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Bulletins and News Discussion from January 1st to January 7th, 2024 - The Year of the Dragon - COTW: Haiti

Image features Haitian Creole, meaning in English: "Let's Join Hands To Remove Haiti From The Boot Of Domination-Occupation!"

Welcome to the first news megathread of 2024! Last year saw rather little territorial movement in Ukraine (though shocking levels of attrition), and while BRICS has made some important moves, such as the upcoming expansion, there's no massive anti-imperialist offensive yet for us to really analyze. Instead, a lot of things have been going on behind the scenes, with the anti-hegemonic axis of China, Russia, Iran, and others forming a lot of bilateral currency deals as they distance themselves from the dollar. This all culminated in a rather boring year, or so I had thought until October 7th. The courage and heroism of the Gazan Resistance showed us that the imperialists truly are paper tigers, and Ansarallah demonstrated that American naval control is more illusory than the likes of John Bolton would like to admit.

This year will almost certainly be even more interesting and horrific. Debt across the developing world is at record levels, and the incoming hurricane that is the global recession not just on the horizon, but rapidly moving inland. Russia seems to once again be escalating in Ukraine with the return of large missile strikes, and the Zionist entity is failing to make much progress against Hamas, let alone Hezbollah, let alone Iran - instead vying for civilian bombings and propaganda campaigns (e.g. wedding proposals and drawing stars of David in Gaza to prove just how not mad and not owned they are, as their soldiers shit their pants due to insufficient military preparation and brigades are withdrawn due to the tremendous casualties they are experiencing). I'm sure there will be other sudden events that will occur this year. Here's my bingo grid:

In the midst of all this, it's easy to forget the other underdog nation on the other side of the world from Palestine - Haiti. Since I last covered them, about half a year ago, the UN was on the verge of allowing a Kenyan police force to enter Haiti to "restore order", as the country is in a chaotic, perhaps potentially revolutionary situation. This has been described by various Haitian analysts and experts as essentially a US military force in blackface - white blows from a black hand - and Kenya's president, Ruto, has received a lot of aid from the US because of their willingness to step up, including a five year military deal. It took a while longer than I thought for the vote to occur, but on October 2nd, the UNSC allowed Kenya to do this (Russia and China abstained). However, the Kenyan Supreme Court needs to confirm that this is constitutional, and will give their verdict by January 26th. Many Kenyan lawyers and opposition leaders say that this is blatantly not constitutional, but given all the US aid on the line, breaking the constitution might be worth it to Ruto, whatever the backlash.

From the article from which much of the above information has been sourced:

But Washington now has its hands full with other problems. Its proxy war against Russia via Ukraine is going very badly, a fact that even the U.S. mainstream media is now forced to acknowledge. Meanwhile, the successful Oct. 7 uprising by Palestinian fighters against Israeli occupiers has apparently blindsided both the U.S. empire and its foremost client state. The entire Arab world and Global South are both horrified and outraged by Israel’s ever-growing war crimes, as over 20,000 Palestinians, half of them children, have been slaughtered and starved. Meanwhile, the dysfunction in Washington is deepening, Biden’s approval rating is plummeting, and the U.S. economy is lurching toward another crash.

All this means that Haiti may finally catch a break. The desperation in Haiti is very intense but so is the apprehension of and indignation against another foreign intervention. That resistance continues in the streets of Haiti and its diaspora.

Viva Haiti!

The weekly update is here on the website.

Your Tuesday briefing is here on the website and here in the comments.

The Country of the Week is Haiti! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

1.1K comments

  • Made a few calls to my family in Lebanon today just to gauge how people are feeling about possible escalation. The situation is definitely tense, my aunt for example bought lots of rice and other dry foods today in case there's some mass bombing of Beirut and we get Gazafied by the Zionists. My communist uncle is still on team nothing ever happens, although I did sense some rare dread from him for the first time since October 7th. His take on the situation was basically "I hope nothing happens for the good of the people here, but I hope something happens because the Zionist fucks deserve a major slap", which shows the dilemma that Hezbollah and the rest of the resistance is facing right now. I have a cousin that works in an office in the South, and everyone was told to chill at home for the next week in case something happens. Another cousin works at an international company in Beirut that has offices in Dubai and a few other places, and the EU passport holders at her company have started to leave for either Dubai or back to Europe because some of them got emails from the head office telling them that embassies have reached out and told them to start evacuating. I'm still leaning towards nothing significant happening, but I'm more worried now honestly.

  • "Without hunger and thirst among the Gazan population, we will not be able to recruit collaborators, we will not be able to recruit intelligence, we will not be able to bribe people, with food, drink, medicine, in order to obtain intelligence" - Israeli Knesset MK Tally Gotliv

    Nitter

  • IMMENSE shoutout and uncritical support to the person who covered the Israeli propaganda “missing people” posters around the corner from my apartment with posters of missing people actually in our area. Genuinely incredible and simple idea that I want to see Zionists get mad about

  • In communist North Korea the crazy regime puts a ridiculous number of medals on their generals.

    Illustration: Unrelated image of Danish court bureaucrat

  • New ‘Storm the Capitol’ board game celebrates Jan 6 riot - Independent

    A brand new board game is being released this weekend to mark the three year anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riots in Washington DC.

    The right-wing podcast TrueAnon has created the game “Storm the Capitol – TrueAnon Edition” where players can “relive one of the funniest days in American history!”

    Despite the day not being particularly funny for the Capitol staff and law enforcement officers who were faced with an angry mob of far-right activists and Donald Trump supporters seeking to overturn American democracy, the game celebrates the violence of the day – with players able to pretend they are “battling” their way through the Capitol building.

    Players can gain points by stealing “AOC’s shoes” or “Pelosi’s laptop”.

    At the end of the game, if the “Patriots” win, former president Donald Trump will be waiting to take them in his helicopter to change the results of the 2020 election, according to the game.

    If the police win, President Joe Biden will be victorious.

    The podcast hosts wrote on X that they hope the game will bring back the “amazing feeling” felt on 6 January 2021.

  • Is it gonna happen? Is it not gonna happen? All I know is that whenever Hexbear predicts WWIII, it ends up being two border guards calling each other poopy heads, and whenever Hexbear predicts nothing happening, a major regional war breaks out

  • steel manufacturing machine broke (archived)

    > To Build Ships That Break Ice, U.S. Must Relearn to Cut Steel

    The science-focused Healy medium icebreaker, which is normally assigned to the Arctic, has to undergo repairs and refitting annually in California or Washington. The other, the heavy icebreaker Polar Star, is nearing the end of its useful service life. By comparison, Russia has three dozen national icebreakers suitable for the Arctic, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, and China has four, including two icebreaking research ships that regularly appear at high latitudes. U.S. officials suspect those have strategic purposes. Beijing says science is driving its Arctic ambitions.

    “We need to increase the presence of our Navy and Coast Guard in the Arctic and improve our deterrence in the Pacific,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Without a monumental investment in our shipyards and defense industrial base, we will not be able to secure American dominance in the maritime domain.”

    damn, so you need an actual industrial base in order to have stuff

    ? never knew that before, I thought you just pressed a button and alchemically transformed your GDP into equipment

    The machinery and skills to build the hulls of most oceangoing vessels aren’t sufficient for the specialized icebreakers. The hull plates need a bespoke alloy and specialized heat-treatment, with a process to form and weld massive curved plates. ... In addition to the technical challenge, American yards are reckoning with a shortage of shipwrights. Employment in ship and boat building totaled just 154,800 in July after peaking at 1.3 million during World War II, according to data from the Federal Reserve.

    turns out, de-industrializing means it will be even more difficult to re-industrialize in the future, since you'll have lost a lot of the workers and institutional knowledge you need for that, because, you know, it's the workers who actually make stuff

    The U.S. government identified the need for half a dozen new polar vessels as far back as 2010. Two years later, the Coast Guard launched a program to acquire them. ... Under a joint Coast Guard-Navy program in 2017, Bollinger Shipyards and Halter Marine won contracts for preliminary designs for the new icebreakers. In 2019, Halter Marine won the contract for the polar security cutters, but the pandemic and other delays have slowed design and engineering work and prevented the start of construction. “When Covid hit, all of our suppliers were overseas,” Merchent said. ... In 2022, as Russian President Vladimir Putin launched two giant icebreakers in St. Petersburg, Halter Marine was finally supposed to start construction of the first new icebreaker, to be christened the Polar Sentinel. Instead the company, which was owned by a state-owned Singaporean firm with Chinese clients, was sold to Bollinger. The U.S. icebreakers needed a bigger company with more resources to complete the design work and begin working with the steel, according to people familiar with the program.

    Only in August did Bollinger begin testing, cutting and assembling steel prototype modules that could become part of the Polar Sentinel—if the modules meet rigorous tests. Meanwhile, the company will continue recruiting and training more shipyard workers. Full construction could begin next year. “We’re relearning how to build this type of ship,” said the polar security cutter program manager, Coast Guard Capt. Eric Drey.

    love taking 13 years to even start working on a thing I supposedly really need. Who knows when they'll even deliver a finished ship, 2050?

  • Monthly Review: How Yemen changed everything

    Some anti-doomer medicine courtesy of Pepe Escobar.

    Whether invented in northern India, eastern China or Central Asia—from Persia to Turkestan—chess is an Asian game. In chess, there always comes a time when a simple pawn is able to upset the whole chessboard, usually via a move in the back rank whose effect simply cannot be calculated. Yes, a pawn can impose a seismic checkmate. That’s where we are, geopolitically, right now.

    The cascading effects of a single move on the chessboard—Yemen’s Ansarallah stunning and carefully targeted blockade of the Red Sea—reach way beyond global shipping, supply chains, and The War of Economic Corridors. Not to mention the reduction of the much lauded U.S. Navy force projection to irrelevancy.

    Yemen’s resistance movement, Ansarallah, has made it very clear that any Israel-affiliated or Israel-destined vessel will be intercepted. While the west bristles at this, and imagines itself a target, the rest of the world fully understands that all other shipping is free to pass. Russian tankers—as well as Chinese, Iranian, and Global South ships — continue to move undisturbed across the Bab al-Mandeb (narrowest point: 33 km) and the Red Sea.

    Only the Hegemon is disturbed by this challenge to its ‘rules-based order.’ It is outraged that western vessels delivering energy or goods to law-breaking Israel can be impeded, and that the supply chain has been severed and plunged into deep crisis. The pinpointed target is the Israeli economy, which is already bleeding heavily. A single Yemeni move proves to be more efficient than a torrent of imperial sanctions. It is the tantalizing possibility of this single move turning into a paradigm shift—with no return—that is adding to the Hegemon’s apoplexy. Especially because imperial humiliation is deeply embedded in the paradigm shift.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the record, is now sending an unmistakeable message: Forget the Suez Canal. The way to go is the Northern Sea Route—which the Chinese, in the framework of the Russia-China strategic partnership, call the Arctic Silk Road. For the dumbfounded Europeans, the Russians have detailed three options: First, sail 15,000 miles around the Cap of Good Hope. Second, use Russia’s cheaper and faster Northern Sea Route. Third, send the cargo via Russian Railways. Rosatom, which oversees the Northern Sea Route, has emphasized that non-ice-class ships are now able to sail throughout summer and autumn, and year-round navigation will soon be possible with the help of a fleet of nuclear icebreakers. All that as direct consequences of the single Yemeni move. What next? Yemen entering BRICS+ at the summit in Kazan in late 2024, under the Russian presidency?

    The new architecture will be framed in West Asia

    The U.S.-led Armada put together for Operation Genocide Protection, which collapsed even before birth, may have been set up to “warn Iran,” apart from giving Ansarallah a scare. Just as the Houthis, Tehran is hardly intimidated because, as West Asia analyst ace Alastair Crooke succinctly put it: "Sykes-Picot is dead." This is a quantum shift on the chessboard. It means West Asian powers will frame the new regional architecture from now on, not U.S. Navy “projection.” That carries an ineffable corollary: those eleven U.S. aircraft carrier task forces, for all practical purposes, are essentially worthless.

    Everyone across West Asia is well aware that Ansarallah’s missiles are capable of hitting Saudi and Emirati oil fields, and knocking them out of commission. So it is little wonder that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi would never accept becoming part of a U.S.-led maritime force to challenge the Yemeni resistance.

    Add to it the role of underwater drones now in the possession of Russia and Iran. Think of fifty of these aimed at a U.S. aircraft carrier: it has no defense. While the Americans still have very advanced submarines, they cannot keep the Bab al-Mandeb and Red Sea open to western operators. On the energy front, Moscow and Tehran don’t even need to think—at least not yet—about using the “nuclear” option or cutting off potentially at least 25 percent, and up, of the world oil supply. As one Persian Gulf analyst succinctly describes it, "that would irretrievably implode the international financial system."

    For those still determined to support the genocide in Gaza there have been warnings. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has mentioned it explicitly. Tehran has already called for a total oil and gas embargo against nations that support Israel. A total naval blockade of Israel, meticulously engineered, remains a distinct possibility. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Hossein Salami said Israel may “soon face the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, and other waterways.” Keep in mind we’re not yet even talking about a possible blockade of the Strait of Hormuz; we’re still on Red Sea/Bab al-Mandeb.

    Because if the Straussian neo-cons in the Beltway get really unhinged by the paradigm shift and act in desperation to “teach a lesson” to Iran, a chokepoint Hormuz-Bab al-Mandeb combo blockade might skyrocket the price of oil to at least $500 a barrel, triggering the implosion of the $618 trillion derivatives market and crashing the entire international banking system.

    The paper tiger is in a jam

    Mao Zedong was right after all: the U.S. may be in fact a paper tiger. Putin, though, is way more careful, cold, and calculating. With this Russian president, it’s all about an asymmetric response, exactly when no one is expecting it. That brings us to the prime working hypothesis perhaps capable of explaining the shadow play masking the single Ansarallah move on the chessboard.

    When Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Sy (Seymour) Hersh proved how Team Biden blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, there was no Russian response to what was, in effect, an act of terrorism against Gazprom, against Germany, against the EU, and against a bunch of European companies. Yet Yemen, now, with a simple blockade, turns global shipping upside down. So what is more vulnerable? The physical networks of global energy supply (Pipelineistan) or the Thalassocracy, states that derive their power from naval supremacy? Russia privileges Pipelineistan: see, for instance, the Nord Streams and Power of Siberia 1 and 2. But the U.S., the Hegemon, always relied on its thalassocratic power, heir to “Britannia rules the waves.”

    Well, not anymore. And, surprisingly, getting there did not even entail the “nuclear” option, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which Washington games and scaremongers like crazy. Of course we won’t have a smoking gun. But it’s a fascinating proposition that the single Yemeni move may have been coordinated at the highest level between three BRICS members—Russia, China, and Iran, the neocon new “axis of evil”—plus other two BRICS+, energy powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the UAE. As in, “if you do it, we’ve got your back”. None of that, of course, detracts from Yemeni purity: their defense of Palestine is a sacred duty.

    Western imperialism and then turbo-capitalism have always been obsessed with gobbling up Yemen, a process that Isa Blumi, in his splendid book Destroying Yemen, described as “necessarily stripping Yemenis of their historic role as the economic, cultural, spiritual, and political engine for much of the Indian Ocean world.” Yemen, though, is unconquerable and, true to a local proverb, “deadly” (Yemen Fataakah). As part of the Axis of Resistance, Yemen’s Ansarallah is now a key actor in a complex Eurasia-wide drama that redefines Heartland connectivity; and alongside China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the India-Iran-Russia-led International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), and Russia’s new Northern Sea Route, also includes control over strategic chokepoints around the Mediterranean Seas and the Arabian peninsula.

    This is another trade connectivity paradigm entirely, smashing to bits western colonial and neocolonial control of Afro-Eurasia. So yes, BRICS+ supports Yemen, who with a single move has presented Pax Americana with The Mother of All Geopolitical Jams.

  • The content from other websites that get posted here regarding Mainland China and Taiwan are repulsive. I am Taiwanese and seeing the way they talk about people in East Asia is disgusting. They think we are all interchangeable with no differences between each other.

  • How Yemen is blocking US hegemony in West Asia

    Given the renewed focus on Yemen's de facto government led by Ansarallah and its armed forces, it is time to move beyond the simplistic and dismissive characterization of the Houthis as merely a ‘rebel’ group or a non-state actor. Since the start of the war by the Saudi-led coalition against Ansarallah in 2015, the Yemeni resistance movement has transformed into a formidable military force that has not only humbled Saudi Arabia but is also now challenging Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza as well as the superior firepower and resources of the US Navy in the world’s most important waterway.

    ...

    To date, Ansarallah has successfully targeted nine ships using drones and missiles, and managed to seize one Israeli-affiliated ship in the Red Sea, according to their official statements. These operations have prompted the largest international shipping companies, including CMA CGM and MSC, and oil giants BP and Evergreen, to re-route their Europe bound ships around the horn of Africa, adding 13,000km and significant fuel costs to the journey. Delays, transit times, and insurance fees for commercial shipping have skyrocketed, threatening to spark inflation worldwide. This is especially worrisome for Israel, which is already contending with the economic repercussions of its longest and deadliest conflict with the Palestinian resistance in history. Additionally, Ansarallah has launched multiple missile and drone attacks on Israel’s southern port city of Eilat, decreasing its commercial shipping traffic by 85 percent.

    The disruption in the Red Sea directly undermines a key element of the White House’s 2022 National Security Strategy, which unequivocally states that the US will not permit any nation “to jeopardize freedom of navigation through the Middle East’s waterways, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab.”

    ...

    The Pentagon plans to defend commercial ships using missile defense systems on US and allied naval carriers deployed to the region. But the world’s superpower, now largely on its own, does not have the military capacity to counter attacks from war-torn Yemen, the poorest country in West Asia. This is because the US relies on expensive and difficult to manufacture interceptor missiles to counter the inexpensive and mass-produced drones and missiles that Ansarallah possesses.

    ...

    If Ansarallah persists with this strategy, US forces will quickly deplete their interceptor missile stocks, which are needed not only in West Asia but in East Asia as well. As Fortis Analysis observed, the US has eight guided missile cruisers and destroyers operating in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, with a total of 800 SM-2 and SM-6 interceptor missiles for ship defense between them. Fortis Analysis further notes that production of these missiles is slow, meaning any ongoing campaign to counter Ansarallah will quickly deplete US interceptor missile stocks to dangerously low levels. Meanwhile, the US weapons manufacturer Raytheon can produce less than 50 SM-2 and fewer than 200 SM-6 missiles annually.

    If these stocks are diminished, this leaves the US Navy vulnerable not only in the Red Sea and Mediterranean, where Russia is also active, but also in the Pacific Ocean, where China poses a significant threat with its hypersonic and ballistic missiles. Fortis Analysis concludes by observing that the longer Ansarallah continues “throwing potshots” at commercial, US Navy, and allied maritime assets, “the worse the calculus gets. Supply chains win wars – and we are losing this critical domain.”

    ...

    As a result, Abdulghani al-Iryani, a senior researcher at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, described the situation in Yemen as a case where technology acts as a “great equalizer.” “Your F-15 that costs millions of dollars means nothing because I have my drone that cost a few thousand dollars that will do just as much damage,” he told the New York Times.

    If you shoot down a $2000 drone with an air defense missile, then in actuality, your air defense missile was shot down by a drone.

  • https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/03/middleeast/iran-explosions-soleimani-ceremony-intl/index.html

    Twin terror attacks in Iran.  

    At least 103 people were killed Wednesday and 188 injured in the Iranian city of Kerman after twin blasts near the burial site of slain military commander Qasem Soleimani, in what officials called a terror attack.

    The blasts, at least one of which was caused by a bomb, state TV said, came on the fourth anniversary of Soleimani’s death in a US air strike, and threatens to accelerate tensions in the region that have spiked since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

    The first explosion was 2,300 feet (700 meters) from Soleimani’s grave, and the second was 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) away as pilgrims visited the site, IRNA added.

    Soleimani was killed by a US airstrike ordered by former President Donald Trump at Baghdad International Airport four years ago Wednesday.

  • IMPORTANT DEBUNKING:

    Iran’s Tasnim News Agency published some new information regarding the alleged “ISIS” terrorist attack in Kerman:

    “The ISIS statement to claim the attack was issued under the guidance of the Zionists.

    Firstly, ISIS has never used the word "Iran" in their statements, they always call Iran "Persian province" or "Khorasan Province".

    Secondly, it is noteworthy that there is no history of ISIS releasing images of its terrorist operatives with a censored face.

    Third point is that ISIS never delays the release of responsibility statements for its operations by 30 hours. Instead, they prepare the pictures of the pledge of allegiance and the declaration of responsibility before each operation & publish them immediately after the execution of the operation.

    Essentially, ISIS's method for conducting operations involves initial threats, followed by fatwas, and then the execution of operations, immediately accompanied by the release of responsibility statements. However, in this operation, a terrorist act occurred first, followed by delayed fatwas, threats, and the delayed release of a responsibility statement!

    The 4th point is the political literature of this statement, which differs significantly from ISIS's usual literature, indicating that the statement's author was by no means associated with ISIS.

    In fact, the statement that ISIS published belatedly in accepting responsibility for the terrorist attack in Kerman was orchestrated by the Zionist regime's intelligence service. ISIS merely took charge of disseminating it through its official media channels."

    twitter | nitter

    I had no doubt in my mind that Iran knew this was Israeli-backed, but I was curious how they'd respond to it. since ISIS 'took responsibility' for it, they could have just done nothing. it's interesting that Tasnim (generally known as close to the IRGC) is calling bullshit, makes me think there'll be some kind of retaliation now.

  • "China's army dwarfs Taiwan's. Could 3.3 million 'civilian warriors' give it a fighting chance?"

    Tech tycoon Mr Tsao is the founder of United Microelectronics Corp, one of the largest producers of semiconductor chips in the world, but he has an unexpected history for someone throwing so much money at the war effort.

    His family moved to Taiwan around the time Chinese Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) forces took control after World War II.

    The Taiwan he grew up in was ruled under martial law by dictator Chiang Kai-shek, who led a brutal crackdown on his communist opponents over decades that are now known as the White Terror period.

    Chiang Kai-shek's regime killed thousands, but his statues are still standing

    "Later I realised the KMT was right about the Communist Party and how brutal and barbarous it is," Mr Tsao told the Financial Times in 2022.

    After finishing his studies at National Taiwan University, Mr Tsao joined the government's Industrial Technology Research Institute, which gave rise to Taiwan's booming semiconductor industry.

    Mr Tsao founded his own company, UMC, in 1980, and expanded as China began to open up in the 1990s.

    He began investing his riches in an impressive rare art collection, including a glass vase from the Qianlong period worth more than $39 million.

    After Mr Tsao and a fellow UMC executive were indicted in Taiwan over alleged illegal investments to set up production lines in China, he renounced his Taiwanese citizenship and moved to Singapore.

    He was an active supporter of so-called peaceful "reunification", even taking out ads in major Taiwanese newspapers calling for a referendum on the matter.

    But last year he reapplied for his Taiwanese citizenship, explaining that he had had a change of heart after witnessing Beijing's crackdown on Hong Kong.

    "It showed the true face of the Chinese Communist Party, a hooligan regime conducting violence against ordinary people," he told the Taipei Times.

    "It really made me angry. So I decided to never go to China, Hong Kong or Macau again."

    He told Radio Free Asia he wanted to die in Taiwan, ideally "laughing while watching the fall of the CCP".

    KMT good radio free asia 3.3 million civilian combatants i am trash man

  • DPRK opened fire with over 100 artillery shells against South Korean occupied Yeonpeong Island, no casualties have been announced

    Not sure what the plan was here but it sure is provocative. Are they drawing the eye of Sauron towards themselves to further distract and spread out the US?

  • Looking forward to the NGO "democracy rankings" after Ukraine literally stops holding elections.

    The "freedom" ones already have Ukraine far higher than Russia, amusingly.

  • In a press release shipping company Mærsk has announced that all of their vessels due to transit the Red Sea will be diverted south around the Cape of Good Hope for the foreseeable future.

    Clients with cargo on the affected ships are already being charged a Transit Disruption Surcharge, a Peak Season Surcharge and an Emergency Contingency Surcharge in addition to normal freight rates.

  • Ocean cargo rates climb after new Red Sea ship attacks – Middle East Monitor

    Asia-to-North Europe rates more than doubled to above $4,000 per 40-foot container this week, with Asia-to-Mediterranean prices climbing to $5,175, according to Freightos, a booking and payments platform for international freight.

    Some carriers have announced rates above $6,000 per 40-foot container for Mediterranean shipments starting mid-month, and surcharges of $500 to as much as $2,700 per container could make all-in prices even higher, Judah Levine, Freightos’ head of research, said in an email.

    Rates for shipments from Asia to North America’s East Coast climbed 55 per cent to $3,900 per 40-foot container. West Coast prices jumped 63 per cent to more than $2,700 ahead of expected cargo diversions to avoid Red Sea-related issues, Levine said.

    While rates have spiked, they remain far below 2021’s pandemic-fuelled record highs of $14,000 per 40-foot container for Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean and $22,000 for Asia to North America’s East Coast.

    FACTBOX – Shipping firms react to Houthi attacks in the Red Sea – Middle East Monitor

    The Houthis in Yemen have stepped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea to show their support for Palestinian group, Hamas, fighting Israel in Gaza, Reuters reports.

    The attacks impact a route vital to East-West trade, especially of oil, as ships access the Suez Canal via the Red Sea.

    In response, some shipping companies have instructed vessels to, instead, sail around southern Africa, a slower and, therefore, more expensive route.

    Below are actions take by companies (in alphabetical order):

    H. Robinson

    The global logistics group said on 22 December it had rerouted more than 25 vessels around the Cape of Good Hope over the past week, and that number would likely grow.

    “Blank sailings and rate increases are expected to continue across many trades into Q1 of 2024,” it added.

    CMA CGM

    The French shipping group is planning a gradual increase in the number of vessels transiting the Suez Canal, it said on 26 December. “This decision is based on an in-depth evaluation of the security landscape and our commitment to the security and safety of our seafarers,” CMA CGM said in a statement.

    The company had previously rerouted several vessels via the Cape of Good Hope.

    Euronav

    The Belgian oil tanker firm said, on 18 December, it would avoid the Red Sea until further notice.

    Evergreen

    The Taiwanese container shipping line said, on 18 December, its vessels on regional services to Red Sea ports would sail to safe waters nearby and wait for further notification, while ships scheduled to pass through the Red Sea would be rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope. It also temporarily stopped accepting Israeli cargo.

    Frontline

    The Norway-based oil tanker group said, on 18 December, that its vessels would avoid the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

    Gram Car Carriers

    The Norwegian company, which specialises in transporting vehicles, said on 21 December its vessels were restricted from passing through the Red Sea.

    Hapag-Lloyd

    The German container shipping line said, on 2 January, it had decided to continue to avoid the Red Sea, instead diverting vessels to the Cape of Good Hope, until at least 9 January when it would again assess the situation.

    A projectile believed to be a drone struck one of its vessels sailing close to the coast of Yemen on 15 December. No crew were injured.

    HMM 011200.KS

    The South Korean container shipper said, on 19 December, it had ordered its ships, which would normally use the Suez Canal, to reroute via the Cape of Good Hope.

    Hoegh Autoliners

    The Norwegian shipping company said on 20 December it would stop sailing via the Red Sea after the Norwegian Maritime Authority raised its alert for the southern part of the sea to the highest level.

    Klaveness Combination Carriers

    The Norway-based fleet operator said, on 28 December, it was unlikely to sail any of its vessels in the Red Sea, unless the situation improves.

    Maersk

    The Danish shipping group said on 31 December it was pausing all sailing through the Red Sea for 48 hours after Houthi militants attacked the Maersk Hangzhou container vessel.

    A 1 January advisory showed Maersk was to send more than 30 vessels through the Suez Canal in the coming days, while 17 other voyages were put on hold.

    The company was expected to update its plans on 2 January.

    MSC

    Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) said on 16 December its ships would not transit through the Suez Canal, with some already rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope, a day after two ballistic missiles were fired at one of its vessels.

    Ocean Network Express

    Ocean Network Express (ONE), a joint venture between Japan’s Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Nippon Yusen,  said on 19 December it would re-route vessels away from the Red Sea to the Cape of Good Hope or temporarily pause journeys and move to safe areas.

    OOCL

    The Hong Kong-headquartered container group said on 21 December it had instructed its vessels to either divert their route away from the Red Sea or suspend sailing. The company, owned by Orient Overseas (International) Ltd, has also stopped accepting cargo to and from Israel until further notice.

    Wallenius Wilhelmsen

    The Norwegian shipping group said on 19 December it would halt Red Sea transits until further notice. Rerouting vessels via the Cape of Good Hope will add 1-2 weeks to voyage durations, it said.

    Yang Ming Marine Transport

    The Taiwanese container shipping company said on 18 December it would divert ships sailing through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden via the Cape of Good Hope for the next two weeks.

    Owned.

  • Video of a pedestrian in Lebanon within feet of being hit by a phosphorous projectile. Twitter / Nitter.

    "Israel" is responding to a justified attack on a military target by razing civilian neighborhoods again. I do not think things are going to settle on the "Israel"/Lebanon front.

  • China ‘actively involved’ in Iraq’s reconstruction | The Cradle

    Beijing is fully committed to “friendly” ties with Baghdad and “actively participates” in Iraq’s reconstruction, a Chinese official told Kurdish news outlet Rudaw on 3 January. 

    “China and Iraq share friendly relations; as a sincere friend China actively participates in Iraq and the reconstruction of the country,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told Rudaw at a press briefing in Beijing. 

    He added that the Chinese presence in Iraq has been “well received by the government and the people.” “We are ready to work with Iraq for further progress,” the spokesman said. 

    Trade between China and Iraq reached around $50 billion last year. China is the largest importer of Iraqi oil. 

    Ties between Baghdad and Beijing have developed significantly recently, and Chinese firms have increased their presence there.

    In 2019, Iraq signed a 20-year contract, agreeing to supply Chinese firms with 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, with the revenue earmarked for funding various development projects in Iraq undertaken by Chinese firms.

    Following the deal, Chinese firms built 1,000 schools, developed the Nasiriya city airport, erected power plants, and completed several other infrastructure projects. 

    China has accelerated its investment in Iraq and other West Asian nations as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced in 2013.

    Last month, Iraq began work on 30,000 housing units near Baghdad as part of a $2 billion project in partnership with Chinese firms to build five new cities across Iraq.

    Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani seeks to build 250,000 to 300,000 housing units for poor and middle-class families. A new city on the outskirts of Baghdad will include universities, commercial centers, schools, and health centers and should be completed in four to five years.

    Iraqi infrastructure suffered significantly during the US invasion of the country in 2003 and the several-year war that ensued. 

    This latest step in Chinese-Iraqi cooperation comes as Iraq continues to fall under attack by the US army. 

    In October, Iraqi resistance factions banded together under a single coalition to confront US bases in Iraq and Syria. The attacks – which have been ongoing – are a show of solidarity with the resistance in Gaza and a rejection of US support for Israel’s assault on the strip. 

    They also aim to hasten the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. The US has responded with several violent attacks on Iraq and its sovereignty. 

    The latest took place on Thursday and resulted in the death of Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi, the leader of the 12th brigade of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known as the Al-Nujaba Movement.

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