Michael Snyder

This normally doesn’t happen.  During regular times, a hurricane is not supposed to go from Category 1 to Category 5 in less than a day.  At this moment, the roads out of the Tampa Bay area are absolutely jammed with vehicles as local residents attempt to get out of the path of the coming storm.  We literally just witnessed one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history, and now we are being told that Hurricane Milton could also be one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.  So what in the world is going on here?

When I woke up on Monday morning, I was shocked to learn that Hurricane Milton had developed into a Category 5 storm with sustained wins of 160 mph…

With winds of 160 mph, Milton has strengthened into the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane Beryl was the first storm to reach Category 5 status, doing so while it was traversing the Caribbean Sea in early July.

Milton was only a tropical storm on Sunday morning, but winds ramped up at a tremendous pace, spiking from 60 mph to 160 mph in just 28 hours. Additionally, an abundance of lighting has been flashing around the eye of Milton, an indication that it could still be strengthening.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Just a few hours later, it was being reported that Hurricane Milton had sustained winds of 175 mph…

Hurricane Milton has grown into an explosive Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 175 miles per hour, just two days after it developed in the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said Monday.

The hurricane was expanding and intensifying quickly Monday while tracking eastward over warm Gulf waters, with the latest growth happening much faster than forecasts suggested. Milton is expected to bring life-threatening conditions to parts of Florida, potentially as early as Tuesday.

Milton’s winds surged to 175 mph Monday, exceeding the threshold for Category 5 by a significant margin, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. The storm’s wind speeds more than doubled in the last 48 hours.

Of course that wasn’t the peak either.

Just a little while ago, we were told that Hurricane Milton now had sustained winds of 180 mph…

Hurricane Milton strengthened to a Category 5 powerhouse Monday, driving sustained winds of 180 mph as it rolled across the Gulf of Mexico bound for what could be a devastating crash Wednesday along Florida’s already storm-battered western coast.

The National Hurricane Center said on its 5 p.m. advisory that Milton had reached those rare wind speeds, three hours after warning the hurricane had “explosively” intensified to 175 mph.

Come on now.

This isn’t supposed to happen.

Especially in October.

On Monday alone, the storm’s winds increased by 90 mph.

That is nuts!

One meteorologist was literally “on the verge of tears” as he discussed how powerful this storm was becoming…

Meteorology expert John Morales was on the verge of tears as he reported on what is to come for Florida live on NBC6.

‘It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped– ‘ Morales said before pausing, visibly emotional.

‘It has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours,’ he continued. ‘I apologize. This is just horrific.’

A lot of people have been searching for “Category 6 hurricane” on Google, and USA Today published an entire article that speculated that a “hypothetical Category 6” could soon be added to the scale that we use to measure storms…

The rapidly developing hurricane that shows no signs of stopping won’t technically become a Category 6 because the category doesn’t exist at the moment. But it could soon reach the level of a hypothetical Category 6 experts have discussed and stir up arguments about whether the National Hurricane Center’s long-used scale for classifying hurricane wind speeds from Category 1 to 5 might need an overhaul.

This is a “once in a century” storm, but of course we just witnessed a “once in a century” storm.

It is so difficult to project exactly where large hurricanes will go, but right now forecasters are telling us that Hurricane Milton is heading straight toward the Tampa Bay area…

Milton is aiming directly for the Tampa Bay area—one of the state’s largest metro areas and home to more than 3 million people.

The Tampa Bay area has seen its fair share of hurricanes, but the storms typically do not strike the region directly from the west from the Gulf of Mexico, instead traveling north along the coast, as seen in the paths of Hurricane Ian in 2022.

AccuWeather’s chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter called Milton’s trajectory “unusual and extremely concerning.”

This is the kind of storm that can rip the roof right off a home and send trees hurtling through the air like missiles.

If Tampa takes a direct hit, the damage could be absolutely catastrophic.

According to one local meteorologist, this storm has the potential to be “the worst natural disaster in modern history for Florida”…

Hurricane Milton will be the worst disaster that Florida has ever seen, a longstanding weatherman has warned.

David Hartman, who works for WAPT in neighboring Mississippi, wrote: ‘Sadly, this is shaping up to the worst natural disaster in modern history for Florida.’

If you live in the Tampa Bay area, please leave.

At a press conference on Monday, one Florida official was literally begging people to evacuate…

Speaking at a press conference Monday alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state’s director of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, urged those in the Tampa Bay area to evacuate.

“I beg you. I implore you,” Guthrie said. “Drowning deaths due to storm surge are 100% preventable if you leave.”

This storm was not supposed to become this powerful.

So what happened?

There are some people that are placing the blame on our changing climate, but others are pointing out that man-made tools can cause apocalyptic weather events as well.

For example, earlier this year “cloud-seeding” was being blamed for producing “the heaviest rain ever recorded” in the United Arab Emirates…

The United Arab Emirates is today attempting to dry out after the heaviest rain ever recorded in the desert nation caused utter chaos – but there are suspicions the horrific flooding in Dubai and elsewhere may have been self-inflicted.

The typically scorching UAE heavily relies on cloud-seeding – a technique which sees aircraft fire salt flares into clouds to speed up condensation and induce rainfall – to provide its groundwater.

Flight-tracking data analysed by the Associated Press showed one aircraft affiliated with the UAE’s cloud-seeding efforts flew around the country on Sunday.

This technique has been used all over the world for decades, and in my opinion it should be completely banned.

According to CBS News, scientists have also been working on a way “to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning”…

For many Americans who wished they could change the weather — whether it be in the Northeast during this past winter or in drought-stricken California — researchers may have found a way to aim a high-energy laser beam into clouds to make it rain or trigger lightning.

The existence of condensation, storms and lightning are all due to the presence of large amounts of static electricity in the clouds. Researchers from the University of Central Florida and the University of Arizona say that a laser beam could activate those large amounts of static electricity and create storms on demand.

By surrounding a beam with another beam that will act as an energy reservoir, the central beam will be sustained for greater distances than previously possible. The secondary beam will refuel and help to prevent the dissipation of the primary beam, which would break down quickly on its own.

Ultimately, there are lots of ways that the weather can be manipulated.

At this stage, we just don’t know what has caused Hurricane Milton to experience “explosive” growth.

But what we do know is that this storm is extremely dangerous, and it is anticipated that it will make landfall some time on Wednesday…

Time is running out for Floridians to prepare for Hurricane Milton, which is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane on Wednesday evening. Stores across central Florida, including those in Orlando, are already running out of bottled water and other essential supplies.

“We are preparing … for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma,” Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said, according to The Associated Press. In addition to all of Fort Myers Beach, mandatory evacuations have been issued for all mobile and manufactured homes in areas near Tampa Bay. AccuWeather is predicting storm surge will reach 10 to 15 feet along a long area of the Florida coast surrounding Tampa Bay.

Needless to say, the Tampa Bay area is not the only area that is being threatened.

So far, a state of emergency has been imposed in 51 of Florida’s 67 counties by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis already placed 51 of the state’s 67 counties under a State of Emergency, and on Monday, President Joe Biden approved the state’s pre-landfall emergency declaration request, which now authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures.

A lot of people will attempt to ride this storm out.

Some will survive, and others will not.

We have never had two storms of such destructive power hit us so close together.

But what we are going through now is nothing compared to what is coming.

As I have been warning for years, historic natural disasters are going to be happening one after another.

We set a record for “billion dollar disasters” last year, and I am sure that we will set another record this year.

This is our “new normal”, and things are only going to get even more crazy from this point forward.

[…]

Via https://endoftheamericandream.com/did-hurricane-milton-have-help-in-suddenly-becoming-one-of-the-most-powerful-storms-in-history/

Peggy Hall

Yesterday I spoke with Dane Wiggington, a returning guest and founder of Geoengineering Watch. Many of you may already follow him on Instagram and YouTube, where he provides insightful analysis on climate manipulation and its impacts. In this interview, we’re taking a closer look at Hurricane Helene and discussing whether its formation and path were natural or intentionally manipulated. We’ll dive into what Dane refers to as toxic interventions in our skies, and he will break down some of the most alarming signs that this storm may not have been purely nature’s doing.

[…]

For now, here are some key points from Dane’s video ‘Hurricane Helene And Frequency Transmissions, 90 Second Alert:’

• Circular blue flashes seen in the video are believed to be frequency transmissions
• Evidence suggests that atmospheric frequency transmissions can repel air masses, especially when they contain electrically conductive nanoparticles.
• Brighter blue flashes indicate stronger transmissions, leading to a more pronounced repelling effect on storms in the vicinity.
• In areas without blue flashes, there is no transmission, and storms can move freely in those directions.

So this raises the question: Was Hurricane Helen’s path and behavior simply the result of natural climate processes, or was it engineered through intentional atmospheric manipulation?

Friends, this information is best listened to, so here you go:

[…]

https://peggyhall.substack.com/p/hurricane-helene-frequency-transmission

Ed Note: Excellent discussion on Badlands Daily on atypical path of both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton: https://rumble.com/v5hrthx-badlands-daily-monday-october-7-2024.html

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Episode 15 Life in Medieval Palaces

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

Europe

In the high Middle Ages (12th-13th) noble women, including Eleanor of Aquitaine, ran their kingdoms and feudal estates when their husbands were away at war. Keeping up with the latest fashions was a sign of wealth, and they wore silks, exotic furs, low cut dresses that revealed their breasts, make up. They curled their hair with hot irons and replaced their scarves with hats. By the 14th century men were wearing short tunics and revealingly tight pants.

Many medieval forests were clear cut for the scaffolding used to construct European castles and city walls. Servants slept in the same room as the king/queen, who had curtains around their bed mainly for warmth. Prior to to the 13th century, when the first fireplaces were installed, the smoke-filled rooms of castles were heated by open hearths vented by small glass-less windows in the outer walls..

Meals – Medieval European nobles ate more meat per capita than any other culture on Earth. Forbidden to eat carnivores, Catholics ate pork to distinguish themselves from Jews and Arabs and regarded horse meat (associated with pagan Scandinavians as taboo. They used onions, leak, garlic, parsnips, cabbages and turnips as seasonings, and easily accessed apples, pear and berries. Members of the nobility used bread slices as plates and spoons and knives. Peasants boiled their grain because it was more nutritious than making it into bread. They depended more on beans, eggs and cheese for protein and ate more vegetables.

Beverages – the nobility drank wine imported from France, Spain and Greece. Peasants drank ale (less alcoholic than beer), which was unhopped and had to be brewed daily (hops serve as a preservative). They also drank hard cider, mead (made from honey), perry (pear cider) and, contrary to contemporary mythology, water.

Middle East

Only one Muslim palace remains because Muslim rulers tore down their predecessors’ palace. Only one survives, the 14th century Alhambra in Grenada.

Turkish palaces had no fireplaces and were heated by small charcoal braziers.

Persian castles had very narrow fireplaces that required wood to be stacked on end for burning.

In Muslim palaces, men and women were were strictly segregated. Rulers were allowed concubines in addition to four wives.

Outside of Europe people sat cross legged or squatted to eat and used hands, spoons and knives. Under Islam, meat had to be Halal, which meant all the blood had to be removed prior to cooking. Carrion and pork were forbidden, but Muslims could eat all typesseafood, a variety of cheeses and yogurt and lot of spices. Muslim nobility drank snow water from the mountains, near beer other other lightly fermented drinks and mixed fruit juices.

Asia

Indian palaces had no heating. Instead guests were provided with woolen coverings.

In 12th century China, the emperor’s palace, windows were covered with silk, rather than paper, as used in Japan and Korea. Women were secluded as part of Confucian tradition (and were only sent for for sex) and royal women had to be carried because foot binding prevented them from walking.

Meals – During the 7th century, many in the Chinese nobility still sat on the floor to eat, though others began copying nomads who lay on couches. There was no restriction on the animal protein they could eat (pork was most popular, but they also ate camel, bear,  bamboo rat, sea otters, flying cockroaches, elephants, monkeys, snakes). They alao ate fish, horseshoe crab and imported mangoes, figa and citrus. Chopsticks replaced knives and spoon in chopsticks in 400 AD.* Owing to a meat shortage, cooks diced the meat and smothered it in rice. Chopsticks worked better for plucking out minute portions of meat of meat. In northern China, millet was the main staple, in southern China rice.

Beverages – They drank fruit juice flavored water, tea (from 6th century on), and rice wine.

Emperors and nobles slept on cushions surrounded by their servants who slept on the floor

*Confucius, who was a vegetarian, believed there was no place for knives at the table because they reminded him of the slaughter house.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172813

Zero Hedge

New data from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s homeschool research lab show that 90 percent of states reporting data saw an increase in homeschooling in the 2023–2024 school year.

The report examined data from 21 out of 30 states that collect or report homeschool participation information. The other nine states are expected to report data in the coming months.

The 19 states that experienced growth were Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Only Vermont and New Hampshire showed a decline from the previous school year in the total number of homeschooled students.

The report identified two primary trends: sustained growth and rebounding growth. The three states with sustained growth, meaning they experienced no post-COVID-19 pandemic decline, were Louisiana, South Carolina, and South Dakota.

The other 16 states exhibited a rebounding trend, meaning they saw a post-COVID-19 pandemic decline, followed by an increase in 2023–2024.

“While homeschooling grew rapidly during the pandemic, most people thought that students would return to more traditional schools when the pandemic disruptions abated,” the report states.

“Some states did show a decline, but few have returned to normal, even four years after the onset of the pandemic.”

During the 2023–2024 school year, the number of homeschoolers in North Dakota reached an all-time high, reflecting a 24 percent increase from the previous year. Similarly, Rhode Island saw a 67 percent increase in the number of homeschoolers from the previous year. Wyoming also hit an all-time high with an 8 percent increase over the previous year.

“The big takeaway is that this is new homeschool growth that we see in last year’s state reports,” report author Angela Watson said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

“The rebound effect is really interesting and we aren’t sure of the reason—but we know it’s not because of a global pandemic.”

Tracking accurate data on homeschoolers is challenging due to varying legislation and reporting requirements. States have different policies regarding homeschoolers; some classify them as private school students, while others do not.

“The fact that so many states are reporting highest-ever numbers seems like a big finding as well,” Watson said,

“and that these counts are going up while overall school enrollment and population is declining.”

Some states, such as Texas, do not report homeschool statistics. However, other data indicate an increase in homeschool participation in the Lone Star state.

The Texas Homeschool Coalition examined data from the U.S. Census Bureau that showed that homeschooling in Texas nearly tripled between the spring and fall of 2020, rising from 4.5 percent to 12.3 percent.

The coalition also cited information gathered from the Texas Education Agency and statewide school districts indicating that more than 50,000 students migrated from public schools to homeschooling in 2022 and 2023.

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/political/homeschooling-numbers-continue-climb-after-covid-19-pandemic-report

By Jack Morphet and Chris Nesi

FEMA abandons devastated NC town residents because it can’t drive around ‘Road Closed’ sign: ‘Nobody’s been bringing in supplies except civilians’

BAT CAVE, North Carolina — Residents of a tiny North Carolina town that was almost totally destroyed by Hurricane Helene have been fending for themselves after FEMA told them that a “Road Closed” sign is an insurmountable obstacle for the agency to navigate.

“FEMA called me and told me they wanted to inspect my house, then called me back to say they couldn’t drive around the ‘Road Closed’ sign. They weren’t allowed,” local Chelsea Atkins, 38, told The Post.

“You can drive it by car for sure, it’s not that bad, you just have to drive around the ‘Road Closed’ sign. I explained that to them. They said they couldn’t,” she said, recounting her maddening exchange with the embattled federal agency.

Left to fend for themselves, Bat Cave residents banded together — opening the roads and starting the arduous work of cleanup and recovery. Residents told The Post that they don’t need FEMA now — and at this point, they don’t even want the disaster relief agency to come.

While the sick and elderly residents of Bat Cave were airlifted to safety a week ago, those left behind have seen virtually no sign of government agencies, save for a handful of Louisiana state troopers “keeping an eye on everything,” who locals say haven’t done much of anything.

The intermittent whir of military Chinook helicopters buzzing over the town serves as a reminder that people in the devastated west of the state are getting help — just not in Bat Cave.

Here, apple orchard workers armed with chainsaws worked with a local grading contractor to clear the roads well before the Department of Transportation arrived to help, although they were grateful for the assist when it finally showed up.

The few remaining locals have scavenged building supplies to shore up homes teetering on the edge of the Broad River, which is now 10 times wider than it was before Helene carved its path of destruction.

Atkins, a health researcher, originally from Buffalo, NY, said she thought she was going to die when the storm hit Bat Cave. She and her husband, Andy Wells, 40, sought shelter Friday morning in the foyer of a small white brick post office across Highway 64 with neighbors Kendall and her fiancée, Curtis McCart, 58.

“It was wild,” Atkins said.

When floodwaters started to deluge their makeshift refuge, the displaced locals made their way to empty houses on higher ground, trudging up the side of a mountain in a desperate attempt to reach safety. The first home they tried had a gas leak, and the ground beneath the porch of a second slipped out from under them.

“At first we thought we’d be fine waiting out the storm in the post office for a couple of hours and then walk back home. With every minute that went by, the situation got more and more dire,” she said.

“The post office flooded and that’s when we realized the s—t was really hitting the fan.”

Atkins says she’s not usually frightened by weather, but admits that at that point, she genuinely feared for her life.

“I’m not very ruffled by nature, I can really handle a lot, but I looked at my neighbor and asked, ‘Are we going to die?,’ like real talk ‘Are we going to die?’”

The next cabin the group tried had a screened-in porch and provided them with the shelter they had sought.

Atkins said FEMA called her to arrange an inspection of her house on the Broad River that was rendered uninhabitable by the storm, but that the agency never showed up because the road was closed — the very same road The Post traversed on its way into Bat Cave.

The road is treacherous but navigable. It’s littered with downed power lines, and whole sections have collapsed. One portion of Highway 9 is entirely washed away, forcing traffic to navigate a huge chasm through someone’s front yard.

“FEMA hasn’t been here,” Atkins said.

“The DOT’s been here, and random fire departments, like Kannapolis. They were great. But nobody’s been bringing in supplies except civilians,” she shared.

At this late stage in the recovery effort, Atkins said, there are concerns that FEMA showing up at this point could do more harm than good.

“It’s been a civilian-run operation since day one. You can’t ask the authorities for help — they’ll say you need to leave,” she said, calling Bat Cave a “country boy can survive” kind of place.

“We’re handling it. Leave it to us and we’ll get it covered.”

Her neighbor McCart, a retired Los Angeles fire captain and paramedic, estimates a dozen houses along his stretch of the winding Highway 64 were washed away in the storm.

The town itself has been ripped in half — a 15-foot segment of bridge connecting the two halves of the town was destroyed. Though the gap is now spanned with pieces of sheet metal, they can’t support a car’s weight, forcing residents to traverse the span only on foot.

The Broad River was only 10 yards wide in front of McCart’s home before the hurricane. Now it’s a 100-yard-wide morass strewn with trees, concrete slabs, twisted tin and powerlines with their transformers still connected.

“We had huge, 60-feet-tall sycamores in front of the house, which must have been 100-and-something years old, that are all gone. Because of their age, they must have been here in the 1916 flood, which I heard was 27 to 30 feet. This flood must have been worse, I heard this flood was 40 feet,” he said.

McCart hasn’t seen anyone in Bat Cave wearing a FEMA uniform, and like Atkins, he worries about what will happen if the agency shows up as he works to buttress the third floor of his home to stop the attic roof from toppling.

“At this point, I don’t care if FEMA comes by. I don’t want somebody to pull me out of here, saying I’m working in an unsafe spot,” he said. “I’m wondering if Big Brother is going to allow us to rebuild.”

The unincorporated community — with a population of just 180 residents — is about 30 miles southeast of Asheville.

At least 232 people in the Southeast have lost their lives in Hurricane Helene so far, with hundreds still reported missing.

The Category 4 storm was the deadliest mainland US hurricane since Katrina rocked the Gulf Coast in 2005.

[…]

Via https://nypost.com/2024/10/06/us-news/fema-abandons-residents-of-devastated-nc-town-because-of-road-closed-sign/

Displaced Palestinians make their way as they flee areas in northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli evacuation order, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia, October 6, 2024. REUTERS/Hussam Al-Zaanin

Comments by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

Returning to northern Gaza almost exactly 1 year from the start of the Hamas-Israel war on October 7, 2023, the IDF is again attacking Palestinians and forcing all the remaining Palestinians to leave northern Gaza.

Israel’s military says it has encircled Jabalya, northern Gaza and launched a new ground operation, after seeing signs of Hamas rebuilding, despite nearly a year of fighting and strikes in the territory.

Despite attention shifting to Lebanon after Israeli forces escalated their attacks on the Hezbollah militant group, Israel continues to operate across Gaza and is again focusing on an area it previously said was rid of Hamas.

Elsewhere in Gaza, at least 25 people are confirmed dead after Israeli airstrikes hit a mosque and a school in the center of the territory, hospital officials say. Israel said Hamas was embedded in both buildings. (Source.)

Dave DeCamp, writing for AntiWar.com, writes that this is part of the “general’s plan” to complete ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from areas in Gaza north of the Netzarim Corridor, paving the way for Jewish settlements in the area.

>New Israeli Assault on North Gaza Signals Start of Ethnic Cleansing Plan

Israel ordered all Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to head south, the first step in the so-called “general’s plan” that ends with ethnic cleansing

The Israeli military has launched a fresh assault on northern Gaza and ordered all Palestinian civilians living in the north to head south, signaling Israel may be enacting an ethnic cleansing plan that has been reviewed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Known as the “general’s plan” since it was drawn up by retired IDF generals, the plan would result in the complete ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from areas in Gaza north of the Netzarim Corridor, a strip of land controlled by the Israeli military that separates Gaza City and other parts of the north from the south.

The first step of the plan is to transfer the estimated 300,000 Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza, then impose a full siege on the north to starve out remaining Hamas fighters and other Palestinians who remain. Northern Gaza would be declared a “closed military zone,” meaning anyone who remains will be targeted by the IDF.

Since Israel has bombed so-called “safe zones” throughout the war and the tent camps in the south are already extremely overcrowded, many Palestinian civilians are expected to ignore the new evacuation order. According to Al Jazeera, some Palestinians have started to head south, but Palestinian authorities are calling on civilians to ignore the Israeli evacuation order.

“Israeli claims about the presence of safe zones in southern Gaza are lies as Israel commits crimes and massacres in all areas of the enclave,” Gaza’s Interior Ministry said. “We call on citizens in northern Gaza to ignore Israeli threats.”

Israeli forces are currently focusing their renewed assault in northern Gaza on the Jabalia refugee camp and have sent tanks into the area for the first time in months.

At least 17 people, including nine children, were killed by Israeli attacks on Jabalia overnight Saturday into Sunday.

The Israeli military said it has surrounded Jabalia, while Palestinian Islamic Jihad said its fighters have targeted Israeli troops attempting to penetrate the camp.

Under the general’s plan, once Israel kills and starves the remaining Palestinians in northern Gaza, it can use the same tactics in other areas of the Strip. Israel’s assault on Lebanon and the looming Israeli attack on Iran has taken much of the world’s attention away from the genocidal war in Gaza, giving Netanyahu an opportunity to enact the ethnic cleansing plan with less global scrutiny.

The Israeli takeover of northern Gaza could pave the way for Jewish settlements in the area, an idea supported by many Israeli ministers and Knesset members. (Source.)

Inside China Business | August 15, 2024

US and European airlines are banned from Russian airspace, and so must route around the world’s largest country. This is causing much longer and costlier flights between North America and Europe, and destinations in Southeast Asia. Chinese, Korean, and Indian airlines still enjoy Russian overflight privileges, however, and can thereby offer shorter and less expensive fares. As a result, Chinese carriers are gobbling up markets and gates across international markets. Chinese airlines already operate with 30% lower costs on a passenger-mile basis compared to US- and European-flagged carriers, and their cost advantages only multiply after adjusting for the issues involving Russian airspace.

Resources and links:

Flight maps from Great Circle Maps http://www.greatcirclemap.com) and Reuters, Unfriendly skies:

How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is redrawing air routes https://www.reuters.com/graphics/UKRA…

A year into Russian airspace ban, flight costs and lengths are rising https://globalnews.ca/news/9645165/ru…

Flight Radar, Which major airlines are still flying over Russian airspace? https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/wh…

British Airways axes one of its ‘most important’ routes amid Russian airspace ban https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/…

Reuters, British Airways to halt flights to Beijing from Oct. 26 https://www.reuters.com/business/aero…

Reuters, Foreign airlines lose interest in China as domestic carriers expand abroad https://www.reuters.com/business/aero…

Bloomberg, US Airlines Urge Officials to Block Additional China Flights https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl…

Europe buying Russian oil via India at record rates in 2023 despite Ukraine war https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo…

Reuters, Airbus wins reprieve from Canadian sanctions on Russian titanium https://www.reuters.com/business/aero…

[…]

Via https://alethonews.com/2024/10/06/chinese-airlines-grab-market-share-from-us-and-european-carriers-who-have-to-fly-around-russia/