If you’ve been wondering how it’s possible for so many woke movies, streaming series and video games to continually fail yet still get made, the answer is of course ESG funding.  These products don’t necessarily have to bring in consumer dollars because the companies already got paid by an army of NGOs and government programs. 

Though the flow of ESG cash has slowed dramatically ever since central banks started raising interest rates there’s still a long list of projects that were initiated several years ago that are finally being released today.  This is why, despite the complete public rejection of woke propaganda and dying ESG, we are still being inundated with far-left media.

For many years it has been suspected that leftist government officials are involved in directly financing social engineering projects using public tax dollars.  In film and TV the influence is more obvious, but what about video games (the largest entertainment market on the planet)?

We recently discussed the exposure of a AAA video game called ‘Dustborn’ funded by the Norwegian Government and the EU.  The game features a cast of queer activist characters that use the “power of words” to cancel and manipulate their opponents.  They also use various methods to bully their allies to do more for them.  The game is set in the near future of 2030 in a balkanized America run by “white conservative fascists.” The backdrop of the game was apparently inspired by the 2020 elections.

The intellectual disconnect is fascinating – Since at least 2016 the US has suffered increasingly under far-left oppression rather than far-right, starting with woke “cancel culture” supported by international corporations, then the BLM and Antifa riots supported by Democrat politicians, and finally culminating in an attempt to institute long term medical tyranny under the Biden Administration.  But we’re not going to see any video games about that.

The terminology for this kind of media is “predictive programming”:  The use of propaganda to “inoculate” consumers against certain ideas and information the government does not want them to entertain.  And, not surprisingly, the EU is not the only bureaucracy engaging in this activity.  

New information has come to light that the US government is involved in the same brand of social engineering and they openly admit to their goals in a funding program for modern video games launched in 2021.  

The US State Department and Embassy in The Hague ran a “competition” for a $275,000 grant through it’s Global Engagement Center (GEC).  The project revolved around “counter-disinformation” – creating a video game that influences teens against common conservative arguments surrounding politics, DEI, climate change, economics and even covid.  The initial iteration of the game is called “Cat Park”, likely a beta test for future propaganda games.

As the funding notice states:

“Successful proposals will incorporate active inoculation theory and address current disinformation and propaganda tactics. The delivered product should be modular, scalable, and expandable so that later iterations could address additional problem sets, such as violent extremism and health misinformation. The game will be piloted simultaneously with players in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and lessons learned from these pilots will inform the final version of the game intended ultimately for global audiences…” 

The GEC partners with numerous globalist institutions including the Global Disinformation Index, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab, and Moonshot CVE.  They claim to be focused on foreign adversaries, but they are aggressively opposed to “populism” and view conservative ideals as a “threat to Democracy.”  In other words, they see you as the enemy as much as they see China or Russia as the enemy.

In 2021 members of Congress wrote a complaint to the GEC in which they argued that the institution was straying from its original mission.  They included the video game project, noting that it was designed to: 

“Produce a ‘counter-disinformation video game’ that programmed audiences to associate citizen critiques of government waste, fraud, and abuse with a social media disinformation campaign.”     

Inoculation Theory upholds that “individuals who are exposed to weakened versions of arguments against currently held attitudes formulate resistance, and the ability to form counter-arguments to future threats to those attitudes.”

What does that mean?

To simplify, they portray weak strawman arguments within popular media to make their political opponents look ridiculous.  The public consumes this media and is thus convinced that the government narrative is the proper narrative, while anyone who dares challenge that narrative is automatically ignored, even if their position is based on facts and evidence.  The US government is using American tax dollars to pay for psychological weapons that will be used against American citizens.

This agenda to infuse woke ideology into every aspect of western culture has been ongoing for quite some time, but any criticism of it in the past was immediately called “conspiracy theory.”  Only in the last couple of years has the evidence mounted to the point that even normies can no longer deny it.

The southern border invasion, fueled by the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous open border policies, has been a devastating blow to this nation.

Our borders have been flooded with millions of unvetted, unvaccinated illegal aliens (remember, ‘trust the science’ Democrats wanted to jail people for not being Covid vaccinated just a few years ago…), including ISIS terrorists. Iranian assassins are roaming freely, hunting ex-Trump admin officials, while cartel criminals and the Chinese Communist Party wage ‘reverse opium wars’ with fentanyl that has sent the drug death overdose catastrophe just north of 100,000 Americans per year. 

In Colorado, armed Venezuelan prison gangs have seized control of entire apartment complexes, and the overwhelming number of illegal aliens across the country has pushed some local governments to the brink of chaos. 

JUST IN: Donald Trump promises to deport the Venezuelan gang members who took over apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado.

“We’re going to get them the hell out of here.”

Aurora officials have been investigating a Venezuelan gang, the Tren de Aragua gang, who is accused of… pic.twitter.com/MEq4RBbMqV

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 30, 2024

What’s evident is that Democrats have abandoned the American people (hence why former Democrats, such as Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., jumped ship and now support Trump). Their top priority is to give amnesty to more than ten million illegal aliens.

This amnesty program allows illegal aliens to get citizenship and vote in future elections. It potentially ensures Democrats can fulfill their Marxist agenda of pushing forward with a socialist reconstruction of America. Not happy with the first-world conditions, Democrats have imported the third world to neighborhoods across America – much of which was done against the wishes of their political constituents.

Don’t believe the misinformation VP Kamala Harris spews about securing the border. She had 3.5 years to do so (or at least care) under the Biden admin. On the contrary, Democrats want more illegal aliens and offer mass amnesty. 

On Friday, elderly Nancy Pelosi said the quiet part out loud on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” openly stating her desire to turn all ‘undocumented’ migrants into ‘documented’ ones. She also supported the idea of providing subsidized housing for illegal aliens.

Nancy Pelosi states that the goal of the Democrat party is to convert undocumented immigrants (illegals) into documented immigrants:
Bill Maher: “The CA lawmakers giving government assistance to undocumented immigrants to buy houses.
That’s kind of a different place than the… pic.twitter.com/pfeG9ngZUE

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) August 31, 2024

Let’s travel back about 16 years to 2008, when she said, “We certainly don’t want any more coming in.” 

Nancy Pelosi 2008: We certainly don’t want anymore coming in.

Nancy Pelosi 2024: Let’s get those undocumented people some taxpayer funded homes and some documents. pic.twitter.com/RG1BB9WGgO

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) August 31, 2024

So what changed in the last 16 years with some folks in the Democratic Party that support communist price controls, nation-killing open borders, anti-American rhetoric, and mass censorship?

🚨 NOW: Leftist protestors are BURNING an American flag outside the DNC as mass arrests are underway

JOY AND UNITY! pic.twitter.com/MMyIp3WXLj

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 21, 2024

Well, the number of high-profile Democrats jumping ship to support Trump is evident that this party is no longer the Democratic Party your parents voted for.

Authored by James Hickman via SchiffSovereign.com,

Gold recently hit $2,500 marking an all time record high.

The reality is, there’s a very good case to be made that gold is still quite cheap compared to its trajectory. It’s possible that in a few years, $2,500 gold could look remarkably inexpensive.

Not to be overly dramatic, but Kamala Harris is a big reason why.

I’m not a D or R kind of guy, but it’s impossible to ignore the impact of the upcoming election on the future of the US.

At a press conference a few weeks ago, reporters asked Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, about the upcoming Presidential election and whether or not the Fed was modeling any potential policy changes depending on the outcome.

But the Fed Chairman was almost proud of the fact that the election outcome didn’t factor into their planning at all.

The Fed considers itself apolitical. Powell seemed to think it was somehow wholesome and responsible to completely ignore perhaps the single most important factor that could drive the economy in the coming years—the outcome of the Presidential election.

Two people with diametrically opposed views will clearly make a massive difference on the economy.

I saw a report yesterday that, since she stole the nomination exactly one month ago, Kamala has raised $500 million. That brings her total campaign war chest to a massive $1 billion.

It’s funny because I seem to remember Rep. AOC saying that, “No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars.” In this case, I’m inclined to agree with AOC.

Kamala took a half billion from Biden— the legitimate nominee— and raised another half billion by making the most outrageous claims and lying her ass off, without even bothering to sit for basic interviews or take legitimate questions.

She’s been coronated without scrutiny, and only now are we starting to see how she views the economy.

She seems to understand that a lot of people are suffering, and she at least partially diagnoses it accurately as the result of inflation. But she has no understanding of where the inflation comes from.

There’s no discussion of the government’s role in running multi-trillion dollar deficits, the unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, and continuing to rack up trillions of dollars in debt every year, even though there’s no longer a national emergency.

Her plans will undoubtedly cause higher deficits and more inflation.

For example, subsidizing housing is obviously only going to make everything cost more.

Giving new home buyers a free $25,000 just means houses will become $25,000 more expensive.

It’s exactly what happened during the pandemic when they started handing out stimmy checks— there was no increase in goods and services, just more money floating around, so prices went up.

The same thing will happen with housing and everything else the government pours “free money” into. But they have no understanding of this.

None of that factors into her thinking. To her, inflation is always and everywhere the result of corporate greed.

And her solutions to inflation involve essentially criminalizing “greed” and throwing the full force and weight of the federal government into attacking the private business sector.

Now she’s talking about using the government and the legal system to go after private businesses. She’s attacking grocery store chains, accusing them of being greedy when their profit margins are a measly 2-3%. Apparently, that’s greedy.

The Biden Administration has gone out of its way to destroy competition, even though competition is one of the most important factors in keeping prices low.

They attack oil companies and prevent the expansion of US energy production. Of course that makes energy prices higher, which in turn makes the price of everything else higher.

This is why it’s ultimately very difficult to see the dollar surviving as the global reserve currency through a single term of a Kamala administration. Her policies will create higher deficits, balloon the national debt, and drive up inflation.

The nature of a good reserve currency is stability. Foreign governments and institutions require stability in the reserve currency. Countries around the world are desperate for something they can actually rely on—something that won’t be inflated away or subject to a gargantuan national debt.

Another key element of a reserve currency is strength. Someone who backs pro-Hamas protesters is anything but strong.

This is why gold is reaching all-time highs.

Yes, some of it is investor speculation. But the biggest driver of gold prices is central bank demand, and they’ve been buying literal tonnes of gold.

To me, this is a clear and obvious sign that they are preparing for an end of the dollar as the dominant global reserve currency.

Gold is a likely and very reasonable reserve asset for them to hold in lieu of dollars, because it has a 5,000-year history of maintaining its value. Central bankers know that they can trade gold for other currencies or strategic assets, and it is this sentiment that is driving their gold purchases.

In short, central banks around the world are trading dollars for gold.

If Kamala wins, that trend will almost certainly continue, resulting in the eventual end of the dollar as global reserve currency.

And I’d expect the price of gold to go a lot higher from there.

Market observers have been puzzled by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s abrupt selling of billions of dollars of its long-held stake in Bank of America since mid-July.

Buffett’s stock dumps could be driven by looming recession threats and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate-cutting cycle, which could begin as early as mid-September and dent the bank’s interest earnings. Or perhaps the 94-year-old billionaire has increased cash reserves to record levels because of elevated stock valuations amid the artificial intelligence bubble.

Whatever keeps Buffett up at night about BofA has certainly been intriguing across institutional desks, FinTwit X, and various financial media outlets. Some believe this could be a critical market inflection point. Since mid-July, the billionaire has trimmed about 13% of its BofA stake, generating $5.4 billion in proceeds…

… and adding to Berkshire’s record cash holdings.

The billionaire has remained silent about the stock dumps. Bloomberg noted Buffett sold an additional $982 million worth of stock earlier this week. 

Another potential reason for Buffett’s sudden stock selling could be the fear that a US regulatory probe into anti-money laundering surrounding fentanyl cash laundering at Toronto-Dominion Bank could be expanded to major US banks. 

In a conversation with Sam Cooper, an investigative journalist behind the Substack “The Bureau,” and David Asher, a former senior investigator for the State Department, Asher revealed, “And most of what we’re seeing is coming from this TD Bank case, and there’s a lot more. We’ll see which one of the big four US banks gets named next.” 

By David Messler of OilPrice.com

There are two main drivers for ExxonMobil, in the face of crude’s relatively tight pricing band-low $70’s to low $80’s, for the most the past year. The first is the Guyana, Stabroek production ramp, and the related kerfuffle with Chevron, over the nature of their proposed acquisition of Hess. The second is the ongoing digestion of Pioneer assets and acceleration of Permian output toward 1.2 mm BOEPD.

XOM is a huge company with a lot of irons in the fire: LNG, chemicals, carbon capture, refining, biofuels, and heck, they’re even dabbling in lithium. None of these really matter to the stock in the near term. XOM moves with higher or lower oil and gas prices and is likely to perform in lockstep with these commodities well into the future. Darren Woods, CEO let loose with a pithy comment in the Q-2 call that reveals the firm priorities of this company, regardless of what other “ponds” into which, they dip their oars-

“Later this month, we’ll publish our global outlook, which projects global energy demand 15% higher in 2050 than it is today. We see oil demand holding steady at around 100 million barrels per day in 2050, while demand for renewables and natural gas grows considerably.”

Let’s give Mr. Woods his due. As the CEO of a company producing ~4.3 mm BOPD of crude oil, it is fair and reasonable for us to assign a solid probability of his being right. In this article we will cover a tight focus on what we believe to be the key needle-movers for the company.

Guyana

As was noted in the early August, Bloomberg piece by Kevin Crowley the 2015 Liza discovery well almost didn’t happen. Guyana’s waters were a minefield of 40+ dry holes accumulated over the years and XOM management wasn’t convinced that this prospect met their capital allocation criteria. Even more critical was the fact that XOM’s concession was about to expire, if they were going to do it, it had to be then. Read Crowley’s piece for more of the back story, but the success of Liza changed the company and the country. Quoting Crowley from the article-

“Today, Liza is the world’s biggest oil discovery in a generation. Exxon controls a block that holds 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil, worth nearly $1 trillion at current prices. The find has transformed Guyana from one of South America’s poorest countries into one that will pump more crude per person than Saudi Arabia or Kuwait by 2027. Guyana is on track to overtake Venezuela as South America’s second-largest oil producer, after Brazil.”

Now with more than 30 discovery wells, 6-sanctioned projects, current daily production of ~650K BOPD rising to 750K in 2025 with the commissioning of Yellowtail, 1mm+ BOPD in 2027 with the commissioning of Whiptail, and up to 1.5 mm BOPD with the startup of the 7th project- Hammerhead, the company is growing Guyana production at a rate of about 20% annually. The “Guyana Effect” shows up in total return comparisons with key competitors and the overall S&P 500 index, as noted in the Crowley article.

Guyana appears to have a long ramp for future development in Stabroek, as reporting indicates that another two fields, Fangtooth-now under delineation drilling, and the  Haimara discovery-new appraisal wells planned for later this year, could take reserves well beyond the 11 bn BOIP now booked.

If the company can continue the pace of announcing a new project for Guyana every eighteen months or so, it’s not hard to imagine daily production hitting the 2.0 mm BOPD level in the XOM graph below in the early 2030’s.

As a final point on Guyana, low cost of supply is everything in long-term oil production. With supply costs of less than $35 per barrel, Stabroek fits nicely in the low-cost category assuring profitable production at any likely Brent prices.

The XOM, CVX, Hess kerfuffle

Chevron-CVX has lagged Exxon in reserves replacement over the last few years, as this OilNow article points out. Although down from 2018’s peak of ~24 bn bbls, XOM is comfortably ahead of Chevron with 16.9 bn bbls compared with 11.1 bn for CVX. Chevron’s motivation for its takeout offer for Hess, (HES) is pretty clear. With HES’ 30% stake in Stabroek, CVX saw an easy way to tack on several bn barrels on reserves with its $53 bn offer for HES. Shareholders for both companies approved the deal, but roadblocks began to crop up.

In late December of 2023, the FTC filed a request for more information on the deal but delayed any action pending the outcome of ExxonMobil’s objection to the merger. With the three-judge panel only recently confirmed recent reporting has a timeline well into 2025 for any resolution.

The core of the dispute lies in the interpretation of the Joint Operating Agreement-JOA, which contains a section on the Right of First Refusal-ROFR that governs the disposition of assets run by the consortium. XOM feels that the HES share should be offered to it under the ROFR language in the JOA. Chevron disagrees, and took pains in setting up the deal to provide for HES’ survival as an entity, effectively eliminating the “change of control” provisions of the JOA. Analysts feel the outcome will come down to the arbitration panel’s interpretation of the “intent” of the CVX/HES agreement as regards the asset. M&A expert, James English at law firm Clark Hill Law was quoted as saying-

“The crux here is whether a change of control even occurred. The three-person arbitration panel that will make the call must decide in part whether to focus on the language in the contract or to delve into Chevron’s intent. “A plain language approach would be very favorable to Chevron, while if you go with the intent, Exxon may have a case,” English said.”

There is no downside for XOM in this process, in my view. The valuation of the stake held by HES is a closely guarded secret, but we can make some assumptions and arrive at an estimate. 

A trillion dollar valuation has been put on the 11 billion worth of reserves already booked, implying a Brent price of $90-not out of line, but aspirational from current levels. That would put HES’ 30% share at ~$335 bn or so, 6X+ above the $53 bn takeout price. Depending on which estimate you use for the percentage ascribed to HES’ 30% as part of the CVX bid -60-80% according to experts cited in the Reuters article, it’s not hard to imagine a significant payday for XOM.

ExxonMobil is in the catbird’s seat in this scenario. They could make a counter offer for the HES stake, bid for a fraction of it, or take compensation from Chevron, if they prevail in arbitration. If it gets too pricey CVX would just walk away, accepting a $1.72 bn break-up fee from HES.

There’s no way to handicap the outcome of this dispute. As I noted there is no downside for XOM. A lot will come down to how the single word-intent, is interpreted.

The Permian

As the first full quarter of Pioneer assets operating under XOM’s umbrella approaches as Q-3 wraps we will get a peek at how efficiently this merger is being implemented. The company has put a big number on the bulletin board-$2 bn, in cost savings that will accrue from the merger annually. In a Bloomberg article, CEO Darren Woods noted that these savings will come from improved technology and extraction-fracking and cube development techniques, as well as the logistics advantages the merger provided in terms of lateral lengths and materials sourcing. XOM projects costs of supply at $35 per barrel from the Permian.

For full year 2024, XOM projects daily Permian production of 1.2 mm BOEPD across their 1.4 mm acre position in the basin. The company has a target of increasing Permian production to 2.0 mm BOEPD by 2027, implying a growth rate of 20% a year.

Your takeaway

XOM is trading at some fairly rich multiples at current prices. The EV/EBITDA is 7.65X, and the flowing barrel stat is $116K per barrel. Analysts rate the stock as Overweight with price targets ranging from $110-157.00 per share. The median is $130.00.

For those looking for well-covered shareholder returns, XOM is generating free cash of about $26.5 bn annually on a TTM basis. The company distributed $8.1 bn in dividends and repurchased $16.3 bn in stock for a modest free cash yield of ~5%. The company beat EPS estimates by ~5% in Q-2, and estimates have been raised for Q-3 to $2.14 per share. If they come in with a beat we could certainly see a move higher toward the midpoint of estimates. The inverse is also true.

XOM should be a part of every long-term energy investor’s portfolio for growth and income. Currently, it is trading near the top of its one-year range-$97-$123.00. Recent weakness in oil and gas prices would certainly argue for a judicious entry point that might come when Q-3 earnings are released in November.

Google is implementing ‘new protections’ for its generative AI products into the election, announcing on Friday that it will extend its policies announced last December for its search and YouTube products.

The restrictions will include a lack of responses for a wide range of election-related queries, including candidates, voting processes, and election results, Axios reports.

Products affected include Search AI overlays, YouTube AI-generated summaries for Live Chat, Gems, and Gemini’s image generation.

“We’re taking a cautious approach because we want to get this right,” said the company.

Google says they’ve made the change due to ‘misinformation concerns’ – particularly around the election.

• It’s essentially up to the industry to regulate uses of generative AI around elections, as Congress has yet to pass any bills and federal agencies look unlikely to take any meaningful action on AI in elections this year.
• Most companies are adapting their existing election policies for their new AI experiences, including OpenAI. -Axios

So – with Google products nerf’d, let’s see how X’s Grok does with realtime election queries as we head into the home stretch. X has already updated Grok after reports that it was spreading election misinformation in regards to ballot deadlines in several states.

In response to queries, the AI assistant will now say “For accurate and up-to-date information about the 2024 US Elections, please visit Vote.gov.”

“We appreciate X’s action to improve their platform and hope they continue to make improvements that will ensure their users have access to accurate information from trusted sources in this critical election year,” said election officials from Minnesota, New Mexico, Michigan, Washington, and Pennsylvania in response to a complaint sent to Musk.

Of course, as Headline USA‘s Ben Sellers wrote this week, according to the Heritage Oversight Project, an election-integrity watchdog launched by prominent conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation, the deadline for removing Biden from the ballot has already long since passed in Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada.

This is big. It’s likely already too late to remove Joe Biden from the ballot.

WISCONSIN — It’s already too late to remove Joe Biden from the ballot.

NEVADA—After tonight, the fourth Friday in June, it will be too late to remove Joe Biden.

GEORGIA—Only a few weeks remain…

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) June 28, 2024

So Grok wasn’t spreading misinformation after all?

By Grzegorz Adamczyk of RMX news

Thousands of illegal migrants have been deported from Germany to Poland, according to recent reports. Aleksandra Fedorska, a journalist for independent Radio Wnet, revealed that as of the end of June, 3,140 people had been expelled from Germany’s Brandenburg region alone.

This figure is part of a broader trend, with estimates suggesting that the total number of deportees from neighboring German lands could reach nearly 10,000.

Szok!!!
Z samej Brandenburgii do końca czerwca wydalono z Niemiec do Polski 3140 osób, a to tylko jeden w 3 graniczących z Polską landów!

Czy dlatego Niemcy nie podają już całościowej i aktualnej liczby wydaleń bo liczba ta przekroczyła 10 000 osób????

Co się dzieje… pic.twitter.com/HLlb16NFu3

— Aleksandra Fedorska (@a_fedorska) August 28, 2024

Fedorska, speaking on conservative TV Republika, noted a significant increase in the presence of Polish Border Guard officers along the German border, describing this as a positive development.

“We can see them on the highways and conducting mobile checks in the border zone. Just a few months ago, there was no sign of the Border Guard in this area,” she stated.

The issue of migrant deportations has gained prominence in public discourse, particularly as tensions between Germany and Poland over the handling of illegal immigration have escalated. Fedorska pointed out that Germany’s current situation is contributing to these tensions, with growing public concern over safety and the potential impact on political stability.

Szok!!!
Z samej Brandenburgii do końca czerwca wydalono z Niemiec do Polski 3140 osób, a to tylko jeden w 3 graniczących z Polską landów!

Czy dlatego Niemcy nie podają już całościowej i aktualnej liczby wydaleń bo liczba ta przekroczyła 10 000 osób????

Co się dzieje… pic.twitter.com/HLlb16NFu3

— Aleksandra Fedorska (@a_fedorska) August 28, 2024

The journalist also discussed the potential impact of upcoming regional elections in eastern Germany, including in Saxony and Brandenburg, on Polish-German relations. She highlighted the rising popularity of the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in these regions, suggesting that their success could further strain cross-border dialogue, especially regarding migration policies.

🇩🇪‼️ NEW: After a Syrian migrant killed 3 at the Festival of Diversity in Solingen, now the German far-left government is talking about what amounts to essentially banning knives.

The problem?

Knife-free zones already exist, and they are woefully ineffective in Germany. pic.twitter.com/p3cE5zr4uY

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) August 27, 2024

Metrics assessing women’s safety, inclusion, and access to justice vary greatly by country and region. 

In this graphic Visual Capitalist’s Julia Wendling ranks the bottom 10 nations for women, using the 2023 Women Peace and Security Index scores from the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

Countries are given an index score out of 1.0 that is derived based on the following components: 

• Inclusion: education, employment, financial inclusion, cell phone use, parliamentary representation

• Justice: absence of legal discrimination, access to justice, maternal mortality ratio, son bias

• Safety: intimate partner violence, community safety, political violence targeting women, and proximity to conflict

Which are the Worst Countries for Women? 

All of the bottom 10 countries for women are located in either the Middle East or Africa.

High maternal mortality rates, low education rates, and elevated rates of intimate partner violence were some key contributors to the low overall scores. Proximity to conflict also hindered the group’s rankings.

The average index score for the group, at 0.38, is around half the global average of 0.65. 

Overall, the status of women deteriorated in 13 countries globally from 2017 to 2023. Somalia (#169), Haiti (#167), and Eswatini (#170) underwent the largest declines.

If you found this interesting, check out this visualization that looks at the best countries for women in 2023, revealing a very different regional perspective.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

A Ukrainian soldier speaking to the Japanese broadcaster NHK has said that Western intelligence was used to monitor Russian troop activity in Russia’s Kursk Oblast before Ukrainian forces launched an invasion of the region.

“He says the Ukrainian military surveilled Kursk using drones and satellites, and detailed intelligence data provided by the West was crucial for the operation,” NHK reported.

The US has denied that it was involved in the planning of the invasion but has offered strong support by allowing Ukrainian forces to use US-provided armored vehicles, missiles, and bombs.

Ukraine is now pushing hard for the US to allow its weapons to be used for long-range strikes. Earlier this week the Pentagon repeated its same official line:

During a news conference on Tuesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Patrick Ryder was asked whether the U.S. would reconsider its restrictions on Ukraine’s use of American-supplied missiles.

“You’ve heard us say that the Ukrainians can use U.S. security assistance to defend themselves from cross-border attacks, in other words counterfire,” Ryder said. “But as it relates to long-range strike, deep strikes into Russia, our policy has not changed.”

The Ukrainian soldier, who was described as a spokesman for a Ukrainian brigade, suggested one purpose of the invasion of Kursk was to demoralize the Russian civilian population.

“We should not forget about the moral and psychological factor of the Russian civilian population,” he said. “Our operation was planned both tactically and as a move to demoralize the enemy.”

While the fighting continues in Kursk, Russian forces are making steady gains in the Donbas and moving more rapidly toward the Donetsk city of Pokrovsk.

Western intel key to Kiev’s Russia incursion plan – US spy chief.

Ukraine has access to a trove of commercial satellite images, according to the head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Kiev had access to a wide array of satellite images for planning and executing…

— Mats Nilsson (@mazzenilsson) August 30, 2024

There’s no sign the violence will end anytime soon, as Russia is now ruling out peace talks with Ukraine following the Kursk invasion.

Authored by RJ Tesi via RealClearScience,

Alzheimer’s disease (Alzheimer’s) is conceptualized as a progressive consequence of two hallmark pathological changes in gray matter, in particular, extracellular amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. However, over the past several years, neuroimaging studies have implicated micro and microstructural abnormalities in white matter in the risk and progression of Alzheimer’s, suggesting that in addition to the neuronal pathology characteristic of the disease, white matter degeneration and demyelination are crucial features of patients living with the disease. A shift to focus on white matter abnormalities, rather than gray matter, can open up critical new avenues in Alzheimer’s pathology and could be potential treatment targets. 

White matter vs. gray matter 

The brain’s gray matter is mainly composed of neuronal cell bodies. Nerve cells in the gray matter are where memories are stored. Networks of nerve cell bodies process information in the brain. These neuronal networks are necessary for thinking, speaking, and most activities. White matter is made up of myelinated axons. 

White matter disease is the degeneration of tissue in the largest and deepest part of the brain. White matter tissue contains millions of nerve fibers, or axons, that connect other parts of the brain and spinal cord and signal your nerves to communicate to one another.  This ‘talk’ helps individuals think fast, walk straight, and perform other important cognitive functions. When diseased, the myelin, a fatty material that protects fibers in the brain, and the axons stop working and the brain and body halt normal functions. 

Growing research supporting Alzheimer’s as a white matter disease 

The observation that white matter abnormalities are characteristic of Alzheimer’s is relatively new. While changes to the gray matter in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s are well known and continue to be heavily investigated, the neuropathology of white matter abnormalities still remains mysterious and is mainly attributed to cerebral small vessel degeneration, inflammatory events, as well as loss of myelin and axonal fibers. However, white matter changes have been shown to develop very early, in prodromal phase (pre-Alzheimer’s) and precede the onset of clinical symptoms of dementia, underscoring the importance of their further investigation and focus. 

A neuroimaging study in 2020 identified white matter hyperintensities, a significant contributor to Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS), such as apathy, irritability and depression, to be present in subjects evaluated with Alzheimer’s. Another recent study demonstrated that co-morbidities have an impact on white matter integrity in individuals living with AD and that early alterations in genes linked to myelin proteins in white matter occur in AD cases. These are just a couple recent examples of the growing data that support the vital role white matter abnormalities present in the development of Alzheimer’s. 

The fact that most dementia remains incurable—including the cortical dementia of Alzheimer’s that continues as such a formidable threat to medicine and society—calls out for a new paradigm that may reveal new avenues to an effective response. Alzheimer’s as a white matter disease may stimulate such novel thinking, and can serve in a theoretical sense to broaden the clinician’s perspective in approaching dementia and its origins. 

New hope for Alzheimer’s disease treatment 

Historically, science hasn’t paid as much attention to our brain’s white matter as its gray matter. 

We now know how important white matter is to our overall brain health and cognitive ability, as well as how declines in white matter structure are correlated with impairments in brain function. In the broadest sense, dementia must arise from dysfunction in or damage to neurons in the brain. However, the details of where, when and how the cognitive disturbance arises are crucial. Just as neuronal cell body pathology within gray matter is important, so is disease involving the segments of neurons within the white matter and their supporting structures. 

Heightened consideration of white matter as a specific therapeutic target raises many new possibilities for Alzheimer’s treatment. Emerging possibilities for the treatment of white matter disorders can help reduce the burden of dementia that results from long-term consequences of myelin damage or dysfunction. An adaptation and adjustment to focus on white matter abnormalities, rather than gray matter in Alzheimer’s patients, opens promising possibilities for the science community to develop effective treatments for Alzheimer’s patients and potentially take steps forward in identifying a possible cure.