The centuries-old Paris landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens today, five-and-a-half years after a devastating fire destroyed its spire and roof and brought the entire Gothic masterpiece within minutes of collapsing.

As ‘sundance’ reports, the 860-year-old medieval building has been meticulously restored, with a new spire and rib vaulting, its flying buttresses and carved stone gargoyles returned to their past glory and the white stone and gold decorations shining brighter than ever.

The restoration is estimated to have cost about $740 million.

The state hands over the building to the Catholic church, the archbishop opens the door, and a liturgical celebration is held with singing and a blessing.

(AP) […] Because of strong winds forecast for Saturday evening in Paris, the French presidential palace and the Paris diocese said Friday the entire opening ceremony will be held inside Notre Dame, instead of starting from the cathedral’s forecourt as initially planned.

[…] The Île de la Cité — the small island in the River Seine that is home to Notre Dame and the historic heart of Paris— is closed to tourists and non-residents. Police vans and barriers blocked cobblestoned streets in a large perimeter around the island, while soldiers in thick body armor and sniffer dogs patrolled embankments. A special security detail is following Trump. (more)

President Trump and various foreign dignitaries (including Ukrainian President Zelenskyy) are in attendance.

Trump just got in his armored suburban.

Zelensky got in a minivan.

Absolutely mogged. 😭 pic.twitter.com/BrqSsWj87L

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) December 7, 2024

More than 20 French government security agents were helping ensure Trump’s safety alongside the Secret Service, according to French national police. A special French police van provided anti-drone protection for Trump’s convoy.

Security was tighter than usual outside the US Embassy and other sites around Paris for the reopening.

The three leaders held a trilateral meeting prior to the opening ceremony

“It seems like the world is going a little crazy right now and we will be talking about that,” Trump told reporters as he prepared to sit down for talks with Macron.

France 24 reports that in an effort to build trust with the incoming US administration, Zelensky’s top aide Andriy Yermak met key members of Trump’s team on a two-day trip earlier this week. A senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly, described the meetings as productive, but declined to disclose details.

Ahead of the visit, Trump expressed gratitude and congratulations to the French leader who faces chaos domestically amid his government’s collapse.

“It is an honor to announce that I will be traveling to Paris, France, on Saturday to attend the re-opening of the Magnificent and Historic Notre Dame Cathedral, which has been fully restored after a devastating fire five years ago,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”

Macron was treated to Trump’s ubiquitous handshake-from-hell…

The celebration is set to begin at 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. EST) with a documentary on the reconstruction followed by live classical music.

The religious ceremony is set to end at 9 p.m. local time followed by a concert.

The first Mass will take place Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

Watch live here…

There are widespread reports that jihadist forces under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and which are backed by Turkey have entered key districts of Homs in central Syria, and other convoys have already reached the outskirts of Damascus.

Very little fighting has actually taken place, with the Syrian Army peeling back from position after position, and with heavy equipment including tanks seen being transported to the capital or in other instances to the coast. ZeroHedge’s contacts in Damascus strongly suggest a transition of power deal has already been made.

External discussions are centered in Doha, and some premature and unverified reports have claimed President Bashar al-Assad has already flown out of the country; however, Syrian state SANA on Saturday sought to refute these reports, saying he is still in Damascus.

Iranian advisers and IRGC officers have departed Damascus. This also partly explains why Syrian national forces have not put up much of a fight.

Unverified social media reports further say that anti-Assad forces have essentially been able to walk into suburban or countryside areas of the capital with no resistance. Again, what points to the likely reality of a secret deal which allows Assad’s safe exit and that of his top officials is the fact that all of this is happening without much bloodshed.

Below is the latest on the jihadist convoy locations according to The Guardian:

Syrian insurgents have reached the suburbs of Damascus, opposition activists and a rebel commander said on Saturday, as a rapidly moving offensive in which they have taken over some of Syria’s largest cities continued.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said insurgents were active in the Damascus suburbs of Maadamiyah, Jaramana and Daraya.

He said opposition fighters were also marching from eastern Syria towards the Damascus suburb of Harasta.

Hassan Abdul-Ghani, an insurgent commander, posted on Telegram that opposition forces had started to encircle Damascus in the “final stage” of their offensive. He said fighters were heading from southern Syria towards Damascus.

Map: The collapse of Syria over the last 10 days

Whatever happens next, it is becoming clear that the Baathist Syrian state under the Assad family, which goes back to 1970 when Hafez Assad first emerged in power, will never be the same again – and is coming to a fast end.

Many Christian, Alawite, and Sunni ruling families in the capital area are fleeing to the Lebanese border, not waiting around to take their chances under Taliban-style rule, despite dubious claims that HTS plans to respect ‘diversity’ and pluralism.

Footage from a key suburbs outside the capital [note: cannot be independently verified]…

SYRIA: Anti-Assad protestors bring down Hafez Assad statue in middle of Jarmana (20 min from Damascus). The protests and rebel offensive are only spreading, gradually approaching capital… pic.twitter.com/kkBhGsOlj2

— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) December 7, 2024

BREAKING — Damascus outskirts Al Moademyeh is free of Assad forces. This is right next to Mezzeh Air Base pic.twitter.com/ACLcRaTU1E

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) December 7, 2024

Contradictory reporting over Assad’s whereabouts and political transition plans:

Embassy Statement: Denial of Allegations Made in Wall Street Journal Article pic.twitter.com/IEE8JmbQbt

— Jordan Embassy in Washington D.C. (@JorEmbUS) December 6, 2024

Regional war correspondent Elijah Magnier observes, “It looks like what will remain of the old Syria will be limited to Homs, for now, and on longer term Latakia – Tartous only. Lebanon should think about defended its borders. People in Damascus should think of their future in the next 24-48 hours.”

The latest from the Syrian presidency’s office:

Presidency of the #Syrian Arab Republic affirms that President Bashar al-Assad is assuming his work, national and constitutional tasks from the capital, Damascushttps://t.co/v4ko1Nfiek pic.twitter.com/Sj8CGjaE0C

— SANAEnglishOfficial (@SANAEnOfficial) December 7, 2024

Meanwhile the Syrian Interior Minister Major General Al-Rahmon vows that “there is a very strong security cordon on the outskirts of Damascus and no one can break it.”

developing…

An intensive search of New York City’s Central Park seems to have yielded an important break in the hunt for the assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson: Police think they’ve found a backpack that the killer ditched as he fled the murder scene. Meanwhile, police have released a detailed timeline of his movements around the city, and say the suspect the mystery man fled the city by bus very soon after carrying out his premeditated crime on Wednesday morning. 

At 6:44 am, the suspect shot the 50-year-old Thompson — who was arriving at the New York Hilton Midtown for an investors’ meeting — in the back and leg before leaving first by foot, then using an e-bike he rode through Central Park. Police think he entered the park by riding north up 6th Avenue, and then exited the park at West 77th Street — minus the backpack he wore before and during the killing and as he rolled into the park.

Concluding the pack was likely somewhere in the park — and within it, perhaps the murder weapon — NYPD assigned more than 100 police officers to comb the 840-acre expanse. They hit paydirt, with the New York Post reporting that cops found the apparent backpack in a treed area south of the Carousel near Heckscher Playground near Central Park South.

So far, police haven’t leaked anything about the contents of the backpack, which appears to be an Everyday Backpack sold by Peak Designs between 2016 and 2019. Marketed for use by photographers but also used by others, the latest version goes for about $250. Police have yet to find the killer’s getaway bike, which he seems to have abandoned somewhere after he exited Central Park and before he made his way to a bus station.

On Friday, police provided their most detailed accounting yet of the suspect’s moves around New York City since he arrived on a Greyhound bus 10 days before carrying out the killing — along with what they’ve learned from questioning of witnesses, including people who stayed at the same hostel he did: 

Friday, Nov 24: The Killer Arrives

Suspect arrives in New York City at 10:11 pm on a Greyhound bus that originated in Atlanta and made six or seven stops along its journey. Police are unsure where he got on. He immediately takes a cab to the site of the assassination — the New York Hilton Midtown — and walks around the area for a half hour before heading to the HI New York City Hostel at Amsterdam Avenue and West 103rd Street, on the Upper West Side near Central Park.

Per earlier reports, the suspect was said to have checked out of the hostel on Friday, Nov. 29, only to return and check back in the very next day. However, police now say the check-out appears to have only happened via an administrative entry in the hostel’s systems, and that the suspect actually stayed there for all the 10 days before the attack.  

Wednesday, Dec 4: The Day of the Murder

5:30 am: Suspect leaves the hostel, likely via bike, and arrives at the Hilton 11 minutes later. 

5:41 am: After wandering in the hotel’s vicinity and strolling back and forth along West 54th, he goes to a Starbucks and purchases water and a Kind snack bar.  

6:30 am: Suspect appears to be talking on a cell phone; police later recover a phone in a nearby alley

6:44 am: He fatally shoots UnitedHealthcare CEO Thompson — who had walked from his lodging at the Marriott across the street — in the back and leg. The suspect flees into an alley where he apparently stashed his bike. 

6:48 am: He enters Central Park at 60th Street — still wearing the backpack — and rides onto Center Drive  

6:56 am: Suspect exits the park close to West 77th Street — now without the backpack

6:58 am: Suspect captured on security camera video biking at 86th Street and Columbus Ave. 

7:00 am: Now on foot, he’s walking on 86th Street. Next, he hails a cab close to West 85th and Columbus Avenue, and heads for the George Washington Bridge Bus Station, which provides interstate service to Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, DC.  

7:30 am: Suspect has arrived at the bus station, with video capturing him entering but not leaving, leading police to think he may have left the city very shortly after his crime.  

NYPD chief of detectives Joseph Kenny also gave new insight into how the suspect conducted himself during the several nights he stayed a the hostel: 

At the hostel, he stayed under fake identification, always using cash, avoiding conversation and hiding his face with his mask even during meals, the chief said. He never spoke with anyone and lowered his mask once to speak, smiling, to the hostel clerk when he first checked in, the chief said. — New York Times

“From every indication we have from witnesses, from the Starbucks, from the hostel, he kept his mask on at all times except for the one instance where we have him photographed with the mask off,” said Kenny. Police didn’t find any clues in the room he shared with strangers — who tell police he never spoke to them. 

As we detailed on Friday, CBS News reported that scrutiny of the video of the shooting has led police to believe the murder weapon is a B&T Station SIX-9, a highly unusual weapon which comes equipped with a sound-suppressor and retails for around $2,100. However, at Friday’s briefing Kenny said police were considering if the killer may have used a veterinary pistol, which he said is often used in agricultural settings for quiet euthanasia of animals.  

The killer used a sharpie to write “deny,” “defend” and “depose” on shell casings recovered at the scene of the crime. Given the words’ similarity to the title of Jay Feinman’s book, “Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims And What You Can Do About It,” there’s reason to think the assassination may have been sparked by animus over UnitedHealthcare’s business practices — either from a customer or an employee.  

That’s not to say police are ruling out other possible motives. However, with detectives having interviewed Thompson’s family and associates along with police agencies in his home state of Minnesota, Kenny told reporters, “Nothing in our investigation at this time so far indicates that it had anything to do with his personal life.”

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

The leader of the Syrian rebel jihadist army in Syria, who was previously a member of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, marked his forces taking more territory in the country by declaring, “Diversity is a strength.”

Yes, really.

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani is the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the primary fighting force trying to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad’s government.

After the jihadist rebels seized control of Aleppo last week, Syria’s second city, they are now making progress in sweeping through Homs and Hama.

Al-Jolani made clear that, “The goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime,” but another statement he made is particularly ludicrous given that he is the leader of a militia of literal terrorists.

The Israel-loving jihadists with links to ISIS and Al-Qaeda who are tearing through Syria are “diversity-friendly” and believe “diversity is a strength,” according to The Telegraph. https://t.co/UcuBmYYYwX

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) December 6, 2024

“On Tuesday, with regime forces fully ejected from the city, Jolani put out a second statement declaring “diversity is a strength,” reports the Telegraph.

Yes, apparently, the jihadists have gone woke.

We learn that HTS is “far more liberal than IS or the Taliban,” and therefore presumably deserves the support of the military-industrial complex.

As Chris Menahan notes, the writer of the Telegraph article commending the jihadists for their embrace of “diversity” is “Israel Lobby mouthpiece Aaron Y. Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy,” who has “been lobbying for this Islamic terrorist to be removed from the US’s list of foreign terrorist organizations for at least two years now.”

Al-Jolani has a $10 million US bounty on his head, is on the international terrorist list and was previously a member of both Al-Qaeda and ISIS before apparently rejecting their ‘extreme’ ideology.

He now appears to be pandering to the western establishment, presumably in an effort to enlist their support in overthrowing Assad, by mimicking the rhetoric of transnational corporation HR departments.

Meanwhile, the legacy media is once again lionizing the jihadist rebel army despite the innumerable atrocities they committed during the Syrian civil war, which led to the emergence of ISIS, numerous mass casualty terror attacks in western Europe, as well as the migrant crisis.

Should Assad be overthrown, it will almost certainly prompt a new wave of migrants to flood from Syria into western European countries at a time when illegal immigration is already a chronic problem.

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Days after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a brief state of emergency martial law (probably the shortest on record), an opposition party’s attempt to impeach him failed when most lawmakers from his conservative ruling party boycotted the vote. 

The Democratic Party’s move to impeach Yoon was thwarted on Saturday by the president’s People Power Party, which announced shortly before the assembly session that it had decided to oppose the bill.

Impeaching the president requires a two-thirds majority in the 300-member assembly – or about 200 votes. However, the opposition party fell short of the threshold, as members of the president’s party largely abstained from voting. 

AP News cited National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, who called the failed impeachment vote “very regrettable” and a national “embarrassment.” 

“The failure to hold a qualified vote on this matter means we were not even able to exercise the democratic procedure of deciding on a critical national issue,” the speaker said.

Earlier in the day, Yoon apologized to the South Korean people for the emergency martial law, admitting he acted out of ‘desperation.’ He made no mention of resigning or impeachment, stating that he would leave that decision to his party. 

Opposition parties could push through a new impeachment motion after the new parliamentary session opens next Wednesday. 

“There are worries that Yoon won’t be able to serve out his remaining 2 ½ years in office because his leadership took a huge hit,” AP noted, adding, “Many experts say some ruling party lawmakers could eventually join opposition parties’ efforts to impeach Yoon if public demands for it grow further.” 

Protests gathered outside the National Assembly building shortly after the motion to impeach Yoon failed.

Angry #SouthKorean citizens protesting after the National Assembly failed to impeach President Yoon tonight. pic.twitter.com/cwEAPYmXpj

— William Yang (@WilliamYang120) December 7, 2024

“Tens of thousands of protesters massed outside South Korea’s National,” NYTimes wrote in a running blog. 

JUST IN – Massive crowd gathers before the National Assembly plenary session to vote on South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment motion pic.twitter.com/IF7SFXR3kj

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) December 7, 2024

NYTimes pointed out, “The crowd outside the National Assembly has grown so large that Seoul’s subway operator has closed two nearby stations.”

Thousands await outside the National Assembly. It’s almost zero degrees. Impeachment vote to take place shortly. pic.twitter.com/JsLUJcCQnw

— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) December 7, 2024

In markets, the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) was up 1.3% on the week, Ishares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) fell 4.3%. 

Meanwhile, Graham Ambrose, managing director of Goldman Sachs’ equity franchise sales team in London, told clients late Tuesday that there could be “buying opportunities in Seoul in coming days.” 

Let’s start with a comment from the X account Autism Capital: “Holy shit. Pun intended.”

Holy shit. Pun intended.

— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 6, 2024

The remark was in response to Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire’s post, which included an image of what he claims is Hunter Biden’s book of literal “poop art.”

“Hunter’s lawyers have been denying this happened,” Maguire said. 

For context, Maguire revealed on Sunday that Hunter owed his family $300,000 in back rent for a rental in Venice, California, from 2019 to 2020.

He continued, “Here’s a page from his book of poop art, which he tried to use to pay rent.” 

Hunter’s lawyers have been denying this happened

Here’s a page from his book of poop art, which he tried to use to pay rent

That orange-brown stuff is his

💩 💩 💩 💩 💩

The rest of the book is in our basement

“Where is Hunter” https://t.co/O6JBV1bzza pic.twitter.com/by1S1M194j

— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) December 6, 2024

Maguire’s responses to other X users questioning Hunter’s pop art are hilarious:

bro i don’t speak crackhead

— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) December 6, 2024

i don’t deliberately scame people like hunter or hawk tuah girl 🤣

— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) December 6, 2024

It’s true. The internet can verify the handwriting. The poop would pass a DNA test.

— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) December 6, 2024

Elon Musk chimed in…

This is next-level 💩 😂

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 6, 2024

On Sunday, Maguire called Hunter an “Absolute shit bag” for skipping out on a year of rent. Rent, according to Maguire, was $25,000 a month. 

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden pardoned Hunter this week for potential federal crimes dating back ten years to his days on the board of the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma. The pardon represents legal forgiveness. 

As for Maguire and the $300k in back rent Hunter still owes—well, maybe Sotheby’s can auction off the book… 

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

Ukraine will still remain a de facto member of NATO so long as its security guarantees with the bloc’s members remain in effect.

Zelensky recently flip-flopped on ceasefire terms by signaling that he’d accept a cessation of hostilities in exchange for Ukraine being admitted to NATO, though without Article 5 applying to all the territory that he claims as his own while the conflict remains ongoing. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry then released a statement about how their country won’t accept any alternative to NATO membership. The Kremlin predictably described this demand as unacceptable.

This coincided with NATO Secretary General Rutte clarifying that his bloc’s focus right now is on arming Ukraine, which corroborated reports from Le Monde that several members such as Hungary, Germany, and even the US oppose Ukraine joining at this time. The larger context concerns Putin finally climbing the escalation ladder after authorizing the historic use of the hypersonic medium-range MIRV-capable Oreshnik missile in combat after the US let Ukraine use its ATACMS inside of Russia’s pre-2014 territory.

Nevertheless, what’s lost amidst the latest news about Zelensky’s flip-flop on ceasefire terms is the fact that this is actually just a faux concession since there isn’t any chance that he’ll capture all of his country’s lost territory, plus he’s still demanding NATO membership, which is at the root of this conflict. At the same time, Ukraine is already arguably a de facto member of NATO after clinching a spree of security guarantees with many of its members over the past year, which resemble Article 5 in spirit.

About that, this clause is popularly misportrayed as obligating countries to dispatch troops in support of allies that are under attack, though it only actually obligates them to provide whatever support they deem necessary. The security guarantees that it clinched institutionalize those countries’ existing support for Ukraine in the form of arms, intelligence sharing, and other aid, which is essentially the same as Article 5 but without any implied (key word) pressure to dispatch troops like full membership carries.

So long as these agreements remain in force, then freezing the conflict even without Ukraine formally joining NATO would still represent Russia’s acceptance of its de facto membership as explained, though it’ll be very difficult for Russia to get Ukraine to terminate these pacts and for its partners to accept that. Germany’s and the UK’s allow for termination within six months of notification without any strings attached, while Poland’s the US’ specify that ongoing and implementing agreements will remain in force.

Per the first, “The termination will not affect the implementation of ongoing activities or projects, which have been decided prior to the date of its termination, unless Ukraine and Poland decide otherwise”, while the second states that “any implementing agreement or arrangement entered into between the Parties consistent with the terms of this Agreement shall continue to remain in effect under its own terms, unless otherwise specified in the terms of the specific implementing agreement or arrangement.”

In other words, even in the unlikely event that Russia coerces Zelensky or whoever his successor might be into terminating these pacts, Poland and the US might still unilaterally implement parts of them per their legal interpretations. This could hypothetically take the form of them carving out a proxy state in Western Ukraine on national security pretexts in order to prevent the deployment of Russian troops on NATO’s borders if the national government somehow falls under the Kremlin’s influence.

Granted, they’d have to have the political will to actually deploy troops to the country and it’s unclear whether they’d be willing to risk World War III over this if the Kremlin signaled that it has the political will to strike those of their troops that might officially enter Ukraine, but it still can’t be ruled out. Accordingly, most emerging scenarios of this conflict’s endgame lean towards Ukraine’s security guarantees with NATO remaining in effect, thus amounting to its continued de facto membership.

The only way in which this can be avoided is if Russia achieves a military breakthrough that enables it to coerce Zelensky or whoever his successor might be into terminating these pacts and the West (chiefly the US and Poland) is either deterred from staging a conventional military intervention, retreats under Russian attack if they go through with it, or are decisively defeated there in a hot war that somehow doesn’t go nuclear. This sequence of events is unlikely to unfold barring some unforeseen development.

Accordingly, even if Russia achieves its four maximalist aims of restoring Ukraine’s constitutional neutrality, demilitarizing that country, denazifying it, and having Kiev recognize the loss of its five former regions, Ukraine will still remain a de facto member of NATO if these security guarantees remain in force.

Zelensky therefore isn’t conceding anything significant by flip-flopping on ceasefire terms. Russia will either accept this new military-strategic reality or it’ll have to resort to brinksmanship to try to change it.

The global benchmark for food commodity prices rose in November, reaching its highest level since April 2023. The increase was driven primarily by a surge in vegetable oil prices. What’s particularly concerning is that global food prices have resumed an upward trajectory this year, climbing steadily since the first quarter.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ Food Price Index, which tracks international prices of a basket of globally traded foods, averaged 127.5 in November—up 5.7% from a year ago but still 20.4% below its record high in March 2022.

The biggest driver of the overall index was the FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index, which jumped 7.5% in November versus October. This marked its second notable increase in two months and a 32% rise compared to the same month one year ago

While the FAO Dairy Price Index moved marginally higher, the other sub-indexes posted declines in November.

Here’s the breakdown of all FAO sub-indexes:

The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index increased by 7.5 percent in November from October, marking its second large increase in two months and 32 percent higher than its year-earlier level. Global palm oil prices climbed further amid concerns about lower-than-expected output due to excessive rainfall in Southeast Asia. World soyoil prices rose on global import demand, while rapeseed and sunflower oil quotations increased as tightening global supply prospects affected their respective markets.

The FAO Dairy Price Index maintained its upward trajectory in November, increasing by 0.6 percent from October, driven by rebounding global import demand for whole milk powder. Butter prices reached a new record level amid strong demand and tight inventories in Western Europe, while cheese prices rose due to limited export availabilities.

The other sub-indexes posted declines in November. The FAO Cereal Price Index dropped by 2.7 percent, down 8.0 percent below a year earlier. Global wheat prices declined due to weaker international import demand and increased supplies from the ongoing harvests in the Southern Hemisphere. World maize prices remained stable as strong domestic demand in Brazil and Mexico’s demand for supplies from the United States of America were offset by favorable weather in South America, reduced demand for Ukrainian supplies and seasonal pressure from the ongoing U.S. harvest. The FAO All-Rice Price Index declined by 4.0 percent in November, driven by increased market competition, harvest pressures and currency fluctuations.

The FAO Sugar Price Index declined by 2.4 percent from October, impacted by the start of the crushing season in India and Thailand and eased concerns over next year’s sugarcane crop prospects in Brazil, where recent rains have improved soil moisture.

The FAO Meat Price Index decreased by 0.8 percent in November, due mainly to lower quotations for pig meat in the European Union, reflecting abundant supplies and persistently subdued global and domestic demand. World ovine and poultry meat prices fell slightly, while international bovine meat quotations remained stable, with higher Brazilian export prices offset by lower Australia prices.

Readers have been well-informed this year about global food inflation re-accelerating. We said in June…

This was followed by a big jump in global food prices in September. 

Global Food Prices Jump Most In 18 Months As Supermarket Inflation Storm Worsens https://t.co/zJgI3QvqBZ

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 4, 2024

Global food prices hitting 19-month highs in November is momentum going in the wrong direction for consumers. This also shows how food prices are very sticky.

Authored by Svetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

Europe’s industry is set to lose further competitiveness as high energy prices, rising natural gas prices, and concerns about gas supply this winter are increasing uncertainty about factory utilization amid rising costs.

European benchmark natural gas prices are hovering around a one-year high hit last month as cold snaps in November dashed hopes and prayers of a third relatively mild winter in a row.

In recent weeks, Europe has been depleting its natural gas stocks at the fastest pace since 2016 as demand has increased with the colder temperatures.

This adds to the looming end of Russian pipeline gas supply to Europe via Ukraine after December 31 and growing competition for spot LNG supply with Asia for winter demand.

As a result, Dutch TTF Natural Gas Futures, the benchmark for Europe’s gas trading, jumped last month to a 2024 high and continued to rise in early December, boosting power prices across Europe and raising energy costs for businesses.

This winter could inflict more pain on industries relying on natural gas and force curtailments in production, analysts and industry executives have told Reuters.

The much higher energy costs in Europe are putting its industries at a disadvantage compared to the U.S., Asia, or the Middle East.

For example, the current Dutch hub price is almost five times higher than the benchmark U.S. natural gas price at Henry Hub.

The highest spot-based electricity prices in Europe since February 2023 threaten industrial production in key economies and loom large over business sentiment.

The rising energy costs threaten major European economies, just as Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, narrowly avoided a recession in the third quarter of the year.

Eurozone GDP grew by 0.4% in the third quarter, Eurostat’s flash estimate has shown. That was higher than expected as the two top economies, those of Germany and France, outperformed forecasts.

After Friday prayers in Ankara, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan issued an unexpected statement which for many is tantamount to a full-on admission this his intelligence services are behind Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s capture of Aleppo, and ongoing blitz south. 

“The target is Damascus,” he said bluntly. “I would say we hope for this advance to continue without any issues.” Thus the president of Turkey has just issued over approval for a jihadist-led regime change operation, which echoes the bloodshed of over a decade ago which began in 2011.

But then given Turkey is a NATO member state, he quickly sought to put a little distance between himself and the fact that it’s a US-designated terrorist group leading the offensive, which is currently threatening central Syria, particularly the strategic city of Homs.

“However, while this resistance there with terrorist organizations is continuing, we had made a call to Assad,” he continued. It’s been well-known that Assad has long rebuffed these overtures, even as other regional states return their ambassadors to Damascus.

“These problematic advances continuing as a whole in the region are not in a manner we desire, our heart does not want these. Unfortunately, the region is in a bind,” Erdogan continued, without giving further details.

Erdogan has just announced he’s being the invasion of Syria which he hopes will go to Damascus.

What next from Astana, Russia & Iran?pic.twitter.com/7tOHuskFXY

— Syrian Girl 🇸🇾 (@Partisangirl) December 6, 2024

Turkish forces have for years occupied a northern strip of Syria, northeast of Aleppo, and next to where the US occupation has been maintained.

Damascus has long charged Turkey with facilitating a ‘jihadi highway’ of foreign fighters into sovereign Syrian territory, unleashing hell on the population – including the Kurds (who are hated by Turkey). This is something even US and Western officials have long admitted happened, even in the case of the rise of ISIS.

BREAKING- Erdogan says he hopes Syrian rebels’ march to Homs and Damascus will continue without any accidents and troubles.

“We had called Assad. We said, let’s determine the future of Syria together. We did not receive a positive response.”

pic.twitter.com/zy5cqE37Bg

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) December 6, 2024

Indeed the so-called Astana deal and process appears to be in complete shambles, already a thing of the past, as Russian and Syrian warplanes are struggling to bomb the numerous Turkish proxies making their way south on a central highway.