China’s Spy Agencies Now Targeting The Country’s Economic Pessimists
In a move that we wouldn’t be surprised to see take hold in the U.S., China is now reportedly cracking down on its citizens who have a negative opinion regarding the country’s economy.
A new Nikkei article detailed how the country’s spy agencies have turned their focus to the country’s financial naysayers.
“Various cliches that denigrate the Chinese economy have emerged. False theories about ‘China’s deterioration’ are being circulated to attack China’s unique socialist system,” the country’s Ministry of State Security said at China’s recent annual conference to set economic policy.
When the Ministry opened its WeChat account in summer of this past year, its first post on August 1 simply read: “We need to mobilize the entire Chinese society to crack down on and prevent espionage.”
The revelation that the spy agency has been so openly active on WeChat was unexpected, the report says. While its main functions include targeting spies and engaging in counterintelligence operations, protecting China’s economy is not typically within its scope.
However, the agency’s recent posts following the Central Economic Work Conference on December 11-12, along with similar communications after a significant economic policy meeting in late October, suggest that the ministry is broadening its range of responsibilities.
“How strange that China’s economic policies for next year, ones that have just been adopted, were first explained by the Ministry of State Security,” one Chinese economist told Nikkei.
The spy agency’s recent social media activity, coinciding with growing online skepticism about the government’s optimistic economic narrative, implies a crackdown on those providing objective yet critical analyses of China’s faltering economy.
Experts highlighting issues like the exodus of foreign companies and declining consumer confidence, often with detailed economic data, are particularly at risk. These analyses typically avoid directly contradicting the government’s assertion of achieving a 5% growth target, reflecting caution under China’s strict speech regulations.
The Ministry of State Security, traditionally focused on counterintelligence, is now venturing into economic discourse – a shift that suggests the Chinese government views overly realistic or negative economic assessments, which it considers influenced by foreign narratives of decline, as threats to national security. This indicates potential repercussions for those with pessimistic viewpoints, the report noted.
Border Patrol officers in the month of November identified 17 individuals on the FBI’s terror watch list attempting to illegally enter the United States outside an established port of entry on the southern border.
The 17 were processed by law enforcement agents after crossing into the United States, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). There has been an increasing trend in the number of known terrorists found to be entering the U.S. southern border beyond ports of entry, with a record 169 individuals detected in Financial Year 2023.
A record number of individuals of interest on the watch list have also been attempting entry at U.S. ports of entry on either the northern or southern border, with 564 individuals detected at ports in FY 2023.
The 17 individuals last month add to 13 entries by individuals on the watch list caught outside a port of entry in October. Another 49 individuals were apprehended attempting entry at a U.S. port of entry since October for FY 2024.
The federal dataset maintained by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center includes the identifying information of known and suspected terrorists and terrorist groups, as well as the information of their affiliates.
“Encounters of watchlisted individuals at our borders are very uncommon, underscoring the critical work CBP Agents and Officers carry out every day on the frontlines,” the CBP website says.
The increase in individuals on the terror watch list attempting to enter the United States is of concern, as they only represent the ones processed by Border Patrol. It is possible that other individuals on the list may have attempted entry and evaded law enforcement, being among the many “gotaways” getting through the porous and underresourced border.
The terror watch list figures also come as Members of Congress voice concern about a heightened risk of terrorists entering the United States following Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting war.
Illegal Immigration Crisis
FY23 broke the record for illegal immigrant encounters.
Over 242,000 illegal immigrants were processed by Border Patrol at the southern border in November—the third-highest monthly record. Nearly 80 percent of these apprehensions were for border crossings outside of legal ports of entry.
Historic CBP data indicates U.S. border officials had never logged more than 80,000 encounters in any given November prior to 2022.
Of the 191,113 November Title 8 apprehensions, more than 6,300 were illegal immigrants attempting another entry to the United States after already being removed by law enforcement for failing to meet the necessary requirements for asylum.
These figures do not include the 43,000 immigrants who followed the U.S. immigration process and have been granted parole through the CBP One app.
December totals are expected to easily surpass the November totals, as agents have been consistently overwhelmed by more than 12,000 encounters each day at the southern border, particularly at the Ports of Entry in Lukeville, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security itself warned in its October threat assessment that, with agents reporting an increasing number of attempted entries from the terror watch list, there is a greater risk that “terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States.”
“Individuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States,” the assessment also said.
Funding for Border Security
Congress is currently negotiating a $105 billion supplemental funding bill that ties together funding for the border with funding for Israel’s war against Hamas and support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The Biden administration has allocated $14 billion towards beefing up border personnel and staff to process asylum claims. However, Republicans want to see the Biden administration act on border security without conditions, and in a manner that tackles what they say are the underlying problems causing the mass surge in illegal immigration. They are pushing for stricter border security measures, completion of the border wall in gaps between ports of entry, and limits on the use of humanitarian parole, as well as policies to dissuade illegal border crossings and frivolous asylum claims.
“We are facing a serious challenge along the southwest border and CBP and our federal partners need more resources from Congress—as outlined in the supplemental budget request—to enhance border security and America’s national security,” senior official performing the duties of the commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement on the need for immediate border funding.
Watch: Chinese Rocket Booster Nearly Destroys House
A dramatic video shared on social media platform X captures the moment a booster from a Chinese Long March 3B carrier rocket plummets from the sky, crashes into a hillside forest and explodes feet away from a house.
Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times reported the Long March-3B rocket with a Yuanzheng-1 upper delivered two Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbit on Tuesday morning from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the country’s Southwest Sichuan Province.
🚀. Long March 3B with Yuanzheng-1 upper stage launched 2 Beidou MEO backup satellites from Xichang on December 26 at ~03:26UTC. pic.twitter.com/VLBzPTK32f
— China ‘N Asia Spaceflight 🚀𝕏 🛰️ (@CNSpaceflight) December 26, 2023
The launch was deemed a success, with the 57th and the 58th Beidou satellites added to the BeiDou Satellite Navigation System, China’s mega constellation of satellites.
However, video footage of the rocket’s booster falling from the sky and crashing into a hillside emerged hours after the launch on Chinese social media, then shared with X.
It’s raining men..ah..boosters.
Long March 3B booster coming down near Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
— Susanne Auer🇪🇺 (is also on Bluesky) (@AuerSusan) December 26, 2023
Given China’s ability to copy technology, one might wonder why they haven’t yet deployed a self-landing booster similar to SpaceX’s technology developed by Elon Musk.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he is not a “plan B” kind of guy, when asked about the possibility of taking a job in a possible second Trump administration.
In an appearance on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Mr. Ramaswamy said he was focusing on his presidential campaign, despite trailing the Republican frontrunner former President Donald Trump.
“I think that I’m not a plan B person,” Mr. Ramaswamy said. “I didn’t get to where I am—I’m 38 years old, I’ve found multiple multi-billion dollar companies, we’re blessed with the American dream to be able to self-fiance and lift this campaign up.”
“I didn’t get to where I am, and Apoorva didn’t get to where she is by being ‘plan B people,’” he added, referring to his wife Apoorva Ramaswamy.
Mr. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, expressed confidence going into the Iowa caucus, which is scheduled on Jan. 15.
“So I’m actually confident we’re going to overdeliver massively at the Iowa caucus,” Mr. Ramaswamy said.
“Many of the people supporting us are first-time caucus-goers, some of them young people, some of them America-first patriots or libertarians who haven’t thought of themselves as traditional Republicans who are coming out in droves,” he added. “I think we’re going to have a major surprise on January 15.”
There’s been speculation that Mr. Ramaswamy could be President Trump’s running mate for 2024. In August, President Trump indicated that he was open to the idea of having Mr. Ramaswamy as a potential vice president.
Also in August, Mr. Ramaswamy praised the former president as “the best president of the 21st century,” during the first GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee.
“I respect Trump and his accomplishments for this country,” he said. “Unlike a lot of the other candidates, I’m not sitting here Monday morning quarterbacking some decision he made.”
If elected, Mr. Ramaswamy believes he would be well-suited to lead the country.
“But I believe we are the right people to take our America-first agenda to the next level. I think it’s going to take somebody with fresh legs. Somebody from the next generation if I may say it to lead the next generation,” he said. “I believe we will be successful in this.”
It is not the first time that Mr. Ramaswamy has made such a remark about himself.
In November, during a podcast interview with Patrick Bet-David, host of Valuetainment, Mr. Ramaswamy also said he was not a “plan B person,” when asked about the prospect of being President Trump’s vice president.
“I’m not a plan B person,” Mr. Ramaswamy said. “I didn’t get to where I am in life by having plan A goals and then setting up your bifurcated backup plans on the important things.”
“When you’re guided by your mission and purpose, and you set out and you accomplish plan A. If you fail, then you figure out then,” he added. “I think it would be fake to just sort of say, ‘Under any Scenario, I’m not gonna run in 2028’ or ‘I’m not going to, you know, if I don’t win or whatever.’”
Despite Mr. Ramaswamy’s optimism, he recently finished fourth in the latest Emerson College poll in Iowa. The poll, conducted from Dec. 15 to Dec. 17, found Mr. Ramaswamy with 8 percent of support, trailing President Trump (50 percent), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (17 percent), and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (15 percent).
A national poll released by Echelon Insights, conducted from Dec. 12 to Dec. 16, found President Trump in a commanding lead with 70 percent of support, with Ms. Haley in second place with 10 percent. Mr. DeSantis finished in third place with 9 percent, followed by Mr. Ramaswamy with 5 percent.
In a head-to-head matchup, President Trump defeated Ms. Haley 76 percent to 20 percent.
However, President Trump picked up 47 percent of support, trailing President Joe Biden by one percentage point in a two-way matchup.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr said that the U.S. Supreme Court should strike down a ruling issued by the Colorado Supreme Court that barred former President Donald Trump from the state ballot.
Last week, a majority of judges on Colorado’s high court said that the former president is ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot. Some analysts said that it’s likely that the former president would appeal the decision to the high court.
The U.S. Supreme Court “has to smack this down very quickly,” Mr. Barr told Fox News last week, responding to the decision.
And Mr. Barr—who served in the Trump administration but has become a frequent critic of President Trump after leaving office and has disputed claims about 2020 election fraud—added that “the legal argument here for it is ridiculous.”
“Even more importantly, it is highly destructive, and it’s exactly the kind of tactics by the left that created Donald Trump in the first place,” he said.
The decision from a court whose justices were all appointed by Democratic governors marks the first time in history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate. It overturned a ruling from a district court that said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.
“A majority of the court holds that Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment,” the court wrote in its 4–3 decision. The dissenting justices argued that the ruling violated the former president’s due process rights.
The court stayed its decision until Jan. 4, or until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case. Colorado officials say the issue must be settled by Jan. 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots.
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the court’s majority wrote. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
Other state high courts have rejected similar arguments lodged by left-wing groups claiming that President Trump cannot appear on ballots due to the insurrection clause. Although the former president has been charged with crimes in several jurisdictions in the past year, he has not been charged with or convicted of insurrection or rebellion against the United States.
In a statement last week, Trump legal spokeswoman Alina Habba said that “this ruling, issued by the Colorado Supreme Court, attacks the very heart of this nation’s democracy. It will not stand, and we trust that the Supreme Court will reverse this unconstitutional order.”
Other than Mr. Barr, a number of legal experts and even some Democratic officials have disputed the legitimacy of the 14th Amendment-based attempts to block the former president from running.
The case was brought by a group of Colorado voters, aided by the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), who argued that President Trump should be disqualified because, according to the group, he was trying to obstruct the transfer of presidential power to President Biden after the 2020 election on Jan. 6.
CREW President Noah Bookbinder, who currently serves in the Department of Homeland Security’s advisory council and was appointed by current Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, said in a statement that the court’s decision is “not only historic and justified but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country.”
Meanwhile, some pollsters and consultants have predicted that the ruling may only bolster President Trump’s chances in the 2024 election. According to a RealClearPolitics average, the former president’s lead in the GOP primary has only increased since the court’s ruling.
Two common signs stood out on the front lawns and street corners of Manteno, Illinois, on Dec. 13: “Keep Christ in Christmas,” sponsored by the Knights of Columbus, and “Choose Manteno: No Go on Gotion!”
Ten miles south of where Chicago’s suburban sprawl finally peters out, Manteno is the latest battleground over Chinese companies coming to middle America—in this case, the electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer Gotion Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of China’s Gotion (or Guoxuan) High-Tech Co.
While a recent Manteno board decision to rezone a manufacturing site favorably to Gotion came as a setback for opponents, the war for the industrial future of Manteno—and America—is far from over.
The recently formed group Concerned Citizens of Manteno fired back with a lawsuit against Gotion and the village on Dec. 22.
In Manteno and towns like it, Americans are steeling themselves for a struggle.
“The Chinese government does not like us. Look what happened with the coronavirus. … But this is our town, not theirs, and we’re going to fight to save it,” Gotion opponent Ryan McHeffey told The Epoch Times.
The story begins in early September, when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, came to Manteno and revealed that Gotion would site a $2 billion EV battery plant in the community.
The proposed location was a 100-plus acre property at 333 S. Spruce St. that includes a former Kmart distribution center. The parcel lies on the west side of Interstate 57, the north–south artery that cleaves Manteno in two as it whooshes down to the Missouri Bootheel.
The deal came with $536 million in incentives from the state of Illinois. Kankakee County has also offered the company a 30-year property tax abatement. The project could also be eligible for federal green energy tax credits.
The project will deliver “2,600 new good-paying jobs in Manteno,” Mr. Pritzker said in a statement.
Mayor Timothy Nugent, who has ruled the village with little opposition since the mid-2000s, described the Gotion announcement as a “huge win.”
Although there were rumblings about Gotion in the weeks beforehand, Mr. Pritzker’s September announcement caught many by surprise—and it galvanized opposition.
“All of a sudden, everybody heard about it,” Manteno resident Julie Holda told The Epoch Times.
Ms. Holda is one of numerous locals campaigning against Gotion.
Manteno activists who spoke with The Epoch Times cited a range of worries, including over highly toxic materials employed in lithium battery production, the use of taxpayer subsidies for a foreign company, possible threats to flora and fauna, destabilizing development of the sleepy village, and the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In a September letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen requesting an in-depth look at Gotion by the Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and other Republican officials describe those alleged ties.
“Li Zhen, the company’s founder and chairman, is a member of the Anhui Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, which is part of the CCP’s United Front system and takes direction from the CCP. His son, Li Chen, who is also Guoxuan’s CEO, is a member of the Baohe District Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, which is an advisory body of the CCP,” the lawmakers wrote.
Annette LaMore, a retired postal carrier and anti-Gotion activist, told The Epoch Times, “We are inviting our enemies into our town.”
Mike Barry, an area football coach, questioned the impact of the property tax cap on homeowners as well as the project’s long-term effect on property values.
“How am I going to sell my house … with a lithium battery factory?” he asked.
November polling by a center-right group, Cor Strategies, revealed that a majority of Kankakee County residents oppose the development, with just 27 percent in support. The results suggest that Gotion critics have most of the area’s public on their side.
But Manteno residents who spoke with The Epoch Times acknowledged that the issue has raised tensions in the town.
At one point, while leading The Epoch Times’ reporter through a business in town, activists explained why they were so circumspect.
“This is literally the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s right now. We just walked into the McCoy’s territory,” one of them said.
Manteno resident Marina Fisher said: “It hurts so bad. This has really divided this town.”
She spoke to The Epoch Times with her 13-year-old son, Emilio, and her 1-year-old boy, Evers. Evers is her “rainbow baby”—a child born after a miscarriage.
Like others who spoke with The Epoch Times, Ms. Fisher came to Manteno to get away from all the problems in Chicagoland.
Now, she’s worried that toxic materials at the plant could make her new home unsafe. At issue are lithium, the base material for the batteries, and other chemicals used in battery manufacturing.
In a 2023 review on the health risks of lithium-ion batteries, Polish researchers noted that lithium has long been prescribed to patients with bipolar disorder, meaning that scientists have some insight into lithium toxicity in people. The health of the kidneys, thyroid gland, and parathyroid gland can all be jeopardized. Lithium has also been linked to birth defects.
Locals are particularly concerned about another chemical, N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), that may or may not be at play in Manteno.
Robert Dube, an attorney involved in the Manteno lawsuit, told The Epoch Times that Gotion “could not confirm” whether it would use it in its proposed facility.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded in 2020 that the use of NMP in lithium-ion battery manufacturing presents “unreasonable risks.” It has linked NMP exposure to kidney toxicity, liver toxicity, neurotoxicity, and more.
Pollution, including water pollution, is nothing new to the region. Northern Illinois is dotted with superfund sites designated by the EPA. In places such as Ms. Fisher’s old neighborhoods in Chicago, Back of the Yards and McKinley Park, a map developed by University of Illinois researchers reveals dangerous levels of lead, a neurotoxin, in the soil.
In June, ABC reported that residents in nearby University Park still stick to bottled water four years after lead was found in the drinking water. The water was supplied by a private utility, Aqua Illinois, at about the time it began sourcing from the Kankakee River rather than wells. Aqua Illinois is the same utility that supplies water to Manteno (reporting from the period doesn’t indicate that lead pollution affected Manteno).
Village of Manteno officials have said that “residential water supply will not be affected by the water needs from the Gotion plant,” citing assurances from Aqua Illinois. It stated that the plant’s wastewater will be low risk after some level of pre-treatment of the sort common for “other manufacturing plants in the area.”
But Ms. Fisher isn’t satisfied. She worries that air and water pollution could sicken her and her young children.
“Not everybody can afford cases of water,” she said.
Like some others in Manteno, she feels that she “would be forced to move” if Gotion comes to town.
Mrs. LaMore is also concerned about the health hazards to Manteno residents. She pointed out that the proposed facility isn’t far from residential subdivisions on both sides of Interstate 57.
“If there’s a leak, and it gets into our water, we’re doomed,” she told The Epoch Times.
Locals also worry about what the prevailing westerlies could carry into town from the Gotion facility. The proposed plant is on the west side of town and almost directly west of an elementary school.
Another Gotion critic, Bob Forsythe, questioned the safety of operating a lithium battery plant so close to rock quarry blasting activity.
Shannyn Dockery, known as the “butterfly lady,” fears that wastewater from the plant could imperil endangered or otherwise significant plants and animals in the region. Those unique flora and fauna include the Kankakee mallow, a flowering plant with a native range restricted to a single island in the Kankakee River, Langham Island.
“We are also talking about monarch butterflies,” she said, noting that monarchs regularly migrate through the area.
“My house is a monarch waystation. I have plants specifically for the monarchs.”
Ms. Dockery worries that Mr. Pritzker’s power over the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board could affect how the state assesses those potential threats as it moves closer to approving Gotion’s plan. Board members are appointed by the governor.
Manteno isn’t the first place Gotion and its political sponsors have met with citizen resistance.
The company already faced backlash from residents in Green Charter Township, Michigan, where township board members were recalled in November over a Gotion battery plant proposal.
Jeff Peticolas, a Michigander who opposes the plant there, told The Epoch Times that he’s upset that the Gotion plans have been “dropped on unsuspecting little townships and villages, towns that didn’t see it coming.”
New Headwind For ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ For Children: Soaring Malpractice Insurance Costs
Where the controversy over so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors is concerned, government regulation commands most of the attention. However, as any well-read libertarian will tell you, market forces can also impose their own powerful form of regulation. Happily, we’re beginning to see market forces create a major impediment to the practice of irreparably altering the bodies of confused adolescents.
Those forces have emerged in the form of soaring malpractice insurance premiums for clinics that use hormones, puberty blockers and surgeries to address gender-confused children. Many insurers are refusing to offer coverageat any price.
That’s what The Project of the Quad Cities found. The Illinois practice was ramping up its capabilities at its clinic on the Iowa border, with a goal of catering to Iowa minors who could no longer receive gender-altering services in their own state after they were banned in March.
Then they tried getting insurance. “I didn’t anticipate that it was going to be a big deal,” the clinic’s Andy Rowe told Time. However, a long list of medical malpractice insurers threw cold water on their ambitions.
“The first one specifically excluded gender-affirming care for minors. The next response was the same. And the one after that. By early November, more than a dozen malpractice insurers had declined to offer the clinic a policy.” – Time
When the clinic finally found an insurer willing to provide coverage, Rowe was hit with sticker shock. He’d anticipated a premium of $10,000 at most. The actual price: $50,000. Appealing to donors, the clinic has almost raised enough funds to absorb that cost. In the meantime, its vision of a border clinic bustling with Iowa children hasn’t been realized.
Insurers’ mounting unease comes as a growing number of suits are being filed by individuals against doctors they accuse of rushing them — as children — into permanently altering their bodies rather than addressing adolescent angst over puberty.
This month, now-20-year-old Isabelle Ayala sued her Rhode Island doctors and others described in her suit as “a collection of actors who prioritized politics and ideology over children’s safety, health, and well-being.” One of them is alleged to have determined in a single, one-hour visit that she should be given cross-sex hormones, overlooking factors that included autism, ADHD and PTSD from being sexually assaulted as a child. Ayala told the New York Post:
“I just really don’t want this to happen to other vulnerable young girls. I don’t want puberty to be the enemy. I don’t want our natural biology to be the enemy.”
To some extent, the insurance-premium mechanism of market-driven regulation reflects changes in government regulation: Several states have extended the statute of limitations for filing malpractice lawsuits springing from gender-altering therapies and surgeries. In Arkansas, for example, the threat of a suit will now hang over the insurer of a gender-transition practice for 15 years after minor patients turns 18. That’s a sharp contrast to the typical requirement that a suit be filed within one to three years of injury.
“If state laws increase the risk of civil liability for health professionals, premiums will be adjusted accordingly and appropriately to reflect the level of financial risk incurred by the insured,” the Medical Professional Liability Association’s Mike Stinson told Time.
Insurers, acting out of their own self-interest, are disincentivizing a risky activity that some governments allow and many even encourage: Chalk up another benefit to society delivered by what Adam Smith called “the invisible hand.”
The Indian Navy has deployed three guided missile destroyers to the Arabian Sea in response to an alleged drone attack on an Israeli-linked chemical tanker last week. New Delhi also uses long-range maritime patrol aircraft for “domain awareness,” the defense ministry reported Monday night.
On Saturday, the Liberian-flagged MV Chem Pluto, a Japanese-owned tanker traveling 370km off the coast of India, was reportedly hit by a kamikaze drone, according to the Pentagon.
The Israeli-linked tanker had been on its way from Saudi Arabia to India, according to maritime security firm Ambrey. The Indian Navy says they are examining the specifics of the attack on the MV Chem Puto, which managed to anchor in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Although Indian officials say a preliminary evaluation suggests a drone strike, they emphasize that additional forensic and technical examinations are necessary to determine the exact method of attack.
Washington blamed the attack on Iran, saying the drone had been launched “directly” from the Islamic Republic. “We declare these claims completely worthless,” said Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, on Monday.
“Such claims are aimed at projecting, distracting public attention, and covering up for the full support of the US government for the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza,” he added.
Saturday’s drone attack came less than a week after the US announced the formation of the so-called Operation Prosperity Guardian, described by US officials as a new “coalition of the willing” that seeks to counter the threat posed by Yemen in the Red Sea.
Although the Yemeni armed forces have been conducting the attacks against Israeli-linked vessels of their own accord, the Pentagon insists Iran is somehow involved.
“The [Yemeni] resistance has its own tools […] and acts by its own decisions and capabilities,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri told Mehr News Agency on Saturday.
“The fact that certain powers, such as the US and the Israelis, suffer strikes from the resistance movement […] should in no way call into question the reality of the strength of the resistance in the region,” he added.
Robert Shiller Warns Of ‘Cataclysm’ For US Dollar Reserve Status If Confiscated Russian Assets Given To Ukraine
If the United States shifts frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, it would be cataclysmic for the US Dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, says Nobel Prize winning Yale professor, Robert Shiller.
“If America does this to Russia today… then tomorrow it can do this to anyone,” he told Italian news outlet La Repubblica in an interview published Sunday.
“This will destroy the halo of security that surrounds the dollar and will be the first step towards de-dollarization, which many are increasingly confidently leaning toward, from China to developing countries, not to mention Russia itself,” Schiller continued.
The US, EU, and allies have frozen some $300 billion of Russian foreign exchange reserve assets since last year after slapping the Kremlin with sanctions over the Ukraine war. Over the past year, various ideas have been tossed around regarding using the funds to aid Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times described doing so as “a radical step that would open a new chapter in the west’s financial warfare against Moscow.”
“I can’t convince myself that this [confiscation of Russian assets] is the right way,” said Schiller, who received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2013, and is known for his expertise in behavioral economics and macroeconomics. He was named one of Bloomberg’s ’50 most influential people’ in global finance.
“In addition to the fact that this will be confirmation for the Russian leader that what is happening in Ukraine is a proxy war, it could paradoxically turn against America and the entire West,” he continued, adding that giving confiscated Russian assets to Ukraine would become “a cataclysm for the current dollar-dominated economic system.”
Russia has called the confiscation unlawful, and warned that any country considering participating in sanctions should expect a mirror response from Moscow.
The Israel-Hamas war is an ominous message to the world: The guardrails that long stopped wars from breaking out are now effectively failing.
Of course, Ukraine was the first sign of this. After Russia invaded the country, it quickly became the worst conflict in Europe since World War II. Except, at the onset, the world didn’t know what to make of it. Was this a “one-off” event or the start of something else?
The latest flareup in the Middle East answers this question.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas signals that a new era has begun — one where wars are no longer black-swan events that occur every decade or so. Rather, they are becoming a regular occurrence, representing the most significant transformation to global affairs since 9/11. This is a pivotal moment in history, as it signals that whatever stood in the way of conflicts erupting is now falling by the wayside. Nations are no longer scared to throw punches, and war has become acceptable again.
While the spotlight is on Israel-Hamas, there’s also the ongoing conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh; soldiers at heightened readiness on the border between Serbia and Kosovo; military coups spreading throughout Africa from Gabon to Niger; and frequent clashes between India and China. Then, alongside all this, there’s the potential for the current Hamas war to spread across the region.
This new era is shaking the foundation the world has stood on since World War II. And it represents global “structural change,” which will affect everything from connectivity to technology and sustainability.
Firstly, as wars break out, they are starting to fragment the neighborhoods around them, accelerating vertical globalization — creating an environment filled with walls and barriers. Whatever integration existed, and was being nurtured, is now being reversed.
In the Middle East, for example, Saudi Arabia has now “frozen” normalizing relations with Israel — a step that was being brokered by the United States. And if the Arab world once again starts to view Israel as the “black sheep,” it will fracture the new economic connections that have been forming — like those between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — and are reliant on a unified, stable Middle East.
Additionally, as this new era of war unfolds, the world will start to view the West differently — especially the U.S. As more conflicts erupt, many nations may begin questioning whether the Western camp is losing its power to call the shots and steer the world. And if the threat of Western sanctions is no longer paralyzing to nations, it will likely cause countries to start managing wars in their own unique ways.
We are already seeing examples of this. For instance, when the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October, the Saudi crown prince dialed his Iranian counterpart to discuss the conflict. This is unprecedented — and it represents this new era’s “geopolitical nuances.”
Furthermore, when it comes to bringing “peace” to conflicts, newly emerging diplomatic forums will also start to compete with established ones. Of course, the United Nations remains pivotal, but it is no longer the only diplomatic option — there is the recently expanded BRICS bloc and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) too. And in some cases, governments are shunning diplomacy entirely. So, which one of these competing geopolitical blocs will nations at war turn to?
Israeli tank drives near Gaza, as viewed from the Israeli side of the border on December 21, 2023 | Maja Hitij/Getty Images
Finally, there is a new group of “problem solvers” emerging as well — nations attempting to stop war and offer “postwar solutions.” In the case of the Ukraine war, the new broker is Qatar, hoping that Arab neutrality can bring Moscow and Kyiv to the negotiating table. And, of course, countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Singapore stand ready to do the same. These nations will continue to bring their own formula and ideas to this new era of war, shaping what regions and economies look like post-conflict.
For anybody who truly wants to see, the writing is on the wall. The next decade or so could be filled with more fighting and upheaval than the world has seen in almost a century. And the barriers that stopped wars from breaking out in the past — from Western sanctions to citizen uprisings — have all eroded severely.
And as these existing guardrails break down, new ones aren’t being built to replace them, which means we may be entering a period akin to the Wild West. Moreover, as nukes begin to spread on the back of wars and flashpoints — like Russian nuclear warheads in Belarus, or South Korea wanting to host American nuclear weapons — a new game of “nuclear chess” has begun.
Thus, the most pressing challenge facing the world now is to change the global architecture in such a way that when wars do break out, new solutions exist to contain them and maintain a certain status quo. One such idea would be an agreement between the G20, stating that nations who start the next wars will lose their ability to trade with the group’s members.
Otherwise, as nations and businesses are busy running from fire to fire, from war to war, the forces that have the potential to truly transform the world (and humanity) — from climate change and AI to demographic crisis — will start to unleash chaos without limits.
* * *
Abishur Prakash is the founder of The Geopolitical Business, Inc. He is a global keynote speaker and the author of five books. His latest book is called “The World Is Vertical.”
