BlackMask Breaking News

Syrian rebels launched a massive offensive against the Syrian regime in Aleppo province

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.

Starving pilgrims in Jamestown Colony Resorted to Cannibalism

 

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.

The Israeli security cabinet has postponed a decision on a US-brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah, pushing deliberations into later Tuesday, according to CNN. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to limit the vote to the smaller security cabinet, citing the deal as a temporary security measure rather than a broader political agreement. If approved, the proposed ceasefire would end months of fighting in southern Lebanon. In a different report, it was learned that Netanyahu’s Likud party backs the agreement, but he may face challenges shoring up support among his right-wing base, where 72% oppose a ceasefire. Netanyahu, as announced by his office, is scheduled to address the nation at 8 pm local time today.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis Plasschaert on Tuesday that Israel will show “zero tolerance” for any violations of a potential ceasefire with Hezbollah. “We will act against any threat, anytime and anywhere,” he said, warning the Israeli military will demolish “every house in southern Lebanon that is rebuilt and in which a terrorist base is established.” Katz also demanded that the UN Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) enforce the ceasefire and stop arms smuggling and manufacturing by Hezbollah. “If you don’t do it, we will, and with great force,” he told Hennis-Plasschaert.