Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

Joe Biden gave a speech during which he warned Donald Trump, “Don’t mess with uhhiminauhwemerica.”

Yes, really.

“We’ll teach Donald Trump un…err…arr valuable lesson,” said Biden, “Don’t mess with uhhiminauhwemerica unless you wanna get a…(the last word is totally undecipherable).”

Despite the embarrassment, Biden’s supporters cheered mindlessly anyway.

“Don’t mess with uhhiminauhwemerica unless you want to get the benefit.” – Cognitively Impaired Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/K1OMxyihnv

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 23, 2024

The clip is perhaps one of the most blatant examples of how the president has rapidly cognitively declined over the last four years.

He’s literally reading it word for word from a teleprompter yet stumbles over nearly every word, most notably the word “America,” which isn’t exactly a hard one.

No wonder Democrats are so desperate to replace him on the presidential ticket.

Although Biden is clearly suffering from early onset dementia and his speaking difficulties are becoming awkwardly more apparent, it’s hard not to laugh.

And people on X did just that.

Wait for it… pic.twitter.com/IHvir04loL

— SOMETHiNG WiCKED (@som3thingwicked) January 24, 2024

As we previously highlighted, despite Uncle Joe being ready for the retirement home, his campaign is hilariously questioning Trump’s mental stability.

*  *  *

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NHS England has suspended a doctor who heads the UK branch of an Islamist group that was branded a terrorist organization last week.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, a Lebanon-based Sunni political organization which operates in 32 countries, is headed up by Dr Wahid Shaida (aka Abdul Wahid).

On Jan. 15, home secretary James Cleverly denounced the group as “antisemitic” and claimed that it “promotes and encourages terrorism.” Cleverly put an order before parliament which made joining the group illegal in the UK under terror laws. On Jan. 19, Hizb al-Tahrir was banned and its website taken down – but for a statement claiming that a “legal challenge is proceeding.”

In December, Shaida – based on north-west London, described Hamas as a ‘resistance’ group, and referred to the Oct. 7 terror attacks as “a very welcome punch on the nose” while appearing on Piers Morgan’s Talk TV show.

This GP Needs To Be Struck Off

Dr Wahid Asif Shaida, AKA Abdul Wahid, is a GP in Harrow🙄

We call on our Crew, especially those in Harrow, to make a formal complaint against this terrorist supporting Antisemite to the NHS or GMChttps://t.co/kePOLP0Nyi https://t.co/27pE8fABfH pic.twitter.com/ow3kuciiV7

— LittleBoats 🇬🇧NI🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿En (@LittleBoats2020) December 12, 2023

According to The National News, Shaida has been working as a doctor in Harrow since 2002, where he also trained doctors. 

“We take any issues relating to professional conduct seriously and have procedures in place to make sure that individuals are fit to work in the NHS,” a rep told The National. “We can confirm that Dr Wahid Shaida has been suspended from the NHS primary care performers list.”

Local MP Bob Blackman told The National he was concerned some patients would feel uncomfortable at Dr Shaida’s surgery due to the views he has expressed.

“Everyone should feel safe in accessing GP services and this represents a direct risk,” said the Conservative politician.

Mr Blackman has welcomed Hizb ut-Tahrir being designated terrorists and said any of its members who are not UK citizens should be deported.

“I also take the view that as Hizb ut-Tahrir is now a proscribed organisation, supporters who are foreign nationals should be deported.”

Founded in 1953, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been behind several rallies in London alongside pro-Palestine marches. According to the report, it has a long-term goal of establishing a caliphate.

Austria banned the group’s symbols in May 2021.

Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

Inflation in Europe is showing signs of becoming entrenched, making it unlikely the ECB will be able to lower rates by as much as the Federal Reserve this year. Rates markets are currently pricing about the same amounts of cuts for both, leaving room for rapid repricing as the data rolls in.

As with many economies, the rapid decline in headline inflation in Europe has looked impressive.

But we are close to all the low-hanging fruit being eaten, leaving inflation prone to re-accelerating in the coming months.

Europe’s disinflation has been driven by cyclical factors, e.g. oil and energy prices, but structural inflation has been rising, as can be seen in the chart below.

Structural CPI is defined as all those components in the basket that are persistently rising, with cyclical CPI what is left over.

The ECB is right to be concerned about wages, which are growing positively in real terms in Europe, as these are likely to be one of the sources of inflation that will be hard to shake. Another is profit margins, as firms are reluctant to completely reverse the rise in the mark-ups they took in the wake of the pandemic-driven surge in demand.

Cyclical inflation has already fallen a lot, but it is unlikely to keep doing so.

Leading indicators are pointing to rising oil-price growth in the next three-to-six months, which would reverse the cyclical CPI trend and reinforce already-rising structural CPI, boosting headline inflation.

China is another factor, with the growing chorus of easing measures continuing. A full-blooded recovery in China would boost growth in Europe that is already organically recovering, leading to further cyclical price pressures.

There are currently about five-and-a-half 25 bps cuts priced in for the ECB for 2024, similar to the Fed. But the European central bank is far less likely, on a relative basis, to meet this expectation.

For a start, the ECB’s deposit rate is 125 bps below the lower-end of the Fed’s target range. Secondly, the ECB’s only official mandate is inflation.

It will be easier for the Fed to cut rates – given it has stated a clear intention to do so – even if price growth is showing signs of rising again.

The ECB does not have the same flexibility if inflation is not behaving itself.

It’s likely the spread between rate cuts priced in for the Fed and the ECB for this year will narrow, i.e. the December 2024 Euribor contract will underperform the December 2024 SOFR contract (or using December Euribor and September SOFR so that contracts expire on same day).

Authored by Lucas Kelly via CoinTelegraph.com,

Bitcoin ETFs were delayed because of politics. Now that we have clarity – along with seven deadlines between May and August – Ethereum ETFs aren’t far away.

We finally have a Bitcoin spot ETF — an event few of us thought we would see in our careers — the industry has now turned to the approval of an Ether spot ETF as its next target. Those gearing up for another decade of juicy headlines, though, will be disappointed.

The approval of an ETH spot ETF is now not only certain, but imminent. While the United States Securities and Exchange Commission was able to spout nonsense for over 10 years in its various denials of its BTC equivalent, the watchdog can no longer hide behind diffuse objections to what is a patently clear commodity ETP filing.

Indeed, as was observed by Commissioner Hester Peirce in her damning indictment of the SEC’s conduct over this approval published on Jan. 10, the denials of these applications never made sense.

Rather than follow what was always a very clear process for these products, the regulator denied applications based only on “prejudice” against Bitcoin — a prejudice that was only, finally — ended by Greyscale’s lawsuit.

The result, as Peirce observed, has not only been the erosion of trust in the SEC, but a “circus” around these crypto products that would otherwise not have been witnessed — a fact to which the $1 billion of assets now sitting in BlackRock’s BTC spot ETF can attest.

Such a circus will not be seen around an Ether ETF. Currently, there are seven ETH spot ETF applications sitting on the SEC’s desk. This time, VanEck is the first in line with a deadline of May 23, 2024. The deadline for BlackRock’s application is in August, but while typically we would expect the world’s largest asset manager to dictate the terms of the approval, the securities watchdog has already instituted proceedings on VanEck’s applications.

Ethereum ETF deadlines. Source: Bloomberg Intelligence

As such, it would have to come up with an awfully good reason for a denial, which would have a knock-on effect on other pending applications. This is why the market appears so certain that an approval is coming in May.

And this will not be the result for just an ETH product, either. The path has now been cleared for any kind of crypto-backed or linked ETP — from spot products to more complex instruments like structured products, all linked to digital assets.

As a really long shot, the only potential obstacle in the way of a spot ETH approval is liquidity. Just as the size and scale of the market was a concern for a Bitcoin spot product, it will be even more so for Ethereum, whose move to proof-of-stake has further constrained the supply of ETH.

Moreover, while BTC — now used almost purely as a store of value – can be held long-term inside large investment funds, ETH is a working currency used to pay for ever-growing numbers of transactions on the highly composable chain.

This and this only may throw a spanner in the works for the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency when it comes to a spot ETF approval, but it truly is an outside chance. Indeed, the same argument could be applied to equities — and it never is.

The liquidity issue will continue to plague almost all markets as these mega ETP funds soak up assets from the pensions savings of an aging global population, and solutions will continue to be found. Right now, in fact, we are seeing a lot of Bitcoin flowing into Coinbase wallets, which is almost certainly whales doing over-the-counter (OTC) deals to satisfy institutional demand.

The question of whether ETH is a security is also null and void as, once it becomes an ETF, it becomes a security. And we already have commodity ETFs — lots of them.

The reason it took 10 years for a Bitcoin ETF to be approved was politics — plain and simple. The SEC was neither sure or ready to be sure until the asset managers were sure and ready to be sure that this new asset class should be allowed through the door. We now have clarity on this.

With the approval of the BTC spot ETF, cryptocurrency is not only through TradFi’s hallowed door, but sitting firmly at its table. Now, more than the approval of a spot ETH ETF, we can prepare for the full-scale institutional colonization of the cryptocurrency industry.

It’s shaping up to be an ugly bonus season for Wall Street bankers, at least when compared to the last few years. As dealmaking has died down with rates rising and Covid liquidity drying up, it looks like the consensus for most bankers will be bonus cuts.

The latest example came from Citi, where it was reported on Tuesday by Bloomberg that investment banker bonuses could see cuts of up to 20%. Directors and managing directors will see cuts between 15% and 20%, the writeup says. 

Like most other firms, bonuses are being “skewed toward high performing staff” as the business is overhauled, Bloomberg reported, noting that Citigroup declined to comment. 

Recall just days ago we noted that European bankers were also facing bonus cuts amidst a drought of dealmaking. Names like Societe Generale, UBS and Deutsche all have plans to lower their overall bonuses for 2023, we wrote, though some divisions that performed well may still see higher compensation.

Deutsche Bank Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke reportedly said this week that bonus pay will “reflect performance in 2023”.

In other words, what have you done for us lately?

“And as you have seen in a number of different areas of the investment banking business in particular in 2023, it has been a difficult market,” he added. Revenue at the company’s investment bank was down 12% over the first nine months of last year. 

UBS saw similar declines, with investment banking revenue falling 7.3% and Societe Generale saw revenues fall 2.5%. 

The report notes that investment bankers in the U.S. could see similar drops in their payouts for 2023. In addition to investment banking bonuses falling, traders might also wind up with lower bonuses for the 2023 period.

We wrote back in November 2023 that a survey released by New York-based pay consultancy Johnson Associates found investment bankers (on the advisory side) are expected to see bonuses tumble by 15-25% from a year ago, including both cash and stock-based compensation. Retail and commercial bankers at regional banks could see 10-20% smaller bonuses. And investment bankers in debt underwriting could see their payouts slide by as much as 10%.

“It’s another disappointing year, and you overlay that with inflation, people’s incomes are down meaningfully,” stated Alan Johnson, Managing Director at Johnson Associates, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

It’s the second consecutive year of sliding compensation for Wall Street after record low-interest rates, helicopter money, and juiced-up financial markets sent bonuses to record levels. Global dealmaking has since fallen after peaking at record highs. 

Via The Libertarian Institute

Several sources within the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say it will be unable to destroy most of Hamas’s tunnel network under Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged the Israeli military will eliminate Hamas and rescue the Israeli captives in Gaza. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that Tel Aviv will be unable to achieve either goal. 

IDF officials at all levels, including generals, say destroying the tunnel network is impossible. “The Israel Defense Forces will not destroy all the Hamas and Islamic Jihad tunnels under Gaza. Probably not even most of them,” Haaretz reports. “The IDF is scaling down its forces in Gaza City with full knowledge that many tunnels have been overlooked. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The tunnels under the Gaza Strip were there even before Hamas’ founding in 1987 and it seems they’ll be here after this war too.”

The Israeli outlet explains that the Israeli military command was surprised by the extent of the tunnel network beneath Gaza. “Only gradually did the IDF realize that the tunnel network was much more extensive than it had previously understood and that their main use by Hamas was not for launching arsenals, but for preserving its forces.” The Haaretz article continues, “Another assumption that was proven wrong was that it would be enough to control the ground above for a few weeks for Hamas fighters, starved of food, water and oxygen to be forced to emerge.”

The incorrect assessment of the tunnels is just one of many Israeli intelligence failures highlighted since October 7. Israeli officials had the Hamas plans for what ultimately became the October 7 operation over a year before the attack. During the months leading up to the attack, several different sources attempted to alert Tel Aviv to a growing threat in Gaza. 

The New York Times reported that Tel Aviv initially believed Hamas controlled 250 miles of tunnels. That number is now assessed to be close to 450 miles. Haaretz reported that one IDF commander discarded the maps he was given and dismissed the intelligence as useless. 

The US estimates that Israel has killed 5,000 to 7,500 Hamas fighters. The Wall Street Journal reports the group has begun to reestablish its presence in areas of northern Gaza ostensibly cleared by the IDF. 

Entire apartments and large living areas have been found in the tunnels…

Haaretz provides details on how the tunnel network allows Hamas to move assets around Gaza. “Not only were the tunnels stocked with provisions for a prolonged siege, they provided safe passage between different parts of the city and the Strip,” the outlet states. “The IDF claimed to have destroyed Hamas’ regional battalions only to find fighters from those battalions turning up in other areas. And when signs of the presence of hostages were discovered in the tunnels, they had by then been moved to other tunnels.”

The acknowledgment of the IDF’s inability to take out Hamas’s infrastructure comes as several reports have documented that Israel will be unable to achieve its military objectives in Gaza: rescue the hostages and eliminate Hamas. 

“A day will come when the Israeli security establishment will have to admit that destroying the tunnel networks was never a realistic objective. The IDF can perhaps deal with the prospect of a threat from underground, but the tunnels will remain beneath Gaza,” Haaretz notes. 

Cancer research has evolved significantly over time. In 1882, a surgeon performed the first mastectomy to treat breast cancer. By 1950, researchers linked smoking to lung cancer. In 2010, the FDA approved a vaccine to treat prostate cancer.

Now, as Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross and Sabrina Fortin explain below, researchers have found another weapon in the fight against cancer: AI.

This graphic from Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust explores the growing role that AI is playing in cancer research.

Cancer Research Publications

The influence of AI is evident in the scientific literature. PubMed, a database of biomedical research, has seen growth in the number of articles where both AI and cancer are a major topic.

Source: PubMed (as of Oct 17, 2023)

The number of publications has risen substantially, particularly in the last few years.

The Potential of AI

Researchers believe that AI will positively impact the cancer field in numerous ways. In a 2023 study, authors of peer-reviewed scientific articles on AI and cancer were asked about the future of AI.

Source: Cabral et al. (published in 2023, survey was conducted from Oct-Nov 2022). Totals may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

Above all, researchers expect AI to have the highest near-term impact on grading and classifying cancer through image analysis. A cancer’s grade refers to how abnormal the cells look, with more abnormal cells growing more quickly. 

Following this, researchers believe AI will provide more reliable diagnostics. Recent developments appear to support these beliefs.

In November 2023, new cancer research showed that AI flagged up to 13% more early stage-breast cancer cases than doctors identified. This is a significant part of the 20% or more cancers that are estimated to be missed using current non-AI screening. Notably, the AI tool was also estimated to save nearly half of the time spent reading breast cancer scans.

The Future of AI-Powered Cancer Care

Analysts project that the global market size of AI in oncology could grow from $891 million in 2022 to $10.7 billion in 2032. Tempus, the owner of the world’s largest AI-driven clinical data library, is positioned to capitalise on this opportunity.

Using AI to gather insights from over 6 million patient records, Tempus helps healthcare professionals better diagnose and treat cancer. Not only that, Tempus earns revenue by charging pharmaceutical companies to access its data library, fueling the discovery of new treatments.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

The new leader of Frontex, the European Union agency tasked with securing borders, has called for open borders and vowed to appease left-wing pro-mass migration activists.

Well, this is awkward.

Hans Leijtens, who is set to take on the role from March 1st, gave a press conference in which he asserted that Frontex border guards will not take place in any “pushback” of illegal immigrants.

In a separate interview with Welt am Sonntag, Leijtens also expressed a view that should be completely anathema to the head of a border agency.

NEW – Europe’s top border guard, Frontex chief Hans Leijtens, says “nothing can stop people from crossing a border” and advocates for more “openness towards migrants.” pic.twitter.com/JrsPtyhp4Q

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 23, 2024

“Nothing can stop people from crossing a border, no wall, no fence, no sea, no river,” said Leijtens, which is a bizarre statement given that’s his one job.

The Frontex chief is essentially admitting that his role is to oversee the total elimination of European borders while pretending to secure them.

The phrase, “The purpose of a system is what it does” has never been more apt.

Leijtens also extended an olive branch to human rights organizations and NGOs that have been complicit in pushing open borders and in some cases work hand in hand with criminal people smugglers.

Congratulations to Hans Leijtens @lgenLeijtens today appointed new @Frontex executive director.

My thanks to @KalnajaAija for her excellent leadership during a difficult period.

We are committed to continue improving Frontex governance, to best protect the EU external border. pic.twitter.com/riO0Qsd0Lb

— Ylva Johansson (@YlvaJohansson) December 20, 2022

The new head promised more transparency and said he was “not the type of director who will build a fence around Frontex…I want to open the doors,” indicating he would listen to any concerns highlighted by left-wing activists about Frontex operations.

As we document in the video below, given the rise in success of AfD, the German government has been forced to make moves to tighten border controls, following in the footsteps of Sweden and Denmark.

However, given that the man in charge of the entire European Union border policy is essentially a left-wing open borders activist, they may run into some difficulties.

* * *

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After nearly two years of delays, Turkey’s parliament finally agreed to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday, clearing the biggest remaining hurdle to expanding the Western military alliance following the Ukraine war. Turkey’s general assembly, where President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling alliance holds a majority, voted 287-55 to approve the application that Sweden first made in 2022 to boost its security in response to “fear” that Russia would invade it, when in reality Russia invaded Ukraine in response to the encroaching NATO expansion that is now taking place.

When Sweden and Finland asked to join in 2022, Turkey raised objections over what it said was the two countries’ protection of groups it deems terrorists, effectively vetoing the process as all NATO members need to approve applications from countries seeking to join the alliance.  Turkey endorsed Finland’s membership last April but, along with Hungary, had kept Sweden waiting.

“We support NATO enlargement to improve the alliance’s deterrence efforts… We hope Finland and Sweden’s attitude towards fighting terrorism sets an example for our other allies,” Fuat Oktay, head of parliament’s foreign affairs commission and a ruling AK Party member, said during debate.

“I greatly appreciate the Turkish Parliament’s decision to approve Sweden’s entry into NATO today,” U.S. Ambassador Jeff Flake said in a written statement on Tuesday. He said Turkey’s “commitment to the NATO Alliance clearly demonstrates our enduring partnership.”

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom also welcomed the Turkish parliament’s approval. “We now look forward to President Erdogan signing the ratification document,” Billstrom said in a written statement.

After Erdogan signs the legislation, as he is expected to do within days, it will leave only Hungary – whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin – as the only NATO member state not to have approved Sweden’s accession.  Orban said earlier on Tuesday he had invited his Swedish counterpart to visit and negotiate his country joining the bloc. Hungary’s parliament is in recess until around mid-February.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the Turkish move and said: “I also count on Hungary to complete its national ratification as soon as possible.”

Unlike most members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Turkey and Hungary maintain better, in fact cordial, relations with Russia. While opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Turkey has criticised Western sanctions on Moscow. For its part, Russia has cautioned that it would respond if NATO bolstered military infrastructure in the two Nordic states.
Sweden, whose membership bid marked a historic shift away from a non-aligned security policy, would enhance NATO defences in the Baltic Sea region facing Russia, further encouraging Putin’s “paranoia” that NATO is intent on encircling Russia.

In recent months, Turkey’s delays had frustrated its Western allies and enabled it to extract some concessions. Ankara had urged Stockholm to toughen its stance on local members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the European Union and United States also deem a terrorist group. In response, Stockholm introduced a new anti-terrorism bill that makes being a member of a terrorist organisation illegal. Sweden, Finland, Canada and the Netherlands also took steps to relax policies on arms exports to Turkey.

In parliament, Oktay said Erdogan’s AK Party endorsed Sweden’s NATO bid after its positive steps fighting terrorism.
The AKP’s nationalist allies MHP and the main opposition CHP also endorsed Sweden’s bid. Opposition nationalist, Islamist and leftist parties rejected it, while four MPs abstained.

Erdogan, who had sent Sweden’s bid to parliament in October, linked the ratification to U.S. approval of sales of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey. The White House backs the sale and some analysts expect a deal to swiftly follow Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s bid. But there is no clear time frame for the U.S. Congress to approve the deal.

Via ReMix News,

At a time when France is experiencing a spectacular demographic decline, an overwhelming majority of French citizens are not in favor of using immigration as a lever to boost the birth rate, recent polling showed.

According to a CSA survey conducted for CNews, Europe 1, and Le Journal du Dimanche, 69 percent of respondents rejected using replacement through immigration as a means of injecting fresh blood into the French economy.

Upon further analysis, women (71 percent) were slightly more opposed to mass immigration than men (67 percent), and while every age group rejected the idea, elderly respondents were more firmly opposed.

A total of 56 percent of 18-24-year-olds were against using immigration to counter the declining birth rate, while 74 percent of those aged 35-49 and 70 percent of over-65s were opposed to it.

In a socio-economic breakdown, 65 percent of the most highly educated respondents were opposed, compared to 76 percent of those less qualified academically.

Supporters of Jordan Bardella’s National Rally were the most opposed at 94 percent, closely followed by voters of Éric Zemmour’s conservative Reconquest party at 92 percent.

For the Republicans, this opposition is slightly less pronounced but remains in the majority at 84 percent. On the Renaissance side, 62 percent of those polled were also against.

Conversely, on the left of the political spectrum, supporters of all parties are in favor of the proposal. Supporters of La France Insoumise (56 percent), the Greens (58 percent), and the Socialist Party (60 percent) are in favor of using immigration as a solution to the country’s demographic decline.

The number of births in France has not been at such a low level since the end of World War II. According to Insee data, the year 2023 saw just 678,000 babies born, a 6.6 percent drop from the previous year.

Faced with this demographic challenge, some politicians are proposing more immigration to counter the population decline.

Read more here…