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🛢 🚢 🌍 At least three large oil tanker firms said they stopped sending their ships through the southern Red Sea, evidence that overnight strikes on Yemen risk adding to disruption that’s already beset oil markets.

🔶️ Torm, which has a fleet of about 80 tankers said it would stay away until further notice. Hafnia, which owns 117 carriers and operates about 90 more, and Stena Bulk, with about 60 also stated their decision to pause.

🔶️ Oil prices rose after the strikes. Brent futures were trading at $79.84 a barrel, a gain of 3.1%, at about 2:39 p.m. in London.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-12/tanker-owner-torm-pauses-all-transits-through-southern-red-sea

https://archive.ph/8WGWa

🇺🇸🇺🇦 U.S. suspends military aid to Ukraine - White House

“The assistance that we provided has now ground to a halt,” Kirby said. “The attacks that the Russians are conducting are only increasing. And now, as I talked about earlier this week, they’re using North Korean ballistic missiles to do their dirty work. So, the — the need is acute right now, particularly in these winter months.”

Further assistance depends on the decision of Congress, which must support an additional request for national security to receive more funding.

🔗 https://news.yahoo.com/u-suspends-military-aid-ukraine-120200164.html

JUST IN: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says Bitcoin is "no different" than gold and an asset that protects you.

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@WatcherGuru

Daily transit volumes at Red Sea chokepoints (Suez Canal and Bab el-Mandeb Straight) down 35-45% in the last four weeks. – BofA

Also from BoA, global maritime shipping rates up 106% versus six months ago. Importantly, this is still within recent historical bounds.

🇻🇪❌🫰🪙Venezuela Kills Off Petro Cryptocurrency.

Venezuela is putting an end to the petro cryptocurrency that President Nicolas Maduro launched six years ago to sidestep US sanctions, but which never took off and became embroiled in a graft scandal.

https://www.barrons.com/news/venezuela-kills-off-petro-cryptocurrency-1e2b0317

NEW - Pope: Marxists and Christians have a "common mission."

https://www.disclose.tv/id/93kirw62pd/

In contrast, Poland's Pope John Paul II, in the fifth encyclical of his papacy, lashed out at atheism and Marxism, saying philosophies that reserve no place for God are really the "death of man."

@disclosetv

🗳 🇹🇼 🇨🇳 Pro-independence William Lai Ching-te of the DPP is set to win Taiwan’s presidential election. | Thomas Hon Wing Polin

"At this stage outsiders cannot know if there has been any polling chicanery, and it is futile to speculate. What is noteworthy and beyond doubt is that once again, the anti-DPP vote has been split -- severely this time -- after an earlier decision to field a joint ticket. The combined opposition vote would have easily beaten Lai’s tally.

Whether one or both opposition candidates were induced by the DPP or CIA/NED to split the ticket will never be investigated, not with the ruling party now gaining a third successive term.

What next? Chances are high that Beijing will reassess its policy towards Taiwan. For nearly two decades, the CPC had offered the island countless trade and economic privileges, most of them unilaterally. The centerpiece is the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which allowed Taiwan to accumulate a whopping US$156-billion bilateral trade surplus last year. Its neutralization could mean the loss of 2-3 million local jobs. Some 40% of the island’s exports go to the mainland (attached post, below).

ECFA and other longstanding carrots clearly haven’t had the desired effect of bringing Taipei and Beijing closer. In fact, the opposite has happened during the past eight years of DPP rule. The separatists have not only been brainwashing Taiwan people to revile the mainland but even cooperate actively with intensifying US plans to contain and confront China. More of the same lies in store the next four years.

If carrots are proven ineffective, the stick logically comes into play.

Withdrawal of economic privileges for Taiwan would be a relatively easy first step. Beijing will likely consider a range of other options as well, short of igniting war. They will remind Taiwanese that they cannot continue to have their cake and eat it too.

Indeed, despite occasional PLA exercises, Taiwan people have been notably confident about Beijing’s moderation, taking for granted the mainland’s patience, underlying goodwill and desire for peaceful reunification. So much so that even after the Pelosi Provocation (visit) of August 2022, surveys showed them much less anxious about a mainland “invasion” than folks on the other side of the world.

China’s leaders may start driving home this lesson with increasing forcefulness: Support for anti-reunification forces will have real"

📎 Thomas Hon Wing Polin