Update(1730ET): Amid the expanding ground operation which has seen Israeli tanks positioned outside of Gaza City and heavy firefights with Hamas militants erupt, Axios has revealed that the head of Mossad, David Barnea, made a secretive weekend trip to Qatar where he met with senior Qatari officials as part of mediation efforts to secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages. 

According to the latest update, over 235 are in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) captivity, and Qatar remains the chief third party communicating with both Tel Aviv and Hamas. But Israeli officials have described that the ground offensive was launched after it became clear that the talks had born no fruit. Barnea was in Doha as the ground invasion kicked off and progressed. According to the Israeli side’s conclusions reached as a result of the meetings, per Axios: 

• Israel made the decision [to invade] in part because Hamas refused to give Israel via Qatar a list of names of all the hostages it is holding, the officials said.
• Hamas told the Qatari officials it is still in the process of finding out where all the hostages are located and their identities. But the feeling in Jerusalem was that this was just a tactic to buy time and prevent an Israeli ground operation, the Israeli officials said.

On Monday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) made the unexpected announcement that one hostage, a military member who had been taken on Oct.7, has been rescued alive from the battlefield…

She is home.

PVT Megidish was abducted by Hamas on October 7. Tonight, she was rescued during ground operations.

Ori is now home with her family. pic.twitter.com/SZsqpvPQux

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 30, 2023

But also on Monday, Hamas released a new hostage video featuring three women. They’ve been identified by Israeali sources as Yelena Tropenov, Daniel Aloni and Rimon Kirsht. Netanyahu has denounced this as an example of “cruel Hamas-ISIS psychological warfare” – and Axios has detailed of the video: 

• Aloni, who speaks in the video, blames Netanyahu for abandoning them when the attack happened and after they were taken hostage.
• “Free us now. Release their civilians. Release their prisoners. Release us now,” Aloni yells in the Hamas video.

New released video of Israeli hostages. pic.twitter.com/HbvmglYNE0

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) October 30, 2023

The White House has meanwhile reiterated Monday that “We do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer right now,” according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “We do not support a ceasefire at this time.”

And the US has also signaled it is winding down chartered evacuation flights of American citizens from Israel:

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says Washington will cease operating charter flights for civilians looking to flee Israel during the war due to a lack of demand.

“We have consistently seen the demand for our charter flights go down to where we’ve had a lot of flights going out with 50% capability,” Miller says. “I think that the number of seats that we have offered, we’ve had something like 25% of them actually be filled.”

* * *

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has killed dozens of Hamas militants, among them commanders, as it pushes deeper into Gaza, with tanks being seen Monday on the outskirts of Gaza City, blocking a key road linking the northern and southern halves of the Strip.

Hamas has also announced it is engaged in “heavy fighting… with the invading occupation force”, after the IDF confirmed more Israeli troops have been surged into the Strip. It appears the warring sides are in some locales engaged in building-to-building and door-to-door fighting in the dense urban zone. 

“Overnight, troops eliminated dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in the buildings and tried to attack the forces that were moving in their direction,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said. “We are carrying out an expanded ground operation into the Strip… forces are moving towards the terrorists, the terrorists are barricading themselves in staging grounds, and we are attacking them from the air.”

Israel is signaling its intent to encircle Gaza City with tank and ground units – a significant challenge given its size of 18 square miles with a pre-conflict population of over 650,000 people. In total some 1.1 million people live in the northern half of the Strip.

Recent reports have estimated that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have defied Israel’s order to flee south. By Saturday the IDF had utilized open spaces like the beach to quickly allow tank units to plunge two miles deep into the Strip.

IDF has been publishing brief clips of forces operating in Gaza:

צה”ל המשיך במהלך הלילה בהרחבת הפעילות הקרקעית ברצועת עזה.

בהיתקלויות עם מחבלים ברצועת עזה, חיסלו לוחמי צה”ל עשרות מחבלים אשר התבצרו במבנים וניסו לפגוע בכוחות. במהלך אחד מהאירועים, כלי טיס בהכוונת הלוחמים בשטח תקף מבנה כינוס של ארגון הטרור חמאס ובו מעל ל-20 מחבלים >> pic.twitter.com/IlGkMyoiSG

— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) October 30, 2023

Gazans have told Al Jazeera that they are receiving emergency phone calls at their residences (after communications were switched back on this weekend) with messages like the following: “This is the Israeli army, we are telling you to evacuate south because in the coming hours it is going to be very dangerous in the area where you are at.”

At this point amid the fog of war as well as the desire of each side present that they have the battlefield edge, it’s not expected that military casualty rates will be published, but the Israeli media has cited a series of IDF statements to compile the following accounts: 

• In one incident, ground troops directed the Air Force to carry out a drone strike on a Hamas staging ground, killing more than 20 terrorists, according to the IDF.
• In another incident, the IDF said a fighter jet struck an anti-tank guided missile launch position and a number of Hamas operatives who were identified by ground troops near Al-Azhar University in Gaza City.
• Later Monday, the IDF said troops encountered a number of Hamas cells attempting to attack them during the morning hours. Ground forces directed air force combat helicopters and drones to strike the terror cells and kill their members.
• Forces also demolished anti-tank guided missile and rocket launch positions, as well as other infrastructure belonging to Hamas, the IDF said.

As for Israeli forces having reportedly gained control of a key road that runs north-south, AFP has also cited eyewitnesses who say “They have cut the Salah al-Din road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it.”

Palestinian photojournalist Youssef Al Saifi exclaimed in the below video that “they are shooting at a whole family”:

🚨 JUST IN: Israeli Forces Block Key Gaza North-to-South Road, Raising Speculation of an Advance on Gaza City

– An Israeli tank and armored vehicle reported having cut Salah-al-Din road near Gaza City, with speculation of an advance on the territory’s largest city.

– A video… pic.twitter.com/SfoQuzY0JP

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 30, 2023

Additionally Hamas has claimed to have stalled the IDF’s advance deeper into Gaza City: 

Later on Monday, Salama Maarouf, the head of the Hamas government office in Gaza, said the Israeli tanks had retreated from the outskirts of Gaza City.

“There’s absolutely no ground advance inside the residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. What happened on Salah al-Din Street was the incursion of a few occupation army tanks and a bulldozer,” Maarouf said in a statement.

The Hamas official then asserted, “These vehicles targeted two civilian cars on Salah al-Din Street and bulldozed the street before the resistance forced them to retreat. There is currently no presence of occupation army vehicles on Salah al-Din Road, and citizen movement has returned to normal on the road.”

Now with the death toll in Gaza having far surpassed 8,000 – with an estimated half of these women and children – Israel is facing growing international pressure and condemnation, including from some European countries, as we detailed Sunday. Statements of PM Netanyahu and his top officials essentially declaring a scorched earth campaign over the densely populated land have drawn rebuke from some corners of Europe, but receive scant mention in US mainstream media…

Netanyahu declaring invasion: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible”

1 Samuel 15:3

“Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass” pic.twitter.com/5QF9PkGhjJ

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 28, 2023

Meanwhile, the Israeli military’s Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, has defined the mission as follows: “The IDF is focused right now on one thing—victory and dismantling Hamas.” But the question of the fate of millions of Palestinian civilians across the West Bank and Gaza hangs in the balance, with Palestinian leaders and their supporters expressing alarm over Netanyahu’s “smite the Amalek” reference. 

Israel has been seeking retaliation for the Oct.7 Hamas terror raids into southern Israel, which killed over 1,400 Israelis and foreigners, and resulted in at least 220 hostages still held captive somewhere in the Strip. But more tragic news has emerged concerning one one woman who had been taken from the Nova music festival, and who had been seen half-naked in the back of a pick-up truck, possibly deceased or at least badly wounded:

Shani Louk, a German-Israeli woman kidnapped by Hamas gunmen during the October 7 attack and taken to Gaza, has been found dead, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.

“We are devastated to share that the body of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani (Louk) was found and identified,” the ministry posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

The images, including graphic video, of what appeared her lifeless body underneath several smiling Hamas militants in the bed of a pick-up truck was among the first to go viral on Oct.7 – and underscores the utter brutality and mercilessness of the Hamas terror raid.

When looking at wealth per person on a country-by-country basis, is it more important to look at median wealth or average wealth?

Many experts believe that median wealth provides the most accurate picture of wealth since it identifies the middle point of a dataset, with half of the data points above this number, and half falling below it. In this way, it is less impacted by extreme values, and gives a good representation of the “middle of the pack”.

With that said, average wealth gives you a true average, even though it may get distorted by outliers, like the fortunes held by billionaires.

Either way, using data from the 2023 UBS Global Wealth Report, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld created the following graphic comparing both average and median wealth across select countries,

Top Countries by Average Wealth per Person

In 2022, global average wealth per adult stood at $84,718.

By these measures, Switzerland ranks at the top at $685,226 per person. Over 15% of the population are millionaires, the third-highest rate in the world. However, when looking at median wealth per person, it stands at $167,353, a difference of over $517,000.

Like Switzerland, five of the top 10 countries by average wealth are in Western Europe, including Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

The table below shows average wealth per adult in 2022 across 39 countries analyzed by UBS:

The U.S. falls second, with a mean wealth per adult of $551,347.

Overall, it is home to 38% of global millionaires, outpacing the second-highest country, China, by more than three times. With a significant wealth gap, income inequality in the U.S. is among the highest across developed nations.

Ranking seventh is Singapore, with the highest average wealth per adult across Asia. Income inequality in Singapore falls at a similar level to America based on its Gini ratio.

Top Countries by Median Wealth per Person

Here’s how wealth shifts when looking from a median wealth per adult basis:

Belgium ranks the highest, climbing past Australia for the first time. High home ownership levels and elevated home prices have led household wealth to rise above other European countries.

Median wealth in the U.S. stood at $107,739, falling in 12th place.

Overall, median wealth has grown the fastest in China, increasing eightfold since 2000 to reach $27,273. The country’s rapid economic growth has lifted many into the middle class, yet wealth inequality has also increased.

Biggest Gaps in Average and Median Wealth

Which countries have the starkest difference between average and median wealth per adult?

Across the dataset, the U.S. saw the steepest gap. Median wealth per adult was $107,739—80.5% lower than average wealth levels. This means that wealth ownership skews disproportionately to the country’s richest.

Following the U.S. were South Africa, Russia, and India for illustrating the widest disparities between average and median wealth.

On the other end of the spectrum was Belgium, where median wealth per adult was the closest to average wealth levels. In this way, median wealth per person was $249,937 while average wealth was $352,814, reflecting less disparity.

Other countries with narrower gaps between median and average wealth per person included Greece, the UK, and Australia.

Authored by Olivier Bault via Remix News,

The public is not supposed to notice that a putsch is about to take place, that the European Union as a community of sovereign states is being abolished and a superstate is being created without any consent of the people, says Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski

The European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee adopted a resolution on Oct. 25 with a report carrying far-reaching treaty changes drafted by the so-called Verhofstadt Group, a team led by the Belgian Eurofederalist Guy Verhofstadt.

The plenary vote is planned for Nov. 22 and will formally trigger the procedure to amend the existing treaties.

Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, who was a member of this Verhofstadt Group until July, explains in this exclusive interview with Remix News why this latest attempt to transform the European Union into an undemocratic superstate, which he describes as a silent putsch with communist roots, has a real chance to succeed if it is not stopped fast.

* * *

There have been elections in Poland, and we know that a new government will probably be formed by the Civic Coalition together with the Third Way and the New Left. Does this mean that Poland will now support the far-reaching changes to the EU treaties proposed by the left and center-right in the European Parliament?

I prefer to speak in the conditional because as of today, the formation of a government by the opposition is likely, but not a foregone conclusion. However, if this does happen, it is indeed true that Poland can no longer be expected to block these changes in the way the EU functions.

The Polish opposition, at the stage of parliamentary work, supported these changes, both through the votes of the representatives of their political groups in the team of co-rapporteurs of the report, which we colloquially call the Verhofstadt Group and which I left in July in protest, and with their votes in the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and also in the plenary voting.

As for the plenary votes, in the Report on Parliamentarianism, European Citizenship, and Democracy, where there was an amendment to eliminate the Member States’ veto right, the opposition voted to eliminate this right of veto.

During the vote in the European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs on Oct. 25, the representatives of these Polish parties expressed their support in principle for this plan to create a superstate and reduce the role of the member states to that of German-style “Länder.”

So, it is almost certain that if these three parties form a government headed by Donald Tusk in Poland, they will support these changes.

Assuming this is what is going to happen, can these changes be blocked by smaller countries such as Hungary and Slovakia, whose new prime minister, Robert Fico, has expressed his fierce opposition to the elimination of the veto right?

We have to consider the experience with the Constitutional Treaty. There were many resisters and eventually, under pressure and blackmail, even the most resistant, Britain, agreed. This treaty was only blocked by two referendums, in the Netherlands and France. It is only then that this treaty was abandoned. However, it was eventually adopted in a truncated form and rebadged as the Lisbon Treaty. So, the history of the Constitutional Treaty proves that even the most resistant give way and yield under pressure over time.

Here, the pressure is very great, and the tools the European Commission has at its disposal are much more powerful than in the days of trying to push through the Constitutional Treaty. Back then, the Commission could not block funds, as it does today. It could not put a member state up against a wall on contrived charges concerning the so-called rule of law, for example.

The arsenal of means of extortion and blackmail is much larger today and it is actively used. France’s Marine Le Pen said Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did not want to vote for the immigration and relocation package, believing that a naval blockade was needed, not this type of ineffective measure. However, she was threatened that a tranche of the Italian recovery funds would be blocked and she bowed to the pressure since she risked, as we know, an attack by financial markets on Italy.

Italians are indeed familiar with this from 2011. But you said you left the so-called Verhofstadt Group, i.e., the team working on the report on proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the treaties, in an act of protest. An act of protest against what?

Against this final formula and the lack of respect for the consensus principle. We worked on the report from July 2022 to July 2023. It was hundreds of hours of negotiations. There were six representatives of six political groups, including myself on behalf of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. The Identity & Democracy group was not allowed in.

Why?

This is the so-called “cordon sanitaire” policy enforced by the other groups, from the center-right EPP to the far left. As for the six rapporteurs, the Conference of Presidents decided that there were to be six co-rapporteurs, i.e., the principle of consensus was to apply. This means that everyone was expected to agree on the final version.

As one of those six co-rapporteurs, I have protested various solutions, unfortunately unsuccessfully. I have proposed other solutions, such as a CJEU Subsidiarity Chamber composed of the Presidents of the National Constitutional Courts, or a red card procedure in which half of the national parliaments could stop legislation in the European Commission, etc.

This was all rejected, and the “consensus of six co-rapporteurs” principle was turned into a “consensus minus one.” In other words, the five other political groups agreed on matters between themselves, and the ECR was eventually also placed outside the cordon sanitaire.

Therefore, I slammed the door on behalf of my group.

In its draft resolution that deals precisely with these proposals for treaty changes, the European Parliament cites the so-called Conference on the Future of Europe as the source of these ideas. Doesn’t that mean that there is a democratic procedure behind these proposed changes? It was a citizen consultation after all, wasn’t it?

Absolutely not.

…

It is worth noting that in the European Parliament’s resolution, its authors refer to the Ventotene Manifesto of Altiero Spinelli, an Italian Trotskyist communist. His manifesto is cited first, with Schuman’s declaration coming in second. This clearly shows that this idea of amending the EU treaty is rooted in the communist Marxist vision for Europe, where nation-states are being abolished and where democracy is basically non-existent.

Just read what Spinelli wrote on the subject. Schuman proclaimed that his idea was not to bring countries together to create a superstate, and the idea of the Union as a superstate has its origin in the concepts Spinelli exposed in the Ventotene Manifesto.

It says that “it derives its vision and certainty of what must be done from the knowledge that it represents the deepest needs of modern society and not from any previous recognition by popular will, as yet inexistent. In this way, it issues the basic guidelines of the new order, the first social discipline directed to the unformed masses. By this dictatorship of the revolutionary party a new State will be formed, and around this State new, genuine democracy will grow.”

This is pure Bolshevism!

This future democracy, as in communism, is to be led by the dictatorship of revolutionary parties.

The Ventotene Manifesto further says that it will be a stable federal state with a European army, etc.

Let’s be clear: This project to reform the EU treaties is communist and it rejects Schuman’s Christian-democratic concept. The Spinelli Group, which co-authored the proposals, is an informal group in the European Parliament with dozens of MEPs. They claim to be federalists, but their project is actually anti-federalist.

…

Yes. And once it is adopted, there will be no more need to force the will of some member states when it can be bypassed. This is a curiosity, because nowhere in any international organization is there such a thing, that a statutory, constitutional act of an organization is adopted other than unanimously.

…

This is a kind of group of political ideologues, some of whom I would even call fanatics, who want to build a superstate on the ruins of nation-states, where a political oligarchy will rule unaccountably and escape the democratic control of citizens.

…

In short, it is the Union that will decide what are the powers and scope of sovereignty of the states, and not the opposite. Thus, sovereignty within the European Union would no longer reside in the member states but in the Union itself, and the former would be subordinated.

Incidentally, the euro currency is to become mandatory for all EU members. That is also why I am talking about the threat of the member states becoming simple “Länder”: They will be just European Union states just as there are German states.

…

So what is your forecast? Does the new treaty have enough support in the big EU countries and will it simply be imposed on the rest?

First, it will pass in the European Parliament. Roughly judging by previous votes, I predict that it should be about 330 votes “for” and 170 “against.” That is what previous votes show, such as on the complete elimination of the veto right, which is envisioned in another report voted on in the European Parliament in September.

…

That is the intention, by the way, to do it in-house, in a discreet way. The public is not supposed to notice that a putsch is about to take place, that the European Union as a community of sovereign states is being abolished and a superstate is being created without any consent of the people, and that the member states are being reduced to the role of German states.

…

The problem is that Europe has been hijacked, it has been stolen. Just as Zeus, in the form of a bull, abducted Europe, left-liberal circles have taken possession of something that was a concept with a Christian genesis, something that was founded on the principle of subsidiarity, which, by the way, is derived from the Church’s social teaching. This something is being transformed by them into a project with communist roots. The authors of the European Parliament’s draft resolution and report do not even hide this.

Read the full shocking interview here…

Controversy has erupted over the death of American hockey player Adam Johnson, who was struck in the neck and killed by another player’s ice skate in the second period of a Challenge Cup match against the Sheffield Steelers on Saturday in Sheffield, England.  Fans and players alike are divided over whether or not Canadian player Matt Petgrave deliberately used a sidekick maneuver, stabbing Johnson in the throat with his ice skate.  

South Yorkshire Police are now investigating the gruesome incident, which left Matt Johnson’s blood all over the Utilita Arena.  Below is the game footage at normal speed:

Warning – Graphic

I’ve never played hockey but I’m confused as to why this guys leg kicked up in the air like this?

Was this a dirty play?

The skate to the throat hit his artery which ended up taking his life.

RIP Adam Johnson!

pic.twitter.com/PjXM8XvAt0

— Derrick Evans (@Evans4WV) October 30, 2023

The following footage shows Matt Petgrave’s kick in slow motion:

JUST IN: Police are investigating the death of hockey player Adam Johnson after he got slashed in the neck by opposing team member Matt Petgrave’s skate.

Online social media users are split on whether the kick was intentional or an accident.

It is currently not completely clear… pic.twitter.com/7kJRFzPilr

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 30, 2023

Below is the now deceased Adam Johnson:

And Matt Petgrave…

The mainstream media is already resoundingly describing the incident as a “freak accident.”  In fact, many news outlets are refusing to use Matt Petgrave’s name or show his face in their coverage.  However, NHL rules (along with leagues around the world) do not allow for players to kick a hockey puck in the air, and they are strict about kicking other players.  Kicking results in an immediate match penalty of the player along with ejection from the game pending a review of their player status.  Hockey players consistently train to avoid major penalties, which is why these kinds of “accidents” are incredibly rare. 

There are only 23 reported incidents of hockey players dying on the ice worldwide since 1905.  Most of these deaths occurred before safety rules and equipment became standard.  The NHL only has one reported on ice death in its history.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

The only country that could possibly distract the west from Ukraine is Israel. But the US and its allies are walking into an existential trap if they think a West Asian victory will be more easily won than a European one…

The Russia-Iran strategic partnership – with China in the wings – is laying an elaborate, Sun Tzu-tinged trap for the Hegemon in West Asia. 

Apart from Israel, there is no entity on the planet capable of switching the focus, in a flash, away from the west’s spectacular debacle in Ukraine. 

The warmongers in charge of US foreign policy, not exactly Bismarckian stalwarts, believe that if Project Ukraine is unattainable, Project Final Solution in Palestine could instead be a – ethnic cleansing – cakewalk. 

A more plausible scenario, though is that Iran-Russia – and the new “axis of evil” Russia-China-Iran – have all it takes to drag the Hegemon into a second quagmire. It’s all about using the enemy’s own, discombobulated flip-flapping to unbalance him and disorient him to oblivion.

The White House’s wishful thinking that the Forever Wars in Ukraine and Israel are inscribed in the same lofty “democracy” drive and essential to US national interests, has already backfired – even among American public opinion. 

That does not prevent cries and whispers along the Beltway revealing Israel-allied US neocons increasing the tempo to provoke Iran – via a proverbial false flag that would lead to an American attack. That Armageddon scenario neatly fits Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s biblical psychopathy. 

Vassals would be forced to meekly comply. NATO heads of state have made a beeline to visit Israel to demonstrate their unconditional support for Tel Aviv – including Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Britain’s Rishi Sunak, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, the senile lodger at the White House, and France’s Emmanuel Macron. 

Avenging the Arab “century of humiliation” 

So far, Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has shown extraordinary restraint by not taking any bait. Hezbollah supports the Palestinian resistance as a whole – and until a few years back, had serious issues with Hamas, with which it clashed in Syria. Hamas, incidentally, while partially funded by Iran, is not run by Iran. As much as Tehran supports the Palestinian cause, Palestinian resistance groups make their own decisions. 

The big news is that all these issues are now dissolving. Both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) went to Lebanon to visit Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in person this week. That spells out unity of purpose – or what the region’s Axis of Resistance calls the “Unity of Fronts.”   

Even more eye-opening was Hamas’ visit to Moscow this week, which was met with impotent Israeli fury. The Hamas delegation was headed by a member of its Politburo, Abu Marzouk. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri came especially from Tehran and met two of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s key deputies, Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin.  

That spells out Hamas, Iran, and Russia negotiating at the same table. 

Hamas has called on the millions of Palestinians in the diaspora, as well as the whole Arab world and all lands of Islam, to unite. Slowly but surely, a pattern may be discerned: could the Arab world – and great swathes of Islam – be on the verge of significantly uniting to avenge their own “century of humiliation” – much as the Chinese did after WWII with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping? 

Beijing, via its sophisticated diplomacy, is certainly hinting at it to key players, even before the ground-breaking, Russia-China brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement was struck earlier this year. 

That by itself won’t thwart the perpetual US neocon obsession to bomb critical infrastructure in Iran. Worth less than zero when it comes to military science, these neocons ignore how Iranian retaliation would – accurately – target each and every US base in Iraq and Syria, with the Persian Gulf an open case. 

Peerless Russian military analyst Andrei Martyanov has shown what could happen to those expensive American iron bathtubs in the Eastern Mediterranean in case of an Israeli-threatened attack on Iran.   

Moreover, there are at least 1,000 US troops in northern Syria stealing the country’s oil – which would also become an instant target. 

Ali Fadavi, IRGC’s deputy commander-in-chief, cut to the chase: “We have technologies in the military field that no one knows about, and the Americans will know about them when we use them.”

Cue to Iranian hypersonic Fattah missiles – cousins to the Khinzal and the DF-27 – traveling at Mach 15, and able to reach any target in Israel in 400 seconds.  

And add to it sophisticated Russian electronic warfare (EW). As confirmed in Moscow six months ago, when it comes to military interconnection, the Iranians told the Russians at the same table, “whatever you need, just ask.” The same applies vice-versa, because the mutual enemy is one and the same.

It’s all about the Strait of Hormuz 

The heart of the matter in any Russian-Iran strategy is the Strait of Hormuz, through which transits at least 20 percent of the world’s oil (nearly 17 million barrels a day) plus 18 percent of liquified natural gas (LNG), which amounts to at least 3.5 billion cubic feet a day.  

Iran is able to block the Strait of Hormuz in a flash. For starters, that would be some sort of poetic justice retribution for Israel aiming to gobble up, illegally, all the multibillion-dollar natural gas discovered offshore Gaza: this is, incidentally, one of the absolutely key reasons for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. 

Yet the real deal will be to bring down the Wall Street-engineered $618 trillion derivative structure, as confirmed for years by analysts at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, as well as independent Persian Gulf energy traders. 

So when push comes to shove – and way beyond the defense of Palestine and in a scenario of Total War – not only Russia-Iran but key players of the Arab world about to become members of BRICS 11 – such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE – do have what it takes to bring down the US financial system anytime they choose.  

As an old school Deep State higher up, now in business in Central Europe, stresses:

“The Islamic nations have the economic advantage. They can blow up the international financial system by cutting off the oil. They do not have to fire a single shot. Iran and Saudi Arabia are allying together. The 2008 crisis took 29 trillion dollars to solve but this one, should it happen, could not be solved even with 100 trillion dollars of fiat instruments.”

As Persian Gulf traders told me, one possible scenario is OPEC starting to sanction Europe, first from Kuwait and then spreading from one OPEC country to another and to all countries that are treating the Muslim world as enemies and war fodder. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has already warned that oil to western markets could be put off because of what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has already called, on the record, for a total oil and gas embargo by Islamic countries against nations – essentially NATO vassals – that support Israel.

So Christian Zionists in the US allied with neocon asset Netanyahu threatening to attack Iran have the potential to pull down the entire world financial system.

Forever War on Syria, remixed  

Under the current volcano, the Russia-China strategic partnership has been extremely cautious. To the outside world, their mutual official position is to refuse to side with either Palestine or Israel; call for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds; call for a two-state solution; and respect international law. All their initiatives at the UN have been duly sabotaged by the Hegemon. 

As it stands, Washington has refused the green light for the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. The main reason is the immediate US priority: buy some time to expand the war to Syria, “accused” of being the key transit point for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. That also doubles as re-opening the same old war front against Russia. 

There are no illusions in Moscow. The intel apparatus knows well that Israeli Mossad agents have been advising Kiev while Tel Aviv was supplying weapons to Ukraine under serious US pressure.  That infuriated the siloviki, and may have constituted a fatal Israeli mistake.

The neocons, for their part, never stop. They are advancing a parallel threat: if Hezbollah attacks Israel with something else than a few sparse rockets – and that simply won’t happen – the Hmeimim Russian Air Base in Latakia will be “eliminated” as a “warning” to Iran.

This does not even qualify as children playing in the sandbox. After the serial Israeli attacks on the civilian Damascus and Aleppo airports, Moscow did not even blink before offering its Hmeimim facilities to Syria – complete with clearance for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) cargo flights, according to some Russian intel sources. Netanyahu will not exactly harbor a death wish by bombing a fully A2/AD (anti-access/area denial) Russian Air Base.  

Moscow also clearly sees what those expensive American iron bathtubs in the Eastern Mediterranean might be up to. The response has been swift: Mig-31Ks are patrolling neutral air space over the Black Sea 24/7, equipped with hypersonic Khinzals, which would take only six minutes to visit the Mediterranean.   

Amidst all this neocon-drenched madness, with the Pentagon deploying a formidable array of weaponry plus “undisclosed” assets to the Eastern Mediterranean, whether the target is Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, Russia, or all of the above, both China and North Korea – part of the new American-concocted “axis of evil” – have indicated they will not be mere bystanders. 

The Chinese Navy is for all practical purposes shielding Iran from a distance. Yet even more forceful has been a statement by Premier Li Qiang – something unusually blunt and rare in Chinese diplomacy: 

“China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and will strongly oppose any external forces interfering in Iran’s internal affairs.”

Never forget that China and Iran are linked by a comprehensive strategic partnership. Meanwhile, Russian Premier Mikhail Mishustin has reinforced the Russia-Iran strategic partnership in a meeting with Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber.

Remember those rice eaters from Korea 

Pro-Iran militias across the Axis of Resistance, are keeping a carefully tempered degree of confrontation against Israel, close to guerrilla hit-and-run. They won’t be engaged in massive attacks yet. But all bets are off if Israel invades Gaza. It’s clear the Arab world, for all its massive internal contradictions, will simply not tolerate the civilian massacre. 

Bluntly, at the current incendiary juncture, the Hegemon has found the offramp from its Project Ukraine humiliation. They erroneously believe that the same old Forever War rekindled in West Asia can be “modulated” at will. And if two wars turn into an immense political albatross, as they will, what else is new? They will simply start a new war in the “Indo-Pacific.” 

None of that fools Russia-Iran and their ice-cold monitoring of the flipping and flapping Hegemon every step of the way. It’s enlightening to remember what Malcolm X was already predicting in 1964:

“Some rice eaters ran him out of Korea. Yes, they ran him out of Korea. Rice eaters with nothing but gym shoes, and a rifle, and a bowl of rice took him and his tanks and his napalm, and all that other action he’s supposed to have and ran him across the Yalu. Why? Cause the day that he can win on the ground has passed.” 

Authored by ‘Mr. E’ via bombthrower.com,

Follow Mr. E on Substack and Twitter!

In the previous post we discovered that the true identity of Lucifer is Aphrodite, and what’s considered ‘Satanism’ or ‘Luciferian’ are the more extreme forms of worship of this goddess. Now it’s time to explore just what that is, how long it’s been going on, and what it means for us in the present.

For decades now, the world has been confronted with horrifying stories of ritual child sexual abuse, murder, cannibalism, elite pedophilia, and more. In the last decade we’ve had transgenderism shoved in our faces from every direction and made into a protected and privileged class. In some cases, disobeying the ludicrous demands of trans activists is now being met with arrest and police harassment. Groups are even lobbying to pass bills making the misgendering of trans people a crime punishable by massive fines and even jailtime.

What does ritual abuse and the exaltation of transgenderism have in common, and what do either of these things have to do with the goddess of lust and fertility? In this report you’re going to find out the ugly, depraved truth behind the Canaanites, a group of people who have worked for millennia to keep humanity in chains and have been far more successful than most will ever admit.

Let’s examine the practices of goddess worship, region by region, and see for ourselves what went on in ancient times, and what apparently continues today.

Mediterranean

In Greece, several more themes emerged in the worship of Aphrodite and Adonis. For instance, it appears Adonis was bi-sexual, loving not only Aphrodite and Persephone, but also Apollo. He played the typical male role when with females and would adopt female behaviors when with males.

This crossing of gender roles gets even more extreme with Aphrodite. In Cyprus, an island with both Greeks and Phoenicians living on it, a version of Aphrodite emerged called Aphroditus. This was Aprhodite in every sense except that ‘it’ had a penis and sometimes a beard! Later this god (dess?) became Hermaphroditus, a child she produced with Hermes, another of her lovers. Hermaphroditus was born a male but was fused with Salmacis, a nymph who lusted after him and wanted to be united forever. Another child Aphrodite produced with Hermes was Priapus, a male with an oversized and permanent erection. In the story of Tiresias, we find Aphrodite exhibiting the power to change mortals into the opposite sex.

While in Greece, the worship of Aphrodite never got more extreme than orgies and some doves being sacrificed in her name, things get a little more interesting in ancient Egypt. Their analog for the goddess was Hathor, and it appears her worship included the occasional orgy on drugs. The Turin Erotic Papyrus illustrates one of these events; people engaged in all sorts of sex acts while under the influence of the blue water lily. This lily contains an alkaloid that metabolizes in to apomorphine, a drug used today to treat erectile dysfunction and can cause persistent erections (priapism) in men. It also induces a euphoric state, with heightened sociability.

The papyrus dates to the 20^th dynasty of Egypt, but use of the blue water lily appears to have been popularized in the 18^th dynasty. King Tut was buried with a great many of these, and it just so happens that this is the dynasty that took over Egypt right after the Hyksos expulsion. The Hyksos were a tribe of Canaanites that conquered Lower Egypt and possibly introduced these drugged out orgies during their rule from the 15^th to 17^th dynasties. The Egyptians described them as “bloodthirsty”, and we will soon see why. After being introduced to the lily and its psychoactive powers, its use spread throughout Canaan and even into Mesopotamia.

Speaking of Canaan, it’s appropriate now to look at these people and just what they got up to in their worship of the goddess, because it’s quite relevant to what we see in elite society today. As already mentioned, their name for the goddess of lust and sexuality was Astarte, in Northern Syria it was Atargatis, and in Carthage it was Tanit. It’s in the Canaanite culture that we find ritual child sacrifice, a practice that extended to their colonies in Carthage and throughout the Mediterranean. This was done on an almost industrial scale, with special cemeteries called tophets being discovered with tens of thousands of urns filled with the burned remains of murdered infants and sometimes the animals that were sacrificed alongside them.

They practiced ritual rape as well. When girls reached a certain age, they were taken to the temple of Astarte to be raped by a man who paid the temple handsomely for that privilege. After this rite of passage, the girl was told she had been blessed, and was sent back home.

Also of importance was their celebration of transgenderism. The priesthoods of these goddesses, in order to reach the highest levels of their order, would ritually castrate themselves, dress as women, and take on women’s tasks.

These depraved practices were not the exclusive domain of the Canaanites, either. The worship of this goddess is found further eastwards.

Mesopotamia

Arriving in the Fertile Crescent, we find that this goddess was worshipped under the names Inanna by the Sumerians, and Ishtar by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. We find yet more evidence of the sexual depravity practiced by the Canaanites.

In Sumer, Inanna’s consort was Dumuzid, whom the Hebrews called Tammuz. Every year, the Sumerian King would perform the Hieros gamos, a sex ritual commemorating the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid, in view of the public with one of the priestesses of Inanna. The ritual is described in a sexually explicit hymn preserved on a cylinder seal at the National Museum of Iraq. She would “bathe her loins” in preparation for the King and declare “O my holy thighs!” as they proceeded in the act together. The priests of Inanna, known as the Gala, underwent a transformation into females, taking on their traditional roles, and engaging in sodomy.

Herodotus also tells us of a Babylonian custom that required every woman to deliver herself to the temple of Ishtar where she will be placed among the other women, while a line of men walk by to inspect them. The first man to offer her any sum of money must be accepted, and she must go with him to be raped. Herodotus goes on to say that this ordeal is over quickly for beautiful women, but the comely ones sometimes remain for years waiting for their turn to be defiled. A similar custom also took place in Cyprus.

Pontic-Caspian Steppe

Heading north into the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, where today we find Ukraine, Western Russia, and Kazakhstan, we find the ancient nomadic equestrians, the Thracians. They had many religious practices involving their divine lovers, including ritual orgies, human sacrifice, and transgenderism.

Many of these customs were replicated by the Scythians who co-existed with the Thracians during the first millennium BC. The Scythians even practiced ritual cannibalism, and their highest and most powerful aristocracy was known as the Enaree. This was an orgiastic cult devoted to their snake-legged goddess of sex, Artimpasa. Like Aphroditus, this goddess was often pictured with a beard.

These priests were effeminate and androgynous. They performed women’s work, spoke, and dressed like women, and potentially even castrated themselves as part of their “transformation” into women. They may even have been sodomized by other men in sex rituals while pretending to be women.

Early in their history the Scythians invaded Canaan and sacked the temple of Astarte in Ascalon. The transgenderism of the Enaree was assumed to be a curse from the goddess who, as mentioned in the case of Tiresias, has the power to change men into women.

A similar transgender priesthood, known as the Galli, existed in Phrygia and were devotees of their own version of the goddess, Cybele and her castrated partner Attis.

A less ancient people of this area were the Khazars and by all accounts they continued many of the same practices as the Thracians and Scythians. Their religion was called Tengrism, which included shamanistic practices while dressed up like an animal.

The Khazarians are rumored to have converted to Judaism in the 10^th century CE, and some evidence does exist in support of that. This is, however, a contentious matter and camps on both sides continue to dispute whether this actually took place.

Nevertheless, the 1972 Surrealist Party, held by Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and her husband Guy at the Chateau de Ferrières, appears to have echoed many Khazarian cultural practices.

Abrahamic Era

Is it any wonder why, in the Bible, God warns the Israelites to never deal with or mix with Canaanites. Here’s but one of many quotes:

And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them [Canaanites] before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. – Deuteronomy 7:2-4

Furthermore, the Bible warns of infiltrators not only into Christianity, but also into Judaism:

For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ … Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities … Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core … These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever … And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. – The Book of Jude

Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. – Revelation 3:9

Just who are these infiltrators that Enoch prophesied about? We must consult the Book of Enoch for that answer:

And Uriel said to me: ‘Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, here shall they stand, till the day of the great judgement in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. – Enoch 19:1-2

A complete reading of the Book of the Watchers, in Enoch, reveals he’s talking about the Nephilim, children of the Fallen Watchers, angels who rebelled against God along with Satan; a thieving, murderous group of cannibals that also drank blood. In other sections of the Bible, it makes the connection between the Nephilim and Canaanites.

Aside from Jude, we have further evidence of the Canaanite infiltration into Christianity and the practice of their depraved rituals. Consider this passage about the sect of Borborites, who allegedly engaged in ritual orgies:

But even though one of them should accidentally implant the seed of his natural emission prematurely and the woman becomes pregnant, listen to a more dreadful thing that such people venture to do. They extract the fetus at the stage which is appropriate for their enterprise, take this aborted infant, and cut it up in a trough with a pestle. And they mix honey, pepper, and certain other perfumes and spices with it to keep from getting sick, and then all the revellers in this herd of swine and dogs assemble, and each eats a piece of the child with his fingers. And now, after this cannibalism, they pray to God and say, “We were not mocked by the archon of lust, but have gathered the brother’s blunder up!” And this, if you please, is their idea of the “perfect Passover.” – Epiphanius, Panarion, Chapter 26.5.4

This is not even the full extent of Canaanite influence over the ancient world, a whole book would be needed for that, but there is one last thing worth mentioning. DNA studies performed on the nearly 3,000 year-old Paracas skulls of Peru reveal they came from Syria – making these Canaanites the earliest transatlantic voyagers known, nearly two millennia before the Vikings. Should it be a surprise, then, that we also find human sacrifice, cannibalism, and ritual sex in Mesoamerica?

This discussion wouldn’t be complete without addressing the Catholic eucharist, either. For what more perfect evidence of the corruption of Christianity is there but the practice of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a man-God? This is a very serious matter, as the doctrine of transubstantiation mandates that Catholics truly believe this is an act of cannibalism. Furthermore, spitting it out is known as ‘host desecration’, a sin so egregious that only the Pope himself can forgive the offender, or excommunicate them.

I would also be remiss to not mention the recent case of a “Gay Orgy” being organized by Catholic Priests in Poland that went horribly wrong. The event involved a male prostitute and “potency pills,” just like the drugged up Canaanite orgies of old, and ended with emergency services being called to tend to a man that had collapsed unconscious on the floor.

Present Day

These cult activities manifest today in many ways. Aside from the global phenomenon of ritual child abuse already mentioned, take the example set by Harry Hay. He was an LGBT activist, staunch defender of pedophilia, and acolyte of Aleister Crowley and his sex magick. Hay glorified promiscuous sex and sodomy as a path to spiritual enlightenment. The drugged orgies of old are now taking place as ‘chemsex’, a meth-fueled anal sex marathon. Satanic gay men and transgender women are found everywhere in the US government now. Rape, torture, murder, and cannibalism are being celebrated in art, most notably by Marina Abramovic who also hosts ‘Spirit Cooking’ sessions and parties with cakes shaped as people, that are chopped up and eaten.

Can all this help explain recent events in the middle east? Consider the fact that Gaza was originally part of the Philistine States, separate from the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. If the Zionists of today were truly seeking a restoration of the original Hebrew Kingdoms, they would have no interest in Gaza, or Ashkelon for that matter. The Philistines, today’s Palestinians, were not one of the nations the Israelites were told to displace in the Bible. In fact, Genesis 21 and 26 recount two separate treaties Abraham and Isaac made with them.

The only thing that could explain the Zionists lust for the Gaza strip is that they are not, in fact, being led by Jewish sentiment, but Canaanite. The Philistine States are a part of Canaan, and the Philistines seem to have immigrated there from the Aegean Sea shortly after the Late Bronze Age Collapse, when the Canaanite societies would have been economically weakened.

Canaan is the lands extending across the entire eastern Mediterranean coast, from just south of Gaza, all the way to northern Syria. If the government of Israel were being run by Canaanites, their incessant conflicts with Lebanon and Syria now make perfect sense. They’re trying to re-establish Canaan, not the Hebrew Kingdoms described in the Bible.

This was not even being done in secret not too long ago. In 1939 a movement was founded by Palestinian Jews with the express purpose of re-creating Canaan. A group of Lebanese Nationalists also got involved in their own efforts to bring back this ancient national identity. In fact, it was recently discovered that the Lebanese people share 90% of their DNA with the ancient Canaanites. Culturally or not, Canaanites continue to exist to this very day.

Conclusion

Returning full circle to my article about the Taxil hoax, we can see that his fabrication includes many elements of truth. Practitioners of this depraved form of goddess worship do indeed engage in the very same activities he leveled at the Masons. Thus, this hoax served as a wonderful device to project this cult’s misdeeds onto other parties.

It should be remembered that Pope Leo XIII’s only complaint about Freemasons was that they were successfully advancing the idea of separation between Church and State, something enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This Pope was, in a very real way, anti-American. He narcissistically saw anything that could diminish his control of nations around the world as ‘Satanic’ and wanted to rouse a reactionary movement against the principles of the Enlightenment that were spreading rapidly through Western society.

By a long and persevering labor, they endeavor to bring about this result – namely, that the teaching office and authority of the Church may become of no account in the civil State; and for this same reason they declare to the people and contend that Church and State ought to be altogether disunited. By this means they reject from the laws and from the commonwealth the wholesome influence of the Catholic religion; and they consequently imagine that States ought to be constituted without any regard for the laws and precepts of the Church. – Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus, Section 13.

I highly recommend reading The Apocalypse of Yajnavalkya for more information about this cult. Nothing else I’ve ever read more completely explores their history and activities. It tells you in detail exactly where these people originated and why they have such a seething hatred for the rest of humanity. This has been going on for far longer than most can presently imagine.

Nothing worthy of God is to be found in the acts of this demented group. They take their most base, animal desires and make rituals out of satisfying these urges. Rituals that can irreparably harm their non-consenting victims, leading them into lives of substance abuse, prostitution, depression, dissociative identity disorder, and other mental health issues.

We aren’t living in a world besieged by “the Joos” or “duh Freemasons”, it’s a nameless gang of marauding Canaanites and those they’ve tricked into adopting their ways by promises of wealth, power, and influence. It’s been a few thousand years and now is the time to unmask these traitors to humanity and pull the rug out from underneath them, permanently.

Related Posts

The Greatest Hoax of All Time

Decoding the Taxil Hoax: Part 1

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The market was well prepared for action from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) tonight after Nikkei reported the central bank’s intent to consider another tweak to its yield curve control (YCC) policy.

Having moved from 0.25% to 0.5%, then to 1%, the Nikkei report prompted speculation that the central bank would raise the limit again, rather than abandoning YCC altogether, as JGB yields have traded up close to the 1% limit in recent days.

The report noted that “the second framework tweak in three months appears to have been deemed necessary as 10-year yields are approaching 1% amid a backdrop of rising U.S. rates” and added that the “BOJ is also likely to more flexibly conduct its JGB purchase operations… This, along with a more flexible cap on 10-year yields, is aimed at deterring speculators from targeting the upper limit and sparing the BOJ the need to buy droves of JGBs to keep rates under 1%.”

However, consensus is that BoJ will stand pat as historically the BoJ has paid less attention to market expectations than, say, the Fed.

If USDJPY was anything to go by, it was starting to remove the odds of a BoJ YCC adjustment, as JPY weakened back from earlier gains on the Nikkei report…

As we detailed earlier, no matter what the BOJ does today, the decision is sure to move markets.

A policy hold could spur yen selling.

There’s a good chance, though, that a sharp move beyond 150 against the dollar would invite intervention by Japan’s authorities to defend the currency.

A tweak to the YCC parameters, such as lifting the 10-yield yield ceiling to 1.5%, could support the yen.

But any strengthening would probably be limited to at most about 145 against the greenback, given the upward tug on the dollar from relatively high US yields.

Additionally, The BoJ is expected to raise its inflation forecasts for both this fiscal year and next. This would likely bring Japan’s key inflation above 2% for three straight years, which of course leads to the question of why the BOJ still needs to continue with the current stimulus policy given its side-effects.

So what will they do…

Meanwhile at the BOJ… pic.twitter.com/rwyJGCG8qD

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 27, 2023

Well, earlier today, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was asked in parliament ahead of the decision whether the BOJ’s ultra-easy policy was weakening the yen and causing price rises. Kishida, whose approval rating just hit a record low dur to soaring inflation, said central bank policy aims to achieve and maintain stable prices. He added that the government should coordinate with the BOJ on macroeconomic policies.

And while the BoJ has released a policy statement at 12:06pm Tokyo time on the average since the introduction of yield curve control in 2016, today the BoJ released its statement at 12: 27pm Tokyo time (exactly one standard deviation late to its norm) and kept rates unchanged:

BoJ maintains NIRP at -0.10% and 10yr JGB yield target at 0% but makes what was formerly a hard cap of 1% on yields into a reference range of 100bps up or down, vs the previous target of 50bps, thus making YCC even more flexible. The BoJ also says:

• Will regard upper bound of 1% for 10yr JGB yield as reference in market ops.

• Decision on YCC was made by 8-1 vote with Nakamura the dissenter.

• Decides to make YCC more flexible.

• Japan’s inflation outlook is overshooting but due largely to prolonged rises in import costs.

• Will guide market operations nimbly.

The most important changes of these is the BOJ’s description of the 1% rate as “a reference”, which sounds similar to the July 28 BoJ meeting, when Governor Kazuo Ueda made his first surprise move by maintaining the 10y yield target at 0% but said its 0.5% ceiling was a reference point and not a rigid limit. Back then, the BoJ offered to buy bonds at 1% and the JGB 10y yield was up 0.15% over the following week.

Likely, the BoJ would allow 10y bond yields to creep higher with potential rinban operations risk if the 10y bond yields advance higher much too quickly.

Additionally, the BOJ has also decided to abandon its daily fixed-rate bond-buying operations, its major tool for impacting rates, citing the “large side effects” it might entail. The BoJ also raised its economic growth but more importantly, its inflation forecasts…

… which means that all else equal, Kishida’s approval rating is about to become even worse!

This is mainly due to the prolonged effects of a pass-through to consumer prices of cost increases led by the past rise in import prices and the recent rise in crude oil prices. Toward the end of the projection period, the Bank expects that underlying CPI inflation will increase gradually toward achieving the price stability target of 2 percent, while this increase needs to be accompanied by an intensified virtuous cycle between wages and prices.

Still confused? here is the BOJ’s trademark “explainer” for what today’s decision means. The bottom line is that the 1.00% cap is officially gone and instead the BOJ will allow 10Y rates to rise above the former hard limit at which point it may or may not engage in “nimble market operations.”

The initial reaction to the BoJ’s moves implied a less hawkish than expected statement, prompting JPY weakness, breaking back above 150/USD…

JGB yields tumbled back…

And so did 10Y UST yields…

However, as UBS trading desk explains:

My interpretation of the changes are that the previous YCC target of 0% +/-50bp was the loose target, allowing 10y JGB yields up to 1%, where it would conduct daily fixed-rate purchases if needed.

Now the operations will not necessarily be at 1.00%: “The bank will determine the offer rate for fixed rate purchase operations each time, taking account of market rates and other factors.”

Effectively the BoJ has raised the yield cap without saying where it is – still trying to let the markets find the natural balance of supply and demand whilst keeping a lid on bond vol

So nothing would surprise us more than to wake up in the morning and see all this reversed.

Finally, Bloomberg’s Gearoid Reidy asked a fascinating question: does the BOJ actually want to control the yield curve?

The statement says:

“It is appropriate for the Bank to increase the flexibility in the conduct of yield-curve control, so that long-term interest rates will be formed smoothly in financial markets in response to future developments.”

That’s just… the market, surely? Where is the control? Does YCC even effectively exist anymore?

How long  until the market realizes that Japan’s legendary YCC no longer actually exists?

Via SchiffGold.com,

A Georgia couple nearly lost more than $186,000 in a gold scam. But they ended up turning the tables and scamming the scammers.

It all started with a pop-up on the Perry, Georgia, couple’s computer warning the machine was infected with a virus.

The couple called the help number provided.

That was their first mistake.

The scammer on the other end warned that the virus may have compromised their bank account and helpfully connected them with their bank’s fraud department.

This was the couple’s second mistake.

They should have hung up and called the bank’s fraud department directly.

The person the scammer connected them with was, of course, just another scammer. This individual confirmed that their account had been compromised, saying there were pending suspicious transactions.

The couple was then passed along to a third scammer pretending to be from the Federal Trade Commission.

This individual even emailed phony documents to “confirm” his identity.

The fake federal agent told the couple the best way to protect their money was to take the $185,916 from the compromised account and buy bars of gold.

The scammer told the couple an undercover FTC agent would come to their home, pick up the gold, and take it to Washington D.C. Once verified, the couple would receive a check for the full amount.

As implausible as this may sound to you and me, the couple bought the story and went as far as to purchase 1 kilogram Royal Canadian Mint gold bars from a dealer in Texas.

But at some point, the couple grew suspicious and called the police.

The case ended up on the desk of Perry Police Department Detective Sgt. J.I. “Ike” Wilcox,’ and he hatched a plan to scam the scammers. He dubbed it “Operation Goldfinger.”

It just so happened that Wilcox is an expert on fraud and teaches courses on how to avoid it.

“A lot of times that demographic is more vulnerable because technology has evolved so much during their lifetime,” Wilcox told the Macon Telegraph.

The police had the gold shipment rerouted back to the dealer.

The couple received a full refund. But with the help of police, the husband and wife strung the scammers along, telling them the gold was on the way. Sure enough, the scammers arranged to have a courier come to the couple’s home to pick up the gold.

When the SUV showed up, police arrested the driver, Gurdev Singh, 31, of Stockton, California. He faces numerous charges, including criminal attempt to commit theft by deception and exploitation of elder persons.

“I could safely describe his reaction as genuine surprise,” Wilcox said.

According to the Telegraph, the investigation remains open and detectives are trying to track down others involved in the scam.

According to the US Department of Justice, in 2021, cyber-related crimes stole more than $140 million from victims in Georgia alone.

The lesson is to always be on guard. If something feels fishy, it probably is.

There are thousands of unscrupulous people out there trying to rip you off. And some of them aren’t criminals.

There are a lot of shady businesses out there looking for ways to take advantage of you.

You can learn more about gold scams and how to avoid getting ripped off in our free report, Classic Gold Scams. Click the link below to download the free report!

The Biden administration’s war on fossil fuels would cost the average American household more than $9,100 per year, according to a consumer watchdog.

The Alliance for Consumers took an infographic from the Biden White House titled “Biden’s Dream Home,” which proposes new energy standards for various appliances, including air conditioners, stoves, washing machines, while the Department of Energy’s so-called Unified List of appliances includes microwave ovens, dehumidifiers and pool pumps.

“Welcome to Biden’s Dream House, where the American dream just got significantly more expensive,” the group wrote on X.

According to the consumer watchdog, gas furnace efficiency standards which will “significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions” for residences (according to the DOE), will cost consumers an estimated $494 additional on average, while dishwasher efficiency standards will cost somewhere between $50 and $400 to comply with, because the proposed rules will lead to drainage problems and clogging.

The rules targeting air conditioning units will cost around $1,100 to comply with.

This year, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Transportation (DOT) have announced a range of proposed rules that will make household appliances more expensive and, as some experts contend, are designed to force Americans to give up their current appliances.

For example, under the DOE’s proposed natural gas stove rule, an estimated 90 percent of gas stoves would have to be redesigned, with reduced performance and raise the upfront cost of stove products by around $32 million per year. –Epoch Times

New rules for water heaters will cost consumers an average of $2,800 more, while everything from ceiling fans, washing machines and light bulbs will also add to that $9,100 total.

But wait, there’s more — you must see the less effective laundry room and garage!

After you’ve spent $4,500+ to “upgrade” your living room and kitchen, hopefully you’ve got another $4,500 laying around to replace your washing machine, water heater and car! pic.twitter.com/0sS6Mg3pDK

— Alliance For Consumers (@for_consumers) October 26, 2023

“It’s just spreading to more and more appliances. It seems that almost everything that plugs in or fires up around the house is either subject to a pending regulation or soon will be,”  Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox News.

“Consumers aren’t going to like any of it. These rules are almost always bad for consumers for the simple reason that they restrict consumer choice.”