Friday, December 15, 2023

NY Republicans Have Chosen a Replacement for George Santos - and She Seems Like the Real Deal


Susie Moore reporting for RedState 

I'm not going to lie — when I first saw this tweet, my initial impulse was to wonder if it was a sly nod to The Babylon Bee.

That's right, the candidate Long Island Republicans have nominated to run for the seat vacated by George Santos, compliments of his expulsion from Congress, is an Orthodox-Jewish, Ethiopian-Israeli mother of seven. And did I mention she was an IDF paratrooper? 

I suspect one might be forgiven for thinking that might be satire, given Santos' rather infamous penchant for...err...embellishing his resume. Santos caused a stir shortly after he was elected in November 2022 after it was revealed that his campaign biography was largely fabricated, including claims that he had worked for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup and was a "seasoned Wall Street financier and investor,” had graduated from Baruch College, ran an animal rescue charity, and — my personal favorite — was "Jew-ish," even though he's Catholic: 

He claimed he was Jewish while speaking about his Jewish mother, and told voters his grandparents had escaped Nazi aggression in WWII. As it turns out, Santos is Catholic.

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said. “I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was `Jew-ish.’”

All of which is largely moot since Santos was subsequently socked with multiple federal indictments and ultimately booted out of Congress. Not that he's gone quietly. Since his expulsion, Santos has been busy recording videos on "Cameo," and reportedly raking in the dough for it. Democratic Senator John Fetterman (PA) even retained Santos' services to troll Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who's also under federal indictment but hasn't yet been given the Santos treatment by his fellow senators. 

Which left Republicans in his district in need of a replacement candidate. As indicated, they've now nominated one: 44-year-old Mazi Melesa Pilip, who has a rather impressive (and, by all accounts, genuine) resume.

Philip, 44, served as a paratrooper in the IDF, just a few years after immigrating to Israel from Ethiopia at age 12 as part of Operation Solomon. After her army service, Philip studied at the University of Haifa, earning a degree in occupational therapy and serving as Chairwoman of the Ethiopian Student Union.

There, she met her husband, Adalbert Pilip, a Ukrainian-American Jew studying medicine at the Technion. 

She returned with him to the United States, where she became active in speaking about Israel for Jewish federations and other Jewish groups. Philip, who also holds a degree in diplomacy and security from Tel Aviv University, told JTA last year that her interest in politics was revived when her oldest son, preparing for his bar mitzvah, reported antisemitic comments he'd received from a classmate at his Great Neck public school. 

Pilip will face off against Democrat Tom Suozzi, who occupied the seat prior to Santos, before leaving to run for New York Governor, a race he lost in the primary to current Governor Kathy Hochul. The special election is scheduled for February 13, 2024. We wish her the best!



X22, And we Know, and more- December 15

 




Globalists Fear the Unconquerable


There are two great battles dominating Western nations today. The first is political and involves a contest between freedom-minded citizens and an ever-expanding State.  The second is cultural (or perhaps, more accurately, spiritual) and involves a contest between fear-driven dogma and inspiration-driven ideals.  Globalization, or the secular religion dedicated to the concentration of power into the hands of an elite few, runs on the energy of fear.  Liberty movements that abhor the current trend toward a new-world-order framework intent on micromanaging human activity run instead on human ideals.  Of the two battles now raging, the cultural battle is more significant because its capacity for influencing hearts and minds will drive the future political outcome.  In a real sense, we are in a war between what to fear and what to cherish.

There are those who see the rapid advancements of the national security surveillance state, the unveiling of artificial intelligence systems capable of monitoring behavior and censoring speech, and the emergence of central bank digital currencies as determinative proof that a centralized, technocratic “ruling class” will soon be capable of enforcing total social control.  The power of fear-inducing intimidation rests with its appearance of inevitability, if not invincibility.  

Yet personal experience teaches people that fear is no match for inspiration.  The soldier on the battlefield fighting for freedom will charge forward when the conscripted soldier hesitates.  The dissident caught behind another Iron Curtain will risk life and limb when the Iron Curtain’s servants risk neither.  Steadfast service to God will give a man an unearthly armor when belief in nothing gives man nothing.  Citizens threatened into compliance are no match for citizens inspired to reach for higher ideals.  The former will minimize the costs that must be endured, while the latter will come to find no cost too great for success.  Futures founded on fear crumble when tested; societies formed through mutual support of human ideals stubbornly endure. 

Before Franklin D. Roosevelt memorialized the phrase at his presidential inauguration, it was the great sixteenth-century French writer, Michel de Montaigne, who expressed the sentiment that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.  By the time FDR implored Americans to find courage in the face of hardship, the idea that fear should be confronted and vanquished was a common refrain for many great wordsmiths who inspired entire generations. 

Victorian-era poet William Ernest Henley urged his countrymen not only to persevere in the face of danger (“In the fell clutch of circumstance / I have not winced nor cried aloud. / Under the bludgeonings of chance / My head is bloody, but unbowed.”), but also to become unconquerable: “It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll, / I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul.”  Rudyard Kipling, one of the most famous writers at the turn of the twentieth century, placed fearlessness at the top of his poetic compilation of heroic virtues: “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you...”  Henley and Kipling echoed Montaigne’s critical observation that nothing shall ever be lost so long as one remains defiant and refuses to capitulate.

In contrast, today’s “ruling class” insists that there is no shortage of things to fear or people to blame, and it seeks humanity’s total capitulation.  “Defiance” has become “politically incorrect.”  

For fifty years, politicians and oligarchs in search of an excuse to seize greater control over economic activity have urged humanity to fear the weather.  If the recent government-induced hyperventilation over COVID is a harbinger of things to come, politicians and oligarchs will continue to urge humanity to fear pathogenic illnesses.  What if the spirit of Montaigne, Henley, or Kipling instead gripped today’s generations as they did in the past?  Children would not be indoctrinated to fear a “climate apocalypse”; they would be assured that humanity is never more ingenious than when it is tested.  Grown adults would not be infantilized to hide under their beds at the sound of a sneeze; they would be encouraged to “keep calm and carry on” for the sake of their families and communities.  Can you imagine political leaders telling those generations who endured the Great Depression and two world wars that the obstacles before them were too daunting to survive?  Yet political “leaders” today throw their hands up in the air at the first sign of trouble and scream for everyone to hear, “We’re all gonna die!”  

State-controlled news media blare continuous warnings that citizens should fear racism, “white supremacy,” misogyny, imperialism, colonialism, paternalism, Christianity, Israel, hydrocarbon energy, heterosexuality, capitalism, exercise, Karens, Chads, Western civilization, personal liberty, country music, Southern states, suburban moms, political speech, scientific debate, masculinity, democratic elections that don’t elect Democrats, Donald Trump, limited government, nuclear families, gun-toting Americans, psychologically healthy adults, Christmas decorations, assimilation, accurate history, cultural appropriation, national borders, due process for conservatives, misinformation, malinformation, disinformation, and stable marriages.  On the flip-side, the atheistic priests of the “woke” church insist that opposition to either gay pseudo-marriage or the new fad of “transgenderism” represents some kind of irrational “phobia” that must be overcome immediately.  In other words, the new world order demands that Westerners fear almost everything except bearded men crushing women half their size in competitive sports.  Talk about lunacy!

Telling people what to fear and whom to blame may be an effective short-term strategy, but it can never convincingly win hearts and minds.  Whatever darkness troubles a man’s soul, further darkness will not lead him to salvation.  You do not forge a community without some ideal flickering in the background for all to see.  You do not convince a fighting force to advance over the next hill, unless they are confident that whatever they find can also be overcome.  You do not produce healthy citizens capable of tackling the impossible unless you first teach children to be resilient and fearless.  

That the Marxist globalists in charge of the West today preach none of these lessons is definitive proof of one thing and one thing alone: they seek timid souls who may be easily conquered, not courageous human beings who can do anything.

If you want to prepare humanity for the battles ahead, you encourage people to value honor, integrity, personal freedom, imagination, initiative, determination, self-respect, and respect for others.  You encourage them to be humble before God and to be eternally grateful for the blessings of life shared by all.  You teach them the difference between right and wrong, vice and virtue, sin and redemption.  You teach them how to pray and how to be repentant.  If you want humanity to fail, curl up in a ball, and wither away, you forbid the teaching of any of these things.  The globalists who despise free speech and adore censorship will continue to claim that they are “protecting” people from harm.  Make no mistake: they are the harm.

So long as we remember what to cherish, no amount of government-engineered fear can succeed in subduing us all.  You will find people who believe all is lost.  You might even begin to wonder if all is lost, as well.  Yet nothing can be lost if you stand firmly beside what is true.  That kind of indomitable spirit is what the globalists most fear.  Even now, as they make plans for the dystopian future that they seek, they see the rumblings of rebellion throughout the West.  They’ve done their best to ignore the Tea Party, Brexit, Trump, and growing freedom movements from the Netherlands to Argentina.  Yet in the dark recesses of their minds, they wonder how many people might resist and refuse to go away.  They are rightly afraid of the unconquerable.




Civilization Versus the New Nihilists ~ VDH

Americans must choose between civilization—
or its destroyers


Nihilism is the religion of the Left. Anarchy is now at the core of the new Democratic Party.

If the Left wished radically to alter the demography of the U.S., it could have expanded legal immigration through legislation or the courts.

Instead, it simply erased the border and dynamited federal immigration law.

By fiat, nihilists ended the wall, and stopped detaining and deporting illegal aliens altogether.

Or was it worse than that when candidate Joe Biden in September 2019 urged would-be illegal aliens to “surge” the border?

As a result, through laxity and entitlement incentives, eight-million illegal entrants have swarmed the southern border under the Biden administration.

They are swamping border towns, bankrupting big-city budgets, and infuriating even Democratic constituencies.

The same nihilism applies to crime.

In the old days liberals gave light sentences to criminals or reduced bail. But today leftist prosecutors do not even seek bail. They hardly prosecute theft or random assaults.

Criminals are arrested and released the same day. Is the nihilist plan to destroy the entire body of American jurisprudence, and to ensure “equity” in being victimized?

Is the woke idea that all Americans—inclusive of diverse Beverly Hills elites, Hollywood celebrities, or members of Congress alike—must share victim equity, and thus experience first-hand street robbery, car-jacking, smash-and-grab, and home invasion?

The United States can produce annually more natural gas and oil than any nation on earth. It once pioneered nuclear power. It has vast coal reserves and sophisticated hydroelectric plants.

The old idea was to use these unmatched resources to transition gradually to other cleaner fuels such as hydrogen, fusion power, solar, and wind. That way consumers would still enjoy affordable energy. And the United States could remain independent of coercion by the oil-producing Middle East.

But that was not the nihilist way.

Instead, the left deliberately cut back on pipelines, new energy leases, and fracking. It bragged of an upcoming ban on fossil fuels. In drought-stricken, energy-short California, the state is blowing up, not building new dams.

Is the nihilist agenda to punish with bankrupcy the energy-using middle class?

Is the hope that Americans will have to beg the Saudis, Iranians, Venezuelans, and Russians to pump more of the hated goo for our benefit so we would not have to dirty ourselves helping ourselves?

When Joe Biden entered office in January 2021 the U.S. was naturally rebounding from more than a year of Covid-enforced lockdowns.

Overtaxed supply chains were still fragile. Pent-up demand was soaring. Consumers were flush with government cash. Trillions of dollars had been printed and infused into the economy to ward off a feared recession.

All economists advised not to increase the deficit, spike further consumer demand, and expand entitlements.

Instead the Left did just the opposite.

Four-trillion dollars were printed and distributed. In no time, Americans, recovering from Covid, next experienced the worst, but entirely preventable, inflation in 40 years.

Three years later prices on staples remain 30-40 percent higher than when Biden took office. Mortgage rates tripled.

Abroad the nihilism is even more inexplicable and terrifying.

All nations suffer military setbacks. But none in memory have shamefully hightailed out of a theater as we did from Afghanistan.

Few countries could even imagine discarding billions of dollars of weapons and hardware into the hands of the terrorist Taliban, or abandoning a $1 billion new embassy, and a huge, remodeled air base.

Why did the administration simply allow a huge Chinese spy balloon to float and photograph leisurely over the continental U.S.?

Naïve countries might endure two or three attacks on their overseas bases without serious retaliation. But how could the U.S. military permit 135 rocket barrages by Iranian-supplied terrorists on American soldiers without a major and sustained response?

Is the point to humiliate our own troops? To destroy what is left of U.S. deterrence?

Popular culture is especially captive to leftist nihilism.

It is not enough to object to a statue or artwork. Instead, without deliberation or public input, they must be defaced or destroyed, all the better stealthily and by night.

After the massacres of October 7—but well before Israel had even responded to the barbaric invasion—thousands of students swarmed their elite universities cheering on the violence.

And what so exhilarated them?

The nihilist, ghoulish beheading, torture, mutilation, mass rape, dismemberment, and necrophilia of unarmed, civilian Israeli elderly, women, children, and infants.

In sum, we are witnessing an epidemic of leftist nihilism similar to the 16th-century European mad wave of iconoclastic destruction of religious art.

Or is the better parallel the suicidal insanity that Mao Zedong unleashed during his cultural revolution of the 1960s?

The old politics of right versus left, and Republican opposed to Democrat have now given way to a new existential struggle: Americans must choose between civilization—or its destroyers.



Big Picture Debrief – We Are in an Abusive Relationship, Accepting Isolation

posted by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse

Someone noted yesterday that after my research trip my tone changed. Perhaps becoming a little more deliberate, perhaps becoming a little more stern. It is an accurate sense, and there is a very good reason for this. I will explain.

I have noted several times in the past few years that the nature of our relationship with government seems to have shifted. Specifically, We The People now appear to be in an abusive relationship with government. In all abusive relationships there is a common set of behaviors; the DC control system is following a familiar pattern. My recent research trips helped me to understand exactly how severe and deep this shift has become.

Certain abusers distort reality in the mind of their victims through gaslighting. Essentially manipulative and strategic lying, to make the abused think something, perhaps even their reality, is completely different. Our government institutions and those who control the information flow into media have been doing exactly that. The examples are numerous, but the deliberateness began to take a severe tone with the COVID-19 fiats.

In my opinion, it was our willingness to buy into the false frameworks surrounding the COVID-19 hysteria, that really opened the eyes of possibility in the mind of powerful people within our government. We accepted too much; we allowed too much; we willingly accepted an almost totalitarian state in response.

The rules themselves were ridiculous.

The mask nonsense, the social distancing, business closures, lockdowns, “essential vs nonessential jobs”, roped off products in certain areas of stores as if the virus couldn’t travel or the types of purchases determined risk; people were arrested on paddleboards in the ocean by themselves, closed parks outside and the police watching; standing in a restaurant was dangerous, but sitting at a table was not; etc. etc.

All of it was madness, yet we complied.

It was almost like a test, to see how much the control of information could influence behavior – and bad actors within our government were paying attention to how easy it was to manipulate action, diminish liberty and control the behavior of free people.

Granted, in other countries it was worse; yet still, in the USA where our DNA is forged in the fire of being suspicious of government, three-quarters of the population took an untested experimental, gene modifying “vaccine.” In hindsight, it is stunning to consider.

Fast forward to my recent research trip(s).  What I discovered outside the USA, is that we are being lied to.

The Russian sanctions are not sanctioning Russia or impeding their economic growth – not even close. Instead, the sanctions have built walls around the USA financial system, not to keep Russians out – but to keep Americans locked in. I have given details about this previously, and I will not repeat here.

Then, if you take the expanding surveillance state and the expansion of DHS authority under the guise of “national security,” adding in the extreme control system now in place through the public-private partnership with social media, you really begin to see the architecture of a massive information control system. Making the reality all the bleaker, no voice in Washington DC is genuinely pushing back and publicly calling out the surveillance state.

Our elected representatives are not representing our interests; instead, they are codependent enablers, willfully blind to the overall system of expanded government control. The abuser is stronger, the victim is weaker (less free), and every element is now in place to block the victim, us, from realizing the scale of their abuse.

Making the issue more alarming, is the seemingly unstoppable censorship and control enterprise that is blocking people from networking, communicating and sharing their current status. This was the primary reason I began the protected “Slowly at First” (SAF) discussion threads. So people could just talk about the reality in their region, and we could all compare notes.

Something very dark is assembling deep inside our nation, and yet we are seemingly distracted from noticing it. The reality of motive behind the U.S. sanctions against Russia, as identified by my fact-finding mission that was not easy to accomplish, really made me reconsider the nature of the control around us.

What I realize now, is that agencies within our federal government are building a matrix of walls to lock us into a severely controlled system.  We are being isolated and we do not see it.

We can debate (and I have) while hiding behind the benefits of “tactical civics” all day long. But what we are really debating and accepting is the size of our cell or cell block.  Yes, locally you can and should fight for liberty – locally.  However, do not blind yourself to the reality of the outcome; in essence, we are creating 15-minute cities.  Is that really freedom?

Within the federal system under construct, information is being controlled. The online systems of sharing contrary information are being changed, modified and ultimately blocked. Our expenditures and costs of living are being used as weapons for control via monetary policy. Our systems of independent ownership and self-determination are being dismantled. Our ability to engage in commerce is being increasingly subject to approvals.  Some of those approvals are self-generated. Our finance system is being changed to a more controlling central bank, and perhaps a digital currency.

We The People are being isolated, just like a victim of toxic abuse would be isolated. There are walls and barriers being built all around us, even around our nation, and if the government were to take full control over digital communication and internet services (the path we are on), it’s unlikely we would even know the scale of our captivity.

So yeah, my tone is changing.

After my visit to Eastern Europe and the currently forbidden region, both of them, I now see the limits on freedom that exist here at home. Each of the datapoints, each of the stories, articles, research reviews and detailed documented instances of bad behavior from our federal government now takes on a different context.

As I detailed every moment and filled our research library with citation after citation over the past dozen years, I knew the trajectory was bad. I knew it was really bad – really bad. Yet, I had no idea how severe and bad the abuse had become until I stood in the forbidden world and realized everything I was told about it, was a lie.

Remember, I wasn’t there at the invitation of anyone. I wasn’t there with a handler, minder or escort. No one from the forbidden world even knew I was there. I was there as a free and independent person, a sovereign citizen who hacked his way through the jungle with a rusty machete to get there.

When I left the forbidden world, came back through eastern Europe through Istanbul and ultimately back into the west, I spent hours in careful contemplation trying to reconcile the motive for the false information and yet simultaneously put a mental scale together to evaluate the scope of the U.S. propaganda effort.

The only thing that makes any of it make sense, is to accept the datapoints that clearly show the walls being built around us – to isolate us.

I never really understood how people could accept the formation of communism around them.

Now I do.

I see it happening, and that is making me very angry.

I have also spent hours on my knees, deliberately asking our loving God – the one source of purest truth – to guide and help me.

I am shouting now.  We must stop being codependent enablers to our own isolation.


Congress Moves To Compensate Troops Affected By Tuberville Protest But Not Those Punished For Refusing Covid Jab



Congress is gearing up to pass legislation to financially compensate U.S. military members affected by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s promotion holds but, unsurprisingly, it does nothing for those who were unfairly punished for forgoing the Covid jab.

Introduced by Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the Military Personnel Confirmation Restoration Act seeks to provide back pay to military officials whose promotions were delayed as result of Tuberville’s protest of the Pentagon’s unlawful abortion policy. After the Defense Department began using U.S. taxpayer dollars to subsidize service members’ travel expenses to get abortions earlier this year, the Alabama senator initiated holds on Biden’s military nominees that slowed the Senate confirmation process for these nominees.

Tuberville was all but forced to abandon most of his holds earlier this month after his GOP colleagues threatened to side with Senate Democrats in changing Senate rules to skirt the protest.

When introducing the bill, Rounds issued a statement claiming that while he disagrees with the Pentagon’s abortion policy and supports Tuberville’s “right to hold any nomination,” he believes America’s “men and women in uniform should not be caught in the middle of partisan politics.” Manchin echoed similar sentiments, stating that “the least we can do in Congress is restore the benefits they have earned and deserve.”

According to a Punchbowl News report published on Thursday, the Rounds-Manchin bill has purportedly garnered 37 co-sponsors and could receive Senate approval before the upper chamber departs for Christmas break. Contrast the Senate’s eagerness to ram this bill through in a matter of weeks with the chamber’s inaction on financially compensating the more than 8,400 U.S. troops kicked out of the service because they refused to get the experimental (and risky) Covid shot.

Earlier this year, for example, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and 18 other Senate Republicans introduced the AMERICANS Act, a bill that would require the military to welcome back service members who were fired for forgoing the jab, as well as restore rank to troops who were “demoted solely for COVID-19 vaccine status,” restore the pay and benefits associated with the position held prior to their demotion, and expunge their records of “any adverse action based solely on COVID-19 vaccine status.”

Unlike Rounds and Manchin’s “bipartisan” measure, the AMERICANS Act has seen zero action in the Senate. According to the congressional record, the bill has been sitting in the Senate Armed Services Committee since Jan. 24. Neither Rounds nor Manchin have bothered to co-sponsor Cruz’s bill.

Despite maintaining a majority in the lower chamber, House Republicans have also failed to advance measures to assist troops wrongfully discharged from service over the shot. Rather than ensuring core tenets of the AMERICANS Act were included in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, House GOP leadership settled for language merely directing the Pentagon to “review” possible reinstatement of service members fired over the jab in the final “negotiated” version of the bill.

The Pentagon has offered nothing to these 8,400-plus discharged troops except letters pleading for them to return to service. With behavior like this, it’s no wonder only 43 of these soldiers have opted to rejoin and work for leaders who clearly have no regard or appreciation for their service.



How Desperate Is Hamas? They Throw Out Feeler About Recognizing Israel, Then Things Go South


Nick Arama reporting for RedState 

Our friend Ed Morrissey at our sister site Hot Air picked up an intriguing story that I think is a measure of how desperate Hamas is at this point. 

A senior Hamas official suggested the Gaza-based militant group would recognize Israel as a step toward ending the long-running divisions between the Palestinian factions.

Speaking to Al-Monitor in his Doha office on Monday, Mousa Abu Marzouk struck a careful tone on Israel some two months after his group carried out the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

“You should follow the official stance,” Abu Marzouk said. “The official stance is that the [Palestine Liberation Organization] has recognized the state of Israel.”

The internationally recognized umbrella grouping of most Palestinian factions, excluding Hamas and Islamic Jihad, formally recognized Israel’s right to exist and renounced terrorism in 1993. In exchange, Israel accepted the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

If they're floating that, you know they're desperate. They're not doing it because they've suddenly had a great revelation that Israel has the right to exist. He was likely floating it, hoping it could save their hides. 

They're about to get wiped out in Gaza. They've confirmed now they're flooding the tunnels, as we reported. Even the leaders living in their luxury hotels in Qatar are feeling the heat. Some of the leaders supposedly fled Qatar because their security is "no longer guaranteed there." That sounds like they thought Israel was going to be coming for them shortly. 

As Morrissey noted, it was doubtless not a sincere offer; rather an effort to escape being wiped out – one that Israel likely will not and should not believe, particularly given Harmas' history of not being honest on agreements. Not to mention their statement last month about wanting to have more Oct. 7-type attacks until Israel is annihilated. But it does signal they know they're up against it and are flailing for answers. 

But Abu Marzouk is already pulling it back, saying his words were "taken out of context" and "resistance will continue."  

So this confirms why Israel needs to keep holding their feet to the fire until they break them and wipe them out to finish this thing. That's the only way to ensure Israel's safety. 

Yet, Joe Biden is now starting to waver just when he should be holding fast. He told donors that support for Israel in the war was waning and that they needed to change their approach and their government. 



Shipping giants suspend all journeys through Red Sea following attacks on vessels

 It comes following a string of missile and drone attacks claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The group has vowed to target ships in an attempt to pressure Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip.  


Two of the world's biggest shipping firms have suspended all journeys through the Red Sea following a surge of recent attacks on vessels.

Danish giant Maersk said it would "pause" all container shipments until further notice after a near-miss involving its Maersk Gibraltar ship on Thursday.

Meanwhile, German firm Hapag-Lloyd said it was also halting sailings until at least Monday after one of its ships was targeted on Friday. A spokesperson added: "Then we will decide for the period thereafter."

It comes following a string of attacks claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Bab al Mandeb Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea.

The group has vowed to target vessels which it believes are heading to and from Israel, in an attempt to put pressure on the country to stop bombing the Gaza Strip amid its war with Hamas.  


The attacks have raised fears that global supply chains could be severely disrupted if they continue.

The narrow, busy waterway is a key maritime trade route for ships heading to and from the Suez Canal.

At least two cargo ships were hit in the area on Friday, with the Houthis again claiming responsibility.

The MSC Palatium III was struck by a missile, with officials saying it was unclear if anyone had been hurt.

Earlier in the day, a ship operated by Hapag-Lloyd, the Al Jasrah, was hit by an unidentified projectile.

The strike reportedly started a fire on board and caused one container to fall off into the sea.

A spokesperson for the company said no members of the crew had been hurt  


Houthis vow to 'prevent all ships heading to Israeli ports'

Houthis say they will continue to threaten shipping until Israel listens to their demands.

Rebel spokesperson Brigadier Yahya Saree said: "The Yemeni armed forces confirm they will continue to prevent all ships heading to Israeli ports from navigating in the [Red Sea] until they bring in the food and medicine that our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip need."

A spokesperson for Maersk said: "Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al Mandeb Strait to pause their journey until further notice."

Earlier this week, the Norwegian-owned MT Strinda tanker caught fire after it was also hit by a missile off the coast of Yemen.  


Shipping firm Mowinckel said the vessel was carrying biofuel from Malaysia to Italy, but later disclosed it had also been "tentatively" scheduled to make a stop at the Israeli port of Ashdod.

On Wednesday the US Navy said it shot down a suspected Houthi drone which was heading towards one of its warships.

It came as the commercial vessel Ardmore Encounter was attacked by small boats and then by two missiles.

In November, the Houthis also seized a cargo ship allegedly linked to Israel in the Red Sea which they are still holding near the port city of Hodeida.   



https://news.sky.com/story/shipping-giant-maersk-suspends-all-journeys-through-red-sea-following-attacks-on-vessels-13031107?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter