- “The moments that made 2024 a year we’ll never forget” – From Trump’s defiant fist-pump to Sunak’s washout to Taylor Swift conquering the world, the last 12 months will live long in the memory, says Alex O’Connell in the Telegraph.
- “Andrew Doyle on the Triggernometry End of Year Review” – Watch Andrew Doyle on Triggernometry’s End of Year Review with the comedian Leo Kearse and hosts Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin.
- “The year of lying dangerously” – Thomas Buckley reviews 2024 on his Substack.
- “Help me understand… what will happen in 2025” – On Substack, Youscha Mounk provides a forecast for the coming year and a mid-decadal assessment of his predictions for the 2020s.
- “Blair opened borders despite warnings over East European migrant influx” – Official files reveal that Tony Blair was urged not to open Britain’s borders to thousands of Eastern European migrants but ignored the advice of his most senior ministers, according to Sky News.
- “Ministers urged to use Post-it notes to avoid FoIs” – Tony Blair’s ministers were advised to use Post-it notes for sensitive messages to avoid having to release them under the new Freedom of Information laws passed by his Government, reports the Telegraph.
- “VAT on schools is not a tax, but an act of class warfare” – VAT on private school fees isn’t just a tax – it’s a reckless act of class warfare that could wreck education, punish families and spark legal chaos, warns the Telegraph in a leading article.
- “Labour’s 60-year war on excellence in education impoverishes us all” – No country should tax education or close its best schools, not unless it has a death wish, says Philip Johnston in the Telegraph.
- “The value of Latin best appreciated sub specie aeternitatis” – In Country Squire, Sean Walsh defends teaching schoolchildren Latin: “When you learn the grammar of classical languages you become acquainted also with the structure of human thought; you participate in a discussion about what we are.”
- “‘We warned you’: the hammer blows about to be dealt to Britain’s rental market” – Labour has a wave of rent reforms planned – and the fallout looks catastrophic, warns the Telegraph’s Ruby Hinchliffe.
- “More than one pub a day closing in Britain as Reeves blow looms” – Publicans fear this was their “last Christmas” as higher wages and taxes risk pushing them to the brink, reports the Telegraph.
- “Pinch yourself, but Labour really was this stupid in 2024” – Labour’s Budget was self-harm on steroids – and more pain is coming, warns Brian Monteith in the Telegraph.
- “The Tories would be foolish to write off Kemi Badenoch this early” – No one is particularly interested in what the Conservatives have to say at the moment, but as Labour’s failures mount up, that time will come, says Iain Dale in the Telegraph.
- “Kemi and Keir, don’t panic about Nigel – look what became of the SDP” – In the Telegraph, Alan Cochrane predicts Reform U.K. will go the same way as the SDP.
- “New Year’s Eve train strike misery as guards demand £300 extra to work on rest days” – RMT members at Avanti West Coast are walking out on December 31st and January 2nd, demanding an extra £300 to work on their days off, reports the Telegraph.
- “Hundreds object to temporary Springwell green belt solar farm” – Despite over 400 objections, council planners are pushing ahead with plans to approve a “temporary” solar farm on green belt land on the outskirts of Sunderland, says BBC News.
- “Electric car drivers face threat of steep tax rises based on vehicle weight” – Electric cars could face bigger taxes than petrol and diesel vehicles under a new proposal to levy cars by their weight, the Telegraph reports.
- “Energy bills to jump again in latest blow to struggling families” – Despite Keir Starmer’s pledge to lower costs, families face a double energy price cap hit this year, with bills creeping up from £1,717 to £1,738 today, and more to come in April, says the Sun.
- “Terrifying ‘quad-demic’ alert as NHS top doctor warns U.K. is set for ‘worst year ever’ for flu – and predicts surge will get worse” – NHS National Medical Director Prof. Sir Stephen Powis warns that the worst of Britain’s tidal wave of flu is “yet to come”, according to the Mail.
- “What really happened in Wuhan” – Five years ago, the Chinese authorities staged the deadliest cover-up in history, writes Matt Ridley in Spiked.
- “Rise of home working holds back women, says Nationwide boss” – The boss of the world’s biggest building society Debbie Crosbie warns that women are at risk of missing out on opportunities at work because they are less likely to go into the office than men, reports the Mail.
- “Why is Israel being blamed for the battle of Kamal Adwan Hospital?” – In its coverage of the Battle of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza much of the media is deliberately burying the most vital point, says Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator: “that a neo-fascist militia is using a hospital as a base from which to plot the murder of Israel’s soldiers and citizens”.
- “Provisions of new hate crime law come into effect today” – Harsher sentencing will now be imposed in Ireland if hatred towards a protected group can be demonstrated, reports the Irish Times.
- “New poll shows Musk effect: AfD at new high, free Democrats in collapse, Christian Democrats and Greens too weak for a coalition” – Musk is making things very awkward indeed for the cartel parties that rule Germany – and that is glorious, says Eugyppius on Substack.
- “What’s Sadiq Khan done to deserve a knighthood?” – The worst-kept secret in Westminster was confirmed when it was officially announced that London’s two-bob chancer of a mayor is getting a knighthood, writes Richard Littlejohn in the Mail.
- “Why has ‘decolonising’ Sadiq Khan accepted a knighthood?” – Why on Earth has Khan, a man who has vowed to “decolonise” London, agreed to become a Knight of the Order of the British Empire? wonders Ross Clark in the Spectator.
- “Five charts that show how Sadiq Khan has ruined London” – From road congestion to an increase in knife crime, the capital feels like it’s in decline – yet the London Mayor has now been knighted, bemoans the Telegraph.
- “Host of Britain’s Olympians and Paralympians snubbed in New Year Honours List” – Only 41 athletes who took part in Paris 2024 have received a gong for services to their sports, despite Team GB and Paralympics GB winning 189 medals (63 gold) across both Games, notes Ben Rumsby in the Telegraph.
- “Black project manager who sued Heathrow Airport for £1 million after being ‘strip searched’ when she set off scanner loses race discrimination claim” – A black project manager who claimed she was “treated as a criminal” and sued Heathrow Airport has lost her race discrimination claim, reports the Mail.
- “Almost two thirds of trans women prisoners are sex offenders” – Almost two thirds of transgender prisoners who identify as female are convicted sex offenders, says the Mail.
- “Liberate civil servants from the tyranny of diversity training” – The majority of Home Office workers are hard-working and impartial and deserve better than the EDI agenda, argues Suella Braverman in the Telegraph.
- “How atheists fell for the new religion of gender identity” – In the Spectator, Debbie Hayton shares Richard Dawkins’ exasperation with his fellow atheists for their descent into anti-scientific gobbledegook.
- “Jesus was Palestinian? That really would be a miracle” – Bear Grylls’s clumsy comments about the son of God aren’t just absurd – they’re dangerous, says George Chesterton in the Telegraph.
- “Dungeons & Dragons ‘heading to inclusive oblivion’ after removing racial differences” – Dungeons & Dragons’ September 2024 rulebook has been slammed for erasing the classic racial traits of orcs and elves, stripping orcs of their strength and elves of their brains, reports the Telegraph.
- “Elon Musk ‘living in cottage on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate’” – Elon Musk has been living in a cottage on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and dropping in on dinners hosted by the President-elect, according to the Mail.
- “‘It’s mad innit?’” – On X, an AI-tickled Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio compare the prices of supermarket beers. Happy New Year.
Happy New Year
— Stevo Stonko (@Stevo_Stonko) December 31, 2024big plans for 2025
pic.twitter.com/wFHvgOQ1mq
If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Tuesday Morning Bagshot Rd & Rectory Lane Bracknell
Who can doubt that Labour’s application of 20% VAT on private schooling is the right thing to do?
Nobody who can afford anything better than the state provides should be allowed to have it without penalty.
We must, in 2025, extend this thought process to all other areas of society, penalising people (who after all will all be Far Right bigots) who seek to have anything that others cannot, be it cars, holidays, houses, healthcare or more than subsistence levels of food.
Happy New Year!
If they’re reading “Declined” we may get there a lot sooner, which terrifies me.
Like the SDP, or indeed the risible Change UK, Reform’s biggest challenge will be developing properly thought through policies and credible candidate selection in the volumes required to have any effect in an election.
Musk’s purported ‘bung’ of £100m, dwarves Vince’s mysterious donation to the party likely to add to his already considerable wealth, and are far greater than other fledgling parties have ever enjoyed so might help.
Provided that safeguards are put in place, to prevent spivs skimming from the pot, there is hope that they might build something worth voting for by the time an election comes around…
Then, all they’ll have to do is work out how to bypass the same Civil Servants and judiciary that scuppered anything the Tories tried to do, and we’ll be home dry.
Implement a version of the Trump Schedule F plan. Senior Civil Servants who operate in a political environment can be fired at will by Parliament.
That will make all the Humphries and blockers think twice.
The Davos Deviants will seek to ensure that another election does NOT take place.
A purported bung would surely be one that has happened in secret or is about to happen. According to those most well positioned to know, no such proposal has been made.
While it is clear that Reform will be held to a higher standard than Uniparty on candidate selection and policies it must not be cowered by criticism.
Candidates for Uniparty, elected representatives and their advisers are not widely judged as examples of competence, propriety, charm or honesty.
On policy the key will be to avoid excessive detail. That would bring a charge of pretentiousness and niggling criticism of the detail. Stick with the big issues and specific policies to address them. Add in more general objectives and values with clear but not suffocating briefs for candidates.
Remember the socialists and their green branch operation have taken over public policy and discourse without coherent policies and with weak candidates.
What really happened in Wuhan
Can we just get this straight?
‘….went on to kill more than 20 million people and devastate the education, economics and mental health of many more.’
No.
In fact, we have no idea how many people actually died from Covid. What we do know is that the average age of death from covid in Britain was almost exactly the same as the average age of life expectancy. We also know that all cause mortality for 2020/21 was simply that of a bad flu year.
‘Life expectancy 78.4 and 82.4 years respectively in 2008-10.
2020 life expectancy Males 78.5 years females 82.6 years.’
Covid: Males 79 females 82.5
Entirely avoidable lockdowns did everything else…….
‘What could have and should have happened? The world should have been told the truth.’
Yes
‘It might still have been too late, but there was a chance it could have been stopped.’
No
It was a highly contagious, aerosol transmitted, fast mutating common cold coronavirus. It could not have been stopped.
‘What is probably right is that just as with SARS there’s probably much stricter guidelines in mainland China for a case to be considered positive. So the 20,000 cases in China is probably only the severe cases; the folks that actually went to the hospital and got tested. The Chinese healthcare system is very overwhelmed with all the tests going through. So my thinking is this is actually not as severe a disease as is being suggested. The fatality rate is probably only 0.8%-1%. There’s a vast underreporting of cases in China. Compared to Sars and Mers we are talking about a coronavirus that has a mortality rate of 8 to 10 times less deadly to Sars to Mers. So a correct comparison is not Sars or Mers but a severe cold. Basically this is a severe form of the cold.’
Prof. John Nicholls, Univ of Hong Kong 06 Feb 2020
So it didn’t need to be stopped; see figures for life expectancy above.
How do you treat a common cold coronavirus? Oh! The common cold unit already told us in 1992:
‘It is therefore arguable that in the case of infections like coronavirus or rhinovirus colds, which are normally quickly self-limited, the best approach would be to relieve the patient’s discomfort and disability and leave their immune system to take care of the virus.’ D.A.J. Tyrrell, Common Cold Unit 1992.
What really happened in Wuhan is that a common cold coronavirus contributed to a large number of fatalities amongst the elderly and infirm already suffering from multiple co-morbidities, respiratory systems vulnerable to serious infection as a consequence of a highly polluted urban environment. Any other Influenza Like Illness would have had a similar effect and, in many cases, probably did; but only covid was being tested for….and the tests, testing regime wasn’t very good…..
This is your job, Lady Hallett, not mine. You (and many others) are being paid a great deal of the taxpayers money.
Please get it right…..
Because, in the U.S.A. the new President’s chief medical advisor, Jay Bhattacharya, got it right as far back as Oct 2021:
https://www.hoover.org/research/what-happened-dr-jay-bhattacharya-19-months-covid-1
If you don’t, your reputation….you know the rest…….
Yes, quite right, I don’t really understand why Ridley is still banging on about this.
The lab leak/ cover-up stuff is now mainstream.
What does still require attention is the insane reaction of western governments and the globalist agencies, which is what did the damage as well as ushering in a new epoch of global digital tolitarianism.
But basically Ridley is a normie so not holding my breath.
The estimate circulating of 20 million worldwide casualties to date is an estimate of deaths arising from the totality of the virus outrage, being largely from the administration of the so-called vaccines and not from a virus that may or may not ever be isolated. Flu is not genocide.
“Terrifying ‘quad-demic’ alert as NHS top doctor warns U.K. is set for ‘worst year ever’ for flu – and predicts surge will get worse” – NHS National Medical Director Prof. Sir Stephen Powis warns that the worst of Britain’s tidal wave of flu is “yet to come”, according to the Mail.
Thanks for the warning Sir Stephen. What have you done or do you propose to do about it?
So once again the NHS is un-prepared for winter. Perhaps it’s come at an unusual time of year? No, that can’t be it. Ah! I have it: we’ll blame it on unusual winter colds and ‘flu and silly people socialising around Christmas and New Year – ‘cos that’s never happened before.
I’ve posted some of this stuff before but I think it’s worth repeating.
___
Below is a chart of weekly any-cause death *registrations* (note, not dates of death occurrences, or deaths caused by any specific disease) in England and Wales where the number deviates from an expected number calculated from a long term 2011-2018 baseline. We can argue about the methodology used to derive the expected baseline as much as you like but nearly everyone agrees that something unusual started in March/April 2020. I could no doubt bore most people to tears about the method I’ve used – suffice to say I think my analysis is robust and accurate.
The spike in death registrations starting around April 2020 is the most obvious deviation throughout the 14+ years. No wonder people got scared. If you consider the cumulative death registrations above the expected level during the first wave of Covid-19 we find a remarkable match with a natural epidemic (Gompertz) curve. The cumulative total is around 55,000 death registrations over about 15 weeks. The peak of registrations occurs sometime between 17-24 April but from separate analysis of other data we know that the peak of death *occurrences* was on 8 April. Death registrations were lagging by about 9-16 days at this time (the target is 5 days) despite the government making emergency changes to death registration rules to make it simpler and quicker to diagnose and register a Covid death.
The reason to re-state the natural epidemic nature of the first wave of the Covid epidemic in the UK is to highlight and draw comparisons with the much smaller peak in early 2015. A similar analysis of the increase in deaths shows another epidemic curve – though it’s much less steep than the Covid epidemic. The cumulative ‘excess’ from late 2014 to early July 2015 is about 13,000 over a period of around 30 weeks. The peak of death registrations in this epidemic is between 9 and 16 Jan 2015. Assuming death registrations were similarly lagging, peak deaths were occurring around New Year Day 2015 – but as the register offices were closed for the public holiday, many deaths were registered late.
I’m sure everyone can remember the apocalyptic warnings about ‘flu in winter 2014/15. No? Actually, neither can I – no more than usual. Apparently the NHS blames a vaccine ‘miss’ – ie the vaccine available did not match the strain of ‘flu circulating that season. My opinion is that the ‘flu bug in the previous winter (2013/14) had been particularly weak and that *fewer* people than expected had died – and *that* meant there were more frail people around than usual going into the 2014/15 winter.
Just for a little more perspective 13,000 extra deaths is about 2.6% of the number of people who normally die each year. About 21,000 fewer people died than expected in the year before winter 2015. The spike was nature catching up with people who have lived a bit longer than expected.
So, how do we know that 2015 was some sort of an epidemic? Let’s look at another patch of higher than expected deaths in early 2018.
A very poor match to a Gompertz curve. Pretty much a straight line increase which means that about the same number of ‘extra’ deaths were registered each week for many weeks in a row – with a brief pause in the week ending 2 March. This adds up to about 15,000 more deaths than expected registered over a 15 week period. This wasn’t a disease epidemic, this was cold weather. The Beasts from the East.
Oops. That last chart was supposed to be:
Key point that I didn’t have room for above:
We can’t stop an epidemic. But we could keep people warm – assuming we don’t do something stupid like stopping an anticipated pension benefit with less than half a year’s warning.
Also more people die in the colder months than in the warmer months. This is true even in warm places like India.
If you look at your UK data going back 10 years, you will notice that there is always a maximum number of deaths in January/February (the coldest period) of each year, never in March or April. So what happened in 2020?
If you think there was a world-wide epidemic, as declared by the WHO on 11th March 2020, then you need to explain why there was no such peak in deaths in, for example, Austria, Germany, Romania and Slovenia, despite the then high exchange of travellers between UK and Europe.
Also, how is it possible for a respiratory epidemic to become global in March, when this is the hottest time of the year in the southern hemisphere?
There were high April 2020 mortality peaks in, for example, France and Italy, so what is the explanation for the differences between neighbouring countries? In my opinion (and backed up by Denis Rancourt’s analysis of mortality data from 125 countries), the deaths were largely the result of how individual countries reacted to WHO’s announcement and, in particular, how drastically they implemented the treatments required by WHO for those deemed to have ‘Covid-19’. Of course, a country with a highly unified healthcare system, such as UK, will have uniformly applied the WHO’s dictates – with disastrous results.
Close to 70% of all hospital patients were kicked out of their hospital beds in the middle of March 2020.
Deaths in hospital actually fell through the lockdown but deaths ‘at home’ surged.
Hospital bed occupancy also fell. Hospitals primarily felt full because staff stayed off & beds spaced out.
I’ve never seen it, but an analysis of the fate of those hospital exiles would be interesting. Many/most were elderly vulnerable, scared, subsequently locked away. I’ve always suspected that that’s where many of the deaths came from.
No argument, but no treatment is also treatment, so to speak.
According to the book ‘Virus Mania’, there is overwhelming evidence for the theory that in these latter countries [Spain, France, England, USA] it was primarily the mass and experimental administration of preparations such as hydroxychloroquine, Kaletra and azithromycin that caused countless people to die prematurely.
With regard to the NHS, Midazolam also springs to mind.
Probably you already saw the Amnesty International report into care homes and hospital clearances 2020?
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/10/uk-older-people-in-care-homes-abandoned-to-die-amid-government-failures-during-covid-19-pandemic/
March 2020 was the point at which the NHS stopped caring for us and instead we were asked to care for the NHS,
April was when the ludicrous public pan banging started.
UK data going back 10 years – or so.
I think this is what you mean with the seasonal peaks and troughs. The red line is my calculated ‘expected’ number of death registrations. Where you see a gap between the red and the blue we have fewer than expected deaths and where the blue appears above the red vice versa.
Another way of looking at it is in annual terms:
Here we can see the terrible toll of 2020 offset by a preceding dip in 2019. 2019 was benign and we went into 2020 with more frail people than usual.
Yes. It was an epidemic and the UK had more than usual numbers of vulnerable people.
Why didn’t Germany get a March peak? I don’t know – did they perhaps just have the usual number of very frail people?
Bad form to reply to myself but,
is sarcasm.
It was so bad it was nearly as bad as 2008!
All your work is excellent, I am not questioning it at all. Yes, there are ‘good years’ and ‘bad years’ concerning how many primarily old people die each year (generally around 1% of the population dies in any country). If there is a bad flu, as for example in 2018, then larger numbers die, resulting in smaller numbers of frail people dying the following year. Sometimes this so-called ‘dry tinder’ effect means that there can be low numbers of deaths for two or three years in succession, rarely longer, I believe.
I have not looked at all this stuff for ages but, just to outdo you (!), I have appended mortality data for England going back to 1838. England’s population has been steadily growing – you see the two dips caused by the two world wars – and I plotted the so-called crude mortality rate as well as the age-standardized mortality rate: these data were taken directly from ONS sources (if I remember correctly). Mortality was generally on the decrease since 1838, as one would expect with the advance of better living conditions and medical care. The interesting point is that, as you noticed, despite so many deaths in the Covid period, England’s level of mortality in 2020 was in fact only as bad as it was around the year 2000.
I am simply convinced there was no virus, there was no bad flu, there was only WHO’s announcement of a pandemic followed by totally irrational reactions from practically all governments around the world. Actually, they were not so much irrational as clearly planned and desired. As https://denisrancourt.ca wrote, it was an unprecedented mass assault against our populations perpetrated by evil design at the highest levels, enabled by the indoctrinated and spineless professional classes (politicians, clinicians, scientists, judges, media, executives…).
There is simply no reason in today’s world of high level of hygiene, good nutrition and excellent medical care (assuming the NHS improves) for there ever to be a pandemic.
Thank you for your good words.
Just a few last thoughts:
I don’t think winter 2017/18 was a bad ‘flu year – I think it was cold weather that boosted the death rates.
I think that usually a bad year follows a good year. Frail people being still alive when the usual bugs come around the following year – rather than deaths being brought forward by a bad bug. Usually. But not a completely hard and fast rule.
I think early 2015 was part of an ordinary ‘flu year but winter 2013/14 was unusually mild which left ‘dry tinder’ for the next winter peak.
I do think there was a Covid bug and it did spread around the world. It was not very deadly. I do think it leaked or was released from a lab. If it was a leaked bioweapon research project it must have been a severe disappointment to its creators. I do think it mutated/changed and we in the UK got Original, Alpha (Kent) and Delta (Indian) varieties before it changed to nothing very much at all.
It was not very deadly – did I say that already? Reports of death rates in the UK do not take into account that 2018/19 was a very benign year leaving many very frail people still alive – until a not very deadly bug arrived and was spread through their care homes by stupid or malicious policy decisions.
I think the WHO and our governments vastly overreacted. Either they thought it was a deadly bioweapon or they just took opportunities to exert extra control – probably the latter.
The way old and dying people and the bereaved were treated was disgusting – and pointless.
I don’t think lockdowns, social distancing or masks worked anywhere – at least not to control the spread of the bug. They certainly worked as an excuse to suppress dissent.
The damage to kids’ development will never be undone – their moment has passed.
I think the vaccines were bloody dangerous and pointless (did I say the bug was not very deadly already?). I took the first two Astra Zeneca shots and didn’t have much ill effect. I considered myself a guinea pig. If they found a problem with them they could withdraw them before they got to putting them in my children or grandchildren – I thought. I was naive, they weren’t monitoring the side effects at all. My daughter had the Pfizer shot and didn’t get ill but she did get the covid loss of sense of taste. She didn’t allow her kids to have the shots, thank goodness. One of my sisters-in-law developed giant cell arteritis (temporal vasculitis) after the shot. I don’t think it’s coincidence.
There. I feel better now.
The way old and dying people and the bereaved were treated was disgusting – and pointless.
You are so right! And good that you feel better.
Have a good 2025!
The moments that made 2024 a year we’ll never forget
The DT forgot the most significant moment of all, the first ever invasion of a nuclear power:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/17/ukraine-invasion-russia-biggest-threat-to-putin-authority/
Infiltration
On August 4, Ukrainian soldiers began infiltrating Kursk Oblast with the help of the Special Operations Forces
Main assault
On August 6, Ukrainian fighters crossed into Russian territory with tanks and armoured vehicles
Putin’s response was to deploy troops from another country, North Korea, turning his invasion of Ukraine into a World War.
‘Dear Song Ji Myong, my closest comrade in arms, celebrating his birthday here on Russian land, away from our beloved Choson (North Korea) and the embrace of his affectionate father and mother.’
Jong Kyong Hong, Dec. 9.
The letter was not delivered.
‘DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY SINGH: In terms of uh North Koreans in in Russia, you probably heard that the white House recently announced that approximately 1,000 DPRK soldiers have either been killed or wounded in the Kursk region. That’s our assessment as well. What we’re seeing right now is that the assaults that the DPRK soldiers are launching within that Kursk region are proving to be ineffective……..approximately 1,000 casualties that they’ve taken on.’
I dispute that “we’ll” never forget. You, maybe, but certainly not me, or were you using the royal we?
It’s Alex O’Connell in the Telegraph using the words “…we’ll never forget”, not Monro.
My comment stands.
And just how sane was the ‘first ever invasion of a nuclear power’? And still no proof of North Korean soldiers, who apparently die in their thousands and disappear at the same time. One North Korean was supposedly captured but then died (and disappeared). Other dead Koreans supposedly had their faces burned by the Russians to avoid identification – what a lot of nonsense. And all simply to justify use of US/UK long-range missiles against Russia. But as long as the fighting continues …
https://x.com/SOF_UKR/status/1872926595364905203/photo/1
Not sure if it was this one but a text supposedly written by a North Korean was identified as not being authentic. If there are so many North Koreans openly fighting in Kursk, there must be so many possibilities of proving it. Unclear videos taken far off and hand-writing samples are not proof of anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrro6LAJCbg
It starts “Well my sources in the Ukrainian military…”. Well that does rather colour what follows. If anyone considers that was evidence then their standards must be extremely low – laughably low IMHO.
We all know that US and South Korean news sources are pushing the idea that – shock news, how dare they? – North Koreans are fighting in the Kursk region. Why the propaganda? To justify Biden and Starmer pushing the Ukraine debacle closer to the nuclear edge by allowing Ukrainians (of necessity with direct US and UK assistance) to fire long-range missiles into Russia.
Clearly, the recent mutual defence agreement means that North Korea would be justified in supporting Russia in Kursk and why should they not support Russia, considering how many countries (36?) are openly and frequently providing financial and military support to Ukraine? The whole outrage at the idea of North Koreans fighting in Russia is utterly ridiculous.
But how helpful would it be to Russia if suddenly hundreds or thousands of North Koreans began wandering around the battlefield? In particular, North Koreans are reported to generally suffer from chronic malnourishment – although I am sure Kim Jong Un looks after his closest troops – and are probably physically less impressive than their Russian or Ukrainian counterparts.
Finally, the Russians are doing very well on their own and I imagine they are also very keen to continue doing well on their own.
“Why is Israel being blamed for the battle of Kamal Adwan Hospital?”
Apologists for Hamas seem to follow a semi-logic I find hard to comprehend. It’s not that they deny Hamas fighters are in the hospital (usually), or that such putting of civilians in harm’s way is wrong (though “war-crime” is usually not conceded).
But the argument seems to be, “Sure, they shouldn’t put fighters in hospitals, but that’s no excuse for Israel to disrupt the hospital’s work by evacuating the patients.”
Quite apart from the ethics of fighting a war behind civian human shields, I’ve worked in big district general hospitals, and can vouche that they do not have spare barracks capacity or an unoccupied defensive centre.
If you stationed a battalion of 450 squaddies in Poole General or Addenbrookes, even if they weren’t firing out of the windows or stealing the patients’ food, I can tell you that no useful medical work would be happening in the hospital. Evacuating the medical staff and patients would be the priority, as the hospital managers are unlikely to have a contigency plan for evicting heavily-armed men.
Battle? What battle? You are quite right in saying that no hospital would tolerate or could afford to have fighters in its midst – and especially not a hospital bursting at the seams with terribly mutilated people and suffering from an extreme lack of all kinds of medical support.
You may have missed the open letter signed by 99 doctors to Biden demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and describing the situation there: https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024. They particularly note: We wish to be absolutely clear: not once did any of us see any type of Palestinian militant activity in any of Gaza’s hospitals or other healthcare facilities.
The Israelis have killed over 500 medical workers, from ambulance drivers to hospital staff, not to mention over 200 reporters, all with the aim of continuing the ‘ethnic cleansing’ with minimal international reporting.
A ‘new’ report by the UN Human Rights Office documents 136 Israeli attacks on 39 medical facilities – and that just up to the end of June 2024 (https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/opt/20241231-attacks-hospitals-gaza-en.pdf).
https://www.youtube.com/@DemocracyNow reported In Northern Gaza the director of the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital says five medical workers were among 50 people killed in Israeli strikes near the hospital. Israeli forces have since stormed the hospital and forced out 350 people at gunpoint, including about 75 remaining patients. Parts of the hospital were seen in flames. Kamal Adwan was one of the only medical facilities still operating in Northern Gaza …
https://antiwar.com/ has kept up its reporting over the Christmas period with regular updates on the genocide continuing in Gaza and the brutal Israeli attacks on neighbouring countries – Syria, Lebanon (Israel has committed at least 329 violations in the first half of the supposed 60-day ceasefire) and Yemen.
Israeli army sets fire to north Gaza’s last functioning [Kamal Adwan] hospital. Troops evicted staff and patients at gunpoint and forced them to strip down to their underwear in the freezing cold. At least 50 people have been killed around the besieged medical facility since Thursday evening.
And:
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 30 Palestinians since dawn on Sunday. One Israeli strike targeted an upper floor of al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City, killing at least seven Palestinians. Israeli forces sexually assaulted Palestinian women and executed unarmed civilians during the Friday raid on Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, witnesses have said in a new report. The violence against women included stripping off their clothes, touching them under the threat of violence, beating them and hurling sexual insults at them.
One wonders just how many future ‘terrorists’ Israel is creating with all these outrages.
The smell of BS is strong in this one
Are you sure the smell is not originating elsewhere?
Prove me wrong, please. Are you saying the 99 US doctors are liars? Are you saying everything in Gaza is fine and all Palestinians are well nurtured and in good shape? Are you saying all the photographs of massive destruction are a Hollywood film set? Are you saying the Israelis have opened negotiations with Hamas, the former now suddenly caring about the demise of the hostages?
You may have heard that Israel bombed Syria’s naval fleet and all weapon storage areas in Syria to complete destruction, that Israeli forces are marching into Syria: even mainstream media has reported that. Also that Israel continues to bomb and (attempt to) invade Lebanon, despite the existence of a supposed cease-fire: also widely reported. You have probably heard that Israel is pushing USA to attack Iran, as a prime player in the ‘Axis of evil’: Israel cannot wait for Donald Trump to set up in office. Are all these Israeli military actions going to result in peace and a general love of Israel in the area, or are they more likely just to create more lasting enemies? What do you think?
Likewise if the MoD built shelters, operations rooms, server farms and arsenals beneath the hospital or in its grounds the staff would know. If tunnels were built linking hospitals, schools snd the international border the staff would know.
if troops used these facilities to attack a neighbouring country, kidnapped its citizens and brought them to the hospital basement staff would know, especially the ones who took part in the operation.
Actually, the staff would probably assume it was another set of DEI facilities weeding out white supremacists. Less so in Gaza.
“Terrifying ‘quad-demic’
Is that a ‘quad-boiling-demic’..? You can always tell from the language if its bullshit. For a start, these top guys in the NHS are appointed to ensure that we meet whatever health challenge there may be. Winter flu isn’t an unknown phenomena, so why are they treating it like its a complete surprise. We pay you a lot of money. I dont want to hear your carefully prepared excuses as to why you have failed. Do your jobs, ffs.
https://www.rferl.org/a/war-talks-peace-russia-ukraine/33258279.html
In November 2024, World War 3 commenced.
The North Koreans sent roughly a division’s worth of troops from the North Korean 11th Corps, North Korea’s special forces. By November, Ukraine’s general military staff was reporting they were already facing squads of North Koreans in the Kursk region.
‘When detecting a drone, you need to create a trio (three people), while the one who lures the drone keeps a distance of 7 meters, and those who shoot — 10-12 meters….If the one who is luring stands still, the drone will also stop its movement. At this moment, the one who is shooting will eliminate the drone’ Jong Hong Jong, 09 Dec 2024.
But prospects for peace in 2025 are good.
‘When we talk about changes in the mood of Ukrainians, I would say that our expectations have become more realistic.
We now see that the war may drag on, and the number of Ukrainians who believe victory is possible, but let’s say in two years, is growing.
The number of people who understand what victory means differently is also increasing.
A survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation on the prospects for starting peace talks showed that 73% of respondents said Russia must fulfill certain conditions to start negotiations.
According to the survey, 47% of Ukrainians said the withdrawal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territory should be a key condition. This is the maximum goal, the more radical demand. At the start of the full-scale war, we hoped to achieve this, but now it’s clear that such prospects are not as obvious.
The other part of the respondents chose much more moderate conditions under which Ukraine could begin negotiations. Multiple answers were allowed, so the total will exceed 100%.
The condition that topped the list, with 54% of the vote, was for Russia to stop shelling Ukrainian territories that are not occupied and where there are no active hostilities. This is a much more grounded demand.
Therefore, the cessation of shelling is the minimum Ukrainians are willing to accept…’
Oleksii Haran.
‘If I were to answer the same question about 2025, I would say I am much more optimistic. 2025 will definitely be better than this year. There are specific reasons for this. And I hope that in 2025 we will witness many positive events that will ultimately bring us everything we are waiting for’
Kyrylo Budanov
Yet another totally vacuous statement by the master of spin Budanov.
“Europe’s response to any cease-fire agreement will be critically important — – both for Ukraine and for themselves,” Ruth Deyermond, senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, said in written comments to RFE/RL.
“With many countries dealing with political turmoil at home (often stoked by Russia), they may be tempted to treat this as an end to the conflict and an opportunity to reset relations with Russia. That would be an enormous mistake,” she wrote. “Russia will continue to pose the most serious and immediate conventional and non-conventional threat to European security.”
There will be no cease-fire agreement so the point is moot.
‘In September, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said that Russia would not be able to fight at low oil prices. He said that when oil costs $100, Putin can fight, and when it costs $40, the war will end. Trump also said he could cut oil prices in half within 12 months of taking office.’
Scary…….
https://x.com/SOF_UKR/status/1872926595364905203/photo/1
Unfounded allegation by Ukrainian special forces. Not very convincing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrro6LAJCbg
See my dismissal of this above where you also posted it. You must be getting desperate or forgetful.
‘And in one piece of drone footage a DPRK soldier accidentally shoots a comrade as he tries to take down a drone.
Ukrainian forces found a note on another dead North Korean soldier which reveals he was a member of the special forces.
The soldier wrote how he had been sent to fight against Ukraine for “ungrateful actions” towards Kim Jong Un and hoped to regain the party’s trust.
“The sins I committed are unforgivable,” he wrote. “But my homeland has given me a path to rebirth, a new start in life. Now I have no choice but to regain trust’
In court cases anything in a file is disclosable. That includes postIt notes, doodles, sandwich orders written on the back or in the margin and anything else.
When I ran compliance for a regulated business we audited files and did our best to train staff not to write informal messages. In one case a well paid senior technician had written an abiusive remark about a US client. If that file had been disclosed in a US court it would have detracted from any case we made and might have added to any damages by a multiplier.
Blair’s attempt at cheating does not work and civil servants should not try to avoid disclosure under FOI. If they destroy the Post-It notes they are guilty of serious administrative fault and would not be able to fully justify the reasoning (sic) for any policy or administrative decision.
Harsher sentencing will now be imposed in Ireland if hatred towards a protected group can be demonstrated, reports the Irish Times.
Are Protestants and British citizens protected groups?
A rhetorical question of course.
We are never protected.
We are everybody’s enemy to be oppressed and dispossessed, my values and achievements count for nothing, and you know what?
I no longer care, I will go my own way they can all f-f-f-fade away.
Preferably “on the road to hell”
Well and bravely said!
For those of us who wish to read it, the Telegraph remains the shell of a once proud title. The news Round-up here, without links to articles sitting behind the DT paywall would today, as so often is the case, be pretty thin.
The Telegraph is as much an enemy of free speech as the lovely Ms Reeves. I have the scars to prove it, as do many others. If you can get their pieces on here without the paywall, super. If not, please find other material. There is otherwise a great deal out there worth reposting.
So much doom and gloom but Scousese and Dicaprio made me laugh out loud. Thank you Stevo Stonko!
Me, too! Thanks to Stevo Stonko!
Shocking news today, but good news for Israel, which won’t have to worry about attacks from Syrian territory by the new Jihadist Rulers.
“Why’s that then?” you ask.
Because this:
Hal Turner Radio Show – Al-Jawlani, Head of HTS That Overthrew Syria President, is Jewish . . .
“According to Israel’s YNET News, Abu Muhammed Al-Jawlani was born Yonatan Avi-David, and is a Mossad Mole.”
“He adopted the fake identity Abu Muhammed Al-Jawlani and became the head of the International Terrorist Group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).”
“The story above, from YNET News in Israel, published August 27 of the year 2013, reveals the ugly truth.”
“Clearly, this is why Jawlani and all of his underlings, who are in the process of installing themselves as “officials” in the new Syrian “government” (they overthrew the old one) have made clear “Syria will not be a place from which Israel is attacked.
All the troubles with “Rebels” in Syria? It was Israel all along.”
Mind-boggling.
(Link from Heroic Jewish Henry Makow’s website)