>>18693164

tyb

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>>18693225

>>18693247

Your word has revealed something.

>>18693256

That's the mood I'm in.

Israel’s Opposition Leader Tells U.S. Jews to Oppose Israeli Government

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid traveled to the U.S. this week in the midst of the Passover holiday to deliver an extraordinary message: American Jews had a duty to oppose the democratically-elected Israeli government.

Lapid, who leads the Yesh Atid party, is trying to stop Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition from adopting judicial reforms that temper the largely unchecked power of Israel’s left-wing judiciary.

For weeks, the Israeli opposition has staged massive, disruptive demonstrations against the refomrs, claiming to be defending “democracy” — though the reforms would actually make the Israeli judiciary more democratic.

Netanyahu responded to the protests last month by suspending the reforms and allowing time for negotiations between the government and the opposition. But the opposition has kept up pressure, including from abroad.

Amid accusations that the U.S. State Department is funding some of the Israeli opposition groups, Lapid came to the U.S. to meet with Democrats and with Jewish leaders, some of whom had spoken out against the reforms.

Lapid explicitly urged them to oppose the Israeli government and to support the opposition, according to quotes attributed to him by an Orthodox Jewish group that opposes his effort to enlist U.S. Jews in the debate.

The Am Echad group, which focuses on relations between Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, slammed Lapid for attacking the Israeli government from within the U.S., saying it jeopardizes both Israel and American Jews.

In an open letter, co-chairs Shlomo Werdiger and Dr. Irving Lebovics wrote:

We are writing to you to express our grave concern over your comments at the meeting with members of the Jewish Federations in New York.

…

In your remarks, you accused the current government of being “the most extremist in history … causing damage to security, economy, social cohesion, and relations with Diaspora Jewry.” It would be an understatement to say that the issues facing Israel today are controversial and, at the very least, large swaths of the Israeli population support the government’s actions and view them as the fruition of election promises. Therefore, it is disingenuous of you to accuse the government of undermining Israeli democracy and calling on American Jews to get up in arms to protect Israel from its own leadership.

While we can argue about the prudence and wisdom of the current government’s policies and performance, rhetoric characterizing the government as “extremist” and “undemocratic” jeopardizes the relationship between Israel and world Jews.

More importantly, when such statements move into mainstream media, they delegitimize Israel itself, and by extension pose real danger to the safety of Diaspora communities. When you go back to Israel, we in the Diaspora will face the potential consequences of even more antisemitism, powered by your words.

Israel is precious to every single one of us. We are proud of its vibrant democracy and amazing growth. We ask you that going forward you refrain from damaging, inflammatory rhetoric against Israel and its government during meetings in the Diaspora.

The letter also chided Lapid for abusing his role as opposition leader by criticizing his country abroad, violating common democratic protocol.

For many years, Jewish groups have resisted pressure from anti-Israel activists to criticize Israel or policies of the Israeli government, saying that holding Jews outside Israel accountable for Israel’s policies is antisemitic.

But Lapid appeared to do just that — and to set a precedent that it is appropriate to pressure American Jewish leaders to oppose the Israeli government, and to take positions within controversial debates on Israeli policies.

Lapid also had a special meeting with Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) — who is, ironically, the author of some of the most radical judicial reforms ever proposed in the U.S., but led Jewish Democrats in opposing Israel’s reforms.

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/04/14/israels-opposition-leader-tells-u-s-jews-to-oppose-israeli-government/

Russian oil exports hit near three-year high – IEA

Sanctioned seaborne crude is selling above the price cap set by EU and G7 countries, the agency has revealed

Russian oil exports jumped to their highest level in almost three years in March, despite Western sanctions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) revealed in its monthly report on Friday.

Russia's daily seaborne oil supplies surged by 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 8.1 million bpd last month, the highest since April 2020, according to the IEA.

The Paris-based agency attributed the increase largely to a rise in exports of oil products, which returned to pre-COVID levels. Deliveries of petroleum products rose by 450,000 bpd month-on-month to 3.1 million bpd in March.

However, while Russia's oil revenues rebounded from a February decline and rose by $1 billion to $12.7 billion, they were still 43% down on the same period last year, data shows.

Western nations have imposed several waves of sanctions targeting Russian oil exports, including price caps and embargoes. In February, the EU and G7 nations introduced a price cap of $100 per barrel for diesel, jet fuel and gasoline from Russia, and a $45 per barrel limit for other oil products that trade below the crude price. Fuel exports priced above these limits are barred from insurance and shipping services offered by Western businesses. The caps followed a previously introduced $60-per-barrel price ceiling on Russian crude oil.

https://www.rt.com/business/574726-iea-russian-oil-exports-three-year-high/

Paper Tiger? German Army Reserve Only Exists ‘On Paper’, Says Volunteer Boss

The German reserve forces are only a fraction of the officially stated size, lack equipment and training, and is a force “that still largely exists on paper”, says the chief of the German reserves association.

Berlin is looking to make its armed forces more effective after years of under-investment, and Russian aggression reaching the borders of the European Union. The reserve forces are seen to be an important part of this plan, yet as the leader of the group which represents the interests of reserve soldiers, it is far from being able to meet these goals and appears to resemble more a paper tiger than a valued defence component.

Speaking to German newspaper the Stuttgarter Zeitung, retired Lieutenant Colonel, former conservative (CDU) member of Parliament, and now reserve forces association leader Patrick Sensburg said they are badly run and considerably underfunded.

Far from the official total number of reserves on the books of around 930,000 people — achieved because by law everyone in Germany with past military service is a reservist forever — actually only “around 34,000” of them are in any way active or recently trained. And even those, Sensburg says, are trained under “poor conditions”.

The reserves have to beg the regular forces for uniforms, even routine military training like target shooting practice is difficult to achieve, and have no military vehicles. At best, says the association boss, reservists can use civilian cars and most bizarrely of all, reserve tank commanders don’t get to train in real tanks. Instead, they perform their manoeuvres “on foot”.

Exercises don’t happen often Sensburg revealed, but when they do, morale and interest is so low officers are “happy if only a third of the soldiers notified turn up”.

The reserves would have a wide range of roles in a time of crisis, from guarding power stations and transporting the wounded to filling gaps on the front line, yet at present the force isn’t capable of doing those jobs, says Sensburg. Indeed, it is a “force that still largely exists on paper.”

Obviously to the veteran officer increasing the equipment, vehicles, and weapons available to the reserves is an essential step, but a change towards the way the reserve forces are organised is needed too. Sensburg told the paper that there should at least be a requirement for soldiers in the reserve to put in a fortnight’s training every two years.

In comparison, the British Army Reserve — which is also struggling to recruit — asks its members for 27 days of service a year. If reservists meet this requirement, they get a tax-free cash bonus, known in traditional military parlance as a ‘bounty’.

The revelations that the German military suffers from equipment shortages and faults, being reduced to training by make-believe have long precedents. In 2015 it was reported that German soldiers training alongside NATO allies used black-painted broomsticks to simulate guns while their colleagues from abroad used the real thing. In 2018, it was reported of the theoretical fleet of 128 Eurofighter Typhoons, just four of the fighter jets were actually in front-line condition.

Now, the donation of German tanks and equipment to Ukraine has left a “huge gap” in the nation’s defences, as working equipment is sent east but nothing is ready to replace it. In one remarkable turn of events, the new armoured vehicles ordered by the German government to replace old Cold War-era equipment have been found to be so unreliable the old tracked armour has been brought back out of mothballs to cover.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/14/paper-tiger-german-army-reserve-only-exists-on-paper-says-volunteer-boss/

Poland blasts Macron call for ‘autonomy’ from US

Politicians who want the EU to be more independent are actually pushing it closer to China, he insisted

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has lashed out at the idea of EU strategic autonomy, claiming that proponents want the economic bloc to become more dependent on China. He further urged “democracies” against “trading with tyrants.”

“European autonomy sounds fancy, doesn’t it, but it means shifting the center of European gravity towards China and severing ties with the US,” the Polish official said on Thursday in remarks to NATO's weapons industry-funded Atlantic Council adjunct.

Morawiecki’s comments come after French president Emmanuel Macron called for a more strategically independent EU foreign policy, following a visit to China. He argued that the EU should not be a “vassal” of Washington, and shouldn't become “caught up in crises that are not ours.”

Morawiecki, a staunch promoter of the EU’s alignment with the US, blasted Western European politicians supporting Macron’s views.

“Shortsightedly they look to China to be able to sell more European products there at huge geopolitical cost, making us more dependent on China, and not less,” he stated. “Hence, I don't quite understand the concept of ‘strategic autonomy’, if it means de facto shooting into our own knee.”

The Polish prime minister said that the Western European economy has long been based on five pillars, including cheap Russian energy, affordable capital, cheap labor, “free” defense via NATO and access to the Chinese market.

“Now we see all those pillars either in jeopardy or non-existent at all. Now their modus vivendi has collapsed,” he noted.

The premier urged restricting international trade in the name of geostrategic and ideological interests. Outsourcing strategic industries to certain nations, he claimed, “means giving more kinds of weapons to those who may use them against the free world.”

https://www.rt.com/news/574717-morawiecki-macron-strategic-autonomyu/

Who Knew! No Women Have Penises, UK Prime Minister Confirms

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed that no women in fact have penises, in a political statement that will somehow manage to cause controversy.

Britain’s Conservative Party Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has confirmed in an interview his understanding that 100 per cent of women do not have penises, a statement that marks the latest chapter in one of the country’s most bizarre political controversies in its centuries-long history.

Despite how obvious many will find such an observation, such a view is not held by some on the country’s increasingly sex-politics-obsessed left, with a Green Party member of Scotland’s devolved parliament claiming instead that biological male rapists have the right to call themselves women while in prison.

Speaking to the political news and opinion blog ConservativeHome, UK PM Sunak agreed with the point put to him that 100 per cent of women do not have penises.

Such a figure slightly eclipses the one provided by his Labour Party rival, Keir Starmer, who instead believes that only 99.9 per cent of women do not have penises, a tacit admission that he believes as many as one in every 1000 women do in fact have male genitalia.

However, Sunak was somewhat apologetic about his statement, saying that while he did think biological sex is “fundamentally important”, he also stuttered out that it was important to have “compassion” and “understanding” while dealing with the issue.

“I think the first thing to say is, look, we should always have compassion and understanding and tolerance for those who are thinking about their gender,” he said, qualifying his claim that women do not have penises.

“But when it comes to these issues of protecting women’s rights [and] women’s spaces I think the issue of-of biological sex is fundamentally important when we think about those questions (sic),” he stammered on.

Sunak’s apparent nervousness in answering the question betrays the underlying political controversy of sex that is gripping mainstream UK politics, with even those in the supposedly right-wing Tory Party nervous about upsetting those who back transgender ideology.

Other parties in the country are far more open about their support for hard-line trans politics, however, with another member of the Scottish National Party coming out this week to say that biological male rapists should be allowed to identify as women in UK prisons.

“I think any trans person should be able to get the gender recognition certificate that they seek, that recognises, in law, something that the rest of us just take for granted,” Maggie Chapman, an SNP member of Scottish parliament, remarked regarding the issue.

Chapman went on to deny that one infamous rapist who identifies as transgender, Adam Graham, is only doing so because he wishes to do time in a women’s prison rather than a male one.

Convicted of raping two women, Graham now goes by the name Isla Bryson, though has reportedly been moved out of a women’s prison after public backlash over his gender change.

“[W]e don’t know that was the only motivation that Isla Bryson chose to do that,” the progressive politician insisted. “Isla Bryson is a trans woman.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/14/this-is-somehow-news-no-women-have-penises-uk-pm-confirms/

Germany bids farewell to its last nuclear plants, eyes hydrogen future

LINGEN, Germany (AP) — For 35 years, the Emsland nuclear power plant in northwestern Germany has reliably provided millions of homes with electricity and many with well-paid jobs in what was once an agricultural backwater.

Now, it and the country’s two other remaining nuclear plants are being shut down. Germany long ago decided to phase out both fossil fuels and nuclear power over concerns that neither is a sustainable source of energy.

The final countdown Saturday delayed for several months over feared energy shortages because of the Ukraine war is seen with relief by Germans who have campaigned against nuclear power.

Yet with energy prices stubbornly high and climate change a growing concern, some in the country and abroad are branding the move reckless. As Germany closes nuclear stations, other governments in Europe have announced plans to build new ones or have backtracked on commitments to shut down existing plants.

“The Emsland nuclear power plant has indeed contributed significantly to the economic development of this region,” says Albert Stegemann, a dairy farmer and lawmaker for the opposition Christian Democrats who represents the nearby town of Lingen and surrounding areas in the federal parliament.

https://apnews.com/article/germany-nuclear-power-shutdown-merkel-climate-7cec2956fa05896edaa503b648ed06a1

New CDC Report: Suicide Is Now The Second Leading Cause Of Death Of Americans Under-35, Jumps 4% In A Year – Are COVID and Mental Health Medications to Blame?

The rate of suicide among youth in the United States rose amid pandemic-related isolation, job loss, financial instability, lockdowns, illness and grief, according to a new report published by the Centers for Diseases and Prevention.

The report shows a 4 percent jump in suicides in from 2020 to 2021, the sharpest yearly increase in 20 years.

Approximately 48,200 Americans took their own lives in 2021, an increase of 46,000 deaths in 2020 and 47,511 deaths in 2019, prior to the Covid-1984 globalist takeover.

Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among Americans aged 10 through 34 and the eleventh-leading cause of death in the US compared to 2020 when it was the twelfth-leading cause.

From 2020 to 2021, the US suicide rate reached more than 14 deaths per 100,000 people, an 11 percent increase since 2001.

American Indian or Alaska Native people had the highest rates of suicide from 2020 to 2021.

Black and white males and females all saw increases in suicide that year, but the suicide death rate remains three to four times higher among men than women.

Of all demographics examined by the CDC, suicide rates are typically lowest among females aged 10 to 14. Yet, young girls saw the largest percentage increase in over two decades starting at 0.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2001 and rising to 2.3 per that many in 2021, the CDC reports.

In June 2021, the average number of teen girls admitted to emergency rooms for attempted suicide jumped 51 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

The rising rate of suicides in the US coincides with an uptick of Americans taking prescription mental health “medication,” psychotropic drugs known to cause suicidal and homicidal ideation.

More than 24 percent of Americans are now taking prescription mental health drug — 1 out of every 4 people, according to a recent analysis of the CDC’s Pulse Survey data.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/new-cdc-report-suicide-is-now-the-second-leading-cause-of-death-of-americans-under-35-jumps-4-in-a-year/