A ten-year-old boy stands inside his house damaged in an IDF strike in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 29 Nov 2024. Thousands of Lebanese returned to their homes only to find rubble with winter approaching. (Photo: Reuters)
The World Bank reported that Lebanon suffered more than $5 billion in economic losses and damaged nearly 100,000 housing units. Nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced.
The World Bank report provided estimates for damage between 8 Oct 2023 and 27 Oct 2024, saying “the conflict has caused $5.1 billion in economic losses” and that it “damaged an estimated 99,209 housing units” — mainly in Lebanon’s war-torn south.
3,580 Lebanese were killed and over 15,000 wounded. And those seeking medical care faced challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 226 Lebanese medical personnel were killed since 7 Oct 2023 and several clinics destroyed. Beirut long accused the IDF of targeting physicians and medical infrastructure.
But the ceasefire does not appear to be holding.
(Map courtesy of the jewishvirtuallibrary.org)
Israel carried out several attacks in southern Lebanon. Artillery bombardment struck the villages of Markaba, Talusa, and Khiyam while four IDF tanks moved into the western part of Khiyam, and an IDF tank fired at a house in Nabatiyeh province. The IDF stated they would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement” after detecting an alleged movement of a Hezbollah rocket launcher.
IDF Merkava Mk 4M battle tank.
Sources:
War costs Lebanon $5 billion in losses, damages 100,000 homes — Naharnet
226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7: WHO
2 children and a woman crushed to death outside Gaza bakery amid food shortage
Two Palestinian Children and Woman Crushed to Death Outside Gaza Bakery Amid Food Shortage
Palestinians gather to receive bread from a bakery in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, 29 Nov 2024. Food insecurity is affecting nine out of ten Gazans and winter is fast approaching. (Photo: Reuters)
Two children and a woman were crushed to death as a crowd of Palestinians pushed to get bread at a bakery in the Gaza Strip amid a worsening food crisis in the war-ravaged territory.
The bodies of two girls aged 13 and 17 and the 50-year-old woman were taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, where a doctor confirmed that they died from suffocation due to crowding at the al-Banna bakery. Video from The Associated Press showed their bodies placed next to each other on the floor inside the hospital’s morgue.
The flow of food allowed into Gaza by Israel has fallen to nearly its lowest level of almost 14-month-old war for the past two months, according to Israeli official figures. UN and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among Gaza’s population, almost all of which relies on humanitarian aid to survive.
Osama Abu Laban, the father of one of the girls, wailed over the loss of her life outside the hospital.
“My wife fell when she heard that she [our daughter} was suffocating. She did not yet know that she was dead,” he told the AP.
Some bakeries in Gaza were closed for several days last week due to a shortage of flour. AP footage taken last week after they reopened showed large crowds of people cramming together, screaming and pushing, at one bakery in Deir al-Balah.
Palestinians across the Gaza Strip are heavily relying on bakeries and charitable kitchens, with many able to only secure one meal a day for their families.
More than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people. Just in the past 24 hours, the IDF killed 100 Palestinians, including 75 killed in air strikes on two homes in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
In the West Bank, the IDF killed nine Palestinians, including one child, over the last week, seven of them during a 48-hour period in Jenin. In retaliation, a Palestinian man martyred himself in a counterattack against Israelis on a bus which Hamas took credit for.
IDF personnel surround a bullet-riddled bus close to the settlement of Ariel, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. (Photo: AFP)
Samer Hussein (46), who spent several years in Israeli jails on suspicion of anti-Israeli activities, was killed by IDF troops shortly after opening fire toward the bus near the Israeli settlement of Ariel. Four soldiers were slightly wounded and three people were critically injured.
The IDF has killed 796 Palestinians since 7 Oct 2023, mostly in military raids on Palestinian cities and towns. Attacks by fanatical settlers on Palestinians and their property also have increased. Rabid settlers attempted to attack IDF MG Avi Bluth last week, but were fended off by the general’s PSD. So naturally counterattacks by armed Palestinians against Israelis in the West Bank would increase, like the incident above.
The terrors and hardships that Benjamin Netanyahu is inflicting on Palestinians is quite similar to what Russian President Vladimir Putin is inflicting on the Ukrainians this winter. Netanyahu’s “Nakba” = Putin’s “Special Military Operation.”
The major difference between these twin terror campaigns orchestrated by the two PIFWCs is that the US is massively funding Israel to conduct the ethnic cleansing, while massively funding Ukraine to prevent its ethnic cleansing.
Remarkably, upon hearing that the International Criminal Court at the Hague issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden said it was “outrageous.” He did not say the same when such a warrant was issued for Vladimir Putin. And French President Emmanuel Macron stated France would not honor the arrest warrant should Netanyahu despoil Paris with his odious presence.
Sources:
2 children and a woman crushed to death outside Gaza bakery amid food shortage
(5) Updates LIVE: Israeli attacks kill nearly 100 in Gaza as hunger grips enclave
More Than One Million Ukrainians Left Without Electricity After Latest Russian Attack on Energy Infrastructure
Russia unleashed a “massive” attack on Ukraine’s infrastructure on 28 Nov, leaving more than one million people without power in freezing temperatures across the country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of a “despicable escalation,” as the Interior Ministry recorded damage to infrastructure in nine regions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the latest attack was Moscow’s “response” to Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with US medium-range ATACMS missiles.
Speaking during a trip to Kazakhstan, Putin warned that Russia’s future targets could include “decision-making centers” in Kiev.
Putin said Russia launched more than 90 missiles and 100 drones in the “comprehensive strike” on 28 Nov and that 17 targets had been hit — the type of detail that the president rarely gives.
Ukraine’s air force shot down 79 missiles and 35 drones, while 62 drones were “lost,” meaning they had likely been disrupted by electronic warfare.
All missiles or drones aimed at Kiev were downed.
A power plant in Ukraine severely damaged by a Russian airstrike. (Photo: AP)
The attack forced national power-grid operator Ukrenerho to urgently introduce emergency power cuts in Kiev, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk.
Kiev had also reportedly disconnected several nuclear power units from the network during the attack. Ukraine gets more than half of its electricity from nuclear plants.
The inhumane attack comes as the temperatures across Ukraine dropped to around zero degrees Celsius.
Ukrainian civilians trying to stay warm (undated image).
Earlier this month, a senior UN official, Rosemary DiCarlo, warned that Moscow’s targeting of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure may make this winter the “harshest since the start of the war” nearly three years ago.
During America’s tortured involvement in Vietnam one-half century ago, a familiar meme evolved: “We have to burn down the village in order to save it.” If PIFWC Vladimir Putin had designs on re-absorbing Ukraine and her people into his Pan-Slavic Union, a neo-USSR like in his glory days, he has a strange way of showing his love for the people he wants to one day rule. He is burning down the village in order to save it.
Putin’s “Special Military Operation” = Netanyahu’s “Nakba”
The mutual animus between Ukrainians and Russians have been thoroughly baked into the DNA cake, much like the Israelis and the Palestinians. While the US sanctioned one aggressor baking this horrible cake of hatred (Russia), Washington did not sanction the other (Israel), which cost the Democrats the White House in 2024, just like in 1968. Remarkably, many American Democrats argue that US funding of Israel and the horrendous Nakba had nothing to do with Kamala Harris’ disastrous loss to a criminally convicted and twice impeached GOP candidate. Many are still wondering why millions of Democrats stayed home on Election Day.
Source:
More Than One Million Ukrainians Left Without Electricity After Latest Russian Attack
Putin’s Meat-Grinder War Chewing Up Russian Soldiers on Industrial Scale
Russia lost 2,030 soldiers in the past 24 hours, reports Ukraine’s military. 500 North Korean soldiers were reportedly KIA since their deployment to fight Ukraine.
Russia’s staggering death toll marks the Russian tyrants most damaging period of his over 1,000-day-old conflict so far.
The previous highest was 1,950 on 12 Nov. Putin’s meat grinder approach is still miserably failing with over 738,000 Russian casualties.
But despite the harrowing figures continuing to soar Russia has found success on the battlefield. UK Defence Secretary John Healey has warned the 600-mile frontline is now at the most unstable it has been since February 2022.
While Putin is losing soldiers at an abominable rate, the Russian economy is losing as well. The ruble tumbled to its lowest level in over two years, as a mix of low oil prices, new sanctions against Russian businesses and burgeoning government spending on its war effort put strains on the Russian economy.
The central bank reacted by suspending currency purchases for the rest of this year. That will restrict the supply of rubles and should support the exchange rate accordingly.
In response to the Ukrainian Storm Shadow attack last week, Putin authorized the use of a hypersonic missile called the “Oreshnik.” This has been described as far superior to any other weapon in Russia’s arsenal. Putin claimed the Oreshnik can turn almost anything it hits into dust.
The Kremlin wisely notified Washington before launching the Oreshnik to prevent a nuclear misunderstanding.
Sources:
Ruble tumbles as Russia’s war economy comes under increasing strain – POLITICO
Hepatitis A Infection Reported at Buffalo Wild Wings in Monterey Park, CA
Los Angeles County public health officials are investigating the possible spread of Hepatitis A after an employee at a well-known restaurant and bar in Monterey Park became sick with the virus. The infection was reported at Buffalo Wild Wings in the 4000 block of Market Place.
(Map courtesy of Mapcarta)
While there are no additional cases reported this week, officials urged anyone who ate or consumed drinks at the restaurant between 13 and 22 Nov to receive hepatitis A vaccine or monitor for the symptoms, which include fever, weakness, fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, and jaundice.
People who have not received the vaccine or never had hepatitis A infection may be more vulnerable. The public health department is also working with the restaurant to make sure all employees are vaccinated.
Computer illustration showing the liver and a close-up view of hepatitis A viruses. (Image courtesy of NBC News)
Hepatitis A can in some cases cause death as it spreads when a person unknowingly consumes contaminated food or drinks. There is no specific antiviral treatment for hepatitis A
Source:
Hepatitis A reported at Buffalo Wild Wings in Monterey Park – NBC Los Angeles
Director of British Intelligence: “The World is at its Most Dangerous Point in 40 Years.”
Sir Richard Moore, head of MI6, issues a warning to Ukraine’s allies in Paris after Donald Trump’s election. (Photo: AP)
The world is at its most dangerous point for 40 years, the head of MI6 has warned, accusing Russia of waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe to undermine support for Ukraine.
“In 37 years in the intelligence profession I’ve never seen the world in a more dangerous state. And the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could hardly be more serious,” Sir Richard said, adding that if “Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state he will not stop there.”
Sir Richard said MI6 “cherishes our heritage of covert action, which we keep alive today” – with British spies working to stop the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He warned that a victory for Mr Putin in Ukraine would jeapordize both European and transatlantic security, in what appeared a message to president-elect Donald Trump, with the incoming US leader having repeatedly complained about the amount of money and military aid Washington is sending to help Kiev.
“We have recently uncovered a staggeringly reckless campaign of Russian sabotage in Europe, even as Putin and his acolytes resort to nuclear sabre-rattling to sow fear about the consequences of aiding Ukraine,” he said. “The cost of supporting Ukraine is well known but the cost of not doing so would be infinitely higher. If Putin succeeds China would weigh the implications, North Korea would be emboldened and Iran would become still more dangerous,” Sir Richard concluded.
Whenever the D/MI6 or D/CIA speak, we should pay attention. Coriolanus has previously written about Russian sabotage efforts against NATO, as well as the Kremlin’s insidious covert support for far-right wing parties in Europe. In 2016 retired MI6 operative Christopher Steele accumulated a dossier against Donald Trump which suggested that Vladimir Putin held compromising materials (‘kompramat’) on the President-Elect. Mr. Steele obtained “raw intelligence” from his Russian contacts which needed to be finely sifted. Raw data, rumors, hints, can lead to revelations, but they must not be taken as 100% accurate at face value. While the allegations have never been proven, nothing in the report was ever disproven.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: “With Trump, all roads lead to Putin. I don’t know what the Russians have on the president, politically, personally, or financially.”
President Trump with Russian FM Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergei Sislyak in the White House, May 2017. No doubt we will see something similar in 2025. (Photo: Alexander Shcherbak / TASS / Getty Images)
In 2025, NATO and the Western intelligence services will be ready to deal with a Moscow-friendly intelligence apparatus. The US will receive less critical information from its allies over concern the data will be leaked to Russia or Israel. Friendly intelligence services will increase their budgets and manpower to make up for less US support. Canada recently led a NATO exercise in the Balkans (as reported here on Coriolanus).
Source:
World at most dangerous point in 40 years, MI6 chief warns | The Independent
RFK Jr. Visited Samoa in 2019 and Spread Anti-VAX Disinformation Causing 83 Deaths and 1,867 Hospitalizations from Measles
Samoa’s then prime minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi (R), and RFK Jr (C) at 57th anniversary of independence celebrations in Mulinu’u, Samoa, on 1 June 2019. (Photo: Misiona Simo / AP)
From The Guardian:
“In the small island country of Samoa, lives have been forever altered by an outbreak of measles in 2019 that caused at least 83 deaths and 1,867 hospitalizations, mostly of babies and young children. Thousands more fell sick. The preventable illness was able to spread through the small, closely knit population of about 200,000 due to record low vaccination rates – stemming from a medical vaccination error, the Samoan government’s public health mismanagement, and fueled by anti-vaccination sentiment from Robert F Kennedy Jr.”
In developing countries, the suffering from measles is always worse. Many rural Samoans had no transport, feared going to hospital, or tried traditional healers first. By the time people did bring their babies in, they were extremely sick. More than 100 Australian medical personnel deployed to Samoa in the thick of the epidemic.
Siiae Olilefauaitu sits outside her house with her surviving children. She won’t move from her hovel because her dead unvaccinated daughter is buried on her property. (Nov 2024 Photo: Michelle Duff / The Guardian)
Reports that some Republican US Senators won’t confirm this idiot to head HHS is encouraging, nor will they allow a recess appointment allowing him to slip through. Does the President-elect have a “Death Wish” for the American people with his quack choices to lead the US government health agencies? We know Donald Trump accepts the abominable amount of gun deaths in the US as something “we must get over.” How the GOP elite and wealthy benefit from wholesale needless American deaths is something Coriolanus has been investigating for some time.
Source:
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/26/rfk-jr-samoa-visit-measles-outbreak-vaccines
Indian Airlines Suffer Through 1,000 Bomb Scare Hoaxes
India’s airlines and airports reportedly received nearly 1,000 fake bomb threats as of early November, disrupting flight schedules and wreaking havoc on services.
Murlidhar Mohol, the country’s deputy civil aviation minister, told parliament that 999 bogus threats had been received as of 14 Nov, with more than half of them coming in the last two weeks of October.
That was nearly ten times the number of threats made in 2023 and a sharp increase from years past. Authorities recorded 120 bomb hoaxes at airports between 2014 and 2017 with about half directed at Delhi and Mumbai.
There was “no actual threat detected at any of the airports/aircraft in India,” Mohol said.
Officials have made 12 arrests in connection to the threats.
The country’s civil aviation ministry said it was making “every possible effort” to protect flight operations, adding that airports have a Bomb Threat Assessment Committee that monitors threats and decides the appropriate course of action.
Threats can lead to the deployment of bomb disposal squads, sniffer dogs, ambulances, police, and doctors.
They also often require passengers to deboard the plane, along with baggage, who then have to go through security again.
Engineer and security teams must also search and clear the plane before it can take off.
(Photo: AFP)
In 1984, Air India 182 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean and the culprits were Sikh extremists, so this is quite a sensitive matter that the Indian authorities are taking seriously. That attack killed all 329 people on board, including 268 Canadian citizens, 27 British citizens, and 22 Indian citizens.[4] The bombing of Air India Flight 182 is the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history, the deadliest aviation incident in the history of Air India and was the world’s deadliest act of aviation terrorism until the 11 Sep 2001 against the US.
The idiots making these bomb threats are diverting police resources from genuine threats, as well as wasting time and fuel. India is already choking with smog and people are living under a dangerously poor Air Quality Index (AQI). The flight delays and scheduling problems cause secondary effects with other airports and carriers. Passenger jets have allocated times for arrivals and departure at airports because of the limited amount of airspace, tarmacs, and number of available gates. Delayed aircraft may spend time circling an airport if it misses its allotted landing time, burning unneccessary fuel.
Sources:
Indian Airlines Suffer Through 1,000 Hoax Bomb Scares | IBTimes
Air India Flight 182 – Wikipedia
Beautiful Orphaned Bird Emulates Human with Voice and Affection
Coriolanus 