On Tuesday, Member of the Netherlands Parliament Wybren van Haga wrote to the World Health Organisation’s (“WHO’s”) Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to inform him that the 2022 amendments to the International Health Regulations (“IHR”) are subject to the formal approval by the Dutch Parliament.

“I notify you, in my capacity as Member of Parliament, of the reservation that the 2022 [IHR] amendments require the approval of the Dutch government before the 2022 amendments can enter into force in The Netherlands,” he told Tedros.

Angela McLean, the Government's Chief Scientist, told the Covid Inquiry that the U.K.'s 'circuit breaker' lockdowns in 2020 cut Covid infections. That's not what the data show, say Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson.

Moscow did not get enough votes from Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) members on Wednesday to stay on the Executive Council after May 2024.

The 41-member board is elected to two-year rotating terms by the 193 member states, “with due regard to the principle of equitable geographical distribution, the importance of chemical industry, and political and security interests,” according to the OPCW. 

Of the five seats allocated to the Eastern Europe region, four are currently held by NATO members: Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Romania. When Moscow’s mandate expires in six months, along with those of Tirana and Sofia, the grouping will be joined by Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine.

Elite green billionaire funders are mobilising their forces to promote the idea that climate ‘reparations’ must be paid by the countries that were first to industrialise. Ahead of today’s opening of the latest COP in the United Arab Emirates, the Guardian claimed new analysis had revealed that the U.K. was responsible for almost twice as much “global heating” as previously thought when its colonial history was taken into account. This “first of its kind” analysis by Carbon Brief claims to offer “thought-provoking fresh perspectives on climate justice”.

Professor Dame Jenny Harries, who now heads up the UK Health Security Agency, said the evidence that coverings reduced transmission is 'uncertain' because it is difficult to separate their effect from other Covid curbs.

She also told the UK's Covid inquiry that government advice on how to make a mask using two pieces of cloth was 'ineffective'.

Studies showed at least three were needed for even a small effect on the spread of viruses, Dame Jenny said.

Meanwhile, she warned advice for the public to wear masks during the pandemic may even have given people a 'false sense of security' that they could reduce their risk of becoming infected if they wore one while mixing with others.

The following is a ranking of all banks in the United States in terms of "Derivatives". This comparison is based on data reported on 2023-06-30.

Webmaster addition: Derivatives are the weapon of mass destruction for the global banking system!

Israel and Hamas have extended the Qatari-brokered ceasefire in the Gaza Strip that Tel Aviv vowed would never happen. Former United Nations (UN) weapons inspector and US Marine Scott Ritter argued that the outcome was a political victory for the Palestinian resistance movement.

Israel has lost both the political and military battle in the Gaza Strip, says a leading geopolitical commentator.

Israel and the Hamas Islamic resistance movement that governs the besieged Palestinian enclave reportedly agreed on Tuesday to extend the four-day ceasefire, brokered by Persian Gulf Arab state Qatar, for another two to three days.

Exchanges of captives will continue during that extension, with Hamas releasing 20 Israelis taken prisoner during its October 7 raids into southern Israel. The number of Palestinians to be freed was not reported, but Israel had previously released 180 women and children from its jails in return for 61 Israeli civilians and roughly 20 foreigners held by Hamas.

Former US Marine Scott Ritter told Sputnik that the bombing and ground invasion had been unsuccessful when measured "by Israel's own standards."

Kiev authorities are preparing a military provocation against Poland in the event of a critical decline in Western support, Acting Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo has told Sputnik.

"According to the data received from our sources in Ukraine, we are talking about a provocation involving an attack with Western or [Ukraine's] own converted missiles, on the parts of which they want to put Russian markings to further blame Russia.

"They will be ready to do so when they feel that the West has reduced support so much that the front for the Kiev regime is ready to collapse. It could happen in the very near perspective," Saldo said.

The official added that it is difficult to assess the likelihood of implementing such a "crazy" plan and the West's reaction to its implementation.

"The United States will immediately realize what really happened. And in Poland, for example, an official investigation has recently confirmed that the murder of two Polish citizens had been committed by a Ukrainian missile. So, it is not certain whether West's decision-making centers will fall for such a provocation. However, there is no doubt that Kiev is capable of such madness," Saldo said, adding that Kiev authorities have "completely lost their political reason."

Russia calls on the Israeli authorities to make sure that Christians and all other religious communities are equally protected under the law, including their places of worship and property, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

She pointed out that the Russian Foreign Ministry drew attention to the conflict surrounding the so-called "Armenian Gardens," known as the "Cows' Garden" in the Old City of Jerusalem, which "became the subject of legal proceedings between the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and one of the pro-settlement Israeli organizations." "Without waiting for the outcome of the litigation, its [Israeli] representatives began preparations for the construction of a hotel on the disputed site, which led to clashes between local Armenians and Jewish radicals," she said.

The British government was asked to spend an estimated $3 billion in funds seized from sanctioned Russian businessman Roman Abramovich in Israel rather than Ukraine, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday. The money came from the sale of Chelsea football club, which used to belong to the tycoon. He had himself pledged the proceeds to victims of the Ukraine conflict.

With the billions still untouched, alternative spending proposals have been floated, according to sources cited by the paper. One insider claimed that Abramovich was concerned that his clout with Moscow would be eroded, should the funds go to Ukraine.

Spending the money for humanitarian causes in Israel in the wake of the October 7 raid by Palestinian militant group Hamas would solve the impasse, the source told The Telegraph. Previously, Abramovich had also suggested using funds to help victims of the February earthquakes in Türkiye, according to the report.

Israel intends to settle score with Qatar for its support to Hamas once the emirate’s mediation role in the hostage exchange is over, says Joshua Zarka, Israeli Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General on Strategic Affairs.

"We will settle score with Qatar, who played its role in everything that is connected to the strengthening of Hamas and its legitimization. We need [Qatar] for the matter of return of the abductees, but, once this process is over, we will come to them for answers," Zarka said on the Israeli army radio.

Sometimes Israel’s crimes are so horrific that at first you don’t even understand what you’re looking at. You just stare at it trying to make sense of what you’re seeing for a bit, like you would if you suddenly saw a space alien or a leprechaun or something.

It happened to me yesterday when I was watching a Sky News report about a teenage boy who was shot by Israeli forces in Jerusalem for celebrating the release of Palestinian prisoners in the hostage negotiations with Hamas. I was watching it thinking to myself, I must be misunderstanding what I’m looking at. I know that Israel does gross things, but surely the story here isn’t that they shot a kid for being happy about something.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone down in history as the "butcher of Gaza," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"Since October 7, our brothers and sisters in Gaza have been subjected to the most treacherous attacks in human history. Their mosques have been bombed. Their schools have been reduced to rubble. The refugee camps where they have sought shelter have been deliberately targeted. Netanyahu has went down in history as the butcher of Gaza," the Turkish president said in a speech to parliament.

He went on to promise that Ankara "will not forget the lack of response from Western countries, with the exception of one or two states." "We will try to hold them accountable with all available means. We support our brothers and sisters in Gaza with all our might. The most important topic of our contacts is the war in Gaza," Erdogan added.

A human rights organisation has called on the global community to independently investigate why five Palestinian children were allegedly left to die in the Al-Nasr Hospital in Gaza after staff were forcibly evacuated by the IDF. 

The Switzerland-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) said it was able to 'confirm that it documented the discovery of five infants dead and in a state of decomposition' in a neonatal ward of the Al-Nasr Hospital. 

The human rights monitor, which is headed up by former UN special rapporteur Richard Falk, said that the babies were left to die three weeks ago after staff were made to leave the hospital by the IDF, which attacked the hospital and surrounded it with its tanks. 

Sickening, but heavily censored, footage first shared by Arabic-language news channel Al Mashhad, shows five bed filled with what are allegedly the bodies of infant children. 

The UK is sending one of its most lethal warships to the Gulf to deter growing threats to shipping from Iran and Iranian-backed groups in the wake of Israel's war against Hamas.

The deployment of HMS Diamond, a Type 45 destroyer, with the ability to shoot missiles out of the sky, comes after Houthi rebels in Yemen hijacked an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Red Sea last week and the US military had to rescue another vessel on Sunday.

Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, said he was beefing-up a long-standing Royal Navy maritime security operation in the Gulf to reduce the risk of the current crisis between Israel and Tehran-backed Hamas escalating into a regional conflict.

Elderly adults experienced a disastrous decline in cognitive functioning during the UK’s Covid-19 quarantine policies, a study published in the Lancet on Tuesday revealed. The accelerated worsening of working memory and other key intellectual metrics persisted even after lockdown ended. 

Analyzing data collected by the government’s PROTECT study of adults aged 50 and above before, during, and after the pandemic lockdowns, researchers affiliated with the University of Exeter, King’s College London, and Imperial College London found “significant worsening of executive function and working memory” across all groups studied.

Reduced exercise and increased alcohol use were associated with worsening of memory and executive functioning during lockdown even among individuals who had no previous history of cognitive impairment, while depression and loneliness were strongly linked to worsening of existing cognitive issues. 

The legal landscape for Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, and Rudy Giuliani is intensifying as Fulton County DA Fani Willis refuses plea deals, while co-defendants Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro have struck deals and provided potentially damaging statements. Simultaneously, George Soros injects $15 million of ‘dark money’ into Biden’s 2024 re-election effort, raising questions about the intersection of legal battles and political maneuvers as the upcoming election cycle unfolds.

WEF says: Climate affects gender and gender affects climate

The Israeli army designated the occupied West Bank city of Jenin and its refugee camp as a “closed military zone” on 29 November, as another round of brutal overnight raids and heavy clashes extended into the morning. 

Breathtaking photos from the first ultra-high resolution camera in Earth's orbit shows our bright blue planet against the black abyss of space.

The photos were taken from a 360-degree camera launched into space by a private Chinese company who described it as an 'astronomical achievement'.

Shenzhen-based camera company Insta360 says these images are just the tip of the iceberg. Soon, it plans to capture similarly crisp images of the stars and the Milky Way.

The engineers on the project spent 12 months modifying the company's commercially available cameras to make their journey off-world, including six months of research and development that involved mimicking or exceeding the harsh conditions, including cosmic radiation, that the cameras would encounter in space.

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at the age of 100.

Kissinger, the foreign policy behemoth throughout Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford's presidencies, passed away at his home in Connecticut, his consulting firm said.

In a statement, Kissinger Associates announced: 'Henry Kissinger, a respected American scholar and statesman, died today at his home in Connecticut.'   

Despite his age, he still attended meetings in the White House, published a book on leadership styles, and testified before a Senate committee about the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.

Bob Lyddon fears losses in Hong Kong and China could “blow a hole in the bank’s equity”.

HSBC is facing a “hit” of more than £6.3billion as a result of unsecured commercial property loans into China, a UK-based tax consultant has warned.

Joe Biden bragged that he had a 'code to blow up the world' as he chatted about nuclear weapons on a visit to the world's largest windmill factory.

The president went on to mistakenly call his predecessor 'Congressman Trump' in a gaffe-strewn appearance.

As he approached three yellow-vested workers at the facility in Colorado one of them appeared to ask the president an inaudible question.

Biden responded: 'Now look, my, my marine carries that. It has a code to blow up the world. That doesn't, this is not....nuclear weapons is it....alright, ok...you think I'm kidding.'