Netanyahu strikes deal with fascistic Religious Zionism in bid to form Israeli government

Jean Shaoul

Following the victory of his right-wing bloc in last month’s election, opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed a series of deals with factions of the fascistic and racist Religious Zionism, now the third largest party in the 120-seat Knesset.

He has moved closer to creating what would be the most rightwing and reactionary government in Israel’s history. He has until December 11 to form a government, though he is expected to request a two-week extension from President Isaac Herzog.

Such a government heralds a stepped-up war against the Palestinians, the strengthening of Jewish supremacy and the implementation of measures synonymous with apartheid, further undermining the democratic rights of both Palestinian and Israeli workers and intensifying the social tinderbox that is Israel-Palestine today.

Former Israeli Prime Minister and the head of Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara gesture after first exit poll results for the Israeli Parliamentary election at his party's headquarters in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022. [AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov]

The November 1 election was the fifth in four years as no party since 2019 had been able to form a stable coalition. It was precipitated by the collapse last June of the fragile coalition with a one seat majority headed by Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett out of eight parties united only by opposition to the scandal-ridden Netanyahu.

Their “government of change” that included Labour and Meretz, both ostensibly committed to a mini-Palestinian statelet alongside Israel, continued Netanyahu’s aggressive stance towards the Palestinians as well as his pro-business agenda on behalf of Israel’s plutocrats, including lifting all measures aimed at restricting the spread of the pandemic.

According to the United Nations, it has presided over more killings of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories in 2022 than at any time since 2005. Israeli forces and settlers have killed 139 Palestinians, including at least 30 children, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the deliberate targeting of US-Palestinian Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh. Israel’s three-day bombardment of Gaza in August killed a further 49 Palestinians, including 17 children.

Under the Lapid-Bennett government, Israeli security forces carried out more administrative detentions and more house demolitions than in the last few years of Netanyahu’s tenure. It advanced the ethnic cleansing of Masafer Yatta, conducted almost daily raid and mass arrest operations, imposed collective punishments on the Palestinians and designated six leading Palestinian NGOs as “terrorists”. It escalated Israel’s covert wars against Iran and its allies, Syria and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in Iran, the Persian Gulf, Syria and the eastern Mediterranean.

The “government of change’s” failure to put forward any policies to alleviate social inequality—one of the highest in the OECD group of advanced countries—flowed from its class position as representative of Israel’s oligarchs against the working class, Jewish and Palestinian.

The political beneficiaries have been the far-right, fascistic forces of Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, leaders of Religious Zionism, an alliance of three groups, aided and abetted by Netanyahu who brokered their merger to enable their entry into the Knesset to bolster his bloc prior to the 2021 elections. Following last month’s elections, the party has split into its three constituent parts: Religious Zionism, Jewish Power and Noam.

According to Davar's recent socioeconomic analysis of the 25th Knesset election results, the surge in support for the far-right Religious Zionism and the secular right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu came from the higher income groups that have traditionally supported the official “centrist” and “leftist” parties. It was the three wealthiest deciles that provided the bulk of the votes for the centrist and left parties in the Lapid-Bennett coalition.

The two strongest parties among the lowest income groups are the United Torah Judaism party that is part of Netanyahu’s bloc which has its main support base among the ultra-orthodox or Haredi Jews, with about 20 percent of the vote, and the Muslim Brotherhood-linked United Arab List, with about 15.5 percent. Both groups, Israel’s ultra-orthodox and Arab citizens, are the poorest in the country. Together, the two parties received about three quarters of the votes in the three lowest economic deciles, with almost no votes from upper income workers.

While Netanyahu’s Likud Party secured the largest number of seats at 32, he depends on Religious Zionism (14) and the two parties whose support base lies with the orthodox Jews, Shas (11) and United Torah Judaism (7), to form a government with a four-seat majority in the Knesset.

Currently on trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases, he welcomes in particular Religious Zionism’s willingness to introduce a law preventing a sitting prime minister from being indicted while in office. Other parties that have no substantive policy disagreements with him have refused to serve under an indicted prime minister.

In a series of deals, Netanyahu has offered key posts to legislators in Religious Zionism, which is committed to annexing the West Bank that Israel has illegally occupied, along with East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights, since the 1967 Arab Israeli war. It pledges to expel “disloyal” Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20 percent of the country’s population, demolish the al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for the building of a Jewish Temple, impose religious law and destroy the judicial system.

Netanyahu’s first deal was with the extreme-right Jewish Power party, making its leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the new national security minister. Ben Gvir, who regularly incites violence against the Palestinians, chanting “Death to the Arabs,” has faced dozens of charges of hate speech. Until a couple of years ago, he kept a picture in his house of the Israeli-American terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 massacred 29 Palestinians and wounded 125 others while they were praying in Hebron.

This disciple of the American-born fascist Meir Kahane, whose movement was banned in Israel and declared a terrorist organization by the United States, will be given control over the police and other forces, including the Border Police unit that operates in the West Bank and the force that controls security at al-Aqsa Mosque. This gives Ben Gvir, who has already set up a vigilante group in the Negev and has sought to do so in Bat Yam, an impoverished suburb of Tel Aviv, a free pass to set up an anti-Palestinian militia.

Netanyahu’s second deal was with Avi Maoz, the sole member in the Knesset of the Noam faction. Notorious for his racist, homophobic and misogynist views, he will become a deputy minister in the prime minister’s office heading a newly created body charged with the task of promoting “Jewish identity.” Last week, Maoz said he would try to cancel the annual gay pride parade in Jerusalem, which he described as “an obscene abomination.” He will have authority to approve or expunge external content programmes from the list currently offered to Israeli schools.

Netanyahu has also signed a deal with Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich. A lawyer, he has defended settlers accused of incitement and provocations against the Palestinians. He advocates a shoot-to-kill policy for the military when dealing with Palestinians throwing stones. When he was asked what he would do should there be another intifada and a Palestinian child were to throw stones, he replied, “Either I will shoot him, or I will jail him, or I will expel him.” He played a key role in outlawing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in Israel, banning its advocates from even visiting the country. Along with leaders of the other religious parties, he is seeking to reform the judicial system to ensure that it is consistent with Jewish religious tradition.

This provocateur had originally demanded the defence portfolio a step too far for the Biden administration and is to become finance minister. As a further sweetener, his party will also get a ministerial position within the defence ministry responsible for the agencies overseeing the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Palestinian and Israeli civilian life in the Occupied Territories. In effect, Religious Zionism will have almost complete control over the West Bank.

Washington is keen to laud the virtues of democracy and human rights when opposing its enemies, yet is unphased by its attack dog in the Middle East espousing openly racist and anti-democratic policies. On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration would judge Israel’s incoming far-right government based on its policies, not the people in it—in other words: business as usual.

Peru’s President Castillo is impeached and arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress

Andrea Lobo

Peru’s elected President Pedro Castillo was locked up in prison Thursday following a series of extraordinary events over the previous day in which he desperately sought to preempt the threats by the judicial and legislative branches to oust him by ordering the shutdown of Congress and declaring an authoritarian state of exception.

Castillo’s bid to remain in power collapsed after the combined commands of the armed forces and police issued a statement describing his actions as unconstitutional and warning that they would not support them.

Castillo marches in front of police and troops in Pampachiri, Apurímac region in Peru, November 26. [Photo: @PedroCastilloTe]

Congress defied his order to dissolve and instead voted by an overwhelming majority to impeach him. Several of his ministers immediately resigned and condemned his actions as an attempted “coup,” and within hours Congress had sworn in his vice-president, Dina Boluarte, as Castillo’s successor.

The ignominious fall of Castillo, a former rural teacher and union leader, has thoroughly exposed not only the bankruptcy of his own rule, but that of the politics of broad layers of the pseudo-left who celebrated his election as a victory for “socialism.” Faced with the intransigent opposition of the military and the political right, he proved unable and unwilling to even attempt the mobilization of any popular support in his defense.

Aside from his personal fate, the events in Peru portend a sharper turn by the ruling classes across Latin America toward dictatorship, as they seeks to place the entire burden of the deepening economic crisis on the shoulders of the workers and rural masses.

Peru’s ongoing crisis of bourgeois rule, which has seen six presidents in just over four years, as well as the arrest and imprisonment of every surviving head of state on corruption charges, has reached a new level of intensity.

A political nobody before joining Castillo’s ticket in 2021, Boluarte has no popular support or party. While she had previously stated she would resign if Castillo were impeached, she quickly changed her tune once it had happened. Expedited congratulations by the US State Department and the European Union, along with efforts by the corporate media to promote her as the country’s first female president, already ring hollow amid right-wing maneuvers to oust her as well and force early elections.

Acknowledging her precarious position, Boluarte appealed in her inaugural speech for a “political truce to install a national unity government” and for “a broad dialogue between all political forces represented or not in Congress.” In other words, she is offering her services as a figurehead in a government dominated by the right.

The far-right opposition in Congress, however, is unlikely to accept the offer. It had already attempted to oust her almost as viciously as it did Castillo, with the aim of installing the president of the Congress, José Williams, who is next in line of succession. Williams is a fascistic former military official who continuously rails against “Marxist ideology” and was accused of ties to drug cartels and for trying to cover up the 1985 Accomarca massacre of 69 peasants.

At dawn on Thursday, the Prosecutor’s Office raided the presidential and ministerial offices to gather evidence against Castillo, and potentially also Boluarte.

Since taking office in July 2021, Castillo named five different cabinets and 80 ministers, faced two failed impeachments by the unicameral Congress and left his party Free Peru. He lurched consistently to the right, including through his appointments, which only emboldened the far right and its allegations of corruption and nepotism.

The fact is that the entire political establishment, including the police and military, have been thoroughly discredited. The charges against Castillo were penny-ante compared to the vast web of corruption that envelops every state institution.

A Datum poll published hours before the impeachment debate found that Castillo’s ridiculous approval rating of 24 percent was only greater than the 11 percent for Congress.

Castillo’s preemptive bid to forestall his impeachment collapsed as soon as the police and military commands, along with their handlers in Washington, refused to enforce it. US Ambassador Lisa Kenna quickly condemned Castillo’s announcement on Wednesday and called on him to “take back his attempt to shut down Congress.” Nervously, she added, “We encourage the Peruvian public to keep calm during these uncertain times.”

Castillo’s reaction was to take flight. Having secured an offer of asylum from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López, he and his entire family rode in a limousine toward the Mexican Embassy in Lima before the head of national security ordered Castillo’s escort to bring him to the Lima police headquarters instead. There he was arrested for “rebellion” and “breaking the constitutional order” and sent to prison under a preventive detention order.

The Congress was then able to move forward its impeachment debate and quickly vote by a majority of 101 of the 130 members for deposing him due to “permanent moral incapacity.”

Before Castillo’s coup attempt to dissolve Congress, however, every report suggested that the far-right parties were still far behind the 87 votes needed to depose him, having only garnered 55 votes in the latest attempt in March.

At the same time, parties of the official center like Alliance for Progress, Popular Action and the Morado Party had gradually joined the impeachment drive, even as the far-right resorted to strikingly reactionary allegations of “betrayal of the fatherland” against Castillo for even considering aiding land-locked Bolivia in gaining an outlet to the sea.

Far from being defenders of democracy as the media now claims, the police and military comprise the same repressive state apparatus with a long record of brutally repressing peaceful protests and massacring peasants and workers. Only two years ago, the police killed Inti Sotelo and Brian Pintado in a demonstration against Manuel Merino, whose presidency lasted only six days.

The Biden administration has continued to train and arm these forces in preparation for a larger crackdown. In August, the Castillo administration and Congress approved the entry of US troops for joint exercises with the Peruvian military and police involving special combat operations, intelligence support and psy-ops.

Castillo directed his appeals against the far-right not to the working class, but to US imperialism by sending a letter last month to the Organization of American States (OAS), an agency complicit in numerous CIA-backed coups. He begged this US-dominated body to defend him against a “new type of coup d’état.”

Early on in his mandate, Castillo—like the pseudo-left presidents Petro in Colombia and Boric in Chile—sought accommodation with Washington by denouncing the Nicolas Maduro government in Venezuela as undemocratic. This year, after an October meeting in Lima with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Castillo administration issued a joint condemnation of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

On December 1, from Washington, the envoys of the OAS recommended a “political truce,” after warning that the actions by both ruling factions, including the corruption investigations against Castillo and his threats to dissolve Congress, “risk the democratic institutionalism of Peru.” This was widely interpreted as a refusal to back him and a green light to the right wing to move ahead with his ouster.

Castillo combined a right-wing program of mass deportations of migrants, constantly depicting them as criminals, and lifting virtually all mitigations against COVID-19—even though Peru has suffered the highest death rate per capita in the world—with demagogic slogans like “No more poor people in a rich country.” But the only income redistribution he implemented was upwards through handouts and other incentives for businesses ostensibly to abate unemployment.

This year, he boasted that his policies had greatly reduced poverty; however, even the unsafe re-openings only slightly reduced the numbers living in poverty from 9.93 million to 8.61 million during his first year, compared to 6.6 million before the pandemic.

The whole region has been gravely affected by the ongoing global supply chain issues due to the pandemic, the increase in interest rates by the major central banks, and the NATO war against Russia in Ukraine. Peru’s public debt, which it holds mainly in euros and dollars, rapidly jumped from less than 20 percent of its GDP in 2013 to over 36 percent. Moreover, the country’s agriculture is highly dependent on grain and fertilizer imports largely produced in Russia and Ukraine.

During the harvest this year, the Castillo administration failed three times to carry out an international purchase of fertilizers, which was exploited by those pushing for impeachment.

These pressures added to the continuous devaluation of the Peruvian sol against the dollar since 2014, when the commodity boom ended. Copper sales to China, whose demand remains anemic and whose prices have failed to keep up with inflation, represent, by far, Peru’s main export, followed by gold and gas.

As the economies of Peru and across Latin America slow down dramatically, the political crisis in Lima signals, above all, that the ruling elites will be unable to continue suppressing the class struggle by promoting empty illusions in an entirely bleached “Pink Tide.”

UNICEF Venture Fund 2023

Application Deadline:

9th January 2023 11:59 PM ET 

Tell Me About Award:

The UNICEF Venture Fund is looking to make up to US$100K in equity-free investments to provide early-stage (seed) funding to for-profit technology start-ups developing software solutions using frontier technologies for climate action. If your startup leverages frontier technology for climate analytics and forecasts, greener economies, climate and disaster risk mitigation, carbon offsetting or emission reduction, or youth engagement around climate action, we are looking for you. If your product is registered in one of UNICEF’s programme countries, is a working prototype, has demonstrated results, and is (or could be) open-source licensed, we encourage you to apply.

What Countries are Eligible?

UNICEF member countries

Who is Eligible?

• You must be registered as a private company in a UNICEF programme country; 
• You are working on open source technology solutions or willing to be open-source under the following licenses or their equivalent: BSD, GNU, MIT (software), CERN, MIT, TAPR (hardware), or CC-BY (content); 
• You have an existing prototype of the solution with promising results from initial pilots; 
• Your solution has the potential to positively impact the lives of children. 

Please note: Applications must be submitted in English

How are Applicants Selected?

If your startup leverages a frontier technology such as drones, blockchain, extended reality (XR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) or novel data science (DS), UNICEF is looking for you. 

How many Awards?

Not specified

What is Value of Award?

up to US$100K in equity-free investments 

How to Apply?

APPLY NOW

Visit Application Webpage for Details

US Government Community College Initiative Program 2023

Application Deadline:

16th December 2022

Tell Me About Award:

The Community College Initiative Program (CCI) provides scholarships to spend up to one academic year at a United States community college. Participants build technical skills and may earn certificates in their fields of study.  Through professional internships, service learning, and community engagement activities, participants strengthen English language proficiency and immerse themselves in the culture and day-to-day life in the United States.

Participants study in one of the following eligible fields: agriculture, applied engineering, business management and administration, early childhood education, information technology, media, public safety, and tourism and hospitality management.

CCI Program participants are recruited from historically underrepresented and underserved communities. After completing the program, participants return home with new skills and expertise to help them contribute to the economic growth and development of their country.

What about Eligible Field(s) of Study?

Participants study in one of the following eligible fields: agriculture, applied engineering, business management and administration, early childhood education, information technology, media, public safety, and tourism and hospitality management.

What Countries are Eligible?

See Link below

Where will Award Take Place?

A community college in USA

Who is Eligible?

All applicants must:

• Be able to begin the academic exchange program in the United States in July 2022
• Be 18 years old at the start of the program         
• Have a diploma from a secondary school
• Possess a basic knowledge of English
• Desire to build professional and leadership skills to contribute to the development of their home communities
• Be able to begin the academic exchange program in the United States in July 2020
• Meet country-specific requirements

How are Applicants Selected?

The recruitment  and nomination of candidates in the eligible countries is administered by the Fulbright Commission or the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy. CCI awards are not Fulbright awards. See location details below for contacts in participating countries and to ask for more information about application eligibility requirements.

The CCI Program will recruit from these 16 countries for the 2022-2023 academic year. 

How many Awards?

Not specified

What is Value of Award?

The Community College Initiative Program (CCI) provides scholarships to spend up to one academic year at a United States community college. Participants build technical skills and may earn certificates in their fields of study.  Through professional internships, service learning, and community engagement activities, participants strengthen English language proficiency and immerse themselves in the culture and day-to-day life in the United States.

How to Apply?

Apply below

Visit Application Webpage for Details

How Russia is Countering the West’s Economic Sanctions

John P. Ruehl

Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S., the UK, and the EU placed major sanctions on Russia to constrict its economy and restrain its war effort. Having been updated several times since, these sanctions have compounded the effects of the previous sanctions placed on Russia in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.

The Russian “economy contracted for the second quarter in a row,” according to a November 16 article in the Financial Times, which attributed this downturn to the Western sanctions. Undermining the sanctions through a variety of methods, including cooperating with other countries with sanctions evasion experience, has become an even greater priority for the Kremlin.

Russia has decades of history in helping other countries evade sanctions. In recent years, Russia has exported oil to North Korea and employed its laborers in Siberia in violation of international sanctions, while Russian entities have also been sanctioned for aiding North Korea’s weapons programs.

The Kremlin is now calling in its own favors. Weeks after North Korea and Russia pledged “to strengthen ties” in August 2022, North Korea is believed to have supplied Russia with millions of rockets and artillery shells, undermining Western attempts to isolate the Russian military-industrial complex.

Using North Korean laborers to help rebuild Donetsk and Luhansk—Russian-supported eastern Ukraine breakaway republics—has also been proposed. Additionally, Moscow has recently shown greater enthusiasm toward cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, and may also look to emulate North Korea by mining bitcoin to increase its access to fiat currencies and facilitate underground trade.

Iran has faced heavy Western sanctions since 1979, aimed at restricting its economy and curbing its weapons programs. In November, Iran was suspected of asking Russia for aid with nuclear energy materials, which could significantly shorten the “breakout time” needed to create a nuclear weapon.

Russia will likely acquiesce, having received significant drone and missile shipments from Iran since September. With the “price cap on Russian seaborne oil” coming into effect from December 5 (and the ban on most petroleum products expected to take place by February 5, 2023), Iran’s assistance in evading oil sanctions will be greatly appreciated in Moscow.

Iranian oil exports, for example, plummeted by 90 percent following the reintroduction of sanctions after former President Donald Trump’s administration pulled out from the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018. However, a mix of tactics has allowed Iranian oil exports to rebound in the years since.

These included sanctioned ship-to-unsanctioned ship transfers, changing ship names and other identification markers to disguise Iranian oil tankers, turning off Automatic Identification Systems to make sanctioned ships completely vanish off the radar, and blending Iranian oil with bulk cargoes from other countries to disguise its origin.

Oil giant Shell faced criticism in April for undermining sanctions by purchasing “Latvian blend” oil, almost half of which (49 percent) originated from Russia. The UK has also received hundreds of millions of dollars of Russian oil since its invasion of Ukraine, even as some of this oil “was registered as imports from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.”

Russian and Iranian officials have also discussed using Iran as a “backdoor” to allow Russian oil products to enter global markets, which will become easier should a renewed nuclear deal between Iran and Western states go through.

Russian entities have similarly shown effectiveness in getting sanctioned Venezuelan oil to global markets in recent years. After Russian oil giant Rosneft was sanctioned in 2020 for doing so, the Kremlin quickly created a new oil company, Roszarubezhneft, to continue operations after Rosneft left Venezuela.

With Russian assistance, Venezuela’s oil exports doubled from December 2020 to December 2021, finding many other facilitators and buyers in the global market. In 2021, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned several European oil traders who were working with a Mexican network that was shipping Venezuelan oil to companies in China, Indonesia, and other countries in Southeast Asia.

Creating shell companies has also historically blunted the effectiveness of sanctions. Syrian officials have created countless shell companies to blur ownership of economic assets in recent years, and Iranian clearing houses and foreign-registered front companies have conducted tens of billions of dollars in sanctions-evading trade annually, according to Politico.

Western banks, like Germany’s Commerzbank AG and Deutsche Bank AG, and the U.S.’ Citigroup, often unknowingly, helped Iran conduct underground export transactions and may face Russian attempts to use these banks to facilitate similar transactions—“either wittingly or unwittingly.” Russian oligarchs also have plenty of connections to Western financial actors and the ability to expand their economic empires in other countries.

Nonetheless, the ambitious Russian oil price cap that has been introduced on December 5 has worried some in Moscow as “About 95 percent of the world’s tanker liability coverage is arranged through a City of London-based insurance organization called the International Group of Protection and Indemnity Clubs.” Russia will struggle to export large volumes of oil without the insurance coverage required to secure its transport options, and Western officials hope Moscow will accept shipping oil at a reduced price rather than find other alternatives.

Lifelines, however, exist for the Kremlin. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stated in June 2022 that the Russian government would “replace commercial insurance and reinsurance cover of oil exports by sea and the vessels that carry them in a bid to counter the European Union ban on companies providing services.” This would be similar to the measures the Japanese government took in 2012 when it provided “a sovereign guarantee of up to $7.6 billion in liability for a tanker carrying Iranian oil” to maintain trade with the country.

Additionally, “There are probably insurers in Russia capable of writing third party liability and reinsurance programs that could then be backed by a sovereign fund from China or Russia,” according to Mike Salthouse, chairman of the International Group’s sanctions subcommittee.

Indian companies also agreed to certify Russian tankers in June, raising suggestions of “a non-Western fleet with sovereign Russian or Chinese insurance and financing, and Indian certifications for the vessels.” Shipping companies and maritime services based in India, China, and the Arabian Gulf would be essential for Russia to successfully achieve this.

Russia is also using former Soviet states to bypass sanctions. In May, Ukraine accused Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan of helping Russia reexport its products to international markets after more than 200 companies were established and tens of thousands of Russians settled in these countries in the months after the February invasion.

Smuggling routes through Central Asia have historically facilitated the northern drug trade route to Europe. But these routes have also allowed Central Asian states to emerge as integral entry points for Western technology sought by Russia in recent months, including microcircuits and semiconductors.

Five Russian nationals were charged with sanctions evasion in October for shipping military technologies, including semiconductors, radars, satellites, and other equipment, from U.S. manufacturers to Russia. Tens of millions of dollars were spent to supply U.S.-origin technologies for use in Russian fighter aircraft, missile systems, smart munitions, and other systems. The deals were facilitated through a mix of real and fake companies and falsified documents, while cryptocurrencies were used for the transactions and to launder the proceeds afterward.

Three Latvian and Ukrainian nationals were also charged in October for attempting to ship U.S. technology for use in Russia’s nuclear and defense industries, in violation of U.S. export controls. Though unsuccessful, the brazenness of Russian networks attempting to penetrate the U.S. points to greater success in other countries with higher bribery rates and laxer inspection policies.

Isolating Russia will also require the assistance of other major economic centers. But China has received resources from Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea in recent years in violation of U.S. sanctions, and is already pursuing the same policies with Russia. Small refiners in China are able to ignore the risk of U.S. penalties since they are “hard to reach with sanctions,” according to Anders Corr, founder of Corr Analytics.

Beijing will also look to use Russia’s isolation to increase Eurasian trade through its Belt and Road Initiative, as well as use other economic mechanisms to undermine traditional U.S. dominance. After Russian banks were blacklisted from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment-verification system, China and Russia have taken greater steps to develop their own alternatives.

This includes Russia’s System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS) and the National Payment Card System (now known as Mir), as well as China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) and UnionPay.

In July, India set up a framework to conduct international trade in rupees. Vostro accounts required to facilitate this trade have been opened by Russia’s Gazprombank (with India’s UCO Bank), VTB Bank, and Sberbank, with six more Russian banks in talks to do so. A major gas pipeline deal with Pakistan, an agreement to use local currencies in trade with Egypt, and increased energy exports to Brazil in recent months have further demonstrated Russia’s attempts to diversify its economic options.

Russia’s economy will continue to face significant hurdles, particularly with the imposition of the oil price cap. While U.S. officials have stated that the aim of sanctions is to change Moscow’s behavior, Russia and other countries may double down on developing rival official trade mechanisms to the West and expanding a globalized black market with other rogue states.

Weekly US influenza cases highest on record

Benjamin Mateus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported through its weekly US influenza surveillance dashboard that during week 47 of 2022, ending November 26, the agency received 130,584 specimens, of which 25.1 percent were positive. This translates into more than 32,600 cases of the flu in one week.

To place this number in context, the highest figure reached for the same week during flu seasons dating back to 2016 was under 5,000 (in 2019), six times lower. In fact, more positive flu tests were reported in the week ending November 26 than in any single week for any flu season as far back as 1997. 

Overall, for the 2022-2023 flu season, the CDC has estimated there have so far been 8.7 million illnesses, 78,000 hospitalizations, and 4,500 deaths. The cumulative hospitalization rate has reached 16.6 per 100,000, which “is higher than the rate observed in week 47 during every previous season since 2010-2011” according to the CDC. 

Close to 20,000 people were admitted to hospitals across the country in week 47, twice the number admitted to hospitals the previous week. These numbers are expected to continue their upward trajectory, given that nearly 55 million Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday to visit friends and families. 

[Photo: CDC]

Unsurprisingly, those being admitted are both the oldest and youngest in the population, who are most vulnerable to such infections. The hospitalization rate among those 65 and older is 39.9 per 100,000 or 2.5 times the national average. For those 85 and older, that rate is at 71.3 per 100,000, more than four times the average. For those under five years of age, the rate is 28.4 per 100,000, nearly double the average.

Currently, 44 states are registering very high influenza-like illness (ILI) activity. Only Alaska, Michigan, Vermont and New Hampshire have low to minimal rates. The percentage of outpatient visits for respiratory illness reported by the US Outpatient ILI Surveillance Network (ILINET), has reached 7.5 percent of all patient visits. This figure is three times higher than the national baseline of 2.5 percent and has already reached the peak of the 2017-2018 season, set in the middle of February 2018.

[Photo: CDC]

Rates of outpatient visits for respiratory illnesses, as the figures from the CDC demonstrates, are highest among infants and toddlers, followed by young children, adolescents, and young adults. However, as the graph shows, since Thanksgiving, the rates of respiratory illnesses have turned sharply upwards for all age groups.

That rates are highest among children comes as no surprise as influenza and RSV, like COVID, are respiratory illnesses transmitted via airborne aerosols with schools, universities and day care centers functioning as vectors for the transmission of these illnesses into the communities. As with COVID, these facilities have fully opened without an iota of mitigation measures in place, propelling the current explosive and early start to these illnesses. 

[Photo: CDC]

One can peruse the recent news sites and social media to glimpse at the scale of infections afflicting schools just a month ago. On Friday, November 4, Williamstown Independent Schools in Kentucky held a “non-traditional instruction” day, due to the high number of student and staff illness. On the same day, the McNairy County school district in Tennessee closed its doors in the face of increasing illness among student, faculty and staff.  

At North Carolina’s Shining Rock Academy, doors were closed on October 28. As the social media post said, “By 1 pm today, nearly 24 percent of the school was absent, primarily due to diagnosed cases of the flu, or flu-like symptoms.” They added, “The day will be utilized to conduct a deep cleaning” of the campus.

A recent summit held at the White House on indoor air quality, led by coronavirus adviser Dr. Ashish Jha and a panel of experts, focused on the need for improving indoor air quality in schools, with the opening panel chaired by EPA’s Tracy Enger, Dr. Jesus Jara, superintendent of Clark County School district in Nevada (Las Vegas) and Dr. Alex Marrero, superintendent of Denver Public Schools. 

However, much of the discussion that followed the opening remarks centered on the massive gaps in funding that continue to block any real infrastructure initiatives to make public school indoor air quality a priority. 

Having acknowledged these obvious shortcomings, the panel on schools ended where it began with a major question mark lingering on how the Biden administration will lead on these issues. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Marrero concluded:

I’m thrilled that we’re being shined on in terms of a spotlight, but by no means does Denver Public Schools have it all figured out. I’m sure there are others that are struggling just like we are … When it comes to the matter of evaluation, the truth of the matter is there is nothing holding us accountable to doing this, and that is the scary part. I want to just let that simmer for a second, because anyone can avoid this, right? But there are competing priorities when it comes to test scores, when it comes to anything you can imagine. [These] are things we are held responsible for. It doesn’t happen at the federal level or locally. It’s a value statement for a board of education or board of trustees to say okay this is important for us.

He then highlighted the difficulties schools faced during COVID and the teacher shortages that are impacting school operations and student learning. Indeed, the pandemic has laid bare deeper issues confronting public education in the United States, including the long-term decline of air quality in aging school facilities.

Dr. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard University, who gave the opening remarks at the summit after Dr. Jha, highlighted the dilapidated conditions of poorly ventilated schools that are on average more than 45 years old, with HVAC systems outdated and in need of urgent repairs. In March 2022, he told NPR, “I don’t think a lot of people recognize that the design standards [that govern ventilation rates in schools and other buildings] are bare minimums. They were never actually set for health.” 

On Monday, the CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky spoke with reporters. Walensky has done everything in her power to end all the COVID mitigation measures since being sworn into her current position by Biden. But with a straight face she said her message to Americans was, “We also encourage you to wear a high-quality, well-fitting mask to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses … One need not wait on CDC action in order to put a mask on.”

Around 25 percent of all adults and 40 percent of children have received a flu shot this season. Additionally, only 15 percent of all adults eligible for the bivalent COVID booster jabs have taken them. In fact, most Americans have essentially abandoned the preventive measures that proved effective in slowing COVID. This is the result of the deliberate systematic anti-public-health policy promoted by both the Trump administration and now the Biden administration.

Meanwhile, the rise in hospitalizations is accompanied by shortages of medications to treat complications associated with viral respiratory illnesses. Specifically, antibiotics like amoxicillin are in short supply. Cold medicines and antivirals are difficult to find. Staffing shortages at health systems are exacerbating the ability to treat the sick. 

Flu seasons usually peak during the deep winter months. The extremely high figures reported by the CDC in late November portend a crushing wave of respiratory illnesses on the horizon.

Hertz rental company ordered to pay millions to customers falsely accused of auto theft

Matthew Taylor

The car rental company Hertz agreed in court on Monday to pay out $168 million to customers it had falsely accused of theft over the course of the past several years. The settlement covers multiple lawsuits filed by 364 separate customers, many of whom were arrested and, in some cases, incarcerated for as long as six and a half months before their cases were resolved.

This May 23, 2020, photo shows rental vehicles parked outside a closed Hertz car rental office in south Denver. [AP Photo/David Zalubowski]

Most of the cases involved false police reports filed by the company claiming that customers had failed to return vehicles on their due date when in fact they had paid to extend their rental period and had documentation to prove it. In some cases, customers driving rented vehicles which had previously been reported stolen and then returned to the company were arrested based on the outstanding police report.

The New York Times reported that one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, a Gwinnett County, Georgia man, turned himself in to authorities in 2018 when he learned he had an outstanding theft warrant for a Hertz car that he had paid for and returned. After missing a subsequent court hearing, he was jailed for six and a half months before the case was resolved. In April of 2019 another Hertz customer in Broward County, Florida, spent 37 days in jail on theft charges that were later dismissed.

Many of the plaintiffs were poor workers who lacked the resources to post bond or hire private attorneys. In some cases, those arrested had been renting cars to make extra money driving for rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft. One customer spent nine nights in jail after police arrested her at gunpoint in front of her children before charges were dismissed. Another spent two weeks in jail, suffering multiple panic attacks and assaults by other inmates before her case was dismissed and she was released. Another victim in Colorado was arrested and then released for theft of a rental car in Georgia, though he had never rented a car from the company and had never visited that state.

Hundreds of other Hertz customers reported similar experiences.

In many of the cases cited in news reports, Hertz customers provided or offered to provide documentation to prove they had paid for their rentals at the time of their arrests but were detained anyway. A Philadelphia area contractor cited in one report was arrested in June 2019 even though he provided bank statements showing he was up to date on his rental payments.

Court records show that over the past four years, Hertz filed roughly 8,000 police reports each year. Nearly 3,500 of those reports were for “theft by conversion,” or customers allegedly not returning vehicles they had rented.

Reports of Hertz customers being falsely charged with theft from the company reach back to at least 2008. A South Carolina Hertz customer who filed suit against the company in 2019 was provided with a database from the company showing that in the period between 2008 and 2016, over 300 similar complaints were filed by customers. 

Though a full accounting of how this transpired has not yet emerged, it is apparent that the company was, at a minimum, criminally negligent in maintaining accurate records of its rentals, which led to many arrests, including after the initial lawsuits had been filed. The company also failed to withdraw police reports of stolen vehicles after discovering that the vehicles had been paid for or returned.

This week’s settlement comes after the company spent years denying wrongdoing. In comments made to the Philadelphia Enquirer on the case in 2020, a Hertz spokesman stated that the reports of theft were accurate when filed and that “it’s up to law enforcement to decide what to do with the case.”

In March of 2020, Hertz, already billions of dollars in debt, fired 12,000 employees and furloughed another 4,000. In May of that year the company filed for bankruptcy protection when the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of travel restrictions slashed their revenues.

The company had sought to dismiss the various lawsuits brought by its customers through the bankruptcy proceedings. After a hearing in November of 2021, a spokesperson for the company gave a statement to CBS stating, “Unfortunately, in the legal matters being discussed, the attorneys have a track record of making baseless claims that blatantly misrepresent the facts, the vast majority of these cases involve renters who were many weeks or even months overdue returning vehicles and who stopped communicating with us well beyond the scheduled due date. Situations where vehicles are reported to the authorities are very rare and happen only after exhaustive attempts to reach the customer.”

Hertz was forced to contend with the lawsuit after the bankruptcy court judge refused to dismiss the case and ordered the company to unseal records of theft claims. After emerging from bankruptcy in June of 2021 the company continued to fight the charges in court. As further reports of Hertz customers being arrested on false charges continued to pile up in the following months, the company began to indicate that it would settle the lawsuits. In March of this year, Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal began calling for congressional hearings on the matter.

In a statement posted on its website in the aftermath of the settlement a spokesperson for Hertz glibly evaluated the impact the payout will have on the company after destroying hundreds of lives, stating, “Hertz does not expect the resolution of these claims to have a material impact on its capital allocation plans for the balance of 2022 and 2023.”