Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has hit out at Americans who prefer a less interventionist foreign policy, smearing them as isolationists who want to see the US “retreat from responsibility.”

Austin, a former Raytheon board member, made the comments in a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California on Saturday.

“You know, in every generation, some Americans prefer isolation to engagement—and they try to pull up the drawbridge. They try to kick loose the cornerstone of American leadership,” Austin said.

The Pentagon chief accused less interventionist Americans of trying to “undermine the security architecture that has produced decades of prosperity without great-power war.” However, most opponents of the US involvement in Ukraine are against the policy because it risks a direct clash with Russia.

Israel intensified airstrikes in southern Gaza on Monday and bombed areas where it told Palestinians to seek shelter, Reuters reported.

Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of the main southern city of Khan Younis, but residents said areas where they were told to flee were still coming under attack. The Israeli military posted a map on X with arrows pointing from Khan Younis, telling people to head toward the Mediterranean Sea and the town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

But Rafah has continued to come under Israeli attack. The Reuters report reads: “Bombing at one site in Rafah overnight had torn a crater the size of a basketball court out of the earth. A dead toddler’s bare feet and black trousers poked out from under a pile of rubble. Men struggled with their bare hands to move a chunk of the concrete that had crushed the child.”

Biden referred to Israel’s initial bombing attack, prior to its ground invasion, as “indiscriminate,” and that was a phrase his people didn’t walk back. It’s always difficult to know whether to read more into Biden’s words since he so frequently doesn’t seem to know what he’s saying, but the comments from not only the President but others in the administration show that they are feeling the domestic pressure from their constituents and the international pressure from their allies to try to restrain Israel from such massive civilian casualties as it has created since October 7.

But what does any of this mean on the ground now that Israel has started up its military operation again? This is not clear. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told a television news program that the U.S. fully supported Israel resuming its operations but that it must do so only “after civilians have been accounted for, have the opportunity to be in safety, have access to humanitarian assistance and to be out of the way of any military operation that is conducted.”

The IDF is planning to pump seawater into the Hamas tunnel network in Gaza, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Five large pumps have been assembled north of the al-Shati refugee camp during the last month, with each one capable of pumping thousands of cubic meters of seawater into the tunnels.

Israel informed US officials that they were considering this option last month and needed to weigh feasibility and environmental factors against military necessity.

The recent surge in Bitcoin prices is echoing patterns seen during global blow-off tops, and the correlation with risk assets, including junk bonds, raises caution flags.

As the 2024 presidential election looms, President Joe Biden finds himself in a precarious position.

Recent polls indicate a significant dip in his approval ratings, with the leading Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, outperforming him in direct comparisons.

The situation appears to have worsened for Biden, as a new group has emerged, pledging to do everything in their power to ensure his defeat. Muslim American leaders from nine swing states have formed a coalition in response to Biden's handling of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, vowing to prevent his re-election.

President Joe Biden expressed optimism about the potential impact of united European action against Russia, stating, "Imagine what happens if we, in fact, unite all of Europe, and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is finally put down where he cannot cause the kind of trouble he's been causing."

The Israeli government is putting pressure on the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz to line up in support of the government in its conduct of the war in Gaza.

The communications minister, Shlomo Karhi, has suggested financial penalties be applied to the paper accusing it of “lying, defeatist propaganda” and “sabotaging Israel in wartime”. The proposal aims to cancel state subscriptions to the paper and “forbid the publication of official notices”.

In response, the Israeli Journalists’ Union called the move a “populistic proposal devoid of any feasibility of logic”. Haaretz, which is an independent daily newspaper, has been publishing since 1919, and has frequently been the target of right-wing administrations.

An Israeli minister has said the country's security forces must continue to shoot to kill, despite domestic uproar over an off-duty soldier's killing of an Israeli man who intervened in an attack in Jerusalem last week.

"We must get to a point of dead checking, we must get to terrorists being killed and deterred," heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu, from the far-right Jewish Power (Otzma Yehudit) party, told Israeli news outlet Ynet on Monday.

"When your life is in danger, you shoot to neutralise - those who served in the army know the rules."

More than 6,600 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7, the government’s media office says.

Thousands more are missing under the rubble amid relentless bombardment, it added.

On Friday, Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund, warned that Gaza is once again “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child”, following the resumption of the war.

Russell said hundreds of children will die each day if violence returns to the scale and intensity seen before the seven-day pause in fighting that ended on Friday.

“It does not have to be this way. For seven days, there was a glimmer of hope for children amidst this horrific nightmare,” Russell said in a statement.

Webmaster addition: War is when adults take up weapons and fight each other. This is bombing children from the air, and someone has to have the courage to say "THIS IS WRONG!"

Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo issued a decree Monday dissolving the nation’s opposition-controlled parliament, less than six months after it was reconstituted following a similar move by the president in 2022.

Embalo cited last week’s shootout between troops loyal to him and forces controlled by the parliament, which he described as a failed coup.

“The date for holding the next legislative elections will be set in due time in accordance with the provisions of … the Constitution,” the decree stated. “This Presidential Decree comes into force immediately.”

Israeli demonstrators urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be removed on Saturday in a town where the premier has a private estate.

It came as thousands of people turned out in different parts of Israel to urge immediate freedom for the hostages kept by Hamas in Gaza. The primary demonstration occurred in Tel Aviv Museum's plaza, which the Haaretz newspaper said "has been named 'Hostages Square'".

Eran Litman, whose daughter was killed during Hamas's 7 October surprise attack, attended the protest in Caesarea, where Netanyahu's estate is.

"The hands of the Israeli government, and its leader, are covered in blood," he was quoted as saying by Haaretz.

"The prime minister insists on not taking any responsibility for this failure. Therefore, I can no longer remain silent."

In the past two months, Palestinian journalist Yara Eid has lost family members, friends, colleagues and her childhood home to relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

"I've lived through four aggressions in Gaza. I've seen people being killed in front of my eyes. But this aggression, this genocide, is something I've never ever imagined," she described, during an interview for Middle East Eye's Real Talk series. 

The 23-year-old grew up in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Her entire neighbourhood has been targeted by Israeli bombs since 7 October, and she does not know if her home is still standing. 

"I've lost everything. I've lost family. I've lost my home. I've lost my city. I've lost my best friend. I've lost my boss. My mentor. I've lost 60 members of my family," she said. 

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has thrown support behind the implementation of carbon consumption charges, a move that has sparked debates and concerns during COP28. While the intention is to address environmental concerns, the repercussions are already causing ripples.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), one of the Senate’s most prominent progressives, on Monday stated his opposition to sending $10.1 billion to the “Netanyahu government to continue its current offensive military approach,” lambasting the siege and assault of Gaza as “immoral.” 

“I do not think we should be appropriating $10.1 billion for the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military approach. What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States should not be complicit in those actions,” Sanders argued on the Senate floor.  

Sanders is taking issue with the more than $10 billion the Biden administration has requested for the Defense Department to resupply Israel’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems, as well as to replenish military stocks being drawn down by the war.  

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday announced for the first time that not only are its air strikes extending to the south of the Gaza Strip, where the bulk of civilians from the north have fled, but it is expanding its ground operations to the whole of Gaza.

Following the collapse of the week-long truce on Friday, spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing, "The IDF is resuming and expanding the ground operation against Hamas’ strongholds across the whole Gaza Strip."

"Our policy is clear — we will forcefully strike any threat posed against our territory," he emphasized in words that came the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged "total victory" and that the war will be taken to Hamas "until the end." 

Saudi Arabia's energy minister has slammed the door shut to agreeing to phase down fossil fuels at the UN's COP28 climate talks, setting the stage for difficult negotiations in Dubai.

A tentative "phasedown/out" was included in a first draft of an agreement on climate action that delegates are haggling over during talks that are scheduled to finish on December 12.

But Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, a half-brother of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, would not agree.

The price of gold soared over $2,100 per troy ounce on Monday, reaching an all-time high. What signal does this send about the US dollar's strength?

The unfolding gold price rally has prompted some economists to suggest that the yellow metal's cost above $2,000 is here to stay through 2024 due to political uncertainties, possible interest rate cuts and, probably, a weaker dollar.

The most recent hike could be triggered by a 3.1% fall in the US dollar against a basket of major six currencies since the beginning of November. The drop occurred amid growing suspicions among investors that the US Federal Reserve could cut interest rates early next year.

The safe corridor in the central Gaza Strip has turned into a battlefield, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Monday, calling on the population of the enclave to evacuate along the coast.

"The fighting and IDF military offensive in the Khan Yunis area prevents the movement of civilians through Salah ad-Din ... The Salah ad-Din direction is a battlefield, making it extremely dangerous to reach! IDF will allow humanitarian movement of civilians through the bypass road located west of Khan Yunis," Adraee wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Unlike so many people around the world, those of us that live in the United States were fortunate enough to grow up in a relatively civilized society.  Unfortunately, we have turned our backs on the values that our forefathers handed down to us, and so now we are starting to find out what is beneath the thin veneer of civilization that we have all been taking for granted all these years.

Factory orders tumbled even more than expected, down 3.6% MoM – the biggest drop since the COVID lockdowns (April 2020). September was also revised lower (making October’s decline even worse) from +2.8% MoM to +2.3% MoM…

Elon Musk has hit out at Disney again after the company pulled ads from X, calling the company’s output “unwatchable” because of how woke it is attempting to be.

Musk responded to a post by author Scott Adams, saying that Disney has “a major content problem” and that “They are the world’s biggest example of go woke, go broke.”

Webmaster addition: We canceled our Disney+ subscription.

The repeated release of crude oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) by the Biden administration has left the national stockpile at its lowest in more than 30 years, according to US Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday about the Biden administration’s approach to domestic energy policy, Stewart said the White House had sold off more than 40% of the SPR (180 million barrels) during 2022 in an effort to tame rising fuel prices.

“Originally, the strategic petroleum reserve was designed to address disruptions in the crude supply but not necessarily the high prices,” he said.

The Secretary of the Treasury and the Financial Stability Oversight Council would like you to believe that climate-change and unregulated non-bank financial institutions are the biggest threats to financial stability. If financial regulators were actually safeguarding the integrity of banks and financial markets, they would recognize, and do something about, the largest immediate threat to financial stability: the nearly $1.3 trillion of unrealized interest rate related losses in the regulated banking system.  This is the real systemic risk today.

The $1.3 trillion is my estimate of the banking system’s total unrealized interest rate related losses as of June 30, 2023. Using bank regulatory data, I estimate that the banking system has total unrealized losses of about $548 billion on bank-owned securities and about $726 billion in interest rate driven losses on bank loan and lease portfolios.