On Saturday Hezbollah has finally issued confirmation via its Al-Manar television channel that Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese Shia group’s leader for 32 years, has been killed in Friday’s major Israeli airstrikes on the Dahieh suburb of Beirut.

The group said in the statement of the slain Secretary-General, “His eminence, the master of resistance, the righteous servant, has passed away to be with his lord who is pleased with him as a great martyr.”

Via Reuters

“The leadership of Hezbollah pledges … to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy [Israel], supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people,” it added.

There was nothing further detailed as to precisely how the group would respond, only that it plans to continue its fight against Israel. No doubt it could take some time before it regroups, as likely many more of its commanders were taken out in the large-scale strikes which utterly destroyed multiple large buildings Friday.

Within hours prior to Hezbollah finally confirming and announcing the monumental development which will send shockwaves through the Arab world, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement proclaiming: “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.”

PM Netanyahu had ordered or monitored the strike from New York, after just stepping away from a speech before the United Nations General Assembly:

Overnight it was clear something major was brewing given there was an emergency meeting in Tehran of top national security officials chaired by the Ayatollah in the wake of the Dahieh bombings. Within the last hours Reuters has reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been “transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place,” according to Iranian security officials.

American-supplied heavy bombs were likely used in the strikes that killed Nasrallah: 

Israel media says about 85 so-called “bunker-buster” bombs were used. Also known as “ground penetration munition”, these missiles burrow deep into the ground before they detonate.

They have the power to destroy underground facilities and reinforced concrete buildings. The bombs each weigh between 2,000 and 4,000 pounds.

Nasrallah has loomed large in the last decades of Middle East conflict and politics, having founded Hezbollah in 1982 and spending his life transforming it into a fierce guerrilla warfare group which has became Israel’s number one regional foe (alongside Hamas).

Hamas published condolences:

Hamas Publishes:

“Your soul lives on” pic.twitter.com/v9kb5i096O

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 28, 2024

Below is the full Hamas statement as translated and published in Al Jazeera:

“We extend our sincere condolences, sympathy and solidarity to the brotherly Lebanese people and brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic resistance in Lebanon.”

“We condemn in the strongest terms this barbaric Zionist aggression and the targeting of residential buildings … in the southern suburb of Beirut, and we consider this a cowardly act of terrorism, a massacre and a heinous crime, which proves once again the bloodiness and brutality of this occupation.”

Hamas further said that Hezbollah has a whole line-up of leaders waiting to take up the mantle of war against Israel: “History has proven that the resistance against the Zionist enemy, in all its factions and places of presence, whenever its leaders go as martyrs, has a generation of leaders to lead them on the same path,” the statement concluded.

It is well-known that the group has also long been supported by Iran, from where it receives much of its most sophisticated surface-to-surface missiles, including ballistic missiles.

From the strikes on Beirut now pic.twitter.com/tZ0ZjLcxf7

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 27, 2024

Israel had kept its airstrikes on Beirut going throughout the night, even after the attack which killed Nasrallah and many top commanders, while civilians desperately fled the southern suburbs. 

developing…

A group led by more than 60 US House and Senate Republicans urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to postpone the implementation of the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (“CSDDD”). The new EU requirement would force companies to better track environmental impacts across supply chains, which the group claims would “hinder business growth and raise consumer costs.” 

“Now, the EU is attempting to impose its debilitating regulatory agenda on American companies through its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (also known as “CSDDD” or “CS3D”),” the group of US lawmakers wrote in a letter to Yellen, adding CSDDD is “neither practical nor realistic — nor does it genuinely constitute ‘due diligence,’ which is generally defined as review and analysis prior to actions being taken.” 

The lawmakers continued, “American companies will be required to comply with [Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive] even though the US has not ratified many of the international conventions underlying the directive.”

“We are deeply concerned that the Administration is surrendering its regulatory responsibilities to European officials, allowing them to dictate draconian social and climate policies to American companies,” they cautioned. 

The climate policy went into effect at the end of July. Even Yellen, a climate alarmist who wants to spend taxpayer funds into oblivion to address an alleged climate crisis, expressed concerns to Congress over CSDD’s “negative unintended consequences” for US companies.

The letter from lawmakers was first reported by Politico early Friday. 

What’s particularly alarming across the West is the climate cult, through progressive leadership, elected and unelected, that has pushed ‘green’ policies that have only acted as de-growth mechanisms, especially in the US, which have curbed US electricity generation, while no restrictions in China produce an abundance of cheap power. 

There are no low energy prosperous countries, hence energy generation is a highly correlated indicator of progress.

Congrats China pic.twitter.com/jIqKffiNvY

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) September 27, 2024

It’s almost like the climate cult is sabotaging the West’s economy while providing China a clear runway to eclipse the US.

*   *   * 

Here’s the full letter addressed to Yellen:

Submitted by Jesse Colombo

One of my preferred methods for analyzing gold and silver is to price them in currencies other than the U.S. dollar—an approach that has proven quite successful. This approach filters out the impact of U.S. dollar fluctuations, revealing the true intrinsic strength of gold and silver. I’ve also discovered that technical analysis on gold and silver priced in non-U.S. dollar currencies is highly effective, often uncovering insights that remain hidden when analyzing these metals solely in dollars. For instance, using this method, I successfully anticipated the recent surge in gold prices. However, I observed that while gold had already broken out in most currencies, it remained stubbornly resistant in Swiss francs—until now. In this piece, I’ll explain the significance of this breakout.

To start, let’s take a look at the chart of gold priced in Swiss francs or gold/CHF. You’ll notice that gold/CHF traded in a well-defined range between 2,050 and 2,225 for five months. I’ve been stating that a breakout from this range would serve as a particularly strong bullish signal for gold. Switzerland, with its numerous mints, refiners, vaults, and a robust gold trading and banking sector, is a key hub in the global gold industry. Such a breakout is likely to have a significant psychological impact on the Swiss gold industry. Sure enough, the breakout has finally happened.

One reason it took longer for gold/CHF to break out compared to other currencies is that the Swiss franc has been one of the world’s top-performing major currencies this year, making the recent gold/CHF breakout even more momentous.

On a similar note, I’ve found it valuable to price gold in a combination of Swiss francs, euros, and British pounds for added confirmation. This unique combination revealed an almost perfect 400-point trading range since April, with support precisely at 6,000 and resistance at 6,400. I recognized that a breakout from this range would represent a valuable bullish confirmation signal, and it has certainly proven to be.

For reference, gold priced in U.S. dollars—the standard international benchmark—has surged ever since breaking through the critical $2,475 and $2,525 resistance levels:

As I mentioned earlier, Switzerland has long been one of the world’s most significant hubs for the gold industry, making the breakout in gold priced in Swiss francs particularly noteworthy. To begin with, Switzerland is the world’s largest importer and exporter of gold, primarily because it imports unrefined gold and exports it in refined form. Interestingly, Switzerland doesn’t mine gold domestically. In 2023, Switzerland imported $102.3 billion in gold and exported $107.2 billion, underscoring its pivotal role in the global gold trade.

A PAMP gold bar

Switzerland’s gold refineries including as Argor-Heraeus, Valcambi, Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux (PAMP), and Metalor Technologies refine approximately 70% of world gold mine production and are renowned for their high-quality, ultra-pure gold bullion products. Most of the gold bars produced by the Swiss refiners are .9999 fine gold, meaning they are 99.99% pure, with only 1 part impurity in every 10,000 parts of gold—a very impressive metallurgical feat! Swiss gold products are renowned for their sleek and elegant design, embodying a timeless aesthetic appeal.

Switzerland is globally recognized as a banking powerhouse, with its leading banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, playing pivotal roles in the gold trading arena. UBS, in particular, stands out as one of only six London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Full Market Makers, specializing in gold and silver spot trading, forwards, and options. Credit Suisse established its gold trading business in the 1960s and 1970s, rapidly growing to become one of the world’s largest gold dealers by the 1980s.

Other key players in Switzerland’s gold market include Raiffeisen Bank, Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), Julius Baer Group, and Pictet & Cie. MKS (Switzerland) SA is a precious metals trading firm and LBMA associate that serves banks, fund managers, gold miners, and jewellery manufacturers and also owns the PAMP refinery. MKS (Switzerland) SA is part of the MKS PAMP Group, which owns the New York City-based gold dealer Manfra, Tordella & Brookes (MTB). Switzerland is also renowned for its ultra-secure gold vaults, including those hidden deep within the Swiss Alps.

Despite being a small country, roughly the size of New Jersey, with a population of just 8.9 million, Switzerland holds the world’s seventh-largest gold reserves, totaling 1,040 tonnes and valued at $89.4 billion. The six countries with the largest gold reserves—the United States, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, and China—boast significantly larger economies and populations compared to Switzerland. Central banks maintain a portion of their reserves in gold to diversify their holdings, as gold is a time-tested safe-haven asset with no counterparty or default risk.

To summarize, the recent breakout of gold priced in Swiss francs marks an important confirmation for the bull market in gold. This breakout, especially significant given the strength of the Swiss franc, underscores the momentum and staying power behind the 2024 gold rally. Switzerland, with its extensive network of mints, refiners, vaults, and a robust gold trading and banking sector, is a pivotal hub in the global gold industry, and this breakout is likely to have a meaningful psychological impact on the professionals and companies within it.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out my recent piece, “Why Another Chinese Gold Mania May Be Starting.”

The British House of Lords has published a report claiming that military recruitment is dangerously low and the country’s combat readiness is at risk.  They say the civilian population ‘must be ready to fight’ (a clear reference to military conscription) should war with Russia be triggered. 

The paper, titled ‘Ukraine: A Wake-Up Call’, admits to weaknesses in NATO’s assumptions on “deterrence”, though it seems to pretend as if Ukraine is part of NATO when it’s not.  Chaired by Lord de Mauley, the committee launched the inquiry in February 2024, two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the goal of assessing the conflict’s implications for UK defence policy.

“…We identified two key lessons. First, our deterrence strategy towards Russia clearly failed. If we are to restore the credibility of NATO’s nuclear and conventional deterrence posture towards Putin, we must develop a clearer understanding of the reasons for this failure.”

“Secondly, the invasion exposed significant weaknesses in both the UK’s and NATO’s military strength, and the UK’s ability to sustain large-scale warfare. Successive governments have attempted to maintain the notion of the UK as a global power, but the war in Ukraine has been a wake-up call, laying bare the gap between that ambition and reality.”

It should be noted that February was near the beginning of Russia’s attrition based offensive that is poised to take control of the entire Donbas region of Ukraine.  This was well after Ukraine’s much hyped “counter-offensive” which ended with an embarrassing whimper.

The report paints a concerning picture of the British Army’s ability to contribute adequately to NATO’s deterrence strategy. It states:

“All in all, the evidence we heard points to the current size of the British Army being inadequate. While size is not the only measure of capability, we are concerned that the Army cannot, as currently constituted, make the expected troop contribution to NATO. We therefore question whether the British Army is prepared to meet the growing threat posed by Russia to European security.”

The current size of the British Army is 75,166 regular troops and 183,000 personnel across all branches.  Keep in mind only 80,000 of these personnel would play a front line combat role.  If the casualty numbers coming out of Ukraine are anywhere close to accurate this would not be enough troops to sustain a single year of combat in an attrition based war.

The House of Lords called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to develop a plan that “resonates with citizens, emphasizing the importance of national security in their daily lives and moving beyond the notion that defense is solely the military’s responsibility”.

The paper also warned that while there was a risk that conversations around civilians “could end up veering into discussions around conscription”, the government had “an opportunity to broaden this out and consider how it could incorporate the whole of society in building resilience”.

The real question is, why would the British public fight for the current government?  Military recruitment relies heavily on true patriots and a sense of national identity, but Keir Starmer and government overall has made it quite clear that they intend to erase indigenous Anglo-Saxon British identity through forced mass immigration from third-world countries.  Starmer has even gone so far as to arrest British citizens simply for posting critical opinions on social media.

The House of Lords acts bewildered as to why the civilian population has little interest in military readiness.  Maybe it’s because the British government has gone full Orwellian?  The average westerner is not going to go to war to risk their lives for a system that oppresses them.  This is why recruitment is at all time lows and why conscription would be useless.

Another factor which likely plays a considerable part in public apprehension is the threat of WWIII.  The majority of people in the west have little enthusiasm over engaging in a war that could very well lead to a global nuclear exchange, especially over a country like Ukraine which, for them, is insignificant.  There is nothing to be gained.       

Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardoan.org,

England’s Chief Medical Officer testified before the (token and pointless)  Covid Inquiry earlier today, claiming he feared the government “overdid it” when talking up the dangers of Covid.

No kidding,  Chris.

The Telegraph reports [emphasis added]:

The Government potentially overstated the danger of Covid to the public at the start of the pandemic, Prof Sir Chris Whitty has admitted.

The Chief Medical Officer told the Covid Inquiry he still worries about whether the Government got “the level of concern” right as it introduced lockdowns and shielding measures.

Sir Chris said it was a difficult balance and if anything it was possible that authorities “overdid it” when communicating how dangerous the virus was at the beginning of the pandemic.

Of course, this is all very British understatement combined with “official inquiry dilution”, which automatically transforms “I know we did X” into “I fear we may have done X by accident“.

Whitty doesn’t “think they potentially overstated the danger”, he knows they definitely did. We all do, it’s been pretty much proven.

“Covid” was a tapestry of lies, and a tangle of deliberately inflated statistics created specifically to enable those lies.

That’s all old news.

Yet Chris Whitty himself is a good example of a potentially interesting phenomenon.

From the beginning of the “pandemic” he seemed strangely  keen to distance himself from the very panic he was helping to create, and to, in pure Doublethink, underline the complete lack of danger from the so-called “deadly new disease”. See this video, taken from a “Covid Briefing” on May 11th 2020:

Now, that’s not to suggest he was some kind of hero standing on principle – he wasn’t. He was a lying shill who backed the narrative and lies and vaccines as much as anyone – but he seems to have had some level of discomfort with the enormity of the deceit.

I guess you could say this serves as a reminder that – however monolithic the establishment may seem – it is still made up of human pieces that might not always 100% agree about everything.

Yes, the “covid” scam had the backing of almost every establishment institution on the face of the planet, but those institutions are made up of individuals. And at least some of those individuals probably had doubts.

Probably not moral doubts   – you don’t climb the heights in intelligence or politics without being some type of psychopath – but maybe rudimentary discomfort over fear of discovery and/or failure, or an ego that doesn’t want to be seen to be the kind of person who tells lies, or one narcissistic eye on how they might be remembered by posterity.

You have to wonder how many there were who in private offered self-serving opposition to one of the greatest lies in history – and how much of a role they collectively played in the ultimate failure of the Covid narrative to go the whole distance.

Something to think on.

Authored by John Ellis via The Epoch Times,

Fraud is a permanent part of life. There will always be people who seek illicit advantage by representing themselves as something they are not or promising to do something they don’t intend to do. No area of human life is immune: Financiers, doctors, teachers, car mechanics, plumbers, bridegrooms—there will always be frauds among them. So it’s puzzling when we are told that there is one area of human life where fraud can’t exist.

Transgender activists tell us that if a man says he is a woman, we absolutely must believe him – always, without exception. Let’s be clear about what this means. Even if we were to accept the entirety of the transgender thesis that men can become women if they sincerely believe they are, it still doesn’t follow that every transgender claim must be accepted as genuine. To decide in principle, without scrutiny of the individual case, that not a single transgender claim may be doubted, would make transgenderism unique in human affairs. You can question anything else that someone says, but not this.

Why?

Is it because nobody could gain an illicit advantage by claiming to be transgender?

That is clearly not so. Male felons will have a much easier life in a women’s prison. Mediocre male athletes will benefit greatly by claiming to be female—they can become world-class overnight.

Predatory males gain by getting access to places of female sanctuary such as locker rooms.

In all these cases, there are powerful motivations for fraud, which means that there will be fraud.

Do we see compelling evidence of fraud in some transgender claims?

You’d have to be blind not to. Biologically male felons have gained access to female prisons and impregnated female prisoners—that’s predatory heterosexual male, not female, behavior. Some males who have gained access to female changing rooms by claiming to be women have been reported to sit idly on a bench ogling the disrobing women and exposing themselves. Again, predatory male, not female behavior. And when biological males exploit the strength advantage of their male bodies to easily defeat female athletes, they don’t seem to be showing any fellow feeling for women—they look more like bullies exploiting their masculine strength advantage to gain athletic triumphs they could never achieve as males.

Why is the transgender lobby so insistent that every single claim to be a female made by a male must be accepted as sincere?

Why are we not allowed to consider the possibility of fraud, even when it’s glaringly obvious?

The answer to this conundrum is probably that transgender activists know it’s hard to convince most people that a man can become a woman just by identifying as one, and so they keep up an unremitting insistence that we simply must believe. But in the grip of this overwhelming need to demand belief, they lose sight of the fact that there are bound to be cases where we—and they, too—should not believe. A public already inclined to skepticism will become even more skeptical when transgender advocates are seen to be protecting fraudsters.

When transgender activists won’t acknowledge that some transgender claims may be fraudulent, they give new opportunities, and cover, to peeping toms, flashers, lechers, cheats, and bullies – the sort who have always preyed on young women, but now have active assistance from the very people who want us to believe that they are uniquely compassionate and enlightened.

On Friday, ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris flew down to Arizona for a photo-op at the southern US border – through which untold millions of migrants from all over the world have entered the United States illegally during the Biden-Harris administration.

While there, she gave a ridiculous speech in which she (get this) called for tougher border security – pledging to enact various forms of immigration reform if she’s elected in November, including a 5-year ban on reentry for those who enter the country illegally.

Kamala: “The United States is a sovereign nation and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and enforce them. And I take that responsibility very seriously.”

Just unbelievable gaslighting from the woman who purposefully caused an invasion at our border. pic.twitter.com/etLwpFszEk

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 28, 2024

After doing her best Trump impression, however, Harris then floated a path to citizenship for those who have been in the country “for years.”

WTF? Kamala Harris at the border literally ENCOURAGING people to come over illegally

She just promised them all a pathway to citizenship.

She’s NOT interested in securing the border. She’s hellbent on importing more voters. pic.twitter.com/wJfxUaF79b

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 28, 2024

A reminder…

Kamala (2019): President Trump’s border wall is a “medieval vanity project.”

Kamala (2024): Looks up in awe at that very medieval vanity project. pic.twitter.com/iU3opXR9Rl

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 27, 2024

Also on Friday, a damning revelation from Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX); US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) revealed that over 650,000 migrants with criminal histories were let loose in the United States between ‘mid-May 2023 through the end of July 2024.’

As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket—13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!

Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities. pic.twitter.com/fIoCAduJ9M

— Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) September 27, 2024

“As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,729 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” wrote deputy DHS Director Patrick J. Lechleitner in response to a March letter from Gonzales demanding answers.

In short, this couldn’t have come on a worse day for Harris…

.@MZHemingway: “This border trip today happened at the worst possible time for her, given the other news that came out — that her administration allowed nearly half a million criminals, many of them violent criminals — to just be in the country and roaming freely… This is… pic.twitter.com/CLbb0yHrmp

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 27, 2024

Meanwhile, the internet is forever… (maybe)

Kamala Harris is a complete fraud whose campaign can be summed up in a 13 second video. pic.twitter.com/dtQHMFeC2Q

— MAZE (@mazemoore) September 28, 2024

Kamala (today): “The United States is a sovereign nation and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and enforce them.”

Kamala (last month): “I will close immigration detention centers on day one.” pic.twitter.com/mTvYDZ3qvG

— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) September 28, 2024

Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The United States needs to ramp up enforcement against every step of the manufacturing and trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic drugs if it hopes to stem the crisis, several experts told The Epoch Times. With every passing day, however, the path to success gets narrower as the criminal organizations involved get more sophisticated.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images

More than 100,000 Americans died of an overdose last year; of which more than 70,000 overdosed on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The United States government has poured billions into addiction treatment, but the drugs are too broadly available for the treatment to stick, some experts said, arguing the supply needs to be drastically curbed.

Illicit fentanyl usually comes across the southern border from Mexico where it’s manufactured from chemicals made in China and pressed into pills that often look like prescription drugs such as Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone.

Steps by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to regulate export of illicit chemicals have been dismissed by the experts as cosmetic. Instead, they say, the regime is using drugs as a strategic weapon against the United States.

“This is a chemical war that we’re facing, and no one’s treating it as a war,” said Derek Maltz, former head of special operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

“People are treating it as a drug issue. It’s not a drug issue. It’s the number one threat to our national security,” he told The Epoch Times.

The House Select Committee on the CCP issued a report earlier this year detailing China’s involvement at every step of fentanyl trafficking. Chinese companies produce the precursor chemicals from which fentanyl is prepared. Chinese companies ship the chemicals to Mexico. Chinese-made pill presses allow the production of counterfeit pills. Chinese organized crime groups then help the cartels launder and move the illicit profits from the United States to Mexico.

Both the Trump and the Biden administrations have managed to press China to impose additional regulations on fentanyl as well as its analogs and precursors, but the measures “lack teeth” because they fail to impose “substantial costs” on illicit producers, according to Andrew Harding, a research assistant in the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.

“As long as the producers can stay quiet and evade law enforcement, they will continue to produce,” he told The Epoch Times.

The CCP has claimed to shut down 14 websites, suspend more than 330 business accounts, and close down more than 1,000 online shops that were engaged in the sale and distribution of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals, a senior Biden administration official told reporters in July.

But he acknowledged that “there continues to be a significant supply of precursor chemicals out of [China].”

An overview of global illicit drug pathways, shown during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Oct. 17, 2017. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

“There’s obviously a whole lot more to do. And that’s why these ongoing conversations and engagements are so important, even if we’re taking small steps one at a time,” he said.

The experts, however, suggested that the time for small steps and engagement has passed as China’s weak actions hint at intentionality.

“This is all part of their strategic plan, in my opinion, to harm America,” Maltz said.

“It’s part of the unrestricted warfare game, and that’s what’s happening. And they’re actually very successful, because America is not taking care of business, and America is not taking it seriously.”

The Select Committee on CCP found that Beijing was subsidizing illicit chemical exports, providing tax rebates specifically on sales of chemicals that are often not only illegal in China, but lack legitimate use besides making illegal drugs. Some of the rebates were even higher than those offered on any other export products.

It also found evidence that the regime was intentionally making it difficult for foreigners to find information about the rebates.

The Biden administration, however, stopped short of endorsing this conclusion.

“We do not have any information to support that finding, that [China] is actually subsidizing these exports,” said the senior administration official, adding “there’s a need for an ongoing conversation about that.”

The White House didn’t respond to a list of questions emailed by The Epoch Times.

To truly solve the crisis, the experts said, the United States needs to hit every chokepoint along the trafficking chain. And it must be done fast.

“We’re losing hundreds of thousands of Americans. What’s going to happen in a few years?” Maltz asked.

“They’re not going to be filling jobs that are important down the line. They’re not going to be going to college, they’re not going to be getting professional jobs, they’re not going to be helping our society. They’re going to be gone.”

The government is already playing catch-up with traffickers, he noted.

Cartels and other criminal organizations are increasingly trafficking synthetic drugs even more powerful than fentanyl, such as xylazine and nitazenes. Xylazine is particularly abhorrent since it causes tissue necrosis and its overdose can’t be reversed using naloxone—a drug that can overturn an overdose caused by opioids, including fentanyl, if administered quickly.

If the fentanyl crisis is likened to cancer, the United States is already in an advanced stage, according to Michael Brown, formerly a DEA agent of more than 30 years who now heads counter-narcotics technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices.

A person lies on the street after the decriminalization of all drugs, in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 25, 2024. (Bottom Left) A used Narcan brand naloxone nasal spray lies on the street after paramedics and police respond to a suspected fentanyl drug overdose in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 25, 2024.

So far, it should still be possible to crack down on the supply of fentanyl precursor chemicals, perhaps with the aid of artificial intelligence, he said. But the precursor chemicals have their own precursors too. If the cartel labs become so sophisticated as to manufacture fentanyl precursors from chemicals that are too general in purpose to effectively track, it will be even more difficult to root the problem out, he said.

“If the cartels get to what I call the final evolution of narco-chemistry, which means they have multiple recipes that can be used to make stage one, stage two, and stage three pre-precursors to make the required precursors, there’s no way even using AI, I think, we can beat this issue in the next five to 10 years.”

Pressure on CCP and Mexico

“An effective U.S. strategy to combat the international fentanyl trafficking industry should begin with the recognition that the United States lacks good-faith partners in both the Chinese and Mexican governments,” according to a recent Heritage report coauthored by Harding.

The CCP has not only been unwilling to address the issue constructively, but has in fact used it as a bargaining chip to force concessions from the U.S. on technology sales, he said.

The Mexican government, in the meantime, seems to be under profound influence of the cartels, the experts said.

“All those chemicals … are coming in and they’re coming in freely because people are being paid off, and the Mexican government allows it,” Victor Avila, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with Homeland Security Investigations, told The Epoch Times.

The only way to induce cooperation would be to twist the hands of governments, some experts said. The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on more than 300 entities and individuals tied to fentanyl trafficking but it’s not clear if that has produced any tangible effect.

Sanctions would only be effective if they hit major companies, Brown said.

In 2019, China had more than 23,000 chemical companies and about 5,000 that produced pharmaceutical precursors. The Chinese chemical industry produces some $1.5 trillion annual revenue. That’s about 40 percent of the world’s chemical market, he noted.

If a few small Chinese chemical companies are sanctioned, it doesn’t make much of a splash. But if a major Chinese company is targeted, that would get the attention of the regime and create a deterrent, Brown told The Epoch Times.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) holds up a bag representing fentanyl during a hearing in Washington on Jan. 11, 2024. The hearing examined legislative solutions to stop the flow of fentanyl into and throughout the United States. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

With its extensive internet monitoring, the CCP, sufficiently motivated, should be able to sniff out fentanyl precursor traffickers, the Select Committee on CCP report pointed out.

The CCP could also share useful information with the United States.

“If China was sincere on helping the U.S. with the crisis, it would have agreed to share information on chemical shipments with the U.S. and Mexico so that they can be tracked,” Brown said.

Even in absence of CCP’s cooperation, however, the United States could do much more, the experts suggested.

Intercepting Packages

The United States should use its Navy and the Coast Guard to interdict suspicious maritime shipments from China to Mexico before they reach cartel-controlled ports, the Select Committee on CCP report recommended.

But because fentanyl is so potent, precursor chemicals are often sent in smaller quantities by air, Brown said.

Packages from China to Mexico are usually shipped through Alaska, giving the United States an opportunity to check them on the way, he noted.

“Customs and Border Protection have access to those parcels. If they can identify a suspected parcel, they can go in and actually seize it.”

Sometimes, the chemicals are sent to a front company that looks like a drug maker but in fact doesn’t produce anything. A background check would reveal it as fake.

Precursor chemicals can also be shipped to a legitimate pharmaceutical company and then diverted to cartels. In that case, the company’s production wouldn’t match the amount of precursors it’s ordering.

It’s extremely common, however, for the packages to be mislabeled, Brown said. The only way, then, would be to check packages en masse using sniffing dogs or gadgets that can identify chemicals. Not all packages would need to be checked, but it would need to be a percentage large enough to serve as a deterrent.

Such checks could be much more effective by using artificial intelligence to recognize suspicious patterns, he said.

“Does it make sense for somebody in Mexico to order 500 pounds of pool cleaner from China? AI would say, ‘I don’t like this. Maybe take a look at it,’ right?”

An officer from the Customs and Border Protection, Trade, and Cargo Division works with a dog to check parcels for fentanyl at John F. Kennedy Airport’s U.S. Postal Service facility in New York City, on June 24, 2019. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

Focusing on shipping has the added benefit of minimizing the civil rights impact of false positives. Nobody needs to be arrested or stopped by police to check a package during transit. International packages are already expected to get probed by customs officers, so there’s no new privacy intrusion.

“If you’re using pattern recognition and parcel screenings, if you open it up, if five out of 50 parcels are legitimate, it doesn’t matter. You just put it back on the board and send it to where it’s going. But if you start making a 20 to 30 percent seizure rate, cartels are going to go on panic mode,” Brown said.

Targeting Cartel Labs

More than 100 “super labs,” operated by cartels in Mexico, produce fentanyl and press it into pills, Avila said.

The first step should be to designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, he recommended.

“Let’s start there, because that’s what they are. You designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations now, you treat them just like ISIS, just like the Taliban, just like al Qaeda, exactly the same, meaning that no longer do you do even what I used to do as a special agent—those investigative techniques are stale and outdated. You need to go after these guys using Department of Defense resources.”

There’s a chance the United States could convince the Mexican government to cooperate with U.S. military operations against cartels.

“We have good informant networks in Mexico and we know where … a lot of these production labs are. We could definitely get access to their locations. So we should be destroying those production labs, because without the chemicals, without the labs, you can’t produce the poison,” Maltz said.

There needs to be a way to intimidate the cartels, he suggested.

“We have to be way more aggressive with the cartels right now. There’s no fear. They have no fear of America because there’s no consequences.”

Securing the Border

“Having a wide-open border, and that’s what we have now, is facilitating the ability for these cartels and for these criminals to get these substances into America, because our resources are being overwhelmed,” Maltz said.

When the Border Patrol has its hands full processing hundreds of thousands of people illegally crossing the border, that’s when the drugs can pour in undetected.

Read the rest here…

Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.

The ruling, which came with little fanfare, appeared to validate one of the longest-running so-called conspiracy theories in America’s alt-right subculture—that the government’s use of fluoridation, especially in specific communities, might be part of a deliberate attempt to lower intelligence in order to create a more compliant and subservient population for the New World Order.

It follows a series of recent vindications for skeptics after propagandist media have been proven wrong in falsely declaring things like COVID vaccine hesitancy, the Russia-collusion hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop coverup and the Joe Biden mental acuity coverup/coup to be baseless “conspiracy theories” right up until the point that they were proven true.

If former President Donald Trump were to be reelected and allow Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to declassify files related to his family, several other such theories surrounding significant 20th-century milestones might also be exposed, including the decision to force out then-President Richard Nixon for threatening to reveal who killed his one-time campaign rival, former President John F. Kennedy.

U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

It’s the first time a federal judge has made a determination about the neurodevelopmental risks to children of the recommended U.S. water fluoride level, said Ashley Malin, a University of Florida researcher who has studied the effect of higher fluoride levels in pregnant women.

She called it “the most historic ruling in the U.S. fluoridation debate that we’ve ever seen.”

The judge’s ruling is another striking dissent to a practice that has been hailed as one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last month, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

The EPA—a defendant in the lawsuit—argued that it wasn’t clear what impact fluoride exposure might have at lower levels. But the agency is required to make sure there is a margin between the hazard level and exposure level. And “if there is an insufficient margin, then the chemical poses a risk,” Chen wrote in his 80-page ruling Tuesday.

“Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA” under federal law, he wrote.

An EPA spokesperson, Jeff Landis, said the agency was reviewing the decision but offered no further comment.

In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and they continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later.

Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population currently gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data.

Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. For five decades before that, the recommended upper range was 1.2. The World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5.

Separately, the EPA has a longstanding requirement that water systems cannot have more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. That standard is designed to prevent skeletal fluorosis, a potentially crippling disorder which causes weaker bones, stiffness and pain.

But in the last two decades, studies have suggested a different problem: a link between fluoride and brain development. Researchers wondered about the impact on developing fetuses and very young children who might ingest water with baby formula. Studies in animals showed fluoride could impact neurochemistry cell function in brain regions responsible for learning, memory, executive function and behavior.

The court case, argued in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, started in 2017. The lead plaintiff was Food & Water Watch, a not-for-profit environmental advocacy organization. Chen paused the proceedings in 2020 to await the results of the National Toxicology Program report, but he heard lawyers’ arguments about the case earlier this year.

“In our view, the only effective way to eliminate the risk from adding fluoride chemicals to water is to stop adding them,” said Michael Connett, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, in an email Wednesday.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

In the past two years the western establishment media has effectively obscured the reality on the ground in Ukraine.  Only recently has it become clear to the public that the tales we’ve heard about Russia imploding due to “bad tactics” and “throwing bodies into the meat grinder” in exchange for irrelevant territory have all been a fantasy.  The problem is, propagandists often end up believing their own propaganda and then they are caught completely by surprise down the road when reality slaps them in the face.

Russian offensive actions in the east have greatly accelerated and now in the south the vital city of Vuhledar is set to fall within a couple days (if it hasn’t already).  Their attrition based strategy and artillery superiority have created a shield for small fast moving units to strike Ukraine’s trenches and fixed defenses, and their drone game has dramatically improved.  This has led them to capture multiple towns and cities in the past three months, with their forces closing in on the key eastern operational base of Pokrovsk.  If Pokrovsk falls, the entire east of Ukraine could easily fall.

Beyond the shift to attrition tactics, Russia is gaining territory quickly because Ukraine is low on manpower.  No amount of NATO technology or weaponry is going to help this fundamental weakness.  This is the reality in Ukraine; they are losing the war.

The western media is unable to gloss over the situation any longer, which means something dramatic will have to happen to change the course of the war in Ukraine’s favor.  Their government is scrambling to initiate an October surprise in preparation for the US elections in November.  The US runs NATO, and Ukraine is entirely dependent on US aid.  

The notion of a Ukrainian “Victory Plan” is by itself questionable given the circumstances, but what is reportedly contained in Vladimir Zelensky’s strategy seems to be a over-optimistic wish list relying heavily on escalation between NATO and Russia.  In other words, the only way Ukraine can “win” is for NATO to engage in open warfare with the East.

While the full plan hasn’t been divulged, senior U.S. officials who are familiar with its contents don’t see anything original or innovative in it. As one told The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 25, “I’m unimpressed, there’s not much new there.” From what we can grasp, the “victory plan” is less a “plan” and more a continuation of Zelensky’s lobbying campaign to keep U.S. arms flowing in perpetuity.  

Zelensky is dead-set on getting permission to use US and European long range missile systems against targets deep within Russia.  The problem, as Vladimir Putin rightly noted, is that these systems cannot hit such targets accurately without NATO satellite intel and acquisition.  Meaning, the missiles must be guided by US and European military technicians and assets.

It is likely that the majority of Ukrainian long range drone strikes within Russia are already being aided by NATO intel, but the use of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles far from Ukraine’s front line is another matter entirely.  There’s no plausible deniability for NATO involvement.  The use of these weapons within Russia would be akin to a declaration of war and would trigger escalation outside of Ukraine.

What would the consequences be?  Not necessarily the use of nuclear weapons (though Putin did just change his bottom line on a nuclear response to include long range attacks using NATO weapons), but the spread of more advanced Russian armaments to countries like China, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and even the Houthis in Yemen is a good bet.  Meaning a more significant threat to NATO interests in Asia and the Middle East.  The war would spread.

So far the Biden Administration has refrained from supporting the long range option, but has offered another $8 billion in support.  Under a Trump presidency, the money train is likely to stop abruptly.

Zelensky has offered no practical measures for negotiations, arguing that concessions are off the table.  Furthermore, he claims that peace is only possible once Ukraine has taken back all territory seized by Russia, including Crimea which was annexed in 2014.  He then demanded that Russia pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction and that Putin and a multitude of other Russian officials be handed over to be tried for war crimes.  This is never going to happen.

The core of Ukraine’s victory plan relies on long range strikes using NATO guided missiles and acceptance into NATO.  Both factors at this stage would cause WWIII.

Ukraine’s chest beating is the national equivalent of “short man’s syndrome.”  That said, Zelensky would not be making these kinds of demands if he was not being encouraged by someone behind the scenes.  Many officials within the US and Europe have given Zelensky delusions of grandeur about his chances, perhaps because they want the war to grind on forever.  These same officials have hinted consistently that they will not accept a Ukrainian loss.   

Regardless of what side people think should win, the fact is that Russia is the inevitable victor according to all the evidence on hand.  While the extent of Putin’s goals in the region are unknown, it’s unlikely that he intends to march beyond Ukraine.  He may simply stop at the edge of the Donbas and annex the region like he did Crimea.

This may actually be the best case scenario for all parties involved.  The longer the war goes on the greater the chances of a powerkeg moment and a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.  Ukraine should not be talking about “victory”, that time has come and gone. They should be talking about peace.   

Today, the global balance of power is shaped by many forces, including economic strength, trade, and a country’s defense-industrial base.

While the U.S. and China stand as two great powers, as Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld details below, their sources of strength vary significantly. America has unrivaled status in capital markets, and its reserve currency status shows little sign of being overtaken anytime soon. Meanwhile, China’s influence in international trade has grown substantially, now being the top trading partner for 120 countries worldwide.

This graphic compares the U.S. and China across eight key measures of power, based on analysis from Ray Dalio’s Great Powers Index 2024.

Methodology: Measuring the Strength of Nations

For this analysis, Ray Dalio identified eight core pillars that measure a nation’s different types of strength. These eight categories are:

Trade

Innovation and Technology

Education

Economic Output

Military

Financial Center

Competitiveness

Reserve Currency Status

Scores for these categories were quantified using Z-scores, which tells you how far a data point is from the average of the dataset, using the typical amount of variation (a standard deviation) in the data as a measuring stick:

Z-score of 0 = data point is at the average

Z-score of 1 = data point is one standard deviation above the average

Is the U.S. or China More Powerful?

Below, we show how the U.S. and China measure across each metric of country power in 2024, along with their overall strength score which sees the U.S. (0.89 overall strength score) beat out China (0.80 overall strength score):

As we can see, both countries are closely matched across certain metrics like innovation and technology along with economic output, while also featuring wide differences in categories like reserve currency status and overall competitiveness.

When looking at tech and innovation, America is home to the world’s largest tech companies driving AI advancements, China is quickly developing much of the intellectual property in new industries such as semiconductors, electric vehicles, and advanced manufacturing.

In terms of economic output and strength, the gap between America and China’s GDP stands at about $10 trillion. China could overtake America’s economy by 2035 assuming 5% in annual GDP growth, however, Ray Dalio’s own estimates of 10-year real GDP growth have China at 4% annual growth. The country’s fragile property sector and weak consumer demand are its biggest obstacles for its future growth prospects.

Comparing education, while America’s stagnating high-school educational system is a source of concern, its top-ranking universities play a key role in its education score. Meanwhile, China is home to 100 elite universities, although it too has an unequal education system that disproportionately impacts lower-income households.

When it comes to military power, the U.S. has long being a global leader in defense spending, outpacing China by more than twofold as of 2022. Yet, this position is deteriorating. Today, China’s military modernization means that its defense capabilities are neck and neck with America, and perhaps even greater than the U.S. according to sources like the Global Firepower Index.

Moreover, China is increasingly growing alliances with Russia, Iran, and North Korea through arms transfers and battlefield exercises, posing a greater risk to America’s military dominance.

To learn more about this topic from a labor force perspective, check out this graphic on the growth of working age populations around the world’s major economies.

Via The Cradle

Israel said on Thursday it had secured an $8.7 billion aid package from the US government to support its ongoing military assaults on Lebanon and Gaza and to maintain a “qualitative military edge in the region,” Reuters reported.

The package includes $3.5 billion for critical military purchases and $5.2 billion for air defense systems, including the Iron Dome anti-missile system, David’s Sling, and an advanced laser system.

Getty Images

US support for Israel’s missile defense systems is crucial to shielding Israeli military installations and infrastructure.

While Israeli warplanes have devastated south and east Lebanon with airstrikes since Monday, killing over 600 Lebanese and Syrians, Hezbollah has hit numerous targets in the vicinity of the city of the Israeli city of Haifa, as well as an Israeli intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv in central Israel.

Israel also needs US munitions and financial support to continue its horrific bombing campaign of Gaza, which is nearing its twelfth month and has reportedly killed over 40,000 people and destroyed large swathes of the crowded strip.

The aid announcement came after a meeting at the Pentagon between Eyal Zamir, the director general of Israel’s defense ministry, and US defense officials, including acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Amanda Dory.

“This substantial investment will significantly strengthen critical systems such as Iron Dome and David’s Sling while supporting the continued development of an advanced high-powered laser defense system currently in its later stages of development,” Israel’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The deal illustrates the “strong and enduring strategic partnership between Israel and the United States and the ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” the statement added.

Reuters reported in late June that Tel Aviv’s allies in Washington had sent more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of the war in Gaza last October.

Addressing the United Nations Netanyahu talked about a broad Abrahamic alliance with Saudi Arabia and others.

The camera then panned to the Saudi delegation. Except the Saudi delegation wasn’t there. They had walked out when Netanyahu started speaking. pic.twitter.com/zjDDvetTc9

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) September 27, 2024

The news agency added that Washington had transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions.

Since October of last year, news channels and social media sites have shown a steady stream of videos and images of Palestinian men, women, and children who have been torn apart by US bombs.