Assessment: Torbjorn Tornqvist, co-founder and chair of Geneva-headquartered Gunvor Group, added: “Diesel is not just a European problem; this is a global problem. It really is” ,,,
While the world has been obsessively focused on crude oil and gasoline in recent weeks, we instead alerted readers to a far more dire scenario playing out in diesel, a source of energy which is absolutely critical in keeping the “just in time” world running on time.
As a reminder, here are some of the articles we have published on the topic in recent weeks, many even before the Ukraine war:
“… And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.” Haggai 1:6
Fast-forward to today, when our warning was echoed by the heads of one of the largest commodity trading houses and the biggest independent oil trader who were speaking at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday.
The corporate leaders estimated that as much as 3 million barrels of oil and its products a day could be lost from Russia as a result of sanctions, in line with previous estimates, and warned that global markets face a squeeze on diesel with Europe most at risk of a “systemic” shortage that could lead to fuel rationing.
“The thing that everybody’s concerned about will be diesel supplies. Europe imports about half of its diesel from Russia and about half of its diesel from the Middle East,” said Russell Hardy, chief of Switzerland-based oil trader Vitol. “That systemic shortfall of diesel is there.”
Those imports mean that Russian supplies account for about 15% of Europe’s diesel consumption, according to the FT which carried their comments.
Hardy said the shift to more diesel consumption over gasoline in Europe had helped to create shortages of the fuel.
Read More @ Zero Hedge HERE
(Terrorist Muhammad Abu Al-Kiyan (middle, dark jacket) being shot at by a civilian, along with an Israeli bus driver, while carrying out a knife attack in Beersheva, Israel, on March 22, 2022. Source: Screenshot/Twitter.)
Michael Barak, a senior researcher on terrorism and radical Islamic networks, told JNS that ISIS calls on its supporters to use a combination of vehicle-ramming attacks and sharp blades for “maximum carnage.”
Muhammad Abu Al-Kiyan, an Israeli man in his mid-30s from the Bedouin town of Houra who murdered four Israelis in a combined car-ramming and knife-stabbing attack in Beersheva on Tuesday, appeared to have acted in line with instructions found in ISIS attack manuals, a senior terrorism expert has told JNS.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.” 1 Samuel 1:2
Al-Kilyan first ran over a cyclist and then stabbed to death a gas-station employee, as well as two women and a man, in the worst terror attack Israel has seen in recent years. Police said he appeared to have acted alone.
The terrorist was shot dead by an Israeli bus driver and a second civilian on the scene, video footage posted on social media showed.
“In principle, his activity is similar to ISIS. In its manuals, ISIS calls for ‘lone-wolf’ attackers to use vehicles for ramming attacks, and when these can’t drive any further, to stop and use sharp knives for stabbings,” explained Michael Barak, a senior researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya who teaches courses on terrorism and Islamic radical movements.
Read More @ JNS HERE
Assessment: Large-scale money printing was one of the three official legs of Abenomics as Japan’s debt to GDP grew to 256%, the highest in the world. The nations are addicted to money printing …
Japan must swiftly consider economic stimulus measures amid rising prices, and will eventually need an extra budget, a close aide to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said.
“If you look at the Japanese economy, the surge in oil prices and food prices means that an economic package is essential at some point,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said in an interview with Bloomberg at the premier’s official residence Friday. “We can’t be slow. To be honest we have to think about it quickly.”
“And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” Rev. 6:6
(Japan may soon come up with a digital version of yen in order to counter China’s digital yuan)
He added an extra budget would be needed, but that now was not the time. A majority of economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect Japan’s economy to shrink this quarter, as virus curbs and higher energy prices caused partly by the war in Ukraine hit consumers. The growing likelihood the economy may slip into reverse could amplify calls for more government stimulus.
Most Analysts Now See Japan’s Economy Shrinking This Quarter.
Kishida told a news conference Wednesday the government would respond nimbly if rises in food, fuel and raw material prices persist for a long period.
Read More @ Bloomberg Quint HERE
Assessment: Josh Hawley, pointing to Jackson’s time on the bench, suggested Jackson had been “lenient” on child sexual predators and “soft on crime.” He said the Senate Judiciary Committee needed to know whether Jackson would protect the nation’s children or the sexual predators …
President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson did not give a straightforward answer to Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR)’s question about whether the United States should “strengthen or weaken sentences for child pornographers” during Jackson’s confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
“Should the United States strengthen or weaken sentences for child pornographers?” Cotton asked, to which Jackson responded, “Senator, that is not a simple question, and the reason is because what this country does in terms of penalties is in Congress’s province.”
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Luke 17:2 KJV
“You all decide. You decide what the penalties are,” Jackson continued. “You decide what the factors are that judges use to sentence. If you determine that any set of penalties is insufficient, then it is in your purview to make that determination.”
“There are many crimes that Congress has determined warrant mandatory minimum penalties, warrant other kinds of penalties, and that is in your purview to determine,” the judge added.
Sen. Cotton reacted by stating, “I have to say, judge, I think whether or not we should strengthen or weaken sentences for child pornographers is a pretty simple question, but I’ll move on.”
On Monday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called into question Judge Jackson’s record ahead of her confirmation hearing to the U.S. Supreme Court during an interview on FNC’s Fox & Friends.
Hawley, pointing to Jackson’s time on the bench, suggested Jackson had been “lenient” on child sexual predators and “soft on crime.” He said the Senate Judiciary Committee needed to know whether Jackson would protect the nation’s children or the sexual predators.
Tuesday was day two of Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, in which the judge also refused to join with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and outgoing Justice Stephen Breyer in opposing court-packing and said she did not want to answer because she was so determined to stay in her “lane.”
Read More @ Breitbart HERE
Three women and one man were murdered Tuesday afternoon in a mixed stabbing-ramming terror attack near the BIG shopping center on Derech Hevron Street in Be’er Sheva. Two additional victims were moderately injured in the attack, and were evacuated to the city’s Soroka Medical Center.
Initial police investigations show that the terrorist arrived at the gas station on Derech Hevron in Be’er Sheva, with a knife in hand. There, he stabbed a woman. Later, he arrived at the nearby commercial center, rammed a bicycle rider with his vehicle, and immediately afterwards exited the vehicle and went on to stab several other passersby.
“Because the Lord has sworn: the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” Exodus 17:16
A bus driver who was at the scene succeeded in neutralizing the terrorist, who was later declared dead at the scene.
According to police sources, the terrorist is an Arab Israeli citizen who lives in the Bedouin Arab town of Hura and was known in the past to be a supporter of ISIS. The terrorist, who has been identified as Mohammad Jalab Abu al-Quian, was shot and killed at the scene.
Assessment: “It almost looks as if the United States is content with enabling the worst elements of the regime to enrich and to continue their crimes against humanity,” said Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies …
As the Biden administration prepares to sign a final deal with Iran that has been lambasted by numerous experts as nothing short of a major appeasement of the Islamic regime, Washington is now also weighing the removal of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from a terror blacklist in return for a public commitment from Iran to de-escalation in the region.
Former U.S. special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross mocked this decision, tweeting on Thursday: “Tying the delisting of the IRGC to Iran promising to de-escalate in the region makes us look naive.” Ross said he believes that such promises by Iran are not credible.
“For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I display my glory will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign Lord” Ezekiel 39:12-13
In a joint announcement on Friday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said, “The IRGC is a terrorist organization that has murdered thousands of people, including Americans. We refuse to believe that the United States would remove its designation as a terrorist organization.”
The Biden administration promised to everyone it would pursue a “longer, stronger” deal with Iran. Why is it now looking to close a shorter, weaker deal?
Read More @ JNS HERE
