1526: Canuck Chuck

From Producer Scott:

The timelines work just fine, here is why. The body cams show Zulu time, and we happened to be in that gap when the UK and the USA change their clocks (US changed clocks on Nov. 6, but UK changed it Oct. 6th), so that Zulu offset makes the 0930 time on the body cam converts to 0230.

The security camera showing 5 am is from the Capitol Police, with an Eastern Time Zone offset.

Break in 0210

911 call at 0223

Police 0232

The weird thing is the 911 call, but I am 90% sure he thought he was calling the Capitol Police and not 911, that call was STRANGE.

Thinking on it for a minute I remembered I texted my pastor about it when I heard it years ago (he’s busy so I send him clips with the info I think is novel or your insights)

Episode 1382 - Time Start when JCD begins reading letter: 1:18:06

-Andrew Manik

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:35

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:24

You've probably seen this ad before: A suburban family about to head to do something recreational. Then, mom or dad suddenly clutches their abdomen. The color drains from the screen. A voice solemnly asks, "Do you experience [insert symptoms]? Talk to your doctor about [marketing word for magenta drug capsule]. Side effects include [half a medical dictionary]." Cut to a green meadow with color saturation on high, a swell of uplifting stock music and a logo plastered above too-small-to-read text. "[Drug] gave me my life back," the actor says directly into the camera. "Thanks [pharmaceutical company]!"

Americans watch a lot of television ads, and a huge number are for pharmaceutical drugs. (Indeed, among industries that buy TV ads, Big Pharma is the fourth-biggest spender). All of this might feel deeply weird to people in other countries where this practice is banned. The only other nation besides the United States that allows direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceutical meds is New Zealand.

"Fewer than one-third of the most common drugs featured in direct-to-consumer television advertising were rated as having high therapeutic value," the authors wrote.

But it's a profitable venture that is only becoming more common. Biotech giants like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk spend billions bringing their drugs to living rooms across the country. Given all the ads, you might think that Americans were getting a magnificent deal from the cutting edge of the biotech sector. But a new analysis pours cold water on this notion, finding that less than one-third of the drugs most heavily advertised on TV between 2015 and 2021 have "high therapeutic value."

In other words, despite the flashy music and slick production values, the drugs promoted on TV typically aren't even that special compared to generics or other medications.

To illuminate this relationship, researchers from universities including Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale formed a database of the most advertised drugs, coming up with 73. These medications are indicated for everything from quitting smoking to neurological diseases.

Then, they obtained a list of value rankings for the drugs from several independent health technology assessment agencies in Canada, France and Germany. The job of these agencies is to rate the safety, benefits and efficacy of a given drug compared to other existing therapies. And it turns out, most drugs you see on TV would flunk this test.

"Fewer than one-third of the most common drugs featured in direct-to-consumer television advertising were rated as having high therapeutic value," the authors wrote, which they defined as "providing at least moderate improvement in clinical outcomes compared with existing therapies." Their results were published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

A possible explanation for all this is that super effective drugs don't need to be advertised... so pharmaceutical companies might be incentivized to promote drugs that are "of lesser value," as the authors put it.

Why take Drug A when Drug B is cheaper and just as effective? Simply put, it comes down to marketing. The amount of spending on these types of ads '-- even for drugs that don't have spectacular benefits '-- was $15.9 billion from 2015 to 2021. The drugs with the lowest benefits included Dulaglutide (for type 2 diabetes), Varenicline (for smoking cessation) and Tofacitinib (for rheumatoid arthritis.) These aren't public service announcements. The companies that financed these ads want to see a return on their investments.

A possible explanation for all this is that super effective drugs don't need to be advertised. They'd presumably sell themselves '-- so pharmaceutical companies might be incentivized to promote drugs that are "of lesser value," as the authors put it.

A good deal of research suggests that there can be positive benefits to seeing ads like these, such as encouraging some patients to take a more active role in their health. Patients may request a new medication they heard about that may improve their condition. Or it could alert them to a side effect they should be aware of. Pharma ads may even ease stigma of certain conditions like mental illness or sexual dysfunction.

But the results may not always be so rosy. There is a risk that patients can be prescribed inappropriate or unnecessary medications while driving up drug costs without added benefits. It's not easy making an informed medical decision based on a 30-second clip produced with the intent to persuade a sale.

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"Despite their intent to educate, drug prescription ads are inherently complicated by financial incentives, which is a topic of great controversy," a recent analysis by StatPearls explained. "There are ethical concerns that such advertising strategies are predatory and cause harm to patients."

Much of this began in 1997 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration loosened restrictions to allow directly marketing drugs to consumers. And it really took no time at all for the money for TV drug ads to start pouring in. An August 1997 article in LA Times reported that "Drug advertising already had been growing rapidly, and some experts expected Friday's FDA announcement to fuel a boom. Pharmaceutical companies spent $595.5 million on ads last year, a 90% increase over the $313.2 million spent in 1995, according to Competitive Media Reporting, with the bulk of the money going to magazines."

Today, that budget is in the tens of billions. In 2015 the American Medical Association called for a ban on direct-to-consumer pharma ads. But not much traction has been made since then. The authors of the JAMA study seemingly aren't optimistic, either.

"Policy makers and regulators could consider limiting direct-to-consumer advertising to drugs with high therapeutic or public health value," the authors wrote, "but policy changes would likely require industry cooperation or face constitutional challenge."

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:48

MANLY blokes are killing our planet by eating too much meat and shunning vegetarianism, according to a new study.

A survey of more than 800 people found that self-professed "masculine" men eat more beef and chicken than feminine chaps.

Get all the latest Science newsKeep up-to-date with the top Space & Astronomy storiesAll the latest Archaelogy news from dinosaurs to Ancient artefacts 2

'Manly' blokes eat more beef than women and feminine men Credit: AlamyThey're also less inclined to switch to a plant-based diet than their unmanly counterparts, researchers at UCLA showed.

Writing in the journal Appetite, they blamed the trend on the widespread perception that "real men eat meat".

"Meat is seen as a traditionally masculine food," study author Daniel Rosenfeld told The Sun.

"Men who eat vegetarian diets are in fact seen as less masculine."

2

Meat and dairy production accounts for 14.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions Credit: GettyAccording to the research, this stereotype must change if humanity is to reduce its meat intake to save itself from catastrophic climate change.

Meat and dairy production contribute heavily to global warming, accounting for 14.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

"Reducing the amount of meat we eat cuts down on water usage, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions," Rosenfeld said.

"Of all meats, beef is especially threatening to our planet. Its production uses up the most water and releases the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

"If we can overcome the stereotype that 'real men eat meat', then we can likely reduce how much beef men eat and ultimately improve both human and planetary health."

Previous research has shown that, compared to women, men eat more meat and are less open to becoming vegetarian.

For their study, the UCLA team set out to investigate how men's beliefs about their own masculinity could explain how much meat they eat.

They surveyed 813 adult lads to see whether their manliness impacted how much they ate four meats: Beef, pork, chicken and fish.

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Participants were asked to respond on a scale from one (very feminine) to seven (very masculine) to statements such as "I consider myself as '...", and "traditionally, my outer appearance would be considered as '...".

Their self-identified "masculinity" was then matched up with their eating habits.

The researchers found that masculine men ate more beef and chicken '' but roughly the same amount of fish and pork '' as feminine blokes.

On average, the least masculine men reported eating less than one serving of beef per week whereas the most masculine men reported eating nearly two servings of beef each week.

Manly men were also more likely to report that they had no intention of becoming vegetarian in future.

On average, the most masculine men were three times less likely to say that they are open to becoming a vegetarian than were the least masculine men.

"Meat is stereotyped as a manly food, so that makes men want to eat more meat - it's a way for them to feel masculine," Rosenfeld said.

The results also showed that men in general ate more beef than women, of whom 893 were surveyed by the team.

In the U.S. and U.K., only about five to 10 per cent of the population is vegetarian.

The research is likely to reignite the debate surrounding our consumption of meat and its impact on the health of the planet.

The meat industry contributes to global warming because cows and other animals produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

And while groups like Greenpeace highlight our diet's effect on the climate as a reason to quite meat, it's important to give people a choice.

The meat industry is also not the biggest greenhouse gas emitter. Transportation is responsible for 29 per cent of emissions, while electricity generation accounts for 25 per cent.

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Want to know more about the weird and wonderful world of science? From space and astronomy to the human body, we have you covered...

Meat eaters try Fry's vegan meat substitutes and say they 'wouldn't know the difference'In other news, KFC is working with a Russian 3D bioprinting company to create vegetarian-friendly chicken nuggets in a lab.

Pork belly and bacon strips made in a lab have been created by a commercial meat company in the UK.

And, an aversion to meet is nothing new '' early humans ate a vegan diet millions of years ago, according to research.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:47

doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.107172. Epub 2020 Nov 3. Shuangshi Wei 1 , Shengbao Duan 2 , Xiaomei Liu 1 , Hongmei Wang 1 , Shaohua Ding 1 , Yezhou Chen 1 , Jinsong Xie 1 , Jingjing Tian 1 , Nong Yu 3 , Pingju Ge 4 , Xinglin Zhang 4 , Xiaohong Chen 4 , Yong Li 5 , Qinglin Meng 6 Affiliations

Affiliations 1 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China. 2 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. 3 Department of Laboratory Medicine, The People's Hospital of Suzhou New District, Suzhou, China. 4 Acrobiosystems Inc, Beijing, China. 5 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China. Electronic address: szliyong@sibet.ac.cn. 6 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China. Electronic address: weiss@sibet.ac.cn. PMID: 33191178 PMCID: PMC7608017 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.107172 Free PMC article Item in Clipboard

Shuangshi Wei et al. Int Immunopharmacol . 2021 Jan .

Free PMC article

doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.107172. Epub 2020 Nov 3. Authors Shuangshi Wei 1 , Shengbao Duan 2 , Xiaomei Liu 1 , Hongmei Wang 1 , Shaohua Ding 1 , Yezhou Chen 1 , Jinsong Xie 1 , Jingjing Tian 1 , Nong Yu 3 , Pingju Ge 4 , Xinglin Zhang 4 , Xiaohong Chen 4 , Yong Li 5 , Qinglin Meng 6 Affiliations 1 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China. 2 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. 3 Department of Laboratory Medicine, The People's Hospital of Suzhou New District, Suzhou, China. 4 Acrobiosystems Inc, Beijing, China. 5 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China. Electronic address: szliyong@sibet.ac.cn. 6 CAS Key Lab of Bio-Medical Diagnostics, Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Suzhou, China. Electronic address: weiss@sibet.ac.cn. PMID: 33191178 PMCID: PMC7608017 DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.107172 Item in Clipboard

Abstract The SARS-CoV-2 virus is still spreading worldwide, and there is an urgent need to effectively prevent and control this pandemic. This study evaluated the potential efficacy of Egg Yolk Antibodies (IgY) as a neutralizing agent against the SARS-CoV-2. We investigated the neutralizing effect of anti-spike-S1 IgYs on the SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, as well as its inhibitory effect on the binding of the coronavirus spike protein mutants to human ACE2. Our results show that the anti-Spike-S1 IgYs showed significant neutralizing potency against SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus, various spike protein mutants, and even SARS-CoV in vitro. It might be a feasible tool for the prevention and control of ongoing COVID-19.

Keywords: Chicken Egg Yolk Antibodies; IgY; Neutralizing agent; SARS-CoV-2; Spike protein variants.

Copyright (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Figures Fig. 1

Luminescence inhibition rate curve of'...

Fig. 1

Luminescence inhibition rate curve of the anti-(SARS-Cov-2) IgY (blue) and normal (control) IgY'...

Fig. 1 Luminescence inhibition rate curve of the anti-(SARS-Cov-2) IgY (blue) and normal (control) IgY (red) from the pseudovirus neutralization assay. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 2

Competitive inhibition of the eight'...

Fig. 2

Competitive inhibition of the eight coronavirus spike protein mutants as determined by competitive'...

Fig. 2 Competitive inhibition of the eight coronavirus spike protein mutants as determined by competitive ELISA.

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References Zhou P., et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. 2020;579:270''273. - PMC - PubMed Yan R., et al. Structural basis for the recognition of SARS-CoV-2 by full-length human ACE2. Science. 2020;367:1444''1448. - PMC - PubMed Brouwer P.J.M., et al. Potent neutralizing antibodies from COVID-19 patients define multiple targets of vulnerability. Science. 2020 - PMC - PubMed Cao X. COVID-19: immunopathology and its implications for therapy. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2020;20:269''270. - PMC - PubMed Klemperer F. Uber natirliche Immunitat und ihre Verwertung fur die Immunisierungs-therapie. Arch. Expl. Pathol. Pharmakol. 1893;31:356''382.

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:47

An alternative to ethanol has been developed to help people to feel like they're drinking alcohol, without any of the side effects.

The new molecular compound, named Alcarelle, has been created by a team led by Imperial College London's neuropsycho pharmacology expert Professor David Nutt and has reportedly been two years in the making.

The synthetic alcohol Alcarelle is currently with regulators seeking approval and, if approved, is set to soon become aimed at consumers who enjoy the buzz of drinking as well as the relaxation it offers without the health implications, loss of control or hangovers.

Nutt, who was the UK government's drugs adviser under New Labour but was sacked in 2009 by home secretary Alan Johnson for claiming that alcohol is more dangerous than ecstasy or LSD, said: ''Alcohol is my favourite drug, and it has the huge benefit of helping us socialise as humans'' but revealed ''alcohol mimics a chemical called GABA which is produced in the brain. We now know there are 15 subtypes of GABA receptor present in lots of different parts of the brain and that alcohol will bind to all of them and cause lots of side-effects.''

Nutt explained: ''With our synthetic alcohol, we've been targeting the receptors in the parts of the brain which regulate how you feel and how you interact and how you socialise.''

According to Nutt, it is possible for his new molecular compound to select the ''useful'' GABA receptors only and in turn stimulate the receptors that cause tipsiness, but not headaches, memory impairment, aggression or longer term liver problems.

He insisted: ''You can produce a whole range of effects like alcohol by manipulating this system in the brain. In some experiments, the effect is indistinguishable from alcohol. We want to keep the pleasure, but not the pain, essentially. You don't get the physiological changes that ethanol does from Alcarelle, I've tried and tested it myself.''

Nutt, who also owns a bar with his daughter in Ealing, is still a big fan of alcohol. He added: ''We've developed the compound so that no matter how much Alcarelle you have in a drink, you won't get wasted, just tipsy. It's like having two or so glasses of wine. It's also a small molecule so you don't need much of it to feel the effect when it's mixed into a drink, and it clears from your body within hours and it doesn't metabolise in the liver like alcohol. Hence, the lack of side-effects. I'm not suggesting we do away with alcohol in place of this, or that it's a replacement. It's about giving people a choice other than abstinence and alcohol. Currently, people only have two choices; to drink or not to drink, but this could give people the sociability they want from alcohol without them having to drink. But there will be people who start off with a couple of Alcarelle cocktails and break that tension you first get at a bar or a party, and that'll be enough for some people. Others might alternate; then they might have a glass of wine after that, or a spirit at the end of the evening. Maybe someone wants to enjoy a social event, but also has a job interview the next morning. But as things are now, there's no choice like that.''

Alcarelle is yet to be tested or approved by regulators in the US or Europe, however Nutt has stated his hopes for his creation to become available to the public in the next five years. Currently, only Nutt and his team have tried Alcarelle due to it's lack of regulation. However, in the meantime, Nutt's company GABA Labs has started selling a drink named Sentia that is made from plant extracts that allegedly induces a tipsy feeling by using botanicals.

In 2018, Nutt and his business partner, David Orren secured seed funding to help them to raise £20m to make Alcarelle substance that could be consumed by the general public , however now the plan is to potentially offer the ingredient to the drinks industry and help assist different brand owners to develop their own range of drinks containing Alcarelle

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:44

Back in 2017, John Griffin, a professor of finance at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, noticed something strange. Griffin follows a totally different beat from typical business school finance profs who explore, say, how business cycles influence commodity prices or Fed policy sways the term structure of interest rates. The 6-foot-2 former high school football star views himself as a crusader for good, a moral sleuth who, as he tells Fortune, ''looks to expose financial evil, to shed light on the world and expose dark things in the markets.'' After the Great Financial Crisis, Griffin became a devout Christian. He has since dedicated his distinguished career to righteous forensic digging that's unearthed abuses ranging from insider trading to mortgage fraud to the doctoring of bond ratings during the financial crisis.

As Griffin and Amin Shams, then a doctoral candidate at McCombs who's joined Griffin in several gumshoe investigations, screened for misdeeds in 2017, they were fascinated to see that a little-known token that's supposed to be backed one-for-one to the dollar was getting printed in large quantities. That clue led the pair to another: When new batches appeared, the price of Bitcoin seemed to jump. It looked like someone, or a group, was using that freshly printed ''free money'' to inflate Bitcoin's price for their own profit. He and his coauthor Shams sifted through an incredible 200 gigabytes of trading data, equal to the troves that the Smithsonian Institution collects in two years, and followed sales and purchases from 2.5 million separate wallets.

In 2018, they coauthored a groundbreaking study showing that a single, still unidentified, Bitcoin ''whale'' almost singlehandedly drove the token's giant run-up in late 2017 and early 2018 by distorting the trading in the token.

Toward the end of 2022, another mystifying trend caught Griffin's eye. Despite the crypto crash and myriad other negative forces, every time Bitcoin briefly breached the $16,000 floor, it bounced above that level and kept stubbornly trading between $16,000 and $17,000. Almost unbelievably, as the crypto market has continued to unravel into 2023, Bitcoin has gone in the opposite direction, trading up 35% since Jan. 7 to $23,000.

''It's very suspicious,'' Griffin told Fortune. ''The same mechanism we saw in 2017 could be at play now in the still unreal Bitcoin market.''

For Griffin, the way normally super-volatile Bitcoin went calm and stable in the stormiest of times for crypto fits a scenario where boosters are uniting to support and juice its price. ''If you're a crypto manipulator, you want to set a floor under the price of your coin,'' added Griffin. ''In a period of highly negative sentiment, we've seen suspiciously solid floors under Bitcoin.''

Though manipulation is unproven, the signs are troublingIt's important to note that no definitive proof of chicanery has so far emerged. ''The space is bigger now so it's harder to dig the data,'' says Griffin. ''Sophisticated players may be expert at hiding their identities.'' We have seen credible leaks asserting that major market participants call meetings of the sector's elite when they fear a crypto leader plans to make what they consider a reckless, industry-endangering move. But no evidence has surfaced that the players are gathering to coordinate buying of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. For example it's well known that earlier this fall Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ), chief of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange and other crypto crypto leaders believed that Sam Bankman-Fried's hedge fund Alameda was attacking Tether, the then-wobbling coin whose reliability is crucial to the industry's well-being, and reportedly encouraged him to stop. (Tether'--symbol USDT'--by the way, was also at the center of the 2017-18 manipulation exposed by Griffin and Shams.)

It's possible that evidence of cozy, clubby practices will come to light in the numerous bankruptcy proceedings, lawsuits, and criminal investigations now pending in the crypto-verse. ''Now that SBF is being charged, he'll turn on the other players and could accuse them of collusion,'' predicts Alex de Vries, an economist at the central bank of the Netherlands who runs Digiconomist, a site that tracks Bitcoin's carbon footprint. The collapse Genesis's lending business has set Barry Silbert, the head of its parent Digital Currency Group, at the throats of Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, cofounders of floundering exchange Gemini. The brothers claim that DCG owes the $900 million that Gemini's depositors loaned to a Genesis program that paid high interest rates and threaten to sue DCG and Silbert, whom they accuse of stonewalling and denying DCG's true liability. Put simply, as onetime allies battle in court, the secrecy surrounding trading in concert, if it exists, could well crumble.

Griffin is far from the only prominent observer who's wary of bad behavior. In a blog post on Nov. 30 titled ''Bitcoin's Last Stand,'' European Central Bank Director General for market operations Ulrich Bindseil and ECB adviser J¼rgen Schaaf dismissed Bitcoin's resurgence as ''an artificially induced last gasp before the road to irrelevance.'' Two leading figures on Wall Street told this writer on background that Bitcoin's price action, by resisting a flood of bad news, looks phony and different from a normal free market ruled by independent buyers and sellers.

Bitcoin has showed amazing stability amid negative sentimentThe leading sign that Bitcoin's benefiting from coordinated buying: its astoundingly steady performance, forming the base for a takeoff to five-month highs following the FTX debacle that seemed likely to send the mainstay token reeling. From Nov. 5, the day before the FTX reports started spreading, to Nov. 9, Bitcoin (based on closing prices) dropped from $21,300 to $15,900, its lowest reading since late 2020, for a fall of 25%. Then the normally careening coin went, by Bitcoin standards, flat. In the 62 days between Nov. 10 and Jan. 11, it traded in the $16,000s and $17,000s for all but one day. In the 50 days from Nov. 22 to Jan. 11, its closing prices hovered in a narrow band, from a low of $16,200 and a high of $17,900, a difference from bottom to top of 10%.

This initial period of supersmooth sailing was atypical, to put it mildly. Fortune data editor Scott DeCarlo ran a detailed analysis and found that since the start of 2017, Bitcoin has never fluctuated in any of the 40 consecutive 50-day spans by less than 19%, and varied by over 30% in three out of four seven-week time frames. The median low to high reading was 44%. Hence, Bitcoin at peak FTX-induced turmoil showed both its smallest swings ever by a wide margin, and divergence from low to high that was one-fourth to one-fifth its average over the past six years.

Then, from Jan. 12 to 24, Bitcoin began a bizarre upward march. During those two weeks, it rebounded by 28% from $17,935 to $23,000, its best price since August and well above the number when FTX fears began raging. This occurred while the market was digesting the bankruptcies of lender BlockFi on Nov. 28; Core Scientific, one of the largest publicly traded miners, on Dec. 21; and the Genesis lending arm a month later.

You'd think that the turmoil surrounding Bitcoin would have shaken the confidence of small investors and institutions alike in crypto, leading to lots of selling pressure and sharply falling prices. Indeed, sentiment on social media turned heavily against Bitcoin following the FTX catastrophe. Reflecting the sinking enthusiasm was a steep retreat in trading activity. At Coinbase, volumes in Q4 were well below Q3 readings, and down 52% from Q1.

Could there be alternate explanations for Bitcoin's robust performance? A number of experts who follow crypto trading from day to day see no plot to inflate the prices, but a well-functioning market. ''I don't see a cabal of insiders,'' says Andrew Thurman, a researcher at Blockchain analytics provider Nansen. ''The price movements in Bitcoin are notoriously cyclical by nature. Often the best explanation is the most boring one. In this case, the price of Bitcoin is rising because there are more buyers than sellers. If anything, fallen players such as Celsius and FTX were selling Bitcoin and pushing down prices to prop up their own coins.'' Vetle Lunde, a senior analyst at Norwegian crypto data analysis firm Arcane Research, agrees. ''I don't see a group holding up prices. Now we have a balanced dynamic. The forced selling following the FTX collapse has to some extent been absorbed and we're seeing no further forced selling,'' a phenomenon that's aided Bitcoin's recent rebound to over $23,000.

But there's no question that Bitcoin's post-FTX sturdiness, capped by its new jump, is a gigantic gift to the enterprises whose fortunes wax and wane with Bitcoin's price. The stocks for exchanges, miners, and lenders all took a big leg down in the days after meltdown. But since hitting two-year lows in December, miners Riot, Marathon, and Bitfarms have jumped 92%, 150%, and 189% respectively as of Jan. 27. Coinbase, one of the world's largest exchanges, has advanced 85% from its pre''New Year's trough, adding $7 billion in market cap. Riot, Bitfarms have all rebounded to near their plateaus just prior to the FTX disaster.

One of the players most desperate for a boost got a big one. At MicroStrategy, cofounder and executive chairman Michael Saylor loaded his hybrid software provider and Bitcoin speculator with $2.4 billion in debt to buy coins, and when prices fell below $16,000 on Nov. 11, owed far more on his loans than the value of his cache of tokens. If Bitcoin kept dropping, MicroStrategy was heading for big trouble. But Bitcoin's resurgence has lifted MicroStrategy's holdings out of the red and sent its stock price from $166 in mid-November to $258 on Jan. 27, a gain of 55%.

Crypto operates on a narrower edge than virtually any other financial sector. The factor that determines whether the big crypto players mint profits or tumble into bankruptcy is the price of Bitcoin, the benchmark that in turn leads the prices for other coins. Much of the crypto world has already shattered. But a lot more stalwarts were due to go down unless Bitcoin found a decent foundation after the FTX downfall shook that slender edge.

Griffin and Shams' findings from the 2017''18 rigging are echoing today The Griffin-Shams study of the forces behind the 2017''18 Bitcoin bubble provides a guide to the strategies that could be pressing a thumb on the sales post-FTX. Griffin and Shams, now a professor at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business, first published their 118-page report in 2018, and it appeared two years later in the prestigious, peer-reviewed Journal of Finance.

For the team, a tipoff for possible manipulation was that Bitfinex, the large exchange closely related to Tether, wasn't providing much transparency about the supposed stablecoin. ''We saw blogs speculating that Bitfinex wasn't providing full backing for the coin,'' recalls Griffin. ''If someone's printing money by printing Tether that's unbacked by fiat currency, it could cause a bubble in Bitcoin,'' he says. ''That was the hypothesis.''

Griffin and Shams found that two practices converged to spur those huge, sudden gains. The first: a flood of newly created coins that gave the fraudster the currency to goose Bitcoin. The second is the approach that's most relevant today, in which the manipulator or manipulators agree that every time the price drops to a target level, they'll jump in to push it well above that benchmark.

The pair saw a strong and questionable pattern in Bitcoin prices. Bitcoin had its biggest spikes when two things happened: Prices started dropping, and lot of Tether was being printed. Then, as now, Tether was the most important ''stablecoin,'' or cryptocurrency supposedly supported one-to-one by reserves in fiat currency. Tether's effectively a stand-in for the dollar; each coin is supposed to be backed by the equivalent of one greenback in fiat currency. Tether is issued by an arm of iFinex, a Hong Kong company that also owns what was then the world's largest exchange, Bitfinex.

The authors focused on the 1% of all one-hour intervals between the beginning of March 2017 and end of March 2018 that featured the largest combinations of large Tether issuance on Bitfinex, and big Bitcoin buys on two other exchanges, Bittrex and Poloniex. Just before the start of each period, Bitcoin prices were under pressure. But in each case, it appeared that a single huge buyer rode to the rescue, pushing the token sharply higher by the end of the 60-minute interlude. The ''whale,'' whose identity remains a mystery, was using Tether to buy Bitcoin and hike its price. ''We saw a regular pattern of very sizable price reversals,'' recalls Shams.

The 95 one-hour spans that witnessed those big Tether and Bitcoin inflows accounted for nearly 60% of Bitcoin's immense gains over those 13 months.

''Tether is used as cash to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,'' notes Shams. Although the market cap of Tether is a fraction of Bitcoin's, Tether's trading volumes are higher. Given its importance in trading, the printing of Tether without backing creates ''new money'' the way the Fed does when it prints excess quantities of dollars. ''The issuing of Tether without backing inflated the amount of currency chasing the same supply of Bitcoin,'' Griffin told Fortune. ''The Tether created from thin air was inflating the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.''

Once the whale obtained the newly minted Tether, it traded the coins for big quantities of Bitcoin on Bittrex and Poloniex. Those large buys reversed the downward trend in Bitcoin and boosted its price well above its level before the dip began. ''This player either showed clairvoyant market timing or exerted an extremely large effect on Bitcoin's price,'' states the study. Today, it's clear that Tether wasn't holding full reserves behind the coins in this Bitcoin boom period, so that ''it's almost mechanical that money from nowhere would boost the price,'' notes Griffin.

After the paper appeared, Tether Ltd. insisted that its conclusions were flawed and maintained that Tether couldn't be used to balloon Bitcoin prices. But a Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation found otherwise. In October 2021, the CFTC won a $41 million settlement from Tether and its owners for failing to back its coins with dollars as advertised. The CFTC found that ''Tether held sufficient reserves to back'...tokens in circulation only 27.6% of the time in the 26-month sample from 2016 through 2018'' and ''comingled reserve funds with Bitfinex's operational and customer funds.'' Says Griffin, ''Bitcoin and Tether aren't used for buying things like cars and pizzas, they're used for buying other coins. So in that closed system, a relatively small amount of manipulated buying, spurred by creating new coins from nothing, can cause an outsize increase in the Bitcoin price.''

The whale mastered setting a floor and kept the floor risingThe authors also found that the sizable purchases frequently happened when Bitcoin's price reached certain thresholds, just below multiples of $500. ''We saw far more purchases at those benchmarks,'' says Griffin. ''The whale kept establishing price floors, and those floors kept rising. It wasn't a club. It was one entity. But when the whale held the price at the thresholds, that made it look as if Bitcoin was safe at those floors. That made it look safe for funds and small customers to buy Bitcoin, driving the price still higher.'' Adds Shams, ''Around round number price levels of Bitcoin, we saw activities consistent with creating price supports.''

Griffin suspects that a similar dynamic is operating today. He says that collusion to prop up Bitcoin would mean that a clique of buyers agrees to purchase together when the price nears a floor. Let's say that trigger is $16,000, a figure Bitcoin almost always remained just above during its time of extreme stability. If Bitcoin experiences heavy sales threatening to drive its price below $16,000, in our example, the whale club enters en masse. ''That $16,000, for example, could serve as a coordinating mechanism,'' says Griffin. The manipulators could drive the price up to near $17,000, then sell part of their winnings in many small trades that don't move the market. They could pocket big profits just letting the price bounce back and forth in the tunnel between $16,000 and $17,000.

Growing confidence that Bitcoin won't breach $16,000 would encourage more speculators to join in the buying. Then the group can agree to set a new floor at $18,000. ''In crypto, a group of manipulators can push Bitcoin to higher floors unless a big party moves against them,'' says Griffin. But it's much harder to short Bitcoin than to short stocks or bonds. We aren't seeing evidence of another group moving to drive down the price, giving a stronger hand to any possible club of bulls. ''Most of the players in the space have a strong incentive to maintain a price floor,'' says Griffin.

In conclusion, Griffin says, the Griffin-Shams study showed concrete proof of manipulation in 2017 and 2018, and that a single individual did the rigging. ''We don't have concrete analysis this time,'' he says. ''The truth may emerge in specific stories, if there is collusion.'' The lesson, he says, ''is that the Bitcoin market remains highly vulnerable to manipulation.''

Indeed, Bitcoin in the wake of the FTX debacle has registered a wondrous performance. Maybe too wondrous to be trusted.

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:14

Removing Paywall

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:11

11:32 AM ET Tim McManus ESPN Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA -- Eagles offensive lineman Josh Sills was indicted by a Guernsey County Common Pleas Court grand jury on one count of rape and one count of kidnapping, both first-degree felonies, according to a release posted on the Ohio attorney general's website.

Per the release, Sills engaged in sexual activity that was not consensual and held a victim against her will in December 2019.

The alleged crime was immediately reported, according to the release, and the Guernsey County Sheriff's Office conducted a detailed investigation. The case was presented to the grand jury and is being prosecuted by the special prosecutions section of the attorney general's office.

A summons was issued for Sills, 25, to appear in Guernsey County Common Pleas Court at 1 p.m. ET on Feb. 16.

The NFL said on Wednesday that Sills has been placed on the commissioner's exempt list and is not permitted to participate in practices or games or travel with the Eagles while on the list. The league also said that "the matter will be reviewed under the NFL's personal conduct policy."

The Eagles said in a statement they are "aware of the legal matter involving Josh Sills. We have been in communication with the league office and are in the process of gathering more information. We have no further comment at this time."

The Eagles are playing against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona.

According to the police report obtained by ESPN, an officer was dispatched to the Southeastern Ohio Regional Medical Center emergency room in Cambridge, Ohio, on Dec. 5, 2019, to take a report of a sexual assault. According to the woman's account, a man dropped her and her cousin off at her cousin's place, where she was staying. After her cousin got out of the vehicle, "the male grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back into the truck." The male grabbed her by her ponytail and tried to kiss her, the report said, and she repeatedly told him to stop, but he continued. Once her friend was inside the home, the account continues, the man then tried to take off her pants and kept "touching me down there." She also alleged the man forced her to have oral sex with him.

She identified the man as Sills, whom she said she had gone to high school with and had known for seven or eight years. The officer took photos of the woman's face and neck, as she stated she had been grabbed several times by the neck, the report said. The deputy was also informed that hospital staff were doing a CT scan to check for strangulation injuries. A nurse informed the deputy that she discovered bruising in the back of the woman's throat as well as on her inner lip. The nurse also noted that there was bruising to her right ear and that the woman also showed the officer bruising on the back of her left knee.

Sills, a native of Sarahsville, Ohio, was signed by the Eagles as an undrafted free agent in April. He attended West Virginia from 2016 to 2019, then transferred to Oklahoma State in 2020.

Sills appeared in one game for the Eagles this season, in October against the Arizona Cardinals.

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:08

A new study found that black tax filers are several times more likely to be audited by the IRS than other tax filers, a revelation that comes as the agency prepares to double headcount and receive a deluge of funds to increase audit activity.

Stanford University law professor Daniel Ho partnered with other researchers, as well as economists in the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Analysis, to examine more than 148 million tax returns. Though filers do not identify their race on their returns, the team was able to predict the probability that a given filer identified as black based on geography and their first and last names. The research concluded that black filers are between 2.9 and 4.7 times more likely to experience audits than non-black counterparts.

''The IRS should drill down to understand and modify its existing audit selection methods to mitigate the disparity we've documented,'' Ho said in a news release. ''And we've shown they can do that without necessarily sacrificing tax revenue.''

Audits from the agency disproportionately impact taxpayers who collect the Earned Income Tax Credit, which offers tax breaks to low and moderate income households. Black filers accounted for 21% of EITC claims but were impacted by 43% of the EITC audits.

Some 94% of audits among EITC claimants occurred via correspondence audit, which the IRS executes by mail, rather than a field audit, which requires the IRS to use more extensive resources. The agency feeds a ''completely secret'' algorithm with information from the Dependent Database to automatically generate audit letters to EITC claimants.

''Compared with labor-intensive field audits, correspondence audits of EITC claimants are easy to trigger, cost very little, and require minimal effort by IRS personnel,'' the news release continued. ''The burden of correspondence audits on EITC claimants is more likely to fall on lower income individuals whose tax returns are less complex and less likely to lead to litigation.''

Considering the magnitude of underreported income rather than the likelihood of underreported income would have resulted in more non-black filers receiving audits than black filers, according to the researchers. Evelyn Smith, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan who aided with the research, claimed that ''the choice to focus on whether there is underreporting, as opposed to magnitude of underreporting, is connected to broader structural sources of economic inequality and racial justice.''

Whether the disparity in audit rates is ultimately attributable to purported inequities, the study comes as the IRS prepares to expand operations using $80 billion provided by President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration recently noted that the agency's budget for enforcement activity will increase 69% over the next decade, while the budget for taxpayer services will increase 9%.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has vowed that the resources will not be utilized to increase audit rates for American households earning less than $400,000 per year ''relative to historical levels.'' She failed to clarify that ''historical levels'' of enforcement were far higher as recently as one decade ago: audit rates for Americans earning between $25,000 and $200,000 decreased 76% between 2010 and 2019, according to data from the Government Accountability Office.

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 05:09

James Gordon Meek

A former ABC journalist who went missing after the FBI raided his home and seized his laptop has been arrested for transporting child pornography.

As reported last year, Emmy-winning investigative journalist James Meek went missing after the FBI raided his Virginia home and seized classified information from his laptop in April 2022.

James Gordon Meek, 52, went missing after the feds raided his Arlington penthouse apartment, the Rolling Stone reported.

Meek produced the Hulu documentary ''3212 Unredacted'' which detailed the 2017 Pentagon coverup of the deaths of US special forces in Niger.

TRENDING: BREAKING: Hunter Biden Asks Joe Biden's Asst. AG, Delaware AG and IRS to Go After Individuals Close to President Trump Who Shared Information from His Laptop

The ''lightning raid'' was conducted after a search warrant was approved by a federal magistrate judge in the Virginia Eastern District Court, Rolling Stone reported.

''If agents got hold of Meek's records, the move would have had to have been approved by US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.'' The New York Post reported.

Meek's attorneys lashed out at the US government for leaking information to Rolling Stone.

''The allegations in your inquiry are troubling for a different reason: They appear to come from a source inside the government,'' Meek's attorney Eugene Gorokhov told Rolling Stone. ''It is highly inappropriate, and illegal, for individuals in the government to leak information about an ongoing investigation.''

''We hope that the DOJ promptly investigates the source of this leak.''

Meek's last public statement was in the form of a tweet on April 27, 2022 '' His colleagues at ABC said Meek ''fell off the face of the earth.''

Facts: https://t.co/VNyhbFETvT

'-- James Gordon Meek (@meekwire) April 27, 2022

James Meek was arrested this week and faces up to 20 years in prison.

The Daily Mail reported:

The Department of Justice has arrested former ABC News producer James Meek for transporting images of child pornography, nine months after the FBI raided his home and took several of his electronic devices.

Meek, a celebrated investigative reporter, resigned from the network via email just hours after heavily-armed agents swooped on his penthouse apartment in Arlington, Virginia in April.

He is charged with transportation of child pornography using evidence stemming from that raid. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Meek was last seen in late October, when DailyMail.com finally spotted him at his elderly mom's townhouse in McLean, Virginia, 15 minutes outside Washington, D.C..

The April 27 swoop sparked fears Meek was being targeted for his trailblazing journalism which has exposed shocking military cover-ups, friendly fire deaths and foiled terror plots.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:28

Raj Subramaniam, FedEx Corporation, speaks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit in Washington, D.C. on March 5, 2020.

Kristoffer Tripplaar | Sipa via AP Images

FedEx is cutting more than 10% of its officers and directors, CEO Raj Subramaniam announced Wednesday, as the company slashes corporate jobs to cut costs amid cooling consumer demand.

"Unfortunately, this was a necessary action to become a more efficient, agile organization. It is my responsibility to look critically at the business and determine where we can be stronger by better aligning the size of our network with customer demand," Subramaniam said in a letter to FedEx team members.

Shares of FedEx closed over 4% higher at the end of Wednesday's trading day.

The layoffs come as shipping momentum slows after the Covid pandemic e-commerce boom.

The package and shipping industry experienced a surge during the pandemic amid a spike in online consumer spending. But as inflation has shrunk consumers' wallets, it has also eaten into FedEx's profits. The company's stock is off roughly 20% over the past year.

As a result, FedEx has experienced a rough first half of its fiscal year and has sought to cut costs while also raising prices to offset slowing volume.

After it reported a fiscal second quarter with sagging sales and profit due to global volume declines, FedEx announced it would cut $1 billion more in costs by parking planes and shutting down some of its offices. In 2022, the company reduced its U.S. and international flight time by 13% combined.

During its second-quarter earnings call with analysts, Subramaniam outlined what he called an "aggressive and decisive plan to cut costs in fiscal 2023." The company is aiming to cut about $3.7 billion in total during this fiscal year.

Along with cost-cutting, FedEx's path forward has also involved price hikes. The company raised shipping rates by 6.9%, which took effect this January, as another measure to offset a consumer slowdown. At the time, Subramaniam said he forecast a "worldwide recession."

FedEx rival UPS is also anticipating "a bumpy year," according to its CFO, Brian Newman. The shipping company on Tuesday posted a revenue decline for its fourth quarter, as shipping volumes continue to dip. To counteract slowing consumer demand, UPS also raised its shipping prices by 6.9% at the end of last year.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 21:55

The proposed Chat control EU law will not only seize totalitarian control of all private communication. It will also ban open source operating systems as an unintended consequence.

The EU is currently in the process of enacting the chat control law. It has been criticized for creating an EU-wide centralized mass surveillance and censorship system and enabling government eavesdropping on all private communication. But one little talked about consequence of the proposed law is that it makes practically all existing open source operating systems illegal, including all major Linux distributions. It would also effectively ban the F-Droid open source Android app archive.

Article 6 of the law requires all "software application stores" to:

Assess whether each service provided by each software application enables human-to-human communicationVerify whether each user is over or under the age of 17Prevent users under 17 from installing such communication softwareLeaving aside how crazy the stated intentions are or the details of what software would be targeted, let's consider the implications for open source software systems.

A "software application store" is defined by Article 2[*] to mean "a type of online intermediation services, which is focused on software applications as the intermediated product or service".

This clearly covers the online software archives almost universally used by open source operating systems since the 1990s as their main method of application distribution and security updates. These archives are often created and maintained by small companies or volunteer associations. They are hosted by hundreds of organizations such as universities and internet service providers all over the world. One of the main ones, the volunteer run Debian package archive, currently contains over 170,000 software packages.

These software archive services are not constructed around a concept of an individual human user with an identity or an account. They are serving anonymous machines, such as a laptop, a server or an appliance. These machines then might or might not be used by individual human users to install applications, entirely outside the control of the archive services.

To even conceptually and theoretically be able to obey this law would require a total redesign of software installation and sourcing and security updates, major organizational restructuring and scrapping, centralizing and rebuilding the software distribution infrastructure.

This is of course only theoretical as the costs and practical issues would be insurmountable.

If and when this law goes into effect it would make illegal the open source software services underpinning the majority of services and infrastructure on the internet, an untold numbers of appliances and the computers used by software developers, among many other things. To comply with the law all of it would have to shut down, globally, as the servers providing software and security updates can't tell the difference between a web server, a Japanese software developer, a refrigerator and an EU teenager.

It may seem unbelievable that the authors of the law didn't think about this but it is not that surprising considering this is just one of the many gigantic consequences of this sloppily thought out and written law.

[*] To define a software application store the law makes a reference to the EU Digital Markets Act, Article 2, point 12 which defines ''virtual assistant''. What they actually mean is point 14, which does define ''software application store''.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 20:33

Sports By Warner Todd Huston January 31, 2023 at 11:49am NBA superstar Stephen Curry and his wife, Ayesha, have spent years participating in ''social activism,'' but when it comes to having affordable housing units built near their own multimillion-dollar California mansion, the couple are suddenly all up in arms about the plans.

The Currys, who are huge Biden supporters, are hypocritically opposing the construction of a low-income, multifamily unit being built near their Atherton, California, mansion, saying they have ''major concerns'' for their ''privacy'' and ''safety,'' according to The Almanac News.

Take a look at this mansion:

A look at Steph and Ayesha Curry's new $30M mansion in Silicon Valley:

'–ª¸ 17,800 sq. ft, 2 acres'–ª¸ 7 BR, 9 BA'–ª¸ Movie theater'–ª¸ Full bar, wine cellar'–ª¸ Pool, sundeck pic.twitter.com/nFQ5H23Tvf

'-- Front Office Sports (@FOS) December 5, 2022

The city recently approved a plan to build a 16-unit apartment on a 1.5-acre lot near the Curry home. At least some of the units will be open for low-income renters.

But the FTX spokesman and his wife seem very unhappy with the plan despite their constant past proclamations about ''social justice.''

Curry, who plays for one of the most woke pro sports leagues in America, is upset by the plans. In a ''not in my backyard'' (NIMBY) letter to the city, the Currys claimed that the construction project would endanger their kids, thereby implying that low-income people are dangerous.

''As Atherton residents '... we have been following along with the housing element updates with special interest in the 23 Oakwood property,'' the NBA star wrote in his Jan. 18 letter. ''We hesitate to add to the 'not in our backyard' (literally) rhetoric, but we wanted to send a note before today's meeting. Safety and privacy for us and our kids continues to be our top priority and one of the biggest reasons we chose Atherton as home.''

Is Stephen Curry a hypocrite?

Yes: 98% (1503 Votes)

No: 2% (38 Votes)

Curry's fellow multi-millionaire residents reportedly feel the same way and want to block the affordable housing plan.

The city, of course, is being forced to consider affordable housing units in the ultra-rich neighborhood because new state laws are aimed at remaking communities and knocking down property values by forcing communities to add affordable housing in new construction, even if local rules prevent the construction of such housing, the Associated Press reported last year.

Indeed, in 2021 CNBC reported that Curry was seen bemoaning the ''racial wealth gap'' when he joined the woke nonprofit NinetyToZero. At the time, Curry insisted, ''Bridging the racial wealth gap is one of the biggest challenges of our generation,'' adding that ''uncovering solutions and creating opportunities is something I'm profoundly committed to.''

Still, the NBA player doesn't want any of that ''bridging'' going on near his house, and if it must, then he wants giant fences built to keep out the riff raff.

''We kindly ask that the town adopts the new housing element without the inclusion of 23 Oakwood,'' the Currys added in their letter, Almanac News reported. ''Should that not be sufficient for the state, we ask that the town commits to investing in considerably taller fencing and landscaping to block sight lines onto our family's property.''

Curry has been a big supporter of Joe Biden. When NBA's Golden State Warriors visited the Biden White House, he proudly delivered jerseys with Biden and Harris' name on them:

Steph Curry presents Golden State Warriors jerseys to President Biden and VP Harris at the White House. pic.twitter.com/BdJ2KofWfC

'-- NBC News (@NBCNews) January 17, 2023

In 2022 he joined Michelle Obama as a member of her When We All Vote organization, which aims to bolster Democratic voting in elections. And he and his wife also openly campaigned for Biden, Breitbart added.

Curry has also been an outspoken Trump hater. As the Washington Free Beacon noted, he recently called Donald Trump's growing campaign for 2024 a ''threat'' to the nation.

And in 2017, Curry slammed Under Armour, his own sponsor, after the company's CEO Kevin Plank described Trump as an ''asset.'' Curry responded by saying he would drop the ''et,'' ESPN reported.

Curry has every right to oppose the forced importation of people he finds undesirable into his rich neighborhood, of course. But it sure is funny how he wants that done in everyone's neighborhood but his. He has certainly earned his success, but he has also earned the reputation as a hypocritical liberal who wants the rules to apply to everyone but him.

SummaryMore Biographical Information Recent Posts ContactWarner Todd Huston has been writing editorials and news since 2001 but started his writing career penning articles about U.S. history back in the early 1990s. Huston has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN and several local Chicago news programs to discuss the issues of the day. Additionally, he is a regular guest on radio programs from coast to coast. Huston has also been a Breitbart News contributor since 2009. Warner works out of the Chicago area, a place he calls a "target-rich environment" for political news.

Warner Todd Huston has been writing editorials and news since 2001 but started his writing career penning articles about U.S. history back in the early 1990s. Huston has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN and several local Chicago news programs to discuss the issues of the day. Additionally, he is a regular guest on radio programs from coast to coast. Huston has also been a Breitbart News contributor since 2009. Warner works out of the Chicago area, a place he calls a "target-rich environment" for political news.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 19:33

We're launching a pilot subscription plan for ChatGPT, a conversational AI that can chat with you, answer follow-up questions, and challenge incorrect assumptions.

The new subscription plan, ChatGPT Plus, will be available for $20/month, and subscribers will receive a number of benefits:

General access to ChatGPT, even during peak timesFaster response timesPriority access to new features and improvementsChatGPT Plus is available to customers in the United States, and we will begin the process of inviting people from our waitlist over the coming weeks. We plan to expand access and support to additional countries and regions soon.

We love our free users and will continue to offer free access to ChatGPT. By offering this subscription pricing, we will be able to help support free access availability to as many people as possible.

Learning from the research previewWe launched ChatGPT as a research preview so we could learn more about the system's strengths and weaknesses and gather user feedback to help us improve upon its limitations. Since then, millions of people have given us feedback, we've made several important updates and we've seen users find value across a range of professional use-cases, including drafting & editing content, brainstorming ideas, programming help, and learning new topics.

Our plans for the futureWe plan to refine and expand this offering based on your feedback and needs. We'll also soon be launching the (ChatGPT API waitlist), and we are actively exploring options for lower-cost plans, business plans, and data packs for more availability.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:16

A large, regional feeder airline for UPS and other overnight express carriers last week tentatively committed to buy 20 remote-controlled cargo planes, with a novel design, for middle-mile deliveries.

Ameriflight, which flies 156 small turboprop aircraft daily to more than 200 destinations in the U.S. and the Caribbean, signed a letter of intent with San Diego-based Natilus for 20 Kona feeder aircraft valued at $134 million, the companies announced.

Natilus is developing a family of pilotless aircraft it claims will increase cargo volume by 60% and cut carbon emissions in half, thereby making air shipments more affordable. The efficiency gains are possible because of carbon-fiber composite airframes and a blended-wing body '-- essentially a uniframe in which sections meld together '-- that creates more usable volume and better aerodynamics than a traditional airliner.

The absence of pilots also leaves more room for cargo.

The Kona is a short-haul feeder aircraft with a maximum payload of 4.7 tons and 900-mile range designed to carry the equivalent of seven LD3-45 small shipping containers. It is powered by two rear propeller engines. Other variants are a medium-haul jet with a 73-ton capacity, similar to a Boeing 767, and a long-range unmanned vehicle with a 121-ton payload.

The triangular blended wing-body configuration is a departure from tube-and-wing aircraft, which are loaded in a linear fashion. By rotating the cargo to 45 degrees, the diamond configuration maximizes space in the aircraft for more loading positions, a highly desirable quality in an e-commerce era when light boxes fill up planes before the takeoff weight limit is reached. Natilus aircraft will be smaller in size than their legacy counterparts, with more volume, according to the company.

Traditional fuselage cross sections are optimized for passengers, with a circular design to aid cabin pressurization. But cargo naturally moves best in rectangular boxes or pallets. Fitting rectangular pallets in a circular fuselage section leaves plenty of empty space. A blended-wing body configuration allows for a single rectangular cross section and full utilization of the available volume.

Collins Aerospace will provide the cargo loading system.

Co-founder and CEO Aleksey Matyushev has described the blended-wing Natilus concept as an attempt to combine the timeliness of airfreight with significant cost reductions that bring shipping to the point of being a commodity '-- as it is in ocean freight.

''We missed the mark when we started Natilus. We thought what people wanted was autonomy. Talking to our customers, what they really were interested in was a more volume-centric aircraft with autonomy more as a carrot, or the next evolution,'' he said in an interview on Think Flight, a YouTube channel.

One of Natilus' advisers is Ram Menen, who is famous in the air cargo industry for building Emirates' cargo division into one of the largest cargo carriers in the world and helping found The International Air Cargo Association.

In a Q&A on the company's website, he said Natilus' lower operating cost per freight-ton-kilometer will be a big advantage for cargo operators.

''Since Natilus will have large cargo doors and blended wing body design , it will be ideal for long and large/heavy cargo and will be a good replacement for the Boeing 747 freighter. The volumetric capacity of all the variants are very e-commerce friendly and ideal for low density cargo,'' he added.

Natilus management envisions the Kona freighter as ideal for reaching outlying regions with small airports and as an alternative to road feeder service in the 300- to 430-mile range. The autonomous freighter is better suited for areas with water crossings, mountains, poor highway infrastructure or low-density routes where truck deliveries are less efficient, the company argues.

Blended-wing bodies have been used in military applications but were abandoned by previous commercial developers because they weren't ideal for carrying passengers. Without people to worry about, issues about cabin pressurization, quick access to exit doors for evacuation and G-forces became manageable in a cargo-only aircraft.

A year ago Natilus announced $6 billion in advance purchase commitments, including from Kenyan all-cargo airline Astral Aviation, for more than 440 semi-autonomous aircraft.

Whether those orders are realized remains to be seen. Natilus is a 7-year-old startup with new technology that has yet to produce an actual plane and will require huge amounts of capital for further R&D and establishing a manufacturing line. The motivation for Ameriflight, and other carriers, to sign expressions of interest is to be at the front of the line when production aircraft become available and get a jump on competitors.

Matyushev told FreightWaves the company expects to begin Kona flight tests in late 2024 and customer deliveries in 2026. The larger planes will take longer.

Ameriflight invests for futureAmeriflight, the largest U.S. carrier in the under-7,500-pound payload category and a major regional partner for UPS Airlines, believes Natilus can deliver on its promise to improve the economics of airfreight.

''What we've seen from their technology so far has given us confidence that they're at the forefront of large autonomous cargo planes,'' said Jamie Smith, the company's director of communications. ''We're impressed with Natilus' continued progress on the blended-wing body aircraft design and their innovation of providing turnkey solutions for specific cargo needs. Natilus' technology provides a lower cost of operation, while remaining well suited in capabilities for the customers in our corner of the industry. As battery technology increases and/or hydrogen-powered engines are developed and certified, the ability to modify the Kona to those alternate power sources is inviting.''

An Ameriflight Beechcraft cargo plane next to a jet operated by UPS, it's largest customer. (Photo: Ameriflight)The Kona aircraft will enable Ameriflight to grow its route structure and pursue new business opportunities, she added.

Ameriflight utilizes turboprop aircraft to connect rural areas to FedEx (NYSE: FDX), DHL and UPS (NYSE: UPS) air hubs in large cities and also offers on-demand expedited delivery service to logistics companies. The largest aircraft it operates are the Saab 340B and the Embraer 120. The fleet also consists of the Fairchild SSA-227 Metroliner, Beechcraft 1900 and Beechcraft 99.

The first few Saab 340Bs entered service late last year under a lease agreement with Miami-based Jetstream Aviation Capital for 15 used aircraft converted to main-deck freighters. Five more are expected to be delivered this spring.

In December 2021, Ameriflight reached an agreement providing Boston-based Merlin Labs access to its fleet for testing of its autonomous technology. Merlin's software and hardware can control an aircraft without human intervention. The Google Ventures-backed company says it has flown hundreds of flights and integrated its platform into four different aircraft types, including multi-engine aircraft. Large aircraft will be able to fly with reduced crews and smaller aircraft will fly themselves, once regulators approve autonomous aviation.

The immediate benefit for Ameriflight is an increase in flight safety. If it proves out, the airline could retrofit all cockpits and avionics with autonomous technology, extending the life of its existing fleet '-- a less expensive proposition than buying purpose-built robot aircraft.

A key reason Ameriflight is pursuing the Natilus and Merlin Labs technologies is that they reduce the need for pilots, which are increasingly difficult to find because of retirements, training barriers, licensing costs and quality-of-life issues.

''Today, a pilot might come to us with a thousand hours of flight experience,'' said former Ameriflight CEO Paul Chase in a news release about the transaction. With the Merlin system ''we're putting the equivalent of much more experience in the cockpit on Day One. You don't have this learning curve that pilots need to go through, and that lowers the overall risk profile to the airline.

''It's imperative that we complement '-- not replace '-- our existing team of fixed-wing pilots with autonomous pilots. We have ample opportunities for growth in front of us with the increased level of e-commerce, disruptions in the supply chain, etc. But we can't capitalize on that in any significant way unless we solve this staffing problem in a scalable and cost-effective way.''

Ameriflight last year significantly revised its pilot compensation program to include substantial pay increases and a six-figure retention bonus plan.

''Our intention is to use the Natilus and Merlin technology in tandem, along with our present operations, to support both our current customers and the growth we're seeing in the demand for our services. They will be entirely complementary to, and most certainly not replacing, our current aircraft or pilot group. It will be an addition to our fleet and used as a separate business avenue, allowing us to grow our diversified aviation platform and to support the unprecedented demand for our services,'' said Smith.

Autonomous flight evolutionThe Natilus cargo jets will be capable of fully autonomous flight but initially operate with a remote pilot in an office to comply with current safety standards and enable faster approval. The ability to be certified under current regulations is a big advantage over drones used for last-mile logistics. Switching from a pilot in the cockpit to a ''fly-by-mouse autopilot system'' is a smaller leap for civil aviation authorities, which are already comfortable with existing autopilot functions that allow most of the trip to be preprogrammed and turn the pilot into a skilled flight manager rather than a manual aviator.

The remote operator simply inputs waypoints into the aircraft's navigation system and monitors the system to make sure everything is functioning properly, Matyushev explained. With remote piloting, a single person could operate three aircraft simultaneously.

Natilus moved from Silicon Valley to San Diego two years ago to be close to a sophisticated wind tunnel and a Federal Aviation Administration office that manages certifications for advanced aircraft. Engineers used data from wind tunnel tests on models to predict flight characteristics of the full-scale aircraft and help refine the autopilot.

Last spring, the company acquired a 12,000-square-foot hangar and runway facility at Brown Field. It plans to fly a small-scale prototype within a weej to gather more data on flight characteristics and close another funding round this summer, Matyushev said.

Final assembly will take place in San Diego with components made by suppliers such as Janicki, which will build carbon fiber panels, bulkheads and other sections.

Other companies pursuing middle-mile and heavy unmanned aerial vehicles include Switzerland-based Destinus SA with a hypersonic plane, Dronamics, Drone Delivery Canada and Elroy Air with its hybrid-electrical Chapparal drone. Natilus is the only one with a blended-wing body.

(Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the Kona aircraft as a jet. It is a twin turboprop. Also, the agreement with Merlin Labs was in December 2021, not 2022. In some cases, the airline was incorrectly referred to as Amerijet.)

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.

RECOMMENDED READING: Logistics provider Flexport interested in self-flying cargo jets

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:09

California cops shoot dead double amputee, 36, as he tries to run away from them on his stumps: Police department says officers feared he was going to 'throw his knife at them' WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT Anthony Lowe Jr. was killed by Huntington Park Police officers on ThursdayHe had just stabbed someone and was trying to flee on his stumps The officers fired at least eight shots at Lowe Jr, who died at the scene By Jen Smith, Chief Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 10:37 EST, 31 January 2023 | Updated: 16:46 EST, 31 January 2023

A group of California police officers shot and killed a double amputee on Thursday as he tried to run away from them on his stumps after jumping out of his wheelchair.

The three cops from Huntington Park Police Department were filmed firing at least eight shots at Anthony Lowe Jr., a 36-year-old father-of-two.

His family say he lost the lower halves of his legs recently after an altercation with police in Texas.

Lowe Jr. had just stabbed someone unprovoked, according to the police department, and was trying to run away from two officers on Thursday.

First, they tried to Tase him, chasing him as he ran down the sidewalk, away from the wheelchair he had leaped from.

The three cops from Huntington Park Policed Department were filmed firing at least eight shots at Anthony Lowe Jr., a 36-year-old father-of-two

Lowe jumped out of his wheelchair and was trying to flee the officers when they opened fire

Lowe Jr is shown lying on the sidewalk after being shot multiple times. He was pronounced dead at the scene

Lowe, 36, lost his legs recently, according to his family. They say he was murdered

He turned and tried to hurry away from them, clutching a large butcher's knife in one hand.

A second police car arrived, from which a third cop emerged. Within 15 seconds of the third officer arriving, they fired multiple shots, shooting Lowe in the upper torso.

Once he was on the ground lying on his stomach, they placed him in handcuffs.

'The suspect was tased at least twice by Huntington Park Officers but the deployment of the taser was ineffective.

'The suspect attempted to throw the butcher knife at the officers again, at which time an officer involved shooting occurred,' the LA County Sheriff's Office release said.

Lowe Jr. later died at the scene. His family is now demanding answers from the police department.

The officers involved have not yet been named.

Lowe Jr. was carrying a large knife which the cops say he had just used to stab someone. After failing to subdue him with their Tasers, the officers said they feared he was going to throw the knife at them

A different view of the incident shows Lowe Jr. on the ground as the third officer arrived. He was clutching a large 'butcher's knife', which the cops say he threatened to 'throw' at them

Lt. Hugo Reynaga of the LA County Sheriff's Office said the cops involved had been placed on leave 'for a few days' but that no official disciplinary action had been taken.

The LA County Sheriff's Office is now investigating the incident, which comes three weeks after unarmed 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by a different group of police officers in Memphis, Tennessee.

'They murdered my son, in a wheelchair with no legs. They do need to do something about it,' his mother, Dorothy Lowe, said at a press conference on Sunday.

The family told The LA Times that he lost the lower half of his legs recently following a different altercation with police in Texas.

He had been living with his mother as a result of the injury.

On the day of his death, she says he'd told her he was going to McDonald's.

It's unclear who he is alleged to have stabbed, or what that person's condition is now.

Family and friends of Anthony Lowe Jr hold a news conference to demand an investigation into his death outside of the Huntington Park Police Department in Huntington Park, California

Anthony Lowe's family gathered at a press conference on Monday

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:02

Auto thefts, carjackings spiked, report shows

Auto thefts, carjackings in major U.S. cities have spiked, new report shows 03:36 Motor vehicle thefts across 30 major cities have increased by 59% from 2019 to 2022, spiking amid the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis of crime trends released Thursday by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ).

The data also showed motor vehicle theft more than doubled in eight of the 30 cities surveyed amid the pandemic. It tripled in Memphis and Chicago.

"For decades, motor vehicle thefts had been plummeting. Certainly from the early '90s through the beginning of the pandemic, they were way down," said Dr. Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and author of the CCJ study. "That's because, quite simply, it became more and more difficult to steal a car. Newer model cars were accompanied by electronic ignition and locking systems, plus GPS systems."

But, according to Rosenfeld, that downward trend began reversing "right at the start" of the pandemic.

"That has persisted through the end of 2022 with no sign of letting up," he added.

The number of motor vehicle thefts was a combined 37,560 higher across 30 cities in 2022 than the year before, according to the CCJ report.

The latest deep dive into national crime trends drew on data from 35 cities nationwide, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The new study from CCJ examined monthly rates for 10 violent, property, and drug offenses, though not every city reported data on all crimes. In the case of homicides, 27 cities published numbers publicly.

Here's a breakdown of the new report's top takeaways.

Carjackings increased by 29% amid the pandemicIn 2020, Americans suffered $7.4 billion in losses due to motor vehicle theft, according to the FBI. According to the CCJ, "added to these direct costs are the costs of other crimes, such as robberies, burglaries, and drive-by shootings, that motor vehicle thefts help to facilitate."

While motor vehicle thefts decreased dramatically from a rate of 659 per 100,000 population in 1991, to 246 per 100,000 in 2020, the onset of the pandemic saw a quick reversal.

"For decades, motor vehicle theft rates had been plummeting. Motor vehicle death rates had been plummeting," said Rosenfeld. "Certainly from the early 1990s through the beginning of the pandemic, they were way down."

What changed? Rosenfeld said he does not have a "good, definitive answer" to that question yet, but calls the uptick "emblematic of contemporary urban crime."

According to the report, the number of carjackings '-- defined as theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle by force or threat '-- increased from 3,000 in 2020 to 3,713 in 2022 across seven cities: Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Memphis, Norfolk and San Francisco.

Data from the city of Chicago suggest that most citywide carjackers are young adults, although the share of carjackings by juveniles more than doubled, from 18% to 41%, between 2016 and 2021.

Rosenberg also noted that "while carjacking is technically a form of robbery, robbery rates fell during the pandemic while carjacking increased."

"Two distinct increases in vehicle theft are discernible since early 2020," the report detailed, "an initial rise at the beginning of the pandemic and a much sharper increase in the spring of 2022."

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, there were more than 936,000 vehicle thefts in 2021, a 27% increase since 2019. Insurance claims for catalytic converter theft '-- which is defined as theft of a part of a motor vehicle '-- increased by a staggering 1,215% from 2019 to 2021.

Analysts like Rosenberg stressed that "recent increases in property crime and carjacking require immediate action from law enforcement and policymakers."

Homicides declined 4% in 2022, but remain historically highHomicides in major American cities ticked down by 4% in 2022, a decrease of 242 incidents across the 27 American cities publishing data for this crime. But the murder rate remained 34% higher than it was in 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the overall murder rate sank nationwide, the murder rate in Raleigh, North Carolina, surged 48%, while Seattle saw a 14% increase and Atlanta a 10% increase.

The city of Raleigh went from 33 homicides in 2021 to 49 in 2022, a statistical change Rosenberg calls "meaningful."

The number of homicides rose by 37% in the cities studied by CCJ between 2019 and 2020.

Rosenfeld said that declining confidence in law enforcement following widespread protests in the summer of 2020 meant some Americans were "less likely to cooperate with the police when they are trying to investigate serious crimes, less likely to report crimes to the police, and more likely to take matters into their own hands."

In 2022, the drop in homicides, aggravated assaults and gun assaults "could reflect some easing of the stress and dislocations associated with the pandemic, as well as decreases in the widespread social unrest that followed George Floyd's murder," according to the report. "Overall, however, the rates of these offenses remain substantially higher than prior to the pandemic. Fatal and nonfatal assaults continue to warrant serious attention from policymakers."

In Richmond, homicide rates plummeted 40%, while New York City experienced a more modest drop of nearly 12% in the citywide homicide rate.

Domestic violence incidents dropped slightly in a dozen major cities Incidents of domestic violence decreased by nearly 5% in 2022, with 4,067 fewer domestic violence incidents reported.

Yet according to CCJ: "These results should be viewed with caution, however, because they are based on only 11 cities for which domestic violence data were available," underscoring the scarcity of reporting on such incidents.

A previous systematic review of domestic violence by CCJ documented an 8.1% increase in incidents after cities and states imposed pandemic-related lockdown orders in the spring of 2020. Authors noted that "COVID-19 left parents and children confined to their homes, cut off from friends, neighbors, colleagues, and others capable of reporting signs of abuse and violence and intervening to help potential victims escape violent situations."

These and other dynamics may result in a variety of reporting challenges, experts warn.

"At least earlier during the pandemic when victims were likely to be sequestered in their homes with offenders, they may not have been able to contact the police," Rosenfeld said. "But based on the police data, we see a continuing decline in domestic violence."

Robberies increase, particularly in non-residential areasRobberies and larcenies '-- thefts unaccompanied by force or breaking and entering '-- increased in 2022 by 5.5% and 8% nationwide, respectively, across 31 major cities, the report found.

While residential burglaries dropped by 2%, nonresidential burglaries shot up by 26,960 '-- an 11% increase and a statistical phenomenon experts believe may be connected to the reopening of businesses.

"The average monthly robbery rate in the 31 cities with available data was lower during the first two years of the pandemic than during the preceding two years," according to the report.

Robberies began to increase toward the latter half of 2021. By December 2022, there were 4,143 more robberies in the cities studied by CCJ, a 5.5% increase from 2021. Still, the number of robberies in 2022 remained 4% lower than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. By the same measure, nonresidential burglaries remained nearly 8% lower in 2022.

What it all means: Social unrest, COVID-19 and what's to comeA "return to somewhat normal living conditions," is one possible explanation for the recent uptick in crimes committed to acquire money or property from a victim, according to the CCJ.

"Opportunities for retail theft have increased as shops have reopened," the report noted. "More people on the street provides more targets for street robbers."

Another factor is the emergence of "destabilizing economic conditions," including inflation-driven price hikes in food, fuel, and housing prices that first materialized in the final months of 2021, and accelerated sharply during 2022.

As for homicides and other violent crimes outside of robbery, "I don't have a crystal ball," Rosenfeld conceded. "But I would say the overall decline, though modest, the downward trend we're seeing in 2022, suggests to me that we're going to continue to see declines in the coming year."

What exactly is to come in 2023? Experts like Rosenfeld acknowledge that history '-- and 2020 in particular '-- prove trendlines are highly susceptible to national phenomena.

"Barring another controversial incident akin to George Floyd '-- police use force that goes viral and spurs unrest '-- and barring a huge uptick in COVID that brings back lock downs, I would expect these trends to continue downward relatively modestly. That's my best guess about 2023. But it's a guess."

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In: Homicide COVID-19 Carjacking Domestic Violence Crime Nicole SgangaCBS News reporter covering homeland security and justice.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 16:54

COLOMBO : The United States wants China to provide credible and specific assurances to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) along with other creditors to help Sri Lanka unlock a $2.9 billion bailout, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka entered into a staff level agreement with the global lender last September but needs financing assurances from key bilateral lenders China and Japan before disbursements can begin.

India, the third significant lender, dispatched its financing assurances to the IMF last month.

"What China has offered so far is not enough. We need to see credible and specific assurances that they will meet the IMF standard of debt relief," U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told reporters.

"We, the United States, are prepared to do our part. Our Paris Club partners are prepared to do their part. India has made strong commitments that it will provide the credible assurances the IMF is looking for."

The Export-Import Bank of China has offered Sri Lanka a two-year moratorium on its debt and said it would support the country's efforts to secure an IMF program.

Sri Lanka, an island of 22 million people, is caught in its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948, with soaring inflation, a recession and currency depreciation over the last year.

"We want to see an IMF program as quickly as possible. That is what Sri Lanka deserves, that is what Sri Lanka needs," Nuland added.

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She maybe the highest ranking American official but most Americans do not even know her name. However, she is visiting Sri Lanka twice in one year & that should mean something. Why is she visiting Sri Lanka is however more important. She first visited Sri Lanka days before riots started resulted in the resignation of the former President. Naturally, all eyes are fixed on what is likely to emerge after her forthcoming visit. Over the years, there is no doubt the US has created local ''agents'' covering all spectrums of society.

While UK held position of might during colonial rule, the western world have had to move over to allow US to dictate world affairs. US bullying tactics was seen in the leaked call between Nuland & US envoy to Ukraine in 2014, berating the EU. This got her a thumbs up from both Republicans & Democrats.

It is no surprise she has been in the forefront of most of US incursions. Nuland was Deputy Chief of US mission to NATO in Brussels during the unilateral attack on Afghanistan after 9/11.

Nuland & ambassador Nicholas Burns strategized to get allies involved. He & Samantha Power are on the Board of the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School in which Nuland is a Senior Fellow.

While she claims Russia has ''invaded'' Ukraine, she is mum on all of US invasions. Afghanistan remains illegally occupied since 2001. Nuland was the foreign policy advisor to Dick Cheney during that invasion.

She rose to fame with her ''F**k the EU'' 2014 February leaked tape which part of US effort to replace Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych '' which succeeded in a matter of 3 weeks. Attention was diverted from the abusive rhetoric towards the EU by an American official to blaming the Russians for taping her! US involvement in Ukraine has resulted in 13,000 lost lives & Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe '' so what is the cost of this war for Ukraine?

While she could declare 'F**k the EU' & expected the EU not to respond, when the Turkish may referred to a State Dept spokeswoman as a 'stupid blonde' after her comments regarding how Turkey handled a demonstration in 2013, Nuland in 2015 took issue with Turkey for the 'inappropriate comment' by the Turkish mayor. This was followed by the US ambassador to Turkey posting a picture of himself on instagram with his brunette hair photoshopped to appear blonde with caption ''American diplomats: we're all blonde''. They lengths they go to, to defend each other.

Nuland's husband Robert Kagan is the co-founder of the Project for a New American Century which is a neoconservative policy think tank.

However, the Politico Magazine in 2014 released top 50 influential people in Washington & Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Kagan & Victoria Nuland was described as the ''ultimate American power couple''.

The manner that Nulands' husband Kagan's neocon lobby exerted pressure on even President Obama was seen in the manner Obama was eventually attacked as a 'weak leader' by them & Nuland even advocates permanent NATO bases along the eastern border. It is said that Obama learned too late what a wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time & with a wrong direction can do '' Sri Lanka, saw that after her visit to Sri Lanka days after which a riot started, she is returning again & that return should not be taken lightly. She is obviously arriving to see if the plans she has set are in order & to decide how & when to turn the switch.

Also in 2015 Nuland was at the receiving end of Egypts Muslim Brotherhood which accused her of ''unreserved audacity'' when she criticized the Egyptian government of stifling freedom of expression. Her comments on the detention & interrogation of Bassem Yousself means she will certainly be making a comment on Wasantha Mudalige, the hero of the Sri Lankan aragala movement supported heavily by the US embassy in Colombo & its pawns across the board. She may also pop in a word for Sepala Amarasinghe in prison for insulting Buddhism, which is similar to the offense for which Bassem Youssef was imprisoned (insulting Islam). Youssef was eventually released.

In April 2022 Nuland visited Bangladesh. Not beating about the bush, Bangladesh was told to support US-NATO war against Russia. She visited India & Sri Lanka too & China was on that list. Her visits were infamous for what ensued after her departure. The 2014 Ukraine coup that overthrew Viktor Yanukovich was followed with the overthrowing of Sri Lanka's President in July 2022. Her trip to Bangladesh, resulted in Bangladesh voting with 139 countries in a resolution that demanded 'aid access & civilian protection in Ukraine' accusing Russia of creating a 'dire humanitarian situation'. Bangladesh had previously voted with India, Pakistan & China & abstained from UN resolution reprimanding Russia. Interestingly like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh's major share of exports goes to US & EU while Russia supplies wheat, fertilizer, machinery, fresh & dried fruit to Bangladesh. Russia is also constructing Bangladesh's biggest power plant. The best way US knows to deal with such situations is to pluck the human rights topic & accuse Bangladesh & threaten sanctions, which US did. Any nation that US aligns with & commits human rights violations are however omitted from US statements or sanctions. Such is the hypocrisy.

Exactly who holds power & decision in USA? Is it the President, the Congress or groups of think tanks & secret societies who promote neocon ideology disadvantageous mostly to the American citizens. They bear all the costs of the wars that US enters. The backers of the wars walk away with all the deals & profits. Unfortunately, this reality has not dawned on the American people & the few that understands are often neutralized by other means.

If Nuland was the mastermind behind the February 2014 ''regime change'' was she also behind the riots that ensued from March 2022 in Sri Lanka leading to the resignation of the Sri Lankan President in July 2022. US overthrew 2 democratically elected Presidents. Of course, both were hailed as victory for ''democracy'' & echoes Prince Charles 'whatever love means'. In the case of Ukraine, anyone speaking against the US regime change were dubbed pro-Russian, while anyone speaking against the undemocratic ouster in Sri Lanka was equally dubbed with all sorts of names.

Ukraine is in a mess, with no nation likely to come to the rescue of the Ukrainian people, while US pawns have declared default, devalued Sri Lanka's currency & saddled Sri Lanka with the IMF with a likely cut & paste of the Jamaican tragedy likely to happen to Sri Lanka. All that the US-local promoters will end up doing is sing hosanahs about 'democracy' & 'good governance' though none of them will feel the pinch as the IMF only punches the poor & middle class.

What we need to realize is that the decisions on regime change are coming out of policy plans of the think tanks that reign the US. Most of the top officials are serving on this think tanks & what they decide the President & Congress require to parrot. We see some of these think tanks heavily involved with youth, civil society, religious entities, legal fraternity, academia, media & even politicians funding numerous programs to align them to the US think tank goals & objectives.

The question Sri Lankans must answer '' who is the US regime-change heart throb for 2024 Presidential Election? Prior to that we must all wonder what her arrival in Sri Lanka is likely to result in the moment she leaves Sri Lanka. Riots have been a corner stone of every visit, therefore Sri Lanka's intel should be on alert even room for a possible foreign troop ''invasion''.

*

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 16:53

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka is shifting a naval base to a port built and controlled by China, it said on Monday, a move that will strengthen security at a harbor that foreign powers fear China could use for military purposes.

The base currently in the tourist district of Galle will be moved 125 km (80 miles) east along Sri Lanka's southern coast to Hambantota, nearer a main shipping route between Asia and Europe.

The $1.5 billion deepwater port is likely to play a major role in China's ''Belt and Road'' initiative and is under a 99-year lease to China Merchants Port Holdings at a cost of $1.12 billion.

Government and diplomatic sources have told Reuters that the United States, India and Japan have raised concerns that China might use the port as a naval base.

The Sri Lankan government and Chinese embassy in Colombo have denied that and the agreement for the port deal included a clause that it cannot be used for military purposes.

''Sri Lanka has already informed China that Hambantota port cannot be used for military purposes,'' Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office said in a statement.

''Since the security of the port will be under the control of Sri Lanka navy, there is no need to fear,'' the statement said.

A naval unit has already been established in Hambantota and construction work for the base is under way, navy spokesman Dinesh Bandara said.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said the Hambantota port project was to help Sri Lanka achieve its aim of becoming a logistics hub in the Indian Ocean, which was good for the country's economic development and the region as a whole.

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LONDON '-- A longstanding dispute over wages and working conditions came to a head on Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of British workers took part in what organizers said was the biggest day of industrial action in over a decade.

Around 500,000 workers joined the day of mass action, teachers, train drivers, university lecturers, bus drivers, civil servants and airport workers marched out. The major discontent comes amid rampant inflation and years of stagnant wage growth, putting further pressure on Britain's long-ruling Conservative government, which is grappling with a cost-of-living crisis.

Downing Street warned Brits the strike would cause ''significant disruption''. Thousands of schools have been closed '' around 85 per cent of schools in England and Wales are said to be affected '' and most trains in England have stopped running.

British nurses are on strike over pay, testing a health care system in crisis

''Walkout Wednesday,'' is how the Daily Mail described the strikes, calling it a ''general strike in all but name.'' The Sun tabloid dubbed the disruption ''Lockdown 2023.''

The day of coordinated action is just the latest in what British newspapers dubbed the 'Winter of Discontent', named after a period of 1978-1979 marked by widespread work stoppages.

Catherine Barnard, a British academic specializing in labor law at Cambridge University, said Britain has the toughest strike laws in Europe, with disgruntled workers having to jump through many hurdles before they can go on strike '' and they are likely to get tougher.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has introduced a law mandating a ''minimum service level'' that allows employers to enforce basic services during strikes in areas such as health, railways, education, fire and border security.

Nevertheless, various workers have been on strike en masse since last summer '' and since then the scale of the strikes has only escalated.

Workers say they are underpaid and overworked, and that their actual salaries have not kept pace with rising costs for many years. For example, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, mid-level teachers' salaries fell by 9 to 10 percent in real terms between 2010 and 2022. The government says it cannot pay teachers what they are asking because it would fuel inflation, which is already over 10 percent.

Several unions say there is no sign of a breakthrough in wage negotiations and have pledged further action in the coming weeks.

More strikes are planned throughout February '' and beyond. Newspapers have calendars and interactive tools to help readers find out what strikes are happening in their area and when. Nurses are expected to rejoin the picket line next week. When they went on strike in December, it was the first time in their union's 106-year history.

''It's not going the way Rishi Sunak hoped it would,'' said Steven Fielding, professor emeritus of political history at the University of Nottingham. ''He's basically attempted a Margaret Thatcher makeover, but it doesn't work.''

When Sunak became prime minister last year, he positioned himself as manager in charge of the economy, the person who would clean up his predecessor's economic mess and, he hoped, get things back on track in time for the next election, which is due to be held by January 2025 will. Like Margaret Thatcher, the former Conservative leader who is still revered in the party, Sunak's government is unyielding to the unions and has introduced new ''anti-strike'' legislation.

''Thatcher did that, she crushed the unions and legislated, but times were different and she had the wind in her sails,'' Fielding said.

Sunak has no such wind. His government is being dogged by accusations of ''dirt'' and the economic outlook is bleak. The International National Monetary Fund forecast Tuesday that the UK will be the only major economy in the world to slide into recession in 2023.

Brit Rishi Sunak moved into Tory Sleaze probes

The public is divided over the strikes, with strong support for nurses, ambulance staff, firefighters and, to a lesser extent, teachers. Driving examiners, university staff and civil servants have less support. Research from YouGov found that support for the action correlates not with the disruption caused, but with how much workers' perceived contribution to society and whether they are underpaid.

Fielding said today's strike wave is much broader than that of the late 1970s. ''These were intensive but relatively short months. It's been like this since the summer. And it's escalating in parts of the economy that were untouched in the 1970s. It's not just garbage men. There are university professors, doctors, firefighters, ambulance drivers, everyone is on strike, much more reach of the economy.''

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:53

Alec Baldwin did not attend a required gun safety training session prior to the accidental shooting of ''Rust'' cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the Santa Fe district attorney said on Tuesday, outlining its case against the actor in filings made as part of its formal charge of involuntary manslaughter.

In a 10-page probable cause filing published Tuesday, the DA said the actor and producer of ''Rust'' ''was not present for required firearms training prior to the commencement of filming.'' Prosecutors also said that Baldwin requested and was granted a gun training session on set; but according to a deposition from ''Rust'' armorer and fellow defendant Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, he appeared ''distracted and talking on his cell phone to his family during the training.''

Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed have each been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection to Hutchins' death. The charges, if found guilty, come with a maximum prison sentence of 18 months.

The probable cause filing offered a glimpse into the case that prosecutors plan to make in court. The DA argued that Baldwin is guilty of acting with criminal negligence as a producer of ''Rust,'' claiming that it was his responsibility in such a role to ensure that gun safety protocols were upheld.

''Baldwin, by act or omission or failure to act in his position as a producer directly contributed and/or failed to mitigate reckless and dangerous actions during a very short time period,'' the filing read.

In his own accounts of the incident filed by his lawyers last year, Baldwin claims that he was a producer on ''Rust'' for creative matters, and other producers were responsible for hiring Gutierrez-Reed as armorer and handling gun safety and other logistical duties on set.

''This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins' tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice,'' Baldwin's attorney, Luke Nikas, said when the charges were announced. ''We will fight these charges and we will win.''

TheWrap has reached out to Baldwin's representatives for further comment.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:50

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: February 1, 2023 ~

Sam Bankman-Fried

Five pages of a deeply sensitive document that is both embarrassing and potentially a legal threat to people in positions of power vanished yesterday from public viewing in the criminal case against former crypto-kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried. The document is a letter written by five federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The courthouse where the five pages vanished from view is where the case is being heard: the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

According to personnel in the Press Office and Records Management Office of that District Court that we spoke to yesterday, all six pages of the document had been filed electronically on Monday, January 30, and all six pages of the document were able to be viewed in the court's ECF system (Electronic Case Files) according to those personnel. ECF is the federal judiciary's system that allows case documents, such as pleadings and motions, to be filed electronically. What's available for viewing on the ECF system should also be available for attorneys, the press and the general public to view through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system at a cost of ten cents per page.

We've been using PACER for many years and our experience yesterday was a first. We learned of the situation as follows:

On Monday evening, CNN reporter Kara Scannell quoted a portion of one paragraph from this document. We didn't come across that CNN story until Tuesday morning. When we went to PACER to view and download the full document, only the first page of the six-page document appeared with text. The other five pages were completely blank except for the case number and page number at the top of page six. That is, the five blank pages were not redacted using thick black lines which is the customary technique for redacting court documents; they were simply blank with no text other than the header on page six.

We checked the Court Docket to see if a redaction or sealing request had been made for this document. We could find none. After learning from the Press Office and Records Management Office that all six pages had been filed by the federal prosecutors, we were referred to the Courtroom Deputy for the Presiding Judge in the case, Lewis A. Kaplan. We left a voice mail explaining the problem, along with our email address and a request to receive the full document via email. We promptly received via email from the Courtroom Deputy a complete copy of the document and its two exhibits. You can view the six-page document and exhibits here.

In a return email, we thanked the Courtroom Deputy for the document and asked that the problem be corrected so that all six pages could be accessed and viewed via PACER. As of this morning, the five pages are still blank on PACER.

It was immediately obvious to us that multiple powerful persons might have had an interest in suppressing further press coverage of the material on those five pages. We've broken down the most sensitive areas into two parts below, along with essential background information.

Information Embarrassing to, and/or a Legal Threat to, Big Law Firm Sullivan & Cromwell, Which Has Already Been Under a Barrage of Negative Publicity for Aggressively Pushing to Become Lead Counsel in the FTX Bankruptcy Case, Despite a Mountain of Conflicts of Interest:

Page Six of the document carries this information:

'''...the defendant [Sam Bankman-Fried] moved to take control of approximately $500 million of Robinhood shares that were purchased using misappropriated FTX customer funds by a special purpose entity owned primarily by the defendant. The Government has since seized the shares after demonstrating probable cause to believe that they are the proceeds of wire fraud and are property involved in money laundering. Since the Government's seizure, the defendant has claimed that he would direct the majority of these funds toward making customers whole, but the original circumstances of the purchase of these shares, through a foreign special purpose vehicle with no public connection to FTX or Alameda, further indicate the steps the defendant has taken to obscure his criminal misuse of FTX customer property.'' (Italics added.)

On January 17, Sullivan & Cromwell law partner, Andrew Dietderich, filed a document with the bankruptcy court acknowledging that the law firm had not only done extensive legal work for FTX but personally represented its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, from April 14, 2022 through August 5, 2022. The disclosure noted that ''This matter was arranged, and paid for, by Alameda.'' That's Bankman-Fried's hedge fund which prosecutors have charged he used to loot FTX customer funds. The specific nature of the work Sullivan & Cromwell did for Bankman-Fried involved ''a position that had been established in the stock of Robinhood Markets, Inc.'' according to the Dietderich declaration.

So the paragraph above, that has vanished from public viewing, adds the smoking gun that federal prosecutors believe that some lawyer or law firm created ''a foreign special purpose vehicle'' to hide more than half a billion dollars of looted funds. It also means that it is highly likely that federal prosecutors know who that lawyer or law firm is.

This information comes at a delicate time for Sullivan & Cromwell. Next Monday, February 6, the U.S. Trustee in the FTX bankruptcy case, who represents the U.S. Department of Justice, is scheduled to present its case at a hearing as to why an independent examiner should be appointed so that Sullivan & Cromwell is not afforded the ability to investigate its own conduct in its previous legal dealings with FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried. Sullivan & Cromwell has aggressively opposed that intervention.

The government's newly disclosed position that the half billion dollars of Robinhood shares '' on which Sullivan & Cromwell provided legal guidance to Sam Bankman-Fried '' came from ''the proceeds of wire fraud'' and ''money laundering'' isn't a good look for Sullivan & Cromwell.

The Document Is Deeply Embarrassing and a Potential Legal Threat to the Government of the Bahamas:

The third paragraph on page three of the document carries this revelation, backed by an explosive email from Bankman-Fried:

''Moreover, although the Government has not identified the source of the hack that occurred shortly before the initial conference, the defendant's misuse of FTX and Alameda assets during November 2022 independently justifies the bail condition. As FTX struggled to meet customer withdrawal requests in early November, Bankman-Fried approved halting customer withdrawals from the exchange. Shortly thereafter, however, he reopened withdrawals only for customers in the Bahamas. In an email to Ryan Pinder, Attorney General of the Bahamas on November 10, 2022, Bankman-Fried wrote in part, 'We are deeply grateful for what The Bahamas has done for us, and deeply committed to it. We are also deeply sorry about this mess. As part of this: we have segregated funds for all Bahamian customers on FTX. And we would be more than happy to open up withdrawals for all Bahamian customers on FTX, so that they can, tomorrow, fully withdraw all of their assets, making them fully whole. It's your call whether you want us to do this''but we are more than happy to and would consider it the very least of our duty to the country, and could open it up immediately if you reply saying you want us to. If we don't hear back from you, we are going to go ahead and do it tomorrow.' Opening withdrawals exclusively for Bahamians resulted in millions of dollars being withdrawn from the exchange, while other customers of FTX had no ability to access withdrawals.''

This is not the first time that something less than transparent has occurred in FTX cases. In fact, a dark curtain has been drawn around much of what is going on in both the FTX bankruptcy case in Delaware and the criminal case in lower Manhattan.

For starters, the media has been unable to obtain a list of customer names in the FTX bankruptcy case and had to hire a lawyer to get creditors' names released. After the creditors names were finally released, and mega banks on Wall Street were included on the list of creditors, a clarifying statement was issued saying that not all of the names on the creditors' list might actually be creditors. So, almost three months after the FTX bankruptcy petition was filed, the public has no clarity on who the creditors or customers are.

In the criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried, media outlets had to intervene to ask the court to reveal the names of two unnamed persons who guaranteed bonds of $500,000 and $200,000 to secure Bankman-Fried's release on bail, in addition to his parents who put up their California home as collateral. Judge Kaplan ruled in favor of the media but has put his decision on hold pending an appeal.

The criminal court case also suffered an embarrassment when the first judge assigned to the case, Judge Ronnie Abrams, had to later recuse herself because her husband, Greg Andres, is a law partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, which handled a deal involving crypto exchanges FTX and BlockFi, both of which are now in bankruptcy. See our report: Sam Bankman-Fried's Criminal Trial Judge Is Married to Law Partner of Firm that Arranged the FTX-BlockFi Deal.

The polling organization, Gallup, reported last September that American adults' trust in the federal judicial branch had fallen from a high of 80 percent in 1999 to a new low of just 47 percent last year. If American democracy is to survive, our federal institutions must do a far better job at providing transparency to the public and policing conflicts of interest.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 14:43

United Parcel Service (UPS) is facing a spike in labor costs after a union contract expires in July, along with a possible strike which would throw package delivery into chaos if the company isn't willing to meet the new demands.

The Teamsters union, which represents 340,000 UPS employees, says the company needs to boost wages for part-time workers to over $20 an hour and eliminate a controversial two-tiered wage system, Bloomberg reports. Employees are also demanding air conditioning in vehicles as well as blocking inward-facing cameras that monitor drivers.

"We've got some great arguments on why these folks should be paid," said Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, who has promised members a hard fight. "We've got a great argument just on how much money the company's been making."

In short, UPS CEO Carol Tom(C) has quite the problem on her hands. The company delivers 20 million packages a day in the US alone - making it the second-largest ground courier behind the US Postal Service. An employee strike would make it likely impossible for USPS and rival FedEx to make up for the volume from UPS customers - particularly Amazon.

A Bloomberg notes, a strike would have a much greater impact than it did in 1997, when UPS workers walked out for 15 days.

"It's pretty clear that it's going to be spicy," said Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker, who has an underweight rating on the stock. Shanker has predicted UPS may increase compensation as much as 10% a year.

Under the current contract set to expire in June, UPS had been benefiting from predictable labor costs, which shielded the company from wage spikes which have hurt FedEx - and which gave UPS a temporary advantage during the pandemic, when the demand for home-delivery surged.

UPS is hopeful (or at least spinning it that way) that they can come to a speedy agreement with the Teamsters.

"We have more alignment on key issues with the Teamsters than not. That's especially true with respect to maintaining industry-leading pay and benefits, and delivering the best service in the industry with the best safety record," said a spokesperson to Bloomberg in an emailed statement.

UPS argues that it already pays its workers, especially drivers, much more than competitors. The average wage for a delivery driver with at least four years on the job is $42 an hour, not counting pension and health benefits, the company says. A typical wage for an experienced driver at rival FedEx Ground, depending on the region, is $20 an hour and usually comes with no benefits. The company also added 72,000 Teamsters jobs in three years through August 2021, which is more than was pledged under the current contract. UPS has about another 100,000 US workers who aren't unionized. -Bloomberg

That said, the company's ratio of compensation to sales is the lowest it's been in at least 25 years.

According to O'Brien, the starting wage for part-time workers should jump from $15.50 per hour to $20, in order to attract more part-time workers. He also has a broader goal of organizing more warehouse workers, including at Amazon, and intends to showcase the upcoming UPS contract as a shining example of the leverage organized labor has over employers.

"We're going to use the UPS agreement as a template to basically say, this is what you get when you work for a unionized carrier," he said.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 22:57

Experts are now recommending that doctors reduce their use of certain kinds of anesthesia in order to combat the effects of climate change.

Dr. Mohamed Fayed, a senior anesthetist at Detroit's Henry Ford Health, made the suggestion during the American Society of Anesthesiologists' annual conference last Friday in Orlando, Florida.

''Global warming is affecting our daily life more and more, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has become crucial,'' he said.

Dr. Fayed added, ''No matter how small each effect is, it will add up. As anesthesiologists, we can contribute significantly to this cause by making little changes in our daily practice '-- such as lowering the flow of anesthetic gas '-- without affecting patient care.''

Research notes that inhaled anesthesia accounts for up to 0.1% of the world's carbon emissions, which are regarded as the primary driver of global climate change.

An hour of surgery using an inhaled anesthetic is equivalent to driving as many as 470 miles, according to a 2010 study.

Getty ImagesMost general anesthesia procedures require a high fresh gas flow at the start and end of a procedure to quickly achieve the desired effect. But, according to Fayed, it is safe and effective to lower the flow at other times.

Anesthesia must be expertly administered: Too much of a drug can result in brain damage, coma or even death. But too little can mean a patient waking up during the procedure and experiencing intense pain, not to mention psychological trauma.

For their study, researchers from Henry Ford Health dialed down gas flow in an effort to reduce anesthesia use to under 3 liters every minute per surgery whenever possible.

Getty ImagesThis effort focused on the use of inhaled anesthetics only and produced a substantial decrease in use of the drugs, sometimes by as much as half.

Medical experts at Henry Ford Health also removed the drug desflurane from all operating rooms, noting that it produces the most significant carbon-dioxide emissions.

Data was gathered from 13,000 patients who underwent anesthesia from March 2021 to July 2021. Prior to the intervention, 65% of cases were limited to the 3 L/m threshold. By the end, 93% of cases achieved that.

''For a long time, there was a notion that the greenhouse effect caused in health care settings was an inevitable and unavoidable cost of providing patient care,'' said Dr. Fayed.

''But we have learned that reducing anesthetic gas flow is one of the many ways health care can lessen its contribution to the global warming crisis, along with reducing waste, turning off lights and equipment when not in use and challenging practice habits, as long as they don't compromise patient care.''

The researchers now are aiming to reduce the level of fresh gas flow to less than 2 L/m throughout the system.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 20:51

SRINAGAR, India '-- Weapons left behind by U.S. forces during the withdrawal from Afghanistan are surfacing in another conflict, further arming militants in the disputed South Asian region of Kashmir in what experts say could be just the start of the weapons' global journey.

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir tell NBC News that militants trying to annex the region for Pakistan are carrying M4s, M16s and other U.S.-made arms and ammunition that have rarely been seen in the 30-year conflict. A major reason, they say, is a regional flood of U.S.-funded weapons that fell into the hands of the Taliban when U.S.-led NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.

Most of the weapons recovered so far, officials say, are from Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), both Pakistan-based militant groups that the U.S. designates as terrorist organizations. In a Twitter post last year, for example, police said they had seized an M4 carbine assault rifle after a gunfight that killed two militants from JeM.

Militants from both groups had been sent to Afghanistan to fight alongside or train the Taliban before the U.S. withdrawal, said Lt. Col. Emron Musavi, an Indian army spokesperson in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir.

''It can be safely assumed that they have access to the weapons left behind,'' he said in an email last year.

Government officials in Afghanistan and Pakistan did not respond to requests for comment.

Kashmir, a Himalayan region known for its beautiful landscapes, shares borders with India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. A separatist insurgency in the part of Kashmir controlled by India has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1990s and been a constant source of tension between nuclear powers India and Pakistan.

The year opened in violence as Kashmir police blamed militants for a Jan. 1 gunfire attack that killed four people in the southern village of Dhangri, followed by an explosion in the same area the next day that killed a 5-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. At least six people were injured on Jan. 21 in two explosions in the city of Jammu.

While the U.S.-made weapons are unlikely to shift the balance of power in the Kashmir conflict, they give the Taliban a sizable reservoir of combat power potentially available to those willing and able to purchase it, said Jonathan Schroden, director of the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the Center for Naval Analyses, a research group based outside Washington.

''When combined with the Taliban's need for money and extant smuggling networks, that reservoir poses a substantial threat to regional actors for years to come,'' he said.

A trove of weaponsMore than $7.1 billion in U.S.-funded military equipment was in the possession of the Afghan government when it fell to the Taliban in August 2021 amid the withdrawal, according to a Defense Department report published last August. Though more than half of it was ground vehicles, it also included more than 316,000 weapons worth almost $512 million, plus ammunition and other accessories.

While large numbers of small arms that had been transferred to Afghan forces most likely ended up in the hands of the Taliban, ''it's important to remember that nearly all weapons and equipment used by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan were either retrograded or destroyed prior to our withdrawal,'' Army Lt. Col. Rob Lodewick, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, said in a statement.

The Defense Department report also pointed out that the operational condition of the Afghan army's equipment was unknown.

Questions around the weapons being used in Kashmir were raised in January 2022, when a video of militants brandishing what appeared to be American-made guns was shared widely on Indian social media. Though the origin of the weapons in such cases can be difficult to verify '-- some may be modified to look like U.S. weapons, while others may not have been manufactured in the U.S. '-- the Indian military says it has recovered at least seven that are authentic.

''From the weapons and equipment that we recovered, we realized that there was a spillover of high-tech weapons, night-vision devices and equipment, which were left by the Americans in Afghanistan [and] were now finding their way toward this side,'' Maj. Gen. Ajay Chandpuria, an Indian army official, was quoted as saying by Indian media last year.

Jammu and Kashmir Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha said the government was aware of the issue and that measures were in place to combat the infiltration of U.S. weapons into Kashmir.

''We are monitoring the situation closely and have taken steps accordingly. Our police and army are on the job,'' Sinha, the region's top official, said on the sidelines of a news conference last year at his official residence in Srinagar.

Kashmir police official Vijay Kumar also said authorities were fully capable of countering the militant threat.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 18:12

As a medical student and researcher, I staunchly supported the efforts of the public health authorities when it came to COVID-19. I believed that the authorities responded to the largest public health crisis of our lives with compassion, diligence, and scientific expertise. I was with them when they called for lockdowns, vaccines, and boosters.

I was wrong. We in the scientific community were wrong. And it cost lives.

I can see now that the scientific community from the CDC to the WHO to the FDA and their representatives, repeatedly overstated the evidence and misled the public about its own views and policies, including on natural vs. artificial immunity, school closures and disease transmission, aerosol spread, mask mandates, and vaccine effectiveness and safety, especially among the young. All of these were scientific mistakes at the time, not in hindsight. Amazingly, some of these obfuscations continue to the present day.

But perhaps more important than any individual error was how inherently flawed the overall approach of the scientific community was, and continues to be. It was flawed in a way that undermined its efficacy and resulted in thousands if not millions of preventable deaths.

What we did not properly appreciate is that preferences determine how scientific expertise is used, and that our preferences might be'--indeed, our preferences were'--very different from many of the people that we serve. We created policy based on our preferences, then justified it using data. And then we portrayed those opposing our efforts as misguided, ignorant, selfish, and evil.

We made science a team sport, and in so doing, we made it no longer science. It became us versus them, and "they" responded the only way anyone might expect them to: by resisting.

A students adjusts her facemask at St. Joseph Catholic School in La Puente, California on November 16, 2020, where pre-kindergarten to Second Grade students in need of special services returned to the classroom today for in-person instruction. - The campus is the second Catholic school in Los Angeles County to receive a waiver approval to reopen as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. The US surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases Sunday, adding one million new cases in less than a week, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Frederic J. BROWN / AFPWe excluded important parts of the population from policy development and castigated critics, which meant that we deployed a monolithic response across an exceptionally diverse nation, forged a society more fractured than ever, and exacerbated longstanding heath and economic disparities.

Our emotional response and ingrained partisanship prevented us from seeing the full impact of our actions on the people we are supposed to serve. We systematically minimized the downsides of the interventions we imposed'--imposed without the input, consent, and recognition of those forced to live with them. In so doing, we violated the autonomy of those who would be most negatively impacted by our policies: the poor, the working class, small business owners, Blacks and Latinos, and children. These populations were overlooked because they were made invisible to us by their systematic exclusion from the dominant, corporatized media machine that presumed omniscience.

Most of us did not speak up in support of alternative views, and many of us tried to suppress them. When strong scientific voices like world-renowned Stanford professors John Ioannidis, Jay Bhattacharya, and Scott Atlas, or University of California San Francisco professors Vinay Prasad and Monica Gandhi, sounded the alarm on behalf of vulnerable communities, they faced severe censure by relentless mobs of critics and detractors in the scientific community'--often not on the basis of fact but solely on the basis of differences in scientific opinion.

When former President Trump pointed out the downsides of intervention, he was dismissed publicly as a buffoon. And when Dr. Antony Fauci opposed Trump and became the hero of the public health community, we gave him our support to do and say what he wanted, even when he was wrong.

Trump was not remotely perfect, nor were the academic critics of consensus policy. But the scorn that we laid on them was a disaster for public trust in the pandemic response. Our approach alienated large segments of the population from what should have been a national, collaborative project.

And we paid the price. The rage of the those marginalized by the expert class exploded onto and dominated social media. Lacking the scientific lexicon to express their disagreement, many dissidents turned to conspiracy theories and a cottage industry of scientific contortionists to make their case against the expert class consensus that dominated the pandemic mainstream. Labeling this speech "misinformation" and blaming it on "scientific illiteracy" and "ignorance," the government conspired with Big Tech to aggressively suppress it, erasing the valid political concerns of the government's opponents.

And this despite the fact that pandemic policy was created by a razor-thin sliver of American society who anointed themselves to preside over the working class'--members of academia, government, medicine, journalism, tech, and public health, who are highly educated and privileged. From the comfort of their privilege, this elite prizes paternalism, as opposed to average Americans who laud self-reliance and whose daily lives routinely demand that they reckon with risk. That many of our leaders neglected to consider the lived experience of those across the class divide is unconscionable.

Incomprehensible to us due to this class divide, we severely judged lockdown critics as lazy, backwards, even evil. We dismissed as "grifters" those who represented their interests. We believed "misinformation" energized the ignorant, and we refused to accept that such people simply had a different, valid point of view.

We crafted policy for the people without consulting them. If our public health officials had led with less hubris, the course of the pandemic in the United States might have had a very different outcome, with far fewer lost lives.

Instead, we have witnessed a massive and ongoing loss of life in America due to distrust of vaccines and the healthcare system; a massive concentration in wealth by already wealthy elites; a rise in suicides and gun violence especially among the poor; a near-doubling of the rate of depression and anxiety disorders especially among the young; a catastrophic loss of educational attainment among already disadvantaged children; and among those most vulnerable, a massive loss of trust in healthcare, science, scientific authorities, and political leaders more broadly.

My motivation for writing this is simple: It's clear to me that for public trust to be restored in science, scientists should publicly discuss what went right and what went wrong during the pandemic, and where we could have done better.

It's OK to be wrong and admit where one was wrong and what one learned. That's a central part of the way science works. Yet I fear that many are too entrenched in groupthink'--and too afraid to publicly take responsibility'--to do this.

Solving these problems in the long term requires a greater commitment to pluralism and tolerance in our institutions, including the inclusion of critical if unpopular voices.

Intellectual elitism, credentialism, and classism must end. Restoring trust in public health'--and our democracy'--depends on it.

Kevin Bass is an MD/PhD student at a medical school in Texas. He is in his 7th year.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 18:08

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is being sued in federal court for withholding data on the safety analysis of Covid shots.

The new lawsuit was filed in a Washington D.C. federal court by the nonprofit Children's Health Defense (CHD).

CHD contends that the FDA's actions violate federal law.

''Numerous scientists, physicians, public health experts, and other concerned individuals have questioned the safety of COVID-19 injections, and many thousands of post-injection adverse events have been reported to the federal government,'' the lawsuit argues.

''However, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has continued to tout COVID-19 injections as 'safe and effective,' and to assure the public that federal agencies are vigilantly monitoring their safety.''

The lawsuit seeks the raw results from the FDA's analyses of reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

VAERS, which the FDA runs with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), accepts reports of post-vaccination adverse events.

However, both the FDA and CDC have routinely criticized the VAERS system, despite it being run by both agencies.

According to protocol, the FDA is supposed to run Empirical Bayesian (EB) data mining on VAERS reports to see if safety signals are triggered.

These signals are meant to guide evaluations of vaccines for potential Adverse Events (AEs).

''A report to VAERS does not mean that a vaccine caused an adverse event,'' the CDC claims on its website.

''But VAERS can give CDC and FDA important information.

''If it looks as though a vaccine might be causing a problem, FDA and CDC will investigate further and take action if needed.''

The FDA has denied CHD's request for these analyses, however.

The taxpayer-funded federal agency claims that the records are ''intra-agency memoranda consisting of opinions, recommendations, and policy discussions within the deliberative process of FDA, from which factual information is not reasonably segregable.''

Such analysis ''contains a discussion of legal and policy matters and fall within the attorney work product and attorney-client privileges as enunciated by the Supreme Court,'' the FDA adds.

The FDA is a ''public health agency'' that is denying the American people transparency over its vaccine analyses.

The refusal to be transparent with the data comes even as its guidelines have been used to justify federal, state, and city vaccine mandates.

The lawsuit seeks to shed more light on the FDA's justification for labeling the vaccines ''safe and effective.''

READ MORE '' FDA: Pfizer's 'Booster' Shot Linked to Increased Risk of Stroke

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:52

In The Middle : Putting this in my timeline as a reminder for later when she's exposed. Eliza Bleu/Cuts/Knows is really Eliza Morth'... https://t.co/dB0A8kq2IP

Thu Jan 12 19:38:49 +0000 2023

Madeline Tanner : @MarcMiddle She was home at 15. Yet she said she was on the streets. She called her mom and asked what she thought'... https://t.co/zG1Zvt4ZO5

Tue Jan 31 17:25:08 +0000 2023

its-a-new-world : @MarcMiddle Jesus Christ

Tue Jan 31 16:52:36 +0000 2023

Roman_1620 : @MarcMiddle The things people will do for attention and fame..

Tue Jan 31 14:05:55 +0000 2023

Gender of Theseus : @MarcMiddle don't really know why anyone needs obscure information exposed on her...she claims to oppose child sex'... https://t.co/Uer2gTKwSy

Tue Jan 31 13:19:01 +0000 2023

NightCycle : @MarcMiddle https://t.co/SILoFwi3ZN

Tue Jan 31 12:49:58 +0000 2023

NightCycle : @MarcMiddle https://t.co/AiRTBiMk8y

Tue Jan 31 12:49:40 +0000 2023

Shadow_Tempest 🐠0-F's given. I block yentas : @MarcMiddle @elizableu Eliza Morthland?! GURRRRRRL Is that you?!@RepMorthland this is your little princess right?

Tue Jan 31 05:47:46 +0000 2023

OrbitalOversoul : @MarcMiddle Giving a thirsty clout chaser an ounce of power was never gonna work out on These Here Internets.

Tue Jan 31 04:12:04 +0000 2023

NotABreauxbot : @MarcMiddle All these kids led astray are rich white kids. They'll figure out one day

Tue Jan 31 03:59:46 +0000 2023

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:30

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Source: Daniele Venturelli / Getty

With the Oscar Nominations finally announced, the 2023 award season is wholly upon us. The Emmys and Golden Globes Awards have proven to be celebratory for its numerous Black nominees that emerged as subsequent winners. Fortunately for us, the show is still going on, and now the pinnacle of music and film award ceremonies are next on the queue.

With Angela Bassett aiming to score a home-run for her performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Beyonce's long-overdue Album of the Year win, or Rihanna's first Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, MADAMENOIRE's got you with a list of Black nominees to cheer on as awards season comes to a head.

However, MN also believes that Black and LGBTQIA+ award shows matter too, so we're also featuring (s)kinfolk nominees you can celebrate during those events as well. As Emmy nominated actress and writer Issa Rae once famously said, we're rooting for everybody Black!

Angela Bassett Source: wee feature images womens empowerment expo 2018 / CS

The legendary actress may win her first ever Oscar for her supporting role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Lizzo Source: Alexx Mayo / Courtesy of Urban Decay Cosmetics

The three-time Grammy winner is up for five more awards, including Album of the Year, for her second LP Special .

Steve Lacy Source: David Crotty / Getty

The R&B crooner is up for two Grammy nominations, and a GLAAD Media Award, for his breakthrough album Gemini Rights .

Brian Tyree HenrySource: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty

The Causeway star made headlines for his performance in the Apple TV+ film, garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

GloRilla Source: Gilbert Flores / Getty

From Memphis to the main stage, GloRilla secured her first Grammy nomination for breakout rap hit ''FNF.''

Beyonc(C) Source: ADIDAS / Ivy Park

Let's give the Queen what's rightfully hers. The icon is up for AOTY and eight other nominations for her Renaissance album.

Latto Source: Greg Doherty / Getty

The ''Big Energy'' rapper is up for Best New Artist at this year's Grammy Awards.

Rihanna & Tems Source: Dennis Leupold for Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4 presented by P / Dennis Leupold for Rihanna's Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 4 presented by Prime Video

Rihanna at the biggest red carpet should secure an award in itself. She and fellow ''Lift Me Up'' collaborator Tems are up for Best Original Song at the Oscars.

Quinta Brunson Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / Getty

It's Quinta's world, and we're just living in it. For her acclaimed show Abbott Elementary, the star is up for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Sterling K. Brown Source: Frazer Harrison / Getty

For sleeper hit Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul., the Emmy winner is up for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.

Danielle DeadwylerSource: Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty

For her unforgettable performance in Till, the acclaimed actress is up for a Screen Actors Guild and NAACP Image Award.

Lashana Lynch Source: Mike Marsland / Getty

The supporting actress and formidable force in The Woman King is receiving recognition for the role at the NAACP Image Awards.

Muni Long Source: Gilbert Flores / Getty

The ''Hrs & Hrs'' singer and accomplished songwriter is up for her first Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist, for her breakout hit.

Samara JoySource: Noam Galai / Getty

The jazz vocalist is up for her first Grammy nominations for LP Linger Awhile.

Mary J. Blige Source: Jason Kim, SELF / Jason Kim, SELF

In her first Grammy nominations since 2015, the R&B legend is up for Album of the Year for Good Morning Gorgeous .

Lucky DayeSource: Emma McIntyre / Getty

The Candydrip singer is up for five Grammy nominations as a song writer on Renaissance and Good Morning Gorgeous as well as for his hit ''Over.''

The-Dream Source: WWD / Getty

A songwriting extraordinaire, the Renaissance cowriter is up for Songwriter of The Year.

Amber Ruffin Source: Steve Granitz / Getty

The Black comedian's news talk show secured a nomination at the GLAAD Media Awards for its ''Don't Say Gay'' episode.

Kendrick LamarSource: Pierre Suu / Getty

The rap icon is the most nominated male artist at the 2023 Grammys, with eight nominations for his fifth studio album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers .

Cast & Crew of The Best Man: The Final ChaptersSource: Courtesy / Peacock

The limited series is garnering well-deserved acclaim with nominations at the NAACP Image and GLAAD Media Awards.

RELATED CONTENT: Michelle Obama Shares Words Of Encouragement For Simone Biles: 'We Are Proud Of You And We Are Rooting For You'

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:48

There comes a time near the end of every PSYOP when the PSYOP has achieved its objective, or as much of its objective as it is going to achieve, and is becoming increasingly recognizable as a PSYOP, and so the focus shifts to damage control, and erasing the PSYOP from official history.

This is a crucial stage of the PSYOP, because, at this point, a significant percentage of the public have realized that they've been thoroughly mindfucked, and many of them are none too happy about it. Some of them are starting to ask awkward questions, like ''why were we deceived and coerced by our governments, global health authorities, and the state and corporate media into submitting to a series of experimental 'vaccinations' that appear to be killing and injuring a lot of people?'' Or ''why are we occupying and torturing the residents of a Middle-Eastern country that never attacked us, and never had any intention to attack us, and which posed no threat to us whatsoever?''

At this point, it is way too late for those engaged in conducting the PSYOP to continue to deny the facts and gaslight the masses . That won't work anymore. So, it is time to do some limited hangouts , and some whitewashing, and a little sleight-of-hand, and just generally confuse and distract the public, and send them off on various wild goose chases, while the official history of the PSYOP is written.

For example, say you're just wrapping up a PSYOP in which you radically restructured society into a pathologized-totalitarian dystopia where the majority of the masses went full-blown fascist, mindlessly following senseless orders, parroting official propaganda, and demonizing and persecuting those who refused to conform to the new official ideology '... say you are just winding down a PSYOP like that, and what you need to erase from your official history is the fact that your entire PSYOP was based on nothing but faked statistics, because the pandemic you used as a pretext for your PSYOP was most closely comparable to the medium influenza pandemics of 1936, 1957, and 1968, so it never remotely came close to justifying any of your fake ''emergency health measures,'' much less the radical restructuring of society into some paranoid, totalitarian ''New Normal'' '... and now you need to erase all that from history, and you need to distract people while you do it.

Well, one thing that almost always works is what stage magicians call ''misdirection,'' which means, focusing the audience's attention on something unimportant while you perform the trick, like '... wait, what the hell is that over there?! Is that a MUTANT COMMUNIST VIRUS?!

That's right, folks, the Pfizer Corporation is engineering SECRET MUTANT COMMIE COVID VIRUS BIOWEAPONS that trigger MASS FORMATION PSYCHOSIS! Break out your AR-15s and your checkbooks!

Or whatever. I think you get the picture.

This type of ham-handed misdirection is extremely effective on a certain demographic, but it doesn't work on everyone. Those who haven't awakened to the Sino-Judeo-Commie-Satanist-Occupation-Global-Government plot to depopulate and culturally Marxify the world with the assistance of global corporations like Pfizer, or who have some knowledge of sleight-of-hand techniques, or basic public-relations tactics, tend not to respond as enthusiastically.

So they need to be misdirected more subtly.

And that's where limited hangouts come in. As I outlined in a recent essay , limited hangouts are an elegant means of preventing people from exposing your PSYOP. You just ''hang out'' a limited part of the PSYOP, one that you know won't do you much damage, and let the masses feed on that. They'll be so grateful to get a little part of the truth that they'll forget about the other parts of it, the parts that matter, which you are never going to give them.

So how do you go about doing that, exactly? It isn't as complicated as you might imagine. All you need to do is pick the right journalists, plug them in, and let them do what they do. They don't need to be instructed or monitored. You know what they are going to report, and what they are going to avoid reporting.

Take the latest ''Covid Twitter Files'' for example.

Imagine, you're Lee Fang, a journalist at The Intercept , and you are given access to the Twitter database to research censorship of the facts Twitter censored in order to prop up the official Covid narrative and ensure that as many people as possible were injected with experimental ''vaccines'' that they did not need but were coerced into taking, and which have killed and injured millions of people , and, instead of researching and reporting that story, what you decide to report on is the censorship of users demanding access to these same ''vaccines.''

Seriously, think about that for a minute.

I'm not suggesting that Lee Fang, or any of the other ''Covid Twitter Files'' journalists, or those helping to promote them, are ''controlled opposition'' or anything paranoid (and silly) like that. The most effective PSYOPs don't work that way. Journalists like Fang don't have to be told what they are allowed and not allowed to report on. They know that instinctively. If they didn't, they wouldn't be who they are and doing what they're doing. Lee Fang, for example, is a millionaire, working for Pierre Omidyar.

Journalists like Lee Fang, Alex Berenson, and even Glenn Greenwald '-- whom I like and respect '-- are the perfect vehicles for limited hangouts. They have the requisite ''outsider'' credentials while still being members of George Carlin's ''big club'' (or maybe just ''associate members'' '... a few million dollars isn't what it used to be).

The point is, such journalists sincerely believe that they are ''independent,'' and ''adversarial,'' and in many instances they actually are '... just not when it comes to reporting a story like the most elaborate mass-PSYOP in human history, which is what we've been experiencing for the last three years. Crossing that line would mean the end of everything for them, their money, their status, their social and professional networks, basically, their entire lives. No one has to explain this to them. They got where they are by knowing exactly where that line is, and how close they can get to it, without ever actually stepping over it.

If you ask them, they will tell you ''there is no such line,'' not for ''adversarial'' journalists like them, not because they are lying, but because they cannot see it. They have been trained, and have trained themselves, to not see it. As Noam Chomsky explained in a classic interview with Andrew Marr of the BBC , ''I'm sure you believe everything you are saying. What I am saying is, if you believed something different, you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting.''

OK, one more quick Lee Fang example, which has nothing to do with the Covid story. It has to do with Matt Taibbi's latest Twitter Files report . Note that Matt, unlike Fang and Berenson, has the sense to steer clear of the ''Covid Twitter Files,'' mostly , which is a lose/lose equation for famous adversarial journalists. But that's aside from the point. Here's the Fang tweet '...

Hamilton 68 was not ''a scam'' and the media didn't ''fall for it.'' It was a PSYOP, and the media participated in it. If you think I'm nitpicking, you don't understand how official narratives are created and maintained. They are not created and maintained with magic or top-secret mind-control technologies. They are created and maintained with words '... words that frame events in a certain way, and are repeated and reprinted, over and over, by persons and organizations of influence, until they become officially ''what happened.''

You are witnessing the beginning of that process right now. Fang's tweet is just one of many examples. By portraying the media as the victims of a ''scam,'' the actual PSYOP in which the media participated is erased, and their complicity is portrayed as mere ''incompetence.'' This should be familiar to anyone who was paying attention during the ''War on Terror.'' Compare Fang's framing (i.e., the media tricked by ''a scam'') to the framing of the Iraqi-WMDs-PSYOP, which concluded with the same type of limited hangouts and ''corrections'' by the corporate press (after the PSYOP had achieved its objective, of course).

As The New York Times put it in its 2004 ''correction'' '...

'''... we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been . In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged '-- or failed to emerge. The problematic articles varied in authorship and subject matter, but many shared a common feature. They depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on ''regime change'' in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks. ['...] Complicating matters for journalists, the accounts of these exiles were often eagerly confirmed by United States officials convinced of the need to intervene in Iraq. Administration officials now acknowledge that they sometimes fell for misinformation from these exile sources. So did many news organizations '-- in particular, this one. ''

And so on. In other words, ''mistakes were made.''

Again, Fang's tweet has nothing to do with the Covid-PSYOP or the ''Covid Twitter Files.'' It's just an example of how the system works. Even in the ''Hamilton 68'' story, there are certain lines that cannot be crossed. The corporate and state media and so-called ''papers of record'' can be portrayed as ''dumb,'' ''sloppy,'' ''incompetent,'' and even ''unethical'' and ''driven by greed,'' but they cannot be portrayed as the propaganda apparatus of a supranational global capitalist system, an apparatus that is functioning perfectly, because that would sound like a ''conspiracy theory.''

Which it isn't, as I believe I have just demonstrated again, and as Chomsky explained in that Andrew Marr interview. There is no ''cabal'' of evil ''elites'' running the ''PSYOP'' that I keep referring to, not in any kind of James-Bond fashion. There never is. There doesn't have to be. Yes, there are powerful people in the world, and yes, of course they conspire to further their interests, and to amass more power and enrich themselves, but that is not how the globally-hegemonic ideological system we all live in works.

It works by conditioning us from a very early age to sense where ''the-lines-that-cannot-be-crossed'' are, and by weeding out and quarantining those of us who cross them anyway. But that's a topic for another lengthy column.

The point is, the PSYOP that we have all been subjected to for going on the last three years is not going to be exposed, ever. The damage control and memory-holing will continue, and the misdirections and limited hangouts will continue, and the whitewashing of corporations like Twitter and the corporate media and ''papers of record'' will continue, and the Covid-PSYOP will be erased from history, like the WMDs-PSYOP was erased from history '... and people will get used to their ''vaccinations,'' like they got used to taking off their shoes at the airport.

Eventually, even obsessive ''conspiracy theorists'' like me will tire of writing about it, and we will turn our attention to less depressing topics. That will be kind of a relief, I guess. Maybe I can finally be funny again '... if I can forget about all those dead and severely injured people!

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 16:44

Photo: Tacar (Shutterstock)

I'm not one of those people who uses their cast iron pan for everything. I understand that it can be done, and I understand that a properly seasoned cast iron pan is a thing of slippery beauty, but I'm kind of lazy and will always have a nonstick pan in my arsenal, mostly for egg-making purposes.

Nonstick pans, whether Teflon-coated or PFOA-free, are easy (which is a vibe I know all too well). They're easy to cook food in and easy to clean food off of; they can be seasoned (much like cast iron), but most likely won't need to, especially if you go easy on the washing.

Why you shouldn't wash your nonstick pan so muchThere are some nonstick pans (such as the GreenPan) that seem to do totally fine in the dishwasher, but some nonstick coatings'--especially Teflon'--react poorly to those hot, aggressive conditions. The combination of detergent, water pressure, and salts can cause the coating to break down, resulting in sticky or flakey pans.

I rarely use soap and water on my pan unless I'm dealing with something truly stubborn (like these cream-fried eggs , which have a strong affinity for Teflon for some reason). Instead of washing after each use, I wipe the pan with a paper towel or sponge while it's still hot. If that doesn't cut it, I'll put the pan back on the burner, heat it up a bit more, then wipe it out with a damp paper towel or sponge'--a little ''steam cleaning,'' if you will. That's how my mom always cleaned her nonstick pans, which I thought was ''weird'' when I was young because I thought everything my mom did was ''weird'' from ages 13-22.

If steam doesn't do it, give it a gentle scrub with a non-abrasive sponge and some cold soapy water , but the steam works about 94% of the time. This kinder, gentler approach will extend the life of your nonstick pan and keep that coating happy.

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Archived Version

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:27

Screenshot of November 8, 2022 Message Sent by Former Sullivan & Cromwell Partner, Ryne Miller, to FTX Employees, Three Days Before FTX Filed Bankruptcy (Source: Sam Bankman-Fried Draft Testimony to House Financial Services Committee)

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 31, 2023 ~

Andrew (Andy) Dietderich, Law Partner at Sullivan & Cromwell Who Is Involved in the FTX Bankruptcy Case

The 144-year old law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, which previously prided itself on being the go-to law firm for Wall Street, decided a few years back to get deep in the swamp with all things crypto. That dicey decision is now playing out in negative headlines that are dragging down the reputation of the 900-attorney law firm.

Adding to questions swirling around its past legal representation of now indicted crypto kingpin, Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as his bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX, and his hedge fund, Alameda Research, is the fact that a growing number of Sullivan & Cromwell's other crypto clients are also in various stages of distress. Notwithstanding that reality, the presiding judge in the FTX bankruptcy proceedings, John Dorsey, signed an order on January 20 naming Sullivan & Cromwell the lead counsel in the FTX bankruptcy case.

But long before Judge Dorsey's order was signed, Sullivan & Cromwell was billing large bucks to FTX, acknowledging in a bankruptcy court filing that over the prior 16 months it had collected legal fees and expenses of $8,564,487.50 from FTX and its affiliates, plus a $12 million retainer for FTX bankruptcy work.

According to Bloomberg Law, Sullivan & Cromwell ''has more than 150 people working on the FTX case, including 30 partners'...'' A court filing from Sullivan & Cromwell shows that its partners can charge as much as $2,165 per hour. The final tab in the bankruptcy case is expected to land in the ''hundreds of millions of dollars'' according to the Bloomberg Law article.

Sullivan & Cromwell snagged this very lucrative bankruptcy work, according to a screen shot (see above) shared by Sam Bankman-Fried in the testimony he was prepared to present to the House Financial Services Committee on December 13, because it had a friendly former partner at FTX. (Bankman-Fried was arrested by federal prosecutors from the Justice Department and thus prevented from delivering his testimony in person, but Forbes obtained a copy of the document.)

The inside man was Ryne Miller, who left Sullivan & Cromwell and went directly to FTX.US as General Counsel in August of 2021. Despite Miller's eight years at Sullivan & Cromwell and more than three years working as legal counsel at a federal regulator, Miller somehow managed not to notice the following at FTX: there was no functioning Board of Directors; there was no accounting department; there was no functioning compliance department making sure that customer funds were not co-mingled with Sam Bankman-Fried's personal piggy bank, his hedge fund, Alameda Research. This lack of corporate controls was described by the new FTX CEO, John Ray, at the December 13 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

Despite these failures by Ryne Miller, John Ray reported in a declaration filed on January 17 with the FTX bankruptcy court that Miller is ''still employed'' by FTX.US, which is also part of the bankruptcy proceedings.

As a direct result of this lack of corporate controls, Ray told the House panel that over $8 billion of customers funds are missing at FTX.

At a bankruptcy court hearing on January 20, a former FTX in-house attorney, Daniel Friedberg, was prepared to testify as follows to the court, according to a sworn declaration he filed:

''Mr. Miller informed me that it was very important for him personally to channel a lot of business to S&C as he wanted to return there as a partner after his stint at the Debtors. This bothered me very much and I told him that his job was to only hire the best outside counsel for the job, and that his allegiance was now to the Debtors and not S&C'...''

And this:

''I told Mr. Miller that S&C was not the proper law firm to select [for the bankruptcy proceedings] because of the claims and conflicts, as well as the exorbitant costs of the firm. Mr. Miller told me that there was over $200 million cash in LedgerX and that he was going to send these funds to S&C, and that bankruptcy legal costs were therefore not a problem'...''

Friedberg appeared via Zoom on the day of the January 20 hearing. A lawyer, Marshal Hoda, who was representing two FTX customers who were challenging Sullivan & Cromwell being named lead counsel, asked Judge Dorsey to question Friedberg. Dorsey denied the request and then signed the order making Sullivan & Cromwell lead counsel.

While Sullivan & Cromwell enjoys the potential for billing tens of millions of dollars in this bankruptcy case, this is a sampling of how its other crypto clients are performing. (The law firm filed a listing of its current and former crypto clients with the court so that potential conflicts could be explored by a correctly suspicious U.S. Trustee, who represents the U.S. Department of Justice in bankruptcy cases.)

BlockFi: BlockFi, a crypto exchange, is Sullivan & Cromwell's current client. It filed bankruptcy last November. It revealed that FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research, owe it over $1 billion.

Coinbase: This publicly-traded crypto exchange is Sullivan & Cromwell's current client. It finished last year with a market value loss of 86 percent. Coinbase announced last June it was slashing 18 percent of its workforce. It announced a further 20 percent headcount reduction this month.

Robinhood: This is a publicly-traded stock trading platform and Sullivan & Cromwell's current client. Sullivan & Cromwell concedes in a bankruptcy court filing that it advised Bankman-Fried personally on a stock transaction involving his purchase of more than half a billion dollars of Robinhood stock. The monies to fund that transaction came from loans from his hedge fund, Alameda Research, which prosecutors say was looting the funds from FTX customer accounts. The Justice Department has seized those Robinhood shares.

CNN reported yesterday that the Justice Department is alleging in its criminal case against Bankman-Fried that ''he attempted to obscure his criminal misuse of FTX customer property,'' by purchasing the Robinhood shares ''through a foreign special purchase vehicle with no public connection to FTX or Alameda.'' The lawyer and law firm that performed this work for Bankman-Fried has yet to be explored in Judge Dorsey's court.

Gemini is a current client of Sullivan & Cromwell. It has $900 million of customer funds frozen at another bankrupt crypto firm, Genesis. On January 12, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged both firms with selling unregistered securities.

Kraken is another crypto exchange that is a current client of Sullivan & Cromwell. It settled charges in November with the U.S. Treasury Department for evading sanctions on Iran; then announced later in the month that it was laying off 30 percent of its workers.

Sequoia Capital is a current client of Sullivan & Cromwell. It was also a large venture capital investor in FTX. It has now written down to zero its entire investment of $214 million in FTX.

Silvergate Bank's parent (publicly-traded Silvergate Capital) is listed as a former client of Sullivan & Cromwell. Just exactly when that relationship ended is not indicated. Silvergate Bank has managed to pull off a replay of the panic bank runs in the early days of the Great Depression. On January 5, Silvergate reported that its ''total deposits from digital asset customers declined to $3.8 billion'' as of December 31, 2022 (down from the previously reported $11.9 billion on September 30, 2022.) That's a shocking 68 percent drop in deposits in one quarter '' at a (wait for it) federally-insured bank backstopped by the U.S. taxpayer that also decided to get deep in the crypto swamp. Silvergate's publicly-traded stock lost 88 percent of its market value last year.

FTX was one of the crypto firms holding deposits at Silvergate. On December 6, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and John Kennedy (R-LA) wrote to Silvergate demanding answers regarding the funds it had transferred from FTX customer accounts to Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research. The Senators inquired as follows:

''Your bank's involvement in the transfer of FTX customer funds to Alameda reveals what appears to be an egregious failure of your bank's responsibility to monitor for and report suspicious financial activity carried out by its clients. The public is owed a full accounting of the financial activities that may have led to the loss of billions in customer assets, and any role that Silvergate may have played in these losses.''

Despite all of this, Judge John Dorsey stated in open court on January 20 that he couldn't see any evidence that Sullivan & Cromwell had a conflict that would prevent it from serving as lead counsel in the FTX bankruptcy. (Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?)

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:47

A senior Republican promised to hold the Biden administration to account on Monday amid a fresh report that weapons abandoned to the Taliban during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan had made their way to another conflict.

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir claimed that Pakistan-linked militants have been seen with M4s, M16s and other American arms that have rarely been spotted before in the decades-long conflict.

Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret, said it was the predictable result of the chaotic 2021 withdrawal.

'House Republicans warned this would happen yet there was zero oversight or investigation into Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan under Nancy Pelosi,' he told DailyMail.com.

'Rest assured, we will be holding hearings and looking into the consequences of leaving so much military equipment behind.'

Rep. Mike Waltz, of the House Armed Services Committee, said he had long warned that weapons left behind in Afghanistan would make their way into the hands of the Taliban and then on to other militant groups in other parts of the world

Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir claim that U.S. weapons have been used by Pakistan-linked militant as part of their struggled to take territory

The U.S.-backed Afghan government had $7.1 billion of weapons when it collapsed in August 2021. The Taliban swept into the capital Kabul filling a void left by Afghan security forces who simply melted away when U.S. troops left.

At the same time, American forces had to abandon vehicles, helicopters and stocks of their own weapons, which they said were mostly made inoperable.

Most are though to have ended up in the hands of the Taliban.

But Waltz, who is expected to take over as chair of the House subcommittee on military readiness, last year that the group's ties to Pakistan's intelligence agencies meant weapons could be transferred to fighters in another Pakistani target: Kashmir.

The region has been disputed ever since India was split at independence in 1947 to create a separate Muslim-majority country in the form of Pakistan.

Both sides claim the Himalayan region as their own, and it has been the trigger for wars, battles and skirmishes ever since.

The U.S. weapons have been reportedly seen in the hands of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) or Lashkar-e-Taiba, Pakistan-linked Jihadist movements that are designated as terrorist groups by the U.S.

A propaganda video released last year by the People's Anti-Fascist Front, a new militant grouping, apparently showed U.S. weapons, such as this M249 light machine gun

Analsyts believe the People's Anti-Fascist Front is a cover name for Jaish-e-Mohammad

The U.S. withdrawal and Taliban takeover triggered chaotic scenes at Kabul airport. In one iconic photo, an infant is seen being handed to a U.S. Marine. House Republicans are demanding answers from the Biden administration about what went wrong

A Taliban fighter poses with a US-made Afghan air force Blackhawk helicopter at Kandahar airfield in August 2021, as weapons fell into the hands of the country's new rulers

Lt. Col. Emron Musavi, an Indian army spokesperson in Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir, said the two groups had used Afghanistan for training.

'It can be safely assumed that they have access to the weapons left behind,' he told NBC News.

Last year, local police said they had seized an M4 carbine rifle after a firefight with JeM militants.

It is not the first time that American weapons have been spotted in Kashmir.

Last year the Peoples Anti-Fascist Front '-- thought to be a front for JeM '-- released a video that showed members training with an arsenal of new weapons.

Analysts identified militants wielding an M249 light machine gun, which was used extensively by American troops in Afghanistan, and which was supplied to the Afghan National Army, as well as M4 rifles (which have previously been seen in the hands of the Taliban.)

Taliban forces showed off their new military hardware during a victory parade in Kandahar in 2021 as they celebrated the retreat of U.S. forces and their capture of Afghanistan

The Taliban last year released propaganda footage of body armour-clad 'special forces' with night vision goggles, which may have come from abandoned Afghan army stores

Also spotted was the L85A2, used by the British Army.

Some may have been captured in battle. But Indian officers said they may have been left by Americans in Afghanistan.

'From the weapons and equipment that we recovered, we realized that there was a spillover of high-tech weapons, night-vision devices and equipment, which were left by the Americans in Afghanistan, were now finding their way toward this side,' Major General Ajay Chandpuria was quoted as saying by Indian media.

He said some had been recovered along the Line of Control, which separated Pakistan-controlled territory from Indian-controlled territory.

Republicans are already promising far reaching investigations into Biden's decision to withdraw and the way it was handled.

They want to know why the rapid advance of the Taliban, and the fragility of the Kabul government, was not predicted.

'It has been over a year since the Biden administration's botched Afghanistan withdrawal and the American people have not received any answers about this national security and humanitarian catastrophe,' said Republican Rep Rep. James Comer wrote to the Pentagon, White House and State Department last year, before becoming chair of the House oversight committee.

'U.S. servicemen and women lost their lives, thousands of Americans were abandoned, billions of taxpayer dollars are still unaccounted for, military equipment fell into the hands of the Taliban, progress for Afghan women has stalled, and the entire region is under hostile Taliban control.

'Under a Republican majority, the Biden administration's obstruction of this investigation will be met with the power of the gavel.'

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:35

Removing Paywall

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:33

Removing Paywall

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:31

Privacy

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:30

Privacy

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 14:27

Kiev's troops were among the test subjects for Pentagon-funded research, the Russian MOD says

Russia's Defense Ministry on Monday laid out more evidence that US-funded laboratories were working in Ukraine. Documents and materials recovered by Russian troops showed that Western pharmaceutical companies operating in territory under Kiev's control conducted HIV/AIDS research on Ukrainian military personnel.

The commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, presented Ukrainian-language documents referring to HIV infection studies that began in 2019. The list of targeted groups shows service members alongside prisoners, drug addicts and other ''patients at high risk of infection.''

According to Kirillov, the Russian military has recovered more than 20,000 documents and other materials related to the biological programs in Ukraine, while interviewing eyewitnesses and participants. The evidence ''confirms the focus of the Pentagon on creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of Ukraine and other states along [Russia's] borders,'' the general told reporters.

Based on documents originating with the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Russian military identified eight more individuals involved in the US-funded research in Ukraine. Among the names Kirillov singled out was Karen Saylors of Labyrinth Global Health, previously of Metabiota, a company linked to US President Joe Biden's son Hunter.

The latest trove of documents, belonging to the company Pharmbiotest, was unearthed in Lisichansk in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) early in January, Kirillov noted.

''Clinical samples and patient records with their personal data were buried, and not cremated or destroyed in a proper fashion. This suggests that the destruction of this evidence was carried out in extreme haste,'' the lieutenant general said.

In October 2022, Russia filed an official complaint over alleged US-backed biological activities in Ukraine and requested a UN probe into the matter. The UN Security Council rejected Moscow's proposal after the US, UK, and France voted against it. The US opposition ''once again confirms that Washington has something to hide, and that ensuring the transparency of biological research is contrary to US interests,'' Kirillov said.

As evidence of the widespread threat posed by the Pentagon's biological research conducted beyond America's borders, Kirillov referred to the previously mentioned US involvement in coronavirus studies, including by funding the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance that contracted with the laboratory in Wuhan, China.

Kirillov also brought up the 1977 outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in Egypt, near a biological laboratory run by the US Navy. The disease previously known only south of the Sahara made a surprise appearance in Cairo a few months after the lab employees were vaccinated against it, the general said. Moreover, the Cairo strain was ''highly pathogenic'' compared to the disease's normal flu-like symptoms, suggesting the involvement of gain-of-function experiments.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 13:56

Manna U programs combine classroom instruction from experienced faculty with practical ministry, all designed to equip you to fulfill God's calling.

Let's face it '' there are plenty of great colleges out there. Many colleges have competent instructors who can share information; Manna University focuses on personal transformation '' our faculty bring to the table the academic credentials to teach with excellence, and our students can also draw from their years of ministry experience to foster personal growth and practical ministry skills. Take the next step to activate your leadership.

Whether you want a career in ministry or in the marketplace, or just want practical training to improve your own walk with God, Manna University has a program for you. All of our Undergraduate programs have a core of Bible and Theology courses, so that no matter your Calling, you have a foundation built on God's Word.

Changing colleges can be hard, but it doesn't have to be. At Manna University, we have multiple options for transfer credit. Whether you want to transfer in one class, or an entire Associate's Degree, our team is willing to consider your previous college coursework. You can also send an unofficial transcript to admissions@manna.edu for a no-strings-attached transfer credit estimate.

Graduate Certificate, Masters

These programs facilitate academic preparation for preaching, teaching, Bible-based ministry, and further graduate studies. Students will learn fundamentals of biblical Hebrew and Greek as well as advanced skills in biblical exegesis, including both Old and New Testament Exegesis.

Bachelors, Graduate Certificate

These programs are designed for non-clinical biblical counseling in a church context. At the Undergraduate level, the Bachelor of Arts in Christian Counseling is designed to prepare students for Graduate programs in Christian Counseling or related fields, combining counseling techniques and theories, practical experience, and a core of Bible and Theology courses. The Graduate Certificate in Christian Counseling is designed for those looking to supplement their existing education with formal training in Christian Counseling.

Certificate, Associates, Bachelors, Graduate Certificate, Masters

These programs of study equip students to learn and apply sound Biblical leadership training such as values, vision, planning, motivation, and organizational development to embrace, understand, and live as an effective ministry leader. Special attention to sound research and critical thinking are applied across all degrees in Christian Leadership.

This one-year program is ideal for people who are already working in ministry in either paid or lay capacities, but desire additional formal biblical training. The courses required for this program provide solid biblical and ministry training while also providing some flexibility regarding ministry focus between Pastoral Ministry and Christian Counseling.

Associates, Bachelors, Masters

Programs in Divinity are Manna U's largest and most diverse academic offerings. At the Undergraduate level, the AA and BA in Divinity provide a core of Bible/Theology, General Education, and Leadership courses, with the option for ministry electives among Christian Leadership, Pastoral Ministry, Christian Counseling, and Intercultural Studies courses. At the Graduate level, the Master of Divinity is designed as a terminal degree for vocational ministers and Military Chaplains. Our M.Div. is a recognized program of study for Chaplain Candidates across all US military branches.

Certificate, Associates, Bachelors

The Intercultural Studies programs are designed to prepare students to engage in missions work in a cross-cultural or global setting. This program emphasizes leadership within cross-cultural and global contexts, in addition to 30 hours in Bible and Theology coursework.

Graduate Certificate, Doctoral

These graduate programs prepare experienced pastors and Christian leaders to advance their knowledge in effective ministry strategies and tactics. Students will learn essential leadership principles for ministry in a growing local church as well as contemporary apologetics.

This graduate program prepares Christian leaders in attaining a graduate degree that is focused to meet their unique goals and interests for the purpose of training for ministry within the local church and also within the marketplace. This flexible interdisciplinary degree allows students to pursue training in their areas of interest within the course offerings of Manna University, built around a core of Biblical and Theological training.

theExperience College Internship

This internship accompanies any Undergraduate Certificate or Associates degree program to provide world-class leadership training from one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing churches. Full-time Undergraduate students at the Fayetteville, NC campus can receive practical hands-on training outside of the classroom.

Certificate, Associates, Bachelors

These Undergraduate programs equip students interested in Worship Ministry within the local church. Students receive practical training through instrumental and/or vocal lessons by experienced musicians, as well as regular participation in worship teams at their local church. Special emphasis is given to leading and developing leaders within the context of worship teams. Please note: For online students, applied lessons and practical worship experience takes place locally for the student. Online students can complete this degree.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 13:24

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has captured an image of what looks like a teddy bear on the planet's surface.

The MRO is designed to search for the existence of water and other key ingredients of life on the Red Planet, but recently, it snapped a picture of something more light-hearted.

The University of Arizona, which operates the HiRISE camera on the MRO, released a striking image appearing to show the outline of a face, two eyes, and the clear shape of a mouth. Together the features resemble a teddy bear, according to CBS News.

There have been plenty of images of the Mars surface that look a bit like things we might find on Earth, and even some weirder stuff too.

There is nothing sinister about this particular ''face'' on Mars. It was formed by a series of structural changes that coincidentally came together to form the shape seen in the picture, said the University of Arizona according to CBS News.

When you have endless geological formations forming all over the Martian surface, some of them are bound to look like interesting shapes. In this image of a 'teddy bear,' the outline of the face was caused by the ''settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater,'' the University of Arizona stated.

The nose and mouth of the ''bear'' were likely caused by a structural collapse or perhaps a volcanic vent with lava or mud flows.

The crater surrounding the formation is roughly 2,000 meters across, roughly 1.25 miles.

In 2019, the MRO captured an image of a Martian surface created by similar geological phenomena that seemed to show the ''Star Trek'' Starfleet logo, per CBS News.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 13:12

Former President Donald Trump is suing veteran journalist Bob Woodward for allegedly releasing interview tapes without authorization.

Trump's attorneys filed a $49 million lawsuit against Woodward and his publisher, Simon & Schuster, for allegedly exploiting Trump by publishing an audiobook of his interviews with Woodward, according to Bloomberg. (RELATED: 'I'm More Angry Now': Trump Kicks Off 2024 Campaign In New Hampshire And South Carolina)

Exclusive: Donald Trump has a new lawsuit target: Bob Woodward. The former president is suing the veteran journalist for releasing interview recordings, claiming he never agreed to the tapes being publichttps://t.co/vNCG89ebU7

'-- Bloomberg (@business) January 30, 2023

''This case centers on Mr. Woodward's systematic usurpation, manipulation, and exploitation of audio of President Trump gathered in connection with a series of interviews conducted by Mr. Woodward,'' Trump's team alleges in the complaint filed in a Northeast Florida court.

''Said audio was protected material, subject to various limitations on use and distribution'--as a matter of copyright, license, contract, basic principles of the publishing industry, and core values of fairness and consent,'' the complaint continues.

The lawsuit says Trump consented to the conversations for a book and did not intend for the interviews to be released as an audio recording. Trump's team says they contacted the defendants about their concerns to no avail before filing the lawsuit.

Simon & Schuster published ''The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump'' on January 17, 2023, and it's advertised as an ''inside'' account of the Trump presidency.

The interviews were originally recorded for Woodward's 2020 book ''Rage'' also published by Simon & Schuster. Woodward's first book about Trump's presidency, ''Fear: Trump in the White House'' was published in 2018 and quickly became a bestseller.

Woodward rose to prominence as an investigative journalist for the Washington Post when he conducted original reporting on the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. He has written inside accounts of multiple presidential administrations such as the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 13:09

WASHINGTON (AP) '-- President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared.

The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response to treat the virus as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through agencies' normal authorities.

It comes as lawmakers have already ended elements of the emergencies that kept millions of Americans insured during the pandemic. Combined with the drawdown of most federal COVID-19 relief money, it would also shift the development of vaccines and treatments away from the direct management of the federal government.

Biden's announcement comes in a statement opposing resolutions being brought to the floor this week by House Republicans to bring the emergency to an immediate end. House Republicans are also gearing up to launch investigations on the federal government's response to COVID-19.

Then-President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar first declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31, 2020, and Trump later declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergenc y that March. The emergencies have been repeatedly extended by Biden since he took office in January 2021, and are set to expire in the coming months. The White House said Biden plans to extend them both briefly to end on May 11.

''An abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system '-- for states, for hospitals and doctors' offices, and, most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans,'' the Office of Management and Budget wrote in a Statement of Administration Policy.

More than 1.1 million people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including about 3,700 last week.

Congress has already blunted the reach of the public health emergency that had the most direct impact on Americans, as political calls to end the declaration intensified. Lawmakers have refused for months to fulfill the Biden administration's request for billions more dollars to extend free COVID vaccines and testing. And the $1.7 trillion spending package passed last year and signed into law by Biden put an end to a rule that barred states from kicking people off Medicaid, a move that is expected to see millions of people lose their coverage after April 1.

''In some respects, the Biden administration is catching up to what a lot of people in the country have been experiencing,'' said Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation. ''That said, hundreds of people a day are still dying from COVID.''

Still, some things will change for Americans once the emergency expires, Levitt pointed out.

The costs of COVID-19 vaccines are also expected to skyrocket once the government stops buying them, with Pfizer saying it will charge as much as $130 per dose. Only 15% of Americans have received the recommended, updated booster that has been offered since last fall.

People with private insurance could have some out-of-pocket costs for vaccines, especially if they go to an out-of-network provider, Levitt said. Free at-home COVID tests will also come to an end. And hospitals will not get extra payments for treating COVID patients.

Legislators did extend for another two years telehealth flexibilities that were introduced as COVID-19 hit, leading health care systems around the country to regularly deliver care by smartphone or computer.

The Biden administration had previously considered ending the emergency last year, but held off amid concerns about a potential ''winter surge'' in cases and to provide adequate time for providers, insurers and patients to prepare for its end.

Officials said the administration would use the next three months to transition the response to conventional methods, warning that an immediate end to the emergency authorities ''would sow confusion and chaos into this critical wind-down.''

''To be clear, continuation of these emergency declarations until May 11 does not impose any restriction at all on individual conduct with regard to COVID-19,'' the administration said. ''They do not impose mask mandates or vaccine mandates. They do not restrict school or business operations. They do not require the use of any medicines or tests in response to cases of COVID-19.''

Case counts have trended downward after a slight bump over the winter holidays, and are significantly below levels seen over the last two winters '-- though the number of tests performed for the virus and reported to public health officials has sharply decreased.

On Monday, the World Health Organization said the coronavirus remains a global health emergency, even as a key advisory panel for the group found the pandemic may be nearing an ''inflexion point'' where higher levels of immunity can lower virus-related deaths. China, for example, reported an unprecedented surge in December after lifting most of its COVID-19 restrictions.

Moments before the White House's announcement, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., accused the president of unnecessarily extending the public health emergency to take action on issues like forgiving some federal student loan debts.

''The country has largely returned to normal,'' Cole said Monday, introducing a Republican-backed bill calling for an end to the health emergency. ''Everyday Americans have returned to work and to school with no restrictions on their activities. It is time that the government acknowledges this reality: the pandemic is over.''

The House was scheduled to vote Tuesday on legislation that would terminate the public health emergency.

The bill's author, Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said he still hopes the House will proceed with a vote. He said he was surprised by the White House move, but thinks the legislation may have played a role in prompting the administration to act.

''I think we should go forward,'' he said late Monday as lawmakers returned to the Capitol. ''If for some reason they don't do it on May the 11th, the vehicle is still there for Congress to take back its authority.''

'--

AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:52

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 04:27

Tyre Nichols

A sixth Memphis police officer was relieved of his duty for his involvement in the Tyre Nichols fatal beating.

Preston Hemphill was relieved of his duty pending investigation.

Preston Hemphill

ABC 24 reported:

TRENDING: BREAKING: HORRIBLE - Arizona Regime Is Investigating Kari Lake And Trying To JAIL Her On Felony Charges For Exercising First Amendment And Exposing Election Fraud

A sixth Memphis Police officer involved in the arrest which led to the death of Tyre Nichols on Jan. 7 has been relieved of duty, a spokesperson for the department confirmed with ABC24 Monday.

According to Memphis Police, Officer Preston Hemphill has been relieved of duty during an ongoing investigation.

Hemphill was hired in 2018.

Memphis Police said additional information would be available on their social media platforms once it became available.

One previously unnamed officer was shown on video during MPD's initial confrontation with Nichols, pulling him from his car forcefully while hitting him on the ground with a Taser, later stating, ''I hope they stomp his a**'' after Nichols escaped.

MPD did not confirm whether this officer was Hemphill.

Authorities on Friday evening released bodycam footage of five Memphis police officers beating motorist Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop.

Five ex-Memphis police officers were charged with second-degree murder and kidnapping on Thursday in the death of a black motorist.

The officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith '' were fired on Friday after the motorist, Tyre Nichols, died following a violent confrontation during a January 7 traffic stop.

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 23:19

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 23:10

Terming Hindenburg Research's conduct a ''securities fraud'', the Adani group on Sunday night said it was shocked and deeply disturbed to read the report published by the ''Madoffs of Manhattan''. It further said the report by Hindenburg Research was nothing but a lie.

In a 413-page document, Adani retaliated against the American short-seller, saying the document was a ''malicious combination of selective misinformation and concealed facts relating to baseless and discredited allegations to drive an ulterior motive''.

''This is rife with conflict of interest and intended only to create a false market in securities to enable Hindenburg, an admitted short seller, to book massive financial gain through wrongful means at the cost of countless investors. It is tremendously concerning that the statements of an entity sitting thousands of miles away, with no credibility or ethics has caused a serious and unprecedented adverse impact on our investors,'' the Adani group statement said.

The mala fide intention underlying the report were apparent given its timing when Adani Enterprises Limited is undertaking one of the largest ever further public offerings of equity shares in India, the group said.

"This is not merely an unwarranted attack on any specific company but a calculated attack on India, the independence, integrity and quality of Indian institutions, and the growth story and ambition of India," it said.

The company said there are three key themes from the Hindenburg Report like selective and manipulative presentation of matters already in the public domain to create a false narrative.

ALSO READ: Hindenburg report 'gas and fire', our FPO, investment plans on track: Adani

The report completely ignored or deliberated disregard the applicable legal and accounting standards as well as industry practice and showed contempt for the Indian institutions including the regulators and the judiciary, the group's statement said.

The Adani group said the report has been put out with the admitted intent of Hindenburg (holding short positions in various listed companies of the Adani portfolio through US traded bonds and non-Indian-traded derivatives, along with other non-Indian-traded reference securities) to profiteer at the cost of its shareholders and public investors.

ALSO READ: Rebound in Adani group stocks key to Rs 20,000-crore FPO's success

Hindenburg has not published this report for any altruistic reasons but purely out of selfish motives and in flagrant breach of applicable securities and foreign exchange laws," it said. "The report is neither 'independent' nor 'objective' nor 'well researched'."

To read Adani Group's full response, click here.

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 23:08

The short-seller that helped expose fraud at Nikola Motors is now targeting a firm owned by the fourth richest person in the world.Hindenburg Research issued a short-report on the India-based Adani Group on Wednesday.Hindenburg alleged that Gautam Adani is "pulling the largest con in corporate history." Loading Something is loading.

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Hindenburg Research rose to prominence when it exposed fraud at Nikola Motors in 2020, which ultimately led to the downfall of its founder, Trevor Milton, and a more than 90% decline in Nikola's stock price.

Now, the short-selling outfit has turned its attention to Gautam Adani, the world's fourth-richest person and founder and chairman of Adani Group, an India-based conglomerate that owns everything from cement businesses to media companies.

After a two-year investigation, Hindenburg alleged in a report on Wednesday that the Adani Group operates a web of shell companies that engage in market manipulation and accounting fraud.

Those practices are what helped catapult Adani from a rather-unknown businessman outside of India to the world's fourth richest person in just three years, according to Hindenburg.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani is worth $118.9 billion, just behind Jeff Bezos wealth of $119.6 billion as of Wednesday morning. At the start of 2020, Adani had a net worth of just $10 billion, according to Bloomberg.

The Adani Group is the largest port operator in India, and is also India's largest coal trader and thermal coal producer. Adani himself currently owns 75% of Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, and Adani Transmissions. He also owns about 37% of Adani Total Gas, 66% of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, and 66% of Adani Green Energy.

All of these publicly traded companies have seen their stock prices soar over the past few years, driving the bulk of Adani's massive wealth gain.

But Hindenburg thinks the valuations of Adani-linked companies are inflated, even if you disregard its allegations of financial malpractice.

"Even if you ignore the findings of our investigation and take the financials of Adani Group at face value, its 7 key listed companies have 85% downside purely on a fundamental basis owing to sky-high valuations," Hindenburg said.

Hindenburg currently holds a short position against the Adani group and is poised to profit if its market valuation declines. Following the release of Hindenburg's report early Wednesday morning, Adani Group companies lost a combined $12 billion in market value.

A response from Adani Group's CFO Jugeshinder Singh denied the allegations, saying in a statement that the report is "a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations." Singh said Hindenburg made no attempt to contact them to verify allegations in the report.

Singh also said the timing of Hindenburg's report was designed to inflict damage on its planned follow-on public offering of shares from Adani Enterprises.

But according to Hindenburg, there are plenty of red flags that investors should be aware of. Those include the Adani Group utilizing a tiny audit firm that has no current website and has audited just one other publicly listed firm, and the fact that the conglomerate has previously been the subject of four fraud investigations by the Indian government.

"We believe the Adani Group has been able to operate a large, flagrant fraud in broad daylight in large part because investors, journalists, citizens and even politicians have been afraid to speak out for fear of reprisal," Hindenburg said.

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 23:02

Hindenburg research report on Adani: Hindenburg has ignited a fierce firestorm that threatens to singe Asia's richest man, Indian tycoon Gautam Adani, who presides over a sprawling empire that now spans from ports and airports to energy, cement and data centres.

What's Adani-Hindenburg saga all about? On January 25, Hindenburg released a report that alleged the Adani Group had "engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades". The disclosure sparked a USD 51-billion sell-off in shares of his group companies over two trading sessions, pushing him four places down on the world billionaire index.

Report just ahead of FPO Worse, it came ahead of a Rs 20,000-crore follow-on share sale in Adani Enterprises. The share sale could get subscribed up to a meagre 1 per cent on the opening day, Friday, when Adani Enterprises shares fell 18.5 per cent, slipping below the offer price.

Adani group rubbishes report Adani group has since rubbished the report as a "malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations".

Nathan Anderson, Man Behind Hindenburg 1) In 1937, a hydrogen-powered German airship flying into New Jersey caught fire and crashed, killing 35 passengers on board. It was sort of a man-made disaster as some 100 people were loaded on to a balloon filled with the most flammable material in the universe. The airship was named Hindenburg.

2) Eight decades later, in 2017, a graduate of international business management from the University of Connecticut founded a "forensic financial research" firm to specialise in spotting wrong-doings and frauds, or what it calls "man-made disasters", at companies around the globe and take market bets against them. Founder Nathan (Nate) Anderson named his firm Hindenburg Research after the doomed airship.

3) 38-year-old founder Anderson, lived in Jerusalem, Israel before returning to the US where he first took up a consulting job with a financial data company FactSet and then worked at broker dealer firms in Washington DC and New York.

4) Before he founded Hindenburg, Anderson worked with Harry Markopolos, who had flagged Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, to investigate Platinum Partners, a hedge fund that was eventually charged with fraud worth USD 1 billion.

5) While living in Jerusalem, Nathan Anderson volunteered for a local ambulance service.

Past targets of Hindenburg 1) Hindenburg is best known for its bet against electric truck maker Nikola Corp in September 2020 for its "alleged lies and deceptions" in years leading up to its proposed partnership with General Motors.Among dozens of other issues, it challenged a promotional video Nikola produced showing its electric truck cruising at high speed. This it said was nothing more than a truck being rolled down a hill in the Utah desert, a claim the company later admitted and its founder and executive chairman Trevor Milton resigning. Nikola, which agreed in 2021 to pay USD 125 million to settle a case with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, listed in June 2020 and its valuation touched USD 34 billion at peak but is now worth USD 1.34 billion.

2) Hindenburg's website lists over a dozen companies where it has flagged alleged wrongdoings. These include WINS Finance, which Hindenburg revealed had failed to disclose to US investors an RMB 350 million asset freeze imposed on one of its subsidiaries in China;

3) The "zombie company" China Metal Resources Utilization which had a "100 per cent downside" and was "under severe financial distress" with "numerous accounting irregularities"

4) SC Worx's "completely bogus" Covid-19 testing deal

5) "Massive undisclosed related party transactions, including a USD 509 million merger" at HF Foods

6) "Billions of dollars in undisclosed off-balance sheet liabilities" of Bloom Energy

7) A whistleblower report to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "relating to RD Legal, a hedge fund that was later charged by the commission for allegedly making material misstatements to its investors". Almost all of Hindenburg's work has been followed up by legal or regulatory action, according to its website.

(PTI Inputs)

Also Read | Sanjiv Bhasin strategy, stocks today: Buy Tata Power and Bank of Baroda shares - check price targets

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 21:46

Twitter has begun applying for regulatory licences across the US and designing the software required to introduce payments across the social media platform, as Elon Musk searches for new revenues to turn round the business.

Esther Crawford, a fast-rising lieutenant to Musk inside Twitter, has started to map out the architecture needed to facilitate payments on the platform with a small team, said two people familiar with the company's plans.

The nascent moves to allow payments through the site are a critical part of Musk's plan to open up fresh revenue streams. Twitter's $5bn-a-year advertising business has cratered since he bought the platform for $44bn in October, with marketers citing concerns over its management and content moderation.

Musk has said he wants Twitter to offer fintech services such as peer-to-peer transactions, savings accounts and debit cards, as part of a master plan to launch an ''everything app'' that incorporates messaging, payments and commerce. In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, one of the first online banks, which later became part of payments giant PayPal.

Crawford's team is forging ahead, including devising a vault for storing and protecting the user data that would be collected by the system, said two people with knowledge of the team's efforts.

Twitter is also pushing forward with the regulatory checks needed before launching a payment service. In November, Twitter registered with the US Treasury as a payments processor, according to a regulatory filing. It had now also begun to apply for some of the state licences it would need in order to launch, these people said.

The remainder would be filed shortly, in the hope that US licensing was completed within a year, one of the people said. Then the company would seek to expand to gaining regulatory approvals internationally, they added.

While Twitter had set up a subsidiary, Twitter Payments LLC, in August last year before Musk took over the company, Musk recently appointed Crawford, Twitter's director of product management, as the chief executive of Twitter Payments.

But delivering on Musk's vision will require taking on new technological challenges, significant compliance burdens and winning consumer trust.

It is also likely to be costly: late last year, Musk approached Twitter's equity investors in an attempt to raise more capital, indicating that some of the money would be used to fund a ''hiring spree'' of programmers to build a ''super app'' that could process payments, said one investor who received the offer.

Prior to Musk's takeover, Twitter had been exploring some payments features around tipping creators and ecommerce.

Musk's vision goes far beyond that, including exploring more ways for users to reward creators directly, for users to buy items directly through the platform and for users to pay one another, according to three people familiar with the plans.

Musk has said he wants the system to be fiat, first and foremost, but built so that crypto functionality could potentially be added at a later point, two people said.

In an early pitch deck to investors in the acquisition deal in May, seen by the Financial Times, Musk said he aimed for Twitter to bring in about $1.3bn in payments revenues by 2028. The pitch deck was first reported by the New York Times.

Data from payments markets data group FXC Intelligence show hundreds of thousands of Twitter users share links to third-party payments options either in their tweets or on their account. ''Twitter is already a platform on which payments happen, so it's kind of a no brainer,'' said Lucy Ingham, head of content at FXC Intelligence.

Other payment experts have questioned whether Twitter can achieve a competitive scale, particularly in the US where there is stiff competition in the space from groups such as Venmo, Cash App and Zelle.

Twitter will also face high levels of regulatory scrutiny. The move into payments comes after Musk has culled more than half of the platform's employees, which has raised fears that its compliance staffing is insufficient.

Businesses involved in money transfers, currency exchange or cashing cheques are required to alert unusual activity to authorities.

As part of monitoring for fraud and suspicious transactions, user accounts have to be directly linked to a user's identity, according to Lisa Ellis, payments expert and senior equity analyst at research company MoffettNathanson.

Such regulations mean ''many [tech companies] experiment and then give up'', she said. ''They find it to be a burden to ultimately bear the long-term investment and risk '-- where you can get fined if there's an issue and you have to have a whole compliance infrastructure that has to be constantly licensed.''

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 18:05

https://sputniknews.com/20230130/russian-military-gets-its-hands-on-over-20000-documents-on-us-biowarfare-program-in-ukraine-mod-1106822600.html

Russian Military Has Gotten Its Hands on Over 20,000 Docs on US Biowarfare Program in Ukraine: MoD

Russian Military Has Gotten Its Hands on Over 20,000 Docs on US Biowarfare Program in Ukraine: MoD

Russia's Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RCB) Troops began detailing the extent of the US bioweapons program in Ukraine last spring. Washington... 30.01.2023, Sputnik International

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bioweapon

biolab

ukraine

us defense department

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russia

coronavirus

vaccine

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The Russian military has accumulated a collection of over 20,000 documents related to the US military-biological program in Ukraine, RCB Troops Chief Igor Kirillov has revealed.These materials, which continue to be reviewed and deciphered, confirm without a doubt the Pentagon's intent to create biological weapons in Ukraine, and to test them out on the populations of the Eastern European country and its neighbors, Kirillov said.The RCB Troops chief provided a number of new details on Washington's activities, including a large-scale effort he said was undertaken in 2022 to evacuate Ukrainian specialists working on bioweapons to Western countries, including the US, Canada and the European Union. The relocation was undertaken in part to prevent Russia from interviewing these personnel to obtain more information about activities which may be in contravention of international obligations and treaty norms, Kirillov said.Kirillov also outlined US efforts to transfer biological materials out of Ukraine into Poland, the Baltic states and Central Asia amid the curtailing of programs in Ukraine."Under pressure from the international community, Washington is changing its approaches to organizing military-biological activities, shifting the functions of customer to civilian departments - the Department of Health, the Energy Department, and the United States Agency for International Development [USAID, ed]. This allows the US administration to avoid criticism at international venues" and reduce pressure on the Pentagon and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Kirillov said.New Questions About CoronavirusesReferencing documents obtained and studied by the RCB Troops, Kirillov pointed to evidence that specialists from the EcoHealth Alliance has been engaged in research on coronavirus strain transmission mechanisms since at least 2015. EcoHealth Alliance is the US government-funded non-governmental organization which funded controversial gain of function coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and which has been accused of helping to spark the global coronavirus pandemic in 2019."Earlier, we informed you about the work being carried out at Boston University to enhance the pathogenic properties of COVID-19, funded by US government money, and about the possible involvement of USAID in the emergence of a new coronavirus," Kirillov said."The key role in the implementation of these projects belongs to the EcoHealth Alliance intermediary. Documents received from DTRA confirm that since 2015, specialists from this entity have been studying the diversity of the bat population, searching for new strains of the coronavirus, mechanisms of their transmission from animals to humans. In total, more than 2,500 specimens were studied," Kirillov said.Full document can be found here.Questions About mRNA Vaccines and Event-201Kirillov also pointed to outstanding questions about the apparent high degree of preparedness by American manufacturers to create mRNA vaccines specifically against coronaviruses, and pandemic planning by US officials and business leaders before COVID-19 was unleashed on the world.Kirillov found it curious that "on October 18, 2019, two months before the first official reports of the emergence of a new coronavirus infection in China, Johns Hopkins University, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, held the Event-201 exercise in New York. In the course of this event, steps were practiced in the context of an epidemic involving a previously unknown coronavirus, which, according to legend, would be transferred from bats to humans through an intermediate host - a pig."Full document can be found here.Complete document and summary can be found here and here.Dangerous and Illegal Research in Ukraine"We have repeatedly pointed out that the United States carries out its most controversial research, from the point of view of international law, outside its own territory," the officer said. One example is the experiments related to HIV infections conducted by American specialists on the territory of Ukraine since 2019. Please take note of the fact that the target groups are not only 'patients at high risk of infection' -like people in prison or those suffering from drug addiction, but also personnel from the Ukraine's Armed Forces," Kirillov said.According to Kirillov, after the liberation of the village of Rubezhnoye in the Lugansk People's Republic, investigators were able to examine the premises of the Pharmbiotest medical center, determining that it was used to carry out clinical trials of experimental drugs with serious side effects for the treatment of leukemia, mental disorders, neurological diseases, epilepsy and others.Separately, earlier this month, residents in Lisichansk, Lugansk discovered a large burial site containing the remnants of biomaterials belonging to Pharmbiotest, including clinical sample and outpatient records. The fact that these materials were buried, instead of being burned, suggests that the elimination of this evidence was carried out with "extreme haste," Kirillov said.Russia is concerned about evidence on the use of psychostimulants and narcotics by Ukrainian military personnel, including methadone and amphetamines, notwithstanding their criminalized status under Ukraine's own laws, the officer said.Full PDF document can be found here. Additional papers on Ukrainian research in this field here.Russian Military Will Continue Unmasking US Biowarfare Program"I would like to note that the publication by Russia on the Pentagon's military biological programs in Ukraine have received significant public interest. Mass demonstrations against the activities of US-funded biological laboratories have taken place in the countries of the post-Soviet space. Public organizations of the Eurasian Economic Union have adopted a resolution against biolabs funded by the Pentagon. A number of investigations have also been initiated inside the US itself," Kirillov said.

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12:45 GMT 30.01.2023 (Updated: 15:28 GMT 30.01.2023 )Russia's Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RCB) Troops began detailing the extent of the US bioweapons program in Ukraine last spring. Washington initially dismissed the revelations, but undersecretary of state Victoria Nuland eventually confirmed that the US does indeed have biolabs in Ukraine.

The Russian military has accumulated a collection of over 20,000 documents related to the US military-biological program in Ukraine, RCB Troops Chief Igor Kirillov has revealed.

"Over the period of the special military operation, Russian troops have secured over 20,000 documents, references and analytical materials, and interviewed eyewitnesses and participants in American military-biological programs," the officer said in a briefing in Moscow on Monday.

These materials, which continue to be reviewed and deciphered, confirm without a doubt the Pentagon's intent to create biological weapons in Ukraine, and to test them out on the populations of the Eastern European country and its neighbors, Kirillov said.

The RCB Troops chief provided a number of new details on Washington's activities, including a large-scale effort he said was undertaken in 2022 to evacuate Ukrainian specialists working on bioweapons to Western countries, including the US, Canada and the European Union. The relocation was undertaken in part to prevent Russia from interviewing these personnel to obtain more information about activities which may be in contravention of international obligations and treaty norms, Kirillov said.

Kirillov also outlined US efforts to transfer biological materials out of Ukraine into Poland, the Baltic states and Central Asia amid the curtailing of programs in Ukraine.

"The Pentagon is actively transferring unfinished research in the framework of Ukrainian projects to the states of Central Asia and Europe," the officer said, adding that Russia has information on US efforts to ramp up bio-defense cooperation with countries in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region as well -including Kenya, Singapore and Thailand.

"Under pressure from the international community, Washington is changing its approaches to organizing military-biological activities, shifting the functions of customer to civilian departments - the Department of Health, the Energy Department, and the United States Agency for International Development [USAID, ed]. This allows the US administration to avoid criticism at international venues" and reduce pressure on the Pentagon and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Kirillov said.

2 November 2022, 18:12 GMT

New Questions About Coronaviruses

Referencing documents obtained and studied by the RCB Troops, Kirillov pointed to evidence that specialists from the EcoHealth Alliance has been engaged in research on coronavirus strain transmission mechanisms

since at least 2015. EcoHealth Alliance is the US government-funded non-governmental organization which

funded controversial gain of function coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and which has been

accused of helping to spark the global coronavirus pandemic in 2019.

"Earlier, we informed you about the

work being carried out at Boston University to enhance the pathogenic properties of COVID-19, funded by US government money, and about the possible involvement of USAID in the emergence of a new coronavirus," Kirillov said.

17 October 2022, 17:54 GMT

"The key role in the implementation of these projects belongs to the EcoHealth Alliance intermediary. Documents received from DTRA confirm that since 2015, specialists from this entity have been studying the diversity of the bat population, searching for new strains of the coronavirus, mechanisms of their transmission from animals to humans. In total, more than 2,500 specimens were studied," Kirillov said.

Full document can be found

here.

Questions About mRNA Vaccines and Event-201

Kirillov also pointed to outstanding questions about the apparent high degree of preparedness by American manufacturers to create mRNA vaccines specifically against coronaviruses, and pandemic planning by US officials and business leaders before COVID-19 was unleashed on the world.

"One gets the impression that pharmaceutical companies developed vaccines in advance, but could not bring them to market quickly due to the specificities of virus, which subsequently manifested itself in the low effectiveness of vaccination and numerous adverse reactions," the officer said.

Kirillov found it curious that "on October 18, 2019, two months before the first official reports of the emergence of a new coronavirus infection in China, Johns Hopkins University, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, held the

Event-201 exercise in New York. In the course of this event, steps were practiced in the context of an epidemic involving a previously unknown coronavirus, which, according to legend, would be transferred from bats to humans through an intermediate host - a pig."

Full document can be found

here.

"The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic precisely in accordance with the [Event-201] scenario raises questions about its possible deliberate nature, US involvement, as well as the real goals of US bioprograms aimed at enhancing the properties of dangerous pathogens," Kirillov said.

Complete document and summary can be found

here and

here.

Dangerous and Illegal Research in Ukraine

"We have repeatedly pointed out that the United States carries out its most controversial research, from the point of view of international law, outside its own territory," the officer said. One example is the experiments related to HIV infections conducted by American specialists on the territory of Ukraine since 2019. Please take note of the fact that the target groups are not only 'patients at high risk of infection' -like people in prison or those suffering from drug addiction, but also personnel from the Ukraine's Armed Forces," Kirillov said.

According to Kirillov, after the liberation of the village of Rubezhnoye in the Lugansk People's Republic, investigators were able to examine the premises of the Pharmbiotest medical center, determining that it was used to carry out clinical trials of experimental drugs with serious side effects for the treatment of leukemia, mental disorders, neurological diseases, epilepsy and others.

Separately, earlier this month, residents in Lisichansk, Lugansk discovered a large burial site containing the remnants of biomaterials belonging to Pharmbiotest, including clinical sample and outpatient records. The fact that these materials were buried, instead of being burned, suggests that the elimination of this evidence was carried out with "extreme haste," Kirillov said.

Russia is concerned about evidence on the use of psychostimulants and narcotics by Ukrainian military personnel, including methadone and amphetamines, notwithstanding their criminalized status under Ukraine's own laws, the officer said.

"We believe that the actions of officials who have conducted research on Ukrainian military personnel whose blood contained high concentrations of antibiotics, narcotics, and antibodies to pathogens of infectious diseases require an appropriate legal evaluation," Kirillov stressed, pointing, for example, to extensive research by the Military Institute of the Taras Shevchenko Kiev National University involving water soluable antifatigue drugs on troops.

Full PDF document can be found

here. Additional papers on Ukrainian research in this field

here.

Russian Military Will Continue Unmasking US Biowarfare Program

"I would like to note that the publication by Russia on the Pentagon's military biological programs in Ukraine have received significant public interest. Mass demonstrations against the activities of US-funded biological laboratories have taken place in the countries of the post-Soviet space. Public organizations of the Eurasian Economic Union have

adopted a resolution against biolabs funded by the Pentagon. A number of

investigations have also been initiated inside the US itself," Kirillov said.

"The concern of the world community related to the activities of Pentagon-funded biolabs is growing precipitously. Issues raised by Russia at international platforms, including the Ninth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention State Parties, as well as the United Nations Security Council, have shown a lack of US willingness to engage in substantive dialogue. We consider it fundamentally important that the disclosure of facts about illegal military-biological activities has forced a number of countries to weigh the consequences of their interaction with the United States in the field of biosecurity, and take a fresh look at the need and expediency of such cooperation. The Russian Ministry of Defense will continue to work in this direction, and will keep you informed," Kirillov concluded.

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 17:13

'Inbreuk op grondrechten' 26 januari 2023 19:38 Aangepast 30 januari 2023 10:24

De Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP) is tegen een nieuwe wet van minister Kaag (Financin) waarin elke transactie boven de 100 euro wordt vastgelegd voor onderzoek naar terrorisme en witwassen. Daardoor zou de privacy van onschuldige burgers in de knel komen, zegt de privacywaakhond. "Zoals de wet er nu ligt, kan die niet worden aangenomen."

De nieuwe wet houdt in dat lle banktransacties van Nederlanders boven de 100 euro in een database terechtkomen. Banken kunnen dan transacties naast elkaar leggen van klanten die bij meerdere banken een rekening hebben. Het kabinet vindt dat meer nodig is om witwassen '' geld van de onderwereld naar de bovenwereld brengen '' en het financieren van terrorisme tegen te gaan en wil daarom deze nieuwe wet invoeren.

Felle kritiekMaar er is veel kritiek op het wetsvoorstel van minister Kaag. Door het 'bancaire sleepnet' zou de privacy van burgers in het geding komen. Ook in de Tweede Kamer leven grote twijfels en daarom werden allerlei partijen uitgenodigd om over de wet te praten, zoals de Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

Die komt nu dus met harde kritiek: elke betaling boven de 100 euro vastleggen is een verregaande aantasting van onze privacy. "Deze wet leidt tot een onrechtmatige inbreuk op de grondrecht van mensen", zegt AP-voorzitter Aleid Wolfsen. "Het is heel uitzonderlijk dat we met deze harde kritiek komen."

Afgelopen week verdedigde minister Kaag de wet nog:

Wat die kritiek betekent? Volgens de waakhond kan de wet in deze vorm niet worden aangenomen.

Overigens is niet iedereen negatief over de wet: het Openbaar Ministerie zegt de wet hard nodig te hebben. "Uiteindelijk gaat het gewoon om criminelen stoppen", zei Anita van Dis-Setz van het OM, die ook was uitgenodigd in de Kamer. "Veiligheid wordt echt geweld aangedaan als wij niet voldoende informatie kunnen delen."

Binnenkort gaat minister Kaag reageren op de kritiek en wordt duidelijk of ze het wetsvoorstel gaat aanpassen.

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:59

Why GoldmoneyWhy Precious MetalsOur ResearchInvestorsSupportSign In

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:56

The chip is posted like a letter through a tiny slit less than 1mm made in the head It means people with neurodegenerative diseases could regain communication The device is similar to the brain implant designed by Elon Musk's company By Caitlin Tilley, Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 11:18 EST, 27 January 2023 | Updated: 17:52 EST, 27 January 2023

Scientists have developed a brain implant that is thinner than a human hair and would allow you to use social media with your mind.

The highly experimental chip is designed for paralyzed or mute patients people with paralysis who cannot use their limbs to communicate via a computer.

But it could also allow healthy people to use social media with the power of their mind alone.

It differs from the brain implant created by Elon Musk's company because the procedure is less invasive and the chip sits on the surface of the brain rather than in the tissue.

The implantation of the device into the skull is the reversible if patients change their mind or want to get a newer version in the future

The chip transmits this data wirelessly to computers or smartphones and translates it to real-time clicks and keyboard strokes on a phone or computer

The implant, called the Layer 7 Cortical Interface, is a strip of flexible, thin film material like a piece of Scotch tape.

The strip has electrodes on and has a thickness that is one-fifth of a human hair, which helps it conform to the brain's surface without damaging any tissue.

To implant the device, surgeons make a very thin slit in the skull and slide it in as if they were putting a letter in a box.

Precision's CEO Michael Mager told CNBC the slit is less than a millimeter thick, which means patients do not even need their head shaved to have it put in.

He said: 'I think that's a big advantage compared to technologies that require, for example, a craniotomy, removing a significant portion of the skull, which takes a lot of time and has a lot of risk of infection. I've never met anyone who wanted a hole drilled into their skull.'

The device works by collecting brain signals, interpreting them and outputting commands to a connected machine depending on the brain signal received.

Because scientists can easily increase the number of electrodes on the strip, it could be used to treat other neurological conditions.

The implantation is also reversible if patients change their mind.

The device has successfully decoded brain signals in animals, and Precision hopes to get FDA approval to test the implant in humans in the next few months.

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:55

An orthopaedic surgeon has spoken about the hidden dangers involved in hip replacement surgery after complications from the 'routine' procedure was blamed for causing the death of two high-profile Australians in the same week.

Cardinal George Pell, 81, died on January 10 while ARIA Hall of Fame singer Renee Geyer, 69, died on January 17 following complications resulting from their respective hip replacement surgeries.

Elective hip surgery is one of Australia's most common procedures, performed around 52,000 times per year.

And while it is an extremely common procedure, clinical associate professor Andrew Leicester, who performs around 200 hip replacement surgeries each year at Bowral Orthopaedics in Sydney said issues could arise even if the patient was of good health.

'It depends on the patient's general health, but it's a generally safe procedure,' Dr Leicester told Daily Mail Australia.

Complications from hip replacement surgery was blamed in the deaths of George Pell and Renee Geyer (pictured, stock)

Hip replacement surgery became commonplace in the 1960s but doctors have made leaps and bounds in the level of safety in the procedure since then.

'Most clinics will have what's called a pre-admission clinic, which patients generally attend around two to three weeks before surgery,' Dr Leicester said.

'They'll have a whole lot of blood tests, a cardiograph, you usually get assessed by an anaesthetist. If they're a high-risk patient they might get referred to a cardiologist to get assessed.

'It's generally a safe procedure, but there's risks with any anaesthetic even for a five minute operation.

'Particularly if someone has a bad heart, it's not even as much as the surgery's fault, it's the anaesthetic.'

General anaesthetic, which puts the patient into a state of 'controlled unconsciousness', can cause serious issues in relation to a patient's heart, even in healthy patients.

This is because the depressant qualities in anaesthesia, which puts the person to sleep, can lead to cardiac depression and hemodynamic instability.

'In the 1960s, patients would have just received general anaesthetic, now they get a localised spinal anaesthetic paired with a light general, it makes it a lot safer,' Dr Leicester said.

Cardinal George Pell (pictured), 81, died due to cardiac arrest following hip surgery after years of heart issues leading to a pacemaker being fitted in 2010

The Vatican announced on the morning of January 11 that Cardinal Pell had died of cardiac arrest following hip surgery, having had heart complications for years prior.

Cardinal Pell's heart issues resulted in a pacemaker being fitted in 2010.

One study found that of the nine causes of death following hip replacement surgery, eight were heart-related.

Just six days later, on January 16, Geyer's family and music label, The Mushroom Group, confirmed the singer's death after her own hip replacement surgery.

While Geyer's specific cause of death is yet to be released, she had admitted in her autobiography she had 'died three times' and needed to be resuscitated due to drug overdoses throughout her life.

It was also revealed Geyer was battling lung cancer at the time of her death.

'From what I can gather both Pell and Geyer both had underlying issues. With most deaths there are other issues to be attributed to,' Dr Leicester said.

While the specific cause of death for 69-year-old Renee Geyer (pictured) is undetermined, she passed after issues relating to hip surgery after a life of drug abuse and cancer diagnosis'

Data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association showed mortality rates in the 30 days following hip replacement surgery had dropped from 0.26 per cent in 2003 to 0.06 per cent in 2017.

While the percentage is low, it still translates to around 31 deaths per year.

However, urgent hip replacement surgery has a much higher 30-day mortality rate of nearly 8 per cent according to Professor Jacqueline Close, principal research fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia.

Although the procedure is considered one of the safest procedures in the world, complications are rare but not impossible with potential dangers such as blood clots and infections minimised with proper post-surgery care, Prof Close said.

'The advancements in patient care have made the surgery much safer than what it was 30 years ago,' Dr Leicester said.

'But there's risks with every surgery, there's risks with taking an aspirin.'

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:50

Kit KnightlyYesterday independent investigative journalists Project Veritas released their latest undercover report: A recording of a research director from Pfizer allegedly admitting the pharma giant is deliberately mutating the Sars-Cov-2 virus.

The process, which the researcher '' Dr Jordan Walker '' refers to as ''directed evolution'', would apparently help Pfizer pre-emptively develop new vaccines:

BREAKING: @Pfizer Exploring "Mutating" COVID-19 Virus For New Vaccines

"Don't tell anyone this'...There is a risk'...have to be very controlled to make sure this virus you mutate doesn't create something'...the way that the virus started in Wuhan, to be honest."#DirectedEvolution pic.twitter.com/xaRvlD5qTo

'-- Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) January 26, 2023

So, what can we trust about the story?

Well, first, the video does appear at first glance to be genuine. Research shows a complex and detailed online presence for a ''Dr Jordan Trishton Walker''.

That includes a (now deleted) LinkedIn page showing he worked as a research director for Pfizer, although there are some gaps and contradictions in the record that would require a more detailed look.

But what about his claims? Or the claims of the rest of the video?

Well, let's breakdown what ''Dr Walker'' actually says:

Covid is real and mutatingTheir vaccines are not as ''effective'' against ''variants''Pfizer is researching mutations to pre-empt vaccine developmentThe public finding out would scare themThey don't want an ''evolved'' virus to escape and cause ''another outbreak''This kind of research ''probably'' created the virus in the first place, aka the ''lab leak theory''.Outside of the idea that Pfizer is ''directing the evolution'' of the virus, this is all narrative reinforcement.

From the beginning, the only totally verboten position has been that the pandemic is a lie.

You're allowed to think the virus was natural, or created in a lab.You're allowed to believe masks work or don't. You're allowed to believe in hydroxychloroquine and other ''alternative treatments''. You're allowed to believe in natural immunity, or vaccines and boosters.

But you're NOT allowed to believe ''Covid'' doesn't exist. That they just rebranded the flu to push through an authoritarian agenda.

You're allowed to believe anything, so long as you concede that the ''Covid'' is a new, scary disease that requires special public health measures.

That is the big lie.

And this video '' real or not '' not only doesn't challenge this lie, but actually 100% supports it.

SUPPORT OFFGUARDIANFor direct-transfer bank details click here.

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:38

Neoconservative intellectual, former Reagan speechwriter , and onetime Jeopardy champ John Podhoretz penned a triumphant column the other day. Titled, '' Neoconservatism: A Vindication ,'' the Commentary piece declared architects of the War on Terror like himself back on top, world events having proven them correct about everything from community policing to war. Not only are they back on top, they've conquered their primary ''hip liberal'' foes, leaving just one pocket of dissenters remaining:

The key foes the neoconservatives face when it comes to the moral frame of deterrence'--the idea that America is and should be a force for good'--are no longer hip liberals but rather ''traditional conservatives '' who have taken their place as the leading anti-American voices of our time.

Anti-American . Let the sheer balls of that sink in. Podhoretz and the rest of the overgrown Risk- playing lunatics in his neocon treehouse '-- people like Paul Wolfowitz, Elliot Abrams, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, Max Boot, Da'...

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:02

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 30, 2023 ~

Jamie Dimon Sits in Front of Trading Monitor in his Office (Source '-- 60 Minutes Interview, November 10, 2019)

According to a Yale School of Management study, in 2013 JPMorgan Chase had 1,339 hedge fund clients. As of July of last year, that number had soared to 4,281 according to the annual Convergence Inc. study.

While Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley topped the total number of hedge fund clients (with 5,150 and 4,964, respectively) JPMorgan Chase ranked number one in terms of hedge fund Assets Under Advisement (AUA). (See Convergence Inc. study linked above.)

There's a big problem here that federal bank regulators are choosing to ignore at the peril of the U.S. financial system.

JPMorgan Chase, unlike Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, is the largest federally insured, taxpayer backstopped, depository bank in the United States with more than $2.47 trillion in deposits as of June 30, 2022. Unfortunately, as a result of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, this mom and pop depository bank with more than 5,000 Chase bank branches spread across the United States, is also allowed to make wild trading gambles. Those trading gambles have resulted in felony charges by the U.S. Department of Justice for rigging the foreign exchange markets, the U.S. Treasury market and the precious metals markets.

Even without the dramatic growth of its risky hedge fund business, JPMorgan Chase already ranked as the riskiest bank in the U.S. The data comes from the National Information Center, a repository of bank data collected by the Federal Reserve. The National Information Center is part of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), which was created under federal legislation and imposes uniformity in how U.S. financial institutions are examined by federal banking regulators.

The National Information Center creates an annual profile of banks, measured by 12 systemic risk indicators. The data used to create these graphics come from the ''Systemic Risk Report'' or form FR Y-15 that banks are required to file with the Federal Reserve. To measure the systemic risk that a particular bank poses to the stability of the U.S. financial system, the data is broken down into five categories of system risk: size, interconnectedness, substitutability, complexity, and cross-jurisdictional activity. Those measurements consist of 12 pieces of financial information that banks are required to provide on their Y-15 forms.

The data for the period ending December 31, 2020 showed that in 8 out of 12 measurements '' or two-thirds of all systemic risk measurements '' JPMorgan Chase ranked at the top for having the riskiest footprint among its peer banks.

One of the 12 financial metrics is based on the Intra-Financial System Liabilities of each bank. This shows how much money a particular bank has at risk at other banks by using inputs such as how much of its funds it has on deposit with, or has been lent to, other financial institutions; the unused portion of any credit lines it has committed to other financial institutions; and its holdings of debt, equity, commercial paper, etc. of other financial institutions. The idea is to understand the interconnectivity of systemically-risky megabanks and whether one distressed megabank could cause a daisy-chain of contagion with other megabanks '-- such as the contagion caused by Citigroup and Lehman Brothers during and after the financial crisis of 2008.

JPMorgan Chase's footprint for Intra-Financial System Liabilities is very large. The 2020 data show that JPMorgan Chase has $577 billion exposure in that category. That's an increase of $182 billion over what it showed in that category in 2019 '' an increase of 46 percent in one year.

The Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, likes to perpetually brag about the bank's ''fortress balance sheet.'' Unfortunately, that bragging isn't supported by the bank's felony history or the fact that the bank lost $6.2 billion gambling in exotic derivatives in London during the leadership tenure of Dimon: the so-called ''London Whale'' scandal.

Then there is also the fact that the Federal Reserve has yet to explain why a unit of JPMorgan Chase (J.P. Morgan Securities) needed to secretly borrow a cumulative $2.59 trillion in emergency repo loans from the Fed in the last quarter of 2019 '' long before the first case of COVID-19 appeared in the U.S. (See chart below.)

Perhaps it's time for the Senate Banking Committee to take a long, hard look at what's really under the hood of this banking behemoth.

Related Article:

Archegos: Wall Street Was Effectively Giving 85 Percent Margin Loans on Concentrated Stock Positions '' Thwarting the Fed's Reg T and Its Own Margin Rules

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 13:22

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Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:54

Published January 26, 2023 8:09PM

Updated 8:10PM

Super Gonorrhea cases in U.S.The United States is seeing cases of a mutated form of gonorrhea that is antibiotic-resistant.

NEW YORK - Two cases of an antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea have been diagnosed in Massachusetts.

"It's quite concerning," Dr. Rabia De Latour from NYU Langone Health says.

The sexually transmitted disease is creating mutations to help it avoid the effects of antibiotics. The fear is that the new strains are in circulation beyond a point where they can be contained.

Related: Super gonorrhea uncovered in U.K.

"It's been termed super gonorrhea because it's resistant to at least, at least somewhat resistant, to at least five different types of antibiotics," Dr. De Latour says

Patients that used to be able to be treated with pills now need to be treated with antibiotics via IV.

"It's a huge threat to global health and it's something that we need to address."

The two cases were ultimately cured with ceftriaxone, the lone remaining treatment recommended for gonorrhea.

"We have been using and in some cases abusing antibiotics for the last 70 years and this is, again, just a natural evolution of bacteria and viruses and other infectious diseases," Dr. De Latour says. "They want to survive."

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That means that we could be entering a post-antibiotic era because little has been done to develop new treatments.

"It's a huge threat to global health and it's something that we need to address," Dr. De Latour says.

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 15:08

Greg Price : Al Sharpton at Tyre Nichols' funeral: "If [Tyre Nichols] had been white, you wouldn't have beaten him like that on'... https://t.co/4TawuMOipN

Wed Feb 01 20:12:05 +0000 2023

controlled : @greg_price11 He's got evil in his heart. So sad

Thu Feb 02 15:08:33 +0000 2023

Robert Dutton : @greg_price11 Sharpton has made a living off race baiting.

Thu Feb 02 15:08:26 +0000 2023

Elizabeth Kelley : @greg_price11 I really don't even see why he brought up white people. That was a targeted attack on a man by five'... https://t.co/xidj2SjPMs

Thu Feb 02 15:08:24 +0000 2023

Barbie Mckinney : @greg_price11 When is he ever gonna pay all those taxes he owes! He's only there for publicity and to make&$$$

Thu Feb 02 15:08:21 +0000 2023

Robert : @greg_price11 What an absolute dirtbag he is

Thu Feb 02 15:07:35 +0000 2023

Lori Edens : @greg_price11 He is the biggest racist ever created!

Thu Feb 02 15:07:28 +0000 2023

Mike West : @greg_price11 Al is a racist.

Thu Feb 02 15:07:14 +0000 2023

SwampKracker : @greg_price11 There is no black on black crime, lol yeah right.

Thu Feb 02 15:06:45 +0000 2023

None : @greg_price11 Al Sharpton is not worth a reply

Thu Feb 02 15:06:14 +0000 2023

Bucky : @greg_price11 This guy is as crooked as they come and yet people STILL give him a pulpit to spew his racist bullshit!?

Thu Feb 02 15:06:10 +0000 2023

greg : @greg_price11 Tyre Nichols was targeted from the start.

Thu Feb 02 15:05:14 +0000 2023

Rick Orzalli : @greg_price11 Because you live in a jungle

Thu Feb 02 15:04:53 +0000 2023

GrandpaCurt : @greg_price11 Race baiter.

Thu Feb 02 15:04:36 +0000 2023

Terry : @greg_price11 Als good at one thing, stirring up hatred, and he's made $$

Thu Feb 02 15:03:54 +0000 2023

james maine : @greg_price11 Not true in Memphis it still would of happened (glad I no longer live there) to a white man but there'... https://t.co/8OSCM5gRmo

Thu Feb 02 15:03:35 +0000 2023

James : @greg_price11 Racism is not dead, but it is on life support '' kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people w'... https://t.co/3281lEjf1g

Thu Feb 02 15:03:17 +0000 2023

John Gozberk : @greg_price11 AS needs to take advantage of mental health services

Thu Feb 02 15:03:15 +0000 2023

SocialButterFinger : @greg_price11 Al Sharpton is a race-baiting ambulance chaser

Thu Feb 02 15:03:11 +0000 2023

Nick Marple : @greg_price11 He needs to go hell that race baiting prick

Thu Feb 02 15:02:12 +0000 2023

Mike the logic czar : @greg_price11 He is a zebra with only one stripe color. Such a racist.

Thu Feb 02 15:01:10 +0000 2023

Jimothyhalpbert : @greg_price11 Thats racist

Thu Feb 02 15:01:08 +0000 2023

P. Parker : @greg_price11 Yes; they would've

Thu Feb 02 15:00:19 +0000 2023

John Krill : @greg_price11 Bring Out the PROFESSIONAL RACE HUSTLER to DEFINE the ''PROBLEM'' Good Strategy! https://t.co/59BcJ2jW4u

Thu Feb 02 14:59:10 +0000 2023

Sharon Gilley : @greg_price11 Why in the world are they still supporting this man. He's done nothing for his people . Just like dem'... https://t.co/IK8SChU8zr

Thu Feb 02 14:58:57 +0000 2023

kurtrbrenkus : @greg_price11 He is nothing but a race baiting bag of hot air . The video speaks for itself .

Thu Feb 02 14:58:29 +0000 2023

Rick : @greg_price11 👎👎👎

Thu Feb 02 14:58:27 +0000 2023

thomas engle : @greg_price11 I feel pity for the people who believe in this racist. I wonder how much he charged the family to perform....

Thu Feb 02 14:57:02 +0000 2023

Neo1963 : @greg_price11 If the cops weren't lousy diversity hired thugs he'd still be alive

Thu Feb 02 14:56:47 +0000 2023

Jay smith : @greg_price11 Hey everybody its bobblehead Al

Thu Feb 02 14:55:58 +0000 2023

tellit : @greg_price11 Racist bastard

Thu Feb 02 14:55:55 +0000 2023

Blake Hanks : @greg_price11 If only he were more pro-black than anti-white'..... 🤷ðŸ>>''‚¸ðŸ a 5 year old died here in Memphis last night'... https://t.co/xVsiX1rPvA

Thu Feb 02 14:53:51 +0000 2023

Carlos : @greg_price11 Has Al paid his back taxes he owes. If Al was white, he'd be in prison.

Thu Feb 02 14:53:44 +0000 2023

Doodling : @greg_price11 Al Sharpton. Always bringing the temperature down in the room.

Thu Feb 02 14:51:00 +0000 2023

Marshall Smith : @greg_price11 Happens to whites but the MSM says nothing because it doesn't fit their narrative!

Thu Feb 02 14:50:41 +0000 2023

Bart Combe : @greg_price11 Al has done nothing but get rich on the backs of the very people he claims to help. Al is hoping for'... https://t.co/aqBp6ovIkQ

Thu Feb 02 14:50:23 +0000 2023

Ron J. Howell : @greg_price11 🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥🤥'¼¸

Thu Feb 02 14:48:17 +0000 2023

Rod Marshall : @greg_price11 Maybe it should have been Al and we would have seen what happened

Thu Feb 02 14:48:13 +0000 2023

Randall Kluey : @greg_price11 What a racist individual

Thu Feb 02 14:47:46 +0000 2023

Bart Combe : @greg_price11 If Tyre were white he would probably have been PEACEFULLY arrested. It was an absolute tragedy. One f'... https://t.co/ZOdgWshlm8

Thu Feb 02 14:45:31 +0000 2023

Kevin Kiely : @greg_price11 Gotta keep the money train rolling. You just to white to see the racism in everything

Thu Feb 02 14:44:52 +0000 2023

Frank Esposito Realtor : @greg_price11 This fake reverend is a bad guy. Its terrible what happened, but when a while person was not even inv'... https://t.co/FaD8mgOvwH

Thu Feb 02 14:44:49 +0000 2023

Ann : @greg_price11 https://t.co/rknkxrtQUN

Thu Feb 02 14:44:28 +0000 2023

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:52

Benny Johnson : Ron Klain breaks down in tears at the White House: ''I learned everything I know about how to be a good father from'... https://t.co/HaxZjWYzOb

Wed Feb 01 22:55:51 +0000 2023

Jay : @bennyjohnson lmfao

Thu Feb 02 14:51:57 +0000 2023

1776 C.M. Dawson : @bennyjohnson BAAHAAHAA! Uh-boo, uh-hoo.

Thu Feb 02 14:51:50 +0000 2023

Shirley Phillips-Sanders : @bennyjohnson Then you don't know much. Look at Hunter🤮

Thu Feb 02 14:51:10 +0000 2023

manz : @bennyjohnson Is he crying because he's been forced to say this against his will?

Thu Feb 02 14:50:50 +0000 2023

Keith Burtt : @bennyjohnson He's sad cause he didn't get to finish ruining the country.. he's a joke like the rest of them.!

Thu Feb 02 14:50:36 +0000 2023

PoliticalHypocrisy : @bennyjohnson Hitching his wagon to a horse running off a cliff in its delirium....

Thu Feb 02 14:50:22 +0000 2023

Christopher Page : @bennyjohnson Ya because JB kids are so great

Thu Feb 02 14:50:17 +0000 2023

Loco : @bennyjohnson Where hunter?

Thu Feb 02 14:50:05 +0000 2023

Flannel_Goat : @bennyjohnson How do you throw up in sign language?

Thu Feb 02 14:47:54 +0000 2023

Dr. Ujasiri : @bennyjohnson Lies he tells

Thu Feb 02 14:47:14 +0000 2023

Wayne Clemence : @bennyjohnson GAG

Thu Feb 02 14:47:06 +0000 2023

anne : @bennyjohnson are you kidding me????

Thu Feb 02 14:47:03 +0000 2023

Jason : @bennyjohnson Mob families are so sweet.

Thu Feb 02 14:46:52 +0000 2023

Lynn Williams : @bennyjohnson Cringe.

Thu Feb 02 14:46:46 +0000 2023

Maria Grompone : @bennyjohnson Idiot...

Thu Feb 02 14:46:01 +0000 2023

Letusbe : @bennyjohnson Apparently doesn't know much.

Thu Feb 02 14:45:30 +0000 2023

Tom Cobb : @bennyjohnson CAN YOU SAY BULLSHIT!!

Thu Feb 02 14:44:57 +0000 2023

shofb : @bennyjohnson God I feel sorry for his children. I hope they like taking showers with pop.

Thu Feb 02 14:44:49 +0000 2023

Angel L. Rosario : @bennyjohnson POS 🤮

Thu Feb 02 14:44:29 +0000 2023

Jeri Hutto : @bennyjohnson Go to the safe room!

Thu Feb 02 14:43:56 +0000 2023

Richard : @bennyjohnson How's Joes grandchild doing Ron?

Thu Feb 02 14:42:48 +0000 2023

Val Nicholson : @bennyjohnson Pedo 🌎 of ðŸ'(C)

Thu Feb 02 14:42:14 +0000 2023

Edward Cuddahy : @bennyjohnson Tool

Thu Feb 02 14:41:58 +0000 2023

KathyT : @bennyjohnson ðŸ¤

Thu Feb 02 14:41:02 +0000 2023

OMG! : @bennyjohnson 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮ðŸ¤

Thu Feb 02 14:40:57 +0000 2023

Myron Wallmow : @bennyjohnson That must mean that he doesn't have any kids or he's really a shitty Father.

Thu Feb 02 14:40:34 +0000 2023

redbird1003 : @bennyjohnson Oh man....Klain is gooood! What a show! When we say this is all theater, it truly is Emmy worthy. Tho'... https://t.co/qSsSy9AkmQ

Thu Feb 02 14:40:03 +0000 2023

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Thu, 02 Feb 2023 14:50

Fenway Park, hosting SNL, and cancel culture with Bill Burr.

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 19:45

Sayer Ji : "We are living in a CIA pharmaceutical war game." RFK Jr https://t.co/xrAoNdWZTM

Tue Jan 31 13:43:31 +0000 2023

Stephen Haas : @sayerjigmi His uncle threaten to break up the CIA. After the band pigs. If they do anything to RFK Junior, it would create a pattern

Wed Feb 01 19:44:14 +0000 2023

Joe Triola '''¸ 🇺🇸 🇮🇹 🇮🇪 : @sayerjigmi MK ultra on a global scale.

Wed Feb 01 19:37:02 +0000 2023

Gaius Julius Caesar : @sayerjigmi also: https://t.co/nYMbnZ45qp

Wed Feb 01 19:20:28 +0000 2023

#crypto #NFT #cryptoChicks #Bitcoin #David Icke🎇 : @sayerjigmi We are not all playing though

Wed Feb 01 18:58:04 +0000 2023

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Archived Version

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 19:14

A group of liberal Hollywood celebrities are threatening a ''massive, all-round Hollywood strike'' until every last one of us is vaccinated. Describing Hollywood as ''the base of the entire modern American culture'', the group also claims to be speaking on behalf of ''humanity's better nature.''

''It's about time people understood that we're the ones with the power and that our audiences are there to serve us, not the other way around'', a spokesperson for the group said in an press release.

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''We're calling for a general strike that would include every single person involved in making motion pictures in Hollywood, starting with the actors and celebrities themselves and encompassing companies in charge of making props, movie memorabilia and even souvenir shops.''

Rosie O'Donnell, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow and Gene Simmons are among the dozens of artists, entertainers, and activists who have attached their names to an effort calling for a month-long strike to encourage people they are calling ''vaccine dodgers'' to succumb to the jab.

''Millions of people in the US and around the world are filled with deep anxiety, fear and disgust. Our anguish is right and just. Our anger must now become massive resistance '' before anti-vaxxers become emboldened and failing to do your duty to humanity becomes normalized.''

Other Hollywood celebrities who have also joined the campaign, however, are calling for an all-out strike that would span the entire movie industry in the hopes that such a move would urge ordinary Americans to reassess their decision to avoid Covid-19 vaccines, despite the mountain of evidence that has emerged in recent times proving the shots are a public health hazard.

Asked to elaborate on why the group is targeting Hollywood out of all the industries in the country as their bargaining chip, the spokesperson argued that Hollywood ''is, simply put, the base of the entire modern American culture. It is the foundation of the country, so to speak, the glue that's holding it together. And think about what happens when you destroy the foundation of a house. It comes crashing down, right?

''Well, that's exactly what's going to happen to America unless the unvaccinated realize how real the danger of that actually is, and choose to voluntarily roll up their sleeves and get jabbed. And while we're on the subject, between you and me '' nobody wants Hollywood to stop doing its thing, but this is a necessary move.''

Jennifer Aniston is taking the planned strike even further, threatening her friends that she will never speak to them again unless they get jabbed.

Aniston revealed to InStyle's magazine in September that she has removed unnamed people from her life for refusing to get vaccinated.

Since then, Aniston has been all over social media, attempting to justify her position and threatening to go even further.

''If you have the variant, you are still able to give it to me,'' Aniston replied.

''I may get slightly sick but I will not be admitted to a hospital and or die,'' she elaborated. ''BUT I CAN give it to someone who does not have the vaccine and whose health is compromised (or has a previous existing condition) '-- and therefore I would put their lives at risk.''

She added, ''THAT is why I worry. We have to care about more than just ourselves,'' before posting a photo of embroidery that says, ''What doesn't kill you mutates and tries again.''

According to KISS frontman Gene Simmons, unvaccinated people must be identified and forced to get vaccinated, because these people are his ''enemy.''

According to Gene Simmons, you are not allowed to go anywhere near him unless you are vaccinated ''because You are not allowed to infect anybody ''just because you think you've got rights that are delusional.''

Mariah Carey has also jumped on the bandwagon, declaring ''we are all in this together'' while demanding that the unvaccinated lose their rights to make their own medical decisions.

But that is nothing compared to Gwyneth Paltrow, who has taken the opportunity to profit off the pandemic. According to Gwyneth, if you have long Covid you need to spend $8,600 on a specially curated range of Goop products and then you will be fine.

Well, it's no more shameless than the claims made by Pfizer, Moderna, Tony Fauci and Bill Gates'....

However, it's not all madness and delusion in the world of celebrities. Matthew McConaughey recently opened up about his thoughts on the COVID vaccine and while he admitted that he and his wife have been vaccinated, he revealed that he doesn't deem the vaccine safe enough for kids just yet. And he certainly doesn't believe we should take away people's right to choose.

Jessica Biel is also standing apart from the Hollywood crowd. In June 2019, the actor lobbied against California Senate Bill 276, which gave the state's department of public health the final say in whether children can be medically exempt from the required vaccines to go to school.

Rapper M.I.A. has recently found Jesus and come to her senses. And her tweets are well worth a follow.

According to M.I.A., whose hits include Paper Planes and a number Billboard Hot 100 number one last year with Travis Scott, every single celebrity pushing vaccines should be hauled before a court and fined for lying.

If Alex jones pays for lying shouldn't every celebrity pushing vaccines pay too ?

'-- M.I.A. (@MIAuniverse) October 12, 2022They set a precedent in fining Alex Jones billions of dollars. Now that new evidence is emerging every day about how dangerous the vaccines are, there is one question we need to ask.

How much should celebrities with real influence over impressionable people be forced to pay in compensation for pushing the jab and ruining lives?

Watch:

About Latest PostsBaxter DmitryBaxter Dmitry is a writer at News Punch. He covers politics, business and entertainment. Speaking truth to power since he learned to talk, Baxter has travelled in over 80 countries and won arguments in every single one. Live without fear.

Email:

baxter@newspunch.com Latest posts by Baxter Dmitry (see all)

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:43

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Wed, 01 Feb 2023 16:35

Every day we continue to get even more evidence that our society is going completely and utterly insane. I really wish that this wasn't true. I really wish that we could just hit the rewind button and go back several decades to a time when most people tried to behave normally and there wasn't rampant corruption all around us. Unfortunately, our social decay has shifted into ''turbo mode'' over the past several years, and at this point a lot of Americans actually celebrate the evil that is gnawing away at the foundations of our society like cancer.

Some of the videos that I am about to share with you are really creepy, some of them are quite funny, and some of them are incredibly alarming. But ultimately they all have something to say about where we currently are as a society. The following are 14 videos that will make you want to scream out ''ARE YOU KIDDING ME?'''...

#1 This is the super creepy way that Bill Gates responded when a reporter recently confronted him about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein'...

JUST IN '' Bill Gates says he had dinner with Jeffrey Epstein and "that's all."pic.twitter.com/o405qQ8j4t

'-- Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) January 30, 2023

#2 ''This is what leftism does to you''

This is what leftism does to you. pic.twitter.com/2bVheaA0Sr

'-- Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 30, 2023

#3 ''I'm old enough to remember when going to an airport was not reminiscent of bootcamp''

I'm old enough to remember when going to an airport was not reminiscent of bootcamp. pic.twitter.com/32RQASgt2f

'-- Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 20, 2023

#4 Joe Biden decided to get way too cozy with a female reporter'...

REPORTER: "What's behind your decision to end the COVID emergency?"

BIDEN: "The COVID emergency will end when the Supreme Court ends it." pic.twitter.com/bDRwfQW1g6

'-- VINnews (@VINNews) January 31, 2023

#5 What would you do if somebody did this to you?

Good morning pic.twitter.com/ni0BAYFRg8

'-- No One 🇺🇸 (@tweettruth2me) January 23, 2023

#6 ''A transgender killer is identifying as a baby in order to get better treatment in prison''

#7 ''Biden documents scandal includes 1850 Boxes, enough to fill a tractor trailer, plus 415 GB of electronic records''

HOLY SHIT!! Biden documents scandal includes 1850 Boxes, enough to fill a tractor trailer, plus 415 GB of electronic records! The Senate Intelligence Committee is demanding Biden turn these documents over, but they are refusing to do so!! pic.twitter.com/ifLRnsWEan

'-- Matt Clark (@MattClarkReport) January 30, 2023

#8 ''If you don't like your job, just quit''

In preparation for coming food shortages, we hand-selected five sponsors for long-term food storage:* Late Prepper: My personal favorite (promo code ''prep2023'' at checkout)* Prepper Organic: CHICKEN! (promo code ''survive2030'' at checkout)* My Patriot Supply: Best value '' bang for the buck* Valley Food Storage: High-quality long-term storage food* Nutrient Survival: Premium, nutritious food for the long haul

"If you don't like your job, just quit. But what if there's nowhere to go. What if everywhere has ubiquitous monitoring." From this year's WEF. Terrifying. pic.twitter.com/kzVI9jpTvp

'-- Autism Capital ðŸ§(C) (@AutismCapital) January 31, 2023

#9 MSNBC host Yasmin Vossoughian says that her myocarditis was caused by a ''common cold'''...

#10 A public school teacher laughs about corrupting her students'...

Teacher laughs about bringing ''political unrest'' in her school by pushing pronouns, showing up with purple hair, and mocking the bible pic.twitter.com/3VJ2T014Ip

'-- Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 16, 2023

#11 ''You wanted equality, and now you are complaining that they don't want to be in a relationship with you'...''

Damn pic.twitter.com/cHCBvOgP79

'-- 🇬🇧 IM 🇬🇧 (@TellYourSonThis) January 29, 2023

#12 I thought that you told us that the pandemic was ''over'''...

JOE BIDEN in September 2022: ''the pandemic is over."

JOE BIDEN, today: keeps COVID public health emergency in place until May 2023.pic.twitter.com/1RvF1vALJQ

'-- RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 31, 2023

#13 This is how they are recruiting new soldiers in Ukraine, and our leaders are apparently just fine with this'...

How is mobilization carried out in Ukraine? pic.twitter.com/50Ldl6a7aP

'-- Viktoriya Samarina (@viktoriyarus34) January 27, 2023

#14 Do you think that we will ever be able to get American kids to do this?

'Shuudan koudou' is a group exercise that requires the participants to create various intersecting formations by doing synchronised group walks.

The art of Japanese precision walking by these high school students is stunning pic.twitter.com/Lqtb9Lh6qJ

'-- Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) January 20, 2023

I was absolutely stunned by the precision that those Japanese students were able to achieve.

Here in the United States, many of our high school students can barely even read once they graduate from high school.

Before the food crisis hits, stock up on organic, freeze-dried chicken from Prepper Organics. Use Promo Code ''JDR'' at checkout for $50 off.

Of course we didn't get here by accident.

Our society is a giant mess because our leaders have been making the wrong decisions for decades.

If we don't reverse course, things will only get worse.

So hopefully America will wake up soon, because the clock is ticking.

***It is finally here! Michael's new book entitled ''End Times'' is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled ''End Times'' is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including ''7 Year Apocalypse'', ''Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America'', ''The Beginning Of The End'', and ''Living A Life That Really Matters''. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.

I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this ''About the Author'' section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.

I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: ''For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'' If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Article cross-posted from End of the American Dream.

Looking for more stories? Check out our homepage for headlines that matter from across the net, or visit the most comprehensive conservative news aggregator on the net, The Liberty Daily.Bypass Big Tech Censors

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The NFL playoffs and fans' complaints about the officiating fueled conspiracies online about the league being "rigged," and it trended on social media through the most important parts of the season.

Arian Foster, a former star running back for the Houston Texans, sarcastically talked about the NFL being rigged in the latest episode of the Barstool Sports podcast "Macrodosing."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Former Texans running back Arian Foster attends the International Champions Cup match at NRG Stadium on July 20, 2019, in Houston. (Tim Warner/International Champions Cup/Getty Images)

PFT Commenter, one of the hosts on the show, sarcastically told the audience that Foster told him a script would be dropped off at his locker before the start of the season.

"We were really dedicated to it. So, it was more so like that's what practice was about '' it was about practicing the script. This is what goes on, this is what we have to do '... WWF, so it's like we know what's going to happen. You still gotta put on a show," the four-time Pro Bowl running back.

He was then asked about "the script" he got when his career "fell off a cliff," when he stopped believing in God.

Running back Arian Foster, of the Houston Texans, looks on against the Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium on Sept. 9, 2013, in San Diego. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

JEFFREE STAR MAKES SOMETHING CLEAR TO NFL WAGS AMID FRENZY OVER NEW MAN: 'DON'T BE SO INSECURE'

"It was 2015. Oddly enough, the scriptwriters didn't have anything to do with that, actually. It has more so to do with they needed a change of scenery in Houston," Foster said deadpan. "It was time to go so. They wanted to get everybody out of Houston '' that was the ultimate goal."

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey later joked he was "just following the script" when he allowed Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase to rack up 200 yards on him.

Foster played eight years in the NFL, seven of which for the Texans. He then played four games for the Miami Dolphins in 2016.

Foster was a prolific running back and one of the best stories to come out of the era. He signed with Houston as an undrafted free agent in 2008 and then in 2010 he led the league in rushing yards (1,616) and rushing touchdowns (16). He was an All-Pro that year and made his first Pro Bowl.

Injured Texans running back Arian Foster waits on the field before the game against the New England Patriots at Reliant Stadium on Dec. 1, 2013, in Houston. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

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He joined Barstool Sports in 2021 and helped launch the "Macrodosing" podcast.

Ryan Gaydos is the sports editor for Fox News Digital.

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Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:00

A 44-year-old vaccinated female MSNBC host was hospitalized for nearly 10 days for heart inflammation, blaming her sudden rare illness on ''the common cold.''

MSNBC weekend host Yasmin Vossoughian explained to viewers on Saturday that she'd been absent from the airwaves in recent weeks because she was hospitalized for over a week due to heart inflammation.

''I've been dealing with a little bit of a health scare. On December 20, I began to feel chest pains, and they waxed and waned over a period of 10 days,'' she said. ''I wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

She then went to urgent care on December 30 after experiencing what she thought was a ''heart attack,'' which she said was odd given her vegetarian lifestyle and fitness habits.

The urgent care physicians diagnosed Vossoughian with pericarditis '-- inflammation in the lining of the heart '-- which she insisted was brought on by ''the common cold'' despite undergoing a procedure to have fluid drained from the sac around her heart.

After finally being discharged after four days, Vossoughian explained that days later she was hospitalized again, this time for myocarditis, for five more nights.

After that whole ordeal, Vossoughian said she still blames her heart inflammation on ''a literal cold.''

''And in fact, in the end, it was just a cold that was doing all of this, that caused all of this inflammation in and around my heart,'' she claimed, adding that her arrhythmia symptoms ''continue to wax and wane.''

Later in the segment she brought on cardiologist Dr. Gregory Katz to second her opinion that her rare heart inflammation was due to the common cold, which he also attributed to masking and social distancing during the pandemic.

Though Vossoughian may believe her rare heart inflammation was due to the common cold, it should be noted that she had also received the COVID injection.

Also we are both vaccinated'...that was confirmed before this pic! https://t.co/5LKAu0cRNa

'-- yasminvossoughian (@yasminv) April 26, 2021

NBCUniversal also required NBC News employees to receive the COVID injection before returning to the office.

Myocarditis and pericarditis cases have become so frequent following the rollout of the mRNA injections that even Pfizer and Moderna pledged in November 2022 to investigate their own shots for links to heart inflammation.

Which is more believable: a healthy 44-year-old woman contracted myocarditis from the common cold, or a woman who took an experimental mRNA product known to cause myocarditis ended up with myocarditis?

Our fight against the globalists depends on your continued support! Visit InfowarsStore.com to keep us in the fight for freedom during this technocratic takeover!

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Doesn't Bill's name appear multiple times on Epstein's ''Pedo Express'' air shuttle passenger manifest?

You can't believe anything he says'...he's like Biden, no truth touches their lips'...

If only there were an elaborate surveillance system on Pedo Island or detailed records in a journal. Alas, all the first hand knowledge died with Epstein. We know that Epstein committed suicide because AG Barr told us after his thorough investigation. Darn the luck, now we will never know.

Remember the FBI in a fever to investigate Epstein waited for 30 days after his incarceration to search Pedo Island for evidence. The place was clean. Nothing happened there. The FBI checked it out.

Man, Ultraman Or UltraMAGAman?

Never trust a man with moobs bigger than your own mother's breast.

Gates knows everything. He knew who Epstein was. And still broke bread with him.

Says the son of the founder of Planned Parenthood

Served on the body of a naked lady?

I'm going to guess that dinner was hot dogs and pizza.

Note how he answered in the plural first '' I had DINNERS with him. Then changed it to ''dinner'' (implying once). In the first he's talking about himself and Epstein. In the second he's referring to the act of ''dinner.'' Shifty because even Disclose gets it wrong '' Gates had dinners (unknown number) with Epstein.

'...says he didn't have a relationship with Epstein. How many times did they have dinner together and what did they have for dessert?

Disgusting piece of #&#* you are Bill Gates.

Dinners then dinner. Slight squirm. Eyes glance upward to the rear. Lot of negative body language here Bill. Come on, fess up you scumbag. Your genetic adventures ran deep with Jeffery we think.

Their ''dinner'' was a 12 year old boy.

It was an all you can eat buffet open 24 hours'...

Have u ever had dinner with tom hanks ?

Dinner with Epstein, how long did your dinners last Bill? an hour? two hours? and what do you talk about during a two hour dinner with a person who's whole life is filled with filth? Software enhancements? Useless eaters? while you dine on stake?What exactly did you talk about Bill? You don't recall uh? mmmm

''What age were the children you had for dinner Mr. Gates of Hell?''

Men change to wo men. Dinners change to dinner. ''That's All''. Nothing to see here, What's the difference anyway.

The statements coming from the mouth of this bug eating, billionaire bugger-er are as ingenious as the patented phrase ''on my word as a Biden.''

Those of us who recognize truth when we hear it, know the truth, Bill.We don't need anyone to ''expose'' the truth to us. ''He who does what is evil does not come to the light lest his deeds be exposed'' Like all lies, the longer you hide them the deeper into the quagmire you sink. Bill here is up to his eyeballs in filth and we all know it.

The skinny kid has morphed into blutto. Plausible deniability? I think not. Someone has travel records. There are witnesses.

Where's the damned client list? Oh, that's right the FBI has it, stored right next to Hunter's laptop.

Just like the 81 million votes'.....

Vote Up 14 Vote Down Reply

Regrets the dinners, but enjoyed the desserts?

Vote Up 22 Vote Down Reply

His wife knows this isn't true '' that's why she divorced him.

The only people in my life I've eaten dinner with 26 times are direct family.

Vote Up 22 Vote Down Reply

Nope, she divorced him for financialreasons'...nuth8n to do with emotionz'...lizzards dont have emotions like actual humans do'.... purely a smart bizness move only. If not, then, where is melinda's ''tell-all'' book tour and pressers? Clearing her name from god knows what epstein island goers are associated with?ðŸ'

Don't you think there was a nondisclosure clause in that financial arrangement?

I mean the seventeen year old Y.

I only had dinner at the seventeen year old bar. End of story.

Right, billy. Who was for dessert?

''I shouldn't have had dinners with him.''''I had dinner with him, and that's all.''

So what was it, dinners or dinner Bill? How many dinners does one need to have with a pedophile?

Vote Up 10 Vote Down Reply

Yeah, sure bill, uh huh'...After all, Epstein was most famous for his cooking'...'...

Lying eyes right there from the initial question.

Vote Up 10 Vote Down Reply

He's a pedo!

Vote Up 16 Vote Down Reply

At the end of the day we'll learn that this jackass is a Pervert and Pedophile

Vote Up 21 Vote Down Reply

I don't see Gates as that interested in ''sex'', I think of Bill Gates as the autistic nerd who still wants to be a ''cool kid'' and Epstein surrounded himself with wealthy elites.It could have been an ''innocent'' dinner and Gates may have wanted Epstein to get involved with *saving the world from climate change'' and ''bio-meds'' controlling society and population.Body language ''experts'' notice Bill Gates doesn't react with honest ''human'' emotions because he doesn't understand emotions.Gates had to teach himself to respond with the ''appropriate'' emotions society expects. 🤷''¸ Idk.

Hopefully someone will epstein gates. WEF = WEALTHY EVIL F++KERS.

Vote Up 12 Vote Down Reply

just read the body language!! Simply brilliant how in this age of AI and other high tech wizardry, that body language still exposes the lies of those who are revered as being among the smartest and most powerful people on the planet!

Vote Up 23 Vote Down Reply

Maybe Bill is just evil because he got blackmailed to do evil.

Vote Up -2 Vote Down Reply

Methinks not. He's evil just because he is and always has been!

Vote Up 19 Vote Down Reply

Once you drink the blood there is no undoing it.

In the world, that's true. But the blood of Jesus can forgive any and all sins. However, there will still be consequences.

Epstein's ''services'' were used to compromise and blackmail some people, but in other cases ''reward'' desirable behavior of other already bad actors. Question is where does Gates fit?

My neighbor called me yesterday to help him print from a microsoft app. I use Apple. Microsoft is FUBAR. It's as bad as it was when I stopped using Microsoft 2000 and switched.

Is there a body language expert who can analyze that one? Was very uncomfortable in that chair.Interviewer mentioned wife and Epstein then he squirmed.

Vote Up 16 Vote Down Reply

Sure, I'm an expert. He's lying his ass off.

Vote Up 22 Vote Down Reply

There are body language experts who've talked about Bill Gates. Gates' autism doesn't allow him to ''connect'' with normal emotions. He's learned to ''fake'' emotional responses, but sometimes his reactions don't line up with what we expect as the correct ''human'' reaction of empathy or sympathy.

Lolita Express flight record:

Vote Up 14 Vote Down Reply

Gates needs vaccinating. Several pints worth. Then disposed of at any local landfill.

Vote Up 34 Vote Down Reply

Only in a landfill meant for toxic waste

What do we really think he would say?! ''Shure I was finger popping kids, but so was everyone else'' bill gates

Vote Up 10 Vote Down Reply

Pizza was on the menu

Vote Up 10 Vote Down Reply

Yes that is true '' A Pizza ASS!

with a side of young moose knuckle

His first answer was ''dinners'' plural???

Vote Up 14 Vote Down Reply

Just one more question Billy boy. What was on the menu? You need to go a little deeper with the questions. Did you have dessert?

Liar, liar and pants on fire!God knows you Bill. Money won't save you from the fire.

Vote Up 16 Vote Down Reply

gates is a slimy weasel.

Vote Up 22 Vote Down Reply

Keep hammering ol Billy boy. He appears to be starting to crack, and burst.Sgt Friday would get him to confess in one sit down.

Rare combination: Brave Journalist.

Vote Up 15 Vote Down Reply

Bill Gates is Woody Allen's stunt double.

Vote Up 18 Vote Down Reply

melinda gates could becaitlin jenners stunt double

Dinner?Is that what the child molesters call it now?Hopefully a few of those young girls will come foreword with their stories.

Vote Up 21 Vote Down Reply

They would have to be alive for that.

fine dining on medallions of pedo moose knuckle

They're dead. That's why they used the island, it's surrounded by water to drop the bodies in.

''Just the tip'...'' ''BillToKid

''never a relationship of any kind''if so then, why were you there Bill?you knew what he had to offer

(which we all know now was discreet sex with minors)

Vote Up 20 Vote Down Reply

That was the bait, the real game was blackmail

Vote Up 17 Vote Down Reply

Actually discreet rape of of minor sex slaves.

Google is presently paying $10447 to $13025 every month for working on the web from home. I joined this activity 2 months back and I have earned $15248 in my first month from this activity. I can say my life has totally improved'....https://tiny.one/2p8wm9h8

Vote Up -11 Vote Down Reply

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Daily Caller : Whoopi Goldberg on police reform: "Do we need to see white people also get beaten before anybody will do anything'... https://t.co/CXi4cuBpRo

Mon Jan 30 19:30:20 +0000 2023

Frank Drebin : @DailyCaller The piles of garbage don't bother making a big deal out of a white person resisting arrest like a luna'... https://t.co/6Lxtmc4ulb

Tue Jan 31 00:03:40 +0000 2023

Morgan Kreg : @DailyCaller More unarmed white people are killed by police than black people every year. More white people are be'... https://t.co/rwogkjG4EF

Tue Jan 31 00:03:38 +0000 2023

Brandon Bonaccolto🍊 : @DailyCaller This would be comical if it wasn't so pathetic, while people do get beat more by police and the media'... https://t.co/s5sbBZtD56

Tue Jan 31 00:03:21 +0000 2023

Anne Coles : @DailyCaller ðŸ

Tue Jan 31 00:03:14 +0000 2023

Troyzgirl3333 : @DailyCaller Blah blah blah no one cares what she thinks

Tue Jan 31 00:03:11 +0000 2023

Steven Rathbun : @DailyCaller White people do get beaten by the police but the news don't cover it ðŸðŸ

Tue Jan 31 00:03:11 +0000 2023

FreeSpeech : @DailyCaller Total low life

Tue Jan 31 00:03:02 +0000 2023

Pat : @DailyCaller Whoopi stick with acting, your a disgrace and pathetic

Tue Jan 31 00:02:58 +0000 2023

Eileenfernandez : @DailyCaller Why are you inciting violence Whoopi? You need to shut up!

Tue Jan 31 00:02:58 +0000 2023

Rhonda Swift : @DailyCaller 5 Black cops.

Tue Jan 31 00:02:51 +0000 2023

Crazy Izzy : @DailyCaller Why don't you step up and take one for the team Whoopi?

Tue Jan 31 00:02:49 +0000 2023

Marky Mark : @DailyCaller Oh so they haven't been fired or charges filed? Really Whoopi! Always the race card. Oh and Sister Act sucked! LMAO

Tue Jan 31 00:02:46 +0000 2023

Wildcat : @DailyCaller Blacks have always beaten other blacks . "The view " is pretending this is new .

Tue Jan 31 00:02:36 +0000 2023

Sam : @DailyCaller SCAG ALERT (LEVEL 10+)!!!

Tue Jan 31 00:02:33 +0000 2023

Tadeh petrossian : @DailyCaller Cancel the view.

Tue Jan 31 00:02:24 +0000 2023

Lance : @DailyCaller Wouldn't even make the news. Doesn't fit the narrative

Tue Jan 31 00:02:15 +0000 2023

James Lang : @DailyCaller Racist

Tue Jan 31 00:01:55 +0000 2023

Sam : @DailyCaller Maybe someone will mistake you for a white, being you wish that some should die!

Tue Jan 31 00:01:51 +0000 2023

Eddie Cranford : @DailyCaller I worked with a WW2 navy veteran back in the 80s . Had a partial disability from his military service.'... https://t.co/GYu5VroDEx

Tue Jan 31 00:01:45 +0000 2023

Marsha : @DailyCaller @ABCNetwork @ABCPolitics @TheView this is beyond unacceptable.

Tue Jan 31 00:01:44 +0000 2023

ouiser boudreaux : @DailyCaller #cancelwhoopi

Tue Jan 31 00:01:43 +0000 2023

David Harris : @DailyCaller Well she is clearly a racist and no one has to write a letter proclaiming that! It's amazing she stil'... https://t.co/7BORDtXQLJ

Tue Jan 31 00:01:42 +0000 2023

Roy McNulty : @DailyCaller Indeed whenever any color is brutalized by the rotten cops publicize it.

Tue Jan 31 00:01:38 +0000 2023

The Press : @DailyCaller She's a racist

Tue Jan 31 00:01:37 +0000 2023

Eddie W : @DailyCaller We already seeing white people getting beaten, it just doesn't blip on your radar Whoopie.

Tue Jan 31 00:01:31 +0000 2023

roto : @DailyCaller Her opinion means nothing.

Tue Jan 31 00:01:16 +0000 2023

Freethnkr : @DailyCaller Hey Whoopi... It happens all the time, but the lib stream media won't show that

Tue Jan 31 00:01:02 +0000 2023

Randy : @DailyCaller It doesn't fit the narrative. Look up the video of Daniel Shaver being shot by the police then ask if'... https://t.co/vWPS8GFrrH

Tue Jan 31 00:00:20 +0000 2023

Matt : @DailyCaller I mean....sure...I guess...but good luck finding someone who's done something that bad that's white.'... https://t.co/zhtfiUshuy

Tue Jan 31 00:00:17 +0000 2023

Terry Swick : @DailyCaller U need a new drum, that one is old

Tue Jan 31 00:00:14 +0000 2023

SA85 : @DailyCaller What a verbal prostitute. Would say anything to be noticed. Gold medal in narcissism

Tue Jan 31 00:00:08 +0000 2023

Jim : @DailyCaller Out an out racist she hates white people

Mon Jan 30 23:59:52 +0000 2023

Harold Meissner : @DailyCaller Whoopi. Did your parents have any children that lived?

Mon Jan 30 23:59:39 +0000 2023

Lorraine Margos : @DailyCaller Oh shut up already!!!!

Mon Jan 30 23:59:39 +0000 2023

keepupbeat : @DailyCaller Racist

Mon Jan 30 23:59:33 +0000 2023

TexAla_Mike : @DailyCaller 1. You did suggest it.2. MSM will not report/show White People beaten because it doesn't fit the agenda.

Mon Jan 30 23:58:42 +0000 2023

curtis : @DailyCaller Fire Whoopi now!!@

Mon Jan 30 23:58:39 +0000 2023

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Dr. Robert Malone said he was ''entirely emotional'' after seeing Project Veritas's undercover video in which a research director of Pfizer claimed the company's scientists are talking about mutating the SARS-CoV-2 virus to ''preemptively develop new vaccines.''

Dr. Jordon Walker, who was or is a Pfizer employee, stated in the video, ''One of the things we are exploring is, why don't we just mutate it ourselves so we could create'--preemptively develop new vaccines?'' He added later, ''We're going to consider that, with more discussions.''

Malone told NTD Business that Walker's statement acknowledges something quite significant.

''The buried lede in all of this is that it is an implicit acknowledgement that Pfizer is not able to produce the product that would be necessary to get out ahead of this virus and allow people to be protected using a vaccine,'' he said.

''What is being said is an implicit acknowledgment that the products aren't working, and they can't make them work without going to extraordinary measures of these genetic manipulations, which they hope might solve their problem of getting out ahead of the virus evolution.''

When asked about what the harm may be in such research if it never leaks, Malone responded, ''It always leaks.''

''So you're [hypothetically] engineering something that has the killing potential, the destructive potential equivalent to a major nuclear warhead. And it is sitting in a bench environment in which, if anybody makes an inadvertent mistake '... You know, anything can happen. One small event, inadvertent one single point of failure can lead to the entry of a lethal pathogen into the general human environment and we have seen how quickly that can spread. That's why this logic, is is wrong, it is fallacious, it is deeply flawed. This analogy, 'what's wrong, if so long as they're in BSL4,' '... BSL4 can go bad in so many ways.''

He went on: ''You can have a brief power fluctuation, so the air pressures are no longer equalized, and suddenly, things that are a positive pressure to keep the virus in is suddenly reversed. Somebody can inadvertently throw a switch [to] open a door. [Someone could] tear a suit, you know, [or] a monkey can throw feces '... or sprays urine, this is what monkeys do.

''People get inadvertently infected in these facilities all the time. And to say that this is a benign'--the only people that could say that would be the ignorant. Anybody who has worked in any of these facilities is familiar with what goes wrong and what can go wrong.''

Malone also expressed that he was emotional and ''stunned'' by Walker's personality.

''I mean, this is somebody who is in a position to profoundly influence our all of our lives,'' Malone said, adding later in reference to the kind of research Walker spoke about: ''He's just joking about it. He shows absolutely no signs of remorse, except for the caveats, caveats that he says, 'well, please don't tell anybody this,' you know, in a kind of a conspiratorial way.''

The Epoch Times has reached out to Pfizer for comment regarding Malone's assessment.

'Profoundly Disturbing'In the undercover video, Walker told the Project Veritas journalist: ''Don't tell anyone. Promise you won't tell anyone. The way it [the experiment] would work is that we put the virus in monkeys, and we successively cause them to keep infecting each other, and we collect serial samples from them.''

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Malone, a pioneer in mRNA technology development in vaccines, shared his understanding on Walker's statement from a technical perspective.

''He's talking about modifying domains of the virus,'' Malone said. ''And he's talking about serial passaging in monkeys '... and serial passage, this infecting one monkey and then taking virus from that monkey and putting it into another into another into another, demonstrates'--this is what bothers me the most'--it demonstrates an immunologic naivete at Pfizer. Remember, this is a senior Pfizer executive responsible for strategic planning.''

''What they seem to believe is that they can generate mutant viruses '... and then somehow obtain viruses that are more pathogenic, or more infectious, that are escaping vaccination,'' Malone added. ''And then once they've developed those, then they can potentially develop a vaccine against those. So what they're really talking about is attempting to accelerate in a more controlled environment using monkeys instead of humans'--which have very different immune systems'--so that they can anticipate the evolution the virus is going to take.''

Malone said that the situation is like a ''self-licking ice cream cone, where they create the problem and the solution at the same time and then sell us the solution once the problem either manifests or somehow inadvertently ends up in the general population, such as happened in Wuhan.

''This is profoundly disturbing. Even just the fact that this gentleman would joke about this is profoundly disturbing.''

'Profoundly Disturbing'In the undercover video, Walker told the Project Veritas journalist: ''Don't tell anyone. Promise you won't tell anyone. The way it [the experiment] would work is that we put the virus in monkeys, and we successively cause them to keep infecting each other, and we collect serial samples from them.''

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Malone, a pioneer in mRNA technology development in vaccines, shared his understanding on Walker's statement from a technical perspective.

''He's talking about modifying domains of the virus,'' Malone said. ''And he's talking about serial passaging in monkeys '... and serial passage, this infecting one monkey and then taking virus from that monkey and putting it into another into another into another, demonstrates'--this is what bothers me the most'--it demonstrates an immunologic naivete at Pfizer. Remember, this is a senior Pfizer executive responsible for strategic planning.''

''What they seem to believe is that they can generate mutant viruses '... and then somehow obtain viruses that are more pathogenic, or more infectious, that are escaping vaccination,'' Malone added. ''And then once they've developed those, then they can potentially develop a vaccine against those. So what they're what they're really talking about is attempting to accelerate in a more controlled environment using monkeys instead of humans'--which have very different immune systems'--so that they can anticipate the evolution the virus is going to take.''

Malone said that the situation is like a ''self-licking ice cream cone, where they create the problem and the solution at the same time and then sell us the solution once the problem either manifests or somehow inadvertently ends up in the general population, such as happened in Wuhan.

''This is profoundly disturbing. Even just the fact that this gentleman would joke about this is profoundly disturbing.''

In this image from video, Pfizer Director of Research and Development Dr. Jordon Walker speaks about mutating COVID-19. (Courtesy of Project Veritas)Pfizer's ResponseFollowing the release of the Project Veritas video on Jan. 25, Pfizer ignored multiple queries from The Epoch Times and other outlets before it issued a statement on Jan. 27, in which it denied having ''conducted gain of function or directed evolution research'' in the ''ongoing development of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.''

However, Pfizer noted that in the assessment of Paxlovid, an antiviral drug used against COVID-19, the company carries out laboratory tests ''to identify potential resistance mutations'' to nirmatrelvir, which is one of the two components of Paxlovid. Here, Pfizer noted that ''[i]n a limited number of cases when a full virus does not contain any known gain of function mutations, such virus may be engineered to enable the assessment of antiviral activity in cells.''

Pfizer did not make any mention of Walker in its statement, and as such, neither confirmed nor denied that Walker was or is a Pfizer employee.

Pfizer also did not explicitly dispute the claim by Walker that its scientists are discussing mutating COVID-19 viruses to preemptively develop new vaccines.

While Pfizer specifically denied that it is engaging in gain of function or directed evolution research in developing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the company did not deny that it may be engaged in such research in general, including in relation to other potential COVID-19 vaccines that do not bear the Pfizer-BioNTech designation.

Walker, in a video shared by Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, denied he was ''even a scientist'' and claimed that he ''came from a consulting firm that does business.'' He denied working for Pfizer and said he ''was a contractor.'' He also told O'Keefe that he was ''trying to impress a person on a date by lying.''

'Directed Evolution' Versus 'Gain-of-Function'Walker, in the initial undercover video, denied that the kind of research he was referring to would be characterized as ''gain-of-function,'' and instead called it ''directed evolution.''

''You're not supposed to do gain-of-function research with viruses. Regularly not,'' Walker said in the video. ''We can do these selected structure mutations to make them more potent. There is research ongoing about that. I don't know how that is going to work. There better not be any more outbreaks.''

But for Malone, the terms refer to similar or the same things.

''This is really parsing of words or substituting one set of words for another that really are equivalent'--or if they're not equivalent they are so close to each other as to be irrelevant,'' Malone said.

''Technically, one could define gain-of-function research'--which by the way is poorly defined'--as only involving the insertion of a new genetic element into a virus, you could define it that way. Or you could define it in the more normal way: anything that you do in mutating a virus genome, to cause it to have different properties would be gain of function that is gained and different properties, by definition, and in his case, he's talking about obtaining different immunologic properties,'' Malone said.

''But what he's trying to do is substitute a more benign term for one that has become very widely understood to be wrong, to be illegal, in the United States. And he's making a joke out of it. And he's clearly acknowledging in the video that the two things are really the same functionally.''

Malone speculated that ''for purposes of PR for Pfizer, it appears that [Walker has] been instructed to use the term 'directed evolution' in lieu of the term 'gain of function.'''

Malone noted that Pfizer's Jan. 27 statement said its scientists ''have conducted research where the original SARS-CoV-2 virus has been used to express the spike protein from new variants of concern.''

''Swapping new spike sequences into original Wuhan-1 is technically gain of function research,'' Malone commented on Twitter.

''Pfizer is basically acknowledging that they are doing the same type of gain of function research that Boston University was caught doing, but they are denying that it is gain of function or directed evolution,'' Malone said in a separate Twitter post. He was referring to when researchers with Boston University said in October 2022 they developed a strain of COVID-19 that killed 80 percent of mice infected with it.

From The Epoch Times

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