution of power and thus harmonising its interest with other great powers.

November 16, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

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