Halloween Global News Round-up

October 29, 2022. Lots happening in the run up to the US midterm election

Today’s round-up of stories that didn’t get much attention from corporate media .

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Israel Presenting US With Intelligence on Iranian Drones Used in Ukraine

VOA, October 26, 2022

“Israeli President Isaac Herzog plans to share intelligence about Iranian drones being used by Russian forces in Ukraine when he meets Wednesday with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Herzog’s office said Israel has images showing similarities between drones shot down in Ukraine and those Iran tested in 2021.

Ukraine and its Western partners have said Russia’s recent use of drones to attack Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, involves Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones.

Iran has denied supplying them to Russia and Russia has denied using them in Ukraine.”

OK – two things jump out at me from this news story.  1) More evidence of Russia and Iran being allied against the west. 

2) President Biden and Israeli President Isaac Herzog met last week at the White House.

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Highlights from the official statement from this meeting

Readout of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s Meeting with President Isaac Herzog of Israel

White House Briefing Room, October 26, 2022 (bulleted points)

• They consulted on a wide range of global and regional issues of mutual concern, including the threats posed by Iran and its proxies.

• The President emphasized his Administration’s pledge to ensure Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon. 

• President Biden highlighted U.S. support for Israel’s further regional integration into the Arab world, including through the Negev Forum process. 

• He also welcomed Israel’s restoration of an ambassador as part of improved diplomatic relations with Turkiye. 

• the President reaffirmed the United States’ strong opposition to the open-ended and biased nature of the UN Commission of Inquiry established in May 2021, which continues a longstanding pattern of unfairly singling out Israel and does nothing to establish conditions for peace. 

• President Biden underscored that a negotiated two-state solution remains the best avenue to achieve a lasting peace.

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Brussels recommends granting Bosnia the status of EU candidate, but with conditions

Euro News, October  2022

The European Commission has recommended that Bosnia and Herzegovina be granted the official status of candidate country to join the European Union, but under the condition of further reforms.

"We have recognized Georgia's European perspective too, so the wind of change is once again blowing through Europe and we have to capture this momentum."

So, the EU continues to expand – by using the lure of membership status to control and dictate national political reforms. 

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US Warns of Terror Threats in Nigeria and South Africa Without Saying Why

Nigeria and South Africa have reacted with frustration after warnings were issued with zero context or more detail.

Vice, October 28, 2022

“The US government has received information that terrorists may be planning to conduct an attack targeting large gatherings of people at an unspecified location in the greater Sandton area of Johannesburg, South Africa, on 29 October 2022,” the US Embassy in South Africa said. “There is no further information regarding the timing, method, or target of the potential attack.”

Warnings shortly followed from the UK, Australia, Canada.

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Then there was this much missed news story out of Mexico.

Stenographic version of the morning press conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador

AMLO, September 13, 2022

“I think Mr. Blinken (Secretary of State Antony Blinken) talked about consolidating the North American region, and we agree on that. I not only told him that we were in agreement with consolidating ourselves as a region, including the three countries, Canada, the United States, and Mexico, but that we were also in favor of the unity of the entire American continent to repeat our project that, just as it emerged first the European community and it became the European Union, that is how we want it, which is Bolívar's dream, but integrating Canada, the United States, all of America.”

President Obrador’s dream is to unite the whole America’s, using the EU as a model and it appears that our Secretary of State agrees with him. Wow. Exactly as proposed by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This will provide a very convenient pathway to jettison the US Constitution, which is a major obstacle to the one world order/great reset totalitarian fantasies of the WEF. This press release provides yet more confirmatory data on the alignment of the Biden administration with the WEF goals of jettisoning the autonomous US Nation-state in favor of a one world government. Suffice to say, in my opinion, Mr. Biden and his administration are not committed to their pledge to support and defend the US Constitution. And the corporate press does not care, and continues to carry water for the globalists that think that the concept of decentralized autonomous nation states is obsolete.

For more on this, see the Wikipedia summary on the “North American Union”. Note that, like so many other things these days, talk of a “North American Union” was previously dismissed as a conspiracy theory.

President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with Prime Minister Harper of Canada, and President Calderón of Mexico. White House.gov. 2007-08-21. Retrieved 2007-12-06.

In an August 2007 press conference in Montebello, Quebec, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that he didn't believe that the NAU was a "generally expressed concern", while U.S. President George W. Bush called concerns of a North American Union "political scare tactics" and described as "comical" the "difference between reality and what some people are talking on TV about."

Sound familiar?

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BTW- for those that love to history (note the reference to “Bolívar's dream” in the quote above):

Simon Bolivar (July 24, 1783–December 17, 1830) was the greatest leader of Latin America's independence movement from Spain. A superb general and a charismatic politician, he not only drove the Spanish from northern South America but also was instrumental in the early formative years of the republics that sprang up once the Spanish had gone. His later years are marked by the collapse of his grand dream of a united South America. He is remembered as "The Liberator," the man who liberated his home from Spanish rule.

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U.S. facing diesel shortage, prices likely to spike

KWCH 12-News, October 29, 2022

“The United States is facing a diesel shortage and unless there’s a change, prices likely will spike.

The U.S. only has about 25 days of diesel supply in reserve, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows. This is a level not seen since 2008.

Diesel is used to power the world, not only for semis and trains, but also to heat homes. Limited supply could lead to a big impact on people’s wallets.

Factors impacting the shortage include the U.S. banning Russian imports and refining capacity being down due to seasonal work, plus high demand.”

The Epoch Times has a more in-depth story on the issue, including the fact the two tankers are heading to the USA with more fuel, although when they will arrive is clear.

Digging deeper into this issue and bringing it around to Global News- the shortage appears to have two origins. One is that Russian exports of Diesel have stopped and two Biden’s bad relations with Saudi Arabia.

During the short term, the implications for United States trucking and farming industries could be dire.

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EU strikes deal to ban the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars from 2035

CNBC, October 28, 2022

• The EU’s plans to phase out the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans took a big step forward this week after the European Council and European Parliament came to a provisional agreement on the issue.

• “This extremely far-reaching decision is without precedent,” said Oliver Zipse, the CEO of BMW and chair of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

• Earlier this month, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares told CNBC it was “clear that the decision to ban pure ICEs is a purely dogmatic decision.”

Seriously?

It is as if governments around the world have all decided to just shoot themselves in the foot.

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Air France-KLM Eyes Investing in Portugal’s TAP

Skift, October 28, 2022

“An Air France-KLM and TAP deal would just be the latest in what is becoming something of an airline consolidation spree in southern Europe. The group is already part of the preferred bidding consortium selected by the Italian government to takeover ITA; private equity firm Certares leads the bid. And International Airlines Group is working on a new structure for its proposed takeover of Spain’s Air Europa with an aim to close the deal by the end of 2023.”

But almost more interesting is the following statement:

“The interest in consolidation is multi fold. For one, larger airlines benefit from better economies of scale, for example when buying new planes, and improved pricing power in the market. However, regulators often push back against deals for some of the very same reason airlines want them: Improved pricing power often means higher ticket prices for travelers. That said, larger — and one hopes stronger — airline groups can also grow more, which benefits travelers.”

So, the airline industry at large is continuing to consolidate. In my opinion, this really isn’t good news for airline passengers.

Jill and I used to fly TAP to Portugal back when it was the most “B-team” airline in the industry.  How things have changed.  Now, it is one of the few airlines that use real silverware, food is not always in a package and generally, they are a pleasure to fly with.  So, because TAP has been one of our “go-to” international airlines for southern EU for a long time, we personally found this story of interest.  But more than that, for whatever reason – the major airlines now see consolidating the routes through southern Europe as an imperative.

One interesting factoid in the article is the statement that Portugal and Spain’s tourism industry has pretty much returned to 2019 levels.  Seems like the pandemic is truly over.

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Hawaii’s Big Island warned to be ready as huge volcano rumbles

AP, October 27, 2022

Scientists say an eruption isn’t imminent, but they are on alert because of a recent spike in earthquakes at the volcano’s summit. Experts say it would take just a few hours for lava to reach homes closest to vents on the volcano, which last erupted in 1984.

Hawaii’s civil defense agency is holding meetings across the island to educate residents about how to prepare for a possible emergency. They recommend having a ″go″ bag with food, identifying a place to stay once they leave home and making a plan for reuniting with family members.

“Not to panic everybody, but they have to be aware of that you live on the slopes of Mauna Loa. There’s a potential for some kind of lava disaster,” said Talmadge Magno, the administrator for Hawaii County Civil Defense.

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The eruption of an underwater volcano off Tonga, which triggered a tsunami warning for several South Pacific island nations, is seen in an image from the NOAA GOES-West satellite taken at 05:00 GMT, January 15, 2022 [CIRA/NOAA/Handout via Reuters]

In more volcanic eruption news, just in case you missed our prior substack on the global cooling and (in progress) southern hemisphere crop failure (and likely resulting global famine) impact of the recent eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai subsea volcano. Information on the impact of this sub-sea eruption has been hard to find for some reason, and none of this has been covered well in the corporate media.

Tracking Water in the Tongan Volcano’s Massive Eruption Plume

EOS, 24 October 2022

The recent eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano blasted sulfate aerosols and a record-breaking amount of water vapor into the stratosphere. blasted sulfate aerosols and a record-breaking amount of water vapor into the stratosphere.

The 15 January 2022 eruption of underwater Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano triggered a tsunami that flattened buildings, displaced residents, and resulted in at least four deaths across the islands of Tonga. The powerful blast sent waves rippling throughout Earth’s oceans and atmosphere, with tsunami waves causing additional damage and casualties thousands of kilometers away, including two deaths in Peru.

To clarify how these water vapor and aerosol layers formed and evolved over time, the researchers used data collected from 15 January through 1 July 2022 by NASA’s Microwave Limb Sounder instrument aboard the Aura satellite. They also developed a model incorporating several factors, including tropical atmospheric temperatures, to simulate the posteruption fate of the water vapor.

Their analysis suggests that after the eruption, the stratospheric water vapor and sulfate aerosols began to separate from each other, forming two distinct but overlapping layers by mid-February. These layers continued to separate through the end of June, with the water vapor rising in a manner consistent with normal upwelling residual velocity and the aerosols settling gravitationally. A surprising result was that the midstratospheric eruption aerosols and water stayed in the Southern Hemisphere for 5.5 months, with very little material moving north of the equator.

The data also revealed the development of an anomalous 3- to 4-kelvin temperature decrease in the midstratosphere through March and April, which appears to have been caused by the infrared cooling effects of the lofted water vapor.

Further details can be found in the primary publication in the Geophysical Research Letters 29 September 2022 publication “Analysis and Impact of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Stratospheric Water Vapor Plume”, which includes the following abstract and summary:

Abstract

On 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption injected SO2 and H2O into the middle stratosphere. The eruption produced a persistent mid-stratospheric sulfate aerosol and H2O layer mostly confined to Southern Hemisphere (SH) tropics (Eq. to 30°S). These layers are still present in the tropics 5½ months after the eruption. The SH tropical confinement is simulated using a trajectory model. Measurements following the eruption show that the H2O layer is slowly rising while the aerosol layer is descending. The H2O layer's upward movement is consistent with the residual vertical velocity. Gravitationally settling explains the descent of the aerosol layer. A −4 K temperature anomaly coincident with the H2O enhancement is observed and is caused by thermal adjustment to the additional H2O IR cooling. A simple model of volcanic water injection at the time of the eruption simulates the observed vertical distribution H2O.

Key Points

• Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption produced vertically overlapping but slightly displaced mid-stratospheric enhancements in H2O and aerosols

• IR cooling by enhanced H2O layer explains the observed 4.1 K mid-stratospheric temperature decrease following the eruption

• A simple model of the eruption H2O enhancement combined with spreading of the plume explains the observations

Plain Language Summary

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcanic eruption on 15 January 2022, injected up to 150 Tg of water into the stratosphere. A month after eruption, a distinct aerosol and water vapor layer formed in the tropical southern hemisphere (SH) stratosphere. The water vapor layer is slightly displaced above the aerosol layer at 26 km. These two layers continued to persist in the tropical SH stratosphere until the end of June while slowly moving apart in altitude. The isolation of the layers and their separate motion are consistent with our understanding of tropical stratospheric dynamics. A cold temperature anomaly forms coincident with the water vapor layer, which we show to be due to enhanced IR radiative cooling by water vapor. Using a simple model, we show how the water vapor layer forms slightly above the aerosol layer.

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