War

Priority Gold Releases 2024 Gold Forecast: Election Year Edition

Retrieved on: 
Monday, January 15, 2024

DALLAS, Jan. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Priority Gold, "America's Precious Metals Dealer," had just released the 2024 Gold Forecast: Election Year Edition which explores gold market trends, price influencers, and the various economic forces in play that impact precious metals prices.

Key Points: 
  • Priority Gold, "America's Precious Metals Dealer," had just released the 2024 Gold Forecast: Election Year Edition which explores gold market trends, price influencers, and the various economic forces in play that impact precious metals prices.
  • And since we're now in a major Presidential election cycle, the report takes on the issues of election year volatility.
  • DALLAS, Jan. 15, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Priority Gold , "America's Precious Metals Dealer," had just released the 2024 Gold Forecast: Election Year Edition which explores gold market trends, price influencers, and the various economic forces in play that impact precious metals prices.
  • "At Priority Gold, we want our customers to make informed decisions about diversifying their retirement accounts with physical metals," said Scott Anderson, General Manager of Priority Gold.

FROM TWO SPACE WARFARE EXPERTS COMES A BLUEPRINT FOR FIGHTING AND WINNING WARS IN OUTER SPACE

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 9, 2024

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A groundbreaking guidebook for fighting and winning the upcoming wars in outer space was released today from space warfare experts Paul Szymanski and Jerry Drew.

Key Points: 
  • WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A groundbreaking guidebook for fighting and winning the upcoming wars in outer space was released today from space warfare experts Paul Szymanski and Jerry Drew.
  • All warfare is a competition between human minds, even the battle in outer space.
  • "[This book] is a great read that will be very valuable for both casual observers and professional space warfighters alike."
  • Space warfare will test the knowledge, experience, fears, beliefs, stamina, and will of civilians, military commanders, and political leadership like never before.

Certain DWS Closed-End Funds Declare Monthly Distributions

Retrieved on: 
Monday, January 8, 2024

Although the fund seeks income that is exempt from federal income taxes, a portion of the fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state and local taxes, including the alternative minimum tax.

Key Points: 
  • Although the fund seeks income that is exempt from federal income taxes, a portion of the fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state and local taxes, including the alternative minimum tax.
  • Although the fund seeks income that is exempt from federal income taxes, a portion of the fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state and local taxes, including the alternative minimum tax.
  • Closed-end funds, unlike open-end funds, are not continuously offered.
  • The price of a fund’s shares is determined by a number of factors, several of which are beyond the control of the fund.

Is China preparing for a war over Taiwan, or has the west got it wrong? Here are the indicators

Retrieved on: 
Monday, January 8, 2024

At first glance however, it might appear that China is preparing for a long-term conflict with the US over Taiwan, the self-governing island of 24 million people, which the mainland claims.

Key Points: 
  • At first glance however, it might appear that China is preparing for a long-term conflict with the US over Taiwan, the self-governing island of 24 million people, which the mainland claims.
  • In his New Year’s address China’s president, Xi Jinping, stated that Taiwan would “surely be reunited” with China.
  • This is particularly significant as it comes days ahead of Taiwan’s national election on January 13.

Other key indicators

  • There are other key indicators to watch out for.
  • This is also a common theme among Chinese netizens as well, many of whom tend to be more nationalistic than the government is.

Technical battles

  • In doing so Biden signalled he may be prepared to appeared to edge away slightly from his hardline policies to reduce dependence on China’s technology.
  • His administration has not allowed US chip manufacturers to sell to China as well encouraging its allies to block the sale of hi-tech chip making exports.
  • Dutch manufacturer ASML’s cancellation of its shipments of chip-making machinery to China, was attributed to pressure from Washington.

Both sides have reservations

  • This was further underlined by several simulation exercises of a Taiwan conflict by the US military in 2020.
  • They discovered that nine out of ten of the possible outcomes ended in a US defeat.
  • So, a potential conflict with China poses a notable challenge for American power.
  • It’s clear that the present crises have provided an opportunity for China to gain understanding of current military challenges, as well as delivering some benefits.


Tom Harper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Australia is still reckoning with a shameful legacy: the resettlement of suspected war criminals after WWII

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, January 4, 2024

It turned out Hunka had fought against the Allies as a voluntary member of the Nazi German Waffen-SS Galizien division.

Key Points: 
  • It turned out Hunka had fought against the Allies as a voluntary member of the Nazi German Waffen-SS Galizien division.
  • As I discuss in my new book, Fascists in Exile, Canada isn’t the only country where former Nazis fled after the second world war.
  • Last year, however, his secret history was revealed: he was found to be a member of Nazi intelligence in occupied Lithuania during the second world war.
  • He was almost certainly involved in the persecution and murders of Jews.

Denial, then investigations

  • This group included soldiers who had fought in German military units, as well as civilian collaborators.
  • But their resettlement in any country that would take them was a matter of political expediency in the fraught post-war and early Cold War period.
  • The then immigration minister, Arthur Calwell, dismissed their claims as a “farrago of nonsense”.
  • The migrants were used as labourers under a two-year indentured labour scheme and transformed into what the government called “New Australians”.
  • Australia received at least eight extradition requests between 1950 and the mid-1960s for individuals suspected of WWII-era crimes from Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
  • As a result, there would be no further official discussions about any alleged perpetrators residing in Australia.

Family histories unearthed

  • Many alleged perpetrators of crimes never appeared on any official, or unofficial, list, either before or after the Australian investigation.
  • My own research, for example, has resulted in the compiling of hundreds of such names by painstakingly piecing together various archival fragments.
  • For example, a colleague and I were alerted to some suspicious phrasing when the family of Hungarian migrant Ferenc Molnar, now deceased, placed a commemorative biography on the website Immigration Place Australia.
  • The SBS television show Every Family Has a Secret has been approached by at least four people who have suspected a deceased family member was a Holocaust perpetrator or collaborator.


Dr Jayne Persian receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Global triggers: why these five big issues could cause significant problems in 2024

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 3, 2024

The ramifications of the Ukrainian war echoed beyond the country’s border.

Key Points: 
  • The ramifications of the Ukrainian war echoed beyond the country’s border.
  • Such trends of global power tensions, open war, democratic decline and extreme job market fluctuations are likely to continue in 2024.

Power shifts

  • As the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) organisation expands to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, its growing economic influence could dramatically change the global balance of power.
  • For countries that have been sanctioned by the west, such as Iran, becoming a Brics member increases their diplomatic options.
  • The Brics’ expansion can also enable members to strengthen their impact by pursuing their political and economic interests more easily.

Global election cycle

  • At the core is the US election where former president Donald Trump is likely to be the Republican candidate.
  • If re-elected, he may continue with his policy of “global engagement abstention” as evidenced by his past willingness to disengage from Nato.
  • Such a stance may weaken the global economic and political system and contribute to the rise of other countries searching for greater global clout.

Heightened tensions in the Middle East

  • The Israel/Hamas war will continue to have repercussions beyond the Middle East.
  • The risk of further escalation of the conflict regionally has intensified after Israel’s air strike in Beirut.
  • The Israel/Gaza war is also likely to discourage investment in the Middle East and disrupt trade routes leading to increasing shipping costs.

China’s economic pressures

  • Recently, China’s economy has been described as a “ticking time bomb” as a result of slow economic growth, high youth unemployment, the property sector crisis, lower Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and weaker exports.
  • Growth prospects are expected to remain “structurally weaker” with low consumer confidence and spending and declining external demand.

Ageing populations

  • In 2022, Japan, Italy, Finland and Germany were among the countries with the greatest share of populations over 65 years of age and by 2050 it is projected that the list will include Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan.
  • By 2050 the percentage of the world’s over 60 population will increase from 12% to 22%.
  • In addition, there is evidence that the ageing of the population affects labour productivity and labour supply.


Jose Caballero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Liquidity Services Acquires Sierra Auction, a Leading Auctioneer of Vehicles, Equipment, and Surplus Assets for Government and Commercial Organizations

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 3, 2024

The transaction accelerates Liquidity Services’ penetration of the southwest US market for municipal government surplus and expands the size of Liquidity Services’ overall transportation and used equipment footprint.

Key Points: 
  • The transaction accelerates Liquidity Services’ penetration of the southwest US market for municipal government surplus and expands the size of Liquidity Services’ overall transportation and used equipment footprint.
  • Established in 1986 in Phoenix, AZ, Sierra Auction is the sole auction outlet for seized and forfeited assets from several prominent state and county government agencies in Arizona.
  • Additionally, Sierra has partnered with numerous charity organizations to auction donated vehicles.
  • Liquidity Services expects to retain Sierra’s current management team and its employees following the transaction.

A brief history of drug-fuelled combatants

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 2, 2024

I don’t know whether he thought that it might reduce pain or improve performance, but the idea of taking drugs before “going into battle” goes back to the beginning of recorded history.

Key Points: 
  • I don’t know whether he thought that it might reduce pain or improve performance, but the idea of taking drugs before “going into battle” goes back to the beginning of recorded history.
  • Indeed, we find frequent mentions of mead drinking by the warriors in Edinburgh in the seventh-century epic poem The Goddodin.
  • These ancient warriors probably used alcohol to reduce anxiety and blunt the horrors they would face on the battlefield.
  • Pervitin (methamphetamine) was given almost freely to all arms of the German war machine.
  • The frontline Nazis called them Panzerschokolade (tank chocolate), due to the feelings of incredible strength and invincibility that the pills gave them.

Behavioural effects


The types of drugs taken by warriors can be lumped into three broad categories: depressants, hallucinogens and stimulants. Alcohol is a depressant that calms the nerves by reducing brain activity. Psychedelic mushrooms such as Amanita muscaria contain a variety of psychoactive substances. Hyoscyamus niger also has a variety of active compounds that cause hallucinations and, importantly, aggressive and combative behaviour.

  • The word “groggy” meaning dazed and unsteady came from British navy sailors exhibiting this behaviour after their daily ration of rum and water (grog).
  • The stimulants, but especially methamphetamine, would also lead to significant weight loss even after only a few days of use.
  • Long-term use, as we saw with the Nazis, would probably lead to emaciated soldiers.

Smart drugs

  • We have seen that soldiers take drugs before battles to calm nerves, deal with the horrors, reduce pain, tolerate lack of food and sleep and improve alertness.
  • The stimulants include drugs such as amphetamine salt mixtures, methylphenidate and modafinil, while nootropics include piracetam, caffeine, cobalamin (vitamin B12), guarana, pyridoxine (vitamin B6) and vinpocetine.
  • The integration of humans, technology and machines is thought to be the future of warfare and drugs that facilitate this are undoubtedly being researched by the military.

Post-traumatic stress disorder

  • There is a long history of soldiers taking alcohol and other drugs to deal with the horrors of what they have seen, or the disappointment of life after leaving the army.
  • These veterans are taking MDMA and psilocybin on doctors’ orders as part of their treatment for PTSD.
  • Ketamine is useful for treating depression and LSD is also being tested for various psychiatric disorders.


Colin Davidson has previously received funding from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). He is a consultant with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (UK).

The world has lost a dissenting voice: Australian journalist John Pilger has died, age 84

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, January 2, 2024

John Pilger, a giant of journalism born in Australia in 1939, has died at the age of 84, according to a statement released online by his family.

Key Points: 
  • John Pilger, a giant of journalism born in Australia in 1939, has died at the age of 84, according to a statement released online by his family.
  • His numerous books and especially his documentaries opened the world’s eyes to the failings, and worse, of governments in many countries – including his birthplace.

‘I am, by inclination, anti-authoritarian’

  • Whatever the merits of Waugh’s criticism, they are, in my view, outweighed by the breadth and depth of Pilger’s disclosures in the public interest.
  • It is my duty, surely, to tell people when they’re being conned or told lies.
  • I am, by inclination, anti-authoritarian and forever sceptical of anything the agents of power want to tell us.

Telling the stories of ordinary people

  • Like many of his generation, he moved to the UK in the early 1960s and worked for The Daily Mirror, Reuters and ITV’s investigative program World in Action.
  • He reported on conflicts in Bangladesh, Biafra, Cambodia and Vietnam and was named newspaper journalist of the year in Britain in 1967 and 1979.
  • He made more than 50 documentaries.
  • He did this by telling the stories of ordinary people he had encountered, whether miners in Durham, England, refugees from Vietnam, or American soldiers returning from the Vietnam War – not to parades, but to lives dislocated by the silence and shame surrounding the war’s end.

The world has lost a resolutely dissenting voice

  • In Welcome to Australia [Pilger’s 1999 film], he concentrated on the bad things that were happening but not the good.
  • He’s a polemicist and, if you want to arouse people’s passions and anger, the stronger the polemic, the better.
  • Whatever flaws there are in Pilger’s journalism, it feels dispiriting that on the first day of a new year clouded by wars, inaction on climate change and a presidential election in the US where democracy itself is on the ballot, the world has lost another resolutely dissenting voice in the media.


Matthew Ricketson is the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s representative on the Australian Press Council.

New York's First Adult-Use Dispensary, Housing Works Cannabis Co, Reflects on Historic Year of Operation with $24 Million in Sales

Retrieved on: 
Friday, December 29, 2023

NEW YORK, Dec. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Housing Works Cannabis Co (HWCC), the first licensed adult-use cannabis dispensary and delivery service in the state of New York, reflects on its successful first year of operation as it approaches its historic anniversary on Dec. 29 and the reinvestments made by parent organization Housing Works. The entrepreneurial business—one of 10-plus New York City-based enterprises on Housing Works' roster—enters its second year of operation with a focus on furthering advocacy and essential support services for the LGBTQ+ community and those unjustly impacted by the War on Drugs.

Key Points: 
  • HWCC's emphasis on education, harm reduction and advocacy for social, housing and health justice solidifies it as the social equity model for America's cannabis industry.
  • "Learning and growing together is really the cornerstone of Housing Works," said Nutgent.
  • As the first dispensary in the state, the HWCC team has prioritized sharing data on the New York cannabis market.
  • The top sales week preceded Labor Day, August 28 through September 1, with store sales exceeding $500,000.