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All posts for the month December, 2023
31 Dec 2023
#TheGrayzone Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate meticulously debunk a New York Times article purporting to demonstrate that Hamas carried out a policy of sexual assault against Israelis on October 7 and demonstrate that the Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman is guilty of journalistic malpractice and serving as a willing tool for the serially mendacious Israeli government.
From being the first nation to land on the Moon’s south pole to hosting a breakthrough G20 summit, New Delhi has scored many points this year – but has also had setbacks
https://www.rt.com/india/589897-india-history-2023-moon-g20/
Dec 30, 2023
© RT / RT
The outgoing 2023 will be remembered in India as the year of many “proud firsts” – from emerging as the most populated country in the world (bypassing China), to becoming the first nation to land on the Moon’s south pole, to having the first female officer of the Indian Navy to take command of a warship.
Following a triumphant Moon mission and the prestigious hosting of the G20 Summit, India is poised to enter 2024 with a renewed sense of optimism for further economic expansion (it is aiming at a $5 trillion economy by 2025) and aspirations to play a bigger geopolitical role.
The nation’s allure as an investment hub remains robust, leveraging a skilled talent pool, homegrown technologies and innovations, and tailored central and state government policies to attract global companies such as Apple and Tesla. Peering into the future, the nation eyes attaining developed economy status by 2047. No wonder growth, infrastructure development, and investment have been at the center of the pitch to voters by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the country heads into a 2024 general election.
In retrospect, 2023 was a year that witnessed pivotal moments defining India’s trajectory. Below is a quick look into key events that shaped the year for India.
Big achievements
On the cold side of the Moon
The Indian cow jumped over the Moon when its third lunar probe, Chandrayaan-3, became the first spacecraft to land on the lunar South Pole region. India joined the former Soviet Union, the US, and China as the only nations to have planted their flags on Earth’s satellite. The Moon’s south pole is thought to contain ice, so it’s a prime target for a possible lunar station and further research.
For Prime Minister Modi, it marked a moment he could declare “India is a superpower” – without other nations rolling their eyes. For Indian Space Research Organisation chief S Somnath, who had broken down in Modi’s arms when Chandrayaan-2 failed on a similar mission four years earlier, and the nation of 1.4 billion, it was a moment of supreme pride and triumph. ISRO even attempted to revive the mission in -200C temperatures at the Moon’s south pole, after the main mission’s targets were achieved, but to no avail.
By 2027, India will launch another mission to the Moon – to bring back samples from the lunar surface. Encouraged by the success of Chandrayaan and this year’s other breakthrough mission – to the Sun – Modi instructed ISRO to set up a space station by 2035 and send the first Indian to the Moon by 2040.
This handout screen grab taken and released by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on August 25, 2023, shows the Chandrayaan-3 rover as it manoeuvred from the lunar lander to the surface of the Moon. © ISRO / AFP
World’s first-ever sister-brother grandmasters
In August, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (aka Pragg) nearly won the Chess World Cup in Baku, losing in a tiebreaker to Magnus Carlsson. Had he won, he would have become World Chess Champion; the only other Indian to achieve this was Magnus’s predecessor, Vishwanathan Anand (titleholder from 2007-13).
In December, elder sister Vaishali joined Pragg as grandmaster, when she crossed the 2,500 Elo threshold at a tournament in Spain. They became the world’s first-ever sister-brother pair to be grandmasters; there is a long list of brothers who became grandmasters, including India’s Vignesh NR and Visakh NR, who achieved this in February 2023. There are approximately 1,200 grandmasters globally, according to ‘The Chess Journal’; and India currently has a robust 82 grandmasters.
But the real star was Vaishali-Pragg’s mom, N Nagalakshmi, the modest Tamil ‘amma’ with a toothy smile who has been travelling and cooking for Pragg since he was seven. “I’m proud to hear people talk of my mother,” Vaishali said after his performance in Baku.
Rameshbabu and Vaishali Praggnanandhaa © X
The great escape in Uttarkashi
Indian authorities rescued 41 men trapped for 17 days when the Sikyara-Barkot tunnel they were constructing in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand collapsed on November 12. While reports suggested that regulations were overridden to construct the tunnel for the ‘Char Dham’ pilgrimage project – the fragile Himalayan ecosystem would have been better served with wider roads than the series of tunnels – the rescue was a tension-filled narrative with more twists and turns than a high-altitude road.
Authorities worked on six plans, the main being the use of an American Auger machine to drill six pipes through the debris to tunnel a way out for the trapped workers. The machine broke down twice. So they had to use a dangerous (and illegal) method of “rathole mining”, in which a tunnel barely wide enough for an emaciated human was dug to gain access to those trapped. Ultimately, an 80cm pipe was laid through which the trapped men crawled out. It was exemplary of Indian ‘jugaad’ (a hack) and persistence; and also a proud moment of self-belief.
Chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami (R) embracing a contruction worker following his rescue from inside the under construction Silkyara tunnel in India’s Uttarakhand state on November 28, 2023. © Department of Information and Public Relation (DIPR) Uttarakhand / AFP
G20 presidency, India-style
Held in September, the G20 Summit was showcased as a display of Modi’s brilliance and vision. The event at India’s refurbished trade fair grounds, Pragati Maidan, was a razzle-dazzle of high technology and higher acidity food. The roads were cleared of dogs, shanties, and journalists. People were ‘encouraged’ to stay home, though not like the Hangzhou G20 Summit, where the Chinese government paid citizens to take a bus out of town for a holiday.
Modi had the deliberations end a day early with a ‘clean’ resolution, termed by many as “win for India” but also a “win for multipolarity,” as the Delhi Declaration was adopted after achieving a 100% consensus over 83 paragraphs of the final communique, including on the Ukraine conflict that had no mention of Russia – thanks to the role of India’s negotiators, and to much of disappointment of Washington and its allies.
Not just the Delhi Declaration – at the G20 summit, the Indian leader swiftly inducted the African Union as a member before the Europeans could even blink; he championed the Global South even while vigorously clasping US President Joe Biden’s hands. Yes, a triumph of the will.
India snatched away the baton for presiding over the G20 from Indonesia and reluctantly passed it on to Brazil; but during 2023 the leadership milked it for as much mileage as it could. And it was rewarded by voters in Hindi villages, who openly declared while standing in line for their free foodgrain, “Modiji did the G20.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) waves to the media representatives during his visit to the International media centre, at the G20 summit venue, in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. © Money SHARMA / AFP
It’s raining Indians
It was the end of April when India reached 1.45 billion souls, beating China to take the mantle of the most populous nation on Earth. It was around 50 years ago that the rapidly growing populations of the South were thought to be a concern for a planet whose resources were being depleted, and whose climate was perhaps changing – and not for the better. The good news is, of course, is that the planet will be around for another 4.5 billion years. The even better news is that nations like India are thinking in the direction of inhabiting the Moon and Mars, and possibly other worlds.
For India, a burgeoning population means a younger, more productive country that can challenge its neighbor to become world’s new manufacturing hub. New Delhi, however, has a bigger challenge – poverty and literacy. This year, the UN lauded India for lifting 135 million people out of poverty in the past five years. In 2022, around 15% of the Indian population was living in poverty, compared to 24.8% in 2015-16. Also, in just nine years, India managed to provide a no-frills bank account, or ‘Jan Dhan,’ to 509 million people – a staggering achievement. This scale of financial inclusion would normally take 47 years for a country to achieve, experts note.
FILE PHOTO: Crowd of religious pilgrims taking holy bath in the Ganges River, Allahabad. © Getty Images / Alison Wright
A mammoth new parliament of crows
The world’s most populous country presumably needed a newer building, never mind that the old one was number nine on the “ten most impressive parliament halls” or the “ten most beautiful parliaments”. (The Hungarian Parliament consistently ranks number one, in case you were wondering.) But it was associated with colonial architecture, and when Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the building, he said as much. “The new parliament isn’t just a building, it is the symbol of the aspiration of the 1.4 billion people of India,” he said.
But the very first “winter” session held in the new building was marked with a controversy over security arrangements. On December 13 a couple of men in their 20s jumped into the chamber, on invitation by a regime legislator, and set off non-poison, all-colorful smoke canisters. The incident came on the anniversary of the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament in which six police personnel, two parliamentary security staff, and a gardener were killed, as well as five terrorists.
The “mastermind” of the attack later surrendered, and a total of six people have been charged under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Home Ministry is also investigating the breach.The intruders now face terrorism charges, and when the opposition demanded a statement on the breach, most of its members were suspended. As the world’s largest democracy enters the new year with high aspirations over the 2024 general election, some in the political establishment felt that the new house of democracy came with a fresh approach to democracy in India, that is Bharat.
The new parliament building of India. © Wikipedia
Not-so-high lights
The small pebble in the fast-walking national shoe
A prominent TV anchor once said India’s northeast suffered the ‘tyranny of distance’ from the nation’s center of political gravity. That is no solace for the victims of group clashes between hill-dwelling Christian Kukis and plains-dwelling Hindu Meiteis in Manipur, a small state on the border with Myanmar.
It started with one group that wanted welfare benefits extended to them – which the other group objected to. The violence began on May 3 and still continues; 175 people have been killed. A video of women who were raped and paraded went viral, creating national outrage. The opposition questioned the Modi-led government and the PM himself on their month-long silence, which was broken on July 20. Modi said the incident was “shameful for any civilized nation” and vowed that “justice will be delivered.”
The Supreme Court eventually pulled up the state government. The chief minister of the state appealed for both communities to adopt the path of “forgiving and forgetting.” On December 15, there was a grim reminder of the year’s events in Manipur, during a mass burial of 87 bodies (including a month-old baby that during the evacuation from a riot zone could not receive vital hospitalization).
People wait at a temporary shelter in a military camp, after being evacuated by the Indian army, as they flee ethnic violence that has hit the northeastern Indian state of Manipur on May 7, 2023. © Arun SANKAR / AFP
Wrestling with one’s collective conscience
India was in headlines globally for a month-long protest of women wrestlers, including Olympic medallists, against the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. They accused him of sexual harassment. The authorities seemed to be unmoved: Singh is a powerful MP from the ruling BJP, influencing a clutch of constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, the control of which is key to national power.
Once again, the Supreme Court had to step in and force a reluctant Delhi police to file a case; despite the watered-down charges that are meant to fail in court, Singh had to step down. The last straw, however, came in December, when Singh’s right-hand man was elected as his replacement at the WFI. Champion wrestlers like Sakshi Mallik tearfully quit the sport, and male wrestler Balbir Punia returned his Padma Shri award. The government finally reacted on December 24 by suspending the WFI and sacking newly elected leaders.
Indian wrestlers Vinesh Phogat (C) with others are detained by the police while attempting to march to India’s new parliament in New Delhi on May 28, 2023. © Arun THAKUR / AFP
Targeted Diplomacy
The 1980s Khalistan movement for Punjab’s secession from India was a bloody and terrifying time that claimed the life of a sitting prime minister, the late Indira Gandhi. It was the first time that road checkpoints became part of Delhi life. The movement has died out in Punjab, but found a new home – in some Gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in the West.
In September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged – in parliament – that Indian intelligence had masterminded the killing of a Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June, outside a Gurdwara in British Columbia. While India denied allegations, Trudeau’s move sparked an unprecedented diplomatic row. The two countries expelled each other’s intelligence officers, India ordered the withdrawal of 41 diplomats and temporarily suspended visa services to Canadians.
When two months later the New York district attorney filed an indictment against Nikhil Gupta and an unnamed Indian official for attempting to kill US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, India’s outrage was considerably dampened.
True, the US has no compunction about killing foreign citizens on foreign soil – the examples are innumerable. But the bully on the block doesn’t exempt even his new best friend; especially if that friend is doing a tightrope walk on Russia and Gaza. No wonder then, Modi told the Financial Times that “incidents” should not derail US-India bonhomie.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canada counterpart Justin Trudeau during a bilateral meeting after the G20 Summit in New Delhi on September 10, 2023. © X / JustinTrudeau
Death by cough syrup
Cough syrups manufactured in India were under scrutiny even in 2022, after the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert over four brands of cough syrup manufactured and exported by Indian drug maker Maiden Pharmaceuticals to The Gambia in West Africa. At least 69 children have died there from acute kidney injury that could be linked to cough and cold syrups.
The government tried to shoot down the “presumptuous” WHO for claiming that Indian cough syrups were contaminated. However, a similar case soon came to light in Uzbekistan, where the Health Ministry linked the death of dozens of children to the consumption of cough syrup manufactured by Marion Biotech of Noida in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The company had allegedly bought a chemical for its syrup – propylene glycol – from a Delhi-based trader that did not have a license to sell pharmaceutical products and only “dealt in industrial grade.” Months later, New Delhi ordered Riemann Labs in Madhya Pradesh state to cease operations following allegations that its cough syrup was linked to the death of at least six children in Cameroon in March 2023.
Pharma is a $50 billion industry in India, which labels itself the world’s pharmacy. Given the size of stakes involved, as well as India’s aspirations to lead the global South, the country’s drug regulator swung into action. It found that 50 cough syrup manufacturers failed to clear quality tests. In December, the Indian government prohibited the use of anti-cold medication combinations for children under four.
A view of Marion Biotech pharmaceuticals company after the cough syrup produced by Marion Biotech pharmaceuticals company is allegedly linked to the death of eighteen children in Uzbekistan on December 29, 2022 in Noida,Utaar Pradesh, India. © Imtiyaz Khan / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Train tragedy
Nearly 300 Indians died and 1,200 were injured – in the east India state of Odisha in June, when the high-speed Coromandel Express (Kolkata to Chennai) crashed into a goods train and its coaches derailed and collided with another high-speed train (Bengaluru-Howrah Express) coming from the opposite direction. India’s Ministry of Railways, releasing the official findings from a probe into the deadly incident, said a signal error led to the collision. The report concluded that if corrective measures had been taken after a similar failure in 2022, the tragedy could have been prevented.
The Indian railway industry is the backbone of the national economy. Over 1.4 million people are employed along its 67,850km of routes – and Indian Railways is the country’s largest employer. Ever since the British established the railways, it has been the most popular mode of transport in the country.
Gone are the days of general-class compartments and starting with Kolkata in the 1980s, city after city in India has introduced metro rail projects. The government is eagerly designing urban infrastructure projects, including the 741km Nagpur-Mumbai high-speed rail corridor, constructed at a cost of $20 billion, or PM Modi’s marquee project – the Vande Bharat hi-speed trains that “herald a new standard of rail service in the country.” But building next-century infrastructure can all be in vain if routine necessities such as track replacement, signal upgradation, and the induction of anti-crash technologies are ignored.
Rescue workers gather around damaged carriages at the accident site of a three-train collision near Balasore, about 200 km (125 miles) from the state capital Bhubaneswar in the eastern state of Odisha, on June 3, 2023. © DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP
Here come the floods
No one in India denies climate change, but action has been slow, going by two ruinous flooding episodes – aside from the ‘regular’ flooding afflicting states like Bihar or Tamil Nadu. This summer, the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh saw 72 flash floods kill nearly 400 people and thousands of animals; in October, the Himalayan state of Sikkim saw flash floods that killed just under 100 people. In both cases, bridges, hotels and temples were washed away, providing mesmerizing viral videos. Yes, the world’s mightiest mountain range is a real victim of global warming.
In Himachal, the floods demonstrated the disproportionate snowmelt released by tourists and their cars, and how traditional architecture is superior to modern assembly-line houses when it comes to resisting nature’s might.
The Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) at Sikkim’s South Lhonak Lake might have been unavoidable, but there was no early warning system that scientists have been begging for, mindful of the many hydroelectric projects successive governments have been in a rush to implement. As a result, the 1200-MW Teesta dam was destroyed by the floods. Development comes with a cost.
Indian army personnel conduct a search operation for the missing soldiers in north Sikkim on October 5, 2023. © MINISTRY OF DEFENCE / AFP
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-12-29-life-expectancy-dropping-covid-vaccine-pushes.html
Life expectancy has been declining in the U.S., and the timing coincides with the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines.
The average expected lifespan for Americans in 2021 was 76.4 years, which represents a drop of 0.6 from 2020. Men can expect to live an average of 73.5 years overall, while women’s life expectancy is 79.3 years.
The leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021 was heart disease, which is something that has been connected to COVID-19 vaccines. Many of the most widely reported side effects from COVID-19 vaccines have been cardiac related, with countless people suffering from a heart attack or stroke after getting jabbed.
Reports of vaccine-related injuries continue to pile up, and most of us are all too familiar with the alarming number of stories in the news about healthy young people dying suddenly.
While some experts try to argue that people aren’t dying off due to COVID-19 vaccines, no one can dispute the rise in young people experiencing heart attacks. Although it was already ticking upward before the pandemic, it sped up dramatically post-2020.
One study by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center showed that heart attack deaths climbed for all age groups during 2020 and 2021, but the biggest jump was seen in those aged 25 to 44. The increase of 29 percent is simply too big to ignore.
Analysis shows mRNA shots could shorten lifespan by 24 years
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows just how damaging the vaccines have been. According to analysis by The Expose, men who get the mRNA shots could see as much as 24 years taken off their lifespan as a result.
In fact, they report that CDC all-cause mortality data demonstrates that each dose of a COVID-19 vaccine a person received raised their mortality by 7 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. In other words, people who got 5 doses were 35 percent more likely to die in 2022 than in 2021, while those who got just one dose had a 7 percent greater likelihood of dying in 2022 compared to 2021. For those who avoided the vaccine, their chances of dying were the same in both years.
They liken the vaccines to “slow-acting genetic poison” based on this data given the fact that people do not appear to be recovering from the damage caused by earlier vaccines when it comes to excess mortality. If the trend continues, a person who received 5 doses would be 350 percent more likely to pass away in 2031 and a shocking 700 percent more likely to die in 2041 than a person who did not get the jab.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf characterized the dropping life expectancy for Americans as “catastrophic,” writing on X on November 30: “We are facing extraordinary headwinds in our public health with a major decline in life expectancy. The major decline in the U.S. is not just a trend. I’d describe it as catastrophic.”
Not surprisingly, he stopped short of pinning the blame on vaccines. In fact, many of those who dare to suggest vaccines are causing deaths find themselves being censored. A whistleblower who recently shared data from the New Zealand Health Agency pointing to a strong link between vaccines and excess mortality was arrested and is facing prison time. The data he shared with the public pointed to the vaccines killing more than 10 million individuals globally.
He said he shared the data because it blew his mind and he wanted experts to analyze it and make people aware of what is happening.
Sources for this article include:
The United Kingdom is inciting the Kiev regime to terrorist actions in coordination with the United States, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. The United Kingdom is behind Ukraine’s attack on Belgorod, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS.
“Great Britain is behind the terror attack, as it, in coordination with the United States, is inciting the Kiev regime to terrorist actions as it understands that Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed. London, as the Ukrainian presidential office representatives have recently said, has banned the Kiev regime from holding talks with the Russia side, staking on a ‘victory on the battlefield,’” she said.
“With not a single chance to improve the Ukrainian army’s deplorable situation ‘on the ground,’ the Anglo-Saxons have taken on the tactic of terror attacks on civilians,” she added.
She said that the terror attack on Belgorod will be the focus of a United Nations Security Council meeting, which has been requested by Russia.
“Responsibility for the terror attack rests on EU states, which continue to supply weapons to Kiev’s terrorists who are using cluster munitions against civilians,” she stressed.
Ukrainian troops have been shelling Belgorod and the Belgorod Region since late Friday. The latest strike was delivered on downtown Belgorod with the use of cluster munitions from Czech-made multiple rocket launchers. At least 14 people, including two children, were killed and 108 others were injured. According to the Russian defense ministry, air defense systems intercepted both missiles and most of the projectiles. Otherwise, the consequences would have been much more serious, it added.
Alberta saw 21 police shootings in 2023, marking a 90 percent increase from 2020 when there were 11
CBC
Dec 30, 2023
The family of a woman shot by an officer in Edmonton during a wellness check said her death was unnecessary, as the number of police shootings across Canada has shown little sign of relenting over the past four years.
“I see my daughter’s death as being a result of a complete mishandling of the tools available to law enforcement in the application of dealing with mental health issues,” the family of the woman, who has not been publicly identified, said in a statement from their lawyer, Tom Engel.
Edmonton police have said officers were called for a welfare check earlier this month. There were risks the woman may harm herself, so police say officers entered the apartment. There was a confrontation and the woman was shot.
The woman’s family said that had the police approach been gradual and gentle, she would have understood the nature of the visit and would still be alive.
An upwards trend
A tally compiled by The Canadian Press found police shot at 85 people in Canada between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 of this year — 41 fatally. Those numbers are based on available information from police, independent investigative units and reporting from The Canadian Press.
“This is a spectacularly unrelenting phenomenon,” said Temitope Oriola, a professor of criminology at the University of Alberta and president of the Canadian Sociological Association.
This year, the number of police shootings has nearly matched the total from 2022, when 94 people were shot at, 50 fatally. It remains a significant increase from four years ago when there were 61 shootings, 38 of which were fatal.
The resulting snapshot shows more officers firing their guns since 2020, when the high-profile murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis spurred global movements urging police accountability and transparency.
Criminologists say officers need more training and restraint, while the RCMP union said police have been forced to the front lines of Canada’s mental health crisis and face increasingly dangerous situations.
“No cop that I have ever dealt with wants to go down this road,” said Brian Sauve, president of the National Police Federation, which represents about 20,000 Mounties across Canada.
“And every one of them is impacted momentously by the fact that they’ve had to discharge their weapon.”
Officers have the right to safety, Oriola said, but police shootings in Canada have been trending upward for too many years. Oriola added he is particularly concerned about the number of shootings in Alberta.
“We should not be leading the country in terms of police shootings,” he said.
This year, Alberta saw 21 police shootings — a rate of 0.45 per 100,000 people — marking a 90 percent increase from 2020, when there were 11.
There were 28 police shootings in Ontario — a rate of 0.18 per 100,000 people — up from 23 the year before. There were nine in Quebec.
All Atlantic Canada saw six police shootings, up from two the year before.
There were 17 shootings in British Columbia, down from 24 in 2022. Saskatchewan and Manitoba also saw decreases.
There have been at least two shootings this month that are not included in the tally. A man was killed on the Red Earth Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. A man was also injured in a shooting in Grande Prairie, Alta.
- Police chief says more officers expected on Calgary streets next year
- Calgary police will receive $8M in funding from the province to hire 50 new officers
Young men continue to make up the majority of people shot by police. Race was identified in 18 cases and more than 60 per cent of those were Indigenous, Black or other people of colour.
The original 911 calls mainly involved a weapon, stolen vehicle or erratic driving. Six involved an active shooting.
In nearly 70 per cent of the police shootings, the person had a weapon. In 30 cases, it was a firearm or replica gun. In 20 cases, the person had a knife or other bladed weapon.
Sauve said police shootings in Canada remain rare compared to many other countries, but increasingly officers are encountering people with weapons. When there are guns or knives, he said, police must respond differently.
“Sometimes it’s Justin Bourque,” Sauve said, referring to the man who killed three Mounties in Moncton in 2014.
This year, three officers were killed in situations where they fired their weapons at someone. Another officer was shot and injured.
Sauve said police interactions have also become more confrontational because there’s been an increase in the “general disrespect for anyone in authority, whether that’s a bylaw officer giving a parking ticket or whether that’s a police officer trying to defuse and de-escalate” a situation.
Addressing mental health
Due to pressures on overburdened social programs, Sauve said officers are also being relied on to respond to mental health crises and issues with homelessness.
Six shootings started as a call about a public disturbance, five for an unwanted person. Another six were wellness checks.
Officers must make split-second decisions, Sauve said, adding the average gunfight is over in under three seconds.
Vancouver police were called to Granville Street Bridge in February because it looked as though a man, draped in a blanket, was going to kill himself.
An officer called out to the man and his demeanour changed, the Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia said in its report. The man pulled out a knife and one officer unsuccessfully used a stun gun twice, the report said. A second officer fired their gun.
The man died.
Later that month, Vancouver city council approved $2.8 million in funding for mental health services, including hiring additional mental health nurses to be teamed with police.
Sauve said these types of partnerships are becoming increasingly important, but there isn’t funding to have them deployed across the country.
He supports additional training, access to less-than-lethal weapons and better technology for police. But, Sauve adds, long-term solutions lie in a societal response to homelessness, addictions and health care.
Oriola said there are clear changes that could happen, but policing remains “incredibly resistant to change” even as calls for reform grow.
“We should not be having the sheer volume of shootings we currently have and certainly not the degree of fatality that we are seeing.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Canadian Press
Kelly Geraldine Malone is a reporter for The Canadian Press.
For centuries Western civilization has depended heavily on war, genocide, theft, colonialism and imperialism, which it has justified using narratives premised on religion, racism and ethnic supremacy — all of which we are seeing play out in the incineration of Gaza today.
It’s been so surreal watching Western rightists babbling about how savage and barbaric Muslim culture is amid the 2023 zombie resurrection of Bush-era Islamophobia, even while Western civilization amasses a mountain of 10 thousand child corpses.
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
What we see in Gaza is a much better representation of what Western civilization is really about than all the gibberish about freedom and democracy we learned in school.
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
When Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.
The demolition of Gaza is indeed being perpetrated in defense of Western values and is itself a perfect embodiment of Western values. Not the Western values they teach you about in school, but the hidden ones they don’t want you to look at. Not the attractive packaging with the advertising slogans on the label, but the product that’s actually inside the box.
For centuries Western civilization has depended heavily on war, genocide, theft, colonialism and imperialism, which it has justified using narratives premised on religion, racism and ethnic supremacy — all of which we are seeing play out in the incineration of Gaza today.
What we are seeing in Gaza is a much better representation of what Western civilization is really about than all the gibberish about freedom and democracy we learned about in school.
A much better representation of Western civilization than all the art and literature we’ve been proudly congratulating ourselves on over the centuries.
A much better representation of Western civilization than the love and compassion we like to pretend our Judeo-Christian values revolve around.
It’s been so surreal watching Western rightists babbling about how savage and barbaric Muslim culture is amid the 2023 zombie resurrection of Bush-era Islamophobia, even while Western civilization amasses a mountain of 10 thousand child corpses.
That mountain of child corpses is a much better representation of Western culture than anything Mozart, da Vinci or Shakespeare ever produced.
This is Western civilization. This is what it looks like.
Western civilization, where Julian Assange awaits his final appeal in February against U.S. extradition for journalism which exposed US war crimes.
Where we are fed a nonstop deluge of mass media propaganda to manufacture our consent for wars and aggression which have killed millions and displaced tens of millions in the 21st century alone.
Where we are kept distracted by vapid entertainment and artificial culture wars so we don’t think too hard about what this civilization is and who it is killing and maiming and starving and exploiting.
Where news cycles are dominated more by celebrity gossip and Donald Trump’s latest mouth farts than by the mass atrocities that are being actively facilitated by Western governments.
Where liberals congratulate themselves for having progressive views on race and gender while the officials they elect help rip apart children’s bodies with military explosives.
Where Zionist Jews center themselves and their emotions because opposition to an active genocide makes them feel like they are being persecuted, and where Israel supporters who are not Jewish still kind of feel like they are being persecuted also.
Where a giant globe-spanning empire powered by militarism, imperialism, capitalism and authoritarianism devours human flesh with an insatiable appetite while we congratulate ourselves on how much better we are than nations like Iran or China.
These are Western values. This is Western civilization.
Ask somebody to tell you what their values are and they’ll give you a bunch of pleasant-sounding words about family and love and caring or whatever. Watch their actions to see what their actual values are and you’ll often get a very different story.
That’s us. That’s Western civilization. We say we value freedom, justice, truth, peace and free expression, but our actions paint a very different picture. The real Western values, the actual product inside the box underneath the attractive label, are the ones you see acted out in Gaza today.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the record, is now sending an unmistakable message: Forget the Suez Canal. The way to go is the Northern Sea Route – which the Chinese, in the framework of the Russia-China strategic partnership, call the Arctic Silk Road.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-how-yemen-changed-everything
FRIDAY, DEC 29, 2023
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
In a single move, Yemen’s Ansarallah has checkmated the West and its rules-based order…
Whether invented in northern India, eastern China or Central Asia – from Persia to Turkestan – chess is an Asian game. In chess, there always comes a time when a simple pawn is able to upset the whole chessboard, usually via a move in the back rank whose effect simply cannot be calculated.
Yes, a pawn can impose a seismic checkmate. That’s where we are, geopolitically, right now.
The cascading effects of a single move on the chessboard – Yemen’s Ansarallah stunning and carefully targeted blockade of the Red Sea – reach way beyond global shipping, supply chains, and The War of Economic Corridors. Not to mention the reduction of the much-lauded US Navy force projection to irrelevancy.
Yemen’s resistance movement, Ansarallah, has made it very clear that any Israel-affiliated or Israel-destined vessel will be intercepted. While the West bristles at this, and imagines itself a target, the rest of the world fully understands that all other shipping is free to pass. Russian tankers – as well as Chinese, Iranian, and Global South ships – continue to move undisturbed across the Bab al-Mandeb (narrowest point: 33 km) and the Red Sea.
Only the Hegemon is disturbed by this challenge to its ‘rules-based order.’ It is outraged that Western vessels delivering energy or goods to law-breaking Israel can be impeded, and that the supply chain has been severed and plunged into deep crisis. The pinpointed target is the Israeli economy, which is already bleeding heavily. A single Yemeni move proves to be more efficient than a torrent of imperial sanctions.
It is the tantalizing possibility of this single move turning into a paradigm shift – with no return – that is adding to the Hegemon’s apoplexy. Especially because imperial humiliation is deeply embedded in the paradigm shift.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the record, is now sending an unmistakable message: Forget the Suez Canal. The way to go is the Northern Sea Route – which the Chinese, in the framework of the Russia-China strategic partnership, call the Arctic Silk Road.
Map of North-East and North-West Passage shipping routes
For the dumbfounded Europeans, the Russians have detailed three options: First, sail 15,000 miles around the Cap of Good Hope. Second, use Russia’s cheaper and faster Northern Sea Route. Third, send the cargo via Russian Railways.
Rosatom, which oversees the Northern Sea Route, has emphasized that non-ice-class ships are now able to sail throughout summer and autumn, and year-round navigation will soon be possible with the help of a fleet of nuclear icebreakers.
All that as direct consequences of the single Yemeni move. What next? Yemen entering BRICS+ at the summit in Kazan in late 2024, under the Russian presidency?
The new architecture will be framed in West Asia
The US-led Armada put together for Operation Genocide Protection, which collapsed even before birth, may have been set up to “warn Iran,” apart from giving Ansarallah a scare. Just as the Houthis, Tehran is hardly intimidated because, as West Asia analyst ace Alastair Crooke succinctly put it: “Sykes-Picot is dead.”
This is a quantum shift on the chessboard. It means West Asian powers will frame the new regional architecture from now on, not the US Navy “projection.”
That carries an ineffable corollary: those eleven US aircraft carrier task forces, for all practical purposes, are essentially worthless.
Everyone across West Asia is well aware that Ansarallah’s missiles are capable of hitting Saudi and Emirati oil fields and knocking them out of commission. So it is little wonder that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi would never accept becoming part of a US-led maritime force to challenge the Yemeni resistance.
Add to it the role of underwater drones now in the possession of Russia and Iran. Think of fifty of these aimed at a US aircraft carrier: it has no defense. While the Americans still have very advanced submarines, they cannot keep the Bab al-Mandeb and the Red Sea open to Western operators.
On the energy front, Moscow and Tehran don’t even need to think – at least not yet – about using the “nuclear” option or cutting off potentially at least 25 percent, and up, of the world oil supply. As one Persian Gulf analyst succinctly describes it, “that would irretrievably implode the international financial system.”
For those still determined to support the genocide in Gaza there have been warnings. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has mentioned it explicitly. Tehran has already called for a total oil and gas embargo against nations that support Israel.
A total naval blockade of Israel, meticulously engineered, remains a distinct possibility. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Hossein Salami said Israel may “soon face the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, and other waterways.”
Keep in mind we’re not yet even talking about a possible blockade of the Strait of Hormuz; we’re still on the Red Sea/Bab al-Mandeb.
Because if the Straussian neo-cons in the Beltway get really unhinged by the paradigm shift and act in desperation to “teach a lesson” to Iran, a chokepoint Hormuz-Bab al-Mandeb combo blockade might skyrocket the price of oil to at least $500 a barrel, triggering the implosion of the $618 trillion derivatives market and crashing the entire international banking system.
The paper tiger is in a jam
Mao Zedong was right after all: the US may be in fact a paper tiger. Putin, though, is way more careful, cold, and calculating. With this Russian president, it’s all about an asymmetric response, exactly when no one is expecting it.
That brings us to the prime working hypothesis perhaps capable of explaining the shadow play masking the single Ansarallah move on the chessboard.
When Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Sy (Seymour) Hersh proved how Team Biden blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, there was no Russian response to what was, in effect, an act of terrorism against Gazprom, against Germany, against the EU, and against a bunch of European companies. Yet Yemen, now, with a simple blockade, turns global shipping upside down.
So what is more vulnerable?
The physical networks of global energy supply (Pipelineistan) or the Thalassocracy, states that derive their power from naval supremacy?
Russia privileges Pipelineistan: see, for instance, the Nord Streams and Power of Siberia 1 and 2. But the US, the Hegemon, always relied on its thalassocratic power, heir to “Britannia rules the waves.”
Well, not anymore. And, surprisingly, getting there did not even entail the “nuclear” option, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which Washington games and scaremongers like crazy.
Of course, we won’t have a smoking gun. But it’s a fascinating proposition that the single Yemeni move may have been coordinated at the highest level between three BRICS members – Russia, China, and Iran, the neocon new “axis of evil” – plus other two BRICS+, energy powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the UAE. As in, “if you do it, we’ve got your back”.
None of that, of course, detracts from Yemeni purity: their defense of Palestine is a sacred duty.
Western imperialism and then turbo-capitalism have always been obsessed with gobbling up Yemen, a process that Isa Blumi, in his splendid book Destroying Yemen, described as “necessarily stripping Yemenis of their historic role as the economic, cultural, spiritual, and political engine for much of the Indian Ocean world.”
Yemen, though, is unconquerable and, true to a local proverb, “deadly” (Yemen Fataakah). As part of the Axis of Resistance, Yemen’s Ansarallah is now a key actor in a complex Eurasia-wide drama that redefines Heartland connectivity; and alongside China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the India-Iran-Russia-led International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), and Russia’s new Northern Sea Route, also includes control over strategic chokepoints around the Mediterranean Seas and the Arabian peninsula.
This is another trade connectivity paradigm entirely, smashing to bits Western colonial and neocolonial control of Afro-Eurasia. So yes, BRICS+ supports Yemen, who with a single move has presented Pax Americana with The Mother of All Geopolitical Jams.
Dec 28, 2023
If you are trying very hard to ignore any evidence of the supernatural, you are probably not going to like this article. Our society has trained us to view literally everything through the lens of Darwinism. Therefore, any supernatural events that may happen are to be regarded with extreme skepticism or are to be ignored entirely. In other words, if there isn’t a perfectly acceptable natural explanation, it didn’t happen. Those that reject the supernatural are thought to be “reasonable”, while those that openly talk about supernatural things are thought to be “unreasonable”. But the truth is that supernatural events really are happening around us all the time. We just need to open up our eyes and acknowledge them.
Right now, a story about a woman that was raised from the dead at a hospital in Kansas is being shared on several prominent Christian news websites…
A medical doctor is testifying that a woman was raised from the dead by the power of prayer hours after emergency room staff had done everything they could to revive her.
Dr. Landon D. Vinson, M.D., an emergency room doctor at the Coffeyville Regional Medical Center in Coffeyville, Kansas, recently told members of the First Assembly of God about the miracle he witnessed along with their pastor, Rev. Randy DePriest.
In a video posted to YouTube, Vinson gives his testimony to the congregation. It was during the spring of 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when an unnamed woman was taken to the emergency room in Coffeyville. She was receiving CPR when she was brought into the emergency room and was given CPR for an entire hour after arriving. But she had died.
She was dead.
In fact, she was dead for quite a while.
But then a pastor arrived and the prayers began.
Before too long, she had been brought back to life…
“We began to pray over her,” the doctor recalled. “My head was bowed. There was a nurse in the room. Maybe just a couple minutes into the prayer, a machine began sounding an alarm. I thought I would just turn it off so it would not be distracting. When I looked up, spontaneous breath began coming back. I saw a hand moving on this woman.”
As the pastor prayed over her, he began to ask her questions. She started nodding her head and responding.
He called her by name, and said, “This is Pastor Randy, and I’ve come to pray for you.” Her eyes opened, and he asked, “Can you hear me okay?” She nodded, “Yes.”
This kind of thing actually happens a lot.
One of my favorite testimonies comes from a former law enforcement officer in Virginia named Marty Breeden…
On July 17, 2015…While being attended to at the hospital I went into “Acute Respiratory Failure”
I stopped breathing on my own and went CODE BLUE!!!
I would go CODE BLUE yet again within 48 hours!!!
I had an Emergency Tracheostomy in an attempt to save my life.
My heart went into Atrial flutter.
3 weeks on a respirator to sustain my life. I had to learn how to walk again, talk again and swallow again.
It was a long recovery.
At the time I was tired and weary. My life had drifted far from the God of my youth.
No one less worthy than me and the Lord could have let me perish in that state…..BUT GOD!
As most of you know, I was IMMEDIATELY ushered into the Presence of God.
His voice as the echo of the ages said, “MY CHURCH DOES NOT REALLY BELIEVE THAT I’M COMING BACK SOON!!!”
I was given this message and more from the Lord and was sent back and told to “Tell those things which you have heard!”
I’ve tried to be faithful to do just that!
Are all of these people just imagining that they died and came back to life?
Of course not.
But the mainstream media will never feature such stories because they are strong evidence that the God of the Bible is real.
In other cases, supernatural events point to the reality of the forces of darkness.
Earlier today, I came across a video that supposedly shows a man in Minnesota being “attacked by an unknown demonic entity” while he was asleep.
I don’t know where that video originated.
But I do know that the forces of darkness are very real.
And they are becoming increasingly active all over America.
In fact, yet another public school has approved the creation of an after school “Satan Club”…
“High School Satan Club” will now be included among the extracurricular offerings at Olathe Northwest High School in Kansas after the school district gave the greenlight for its creation.
The club’s approval comes amid growing opposition from other students and parents with concerns about kids being encouraged to worship Satan.
Of course your kids don’t have to actually attend such a club in order to be exposed to occult material.
All they have to do is sit down and turn on Netflix.
Over in China, they are trying to raise an entire generation that doesn’t know anything about God at all.
Chinese children have been banned from attending religious services since 2017, and government agents actually monitor church services to make sure that this is enforced…
Chinese children have been barred from attending religious services and engaging in religious activities since 2017.
Before Xi came to power, children during the era of former President Hu Jintao were allowed to attend Sunday School. Now, under Xi, many parents of kindergartners and middle schoolers must sign and submit a “pledge to not believe in religion” to their children’s schoolteachers.
Government staff monitors to make sure no child enters places of worship. Protests by parents who say they cannot leave their children home alone go unheard. To bypass these restrictions, many churches secretly host Sunday School in member’s homes.
We really are living in the end times.
Even though there is so much evidence for the Christian faith all around us, the world hates Christianity and is trying to stamp it out in thousands of different ways.
But no matter how hard they try, they will never be able to defeat us, because the truth always wins in the end.
The US currency is being used to undermine the competitive rights of other countries, Russia’s foreign minister says
https://www.rt.com/business/589822-us-dollar-political-tool-lavrov/
Dec 28, 2023
© Getty Images / John Lund
The US dollar is being used as an instrument for regime change and interference in the internal affairs of other countries, and “everyone” is “tired” of the greenback, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, stated on Thursday.
The global trend towards using national currencies in trade instead of the US dollar began to gain momentum last year after Ukraine-related sanctions saw Russia cut off from the Western financial system and also saw its foreign reserves frozen.
“Everyone is already tired of the dollar, which is becoming a tool of influence, a tool for undermining the legitimate competitive rights of countries in different regions, and a tool for interference in internal affairs and regime change,” Russia’s top diplomat said in an interview with Rossiya24 and RIA Novosti.
Lavrov earlier accused the US and its EU allies of using a wide range of “geopolitical” tools, which include, among other things, “unleashing trade and economic wars.” He noted that Russia and many other countries are now “consistently” reducing their dependence on Western currencies by switching to alternatives for foreign trade settlements.
READ MORE: US ‘cannibalizing Europe’ – Putin aide
His remarks come as the Russian ruble rallied against major currencies on Thursday, jumping to its highest against both the dollar and the euro since mid-December, trading data from the Moscow Exchange (MOEX) shows. The ruble had strengthened to 89.30 to the US dollar as of 14:30 GMT.
Experts note that the ruble is strengthening as Russia’s central bank plans to conduct currency operations on the domestic foreign exchange market in early January related to replenishment and using reserves from the National Wealth Fund.
Ashraf al-Qudra noted that over 1.9 million internally displaced people in the Palestinian enclave – 50% of them being children – suffer from a shortage of drinking water, food and medicine
CAIRO, December 28. /TASS/. The death toll of Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 21,300, with over 55,600 residents injured, the Palestinian Health Ministry Spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra announced.
“The death toll of the Israeli aggression since October 7 has increased to 21,320, with 55,603 injured,” the spokesman said on the Ministry’s Telegram channel.
He also noted that over 1.9 million internally displaced people in the Palestinian enclave – 50% of them being children – suffer from a shortage of drinking water, food and medicine.
The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7. Hamas has cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started a military operation there. Israel also strikes parts of Lebanon and Syria in retaliation for bombardments originating from these countries. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.