World News Archives - Page 3 of 14

China Signals It Might Soon Divest Itself of U.S. Treasury Holdings

2 min read

China Signals It Might Soon Divest Itself of U.S. Treasury Holdings

Paul Collier December 20, 2023

A top Chinese economist named Yu Yongding appears to be prepping the Chinese people and the world for a future move that will see the fascist state divest itself of all U.S. Treasury holdings. The economist wrote an editorial that would never have been published without CCP approval giving “economic” reasons why China should divest from U.S. Treasury holdings.

The move could be seen as a bargaining chip, and it might prove to be that, but it could also be a move to prepare the world for a near-future action, one that would most likely happen should the DNC-CCP not prevent Donald Trump from winning back the Presidency in 2024.

China urged to cut US Treasury holdings – www.thestandard.com.hk

Excerpt:

China must systematically decrease its holdings of US Treasuries due to low interest rates and the potential risks over America’s growing net debt overseas, a top mainland economist says.

Yu Yongding, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences academician, said the ratio of US national debt to gross domestic product will persistently increase, signifying a continuous deterioration of the country’s overseas net debt over time.

The ongoing interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve may also accelerate the deterioration of the country’s overseas net debt, he added.

China, said Yu, must accelerate the adjustment of its overseas asset structure and enhance returns on overseas net assets. To achieve this, it should reduce the proportion of foreign exchange reserves in its overseas assets, he said.

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Multi-National Task Force Looks to Tackle Houthi Threat in Red Sea

1 min read

Multi-National Task Force Looks to Tackle Houthi Threat in Red Sea

Paul Collier December 19, 2023

A multinational task force led by the U.S. is set to confront the growing Houthi threat to world trade in the Red Sea. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said of the formation of the task force, “This is an international challenge that demands collective action.”

From dailycaller.com

Excerpt:

The U.S. and allies on Monday announced a multinational task force aimed at undercutting attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea as the Houthi rebels put a vice on shipping through a critical waterway, the Pentagon said early Tuesday in Bahrain.

Operation Prosperity Guardian will involve a multitude of nations including the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain and build on an existing regional task force established to ensure maritime security, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said while on a tour of the Middle East. The Iran-backed Houthis, based in Yemen, have launched barrages of missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping in recent weeks, while U.S. warships scramble to come to their rescue.

“This is an international challenge that demands collective action,” Austin said in the statement.

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Israel Kills Its Own Hostages

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Israel Kills Its Own Hostages

Paul Collier December 18, 2023

Three hostages that appear to have escaped captivity from Hamas met a tragic end when Israeli soldiers mistook the hostages for Hamas attackers and killed all three. The tragedy happened in Gaza city. Netanyahu called the incident one of the “burdens of war” and that it “broke (his) heart, broke the entire nation’s heart.”

Hamas has said it will not be releasing any more hostages until Israel stops attacking Hamas altogether after the incident. Israeli military officials said the soldiers who killed the hostages were not following the correct protocol.

From Israel’s own account, it appears the hostages approached the Israeli soldiers with their arms up, raising a white flag, but that didn’t stop one soldier from yelling “terrorists,” so everyone opened fire, killing two and injuring one.

The injured soldier fled for shelter and continued to try to plead with the soldiers to help them, only to be eventually killed as well.

Protests have picked up momentum from Israelis who see this action as yet another example of gross incompetence, deadly gross incompetence from the IDF, with Netanyahu receiving the brunt of the blame for that perceived incompetence.

The incident also raises more doubts as to how many Israeli citizens were killed by Hamas as opposed by their own military, which does not in any way exonerate Hamas from intentionally targeting civilians, including infants, for slaughter and rape as a terroristic weapon of war.

Norwegian Tanker ‘Strinda’ Struck By Houthi Missile

1 min read

Norwegian Tanker ‘Strinda’ Struck By Houthi Missile

Michael Cessna December 12, 2023

RED SEA, 12.12.2023, 1100hrs CST – The Japanese-owned, Norwegian-flagged general oil and chemical tanker MK STRINDA was struck by a missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen, while transiting the Bab el Mandeb strait, late on the 11th. the ship reported damage and a fire, but reported no casualties.

The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Mason responded to the tanker’s distress call, and is rendering assistance as of press time. The Mason, along with other US Navy warships, have engaged Houthi missiles and drones fire at Israel as part of the Houthi’s

This is the latest in the escalating piratical activities of the Iran-backed terror group in recent weeks, including their helicopter assault to seize of the M/V Galaxy Leader and their attempted seizure of the M/V Central Park.

The Houthi group is a religious sect that is the main party in a civil war that has raged since 2014. Although the hard-line Shi’a Muslim group is reported to be receiving assistance from many corners, no state has recognized them as a legitimate state. They were, and remain, a group of bandits, pirates and terrorists.

The Freedomist will continue to monitor the situation.

*The Freedomist — Keeping Watch, So You Don’t Have To*

The Fall of Poland is Official as Far-Left Globalist Seizes Control

1 min read

The Fall of Poland is Official as Far-Left Globalist Seizes Control

Paul Collier December 12, 2023

Far-Left radical leftist Donald Tusk has won the Prime Minister seat of Poland after the former incumbent PM Mateusz Morawiecki saw his party and coalition partners fail to muster enough votes to keep him in power, giving the reins to a seditious globalist who intends on destroying Poland’s efforts to regain its sovereignty.

Only 190 Poles in the new parliament voted to retain the conservative PM, referred to as an authoritarian by far-left publications even as a true authoritarian prepares to destroy Poland from within.

The Poles voted for this, so what happens next is entirely of their own doing. Expect the Poles to become a half-rate satellite power of the globalist Empire the EU represents. Expect Poles to lose more real freedoms while the cult of death that is leftism gives them the liberty that leads to death, sexual “liberty,” including legalized murdering of unborn children so their population can “enjoy” sex without consequence, to the detriment of the unborn and their own nationhood.

This writer mourns the loss of Poland as one of the beacons of light in a sea of darkness that is the European continent.

Houthi Goverment in Yemen Announces Blockade of Bab el-Mandeb

2 min read

Houthi Goverment in Yemen Announces Blockade of Bab el-Mandeb

Michael Cessna December 10, 2023

YEMEN – In a press release dated December 9th, the rebel Houthi government of Yemen announced its intention to blockade the Bab el-Mandeb strait, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, in order to halt all maritime commerce going to or from Israel, including – significantly – vessels of any nation, including any vessel owned by Israeli companies or individuals. This presents a direct and immediate threat to the Freedom of the Seas doctrine of international law, as there is no way to verify the details of vessels in the Red Sea without physically stopping them. This also places a considerable portion of world commerce in immediate jeopardy, as the Red Sea is one of the main conduits of global commercial traffic, not simply limited to the oil industry.

This comes after weeks of rising tensions, as the rebel Houthi regime has repeatedly attacked and captured commercial vessels in the Red Sea, while firing ballistic missiles supplied by Iran towards Israel. Both United States and French Navy warships have fired in defense of vessel attacked by Houthi forces. These rash actions could lead to an all-out naval war in the Red Sea.

*Red Sea, 2005. Photo credit: NASA. Public Domain.*

As of press time, the United States has not issued a statement on the situation, although rumors swirl about some form of joint, direct-action against the Houthis.

Keep watch here for further developments.

EDIT, 12.11.2023, 1700hrs CST

A link from the Telegraph shows an estimate of the world’s shipping container traffic – some 12% of the world’s shipping containers, roughly 15 million units – that could be impacted should fighting in the Bab el Mandeb escalate…..

Ukrainian Negotiator Accuses U.S. of Sabotaging Peace Deal with Russia

2 min read

Ukrainian Negotiator Accuses U.S. of Sabotaging Peace Deal with Russia

Paul Collier December 6, 2023

Davyd Arakhamia, the former head of the Ukrainian delegation at the 2022 Peace Talks held in Istanbul, is claiming Americans were the ones that pushed Ukraine to not accept a peace deal. He said the Russians “were prepared to end the war if we agreed to – as Finland once did- neutrality and committed that would not join NATO.” He claimed the Americans pushed Ukraine to not accept those terms.

He went on to explain that “For Moscow, Ukrainian neutrality was the key point…and the biggest thing for them.”

The negotiations happened just a few weeks after the start of the war, which began in February of 2022. Since that time, Ukraine has had at least half a million men killed or wounded, with Russia at 300,000, and those numbers are probably conservative, meaning close to (if not more than) a million human beings have been killed or wounded after the negotiations broke down.

The U.S. would NOT let Ukraine negotiate a peace that did not involve Ukraine being in the West’s orbit, no matter the cost to the Ukrainians themselves.

In this writer’s opinion, this is the war we are being forced to support by both major political parties in America, a war for NATO expansion, not a war for freedom or democracy, as our “leaders’ would have you believe. Russia invaded Ukraine to stop NATO expansion. The West, with America as the leader, pushed Russia into a war they are now using to make defense contractors rich and to grind down Russia using the blood of Ukrainians to do so.

Venezuelans Vote for War Against Guyana

1 min read

Venezuelans Vote for War Against Guyana

Paul Collier December 5, 2023

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s referendum to invade Guyana was approved by the Venezuelan voters, allegedly. Venezuela’s National Election Council claims 10.5 million plus votes have been cast, but outside observers question the numbers given the paucity of people that showed up at designated polling stations.

Maduro said of the vote, “It has been a total success for our country, for our democracy.” Note the use of the term “democracy” by a de facto dictator running a de facto one-party state. The word has become a dog whistle for authoritarianism, and the “American” left is the prime example of the use of this word as a stand-in for one-party state absolute control over its “citizens.”

An International Court ruled last week that Venezuela does not have legitimate claim on the region Essequibo. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s government, according to the International Court President Joan E. Donoghue “is taking steps intending to acquire control and administer the territory in dispute.”

The claim over the region that comprises more than 75 percent of Guyana came after an oil deposit was discovered within the region.

Brazil has declared its intentions to come to the aid of Guyana should Venezuela choose to attack, having already moved troops to the border in anticipation of a potential war with Venezuela.

Weather War: From Banned Witchery To Military Operations

4 min read

Weather War: From Banned Witchery To Military Operations

Michael Cessna November 17, 2023

War is hard. That is an oft-repeated phrase, but it is nonetheless true. People are trying to do violence to you, and to those around you…and frequently, it doesn’t matter if you are wearing a uniform or carrying a weapon or not. There are loud and scary noises, a lot of dirt, mud and bugs (among other unpleasant things), and people screaming in fear. And then, it starts raining…or hailing…or snowing. These things combine to make your life infinitely more miserable and terrifying than it already is.

But – the above are personal things. What about the wider context?

Last week, we discussed the effects of volcanic eruptions on logistics, the field of supplying armed forces. Here, we will look at the wider effects of weather on military operations.

Wars and the battles they are composed of are directly impacted by the weather. Armies, air forces and navies are all at the mercy of the weather. While unexpected “snow days” for civilians may mean an inconvenience in getting to work, and while a levee being breached by heavy rain can be a disaster that destroys towns and homes, for armed forces these events can be catastrophic when they happen unexpectedly. Weather forecasting is so vital to military forces, that multiple manuals are now devoted to it.

Militaries have known this for centuries. But, is in only in roughly the last two hundred years that militaries began to seriously monitor weather conditions across the wider “operational region” versus simply the local battlefield. Indeed, until 1950, meteorologists were not permitted to so much as say the word “tornado”, much less try to predict them before they formed, as this was essentially “career suicide”.

The US Army would not form a weather forecasting service until 1870, with the US Navy joining the program in 1873. The British were no better, not founding a meteorological office until 1854. This very late development was due to the belief dating from at least the Middle Ages that attempting to forecast the weather in any way was a form of witchcraft.

This frequently hamstrung military operations, sometimes in catastrophic ways; Napoleon and Hitler come to mind immediately.

In the context of combat operations, rain is bad, because most land operations are prosecuted off of prepared roads; “cross-country” is the word of the day. Heavy rains will turn normally solid fields into mud pits, quagmires that will swallow vehicles and troops. This is especially true when levees and dams are deliberately destroyed, aside from the sheer destruction inflicted on civilians, and the infrastructure to support them, in the combat area. This us, in fact, the accusation leveled at Russia in June of 2023, when the Kakhovka Dam in the Kherson Oblast of Ukraine was breached and flooded the area.

*Settlements on the left bank of Dnieper River are underwater after the Kakhovka Dam was breached on 6th June, 2023. CCA/4.0 International. Photo credit: Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.*

For air forces, severe weather simply grounds flights. But, those force’s airfields are not immune from damage. Clark Air Base, long a center of US military operations in the Far East, was functionally destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.

*Remains of Clark Air Force Base, Luzon, Republic of the Philippines, January 1991, following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The U.S. National Archives. Public Domain.*

And neither are naval forces immune. The US Navy maintains a policy of sortieing its ships and aircraft away from port areas threatened by large storms, lest they be wrecked by the storm’s surge and wind effects. And with good reason – although dangerous, getting ships out of port as quickly as possible is usually the safest option…but not always.

In 1944, during WW2 combat operations in the Pacific, the US Navy’s Task Force 38 was struck by a massive typhoon that nudged the scale as a Force Five hurricane on the modern scale, similar to Hurricanes Katrina and Andrew. The storm actually sank three destroyers, damaged nine more warships and killed nearly eight hundred sailors.

*The U.S. Navy light aircraft carrier USS Langley (CVL-27) rolling heavily during Typhoon Cobra, 18 December 1944. US Navy photo. Public Domain.*

And, as both Napoleon and Hitler discovered, snow is a terrible force, occasionally freezing troops to death on vast scales. Snow is like rain, but worse. Some forces can thrive in snowy and icy environments, but most people – and troops – cannot.

*An injured soldier from the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in central Alaska during Exercise Timberline, 1963. Photo Credit: US Army photo by Sp4 Kenneth Puckett. Public Domain.*

And weather is not limited to hurricanes, ice, or rain. In 2003, as US and Coalition forces advanced north towards Baghdad, they were struck by a massive sandstorm that forced the advancing columns to halt, because visibility was reduced to zero.

A convoy of U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV) in Northern Iraq, during a sandstorm during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Photo Credit: LCpl Andrew P. Roufs, USMC. Public Domain.

Planning military operations on a board game is easy. Doing it in real life is seriously hard work. It is only “witchcraft” to the mentally dense.

To quote the great Chinese general, Sun Tzu:

“Before doing battle, one calculates in the temple and will win, because many calculations were made; before doing battle, one calculates in the temple but will lose, because few calculations were made.”