1398: Gender Justice

A top virologist warns that the country’s Covid death toll could double if sufficient measures aren’t taken. In China, overseas arrivals in Shenyang must spend 28 days in a hotel and then 28 more sequestered at home.

Link

EMT’s are trained to access unconscious and unresponsive people, check breathing, heart rate, pupillary response and whether or not they’ll respond to painful stimuli (a knuckle in the sternum, pressing your finger into a nail bed).

You then try a few different fast acting med

Narcan

Glucagon (raises blood sugar quickly in diabetics who might be in a very low blood sugar state)

A couple of others.

This is a standard algorithm if the patient is out of it and deeply unresponsive.

To John’s question of other uses of Narcan, there is a formulation to that some Docs use to treat some alcoholics, it seems to help with craving for alcohol.

There aren’t any other “on label” uses that I’m aware of.

One other unrelated note.

AIDS = Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

You’ve called it “AutoImmune” in both the Mo Facts and NA podcasts recently.

Autoimmune is when you’re own immune cells attack other normal cells in your body.

This is not the mechanism in AIDS, where the HIV virus basically destroys the T4 lymphocyte that has many different functions in activating and modulating immune response.

Let me know if you have questions or want insight on any of the other topics we are living through now

Dr J.

Adam,

I worked at the first AstroWorld Fest in 2019. It was a madhouse! I think

it is a simple case of money hungry promoters (*cough* Live Nation),

production crews, and Houston PD simply not preparing by allocating more

speaks to the type of vibe they were eliciting (each act on stage also

seemed to have gun shots and siren sounds in their mixes, I get that's part

of the genre, but it for sure creates a chaotic atmosphere). I'd never seen

concert goers behave like this; when the gates opened a mob ran past me to

get to the merch booths, at one point a mob climbed and then tore down the

fencing around backstage and ran past me through that area to make it into

GA, and at another point a mob busted through VIP next to the stage where I

our way through the crowd to get to our changing area backstage (at one

point trying to make my way through I was legit worried for my safety as it

was so congested, I couldn't even worry about the gropping hands as I tried

just what I do. If I'm not attending one for fun or playing at one, I'm

volunteering or working it in some fashion (be it stage production,

security, pushing gear, or hospitality). I'm aware of the behind the scenes

logistics that go into putting a gathering like this on, and it seems these

folks didn't take that responsibility seriously, nor did they do so with

the culture of the crowd in mind. And I believer they had the money for it

cause they paid me and 12 other folks $1,000 just to walk around. Plus they

fed us two meals from one of the best spreads I've seen at a craft tent

that was also feeding all the production staff. They have money, but they

It's what his fans do and he has encouraged it in the past. They should

have known to have more security. If the cops on horses were surrounding

the gate (instead of wherever they were on standby) maybe there wouldn't

have been that issue. If the cops on horses had been in the crowd, it

wouldn't have happened. If Live Nation, Scott's production company, or HPD

had paid attention to 2019 and therefore put more attention on security, it

wouldn't have happened. HPD even Tweeted back in 2019 how the production

staff was underprepared, but that was deleted for a more PR friendly (for

the fest) post. I will attach that article. If he had stopped/paused his

show to get people to calm down (seeing as how he was warned by HPD about

the energy of the crowd prior to his set), this might not have happened to

the extent it did. Some say he was performing a satanic body harvest. Who

knows. All I know is I didn't try to work this year because 2019 was SO

WILD. I'm so proud of myself for listening to that intuition.

As far as the mystery pricking goes, I don't know if it was necessary for

this outcome to come about, but hey "never let a good tragedy go to waste"

the scumbags say, so maybe it was a two-fer. Inject some folks to soul

harvest and blame it on a congested crowd. Or maybe use it to say they

OD'ed instead of had Vax heart attacks (as the autopsy will show the

fentanyl and therefore the vax is off the table as a cause). It could have

just been a loner with issues getting his kicks. Or maybe it didn't really

happen at all and the story was put out there by the HPD so we would focus

on that possibility instead of what a poor job they did with the info they

did have from the 2019 shit show. My thoughts on so many being treated with

Narcan: how much of that stuff do they typically have on hand for an event

like this? Did they have more than normal this year? If so, why?

Some folks might be interested in signing this, so I'll add it here in the

event you'd like to put it in the show notes. It's a petition to ban Travis

Scott from playing in Texas. However, I'd love to see a ban on corporations

like Live Nation taking control of the entire industry.

https://www.change.org/p/greg-abbott-ban-travis-scott-from-performing-in-texas?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=6e9ae320-3f2f-11ec-8b5c-0b3a113e2048&fbclid=IwAR26hdmkevX90YdBxHTgv9fPQROUSPQTuraZuE0bpjtit93u79yB8kdkJ4Y

News article from 2019 about not being prepared:

https://abc13.com/astroworld-2019-injuries-houston/5686133

Sorry, I know this is long. Just trying to be helpful. Also sorry I don't

know how to hyperlink those websites, I know that's ugly and makes things a

little difficult for you, but I'm an artist, not a dude named Bernadette.

4 years UT no degree

Intelligence agencies

Sinister Rockefeller Food System Agenda — They Created it and Now Want to Destroy It

Farm to Fork: How the EU and the Davos Cabal Plan to Control Agriculture

Mark Cuban is on a climate foundation

board with the co-founder of Chainlink (ticker: LINK). Chainlink currently in the 30-35$ range.

Example: on a dairy farm there will no longer be self reporting of emissions of the farm but sensors in the ground that relay the data to chainlink’s protocol and

then is used to input into smart contracts that have been struck to release funds or tax incentives for the farm for meeting the emissions standards.

The order creates a government-wide Justice40 Initiative with the goal of delivering 40 percent of the overall benefits of relevant federal investments to disadvantaged communities and tracks performance toward that goal through the establishment of an Environmental Justice Scorecard.

The order initiates the development of a Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool, building off EPA’s EJSCREEN, to identify disadvantaged communities, support the Justice40 Initiative, and inform equitable decision making across the federal government

Link

Sorry I’m sending you two things in one day. I also found this article interesting. This really explains why so much of the marketing is so Pfizer-heavy!!

Like a couple fighting at their own housewarming, Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are locked in a year-long, closed-door conflict over vaccine patent rights, according to an NYT report.

• The NIH claimed that three government scientists helped design the sequence that enables the vaccine to produce an immune response.

• Moderna countered in a patent filing that it had reached the good-faith determination that the three NIH scientists were not coinventors.

Scientists familiar with the dispute see it as Moderna committing a betrayal. If government scientists are named as coinventors, then the US would have a larger say in who can manufacture the vaccine and license the technology, which would bring money into the Treasury.

Zoom out: Moderna’s vaccine grew out of a 4-year joint venture with the NIH, and the company received $10 billion in taxpayer funding to develop the shot. Analysts predict Moderna vaccine sales will reach $35 billion through the end of 2022.

Senior officials say the Biden administration has grown frustrated with Moderna because it hasn’t made its vaccine more available to low-income countries, nor has it sold the US cheap doses that could then be donated to those countries (as Pfizer has agreed to do).—MK

Moderna and the Government Go Shot for Shot:

ITM,

Due to our convict roots, none of our institutions have any concept of Freedom as the French & US understand it. We have Parole…

Any perception of Freedom is conditional, we’re still keeping an eye on you.

Cheers

Grant G (Eponymous)

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 15:25

Tens of thousands of care home residents face losing vital support as unvaccinated carers clock off for the last time before double vaccinations become mandatory.

About 50,000 care home staff who have not had two doses in England will not be allowed to work from Thursday. Analysis by the Guardian suggests that on current staff/resident ratios and without other measures to tackle the problem, the care of about 30,000 people could be affected.

On Wednesday, care leaders pleaded with the health secretary for an 11th hour reprieve, urging Sajid Javid to allow unvaccinated carers to keep working at least until NHS staff face mandatory vaccines from next April. In what looked certain to be a futile demand, Nadra Ahmed, executive chair of the National Care Association, which represents independent providers who are expected to be worst hit by staff shortages, said: ''There is still time to bring the deadline in line with the NHS and support the sector to have a fighting chance to get through the winter months. It may avoid the closure of essential beds when we most need them as a nation.''

Care operators and health leaders have warned that staff shortfalls could prevent thousands of people from being discharged from hospitals this winter, limiting admissions and clogging up wards. They say it will increase pressure on remaining care staff to work longer hours, despite many being already exhausted.

One of the largest not-for-profit operators, MHA, estimates that about 750 care homes may have already stopped taking new admissions because of the staffing crisis. Seven of its homes are closed to new entrants and it is losing up to 150 staff because of the vaccine policy this week.

''It is scary as we head into winter and the concern is there will be a buildup of people in hospital who can't be discharged,'' said Sam Monaghan, MHA's chief executive. The National Care Forum said providers are running at 17% average staff vacancy rates.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare organisations, said people who were medically fit to leave risked longer hospital stays than necessary at a time when capacity was crucial.

''As we head towards what could be the most challenging winter on record, we hope the government has assessed the possible knock-on impact of this policy,'' he said.

The Department of Health and Social Care has said councils will help care operators with staff shortages, that it has provided town halls with over £1bn of additional funding for social care this year, and that it is running a TV recruitment campaign.

The National Care Forum, which represents not-for-profit care homes, said a snap survey last week showed that on average 3.5% of operators' staff have already left as a result of resignation or dismissal, and estimate a further 4.4% might leave. Care operators fear remaining staff may be so stretched they will have no choice but to limit help with all but the most essential services, meaning trips out, games and entertainment, which create the sense of living rather than merely existing, will be reduced.

On Wednesday, the Relatives and Residents Association warned that care home residents' human rights continue to be breached as ''the only group still living under stringent government restrictions whilst the rest of the country gets back to normal''.

Amid anger at ongoing visiting restrictions, it has told an investigation into the issue by parliament's joint committee on human rights that it ''hears daily [on its helpline] about the devastating impact measures to manage the pandemic have had on the lives of older people''.

Mandatory double vaccination for care workers in homes for older and younger adults has boosted vaccine protection, with close to nine out of 10 staff getting both jabs. But in areas including Thurrock, Nottingham and Manchester, a fifth of staff are still not fully protected. NHS staff and domiciliary care staff who look after people in their own homes will not need to be fully vaccinated until 1 April 2022, the government announced on Tuesday.

The Care Quality Commission, which regulates care homes, will enforce the vaccine mandate with ''a proportionate approach, to ensure the welfare and safety of people who use services'', it has told operators.

''We will always treat each matter individually and consider the individual circumstances when undertaking an assessment and deciding on any possible next steps,'' it said.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 14:50

The MSNBC anchor says he plans to 'pop up again somewhere' after taking time off

MSNBC anchor Brian Williams said Tuesday he plans to leave the network when his contract expires in December, after a 28-year run at NBC's news division.

In a memo to employees, Mr. Williams said that he intends to ''pop up again somewhere'' after spending time with his family and reflecting on his career.

''I have been allowed to spend almost...

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

MSNBC anchor Brian Williams said Tuesday he plans to leave the network when his contract expires in December, after a 28-year run at NBC's news division.

In a memo to employees, Mr. Williams said that he intends to ''pop up again somewhere'' after spending time with his family and reflecting on his career.

''I have been allowed to spend almost half of my life with one company. NBC is a part of me and always will be,'' Mr. Williams wrote in the memo.

Mr. Williams, 62 years old, originated MSNBC's 11 p.m. news show, ''The 11th Hour,'' which launched during the dwindling days of the 2016 presidential campaign. In his memo, Mr. Williams said the show would ''remain in good hands'' but didn't say who would replace him as anchor.

His departure adds to a period of change for MSNBC. Network star Rachel Maddow is expected to cut down her TV work as she pursues other endeavors. The shuffle in prime time will give Rashida Jones, who took over as MSNBC president earlier this year, a chance to put her stamp on the network.

The cable news business as a whole is dealing with a hangover after a 2020 election season that saw viewers bingeing on coverage. Ratings for MSNBC and other major news channels have declined from their peaks near the end of 2020. All networks are investing heavily in streaming and encouraging their top talent to appear on digital platforms.

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

Mr. Williams rose from relative obscurity in local news to one of the highest perches in broadcasting, anchor of ''NBC Nightly News.'' His sonorous voice and confidence on camera made him a natural fit for the storied newscast, which he anchored for more than a decade.

He stepped down as ''Nightly News'' anchor in 2015 after recanting an inaccurate story of a helicopter attack. Mr. Williams had said publicly that he was aboard a helicopter over Iraq in 2003 that took fire from a rocket-propelled grenade.

He said on ''Nightly News'' that he made a mistake in recalling those events and stepped down as host of the broadcast. After an investigation into the incident, NBC decided to keep Mr. Williams on its payroll, but he was moved to the cable network.

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

Write to Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:43

Biden-Harris Administration Commits on Climate Change '' Creating Jobs, Building Infrastructure, and Delivering Environmental Justice

Today, President Biden will take executive action to tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad while creating good-paying union jobs and equitable clean energy future, building modern and sustainable infrastructure, restoring scientific integrity and evidence-based policymaking across the federal government, and re-establishing the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.These Executive Orders follow through on President Biden's promise to take aggressive action to tackle climate change and build on the executive actions that the President took on his first day in office, including rejoining the Paris Agreement and immediate review of harmful rollbacks of standards that protect our air, water, and communities.

President Biden set ambitious goals that will ensure America and the world can meet the urgent demands of the climate crisis, while empowering American workers and businesses to lead a clean energy revolution that achieves a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and puts the United States on an irreversible path to a net-zero economy by 2050. Today's actions advance those goals and ensure that we are tapping into the talent, grit, and innovation of American workers, revitalizing the U.S. energy sector, conserving our natural resources and leveraging them to help drive our nation toward a clean energy future, creating well-paying jobs with the opportunity to join a union, and delivering justice for communities who have been subjected to environmental harm.

President Biden will also sign an important Presidential Memorandum on scientific integrity to send a clear message that the Biden-Harris Administration will protect scientists from political interference and ensure they can think, research, and speak freely to provide valuable information and insights to the American people. Additionally, and in line with the scientific-integrity memorandum's charge to reestablish scientific advisory committees, President Biden will sign an Executive Order re-establishing the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

TACKLING THE CLIMATE CRISIS AT HOME AND ABROAD EXECUTIVE ORDERToday's Executive Order takes bold steps to combat the climate crisis both at home and throughout the world. In signing this Executive Order, President Biden has directed his Administration to:

Center the Climate Crisis in U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security Considerations

The order clearly establishes climate considerations as an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security. The order affirms that, in implementing '' and building on '' the Paris Agreement's objectives, the United States will exercise its leadership to promote a significant increase in global ambition. It makes clear that both significant short-term global emission reductions and net zero global emissions by mid-century '' or before '' are required to avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory. The order reaffirms that the President will host a Leaders' Climate Summit on Earth Day, April 22, 2021; that the United States will reconvene the Major Economies Forum; that, to underscore the administration's commitment to elevating climate in U.S. foreign policy, the President has created a new position, the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, which will have a seat on the National Security Council, and that it will be a U.S. priority to press for enhanced climate ambition and integration of climate considerations across a wide range of international fora.The order also kicks off the process of developing the United States' ''nationally determined contribution'' '' our emission reduction target '' under the Paris Agreement, as well as a climate finance plan.Among numerous other steps aimed at prioritizing climate in U.S. foreign policy and national security, the order directs the Director of National Intelligence to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate on the security implications of climate change, the State Department to prepare a transmittal package to the Senate for the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, and all agencies to develop strategies for integrating climate considerations into their international work.Take a Whole-of-Government Approach to the Climate Crisis

The order formally establishes the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy '' led by the first-ever National Climate Advisor and Deputy National Climate Advisor '' creating a central office in the White House that is charged with coordinating and implementing the President's domestic climate agenda.The order establishes the National Climate Task Force, assembling leaders from across 21 federal agencies and departments to enable a whole-of-government approach to combatting the climate crisis.Leverage the Federal Government's Footprint and Buying Power to Lead by Example

Consistent with the goals of the President's Build Back Better jobs and economic recovery plan, of which his clean energy jobs plan is a central pillar, the order directs the federal agencies to procure carbon pollution-free electricity and clean, zero-emission vehicles to create good-paying, union jobs and stimulate clean energy industries.In addition, the order requires those purchases be Made in America, following President Biden's Buy American executive order. The order also directs agencies to apply and strictly enforce the prevailing wage and benefit guidelines of the Davis Bacon and other acts and encourage Project Labor Agreements. These actions reaffirm that agencies should work to ensure that any jobs created with funds to address the climate crisis are good jobs with a choice to join a union.The order directs each federal agency to develop a plan to increase the resilience of its facilities and operations to the impacts of climate change and directs relevant agencies to report on ways to expand and improve climate forecast capabilities '' helping facilitate public access to climate related information and assisting governments, communities, and businesses in preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change.The order directs the Secretary of the Interior to pause on entering into new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters to the extent possible, launch a rigorous review of all existing leasing and permitting practices related to fossil fuel development on public lands and waters, and identify steps that can be taken to double renewable energy production from offshore wind by 2030. The order does not restrict energy activities on lands that the United States holds in trust for Tribes. The Secretary of the Interior will continue to consult with Tribes regarding the development and management of renewable and conventional energy resources, in conformance with the U.S. government's trust responsibilities.The order directs federal agencies to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies as consistent with applicable law and identify new opportunities to spur innovation, commercialization, and deployment of clean energy technologies and infrastructure. Rebuild Our Infrastructure for a Sustainable Economy

The order catalyzes the creation of jobs in construction, manufacturing, engineering and the skilled-trades by directing steps to ensure that every federal infrastructure investment reduces climate pollution and that steps are taken to accelerate clean energy and transmission projects under federal siting and permitting processes in an environmentally sustainable manner.Advance Conservation, Agriculture, and Reforestation

The order commits to the goal of conserving at least 30 percent of our lands and oceans by 2030 and launches a process for stakeholder engagement from agricultural and forest landowners, fishermen, Tribes, States, Territories, local officials, and others to identify strategies that will result in broad participation. The order also calls for the establishment of a Civilian Climate Corps Initiative to put a new generation of Americans to work conserving and restoring public lands and waters, increasing reforestation, increasing carbon sequestration in the agricultural sector, protecting biodiversity, improving access to recreation, and addressing the changing climate.The order directs the Secretary of Agriculture to collect input from farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders on how to use federal programs to encourage adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices that produce verifiable carbon reductions and sequestrations and create new sources of income and jobs for rural Americans.Revitalize Energy Communities

The order establishes an Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, to be co-chaired by the National Climate Advisor and the Director of the National Economic Council, and directs federal agencies to coordinate investments and other efforts to assist coal, oil and natural gas, and power plant communities. The order tasks the new Interagency Working Group to advance projects that reduce emissions of toxic substances and greenhouse gases from existing and abandoned infrastructure and that prevent environmental damage that harms communities and poses a risk to public health and safety '' such as projects to reduce methane emissions, oil and brine leaks, and other environmental harms from tens of thousands of former mining and well sites.In addition, the new Interagency Working Group is also directed to explore efforts to turn properties idled in these communities, like brownfields, into new hubs for the growth of our economy.Secure Environmental Justice and Spur Economic Opportunity

The order formalizes President Biden's commitment to make environmental justice a part of the mission of every agency by directing federal agencies to develop programs, policies, and activities to address the disproportionate health, environmental, economic, and climate impacts on disadvantaged communities.The order establishes a White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council and a White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council to prioritize environmental justice and ensure a whole-of-government approach to addressing current and historical environmental injustices, including strengthening environmental justice monitoring and enforcement through new or strengthened offices at the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice, and Department of Health and Human Services. The new bodies are also tasked with advising on ways to update Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994.The order creates a government-wide Justice40 Initiative with the goal of delivering 40 percent of the overall benefits of relevant federal investments to disadvantaged communities and tracks performance toward that goal through the establishment of an Environmental Justice Scorecard.The order initiates the development of a Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool, building off EPA's EJSCREEN, to identify disadvantaged communities, support the Justice40 Initiative, and inform equitable decision making across the federal governmentSCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUMThe Presidential Memorandum on Scientific Integrity and Evidence-Based Policymaking directs agencies to make evidence-based decisions guided by the best available science and data. Scientific and technological information, data, and evidence are central to the development and iterative improvement of sound policies, and to the delivery of effective and equitable programs. Improper political interference in the scientific process, with the work of scientists, and in the communication of scientific facts undermines the welfare of the nation, contributes to systemic inequities and injustices, and violates the public trust.The memorandum charges the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) with the responsibility for ensuring scientific integrity across federal agencies. The OSTP Director is directed to review the effectiveness of agency scientific-integrity policies and assess agency scientific-integrity policies and practices going forward.

In addition, agencies that oversee, direct, or fund research are tasked with designating a senior agency employee as Chief Science Officer to ensure agency research programs are scientifically and technologically well founded and conducted with integrity. Because science, facts, and evidence are vital to addressing policy and programmatic issues across the Federal Government, all agencies '' not just those that fund, conduct, or oversee scientific research ''must designate a senior career employee as the agency's Scientific Integrity Official to oversee implementation and iterative improvement of scientific-integrity policies and processes.

EXECUTIVE ORDER ESTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYLeaders across the Biden-Harris Administration, including the President himself and his senior advisors in the Executive Office of the President, will seek input, advice, and the best-available science, data, and scientific and technological information from scientists, engineers, and other experts in science, technology, and innovation.

To that end, and in alignment with the scientific-integrity memorandum's charge to reestablish scientific and technological advisory committees, this order re-establishes the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The PCAST'' co-chaired by the President's Science Advisor '' will advise the President on policy that affects science, technology, and innovation. The Council will also advise the President on scientific and technical information that is needed to inform public policy relating to the economy, worker empowerment, education, energy, environment, public health, national and homeland security, racial equity, and other topics.

###

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:21

Mootral, the Anglo-Swiss agritech firm, last week launched a somewhat quirky product: a carbon credit, based on more eco-friendly cow burps.

The idea is that instead of, or in addition to planting trees to offset their carbon emissions, people and companies could also pay to feed cows supplements that make them belch less methane.

''One cow emits as much greenhouse gas as six Volkswagen Golfs.''

Mootral's plant-based supplement can reduce the methane that a cow emits by up to 38% '-- on average the reduction is around 30%. If all the world's 1.5bn cows were fed the garlic-based supplement, it would be the equivalent of taking 330m European cars off the road, estimates Thomas Hafner, Mootral's founder and chief executive.

''One cow emits as much greenhouse gas as six Volkswagen Golfs,'' says Hafner. Importantly, the supplement doesn't impact the health of the cow '-- and might even increase milk production (although this is still being tested).

Methane is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in its warming effects over a 20-year period, and there is increasing scrutiny on how to reduce emissions. It is a priority under the European Commission's Green New Deal , for example. Livestock account for around 14.5% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions and cow burps make up the largest part of that.

The catchThere is just one problem '-- how to get farmers to buy the supplement. It costs just $60 per cow for a year's supply of feed, but with agricultural prices already squeezed, Mootral knew it would struggle to get farmers to add yet another cost to their operations.

''We think farmers shouldn't have to pay for it '-- we want to make them part of the solution for climate change, but not make them take on all the costs,'' Hafner told Sifted.

Enter the CowCredit, which Hafner believes can help scale up the project. Each CowCredit, verified by Verra, the US-based sustainability non-profit, will sell for '‚¬70 per tonne of CO'‚‚ Mootral reduces methane but measurements get converted into CO'‚‚ equivalents for the credits).

Selling the carbon credits would help to underwrite costs so that Mootral could supply the supplement to farmers for free. Currently, Mootral feed is used by commercial dairy farms such as Brades farm in the UK which supplies premium barista milk to the UK's leading coffee shops, including the high-end chain Gail's. High-end eco-friendly stores can advertise milk as climate-friendly, and charge customers a small premium.

But for Mootral to get mass take-up '-- it wants to expand from feeding 400 cows to 20k in the UK this year as a start '-- it needs to be able to give farmers the supplement for free, and recoup costs through the carbon credit. CowCredits could also help take the supplement to the US beef market, reaching many more cows.

The company is also looking to raise a $2.5m seed round extension to help establish the idea, with a Series A round to follow later this year.

''Climate-friendly milk and beef could be like dolphin-friendly tuna in the 1980s.''

''Once it gets going, this could be like dolphin-friendly tuna in the 1980s. Within two to three years of coming on the market, it had become the market standard. Climate-friendly milk and beef could be the same '-- we just first need to show it is a thing,'' said Hafner.

There are a few other solutions for reducing cow burps, including feeding them seaweed '-- Swedish startups Volta Greentech raised '‚¬500k last year to develop a business around this. However, many of these projects are still at the research phase and unlikely to be scalable in the short term.

Maija Palmer is Sifted's innovation editor. She covers deeptech and corporate innovation, and tweets from @maijapalmer

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:17

During times of mass tragedy, it's natural for people to seek answers to difficult questions. In the wake of the Astroworld concert in Houston on Friday, many people have been asking why, exactly, eight concertgoers between the ages of 14 and 27 died. Some are questioning what happened in that crush of people, as Travis Scott took the stage. Others are asking if the culture of his shows '-- and of his notoriously aggressive mosh pits '-- should be reexamined. Still others are asking if there's someone even more notorious than the Houston rapper who should be blamed: Satan.

On TikTok, where some videos have gained millions of views, typing ''Astroworld'' into the search bar generates ''astroworld festival demonic'' as one of the top suggestions. People have said the stage was shaped like an inverted cross leading to a portal to Hell, which they believe was represented by the arch-shaped set onstage. They also point to a shirt Scott wore at the show that depicts human figures walking through a door and emerging with what look like horns as further evidence that Scott was leading fans to hell and sacrificing people's lives intentionally. A representative from TikTok said this content violates community guidelines and the company is working on taking action against it, ''including within search suggestions.''

''If you don't believe that there was nothing demonic about that whole concert, you are spiritually blind and I pray that God opens your eyes,'' said a man in a post on TikTok that drew more than a million views in a day. Other signs people have pointed to online include eight pyrotechnic flames along the front of the stage, representing the eight initial victims of that night and a stage backdrop that read ''See ya on the other side.''

''I'm a big fan of Travis Scott but this is some demonic ass shit,'' one person Tweeted with a video of a fiery winged creature above Scott's stage. ''It's making me rethink some things like is this what hell looks like.''

Other people have implied that Covid-19 vaccines '-- which have been shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective at preventing serious Covid infections '-- could be the cause of the deaths at the event. ''Could be related, could not be, but adding this to the mix: Attendees needed to be fully [Vaxxed],'' one user Tweeted. ''Multiple in cardiac arrest'...'' (Ticket-holders needed to present proof of a vaccine or a negative Covid-19 test to attend the festival.) Others suggested that the vaccine might respond to the sound of the live music at Scott's show. ''Jab plus 5g and frequency at concert = dead,'' commented one TikTok user. Others have said authorities and the media are lying about the number of casualties because witnesses described seeing many people on the ground.

Conspiracy thinking is not uncommon following events of unfathomable tragedy. After a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, people like Inforwars' Alex Jones spread the conspiracy theory that the massacre had been a hoax. (Jones was recently found liable for damages in several defamation lawsuits by victims' families.) Research has also shown that people become more conspiracy-minded during times of uncertainty and stress, like a global pandemic, or during times of political and social unrest. Satanic conspiracy theories had their most recent heyday in the Satanic Panic of the late 80s and early 90s when several high-profile crimes were blamed on teenagers who supposedly worshipped the devil. Now, the ideas have found a fresh foothold in far-right groups like QAnon, which believes a devil-worshipping cabal of pedophiles threatens the nation's children.

Scott released a statement and a video over the weekend offering condolences to the loved ones of the people who died. ''I'm absolutely devastated by what took place last night,'' he tweeted. ''My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.'' On Monday, Scott announced he would cover their funeral expenses. He has been named a defendant in 15 lawsuits so far. Some of the suits also name concert promoter Live Nation as well as Drake, claiming Drake, who joined Scott as a guest onstage, helped incite the crowd. Scott and Live Nation have said they're cooperating with Houston authorities as they investigate the fatal incident.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:16

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has acquired an untitled original pitch from George Nolfi, a ripped from the headlines fact-based drama about the Afghanistan evacuation. Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy are attached to star.

The story is based on recently reported true stories, this one focusing on three former special forces team members who jump back into the fray alongside their Afghan counterparts, to rescue families and allies left behind amid the rapid fall of Afghanistan last August.

George Nolfi, Jules Daly APJules Daly, Tatum and Hardy will produce as well as Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan of Free Association. Nolfi will be executive producer.

Tatum next stars in Dog, which he co-directed with Reid Carolin, and opposite Sandra Bullock in The Lost City. Hardy is coming off the hit sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and wrapped Havoc, the Gareth Evans-directed Netflix thriller. Nolfi last wrote and directed The Banker for Apple TV+.

Senior Vice President of Production Ryan Jones will oversee the project on behalf of Universal.

Nolfi is represented by CAA and David Fox at Myman Greenspan; Tatum is represented by CAA, Hanson, Jacobson, Teller and Relevant; Hardy is represented by United Agents and Range Media Partners.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:30

By Tom EspinerBusiness reporter, BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Four of the world's biggest carmakers have failed to sign a COP 26 summit pledge to only sell zero emissions cars and vans by 2035.

Volkswagen, Toyota, Renault-Nissan and Hyundai-Kia were not among signatories to the climate summit declaration.

China and US, which are the world's biggest car markets, were also absent from the list of signatories.

Big car manufacturers that did sign up included Ford, General Motors, and Jaguar Land Rover.

What did the pledge say?

The declaration, which was made at the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow, called on signatories to speed up the global transition from cars that burn fossil fuels to zero emissions vehicles, which include electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The agreement signed by governments and city authorities across the world commits signatories to ending the sale of new cars that produce emissions in "leading markets" by 2035, and globally by 2040.

Investors and banks said they would support the transition, and some fleet owners pledged to make their car and van fleets green.

Who signed up the list?

Some major carmakers were signatories, including Ford, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo.

Governments that signed up included Canada, Denmark, India, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK - although Britain has already said it will ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

Some US cities and states put their names to the list, including New York and California.

Investors including Aviva and NatWest, and fleet owners including supermarkets Sainsbury's and Tesco also signed up.

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption, VW recently an electric SUV, the ID.5

Who was absent from the list?

While some parts of the US such as Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City signed up, the US itself, which is the biggest car market, remained off the list.

China, which is the second-largest car market, was also absent. Germany, the largest car market in the EU, did not sign up.

The world's largest car manufacturers, VW and Toyota, were not on the list, alongside rival car giants Renault-Nissan and Hyundai-Kia.

Volkswagen, which recently unveiled its ID.5 electric SUV, said that while it was creating electrified products, the environmental benefits of signing up to the pledge were not clear-cut when electricity production in the US and China is still heavily reliant on burning fossil fuels.

A spokesman said major markets relying on fossil fuels to produce electricity means "the argument isn't there" for pledging to only sell electric and other zero emissions cars by 2035, adding: "We are just being realistic."

"We believe that an accelerated shift to electro mobility has to go in line with an energy transition towards 100% renewables," the car giant said in a statement.

"The Volkswagen Group, representing business activities in all major markets worldwide, decided not to sign the declaration at this point in time."

Toyota, which put its first commercially produced electric cars on the road in 1997, said it will "provide the most suitable vehicles, including zero emission products, in response to the diverse economic environments, clean energy and charging infrastructure readiness, industrial policies, and customer needs in each country and region".

Why does this matter?

Transport in the EU and the US accounts for about a third of carbon dioxide emissions, which is one of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.

Of that total, in the EU, about 70% comes from road transportation.

For this declaration in Glasgow to have been a breakthrough, it needed the backing of major governments and car manufacturers, Professor David Bailey of the University of Birmingham Business School said.

"Without the US, China and Germany on board, we are not going to get vehicle emissions where we need to be by 2050," Professor Bailey said, adding that the big car makers also need to be "on board".

He said that the US "has a penchant for big pick-up" trucks that will need to be electrified eventually, but a 2035 target for new sales would not gain popular support for US President Joe Biden.

The car industry in Germany is split between car electrification and wanting to use synthetic fuels, while China is heavily reliant on coal, and building more coal power stations.

China setting zero emissions vehicles sales targets would beg the question about why it was not committing to more electricity generation from renewables, he added.

Image source, UK Government

Image caption, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps launched the new charge point design

Were there any more COP 26 transport announcements?

The UK launched the Zero Emission Vehicle Transition Council (ZEVTC), a group of 30 countries that "have agreed to work together to make zero emission vehicles the new normal", the government said.

It also announced that all new heavy goods vehicles will be zero emission by 2040, with HGVs of 26 tonnes and under being phased out from 2035.

Industry body the Road Haulage Association said that it was "concerned about the timing of phasing out some sizes of new trucks from 2035".

The RHA's managing director of policy and public affairs, Rod McKenzie said:

"We support the government's aim to decarbonise but the pace may be impossibly fast. Care is needed to ensure that all markets are served and future disruption to the supply chains are avoided.

"We would like the deadline extended for lorries over 18 tonnes by five years with support for hauliers in making the transition.

"Proven alternatives to diesel for all uses, locations, ranges and the heaviest trucks don't yet exist. It will require continuous review of the timeline over coming years to ensure a sustainable and successful transition to zero tailpipe lorries."

The UK also announced a new design for electric vehicle charge points "which could become as iconic as the Great British post box, London bus or black cab" it said.

More on this story

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:25

News Purple lights are defective, and replacement of bright streetlights has been delayed due to shipping delays. Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2021

This LED streetlight on Twisted Court in Hillsborough has a spooky purple glow because it is defective. Report defective or broken streetlights to the company that services them (Duke Energy or Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation in our area).

If you've seen purple streetlighting around town, it's not for Halloween.

Duke Energy has been installing LED streetlights, and the spooky purple glow indicates a defective light.

Streetlights in need of maintenance should be reported to the service company. This includes dim or purple lighting and lighting that is not functioning at all. Make sure to obtain an address or pole number for the streetlight.

For streetlights in the Duke Energy service area '-- Call 800-777-9898 or complete an outdoor lighting repair request on the company's website.For streetlights in the Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation service area '-- Call 919-732-2123 or complete a contact form on the company's website. The affected pole will need to be marked with a ribbon.Bright lightsIn the spring, the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners and Duke Energy received complaints about the brightness and light trespass of new LED lights that were installed as part of Duke Energy's mercury vapor replacement program.

The town reached an agreement with Duke Energy to complete the company's streetlight replacement program using 50-watt, 3,000-kelvin, Type 2 fixtures. This type of fixture was recently tested on eight fixtures in town as a pilot project on a portion of West Queen and North Hasell streets.

The town formally requested that Duke Energy install 3,000-kelvin fixtures in all areas of town going forward and that Piedmont Electric do the same for the light fixtures they service in the Becketts Ridge neighborhood.

If you have been expecting a replacement of the LED streetlight that was installed in your residential area earlier this year, the replacement has been delayed because of shipping delays of the light fixtures. Installation will likely start in early December and continue into January and February.

Some of the new lighting may still appear brighter than older fixtures that have faded with decades of use. Any fixtures replaced before the current program began will not be changed.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:20

The Ministry of Health has added an additional death to the national Covid-19 figures on Thursday.

Emergency services at the scene of a shooting in New Lynn, where Robert James Hart died. (Source: 1News)

1News understands this person is Robert James Hart, a father of two who was shot dead in a driveway in the Auckland suburb of New Lynn.

Since his death on November 5, the 40-year-old tested positive for the virus.

Police have since confirmed these details.

''An additional death in Auckland has today been added to the national Covid-19 figures,'' the Ministry of Health said.

''This person's death is subject to a police investigation and the Ministry will not be commenting further on it, at this stage.''

Three people have been charged so far over Hart's death, and police are seeking a fourth person.

Hart is included in New Zealand's Covid-19 figures because of a change in the way the Ministry of Health reports on deaths.

"The clinical criteria will continue to be guided by WHO definition which is basically to report any death where the person had an acute Covid-19 infection regardless of what the cause of death might be," Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told RNZ.

"We will be now publicly reporting confirmed deaths as those where the death documents or an investigation has shown that the cause was Covid-19 and we will report other deaths where the cause of death is not certain but the person has Covid-19.

"We will report them separately, and the latter group will be classified as 'under investigation' while we await further information from clinicians or a coroner's follow up."

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 05:50

(Schiphol) June 1, 2021'-- Growing methane emission concerns are putting pressure on producers to implement solutions to reduce their impact. To help with this need, Cargill and ZELP (Zero Emission Livestock Project) have partnered to bring European dairy farmers an innovative solution to reduce methane emissions, combining technology in methane oxidation and data processing to minimize the environmental impact of dairy production while improving animal welfare.

Enteric methane is a natural by-product of cattle digesting feed, which is then released from the mouth and nose. Using smart technology, ZELP developed a cattle wearable that neutralizes part of this methane as it is exhaled. Cargill will be the exclusive distributor of the novel device for the European dairy market.

''Farmers and agribusiness are looking for ways to drive methane mitigation and change for our planet, while meeting the challenge of feeding a growing population,'' said Delphine Melchior, sustainability and quality sector director for Cargill's aqua and animal nutrition business. ''By partnering with ZELP, we are in a unique position to help significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with livestock production.''

As much as 95% of an animal's methane emissions come from its mouth and nostrils. The ZELP technology, which easily attaches to regular halters, captures and oxidizes those emissions.

Francisco Norris, CEO and Co-founder of ZELP explains: ''We are combining data processing with unique catalytic technology to reduce methane emissions and improve animal welfare. We continue improving the efficiency of our technology, which has already demonstrated a 53 percent reduction potential. We've also evaluated the wearable's effect on animal behavior and found no impact on production yields, rumination, rest and activity periods, and feed intake''.

Beyond its environmental benefits, the ZELP wearable device drives animal welfare by giving dairy farmers new insights into the health and performance of their livestock. The technology captures a range of behavioral and physiological data, in addition to monitoring animals' breath and methane emissions. This data feature could allow farmers to increase productivity, help detect if an animal is overheating, anticipate diseases and prevent outbreaks, and provide deeper insights of digestion, feed optimization, and feed conversion efficiency.

In the coming months, Cargill and ZELP will conduct additional testing at the Cargill Research and Development Center and at Wageningen University, one of the world's leading universities in agriculture, environment and healthy food. Following their completion, the companies expect to launch the ZELP wearable in the second half of 2022.

''Our collaboration with ZELP and the role of new technologies is part of a broader strategy to accelerate progress towards our sustainability commitments for customers and consumers'' said Sander van Zijderveld, Cargill's ruminant strategic marketing and technology lead in West-Europe. ''ZELP's technology is the perfect complement to our extensive research and knowledge on reducing methane emissions''

Cargill deploys a holistic approach to methane mitigation with a focus on three areas: best farm management practices, improved animal productivity through feed and nutrition, and additives. In North America, the company also launched its BefUp sustainability initiative which aims to achieve a 30% greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity reduction across its North American beef supply chain by 2030.

About CargillCargill's 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive. We combine 155 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 05:43

A bulk tanker loads up at Cargill's soybean terminal in Santarem, Brazil in August 2015. Photo: Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock

America's second biggest private company is a controversial giant with the global food industry in its grip. So why haven't we heard of it?

A bulk tanker loads up at Cargill's soybean terminal in Santarem, Brazil in August 2015. Photo: Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock

America's second biggest private company is a controversial giant with the global food industry in its grip. So why haven't we heard of it?

A bulk tanker loads up at Cargill's soybean terminal in Santarem, Brazil in August 2015. Photo: Matyas Rehak/Shutterstock

25.11.2020 Lucy Jordan, Alice Ross, Emma Howard, Alexandra Heal, Andrew Wasley, Pat Thomas and Alice Milliken

This article is published in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism

When it comes to explaining the impact of America's second biggest private company on your life, no one puts it better than the company itself.

''We are the flour in your bread,'' says one of Cargill's corporate brochures, ''the wheat in your noodles, the salt on your fries. We are the corn in your tortillas, the chocolate in your dessert, the sweetener in your soft drink. We are the oil in your salad dressing and the beef, pork or chicken you eat for dinner. We are the cotton in your clothing, the backing on your carpet and the fertiliser in your field.''

In its 155 years , Cargill has insinuated itself into almost every aspect of global agribusiness, transforming the way human beings produce and consume food . It has made its owners into billionaires . And its ascent has played out to a steady backdrop of controversy, most recently the revelation that its supply chain has been linked with vast deforestation '' related to extensive fires '' in Brazil's crucial Cerrado region. It is the latest in a string of scandals affecting Cargill including fatal food poisonings, deforestation, agricultural pollution, and allegations of child enslaved labour.

Cargill is as controversial as it is enormous '' and yet you have almost certainly never heard of it. How, then, has this corporate juggernaut managed to keep such a low profile? And what has it been doing while the rest of us have been looking elsewhere?

Building a behemoth

William Wallace Cargill founded Cargill in 1865, buying a single warehouse at the end of a new railway line in Iowa. As the great plains emerged as America's breadbasket, he saw the potential for profit by acting as a middle man between farmers and customers, perhaps even expanding along the new railroads that were pushing into Wisconsin and Minnesota .

As the company grew, Cargill's was often the only grain elevator at the major railroad stations, leaving farmers little choice but to accept its prices '' which had sometimes been fixed in backroom deals . Such questionable ethics helped Cargill increase in reach and in scale: by the turn of the century the company handled coal, flour, feed, lumber, and seeds. It had invested in railroads, land, water irrigation, and farms .

The company faced its first major scandal during the first world war when it was accused of wartime profiteering . In the late 1930s, when drought and over-plowing transformed the great prairies into the dust bowl, Cargill was suspended from the Chicago Board of Trade for buying up corn futures, allegedly to corner the market.

Yet still the company grew, and at bewildering speed. Boosted by lucrative government contracts during the second world war , Cargill's US grain exports increased 400% between 1955 and 1965, with annual sales rising to $2bn . As it accumulated capital, the company began the MO of discreet but ruthless expansion that it would come to be defined by.

Cargill has built the modern agriculture system '' with all its abuses

By this point Cargill was a global player in commodity markets . But its move into food processing in the middle of the 20th century transformed farming in America '' and across the w orld '' beyond recognition .

Over the past 50 years, agriculture has become dominated by a few major crops such as wheat, maize, and soya, said Erik Millstone, professor of science policy at the University of Sussex . ''The extent to which Cargill drove it is '... difficult to ascertain since so much of their trading was opaque,'' he said. ''But they have made good business out of it '... they played a dominant role in narrowing and homogenising plants around the world.''

The industry's shift towards cheap commodities produced on vast acreages at very high volumes w as pivotal. Since the 1980s it has spread globally, pushing out family farms all over the w orld and benefiting big traders such as Cargill above all .

''It used to be that if you were buying a chicken or some beef, you'd get it from farms within a hundred miles of your city,'' said Glenn Hurowitz of the environmental organisation Mighty Earth. ''Now the meat and the feed can be shipped thousands of miles, with no visibility of how it's made'...Cargill has built the modern agriculture system '' with all its abuses.''

Soybeans in a silo in Itacoatiara, Brazil. The soya will be loaded on ships for export. Photo: Werner Rudhart/Greenpeace A spokeswoman for Cargill said: '' Cargill is committed to nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. ''

By 2008 the operation that started as a single frontier outpost in Iowa had become one of the largest privately held companies in the western world. Today it employs roughly 155,000 people in 70 countries . Its fleet of 570 ships move 200m tonnes of commodities every year . Cargill's political and economic intelligence on food and agriculture has even been said to exceed that of the CIA .

But above all Cargill is notable for its secrecy. The Cargill family, 14 of whom are billionaires , still own 88% of the corporation, giving the company a powerful cloak of invisibility: it's almost entirely up to Cargill how much it chooses to share with the public.

''A vast proportion of the world's main agricultural commodities pass through the hands of just four international trading corporations,'' said Millstone. ''Cargill is one.''

W here food is sweetened, preserved, emulsified, milled or imbued with additives, there is Cargill. And it is present throughout various stages of the process, meaning it can dominate across sectors.

W ith soya , for instance, Cargill might buy beans from Brazilian farmers, store them in a Cargill silo, take them across the ocean in a Cargill-leased ship to a Cargill feed mill, then truck the resulting animal feed to a Cargill-contracted chicken farm.

A vara '' Cargill's joint-enterprise in the UK with Faccenda foods and the banner under which its chicken farms operate '' supplies chicken to Tesco, Nando's and McDonald's. But there is no reason that anyone buying a fillet of ''British chicken'' or tucking into a McChicken sandwich w ould know that an American corporation had been involved at almost every step '' or that swathes of Brazilian woodland had likely been flattened in the process .

This near-invisibility is no accident , said Michael Lansing, an environmental historian. ''It's hard to imagine a consumer boycott of Cargill, [although] obviously environmental groups have tried,'' he said. ''Because when I go to the grocery store, where do I see Cargill?''

Sourcing soya

There was a period, about a decade ago when Cargill's environmental record in Brazil seemed to b e improving. In the early 2000s, deforestation rates in the Amazon were shocking: an area the size of Hawaii was cleared in 2004 alone . In 2006, following a Greenpeace campaign, Cargill and other major soya buyers '' along with their customers such as McDonald's '' agreed not to trade in soybeans grown in newly deforested areas of the Amazon. The ''soya moratorium'' is seen as a huge success : Amazon deforestation dropped steeply and Cargill was lauded for its role .

But soya is big business in Brazil '' the country produced almost 118m tonnes of it in 2018 '' and b ehind the scenes, the trade continued to boom. How? The moratorium had simply traded the destruction of one ecologically crucial biome for another: the Cerrado, a sprawling tropical savannah with far weaker protections. Between 2008 and 2012 the rate of forest loss in the A mazon slowed by 67%. But the Cerrado continued to disappear at alarming speed: in the decade to 2018, it lost 95,000 sq km of land, 66% more than the Amazon '' which is three times the size .

The Cerrado is a crucial ecosystem. It contains 5% of the world's plant and animal species . It is also a huge carbon sink, stabilises the regional climate, and is critical for eight of Brazil's 12 river b asins. And it is integral to the national energy supply: 80% of Brazil's electricity comes from hydroelectric power plants on rivers whose sources lie in the Cerrado. More than half of the Cerrado's native vegetation is already gone. Much of what remains is dangerously fragmented .

Cargill has not only resisted an Amazon-style soya moratorium for the Cerrado '' despite calls from customers such as Tesco and McDonald's '' but, according to campaigners, it has encouraged competitors to do the same . ''The other traders will follow Cargill's lead,'' Hurowitz told Unearthed.

A moratorium would not end soya farming or even block its expansion '' the Cerrado has plenty of degraded land, mostly former cattle pasture, that could be renewed for the purpose .

The Cerrado, with its vegetation estimated to store the equivalent of 13.7bn tonnes of carbon dioxide , is seen as vital in the global battle against climate change '' a battle for which Cargill has expressed public support. It set targets to reduce its emissions by 10% by 2025 . Last July , it pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its US beef supply by 30% over the next decade . Yet the Cerrado, if left as natural savannah and forest, acts as a huge carbon sink .

A flock of rheas is seen in a soybean field in the Cerrado plains in Mato Grosso state, western Brazil. Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Ten years ago, Cargill set itself a deadline of ending deforestation in its supply chains by 2020. Last year it admitted it would miss that deadline . It now has a target of 2030 . Even so, people on the ground in Brazil say that there is little sign of any such changes being enacted.

'' W e see big, grand communications outside, at tables at big international events, but what we see in the field is completely different ,'' said Isabel Figueiredo, a Cerrado ecologist at the Institute for the Society, Population and Nature. ''There is no direct connection between what they say and what they promote in the plantations.''

One Cargill supplier in the Cerrado told Unearthed that while soya producers throughout the region were increasingly aware of international pressure over deforestation, Cargill had never talked to him about sustainability, nor audited his properties.

Hurowitz said that he was sceptical of claims that soya supply chains were too complex to properly monitor, given that Mighty Earth has in the past presented Cargill with clear examples of deforestation in their supply chain. ''We have done Cargill's homework for them,'' but said they still haven't acted adequately.

Cargill told the Bureau: '' Cargill does not and will not supply soya from farmers who clear land in protected areas. We have controls to prevent non-compliant products from entering Cargill's and our customers' supply chains '... We have the same expectations of our suppliers.''

Concerns about Cargill

A way from its soya operation, Cargill is also one of the world's top three meat packers '' a practice where missteps can be fatal. In 2000 , seven people died, 29 were sickened and three w omen had stillbirths or miscarriages linked to a listeria outbreak in sliced turkey from a Cargill processing plant in Texas. The same year , a three-year-old girl died and 140 others became ill after eating E coli-tainted meat supplied by a Cargill meat-packing plant that had a number of previous citations for faecal contamination. A salmonella outbreak across 37 states in 2011 resulted in another death linked to Cargill-processed meat .

In 2009, The New York Times found that Cargill-supplied hamburgers contaminated with E coli had been made from a mish-mash of cheap scraps more likely to have contact with faeces, some of which had been doused in ammonia to kill bacteria . The process saved Cargill 25% in costs b ut left one consumer paralyzed from the waist down .

A t the time, a Cargill spokesperson told The New York Times : ''We are committed to continuous improvement in the area of food safety.''

A worker trims beef during her shift in manufacturing at a Cargill meat-packing plant in Colorado, US. Photo: Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images. Even though safety protocols are generally followed, the industrialised meat industry in the US is more prone to outbreaks than in Europe, largely because livestock densities are higher and hygiene standards lower .

A ntibiotics are used liberally, not just to treat unwell livestock but to stop infections developing at all . U sing antibiotics in food production enables bacteria to develop resistance, meaning the drugs will be less effective in humans. Antibiotic resistance is one of the gravest global public health threats, estimated to kill up to 700,000 people each year .

Cargill publicly states that it ''supports the prudent and responsible use of antibiotics to help ensure a safe, nutritious and affordable food supply worldwide'' and that it is ''committed not to use antibiotics that are critically important for human medicines as defined by the World Health Organization''. However, in 2018, a Bureau investigation found that samples from animals slaughtered in Cargill meat-packing plants revealed 11 different antibiotic substances w hich had been in use w ithin the company's supply chains '' including three classified as being critically important to human health.

Meat industry representatives told the Bureau it was impossible to make meaningful conclusions from the data. The samples only indicated the presence of antibiotics, they pointed out, with no information about why they were administered. Sometimes it was necessary to use critical antibiotics, they said, and all drugs used were approved for use in animals .

We had a dignified life, with forest around us, our streams, and enough food for our people to eat. With the arrival of agribusiness'... things became much more difficult

Cargill has also violated various US environmental laws in recent years. N oxious waste from hog farms and fertiliser plants has been spilled into creeks and streams, including in Missouri and Illinois and bays from San Francisco to Tampa , killing countless fish and fouling up wildlife refuges, wetlands and reserves. ''It looked like ink, the water,'' a farmer said of a 2012 hog waste spill in Illinois. ''There were fish all over the place, dead. It wasn't fit for nothing. Not even a wild animal could drink out of it.''

Air pollution has also been an issue. In 2005, the company reached a settlement with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), following a complaint alleging that it had significantly underestimated its emissions of carbon monoxide and pollutants at oilseed processing plants in 13 states. Ten years later, Cargill agreed to settle with the EPA over alleged Clean Air Act violations '' this time for allegedly failing to meet regulations governing pharmaceutical emissions standards at its vitamin E manufacturing facility in Iowa. In both cases the company made no admission of liability.

David MacLennan is Cargill's ninth CEO and has been in the position since 2013. Photo: Riccardo Savi/GettyMighty Earth documented these infractions, along with many more, last summer in a report that declared Cargill to be ''the worst company in the world'''' in response to which the Cargill CEO, David MacLennan, made pledges regarding deforestation.

''Not much has changed since then,'' said Hurowitz. ''We've worked to change many companies in different industries, and we have never had the experience of a CEO making a strong commitment to act and then utterly failing to follow through.''

Exploiting the global south

In the wealthy global north, Cargill's negative impact has been largely limited to food contamination and environmental pollution. But the global south has experienced the more w ide-reaching effects of commodity agriculture.

Perhaps most shockingly there has been an allegation that a farm supplying Cargill has used child enslaved labour. Cargill denies any wrongdoing.

Over two thirds of the world's cocoa is produced by smallholders in west Africa, and Cargill is one of the world's largest traders of the commodity . In December, the US supreme court is scheduled to hear a case, first filed in 2005, alleging that Cargill was one of two major companies to have ''aided and abetted'' child slavery in west Africa. Six cocoa farmers allege that they were trafficked as children in the 1990s from Mali to Ivory Coast, where they were forced to work unpaid on plantations and severely physically abused by guards. Cargill is defending the claim against it.

International Rights Advocates (IRA), which is representing the claimants, alleges that Cargill knew that the farms it was using were accused of exploiting child slaves, yet continued to do business with them.

''As hard as it is to believe in the year 2020, Cargill [is] asking the supreme court to overrule centuries of law, and hold that corporations are immune from human rights crimes under international law,'' Terry Collingsworth, executive director of IRA, told Unearthed. ''In other w ords, they want the supreme court to legalise slavery for corporations so they can continue to profit from the child slaves currently harvesting their cocoa in [Ivory Coast].''

A bag of cocoa for Cargill waits at a warehouse at the port in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast is the world's largest cocoa producer. Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Getty Last year Cargill announced a $113m investment to expand its cocoa processing sites in west Africa, including $12m to improve traceability and sustainability of supply chains, including measures to tackle slave labour.

Like soya, the cocoa trade has driven the destruction of forests. A 2017 Mighty Earth investigation found that cocoa purchased by Cargill and others via a series of third parties had been grown in illegally deforested protected areas in Ivory Coast. In 2017, Cargill pledged to immediately end sourcing from national parks and to restore forests in Ivory Coast and Ghana. But Mighty Earth reported that: ''A year later '... we found that in many places, deforestation had actually increased since Cargill announced its commitment,'' said the report .

Cargill has also been linked to slave-like labour conditions in Brazilian cocoa plantations.

Agribusiness on the scale of Cargill's tends to benefit wealthy and well-connected producers , and requires huge tracts of land '' often in countries where land tenure has historically been insecure for poor rural workers .

Highly concentrated land ownership has long been a catalyst for conflict in Brazil . In the Amazon state of Par, Cargill's operations '' including the construction of a huge port on the Tapaj"s River able to ship 5m tonnes of soya per year '' have driven soya development but have also been linked to concerns over local land disputes and pressure on indigenous territories.

View of an area of Cargill's operations on the Tapajos River in Santarem, Para state, Brazil, on September 16, 2019. Photo: Nelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Par's Munduruku do Planalto Santareno is an indigenous territory that still hasn't been formally demarcated . It is surrounded by soya and corn fields, and tribal leaders report frequent threats from farmers and land-grabbers.

In August, Chief Manoel Munduruku told Unearthed that the arrival of large-scale soya farming on their ancestral land had transformed almost every aspect of their lives: their forests had been razed, their streams had silted up and pesticides had been sprayed mere metres from their homes and crops. ''We had a dignified life, with forest around us, our streams, and enough food for our people to eat,'' he said. ''With the arrival of agribusiness within our territory, things became much more difficult, more complicated.''

In September 2018, 10 farmers linked to the Rural Union of Santar(C)m (SIRSAN) sued Brazil's National Indian Foundation over the Munduruku demarcation process, claiming to own part of the land within Munduruku-claimed territory. Amazon Watch suggested that these farmers were allegedly potential Cargill suppliers . ''All producers in our region are registered with Cargill,'' SIRSAN's president has said. SIRSAN did not reply to a request for comment .

Further south, Cargill sources soya from tenant farmers on Agroneg"cio Estrondo , a sprawling estate twice the size of Greater London at the heart of the Cerrado soya deforestation frontier in western Bahia . Families who have lived on the land for more than a century say the Estrondo estate has in effect corralled them into a valley, criss-crossing the land on which they used to freely forage and graze animals with fences, and there have been allegations of violence by private security guards. Brazil's land reform agency has raised concerns over aspects of the original p urchase in 1978 ; if validated , it could be one of the biggest land-grabs in Brazilian history.

Estrondo said it disapproved of acts of violence. A spokesperson said: ''In 2010, a private security company was hired to provide property security for the project and ensure the safety of workers and residents of the project, when they became victims of invasions, thefts and destruction.'' It added that disputes over the land were still going through the courts.

Full pockets, empty promises

Looking over its history, it seems astonishing that criticisms of Cargill are not more well known. But the company is a master at managing information 110 , not least its own public profile . The image of the plucky family firm striving to feed the world is one Cargill has cultivated for decades, said Lansing. ''It has taken on different guises from the 1960s but the message is basically the same: 'we are doing the world a favour.'''

If you haven't seen Cargill's sustainability promotional video from 2017 , you can probably imagine what's in it. It cuts together shots of cheerful farmers all over the world, examining soybeans and striding through sunlit crops, punctuated by images of verdant landscapes. The music is swelling, optimistic, bland. It lists Cargill's four priorities for building a sustainable future: climate change, land use, water resources, farmer livelihoods. It is convincing.

Campaigners say there is a real and present danger in this approach. Cargill may be under pressure to operate sustainably but for the pressure to be effective it must have commercial consequences: it must come from Cargill's customers . Yet Cargill talks so much about sustainability that its customers '' the shops and restaurants where we buy our food '' may well believe the job is already done.

''It has been really hard for us, no matter how much evidence we assemble about deforestation or child labour, for customers to believe it,'' said Hurowitz. ''[Cargill's] greenwashing has b rainwashed their customers.''

Get our latest investigations and all the environmental headlines in your inbox every weekday morningSign up to receive daily news emails and occasional breaking news emails from our reporters

We promise that we'll never sell or swap your details and you can opt out at any time '' check our privacy policy.

Thanks for signing up

Error, please try again

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 05:32

Family business profile, written for the Creaghan McConnell Group:

It's the largest commodities trader in the world, employs 155,000 people, and operates around the globe in a wide range of industries. Sales and other revenues totaled US$114 billion in fiscal year 2018, making it the largest privately held U.S. company by revenue, according to Forbes.

Chances are, you've had a taste of one of its products at some point in your day. An egg from McDonald's. Or a Coke, or a beer. Or anything salted, sweetened, preserved, emulsified, or with added texture.

Candy bars, pretzels, canned soup, yogurts, ice cream '' all include food additives that probably come from the company's line of food ingredients '' a business that, on its own, was worth $50 billion in 2015.

And there's a decent chance you've never heard of it.

The company '' and the family business '' is Cargill.

THE REMARKABLE STORY OF CARGILLThrough its long history, Cargill has remained notoriously quiet. We rarely hear about the 100-plus Cargill and MacMillan family members that control the company. We'd be hard-pressed to locate Wayzata, Minnesota (where Cargill is headquartered) on a map.

The company has a sustained record of innovation and growth that has spanned more than a century and a half '' all while staying private. It's a remarkable accomplishment for a business today '' especially for one of Cargill's size '' when the pressure to go public can be overwhelming.

It hasn't been always easy. Cargill, like entities owned by most business families, has endured its share of internal struggles about how the business should be run. Cargill has the added challenge of having more than 100 different family members that own shares in the company. Wrangling consensus with that many stakeholders can be challenging at the best of times. When family relationships and money are on the line, the obstacles become even more significant.

Over the years, there has been occasional discord between the two owner families, the Cargills and the MacMillans. As the family (and business) have grown, so have the pressures from some younger family members to go public and ''cash out.'' Through it all, Cargill has found creative ways to manage, grow '' and to endure. The family has bridged its divides with imaginative solutions, including creating a family office that helps manage the needs of the family and fosters engagement and learning among the younger generations.

The story of how the Cargills and the MacMillans have managed their issues and committed to a long-term vision to keep Cargill innovative '' starting from a single grain warehouse in Iowa '' is impressive. It's an inspirational example of how successful business families persist and succeed.

So, let's look at a bit of its history.

A history of agricultural innovation William Wallace Cargill founded Cargill Inc. in 1865, at the end of the U.S. civil war. He owned a single grain storage warehouse at the end of a lonely rail line in Conover, Iowa.

Grain warehousing was a novel concept at the time. Most farmers lacked the resources to store their own product, and were at the whim of transports and market prices. If they couldn't move their grain in a timely manner, it would sit and rot, or sell at discounted prices when they were finally able to move it. Cargill offered fair rates to farmers for their grain, and then stored it until the time was right to sell at a profit.

As the railway moved west, so did Cargill, building more warehouses, terminals, and grain elevators. Three major terminals were built in Minnesota alone.

The MacMillan family joined the ranks in 1895 when W.W.'s daughter, Edna, married John MacMillan, who took over the company when W.W. died. Later, when MacMillan inherited the company in 1912, the company was over-leveraged. It was also facing a failed investment in a Montana irrigation project that had left Cargill's financials in dire straits. To keep the company afloat and bankers confident, MacMillan restructured the company. He renegotiated loans, extended debt payments, and sold off less profitable parts of the company.

One particular move by MacMillan had a lasting impact '' a change to Cargill's leadership structure. The MacMillan in-laws were given controlling shares in the company, while the Cargill family members became minority shareholders.

Within six years, Cargill had paid off all of its debt and was growing again.

Through the early 20th century, Cargill made big bets in new markets and technologies. The company acquired a grain merchandising firm with a private wire communication system in 1923, a strong competitive edge at the time. After World War II, Cargill diversified, acquiring a feed business and a soybean meal and oilseed processing plant.

Cargill's fast growth continued. From 1950 to 1980, it expanded aggressively around the globe, establishing separate companies in Europe and Asia, all while developing a centralized research and development arm of the company. In the 1960s, for the first time, the family decided to hire an outsider to run Cargill. Erwin Kelm is credited with modernizing the company, and moving it into these new markets.

The last member of the family to run the business was Whitney MacMillan, who oversaw a significant expansion of Cargill's product lines, into industries including chemicals, cocoa, coffee, financial services, peanuts, petroleum, poultry, rubber, steel, and wool. He retired in 1995.

Relentless change Today Cargill operates in 70 countries. The company has topped the Forbes list for privately- held companies an astonishing 28 out of the last 30 years. Beyond grain and oilseed processing and commodities trading, Cargill is invested in steel, financial markets, risk management, ocean transport, salt, bio industrial, food and specialty ingredients, animal feed, pharmaceuticals, beauty and personal care, and meat and poultry.

A key to its success has been a continuous discipline (and willingness) to innovate.

Playing the middleman between farmers and their customers was a lucrative business model for many years, but today farmers can find the price of grain or weather patterns anywhere in the world with a few clicks on their smartphones. Digital disruption has come to agriculture just as it has in most other industries.

Leading the charge, Cargill continues to invest in innovative new technologies and look to future global demand. The 154-year-old company now sells facial recognition software to enable farmers to identify individual cows and monitor their food intake and milk production. Another app helps assess the quality of animal feed. And the company has a new system, iQuatic, that works underwater at shrimp farms, monitoring water movement to determine when food should be automatically dispensed.

In 2018 the four largest agribusinesses in the world '' Archer-Daniels-M+idland Co., Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Co., known as the ABCDs of the industry '' joined together to standardize and digitize trade. These companies are now looking for ways to cut costs and increase transparency using blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Cargill is also betting big on a growing global demand for protein. The company is already the world's largest supplier of ground beef, and second-largest beef packer. But now Cargill is also investing heavily in aquaculture, most notably acquiring Norwegian company Ewos, one of

the largest salmon feed producers in the world, for $1.5 billion in 2015. It has also invested in Memphis Meats Inc., a ''clean food'' company, that grows chicken, duck, and beef directly from animal cells, without raising and slaughtering livestock, and Puris, a company that produces non-GMO and organic proteins from peas and other vegetables.

Of late, animal feed and proteins have been Cargill's largest source of revenue, accounting for two-thirds of net income, the largest contributor to earnings in the last two fiscal years. Analysts believe the company will see less and less of its revenue come from commodities trading in the years to come.

A massive firm, still privately owned Today, roughly 100 members of the Cargill and MacMillan families control about 90 per cent of the shares in the company. The remainder is made up by an employee stock ownership plan and shares owned by management.

The company pays its family members 20 per cent of annual returns in dividends, with the balance consistently reinvested in the company. Compared to other companies, family members receive very little '' payouts often reach as high as 50 per cent at other companies in the S&P 500. But the Cargill and MacMillan families have committed to focus on the company's sustainable long-term growth over their own immediate benefit.

Harmony between the Cargills and MacMillans has, at times, been a challenge, despite the company's success. Like many family-controlled enterprises, there have been occasional disputes and tension over influence in the company. Some Cargills believe that their family business was ''stolen'' from them, while some MacMillans have felt that their work in ''saving'' the business has gone unnoticed and unappreciated.

But these conflicts have also highlighted the need for the families to come together with a shared vision for the growth and success of Cargill Inc. So they formed Waycrosse, a family office that serves the interests of the families. Originally designed to only provide financial and professional advice, today Waycrosse also organizes training and education programs for the three living generations. It also actively works to ensure family members not working in the company are engaged with the business '' through education programs, meetings, plant tours, and task forces.

It's a big job. Cargill Inc. now has seventh- generation owners. Fourteen Cargill family members are said to be billionaires '' ''one of the largest concentrations of wealth in any family- controlled business anywhere in the world,'' according to Bloomberg.

Even so, with each successive generation, the pieces of the Cargill ownership pie get smaller and smaller. A parent who once owned one- ninth of the company may now be splitting it among, two, three, or four children. Many privately-held firms have gone public by this stage, with younger family members having less personal attachment to the family business, favouring instead to take their large payouts and leave. But Cargill's current CEO, David MacLennan, says the family has no intention of taking the company public any time soon.

It hasn't always been that way.

Ongoing liquidity challenges for the family Even though total shareholder equity was valued at US$33 billion in 2018, some shareholders have struggled even to obtain a mortgage because their assets are not liquid. They're tied up in shares in the business. On two occasions the company has had to contend with family members who wanted Cargill to go public so that they could cash in.

The situation was diffused once (in 1992) when Cargill created an employee stock plan, allowing family shareholders to sell 17 per cent of their stock for $700 million. And then again, in 2006, the family faced a similar problem, this time because of the death of a family member, who also happened to be the largest shareholder. Margaret A. Cargill, who owned 17 per cent of the company, died with no heirs. Her shares went into a trust, with the primary beneficiary being the Margaret A. Cargill (MAC) Foundation.

Before Margaret's death, Cargill had already identified the need to meet the family and company's liquidity and investment needs, while also remaining private. In 2004 Cargill created Mosaic, a fertilizer company, which was the merger of an existing Cargill fertilizer operation with a publicly listed firm. It was the first time any part of Cargill was publicly listed.

Eventually, the MAC Foundation chose to diversify its holdings, and rid itself of the large share in Cargill. So Cargill made a deal to trade off its position in Mosaic. Approximately $12 billion in Mosaic shares were transferred to the foundation and other family shareholders, in exchange for Margaret's 17 per cent stake in Cargill. Another $7 billion from the Mosaic sale was used to pay down some of Cargill's debt.

And so Cargill endures, year after year, at the top of the Forbes list for privately controlled businesses.

That the Cargill and MacMillan families have consistently worked through their differences in the interests of growing the company for so long '' and so consistently '' is a testament to their focus on the long term.

The pressures to go public will inevitably resurface, and the company will have to remain vigilant and nimble to address this ongoing challenge. As the family continues to grow, there will be more and more shareholders holding less and less of the company. And family liquidity will be an ongoing concern.

But if the last 154 years have been any indication, Cargill Inc. looks well equipped to handle whatever comes its way.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER FOR YOUR BUSINESS: 1. How will you keep your family business private, in the face of pressures to go public

from shareholders?

2. Do your family members believe in the company's growth strategy, and will

they support it?

3. How is your family addressing its own liquidity challenges?

Sarah Reid is a freelance writer based in Toronto.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 00:41

Humans share many things with their dogs, from the sofa to cuddles and quality time. But it seems the list of joint experiences may also include coronavirus infections.

Experts say they have detected the first case in the UK of a pet dog catching coronavirus, apparently from its owners. The canine's infection was confirmed after testing on 3 November.

It is not the first time that pets have tested positive for the virus; the same laboratory detected coronavirus in a cat last year, while research from the Netherlands has previously suggested that the virus is common in cats and dogs owned by people who have Covid.

Some experts have suggested owners with Covid should avoid their pets to prevent spreading the virus to them, and have raised concerns the animals could act as a reservoir of the virus, potentially passing it back to humans.

The UK's chief veterinary officer, Dr Christine Middlemiss, said coronavirus was confirmed in a pet dog in the UK after tests at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey.

''The infected dog was undergoing treatment for another unrelated condition and is recovering,'' she said.

However, it seems owners need not be too worried. ''It is very rare for dogs to be infected and they will usually only show mild clinical signs and recover within a few days. There is no clear evidence to suggest that pets directly transmit the virus to humans,'' said Middlemiss. ''We will continue to monitor this situation closely and will update our guidance to pet owners should the situation change.''

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also suggests there is little risk of catching Covid from a pet. ''Based on the available information to date, the risk of animals spreading Covid-19 to people is considered to be low,'' it states.

However it appears transmission can, at least sometimes, go the other way. ''Covid-19 is predominantly spread from person to person, but in some situations the virus can spread from people to animals,'' said Dr Katherine Russell, consultant epidemiologist at the UK Health Security Agency.

''In line with general public health guidance, you should wash your hands regularly, including before and after contact with animals,'' she said.

Prof Rowland Kao, of the University of Edinburgh, said there was little sign that coronavirus infections in dogs were of concern.

''In order [for these infections in dogs] to be important for transmission there has to be contact, and production of virus,'' he said. ''If dogs were getting seriously infected often, we probably would have seen it before now. The fact that it hasn't happened that much yet, with so much infection and so many people at home with their pets [suggests] it's probably not an issue.''

Kao added that to be a reservoir of the virus, dogs would need to circulate the virus amongst themselves, for example in kennels '' although Kao said dogs may not yet have returned in large numbers. ''If they have, and we still haven't seen much infection transmission, again it would seem to make it unlikely,'' he said.

Cats and dogs are not the only animals to have caught coronavirus. ''More recently, a big study has shown that white-tailed deer are probably circulating it among themselves in the US,'' said Kao.

Outbreaks of coronavirus on mink farms led to mass culling of the animals in countries including Denmark, with the World Health Organization warning in February that there was a high risk of introduction and the spread of the coronavirus from fur farming to humans.

The CDC says mink to human transmission has been reported in countries including the Netherlands, Denmark, and Poland, adding there is a possibility of mink spreading the virus to people on mink farms.

But, the agency notes: ''Currently, there is no evidence that mink play a significant role in the spread of Sars-CoV-2 to people.''

Prof James Wood, the head of the department of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, said there was increasing evidence that asymptomatic and undetected infection of dogs and cats in households with human cases were actually quite common.

But he added: ''The fact that they are common, perhaps counterintuitively, combined with their very rare real-time detection emphasises that they are generally not at all serious,'' he said.

''Detailed risk assessments and understandings of these findings suggest that the risk of onward transmission to other pets or humans from dogs and cats is highly unlikely to occur. There is absolutely no suggestion that our pet animals will become reservoirs in the way that ferrets and white-tailed deer in Iowa have become.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 23:51

This Day in History

Time Periods: People's Movement: 1961 - 1974

Themes: African American, Laws & Citizen Rights, Sports, Wars & Related Anti-War Movements

On June 4, 1967, Muhammad Ali and a group of leading African American athletes held a press conference in Cleveland after Ali announced he was refusing to serve in the U.S. military in Vietnam.

(front row) Russell, Ali, Brown and Lew Alcindor (now Abdul-Jabbar). Back row (left to right): Stokes, Walter Beach, Bobby Mitchell, Sid Williams, Curtis McClinton, Willie Davis, Jim Shorter, and John Wooten.

Ali saw the war in Vietnam as an exercise in genocide. He also used his platform as boxing champion to connect the war abroad with the war at home, saying, ''Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?''

Dubbed the Ali summit, the meeting happened roughly a month after Ali refused to step forward at an induction ceremony in Houston after being drafted into the U.S. military and a few weeks before he was convicted.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, and Carl Stokes were some of the athletes and political figures involved in the meeting. Watch a short documentary from Uninterrupted about the meeting below.Below are resources for teaching about sports and here are resources for teaching about the Vietnam War and anti-war movement.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 21:59

Name in the US for the Friday following Thanksgiving Day

Black FridayObserved byTraditionally:[1]United StatesOthers:Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Africa, Benelux, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico (as El Buen Fin), and increasingly many other parts of the world.

TypeCommercialSignificanceShopping holidayCelebrationsShoppingDateDay after U.S. Thanksgiving2020 dateNovember 27 ( 2020-11-27 ) 2021 dateNovember 26 ( 2021-11-26 ) 2022 dateNovember 25 ( 2022-11-25 ) 2023 dateNovember 24 ( 2023-11-24 ) FrequencyAnnualRelated toThanksgiving, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, Christmas, Buy Nothing DayBlack Friday is a colloquial term for the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales on Black Friday and open very early (sometimes as early as midnight[2]), or some time on Thanksgiving Day.

Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States since at least 2005.[3][4][5]

Origin of the term Black Friday [ edit ] The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday originated in Philadelphia, dating back to 1961, where it was used by police to describe the heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.[6][7][8][9]

Since the early 21st century, there have been attempts by US-based retailers to introduce a retail "Black Friday" to other countries around the world. Retailers outside the US have attempted to promote the day to remain competitive with US-based online retailers.[10]For centuries, the adjective "black" has been applied to days upon which calamities occurred. Many events have been described as "Black Friday", although the most significant such event in American history was the Panic of 1869, which occurred when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk took advantage of their connections with the Grant Administration in an attempt to corner the gold market. When President Grant learned of this manipulation, he ordered the Treasury to release a large supply of gold, which halted the run and caused prices to drop by eighteen percent. Fortunes were made and lost in a single day, and the president's own brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, was ruined.

The earliest known use of "Black Friday" to refer to the day after Thanksgiving occurred in the journal, Factory Management and Maintenance, for November 1951, and again in 1952. Here it referred to the practice of workers calling in sick on the day after Thanksgiving, in order to have a four-day weekend. However, this use does not appear to have caught on. Around the same time, the terms "Black Friday" and "Black Saturday" came to be used by the police in Philadelphia and Rochester to describe the crowds and traffic congestion accompanying the start of the Christmas shopping season. In 1961, the city and merchants of Philadelphia attempted to improve conditions, and a public relations expert recommended rebranding the days "Big Friday" and "Big Saturday"; but these terms were quickly forgotten.[7][8][11][12]

The use of the phrase spread slowly, first appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 1975, in which it still refers specifically to "the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year" in Philadelphia. Although it soon became more widespread, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 1985 that retailers in Cincinnati and Los Angeles were still unaware of the term.[13]

As the phrase gained national attention in the early 1980s, merchants objecting to the use of a derisive term to refer to one of the most important shopping days of the year suggested an alternative derivation: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving.[7] When this was recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period when retailers would no longer be "in the red", instead of taking in the year's profits.[7][13][14] The earliest known published reference to this explanation occurs in The Philadelphia Inquirer for November 28, 1981.[15]

In more recent decades global retailers have adopted the term and date to market their own holiday sales.[16]

History [ edit ] The day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the beginning of the United States Christmas shopping season since 1952. The practice may be linked with the idea of Santa Claus parades. Parades celebrating Thanksgiving often include an appearance by Santa at the end of the parade, with the idea that "Santa has arrived" or "Santa is just around the corner" because Christmas is always the next major holiday following Thanksgiving.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Santa or Thanksgiving Day parades were sponsored by department stores. These included the Toronto Santa Claus Parade, in Canada, sponsored by Eaton's, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsored by Macy's. Department stores would use the parades to launch a big advertising push. Eventually, it became an unwritten rule that no store would try doing Christmas advertising before the parade was over. Therefore, the day after Thanksgiving became the day when the shopping season officially started.

Thanksgiving Day's relationship to Christmas shopping led to controversy in the 1930s. Retail stores would have liked to have a longer shopping season, but no store wanted to break with tradition and be the one to start advertising before Thanksgiving. For this reason, in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a presidential proclamation proclaiming Thanksgiving to be the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last Thursday, meaning in some years one week earlier, in order to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.[17] Most people adopted the President's change, which was later reinforced by an act of Congress, but many continued to celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the traditional date.[17] Some started referring to the new date as Franksgiving.

In 2015, Amazon.com was the first to offer "Black Friday in July" deals on what they called "Prime Day", promising better deals than on Black Friday. Amazon repeated the practice in 2016 and 2017, and other companies began offering similar deals.[18]

Analyst Marshal Cohen of The NPD Group claimed in 2020 that Black Friday is declining in favor of online shopping,[19] and that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this process. The pandemic also resulted in holiday deals being offered over a longer period of time, even as early as October.[20] Fewer people shopped in person on Black Friday 2020, and most business took place online. Market research company Numerator said sellers of clothing, tools and other items considered nonessential during lockdowns were not promoted as heavily because lower production meant less available to sell.[21] Adobe Analytics reported that online sales reached $9 billion in 2020, 22% more than the previous year. Foot traffic to stores fell 48% in 2020 from last year, according to RetailNext, while Sensormatic Solutions reported a 52% decrease.[22]

"Black Thursday" [ edit ] For many years, retailers pushed opening times on Black Friday earlier and earlier, eventually reaching midnight, before opening on the evening of Thanksgiving. In 2009, Kmart opened at 7 pm on Thanksgiving, in order to allow shoppers to avoid Black Friday traffic and return home in time for dinner with their families. Two years later, a number of retailers began opening at 8 pm or 9 pm, on what became derisively known as "Black Thursday". In subsequent years, other stores have followed this trend, opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day, or remaining open all day, beginning in the early morning hours.[23][24] Some retail and media sources have used the terms "Gray Thursday" or "Brown Thursday" instead.[25][26][27]

The 2014 "Black Thursday" sales were generally a failure, as overall sales for the holiday weekend fell 11% compared to the previous year despite heavy traffic at the stores on Thanksgiving night.[28] In response, a number of retailers decided to go back to closing on Thanksgiving for 2015, and Walmart, although it is holding firm opening on the holiday and holding its sale, also pledged to offer the same deals online for those who wished to stay home.[29]

Most retailers abandoned efforts to hold doorbuster sales on Thanksgiving in 2020; large crowds have been forbidden under most circumstances since March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, major retailers such as Walmart and Target had already reduced their hours and dropped 24/7 operations in response to the pandemic, and several retailers known for opening on the holiday (particularly Kmart, which has typically been open regular hours) have rapidly declined.[30] According to Adobe Analytics, online shopping set a record on Thanksgiving Day 2020 with $5.1 billion in total spending, 21.5 percent higher than in 2019.[21]

Black Friday around the world [ edit ] High discounts at a store during Black Friday

United States [ edit ] Interior of a

Target store on Black Friday

Black Friday shoppers in the morning at

Walmart store in Durham, North Carolina

Black Friday is not an official holiday in the United States, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees. It is sometimes observed in lieu of another federal holiday, such as Columbus Day. Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off. Along with the following regular weekend, this makes Black Friday weekend a four-day weekend, which is said to increase the number of potential shoppers.

The SouthPark neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, is the most trafficked area of the United States on Black Friday.[31][32]

Black Friday is a shopping day for a combination of reasons. As the first day after the last major holiday before Christmas, it marks the unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Additionally, many employers give their employees the day off as part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In order to take advantage of this, virtually all retailers in the country, big and small, offer various sales including limited amounts of "doorbuster" items to entice traffic.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6 a.m, but in the late 2000s many opened at 4 am - 5 am. The early 2010s have seen retailers extend beyond normal hours in order to maintain an edge or to simply keep up with the competition. In 2010, Toys 'R' Us began their Black Friday sales at 10 pm on Thanksgiving Day and further upped the ante by offering free boxes of Crayola crayons and coloring books for as long as supplies lasted. Other retailers, like Sears, Express, MK, Victoria's Secret, Zumiez, Tillys, American Eagle Outfitters, Nike, Jordan, Puma, A(C)ropostale, and Kmart, began Black Friday sales early Thanksgiving morning and ran them through as late as 11 pm Friday evening. Forever 21 went in the opposite direction, opening at normal hours on Friday, and running late sales until 2 am Saturday morning.[33][34] In 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl's, Macy's, Best Buy, and Bealls)[2] opened at midnight for the first time.[35] In 2012, Walmart and several other retailers announced that they would open most of their stores at 8 pm on Thanksgiving Day, prompting calls for a walkout among some workers.[36] In 2014, stores such as JCPenney, Best Buy, and Radio Shack opened at 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day while stores such as Target, Walmart, Belk, and Sears opened at 7 pm on Thanksgiving Day.[37][38] Three states'--Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts'--prohibit large supermarkets, big box stores, and department stores from opening on Thanksgiving, in what has been referred to as a legacy of blue laws.[39][40] A bill to allow stores to open on Thanksgiving Day was the subject of a public hearing on July 8, 2017.[41]

Historically, it was common for Black Friday sales to extend throughout the following weekend. However, this practice has largely disappeared in recent years, perhaps because of an effort by retailers to create a greater sense of urgency.

The news media usually give heavy play to reports of Black Friday shopping and their implications for the commercial success of the Christmas shopping season, but the relationship between Black Friday sales and retail sales for the full holiday season is quite weak and may even be negative.[42]

In 2014, spending volume on Black Friday fell for the first time since the 2008 recession. $50.9 billion was spent during the four-day Black Friday weekend, down 11% from the previous year. However, the U.S. economy was not in a recession. Christmas creep has been cited as a factor in the diminishing importance of Black Friday, as many retailers now spread out their promotions over the entire months of November and December rather than concentrate them on a single shopping day or weekend.[43]

On April 23, 2014, ".blackfriday" joined a growing list of ICANN top-level domains (such as'--traditionally'--.com, .net, and .org).[44][45]

In 2015, Neil Stern of McMillan Doolittle said, "Black Friday is quickly losing its meaning on many fronts," because many stores opened on Thanksgiving, and a lot of sales started even earlier than that. Online shopping also made the day less important.[46] A Gallup poll in 2012 has shown that only 18% of American adults planned to shop during Black Friday.[47]

Canada [ edit ] The large population centers on Lake Ontario and the Lower Mainland in Canada have always attracted cross-border shopping into the United States, and as Black Friday (French: Vendredi Noir) became more popular in the U.S., Canadians often flocked over the border because of their lower prices and a stronger Canadian dollar. After 2001, many were traveling for the deals across the border. Starting in 2008 and 2009, due to the parity of the Canadian dollar compared with the American dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday deals of their own to discourage shoppers from leaving Canada.[48][49]

The year 2012 saw the biggest Black Friday to date in Canada, as Canadian retailers embraced it in an attempt to keep shoppers from travelling across the border.[50]

Before the advent of Black Friday in Canada, the most comparable holiday was Boxing Day in terms of retailer impact and consumerism. Black Fridays in the U.S. seem to provide deeper or more extreme price cuts than Canadian retailers, even for the same international retailer.

United Kingdom [ edit ] In the United Kingdom, the term "Black Friday" originated within the Police and NHS to refer to the Friday before Christmas. It is the day when emergency services activate contingency plans to cope with the increase in workload due to many people going out drinking on the last Friday before Christmas. Contingencies can include setting up mobile field hospitals near City Centre nightspots.[51] The term has then been adopted outside those services to refer to the evening and night of the Friday immediately before Christmas, and would now be considered a mainstream term and not simply as jargon of the emergency services.

Traditionally, Boxing Day had been considered the biggest shopping day of the year in the UK. In the 2010s, several American-owned retailers such as Amazon and Asda, began to hold U.S.-style Black Friday promotions; in 2014, more British retailers began to adopt the concept, including Argos, John Lewis, and Very. That year, police forces were called to shops across Britain to deal with crowd control issues, assaults, threatening customers, and traffic issues.[52][53] In response to incidents at branches of Tesco, Greater Manchester Police's deputy chief constable Ian Hopkins said shoppers had behaved in an "appalling" fashion, and criticized shops for not making adequate security arrangements to ensure the safety of customers."[54] Following these incidents, some retailers began to discontinue or heavily modify their promotions, with Asda stating that it would not hold all of its sales across a single day.[55][56][57]

In 2016, total spending on online retail sites on Black Friday was £1.23 billion, a 2.2% year-over-year increase over 2015.[58][59] In 2017, UK retail sales in November grew faster than in December for the first time[60][61]

In Welsh, Black Friday is known as 'Dydd Gwener y Gwario Gwirion' (Silly Spending Friday).[62]

Mexico [ edit ] In Mexico, Black Friday was the inspiration for the government and retailing industry to create an annual weekend of discounts and extended credit terms, El Buen Fin, meaning "the good weekend" in Spanish.[63] El Buen Fin has been in existence since 2011 and takes place on November in the weekend prior to the Monday in which the Mexican Revolution holiday is pushed from its original date of November 20, as a result of the measure taken by the government of pushing certain holidays to the Monday of their week in order to avoid the workers and students to make a "larger" weekend (for example, not attending in a Friday after a Thursday holiday, thus making a four-day weekend). On this weekend, major retailers extend their store hours[64] and offer special promotions, including extended credit terms and price promotions.

Romania [ edit ] The concept was imported in Romania by eMAG [ro] and Flanco in 2011 and became bigger each year. The two reported the biggest Black Friday sales in 2014. eMAG sold products worth some 37 million euros while Flanco's sales totaled 22 million euros. Hundreds of retailers announced their participation in the 2015 campaign.[65]

In 2015, 11 million Romanians say they have heard about Black Friday which is 73% of the 15 million people target segment. 6.7 million plan on buying something on biggest shopping event of the year in Romania.[66]

In Romania, Black Friday is one week before the US Black Friday.

India [ edit ] Black Friday is little known in India, as its shopping seasons are different. The busiest times for shopping in India (and hence the times with the biggest discounts) tend to be Diwali, followed by regional festivals like Durga Pujo in West Bengal, Ugadi, Dussehra, and Pongal in South India, Ganeshotsav in Maharashtra, Baisakhi in Punjab and Onam in Kerala. Over the past decade, Independence day sales (on 15 August) have become a large attraction, though most sales in India last for a period of one week.[67]

The growing number of e-commerce websites and large retail shopping centers has contributed to such sales. The big e-commerce retailers in India are trying to emulate the concept of shopping festivals from the United States like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon have been offering discounted products on the major festivals in India. December witnesses the Great Online Shopping Festival (also called GOSF) for three days where people shop from all the major e-commerce players and large FMCG brands. From 2015, Google has now stopped the GOSF.[68] The aim was to bring leading e-commerce players on a single platform and boost online shopping in India. Survey[69] during GOSF 2014 suggests that 90% of consumers were satisfied with the exclusive discounts offered in GOSF. According to Google Trends, the interest for Black Friday is rising every year. Comparing the search volume of the term Black Friday in November 2012 and November 2013, the increase is almost 50 percent (22,200 is the search volume in November 2012 and 33,100 is the search volume in November 2013, according to the Google Adwords).

France [ edit ] French businesses are slowly introducing the Black Friday custom into the market.[70] Discounts of up to 85% were given by retailing giants such as Apple and Amazon in 2014.[71] French electronics retailers such as FNAC and Auchan advertised deals online, while Darty also took part in this once-a-year monster sale. Retailers favored the very American term "Black Friday" to "Vendredi noir" in their advertisements.[72] In 2016, because of the terror attacks in Paris in November the year before, some retailers used the name "Jour XXL" (XXL day) instead of Black Friday.[73] An alternative was brought up by some online businesses in 2018, called "French Days",[74] which goal is to replicate Black Friday during spring season (starting around the first day of May).

On November 20, 2020, the French government finalized an agreement with e-commerce businesses like Amazon and supermarket chains to postpone Black Friday promotions by a week. Discounted shopping promotions were to begin on December 4 instead, after physical stores shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic were allowed to reopen.[75]

Germany [ edit ] In Germany, "Black Friday" retailer advertisements refer to "Black Week" and "Black Shopping" in English with sales lasting an entire week (excluding Sundays when most retail stores are closed). During this sales period, stores keep their normal working hours. Although goods are offered at reduced prices, the prices are not cut significantly more than normal weekly price reductions. Apple was the first company to run a special Black Friday campaign for the German market in 2006.[76] Apple never used the name Black Friday in Germany, but promotes only a "one-day shopping event".[77] In the first years, mostly internet retailers have used the event as an occasion to attract new customers with discounts, but bricks and mortar stores have already begun to adapt the shopping event. For the first time ever, German customers spent more than '‚¬1 billion during the Black Friday weekend in 2016: According to a Centre for Retail Research study, German customers spend around '‚¬1.3 billion ($1.54 billion) during the four days from Black Friday to Cyber Monday 2016.[78]

In Germany the term "Black Friday" was registered as a wordmark in December 2013. The owner is Super Union Holdings Limited, a Chinese company.[79] Black Friday GmbH is the exclusive licensee of the word mark in Germany.[80]

Switzerland [ edit ] In 2015, Swiss retailer Manor was the first to launch a special Black Friday promotion. The year after, most Swiss retailers launched special offers during the Black Friday Week. It is estimated that customers spent around 400 million Swiss Francs on Black Friday 2018. In recent years, Singles Day got more and more important in Switzerland. This shopping day could replace Black Friday as the most important shopping day in Switzerland in 2019[81]

Australia [ edit ] In Australia the term Black Friday refers not to shopping at all but to the devastating Black Friday bushfires which occurred in Victoria 1938''39. Only recently, has it been promoted as a shopping day in Australia by in-store and online retailers. In 2011, Online Shopping USA hosted an event on Twitter. Twitter users had to use the hashtag #osublackfriday, which allowed them to follow along and tweet their favourite deals and discounts from stores.[82] In 2013, Apple extended its Black Friday deals to Australia. Purchasing online gave customers free shipping and free iTunes gift cards with every purchase. The deals were promoted on its website, reading "Official Apple Store'--One day Apple shopping event Friday, November 29".[83] Australia Post's ShopMate parcel-forwarding service allows Australian customers to purchase products with "Black Friday" deals from the US and get them shipped to Australia. In addition to this, numerous stores in the country run Black Friday promotions in-store and online throughout the country.[84]

Other countries [ edit ] Black Friday started picking up in New Zealand around 2013. In 2015, major retailers such as The Warehouse, Noel Leeming and Harvey Norman offered Black Friday sales,[85] and by 2018 were joined by Farmers, JB Hi-Fi, Briscoes and Rebel Sport. Paymark, which processes around 75 percent of New Zealand's electronic transactions, recorded $219 million NZD (US$151 million) of transactions on Black Friday 2017, up over 10 percent from the previous year.[86]

In Norway, Black Friday started as a publicity stunt campaign back in 2010 to increase the sales to the shopping mall Norwegian Outlet. Since the introduction, it has been promoted every year in a larger and growing market all over the country.[87]

Black Friday is known as Viernes Negro in Costa Rica.[88] In Panama, Black Friday was first celebrated in 2012, as a move from the Government to attract local tourism to the country's capital city. During its first year, it was believed to have attracted an inflow of about 35,000 regional tourists according to the government's immigration census.

In South Africa, Russia, Austria and Switzerland, Black Friday Sale is a joint sales initiative by hundreds of online vendors'--among them Zalando, Disney Store, Galeria Kaufhof and Sony. Over its first 24-hour run on November 28, 2013, more than 1.2 million people visited the site, making it the single largest online shopping event in German-speaking countries. There has been growing interest for Black Friday in Poland as well.

2014 marked the introduction in Bolivia,[89] Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Finland, France,[90] Ireland,[91] Lebanon, Nigeria, South Africa and Sweden.[92]

For Middle East, UAE Black Friday started as White Friday campaign in 2014. In 2018 local e-commerce platform noon.com created Yellow Friday in the UAE and KSA. The Yellow Friday Sale is now an annual event in KSA, the UAE, and Egypt, falling around the same time as Black Friday globally.

In 2015, Spain joined with some small retailers. The celebration became more famous year by year, until the big retailers grew.

In the Netherlands, Black Friday was seriously introduced in 2015. Some years before, there were already a number of large and small retailers that used Black Friday in their marketing. However, with a total of 35 participating stores, 2015 can be considered the year in which Black Friday started in the Netherlands due to more widespread support of large retailers. The popularity of Black Friday has grown rapidly in the Netherlands. The number of participating stores has increased to over 125 during the Black Friday period of 2017. For the 2018 edition, 166 shops joined the largest black Friday platform in the Netherlands.[93]

In 2016, Black Friday was introduced in Poland, Greece and Ukraine.[94]

Black Friday in Belgium is seriously marketed by retailers since 2016. Especially online shops have broke sales records during the last edition of Black Friday, which provides a base for further growth of popularity of Black Friday in Belgium. After 2016, Black Friday in Belgium has grown strongly. The participating shops have increased to over 70 during the Black Friday period of 2017. During Black Friday 2018, a total of 119 participating stores were measured in Belgium.[95]

In 2017, Black Friday became widely popular in Latvia. There was even a Black week and Black weekend sales in shopping centres.

Black Friday has been increasingly adopted by stores in Brazil since 2010,[96] although not without its share of inflated prices and other scams, especially in its earlier years, earning the nickname "Black Fraude"[97] (Black Fraud) or also "Black Furadei", which comes from the slang word "furada", meaning a "jam" or tough situation, usually involving money. It is also common to hear Brazilian people say that prices on Brazilian Black Friday are "half of the double". However, currently, the term "Black Friday" has become so popular in the country that stores have been under closer scrutiny from consumers and cases of known scams have been reduced greatly[citation needed ].

Instances of violence and chaos on Black Friday [ edit ] Despite frequent attempts to control the crowds of shoppers, minor injuries are common among the crowds, usually as a result of being pushed or thrown to the ground in small stampedes. While most injuries remain minor, serious injuries and even deliberate violence have taken place on some Black Fridays.

2008In 2008, a crowd of approximately 2,000 shoppers in Valley Stream, New York, waited outside for the 05:00 opening of the local Wal-Mart. As opening time approached, the crowd grew anxious and when the doors were opened, the crowd pushed forward, breaking the door down, and 34-year-old employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death. The shoppers did not appear concerned with the victim's fate, expressing refusal to halt their stampede when other employees attempted to intervene and help the injured employee, complaining that they had been waiting in the cold and were not willing to wait any longer. Shoppers had begun assembling as early as 21:00 the evening before. Even when police arrived and attempted to render aid to the injured man, shoppers continued to pour in, shoving and pushing the officers as they made their way into the store. Several other people incurred minor injuries, including a pregnant woman who had to be taken to the hospital.[98][99][100] The incident may be the first case of a death occurring during Black Friday sales; according to the National Retail Federation, "We are not aware of any other circumstances where a retail employee has died working on the day after Thanksgiving."[98]

On the same day, two people were fatally shot during an altercation at a Toys 'R' Us in Palm Desert, California.[101]

2010During Black Friday 2010, a Madison, Wisconsin woman was arrested outside of a Toys 'R' Us store after cutting in line, and threatening to shoot other shoppers who tried to object.[102] A Toys for Tots volunteer in Georgia was stabbed by a shoplifter.[103] An Indianapolis woman was arrested after causing a disturbance by arguing with other Wal-Mart shoppers. She had been asked to leave the store, but refused.[104]

A man was arrested at a Florida Wal-Mart on drug and weapons charges after other shoppers waiting in line for the store to open noticed he was carrying a handgun and reported it to police. He was discovered to also be carrying two knives and a pepper spray grenade.[105] A man in Buffalo, New York, was trampled when doors opened at a Target store and unruly shoppers rushed in, in an episode reminiscent of the deadly 2008 Wal-Mart stampede.[106]

2011On Black Friday 2011, a woman at a Porter Ranch, California Walmart used pepper spray on fellow shoppers, causing minor injuries to a reported 20 people who had been waiting hours for the store to open. The incident started as people waited in line for the newly discounted Xbox 360. A witness said a woman with two children in tow became upset with the way people were pushing in line. The witness said she pulled out pepper spray and sprayed the other people in line. Another account stated: "The store had brought out a crate of discounted Xbox 360s, and a crowd had formed to wait for the unwrapping, when the woman began spraying people 'in order to get an advantage,' according to the police.[107] In an incident outside a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, one man was wounded after being shot following Black Friday shopping at about 1:45 a.m.[108] A 61-year-old pharmacist collapsed and was left for dead by shoppers while being trampled and passed by a stampede. He died soon after from his injuries.[109]

2012On Black Friday 2012, two people were shot outside a Wal-Mart in Tallahassee, Florida, during a dispute over a parking space.[110]

2013On Black Friday in 2013, a person in Las Vegas who was carrying a big-screen TV home from a Target store on Thanksgiving was shot in the leg as he tried to wrestle the item back from a robber who had just stolen it from him at gunpoint.[111] In Romeoville, Illinois, a police officer shot a suspected shoplifter driving a car that was dragging a fellow officer at a Kohl's department store. The suspect and the dragged officer were treated for shoulder injuries. Three people were arrested.[112] In another situation, a 29-year-old shopper was arrested in a Walmart in New Jersey after arguing with a store manager about a TV and attacking an officer. He was charged with disorderly conduct, aggravated assault, and resisting arrest[113]

2014In 2014, three buyers were arrested after a group of five people started fighting at a Kohl's store in Tustin, California. Two female victims were found with facial lacerations, and one of them was taken to hospital with minor injuries, while the other was released on scene. According to officials, three other females were suspects for the assault and were taken into custody.[114] Two people were arrested after a brawl on Black Friday at a northwest side mall in Indianapolis. In Los Angeles, two women were fighting at a Walmart in Norwalk, California, over a Barbie doll on Thanksgiving night.[115]

2015Several people fighting at a mall in Florence, Kentucky, allegedly over a pair of Air Jordan sneakers. This year was called "The worst Black Friday brawls in history" at that time due to the heavy use of smartphones that could instantly capture video.[116]

2016In 2016, 21-year-old Demond Cottman was shot and killed around 01:00 Friday morning outside a Macy's store in New Jersey. The shooter fired multiple shots, leaving an SUV covered in bullet holes, but the motives remain unclear. Cottman's 26-year-old brother was also injured.[117] A shooting at the Wolfchase Galleria Mall in Memphis, Tennessee, left one man injured. Derrick Blackburn, 19, was later arrested for unlawful possession of a weapon.[118]

2018At the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Alabama, Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., was shot and killed by a security guard after two people were wounded in a shooting.[119] On Saturday, the police announced that the shooter was not Bradford, but he was involved in the shooting.[120][121]

2019A fight led to a shooting in the food court of the Destiny USA mall in Syracuse, New York.[122] The mall went into lockdown until shoppers and staff were released starting at about 8:00pm with all shopping activity suspended.[122] 21-year-old Kyree Truax was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and second-degree reckless endangerment for shooting the victim twice in the leg.[123]

Black Friday online [ edit ] High traffic challenges for retailers [ edit ] Some online stores invest a lot of money in promotional campaigns to generate more sales and drive traffic to their stores. However, they often forget about the high loads their sites are going to experience. According to Retail Gazette, "A number of major retailers' websites went down as they failed to cope with the surge in Black Friday traffic in 2017 ... This just highlights that some retailers have not taken the necessary steps to prepare for Black Friday. Failing to prepare for peak can cause poor performance, site downtime, and ultimately lost revenue for retailers".[124] Such carelessness results in huge reputational damage. Moreover, The 2017 Veeam Availability Report shows that "Unplanned downtime costs organisations around the world an average of R270m annually, up from the R210m of the previous year".[125]

Advertising tip sites [ edit ] Some websites offer information about day-after-Thanksgiving specials up to a month in advance. The text listings of items and prices are usually accompanied by pictures of the actual ad circulars. These are either leaked by insiders or intentionally released by large retailers to give consumers insight and allow them time to plan.

In recent years, some retailers (including Walmart, Target, OfficeMax, Big Lots, and Staples) have claimed that the advertisements they send in advance of Black Friday and the prices included in those advertisements are copyrighted and are trade secrets.[126]

Some of these retailers have used the take-down system of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a means to remove the offending price listings. This policy may come from the fear that competitors will slash prices, and shoppers may comparison shop. The actual validity of the claim that prices form a protected work of authorship is uncertain as the prices themselves (though not the advertisements) might be considered a fact in which case they would not receive the same level of protection as a copyrighted work.[127][original research? ]

The benefit of threatening Internet sites with a DMCA based lawsuit has proved tenuous at best. While some sites have complied with the requests, others have either ignored the threats or simply continued to post the information under the name of a similar-sounding fictional retailer. However, careful timing may mitigate the take-down notice. An Internet service provider in 2003 brought suit against Best Buy, Kohl's, and Target Corporation, arguing that the take-down notice provisions of the DMCA are unconstitutional. The court dismissed the case, ruling that only the third-party posters of the advertisements, and not the ISP itself, would have standing to sue the retailers.[128]

Usage of Black Friday Advertising Tip sites and buying direct varies by state in the U.S., influenced in large part by differences in shipping costs and whether a state has a sales tax. However, in recent years, the convenience of online shopping has increased the number of cross-border shoppers seeking bargains from outside of the U.S., especially from Canada. Statistics Canada indicates that online cross-border shopping by Canadians has increased by about 300M a year since 2002.[129] The complex nature of additional fees such as taxes, duties and brokerage can make calculating the final cost of cross-border Black Friday deals difficult. Cross-border shopping solutions exist to mitigate the problem through estimation of the various cost involved.

In 2019, Adobe shopping data showed that around 39% of the shopping was done through smartphones.[130]

Cyber Monday [ edit ] The term Cyber Monday, a neologism invented in 2005 by the National Retail Federation's division Shop.org,[131] refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday based on a trend that retailers began to recognize in 2003 and 2004. Retailers noticed that many consumers, who were too busy to shop over the Thanksgiving weekend or did not find what they were looking for, shopped for bargains online that Monday from home or work. In 2010, Hitwise reported:

Thanksgiving weekend offered a strong start, especially as Black Friday sales continued to grow in popularity. For the 2nd consecutive year, Black Friday was the highest day for retail traffic during the holiday season, followed by Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. The highest year-over-year increases in visits took place on Cyber Monday and Black Friday with growth of 16% and 13%, respectively.[132]

In 2013, Cyber Monday online sales grew by 18% over the previous year, hitting a record $1.73 billion, with an average order value of $128.[133]In 2014, Cyber Monday was the busiest day of the year with sales exceeding $2 billion in desktop online spending, up 17% from the previous year.[134]

Cyber Week [ edit ] As reported in the Forbes "Entrepreneurs" column on December 3, 2013: "Cyber Monday, the online counterpart to Black Friday, has been gaining unprecedented popularity'--to the point where Cyber Sales are continuing on throughout the week."[135] Peter Greenberg, Travel Editor for CBS News, further advises: "If you want a real deal on Black Friday, stay away from the mall. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are all part of Cyber Week ..."[136]

Retail sales impact [ edit ] The National Retail Federation releases figures on the sales for each Thanksgiving weekend.[137] The Federation's definition of "Black Friday weekend" includes Thursday, Friday, Saturday and projected spending for Sunday. The survey estimates number of shoppers, not number of people.

The length of the shopping season is not the same across all years: the date for Black Friday varies between November 23 and 29, while Christmas Eve is fixed at December 24.

YearDateSurvey publishedShoppers (millions)Average spentTotal spentConsumers polledMargin for error2020Nov 272019Nov 292018Nov 232017Nov 24Nov 28[138]174$335.47$58.3 billion3,242± 1.7%2016Nov 252015Nov 272014[139]Nov 28Nov 30233$380.95$50.9 billion4,631± 1.5%2013Nov 29Dec 1249$407.02$57.4 billion4,864± 1.7%2012Nov 23Nov 25247$423.66$59.1 billion4,005± 1.6%2011Nov 25Nov 27226$398.62$52.5 billion3,826± 1.6%2010Nov 26Nov 28212$365.34$45.0 billion4,306± 1.5%2009Nov 27Nov 29195$343.31$41.2 billion4,985± 1.4%2008Nov 28Nov 30172$372.57$41.0 billion3,370± 1.7%2007Nov 23Nov 25147$347.55$34.6 billion2,395± 1.5%2006Nov 24Nov 26140$360.15$34.4 billion3,090± 1.5%2005Nov 25Nov 27132$301.81$26.8 billionSee also [ edit ] These are various day-long events similar to Black Friday around the world or any other events on the same day as Black Friday.

References [ edit ] ^ "Retailers & Sales: Using Social Listening To Learn More About Black Friday". Brandwatch. December 2, 2014. ^ a b Albright, Mark. "Holiday Shopping Strategy Guide for Black Friday". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on January 28, 2012 . Retrieved January 23, 2012 . ^ International Council of Shopping Centers. "Holiday Watch: Media Guide 2006 Holiday Facts and Figure". Archived from the original (PDF) on November 29, 2010. ; ShopperTrak, Press Release,"ShopperTrak Reports Positive Response to Early Holiday Promotions Boosts Projections for 2010 Holiday Season". Archived from the original on November 29, 2010 . Retrieved 2012-01-23 . (November 16, 2010). ^ International Council of Shopping Centers. "Daily Sales Comparison Top Ten Holiday Shopping Days (1996''2001)" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on January 12, 2012. ^ E.g., Karr, Albert R. (November 26, 1982). "Downtown Firms Aid Transit Systems to Promote Sales and Build Good Will \work= Wall Street Journal". p. 6; "Holiday Shoppers Jam U.S. Stores". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 28, 1981. p. 30. ^ "Black Friday" in Oxford Online Dictionaries ^ a b c d Zimmer, Ben (November 25, 2011). "The Origins of "Black Friday". Word Routes. ^ a b Apfelbaum, Martin L. "Philadelphia's 'Black Friday ' ". American Philatelist. Vol. 69 no. 4. p. 239. ^ Drum, Kevin (November 26, 2010). "Black Friday". ^ "Retailers riding Black Friday's cyber wake". Radio New Zealand. 23 November 2018 . Retrieved 24 November 2018 . ^ "snopes.com: How Did 'Black Friday' Get Its Name?". Urban Legends Reference Pages. Snopes.com . Retrieved November 28, 2014 . ^ "Around and About". The Shortsville-Manchester Enterprise. December 1, 1961. p. 4. ^ a b Lin, Jennifer (November 30, 1985). "Why the Name Black Friday? Uh ... Well ..." The Philadelphia Inquirer. ^ "Black Friday FAQ". BFAds.net. ^ "Shoppers Flood Stores for 'Black Friday ' ". The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 28, 1981. ^ "Black Friday 2020: When do the UK sales start and what are the best deals to look out for?". The Telegraph. 20 November 2020 . Retrieved 20 November 2020 . ^ a b "Congress Establishes Thanksgiving" . Retrieved November 15, 2009 . ^ Jespersen, Courtney (June 29, 2016). "Just how good are Black Friday in July sales?". USA Today . Retrieved July 22, 2016 . ^ "Black Friday (Holiday Shopping)". Investopedia. 2021-10-30. ^ Chang, Andrea (November 24, 2020). "Retailers plan for a Black Friday like no other". The Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 26, 2020 . ^ a b Olson, Alexandra; D'innocenzio, Anna; Pisano, Joseph (November 27, 2020). "Virus keeps Black Friday crowds thin, shoppers shift online". Associated Press . Retrieved November 28, 2020 . ^ Kapner, Sarah Nassauer and Suzanne (2020-11-29). "Black Friday Was a Bust for Many Stores, Better for Online". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 2020-11-30 . ^ Li, Shan (November 21, 2011). "Black Friday becoming Black Thursday as stores open on Thanksgiving". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 22, 2011 . ^ Clifford, Stephanie (November 9, 2012). "Make Room for Deals After Turkey This Year". The New York Times . Retrieved November 10, 2011 . ^ Castellano, Anthony (November 22, 2012). "Black Friday Shopping Kicks Off After Thanksgiving Dinner". ABC News . Retrieved November 23, 2012 . ^ Sreenivasan, Hari (November 22, 2012). "How 'Black Friday' Morphed Into 'Gray Thursday ' ". PBS. Archived from the original on November 23, 2012 . Retrieved November 23, 2012 . ^ "Punchlines: The new Black Friday is Brown Thursday". USA Today. November 22, 2013 . Retrieved November 27, 2013 . ^ Tabuchi, Tiroko (December 1, 2014). "Black Friday Fatigue? Thanksgiving Weekend Sales Slide 11 Percent". The New York Times . Retrieved October 2, 2015 . ^ Fores, Betsi (November 12, 2015). "Wal-Mart Just Made a Black Friday Announcement that Might Be a Game Changer". Rare.us. Associated Press . Retrieved November 12, 2015 . ^ Sozzi, Brian (September 10, 2020). "Black Friday shopping like we all know it is officially over because of COVID-19". Yahoo! Finance . Retrieved September 12, 2020 . ^ "Charlotte boasts worst Black Friday traffic in U.S." WCNC. November 22, 2011. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014 . Retrieved December 1, 2014 . ^ Mack, Brigida (Dec 24, 2011). "New study says Charlotte Mall most congested in U.S." WB TV. Archived from the original on March 20, 2017. ^ Yi, David (November 23, 2010). "Black Friday Deals for Target, H&M, Forever21, Old Navy, Radio Shack, and More". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on August 15, 2011. ^ "Black Friday Moves to Thursday as Stores Woo Shoppers". Financially. Yahoo! Finance. November 23, 2010. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011 . Retrieved January 2, 2012 . ^ Sneed, Tierney (November 23, 2011). "Does 'Black Friday' Start Too Early This Year?". U.S. News & World Report. ^ Fox, Emily (November 15, 2012). "Wal-Mart Workers Plan Black Friday Walkout". CNN Money . Retrieved November 15, 2012 . ^ "Which stores open early on Thanksgiving Day? Beat Black Friday". SiliconANGLE. November 26, 2014. ^ "JC Penney takes "Black Friday" creep up a notch with earliest opening". Fortune. ^ Smith, Michelle R. (27 November 2013). "Thanksgiving shopping? Not in states that ban it". NBC News. Associated Press . Retrieved 30 October 2021 . ^ Vaccaro, Adam (23 November 2016). "Want to shop on Thanksgiving? Not in Mass". Boston Globe . Retrieved 30 October 2021 . ^ "Journal of the House of Representatives of the General Court". Malegislature.gov . Retrieved July 16, 2017 . ^ Irwin, Neil (November 23, 2012). "Black Friday Is a Bunch of Meaningless Hype, in One Chart". The Washington Post. ^ "What Really Happened on Black Friday (By The Numbers)". PYMNTS.com. December 1, 2014 . Retrieved November 21, 2015 . ^ Preddy, Melissa (July 9, 2014). "Fresh Peg on New Domain Names: 'dot-vodka', 'dot-Christmas', 'dot-fail ' ". Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism / Arizona State University . Retrieved August 7, 2014 . ^ "Delegated Strings". ^ Karp, Gregory (November 23, 2015). "Is Black Friday dying?". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on November 24, 2015 . Retrieved November 23, 2015 . ^ Inc., Gallup (November 23, 2012). "Black Friday Shopping Mostly for the Young". ^ "Canadian Retailers Test Their Own Black Friday". CBC News. November 27, 2009. ^ "Canadian Retailers Fight Back Against Black Friday Deals". Toronto Star. 2012. Archived from the original on December 28, 2012 . Retrieved August 24, 2017 . ^ "Canadian Retailers Embracing Black Friday to Keep Shopping Dollars on Home Turf". National Post. 2012. ^ Smith, Adam (December 17, 2011). "Field hospital set up for Cardiff's 'black Friday' revellers" '' via www.telegraph.co.uk. ^ " ' Black Friday': Police Called to Supermarket Crowds". BBC News. November 28, 2014. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (November 28, 2014). "Black Friday UK: The Shops Hit by Chaos and Violence as Shopping Frenzy Sweeps Country". The Independent. London. ^ Silverman, Rosa (November 28, 2014). "Chaos and Violence Marrs [sic] Black Friday Across Country". The Telegraph. London. ^ "Bicester Village 'will not take part' in Black Friday ' ". Oxford Mail. November 18, 2016 . Retrieved November 18, 2016 . ^ "Black Friday: Responding to last year's mayhem". BBC. 26 November 2015 . Retrieved November 18, 2016 . ^ "Asda to Shun Black Friday Sales". BBC News. November 10, 2015. ^ "Black Friday UK stats: 12% increase on last year (but lower than forecast)". Net Imperative. December 1, 2016. ^ "How Black Friday came to the UK". BBC News . Retrieved 2018-11-21 . ^ Jones, Lora (21 November 2018). "Have eight years of Black Friday changed the UK?". BBC News . Retrieved 7 January 2020 . ^ Ruddick, Graham (26 November 2015). "What is Black Friday and who's to blame for it?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 7 January 2020 . ^ @WelshGovernment (29 November 2019). "Did you know #BlackFriday in Welsh is..." (Tweet) '' via Twitter. ^ Guthrie, Amy (November 18, 2011). "Mexico Introduces Its Own Version of 'Black Friday'-Style Shopping Blitz". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved June 20, 2013 . ^ Espinosa, Er(C)ndira (17 November 2011). "Las tiendas ampliarn horarios en Buen Fin" [Stores will extend hours in Buen Fin]. Exc(C)lsior (in Spanish). ^ "Romanian Retailers Import 'Black Friday' Concept". El Rancho. November 25, 2011 . Retrieved April 14, 2014 . ^ "The Retailer that Hosts the Biggest Shopping Event of the Year: 6.7 mln Romanians Want to Buy Something on Black Friday". El Rancho. November 17, 2015. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015 . Retrieved November 20, 2015 . ^ "Flipkart Amazon drive psot GST with largest ever Diwali sales". Asia Nikkei. 12 October 2017 . Retrieved 24 November 2017 . ^ "GOSF 2015 Shut Down;". Feb 2016. ^ "GOSF 2014 Survey At CouponRani;". Feb 2016. ^ "Black Friday Struggles to Seduce French Shoppers". The Local . Retrieved October 29, 2015 . ^ " ' Black Friday' : comment les marques fran§aises tentent de surfer sur ces soldes l'am(C)ricaine". Le Huffington Post (in French) . Retrieved October 29, 2015 . ^ "Black Friday Goes Global as Retailers Import the US Spending Holiday". CNET . Retrieved October 29, 2015 . ^ "Attentats de Paris: Les commer§ants rebaptisent le "Black Friday " ". 20minutes. ^ "Avec les " French Days ", les sites d'e-commerce fran§ais cherchent lancer leur " Black Friday " ". Le Monde.fr. April 28, 2018. ^ "France postpones 'Black Friday' to help locked-down shops". Associated Press . Retrieved 20 November 2020 . ^ "Apple brachte den Black Friday nach Deutschland". Der Westen. November 28, 2014 . Retrieved November 15, 2016 . ^ "Apple l¤sst Black Friday in Deutschland ausfallen". ZDNet. November 28, 2014 . Retrieved November 18, 2017 . ^ "Shopping for Christmas 2016". Centre for Retail Research . Retrieved November 15, 2016 . ^ "Markenregisterauskunft, Registernummer: 302013057574". Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt. January 24, 2014 . Retrieved September 27, 2021 . ^ "Trade mark license". blackfridaysale.de. 14 October 2021. ^ "Neuer Super-Shopping-Tag kommt in die Schweiz". 20Minuten. 29 October 2018 . Retrieved April 15, 2019 . ^ "Black Friday Shopping Live in Australia". RetailBiz.com. November 22, 2011. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. ^ "Apple's Black Friday Deals Go Live in Australia". Sydney Morning Herald. November 29, 2013. ^ "60 of the best Black Friday sales and secret codes". www.couriermail.com.au. November 24, 2017. ^ Dougan, Patrice (November 27, 2015). "Black Friday mania to hit New Zealand". The New Zealand Herald . Retrieved November 27, 2015 . ^ "Black Friday sales madness sweeps country, set to break record". NZ Herald. November 23, 2018 '' via www.nzherald.co.nz. ^ "Sk¸ytelegendens nakenstunt brakte Black Friday til Norge" [Skate legend naked stunt brought Black Friday to Norway]. vg.com (in Norwegian). November 24, 2016. ^ "Clientes esperaban ofertas ms agresivas este Viernes Negro". La Naci"n (in Spanish). November 29, 2013. ^ "La campa±a 'black friday' desata fiebre de compras". eldeber.com.bo. Archived from the original on October 28, 2015 . Retrieved October 12, 2015 . ^ "Le Black Friday s'invite dans les enseignes fran§aises" [Black Friday Shows up Among French Retailers]. Le Figaro (in French). November 28, 2014 . Retrieved November 28, 2014 . ^ "Black Friday: Ireland makes weekend of it". The Irish Times. November 28, 2014. ^ "Black Friday i Sverige" [Black Friday in Sweden]. Veckans Aff¤rer. November 28, 2014 . Retrieved November 28, 2014 . ^ "Black Friday 2019" (in Dutch). February 6, 2019. ^ Ukraine to have its grand Black Friday sale late November, ZIK (24 October 2016) ^ "Black Friday Winkels" (in Dutch). February 6, 2019. ^ "Brasileiros tamb(C)m ter£o os descontos da chamada 'Black Friday ' ". November 25, 2010. ^ "10 dicas para evitar a 'black fraude ' ". ^ a b "Wal-Mart Worker Dies When Shoppers Break Down Doors". Fox News. November 28, 2008. ^ Gould, Joe; Trapasso, Clare; Schapiro, Rich (November 28, 2008). "Worker Dies at Long Island Wal-Mart After Being Trampled in Black Friday Stampede". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on November 28, 2008. ^ "Wal-Mart Worker Dies in Rush: Two Killed at Toy Store". CNN. November 28, 2008. ^ "Shots Fired at Toys R Us in Palm Desert; Two Dead". Los Angeles Times. November 28, 2008. ^ "Black Friday Shopper Accused of Gun Threat". CNN. November 26, 2010. ^ Martinez, Edecio. "Marine Stabbed at "Toys for Tots" Drive at Georgia Best Buy on Black Friday". cbsnews.com . Retrieved 1 December 2020 . ^ "Woman Arrested In Walmart Black Friday Dispute". Theindychannel.com. Indianapolis: WRTV. November 26, 2010. Archived from the original on November 29, 2010 . Retrieved January 2, 2012 . ^ "Black Friday shopper arrested on weapons, drug charges in Boynton Beach | boynton, arrested, beach". West Palm Beach: WPEC. November 26, 2010. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011 . Retrieved January 2, 2012 . ^ "Black Friday shoppers trampled in New York". CNN. November 28, 2010. ^ Jablon, Robert (November 25, 2011). "Woman pepper sprays other Black Friday shoppers". Yahoo! News . Retrieved January 2, 2012 . ^ Wildermuth, John (November 26, 2011). "Black Friday shopper shot in robbery attempt". San Francisco Chronicle. ^ "Man dies after collapsing in shopping center during Black Friday". New York Daily News. November 27, 2011. ^ "2 shot at Florida Walmart over parking space, police say". Fox News. November 23, 2012. ^ "Shopper carrying TV home from Target shot in Las Vegas". Las Vegas Sun. November 29, 2013. ^ Sege, Adam; Perez Jr., Juan (November 29, 2013). "Charges filed after shoplifting suspect shot by police". Chicago Tribune. ^ https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/shopping-black-friday-thanksgiving-crowds-macys-arrest-wal-mart/2072361/ ^ "Black Friday brawl at Kohl's in Tustin ends with 3 arrests". abc7.com/ . Retrieved 17 July 2020 . ^ "Black Friday brawl at northwest side mall". Fox 59. 2014-11-28 . Retrieved 2020-07-17 . ^ Lisi, Brian; Boroff, David; Hensley, Nicole (23 November 2017). "The worst Black Friday brawls in history (WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)". New York Daily News. New York . Retrieved 28 November 2020 . ^ Worl, Justin. "Black Friday Shootings Kill Two and Leave More Injured". ^ "One injured, one charged, after shots were fired outside Wolfchase Galleria". November 25, 2016. ^ Joe Sutton; Madeline Holcombe. "Gunman dead and two wounded'--including 12-year-old girl'--in Alabama mall shooting". CNN . Retrieved 2018-11-24 . ^ Madeline Holcombe; Faith Karimi. "Gunman thought responsible for Alabama mall shooting is at large, not dead, police now say". CNN . Retrieved 2018-11-24 . ^ Madeline Holcombe and Faith Karimi. "Alabama mall gunman still at large after police say armed man killed by officer 'likely did not fire' shots". CNN. ^ a b Libonati, Chris (29 November 2019). "Update: Chaos after shots fired at Destiny USA on Black Friday; mall is closed for day". Syracuse.com . Retrieved 10 December 2019 . ^ Taddeo, Sarah (30 November 2019). "Syracuse chief after mall shooting: Don't allow 'knuckleheads to ruin our holiday season ' ". Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester) . Retrieved 10 December 2019 . ^ "Major retailers' sites down as Black Friday traffic hits". Retailgazette.co.uk. 2017-11-24 . Retrieved 2018-10-17 . ^ "#BlackFriday website crashes could cause massive damage to online firms". Fin24.com. 2017-11-23 . Retrieved 2018-10-17 . ^ Martyn Chase (November 26, 2002). "Sale fight no fright for area Web site". Charleston Gazette & Daily Mail. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017 '' via HighBeam Research. ^ Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co., 499 U.S. 340 (1991). ^ Fatwallet, Inc. v. Best Buy Enterprises Services, 2004 WL 793548 (N.D.Ill. 2004). ^ "Canadian Economic Observer". Stats Canada . Retrieved March 18, 2010 . ^ "Nearly 40 percent of online Black Friday purchases were made with phones". Engadget . Retrieved 2019-12-02 . ^ Hof, Robert D. (November 29, 2005). "Cyber Monday, Marketing Myth". Business Week. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012 . Retrieved November 13, 2012 . ^ "Hitwise: Retail traffic up throughout holidays". December 28, 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-02-26. ^ "Cyber Monday Jumps 18 Percent to $1.73 billion in 2013". comscore.com. November 1, 2015. ^ "Cyber Monday Exceeds $2 Billion in Desktop Sales for First Time Ever to Rank as Heaviest U.S. Online Spending Day in History". ^ "Cyber Week: Crash Prevention Tips". Forbes. December 3, 2013. ^ Greenberg, Peter (November 20, 2013). "The Ultimate Guide to Cyber Week Travel Deals: Black Friday, Cyber Monday & More". The Huffington Post. ^ "Holiday and Seasonal Trends". nrf.com '' National Retail Federation. ^ "Consumers and retailers win big over Thanksgiving holiday". Archived from the original on 2018-11-09. ^ "Early Promotions, Online Shopping and Improving Economy Changing the Face of Black Friday Weekend". National Retail Federation.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:20

(C) Getty Images Why does Biden's vaccine mandate not apply to welfare recipients and others? On Sept. 9, President Biden declared that all companies with more than 100 employees must "ensure their workforces are fully vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week."

According to Biden's federal vaccine mandate, any company that does not comply will face a fine of $14,000 per case.

During his speech, Biden also declared that "all nursing home workers who treat patients on Medicare and Medicaid" and that "those who work in hospitals, home healthcare facilities, or other medical facilities" as well as "all executive branch federal employees" and "federal contractors" must get vaccinated.

If these Americans choose not to get vaccinated, they will lose their livelihoods. As Biden said, "This is not about freedom or personal choice."

But Biden's federal vaccine mandate does not apply to Americans on welfare, illegal immigrants, members of Congress, U.S. Postal Service employees and several other groups.

This is not only unfair, but it flies in the face of Biden's goal "to require more Americans to be vaccinated, to combat those blocking public health."

So, per Biden's edict, Americans who work at a company that employs more than 100 people have no choice but to get vaccinated. The same standard applies to the health care workers who have heroically put their lives on the line treating COVID-19 patients.

But for reasons unexplained, Biden refuses to mandate vaccines for the 59 million Americans who receive welfare benefits.

Video: Biden to vaccine mandate legal challengers: 'Have at it' (POLITICO)

Biden to vaccine mandate legal challengers: 'Have at it'

U.S. Air Force paralegal thrills his mom by passing the bar at the second attempt Ray Petty of Tampa, Florida, failed his first bar exam while suffering depression. After his second try, he and his mom, Meta, celebrated success. USA TODAY Opinion: A moment of desperation with his country's flag made this pastor go viral Evan Mawarire, a Zimbabwean dissident, argues that democracy is not for the lazy -- and warns of danger if America loses it. He is sharing his story as part of the CNN Opinion series, "Voices of Freedom." Mawarire is a member of the Renew Democracy Initiative's Advisory Board. CNN Opinion: Exiled Iranian says the regime is scared of her Masih Alinejad, an Iranian dissident living in exile since 2009, tells how she realized she had to fight the Iranian regime at the age of seven. She is one dissident who shares stories of the first time she realized she had to fight for democracy in CNN Opinion's "Voices of Freedom." Alinejad is a Renew Democracy Initiative Freedom Fellow. CNN UP NEXT

Put another way, Biden is mandating that the Americans who supply most of the tax revenue to pay for America's welfare system be vaccinated or lose employment. But the beneficiaries of the welfare state are exempt.

This is even more flummoxing given that data shows Medicaid recipients are among the least vaccinated.

In Georgia, for example, only 10 percent of Medicaid recipients were fully vaccinated, compared with 33 percent of the Peach State's general population, as of May 31. Similarly, in Idaho, only 20 percent of Medicaid recipients were fully vaccinated, while 44 percent of the state's general population had been fully vaccinated, as of June 1.Similar trends apply throughout the states.

Illegal immigrants are also exempt from Biden's vaccine mandate.

According to a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, "The Department of Homeland Security continues its vaccination efforts to include voluntary vaccinations for individuals in the care and custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

Once again, for working American citizens, Biden says it is not about freedom or personal choice, but for illegal immigrants, vaccinations are voluntary.

When pressed about this blatant double standard, Biden's White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, simply replied, "That's correct."

Apparently, voluntary vaccination also applies to Postal Service workers. According to Dave Partenheimer, a Postal Service spokesman, "The COVID-19 vaccination requirements included in the White House executive order issued on September 9, 2021 for federal employees do not apply to the Postal Service."

Finally, Biden's vaccine mandate does not apply to Congress, even though there are 535 members, which puts Congress well over the 100-employee threshold.

Biden's vaccine mandate is narrowly targeted toward the 80 to 100 million American citizens who get up and go to work but ignores the 60 million Americans on welfare, the thousands who illegally cross our southern border every day, the 640,000 Postal Service workers and Congress, among others.

Biden's vaccine mandate is not about getting the vulnerable vaccinated. It is about the Biden administration unfairly and unnecessarily forcing hard-working Americans to choose between their bodily autonomy and their livelihood.

Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is senior editor at The Heartland Institute.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:19

The claim: Postal workers aren't included in the Biden administration's federal vaccine mandateThe Biden administration has tightened the leash on federal employees and businesses, issuing a number of vaccine mandates in an attempt to curb COVID-19. But some on social media are claiming not everyone is beholden to the new rules.

"Post office workers exempt from vaccine mandates...Are you paying attention yet," a Sept. 9 Facebook post reads.

The post, which attributes its information to The Washington Post, acquired more than 900 likes and 400 shares in two days.

While the original assertion that postal workers were exempt from the vaccine mandate did come from a Washington Post reporter, that's false. Postal workers will be required to abide by the rules from the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The Washington Post reporter issued an update on social media and the story itself.

USA TODAY reached out to the post's creator for comment.

Postal workers included under OSHA guidance, not executive orderAs part of his plan to quash COVID-19, President Joe Biden announced a set of executive orders Sept. 9 that mandate vaccination for federal workers in the executive branch, as well as contractors.

He also said OSHA will issue an ''emergency temporary standard'' that will require businesses with more than 100 employees to fully vaccinate their workers or face weekly testing, a plan that could affect more than 80 million people.

Learn more:Who's covered by Biden's new vaccine mandates? When do they go into effect? Here's what we know.

Shortly after the news broke, Washington Post reporter Jacob Bogage tweeted that an unnamed White House official told him postal workers would not be included in Biden's vaccine requirement, though they would be "strongly encouraged" to comply.

USPS has more than 600,000 employees, according to the Pew Research Center.

But the Post reporter later issued an update on Twitter to reflect that the information was incorrect.

"JUST IN: White House official now says USPS workers ARE part of the federal vaccine mandate under OSHA jurisdiction, though technically not under the executive order," Bogage tweeted, adding that he had deleted the previous Twitter thread based on earlier reporting.

More:'Patience is wearing thin': Biden rolls out vaccine requirements that will affect 100 million workers

Because USPS is an independent agency within the executive branch, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the executive order. But postal workers will still be subject to the OSHA requirements, White House officials confirmed to USA TODAY.

''USPS is not included in the executive order requiring vaccination of federal employees," a White House spokesperson said in an email statement. "USPS has a separate statutory scheme and is traditionally independent of federal personnel actions like this. That said, USPS is strongly encouraged to comply. Also, OSHA will cover USPS through the ETS, meaning that postal workers will be subject to the vaccination or testing policy announced yesterday."

A spokesperson for USPS told USA TODAY in an email statement that the executive order doesn't explicitly apply to the agency because of the same reasons outlined by the White House, adding that the agency is working with union leadership to determine how to implement OSHA's regulations.

Our rating: FalseWe rate the claim that postal workers are exempt from the Biden administration's vaccine mandate FALSE, because it is not supported by our research. Postal workers will be required to abide by OSHA's rules. The Washington Post reporter who first reported the detail issued a clarification on social media.

Our fact-check sources:USA TODAY, Sept. 9, 'Patience is wearing thin': Biden rolls out vaccine requirements that will affect 100 million workersUSA TODAY, Sept. 10, Who's covered by Biden's new vaccine mandates? When do they go into effect? Here's what we know.Jacob Bogage, Sept. 9, TwitterNational Archives' Federal Register, retrieved Sept. 11, Postal ServiceWashington Times, Sept. 9, White House denies report of exemption for U.S. Postal Service from vaccine mandatePew Research Center, May 14, 2020, The state of the U.S. Postal Service in 8 chartsNew York Post, Sept. 9, White House clarifies USPS workers will be subject to vaccine mandateUSPS, Sept. 16, USPS Statement on COVID-19 VaccinesThank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:09

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of "crimes against humanity" for the second time in The Hague's International Criminal Court over his handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a complaint filed on Sunday, the Brazilian Union Network UNISaºde, which represents tens of thousands of health workers in the country, accused Bolsonaro of "serious and deadly failures" in his leadership on tackling the pandemic.

Bolsonaro's "negligent and irresponsible actions," UNISaºde reportedly said, have "contributed to more than 80,000 deaths," leading to a loss of life that the coalition said amounted to "genocide."

Among the irresponsible actions the coalition said had led to a loss of life in Brazil was Bolsonaro's repeated promotion of hydroxychloroquine, a medication that has not been proven to be effective in treating COVID-19 patients.

In fact, a recent study conducted in Brazil and which saw its findings published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday specifically found hydroxychloroquine to be ineffective in treating those infected with the virus.

Yet, on Saturday, Bolsonaro once again tweeted out an endorsement of the medication as he announced that he was coronavirus-free more than two weeks, having tested positive for COVID-19 on July 7.

"RT-PCR for Sars-Cov 2: negative. Good morning everyone," the 65-year-old tweeted, sharing a photo of himself giving a thumbs-up while holding up a pack of hydroxychloroquine.

For many, Bolsonaro's endorsement of hydroxychloroquine will come as little surprise, with the Brazilian president facing widespread accusations of leading his country astray during the pandemic.

Brazil is second only to the U.S. globally in numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases.

As of early Monday morning, the country had identified more than 2.4 million coronavirus cases, with 87,004 cases resulting in death, according to an online tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University.

"The Bolsonaro administration should be held accountable for its callous response to the pandemic and for refusing to protect the care workers and Brazilians that it has sworn to defend," Marcio Monzane, Regional Secretary of UNI Americas, said in a statement shared with Newsweek.

"Filing a case with the International Criminal Court is a drastic measure, but Brazilians face an extremely dire and dangerous situation created by Bolsonaro's deliberate decisions," Monzane said.

UNISaºde's accusations against Bolsonaro are not the first to made in the ICC over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

In April, Bolsonaro was similarly accused of crimes against humanity by the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy (ABJD) for putting lives at risk amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Newsweek has contacted Brazil's government for comment.

This article has been updated with a statement from UNI Americas.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro waves as he takes a ride and has his motorcycle's engine overhaul after he announced he tested negative for COVID-19 more than two weeks after testing positive, in Brasilia, on July 25, 2020. SERGIO LIMA/AFP/Getty

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 18:28

"GRAS" is an acronym for the phrase Generally Recognized As Safe. Under sections 201(s) and 409 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act), any substance that is intentionally added to food is a food additive, that is subject to premarket review and approval by FDA, unless the substance is generally recognized, among qualified experts, as having been adequately shown to be safe under the conditions of its intended use, or unless the use of the substance is otherwise excepted from the definition of a food additive.

Under sections 201(s) and 409 of the Act, and FDA's implementing regulations in 21 CFR 170.3 and 21 CFR 170.30, the use of a food substance may be GRAS either through scientific procedures or, for a substance used in food before 1958, through experience based on common use in food Under 21 CFR 170.30(b), general recognition of safety through scientific procedures requires the same quantity and quality of scientific evidence as is required to obtain approval of the substance as a food additive. General recognition of safety through scientific procedures is based upon the application of generally available and accepted scientific data, information, or methods, which ordinarily are published, as well as the application of scientific principles, and may be corroborated by the application of unpublished scientific data, information, or methods.Under 21 CFR 170.30(c) and 170.3(f), general recognition of safety through experience based on common use in foods requires a substantial history of consumption for food use by a significant number of consumers.OverviewAbout the GRAS Notification ProgramHow FDA's GRAS Notification Program WorksFDA's Approach to the GRAS Provision: A History of ProcessesGRAS Final RuleFederal Register Notice '' the GRAS Final Rule (81 FR 54960 '' August 17, 2016)Federal Register Notice - the GRAS Proposal (62 FR 18937 - April 17, 1997)Federal Register Notice - Substances Generally Recognized as Safe; Reopening of the Comment Period (75 FR 81536 - Dec 28, 2010)Inventory for Human FoodGRAS Notice InventoryRegulatory and Policy GuidanceDraft Guidance for Industry: Best Practices for Convening a GRAS PanelRegulatory Framework for Substances Intended for Use in Human Food or Animal Food on the Basis of the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) Provision of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic ActGuidance for Industry: Frequently Asked Questions About GRAS for Substances Intended for Use in Human or Animal FoodGuidance for Industry: Assessing the Effects of Significant Manufacturing Process Changes, Including Emerging Technologies, on the Safety and Regulatory Status of Food Ingredients and Food Contact Substances, Including Food Ingredients That Are Color AdditivesGuidance for Industry: Considerations Regarding Substances Added to Foods, Including Beverages and Dietary SupplementsDraft Guidance for Industry: Providing Regulatory Submissions in Electronic or Paper Format to the Office of Food Additive SafetySee also: CFSAN Online Submission Module (COSM)Guidance for Industry: Frequently Asked Questions about FDA's Regulation of Infant FormulaScientific GuidanceGuidance for Industry: Recommendations for Submission of Chemical and Technological Data for Food Additive Petitions and GRAS Notices for Enzyme PreparationsGuidance for Industry: Recommendations for Submission of Chemical and Technological Data for Direct Food Additive PetitionsGuidance for Industry: Estimating Dietary Intake of Substances in FoodGuidance for Industry: Summary Table of Recommended Toxicological Testing for Additives Used in FoodRegulations21 CFR 181 - Prior Sanctioned Food Ingredients21 CFR 182 - Substances GRAS in food21 CFR 184 - Substances Affirmed as GRAS in Food21 CFR 186 - Substances Affirmed as GRAS for Use in Food Packaging Content current as of:09/06/2019

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 18:12

OUR PROMISEK&C Cattle Co. is dedicated to raising high-quality beef & pork.We take pride in the quality of the meat we produce. Our beef is pasture raised, with no antibiotics and no growth hormones. We grain finish our cattle the last 90 days before slaughter to enhance marbling, efficiency, and consistency. Our beef is guaranteed to grade Choice or Prime.

We deliver locally & ship all over Texas.We currently are unable to ship nationwide due to perishable shipping issues. JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER AND RECEIVE $10 OFF YOUR FIRST PLATINUM BUNDLE ORDER.

Thanks! Use code WELCOME10 at checkout to earn 10% off your first order over $75.

100% FRESH CUTSOur Meat BundlesOur beef bundles are perfect for someone with a family to feed, a meat connoisseur that wants to try it all, or a small business owner that wants to give a gift to a top tier client. Unlike a super market that has the ability to only sell steaks, we build these bundles to utilize the entire carcass of an animal and to minimize our carbon footprint. Because we only get 24-26 Ribeyes per carcass and 24-26 NY Strips, we utilize those cuts in our bundles.

A La Carte Cuts MenuOur A La Carte Cuts Menu is great for families and individuals who want a more custom meat order.

Locally bred, locally fed.

What Our Customers are Saying on Facebook

''I've ordered steaks from all the online services, local butchers, out of state butchers etc..... K &C beats them all. The cuts are thick, substantial cuts of meat. Each steak is individually packaged and ready for the freezer. The marbling and tenderness on every steak I've cooked is steakhouse quality. I love to support local and these guys are more than deserving with their high quality product....I'll be a long time customer of K&C.'' - Aaron Robinson

''When Texas was covered in ice and snow with no food available at the grocery stores they were here to help! K & C delivered our meat while the roads were still iced over. They stayed in contact after ordering to make sure we were aware they were on the way. They arrived when they said they would. I have 0 complaints and 100% praise for this company. The meat is 10 times better than the grocery stores "prime" or "butcher select". I highly recommend this company to anyone. Stellar customer service to boot. I'm already a repeat customer'' - Cheryl Featherson

''We cooked a couple of your ribeye steaks tonight and I can honestly say it was the best steak I've ever eaten. Extremely tender, full of flavor, absolutely delicious. I am hooked! Keep doing whatever you're doing, it's perfect.'' - Rachel Vickers

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 18:03

The Texas Beef Initiative is A TEXAS BASED 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation founded in October 2020.

We seek donations of both cash and live cattle.

Cattle are processed locally and the ground beef is donated to food banks TO FEED texas families in need.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 17:37

The Cargill family, also known as the Cargill-MacMillan family, refers to the multi-generational descendants of the American business executive, William Wallace Cargill (December 15, 1844 '' October 17, 1909) and his son-in-law John H. MacMillan Sr. The Cargill-MacMillan family are the fourth wealthiest family in America.[1] Descendants of Cargill and MacMillan have owned common equity in the "agribusiness giant", Cargill Inc, one of the largest privately owned corporations in the United States,[2][3] for over 140 years. William Cargill founded the Cargill company as an Iowa grain storage business in 1865, during the post Civil War period, and was its CEO for almost 40 years.[4] Following the death of William Cargill in 1909, his son-in-law John MacMillan, steered the company out of a debt crisis and into stability. The two branches of the family'--the MacMillans and the Cargills'--continue to be represented on the board of directors of Cargill Incorporated. The most recent family members appointed to the board are fifth generation.

By 2019, twenty three Cargill-MacMillan family members owned 88% of the family company,[1] which earned $113.5 billion in revenue in 2019.[5][6] The "family reportedly keeps 80% of Cargill Inc.'s net income inside the company for reinvestment annually."[1] Forbes listed the family's estimated net worth as $38.8 billion and the source of their wealth as Cargill Inc.[1] Each year, the Cargill-MacMillan family takes about eighteen percent of the "net profits as dividends".[7]

The exact wealth of the family is unknown, as the Cargill company is a privately owned business entity with no obligation to disclose exact ownership. With fourteen billionaires in the family in 2019,[1][8] the Cargill family has more individual billionaires among its members than any other family anywhere in the world,[9] making them the family with the most wealthy members in history.[10]

While the "low-profile family" owns Cargill, and there are six family members on the 17-member board, family members have not been part of running the company since 1995, when Whitney MacMillan, who had served as Cargill's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) since 1976, stepped down as chief executive in 1995.[11][12]

The family was also the majority owner of The Mosaic Company'--[11] the largest producer of potash and phosphate fertilizer in the United States.[13] In 2011, they sold their 64-percent stakes in Mosaic for $24.3 billion.[14]

In 2012, the unknown heiress, Margaret Anne Cargill, posthumously earned the #1 spot in the Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of America's 50 most generous donors.[14] Margaret Anne Cargill, who died in 2006, had bequeathed all her shares in the Cargill conglomerate to two non-profits,[14] but the funds could not be liquidated from the private company. When Cargill sold Mosaic, the charities received shares of the public Mosaic stock. This represents about $6 billion, which would make these two charities "two of the wealthiest grant makers in the United States."[14]

Overview [ edit ] The family-owned Cargill Inc., expanded from a "small-scale frontier enterprise"'--a grain storage business'--with William Cargill's acquisition in 1865 of a "grain flat house"'--a warehouse at the end of a railway line in Iowa, into a "complex international organization and a successful competitor in global markets."[15][11] W. W. Cargill, the "son of Scottish sea captain",[11] was twenty-one years old when he founded the company. He remained as Cargill CEO for 35''40 years.[4] By 1900, the Cargill Elevator Company was a major Midwestern force.[16]:'Šxxxi'Š Cargill's wealth increased, as the Great Plains were transformed into a breadbasket, providing grain to the country, and the railroads expanded east to west in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.[15]

In 2019, Forbes described Cargill Inc as an "international producer and distributor of agricultural products such as sugar, refined oil, chocolate and turkey" that also "provides risk management, commodities trading and transportation services."[17] Cargill had 160,000 employees.[17]

When W. W. Cargill died in 1909, Cargill Inc faced a "fiscal crisis". As the new President of Cargill Elevator Company, John H. MacMillan, Sr.'--Edna Cargill's husband'--was able to reassure the company's creditors.[18] He saved the company from bankruptcy and created a work environment that fostered a loyal and dedicated workforce.[16]:'Šxiii'Š The second generation of the Cargill family branched into the Cargills and the MacMillans.

In 1936, when Cargill Incorporated was formed, with the merger of various Cargill businesses, John MacMillan, Sr. handed the presidency to a third generation of the Cargill-MacMillan family, his son John MacMillan, Jr.[18] By this time, Cargill Inc had offices in Canada and Italy, as well as many subsidiaries across the United States.[18] John MacMillan, Jr. was described as "mercurial", "innovating", and "difficult". His strategies were sometimes "under the scrutiny of the government".[16]:'Šxiii'Š The success of the company under his tenure from 1936 to 1960, was due in large part to the team he formed with a second generation family member, MacMillan Jr's uncle, Austin Cargill, who had joined the company in 1913,[16]:'Š245'Š and Cargill MacMillan Sr. (1900''1968).[16]:'Šxiii'Š Until 1960, when Edwin Kelm was named as president of Cargill Inc, the company's history had been marked by "family complexity".[19]:'Š249'Š Starting in 1960, "family complexity" ceased to dominate and was "replaced by a generalized professionalism."[19]:'Š249'Š The involvement of the family was more in the role of ownership, instead of management and directing.[19]:'Š249'Š

Cargill MacMillan Jr. (1927''2011), Cargill MacMillan Sr.'s (1900''1968) oldest son and the great-grandson of W. W. Cargill, worked at Cargill for 38 years and retired in 1988. He served on the board of directors from 1963 to 1996.[20][21] His estimated net worth was $2.6 billion when he died.[20] John Hugh MacMillan worked for Cargill Inc for 35 years, from 1955 until his retirement in 1990. He served on the board of directors for many years.[22]

His brother Whitney MacMillan, who was Cargill's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) from 1976 to 1995,[12][23][24][25] was described by Forbes as the "patriarch of the Cargill-MacMillan clan" who "led the company to become a global conglomerate" in his tenure as CEO.[26] He is "generally credited with successfully running Cargill "when the company realized much of its growth."[27] He was the last Cargill "family member to serve as chief executive officer".[20]

In the mid-1990s, "family factions" made an agreement, which is in the company's bylaws, stipulating that only six members of the family sit on Cargill's 17-person board,[10] four Macmillans and two Cargills.[4]

Each year, the Cargill family "leaves 80% of the company's net income inside the company for reinvestment"[10] and "collects an estimated 18% of net profits as dividends".[7]

From 1999 until his retirement in 2007, a nonfamily member, American investor and businessman, Warren Staley, was CEO of Cargill, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota.[28][29] His career at Cargill spanned almost four decades.[28] A Star Tribune article at the time of his retirement, said that prior to Staley's tenure, Cargill was considered to be "the agricultural industry's version of the CIA".[28] The article described how Cargill had changed in the 1990s as technology improved and global markets became more open, with Cargill expanding into commodity trading and investments "from Vietnam to Argentina."[28]

In a 2007 Forbes article on "The Richest People You've Never Heard of", Cargill Inc was 90 percent owned by the Cargill-MacMillan family and was still the "largest private company in America". The remaining 10 percent was owned by Cargill employees.[2] In 2008 the company employed over 150,000 people in 68 countries, and earned revenues of $106.30 billion.[3]

By 2009, the Cargill family had "owned common equity in the company for over 140 years."[3] As the world economy collapsed and the price of fertilizer decreased, the "food family's fortune" suffered. Their 2009 annual earnings dropped 15% to $3.3 billion.[11] Cargill Inc revenues remained at $117 billion.[11]

By 2009, the family company, Cargill Inc controlled "food from stable to table" including "animal feed, meat, [and] crops" and operated "large commodity trading and risk management operations".[11]

Until 2011, the Cargill-MacMillan family also owned a "majority of fertilizer maker Mosaic."[11] also known as The Mosaic Company'--[11] which is the largest producer of potash and phosphate fertilizer in the United States.[13] In 2011, Cargill sold their 64-percent stake in Mosaic for $24.3 billion.[14]

By 2011, Cargill had "nearly $120 billion in revenue and 130,000 employees in 63 countries."[23]

According to a March 2, 2015 article in the Business Insider, Cargill Inc had "75 businesses employing 143,000 people in 67 countries" with a yearly revenue in 2013 of over $134 billion.[8] The Cargill family had at least 14 billionaires. The Cargill company and family'--who had at least 14 billionaires'--were "famously quiet", living "extremely private lives, many of them on ranches and farms in Montana," according to Forbes.[10]

In 2016, there were major changes in Cargill Inc. under non-family Cargill CEO David MacLennan, which include streamlining the company, making major cuts and divestments, restructuring, and acquisitions.[30] A new generation of the Cargill family was appointed to the board of directors, according to the Wall Street Journal.[30]

By July 2019, Business Insider ranked the Cargill-MacMillan family as the fourth richest billionaire family in the United States.[1] The magazine listed the family's estimated net worth as $38.8 billion and the source of their wealth as Cargill Inc.[1] By 2019, "23 members of the Cargill-MacMillan family own 88% of [Cargill Inc].[1] The company "generates $108 billion in annual revenues".[1] Fourteen of the family members were still billionaires in 2019.[1] The "family reportedly keeps 80% of Cargill Inc.'s net income inside the company for reinvestment annually."[1]

Private lives and secrecy [ edit ] A review of William Duncan MacMillan's co-authored book, 1998 MacMillan: the American grain family,[31] described the MacMillans as "one of Minnesota's wealthiest clans" and "one its most doggedly secretive". W. Duncan Macmillan of Wayzata, offers the closest look yet at the private lives behind the largest privately held company in the world.[27]

Five generations of the Cargill-MacMillan family [ edit ] Cargill married Ellen "Ella" Theresa Stowell, and they had four children'--William "Will" Samuel Cargill, Edna Clara Cargill (1871''1963),[32] Emma Cargill, and Austen Cargill (died 1957)'--the second generation on the Cargill family.

Will Cargill married Mary MacMillan.

Edna Clara Cargill (1871''1963) married John H. MacMillan Sr (1869''1940).[32] Edna and John H. MacMillan Sr had two sons and a daughter'--John H. MacMillan Jr, Cargill MacMillan Sr (1900''1968), and Emma Cargill married Fred M. Hanchette.

Austen Cargill (died 1957) married Anne Ray.

The third generation included the four children of Edna and John H. MacMillan Sr (1869''1940)'--John H. MacMillan Jr (1895''1960) and his wife Marion Dickson (1892''1980)'--John Hugh MacMillan III (1928''2008), Whitney Duncan MacMillan (1930''2006), and Marion MacMillan Pictet (1930''2009), who had a daughter, Gwendolyn Sontheim Meyer who had two children.

The four children of their second oldest son, Cargill MacMillan Sr (1900''1968) and his wife Pauline Whitney (1900''1990) are also second generation'--Cargill MacMillan Jr (1927''2011), Whitney MacMillan (1929-2020), Alice Whitney MacMillan (1932''1932), and Pauline MacMillan Keinath (born 1934 in Hennepin County, Minnesota).[33] Whitney MacMillan (1929 '' 2020)'--Cargill MacMillan Sr's second oldest son'--led the company from 1976 to 1995.[33]

Their oldest son, Cargill MacMillan Jr (born Hennepin County, Minnesota, March 29, 1927 '' November 14, 2011) and his wife had four children.[34][35]

The third generation also includes the daughter and son of Austen Cargill and Anne Ray. Their daughter, Margaret Anne Cargill (1920''2006), who never married, was a philanthropist. The fourth generation includes the two sons and daughter of James R. Cargill (1923''2006) and his wife Mary Janet Morse Cargill (died February 5, 2010). James died in 2006 and his widow died in 2010, had lived in her hometown, Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was on the list of billionaires in 2010.[36] The two children of their oldest son, James R. (Susan) Cargill II (born 1949), whose hometown was Birchwood, Wisconsin.[11] are part of the fourth generation.[37]

Their second son, Austen S. (Cynthia) Cargill II (born 1951), who lives in Livingston, Montana, had two children. He attended Oregon State University and University of Minnesota.[38]

Their daughter, a fourth generation member, Marianne Cargill Liebmann (born 1953) married Steve Liebmann. Their son, Andrew C. Liebmann, is currently on the Cargill board of directors. Marianne Liebmann studied at Montana State University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree.[39]

By 2016, the fifth generation of the Cargill family was represented on Cargill Inc's board of directors'--Andrew Cargill Liebmann and Richard Cargill.[4][40] Non-family Cargill CEO David MacLennan has taken the "next-generation family members on tours of the company's facilities and answers family members' questions weekly. Neither of the new board members, who were both in their mid-thirties, have ever worked for the company, but "they have taken corporate governance courses".[30] In 2014, 34-year-old astrophysicist, Andrew Cargill Liebmann'--the son of Marianne Cargill Liebmann'--replaced his uncle who had retired from the board.[4] Liebman's mentorship included a tour of the company's interests in India, China and Singapore.[4] Richard Cargill was also appointed to the Cargill board of directors to replace a retired Cargill relative.[40] MacLennan, who had made major changes to Cargill Inc, also moved the company's headquarters from the 85-year-old lakeside offices in a mansion by a lake in Wayzata, Minneapolis to more "mundane" office space nearby.[30]

Forbes wealth rankings [ edit ] The Cargill-MacMillan family is the fourth richest family in the United States on Forbes' list.[1][41] In 2016 their revenue was estimated at USD$49 billion,[10] and $113.5 billion in 2019.[5][6]

By 2019, Cargill Inc had been listed as America's largest private company since 1986, in all but two years that Forbes has maintained the list.[5]

W. Duncan MacMillan, and James and Margaret Cargill died in 2006. In an article entitled, "The Richest People You've Never Heard Of", Forbes estimated that the fortunes of the MacMillans were worth $1.2 billion each, and that of James and Margaret Cargill were estimated at $1.8 billion each.[2]

John Hugh MacMillan III (1928''2008), who worked for Cargill Inc for 35 years, from 1955 until his retirement in 1990 and served on the board of directors for many years,[22] was on the 2007 Forbes list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion.[42]

Four members of the Cargill family ranked 220 on "The 400 Richest Americans 2009" list, each with a net worth of $1.6 billion.[33] Their fortunes were all listed as "inherited". Mary Janet Morse Cargill (85), who lived in Minneapolis, was the widow of James R. Cargill (1923''2006) of the second generation. The three others are third generation'--Austen S. Cargill II (58) in Livingston, Montana, James R. Cargill II (60) Birchwood, and Marianne Cargill Liebmann (56) in Bozeman.[33][39] Three of Cargill MacMillan Sr's four children Whitney MacMillan, Alice Whitney MacMillan, and Pauline MacMillan Keinath (born 1934 in Hennepin County, Minnesota),[33] were on "The 400 Richest Americans 2009" with a listed revenue of $4.3 billion each.[33] Marion MacMillan Pictet was also included on the list with an inherited fortune of $4.3 billion.[33]

Marianne Cargill Liebmann's net worth was $3.1 billion in 2020.[7] In 2009, Forbes listed the net worth of Cargill MacMillan Jr at an estimated $4.3 billion. MacMillan Jr, who was a "longtime" member of Cargill Inc board of directors, had "no day-to-day role in the company".[34]

Cargill heiress Marion MacMillan Pictet (1932''2009) ranked #176 on Forbes list in 2010 with a net worth of $4.5 billion,[43][44][45] an increase over $4.3 in 2009.[33] The net worth of her daughter, Gwendolyn Sontheim Meyer (born 1961/62), the great-great-granddaughter of William W. Cargill, was $4.4 billion in 2020, placing her #680 on the richest people in the United States in 2020.[46][23][32] Sontheim Meyer's inheritance represented an "estimated 7% stake in food giant Cargill."[46]

Philanthropy [ edit ] Margaret Anne Cargill, a fourth generation member of the Cargill family, who died in 2006, had bequeathed her shares of the "Minnesota-based food, agriculture and fertilizer conglomerate" Cargill Inc worth about $6 billion to two non-profits'--the Anne Ray Charitable Trust and the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation.[14] For many years the charities could not access the funds because it would mean liquidating "private Cargill stock". When Cargill sold its 64-percent stakes in Mosaic in 2011, the two nonprofits exchanged the private Cargill stock for 114.5 million shares of the public Mosaic stock. When all of these Mosaic shares are finally sold, the two charities could become "two of the wealthiest grant makers in the United States."[14] In 2012 Margaret Anne Cargill posthumously earned the #1 spot in The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of America's 50 most generous donors, beating George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Paul Allen. In announcing the winner Forbes said that "Not only is she almost entirely unknown, but the heiress to the Cargill agribusiness fortune passed away in 2006."[14]

References [ edit ] ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Hoffower, Hillary (July 31, 2019). "The 28 richest billionaire families in America, ranked". Business Insider . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ a b c "The Richest People You've Never Heard Of". Forbes. June 1, 2007 . Retrieved August 3, 2010 . ^ a b c "#1 Cargill". Forbes.com. October 28, 2009 . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ a b c d e f Mitra, Moinak (March 28, 2014). "David MacLennan on how agri-major Cargill turned a global crisis into an opportunity". The Economic Times . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . In a freewheeling interview, MacLennan doles out nuggets from Cargill's past and present which indicate a sea change in its vision. ^ a b c Murphy, Andrea. "America's Largest Private Companies 2019". Forbes . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ a b Cargill Annual Report 2019 (PDF) , July 30, 2019 , retrieved May 4, 2020 ^ a b c "#764 Marianne Liebmann". Forbes. May 4, 2020 . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ a b Baer, Drake (March 2, 2015). "Cargill family has 14 billionaires". Business Insider . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ "14 Cargill heirs on Forbes' list of billionaires, more than any family in world". Duluth News Tribune. ^ a b c d e "#4 Cargill-MacMillan family". Forbes. 2016 America's richest families net worth. June 29, 2016 . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ a b c d e f g h i j "James R. Cargill II - The Forbes 400 Richest Americans 2009". Forbes.com. September 30, 2009 . Retrieved August 2, 2010 . ^ a b "Forbes profile: Whitney MacMillan". Forbes . Retrieved 8 January 2020 . ^ a b "Bloomberg, Mosaic Says Fertilizer Prices to Remain 'Challenging' Into 2014, 5 November 2013". ^ a b c d e f g h O'Connor, Clare (June 6, 2012). "This Year's Most Generous Billionaire Philanthropist Has Been Dead Since 2006". Forbes . Retrieved May 5, 2020 . ^ a b Broehl, Wayne G. (1992). Cargill: Trading the World's Grain. Dartmouth. ISBN 9780874515725. ^ a b c d e Broehl, Wayne G. (January 15, 1998). Cargill: Going Global. Dartmouth. p. 437. ISBN 0874518547. business historian Wayne G. Broehl: Two of the five largest private companies in the United States, Cargill and Continental Grain, dealt in "grain and agricultural commodities". ^ a b "Cargill". Forbes. May 31, 2019 . Retrieved May 5, 2020 . ^ a b c "Timeline: 150 years of Cargill history" (PDF) . Cargill Inc. 2019 . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ a b c Casillas, Jose C.; Acedo, Francisco J.; Moreno, Ana M. (January 1, 2007). International Entrepreneurship in Family Businesses. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78195-644-1. ^ a b c Hughlett, Mike (November 15, 2011). "Obituary: Cargill MacMillan, 84, company heir". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014 . Retrieved November 20, 2014 . ^ Solomon, Brian (November 15, 2011). "Secretive Billionaire Cargill MacMillan Jr. Passes Away". Forbes . Retrieved November 20, 2014 . ^ a b "John H. MacMillan Obituary". Star Tribune. April 26, 2008 . Retrieved May 5, 2020 . ^ a b c Solomon, Brian. "The Secretive Cargill Billionaires And Their Family Tree" . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ "Forbes List Directory". Forbes. ^ "Whitney MacMillan | EastWest Institute". www.eastwest.ngo. ^ Sorvino, Chloe (March 12, 2020). "The Last Cargill Family Member To Run The Giant Agribusiness Company Has Died". Forbes . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ a b Tillotson, Kristin (November 16, 2007). "Biography paints intimate portrait of the clan that built Cargill". Star Tribune . Retrieved May 5, 2020 . ^ a b c d "Portrait of a Leader: Warren Staley". Cargill . Retrieved 2019-05-03 . ^ St. Anthony, Neal (June 6, 2008). "Cargill's retired CEO, wife now cultivate philanthropy". Star Tribune . Retrieved May 5, 2020 . ^ a b c d Bunge, Jacob (April 7, 2016). "Cargill's New Place in the Food Chain". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . CEO David MacLennan discusses reshaping the 151-year-old food giant after two years of declining profits. ^ MacMillan, William Duncan; Johnston, Patricia Condon; Gordon, John Steele (1998). MacMillan: the American grain family . Afton, Minnesota: Afton Historical Society Press. p. 336. ISBN 1890434043. OCLC 38239367. ^ a b c "Cargill tree". Forbes . Retrieved 21 November 2014 . ^ a b c d e f g h "The 400 Richest Americans 2009". Forbes. Special Report. September 30, 2009 . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . This 2009 list provided the age, and net worth of 4 members of the Cargill family who ranked 220 on "The 400 Richest Americans 2009. The four, listed under Cargill Inc, each had a net worth of $1.6 billion" Austen S. Cargill II (58) in Livingston, Montana, Mary Janet Morse Cargill (85) in Minneapolis, James R. Cargill II (60) Birchwood, and Marianne Cargill Liebmann (56) in Bozeman ^ a b "Cargill MacMillan Jr., Agribusiness Heir, Dies at 84". The New York Times. November 16, 2011. ^ "2010_Cargill-MacMillan-Jr". Forbes. ^ "No 582 Mary Janet Morse Cargill". Forbes. October 3, 2010 . Retrieved May 5, 2020 . ^ "Mary Janet Morse Cargill". Obituary. 2010. Archived from the original on December 2013. ^ "Austen-Cargill-II". 2010. [dead link ] ^ a b "#220 Marianne Cargill Liebmann". Forbes.com. The Forbes 400 Richest Americans 2009. September 30, 2009 . Retrieved August 2, 2010 . ^ a b "Cargill moving out of longtime HQ, reshaping business". Family Business Magazine. April 11, 2016 . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ Dolan, Kerry (June 29, 2016). "Billion-Dollar Clans: America's 25 Richest Families 2016" . Retrieved May 4, 2020 . ^ "John MacMillan III". Forbes. October 7, 2007 . Retrieved November 23, 2014 . ^ "Marion Hamilton MacMillan". Star Tribune . Retrieved 23 July 2019 . ^ "Marion MacMillan Pictet". ^ "#176 Marion MacMillan Pictet - Forbes.com". www.forbes.com. ^ a b "#680 Gwendolyn Sontheim Meyer". Forbes. May 5, 2020 . Retrieved May 5, 2020 . External links [ edit ] Timeline of Cargill family history

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 17:16

Coordinates: 37°47'²07'"N 122°23'²48'"W >> / >> 37.78528°N 122.39667°W >> / 37.78528; -122.39667

Photograph of Room 641's exterior

Room 641A is a telecommunication interception facility operated by AT&T for the U.S. National Security Agency, as part of its warrantless surveillance program as authorized by the Patriot Act. The facility commenced operations in 2003 and its purpose was publicly revealed in 2006.[1][2]

Description [ edit ] Room 641A is located in the SBC Communications building at 611 Folsom Street, San Francisco, three floors of which were occupied by AT&T before SBC purchased AT&T.[1] The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the SG3 [Study Group 3] Secure Room.

The room measures about 24 by 48 feet (7.3 by 14.6 m) and contains several racks of equipment, including a Narus STA 6400, a device designed to intercept and analyze Internet communications at very high speeds.[1] It is fed by fiber optic lines from beam splitters installed in fiber optic trunks carrying Internet backbone traffic.[3] In the analysis of J. Scott Marcus, a former CTO for GTE and a former adviser to the Federal Communications Commission, it has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building, and therefore "the capability to enable surveillance and analysis of internet content on a massive scale, including both overseas and purely domestic traffic."[4]

The existence of the room was revealed by former AT&T technician Mark Klein and was the subject of a 2006 class action lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against AT&T.[5] Klein claims he was told that similar black rooms are operated at other facilities around the country.[6]

Room 641A and the controversies surrounding it were subjects of an episode of Frontline,[7] the current affairs documentary program on PBS. It was originally broadcast on May 15, 2007. It was also featured on PBS's NOW on March 14, 2008. The room was also covered in the PBS Nova episode "The Spy Factory".

Lawsuits [ edit ] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecommunication company of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in a massive, illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications. On July 20, 2006, a federal judge denied the government's and AT&T's motions to dismiss the case, chiefly on the ground of the state secrets privilege, allowing the lawsuit to go forward. On August 15, 2007, the case was heard by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and was dismissed on December 29, 2011, based on a retroactive grant of immunity by Congress for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the government. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.[8]

A different case by the Electronic Frontier Foundation was filed on September 18, 2008, titled Jewel v. NSA. After many years of litigation, on April 25, 2019, ruling from the Northern District of California for Jewel v. NSA[9] concluded that the evidence presented by the plaintiff's experts was insufficient; "the Court confirms its earlier finding that Klein cannot establish the content, function, or purpose of the secure room at the AT&T site based on his own independent knowledge." The ruling noted, "Klein can only speculate about what data were actually processed and by whom in the secure room and how and for what purpose, as he was never involved in its operation." The Court further went on to discredit other experts called upon, citing their heavy reliance on the Klein declaration.

In the Spring of 2006, over 50 other lawsuits were filed against various telecommunications companies, in response to the article.[10]

There has been speculation that several rooms similar to this exist all over the United States.[11][12]

Gallery [ edit ] Page 17: Basic diagram of how the alleged wiretapping was accomplished. From EFF court filings.[4]

Page 9: More complicated diagram of how it allegedly worked. From EFF court filings.[3]

A fiber optic tap

See also [ edit ] Cabinet noirECHELONFairview (surveillance program)Fiber tappingHemisphere Project, mass surveillance program conducted by AT&T and paid for by the DEAMain CoreNSA warrantless surveillance controversyPresident's Surveillance ProgramPRISM (surveillance program)Signals intelligenceUpstream collectionUtah Data Center33 Thomas StreetReferences [ edit ] ^ a b c "AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence". Wired. May 17, 2006. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014 . Retrieved February 27, 2009 . CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) ^ Bamford, James (March 15, 2012). "The NSA Is Building the Country's Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say)". Wired . Retrieved April 23, 2012 . ^ a b "Klein Exhibit" Document from Hepting vs AT&T lawsuit from 2007. Reported by Ryan Singel in Wired Magazine, article "AT&T 'Spy Room' Documents Unsealed; You've Already Seen Them" 6/13/07, Documents posted at the Electronic Frontier Foundation File "SER_klein_exhibits.pdf website (PDF) ^ a b "Marcus Declaration" Document from Hepting vs AT&T lawsuit from 2006. Reported by Ryan Singel in Wired Magazine, article "AT&T 'Spy Room' Documents Unsealed; You've Already Seen Them" 6/13/07 , Documents posted at the Electronic Frontier Foundation File "SER marcus decl.pdf website (PDF) ^ "NSA Multi-District Litigation". Electronic Frontier Foundation . Retrieved February 27, 2009 . ^ Kravets, David (June 27, 2013). "NSA Leak Vindicates AT&T Whistleblower". Wired . Retrieved June 26, 2019 . ^ "Spying on the Homefront". Frontline. PBS . Retrieved August 1, 2013 . ^ "Hepting v. AT&T | Electronic Frontier Foundation". Eff.org. January 31, 2006 . Retrieved February 12, 2014 . ^ Jewel v. NSA April 2019 ruling ^ "Hepting v. AT&T". Electronic Frontier Foundation. July 1, 2011. ^ WOLFSON, STEPHEN. "The NSA, AT&T, and the Secrets of Room 641A" (PDF) . VS: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society. 3:3 . Retrieved March 3, 2021 . ^ Gallagher, Ryan GallagherHenrik MoltkeRyan; MoltkeJune 25 2018, Henrik. "The NSA's Hidden Spy Hubs in Eight U.S. Cities". The Intercept . Retrieved March 4, 2021 . External links [ edit ] "Electronic Frontier Foundation's web page about NSA's domestic spying". "Technician Mark Klein discussing Room 641A". Countdown episode. November 7, 2007. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009 '' via YouTube. Kris, David (2014). "On Bulk Collection of Tangible Things" (PDF) . Journal of National Security Law & Policy. Archived from the original on 2017.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 17:15

Introduction To begin with, I come from Texas and my grandfather farmed the land in which I have settled.

I reside on the Llano Estacado, the Caprock of the Texas Panhandle, The Desert High Plains, and the end of the breadbasket.

My ancestral family survived farming and was near the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. To make it simple I come from Texas dirt and thus I have lived a life of grit and with a form of strength, you find from a pioneering spirit that created me.

Our food supply and nutritional value are being hijacked and you are paying the price for the deception. This is a fact and there is overwhelming proof that the food designed today is nothing close to what our grandparents raised and ate and the food we consumed 20yrs ago is not even close to what we choose to purchase today.

I am an independent research analyst and have an extremely diverse background. I have worked in the intelligence labs of telecommunications, I have been a part of several big tech start companies in Austin, Texas. I have a blue-collar background with a high-tech professional career path. I have spent years studying and understanding behavioral analysis and can disseminate a situation quickly.

In short, I have a special set of skills most people do not have access to.

I know how to operate farming equipment and I know how to perform data analysis. I know how to embed myself into different industries and can do it anonymously.

These days I have a goal. I am exposing the Industrial Food Complex for what they are and how they manipulate our laws, poison our food and create false commodities to increase higher yields and higher profits for the global corporations of the world.

In short, they are providing you a slow death and using your ignorance and your consumption as a tool. To me the harvest each year has significant and spiritual meaning. From growing up and helping my grandfather and family store up food for the seasons, to working in the field weeding (hoeing) cotton. To helping raise chickens and cattle as a child and now as an adult. The harvest has meaning. It is our nutrition, it is our process in which we grow and become, the harvest allows us to reap what we have sown. These days we do not even have a clue what we are reaping.

To begin, Bill Gates is the largest farmland owner in the United States. I am going to use him and his Investment companies and food companies as a gauge and a form of reference. It does not end with Bill Gates but in ways, it does start with Bill Gates, Monsanto, and the evolution of Genetically Engineering our food supply.

This first article is part of a 3 part series that I and my team will be producing over the next several months. I will be publishing a book the first of 2022.

I just dive in. Click Here For Full Article

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 17:07

Region in Texas, United States

Region in Texas, United States

The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to the Oklahoma Panhandle. The Handbook of Texas defines the southern border of Swisher County as the southern boundary of the Texas Panhandle region.

Its land area is 25,823.89 sq mi (66,883.58 km2), or nearly 10% of the state's total. The Texas Panhandle is slightly larger in size than the US state of West Virginia. An additional 62.75 sq mi (162.53 km2) is covered by water. Its population as of the 2010 census was 427,927 residents, or 1.7% of the state's total population. As of the 2010 census, the population density for the region was 16.6 per square mile (6.4/km2). However, more than 72% of the Panhandle's residents live in the Amarillo Metropolitan Area, which is the largest and fastest-growing urban area in the region. The Panhandle is distinct from North Texas, which is further south and east.

West of the Caprock Escarpment and North and South of the Canadian River breaks, the surface of the Llano Estacado is rather flat. South of the city of Amarillo, the level terrain gives way to Palo Duro Canyon, the second-largest canyon in the United States. This colorful canyon was carved by the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River, a tributary of the Red River. North of Amarillo lies Lake Meredith, a reservoir created by Sanford Dam constructed on the main stem of the Canadian River. Lake Meredith and the Ogallala Aquifer are the primary sources of freshwater in this semi-arid region of the High Plains.

Interstate Highway 40 passes through the Panhandle, and also passes through Amarillo. The freeway passes through Deaf Smith, Oldham, Potter, Carson, Gray, Donley, and Wheeler Counties.

The Texas Panhandle has been identified in the early 21st century as one of the fastest-growing windpower-producing regions in the nation because of its strong, steady winds.[1]

Before the rise of Amarillo, the three original towns of the Panhandle were Clarendon in Donley County, Mobeetie in Wheeler County, and Tascosa in Oldham County. Clarendon moved itself after it was overlooked by the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad. Mobeetie was reduced even below its original small size with the closure of the United States Army's Fort Elliott in 1890. Tascosa was ruined by the location of the railroad too far north of the town and the inability to build a feeder line. The Tascosa Pioneer wrote in 1890: "Truly this is a world which has no regard for the established order of things but knocks them sky west and crooked, and lo, the upstart hath the land and its fatness."[2]

Demographics [ edit ] This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. ( February 2021 )

As of the census of 2000, about 402,862 people lived in the Panhandle. Of these, 68.9% were non-Hispanic White, 23.8% were Hispanic, and 4.6% were African American. Only 2.7% were of some other ethnicity. About 92.3% of inhabitants claimed native birth, and 8.9% were veterans of the United States armed forces; 49.9% of the population was male, and 50.1% was female. Around 13.2% of the population was 65 years of age or older, whereas 27.8% of the population was under 18 years of age.

Counties [ edit ] Twenty-six counties of the Panhandle (west to east, from the northwest corner):[3][4]

Cities and towns [ edit ] Major cities of the Texas Panhandle with populations greater than 10,000 include:

Some of the smaller towns with populations less than 10,000 include:

Gallery [ edit ] Amarillo is the largest city in the Texas Panhandle.

Politics [ edit ] Much like the rest of West Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle, the region is politically and socially very conservative. Following the pattern of other larger cities, Amarillo has the largest liberal population in the Panhandle. It was one of the first regions of the state to break away from its Democratic roots, though Democrats continued to do well at the local level well into the 1980s. However, Republicans now dominate every level of government, holding nearly every elected post above the county level.

Nearly all of the Panhandle is in Texas's 13th congressional district , represented since 2021 by Republican Ronny Jackson. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+33, it is the most Republican district in the nation. The counties of Castro and Parmer are in Texas's 19th congressional district , which has been represented by Republican Jodey Arrington since 2016. That district is almost as Republican, with a PVI rating of R+27.

In the 2016 Presidential election, Donald Trump received 79.9% of the vote in the 13th District, as compared with Hillary Clinton's 16.9% share of the vote.

See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] External links [ edit ] Panhandle from the Handbook of Texas Online Public domain images of the Llano Estacado and West Texas

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:52

NETHERLANDS

Sugar Mizzy November 7, 2021

Today many people gathered to demonstrate against the far-reaching corona measures in the Netherlands. The Malieveld in The Hague is well filled with critical demonstrators who believe that the corona measures are cross-border. FVD leader Thierry Baudet addressed the crowd, according to the politician it is quite clear that many Dutch people no longer accept the measures.

Thousands of demonstrators have gone to Malieveld to send a strong signal to the cabinet: the government's tyranny around the corona pass is really going too far. Forum for Democracy is also present to speak to the crowd. The party sees a trend emerging, people are 'waking up'. Virtually every government promise is broken during this crisis.

Whether it concerns the curfew of the corona pass, various ministers have said that the government would not change to drastic measures. The Netherlands now knows that these were nothing more than empty promises.

FVD leader Thierry Baudet spoke fervently to the crowd about the corona pass:

''Every day this becomes more permanent, every day the rules get worse. Look at Australia, look at China, that's our foreland. We don't take that, we don't accept that. We will never take that!''

Baudet's party sees that more Dutch people are becoming critical of the state of affairs. Distrust in government is growing all the time, and that's not surprising. When the cabinet says 'A', you almost know that you will receive it sooner or later.

A call from the editors: DDS, like many other websites, is having a hard time due to the corona crisis. We want to keep everything free for everyone, our revenue comes from advertising. But companies have financial worries, and not much to do. We also notice the consequences of this. Hence our broadcast to you, our readers: please support us! Through the reliable Dutch BackMe system you can monthly or one-time donation. Please do, and help DDS stay afloat!

Now it is important that Dutch people who have lost confidence in the government also only criticize the cabinet. Only then might people in The Hague start listening. Because now the gentlemen from The Hague continue to call the shots and saddle the Netherlands with stricter measures. Measures of which we do not know when they will finally stop.

// Load the SDK asynchronously (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/nl_NL/sdk.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:45

Show caption Care operators and health chiefs have warned staff shortfalls could prevent thousands of people from being discharged from hospitals this winter. Photograph: Paula Solloway/Alamy

Social careWed 10 Nov 2021 05.45 EST

Tens of thousands of care home residents face losing vital support as unvaccinated carers clock off for the last time before double jabs become mandatory.

About 50,000 care home staff who have not had two doses in England will not be allowed to work from Thursday. Analysis by the Guardian suggests that on current staff/resident ratios without other measures to tackle the problem, the care of about 30,000 people could be affected.

Care operators and health chiefs have warned staff shortfalls could prevent thousands of people from being discharged from hospitals this winter, limiting admissions and clogging up wards. They say it will increase pressure on remaining care staff to work longer hours, despite many being already exhausted.

One of the largest not-for-profit operators, MHA, estimates that about 750 care homes may have already stopped taking new admissions because of the staffing crisis. Seven of its homes are closed to new entrants and it is losing up to 150 staff because of the vaccine policy this week.

''It is scary as we head into winter and the concern is there will be a buildup of people in hospital who can't be discharged,'' said Sam Monaghan, MHA chief executive. The National Care Forum said providers are running at 17% average staff vacancy rates.

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents healthcare organisations, said people who were medically fit to leave risked longer hospital stays than necessary at a time when capacity was crucial.

''As we head towards what could be the most challenging winter on record, we hope the government has assessed the possible knock-on impact of this policy,'' he said.

The Department of Health and Social Care has said councils will help care operators with staff shortages, that it has provided town halls with over £1bn of additional funding for social care this year and is running a TV recruitment campaign.

Mandatory double vaccination for care workers in homes for older and younger adults has boosted vaccine protection with close to nine out of 10 staff getting both jabs. But in areas including Thurrock, Nottingham and Manchester, a fifth of staff are still not fully protected. NHS staff and domiciliary care staff who look after people in their own homes will not need to be fully vaccinated until 1 April 2022, the government announced on Tuesday.

Compulsory Covid jabs: three NHS workers on the policy Claire Callender, 42, a short-staffed care home manager in Warwickshire, who has already closed 12 of her 27 bedrooms, said she was laying off another care worker on Wednesday because of the vaccine.

''The [situation] is absolutely ridiculous,'' Callender said. ''I have to turn a healthcare worker away if they are not vaccinated but not visitors [who do not need vaccination].

Katie Madden, who worked night shifts at the Greenways care home, cried when she told the Guardian about leaving. She worked through a Covid outbreak at the home and was sick with the virus for weeks. She had planned to get the vaccine but was anxious about it making her ill again. ''The decision was taken out of my hands '... and I thought, no, I'm not ready,'' she said.

She washes residents, prepares them for bed and checks on them through the night. ''This is a job I am going to be really upset about leaving,'' she said. ''I built a relationship with them all. We were all there through thick and thin when everyone was poorly '... I could have run away when there was coronavirus, but the old people were getting it and it was breaking my heart. But I went there, breaking my back to help and it turns from that to '' 'you can go now'. I feel really let down.''

Neil Russell, the chairman of PJ Care, which provides neurological care for adults, said he was losing 14 staff across three sites on Wednesday and potentially another dozen by 24 December unless they could persuade doctors they are medically exempt. Carers are allowed to self-certify a medical exemption until Christmas, but must leave after date if it is not confirmed.

Those leaving this week are going to new jobs including in the NHS and handling parcels at Amazon and John Lewis warehouses, he said.

The Care Quality Commission, which regulates care homes, will enforce the vaccine mandate with ''a proportionate approach, to ensure the welfare and safety of people who use services'', it has told operators.

''We will always treat each matter individually and consider the individual circumstances when undertaking an assessment and deciding on any possible next steps,'' it said.

{{#ticker}}

{{topLeft}}

{{bottomLeft}}

{{topRight}}

{{bottomRight}}

{{#goalExceededMarkerPercentage}}

{{/goalExceededMarkerPercentage}}

{{/ticker}}

{{heading}}{{#paragraphs}}

{{.}}

{{/paragraphs}}

{{highlightedText}}

{{#choiceCards}}

{{/choiceCards}}

We will be in touch to remind you to contribute. Look out for a message in your inbox in

. If you have any questions about contributing, please

contact us.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Messenger

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:14

US President Joe Biden speaks about the bipartisan infrastructure bill and his Build Back Better ... [+] agenda at the International Union of Operating Engineers Training Facility in Howell, Michigan, on October 5, 2021. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty ImagesBeaconization'--or equipping bicycles and pedestrians with transponder beacons that can be spotted automatically by sensor-equipped cars'--has been given the official seal of approval in the U.S., reveals a tucked away part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by the House of Representatives on November 5.

The mammoth measure passed in a 228-206 vote, with support from thirteen Republicans. Six Democrats voted against it, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Biden could sign the bill within days.

Biden said the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will ''modernize our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our broadband, a range of things turning the climate crisis into an opportunity.''

The Act sets aside $4.7 billion for expanding highways (yes, more roads in a climate crisis), $1.79 billion for improving transit, and $605 million for bridge replacement and repairs.

An easy to miss part of the Act also formalizes the acceptance of so-called ''vehicle to everything'' (V2X) technology that, on the face of it, promises enhanced safety on the roads for pedestrians and cyclists.

However, experts warn there are critical downsides to the deployment of such technology.

VRUsThe mammoth bill includes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it section on ''research on connected vehicle technology.''

This states that the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, along with the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office and the Federal Highway Administration, will ''expand vehicle-to-pedestrian research efforts focused on incorporating bicyclists and other vulnerable road users into the safe deployment of connected vehicle systems.''

Within two years, says the bill, a report will be submitted to Congress including the findings of the research along with an ''analysis of the extent to which applications supporting vulnerable road users can be accommodated within existing spectrum allocations for connected vehicle systems.''

Vehicles to everything Millions of posts, poles, and signs have already been equipped with low-power transponders so they can be detected by today's sensor-equipped cars and tomorrow's autonomous vehicles (AVs). The chipping of road furniture and junctions is a key part of a burgeoning new sector: ''intelligent transport systems,'' or ITS.

The deployment of infrastructure-to-vehicle beacons has been consequence-free so far'--the posts and poles have no say in the matter'--but ITS isn't quite so intelligent when pesky humans are added to the mix.

The auto and telecommunications industries have been working with bicycle makers for several years on ''bicycle-to-vehicle'' (B2V) sensors.

The World Bicycle Industry Association is in favor of such beaconization, with general manager Manuel Marsilio telling attendees at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show's Future Networked Car symposium that ''bicycles will definitely have to communicate with other vehicles.''

That bicycle makers work with the ''connected car'' industry to discover which V2X sensor technology works best is seen as a sensible collaboration by many. Finally, cyclists will be safe on the roads; what's not to like? For tech companies and affluent cyclists, the future will be rosy'--connected cars will know exactly where on the highway beacon-equipped bicyclists are located, and smashes will therefore be avoided. Vision Zero made a reality, not through behavior change or hard infrastructure, but technology.

The more likely version of the future is deeply dystopian, says transport historian Peter Norton. Only the beacon-equipped will be spotted, he fears. Those choosing'--say, for economic or privacy reasons'--not to fit bicycle-to-vehicle beacons will be blamed for being hit by sensor-equipped cars, believes Norton, author of Autonorama, a new book which details the potential civil liberty issues that pedestrians and cyclists may face from the roll-out of driverless vehicles.

''I have a hard time picturing how we get automated driving systems that reliably detect bicyclists not equipped with beacons,'' says Norton, who is associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia.

''We know from research that detecting cyclists is one of the hardest things that autonomous vehicle developers have had to face. Beacons may increase the risk for cyclists because, if they give drivers the message that the car is watching out for cyclists, but the car is actually not doing that particularly well, then we make the situation for cyclists more dangerous.''

Chips with that? If bicyclists must ride with Radio Frequency Identification beacons'--or similar'--the logical next step is for pedestrians to also sport RFID technology, warn detractors of B2V technologies.

ITS companies say most people are already carrying such technologies because smartphones signal their presence with Bluetooth. However, not everybody's got a smartphone. And what about when a smartphone battery runs out? Or there are sync snafus?

Or perhaps you forgot to turn off airplane mode? Smash: you're dead, say critics of the technology, pointing out that it would be your fault for assuming, wrongly, that you were protected from being hit by connected cars and trucks.

People walk past a Ford Argo AI test vehicle driving as it is tested in Detroit, Michigan on July ... [+] 12, 2019. - Volkswagen and Ford are teaming up on a massive USD 7 billion project to attack the new frontier in the global auto market: electric and self-driving vehicles, the companies announced. Volkswagen will invest USD 2.6 billion in capital and assets in Ford's self-driving unit Argo AI to market new-technology vehicles in the United States and Europe. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo credit should read JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty ImagesThe auto industry is interested in getting pedestrians and cyclists to transmit real-time location information because it's perhaps the only way AVs can operate in dense cities. Lidar, 360-degree cameras, and other ''smart'' vision technologies cannot yet give warning of the person running out from behind parked vehicles.

What about children too young for smartphones? Should a transponder be placed in an item of clothing instead? What if the child ran outside without wearing their beaconized baseball cap?

If the beacon always needed to be on the person, logically, that means it would have to be embedded in the body: are we ready for chipping all humans?

Visitors receive explanations on an overdimensional electric car model and the car's components, at ... [+] the ITS World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services held at the CCH Congress Center in Hamburg, northern Germany on October 13, 2021. - The congress takes place until October 15, 2021. (Photo by Axel Heimken / AFP) (Photo by AXEL HEIMKEN/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images''The cooperative element enabled by digital connectivity will significantly improve road safety and traffic efficiency by helping cyclists and the other road users to take the right decision and adapt to the traffic situations,'' the World Bicycle Industry Association's Marsilio told the Future Networked Car.

He stressed: ''The bicycle industry deems that the proper deployment of harmonized connected services is key to this objective and agrees that interoperability is a must. It is unacceptable that road users nowadays could die on roads because vehicles cannot communicate with each other due to non-inter-operable communication technologies.''

Marsilio added: ''Boosting user uptake requires an appropriate regulatory environment.''

Regulatory environment? Fines or prison for those choosing to ride'--or walk'--beacon-free? It's worth stressing that jaywalking'-- a ''crime'' in many U.S. states'--didn't exist until the motor industry invented the concept in the 1920s to enable motorists to travel faster on the roads and streets of the day. Cars have always been sold on the promise of speed: no speed, no sales.

Furthermore, ''road safety'' has often meant in practice ''get out of the way of cars'' and, historically, it led to people on foot retreating from the street.

B2V One of the U.S. companies working on bicycle-to-vehicle technologies is Tome Software of Detroit, Michigan, founded in 2014. It works with automakers such as Ford and others, and has more than 20 bicycle companies on its advisory board, including high-end brands such as Trek and Specialized as well as companies that market budget bicycles to big-box retailers.

Tome has also worked with Give Me Green, a system that involves equipping stoplights with bicyclist recognition technology which turns lights green for approaching cyclists.

As well as potentially equipping bicycles with beacons, Tome is working on technologies that won't need Bluetooth bursts or other kinds of proximity pulses.

However, warns Norton, ''if the tech turns out to actually make cycling safer for those who have it, but more dangerous for those who don't, does that become grounds in policy for requiring all cyclists to have the necessary equipment for cars to detect them? If that's so, then we now have problems about access to cycling among those with low budgets, or deterring cycling in a society where we need more, not less for lots of reasons, including sustainability and public health.''

Norton added: ''We are not protecting these unequipped cyclists when we have equipped cyclists, and we are to some degree making their situation more serious as drivers and road authorities come to expect cyclists to be equipped.''

It's not certain that any beaconization technologies for cyclists and pedestrians will ever make it into the mainstream. And the research now authorized in President Biden's infrastructure bill may eventually come to the conclusion that, to enable a future for driverless cars, forcing pedestrians and cyclists to wear transponders or similar technology is not something that a democratic society should even be considering.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:07

Leaders at one of the largest investment firms in the world, State Street Global Advisors, will need to ask permission to hire White men as it rolls out a diversity hiring initiative.

"This is now front and central for State Street '-- it's on every senior executive's scorecard," said Jess McNicholas, the bank's head of inclusion, diversity and corporate citizenship in London, according to the Sunday Times.

STATE STREET TO BUY BROWN BROTHERS UNIT FOR $3.5B TO EXPAND CUSTODIAN OPERATIONS

"All of our leaders have to demonstrate at their annual appraisals what they have done to improve female representation and the number of colleagues from ethnic-minority backgrounds."

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2021/03/08: State Street Global Advisors celebrates listing on NYSE and International Women's Day with Broken Glass installation around Fearless Girl sculpture across from Stock Exchange on Broad Street. The message with thi

The company aims to triple the number of Black, Asian and other minority staff in senior positions by 2023, the Sunday Times reported. If executives don't meet the target, they will face lowered bonuses.

Recruiters will now have to establish panels of four or five employees, including a woman and a person with a minority background, when hiring middle management staff.

The firm will still hire White men, McNicholas said, but recruiters are required to show that women and minority applicants were interviewed by the panels.

The company is pledging to "hold ourselves accountable for strengthening black and Latinx owned businesses."

The 'Fearless Girl' statue which stands in front of Wall Street's charging bull statue is seen in New York, U.S., March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton - RC1BB61B1480

WALL STREET'S FEARLESS GIRL STATUE GETS NEW PLACE OF HONOR

State Street Corporation is based out of Boston and founded in 1792. It currently has just nearly 40,000 employees over 30 offices worldwide.

A man walks his dog past the Fearless Girl statue outside the New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in New York. Stocks are drifting mostly lower in early trading on Wall Street as investors look ahead to another big week of earnings report (Associated Press)

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

State Street previously made headlines in 2017 when it commissioned the statue of a girl staring down Wall Street's "Charging Bull" sculpture for International Women's Day. The sculpture, known as the "Fearless Girl Statue," was later moved to the New York Stock Exchange building after complaints from the sculptor of the Charging Bull.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:03

Like a couple fighting at their own housewarming, Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are locked in a year-long, closed-door conflict over vaccine patent rights, according to an NYT report.

The NIH claimed that three government scientists helped design the sequence that enables the vaccine to produce an immune response.Moderna countered in a patent filing that it had reached the good-faith determination that the three NIH scientists were not coinventors.Scientists familiar with the dispute see it as Moderna committing a betrayal. If government scientists are named as coinventors, then the US would have a larger say in who can manufacture the vaccine and license the technology, which would bring money into the Treasury.

Zoom out: Moderna's vaccine grew out of a 4-year joint venture with the NIH, and the company received $10 billion in taxpayer funding to develop the shot. Analysts predict Moderna vaccine sales will reach $35 billion through the end of 2022.

Senior officials say the Biden administration has grown frustrated with Moderna because it hasn't made its vaccine more available to low-income countries, nor has it sold the US cheap doses that could then be donated to those countries (as Pfizer has agreed to do).'--MK

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:03

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer attempted to combat COVID misinformation by posting a meme to Twitter, but the results were predictably disastrous.

The meme featured a blob labeled ''science'' holding back another figure to prevent it from embracing a bubble called ''wild conspiracy theories.''

''It's easy to get distracted by misinformation these days, but don't worry'... Science has got your back,'' Pfizer's corporate account tweeted.

It's easy to get distracted by misinformation these days, but don't worry'...Science has got your back. #ScienceWillWin pic.twitter.com/aXVzAsfa6Z

'-- Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) November 9, 2021

Mike Cernovich pointed out that Pfizer hasn't 'got the back' of those who have been injured by their vaccines, since the company has obtained a legal waiver meaning nobody can sue them.

Pfizer denies science, that's why it obtained a legal waiver of responsibility. No one harmed by Pfizer's vaccines can sue the drug manufacturer. https://t.co/1IoMYUHjxS pic.twitter.com/wxJ87dhMt8

'-- Cernovich (@Cernovich) November 9, 2021

The big pharma drug maker also eliminated the option for anyone to apply to the tweet, which illustrates how much confidence they have about ''the science'' being open to scrutiny.

''One day #Pfizer will learn that 'safety' is not a conspiracy,'' commented another respondent.

One day #Pfizer will learn that 'safety' is not a conspiracy. https://t.co/IdWDk26uYJ

'-- Alexandra Marshall (@ellymelly) November 10, 2021

''Gotta hand it to Pfizer: 'Science' sodomizing the human brain is pretty accurate,'' remarked another.

Gotta hand it to Pfizer: 'Science' sodomizing the human brain is pretty accurate. https://t.co/lugdEvIQa2

'-- Rising serpent 🇺🇸 (@rising_serpent) November 10, 2021

Another Twitter user pointed out that in the original meme, the pink character is actually the bad guy.

The pink creature is implied to be bad in the meme you dumbasses https://t.co/mRjSRirxTl

'-- Progress(ive)ing to Insanity (@BrokeHrtLiberal) November 9, 2021

Several other respondents 'fixed' the meme for Pfizer.

Fixed it. https://t.co/1sK0Is4OFX pic.twitter.com/THge64IeG1

'-- Alexander Cortes PhD, Fitness, Nutrition, Fat loss (@AJA_Cortes) November 10, 2021

Maybe Pfizer should just stick to having their CEO threaten to imprison the company's critics, another sure-fire way of instilling confidence in ''the science.''

SUBSCRIBE on YouTube:

Follow on Twitter: Follow @PrisonPlanet

'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

ALERT!

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch.

I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here.

Support my sponsor '' Turbo Force '' a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:57

24-year-old Slovak hockey player Boris Sdeck½ has tragically died after collapsing on the ice during a match on Friday.

Sdeck½, a professional player for the Bratislava Capitals, was announced dead after reportedly suffering a cardiac arrest.

He was placed in intensive care but subsequently died in hospital.

Professor and heart disease expert Dr. Joel Kahn M.D. posted a link to the story on Twitter.

Slovak Player Boris Sdeck½ Passes Away | The Hockey News on Sports Illustrated https://t.co/t0fGDNH8Od

'-- Joel "Heart Prevention" Kahn MD, FACC (@drjkahn) November 4, 2021

''Sudden deaths of athletic 24-year-olds is perfectly normal. Now,'' commented one respondent.

Sudden deaths of athletic 24-year-olds is perfectly normal. Now.

'-- Cold Steak (@Pershing6) November 4, 2021

According to reports, Sdeck½'s family expressed the wish that no further information be disclosed about his death.

It is not known if Sdeck½ had taken the vaccine, or if his collapse was linked to any complications related to the jab.

However, there have been innumerable high profile collapses and deaths of young athletes in recent months.

Barcelona footballer Kun Aguero had to be withdrawn early from a recent game after complaining of dizziness and chest pain.

'š½¸ Kun Aguero est sorti apr¨s avoir ressenti une douleur au torse et ayant du mal respirer.

On esp¨re qu'il n'y a rien de grave pour l'attaquant argentin ðŸ#Liga #Bar§aAlav(C)s pic.twitter.com/MrPRdhLM3H

'-- Sports Share (@Sports_Share_FR) October 30, 2021

It was subsequently reported that Aguero had suffered a heart arrhythmia and will be out of action for three months after undergoing a ''cardiological evaluation.''

28-year-old Icelandic midfielder Emil Palsson was also airlifted to hospital after he collapsed on the pitch after just 12 minutes of a game.

pic.twitter.com/4CYN1LBKdi

'-- Sebastian PedersenðŸ‡"🇴 (@sebpedersen01) November 1, 2021

A statement from the club said he was ''successfully resuscitated'' after suffering a ''cardiac arrest.''

Denmark footballer Christian Eriksen also collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest while playing for Denmark at Euro 2020.

CHRISTIAN ERIKSEN collapse in the match against Finland players show respect for ereiksen.#FIN#denmarkfinland. #Ericksen#DENFIN #EURO2020#ENGvNZ. #Erikson#cristianeriksen

Full video '--https://t.co/YvAQBKABBX pic.twitter.com/7REMMWFNm9

'-- Sanket Jain (@Sanketjaingolu) June 13, 2021

28-year-old bodybuilder Jake Kazmarek also died ''unexpectedly'' four days after taking the jab.

Throw another one on the pile.

"A 28-year-old bodybuilder has died 4 days after receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Jake Kazmarek got his 2nd dose of the vaccine on September 28th."

on left: "I'm vaxxxed, but I'm not a sheep!"on right: "I'm dead." pic.twitter.com/wOo7ZTJ2lZ

'-- Rosie's Virginia is for Winners (@DarnelSugarfoo) October 30, 2021

SUBSCRIBE on YouTube:

Follow on Twitter: Follow @PrisonPlanet

'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

ALERT!

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch.

I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here.

Support my sponsor '' Turbo Force '' a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.

Get early access, exclusive content and behinds the scenes stuff by following me on Locals.

'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:54

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a collective award ceremony at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France September 20, 2021.

Stefano Rellandini | Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that those aged 65 and older will need to present proof of a Covid-19 booster shot from mid-December for health passes that give access to restaurants, trains and planes to remain valid.

Besides, the third shot, so far available only for people older than 65 and the vulnerable, will from early December also be available for the 50-64 age group, Macron said in a televised address.

"Since the end of summer, a campaign has been launched to protect people over 65 as well as the most fragile among us. Today we must accelerate," Macron said.

"If you have been vaccinated more than six months ago, I call on you to book an appointment for a booster shot. From December 15, you will need to show proof of a booster shot to extend the validity of your health pass."

The health pass is required to enter restaurants and bars, to go to the gym or a conference, and for long-distance train and plane journeys.

Macron also urged those not yet vaccinated to do so. "To those not yet vaccinated: Get vaccinated. Get vaccinated to protect yourselves. Get vaccinated to live normally," the president said. "We are not done yet with the pandemic."

Macron said Europe was seeing a fifth wave of coronavirus infections and that in France there had been an alarming rise in the number of Covid-19 hospital patients and in the spread of cases.

France registered 12,476 new confirmed infections on Tuesday, the highest level since Sept. 8, health ministry data showed.

Macron's last major televised speech was on July 12 at the start of a fourth wave of infections. He announced then that the Covid-19 health pass was extended to a wide list of venues, which led to a big increase in vaccination rates.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:47

I passed a car on the road last week with a bumper sticker that made me chuckle. It read: ''Critical thinking '-- the other national deficit.'' I've been thinking about that bumper sticker a lot lately '-- ever since my essay ''What is Luciferase'' (exclusively on Substack) set off a firestorm. The corporate media issued the same blanket denial with the same regurgitated sentences (a cut and paste journalism job if ever there was one!) seemingly around the world: there's no such ingredient secretly hiding inside the experimental vaccines!

Did any of these so-called journalists do the homework? Did any of them actually perform a fact-check? Of course they didn't. Most of them didn't even read the essay. (Let's be honest: most of them don't read anything at all.) I had left the instructions for fact-checking my claim right there for everyone to see:

1) Go to the MODERNA website.

2) Click: the PATENTS page.

3) Click: PATENT US 10,703,789

4) Do a keyword search for: Luciferase.

This was too difficult a task for our dishonest horde of corporate journalists. At least one brave soul bothered to do it '-- and that honest man happened to be a Google software engineer named Zach Vorhies.

Zach Vorhies posted a nine-tweet thread on November 5th that I want everyone to read.

What did he find?

Let me repeat: Luciferase is INCLUDED in the mRNA sequence of the Moderna patent! So I'm right '-- and the corporate media is wrong. Does this surprise anybody?

The corporate press has already admitted that Luciferase was used in the testing phase of the vaccines as well. So it's listed in the mRNA sequence of the Moderna patent AND it's used in the testing of the vaccines but I'm a conspiracy theorist?

One more thing: the new COVID-19 antibody test is called SATiN and it uses Luciferase. No, I'm not kidding. Just click here to see for yourself.

Let me repeat that information: the antibody test is called SATiN.

I don't know about you, but I'm not getting anywhere near this dark stuff. Just listen to how the SATiN test works:

''We basically incubate those three little molecular biological pieces with a prick of blood," Stagljar says. "And if there are antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the blood, these antibodies will 'glue' the three parts of luciferase into a functional molecule that will start shining."

In other words, you need to have COVID-19 antibodies present to make the enzyme glow. When the glow occurs, the researchers can then measure the amount of light emitted with an instrument called a luminometer. The more antibodies a person has, the brighter the luciferase will shine.

There's something very wrong here. You know it and I know it. You don't have to be a Christian to understand: names matter. It's not an accident that they've given this name to this test. It's a warning.

He who has ears, let him hear.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:45

Prince Harry has said that he messaged Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey to warn him that his platform was being used to plot a ''coup'' ahead of the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

''Jack and I were emailing each other prior to 6 January, I warned him that his platform was allowing a coup to be staged. That email was sent the day before and then it happened, and I haven't heard from him since'', the Duke of Sussex claimed.

Supporters of then-US President Donald Trump stormed Congress on 6 January as lawmakers assembled to count electoral votes that would formalise Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election.

The duke was speaking at a Wired magazine event titled ''The Internet Lie Machine'', billed as exploring ''the real cost of a lie on the internet to ourselves, our communities (and) our societies''.

Harry sought to link misinformation and hatred on social media with the British press's treatment of his mother, Princess Diana, and wife, Meghan Markle, accusing news publishers of running a ''digital dictatorship'' and lambasting ''pirates with press cards who have hijacked the most powerful industry in the world''.

He said: ''I learned from a very early age that the incentives of publishing are not necessarily aligned with the incentives of truth'... I lost my mother to this self-manufactured rabidness, and I'm determined not to lose the mother of my children to the same thing, this self-manufactured rabidness.

''I said many months ago, 'they won't stop until she's dead'. That was more of a warning, not a challenge, and the scale of the misinformation now is terrifying.

''No one's safe from it, no one is protected from it. You can't hide from it. And we continue to see lives ruined, families destroyed.''

He also appealed for social media giants to tackle ''superspreaders'' of hatred and misinformation.

Harry said: ''We've been led to believe this challenge is too big to fix, but that simply isn't true. Just as much as with a virus, there are superspreaders to monitor and contain.

''We know that a small group of accounts are allowed to create a huge amount of chaos and disruption online without any consequence whatsoever.

''More than 70 per cent of the hate speech about my wife on Twitter, could be traced to fewer than 50 accounts. Perhaps the most troubling part of this is the number of British journalists interacting with and amplifying the hate and the lies, but they regurgitate these lies as truth.''

The duke added that many are now in digital echo chambers.

He added: ''In one single household, you can have three or four versions of reality, when it comes to truth and fact. This isn't a case of 'this could happen to you', this is already happening to you, and we can all feed into it if we're not aware of it.''

The chair of the event, Wired editor Steven Levy, said he had been targeted by trolls after the announcement of the duke's involvement.

He said: ''My notifications have blown up. Harry haters have jumped in there, saying all sorts of things. Some of your supporters got in there, there's a wild brawl going on there, and that's all I see when I look at Twitter now.''

The duke quipped: ''It's your fault for inviting me onto this panel.''

In a separate event on Tuesday, the Duchess of Sussex defended flouting royal conventions on political non-intervention by lobbying US politicians on the subject of paid family leave.

According to reports last week, the Duchess has personally called a number of Republican senators to lobby them on paid family leave, as a bill on the issue hangs in contention in Congress. She

During a session at the New York Times DealBook online summit, Meghan was asked if she has any ''anxiety'' about getting involved in politics.

She replied: ''I don't see this as a political issue frankly. Look, there is certainly a precedent amongst my husband's family and the royal family of not having any involvement in politics, but I think this is'... I mean, paid leave, from my standpoint, is just a humanitarian issue.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:44

Jake Sullivan, national security adviser in the Biden administration, may be guilty of perjury related to the Hillary Clinton campaign's dirty tricks against Donald Trump.

Last week, Michael A. Sussmann, a partner at Perkins Coie, a law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements to the FBI about his clients and their motives behind planting the rumor, at the highest levels of the FBI, of a secret Trump-Russia server.

The indictment states that Sussmann, as well as the cyber experts recruited for the operation, ''coordinated with representatives and agents of the Clinton campaign with regard to the data and written materials that Sussmann gave to the FBI and the media.''

One of those campaign agents was Sullivan, according to emails that special counsel John Durham obtained. On Sept. 15, 2016 '-- just four days before Sussmann handed off the materials to the FBI '-- Marc Elias, Sussmann's law partner and fellow Democratic Party operative, ''exchanged emails with the Clinton campaign's foreign policy adviser concerning the Russian bank allegations,'' as well as with other top campaign officials, the indictment states.

Sources close to the case confirmed the ''foreign policy adviser'' referenced by title is Sullivan.

They say Sullivan was briefed on the development of the opposition-research materials '-- which tried to allege that a ''secret'' server of the Trump organization was communicating with Russia's Alfa Bank. The conspiracy theory, pushed by opposition firm Fusion GPS, was later dismissed, as the ''communication'' was likely marketing emails.

Despite Hillary Clinton's dirty tricks in 2016, she was never elected to the Oval Office. AP Photo/Gerry Broome, FileYet Sullivan maintained in congressional testimony in December 2017 that he didn't know of Fusion's involvement in the Alfa Bank opposition research. In the same closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, he also denied knowing anything about Fusion in 2016 or who was conducting the opposition research for the campaign.

Cybersecurity lawyer Michael A. Sussmann was accused of a single count of making a false statement to federal authorities on Sept. 19, 2016. Perkins Coie''Marc [Elias] '... would occasionally give us updates on the opposition research they were conducting, but I didn't know what the nature of that effort was '-- inside effort, outside effort, who was funding it, who was doing it, anything like that,'' Sullivan stated under oath.

Sullivan also testified he didn't know that Perkins Coie, the law firm where Elias and Sussmann were partners, was working for the Clinton campaign until October 2017, when it was reported in the media as part of stories revealing the campaign's contract with Fusion, which also produced the so-called Steele dossier.

Sullivan maintained he didn't even know that the politically prominent Elias worked for Perkins Coie, a well-known Democratic law firm. Major media stories from 2016 routinely identified Elias as ''general counsel for the Clinton campaign'' and a ''partner at Perkins Coie.''

''To be honest with you, Marc wears a tremendous number of hats, so I wasn't sure who he was representing,'' Sullivan testified. ''I sort of thought he was, you know, just talking to us as, you know, a fellow traveler in this '-- in this campaign effort.''

Although he acknowledged knowing Elias and his partner were marshaling opposition researchers for a campaign project targeting Trump, Sullivan insisted, ''They didn't do something with it.''

In truth, they used the research to instigate a full-blown investigation at the FBI and seed a number of stories in the Washington media, which Elias discussed in emails.

Jake Sullivan claims he was unaware of Marc Elias' major role in the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. APIn fact, on the eve of the election, Sullivan put out a written campaign statement that claimed Trump and the Russians had set up a ''secret hotline'' through Alfa Bank and he suggested ''federal authorities'' were investigating ''this direct connection between Trump and Russia.'' He portrayed the shocking discovery as the work of independent experts '-- ''computer scientists'' '-- without disclosing their attachment to the Clinton campaign.

''This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,'' Sullivan said.

Lying to Congress is a felony. Though the offense is rarely prosecuted, former special counsel Robert Mueller won convictions of two of Trump's associates on charges of that very offense.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team found nothing that verified Donald Trump's Russiagate scandal. APAn attorney for Sullivan did not respond to questions, while a spokeswoman for the National Security Council declined comment.

Adapted with permission from RealClearInvestigations.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:40

Scientists have identified an antibody that can protect people from COVID-19, its variants and other types of coronaviruses.

The antibody, DH1047, works by binding to the virus's cells and neutralizing them, preventing them from replicating.

It is effective at both preventing infection and at helping treat a person that has already contracted Covid.

The research team at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (UNC) and Duke University, in Durham, says it believes it has found a key piece that can help combat the current pandemic and future virus outbreaks.

Researchers have discovered an antibody that is not only just effective against Covid, but against all types of coronaviruses that could have future outbreaks among humans. Pictured: A microscope image of a COVID-19 virus cell

The antibody, DH1047, showed the ability to 100% neutralize the virus cells of COVID-19, SARS and other coronaviruses that are found in animals

For comparison, two other antibodies the researchers tested were found to be effective against some, but not all, types of the coronavirus that can infect both animals and humans. The antibody DH1235 (left) was found to be effective against some viruses, while DH1073 (right) was only effective against SARS (orange)

'This antibody has the potential to be a therapeutic for the current epidemic,' Dr Barton Haynes, director of Duke Human Vaccine Institute and co-author of the study, said in a statement.

'It could also be available for future outbreaks, if or when other coronaviruses jump from their natural animal hosts to humans.'

Researchers, who published their findings on November 2 in the Science Translational Medicine journal, identified more than 1,700 coronavirus antibodies.

Of that pool, 50 were identified that could bind to both Covid and SARS - the virus that caused an outbreak in Asia in the early 2000s - cells.

One, named DH1047, was particularly effective, being able to bind to all kinds of viruses, both animal- and human-based.

'This antibody binds to the coronavirus at a location that is conserved across numerous mutations and variations,' Haynes said.

'As a result, it can neutralize a wide range of coronaviruses.'

The antibody was tested in mice, and found to be able to protect the rodents from developing a Covid infection after being exposed to the virus.

It was effective against all types of strains as well, including the highly contagious Delta variant.

Other types of coronaviruses that are believed to have the future potential of infecting humans were also tested, and were neutralized by the antibody.

'The findings provide a template for the rational design of universal vaccine strategies that are variant-proof and provide broad protection from known and emerging coronaviruses,' said Dr Ralph Baric, a professor of epidemiology at UNC and co-senior author of the research.

When testing the antibody on animals that were already infected, they found that it was effective at reducing the severity of symptoms related to the lungs.

'The therapeutic activity even after mice were infected suggests that this could be a treatment deployed in the current pandemic, but also stockpiled to prevent the spread of a future outbreak or epidemic with a SARS-related virus,' Dr David Martinez, co-lead author and a researcher at UNC, said in a statement.

Currently, monoclonal antibody treatments are considered to be among the most effective at treating Covid.

The treatment pumps a person's body with Covid antibodies that assist the immune system in neutralizing virus cells and preventing them from replicating.

This treatment is especially valuable for unvaccinated people, who do not have the antibodies necessary to stave off infection or severe hospitalization.

Incorporating this newly discovered antibody into the future of treatment development for coronavirus related diseases could make them much more effective.

While it may be already too late for this pandemic, researchers hope their findings will be crucial to fighting the next virus outbreak that strikes the world.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:37

France will start building its first new nuclear reactors in decades as part of efforts to meet its promises to reduce planet-warming emissions, French President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday.

He spoke as climate negotiators in Glasgow debate how to speed up efforts against climate change, and amid concerns around Europe about recent spikes in energy prices and the continent's dependence on global gas and oil producers, including Russia.

''To guarantee France's energy independence, to guarantee our country's electricity supply, and to reach our goals -- notably carbon neutrality in 2050 -- we will for the first time in decades revive the construction of nuclear reactors in our country, and continue to develop renewable energy,'' Macron said in a televised address.

He did not give any details of the plans.

France is more dependent than any other country on nuclear energy, but its reactors are aging and its newest-generation reactors are years behind schedule.

Nuclear energy produces much lower emissions than coal, oil or gas, but nuclear plants are very expensive to build and produce radioactive waste that remains deadly for tens of thousands of years. Politicians are divided over whether nuclear energy should be included in global plans to reduce carbon emissions.

___

Follow all AP stories about climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:37

Image source, Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce has been backed by a consortium of private investors and the UK government to develop small nuclear reactors to generate cleaner energy.

The creation of the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor (SMR) business was announced following a £195m cash injection from private firms and a £210m grant from the government.

It is hoped the new company could create up to 40,000 jobs by 2050.

However, critics say the focus should be on renewable power, not new nuclear.

Currently, about 16% of UK electricity generation comes from nuclear power.

Small modular reactors are nuclear fission reactors but are smaller than conventional ones.

The investment by Rolls-Royce Group, BNF Resources, Exelon Generation and the government will go towards developing Rolls-Royce's SMR design and take it through regulatory processes to assess whether it is suitable to be deployed in the UK.

It will also identify sites which will manufacture the reactors' parts and most of the venture's investment is expected to be focused in the north of the UK, where there is existing nuclear expertise.

Rolls-Royce's share price jumped by 4.2% to 147.85p each following the announcement.

'Cleaner energy'

Rolls-Royce SMR said one of its power stations would occupy about one tenth of the size of a conventional nuclear plant - the equivalent footprint of two football pitches - and power approximately one million homes.

The firm said a plant would have the capacity to generate 470MW of power, which it added would be the same produced by more than 150 onshore wind turbines.

Warren East, Rolls-Royce chief executive, said the company's SMR technology offered a "clean energy solution" which help tackle climate change.

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said SMRs offered opportunities to "cut costs and build more quickly, ensuring we can bring clean electricity to people's homes and cut our already-dwindling use of volatile fossil fuels even further".

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the UK to deploy more low carbon energy than ever before and ensure greater energy independence", he added.

Image source, Getty Images

SMRs are thought to be less expensive to build than traditional nuclear power plants because of their smaller size. Due to the nature of Rolls-Royce's reactors, it is understood parts could be produced in factories and transported to sites by road, which would reduce construction time and costs.

At an expected cost of around £2bn each, SMRs would cost less than the £20bn each for the larger plant under construction at Hinkley Point and an anticipated, but not yet approved, sister plant at Sizewell in Suffolk.

If approved for use in the UK, it is understood Rolls-Royce SMR could build up to 16 reactors across the UK for electricity production.

Tom Samson, chief executive Rolls-Royce SMR, said the company had been established to "deliver a low cost, deployable, scalable and investable programme of new nuclear power plants".

"Our transformative approach to delivering nuclear power, based on predictable factory-built components, is unique and the nuclear technology is proven," he added.

However, Paul Dorfman, chairman of the Nuclear Consulting Group think tank, told the BBC's Today programme there was danger that the money spent on nuclear power would hit funding for other power sources.

"If nuclear eats all the pies which it is looking to be doing'... we won't have enough money to do the kind of things we need to do which we know practically and technologically we can do now," he said.

Greenpeace's chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said SMRs were still more expensive than renewable technologies and added there was "still no solution to dispose of the radioactive waste they leave behind and no consensus on where they should be located".

"What's worse, there's not even a prototype in prospect anytime soon," he added. "The immediate deadline for action is sharp cuts in emissions by 2030, and small reactors will have no role in that."

Friends of the Earth's head of policy, Mike Childs, said government support should be "aimed at developing the UK's substantial renewable resources, such as offshore wind, tidal and solar, and boosting measures to help householders cut energy waste".

As part of a "10-point plan" to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reach a target of net zero by 2050, the government has said nuclear power provides a "reliable source of low-carbon electricity" and that it is "pursuing large-scale nuclear", while also looking to invest in SMRs.

Tony Danker, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said the investment for Rolls-Royce was a "hugely promising milestone for a technology that can not only boost the economy but help deliver a greener and more secure energy system overall".

Meanwhile, Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, added the funding sent a "huge signal to private investors that the government wants SMRs alongside new large-scale stations to hit net zero".

More on this story

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:23

BOSTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Harvard University has quietly become one of the biggest grape growers in California's drought-stricken Paso Robles wine region, securing water well drilling permits to feed its vineyards days before lawmakers banned new pumping, according to records reviewed by Reuters.

The investment, which began as a bet on the grape market, has turned into a smart water play as the wells boosted the value of its land in the up-and-coming wine region of Paso Robles. But it has also raised questions about the role of big investors in agriculture in the midst of a water crisis.

''It remains to be seen what commitment they have to the business of agriculture,'' said Susan Harvey of environmental advocacy group North County Watch, which has been following the drought closely. ''Is Harvard going to keep pumping ground water, or cut back on returns to protect water quality and quantity?''

Brodiaea Inc, wholly owned by the secretive $36 billion Harvard endowment fund, has spent more than $60 million to purchase about 10,000 acres in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties since 2012, making it one of the top 20 growers in Paso Robles.

Harvard Management Company, which runs the fund, declined to comment, citing a policy of not discussing individual investments. Brodiaea officials did not respond to repeated phone messages.

Dana Merrill, who owns a vineyard services firm near Paso Robles and sold land to Brodiaea in 2012, said the company was among several big investors that have entered the wine grape market in California in recent years. He said he didn't believe Brodiaea's land buys were part of a well-timed water play.

''You've got a value-added product, you've got agricultural real-estate as a hedge against inflation, and if you can be smart about operating it you can come up with a pretty consistent cash flow that can produce a return on investment that is not as volatile as other products,'' he said.

Real estate brokers said irrigable land in the heart of the Paso Robles region is running about $15,000 to $20,000 per acre, versus $3,000 for an acre of dry pasture - a spread that has widened sharply as the drought has tightened its grip.

BUYING SPREESince it began its buying spree - which coincided with the start of California's latest drought - Brodiaea has acquired rights to drill 16 water wells of between 700 and 900 feet deep, two or three times deeper than the average residential well, according to county records. Deeper wells will continue to give them access to water as shallower wells run dry.

''The area they bought in has some of the best groundwater in the region, and having working wells puts their investment in a strong position,'' said David Hamel, a local real-estate appraiser.

No environmental advocacy group has accused Brodiaea of trying to profit from the drought, but North County Watch's Harvey said the drilling of deep wells in the Paso Robles wine region has the potential to exacerbate problems for locals.

''A deep well pumping high volume can draw down wells up to a mile away,'' she said.

As local lawmakers were trying to figure out how to deal with the worsening water shortage in Paso Robles in 2013, Brodiaea and a number of other investors, agricultural land owners and residents moved fast to secure water rights.

The company got permits for seven 800-foot wells on Aug. 21, 2013, six days before a ban on new pumping from the hardest-hit part of the basin took effect, according to previously unreported data from the records.

RISING PRICESAn analysis published by real estate investment company Pacifica Real Estate Group this week said it expected Paso Robles irrigable land prices to rise further due to increased interest from investors from Napa Valley and Sonoma, where an acre now fetches between $75,000 and $100,000. But, ''with a three-year drought upon Paso Robles, good water supply will be one of the biggest factors.''

Harvard's investment arm, often a pioneer in new asset classes, has faced criticism in the past for some of its timber and energy investments and last year the school signed on to U.N.-backed principles for responsible investment.

Investments in natural resources were a priority for Jane Mendillo who lead the endowment until December. She has been replaced by insider Stephen Blyth.

For the fiscal year that ended June 30, Harvard's endowment returned 15.4 percent and for the last 20 years it returned an average 12.3 percent a year. During the most recent year, investments for natural resources returned 9 percent, beating the benchmark's 7.5 percent return. (Additional reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss,; editing by Ross Colvin)

for-phone-only for-tablet-portrait-up for-tablet-landscape-up for-desktop-up for-wide-desktop-up

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:16

The first oral antiviral for treating COVID-19, Merck & Co.'s molnupiravir, received approval from the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on 4 November. But the approval, for people at high risk of severe disease, comes as a prominent virologist has suggested using molnupiravir could do far more harm than good, potentially unleashing new, deadlier variants of SARS-CoV-2. Other virologists say the concern is worth tracking but is largely hypothetical, for now. ''I don't think we are in the position of withholding a lifesaving drug for a risk that may or may not happen,'' says Aris Katzourakis, a viral evolution expert at the University of Oxford.

Molnupiravir, which Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics developed from an earlier, experimental antiviral, works by interfering with viral replication, littering the viral genome with mutations until the virus can no longer reproduce. Last month, Merck and Ridgeback officials announced results of a clinical trial that found giving the drug to COVID-19 patients early in the disease reduced their risk of hospitalization and death by 50%. The drug's ability to mutate RNA has raised persistent fears that it could induce mutations in a patient's own genetic material, possibly causing cancer or birth defects; studies so far have not borne out those fears.

Now, William Haseltine, a virologist formerly at Harvard University known for his work on HIV and the human genome project, suggests that by inducing viral mutations, molnupiravir could spur the rise of new viral variants more dangerous than today's. ''You are putting a drug into circulation that is a potent mutagen at a time when we are deeply concerned about new variants,'' says Haseltine, who outlined his concern Monday in a Forbes blog post. ''I can't imagine doing anything more dangerous.''

He notes that patients who are prescribed antibiotics and other drugs often don't complete a prescribed medication course, a practice that can allow resistant germs to survive and spread. If COVID-19 patients feel better after a couple of days and stop taking molnupiravir, Haseltine worries viral mutants will survive and possibly spread to others. ''If I were trying to create a new and more dangerous virus in humans, I would feed a subclinical dose [of molnupiravir] to people infected,'' Haseltine says.

''The possibility [of generating variants] is there,'' agrees Raymond Schinazi, an infectious disease expert at Emory University. But neither he nor anyone else contacted by ScienceInsider voiced as much concern as Haseltine. Katzourakis says, ''I don't share the alarm in this. If you force an organism to mutate more, it's more likely to be bad for the virus.''

Underpinning Haseltine's worry are studies that show coronaviruses can survive with molnupiravir-induced mutations. Two years ago, for example, Mark Denison, a virologist at Vanderbilt University, and colleagues repeatedly exposed coronaviruses to sublethal doses of a form of the drug called EIDD-1931 to test whether drug-resistant viruses would emerge. They reported that in populations of two coronaviruses'--murine hepatitis virus and the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome'--30 rounds of such drug treatment caused up to 162 different mutations that did not kill the viruses. But Denison notes that his study didn't catalog mutations in individual viruses; rather, up to 162 mutations arose in populations of cells infected with one of the two coronaviruses.

Most of the mutations harmed the virus, slowing growth. ''If I take away anything from our work, it is that if the virus tries to adapt, say through resistance [to molnupiravir], it continuously develops deleterious mutations,'' Denison says. However, Ravindra Gupta, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge, cautions that mutated viruses may have better odds of flourishing in the people most likely to take molnupiravir: patients with compromised immune systems. Because vaccines are less effective at protecting those patients, he says, ''These are precisely the people who are most likely to receive [molnupiravir].''

Daria Hazuda, who heads infectious disease discovery for Merck, notes that the company hasn't seen any evidence of people who take molnupiravir generating viruses with new and dangerous mutations. In patients who completed the 5-day course of the drug, Hazuda says, ''we don't see any infectious virus'''--let alone mutated variants. The mutations that arise along the way have been random, she says'--not concentrated in a particular gene that would make the virus more likely to survive. ''There is no evidence for any selective bias,'' she says.

What's more, Hazuda and others note, SARS-CoV-2 is plenty good at churning out variants naturally as it replicates in infected people. ''There is no shortage of viral variation out there,'' Katzourakis says. The more important question is whether molnupiravir provides selective pressure that drives the virus toward transmissibility or virulence. ''I find it difficult to imagine,'' he says. ''But I can't rule that out.''

More likely, Denison and others say, is that use of molnupiravir will drive the emergence of virus that is no more deadly or transmissible but is resistant to the drug, a common outcome for anti-infectious agents. But the 5 November news that another antiviral drug, from Pfizer, is highly effective against SARS-CoV-2 suggests a way to forestall resistance: using both pills in combination, the same multiprong strategy used to treat HIV and other infections.

On 30 November, a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will review possible emergency use authorization for molnupiravir in the United States.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 11:47

While Dr. Anthony Fauci is spearheading the nation's COVID-19 response, his daughter is working for the social media platform Twitter.In addition to readily censoring conservatives, the social media platform has also cracked down on users sharing COVID-19 ''misinformation.''

Amidst the heavy-handed censorship, Alison Fauci has been working at the company since graduating in 2014, The National Pulse can reveal.

''She works as a software engineer and, according to her LinkedIn profile, was focused on developing ''ad formats for the Twitter for Android app.'' (Her LinkedIn profile has since been made private or deleted),'' Heavy magazine summarizes.

Alison Fauci maintains a profile on Twitter's official blog, with one entry from November 2017 entitled ''Introducing Serial: improved data serialization on Android.''

''Smooth timeline scrolling on the Twitter for Android app is important for the user experience, and we're always looking for ways to improve it. With some profiling, we discovered that serializing and deserializing data to and from the database using standard Android Externalizable classes was taking around 15% of the UI thread time,'' the blog post begins.

The position at the social media company, however, appears to represent a conflict of interest given the platform's decision to censor COVID-19 information that goes against the diktats of her father '' who notoriously insisted there was ''no reason'' to wear a mask.

In early March, Twitter decided to broadly ban any tweet that ''could place people at a higher risk of transmitting COVID-19.''

Primarily, the platform vowed to crack down on tweets that represent a ''denial of expert guidance.''

''Encouragement to use fake or ineffective treatments, preventions, and diagnostic techniques'' and ''misleading content purporting to be from experts or authorities'' were other categories targeted by the social media platform.

And the platform has used its powers to censor users who defy the recommendations of Alison Fauci's father.

A high-profile example of this censorship is the platform's decision to ban Donald Trump's son from the platform for ''posting misinformation about hydroxychloroquine'' '' a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Twitter ordered Donald Trump Jr. to delete the misleading tweet, adding that it would ''limit some account functionality for 12 hours.''

The platform also removed videos of doctors holding a press conference on Capitol Hill to defend the potential treatment which had not yet garnered support from Fauci.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:51

Added by Mark Caviezel on October 20, 2021.Saved under Health, OpinionTags: AIER, Charles L. Hooper, David R. Henderson, disinformation, FDA, ivenrmectin, nobel prize, off patent, toxic

by David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper

On July 28, the Wall Street Journal ran our article ''Why Is the FDA Attacking a Safe, Effective Drug?'' In it, we outlined the potential value of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin for Covid-19, and we questioned the FDA's vigorous attack on ivermectin. Many people praised us and many criticized us. We had clearly covered a sensitive subject. It didn't help that one of the studies we referenced was retracted the day our article was published. Within hours of learning that fact, we sent a mea culpa to the Journal's editors. They acted quickly, adding a note at the end of the electronic version and publishing our letter. It's important to address two criticisms of our work. The first is that we exaggerated the FDA's warning on ivermectin. The second is that Merck's stance on ivermectin proved that even the company that developed ivermectin thought that it doesn't work for Covid-19.

First, we didn't exaggerate the FDA's warning on ivermectin. Instead, the agency changed its website after our article was published, probably to reflect the points we made. Second, Merck had two incentives to downplay ivermectin's usefulness against the novel coronavirus. We'll explain both points more fully.

Ivermectin was developed and marketed by Merck & Co. while one of us (Hooper) worked there years ago. Dr. William C. Campbell and Professor Satoshi Omura were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. They earned it for discovering and developing avermectin. Later Campbell and some associates modified avermectin to create ivermectin. Merck & Co. has donated four billion doses of ivermectin to prevent river blindness and other diseases in areas of the world, such as Africa, where parasites are common. The ten doctors who are in the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance call ivermectin ''one of the safest, low-cost, and widely available drugs in the history of medicine.'' Ivermectin is on the WHO's List of Essential Medicines and ivermectin has been used safely in pregnant women, children, and infants.

Ivermectin is an antiparasitic, but it has shown, in cell cultures in laboratories, the ability to destroy 21 viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19. Further, ivermectin has demonstrated its potential in clinical trials for the treatment of Covid-19 and in large-scale population studies for the prevention of Covid-19.

Contradicting these positive results, the FDA issued a special statement warning that ''you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19.'' The FDA's warning, which included language such as, ''serious harm,'' ''hospitalized,'' ''dangerous,'' ''very dangerous,'' ''seizures,'' ''coma and even death,'' and ''highly toxic,'' might suggest that the FDA was warning against pills laced with poison. In fact, the FDA had already approved the drug years ago as a safe and effective anti-parasitic. Why would it suddenly become dangerous if used to treat Covid-19? Further, the FDA claimed, with no scientific basis, that ivermectin is not an antiviral, notwithstanding its proven antiviral activity.

Interestingly, at the bottom of the FDA's strong warning against ivermectin was this statement: ''Meanwhile, effective ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 continue to be to wear your mask, stay at least 6 feet from others who don't live with you, wash hands frequently, and avoid crowds.'' Was this based on the kinds of double-blind studies that the FDA requires for drug approvals? No.

After some critics claimed that we overstated or overreacted to the FDA's special warning, we reviewed the FDA's website and found that it had been changed, and there was no mention of the changes nor any reason given. Overall, the warnings were watered down and clarified. We noticed the following changes:

The false statement that ''Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses)'' was removed. ''Taking a drug for an unapproved use can be very dangerous. This is true of ivermectin, too'' was changed to the less alarming ''Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe or effective for these indications.'' (Indications is the official term used in the industry to denote new uses for a drug, such as new diseases or conditions, and/or new patient populations.) The statement, ''If you have a prescription for ivermectin for an FDA-approved use, get it from a legitimate source and take it exactly as prescribed,'' was changed to, ''If your health care provider writes you an ivermectin prescription, fill it through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed.'' This more clearly acknowledges that reasonable physicians may prescribe ivermectin for non-FDA-approved uses, such as Covid-19. The ending statement about masks, spacing, hand washing, and avoiding crowds was replaced with one that recommended getting vaccinated and following CDC guidelines. The reasonable statement ''Talk to your health care provider about available COVID-19 vaccines and treatment options. Your provider can help determine the best option for you, based on your health history'' was added at the end. The new warning from the FDA is more correct and less alarming than the previous one.

In a statement from February, Merck, the company that originated and still sells ivermectin, agreed with the FDA that ivermectin should not be used for Covid-19. ''We do not believe that the data available support the safety and efficacy of ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information.''[2]

To some, this appeared to be a smoking gun. Merck wants to make money, they reason, and people are interested in using ivermectin for Covid-19, therefore, Merck would warn against such usage only if the scientific evidence were overwhelming. But that's not how the pharmaceutical industry works.

Here's how the FDA-regulated pharmaceutical industry really works.

The FDA judges all drugs as guilty until proven, to the FDA's satisfaction, both safe and efficacious. By what process does this happen? The FDA waits for a deep-pocketed sponsor to present a comprehensive package that justifies the approval of a new drug or a new use of an existing drug. For a drug like ivermectin, long since generic, a sponsor may never show up. The reason is not that the drug is ineffective; rather, the reason is that any expenditures used to secure approval for that new use will help other generic manufacturers that haven't invested a dime. Due to generic drug substitution rules at pharmacies, Merck could spend millions of dollars to get a Covid-19 indication for ivermectin and then effectively get zero return. What company would ever make that investment?

With no sponsor, there is no new FDA-approved indication and, therefore, no official recognition of ivermectin's value. Was the FDA's warning against ivermectin based on science? No. It was based on process. Like a typical bureaucrat, the FDA won't recommend the use of ivermectin because, while it might help patients, such a recommendation would violate its processes. The FDA needs boxes checked off in the right order. If a sponsor never shows up and the boxes aren't checked off, the FDA's standard approach is to tell Americans to stay away from the drug because it might be dangerous or ineffective. Sometimes the FDA is too enthusiastic and these warnings are, frankly, alarming. Guilty until proven innocent.

There are two reasons that Merck would warn against ivermectin usage, essentially throwing its own drug under the bus.

Once they are marketed, doctors can prescribe drugs for uses not specifically approved by the FDA. Such usage is called off-label. Using ivermectin for Covid-19 is considered off-label because that use is not specifically listed on ivermectin's FDA-approved label.

While off-label prescribing is widespread and completely legal, it is illegal for a pharmaceutical company to promote that use. Doctors can use drugs for off-label uses and drug companies can supply them with product. But heaven forbid that companies encourage, support, or promote off-label prescribing. The fines for doing so are outrageous. During a particularly vigorous two-year period, the Justice Department collected over $6 billion from drug companies for off-label promotion cases. Merck's lawyers haven't forgotten that lesson.

Another reason for Merck to discount ivermectin's efficacy is a result of marketing strategy. Ivermectin is an old, cheap, off-patent drug. Merck will never make much money from ivermectin sales. Drug companies aren't looking to spruce up last year's winners; they want new winners with long patent lives. Not coincidentally, Merck recently released the clinical results for its new Covid-19 fighter, molnupiravir, which has shown a 50% reduction in the risk of hospitalization and death among high-risk, unvaccinated adults. Analysts are predicting multi-billion-dollar sales for molnupiravir.[3]

While we can all be happy that Merck has developed a new therapeutic that can keep us safe from the ravages of Covid-19, we should realize that the FDA's rules give companies an incentive to focus on newer drugs while ignoring older ones. Ivermectin may or may not be a miracle drug for Covid-19. The FDA doesn't want us to learn the truth.

The FDA spreads lies and alarms Americans while preventing drug companies from providing us with scientific explorations of existing, promising, generic drugs.

David R. Henderson

David R. Henderson is a Senior Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research.

He is also a research fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and emeritus professor of economics with the Naval Postgraduate School, is editor of The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

David was previously the senior economist for health policy with President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers.

SOURCE

TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT CITIZENS JOURNAL Please keep us publishing '' DONATE

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:39

Starting tomorrow, proof of vaccination will be required to enter most public areas in Los Angeles. The vaccine mandate has been labeled one of the strictest in the country so far. Proof of vaccination will be required to enter restaurants, entertainment venues, gyms, malls, government buildings, and more. Businesses who fail to abide by the mandate can be issued citations and face fines of $1,000 or more for subsequent offenses. The Los Angeles vaccine mandate is stricter than the mandate implemented in the county, leading to confusion among business leaders, ''There's a tremendous lack of clarity,'' said Sarah Wiltfong, senior policy manager at the Los Angeles County Business Federation. For example, most retail shops are exempt. ''But shopping malls and shopping centers are included, which of course includes retail shops,'' she said.

LA's vaccine mandate comes on the heels of a national vaccine mandate by President Biden, requiring employees of all businesses with more than 100 employees to show proof of vaccination. Biden's mandate was halted in a federal court due to ''grave statutory and constitutional issues''. 27 states have sued the Biden administration in federal court to fight the mandate, including three Democratic states. The Democratic Governor of Kansas, Laura Kelly, came out against Biden's vaccine mandate publicly, saying ''Yesterday, I reviewed the new vaccine mandate from the Biden Administration. While I appreciate the intention to keep people safe, a goal I share, I don't believe this directive is the correct, or the most effective, solution for Kansas,''.

Some states have passed bills banning vaccine mandates in local jurisdictions, including a recently signed bill by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine banning vaccine mandates in public schools. Workers across the country have revolted against vaccine mandates, with the mandates being a leading cause for various workers strikes and creating staffing shortages in critical industries.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:15

Editorial Note: Forbes Advisor may earn a commission on sales made from partner links on this page, but that doesn't affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

At some point early in your career, a coworker in a break room shares a tidbit that sticks in your mind forever. They mention that if you quit your job, you're financially on your own. But if you get fired, you can get unemployment benefits to tide you over until you find your next paycheck.

That may be true in some cases. But there's one big, new exception that could block your eligibility to get unemployment benefits: You get fired because you're not vaccinated for Covid-19.

President Biden and OSHA have issued a federal vaccine mandate for private companies employing 100 or more workers which goes into effect on Jan. 4, 2022. Your city, state or employer may have already enacted a vaccination policy.

Here's what you need to know about your unemployment eligibility if you opt out of getting vaccinated.

Fired for Being Unvaccinated? You Probably Won't Get BenefitsIf an employer terminates you because you don't follow its policies, it has ''cause'' to fire you. And if you're fired ''for cause,'' you may be ineligible to claim unemployment benefits.

''Every state defines 'for cause' differently,'' Mariel Smith, partner at law firm Hall Booth Smith, PC. ''Most states have similar statutes that indicate if an employee is terminated for breaking company policy, the employee would be denied unemployment benefits.''

''In Texas, for example, you can be denied unemployment if you voluntarily resigned or are terminated for associated misconduct,'' says Carrie Hoffman, partner at law firm Foley & Lardner, LLP. ''Employers could argue that the refusal of the vaccine was a voluntary resignation or an involuntary termination for misconduct.''

If your employer's vaccination policy and ramifications are clear, it's best not to expect any leeway if you get terminated and try to apply for unemployment.

''I would caution employees against the notion that if they don't quit, but stay and get fired, they can get unemployment. It's very risky,'' Smith explains.

Some states have made it clear that people terminated for not adhering to vaccination policies are likely precluded from receiving benefits. Oregon is one example of a state that has mandated health care, education, and government workers to get vaccinated. The head of the state Employment Department has said eligibility will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but those terminated by public or private employers for refusing to get vaccinated probably won't be eligible.

When it comes to the new federal mandate, it's not as cut and dry, Smith says. Some states may choose to grant unemployment benefits to people who get fired for not getting vaccinated, especially in those states that have said they'll fight the federal mandate.

Attempts to Change State Laws Have Largely StalledLegislators in several states have proposed making discrimination based on vaccine status illegal and guarantee access to unemployment benefits if a worker doesn't comply with their employer's vaccination policy.

Tennessee saw one such bill introduced in its Senate in February 2021 to prevent discrimination based on vaccination status. The bill would also ensure access to unemployment benefits for unvaccinated people who decide to leave their jobs, but it has not yet been considered in committee.

In Idaho, a bill passed the House to prohibit discrimination based on vaccination status. It has not been taken up in the Senate, where it has sat since February.

A bill in Michigan's House of Representatives would prohibit employers from discriminating against employees who don't get vaccinated. It was introduced in March, but not considered in committee.

In January 2021, Indiana's General Assembly introduced a bill to prohibit mandatory vaccination in the workplace. Arizona sought to prohibit vaccination status as a condition of employment, but the proposal died in committee.

Smith says it's unlikely that any laws like this get passed to protect workers who don't want to get vaccinated.

''If in fact those types of laws are passed, it is completely opposite of the basic fundamentals of labor and employment law, that if you're fired for cause, you can't get unemployment,'' she says.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 15:10

The future of vaccines may look more like eating a salad than getting a shot in the arm. UC Riverside scientists are studying whether they can turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories.

Messenger RNA or mRNA technology, used in COVID-19 vaccines, works by teaching our cells to recognize and protect us against infectious diseases.

One of the challenges with this new technology is that it must be kept cold to maintain stability during transport and storage. If this new project is successful, plant-based mRNA vaccines '-- which can be eaten '-- could overcome this challenge with the ability to be stored at room temperature.

The project's goals, made possible by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, are threefold: showing that DNA containing the mRNA vaccines can be successfully delivered into the part of plant cells where it will replicate, demonstrating the plants can produce enough mRNA to rival a traditional shot, and finally, determining the right dosage.

''Ideally, a single plant would produce enough mRNA to vaccinate a single person,'' said Juan Pablo Giraldo, an associate professor in UCR's Department of Botany and Plant Sciences who is leading the research, done in collaboration with scientists from UC San Diego and Carnegie Mellon University.

''We are testing this approach with spinach and lettuce and have long-term goals of people growing it in their own gardens,'' Giraldo said. ''Farmers could also eventually grow entire fields of it.''

Chloroplasts (magenta color) in leaves expressing a green fluorescent protein. The DNA encoding for the protein was delivered by targeted nanomaterials without mechanical aid by applying a droplet of the nano-formulation to the leaf surface. (Israel Santana/UCR)Key to making this work are chloroplasts '-- small organs in plant cells that convert sunlight into energy the plant can use. ''They're tiny, solar-powered factories that produce sugar and other molecules which allow the plant to grow,'' Giraldo said. ''They're also an untapped source for making desirable molecules.''

In the past, Giraldo has shown that it is possible for chloroplasts to express genes that aren't naturally part of the plant. He and his colleagues did this by sending foreign genetic material into plant cells inside a protective casing. Determining the optimal properties of these casings for delivery into plant cells is a specialty of Giraldo's laboratory.

For this project Giraldo teamed up with Nicole Steinmetz, a UC San Diego professor of nanoengineering, to utilize nanotechnologies engineered by her team that will deliver genetic material to the chloroplasts.

"Our idea is to repurpose naturally occurring nanoparticles, namely plant viruses, for gene delivery to plants," Steinmetz said. "Some engineering goes into this to make the nanoparticles go to the chloroplasts and also to render them non-infectious toward the plants."

Plant viruses provide naturally occurring nanoparticles that are being repurposed for gene delivery into plant cells. (Nicole Steinmetz/UCSD)For Giraldo, the chance to develop this idea with mRNA is the culmination of a dream. ''One of the reasons I started working in nanotechnology was so I could apply it to plants and create new technology solutions. Not just for food, but for high-value products as well, like pharmaceuticals,'' Giraldo said.

Giraldo is also co-leading a related project using nanomaterials to deliver nitrogen, a fertilizer, directly to chloroplasts, where plants need it most.

Nitrogen is limited in the environment, but plants need it to grow. Most farmers apply nitrogen to the soil. As a result, roughly half of it ends up in groundwater, contaminating waterways, causing algae blooms, and interacting with other organisms. It also produces nitrous oxide, another pollutant.

This alternative approach would get nitrogen into the chloroplasts through the leaves and control its release, a much more efficient mode of application that could help farmers and improve the environment.

The National Science Foundation has granted Giraldo and his colleagues $1.6 million to develop this targeted nitrogen delivery technology.

''I'm very excited about all of this research,'' Giraldo said. ''I think it could have a huge impact on peoples' lives.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 13:57

(Image credit: Warner Bros.)The western movie Rust starring Alec Baldwin and Jensen Ackles already was suffering from the most tragic reputation, following the accidental discharge of a live round in a prop gun that led to the death of the production's cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The movie is no longer shooting, and now may never happen, and yet the terrible incidents aren't over yet, as a crew member was reportedly bitten by a venomous spider that could result in amputation.

Jason Miller was a lamp operator and pipe rigger who was working to shutdown the set of Rust when, according to Sky News, he was bitten by a brown recluse spider. A fundraiser has now been set up to bring in money for medical procedures as Miller is now facing multiple surgeries to deal with the infection that's been caused as doctors attempt to save his arm. If they cannot, amputation is a possibility.

Needless to say that following on the events that led Rust to being shutdown in the first place, this is terrible news to see. Certainly, this movie just can't catch a break, as even in shutting it down some pretty terrible things are taking place. If Jason Miller does lose an arm that will change a lot in his life, but of course it will likely mean he's no longer able to do his job.

The brown recluse is one of the more venomous spiders found in North America. However, New Mexico is significantly more west than the spider is usually found. This makes the bite itself that much more shocking. One would not normally expect to have to worry about this spider in this place.

The fact that the Rust set was being broken down just reinforces the idea that this movie is almost certainly dead and will never actually get made. Alec Baldwin had already indicated that while he wasn't sure what the ultimate fate of the movie would be, he did not expect the movie to ever happen now following the fatal shooting.

Investigators in New Mexico are still trying to figure out just what went wrong that led to the death of Halyna Hutchins. Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set that somehow still fired a projectile, which struck both Hutchins and the film's director.

It seemed that there was an error somewhere in the chain of custody of the gun, which resulted in the firearm being declared safe when it was not. However, more recently, attorney's for on the on-set armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, have suggested that the live round could have been placed among the dummy rounds intentionally in order to cause the accident.

Hopefully this will be the last terrible thing that happens on the set of Rust. And hopefully Jason Miller will get through all this with his arm.

CinemaBlend's resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian. Armchair Imagineer. Epcot Stan. Future Club 33 Member.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 13:39

Residents of a Chinese city bordering Russia have been offered major cash rewards for tips on the continuing Delta outbreak, with local officials declaring a ''people's war'' on the virus.

Authorities announced the 100,000 yuan ($15,640) rewards for residents in Heihe, in the north-eastern Heilongjiang Province, as its total tally of cases in this outbreak reached 240.

''It is hoped that the general public could actively cooperate with the tracing of the virus and provide clues to the probe,'' the declaration said.

According to state media, officials have urged people in the border city to immediately report any instances of illegal hunting, animal smuggling, or people crossing the border to fish. It also warned of severe penalties for people who intentionally conceal relevant information.

China's health commission reported another 62 locally transmitted symptomatic cases on Monday, and 43 on Tuesday, adding to the more than 940 cases recorded in at least 20 provinces nationally since October, in the country's worst outbreak since Wuhan in early 2020.

The government is committed to a Covid Zero strategy, and is deploying an escalating array of measures in its attempts to eliminate the virus from the community again.

Henan province authorities have said they will ''catch and kill'' the virus within a week, with provincial party secretary Lou Yangsheng vowing to expand lockdowns and contact tracing as necessary.

Authorities in Chengdu have expanded tracing measures and orders, reportedly identifying some people if their mobile phones transmitted through the same cell tower in a 14 day period.

The measure, dubbed ''spacial-temporal overlap'', classifies someone as a close contact if the phone signal was within 800 square metres of a case for more than 10 minutes, or if both parties spent at least 30 hours in the identified area over the two week period.

The method saw authorities order about 82,000 people who had visited a massive shopping complex to get tested and then self-isolate. Video footage purported to show some people climbing over fences to escape the mandatory testing requirement.

Earlier this month authorities locked down Shanghai Disneyland and tested all guests inside after a previous visitor was diagnosed with the illness.

With the outbreak continuing, health officials have called for an acceleration of booster shots and vaccinations to children.

Wang Qinghua, chief immunologist of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it was previously thought children were largely unaffected by Covid-19, but the situation had changed as the virus mutated.

''We have seen increased infections in children, with the rates of severe illness and mortality surpassing influenza in some countries '... and the hospitalisation rate for children is now more than 10 times higher than earlier this year,'' he said, according to state media.

According to the Global Times, health authorities have set a target of vaccinating all eligible children aged 3 to 11 before the end of the year. More than 3.5m doses have been delivered to the age group so far, according to government data. Vaccinations are voluntary in China.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 13:33

Hundreds of Polish border guards and soldiers lined up along the country's eastern border are threatening regional stability Belarus has claimed, as Warsaw alleges the neighboring nation is engineering an illegal migration crisis.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense rejected reports that its forces were encouraging thousands of would-be asylum seekers to attempt to cross into the EU country. Instead, Minsk's officials said, the presence of 10,000 Polish servicemen on the shared frontier ''represents significant military activity,'' insisting that ''carrying this out without notifying the Belarusian side is a violation of bilateral agreements on regional stability and security measures.''

Poland has put its troops on high alert with at least three brigades of the territorial army told they could be deployed to support border guards with just six hours notice. The day before, several large groups of migrants attempted to cross over the fortified border from Belarus, severing the barbed wire with bolt-cutters. However, authorities on the Polish side of the border blocked gaps with riot shields and deployed tear gas in an effort to turn back the crowds.

Also on rt.com How thousands of migrants tried to take Belarus-Poland border by storm Warsaw alleges that the Belarusian state is actively aiding the would-be migrants in their efforts to storm the border, releasing videos that purport to show officers in plain clothes helping to dismantle the fence. The EU has accused Minsk of ''weaponizing'' the potential refugees, laying on flights from troubled destinations like Iraq and Iran, with several people understood to have died while sleeping rough near the border area. In recent months, the number of reported illegal crossings has skyrocketed, with Poland's government signing off on the construction of a vast new frontier wall.

Brussels insists that the spike in asylum seekers is part of a campaign of ''hybrid warfare'' being waged by Belarus' embattled leader, Alexander Lukashenko, in response to sanctions imposed on the country. The EU has been locked into an escalating standoff with the Eastern European nation since last summer's presidential elections which the opposition, and many international observers, say was rigged in Lukashenko's favor.

Minsk insists it is simply no longer prepared to prevent migrants reaching the border, and has moved to tear up previous agreements that required it to re-accept those deported from the EU for entering illegally. Videos shot on Monday showed one group of would-be asylum seekers chanting that they wish to reach Germany.

Earlier that day, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called for fresh sanctions to be imposed on Belarus, which she insisted is ''putting people's lives at risk.'' The top Brussels politician said that the EU would consider blacklisting airlines that are responsible for ''human trafficking'' by bringing people from war-torn Middle Eastern nations to Minsk.

The UN has previously criticized Poland's handling of the crisis, with its refugee watchdog saying that ''people fleeing war, violence and persecution need protection. Refusal to grant them entry at the border, without properly assessing their claims, is in dichotomy with the country's obligations.''

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 12:13

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the authorization of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11, during a speech in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building's South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, November 3, 2021.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

The White House on Monday said businesses should move forward with President Joe Biden's vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses, despite a federal appeals court ordering a temporary halt to the rules.

"People should not wait," White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing. "They should continue to move forward and make sure they're getting their workplace vaccinated."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, considered one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country, halted the requirements Saturday pending review, writing that "the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate."

The Republican attorneys general in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah, as well as several companies, requested the pause. They argued that the requirements exceed the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which will enforce the mandates, and amount to an unconstitutional delegation of power to the executive branch by Congress.

In its response Monday evening, the Biden administration asked the court to lift the pause, dismissing the states' and companies' claims of harm as "premature" given that the deadlines for vaccination and testing are not until January. The administration claimed that pausing the requirements "would likely cost dozens or even hundreds of lives per day" as the virus spreads. The Labor and Justice Departments also argued that OSHA acted within its authority as established by Congress.

The court-ordered pause came a day after the requirements went into effect, starting the countdown for businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their staff have received the shots required for full vaccination by Jan. 4. After that date, unvaccinated workers must submit a negative Covid-19 test weekly to enter the workplace. All unvaccinated workers must start wearing face masks indoors at their workplaces starting Dec. 5.

Republican attorneys general in at least 26 states have challenged Biden's vaccine and testing requirements in five different U.S. appeals courts since last Friday. The Republican National Committee said it has also challenged the requirements in the D.C. Court of Appeals.

It's unclear which court will ultimately decide the case. When multiple petitions are filed in at least two courts, the cases are consolidated in one of those courts through a lottery system. The Justice Department said in a filing Monday that the lottery is expected take place on or around Nov. 16. The Biden administration, in its response Monday, said the courts should not rule until the jurisdiction for the consolidated case has been selected.

David Vladeck, a professor of law at Georgetown University, said there's a "high probability" that the case will end up before the Supreme Court.

"There are justices on the court who want to rein in the administrative state and this is a case in which those concerns are likely to come to the fore," Vladeck told CNBC.

OSHA, which polices workplace safety for the Labor Department, developed the vaccine and testing requirements under emergency authority established by Congress. That authority allows the agency to shortcut the process to issue workplace safety standards, which normally takes years.

The Labor Department's top lawyer, Seema Nanda, said on Friday that the Biden administration is "fully prepared to defend this standard in court."

Nanda said the law "explicitly gives OSHA the authority to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them."

Nanda also said the vaccine and testing requirements supersede "any state or local requirements that ban or limit an employer's authority to require vaccination, face-covering, or testing." Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order last month banning vaccine mandates in the Lone Star State.

OSHA emergency workplace safety standards have a mixed track record in court. Prior to the vaccine requirements, the agency had issued 10 such standards in its 50-year history. Courts halted or overturned four of those standards, and a fifth was partially vacated.

More than 750,000 people have died in the U.S. from Covid since the pandemic began, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 1,100 people a day die from Covid, and more than 71,000 people a day are newly infected, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

"If that's not a grave danger, I don't know what else is," Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday.

-- CNBC's Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 05:57

Stand for Freedom & Join the 4-Day Strike Against

Recently firefighters, police, doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers and people from all walks of life have taken a stand '-- and said ''NO'' to employers mandating the vaccine. Across the nation and abroad, people are peacefully rising up in unity against vax mandates.

This is the moment in history when we take back our God-given freedoms '-- or risk losing them forever. The tipping point has now been reached in this country: for 4 consecutive days, employees are striking against companies mandating the vaccine. Join the Nationwide Walkout & Stand for Freedom!*

*Not applicable to employees who by law/contract are not allowed to strike. Nothing herein constitutes legal advice.

Nationwide Walkout & Stand for FreedomStand for freedom and join your fellow Americans starting on November 8th through November 11th / Veteran's Day!

Stand Strong, Join our RalliesWant to make an even bigger impact? Come and join us at our freedom rallies.

We cannot "comply" our way to freedom... especially when those who are demanding our compliance are acting like an overbearing communist regime!

Buy FreedomMerchandiseDo you want to support Leigh Dundas in her unwavering fight against vaccine mandates and corrupt government officials?

Stand for freedom and liberty, check out our patriotic apparel.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay up-to-date on rallies that spring up all across the nation! We'll share photos, footage and news articles as things unfold.

Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

We can arm you with the tools you need to stand up against vaccine passports!

AFCR operates exclusively for the promotion of social welfare; particularly, the preservation of citizens' fundamental rights as protected by the United States Constitution, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and the Nuremberg Code.

Although we defend all constitutional rights, we are particularly devoted to protecting the rights listed below through awareness initiatives and education '' while holding accountable those who would seek to infringe upon these rights '' through awareness campaigns, investigations, litigation, and referrals for prosecution.

Check out our website for more information: https://www.citizens-rights.org/

Don't hold back! Now is NOT the time to worry about your political views. Human safety is a NON PARTISAN issue! If vaccines are political than why are they forcing them on you and your family? Stand up and speak out. Send an email to all of your friends, family and co-workers! If you are uncomfortable showing your face or sharing your name, simply create an anonymous email account and let it rip! Inform everyone you know about this walkout and stand in your sovereignty!!!

Templates are coming soon'...

Once you raise our army at your workforce, you are going to need to promote someone to speak on your behalf. If you do decide to rally or stand up in board meetings, this individual needs to be prepared to speak for everyone. Help them with their speech materials beforehand and be prepared to back them every step of the way! This is WAR!!!

Start asking around to see how many friends you have that could invite people to peacefully protest. If you get a group of over 100 people to gather in a given location, we'd be happy to publish your event to this website. Please contact [email protected]

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 05:54

It's not just increasingly more banks warning that the market is in a bubble and extremely elevated asset prices are risking a broader market crash (see "This Is How One Bank Will Trade The Bursting Of The Biggest Ever Asset Bubble In 2022"): moments ago, in its semi-annual Financial Stability Report, the Fed itself has issued the same warning.

In the 85-page report published moments after the market close, the Fed warned that as Bloomberg put it, "prices of risky assets keep rising, making them more susceptible to perilous crashes if the economy takes a turn for the worse" adding that ''asset prices remain vulnerable to significant declines should investor risk sentiment deteriorate, progress on containing the virus disappoint, or the economic recovery stall."

The Fed's full view of the current level of vulnerabilities is as follows:

Asset valuations. Prices of risky assets generally increased since the previous report, and, in some markets, prices are high compared with expected cash flows. House prices have increased rapidly since May, continuing to outstrip increases in rent. Nevertheless, despite rising housing valuations, little evidence exists of deteriorating credit standards or highly leveraged investment activity in the housing market. Asset prices remain vulnerable to significant declines should investor risk sentiment deteriorate, progress on containing the virus disappoint, or the economic recovery stall.Borrowing by businesses and households. Key measures of vulnerability from business debt, including debt-to-GDP, gross leverage, and interest coverage ratios, have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels. Business balance sheets have benefited from continued earnings growth, low interest rates, and government support. However, the rise of the Delta variant appears to have slowed improvements in the outlook for small businesses. Key measures of household vulnerability have also largely returned to pre-pandemic levels. Household balance sheets have benefited from, among other factors, extensions in borrower relief programs, federal stimulus, and high aggregate personal savings rates. Nonetheless, the expiration of government support programs and uncertainty over the course of the pandemic may still pose significant risks to households.Leverage in the financial sector. Bank profits have been strong this year, and capital ratios remained well in excess of regulatory requirements. Some challenging conditions remain due to compressed net interest margins and loans in the sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Leverage at broker-dealers was low. Leverage continued to be high by historical standards at life insurance companies, and hedge fund leverage remained somewhat above its historical average. Issuance of collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and asset-backed securities (ABS) has been robust.Funding risk. Domestic banks relied only modestly on short-term wholesale funding and continued to maintain sizable holdings of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA). By contrast, structural vulnerabilities persist in some types of MMFs and other cash-management vehicles as well as in bond and bank loan mutual funds. There are also funding-risk vulnerabilities in the growing stablecoin sector.The report also detailed how near-term risks have changed since the May 2021 report based in part on the most frequently cited risks to U.S. financial stability as gathered from outreach to a wide range of market contacts. As the Fed cautions "despite recent improvements, an increase in uncertainty over the course of the pandemic might pose risks to asset markets, financial institutions, and borrowers in the United States and globally. In addition, stresses in the real estate sector in China caused in part by China's ongoing regulatory focus on leveraged institutions, as well as a sharp tightening of global financial conditions, especially in highly indebted emerging market economies (EMEs), could pose some risks to the U.S. financial system. If realized, the effects of near-term risks could be amplified through the financial vulnerabilities identified in this report."

The Fed discussed these and other risks in the following "boxed" section addressing the most cited potential shocks over the next 12 to 18 months, where the biggest risk is "persistent (i.e., non-transitory) inflation and monetary tightening."

The central bank also said that ''difficult-to-predict'' volatility similar to this year's meme-stock frenzy could become more frequent as social media increasingly influences trading.

To be sure, the Fed's report, which is meant to highlight the most salient risks that could undermine the financial system, flagged many concerns that have appeared in previous documents, such as ''structural vulnerabilities'' in money market funds. The Fed said similar worries can be applied to stablecoins which the central bank now uses as a generic bogeyman to warn about broader risks associated with crypto adoption, even if it is now the case that stablecoin issuers will likely be treated - and regulated - as normal banks.

In the latest document, stablecoins were cited as being ''susceptible to runs'' and that any problems could be ''exacerbated by a lack of transparency and governance standards regarding the assets backing'' them.

Another concern prompting Fed worries is China's real estate turmoil and its regulators' focus on highly leveraged firms, including China Evergrande Group.

''Financial stresses in China could strain global financial markets through a deterioration of risk sentiment, pose risks to global economic growth, and affect the United States."

The full report is below (pdf link here).

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 05:52

China's Communist Party Central Committee is now holding its 6th Plenum, running from Nov.8 through Nov.11, where it's expected that an ultra-rare so-called "historical resolution" will be written that will allow Xi Jinping to rule for life, after a prior 2018 constitutional amendment already effectively removed the two-term limit for the President. This week in Beijing will mark the closest thing the country has that comes close to a campaign season, likely to result in an emboldened Xi as he continues confronting the West.

The party's plenums are a series of meetings meant to solidify the agenda between each party congress, involving some 400 party bosses, military leaders, and top policy advisers who gather at a heavily guarded hotel in Beijing for the event. The proceedings and especially any potential party in-fighting are mostly secretive, with the plenum agreeing on an end of session communique issued to the public.

Image: XinhuaBloomberg comments on what's at stake for this week's plenum: "The first official declaration on Chinese history in 40 years is set to top the agenda when the ruling party huddles this week in the last major meeting before a twice-a-decade congress next year, where Xi's expected to break precedent and secure a third term to extend his indefinite rule."

For context, the only prior leaders to ever author "historical resolutions" were Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping - the latter dubbed the "Architect of Modern China" - and both staying in power until death. The 68-yeard old Xi has already solidified his hold over China's three major power centers: namely he's currently served nine years as President, and is General-Secretary of the CPC, and is Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) - having all armed forces firmly under his control.

Reminder: China's Forever President may release his magnum opus that formalizes his Forever President-ness.(There are, of course, several Forever Presidents in the world.) https://t.co/51CiYSd2ea

'-- Vincent Lee (@Rover829) November 8, 2021"The purpose (of this plenum) seems to be to review the party's governance in history, and to pave the way for the future leadership and their policy direction," a political scientist at Nanjing University, Gu Su, was quoted in international reports as saying.

And Bloomberg additionally summarizes the significance of the plenum as follows:

As the leader of one-fifth of the world's people, Xi's potential to rule for life has huge ramifications. China's most important man is already on a mission to redistribute the nation's wealth to build a fairer Marxist society.

That "common prosperity" campaign wiped about $1 trillion off the value of Chinese stocks globally in July, and impacted the business of everyone from delivery drivers and after-school teachers to tech giants and celebrities, with major fallout for global investors.

China's leader Xi Jinping appears to be laying the foundation for a third term in power as top officials of the all-powerful Communist Party meet this week in Beijing.

Thus far Xi has issued a draft resolution of "major achievements and historical experience" to the party's Poltiburo for review. Of course, much of the plenum is expected to be filled with self-congratulatory praise and the usual enthusiastic patriotic displays conveniently editing out past failures.

Biggest News of the Day: China's "President" Xi Jinping gathered 400 members of the Communist Party's all-powerful Central Committee, and they are set to unveil a new doctrine to let him rule for life. pic.twitter.com/4gEXLMH6Jm

'-- Tim Xeriland (@Xeriland) November 8, 2021And here's more previewing the session this week in Beijing via Rabobank:

As Bloomberg puts it: "Between each party congress, the Communist Party's Central Committee meets seven times in meetings called plenums that cover different topics'...the agenda is top secret and only revealed in a communique afterward'....It's the final chance for horse trading before big decisions are made at the following year's congress." This plenum may see Xi Jinping pass an 'Historical Resolution', a landmark statement on CCP history and policy direction, and only the third ever if so. The first under Mao in 1945 cemented centralization of the economy; the second under Deng in 1981 revised that view and cemented a shift to opening up; the third would cement 'Common Prosperity' in place - and addressing the Mao and Deng eras is possible via a resolution on: "the major achievements and historical experiences of the party's 100 years". The New York Times states: "While ostensibly about historical issues, the Central Committee's resolution --practically holy writ for officials-- will shape China's politics and society for decades to come." Wall Street will of course call it all "regulatory changes", if it even notices what happened.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 21:45

So much is broken in America. But higher education might be the most fractured institution of all.

There is a gaping chasm between the promise and the reality of higher education. Yale's motto is Lux et Veritas, light and truth. Harvard proclaims: Veritas. Young men and women of Stanford are told Die Luft der Freiheit weht: The wind of freedom blows.

These are soaring words. But in these top schools, and in so many others, can we actually claim that the pursuit of truth'--once the central purpose of a university'--remains the highest virtue? Do we honestly believe that the crucial means to that end'--freedom of inquiry and civil discourse'--prevail when illiberalism has become a pervasive feature of campus life?

The numbers tell the story as well as any anecdote you've read in the headlines or heard within your own circles. Nearly a quarter of American academics in the social sciences or humanities endorse ousting a colleague for having a wrong opinion about hot-button issues such as immigration or gender differences. Over a third of conservative academics and PhD students say they had been threatened with disciplinary action for their views. Four out of five American PhD students are willing to discriminate against right-leaning scholars, according to a report by the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology.

The picture among undergraduates is even bleaker. In Heterodox Academy's 2020 Campus Expression Survey, 62% of sampled college students agreed that the climate on their campus prevented students from saying things they believe. Nearly 70% of students favor reporting professors if the professor says something students find offensive, according to a Challey Institute for Global Innovation survey. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports at least 491 disinvitation campaigns since 2000. Roughly half were successful.

On our quads, faculty are being treated like thought criminals. Dorian Abbot, a University of Chicago scientist who has objected to aspects of affirmative action, was recently disinvited from delivering a prominent public lecture on planetary climate at MIT. Peter Boghossian, a philosophy professor at Portland State University, finally quit in September after years of harassment by faculty and administrators. Kathleen Stock, a professor at University of Sussex, just resigned after mobs threatened her over her research on sex and gender.

We had thought such censoriousness was possible only under oppressive regimes in distant lands. But it turns out that fear can become endemic in a free society. It can become most acute in the one place'--the university'--that is supposed to defend ''the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.''

The reality is that many universities no longer have an incentive to create an environment where intellectual dissent is protected and fashionable opinions are scrutinized. At our most prestigious schools, the primary incentive is to function as finishing school for the national and global elite. Amidst the brick and ivy, these students entertain ever-more-inaccessible theories while often just blocks away their neighbors figure out how to scratch out a living.

The priority at most other institutions is simply to avoid financial collapse. They are in a desperate contest to attract a dwindling number of students, who are less and less capable of paying skyrocketing tuition. Over the last three decades, the cost of a degree from a four-year private college has nearly doubled; the cost of a degree from a public university has nearly tripled. The nation's students owe $1.7 trillion in loans.

And to what end? Nearly 40% of those who pursue a college degree do not attain one. We should let that sink in. Higher education fails 4 in 10 of its students. A system that so brazenly extracts so much from so many without delivering on its basic promises is overdue for a reckoning.

The warped incentives of higher education'--prestige or survival'--mean that an increasing proportion of tuition dollars are spent on administration rather than instruction. Universities now aim to attract and retain students through client-driven ''student experiences'''--from trivial entertainment to emotional support to luxury amenities. In fact, many universities are doing extremely well at providing students with everything they need. Everything, that is, except intellectual grit.

It's not just that we are failing students as individuals; we are failing the nation. Our democracy is faltering, in significant part, because our educational system has become illiberal and is producing citizens and leaders who are incapable and unwilling to participate in the core activity of democratic governance.

Universities are the places where society does its thinking, where the habits and mores of our citizens are shaped. If these institutions are not open and pluralistic, if they chill speech and ostracize those with unpopular viewpoints, if they lead scholars to avoid entire topics out of fear, if they prioritize emotional comfort over the often-uncomfortable pursuit of truth, who will be left to model the discourse necessary to sustain liberty in a self-governing society?

At some future point, historians will study how we arrived at this tragic pass. And perhaps by then we will have reformed our colleges and universities, restoring them as bastions of open inquiry and civil discourse.

But we are done waiting. We are done waiting for the legacy universities to right themselves. And so we are building anew.

I mean that quite literally.

As I write this, I am sitting in my new office (boxes still waiting to be unpacked) in balmy Austin, Texas, where I moved three months ago from my previous post as president of St. John's College in Annapolis.

I am not alone.

Our project began with a small gathering of those concerned about the state of higher education'--Niall Ferguson, Bari Weiss, Heather Heying, Joe Lonsdale, Arthur Brooks, and I'--and we have since been joined by many others, including the brave professors mentioned above, Kathleen Stock, Dorian Abbot and Peter Boghossian.

We count among our numbers university presidents: Robert Zimmer, Larry Summers, John Nunes, and Gordon Gee, and leading academics, such as Steven Pinker, Deirdre McCloskey, Leon Kass, Jonathan Haidt, Glenn Loury, Joshua Katz, Vickie Sullivan, Geoffrey Stone, Bill McClay, and Tyler Cowen.

We are also joined by journalists, artists, philanthropists, researchers, and public intellectuals, including Lex Fridman, Andrew Sullivan, Rob Henderson, Caitlin Flanagan, David Mamet, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sohrab Ahmari, Stacy Hock, Jonathan Rauch, and Nadine Strossen.

We are a dedicated crew that grows by the day. Our backgrounds and experiences are diverse; our political views differ. What unites us is a common dismay at the state of modern academia and a recognition that we can no longer wait for the cavalry. And so we must be the cavalry.

It will surely seem retro'--perhaps even countercultural'--in an era of massive open online courses and distance learning to build an actual school in an actual building with as few screens as possible. But sometimes there is wisdom in things that have endured.

The university as we know it today is an institution that originated in 11th-century Europe. The fact that there have been universities for nearly a thousand years'--despite all the extraordinary changes in the nature of knowledge and communications technology in that time'--tells us something important.

We believe human beings think and learn better when they gather in dedicated locations, where they are, to some extent, insulated from the quotidian struggle to make ends meet, and where there is no fundamental distinction between those who teach and those who learn, beyond the extent of their knowledge and wisdom.

We believe that the purpose of education is not simply employment, but human flourishing, which includes meaningful employment. We are therefore also reconceiving the relationship between a liberal education and the demands of our dynamic and fluid professional world.

Our rigorous curriculum will be the first designed in partnership not only with great teachers but also society's great doers'--founders of daring ventures, dissidents who have stood up to authoritarianism, pioneers in tech, and the leading lights in engineering and the natural sciences. Our students will be exposed to the deepest wisdom of civilization and learn to encounter works not as dead traditions but as fierce contests of timeless significance that help human beings distinguish between what is true and false, good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Students will come to see such open inquiry as a lifetime activity that demands of them a brave, sometimes discomfiting, search for enduring truths.

This core purpose'--the intrepid pursuit of truth'--has been at the heart of education since Plato founded his Academy in 387 B.C. Reviving it would produce a resilient (or ''antifragile'') cohort with exceptional capacity to think fearlessly, nimbly, and inventively. Such graduates will be the future leaders best prepared to address humanity's challenges.

An education rooted in the pursuit of truth is the antidote to the kind of ignorance and incivility that is everywhere around us. As Frederick Douglass proclaimed: ''Education . . . means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light only by which men can be free.''

We expect to face significant resistance to this project. There are networks of donors, foundations, and activists that uphold and promote the status quo. There are parents who expect the status quo. There are students who demand it, along with even greater restrictions on academic freedom. And there are administrators and professors who will feel threatened by any disruption to the system.

We welcome their opprobrium and will regard it as vindication.

To the rest'--to those of you who share our sense that something fundamental is broken'--we ask that you join us in our effort to renew higher education. We welcome all who share our mission to pursue a truly liberating education'--and hope that other founders follow our example.

It is time to restore the meaning to those old school mottos. Light. Truth. The wind of freedom. You will find all three at our new university in Austin.

Learn more about the University of Austin.

We've devoted a lot of ink at Common Sense to all the things that have been lost or broken. This week, happily, we are focusing entirely on what comes next'--and we are thrilled to kick it off with news of this audacious project. Up tomorrow: Antonio Garc­a Mart­nez on the metaverse.

Support Our Work

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:52

Helen Buyniski

is an American journalist and political commentator at RT. Follow her on Twitter @velocirapture23 and on Telegram

is an American journalist and political commentator at RT. Follow her on Twitter @velocirapture23 and on Telegram

Spawned by the unsustainable menus fed to climate-conscious billionaires at COP26, the latest trend in foodborne guilt '' examining one's 'carbon foodprint' '' will add to the emotional minefield that comes with ordering dinner.

Eaters can't be allowed to get away with just counting calories anymore, according to The Telegraph, which claims that Brits are clamoring for carbon-counts to be added to restaurant menus.

Supposedly inspired by the menus at the COP26 climate conference, in which all meals were accompanied by their carbon footprint on attendees' printed menus, the plan would seem to be an upwardly mobile version of the old saying 'you are what you eat'. However, for those trying to eat their way to environmental friendliness, more than a few environmental activists noted that the 'sustainable' meals being fed to the masters of the (climate) universe involve emitting more than three times the average 'carbon foodprint' the planet's residents allegedly must adhere to in order to prevent climate catastrophe.

Even the organizers of the menu noted that the average person would have to shrink their 'foodprint' down to 0.5 kg of carbon dioxide in order to meet 2015's Paris Climate Agreement goals. Perhaps their own carbon-profligate menu, which included a haggis dish coming in at more than seven times that desirably average foodprint, was a sly jab at the governments themselves, most of which are considerably behind on fulfilling the carbon promises they made six years ago.

Nevertheless, a little hypocrisy has never gotten in the way of a good grift, and one could do worse than banking on the food-guilt of a country where nearly two-thirds of the adult population is overweight and more than half want to lose weight. If the desire to fit into those old pants or get back in the dating game isn't enough to motivate a person out of the couchborne coma in which they find themselves, perhaps saving the planet is?

Wanting to lose weight and actually taking action to do it are notoriously far apart on the reality spectrum, however. American fast food restaurants have required calorie counts to be posted on their menus for years, a feature that weight-conscious individuals supposedly desired. They may have actually wanted it, but aside from a brief glimmer of novelty, the numbers have faded into the background. If anything, the target audience has just gotten fatter, possibly even spurred on to eat more out of a nagging sense of guilt over the fast food they just ate. After all, who goes to McDonald's with the intent of eating healthy?

Also on rt.com We'll never solve the problems COP26 is trying to address until those in power understand how real people actually live Indeed, posting carbon counts next to food items might even backfire. No one consciously goes to Burger King with the idea to do their part to combat the climate crisis; faced with what are likely to be an intimidating set of numbers on the menu, what's to say the average consumer won't just drown their guilt in a super-size soda or another order of fries? A similar conundrum befalls the dieter lamenting their inability to sample the birthday cake at a party. Having stuck to salad during the celebration, they can be found late at night stuffing the rest of the cake into their face.

Encouraging the same kind of guilt that bedevils calorie counters, The Telegraph laid out an exhaustive series of food choices designed to make the reader second-guess themselves. Think you're being virtuous by dumping almond milk in your coffee rather than half and half? Think again '' growing almonds uses up a ridiculous amount of water. Even a fruit salad is suspect, the outlet argues, instructing the reader to ''buy locally if you can, and in season'' '' good advice, certainly, but where does the average person find time to research the seasonality of their watermelon? And meat is a moral minefield '' one would be well-advised not to even go there.

If the Food Police get their wish and make carbon labels mandatory '' a goal The Telegraph insists everyone wants '' their activities won't be limited to tracking eaters' carbon jawprints, either. UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid has revealed an ambitious (and privacy-busting) new app aimed at ''help[ing] people make positive changes to their diet and physical activity.''

Also on rt.com Published without fanfare, the proposals that show vaccine passports ARE on the way in the UK Equipped with wrist-worn scolding devices similar to Amazon's Halo, Brits will receive personalized health recommendations from a company the government is working with. Not only will these include rewards for eating more fruits and vegetables, but they'll encourage decreasing portion size and even exercise.

As seen during the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, individuals can be easily incentivized to give up their privacy or bodily integrity for $100 or a free subway pass.

But how will Big Brother know what you've eaten on a particular day? The next step in measuring the amount of carbon emissions generated by a decent meal may seem like plumbing the depths of do-gooding absurdity, but smart toilets are just a flush away. And unlike the carbon-counting green goon squad, which may be confronted with diners determined to defend their right to a juicy steak, ''everyone uses the bathroom,'' the inventor of a particularly clever crapper noted. ''There's really no avoiding it.''

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 18:44

March 16, 2021

Cloward-Piven is a political strategy of calculated chaos first described in 1966, by two Columbia University sociologists, Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. Their theory was published appropriately in the far left The Nation, the oldest continuously published news magazine in the country. Cloward-Piven's goal was the creation of chaos so that: ''A political crisis would result that could lead to legislation for a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty.''

'); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609268089992-0'); }); }

The activities of the past year, from an imported Chinese coronavirus to a rigged and stolen presidential election are textbook Cloward-Piven, leading to a massive shift in the leadership and direction of America. We have gone to government by, of, and for the people to a tyrannical autocracy controlled by a small cabal of self-appointed elites.

Welcome to President Cloward and Vice President Piven, or vice versa for those who believe the current vice-president is really in charge, rather than the cognitively impaired president in name only.

Cloward-Piven's objective is chaos and turmoil, or in their words, ''A massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.'' This is followed by: ''A federal program of income redistribution has become necessary to elevate the poor en masse from poverty.''

'); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609270365559-0'); }); } Is there any better recap of COVID, including lockdowns, closed businesses, schools, and churches requiring the ruling class spending trillions of dollars they don't have, to rectify the damage and destruction unleashed by the same ruling class that now wants to correct it?

YouTube screen grab

The so-called stimulus is massive income redistribution, from the producers to the nonproducers who are in their situation either by choice or through the diktats of the ruling class and their decisions which turned producers into nonproducers. The stimulus will result in much of the middle class, and states in general, to further dependency on the federal government sustenance.

In Cloward-Piven terms, a crisis is: ''A publicly visible disruption in some institutional sphere.'' How do they create such a crisis? ''Crisis can occur spontaneously (e.g., riots) or as the intended result of tactics of demonstration and protest which either generate institutional disruption or bring unrecognized disruption to public attention.''

'); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1609270310645-0'); }); } Think of the George Floyd protests and riots, a convenient excuse for institutional disruption. Institutions of law and order suffered disruption, from calls to defund the police to blatant disregard for private property and businesses.

A pre-planned riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 created a false panic and a rushed certification of the Electoral College votes without scrutiny or review, Congress rubber-stamping a fraudulent election. It had the bonus of allowing a bogus impeachment of President Trump, kicking a man already down as a giant middle finger to Trump and his millions of supporters.

Cloward-Piven did not begin with the Trump presidency but during FDR's New Deal, then further codified in the 1960s when it was given a name. This included Medicare, Medicaid and the Great Society welfare programs. New government agencies and bureaucracies choked innovation and economic growth. Ill-conceived and endless wars, expansion of food stamps, Medicaid, and other social welfare programs, resulted in the majority of Americans receiving government benefits.

A crisis led to each of these programs. Seniors and the poor unable to afford their medical care gave us Medicare and Medicaid. The government, replacing stay-at-home fathers, created the welfare state. A shortage of reliable Democrat voters was rectified by opening our borders to anyone, providing them with free benefits in exchange for not biting, or voting against, the hand that feeds them.

Democrats offer programs, unpopular and unappealing to the majority of Americans. Cloward-Piven is how they muscle their agenda through. It is their only strategy, accomplishing through chaos, fear and coercion what is unreachable via the ballot box. Bringing down the current system provides an opportunity to remake American society into their idealized version of Utopia, which in reality is the Soviet Union, Cuba, or China, with a small ruling class in charge and everyone else subservient. In other words, a real-life Hunger Games dystopian society.

Donald Trump was simply a speed bump on the Cloward-Piven expressway. He was supposed to blow up the road to serfdom but instead only slowed it down for a few years. The deep state won easily.

I wonder if Trump even stood a chance. Did he simply provide an opportunity for the deep state to test their new strategies of weaponizing the government against political opponents and rigging elections to the point that they are irrelevant?

Now we have rule, not by our elected representatives, but by a senile old man, signing executive orders put in front of him, orders created by his puppet-masters hiding behind the curtains.

COVID restrictions and lockdowns created such economic carnage that an entirely new dependency class was born. Add to that tens of millions of illegal immigrants, bringing dependency as well as potential health care concerns and costs and animosity toward the country paying all their bills, displacing American workers already struggling to regain their footing after COVID.

Any resistance is met with protests and riots. Those who speak out may be cancelled or worse. The media simply parrots the talking points of the ruling class, acting like court eunuchs for the ruling establishment.

Massive income redistribution via government programs with attacks on the First and Second Amendments make it impossible for the people to push back, either verbally or physically, against a tyrannical government, all to supposedly end poverty by making everyone poor and calling it the middle class.

Universal income doesn't eliminate poverty it simply expands it, but under a different name, something trendy, like equity. Putting dog poop on a scoop of ice cream and calling it an ice cream sundae doesn't make it so, except in the eyes of the government that defines the acceptable terms.

You can be sure that guaranteed annual income will simply create a subservient lower class, eager to vote for their paymasters each November as long as they keep dripping narcotic dollars into their wallets, not enough to climb the economic ladder but enough to keep them satisfied.

The productive ones, pulling on the economic oars, will eventually tire from their efforts and take their guaranteed stipend and let someone else row the boat. Those in charge will live lavishly as they did in the capitol city of the Hunger Games.

Chaos and confusion, fear and uncertainty, in a never-ending stream, courtesy of the government, solved with executive orders by the same government designed to ''fix'' the very problems they created.

All of this is being ushered in under the whip of President Cloward and Vice President Piven. And it seems the entire ruling class, regardless of political party, has signed on.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. He is on sabbatical from social media.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:40

In 1966 Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven, Columbia university professors introduced a political strategy in in an article entitled 'The Weight Of The Poor: A Strategy To End Poverty' .

The article outlined a strategy to overload the system and create so much poverty that the United States would become a social-welfare state with economic and political power concentrated at the top with far fewer freedoms than we enjoy today/

According to Brandon Smith, writing at Zero Hedge, the Cloward-Piven strategy involves nothing less than economic sabotage against the U.S.

Theoretically, according to the doctrine, a condition of overwhelming tension and strain could be engineered through the overloading of American welfare rolls, thereby smothering the entitlement program structure at the state and local level. The implosion of welfare benefits would facilitate a massive spike in poverty and desperation, creating a financial crisis that would lead to an even greater cycle of demand for a fully socialized system. This desperation would then ''force'' the federal government to concentrate all welfare programs under one roof, nationalize and enforce a socialist ideology, and ultimately, compact an immense level of power into the hands of a select few.

Cloward and Piven claimed that this could be accomplished at a grassroots level through community activism, and, that it would facilitate a more compassionate federal authority, however, there are numerous problems with these assertions.

Stop the censors, sign up to get today's top stories delivered right to your inbox

The Cloward-Piven Strategy has nothing to do with grassroots activism, and accomplishes nothing tangible for the downtrodden poverty class. In fact, I would dare to say that Cloward and Piven as well as most social engineers are well aware that the concept ultimately only serves to give even more dominance to the establishment and pilfer even more freedom from the masses.

Cloward-Piven is not limited to the destabilization of state and local welfare programs. It can easily be used against federal level entitlements, and in reality, is much more effective against an entity with the proven tendency towards exponential debt spending. Though the federal government may be able to borrow fiat dollars through the Federal Reserve to prolong welfare rolls while the states cannot, a more volatile threat arises when debt monetization begins to wear down the purchasing power of the currency. Weakened purchasing power results in reduced consumer activity, less industrial growth, less GDP, and obviously, more poverty. The dollar has lost approximately 98% of its purchasing power since 1972, and after 50 years of the so-called ''War on Poverty'', nearly one third of the American population now repeatedly slips under the official poverty line.

In the past decade alone, the number of people dependent on food stamps and EBT for their survival in the U.S. has doubled from 25 million people to nearly 50 million people. Those who receive some kind of payment from the government, including those on social security, disability, and veterans benefits, are approximately 100 million. Americans on social security do not consider themselves welfare recipients because they paid into the system, however, the point remains that if the federal money tap shuts down due to overwhelming participation, the checks will stop whether you paid into the system or not.

In the end, it is the Federal Government itself that is most vulnerable to the Cloward-Piven Strategy, and I believe the goal is to set fire to ALL social structures in the U.S., then assimilate them into a new globalist system.

The tactic of overwhelming the welfare structure REQUIRES the complicity of the government itself. A grassroots activist movement cannot and will never compel federal and state governments to expand welfare initiatives if they do not wish to. If welfare programs are not expanded beyond their capacity to be maintained, they cannot be overwhelmed. Therefore, government must cooperate with the Cloward-Piven Strategy by generating more and more welfare programs to be exploited. That is to say, the elitists who control our government, regardless of their claimed political party, must WANT to arrange circumstances to allow for Cloward-Piven to be successful.

Watch as Megyn Kelly and Andy McCarthy discuss the illegal immigrant invasion and how it's an example of how the Cloward-Piven strategy can be used to ''fundamentally transform'' a nation:

What do you think about this? Is the Cloward-Piven strategy, or a variation of it being used anywhere today? If so, what makes you think so, and if not why?

RELATED: WATCH: Man Almost Killed After Shooting Fridge Filled With Tannerite [Video]

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:01

WASHINGTON (AP) '-- Former CIA Director John Brennan was interviewed Friday by U.S. Attorney John Durham's team as part of its inquiry into the investigators and intelligence officials behind the 2016 Russia election interference probe.

The interview took place at CIA headquarters and lasted for eight hours, said Nick Shapiro, Brennan's former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser.

''Brennan was informed by Mr. Durham that he is not a subject or a target of a criminal investigation and that he is only a witness to events that are under review,'' Shapiro said in a statement.

Brennan led the CIA under the Obama administration as it and other intelligence agencies arrived at the conclusion that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump. Durham's interest in speaking with Brennan underscores the extent to which he and his team are continuing to examine how U.S. intelligence officials reached that assessment, which Trump has long resisted.

Brennan appeared voluntarily for the interview and has previously said he welcomed the chance to be questioned and felt he had nothing to hide.

''And so I look forward to the day when the truth is going to come out and the individuals who have mischaracterized what has happened in the past will be shown to have deceived the American people,'' Brennan said in a May interview on MSNBC.

During the interview, Brennan offered details on the efforts made by the intelligence community to ''understand and disrupt'' Russia's efforts to interfere in the election, and answered questions related to a ''wide range of intelligence activities'' undertaken by the CIA in the run-up to November 2016, Shapiro said. He also answered questions about the January 2017 intelligence community assessment that blamed Russia for the interference.

A spokesman for Durham declined to comment Friday.

Attorney General William Barr last year appointed Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, to examine the decisions that were made by government officials as they investigated ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Exhaustive reports by former special counsel Robert Mueller and the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee have detailed extensive ties between Russians and Trump associates during the 2016 campaign, but Barr has challenged the idea that the FBI had sufficient basis to open its counterintelligence investigation and gave Durham a mandate that empowered him to look into the actions of other agencies too.

Brennan questioned why the CIA's findings and tradecraft were now being scrutinized by the Justice Department given that the Mueller report and the bipartisan Senate report validated the conclusions of Russian interference, Shapiro said.

''Brennan also told Mr. Durham that the repeated efforts of Donald Trump and William Barr to politicize Mr. Durham's work have been appalling and have tarnished the independence and integrity of the Department of Justice, making it very difficult for Department of Justice professionals to carry out their responsibilities,'' according to Shapiro's statement.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment.

Brennan, who has emerged as a vocal critic of Trump, testified before Congress in 2017 that he had personally warned Russia against interfering in the election and that he was so concerned about Russia's contacts with people involved in Trump's campaign that he convened top counterintelligence officials to focus on the issue.

He told the House intelligence committee at that hearing that it ''should be clear to everyone that Russia brazenly interfered in our 2016 present election process,'' though he said he didn't have enough information to know whether it was colluding with the campaign.

''But,'' he said, ''I know there was a basis to have individuals pull those threads.''

Mueller's investigation found that the Trump campaign embraced Russia's help and expected to benefit from it, though he did not allege a criminal conspiracy between the two.

Durham brought his first criminal charge last week against a former FBI lawyer accused of altering an email related to the secret surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The attorney, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a false statement charge.

_____

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 15:59

A Republican truck driver who spent just $153 on his campaign and ran for office after he was denied a gun permit secured a stunning victory against the longest-serving legislative leader in New Jersey history in the state's elections - but the loser is disputing the results and claims more ballots were 'found' on Thursday.

The election was held on Tuesday but Associated Press only called the race today after 100 percent of precincts had reported.

Underdog GOP candidate Ed Durr delivered a humiliating defeat to Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney in South New Jersey's 3rd Legislative District by a razor thin margin of 52 percent of the vote to 48.

It's another embarrassing upset for the Democrats after they lost the Virginia gubernatorial election, struggled in the race for New Jersey governor and were swept by a red wave in Long Island, New York.

But two days after voters cast their ballots, Sweeney said the race still isn't over and he's not conceding. That's despite the Associated Press indicating that every precinct in the legislative district has already finished reporting.

'The results from Tuesday's election continue to come in, for instance there were 12,000 ballots recently found in one county,' the veteran lawmaker told Politico.

'While I am currently trailing in the race, we want to make sure every vote is counted. Our voters deserve that, and we will wait for the final results.'

Sweeney claimed more ballots were 'found' in the local race, despite AP reporting that all the precincts in New Jersey's Legislative District 3 had turned in their results

Durr was seen speaking to media on Thursday near his home in Swedesboro, New Jersey

Nationwide, Americans are indicating that they're unhappy with rising inflation and the state of the economy - and how Democrats are handling them.

On Fox News last night Durr said he didn't even have any plans for when he gets to the state capital of Trenton.

'I really don't know,' he said when asked about what he'll do his first day.

'That's the key factor. I don't know what I don't know, but I will learn what I need to know, and I'm going to guarantee one thing - I will be the voice and people will hear me because if there is one thing people will learn about me, I got a big mouth and I don't shut up when I want to be heard. I'm going to be heard.'

Durr, 58, is employed as a truck driver for furniture store Raymour & Flanigan. He grew up in South Jersey and has three children and six grandchildren.

Out of the $153, he spent $66.64 at Dunkin Donuts to buy food and drinks for his 'staff' and $86.67 for flyers and business cards.

Durr posted a photo of himself to social media going to vote on Tuesday, before his surprise victory

The 58-year-old truck driver appears to have shot his campaign video with very little assistance

He's never held elected office but said in a past interview that he was spurred to run in his blue collar and predominantly white area by being unable to get a concealed carry permit.

The trucker launched a failed bid for New Jersey's lower house in 2019.

But now for the first time since 2002, his legislative district will be represented by a pro-Second Amendment conservative Republican, rather than a Democrat who once reportedly called New Jersey's former GOP Governor Chris Christie a 'rotten bastard.'

New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney is one of the most powerful elected officials in the state

Durr's campaign video, which he appears to have shot himself, paints Sweeney as complacent to Governor Murphy's actions leading the state through the COVID-19 pandemic and its high property taxes.

'In 2020, my opponent sat by and watched as Governor Murphy forced nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients, resulting in the death of over 8,000 of our seniors,' Durr says while walking through a cemetery in broad daylight.

'He remained silent as Governor Murphy, with his lockdown and mandates, forced the closing of over one third of our small businesses costing New Jersey families thousands of jobs.'

'He has done nothing, as seven out of every ten moves are leaving the state, placing a heavier burden on those of us who remain. The Senate president has spent 20 years in Trenton - higher taxes, increasing debt and a rising cost of living. We deserve better. New Jersey, it's time for a change.'

Durr described himself to Politico as a 'constitutional conservative' who has backed cutting an array of different taxes for 'businesses to grow' and supports federal legislation to ban abortion.

Sweeney, an Ironworks union official and one of the most powerful politicians in the state, has been a state senator for nearly two decades. He became Senate President in 2010.

He was also floated as a possible 2024 gubernatorial candidate, before facing a possible loss now.

But it appears now that Sweeney - who spent millions in 2017 on one of the most expensive state legislative races in US history - was bested by a trucker who only spent about $153 to try and unseat him.

Sweeney's defeat is part of a wider rebellion of suburban and working-class Americans against Democrats. The incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy just barely crawled to victory ahead of his Republican challenger in a race that polls had indicated would be a blue landslide.

Durr barely campaigned for his stunning victory over a powerful New Jersey career politician

Durr was asked what he'd do on his first day in office and he said he doesn't know

Durr's winning campaign is emblematic of Americans' nationwide dissatisfaction with Democrats

Nationwide, the COVID-19 pandemic is fading as a top concern of voters and being replaced by the economy and rising inflation, a troubling sign for Biden and Democrats heading into the midterm elections.

Just 12 percent of adults rated health issues like the coronavirus as a top national priority, down from 20 percent in February, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found for October.

Meantime, two-thirds of the country, including the majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents, say that 'inflation is a very big concern for me.'

The job market is also being closed watched as the poll found that 73% of adults want political leaders to focus on jobs and economic growth.

Democrats, meanwhile, are showing signs of panic and asking Biden to deal with this quality of life issues affecting voters.

'We were so willing to take seriously a global pandemic, but we're not willing to say, 'Yeah, inflation is a problem, and supply chain is a problem, and we don't have enough workers in our work force,' Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia told The New York Times. 'We gloss over that and only like to admit to problems in spaces we dominate.'

She also said Biden needs to reminder why voters put him in the Oval Office.

'Nobody elected him to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal and stop the chaos,' she said, referring to the sweeping net of social programs Biden is seeking to make into law.

Unexpected outcomes across local and state New Jersey races have forced the state's Senate Democrats to postpone a leadership conference - until after they can figure out who survived the competition.

'Due to the closeness of several State Senate elections, the leadership caucus scheduled for tomorrow will be delayed,' Sweeney had announced in a statement. 'The caucus will be rescheduled once the result of every Senate election is determined.

Defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli ran a surprisingly competitive race against incumbent Governor Phil Murphy

New Jersey state Senate Democrats will now be forced to pick a new leader.

It can even be seen in Virginia, where Republican first-time candidate Glenn Youngkin won the gubernatorial race against a former governor, Democratic powerhouse Terry McAuliffe.

Newly-minted state Senator-elect Durr's also advocated for lowering the state's property taxes - the highest in the nation - which is also a frequent issue brought into the race by Murphy's challenger for governor, former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli.

Murphy has never sought to defend himself against the accusation, instead choosing to point out the quality of education, healthcare and other civil services those taxes can afford.

It may be why he and other Democrats were in tight spots on Tuesday.

Durr told Politico he picked up on feelings of discontent and distrust among South Jersians with the way Democrats were running the state.

'Just the constant nepotism, corruption, "if you take care of me, I'll take care of you" deals,' Durr said. 'You don't have evidence, you can't get anyone arrested or prove anything, but there's always "when there's smoke there's fire" kind of statements.'

At least one veteran Democrat operative agrees that his party appears to have gone off track with American voters.

Political strategist James Carville blamed Democrats' losses on Tuesday on 'stupid wokeness' in a PBS interview.

'What went wrong is just stupid wokeness. Don't just look at Virginia and New Jersey. Look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis, even look at Seattle, Washington,' Carville said as he ticked off election results in an appearance on PBS News Hour.

Democratic strategist tore into 'stupid wokeness' and said it was causing a backlash that was suppressing the Democratic vote, after the party suffered a range of losses Tuesday

There were echoes of Carville's critique in comments by Sen. Joe Manchin Thursday, when he called the US a 'center-right' country

'I mean, this "defund the police" lunacy, this take Abraham Lincoln's name off of schools. I mean that '-- people see that,' he said.

Carville, who boosted Clinton with his 'It's the economy, stupid' mantra, weighed in even as 'squad' member Rep. Ilhan Omar retweeted a message saying progressives would get blamed for McAuliffe's loss, suggesting he didn't run left enough.

There were echoes of Carville's critique in comments by Sen. Joe Manchin Thursday, although Manchin spoke to economic issues.

Manchin claimed the US is a 'center-right' country and that President Biden should give up on trying to get the kind of 'major legislation' done that passed under Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

'We can't go too far left,' the West Virginia Democrat told CNN from Capitol Hill on Thursday. 'This is not a center-left or a left country. We are a center '-- if anything, a little center-right country, that's being shown '-- and we ought to be able to recognize that.'

'You wanna know what's wrong with the place? I go to work in a hostile work environment every day,' he inveighed, after becoming a center of attention as one of two Democrats in the Senate holding up Biden's economic agenda and demanding changes.

'If you're a Democrat and a Republican is up for election, you're supposed to be against that person,' even if their opponent is 'Donald Duck,' he complained.

'I just saw it to confirm that we have a divided country '... I hope it's a wake-up call for all of us,' the West Virginia Democrat told Fox News' Special Report's Bret Baier about the election results on Wednesday.

But progressives have been singing the opposite tune. Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said her party's election night upset - specifically in Virginia - is the fault of moderates who failed to get progressives to vote.

The lawmaker took to her Instagram stories to discuss Democrats' losing the governorship of Virginia - a state Biden won by 10 points in the 2020 election.

She called the loss a 'bummer' but blamed it on moderate candidate Terry McAuliffe for failing to 'energize' progressives to come on Election Day.

Progressives claim the loss is a sign they need to speed up passage of Biden's $1.75 trillion social agenda while moderates are asking the president to focus on the econony and jobs, arguing Democrats missed the message voters were sending.

Ocasio-Cortez also brought up the race issue, saying McAuliffe didn't handle 'race baiting' from Republicans well - a likely reference to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin attack ads on the use of Critical Race Theory in schools and how he took advantage of a McAuliffe faux pas, where the Democratic candidate rejected the idea that parents should have more control in a child's education.

'Historically moderate Democrats have believed the best way to respond to race baiting by the right is to say little/nothing,' Ocasio-Cortez wrote in an Instagram stories Q&A. 'We see how that demoralizes the base you're supposed to protect and turn out while also ceeding white swing voters to the right w/ inadequate responses or silence.'

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 15:33

5G may turn out to be a health hazard for people in aircraft.

The RTCA (originally "Radio Technical Committee for Aeronautics") has issued a report at

https://www.rtca.org/wp-content/upl...t-Report_274-20-PMC-2073_accepted_changes.pdf last year.

Article:The task force was formed in April to address this issue. In December, the FCC plans to auction licenses in the 3.7'' to 4.2-GHz frequency band.By evaluating radar altimeter performance in light of the ''expected 5G emissions in the 3.7'' to 3.98-GHz band,'' the task force was able to test radar altimeters to determine their tolerance to the expected 5G interference signals, according to the report. Other research included a risk assessment of how much this interference might happen and its impact on aviation safety. According to the task force, ''The results presented in this report reveal a major risk that 5G telecommunications systems in the 3.7'' to 3.98-GHz band will cause harmful interference to radar altimeters on all types of civil aircraft'--including commercial transport airplanes; business, regional, and general aviation airplanes; and both transport and general aviation helicopters.'' The problem isn't limited to the 5G band allocation of 3.7'' to 3.98-GHz, however, but also ''the spurious emissions from such systems within the protected 4.2'' to 4.4-GHz radar altimeter band directly.''The report further warned of ''the possibility of catastrophic failures leading to multiple fatalities, in the absence of appropriate mitigations.''

Article:''The results of the study performed clearly indicate that this risk is widespread and has the potential for broad impacts to aviation operations in the United States, including the possibility of catastrophic failures leading to multiple fatalities, in the absence of appropriate mitigations,'' the RTCA stated in its report. Research for the report was conducted by the Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute, a cooperative research organization based out of Texas A&M University.Radar altimeters are critical during landings, once an aircraft moves below 2,500 feet from the ground. At that point, no other instruments provide an accurate measurement of a plane's distance from the ground.''It's so important to have an accurate reading, because if it's a bad reading it could lead to the airplane doing something you don't want it to do.'' explained Terry McVenes, the RTCA president and chief executive. McVenes is a former Boeing safety executive with 30 years' experience in the commercial aviation industry.''If your airplane thought it was 1,000 feet above the ground but was only 50 feet above the ground, well'... you could have a problem,'' he said. [..]The FCC and supporters of expanding 5G argue that the concerns are overblown.''In the C-Band Order, the Commission concluded that our rules would protect radio altimeters used by aircraft, and we continue to have no reason to believe that 5G operations in the C-Band will cause harmful interference to radio altimeters,'' Will Wiquist, a spokesman for the FCC, said in a statement. ''Among other things, these altimeters operate with more than 200 megahertz of separation from the C-band spectrum to be auctioned, more protection than is afforded in some other countries.''Moreover, the RTCA report was prepared outside of the joint aviation/wireless industry group that was set up at the Commission's request and is not a consensus position of that group. Indeed, at least one other member of that multi-stakeholder group has expressed significant concerns with the study and several of its assumptions, and the Commission's experts have concerns with this study as well.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 15:29

A radar altimeter (RA), radio altimeter (RALT), electronic altimeter, or reflection altimeter measures altitude above the terrain presently beneath an aircraft or spacecraft by timing how long it takes a beam of radio waves to travel to ground, reflect, and return to the craft. This type of altimeter provides the distance between the antenna and the ground directly below it, in contrast to a barometric altimeter which provides the distance above a defined vertical datum, usually mean sea level.When used on aircraft, it may be known as low-range radio altimeter (LRRA).

ITU definition [ edit ] See alsoFrom the legal point of view, a radio altimeter is '' according to article 1.108 of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) ITU Radio Regulations (RR)[1] '' defined as Radionavigation equipment, on board an aircraft or spacecraft, used to determine the height of the aircraft or the spacecraft above the Earth's surface or another surface.>> Radionavigation equipment shall be classified by the radiocommunication service in which it operates permanently or temporarily. The use of radio altimeter equipment is categorised as so-called safety-of-life service, must be protected for Interferences, and is an essential part of Navigation.

Principle [ edit ] As the name implies, radar (radio detection and ranging) is the underpinning principle of the system. The system transmits radio waves down to the ground and measures the time it takes them to be reflected back up to the aircraft. The altitude above the ground is calculated from the radio waves' travel time and the speed of light. Radar altimeters required a simple system for measuring the time-of-flight that could be displayed using conventional instruments, as opposed to a cathode ray tube normally used on early radar systems.

To do this, the transmitter sends a frequency modulated signal that changes in frequency over time, ramping up and down between two frequency limits, Fmin and Fmax over a given time, T. In the first units, this was accomplished using an LC tank with a tuning capacitor driven by a small electric motor. The output is then mixed with the radio frequency carrier signal and sent out the transmission antenna.

Since the signal takes some time to reach the ground and return, the frequency of the received signal is slightly delayed relative to the signal being sent out at that instant. The difference in these two frequencies can be extracted in a frequency mixer, and because the difference in the two signals is due to the delay reaching the ground and back, the resulting output frequency encodes the altitude. The output is typically on the order of hundreds of cycles per second, not megacycles, and can easily be displayed on analog instruments. This technique is known as Frequency Modulated Continuous-wave radar.

Radar altimeters normally work in the E band, Ka band, or, for more advanced sea-level measurement, S band. Radar altimeters also provide a reliable and accurate method of measuring height above water, when flying long sea-tracks. These are critical for use when operating to and from oil rigs.

The altitude specified by the device is not the indicated altitude of the standard barometric altimeter. A radar altimeter measures absolute altitude - the height Above Ground Level (AGL). Absolute altitude is sometimes referred to as height[citation needed ] because it is the height above the underlying terrain.

As of 2010, all commercial radar altimeters use linear frequency modulation - continuous wave (LFM-CW or FM-CW).As of 2010, about 25,000 aircraft in the US have at least one radio altimeter.[4][5]

History [ edit ] Original concept [ edit ] The underlying concept of the radar altimeter was developed independent of the wider radar field, and originates in a study of long-distance telephony at Bell Labs. During the 1910s, Bell Telephone was struggling with the reflection of signals caused by changes in impedance in telephone lines, typically where equipment connected to the wires. This was especially significant at repeater stations, where poorly matched impedances would reflect large amounts of the signal and made long-distance telephony difficult.

Engineers noticed that the reflections appeared to have a "humpy" pattern to them; for any given signal frequency, the problem would only be significant if the devices were located at specific points in the line. This led to the idea of sending a test signal into the line and then changing its frequency until significant echos were seen, and then determining the distance to that device so it could be identified and fixed.

Lloyd Espenschied was working at Bell Labs when he struck upon the idea of using this same phenomenon as a way to measure distances in wire in a more general fashion. One of his first developments in this field was a 1919 patent (granted 1924)[7] on the idea of sending a signal into railway tracks and measuring the distance to discontinuities. These could be used to look for broken tracks, or if the distance was changing more rapidly than the speed of the train, other trains on the same line.

Appleton's ionosphere measurements [ edit ] During this same period there was a great debate in physics over the nature of radio propagation. Guglielmo Marconi's successful trans-Atlantic transmissions appeared to be impossible; studies of radio signals demonstrated they travelled in straight lines, at least over long distances, so the broadcast from Cornwall should have disappeared into space instead of being received in Newfoundland. In 1902, Oliver Heaviside in the UK and Arthur Kennelly in the USA independently postulated the existence of an ionized layer in the upper atmosphere that was bouncing the signal back down to the ground so it could be received. This became known as the Heaviside layer.

While an attractive idea, direct evidence was lacking. In 1924, Edward Appleton and Miles Barnett were able to demonstrate the existence of such a layer in a series of experiments carried out in partnership with the BBC. After scheduled transmissions had ended for the day, a BBC transmitter in Bournemouth sent out a signal that slowly increased in frequency. This was picked up by Appleton's receiver in Oxford, where two signals appeared. One was the direct signal from the station, the groundwave, while the other was received later in time after it travelled to the Heaviside layer and back again, the skywave.

The trick was how to accurately measure the distance travelled by the skywave to demonstrate it was actually in the sky. This was the purpose of the changing frequency. Since the ground signal travelled a shorter distance, it was more recent and thus closer to the frequency being sent at that instant. The skywave, having to travel a longer distance, was delayed, and was thus the frequency as it was some time ago. By mixing the two in a frequency mixer, a third signal is produced that has its own unique frequency that encodes the difference in the two inputs. Since in this case the difference is due to the longer path, the resulting frequency directly reveals the path length. Although technically more challenging, this was ultimately the same basic technique being used by Bell to measure the distance to the reflectors in the wire.

Everitt and Newhouse [ edit ] In 1929, William Littell Everitt, a professor at Ohio State University, began considering the use of Appleton's basic technique as the basis for an altimeter system. He assigned the work to two seniors, Russell Conwell Newhouse and M. W. Havel. Their experimental system was more in common with the earlier work at Bell, using changes in frequency to measure the distance to the end of wires. The two used it as the basis for a joint senior thesis in 1929.

Everitt disclosed the concept to the US Patent Office, but did not file a patent at that time. He then approached the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics for development funding. Jimmy Doolittle, secretary of the Foundation, approached Vannevar Bush of Bell Labs to pass judgment. Bush was skeptical that the system could be developed at that time, but nevertheless suggested the Foundation fund development of a working model. This allowed Newhouse to build an experimental machine which formed the basis of his 1930 Master's thesis, in partnership with J. D. Corley.

The device was taken to Wright Field where it was tested by Albert Francis Helgenberger, a noted expert in aircraft navigation. Hegenberger found that the system worked as advertised, but stated that it would have to work at higher frequencies in order to be practical.[a]

Espenschied and Newhouse [ edit ] Espenschied has also been considering the use of Appleton's idea for altitude measurement. In 1926 he suggested the idea both as a way to measure altitude as well as a forward-looking system for terrain avoidance and collision detection. However, at that time the frequency of available radio systems even in what was known as shortwave was calculated to be fifty times lower than what would be needed for a practical system.

Espenschied eventually filed a patent on the idea in 1930. By this time, Newhouse had left Ohio State and taken a position at Bell Labs. Here he met Peter Sandretto, who was also interested in radio navigation topics. Sandretto left Bell in 1932 to become the Superintendent of Communications at United Air Lines (UAL), where he led the development of commercial radio systems.

Espenschied's patent was not granted until 1936,[11] and its publication generated intense interest. Around the same time, Bell Labs had been working on new tube designs that were capable of delivering between 5 and 10 Watts at up to 500 MHz, perfect for the role. This led Sandretto to contact Bell about the idea, and in 1937 a partnership between Bell Labs and UAL was formed to build a practical version. Led by Newhouse, a team had a working model in testing in early 1938, and Western Electric (Bell's manufacturing division) was already gearing up for a production model. Newhouse also filed several patents on improvements in technique based on this work.

Commercial introduction [ edit ] The system was publicly announced on 8 and 9 October 1938. During World War II, mass production was taken up by RCA, who produced them under the names ABY-1 and RC-24. In the post-war era, many companies took up production and it became a standard instrument on many aircraft as blind landing became commonplace.

A paper describing the system was published jointly by Espenschied and Newhouse the next year. The paper explores sources of error and concludes that the worst-case built-in scenario was on the order of 9%, but this might be as high as 10% when flying over rough terrain like the built-up areas of cities.

During early flights of the system, it was noticed that the pattern of the returns as seen on an oscilloscope was distinct for different types of terrain below the aircraft. This opened the possibility of all sorts of other uses for the same technology, including ground-scanning and navigation. However, these concepts were not able to be explored by Bell at the time.

Use as general purpose radar [ edit ] It had been known since the late 1800s that metal and water made excellent reflectors of radio signals, and there had been a number of attempts to build ship, train and iceberg detectors over the years since that time. Most of these had significant practical limitations, especially the use of low-frequency signals that demanded large antennas in order to provide reasonable performance. The Bell unit, operating at a base frequency of 450 MHz, was among the highest frequency systems of its era.[b]

In Canada, the National Research Council began working on an airborne radar system using the altimeter as its basis. This came as a great surprise to British researchers when they visited in October 1940 as part of the Tizard Mission, as the British believed at that time that they were the only ones working on the concept. However, the Canadian design was ultimately abandoned in favour of building the fully developed British ASV Mark II design, which operated at much higher power levels.[15]

In France, researchers at IT&T's French division were carrying out similar experiments when the German invasion approached the labs in Paris. The labs were deliberately destroyed to prevent the research falling into German hands, but German teams found the antennas in the rubble and demanded an explanation. The IT&T director of research deflected suspicion by showing them the unit on the cover of a magazine and admonishing them for not being up-to-date on the latest navigation techniques.

Civil aviation applications [ edit ] Radar altimeters are frequently used by commercial aircraft for approach and landing, especially in low-visibility conditions (see instrument flight rules) and automatic landings, allowing the autopilot to know when to begin the flare maneuver. Radar altimeters give data to the autothrottle which is a part of the Flight Computer.

Radar altimeters generally only give readings up to 2,500 feet (760 m) above ground level (AGL). Frequently, the weather radar can be directed downwards to give a reading from a longer range, up to 60,000 feet (18,000 m) above ground level (AGL). As of 2012[update], all airliners are equipped with at least two and possibly more radar altimeters, as they are essential to autoland capabilities. (As of 2012[update], determining height through other methods such as GPS is not permitted by regulations.) Older airliners from the 1960s (such as the British Aircraft Corporation BAC 1-11) and smaller airliners in the sub-50 seat class (such as the ATR 42 and BAe Jetstream series) are equipped with them.

Radar altimeters are an essential part in ground proximity warning systems (GPWS), warning the pilot if the aircraft is flying too low or descending too quickly. However, radar altimeters cannot see terrain directly ahead of the aircraft, only that below it; such functionality requires either knowledge of position and the terrain at that position or a forward looking terrain radar. Radar altimeter antennas have a fairly large main lobe of about 80° so that at bank angles up to about 40°, the radar detects the range from the aircraft to the ground (specifically to the nearest large reflecting object). This is because range is calculated based on the first signal return from each sampling period. It does not detect slant range until beyond about 40° of bank or pitch. This is not an issue for landing as pitch and roll do not normally exceed 20°.

Military aviation applications [ edit ] Radar altimeters are also used in military aircraft to fly quite low over the land and the sea to avoid radar detection and targeting by anti-aircraft guns or surface-to-air missiles. A related use of radar altimeter technology is terrain-following radar, which allows fighter bombers to fly at very low altitudes.

The F-111s of the Royal Australian Air Force and the U.S. Air Force have a forward-looking, terrain-following radar (TFR) system connected via digital computer to their automatic pilots. Beneath the nose radome are two separate TFR antennae, each providing individual information to the dual-channel TFR system. In case of a failure in that system, the F-111 has a back-up radar altimeter system, also connected to the automatic pilot. Then, if the F-111 ever dips below the preset minimum altitude (for example, 15 meters) for any reason, its automatic pilot is commanded to put the F-111 into a 2G fly-up (a steep nose-up climb) to avoid crashing into terrain or water. Even in combat, the hazard of a collision is far greater than the danger of being detected by an enemy. Similar systems are used by F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft operated by Australia and the United States.

See also [ edit ] Laser altimeterSatellite altimetryNotes [ edit ] ^ Antennas for radio signals have to be sized to the frequency of the carrier signal. Higher frequency signals use smaller antennas, which has a number of very practical advantages for aircraft use. ^ Only German units operated in a similar band, other British and US radars of the era worked at around 200 MHz or lower. References [ edit ] Citations [ edit ] ^ ITU Radio Regulations, Section IV. Radio Stations and Systems '' Article 1.108, definition: radio altimeter ^ "COMMENTS OF AVIATION SPECTRUM RESOURCES, INC.".p. 3, p. 8. ^ Cody Miller."A Radio Altimeter for Landing UAVs or Small Aircraft".2010. ^ US Expired 1517549, Lloyd Espenschied, "Railway Signal System", issued 1924-12-02 ^ US Expired 2045071, Lloyd Espenschied, "Altimeter for aircraft", issued 1936-06-23 ^ Middleton, W E Knowles (1981). Radar Development in Canada: The Radio Branch of the National Research Council . Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 96. ISBN 9780889201064. Bibliography [ edit ] Espenschied, Lloyd; Newhouse, Russell (January 1939). "A Terrain Clearance Indicator". The Bell System Technical Journal. 18 (1): 222''234. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1939.tb00813.x. "Historic Firsts: Radio Altimeter" (PDF) . Bell Labs: 18''19. January 1948. Colin, Robert (July 1967). "1967 Pioneer Award: Lloyd Espenschied and Russell C. Newhouse". IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. AES-3 (4): 736''742. doi:10.1109/TAES.1967.5408855.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 15:28

A crew works on a cell tower in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Bill Clark/Getty Images AT&T and Verizon confirmed Thursday that they've agreed to temporarily pause rolling out 5G service that uses a new set of radio frequencies. The carriers will work with the US Federal Aviation Administration to address concerns about potential interference between key cockpit safety devices and towers on the ground transmitting 5G signals.

AT&T said in a statement that it planned to delay its 5G deployment until Jan. 5 after getting a request from the Transportation Department, which oversees the FAA.

A Verizon spokesman confirmed to CNET that the company has also agreed to a temporary pause in deployment of 5G over the C-band spectrum in order to work in good faith with the agency. But he said the company is still on track to deploy service using this midband spectrum.

"We're moving full speed ahead with our plans to bring 5G over this spectrum in early 2022," the Verizon spokesman said.

Verizon had previously said it planned to deploy service using the C-band spectrum in the first quarter of 2022, to cover 100 million people.

News of the voluntary pause in deployment by AT&T and Verizon was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

The FAA and the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates use of public wireless spectrum for communication, issued a joint statement saying they'd work with the companies to mitigate safety concerns and to continue to coordinate efforts to ensure safety.

The FAA on Tuesday issued a special information bulletin alerting manufacturers, operators and pilots about potential interference involving cockpit electronics and 5G. The FAA has said towers on the ground transmitting 5G over the C-band of wireless spectrum could interfere with automated cockpit systems such as those that help planes land in poor weather.

The agency had been planning to issue official mandates to limit the use of certain cockpit systems, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Telecom industry specialists say there's no evidence of interference issues with respect to the C-band spectrum and flight equipment. CTIA, the wireless industry lobby group, said in a filing to the FCC on Wednesday that "nearly 40 countries have already adopted rules and deployed hundreds of thousands of 5G base stations in the C-Band at similar frequencies and similar power levels -- and in some instances, at closer proximity to aviation operations -- than 5G will be in the U.S."

CTIA went on to say that none of the countries using this spectrum for 5G has reported any harmful interference with aviation equipment from these deployments. The group urged the FCC to "ensure that C-Band 5G deployments remain on track in the U.S."

New spectrum for 5G The spectrum or airwaves used to transmit the 5G service in question is known as C-band. This midband spectrum in the 3.7-3.98GHz band has been viewed by the wireless industry as a key technology to allow for faster 5G service that can provide better range than 5G service using very high frequency millimeter-wave spectrum.

Verizon says that this new spectrum will allow it to offer peak download speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

The FCC auction of the C-band airwaves earlier this year generated a record-breaking $81 billion in proceeds. Verizon and AT&T were the two biggest winners. Verizon won $45.45 billion worth of licenses, while AT&T spent $23.4 billion on its C-band airwaves.

In March, Verizon said it would start deploying this midband spectrum for 5G service in 46 markets with the goal of covering 100 million people by next March. That number will grow to 175 million people between 2022 and 2023 and over 250 million people in 2024, the company said.

For AT&T and Verizon the addition of the C-band spectrum for 5G is a key part of their wireless strategies. Though millimeter spectrum, which both carriers currently use for their fastest 5G service, provides speedy downloads, it's generally available only outdoors in parts of certain cities because of physical limitations of the spectrum.

By contrast, the nationwide 5G service offered by these carriers uses a combination of 4G and 5G technologies over lower frequency spectrum. The benefit of this spectrum is that it can transmit signals over longer distances, but the speeds that can be obtained are similar or sometimes even less than what can be achieved over existing 4G LTE service.

The promise of the C-band midband spectrum is that it can offer faster speeds over greater distances, which should help these companies improve 5G service in urban and suburban markets. And because midband spectrum is able to penetrate walls more easily than millimeter wave technology, it should also improve 5G coverage indoors.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 14:51

When I published my study on pathogenic priming in April, 2020, it was meant as a warning. The evidence was in from past COVID vaccine development attempts: vaccination against coronaviruses had led to DISEASE ENHANCEMENT.

I had hoped vaccine makers would have paid heed and would have excluded the unsafe epitopes from their vaccines. I gave them a roadmap.

Now, in Belgium, 100% of ICU admissions are among the vaccinated. Only 40% of the Belgium population are vaccinated.

I'm ready to call it: The COVID-19 vaccination program causes Disease Enhancement, likely via numerous possible means: from molecular mimicry leading to autoimmunity, or antibody-dependent enhancement, Pathogenic Priming has Antwerp, Belgium in it grip

Transcript (Google Translated):

Dr. Kristiaan Deckers, GZA Hospitals

''even more radical about for those who would faithfully think that the intensive care now follows with not vaccinated that is no longer correct us right now we see a large majority are so-called breakthrough infections and that is different from to me a few weeks ago indeed not a majority vaccinated patients in intensive had at the moment that is no longer the case have the patients we have now put on intensive.

I checked it yesterday are actually all vaccinated.''

Lyons-Weiler J. Pathogenic priming likely contributes to serious and critical illness and mortality in COVID-19 via autoimmunity. J Transl Autoimmun. 2020 Apr 9;3:100051. doi: 10.1016/j.jtauto.2020.100051. PMID: 32292901; PMCID: PMC7142689. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32292901/

Give a gift subscription

Leave a comment

Share

Share Popular Rationalism

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 14:23

Friday's Astroworld festival disaster in Houston, where at least eight people died and others were injured as a large crowd surged and panicked, recalled other similar events that have happened over the years.

In 1979, for example, 11 people died at a concert by the rock band The Who at an arena in Cincinnati. The band has blamed the disaster on "first-come seating," which encouraged fans to rush toward the stage, according to the Associated Press.

Band members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend said in December 2020 interviews that the Cincinnati tragedy has long haunted them.

"It's something that never, ever goes away," Townshend said. "You never stop thinking about it. '... Young people, really young kids."

ASTROWORLD FESTIVAL: HOUSTON ICU NURSE DESCRIBES DEADLY CONCERT: 'IT WAS MADNESS'

In 1989, nearly 100 people died in a human crush at a soccer stadium in England. Many fans were pressed against metal fences or were trampled by others in the crowd, according to the AP.

A memorial plaque for 11 concertgoers killed at a 1979 Who concert stands between Great American Ballpark and Heritage Bank Arena, in Cincinnati, Nov. 20, 2019 photo.

But an inquest years later revealed numerous instances of wrongdoing and mistakes by authorities that were considered contributing factors in the deaths, the news service reported.

In 2015, two crowds converged at the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, resulting in more than 2,400 deaths.

A security guard and an unidentified man look at an area where several people were killed as they were caught in a surging crowd entering Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum for a concert by the British rock band The Who, Dec. 3, 1979. (Associated Press)

Saudi authorities said at the time that the groups converged down a narrow road, resulting in suffocations and trampling, despite billions of dollars spent on crowd control and safety measures for an event that can attract 2 million to 3 million people each year.

Other deadly incidents:Oct. 20, 1982 '-- Sixty-six people die in a crush of fans leaving a UEFA Cup match between Spartak Moscow and Haarlem, of the Netherlands, at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

May 28, 1985 '-- Thirty-nine people died in fan violence at the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels.

March 13, 1988 '-- Ninety-three people are killed when thousands of soccer fans surge into locked stadium exits to escape a sudden hailstorm in Kathmandu, Nepal.

July 2, 1990 '-- During the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia, 1,426 Muslim pilgrims, mainly from Asia, die in and around a long pedestrian tunnel leading from Mecca to Mina.

January 13, 1991 '-- Forty-two people are killed when fans try to escape brawls at Oppenheimer Stadium in South Africa.

May 23, 1994 '-- A crush of pilgrims at the hajj leaves 270 Muslim pilgrims dead.

Nov. 23, 1994 '-- A panicked crush during a political protest in Nagpur, India, leaves 113 dead.

Oct. 16, 1996 '-- Eighty-four people die and 147 are injured as panicked fans are crushed and smothered before a World Cup qualifier between Guatemala and Costa Rica in Guatemala City.

April 9, 1998 '-- A crush of pilgrims on a bridge in Mecca leaves 118 hajj pilgrims dead.

April 11, 2001 '-- At least 43 people are crushed to death during a soccer match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa.

May 9, 2001 '-- More than 120 people are killed when police fire tear gas into the rowdy crowd in a stadium in the Ghanaian capital Accra, leading to panic.

Feb. 17, 2003 '-- Twenty-one are crushed to death in the stairway exit to E2, a nightclub in Chicago.

Feb. 20, 2003 '-- Stage pyrotechnics during a Great White concert at the Station nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island, spark a fire that kills 100 people and injures more than 200 others.

Feb. 1, 2004 '-- A panic during a hajj ritual at the Jamarat Bridge near Mecca leaves 251 people dead.

Jan. 25, 2005 '-- A panic among Hindu pilgrims near Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India, leaves 265 people dead.

Aug. 31, 2005 '-- At least 640 Shiite Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad are killed when a railing on a bridge collapses during a religious procession, sending scores into the Tigris River.

Jan. 12, 2006 '-- A panic among Muslim pilgrims during a hajj ceremony near Mecca leaves 345 people dead.

Feb. 4, 2006 '-- Seventy-eight people are killed in a panicked crush that happened at PhilSports Arena stampede in Manila, Philippines, as they were waiting for a TV variety show audition.

Sept. 30, 2008 '-- At least 168 people are killed and 100 are injured when thousands of Hindu pilgrims are caught in a panic at a temple in Jodhpur, India.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

July 24, 2010 '-- Twenty-one people die and more than 650 are injured in a crush in a packed tunnel that was the sole access point to the Love Parade music festival in Duisburg, Germany.

Nov. 22, 2010 '-- More than 340 people are killed and hundreds of others are injured during a panicked crush at a festival in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

Jan. 27, 2013 '-- A fire kills more than 200 people at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil.

April 30, 2021 '-- Forty-five people are killed and dozens more are wounded in a panicked crush at the annual Mount Meron pilgrimage in Israel.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 14:02

The head of a Nelson, B.C., emergency department says it's time doctors start looking at the underlying cause of medical conditions triggered by smoke and heat

When a patient in her 70s came into the emergency department at Kootenay Lake Hospital in Nelson, B.C., Dr. Kyle Merritt had no idea hundreds of people were dying of heat across the province.

It was late June, and British Columbia was consumed under a heat wave that would soon go down as both the hottest and deadliest in Canadian history.

The head of the hospital's emergency department, Merritt could see the aggravated toll the extreme heat took on patients battling multiple health problems at once, often with little money.

''She has diabetes. She has some heart failure. '... She lives in a trailer, no air conditioning,'' says Merritt of the senior patient.

''All of her health problems have all been worsened. And she's really struggling to stay hydrated.''

As the mercury climbed, more patients arrived and pressure on the hospital mounted. Merritt and his colleagues tried to make sense of a surge in heat illness most had only seen in medical school.

''We were having to figure out how do we cool someone in the emergency department,'' says the doctor. ''People are running out to the Dollar Store to buy spray bottles.''

Merritt remembers hitting a tipping point, the extreme heat an opening salvo in another summer of crisis. He started contacting other doctors and nurses, in Prince George, Kamloops, Vancouver and Victoria.

The response was immediate. Roughly 40 doctors and nurses at the small hospital '-- all busy trying to manage a pandemic and their regular professional lives '-- came together under the banner Doctors and Nurses for Planetary Health.

''I was worried about the summer that was coming,'' says Merritt of the rising number of health-care workers desperate to talk about how climate change is affecting their patients' health.

''I was really quite amazed at how many people have decided to jump in.''

Just as doctors and nurses started to make sense of the record heat, it cleared '-- only to be replaced by a blanket of wildfire smoke.

Climate change enters the ERLike so many summers in recent memory, this summer, Nelson's air turned the colour of pea soup, leading to a spike in patients suffering respiratory problems.

B.C.'s Interior suffers some of the greatest fallout from air pollution in the country.

Between 2013 and 2018, the 10 census divisions in the country with the greatest exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were all in B.C.'s Interior, according to a 2021 Health Canada analysis of the impacts of air pollution on human health.

Of those, half the census divisions '-- including Central Kootenay, where Nelson is located '-- were among the top 10 slices of the country with the highest per capita rates of premature death.

''A lot of people in the Kootenays sort of thought that this would be a good place to hide out while the rest of the world falls apart. But it's, of course, hitting us here, just like it's hitting many places, and we're really seeing the impacts,'' says Merritt.

Like death by heat, doctors have traditionally struggled to clinically attribute mortality and severe illness to air pollution. For Merritt, this summer's wildfire season changed all that.

When a patient came in struggling to breathe, Merritt knew the smoke '-- that hadn't lifted from the region for days on end '-- had made a case of asthma worse.

For the first time in his 10 years as a physician, the ER doctor picked up his patient's chart and penned in the words ''climate change.''

''If we're not looking at the underlying cause, and we're just treating the symptoms, we're just gonna keep falling further and further behind,'' he told Glacier Media when asked why he did it.

''It's me trying to just ... process what I'm seeing. We're in the emergency department, we look after everybody, from the most privileged to the most vulnerable, from cradle to grave, we see everybody. And it's hard to see people, especially the most vulnerable people in our society, being affected. It's frustrating.''

At the same time, Merritt says he hoped another family physician would read the chart, and one day, consider drawing a straighter line between their patients' health and climate change.

Smoke and heat affect more than peoples' physical health. Merritt says he saw a number of patients already suffering from depression or anxiety have their symptoms worsen during the wildfire season. Wildfire smoke even triggered flashbacks in a patient who was coping with post-traumatic stress disorder from his time as a soldier.

As the medical community learns more about the devastating impacts of smoke and heat, even people who don't suffer from pre-existing health conditions are facing tough decisions, including doctors like Merritt.

''This past summer, it was so bad for about three weeks,'' says Merritt.

''What do you do with your children? You know, I have three kids, and they're inside, it's summertime, we've just got through COVID. And they want to go out and jump on the trampoline. So I have to try and figure out: Is that safe?''

Premature deaths per year, per 100,000 population associated with exposure to NO2, ozone and PM2.5 air pollution for census divisions in Canada for 2016. Health CanadaDoctors at the feet of powerAs global heating takes centre stage in Glasgow this week, Merritt and about 40 other nurses and doctors are taking their concerns to Nelson's city hall, where the group will rally alongside at least 130 more health-care workers demonstrating at the provincial legislature in Victoria.

''We wanted to do something big. We wanted to gather at the feet of power,'' says Dr. Kelly Lau, a family physician based in Vancouver, who is among those headed to Victoria Nov. 4.

Starting Thursday at noon, Lau says the non-partisan group is calling on the provincial government to, among other things, declare an ''ecological emergency'' and end subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

''A lot of us were really shook by this summer, by the heat dome and the wildfires that are just escalating every year,'' she says. ''This is about moving forward in a way that saves lives.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 13:33

The National Railway Museum and universities across Yorkshire and the north of England will investigate the possible links between railways and the global slave trade as part of a £9,000 research project.

The project - backed by York, Leeds and Sheffield Universities - will 'examine the economic, social and infrastructural legacy of steam and slavery across the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries'.

It will consider whether steam power aided imperial expansion and also assess trains for their role in facilitating expansion.

The £9,000 research project - titled Slavery and Steam: steam power, railways and colonialism - was developed by curators from the National Railway Museum, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester and Leeds Industrial Museum, as well as research hubs at the three universities.

The National Railway Museum and universities across Yorkshire and the north of England will investigate the possible links between railways and the global slave trade as part of a £9,000 research project. Pictured: Chinese Government Railways KF7 locomotive

Professor Jonathan Finch, from the University of York, who is leading the project, said there has been little research into the history and development of the railways.

Describing the relationship between steam power and global trade as 'complex', he added: 'Steam engines replaced wind power on the plantations and waterpower in British cotton mills, steamboats transported raw materials and goods around the globe.

'Railways were critical to the expansion of colonial power across Asia and Africa, as well as the opening up of the North American interior.

'Wealth generated in the colonies was a stimulus to industrialisation, long after the abolition of slavery in the UK and US.'

The coffin of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill being loaded onto a train at Weterloo Station in January 1965. Museum staff previously raised concerns about the train due to Churchill's links to 'colonialism and empire'

The Science Museum Group, of which the National Railway Museum is part, has been reassessing the legacy of rail travel and colonialism after last year's Black Lives Matter protests, The Telegraph reports.

The newspaper said internal documents at the museum showed staff found 'little interpretation that addresses the railways' role in empire' in its collection of almost 300 locomotives.

Objects highlighted by staff include an 1896 Cape Government Railway locomotive, the Chinese Government Railways KF7 locomotive and a quarter-scale model of a Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway locomotive, according to museum documents.

Staff at the museum have also previously raised concerns about the train that carried Winston Churchill's coffin in 1965, which they said could become the focus of protest due to his links to 'colonialism and empire'.

Concerns were also raised about George and Robert Stephenson's Rocket steam engine which staff said could attract protests because the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, Robert's benefactor, had links to profits made through the slave trade.

The Rocket was designed by George (1781-1848) and Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) and built by Robert Stephenson & Co in Newcastle in 1829. Concerns were raised about this particular model because Liverpool and Manchester Railway had links to profits made through the slave trade

The National Railway Museum and universities across Yorkshire and the north of England will investigate the possible links between railways and the global slave trade as part of a £9,000 research project. Pictured: The National Railway Museum reopening in August 2020 after the easing of lockdown

The project has received a year of funding from the White Rose University Consortium, a partnership of the Universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield.

The Consortium hopes the project will 'increase awareness of the links between slavery, steam power and the development of railways in Europe and the colonies'.

Announcing the project, the White Rose University Consortium said: 'The relationship between steam power and global trade is complex, from the adoption of steam power on plantations to the global distribution of materials and products, and the adoption of new business models to finance capital projects.

'Furthermore, the wealth generated in the colonial economy was a stimulus to industrialisation, long after the abolition of slavery in the UK and US.

'Academic interest in the topic is uneven and spread across various disciplines, but there has been little dedicated interdisciplinary study on the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries when the established commercial, political, legal, and human networks and frameworks of slavery fed into the emerging systems of steam and railway infrastructure.

'This project will examine the economic, social and infrastructural legacy of steam and slavery across the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Dr Oliver Betts, lead researcher at the National Railway Museum, added: 'Across the Science Museum Group through projects such as this, we are examining Britain's colonial past to look again at the stories we tell, the voices we represent, and the challenges we face in presenting complex, hitherto untold stories to the public.'

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 13:28

Astroworld had a plan for all sorts of emergencies. It designated who could stop a performance and how. It included a script for how to announce an evacuation. It detailed how to handle a mass casualty event.

The Houston Chronicle obtained the 56-page ''event operations plan,'' which the festival promoter developed to ensure the safety of 50,000 guests at the sold-out event at NRG Park.

''Astroworld, as an organization, will be prepared to evaluate and respond appropriately to emergency situations, so as to prevent or minimize injury or illness to guests, event personnel and the general public,'' the document states.

Attendees described an entirely different scene: an overwhelmed venue where security personnel were unable to prevent fans from being crushed. Where medics were too few. And where production staff were unwilling to halt the show despite pleas from fans that others had collapsed.

1 of 12 Alyssa Cortes, center, hugs a friend as they view the Astroworld Festival memorial items along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. She said she and her friends attended the festival and had a difficult time getting out. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 2 of 12 Mylan De Leon writes a memorial message to Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino on a candle at the Astroworld Festival memorial display along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. She and her friend, Kailyn Thomas, said they met and hung out with Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino during the festival. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 3 of 12 A group of people hug after placing a large framed photo of victim Madison Dubiski on the fence among the Astroworld Festival memorial items along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. They said they are cousins but they did not want to be identified. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 4 of 12 A candle with a handwritten message honoring victim Rudy Pena of Laredo is shown among the Astroworld Festival memorial items displayed along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 5 of 12 Kailyn Thomaswrites a memorial message to Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino on a candle at the Astroworld Festival memorial display along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. She and her friend, Mylan De Leon, said they met and hung out with Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino during the festival. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 6 of 12 A group of people gather after placing a large framed photo of victim Madison Dubiski on the fence among the Astroworld Festival memorial items along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. They said they are cousins but they did not want to be identified. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 7 of 12 A woman grieves after placing flowers among the Astroworld Festival memorial items along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 8 of 12 Mylan De Leon, left, and her friend, Kailyn Thomas, right, talk after placing candles at the Astroworld Festival memorial display for victims Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. They said they met and hung out with Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino during the festival. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 9 of 12 Hope Mercadel comforts her son, Alijah Mercadel, 13, as they view a memorial of flowers, candles, and other items along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 10 of 12 A woman lights a candle at a memorial for those who died at the Astroworld music festival the night before, on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021, at NRG Park in Houston.

Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Show More Show Less 11 of 12 A memorial of flowers, candles, and other items is shown along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less 12 of 12 A memorial of flowers, candles, and other items is shown along Westridge St. at Kirby Dr. in NRG Park Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021 in Houston. Eight were killed and multiple people were injured as Travis Scott was performing at Saturday's Astroworld Festival. Melissa Phillip/Staff photographer Show More Show Less Attendee Maximiano Alvarado said he witnessed a medic treat two victims by herself. He heard her say she could not detect a pulse on either.

''Finally paramedics come, and they started doing CPR,'' Alvarado said. ''I didn't even pay attention to Travis more than half of the time because there were so many things, cops and stuff, going on around me.''

All of the nine concert promoters and security personnel named in the document as responsible for managing the show declined to comment on what went wrong or did not respond. They include Seyth Boardman, author of the plan and the festival's safety director, and Brad Wavra, a vice president at promoter Live Nation.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said a review of the plan '-- and whether it was properly followed '-- should be part of an objective, third-party investigation of the tragedy.

''What I know so far is that Live Nation and Astroworld put together plans for this event,'' Hidalgo said Saturday. ''A security plan, a site plan. That they were at the table with the city of Houston and Harris County. And so perhaps the plans were inadequate. Perhaps the plans were good, but they weren't followed. Perhaps it was something else entirely.''

The plan for the Astroworld Festival said that the executive producer and the festival director had the ultimate authority to stop the show. In a dire emergency, the document said an incident command post would be established and the incident commander could order the power to be diverted from the show if lives were in ''immediate danger.''

That step was never taken.

Stopping a human crush once it has started is difficult, said a security guard who has worked NRG events in the past. Video from attendees in the minutes before Scott took the stage at 9 p.m. shows fans jumping barriers by the front of the stage to escape overcrowding, which could have been a critical, missed warning sign for security staff, he said.

''You have to pay attention to that stuff, when people are getting pushed against the fences,'' said the guard, who asked to remain anonymous because he still works in the security field. ''If you can't put a stop to it then, it's a lot harder to control.''

Houston police officials said they asked concert promoters to halt Scott's concert after the crowd rushed the stage and fans began collapsing around 9:30 p.m. Houston Fire Chief Sam Pe±a said a ''mass casualty'' event was declared at 9:38 p.m.

''Suddenly we had several people down on the ground, experiencing some type of cardiac arrest or some type of medical episode,'' said Larry Satterwhite, executive assistant chief at the Houston Police Department. ''And so we immediately started doing CPR and moving people right then. That's when I went and met with the promoters and Live Nation, and they agreed to end early in the interest of public safety.''

It's unclear whom Satterwhite spoke with or how long that conversation lasted. Police Chief Troy Finner later said there were concerns about shutting down the show too abruptly and risking a riot.

But concert attendees said Scott didn't end the show early '-- he continued playing his full set of songs for 37 minutes after the mass casualty event was declared by the fire department. The show finally ended at 10:15 p.m., they said. Finner and Mayor Sylvester Turner said it ended five minutes earlier at 10:10 p.m.

The police department said it would not grant any interviews on Sunday. Pe±a said that even though the plan didn't call for it, the fire department positioned extra EMS units nearby and they swiftly responded.

''We went ahead and pre-planned in anticipation for a contingency,'' Pe±a said. ''That's the reason why we had units deployed around the perimeter and were able to respond so quickly.''

The tragedy at Astroworld Festival

Still, even that measure was inadequate. The fire department dispatched an additional 28 units to the scene after declaring the mass casualty event, according to radio traffic.

The emergency plan stated that if someone is seriously injured, concert personnel can request a partial evacuation of the area. The plan also offered scripts on what to say to concert attendees in the event of an evacuation.

It's unknown if any requests for partial evacuations were sent to the event's supervisors. Live Nation did not use the PA system or video boards to broadcast any safety messages Friday evening, attendees said.

The report recommended dealing with civil disturbances or riots by maintaining control from the outset of the show.

''The key in properly dealing with this type of scenario is proper management of the crowd from the minute the doors open,'' the report stated. ''Crowd management techniques will be employed to identify potentially dangerous crowd behavior in its early stages in an effort to prevent a civil disturbance/riot.''

But crowd-control efforts fell short earlier in the day, when a VIP entrance was breached by hundreds of fans at 2 p.m. The plan made no mention of a similar breach in 2019, nor how security measures had been improved in response to it.

The plan also details how to handle a fatality, including how to report it up the chain of command.

''Notify Event Control of a suspected deceased victim utilizing the code 'Smurf,''' the plan stated. ''Never use the term 'dead' or 'deceased' over the radio.''

Alejandro Serrano contributed reporting.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 12:16

Image License: CC0 Public Domain Free for personal and commercial use No attribution requiredLicense & Image Link: LINK By F. William Engdahl 1 November 2021 On October 27 the US Food and Drug Administration Advisory Panel on Vaccines recommended the agency allow Pfizer to amend its Emergency Use Authorization for its COVID vaccine to include children 5 through 11 years old. Two days later the FDA officially approved the rollout. Major media are treating this as a positive development to protect young children. On closer inspection it is anything but that. The FDA is today shockingly corrupt under the Acting Director and is little more than a rubber stamp for Big Pharma, and especially Pfizer, where the former FDA head sits on the board .

The FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted 17 to 0, with one abstention, to give a green light allowing Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech experimental mRNA to children between 5 and 12 years. The expert who abstained later explained he did so because of limited safety and efficacy data provided. Previously the FDA had approved the vaccine for 12 and older. Adding to the stench of corruption around the latest vote, the Biden Administration a week earlier announced it had already purchased enough Pfizer vaccine to inoculate all 28 million 5- to 11-year-olds in the US. Did they know the fix was in?

''...Just the Way it Goes'

The record of the FDA, the major drug oversight agency in the US Government, regarding safety and risks of the experimental gene-altered mRNA vaccines of Pfizer, is one of criminal malfeasance, defined as willful violation of a public trust or obligation that causes harm or death. Their latest ruling is even more egregious for blatant conflicts of interest and scientific fraud. Both Pfizer, who conducted the tests on the efficacy of their own vaccine on the 5-11 year age group, and the FDA experts, admitted that they had no idea if the vaccine was safe for such a young population.

Dr. Eric Rubin, professor of immunology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health voted to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, noting, ''The data show that the vaccine works and is pretty safe '... and yet we're worried about a side effect that we can't measure yet, but it's probably real.'' That is hardly confidence-building. He then stated, ''we're never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it. That's just the way it goes.''

This cold-blooded nonchalance is even more astonishing in light of the fact that the incidence of serious side effects in the 5-11 age group who allegedly have tested positive for the corona virus is essentially zero. According to data of the US Government Centers for Disease Control, the Infection Fatality Rate for children from 0-17 years is 0.0002 per 100,000 and far lower for the 5-11 years. A research study by Johns Hopkins University found that risk of severe illness or death from covid19 in a study of 48,000 children is essentially zero if no other morbidity risk such as leukemia, diabetes or asthma is present. Moreover, risk of infecting other children is also very low.

In their submission to FDA for approval, Pfizer stated the vaccination was needed for the 5-11 age group to prevent covid disease transmission. Yet in their FDA hearing on questioning, Dr. William Gruber, senior vice president of Pfizer Vaccine Clinical Research and Development, said they did not even assess whether the vaccine prevents transmission. We might ask why is this at all needed then if the risk to children is zero and there is no evidence of children transmission?

Even more shocking is the statement by Pfizer about its tests. First there were no animal tests on rats or such first. They admitted that the tested human group was so small that they could not test for myocarditis or pericarditis. Yet those are among the most reported negative effects for all others that have had the Pfizer jab. In its FDA application Pfizer noted that the number of participants in the current clinical development program was ''too small to detect any potential risks of myocarditis associated with vaccination,'' and that ''to evaluate long-term sequelae of post-vaccination myocarditis/pericarditis'' in participants 5 to less than 12 years of age will not be studied until after the vaccine is authorized for children.''

Flawed Pfizer Tests

The tests Pfizer made were also fatally flawed. According to Dr. Josh Guetzkow, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Pfizer study was not double-blind. Further, Pfizer cherry-picked subjects to evidently better their results. Three thousand children age 5-11 received Pfizer's COVID vaccine, but only 750 of those children were selectively included in the company's safety analysis. And Pfizer dismissed cases with adverse vaccine effects in their FDA filing: ''Few serious Adverse Events, none of which were related to vaccine, and no AEs leading to withdrawal were reported.'' They give no explanation how that was determined. Just trust Pfizer.

And post-vaccination follow up was less than 2 months for one test cohort and only 2.4 weeks for a second. The Pfizer report to FDA read, ''Supplemental safety expansion group data were analyzed from approximately 1500 vaccine recipients with a median follow-up time of 2.4 weeks after Dose 2. These supplemental data demonstrate an acceptable safety profile'...'' It can take months or longer for side effects to manifest. Vaccine experts recommend at least 18-24 month post-vaccine follow up, not 3 months or 2.4 weeks. This is not serious science.

As well, it seems the FDA and or Pfizer wrongly name the vaccine in the title as ''BNT162B2 [COMIRNATY (COVID-19 VACCINE, MRNA)] .''Yet the actual FDA text calls it ''Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine (BNT162b2).''

The separate company, BioNTech of Mainz, Germany, has a similar but ''legally different'' vaccine, trade-named Comirnaty, that is not available in the USA. The distinction is essential as it was the basis in August for the corrupt FDA to give Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine an extension of Emergency Use Authorization but to misleadingly declare its full approval for Comirnaty vaccine of BioNTech. This is deliberate fraud and allowed the Biden Administration to mandate vaccination of US government workers (curiously except for White House and Congress), military, and any company with more than 100 employees.

Conflicts of Interest?

The corruption of the FDA extends to the members of the Vaccine Advisory Committee. Many of the members of the current 18 person committee have direct ties to Pfizer or to the pro-Pfizer Gates Foundation.

Prof. Holly Janes of the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center in Seattle designed the flawed Pfizer tests. Her institute is funded by Gates Foundation money. FDA committee member Dr. Steven Pergam is also with the Gates-funded Fred Hutch center. Acting committee chair, Arnold S. Monto was a paid consultant to Pfizer. Committee member Archana Chatterjee worked on a Pfizer research project related to vaccines for infants between 2018-2020. Geeta K. Swamy is chair of the ''Independent Data Monitoring Committee for the Pfizer Group B Streptococcus Vaccine Program,'' a committee sponsored by Pfizer. Duke University states that ''Dr. Swamy serves as a co-investigator for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial.'' FDA Committee member Gregg Sylvester was a vice president for Pfizer Vaccines. Ofer Levy, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School is on record vigorously supporting Pfizer covid vaccines for children 12 and older. And FDA committee member Paul Offit professor of pediatrics at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia called openly last June for covid vaccine permission for children.

When we compare the actions of corrupt FDA Acting Director Janet Woodcock during the August FDA extension of emergency use authorization for Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, she refused then to even allow the vaccine committee to meet to debate the issue. Several months before in June 2021 three members of the FDA Vaccine Committee resigned in protest over Woodcock's refusal to heed the near unanimous vote of the advisory committee to approve an Alzheimer's drug called Aduhelm against the wishes of nearly every member on the panel.

Clearly Woodcock has been busy in the meantime stacking the advisory committee with pro-Pfizer members. Not to be forgotten is the fact that after he left as head of the FDA under Trump, Scott Gottlieb immediately joined the board of directors of'...Pfizer Inc. Woodcock served under him at FDA.

Woodcock has been at FDA since 1986, almost as long as Fauci at NIAID. Woodcock was Biden's choice to head FDA, but a massive opposition from 28 groups including state attorneys general and citizen groups forced him to name her ''acting,'' which does not need Congressional scrutiny. Woodcock was directly responsible for the original FDA approval of deadly opioids over the objections of her own scientists and other advisors.

Already California has moved to make public school admission contingent on covid vaccination, anticipating Pfizer approval. This spread of the deadly Pfizer vaccine to children who have near zero risk of serious disease makes no public health sense. It is simply prima facie evidence of medical malfeasance at the highest levels of the US Government including FDA, with plausible criminal intent. The FDA decision will now be used to argue for similar inclusion of essentially no risk children for the vaccine jab.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine''New Eastern Outlook''

Back

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 11:32

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said he expects special counsel John Durham's team to indict more suspects in connection to the origins of the Trump-Russia probe and the discredited Steele dossier.

Last week, a grand jury empaneled by Durham indicted Russia analyst Igor Danchenko, who previously worked for the left-leaning Brookings Institution, for allegedly lying to the FBI. Danchenko had been the main source for the dossier created by former UK spy Christopher Steele that was, in turn, used by the FBI during its inquiry into whether the 2016 campaign of Donald Trump colluded with Russia.

''When I became the director of national intelligence, I said, 'Listen, I want to see all of the intelligence about this supposed Russian collusion,' Ratcliffe said during a Fox Business interview on Sunday. ''What I found was, and as you're finding out, is there was, of course, no Russian collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, but what I did see in intelligence documents, some of which I've now declassified, that there was collusion involving the Clinton campaign and Russians to create a dossier.''

Numerous documents that Ratcliffe said he had provided to Durham are being used in the special counsel's investigation, he told Fox.

Then-Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) questions Intelligence Committee Minority Counsel Stephen Castor and Intelligence Committee Majority Counsel Daniel Goldman during the House impeachment inquiry hearings on Dec. 9, 2019. (Doug Mills/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)''I declassified the documents that we've talked about, but I gave John Durham over 1,000 other documents that have not yet been declassified that I know, including intelligence that goes specifically to this criminal activity that would be the basis for further indictments,'' Ratcliffe continued, adding that he believes Durham's grand jury believes the Steele dossier ''is criminal in nature.''

During the 2016 election, Steele was hired by Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Trump. Fusion GPS was retained by high-powered Washington-based law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of the Democratic National Committee

Numerous claims pushed in the dossier turned out to be false, triggering congressional, inspector general, and criminal investigations as to why it was used as the basis of a FISA court order to conduct surveillance of a then-Trump campaign aide.

Those who were involved in the construction of the dossier, as well as individuals who promoted it ''falsely, would be in jeopardy,'' Ratcliffe claimed. ''I know that that's what John Durham is looking at, and as I talked about, this goes to the highest levels of our government and government agencies involved,'' he added.

''I continue to think there will be many indictments based on the intelligence that I gave to John Durham and that I have seen,'' he continued.

Durham's team also indicted former Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann, alleging he lied when he told former FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 that he was not representing a client when he provided Baker with a now-debunked claim that the Trump Organization was communicating electronically with a Russian bank.

Following his arrest on Nov. 4, a lawyer representing Danchenko attempted to enter a plea of not guilty but a judge said it was premature, according to reports. Danchenko's lawyers haven't responded to a request for comment and have not issued any public statements regarding their client.

Jack Phillips

Breaking News Reporter

Follow

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter at The Epoch Times based in New York.

More articles from this author

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 22:47

Millions of people are seemingly ready and willing to take a pay cut to continue working remotely. Sixty-one percent of American workers; four in 10 Londoners; more than a quarter of office workers in the UK. Breathless media reports on the trend cite a lot of statistics, but few have found any people happily slashing their monthly household budgets. In fact, when you look at the major technology companies actually bringing in these remote pay cuts, many employees are choosing to cut and run.

''I'm job hunting,'' says ''Mike,'' a senior software engineer for Google in the northeastern US, who moved to a new home during the pandemic. (Some names have been changed in this article.) He wants to continue working for the company remotely, but the pay cut he'd have to take to do so is equivalent to losing four years of pay increases. ''Any pay cut is unacceptable, and it's been presented as a 'take it or leave it' proposition,'' he says. ''Google is telling us to vote with our feet if we don't like the situation. I love the work we do, but that's a lousy bargain.''

View more

Mike hasn't decided what he's going to do yet; the Delta variant has delayed Google's return-to-office plans and given him extra time to consider his options. But his colleagues who have applied to stay fully remote are already having their pay reduced, he says, even though the whole company is still working remotely.

''I'm waiting to see if they back down,'' Mike says, explaining that in the past Google has backtracked on pay-related decisions, specifically when it was announced that bonuses would be linked to the success of Google+. ''That was deeply unpopular, and after an uproar among the employees they walked it back,'' he says. In this situation, he concedes, it's harder to predict what will happen.

Laura de Vesine, a former Google engineer, didn't wait to find out. She left Google earlier this year when she was told her pay would be cut by 25 percent. ''There was a discussion about moving our team to North Carolina, and that was originally floated as a 15 percent pay cut,'' she says. At first, she thought that was reasonable, then they announced it would actually be 25. ''The bait and switch was very upsetting,'' she says. ''And once I was angry about it, I started questioning why there was even a 15 percent cut. What is it about my work that is somehow less valuable in a different location?''

That's the biggest complaint from employees facing pay cuts: How is this fair? Remote work can mean living in a lower-cost area, without a commute, but it can also mean higher household bills'--especially if you need high-speed internet in a rural area. A Google spokesperson says the company has always paid employees based on their location, at rates that match the top of the local market. But precedent doesn't do much to soothe the burn its employees feel as they watch their wages drop. ''They're basically saying we are going to get the same value from you, but we think we can talk you into taking less money,'' de Vesine says. And this, many feel, is not fair.

That issue of fairness is what gets people so riled up. If employees think they're getting a rough deal, they won't react well. There's an experiment, conducted by Emory University primatologists Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal. Two capuchin monkeys are completing the same task, for the same reward'--a piece of cucumber. But after a while, one monkey is given a tastier grape instead. The other monkey notices and reaches out for hers, but when she is passed another piece of cucumber, she goes berserk, chucks the cucumber out of the cage, and refuses to continue doing her work.

The same kind of tantrum happens when a toddler is given half a cookie, after seeing their brother get a whole one. And it doesn't matter how old we get, we can't stop our brains from firing when we feel we've suffered an injustice. But instead of throwing a tantrum, we retaliate in other ways.

At work, that can mean quitting. De Vesine isn't the only one to have done so. ''Google continues to assert that it is normal attrition, and I think you can make the numbers tell both stories,'' she says. ''But it seemed to be higher than usual and much more senior-oriented than I had previously seen when I was leaving, and I've seen a continuation of that.''

Even if people don't quit, they can revolt in different ways. ''If you feel like you're being treated poorly by your employer, it's just human nature to not work as hard,'' says Brian Kropp, chief of HR research at consultancy Gartner. There's a mindset shift, he explains, if people feel they're not being paid fairly for their contributions, then why should they contribute more, or even at all? ''Perhaps even worse than leaving,'' he says, ''they quit in place.''

A study by researchers at Columbia University found that employees reduced their output at work by 52 percent when they discovered their coworkers were paid more. They were also 13.5 percentage points less likely to even show up (compared to a base of 94 percent attendance). So even if employees do begrudgingly take pay cuts, they're likely to respond by working half as hard.

The worst part of the fallout is arguably what it says about the companies implementing these pay cuts. Kendra, a technical writer at Google's Seattle campus, has seen firsthand how employee attitudes toward the company have changed. ''I've talked to a number of different people who have just straight up left the company because they don't see the opportunity for growth within our organization,'' she says.

Kendra has decided to return to the office, rather than taking a pay cut equivalent to losing a recent pay bump that's taken her years to get. ''But I also have a manager who is incredibly flexible,'' she says. Her manager has already told her that she won't need to come into the office the full three days a week. But what if that hadn't been an option? ''I think it would have put a deadline on my participation,'' she says. Simply put, she would have quit within a year.

Such policies are only made more stark by other tech companies, such as Reddit and Zillow, going in the opposite direction. In October 2020, Reddit removed its long-standing ''geographic compensation zones,'' positioning itself as the type of forward-thinking organization that Google used to be. Meanwhile, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others, have adjusted their strategies to match up with JP Morgan. ''I've been asked to review several r(C)sum(C)s, and I've had conversations with people, from a career perspective, about where they could move to,'' says Kendra. ''The rest of the industry is changing, and Google isn't keeping up with it.''

More Great WIRED StoriesðŸ'(C) The latest on tech, science, and more: Get our newsletters!Weighing Big Tech's promise to Black AmericaI used Facebook without the algorithm, and you can tooHow to install Android 12'--and get these great featuresGames can show us how to govern the metaverseIf clouds are made of water, how do they stay in the air?👁¸ Explore AI like never before with our new databaseðŸ'>> Upgrade your work game with our Gear team's favorite laptops, keyboards, typing alternatives, and noise-canceling headphonesMillions of people are seemingly ready and willing to take a pay cut to continue working remotely. Sixty-one percent of American workers; four in 10 Londoners; more than a quarter of office workers in the UK. Breathless media reports on the trend cite a lot of statistics, but few have found any people happily slashing their monthly household budgets. In fact, when you look at the major technology companies actually bringing in these remote pay cuts, many employees are choosing to cut and run.

More Great WIRED StoriesðŸ'(C) The latest on tech, science, and more: Get our newsletters!Weighing Big Tech's promise to Black AmericaI used Facebook without the algorithm, and you can tooHow to install Android 12'--and get these great featuresGames can show us how to govern the metaverseIf clouds are made of water, how do they stay in the air?👁¸ Explore AI like never before with our new databaseðŸ'>> Upgrade your work game with our Gear team's favorite laptops, keyboards, typing alternatives, and noise-canceling headphones You have read all of your free articles for this month.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 21:08

Joe Biden or the new Mr Trump? Camilla 'hasn't stopped talking about' hearing the President 'break wind' during chat at Cop26 climate summit in GlasgowPresident Joe Biden met Duchess of Cornwall during reception on MondayThey made polite small talk and Camilla was shocked to hear Biden break wind Reception was hours after Biden appeared to doze off at COP26 opening By Glen Owen Political Editor For The Mail On Sunday

Published: 18:01 EST, 6 November 2021 | Updated: 20:20 EST, 6 November 2021

He is supposed to be committed to reducing emissions '' but when President Joe Biden produced a little natural gas of his own at the COP26 summit, it was audible enough to make the Duchess of Cornwall blush.

An informed source has told The Mail on Sunday that Camilla was taken aback to hear Biden break wind as they made polite small talk at the global climate change gathering in Glasgow last week.

'It was long and loud and impossible to ignore,' the source said. 'Camilla hasn't stopped talking about it.'

The President met the Duchess during a reception on Monday at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, attended by Prince Charles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Boris Johnson.

An informed source has told The Mail on Sunday that Camilla was taken aback to hear President Joe Biden break wind as they made polite small talk at the global climate change gathering in Glasgow last week at Kelvingrove Art Gallery. Pictured: with Camilla and Liz Truss

Just hours earlier, the 78-year-old '' nicknamed 'Sleepy Joe' by Donald Trump '' had appeared to doze off during the opening addresses, prompting more questions from his political rivals over his fitness for office.

This is not the first time that Biden has faced claims that he broke wind. In May 2020, Republicans, including Donald Trump Jr, posted a video clip of Biden containing a suspicious noise while live-streaming an exchange with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf.

However, a separate video which circulated last month '' and was briefly trending on Twitter under #Fartgate '' was found to have been doctored to include fake flatulence.

Trump Sr is considering running in the 2024 Presidential race. After a year in the White House, Biden's approval ratings are at rock bottom, with polls putting his predecessor two percentage points ahead.

Just hours earlier, the 78-year-old '' nicknamed 'Sleepy Joe' by Donald Trump '' had appeared to doze off during the opening addresses (pictured), prompting more questions from his political rivals over his fitness for office

At the reception, which was originally supposed to have been hosted by the Queen until she was ordered to rest by doctors, Biden was seen laughing and joking with Prince William, at one stage placing a hand on his shoulder.

At COP26, Biden apologised for Trump's actions in taking the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord and he pledged that America would devote more resources to fighting climate change. The President was 'gonged' eight times by organisers for running past the three minutes allotted for his speech.

This summer, Johnson praised Biden as being 'a big breath of fresh air' on climate change compared to his predecessor.

Appropriately, Biden has urged world leaders to cut methane gas emissions by 30 per cent by the end of the decade. Cows and other livestock contribute substantially to global methane levels.

The White House declined to comment last night.

At the reception, which was originally supposed to have been hosted by the Queen until she was ordered to rest by doctors, Biden was seen laughing and joking with Prince William, at one stage placing a hand on his shoulder (pictured)

Advertisement

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 21:07

(L-R) Dutch speed skater Kjeld Nuis, Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Craig Jones, NBA point guard Brandon Goodwin, and Belgian cyclist Greg Van Avermaet have all been injured from the Covid-19 vaccines.Florian Dagoury: World's Top Static Breath-Hold Freediver Diagnosed With Myocarditis and Pericarditis From Pfizer Vaccine

Florian Dagoury, the current world's top static breath-hold free diver - he officially held his breath for 10 minutes and 30 seconds - has been diagnosed with myocarditis and pericarditis 40 days after his second dose with the Pfizer vaccine. The free diver shared his adverse reaction on Instagram:

"After my 2nd dose I noticed that my heart rate was way higher than normal and my breath hold capacities went down significantly. During sleep I'm at 65-70bpm instead of 37-45bpm. During the day I'm now always over 100bpm instead of 65bpm, even when I sit down and relax. Once I even reach 177bpm while having dinner with friends !!!! 40days after 2nd jab, I had no progress so I went to see another cardiologist and got diagnosed with Myocarditis, Pericarditis and Trivial Mitral regurgitation! I'm now struggling to reach 8min breath hold, 150m down and I even have a strong urge to breath doing 40m dives. 30% decrease on my diving performance roughly."Craig Jones: 29-Year-Old Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Champion Drops Out of Competition After Vaccine Injury

Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and world champion, Craig Jones, announced on Instagram that he is unable to fight or train after suffering a bad reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine causing his stomach to build up with fluid. Craig Jones was the Polaris 205 lbs World Champion and the Polaris 185 lbs World Champion in 2018 and 2019. He also finished 2nd place at the ADCC World Championship in 2019.

''I'm out guys. One of the unlucky ones that had an adverse reaction to the Covid vaccine. I won't bore you with all my symptoms but ended up carrying a bunch of fluid around my stomach and can't train let alone compete.''Kjeld Nuis: 31-Year-Old 2x Olympic Gold Medalist And World Record Holder Speed Skater Develops Pericarditis After Pfizer

Dutch speed skater, Kjeld Nuis, was diagnosed with pericarditis a week after his first Pfizer vaccination. The two-time Olympic gold medalist posted on his Instagram that he was experiencing severe flu symptoms and chest pressure before being diagnosed by his doctor and cardiologist with an inflamed pericardium.

Mr. Nuis initially reported that he was very sick, but he later posted on his Instagram that he was recovering well fortunately due to his sports doctor and cardiologist's early diagnosis.

''Exactly 2 weeks ago today I was in the hospital with an inflamed pericardium. Fortunately, my sports doctor was there very early and examined me together with the Cardiologist.''Greg Van Avermaet: Former Olympic Road Champion Quits Cycling World Cup Due To Vaccine Side-Effects

The 2016 Olympic gold medalist cyclist, Greg Van Avermaet, has thrown in the towel for the World Championships this year after saying his immune system has been compromised by the coronavirus vaccine he received in June.

''I got my results on Monday night and it's not really good. That is to say: Nothing can be seen from the blood values. Perfect, as always, which is also my great strength. Other data proves that there is something wrong with my immune system. My body is fighting an unknown adversary and that is probably the vaccine. I sleep well, train well and feel good, but I am missing 3% of my top form.''Brandon Goodwin: 26-Year-Old NBA Player Suffers Blood Clots Shortly After Receiving The COVID-19 Vaccine, Possible End Of Career

Former Atlanta Hawks point guard Brandon Goodwin said he developed blood clots after receiving the Covid vaccination which resulted in him missing the end of the 2020-21 NBA season.

In a post on Twitch, Goodwin said: ''Yes, the vaccine ended my season. One thousand percent.'' He also said that he was told: ''not to say anything about it, not to tell anybody.'' Goodwin continued:

''I got sick and I never quite recovered from it. I would always have back pain, I was just super tired in the games. I felt like I couldn't run up and down the court. My back was hurting. My back really started hurting bad. Then, I'm like, 'OK. I need to go to the doctor. That's when I found out I had blood clots. That all happened within the span of a month. I was fine until then. I was fine up until I took the vaccine, I was fine'... Yes, the vaccine ended my season. One thousand percent.''Jeremy Chardy: 34-Year Old Former World No. 25 Tennis Player Ends Season After 'Violent, Near Paralyzing Pain' From Vaccine Injury

Veteran French tennis player, Jeremy Chardy, suspended his season in September after suffering a debilitating reaction to a Covid-19 vaccine.

"Since I had my vaccine (between the Olympics and the US Open), I have had a problem, I've had a series of struggles. Suddenly, I cannot train, I cannot play," said the 34-year-old. The former world number 25 explained that he felt violent pains all over his body as soon as he made any physical effort.

"Now I have been to see two doctors, I have done some tests so I know what I have and the most important thing is to take care of myself. I prefer to take more time to take care of myself and be sure that in the future I will not have any problem rather than trying to get back on the court as quickly as possible and find myself still having health problems."Greg Luyssen: 22-Year-Old Professional Cyclist Forced To End His Career After Heart Problems Due To Vaccine Injury

Belgian cyclist, Greg Luyssen, was forced to end his cycling career after heart problems caused by the Covid-19 vaccine. He became unwell during the Kortemark Race in September before being taken to the hospital and diagnosed with heart failure.

''I felt a huge pressure in my chest and it was so bad that I had to leave the race. I was taken to hospital and diagnosed with heart failure. I already had a fever a number of times for no apparent reason after my second COVID-19 vaccine, but I had never thought about the casual relationship. Further tests have now shown that my heart muscle is affected and that my body reacts poorly to intensive activity... My heart only works for 75% and I feel pressure in my chest every day, which also always leads to severe headaches.''Francesca Marcon: 38-Year-Old Volleyball Player Develops Pericarditis After Her Second Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine

Italian volleyball player, Francesca Marcon, immediately suffered from shortness of breath and chest pains after the Pfizer vaccine. She went to the emergency room the next day where doctors diagnosed her with pericarditis. The volleyball player shared her adverse reaction on Instagram:

''Perhaps this speech of mine may be a bit blasphemous, but I ask myself: is there no form of compensation for those who suffer health damage after getting the vaccine? I state that I am not anti-vax but I have never been convinced of making this vaccine and I have had confirmation. I don't know if you are interested but I have had and still have post-vaccine pericarditis. Who pays the price for all this?''Kyle Warner: Professional Mountain Biker Suffers From Pericarditis After Pfizer Vaccine

Professional mountain biker, Kyle Warner, was diagnosed with pericarditis and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. Kyle shared his vaccine injury on his YouTube channel at the start of October.

''The second thing (besides pericarditis) that I've been dealing with this whole time has been something called POTS (Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). I got that diagnosed the other day at the cardiologist's office, and what was really hard is that he kind of told me that, you know, we're not sure how to treat it. Then when he told me it could be 12-18 months to heal from this. I was just kind of shocked. I came home and broke down crying, mostly out of frustration. Frustration that there's not really a clear path forward. I think that's been the hardest thing with this whole thing.''THE UPDATE:Sen. Ron Johnson Expert Panel on Federal Vaccine Mandates: Roundtable discussion with vaccine injured and medical experts on federal vaccine mandates and the importance of health care freedom. Watch here.

Researcher Blows the Whistle on Data Integrity Issues in Pfizer's Vaccine Trials: The BMJ has just posted a story that calls into question the reliability of the data generated by Pfizer's vaccine trials. It's based on dozens of documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails supplied to the BMJ by a researcher at one of Pfizer's sub-contractors involved in testing the Covid vaccine. Read more.

Podcaster Tim Pool Treats Covid With Rogan 'Kitchen Sink' Multidrug Therapy: Podcaster Tim Pool tested positive for Covid on Friday and 'was hit pretty hard' until a doctor prescribed him a similar treatment to Joe Rogan including; monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, azithromycin, NAD, and vitamins. Within 12-hours of receiving medication, he was better, and now feels 100%. Watch here.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 16:47

Image A giraffe named Buttercup moved closer to Buck Watson, a hunting guide, as he looks on from a vehicle at the Ox Ranch in Uvalde, Tex. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times UVALDE, Tex. '-- On a ranch at the southwestern edge of the Texas Hill Country, a hunting guide spotted her cooling off in the shade: an African reticulated giraffe. Such is the curious state of modern Texas ranching, that a giraffe among the oak and the mesquite is an everyday sort of thing.

''That's Buttercup,'' said the guide, Buck Watson, 54.

In a place of rare creatures, Buttercup is among the rarest; she is off limits to hunters at the Ox Ranch. Not so the African bongo antelope, one of the world's heaviest and most striking spiral-horned antelopes, which roams the same countryside as Buttercup. The price to kill a bongo at the Ox Ranch is $35,000.

Image Water buffaloes walked across a dam at the Ox Ranch. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Himalayan tahrs, wild goats with a bushy lion-style mane, are far cheaper. The trophy fee, or kill fee, to shoot one is $7,500. An Arabian oryx is $9,500; a sitatunga antelope, $12,000; and a black wildebeest, $15,000.

''We don't hunt giraffes,'' Mr. Watson said. ''Buttercup will live out her days here, letting people take pictures of her. She can walk around and graze off the trees as if she was in Africa.''

The Ox Ranch near Uvalde, Tex., is not quite a zoo, and not quite an animal shooting range, but something in between.

Image Mr. Watson points out a Roan on the Ox Ranch. Roan, originally from Africa, never shed their horns, making them attractive trophies for hunters any time of year. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times The ranch's hunting guides and managers walk a thin, controversial line between caring for thousands of rare, threatened and endangered animals and helping to execute them. Some see the ranch as a place for sport and conservation. Some see it as a place for slaughter and hypocrisy.

The Ox Ranch provides a glimpse into the future of the mythic Texas range '-- equal parts exotic game-hunting retreat, upscale outdoor adventure, and breeding and killing ground for exotic species.

Ranchers in the nation's top cattle-raising state have been transforming pasture land into something out of an African safari, largely to lure trophy hunters who pay top-dollar kill fees to hunt exotics. Zebra mares forage here near African impala antelopes, and it is easy to forget that downtown San Antonio is only two hours to the east.

Image A worker replaces a light bulb at the Ox Ranch. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times The ranch has about 30 bongo, the African antelopes with a trophy fee of $35,000. Last fall, a hunter shot one. ''Taking one paid their feed bill for the entire year, for the rest of them,'' said Jason Molitor, the chief executive of the Ox Ranch.

To many animal-protection groups, such management of rare and endangered species '-- breeding some, preventing some from being hunted, while allowing the killing of others '-- is not only repulsive, but puts hunting ranches in a legal and ethical gray area.

''Depending on what facility it is, there's concern when animals are raised solely for profit purposes,'' said Anna Frostic, a senior attorney with the Humane Society of the United States.

Image Mr. Watson inspects an Axis buck shot the day before by an 8-year-old boy. Trophy carcasses are hung in a cooler room before being transported from the ranch. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Hunting advocates disagree and say the breeding and hunting of exotic animals helps ensure species' survival. Exotic-game ranches see themselves not as an enemy of wildlife conservation but as an ally, arguing that they contribute a percentage of their profits to conservation efforts.

''We love the animals, and that's why we hunt them,'' Mr. Molitor said. ''Most hunters in general are more in line with conservation than the public believes that they are.''

Beyond the financial contributions, hunting ranches and their supporters say the blending of commerce and conservation helps save species from extinction.

Image Various bovine species, including Watusi cattle and buffalo, eat from a hay drop at the Ox Ranch. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Wildlife experts said there are more blackbuck antelope in Texas than there are in their native India because of the hunting ranches. In addition, Texas ranchers have in the past sent exotic animals, including scimitar-horned oryx, back to their home countries to build up wild populations there.

''Ranchers can sell these hunts and enjoy the income, while doing good for the species,'' said John M. Tomecek, a wildlife specialist with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Animal-rights activists are outraged by these ranches. They call what goes on there ''canned hunting'' or ''captive hunting.''

Image To ensure a healthy herd, the Ox Ranch introduces fresh blood lines using animals bred on other ranches. April Molitor watches with her father, Jason Molitor, the chief executive of the Ox Ranch, as newly arrived blackbuck antelope are released from a trailer. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times ''Hunting has absolutely nothing to do with conservation,'' said Ashley Byrne, the associate director of campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. ''What they're doing is trying to put a better spin on a business that they know the average person finds despicable.''

A 2007 report from Texas A&M University called the exotic wildlife industry in America a billion-dollar industry.

At the Ox Ranch, it shows. The ranch has luxury log cabins, a runway for private planes and a 6,000-square-foot lodge with stone fireplaces and vaulted ceilings. More animals roam its 18,000 acres than roam the Houston Zoo, on a tract of land bigger than the island of Manhattan. The ranch is named for its owner, Brent C. Oxley, 34, the founder of HostGator.com, a web hosting provider that was sold in 2012 for more than $200 million.

Image Three kangaroos that live in front of the Ox Ranch lodge are mainly for attraction purposes and are not hunted. They greet arriving guests and are often fed corn by the newcomers and by guides. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times ''The owner hopes in a few years that we can break even,'' Mr. Molitor said.

Because the industry is largely unregulated, there is no official census of exotic animals in Texas. But ranchers and wildlife experts said that Texas has more exotics than any other state. A survey by the state Parks and Wildlife Department in 1994 put the exotic population at more than 195,000 animals from 87 species, but the industry has grown explosively since then; one estimate by John T. Baccus, a retired Texas State University biologist, puts the current total at roughly 1.3 million.

Image A hunting blind stands among trees near a game feeder at the Ox Ranch. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times The Ox Ranch needs no local, state or federal permit for most of their exotic animals.

State hunting regulations do not apply to exotics, which can be hunted year-round. The Fish and Wildlife Service allows ranches to hunt and kill certain animals that are federally designated as threatened or endangered species, if the ranches take certain steps, including donating 10 percent of their hunting proceeds to conservation programs. The ranches are issued permits to conduct activities that would otherwise be prohibited under the Endangered Species Act if those activities enhance the survival of the species in the wild. Those federal permits make it legal to hunt Eld's deer and other threatened or endangered species at the Ox Ranch.

Image Mr. Watson petted Buttercup the giraffe. Hunters are not allowed to shoot the ranch's giraffes. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Mr. Molitor said more government oversight was unnecessary and would drive ranchers out of the business. ''I ask people, who do you think is going to manage it better, private organizations or the government?'' Mr. Molitor said.

Lawyers for conservation and animal-protection groups say that allowing endangered animals to be hunted undermines the Endangered Species Act, and that the ranches' financial contributions fail to benefit wildlife conservation.

''We ended up with this sort of pay-to-play idea,'' said Tanya Sanerib, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. ''It is absolutely absurd that you can go to a canned-hunt facility and kill an endangered or threatened species.''

Image Wildebeest run free on the Ox Ranch's rangeland. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times The creatures are not the only things at the ranch that are exotic. The tanks are, too.

The ranch offers its guests the opportunity to drive and shoot World War II-era tanks. People fire at bullet-ridden cars from atop an American M4 Sherman tank at a shooting range built to resemble a Nazi-occupied French town.

''We knew the gun people would come out,'' said Todd DeGidio, the chief executive of DriveTanks.com, which runs the tank operation. ''What surprised us was the demographic of people who've never shot guns before.''

Image A World War II-era M4 Sherman tank. The ranch also has a shooting range built to resemble a Nazi-occupied French town. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Late one evening, two hunters, Joan Schaan and her 15-year-old son, Daniel, rushed to get ready for a nighttime hunt, adjusting the SWAT-style night-vision goggles on their heads.

Ms. Schaan is the executive director of a private foundation in Houston. Daniel is a sophomore at St. John's School, a prestigious private school. They were there not for the exotics, but basically for the pests: feral hogs, which cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage annually in Texas.

''We are here because we both like to hunt, and we like hunting hogs,'' Ms. Schaan said. ''And we love the meat and the sausage from the hogs we harvest.''

Image Joan Schaan takes a photo of her son Daniel Schaan, 15, as he prepares for a night boar hunt. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Pursuing the hogs, Ms. Schaan and her son go off-roading through the brush in near-total darkness, with a hunting guide behind the wheel. Aided by their night-vision goggles, they passed by the giraffes before rattling up and down the hilly terrain.

Daniel fired at hogs from the passenger seat with a SIG Sauer 516 rifle, his spent shell casings flying into the back seat. Their guide, Larry Hromadka, told Daniel when he could and could not take a shot.

No one is allowed to hunt at the ranch without a guide. The guides make sure no one shoots an exotic animal accidentally with a stray bullet, and that no one takes aim at an off-limits creature.

One of the hogs Daniel shot twitched and appeared to still be alive, until Mr. Hromadka approached with his light and his gun.

Image Larry Hromadka, a hunting guide, fires his pistol to end the suffering of a feral hog shot and wounded during a night boar hunt. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Hundreds of animals shot at the ranch have ended up in the cluttered workrooms and showrooms at Graves Taxidermy in Uvalde.

Part of the allure of exotic game-hunting is the so-called trophy at the end '-- the mounted and lifelike head of the animal that the hunter put down. The Ox Ranch is Graves Taxidermy's biggest customer.

''My main business, of course, is white-tailed deer, but the exotics have kind of taken over,'' said Browder Graves, the owner.

Image Many trophy carcasses from the Ox Ranch are taken to Graves Taxidermy in Uvalde for mounting. Meg Rowland, a newly hired assistant, works on a customer order in the workshop. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times He said the animal mounts he makes for people were not so much a trophy on a wall as a symbol of the hunter's memories of the entire experience. He has a mount of a Himalayan tahr he shot in New Zealand that he said he cannot look at without thinking of the time he spent with his son hunting up in the mountains.

''It's God's creature,'' he said. ''I'm trying to make it look as good as it can.''

Image White stags and white elk graze on the ranch at sunset. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times Small herds passed by the Jeep being driven by Mr. Watson, the hunting guide. There were white elk and eland, impala and Arabian oryx.

Then the tour came to an unexpected stop. An Asiatic water buffalo blocked the road, unimpressed by the Jeep. The animal was caked with dried mud, an aging male that lived away from the herd.

''The Africans call them dugaboys,'' Mr. Watson said. ''They're old lone bulls. They're so big that they don't care.''

The buffalo took his time moving. For a moment, at least, he had all the power.

Image An ostrich and grazing fallow deer are illuminated by the headlights of a ranch vehicle. Credit... Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 14:41

With inventory low and demand high, firms like Hershey's and Kimberly-Clark cut back on ad spending

The global supply-chain crisis is spreading to Madison Avenue.

Many companies have been struggling for months to get products to consumers, as they face shortages in everything from raw materials to labor to cargo containers, among other problems. Some are questioning whether it makes sense to promote products they can't adequately stock.

''It's...

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

The global supply-chain crisis is spreading to Madison Avenue.

Many companies have been struggling for months to get products to consumers, as they face shortages in everything from raw materials to labor to cargo containers, among other problems. Some are questioning whether it makes sense to promote products they can't adequately stock.

''It's not wise to drive demand when shelves are bare,'' said Susan Cantor, chief executive officer of branding firm Sterling Brands.

Chocolate giant Hershey Co. and household-goods manufacturers Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Church & Dwight Co. in recent days said they cut back on ad and marketing spending in the third quarter because of supply-chain issues.

''The supply-chain challenges just wouldn't enable us to be able to meet further demand that we would create through our very impactful advertising,'' Hershey Co. Chief Executive Michele Buck said on an investor call. ''It just didn't make sense.''

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

Kimberly-Clark Chief Financial Officer Maria Henry said her company, which makes Kleenex facial tissues and Huggies diapers, had more demand than it could meet at the moment. ''We have challenges getting the product to our customers,'' she said on an investor call.

Church & Dwight, the consumer-product company behind the Arm & Hammer and OxiClean brands, said Friday that it pulled back on third-quarter marketing for products most affected by the shortages, especially household products. The New Jersey-based company said it expects supply-availability issues to begin to abate in the first half of 2022 for most of its brands.

Two of the largest players in online advertising, Facebook Inc. and Snap Inc., said recently that they expected a slowdown in revenue growth in the fourth quarter, due in part to macroeconomic factors such as supply-chain bottlenecks and labor shortages. Both companies said their advertising business's performance was also hurt by Apple Inc.'s new privacy rules, which make it harder for advertisers to target their ads at audiences.

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

The retreat comes as the ad market has been booming, thanks in part to strong consumer confidence and the end to some restrictions intended to slow down the spread of Covid-19. The fourth quarter of the year is typically the most lucrative for media entities as brands and retailers rely heavily on the critical holiday shopping season.

Jason Wagenheim, president and chief revenue officer at Bustle Digital Group, which owns publications Gawker, Nylon and W Magazine, said his company is seeing ''temporary but significant advertising pauses'' from many clients because of severe product shortages across many sectors including cars, diapers, toys, food and consumer electronics.

''I think large media organizations are going to see short term significant impacts in these categories until the supply-chain issues right themselves, which should be early in 2022,'' Mr. Wagenheim said in an email.

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

Some digital publishers are planning for ad spending to shrink by at least 5% in the fourth quarter compared with their previous projections, according to media executives.

Not all platforms are expected to be affected equally by the ad pullback. Digital ad sellers often can be the first to see an advertising retreat because online ads are easier to cancel. Those ads are often bought in real-time or closer to their run date and are unlike TV ads, which are often sold well in advance of when they air.

Still, some TV networks are also seeing some softness in spending from several ad categories including auto manufacturers, according to ad buyers and TV network executives. Some fast-food chains also aren't spending as much as expected because of the labor shortage, a TV executive said.

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said his company had seen advertising pullbacks from car makers and telecommunications companies.

''It's a supply issue, not a demand issue,'' Mr. Murdoch said at a conference in September. ''So we expect those clients and those partners to come back strongly once they have the supply of their cars to be able to sell.''

Advertisement - Scroll to Continue

Fox and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

The auto sector has been particularly hampered by the global chip shortage. This has caused manufacturers to cut production, resulting in car shortages at dealerships in the U.S.

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. this week reported steep drops in third-quarter profit. They said supply-chain disruptions should slowly improve in the fourth quarter and throughout next year, although strong car demand will make it difficult to restock dealership lots. Neither company mentioned cutting back on advertising while discussing their results. In an email, GM's chief marketing officer said the company planned to have ''a hearty media presence'' in the fourth quarter. Ford didn't respond to a request for comment.

Advertisers tend to be reluctant to cut marketing expenditures too deeply. Many believe it is important to remain top of mind with customers and fear that deep cuts to advertising can allow rivals to be more visible, which can lead to the loss of market share.

Consumer-product giant Procter & Gamble , one of the largest advertisers in the world, said it would continue to invest in marketing despite the supply-chain crisis, which has led to escalating costs. ''We continue to drive marketing spend,'' said Andre Schulten, P&G's chief financial officer, during a recent call with investors.

Ad-holding companies, which work on behalf of big advertisers, appear largely unaffected so far by the supply-chain bottlenecks.

''To date, we haven't seen any impact from supply-chain disruption in our numbers,'' said Mark Read, CEO of WPP PLC, the world's largest ad-holding company by revenue, on a call with analysts on Thursday. Still, Mr. Read said his company had seen a ''little bit of weakness'' in automotive during the third quarter because of the semiconductor shortages.

WPP expects U.S. ad spending to surge 22% to $276 billion this year, according to a prediction made in June by WPP's ad buying firm GroupM, and has no plans to downgrade its estimates.

''The factors which have driven the U.S. advertising market up so much, so fast, aren't showing signs of abating, despite the issues with supply chains and Apple's operating system,'' said Brian Wieser, global president of business intelligence at GroupM.

Write to Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com and Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 13:41

Joe Rogan, the world's most successful podcaster and comedian, may have accepted a Bitcoin payment of $100,000. The podcast host and MMA commentator has talked about Bitcoin in the past on his show, and has even hosted conversations with notable Bitcoiners, but accepting Bitcoin as payment marks a definitive switch in stance on his part.During the Joe Rogan Experience episode #1728, about 56 minutes and 30 seconds in, frequent guest and comedian Ari Shaffir boasted to fellow comics Mark Normand and Shane Gillis on behalf of their friend, ''Joe got a deal for over $100,000 dollars,'' Shaffir said.

''It's not American money,'' Joe deflected, brushing off his fellow comics' antics. ''It's all in Bitcoin.''

If this encounter is any indication of Rogan's stance on Bitcoin, and if it is in fact true that he was paid over 1.5 BTC by today's prices, the occasion marks a shift in his understanding of the world's most sound store of value.In the past, Rogan has dismissed Bitcoin on his show as a ''ponzi scheme,'' which is an opinion many form when hearing about the success of Bitcoin's early adopters, prior to doing their homework on the composition of the leaderless, ungovernable asset.

However, one of the more captivating and humanizing traits of the internet legend is that Rogan frequently revises his opinions on topics throughout the episodes when presented with good information.

In a February 2019 episode with Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who is an extremely active promoter of Bitcoin, Joe commented, ''One of the things that's kind of cool about the Cash App is that you can buy and sell Bitcoin with it.''Rogan went on to ask whether Dorsey would allow other crypto currencies outside of Bitcoin to be bought and sold on the platform. Dorsey then explained to Rogan how Bitcoin will become the native currency of the internet, the trials that have strengthened it, and what is likely to propel Bitcoin to becoming a global store of value and reserve asset.

During that episode with Dorsey, Rogan for perhaps the first time since hosting early episodes with OG Bitcoin advocate and educator Andreas Antonopoulos, talked about Bitcoin seriously as a disruptive technology. ''This is another step towards a new way of doing things,'' he remarked at the time. In the past he has cited popular Bitcoin educators such as Max Keiser on the show, at times displaying something more than a surface-level interest.

Joe Rogan's acceptance of Bitcoin on any scale will be celebrated by people who have Bitcoin by sheer virtue of his reach, which is in some ways unquantifiable. It is estimated his podcast reaches over 11 million people per show. Over the years he has brought considerable influence and unprecedented attention to the arts of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai, Boxing, MMA, elk hunting, archery, biohacking, comedy, health and fitness, self improvement, clean eating, and podcasting in general.

One can only hope Rogan will continue to research Bitcoin, come to understand the fundamental differences between it and the other crypto securities, and share his Bitcoin journey with the world.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 13:40

October 28, 2021 03:15 PM

J oseph Messina woke up one February morning to find an anti-white racial slur spray-painted on his house in South Philadelphia. It also included threats and the word ''die.'' It is believed the incident stemmed from bullying incidents at the 12-year-old's school. This is an example of a phenomenon that has had a significant increase recently but does not get widespread media scrutiny: hate crimes with an anti-white bias. Earlier this week, the FBI released its hate crime report for 2020, and it showed a nearly 41% increase in hate crimes with an anti-white bias from 2019. Good luck finding any media outlet reporting this.

''To write the word 'die,' that's really ... taking it far. It wasn't just a racial comment. It was 'die,''' Messina said.

A slur and a threat to a child's life would be national news if the aggressor were white and the victim black. But this incident received no attention. Something as significant as a year-over-year 41% increase in hate crimes against a racial group would draw national outrage had the victims been any race other than white. But it would be a little bit tricky for the media to explain how their own promotion of racial resentment is generating hate.

2019 hate crime stats

According to the data in the FBI Crime Data Explorer, in 2019, there were 761 total incidents of hate crimes with an anti-white bias. In 2020, this number jumped to 1,072. Additionally, this included a 22% increase in ''simple assaults'' with an anti-white bias. It also included a 34% increase in ''aggravated assaults'' with an anti-white bias. The offense with the biggest increase was ''intimidation'' with an anti-white bias, which saw a 54% increase between 2019 and 2020.

hate crime stats 2020

Most media reports announced that the FBI hate crime report revealed a dramatic increase in overall hate crimes from 2019 to 2020. And when detailing this, most of the attention was given to the increase in hate crimes against black people and Asian Americans. These are all true and equally horrifying and deserve attention. But so should the crimes with an anti-white bias.

As a country, we should be striving to have the total amount of hate crimes be zero. Any crime committed against anyone because of their race is unquestionably disgusting and horrific and should not be tolerated. However, the entire story should be told, not just the hate crimes that fit the agenda of liberals and Democrats. Any media scrutiny on the FBI's hate crime report must include the statistics showing the 41% increase in anti-white hate crimes.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:49

Laurence Fox 'šª¸ : I went to Australia once. It was beautiful. The people I met were charming, easy going and liberal minded. What the'... https://t.co/vaWYZEFXEw

Thu Nov 11 10:24:30 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:20

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:40

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:35

A Florida second grader who has been suspended 38 times for refusing to wear a mask to school confronted her local school board '-- and asserted that they should be in jail.Fiona Lashells, who just turned 8 years old, told the Tampa Bay school board in no uncertain terms how she felt about their rules.

She is ''on a mission to take back, not only her rights but every American child's constitutional rights from the tyrant school board,'' her mother, Bailey Lashells, told The Free Press.

Fiona isn't taking the suspensions lying down either, she has now spoke at her school board meetings twice '-- directly confronting those who are ruining her education.

TRENDING: MUST WATCH: 2nd Grader Suspended 38 Times for Not Wearing Masks Tells School Board That She Hopes They Go to Jail

School board speech by Florida 2nd grader who was suspended 36 times for not wearing a mask:Legend 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/SjEAhuQuP8

'-- Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) November 10, 2021

Speaking at a school board meeting for the second time, the brave elementary school student said that she believes masks are dirty and pointless.

Fiona asserted, ''ok yeah, I hope you all go to jail for doing this to me,'' to huge applause from the crowd. She added that her family is very proud of her and that the rules ''suck.''

''I'm doing it for other kids and not just myself,'' Fiona told Fox 8.

Fiona's mother says that her daughter has now been told that she will fail the second grade, despite completing all of her assignments.

''Fiona is a strong-minded and fearless young girl who was ready to conquer the world at 7,'' she told the newspaper. ''Unfortunately, the blows just seem to not stop as she was recently told after completing every assignment her teacher will provide that she is not only failing 2nd grade but that there is no way she could catch up, per her teacher.''

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:30

For the first time in months, coronavirus testing returned to Dodger Stadium Monday amid an increase in demand.

The testing site, run by Curative, offers nasal PCR drive-thru testing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.

''The Curative testing site is relaunching due to increase demand in testing coupled with an increase in positivity across the state of California,'' Curative spokesman Pasquale Gianni said.

When it first opened, the coronavirus testing site at Dodger Stadium was the largest in the country, testing thousands of residents for free each day.

More than 1 million Angelenos were tested for coronavirus at the stadium after the testing site opened in May 2020. Images of long lines of drivers waiting for swabs at the iconic L.A. landmark became synonymous with the beginning of the pandemic in the city.

After COVID-19 vaccines became available, it transitioned into a mass vaccination site in January before closing in May amid a slowdown in the number of people wanting to get the shots.

Now, the stadium has the capacity to provide about 500 tests per day as of Wednesday, according to Curative.

''It has the capacity to be the largest testing site once more, but we're keeping an eye on demand and positivity as we scale up,'' Gianni said.

The recent increased demand for testing can be at least partly attributed to new mandates that require unvaccinated residents to undergo coronavirus testing for large events, and even some workplaces and educational settings.

But the county is also beginning to see signs of a possible uptick in coronavirus transmission, L.A. County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a media briefing last Thursday.

''We're seeing a plateau across all of our metrics with signs of a possible uptick in transmission over the more recent days,'' Ferrer said.

State officials on Monday also warned that colder weather, mingling over the holidays and the waning of vaccine immunity puts Californians at risk of seeing another possible winter surge.

Last year's winter surge overwhelmed hospitals and filled up L.A. County's morgues.

In some parts of the state, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are beginning to rise, signaling the need for Californians to get their booster shots and for young children to get vaccinated, state officials said.

''With cases ticking up in most parts of the state, we cannot let our guard down and we cannot underestimate this deadly virus,'' said California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Toms J. Arag"n.

''While we have a nation-leading vaccination effort, children ages 5-11 years have just become eligible, and last year at this time our COVID-19 cases increased at a dangerous rate, so we can't underscore enough the importance to vaccinate and boost to protect yourself, your family and all of our communities against this virus,'' he added.

For months, unvaccinated people have accounted for the most cases and hospitalizations in both L.A. County and throughout the state.

''Hospitalization rates remain flat amongst vaccinated people, but they're now ticking up amongst those who are not yet vaccinated,'' Ferrer said. ''The differences between these groups remain stark.''

Unvaccinated people have been seven times more likely to get infected, and 27 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than vaccinated people in L.A. County, according to the health director.

Statewide, unvaccinated people were 18.2 times more likely to die from COVID-19, according to October data from the California Department of Public Health.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 12:26

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 20:36

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:32

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:26

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:22

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 13:18

Link to Article

Archived Version

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 11:23

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 22:27

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 17:08

COVID cases spike across European countries

COVID cases spike across European countries 02:39 London '-- The coronavirus has been resurging across Europe, including in some places where it was thought to be well under control. A top world health official tells CBS News the trend shows that success today does not necessarily mean success tomorrow, and the United States should pay close attention.

Europe has seen a jump of more than 50% in new coronavirus cases over the last month, and the World Health Organization has warned the continent could see another half of a million deaths by February. CBS News senior foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata spoke with the top official ringing those alarm bells, who told him there's "grave concern" as Europe is once again under siege by COVID-19.

U.S. lifts most COVID-linked bans on travellers from abroad "If you look at the last four weeks, the hospitalizations have doubled," Dr. Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's Regional Director for Europe, told CBS News.

He said vaccination uptake has plateaued in some parts of Europe and, "at the same time, there's a relaxation of the public health and social measures, which is a cocktail for what we see: a fourth wave."

Russia COVID surge at record high 02:06 Kluge called Europe "the epicenter" of a new global COVID-19 outbreak, fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus.

While case rates are up across the continent, European countries with higher vaccination uptake appear to be staving off a major new wave of severe COVID-19 illness, but in some Eastern European nations, the daily mortality rate is surging.

Portugal has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, for instance, whereas Romania has one of the lowest in Europe '-- and one the highest death rates on the globe.

Patients breathe through oxygen masks in the COVID-19 section of the University Clinical Center hospital in Banja Luka, Bosnia, Nov. 4, 2021. Bosnia's vaccination rate stands at around 20% of the population of 3.2 million - among the lowest in Europe. AP On Monday, Germany's daily infection rate hit its highest recorded level since the pandemic began.

"Vaccines are a game changer," said Kluge. But alone, they are "not enough."

"We need to keep pressure on the virus, not surrendering on masks, the hand-washing, indoor ventilation '-- particularly in the schools," he told D'Agata.

Gottlieb predicts "broad immunity" among U.S. kids In the U.K., the virus' spread in schools '-- where face masking and most other anti-virus mandates were dropped from the beginning of this academic year '-- is being blamed for rising case numbers. The rise, while not mirrored in hospitalizations or deaths, is stoking fear that another lockdown could be looming this winter.

"I think they can see it coming. But it's that fine line between letting people go about their daily lives and also trying to keep people safe," said Toni Watkins as she shopped on London's Oxford Street, acknowledging the difficult calculous the British government and others across Europe are facing.

Home testing part of everyday life in U.K. 03:29 Kluge told CBS News that Americans should "absolutely" be paying close attention to the situation in Europe right now '-- and taking lessons from it.

"The basic principle is, if there is a situation where the peak is accelerating, don't wait" to bring back anti-virus measures, and "the earlier, the stricter, the better."

D'Agata asked Kluge what that could mean for the fast-approaching Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. He said people should celebrate, but safely '-- trying to keep numbers down when different households mix, and he stressed the need to "vaccinate and ventilate."

More Download our Free AppFor Breaking News & Analysis Download the Free CBS News app

Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.

Create your free account or log in for more features.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:44

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:40

MAGA MICHELLE GO TO HELL BIDEN! : We saw this coming!!! https://t.co/KjgzV6DkcQ

Mon Nov 08 20:31:40 +0000 2021

Happy Trader : @PrimaryALLRINO ðŸCALI GOV NEWSOM Has not been seen in public since on 10/27/ after getting A mix and Match Jonson +'... https://t.co/fG9HpQS93A

Tue Nov 09 16:03:12 +0000 2021

Deplorably Proud Ric : @PrimaryALLRINO https://t.co/qkggHJT0rj

Tue Nov 09 14:58:50 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:17

Rasta Redpill : Travis Scott's former manager speaks out: ''Travis Scott is the worst person I worked with in my entire career.'' https://t.co/py64uQA6HG

Tue Nov 09 09:38:35 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 13:30

The Texas Department of State Health services reviewed millions of records to match vaccination status, testing and death information from 2021

FORT WORTH, Texas '-- Editor's note: The video above is from a previous segment.

Unvaccinated Texans died from COVID-19 at 40 times the rate of vaccinated Texans and were 45 times more likely to test positive for the disease in 2021, according to a new study from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

DSHS reviewed vaccination, death and tests records from Jan. 15 to Oct. 1 to come up with the figures.

''We have millions and millions of records that we had to go through for this analysis,'' said Dr. Jennifer Shuford, DSHS's chief epidemiologist.

According to the review, 7.7% of deaths and 3% of positive cases in the January - October time frame were in fully-vaccinated Texans.

''We know that there's all these bad outcomes for actually getting COVID-19, but the complications from the vaccine are very few and impact very few people,'' Shuford said. ''What we hope is that people across Texas will understand the threat of COVID-19.''

Vaccination rates have been lowest in those who are the youngest, but the younger Texans have seen the biggest benefits from being vaccinated.

There were 339 unvaccinated deaths in Texans 18-29 years old and less than 5 full vaccinated deaths in that age group, making unvaccinated Texans in that age group 99 times more likely to die from the disease.

Kids 12-17 who were unvaccinated tested positive at 65 times the rate of fully vaccinated kids during the January to October study timeframe.

''The protection that we're seeing looks stronger even in in the young adults than it does in the older individuals,'' Shuford said. ''Even young people benefit from these vaccines when it comes to risk of death that they might be benefiting to a larger degree than older populations.''

DSHS estimates 20-25% of Texans don't have any immunity from COVID-19, and while trends are improving, there's concern about another spike and stress on healthcare systems in the midst of flu season.

''Our trends are moving in the right direction, but what we've also noticed is our cases aren't as low as they were right before this big surge,'' Shuford said. ''We will continue to see COVID-19 circulate and even potentially surges in that disease activity until we can get more people, hopefully vaccinated.''

Vaccination is also beneficial even for those who have already had COVID-19. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people with a prior COVID-19 infection were 5.49 times more likely to end up hospitalized with a reinfection that those who were fully vaccinated but had no prior infection.

A total of 80.6% of American adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Texas lags slightly behind that average at 76% of adults, according to CDC data.

''We're just not giving up and we know the benefits of these vaccines and how they can improve people's health,'' Shuford said.

There are nearly 20,000 Texans a day deciding to start their COVID-19 vaccination effort, but the state is trying to increase that number. Shuford said while the new study will hopefully convince some to get vaccinated, she recommends anyone on the fence or holding out speak to their doctor to discuss the possible benefits.

''You know that your health care provider has a vested interest in your health and your wellbeing and nodes you and your health conditions and can give you the best advice possible,'' Shuford said.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 04:16

by: Russell Falcon, KXAN Staff

Posted:

Nov 8, 2021 / 09:58 PM CST / Updated:

Nov 8, 2021 / 10:11 PM CSTAUSTIN (KXAN) '-- Police are investigating two different shootings on South Congress Avenue in south Austin on Monday night.

One person was shot and killed in the 7200 block, just south of William Cannon Drive. Austin Police Department says the death is being investigated as a homicide.

Meanwhile, a mile and a half north, near South Congress Avenue and Stassney Lane, APD says two other people were shot. They were taken to the hospital and are expected to survive.

This is a developing story.

Austin-Travis CountyMore StoriesAustin teen robotics team hopes fundraiser can help after robberyAUSTIN (KXAN) '-- A high school robotics team was robbed: $10,000 worth of power tools, laptops and electronics stolen from The Howdy Bots.

The group is the only community robotics teams in Austin for students between ages 13 and 18.

Read the Full Article

Video You can now buy a Texas Gov. Greg Abbott bobbleheadMILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (KXAN) '-- On Friday, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled the first bobblehead of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. He now joins the 14 other U.S. governors offered by the organization.

Standing at around 7" tall, the bobblehead features Abbott wearing a blue suit and red striped tie, sitting in his wheelchair behind a desk as he makes an announcement during a press briefing.

Read the Full Article

Flurry of lawsuits against Travis Scott expected '-- the rapper has a history of chaotic showsHOUSTON (Nexstar) '-- Edgar Acosta says his 21-year-old son, Axel Acosta, loved rap music and went to Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival on Friday to enjoy himself. Instead, his family is now grieving a life cut short.

"I lost my son. It could've been you," Acosta said. "He was a great kid, excellent student...he was trying to study and going to school to be an engineer or computer programmer."

Read the Full Article

Video Top StoriesMore Stories Tracking the CoronavirusCurrent63° Clear

Tonight57° Partly Cloudy Precip: 0%

Tomorrow78° Limited sunshine Precip: 0%

Latest Central Texas COVID-19 CasesTrending StoriesDon't Miss

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 02:59

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 21:39

The Hill : Transportation @SecretaryPete: " If an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly Black and Puerto R'... https://t.co/QySnZAiY1A

Mon Nov 08 19:36:26 +0000 2021

Everyone's Favorite... : @thehill @SecretaryPete You are completely out of your depth...

Mon Nov 08 21:38:47 +0000 2021

Robert Miller : @thehill @SecretaryPete That doesnt the originally idea

Mon Nov 08 21:38:45 +0000 2021

Democracy 4 All ðŸ·ðŸ'› : @thehill @SecretaryPete https://t.co/EWMqrLpVpg

Mon Nov 08 21:38:43 +0000 2021

things with shapes : @thehill @SecretaryPete When in doubt, always play the race card.

Mon Nov 08 21:38:42 +0000 2021

Eric Chevlen : @thehill @SecretaryPete ''obviously'' ðŸ

Mon Nov 08 21:38:32 +0000 2021

ð''‘ð''®ð''· 'š'¸'¸ : @thehill @SecretaryPete This is one weird ass timeline

Mon Nov 08 21:38:28 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 17:08

Facebook recently changed its name to "Meta" to align the company with its ambitions to build the "metaverse." Microsoft and Nvidia are also working on their own versions of the metaverse. The metaverse is not yet a reality, but it could be the next evolution of the internet. The idea is that "extended reality" '' the combination of augmented, virtual and mixed reality '' will become a key medium for social and business engagement. If you're interested in technology, you've probably heard the buzzword of the moment '' "metaverse." The hype around this term may have reached its zenith Thursday, when Facebook announced that it was renaming its portfolio of companies 'Meta' to align its businesses with its ambition to build the metaverse.

What is the metaverse?The metaverse doesn't exist - at least not yet. As of today, there isn't anything that could legitimately be identified as a metaverse. A useful parallel for understanding its maturity '' with a hat-tip to technology analyst Benedict Evans for the reference '' may be the story of when telecoms entrepreneur Craig McCaw first heard about the internet.

Reputedly, it was Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs who described the implications that a globally distributed network of interconnected computers could have on communications, commerce and information. When Jobs had finished, McCaw's reaction was: ''Let's buy it!''

Just as you can't invest in the internet, so, too, can you not identify the metaverse as a unique product, technology or service. A better question might be: what could become the metaverse?

Metaverse as the next major computing platformTechnologists would answer that the internet will eventually evolve into the metaverse, which will come to represent the next major computing platform. If the concept can be actualized, it is expected to be as transformative to society and industry as the mobile phone.

The internet today is often the main entry point for millions of us to access information and services, communicate and socialize with each other, sell goods, and entertain ourselves. The metaverse is predicted to replicate this value proposition - with the main difference being that distinction between being offline and online will be much harder to delineate.

This could manifest itself in several ways, but many experts believe that "extended reality" (XR) '' the combination of augmented, virtual and mixed reality '' will play an important role. Central to the concept of the metaverse is the idea that virtual, 3D environments that are accessible and interactive in real time will become the transformative medium for social and business engagement. If they are to become practical, these environments will be dependent on widespread adoption of extended reality.

Until now, XR technologies have mostly been limited to a subset of video games and niche enterprise applications. However, as games increasingly become platforms for social experiences, the likelihood increases that their characteristics '' discoverable and continuous virtual worlds, mediums for open and creative expression, and conduits for pop culture '' can and will be applied to other contexts.

Linking digital assets to real-world economic activity in the metaverseThe metaverse is also expected to have a strong connection with the real-world economy '' and eventually become an extension of it. In other words, the metaverse must have the ability for companies and individuals to participate in economic activity in the same way they do today. Simply put, this means being able to build, trade and invest in products, goods and services.

To a certain extent, this may rely on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as the foundation for value creation. A NFT is a claim of ownership for a unique, non-interchangeable digital asset that is stored on a blockchain. If NFTs become a commonly adopted tool for trading such goods, they could help accelerate the use of XR ecosystems as places people go to combine elements of the digital economy with their offline lives.

One way to think of this process is how the App Store encouraged businesses to digitize their operations, so that consumers could experience (and pay for) their products and services from any location. This legitimized the idea that retail and digital need not be separate, paving the way for a whole host of use cases that might not initially have made sense.

For example, it is plausible that Peloton, a company producing exercise equipment and video-streamed fitness classes, would not exist without the App Store. Without a widely adopted medium for digital consumer experiences, a service literally grounded in physical activity would have a weak business case for going online.

A successful vision of the metaverse sees transformations like these taking place at an accelerated pace and universal scale.

Characteristics and challenges of the metaverseIf all this explains the foundations of the metaverse, it unfortunately cannot predict exactly what it will look like. Indeed, we're still in the conceptual stage of the metaverse.

However, investor Matthew Ball identifies seven core attributes which may help curious minds imagine how it could take shape. These include its persistence (no obvious 'on' or 'off' to access), synchronicity (existing in real-time) and interoperability, as well being populated by content and experiences by both individuals and businesses.

There are of course questions about what the metaverse will mean for privacy, whether it will be inclusive, and how to mitigate harmful content and environments that could be created. Because the metaverse is in the early phases of development, there is an opportunity now to build in these attributes by design.

The idea of the metaverse may sound promising, which is why many of the world's leading technology companies are investing in its development. If it can come to fruition, it is conceivable that it will transform consumer and enterprise behavior.

Written by

Stefan Hall, Project Lead, Media, Entertainment and Sport, World Economic Forum Geneva

Cathy Li, Head of Media, Entertainment and Sport Industries, World Economic Forum

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Subscribe for updatesA weekly update of what's on the Global Agenda

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:59

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:54

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:49

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:34

Rasta Redpill : Kid Who Almost DIED At The AstroWorld Festival Says The Travis Scott Concert Was DEMONIC! https://t.co/LT2fnVqAjm

Sun Nov 07 23:11:09 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 16:26

Rasta Redpill : Young festival-goer describes her experience at the demonic Travis Scott concert in AstroWorld ''It was so DEMONIC'... https://t.co/nI9YaRfQJX

Mon Nov 08 08:30:45 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 15:56

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 14:33

Elderly and vulnerable people who are double vaccinated against Covid-19 have started dying of the virus due to the jab's waning efficacy, a chief medical advisor has said.

Dr Susan Hopkins at the UK Health Security Agency said while the coronavirus booster rollout was going well she wanted to urge more people to come forward to get their top-up jabs.

The scientist's comment come as the chief executive of NHS Providers warned that health trusts in England are already at peak winter levels for bed occupancy.

It also comes as health secretary Sajid Javid urged the elderly and vulnerable to get their booster jabs as part of a 'national mission' to help avoid a return to coronavirus restrictions over Christmas.

Last week reports said Number 10 was concerned about hospital admissions and deaths among double-vaccinated people rising due to waning immunity.

Health chiefs have warned for months that the vaccine's effects wane after five or six months after the second dose, which prompted the Government to launch a booster campaign in the autumn.

Speaking about the mortality rates relating to Covid-19 on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Dr Hopkins said: 'The people who are dying are the same people who have died all the way through.

Dr Susan Hopkins at the UK Health Security Agency said while the coronavirus booster rollout was going well she wanted to urge more people to come forward

The scientist said more than 60 per cent of the population that are being offered boosters are taking it up

'It is particularly the older age groups, so the over-70s in particular, but also those who are clinically vulnerable, extremely vulnerable, and have underlying medical conditions.'

She added: 'As we've mentioned, the immune effects wane and what we see is, especially in the older or the vulnerable groups, those are the people whose immunity will wane the most.

'So, if you're a healthy 30-year-old, then two doses will protect you for a longer period. That's why those people need to come forward for their third dose as soon as possible.'

The scientist said there are deaths in the elderly population due to around five per cent of those remaining unvaccinated.

She added: 'We're still seeing deaths in mainly the unvaccinated population ... but increasingly, because of immune waning effects, there are deaths in the vaccinated group as well.'

Outlining the uptake of boosters so far, Dr Hopkins said: 'It's been quite good. There's over 60 per cent of the population that are being offered boosters [who] are taking it up.

'I think it's slower than we saw in the first round.

'I think that may be due to people thinking they're already protected, which is why we're giving a lot of public health messages about why it's so important for them to come forward for that third dose.'

She added: 'We know that the virus is circulating at very high levels in our community. So unless people get vaccinated, we will have a long and difficult winter.'

This week Health Secretary Sajid Javid called for people to come forward for their third doses, stating that younger relatives should urge eligible parents and grandparents to take up the offer of a booster and the flu vaccine.

He said: 'Almost 10 million people in the UK have received their Covid-19 booster and third jabs, a phenomenal achievement in under two months.

'As we approach this milestone, I want to thank those who have come forward and urge everybody across the nation to get vaccinated, get protected and get boosted.

'We know immunity begins to wane after six months, especially for the elderly and the vulnerable, and booster vaccines will top-up their protection to keep people safe over the winter.

'I strongly urge everybody who is eligible for a Covid-19 booster or flu vaccine to take up the offer as soon as you can.

'For those not yet eligible, please help your parents, grandparents or vulnerable loved ones get their jabs, it could save their life.

'And if you haven't yet had your first and second vaccines, it is not too late, the NHS will always be there to welcome you with open arms. This truly is a national mission.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid called for people to come forward for their third doses, stating that younger relatives should urge eligible parents and grandparents to take up the offer

'If we all come together and play our part, we can get through this challenging winter, avoid a return to restrictions and enjoy Christmas.'

Britain is no longer 'Europe's Covid capital': Belgium, Austria and Ireland's outbreaks overtake UK Britain's Covid outbreak is no longer the worst in Western Europe, according to official data that shows infections are beginning to soar across the continent.

Cases spiked in the UK when schools went back in September, which led to the country being branded Europe's coronavirus capital by advocates of the Government's 'Plan B' strategy.

Many scientists, including No10's own, argued that the UK was only recording higher case, hospital and death rates because it is testing far more than other EU nations.

But latest statistics show Austria, Belgium and Ireland have all overtaken Britain in Western Europe's infections league table. This is despite all three countries having a mix of tougher restrictions, including face masks, work from home guidance and vaccine passports.

And Germany today reported its highest ever daily infection toll, prompting the country's health minister to warn the fourth wave has hit the country with 'full force'. The World Health Organization warned Europe is 'back at the epicentre' of the pandemic.

Britain led the way with Covid vaccinations at the start of the year and was months ahead of the rest of the EU, which many scientists believe led to immunity waning quicker here and left the country vulnerable to another uptick in cases.

The chief executive of NHS Providers has warned that health trusts in England are already at peak winter levels for bed occupancy.

Chris Hopson has said the NHS is expecting to see a combination of higher levels of Covid and higher levels of flu this winter while dealing with the backlog of care for patients.

In a pre-recorded interview to be broadcast on Times Radio on Sunday morning, he said: 'The accident and emergency pathway is very, very busy. So, at a point when our staff are really exhausted, it is very worrying.

'The bit that's particularly worrying is ... if you look at acute hospitals, where effectively you look at bed occupancy, which is a very good measure of how busy a hospital is, we're seeing bed occupancy levels, it's sort of 94, 95, 96 per cent.'

He added: 'At this point, before we're into peak winter. We've not seen that before. That's unprecedented. So, there's a real sense that the NHS is going to be under real pressure.'

The UK Health Security Agency's Dr Susan Hopkins said the group is continuing to monitor the coronavirus as it mutates but delta currently remains the most dominant variant.

She added that while it is too early to say the virus has nowhere else to go, its changes are likely to be 'smaller and more incremental from here on in'.

Outlining if she thinks this will be the last Christmas where people will be wearing face masks, Dr Hopkins added: 'Hopefully this will be the last Christmas where we have to think that way. I think we'll know much more when we get to the spring and as time goes on.

'I do think, though, that this is going to be part of our endemic seasonal influenza and other respiratory viruses.'

Yesterday Britain's Covid crisis continued to shrink amid hopes a triple boost of falling infections, faster booster jabs and a 'wonder pill' will aid the UK's fight against the virus this winter.

Department of Health bosses posted a further 30,693 new infections over the last 24 hours, up 25 per cent on the 41,278 recorded last Saturday.

It was the 14th day in a row cases fell week-on-week, barring Monday '-- a blip that was down to Wales not publishing any infection numbers the previous week.

The number of people dying with the virus also fell 6.6 per cent to 155, down from 166 last Saturday.

And hospitalisations fell to 1,055 on Tuesday, the latest date data is available for. They were down 3.2 per cent on the previous week.

The figures came after hopes in Britain's fight against the virus were boosted by faster booster jabs, a new treatment that can half the risk of serious infection, as well as plunging infection rates.

From Monday the double vaccinated will be able to book their third dose a month earlier than before.

British travellers who fail to take their booster jabs could face renewed restrictions. Pictured: Passengers arrive at Palma de Mallorca Airport

The plans are likely to prove controversial if introduced before most of those eligible for their booster have received it

In a second significant development, a new antiviral pill has also been found to slash the risk of vulnerable people being hospitalised or dying from coronavirus.

And official figures also showed that the infection rate and the R-rate have both fallen. Cases have dropped by a third in a fortnight '' from 49,298 to 34,029.

So far almost 10 million people in the UK have received a top-up jab, but around 30 per cent of over-80s and 40 per cent of over-50s in England are yet to receive a booster shot of vaccine, the Department of Health and Social Care said.

Three million more people in England are being invited to have their coronavirus booster jabs next week after Saturday saw a record day when more than 371,000 people had a top-up jab.

People over 50 and those most at risk from Covid-19 are currently eligible for a booster six months after their second jab.

Dr Nikki Kanani, deputy lead for the NHS vaccination programme in England, said: 'More than 371,000 people were recorded as receiving a top-up yesterday, meaning almost 8.5 million have received one in the seven weeks since the latest phase of the programme launched.

'With winter fast approaching I would urge anyone who has not yet had a booster - or indeed a first or second dose - to not delay but take up the offer to protect themselves, their family and their friends.

'People can now walk-in without an appointment to get their top-up vaccination and from tomorrow can book in an appointment a month in advance of becoming eligible - so there is no excuse to not get the lifesaving vaccine and people should do so as soon as they can.'

It comes as it was revealed that British travellers who fail to take their booster jabs face renewed restrictions.

From Monday the double vaccinated will be able to book their third dose a month earlier than before. Pictured: Doctor Abhi Mantgani administers a Covid-19 vaccine booster to Joanne Coombs at Birkenhead Medical Building in Birkenhead

Plans to reimpose quarantine and testing for those who have refused their third vaccine are currently being drawn up by Ministers to protect the UK against the spread new Covid variants, The Mail On Sunday revealed.

But they are likely to prove controversial if introduced before most of those eligible for their booster have received it. So far, only 60 per cent have done so.

The move would change the definition of 'fully vaccinated' from having had two jabs to three.

Officials are divided over how soon to implement the measure and are discussing a grace period that would allow people to travel without quarantine if they had sought a booster six months after their second jab but had not yet been offered an appointment.

Pfizer pill slashes risk of getting seriously ill By Victoria Allen, Science Correspondent for the Daily Mail

A new antiviral pill slashes the risk of vulnerable people being hospitalised with or dying from Covid-19 by almost 90 per cent.

Britain has already ordered a quarter of a million doses of the drug, called Paxlovid.

This week it was first in the world to approve a similar antiviral, molnupiravir, which can be taken at home by high-risk people. The UK has secured 480,000 doses.

Trials of Paxlovid, involving an initial 1,219 participants, were stopped early because it worked so well.

Among those who took the drug '' which is made by US firm Pfizer '' within three days of getting Covid symptoms, less than 1 per cent were admitted to hospital and none died.

Those given a dummy pill did much worse, with 7 per cent hospitalised and seven deaths.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the results were 'incredible' and that the medical regulator would now assess the drug's safety and effectiveness.

He said: 'If approved, this could be another significant weapon in our armoury to fight the virus alongside our vaccines and other treatments, including molnupiravir, which the UK was the first country in the world to approve this week.' Albert Bourla, chief executive of Pfizer, said: 'Today's news is a real game-changer in the global efforts to halt the devastation of this pandemic.

'These data suggest that our oral antiviral candidate, if approved or authorised by regulatory authorities, has the potential to save patients' lives, reduce the severity of Covid-19 infections, and eliminate up to nine out of ten hospitalisations.'

Pfizer's combination treatment contains a 'protease inhibitor', which blocks a key enzyme Covid needs to multiply in the body.

This is given with a low dose of an HIV drug called ritonavir, which keeps it in the body for longer to counteract the virus.

The pill works differently to molnupiravir, which was approved by the medical regulator on Thursday and is made by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and MSD '' the UK arm of US pharmaceutical giant Merck.

Molnupiravir works by incorporating genetic errors into the virus so that it is less able to replicate. But both antiviral pills represent a landmark change in how the pandemic is tackled, as they could be taken at home without the need for infusions or injections.

When people were given Paxlovid within three days of symptoms appearing, 1 per cent were hospitalised in the following 28 days, and none died.

That compared to seven deaths among people given a dummy pill, among whom 6.7 per cent were hospitalised. The trials involved those who were unvaccinated, infected with the virus and were considered high-risk for hospitalisation due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

The results have not yet been published in a journal or checked by other scientists.

Dr Stephen Griffin, associate professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds, said the antivirals are 'a vital element for the care of clinically vulnerable people who may be unable to either receive or respond to vaccines'.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 14:19

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 13:57

Libs of Tik Tok : Guys if you get vaccinated, it will solve the supply chain and inflation crisis https://t.co/8DUKUuCbbW

Sun Nov 07 20:51:40 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 13:31

Link to Article

Archived Version

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 13:07

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 21:27

Paul : @Philly852 Thoughts on this? https://t.co/e4Co0QNBAW

Sun Nov 07 03:46:36 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 15:08

A battle may be around the corner. Young children are taught new fighting tactics, and weapon-carrying trucks are spotted rolling down the street. But an expert says Beijing is just trying to boost morale.

Little financial aid, blocked from going to work, personal freedom halted'--that has been the situation in one Chinese city for the past seven months. Amid strict pandemic-lockdown orders, many who are suffering have been silenced.

China ramps up surveillance use in its battle against the pandemic. For Chinese citizens, if a confirmed virus patient so much as walks by, they may end up confined in quarantine.

A Chinese property developer is knee-deep in a debt crisis'--but it's not Evergrande. The group missed a payment to investors, and now its shares are halted on Hong Kong's stock exchange.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China.

For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 15:00

Chief Nerd : Commercial Airline Pilot Develops Brain Swelling and Can No Longer Fly Following Pfizer Vaccine''I've had 6 spinal'... https://t.co/B9GfUGRXad

Thu Nov 04 05:35:09 +0000 2021

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 14:12