June 22nd, 2023 • 3h 4m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Climate Change
Orca rams into yacht off Shetland in first such incident in northern waters | Cetaceans | The Guardian
Big Tech
All innovation today is on the web
#1 software data source by NSA/CYBERCOM world-wide is Outlook - few users, especially small "terrorists" groups turn off data messages "to improve their service" to Microsoft.
GPT AI LLM Theory
his whole Large Language Model "AI" may in fact be a gift.
Big Tech keeps calling for a 'pause' on development because it';s so 'dangerous'.
In reality they are not slowing down at all, as they compete for share of mind with their branding.
Their real problem is that the Open Source community figured out how to do this without Big Tech on common hardware at home.
It put this power into everyone's hands!
Big Tech of course wants 'legislation' and an agency equivalent to the FDA to keep this out of the people's hands or worse, make it illegal LOL
I am diving deep to ensure we the people have all the powerful stuff, chatGPT (part of Big Tech) will no doubt be crippled for us plebs.
MOVEit Boots on the Ground Report
ITM Adam!
Please keep my name confidential as this is a sensitive topic.
I work for one of the big medical insurance companies in the US and we use MOVEit several times a week. MOVEit is in essence a FTP program that we use to upload and download files ranging from member demographic/eligibility data, claims data, authorization data, etc. all relating to medical health, mental health, substance abuse, and pharmacy information.
I support part of a State's Medicaid program and we, along with our "providers"...hehe...use this service to process the above data sets along with any reports or correspondence that needs to be sent securely, or is too big to be sent over encrypted email.
The interesting thing to note is that this has actually been going on for a couple of weeks now...at least for us it has been. We were notified of a "breach" towards the end of May (apologies for not having the exact date on hand). No other information other than just that...a breach was shared with us. Our file transfer service was shut down, and we were left scrambling to come up with a solution. Someone in upper management actually suggested Google Drive...can you imagine the HIPAA violations for sending PHI (protected health information) to Google? Wow!
We weren't given any additional details only that a solution was being "worked on" and that we would be given updates when/if they became available.
I actually learned more about what happened with CLOP on the MOVEit segment of the show than I did from our own MOVEit contacts.
Hope you find that interesting/helpful and if you have questions or would like clarification on anything, just let me know.
TYFYC,
Sir a Knight
Ukraine vs Russia
Oryx Ending in October and already saying goodbye? Sounds like a contract
Russian Defence Ministry briefing on US military and biological activity – Telegraph
Documents acquired during the special military operation prove the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research connection to the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and its key contractor – the Metabiota company.
Transmaoism
Arkansas Judge opinion on blocking the minor medical transition law
B. The Science and Resulting Guidelines 22. The Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Arkansas Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of OB/GYN, the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychologists, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Arkansas Psychological Association, and other scientific and medical organizations all recognized the effectiveness and safety of gender-affirming medical care. (Pls.’ Ex. 24 at 30:20-31:17, 32:4-19; Pls.’ Ex. 25 at 40:19-42:16).
Bud Lite BOTG
I just wanted to update you on what happened after the AB people came by our post. Sales got so bad for bud light, that it was removed from our taps. It wasn't selling and the keg in the cooler had gone bad. We now only sell bottles. The BL tap was replaced by Yuengling. I just wanted to finish the story up.
Girl Sues Hospital for Removing Her Breasts at Age 13
The defendants carried out “ideological and profit-driven medical abuse” when they prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones and, later, performed a double mastectomy, Charles LiMandri, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff, Layla Jane, said in a statement.
LGBT - Lets Get Biden To Quit
Big Pharma
Prime Time Takedown
Censure
In the context of the United States House of Representatives, censure refers to an official reprimand or formal condemnation of a member of the House for misconduct or inappropriate behavior. It is a disciplinary action taken by the House to express disapproval or rebuke a member's actions.
When a member of the House is censured, a resolution is introduced and debated in the chamber. The resolution outlines the alleged misconduct and calls for a vote on whether to censure the member. If the resolution passes with a majority vote, the member is officially censured.
Censure is considered a significant form of punishment but is less severe than expulsion, which would require a two-thirds majority vote to remove a member from the House. Censure serves as a public statement of the House's disapproval and can have political and reputational consequences for the member involved.
Theory - The Big Guy is Barry O, not Joe B
Great Reset
UPS Driver BOTG
INSIDE UPS STRIKE
In the morning John and Adam. I am writing this boots on the ground report regarding Adams'
recent coverage of the impending UPS strike. I am a relatively new member of the Teamsters
Union, as a full time driver at UPS for 2 years. Your deconstruction of this segment was superb.
The key issue that you did mention is that the corrupt past president of the union, James Hoffa,
was able to push through a contract in 2018 that the members had voted down by 54%. This
“2/3rds Rule” has since been abolished by current President of the union, Sean O’Brien. This
contract allowed the company to implement a two tiered wage system for full time drivers. Covid
conveniently happened and then the company, which it typically never does, started to hire tons
of new full timers off the street due to the massive increase in volume. The full time rate as a
driver after 4 years at UPS is 42.50 an hour. Due to the sketchy language in the current
contract, there are full time drivers doing the same work for significantly less (20-25) an hour.
Now these are still good rates, but the key here is to see through what the media portrays as
“wins” for the union. Not one mention of increasing pensions, increasing part-timer pay to offset
the massive turnover, creating more even paying full-time jobs despite their record-breaking
profits. Air conditioning is a joke. We love our jobs, we drive with the doors open, in and out
hundreds of times a day. What do we need A/C for? Any veteran driver can show you the way
when it comes to cooling off on the job. Online shopping is not going away, and from an insider
at the company I can tell you that the volume is not going down in any way shape or form.
Forced 6th days and regular forced overtime have become commonplace. Subcontracting to
USPS and gig workers has become rampant and is an inherent breach of the current contract.
At the end of the day, its a relatively simple ask when you look at the numbers. Make the
members whole because after all, it is teamsters that helped them make all that cash !
Thank you for your courage,
UPS Chris.
Amazon UPS Honda Driver BOTG
I wanted to give a boots on the ground report but I don’t know if this email is correct or if this is the way to give a boots on the ground report.
The Amazon drivers that are using their Hondas to deliver packages for no money is absolutely true, I am one of them. The way it works is Amazon has a sub contracting program called Amazon Flex, they tout it to be the greatest gig ever “Work when you want and earn $22 a hour” but what they do not tell you is, they only offer work in 2, 3, and 4 hour blocks, so getting a full days work is next to impossible and you are going to spend more time checking for the offers than working them. They over hire to keep a liquid workforce, the offer distribution is first come-first serve, you’re battling people for the offers, if you see an offer on your phone then a bunch of other people see the same offer, the first to accept it gets it. It is almost like a bidding war over the work and they can keep the base rate for blocks very low, they treat you like a delivery drone.
The way to get these block offers is by logging in to the app (kinda like uber) and checking to see if there are any available offers, you have to refresh a offers page by swiping or tapping your phone. In my area Amazon has 2 distribution centers and there are 4 Whole Foods markets, Whole Foods blocks come in only 2 hour blocks that pay very well, about 35-40 a hr due to tips/V4V, these are much better than the warehouse offers because they pay more, less miles, and are only about 6 stops at most because you can only fit so many bags of groceries in a car. Warehouse offers suck, they are about 45-50 stops, depending on the warehouse, you can do more than 100+ miles of round trip driving, the pay starts at a base rate of $22 a hour and you are going to demolish your car and of course no V4V/tips (there should be the option to tip imo).
At first, when I first started the program, there was a abundance of offers almost like they baited me in, I would be able to get 3 Whole Foods blocks a day no problem, and I did not have to really work the treacherous warehouse offers, then it dried up. After about 3 months every Whole Foods block offer no matter how fast I tried to accept it, it was already taken so I started working the warehouse offers and then those dried up. I could not get any offers, I would spend hours refreshing the offers page and get like 1 block every 2 days. Now the problem is the warehouse offers can be 2, 3 or 4 hours, and there is no difference in the mileage. So if you get a 4 hr warehouse block your going to drive the same, if not more miles, as a 3 or 2 hr block, driving an old beatdown Honda over 100 miles for $66 dollars is basically driving for free, not only are you responsible for the gas/repairs, but if you get a flat or breakdown 45 miles out for $60 dollars it is devastating.
I got suspicious once I could not schedule block offers as easily anymore. I would refresh the app nonstop and as soon as I seen a offer populate I would swipe the “accept offer” button but it would always say this block has been taken, it did not matter how fast I was. I would email Amazon Flex asking how every block is taken no matter how fast I accepted it, and I would get these cut and paste responses like this one
- The 'sorry, this block has been taken' red banner indicates that another delivery partner has scheduled the block before you did. The amount of work available to all delivery partners depends on customer demand and changes week to week. You can see available work by going to the "Offers" page in the Amazon Flex app. When you’re on the page, tap 'Refresh' to see the latest offers. Each Delivery Partner sees different offers. The offers you see may depend on the amount of work you’ve done recently, the work you’ve reserved in the future, whether you’ve cancelled a lot of work, your Delivery Quality, and your Reliability. We know that life happens and sometimes you need to cancel or can’t show up on time. However, if you do it frequently, it makes it harder for us to ensure that customers will get their packages on time. Having a large number of cancellations or not showing up on time means you won’t get first choice of offers. If you haven’t worked recently or don’t have any blocks scheduled, you’ll have a better chance of seeing offers.
Basically a bullshit response, so I had to go to Reddit and find out what was really happening.
*The problem is the app is not secure, people are using a MITM bots to snatch blocks within .01 seconds of it being released from the server, leaving no chance for those who manually refresh a phone. If you use a bot to obtain offers than you are able to grab any block you want, you never have to open the app on your phone until it’s time to grab your block at the station. People started developing these bots into apps and deploying them on the play store and App Store, there are tons of these apps on the market and they charge a monthly fee to use them. The amount of flex drivers around the world and the lack of giving a shit from Amazon makes these apps a cash cow for whoever develops them.
Using these 3rd party apps or a script is against Amazons TOS but using them is not not easily detectable, so the use spread like wild fire. If you are not using a script you have zero chance at getting Whole Foods offers and most warehouse offers. The problem is if Amazon does detect you they ban you. These scripts are pretty sophisticated, they can be set to accept blocks for whatever criteria you set it for, time, amount per hour, specific stations, and other preference settings. Amazon has never acknowledged this problem in the 4-5 years that the program has been active, up until recently they have just now started to pretend like they are trying to do something about it. They implemented a captcha and a refresh limit, limiting the amount of times you can refresh the apps offers page, this has only hurt the drivers following the rules and not using a script. Now my tin foil hat tells me that there is no way the developers at Amazon think that a captcha is going to stop this MITM vulnerability and I think that they are making a kickback or have something to do with these apps that charge a monthly fee. It is possible to run your own script, but I would think if Amazon wants to detect you they can, so unless you know what you’re doing it seems risky. I keep emailing them demanding they incorporate this script into the app so everyone has a fair chance at offers again, plus it just makes sense to have a auto accept feature, otherwise most of your time is refreshing the phone searching for offers.
The other problem with this gig is that as with most businesses these days, all the call centers are outsourced to India, so explaining anything to them is a lost cause. Also thanks to Ai, they can terminate you for a glitch in the system, too often people are terminated at no fault of their own - The only benefit is the flexibility of working when you want but that’s barely true because you you make so little that it’s impossible to take a day off. Also another tin foil hat theory is Amazon is actively hiring illegal immigrants for the cheap labor - (https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/good-news/2022/12/22/rhode-island-immigrants-find-jobs-and-more-through-amazon-partnership-wutabon-inc/69673978007/) I don’t know if this is good or bad, I do know I live by myself and the immigrants that live 5 to a room and share a vehicle can afford to work for cheaper rates than I can, but this is more my fault than theirs, but still a interesting issue.
Here is a link to the Git hub repo with the Amazon Flex Block Grabber python script (https://github.com/mdesilva/AmazonFlexUnlimited)
Here is old but detailed instructional to set up a block grabber on a Linux vps https://www.uberpeople.net/threads/make-your-own-fast-amazon-flex-block-grabber-step-by-step.188718/page-2
Here is one of the subreddits that does not ban you for speaking about bot/scripts (The main one I feel is controlled by Amazon and does not want to let the problem of scripts to be known) (https://www.reddit.com/r/RealAmazonFlexDrivers/)
(Side note) Amazon just settled a $61 million dollar lawsuit for not paying the drivers their Whole Foods tips (https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2021/02/amazon-pay-61-million-tapping-tips-promised-drivers)
China
F24 Video shows Tony Blair saying goodbye to Blinken on the tarmac
Tony Blair warns against new Cold War with China | Bradford Telegraph and Argus
Despite Mr Blair’s call for engagement with China, he said Britain would have to side with the US over the role of tech giant Huawei in 5G networks.
A review is being carried out into a decision to allow Huawei to play a limited role in the UK’s network in the face of US opposition.
At an event hosted by Reuters, Mr Blair said: “The fact is Huawei have an infrastructure that we need, it is already quite embedded and the truth is it’s a lot cheaper than the alternatives that have been developed up to now.
“One of the extraordinary things about 5G is the way that the West just allowed this advantage, this superiority, to be gained.”
STORIES
Tony Blair warns against new Cold War with China | Bradford Telegraph and Argus
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 16:49
The West will sometimes clash with China now that it is a major power, but it is ''misleading and dangerous'' to think of it as a new Cold War, Tony Blair said.
A major survey of public opinion commissioned by Mr Blair's Institute for Global Change indicated a shift to a ''markedly more hostile attitude'' from the West towards Beijing.
The former prime minister said China had ''serious questions'' to answer about the Covid-19 outbreak as the YouGov survey of citizens in the UK, US, Germany and France suggested attitudes to Beijing had hardened during the pandemic.
(Tony Blair Institute for Global Change/PA)The study indicated 60% of British and French citizens viewed China as a ''force for bad'' in the world, a view shared by 56% in the US and 47% in Germany.
Just 3% of Britons, 4% of Germans and 5% of French and US citizens viewed China as a force for good.
Attitudes towards Xi Jinping's government had hardened since the pandemic among 60% in Britain, 55% in France, 54% in the US and 46% in Germany.
Mr Blair said the poll showed ''there has been, during the Covid crisis, a sharp move amongst Western public opinion, to a markedly more hostile attitude towards China''.
He urged the West to take a strategic view of the relationship with China rather than an ''ad hoc or purely reactive'' stance.
Relations, especially between Donald Trump's US and China, have deteriorated markedly in recent years.
Analysis by Mr Blair's institute suggest a ''light Cold War'' or a ''great power rivalry'' between the two were the most likely scenarios.
(Tony Blair Institute for Global Change/PA)Mr Blair said the rise of China was both ''inevitable and right'' given its population, economic power and record on technological innovation and it was set to become a global superpower.
But he stressed that ''given the deep economic links between China and the West, Cold War analogies are misleading and dangerous''.
Mr Blair added: ''It is in the interests of no-one that China is anything other than stable and prosperous.''
The West will have to be prepared to confront China where its actions go against the interests of the wider international community and must be able to compete with Beijing but also co-operate where necessary.
The US, Europe and like-minded Asian countries must stand together so that any partnership with China ''comes from a position of strength''.
Despite Mr Blair's call for engagement with China, he said Britain would have to side with the US over the role of tech giant Huawei in 5G networks.
A review is being carried out into a decision to allow Huawei to play a limited role in the UK's network in the face of US opposition.
At an event hosted by Reuters, Mr Blair said: ''The fact is Huawei have an infrastructure that we need, it is already quite embedded and the truth is it's a lot cheaper than the alternatives that have been developed up to now.
''One of the extraordinary things about 5G is the way that the West just allowed this advantage, this superiority, to be gained.''
He added: ''It's very hard for us not to be with the US on anything that touches US security.''
People Have Resorted To Theft Amid A Sriracha Shortage And Price Hikes
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 16:25
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images"You wouldn't steal a car," the iconic early-2000s anti-piracy ad campaign famously proclaimed. But, would you steal ... a bottle of sriracha? (It's certainly a lot easier to fit in your handbag.)
The now-infamous sriracha shortage that's been plaguing foodies and professional chefs alike first hit in April 2022, when California-based Huy Fong Foods Inc. announced that its red jalapeno pepper crop was drastically damaged by poor climate conditions. An intense drought hit Mexico and the harvest yield was, to say the least, not promising. The beloved sauce manufacturer told fans to anticipate a pretty significant shortage, but in hindsight, few could have likely predicted the crisis that would extend over a year later into June 2023, still with no end in sight. Production briefly resumed in the fall but was quickly halted again due to a dwindling supply of raw materials.
Now, some California foodies have resorted to theft to get their sriracha as the sauce remains in obscurity, and they aren't even stealing from supermarkets '-- they're swiping bottles from a local restaurant. The victim is Senor Sisig, a California-based Filipino fusion chain, reports local news outlet SF Gate. Senor Sisig's Ferry Building and Valencia Street locations are seeing bottles go missing left and right, operations manager Mariel Edwards tells the outlet. Only the Oakland location has yet to be burglarized, but time will tell whether it stays that way. Some customers have even contacted the store and asked to purchase its inventory bottles of Sriracha.
Foodies getting resourceful as shortage stretches on Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesMore and more consumers have resorted to grocery theft for food items across the board as the inflation crisis continues to rock households' bottom lines. But this hasn't even been the only extreme response to the Sriracha shortage. According to California-based news outlet KTLA, last summer, Vietnamese restaurant B(C) in East Hollywood reached out to customers with a trade deal: Free food for a bottle of sriracha. Now, 28-ounce bottles are selling for $29.99 each at Koreana Plaza, a retailer in Oakland.
The grocery display also featured a sign informing customers of a two-bottle per person limit. (The same bottle reportedly used to retail for just $3.99. That's a 750% markup.) Bottles are currently reselling on eBay in the ballpark of $20-$40, drawing multiple bids as desperate foodies are tasked with deciding how much they're willing to fork over for a now-rare taste of their favorite condiment.
On the morally-righteous side of the debacle, there are some non-theft ways to cope with the shortage (but admittedly, none of them are exactly ideal). Foodies could whip up a DIY recipe with red jalapeno peppers, garlic, brown sugar, salt, and white vinegar. It's wicked affordable, but it'll need to ferment for about a week before you can use it. Badia makes a similar sriracha hot sauce, an alright alternative for the Huy Fong fave. Badia's offering even mimics Huy Fong's plastic squeeze bottle and green cap design.
Complex Systems Won't Survive the Competence Crisis
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 15:33
At a casual glance, the recent cascades of American disasters might seem unrelated. In a span of fewer than six months in 2017, three U.S. Naval warships experienced three separate collisions resulting in 17 deaths. A year later, powerlines owned by PG&E started a wildfire that killed 85 people. The pipeline carrying almost half of the East Coast's gasoline shut down due to a ransomware attack. Almost half a million intermodal containers sat on cargo ships unable to dock at Los Angeles ports. A train carrying thousands of tons of hazardous and flammable chemicals derailed near East Palestine, Ohio. Air Traffic Control cleared a FedEx plane to land on a runway occupied by a Southwest plane preparing to take off. Eye drops contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed four and blinded fourteen.
While disasters like these are often front-page news, the broader connection between the disasters barely elicits any mention. America must be understood as a system of interwoven systems; the healthcare system sends a bill to a patient using the postal system, and that patient uses the mobile phone system to pay the bill with a credit card issued by the banking system. All these systems must be assumed to work for anyone to make even simple decisions. But the failure of one system has cascading consequences for all of the adjacent systems. As a consequence of escalating rates of failure, America's complex systems are slowly collapsing.
The core issue is that changing political mores have established the systematic promotion of the unqualified and sidelining of the competent. This has continually weakened our society's ability to manage modern systems. At its inception, it represented a break from the trend of the 1920s to the 1960s, when the direct meritocratic evaluation of competence became the norm across vast swaths of American society.
In the first decades of the twentieth century, the idea that individuals should be systematically evaluated and selected based on their ability rather than wealth, class, or political connections, led to significant changes in selection techniques at all levels of American society. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) revolutionized college admissions by allowing elite universities to find and recruit talented students from beyond the boarding schools of New England. Following the adoption of the SAT, aptitude tests such as Wonderlic (1936), Graduate Record Examination (1936), Army General Classification Test (1941), and Law School Admission Test (1948) swept the United States. Spurred on by the demands of two world wars, this system of institutional management electrified the Tennessee Valley, created the first atom bomb, invented the transistor, and put a man on the moon.
By the 1960s, the systematic selection for competence came into direct conflict with the political imperatives of the civil rights movement. During the period from 1961 to 1972, a series of Supreme Court rulings, executive orders, and laws'--most critically, the Civil Rights Act of 1964'--put meritocracy and the new political imperative of protected-group diversity on a collision course. Administrative law judges have accepted statistically observable disparities in outcomes between groups as prima facie evidence of illegal discrimination. The result has been clear: any time meritocracy and diversity come into direct conflict, diversity must take priority.
The resulting norms have steadily eroded institutional competency, causing America's complex systems to fail with increasing regularity. In the language of a systems theorist, by decreasing the competency of the actors within the system, formerly stable systems have begun to experience normal accidents at a rate that is faster than the system can adapt. The prognosis is harsh but clear: either selection for competence will return or America will experience devolution to more primitive forms of civilization and loss of geopolitical power.
From Meritocracy to Diversity The first domino to fall as Civil Rights-era policies took effect was the quantitative evaluation of competency by employers using straightforward cognitive batteries. While some tests are still legally used in hiring today, several high-profile enforcement actions against employers caused a wholesale change in the tools customarily usable by employers to screen for ability.
After the early 1970s, employers responded by shifting from directly testing for ability to using the next best thing: a degree from a highly-selective university. By pushing the selection challenge to the college admissions offices, selective employers did two things: they reduced their risk of lawsuits and they turned the U.S. college application process into a high-stakes war of all against all. Admission to Harvard would be a golden ticket to join the professional managerial class, while mere admission to a state school could mean a struggle to remain in the middle class.
This outsourcing did not stave off the ideological change for long. Within the system of political imperatives now dominant in all major U.S. organizations, diversity must be prioritized even if there is a price in competency. The definition of diversity varies by industry and geography. In elite universities, diversity means black, indigenous, or Hispanic. In California, Indian women are diverse but Indian men are not. When selecting corporate board members, diversity means ''anyone who is not a straight white man.'' The legally protected and politically enforced nature of this imperative renders an open dialogue nearly impossible.
However diversity itself is defined, most policy on the matter is based on a simple premise: since all groups are identical in talent, any unbiased process must produce the same group proportions as the general population, and therefore, processes that produce disproportionate outcomes must be biased. Prestigious journals like Harvard Business Review are the first to summarize and parrot these views, which then flow down to reporting by mass media organizations like Bloomberg Businessweek. Soon, it joins McKinsey's ''best practices'' list and becomes instantiated in corporate policies.
Unlike accounting policies, which emanate from the Financial Accounting Standards Board and are then implemented by Chief Financial Officers, the diversity push emanates inside of organizations from multiple power centers, each of which joins in for independent reasons. CEOs push diversity policies primarily to please board members and increase their status. Human Resources (HR) professionals push diversity policies primarily to avoid anti-discrimination lawsuits. Business development teams push diversity to win additional business from diversity-sensitive clients (e.g. government agencies). Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), such as the Black Googler Network, push diversity to help their in-group in hiring and promotion decisions.
Diversity in Theory and Practice In police academies around the country, new recruits are taught to apply an escalation of force algorithm with non-compliant subjects: ''Ask, Tell, Make.'' The idea behind ''Ask, Tell, Make'' is to apply the least amount of force necessary to achieve the desired level of compliance. This is the means by which police power, which is ultimately backed by significant coercive force, can maintain an appearance of voluntary compliance and soft-handedness. Similarly, the power centers inside U.S. institutions apply a variant of ''Ask, Tell, Make'' to achieve diversity in their respective organizations.
The first tactics for implementing diversity imperatives are the ''Ask'' tactics. These simply ask all the members of the organization to end bias. At this stage, the policies seem so reasonable and fair that there will rarely be much pushback. Best practices such as slating guidelines are a common tool at this stage. Slating guidelines require that every hiring process must include a certain number and type of diverse candidates for every job opening. Structured interviews are another best practice that requires interviewers to stick with a script to minimize the chance of uncovering commonalities between the interviewer and interviewee that might introduce bias. Often HR will become involved in the hiring process, specifically asking the hiring manager to defend their choice not to hire a diverse candidate. Because the wrong answer could result in shaming, loss of advancement opportunities, or even termination, the hiring manager can often be persuaded to prioritize diversity over competence.
Within specialized professional services companies, senior-level recruiting will occasionally result in a resume collection where not a single diverse candidate meets the minimum specifications of the job. This is a terrible outcome for the hiring manager as it attracts negative attention from HR. At this point, firms will often retain an executive search agency that focuses on exclusively diverse candidates. When that does not result in sufficient diversity, roles will often have their requirements diluted to increase the pool of diverse candidates.
For example, within hedge funds, the ideal entry-level candidate might be an experienced former investment banker who went to a top MBA program. This preferred pedigree sets a minimum bar for both competence and work ethic. This first-pass filter enormously winnows the field of underrepresented candidates. To relax requirements for diversity's sake, this will be diluted in various ways. First, the work experience might be stripped. Next, the role gets offered to MBA interns. Finally, fresh undergraduates are hired into the analyst role. Dilution works not just because of the larger field of candidates it allows for but also because the Harvard Admission Office of 2019 is even more focused on certain kinds of diversity than the Harvard Admission Office of 2011 was.
This dilution is not costless; fewer data points result in a wider range of outcomes and increase the risk of a bad hire. All bad hires are costly but bad hires that are diverse are even worse. The risk of a wrongful termination lawsuit either draws out the termination process for diverse hires or results in the firm adjusting by giving them harmless busy work until they leave of their own volition'--either way, a terrible outcome for the organizations which hired them.
If these ''Ask'' tactics do not achieve enough diversity, the next step in the escalation is to attach carrots and sticks to directly tell decision-makers to increase the diversity of the organization. This is the point at which the goals of diversity and competence truly begin displaying significant tension between each other. The first step is the implementation of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) linked to diversity for all managers. Diversity KPIs are a tool to embarrass leaders and teams that are not meeting their diversity targets. Given that most organizations are hierarchical and pyramidal, combined with the fact that America was much whiter 50 years ago than it was today, it is unsurprising that senior leadership teams are less diverse than America as a whole'--and, more pertinently, than their own junior teams.
The combination of a pyramid-shaped org chart and a senior leadership team where white men often make up 80 percent or more of the team means that the imposition of an aggressive KPI sends a message to the layer below them: no white man in middle management will likely ever see a promotion as long as they remain in the organization. This is never expressed verbally. Rather, those overlooked figure it out as they are passed over continually for less competent but more diverse colleagues. The result is demoralization, disengagement, and over time, departure.
While all the aforementioned techniques fall into the broad category of affirmative action, they primarily result in slightly tilting the scale toward diverse candidates. The next step is simply holding different groups to different standards. Within academia, the recently filed Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College lawsuit leveraged data to show the extent to which Harvard penalizes Asian and white applicants to help black and Hispanic applicants. The UC System, despite formally being forbidden from practicing affirmative action by Proposition 209, uses a tool called ''comprehensive admission'' to accomplish the same goal.
The latest technique, which was recently brought to light, shows UC admissions offices using the applicants' high schools as a proxy for race to achieve their desired goal. Heavily Asian high schools such as Arcadia'--which is 68 percent Asian'--saw their UC-San Diego acceptance rate cut from 37 percent to 13 percent while the 99-percent-Hispanic Garfield High School saw its UC-San Diego acceptance rate rise from 29 percent to 65 percent.
The preference for diversity at the college faculty level is similarly strong. Jessica Nordell's End of Bias: A Beginning heralded MIT's efforts to increase the gender diversity of its engineering department: ''When applications came in, the Dean of Engineering personally reviewed every one from a woman. If departments turned down a good candidate, they had to explain why.''
When this was not enough, MIT increased its gender diversity by simply offering jobs to previously rejected female candidates. While no university will admit to letting standards slip for the sake of diversity, no one has offered a serious argument why the new processes produce higher or even equivalent quality faculty as opposed to simply more diverse faculty. The extreme preference for diversity in academia today explains much of the phenomenon of professors identifying with a minor fraction of their ancestry or even making it up entirely.
During COVID-19, the difficulty of in-person testing and online proctoring created a new mechanism to push diversity at the expense of competency: the gradual but systematic elimination of standardized tests as a barrier to admission to universities and graduate schools. Today, the majority of U.S. colleges have either stopped requiring SAT/ACT scores, no longer require them for students in the top 10 percent of their class, or will no longer consider them. Several elite law schools, including Harvard Law School, no longer require the LSAT as of 2023. With thousands of unqualified law students headed to a bar exam that they are unlikely to pass, the National Conference of Bar Examiners is already planning to dilute the bar exam under the ''NextGen'' plan. Specifically, '' eliminat[ing] any aspects of our exams that could contribute to performance disparities '' will almost definitionally reduce the degree to which the exam tests for competency.
Similarly, standards used to select doctors have also been weakened to promote diversity. Programs such as the City College of New York's BS/MD program have eliminated the MCAT requirement. With the SAT now optional, new candidates can go straight from high school to the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 exam in medical school without having gone through any rigorous standardized test whose score can be compared across schools. Step 1 scores were historically the most significant factor in the National Residency Matching Program, which pairs soon-to-be doctors with their future residency training programs. Because Step 1 scores serve as a barrier to increasing diversity, they have been made pass/fail. A handful of doctors are speaking out about the dangers of picking doctors based on factors other than competency but most either explicitly prefer diversity or else stay silent, concerned about the career-ending repercussions of pointing out the obvious.
When even carrot and stick incentives and the removal of standards do not achieve enough diversity, the end game is to simply make decision-makers comply. ''Make'' has two preferred implementations: one is widely discussed and the other is, for obvious reasons, never disclosed publicly. The first method of implementation is the application of quotas. Quotas or set-asides require the reservation of admissions slots, jobs, contracts, board seats, or other scarce goods for women and members of favored minority groups. Government contracts and supplier agreements are explicitly awarded to firms that have acronyms such as SB, WBE, MBE, DBE, SDB, VOSB, SDVOSB, WOSB, HUB, and 8(a).
Within large employers and government contractors, quotas are used for both hiring and promotions, requiring specific percentages of hiring or promotions to be reserved for favored groups. During the summer of 2020, the CEO of Wells Fargo, was publicly shamed after his memo blaming the underrepresentation of black senior leaders on a ''very limited pool'' of black talent was leaked to Reuters. Less than a month later, the bank publicly pledged to reserve 12 percent of leadership positions for black candidates and began tying executive compensation to reaching diversity goals. In 2022, Goldman Sachs extended quotas to the capital markets by adopting a policy to avoid underwriting IPOs of firms without at least two board members that are not straight white men.
When diversity still refuses to rise to acceptable levels, the remaining solution is the direct exclusion of non-diverse candidates. While public support for anti-discrimination laws and equal opportunity laws is high, public support for affirmative action and quotas is decidedly mixed. Hardline views such as those expressed in author Ijeoma Oluo's Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America'-- namely that '' any white man in a position of power perpetuates a system of white male domination'''--are still considered extreme, even within U.S. progressive circles.
As such, when explicit exclusion is used to eliminate groups like white men from selection processes, it is done subtly. Managers are told to sequester all the resumes from ''non-diverse'' candidates'--that is, white males. These resumes are discarded and the candidates are sent emails politely telling them that ''other candidates were a better fit.'' While some so-called '' reverse discrimination '' lawsuits have been filed, most of these policies go unreported. The reasons are straightforward; even in 2023, screening out all white men is not de jure legal. Moreover, any member of the professional managerial class who witnesses and reports discrimination against white men will never work in their field again.
Even anonymous whistleblowing is likely to be rare. To imagine why, suppose incontrovertible evidence was produced that one's employer was explicitly excluding white male candidates, and a lawsuit was filed. The employer's reputation and the reputation of all the employees there, including the white men still working there, would be tarnished. That said, we can expect to see more lawsuits from men who feel they have little to lose.
This ''Ask, Tell, Make'' framework, under various descriptions, is the method by which individuals with a vested interest in more diversity push their organizations toward their preferred outcome. Force begins requesting modest changes to recruiting to make it ''more fair.'' Force ends with the heavy-handed application of quotas and even exclusion. The American system is not a monolith, however, which means that the strength of the push and its effects on competency is not distributed evenly.
Competency Is Declining From the Core Outwards Think of the American system as a series of concentric rings with the government at the center. Directly surrounding that are the organizations that receive government funds, then the nonprofits that influence and are subject to policy, and finally business at the periphery. Since the era of the Manhattan Project and the Space Race, the state capacity of the federal government has been declining almost monotonically.
While this has occurred for a multitude of reasons, the steel girders supporting the competency of the federal government were the first to be exposed to the saltwater of the Civil Rights Act and related executive orders. Government agencies, which are in charge of overseeing all the other systems, have seen the quality of their human capital decline tremendously since the 1960s. While the damage to an agency like the Department of Agriculture may have long-term deadly consequences, the most immediate danger is at safety-critical agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The Air Traffic Control (ATC) system used in the U.S. relies on an intricate dance of visual or radar observation, transponders, and radio communication, all with the incredible challenge of keeping thousands of simultaneously moving planes from ever crashing into each other. Since air controlling is one of the only jobs that pays more than $100,000 per year and does not require a college diploma, it has been a popular career choice for individuals without a degree who nonetheless have an exceptionally good memory, attention span, visuospatial awareness, and logical skills. The Air Traffic Selection and Training (AT-SAT) Exam, a standardized test of those critical skills, was historically the primary barrier to entry for air controllers. As a consequence of the AT-SAT, as well as a preference for veterans with former air controller experience, 83 percent of air controllers in the U.S. were white men as of 2014.
That year, the FAA added a Biographical Questionnaire (BQ) to the screening process to tilt the applicant pool toward diverse candidates. Facing pushback in the courts from well-qualified candidates who were screened out, the FAA quietly backed away from the BQ and adopted a new exam, the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA). While the ATSA includes some questions similar to those of the BQ, it restored the test's focus on core air traffic skills. The importance of highly-skilled air controllers was made clear in the most deadly air disaster in history, the 1977 Tenerife incident. Two planes, one taking off and one taxiing, collided on the runway due to confusion between the captain of KLM 4805 and the Tenerife ATC. The crash, which killed 583 people, resulted in sweeping changes in aviation safety culture.
Recently, the tremendous U.S. record for air safety established since the 1970s has been fraying at the edges. The first three months of 2023 saw nine near-miss incidents at U.S. airports, one with two planes coming within 100 feet of colliding. This terrifying uptick from years prior resulted in the FAA and NTSB convening safety summits in March and May, respectively. Whether they dared to discuss root causes seems unlikely.
Given the sheer size of the U.S. military in both manpower and budget dollars, it should not come as a surprise that the diversity push has also affected the readiness of this institution. Following three completely avoidable collisions of U.S. Navy warships in 2017 and a fire in 2020 that resulted in the scuttling of USS Bonhomme Richard, a $750 million amphibious assault craft, two retired marines conducted off-the-record interviews with 77 current and retired Navy officers. One recurring theme was the prioritization of diversity training over ship handling and warfighting preparedness. Many of them openly admit that, given current issues, the U.S. would likely lose an open naval engagement with China. Instead of taking the criticism to heart, the Navy commissioned ''Task Force One Navy,'' which recommended deemphasizing or eliminating meritocratic tests like the Officer Aptitude Rating to boost diversity. Absent an existential challenge, U.S. military preparedness is likely to continue to degrade.
The decline in the capacity of government contractors is likewise obvious, with the largest contractors being the most directly impacted. The five largest contractors'--Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon Company, and Northrop Grumman'--will all struggle to maintain competency in the coming years.
Boeing, one of only two firms globally capable of mass-producing large airliners, has a particularly striking crisis unfolding in its institutional culture. Shortly after releasing the 737 MAX, 346 people died in two nearly identical 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The cause of the crashes was a complex interaction between design choices, cost-cutting led by MBAs, FAA issues, the MCAS flight-control system, a faulty sensor, and pilot training. Meanwhile, on the defense side of the business, Boeing's new fuel tanker, the KC-46A Pegasus is years behind on deliveries due to serious technical flaws with the fueling system along with multiple cases of Foreign Object Debris left inside the plane during construction: tools, a red plastic cap, and in one case, even trash. Between the issues at ATC and Boeing, damage to the U.S.'s phenomenal aviation safety record seems almost inevitable.
After government contractors, the next-most-affected class of institutions are nonprofit organizations. They are entrapped by the government whose policies they are subject to and trying to influence, the opinions of their donor base, and lack of any profit motive. The lifeblood of nonprofits is access to capital, either directly in the form of government grants or through donations that are deemed tax-deductible. Accessing federal monies means being subject to the full weight of U.S. diversity rules and regulations. Nonprofits are generally governed by boards whose members tend to overlap with the list of major donors. Because advocacy for diversity and board memberships are both high-status positions, unsurprisingly board members tend to voice favorable opinions of diversity, and those opinions flow downstream to the organizations they oversee.
Nonprofits'--including universities, charities, and foundations'--exist in an overlapping ecosystem with journalism, with individuals tending to freely circulate between the four. The activities of nonprofits are bound up in the same discourses shaped by current news and academic research, with all four reflecting the same general ideological consensus. Finally, lacking the profit motive, the decision-making processes of nonprofits are influenced by what will affect the status of the individuals within those organizations rather than what will affect profits. Within nonprofits, the cost of incompetent staffers is borne by ''stakeholders,'' rather than any one individual.
While all businesses subject to federal law must prioritize diversity over competency at some level, the problem is worse at publicly-traded corporations for reasons both obvious and subtle. The obvious reason is that larger companies present larger targets for EEOC actions and discrimination lawsuits with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. Corporations have logically responded by hiring large teams of HR professionals to preempt such lawsuits. Over the past several decades, HR has evolved from simply overseeing onboarding to involvement in every aspect of hiring, promotions, and firings, seeing them all through a political and regulatory lens.
The more subtle reason for pressure within publicly-traded companies is that they require ongoing relationships with a spiderweb of banks, credit ratings agencies, proxy advisory services, and most importantly, investors. Given that the loss of access to capital is an immediate death sentence for most businesses, the CEOs of publicly-traded companies tend to push diversity over competency even when the decline in firm performance is clear. CEOs would likely rather trade a small drag on profits margins than a potentially career-ending scandal from pushing back.
Whereas publicly-traded corporations nearly uniformly push diversity, privately-held businesses vary tremendously based on the views of their owners. Partnerships such as the Big Four accounting firms and top-tier management consultancies are high-status. High-status firms must regularly proclaim extensive support for diversity. While the firms tend to be highly selective, partnerships whose leadership is overwhelmingly white and male have generally capitulated to the zeitgeist and are cutting standards to hit targets. Firms often manage around this by hiring for diversity and then putting diversity hires into roles where they are the least likely to damage the firm or the brand. Somewhat counterintuitively, firms with diverse founders are often highly meritocratic, as the structure harnesses the founder's desire to make money and shields them from criticism on diversity issues.
The most notable example of a diverse meritocracy is Vista Equity Partners, the large private equity firm founded by Robert F. Smith, America's wealthiest black man. Robert F. Smith is one of the most vocal advocates for and philanthropists to historically black U.S. colleges and universities. It would be reasonable to expect Vista to prioritize diversity over competency in its portfolio companies. However, Vista has instead been profiled for giving all portfolio company management teams the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test and ruthlessly culling low-performers. Given the amount of value to be created by promoting the best people into leadership roles of their portfolio companies, one might imagine this to be low-hanging fruit for the rest of private equity, yet Vista is an outlier. Why Vista can apply the CCAT without a public outcry is obvious.
The other firms that tend to still focus on competency are those that are small and private. Such firms have two key advantages: they fall below the fifteen-employee threshold for the most onerous EEOC rules and the owner can usually directly observe the performance of everyone inside the organization. Within small firms, underperformance is usually obvious. Tech startups, being both small and private, would seem to have the right structure to prioritize competency.
The American System Is Cracking Promoting diversity over competency does not simply affect new hires and promotion decisions. It also affects the people already working inside of America's systems. Morale and competency inside U.S. organizations are declining. Those who understand that the new system makes it hard or impossible for them to advance are demoralized, affecting their performance. Even individuals poised to benefit from diversity preferences notice that better people are being passed over and the average quality of their team is declining. High performers want to be on a high-performing team. When the priorities of their organizations shift away from performance, high performers respond negatively.
This effect was likely seen in a recent paper by McDonald, Keeves, and Westphal. The paper points out that white male senior leaders reduce their engagement following the appointment of a minority CEO. While it is possible that author Ijeoma Oluo is correct, and that white men have so much unconscious bias raging inside of them that the appointment of a diverse CEO sends them into a tailspin of resentment, there is another more plausible explanation. When boards choose diverse CEOs to make a political statement, high performers who see an organization shifting away from valuing honest performance respond by disengaging.
Some demoralized employees'--like James Damore in his now-famous essay, ''Google's Ideological Echo Chamber'''--will directly push back against pro-diversity arguments. Like James, they will be fired. Older, demoralized workers, especially those who are mere years from retirement, are unlikely to point out the decline in competency and risk it costing them their jobs. Those who have a large enough nest egg may simply retire to avoid having to deal with the indignity of having to attend another Inclusive Leadership seminar.
As older men with tacit knowledge either retire or are pushed out, the burden of maintaining America's complex systems will fall on the young. Lower-performing young men angry at the toxic mix of affirmative action (hurting their chances of admission to a ''good school'') and credentialism (limiting the ''good jobs'' to graduates of ''good schools'') are turning their backs on college and white-collar work altogether.
This is the continuation of a trend that began over a decade ago. High-performing young men will either collaborate, coast, or downshift by leaving high-status employment altogether. Collaborators will embrace ''allyship'' to attempt to bolster their chances of getting promoted. Coasters realize that they need to work just slightly harder than the worst individual on their team. Their shirking is likely to go unnoticed and they are unlikely to feel enough emotional connection to the organization to raise alarm when critical mistakes are being made. The combination of new employees hired for diversity, not competence, and the declining engagement of the highly competent sets the stage for failures of increasing frequency and magnitude.
The modern U.S. is a system of systems interacting together in intricate ways. All these complex systems are simply assumed to work. In February of 2021, cold weather in Texas caused shutdowns at unwinterized natural gas power plants. The failure rippled through the systems with interlocking dependencies. As a result, 246 people died. In straightforward work, declining competency means that things happen more slowly, and products are lower quality or more expensive. In complex systems, declining competency results in catastrophic failures.
To understand why, one must understand the concept of a ''normal accident.'' In 1984, Charles Perrow, a Yale sociologist, published the book, Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies . In this book, Perrow lays out the theory of normal accidents: when you have systems that are both complex and tightly coupled, catastrophic failures are unavoidable and cannot simply be designed around. In this context, a complex system is one that has many components that all need to interact in a specified way to produce the desired outcome. Complex systems often have relationships that are nonlinear and contain feedback loops. Tightly-coupled systems are those whose components need to move together precisely or in a precise sequence.
The 1979 Three Mile Island Accident was used as a case study: a relatively minor blockage of a water filter led to a cascading series of malfunctions that culminated in a partial meltdown. In A Demon of Our Own Design, author Richard Bookstaber added two key contributions to Perrow's theory: first, that it applies to financial markets, and second, that regulation intended to fix the problem may make it worse.
The biggest shortcoming of the theory is that it takes competency as a given. The idea that competent organizations can devolve to a level where the risk of normal accidents becomes unacceptably high is barely addressed. In other words, rather than being taken as absolutes, complexity and tightness should be understood to be relative to the functionality of the people and systems that are managing them. The U.S. has embraced a novel question: what happens when the men who built the complex systems our society relies on cease contributing and are replaced by people who were chosen for reasons other than competency?
The answer is clear: catastrophic normal accidents will happen with increasing regularity. While each failure is officially seen as a separate issue to be fixed with small patches, the reality is that the whole system is seeing failures at an accelerating rate, which will lead in turn to the failure of other systems. In the case of the Camp Fire that killed 85 people, PG&E fired its CEO, filed Chapter 11, and restructured. The system's response has been to turn off the electricity and raise wildfire insurance premiums. This has resulted in very little reflection. The more recent coronavirus pandemic was another teachable moment. What started just three years ago with a novel respiratory virus has caused a financial crisis, a bubble, soaring inflation, and now a banking crisis in rapid succession.
Patching the specific failure mode is simultaneously too slow and induces unexpected consequences. Cascading failures overwhelm the capabilities of the system to react. 20 years ago, a software bug caused a poorly-managed local outage that led to a blackout that knocked out power to 55 million people and caused 100 deaths. Utilities were able to restore power to all 55 million people in only four days. It is unclear if they could do the same today. U.S. cities would look very different if they remained without power for even two weeks, especially if other obstructions unfolded. What if emergency supplies sat on trains immobilized by fuel shortages due to the aforementioned pipeline shutdown? The preference for diversity over competency has made our system of systems dangerously fragile.
Americans living today are the inheritors of systems that created the highest standard of living in human history. Rather than protecting the competency that made those systems possible, the modern preference for diversity has attenuated meritocratic evaluation at all levels of American society. Given the damage already done to competence and morale combined with the natural exodus of baby boomers with decades worth of tacit knowledge, the biggest challenge of the coming decades might simply be maintaining the systems we have today.
The path of least resistance will be the devolution of complex systems and the reduction in the quality of life that entails. For the typical resident in a second-tier city in Mexico, Brazil, or South Africa, power outages are not uncommon, tap water is probably not safe to drink, and hospital-associated infections are common and often fatal. Absent a step change in the quality of American governance and a renewed culture of excellence, they prefigure the country's future.
Harold Robertson is an asset class head and institutional investor at a multi-billion dollar pool of capital.
Blinken Says Spy Balloon Incident Is Water Under The Bridge | The Daily Caller
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 15:33
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview with NBC News on Monday that the U.S. has moved past its spy balloon dustup with China from earlier in 2023.
Blinken told NBC's Janis Mackey Frayer in Beijing ''that chapter should be closed,'' referring to the deterioration of relations that occurred after a Chinese spy balloon was caught flying across the United States in February. Blinken's trip to China to meet with top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials had originally been scheduled around the same time the balloon was discovered, but was rescheduled as a result.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told me his Beijing visit marked an 'important start' in stabilizing relations with #China. Does that mean the spy balloon incident is water under the bridge? 'That chapter should be closed,' he said. More from our interview on '...'...@MSNBC'(C) pic.twitter.com/laHzj18ldS
'-- Janis Mackey Frayer (@janisfrayer) June 19, 2023
''It's a good and I think important start,'' Blinken added, saying that the frayed relationship between Washington and Beijing couldn't be repaired with a single visit.
China's spy balloon was first discovered near Alaska. It then crossed into Montana before traveling all the way across North America until it moved off the coast of the Carolinas, where the Biden administration ordered it to be shot down. The State Department postponed Blinken's trip, scheduled for the same week the balloon was crossing the country, saying the ''conditions weren't right'' for a productive meeting between Blinken and CCP brass.
At the time, Blinken and President Joe Biden claimed the incident was a flagrant violation of American sovereignty that wouldn't be tolerated. Now, America's top diplomat is taking a different tact.
''We said what we needed to say and made clear what we needed to make clear in terms of this not happening again, and so long as it doesn't, that chapter should be closed,'' he said to NBC. (RELATED: New Evidence Of Chinese Military 'Shadow Labs' At Wuhan Institute Of Virology)
Blinken was largely deferential to China during meetings with President Xi Jinping and foreign policy czar Wang Yi, according to later comments and both sides' readouts of the discussions. China once again refused to establish an emergency line of communications between the two countries' militaries, and Blinken complied with Wang's demand that the U.S. oppose Taiwanese independence.
How Spotify's podcast plan went off the rails - The Verge
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 15:07
This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.
If you're lucky enough to be in the South of France this week for Cannes Lions (basically the less cool, advertiser and brands-focused counterpart to the film festival), you may be tempted to spend some time with Spotify. The company has pulled together an extravagant four-day program of sound baths, beach-side mixers, masterclasses on podcasting, and panels with Spotify leadership and high-profile podcast hosts like Emma Chamberlain and Alex Cooper. Attendees on Tuesday evening were serenaded on ''Spotify Beach'' by Florence and the Machine, Will.i.am, and Jack Harlow.
But anywhere else, you may be wary of getting too close to the streaming audio company. In the past week, Joe Rogan '-- the man responsible for delivering an outsize portion of Spotify's podcast ad revenue '-- invited an anti-vaxxer presidential candidate on his show. The same day, a $20 million podcast deal with a certain royal couple fell apart, which was followed by a top executive calling the duo a pair of ''fucking grifters'' on his own podcast. And that all follows two rounds of layoffs in 2023 alone, the latter of which primarily focused on Spotify's podcast division.
Spotify knows something is wrong with its podcast strategy '-- and these past few weeks have proved it. The company's missteps reveal how fundamentally different the formula of success is in podcasts from film, video games, books, and even music. Franchises, IP, and name recognition can be enough to deliver a hit across many different mediums. But in the world of podcasts, a series from an acclaimed filmmaker, best-selling author, or even a former president can barely register on the charts. And after years of chasing this hit-making strategy, it all seems to be falling apart.
One pillar of Spotify's podcast strategy was meant to be originals from its in-house studios. Spotify spent big to acquire two of the best: Parcast and Gimlet, the latter of which won a Pulitzer for its reporting earlier this year. Gimlet and Parcast also produced the kind of prestige, narrative podcasts that Hollywood studios loved to snatch up for IP.
Yet despite coming with their own excellent staffs and built-in audiences, Spotify's lack of direction and knowledge of the podcasting space proved to be a death sentence for Gimlet and Parcast. The studios failed to attract large audiences and develop hit new shows. Shows didn't get the right marketing or support from Spotify. Keeping certain podcasts exclusive to Spotify meant a drop in audience.
This culminated in the platform axing over 200 roles throughout Gimlet and Parcast earlier this month and absorbing what remained into Spotify Studios.
Look at how happy the company has been to trash-talk Archewell's work
The next pillar of Spotify's podcast strategy was splashy, usually celebrity-driven originals. Some of these have worked out, like the Batman Unburied podcast by David S. Goyer or the Case 63 scripted drama with Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac. But many have not.
Last week, Spotify's most troubled celebrity deal '-- with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's production company, Archewell Audio '-- came to an anticlimactic end. Under the deal, Archewell should have produced multiple projects. But reports suggest that the couple couldn't (or wouldn't) deliver, and the deal only yielded a 12-episode interview podcast and a holiday special episode. The lack of output led to the $20 million deal's demise, and the couple reportedly didn't receive the full payout.
To demonstrate just how messy Spotify's relationship with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex became, look at how happy the company has been to trash-talk Archewell's work. In a comment to Hot Pod last week, Spotify spokesperson Emily Yeomans pointed out the studio's lack of output. ''We can't comment on the specifics of how their deal was structured but for reference Higher Ground has continued to deliver multiple new series, even since launching their partnership with Audible. In the 2.5 years, Archewell only produced one season of Archetypes,'' Yeomans said.
Bill Simmons, Spotify's head of podcast innovation and monetization, also proceeded to blast the couple on his show, calling them a pair of ''grifters.'' He also teased a drunk reenactment of a disastrous Zoom brainstorming sesh with Prince Harry.
I (and very many others) would pay serious money to listen to Simmons tell that story. But his anecdote comes off just as bad for Spotify as it does for the duke and duchess, suggesting that Spotify signed the royals to a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal without knowing whether they'd actually be good at creating podcasts or what those podcasts would be about. The company reportedly had to cajole them to get anything out the door.
Prior to the Archewell fallout, Spotify's deals with several other high-profile, star-driven studios and creators came to an end, including Higher Ground, Bren(C) Brown, and Ava DuVernay. Barack and Michelle Obama's production company Higher Ground opted not to renew its contract with Spotify last year, citing a desire to no longer have its shows locked to one platform. A multiyear exclusive deal with DuVernay didn't lead to a single podcast '-- both parties also cut ties last year.
One problem is that none of these people '-- from former presidents to filmmakers to bestselling authors '-- were able to deliver sure-fire podcast hits. Even a podcast hosted by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen ended up putting people to sleep.
This cascading series of events says a lot about the unwieldy nature of Spotify's podcast business
Those deals all had the goal of eventually bringing new listeners to Spotify, but perhaps one celebrity deal was a strategic pillar unto itself: Joe Rogan, who hosts the most widely listened-to podcast in the country.
Rogan has regularly caused headaches for Spotify since it signed him for $200 million in 2020 '-- artists like Neil Young threatened to leave the platform, and employees and advertisers voiced concerns '-- but he'd largely stayed off the radar for a bit until last week. On Thursday, Rogan published a three-hour conversation with anti-vaxxer presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., where the latter suggested that vaccines cause autism and 5G causes cancer, Motherboard reported. Clips of the episode quickly gained a new life on anti-vax social media, where it became the topic du jour.
Things came to a head when Rogan began responding to critics on Twitter, many of whom accused the podcast host of spreading misinformation. After Dr. Peter Hotez, a prominent children's pediatrician, quote tweeted the Motherboard story, Rogan began challenging him to prove his claims. He tweeted at Hotez multiple times, asking the vaccine expert to debate Kennedy on his show and offering a $100,000 donation in exchange.
Hotez finally gave in, tweeting out, ''Joe, you have my cell, my email, I'm always willing to speak with you.''
But Rogan was not satisfied with Hotez's response, quote tweeting it and deeming it a ''non'' answer. ''I challenged you publicly because you publicly quote tweeted and agreed with that dogshit vice article. If you're really serious about what you stand for, you now have a massive opportunity for a debate that will reach the largest audience a discussion like this has ever had,'' he wrote.
Wealthy entrepreneurs seem to have a lot of time for Twitter. Elon Musk joined in on the goading, and Mark Cuban leapt to Hotez's defense. Both Rogan and Musk's supporters lashed out at Hotez, subjecting the doctor to hours of online harassment and prompting an unwanted visit by anti-vaxxers to his personal residence. Spotify has not yet responded to The Verge's request for comment on these events. Rogan recently upped his offer to Hotez to $600,000.
This cascading series of events says a lot about the unwieldy nature of Spotify's podcast business, which is still driven mostly by the former host of Fear Factor. Not even a compilation video of Rogan saying the n-word nearly two dozen times got him kicked off the platform. It's a lot of power for one creator to yield.
As those pillars of Spotify's podcast strategy continue to falter, Spotify seems to be shifting its attention to one big '-- and much more obviously lucrative '-- remaining element: its ability to sell ads.
Earlier this month, Spotify's head of podcasts, Sahar Elhabashi, wrote in a memo about the company's ''next phase'' in podcasting, which would focus on ''delivering even more value'' for creators and users '-- including upgrading its ad tools and business models for podcasters. We started to get a sense of how that'll play out at Cannes this week.
First off is the news that Spotify will partner with former Daily Show host Trevor Noah to launch a weekly Spotify Original podcast.
''I think what I love most about [...podcasts], unlike many other mediums, is that it's flexible, it's elastic. You can play with what you need to. You can create worlds where you want to. You can shape it as you see fit. And I think there are few spaces in media that still possess that,'' Noah said onstage.
''I think what I love most about [...podcasts], unlike many other mediums, is that it's flexible, it's elastic.''
But the ''flexibility'' of the podcasting medium is where some of Spotify's troubles lie. Spotify isn't selling anything that's unique in the world of podcasting. And that may be why Spotify's strategy around content is shifting: while Trevor Noah's podcast '-- due later this year '-- will be a Spotify Original, it won't be exclusive to the platform. This will be a win for Noah's podcast, which will gain more exposure. But it's also a pivot for Spotify, which has kept many of its original shows in its walled garden.
''Spotify is in a very unique position of figuring out how to make things work in a way that will benefit them. But they haven't done it yet,'' podcast strategist Eric Nuzum told Hot Pod.
According to Nuzum, until Spotify figures out what makes its platform stand out from competitors like Apple, Stitcher, SiriusXM, and others, it won't matter who they sign up. The company is still far from the most popular platform for podcasts. That distinction belongs to YouTube, while Apple Podcasts has the largest number of downloads (thanks largely to its automatic downloads feature) '-- accounting for 71 percent of downloads, compared to Spotify's 9 percent, according to Podtrac figures from March.
''Spotify loves to throw out a lot of numbers about how big they've grown, and I think they deserve some credit for that,'' Nuzum said. But he added that if you speak to most creators, they would say about 50 to 60 percent of their downloads come from Apple Podcasts '-- while Spotify may account for a little less than a quarter.
It's just another reminder that Spotify has yet to dominate the podcast market '-- despite its record investment. ''Someone joked to me the other day that Spotify spent a billion dollars to become Acast,'' said Nuzum, referring to another Swedish podcasting company.
Spotify's Ad Analytics tool, which it unveiled this month, speaks to its increased focus on ad dollars and its need to deliver value to creators. Recruiting talented creators is hard, and ad businesses remain the real moneymaker behind any hit. Among Ad Analytics' offerings is Pixel, a new ad-tracking tool that helps advertisers track leads and find out which podcasts drove the most purchases. Spotify is also reported to be launching a super premium audio tier, which will include HiFi audio, expanded audiobook access, and other perks that could make it a bigger draw for listeners.
But until then, Joe Rogan is still what differentiates Spotify's podcast business from Apple, Amazon, iHeartPodcasts, SiriusXM, Stitcher, and all the rest. Despite everything Spotify has done and the money it has spent '-- the litany of new content deals, technology acquisitions, and awards '-- the former Fear Factor host still remains Spotify's numero uno draw for podcasts. But the relationship between the two isn't a healthy one of mutual dependence.
''Who knows what the future is going to be for Joe Rogan and Spotify? I don't think Joe Rogan needs Spotify. But I think Spotify's ad business would hurt without Joe Rogan,'' said Nuzum.
''[...Rogan's show is] the only thing they have. It's so much bigger than anything else.''
''Unfortunately, when Spotify makes big moves, it has a big ripple effect across the podcasting industry.''
Rogan can go anywhere with his show, taking a large portion of Spotify's revenue with him, which means that Spotify's most lucrative deal is also its biggest weakness, with the possibility of collapsing on any given day. And whatever happens to Spotify will impact the rest of the audio industry.
''You want businesses to take risks and try crazy things '-- because that's where great ideas are found. Unfortunately, when Spotify makes big moves, it has a big ripple effect across the podcasting industry,'' said Nuzum.
Orca rams into yacht off Shetland in first such incident in northern waters | Cetaceans | The Guardian
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:55
An orca repeatedly rammed a yacht in the North Sea off Shetland on Monday, in a concerning development following previous interactions between the cetaceans and vessels in the strait of Gibraltar and Portugal.
Dr Wim Rutten, a 72-year-old retired Dutch physicist and experienced yachtsperson, was sailing solo from Lerwick to Bergen in Norway. He was fishing for mackerel, with a single line off the back of the boat, when the orca suddenly appeared in the clear water, and hit the stern of the seven-ton boat.
''I said: 'Shit!''' Rutten, who said he had heard about the ''Portuguese accidents'', told the Guardian. The whale hit again and again, creating ''soft shocks'' through the aluminium hull.
''What I felt [was] most frightening was the very loud breathing of the animal,'' he said. The orca stayed behind the boat ''looking for the keel. Then he disappeared ... but came back at fast speed, twice or thrice ... and circled a bit.
''Maybe he just wanted to play. Or look me in the eyes. Or to get rid of the fishing line.''
This is the same behaviour that has been seen in the Iberian orca population, but it is the first time it has been known to happen in northern waters.
Highly social cetaceans, orcas (also known as killer whales) use complex vocalisations to communicate and to hunt for food, from small fish to blue whales. They learn matrilineally, and post-menopausal females assume the greatest importance in individual pods. ''Grandmothers'' in the Iberian population have been seen observing during the interactions with yachts and other vessels.
Experts believe this could be play among juvenile orcas. Dr Alfredo L"pez, of the Grupo de Trabajo Orca Atlntica in Portugal, said: ''We know that many boats use fishing lines from the stern to fish and it is a motivation for orcas, they come to examine them.'' But the focus on boats' rudders may come from adult whales who have developed an aversion towards boats, perhaps because they ''had a bad experience and try to stop the boat so as not to repeat it''.
Most surprising is the fact that this learned behaviour should have appeared nearly 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Gibraltar. Dr Conor Ryan, a scientific adviser to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, who has studied orca pods off the Scottish coast, said: ''I'd be reluctant to say it cannot be learned from [the southern population]. It's possible that this 'fad' is leapfrogging through the various pods/communities.''
Ryan suggests there may be ''highly mobile pods that could transmit this behaviour a long distance''. L"pez thinks, however, ''that human activities, even in an indirect way, are at the origin of this behaviour''. Increased marine traffic, dwindling food sources, warming seas and noise pollution could all play a part.
skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Down to Earth
Free weekly newsletterThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion
Rutten added: ''Maybe the universe knows. We do not.''
Gen Z's trans poster-child Milo from 2016 MTV show reemerges, tearfully regretting hormone jabs | Daily Mail Online
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:44
Back in 2016, Milo was celebrated in the MTV documentary Transformation, at the start of her female-to-male gender change, trying out Hawaiian shirts and saying she felt 'invincible.'
Seven years later, and Milo has returned to the screen, as a female again, with a YouTube post about bitterly regretting a transition that's left her scarred, hairy and most likely infertile.
'It turned out to be a big mistake,' Milo says in the clip, which went online on Wednesday.
'I keep thinking about how, if I ever want to be perceived by society as a woman, I now have to do vocal training, and I need laser to get rid of my facial hair. But I'm just so tired.'
In recent weeks, Milo has stopped taking testosterone and regrets a transition that left her with painful medical problems
In MTV's 2016 documentary, Milo's mom, Kristin, said she was told that trans kids kill themselves unless they're supported by their parents
DailyMail.com cannot verify Milo's account, but her story echoes those from the growing number of teens who speedily make ill-conceived decisions to change gender, and later experience regret and medical problems.
When Milo appeared in the MTV documentary, she became a poster child for a transgender movement that was, back then, new to most Americans and not the hot-button political issue it is now.
Aged 16, she was one of six trans and non-binary young people from Los Angeles who posed for the camera and got a wardrobe and style makeover.
Milo had started receiving weekly testosterone shots and had changed her sex on official papers.
'I cannot imagine living my life as female,' Milo said in the show, wearing a plaid shirt.
Milo described the 'amazing feeling of relief that I get from thinking that never have to do anything feminine again for the rest of my life.'
Sitting beside him, Milo's supportive mom, Kristin, described the 'horror stories' she had heard about trans kids committing suicide.
In hindsight, those comments from Milo and Kristin were red flags.
Today, many parents complain that doctors and therapists bully them into affirming their child's decision to transition by suggesting that, without support, they would likely take their own lives.
Now Milo says she's 'ashamed' of the documentary and 'can't bear to watch' it.
Months after it was filmed, Milo had 'top surgery,' the surgical removal of her C-cup breasts.
Doctors gradually upped her testosterone dose. Over the years, it caused her vagina to atrophy '-- a common symptom of female-to-male transitioners, who experience dryness, irritation, and bleeding.
Due to the discomfort, last year, aged 21, she underwent a hysterectomy.
'I kind of just didn't care about my reproductive organs,' she said in the video post.
Aged 16, Milo became a poster child for a transgender movement that was, back then, new to many Americans
The documentary was classic MTV, endorsing and affirming the transition of its young protagonists
'In my head, I thought: "I don't need these organs because I'm a man.'"
Eight months later, she was back at the doctor.
Her ovaries had not been removed in the hysterectomy, but one of them had twisted, ruptured and 'died,' she said.
The other ovary 'might be healthy,' she added.
Amid these mounting medical problems, Milo stopped taking testosterone this month.
She complains about mood swings, her receding hairline, deeper voice, chubby features, and hairy belly that needs regular shaving.
'I'm a lot fatter and uglier than I used to be,' she said.
Milo looks back and accounts for her teenage mistake.
She says she was vulnerable, autistic, shy and socially awkward '-- all hallmarks of adolescent girls who come out as trans.
'I had these huge breasts,' she said.
'I just hated how I was seen. I didn't like how I was looked at by boys. It made me very self-conscious.'
She found radical gender ideology online and came to believe her boyishness was really gender dysphoria.
Doctors and therapists affirmed the change with hormones 'fast' and 'easily,' she said.
'What I've done to my appearance and my body has almost been a survival tactic or a form of protection against unwanted attention from men,' she said.
Trans people inject hormones to change their appearance to match the sex they identify with
The scars on the chest of a biological female patient one year after a double breast removal
The number of young Americans who experience gender dysphoria and seek puberty blockers, hormones and even surgery has shot up in recent years.
Prescriptions for puberty-blocking drugs among under-18s doubled between 2017 and 2021, while scripts for hormone therapies have seen a similar rise, reports from health insurers show.
The rise is much more pronounced among girls. The number of top surgeries performed on girls under 18 has risen 13-fold in the past decade, says a study from California.
Advocates for gender-affirming care, as it is known, say the rise is due to more awareness of gender dysphoria and support among clinicians.
But some experts, conservatives, and parents warn of an ideologically-driven fad.
Republicans have passed laws against sex-reassignment care for children in 20 states this year.
Many have been challenged in the courts. A federal judge struck down the Arkansas law as unconstitutional in a landmark ruling on Tuesday.
It's not known exactly how many people change their minds and de-transition, but estimates range from between 1 and 25 percent of trans people.
Detransition Subreddit, a popular online forum, has some 48,100 followers.
Against this backdrop, Milo says she doesn't want her 'story to be politicized.'
'I believe that trans people obviously do exist. And there are hundreds, thousands, or millions of trans people who did transition and felt like it was the solution, and now they're much happier,' she said.
'For me, it wasn't the solution.'
Britain has seen an extra 100,000 heart attack and stroke deaths since the pandemic | Daily Mail Online
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:28
It is more than 500 extra deaths a week over expectation since start of CovidMore than half the excess deaths involving CVD came in first year of pandemic By Katie Pickles Health Editor For The Daily Mail
Published: 19:01 EDT, 21 June 2023 | Updated: 19:01 EDT, 21 June 2023
Almost 100,000 people have died needlessly from heart attacks and strokes since the start of the pandemic, a report revealed yesterday.
The British Heart Foundation said continuing disruption to the NHS and the fallout from Covid has left the country in the 'grip of a heart and stroke care emergency'.
Its analysis of official data found there have been more excess deaths involving cardiovascular disease (CVD) than any other condition '' with 96,540 since March 2020.
That's more than 500 extra deaths a week over and above what would be expected for heart disease since the start of Covid.
BHF chief executive Dr Charmaine Griffiths said: 'It is deeply troubling that so many more people with CVD have lost their lives over the last three years.'
Almost 100,000 people have died needlessly from heart attacks and strokes since the start of the pandemic, a report revealed yesterday. (file image)
The British Heart Foundation said continuing disruption to the NHS and the fallout from Covid has left the country in the 'grip of a heart and stroke care emergency'
She added that it was 'clear we are firmly in the grip of a heart and stroke care emergency', and warned: 'If little changes, we could continue to see a sustained rise in death rates.'
Airports raise cardio danger Living near an airport could raise the risk of hea r t attacks and related problems, suggest researchers.
Hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases among residents whose homes are under Heathrow's flight paths were analysed by a team led by Imperial College London.
They found 'evidence of a small increase in risk' of being admitted among those who had experienced higher noise the night before, according to a paper published in online journal Environment International. The study said aircraft noise has been found to disrupt sleep and raise blood pressure and stress hormone levels.
More than half the excess deaths involving CVD came in the first year of the pandemic, with Covid known to cause heart and circulatory problems.
The data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities showed these fell dramatically in the second year '' March 2021/22 '' but rebounded during the following 12 months.
Experts said continuing disruption to NHS heart care was likely to be behind the spike, with strikes leading to further delays.
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the BHF, said Covid 'no longer fully explained the significant' excess deaths involving CVD, adding that 'extreme and unrelenting pressure' on the NHS was a factor.
The number of people waiting for time-sensitive cardiac care was at a record of nearly 390,000 at the end of April, according to latest figures.
Professor John Greenwood, president of the British Cardiovascular Society, called for 'urgent prioritisation of CVD prevention and treatment'.
A government spokesman said: 'We are cutting waiting lists, ambulance response times are falling, staff increasing and we are improving access to blood pressure and health checks.
'We know there is more to do which is why we are consulting on a Major Conditions Strategy to tackle CVD.'
Parents of pupils who think they are cats 'insist on their children's identity being... - LBC
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:08
22 June 2023, 09:44
Katharine Birbalsingh says parents sometimes insist on children's identities being respected. Picture: Getty/Alamy The parents of children who believe they are cats tell teachers that their children's identities must be respected, according to 'Britain's toughest headteacher'.
Katharine Birbalsingh, the founder and headteacher of the ultra-strict Michaela community school in north-west London, said that parents have told her to stop making critical comments about children identifying as other animals.
It comes after an uproar over a school in East Sussex where a 13-year-old girl was labelled 'despicable' by a teacher for not accepting her classmate's identity as a cat.
Ms Birbalsingh, who told a conservative conference last month that people had "no idea just had bad things are in schools", said on Nick Ferrari's LBC show on Thursday that she had been sent messages by parents telling her to stop speaking out on the issue.
Asked by Nick if children identifying as different animals was just an example of teenagers acting out and pushing boundaries, Ms Birbalsingh said: "Yes, but there are some parents who insist on this being respected.
Read more: 'Adult authority is long gone': 'UK's toughest headteacher' warns of 'cat' students wearing tails and ears to class
Katharine Birbalsingh. Picture: Alamy"So as opposed to saying 'come on you're not a cat, let's get on with things', the parents come in and say 'you must respect my child's wishes to identify as this'."
She added: "That is definitely going on. In fact I've heard from parents directly on Twitter where they DM me and say 'you don't recognise this'... it's wrong for you to be saying the things that you're saying'. Which is, I'm saying that these children are not cats."
Asked by Nick what a teacher should do if a child tells them they identify as a cat, Ms Birbalsingh said it was difficult, because staff don't necessarily know what their school's position on the issue is.
School leaders don't always have it easier, she said, because the Department for Education hasn't offered clear guidance.
No child has yet said they identify as a different animal at Michaela. But pressed by Nick on how she would react if a boy said he was a horse, Ms Birbalsingh replied that she would say "you're being silly and let's have a conversation."
But she added that "if this is a genuine mental health issue, then clearly we need to bring in support for that child."
Ms Birbalsingh runs Michaela Community School. Picture: AlamySpeaking at the NatCon conference last month, Ms Birbalsingh said that "adult authority is long gone" in some schools, despite them playing "vital and crucial roles" in shaping children's futures.
She told the audience: "Do you know that some kids identify as 'furries'?
"Elon Musk is correct - you all have no idea just how bad things are in schools and you ignore the vital and crucial roles schools play in shaping our society's culture.
"There are kids right now, in some schools, with tails and ears pinned to their heads and bottoms.
"This isn't fancy dress, they identify as cats, you see.
"Kids aren't allowed to wear trainers to school but they are allowed to wear ears and tails because that's their chosen identity.
"That's how they feel they belong. Adult authority is long gone."
'Let boys be boys, and girls be girls!' says Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern
Her comments come after a teacher at Rye College in East Sussex, branded a pupil "despicable" after she refused to accept a classmate's claim that she "identifies as a cat."
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, has weighed into the row and ordered an investigation into the school.
The Telegraph reported that, at other schools, teachers are allowing children to identify as horses, dinosaurs and even moons.
At a state secondary school in Wales, one student is said to "meow" when asked questions by a teacher, rather than answering in English.
On Tuesday Downing Street told headteachers that they should not be teaching children that they can identify as cats or other animals.
Read more: Teacher brands schoolgirl 'despicable' after she refuses to accept classmate's claim that she 'identifies as a cat'
Read more: School that allowed pupil to identify as cat facing 'pupil safety' investigation
A source close to Mrs Keegan told the newspaper said: ''Teachers should not be teaching contested ideology as fact. They must have due regard to safeguarding if a pupil identifies as an animal.''
The Telegraph reports she has ordered the Department for Education's regional director for the South East to visit Rye College and investigate whether pupils' safety has been put at risk.
Parent and campaigner reacts to pupil identifying as a cat
The mother of one of the girls hit back, saying: "I'm so proud of my daughter, she will always stand up for what she believes is right and this is all that she did.
"She expressed a view that many, many of her classmates and their parents would share yet she was shouted down and bullied by someone in authority."
She continued: "For that teacher to tell her to leave and go to another school if she didn't like what she was being told made my blood boil. What kind of welcome is that for a 13-year-old girl.
The mother, who asked to remain anonymous, told the MailOnline that her daughter and her friend "put their views across and clashed with another girl in the class who identifies as a cat".
"My daughter told the teacher that what they were learning was ridiculous and the girl identifying as a cat tried to argue that it wasn't and that anyone could identify as anything.
"As she said that my daughter replied ''so If I identify as a kangaroo then I can say I'm a kangaroo?!''
"Some of the others in the class started laughing and the girl who thinks she's a cat started crying. My daughter and her friend were told to stay after the class and were given a warning to stop and toe the line.
The teacher claimed she would report the girl, 13, to school leaders after a row sparked by the student's questioning of her fellow pupil's identity.
The argument took place on Friday afternoon in a class on 'life education', where students were told that "who you want to be and how you identify is up to you''.
One student asked a classmate: "How can you identify as a cat when you're a girl?"
During the row, of which an audio recording was made, the teacher is heard to say: "How dare you '' you've just really upset someone" by "questioning their identity".
Parents reacted angrily, with some criticising the teacher for appearing to shut down the classroom debate.
A spokesman for Rye College said: "We are committed to offering our pupils an inclusive education. Teachers endeavour to ensure that pupils' views are listened to, and encourage them to ask questions and engage in discussion. Teachers also aim to answer questions sensitively and honestly.
"We strive to uphold the highest standards across the school. We will be reviewing our processes and working with the relevant individuals to ensure such events do not take place in the future.''
A spokesman for Rishi Sunak said children should not be taught ''contested opinions as fact'', and said they should not be influenced by the ''personal views'' of teachers when discussing transgender issues.
He said: ''It's important parents and carers are reassured that children aren't being influenced by personal views of those teaching them. Any example that strays from this would be wrong and we would expect headteachers to act.''
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said children identifying as cats was "ridiculous".
School which allowed child to identify as a cat faces Government investigation
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:07
A school at the centre of a row over children identifying as animals is facing a Government investigation, The Telegraph can reveal.
A teacher at Rye College, a state secondary in East Sussex, was recorded telling a pupil who refused to accept her classmate was a cat that she was despicable.
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, is understood to have ordered an investigation into the school.
The Telegraph has revealed that at other schools teachers are allowing children to identify as horses, dinosaurs and even moons.
On Tuesday Downing Street told headteachers that they should not be teaching children that they can identify as cats or other animals.
A source close to Mrs Keegan said: ''Teachers should not be teaching contested ideology as fact. They must have due regard to safeguarding if a pupil identifies as an animal.''
It is understood that she has ordered the Department for Education's regional director for the South East to visit Rye College and investigate whether pupils' safety has been put at risk.
Pupils were told they would be reported to a senior school leader for refusing to affirm their classmate's preferred feline identity. The teacher said they had ''really upset'' the ''cat'' by telling them ''you're a girl''.
After the pupils said they believed there are only two genders, the teacher said: ''Why do you think we have so many problems in the world with homophobia?''
The Telegraph can reveal that teaching assistants at other schools are taking children who identify as horses out cantering and feeding strips of meat to those who consider themselves to be dinosaurs.
On Tuesday a spokesman for Rishi Sunak said children should not be taught ''contested opinions as fact'', and said they should not be influenced by the ''personal views'' of teachers when discussing transgender issues.
He said: ''It's important parents and carers are reassured that children aren't being influenced by personal views of those teaching them. Any example that strays from this would be wrong and we would expect headteachers to act.''
Tory backbenchers have urged the Prime Minister to ban children from being allowed to change their pronouns at school in the wake of the row.
Nadhim Zahawi, the former education secretary, said: ''It is clear to everyone that schools need to stop the spread of this damaging nonsense. The Government should make it clear to schools that they will be supported in standing up to the increasingly farcical examples that get in the way of teaching our children and preparing them for the real world. We should let kids be kids and stop them falling into the trap of identity politics.''
Priti Patel, the former home secretary, said: ''We need a bit of 'take back control' for parents.''
She added: ''Rishi needs to make good his pledge around relationships and sex education but this applies equally to issues on gender. I maintain that this issue is for parents, not schools, and that is what the Government's position should be.''
The Government has pledged to release new draft guidance on how to respond to pupils who identify as transgender before the end of term. An independent panel has also been appointed to review the DfE's sex education guidance and report back in the autumn.
Nick Hewlett, head of St Dunstan's College, a co-educational independent school in southeast London, said teachers have been forced to make ''individual judgements'' over children affirming different identities because of a lack of Government guidance.
'No guidance for schools is a recipe for disaster'Asked about children self-identifying as different genders or animals, he said that having no guidance was ''a recipe for disaster''.
''You need guidance around it, and the only way that you can do that is by relying on the Department for Education to provide it.
''If they don't provide it, where do schools go? They rely on just the individual judgement of individual teachers, all of whom will have their own slightly different view over how it should be approached and the extent to which they're prepared to accept it or not.''
Stella O'Malley, a psychotherapist and director of Genspect, who works with vulnerable children, said: ''Teachers are working in a vacuum. They don't know much about this and, in a bid to be kind, they are going to cause long-term distress.
''If you are going to enable a child to be dehumanised, if they are using any pronoun that isn't 'he' or 'she', it's literally dehumanising them. I think it is something that they [teachers] will regret in the long term, when it emerges that they have been led by an ideology and it has no evidence base.''
'We're committed to offering inclusive education'A spokesperson for Rye College, said: ''Whilst we are not aware at this stage of any plans for a visit from the Department for Education, we will continue to keep them proactively updated on this situation and would of course support any enquiries they may have.
''We are committed to offering our pupils an inclusive education. Teachers endeavour to ensure that pupils' views are listened to, and encourage them to ask questions and engage in discussion. Teachers also aim to answer questions sensitively and honestly.
''We strive to uphold the highest standards across the school. We are reviewing our processes and working with the relevant individuals to ensure such events do not take place in the future.''
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ''We haven't heard about this arising as an issue in schools. There are nine million children in England's schools so it is not surprising that all sorts of things crop up in discussions in classrooms. Teachers and leaders are very good at dealing with whatever situation arises.''
12ft | Lab-grown chicken is one step closer to being sold in the US | CNN Business
Mark Zuckerberg goes in for the kill as Elon Musk's Twitter bleeds ad dollars
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 12:59
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.
Thank you for using nginx.
12ft | TikTok acknowledges that some Americans' data are stored in China
12ft | John Kerry hit with ethics complaint over 'inaccurate' climate death toll claims | Washington Examiner
EXCLUSIVE: Whistleblower exposes hospital for performing genital sex change surgeries on minors
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 04:04
Kaiser Permanente , a healthcare company with hospitals across the United States, issued a mandatory training course for all Kaiser employees in Southern California. The course covered topics on ''gender-affirming care,'' which included information on mastectomies, hysterectomies, vaginoplasties, and phalloplasties. Internal documents indicated that these procedures are allowed to be performed on minors. The training also offered tips for proper binding and tucking.
Kaiser Permanente's homepage The presentation began with an introduction on The Platinum Rule: someone is the gender they say they are when they say they are regardless of their transition process. It also emphasized that gender-affirming surgeries or hormones are not necessary for one to transition. Essentially, Kaiser Medical is instructing its nurses to follow arbitrary guidelines rather than the science itself.
Slide from mandatory staff trainingNurses were also given information on which Kaiser hospitals perform gender-affirming surgeries and issue hormone therapy. Adolescents can get hysterectomies, orchiectomies and hormone therapy at all Kaiser locations. Genital and chest surgeries are offered at some of Kaiser's medical centers across California and Hawaii.
Slide from mandatory staff training The criteria for Mastectomies is minimal. Girls under the age of eighteen are eligible for the surgery, as long as they receive parental consent and one letter within twelve months. Hormone therapy is not required to undergo the procedure, but it is required for hysterectomies (removal of the uterus), and orchiectomies (removal of the testicles). Adolescents can also receive ''gender-affirming'' estrogen and testosterone therapy, which can affect fertility and sexual function, and might lead to health problems.
Slide from mandatory trainingSlide from mandatory training Slide from mandatory training Boys under eighteen years old are eligible to receive vaginoplasties if they have parental consent and have been on hormones for at least one year. Girls can get phalloplasties under the same guidelines. Many medical organizations, such as the Endocrine Society , advise against genital surgeries for minors, due to the irreversible nature of the procedure. Kaiser Medical believes minors are capable of making life-altering decisions, contrary to the belief of many medical professionals.
Slide from mandatory training Health advisors also warn against the side effects of binding and tucking. Binding is the practice where tissues on the chest are compressed to create a flatter appearance. Binding for long periods of time can cause damage to the chest and restrict breathing. In one slide, the hospital offers tips on how to properly bind one's chest and what materials to use for it. They also presented methods for safe tucking. This practice requires maneuvering the testicles, penis and scrotum to create a smoother crotch area. UTIs and skin irritation are common side effects of tucking, yet Kaiser Medical encourages this practice amongst its patients.
Slide from mandatory trainingSlide from mandatory trainingDr. Holly Hyokyung Kim is a transgender care physician at Kaiser Permanente's West Los Angeles Medical Center. Although she specialized in infectious disease care, Dr. Kim is now in charge of transgender care and has no background in general surgery, urology or endocrinology. In a discussion featured on Kaiser Permanente's Instagram page , Dr. Kim admits she received no training for transgender care while in medical school but ''jumped at the chance'' to join Kaiser Permanente's transgender care program when it first opened. She feels it is ''truly an honor'' to be alongside patients who choose to medically transition. Dr. Kim also believes that society has the responsibility to bring transgender people to the center of culture. ''We as a culture, as a society have now only started to acknowledge that gender diversity, sexual diversity, is just part of the beautiful mosaic that makes up human kind,'' she said.
Dr. Holly Kim in conversation with Kaiser Medical of Southern CaliforniaDr. Kim thanked Kaiser Permanente's executive leadership for its support in helping the institution lead the charge in providing gender-affirming care and ''show there is value'' in providing such services. Leaked internal documents reveal Dr. Kim authored patient instructions on various procedures, such as chest surgery, genital surgery and hormone therapy. She also provided instructional documents on vaginoplasties, valvuloplasties, penile prosthetics, and phalloplasties. More screenshots show internal communications on puberty blockers and ''how to support your TGD (transgender and gender-diverse) child''
Internal documents show transgender proceduresInternal documents show transgender proceduresMany staff members at Kaiser Medical admit they are horrified at the surgeries performed on children, but have no choice but to keep quiet or risk losing their jobs. Some fear that they would be labeled bigots if they brought up the amount of transgender complications they have witnessed over the years. Libs of TikTok reached out to Kaiser Permanente to inquire about the mandatory training and gain clarity on why Kaiser Medical performs life-altering surgeries on children, contrary to the recommendation of many medical professionals. We did not receive a response to our request for comment.
(20) Christopher F. Rufo '--¸ on Twitter: "A physician at a major children's hospital is blowing the whistle about transgender medicine, alleging that his colleagues have been captured by an ideology of "child sacrifice" and have "destroyed the lives of
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 02:00
Christopher F. Rufo '--¸ : A physician at a major children's hospital is blowing the whistle about transgender medicine, alleging that his col'... https://t.co/l58rPfyBiI
Wed Jun 21 21:19:10 +0000 2023
Chara Stone ð : @realchrisrufo Jesus Christ people. It's endocrine dysfunction from environmental causes. Replace the altered same'... https://t.co/YhrUJOvI1J
Thu Jun 22 01:57:12 +0000 2023
Chuck750ss : @realchrisrufo We have passed a point of no return. We fight back anyways we can. Period.
Thu Jun 22 01:53:48 +0000 2023
Lee : @realchrisrufo Me use big scary words to speak to people. Me thinks it will make them think something bad happening'... https://t.co/XpouYJFbED
Thu Jun 22 01:44:59 +0000 2023
Major fire in Paris leaves at least 7 in critical condition, officials say as they fight the blaze | Just The News
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 16:41
Smoke billowed over Paris on Wednesday, as at least seven people were left in critical condition after a building caught on fire and partially collapsed, officials said as firefighters battle the inferno.
The facade of the building, which housed the Paris American Academy, has collapsed, according to French outlet BMF TV.
Seven people were severely injured while nine others were in a state of "relative urgency," the outlet also reported, as translated.
Officials have advised people to avoid the area.
The fire was caused by a gas explosion, officials and witnesses said, according to Reuters, but other outlets, such as France 24, say the fire's origin is unknown.
Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
"These Are The Force That Are Putting A Constant Bid Under The Market" | ZeroHedge
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:23
By Larry McDonald, author of the Bear Traps report
With prescient flare, in 2012 our long-time friend Josh Brown, better known as the ''Reformed Broker'', wrote a piece called the relentless bid. He explained that mammoth asset managers like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are constantly buying stocks and holding on to them as opposed to trading in and out as fees-based accounts replaced transaction-based accounts. Josh has a good sniffer, this was the early stage of the passive investing torrent.
These days there are even larger forces at work that are putting a constant bid under the market. This is the interplay between the $11 Trillion of passive investments and the 0DTE index options, but it has created a ticking time bomb. There are alarming unintended consequences of mechanical buying by passives and the surging options volumes. Both work together in a self-reinforcing feedback loop to artificially distort risk indicators by suppressing volatility. Once again this is causing a massive buildup of one-sided, overcrowded long positions. In the past, this has led to vicious, almost disorderly sell-offs from time to time and it is bound to happen again.
The Ticking Time Bomb
Open interest in index options has soared to all-time highs. As dealers get lifted on calls in size (large banks offering options '' marking markets) '' they MUST buy stock (Apple, Tesla, Nvidia etc) in size to hedge their upside risk '' this helps trigger short covering. As stocks move higher, option market markets then have to buy even more stock. The gamma squeeze is on. Each day that passes by, chat rooms are now filled with MORE and MORE speculators '-- crowd-sourcing specific targets with the goal of triggering a FAR more intense SQUEEZE.
The Power of Passives
The cornerstone of this story is the growing dominance of passive investors. Today, passive investors are generally responsible for as much as 70% of all daily stock trading volumes. More importantly, they hold about 50% of all the assets in ETFs and mutual funds, equal to about $11 Trillion. Ten years ago, they held only $2.2 Trillion or 24% of assets and at the turn of the century this percentage was in the single digits. Assets at passive investors have exploded higher in recent years and many of these passive funds are not managed by portfolio managers or any human being for that matter. Computers are running these funds and make allocations based on quantitative parameters. One of the big ones is the level of volatility. So-called volatility-targeting and risk parity funds mechanically increase their exposure to stocks when volatility goes down and vice versa. Another group of investors called Commodity Trading Advisors have about half a trillion in assets and do the same thing. Since the start of the year volatility has been going down. Both realized and implied volatility are grinding lower almost every day, which leads these funds to mechanically buy more stocks every day.
The Passive Overdose
Warning '' your 401k has been hijacked by SEVEN stocks. There is nearly $18T inside the Nasdaq 100 '' Microsoft, Apple, Google, Nvidia, Tesla, Amazon, and Meta, makeup nearly 54% of the QQQs. Assets under management with passive investors, which are those funds that mirror indices and/or specific quantitative parameters, have grown from $2.5 Trillion in 2012 to more than $11 Trillion by Q1 of 2023.
But Why is Volatility Going Down?
The land of the ZERO Day Junkies '' 0DTE options, better known as dailies, now represent almost 50% of daily volumes in S&P index options.
The Zero Day Take Over
While there are plenty of headwinds left, negative surprises have dissipated somewhat compared to 2022 and the Fed is no longer that aggressive with interest rate hiking. This has brought hordes of option speculators out of the woodwork again. But what is different nowadays is that options markets are dominated by so-called dailies, which were introduced in early 2022. These dailies, officially called zero-day to-expiration options (0DTE), list on the same day as they expire. Goldman's volatility research team calculated that dailies are now close to 50% of total S&P options volume.
Last year retail investors were reluctant to get involved, with extreme volatility and negative headlines jolting the tape day in and day out. But since the start of the year, open interest has skyrocketed and has now reached a record of more than $10 Trillion. In a market with declining volatility, gamma balances tend to be positive, whereas the opposite is true for increasingly volatile markets. Gamma is a somewhat mysterious concept but what it basically means for the market is that when gamma is positive, dealers must sell when markets go up and buy when markets go down. And when implied volatility decreases, the gamma of calls and puts increases. With option volumes higher than ever, gamma balances are also very large (positive) and this has a dampening effect on intraday volatility. Every time the markets kneejerk lower, dealers come in and buy, and when the market rips, they sell. These gamma-induced intraday reversals leave the market with little change at the end of the day, and implied and realized volatility is melting away.
Gamma Overdosing
This historical chart shows the interplay between gamma and volatility. Gamma is generally positive and increasing when volatility (VIX) is low and negative and declining when volatility is high. This means that in low-volatility markets dealers tend to sell stock and indices when markets rally and buy when markets sell off. This has a dampening effect on volatility and it's easy to see a positive feedback loop with lower vol creating higher gamma that leads to even lower vol. The opposite is true as well, and in volatile markets, dealers sell when markets go down and buy when they go up so this enhances volatility.
A Perverse Self-enforcing Loop
As we have determined, the explosion in options volumes is now causing large positive gamma imbalances which dampens volatility. This in turn triggers the passive investors algorithms to mechanically increase their exposure to equities as well. With $11 Trillion of assets, such mechanical buying is colossal. Even a 1% increase in exposure leads to $110 Billion of buying. On top of that, the usual suspects also keep buying stocks mechanically. These are the corporate buyback programs ($850 Billion per year) and the dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPS) that buy stocks with the dividends they receive (around $500 Billion per year). What is new now is the massive increase in option volumes, which increases gamma and dampens volatility. This opens the door for all kinds of trend-following passives to allocate more money to equities, further driving down volatility. This wall of money going into the market pushes stocks up and nothing turns people more bullish than higher stock prices. So this lures is an army of individual investors and speculators, who buy on top of all these different passive buyers. The result is a self-reinforcing feedback loop where layers of different investors pile into the S&P and the Nasdaq, who themselves are disproportionately exposed to a dozen mega-cap stocks.
Top Heavy '' The Great Hijacking
The 15 largest stocks in the S&P now represent 36% of the entire index while the ten largest stocks in the Nasdaq 100 represent 60% of the index. These largest stocks are of course Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Nvidia, Meta and Tesla and the like.
Then there is the Fund Squeeze
One more factor driving up stock prices now is the squeeze that is occurring in several large mutual funds and ETFs. JPMorgan's Hedged Equity Fund (JHEQX) is a $15 Billion fund that invests in the S&P and hedges it with a put spread. This hedge is financed with a short, out of the money call. If the market plunges lower, JHEQX has a put to limit the downside, but if the market rips higher, the short call limits their upside. The fund rolls those positions every quarter and for Q2 the date of the roll is June 30. This is when the fund buys back those 40,000 June calls and sells September 29 calls about 5% above where the S&P is. Given the size of the fund, they sold 40,000 calls with a 4320 strike at the end of March. In one day, the open interest in that particular call rose from $800K to $17bl. The open interest remained around that level until last week when it ran up $25 Billion.
All this impacts the market in two ways. Speculators are now clearly front running JP Morgan, who they know must come in and buy back that in the money call. They are bidding it up because they know JP is a forced buyer. But this gets dealers get more short, and they have to hedge with buying futures. Moreover, now that the call is in the money, the delta is rapidly moving towards 1, which means that dealers' gamma is surging higher. As we now know, dealers will suppress volatility with gamma hedging which artificially eats away at volatility.
This is not the only fund in a pickle. The $7 Billion Global X NASDAQ 100 Covered Call ETF (QYLD) is apparently rushing to buy back out-of-the-money calls they have been selling as part of their strategy. These are just two examples but I'm sure there are plenty of more funds that find themselves getting squeezed by this mechanical bid in the market.
OI Trends '' Danger Will Robinson
Open interest in the 4320 call that expires on June 30 rose from $800K to $17 Billion when JP Morgan's JHEQX came in and sold 40,000 calls in late March.
When the Music Stops '' the Bomb Goes Off
All of this has two potentially terrifying consequences: it ends up artificially mispricing underlying market risk and it leads to massive overcrowded long positions. Should something unexpected happen that takes the market by surprise, the reverse action usually occurs in lightning speed. A sudden spike in volatility causes waves of passives selling all at the same time. Remember the 2011 flash crash. That was just an appetizer. The Volmageddon in early 2018 squeezed volatility from 9 to 40 and the S&P down 11% in just a few days and there wasn't even an obvious catalyst. But the blow-up of a couple of short vol ETF, which was the result of months of crowding into long positions, led to almost uncontrolled selling. Then there was the corona crisis. This was an obvious risk-off event, but the selling was so extreme that the Fed had to intervene with a multi-Trillion asset purchase program to support markets. The S&P went down 35% in one month and the VIX surged to 83. Liquidity completely dried up and in less than thirty days we had two black Thursdays and one black Monday. Even during the Lehman crisis, it took the market three months to drop 35%.
Should something unexpected hit the market again, and 2018 proves that it doesn't even have to be some major negative news, it could trigger a domino effect of selling that quickly cascades into a market plunge. I'm not saying this is imminent but when it happens, individual investors are last in line to sell behind the passives, hedge funds, dealers, and institutions. Individual investors need to be aware of why volatility is so low, where the bid in the market comes from, and that the current tranquility is artificial and can change at the blink of an eye.Volatility Trends
Implied volatility is the market's forecast of a likely movement in the price of a security or an index. Realized volatility is the measure of price variation for a particular stock or index over the last period such as a month. Both realized and implied volume is going down is due to artificial suppression of volatility by options and passives.
Loading...
CEO of one of the world's leading luxury airline claims that having three pet dogs is as bad for the environment as flying on a private jet - Luxurylaunches
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:46
Can pets be as bad as jets? That's what Patrick Hansen, boss of a luxury airline firm, claimed. As astonishing as it sounds, the chief executive of Luxaviation based in Luxembourg told the Financial Times that one of his company's customers produces around 2.1 tonnes of CO2 yearly or about the same amount as three dogs. The estimates are based on carbon footprint consultant Mike Berners-Lee's book, which states a labrador has an annual carbon footprint of around 770kg. The bigger the dog, the bigger the carbon footprint; Great Danes emit as much as 2,500kg of carbon dioxide annually. Via Instagram / @tuckerbudzynTravel expert Hans Mast from Golden Rule Travel threw light on the matter, ''Yes, pets do have a carbon footprint (but so do humans), mostly tied to the production of their food, but it's crucial to consider that private jets emit CO2 at a significantly higher rate per passenger than commercial flights,' he said. The CEO of RatePunk said, 'It's crucial to acknowledge that private jets are often associated with luxury and convenience, catering to a small segment of the population. The private jet industry, as a whole, is responsible for substantial carbon emissions due to the high fuel consumption and inefficient engines of these aircraft. Private jets are known to emit significantly more significant amounts of greenhouse gasses per passenger mile compared to commercial airlines.'
Patrick Hansen, CEO of Luxaviation.Via Facebook / @LuxaviationHe added, '''According to a study by Transport & Environment, private jets are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes (counting per passenger). While pets do contribute to environmental impact, their individual carbon footprint is relatively small in comparison.''
The Gulfstream G500.Via Facebook / @Gulfstream Aerospace CorporationPrivate jets have been the villain in the spotlight for far too long. While there is no denying these flights can damage the environment, only criticism or tracking celebrity jets won't do any good. Energy Secretary Grant Shapps has suggested the solution to private jet emissions in the short term is sustainable aviation fuel. Mr. Shapps said, 'Private jets are almost in the headlines as much as motor homes. The reality is that to solve this problem; we need sustainable aviation fuel in the shorter term. And that's why the U.K. has one of the world-leading targets of 10% of SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) in our energy mix for jets in just six-and-a-half years time.'
Increasingly UHNI's are preferring to charter aircraft so their pets can travel with them.Via Facebook / @K9 JETSThe only way one can truly lift a finger on pets is when they fly on private jets. In 2013, a millionaire splurged $100,000 to fly his precious pet cat in a private plane from Russia to the U.S. In 2021, a wealthy pet owner booked the entire business class of a 170-seater Airbus jet for his dog to travel in utmost comfort and privacy. It is excessive but still better than booking a private jet.
Judge Strikes Down Arkansas Law Banning Sex-Change Procedures For Minors As 'Unconstitutional' | The Daily Wire
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:43
A federal judge struck down Arkansas' ban on sex-change surgeries and treatments for minors as unconstitutional on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued the ruling, permanently blocking the law '-- which would have forbidden doctors from providing hormones, puberty blockers, and sex-change surgeries for minors '-- after temporarily blocking it in 2021.
''Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing,'' the Obama-appointed judge wrote in his opinion.
Moody's scientific claim stands in sharp contrast to many medical journals that warn of the dangers of such treatments and provide little evidence of benefits to minors, as was highlighted in a recent hearing in the House Subcommittee on Health.
Moody argued that the law violated the due process and equal protection rights of trans-identifying minors. He relied on heavily substantive due process, a theory that argues that the Due Process clause protects rights found nowhere in the U.S. Constitution.
The judge also argued the 2021 law violated the First Amendment rights of doctors by banning them from referring patients to other providers. He hinged on the fact Arkansas used the word ''refer'' rather than ''prescribing or administering'' as evidence the law was viewpoint discrimination, making it unconstitutional.
The first-in-the-nation ruling may set a precedent for 19 other state laws seeking to protect children from sex-denying treatments that are in litigation. While other judges have temporarily blocked similar laws, as in Indiana and Alabama, this is the first such law to be struck down as unconstitutional.
Dylan Brandt, 17, who successfully sued the state in the case, reacted to the decision in a statement released by the ACLU. ''I'm so grateful the judge heard my experience of how this health care has changed my life for the better and saw the dangerous impact this law could have on my life and that of countless other transgender people,'' he said.
The Arkansas statute was enacted by the Arkansas legislature in 2021 over the veto of then-Governor Asa Hutchinson, who is now running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Hutchinson said the law was ''extreme'' because it affected those already receiving sex-change treatments. The law was the first in the United States to ban the controversial treatments.
Hutchinson's successor, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, signed legislation to effectively restore the 2021 law by creating an avenue for individuals who received ''gender affirming care'' to pursue civil litigation against medical providers who perform sex change procedures on minors. According to legal experts, the 2023 law, which takes effect this summer, effectively stops those treatments by making it impossible for medical providers to get malpractice insurance.
Utah school district returns the Bible to shelves after appeals and outcry | AP News
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:41
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) '-- Bibles will return to the shelves in a northern Utah school district that provoked an outcry after it banned them from middle and elementary schools last month.
Officials from the Davis School District, which educates 72,000 students north of Salt Lake City, said at a board meeting Tuesday that the district had determined the sacred text was age-appropriate for all district libraries. In allowing the Bible to be accessible to students regardless of their grade level, the board sided with 70 people who filed appeals after it was banned last month.
''Based on their assessment of community standards, the appeal committee determined that The Bible has significant, serious value for minors which outweighs the violent or vulgar content it contains,'' the committee wrote in a decision published along with school board materials.
The committee's reversal is the latest development in the debate over a Utah law allowing parents to challenge ''sensitive materials'' available to children in public schools. Parents' rights activists successfully lobbied for the legislation in 2022 amid a wave of new laws targeting the materials accessible in schools and libraries '-- particularly about race, gender and sexuality.
In statehouses from Florida to Arkansas, Republicans have enacted laws that expand parents' power to challenge what is available in schools and libraries and, in some places, subject librarians to criminal penalties for providing materials deemed harmful to minors. The legislative effort is one prong of growing push to ban certain titles; the number of attempts to ban or restrict books across the U.S. in 2022 was the highest in the 20 years, according to the American Library Association.
In Utah, the effort to ban the Bible reignited debate about the standards used to judge the content in books. The initial challenge was filed by an unnamed person who criticized the conservative parents' activists clamoring to remove books from libraries and the standards they have lobbied the state to adopt.
''Utah Parents United left off one of the most sex-ridden books around: The Bible,'' the challenge said, referring to one of the primary groups involved in curriculum battles. ''You'll no doubt find that the Bible ... has no serious values for minors because it's pornographic by our new definition ... If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk.''
The challenge also derided a ''bad faith process'' and said the district was ''ceding our children's education, First Amendment Rights, and library access'' to Parents United.
The committee's decision to remove the Bible vexed advocates for expanding local control and parents' ability to challenge books. Republican Ken. Ivory, the lawmaker who sponsored the state's ''sensitive materials'' law at first opposed the Bible's removal and called the challenge ''a mockery.'' He later said the text was best read at home but ultimately pushed for its return to schools and attacked the process that removed it from Davis County schools.
In an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, Ivory said lawmakers should revise the law to ensure book-removal decisions have to be overseen by elected officials at open public meetings, not the kind of committee that decided to remove the Bible from middle and elementary schools in the Davis School District.
At Davis School District's board meeting on Tuesday, school board members chided lawmakers for blaming the majority-parent committee, which it said was convened and had made its initial decision '-- and weighed appeals '-- in line with the law.
''The magnitude of the value of the Bible as a literary work outweighs any violence or profanity which may be contained in the book,'' Davis School District Board Vice President Brigit Gerrard said.
Hunter Biden, baby mama Lunden Roberts settle child support dispute
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:34
Hunter Biden and his baby mama have privately settled their child support dispute in Arkansas, according to a source close to the first son.
Lunden Roberts, 32, the mother of Hunter's long-unacknowledged 4-year-old daughter, agreed to her $20,000 monthly child support payments being slashed after she showed up in person to his deposition in Little Rock last week.
Roberts' lawyer, Clint Lancaster, told The Post late Thursday that final terms were still to be determined and declined to confirm that his client had agreed to a reduced monthly payment of $5,000.
''The case is sealed, and these are financial terms that should never be disclosed,'' he said, warning that leaks about details of the settlement would derail talks and end up with Hunter back in an Arkansas court on July 11.
Hunter Biden and his baby mama Lunden Roberts have privately settled their child support dispute. AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File Roberts with her 4-year-old daughter, Navy Joan. Instagram/@lundentownn_''It was significant that Lunden was there'' at Hunter's deposition last week, Lancaster added. ''I believe that settlement is important to Hunter Biden [but] we have concerns that Hunter would use [the settlement] as a means to promote some agenda of his '... There's always more that goes on in settlement negotiations than people realize.''
Hunter, 53, initially denied paternity of Navy Joan Roberts, but a DNA test in 2019 proved he was the child's father.
He applied last year to a Batesville, Ark., court to reduce his child support payments, citing reduced circumstances, but turned heads by flying into town in a friend's private jet.
Biden's child support payments were reportedly slashed from $20,000 to $5,000 per month. Instagram/@lundentownn_''Lunden is a great mom and little Navy is going be fine,'' said Lancaster. ''The kid has lots of love on the maternal side of the family in Batesville. They are a very, very close family. They adore her and are always going to support her '... But I think everybody is disappointed that there's not more contact [with the Biden family].
''It's not lost on anybody that Jill Biden wrote a children's book and [dedicated it] to her grandchildren,'' the lawyer went on. ''She could have kept it at that, but she named every child except Navy.
''They hung stockings for the dog at Christmas but not for Navy. That is one of the saddest things.''
During contentious legal arguments, Lancaster asked the case judge to jail the president's son for contempt after he failed to produce all the financial documents they demanded to prove his newfound poverty.
Roberts met Hunter in 2017 at strip club Mpire in Washington, DC, where she danced under the stage name ''Dallas'' while studying at college.
She was placed on the Biden scion's company payroll for nine months during an affair conducted while Hunter was also in a relationship with his widowed sister-in-law, Hallie.
In his memoir, ''Beautiful Things,'' Hunter claimed he had ''no recollection of our encounter.''
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden never have acknowledged their seventh grandchild.
The Biden family has never acknowledged Navy Joan. Lunden Roberts/FacebookNews of the settlement came on the same day federal prosecutors in Delaware said Hunter had agreed to plead guilty to federal tax charges as part of a deal with the Justice Department that will likely keep him out of jail.
As part of the deal, Biden's son will plead guilty to misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax for 2017 and 2018, as well as enter a pre-trial diversion on a felony gun possession charge.
The charges brought against Hunter '' which were condemned by Republicans as a slap on the wrist '-- were the outcome of a five-year investigation that largely focused on money he received from overseas business interests.
Elliot Page Was Groomed And Sexually Abused As A Minor In Hollywood
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 09:42
''I didn't know how to talk to people about it. I thought you just get over it and move on.''
Posted on June 12, 2023, 11:47 am This post contains discussion of sexual assault. In Elliot Page's new memoir, Pageboy: A Memoir, the star reveals that he was groomed and sexually abused by multiple people as a teenager working in Hollywood. Michael Buckner / WWD via Getty Images Elliot '-- who came out as transgender in 2020 '-- was just 10 years old when he got his big break after landing a starring role in the Canadian television movie Pit Pony. He moved to California soon afterward, but being a minor in a new city made Elliot a target for industry predators. In Pageboy, Elliot recalls a disturbing experience with an unnamed director who groomed him as a teen. After feigning friendship, the director took Elliot to dinner, stroked his thigh under the table, and told him, ''You have to make the move, I can't.'' But it wasn't just directors who preyed on Elliot's vulnerability as a young actor. He also reveals that a member of the Hard Candy production team sexually abused him after gaining his trust. Christophe Archambault / AFP via Getty Images Elliot was 16 years old when he worked on the movie, which was released in 2005. Lorenzo Bevilaqua / ABC via Getty Images In his book, Elliot says that he accepted a lift home from a man he knew well from set, only for the coworker to force himself on him when they got there. ''His voice sweet, his hands on my shoulders, he guided me to the bedroom. I went stiff. Unsure what to do as he stood tall and removed his glasses,'' Elliot writes. ''He laid me down on the bed. Starting to remove my pants, he said, 'I want to eat you out.' I froze. After it was over, he tried to stay in the bed with me. I had thawed marginally and told him he couldn't, to get out,'' he goes on. And this wasn't Elliot's only traumatic encounter while working on a movie '-- a woman who was a crew member on a separate, unnamed film preyed on him after volunteering to take him house-hunting at the start of the shoot. Elliot writes: ''I was standing in the empty living room, in front of the couch, when I felt her grab me. She pressed her face into mine, some version of kissing. That freezing coming over me again. The next thing I knew I was on the rug, the floor firm on my back. I didn't say no, I did not resist, I just stiffened.'' The star's harrowing experiences of abuse are ultimately what him to take on ''intense, traumatic work.'' This included playing Sylvia Likens in An American Crime, which tells the tragic true story of a young girl who was tortured to death by a woman who was supposed to care for her. ''As a teenager who dealt with a lot of shitty predatory behavior, it was something I was interested in tackling,'' Elliot explained in a new interview with the Guardian, where he also opened up some more about how the abuse impacted him. Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images ''Apart from the power conversation and the toxicity that comes with that, it is just being a young person who's in a space with lots of adults and in situations where people took'...I don't even know the word,'' he told the publication. Richard Bord / Getty Images ''I was about to say 'advantage' or 'awful advantage,' but that just feels gross. I almost don't have the words for it because it's so fucking hard to wrap my head around why somebody wants to do that to some'...,'' he added before trailing off. Elliot also admitted that he didn't discuss the assaults with anybody at the time because he'd been conditioned to believe that this was the norm. ''I didn't know how to talk to people about it. I thought you just get over it and move on,'' he said. ''It took me a long time to be able to sit and fully talk about these experiences or acknowledge that they were traumatic and had a significant impact on me.'' Elliot theorized that he may have downplayed how traumatic these experiences were as a ''self-defense mechanism'' '-- or that his abusers made him feel that he'd be creating a fuss over nothing if he spoke up. ''I'd sit in therapy and talk about these things, and my therapist would go, 'That's a lot, that's traumatic,' and I'd be like, 'What? What are you talking about?''' he recalled. ''I don't know if that was a self-defense mechanism or just being made to feel it's not a big deal.'' And these instances aren't the only examples of the dark side of Hollywood that Elliot exposes in his memoir. As previously reported, Elliot also reveals in his book that ''one of the most famous actors in the world'' threatened to have sex with him to teach him that he was wrong about being sexually attracted to women. Six years before Elliot came out as transgender, he'd publicly come out as gay. But prior to that, he'd privately confided in a male actor he was working with at the time. Steve Granitz / FilmMagic He recalls his costar telling him in response, ''I'm going to fuck you to make you realize you aren't gay. I'm going to lick your asshole. It is going to taste like lime. You're not gay.'' Richard Harbaugh / ABC via Getty Images Elliot does not identify the actor in his book but writes, ''Power works in funny ways. He was, and still is, one of the most famous actors in the world.'' If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2023)
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 09:26
Plenary 1 - Opening sessionArora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 09:00''10:45This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and international financial institutions as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy, will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort
21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Keynote speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Plenary 2 '' Scale of recovery challengeArora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Plenary 3 '' Framework for lasting recoveryArora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:10Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Break-out session 1 on Economic Transformation"Economic transformation: Transparency and reform for private sector-led growth"Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Break-out session 2 on Investment in Ukraine's human capital recoveryArora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
National statements21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Break-out session 1 on Power of Transformation"Power of transformation: Building back better in the energy sector"Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalization and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Break-out session 2 on Investment opportunities and de-risking mechanisms to mobilise private finance in UkraineArora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
National statements21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Press Conferences21 June08:55''10:45
Plenary 1 - Opening Session
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 08:55''10:45
Content:
This session will set the scene for the conference. It will set out the role of the private sector to mobilise investment at the scale needed to support Ukraine to ''build back better''. It will focus on the role of governments and International Financial Institutions, as the enablers of investment and promote the URC as a vehicle for Ukraine to secure support for its immediate recovery needs.Prime Minister Sunak and President Zelenskyy (virtually), will open the URC 2023 by welcoming governments, International Financial Institutions, businesses and civil society to London. After nearly 18 months of Ukraine living under a full-scale Russian bombardment, the URC is a key moment for the global community to come together to show the strength of support and unity for Ukraine's recovery effort.
10:45''11:05
Keynote Speech by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal
11:35''12:45
Plenary 2 - Scale of the Recovery Challenge
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 11:35''12:45
Content:
Focus on the short-term solutions and challenges to Ukraine's early recovery (and immediate) needs '' with read across to the World Bank's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment
14:00''15:15
Plenary 3 - Framework for a Lasting Recovery
Arora 1 + 11, Wednesday, 21 June, 14:00''15:15
Content:
Focus on longer-term challenges, recovery needs and specific projects that need to be financed to progress Ukraine's recovery, across all sectors. Given risks faced by private investors, this session will focus on measures to de-risk and crowd in private finance.
15:45''17:00
Economic Transformation: Transparency and Reform for Private Sector-Led Growth
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
This session will set out how reforms will help Ukraine achieve its post-war economic vision by underpinning the improved business environment needed to encourage more trade and investment.
15:45''17:00
Investment in Ukraine's Human Capital Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 15:45''17:00
Content:
Investment in human capital recovery is crucial for unlocking Ukraine's post-war economic potential. Development of an inclusive and comprehensive system of social services will enable sound socio-economic recovery and wellbeing with individuals supported in returning to the labour market accelerating economic stabilization and growth. This session will explore the critical role the social sector plays in the recovery of human capital, and opportunities for private sector engagement.
15:45''17:00
National Statements
17:10''18:25
Power of Transformation: Building Back Better in the Energy Sector
Arora 12 + 15, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
Building back resilient, efficient, decentralised and clean energy system will be crucial to Ukraine's economic revitalisation and long-term growth. The government of Ukraine will present the recently adopted Energy to 2050 Strategy. Panellists will discuss how best to mobilise international support and enable private investment to support Ukraine's long-term vision for recovery and transformation.
17:10''18:25
Investment Opportunities and De-Risking Mechanisms to Mobilise Private Finance in Ukraine
Arora 14 + 17, Wednesday, 21 June, 17:10''18:25
Content:
This session will review approaches to attract private capital at scale into priority projects and sectors of Ukraine's economy. It will showcase investment opportunities in Ukraine (now and in the future) and the availability of support from the government of Ukraine and international partners to de-risk projects in the form of concessional finance, credit guarantees and innovative insurance products.
17:10''18:25
National Statements
19:30''21:00
Reception at Lancaster House
22 June08:55''09:45
Opening Plenary
Arora 1 + 11, Thursday, 22 June, 08:55''09:45
Content:
Welcome back delegates for Day 2 and a summary of Day 1
09:55''11:10
Restoring Livelihoods '' from Planning to Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
The session will provide the opportunity for expert speakers to discuss some of the key principles in considering the challenges of Ukraine's reconstruction including master planning, sustainability, economic regeneration and development.
09:55''11:10
Tech for Transformation: Digital Excellence and Strengthening Partnerships
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 09:55''11:10
Content:
This session will showcase Ukraine's digital transformation and vision for the future, the resilience of the Ukrainian tech sector, and the opportunities for international partnerships with this growing sector.
09:55''11:10
International Organisations Statements
11:35''12:50
Role of the Regions in Ukraine's Recovery and Reconstruction
Arora 12 + 15, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
This session will explore why local and regional authorities are pivotal in Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The discussion will present real life cases of what is being done in Ukraine, by multilateral organisations, and the wider international community to support Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction by encouraging the involvement of local and regional players and reforms on decentralisation.
11:35''12:50
Accelerating Humanitarian Mine Action in Ukraine as a Precondition for Sustainable Economic and Social Recovery
Arora 14 + 17, Thursday, 22 June, 11:35''12:50
Content:
Contamination of land by mines and other explosive materials represents an obstacle to Ukrainian recovery. This session will examine the progress national and international operators are making to clear land, and Ukrainian plans to accelerate clearance. It will explore how to align successful demining with the development of land in priority sectors for Ukraine, and the pre-conditions and incentives required for commercial private sector investment in the longer term.
12:55''13:35
Closing Plenary '' URC Past, Present, Future
Moderated session with past, present and future co-hosts of the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Pentagon accounting error provides extra $6.2 billion for Ukraine military aid - ABC News
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 21:59
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon said Tuesday that it overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years '-- about double early estimates '-- resulting in a surplus that will be used for future security packages.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said a detailed review of the accounting error found that the military services used replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine. She said final calculations show there was an error of $3.6 billion in the current fiscal year and $2.6 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended last Sept. 30.
As a result, the department now has additional money in its coffers to use to support Ukraine as it pursues its counteroffensive against Russia. And it come as the fiscal year is wrapping up and congressional funding was beginning to dwindle.
''It's just going to go back into the pot of money that we have allocated'' for the future Pentagon stock drawdowns," said Singh.
The revelation comes as Ukraine moves ahead with the early stages its counteroffensive, in an effort to dislodge the Kremlin's forces from territory they've occupied since a full-scale invasion in February 2022. The counteroffensive has come up against heavily mined terrain and reinforced defensive fortifications, according to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces.
Russia, meanwhile, has been bombarding the Kyiv region with dozens of Shahed exploding drones, in an assault that has exposed gaps in the country's air protection after almost 16 months of war. Officials said Ukrainian air defenses downed 32 of 35 drones that were launched by Russia early Tuesday.
The Pentagon has repeatedly used presidential drawdown authority to pull weapons, ammunition and other equipment off the shelves, so that it can get to Ukraine far more quickly than going through a purchase process.
Based on previous estimates announced June 13, the U.S. had committed more than $40 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded. Using the new calculation, the U.S. has actually provided less than $34 billion in aid.
Officials have not been able to give exact totals for the amount of money that remains for the drawdowns or for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides longer-term funding to purchase weapons, including some of the larger air defense systems.
The U.S. has approved four rounds of aid to Ukraine in response to Russia's invasion, totaling about $113 billion, with some of that money going toward replenishment of U.S. military equipment that was sent to the frontlines. Congress approved the latest round of aid in December, totaling roughly $45 billion for Ukraine and NATO allies. While the package was designed to last through the end of the fiscal year in September, much depends upon events on the ground, particularly as the new counteroffensive ramps up.
President Joe Biden and his senior national security leaders have repeatedly stated that the United States will help Ukraine ''as long as it takes'' to repel the Russian forces. Privately, administration officials have warned Ukrainian officials that there is a limit to the patience of a narrowly divided Congress '-- and American public '-- for the costs of a war with no clear end.
Members of Congress have repeatedly pressed Defense Department leaders on how closely the U.S. is tracking its aid to Ukraine to ensure that it is not subject to fraud or ending up in the wrong hands. The Pentagon has said it has a ''robust program'' to track the aid as it crosses the border into Ukraine and to keep tabs on it once it is there, depending on the sensitivity of each weapons system.
Singh said the accounting mistake won't affect the ongoing delivery of aid to Ukraine.
Hiltzik: Robert F. Kennedy and the lies of the anti-vaxxers - Los Angeles Times
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 21:03
Back in the dawn of the Trump era '-- just prior to his 2017 inauguration '-- the line of would-be suck-ups queuing up for face time with the president-elect included a man with a distinguished name.
He was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scion of one of the leading families of Democratic Party politics. What brought him together with Trump was their shared interest in the anti-vaccination movement.
At least Kennedy, who had been an anti-vaccine crusader for well more than a decade and was pushing a long-discredited claim that the MMR vaccine caused autism, thought so. He announced upon emerging from the meeting that Trump had asked him to chair a commission ''on vaccine safety and scientific integrity.''
On this issue, Bobby is an outlier in the Kennedy family.
'-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s sister, brother and niece on his anti-vaccination crusade
Trump promptly denied that, but acknowledged that he was ''exploring the possibility'' of such a commission and ''look[ing] forward to continuing the discussion about all aspects of autism with many groups and individuals.''
Kennedy has never backed off from pushing the vaccine-autism link, which can be traced back to a British study that was eventually retracted because of charges that the data were fabricated. Its main author was stripped of his medical license in Britain amid accusations of research fraud.
Newsletter
Get the latest from Michael Hiltzik
Commentary on economics and more from a Pulitzer Prize winner.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Kennedy has now paddled back into the American political discourse by announcing his candidacy for president in April on the Democratic ticket. His family connection appears to have brought attention to his campaign; the question is whether the dazzlement of the Kennedy name will be sufficient to blind voters to his history of promoting spectacularly dangerous health policies through misrepresentations and outright lies.
Kennedy certainly can't claim to lack a platform to disseminate his misinformation and disinformation. On June 15 he received a tongue bath on Spotify from that outstanding ignoramus Joe Rogan, who allowed him to spout his anti-science spiel for three hours with virtually no pushback.
After vaccine expert Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine tweeted a link to a comprehensive takedown of the Spotify webcast by Vice.com, Rogan challenged Hotez to participate in a public debate with Kennedy. Hotez has quite properly refused, which led to his being accosted at his home by some misguided soul demanding that he take the bait.
The dangers from Kennedy's campaign should be clear. One is that a Kennedy candidacy that gains any real traction alone will increase the political credibility of anti-vax claptrap, which already has more than enough.
Another is that it could cut into the vote in 2024 for a responsible Democrat, whether President Biden or anyone else, which could sweep Trump or a Trump clone into office, along with the thuggish attacks on diversity, inclusion and voting rights that have become the alpha and omega of GOP politics.
It's proper, in other words, to take a close look at Kennedy's record on health policy and the real consequences of his anti-vaccination crusade.
Kennedy first made a splash as an anti-vax figure in 2005, when Salon.com and Rolling Stone jointly published an article under his byline headlined ''Deadly Immunity.'' The article asserted a link between a purported increase in autism and the presence of thimerosal, a compound of mercury used as a preservative, in childhood vaccines.
The fact is that there has never been any scientifically valid evidence for this link, and in any case thimerosal ceased to be used in childhood vaccines in the U.S. in 2001. The rise in autism diagnoses before then or since has been attributed by experts to a broadening of clinical definitions for the condition and more awareness of its multiple manifestations.
Salon ended up appending no fewer than five corrections to Kennedy's article, and finally bowed to proliferating professional critiques of the piece by removing it from its website in 2011.
In trying to make his case, Kennedy misrepresented a conference about vaccines held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the Simpsonwood conference center outside Atlanta in June 2000. He implied that it was a secret conference, though the entire transcript was published by the CDC later that month. He used selective quotations from participants to suggest that their purpose was to hide evidence about vaccines and autism, when in truth it was nothing of the kind.
Kennedy continued to spread anti-vaccine hysteria, emerging as a walking public health hazard. In June 2019 he visited Samoa, appearing in public with a prominent local anti-vaccination figure.
By that September, the island nation was in the grip of a measles outbreak that eventually took the lives of more than 80 people. Experts blamed the outbreak on a sharp drop in measles vaccination rates, which had fallen to about 34% in 2018 from 74% the year before.
While the epidemic was still in full cry that November, Kennedy wrote to the Samoan prime minister denying that the outbreak could be blamed on ''the so-called 'anti-vaccine' movement,'' and pointed his finger instead at ''a defective vaccine'' that failed to target a ''mutated'' virus and allowed it to spread to children.
''It is a regrettable possibility that these children are [casualties] of Merck's vaccine,'' he wrote. The veteran pseudoscience debunker David Gorski described the letter as ''a masterpiece of antivaccine dissembling, misinformation, distortion, and lies,'' seemingly aimed at providing cover for anti-vaccine quacks trying to deflect responsibility for ''discouraging people from vaccinating their children.''
Kennedy's spiel has become only more febrile and inflammatory over the years. At an appearance in Sacramento in 2015, while the California Legislature was debating a measure to narrow the ability of parents to avoid immunizing their children (it passed), he called the impact of vaccines on children a ''holocaust.''
Kennedy claims not to be ''anti-vaccine,'' but says he is merely ''a vaccine safety advocate.'' That's a well-worn dodge of the anti-vaxxer movement. In 2017, Kennedy told Helen Branswell of Stat that he wanted to ensure ''that vaccines are subject to the same kind of safety scrutiny and safety testing that other drugs are subject to.'' As vaccine expert Paul Offit observed in response, ''in fact, vaccines are subjected to greater scrutiny than drugs'' by the Food and Drug Administration.
During the Rogan webcast, Kennedy expanded his attack to encompass electromagnetic, wireless and 5G technology: ''Wi-Fi radiation'' could be causing autism, food allergies, asthma, eczema or other chronic conditions, he said. ''I think it degrades your mitochondria and it opens your blood-brain barrier.''
He also promoted ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for COVID-19, medicines that have been approved for other conditions but have been found through repeated, painstaking studies to be useless against COVID. He retailed the familiar anti-vaccine trope that those nostrums have been deliberately suppressed by the pharmaceutical industry and government authorities.
''They had to discredit ivermectin,'' Kennedy told Rogan. ''Because there's a federal law, the emergency use authorization statute, says you cannot issue an emergency use authorization to a vaccine if there's an existing medication that has been approved for any purpose that is demonstrated effective against the target illness. So they had to destroy ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.''
That's a baseless claim. The truth is that there is no such rule.
Kennedy's anti-vaccination and anti-government spiel appeals to prominent entertainment and business figures who like to be thought of as iconoclasts. For instance, he's been embraced by Elon Musk, whose apparent determination to tell it like it is has been hampered by his towering ignorance.
One group of people who are immune to Kennedy's influence is his own family. In 2019, his sister Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (a former lieutenant governor of Maryland), brother Joseph Kennedy II (a former congressman from Massachusetts) and Kathleen's daughter Maeve Kennedy McKean, who died in 2020, upbraided Kennedy in Politico for having ''helped to spread dangerous misinformation over social media'' and being ''complicit in sowing distrust of the science behind vaccines.''
As they pointed out, President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr. were leaders in improving access to vaccines and better healthcare to Americans and others around the world.
''The fact is that immunizations prevent some 2 million to 3 million deaths a year, and have the potential to save another 1.5 million lives every year with broader vaccine coverage,'' they wrote. ''On this issue, Bobby is an outlier in the Kennedy family.''
Voters, take heed.
Opinion | Cowboys Are My Weakness - The New York Times
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 20:16
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/opinion/cowboys-are-my-weakness.htmlOp-Ed Contributor
SOMEBODY had to write this, and it might as well be me. I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain," nor do I have any intention of seeing it. In fact, cowboys would have to lasso me, drag me into the theater and tie me to the seat, and even then I would make every effort to close my eyes and cover my ears.
And I love gay people. Hey, I've got gay acquaintances. Good acquaintances, who know they can call me anytime if they had my phone number. I'm for gay marriage, gay divorce, gay this and gay that. I just don't want to watch two straight men, alone on the prairie, fall in love and kiss and hug and hold hands and whatnot. That's all.
Is that so terrible? Does that mean I'm homophobic? And if I am, well, then that's too bad. Because you can call me any name you want, but I'm still not going to that movie.
To my surprise, I have some straight friends who've not only seen the movie but liked it. "One of the best love stories ever," one gushed. Another went on, "Oh, my God, you completely forget that it's two men. You in particular will love it."
"Why me?"
"You just will, trust me."
But I don't trust him. If two cowboys, male icons who are 100 percent all-man, can succumb, what chance to do I have, half- to a quarter of a man, depending on whom I'm with at the time? I'm a very susceptible person, easily influenced, a natural-born follower with no sales-resistance. When I walk into a store, clerks wrestle one another trying to get to me first. My wife won't let me watch infomercials because of all the junk I've ordered that's now piled up in the garage. My medicine cabinet is filled with vitamins and bald cures.
So who's to say I won't become enamored with the whole gay business? Let's face it, there is some appeal there. I know I've always gotten along great with men. I never once paced in my room rehearsing what to say before asking a guy if he wanted to go to the movies. And I generally don't pay for men, which of course is their most appealing attribute.
And gay guys always seem like they're having a great time. At the Christmas party I went to, they were the only ones who sang. Boy that looked like fun. I would love to sing, but this weighty, self-conscious heterosexuality I'm saddled with won't permit it.
I just know if I saw that movie, the voice inside my head that delights in torturing me would have a field day. "You like those cowboys, don't you? They're kind of cute. Go ahead, admit it, they're cute. You can't fool me, gay man. Go ahead, stop fighting it. You're gay! You're gay!"
Not that there's anything wrong with it.
Op-Ed Contributor Larry David appears in the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
BlackRock and JPMorgan will help Ukraine launch a recovery bank. - UBN
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 18:49
The leading American investment companies, BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase, will help Ukraine to create the Fund for the Development of Ukraine '' an investment bank for economic recovery after the war.
According to the FT, the Development Fund will attract low-cost loans from other states, donors, and international financial institutions. These are expected to be 5-10 times larger than private investments. Priority will be given to the following sectors: infrastructure, climate, and agriculture.
The fund's creation is in its infancy and is unlikely to be launched before the end of the war. However, preliminary developments will be presented this week at the London Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine on June 21-22. It is expected that the fund's supervisory board will include international financial institutions, and investment professionals will provide direct management.
How a dose of MDMA transformed a white supremacist - BBC Future
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 18:48
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Brendan was once a leader in the US white nationalist movement. But when he took the drug MDMA in a scientific study, it would radically change his extremist beliefs '' to the surprise of everyone involved. Rachel Nuwer investigates what happened.
I
In February 2020, Harriet de Wit, a professor of psychiatry and behavioural science at the University of Chicago, was running an experiment on whether the drug MDMA increased the pleasantness of social touch in healthy volunteers. The day was proceeding like any other Tuesday when Mike Bremmer, de Wit's research assistant, appeared at her office door with a concerned look on his face.
The latest participant in the double-blind trial, a man named Brendan, had filled out a standard questionnaire at the end. Strangely, at the very bottom of the form, Brendan had written in bold letters: "This experience has helped me sort out a debilitating personal issue. Google my name. I now know what I need to do."
Seeing this cryptic message, both Bremmer and de Wit were worried. "We really have to look into this," de Wit said. They googled Brendan's name, and up popped a disturbing revelation: until just a couple of months before, Brendan had been the leader of the US Midwest faction of Identity Evropa, a notorious white nationalist group rebranded in 2019 as the American Identity Movement. Two months earlier, activists at Chicago Antifascist Action had exposed Brendan's identity, and he had lost his job.
De Wit was now very worried. She'd just given a drug to a disgraced white supremacist, she realised, and had apparently inspired him to do who knows what out in the world. "Go ask him what he means by 'I now know what I need to do,'" she instructed Bremmer. "If it's a matter of him picking up an automatic rifle or something, we have to intervene."
This experience has helped me sort out a debilitating personal issue. Google my name. I now know what I need to do '' Brendan, MDMA trial participantA murderous spree turned out to be the opposite of what Brendan had in mind. As he clarified to Bremmer, love is what he had just realised he had to do. "Love is the most important thing," he told the baffled research assistant. "Nothing matters without love."
When de Wit recounted this story to me nearly two years after the fact, she still could hardly believe it. "Isn't that amazing?" she said. "It's what everyone says about this damn drug, that it makes people feel love. To think that a drug could change somebody's beliefs and thoughts without any expectations '' it's mind-boggling."
Over the past few years, I've been investigating the scientific research and medical potential of MDMA for a book called "I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World". I learnt how this once-vilified drug is now remerging as a therapeutic agent '' a role it previously played in the 1970s and 1980s, prior to its criminalisation. If this comes to pass, MDMA '' and other psychedelics-assisted therapy '' could transform the field of mental health through widespread clinical use in the US and beyond, for addressing trauma and possibly other conditions as well, including substance use disorders, depression and eating disorders.
But could MDMA transform people's beliefs too? MDMA does not seem to be able to magically rid people of prejudice, bigotry, or hate on its own. But some researchers have begun to wonder if it could be an effective tool for pushing people who are already somehow primed to reconsider their ideology toward a new way of seeing things. While MDMA cannot fix societal-level drivers of prejudice and disconnection, on an individual basis it can make a difference. In certain cases, the drug may even be able to help people see through the fog of discrimination and fear that divides so many of us.
MDMA cannot magically change the most entrenched extreme political views, but at the right moment, it may open some people's minds to alternatives (Credit: Getty Images)
When De Wit told me the story about Brendan, I wanted to hear more about what happened directly from the horse's mouth, so in December 2021 I paid Brendan a visit (he asked that his last name not be revealed, as he's trying to distance himself from his past). As I rode the elevator up to his apartment in a luxury high-rise overlooking Lake Michigan, I felt a flutter of nervousness. I was unsure of what kind of person I would be meeting, and had even half-jokingly texted a couple of friends to let them know where to come looking for me in case I disappeared. What I didn't expect was how ordinary the 31-year-old who answered the door would appear to be: blue plaid button-up shirt, neatly cropped hair, and a friendly smile.
After politely hanging up my coat, he explained that, back when he was a white nationalist leader, cultivating an air of ordinariness had been exactly the point. "I really wanted it to be for guys making a good amount of money, who are educated and who could feel comfortable joining these sorts of communities," he said. "I wanted to normalise it."
Read more:
The worldview-changing drugs poised to go mainstreamHow psychedelic drugs might treat depressionThe surprising downsides of empathyBrendan grew up in an affluent Chicago suburb in an Irish Catholic family. He leaned liberal in high school but got sucked into white nationalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he joined a fraternity mostly composed of conservative Republican men, began reading antisemitic conspiracy books, and fell down a rabbit hole of racist, sexist content online. Brendan was further emboldened by the populist rhetoric of Donald Trump during his presidential campaign. "His speech talking about Mexicans being rapists, the fixation on the border wall and deporting everyone, the Muslim ban '' I didn't really get white nationalism until Trump started running for president," Brendan said.
Brendan joined Identity Evropa to connect with others who shared his views. He attended the notorious "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville and quickly rose up the ranks of his organisation, first becoming the coordinator for Illinois and then the entire Midwest. He travelled to Europe and around the US to meet other white nationalist groups, with the ultimate goal of taking the movement mainstream.
Brendan likely would have continued in this vein were it not for his identity becoming public. A group of anti-fascist activists published identifying information about him and more than 100 other people in Identity Evropa. He was immediately fired from his job and ostracised by his siblings and friends outside white nationalism.
Brendan attended the notorious "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017 (Credit: Getty Images)
When Brendan saw a Facebook ad in early 2020 for some sort of drug trial at the University of Chicago, he decided to apply just to have something to do and to earn a little money. At one of the visits, he was given a pill. He didn't know it, but he'd just taken 110mg of MDMA. At the time, Brendan was "still in the denial stage" following his identity becoming public, he said. He was racked with regret '' not over his bigoted views, which he still held, but over the missteps that had landed him in this predicament.
About 30 minutes after taking the pill, he started to feel peculiar. "Wait a second '' why am I doing this? Why am I thinking this way?" he began to wonder. "Why did I ever think it was okay to jeopardise relationships with just about everyone in my life?"
Just then, Bremmer came to collect Brendan to start the experiment. Brendan slid into an MRI, and Bremmer started tickling his forearm with a brush and asked him to rate how pleasant it felt. "I noticed it was making me happier '' the experience of the touch," Brendan recalled. "I started progressively rating it higher and higher." As he relished in the pleasurable feeling, a single, powerful word popped into his mind: connection.
It suddenly seemed so obvious: connections with other people were all that mattered. "This is stuff you can't really put into words, but it was so profound," Brendan said. "I conceived of my relationships with other people not as distinct boundaries with distinct entities, but more as we-are-all-one. I realised I'd been fixated on stuff that doesn't really matter, and is just so messed up, and that I'd been totally missing the point. I hadn't been soaking up the joy that life has to offer."
As he relished in the pleasurable feeling, a single, powerful word popped into his mind: connectionThat night Brendan reached out to Chicago Antifascist Action and connected with the specific former activist there, "S", who had gone undercover in Identity Evropa before revealing Brendan's identity (S asked me not to reveal his name, to ensure he can continue his undercover work as an activist, although he is no longer affiliated with Chicago Antifascist Action.)
At first, S was sceptical when Brendan claimed that MDMA had made him want to prioritise connecting with other people above all else. But he was heartened when Brendan started taking steps that seemed to indicate his sincere commitment to change. Brendan hired a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant to advise him, enrolled in therapy, began meditating, and started working his way through a list of educational books. S still regularly communicates with Brendan and, for his part, thinks that Brendan is serious in his efforts to change. "It's been a couple years we've been working together, trying to disconnect him from things that were harmful and reconnect him with positive reinforcement and get him ideologically educated," S told me. "I think he is trying to better himself and work on himself, and I do think that experience with MDMA had an impact on him. It's been a touchstone for growth, and over time, I think, the reflection on that experience has had a greater impact on him than necessarily the experience itself."
Brendan is still struggling, though, to make the connections with others that he craves. When I visited him, he'd just spent Thanksgiving alone. He also has not completely abandoned his bigoted ideology, and is not sure that will ever be possible. "There are moments when I have racist or antisemitic thoughts, definitely," he said. "But now I can recognise that those kinds of thought patterns are harming me more than anyone else."
Messages on a wall calling for compassion after violence at the Unite the Right rally in 2017 (Credit: Getty Images)
While Brendan's experience is outside the norm, it's not without precedent. In the 1980s, for example, an acquaintance of early MDMA-assisted therapy practitioner Requa Greer administered the drug to a pilot who had grown up in a racist home and had inherited those views. The pilot had always accepted his bigoted way of thinking as being a normal, accurate reflection of the way things were. MDMA, however, "gave him a clear vision that unexamined racism was both wrong and mean," Greer says.
Rare as they might be, stories such as these are worth examining for the implications they give about MDMA's potential ability to "influence a person's values and priorities", as de Wit and several co-authors wrote in a case study they published about Brendan in 2021 in the journal Biological Psychiatry. If "extremist views [are] fueled by fear, anger and cognitive biases", the researchers posed, "might these be targets of pharmacological intervention"?
Encouraging stories of seemingly spontaneous change appear to be exceptions to the norm, however, and from a neurological point of view, this makes sense. Research shows that oxytocin '' one of the key hormones that MDMA triggers neurons to release '' drives a "tend and defend" response across the animal kingdom. The same oxytocin that causes a mother bear to nurture her newborn, for example, also fuels her rage when she perceives a threat to her cub. In people, oxytocin likewise strengthens caregiving tendencies toward liked members of a person's in-group and strangers perceived to belong to the same group, but it increases hostility toward individuals from disliked groups. In a 2010 study published in Science, for example, men who inhaled oxytocin were three times more likely to donate money to members of their team in an economic game, as well as more likely to harshly punish competing players for not donating enough. (Read more: "The surprising downsides of empathy.")
The same oxytocin that causes a mother bear to nurture her newborn also fuels her rage when she perceives a threat to her cubAccording to research published this week in Nature by Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist G¼l D¶len, MDMA and other psychedelics '' including psilocybin, LSD, ketamine and ibogaine '' work therapeutically by reopening a critical period in the brain. Critical periods are finite windows of impressionability that typically occur in childhood, when our brains are more malleable and primed to learn new things. But D¶len and her colleagues' findings likewise indicate that, without the proper set and setting, MDMA and other psychedelics probably do not reopen critical periods, which means they will not have a spontaneous, revelatory effect for ridding someone of bigoted beliefs.
Anecdotally, some members of the Taliban, for example, use MDMA to channel a connection to the divine during prayer chants, according to a drug activist based in Kabul who I interviewed for my book. In the West, plenty of members of right-wing authoritarian political movements, including neo-Nazi groups, also have track records of taking MDMA and other psychedelics. This suggests, researchers write, that psychedelics are nonspecific, "politically pluripotent" amplifiers of whatever is going on in somebody's head, with no particular directional leaning "on the axes of conservatism-liberalism or authoritarianism-egalitarianism."
That said, a growing body of scientific evidence indicates that the human capacity for compassion, kindness, empathy, gratitude, altruism, fairness, trust, and cooperation are core features of our natures. If MDMA, with proper preparation, can nudge us toward embracing this state of being, then the idea of using the drug as an aid to help make the world a more loving, less hateful place may be more than just a pipe dream. As Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal wrote, "Empathy is the one weapon in the human repertoire that can rid us of the curse of xenophobia."
Could MDMA nudge some people to a greater sense of empathy and compassion for others? (Credit: Alamy)
Natalie Ginsberg, the global impact officer at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps) '' a non-profit group that has been spearheading research on MDMA '' remembers standing next to the Washington Monument in DC at the Catharsis Festival right after the 2016 election, talking with Maps's founder Rick Doblin at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning about the possibility of using MDMA to facilitate a dialogue between Republicans and Democrats. Ginsberg also envisions using the drug in workshops aimed at eliminating racism, or as a means of bringing people together from opposite sides of shared cultural histories to help heal intergenerational trauma. "I think all psychedelics have a role to play, but I think MDMA has a particularly key role because you're both expanded and present, heart-open and really able to listen in a new way," Ginsberg says. "That's something really powerful."
"If you give MDMA to hard-core haters on each side of an issue, I don't think it'll do a lot of good," Doblin adds. "But if you start with open-minded people on both sides, then I think it can work. You can improve communications and build empathy between groups, and help people be more capable of analysing the world from a more balanced perspective rather than from fear-based, anxiety-based distrust."
In 2021, Ginsberg and Doblin were coauthors on a study investigating the possibility of using ayahuasca '' a plant-based psychedelic '' in group contexts to bridge divides between Palestinians and Israelis, with positive findings. They hope to undertake a similar study using MDMA in the future.
MDMA is not going to end war, bigotry, and polarisation any more than it will permanently transform anti-social octopuses into social butterflies. But there could be a role for it and other psychedelics to play to help people better see each other as fellow human beings. "I kind of have a fantasy that maybe as we get more reacquainted with psychedelics, there could be group-based experiences that build community resiliency and are intentionally oriented toward breaking down barriers between people, having people see things from other perspectives and detribalising our society," says psychiatrist Franklin King at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "But that's not going to happen on its own. It would have to be intentional, and '' if it happens '' it would probably take multiple generations."
Based on his experience with extremism, Brendan agreed with expert takes that no drug, on its own, will spontaneously change the minds of white supremacists or end political conflict in the US. "A lot of these guys who end up in these movements have a history of doing MDMA," he pointed out. But he does think that, with the right framing and mindset, MDMA could be useful for people who are already at least somewhat open to reconsidering their ideologies, just as it was for him. "It helped me see things in a different way that no amount of therapy or antiracist literature ever would have done," he said. "I really think it was a breakthrough experience."
*Rachel Nuwer is a freelance science journalist and the author of I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World, from which this article is adapted.
--
Join one million Future fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "The Essential List" '' a handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife, Travel and Reel delivered to your inbox every Friday.
;
My hopes are with 'the American people', China's Xi Jinping tells 'old friend' Bill Gates | South China Morning Post
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:57
President Xi Jinping uses special diplomatic term for Gates as he meets Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist in BeijingPeople should 'communicate more to enhance understanding', Xi says, in loaded message ahead of top US diplomat Antony Blinken's visit to China Published: 7:54pm, 16 Jun, 2023
Updated: 9:06pm, 16 Jun, 2023
The Truthful Therapist
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:21
The Truthful Therapist Presents A Parent's Guide to Mental Health Many parents do not have the knowledge or experience to confidently navigate the Mental Health system. Use our guide to get the most out of any counseling that your child is receiving.
The Truthful Therapist does not provide therapy or counseling through this site. No portion of this website, courses, or coaching is HIPAA compliant. If you have an immediate emergency please contact your therapist or dial 911.
The Truthful Therapist has been busy! Click here to see her various media and film appearances! Media Appearances Presents
A Parent's Guide to Mental Health
Many parents do not have the knowledge or experience to confidently navigate the Mental Health system. Use our guide to get the most out of any counseling that your child is receiving.
The Truthful Therapist does not provide therapy or counseling through this site. No portion of this website, courses, or coaching is HIPAA compliant. If you have an immediate emergency please contact your therapist or dial 911.
Join the ProgramThe Parent's Guide to Mental Health is now available with a monthly subscription for only $5/month!
Get all learning modules and The Truthful Therapist Community for a low monthly payment!
Get it here!Check out the new docudrama: Gender Transformation: The Untold Realities featuring The Truthful Therapist. Screening at the Manhattan Film Festival, 6/16/23 Available for streaming on 6/19 at: gendertransformation.com
Available to stream Oct. 9 at www.runawayplanetpictures.com.
Must have been meant to be that I came across what you had to say online. Many thanks, you have helped...and made a big difference _ California parent 4/7/22
Thank you for this course. This is an extremely helpful resource for addressing many frequently asked questions by parents and I know this would have been a valuable resource for my parents if it had existed back when I first came out as trans. _ Trans man 9/27/22
Meet Pamela, The Truthful Therapist Your guide to understanding the Mental Health system and counseling
About Me _ 1 THE PARENTS GUIDE TO MENTAL HEALTH
Subscription access to all published courses including updates and new releases as well as The Truthful Therapist Parent's Community for one year
Details _ 2 CONSULTATIONS Schedule a one to one consultation with The Truthful Therapist to discuss questions or concerns about the therapy your child / family is either seeking or receiving.
Schedule Now! _ 3 INDIVIDUAL COURSES Choose one or more individual courses that match your current situation and needs
Course List WHICH RESOURCE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
A helpful video from The Truthful Therapist
_ Therapy Red Flags
Join our mailing list!Enter your email below to be updated on our courses.
Take a look at our Mental Health Response to COVID module for free. Download
Midwest teachers trade tips on 'subversively and quietly' transitioning kids without telling parents | Daily Mail Online
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:05
Dozens of Midwestern teachers met online this week and traded tips on helping trans students change gender at school without their parents' knowledge, while criticizing a raft of new Republican laws on sex and identity.
DailyMail.com gained access to an online session hosted by the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP), which is funded by the Department of Education, attended by some 30 teachers from Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and beyond.
In the four-hour workshop, they discussed helping trans students in the face of new laws in Republican-run states on gender, pronouns, names, parents' rights, bathroom access, and sports teams.
Some teachers said they followed the rules, but others discussed being 'subversive,' how their personal 'code of ethics' trumped laws, and how to 'hide' a trans student's new name and gender from their parents.
Kimberly Martin (left), a Michigan educator, and Jennifer Haglund of Iowa, say they'll go above and beyond to help trans students
The expos(C) comes amid growing tensions between traditional parents, who worry about newfangled gender ideas in schools, and some progressive teachers, who say they need to protect trans students from their own families.
Kicking off the workshop, Angel Nathan, the MAP specialist who hosted the session, said attendees would review the new laws in a bid to 'remedy the marginalizing effects and disrupt problematic policies.'
In the discussion and role-play sessions that followed, the teachers, administrators, principals, and counselors spoke about trans students and their families in a way that would alarm many parents.
Kimberly Martin, the DEI coordinator for Royal Oak Schools, which serves 5,000 K-12 students in Michigan, spoke about helping trans students keep their gender change a secret.
'We're working with our record-keeping system so that certain screens can't be seen by the parents '... if there's a nickname in there we're trying to hide,' Martin told the online gathering.
Jennifer Haglund, counselor for Ames Community Schools, which serves 5,000 K-12 Iowa students, complained about Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in March signing a law that bars biological males from competing on female sports teams.
She bragged about her 'own activism' and of taking part in protest marches.
'I know that I have my own right code of ethics, and that doesn't always go along with the law,' Haglund said.
Shea Martin, an Ohio-based trans educator, who writes a 'socialist, feminist, and anti-racist' blog called Radical Teacher, said she worked against 'laws that prohibit or restrict trans advocacy.'
'The stakes are very high for trans youth,' Martin said.
'I think that requires working subversively and quietly sometimes to make sure that trans kids have what they need.'
DailyMail.com gained access to a private workshop where Midwestern teachers shared tips on helping kids transition without telling their parents
School board meetings across the Midwest, like this one in North Dakota, have seen tense exchanges over trans students and parents' rights
Martin did not describe any subversive acts, but, later spoke about teachers addressing 'sexuality' with elementary students, who are aged between five and 10.
When talking about men, women, playground crushes, love, and marriage with youngsters, teachers should be wary of treating 'reinforced heterosexuality as the norm,' Martin said.
Finally, Yesenia Jimenez-Captain, the director of educational services at Woodland School District, which serves some 4,600 K-8 students across four schools in Lake County, Illinois, slammed conservative teachers in a nearby district.
Parents and teachers across Illinois have in recent years been angered by Democrat-led efforts to put tampons and sanitary napkins in boys' bathrooms, so that trans female-to-male students can access them.
Jimenez-Captain told her colleagues about a nearby school board meeting that 'exploded in violence' over the tampon controversy.
'That became a big violent issue cause the individuals who were involved are also educators '... which is sickening.'
At no point in the session did any teacher say parents might know what's best for their own kids, nor question whether affirmation-on-demand was the only way to help a trans-identified student.
Teaching new wave gender ideology in schools and secretly affirming trans-identified students have become hot-button issues in America's culture wars between liberals and conservatives.
Some traditional parents worry about activist teachers influencing kids with radical gender ideas, and even encouraging them to transition.
Tensions have led to lawsuits and violent school board meetings across the country.
Republican politicians in Red states have introduced more than 500 bills affecting LGBTQ people this year, with dozens already signed into law, says the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group.
Whether male-to-female trans student athletes can compete against schoolgirls has become a divisive issue in schools, like this one in California
Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir Gender Queer (bottom right) is among the books that parents have tried to ban from school libraries
The Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP) serves 11.2 million students in 7,025 school districts across 13 states
Parents are clashing with teachers across the US over whether transgender teenagers can transition in classrooms without their knowledge - and most cases are not always solved in the principals' office, and often end up in court
They include laws requiring teachers to tell parents about a student's new name or pronoun, whether trans students can use bathrooms that don't correspond with their birth sex, or ban trans girls from participating in girls' sports.
Conservative parents' groups have sought to ban books from classrooms and school libraries, including Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir Gender Queer, about the author's struggle with their own sexual and gender identity.
Schools are under pressure to assist trans students in this fractious political environment, where the 'gender-affirming' model touted by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other bodies, is increasingly called into question.
MAP, which hosted the workshop, is part of the Great Lakes Equity Center. Funded by the federal government under Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, it serves 11.2 million students in 7,025 school districts across 13 states.
In November, MAP announced that it had secured an $8.5 million funding arrangement with the Department of Education, and millions more elsewhere. The department did not immediately answer DailyMail.com's request for comment.
MAP operates across Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. It covers states with pro-trans laws and others with a more cautious approach.
MOVEit zero-day exploit used by data breach gangs: The how, the why, and what to do'... '' Naked Security
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 14:28
Last week, Progress Software Corporation, which sells software and services for user interface development, devops, file management and more, alerted customers of its MOVEit Transfer and related MOVEit Cloud products about a critical vulnerability dubbed CVE-2023-34362.
As the name suggests, MOVEit Transfer is a system that makes it easy to store and share files throughout a team, a department, a company, or even a supply chain.
In its own words, ''MOVEit provides secure collaboration and automated file transfers of sensitive data and advanced workflow automation capabilities without the need for scripting.''
Unfortunately, MOVEit's web-based front end, which makes it easy to share and manage files using just a web browser (a process generally considered less prone to misdirected or ''lost'' files than sharing them via email), turned out to have a SQL injection vulnerability.
SQL injections explainedWeb-based SQL injection bugs arise when an HTTP request that's submitted to a web server is converted insecurely into a query command that's then issued by the server itself to do a database lookup in order to work out what HTTP reply to construct.
For example, a database search that's triggered from a web page might end up as a URL requested by your browser that looks like this:
https://search.example.com/?type=file&name=duckThe query text duck could then be extracted from the name parameter in the URL, converted into database query syntax, and stitched into a command to submit to the database server.
If the backend data is stored in a SQL database, the web server might convert that URL into a SQL command like the one shown below.
The % characters added to the text duck mean that the search term can appear anywhere in the retrieved filename, and the single quote characters at each end are added as markers to denote a SQL text string:
SELECT filename FROM filesdb WHERE name LIKE '%duck%'The data that comes back from the query could then be formatted nicely, converted to HTML, and sent back as an HTTP reply to your browser, perhaps giving you a clickable list of matching files for you to download.
Of course, the web server needs to be really careful with the search text that it receives, in case a malicious user creates and requests a URL like this:
https://search.example.com/?type=file&name=duck';DROP table filesdb;--If that search term were blindly converted into a query string, you might be able to trick the web server into sending the SQL server a command like this:
SELECT filename FROM filesdb WHERE name LIKE '%duck';DROP TABLE filesdb;--%'Because a semicolon (;) acts as a statement separator in SQL, this single-line command is actually the same as sending three consecutive commands:
SELECT filename FROM filesdb WHERE name LIKE '%duck' -- matches names ending duckDROP TABLE filesdb -- deletes whole table--%' -- comment, does nothingSneakily, because everyting after -- is discarded by SQL as a programmer's comment, these three lines are the same as:
SELECT filename FROM filesdb WHERE name LIKE '%duck'DROP TABLE filesdbYou'll get back a list of all filenames in the database table that end with the string duck (the special SQL character % at the start of a search term means ''match anything up to this point'')'...
'...but you'll be the last person to get anything useful out of the filesdb table, because your rogue search term will follow up the search with the SQL command to delete the whole table.
Little Bobby TablesIf you've ever heard syadmins or coders making jokes about Little Bobby Tables, that's because this sort of SQL injection was immortalised in an XKCD cartoon back in 2007:
As the cartoon concludes in the last frame, you really need to sanitise your database inputs, meaning that you need to take great care not to allow the person submitting the search term to control how the search command gets interpreted by the backend servers involved.
You can see why this sort of trick is known as an injection attack: in the examples above, the malicious search terms cause an additional SQL command to be injected into the handling of the request.
In fact, both these examples involve two injected commands, following the sneakily-inserted ''close quote'' character to finish off the search string early. The first extra command is the destructive DROP TABLE instruction. The second is a ''comment command'' that causes the rest of the line to be ignored, thus cunningly eating up the trailing %' characters generated by the server's command generator, which would otherwise have caused a syntax error and prevented the injected DROP TABLE command from working.
Good news and bad newsThe good news in this case is that Progress patched all its supported MOVEit versions, along with its cloud-based service, once it became aware of the vulnerability.
So, if you use the cloud version, you're now automatically up-to-date, and if you are running MOVEit on your own network, we hope you've patched by now.
The bad news is that this vulnerability was a zero-day, meaning that Progress found out about it because the Bad Guys had already been exploiting it, rather than before they figured out how to do so.
In other words, by the time you patched your own servers (or Progress patched its cloud service), crooks might already have injected rogue commands into your MOVEit SQL backend databases, with a range of possible outcomes:
Deletion of existing data. As shown above, the classic example of a SQL injection attack is large-scale data destruction.Exfiltration of existing data. Instead of dropping SQL tables, attackers could inject queries of their own, thus learning not only the structure of your internal databases, but also extracting and stealing their juiciest parts.Modification of existing data. More subtle attackers might decide to corrupt or disrupt your data instead of (or as well as) stealing it.Implantation of new files, including malware. Attackers could inject SQL commands that in turn launched external system commands, thus achieving arbitrary remote code execution inside your network.One group of attackers, alleged by Microsoft to be (or to be connected with) the infamous Clop ransomware gang, have apparently been using this vulnerability to implant what are known as webshells on affected servers.
If you're not familiar with webshells, read our plain-English explainer that we published at the time of the troublesome HAFNIUM attacks back in March 2021:
Webshell dangerSimply put, webshells provide a way for attackers who can add new files to your web server to come back later, break in at their leisure, and parlay that write-only access into complete remote control.
Webshells work because many web servers treat certain files (usually determined by the directory they're in, or by the extension that they have) as executable scripts used to generate the page to send back, rather than as the actual content to use in the reply.
For example, Microsoft's IIS (Internet Information Services) is usually configured so that if a web browser requests a file called, say, hello.html, then the raw, unmodified content of that file will be read in and sent back to the browser.
So, if there is any malware in that hello.html file, then it will affect the person browsing to the server, not the server itself.
But if the file is called, say, hello.aspx (where ASP is short for the self-descriptive phrase Active Server Pages), then that file is treated as a script program for the server to execute.
Running that file as a program, instead of simply reading it in as data, will generate the output to be sent in reply.
In other words, if there is any malware in that hello.aspx file, then it will directly affect the server itself, not the person browsing to it.
In short, dropping a webshell file as the side-effect of a command injection attack means that the attackers can come back later, and by visiting the URL corresponding to that webshell's filename'...
'...they can run their malware right inside your network, using nothing more suspicious than an unassuming HTTP request made by an everyday web browser.
Indeed, some webshells consist of just one line of malicious script, for example, a single command that says ''get text from a specific HTTP header in the request and run it as a system command''.
This gives general-purpose command-and-control access to any attacker who knows the right URL to visit, and the right HTTP header to use for delivering the rogue command.
What to do?If you're a MOVEit user, make sure all instances of the software on your network are patched.If you can't patch right now, turn off the web-based (HTTP and HTTPS) interfaces to your MOVEit servers until you can. Apparently this vulnerability is exposed only via MOVEit's web interface, not via other access paths such as SFTP.Search your logs for newly-added web server files, newly created user accounts, and unexpectedly large data downloads. Progress has a list of places to search, along with filenames and URLs to search for.If you're a programmer, sanitise thine inputs.If you're a SQL programmer, use parameterised queries, rather than generating query commands containing characters controlled by the person sending the request.In many, if not most, webshell-based attacks investigated so far, Progress suggests that you'll probably find a rogue webshell file named human2.aspx, perhaps along with newly-created malicious files with a .cmdline extension.
(Sophos products will detect and block known webshell files as Troj/WebShel-GO, whether they are called human2.aspx or not.)
Remember, however, that if other attackers knew about this zero-day before the patch came out, they may have injected different, and perhaps more subtle, commands that can't now be detected by scanning for malware that was left behind, or searching for known filenames that might show up in logs.
Don't forget to review your access logs in general, and if you don't have time to do it yourself, don't be afraid to ask for help!
Learn more about Sophos Managed Detection and Response:24/7 threat hunting, detection, and response '¶
Short of time or expertise to take care of cybersecurity threat response? Worried that cybersecurity will end up distracting you from all the other things you need to do?
Bill Gates Meets China's Xi After $50M Donation to CCP University That Does Military Research
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 21:54
BEIJING'--Bill Gates met with Chinese president Xi Jinping one day after the liberal billionaire unveiled a $50 million partnership with a Chinese Communist Party-controlled university that conducts research for the nation's military.
Xi called Gates "an old friend" during the meeting at Beijing's Diaoyutai state guest house, where China's leaders have traditionally received senior foreign visitors. The Friday encounter was Xi's first meeting with a foreign entrepreneur in years and came just one day after Gates
announced a $50 million research partnership with Tsinghua University, which trains students for China's nuclear weapons program, holds "secret-level security credentials" for classified military research, and has allegedly carried out cyberattacks for the Chinese government, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Gates through his collaboration with Tsinghua will carry out drug discovery research, which involves studying potent viruses.
Xi, who graduated from Tsinghua in in 2002 with a degree in Marxist theory, said during the meeting he was very happy to see the Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist after three years and that Gates was the first American friend he had met this year.
"I often say the foundation of U.S.-China relations lies with its people. I place my hopes on the American people," a video published by state broadcaster CCTV showed Xi as saying. "With the current global situation, we can carry out various activities beneficial to our two countries and people, activities that benefit humanity as a whole," he said.
Gates, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, said he was "honoured" to have the chance to meet. "We've always had great conversations and we'll have lot of important topics to discuss today ... it's very exciting to be back."
In a post on his personal blog, Gates said he and Xi had discussed global health and development challenges such as health inequity and climate change.
Xi stopped travelling abroad for nearly three years as China shut its borders during the coronavirus pandemic and his international meetings since the reopening have mostly been with other state leaders.
A number of CEOs have visited China since it reopened early this year, but most have met with government ministers.
Gates stepped down from Microsoft's board in 2020 to focus on philanthropy in the fields of global health, education and climate change, a pursuit that has seen the billionaire send millions of dollars to Chinese government agencies. The last reported meeting between Xi and Gates was in 2015, when they met on the sidelines of the Boao forum in Hainan province. In early 2020, Xi wrote to Gates thanking him and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for pledging assistance to China, including $5 million for its fight against COVID-19. Xi also discussed the global rise of artificial intelligence (AI) with Bill Gates and said he welcomed U.S. firms including Microsoft bringing their AI tech to China, two sources familiar with the talks said.
One of the sources said they also discussed Microsoft's business development in China.
NOT PURSUING HEGEMONY
The mood of the foreign business community towards China has turned more cautious as Sino-U.S. tensions intensify and Xi increases China's focus on national security.
Gates' visit comes ahead of a long-delayed trip to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken aimed at stabilizing relations between the world's two largest economies and strategic rivals.
Blinken had a tense call with China's foreign minister Qin Gang on Wednesday, during which Qin urged the United States to stop meddling in its affairs and harming its security.
During his meeting with Gates, Xi said China would not follow the old path of a "strong country seeking hegemony" but would work with other countries to achieve common development, according to the People's Daily newspaper, a Chinese Communist Party propaganda rag. China often accuses the United States of pursuing hegemony.
Published under: Bill Gates , China , Xi Jinping
In Rush to Arm Ukraine, Weapons Are Bought but Not Delivered, or Too Broken to Use - The New York Times
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 18:50
Some of the weapons sent to Ukraine by other countries have been unusable, and hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts paid up front have yet to be fulfilled.
A Ukrainian soldier preparing to fire an American-made M109 self-propelled howitzer toward Russian troops stationed in the city of Bakhmut in April. Credit... Mauricio Lima for The New York Times June 19, 2023, 3:00 a.m. ET
Ukraine has paid contractors hundreds of millions of dollars for weapons that have not been delivered, and some of the much-publicized arms donated by its allies have been so decrepit that they were deemed fit only to be cannibalized for spare parts.
Ukrainian government documents show that as of the end of last year, Kyiv had paid arms suppliers more than $800 million since the Russian invasion in February 2022 for contracts that went completely or partly unfulfilled.
Two people involved in Ukraine's arms purchasing said that some of the missing weapons had eventually been delivered, and that in other cases brokers had refunded the money. But as of early this spring, hundreds of millions of dollars had been paid '-- including to state-owned companies '-- for arms never materialized, one of these people said.
''We did have cases where we paid money and we didn't receive,'' Volodymyr Havrylov, a deputy defense minister working on arms procurement, said in a recent interview. He said the government this year had begun analyzing its past purchases and excluding problematic contractors.
Problems are inevitable in an arms-acquisition frenzy the size of Ukraine's. Since Russia invaded last year, Western allies have sent Ukraine tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons. As of last week, the United States alone had committed about $40 billion worth of military aid (and more in financial and humanitarian assistance), and European allies have also contributed tens of billions. In addition, Ukraine has spent billions of dollars of its own on the private arms market.
Many of the transfers from Western allies have involved modern weapons like American air defense systems that have proven highly effective against Russian drones and missiles. But in other cases allies have provided stockpiled equipment that, at best, needed extensive overhauls.
As much of 30 percent of Kyiv's arsenal is under repair at any given time '-- a high rate, defense experts said, for a military that needs every weapon it can get for its developing counteroffensive.
Image Mechanics repairing a military transport vehicle at a workshop in Kyiv last month. As much of 30 percent of the country's arsenal is under repair at any given time. Credit... Nicole Tung for The New York Times ''If I was the head of an army that has gifted kit to Ukraine, I'd be professionally very embarrassed if I turned stuff around in bad order,'' said Ben Barry, a land warfare expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
A recent delivery of 33 self-propelled howitzers donated by the Italian government provides a case in point. Videos showed smoke billowing from the engine of one, and engine coolant leaking from another.
Italy's Defense Ministry said in a statement that the vehicles had been decommissioned years ago but that Ukraine had asked for them anyway, ''to be overhauled and put into operation, given the urgent need for means to face the Russian aggression.''
Ukrainian government documents show that its Defense Ministry paid $19.8 million to an American arms dealer, the Tampa-based Ultra Defense Corporation, to have the 33 howitzers repaired. In January, 13 of those howitzers were shipped to Ukraine but arrived ''not suitable for combat missions,'' according to one of the documents.
Officials in Kyiv accused the American company of failing to finish a job that was supposed to be completed by late December. ''The American company, offering its services, had no prior intention to fulfill its obligations,'' Ukraine's defense procurement director, Volodymyr Pikuzo, wrote in a Feb. 3 letter to the Pentagon's inspector general.
Matthew Herring, the company's chief executive, strongly denied the accusation. ''Every single one of them worked when we delivered them,'' he wrote in a text message this month, saying that the Ukrainians had not properly maintained the howitzers after they were handed over. That included the one with a coolant leak, which he said had ''magically appeared after delivery in Ukraine.''
The Pentagon's inspector general is investigating the matter, according to a United States defense official and an American who has worked with Ukraine to procure weapons.
Image A Ukrainian artillery team preparing to fire at a Russian ammunition depot across the Dnipro River last year. When Russia invaded, Kyiv found itself desperate for weapons and ammunition. Credit... Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times Ukrainian officials have mostly refrained from complaining about broken equipment, so as not to embarrass their benefactors. ''There were issues of quality to some of the howitzers, but we have to keep in mind that it was a gift,'' Mr. Havrylov said.
But the government in Kyiv has grown weary, another senior Ukrainian official said, of being told that it has enough Western weapons, when some arrive in poor or unusable condition, relegated from combat to be cannibalized for parts.
The official, like some others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to frankly discuss a sensitive security matter that risks causing friction between allies. Ukraine's Defense Ministry declined to comment.
Problems with arming the military are as old as post-Soviet Ukraine itself, pulled for decades between competing factions with different visions for the country's arms industry.
After Ukraine gained independence in 1991, it made considerable sums by selling off items from its extensive stocks of Soviet-era weapons. The country's arsenal shrank, particularly under President Viktor F. Yanukovych, Ukraine's pro-Russian leader in the early 2010s. In the years after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a heated debate erupted over whether and to what extent to reinvigorate its arms industry.
But changes were slow, and when Russia invaded last year Kyiv found itself desperate for weapons and ammunition. Its leaders scrambled to find arms wherever they could. Brokers, many unreliable, flooded Ukraine with offers, said Mr. Havrylov.
The documents obtained by The New York Times, generated by a government audit this year, showed that some of the most valuable sets of undelivered contracts are between the Defense Ministry and state-owned Ukrainian arms companies that function as independent brokers. In recent months, the ministry has sued at least two of those state firms over unfulfilled contracts, and Ukraine recently announced overhauls aimed at making those companies more efficient.
There have been problems with Western-donated equipment as well, which contributed to some of its being delivered so belatedly or unpredictably as to complicate planning for Ukraine's counteroffensive.
Image Ukrainian soldiers camouflaging an M777 howitzer after firing it toward Russian positions last year. Credit... Ivor Prickett for The New York Times A Pentagon inspector general's report released in late May illustrates some of the problems.
Last summer, an American Army unit was ordered to ship 29 Humvees to Ukraine from a depot at Camp Arifjan, a base in Kuwait. Although the unit's leaders had previously said that all but one of the Humvees were ''fully mission capable,'' an initial inspection after the orders were received revealed that 26 of them were too broken for combat, according to the Pentagon report.
By late August, contractors had repaired transmissions, dead batteries, fluid leaks, broken lights, door latches and seatbelts on the Humvees, and reported that all 29 were ready for Ukraine. The work was verified by the Army unit in Kuwait.
But when the Humvees reached a staging base in Poland, officials found that the tires on 25 of them were rotten. It took nearly a month to find enough replacement tires, which ''delayed the shipment of other equipment to Ukraine and required significant labor and time,'' the Pentagon report found.
The same Army unit in Kuwait was also supposed to send six M777 howitzers to Ukraine just weeks after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion. As it turned out, however, the howitzers ''required extensive maintenance'' before they could be shipped, because they had gone without regular service checks for 19 months, the Pentagon report found.
At least one was in such bad shape that it ''would have killed somebody'' trying to use it, inspectors concluded in March 2022.
Three months later, the howitzers had been repaired and shipped to the staging center in Poland. But officials there still concluded that all six ''had faults that made them non-mission capable,'' the Pentagon audit found. They were repaired in Poland before being sent to Ukraine.
Image Ukrainian soldiers moving near the Kherson front in September. Credit... Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times Some weapons systems are either so scarce or so vulnerable to breaking down that Ukraine has welcomed at least some of the faulty Western equipment as a source of parts.
In January, Britain's defense secretary, Ben Wallace, announced the planned transfer of self-propelled AS-90 howitzers to Ukraine, including some in ''varying states of readiness.'' Twelve required Ukraine ''to either refurbish or exploit for spares,'' the British Defense Ministry said in a statement in March.
The senior Ukrainian official confirmed that they were needed to supply spare parts for others.
Reporting was contributed by Jason Horowitz from Rome, and Anastasia Kuznietsova, Daria Mitiuk and Michael Schwirtz from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Justin Scheck is a reporter for The Times working on international investigations. @ ScheckNYTimes
Lara Jakes is a foreign correspondent focused on the war in Ukraine. She has been a diplomatic and military correspondent in Washington and a war correspondent in Iraq, and has reported and edited from more than 60 countries over the last 25 years. @ jakesNYT
A version of this article appears in print on
, Section
A
, Page
6
of the New York edition
with the headline:
Some Donated Weapons Are Scrapped for Parts
. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe
(20) Oryx on Twitter: "The End of a Journey https://t.co/a9fzieQIKC" / Twitter
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 17:39
Oryx : The End of a Journey https://t.co/a9fzieQIKC
Mon Jun 19 09:22:56 +0000 2023
Oleh Lukasz Sniezko : @oryxspioenkop Thank you for the good times though!
Mon Jun 19 17:37:29 +0000 2023
Iran Defense|ÙÛرÙÙØ§Û Ù
Ø"ÙØ Ø¬Ù
ÙÙØ±Û Ø§Ø"ÙاÙ
Û Ø§Ûرا٠: @oryxspioenkop We will miss you, take care in whatever you decide to pursue in life ''¸
Mon Jun 19 17:36:54 +0000 2023
TOMAS PASCUAL : @oryxspioenkop @secretsqrl123 Gracias por todo
Mon Jun 19 17:36:17 +0000 2023
Alexander Morgun : @oryxspioenkop Too early. Did you try Patreon?
Mon Jun 19 17:34:58 +0000 2023
Alex : @oryxspioenkop You will not be forgotten. Thank you for your Herculean work!
Mon Jun 19 17:34:14 +0000 2023
Donut : @oryxspioenkop Oryx reports that russia lost 6 leopard tanks as they retreated during ukrainian non offensive probing.
Mon Jun 19 17:34:06 +0000 2023
ÐÐÐ Ð ÐРУÐÐ : @oryxspioenkop ð
Mon Jun 19 17:33:17 +0000 2023
bart bv : @oryxspioenkop Golf clap! But: why not transfer the project to other people, I'm sure there's enough interest?
Mon Jun 19 17:32:49 +0000 2023
antonio murgia. : @oryxspioenkop ð¤ð¤ð¤ð¤ð¤
Mon Jun 19 17:31:08 +0000 2023
The Song of Igor's Campaign ðºð...ððºð... : @oryxspioenkop Thanks for keeping at it this long. It must be a bit depressing to catalog such widespread destructi'... https://t.co/27juWS0csp
Mon Jun 19 17:29:40 +0000 2023
@sallyshuttle ðð...ðð...ð´ó §ó ó ·ó ¬ó "ó : @oryxspioenkop @secretsqrl123 It has been a huge task and I really doubt anyone else could have done it. You helped'... https://t.co/J9Z8F8rqiK
Mon Jun 19 17:29:40 +0000 2023
Patrick McCann : @oryxspioenkop Thank you for your work, I hope you find the contentment you are looking for. You certainly deserve it.
Mon Jun 19 17:29:14 +0000 2023
Zam 1 ðµð¸ ð¸ð¾ ð¹ð· : @oryxspioenkop The end of a journey of bullshit
Mon Jun 19 17:28:30 +0000 2023
ð°²ð°ð° -Cemil : @oryxspioenkop Who is gonna be our Oryx now?ð
Mon Jun 19 17:27:35 +0000 2023
d4nk0.eth ð...ð--ð¸ : @oryxspioenkop Try to monetize with https://t.co/YVusqGEY1g
Mon Jun 19 17:27:26 +0000 2023
Newsfeed Ukraine ðºð... : @oryxspioenkop Bedankt voor het harde werk de afgelopen 10 jaar! Ik wens jullie het allerbeste ! https://t.co/UlmOaqI8Il
Mon Jun 19 17:26:17 +0000 2023
United Nations Policy Brief Talks of a Digital ID Linked To Your Bank Account
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:05
The United Nations '' or at least some in the United Nations effectively pulling the strings '' must feel they are falling behind with pushing controversial ideas like Digital ID compared to the likes of the World Economic Forum (WEF) '' even if they're pushing in the same direction.
And now we have the UN making a case of not only introducing Digital IDs, but also making sure central authorities link them with people's bank or mobile bank accounts.
This shows up among a flurry of proposals and initiatives described by opponents as ''chilling,'' included in three policy briefs titled, ''A Global Digital Compact, Reforms to the International Financial Architecture, and The Future of Outer Space Governance.''
The purpose of the briefs is to work out what's known as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' ''vision for the future'' '' ''Our Common Agenda'' '' that should be given the green light in September 2024 during an event dubbed, ''The Summit for the Future.''
From the report:
''Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries. Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design of social protection programmes.''
Not unlike their unofficial counterparts over at the WEF, the UN also speaks about basically regulating global digital future, and uses phrases such as international cooperation and many stakeholders, who will advance principles, objectives and actions, in other words, rules '' for '' wait for it '' ''an open, free, secure and human-centered digital future.''
Critics, however, firmly believe, and continue to make their case, that the digital future as envisaged by these groups '' official or informal '' is going to be quite the opposite of open, free, or human-centric.
As far as the UN's ''vision'' for a future global financial system, it is supposed to be harmonized with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and would be governed by something called ''the apex body'' that is yet to be set up.
The key actors here would be the UN chief, as well as the Group of 20, Economic and Social Council, and ''heads of international financial institutions.''
Within this, the UN sees ''visions'' of ''a Global Digital Compact'' '' sounds innocuous enough, but what it's supposed to achieve is not. It's having people, devices, entities, all tied up in a connected network that could apparently be centrally administered.
When those planning this future scheme worry about any negative impact, they never see it as potentially affecting everyone '' but only ''civil society ('...) or selected groups excluded from social benefits.''
Very close call at Minneapolis - Airliners.net
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:32
Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
atcsundevil Moderator
Posts: 5679Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 12:22 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Fri Jun 16, 2023 10:45 pm
Gonzalo wrote:If already reported mods please remove.
https://avherald.com/h?article=50a8a110&opt=0
Quote : ADS-B data suggest, the separation between the aircraft, both airborne at 23:29:03Z, reduced to about
200 feet vertical and 0.14nm horizontal.That sounds awfully close...
"ADS-B data suggest..." If they're measuring based on publicly available ADS-B data, then it may not be accurate. The article also lacks context '-- what were the weather conditions? What type of approach was issued? Was visual separation applied? It's difficult to draw many conclusions at this point. Obviously they got close, but it's difficult to say if there was a procedural breakdown without more information. That's not to say that this isn't worth discussing, but without more, it's difficult to discuss on a factual basis.
777Mech Posts: 1525Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2016 10:54 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Fri Jun 16, 2023 11:36 pm
atcsundevil wrote:Gonzalo wrote:If already reported mods please remove.
https://avherald.com/h?article=50a8a110&opt=0
Quote : ADS-B data suggest, the separation between the aircraft, both airborne at 23:29:03Z, reduced to about
200 feet vertical and 0.14nm horizontal.That sounds awfully close...
"ADS-B data suggest..." If they're measuring based on publicly available ADS-B data, then it may not be accurate. The article also lacks context '-- what were the weather conditions? What type of approach was issued? Was visual separation applied? It's difficult to draw many conclusions at this point. Obviously they got close, but it's difficult to say if there was a procedural breakdown without more information. That's not to say that this isn't worth discussing, but without more, it's difficult to discuss on a factual basis.
Avherald also notes the wrong aircraft type for what registration they claim is involved. Should be a 223.
32andBelow Posts: 6499Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:54 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Fri Jun 16, 2023 11:50 pm
atcsundevil wrote:Gonzalo wrote:If already reported mods please remove.
https://avherald.com/h?article=50a8a110&opt=0
Quote : ADS-B data suggest, the separation between the aircraft, both airborne at 23:29:03Z, reduced to about
200 feet vertical and 0.14nm horizontal.That sounds awfully close...
"ADS-B data suggest..." If they're measuring based on publicly available ADS-B data, then it may not be accurate. The article also lacks context '-- what were the weather conditions? What type of approach was issued? Was visual separation applied? It's difficult to draw many conclusions at this point. Obviously they got close, but it's difficult to say if there was a procedural breakdown without more information. That's not to say that this isn't worth discussing, but without more, it's difficult to discuss on a factual basis.
There's zero reason the public ADSB data would be wrong. It's just a ground ADSB receiver getting the exact readout from the plane.
atcsundevil Moderator
Posts: 5679Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 12:22 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sat Jun 17, 2023 2:20 am
777Mech wrote:Avherald also notes the wrong aircraft type for what registration they claim is involved. Should be a 223.
The A220 is still formally registered as a C-Series. They are filed as "BCS1" and "BCS3". The Airbus A220 effectively only exists in branding.
32andBelow wrote:There's zero reason the public ADSB data would be wrong. It's just a ground ADSB receiver getting the exact readout from the plane.
I can't even count the number of times I've seen erroneous ADS-B data from public receivers, because they'll receive bad hits particularly at low altitude. There have been dozens of threads created here over the years because of erroneous or inaccurate public ADS-B data. The agency doesn't use ADS-B to measure target distances in investigations anyway, so it doesn't really matter until there's an official number and percentage of separation.
CarlosSi Posts: 1164Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2017 8:29 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sat Jun 17, 2023 3:12 am
Seems to me that's there's too much assuming that things will go perfectly right. There was a way out in this case but'... that was close.
N766UA Posts: 8514Joined: Thu Jul 29, 1999 3:50 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sat Jun 17, 2023 4:15 am
atcsundevil wrote:777Mech wrote:Avherald also notes the wrong aircraft type for what registration they claim is involved. Should be a 223.
The A220 is still formally registered as a C-Series. They are filed as "BCS1" and "BCS3". The Airbus A220 effectively only exists in branding.
The C-Series is, itself, just branding as well. While flight plans read "BCS1" or "BCS3," the airplane is technically a Bombardier BD-500!
Last edited by
N766UA on Sat Jun 17, 2023 4:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
SESGDL Posts: 3390Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2001 6:25 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sat Jun 17, 2023 4:15 am
This was all over the local news in MSP today. Apparently being investigated by the FAA. A number of well known spotters were at the airport when this happened and many on the facebook group noted the aircraft looked so close they thought they would collide. Not sure why MSP has so many of these issues but it was at one time, if I remember correctly, the airport in the US with the highest number of incursions.
Jeremy
777Mech Posts: 1525Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2016 10:54 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sat Jun 17, 2023 9:06 am
[photoid][/photoid]
N766UA wrote:atcsundevil wrote:777Mech wrote:Avherald also notes the wrong aircraft type for what registration they claim is involved. Should be a 223.
The A220 is still formally registered as a C-Series. They are filed as "BCS1" and "BCS3". The Airbus A220 effectively only exists in branding.
The C-Series is, itself, just branding as well. While flight plans read "BCS1" or "BCS3," the airplane is technically a Bombardier BD-500!
I know, My point is that N311DU is a -300, not a -100.
daemonizer Posts: 7Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:56 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sat Jun 17, 2023 8:31 pm
I witnessed this from the delta club. There was about 5 seconds of separation. It was like watching a vertical drag race. the American made no effort to change directions
questions Posts: 2648Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 4:51 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sat Jun 17, 2023 10:50 pm
SESGDL wrote:This was all over the local news in MSP today. Apparently being investigated by the FAA. A number of well known spotters were at the airport when this happened and many on the facebook group noted the aircraft looked so close they thought they would collide. Not sure why MSP has so many of these issues but it was at one time, if I remember correctly, the airport in the US with the highest number of incursions.
Jeremy
Any known photos of this incident from the spotters?
atcsundevil Moderator
Posts: 5679Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 12:22 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 12:59 am
777Mech wrote:[photoid][/photoid]
N766UA wrote:atcsundevil wrote:The A220 is still formally registered as a C-Series. They are filed as "BCS1" and "BCS3". The Airbus A220 effectively only exists in branding.
The C-Series is, itself, just branding as well. While flight plans read "BCS1" or "BCS3," the airplane is technically a Bombardier BD-500!
I know, My point is that N311DU is a -300, not a -100.
I see what you're saying. Well I guess nobody is sure what to call it
Gonzalo Topic Author
Posts: 1945Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:43 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 2:12 pm
daemonizer wrote:I witnessed this from the delta club. There was about 5 seconds of separation. It was like watching a vertical drag race. the American made no effort to change directions
Ufff... I guess you felt a chill running through your spine watching that !.... It will be great if some survelliance camera recorded the incident....or one of the - now - popular youtube channels streaming live from the busiest airports. From you point of observation, was the AA pilot in a position to keep the other aircraft insight at all times? Maybe he/she didn't make any change of heading because the other aircraft was already in his/her sight?
SESGDL Posts: 3390Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2001 6:25 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 2:21 pm
questions wrote:SESGDL wrote:This was all over the local news in MSP today. Apparently being investigated by the FAA. A number of well known spotters were at the airport when this happened and many on the facebook group noted the aircraft looked so close they thought they would collide. Not sure why MSP has so many of these issues but it was at one time, if I remember correctly, the airport in the US with the highest number of incursions.
Jeremy
Any known photos of this incident from the spotters?
I haven't seen any posted, unfortunately.
Jeremy
daemonizer Posts: 7Joined: Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:56 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 3:29 pm
Gonzalo wrote:daemonizer wrote:I witnessed this from the delta club. There was about 5 seconds of separation. It was like watching a vertical drag race. the American made no effort to change directions
From you point of observation, was the AA pilot in a position to keep the other aircraft insight at all times? Maybe he/she didn't make any change of heading because the other aircraft was already in his/her sight?
Well I saw on ADS-B that the AA aircraft did move off to the left a little bit, so maybe. But It was too little to see from ground level. Personally I think the American's biggest fault was not executing a climb out imo
32andBelow Posts: 6499Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:54 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:07 pm
atcsundevil wrote:777Mech wrote:Avherald also notes the wrong aircraft type for what registration they claim is involved. Should be a 223.
The A220 is still formally registered as a C-Series. They are filed as "BCS1" and "BCS3". The Airbus A220 effectively only exists in branding.
32andBelow wrote:There's zero reason the public ADSB data would be wrong. It's just a ground ADSB receiver getting the exact readout from the plane.
I can't even count the number of times I've seen erroneous ADS-B data from public receivers, because they'll receive bad hits particularly at low altitude. There have been dozens of threads created here over the years because of erroneous or inaccurate public ADS-B data. The agency doesn't use ADS-B to measure target distances in investigations anyway, so it doesn't really matter until there's an official number and percentage of separation.
We use ADSB to separate just off the ground so I don't know what the difference would be
bluecrew Posts: 886Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 3:13 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:31 pm
Tapes from LiveATC are up on YouTube.
Local controller had a SCX with a flow time taxiing down 30L to make A3 exit, puts the DAL BCS3 in position but there's just not enough time. DAL starts rolling, controller sends AAL around with "go around, right side, runway 30L," and then seems confused and says "AAL2406, I thought you were going on the right side, sir."
No diverging headings given until well into the incident, so yeah, this one was real, real close I'd say. Sounds like a loss of situational awareness, especially with the consistent, correct references to 30L, and then the confusion about "the right side."
Weather wasn't very good either, this could easily have been a mid-air.
Gonzalo Topic Author
Posts: 1945Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:43 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:38 pm
daemonizer wrote:Gonzalo wrote:daemonizer wrote:I witnessed this from the delta club. There was about 5 seconds of separation. It was like watching a vertical drag race. the American made no effort to change directions
From you point of observation, was the AA pilot in a position to keep the other aircraft insight at all times? Maybe he/she didn't make any change of heading because the other aircraft was already in his/her sight?
Well I saw on ADS-B that the AA aircraft did move off to the left a little bit, so maybe. But It was too little to see from ground level. Personally I think the American's biggest fault was not executing a climb out imo
Ok, many thanks for your feedback and first hand impressions. I don't want to sound like a mediocre journalist making storms in a cup of water, but the number of incursions and near misses ( or "near hits" like the unforgettable George Carlin would say ) is becoming alarming...or maybe the average number of incidents is the same but now we are more aware compared to preCovid era, I don't know. Glad that for now, only ink has been spilled in incident investigation reports and not blood in a crash, let's hope the string of incidents raise the eyebrows of all the people involved in aviation safety and nothing more serious happen. Best Regards!
G.
NLINK Posts: 696Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2003 3:20 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:55 pm
I've seen more ATC errors in the last 3 years than probably ever. The approach controller and tower don't see to be able to work together anymore in lots of cities. I think it's a combo of being short of help and new people in both ATC plus lots of new pilots in new equipment.
krsw757 Posts: 250Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:22 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 7:37 pm
NLINK wrote:I've seen more ATC errors in the last 3 years than probably ever. The approach controller and tower don't see to be able to work together anymore in lots of cities. I think it's a combo of being short of help and new people in both ATC plus lots of new pilots in new equipment.
Or more means of finding about them like live atc, flight trackers, social media, and regular media now having a hard on for aviation.
HTCone Posts: 311Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2017 7:10 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 8:27 pm
32andBelow wrote:atcsundevil wrote:777Mech wrote:Avherald also notes the wrong aircraft type for what registration they claim is involved. Should be a 223.
The A220 is still formally registered as a C-Series. They are filed as "BCS1" and "BCS3". The Airbus A220 effectively only exists in branding.
32andBelow wrote:There's zero reason the public ADSB data would be wrong. It's just a ground ADSB receiver getting the exact readout from the plane.
I can't even count the number of times I've seen erroneous ADS-B data from public receivers, because they'll receive bad hits particularly at low altitude. There have been dozens of threads created here over the years because of erroneous or inaccurate public ADS-B data. The agency doesn't use ADS-B to measure target distances in investigations anyway, so it doesn't really matter until there's an official number and percentage of separation.
We use ADSB to separate just off the ground so I don't know what the difference would be
The difference is ATC ADSB receivers are at a height to maintain line of site with the airframe, usually co-located with PSR/SSR. The amateur receivers used the by FR24 and others are usually in someone's house or shed'....somewhere'...'...and might not necessarily have line of sight, thus the accuracy is not to be trusted.
Avatar2go Posts: 3657Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:41 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:28 pm
There are numerous issues that can arise in ADS-B transmissions. One is GPS error, which commercial avionics evaluate and attempt to filter out. Another is altitude which may require ambient pressure compensation. Another may be transmission packet dropout & errors, resulting in inconsistent data. All these need to be checked to determine a final accurate position and trajectory.
Last edited by
Avatar2go on Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
wjcandee Posts: 11853Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2000 12:50 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:29 pm
HTCone wrote: The amateur receivers used the by FR24 and others are usually in someone's house or shed'....somewhere'...'...and might not necessarily have line of sight, thus the accuracy is not to be trusted.
I'm unclear how you reach this conclusion. It seems to me that each ADSB Out data packet, which is generated aboard the subject aircraft and then transmitted, and would be used to show an aircraft's position, has all the information necessary, including time, for ground equipment to plot the aircraft's position, regardless of where the receiver is located. Being digital data, it would seem that if the receiver can receive it accurately, it's not likely to be "untrustworthy".
I could be completely-wrong here, but it sounds similar to the misconception that you need 3 different receivers to receive the data before it can be used.
sunking737 Posts: 1908Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:33 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Sun Jun 18, 2023 11:55 pm
As a former MSP employee this happens a lot. Maybe a little to close. I saw the 747 get waved off one afternoon, while at Term 2...oh it was very low.
tjerome Posts: 469Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 3:03 am VS11 Posts: 2096Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2001 6:34 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 7:42 am
tjerome wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T8ER-a87_c
Well, it looks like the AA pilot didn't follow the instructions to go on the right side. If he had, the planes would have gone in opposite directions. Of course, should the DL plane have been cleared to roll if the AA plane is so close?
Avatar2go Posts: 3657Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:41 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 7:42 am
tjerome wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T8ER-a87_c
This seems like a combination of factors involved.
The overall spacing by ATC was tight to begin with, then for the SunWing runway taxi, ATC had to ask them to expedite as they were dawdling.
Then American responded to the ATC instruction to go-around on the right, with "on the go", leaving out the right side confirmation.
When challenged by ATC for not being on the right side, American responded they thought he had said left, and apologized.
This seems like the usual sequence of cascading errors that define accident situations.
32andBelow Posts: 6499Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:54 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:45 am
Avatar2go wrote:There are numerous issues that can arise in ADS-B transmissions. One is GPS error, which commercial avionics evaluate and attempt to filter out. Another is altitude which may require ambient pressure compensation. Another may be transmission packet dropout & errors, resulting in inconsistent data. All these need to be checked to determine a final accurate position and trajectory.
I've correlated radar with FR24 and have never seen an anomaly
HTCone Posts: 311Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2017 7:10 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:52 am
wjcandee wrote:HTCone wrote: The amateur receivers used the by FR24 and others are usually in someone's house or shed'....somewhere'...'...and might not necessarily have line of sight, thus the accuracy is not to be trusted.
I'm unclear how you reach this conclusion. It seems to me that each ADSB Out data packet, which is generated aboard the subject aircraft and then transmitted, and would be used to show an aircraft's position, has all the information necessary, including time, for ground equipment to plot the aircraft's position, regardless of where the receiver is located. Being digital data, it would seem that if the receiver can receive it accurately, it's not likely to be "untrustworthy".
I could be completely-wrong here, but it sounds similar to the misconception that you need 3 different receivers to receive the data before it can be used.
No, you need line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver. An amateur receiver in somebody's shed will likely lose that vs one used by ATC on top of a mast or mountain. If there is any terrain or tall building between the receiver and transmitter, signal will be lost. ADSB requires line of sight to work, just like civilian PSR, SSR and VHF. I'm not talking about MLAT or similar. ADSB data from FR24 etc is inherently unreliable because whenever the amateur receiver it has been obtaining data from loses line of sight and no other feed is available, it starts to guess.
Last edited by
HTCone on Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Avatar2go Posts: 3657Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:41 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:54 am
32andBelow wrote:I've correlated radar with FR24 and have never seen an anomaly
That's great. I'm just quoting the guideline documents for integrating ADS-B into ATC operations, which require checking & adjustment of all those parameters before they can be displayed to controllers as valid data.
The same level of care is taken for FAA and NTSB investigations, and establishment of true positions and trajectories.
However none of that is being done by FR24, unless they explicitly state the data are corrected. That's the difference between the public grade of data they provide, and professional grade that is used by ATC, FAA, and NTSB.
For NTSB preliminary reports, you will often see them state they are using public ADS-B data, as they have not yet reviewed, correlated, and corrected all the data.
32andBelow Posts: 6499Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:54 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:05 am
Avatar2go wrote:32andBelow wrote:I've correlated radar with FR24 and have never seen an anomaly
That's great. I'm just quoting the guideline documents for integrating ADS-B into ATC operations, which require checking & adjustment of all those parameters before they can be displayed to controllers as valid data.
The same level of care is taken for FAA and NTSB investigations, and establishment of true positions and trajectories.
However none of that is being done by FR24, unless they explicitly state the data are corrected. That's the difference between the public grade of data they provide, and professional grade that is used by ATC, FAA, and NTSB.
For NTSB preliminary reports, you will often see them state they are using public ADS-B data, as they have not yet reviewed, correlated, and corrected all the data.
And what are the chances of losing line do site in Minneapolis. Maybe there can be anomalies. But chances are it's correct. That being said if they were applying visual separation then it doesn't really matter how close they got.
Avatar2go Posts: 3657Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:41 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:26 am
32andBelow wrote:And what are the chances of losing line do site in Minneapolis. Maybe there can be anomalies. But chances are it's correct. That being said if they were applying visual separation then it doesn't really matter how close they got.
The line of sight issue only arises in the context of erroneous or inconsistent data, out of sequence packets, etc. Another issue is the moving sources, which can introduce phase errors. The protocols are designed to minimize this, but errors can still occur.
In wireless data networks, these are very common issues, but the networks use handshaking and retransmission as compensatory mechanisms. With ADS-B, there is no handshaking as it's receive only.
However it does use some of the same bit correction techniques as wireless data. It's just important to understand those methods are not infallible. Nor is GPS, for that matter. And since they are both receive only, all the correction has to occur downstream.
teampokey Posts: 10Joined: Tue May 26, 2020 1:59 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 10:00 am
wjcandee wrote: It seems to me that each ADSB Out data packet, which is generated aboard the subject aircraft and then transmitted, and would be used to show an aircraft's position, has all the information necessary, including time, for ground equipment to plot the aircraft's position, regardless of where the receiver is located.
ADS-B position messages do not include a timestamp. (They don't even include a complete GPS position. You need to receive two ADS-B position messages in order to get an unambiguous position value. These messages are very small.)
Each position message does include a single bit indicating whether or not the reported position is synchronized with GPS seconds. That doesn't tell you *which* GPS second it matches unless the receiver is also synchronized with GPS time and can correctly compensate for its own internal latency.
HTCone Posts: 311Joined: Sun Jul 16, 2017 7:10 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 10:59 am
32andBelow wrote:Avatar2go wrote:32andBelow wrote:I've correlated radar with FR24 and have never seen an anomaly
That's great. I'm just quoting the guideline documents for integrating ADS-B into ATC operations, which require checking & adjustment of all those parameters before they can be displayed to controllers as valid data.
The same level of care is taken for FAA and NTSB investigations, and establishment of true positions and trajectories.
However none of that is being done by FR24, unless they explicitly state the data are corrected. That's the difference between the public grade of data they provide, and professional grade that is used by ATC, FAA, and NTSB.
For NTSB preliminary reports, you will often see them state they are using public ADS-B data, as they have not yet reviewed, correlated, and corrected all the data.
And what are the chances of losing line do site in Minneapolis. Maybe there can be anomalies. But chances are it's correct. That being said if they were applying visual separation then it doesn't really matter how close they got.
Pretty good chance at low altitude if the receiver was more than a couple of miles from the airfileld actually. Church steeples, apartment buildings, water towers, trees, evening neighbouring houses, anything remotely tall will block the signal once the aircraft is at low altitude. People put way too much faith at times in FR24. I've walked away from my sector on break previously and checked FR24 out of curiosity, it has often shown aircraft at incorrect flight levels, routings etc because whatever ground receiver they were relying on is obviously out of range, sight or just not well set up.
32andBelow Posts: 6499Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:54 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 12:03 pm
HTCone wrote:32andBelow wrote:Avatar2go wrote:The same level of care is taken for FAA and NTSB investigations, and establishment of true positions and trajectories.
However none of that is being done by FR24, unless they explicitly state the data are corrected. That's the difference between the public grade of data they provide, and professional grade that is used by ATC, FAA, and NTSB.
For NTSB preliminary reports, you will often see them state they are using public ADS-B data, as they have not yet reviewed, correlated, and corrected all the data.
And what are the chances of losing line do site in Minneapolis. Maybe there can be anomalies. But chances are it's correct. That being said if they were applying visual separation then it doesn't really matter how close they got.
Pretty good chance at low altitude if the receiver was more than a couple of miles from the airfileld actually. Church steeples, apartment buildings, water towers, trees, evening neighbouring houses, anything remotely tall will block the signal once the aircraft is at low altitude. People put way too much faith at times in FR24. I've walked away from my sector on break previously and checked FR24 out of curiosity, it has often shown aircraft at incorrect flight levels, routings etc because whatever ground receiver they were relying on is obviously out of range, sight or just not well set up.
Considering you can see all the planes taxing around I thinning their coverage is quite subburb! The way y'all are making the reliability of ADSB out im surprised it's allowed to be used for in cockpit traffic advisories!
Avatar2go Posts: 3657Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:41 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 12:12 pm
32andBelow wrote:Considering you can see all the planes taxing around I thinning their coverage is quite subburb! The way y'all are making the reliability of ADSB out im surprised it's allowed to be used for in cockpit traffic advisories!
The in-cockpit applications of ADS-B require being within range of a ground station, that transmits the scrubbed and corrected data. It's of higher quality than the raw FR24 data.
IAHFLYR Posts: 4642Joined: Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:56 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 1:18 pm
NLINK wrote:I've seen more ATC errors in the last 3 years than probably ever. The approach controller and tower don't see to be able to work together anymore in lots of cities. I think it's a combo of being short of help and new people in both ATC plus lots of new pilots in new equipment.
Actually a great number of facilities have split Tower and TRACON years ago. IIRC, IAH Tower and TRACON split our operations back in 1992 or 1993 and we were not the first to have eliminated the upstairs one shift, downstairs the next etc. So, not a new item.
Yes staffing in facilities is an issue and has been for some time. When I retired in 2012, we had many hours of overtime due to staffing, so again not a new issue.
mikejepp Posts: 462Joined: Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:47 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 2:00 pm
VS11 wrote:tjerome wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T8ER-a87_c
Well, it looks like the AA pilot didn't follow the instructions to go on the right side. If he had, the planes would have gone in opposite directions. Of course, should the DL plane have been cleared to roll if the AA plane is so close?
Transitioning from landing to go around is a momentary very high workload situation for the pilots. They're not going to absorb really any instructions other than the "go around" call. Not to mention "right side" isn't standard phraseology and mixed in with the "30 LEFT."
The controller needed to say something like "Turn right immediately"... this was a confusing instruction when the pilots highly task loaded.
VS11 Posts: 2096Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2001 6:34 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 2:06 pm
mikejepp wrote:VS11 wrote:tjerome wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T8ER-a87_c
Well, it looks like the AA pilot didn't follow the instructions to go on the right side. If he had, the planes would have gone in opposite directions. Of course, should the DL plane have been cleared to roll if the AA plane is so close?
Transitioning from landing to go around is a momentary very high workload situation for the pilots. They're not going to absorb really any instructions other than the "go around" call. Not to mention "right side" isn't standard phraseology and mixed in with the "30 LEFT."
The controller needed to say something like "Turn right immediately"... this was a confusing instruction when the pilots highly task loaded.
Sure, it is a high-workload situation without doubt. But aren't the GA procedures very specific which direction to turn at what altitude? I would have expected the pilot to know which direction to GA even if the controller didn't say the direction. Probably, the pilot did know it but thought he was instructed otherwise.
atcsundevil Moderator
Posts: 5679Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2010 12:22 pm Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 2:09 pm
Avatar2go wrote:32andBelow wrote:Considering you can see all the planes taxing around I thinning their coverage is quite subburb! The way y'all are making the reliability of ADSB out im surprised it's allowed to be used for in cockpit traffic advisories!
The in-cockpit applications of ADS-B require being within range of a ground station, that transmits the scrubbed and corrected data. It's of higher quality than the raw FR24 data.
Exactly, and as HTCone noted, the unreliability factor isn't ADS-B, it's the receivers. Obviously the receivers that are collocated with radar sites are going to be highly accurate and usable for separation, but that isn't the feed that FR24 receives. They're using user supplied receivers from locations ideally close to major airports, but still limited by line of sight. FR24 is coded to fill in the gaps if there are unreliable hits, but those gaps are estimated points rather than actual points when the FR24 receiver doesn't receive a return, but the anomalies become magnified closer to the surface because of more dramatic increases in altitude, speed, and heading and the liklihood of bad hits due to the loss of line of sight.
Again, that's not to say that the numbers provided are wrong, just that I'm skeptical of the reliability of those numbers until official numbers are available. Accurate numbers simply aren't possible using non-official sources, regardless of their perceived accuracy.
TW870 Posts: 1628Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2013 2:01 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 2:22 pm
This incident is similar to the AUS conflict between the FedEx 767 and the Southwest 737 in that they both involved very rushed operations at airports that are not that busy. Because of upguaging, and with 739s and 321s operating so many flights out of MSP, we have tons of breaks in arrivals and departures throughout the day. So does AUS. There is zero reason that they needed to wedge that A220 departure in front of that American 737 on short final. Ditto at AUS, as they put the Southwest flight out in front of the FedEx (which was performing an autoland in very low visibility) with no one behind the Southwest waiting for departure. Upgauging means fewer movements, and there is plenty of time to separate airplanes and keep things safe.
bluecrew Posts: 886Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2014 3:13 am Re: Very close call at Minneapolis Mon Jun 19, 2023 3:04 pm
VS11 wrote:tjerome wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T8ER-a87_c
Well, it looks like the AA pilot didn't follow the instructions to go on the right side. If he had, the planes would have gone in opposite directions. Of course, should the DL plane have been cleared to roll if the AA plane is so close?
That's not a valid instruction. I have literally no idea what he meant in that go around instruction - apparently it's GFK VFR tower phraseology. Controller came from GFK, an extremely heavy flight training airport, and gave a 737 locally understood VFR tower go around instructions.
You can't "go around right side" when you're on a half mile final and the "right side" is 2000 feet to your right. Not to mention, doesn't solve the proximate problem, both aircraft needed headings to start diverging. I can only imagine the delay was accompanied by staring out the window at 30L and the two aircraft (this end of 30L is right out of the tower window) and hoping they don't hit. This whole incident occurred in *prominent* view for anyone in the ATCT.
Lost situational awareness, then panicked, and fell back on previously demonstrated competencies. There are thousands dead in aviation because of this sort of thing, it happens all the time.
Display posts from previous: Sort byUsers browsing this forum:
346NEO,
817Dreamliiner,
9MMPD,
9vswr,
a320flyer,
A359bw,
Avgeek21,
AviationScorpio,
AWNP,
ba319-131,
BA777FO,
BeachBoy,
ben175,
BlueBaller,
bluecrew,
Bobby27ph,
c933103,
Canadi>n,
captainmeeerkat,
chrisa330,
codc10,
COMPAVION,
CrewBunk,
d8s,
DCAYOW,
drgmobile,
EI320,
EIBPI,
emcm541,
es19,
fdkwired,
Fiend,
FiscAutTecGarte,
flipdewaf,
FloridaMakos,
flyaa757,
flyguy1,
Flying-Tiger,
Gar1G,
gatibosgru,
Google Adsense [Bot]
,
Hash00,
IAHflyguy,
IslandRob,
Jack,
jamsco99,
jeffrey0032j,
jetblastdubai,
Jimothy,
jplatts,
Kaikoura2,
Kiwings,
Lamp1009,
LAXSTEW,
Mexicana757,
mfamguy79,
Miamiairport,
MIflyer12,
MohawkWeekend,
MrHMSH,
N948DL,
nascar1,
Okcflyer,
PhilipBass,
PvdE,
qf789,
Rajahdhani,
sbaflyer,
SFOT,
SOBHI51,
Someone83,
stephane787,
STLflyer,
stlgph,
SunConure,
telaquana,
TTRS,
UpNAWAy,
usairways85,
vigiliant,
whywhycee,
zmatt1 and 371 guests
Hunter Biden played role in funding US bio- labs contractor in Ukraine: e-mails
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:11
Russia's assertion that President Biden's son Hunter was ''financing .'.'. biological laboratories in Ukraine'' was based in truth, according to e-mails reviewed by The Post.
A trove of e-mails on Hunter Biden's infamous laptop '-- the existence of which was exclusively reported by The Post in October 2020 '-- found that he played a role in helping a California defense contractor analyze killer diseases and bioweapons in Ukraine.
Moscow has claimed that secret American biological-warfare labs in Ukraine were a justification for its unprovoked invasion of the neighboring country last month. It doubled down on the accusations Thursday, claiming the labs produced biochemical weapons at the Biden family's behest.
''US President Joe Biden himself is involved in the creation of biolaboratories in Ukraine,'' Russia's State Duma speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin said, according to state media.
Hunter Biden funded research for the United States' military biological program, Russia's State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said. Hunter Biden''An investment fund run by his sun [sic] Hunter Biden funded research and the implementation of the United States' military biological program. It is obvious that Joe Biden, as his father and the head of state, was aware of that activity,'' Volodin continued, demanding a US Congressional investigation and a White House explanation.
US intelligence officials had earlier dismissed Russia's messaging as war propaganda, explaining that Ukraine's network of biological labs dedicated to pathogen research were not secret, and had publicly received funding from Washington.
However, Russia's new claim that the first son's investment fund was involved in raising money for biolab projects in Ukraine was accurate, according to e-mails involving Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine, first obtained by The Post and initially reported on by The Daily Mail Friday.
Vyacheslav Volodin believes President Joe Biden is involved in the creation of bio-laboratories in Ukraine. ZUMAPRESS.comRosemont Seneca Technology Partners invested $500,000 in the San Francisco pathogen research company Metabiota and raised millions more through firms that included Goldman Sachs, according to the e-mails found on the computer, which was abandoned at a Delaware repair shop in April 2019 as Joe Biden ran for president.
Hunter introduced Metabiota to officials at Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where he was a board member, for a ''science project'' involving biolabs in Ukraine, the e-mails show.
A memo from a Metabiota official to the then-vice president's son in 2014 said the company could ''assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia.''
The speculation around President Biden being aware of Hunter Biden's activity prompted Vyacheslav Volodin to demand a US Congressional investigation. Hunter BidenMetabiota vice president Mary Guttieri also wrote to Hunter about geopolitical issues involving the company's research in the former Soviet republic in April 2014, two months after Russia invaded and annexed the Crimea region.
''As promised, I've prepared the attached memo, which provides an overview of Metabiota, our engagement in Ukraine, and how we can potentially leverage our team, networks, and concepts to assert Ukraine's cultural and economic independence from Russia and continued integration into Western society,'' her memo read.
Days later, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi wrote to Biden about a ''as you called 'Science Ukraine' project.''
''As I understand the Metabiota was a subcontract to principal contactor of the DoD B&V [engineering firm Black & Veatch],'' his e-mail read. ''What kind of partnership Metabiota is looking for in Ukraine?''
Vadym Pozharskyi wrote to President Biden saying, ''as you called 'Science Ukraine' project'' after Mary Guttieri wrote to Hunter Biden about geopolitical issues. Bella BelliniThe US awarded $23.9 million to Metabiota later in 2014, with $307,091 allocated for a ''Ukrainian research projects,'' government spending records showed.
The younger Biden bragged to investors that his company organized funding for Metabiota and helped it ''get new customers'' including ''government agencies,'' according to e-mails.
B&V had been commissioned in 2010 by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to build a lab in Odessa, to ''enhance the government's existing surveillance systems to detect, report and respond to bioterrorism attacks, epidemics and potential pandemics,'' the company's website said.
A view shows the building that houses an office of a subsidiary of the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, in Kiev, Ukraine. REUTERSHunter Biden's ventures raised the eyebrows of a former CIA officer.
''His father was the vice president of the United States and in charge of relations with Ukraine. So why was Hunter not only on the board of a suspect Ukrainian gas firm, but also hooked them up with a company working on bioweapons research?,'' Sam Faddis told the Mail.
'It's an obvious Russian propaganda attempt to take advantage of this. But it doesn't change the fact that there does seem to be something that needs to be explored here.
''Why is Hunter Biden in the middle of all this? Why is the disgraced son of the vice president at the heart of this '' the guy with no discernible skills and a cocaine habit?''
Hunter Biden, 52, remains under federal investigation for possible tax fraud. The probe broadened in 2018 to look into how his international business dealings as a lobbyist and investor dovetailed with his father's political career. He has denied allegations of impropriety.
Russian Defence Ministry briefing on US military and biological activity '' Telegraph
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:10
Russian Defence Ministry continues to analyse US and its allies military and biological activity in Ukraine and other regions of the world.
We briefed the audience on US Walter Reed Army Institute of Research activity before. We demonstrated the institute's role during UP-1 and UP-2 biological programs, during which samples of Ukrainian citizens and Armed Forces of Ukraine servicemen biological material were gathered from 2014 to 2020.
Today, I would like to brief you on the same institute office activity in Thailand. Walter Reed Army Institute of Research has four branches all over the world, every one of them has a high-containment laboratory and a network of departments, which gather samples and transport strains.
The branches' staff numbering around 500 employees indicates the scale of efforts on dangerous pathogens research. That particular branch has offices in Nepal, Cambodia, and the Philippines, which in turn cooperate with 12 more Southeast Asia states
In addition to the US Army Institute, the US Naval Medical Research Center has a network of overseas branches. Its subordinate laboratories (NAMRU) work on pathogens in North Africa, the Middle East, and South America.
Such a comprehensive approach all around the world allows the Pentagon to have access to different strains of contagious pathogens, which can be used as biological weapons chemical agents. These include Marburg and Ebola fevers, malaria, and Rift Valley fever.
Documents acquired during the special military operation prove the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research connection to the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency and its key contractor '' the Metabiota company.
Acquired financial and research documentation reflect the company's activity in Africa, namely in Kenia, Uganda, and the Republic of South Africa.
Along with the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the US National Security Agency, and the Department of State are listed as clients from the American government.
The documents describe flexible methods of the Metabiota activity, which allow to conceal the American government involvement with international programs and resolve bureaucratic issues at the expense of local officials.
At the same time, due to world community's growing concerns, the Pentagon is forced to change its tactics, when engaging in dual-purpose projects.
We briefed the audience on illegal samples gathering and illegal transportation of the material by the company's employees during Ebola Fever outbreak in 2014 in West Africa. In 2022, the U.S. President's administration officially ceased the Metabiota company's activity in Africa as its illegal methods raised too much concern of the aforementioned states' governments. A Cameroon's non-profit organisation assumed the company's functions and made a statement about Metabiota's office purchase as a subsidiary company.
In company's press release dated 14 October 2022. it is stated, that 'the HEADA non-profit organisation assumes Metabiota programs in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone. The US Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Agency for International Development sponsor the company's activity'...'.
According to Nathan Wolfe, the Metabiota founder, 'the company assumes functions as the American government sees local capacity localisation and strengthening efforts'.
Such an undercover activity allows to draw concerns from main clients and contractors of military biological programmes.
In recent years, the number of laboratories with BSL-3+ and BSL-4 containment levels in the US themselves has increased significantly.
We stated that at the moment 25 laboratories conduct research and three are under construction. Over the course of few next years, the US plans to establish 18 more BSL-4 containment laboratories, most of which will be located beyond the national jurisdiction.
I would like to brief you on American BSL-3+ laboratories' activity. On the US soil, there are 18 such laboratories, and unlike BSL-4 research facilities, there is no written demand to declare any results of activity in confidence building measures of the Biological Weapons Convention.
Notably, only 40 per cent of BSL-4 laboratories are property of the US government.
There is almost no control of private laboratories, even though dangerous pathogens are being studied there. One of the most recurrent pathogen at BSL-3+ laboratories is high pathogenic avian influenza virus, which according to experts, can cause the next global outbreak.
In this regard, I would like to inform the audience once again about Kharkov-based Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine involvement in American UP-8 and P-444 programs. This involved studying the migration routes of migratory birds and selecting and transmitting strains of avian influenza virus with high epidemic potential and capable of crossing the interspecies barrier abroad.
The consequences of such programmes for epizootic in the territory of the Russian Federation are yet to be evaluated.
In the result of infected birds migration from Ukraine to Russia, avian influenza morbidity rate has increased significantly. While no cases were recorded in 2015, since the beginning of 2023, 45 outbreaks have been detected, and 21 regions have been declared contaminated.
Moreover, Natural reservoirs and permanent epizootic foci of the disease have been formed on the Russian territory due to the transmission of the pathogen to marine mammals and nonmigratory birds, such as gulls.
We have already drawn your attention to the mass death of birds in Askania Nova Nature Reserve in the Kherson region, caused by a negligent attitude to biosafety requirements.
We continue to analyse an investigation file of incidents at American high-containment laboratories, gathered by the Intercept nonprofit organization.
Only at the University of North Carolina, where genetic engineering research of dangerous pathogen is conducted, from 2015 to 2022, 28 laboratory incidents involving the spread of microbial aerosols, spills of biomaterial, and bites of laboratory animals have been recorded.
For example, in October and November 2015, at least five lab employees were exposed to an aerosol of a modified coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome during two incidents.
In April 2020, as a result of a bite from a laboratory animal infected with a chimeric strain of the COVID-19 pathogen, an employee was quarantined for two weeks.
The materials of the investigation stated that the laboratory's activities caused a risk of infecting personnel and further spread of genetically modified viral fever pathogens, severe acute respiratory syndrome, highly pathogenic avian influenza, and a number of other infections.
The unacceptably high risk of accidents in U.S. biolaboratories is one of the reasons for their withdrawal from national jurisdiction and transfer to the territory of third countries, including Ukraine and other states. This explains the deterioration of the epidemic situation in their locations, the emergence of diseases that are not typical of these regions and their vectors.
We have already pointed out the skeptical reaction of so-called experts who receive funding in the form of foreign grants and who question the thesis of the influence of insect vectors on the epidemiological situation.
According to WHO's official information, the last major outbreak of yellow fever in Africa in 2013 was associated with a sharp increase in the number of mosquitoes, which caused a sudden severe inflection of 170,000 people, of which 60,000 died.
In this regard, no wonder that U.S. customers are interested in vector-borne infections. More than 100 studies on the main species of mosquitoes and ticks that carry epidemically significant infections - Rift Valley, West Nile, dengue and Zika - have been published in the open press by research organisations of the U.S. Department of Defense alone.
Many of the diseases being studied, such as Crimean-Congo fever, tick-borne and Japanese encephalitis, do not occur within the United States and pose no threat to the North American continent.
The Pentagon continues efforts to obtain vector populations whose pathogens they do not naturally spread, such as Ebola, hepatitis B, AIDS, and severe acute respiratory syndrome. Mosquito cultures infected with hepatitis B virus have already been obtained.
To enhance the action of arboviruses, U.S. military specialists actively use pathogens of parasitic infections, such as microfilariae.
Five dedicated DOD organisations within the United States and six overseas affiliates conduct vector research efforts. This makes it possible to maintain and infect 89 species of mosquitoes and 12 species of ticks with arboviruses under laboratory conditions. At the same time, software is developed to predict the spread of vector-borne infections (for Rift Valley fever, the forecast is built for 47 species of insect vectors).
Vector research in the United States is of a distinctly military in nature, searching for the optimal conditions under which infected blood-sucking insects and ticks are most effective. At the same time, the U.S. seeks to use the territory of other countries as a testing ground for possible scenarios.
The flooding of Kherson region territories planned by the Kiev regime can worsen the situation and cause arbovirus infections. After the fall of the water level, site of disease may occur, primarily West Nile fever is possible.
The Pentagon's high level of technical readiness to use infected vectors is evidenced by the patent for an unmanned aerial vehicle designed to spread airborne infected mosquitoes, which we discussed earlier.
According to the description, the drone is supposed to deliver a container of insects to a given area and release them. When bitten, mosquitoes are capable of infecting servicemen with a dangerous infection, such as malaria. The patent description emphasizes that an infected soldier is incapable of performing his tasks and notes that '...such a method of infecting the enemy militarily would have considerable effect'...'
I would like to mention that the United States reserves the right to conduct dual-purpose research and manage the biological environment for its own benefit under approved bioproduction and counter-biological threat policy documents.
With active support of such activities, the UK declared its own interests in the biological field by adopting a national biological security strategy on 12 June 2023. One of the document's stated goals is 'to be a world leader in innovation...'. Funding for activities under the strategy will amount to one and a half billion pounds annually.
Thus, the United States, with the support of its allies, are conducting large-scale military-biological research aimed at finding effective methods of using infectious disease agents. The implementation of such plans makes it possible to form artificial foci of especially dangerous infectious diseases.
We see this as another argument in favour of an international investigation of U.S. military and biological activities.
Supermajority of Americans think transgender athletes should compete against same biological gender | Just The News
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:43
The Facts Inside Our Reporter's NotebookA growing majority of Americans believe transgender athletes should compete against athletes of the same biological gender, according to recent polling by Gallup.
According a Gallup survey this month, 69% of Americans believe transgender athletes should play on sports teams that match their biological gender while 26% of Americans believe transgender athletes should play on teams that align with the gender they identify with.
The percentage of Americans who believe transgender athletes should compete against athletes with the same biological gender has increased in the past two years, according to Gallup.
In 2021, the poll showed that 62% of Americans believe transgender athletes should be able to compete on sports teams that match their biological gender while 34% believed transgender athletes should compete on teams that correspond with the gender they identify as.
This year's poll also revealed that about 93% of Republicans, 48% of Democrats and 67% independents believed transgender athletes should only compete on sports teams that match their biological gender, increasing seven points for Republicans and Democrats and four points for independents.
Allowing transgender athletes to play on a team of the gender they identify as, lost support among people who know a transgender person, with about 64% believing they should play on a team that matches their biological gender. About 72% of people who don't know a transgender person agreed with the statement. Both percentages have increased since 2021.
The Biden administration proposed new Title IX regulations on transgender students in schools, stating no school or college that receives federal funding would be allowed to implement a "one-size-fits-all" policy that categorically bans transgender students from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
The Republican backed "Save Women's Sports" legislation passed in the House with zero votes from Democrats. Republicans say the bill is an attempt to spare women and girls from having to compete against transgender athletes '' biological males who can sometimes dominate these sports and prevent some female athletes from making the team, according to Fox News.
Several Democrats argued the bill is an extension of the bullying that transgender students are already facing at school, and President Joe Biden has said he would veto the bill.
AMC Theatres Cancels De-Transitioner Film Following Trans Group's De-Platforming Campaign | The Daily Wire
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:41
AMC Theatres abruptly canceled a film showcasing the voices of young people who have de-transitioned after having hormone therapy and surgeries to purportedly ''affirm'' their ''gender identity.''
''No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care'' was set for initial release on June 21 in dozens of theaters across the country. Producers of the film say AMC caved to the pressure of a de-platforming campaign by a transgender group called the Queer Trans Project, which has not had access to view the full film.
The Daily Wire reached out to AMC Theatres about the cancellation but did not receive a response.
''The 'QT Project's' inference of detransitioning as 'conversion therapy' is a weak, underhanded attempt to conflate detransitioning with that despicable and sometimes devastating practice of the past,'' said a statement from Deplorable Films, the distributor of ''No Way Back.'' ''It might be worth noting here that [there's] an infamously repressive theocracy on the other side of the globe where 'gender-affirming' surgery is the only option given to gay men and women, who may otherwise be executed under law.''
The distribution company added, ''Perhaps they are on the payroll of those who profit from this '' so much of what they are doing is resulting in the creation of life-long surgical and pharmaceutical patients are doing so to great benefit of certain surgical clinics and pharmaceutical companies.''
''It is quite evident that those undertaking this crusade against this film have not had the courtesy of seeing it before taking such extreme actions to silence it,'' Deplorable Films added.
Along with medical professionals, the film features five young people who have de-transitioned. One person in the film, a 26-year-old man named Abel, spoke to The Daily Wire about his transition to female as a teenager and then his de-transition.
''I would tell anyone who wants to transition, especially the young boys who think life would be easier because they are the perfect image of a masculine male, that the transition will not save them,'' Abel told The Daily Wire.
''It would actually destroy their lives. Actually, take a step back and think about this for a while,'' he continued. ''And even if that is what they think they want'-- the actual negative side effects, nobody will tell you.''
A young woman named Laura, who appears in ''No Way Back,'' told The Daily Wire she took a high dose of testosterone and removed her healthy breasts by way of a double mastectomy before de-transitioning at 22 years old.
''I'm a very vocal advocate of complete bans for transition procedures for minors, both medical and social, because children are not developed,'' Laura said. ''They do not have the brains or bodies to be able to make long-term decisions about their reproductive and sexual health, and they just are not able to consent to these long-term procedures.''
The Queer Trans project, though, claims the film is ''anti-trans'' and ''perpetuates harmful misinformation.'' The group campaigned for allies to send its sample letter to AMC with the goal of de-platforming ''No Way Back.''
''I am writing to express my deep concern and strong opposition to the decision to screen No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care, an anti-trans film that perpetuates harmful misinformation,'' the Queer Trans Project's letter reads, according to Post Millennial. ''It is disheartening to see a respected institution like AMC Theaters provide a platform for content that further stigmatizes and marginalizes the transgender community. Regardless of the timing, this film's screening goes against the values of inclusivity and respect that should be upheld by a company committed to providing diverse and meaningful entertainment. I implore you to reconsider this decision immediately and demonstrate your commitment to supporting a more inclusive and accepting society. Please remove the film from your lineup and help ensure that AMC Theaters remains a safe and inclusive space for all moviegoers.''
The group then celebrated the de-platforming when news hit of its ouster this weekend. ''We did it! Our community's swift action is a testament to the power of advocacy and the importance of raising our voices against harmful content,'' the group said. ''Your collective efforts have made a significant impact, and the decision to pull No Way Back from AMC theaters is a step towards fostering a more inclusive and respectful environment. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to creating positive change.''
Controversial Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener of California also went after AMC for initially platforming ''No Way Back.''
''AMC is celebrating Pride Month by platforming an anti-trans propaganda film across the country,'' Wiener said via Twitter on June 16. ''[AMC Theatres] is feeding into the lie that kids are being tricked into being trans, when the data actually shows that only 1% of trans people de-transition. This is truly shameful.''
AMC is celebrating Pride Month by platforming an anti-trans propaganda film across the country.@AMCTheatres is feeding into the lie that kids are being tricked into being trans, when the data actually shows that only 1% of trans people de-transition.
This is truly shameful. 𧵠pic.twitter.com/eB4y5Oxzmw
'-- Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) June 16, 2023
A site for the film describes ''No Way Back'' as a 90-minute documentary that ''cites 45 peer-reviewed medical and journalist articles'' and hears from five de-transitioners.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
''Without diagnostic clarity or mental health evaluations, their doctors quickly affirmed them as 'transgender,' and mindlessly ushered them along the path of medical transition: so called 'gender-affirming care' '--the only treatment recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics,'' the site reads. ''These young people were harmed '--injected with powerful compounds and surgically altered; irrevocably changed and turned into lifelong pharmaceutical customers by the doctors they trusted.''
Panacol Productions and Deplorable Films present 'NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender Affirming Care'. Showing in select AMC Theaters on June 21st! For ticket reminders visit: https://t.co/0oJ4kfToRO pic.twitter.com/536Usmiwa5
'-- Deplorable Films (@DeplorableFilms) June 6, 2023
''No Way Back,'' while now canceled at AMC Theatres, is still streaming and available on DVD, the film's website says.
Related: Transgender Regret '' Sunday Special Podcast (June 18, 2023)
Girl Sues Hospital for Removing Her Breasts at Age 13
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:39
A hospital and doctors in California are facing a new lawsuit for removing the breasts of a 13-year-old girl after she claimed she was a boy.
The defendants carried out ''ideological and profit-driven medical abuse'' when they prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones and, later, performed a double mastectomy, Charles LiMandri, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff, Layla Jane, said in a statement.
Jane, now 18, was influenced by people online when she was just 11 and told her parents that she was a boy, prompting them to ask for guidance from doctors.
While three doctors said Jane was too young for cross-sex hormones, she was eventually referred to several other doctors who prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones. Within six months, they removed her breasts.
The hormones and puberty blockers were given based on a single, 75-minute session with Susanne Watson, a psychologist, according to the suit. Dr. Winnie Tong, a plastic surgeon, concluded after a 30-minute session that Jane could have her breasts removed.
''Defendants did not question, elicit, or attempt to understand the psychological events that led Kayla to the mistaken belief that she was transgender, nor did they evaluate, appreciate, or treat her multi-faceted presentation of co-morbid symptoms,'' the suit reads.
''Instead, Defendants assumed that Kayla, a twelve-year-old emotionally troubled girl, knew best what she needed to improve her mental health and figuratively handed her the prescription pad. There is no other area of medicine where doctors will surgically remove a perfectly healthy body part and intentionally induce a diseased state of the pituitary gland misfunction based simply on the young adolescent patient's wishes.''
Doreen Samelson, a psychologist not named as a defendant, by contrast, told Jane and her parents that she couldn't receive puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones due to factors such as her age.
Jane, whose given name is Kayla Lovdahl, has since ''detransitioned,'' or resumed identifying as a girl.
She's currently receiving psychotherapy for mental health issues such as social anxiety disorder. That kind of treatment should have been offered instead of the drastic steps the defendants took, the suit states, noting that, per a number of studies, youth who experience gender dysphoria often ultimately become comfortable with their birth sex.
Other papers have found that people who underwent chemical or surgical procedures to ''transition'' experience mental health issues and higher suicide rates. And some countries have restricted the usage of puberty blockers to certain settings due to a dearth of clinical research on using them on youth wanting to transition.
The lack of therapy and outlining of possible side effects from the surgery means the doctors didn't provide Jane with informed consent, according to the suit. Instead, the defendants claimed that the dysphoria wouldn't resolve unless she underwent the procedure.
At one point, one allegedly told her parents, ''Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?''
Layla Jane after her operation. (Courtesy of Dhillon Law Group)''Nobody'--none of my doctors'--tried anything to make me comfortable in my body, or meaningfully pushed back or asked questions; they only affirmed,'' Jane told The Epoch Times.
Jane said she didn't feel better after her surgery. She suffered nerve damage and other issues. She says she's happier since she detransitioned.
''The law says children aren't mature enough to make serious decisions that could have long lasting consequences like getting a tattoo, driving with friends, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or even voting,'' Jane said in a statement. ''So why is it acceptable for 13-year-olds to decide to mutilate their body?''
The defendants are Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and the Permanente Medical groups, both part of the nonprofit Kaiser Permanente; Watson; and doctors who work for or are affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser Permanente and Watson didn't respond to requests for comment.
The suit was filed in the Superior Court of the state of California.
Jane is seeking damages for her pain and suffering, additional money for medical expenses, and costs of the suit covered.
''Kaiser continues to engage in the quackery of subjecting innocent children to irreversible sex mimicry treatment, including drugs and surgery, without informed consent,'' Harmeet Dhillon, CEO of the Center for American Liberty, which is also representing Jane, said in a statement.
''The medical providers responsible for Layla's case, along with countless others, have substituted woke ideology for medically accepted standards of care, including lying to and manipulating vulnerable patients and families.
''We are committed to holding them accountable for the harm inflicted upon Layla, and together we intend to strongly deter Kaiser's factory-line approach that permanently mutilates an unknown number of American children, subjecting them to a lifetime of harm, regret, and medical consequences.''
A similar lawsuit was filed by Chloe Cole, whose breasts were removed when she was 15, earlier this year.
Brad Jones contributed to this report.
Why Peter Hotez says he won't debate RFK Jr. after weekend of Rogan, Musk taunts
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:16
(C) AFP via Getty Images KEY WORDS
''I've offered to come and talk to Joe Rogan again, and have that discussion with him, but not to turn it into the Jerry Springer with having RFK Jr. on.''That's Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, on MSNBC, explaining why he's turned down a debate on Joe Rogan's podcast with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's seeking the Democratic nomination for president and according to the RealClearPolitics average is polling at about 16% in national polls, behind President Joe Biden at 62%.
Rogan, whose popular show is on Spotify said he's offered Hotez $100,000 to any charity to debate RFK Jr., with Elon Musk adding on Twitter that maybe Hotez ''just hates charity'' to refuse to do.
RFK Jr., the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, for years has railed against vaccines, long before COVID. Hotez says RFK Jr.'s animus toward him stems from his book that explained that vaccines did not cause autism for his daughter Rachel.
Hotez says 200,000 Americans needlessly died from COVID-19 because of what he called ''anti-vaccine'' disinformation. He also defended against charges that he's a pharma shill, pointing out that the no-patent COVID vaccine he co-developed, Corbevax, may have kept Pfizer and Moderna out of India and Indonesia.
Last week, Kennedy said U.S. chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci assisted in a coup d'etat against western democracy and promoted ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID treatments.
Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman waded into the discussion as well as he encouraged Hotez to debate. ''I think knowledge will emerge from the discussion that will catalyze further explorations or investigations that will bring us closer to the truth and help us answer questions about vaccine efficacy and safety that remain unsettled for many,'' said the CEO of Pershing Square over Twitter.
ALL VIDEOS
VIDEO - China lashes back as Biden labels Xi a 'dictator' ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO -URC - Kyiv allies commit billions to help rebuild Ukraine, vow to make Russia pay ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - U.S. regulators approve sale of 'lab-grown' meat - YouTube
VIDEO - U.S. House Censures Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) - YouTube
VIDEO - Climate financing summit: 'Debt reform for developing nations key' ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - #labgrownmeat is cleared for sale in the United States June 21, 2023 | TikTok
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:36
00:00 / 00:00
Speed
#labgrownmeat is cleared for sale in the United States June 21, 2023 original sound - Barberlife barbershopog Barberlife · 9h ago 1304 comments
Log in to comment
VIDEO - Bank Al-Maghrib/IMF-Central Bank Digital Currencies-Role of the public sector in money and payments - YouTube
VIDEO - IMF Announces Single Global Digital Currency in Push to Eliminate Cash - Slay News
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 13:27
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that the global body is ''working hard'' on the development of a single ''global'' digital currency.
During a presentation at a conference in Morocco, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgievahe announced the plan to introduce a universal Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
The announcement comes as governments around the world seek to shift toward a cashless society and eliminate physical cash altogether.
According to Georgievahe, the IMF plans to roll out one single digital currency that will be accepted globally in an effort to ''connect countries'' and make transactions ''fairer.''
''At the IMF, we are working hard on the concept of a global CBDC platform,'' Georgievahe announced.
She continued by declaring that CBDCs need to be interoperable between countries because ''If we are to be successful, CBDCs could not be fragmented national propositions.''
''To have transactions more efficient and fairer, we need systems that connect countries,'' Georgieva continued.
''In other words, we need interoperability.''
The IMF chief argues that global digital currencies would ''give more people access to financial services and bring the cost down.''
''CBDCs can provide for more resilient and efficient payment systems,'' and ''can be a cheaper way, and a quicker way, to do cross-border payments, to pass remittances'... and also simplify other transfers.''
WATCH:
"At the IMF we are working hard on the concept of a global CBDC platform": IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva https://t.co/Py7JLMovuc pic.twitter.com/N6txNHBaaE
'-- Tim Hinchliffe (@TimHinchliffe) June 19, 2023
Some have warned that a global digital currency in the hands of unelected globalist entities could usher in a hyper-centralized techno-Communist dystopia, however.
A single centralized digital cash allows for all purchases to be tracked and even linked to a social credit score system.
The announcement comes as globalist organizations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) push to create a cashless society and seize control of the public's private spending.
As Slay News has previously reported, a video emerged last year of one of the world's most powerful bankers boasting about plans to eliminate cash and gain ''absolute control'' over the global population through the use of digital money.
The video features Agustin Carstens, the General Manager of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and a WEF member, discussing the ''advantages'' of a cashless society.
Carstens, who previously served as the Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, issues a disturbing message about the future of the financial surveillance state and central banks' plans to gain ''absolute control'' of everyone's money.
WATCH:
Carsten's plans to seize control of the wallets of the world resemble those touted by Democrat President Joe Biden.
Last year, Biden signed an executive order to seize control of cryptocurrencies and lay the groundwork to turn America into a cashless society.
Meanwhile, governments and financial institutions are increasingly warming to the idea of introducing a global CBDC.
A CBDC would completely replace traditional physical cash and be completely controlled by globalist authorities in a way that was never possible before.
The move would hand unprecedented power over to authorities and would enable governments to block a person from buying food if they ''spread disinformation'' online, for example.
A centralized CBDC would also allow authorities to track individuals' spending and punish those with a high ''carbon footprint.''
As plans for a cashless society continue to advance, central bankers are now promoting the idea of combining CBDCs and digital IDs.
The idea of pairing the two technologies was celebrated at the IMF/WBG Annual Meeting last year, as Slay News reported.
Powerful banker Cecilia Skingsley, head of the Innovation Hub at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), made her case for pushing the combined technologies onto a reluctant public.
Skingsley, an official ''agenda contributor'' for Klaus Schwab's WEF, agreed with other speakers who said introducing a CBDC is not a ''universal solution.''
Instead, Skingsley insists that a global CBDC must be linked with digital IDs ''in a package.''
Skingsley framed this as the need to advance ''digital literacy'' where locking people's sensitive data into digital ID should come first.
She compared forcing the public to accept such a plan to society having to be pushed into adopting the use of electricity, or sewage systems in the past.
''I think we need to be a little bit bold here right in the sense that we shouldn't get in the way of the private sector, but I think sometimes in history you have to push society into new equilibriums,'' said the banker.
''Predecessors did that when it came to building electricity, sewage system, and the likes.
''Hugely welfare enhancing.
''Now we want to do it again with money, and it would be good for banks as well when society takes its steps.''
READ MORE: United Nations Planning Digital ID Linked to Bank Accounts
VIDEO - Lab-grown chicken approves for sale | FOX 5 News - YouTube
VIDEO - Macron opens climate finance summit with calls for change ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - (21) Tom Elliott on Twitter: "SUPERCUT! Dr. @PeterHotez is a dangerous & deranged conspiracy theorist https://t.co/hYuu2aJ5zL" / Twitter
Thu, 22 Jun 2023 12:45
Tom Elliott : SUPERCUT!Dr. @PeterHotez is a dangerous & deranged conspiracy theorist https://t.co/hYuu2aJ5zL
Wed Jun 21 19:17:16 +0000 2023
Observer : @tomselliott @PeterHotez I haven't seen this video but in general terms to all anti-vaxxers, millions would be poli'... https://t.co/uiHQwyxm86
Thu Jun 22 12:12:18 +0000 2023
Dave Conner : @tomselliott @PeterHotez Is that the best they got ?
Thu Jun 22 11:55:33 +0000 2023
Mr. Bozack : @tomselliott @PeterHotez This clown is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor. Thus he shou'... https://t.co/3G4GcpdJyN
Thu Jun 22 11:20:28 +0000 2023
Adam Sims : @tomselliott @PeterHotez Same energy https://t.co/8Owew7bcRC
Thu Jun 22 10:29:53 +0000 2023
Miguel : @tomselliott @PeterHotez Wack job
Thu Jun 22 10:26:44 +0000 2023
Felicia : @tomselliott @PeterHotez There's people all over the United States suffering because of these shots they should hav'... https://t.co/8w13XV8eEV
Thu Jun 22 10:22:38 +0000 2023
Escaped NPC bot 4778-F32 : @tomselliott @PeterHotez "Covid 19 is decimating African-American communities"If so, then why say a protest where'... https://t.co/20aEzvTrHP
Thu Jun 22 10:04:14 +0000 2023
Paul Renick : @tomselliott @PeterHotez For the love of God did this little man bask in his 15 minutes of glory. It was disgusting'... https://t.co/CewjMQwvyK
Thu Jun 22 10:04:03 +0000 2023
VIDEO - Paris 2024 Olympics: French police raid organising committee headquarters ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Italy and France will support Ukraine for 'as long as necessary', says PM Meloni on Paris visit - YouTube
VIDEO - How catastrophic rising ocean temperatures are for the environment | DW News - YouTube
VIDEO - Hunter Biden agrees to plead guilty after five-year investigation | DW News - YouTube
VIDEO - More than 60 nations gather to reconstruct war-torn Ukraine - YouTube
VIDEO - South Africa, Netherlands, Denmark launch green fund - YouTube
VIDEO - Titanic: Iceberg or Sabotage? #Titanic #conspiracy #Mystery #history... | TikTok
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:47
00:00 / 00:00
Speed
Titanic: Iceberg or Sabotage? #Titanic #conspiracy #Mystery #history #rewritten #jpmorgan #federalreserve #3d #iceberg #real #Mysteries #historical #tragedy #thefree_zone original sound - The Free Zone
VIDEO - (19) Green Lives Matter on Twitter: "Jim Caviezel says that adrenochrome is ten times more potent than heroine, he says there are multiple Epstein Islands run by intelligence agencies/governments, he once again calls out the Rothschilds, and says
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:34
Green Lives Matter : Jim Caviezel says that adrenochrome is ten times more potent than heroine, he says there are multiple Epstein Islan'... https://t.co/xDdcd5B5rq
Wed Jun 21 01:12:51 +0000 2023
sky : @Ultrafrog17 @DFooteXLong @DFooteXLong
Wed Jun 21 14:32:39 +0000 2023
Marianna SzwÄdrys-Miazga : @Ultrafrog17 Z czego otrzymuje siÄ adrenochron?Czy po to zabija siÄ dzieci i DLATEGO ginÄ
dzieci i handlujÄ
DZIEÄM'... https://t.co/IWRinVJslC
Wed Jun 21 14:32:39 +0000 2023
Glockman : @Ultrafrog17 Remember that Caviezel the weasel, like Mel Gibson, is a servant of the antichrist headquartered in Rome. Be not deceived...
Wed Jun 21 14:31:50 +0000 2023
ð'ð''ð'£ð''ð'ð'ð''ð' ð'ð''ð''ð' : @Ultrafrog17 Praying for Jimð'....
Wed Jun 21 14:31:12 +0000 2023
Cheryl Hannah : @Ultrafrog17 The real Heroes are stepping up....''¤ð''¤
Wed Jun 21 14:29:38 +0000 2023
M Hutch : @Ultrafrog17 These beings that attacked our world and I will not ever call them human need to be eradicated from the earth now!!
Wed Jun 21 14:28:19 +0000 2023
RebeccaBube11 : @Ultrafrog17 @MorigeauJanine 6 21 23 Eight of swords https://t.co/XO2PtW32DZ
Wed Jun 21 14:28:15 +0000 2023
VIDEO - OMG Tip Line Filled up with Spam Mail - YouTube
VIDEO - ''There Are Big Holes In This Story'' Remote Submarine Pilot Questions Titanic Wreck Mission - YouTube
VIDEO - New Global FInancial Pact Meeting - Climate Change
VIDEO - France pollution: Government ordered to compensate victims ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Zelensky says Ukraine needs 'real projects' for reconstruction ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Ukraine recovery conference: Donors gather in London as Zelensky set to address delegates - YouTube
VIDEO - Portland's emergency communications bureau launches AI to handle non-emergency calls | Watch
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:01
You are using an older browser version. Please use a
supported version for the best MSN experience.
VIDEO - (13) MeidasTouch on Twitter: "Trump brags to Bret Baier about granting Alice Johnson clemency. Baier informs him that she would be killed under his policy proposal of executing drug dealers. Trump is caught off guard: "No, no. No. Under my pl''.
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 14:00
MeidasTouch : Trump brags to Bret Baier about granting Alice Johnson clemency.Baier informs him that she would be killed under'... https://t.co/kAXZ8O9Wxe
Tue Jun 20 22:59:11 +0000 2023
VIDEO - (11) gript on Twitter: ""We are restricting freedom for the common good": Irish Green Party Senator Pauline O'Reilly says that her government's hate speech bill is about "restricting freedom," and censoring views on gender identity if those views
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:57
gript : "We are restricting freedom for the common good": Irish Green Party Senator Pauline O'Reilly says that her governme'... https://t.co/xbdvaU5WLb
Thu Jun 15 09:27:23 +0000 2023
VIDEO - James O'Keefe Drops Bombshell Video On BlackRock: 'You Got $10k? You Can Buy A Senator' | The Daily Wire
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:37
Independent journalist James O'Keefe dropped a bombshell video on BlackRock Inc. '-- a prominent investment management and financial services firm '-- revealing just how broad the company's impact might be.
A journalist working for the O'Keefe Media Group (OMG) spoke with BlackRock recruiter Serge Varlay '-- who told her that because of the vast sums of money the company controls in the global market, they can essentially ''run the world.'' He began with a caveat, noting that BlackRock did not necessarily want people to notice what they were doing.
''They don't want to be in the news. They don't want people to talk about them. They don't want to be anywhere on the radar,'' he said, and when the journalist asked him why, he paused. ''I don't know, but I suspect it's because it's easier to do things when people aren't thinking about it.''
WATCH:
BREAKING: @BlackRock Recruiter Who ''Decides People's Fate'' Spills Info on Company's World Impact
''It's not who the president is- it's who's controlling the wallet of the president''
''You got $10K? You can buy a senator"
''War is real f***ing good for business'' #BlackRockExposed pic.twitter.com/DZIy1DuZKF
'-- James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 20, 2023
Varlay went on to explain that while BlackRock might be one of the biggest players, the asset management firm was not the only game in town.
''All of these financial institutions, they buy politicians,'' he said. ''You can take this big f*** ton of money and buy people '... It's not who is the president, it's who is controlling the wallet of the president. You could buy your candidates. First, there is the senators, these guys are f***ing cheap. Got 10 grand? You can buy a senator. I'll give you 500k right now '... It doesn't matter who wins, they're in my pocket.''
In another segment of the video, Varlay discussed the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine '-- but strictly from a financial perspective.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
''Ukraine is good for business, you know that right? Russia blows up Ukraine's grain silos and the price of wheat is going to go mad up. The Ukrainian economy is tied very largely to the wheat market. The price of bread, literally everything goes up and down, this is fantastic if you're trading,'' Varlay continued, adding, ''Volatility creates opportunity to make profit. War is real f***ing good for business. It's exciting when s*** goes wrong, right?''
Varlay said several times that there were other financial institutions taking similar steps to ''buy politicians'' and influence the global markets, but that the sheer volume of capital that BlackRock was controlling made the company even more formidable.
''BlackRock manages $20 trillion. It's incomprehensible numbers,'' he said.
VIDEO - (11) Citizen Free Press on Twitter: "What Biden is hiding on Illegal Aliens. https://t.co/NKKSNGqQkQ" / Twitter
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:36
Citizen Free Press : What Biden is hiding on Illegal Aliens.https://t.co/NKKSNGqQkQ
Wed Jun 21 02:59:08 +0000 2023
VIDEO - TalkTV on Twitter: "Julia clashes with climate activist Donnachadh McCarthy over Greta Thunberg's tweet five years ago saying climate change will wipe out humanity. ''The reason why people no longer trust what your argument is, is because you h
Wed, 21 Jun 2023 09:55
TalkTV : Julia clashes with climate activist Donnachadh McCarthy over Greta Thunberg's tweet five years ago saying climate c'... https://t.co/GG5tEKVLrN
Wed Jun 21 07:57:39 +0000 2023
MrG : @TalkTV @JuliaHB1 https://t.co/bFdJO8YKyH
Wed Jun 21 09:55:42 +0000 2023
Alvin : @TalkTV @JuliaHB1 Well said Julia!
Wed Jun 21 09:48:35 +0000 2023
Bill Scott : @TalkTV @JuliaHB1 Why don't you get Andrew Tate on? https://t.co/MkfvLfhfA2
Wed Jun 21 09:45:29 +0000 2023
VIDEO - (34) Dan Cohen on Twitter: "First, @PeterHotez said coronavirus vaccines are dangerous and shouldn't be approved with emergency use authorization. Then he suddenly changed his opinion and said we should get 2 injections. Then 3. Then 4. Then 5. Ho
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 20:56
Dan Cohen : First, @PeterHotez said coronavirus vaccines are dangerous and shouldn't be approved with emergency use authorizati'... https://t.co/kkFY9wBrrw
Mon Jun 19 13:28:57 +0000 2023
VIDEO - The Biden Crime Family - YouTube
VIDEO - Helen McEntee TD on Twitter: "An Garda Sochna can now start procuring bodyworn cameras for our frontline Garda. These are crucial to protecting Garda and investigating crime. And new legislation on Facial Recognition Technology will hel
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 18:08
Helen McEntee TD : An Garda Sochna can now start procuring bodyworn cameras for our frontline Garda.These are crucial to protecti'... https://t.co/zusua2cznR
Tue Jun 20 12:49:53 +0000 2023
Ta raa : @HMcEntee Just No!
Tue Jun 20 18:03:38 +0000 2023
Eoin : @HMcEntee Helen when you mislabel decent people as racist and homphobes you have proven you are unable to define wh'... https://t.co/rjlOutejGz
Tue Jun 20 17:59:06 +0000 2023
ResidentWeazel : @HMcEntee I see you are working over time to lose your job
Tue Jun 20 17:57:15 +0000 2023
FionaG. : @HMcEntee So they can crack down on women who hurt men's feelings by not wanting them in their sports or spaces? Co'... https://t.co/qNhUnTI1Oo
Tue Jun 20 17:56:39 +0000 2023
UnhappyEU : @HMcEntee When @HMcEntee speaks I always say https://t.co/1ZCVokrjnh
Tue Jun 20 17:54:11 +0000 2023
Chasler : @HMcEntee So they can now record people using ''offensive'' language and lock them up? Progressive fascism at its worst
Tue Jun 20 17:52:58 +0000 2023
GombeenHunting : @HMcEntee Just reverse everything they say. Build stronger communities = Destroy communitieseasy really. https://t.co/4vGYWinLpr
Tue Jun 20 17:50:30 +0000 2023
MichealRM : @HMcEntee Tea lady gone rogue. Is m"r an nire thº.
Tue Jun 20 17:47:21 +0000 2023
T : @HMcEntee https://t.co/KI0elqX3P6
Tue Jun 20 17:46:27 +0000 2023
IRISH HODL ''ð ð' : @HMcEntee Ur incompetence is astounding...EU banned your facial recognition cameras..What an embarressment you and your ilk are ð¤ð¤ð¤ð¤ð¤ð¤ð¤ð¤
Tue Jun 20 17:45:43 +0000 2023
iknowimright : @HMcEntee You are a coward that wants to hide behind hate speech laws. But now you're profile has been raised in su'... https://t.co/eP5TpDwGHh
Tue Jun 20 17:44:35 +0000 2023
Bill : @HMcEntee Oh I don't think this post is going to do her credibility any favours. She's sending out the wrong message
Tue Jun 20 17:44:26 +0000 2023
Jercuinn : @HMcEntee this is nonsense ! who voted for this ?
Tue Jun 20 17:40:12 +0000 2023
Gene O' Keeffe : @HMcEntee Another lie https://t.co/jv9rVYoZTB
Tue Jun 20 17:37:16 +0000 2023
Laus Tibi, Christe ð®ðª '''¸ð®ðª (Gab: @nekelly) : @HMcEntee Do us all a favour, have another baby and go on maternal leave again.
Tue Jun 20 17:35:53 +0000 2023
Daniel : @HMcEntee What a dangerous devious evil clown you turned out to be, your doing everything 98% don't want,we will never forgive or forget
Tue Jun 20 17:34:20 +0000 2023
G : @HMcEntee They want to control everything we do
Tue Jun 20 17:33:37 +0000 2023
D Fox : @HMcEntee go and ask my bollox
Tue Jun 20 17:33:14 +0000 2023
Laus Tibi, Christe ð®ðª '''¸ð®ðª (Gab: @nekelly) : @HMcEntee "It's for your safety" Hmmm, sounds familiar ð¤--
Tue Jun 20 17:33:07 +0000 2023
M F : @HMcEntee Are you feeling 'discomfort' Minister, because of the comments here? does that mean anyone who has cause'... https://t.co/CVw2J1Wlhc
Tue Jun 20 17:32:16 +0000 2023
Knight75 : @HMcEntee Safe guards in place? We the Irish people, who overwhelmingly oppose your migration policy but are ignore'... https://t.co/vbVq2P1tOD
Tue Jun 20 17:31:50 +0000 2023
Fiona M : @HMcEntee You disgusting woke women! You will go down in history and not in a good way! And btw I'm saying this for the common good!!!!
Tue Jun 20 17:31:36 +0000 2023
sovereignofficeofspk : @HMcEntee It's also a breach of data protection as joint controller and processor of data you require consent/autho'... https://t.co/YKf9isJyxa
Tue Jun 20 17:31:15 +0000 2023
Shane mahoney : @HMcEntee https://t.co/dwHNbsWN3G
Tue Jun 20 17:27:36 +0000 2023
Ogham Stone : @HMcEntee Se"inin
Tue Jun 20 17:27:01 +0000 2023
Mick quinlan5 : @HMcEntee Are you going to ban the Burka in Ireland so?
Tue Jun 20 17:24:24 +0000 2023
VIDEO - Lia Thomas' ex-teammate pushes back on White House rhetoric | Watch
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:36
Duration: 06:11 21 hrs ago
Paula Scanlan, former teammate of trans swimmer Lia Thomas, speaks out about competing against biological men on 'America's Newsroom' during National Women's Sports Week.
More From FOX News
VIDEO - AMC abruptly cancels film showcasing stories of detransitioners | Watch
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:35
Duration: 04:52 23 hrs ago
Detransitioner Laura Becker, who was featured in the documentary, warns suppressing the film exposing the dangerous side of transgender treatment sets an 'incredibly dangerous precedent.'
More From FOX News
VIDEO - Big Pokey death: Houston rapper Milton Powell dies after collapsing in Beaumont, officials say - ABC13 Houston
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:33
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The city's rap community is mourning Sunday after officials announced the death of rap legend "Big Pokey."
Eyewitness News confirmed with Justice of The Peace Tom Gillam III that "Big Pokey," also known as Milton Powell, died in Beaumont, Texas.
The Sensei rapper reportedly collapsed at a bar in Beaumont after Saturday's show, but what caused his death is unclear.
According to social media posts by Pour09 Bar & Rooftop, the rapper was scheduled to perform at the venue Saturday as the special guest during a Juneteenth celebration.
Before Beaumont, Powell performed at Bicentennial Park in Baytown Saturday night in his final performance in front of his beloved fans.
ABC13 spoke with longtime fan Kendra Ouzenne, who attended the Baytown show.
"Poke was one of the influential people of that sound, so it's a sad and hard loss for the Houston community. And music overall as well," Ouzenne said.
Fellow Houston rapper Bun B posted on Instagram, making the first announcement about the death with a mournful caption saying:
"I wasn't ready for this. One of the most naturally talented artists in the city. Low key, humble mountain of a man who moved with honor and respect. He was easy to love and hard to hate. He'd pull up, do what he had to do, and head home. One of the pillars of our city. If heart of gold was a person. Iconic member of the SUC. There will never be another, and will be missed dearly. We love and honor you, Sensei. Rest in heaven."
Another Houston rap legend, Slim Thug, said on social media that it's a "sad day in the city" and said he is sending "prayers to his family."
"In the coming days, we will release information about his celebration of life and how the public can pay their respects. We ask that you respect his family and their privacy during this difficult time. Big Pokey will forever be 'The Hardest Pit In The Litter!'" Powell's team said in a statement to ABC13.
"Though many called him "low key," his presence was larger than life in helping to catapult our hip hop scene nationally." Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a tweet.
For updates on this story, follow Daniela Hurtado on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
VIDEO - EX-DOJ OFFICIAL GOES ON EPIC RANT & OBLITERATES DEMS' J6 'INSURRECTION... | TikTok
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:29
00:00 / 00:00
Speed
EX-DOJ OFFICIAL GOES ON EPIC RANT & OBLITERATES DEMS' J6 'INSURRECTION' NARRATIVE WITH THE COLD HARD TRUTH #j6 #january6 #biden #joebiden #america #trump #donaldtrump #republican #trumppresident #for #foryou original sound - Bandit 7878
VIDEO - Bill Barr condemns alleged Trump conduct, calls former president a "consummate narcissist" - YouTube
VIDEO - Dark Underbelly of 'Trans Surgery': Director of 'Gender Transformation' - YouTube
VIDEO - (20) Ashley St. Clair on Twitter: "MSNBC's Medhi Hasan says Peter Hotez should NOT debate RFK and compares it to debating ''holocaust deniers'' https://t.co/oyT9xTp3Gt" / Twitter
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 16:11
Ashley St. Clair : MSNBC's Medhi Hasan says Peter Hotez should NOT debate RFK and compares it to debating ''holocaust deniers'' https://t.co/oyT9xTp3Gt
Mon Jun 19 15:42:09 +0000 2023
AnAverageHuman : @stclairashley https://t.co/6oYilWiOAL
Tue Jun 20 16:01:40 +0000 2023
SpaceCat''¨ðºð¸ : @stclairashley Also, why would no one debate holocaust deniers? How are people to learn history when no one talks about it?
Tue Jun 20 16:01:10 +0000 2023
VIDEO - Xi, Blinken agree to stabilise US-China relations in rare Beijing talks ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - VivaTech 2023: How green tech is tackling the world's most pressing issues ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Ukraine says eight villages retaken from Russian forces in two weeks ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - UK lawmakers set to judge ex-PM Johnson over 'Partygate' scandal ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - British MPs back report that Boris Johnson lied over 'partygate' ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Franco-Italian relations: Migration casts shadow over talks between Macron, Meloni ' FRANCE 24 - YouTube
VIDEO - Ozempic shakes up weight loss industry - YouTube
VIDEO - Fighting poverty & climate change: 'In extraordinary times, countries can come together' - YouTube
VIDEO - France air defence: Macron seeks to convince EU allies of a home-grown strategy ' FRANCE 24 - YouTube
VIDEO - Blinken says US 'does not support Taiwan independence' during China visit | Fox News
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 13:29
Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated U.S. support of the "One China" policy on Monday, saying that the U.S. does not support Taiwanese independence following a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"We do not support Taiwan independence," Blinken said in a press conference on Monday. "We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross strait differences. We remain committed to continuing our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act including making sure Taiwan has the ability to defend itself."
"At the same time, we and many others have deep concerns about some of the provocative actions that China has taken in recent years going back to 2016," Blinken added. "And the reason that this is a concern for so many countries, not just the United States, is that were there to be a crisis over Taiwan, the likelihood is that could produce an economic crisis that could affect quite literally the entire world."
"Fifty percent of commercial container traffic goes through the Taiwan Strait every day. Seventy percent of semiconductors are manufactured in Taiwan. If as a result of a crisis that was taken offline, it would have dramatic consequences for virtually every country around the world," he added.
AMERICANS IN TAIWAN MOSTLY UNFAZED BY US EVACUATION PLAN REPORT
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pose for photographers in Beijing Monday June 19, 2023. (AP)
Blinken's comment comes amid increased tensions between China and the United States related to Taiwan. Last week, Taiwan's air force scrambled fighter jets after a group of 10 Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait for the second time in a matter of days.
This month, the U.S. military released video of a close encounter between a Chinese navy ship and an American destroyer in the Taiwan Strait, and there have been several close calls between Chinese and U.S. military aircraft recently, including an air intercept by a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea in late May.
China considers self-ruling Taiwan its own territory and has raised the prospect of annexing it by force. The U.S. maintains informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan even as it recognizes Beijing as the government of China.
BIDEN CLAIMS SPY BALLOON WAS 'MORE EMBARRASSING' FOR CHINA, SUGGESTS IT WASN'T 'INTENTIONAL'
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a news conference with Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan at the State Department, Friday, June 16, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
"We have no illusions about the challenges of this relationship. There are many issues on which we profoundly and even vehemently disagree," Blinken added. "The United States has a long history of successfully managing complicated relationships through diplomacy."
Blinken told reporters that the relationship between China and the U.S. took a "positive step" during his trip over the last two days and said his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, agreed to visit Washington D.C., in the future at a "suitable time."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Blinken acknowledged that China did not agree to set up a crisis military-to-military communications channel which had been one of the goals of the U.S. heading into the meeting.
Chinese President Xi Jinping discussing the country's economic and social development at a political gathering in Beijing. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
Over the last year, the U.S. and China saw more than $700 billion in trade which according to Blinken constituted the highest level between the two countries on record. He reiterated U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's testimony before Congress last week that it would be "disastrous" for the U.S. to decouple and stop all trade and investment with China.
BIDEN ADMIN CONFIRMS CHINA SPY BASE EFFORTS IN CUBA, CALLS IT 'ONGOING ISSUE'
"We are for de-risking and diversifying. That means investing in our own capacities and in secure, resilient supply chains, pushing for level playing fields for our workers in our companies. Defending against harmful trade practices and protecting our critical technologies so that they aren't used against us. I made clear that we'll continue to take targeted actions that are necessary to protect U.S. national security," Blinken said.
Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report
Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
VIDEO - 6/15/23 Judge Andrew Napolitano on the Indictment of Donald Trump - The Scott Horton Show
Tue, 20 Jun 2023 01:59
Download Episode.
Judge Andrew Napolitano joined Scott to discuss the DOJ's case against Donald Trump. Napolitano believes it is an incredibly strong case and that the former President'--and current Republican front-runner'--is likely facing prison time. He and Scott run through what was revealed in the indictment, how it fits into what we already knew and why a lot of the common counterarguments from Trump fans likely won't hold up in court.
Discussed on the show:
''Judge Andrew Napolitano: The case against Donald Trump'' ( Orange County Register ) Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the of the daily show Judging Freedom . Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the US Constitution. The most recent is Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty .
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom ; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott .
Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack .
Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon , PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY
content
You have Successfully Subscribed!
VIDEO - African leaders met Putin in St Petersburg for peace talks - YouTube
VIDEO - Psychiatrist Demolished The "Child Gender Transition" Debate With Powerful Testimony To Congress
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:18
You are about to :
Object being modified by the action
Do you want to proceed?
Request ModerationEmail SubmissionsWe also accept moderation reports via email. Please see the Content Moderation Policy for instructions on how to make a moderation request via email.
Thank you for submitting your moderation reportWe will investigate and take the appropriate action.
First published at 07:03 UTC on June 19th, 2023.
#child#gender#transitionPsychiatrist Demolished The "Child Gender Transition" Debate With Powerful Testimony To Congress
MORE
Psychiatrist Demolished The "Child Gender Transition" Debate With Powerful Testimony To Congress
LESS
VIDEO - Israel's Netanyahu says divisive judicial reforms will move ahead this week ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Paris Air Show back with climate, defence in focus ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Rye College gender row: Full audio of furious teacher branding pupil 'despicable' | Daily Mail Online
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 16:04
This is the moment a Church of England schoolteacher branded a Year 8 pupil 'despicable' after they rejected a classmate's claim that she identified as a cat.
The 13-year-old pupil said she was made to stay after the class at Rye College in East Sussex on 'life education' by the teacher, who can be heard in a secret recording calling her view that gender is binary 'really despicable' and 'very sad'.
In the three-and-half-minute recording, the angry teacher is heard speaking to two girls and says they would report the children to a senior colleague, and they needed a 'proper educational conversation about equality, diversity and inclusion'.
MailOnline has chosen not to name the teacher, and the recording published today uses disguised voices to avoid identifying those in the conversation.
The recording begins with the teacher asking one of the pupils: 'How dare you? You just really upset someone, saying things like [you] should be in an asylum.'
One of the girls responds: 'I didn't say that, I just said if they want to identify as a cow or something, then they are genuinely unwell, and they're crazy.'
The pupil said she was made to stay after the class at Rye College in East Sussex (file image)
'You were questioning their identity,' the teacher replies. 'Where did you get this idea from that there's only two genders?'
'I just said my opinion,' the pupil replies. 'If I respect their opinion, can't they respect mine?'
The teacher goes on to say it is 'not an opinion' and 'gender is not linked to the parts that you were born with, gender is about how you identify, which is what I said right from the very beginning of the lesson'.
The teacher continues, adding that 'there are actually three biological sexes because you can be born with male and female body parts or hormones'.
The teacher also says 'in terms of gender, there are lots of genders - there is transgender, there is agender - people that don't believe they have a gender at all'.
The girls say that you 'can't have that'. Then the teacher says: 'What do you mean you can't have it? It's not a law.'
But one of the girls says: 'If you have a vagina you're a girl and if you have a penis you're a boy - that's it'.
The teacher then says: 'Cisgender is not necessarily the way to be. You were talking about the fact that cisgender is the norm, that you identify with the gender of the sexual organ you were born with, or you're weird, that's basically what you're saying, which is really despicable.'
The teacher then links the girls' gender-critical attitude with 'homophobia' '' but the girls deny this, with one saying: 'I'm fine with lesbians and gay people '' I've got nothing against them.'
The teacher says that 'if you don't like it you need to go to a different school', adding: 'I'm reporting you to [another member of staff]. You need to have a proper educational conversation about equality, diversity and inclusion because I'm not having that expressed in my lesson.'
The girl defends herself by saying she was respectful, but admits she felt compelled to ask her classmate 'how can you identify as a cat, when you are girl?'
Rye College is a member of the Aquinas Trust, which boasts that one of its key values is 'promoting equality, celebrating diversity, and addressing disadvantage'
The teacher does not refer to anyone identifying as a cat in their remarks on the recording.
Rye College was yesterday bombarded by thousands of angry social media messages after the recording went viral.
A spokesman admitted to the Mail that the teacher should have acted differently, by 'ensuring that pupils' views are listened to' and 'encouraging them to ask questions and engage in discussion' '' instead of angrily shutting down debate on a controversial issue.
The spokesman said they would make sure 'such events do not take place in the future'.
It is a member of the Aquinas Trust, which boasts that one of its key values is 'promoting equality, celebrating diversity, and addressing disadvantage'.
The trust's equality lead, Barry Blakelock, is also executive head at Rye College.
His official bio reads: 'Barry believes the best education is an inclusive education '' where the diversity of the real world is reflected in every classroom to the benefit of all learners.'
The trust has already been in the headlines this year over its strongly woke standpoint.
Only in February, it was criticised for setting out its plans to 're-educate' children who make non-PC comments in the playground.
The trust, named after noted medieval philosopher and theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas, set out its move to challenge 'negative language and actions' in its Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion policy, by advocating staff 'challenge negative language and actions, re-educating and using sanctions where appropriate'.
Rye College is a member of the Aquinas Trust, named after noted medieval philosopher and theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas (pictured)
The trust runs ten primary schools in Bromley, Chislehurst and Penge in south-east London, Keston and Westerham in Kent, and Rye, as well as Rye College itself.
A spokesman for Rye College said they would make sure 'such events do not take place in the future'.
He said: 'We are committed to offering our pupils an inclusive education. Teachers endeavour to ensure that pupils' views are listened to, and encourage them to ask questions and engage in discussion. Teachers also aim to answer questions sensitively and honestly.
'We strive to uphold the highest standards across the school. We will be reviewing our processes and working with the relevant individuals to ensure such events do not take place in the future.'
It is understood the girls will not be punished and the school regards the matter as closed.
Reacting to the audio today, Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Concern campaign group, told MailOnline: 'Teachers who raise Christian and conservative views at school, or who raise real safeguarding concerns about gender transitioning children, are being sacked and banned from the profession indefinitely.
'Will the Teaching Regulation Agency take similar action if a complaint about this teacher and the expression of their beliefs is referred to them?
'Thousands of children in primary and secondary schools are being forced to absorb extreme LGBT ideology without their parents' knowledge.
'Students are having to resort to recording what is being imposed on them in the classroom to protect themselves and expose to their parents and wider world what is happening.
'We will stand with any pupil and family who find themselves on the receiving end of such brazen viewpoint discrimination in the classroom.'
VIDEO - South Africa hails 'historic' Ukraine peace mission after talks ' FRANCE 24 English - YouTube
VIDEO - Fly Green, fly OptiClimb! (by Safety Line) - YouTube
VIDEO - No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care '' First, do no harm'....
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:42
We've been canceled!
Intolerant, illiberal, histrionic IGNORANT loudmouths who have not even seen the film have pressured AMC theaters to make the hard decision to cancel our dates! DO NOT LET THEM WIN!
We will have the film available for streaming and on DVD as soon as possible;SIGN UP FOR UPDATES!
SIGN UP!We are aware of a bug with the confirmation emails you are supposed to receive and are working to fix it.Thanks to all of you who let us know.
VIDEO - Gov. Greg Abbott signs new law mandating armed security at all Texas schools
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:35
Sign up for our NewslettersAbbott signed school safety House Bill 3 into law Tuesday in Austin
SAN ANTONIO '' Security at your child's school will look different this upcoming school year.
During a meeting at the capital, Gov. Greg Abbott signed HB 3 into law mandating all public schools to have at least one armed security officer or armed school personnel at each public school campus statewide.
According to the Intercultural Development Research Center, the price tag to pay an armed security guard for an entire school year could cost up to $100,000.
''I'm glad my tax money is going towards that. I support it,'' San Antonio resident April Reyna said.
This new law would allot $330 million to build security centers on campuses. Legislators in Austin claim this new law will strengthen the state's School Safety Center, responsible for disseminating safety information to all schools. The law will also mandate annual audits of school protocol and require staff members to get mental health training.
''We have to provide the support systems to our personnel working in our communities,'' San Antonio resident Jenny Kazmierczak said.
Some people believe adding armed personnel to campuses would increase protection.
''I think if we have the good guys armed, I think it would minimize deaths,'' Reyna said.
However, others disagree.
''I hope that there are other measures to address this problem. This is not the isolated solution,'' Kazmierczak said.
As concerns grow, some people are wondering whether some schools will have to dip into their own locally generated revenue to keep the burden of funding an additional salary from falling on schools and local taxpayers.
Copyright 2023 by KSAT - All rights reserved.
About the Authors:Allysa Cole Allysa Cole is a news reporter at KSAT 12. She joined the station in September 2022.She previously worked in the Rio Grande Valley at KGBT, KRGV and Azteca Valle. She started her career at WHPM FOX23 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, after graduating from University of Southern Mississippi. Allysa is a Detroit native.
VIDEO - WATCH: Democrat Corrects Herself After Saying Trump Should Be Shot | The Daily Wire
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:32
Congressional Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-USVI) had to correct herself on Sunday after she said during a live television interview that former President Donald Trump should be ''shot.''
Plaskett made the comment during an appearance on MSNBC, during which she discussed the federal charges against Trump relating to his alleged mishandling of classified documents following his departure from the White House in January of 2021.
WATCH:
Freudian slip? Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) slips and says Trump "needs to be shot." She quickly corrects herself and says "stopped." pic.twitter.com/cUJlhshiGD
'-- Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) June 18, 2023
''You know, having Trump not only have had the codes, but now having the classified information for Americans and being able to put that out and share it in his resort '-- with anyone and everyone who comes through '' should be terrifying to all Americans and he needs to be shot '... stopped,'' she said.
Plaskett went on to say that Trump would certainly have his day in court and would have the same chance that any other American citizen would have to defend himself, but she was careful to point out the fact that the former president had been indicted in a very red state '-- Florida '-- by his peers.
''Of course, he's going to have his day in court,'' she continued. ''Let's remember that he was indicted by his peers '-- individual Americans who live in South Florida, a red state '-- they saw enough that there was probable cause for him to bring this indictment for him to stand trial.''
During the same interview, Plaskett claimed that Republican ''propaganda'' was the only possible reason Americans might have doubts about the Justice Department and the FBI under President Joe Biden.
Democrat Del. Stacey Plaskett says some Americans are skeptical of Biden's DOJ and FBI because of Republican "propaganda" and not because Biden just weaponized his DOJ to arrest his political rival. pic.twitter.com/5GZydAhyzq
'-- RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 18, 2023
''And that's the thing that I am concerned about with many of my colleagues in the GOP,'' she said. ''That they believe that there is a two-tiered system , but the two-tiered system is not to punish them more, it's to '' they want it to allow them to get away with more than everyday Americans.''
''Causing Americans to distrust the FBI, the Department of Justice, it's all a mechanism, and all, you know, part of their propaganda,'' she added.
