1551: Big Mike & The Rock

“We are completely stunned at the termination of Don Lemon. Throughout his career, Don has been a superb journalist who was very open to the civil rights community on issues others wouldn’t touch. Don’s voice has been invaluable to the conversation of how we become a more just nation. With the health of our democracy undergoing perhaps its greatest test, we cannot afford to silence his voice. We would like to know what he alludes to when he said there are greater things at play, which is why we urge for a full explanation as to why he was let go in such a fashion.”

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Your Psych Ward nurse here,

Front line psych ward nurse here to give you some insight into working with active military patients with psych disorders and teenagers who are in-patient with psychological disorders.

With the children that we have seen I’d say about 4 out of 10 of our teen patients at any given time of the year since 2021 identify as their opposite sex or non binary. This has noticeably increased since 2020. Back in 2006-2020 at my psych hospital we had zero of those patients. The patients we housed previous to 2020 just would said they were gay or lesbian. 2019 we had one of our first “trans” teen. By the start of the pandemic in 2020 it became common place for these LGBTQ teen patients. And to just make it clear we have had ZERO actual fully transitioned teen patients but plenty of “pill poppin trans” patients.

As far as our active military patients that identify as non binary, they-them, opposite sex and what not it’s about the same. They hold on to their trauma as if it identifies them. Sad to see because those people will never get over their trauma it’s like as if they wouldn’t know who they would be if they actually got over their trauma. And our doctors just cater to their trauma because it what pays them.

Also when a patient claims to be identified as trans or opposite sex, non binary etc. the teen/patient just has to say so (most don’t even look anything like their opposite sex claim and the non binarys all really do look like a non gender person weirdly) These patients are not specific to any race either it’s all races.

One thing I’ve learned from working in a psych ward full time since 2006 is this: the secret to not ending up in a psych ward or low in life is Confidence.

The one thing every patient has in common that enters our hospital is lack of confidence. Whether they have a psychological disorder like psychosis where they hear or see things, depression, addictions, mania, suicidal, whatever it may be, the one thing they lack is confidence. I ask all the patients I talk to a question “Are you a confident person? Or Would you consider yourself confident?” The answer has so far always been no. I then tell them that to work on their confidence is the fastest way to helping them feel better or get out of the psychological situation they are currently in.

Please keep me anonymous if you share this info. thanks

Second topic which is mainly why I want this note to be anonymous.

When you were discussing kids directing their own health care when it comes to transitioning. It made me think of a person I deal with at work. This part of note became much longer than I expected I apologize for that. I’m going to try and trim it down some more before sending.

This individual has attempted to hang themselves and cut themselves, if they rolled their sleeves or pant legs up you wouldn’t find a piece of skin with out scars from superficial cuts. Threatening to jump off a highway pedestrian over pass or running into the middle of a busy highway seems to be their newest pass time. Since this has happened so many times it gives you some insight into the commitment or lack of commit to carry out their threats of self harm. However when you’re faced with responding to these threats or actions who wants to be the one who calls the bluff and then they actually do it.

Recently I had a personal experience where this individual just started walking directly out on to the highway without looking right in front of me. They were nearly hit by several vehicles that swerved out of the way (highway is 100 kilometers per hour). I ran out grabbed her tossed her back off the highway. I wouldn’t say I was nearly hit by a car but their was definitely a white car in the travel lane that swerved at a distance and passed us in the passing lane while I was in the midst of throwing her off the road out of the travel lane.

So to the healthcare part. We as the police each time when apprehending someone under the mental health act we take that individual to the closest hospital where a doctor takes charge of their care. This individual is often released within hours of arriving at the hospital, their parents often attend the hospital as well and it’s not unheard of for the parents and the individual to be home before the police make it back to their office. The doctors believe or say they believe these actions are purely behavioral and don’t take them seriously. I agree a lot of this is behavioral however these actions are placing police and public at risk every time they do this. What kills this person won’t be a deliberate act it will be slipping when they are the wrong side of the pedestrian over pass climbing back to the right side or pulling away from us and getting hit by a car they don’t see coming.

Another time this individual was taken to the hospital after being pulled off the overpass the doctor asked the individual within ear shot of the police what they would do if released from the hospital, the individual said I would go home take a bunch of pills to try and kill myself. The doctor promptly released them and three hours later we were getting another call to assist ambulance with this personal who consumed or alleged to have consumed a bottle of Tylenol to attempt to kill themselves.

I don’t understand nor do this persons (seemingly normal parents) understand how this approach by our healthcare system is acceptable. Whether or not these are cries for help or in the individuals mind serious attempts they are not coping with life and need some sort of intervention. But it seems like the healthcare system thinks this is acceptable way to live and deal with this problem.

This is obviously and exceptional circumstance. Only once was this individual institutionalized in a youth assessment facility (no full time long term facilities for youth). The facility sent them home because this individual was to violent and destructive….. After speaking with a local elected official and telling them that the parents want their child institutionalized and have asked the doctors to institutionalize them the elected official said yes well this individual is 14 so they are able to direct their own health care. There in lines the crux of the problem. This child is not capable of making reasonable rational decisions about existing much less directing their own care. No matter how much the parents beg or advocate they are powerless to get their child help.

Hi Adam,

Your recent segment about social media contributing to the social contagion of transgenderism in young girls reminded me to share some inside information with you regarding this phenomenon.

My wife has worked the last 6 years for a company that makes prosthetic penises for trans men. Prior to covid, sales had started to Peter off (pardon my pun) and she had become worried about her job security.

However, once the lockdowns hit, business soared like never before. The company was inundated with orders and she couldn't keep up with demand.

While stimulus checks certainly contributed to this, I believe there was another larger reason for the spike, one that you spoke about during the last show. When young girls were locked in their homes, they were stuck on social media, especially Tic Tok, which exponentially increased the audience for these types of videos.

With the extreme social isolation and the overall mental health crisis that occurred during this time, many young girls were primed to embrace this type of ideology and become the seeds of trans Maoism.

Combine this with plenty of mental health professionals who have been trained to affirm a person's identity in the name of acceptance and social justice, and you had the perfect formula to accelerate this situation. It was another Mass Formation from Covid or in this case it was a Mass TransFormation.

Its possible China could be promoting this to encourage the sterilization of American youth in order to reduce the population divide between our countries as weather further foment a Maoist style Communist revolution in the US.

Just some things worth considering, thank you for your courage.

Try not to laugh at this— my friend Josh works at a climbing gym I used to work part time for. He sat in on an interview and when his manager asked the gal being interviewed what she thinks her strengths are, I shit you not she said “I think one of my biggest strengths that I’m queer. I think it would bring good optics to (the business/vertical endeavors.)” THIS STUFF IS ACTUALLY BEING SAID…. Aloud!!!!

Spent the past 2 hours searching for the answer to your great question, it's taken me down a trail going back like 12 years...it's all a scam!

It looks there's a "board of arbitration" created in 2011, made up by Jack Clarke, Joey C Johnson, and Robert A Dufek.

Sent links and PDF for skimming, but prolly not worth your time.

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/4629760/award-national-rural-letter-carriers-association

And this article was good too and lines up with my findings.

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2023/04/usps-delays-rollout-of-new-pay-system-after-data-shows-pay-cuts-for-rural-carriers/

I also attached a PDF I found of what looks like a 2018 agreement USPS and our union agreed to via the board of arbitration and it's funny cuz tons of stuff is redacted. I'd love to see the paychecks for the board of arbitrators...

JPMorgan is among a small number of giant banks that have already amassed more than 10% of nationwide deposits, making the firm ineligible under US regulations to acquire another deposit-taking institution. Authorities would have to make an exception to allow the country’s largest bank to get even bigger.

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47 USC 315 makes it illegal for TV networks to censor Presidential candidates but Thursday, ABC showed its contempt for the law, democracy, and its audience by cutting most of the content of my interview with host Linsey Davis leaving only cherry-picked snippets and a defamatory disclaimer. Offering no evidence,

@ABC justified this act of censorship by falsely asserting that I made "false claims." In truth, Davis engaged me in a lively, informative, and mutually respectful debate on the government’s Covid countermeasures. I’m happy to supply citations to support every statement I made during that exchange. I'm certain that ABC’s decision to censor came as a shock to Linsey as well. Instead of journalism, the public saw a hatchet job. Instead of information, they got defamation and unsheathed Pharma propaganda. Americans deserve to hear the full interview so they can make up their own minds. How can democracy function without a free and unbiased press? As President, I will free FCC from its corporate captors and force the agency to follow the law by revoking the licenses of networks that put the mercantile ambitions of advertisers ahead of the public interest. #Kennedy24

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CNN reports that Chinese state run media is creating anti-American sentiment due to alleged poor treatment of Chinese pandas in American zoos. Meanwhile, Russia is taking great care of their pandas!

The report starts at 2:32 (link starts at 2:32) and goes through 6:18. There's some great Chinese man on the street reporting. The sendoff beginning at 6:00 is particularly good about the growing American-China animosity. The great panda war is upon us.

CNN10 is produced for middle and high school audiences. I use it in my own classroom often with some healthy deconstruction that goes way over the heads of my 7th grade students. The first report is about Biden hosting the South Korean president with the Philippines on deck. The programming at work.

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 14:48

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest-growing segments of the corporate industry; the attention of the masses is just one easy, accessible click away (60 Minutes Australia, 2020). Personal media sources such as home videos have quickly become a lucrative market, which raises stern questions about the role of parents in safeguarding their children's rights in this new commercial space. The dark cloud hanging over this new phenomenon is the fact that parents simultaneously have the power to profit off their children's participation in this commercial activity, but also the responsibility to safeguard their human rights (60 Minutes Australia, 2020).

In the past few years, ''Kidfluencers'' '' children with large social media followings '' have catalysed an $8 billion social media advertising industry, with highly 'successful' children generating up to $26 million a year through advertising and the sharing of sponsored content (Masterson, 2020). Children are at grave risk of exploitation because they lack the legal right to the earnings they generate, or safe working conditions and protections via labour laws (Masterson, 2020).

In fact, many jurisdictions are so deferential to parental rights to make autonomous decisions when raising their child that there is little to no regulation of the production of social media content involving children (Langford, 2020). There is a strong case for expanding existing legislation, which protects child labourers and performers, to encompass children's participation in social media content.

Who are ''Kidfluencers?''Kid Influencers or ''Kidfluencers'' are children who have been posted online on different social media platforms generating large numbers of viewers and followers, often earning money for sponsored content (Masterson, 2020). Most social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube require users to be 13 years old or older to create accounts on their websites. As a result, most ''Kidfluencers'' parents manage their accounts in order to sustain their online presence.

Famous ''Kidfluencers'' such as Ryan Toys Review on YouTube (an account that currently has 28 million subscribers) are under constant pressure to produce content on a regular basis (CBS, 2019). 7-year-old Ryan Kaji, the child at the centre of the channel, earned an estimated $22 million in 2018 (Lambert, 2019). Ryan is one of many children at the heart of the industry in which families of ''Kidfluencers'' receive compensation for sponsored content promoted on social media platforms, digital advertisements and merchandising (Masterson, 2020). The large sums of money involved in the industry provide a strong incentive for parents and guardians, elevating the level of child vulnerability.

''Kidfluencers'' with one million followers or more are able to earn $10,000 or more per sponsored post (CBS, 2019). Perhaps most worrying is the absence of legislation and policy for the protection of children involved in this practice. Though child actors are able to gain access to numerous protection mechanisms, ''Kidfluencers'' are treated differently because their activity takes place in a private home setting on a platform in which parents consensually participate (Masterson, 2020). Their activity fails to be viewed as 'work' due to the absence of an employer-employee relationship and the fact that children are deemed to be undertaking normal activities on camera rather than putting on a ''performance'' (Masterson, 2020).

In spite of this, the same harms exist for ''Kidfluencers'' as child actors. Loss of privacy, child labour, child exploitation and deprivation of other opportunities (such as missing school) are all common risks '' as well as the additional physical and psychological harms such as exploitative practices due to the unregulated nature of the social media space (Masterson, 2020). Without labour laws or work permits, children are exposed to infinite working hours with no regulations around their well-being or rest and recreation times (Wong, 2019).

There is also a risk that these children are taken out of education to earn money to which they have any legal right (Wong, 2019). The argument can be made that this is an example of illicit enrichment and self-dealing, as parents are consenting to the use of their child's image in advertising for profit (Wong, 2019). Notwithstanding this, the practice remains common, with the influencer marketing industry expected to grow to $15 billion by 2022 (Mooney, 2019).

Child Labour Laws and Coogans LawWhile there are regulations and rules in the child entertainment industry, these provisions rarely apply to ''Kidfluencers''. Coogan's Law, originating in California in 1939, provides a template for the ways in which new legislators could act to better protect children. It was created off the back of Jackie Coogan, a child actor who discovered, at the age of 21, that his parents had spent all of his earnings from his film career (Masterson, 2020). To guard against this, the law ensures that parents must establish a protected trust account to deposit a portion of the child actor's wages until they are 18 years of age (Masterson, 2020).

Lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to revise the bill to include ''social media advertising'' in 2018 (Lambert, 2019). The law (and others) exists to protect children from big corporations and safeguard against the risk that children could easily be exploited in working arrangements (Whyte, 2019). Conventionally, laws such as these have failed to apply to ''Kidfluencers'' who exist in a 'grey zone' blurring the line between work and home (Whyte, 2019).

More recently in 2020, France has enacted new legislation (coming into force in April 2021) to specifically respond to the ''Kidfluencer'' phenomenon. Under the novel provision '' 'the Exploitation of the image of children on all online platforms bill' '' all the money that children earn if they are under the age of 16 will be protected (Cuthbertson, 2020). This innovative new law further enshrines the ''right to be forgotten'' which means that social media platforms are obligated to remove child content at the request of the child (BBC, 2020).

While the law does not protect all children, it ensures that ''Kidfluencers'' are sufficiently protected (BBC, 2020). Under the law, parents are obligated to receive government authorisation before their child is engaged in online activities that amount to a 'labour relation' (an arrangement which resembles an employee-employed experience). Other provisions such as the Childhood Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) have considered extending work permits to online spaces, in an attempt to regulate the digital space (Langford, 2020).

''Kidfluencers'' and Child Exploitation: An inseparable linkMany parents and guardians will object to the idea that they have ''pushed'' their children into social media, instead they suggest that this was a choice '' one that their children have made because they enjoy the platforms (Mums at the Table, 2020). Typically, these viewpoints will focus on the positives of child engagement with the social media world, such as exposure to entrepreneurial skills and business development (Mums at The Table, 2020). However, these parents frequently overlook the potential harms of exposing their children's lives to large audiences who scrutinise their development and invade their privacy (CBS, 2019).

Best Ways ForwardThough social media companies such as YouTube have pledged to take action to combat child exploitation and protect child privacy on their platforms (Cuthbertson, 2020), accountability mechanisms remain stark. There are some avenues for potential solutions:

Governments could look to impose work permits on ''Kidfluencers'' to track which parents and guardians are making a profit from their children's social media activity (Langford, 2020). This would primarily enable data collection to quantify the scale of the ''Kidfluencer'' problem and further allow us to better understand some of the consequences. For example, it could illustrate links between school absenteeism and child presence on social media or links between children's mental health and exposure to social media platforms (Langford, 2020). This information would be vital to inform future strategic interventions and assistance programmes.Legal provisions could follow recent and past examples in France and California to mandate that trusts be created for ''Kidfluencers'' who are involved in social media profiles that generate profit. This would serve the dual purpose of ensuring children are not exploited financially and deterring parents and guardians away from the activity if they are less likely to reap financial rewards (Masterson, 2020).Content creators who advertise child centred content and child-targeted material could form joint pacts to ensure that there are online community mechanisms for accountability and sharing information. For example, SafeFam is an online community comprised of more than 200 ''Kidfluencers'' who confirm the number of hours children should work, the conditions of work, the importance of work-life balance and the physical and mental health risks to which the children are exposed (Whyte, 2019). These communities will serve to raise awareness of the dangers of ''Kidfluencers'' and facilitate community policing of the activity.Children spend long hours producing financially lucrative content at the direction of their parents and guardians. These children lack personal, professional and financial protection. While we must continue to respect the autonomy of parental rights, these must always be exercised in the best interests of the child. As we transition into a new digital age, legislators and policymakers must keep pace, both to protect children and to raise awareness about the inherent risks involved with ''Kidfluencers''.

At Humanium, we seek to raise awareness of the importance of children's rights to education, life and protection. Join us in making children's rights to a safe environment and accessible education a reality by sponsoring a child, making a donation or becoming a volunteer!

Written by Vanessa Cezarita Cordeiro

For more information:Ben-Joseph, E.P. (2018). ''Internet Safety''.

Child Influencers: Adoption of the Bill (available in French)

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, 15 U.S.C. 6051-6505

Dredge, S. (2014, August 11). ''How do I keep my children safe online? What the security experts tell their kids?''.

Exploitation of the Image of Children on Online Platforms (available in French)

National Assembly. Constitution of October 4, 1958. Fifteenth Legislature (available in French)

SafeFam: Training for family & kids content creators on YouTube.

The National Assembly. (2020). Child Influencers: Adoption of the Bill.

References:60 Minutes Australia. (2020, April 27). ¨The World of Kid Influencers: Social Media Sensations at six-years old!¨

BBC News. (2020, October 7). ¨France passses new law to protect child influencers''.

Berg, M. (2019, December 19). ¨The Highest-Paid YouTube Stars of 2019: The Kids Are Killing It.¨

Boring, N. (2020, October 30). ¨France: Parliament Adopts Law to Protect Child ¨Influencers¨ on Social Media¨.

Brockes, E. (2019, March 22). ¨Parents are exploiting their children on YouTube for fame and easy money.¨

CBS News. (2019, August 23). ¨Kid Influencers: Few Rules, Big Money.¨

Cuthbertson, A. (2020, October 8). ¨Kid Influencers¨ Classed as Child Labour Under New French Law.

Desai, R. (2020, December 8). ¨´Kid-fluencers´ Will Get Privacy, Exploitation Protection Under French Law¨.

Guzman, N. (2020, March 27). The Children of YouTube: How an Entertainment Industry Goes Around Child Labor Laws. Child and Family Law Journal, 8(1), 4.

Holcombe, M. (2019, March 22). ¨What happens when parents abuse and exploit children for internet fame?¨

Lambert, H. (2019, August 8). ¨Why Child Social Media Stars Need a Coogan Law to Protect Them From Parents¨.

Langford, R. (2020, July 10). ¨The Rise of ´kidfluencers´: Are Child Social Media Stars being exploited?¨

Maheshwari, S. (2019, March 1). ¨Online and Making Thousands, at Age 4: Meet the Kidfluencers.¨

Masterson, M.A. (2020, May 11). When Play Becomes Work: Child Labour in the Ear of ¨Kidfluencers¨. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Forthcoming.

Mooney, T. (2019, August 26). ¨Companies make millions off kid influencers, and the law hasn't kept up¨.

Mums At The Table. (2020, January 21). ¨Kid influencers: Big money, millions of followers¨.

O´Neill, E.E. (2019, December). Influencing the Future Compensating Children in the Age of Social-Media Influencer Marketing. Stanford Law Review, 72.

Rosman, K. (2017, September 27). ¨Why Isn't Your Toddler Paying the Mortgage?¨.

Shapiro, J. (2018, October 23). ¨We Need New Child Labour Laws for the Digital Age¨.

St-Esprit, M. (2018, December 7). ¨How Millennial Parents are Reinventing the Cherished Family Photo Album¨.

Tait, A. (2015, September 16). ¨Is it Safe to turn your children into YouTube Stars?''

Volpe, A. (2019, February 28). ¨How Parents of Child Influencers Package Their Kids´ Lives for Instagram¨.

Whyte, A. (2019, August 12). ¨Mo' money, mo' problems?¨

Wong, J.C. (2019, April 24). ¨It´s not play if you're making making money: How Instagram and YouTube disrupted child labour laws. Kidfluencers´ are earning millions on social media, but who owns that money?¨

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 14:42

Ukrainian secret service agents tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin with a kamikaze drone carrying explosives - but failed after it crashed a few miles short of their target, it has been claimed.

The Ukrainian forces reportedly launched the UJ-22 drone, laden with 17 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives, from Ukraine on Sunday with the aim of reaching a newly built industrial estate near Moscow that Putin was due to visit, German newspaper Bild claims.

But before the deadly drone reached the Rudnevo industrial park on its alleged mission to take out the Russian despot, it crashed mere miles away from the site.

Bild cited a tweet by Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko, who claims to have close ties to Kyiv's intelligence services, alleging that Ukrainian secret service agents had received 'information' about Putin's apparent trip to the industrial site and had decided to launch the deadly drone in an attempt to assassinate the president.

He claimed that a kamikaze drone that had crashed in Voroskogo village, 12 miles east of the Rudnevo industrial park, was the one that Ukrainian forces had launched as part of the assassination plot.

The Ukrainian forces reportedly launched the UJ-22 drone, laden with 17 kilograms of explosives, from Ukraine on Sunday, Bild claims. Pictured: A Ukrainian drone that crashed near the village of Voroskogo

Yuriy Romanenko claimed that the UJ-22 drone that had crashed in Voroskogo village was the one that Ukrainian forces had launched as part of the assassination plot

The UJ-22 drone packed with 17 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives

Ukrainian secret service agents tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin with a kamikaze drone laden with explosives, it has been claimed

In a tweet cited by Bild, Romanenko said: 'Putin we are getting closer. Everyone saw the news about the drone that flew to Moscow, but did not explode? So, this drone flew for a reason.

'Last week, our intelligence officers received information about Putin's trip to the industrial park in Rudnevo. Accordingly, our kamikaze drone took off, which flew through all the air defenses of the Russian Federation and crashed not far from the industrial park.'

Kyiv has yet to officially comment on the claims made in Bild.

A UJ-22 drone, which has a range of 500 miles, did crash near Vorokogo village on Sunday, with images posted on social media sites including Telegram showing the destroyed UAV in a forest near Moscow.

The drone was laden with 30 C4 plastic explosive blocks weighing 17 kilograms, which are often used by the US army.

Bild, citing Romanenko, claims that the drone was supposed to crash into Rudnevo industrial park and kill Putin, who was reportedly expected at the site on Sunday.

Putin propagandist Paval Zarubin said on Sunday morning that Putin was planning to 'visit an industrial park in Moscow' without giving timings.

Video posted on social media showed the lawn in front of the Rudnevo industrial park had been spray painted green. It was said this was in preparation for Putin's arrival.

But Russian state media said Putin was set to visit the Rudnevo industrial park and hold a meeting on the development of unmanned aircraft systems today.

TASS news agency said the Russian despot would look at how the systems are developed. There was no mention of the drone incident in the state media report.

However Bild cited Romanenko claiming that there was an assassination attempt.

He said: 'Considering how much Putin is obsessed with his own security, this story could have huge implications for the Kremlin towers'.

The UJ-22 drone packed with 17 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives crashed in Voroskogo village on Sunday

The UJ-22 drone was packed with 17 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives. It has been claimed that the drone was intended to assassinate Putin

And Ukraine expert Sergej Sumlenny told the newspaper: 'It is clear that a precision strike against the Russian head of state with a kamikaze drone is an almost impossible action.

'But the very fact that such a drone would reach a place where Putin plans to stay is a slap in the face for the Russian dictator.'

Putin is said to be fearful of assassination since his invasion of Ukraine, after hit squads were sent into Ukraine to take out President Zelensky in the early days of the conflict.

Putin has previously claimed he has escaped numerous assassination attempts.

In 2017, Putin told filmmaker Oliver Stone that there had been five assassination attempts against him - and the only reason he is alive is because he deals with his own security personally.

'I do my job and the security officers do theirs and they are still performing quite successfully,' Putin said in the documentary The Putin Interviews.

Putin is said to travel with his own sniper squad whose role is to locate any shooters and kill them before they are able to pull the trigger on Putin.

In 2012, a former public schoolboy in Britain was arrested in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate Putin.

Adam Osmayev, who is from a prominent Chechen family opposed to Putin, was seized by special forces in Odessa and he allegedly confessed to wanting to travel to Moscow and kill Putin, then a presidential candidate, by bombing his motorcade.

Those close to Putin have said he is incredibly paranoid about his safety and constantly fears he will be assassinated.

The Russian despot has even set up identical offices across Russia to confuse assassins in another sign the despot is paranoid about his safety, a Russian intelligence officer who fled the country over the Ukraine war said earlier this month.

Putin designed offices in his luxury mansions in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo to look the same, according to Gleb Karakulov, an officer in the Kremlin leader's secretive elite personal security service.

The rooms are identical, with matching details such as desk and wall hangings, and official reports sometimes say he's in one place when he's actually in another.

Putin speaking to Andrey Kostin in his Novo-Ogaryovo office in 2017

The Kremlin had released photos of his meeting claiming he was in Novo-Ogaryovo in 2020 when in fact he was in Sochi (pictured)

When Putin was in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, security officials would pretend he was leaving and deploy a plane and motorcade, when he was in fact still in the city, the defector revealed.

'This is, firstly, a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,' Karakulov told the Dossier Center, a Russian investigative journalism project.

This confirmed previous reports by Russian outlet Proekt Media that showed how Putin's Sochi office and his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow were identical. The Kremlin had released photos of his meeting claiming he was in Novo-Ogaryovo when in fact he was in Sochi.

Karakulov depicted Putin as an increasingly isolated leader who lives in an 'information vacuum' in heavily guarded residences, which he called 'bunkers'.

The Russian president refuses to use a mobile phone out of fear of being bugged by the West and prefers to travel on a special armoured train because he is paranoid a plane can be tracked, Karakulov said. He added that Putin is 'mortally afraid' of Covid and is isolating for the fourth year.

'He's simply afraid,' Karakulov said. 'He has shut himself off from the world. His take on reality has become distorted.'

He said Putin's paranoia has deepened since he invaded Ukraine and detailed how the despot ordered a bunker to be set up at the Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan and secured with a secure communications line last October.

'It is a kind of paranoia,' Karakulov said. 'He is pathologically afraid for his life.'

In March last year, a former British Army chief said NATO and Western allies should not rule out the possibility of assassinating Putin.

Colonel Richard Kemp said Putin represents a 'permanent and deadly threat' and killing him may be 'unpalatable' to some, but it could help save thousands of lives.

Putin has also become so fearful he will be killed by a Ukrainian strike that he has set up air defence systems near his presidential palace in Yashereova and his official residence near Moscow.

And Putin doesn't have to just worry about being assassinated by those abroad - there are anti-war movements within Russia that are dedicated to destabilising his regime.

Some groups employ guerrilla-style tactics to launch explosive attacks on Russian military sites or assassinate of pro-Putin figures.

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 14:37

In the midst of a contentious debate about Chicago's plan to force employers to require their workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine, Karen Freeman-Wilson, president of the Chicago Urban League, appeared on television to dismiss complaints that such rules would disproportionately harm the Black community. ''The health and safety factor here far outweighs the concern about shutting people out or creating a barrier,'' Freeman-Wilson said on WTTW in August 2021. Earlier that year, her group had received a $100,000 grant from Pfizer, the manufacturer of one of the most commonly used COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, for a project to promote "vaccine safety and effectiveness.'' Although the Chicago Urban League is not normally shy about disclosing its corporate donors, the support from Pfizer is not listed in the ''partners'' section on its website. The drug industry funding likewise went unmentioned during the interview. Pfizer's grant to the Chicago Urban League was one of many that Pfizer made to nonprofits and trade organizations. Pfizer doled out special funding to groups across the country that lobbied in favor of government policies to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine. The extensive list of those with funding from the pharmaceutical giant includes consumer, doctor, and medical groups, as well as public health organizations and civil rights nonprofits. Many of those groups did not disclose the funding they received from Pfizer while they were advocating for policies that would force workers to get the vaccine. There were several different and sometimes overlapping vaccine mandates in the country. At the federal level, President Joe Biden issued an executive order, which was ultimately struck down in court, mandating vaccinations at all employers with 100 workers or more. A number of state and local governments forced public employees to get vaccinated and tried to force private-sector employers to follow suit. And many large employers required their employees to get vaccinated without any prodding from the government. Critics of these employer mandates have noted that the majority of the proposed mandates, including Biden's, made no exception for individuals with natural immunity through prior infection. Proponents of the mandates claimed that the vaccines would prevent transmission of COVID-19, an argument that lacked sound scientific basis at the time and has further unraveled. ''You're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,'' Biden falsely claimed in July 2021, as his administration and local governments were preparing mandate orders. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, similarly stated that vaccinated individuals "do not carry the virus." But it wasn't just these unsupported claims by leading government officials that shaped the groundwork for COVID-19 mandates. A coalition of highly visible groups backed by Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry provided much of the lobbying support for coercive vaccine policies. Here are the most important examples:

The National Consumers League , a century-old corporate watchdog group, announced support for ''government and employer mandates requiring [COVID-19] vaccination" in August 2021, during roughly the same period in which it accepted $75,000 from Pfizer earmarked for ''vaccine policy efforts.'' The organization is also led in part by Andrea LaRue, who serves as an NCL board member. LaRue's work as a highly paid contract lobbyist to Pfizer, focused on vaccine policy, is not disclosed by NCL's website.

The Immunization Partnership , a Houston-based public health nonprofit, lobbied publicly against Texas legislation in 2021 designed to prevent vaccine passports and municipal vaccine mandates. The Immunization Partnership claimed that the bills ''erode the vital role of our state's public health and medical experts in combating this pandemic.'' The partnership did not disclose that it received $35,000 from Pfizer that year for ''legislative advocacy.''

The American Pharmacists Association , American College of Preventive Medicine , Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy , American Society for Clinical Pathology and the American College of Emergency Physicians signed a letter in support of the Biden administration mandate to require employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be fully vaccinated or tested at least weekly. The organizations all received individual grants from Pfizer.

The National Hispanic Medical Association worked with public relations firm Culture One World to distribute "press release and media placements" that "called on employers of essential workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccines." The group also signed on to joint statements lobbying in favor of the Biden administration vaccine mandate. NHMA received $30,000 from BIO, a vaccine industry lobby group that represents Pfizer and Moderna, IRS filings show.

The American Academy of Pediatrics was one of the most visible organizations working to build public support for vaccine mandates. The organization received multiple, specialized grants from Pfizer in 2021. Pfizer also provided grants to individual state chapters of the AAP earmarked for lobbying on vaccine policy. The Ohio AAP chapter, for instance, lobbied the Ohio legislature against bills to curb coercive COVID-19 vaccine policies, while receiving an ''immunization legislation'' advocacy grant from Pfizer.

The pharmaceutical industry remained largely in the background on these controversial mandate policies, which faced opposition from a broad array of civil libertarians, labor unions, and community-based groups. Instead, the industry mobilized support for the mandates through third-party organizations to which it typically provided financial support. Pfizer and most of the organizations funded by the pharmaceutical giant listed above did not respond to a request for comment. The American College of Preventive Medicine noted in an email that the group endorsed the COVID-19 vaccine mandate after the policy was brought to the organization's board. "Regarding the specific question about the COVID-19 vaccines, supporting a vaccine mandate does not support one vaccine manufacturer over another," said Drew Wallace, a spokesperson for ACPM. Critics note that drug industry money presents an inherent conflict of interest that shaped the discourse around COVID-19 mandates.

''If people or institutions advocated for or implemented mandates, while failing to disclose ties to the vaccine companies, that is a serious ethical violation, and potentially even unlawful, and should be thoroughly investigated,'' said Jenin Younes, an attorney formerly with the New Civil Liberties Alliance, who brought some of the first legal challenges to vaccine mandates.

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Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, an expert in bioethics, noted that pharmaceutical firms routinely finance outside organizations to shape medical decisions and health care policy. Pfizer, Kheriaty said, engaged in a ''form of market manipulation by pushing mandates using organizations that present themselves as scientifically credible, or acting in the public interest, while creating by force a market for the company's products.'' ''Pharmaceutical companies spend very large portions of their budgets on marketing, including on various health care organizations and third parties, and they do that because they get a return on that investment. It makes business sense,'' Kheriaty noted. The pharmaceutical industry has long shaped health care policy through outside advocacy organizations. The late Evan Morris, a former lobbyist for Genentech, famously once presided over a $50 million lobbying budget, much of which went to third-party groups that amplified the pharmaceutical giant's messages. In one particularly lucrative coup, Morris used outside groups to stoke fears and plant news stories around avian-flu and the need for the government to stockpile Tamiflu. The public relations tactic reportedly helped generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Genentech parent company Roche, which manufactures Tamiflu. On another occasion, Morris orchestrated a delay in the Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban the use of the cancer drug Avastin, then one of Genentech's most profitable products. The FDA had determined that Avastin was ineffective in treating breast cancer, but Smith mobilized outside advocacy groups to pressure the agency to reconsider its decision, according to the Wall Street Journal. Efforts by other controversial drug makers to employ similar strategies have been well documented. For example, Purdue Pharma covertly funded third-party advocacy groups to encourage looser criteria for prescribing OxyContin and other highly addictive opioid painkillers. In the case of Pfizer, the company was able to mobilize widespread support among policymakers to make its COVID-19 vaccine one of the most profitable medical products in history. In 2021 alone, Pfizer generated over $36.7 billion in revenue from the vaccine. "From a public health perspective, [the vaccine mandates] did not make any sense for a couple of reasons,'' said Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine on leave from Harvard University. ''One is that if you had COVID, then you have excellent immunity,'' Kulldorff said. ''The second is that back in 2021, when there was a shortage of vaccines, the important thing was to vaccinate older, high risk Americans and also in other parts of the world like India and Brazil, but instead a lot of the vaccines went to younger people who are low risk and didn't need it.'' The Biden administration later faced a string of rulings from federal courts declaring the mandate unconstitutional. The Supreme Court in January 2022 overturned the OSHA requirement that mandated workers at businesses with 100 or more employees receive COVID-19 vaccinations, but left in place mandates for workers in medical facilities.

Workers affected by other COVID-19 vaccine mandates weren't so lucky. New York City terminated more than 1,700 members of its municipal workforce for their refusal to comply with a vaccine mandate that took effect in October 2021. This year, the city ended its vaccine mandate, but many of the fired workers are still fighting to get their jobs back in court. Kheriaty, the bioethicist, was fired from the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine for refusing to comply with the university's vaccine mandate, claiming natural immunity from prior infection. He is one of thousands of people fired because of similar policies. ''We tossed overboard the principle of informed consent and assumed '' without evidence '' that the COVID vaccine would help people beyond the specific recipient,'' Kheriaty said. Image via CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 14:23

The World Health Organization said there is a ''high risk of biological hazard'' in Sudan after one of the rival factions seized a lab in Khartoum.

The national public laboratory reportedly held samples of diseases such as polio, measles, cholera and other dangerous pathogens.

Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO's representative in Sudan, said technicians were unable to secure the materials before troops took control of the laboratory.

The troops reportedly ''kicked out all the technicians from the lab,'' according to Abid.

It's unclear which faction seized the lab.

BREAKING 🚨 'Huge biological risk' after Sudan fighters occupy lab: WHO

READ: https://t.co/XqOLLz9Z2I pic.twitter.com/079JLFucdz

'-- Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) April 25, 2023

#Sudan: 'High bio-hazard risk' in Sudan after laboratory seized, #WHO says

*There is a "high risk of biological hazard" in the Sudanese capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials'... pic.twitter.com/munTWEmgTb

'-- Addis Standard (@addisstandard) April 25, 2023

From Reuters:

Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, the WHO's representative in the country, Nima Saeed Abid, said technicians were unable to gain access to the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials.

''This is the main concern: no accessibility to the lab technicians to go to the lab and safely contain the biological material and substances available,'' he said, declining to specify which side had seized the facility.

Fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries on April 15 and has killed at least 459 people and injured 4,072, according to the WHO's latest figures. Abid said this was an undercount, adding that he had seen two bodies in the street himself in recent days.

The clashes have paralysed hospitals and other essential services, and left many stranded in their homes with dwindling supplies of food and water. The WHO has reported 14 attacks on health facilities since the clashes began and is relocating its staff to safety.

Abid said he was transferred from Khartoum to Port Sudan on Monday as part of a large convoy that drove for 30 hours through the desert.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) has been forced to cut back on some of its activities in parts of Sudan due to intense fighting.

Here's more info about the Sudan conflict and what the mainstream media refuses to discuss.

Is Sudan Chaos the Result of US-Russia Proxy War?

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:39

Last August, we were the first to show how Russia was bypassing Europe's so-called commodities embargo: it was selling LNG to China which was then re-selling it to Europe at a substantial mark up. And while we also frequently reported that Russia was using a similar sanctions bypass for oil, this time using India instead of China, few were willing to confirm as much: after all, it would seem very shortsighted if European consumers were paying an extra surcharge to India, while Russia was not suffering any adverse consequences from Europe's laughable "sanctions."

Not any more: on Friday, Bloomberg reported that for all of Europe's fire and brimstone about an embargo (which has gotten decidedly quieter in recent months), "Russian oil is still powering Europe just with the help of India."

As we reported at the time, last December the EU barred almost any seaborne crude oil imports from Russia. It extended the prohibition to refined fuels two months later. However, the rules didn't stop countries like India from snapping up cheap Russian crude, turning it into fuels like diesel, and shipping it back to Europe at a big markup: as shown in the chart below, just the Brent to Urals price differential, a byproduct of the Russian sanctions, is about $25/bbl, almost a third of the price of a barrel of crude. The markups on Russian product are even greater when dealing with refined products such as gasoline or diesel.

In fact, India has become so good at reselling Russian oil to the same Europeans who refuse to buy it directly from Moscow for a much lower price, that the Asian country is on track to become Europe's largest supplier of refined fuels this month while simultaneously buying record amounts of Russian crude, according to data from analytics firm Kpler.

In other words, Europe is still buying Russian oil, keeping Putin's military machine well-funded, but because of the virtue signaling exercise of buying Russian oil though a mediator, the transaction ends up costing Europeans billions more than if they simply had purchased the oil directly.

pic.twitter.com/exdke9mX0p

'-- Derek J. Grossman (@DerekJGrossman) April 29, 2023''Russian oil is finding its way back into Europe despite all the sanctioning and India ramping up fuel exports to the west is a good example of it,'' said Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at the firm. ''With India taking in so much Russian barrels, it's inevitable.''

As Bloomberg notes, "the development is double-edged for the EU. On the one hand, the bloc needs alternative sources of diesel now that it has cut off direct flows from Russia, previously its top supplier. However, it ultimately boosts demand for Moscow's barrels, and means extra freight costs." In other words, Europe achieves none of its embargo goals (i.e., keeping Russian oil out of the market, preventing Putin from using oil to finance the war in Ukraine), while being hit with far higher energy prices.

It also means more competition for Europe's oil refiners who can't access cheap Russian crude, and comes amid wider market scrutiny about where the region's diesel imports are coming from.

Repsol SA's CEO Josu Jon Imaz said on Thursday that Russian diesel is entering Europe illegally and called on authorities to clamp down on the activity. He wasn't talking about the trade via India but flows of diesel that originated in Russia... which of course is the same thing.

Hilariously, a preliminary inquiry into the matter by Spanish authorities didn't find evidence that Russian diesel was entering the country, a government official said Friday, adding that a probe is ongoing. Of course, nobody in Europe wants to admit that they are indirectly funding Putin, so expect many more such "discoveries" as all other countries try to find if they are importing Russian oil only to find that everyone but them is using it.

Meanwhile, Europe's refined fuel imports from India are set to surge above 360,000 barrels a day, edging just ahead of those of oil exporting titan Saudi Arabia, Kpler's data show.

And the cherry on top: Russian crude oil arrivals to India are expected to surpass 2 million barrels a day in April, representing almost 44% of the nation's overall oil imports, according to Kpler data. India then quickly re-exports the oil or processes it first into diesel and gasoline, and then sells it to European customers.

More than half of Russia's seaborne oil shipments were to the European Union and Group of Seven nations before the bloc began to cut purchases in response to the nation's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Finally, the question of what the point is of continued Russian "sanctions" remains, as the IIF's Robin Brooks explains in the following twitter thread, which once again makes clear that western sanctions against Russia have been a catastrophic failure... perhaps as was intended all along.

Evaluation of our sanctions policy

1. Only 2 questions matter. First, have our sanctions meaningfully curtailed Russia's ability to wage war? Second, are our sanctions a deterrent to countries that may wage war in the future? Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is: "No!"

2. Root problem is an infatuation with financial sanctions. These can be effective when used on current account deficit countries - Turkey in 2018 is an example - but they don't work on current account surplus countries. This is a key point that cannot be emphasized enough.

3. Russia shows how our financial sanctions failed. We sanctioned some banks, including the central bank (red), but not all. This meant that all the cash from Russia's current account surplus got routed through non-sanctioned Russian banks (blue). Putin still got all his cash...

4. So our financial sanctions did not prevent Putin getting all his cash in return for energy exports. All this cash just got routed through different banks than before. As a result, financial conditions in Russia eased back to pre-war levels, a big plus for Russia's war economy.

5. We could have avoided this, but it would have required sanctioning ALL Russian banks. That's the same as a trade embargo, since Putin no longer gets paid and stops exporting. This shows what's needed to hurt c/a surplus countries: a trade embargo! Not financial sanctions...

6. Number one lesson from Russia is that our infatuation with financial sanctions must end. They don't work on c/a surplus countries, unless we sanction all banks, in which case we're just doing a trade embargo. We need to be doing trade embargos instead of financial sanctions...

7. Had we done a hard energy embargo on Russia, this would have come at a cost to the West, but Russia would have gone into financial crisis, making the war harder for Putin to fight. An embargo would have also scared other potentially hostile current account surplus countries.

8. It's not too late. First, the West needs to end its focus on financial sanctions. Second, we need to start talking about hard trade-offs that are needed to confront c/a surplus countries. We need to stop giving them cash, which means we need to stop buying their stuff...

9. A footnote on the G7 oil price cap. The cap is recognition of the fact that Russia's current account surplus needs to be cut. But - thanks to Greek shipping oligarchs - the cap was set at $60 and wasn't binding. A mistake that can be fixed now by lowering the cap...

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:38

Array

News Press Releases Press Releases '--Apr 26, 2023

Civil rights leaders note Lemon gave voice to civil rights community, told stories others wouldn't

New York, NY (April 26, 2023) '' Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), and Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League (NUL), issued the following statement on CNN's decision to fire longtime anchor Don Lemon. The veteran journalist announced yesterday that he was let go after 17 years with the network, noting that ''there are some larger issues at play.''

''We are completely stunned at the termination of Don Lemon. Throughout his career, Don has been a superb journalist who was very open to the civil rights community on issues others wouldn't touch. Don's voice has been invaluable to the conversation of how we become a more just nation. With the health of our democracy undergoing perhaps its greatest test, we cannot afford to silence his voice. We would like to know what he alludes to when he said there are greater things at play, which is why we urge for a full explanation as to why he was let go in such a fashion.''

About National Action Network (NAN)

National Action Network is one of the leading civil rights organizations in the Nation with chapters throughout the entire United States. Founded in 1991 by Reverend Al Sharpton, NAN works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice, decency, and equal opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, nationality, or gender.

For more information go to www.nationalactionnetwork.net.

###

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:36

The Postal Service is delaying the implementation of a new pay system that would currently lead to many rural carriers seeing significant pay cuts.

The National Rural Letter Carriers Association announced last Friday it reached an agreement with USPS to postpone the new pay system, the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS).

Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino told the union in a memo last Friday that USPS now plans to push the launch of RRECS from...

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The Postal Service is delaying the implementation of a new pay system that would currently lead to many rural carriers seeing significant pay cuts.

The National Rural Letter Carriers Association announced last Friday it reached an agreement with USPS to postpone the new pay system, the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System (RRECS).

Deputy Postmaster General Doug Tulino told the union in a memo last Friday that USPS now plans to push the launch of RRECS from April 22 to May 6.

Tulino told NRLCA that USPS will use this time to review initial rural route evaluations and ''ensure that errors and/or missing data entries are corrected, as appropriate.''

''The parties are agreeing to this delay to allow further review of the data underlying these new rural route evaluations,'' Tulino wrote. ''The parties will also use this time to finalize an alternate dispute resolution process specific to the rural evaluation data.''

Many carriers are warning that if the RRECS system went into effect now, they would receive thousands of dollars less per year. Others are considering leaving USPS and finding work elsewhere.

Rural carriers and NRLCA are pushing for more transparency from USPS on the data used to make pay determinations under RRECS, a system both parties agreed to implement more than a decade ago.

Alicia Riley-Lucas, a rural carrier in La Plata, Maryland, said her route under RRECS would pay her $8,000 less annually compared to what she currently earns.

''It's just disappearing from my paycheck, and I don't have any say in that. What am I supposed to do?'' Riley-Lucas said.

Riley-Lucas said the new pay system, if implemented now, would make it significantly harder for USPS to retain experienced rural carriers or recruit new ones.

''They've been with the Post Office for years and years. They thought it was a stable job [and] they were planning on doing it. We're already having issues with getting people hired across the board and getting them to stay,'' she said. ''Somehow the Post Office seems to think that it's fair that they get to pay us whatever they want.''

The NRLCA and USPS, in a July 2012 memo, agreed to work together on launching the new RRECS system.

Unlike letter carriers and city carrier assistants, rural carriers work under an evaluated pay system, and most mail routes get an annual evaluation based on how long it takes to complete and how much mail it receives.

Rural carriers, however, complained they weren't getting any additional pay at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns led to a surge in USPS package volume.

Riley-Lucas said a new pay system for rural carriers has been long overdue, but added that USPS hasn't been forthcoming about why carriers would see a reduction in pay under the new system.

''I do agree that we needed to find another solution to make sure that everybody is properly being paid across the board,'' she said. ''However, the Post Office is not being transparent with us. They're not telling us where these numbers are coming from.''

USPS spokesman David Partenheimer said in a statement last Friday that the compensation system for rural letter carriers ''is a nationally negotiated pay system codified in the parties' National Agreement.''

''The current modifications to the compensation system were the result of a previous interest arbitration proceeding and mandated by an interest arbitrator,'' Partenheimer said. ''The parties worked jointly for years to implement these new provisions and will continue to share data and information throughout the implementation process.''

Jennifer Brooks, a former city carrier in West Grove, Pennsylvania, said a recent ''mail count'' led to an undercount of machine-sorted mail like letters, as well as ''flats,'' including large envelopes, newsletters and magazines that are usually sorted by hand.

''Because of that, a lot of the [rural] carriers went from one pay grade down to a lower pay grade,'' Brooks said. ''Nobody is listening to anybody. And a lot of times, these postmasters and the managers and supervisors, they don't know how to count a lot of that stuff.''

Riley-Lucas said supervisors haven't adequately trained staff to scan mail and packages, and that those scans are vital data points under RRECS.

''Nobody's willing to train us properly to know what kinds of scans we're supposed to be doing on a daily basis that might pertain to our particular route. Nobody knows. And when you trying to figure it out, you have to do it on your own time,'' Riley-Lucas said.

Carriers said the pay proposed pay cut would be particularly harmful, given higher prices for essential goods through increased inflation.

Brooks said that some carriers recently bought cars, since some rural carriers aren't provided a USPS delivery vehicle, and must use their own vehicle for deliveries.

''How are they going to pay for that gas? How are they going to pay for their car payment?'' Brooks said.

Riley-Lucas said communication from the NRLCA on this pay issue has been ''very vague.''

''It's not really giving us any answers. We don't feel supported from the union, because they're not telling us what's going on. It's very frustrating,'' she said.

''A lot of carriers are asking, 'OK, now that I've gone down this amount of money, let me see the paperwork or documentation showing me why I went down.' And there's no transparency. Nobody's getting any documentation [and] the union is just being pushed off to the side,'' Brooks said.

While many rural carriers are worried they'll see a significant pay cut under RRECS, Riley-Lucas said she's heard some carriers may see a boost in pay under the new system.

''They deserve their pay, because obviously, they're doing something that some of us are not. They definitely need to come across and get us properly trained on every aspect of what this new system is,'' she said.

NRLCA told bargaining units employees earlier this month that its legal counsel is ''exploring our options.''

''We understand that mail volume is down, and many routes will lose in evaluation. However, we must be assured that the data is correct and transparent to the carriers,'' the union wrote.

USPS Director of Delivery Strategy and Policy Tim Haney told the union earlier this month that management will provide ''more information as soon as possible.''

''We understand there will be a need to adjust rural routes due to routes being overburdened or substandard. However, we have yet to develop an adjustment process for the RRECS environment,'' Haney said.

NRLA said it has filed a step-4 grievance and is requesting additional data from USPS.

''The USPS has refused our request. We know and the USPS knows that there are errors that need to be corrected. The USPS's position was to implement and correct the errors later. That was never the intent of the parties!'' the union rote.

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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 13:05

The Sierra Club on Friday announced an organizational overhaul that will include layoffs as well as new hires as the group aims to cut costs and expand its efforts in red states.

The environmental group's board voted Thursday night to approve a 2023 budget that ''will require creating new positions, eliminating some old positions, and re-imagining other positions,'' the organization's Deputy Executive Director Ana Yáñez Correa told staff in an internal email Friday.

''Without these changes, our budget would have ballooned to a deficit as high as $40 million,'' Correa said.

The total layoff number hasn't been finalized, Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in an interview Friday. The organization is following its collective bargaining agreement with unionized employees, Jealous said, and staff members who are laid off could land in new positions.

Jealous took the helm of the roughly 800-person environmental organization earlier this year.

He inherited an annualized budget deficit of $40 million, a hiring freeze and a mandate from the board ''to manage things so that we would never realize such a deficit,'' Jealous said.

The Sierra Club expects the overall size of its staff to be roughly the same following its restructure.

A major focus of the restructuring, Jealous said, will be to ensure that the Sierra Club has a director in all 50 states. The group now has directors in 38 states and is in the process of hiring for eight more states.

''We are retooling for this climate moment, and that means retooling to be strong everywhere across the country,'' Jealous said.

That's particularly important given the time frames in the new climate law to get money out the door to build a new green economy, he added.

''Eighty-seven percent of large-scale renewable projects are going into red jurisdictions,'' he said. But the Sierra Club doesn't have a state director in ''about two-thirds of the red states,'' said Jealous, who was previously the Democratic nominee for governor in Maryland and CEO of the NAACP.

''In the past,'' he added, ''maybe we could get away with not having a state director'' in some cases. But in the world of the Inflation Reduction Act ''and the world of climate disasters everywhere, that's no longer the case,'' he said.

Jealous said there weren't particular campaigns or departments taking the brunt of the layoffs.

''It's pretty across the board,'' he said. ''Every department has been asked to make hard decisions.''

Jealous was slated to address the organization's employees Friday afternoon on an all-staff call.

The Sierra Club employee union Progressive Workers United opposes the layoff plan and issued a statement Friday criticizing what they called a ''lack of transparency'' from management.

''We have been left out of key conversations, so we don't know how this will work,'' said CJ Garcia-Linz, president of the Progressive Workers Union and a Sierra Club employee. ''We're concerned about what it means for our partners and community'' and about how the layoffs will impact those who stay with the organization.

''We all would rather just be doing the work of saving the planet rather than having these meetings and these conversations,'' Garcia-Linz said.

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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 12:46

April 28, 2023Updated: April 29, 2023 10:36 a.m.

Antica was one of many high-end Napa Valley wineries whose bottles were sold on Underground Cellar.

Michael Short/Special to The ChronicleThe offer was enticing: Pay $25 for a bottle of wine, and you might get upgraded to a bottle worth $100 or more. Better yet, the San Francisco tech company Underground Cellar promised: It would store your wine purchases '-- up to 500 bottles '-- for free in a ''CloudCellar,'' then ship them to you whenever you wanted.

But this week, Underground Cellar, which had raised $13.5 million in funding according to Crunchbase, abruptly announced it had ''shut down for all future ordering and shipping,'' apparently leaving customers without access to wines they'd purchased and winery suppliers with unpaid bills.

On Friday, a plaintiff named Erik Jensen filed a class-action lawsuit in Delaware against the 10-year-old company, alleging breach of contract, fraud and other charges. Jensen has 42 bottles of wine worth $3,115 stored with Underground Cellar, the complaint said, and he cannot access them now.

''It is definitely surprising, because they seemed to be doing quite well,'' said Mitchel Harad of San Francisco, an early investor in Underground Cellar and a customer who bought more than 400 bottles since 2015. On Friday morning, he still hadn't heard anything from the company or its founder, Jeff Shaw. (Shaw, who left his role as CEO last year, declined to comment on the record to The Chronicle.)

Harad wasn't hopeful that he would ever see anything returned on his investment, or that he would ever regain access to the cases of wine he had stored at Underground Cellar's Napa warehouse, the physical home of the CloudCellar.

''I'm going to make an educated guess that there's not going to be anything coming back to me,'' he said.

Harad had only two or three cases left with Underground Cellar, but others may have been less fortunate. Jim Helmers from Vallejo has purchased 670 bottles from Underground Cellar since 2021, which the company valued at nearly $47,000. He currently has 395 bottles stuck in his CloudCellar '-- worth nearly $32,000.

In addition to international bottlings from top regions like Burgundy and Champagne, Underground Cellar offered wines from many of Napa Valley's heavy hitters, including cult Cabernet brands like Screaming Eagle, Opus One, Hundred Acre and Realm. These premium wines are difficult to secure, so Underground Cellar would purchase them from auctions like Premiere Napa Valley, where wineries auction off small lots of wine before they're released.

These rare bottles were used as a carrot; users would purchase an offer and Underground Cellar would then upgrade them with some bottles of higher value. ''It's kind of like gambling,'' said Brad Bader of San Jose, who became a customer after seeing a targeted online ad for Underground Cellar. (Shaw, Underground Cellar's founder, has competed in the World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas.) ''You'd pay $25 or $50 per bottle, and you had a chance '-- and they listed the odds on the site '-- of getting upgraded to something worth more,'' said Bader, who has $2,400 worth of wine tied up in the Napa warehouse.

The more bottles a customer purchased, the higher their chance of nabbing a bottle that's worth hundreds more than they paid. Jim Helmers, the Vallejo customer, said he received a Spanish Tempranillo valued at $7,900 through one such upgrade. That bottle is now stuck in the CloudCellar.

Underground Cellar also offered an unusual gift card model, which Bader now also views as a gambling-inspired element of the business. ''They would run gift card promotions that worked really similar to the bottle sales '-- 'if you buy six gift cards for $50, we'll upgrade four of those''' '-- promising some of the gift cards might now be worth $100 or $200, he said. The catch: The gift cards had to be used to buy wine from Underground Cellar.

This week, as Bader attempted to recoup his $2,400 by disputing the charges with his credit card company, he realized that anything he'd bought with an Underground Cellar gift card would not be eligible for dispute. ''The skeptic in me says, what if they did that to get around chargebacks from the credit card company?''

Much of Underground Cellar's offerings came from direct partnerships with wineries, like Napa's Antica, looking to clear out extra inventory. The partnership structure was especially attractive because unlike most online resellers, Underground Cellar didn't sell the wines at a steep discount. Wineries could keep a much larger margin than what's typical. But with the sudden closure, these producers may not get paid at all.

It's also unclear what will happen to the wines that customers had stored in the CloudCellar. As storage is one of the biggest challenges for budding wine collectors, free space in a temperature-controlled cellar was one of the company's biggest perks. When Bader was recently visiting Napa Valley with his wife, he asked Underground Cellar if he could come by the warehouse to pick up some of his wines there. ''I thought, I'm right here, I could save them some money on shipping,'' he said. But he was informed that he could not see the warehouse, for security reasons.

At the time, it didn't raise a red flag for him, but now Bader wonders: ''Are the bottles on hand and accounted for somewhere?''

At least 15 complaints against Underground Cellar have been logged with the Better Business Bureau since 2021, with several customers reporting that their wine shipments never arrived and that they were not refunded.

Some claimants also disliked the fact that the wine they received was not what they'd agreed to purchase '-- but then again, that mysterious ''upgrade'' possibility was Underground Cellar's fundamental premise. Terms and conditions listed on the website make clear that wines may be substituted at the company's discretion.

This is not the first time that a Bay Area wine company has left its customers in the lurch. In 2016, the owner of Berkeley wine merchant Premier Cru pleaded guilty to wire fraud and admitted he had sold or attempted to sell more than $20 million worth of wine futures that the company had never actually possessed.

With no word from the company, Underground Cellar's customers and suppliers said they had no choice but to wait for answers.

''I'm a positive and optimistic person,'' said Bader. ''I keep thinking maybe they're just trying to figure out how to ship it to all of us.''

This story has been updated to include further details of the class action lawsuit and comment from Underground Cellar customer Jim Helmers.

Reach Esther Mobley: emobley@sfchronicle.com

Reach Jess Lander: jess.lander@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @jesslander

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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 12:43

The US president signed an order allowing active duty reserve troops as needed to fight international drug trafficking

US President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Thursday authorizing Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to deploy active duty reserve troops to the US-Mexican border as needed, to fight the illegal drug trade.

''The authorities that have been invoked will ensure the Department of Defense can properly sustain its support of the Department of Homeland Security concerning international drug trafficking along the Southwest Border,'' Biden wrote in a message to Congress accompanying the order.

The measure is a response to the White House's declaration of a national emergency in December 2021 regarding International drug trafficking. The president blamed ''drug cartels, transnational criminal organizations, and their facilitators'' for bringing ''illicit drugs and precursor chemicals'' and ''drug-related violence'' into American communities and imposed sanctions on senior cartel figures.

A growing number of Republican politicians including former president Donald Trump have called for a military solution to the cartel problem. A group of 20 Republican congressmen last month introduced a bill that would designate the Gulf Cartel, Cartel de Noreste, Cartel de Sinaloa, and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion as ''foreign terrorist organizations,'' echoing a similar bill from the Senate that would label nine such organizations as terrorists and put together a task force dedicated to dismantling them. The attorneys general of 21 US states had previously petitioned the Biden administration to designate cartels as terrorist organizations.

However, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopes Obrador has argued the fentanyl crisis killing tens of thousands of Americans per year is a result of societal weaknesses north of the border and Chinese fentanyl being shipped to North America. He excoriated the US Drug Enforcement Agency earlier this month for infiltrating the Sinaloa cartel without his government's knowledge, warning such actions put Mexican and American lives in danger.

Also on Thursday, the State Department unveiled a new migration policy seeking to compensate for the rollback of Section 42, a Trump-era public health order that allowed Customs and Border Patrol to turn back many of the migrants who arrived at the US' southern border. Already facing a record 2.76 million illegal crossings last year, Customs and Border Patrol fears being overwhelmed by as many as 13,000 crossing attempts per day.

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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 00:42

Another jab to the face of common sense: CDC sticks with Covid vaccine requirement for travelers coming to US - a policy that's had NO effect on transmission rates Foreigners can enter the US with one Covid shot received from August, 2022 They can also still enter after receiving at least two Covid vaccinations READ MORE: Fauci finally admits Covid vaccine mandates did harm By Luke Andrews Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 13:32 EDT, 28 April 2023

US health officials are pushing ahead with a Covid vaccine mandate for travelers entering the country '-- despite no evidence it reduces infection rates.

There was an expectation the unpopular policy would be ditched when the federal government officially ends the nation's public health emergency on May 11, when any still-standing pandemic measures are expected to be ended.

But, in an announcement Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated the policy rather than dropping it.

The US will allow travelers that have received at least one vaccine dose on or after August 16 into the country. The CDC says this is because many who have received a one dose since this date may have received the more-protective bivalent shot.

Sticking with the vaccine mandate rule makes the US an international outlier. Few countries still require visitors to have received a Covid vaccine to gain entry, including Angola and Indonesia.

The CDC says it will allow people to enter the country who have received just one Covid vaccine since August 16, 2022. They will be considered fully vaccinated

Recent studies have shown the Covid vaccines, while able to prevent hospitalization and death, are not as effective against transmission of the virus.

A 2022 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that after 25 weeks, the protection the Pfizer vaccine gave to recipients against Omicron infection fell to just nine percent.

A booster shot raised this protection to 67 percent initially, before dropping to 45 percent after just two weeks.

Experts have previously slammed decisions to keep Covid-era policies in place as 'out of step' with the rest of the world.

Dr Doug Badger, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told DailyMail.com: 'Neither the European Union nor Canada imposes such a requirement.

'Vaccines reduce the risk that an infected individual will develop severe illness, but they do not prevent transmission.

'The administration should follow the science and rescind this policy.'

In its update, the CDC said: 'Because some traveler vaccine records might not specify whether recent Moderna or Pfizer doses were bivalent, CDC will consider anybody with record of a single dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine issued on or after August 16, 2022, to meet the requirements of the Amended Order to board a plane to the United States.

'This date was chosen because it represents the earliest that travelers could have received a bivalent booster.'

Covid vaccination requirements for foreign arrivals to the US by air are currently set to expire on May 11, 2023, says the Transportation Security Administration.

But, authorities have previously chosen to renew these policies just ahead of previous expiration dates.

These rules were previously meant to expire on April 11, but moments before the deadline they were extended another month.

Bivalent boosters specifically target the Omicron variant, unlike the original vaccines which targeted the virus's initial Wuhan strain.

Scientists argue that this means they provide better protection against severe disease and death from currently circulating strains.

Most countries have already dropped their vaccination requirements for visitors amid mounting evidence that they do not slow the spread of the virus.

The UK dumped its Covid vaccination requirement for visitors in March last year, now more than a year ago.

France followed suit in August, while the European Union lifted all its Covid-related travel requirements for its members in December.

China, in line with most of the rest of the world, also does not require travelers to have a Covid vaccine.

It does, however, say they should have a negative Covid test result at least 48 hours before travel.

There are also far higher levels of immunity in the population now from vaccinations or previous infections than in the early days of the pandemic.

About three in four Americans were estimated to have some level of immunity against Covid in February last year by John Hopkins. It is likely that current levels are now even higher.

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 22:52

The manifesto from Covenant school shooter Audrey Hale will be released after authorities prepare it for public consumption, Nashville police said Thursday.

Hale's writings have been the subject of much speculation in the aftermath of the twisted mass shooting inside The Covenant School where three young students and three staffers were fatally shot.

A trove of writings was seized from Hale's home, though it's unclear what will exactly be shown to the public.

''The investigation has advanced to the point that writings from the Covenant shooter are now being reviewed for public release and that process is underway and will take a little time,'' a Metro Nashville Police Department spokesperson told The Post.

Police on Thursday could not give a firm date when the writings would be released and would not confirm if everything would be shown to the public.

Hale, who identified as transgender, was killed by cops who quickly responded to the private Christian school minutes after the killer began the depraved March 27 shooting spree.

Authorities believe Hale targeted the school and its affiliated church, but have not elaborated on that.

Twenty journals, five laptops, a suicide note and other written notes by Hale were seized from the house the 28-year-old shared with her parents, according to a search warrant. Two memoirs, five Covenant School yearbooks and seven cell phones were also recovered.

Nashville's police statement Thursday comes a week after local pols told The Post Hale's manifesto was a ''blueprint on total destruction'' and blamed the FBI for stalling its release.

Audrey Hale stormed the school last month and killed six people. via REUTERSRep. Tim Burchett, (R-Tenn.) said he knew the FBI was behind the delay as he called for the documents to be given to the victims' families and members of Congress.

He said the manifesto ''could maybe tell us a little bit about what's going on inside of her head.''

Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston said she was told Hale's manifesto was a ''blue print on total destruction'' and that one high-ranking Metro Nashville Police Department official told her ''it keeps him up at night.''

Metro Nashville Council Member Robert Swope previously said last month the manifesto would be released after the FBI analyzes its contents.

Nashville police said in a news release earlier this month that Hale's writings ''remain under careful review'' by its department and the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.

Writings by Hale are being reviewed by authorities. MNPD/MEGAAuthorities previously said Hale was undergoing doctor's care for an emotional disorder.

Hale shot and killed nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney as well as school janitor Mike Hill, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and headmistress Katherine Koonce.

Nashville police previously told The Associated Press last month Hale was ''assigned female at birth. Hale did use male pronouns on a social media profile'' after the police chief said at a news conference Hale was transgender.

Authorities have not detailed a clear motive for the shooting.

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 22:38

Robert F. Kennedy Jr : 47 USC 315 makes it illegal for TV networks to censor Presidential candidates but Thursday, ABC showed its contempt'... https://t.co/2iqmrenlvE

Fri Apr 28 19:38:30 +0000 2023

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 20:15

If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed andworking. Further configuration is required.

For online documentation and support please refer tonginx.org.Commercial support is available atnginx.com.

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 15:42

The Washington Post / Contributor via Getty

Two-thirds of rural mail carriers nationwide are scheduled to be hit with a pay cut of thousands of dollars annually and may also be assigned more work days, due to the implementation of a new algorithm that determines their salary and work schedule. The change, which has enraged many rural carriers, comes as the United States Postal Service struggles to hire enough rural carriers to reliably deliver mail to areas of the country.

''It's crazy to me,'' a rural carrier in Maryland who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation told Motherboard. His annual salary was slashed by $9,000 and he has to work an extra day for every two-week pay period. ''I'll be working more and making less all while doing the exact same work.''

The pay cuts were initially scheduled for early April, but have been pushed back each pay period since for unspecified reasons, according to posts and comments on websites and forums dedicated to rural postal workers. The target of their ire is RRECS, or the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System. It was designed to more efficiently calculate the number of hours a worker needs to deliver mail on their given route, but flaws in its implementation have resulted in most workers unintentionally under-reporting the time it takes to deliver the mail, resulting in pay cuts.

In a statement, USPS spokesperson David Coleman said, ''The compensation system for rural letter carriers is a nationally negotiated pay system codified in the parties' National Agreement. The current modifications to the compensation system were the result of a previous interest arbitration proceeding and mandated by an interest arbitrator. The parties worked jointly for years to implement these new provisions and will continue to share data and information throughout the implementation process.'' The union that represents rural carriers, the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, did not respond to a Motherboard request for comment.

USPS mail carriers fall under two different major classification systems, rural and city carriers. There are roughly twice as many city carriers as rural carriers. While they broadly serve the urban versus rural areas their names suggest, some rural routes are legacies from the pre-urban sprawl era, meaning some "rural" carriers work in relatively dense areas. Sometimes the two work out of the same post office.

Generally, rural carriers operate under more relaxed work rules than city carriers. For example, they don't have to wear USPS uniforms'--although some choose to purchase their own'--and often drive their own vehicles. But the biggest difference between city and mail carriers is they operate under different pay structures . City carriers are hourly employees that get paid overtime for working more than eight hours a day. Rural carriers are paid a salary based on an annual tally of the mail on their route. The more delivery points and mail volume, the higher the pay. While far from perfect, this structure alleviates tension many city carriers face with management over whether the day's mail volume requires overtime hours to deliver. The job is to deliver the mail, however long or short it takes.

At the center of this system is the route evaluation to determine the workdays per week and the route's annual salary. This tally used to be done manually in which an inspector shadows the route. But the USPS recently instituted a new route evaluation system called the Rural Route Evaluated Compensation System, or RRECS. And it is the reason 66 percent of rural carriers, or some 100,000 workers, just had their pay cut.

Instead of manual route counts, RRECS relies on the daily mail count automatically tabulated as it passes through sorting machines at postal facilities, combined with handheld scanners the carriers have equipped with touchscreens, barcode readers, and GPS. Carriers must log all kinds of minutiae into the scanners, such as when they begin loading their trucks, when they set out on their routes, where they stop for lunch, and hundreds of other data points. All of that data is processed through opaque algorithms to evaluate routes. The terms of how RRECS would be implemented has been the focus of a decade-long fight between the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (NRLCA) and the USPS, eventually settled by an arbitrator.

In the endless , ample online discussion forums where rural letter carriers have been discussing RRECS'--one of two pinned posts at the top of the USPS subreddit is currently '' So your route got RRECed'... '''--it appears few if any carriers got trained on what RRECS is and how it would evaluate their routes. For example, many carriers would scan a package while sitting in the truck, then bring the package to the door while the scanner remained in the truck, because the scanner is difficult to hold while handling a large package. Carriers are given extra time to bring packages to doors, but by leaving the scanner in the truck, RRECS evaluated those deliveries as being done at the mailbox. If done over dozens of packages a day, RRECS could evaluate a route as requiring fewer hours than it really did.

Another issue is that RRECS evaluates routes using annual data regardless of who is doing the delivery. The mail is delivered six'--and, in areas where the USPS has agreements with Amazon for Sunday delivery'--seven days a week. Postal workers with permanent route assignments don't deliver the mail every single day on their route, especially when taking into account vacations and sick days. On those days, substitutes paid by the hour fill in for their routes. Those substitutes have little incentive to do all the time-consuming data entry and parcel scanning to ensure the route is being properly evaluated through RRECS, yet the RRECS calculation is an average for the entire year, including substitute days.

The end result, according to figures the NRLCA sent to its members that have been subsequently posted in various forums, was a broad pay cut. Of the 81,665 routes re-evaluated by RRECS, 66 percent lost hours, resulting in lower pay. 44 percent lost more than three hours a week but only 14 percent gained more than three hours.

For his part, the rural carrier in Maryland has started looking for another job. ''I shouldn't have to twirl around three times just to get paid fairly,'' he said referring to the new RRECS system. ''It feels like working for Amazon.''

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 15:31

The World Health Organization said there is a ''high risk of biological hazard'' in Sudan after one of the rival factions seized a lab in Khartoum.

The national public laboratory reportedly held samples of diseases such as polio, measles, cholera and other dangerous pathogens.

Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO's representative in Sudan, said technicians were unable to secure the materials before troops took control of the laboratory.

The troops reportedly ''kicked out all the technicians from the lab,'' according to Abid.

It's unclear which faction seized the lab.

BREAKING 🚨 'Huge biological risk' after Sudan fighters occupy lab: WHO

READ: https://t.co/XqOLLz9Z2I pic.twitter.com/079JLFucdz

'-- Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) April 25, 2023

#Sudan: 'High bio-hazard risk' in Sudan after laboratory seized, #WHO says

*There is a "high risk of biological hazard" in the Sudanese capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials'... pic.twitter.com/munTWEmgTb

'-- Addis Standard (@addisstandard) April 25, 2023

From Reuters:

Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, the WHO's representative in the country, Nima Saeed Abid, said technicians were unable to gain access to the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials.

''This is the main concern: no accessibility to the lab technicians to go to the lab and safely contain the biological material and substances available,'' he said, declining to specify which side had seized the facility.

Fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries on April 15 and has killed at least 459 people and injured 4,072, according to the WHO's latest figures. Abid said this was an undercount, adding that he had seen two bodies in the street himself in recent days.

The clashes have paralysed hospitals and other essential services, and left many stranded in their homes with dwindling supplies of food and water. The WHO has reported 14 attacks on health facilities since the clashes began and is relocating its staff to safety.

Abid said he was transferred from Khartoum to Port Sudan on Monday as part of a large convoy that drove for 30 hours through the desert.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) has been forced to cut back on some of its activities in parts of Sudan due to intense fighting.

Here's more info about the Sudan conflict and what the mainstream media refuses to discuss.

Is Sudan Chaos the Result of US-Russia Proxy War?

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 14:48

Researchers at Washington State University have discovered a gene called Arrdc5, expressed in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle, and humans, which could lead to the development of a highly effective, reversible, and non-hormonal male contraceptive for both humans and animals. The study found that when the gene was knocked out in mice, it caused infertility only in males by affecting sperm count, movement, and shape. The protein encoded by this gene is essential for normal sperm production, and the team is now working on designing a drug to inhibit its production or function. This approach avoids hormonal interference, a significant obstacle in male contraception. The gene's presence across mammalian species also suggests potential applications in livestock and wildlife population management.

Researchers have discovered a gene, Arrdc5, which could pave the way for a reversible, non-hormonal male contraceptive. The gene affects sperm count, movement, and shape, and a drug targeting the gene's protein would avoid hormonal interference, making it easily reversible.

The Discovery of a gene in multiple mammalian species could pave the way for a highly effective, reversible, and non-hormonal male contraceptive for humans and animals.

Washington State University researchers identified expression of the gene, Arrdc5, in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle, and humans. When they knocked out the gene in mice, it created infertility only in the males, impacting their sperm count, movement, and shape. The researchers detailed their findings today (April 17) in the journal Nature Communications .

''The study identifies this gene for the first time as being expressed only in testicular tissue, nowhere else in the body, and it's expressed by multiple mammalian species,'' said Jon Oatley, senior author and professor in WSU's School of Molecular Biosciences. ''When this gene is inactivated or inhibited in males, they make sperm that cannot fertilize an egg, and that's a prime target for male contraceptive development.''

While other molecular targets have been identified for potential male contraceptive development, the Arrdc5 gene is specific to the male testes and found in multiple species. Importantly, lack of the gene also causes significant infertility creating a condition called oligoasthenoteratospermia or OAT. This condition, the most common diagnosis for human male infertility, shows a decrease in the amount of sperm produced, slowed mobility and distorted shape so that the sperm are unable to fuse with an egg.

In the WSU study, the male mice lacking this gene produced 28% less sperm that moved 2.8 times slower than in normal mice '' and about 98% of their sperm had abnormal heads and mid-pieces.

The study indicates that the protein encoded by this gene is required for normal sperm production. Oatley's team will next work on designing a drug that would inhibit production or function of that protein.

Disrupting this protein wouldn't require any hormonal interference, a key hurdle in male contraception since testosterone plays other roles beyond sperm production in men including building bone mass and muscle strength as well as red blood cell production. Designing a drug to target this protein would also make it easily reversible as a contraceptive.

''You don't want to wipe out the ability to ever make sperm '' just stop the sperm that are being made from being made correctly,'' he said. ''Then, in theory, you could remove the drug and the sperm would start being built normally again.''

Oatley and study first author Mariana Giassetti have filed a provisional patent for the development of a male contraceptive based on this gene and the protein it encodes.

Because the gene is found across mammalian species, this knowledge also holds promise for use in animals, Oatley said. The team analyzed available biological data on DNA and protein sequences in mammals and found the gene in almost every known mammal species. This opens the potential to develop male contraception for use in livestock, perhaps replacing castration in some instances as a way to control reproduction, and in wildlife when managers seek to limit overpopulation of a species.

The initial focus, however, is on giving humans more control over their own reproduction. While there are many forms of birth control for women, they are not always effective or widely available, and more than half of pregnancies worldwide are still unintended, according to the United Nations.

''Developing a way to curb population growth and stop unwanted pregnancies is really important for the future of the human race,'' said Oatley. ''Right now, we don't really have anything on the male side for contraception other than surgery and only a small percentage of men choose vasectomies. If we can develop this discovery into a solution for contraception, it could have far-ranging impacts.''

Reference: ''ARRDC5 expression is conserved in mammalian testes and required for normal sperm morphogenesis'' by Mariana I. Giassetti, Deqiang Miao, Nathan C. Law, Melissa J. Oatley, Julie Park, LeeLa D. Robinson, Lisette A. Maddison, Miranda L. Bernhardt and Jon M. Oatley, 17 April 2023, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37735-y

This study received support from the National Institutes of Health and WSU's Functional Genomics Initiative, a multi-year university investment to support development of genetic technology research.

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 14:48

PULLMAN, Wash. '-- Discovery of a gene in multiple mammalian species could pave the way for a highly effective, reversible and non-hormonal male contraceptive for humans and animals.

Washington State University researchers identified expression of the gene, Arrdc5, in the testicular tissue of mice, pigs, cattle and humans. When they knocked out the gene in mice, it created infertility only in the males, impacting their sperm count, movement and shape. The researchers detailed their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

''The study identifies this gene for the first time as being expressed only in testicular tissue, nowhere else in the body, and it's expressed by multiple mammalian species,'' said Jon Oatley, senior author and professor in WSU's School of Molecular Biosciences. ''When this gene is inactivated or inhibited in males, they make sperm that cannot fertilize an egg, and that's a prime target for male contraceptive development.''

While other molecular targets have been identified for potential male contraceptive development, the Arrdc5 gene is specific to the male testes and found in multiple species. Importantly, lack of the gene also causes significant infertility creating a condition called oligoasthenoteratospermia or OAT. This condition, the most common diagnosis for human male infertility, shows a decrease in the amount of sperm produced, slowed mobility and distorted shape so that the sperm are unable to fuse with an egg.

In the WSU study, the male mice lacking this gene produced 28% less sperm that moved 2.8 times slower than in normal mice '-- and about 98% of their sperm had abnormal heads and mid-pieces.

The study indicates that the protein encoded by this gene is required for normal sperm production. Oatley's team will next work on designing a drug that would inhibit production or function of that protein.

Disrupting this protein wouldn't require any hormonal interference, a key hurdle in male contraception since testosterone plays other roles beyond sperm production in men including building bone mass and muscle strength as well as red blood cell production. Designing a drug to target this protein would also make it easily reversible as a contraceptive.

''You don't want to wipe out the ability to ever make sperm '-- just stop the sperm that are being made from being made correctly,'' he said. ''Then, in theory, you could remove the drug and the sperm would start being built normally again.''

Oatley and study first author Mariana Giassetti have filed a provisional patent for the development of a male contraceptive based on this gene and the protein it encodes.

Because the gene is found across mammalian species, this knowledge also holds promise for use in animals, Oatley said. The team analyzed available biological data on DNA and protein sequences in mammals and found the gene in almost every known mammal species. This opens the potential to develop male contraception for use in livestock, perhaps replacing castration in some instances as a way to control reproduction, and in wildlife when managers seek to limit overpopulation of a species.

The initial focus, however, is on giving humans more control over their own reproduction. While there are many forms of birth control for women, they are not always effective or widely available, and more than half of pregnancies worldwide are still unintended, according to the United Nations.

''Developing a way to curb population growth and stop unwanted pregnancies is really important for the future of the human race,'' said Oatley. ''Right now, we don't really have anything on the male side for contraception other than surgery and only a small percentage of men choose vasectomies. If we can develop this discovery into a solution for contraception, it could have far-ranging impacts.''

This study received support from the National Institutes of Health and WSU's Functional Genomics Initiative, a multi-year university investment to support development of genetic technology research.

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 13:39

(C) Getty Images U.S. President Biden (Bloomberg Businessweek) -- When French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Washington for a state visit in December, he groused that it's not in America's interest if much of Europe's industry is ''just killed.'' South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who visited the White House on April 26, has warned of a widening ''economic war'' of government subsidies and tax perks that could leave all nations worse off.

Both were expressing alarm at the international fallout of the US-China rivalry and President Joe Biden's Made in America policies. Europe and South Korea'--important trade and security partners for the US'--are among the most exposed to the Biden administration's two-pronged agenda of supporting strategic industries such as electric vehicles, semiconductors and artificial intelligence while working to hobble China's efforts to make advances in those same fields for military purposes.

America's newly muscular industrial policy is already warping global supply chains. Laws Congress approved last year together offer about $420 billion in funding to incentivize the domestic production of chips and clean-energy technologies. Add the infrastructure bill Biden signed in 2021, which requires that all iron, steel and other construction materials used in public-­works projects be made in the US, and you've got about $2 trillion in federal spending over 10 years.

One effect of all this cash sloshing around'--intended or not'--is that overseas businesses feel a gravitational pull toward the US to tap the funds available under the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). For instance, Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB has said it is prioritizing expansion in the US over Europe. German carmaker Volkswagen AG already opted in March to build a $2 billion factory for its new electric Scout brand in South Carolina, describing the incentives on offer as akin to ''a gold rush.''

(C) Illustration: Ariel Davis for Bloomberg Businessweek 1923A_ECON_POLICIES_01-CMS GIF This image can only be used with attached article for period of 90 days from publication The diversion of corporate investment is one consequence of the Biden administration's efforts to integrate domestic and foreign policy in what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has called ''a modern industrial and innovation strategy'' that creates jobs at home while projecting American strength abroad. To advance those goals, Washington is prepared to wield sticks as well as carrots. Sullivan has described export controls as ''a new strategic asset'' to impose costs on adversaries in the name of national security.

The upshot is that South Korea'--whose largest trading partner is China'--risks getting whacked on at least two fronts. Companies including Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., the world's two largest memory chipmakers, were granted a one-year reprieve from US export controls on ­supplying advanced semiconductor technology to China. It remains unclear what happens when that runs out this October.

Seoul has also expressed concern that Hyundai and other South Korean car marques will be penalized by the IRA because they don't manufacture EVs in the US, meaning their models don't qualify for federal tax credits on EV purchases. The chief executives of Samsung and Hyundai Motor Co. were part of a large delegation of business leaders that accompanied Yoon on his trip to Washington.

Even as he warned that supply chains were being upended by a global race to build out ­cutting-edge manufacturing facilities, with each country ''sparing nothing'' to bring industry home, Yoon in March announced South Korea's intention to jump into the fray with a 550 trillion won ($413 billion) investment plan focused on public-­private partnerships in chips, batteries, robots, EVs, displays, biotechnology and other areas.

Seoul is not alone: From The Hague to Tokyo, governments are compelled to bend to Washington's will or respond in kind. On April 18, the European Union approved a '‚¬43 billion ($47.2 billion) Chips Act that opens the door to state funding for the likes of ASML Holding NV, a Dutch manufacturer of chip­making equipment whose exports to China have been curtailed at America's behest. The EU is also lining up massive subsidies to counter the impact of the IRA, which carries close to $370 billion in funding to help the Biden administration meet climate goals. In Canada, Justin Trudeau's government dangled incentives worth as much as C$13 billion ($9.5 billion) over a decade to land a Volkswagen battery plant that might have been destined for the US.

In Japan, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's go-to maker of advanced chips, has made it known it's looking for the government to pick up about half the $8 billion cost of a new fabrication plant under construction in Kumamoto Prefecture.

While Seoul is willing to go along with the US on matters of national security, there is still ''deep concern'' among Korean private companies over what's seen as ''discriminatory'' elements in Biden's policies, said Wonho Yeon of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, speaking at an April 18 forum organized by the Wilson Center to mark Yoon's visit.

China is redoubling efforts to advance its semiconductor industry in the face of what President Xi Jinping calls US attempts at ''containment.'' Xi recently urged on Chinese tech companies, saying innovation is key to achieving ''high-level technological self-reliance.''

With both China and the US engaging in ''this new economic statecraft,'' third countries ''are facing a dilemma in keeping the balance between domestic politics and foreign policy,'' said Miyeon Oh, director of Korea Studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies at the April 18 event. ''Frictions'' between allies, including over the IRA, should be seen as part of a ''learning process,'' she said.

With their deep pockets, the EU, Japan and Korea can at least afford to go some way to matching the US. Others cannot. The UK, with its economy sputtering, has little new funding in its response to the IRA.

In a lengthy critique of Biden's industrial policy published in Foreign Policy, Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, called the approach ultimately ''self-­defeating'' because it's based on ''four profound analytic fallacies: that self-dealing is smart; that self-­sufficiency is attainable; that more subsidies are better; and that local production is what matters.''

There are signs the administration is tweaking its policy to address some of the concerns raised by allies. Washington and Tokyo struck a deal in March to allow critical minerals sourced in Japan to qualify for IRA subsidies, despite the countries not having a free-trade agreement (FTA). The EU, which has tempered its initial criticism of the US measures, is in talks for a similar arrangement. (To qualify for incentives offered in the IRA, automakers must not only build their EVs in the US but will also need to certify that components come from the US or FTA partners.)

In another sign that the Biden administration is trying to be accommodative, a loophole has been carved into the IRA that allows Hyundai to access full US subsidies for rental and leased EVs, a market that makes up more than 25% of its US sales. Samsung has submitted a statement of intent to tap chip subsidies for an advanced plant it's building in Texas that's due to start production in 2024, Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported April 19.

It's surely an irony not lost on Yoon that South Korea was seen as the country most at risk from Xi's industrial master plan for China when it was unveiled in 2015. The blueprint, called ''Made in China 2025,'' trumpeted Beijing's ambitions to lead the world in 10 future-oriented industries, including robotics, pharmaceuticals and aerospace. Its focus on ''self-sufficiency'' contributed to the souring of relations with the US, Europe and Asia.

The US strategy laid out by Sullivan has echoes of that plan, with goals to maintain and defend America's lead in three ''force multiplier'' areas: computing, including chips and AI; clean tech; and'--the administration's likely next focus'--biotech and biomanufacturing. The risk is that it has a similarly alienating effect.

Biden is already touting the creation of new US jobs as a result of these policies as his campaign for reelection next year gears up. Call it ''Made in America 2024.'' '--With Sam Kim

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

(C)2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 00:11

French President Emmanuel Macron is now travelling around France with his own electric generator as protesting French unions keep cutting off power during his regional visits, a report claims.

Under massive pressure as a result of his controversial pension reforms, Macron is currently undertaking a public-relations blitz in France in the hopes of rallying the general public to his side.

However, his whistle-stop tours of various regions across the country have not been going well, with the President's visits often being met with protesters noisily banging pots and pans in the hopes of derailing the PR stunt.

To make matters worse, trade unionists with access to the country's national grid have also taken to cutting the power in areas where Macron is stopping in an effort to cause even further chaos for the head of state.

Comme la CGT a coup(C) le courant de l'usine et du coll¨ge qu'il visitait la semaine derni¨re, cette fois-ci, Emmanuel Macron arrive avec son groupe (C)lectrog¨ne la maison de la sant(C) pluridisciplinaire de Vendome. #astuce #retraites #casseroles @AugeyBastien @LCI @TF1Info pic.twitter.com/iffimNJ1ES

'-- Paul Larrouturou (@PaulLarrouturou) April 25, 2023

Such a scheme appears to be working, with French Broadcaster TF1Info reporting the President and his entourage as now bringing along a truck-mounted diesel electric generator when visiting an area, seemingly in an attempt to circumvent the cuts.

The fossil fuel-burning generator was spotted during the President's latest visit to the town of Vend´me, with one journalist with the broadcaster claiming it was there to ''avoid'' disruptions that occurred during previous outings. Video footage from the location showed the generator running, and thick power cables running from it to a building the President was visiting.

Three Anti-Macron Protesters Face Prison for Giving President the Middle Fingerhttps://t.co/QptMJ9wUv7

'-- Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 23, 2023

Although Macron and co. appear to have figured out a way of circumventing the power cut problem during their PR tour for now, they have so far been unable to deal with the regular protests plaguing the President's appearances.

Termed ''casserolade'' by the country's media, the protests largely consist of a group of citizens trying to make as much noise as possible in order to highlight their concerns to the president, and his attendant media pack during the local visits.

[#DIRECT] #Macron #Vend´me : #Manifestation contre la #R(C)formeDesRetraites ' #25avril #greve25avril #manif25avril #manifs25avril #manifestations ' Suivre le #live : YouTube 'ž¸ https://t.co/aMD4RPefYd Facebook 'ž¸ https://t.co/b90Ctz33jT Twitter '¬‡¸ https://t.co/i5qoT3ICsD

'-- TV Y‰ ! (@tvyefr) April 25, 2023

Although a wide variety of devices and instruments have been used by demonstrators to this effect, the prime weapon of choice for those challenging Macron in recent weeks has been the saucepan and wooden spoon which have now become a bit of a symbol for the anti-government protests after police began confiscating them for being ''portable sound devices''.

It is far from the first time pots and pans have been deployed in the country to challenge a ruler, with protesters in the country utilising the cooking utensils in the 19th century in a protest movement that ended up bringing down the country's King Charles X, and more broadly across Europe as a means to signify social shame for centuries before that. The original name for the casserolade, 'charivari', stems from the ancient Greek for 'headache', and you can understand why.

Hit Them Where it Hurts: Threat to Shut Off Power to Elite Cannes Film Festival to Protest Macron https://t.co/6Jn9mfqJvY

'-- Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 26, 2023

Follow Peter Caddle on Twitter: @Peter_Caddle Follow Breitbart London on Facebook: Breitbart London

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:17

Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,

Legislation introduced by Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) which calls on the White House to release documents related to the war in Ukraine passed a voice vote on Wednesday. With debate on the resolution divided along party lines, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to vote on the measure on Friday.

The bill, H.Res.300, would urge President Joe Biden to grant lawmakers access to "all documents indicating any plans for current or future military assistance to Ukraine," as well as any material "indicating whether any United States Armed Forces, including special operations forces, are currently deployed in Ukraine."

Image: Associated PressSince Russia invaded its neighbor 14 months ago, Congress has authorized over $100 billion in aid for Ukraine. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Washington has provided $80 billion in military and financial aid throughout the conflict.

Though support for the resolution was limited to Republicans, it passed a voice vote and is set for a full committee vote on Friday. Several Democrats attacked the legislation during Wednesday's debate.

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) blasted the measure as "divisive and ill-advised," claiming "It is a partisan political ploy, and the height of legislative irresponsibility that jeopardizes the national security of the United States, of our Europe allies and partners as well as the courageous Ukrainian people."

Manning took issue with the resolution because it threatened a consensus in Congress that support for Kiev must be unwavering and indefinite. "The entire Congress has remained resolutely bipartisan for Ukraine as it fights against Russian aggression," the lawmaker continued, adding "Measures like this put bipartisanship in jeopardy."

She also asserted that the bill amplified Russian propaganda and claimed that reporting on legislation "favorably" would be "irresponsible."

"It plays directly into [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's hands by seeking to force the disclosures of all present and future military plans," Manning said. "Passage of this measure would represent a gift to Putin and his Kremlin cronies and provide visibility into the plans our military and intelligence leaders strive to protect at all costs."

However, she failed to explain how increased congressional oversight for US military policy in Ukraine could actually help the Russians on the battlefield. Congressman Daryl Issa (R-CA) said any documents provided to the House would not be made public, and that "every bit of the information requested could be and would be held at the Select Intelligence Committee."

Further, dozens of documents detailing weak points in Ukraine's defenses were alleged to have been leaked by a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman over the course of several months on Discord.

Matt Gaetz on fire:"How much more for Ukraine? Is there any limit? Which billionth dollar really kicks in the door?"pic.twitter.com/gh8YDVWeo1

'-- Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 7, 2023Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) said that it was not an appropriate time for transparency regarding the billions in US tax dollars pouring into Ukraine. "Timing matters when this committee actions," he argued. "There will be a time in insisting [on oversight], but now is not that time."

Congressman Cory Mills (R-FL) argued in favor of the resolution, saying it could prevent "mission creep," referring to a phenomenon in which military or policy objectives gradually shift over time, often becoming vague, ill-defined or impossible to achieve. The concept was frequently used to describe the US occupation of Afghanistan, which began as a counterterrorism operation and later expanded into a sprawling, poorly supervised nation-building project.

Mills went on to say that the bill is not about preventing support for Ukraine or empowering Putin, but merely better oversight.

When Gaetz introduced H.Res.300 earlier this month, he emphasized transparency. "The Biden Administration and other allied countries have been misleading the world on the state of the war in Ukraine," he said, calling for "total transparency from this administration to the American people when they are gambling war with a nuclear adversary by having special forces operating in Ukraine."

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 14:05

Following my previous investigation with t-online, where we attempted to track six named Russian Navy vessels, which were reportedly in the vicinity of the Nord Stream explosion sites days prior to the blasts, we have gotten further confirmation of our findings. The previous investigation was able track the two Project 02980 Rescue Tugs SB-123 and Aleksandr Frolov out of the Russian EEZ and towards the Danish EEZ and Nord Stream sabotage sites before they disabled AIS. Through the movement of tugs in the port of Baltiysk at the same time as the SB-123 and Aleksandr Frolov departed, it was also assumed that the Project 141S Rescue ship SS-750 accompanied them. It was at the time, however not possible to confirm this or whether these ships did in fact approach the Nord Stream sabotage site using the available open sources.

AIS track of the SB-123 and Aleksandr Frolov - Source: MarineTraffic On the April 18th however journalist Bo Elkj...r, working for the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information, was able to confirm that the Royal Danish Navy Diana -class Patrol Vessel P524 Nymfen took 112 photographs of Russian vessels on September 22nd 2022 while in the vicinity of the blast sites. Through a freedom of information request, the Danish Defence Command confirmed that the vessel had taken the images on that date, but were unable to release the images as they had ''intelligence value''.

In a follow up freedom of information request, an similar inquiry was made about potential images of U.S. Naval vessels near the site on the same date. Here the Danish Defence Command replied that they had no such images.

These initial freedom of information requests only confirmed that P524 Nymfen took photos of Russian vessels near the site while as part of the track pictured below, but did not help identify which vessels it could be.

Royal Danish Navy Diana-class Patrol Vessel P524 Nymfen's AIS track near Nord Stream sabotage site - September 22nd 2022 - Source: MarineTrafficWe now have the Danish Defence Command's reply to another freedom of information request from Bo Elkj...r , this time asking specifically about images or video taken of the SS-750. To this request the Danish Defence Command has replied that they took 26 photos of the SS-750 from the P524 Nymfen on September 22nd 2022. Again though, they were unable to release the images as they had ''intelligence value''.

SS-750 This confirms that the SS-750, which is equipped with an A S-26 Project 1855 Priz Deep-Diving Rescue Vehicle, was in the vicinity of the sabotage site just 4 days prior to the explosions. I suspect that future freedom of information requests specifying the SB-123 and Aleksandr Frolov will also come back with a number of images of each of these vessels. If so, that confirms that the SS-750 traveled with the rescue tugs from the port of Baltiysk on the night of September 21st 2022.

According to press releases from the Russian Ministry of Defence, the SS-750 had two public tasks in September and October 2022. A press release from September 6th 2022 states that the SS-750 was used to support a test dive to 100m during trials of two diesel-electric submarines. These submarines were the Project 636.3 Improved Kilo -class submarine Ufa (B-588) and the Project 677 Lada -class Kronshtadt (B-586).

On October 5th 2022 another press release mentioning the SS-750 was published. This time it mentions the SS-750 supporting the Ufa (B-588) on a 190m test dive.

Looking at nautical charts of the Baltic Sea, it is easy to sea which areas would be used for these tests, as only a few areas have the required depth. The initial 100m tests could be done off the coast of Kaliningrad or further north in the deeper part of the Baltic Sea between Latvia/Estonia and Gotland. The second 190m test dive limits it to the area between Latvia and Gotland. None of these areas are in the vicinity or even direction of Bornholm, which means that these could not be the reasoning for the SS-750 's location near the site of the sabotage.

Nautical chart showing depth in Baltic Sea - Source: Link It does however raise the possibility that the Russian vessels in the area could have been accompanied by a Russian submarine during the time in the vicinity of the sabotage site. Back on September 29th 2022, just after the blasts, CNN stated the following in an article , ''Russian submarines were also observed not far from those areas last week, one of the intelligence officials said.'' On September 22nd 2022, the best information available suggests that Russia had 3 operational submarines in the Baltic Sea. These were the the Project 636.3 Improved Kilo -class submarine Ufa (B-588), the Project 677 Lada -class Kronshtadt (B-586) and the Project 877 Kilo -class submarine Dmitrov (B-806). Satellite imagery of the Russian naval base at Kronstadt, St. Petersburg on September 21st and 22nd 2022 show one Kilo -class and one Lada -class submarine at the dock. The second Kilo -class is missing and returns some time between September 22nd and October 13th. I suspect that the missing Kilo -class submarine is the Ufa (B-588).

The Ufa (B-588) would officially be commissioned into the Russian Navy during a ceremony on November 17th 2022 , after completion of its sea trials.

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 13:31

Removing Paywall

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 13:06

Lawyers for Abby Grossberg confirmed to The Spectator that the former Fox News producer never actually met Tucker Carlson in person while working on his show.

''Like many on the [Tucker Carlson Tonight] staff, Abby never met Tucker Carlson in person because he taped the show from his personal studios in Maine and Florida, and he did not visit Fox's NY HQ during her time there,'' Kimberly A. Catala, one of the attorneys representing Grossberg, said.

The statement confirms a recent report from a former Fox News employee and complicates the story about Carlson, Grossberg and the workplace environment on the show he hosted '-- as well as the lawsuit's alleged connection to Carlson's firing on Monday.

Grossberg, who was the head of booking for the show from July 2022 until she was placed on administrative leave in March of this year, alleges that Carlson encouraged a hostile and sexist workplace environment among his employees. Grossberg says she was subjected to bullying, antisemitic comments and sexism by staff while working out of Fox's Manhattan office.

''Tucker and his executive producer Justin Wells, who was also fired, really were responsible for breaking me and making my life a living hell,'' Grossberg said in an MSNBC interview with Nicolle Wallace yesterday.

Grossberg's lawyers said she was in contact with Carlson on a daily basis over text and email and that the two also spoke on the phone until she left the network. They suggested that since Carlson was not present in the New York office, the ''sexist'' environment was perpetrated at his direction by other employees who served as his ''eyes'' and ''ears.''

''Since Tucker did not come to the Fox office, he relied on Justin Wells, his executive producer, and others like Alexander McCaskill, senior producer, who were present in the office every day to be his eyes, ears and mouthpiece, and to convey his 'tone,' as they threateningly reminded Ms. Grossberg,'' Catala said.

Grossberg's lawsuit against Fox News and the Fox Corporation names Carlson as a codefendant, alongside McCaskill, Wells, senior producer Thomas Fox and a number of Fox VPs. It claims that the defendants ''unlawfully subjected Ms. Grossberg to a toxic work environment that is hostile to women like her'' and that the purpose of the suit is to ''put an end to the discriminatory and hostile work environment she and other female Fox News employees have had to endure for far, far too long.''

The suit accuses Carlson of ''aiding and abetting'' the ''toxic work environment.'' In one part, it recounts a January 2023 conversation between Grossberg and senior producer Thomas Fox, in which Grossberg complained to him about her treatment. ''We're all under stress. This is Tucker's tone and just the pace of the show,'' Mr. Fox is said to have responded. ''In other words,'' the suit continues, ''Mr. Fox was admitting that the misogynistic fish rots from the head down '-- i.e. Mr. McCaskill behaved towards her in a deplorably discriminatory matter because he was inspired, permitted and enabled to do so by Mr. Carlson himself.'' This is the extent of the suit's allegations against Carlson.

The Spectator also asked Grossberg's legal team how many of her approximately ninety audio recordings from her time with Tucker Carlson Tonight featured Carlson's voice. They said they are ''reviewing and analyzing'' the recordings, which amount to ''approximately thirty-four hours'' of evidence.

By

Amber Athey

Amber Athey is The Spectator's Washington editor and host of Unfit to Print on WCBM 680. She is the author of The Snowflakes' Revolt: How Woke Millennials Hijacked American Media. Amber was previously White House correspondent for the Daily Caller and a co-host of O'Connor & Company on WMAL.

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Archived Version

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 13:03

Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified US intelligence documents online, is being called a flight risk by the Justice Department. The DOJ in a Wednesday night court filing also said it fears he could possibly leak more info if he's allowed release before he is tried. That's what is currently before a federal judge in Massachusetts.

During a Thursday hearing in a federal court in Worcester, the DOJ asserted that if he is released on bail, he might "further disseminate classified information" and "take refuge with a foreign adversary."

Teixeira's family members outside the federal court building in Worcester, Mass. Teixeira, via AP.The DOJ further compared him to Edward Snowden, who for years has taken refuge with his wife and child in Russia, having also recently been granted Russian citizenship.

ABC News described Thursday's court hearing as follows: "Teixeira walked into the courtroom for his Thursday detention hearing handcuffed, wearing a long rosary necklace and an orange jumpsuit." Further, "The 21-year-old looked at his family members sitting in the first two rows, and one woman in the front row began to cry."

Teixeira faces 25 year in prison and "potentially far more," according to a DOJ detention memo, which argues further:

The lengthy potential maximum sentence could make him a significant flight risk, prosecutors argue, and the value of the information he obtained '-- as well as his low current net worth of about $19,000 '-- could make him vulnerable to offers from countries unfriendly to the U.S.

As has become common in leak prosecutions, the US Justice Department maintains that Jack Teixeira must remain in pretrial detention because he has "knowledge" of classified information that he may continue to disclose to the press or public if released from jail pic.twitter.com/HKIylqQXZc

'-- Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) April 27, 2023The memo lays out that "He accessed and may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States."

The government says it has proof that he intended to circulate classified or sensitive information among foreign countries and entities. According to DOJ filings...

After hearing from both sides, federal magistrate judge David Hennessy said he needs more time to make a final decision on pretrial detention.

Federal judges rarely, if ever, allow for bail in cases of federal or military employees caught leaking government secrets. Even an alleged leaker's "knowledge" of the classified intel means they are kept locked up on fears they could still communicate secrets to outside entities.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the US Air Force has suspended two leaders of the national guard unit in which Teixeira served, pending the ongoing investigation into the extent of the unauthorized disclosure. Presumably the government is also looking into any possible co-conspirator scenarios, but so far he's been presented as a lone actor.

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:36

A statue of a naked, bearded man attempting to breastfeed an infant is drawing disapproval on social media for what some critics are calling female erasure. The nude figure, constructed in 2021 as a self-portrait by Aske Kreilgaard, is depicted with exposed male genitals and breasts to which he is holding a feeding baby.

Despite having been created to commemorate International Men's Day, the statue has now been placed outside of The Gender Museum (KN) in Aarhus, Denmark, which was previously known as the Women's Museum (Kvindemuseet).

The facility was originally founded in 1982 to educate the public about women's history, but in 2021 was renamed to reflect a shift in focus towards topics of gender and sexuality.

The ''breastfeeding man'' statue was constructed to commemorate International Men's Day in 2021. Image: Fine Spind magazineThe Gender Museum justified the decision to change its name by claiming that gender roles had ''changed significantly,'' and that the emphasis of the museum would be focused to shift towards ''freer expression'' of all genders.

''A lot has happened in the relationship between the sexes since the Women's Museum Association saw the light of day. Men's gender roles and function in society have also changed significantly,'' the museum's website stated.

''The cultural heritage rests in places on old divisions between genders and roles, while the present expects freer expression of all genders. Just as women's research at universities today is called gender research, the museum has followed the same development in its ongoing depiction and documentation of cultural history.''

The former Women's Museum first began to incorporate elements of gender ideology into their education programs in 2016 and currently offers sex education for children in primary school ''through a culture-historical and norm-critical view of sexuality and gender.''

The museum's website describes ''gender education'' courses for very young children.''The societal norms that [children] experience on their own bodies are set against cultural history through objects from the history of sexual culture. In this way, we show the students that sex, gender roles and understandings of sexuality are rooted in our cultural history, and that ideas about gender, sexuality and sexual practices have changed over time,'' reads the description of the course on the museum's website.

The sculpture's creator, Kreilgaard, has said in an interview with Fine Spinde that he titled the work Agape, a Greek word meaning ''love.''

Just after the statue was erected, sculptor, photographer and writer Suste Bonn(C)n sharply condemned the museum's decision to commission and feature the piece in an article published by Kristeligt Dagblad titled, ''Statue of breastfeeding man is a pedophile's dream.''

''Isn't Agape a pedophile's dream? A grown naked man who enjoys putting a small child up to his nipple for him to suck is to me the epitome of what pedophiles dream of,'' Bonn(C)n writes. She further elaborates on how the area is an erogenous zone for both women and men, but highlights that whereas ''the mother satisfies the child's needs,'' a man, being incapable of nursing, ''only satisfies his own.''

Bonn(C)n went on to describe the statue as flouting exploitation.

''I don't see that the gender roles are being played with, as many others do. I see an exploitation of the little child, and a man playing with his own gratification. That is why I find it disturbing that both genders and audiences today welcome the message: The grown man can do whatever he wants with a small child, as long as we call it Agape.''

While the statue was erected outside of the museum in November of 2021, photos of it just began circulating in social media this week and prompting backlash. On Facebook, some Danish feminists noted that they had attempted to protest the name change of the museum in 2021, but found their concerns being ignored as museum officials reportedly felt shifting away from ''women'' and towards ''gender inclusivity'' was a better financial decision.

In Aarhus, Denmark outside what was formerly called the Women's Museum, is now renamed to the "Gender Museum."The erasure of women. pic.twitter.com/ya4OrxfZva

'-- Michelle Uriarau (@singlikeadiva) April 21, 2023The photo of the statue that first prompted discussion on Twitter was posted by Michelle Uriarau of Mana Wāhine Kōrero, a Māori women's group. Uriarau also referenced the name change at the museum, calling it ''the erasure of women.''

Over one thousand people replied to Uriarau's post, some of whom were expressing disbelief that the statue was even real. Many Twitter users were outraged at the symbolism, and the fact the statue was now housed outside of a former museum dedicated to women.

''The parading and exhibiting of the male sexual fetishist. Only women give birth and only women breastfeed NOT men,'' user Elise Willows wrote beneath the photo.

''A nursing baby as the ultimate fetish accessory. Disgusting,'' another tweeted.

Others in the replies referenced recent attempts to ''neutralize'' the language around motherhood and breastfeeding, something that has been shown to have a negative impact on maternal health outcomes. Some also referenced incidents involving trans-identified males attempting to breastfeed babies.

Last year, Reduxx reported on a Reddit post featuring photos of a trans-identified male user breastfeeding his wife's newborn baby.

The post, titled ''Oh my God I'm breastfeeding my daughter,'' detailed how the user worked with a lactation consultant and his gender physician for several months prior to his female partner giving birth. Immediately following the baby's birth, the user said he had begun breastfeeding the child to supplement formula feedings. The user also included a link to a photo gallery showing snapshots of himself ''breastfeeding'' the baby.

In 2018, an endocrinologist from Boston Medical Center claimed that breast feeding was an important method of validating a trans-identified male's gender identity.

In an interview with The New Scientist, Dr. Joshua Safer said: ''Many transgender women are looking to have as many of the experiences of non-transgender women as they can, so I can see this will be extremely popular.''

Reports of trans-identified males seeking support from lactation consultants have increased. On social media, many new and breastfeeding mothers have also stated they've noticed an increase in men attending breastfeeding groups.

According to the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces, of about 2,500 monuments nationwide, only 28 commemorate women. The nation's lack of female-focused memorials was the subject of a 2022 sculpture project that highlighted the lack of visibility of women in public art.

Reduxx contacted the Gender Museum for comment, but did not received a response at the time of publication.

Reduxx is your source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We're 100% independent! Support our mission by joining our Patreon, or consider making a one-time donation.

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 23:20

Americans have routinely been told to shut up and believe the government-sponsored narrative. From accepting trial vaccines to trusting the results of a disastrous 2020 election to believing the Rino and Democrat-led j6 narrative, Americans are constantly told how to think by politicians and the media.

Much like obtaining the facts regarding the 2020 election that led to the protest, trying to cut through the J6 narrative to get to the truth has been strenuous.

J6 protestors have been accused of crimes such as seditious conspiracy and obstruction of a government proceeding, all while Pelosi withheld hundreds of hours of actual footage from the day. J6 defendants were nevertheless held in allegedly substandard conditions while government officials and Pelosi's J6 committee refused to share exculpatory evidence with the defense attorneys or the public who fund government law enforcement through their tax dollars and have a right to judge the facts for themselves. Painting a political narrative that Donald Trump incited a riot rather than pursuing truth and justice appears to be the mission. Fortunately, as evidence is released, that narrative is falling apart. J6 defense attorneys have identified and are now investigating 80 people who appear to be at the core of instigating problems. According to Epoch Times, these 80 ''suspicious actors'' (SAs) are being investigated as attorneys have had an opportunity to review J6 footage and have noticed that these actors are missing from the FBI's list and have not been detained. Defense attorneys are analyzing whether or not J6 was actually run as an entrapment operation against the Oath Keepers. The SAs can be seen removing security fencing, breaching police lines, attacking officers, and inciting crowds to storm into the U.S. Capitol . Attorney Brad Geyer listed the 80 people and is wondering if they are government agents or provocateurs. Geyer alleges that these people are seen in video footage operating in a coordinated fashion across the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ray Epps encouraged protestors to go into the capitol, but was dropped from the FBI wanted list.The nation watched as two men were acquitted of an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan's unpopular Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after the jury was asked to consider if the men had been trapped by the FBI agents who helped create a plan to kidnap the Governor and were involved in the plot to carry out the unlawful actions.

Trending: JUST IN: Tucker Carlson Responds to Being Ousted at Fox News As He Goes on First Weekend Date Night with Wife in 7 Years

Geyer represents Oath Keeper defendant Kenneth Harrelson and is seeking a court order that would force federal prosecutors to identify the 80 individuals and disclose if they were working for law enforcement or any government entity on January 6. Geyer wrote that the information is exculpatory, which compels the government to produce it. It is believed that other Oath Keeper attorneys will join the motion. Geyer has argued that the prosecutors have failed to disclose exculpatory information in the prosecution of J6 defendants and, according to Epoch Times, are guilty of ''burying required exculpatory information among nine terabytes of data.''

On April 12, an Oath Keepers motion was filed alleging that at least 20 ''assets'' from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were planted in the J6 crowd.

Geyer only recently was able to obtain video footage, and according to his latest court motion shows these suspicious actors using tech equipment that did not suffer from capacity restrictions due to the huge crowds like normal cell phones did. These suspects used earpieces, satellite phones, and other communication equipment.

According to Geyer, they are seen ''associating, conferring and traveling with others, engaging in behavior to confuse law enforcement through body masking, facial masking, clothing changes, and disorienting skirmishing behavior. Often it appears that these communications devices do not seem to be affected by capacity restriction or sophisticated jamming that was evident throughout the day,'' Geyer wrote in the motion. The motion continues, ''If it can be established that these SAs [suspicious actors] were government agents, this could amount to entrapment defense that will dispose of this 7th indictment prior to trial.''

''If it can be established that SAs, even without established government agency, from the west or elsewhere, were let into the Capitol and/or were assisted in opening the Columbus Doors from the inside'--a reasonable inference from video evidence'--a reasonable jury might conclude that one or more SAs had government sponsorship.''

In addition to withholding evidence, defense attorneys are also finding evidence that the FBI has potentially doctored and destroyed Jan 6, evidence.

In March, the trial of Proud Boy member and defendant Dominic Pezzola had to be paused after attorneys presented evidence that classified FBI messages showed that FBI agents were discussing the altering and destruction of evidence. FBI agent Miller was questioned about her emails and ''admitted fabricating evidence and following orders to destroy hundreds of items of evidence,'' Pezzola's lawyers wrote in its motion to dismiss the case. Pezzola is on trial for obstruction and conspiracy charges related to the January 6 Capitol breach. He was arrested on January 15, 2021, and indicted the same month. Pezzola's trial began in January 2023.

Attorney Roger Roots addressed the recently discovered FBI messages involving January 6 and said, ''There are a couple of emails between FBI agents casually discussing altering a document and destroying hundreds of pieces of evidence. It's very disturbing, and right now, we have more questions than answers.'' Roots used this evidence to support a motion to dismiss the charges against Pezzola. ''If justice means anything, it requires this case to be dismissed.'' Roots continued, ''My thoughts are we need a longer pause to get to the bottom of some of (FBI) Agent Miller's emails.''

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 20:57

The Justice Department today filed a complaint challenging Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), a recently enacted law that denies necessary medical care to youth based solely on who they are. The complaint alleges that SB 1's ban on providing certain medically necessary care to transgender minors violates the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The department is also asking the court to issue an immediate order to prevent the law from going into effect on July 1, 2023.

SB 1 makes it unlawful to provide or offer to provide certain types of medical care for transgender minors with diagnosed gender dysphoria. SB 1's blanket ban prohibits potential treatment options that have been recommended by major medical associations for consideration in limited circumstances in accordance with established and comprehensive guidelines and standards of care. By denying only transgender youth access to these forms of medically necessary care while allowing non-transgender minors access to the same or similar procedures, SB 1 discriminates against transgender youth. The department's complaint alleges that SB 1 violates the Equal Protection Clause by discriminating on the basis of both sex and transgender status. Doctors, parents and anyone else who provides or offers to provide the prohibited care faces the possibility of civil suits for 30 years and other sanctions.

''No person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status,'' said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. ''The right to consider your health and medically-approved treatment options with your family and doctors is a right that everyone should have, including transgender children, who are especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety and suicide. The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department will continue to aggressively challenge all forms of discrimination and unlawful barriers faced by the LGBTQI+ community.''

''SB1 violates the constitutional rights of some of Tennessee's most vulnerable citizens,'' said U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee. ''Left unchallenged, it would prohibit transgender children from receiving health care that their medical providers and their parents have determined to be medically necessary. In doing so, the law seeks to substitute the judgment of trained medical professionals and parents with that of elected officials and codifies discrimination against children who already face far too many obstacles.''

Today's filings are the latest action by the Justice Department to combat LGBTQI+ discrimination, including unlawful restrictions on medical care for transgender youth. On March 31, 2022, Assistant Attorney General Clarke issued a letter to all state attorneys general reminding them of federal constitutional and statutory provisions that protect transgender youth against discrimination. On April 29, 2022, the Justice Department intervened in a lawsuit challenging a law in Alabama (Senate Bill 184) that imposes a felony ban on medically necessary care for transgender minors. As a result of that litigation, the most significant provisions of Alabama's Senate Bill 184 have been preliminarily halted from going into effect, and the United States continues to challenge its constitutionality.

Additional information about the Civil Rights Division's work to uphold and protect the civil and constitutional rights of LGBTQI+ individuals is available on its website at www.justice.gov/crt/lgbtqi-working-group. Complaints about discriminatory practices may be reported to the Civil Rights Division through its internet reporting portal at civilrights.justice.gov.

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 14:46

The end of an era on Fox News is seen as a victory for the devil

Right-wing Christians who claim to have ''prophetic'' insight into America's ''spiritual warfare'' are declaring Fox News' decision to sack Tucker Carlson a victory for Lucifer.

The religious clamor around the ousting of the conservative primetime host has provided further fuel as our divided country hurtles toward another combustible presidential election.

Lance Wallnau '-- promoter of a seven-part plan for Christians to capture America '-- filmed a live video late Tuesday night in which he denounced demonic mischief behind Carlson's departure from the network. ''The devil hates [him]'' Wallnau said, because Tucker has ''the voice of the populace.''

Wallnau insisted that ''Tucker is a casualty of war,'' and added: ''I don't like it when the devil wins.''

Carlson is not deeply religious '-- ''I'm literally an Episcopalian,'' he recently joked '-- but he has mainstreamed noxious beliefs popular with conservative Christians, in particular against trans Americans and abortion rights. At a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. over the weekend, Carlson blasted the former as practitioners of sexual ''mutilation'' and the latter as ''child sacrifice.''

Wallnau, who is famous for popularizing the idea that president Trump was God's chosen heathen, referred to Carlson in similar terms. ''I've talked about the 'secular prophets' like Rush Limbaugh, or [Steve] Bannon or Tucker Carlson,'' Wallnau said. ''These are the people God has His hands on,'' he insisted. ''They're actually used by God more powerfully than a lot of preachers,'' Wallnau said, adding: ''The devil wants to silence these voices.''

According to Wallnau, Satan is moving to silence Carlson, whose existing contract with Fox News, he suggested, might be enforced in such a way as to pay to keep Tucker off the air '-- and away from competitor news outlets. ''He might not be coming back for three years,'' Wallnau alleged, ''because the devil has him on a contract for $20 million.''Editor's picks

Amid the fallout of Carlson's exit from primetime, Wallnau is far from the only Christian voice denouncing satanic influence behind Fox's decision.

Shane Vaughn, a Pentecostal preacher from Mississippi with a large online following, took to Rumble to declare that ''Carlson is gone because of spiritual warfare.'' In comments first spotlighted by Right Wing Watch, Vaughn asked his listeners to focus on the spiritual tug-of-war between heaven and hell over the fate of America. ''We know that Tucker Carlson was a victim of demonic power,'' he said. ''And these demons are bringing America under attack.''

There have been a lot of theories floated about what prompted Fox News to abruptly fire Tucker Carlson, but MAGA pastor Shane Vaughn knows what really happened: "We know that Tucker Carlson was a victim of demonic power." pic.twitter.com/9v1PpCa9ew

'-- Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) April 26, 2023Vaughn also claimed that in his virulent Heritage address, Carlson had ''a visitation by the Holy Spirit,'' and that God ''used his mouth as a prophet.'' In the sudden firing of Carlson on Monday, Vaughn argued, the devil had worked to silence Carlson before he could spread the same message to his TV audience. ''Satanic satanic powers will never allow their true agenda to be exposed by such a powerful platform,'' Vaughn insisted.

Other self-styled Christian prophets used the firing of Carlson as receipts '-- proof of their supposed gifts of heavenly foresight.

On the Christian Nationalist broadcast Flashpoint, Pastor Hank Kunneman cited a pair of past ''prophetic words'' he said came from God following Carlson's exit. The claims were captured by a Rolling Stone writer Nikki McCann Ramirez, and posted to Twitter on Tuesday:

Similarly, popular ''prophet'' Julie Green appeared on the podcast of the ReAwaken America Tour alongside front-man Clay Clark to affirm that she, too, had received advance word of this week's cable TV shakeup.Related

''The Lord had talked about CNN; the Lord had talked about Don Lemon; the Lord had talked about Fox News [being] in a deep amount of trouble, along with other mainstream news media,'' Green said. ''And the Lord has talked about how He was going to silence them and bring them down.''

Green added of Carlson's departure: ''Prophetically, this is on point. I get excited when I start seeing these things happen, because God had already said this, before it happened.''

Such prophetic gloating left a bad taste in Wallnau's mouth. He called out his Christian colleagues for putting self-promotion above the spiritual struggle. ''I'm mad for a good reason right now,'' he said. ''I don't like it when the devil wins, and I don't agree with the prophets prophesying, 'Yeah, I said this would happen.''' Trending

''It's not a victory,'' Wallnau continued on Tuesday's video, ''when you prophesy you're gonna lose the Super Bowl. The object is to win it '-- not predict it. Win it!''

Wallnau then asked his followers, mourning the loss of Carlson's platform: ''How do we win? How do we reverse this?''

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 12:42

Health and Human Services (HHS) whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively, alleging that the U.S. government doesn't involve law enforcement in vetting sponsors of migrant children. Amid a surge in illegal migration at the southern border, Rodas made the decision to volunteer with HHS to help reunite children with their families, which she soon found to be unrelated and criminal sponsors in some cases, she said. ''It's been a very hard journey, a very hard journey. But I was looking at the faces of the children. I've heard young girls screaming for their mom in home country. I watched children have panic attacks. Children had to be put on suicide watch. They don't know where they're going. This is just unacceptable,'' Rodas told the DCNF. A whistleblower set to testify before a House subcommittee Wednesday revealed that law enforcement is not involved in vetting sponsors of migrant children in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Health and Human Services (HHS) whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas conveyed concern about releasing children to unvetted sponsors. She said the employees at the Emergency Intake Site did not have access to critical vetting tools such as National Crime Information Center, a tool used for decades by law enforcement to determine the criminal history of an individual.

''Because there's no way to know the criminal history of someone who has no legal presence without proper vetting. HHS is not a law enforcement organization. I mean, how are we going to know if these are trustworthy people? We must have proper vetting and that's the only way. It has to be law enforcement. The contractors, they're just regular people, the case managers, they don't have a law enforcement background. They can't pull up a history they can't know if someone is a registered sex offender or not. Only law enforcement will know that,'' Rodas said.

Rodas will tell her story to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement hearing titled ''The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children.'' Rodas served as a federal employee for 20 years, with 17 years in the Inspector General community. (RELATED: Biden Admin 'Didn't Want To Hear' Warnings Of Skyrocketing Migrant Child Labor)

In 2021, Rodas voluntarily deployed to the Emergency Intake Center in Pomona, California, to assist with the surge of unaccompanied children crossing the southern border.

''When I stepped on the plane from Washington, D.C., to ultimately be deployed to Pomona, I thought that I was helping reunite children with their families. I went in support of the Biden administration, I answered their urgent call to help with the border crisis,'' Rodas told the DCNF.

Federal authorities at the southern border have seen a surge in migrant children crossing without any adults. In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol agents recorded roughly 150,000 encounters of unaccompanied child migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

The children are quickly placed in the care of HHS under its office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where they're released to sponsors. Rodas said HHS typically released children within 10 to 14 days of arrival to an intake center.

''But no reasonable person could sit back and watch children be trafficked, no reasonable person could sit back and say, 'I'm going to be OK with children being raped, children being in these horrible working conditions.' I did not know one child had ever been trafficked through the program. I now know that this has been going on for a decade,'' Rodas said.

Rodas also spoke to retaliation she's faced for speaking out, saying HHS walked her off site when she provided information to the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General.

''I would absolutely do it again. I do not regret it. It's been a very hard and painful journey. Scary. I was nearly hyperventilating by the time they're walking off the site telling me that my whole career could be going up in flames, that I could potentially be sent home [and] that I was under investigation,'' Rodas said.

Photo courtesy of Tara Lee Rodas

''They were trying to discredit me after my long service, I cannot as an IG professional imagine anything worse than being discredited. And so it was a scary thing. But the thing that was worse than that was knowing that children were being put in victim situations and I couldn't stand for it. I just couldn't, so I was willing to do whatever it took to tell the truth. It's been a very hard journey, a very hard journey. But I was looking at the faces of the children. I've heard young girls screaming for their mom in home country. I watched children have panic attacks. Children had to be put on suicide watch. They don't know where they're going. This is just unacceptable.''

''My life will never be the same. I'm OK with that. If Congress does something, they've got to do something [now],'' Rodas said. ''They have to take action. swift action must be taken to safeguard the lives of these children.''

HHS didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter's byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 12:35

Twenty-four hours after Fox News ousted its highest-rated host, the network has yet to explain one of the most shocking defenestrations in cable news history. ''I'm not going beyond the release,'' a Fox News spokeswoman texted yesterday when I asked her for comment. In this information void, multiple theories about why Fox fired Carlson circulated in the media. It was fallout from the $787.5 million Dominion settlement; punishment for vulgar text messages published in Dominion court filings; or a consequence of former Fox producer Abby Grossberg's lawsuit, which alleged Carlson oversaw a hostile work environment. (Fox News has vowed to ''vigorously defend'' the company against ''Grossberg's unmeritorious legal claims.'')

But none of these potential reasons fully add up. Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo hyped Dominion conspiracies far more than Carlson did, and yet she remains on the air. Fox had access to Carlson's texts and emails in the Dominion lawsuit for months, and didn't punish him for it. Fox hosts sued for sexual harassment in the past were fired publicly for cause, but Carlson wasn't. According to a source, Carlson wasn't even fired and remains on the Fox News payroll.

So the mystery remains: Why did Fox News take its biggest star off the air?

A new theory has emerged. According to the source, Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch removed Carlson over remarks Carlson made during a speech at the Heritage Foundation's 50th Anniversary gala on Friday night. Carlson laced his speech with religious overtones that even Murdoch found too extreme, the source, who was briefed on Murdoch's decision-making, said. Carlson told the Heritage audience that national politics has become a manichean battle between ''good'' and ''evil.'' Carlson said that people advocating for transgender rights and DEI programs want to destroy America and they could not be persuaded with facts. ''We should say that and stop engaging in these totally fraudulent debates'...I've tried. That doesn't work,'' he said. The answer, Carlson suggested, was prayer. ''I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will,'' he said. ''That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn't like all the spiritual talk,'' the source said.

Carlson declined to comment. A spokesperson for Fox Corp. declined to comment.

It's been reported that Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott made the decision to fire Carlson on Friday night. Another source, a person close to Murdoch, has said something similar to me. Scott informed Carlson of the decision on Monday morning.

Rupert Murdoch was perhaps unnerved by Carlson's messianism because it echoed the end-times worldview of Murdoch's ex-fianc(C)e Ann Lesley Smith, the source said. In my May cover story, I reported that Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was ''a messenger from God.'' Murdoch had seen Carlson and Smith discuss religion firsthand. In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch's Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. ''Rupert just sat there and stared,'' the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex's favorite show.

Smith did not respond to a request for comment.

The 92-year-old mogul's broken engagement is part of a string of erratic decisions he has made of late that raises questions about Murdoch's leadership of his media empire. According to sources, executives at Fox are worried about Murdoch's unsteady hand at the wheel of the company. ''It's like the King is senile but no one wants to say anything,'' the source said. According to two sources, Fox settled with Dominion moments before the trial was set to begin because Fox's lawyers didn't want Murdoch to testify in public. ''They were hoping and praying to settle for months, but they didn't want to pay up,'' the second source said. Once the trial began, the lawyers told Fox execs that Murdoch would be ''disgraced on the stand, run out of the boardroom, and his testimony will expose him as a lunatic sliding into senility.'' (The person close to Murdoch disputed this. ''Rupert was very well prepared to testify.'')

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 09:45

When a gunpowder mill in Minden, Louisiana, caught spark and blew up in June 2021, the Pentagon lost its sole domestic producer of black powder, the original gunpowder developed in China in the 9th century and a crucial ingredient for more than 300 types of munitions, The Wall Street Journal reports. "The product, for which there is no substitute, is used in small quantities in munitions to ignite more powerful explosives," from M16 bullets and 155mm howitzer shells to Tomahawk and other cruise missiles. The factory is still closed.

The closure of the black powder mill in Minden, 30 miles from Shreveport, highlights the many "single source" producers in the Pentagon's supply chains, the Journal reports. Only one company makes the rocket motors for Javelin anti-tank missiles, or example, and one foundry forges all the titanium casings used in howitzers. These potential bottlenecks to U.S. industrial munitions production are tied to industry consolidation after the Cold War '-- the dozens of major Pentagon arms suppliers in the 1990s has shrunk to just five, while the overall defense industrial base has declined to 55,000 vendors, from 69,000 in 2016, the Journal reports.

Estes Industries, the model-rocket maker, bought the Minden mill from Hodgdon last year and plans to have it back in service this summer, after the completion of $3.5 million in safety upgrades paid for by the Pentagon through the Defense Production Act. The Biden administration has used that law to start bringing critical elements of industrial production, from certain chemicals to factories, back to the U.S. In the meantime, defense contractors who rely on black powder have been using up reserves or importing it from abroad, the Journal reports.

You can read more about the fallout from the Minden mill and other issues facing U.S. weapons production at The Wall Street Journal.

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 09:28

The U.S. Postal Service has kept unhealthy businesses alive because of its low prices, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says. He wants to change that.

The mail chief is committed to dramatically increasing postage rates as he enters the third year of his plan to transform the Postal Service from an aging letter courier to the backbone of the e-commerce economy.

That could spell trouble, DeJoy warned, for some businesses relying on mailing and shipping costs that have been kept low at the expense of the Postal Service's financial stability.

''If we have kept alive things by a false business model '-- which is what we have done for 15 years, and we have abused the organization '-- well, that's not something we're supposed to be doing,'' he said in an interview. ''That has to change.''

Much of that plan is underway: Congress has relieved the Postal Service of $107 billion in liabilities, and granted it $3 billion to purchase electric delivery vehicles.

But economic and social head winds '-- persistent inflation, a looming recession and court rulings surrounding mailed abortion medications '-- are clouding the path forward, DeJoy said.

DeJoy sat down with The Washington Post to discuss the state of the Postal Service and questions about its future. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: Is the Postal Service in a better place than it was two years ago, when you announced a plan to slow service and increase prices while rebuilding the delivery network?

A: I think we're 10,000 percent better than we were two years ago. For 15 years this place had been constructively destroyed with an operational strategy that was devoid of any logic. We couldn't keep people, our infrastructure was falling apart, there was no real plan to stop it and we were in the middle of a pandemic.

Q: Your goal was for the Postal Service to break even in 2023. Is the agency on track to meet that goal?

A: We're behind. I have to reconcile where we started from. The pandemic took longer to get out of. Inflation is significantly higher than we thought it would be.

We thought we'd break even in two years. That was a big haul, and we almost did last year. We're keeping service up, and that's a cost and a priority to me.

Q: What effects have you seen from inflation?

A: There's inflation, and then there's what the government's going to do about it. That creates a whole bunch of volatility. A businessperson would enjoy stability over a whole lot of other things.

I think in the mailing industry, inflation has been an issue. Paper costs are higher. I think a bigger issue is the uncertainty of the market in terms of advertising. People try to attribute my price increases to reducing mail volume. I don't buy that for a second. The overall advertising market is down 10, 11, 12 percent.

What one would do to save money in an inflationary economy in a different industry is stop doing things. That's not an option for me. I have to look past it.

Q: What about on individual consumers like people who are buying items online? What impact on them have you seen due to inflation?

A: Demand is less, but it's less for a lot of reasons. You're allowed to go out. You can actually go to a store. Stores are open. There was an event-driven period of higher e-commerce demand.

One thing you can count on is that we'll eventually, over I don't know how many years, get back to that level of demand, because e-commerce is here to stay and it will grow. The dips we're seeing today are part of the overall change in how the consumer shops.

But our strategy is twofold: capture a disproportionate share of the growth; and recover what we've lost.

Q: A major part of your plan to recover costs increasing prices. In July, a stamp will cost 66 cents. It was 55 cents when you took office in 2020. What will a stamp cost at the end of your 10-year plan?

A: Whatever it costs, it will still be the cheapest in the industrialized world. It can go up to 90 cents, and it will still be the cheapest. And higher prices will be a contributing factor to why we will still have the United States Postal Service. For those who want to reach the American public and want to do it with a mail piece, we will be the best and only way to do it. That's what the law requires me to do. It doesn't say, ''Go do all things at all costs.''

Q: Since 2019, the price of a first-class stamp is up 32 percent. You ran a business before taking office. If one of your core costs went up 30 percent over five years, wouldn't that have an effect on your business?

A: Once we take care of the American public and we fulfill our mission, to everybody else, we're a third-party service provider. The major mailing companies, they're out to make a profit. I'm all for profit, but it shouldn't be on the back of the U.S. Postal Service in terms of our existence.

Q: Mailers often pass on the cost of rate increases to consumers. That could be a bank charging a fee to provide paper statements, or a small business raising its prices to account for higher postage costs. How do you account for that?

A: That's not the Postal Service's role. The system that's set up means we have to cover our cost. If we have kept alive things by a false business model '-- which is what we have done for 15 years, and we have abused the organization '-- well, that's not something we're supposed to be doing. That has to change.

Yes, at some point, things come out of the marketplace. But is it the U.S. Postal Service's job to support and fund those things with its own resources? I think that's a recipe for disaster.

Price matters, and some things are going to get chased from the marketplace, but I think that's just a matter of time. I'd rather get on with it now, because that time should have been seven, eight, nine years ago.

Q: Part of your plan involves moving delivery depots out of local post offices into larger facilities. What does the future local post office look like for retail customers?

A: I'm putting self-service kiosks out in these places. I'm putting package lockboxes out in these places. We've got access to the space that gets cleaned up from where the delivery unit used to be. I'm out selling the national infrastructure to government agencies and state agencies. We can stock national emergency supplies there. We've already proven that we can do that with the covid-19 test kits.

We can open up for small businesses. By being in local markets, I see customers being able to pre-stock items, offer same-day delivery by stocking simple things in our locations. I don't want to be a big centralized fulfillment house. But if you have a kit of anything '-- that could be a box of shoes or a T-shirt in a bag '-- that you want to position for immediate delivery or pickup, that's a big market.

Q: A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling earlier in April placing severe restrictions on abortion medication, including if it can be sent through the mail. That ruling is currently stayed and under review at the Supreme Court. What is the Postal Service's role in enforcing laws around mailed abortion pills?

A: We follow the law. Whatever we get told to do, we're going to do. And if the law in fact gets changed, we will have to follow that law instead. It's that simple. And if the law gets changed, we're going to have to deal with, ''Are we actually effectively able to respond to it?'' At some point you're just totally eroding the mission of the Postal Service, and its ability to support itself.

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 04:42

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) walks following a closed door meeting on Captiol Hill in Washington, April 26, 2023.

Tom Brenner | Reuters

WASHINGTON '-- A Republican bill to raise the debt limit and slash government funding passed the House on Wednesday, after 11th hour changes won over a group of holdouts within the GOP caucus.

The final tally was 217-215. Four Republicans joined Democrats in voting against their party's signature piece of legislation.

The vote was a victory for embattled House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., capping off a 24-hour sprint that saw party leaders work past 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning to amend the bill.

The last-minute revisions included a rescue for ethanol and biofuel tax credits, which were set to be eliminated under the original bill. The prospect of losing the tax breaks infuriated a bloc of Republicans from Iowa and nearby states, who threatened to sink the bill unless McCarthy agreed to preserve the tax breaks, which he did.

Another bloc of conservatives demanded that McCarthy revise the bill to speed up implementation of new work requirements for adults who receive food stamps or Medicaid benefits. McCarthy also agreed to that demand.

With a margin of just four Republican votes for the bill to pass along party lines, McCarthy could not afford to lose either bloc's support.

Still, the amendments rankled some rank-and-file members of the GOP caucus, because they came after McCarthy had prohibited members from introducing their own amendments, and insisted the bill in its original form was final and not up for discussion.

The Limit, Save and Grow Act has little to no chance of becoming law, which could help to explain why Republicans were ultimately willing to overlook McCarthy's last minute, backroom deals.

Instead of viewing the provisions in the 320-page bill as future laws, per se, House Republicans view the plan more as a symbolic opening bid in the negotiations McCarthy will hold with President Joe Biden later this year over the debt limit and federal funding.

"There has been a lot of hard work that's gone into how best to start this negotiation," House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Wednesday.

The White House sees things very differently, however.

"This bill is reckless attempt to extract extreme concessions as a condition for the United States simply paying the bills it has already incurred," the Office of Management and Budget declared in a formal notice to the House on Tuesday that Biden would veto the GOP debt limit bill if it ever reached his desk.

"The President has been clear that he will not accept such attempts at hostage-taking. House Republicans must take default off the table and address the debt limit without demands and conditions," the White House said.

While the White House and congressional Republicans remain miles apart, the clock is ticking for America's ability to service its massive debt and continue to operate the federal government.

Without congressional approval on a bill to raise the debt limit or suspend it, the United States could face the unthinkable prospect of a default.

Several new reports this week suggest that a larger than expected drop in federal tax receipts this year may hasten the arrival of the so-called X-date. This is the projected date the Treasury Department will exhaust the emergency measures it is taking to prevent a federal debt default.

A note from Goldman Sachs predicted the "debt limit deadline to fall in late July," as long as federal tax receipts only fell by 30% over last year. If federal revenues fell by 35%, however, the x-date could move up to "early June."

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 04:34

Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, in July 2021.

Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Meta can thank Chinese retailers for helping lift the company's first-quarter sales after three consecutive quarters of revenue declines.

As chief financial officer Susan Li told analysts during the earnings call, the social networking giant "saw acceleration among advertisers in China targeting users and other markets, which we believe was due in part to dropping shipping costs and easing Covid lockdown for those advertisers."

In other words, Chinese companies spent a lot of money over a three-month period ended in late March on Facebook ads intended for consumers living outside the country. It's a sign that China's recent easing of its zero-Covid policy has indirectly benefited Meta, with Chinese companies using Facebook and Instagram's massive reach around the world to land new customers.

Still, Meta's sales grew only 3% year over year to $28.65 billion during the first quarter, underscoring that there's still turbulence in the digital advertising market.

Li said that Meta also saw stronger demand in the quarter as Russia's war in Ukraine passed its one-year mark as of February. But she wasn't prepared to say that the rest of year will be smooth sailing.

Meta expects "a volatile macro environment" for the rest of the year and a "challenging regulatory environment" overall, Li said, referring to European Union regulators who continue imposing tough data privacy laws and requirements that affect the company.

But the mere fact that Meta was able to turn the tide on its declining sales after a harsh period was enough to cause investors to rejoice, sending the company's shares rising nearly 12% in after-hours trading.

Investors were also keen to hear CEO Mark Zuckerberg preach Meta's "year of efficiency" that will result in some 21,000 employees exiting the company by early summer.

Zuckerberg addressed the company's recent round of layoffs that affected technical workers last week and reminded analysts that more job cuts will hit business groups in May.

After May, Li said the company "will resume hiring and we would expect head count growth in excess of 1 to 2% in 2024."

Zuckerberg gave no signs of planning to slow down spending on the metaverse, the highly speculative bet on virtual worlds that engendered the company's name change from Facebook announced in 2021.

Indeed, the company's Reality Labs unit, which is building the virtual reality and augmented reality technologies needed for the yet-to-be developed metaverse, logged nearly $4 billion in first-quarter losses off $339 million in sales.

The metaverse still remains a core priority for Meta, Zuckerberg said, even though it's also working on new artificial intelligence technologies that could aid its advertising and business messaging services.

"A narrative has developed that we're somehow moving away from focusing on the metaverse division, so I just want to say upfront that that's not accurate," Zuckerberg said. "We've been focusing on both AI and the metaverse for years now and we will continue to focus on both."

"The two areas are also related," he added.

Watch: Meta beats on revenue, stocks pop nearly 10 percent on revenue beat

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 02:54

Spriter : Canadian politicians have decided to fight "against gender violence" by wearing pink high heels. https://t.co/lkbFrqIp6j

Fri Apr 21 07:54:55 +0000 2023

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 21:09

Patients using the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy say their hair has started to fall out in clumps.

An American TikToker who lost 60lbs while on Ozempic claims her hairline has receded so much she now has to cover it with makeup.

Another patient was so horrified after suffering hair loss she said that she would rather be 'fat and able to hide behind my hair than skinny with bald spots'.

Hair loss is not listed as a side effect of semaglutide, the active drug in both products, but the side effect showed up in clinical trials of Wegovy. It affected three percent of patients on the drug, compared to one percent in the placebo group.

Ozempic and Wegovy have already been linked to a host of other nasty side effects, including vivid dreams, suddenly being repulsed by common foods such as ground beef and losing muscle at an 'alarming rate'.

An American woman on Mounjaro, who calls herself 'theegeriatricmillennial' on TikTok, said her hair was falling out in clumps when she brushed it or showered

Ozempic and Wegovy use the same drug, semaglutide, which suppresses appetite and triggers weight loss.

The former was approved for type 2 diabetes in 2017. A reformulated version was approved under the name Wegovy in 2021.

The drug is a GLP-1 receptor, which triggers hormones in the brain that keep the stomach full and tell the body to stop eating and avoid cravings.

Doctors are not clear on exactly what is causing hair loss in some patients, but some say this can be triggered after rapid weight loss by a condition called telogen effluvium.

A temporary thinning of the hair can be triggered by the rapid weight loss disrupting hormones or leading to resources being directed away from the hair, they said.

This causes hair follicles to suddenly switch to the resting, or telogen, phase of their growth cycle '-- causing hair to fall out.

But the condition is temporary, with experts saying new hairs will later start growing again.

Temporary hair loss can appear about three months after rapid weight loss and may take up to six months to resolve.

Novo Nordisk, the Danish firm that manufactures the drugs, did not respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment.

Hair loss has also been recorded in patients receiving another drug, Mounjaro, to help them lose weight.

Tirzepatide, the active drug behind it, acts on the same receptors as semaglutide.

It also suppresses feelings of hunger to help patients lose weight.

Eli Lilly, says that hair loss was recorded in clinical trials of this drug but was generally short-lived.

The Indianapolis, Indiana-based company did not reply to a DailyMail.com request for comment.

Among patients who reported hair loss on Ozempic was Becca, from the US, who had lost 40lbs while on the drug.

She said in a TikTok video: 'I feel like my hairline has definitely receded a little bit or just gotten like a little bit thinned out.'

She said that she now fills out her hairline before going out to obscure the fact that it has receded slightly.

Other patients affected include a woman on Mounjaro who uses the moniker 'theegeriatricmillennial' and is based in the US.

In a TikTok video, she said: 'We need to talk about hair loss.

'My whole life I had a thick and luxurious head of hair.

'[But over] the last month I have lost so much hair.'

She added: 'I know it's to be expected when you have a rapid weight loss... um... but the rate at which it's falling out is terrifying.'

'I would rather be fat and be able to hide behind my beautiful hair than be skinny and have bald spots.'

Another patient named Becca, from the US, revealed on TikTok that she had lost 60lbs while on Ozempic.

Amanda Staffor, from Kentucky, who is also using Mounjaro, posted a video online where she held up a clump of hair saying that this had fallen out of her hair while she was in the shower. She said this keeps happening, which 'adds up' over time

Becca, from the US, also said that she has suffered from hair loss after losing 60lbs while on Ozempic. She said it had caused her hairline to recede

Amanda Staffor, from Kentucky, who is also using Mounjaro, similarly posted pictures of herself online holding clumps of her own hair.

She said: ' But, this, yeah, that is how much hair I'm losing every time I shower, a nd you can imagine that adds up.

'I need to know, does anyone else have this problem? Do you take any supplements for it? Do you have any suggestions? Somebody help me, I don't wanna lose all my hair.'

More than five million Americans received a prescription for Ozempic in 2022, data shows, compared to 230,000 in 2019.

And the number is only growing, with more than 373,000 prescriptions filed in the last week of February alone, double the number from the same time last year. Analysts say more than half of these were new.

Texas, Florida, California, New York and Georgia are the states where it is most common for patients to receive a new prescription for the drugs.

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 20:47

Susan Rice is stepping down as President Biden's domestic policy advisor, the White House announced Monday.

"I surprised a lot of people when I named Ambassador Susan Rice as my Domestic Policy Advisor," Biden said in a statement announcing her departure. "Susan was synonymous with foreign policy, having previously served as National Security Advisor and UN Ambassador. But what I knew then and what we all know now '' after more than two years of her steady leadership of the Domestic Policy Council '' it's clear: there is no one more capable, and more determined to get important things done for the American people than Susan Rice."

"Thanks to her tireless efforts, we expanded and strengthened the Affordable Care Act, released a comprehensive national mental health strategy, and finally enabled Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors and cap the cost of insulin at $35," the statement continued. "We've taken historic actions to reduce gun violence and advance police reform. We are addressing our failed approach to marijuana. We have embedded equity into the work of the entire federal government. We are making college more affordable and accessible and providing student debt relief. We are increasing access to high quality child care and long-term care. We have committed to a bold national strategy to end hunger and reduce diet-related disease by 2030. We reversed the harmful immigration policies of the previous Administration, reunified more than 670 children separated from their families, and rebuilt the broken system of care for unaccompanied children, putting their safety and well-being first and foremost. The list goes on, and would not have been possible without Susan."

SUSAN RICE ROASTED FOR CLAIMING RACISM HAS COST THE US $16 TRILLION: 'THIS IS NUTS'

Susan Rice is stepping down as President Biden's domestic policy advisor. She previously served as former President Obama's nation security advisor. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

"As the only person to serve as both National Security Advisor and Domestic Policy Advisor, Susan's record of public service makes history," Biden said. "But what sets her apart as a leader and colleague is the seriousness with which she takes her role and the urgency and tenacity she brings, her bias towards action and results, and the integrity, humility and humor with which she does this work. I thank Susan for her service, her counsel and her friendship. I will miss her."

President Barack Obama seen with then-Vice President Joe Biden and National Security Adviser Susan Rice during a cabinet meeting on April 5, 2016. Rice is now leaving her role within the Biden administration. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

GRENELL CALLS SUSAN RICE THE 'SHADOW PRESIDENT' AND 'NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION'

"I also want to thank her husband Ian and her children Jake and Maris for yet again sharing Susan with us," the president added.

"I am deeply grateful to @potus for trusting and empowering me to serve as his Domestic Policy Advisor," Rice wrote on Twitter in response to the White House announcement. "I love the team @DPC and in the @WhiteHouse. There are no more dedicated public servants. I am so proud of all we have been able to accomplish together for the American people."

Citing two people with knowledge of deliberations, Politico reported that Neera Tanden, Biden's staff secretary and a senior adviser, was being considered among others to replace Rice. Though, no replacement has been finalized, a top White House official separately told the outlet.

White House Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice seen meeting with President Biden, members of his cabinet and immigration advisors in the State Dining Room on March 24, 2021. She departed the White House Monday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Rice's departure comes before Biden is expected to officially announced his re-election campaign this week.

As Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Rice drove the formulation and implementation of Biden's domestic policy agenda, "from economic mobility and racial equity to health care and immigration," according to her bio on the White House's website. She previously served as President Obama's U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and National Security Advisor from 2009-2017. Prior to the start of the Biden administration, she was a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Previously, Rice served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, and Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the National Security Council under President Clinton from 1993-2001.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 13:19

Fox takes issue with host's private remarks that were derogatory toward colleagues

Updated April 24, 2023 10:32 pm ETFox News parted ways with prime-time host Tucker Carlson, a surprising move that comes after he made disparaging remarks about colleagues at the network that were disclosed during a legal battle with a voting-machine company.

Mr. Carlson's departure puts an end to a decade-plus tenure at the conservative news network during which he rose to become the highest-rated host in prime-time cable news.

Mr....

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Fox News parted ways with prime-time host Tucker Carlson, a surprising move that comes after he made disparaging remarks about colleagues at the network that were disclosed during a legal battle with a voting-machine company.

Mr. Carlson's departure puts an end to a decade-plus tenure at the conservative news network during which he rose to become the highest-rated host in prime-time cable news.

Mr. Carlson, whose contract was renewed in 2021, will be paid out for the rest of his contract, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Carlson is paid about $20 million a year, one of the people said. Mr. Carlson found out he was being let go about 10 minutes before the network announced his departure, the people said.

Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox News parent Fox Corp. , and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott decided on Friday Mr. Carlson would leave the network, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Mr. Carlson's exit creates another high-profile opening in a cable-news landscape where familiar faces have been leaving over the past year-and-a-half. Also on Monday, CNN parted ways with Don Lemon, who had left his 10 p.m. prime-time perch to co-anchor the network's new morning show, a move that has failed to generate strong ratings.

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Fox News on Monday said that Mr. Carlson's last show was on Friday, April 21, and that it would rely on a rotation of hosts until it names a permanent anchor for the 8 p.m. program.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade anchored the show on Monday night. In opening remarks, Mr. Kilmeade acknowledged Mr. Carlson's departure and said he was ''great friends with Tucker.''

A lawyer representing Mr. Carlson didn't respond to a request for comment.

PHOTOS: Tucker Carlson Out at Fox News: A Look at His Career

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Fox's decision to let Mr. Carlson go comes less than a week after Fox Corp. agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle its legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems, which had accused Fox's news networks of airing false claims by hosts and guests that Dominion helped rig the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in favor of Joe Biden. Mr. Carlson had been expected to testify during the trial.

Fox Corp. and News Corp, the parent of The Wall Street Journal's publisher, share common ownership. Fox shares fell 3% Monday.

Private messages sent by Mr. Carlson to colleagues were made public in the legal proceedings of the Dominion defamation suit. In some, Mr. Carlson mocked claims made on air by guests, said he hated former President Donald Trump and complained about colleagues and Fox executives.

In a private text-message exchange about two weeks after Election Day, Mr. Carlson and fellow prime-time hosts Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity

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complained about the network's news coverage, including the fact that the network was the first to call the key state of Arizona for Mr. Biden on the night of the election'--a decision that angered some core Fox News viewers.

''We devote our lives to building an audience and they let Chris Wallace and Leland f'--ing Vittert wreck it,'' Mr. Carlson wrote, according to one document, referring to two then-members of Fox's newsroom. Mr. Wallace is now at CNN and Mr. Vittert is a reporter at NewsNation.

''Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we've lost with our audience?'' Mr. Carlson wrote in another text message to a colleague, according to court documents.

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Fox took issue with remarks Mr. Carlson made that were derogatory toward the network, people familiar with the matter said. Much of the communications were redacted in court documents but became known internally to senior Fox management, they said.

Mr. Carlson also complained to a colleague when a Fox News reporter fact-checked one of Mr. Trump's tweets that mentioned Dominion: ''Please get her fired,'' Mr. Carlson told fellow Fox News host Sean Hannity, according to a court filing. ''It's measurably hurting the company.''

Before the Dominion suit was settled, Superior Court Judge Eric Davis had already concluded that Fox News and Fox Business did in fact broadcast false claims about Dominion, voiced by both network hosts and Trump associates. In a statement announcing the settlement, Fox acknowledged the judge's findings.

Court documents also revealed Mr. Carlson's feelings about Mr. Trump. In a text message exchange from January 2021, Mr. Carlson said the network was ''very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,'' and said ''I hate him passionately,'' referring to the former president.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that Mr. Trump is the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential-nomination race.

Mr. Carlson recently drew criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for airing a segment that showed previously unaired footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Carlson said that lawmakers had intentionally overstated the violence. ''The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress'' in the Capitol, Mr. Carlson said during an early March show.

Mr. Carlson is a defendant in a lawsuit filed last month by Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Mr. Carlson and Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo. The suit, which also names Fox and other individuals, said, ''Mr. Carlson's derogatory comments towards women, and his disdain for those who dare to object to such misogyny, is well known on the set'' of his show. Fox News fired Ms. Grossberg shortly afterward, saying she filed her complaint without taking steps to protect ''portions containing Fox's privileged information.'' Ms. Grossberg's lawyers described her firing as retaliatory.

In a statement Monday following news of Mr. Carlson's ouster, Ms. Grossberg's lawyers said: ''Tucker Carlson's departure from Fox News is, in part, an admission of the systemic lying, bullying, and conspiracy-mongering claimed by our client.''

Mr. Carlson had no comment on the lawsuit. Fox at the time said it hired independent outside counsel to investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg.

Fox has lost a series of prominent hosts in recent years, including Megyn Kelly and Bill O'Reilly'--both of whom were succeeded by Mr. Carlson, who went on to become cable news' highest-rated prime-time host. Prime-time shows get the biggest share of the audience for Fox and other cable channels, and are a key driver of the network's advertising business.

Mr. Carlson began his career in print, writing for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the conservative Weekly Standard magazine. He rose to national prominence as the co-host of the CNN show ''Crossfire,'' where he represented the political right until the show's cancellation in 2005, and had a memorable run-in with then-''Daily Show'' host Jon Stewart. He also had a stint on MSNBC and co-founded the conservative site the Daily Caller.

During his prime-time tenure at Fox News, Mr. Carlson became a lightning rod for frequently making controversial remarks. In a recent show, Mr. Carlson suggested that Justin Pearson, one of the Tennessee lawmakers protesting for stricter gun control, probably got into an elite college because he was a Black man.

Mr. Carlson also lamented changes made by candy giant Mars Inc. to different M&M mascots, including the decision to switch the green M&M's footwear from boots to sneakers. In 2018, he faced an advertising boycott after saying on air that certain immigrants were making the U.S. ''dirtier and more divided.'' Fox blamed the boycott of Mr. Carlson on advocacy groups that called out brands for advertising on the network.

Besides his nightly presence on Fox News, Mr. Carlson is also prominent on Fox Nation, the news channel's direct-to-streaming service. He has hosted specials and investigative reports on the platform.

Write to Joe Flint at Joe.Flint@wsj.com, Isabella Simonetti at isabella.simonetti@wsj.com and Keach Hagey at Keach.Hagey@wsj.com

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 08:14

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) '-- A veteran diplomat who was appointed less than three weeks ago to promote Dutch involvement in the reconstruction of Ukraine has quit over remarks he made '-- reportedly about Russia '-- in a new book, the government announced Thursday.

The Dutch foreign ministry said that Ron van Dartel would step down with immediate effect. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Liesje Schreinemacher ''respects the decision and has accepted his resignation,'' the ministry said in a statement.

Van Dartel, a former Dutch ambassador to Serbia, Poland and Russia, quit over comments he made to the author of a new book. Dutch broadcaster RTL reported that they include him saying ''Ukrainians are also Russians. We must not forget that. That is the reality.''

The ministry said Van Dartel's comments were made before his appointment earlier this month, but only published after he took up his new role.

Van Dartel ''has realized that he can no longer function credibly with the statements made and has therefore decided to resign his position immediately,'' the ministry said.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 04:29

Published Tue, Apr 25 2023 12:09 AM EDT

Short-sellers significantly increased their bets against European banks Santander and ING amidst a turbulent month for the global banking sector. Madrid-headquartered Santander's stock saw the biggest surge in short interest among European banks since Mar. 13, the week following Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. This increase amounted to $1.17 billion, according to CNBC Pro's analysis of data from stock market provider Ortex . SVB's failure, partly due to losses on its bond investments, sparked a worldwide search for weakness in banks' balance sheets. These developments fueled fears of contagion, plummeting shares across the U.S. and Europe. The data also revealed that Dutch bank ING had the second largest increase in short interest at $1.12 billion during the same period up to Apr. 19. Swiss bank UBS , which was forced to rescue rival Credit Suisse last month, had the third largest increase in shorts at $542 million. In total, short-sellers ramped up bets against 24 banks in the Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index by $5 billion over the same period. The table below shows 10 European banks with the largest increase in shorts between Mar. 13 and Apr. 19. ING and Santander did not respond to CNBC's request for comment. Meanwhile, France's BNP Paribas had attracted the largest short interest in dollar value among European banks, followed by Santander and ING. These figures also reveal that a significant portion of the short interest against the Spanish and Dutch lenders was created only since the SVB crisis. The below table lists the 10 European bank stocks with the largest short interest as of Apr. 19. Short selling, a practice that involves borrowing a stock and selling it with the expectation of buying it back at a lower price to profit from its decline in value, has proven highly profitable for hedge funds betting against bank stocks. By the end of March, these funds held $7.25 billion in unrealized profits, marking it their largest windfall since the 2008 financial crisis, CNBC first reported earlier this month. Credit Suisse's downfall generated around $683.6 million in unrealized gain for short sellers betting against its stock in March. Deutsche Bank was also affected by the banking crisis despite no apparent catalyst, yielding short sellers $39.9 million in unrealized gains in March. However, markets have been less generous to investors who set up bearish trades in April. Reuters reported last week that short-sellers are estimated to be sitting on a $1 billion loss so far this month. Investors were caught off guard as the stress in the banking sector eased and more rate hikes were factored in, leading to a recovery in banking stocks. But despite the 11% increase in the Stoxx Europe 600 Banks index, the rally is set to be short-lived. According to a survey by Bank of America, fund managers decreased their bank exposure in April '-- reaching its lowest point since May 2020 '-- as they shifted toward more recession-proof defensive sectors.

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 03:18

Jeremy Howell, Peter Mwai & Grigor Atanesian

BBC News

Russia's Wagner mercenary force is accused of having various commercial and military ties to Sudan, but the group denies any involvement in the current conflict in the country.

Its founder, Yevgeny Prighozin - who has close links to President Vladimir Putin - has said that "not a single Wagner PMC [private military company] fighter has been present in Sudan" for over two years.

We've found no evidence that Russian mercenaries are currently inside the country. But there is evidence of Wagner's previous activities in Sudan, and Mr Prighozin's operations in the country have been targeted by both US and EU sanctions.

Gold-mining deals

In 2017, Sudan's then President Omar al-Bashir signed a series of deals with the Russian government during a visit to Moscow.

These included an agreement for Russia to set up a naval base at Port Sudan on the Red Sea, as well as "concession agreements on gold mining between Russian company M Invest and the Sudanese Ministry of Minerals".

The US Treasury alleges that M Invest and a subsidiary group, Meroe Gold, are fronts for the activities of the Wagner Group in Sudan, Africa's third-biggest gold producer.

"Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his network are exploiting Sudan's natural resources for personal gain and spreading malign influence around the globe," said then Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in 2020.

Both M Invest and Meroe have been specifically targeted by US sanctions.

According to an investigation by CNN, gold has been transported overland to the Central African Republic (CAR), where Wagner is known to operate - exports not recorded in Sudanese official trade data.

Significant amounts of gold have also been smuggled out via a network of military airports, according to a report last year in the Daily Telegraph.

What else has Wagner been doing in Sudan?

Since 2017, Russian and international sources have published images that appear to locate Russian mercenaries inside Sudan.

These are said to show them acting in various roles, including training Sudanese soldiers or allegedly helping the security forces crack down on protests. The BBC has not independently verified these images.

In 2021, a Wagner-linked Telegram channel published images featuring an unnamed top Wagner commander awarding Sudanese soldiers memorabilia at a ceremony held two years earlier.

Image source, Telegram

Image caption, Top Wagner commander reportedly with Sudanese soldiers in 2019

And in July 2022, this channel distributed a video allegedly showing Wagner mercenaries conducting parachute-landing exercises for Sudanese forces.

The same source linked to the Instagram profile of an anonymous Russian mercenary, calling himself a "freelancer" and sharing stories of his exploits in Sudan in posts from August and October 2021.

In a 2020 Wagner propaganda action film, Sudan was featured as one of the countries where the mercenaries operate.

How influential has Wagner been?

The US Treasury says the Wagner Group has conducted "paramilitary operations, support for preserving authoritarian regimes, and exploitation of natural resources".

"Initially, in 2018, they had about 100 men actively training Sudanese military forces, and the relationship has grown from there," says Dr Joana de Deus Pereira of the UK-based Royal United Services Institute.

Sudanese media reports says that figure grew to about 500, and they were mainly stationed in the south-west near Um Dafuq, close to Sudan's border with the Central African Republic (CAR).

The Sudan Tribune reported that when President Bashir faced popular protests in 2019, "Russian fighters" were deployed to observe anti-government protests alongside Sudanese intelligence and security services, although this was denied by the Sudanese authorities.

Shifting allegiances

The Wagner Group devised its own media campaigns to help President Bashir stay in power, says Dr Samuel Ramani, author of a book about Russia's activities in Africa.

"Prigozhin was calling for'... the protestors to be accused of being pro-Israel and anti-Islamic," he says.

Image source, AFP

Image caption, Protesters in 2019 demanding the removal of President Omar al-Bashir

This caused friction with the president's own security forces, and so Wagner switched its support to the man who ousted him - General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

"While the Foreign Ministry in Moscow was against the coup, Prigozhin and the Wagner Group actually welcomed al-Burhan's takeover," says Dr Ramani.

According to Dr Ramani, it was in 2021 and 2022 that the Wagner Group increased its connections with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is currently fighting Sudan's regular army, led by Gen Burhan.

Mr Prigozhin was interested in sourcing more gold through mines recently acquired by the RSF's leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.

Last year, Hemedti visited Moscow, saying he hoped to bolster ties between Sudan and Russia.

However, Kholood Khair of Confluence Advisory, a think-tank on Sudanese affairs, believes the Wagner Group is not choosing sides in the current conflict.

"Wagner has had links to both General al-Burhan's enterprises and to Mr Hemedti's enterprises to different extents and in different ways," she says.

Wagner's presence elsewhere in Africa

Wagner fighters have widely reported to have been in the Central African Republic (CAR) for several years, guarding the country's diamond mines, as well as in Libya and Mali.

A BBC investigation in 2021 found evidence of their involvement in Libya's civil war from a digital device left behind by a Wagner fighter and from speaking to Libyan soldiers and civilians.

In Mali, the government has turned to Wagner to help battle Islamist militants, although it has never officially acknowledged the group's presence.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Russian mercenaries of serious abuses, both in CAR and Mali, including torture and killings.

Additional reporting by Beverly Ochieng, Thomas Spencer and Daniele Palumbo

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 20:43

In the midst of a contentious debate about Chicago's plan to force employers to require their workers to take the COVID-19 vaccine, Karen Freeman-Wilson, president of the Chicago Urban League, appeared on television to dismiss complaints that such rules would disproportionately harm the Black community. ''The health and safety factor here far outweighs the concern about shutting people out or creating a barrier,'' Freeman-Wilson said on WTTW in August 2021. Earlier that year, her group had received a $100,000 grant from Pfizer, the manufacturer of one of the most commonly used COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, for a project to promote "vaccine safety and effectiveness.'' Although the Chicago Urban League is not normally shy about disclosing its corporate donors, the support from Pfizer is not listed in the ''partners'' section on its website. The drug industry funding likewise went unmentioned during the interview. Pfizer's grant to the Chicago Urban League was one of many that Pfizer made to nonprofits and trade organizations. Pfizer doled out special funding to groups across the country that lobbied in favor of government policies to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine. The extensive list of those with funding from the pharmaceutical giant includes consumer, doctor, and medical groups, as well as public health organizations and civil rights nonprofits. Many of those groups did not disclose the funding they received from Pfizer while they were advocating for policies that would force workers to get the vaccine. There were several different and sometimes overlapping vaccine mandates in the country. At the federal level, President Joe Biden issued an executive order, which was ultimately struck down in court, mandating vaccinations at all employers with 100 workers or more. A number of state and local governments forced public employees to get vaccinated and tried to force private-sector employers to follow suit. And many large employers required their employees to get vaccinated without any prodding from the government. Critics of these employer mandates have noted that the majority of the proposed mandates, including Biden's, made no exception for individuals with natural immunity through prior infection. Proponents of the mandates claimed that the vaccines would prevent transmission of COVID-19, an argument that lacked sound scientific basis at the time and has further unraveled. ''You're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,'' Biden falsely claimed in July 2021, as his administration and local governments were preparing mandate orders. Rochelle Wallensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, similarly stated that vaccinated individuals "do not carry the virus." But it wasn't just these unsupported claims by leading government officials that shaped the groundwork for COVID-19 mandates. A coalition of highly visible groups backed by Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry provided much of the lobbying support for coercive vaccine policies. Here are the most important examples:

The National Consumers League , a century-old corporate watchdog group, announced support for ''government and employer mandates requiring [COVID-19] vaccination" in August 2021, during roughly the same period in which it accepted $75,000 from Pfizer earmarked for ''vaccine policy efforts.'' The organization is also led in part by Andrea LaRue, who serves as an NCL board member. LaRue's work as a highly paid contract lobbyist to Pfizer, focused on vaccine policy, is not disclosed by NCL's website.

The Immunization Partnership , a Houston-based public health nonprofit, lobbied publicly against Texas legislation in 2021 designed to prevent vaccine passports and municipal vaccine mandates. The Immunization Partnership claimed that the bills ''erode the vital role of our state's public health and medical experts in combating this pandemic.'' The partnership did not disclose that it received $35,000 from Pfizer that year for ''legislative advocacy.''

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 17:46

I have a good friend who lived in Nashville for years, and she finally moved out. She was very uncomfortable with what she described as the cult-like religiousity that pervades the town, and said whenever she was introduced to someone, the first question was always, "Which church do you attend?"

When you're dealing with an atmosphere like that, internal coverups of church abuses are likely. Like the one that seems to have taken place at Covenant Presbyterian.

Austin Davis is a former church officer who sued the church after he kept asking why they weren't following their own rules. He accused them of covering up for an elder who was a child molester. He said the church had "removed" another church member's children because of "marital difficulties" and placed them in a "safe house."

The safe house was owned by one John Perry.

The church responded by smearing Davis, embarking on a long campaign of accusations that he was mentally unbalanced and a possible shooter who was carrying out a vendetta.

Now, here's the elder he accused, the man who reportedly later admitted he was a child molester and was allowed to resign from his post:

The church's ''cult-like abuse of authority over vulnerable children ... who were (in cult-like fashion) intentionally, knowingly, and willfully placed in an alleged 'safe house' owned and possessed by the confessed child molester'' https://t.co/jXIFqJSrbD

'-- Maureen Moore (@HopesMom12) March 28, 2023

''In furtherance of the concealment of the sexual abuse of a child/children, the defendants permit[ted] the confessed child molester to remain a member of Covenant (w/access to the church, its members, & the private school elementary property associated w/the church) until 2010."

'-- Maureen Moore (@HopesMom12) March 28, 2023

Via Buzzfeed:

"The alleged sexual battery was reported to have occurred when the victim was between the ages of 11 and 14," said Nashville police department spokesperson Don Aaron in a statement to BuzzFeed News.

"As a result of the investigation, the allegations of sexual battery were sustained, but it was determined that the statute of limitations had tolled, barring prosecution. The victim was age 18 when she first disclosed the allegations to non-law enforcement and said at that time she did not want the matter reported to the Tennessee Department of Children's Services or the police."

She also said there was no church coverup.

After the shootings, police will conduct another investigation. If Audrey Hale was molested by a church elder, will the church fully cooperate? Or, as is so common in religous sexual abuse, will Covenant Presbyterian slap a Band-Aid on it and let the rot fester? The usual excuse is that hey, everyone prayed and the victim forgave the abuser. Happy ending!

Or maybe not.

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 17:41

Right Side of History'¸ : A Thread:1/ Covenant Presbyterian Church and its church-run school, targeted in today's tragic shooting, are at t'... https://t.co/NbieRuvAKA

Tue Mar 28 06:15:52 +0000 2023

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 17:19

Gonzalo Lira : When they send Victoria Nuland to ''discuss democracy'' '-- you know your country is fucked. https://t.co/a5Y8Wn6c0W

Mon Apr 24 05:01:18 +0000 2023

Aleksandar Vidaković : @GonzaloLira1968 Unless you get defense from Russia, and Victoria then can f off. Along with USA.

Mon Apr 24 17:18:26 +0000 2023

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 17:18

The company is burning through cash.Unbelievable UpkeepChatGPT's immense popularity and power make it eye-wateringly expensive to maintain, The Information reports, with OpenAI paying up to $700,000 a day to keep its beefy infrastructure running, based on figures from the research firm SemiAnalysis.

"Most of this cost is based around the expensive servers they require," Dylan Patel, chief analyst at the firm, told the publication.

The costs could be even higher now, Patel told Insider in a follow-up interview, because these estimates were based on GPT-3, the previous model that powers the older and now free version of ChatGPT.

OpenAI's newest model, GPT-4, would cost even more to run, according to Patel.

Athena RisesIt's not a problem unique to ChatGPT, as AIs, especially conversational ones that double as a search engine, are incredibly costly to run, because the expensive and specialized chips behind them are incredibly power-hungry.

That's exactly why Microsoft '-- which has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI '-- is readying its own proprietary AI chip. Internally known as "Athena," it has reportedly been in development since 2019, and is now available to a select few Microsoft and OpenAI employees, according to The Information's report.

In deploying the chip, Microsoft hopes to replace the current Nvidia graphics processing units it's using in favor of something more efficient, and thereby, less expensive to run.

And the potential savings, to put it lightly, could be huge.

"Athena, if competitive, could reduce the cost per chip by a third when compared with Nvidia's offerings," Patel told The Information.

Though this would mark a notable first foray into AI hardware for Microsoft '-- it lags behind competitors Google and Amazon who both have in-house chips of their own '-- the company likely isn't looking to replace Nvidia's AI chips across the board, as both parties have recently agreed to a years-long AI collaboration.

Right On TimeNevertheless, if Athena is all that the rumors make it out to be, it couldn't be coming soon enough.

Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman remarked that "we're at the end of the era" of "giant AI models," as large language models like ChatGPT seem to be approaching a point of diminishing returns from their massive size. With a reported size of over one trillion parameters, OpenAI's newest GPT-4 model might already be approaching the limit of practical scalability, based on OpenAI's own analysis.

While bigger size has generally meant more power and greater capabilities for an AI, all that added bloat will drive up costs, if Patel's analysis is correct.

But given ChatGPT's runaway success, OpenAI probably isn't hurting for money.

More on AI: Media CEO Says Writers Should Be Using AI to Churn Out "30-50 Times" More Content

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:17

April 21 (Reuters) - Computer-memory company Netlist Inc (NLST.PK) convinced a federal jury in Texas on Friday to award it more than $303 million for Samsung Electronics Co's (005930.KS) infringement of several patents related to improvements in data processing.

The jury in Marshall, Texas determined after a six-day trial that Samsung's "memory modules" for high-performance computing willfully infringed all five patents that Netlist accused the Korean tech giant of violating.

Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Netlist stock was up 21% following the verdict on Friday afternoon.

Irvine, California-based Netlist sued Samsung in 2021, alleging Samsung memory products used in cloud-computing servers and other data-intensive technology infringe its patents. Netlist said its innovations increase the power efficiency of memory modules and allow users to "derive useful information from vast amounts of data in a shorter period of time."

A Netlist attorney told the jury that Samsung took its patented module technology after the companies had collaborated on another project, according to a court transcript.

Netlist had asked the jury for $404 million in damages.

Samsung had argued that the patents were invalid and that its technology worked in a different way than Netlist's inventions.

The case is Netlist Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 2:21-cv-00463.

Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Blake BrittainThomson Reuters

Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, for Reuters Legal. He has previously written for Bloomberg Law and Thomson Reuters Practical Law and practiced as an attorney. Contact: 12029385713

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:51

It's no secret that childhood obesity has risen at an alarming rate over the last few decades. In addition to its many complications for physical health, obesity in children and adolescents often comes with bullying and social isolation, which can have devastating consequences for both short- and long-term mental health. It is in this public health environment that a recently published study investigated the efficacy of a much-celebrated weight loss drug '' semaglutide (trade names Ozempic and Wegovy) '' as a treatment for obesity in an adolescent population. The imperative for effective weight management strategies in children and teens is clear, but in our desperation for effective obesity treatments, are we allowing ourselves to be too shortsighted on testing?

Miracle drug? Semaglutide is in the class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which I discussed in detailed in ''Ask Me Anything'' episode #29 and returned to more recently in AMA episode #45. In adults with obesity, these medications have demonstrated impressive weight loss effects '' a 68-week phase III semaglutide trial reported body weight reductions of over 17% from baseline. These results '' along with social media endorsements by celebrities and influencers '' have prompted hype over this drug as a ''miracle pill,'' (though it's an injection) and investigating its efficacy in combating obesity in adolescents seems a logical next step.

About the study Study authors Weghuber et al. conducted a double-blind, randomized trial in which 201 adolescents aged 12 to <18 with overweight or obesity (BMI '‰¥85th percentile according to age-specific growth charts) were randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive either once-weekly semaglutide or placebo for a period of 68 weeks. Semaglutide dosage was scaled up over the first four months of the study to a maximum dose of 2.4 mg, and in addition to pharmaceutical interventions, both groups also received counseling about nutrition and physical activity.

At the end of the intervention period, the average change in BMI among participants in the semaglutide group was -16.1% from baseline, compared to a slight increase from baseline in the placebo group (+0.6%). Because adolescence is a period of rapid growth, change in BMI is a more useful metric than change in absolute body weight; however, the latter also showed improvements with semaglutide treatment (-14.7% from baseline) compared to placebo (+2.7%). The proportion of participants in the semaglutide group who achieved substantial weight loss also exceeded the proportion of those who did so in the placebo group, with 76% (99 out of 131) participants on semaglutide exhibiting a body weight reduction of at least 5%, compared with 18% (11 out of 62) on placebo (estimated OR: 14.0; 95% CI: 6.3-31.0; P <0.001). Changes in waist circumference and lipid levels similarly favored the semaglutide group, as did exploratory endpoints related to quality of life, though heart rate was found to be elevated by 1.2 beats per minute (bpm) relative to baseline in the semaglutide group compared to a heart rate reduction of 2.3 bpm in controls. (Of note, in our practice we typically see overnight heart rate increases of 8-10 bpm in adults on semaglutide, which returns to baseline when treatment is discontinued.)

Adverse events were observed in a majority of patients on both the semaglutide (79%, 105 out of 131 participants) and placebo (82%, 55 out of 67 participants). While it's likely that some of the reported adverse events in both groups were unrelated to treatments (e.g., COVID-19 infection, acne), the most common events were gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhea, which have been reported in previous semaglutide trials. The rate of adverse events was higher in the semaglutide group, at 435.7 events per 100 person-years vs. 362.9 in the placebo group.

We don't know what we don't know

The study had its share of limitations in its patient demographics and primary reliance on intention-to-treat analyses, but given the magnitude of the treatment's effects, we can probably assume that these relatively minor flaws would not have altered the overall meaning of the findings: semaglutide is indeed effective at inducing weight loss in adolescents with obesity. But are results from Weghuber et al. really enough to support widespread clinical use of this medication for this age group?

Science has only just scratched the surface on deciphering the byzantine pathways involved in metabolic regulation. These pathways intersect with and influence virtually every physiological process in the human body in ways we don't fully understand, so pharmaceutical interventions targeting particular aspects of metabolic control can have myriad unforeseen effects. This is likely why the long history of ''diet pills'' has been such a troubled one: from fatal hyperthermia observed with dinitrophenol in the 1930s to heart valve damage associated with ''fen-phen'' in the 1990s to increased risk of heart attack and stroke with sibutramine in the 2000s.

Standards for safety testing have certainly improved over the last century, but even after several GLP-1 agonist trials, we still don't have a complete understanding of how these drugs impact the body. They are known to stimulate insulin release from the pancreas, which likely accounts for some of their metabolic benefits. However, GLP-1 receptors are also highly expressed in the brain, where the pathways and effects of GLP-1 signaling remain murky at best. Indeed, several rodent studies have indicated that GLP-1 receptor agonists impact appetite partially '' or even entirely '' through their actions in the central nervous system, and it remains unknown whether these actions involve long-term synaptic adaptations or how they impact other autonomic and behavioral processes controlled by interconnected brain regions.

Uncertainty is greater with use in adolescents

The problem only grows more complicated when we place it on a backdrop of adolescence, a critical phase of growth, sexual maturation, and neural development. Clinical trials in adults have shown that as much as 40% of semaglutide-induced weight loss is attributable to a loss of lean mass. As I explained in a recent newsletter, this loss in bone and muscle mass would be alarming in many adults . But in adolescence, a period of development that has life-long impacts on bone density, cardiovascular fitness, and other variables affecting longevity? Significant losses in lean mass could be devastating. Of note, body composition metrics were not conducted in the Weghuber et al. study, so we cannot know for certain if the lean mass proportion of semaglutide-induced weight loss would be equivalent to that in adults, but even reductions in the amount of lean mass gained during adolescence would be cause for concern.

An additional consideration in prescribing these medications for young people is the duration of treatment. Data in adults show that body weight reductions on semaglutide rebound if treatment is ceased, and based on results from a short post-treatment study extension by Weghuber et al., adolescents appear to be subject to similar weight regain. These findings indicate that the medications must be taken indefinitely to sustain weight loss. For those starting therapy in their teens, this means several decades of use, yet the longest GLP-1 agonist clinical trials to date have lasted only two years. Data from these studies indicate that the drug remains efficacious as long as treatment continues, but that could change with longer duration. Again, we don't know if and how these medications might trigger long-term adaptations in endocrine pathways or metabolic, hedonic, or other brain circuits, especially in individuals who haven't yet reached maturity.

Further, the clinical impact of certain side effects can often accrue as a function of time spent on the drug. For instance, the small elevation in heart rate detected by Weghuber et al. in semaglutide patients might be irrelevant for those who have just started treatment, but if the trial were extended to five or six decades, might that chronic, slightly increased strain on the cardiovascular system eventually correspond to significant divergence in hypertension and related morbidities between treatment arms? Of course, obesity itself is a major risk factor for hypertension, so it's possible that avoiding treatment over minor heart rate concerns is being penny wise and pound foolish. But this example illustrates the overarching point that we simply don't know the health implications of decades-long use of GLP-1 agonists.

The bottom line The rise of child and adolescent obesity has increased the clinical urgency for effective treatments, but if the rocky past of weight loss drugs can teach us anything, it's that we mustn't let ourselves be carried away by hype or even by a few promising study results. It's possible that GLP-1 receptor agonists will improve the lives and overall health of countless individuals, including adolescents. But we still know so little about these medications and their effects, and more thorough research is needed to help illuminate the blind spots. In the meantime, we must be realistic about the long-term possibility of negative consequences from semaglutide and approach its prescription and use with a commensurate level of caution, taking into account the availability of alternative approaches such as bariatric surgery.

Each case must be evaluated individually to determine whether benefits outweigh possible risks. Age is an important variable in that evaluation, and minors run the greatest risks with regard to developmental impacts and long-term health. Improving our mechanistic understanding and extending follow-up periods in teen trials may eventually eliminate some of those risks, but until then, turning to semaglutide as a mainstream treatment for adolescent obesity seems, in a word, premature.

For a list of all previous weekly emails, click here .

podcast | website | ama

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00:00 / 00:00

Speed

#whitehousecorrespondentsdinner #whitehouse #roywoodjr #biden #trump #trump2024 #trumptrain #trumpsupporters original sound - JOYNTX

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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 03:56

Sign up for our NewslettersHOUSTON '' A study looked at the top kid influencers on YouTube and found they're making millions of dollars to advertise unhealthy products to your kids.

In a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, they looked at 418 YouTube videos, 179 of the videos featured food and drinks which popped up almost 300 times in those videos.

Anyone searching for children and teen videos can easily be bombarded by social media stars playing with toys, fast food, coffee, etc.

Even though for decades, TV characters haven't been allowed to do things like this but there are no regulations for social media. For example, in one viral video of Jojo Siwa, she said she's eating 100 Happy Meals as part of a ''challenge.''

Your kids under 8-years-old, according to Dr. Lindy McGee from Harris Health System in Pasadena, are not developmentally able to recognize ads.

''For those kids, we really should be limiting their access to media and making sure that the media that they're absorbing is educational and ethical,'' Dr. McGee said.

For older children and teenagers, she said to set strict parental controls on social media accounts and teach them by pointing out ad placement (even if it doesn't look like a commercial), which isn't easy even for educated adults.

''Even when you spot it, it works, it works in adults! Adults know that it's going on, but we're influenced by social media influencers who are paid to get endorsements,'' Dr. McGee said.

This is dangerous to kids' health because Dr. McGee said adult diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes and liver disease are on the rise.

KPRC was not able to personally verify that these stars received endorsements for these videos.

Dr. McGee said policymakers should consider banning all kinds of product placement in any children's videos. Plus, she said laws need to be written that are flexible enough so when new media platforms pop up, it always remains against policy and unethical to advertise to children.

Copyright 2020 by KPRC Click2Houston - All rights reserved.

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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 03:01

Shooter - Filmmaker - Feathered Serpent : You may have eaten mRNA.Just another chapter in government diet.Just another chapter in the health crisis.Jus'... https://t.co/J6h0odYUY9

Sat Apr 29 20:18:27 +0000 2023

Anders_ðŸ¥(C)ðŸ¥(C)🍸 : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus And don't forget'.....Buy'... https://t.co/wihLr66lSt

Sun Apr 30 00:06:33 +0000 2023

AutisticHODL '''¸ðŸŠ #678 : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus It's in every cell. So if'... https://t.co/aQiNFjnA2l

Sat Apr 29 23:26:15 +0000 2023

JoeFi 🍊ðŸ'Š Bitcoin Because F*** The System : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus ðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘

Sat Apr 29 22:41:15 +0000 2023

AZA_'‚e Yourself : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus Haven't eaten this crap. N'... https://t.co/YuUi10P1X1

Sat Apr 29 22:18:35 +0000 2023

Dmitri Does Bitcoin : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus Isn't the mRNA in beef?

Sat Apr 29 22:14:40 +0000 2023

Sean Harris 🏠: @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus So cool ðŸŽ

Sat Apr 29 22:04:51 +0000 2023

Ninja Grandma : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus You definitely have. mRNA'... https://t.co/vgbdU9oJJB

Sat Apr 29 21:55:56 +0000 2023

Beef Initiative 'š¸ðŸ¥(C)ðŸ—' : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @gingerhillangus ðŸ¤'

Sat Apr 29 20:41:57 +0000 2023

Texas Slim'š-- : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus @SabinehazanMD

Sat Apr 29 20:40:30 +0000 2023

Aequanimitas : @BitcoinShooter @RWMaloneMD @Brookemillermd @modernTman @beefinitiative @gingerhillangus Great footage mate.

Sat Apr 29 20:20:13 +0000 2023

Shooter - Filmmaker - Feathered Serpent : CC:@Ol_Butch@JuneFl@kitathinking@TxSlimMedia

Sat Apr 29 20:18:49 +0000 2023

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Sun, 30 Apr 2023 01:05

Catherine Herridge : According to DOJ newly-filed memo, the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified materials had a cache o'... https://t.co/VJgSQYlzM2

Thu Apr 27 12:22:27 +0000 2023

Ol' Navy Seabee MCB1 : @CBS_Herridge Your reporting used to be reliably accurate. What happened since you left FOX?

Sun Apr 30 01:00:43 +0000 2023

The Original Bebo : @CBS_Herridge You'...are'...an'...embarrassment'...to'...journalism!!! ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

Sun Apr 30 00:54:30 +0000 2023

The Architect : @CBS_Herridge We all hate you Catherine Herridge. We despise you and your elk.

Sun Apr 30 00:37:40 +0000 2023

Humble servant of the A.I. : @CBS_Herridge I've always found Herridge to be a principled and honest journalist of the old school, in a time when'... https://t.co/HtmRsp5VlE

Sun Apr 30 00:36:49 +0000 2023

Stephen Kolenda : @CBS_Herridge What did it in those documents

Sun Apr 30 00:27:44 +0000 2023

Unapologetic Papist ''¤¸'ðŸ--¥ðŸ‡>>ðŸ‡... : @CBS_Herridge How embarrassing for you 🤣🤣ðŸ¤

Sat Apr 29 23:58:10 +0000 2023

Miguel Hernandez : @CBS_Herridge She used to be a respectable journalist.

Sat Apr 29 23:42:58 +0000 2023

Jacq Lysander : @CBS_Herridge You have done the government's bidding once again by identifying these toys as weapons. Make sure yo'... https://t.co/HMd2a6BeQ8

Sat Apr 29 23:35:10 +0000 2023

Jonathan : @CBS_Herridge This is truly award winning, Emmy nominated, senior investigative correspondent-level reporting.

Sat Apr 29 23:22:49 +0000 2023

The73rd : @CBS_Herridge You're better than this, Catherine.

Sat Apr 29 23:22:25 +0000 2023

Kentoo : @CBS_Herridge Intelligence? Where?

Sat Apr 29 23:20:14 +0000 2023

Kris Cruz : @CBS_Herridge Orange tips'...

Sat Apr 29 23:09:39 +0000 2023

S Wells : @CBS_Herridge Well, it looks like it doesn't take real investigative skills anymore to be called an "Award winning,'... https://t.co/WvSWcWmEy3

Sat Apr 29 22:59:37 +0000 2023

Michael Hong : @CBS_Herridge Lies

Sat Apr 29 22:54:43 +0000 2023

Justin Pauley : @CBS_Herridge *toys

Sat Apr 29 22:43:01 +0000 2023

McCracken : @CBS_Herridge Caught lying again..... evil...

Sat Apr 29 22:31:20 +0000 2023

Joseph Bunchanumbers : @CBS_Herridge Liar

Sat Apr 29 22:25:46 +0000 2023

Eliza Speech : @CBS_Herridge Yet the media runs with the nonsense.

Sat Apr 29 22:21:30 +0000 2023

AdrenoKing Mob : @CBS_Herridge And what bearing does this have on the documents he leaked? Y'know, the acual story.

Sat Apr 29 22:14:10 +0000 2023

Virgil : @CBS_Herridge Do you really not care that not telling the truth is not only morally terrible, but it also destroys'... https://t.co/0wLdJUZRsw

Sat Apr 29 22:09:50 +0000 2023

Archer Hoyt : @CBS_Herridge Wow the gaslighting. I thought the left wanted to protect whistleblowers? Absolute trash is what the left has become now.

Sat Apr 29 22:09:33 +0000 2023

CCG Melissa : @CBS_Herridge Finally she is being called out for her lies

Sat Apr 29 22:06:56 +0000 2023

Dustin Shackelford : @CBS_Herridge They're airsoft guns you cerebral eunuch

Sat Apr 29 22:06:29 +0000 2023

Jim : @CBS_Herridge Why are you so terrible?

Sat Apr 29 21:56:47 +0000 2023

john que : @CBS_Herridge You communists have no shame

Sat Apr 29 21:54:44 +0000 2023

LMP2 : @CBS_Herridge CBS is not trustworthy. They lie.

Sat Apr 29 21:52:51 +0000 2023

Kismet&Karma : @CBS_Herridge I bet they found a cache of deadly ammo, too, huh?!?(Ryan at least had the decency to own his mista'... https://t.co/Xh1YZwQw7z

Sat Apr 29 21:33:49 +0000 2023

Charles Sigars : @CBS_Herridge C'mon Catherine, I expected far better from you. You tied you name to this "weapons cache" story but'... https://t.co/ti3LAIbKDd

Sat Apr 29 21:32:22 +0000 2023

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 22:55

Greg Price : BREAKING: 27 Democrats in the Colorado House of Reps just voted against making indecent exposure to minors a class'... https://t.co/aBr8zCuzto

Sat Apr 29 17:48:47 +0000 2023

Shames 🥃 : @greg_price11 Oh so they DO want to wiggle their dicks at little kids? Who woulda thunk it 🥴 ðŸµ'ðŸ'

Sat Apr 29 22:55:26 +0000 2023

Finn : @greg_price11 California publicly admitting its full of pedophiles? What a soup rise

Sat Apr 29 22:54:20 +0000 2023

Dash Riprock : @greg_price11 Democrats should be so embarrassed by the rubbish their party is endorsing ðŸ¤...''‚¸

Sat Apr 29 22:52:20 +0000 2023

Jon Hill : @greg_price11 So what attacks is she referring too? I have Transgender friends who think that children need to be p'... https://t.co/6dsROBGVJo

Sat Apr 29 22:52:20 +0000 2023

Sharon Fuentes : @greg_price11 @MattWalshBlog Sickos...

Sat Apr 29 22:52:16 +0000 2023

Greg Lucas : @greg_price11 The inference from the opposition is not pretty.

Sat Apr 29 22:52:05 +0000 2023

Larry : @greg_price11 So

Sat Apr 29 22:51:53 +0000 2023

WilliSue : @greg_price11 Well, what does that tell us?

Sat Apr 29 22:51:50 +0000 2023

Brian Sponseller : @greg_price11 Well, that would be where it is actually taking place!

Sat Apr 29 22:51:25 +0000 2023

love my country, hate the government : @greg_price11 https://t.co/hRdFjbt8l2

Sat Apr 29 22:50:46 +0000 2023

Charles Gowdy : @greg_price11 Democrats don't want to stop people from exposing themselves to your children'... and it's being celebrated

Sat Apr 29 22:50:44 +0000 2023

viva shells : @greg_price11 TF is wrong with you folks in Colorado?

Sat Apr 29 22:50:44 +0000 2023

ðŸ...¬ðŸ...¬ðŸ...¬ Gretchen's dad ðŸ...¬ðŸ...¬ðŸ...¬ : @greg_price11 @MattWalshBlog Let the record show that exposing themselves to minors is the purpose of drag shows, a'... https://t.co/Pfi1pne5yF

Sat Apr 29 22:49:24 +0000 2023

Jason Clark : @greg_price11 Indecent exposure is indecent exposure. Doesn't matter where it is located or what you call it. Sick sick people in the world.

Sat Apr 29 22:47:17 +0000 2023

cross1984 : @greg_price11 Fk monkey's jumping logic

Sat Apr 29 22:46:59 +0000 2023

ð'‘ºð''‚ð'' ð'‘>>ð''‚ð''—ð''› ðŸ‡(C)🇴 : @greg_price11 https://t.co/kN2d79IbWB

Sat Apr 29 22:46:52 +0000 2023

Megan Jowers : @greg_price11 @MattWalshBlog Drag shows ARE targeting minors! ðŸ"

Sat Apr 29 22:46:40 +0000 2023

Fartbreath : @greg_price11 Why do Dems support pedophilia?

Sat Apr 29 22:46:27 +0000 2023

Gus : @greg_price11 @MattWalshBlog When are they going to start caring about what hurts children? Not what offends some people.

Sat Apr 29 22:46:17 +0000 2023

Megen King : @greg_price11 @MattWalshBlog Drag shows aren't for children. It's adult entertainment

Sat Apr 29 22:46:15 +0000 2023

cross1984 : @greg_price11 27 Democrats in the Colorado House of Reps just confirmed the facts that drag shows and the transgend'... https://t.co/HBtsJwYpF8

Sat Apr 29 22:45:56 +0000 2023

Ralph Smith : @greg_price11 What the fuck

Sat Apr 29 22:45:46 +0000 2023

SpankInstructor : @greg_price11 It's not who u are that we oppose, it's what u do

Sat Apr 29 22:45:30 +0000 2023

Grantavius : @greg_price11 So wrong

Sat Apr 29 22:45:14 +0000 2023

Megen King : @greg_price11 @MattWalshBlog Pedos

Sat Apr 29 22:45:04 +0000 2023

Melanie : @greg_price11 They are out with it now. They were doing this for a long time to the kids. Now they have no shame so'... https://t.co/5wDW5Z526j

Sat Apr 29 22:44:08 +0000 2023

Chris Lewis : @greg_price11 They really choosing a weird hill to die on

Sat Apr 29 22:42:25 +0000 2023

Nick the watchman : @greg_price11 @MattWalshBlog Duh yeah! Stay away from kids!

Sat Apr 29 22:41:53 +0000 2023

Yourname : @greg_price11 Because they *know*

Sat Apr 29 22:40:53 +0000 2023

lindabird : @greg_price11 Here comes the path to normalizing pedophilea. Aren't you wondering what the + is? Here it is. Evil'... https://t.co/iEpRVnRZM0

Sat Apr 29 22:40:42 +0000 2023

Irishman_atx 🇮🇪🇺🇸🇨ðŸ‡... ðŸðŸŠ : @greg_price11 Reveals who is who in the Democrat Party. Would be interesting in knowing which 27 Democrats are unapologetic Pedophiles?

Sat Apr 29 22:39:44 +0000 2023

Jacob Bloom : @greg_price11 I guess it's more important that trans women be able to whip their dicks out in women's bathrooms wit'... https://t.co/pC21sStSJU

Sat Apr 29 22:39:02 +0000 2023

Dori Schwarzenberger : @greg_price11 Shameful.

Sat Apr 29 22:38:47 +0000 2023

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 15:39

CASH COW: Pro-Transgender Medical Professionals Cashing-In on LifeLong Patients

' Dr. John Steever, Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center [New York, NY]: ''In the beginning, it's a lot of doctor visits. But, you know, after a while, you space it out. It's like, every six to twelve months? Which yeah, is being a patient. But that doesn't seem so bad.''' Dr. Steever: ''The permanent effects of testosterone are things like facial hair, body hair, enlargement of the clitoris, clitoromegaly, and the last one is vocal pitch drop -- and so those are effects that once they happen, don't reverse.''' Dr. Matthew Warnken, Pharmacist, 38th Street Pharmacy [Austin, TX]: ''For a female going to male, if they would continue -- you'd have to continuously take testosterone pretty -- well, for the rest of their life.''' Dr. Warnken: ''If there's enough changes to the physical body [from undergoing gender transition treatment], I don't know if they [patients] would be able to, you know, have a baby, naturally speaking.''' Nora Scott, Licensed Social Worker, Dell Children's Medical Center [Austin, TX]: ''I can say from here as well, there's a lot of folks at our clinic who are on the autism spectrum '... [There is] a heavy amount of crossover between folks who are somewhere on the spectrum and also somewhere on the LGBTQIA spectrum.''' Prisha Mosley, De-Transition Advocate: ''I was under the impression that I was going to take a cure and be healed, and I didn't understand as a mentally ill child that I was signing up for lifelong medicalization. I didn't conceptualize the idea that I was going to be injecting this [medication] every two weeks, forever.''

[NEW YORK '' Apr. 25, 2023] Project Veritas released a third video in its series exposing pro-transgender medical workers today -- with this report revealing how the transgender ''health'' industry functions and profits off underage patients on a long-term basis.

Dr. John Steever, who was featured in an earlier Veritas report, is seen talking about how young individuals are subjected to prolonged gender transitions.

''In the beginning, it's a lot of doctor visits. But, you know, after a while, you space it out. It's like, every six to twelve months? Which yeah, is being a patient. But that doesn't seem so bad,'' he said.

Dr. Matthew Warnken, a pharmacist in Austin, Texas, echoed what Dr. Steever said.

''For a female going to male, if they would continue -- you'd have to continuously take testosterone pretty -- well, for the rest of their life,'' he said.

Dr. Matthew Pabis, who is another New York-based medical professional featured in this Veritas investigative series, believes there may be a connection between people on the spectrum and their desire to change genders.

''It was a person on the spectrum as well, 21-years-old. At the time, he was coming here for mental health, and he came down here and he just sat down, and I'm like, 'What are you here for?' He's like, 'Oh, I saw you do transgender.' I said, 'Yeah.' He's like, 'Well I think I need to get my penis cut off,''' Dr. Pabis said.

''I was like, 'You know, transitioning is not easy.' It doesn't happen like this. You have to inject yourself with hormones. You have to take pills. You have to do bloodwork. You know, if he makes it then let's do it, and he's getting his vagina next week, in one year!''

Nora Scott, a licensed social worker at Dell Children's Medical Center, corroborated Dr. Pabis' statements.

''I can say from here as well, there's a lot of folks at our clinic who are on the autism spectrum '... [There is] a heavy amount of crossover between folks who are somewhere on the spectrum and also somewhere on the LGBTQIA spectrum,'' she said.

Caila Hoopes, who is a nurse at the Phoenix Children's Medical Group in Arizona, discreetly explained to a Veritas journalist how their facility handles parental consent when it comes to transitioning minors:

Caila Hoopes, Nurse, Phoenix Children's Medical Group [Phoenix, AZ]: True hormone therapy there is, like, long-term possible side effects of like -- it is life changing and is difficult to come back from. It also requires parents to be onboard.

Veritas Journalist: Really? You--

Hoopes: So, here are my words. You have to -- we have to have one parent's consent. If we know that there's another parent who's not on board, we can't start hormone therapy.

Veritas Journalist: Oh okay, yeah.

Hoopes: Is that fair?

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 15:08

CNN '--

As the crisis in Sudan continues to unfold, there is mounting anger among Americans who feel abandoned by the US government and left to navigate the complicated and dangerous situation on their own.

''I am incredibly shocked and disgusted by the American lackluster response to the health and safety of their citizens,'' said Muna Daoud, whose parents were traveling to get out of Sudan via Port Sudan to Saudi Arabia.

Despite a number of nations evacuating their citizens, the US government has continued to say that the conditions are not conducive to a civilian evacuation. All US government personnel were evacuated in a military operation this weekend. US officials have said they are in ''close communication'' with US citizens and ''actively facilitating'' their departure from Sudan.

However, CNN spoke with multiple people whose family members are among the ''dozens'' of Americans who want to leave Sudan, and they said the State Department has provided ''barely any assistance'' since the deadly violence between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out more than a week ago.

That fighting between the rival military groups has left hundreds dead, including two Americans, and thousands wounded, and has left the country at risk of humanitarian disaster, as those still trapped in their homes face shortages of food, water, medicine and electricity.

Those who spoke to CNN said they and their family members have had to make ''life or death decisions'' about when and how to leave the country with very little guidance.

''To be honest with you, the State Department was useless, utterly useless throughout this entire period,'' said Imad, who asked CNN to withhold his last name, and whose parents were traveling from Khartoum to Egypt.

''We expected the Department to provide some kind of guidance, but the guidance was the template, just shelter in place, no critical information being provided,'' he said.

Daoud said that ''the only communication is to make their way somehow to Port Sudan and from there they will be assisted by the Saudis.

Those who spoke to CNN also pushed back on the argument made by US officials that they had warned Americans not to be in Sudan. The travel advisory level has been Level 4: Do Not Travel since June 2021, and the State Department has consistently advised Americans to ''have evacuation plans that do not rely on US government assistance.'' However, there were no recent security alerts explicitly advising Americans to leave the country.

Maisoun Sulfab, who has several US citizen relatives in Sudan, said that they had a number of reasons to be there '' her father's wife is not a US citizen and they had been working to get her an immigrant visa to come to the US. Her uncle was visiting for a funeral.

''I think this is just a talking point that they're using to just cover themselves,'' Imad said, noting that he had been in Sudan in December and it was ''not a war zone whatsoever.''

''We would not send our parents if we knew that at any second this was gonna break out into like an all out civil war,'' he said.

He also took issue with the argument made by the US government that most of the Americans in Sudan are dual citizens, and as such they may not want to leave.

''At the end of the day, a dual citizen is a citizen. They have the same constitutional rights as other citizens, and we shouldn't be creating a tiered system for citizenship,'' he said.

Daoud said that ''it seems like American citizens in this situation just have to fend for themselves and hope for the best. Apparently we are just 'passport holders,' whose lives and well-being is not a priority for the US government.''

''The might of our military and resources does not get used to save our lives in war zones,'' she said.

When CNN spoke to Daoud, her 69-year-old father and 66-year-old mother '' both of whom are US citizens '' were making the ''harrowing'' nine hour bus journey from Khartoum to Port Sudan.

''They had to find a bus this morning after waiting outside on the side of the road,'' she said. Daoud said that the bus had been stopped three times by RSF soldiers ''and at one checkpoint they held my father at gunpoint because they believed he was in the Sudanese Army.''

''They told all the men to step off the bus and searched and questioned them,'' but they kept her father at gunpoint, she described to CNN.

''My mum believed he was going to be taken or shot. Luckily they decided to let him go,'' Daoud said.

Once her parents reach Port Sudan, they do not know how long they will have to wait for a ferry to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the State Department has said there are consular officials to assist Americans.

Other Americans are attempting to flee Sudan through Egypt, but those who spoke to CNN warned of a growing humanitarian catastrophe at that border.

Sulfab said her US citizen relatives in Sudan decided to evacuate after the US diplomats were pulled out of the country. Some went towards Ethiopia, others towards Egypt. She has not been able to get in touch with her elderly father since he began his journey to the Egyptian border.

One of her cousins and her children, all of whom are US citizens, have been waiting to cross into Egypt for three days.

''They're just stranded in the desert,'' Sulfab said. They do not have access to food, water, medicine, or bathroom facilities.

''We have children and women who are thirsty. Whether they're US citizens or not, it's a humanitarian crisis,'' she said. ''Unfortunately, without the help of people who are willing to help, private individuals, they ultimately they will die.''

Imad said that facilitating the journey to Egypt for his 74-year-old father and 66-year-old mother was ''incredibly hard,'' and one of many obstacles that they had to face when the fighting suddenly broke out. His parents were in separate places for the first several days of the violence before his father made a treacherous, three and a half hour walk to reunite with his mother, Imad said.

He said the department reached out with only two hours heads up about joining evacuation convoys organized by the United Arab Emirates and Turkey on Sunday, and that in order to join those convoys Americans would have needed their own cars. Imad said most people don't have private cars available to drive to Port Sudan.

''It was quite perplexing because I don't understand how other nations were able to secure buses and evacuate their citizens and devise plans to get hundreds of their citizens out, and we're patting ourselves in the back for getting 70 diplomats out,'' he said.

Instead, his parents had to try multiple times to arrange a car to take them to the bus station, and once they finally got there after going through ''live shelling, active bombing in Khartoum,'' ''they waited for about six hours they're finally able to secure seats,'' Imad said.

The seats, which Imad said would normally cost around $50 each, cost $600 a person.

After a 36-hour journey, his parents had not been able to cross the border into Egypt, Imad told CNN Wednesday evening. The physical American passport that his father has is expired, but he has a photocopy of his current one. Imad said when he contacted the State Department, ''they essentially said that there are other cases ahead of us that are similar. They will take up our case when the time comes and just to contact them tomorrow for an update.''

''Both of my parents are senior citizens who have health conditions. They don't have water and have food. The bus that they came on has gone so they're just outside on the streets in the border just waiting to be let into the country,'' he told CNN.

''What's shocking is also the lack of humanitarian assistance on the ground,'' his wife Leila said. ''It's an open desert, 100 degrees. How shameful would it be as a society if we let these people die on the border because there wasn't basic access to food and water, when they just escaped bombs and shooting 24 hours ago?''

''If we're not going to do massive evacuations for US citizens and support the Sudanese people effectively let's at least provide basic necessities at the border,'' she said.

On Tuesday, the US Embassy in Khartoum issued a security alert advising Americans to bring food, water, and medicine if they plan to travel to either border with Egypt or Ethiopia.

On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is working to develop ''a sustained process'' that would allow Americans to leave Sudan overland, likely to Port Sudan.

''We believe that the best way to have an enduring capability to help people leave Sudan if that's what they so choose is over land,'' Blinken said at a press conference at the State Department. ''And we are working to establish a process that would enable people to move overland to a place where they can more easily exit the country, in all likelihood port Sudan. So that's under very active development.''

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 14:57

The US media outlet has admitted to cutting out Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claims about Covid-19 jabs

ABC News has censored an interview with US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. '' Joe Biden's top challenger for the Democratic Party's 2024 nomination '' by removing his allegedly false assertions about Covid-19 vaccines.

''We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the Covid-19 vaccines,'' ABC anchor Linsey Davis said on Thursday after airing her interview with the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.

She added that Kennedy made ''misleading claims'' contrary to research findings about a link between certain vaccines and autism. ''We've used our editorial judgment in not including portions of that exchange in our interview.''

Davis sparred with Kennedy during the interview, saying his past claims about vaccines causing autism had been totally ''debunked.'' As the candidate began to explain why he believes major public health agencies, such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are ''captive,'' his comments were cut off. The clip then cuts to Davis pointing out that some of Kennedy's family members disagree with his views on vaccines.

''I'm just curious, if you're not able to get your own sisters to vote for you for president, how would you make that appeal to American voters?'' the host asked. Kennedy replied that he has a large family with a tradition of openly discussing issues on which they disagree. ''That's something that I think is a lesson we ought to learn for this country. We can disagree with each other without hating each other, without marginalizing each other.'' Davis shot back, ''I'm just using your family's words to call you dangerous, rather than saying that's not like the typical family that might have disagreements around the kitchen table.''

Kennedy noted on Friday that federal law prohibits broadcasters from censoring presidential candidates.

''Instead of journalism, the public saw a hatchet job,'' he said. ''Instead of information, they got defamation and unsheathed pharma propaganda. Americans deserve to hear the full interview so they can make up their own minds. How can democracy function without a free and unbiased press?''

A Fox News poll released on Thursday showed that although President Biden's rivals for the Democratic Party's nomination are longshot candidates, Kennedy is gaining ground. While 62% of Democrat voters want the party to nominate Biden for re-election, 19% favor Kennedy. A previous poll indicated that Kennedy was supported by 14% of Democrats after entering the race earlier this month.

Kennedy is the nephew of John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and the son of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who was shot dead on the campaign trail in 1968. He has pledged to end the ''corrupt merger between state and corporate power'' and has spoken out against Washington's policy of using military power to enforce global hegemony. ''The Ukraine war is the final collapse of the neocons' short-lived 'American Century,''' he said earlier this month.

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Sat, 29 Apr 2023 13:30

And she just had to compare DeSantis to Hitler.

Episode Summary The UK moves to block the Microsoft-Activision deal, Peter Thiel announces a change to his political giving, and First Republic Bank shows we're not out the woods yet. Also, Disney escalates its fight with Florida, and Big Tech has a good quarter. Plus, Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) joins to discuss TikTok legislation, Twitter, and the Supreme Court.Send us your questions! Call 855-51-PIVOT or go to nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

... Show More

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:33

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:18

The number of teenage girls experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors increased during the second year of the pandemic, new federal data showed.

The percentage of high school female students who seriously considered attempting suicide rose from 24.1% to about one-third, or 30%, between 2019 and 2021, according to the latest results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The percentage of those who made a suicide plan increased from 19.9% to 23.6% and there was also an increase in suicide attempts from 11.0% to 13.3%, according to the CDC survey.

Differences were seen when it came to students' ages, race/ethnicity or gender identity.

For example, 9th and 10th-grade girls were more likely to seriously consider attempting suicide than 12th-grade girls.

Ninth graders who were seriously considering suicide increased from 23.7% in 2019 to 30.7% in 2021 and 10th graders saw an increase from 23.6% to 33.6% over the same period. However, for 12th-grade girls, the risk went up from 24.0% in 2019 to 25.6% in 2021.

Freshman and sophomore high school girls were also more likely to make a suicide plan and attempt suicide compared to senior high school girls, according to the CDC.

US Teen Girls Experiencing Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors

CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

"Because of the increased prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among female students, particularly for those in 9th- and 10th-grade, the importance of early prevention and intervention to prevent suicide is evident," the authors wrote.

In 2021, Black students were nearly 1.5 times more likely than white female students to report having attempted suicide.

Compared to white female students, Hispanic female students had increased rates of suicide attempts requiring medical attention.

Additionally, LGBQ+ students had higher rates of reporting attempted suicide than heterosexual students, the CDC said.

Those identifying as lesbian or gay were found to have nearly 1.9 times higher rates, identifying as bisexual nearly 3.3 times higher rates, and identifying as questioning 1.5 times higher rates compared to heterosexual students.

Meanwhile, when it came to suicidal thoughts and behaviors among male students, percentages were relatively stable between 2019 and 2021.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is conducted every other year and surveys thousands of high school-age children from public and private schools between grades 9 and 12 across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Although suicide is the 11th leading cause of death overall in the United States, it is the third among U.S. high school students between the ages 14 and 18, accounting for one-fifth of all deaths among this age group, the report said.

The authors said the findings in the report are consistent with trends before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the rising rates of suicide risk among teen girls may be linked to how measures, such as social distancing and remote learning, may have increased students' social isolation and anxiety.

Common risk factors for suicide include a history of depression and other mental illness, bullying, loss of relationships, and social isolation, according to the CDC.

This undated stock photo shows a young woman sitting alone and covering her face with her hands.

STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

The CDC team added that understanding why rates were stable among male students, even during an event such as the pandemic, "could yield insights into protective factors."

"A comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, which reduces risk and supports youths at increased risk, provides support to those at risk and can ultimately save lives," they wrote.

It comes after a report released earlier this year from the CDC showed teen girls were experiencing record-high levels of feelings of sadness and acts of violence.

Nearly three in five -- or 57% -- of girls reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, up from 36% in 2011 and the highest levels seen in the past decade, the data found.

If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:04

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 14:08

Vovan and Lexus called the chairman of the FRI on behalf of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

Powell complained that "the whole world order that has existed for so many years" is being violated in front of his eyes the US economy is on the verge of recession, inflation is off the scale and sanctions against Russia have failed because of the "capable" Elvira Nabiullina, who is "very knowledgeable and intelligent."

In which countries have anti-Russian sanctions been mirrored the most? Why did the elites split in the USA? Why is participation in the Davos Forum a "stigma"? And what did Powell say to Zelensky's request to give him a printing press? Watch in our new prank!

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 13:09

Dylan Mulvaney returned to Instagram following the mass outrage over her partnership with Bud Light.

The transgender influencer, 26, raised ire among critics after being signed as a rep for the beer brand in a March Madness contest and has since kept her distance from Instagram.

Taking to Instagram Thursday, Mulvaney explained why she was ''offline for a few weeks'' as the backlash against the brand deal intensified.

''A lot has been said about me,'' she said in a clip shared with her 1.8 million followers on the platform. ''Some of which is so far from my truth that I was hearing my name and I didn't know who they were talking about sometimes.

''It was so loud that I didn't even feel part of the conversation so I decided to take the backseat.''

The company has been largely tight-lipped since April 1, when the social media star swigged Bud Light and showed off a commemorative can with her image on it to celebrate her first year as a woman.But the brand's controversial marketing tie-up ultimately resulted in declining demand, with Bud Light trailing other light beers by 6% at bars and restaurants.

Overall, Bud Light's volume declined by 34.7% at bars, restaurants, and other venues between April 2 and April 15, according to BeerBoard.

Several restaurants and bars have stopped serving the beer brand altogether.

Dylan Mulvaney returned to Instagram following the mass outrage over her partnership with Bud Light. dylanmulvaney: InstragramMulvaney said she's ''doing OK,'' but noted that being called ''too feminine and over the top'' makes her feel like when she was a child.

''But this time it's from other adults,'' she said. ''And if they're going to accuse me of anything it should be that I'm a theater person and that I'm camp. But this is just my personality and it always has been.''

''What I'm struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. Dehumanization has never fixed anything in history,'' said the influencer, who revealed her transition in a TikTok video in March 2022.

The transgender influencer, 26, raised ire among critics after being signed as a rep for the beer brand in a March Madness contest and has since kept her distance from Instagram. Instagram Mulvaney said she's ''doing OK,'' but noted that being called ''too feminine and over the top'' makes her feel like when she was a child. dylanmulvaney: Instragram''I grew up in a conservative family and I'm extremely privileged because they still love me very much. And I grew up in the church and I still have my faith, which I am really trying to hold on to right now'' she said, adding that she's ''always tried to love everyone, even the people that make it really, really hard.''

Mulvaney, who didn't mention Bud Light in the post, said she's shifting her focus to the people ''who know me and my heart [and] won't listen to that noise.''

''The good news is that the people pleaser in me has nearly died because there's clearly no way of winning over everyone. But if you're still around, I am too.''

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Fri, 28 Apr 2023 00:46

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 23:58

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 17:35

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 17:16

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 17:12

r/AskThe_Donald We are a PRO Conservative, PRO Patriot, American loving sub. This sub is for people to learn and talk about Conservative subjects. Trolls and Racists will be banned.

Members Online

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 17:01

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 16:46

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell made several bizarre, if not shocking, admissions during a prank call with two Russians posing as Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, where they discussed topics ranging from inflation, to the Russian central bank, to joking about having a 'printing press' in the basement and possibly setting up a federal reserve bank in Kiev.

More interesting was Powell's admission, thinking he was speaking with Zelensky, during the call (which reportedly took place in January) that the Fed would hike rates two more times - a topic on which he has been far more circumspect even when giving testimony before Congress.

"The market is already pricing in two more quarter percentage point rate hikes. We'll look around after we make those two and we'll say should we do any more, and then the question will be how long do we keep rates at this level - and I think we'll keep them there for quite some time," said Powell, roughly two minutes into the clip below.

In retrospect, this is precisely what happened, with the Fed hiking twice in 2023, prompting some to wonder if we are now in the "and done" phase once we get through the May rate hike...

... and if indeed Powell is led by the market - as he hinted during the call - does that mean that the Fed will soon be forced to reverse its tune and find reasons to cut aggressively, as markets are now expecting.

Powell also said that the US economy will grow 'at a subdued level,' and that a recession is "almost as likely as very slow growth," and that it was because the Fed 'raised rates quite a bit,' which he defended as necessary to tame inflation.

"What we need is a period of slower growth so that the economy can cool off, so the labor market can cool off, so that wages can cool off. That's how inflation comes down. That's the only way we know to bring inflation down. And it can be painful, but we don't know of any painless way for inflation to come down."

''Chair Powell participated in a conversation in January with someone who misrepresented himself as the Ukrainian president,'' a Fed spokesperson said Thursday. ''It was a friendly conversation and took place in a context of our standing in support of the Ukrainian people in this challenging time. No sensitive or confidential information was discussed.''

As Bloomberg notes, the pranksters - Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, who go by the nicknames Vovan and Lexus - have for years succeeded in tricking foreign politicians into talking to them despite their sometimes-crude impersonations.

The duo are supporters of President Vladimir Putin. Back in 2018, the UK said it believed the Kremlin was behind a hoax call to then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. The pranksters often post the videos with the intention to embarrass Western policymakers.

Earlier this year, the two shared a conversation with European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde, also impersonating Zelenskiy.

The pranksters have also tricked Polish President Andrzej Duda into thinking he was speaking to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, as well as former German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who appeared to be suspicious during the call.

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:55

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 10:35

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Thu, 27 Apr 2023 02:49

RNC Research : Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says she supports requiring the U.S. military to adopt an ALL-electric veh'... https://t.co/ALehxhsa4e

Wed Apr 26 15:17:51 +0000 2023

Lindell Wilson : @RNCResearch These people are quacks

Thu Apr 27 02:49:35 +0000 2023

Vidit 🇮ðŸ‡" 🇺🇸 : @RNCResearch at least the enemy won't hear the ambush coming

Thu Apr 27 02:49:33 +0000 2023

John Minor : @RNCResearch Get a new job!

Thu Apr 27 02:48:58 +0000 2023

THEDAVE : @RNCResearch I'm sure with the fleet of gas powered generators, following this fleet of electric vehicles. Just whe'... https://t.co/cE8EWn25Dw

Thu Apr 27 02:48:42 +0000 2023

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 21:40

TexasLindsay' : Tucker Carlson's speech over the weekend was powerful. Too powerful apparently. https://t.co/sxncP26Tda

Mon Apr 24 16:53:21 +0000 2023

j evans : @TexasLindsay_ Outstanding courage and strength.To admit his errors in public and speak the truth he now knows, th'... https://t.co/9sehwSrz1u

Tue Apr 25 21:40:05 +0000 2023

K'SANDRA : @TexasLindsay_ I really enjoy tuckers interview style and learnt a lot, must say he was the only one I watched ever'... https://t.co/mhKeBAu6uB

Tue Apr 25 21:39:11 +0000 2023

Joel Gaskell : @TexasLindsay_ @MattWallace888 If by "powerful" you mean "incredibly dumb".

Tue Apr 25 21:38:58 +0000 2023

j evans : @TexasLindsay_ Omg. I will.

Tue Apr 25 21:38:29 +0000 2023

j evans : @TexasLindsay_ Omg. Tucker, you rock. I don't even know how to describe how hopeful your revelation makes me. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

Tue Apr 25 21:37:49 +0000 2023

j evans : @TexasLindsay_ Just ask yourself who hates you. That is your enemy. That's who has infiltrated our countries.

Tue Apr 25 21:36:12 +0000 2023

Ralph Prickett : @TexasLindsay_ 🎯🎯🎯🎯

Tue Apr 25 21:24:31 +0000 2023

Dr. Zinni III : @TexasLindsay_ Praying for our country. @TexasLindsay_ Bless you for posting.

Tue Apr 25 21:22:16 +0000 2023

Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein : @TexasLindsay_ Hannity might also have been a factor. Tucker absolutely blasted Hannity's position on Ukraine war.'... https://t.co/btmAF8aiC9

Tue Apr 25 21:18:20 +0000 2023

Michael Coitrone : @TexasLindsay_ Tucker was always the best

Tue Apr 25 21:18:18 +0000 2023

Jim : @TexasLindsay_ The truth hurts some people's feelings the ones that don't want the truth coming out

Tue Apr 25 21:18:08 +0000 2023

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:42

Greg Price : Left-winger protesters in Montana get mad at a police officer for calling a protester arrested for shutting down th'... https://t.co/mNnOJToj6R

Mon Apr 24 22:56:38 +0000 2023

Satirical_Whit : @greg_price11 lol it got mad when it was misgendered

Tue Apr 25 00:42:42 +0000 2023

Omniscient Party : @greg_price11 https://t.co/3b0d1vHjA1

Tue Apr 25 00:40:58 +0000 2023

Shmuel Avrahami : @greg_price11 poor guy. he never imagined this when he signed upðŸ¤

Tue Apr 25 00:40:06 +0000 2023

Michelle Jess : @greg_price11 This they is not plural but a woman! Her/she what is happening to these kids

Tue Apr 25 00:37:53 +0000 2023

Sinner Saved by Grace : @greg_price11 Live not by lies.

Tue Apr 25 00:37:44 +0000 2023

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:20

Lord Bebo : NATO's Stoltenberg: ''The war did not start in February last year, the war started in 2014''-> Isn't this talking po'... https://t.co/FzEFrmQBng

Thu Apr 20 23:13:54 +0000 2023

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 21:58

Chief Nerd : NEW '' Justin Trudeau Rewrites History By Now Saying He Never Forced Anyone To Get Vaccinated"There are potential'... https://t.co/rKAQhXTe55

Mon Apr 24 20:32:33 +0000 2023

Kevin Hermes : @TheChiefNerd Do Canadians not hold their leaders accountable?

Mon Apr 24 21:58:38 +0000 2023

@ babycatcalla '¸ : @TheChiefNerd Sackboy add it again, why does he sit like a girl?

Mon Apr 24 21:58:36 +0000 2023

Gea vdBrink : @TheChiefNerd @HighWireTalk What an idiot this manLock him up asap !

Mon Apr 24 21:58:33 +0000 2023

Jack Spitz : @TheChiefNerd All these people do is lie

Mon Apr 24 21:58:33 +0000 2023

shurik : @TheChiefNerd That is why those Truck drivers were protesting. But he is the one who gives disinformation.

Mon Apr 24 21:58:30 +0000 2023

JUCOFan : @TheChiefNerd This man is in cya mode

Mon Apr 24 21:58:20 +0000 2023

Daniela : @TheChiefNerd My husband who's a government employee was forced to be double vaxed or he would have lost his job! T'... https://t.co/U2072vubfp

Mon Apr 24 21:58:18 +0000 2023

Jason : @TheChiefNerd @JustinTrudeau you are a liar.

Mon Apr 24 21:58:17 +0000 2023

Jennifer : @TheChiefNerd The gaslighting is unreal. Sickening to watch this.

Mon Apr 24 21:58:15 +0000 2023

BlesseDaWish.eth : @TheChiefNerd Oh Trudy you need to do better with your lying and scrubbing the whole internet of your words and act'... https://t.co/eCrFNlCCmc

Mon Apr 24 21:58:12 +0000 2023

Clayton : @TheChiefNerd @BernieSpofforth Shit is starting to hit the fan it seems like. Now the back tracking and more £\'‚¬|$

Mon Apr 24 21:58:11 +0000 2023

Freeze Peach : @TheChiefNerd Terrible person

Mon Apr 24 21:58:06 +0000 2023

Lori, not surprised anymore : @TheChiefNerd Liar liar pants on ðŸ--¥

Mon Apr 24 21:58:01 +0000 2023

James Kozlowski : @TheChiefNerd You guys and gals in the north have a big liar on your hand as do we in the states.

Mon Apr 24 21:57:51 +0000 2023

Lord DropBear : @TheChiefNerd Clearly my memory is failing https://t.co/hxY2PQ09zV

Mon Apr 24 21:57:49 +0000 2023

John Egan : @TheChiefNerd He's an awful actor! Pick a proper leader Canada if one can get to the fore. Perhaps we'll do the same- god willing

Mon Apr 24 21:57:44 +0000 2023

A person : @TheChiefNerd @BeachCity55 He's full of dog doo.

Mon Apr 24 21:57:33 +0000 2023

dezmond dezzer : @TheChiefNerd LIAR https://t.co/FQKIFBjNQJ

Mon Apr 24 21:57:31 +0000 2023

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 19:06

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 19:02

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 17:29

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:08

America's West Coast is separated by a continent and an ocean from Europe. Their policy gap on "gender affirming care" for minors '-- including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and breast and genital removal '-- is becoming similarly wide.

Washington is on the verge of denying parents notice that their runaway children are living in licensed shelters if the children are seeking "protected health care services," defined as gender affirming care and "reproductive health care" such as abortion and contraception.

SB 5599 cites these circumstances as "compelling reasons" that shelters can instead notify the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. They are "not limited" to these examples when deciding whether to withhold parental notice, however.

A legislative summary of opposition to the bill describes it as "legalized kidnapping." The bill passed the House and Senate and now awaits action from Gov. Jay Inslee (D).

The California Assembly approved legislation this month (AB 665) that would let children 12 and up in the Medi-Cal program "consent to mental health treatment or counseling on an outpatient basis, or to residential shelter services," if the "attending professional person" believes they are "mature enough to participate intelligently" in the services. Legal experts told the Associated Press that would cover gender identity counseling.

The bill removes a section of existing law that requires a consenting minor to "present a danger of serious physical or mental harm to self or to others without the mental health treatment or counseling or residential shelter services" or "is the alleged victim of incest or child abuse."

Mental health counselors can exclude "parental involvement" '-- notification and consent '-- if they believe that "would be inappropriate," but shelter providers would still have to "make their best efforts to notify the parent or guardian of the provision of services."

A lengthy and confusing Oregon bill on reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care (HB 2002) appears to let minors 15 and up consent to gender-affirming care without parental consent.

State law already lets 15-and-up consent to "[h]ospital care, medical or surgical diagnosis or treatment." The bill adds "gender-affirming treatment" to the law, defined as "a procedure, service, drug, device or product" prescribed to treat "incongruence" between gender identity and sex. It goes even further for abortion and contraception, letting a minor "of any age" consent.

By contrast, Scandinavian countries and the U.K. have led Europe in ratcheting back drugs and surgery for gender-confused minors in recent years, let alone minimizing parents in treatment decisions.

In a new "systematic review" of research on hormone treatment for gender-confused children in the peer-reviewed Acta Paediatrica, Swedish researchers commissioned by the country's Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services found so little evidence on its effects that they recommended a ban except for clinical trials.

Florida regulators approved a similar ban with a trials carveout on the same grounds last fall, and the state Senate approved a legislative ban for minors that would also prohibit public funds from covering gender-affirming care this month.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued an "emergency regulation" taking effect next week that claims state law already prohibits treatment for minors "in the absence of substantial guardrails that ensure informed consent and adequate access to mental health care." Among his dozen such guardrails: disclosure that Sweden has said the risks of treatment "currently outweigh the possible benefits."

Children's Mercy Hospital sued Bailey this month to halt dozens of investigative demands for records and testimony on its practices, including "prescriptions for hormone blockers as well as surgeries for transgender patients," the Kansas City Star reported.

The Swedish researchers claimed theirs was the first systematic review despite growing demand for treatment among minors, particularly "an exponential rise among children born female." They wanted to assess the treatment's effects on "psychosocial and mental health, cognition, body composition, and metabolic markers."

From a pool of nearly 10,000 potentially relevant English-language studies based on abstracts, they could find only three dozen that were relevant, a third of which were then excluded due to "high risk for bias." The two-year process couldn't find any randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the strongest form of scientific evidence.

"Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues" were given to adolescents "typically" between ages 11 and 15 in 21 studies, and the other three studies looked at cross-sex hormones without prior GnRHa treatment, "rarely" given below age 15.

The studies were all over the map on psychosocial and mental health, "hampered by small number of participants and substantial risk of selection bias," so the researchers concluded they couldn't evaluate long-term effects.

Only one study looked at cognitive outcomes of GnRHa treatment, with no differences found between either treated and untreated transgender children or treated children and controls. Because it lacked "before-after GnRHa therapy analyses," the Swedish researchers couldn't investigate treatment effects.

The strongest findings concerned bone health. GnRHa treatment "delays bone maturation and bone mineral density," while cross-sex hormone patients had "partially recover[ed]" bone health when they were studied at age 22.

The existing research generally suffers from "group level" analyses "sensitive to selection bias," rather than analyzing "intra-individual changes," and fails to account for "puberty stage and biological age," they said.

The lack of long-term studies is "worrying" because the patients start young and will remain on cross-sex hormones for their entire lives, according to the paper. Studies that track minors "until at least age 30 are urgently needed."

RCTs "may be the only way to address biases" they found in the research literature, the researchers concluded. They said GnRHa treatment for minors "should be considered experimental treatment of individual cases rather than standard procedure."

The weak research base hasn't stopped advocates for treating minors from portraying legislative and legal challenges as threats to gender-confused children's lives.

The first transgender member of the Montana Legislature, Zooey Zephyr, told colleagues supporting the successful minor ban that "forcing a trans child to go through puberty ... is tantamount to torture" and they will have "blood on your hands," the Montana Free Press reported.

Zephyr also claimed another successful bill to define sex as a binary was like trying to "legislate that the Earth is flat," The New York Times reported.

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Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:20

'Last mistake you ever make': Trans activist Tara Jay threatens anyone barring her from using women's bathroomsThe video shows Tara Jay warning people and urging LGBTQ people to buy guns (@tara_vs_tw/TikTok)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A trans activist, identified as Tara Jay, created panic among netizens after she warned that if anyone tries to stop her from using a women's restroom, "it will be the last mistake you ever make." Jay, who identifies as a female and began transitioning in 2017, made the horrifying statement in a viral video circulating on the Internet. Many were quick to demand police action against Jay in tweets that misgendered her while pointing out the online threat should not to be taken lightly. One concerned Twitter user commented, "People who make threats online often follow through. This man should be surveilled."

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Jay's now-deleted video, which was shared with her 2.4K followers on TikTok, had her saying, "If you back a wild animal into a corner, they're going to become a dangerous animal. So if you want to die on that hill of yours, of righteousness and moral majority, then you go right ahead. I dare you to try and stop me from going into the women's bathroom. It will be the last mistake you ever make. I dare you to try and stop a transgender woman, in my presence, from using the bathroom. It will be the last mistake you ever make."

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Disturbing video shows handcuffed Indigenous boy bleeding from head after being arrested

'Disturbing': TikToker posts CREEPY video of her BF's mom threatening her as she slept

People who make threats online often follow through. This man should be surveilled.

'-- GAFlatlander (@gaflatlander) April 20, 2023 ADVERTISEMENT

'This is a call to action. Arm up'Jay then told LGBTQ people to buy guns for their own safety as she added, "This is a call to action. Arm up. Go out buy a gun, learn how to use it." The video was taken down later but the clip was shared by Oli London, a social media influencer who underwent 18 surgeries to look like BTS singer Park Jimin, who tweeted and shared the video writing, "Tara' who identifies as a lesbian, issues threatening message to women."

London told Fox News, "This is just another example of a biological man feeling emboldened to invade women's spaces in the name of 'self-identity' and threatening women's safety without any fear of repercussions," and added, "In today's America, people like this man, who identifies as a Poly Trans Lesbian, are encouraged to do this and praised as 'stunning and brave' for entering women's spaces. Anyone that calls out men like this are immediately deemed 'transphobic' and 'hateful bigots'. This is a harmful narrative, but sadly has become all too common across society. We cannot continue to allow women to be endangered by men like this in the name of gender ideology. Enough is enough, protect women's spaces."

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'As a woman, I am scared'The statements also raised concerns from many Twitter users. One of them wrote, "Hopefully someone reported him to the police. He called people to arms." One more wrote, "This man needs to be watched." While an individual commented, "As a woman, I am scared of this guy." Another said, " That dude's videos were horrifying! He was threatening and calling for gun violence over his "rights" to use a woman's bathroom with your daughters. What about women and young girls safe spaces???"

Hopefully someone reported him to the police He called people to arms

'-- FROG826 (@FROG_826) April 20, 2023 ADVERTISEMENT

As a woman, I am scared of this guy :(

'-- '‚lackwidow 🕷 (@blackwidowbtc) April 20, 2023 ADVERTISEMENT

Great job, we must spread the word!That dude's videos were horrifying!

He was threatening and calling for gun violence over his "rights" to use a woman's bathroom with your daughters.

What about women and young girls safe spaces???

'-- Well That's Fantastic (@WellThtsFabulus) April 21, 2023This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.