Hezbollah’s Secretary General Naim Qassem on Friday proclaimed victory in the conflict against Israel, in his first address after the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon came into force on Wednesday. Qassem stated that Hezbollah’s victory surpassed the one from 2006 when Israel also withdrew its forces from Lebanon after 34 days of conflict. He also stressed that Israel failed to achieve any of its goals and the conflict resulted in hundreds of thousands of Israelis being displaced from their homes. At the same time, he reiterated the militant group’s commitment to supporting Palestine, adding that it would “take various forms.” Hezbollah is prepared to respond in case Israel decides to resume the conflict, Qassem said. NN: Below is one of many examples of what the Islamic savages call victory:
Sweden has sent China a formal request to cooperate with its investigation into damage sustained by two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. The two cables, between Sweden and Lithuania and Germany and Finland, were severed in Sweden’s waters of the Baltic Sea early last week, leading to accusations of sabotage, specifically involving the Chinese-flagged bulk carrier Yi Peng 3. The cause of the severed cables is under investigation. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden told reporters during a press conference on Thursday that the country has formally asked China to cooperate with the probe. “Today, I can also tell you … that Sweden has also sent a formal request to China to cooperate with Swedish authorities in order to create clarity on what has happened,” he said, adding that they have asked for the Chinese ship to return to Sweden’s waters. The cables were damage between Nov. 17 and 18. Swedish telecom Telia Lietuva said the cable from Sweden to Lithuania was cut Nov. 18 at 10 a.m. local time. That cable has been repaired and was operational as of Thursday, Lithuanian state-run LRT reported Sunday. In a joint statement on Nov. 18, the foreign ministers of Finland and Germany said they were “deeply concerned” about the severed cable connecting their countries. “The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times,” they said. The statement did not mention China but said European security “is not only under threat from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.” “Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told a council of the European Union the next day that they suspect “sabotage.”
This is not the first time in recent years that infrastructure under the Baltic Sea has been damaged.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which connected Russia to Germany and transported natural gas, were blown up in an explosion in September 2022. Then, the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged in October 2023. A Chinese cargo ship named NewNew Polar Bear was found responsible. China probing for weakness.
In a Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) report sent to on Thursday, Ole R. Hvalbye, a commodities analyst at the company, said “speculation surrounding a potential surge in U.S. oil production – up three million barrels per day – has gained attention”.
Hvalbye warned in the report that such a ramp-up could drive crude prices below $50 per barrel but added that it “is considered unrealistic”. NN: Not only is it REALISTIC IT WILL HAPPEN
“U.S. producers understand the strategic risks involved, particularly with OPEC+ holding an estimated five to six million barrels of spare capacity,” the analyst said in the report. “A significant production increase by the U.S. would likely provoke a strong response from OPEC+, potentially flooding the market to protect market share,” he added. “Such a scenario would lead to sharp price declines, ultimately punishing U.S. production rather than fostering growth. This dynamic makes the proposed ramp-up highly unlikely,” he went on to state.
In a separate report sent to on Tuesday by Standard Chartered Bank Commodities Research Head Paul Horsnell, analysts at the bank, including Horsnell, highlighted that, on June 6, Scott Bessent, who was recently nominated Treasury Secretary by the Trump team, spoke at a conference at the Manhattan Institute. The analysts outlined that, following his nomination, Bessent’s session “was scrutinized as a potential guide to policy”. “During that talk, Bessent was asked which version of the late Shinzo Abe’s three arrows economic plan he would recommend to an incoming President Trump,” the analysts noted in the report. “Bessent (an admirer of Abe) put forward the
three targets of three percent economic growth, cutting the budget deficit by three percent of GDP by the end of the administration, and ‘three million more oil barrels equivalent a day from U.S. energy production’,” they added.
“Much of the commentary on Bessent’s nomination seized on the third arrow as implying a target to lift U.S. crude oil production by three million barrels per day, raising it 30 percent to about 16.5 million barrels per day by 2028. We think this interpretation is incorrect, with the key words in Bessent’s description of the arrow being ‘equivalent’ and ‘energy’,” they continued. The analysts went on to state in the report that the addition of three million per barrels of oil equivalent to U.S. energy production is a significantly less ambitious target, “even if we interpret energy production in this context as solely oil and gas”. “U.S. oil and gas output is currently about 40.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day,” the analysts highlighted in the report. “It has grown by an average of about 123,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day per month since 2015; at that rate, three million barrels of oil equivalent per day would be added in less than 25 months,” they said. “Forty-one percent of the post-2015 increase has come from natural gas, 28 percent from natural gas liquids (NGLs), just 28 percent from crude oil, and three percent from other oil liquids (mainly corn ethanol),” they added. NN: I can in time make a case for $35 WTI Half where it is today.
Syrian rebels launched a massive offensive against the Syrian regime in Aleppo province
A Syria war monitor on Thursday said clashes between the army and jihadists killed more than 130 combatants in the worst fighting in the country’s northwest in years, as the government also reported fierce battles. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launched a surprise attack on the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday. The toll “in battles ongoing for the past 24 hours has risen to 132, including 65 fighters from HTS”, 18 from allied factions “and 49 members of regime forces”, said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. Some of the clashes, in an area straddling Idlib and Aleppo provinces, are less than 10 kilometres (six miles) southwest of the outskirts of Aleppo city. HTS, led by Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch, controls swathes of much of the northwest Idlib area and slivers of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces. An AFP correspondent reported heavy, uninterrupted clashes east of the city of Idlib since Wednesday morning, including air strikes. A military statement carried by state news agency SANA said that “armed terrorist organisations grouped under so-called ‘Nusra terrorist front’ present in Aleppo and Idlib provinces launched a large, broad-fronted attack” on Wednesday morning. It said the attack with “medium and heavy weapons targeted safe villages and towns and our military sites in those areas”. The army “in cooperation with friendly forces” confronted the attack “which is still continuing”, inflicting “heavy losses” on the armed groups, the military statement said, without reporting army losses. The Observatory said HTS was able to advance in Idlib province, taking control of Dadikh, Kafr Batikh and Sheikh Ali “after heavy clashes with the regime forces with Russian air cover”. “The villages have strategic importance due to their proximity to the M5 international highway”, the monitor said, adding the factions, which already took control of two other locations, were “trying to cut the Aleppo-Damascus international highway”. The Observatory said that “Russian warplanes intensified air strikes”, targeting the vicinity of Sarmin and other areas in Idlib province, alongside “heavy artillery shelling” and rocket fire. Syria’s conflict broke out after President Bashar al-Assad repressed anti-government protests in 2011, and spiralled into a complex conflict drawing in foreign armies and jihadists. It has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry. The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire — repeatedly violated but still largely holding — brokered by Turkey and Damascus ally Russia after a Syrian government offensive in March 2020. NN: Would it not be great if the Syrian people could finally free themselves. A tall order!
Russia launches ‘intense’ airstrikes on Syrian rebels
Russian and Syrian Arab Army (SAA) warplanes launched on Friday a series of airstrikes on rebel positions in Idlib province amid the ongoing offensive by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other anti-regime militants that reached the outskirts of Aleppo. The strikes, which targeted the city of Idlib and the nearby towns and cities, were said to have killed one and injured two people. According to the latest information, rebel groups managed to reach the western outskirts of Aleppo after launching a surprise offensive earlier this week. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said there were fierce battles in the southern countryside of Aleppo and the eastern countryside of Idlib, also stating that the death toll from offensive operations reached 260 including 25 civilian casualties.
The Houthi movement claimed on Thursday that the United States and the United Kingdom launched airstrikes targeting the Bajil district in Hodeida province in western Yemen, as reported by Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA). There was no further information about the attack or potential casualties and material damage. The last confirmed strikes by the US and UK on Yemen occurred on November 10 and involved what the Pentagon said were precision strikes against Houthi weapons facilities.
The world’s banks are on track to report the lowest revenue from foreign-exchange and rates trading since the pandemic, hit by tighter margins and a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.
Over 250 firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley are forecast to make a total of $32 billion from trading of Group-of-10 rates and $16.7 billion from currencies, according to data collected by Coalition Greenwich. That’s about 17% and 9% less than last year, respectively.
Investor confidence in making big macro calls dwindled this year as economic data surprises whiplashed bets on interest-rate cuts from the world’s major central banks. A seemingly too-close-to-call US presidential election and the unwind of once-popular yen-funded carry trades also rattled markets. “2024 has been a year of sitting and waiting on the sidelines,” said Angad Chhatwal, head of global macro markets at Coalition Greenwich. “Hedge funds have come into the market sporadically around data points and events but they’ve not been as active on a continuous basis compared to previous years.”
G-10 Rates, FX Desks Set for Worst Year Since 2021
Revenue projected to slump 17% and 9% year-on-year respectively
Source: Coalition Greenwich
Macro trading revenues have also been hit by tighter margins this year, Chhatwal said, as increasing industry competition and advancements in electronic trading weigh on prices. Coalition Greenwich forecasts rates trading revenues will drop further to around $30.9 billion in 2025 and $28.1 billion in 2026 as non-bank market makers expand their presence and as bonds catch up on the electronification of other markets. Meanwhile, the performance of currency traders is seen improving to $17.2 billion in revenues in 2025 and $17.6 billion in 2026. Donald Trump’s administration is expected to fuel volatility in the $7.5 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market. “We see a lot more positioning happening on the FX side around the rate change cycle,” said Chhatwal. “Corporate activity is also becoming more robust and that has much more of a positive impact for FX versus rates.
Starving pilgrims in Jamestown Colony Resorted to Cannibalism
TRE OTHER WHITE MEAT
The harsh winter of 1609 in Virginia’s Jamestown Colony forced to do The Pilgrims to do unthinkable. A excavation at the historic site discovered the carcasses of dogs, cats and horses consumed during the season commonly called the “Starving Time.” But a few other newly discovered bones in particular, though, tell a far more gruesome story: the dismemberment and cannibalization of a 14-year-old English girl.
“The chops to the forehead are very tentative, very incomplete,” says Douglas Owsley, the Smithsonian forensic anthropologist who analyzed the bones after they were found by archaeologists from Preservation Virginia. “Then, the body was turned over, and there were four strikes to the back of the head, one of which was the strongest and split the skull in half. A penetrating wound was then made to the left temple, probably by a single-sided knife, which was used to pry open the head and remove the brain.” Much is still unknown about the circumstances of this grisly meal: Who exactly the girl researchers are calling “Jane” was, whether she was murdered or died of natural causes, whether multiple people participated in the butchering or it was a solo act. But as Owsley revealed along with lead archaeologist William Kelso at a press conference at the National Museum of Natural History, we now have the first direct evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown, the oldest permanent English colony in the Americas. “Historians have gone back and forth on whether this sort of thing really happened there,” Owsley says. “Given these bones in a trash pit, all cut and chopped up, it’s clear that this body was dismembered for consumption.” It’s long been speculated that the harsh conditions faced by the colonists of Jamestown might have made them desperate enough to eat other humans—and perhaps even commit murder to do so. The colony was founded in 1607 by 104 settlers aboard three ships, the Susan Constant, Discovery and Godspeed, but only 38 survived the first nine months of life in Jamestown, with most succumbing to starvation and disease (some researchers speculate that drinking water poisoned by arsenic and human waste also played a role). Because of difficulties in growing crops—they arrived in the midst of one of the worst regional droughts in centuries and many settlers were unused to hard agricultural labor—the survivors remained dependent on supplies brought by subsequent missions, as well as trade with Native Americans.
By the winter of 1609, extreme drought, hostile relations with members of the local Powhatan Confederacy and the fact that a supply ship was lost at sea put the colonists in a truly desperate position. Sixteen years later, in 1625, George Percy, who had been president of Jamestown during the Starving Time, wrote a letter describing the colonists’ diet during that terrible winter. “Haveinge fedd upon our horses and other beastes as longe as they Lasted, we weare gladd to make shifte with vermin as doggs Catts, Ratts and myce…as to eate Bootes shoes or any other leather,” he wrote. “And now famin beginneinge to Looke gastely and pale in every face, thatt notheinge was Spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things which seame incredible, as to digge upp deade corpes outt of graves and to eate them. And some have Licked upp the Bloode which hathe fallen from their weake fellowes.”
Despite this and other textual references to cannibalism, though, there had never been hard physical evidence that it had occurred—until now. Kelso’s team discovered the girl’s remains during the summer of 2012. “We found a deposit of refuse that contained butchered horse and dog bones. That was only done in times of extreme hunger. As we excavated, we found human teeth and then a partial human skull,” says Kelso. Kelso brought them to Owsley for a battery of forensic tests, including microscopic and isotope analysis. “We CT scanned the bones, then replicated them as virtual 3D models and then put them together, piece by piece, assembling the skull,” Owsley says. Digitally mirroring the fragments to fill in the missing gaps allowed the team to make a 3D facial reconstruction despite having just 66 percent of the skull. The researchers used this reconstruction, along with the other data, to determine the specimen was a female, roughly 14 years old (based on the development of her molars) and of British ancestry. Owsley says the cut marks on the jaw, face and forehead of the skull, along with those on the shinbone, are telltale signs of cannibalism. “The clear intent was to remove the facial tissue and the brain for consumption. These people were in dire circumstances. So any flesh that was available would have been used,” says Owsley. “The person that was doing this was not experienced and did not know how to butcher an animal. Instead, we see hesitancy, trial, tentativeness and a total lack of experience.” He’s probably one of the researchers best qualified to make this judgment. As one of the country’s most prominent physical anthropologists, he’s analyzed many cannibalized skeletons from ancient history.
NN: I suggest you DO NOT DISCUSS this and ruin their dinner…..They are having enough trouble with Trump and this LGBTQ+ BINARY SEX AFFIRMING SURGEY THING
The OPEC+ group has decided to move the meeting on its near-term oil production plans to December 5 from December 1, due to a scheduling conflict, OPEC said on Thursday. NB: The conflict is war over production cuts and falling prices The meeting will now take place on Thursday, December 5, via video conference, as several ministers will be attending the 45th Gulf Summit in Kuwait City on December 1, OPEC added in a brief statement about the change in schedule. At the December meeting, the members of the OPEC+ alliance are expected to discuss how to proceed with the oil production cuts in the new year. OPEC+ had earlier this year announced plans to start gradually bringing back supply towards the end of the year if the price was right. Since the price has not been right for months, the group has been postponing its supply return. Some have suggested the production caps may have to become long-term because of the market’s refusal or failure to respond to the supply curbs with higher prices.
Weak fundamentals could prompt the OPEC+ group at the December 1 meeting to delay – once again – the output increase currently planned to begin in January, according to recent market speculation.
The most recent signal of a possible delay came from non-OPEC producer, Azerbaijan. OPEC will likely remain committed to production curbs for yet another month, the energy minister of Azerbaijan told Reuters this week. The ongoing OPEC+ oil production cuts and the improved compliance with quotas from some producers are supporting Brent Crude, offering a modest upside to oil prices in the near term, according to Goldman Sachs. The U.S. investment bank expects the OPEC+ cuts to be rolled over again and the easing of the output curbs could begin gradually in April 2025, after the first quarter of next year ends “Saudi Arabia is more likely to extend oil production cuts because of the recent price drop and we now think that oil production cuts will last until April 2025 instead of January,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a recent note carried by Reuters.
Crude oil inventories in the United fell by 5.935 million barrels for the week ending November 15, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). Analysts had expected a smaller build of 250,000 barrels. For the week prior, the API reported a 4.753 barrel build in crude inventories. So far this year, crude oil inventories have fallen by more than 5 million barrels since the beginning of the year, according to API data. On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 1.2 million barrels as of November 22. SPR inventories are now at 390.4 million barrels, a figure that is about 43 million above its multi-decade low last summer, yet still 245 million down from when President Biden took office. Gasoline inventories rose this week by 1.814 million barrels compared to last week’s 2.48-million-barrel decrease. As of last week, gasoline inventories are 4% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data. Distillate inventories rose by 2.543 million barrels, more than offsetting last week’s 688,000-barrel dip. Distillate inventories were about 4% below the five-year average as of the week ending November 15, the latest EIA data shows. Cushing inventories—the benchmark crude stored and traded at the key delivery point for U.S. futures contracts in Cushing, Oklahoma—fell by 734,000 barrels, according to API data, after falling by 288,000 barrels in the previous week.
Hamas is ready for a new ceasefire with Israel after Hezbollah agreed to one, an official from the group told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday. “We have informed mediators in Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey that Hamas is ready for a ceasefire agreement and a serious deal to exchange prisoners,” the Hamas official said while adding that Israel is to blame that a truce has not yet been achieved. The reported comment came after Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire, which will initially last 60 days. NN: this is a Hezbollah surrender… Hamas is next.
Iran praises Israel-Hezbollah truce, calls for Gaza peace
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei in a statement on Wednesday welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which took effect overnight.Baghaei praised the truce, expressing hope for stability in the region. He also emphasized Tehran’s continued call for a ceasefire in Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict but acknowledged a shift from earlier demands for simultaneous ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon. The foreign minister concluded by calling on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The ICC previously issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, as well as former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
