Secretary Blinken ended his visit to Israel and left minutes after fighting in Gaza resumed, nixing gushing reports in US media about the trip being “one of the most significant diplomatic moves” to date with an eye toward ending the conflict. Sputnik asked experts to explain why the Israeli tail seems so consistently able to wag the American dog.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Israel early Friday morning to take part in a climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, with Israeli warplanes taking off to pound Gaza shortly before his departure, signaling the collapse of the hard-fought for week-long truce brokered by Qatar and Egypt.

During his stay in Israel, the secretary warned Israeli officials that Tel Aviv wouldn’t be able pursue its war with Hamas in Gaza indefinitely, given domestic and international pressures, and wagged his finger at America’s closest ally about the need to avoid “the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale that we saw in northern Gaza” in the southern part of the Strip.

Israeli cabinet ministers reportedly “pushed back” against some of Blinken’s concerns during their private meeting, assuring that the IDF adheres to the laws of war, and that the Israeli public would support even the campaign to crush Hamas even if it lasted “months.” Blinken reportedly proposed a limit of just “weeks” more worth of fighting.

The US has steadily fallen behind Russia and China in terms of strategic competition, while still insisting on pursuing conflict with both nations in an attempt to reassert its claimed superiority. That situation is ripe for producing a disastrous outcome, an analyst told Sputnik.

In early November, a scheduled test of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by the United States ended in failure as the Air Force was forced to prematurely self-destruct the missile in mid-flight. The Pentagon said it was “due to an anomaly” during the test.

The nuclear-tipped missile has been in service since 1970, having its service life extended several times after the end of the Cold War in 1990, which caused the US to de-emphasize strategic missile production. A new system, the Sentinel ICBM, is currently being developed to replace the Minuteman III, but isn’t scheduled to fully replace the older missile for another decade.

However, when the Sentinel and other nuclear-capable weapons, such as the B-21 Raider bomber, finally enter service, they’ll already be outclassed by Russian and Chinese counterparts, since those nations have already achieved nuclear superiority over the US, Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, told Radio Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Thursday. Ritter recently authored an article on Consortium News titled: “The End of US Nuclear Superiority.”

A crucial rail link between Russia and China thousands of miles away from the frontline in Ukraine was sabotaged in an operation directed by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), it has been reported.

Since the start of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, Russian authorities have blamed Ukraine for attacks on its infrastructure, such as train lines and military storage facilities.

Ukrainian media outlets said Kyiv was behind two blasts in Russia's far east within 24 hours. The railway provides an important supply line for logistics coming from China and North Korea. Putin is increasingly relying on the two countries for military support in the war. Newsweek has contacted Russia's Investigative Committee for comment by email.

On November 21, 2023, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found the State of Maryland had violated the Constitution with their recent handgun purchase law. The law requires considerable delay and process before a person can legally purchase a handgun. The opinion specifically states the recent add-on law enacted in 2016 infringes on the Second Amendment by hindering the right to acquire a handgun. From the opinion:

But—for handguns specifically—before you do any of that, there is an additional, preliminary step: You must also obtain a “handgun qualification license.” See § 5-117.1. Getting that license requires, among other things, submitting fingerprints to undergo a background “investigation” and taking a four-hour-long “firearms safety training course” in which you must fire at least one live round. Then, after submitting your application for this extra license, you must wait up to thirty days for approval before you can start the rest of the process.

Plaintiffs seek to enjoin the state from enforcing only this additional, preliminary handgun-licensure requirement. And Plaintiffs’ challenge must succeed. The challenged law restricts the ability of law-abiding adult citizens to possess handguns, and the state has not presented a historical analogue that justifies its restriction; indeed, it has seemingly admitted that it couldn’t find one. Under the Supreme Court’s new burden-shifting test for these claims, Maryland’s law thus fails, and we must enjoin its enforcement. So we reverse the district court’s contrary decision.

About 60 credit unions in the US are experiencing outages because of a ransomware attack on an IT provider the credit unions use, a federal agency said Friday.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the agency that insures deposits at federally insured credit unions, said in a statement to CNN that it was “coordinating with affected credit unions” in the wake of the hack.

The full extent of the outage and its impact on credit unions was unclear Friday evening. One of the affected credit unions, New York-based Mountain Valley Federal Credit Union, said that technicians from the hacked IT provider were “working around the clock to get our systems” back online.

Credit unions reported that the ransomware attack — in which cybercriminals typically lock computer system as an extortion tactic — affected a unit of Trellance, a cloud computing firm provider used by credit unions, NCUA spokesperson Joseph Adamoli said in a statement to CNN.

Morbidity and mortality
Despite MPP been considered a “benign” infection, reports suggest that there is significant morbidity and mortality associated with it. A study looking at all patients admitted with MP infections from 2007 to 2012 at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centre identified 416 patients, of which 68 (16.3%) required intensive care unit (ICU) admission. ICU care was required for 18% of adult patients aged 19 – 65 years and 46.6% for older patients. 

On Friday, Judge Thomas S. Kleeh issued a decision striking down the federal prohibition against 18 to 20-year-olds purchasing handguns.

The plaintiffs in the case are Steven Robert Brown, Benjamin Weekley, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the West Virginia Citizens Defense League.

Judge Kleeh, a Donald Trump appointee, is Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.

Kleeh put the case in context:

This case requires the Court to assess the protected right of the people under the Second Amendment to the Constitution to keep and bear arms. U.S. Const. amend. II. Plaintiffs Robert Brown (“Brown”) and Benjamin Weekley (“Weekley”), individuals, are “law abiding, responsible adult citizens who wish to purchase handguns.”…Brown and Weekley are citizens of West Virginia and the United States of America and are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. Brown and Weekley, as law-abiding, responsible adult citizens, would purchase handguns and handgun ammunition from Federal Firearms Licensees (“FFLs”) but for the right proscribed by 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(b)(1) and (c)(1).

The Great Replacement is not a theory. 

White Genocide is not a theory. 

It is ethnic cleansing as government policy. 

It could and can be stopped and reversed at any time.

Houston Methodist, which made national headlines after becoming the first hospital in the United States to mandate the COVID-19 vaccines, will no longer require its employees to receive the controversial shots after a new law passed by the Texas legislature outlawed the practice of denying vaccine choice to workers in the private sector.

The hospital announced the change in policy in an internal email to employees, reviewed by The Epoch Times, that employees who choose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be prohibited from working at the institution, effective Dec. 1.

“The Texas Legislature passed a law in the special session that prohibits private employers from requiring employees and contractors to get a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment,” the statement read. “We will continue to encourage everyone to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, but it will no longer be mandated at Houston Methodist. This means that getting the vaccine, or being approved for an exemption, will no longer be a condition of employment.”

Gavin Newsom is what one might call a rhetoric peddler more than a debater.  He has a talent for twisting cherry-picked statistics and offering them out of context to defend false claims, and anyone seeking to enter a discourse with him will be forced to keep a long list of data points on file in their brain in order to counter the lies.  The most difficult people to argue with are those that aggressively exaggerate or slant the truth every time they open their mouths.  They are not bound by the same rules as someone trying to argue logically; they have an edge, until they are exposed for what they really are.  

The political left's spin machine is out in force on social media suggesting that Newsom “wiped the floor” with Ron DeSantis during their recent and much hyped Fox News debate.  This is not really the case, though a same small set of clips will probably circulate for the next couple weeks showcasing Newsom's habit of throwing out soundbites and stats without evidence.  And, unfortunately in this day and age two minute video clips are what most people consume for their news.     

Some might say that neither DeSantis or Newsom are relevant because neither of them will be presidential candidates in 2024 (Newsom even made this assertion at the beginning of the debate).  Don't be so sure.  Joe Biden is increasingly losing his faculties and there is always the chance that he will step aside in 2024; as his public approval ratings plummet it may even be in the best interests of the DNC to push for a different candidate.  Gavin Newsom, suspiciously, has been acting as if he is auditioning for a chance at a presidential or vice presidential run.

It's a good idea to keep an eye on him.  He is, at the very least, a good litmus test for the kinds or propaganda the political left will rely on in the coming months.  And speaking of propaganda, here are the top most dishonest claims made by Newsom during his debate with Ron DeSantis.

Nearly 40 Congressional lawmakers aren't seeking reelection in 2024... and most of them are Democrats...

Twenty-one House Democrats are opting out of another term compared to 11 Republicans. On the Senate side, six senators, four Democrat and two Republican, said they're leaving public office, and one has opted to pursue a state governorship.

In comparison to the 38 lawmakers departing Congress so far this cycle, only 24 lawmakers retired before the 2022 election. Twenty-seven had done so before the 2020 election and 31 in 2018, according to Ballotpedia.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which serves the same purpose for House Democrats as the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) does for House Republicans, didn't respond to The Epoch Times' request for comment.

In the era of pervasive surveillance reminiscent of Orwellian nightmares, old-school Cold War hacks have staged a comeback, offering a clandestine refuge for the exchange of information.

As Big Brother looms large on every screen, the savvy practitioner must resurrect time-tested techniques to outsmart the puppeteers of miscommunication particularly in the face of impending legal consequences for government-designated purveyors of deceit.

Here, in the spirit of cloak-and-dagger intrigue, are eight tried-and-true methods to outwit the masters of miscommunication:

Webmaster addition: See Rivero Challenges the NSA

Better range, more towing cap, cool as hell.

Suck it FORD and GM

‘Notorious war criminal.’

‘Grotesque war crimes.’

‘The blood of at least 3 million people on his hands.’

Obituaries published in the wake of a national statesperson’s death are usually measured, sober, neutral to a fault. But not in the case of Henry Kissinger, who died in Connecticut on November 29 at the age of 100.

In the past few hours, several outlets — such as the Intercept, Rolling Stone, HuffPost, and others — have published scathing obits of Kissinger, forcefully denouncing his deadly diplomatic legacy as both national security adviser (from 1969-75) and secretary of state (from 1973-77).

In those roles, Kissinger oversaw the United States’ foreign policy toward places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, East Timor, and Latin America. In each of those cases, U.S. policy directly or indirectly contributed to millions of deaths, countless atrocities, coups, death squads, and genocides.

This isn’t real.

But it doesn’t really matter because people are a bunch of retards who will believe anything.

You take the covid hoax and then… but it’s babies!

Get ready, folks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov faced Western critics while attending international security talks Thursday in Northern Macedonia, where he blamed “NATO’s reckless expansion to the East” for war returning to Europe.

Lavrov arrived in Skopje to attend meetings hosted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The diplomats of several OSCE member nations, including Ukraine, boycotted the event due to Lavrov’s planned attendance amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Russian foreign minister spoke for 15 minutes before walking out of the meetings. He blamed what he described as Western tolerance of the “ruling neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv” for the war that started with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

With a majority of Americans opposing further US involvement in the Israel/Gaza conflict, President Biden is finding that within his own Democratic Party support for his approach is even softer. Younger voters are solidly opposed to further US support for Israel’s continued assault on Gaza. That is why while Biden’s initial reaction tracked more closely with his neocon views, he is furiously backpedaling under pressure from his own party. Also today: Rep. Massie is the lone “no” vote on another anti-free speech House Resolution.

Florida Democrats have decided they just don’t need to hold a presidential primary this year, automatically awarding President Joe Biden the state’s 250 delegates.

Thursday marked the deadline for Florida Democrats and Republicans to submit their lists of approved candidates for their receptive primaries. According to Politico, Biden was the only name on the list for his party despite other candidates running against him. 

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN.) took to social media to express his fury with the Democratic Party, vowing to challenge “this absolute nonsense.”

“What happened in Florida yesterday is a tragedy and a travesty. The Florida Democratic Party – just a handful of people – decided to disenfranchise millions of Democratic voters in Florida by saying, ‘We’re not gonna have a presidential primary,’” Phillips said in a video. “I’m running for president; there are others running for President as Democrats, and this is the kind of stuff that happens in Tehran, not in Tallahassee. We’ve got to do something about this.” 

Polish truckers have been blocking major crossings for cargo vehicles with Ukraine since early November, demanding the reintroduction of entry permits for their Ukrainian competitors.

"Blocking traffic on the border between Poland and Ukraine: the situation is catastrophic!" Kyiv's rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in a statement.

"Ukrainian drivers are in such a dire situation that they plan to go on hunger strike if the situation does not improve!"

Huge queues have formed on both sides of the border, with many drivers stuck in their vehicles for days in cold temperatures and with little food.

Kyiv on Friday said that some 2,100 trucks trying to enter Ukraine were blocked on the Polish side.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis squared off in a debate last night, and one thing was crystal clear: the two could not be more diametrically opposed on every single political issue.

Unsurprisingly, one subject that was broached was public education — what it should include and what it should not include.

Florida has been very open about rejecting the inclusion of gender ideology in its school curriculums, believing it is not the role of the school but rather of parents to determine how children should be taught in matters such as sexual orientation, gender ideology, etc.

“The role of the school is to educate kids, not indoctrinate kids,” DeSantis said, “and what we've said in Florida is it's inappropriate to tell a kindergartener that their gender is a choice; it's inappropriate to tell a second grader that they may have been born in the wrong body.”

On Nov. 16, the alleged thief stole some more items including a bench, but Sullivan had hidden some trackers in the items, hoping the thief would be caught in the snare. He said one of the trackers indicated movement, and he contacted the police.

"I saw one of the AirTags had moved to a location in Irvine, so I had the address at that point. I took a screenshot of it and I sent it to the detectives at 2 in the morning," he explained.

Police said they went to the address and found what they described as a "a sanctuary of stolen greenery" with many of the alleged stolen items in the man's front yard.

DeSantis also noted that California has one of the lowest literacy rates in the country, while Florida is number three for fourth grade reading.

“So, you should apologize for not getting your kids in school. Why didn’t you get the kids in school in the summer of 2020?” DeSantis asked as Newsom fumbled his answer.

The topic of books on gender in schools also made an appearance, and DeSantis again gave the right answers.

“The role of the school is to educate kids, not indoctrinate kids,” DeSantis said, adding, “What we’ve said in Florida is it’s inappropriate to tell a kindergartener that their gender is a choice. It’s inappropriate to tell a second grader that they may have been born in the wrong body.”

The Florida governor then pulled out a page from a book that has been allowed in California schools, called “Gender Queer.”

The prospect of the Fed concluding its tightening raises questions about an imminent stock market boom, yet historical trends offer no definitive answers. 

The looming threat of Evergrande’s tumultuous collapse raises significant apprehension among global investors amid China’s economic challenges.

If you search Twitter or Google News for “no innocents in Gaza” or “the myth of the innocent Palestinian,” you find hundreds or thousands of results.

“He wasn't saying if you don't want to advertise,” clarifies Glenn. “He's saying if you want me to bend and silence people so you could pose and you won't be boycotted, screw yourself. … I don't want your money that badly.”

“This is the way Americans — all Americans — should be,” he continues, referencing Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s adage that “our silence in the face of evil is evil itself.”

“If you come to me with a threat and say, ‘You better change this or that [or] we're going to all boycott you, we're going to destroy you’ — is there a bigger definition of evil than that?” asks Glenn. “You are selling your soul every time somebody tells you to compromise.”

According to Glenn, Musk’s comment, although he uses different verbiage, is his way of saying “I’m not going to sell my soul.”