"[This new record being set  for hottest temperatures in the world's oceans is] very troubling." 

"An ocean this warm destabilizes weather patterns and threatens food security, economic prosperity and marine life."

"A warmer ocean is not our friend."

Jane Lubchenco, oceanographer, former chief of U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

"This is yet another sign of our climate system under strain and the ocean under immense pressure."

"When we have a warmer ocean such as we've had in Europe this summer, it amplifies the impact of heat waves because you don't get the cooler nighttime temperatures with the sea breeze coming off the ocean when the ocean is very warm."

"Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead, Copernicus climate service, Europe

 

"The thing that makes my heart sink is that this starts so early and it's so out-of-normal that you know when it hits its peak it's going to be unprecedented."

"The ocean is not supposed to do this. It's just that there is no normal anymore."

"[With hotter water], not everybody is hit equally, obviously, but the whole system collapses."

"It's like when you pull out the rug from underneath an economy. The whole thing collapses. Some sectors may do a little bit better but, overall, everybody suffers."

Boris Worm, biology professor, Dalhousie University, Canada 

A very strong El Niño developing in the southern Pacific Ocean will disrupt global weather patterns in the months ahead, but climate scientists say it's not something we can attribute to the heat waves and wildfires that raged across the northern hemisphere this summer, like the ones in British Columbia's interior earlier this month. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

 

This year's El Nino has already reached the peak of other recent such appearances, and it's continuing to grow and expected to reach unprecedented levels when it does eventually peak. With the current El Nino, the oceans will keep heating  up, and it is  expected to peak at some time between November and January. That's abnormal since most of the Southern Hemisphere is ocean, and the world's sea surface temperature generally peaks around March and April as the southern summer draws to its close. But not this year.

 

El Nino is nature's temporary warming of portions of the Pacific Ocean which warps weather, raising global temperatures. This is a weather phenomenon recognized as being responsible for most of the heat that develops in the world's oceans -- along with long-term warming resulting from burning coal, oil and gas. This year, ocean waters have warmed by 0.8C, seeing the world's oceans at their hottest temperatures on record last weekend. That's bad news, but even worse is that they're entirely likely to keep warming. 

 

Coral in Tubbatah Reef in the Philippines.  Adobe

 

Aquatic lifeforms are placed under stress with warming water. The supersized El Nino of this year is proving to be of greater concern than the record previously set in March of 2024. A warming ocean becomes more acidic with less oxygen, inimical to the health of its sealife. Ocean currents become altered along with changed weather patterns. Storm systems are enhanced by the warming oceans, becoming wetter and producing larger storm surges.

 

According to Dr. Bruno, heat-sensitive corals now are roughly one-fifth of the levels of 1990. Some species of coral -- not the longer-lived staghorn corals -- are adapting to the hotter water, although they're 'weedy'. The current situation of warmer oceans and even warmer yet as time moves on and the heating persists, is predictive of collapsed fisheries resulting in universal food shortages.The Peruvian anchovy fishery, considered the largest world fishery, generally collapses during El Nino.

 

Corals from the Galápagos Islands contain chemical signatures that scientists were able to use to trace a 1,000-year history of El Niño events.   Greg Asner/DivePhoto.org

 

The food web becomes altered, since larger fish are able to swim off to cooler water to escape the heat, as far as halfway across an ocean. "Anchovies can't leave so they just don't reproduce, or [they] starve", explained Dr. Worm, affecting both the humans and the seabirds who depend on them. The presence of more jellyfish is being observed off Europe, stated Dr. Bruno, believing something similar will be seen on the East Coast of the United States.

 

"Jellyfish are often opportunistic and they like warm waters. So yes, I would expect them to do a little bit better", added Dr. Worm. And when's the last time you saw jellyfish on the dinner menu? "As long as we depend on a healthy ocean for our safety, prosperity and well-being, these record-breaking sea surface temperatures portend even greater challenges for us all", added Rick Spinrad, another former NOAA chief. 

"It's frightening. We're not even in October yet."

"You know, usually the Caribbean peaks at like late September, early October."

"And I think next year in the Southern Ocean, the Great Barrier Reef, yeah I'm really worried about what's going to happen in the southern hemisphere in February, March."

John Bruno, marine ecologist, University of North Carolina 

A satellite map from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows sea surface temperature anomalies recorded on Aug. 20, with hotter than average temperatures stretching across the El Niño region toward the west coast of South America. (NOAA)

The European Union's Changed Migrant Attitude

The European Commission is set to propose new rules on deporting migrants entering the bloc illegally, according to three European Union diplomats.

The Commission is currently consulting EU capitals to determine the specifics of the directive, one diplomat said. Migration regulations are notoriously complex, involving overlapping national, EU and international law.

A few principles are likely to feature in the new directive, including defining rights and obligations for migrants who have exhausted legal options to stay in the EU and clarifying rules for deporting them to third countries — which could either be their country of origin or a place where they have spent a significant amount of time.

Since the EU adopted its Return Directive in 2008, the push for more and quicker deportations has grown. Europe has shifted markedly right on migration in recent years at both the national and EU levels, with far-right parties making major gains on an anti-immigrant platform and right-wing forces increasingly influential in Brussels.

Politico 

A draft directive on returns could be circulated to member countries' permanent representations as early as February. | Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images

Europe, over the past decade,  has found itself pushed too hard by swarms of illegal migrants entering by overland routes or crowded into dinghies through sea passages where tens of thousands of people from Africa and the Middle East risk their lives and their futures determined to make passage to Europe to settle in wealthy states like Germany which in the past obligingly took in altogether a million migrants. Austria found space for many, and the European Union at first expected its members to accept an equal share of the never-ending streams of people -- mostly young men -- intent on finding refuge for whatever reason -- escaping poverty, or discrimination, or war, but not excluding others with a nefarious purpose.

Once the phenomenon of waves of thousands of illegal migrants risking all to make their journey a success became a routine and Europe was groaning at its cultural/social/empathetic seams the uniqueness of the situation became stale and the burden of finding place for foreign nationals whose cultures, heritage, values and tribal sectarianism grated on public sensibilities to the point of final rejection. While Western Europe grudgingly did its part in accepting the foreign waves of migrants, Eastern Europe had a tendency to hunker down in rejection.

That rejection has hardened to envelope the entire European Union. And much as occurred when Turkey demanded funding from the EU to keep its humanitarian haven of millions of Syrian refugees who had escaped the brutality of the Syrian civil war, intact within its own borders rather than maliciously aiding their sea passage to Italy's shores and then on to the greater European target, the EU has turned to making financial deals with African countries to avoid having to accommodate any further non-legal entries. And from there to engage in wholesale deportations.

 

 Nigerians and third country migrants  Jerome Delay/The Associated Press

Anti-migrant sentiments throughout Europe have matured to the point where, from France and Germany stretching over to Hungary, sub-Saharan Africans intent on reaching the continent are now  facing push-back. North African governments that signed on to bilateral agreements with the E.U. include Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Mauritania, for whom financial incentives have led to curbing of migrant flows. Illegal border crossings dropped substantially in 2024. 

 

Predictably, rights groups deplore this new rejection of illegal migrants from Europe, claiming methods used to ensure sub-Sahara migrants cannot travel unopposed have led to human rights violations. Migrants are being dumped and abandoned without food or water in the Sahara; alternately placed in North African prisons where they face torture, sexual violence and starvation. 

 

Mass deportation from Libya reflects like movements from Algeria where last year over 31,000 people were deported to Niger. Algerian authorities leave migrants at the border with Niger, where migrants are then left with no option but to walk for  hours through the desert before reaching the closest town. Migrants become victim to beatings and other physical violence in Algerian prisons. Deported migrants in Africa are returned to their home countries by the United Nations' International Organization for Migration. 

Many migrants deported from Algeria are still stuck in Agadez, in Northern Niger. Photo : Mehdi Chebil / InfoMigrants

No Tolerance in Germany for Antisemitism

"One thing is particularly important to me."

"As a result of the German crime against humanity of the Holocaust comes our special responsibility for the protection of Jews and for the protection of the State of Israel. This responsibility is part of our identity today."

"Anyone who doesn't share our values can't get a German passport. We have drawn a crystal clear red line here."

"Antisemitism, racism and other forms of contempt for humanity rule out naturalization."

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser 

Several hundred people demonstrate under the slogan "Stop the genocide in Gaza! Stop the occupation of Palestine!" in Frankfurt city center.

Andreas Arnold/picture alliance/Getty Images

 

Germany, almost uniquely among Western liberal democracies has chosen to crack down on the post-October 7 atrocities-driven celebrations that have broken out led by the Arab, Muslim, Palestinian diaspora settled in the West. Groups dedicated to censoring Israel for the slaughter carried out by Hamas terrorists, claiming they were liberators of Palestinians oppressed by Israel, despite Palestinian lethal violence against the presence of Israel and Jews on ancestral Judaean heritage land, contested by Arab Palestinians as their own.

It is a criminal offence in Germany, punishable by incarceration, to question the Holocaust; racist, antisemitic statements are not viewed with moral equanimity in the country that committed the worst human rights excesses in modern history. A situation compounded by the fact that Germany accepted through immigration of a workforce, refugee intake and illegal migration, the largest contingent of people from the Middle East and North Africa of any European country.

 

A demonstration in support of Israel was held in Munich at the city’s synagogue. Germany’s chancellor has announced bans on activities including burning the Israeli flag and lauding Hamas crimes. Photograph: Michaela Rehle/Reuters

In response to the 'protests' of genocide being committed by Israel in its military incursion into Gaza for the purpose of destroying the terrorist Hamas Gaza government that carried out a one-day campaign of pillage, destruction, mutilations, mass rapes, endless slaughter of children, women and men on civilians in southern Israel in communities bordering Gaza, it is not the terrorists who are acknowledged as the genocidaires, but Israel, in defending itself against such savagery.

The German leadership has formulated a measure to weed out antisemites who plan to seek citizenship in Germany, that fits with its commitment to Israel and the Jewish presence in Germany. A catalogue of over 300 questions which citizenship test questions will be drawn from to comprise appropriate test questions is awaiting final approval. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported on the nature of some of the questions: 

• What is a Jewish house of prayer called?
• When was the State of Israel founded?
• What is the reason for Germany's special responsibility for Israel?
• How is Holocaust denial punished in Germany?
• Who can become a member of the approximately 40 Jewish Maccabi sport clubs in Germany?

The German state of Saxony-Anhalt months earlier prepared a commitment for the "right of the State of Israel to exist" as a requirement for naturalization. Antisemitism and pro-Palestinian declarations and protests have seen Germany crack down on their viral messages of hatred for Israel and provocations against Jews which have proliferated at this time of conflict in Gaza when the Israel Defense Forces mounted a ground assault in retaliation against the horrors of October 7.

 

Strictly monitored speech policies have been enforced on pro-Palestinian protests. Events scheduled to take place at Museum shows, book talks and allied art events have been cancelled. To pass the 33-question citizenship qualifications applicants for German citizenship must answer at least 17 multiple-choice questions correctly within an hour.

 

Over 2,000 antisemitic incidents have been logged by German authorities, prompting leaders in Germany since the October 7 barbarity, to call for improved enforcement of the nation's antisemitism laws.

 

A demonstration in support of Israel was held in Munich at the city’s synagogue. Germany’s chancellor has announced bans on activities including burning the Israeli flag and lauding Hamas crimes. Photograph: Michaela Rehle/Reuters

"Antisemitism has no place in Germany."

"We will do everything to oppose it.We will do this as citizens, and as bearers of political responsibility."

"This includes enforcing existing laws."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Commitment to Ukraine by Europe

"No one  talks about stopping after this [massive bombing attack on residential neighbourhoods] happens."

"The sanctions aren't working. The West must stop procrastinating with ammunition, air defence and financial support, or what we are getting here will come to their countries."

"Do you want Russia on your borders? Do you think they will stop?"

"The war is not over and Putin's getting stronger and won't stop. Why would he stop? He must be defeated."

Ukrainian political leader Kira Rudik

"I therefore call on our allies in the European Union to also step up their efforts in support of Ukraine."

"The arms deliveries for Ukraine planned so far by the majority of EU member states are by all means too small."

"We need higher contributions."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

"My personal priority is to have an agreement by 27 [countries]."

"And if this is not possible, we are prepared for an agreement by 26 [minus holdout Hungary]."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

 

Russia has renewed its attacks against Ukraine, likely emboldened by the stale-mate in Washington which has placed further support for the Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Kremlin on ice for the time being at a time when ongoing military assistance is critical. In Europe, leaders are attuned to the nature of Vladimir Putin's bellicosity and hunger for expansion. They fully understand that nothing will stop Putin, and they are just as likely to be next on his 'special military operation' agenda as any.

This uppermost in mind, European leaders are looking to increase their support. Data, in fact, from the German-based Kiel Institute indicates that aid to Ukraine from European nations represents a doubling of the aid being provided to the embattled country as compared to what the United States has committed to. 

 

Britain and France jointly reaffirmed a pledge to defeat the Russian war machine. "What we have to do is make that economic strength [the combined economies of the West 25 times larger than Russia's], and that commitment pay", asserted British Foreign Secretary David Cameron. "I have no doubt that we can make sure that Putin loses and it's essential that he does lose."

When British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier in January visited Kyiv, he announced a $4.3 billion support package.  In the same token, French President Emmanuel Macron made an announcement of his country planning to deliver additional military aid to Ukraine that would include 40 long-range cruise missiles and hundreds of bombs.

The Baltic states and Norway together delivered the equivalent of over one percent of their economies in support of Ukraine, according to figures released by the Kiel Institute. Fighter jets have been pledged by European countries and last summer the Netherlands and Denmark pledged they would supply Ukraine with 61 F-16s in coming years. As new replacement models arrive, Belgium is prepared to deliver over 50 jets, and Norway is to donate  upwards of 10 F-16s.

A new trilateral initiative to improve maritime safety in the Black Sea and assist Ukraine in maintaining open shipping lanes by clearing Russian mines, was signed off by Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Members of the European Parliament in Brussels have taken to efforts to strip Budapest of its veto powers so that they can prevent Hungary from blocking aid to Ukraine.

 

The G7 is considering whether to confiscate $300 billion in frozen Russian assets to finance the war in the realization that they have no option but to assist Ukraine in defeating Russia or risk becoming the next countries to face an unexpected invasion with Russian bombs destroying their own homes and neighbourhoods.

"Europe has clearly overtaken the United States in promised aid to Ukraine, with total European commitments now being twice as large."

"A main reason is the EU’s new €50 billion “Ukraine Facility,” but also other European countries have upped their support with new multi-year packages."

"For the first time since the start of the war, the US is now clearly lagging behind. This is one of the results of the latest update of the Ukraine Support Tracker."

Kiel Institute for the World Economy

The Peripatetic Defender of Ukraine

"We can’t control the sky. We want to create this jets coalition, and I’m very positive with it. "

"We spoke about it and I see that in the closest time, you will hear some, I think, very important decisions — but we have to work a little bit more on it."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

 

"Other countries are involved. I’m talking to those leaders. I’ll be doing more of that this week in my international engagements."

"We’re very keen to build that coalition of countries to give Volodymyr and his people the aircraft support they need."

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

 

"On fighter jets, one of the concerns of the Ukrainians is how to protect their skies, from drone attacks, from helicopters strikes, from Russia fighter jets."

"So it’s totally natural to speak about everything and aviation is part of the conversation."

Elysée Palace official  

 

"[The Ukrainian president received] assurances [from Western leaders during his latest European tour that they will discuss the issue of combat jets in the days ahead.]"

"[Although Britain, Italy, France and Germany do not have F-16s to offer], they have an important voice in the international coalition [and Ukraine would like them to] encourage [allies such as the U.S. and Turkey.]"

"Everybody understands that the topic is ripe for discussion. Nobody said that it’s impossible. If you compared it with three months ago, when we were still struggling to get tanks, today everybody is talking about the jet coalition — that’s a very promising sign."

"We understand that our air defense will not be complete without fighter jets, F-16s."

Yuriy Sak, adviser to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov

Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Off/UPI/Shutterstock

Once again, Ukraine's president has set out to remind his European colleagues and supporters of their importance in the provision of military equipment, to Ukraine's success in the battlefield, against the ruthless onslaught of Russian troops sent by Moscow to eradicate the country's sovereign independence in a brute-strength show of the oppressor calling in his cards for territorial expansion and the eradication of a nation's culture, heritage and liberty.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's antennae have tuned in to the donor-fatigue beginning to afflict his supporters abroad. Ukraine's battle to save itself from Moscow's octopus grip and Vladimir Putin's malice is hugely dependent on the practical, materiel support it receives from supporting Eastern and Western European nations, as much as it relies upon the United States and other democratic partner-nations to continue their financial and materiel donations to Ukraine's defensive-offensive strides in countering Russian imperialism.

Ukraine's president set off across Europe for a singular purpose in a two-fold mission; to remind his allies abroad of the sacrifices Ukraine has made, not only in its own defence, but by extension the defence of Russia's near-abroad, and secondly to jolt their sense of fraternal determination not to see Russia succeed in its mission to regain its former status as a dictatorial hegemon, absorbing the countries surrounding it as it has done before under the USSR. 

In return European leaders have promised to Ukraine an arsenal of missiles, tanks and drones in response to Mr. Zelenskyy's European whirlwind tour lobbying for Ukraine's need to mount an effective campaign of maintaining the integrity of its geography, wresting back from Russia the huge swathes of land, the towns and cities and seaports in Eastern Ukraine now occupied by Russian troops and which Russian President Putin has formally declared part of Russia.

"They've got to show they're in this conflict for the long term and that they're able to keep sustaining t his effort."

"It's not going to be one shot and done."

Justin Crump, former British tank commander, head, Sibyline security consultancy

"[If Ukraine launches an offensive] and it doesn't go well, there might be  drop off in support and more pressure to negotiate."

"I think he's just trying to bind in for as long as he possibly can as much support as he can from the West."

Patrick Bury, senior lecturer in security, University of Bath

"[The trip is part] weapons shopping tour, that's clear enough, and it seems to be working very well."

"But the other aspect, of course, is what you would call shaping the political battlefield."

"The politics are no less important for Zelenskyy than the purely military stuff."

Francois Heisbourg, French analyst on defence and security, International Institute for Strategic Studies

An explosion is seen in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 16. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

 

The U.K. has pledged hundreds more air defence missiles, along with attack drones with a range of over 200 kilometres. When Ukraine's leader met President Emmanual Macron during his trip, France committed to supply Ukraine with dozens of light tanks and armoured vehicles, as well as unspecified air defence systems. President Zelenskyy also visited Germany where talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz led to another $3 billion of equipment, including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition.

 

All of which Mr. Zelenskyy is grateful for, but his goal is the forming of an international "fighter jet coalition" to support Ukraine with planes. That plan abuts NATO's concerns of the alliance's role in the war escalating, and risking a much wider conflict. Washington has thus far resisted Ukraine's request for U.S.-made F-16s to supplement Ukraine's jets dating from the Soviet era.

 

Although the U.K. has no F-16s, it will give Ukrainian pilots basic training on Western-standard jets this summer. It is the quest and confirmation for long-term commitments that Mr. Zelensky was aiming for in this trip, apart and above the steady stream of equipment the West has already supplied. 

"They should be able to carry out the offensive with what they already have, but that's not enough to sustain it over the long term."

"And they'll need the long term to make the Russians crack."

Retired French Vice Admiral Michel Olgagaray, former head of France's centre for higher military studies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s flew to London on Monday following a three-hour working dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday | Carl Court/Getty Images

 

China's Territorial Claims

"The European Union is going through this moment of self-reflection."

"'What kind of relationship do we want to have with China?' and 'What kind of relationship are we willing to have with Taiwan?'"

"These are the two big questions that still need to be addressed."

Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy, former political adviser to the European Parliament

China’s increasingly aggressive posture in East Asia has begun to move Europeans closer to Taiwan.  Getty Images

 

A switch in attitudes appears to be unfolding, where once the nations of Europe kept Taiwan at arm's length, careful not to provoke the People's Republic of China into raised hackles to maintain smooth relations with an autocratic leadership that notoriously prefers 'harmony' in the sense that no moves counter to Beijing's interests would be countenanced on anyone's part with the equanimity of a shrug and tolerance for other opinions. There can be no other opinions once Beijing has expressed its position. On anything.

 

And Beijing's oft-repeated insistence that the island state of Taiwan is part of greater China is one of those non-negotiable positions China is not prepared to discuss anywhere with anyone, since it is a strictly internal matter for China. Now, however, Europe is abandoning its placatory position toward China. Perhaps the decision of the Chinese Communist Party to harass and threaten Taiwan by sending fighter jets over Taiwan's airspace doesn't sit particularly well in Europe.

 

A shift has been noted with Europe reconsidering its relations with both China and Taiwan. China's aggressive tactics has won it no admiration abroad, and is serving to alert European governments to the CPC's perceived entitlement to bully and threaten those who fail to adjust their idea of international law to Beijing's interpretations. 

 

Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s foreign minister, speaking during a visit to Prague last month.  Credit...Petr David Josek/Associated Press

The European Parliament has overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling for more robust ties with Taiwan, describing it as a "partner and democratic ally in the Indo-Pacific". Parliament sent its first formal delegation on a visit to the island, despite Beijing's threats of retaliation for spurning its interests. Raphael Glucksmann, the delegation's leader, a French member of the European Parliament, informed Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen: "Europe is standing with you. We came here with a very simple, clear message: 'You are not alone'."

A year ago, Europe and China were finalizing a long-dormant agreement to operate on each other's territory, considered a geopolitical victory for Beijing. China's increasingly vitriolic assertion of authority under Xi Jinping has led to an aura of suspicion against the trade colossus. European lawmakers took steps to block the investment agreement, and as they did, citing China's human rights violations.

China's brutal Hong Kong crackdown on democracy, its coronavirus inception and communication  chapter leading to the international community's struggle to cope with a resulting wholesale social, political, business and economic meltdown, with China's lack of forthcoming alerts, its intimidation of Taiwan and its reputation for social genocide of the Uyghurs in East Turkestan, have all blackened its reputation as a reliable partner in any international sphere of endeavour. 

 

And then, there is the strictly business component of closer ties with Taiwan, a source of semiconductor chips where Taiwan has a vital role in the global supply chain for the chips, used to power iPhones and cars and everything in between. Taiwan is understandably interested in fostering firmer ties with Europe, to be recognized as a sovereign state which it is, and to promote business ties to its advantage.

 

A plaque at the Taiwanese representative office in Lithuania. China has downgraded its ties with Vilnius over the opening of the office. Photograph: EPA

 

Beijing's response has been to threaten it would take countermeasures focusing on each act of outreach to Taiwan. Its ambassador to Lithuania was recalled in August, for starters, diplomatic ties downgraded in response to Lithuania permitting Taiwan to open a de facto embassy. To which Lithuania's Foreign Minister expressed "regret" over China's decision.

China's responses and its fury over any acceptance of Taiwan as an independent country will only serve to see other nations gradually distance themselves from the CPC, the process even leading to China losing access to the European market. According to Shi Yinhong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, China will not willingly back down on such core issues as Taiwan and Xinjiang, both representing foci of the tensions.

Reality as Opposed to the Narrative

“The designation decisions published by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel list extremely vague or irrelevant reasons, including entirely peaceful and legitimate activities such as provision of legal aid and 'promotion of steps against Israel in the international arena'."

UN Human Rights Office, Ramallah

 

"The Israeli government did not give us advance warning [that the Palestinian groups would be blacklisted'."

"We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance."

Ned Price, spokesman, U.S. State Department

 

"Those organizations [six named Palestinian NGOs] were active under the cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel."

"The security organizations will continue to act and intensify the strikes against terrorism and the terrorist infrastructure everywhere, and by all means."

"I call on the countries of the world and international organizations to assist in this fight and to avoid contact with companies and organizations that supply materials to terrorism."

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz 

 

"Those funds [received from EU member states and the United Nations] served the Popular Front for payments to security prisoners’ families and martyrs, wages for activists, enlistment of activists, promotion of terror activity, promotion of the Popular Front activity in Jerusalem, and distribution of the organization’s messages and ideology."

Israel’s Ministry of Defense

 

"[The announcement by the Israeli government] confirms what our research has shown for years—this time six Palestinian NGOs were designated as terrorist organizations as part of the PFLP network."

"All are funded by European [governments] and deeply involved in political warfare against Israel."

NGO Monitor, watchdog group tracking anti-Israel nonprofits  

PFLP terrorists Abdul Razeq Farraj (l) and Ubai Aboudi (r) at Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah, Feb. 2, 2017. (Facebook)

Now that's unexpected, is it not? Israeli intelligence sources identify the background commitment of  ostensible charitable and human rights organizations for the Palestinian cause, a cause dedicated to ultimately succeeding in demolishing the presence of the Jewish state to enable Palestinians to claim 'all clear' in their assumption of creating a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea". The culmination of their public relations campaigns capturing Western support claiming and finally attaining the sovereign status on the entire area occupied by Israel, that tiny sliver of land representing a mere portion of Judean geographic heritage.

 

On Friday, Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz captured immediate international attention -- mostly from the sources that so generously fund the Palestinian Authority's corrupt regime with its 'pay for slay' program, glorifying the exploits of deadly attacks against Jews by Palestinian 'martyrs' exemplifying commitment to 'resistance' against the 'occupier', on territory that the State of Israel through its military defence against Arab states' attack in 1967 gained. And where all other countries in the world once success in defence is achieved, gains are absorbed, where Israel is concerned this is unacceptable.

 

Palestinian victimization is a narrative beloved of Israel's critics, and they are legion. Israel's willingness in one successive government after another to come to a bargaining table to make concessions for peace made no inroads whatever in the Palestinian mind, incited by leaders who committed to aggravated assault against Jews in their midst, vowing never to live among Jews, while Palestinian Arabs who remained on their land with the re-creation of the State of Israel do live among Jews, as citizens of the country, unwilling to live under PA or Hamas rule in the West Bank or Gaza, but resentful regardless.

The European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Canada among others sanctimoniously fund the Palestinian 'refugees' living in the West Bank and Gaza, knowing full well, proof amply given, that there is no end to corruption, to incitement of violence against Israel; that celebration of the martyrs to the 'cause' will see their families given monthly financial awards, street and social center naming ceremonies. That school curricula, television programs and songs lionize 'martyrs' to inspire children to hate and to aspire toward vengeance.

 

Palestinian celebrate during a rally marking the 46th anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP), in Gaza City, 7 December 2013. (Emad Nassar/Flash90)

 

Israel is called to account when it identifies and designates the funding connection between Palestinian charities and Palestinian terrorist groups. Any group can identify themselves as human rights organizations, groups whose specific aim is to demonize the real victims of Palestinian violence. Groups that excel in currying favour with western financial granting bodies who legitimize them, and continue portraying themselves as victims of violence while supporting those who mete out violence to Israel's civilian populations.

 

Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced on Friday that six named civil society groups have been designated terror organizations, on the basis of their having effectively operated as enablers for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group which most European and North American countries list as a terrorist group. A backlash took no time in response, with the European Union, the Palestinian Authority, progressive Democrats, US Jewish groups, and international human rights organizations expressing outraged criticism. 

"[The] declared organizations received large sums of money from European countries and international organizations, using a variety of forgery and deceit", stated the Israeli defence ministry, while pointing out the funding supported activities of the PFLP who even though declared a terrorist group in many western countries is still viewed sympathetically, while at the same time European funding agencies balk at being tangentially linked with funding their activities. To accept Israel's findings is to proclaim themselves guilty.

Pro-Palestinian protesters march outside the White House, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2021 in Washington. (AP/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

And while not denying ties to the six groups identified by Israel as funneling funds to the PFLP, Kayed Al Ghoul, an official with the group, said they maintain relations with civil society organizations across the West Bank and Gaza: "It is part of the rough battle Israel is launching against the Palestinian people and against civil society groups, in order to exhaust them", he maintained. And he should know; it is part of the violent battle the PFLP launches against Israel in hopes of exhausting its will to survive.

Compehending COVID-19

"Where an epidemic is first detected does not necessarily reflect where it started."

"Research conducted in China and elsewhere since the COVID-19 pandemic began has shown that a range of animals -- including wild and farmed species -- are susceptible to infection, but when and where SARS-CoV-2 spilled over to humans, and from which animal, remains unknown."

World Health Organization report

"Asymptomatic people are probably especially important because from the studies that have been done so far people who have been asymptomatically infected, their antibody levels are lower and they may not be high enough to confer protection [without receiving an inoculating shot]."

"It's very misleading to discuss the overall case fatality rate because there is so much variability between populations and age groups."

"It tends to be the case that viruses that cause really, really high death rates are not well adapted to spread in humans."

Dr.Matthew Miller, associate professor, infectious diseases and immunology, McMaster University, Hamilton

"We should pause to remark that COVID-19 is extraordinarily successful epidemiologically, precisely because it is not extremely lethal."

"[Ebola, by contrast] is a rather stupid virus: It kills its host -- and itself == too quickly to spread far enough to reshape other species' life-ways to cater to its needs."

Dr.Samuel Paul Veissiere, Psychology Today, cognitive scientist, assistant professor of psychiatry, McGill University

There are no longer any reported cases of COVID in the city of 11 million inhabitants, Wuhan, China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged. There, life is resuming a normal pace. While globally the rest of the world struggles with seemingly vain attempts to control the contagion that has taken so many lives worldwide. Globally countries and their cities have experienced several 'waves' of the viral contagion, necessitating lockdowns, while their economies have been shattered, their people demoralized and fearful.

 

There remains two days left in the memorably cursed year of 2020, and when the midnight hour of 31 December arrives ushering in the next year, there will have been 1.8 million deaths worldwide, caused by SARS-CoV-2, and growing day by day. When the initial reports began circulating of a mysterious new respiratory illness, a puzzling, killing pneumonia appearing in hospitals in Wuhan, experts in the field sat up and took notice. China denied there was anything unusual happening, China informed the WHO there was no evidence of person-to-person transmission.

 

Then China closed ingress and egress to Wuhan, effectively locking the city of almost 12 million souls into itself, to contain a disease with frightening potential. Those experts looked on with growing trepidation. The coronavirus had no intention of being locked into Wuhan with its population and soon news coming out of Italy shocked the world as a warning of what was soon to appear on their own unready shores. New York quickly learned what Italy was going through and before long the virus swept the United States.

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan March 2020

Xie Huanchi Xinhua / eyevine / Redux

"As Washington falters, Beijing is moving quickly and adeptly to take advantage of the opening created by U.S. mistakes, filling the vacuum to position itself as the global leader in pandemic response. It is working to tout its own system, provide material assistance to other countries, and even organize other governments."

"The sheer chutzpah of China’s move is hard to overstate. After all, it was Beijing’s own missteps—especially its efforts at first to cover up the severity and spread of the outbreak—that helped create the very crisis now afflicting much of the world. Yet Beijing understands that if it is seen as leading, and Washington is seen as unable or unwilling to do so, this perception could fundamentally alter the United States’ position in global politics and the contest for leadership in the twenty-first century."

Kurt M. Campbell and Rush Doshi March 18, 2020, Foreign Affairs

 Irrespective of the numbers of people whom COVID-19 has affected it is still not as lethal as an infectious disease as we commonly think it to be, given the horrendous number of victims it has taken. If it is any comfort to anyone at all, SARS-1 was far more deadly, with its one-in-three chance of killing those it infected. Even so, it failed to kill as many people as COVID has for the simple reason that the more lethal a virus is, it succeeds in killing their hosts and with it the virus itself, the opportunity to spread denied it as a result of its very virulent deadliness. 

 

COVID is different and it has behaved differently, its strategy is far more successful in that it kills fewer and infects greater numbers. Numbers so great that the kill-rate far outdistances that of the more deadly viruses that have gone before it. COVID thrives in those it infects and because it is less deadly it is more contagiously opportunistic, adept at transmission in a way that SARS-1 failed to be. Given the numbers it infects it demonstrates that though less deadly it has become more lethal simply through strength of numbers. 

The most common symptoms of infection; shortness of breath, loss of taste and smell, cough, fever and tiredness is a giveaway of the virus's presence. Those failing to show any symptoms are still capable of infecting others, even as asymptomatic carriers' impact on infection spread is still an unknown. Roughly one in five people with COVID have no symptoms, representing around 20 percent of all cases. "But researchers are divided about whether asymptomatic infections are acting as a 'silent driver' of the pandemic'", according to a study in the Nature Journal.

And according to the WHO, "The virus can spread from an infected person's mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe heavily. These liquid particles are different sizes, ranging from larger 'respiratory droplets' to smaller 'aerosols'." No longer does science believe that surface contamination is the threat it was made out to be at the beginning of the pandemic; transmission is primarily through respiratory droplets and aerosols.

 

A man with what was then a mystery illness is brought into a Wuhan hospital in January this year. Photograph: Héctor Retamal/AFP/Getty Image

 

A study in ScienceMag illustrates that viruses in droplets "can be sprayed like tiny cannonballs onto nearby individuals", with virus-laden aerosols capable of remaining in the air for hours. COVID is able to remain active on a surface for several hours, even days, yet unless that surface is touched, and hands then reach out for eyes, mouth or nose, there is no threat as long as awareness and simple hygiene methods are followed; the use of antibacterials or rigorous handwashing.

There is relief on the horizon. Vaccines which are rolling out and beginning to be distributed since gaining official permission to proceed. Inoculations are taking place targeting the most vulnerable within society with plans to expedite vaccines for distribution and vaccinating entire populations. That may take as long globally as the length of time the world has been coping with trying to contain the outbreaks. Which is good reason to understand that populations must continue to distance themselves physically, wear masks, observe good hygiene and avoid crowded indoor spaces.

In the interim, other treatments of COVID are being explored. As long as the danger of contracting     COVID continues, alternate treatments fill a necessary gap, and may in fact continue to have applications useful to ward off the effects of COVID. Among them convalescent plasma which consists of using blood from people who have recovered from illness to aid others by using their protective antibodies as a new COVID-19 therapeutic protocol.

Canada has instituted a convalescent plasma trial with a need to recruit new blood donors to study whether the proposed therapy actually works as it is meant to do theoretically. Therapeutics such as this are yet to come to market, but what is available is a few drugs that help overcome the most severe cases of COVID: Dexamethasone, a steroid acting as an anti-inflammatory, proven effective on the most ill patients, and remdesivir, an antiviral which is able to prevent the virus from replicating in a person sick with severe infection.

Lastly, there is 'proning', considered effective in hospitals by reducing the high demand for ventilators with the process of turning a sick individual from their back to their stomach for improved oxygenation.

As far as the World Health Organization is concerned, COVID-19 should be considered a test run. A serious virus that has managed to upturn the world as we know it, but not as lethal as a viral pestilence can conceivably become. The WHO has warned and continues to warn of a severely deadly strain of virus that may eventually arrive. That the discoveries made by science in coping with and trying to fully comprehend the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID may better prepare us for the Big One.

"This is coming at the virus from a different way. It's almost boosting the patient's own immune system by giving them additional antibodies [through administering convalescent plasma]. Like a foot soldier to essentially fight off the infection."

"We're 100 percent reliant on people who have had the infection and have recovered to become blood donors."

Dr.Donald Arnold, associate professor of medicine, director, McMaster Centre for Transfusion Research