American voters punished Republicans over petrol prices but neither party offered a path away from oil. China and others are racing ahead on net zero transition. COP31 is the moment for the US to rejoin the world – or watch its economy contract.

What are the options for the US as it faces up to the deeply felt cost of fuel in its midterm election rout of the Republicans? Could they rejoin the world at COP31?

Peter Newman

Germany can’t provide Ukraine with any more US-made Patriot air defense systems because it would dangerously deplete its own stocks, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has said.

In an interview with the newspaper Berliner Morgenpost published on Friday, Pistorius noted that Berlin had already delivered several Patriot systems and large numbers of guided missiles to Kiev.

“We cannot provide any more at this moment,” the German defense chief stated, explaining that anything Germany supplied now would not be replaced “for the foreseeable future.”

Pistorius urged other Western nations, whom he accused of having “contributed significantly less,” to step up deliveries of air defense systems to Ukraine.

Israel's ⁠President Isaac Herzog ​on ​Saturday chose Gadi Eisenkot, Prime ​Minister ‌Benjamin ⁠Netanyahu's ‌strongest rival, to ⁠try to form ​a ‌new government following ‌a ​deadlocked election that left neither man ​with ​a clear ​path ​to power.

• Jan 1 Massive Chinese and North Korean assault begins on UN lines

Few revolutions in the history of European civilization have been of more lasting consequence than the Christianization of the Roman Empire in the fourth century AD, and yet few present greater obstacles to an objective assessment. It was a genuine religious war pitting Christianity against a bewildering variety of traditional religious practices which Christians themselves were the first to group under the single designation “paganism.”

The Christian Revolution of Late Antiquity

by F. Roger Devlin

China’s Massive Election: 1 Billion Voters, 2.6 Million Representatives

While the world focuses on the US midterms, China is quietly running one of the largest elections on Earth. Right now, one billion registered voters are selecting 2.6 million grassroots representatives at the county and township levels. Chinese President Xi Jinping even cast his own vote this week — something almost completely ignored by Western media.

1 Billion Chinese Are Voting Right Now — Here’s How It Works:

REPORTS ON CHINA — ANDY BOREHAM

Many observers of the highly dysfunctional President Donald J Trump administration have noted how a major contributing factor for the foreign policy disasters might well derive from the appointment of two real estate billionaires personally linked to the president as its top negotiators.

by Philip Giraldi

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has promised more “personnel decisions” at Ukraine’s domestic security service following a corruption scandal that has fuelled public anger over official impunity.

Anti-corruption authorities unveiled ‌charges this week against several senior security and law enforcement officials over their alleged role ‌in shielding a vast criminal ring.

Investigators said the group ran scam centres, traded drugs and produced fake currency and cigarettes with the help of top employees from the SBU security service, National Police and Prosecutor General’s office.

Some had helped plan kidnappings and ‌other forms of ‌violence for ⁠the ring.

In his evening address, Zelenskiy said the alleged ​crimes – part of an evolving probe by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and its sister agency – were “frankly shameful, absolutely unacceptable”.

Here is a number the White House would prefer you not memorize: 99.259 million barrels. That is how much distillate, meaning diesel, heating oil and the like, the United States had in storage at the end of October. It is the lowest weekly level since May 2003. Diesel inventories are now 17.8 percent below where they stood on February 27, the day before Operation Epic Fury, and roughly 13 percent below the five-year seasonal average.

Full Refineries, Empty Tanks

by Larry C. Johnson

President Donald Trump responded to this week’s GOP drubbing by initially suggesting that he might soften his approach, expressing openness to collaborating with Democrats. But after growing increasingly agitated by the midterm results, Trump abruptly changed course, replacing chief of staff Susie Wiles with longtime aide Stephen Miller amid encouragement from allies to ramp up the fight.

The agenda to demonize Russia has been in place for more than a decade in the Western world, as the push for war intensifies. The NATO leaders have calculated that the only way out is to escalate the war into a much larger regional conflict, but this won’t hide their crimes. The energy war is upon the world.

Russia is now being set up to replace China in the lab-leak fairytale being sold to the public, but the world has questions about the story’s authenticity and the narrative managers selling it. Are we on the verge of another COVID-style overreaction, or will the pneumonic plague quietly go the way of monkeypox? All we know is that Russia is not the real enemy.

#690: From Russia With Love

BY CHARLIE ROBINSON. INDEPENDENT MEDIA ALLIANCE.  MACROAGGRESSIONS

The modern fairy tale has taken an Artificial Intelligent rejuvenation. It looks like a few innovative studios with barely a few bucks can use AI to make stories that are simple and probably more popular than Disney can now make… This is the new challenge... 

Disney plundered the old Fairy Tales and illustrated them in the Disney style… But for whatever reason, Disney lost the thrust of the original message and rammed a few “modern” concepts such as the Woke ideology rather than the human rights of all. This has been a difficult sale to the “general public”… 

Some intelligent dude “asked” AI to rework the old tales of the princess being dungeoned and saved by a prince in disguise… or just passing by....

Barnaby Joyce was planning to make the pilgrimage to the Mar-a-Lago shrine to Donald Trump midyear. He’d been invited on an all-expenses-paid trip. His wife, Vikki Campion, had another idea. Woolbrook Public School was due to hold its community barbecue at the local Bunnings and Barnaby and Vikki were rostered to work it.

“Your children go to Woolbrook Public School,” Barnaby recounts Vikki telling him. “You’re not going.” He cancelled the trip to the US.

Trump is a false idol and his local franchisee is dumping the brand

Peter Hartcher

Successive governments have quietly deepened the US military footprint across Australia. Communities near proposed submarine and marine bases face risks they have never hears about. The window to push back is closing fast according to Carmen Lawrence and Julie Macken.

Carmen Lawrence, Julie Macken