MIDDLE EAST - War in the Middle East has not yet caused an economic crisis - but that could change. Recent events in the Middle East have already had a ghastly human toll and there could be much more to come. Beside such considerations, economic issues are decidedly second order. Nevertheless, there are economic aspects to this crisis and they need to be analysed. Naturally, how serious the economic consequences prove to be will depend greatly on what happens from here so our judgments are hedged about with uncertainty. The most important economic variable affected by the Middle East conflict is the price of oil. Twice in the 1970s, huge increases in the oil price caused a major spike in inflation and simultaneously sent the developed world into a recession. Both of those spikes were associated with trouble in the Middle East so, when a crisis brews up there, it is natural for people to recall what happened then and to run for cover.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has announced his intention to make 21 new cardinals on December 8, among whom is the pro-LGBT Dominican friar Timothy Radcliffe. In 2023, the pontiff chose the woke friar to open the Vatican Synod on Synodality, who began his words by confessing, “I am old, white, a Westerner, and a man! I don’t know which is worse.” “All of these aspects of my identity limit my understanding, so I ask for your forgiveness for the inadequacy of my words.” said Father Radcliffe, a leader of the Church’s progressive wing for decades, who was largely sidelined during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II but has found new life under Francis.

USA - Power restoration in Western North Carolina, Upstate South Carolina could take months — 360 substations down indefinitely. Word on the street is that it will take months to restore power, water and some kind of normalcy to everyone impacted by Hurricane Helene in North and South Carolina, which were hit hardest by the storm’s flood waters. The situation is so bad in western North Carolina especially that Representative Chuck Edwards (Republican for North Carolina) issued a press release detailing the progress of emergency responders and repair crews. “More than 30 swift water and helicopter rescue crews from across North Carolina and seven nearby states have rescued more than 200 people since Thursday,” Edwards says. “Thousands of linemen from across North America, including crews from Canada, have been deployed to our community to restore power, and we’ve seen the state come together to transport dozens of trucks filled with potable water and food to our shelters.” While a valiant effort, these operations will still take a lot of time considering the scope of the damage.

USA - Still reeling from Helene, Florida braces for Hurricane Milton as it gains strength. State official urges people to prepare for ‘largest evacuation that we have seen most likely since 2017 Hurricane Irma’. More than 6.8 million people were evacuated for Irma. Florida has expanded its state of emergency as it braces for a major storm expected to pummel the state’s western peninsula by midweek, after Tropical Storm Milton gathered strength and was declared a category 1 hurricane on Sunday. The impending landfall of Milton comes days after Hurricane Helene caused devastation and destruction through large swaths of Florida and other parts of the south-east of the US including North Carolina. The death toll stands at 230 people, and is expected to rise.

GERMANY - “I am now, officially, at least according to the New Normal German authorities, a ‘hate-speech’ criminal. I’m officially a ‘hate-speech’ criminal because I compared New Normal Germany to Nazi Germany, and I challenged the official covid narrative, and I used the cover art of my book to do it,” he wrote on the day. After breaking the news to his readers, he promised to report on “all the ugly details of my day in court in a proper column sometime later this week.” Yesterday, CJ Hopkins published an article on his day in court. The judges had already decided to overturn the acquittal. The trial was largely a formality. CJ Hopkins’ attorney and statement was the only notable exceptions to the judges’ “imperious contempt and seething hostility.”

UK - Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out ending British control of Gibraltar and the Falklands, amid an ongoing backlash over his Chagos Islands deal. Asked on Friday to guarantee that no other British overseas territory would be signed away by the Government, the Prime Minister avoided the question, telling reporters that securing the use of the military base on Diego Garcia, a part of the Chagos Islands, was his focus. He said: “The single-most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base; hugely important to the US, hugely important to us.” The Prime Minister’s evasive answer raised fears about not only Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, which are wanted by Spain and Argentina, respectively, but a series of other dependencies. It means that for the first time in more than 200 years, the sun will finally set on the British Empire.

UK - The answer should have been a clear “no”. No, the UK does not accept the advisory judgment of the court. No, the UK does not recognise Mauritian sovereignty over islands it sold in 1965 and that are more than 1,300 miles away from their country. No, the UK will not undermine its security by questioning our rights to the Chagos Islands and the jointly operated UK-US airbase. That’s what the US and France would have said. Even Spain has consistently said no to discussions over its North African enclaves. That’s what British prime ministers and foreign secretaries have said for generations and should have been said in November 2022, and again last week.

ISRAEL - October 7, 2023 should have been a calm and pleasant morning in Israel. Instead, the day became the deadliest and darkest for Jews since the Holocaust, because Hamas terrorists chose that Saturday morning to realise a heinous plan years in the making. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered in their homes, their towns transformed into scenes of unspeakable horror by murderers delighting in all manner of depravity. Others were battered and bruised, tied up and forced kicking and screaming across the border into Gaza. Many would never return.

IRAN - Iran’s supreme leader has vowed retaliation for West Jerusalem’s incursion into Lebanon and siege of Gaza. On Friday, in his first public sermon in nearly five years, Khamenei defended the actions against Israel by the ‘axis of resistance’, which includes the Lebanese-based Hezbollah and Palestinian group Hamas. Tensions between Israel and neighboring Muslim countries have soared during the Gaza operation, with both Iran and Hezbollah supporting Hamas and Palestine. Earlier this month, the conflict entered a new stage as Israel launched a ground operation in Lebanon. In retaliation, Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israel. Khamenei stressed that the main problem in the Middle East is foreign interference, as “the countries of the region are capable of establishing security and peace” if left alone. He criticized America’s involvement and support for West Jerusalem, saying the US has never wanted peace in the Middle East, but has instead been pursuing the goal “of turning Israel into a tool to seize all the natural resources of the region and invest them in major global conflicts.”

USA - From poor air quality to the presence of unwanted litter and pests, living in dirty and polluted cities can have detrimental effects on quality of life. Air pollution is dangerous to our lung health, contributing to respiratory diseases and exacerbating conditions like asthma and bronchitis, while uncollected trash and rampant litter can attract vectors for diseases and viruses. San Bernardino County in California is home to two of the top 10 dirtiest cities in the US, including first-ranked San Bernardino city and fifth-ranked city Ontario. California, Texas, and New Jersey were each tied with two cities ranking in the top 10. San Bernardino County consistently ranks first in the country for the worst ozone and particulate pollution.

USA - A 10-year-old boy has been arrested in Minneapolis for allegedly stealing a car and driving it recklessly near a school playground, coming within feet of striking children playing outside Nellie Stone Johnson School on September 20th. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) has filed charges in this case, but, in a twist that has shocked citizens, the same office has also hinted that the boy may evade real consequences yet again. This arrest marks just the latest in a string of criminal activities for the 10-year-old, who, according to police, has been involved in at least two prior auto theft incidents and is suspected in more than a dozen other cases, including assault with a dangerous weapon and robbery. A psychologist will determine whether the child is “competent” to stand trial, and if deemed incompetent, he will be released back into the community. “We are facing an urgent crisis in our community related to a small group of children who are not competent to stand trial in the juvenile justice system, but who cannot safely be at home,” an attorney’s office spokesperson said in a statement.

MIDDLE EAST - Almost a year on from the dark events of Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel, the Middle East appears on the edge of catastrophe. The last 12 months have seen Israel's IDF reduce huge swathes of Gaza to dismantle Hamas and fend off skirmishes from Hezbollah at its northern border, all while facing endless threats of retribution and destruction from arch-enemy Iran. But regional tensions are now approaching boiling point, with Israel having launched a ground incursion into Lebanon and embarked on a brutal campaign of incessant airstrikes that last week assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

UK - Labour’s decision to surrender control of the Chagos Islands has already prompted debate about other British Overseas Territories. These include the Falklands and Gibraltar, which are subject to long-standing claims for a return to rule by Argentina and Spain respectively. Admiral Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy, previously warned an agreement with Mauritius to surrender sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to the east African nation ‘threatens to undermine core British security interests, and those of key allies, most notably the United States’. He wrote last year: ‘By agreeing the very principle of a Mauritian claim over Diego Garcia they are also putting at risk other British Overseas Territories such as the Falkland Islands.' Successive British prime ministers have stood firm in dismissing Argentina’s claim to the Falklands. Keir Starmer's decision to surrender UK control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius sparks debate about future sovereignty of other British Overseas Territories.

ARGENTINA - Argentina has pledged to regain control over the Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the Atlantic that has been at the center of a territorial dispute with the UK for nearly 200 years. The vow came after London returned one of its overseas territories, the Chagos Islands, to the island nation of Mauritius on Thursday. Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino took to X (formerly Twitter) later in the day to hail London’s decision to pass sovereignty of the Chagos in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius, which came after decades of negotiations. “We welcome this step in the right direction and the end to outdated practices,” Mondino said, apparently referring to the UK still controlling some of the territories it occupied during colonial times.

UK - Britain is entering its first 'atheist age' as parents fail to pass on religious beliefs to children, a study says. For the first time in history, the UK now has more atheists than people who believe in the existence of a god, researchers have found. Figures from 2008 showed that 41.8 per cent of Britons believed in God while 35.2 per cent did not. Within a decade, by 2018, this had reversed, with 35.2 per cent believing and 42.9 per cent not believing.