Trump’s New Advisor in Charge of Reopening Strait of Hormuz
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The desalination front: Water as Israel’s Achilles heel
Photo Credit: The CradleA Cradle Correpondent
Israel’s near-total dependence on seawater desalination to secure almost 80 percent of its drinking water and industrial needs has created a security vulnerability unlike that of the Persian Gulf states.
While Gulf desalination facilities are spread across wide geographic areas, Israel’s production capacity is concentrated along a narrow stretch of coastline. That concentration leaves Israel’s water system vulnerable to paralysis through concentrated missile barrages or suicide drone attacks from multiple fronts – a danger that exceeds the ability of conventional air defenses to fully contain.
The longer the confrontation with Iran drags on, the more these facilities are transformed from civilian infrastructure into strategic targets. Israel’s five main desalination plants have become central nodes in Tehran’s target bank, placing domestic stability and regional water commitments under the threat of broad disruption.
A narrow coastline, a concentrated vulnerability
Israel may be the world’s most centralized state in desalinated water production. Five major plants – Ashkelon, Ashdod, Palmachim, Sorek, and Hadera – produce the overwhelming majority of potable water for homes, agriculture, and industry.
The Sorek complex, one of the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalination plants, carries particularly high strategic value. Any strike that disables it would not simply create a temporary shortage. It could knock out water service to entire areas of Gush Dan, including Tel Aviv and its surrounding settlements, in a matter of days.
It is also clear that Israel’s water system lacks geographic depth from a security standpoint. All the plants fall within the effective operational range of precision missiles and are fully exposed to maritime threats.
Their offshore intake pipes are especially vulnerable. These underwater systems can be targeted through naval drones, unmanned submarines, or sea mines, halting water extraction and treatment almost immediately.
A successful strike on Hadera alone could severely disrupt supplies to the north and center of the country, placing huge pressure on emergency planners already dealing with depleted groundwater reserves and the shrinking capacity of Lake Tiberias.
The gas–water dependency trap
The most serious structural weakness in Israel’s water sector lies in its dependence on natural gas. Unlike the Gulf states, which possess large emergency reserves of liquid fuel to keep desalination facilities running during crises, Israel relies almost entirely on gas from the Tamar and Leviathan fields in the Mediterranean and is now looking to claim ownership of Lebanon’s Qana gas field.
That means any successful strike on offshore gas infrastructure would quickly spread beyond the energy sector. Disrupted gas supplies would undermine the national electricity grid and cut power to desalination facilities at the same time.
This dual dependency turns Israeli water security into a hostage of offshore infrastructure. Gas platforms are difficult to defend against drone swarms, anti-ship missiles, or coordinated naval attacks.
A strike on Leviathan, for example, would leave Israeli planners facing an impossible calculation: should the remaining gas be directed toward electricity generation for hospitals and military facilities, or toward desalination plants to ensure water continues to reach homes?
That overlap amplifies the pressure Iran can exert. A single strike on one offshore target could cripple two strategic sectors simultaneously.
Water as a regional pressure point
The implications of a strike on Israeli desalination infrastructure extend far beyond the occupation state itself. Under its peace agreement with Jordan, Israel is obligated to provide Amman with fixed annual quantities of water.
Any serious damage to Israel’s desalination system would almost certainly interrupt those supplies, exporting the crisis directly across the Jordan River.
That dynamic transforms desalination plants from public utilities into instruments of regional pressure. Strikes on these facilities would not only weaken Israel internally but also place neighboring governments under stress and expose the fragility of regional arrangements built around Israeli infrastructure.
Jordan would be hit first. But the fallout would also test the broader framework of normalization agreements and regional cooperation. For Tehran, that creates an additional layer of leverage. Dependence on Israel for critical resources is becoming a growing strategic liability.
That, in turn, could push neighboring states to seek alternatives, pressure Washington and Tel Aviv to scale back their confrontation with Iran, or reassess the long-term value of regional ties with Israel.
Cyberattacks and invisible sabotage
Israel possesses one of the world’s most advanced cybersecurity sectors, yet repeated Iranian cyberattacks have exposed real vulnerabilities in industrial control systems.
Desalination plants rely on complex digital infrastructure to regulate chemical balances, water pressure, and membrane filtration. Penetrating those systems would allow attackers to alter chlorine levels, disrupt pumping pressure, or physically damage sensitive equipment.
The danger of cyberwarfare lies in the fact that it is largely invisible. Unlike missile strikes, digital sabotage can unfold quietly, triggering confusion and panic before the source of the disruption is identified.
Even a 24-hour shutdown at Sorek could leave millions without water and inflict severe losses on sectors that depend on highly treated water, including semiconductor manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and the precision industry.
The more Israel digitizes the management of water infrastructure, the more attractive that sector becomes as a target for cross-border cyber attacks.
Deliberate pollution and long-term disruption
The eastern Mediterranean coastline is also highly vulnerable to environmental contamination during wartime. A strike on fuel tankers offshore, or on storage facilities in Haifa or Ashdod, could trigger oil spills large enough to disable desalination intake systems within hours.
Israel’s heavy reliance on reverse osmosis makes that threat especially serious. Even limited exposure to oil residue can permanently damage filtration membranes. Replacing them is neither quick nor simple, particularly during wartime conditions when supply chains are already strained.
This kind of environmental warfare is especially dangerous because its effects do not end when the fighting stops. Oil pollution would not only shut down desalination capacity in the short term but also damage marine ecosystems that support natural filtration processes.
That would raise operating costs, lower water quality, and leave sections of Israel’s coastline economically crippled long after the war itself ends.
The economic cost of strategic thirst
From an investment and financial perspective, instability in water security poses a direct threat to the occupation state’s “startup nation” model. International investors and major technology firms evaluate risk based on the stability of essential resources.
Once water itself becomes a threatened commodity, sovereign insurance costs rise, while capital flees sectors that consume large volumes of water.
A prolonged shutdown in greater Tel Aviv could inflict losses that surpass the economic impact of conventional missile strikes. Water is tied to every layer of the economy, from households and hospitals to industrial parks and high-tech production.
International ratings agencies already assess Israel’s creditworthiness according to its ability to absorb wartime shocks, protect infrastructure, and sustain economic activity during prolonged conflict. Any major disruption to the water sector would add to concerns over fiscal strain, investor confidence, and the state’s ability to maintain basic services.
That would raise borrowing costs and place additional pressure on a state budget already strained by military spending.
“Thirst economy” is now a term increasingly heard in financial analysis circles, where water becomes the central measure of national economic resilience.
The supply chain problem
Israel’s desalination system depends heavily on imported technology, precision spare parts, and specialized chemicals. Wartime disruption to ports, shipping lanes, or supply chains would make routine maintenance increasingly difficult.
Anti-scaling chemicals, disinfectants, filtration membranes, and electronic control systems all require reliable imports. Any shortage would force plant operators to either lower water quality or shut facilities down altogether to avoid damaging equipment.
That creates another challenge for Israeli planners. Maintaining the desalination sector during a prolonged conflict may require costly air bridges for critical parts and chemicals – an option that is difficult to sustain over time.
Israel’s desalination network has become one of the clearest examples of how technological sophistication can also create strategic fragility. Water security now sits at the center of the occupation state’s military and economic calculations.
If these facilities become unsustainable under wartime conditions, every other pillar of Israeli power – from industry and public health to military readiness and regional influence – becomes far harder to sustain.
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Israel’s Slow Ethnic Cleansing of Christians from the Holy Land
Jonathon Cook
[First published by AMEU on 6 June 2020]
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But Bethlehem, the reputed site of Jesus’s birth 2,000 years ago, is the one Palestinian area – outside East Jerusalem, which has been illegally annexed by Israel – that has proved hardest for Israel to hermetically seal off. During visits to the Church of the Nativity, tourists can briefly glimpse the reality of Palestinian life under occupation.
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In early 2017 . . . the daily Haaretz newspaper revealed that the interior ministry had issued a directive to local travel agencies warning them not to allow their pilgrimage groups to stay overnight in Bethlehem, with the implication that the firms risked losing their licenses if they did so. According to Haaretz, the government claimed that “potential terrorists were traveling with groups of tourists”.
Bethlehem is lucky that, unlike other Palestinian communities, it has allies Israel cannot easily ignore. Haaretz’s exposure of the new policy led to a rapid backlash. International churches, especially the Vatican, were worried that it was the thin end of a wedge that might soon leave the City of the Nativity off-limits to its pilgrims. And Israeli travel agencies feared their business would suffer. Pilgrim groups from poorer countries that could not afford Jerusalem’s high prices, especially for accommodation, might stop coming to the Holy Land.
[…]
Shrinking population
Bethlehem’s plight – a microcosm of the more general difficulties faced by Palestinians under occupation – offers insights into why the region’s Palestinian Christian population has been shrinking so rapidly and relentlessly.
The demographics of Bethlehem offer stark evidence of a Christian exodus from the region. In 1947, the year before Israel’s creation, 85 percent of Bethlehem’s inhabitants were Christian. Today the figure stands at 15 percent. Christians now comprise less than 1.5 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank – some 40,000 of a population of nearly 3 million – down from 5 percent in the early 1970s, shortly after Israel occupied the territory in 1967.
In 1945 Bethlehem had nearly 8,000 Christian residents, slightly more than the 7,000 who live there today. Natural growth should mean Bethlehem’s Christian population is many times that size. There are, in fact, many times more Palestinian Christians overseas than there are in historic Palestine. The 7,000 Christians of Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem, are outnumbered by more than 100,000 family members who have moved to the Americas.
[…]
The rapid decline in the numbers of these Christians reflects many factors that have been intentionally obscured by Israel. Historically, the most significant is that Palestinian Christians were nearly as badly impacted as Palestinian Muslims by the mass expulsions carried out by Zionist forces in 1948. In total, some 80 percent of all Palestinians living in what became the new state of Israel were expelled from their lands and became refugees – 750,000 from a population of 900,000. Those forced into exile included tens of thousands of Christians, amounting to two-thirds of the Palestinian Christian population of the time.
Palestinian Christians who remained in historic Palestine – either in what had now become Israel or in the territories that from 1967 would fall under Israeli occupation – have naturally shrunk over time in relation to the Muslim population because of the latter’s higher birth rates. Palestine’s Christians mostly lived in cities. Their urban lifestyles and generally higher incomes, as well as their greater exposure to western cultural norms, meant they tended to have smaller families and, as a result, their community’s population growth was lower.
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Leaving Palestine
To make sense of the specific problems faced by the Christian community, other historical contexts need to be understood. Palestinian Christians break down into four broad communities. The first is the Eastern Orthodox Churches, dominated by the Greek Orthodox. The second is the Catholic Churches, led by the “Latin” community that looks towards Rome, although they are outnumbered among Palestinians by Greek and Syrian Catholics. The third category is the Oriental Orthodox churches, which include the Copts, Armenian and Syrian Orthodox. And finally, there are various Protestant Churches, including the Anglicans, Lutherans and Baptists.
But despite all these achievements, their larger ambitions have been foiled. Movement restrictions imposed by Israel’s military authorities have stymied efforts at growing the business. With a domestic market limited by opposition to alcohol consumption among most of the Palestinian population, Taybeh brewery has depended chiefly on exports to Europe, Japan and the US. But the difficulties of navigating Israel’s hostile bureaucracy have sapped the business of money, time and energy, making it hard to compete with foreign breweries.
Daoud told me at one Oktoberfest that the brewery faced Israeli “harassment in the name of security.” He noted that even when the crossing points were open, Israel held up the company’s trucks for many hours while bottles were unloaded and individually inspected with sniffer dogs. Then the bottles had to be reloaded on to Israeli trucks on the other side of the checkpoint. Apart from local spring water, all the beer’s ingredients and the bottles have to be imported from Europe, adding further logistical problems at Israeli ports. The ever-creative Khourys have been forced to circumvent these problems by licensing a plant in Belgium to produce its beers for foreign export. But that has deprived the village of jobs that could have gone to local families.
And while the Khourys struggle to get their products into Israel, Israel has absolute freedom to flood the occupied territories with its own goods. “The policy is clearly meant to harm businesses like ours. Israel freely sells its Maccabee and Goldstar beers in the West Bank,” Daoud told me.
Such experiences are replicated for Palestinian businesses, big and small, across the West Bank.her, of the Jerusalem Interchurch Center, located in Jerusalem’s Old City. Of those, he estimated that no more than 2,400 remained in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, where Israel has made life especially difficult.
[…]
The city’s Christian residents face similar problems to Muslims. But as a very small community, they have also faced specific pressures. Israel’s policy of cutting off Jerusalem from the West Bank, and especially from the nearby cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, has left the city’s Christians particularly isolated. With many working as merchants and traders, the so-called “separation” policy has hit them hard economically.
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The effort to financially “squeeze” the Churches by the Jerusalem mayor in 2018 should be seen in this light. If the Churches face big new tax bills, the pressure will increase on them over the longer term either to be more submissive to Israel, for fear of attracting additional taxes, or to sell off yet more land to cover their debts. Either way, Palestinian Christians will suffer.
Obstacle to the end-times
A separate essay could be written about the role of overseas Christian evangelical movements in damaging the situation of Palestinian Christians. Suffice it to point out that most evangelical Christians are largely indifferent to the plight of the region’s local Christian population.
In fact, Zionism, Israel’s state ideology, draws heavily on a Christian Zionism that became popular among British Protestants more than 150 years ago. Today, the heartland of evangelical Zionism is the United States, where tens of millions of believers have adopted a theological worldview, bolstered by prophecies in the Book of Revelation, that wills a Jewish “return” to the Promised Land to bring about an apocalyptic end-times in which Christians — and some Jews who accept Jesus as their savior — will be saved from damnation and rise up to Heaven.
Inevitably, when weighed against a fast-track to salvation, the preservation of Palestinian Christians’ 2,000-year-old heritage matters little to most US Christian Zionists. Local Christians regularly express fears that their holy sites and way of life are under threat from a state that declares itself Jewish and whose central mission is a zero-sum policy of “Judaization”. But for Christian Zionists, Palestinian Christians are simply an obstacle to realizing a far more urgent, divinely ordained goal.
US evangelicals have, therefore, been pumping money into projects that encourage Jews to move to the “Land of Israel,” including in the settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Their leaders are close to the most hawkish politicians in Israel, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The political clout of the evangelical movements in the US, the world’s only superpower and Israel’s chief patron, has never been more evident. The vice-president, Mike Pence, is one of their number, while President Donald Trump depended on evangelical votes to win office. That was why Trump broke with previous administrations and agreed that the US would become the first country in modern times to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, effectively killing any hope for the Palestinians of securing East Jerusalem as their capital.
Given this international atmosphere, the isolation of Palestinian Christians and their leaders is almost complete. They find themselves marginalized within their own Churches, entirely ignored by foreign evangelical movements, and an enemy of Israel. They have therefore tried to break out of that isolation both by forging greater unity among themselves and by setting out a clearer vision to strengthen ties to Christians outside the Holy Land.
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Unwelcome Israeli citizens
The final community of Palestinian Christians to consider is the largest group, and the one most often overlooked: the 120,000 living in Israel with a degraded form of citizenship. These Palestinians have been exclusively under Israeli rule for more than 70 years. Israel falsely trumpets the claim that its Palestinian minority enjoys exactly the same rights as Jewish citizens. And yet the decline in the number of Palestinian Christians in Israel closely mirrors the situation of those in the occupied territories.
The Palestinian Christian population emerged from the events of 1948 in relatively better shape than their Muslim compatriots inside the territory that was now considered Israel. Aware of western states’ priorities, Israel was more cautious in its approach to the ethnic cleansing of communities with large numbers of Christians. As a result, the 40,000 Christians in Israel at the end of the Nakba comprised 22 per cent of the country’s new Palestinian minority. A few years later members of this minority would gain a very inferior form of Israeli citizenship.
Israel’s early caution in relation to Palestinian Christians was understandable. It feared antagonizing the western, largely Christian states whose backing it desperately needed. That policy was typified in the treatment of Nazareth, which was largely spared the wider policy of expulsions. However, as with Bethlehem, Nazareth’s Christian majority began to be overturned during 1948, as Muslims from neighboring villages that were under attack poured into the city, seeking sanctuary. Today, Nazareth has a 70 per cent Muslim majority.
The proportion of Christians among the Palestinian population in Israel has fallen more generally too – from nearly a quarter in the early 1950s to about 9 percent today. There is a similar number of Druze, a vulnerable religious sect that broke away from Islamic orthodoxy nearly 1,000 years ago. The rest of Israel’s Palestinian population – over 80 per cent – are Sunni Muslim.
The Christian exodus has been driven by similar factors to those cited by Palestinians in the West Bank. Within a self-declared Jewish state, Christians have faced diminished educational and employment opportunities; they must deal with rampant, institutional discrimination; and, after waves of land confiscations to Judaize the areas they live in, they can rarely find housing solutions for the next generation. Israel has encouraged a sense of hopelessness and despair equally among Christians and Muslims.
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Onward Christian soldiers
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It was in this context that in late 2012 Israel secretly revived plans first raised in the aftermath of the Nakba to recruit Christian youth into the Israeli army.
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At around the same time Israel introduced the option of registering a new nationality, “Aramaic”, on Israeli identity cards. Israel has always refused to recognise an “Israeli” nationality because it would risk conferring equal rights on all Israeli citizens, Jews and Palestinians alike.
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In fact, Israel failed dismally in its efforts to persuade Christians to accept the draft, and appears to have largely abandoned the plan, even after dedicating several years to bringing it to fruition.
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Via https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/replay-israels-slow-ethnic-cleansing
Russian forces pound Western-backed terrorists in Mali
RT
26 Apr, 2026
According to Africa Corp, the militants lost more than 1,000 soldiers and 100 vehicles while attacking Bamako and other cities.
Russia’s Africa Corps has released several videos of devastating air and artillery strikes on terrorist columns in Mali after the militants launched one of the largest coordinated attacks ever across the country. The unit added that the attack, which it said involved Western and Ukrainian mercenaries, was aimed at a coup d’etat in the West African country.
The footage released by the unit – which operates under the purview of the Russian Defense Ministry – offers a rare visual account of the fighting which erupted on Saturday when Al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM and the Tuareg-dominated Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) launched almost simultaneous strikes on Bamako, Kati, Gao, Kidal, and Sevare.
One video shows a column of trucks driving along an open road before coming under what appears to be artillery or drone-delivered fire.
In the second, a dispersed group of apparent militants is seen running alongside moving vehicles in an urban area when two or three strikes land in their midst.
The third video shows the bombardment of a small column of fast-moving light buggies.
In a statement, the Africa Corps said it essentially helped prevent a coup d’etat, as they held positions along the 2,000-km front line. It added that it provided air support, which it said prevented the seizure of key facilities, including the presidential palace in Bamako. According to the unit, militant casualties exceeded 1,000 – including an estimated 200 in Bamako, 500 in Gao, 300 in Kati, and 200 in Kidal – along with more than 100 vehicles destroyed.
The corps estimated the terrorist forces at 10,000 to 12,000, and said the assault was supported by Ukrainian and European mercenaries, adding that they deployed Western-made man-portable air-defense systems, including US-manufactured Stingers and French-made Mistrals.
The Africa Corps said some of its personnel sustained injuries and were being evacuated, while describing the situation in Mali as tense.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said “preliminary data” points to the possible involvement of Western security services in training the attackers. Earlier this year, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused France of “attempting to overthrow undesirable nationalist governments” in the Sahara-Sahel using “outright terrorist groups” and “colonial methods.”
The Africa Corps was established in 2023 and has since operated in Mali, the Central African Republic, and other states, with a mandate including counter-terrorism, training local forces, and securing strategic sites.
[…]
Via https://www.rt.com/africa/639117-russian-forces-pound-terrorists-mali/
UAE First Arab Country to Officially Host Israeli Troops
BREAKING: At the start of the war with Iran, Israel sent an Iron Dome air defense system to the United Arab Emirates, along with soldiers to operate it – Axios
This marks the first Arab country in the world to officially host Israeli troops on its territory.
Xi’s Taiwan Masterstroke: Beijing’s Peace Offensive Reshapes the Strait
21 April 2026
On 10 April 2026, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi Jinping received Cheng Li-wun, chairwoman of the Kuomintang (KMT). What appeared on the surface as a routine inter-party meeting was, in reality, a calculated strategic masterstroke — one that sends ripples far beyond the Taiwan Strait.
While Washington remains entangled in multiple crises and its China policy drifts between ambiguity and provocation, Beijing is playing a far more sophisticated game: directly engaging pragmatic forces inside Taiwan itself. By reopening high-level channels with the island’s main opposition after a decade-long hiatus, Xi has reframed the narrative from confrontation to inevitability.
This was not mere dialogue. It was positioning — and a clear demonstration of Beijing’s long-term vision.
Fractures Beneath the Surface
Taiwan’s political scene has long been split between the Kuomintang and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The KMT continues to uphold the 1992 Consensus as the common political foundation for cross-Strait engagement, advocating dialogue, economic integration, and stability. The DPP, by contrast, has pushed an increasingly separatist identity agenda, backed politically and rhetorically by the United States.
Yet cracks are widening within the DPP’s rigid posture. Its confrontational approach has delivered economic uncertainty, heightened strategic risks, and growing public fatigue on the island. The KMT, meanwhile, positions itself as the voice of reason — arguing that true security and prosperity stem from engagement, not escalation or reliance on external powers.
Beijing sees this divide clearly — and is acting with precision.
The Meeting That Shifted the Tone
The substance matched the powerful symbolism of the encounter.
Xi Jinping stressed that compatriots on both sides of the Strait are “one family” who share blood ties that no one can sever.
“When the family is harmonious, all things will prosper,” he declared, while delivering a firm warning: “Taiwan independence is the chief culprit undermining peace in the Taiwan Strait — we will absolutely not tolerate or condone it.”
He called for joint efforts to advance peaceful development and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, reaffirming that the future of cross-Strait relations lies in the hands of the Chinese people themselves.
Cheng Li-wun described her visit as a “peace mission,” emphasizing the need for enhanced economic dialogue, mutual respect, and practical cooperation. She reaffirmed adherence to the 1992 Consensus and opposition to “Taiwan independence,” positioning the KMT as a bridge for stability rather than a tool of division.
This was a meeting grounded in shared civilizational roots and aligned strategic incentives.
Beijing’s Strategic Clarity
What emerges from the encounter is a coherent and patient doctrine. Rather than relying solely on pressure, Beijing is cultivating ties with rational, pragmatic actors on Taiwan — those willing to prioritize peace and mutual benefit over ideological confrontation. The strategy is calibrated and long-term (see this):
as the political foundation, isolate hardline separatist elements together with external interference, deepen economic and cultural interdependence, and allow internal dynamics on the island to gradually shift the balance.
In this framework, the KMT is not simply an opposition party — it serves as a vital conduit for cross-Strait stabilization and a channel toward eventual national reunification.
This is realpolitik at its finest: turning internal divisions into opportunities for peaceful progress.
Washington’s Waning Leverage
The timing could not be more telling.
As the United States grapples with global overstretch — including tensions surrounding Iran — its approach to Taiwan continues to oscillate between symbolic arms sales and strategic ambiguity. The result is not enhanced deterrence, but growing uncertainty and eroded credibility.
Beijing, by contrast, offers consistency: the same principled stance, the same historical framework, and the same vision of peaceful reunification.
While Washington treats Taiwan as a geopolitical pawn in its Indo-Pacific containment strategy, Beijing views the issue as an internal Chinese matter rooted in history and national rejuvenation. The DPP’s reflexive condemnation of the meeting as “betrayal” only exposes its dependence on external backing and its detachment from pragmatic realities.
A Multipolar Reality in Motion
This meeting is no isolated event — it forms part of a broader structural shift in the emerging multipolar order.
In today’s world, influence flows not only from military alliances or sanctions, but from strategic patience, economic interdependence, and direct political engagement. By bypassing Washington’s intermediaries and speaking directly to forces within Taiwan, Beijing demonstrates that the future of the Strait will be decided by the Chinese people themselves — not dictated from distant capitals.
The message is unmistakable: external interference is increasingly irrelevant as internal convergence accelerates.
An Inevitable Trajectory
History does not always move in straight lines, yet certain trends assert themselves with undeniable force.
The Xi-Cheng meeting signals far more than diplomatic thawing. It reflects a deepening recognition that dialogue, economic logic, and shared national destiny are steadily outweighing confrontation and separatism.
Taiwan’s future will not be settled in Washington or any other foreign capital. It will emerge from the interplay of political, economic, and cultural forces across the Strait — forces that are increasingly converging toward one destination.
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Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/taiwan-beijing-peace-offensive/5923580
Study Shows Adult Vaccines Linked to 38-50% Risk of Dementia and Alzheimer’s
Source: Nicolas Hulscher, MPH
The single LARGEST vaccine–dementia study ever conducted (n=13.3 MILLION) found that adult vaccines (flu, pneumococcal, shingles, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) increase risk of DEMENTIA (+38%) and ALZHEIMER’S (+50%) for a DECADE.
The more doses, the higher the dementia risk:
1 vaccine dose → 26% higher risk of dementia
2–3 doses → 32% higher risk
4–7 doses → 42% higher risk
8–12 doses → 50% higher risk
≥13 doses → 55% higher risk
[…]
Via https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/disturbing-the-single-largest-vaccinedementia
The True Cost of Tree Paper vs Hemp Paper
hemppaperco.com
The paper industry consumes over 4 billion trees annually. That number has been growing steadily as global packaging demand increases — driven by e-commerce, food delivery, and the ongoing shift away from single-use plastics. But there’s a fundamental question that rarely gets asked: is wood actually the best fiber for making paper?
The answer, based on material science, economics, and environmental impact, is no. Hemp is a superior paper fiber by virtually every measurable metric. Here’s a comprehensive comparison.
Growth Cycle: 120 Days vs 20–80 Years
This is the most dramatic difference between hemp and trees as paper feedstock. Hemp reaches full maturity and is ready for harvest in approximately 120 days from planting. Trees used for paper pulp — primarily softwoods like pine and spruce — take 20 to 80 years to reach harvestable size, depending on the species and growing conditions.
This means a single field of hemp can produce a paper fiber harvest three times per year in tropical climates, or once per year in temperate zones. A forest planted for paper production will produce one harvest per generation. The throughput difference is staggering.
Yield Per Acre: 4x More Fiber
One acre of hemp produces approximately 4 times more usable paper fiber than one acre of trees over a 20-year cycle. This is a combination of hemp’s faster growth, higher cellulose content (57% vs 40–50%), and denser planting capacity.
In practical terms, this means that replacing tree-based paper with hemp paper would require dramatically less agricultural land. Given that deforestation for paper production is a significant driver of habitat loss and biodiversity decline, this land efficiency has enormous environmental implications.
Environmental Impact Comparison
Deforestation. Tree paper directly causes deforestation. Even “sustainably managed” tree farms are monoculture plantations that replace diverse ecosystems. Hemp is an annual crop grown on agricultural land that doesn’t require clearing forests.
Water usage. Tree paper production is one of the most water-intensive industrial processes. The pulping and bleaching of wood fiber requires enormous quantities of water, much of which becomes contaminated with chlorine compounds and other processing chemicals. Hemp paper production requires significantly less water per ton of finished paper.
Chemical processing. Wood contains 20–35% lignin, which must be chemically removed to produce white paper. This process typically involves chlorine-based bleaching agents that produce toxic byproducts including dioxins. Hemp’s lower lignin content (5–24%) means less chemical processing and the potential to produce paper without chlorine bleaching entirely.
Carbon impact. Trees do absorb carbon as they grow, but when they’re harvested for paper, much of that stored carbon is eventually released through decomposition or incineration. Hemp absorbs more CO₂ per acre per year than trees because of its rapid growth cycle. And because hemp can be harvested annually, the carbon absorption is continuous rather than cyclical over decades.
Pesticides. Tree plantations often require pesticide and herbicide applications to manage competing vegetation and pests. Hemp grows densely enough to shade out weeds naturally and has natural pest resistance, typically requiring zero pesticide applications.
Strength and Durability
As covered in depth in our article on hemp paper strength, hemp paper is approximately 2x stronger than tree paper due to longer fiber length and tighter fiber bonding. Hemp paper can also be recycled up to 8 times compared to 3 times for tree paper, because the longer fibers maintain structural integrity through more recycling cycles.
The Cost Question
The most common pushback against hemp paper is cost. Currently, hemp paper products carry a price premium over conventional tree paper. Our hemp bags start at $0.120 per unit at volume, compared to approximately $0.04–$0.08 for conventional tree paper bags.
However, this price difference is not inherent to the material — it’s a function of scale and infrastructure. The tree paper industry has had over 150 years to optimize its supply chain, build dedicated processing facilities, and achieve economies of scale. The hemp paper industry is rebuilding from essentially zero after decades of prohibition.
As hemp cultivation scales up under the 2018 Farm Bill and dedicated hemp processing facilities come online, the cost gap is narrowing. Industry analysts project that hemp paper will reach cost parity with tree paper within the next decade as infrastructure matures.
In the meantime, many businesses find that the premium is justified by the brand value of demonstrably sustainable packaging. Consumers increasingly report willingness to pay more for products from brands that demonstrate genuine environmental commitment. A hemp paper bag isn’t just a bag — it’s a brand statement.
The Historical Perspective
It’s worth noting that tree-based paper is actually the newcomer in this comparison. Hemp was the dominant paper fiber for thousands of years. The oldest known paper, found in China and dating back over 2,000 years, was made from hemp. The Gutenberg Bible was printed on hemp paper. The first two drafts of the U.S. Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper.
The switch to wood-based paper happened in the mid-19th century, driven not by material superiority but by the industrialization of logging and the decline of hemp cultivation. We didn’t switch to tree paper because it was better. We switched because trees were already being cut down for lumber, and paper mills could use the waste.
Making the Switch
The shift from tree paper to hemp paper doesn’t require wholesale changes to your packaging operations. Hemp paper bags, cartons, and paperboard are the same form factor as conventional products. They accept the same custom printing processes. They work with the same storage and handling procedures.
The only thing that changes is the material itself — and with it, your brand’s environmental footprint. Every hemp paper bag your business uses represents one less contribution to deforestation, one less dose of chlorine bleach in the water supply, and one more signal to your customers that you take sustainability seriously.
Hemp Paper vs Tree Paper: Quick Comparison
Growth to harvest: Hemp takes 120 days. Trees take 20–80 years. A single hemp field produces usable fiber multiple times before a tree plantation yields its first harvest.
Fiber yield per acre: Hemp produces approximately 4x more paper fiber per acre than trees over a 20-year cycle. This means replacing tree paper with hemp paper requires a fraction of the land.
Strength: Hemp paper is approximately 2x stronger than tree paper at equivalent weight, due to fiber lengths of 13–25mm versus 2–5mm for wood pulp.
Recyclability: Hemp paper can be recycled up to 8 times. Tree paper maxes out at 3 cycles before fibers become too short to bond.
Chemical processing: Hemp requires less chemical processing due to lower lignin content (5–24% vs 20–35% in wood), potentially eliminating the need for chlorine bleaching.
Pesticides: Hemp typically requires zero pesticide applications. Tree plantations routinely use herbicides and pesticides.
Carbon absorption: Hemp absorbs more CO₂ per acre per year than trees due to its rapid annual growth cycle, making hemp packaging materials effectively carbon-negative during the cultivation phase.
Common Objections Addressed
“But trees are renewable too.” Technically yes, but the timescales are completely different. A renewable resource that takes 40 years to regenerate is not equivalent to one that regenerates in 120 days. At current consumption rates, tree harvesting for paper exceeds natural regeneration in many regions, which is why global forest cover continues to decline.
“Hemp paper is too expensive.” Currently, yes, there’s a premium. But the premium reflects supply chain immaturity, not inherent material cost. Hemp fiber is actually cheaper to produce per ton than wood fiber when you account for the full production cycle. As hemp processing scales up, prices will normalize. In the meantime, the premium is small relative to the brand value and customer loyalty that demonstrably sustainable packaging generates.
“My customers won’t notice the difference.” They will. Hemp paper has a distinct look and feel that customers recognize as different from standard kraft paper. And when you add messaging like “100% hemp — zero trees” to your bags, you’re creating a conversation. Businesses that have switched report that customers ask about the bags, photograph them, and share them on social media. That’s organic marketing you don’t get from conventional paper.
“Is hemp paper really practical at scale?” Yes. Hemp Paper Company already supplies businesses across Hawaii and the mainland with hundreds of thousands of hemp paper bags. Our products use standard bag dimensions, accept standard printing processes, and work with existing packaging workflows. The switch is operationally seamless — the only change is the material.
[…]
Trump Rules Out Use of Nuclear Weapons in Iran War
HP McLovingcraft
President Donald Trump on Thursday ruled out using a nuclear weapon in the war with Iran.
He told reporters in the Oval Office that the United States has already greatly weakened the Islamic Republic with conventional weapons, declaring that “a nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.”
PBS NewsHour correspondent Liz Landers asked the president whether nuclear weapons might be used in the war, which the president said was a “stupid” question.
“Why would I use a nuclear weapon when we’ve totally and in a very conventional way decimated them without it?” Trump said. “I wouldn’t use it.”
Two days ago, Trump extended a two-week ceasefire with Tehran, calling the Iranian leadership “seriously fractured.” He also cited a request from Pakistan’s prime minister as another reason for extending the ceasefire.
In an April 17 Truth Social post, Trump said that Iran had agreed to surrender enriched uranium buried by last summer’s strikes on an underground base.
[…]
Via https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/trump-rules-out-use-of-nuclear-weapons-in-iran-war-6016516
Net Zero: Premeditated Industrial Destruction
HP McLovingcroft
On 1 April, the Great British Business Council (“GBBC”), a newly formed think tank, published a paper titled ‘Premeditated Industrial Destruction: How the UK Destroyed Its Industry and A Plan To Reverse This’.
The paper is authored by economist Catherine McBride, retired engineer and consultant David Turver and public relations consultant Brian Monteith. It demonstrates how the Government’s Net Zero policies are destroying the foundations of the UK economy and provides recommendations on how Net Zero could be reversed.
Because this paper is important in revealing some home truths, we are reproducing it in a series of articles, more manageable chunks if you will, so that, hopefully, more will read it, or at least read part of it. This is the final article in the series. We have made some minor edits for readability purposes. For those who choose to read the paper in one sitting, you can do so HERE.
[…]
Via https://hellboundanddown.com/2026/04/25/net-zero-premeditated-industrial-destruction/
The Most Revolutionary Act 