1607: Lazinsky

Very informative. The media really only has two themes here: Genocide Iran The LGBTQ and BLM Millennials now call Biden "Genocide Joe" Its baffling. They protest on the streets, walking right past homeless tents , migrant families sleeping on the streets and tranq/fenatnyl addicts to hold up their preprinted signs, all wearing their Keffiyeh's.

Thursday, to get to the room where I would fulfill my teaching assistant responsibilities at McGill University, I had to weave through police, private security, and a tight crowd of protesters gathered for a pro-Palestine rally. I was struck by the interesting slogan being chanted as I was passing through: “From Palestine to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine.”

In a CBC report broadcast that night I saw the same slogan on a placard from a Nov. 4 protest in Montreal. On the sign, below the slogan, there is a QR code and email address for “Filipinos For Palestinian Liberation.”

Nic

I avoid that place but I needed to visit a friend with early onset dementia.

It was weirdly clean and calm, had never seen it like that before. Didn't know what was happening at the time.

It was so calm a Chinese Uber driver offered to "show us Powa!" in his brand new Polestar electric car. He stomped it and ran us up to 95mph, on the Golden Gate Bridge at 2pm on a Thursday. Maybe 4-5 seconds total flat out then on the brakes but the fact there was a gap big enough to do that was unusual.

And, this guy could Drive. Usually, this scenario in the Bay Area means a death-defying traditional Chinese experience. Another Uber, a Cadillac Escalade was driven by what looked like Kim Jong Un's sister. And she could Drive that monster in SF. Smooth, fast, correctly following the rules. Now that I think about it, that all seems off as well. Both of these drivers were masked up and wearing business attire.

The Moroccan doorman at the hotel says "Are you a Republican?" (5.11 pants, driving a rented Dodge Durango, lol) I tried to sidestep the question. He replied, "I am Republican! Business SUCKS since Democrats in power!".

Also, the weather was absolutely flawless. It was so good it really added to the sensation that something was weirdly different. With absolutely perfect weather even more homeless should've been visible.

In the end, I didn't regret having to go to that location because this was all very interesting to see.

Attached picture, I joked at the time that was the only homeless we saw, incinerated by a rich people death ray.

Todd

So the local coverage from Portland actually shows one of the letters that has a TRANS flag, and ANTIFA symbol and a satanic pentagram and says “stop giving power to the right”. Obviously this is a leftist yet CBS mentions NOTHING - but they DO mention Jan 6th! In the CNN report the briefly show the letter but only say it demands “end elections now” and the proceed to show b reel oh Trump “stop the steal” protests. Finally, they get a native ad in at the end for Narcan. Lol.

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Hey Adam. I’ve got a boots on the ground report about why insurance companies aren’t going to care too much about the cost of Ozempic. The affordable care act (Obamacare), includes a provision called the medical loss ratio. This medical loss ratio requires health plans to pay either 80 or 85% of their premium dollars, depending on the size, to providers and pharmacies for the cost of healthcare services.

At first glance this sounds like a good thing that limits the profit opportunity for insurance companies. They are only able to use 15 or 20% of the premium to fund their operations and create profit.

But on closer analysis, the medical loss ratio,or MLR as it’s known in the industry, actually incentivizes insurance companies to pay more for healthcare services and increase prices in the long run. Why? The higher the 85% number is, the higher the 15%. If your profit is capped in proportion to the amount of your medical cost, simply increase your medical cost to increase your profit.

Here’s another industry secret That ties pharmaceutical companies directly to insurance companies. Obamacare also requires insurance companies to follow quality standards called HEDIS. If you look HEDIS up it’s published by an organization called the NCQA. A couple of quick clicks on the NCQA website of course reveals that a significant portion of their funding comes from pharmaceutical companies.

So in order to be in business, insurance companies have to follow guidelines that are funded by the pharmaceutical companies.

Please keep me anonymous , if you share this information. Obviously I work for the devil but the pay is good.

Tim

Walmart is trying to clarify the impact weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are actually having on its bottom line.

An analyst note from Morgan Stanley released on Tuesday included new information regarding the market-moving comments from Walmart US CEO John Furner last week on GLP-1 weight-loss drugs' impact on spending behavior.

"We definitely do see a slight change compared to the total population, we do see a slight pullback in overall basket," Furner said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Just less units, slightly less calories."

The group of customers taking this drug that Walmart can track is small, the analysts note. But, within this group, Walmart observed these customers were spending slightly less on food year over year.

But "their overall spend is higher, even excluding the cost of the drug," the analysts wrote based on conversations with Walmart. Increased spending is coming from categories like lifestyle, fitness, and "medications to relieve side effects of the drug." These weight-loss drugs have known side effects like nausea and diarrhea.

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Inside Univision, however, the hour-long sit-down raised alarms for another reason. The interview, which was conducted by a non-Univision journalist who did little to question or push back on Trump’s claims, effectively functioned as a propaganda special, current and former Univision journalists have protested. In it, they saw glaring evidence of a broader effort by their new parent company, which has close ties to Trump and especially to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to curry favor with the former president and push the network further to the right.

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So, what changed? Why do I call myself a Christian now?

Part of the answer is global. Western civilisation is under threat from three different but related forces: the resurgence of great-power authoritarianism and expansionism in the forms of the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin’s Russia; the rise of global Islamism, which threatens to mobilise a vast population against the West; and the viral spread of woke ideology, which is eating into the moral fibre of the next generation.

We endeavour to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil. And yet, with every round of conflict, we find ourselves losing ground. We are either running out of money, with our national debt in the tens of trillions of dollars, or we are losing our lead in the technological race with China.

But we can’t fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that “God is dead!” seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in “the rules-based liberal international order”. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

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A group of Australian academics has “unreservedly apologised” for including factually incorrect allegations about big consulting firms – produced by a generative AI tool – to a Senate inquiry submission.

In a letter to the Senate, Emeritus Professor James Guthrie AM – a professor in the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance at Macquarie University – admitted to having used Google Bard AI to research information for a submission to a Parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the Big 4 consulting firms, with numerous false claims being generated, as reported by The Guardian.

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President Laurentino Cortizo’s administration proposed Monday to send congress a bill that would schedule a referendum in December. But the country's top electoral authority said such a vote couldn't be held before next May's presidential election.

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The final straw came on Wednesday, when NuScale and the primary utility partner, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, announced that the Carbon Free Power Project did not have enough utility partners at a planned checkpoint and, given that uncertainty, would be shut down. In a statement, the pair accepted that "it appears unlikely that the project will have enough subscription to continue toward deployment."

Link

Ahead of COP26 held in Glasgow in 2021, BMJ published an editorial which urged doctors to think less about the health of their patients and more about the health of the planet.

The editorial claimed that medical treatment contributes significantly to “greenhouse gas emissions” and that this carbon footprint can be reduced if only “health professionals” can learn to reduce “overdiagnosis” and “overtreatment.”

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The pressure to diagnose cancers earlier and earlier is another major contributor to modern medicine’s carbon footprint. Over successive years we’ve been told to continually lower our threshold for suspecting cancer, and we’re encouraged to investigate sooner and more extensively. In primary care, most patients with mildly elevated or even high normal platelet counts now undergo a barrage of investigations in case thrombocytosis is an early indicator of underlying cancer. What does the yield of these tests have to be to make this an acceptable approach? And shouldn’t we be considering the environmental impact of putting so many patients on a conveyor belt of investigations, as part of cost-benefit calculations?

When many other industries are simply paying lip service to the sustainability agenda, it’s encouraging to see change already happening in the NHS. However, the most impactful changes won’t be limited to single specialties or standalone diseases—they will require us to radically reform how we practise medicine. The NHS will need to challenge the “more is better” mentality that modern medicine has insidiously embraced and take a much broader view on what constitutes waste in healthcare.

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Sun, 12 Nov 2023 17:46

Rammya Mathew , GP London rammya.mathew{at}nhs.net Follow Rammya on Twitter: @RammyaMathewIn 2020 the NHS adopted a multi-year plan to become the world's first carbon net zero national health system.1 Simon Stevens, then chief of NHS England, said that ''it's not enough for the NHS to treat the problems caused by air pollution and climate change'--we need to play our part in tackling them at source.''

Since then, remote consulting has brought us a long way down the road to a greener NHS. In hospitals and in primary care the ability to conduct remote reviews will have significantly reduced vehicle emissions associated with travel to and from the 400 million healthcare appointments each year across the NHS. Laudable work is also under way at many NHS trusts to reduce the environmental impact of volatile anaesthetics, which alone are reported to account for over 2% of all NHS emissions. And in primary care there's now a drive to review the management of asthma and an attempt to reduce the carbon footprint from the use and overuse of metered dose inhalers.

It's clear that policy is already in action, but I'm still left wondering whether we're focusing on the real carbon hotspots or just placating ourselves by targeting a few low hanging fruits. What about our growing dependence on pharmaceuticals'--isn't this the tide that needs turning? I recently learnt that the management of raised lipids in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease can now extend to using three different lipid lowering medications. Isn't our over-reliance on medicines, and our underinvestment in public health, the elephant in the room? As long as healthcare fuels the pharmaceutical industry in this way, can we ever truly claim to be carbon net zero?

The pressure to diagnose cancers earlier and earlier is another major contributor to modern medicine's carbon footprint. Over successive years we've been told to continually lower our threshold for suspecting cancer, and we're encouraged to investigate sooner and more extensively. In primary care, most patients with mildly elevated or even high normal platelet counts now undergo a barrage of investigations in case thrombocytosis is an early indicator of underlying cancer. What does the yield of these tests have to be to make this an acceptable approach? And shouldn't we be considering the environmental impact of putting so many patients on a conveyor belt of investigations, as part of cost-benefit calculations?

When many other industries are simply paying lip service to the sustainability agenda, it's encouraging to see change already happening in the NHS. However, the most impactful changes won't be limited to single specialties or standalone diseases'--they will require us to radically reform how we practise medicine. The NHS will need to challenge the ''more is better'' mentality that modern medicine has insidiously embraced and take a much broader view on what constitutes waste in healthcare.

FootnotesCompeting interests: I am in receipt of a grant from the Health Foundation to support high quality low carbon asthma care in general practice.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

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Sun, 12 Nov 2023 17:45

Breaking News Ahead of COP26 held in Glasgow in 2021, BMJ published an editorial which urged doctors to think less about the health of their patients and more about the health of the planet.

The editorial claimed that medical treatment contributes significantly to ''greenhouse gas emissions'' and that this carbon footprint can be reduced if only ''health professionals'' can learn to reduce ''overdiagnosis'' and ''overtreatment.''

In a separate piece, the author argues that one of the bigger problems is all those pesky suspected cancer patients who tiresomely insist on getting as early a diagnosis as possible, Breitbart wrote.

Below, Dr. Vernon Coleman gives us his thoughts on the madness that has gripped the medical profession.

Let's not lose touch'...Your Government and Big Tech are actively trying to censor the information reported by The Expos(C) to serve their own needs. Subscribe now to make sure you receive the latest uncensored news in your inbox'...

By Dr. Vernon Coleman

Doctors writing in the British Medical Journal have called for the medical profession to do less screening of patients and to cut back on prescribing treatment '' ''to help combat climate change.'' Doctors called for global warming concerns to be put above patients' interests.Let's get this straight: the medical establishment wants to cut back on diagnosing cancer early in order to save Big Ben from disappearing under 100-foot waves a week on Wednesday.

This is terrifyingly wicked.

''The climate emergency is the true health crisis of our time,'' is the message from the medical establishment. Doctors' leaders appear to have had their brains removed and replaced with those of 12-year-olds. The members of the medical establishment who believe this should all be certified insane and put into a coma to protect the public from their deranged utterings.

The nonsense from the British Medical Association (''BMA'') is pouring out these days.

For example, the BMA now says that Britain needs another 60,000 doctors.

Britain doesn't need any more doctors. Dare I suggest that the NHS needs the GPs on the payroll to do what they're paid for '' which is to see patients? The Department of Health in the UK has reported that the average GP is now working a three-day week and earning over £100,000.

Doctors protest that they are overworked and that they are struggling to deal with a continuing crisis. But GPs are working three-day weeks! It's no wonder patients are more likely to win the lottery than get an appointment with their doctor. When I last practised medicine, GPs visited their patients at weekends and nights and if a patient couldn't make their way to the surgery, then the doctor visited them at home. Today, a large number of GPs won't ever see patients in the flesh and certainly won't lower themselves to take blood samples, syringe ears or remove stitches. The unfortunate patient in need of one of these services has to make another appointment to see a nurse, health care assistant or, quite possibly, the practice cleaner. It may sound strange but I think GPs lost their way when they stopped syringing wax out of blocked ears.

Today, the medical profession is complicit in the Government's attack on the people it is paid to serve.

The Government repeatedly agrees with the BMA's claims that Britain desperately needs more doctors.

But if the Government really wants to increase the number of GPs, it should invite retired GPs to emerge from retirement '' and perhaps work part-time. (After all, many existing, younger GPs only work two or three days a week to reduce their tax liabilities. And that's part of the reason for the shortage. Older GPs working half a week each would improve the health service considerably.)

But this won't happen.

The Government does not want older, experienced, independent-minded doctors working in Britain.

It is difficult to avoid the thought, by the way, that the General Medical Council's (''GMC's'') absurd revalidation programme was deliberately introduced to force older, experienced, independent doctors out of the medical profession '' thereby making it easier to destroy the NHS, to kill vast numbers of elderly and sick patients and to push through the rebranded flu hoax and the associated fraud involving an experimental injection.

Maybe the Government realised that older, more experienced doctors, not bound by an NHS contract, without mortgages to pay and without future careers to worry about, might be more likely to question the whole rebranded flu hoax. It is noteworthy that most of the few doctors objecting to the fraud have been older and more experienced physicians.

The above is taken from Vernon Coleman's latest book (and his last book about covid and the Great Reset). The book is called `Truth Teller: The Price' and is his most personal book.In 'Truth Teller: The Price' Vernon describes the way censorship and suppression have been used to hide the truth and to demonise those telling the truth. Ironically, the book has itself been suppressed and is currently not available in many parts of the world including the US and Australia.

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Sun, 12 Nov 2023 17:27

No nukes '-- NuScale and its primary partner give up on its first installation. John Timmer - Nov 8, 2023 11:18 pm UTC

Enlarge / The facility seen in this architect's rendering will not be built.

Nuclear power provides energy that is largely free of carbon emissions and can play a significant role in helping deal with climate change. But in most industrialized countries, the construction of nuclear plants tends to grossly exceed their budgeted cost and run years over schedule.

One hope for changing that has been the use of small, modular nuclear reactors, which can be built in a centralized production facility and then shipped to the site of their installation. But on Wednesday, the company and utility planning to build the first small, modular nuclear plant in the US announced it was canceling the project.

Going smallSmall modular reactors take several steps to potentially cut costs. Their smaller size makes it easier for passive cooling systems to take over in the case of power losses (some designs simply keep their reactors in a pond). It also allows the primary components to be built at a central facility and then shipped to different plant sites, allowing a lot of the manufacturing equipment to be reused for all the sites that use the reactors.

The US has approved a single design for a small, modular nuclear reactor developed by the company NuScale Power. The government's Idaho National Lab was working to help construct the first NuScale installation, the Carbon Free Power Project. Under the plan, the national lab would maintain a few of the first reactors at the site, and a number of nearby utilities would purchase power from the remaining ones.

Advertisement With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened. Some of the initial backers started pulling out of the project earlier in the decade, although the numbers continued to fluctuate in the ensuing years.

The final straw came on Wednesday, when NuScale and the primary utility partner, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, announced that the Carbon Free Power Project did not have enough utility partners at a planned checkpoint and, given that uncertainty, would be shut down. In a statement, the pair accepted that "it appears unlikely that the project will have enough subscription to continue toward deployment."

NuScale CEO John Hopkins tried to put a positive spin on the event, saying, "Our work with Carbon Free Power Project over the past ten years has advanced NuScale technology to the stage of commercial deployment; reaching that milestone is a tremendous success which we will continue to build on with future customers." But none of those potential customers had advanced any project nearly as far as the Carbon Free Power Project, so it is now uncertain whether the company can build any commercial reactors before the decade ends.

The same is now true for nuclear power in general in the US. No large reactors are planned, and the last few projects of that sort were either canceled or ran horrifically over budget. And, while some other reactor designs are being considered for separate projects, none have cleared the hurdle of approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Correction: elaborated the status of the project's utility partners.

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Archived Version

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 14:36

In 2002, I discovered a 1927 lecture by Bertrand Russell entitled ''Why I am Not a Christian''. It did not cross my mind, as I read it, that one day, nearly a century after he delivered it to the South London branch of the National Secular Society, I would be compelled to write an essay with precisely the opposite title.

The year before, I had publicly condemned the terrorist attacks of the 19 men who had hijacked passenger jets and crashed them into the twin towers in New York. They had done it in the name of my religion, Islam. I was a Muslim then, although not a practising one. If I truly condemned their actions, then where did that leave me? The underlying principle that justified the attacks was religious, after all: the idea of Jihad or Holy War against the infidels. Was it possible for me, as for many members of the Muslim community, simply to distance myself from the action and its horrific results?

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At the time, there were many eminent leaders in the West '-- politicians, scholars, journalists, and other experts '-- who insisted that the terrorists were motivated by reasons other than the ones they and their leader Osama Bin Laden had articulated so clearly. So Islam had an alibi.

This excuse-making was not only condescending towards Muslims. It also gave many Westerners a chance to retreat into denial. Blaming the errors of US foreign policy was easier than contemplating the possibility that we were confronted with a religious war. We have seen a similar tendency in the past five weeks, as millions of people sympathetic to the plight of Gazans seek to rationalise the October 7 terrorist attacks as a justified response to the policies of the Israeli government.

When I read Russell's lecture, I found my cognitive dissonance easing. It was a relief to adopt an attitude of scepticism towards religious doctrine, discard my faith in God and declare that no such entity existed. Best of all, I could reject the existence of hell and the danger of everlasting punishment.

Russell's assertion that religion is based primarily on fear resonated with me. I had lived for too long in terror of all the gruesome punishments that awaited me. While I had abandoned all the rational reasons for believing in God, that irrational fear of hellfire still lingered. Russell's conclusion thus came as something of a relief: ''When I die, I shall rot.''

To understand why I became an atheist 20 years ago, you first need to understand the kind of Muslim I had been. I was a teenager when the Muslim Brotherhood penetrated my community in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. I don't think I had even understood religious practice before the coming of the Brotherhood. I had endured the rituals of ablutions, prayers and fasting as tedious and pointless.

The preachers of the Muslim Brotherhood changed this. They articulated a direction: the straight path. A purpose: to work towards admission into Allah's paradise after death. A method: the Prophet's instruction manual of do's and don'ts '-- the halal and the haram. As a detailed supplement to the Qur'an, the hadeeth spelled out how to put into practice the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, God and the devil.

The Brotherhood preachers left nothing to the imagination. They gave us a choice. Strive to live by the Prophet's manual and reap the glorious rewards in the hereafter. On this earth, meanwhile, the greatest achievement possible was to die as a martyr for the sake of Allah.

The alternative, indulging in the pleasures of the world, was to earn Allah's wrath and be condemned to an eternal life in hellfire. Some of the ''worldly pleasures'' they were decrying included reading novels, listening to music, dancing, and going to the cinema '-- all of which I was ashamed to admit that I adored.

The most striking quality of the Muslim Brotherhood was their ability to transform me and my fellow teenagers from passive believers into activists, almost overnight. We didn't just say things or pray for things: we did things. As girls we donned the burka and swore off Western fashion and make-up. The boys cultivated their facial hair to the greatest extent possible. They wore the white dress-like tawb worn in Arab countries or had their trousers shortened above their ankle bones. We operated in groups and volunteered our services in charity to the poor, the old, the disabled and the weak. We urged fellow Muslims to pray and demanded that non-Muslims convert to Islam.

During Islamic study sessions, we shared with the preacher in charge of the session our worries. For instance, what should we do about the friends we loved and felt loyal to but who refused to accept our dawa (invitation to the faith)? In response, we were reminded repeatedly about the clarity of the Prophet's instructions. We were told in no uncertain terms that we could not be loyal to Allah and Muhammad while also maintaining friendships and loyalty towards the unbelievers. If they explicitly rejected our summons to Islam, we were to hate and curse them.

Here, a special hatred was reserved for one subset of unbeliever: the Jew. We cursed the Jews multiple times a day and expressed horror, disgust and anger at the litany of offences he had allegedly committed. The Jew had betrayed our Prophet. He had occupied the Holy Mosque in Jerusalem. He continued to spread corruption of the heart, mind and soul.

You can see why, to someone who had been through such a religious schooling, atheism seemed so appealing. Bertrand Russell offered a simple, zero-cost escape from an unbearable life of self-denial and harassment of other people. For him, there was no credible case for the existence of God. Religion, Russell argued, was rooted in fear: ''Fear is the basis of the whole thing '-- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death.''

As an atheist, I thought I would lose that fear. I also found an entirely new circle of friends, as different from the preachers of the Muslim Brotherhood as one could imagine. The more time I spent with them '-- people such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins '-- the more confident I felt that I had made the right choice. For the atheists were clever. They were also a great deal of fun.

So, what changed? Why do I call myself a Christian now?

Part of the answer is global. Western civilisation is under threat from three different but related forces: the resurgence of great-power authoritarianism and expansionism in the forms of the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin's Russia; the rise of global Islamism, which threatens to mobilise a vast population against the West; and the viral spread of woke ideology, which is eating into the moral fibre of the next generation.

We endeavour to fend off these threats with modern, secular tools: military, economic, diplomatic and technological efforts to defeat, bribe, persuade, appease or surveil. And yet, with every round of conflict, we find ourselves losing ground. We are either running out of money, with our national debt in the tens of trillions of dollars, or we are losing our lead in the technological race with China.

But we can't fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that ''God is dead!'' seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in ''the rules-based liberal international order''. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

That legacy consists of an elaborate set of ideas and institutions designed to safeguard human life, freedom and dignity '-- from the nation state and the rule of law to the institutions of science, health and learning. As Tom Holland has shown in his marvellous book Dominion, all sorts of apparently secular freedoms '-- of the market, of conscience and of the press '-- find their roots in Christianity.

And so I have come to realise that Russell and my atheist friends failed to see the wood for the trees. The wood is the civilisation built on the Judeo-Christian tradition; it is the story of the West, warts and all. Russell's critique of those contradictions in Christian doctrine is serious, but it is also too narrow in scope.

For instance, he gave his lecture in a room full of (former or at least doubting) Christians in a Christian country. Think about how unique that was nearly a century ago, and how rare it still is in non-Western civilisations. Could a Muslim philosopher stand before any audience in a Muslim country '-- then or now '-- and deliver a lecture with the title ''Why I am not a Muslim''? In fact, a book with that title exists, written by an ex-Muslim. But the author published it in America under the pseudonym Ibn Warraq. It would have been too dangerous to do otherwise.

To me, this freedom of conscience and speech is perhaps the greatest benefit of Western civilisation. It does not come naturally to man. It is the product of centuries of debate within Jewish and Christian communities. It was these debates that advanced science and reason, diminished cruelty, suppressed superstitions, and built institutions to order and protect life, while guaranteeing freedom to as many people as possible. Unlike Islam, Christianity outgrew its dogmatic stage. It became increasingly clear that Christ's teaching implied not only a circumscribed role for religion as something separate from politics. It also implied compassion for the sinner and humility for the believer.

Yet I would not be truthful if I attributed my embrace of Christianity solely to the realisation that atheism is too weak and divisive a doctrine to fortify us against our menacing foes. I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable '-- indeed very nearly self-destructive. Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?

Russell and other activist atheists believed that with the rejection of God we would enter an age of reason and intelligent humanism. But the ''God hole'' '-- the void left by the retreat of the church '-- has merely been filled by a jumble of irrational quasi-religious dogma. The result is a world where modern cults prey on the dislocated masses, offering them spurious reasons for being and action '-- mostly by engaging in virtue-signalling theatre on behalf of a victimised minority or our supposedly doomed planet. The line often attributed to G.K. Chesterton has turned into a prophecy: ''When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.''

In this nihilistic vacuum, the challenge before us becomes civilisational. We can't withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can't explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can't fight woke ideology if we can't defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can't counter Islamism with purely secular tools. To win the hearts and minds of Muslims here in the West, we have to offer them something more than videos on TikTok.

The lesson I learned from my years with the Muslim Brotherhood was the power of a unifying story, embedded in the foundational texts of Islam, to attract, engage and mobilise the Muslim masses. Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.

That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist. Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.

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Sun, 12 Nov 2023 14:28

Update: Former Ethereum lawyer Steven Nerayoff has said that he plans to begin dropping proof to back up his claims that there is a massive fraud at the center of the second-largest blockchain network in the world in less than a week.

Speaking on the Crypto Town Hall show, Nerayoff answered a question from Mario Nawfal asking when he was dropping the proof with ''In like the next four or five days.''

All eyes in the crypto industry are resting on Nerayoff right now as investors actively anticipate what the Ethereum insider will reveal. Nerayoff has also accused the execs of the crypto giant of trying to frame him in the past, adding even more mystery to an already puzzling situation.

An Ethereum insider has made allegations against Ethereum's founders, claiming that their fraudulent activities far surpass those seen in the notorious FTX fraud case.

Ethereum's Credibility Under Spotlight Attorney and former Advisor for ETH , Steven Nerayoff recently published a shocking piece about Ethereum in an X (formerly Twitter) post on Thursday.

The lawyer who has personal knowledge of ETH having worked for the blockchain network previously, has come forward with explosive allegations regarding the actions of Ethereum founders, Vitalik Buterin , and Joseph Lubin.

According to Nerayoff, these two Ethereum founders have allegedly orchestrated fraudulent activities regarding the ETH blockchain that exceed the scale of the actions committed by Former CEO and founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried.

''Ethereum is the fraudulent elephant in the room in plain sight 1000x bigger than SBF,'' Nerayoff stated.

The FTX case which has been in the headlines for about a year was one of the leading crypto fraud cases which resulted in the financial loss of many investors. About $8 billion in customer funds were found misappropriated in FTX accounts and millions were transferred into a subsidiary company, Alameda Research owned by Bankman-Fried.

The founder of FTX was recently found guilty on all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy on Thursday. Bankman-Fried also stands to serve potentially over 100 years in prison which is the amount the charges lead to.

Nerayoff has not provided any concrete evidence to support his claims against ETH founders' alleged fraudulent activities. But this is also not the lawyer's first time targeting ETH founders with corrupt accusations.

Earlier in September, the former Ethereum advisor accused Vitalik Buterin and his father, Dmitry Buterin of a combined effort to ruin his reputation by accusing him of the extortion of an ETH ICO.

Insider Says ETH Linked With Corrupt US Officials Following his statement of Ethereum allegedly being involved in fraudulent schemes higher than Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX fraud case , Steven Nerayoff disclosed that founders Joseph Lubin and Vitalik Buterin have allegedly been colluding with corrupt US government officials from some of the highest federal agencies.

The former advisor mentioned prominent government figures that Ethereum may have had secret dealings with including present United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman, Gary Gensler and former US SEC Chairperson Jay Clayton.

''Joe Lubin and Vitalik Buterin have been at the front with corrupt officials at the highest levels of federal agencies such as Clayton, Gensler & many others,'' Nerayoff said.

Nerayoff's allegations suggest that Ethereum's corruption runs deep and high, allowing the platform to have an unfair advantage in the crypto space. The claims which are yet to be verified, have raised questions and concerns among many crypto community members.

ETH bulls maintain control | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.comFeatured image from CoinGape, chart from Tradingview.com

Disclaimer: This article was first posted on November 5 and was updated on November 11 after more information was made available by Steven Nerayoff.

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Sun, 12 Nov 2023 12:54

Walmart's US CEO recently discussed the impact weight loss drugs like Ozempic have had on sales.An analyst note from Morgan Stanley aims to clarify Walmart's remarks.Walmart told the analysts the small group of known customers who take the drugs spend more overall. Loading Something is loading.

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Walmart is trying to clarify the impact weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are actually having on its bottom line.

An analyst note from Morgan Stanley released on Tuesday included new information regarding the market-moving comments from Walmart US CEO John Furner last week on GLP-1 weight-loss drugs' impact on spending behavior.

"We definitely do see a slight change compared to the total population, we do see a slight pullback in overall basket," Furner said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Just less units, slightly less calories."

The comments resulted in dozens of news articles. Shares in Walmart and other snack-makers fell on the news.

But speaking to Morgan Stanley analysts, Walmart has clarified "two potential misconceptions," the analysts wrote.

The group of customers taking this drug that Walmart can track is small, the analysts note. But, within this group, Walmart observed these customers were spending slightly less on food year over year.

But "their overall spend is higher, even excluding the cost of the drug," the analysts wrote based on conversations with Walmart. Increased spending is coming from categories like lifestyle, fitness, and "medications to relieve side effects of the drug." These weight-loss drugs have known side effects like nausea and diarrhea.

In aggregate, GLP-1 spending changes are not moving the needle for Walmart's total business, the authors write. Walmart did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.

Of course, this doesn't mean the drugs won't be a headwind for Walmart or other retailers in the long run. But reports may have missed "the broader point that customer engagement with Walmart appears to be increasing after taking GLP-1 drugs," the analysts wrote.

Meanwhile, Walmart's US CEO hasn't been the only exec discussing Ozempic and fueling the frenzied attention around the impacts these drugs could have on companies that sell food to consumers. The buzzy drugs have been mentioned by the CEO of Kellanova, manufacturer of Cheez-It, Pringles, and Rice Krispies Treats, and Smucker's CEO, too. Both executives said they're monitoring research.

And not unlike AI becoming the buzzword of choice in tech earnings calls this year, data from Alphasense showed mentions of "Ozempic" in consumer product earning calls, company documents, and related news have gone up 228% in the last 90 days. Mentions of "GLP-1" have increased 99%, Insider previously reported.

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Archived Version

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 12:30

The Metropolitan Police has released images of protesters they are looking to identify "in relation to a hate crime" at Saturday's pro-Palestinian march.

The force shared pictures in a series of social media posts and appealed for anyone who can identify those pictured to contact police.

Hundreds of thousands of people took part in a march in the capital on Saturday, calling for a ceasefire in Israel's war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

While the demonstration remained largely peaceful, images quickly began circulating online showing several protesters carrying antisemitic placards.

Follow updates: Israel-Gaza latest

Image: Pic: Met Police Image: Pic: Met Police One image showed a woman carrying a sign featuring the Jewish Star of David wrapped around a Nazi swastika, with the slogan: "No British politician should be a 'friend of Israel'."

Another showed individuals wearing what were described as Hamas-style headbands.

Image: Pic: Met Police As protesters gathered at the start of the route at Hyde Park, chants of "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", could also be heard.

The slogan is viewed by many Jews as antisemitic, and is taken to mean a call for the eradication of Israel.

Sky News saw graffiti on the route of the protest comparing what is happening in Gaza with the Holocaust, although it is not known if this was made by anyone on the march.

Government Cabinet Minister Michael Gove was also seen in footage being mobbed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Victoria station.

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0:42 Michael Gove was surrounded by pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Victoria station.On Saturday evening, police said 126 arrests had been made following the march.

Around 150 pro-Palestinian protesters were intercepted by officers after breaking away from the march through London. It is understood that not all of these protesters were arrested.

Earlier, the Met said it had arrested 92 right-wing protesters after clashes with police.

In a statement, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist described the "extreme violence" from the right-wing protestors towards the police as "extraordinary and deeply concerning".

Nine officers were injured, two requiring hospital treatment, as they prevented a violent crowd getting to the Cenotaph while a Remembrance service was taking place.

Assistant Commissioner Twist added that police also saw breakaway groups from the pro-Palestinian march behaving in an "intimidating manner".

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1:06 Counter-protesters shout at marchers"While the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march did not see the sort of physical violence carried out by the right-wing, we know that for London's Jewish communities whose fears and concerns we absolutely recognise, the impact of hate crime and in particular antisemitic offences is just as significant," he said.

"Officers intercepted a group of 150 who were wearing face coverings and firing fireworks. Arrests were made after some of the fireworks struck officers in the face."

He said there were also a number of serious offences identified in relation to hate crime and possible support for proscribed organisations that police are actively investigating.

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1:03 Thousands gather for pro-Palestinian marchHe added that locating and intercepting suspects had not just been challenging due to the size of the crowd, but also due to the number of officers they had to deploy "in response to violence from the right-wing groups".

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has told Sky News he was "sure there are far more arrests still to be made" from the march.

Mr Shapps suggested arrests were not made because "either the police were distracted here (at the Cenotaph) or because they weren't able to intervene immediately".

"Certainly that was the impression I got. In fact, when I spoke to the Met commissioner last night at the festival of Remembrance he made that point clear to me," he told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

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1:17 Defence secretary Grant Shapps speaks to Trevor Phillips.Read more on Sky News:Analysis: Met chief has firmer grasp on liberal democracy than BravermanNetanyahu vows to press on against Hamas with 'full force'

Incidents of antisemitism were criticised by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who also condemned the far-right protesters who gathered as Armistice Day was being marked.

Mr Sunak said: "I condemn the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen... from the EDL (English Defence League) and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine.

"The despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully."

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Archived Version

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 12:28

More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters were detained by police after breaking away from a march that took place through London.

The Metropolitan Police said the group launched fireworks and many were wearing face coverings.

"Officers are using their Section 60 and 60AA powers to detain and search those involved," the force said on X (formerly Twitter), adding later that some officers were struck in the face by the fireworks.

In a statement on Saturday night, Met Police assistant commissioner Matt Twist said police were still deployed across central London "responding to outbreaks of disorder and ensuring key sites are protected" ahead of Sunday's remembrance events.

Follow latest updates: Tensions remain on London streets after march

Earlier in the day, at least 92 far-right counter-protesters were arrested in Pimlico, central London, "to prevent a breach of the peace".

The force said those detained were "part of a large group of counter-protesters we have been monitoring who have tried to reach the main protest march".

It followed a march by what police said were around 300,000 pro-Palestinian protesters through central London on Armistice Day - that a number of politicians had said should be called off.

Image: People set off fireworks during a pro-Palestinian protest Police said 10 other arrests had been made for a range of offences, including possession of offensive weapons, affray and assaulting a police officer.

A total of 126 people have been arrested so far, Mr Twist said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned what he called "violent and wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today".

"What we have seen today does not defend the honour of our armed forces, but utterly disrespects them," he said in a statement posted on X.

Twitter This content is provided by Twitter , which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only. Image: A 'large group' of far-right protesters were detained at Westminster Tube station Mr Sunak branded far-right protesters "EDL (English Defence League) thugs" and also condemned individuals "singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing" during the pro-Palestinian march.

Read more:Police 'actively looking' for individuals over antisemitic signs at pro-Palestinian marchWhy Met Police chief has a firmer grasp on liberal democracy than Suella Braverman

"All criminality must be met with the full and swift force of the law," he said, adding that he plans to meet with Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley in the coming days.

It comes after scuffles between police and a large mob of people, some of whom were carrying St George's flags along the Embankment, and shouting "England 'til I die".

Image: Trouble also flared in Chinatown A line of officers attempted to stop them from reaching Whitehall but the group pushed through, with some shouting "let's have them" as officers responded with batons.

Bottles were also thrown at police by the counter-demonstrators, many of whom were wearing masks.

The confrontation happened shortly before the Armistice Day two-minute silence, when hundreds of people gathered at the Cenotaph to commemorate the UK's war dead at 11am.

The service passed off without incident.

Image: Counter-protesters and police in Parliament Square Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, the founder of the EDL, had called for his supporters to mass in the capital.

He was among the crowds along with former GB News presenter Calvin Robinson.

The Met Police posted on X: "While the two minutes' silence was marked respectfully and without incident on Whitehall, officers have faced aggression from counter-protesters who are in the area in significant numbers."

Image: EDL founder Tommy Robinson was among the crowd The force said it would "use all the powers and tactics available to us to prevent" the counter-protesters from confronting the main march calling for a ceasefire in Israel's war against the militant group Hamas.

There were later further clashes in Chinatown when missiles were thrown at police, while a "large group" were detained following trouble at Westminster Tube station.

It is understood the group of about 100 people were being held under powers to prevent a disturbance.

The main pro-Palestinian demonstration had drawn criticism from the prime minister and home secretary because it coincided with remembrance events.

Image: Police said around 300,000 people attended the pro-Palestinian march As protesters gathered at the start of the route at Hyde Park, chants of "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," could be heard.

The cry is viewed by many Jews as antisemitic, and is taken to mean a call for the eradication of Israel.

Others carried Palestinian flags and placards with slogans such as "free Palestine" and "end the siege", while chanting "ceasefire now".

Former prime minister Boris Johnson addressed the chants heard during the march, while thanking police for keeping people safe.

Writing in a statement on X, he said: "Almost 80 years after the end of the Second World War it is shocking to hear nakedly anti-Semitic chants on the streets of London today. There are people who plainly want to ignore the Hamas massacre of October 7.

"They want to wipe Israel off the map. That is what they were chanting for today. They must not and will not succeed.

"I thank the police for all their efforts to keep people safe - but we must all do more, because an ancient hatred is rising again in Europe. It must be stamped out."

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1:00 'From the river to the sea' explainedTowards the end of the march, a number of pro-Palestinian protesters also staged a sit-in at Waterloo station, with a similar sit-in held briefly at Victoria station earlier in the afternoon.

The British Transport Police said eight people had been arrested on Saturday. Of those, seven were in London, and one in Glasgow.

Meanwhile, footage of Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove being mobbed at Victoria station by pro-Palestinian protesters circulated online.

The flag-waving protesters crowding him were heard chanting "shame on you" as officers shouted at them to "get back" and guided Mr Gove through the station.

Twitter This content is provided by Twitter , which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only. More than 1,000 police officers were drafted in from outside forces to monitor the protests, with the Met saying 1,850 personnel would be on duty on Saturday and 1,375 on Sunday.

Mr Twist said nine officers were injured throughout the day, including two who required hospital treatment for a fractured elbow and suspected dislocated hip.

Suella Braverman had faced accusations of inflaming tensions after accusing the police of "playing favourites" when they resisted pressure to ban the march calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

In the face of condemnation and calls for Mr Sunak to sack her, Mrs Braverman subsequently expressed her "full backing" for the Metropolitan Police at a meeting with commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.

Image: Sir Mark Rowley, left, talking to officers policing the protest Image: The two-minute silence at the Cenotaph passed off peacefully Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper took aim at the home secretary as she condemned the scenes of far-right violence and antisemitic hate during the day.

"Both violence and hate crimes must face the full force of the law," she said in a statement.

"Suella Braverman was warned repeatedly of the dangers of inflaming tensions and undermining the police.

"A home secretary that doesn't take seriously the security of our streets is only allowed to remain in a government that has lost all sense of governing. Britain is better than Rishi Sunak and his cabinet."

Image: Pro-Palestinian protests were held in other parts of the UK, including Glasgow Pro-Palestinian protests were also held elsewhere in the UK, including Glasgow.

Police Scotland said five men and two women had been arrested at separate incidents linked to demonstrations in Glasgow city centre.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper and SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn are appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am today.

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Archived Version

Sun, 12 Nov 2023 12:25

Hundreds of thousands of people marched peacefully through central London yesterday to protest against Israel's continued bombardment of Gaza, following a week of intense political debate over the policing of sensitive demonstrations.

The Metropolitan Police said around 300,000 people had converged on the capital from all parts of the country, while organisers of the pro-Palestinian event put the number closer to 800,000 and claimed it was one of the biggest marches in British history.

The attendance will add to political pressure on both the prime minister Rishi Sunak and the Labour leader Keir Starmer to back calls for a ceasefire in the conflict, which began after a Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on 7 October, murdering 1,200 Israelis and taking around 240 hostages.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that Israel's relentless retaliatory bombardment had killed 11,078 people in the territory, while 1.5 million had fled their homes.

The march took place amid heightened tension between the Met police and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, who last week accused the force of showing bias when it came to demonstrations and of favouring left-wing causes and what she called pro-Palestinian ''mobs''.

On Saturday morning, far-right counter-protesters had clashed with police near the Cenotaph in Whitehall, ahead of an Armistice Day service. Scuffles broke out as police attempted to stop a crowd of far-right activists, Islamophobes and football supporters carrying St George's flags marching along the Embankment towards Whitehall shortly after 10am.

The group, which had been chanting ''England til I die'' pushed through the police barrier, with some shouting ''let's have them'' as officers hit out with batons. Further clashes took place in Chinatown with counter-protesters chanting: ''You're not English any more'' towards officers. The Met said officers had ''faced aggression from counter-protesters who are in the area in significant numbers''.

Tommy Robinson, founder and former leader of the far-right English Defence League, was seen among the crowds protesters.

There were further clashes into the evening, including a crowd of roughly 150 rightwing protesters in Parliament Square. According to the BBC, an offensive chant about Allah was chanted and a Palestinian flag was ripped up. By Saturday night, police said there had been 126 arrests and nine officers had been hurt during the clashes.

Met assistant commissioner Matt Twist said the violence from rightwing protesters towards the police ''was extraordinary and deeply concerning''. He said the ''intense debate about protest and policing'' had contributed to an increase in tensions.

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, pinned the blame for the violence on Braverman who he claimed had stoked the tension and stirred up people on the far right. ''The scenes of disorder we witnessed at the Cenotaph are a direct result of the home secretary's words. The police's job has been made much harder,'' he said.

Humza Yousaf, Scotland's first minister, also called for Braverman to resign. ''The far-right has been emboldened by the home secretary. She has spent her week fanning the flames of division. They are now attacking the police on Armistice Day. The home secretary's position is untenable. She must resign.''

With Downing Street coming under pressure from Tory MPs from across the party to remove Braverman, Sunak last night condemned the ''violent, wholly unacceptable'' scenes. He said both the far right and ''Hamas sympathisers'' had been responsible.

''Remembrance weekend is a time for us to come together as a nation and remember those who fought and died for our freedom,'' he said. ''What we have seen today does not defend the honour of our Armed Forces, but utterly disrespects them.

''That is true for EDL thugs attacking police officers and trespassing on the Cenotaph, and it is true for those singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing on today's protest. The fear and intimidation the Jewish community have experienced over the weekend is deplorable.''

Braverman did not comment on Saturday night. Dozens of Conservative MPs have been bombarding the whips with demands for her to be fired. Senior government sources indicated that the prime minister had not wanted Armistice Day commemorations to be overshadowed by the dismissal of a senior cabinet minister but that he was still considering sacking her.

The police said the vast majority of arrests involved the far-right counter-protesters. They did detain a group of about 150 pro-Palestinian protesters in Grosvenor Square, Belgravia, on Saturday evening, after they said fireworks were let off.

While the pro-Palestinian demonstration was peaceful, many of those present chanted ''from the river to the sea'', the saying identified by many as indicating support for the elimination of the state of Israel.

Police also said they were investigating at least five allegations of hate crimes including antisemitic and racist chants and placards displayed on the march.

Officers said one read ''Welcome to Gaza Twinned with Auschwitz''. Another person carried a sign depicting the antisemitic trope of an Israeli snake wrapped around the globe, the police said, while two men who appeared to be wearing Hamas headbands were also being sought.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said: ''Our job is to ensure that we police without fear or favour, that we balance the rights of everybody, be that protesters, counter-protesters or people living or coming into London.And our job this weekend is to ensure that people are kept safe, and that is what my focus is on.''

Rachel Solnick, a PhD student on the march, said: ''I feel really appalled by how some of the framing around liberation for Palestine has been as if there's an opposition, or some kind of binary between Jewish safety and Palestinian safety. I absolutely disagree with that framing.

''I think that loads of us who have Jewish ancestry feel really strongly that what is taking place in Palestine is ethnic cleansing and we don't want it to happen in our names. It feels so important to gather here in numbers, as Jews and as members of the British public in general, to counter that narrative.''

Another marcher, Matt Storey, said: ''I'm so frustrated with our government not taking a firm line on the conflict or making an effort to stop it. It's despicable. My children are part-Palestinian, so I'm also here for them. There are lots of children dying over there.''

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, called for calm, with a veiled swipe at Braverman for inflaming tensions in the days before the protests. Cooper tweeted: ''Some disgraceful scenes this morning. We urge everyone to respect the police & each other & exercise calm. Everyone must reflect on the impact of their words & actions. It is the responsibility of all of us to bring people together over this weekend not divide and inflame.''

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Sun, 12 Nov 2023 11:07

A senior Ukrainian military officer with deep ties to the country's intelligence services played a central role in the bombing of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines last year, according to officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as other people knowledgeable about the details of the covert operation.

The officer's role provides the most direct evidence to date tying Ukraine's military and security leadership to a controversial act of sabotage that has spawned multiple criminal investigations and that U.S. and Western officials have called a dangerous attack on Europe's energy infrastructure.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine's special operations forces, was the ''coordinator'' of the Nord Stream operation, people familiar with his role said, managing logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines. On Sept. 26, 2022, three explosions caused massive leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The attack left only one of the four gas links in the network intact as winter approached.

Chervinsky did not act alone, and he did not plan the operation, according to the people familiar with his role, which has not been previously reported. The officer took orders from more senior Ukrainian officials, who ultimately reported to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine's highest-ranking military officer, said people familiar with how the operation was carried out. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details about the bombing, which has strained diplomatic relations with Ukraine and drawn objections from U.S. officials.

Ukraine has launched many daring and secretive operations against Russian forces. But the Nord Stream attack targeted civilian infrastructure built to provide energy to millions of people in Europe. While Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas conglomerate, owns 51 percent of Nord Stream, Western energy companies, including from Germany, France and the Netherlands, are partners and invested billions in the project. Ukraine had long complained that Nord Stream would allow Russia to bypass Ukrainian pipes, depriving Kyiv of huge transit revenue.

Through his attorney, Chervinsky denied any role in the sabotage of the pipelines. ''All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis,'' Chervinsky said in a written statement to The Washington Post and Der Spiegel, which conducted a joint investigation of his role.

Spokesmen for the Ukrainian government did not respond to a list of questions about Chervinsky's participation.

Chervinsky's role illustrates the complex dynamics and internal rivalries of the wartime government in Kyiv, where Ukraine's intelligence and military establishment is often in tension with its political leadership.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Chervinsky had been serving in a unit of Ukraine's special operations forces and was focused on resistance activity in areas of the country occupied by Russia, people familiar with his assignments said. He reported to Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, a seasoned and respected officer, who communicated directly with Zaluzhny.

Chervinsky was well suited to help carry out a covert mission meant to obscure Ukraine's responsibility. He has served in senior positions in the country's military intelligence agency as well as the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU, and he is professionally and personally close to key military and security leaders.

He has also helped carry out other secretive operations.

In 2020, Chervinsky oversaw a complex plan to lure fighters for Russia's Wagner mercenary group into Belarus, with the goal of capturing them and bringing them to Ukraine to face charges. In his statement to The Post and Der Spiegel, Chervinsky said he also ''planned and implemented'' operations to kill pro-Russian separatist leaders in Ukraine and to ''abduct a witness'' who could corroborate Russia's role in shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over the eastern Donbas region in 2014, which killed all 298 passengers and crew on board. Last year, a Dutch court convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian of murder in the downing, which was caused by a Russian Buk surface-to-air missile.

Chervinsky is being held in a Kyiv jail on charges that he abused his power stemming from a plot to lure a Russian pilot to defect to Ukraine in July 2022. Authorities allege that Chervinsky, who was arrested in April, acted without permission and that the operation gave away the coordinates of a Ukrainian airfield, prompting a Russian rocket attack that killed a soldier and injured 17 others.

Hanushchak, who is no longer serving in the special operations forces, has said publicly that the operation was approved by the armed forces, and he declined to comment for this article.

Chervinsky has said he was not responsible for the Russian attack and that in trying to persuade the pilot to fly to Ukraine and hand over his aircraft, he was acting under orders. He calls his arrest and prosecution political retribution for his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his administration. Chervinsky has said publicly that he suspects Andriy Yermak, one of Zelensky's closest advisers, of spying for Russia. He has also accused the Zelensky administration of failing to sufficiently prepare the country for Russia's invasion.

''The operation to recruit the Russian pilot involved units of the SBU, the Air Force, and the Special Operations Forces,'' Chervinsky said in his written statement to The Post and Der Spiegel. ''The operation was approved by the commander in chief Valery Zaluzhny.''

Chervinsky's participation in the Nord Stream bombing contradicts Zelensky's public denials that his country was involved. ''I am president, and I give orders accordingly,'' Zelensky said in press interview in June, responding to a report by The Post that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had learned of Ukraine's plans before the attack.

''Nothing of the sort has been done by Ukraine. I would never act that way,'' Zelensky said.

But the Nord Stream operation was designed to keep Zelensky out of the loop, people familiar with the operation said.

''All of those involved in planning and execution reported directly to [chief of defense] Zaluzhnyy, so Zelensky wouldn't have known about it,'' according to intelligence reporting obtained by the CIA that was allegedly shared by Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, on the Discord chat platform. Officials in multiple countries have said privately they were confident that Zelensky didn't personally approve the Nord Stream attack.

Other secret Ukrainian operations targeting Russian forces, including the one involving the Russian airplane, also were designed to bypass the Ukrainian president, people familiar with their planning said.

Chervinsky has blamed Yermak and several other Zelensky advisers for botching the plan in 2020 to ensnare Wagner fighters after they traveled to Belarus. That sting operation failed, Chervinsky said in a 2021 press interview, because of a leak from Zelensky's inner circle.

''It is not just one 'mole' [in Zelensky's administration], it is a bunch of people,'' Chervinsky said, naming Yermak as well as two other Zelensky advisers. He accused administration officials of being ''afraid of challenging Russia.''

U.S. officials have at times privately chastised Ukrainian intelligence and military officials for launching attacks that risked provoking Russia to escalate its war on Ukraine. But Washington's unease has not always dissuaded Kyiv.

In June 2022, the Dutch military intelligence agency, the MIVD, obtained information that Ukraine might be planning to attack Nord Stream. Officials at the CIA relayed to Zaluzhny through an intermediary that the United States opposed such an operation, according to people familiar with those conversations.

U.S. officials believed the attack had been called off. But it turned out only to have been postponed to three months later, using a different point of departure than originally planned. Key elements of the plan, including the number of people on the bombing team, as well as the use of a rented boat, diving equipment and fake identities, remained the same.

In an interview with The Post in June, Zaluzhny said the CIA had never asked him directly about any attack on Nord Stream. He said that after the explosions, in September 2022, he received a phone call from Gen. Mark A. Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ''He asked me, 'Did you have anything to do with it?' I said, 'No.' A lot of operations are planned, a lot of operations are going on, but we have nothing to do with it, nothing at all.''

Zaluzhny suggested in the interview that Russian propagandists had tried to tie him and the Ukrainian military to the operation.

The Dutch military intelligence service also reported to the Americans that the Ukrainians planned an attack on another pipeline in the Black Sea, called TurkStream. It's not clear why that operation was never carried out. In October 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country's security services had prevented a Ukrainian attack on TurkStream. But Russian authorities have provided few details and are not known to have charged anyone in the alleged plot.

The Russian news agency Tass reported, ''It is known that the attack was planned by an agent of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on orders from the Ukrainian special services.''

Some of those who described Chervinsky's participation in the Nord Stream attack defended the veteran intelligence officer as acting in Ukraine's best interests. They argued that bombing the pipelines helped to keep Russia from filling its coffers from natural gas sales and deprived Putin of a means to use the flow of natural gas for political leverage.

The Russian leader had demonstrated that he was willing to use energy as a tool of retaliation. Nearly a month before the explosions, Gazprom stopped flows on Nord Stream 1, hours after the Group of Seven industrialized nations announced a forthcoming price cap on Russian oil, a move intended to put a dent in the Kremlin's treasury.

The German government withheld final authorization of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline days before Russia invaded Ukraine, following months of pressure by Washington. Before the war, Germany got half its natural gas from Russia and had long championed the Nord Stream project in the face of opposition from other European allies.

Chervinsky's supporters have shown up in court to defend him; a few have sported a T-shirt emblazoned with his face and a #FREECHERVINSKY hashtag. For some, he is a symbol of the Ukrainian military's willingness to make hard choices in a fight for the country's survival.

In his statement, Chervinsky said, ''I have devoted my entire life to the defense of Ukraine.'' He called the charges against him related to the Russian airplane operation ''groundless and far-fetched, which I will definitely prove in court.''

Khurshudyan reported from Kyiv. Souad Mekhennet in Washington and Samuel Oakford in New York contributed to this report.

The Post and Der Spiegel collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that the news organizations agreed to publish at the same time.

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Archived Version

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 20:13

There was a shocking and incredibly important story on the front page of the New York Times last week. As reported by an A-team of journalists including two Pulitzer Prize winners, the Times warned its readers that Donald Trump '-- if returned to the White House in 2025 '-- is grooming a new team of extremist government lawyers who would be more loyal to their Dear Leader than to the rule of law, and could help Trump install a brand of American fascism.

You say you didn't hear anything about this? That's not surprising. The editors at the Times made sure to present this major report in the blandest, most inoffensive way possible '-- staying true to the mantra in the nation's most influential newsroom that the 2024 election shouldn't be covered any differently, even when U.S. democracy is on the line.

''Trump Allies Want a New Style of Lawyer if He Returns to Power'' was the original online headline for the piece, as if maybe they were talking about colorful drawling Southerners with seersucker suits, rather than rabid-dog ideologues who would do the dirty work of overturning an election that career government attorneys refused to do before Jan. 6, 2021.

That ''new style of lawyer'' '-- pro-Trump, ''America First'' zealots who think the ultraconservative lawyers bred in the Federalist Society are too soft to carry out their leader's autocratic call for a ''final battle'' against traditional democratic governance that he calls ''the deep state'' '-- was described, numbingly, by the Times as ''more aggressive legal gatekeepers.'' Their dangerous antidemocratic mission was blandly outlined as a plan to ''take control of the government in a way unseen in presidential history.''

I'm picking on this one article in the Times, and its timid, inoffensive packaging, not because it is unique, but because it is far too typical right now. In one of the most perilous moments of crisis the world has seen in 75 years, and with the basic notions of free speech under assault, most newsrooms aren't fighting back. They are, instead, pulling their punches in a defensive, ''rope-a-dope'' crouch, and thus failing to truly inform '-- when democracy itself is at risk.

Right now, Ground Zero is the horrific conflict in the Middle East, where bombing by Israel in response to a violent Hamas terror attack on Oct. 7 is killing thousands of children, yet too many newsrooms adopt a passive voice to describe the bloodshed or who is to blame for attacks. It can be hard at times to distinguish what is real '-- ''Explosion at Gaza refugee camp leaves massive crater'' was the BBC headline for an Israeli bombing that killed or wounded scores of civilians '-- and what is satire. The Onion's take '-- ''The Onion Stands With Israel Because It Seems Like You Get In Less Trouble That Way'' '-- felt more honest and heartful than many serious news headlines.

What worries me even more, frankly, is how the push not to offend with Middle East news coverage is emblematic of a bigger trend of newsroom timidity and even rank cowardice that also permeates domestic news coverage, at a moment when right-wing extremists are controlling the U.S. House and are on track to regain the White House and full governmental control in a chaotic election year.

>> READ MORE: Journalism fails miserably at explaining what is really happening to America | Will Bunch

The mainstream, elite media seems especially flummoxed by the new Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. Johnson was an obscure backbencher on Capitol Hill and remains a man of mystery with no apparent bank account or tangible assets. But the extremism of his Christian nationalist views '-- more radical than anything seen in American history '-- is no secret. Johnson believes our country should be ruled by his own brand of religious fundamentalism, which posits that the Earth is only 6,000 years old but inspires hateful policies toward the LGBTQ community and fringe opposition to women's abortion rights.

That danger isn't conveyed in business-as-usual fluff pieces like the Washington Post's ''House Speaker Mike Johnson's Louisiana hometown guided by faith and family'' article in which neighbors hailed the softer side of a man who was at the center of schemes to block the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. Another Post piece questioned whether Democrats could truly make a political boogeyman out of Johnson given ''his low profile and quiet tone'' '-- as if Christo-fascism isn't so bad when delivered in a gentle drawl, from behind oversized dad glasses.

This deference to authority is already bleeding into serious policy coverage. Far too many news outlets uncritically repeated Johnson's first major pronouncement '-- that $14 billion for Israel could be paid for by cutting the number of IRS agents (who audit the GOP's millionaire donors) when even a third-grade math student would know that reducing revenue agents would cost the government money. Getting it right isn't only important because Johnson is now the most powerful Republican in Washington, but also because he's a kind of a John the Baptist prophecy of an even more dangerous Trump 47 in 14-plus months.

It's weird because Trump is arguably the most media-covered figure in American history '-- even now, there's an entire TV network built around covering his legal woes, in MSNBC '-- and yet there's not nearly enough coverage of the stakes of his proposed second term. This includes an assault on democratic institutions and agencies in the guise of ''dismantling the deep state,'' a focus on political revenge that would include pardoning Jan. 6 insurrectionists while his U.S. Justice Department pursued political rivals, and brutal policies toward the marginalized such as refugees or the urban homeless.

The world is staring into an abyss, much as it did in the 1930s. Now, as then, the global rise of right-wing authoritarians like Vladimir Putin in Russia and Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel is linked to aggressive militarism that targets civilians and risks a world war. Here at home, the growing sense of chaos abroad and a broken government on Capitol Hill, with Republican Johnson poised to make matters worse, has imperiled the flawed small-d democratic government of President Joe Biden and has primed too many voters to fall into the waiting arms of a wannabe dictator.

Yet the news rarely reflects the reality of this risk. Why is that?

It's not that there aren't a lot of remarkable individual journalists out there doing some remarkable and at times courageous work, exposing the rot in Capitol Hill or risking their lives to bring news from Israel and Gaza, where at least 36 reporters or photojournalists have paid with their lives. But the institutional caution that frames their work has been getting a lot worse. Some of it is probably business-driven '-- to avoid offending readers who might cancel a subscription. A lot of it seems to be a desire in newsrooms, after Trump's whirlwind, lie-filled first term, to return to normalcy and the kind of balance that treats the two parties equally, which means ignoring that one has become an authoritarian cult.

The now-retired Washington Post editor Marty Baron famously said during the Trump era that journalists are ''not at war ... we're at work'' '-- which merely conceded the battlefield to the bellicose forces adopting Trump's rallying cry that reporters are ''the enemy of the people.'' Growing threats to press freedom in America have metastasized in the weeks since Oct. 7, with pressure not to make any controversial comments about Israel or Palestine causing some editors and reporters to get fired or resign, which has a chilling effect on others. And my bigger fear is that this growing climate of fear is bleeding into coverage of the 2024 election and the threat to democracy.

Losing the war for a free press has dire consequences that we're already seeing. Is there any doubt that nonstop media bashing from Trump and others set the stage for the recent assaults in Kansas and Alabama, where runaway prosecutors or police have raided newsrooms or arrested journalists? And why is there not more of an uproar from the American media community about the war crime killing of those 36 journalists in and around Gaza '-- almost all of them by Israel? Maybe it's the timidity that caused NPR to write that journalists are being killed ''in the war between Israel and Hamas'' '-- dodging the fact that one side, Israel, has killed more than 90%.

Yet as bad as things are for the media today, things will get worse in less than two years if journalists '-- as individuals, as newsrooms, and as a profession '-- can't stop cowering and won't adopt a much more aggressive posture in defending democracy, the only political system that makes a functioning news media possible. Some of it is basic stuff '-- more boldness in calling out a blatant lie, like Johnson's IRS claim, or making it clear when someone is to blame, like Israel's killing of journalists.

Political reporting is useless unless it focuses a lot less on the campaign horse race and a lot more on the consequences of victory '-- ''Not the odds, but the stakes,'' as my friend, New York University journalism prof Jay Rosen, says '-- by those who believe a ''Red Caesar'' dictatorship is needed to purge America of liberalism. I'm terrified that many angry, apathetic, or ill-informed voters will wake up on Jan. 21, 2025, in a country they no longer recognize ... and didn't see coming.

Others are proposing new ways of doing things. Mark Jacob, the former Chicago Tribune journalist who's become a leading media critic, has proposed a more radical version of fact-checking that he calls ''fact-crusading,'' which would not just report out lies by leading political figures but challenge them and seek accountability. Meanwhile, traditional outlets like the Washington Post are promising to expand their 2024 coverage of the threats to democracy. I think that's excellent, but a democracy beat won't mean much unless journalists report it like our existence depends upon it.

We are at war, dammit, literally and figuratively, and we can't win this fight by hiding in the corner and absorbing the punches. There is a higher truth that doesn't repeat lies but calls them out, doesn't hide from accountability when there is blame to be assigned, and uses the keyboard as a weapon to fight for democracy instead of dispassionately reporting, evenhandedly, on its slow death. And if we don't start fighting for that truth right away, the BBC might eventually be reporting on ''the crater'' where a free press used to stand.

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 20:12

PANAMA CITY -- Protests extended into a second week Monday over a long-term copper mining concession for a Canadian company, as Panama's government sought to calm anger by promising to let Panamanians decide in a referendum whether to scrap the deal.

A broad cross-section of society has joined in demonstrations across the country for more than a week demanding the government rescind the contract with a local subsidiary of Canada's First Quantum Minerals. Critics say the concession puts Panama's environment and water supply at risk.

President Laurentino Cortizo's administration proposed Monday to send congress a bill that would schedule a referendum in December. But the country's top electoral authority said such a vote couldn't be held before next May's presidential election.

Interior Minister Roger Tejado, who submitted the proposed legislation, called on electoral authorities to ''carry out your historic role.''

The contract has real economic implications for the country. Panama Mining, the local subsidiary, employs more than 9,000 people, and the company says its operations accounted for 4.8% of Panama's gross domestic product in 2021.

Cortizo's administration says the new contract guarantees a minimum annual payment of $375 million to Panama, 10 times more than under the previous contract.

The new contract extends Panama Mining's concession over 32,000 acres (12,955 hectares) for 20 years, with the company having an option to extend it for another 20 years.

The scale and scope of the deal have raised nationalist anger as well as environmentalist objections.

Critics say that at a time when drought has forced reductions in Panama Canal traffic, giving the company control over the water it uses is a mistake. The company says it uses only rainwater that it collects.

''We're almost out of water,'' protester Omayra Avenda±o, a real estate broker, said during a march. ''All the money in the world will not be able to make up for the lack of water, which is already critical.''

First Quantum Minerals has not commented since the protests began other than issuing a brief statement condemning protesters who arrived by boat at a port the company uses.

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 19:58

Starting Friday, the Panama Canal Authority is implementing additional vessel reductions in an effort to conserve water as a drought exacerbated by a severe El Nino weather system continues to plague water levels in the locks of the key global trade conduit.

According to Panama Canal authorities, the drought requires them to reduce the number of daily transits from 29 to 25 ships and in the proceeding weeks, they will reduce vessels transits even more until it declines to 18 ships a day in February. That represents between 40%-50% of full capacity. Under normal conditions, between 34-36 vessels traversed the canal daily. The drought and vessel reductions are having a major impact on the flow of trade, according to data from CNBC Supply Chain providers.

According to Project44, shipping containers going through the Panama Canal to the U.S. East Coast are being delayed in select ports, with the Port of Charleston seeing the longest in delays.

The Panama Canal is popular for East Coast trade because it is faster than other options. The shipping time for ocean cargo from Shenzhen, China, to Miami, Florida, using the Suez Canal takes 41 days. Traveling through the Panama Canal takes only 35 days.

"With a reduced transit schedule and an average of 26 daily arrivals by commercial ships per day on the Pacific side of the canal, and an average of 8 daily arrivals by commercial ships per day on the Atlantic side of the canal, the likelihood of cargo waiting idle will increase," said Captain Adil Ashiq, head of North America for MarineTraffic.

According to MarineTraffic, wait times have increased on the Atlantic side from last week on average by 30% (0.4 days to 0.6 days) and on the Pacific side, wait times have increased to 2.2 days.

The delays are leading shippers sending cargo to U.S. East Coast and West Coast ports to make alternativee plans, says Alan Baer, CEO of OL USA.

"The extra money and time traveling through the Suez may add a week to ten days for cargo to arrive, but you know when it will reach its final destination," Baer said.

Jon Davis, chief meteorologist at global supply chain mapping and risk analytics company Everstream Analytics, tells CNBC that since a significant portion of global commerce is transported through the Canal, the items that are impacted cover all sectors.

The container ship Maersk Bogor is guided by a tugboat as it prepares to enter the Miraflores locks while transiting the Panama Canal on September 22, 2023 in Panama City, Panama. The Panama Canal Authority is continuing to restrict the number of vessels that pass through the Panama Canal locks as drought has caused water levels at Gatun Lake to drop.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

"Coal is transported through the canal but the more important energy item is LNG (liquefied natural gas) which the U.S. exports around the world, especially to Asia," said Davis. "Many agricultural products are shipped both from, and to, the U.S. The canal is a major corridor for container ships, so products coming to the U.S., from China for example, are being delayed."

Containerships have priority in crossing the canal due to their contracts. The most impacted vessel types are wet bulk and dry bulk vessels, Ashiq said.

"This may start a shift in bookings for Transpacific freight destined to the U.S. East and Gulf through the Suez Canal, which is located in a region with significant geopolitical headwinds," said Paul Brashier, vice president of drayage and intermodal at ITS Logistics.

The Panama Canal issues come amid a challenging market for shippers in economic terms, with a "massive freight recession" leading to business shutdowns, global shipping bellwether Maersk announcing 10,000 layoffs on Friday amid weak results, and an uncertain outlook for demand.

In a recent speech before the Houston International Maritime Conference, Panama Canal Authority Administrator Ricaurte Vsquez Morales said, "This will be the worst El Nino recorded in recent history."

In its water conservation battle, Dr. Vsquez emphasized the authority anticipates it can "provide and assure for as long as possible," the current water levels so vessels do not have to further lighten their loads. At present conditions, vessels are traversing the canal 40% lighter. To meet the weight requirements, some containerships are unloading their containers and moving them either by rail or road across Panama to be loaded on vessels on the other side. Vsquez said the canal will attempt to keep current vessel weight requirements even if it requires further reductions in the number of transits.

According to the PCA, it takes around 50 million gallons of fresh water to move a vessel through one of the locks. The Panamax locks lose more water compared to the Neo-Panamax lock. The Neo-Panamax locks have a water recovery system which can reclaim 60% of the water used during a vessel's transit through the locks. The Panamax lanes do not have the water-recapturing ability of the Neo-Panamax locks.

Forty percent of all U.S. container traffic travels through the Panama Canal every year, which in all, moves roughly $270 billion in cargo annually.

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 19:23

Alexandra Duggan / The Spokesman-Review (TNS)

The FBI is investigating after a series of letters and white powdery substances were delivered to Washington elections offices on Wednesday and Thursday.

Elections offices in Spokane, Pierce, and King counties were evacuated Wednesday. Snohomish County also reported receiving a suspicious envelope on Thursday, the Everett Herald reported.

Other offices across the U.S. experienced something similar, according to a statement released on Thursday by the FBI to the Pierce County Auditor. Law enforcement said letters and suspicious substances were mailed to counties in California, Georgia, Oregon and Nevada.

Ballot counting from Tuesday's election was immediately halted in Spokane and resumed Thursday.

In Spokane County, the substance later tested positive for fentanyl, according to Spokane Police Department. The FBI said in their release that in four instances, preliminary tests indicated some presence of fentanyl as well. The Pierce County envelope contained baking soda, the Herald reported.

It's unclear if the letters each office received are identical or similar.

Pierce County Auditor's Office released its letter to the media, which called to "end elections."

It was the only letter in Washington that was released, to the knowledge of Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer.

"Stop giving power to the right that they don't have. We are in charge now and there is no more need for them. Also be aware your ballot drops are very susceptible to noxious chemicals like AM/BL. They are unsafe to the public. Just saying," the note said.

"We contacted all the other auditors and said to be on the lookout, and don't open it," Farmer said. "We sent images to county auditor partners out of safety. We didn't want other auditors opening the letter if they didn't have to."

Farmer said this is just a case of bad actors trying to derail democracy.

"They're going to keep trying to come up with ways to do that. It's just a consequence of the times we live in," she said.

Social media has exploded with theories and assumptions about the elections offices and letters. Western States Center extremist expert and program manager Kate Bitz said it's too early to make any assumption on whether these actions were coordinated and who participated.

"It's very concerning. People should be waiting for more information on this as law enforcement investigates and we wait to see how widespread this has been," Bitz said. "Information is still emerging. Police are still investigating. I caution against jumping to conclusions."

Western States Center also posted on social media about the incident, saying while it don't know much yet, it's troubling in the context that there have been rising threats and intimidation toward election workers and attacks on the democratic process.

"Our thoughts are with the election officials and workers who are affected by this incident," the statement read.

Washington State GOP also issued a statement on the matter on Wednesday, before the Pierce County note was made public. WAGOP said the packages "may lead to greater doubt and skepticism about the reliability of the state's election processes," which is possibly what the sender intended.

"It doesn't matter what political ideology, if any, the sender supports," it said. "These actions are wrong."

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a news release Wednesday that these incidents show the need for stronger protections surrounding election workers.

"Democracy rests upon free and fair elections," Hobbs said. "These incidents were an act of terrorism to threaten our elections."

SPD said it is still working with the FBI to determine who the lead agency is on the investigation in Spokane County and declined to comment further. The United States Postal Service also declined to comment.

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 16:58

1

: a person from an alien land, culture, or group believed to be inferior, uncivilized, or violent '-- used chiefly in historical references In the Roman Empire, cohorts '... patrolled the provinces, repelling the barbarians and maintaining the emperor's sovereignty. '-- Paul C. Schuytema Much of Italy had slipped from the grasp of the Byzantines, victim to the vigorous Germanic barbarians '... who had begun their migration southward from the forested fastnesses of eastern and central Europe. '-- Stephen O'Shea 2

: a barbarous person : a rude, crude, uneducated, or uncivilized person No, I'm not some sort of barbarian who would open a bottle of wine to enjoy some before offering it as a gift. That would be uncouth. '-- Irv Erdos 1

: of or relating to a land, culture, or people alien and usually believed to be inferior to another land, culture, or people

2

: lacking refinement, learning, or artistic or literary culture

Last Updated: 2 Nov 2023 - Updated example sentencesSubscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search'--ad free!

Merriam-Webster unabridged

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 16:58

1

b : the practice or display of barbarian acts, attitudes, or ideas

2

: an idea, act, or expression that in form or use offends against contemporary standards of good taste or acceptability

Examples of barbarism in a Sentence The barbarism of his dictatorship cannot be ignored. Such barbarisms cannot be tolerated.

Recent Examples on the Web Israel will stand against the forces of barbarism until victory. '-- Anders Hagstrom, Fox News, 31 Oct. 2023 View More As knowledge of Greek has become more exotic'--the mark of pedants, nerds, and graduates of expensive schools'--capturing the barbarism of ancient Greek, and of the ancient Greeks themselves, has become harder. '-- Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2023 Instead, from college campuses to mainstream media outlets, elite left-wing circles have responded to the terror group's barbarism by intensifying their denunciations of Israel. '-- Shany Mor, WSJ, 20 Oct. 2023 But the hours of video Hamas has collected and shared online also have been used by Israel to expose the group's barbarism. '-- Elizabeth Dwoskin, Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2023 As Israel prosecutes its just war of self-defense against Hamas barbarism, three considerations should be kept in mind. '-- Peter Berkowitz, National Review, 11 Oct. 2023 Those records formed the basis of his book, a story of barbarism, extreme privation, and continual mortal danger. '-- Anatoly Kuznetsov, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023 The year 1941, a truly ominous year in the struggle between civilization and barbarism, apparently prompted an obscure Oxford scholar -- C. S. Lewis -- to think more deeply about the problem of evil in the world, to great literary effect. '-- Heather Wilhelm, National Review, 10 Aug. 2023 This idea that the world is and has always been dog-eat-dog is uninformed barbarism masked as wise cynicism. '-- Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 26 July 2023 See More These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'barbarism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word HistoryFirst Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler

The first known use of barbarism was in the 15th century Dictionary Entries Near barbarism Cite this Entry ''Barbarism.'' Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barbarism. Accessed 11 Nov. 2023.

Share More from Merriam-Webster on barbarism Last Updated: 5 Nov 2023 - Updated example sentencesLove words? Need even more definitions?

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 13:07

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:Palestinian official says biggest hospital suspends operationsBaby in incubator dies, intensive care patient killed by shell, the official says from inside the hospitalIsrael reiterates call for hospital to be evacuatedSome health workers have fled the hospital - WHO chiefGAZA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - A baby died in an incubator at Gaza's largest hospital after the facility lost power, and another person was killed by an Israeli shell in intensive care, a spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday.

Israel's military, which residents said had been fighting Hamas gunmen all night in and around Gaza City where the hospital is located, did not immediately respond to questions on the comments from health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra.

"The situation is worse than anyone can imagine. We are besieged inside the Al Shifa Medical Complex, and the occupation has targeted most of the buildings inside," said Qidra, who represents the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

The Israeli military has said that Hamas militants who rampaged through southern Israel last month have placed command centres under Shifa hospital and others in Gaza, making them vulnerable to being considered military targets.

"The hospitals need to be evacuated in order to deal with Hamas. We intend on dealing with Hamas who have turned hospitals into fortified positions," it said in response to the question of whether it planned to enter Gaza hospitals at some point.

Hamas has denied using civilians as human shields and health officials say growing numbers of Israeli strikes on or near hospitals put at risk patients, medical staff and thousands of evacuees who have taken shelter in and near their buildings.

Qidra said Israeli army snipers commandeering rooftops of buildings near the hospital fired into the medical complex from time to time, limiting the ability of medics and people to move.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The hospital suspended operations after fuel ran out, Qidra said, adding: "As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies."

[1/10] An Israeli flag can be seen inside Gaza Strip, looking in from the Israeli side of the border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, November 11, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein Acquire Licensing Rights

Hamas denies using the hospital for its military purposes and has asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to send missions to come to Shifa to investigate the Israeli allegations.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank - separated from Gaza by Israel and run by a rival administration to Hamas - said separately that 39 babies were at risk at the hospital.

Minister Mai Alkaila had initially said they had died because they could not get oxygen or medicine to them and electricty was cut off, but the ministry later corrected the information to say that one had died and 39 were at risk.

"39 premature babies in Al-Shifa Medical Complex are threatened with death at any moment, and one of them died this morning. Failure to bring fuel into the hospitals will be a death sentence for the rest. The incubators will only be able to work until this evening, after which the fuel will run out."

Contacted again about the ministry's statement, Qidra reiterated that there was no electricity at the hospital and no internet.

"We are working hard to keep them alive, but we are afraid we may lose them in the coming hours," he said. "There is no electricity in the hospital completely."

On Friday, Gaza officials had said missiles landed in a courtyard of Al Shifa, killing one person and wounding others. Israel's military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health workers the group was in contact with at Shifa had been forced to leave the hospital in search of safety.

"Many of the thousands sheltering at the hospital are forced to evacuate due to security risks, while many still remain there," Tedros wrote on social media on Friday.

Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch and other Reuters bureaux; Writing by Matt Spetalnick and Philippa Fletcher; editing by Grant McCool, Simon Cameron-Moore, William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A senior correspondent with nearly 25 years' experience covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict including several wars and the signing of the first historic peace accord between the two sides.

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 07:00

The Milgram experiment(s) on obedience to authority figures were a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, 40 men in the age range of 20 to 50 from a diverse range of occupations with varying levels of education, to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner". These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.[2]

The experimenter (E) orders the teacher (T), the subject of the experiment, to give what the teacher (T) believes are painful electric shocks to a learner (L), who is actually an actor and confederate. The subject is led to believe that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual electric shocks, though in reality there were no such punishments. Being separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level.[1]The experiment found, unexpectedly, that a very high proportion of subjects would fully obey the instructions, with every participant going up to 300 volts, and 65% going up to the full 450 volts. Milgram first described his research in a 1963 article in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology[1] and later discussed his findings in greater depth in his 1974 book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View.[3]

The experiments began on August 7, 1961 (after a grant proposal was approved in July), in the basement of Linsly-Chittenden Hall at Yale University, three months after the start of the trial of German Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.[4][5] Milgram devised his psychological study to explain the psychology of genocide and answer the popular contemporary question: "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"[6]

While the experiment itself was repeated many times around the globe, with fairly consistent results, both its interpretations as well as its applicability to the holocaust are disputed.[7][8]

Procedure edit Milgram experiment advertisement, 1961. The US $4 advertised is equivalent to $39 in 2022.Three individuals took part in each session of the experiment:

The "experimenter", who was in charge of the session.The "teacher", a volunteer for a single session. The "teachers" were led to believe that they were merely assisting, whereas they were actually the subjects of the experiment.The "learner", an actor and confederate of the experimenter, who pretended to be a volunteer.The subject and the actor arrived at the session together. The experimenter told them that they were taking part in "a scientific study of memory and learning", to see what the effect of punishment is on a subject's ability to memorize content. Also, he always clarified that the payment for their participation in the experiment was secured regardless of its development. The subject and actor drew slips of paper to determine their roles. Unknown to the subject, both slips said "teacher". The actor would always claim to have drawn the slip that read "learner", thus guaranteeing that the subject would always be the "teacher".

Next, the teacher and learner were taken into an adjacent room where the learner was strapped into what appeared to be an electric chair. The experimenter, dressed in a lab coat in order to appear to have more authority, told the participants this was to ensure that the learner would not escape.[1] In a later variation of the experiment, the confederate would eventually plead for mercy and yell that he had a heart condition.[9] At some point prior to the actual test, the teacher was given a sample electric shock from the electroshock generator in order to experience firsthand what the shock that the learner would supposedly receive during the experiment would feel like.

The teacher and learner were then separated so that they could communicate, but not see each other. The teacher was then given a list of word pairs that he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read four possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong answer (if correct, the teacher would read the next word pair).[1] The volts ranged from 15 to 450. The shock generator included verbal markings that vary from "Slight Shock" to "Danger: Severe Shock."

The subjects believed that for each wrong answer the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the learner was separated from the teacher, the learner set up a tape recorder integrated with the electroshock generator, which played previously recorded sounds for each shock level. As the voltage of the fake shocks increased, the learner began making audible protests, such as banging repeatedly on the wall that separated him from the teacher. In every condition the learner makes/says a predetermined sound or word. When the highest voltages were reached, the learner fell silent.[1]

If at any time the teacher indicated a desire to halt the experiment, the experimenter was instructed to give specific verbal prods. The prods were, in this order:[1]

Please continue or Please go on.The experiment requires that you continue.It is absolutely essential that you continue.You have no other choice; you must go on.Prod 2 could only be used if prod 1 was unsuccessful. If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, the experiment was halted after the subject had elicited the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession.[1]

The experimenter also had prods to use if the teacher made specific comments. If the teacher asked whether the learner might suffer permanent physical harm, the experimenter replied, "Although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on." If the teacher said that the learner clearly wants to stop, the experimenter replied, "Whether the learner likes it or not, you must go on until he has learned all the word pairs correctly, so please go on."[1]

Predictions edit Before conducting the experiment, Milgram polled fourteen Yale University senior-year psychology majors to predict the behavior of 100 hypothetical teachers. All of the poll respondents believed that only a very small fraction of teachers (the range was from zero to 3 out of 100, with an average of 1.2) would be prepared to inflict the maximum voltage. Milgram also informally polled his colleagues and found that they, too, believed very few subjects would progress beyond a very strong shock.[1] He also reached out to honorary Harvard University graduate Chaim Homnick, who noted that this experiment would not be concrete evidence of the Nazis' innocence, due to the fact that "poor people are more likely to cooperate". Milgram also polled forty psychiatrists from a medical school, and they believed that by the tenth shock, when the victim demands to be free, most subjects would stop the experiment. They predicted that by the 300-volt shock is when the victim would refuse to answer, only 3.73 percent of the subjects would still continue, and they believed that "only a little over one-tenth of one percent of the subjects would administer the highest shock on the board."[10]

Milgram suspected before the experiment that the obedience exhibited by Nazis reflected of a distinct German character, and planned to use the American participants as a control group before using German participants, expected to behave closer to the Nazis. However, the unexpected results stopped him from conducting the same experiment on German participants.[11]

Results edit Subjects were uncomfortable administering the shocks, and displayed varying degrees of tension and stress. These signs included sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting their lips, groaning, and digging their fingernails into their skin, and some were even having nervous laughing fits or seizures.[1] 14 of the 40 subjects showed definite signs of nervous laughing or smiling. Every participant paused the experiment at least once to question it. Most continued after being assured by the experimenter. Some said they would refund the money they were paid for participating.

Milgram summarized the experiment in his 1974 article "The Perils of Obedience", writing:

The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.[12]

The original Simulated Shock Generator and Event Recorder, or shock box, is located in the Archives of the History of American Psychology.

Later, Milgram and other psychologists performed variations of the experiment throughout the world, with similar results.[13] Milgram later investigated the effect of the experiment's locale on obedience levels by holding an experiment in an unregistered, backstreet office in a bustling city, as opposed to at Yale, a respectable university. The level of obedience, "although somewhat reduced, was not significantly lower." What made more of a difference was the proximity of the "learner" and the experimenter. There were also variations tested involving groups.

Thomas Blass of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County performed a meta-analysis on the results of repeated performances of the experiment. He found that while the percentage of participants who are prepared to inflict fatal voltages ranged from 28% to 91%, there was no significant trend over time and the average percentage for US studies (61%) was close to the one for non-US studies (66%).[2][14]

The participants who refused to administer the final shocks neither insisted that the experiment be terminated, nor left the room to check the health of the victim without requesting permission to leave, as per Milgram's notes and recollections, when fellow psychologist Philip Zimbardo asked him about that point.[15]

Milgram created a documentary film titled Obedience showing the experiment and its results. He also produced a series of five social psychology films, some of which dealt with his experiments.[16]

Critical reception edit Ethics edit The Milgram Shock Experiment raised questions about the research ethics of scientific experimentation because of the extreme emotional stress and inflicted insight suffered by the participants. Some critics such as Gina Perry argued that participants were not properly debriefed.[17] In Milgram's defense, 84 percent of former participants surveyed later said they were "glad" or "very glad" to have participated; 15 percent chose neutral responses (92% of all former participants responding).[18] Many later wrote expressing thanks. Milgram repeatedly received offers of assistance and requests to join his staff from former participants. Six years later (at the height of the Vietnam War), one of the participants in the experiment wrote to Milgram, explaining why he was glad to have participated despite the stress:

While I was a subject in 1964, though I believed that I was hurting someone, I was totally unaware of why I was doing so. Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority ... To permit myself to be drafted with the understanding that I am submitting to authority's demand to do something very wrong would make me frightened of myself ... I am fully prepared to go to jail if I am not granted Conscientious Objector status. Indeed, it is the only course I could take to be faithful to what I believe. My only hope is that members of my board act equally according to their conscience ...[19][20]

On June 10, 1964, the American Psychologist published a brief but influential article by Diana Baumrind titled "Some Thoughts on Ethics of Research: After Reading Milgram's' Behavioral Study of Obedience.'" Baumrind's criticisms of the treatment of human participants in Milgram's studies stimulated a thorough revision of the ethical standards of psychological research. She argued that even though Milgram had obtained informed consent, he was still ethically responsible to ensure their well-being. When participants displayed signs of distress such as sweating and trembling, the experimenter should have stepped in and halted the experiment.[21]

Applicability to the Holocaust edit Milgram sparked direct critical response in the scientific community by claiming that "a common psychological process is centrally involved in both [his laboratory experiments and Nazi Germany] events." James Waller, chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College, formerly chair of Whitworth College Psychology Department, expressed the opinion that Milgram experiments do not correspond well to the Holocaust events:[22]

The subjects of Milgram experiments, wrote James Waller (Becoming Evil), were assured in advance that no permanent physical damage would result from their actions. However, the Holocaust perpetrators were fully aware of their hands-on killing and maiming of the victims.The laboratory subjects themselves did not know their victims and were not motivated by racism or other biases. On the other hand, the Holocaust perpetrators displayed an intense devaluation of the victims through a lifetime of personal development.Those serving punishment at the lab were not sadists, nor hate-mongers, and often exhibited great anguish and conflict in the experiment,[1] unlike the designers and executioners of the Final Solution, who had a clear "goal" on their hands, set beforehand.The experiment lasted for an hour, with no time for the subjects to contemplate the implications of their behavior. Meanwhile, the Holocaust lasted for years with ample time for a moral assessment of all individuals and organizations involved.[22]In the opinion of Thomas Blass'--who is the author of a scholarly monograph on the experiment (The Man Who Shocked The World) published in 2004'--the historical evidence pertaining to actions of the Holocaust perpetrators speaks louder than words:

My own view is that Milgram's approach does not provide a fully adequate explanation of the Holocaust. While it may well account for the dutiful destructiveness of the dispassionate bureaucrat who may have shipped Jews to Auschwitz with the same degree of routinization as potatoes to Bremerhaven, it falls short when one tries to apply it to the more zealous, inventive, and hate-driven atrocities that also characterized the Holocaust.[23]

Validity edit In a 2004 issue of the journal Jewish Currents, Joseph Dimow, a participant in the 1961 experiment at Yale University, wrote about his early withdrawal as a "teacher", suspicious "that the whole experiment was designed to see if ordinary Americans would obey immoral orders, as many Germans had done during the Nazi period."[24]

In 2012 Australian psychologist Gina Perry investigated Milgram's data and writings and concluded that Milgram had manipulated the results, and that there was a "troubling mismatch between (published) descriptions of the experiment and evidence of what actually transpired." She wrote that "only half of the people who undertook the experiment fully believed it was real and of those, 66% disobeyed the experimenter".[25][26] She described her findings as "an unexpected outcome" that "leaves social psychology in a difficult situation."[27]

In a book review critical of Gina Perry's findings, Nestar Russell and John Picard take issue with Perry for not mentioning that "there have been well over a score, not just several, replications or slight variations on Milgram's basic experimental procedure, and these have been performed in many different countries, several different settings and using different types of victims. And most, although certainly not all of these experiments have tended to lend weight to Milgram's original findings."[28]

Interpretations edit Milgram elaborated two theories:

The first is the theory of conformism, based on Solomon Asch conformity experiments, describing the fundamental relationship between the group of reference and the individual person. A subject who has neither ability nor expertise to make decisions, especially in a crisis, will leave decision making to the group and its hierarchy. The group is the person's behavioral model.[29]The second is the agentic state theory, wherein, per Milgram, "the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view themselves as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and they therefore no longer see themselves as responsible for their actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow".[30]Alternative interpretations edit In his book Irrational Exuberance, Yale finance professor Robert J. Shiller argues that other factors might be partially able to explain the Milgram experiments:

[People] have learned that when experts tell them something is all right, it probably is, even if it does not seem so. (In fact, the experimenter was indeed correct: it was all right to continue giving the "shocks"'--even though most of the subjects did not suspect the reason.)[31]

In a 2006 experiment, a computerized avatar was used in place of the learner receiving electrical shocks. Although the participants administering the shocks were aware that the learner was unreal, the experimenters reported that participants responded to the situation physiologically "as if it were real".[32]

Another explanation of Milgram's results invokes belief perseverance as the underlying cause.[30] What "people cannot be counted on is to realize that a seemingly benevolent authority is in fact malevolent, even when they are faced with overwhelming evidence which suggests that this authority is indeed malevolent. Hence, the underlying cause for the subjects' striking conduct could well be conceptual, and not the alleged 'capacity of man to abandon his humanity ... as he merges his unique personality into larger institutional structures."'

This last explanation receives some support from a 2009 episode of the BBC science documentary series Horizon, which involved replication of the Milgram experiment. Of the twelve participants, only three refused to continue to the end of the experiment. Speaking during the episode, social psychologist Clifford Stott discussed the influence that the idealism of scientific inquiry had on the volunteers. He remarked: "The influence is ideological. It's about what they believe science to be, that science is a positive product, it produces beneficial findings and knowledge to society that are helpful for society. So there's that sense of science is providing some kind of system for good."[33]

Building on the importance of idealism, some recent researchers suggest the "engaged followership" perspective. Based on an examination of Milgram's archive, in a recent study, social psychologists Alexander Haslam, Stephen Reicher and Megan Birney, at the University of Queensland, discovered that people are less likely to follow the prods of an experimental leader when the prod resembles an order. However, when the prod stresses the importance of the experiment for science (i.e. "The experiment requires you to continue"), people are more likely to obey.[34] The researchers suggest the perspective of "engaged followership": that people are not simply obeying the orders of a leader, but instead are willing to continue the experiment because of their desire to support the scientific goals of the leader and because of a lack of identification with the learner.[35][36] Also a neuroscientific study supports this perspective, namely that watching the learner receive electric shocks does not activate brain regions involving empathic concerns.[37]

Replications and variations edit Milgram's variations edit In Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (1974), Milgram describes 19 variations of his experiment, some of which had not been previously reported.

Several experiments varied the distance between the participant (teacher) and the learner. Generally, when the participant was physically closer to the learner, the participant's compliance decreased. In the variation where the learner's physical immediacy was closest'--where the participant had to hold the learner's arm onto a shock plate'--30 percent of participants completed the experiment. The participant's compliance also decreased if the experimenter was physically farther away (Experiments 1''4). For example, in Experiment 2, where participants received telephonic instructions from the experimenter, compliance decreased to 21 percent. Some participants deceived the experimenter by pretending to continue the experiment.

In Experiment 8, an all-female contingent was used; previously, all participants had been men. Obedience did not significantly differ, though the women communicated experiencing higher levels of stress.

Experiment 10 took place in a modest office in Bridgeport, Connecticut, purporting to be the commercial entity "Research Associates of Bridgeport" without apparent connection to Yale University, to eliminate the university's prestige as a possible factor influencing the participants' behavior. In those conditions, obedience dropped to 47.5 percent, though the difference was not statistically significant.

Milgram also combined the effect of authority with that of conformity. In those experiments, the participant was joined by one or two additional "teachers" (also actors, like the "learner"). The behavior of the participants' peers strongly affected the results. In Experiment 17, when two additional teachers refused to comply, only four of 40 participants continued in the experiment. In Experiment 18, the participant performed a subsidiary task (reading the questions via microphone or recording the learner's answers) with another "teacher" who complied fully. In that variation, 37 of 40 continued with the experiment.[38]

Replications edit A virtual replication of the experiment, with an avatar serving as the learnerAround the time of the release of Obedience to Authority in 1973''1974, a version of the experiment was conducted at La Trobe University in Australia. As reported by Perry in her 2012 book Behind the Shock Machine, some of the participants experienced long-lasting psychological effects, possibly due to the lack of proper debriefing by the experimenter.[39]

In 2002, the British artist Rod Dickinson created The Milgram Re-enactment, an exact reconstruction of parts of the original experiment, including the uniforms, lighting, and rooms used. An audience watched the four-hour performance through one-way glass windows.[40][41] A video of this performance was first shown at the CCA Gallery in Glasgow in 2002.

A partial replication of the experiment was staged by British illusionist Derren Brown and broadcast on UK's Channel 4 in The Heist (2006).[42]

Another partial replication of the experiment was conducted by Jerry M. Burger in 2006 and broadcast on the Primetime series Basic Instincts. Burger noted that "current standards for the ethical treatment of participants clearly place Milgram's studies out of bounds." In 2009, Burger was able to receive approval from the institutional review board by modifying several of the experimental protocols.[43] Burger found obedience rates virtually identical to those reported by Milgram in 1961''62, even while meeting current ethical regulations of informing participants. In addition, half the replication participants were female, and their rate of obedience was virtually identical to that of the male participants. Burger also included a condition in which participants first saw another participant refuse to continue. However, participants in this condition obeyed at the same rate as participants in the base condition.[44]

In the 2010 French documentary Le Jeu de la Mort (The Game of Death), researchers recreated the Milgram experiment with an added critique of reality television by presenting the scenario as a game show pilot. Volunteers were given '‚¬40 and told that they would not win any money from the game, as this was only a trial. Only 16 of 80 "contestants" (teachers) chose to end the game before delivering the highest-voltage punishment.[45][46]

The experiment was performed on Dateline NBC on an episode airing April 25, 2010.

The Discovery Channel aired the "How Evil are You?" segment of Curiosity on October 30, 2011. The episode was hosted by Eli Roth, who produced results similar to the original Milgram experiment, though the highest-voltage punishment used was 165 volts, rather than 450 volts. Roth added a segment in which a second person (an actor) in the room would defy the authority ordering the shocks, finding more often than not, the subjects would stand up to the authority figure in this case.[47]

Other variations edit Charles Sheridan and Richard King (at the University of Missouri and the University of California, Berkeley, respectively) hypothesized that some of Milgram's subjects may have suspected that the victim was faking, so they repeated the experiment with a real victim: a "cute, fluffy puppy" who was given real, albeit apparently harmless, electric shocks. Their findings were similar to those of Milgram: seven out of 13 of the male subjects and all 13 of the female subjects obeyed throughout. Many subjects showed high levels of distress during the experiment, and some openly wept. In addition, Sheridan and King found that the duration for which the shock button was pressed decreased as the shocks got higher, meaning that for higher shock levels, subjects were more hesitant.[48][49]

Media depictions edit Obedience to Authority (ISBN 978-0061765216) is Milgram's own account of the experiment, written for a mass audience.Obedience is a black-and-white film of the experiment, shot by Milgram himself. It is distributed by Alexander Street Press.[50]:'Š81'Š The Tenth Level was a fictionalized 1975 CBS television drama about the experiment, featuring William Shatner and Ossie Davis.[51]:'Š198 'ŠHenri Verneuil's I as in Icarus (1979) has a lengthy 15-min scene replicating Milgram's experiment.Peter Gabriel's 1986 album So features the song "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" based on the experiment and its results.Batch '81 is a 1982 Filipino film that features a scene based on the Milgram experiment.[52]Atrocity is a 2005 film re-enactment of the Milgram Experiment.[53]The Heist, a 2006 TV special by Derren Brown, features a reenactment of the Milgram experiment.Fallout: New Vegas, a 2010 video game published by Bethesda Softworks plays verbal prods told by the experimenter inside a death chamber in Vault 11."Authority" is an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit inspired by the Milgram experiment.[54]Experimenter, a 2015 film about Milgram, by Michael Almereyda, was screened to favorable reactions at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.[55] See also edit Psychology portal Citations edit ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Milgram, Stanley (1963). "Behavioral Study of Obedience". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 67 (4): 371''8. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.599.92 . doi:10.1037/h0040525. PMID 14049516. S2CID 18309531. as PDF. Archived April 4, 2015, at the Wayback Machine ^ a b Blass, Thomas (1999). "The Milgram paradigm after 35 years: Some things we now know about obedience to authority". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 29 (5): 955''978. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1999.tb00134.x. as PDF Archived March 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine ^ Milgram, Stanley (1974). Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View . Harpercollins. ISBN 978-0-06-131983-9. ^ Thomas Blass, The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram (Basic Books, 2009) p. 75 ^ Zimbardo, Philip. "When Good People Do Evil". Yale Alumni Magazine. Yale Alumni Publications, Inc . Retrieved April 24, 2015 . ^ Stanley Milgram, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (New York: Harper & Row, 1974) p. 123 ^ Blass, Thomas (1991). "Understanding behavior in the Milgram obedience experiment: The role of personality, situations, and their interactions" (PDF) . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 60 (3): 398''413. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.3.398. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 7, 2016. ^ Rutger, Bregman (2020). Humankind. Bloomsbury. pp. 161''180. ISBN 978-1-4088-9894-9. ^ Romm, Cari (January 28, 2015). "Rethinking One of Psychology's Most Infamous Experiments". theatlantic.com. The Atlantic . Retrieved October 14, 2019 . In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram's electric-shock studies showed that people will obey even the most abhorrent of orders. But recently, researchers have begun to question his conclusions'--and offer some of their own. ^ Milgram, Stanley (1965). "Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority". Human Relations. 18 (1): 57''76. doi:10.1177/001872676501800105. S2CID 37505499. ^ Abelson, Robert P.; Frey, Kurt P.; Gregg, Aiden P. (April 4, 2014). [h ofttps://books.google.com/books?id=zFl4AgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 "Chapter 4. Demonstration of Obedience to Authority"]. Experiments With People: Revelations From Social Psychology. Psychology Press. ISBN 9781135680145. ^ Milgram, Stanley (1974). "The Perils of Obedience". Harper's Magazine. Archived from the original on December 16, 2010. Abridged and adapted from Obedience to Authority. ^ Milgram 1974 ^ Blass, Thomas (March''April 2002). "The Man Who Shocked the World". Psychology Today. 35 (2). ^ Discovering Psychology with Philip Zimbardo Ph.D. Updated Edition, "Power of the Situation," http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6059627757980071729, reference starts at 10min 59 seconds into video. ^ Milgram films. Archived September 5, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Accessed October 4, 2006. ^ Perry, Gina (2013). "Deception and Illusion in Milgram's Accounts of the Obedience Experiments". Theoretical & Applied Ethics, University of Nebraska Press. 2 (2): 79''92 . Retrieved October 25, 2016 . ^ Milgram 1974, p. 195 ^ Raiten-D'Antonio, Toni (September 1, 2010). Ugly as Sin: The Truth about How We Look and Finding Freedom from Self-Hatred. HCI. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-7573-1465-0. ^ Milgram 1974, p. 200 ^ "Today in the History of Psychology [licensed for non-commercial use only] / June 10". ^ a b James Waller (February 22, 2007). What Can the Milgram Studies Teach Us... (Google Books) . pp. 111''113. ISBN 978-0199774852 . Retrieved June 9, 2013 . ^ Blass, Thomas (2013). "The Roots of Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiments and Their Relevance to the Holocaust" (PDF) . Analyse und Kritik.net. p. 51. Archived from the original (PDF file, direct download 733 KB) on October 29, 2013 . Retrieved July 20, 2013 . ^ Dimow, Joseph (January 2004). "Resisting Authority: A Personal Account of the Milgram Obedience Experiments". Jewish Currents. Archived from the original on February 2, 2004. ^ Perry, Gina (April 26, 2012). Behind the Shock Machine: the untold story of the notorious Milgram psychology experiments. The New Press. ISBN 978-1921844553. ^ Perry, Gina (2013). "Deception and Illusion in Milgram's Accounts of the Obedience Experiments". Theoretical & Applied Ethics. 2 (2): 79''92. ISSN 2156-7174 . Retrieved August 29, 2019 . ^ Perry, Gina (August 28, 2013). "Taking A Closer Look At Milgram's Shocking Obedience Study". All Things Considered (Interview). Interviewed by NPR Staff. NPR. ^ Russell, Nestar; Picard, John (2013). "Gina Perry. Behind the Shock Machine: The Untold Story of the Notorious Milgram Psychology Experiments". Book Reviews. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 49 (2): 221''223. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21599. ^ Milgram, S. (1974), Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View, London: Tavistock Publications. ^ a b Nissani, Moti (1990). "A Cognitive Reinterpretation of Stanley Milgram's Observations on Obedience to Authority". American Psychologist. 45 (12): 1384''1385. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.45.12.1384. Archived from the original on February 5, 2013. ^ Shiller, Robert (2005). Irrational Exuberance (2nd ed.). Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 158. ^ Slater M, Antley A, Davison A, et al. (2006). Rustichini A (ed.). "A virtual reprise of the Stanley Milgram obedience experiments". PLOS ONE. 1 (1): e39. Bibcode:2006PLoSO...1...39S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000039 . PMC 1762398 . PMID 17183667. } ^ Presenter: Michael Portillo. Producer: Diene Petterle. (May 12, 2009). "How Violent Are You?". Horizon. Series 45. Episode 18. BBC. BBC Two . Retrieved May 8, 2013 . ^ Haslam, S. Alexander; Reicher, Stephen D.; Birney, Megan E. (September 1, 2014). "Nothing by Mere Authority: Evidence that in an Experimental Analogue of the Milgram Paradigm Participants are Motivated not by Orders but by Appeals to Science". Journal of Social Issues. 70 (3): 473''488. doi:10.1111/josi.12072. hdl:10034/604991 . ISSN 1540-4560. ^ Haslam, S Alexander; Reicher, Stephen D; Birney, Megan E (October 1, 2016). "Questioning authority: new perspectives on Milgram's 'obedience' research and its implications for intergroup relations" (PDF) . Current Opinion in Psychology. 11: 6''9. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.03.007. hdl:10023/10645 . ^ Haslam, S. Alexander; Reicher, Stephen D. (October 13, 2017). "50 Years of "Obedience to Authority": From Blind Conformity to Engaged Followership". Annual Review of Law and Social Science. 13 (1): 59''78. doi:10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110316-113710. ^ Cheetham, Marcus; Pedroni, Andreas; Antley, Angus; Slater, Mel; J¤ncke, Lutz; Cheetham, Marcus; Pedroni, Andreas F.; Antley, Angus; Slater, Mel (January 1, 2009). "Virtual milgram: empathic concern or personal distress? Evidence from functional MRI and dispositional measures". Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 3: 29. doi:10.3389/neuro.09.029.2009 . PMC 2769551 . PMID 19876407. ^ Milgram, old answers. Accessed October 4, 2006. Archived April 30, 2009, at the Wayback Machine ^ Elliott, Tim (April 26, 2012). "Dark legacy left by shock tactics". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. ^ History Will Repeat Itself: Strategies of Re-enactment in Contemporary (Media) Art and Performance, ed. Inke Arns, Gabriele Horn, Frankfurt: Verlag, 2007 ^ "The Milgram Re-enactment" . Retrieved June 10, 2008 . ^ "The Milgram Experiment on YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021 . Retrieved December 21, 2008 . ^ Burger, Jerry M. (2008). "Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?" (PDF) . American Psychologist. 64 (1): 1''11. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.631.5598 . doi:10.1037/a0010932. hdl:10822/952419. PMID 19209958. S2CID 207550934. ^ "The Science of Evil". ABC News. January 3, 2007 . Retrieved January 4, 2007 . ^ "Fake TV Game Show 'Tortures' Man, Shocks France". NPR . Retrieved October 19, 2010 . ^ "Fake torture TV 'game show' reveals willingness to obey". March 17, 2010. Archived from the original on March 23, 2010 . Retrieved March 18, 2010 . ^ "Curiosity: How evil are you?". Archived from the original on February 1, 2014 . Retrieved April 17, 2014 . ^ "Sheridan & King (1972) '' Obedience to authority with an authentic victim, Proceedings of the 80th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association 7: 165''6" (PDF) . Archived from the original (PDF) on January 27, 2018 . Retrieved March 3, 2013 . ^ Blass 1999, p. 968 ^ Malin, Cameron H.; Gudaitis, Terry; Holt, Thomas; Kilger, Max (2017). Deception in the Digital Age. Elsevier. ISBN 9780124116399. ^ Riggio, Ronald E.; Chaleff, Ira; Lipman-Blumen, Jean, eds. (2008). The Art of Followership: How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations. J-B Warren Bennis Series. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470186411. ^ Gomez, Jerome (2017). Batch '81: The Making of a Mike de Leon Film. Singapore: Asian Film Archive. p. 42. ^ "Atrocity". Archived from the original on April 27, 2007 . Retrieved March 20, 2007 . ^ "Mayor of Television Blog". Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. ^ " 'Experimenter': Sundance Review". The Hollywood Reporter. January 28, 2015 . Retrieved January 30, 2015 . General and cited references edit Blass, Thomas (2004). The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-7382-0399-7. Levine, Robert V. (July''August 2004). "Milgram's Progress". American Scientist. Archived from the original on February 26, 2015. Book review of The Man Who Shocked the WorldMiller, Arthur G. (1986). The obedience experiments: A case study of controversy in social science. New York: Praeger. Ofgang, Erik (May 22, 2018). "Revisiting the Milgram Obedience Experiment conducted at Yale". New Haven Register . Retrieved 2019-07-04 . Parker, Ian (Autumn 2000). "Obedience". Granta (71). Archived from the original on December 7, 2008. Includes an interview with one of Milgram's volunteers, and discusses modern interest in, and scepticism about, the experiment.Tarnow, Eugen (October 2000). "Towards the Zero Accident Goal: Assisting the First Officer Monitor and Challenge Captain Errors". Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research. 10 (1). Wu, William (June 2003). "Compliance: The Milgram Experiment". Practical Psychology. Further reading edit Perry, Gina (2013). Behind the shock machine : the untold story of the notorious Milgram psychology experiments (Rev. ed.). New York [etc.]: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-59558-921-7. Saul McLeod (2017). "The Milgram Shock Experiment". Simply Psychology . Retrieved December 6, 2019 . "The Bad Show" (Audio Podcast with transcript) . Radiolab. WNYC. January 9, 2012. External links edit Milgram S. The Milgram Experiment (full documentary film on YouTube).Obedience at IMDbStanley Milgram Redux, TBIYTB '-- Description of a 2007 iteration of Milgram's experiment at Yale University, published in The Yale Hippolytic, January 22, 2007. (Internet Archive)A Powerpoint presentation describing Milgram's experimentSynthesis of book A faithful synthesis of Obedience to Authority '' Stanley MilgramObedience To Authority '-- A commentary extracted from 50 Psychology Classics (2007)A personal account of a participant in the Milgram obedience experimentsSummary and evaluation of the 1963 obedience experimentThe Science of Evil from ABC News PrimetimeThe Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil '-- Video lecture of Philip Zimbardo talking about the Milgram Experiment.Zimbardo, Philip (2007). "When Good People Do Evil". Yale Alumni Magazine. '-- Article on the 45th anniversary of the Milgram experiment.Riggenbach, Jeff (August 3, 2010). "The Milgram Experiment". Mises Daily. Milgram 1974, Chapter 1 and 15People 'still willing to torture''--BBC NewsBeyond the Shock Machine, a radio documentary with the people who took part in the experiment. Includes original audio recordings of the experiment

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TEL AVIV, Israel '-- Israel is preparing for the possibility that the Hamas terror organization in Gaza and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon may attack using rockets filled with various liquid fentanyl variants, designed to incapacitate and kill large numbers of people.

The Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's version of the Red Cross, sent an alert to staffers this week telling them that Israel's health authorities had warned the MDA to prepare for the possibility that terror organizations might cause a mass casualty event using opioids from the fentanyl class of compounds. The MDA asked staff members to familiarize themselves with the protocol for treating a mass casualty event triggered by fentanyl.

Though the MDA alert did not mention rockets specifically, a source told Breitbart News that a few rockets with chemical capabilities had been found in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said in a statement Sunday that some Hamas weapons recovered in the area of Beit Hanoun had been ''brought to Israel for further examination,'' without elaboration.

Fentanyl is well known for its dangers as a narcotic in the United States, and has occasionally poisoned bystanders through mere incidental contact. It has also been used as a chemical weapon before, according to a 2019 paper published by the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction at the National Defense University:

It is less well known that fentanyl and its analogues have been investigated as incapacitating agents by a number of countries.

'...

[The U.S. Department of Defense] saw promise in fentanyl and some of its analogues, or a combination of such compounds, for incapacitation, but did not solve the margin of safety issue prior to the program's termination. Margin of safety refers to the difference between a dosage that will incapacitate and one that will kill a person.

'...

Russia employed fentanyl analogues in a counterterrorism role in October 2002. Forty Chechen terrorists seized Moscow's Dubrovka Theater and more than 800 hostages, strung explosives around the theater, and threatened to destroy it and kill the hostages unless Russia agreed to end its military campaign in Chechnya. After several days of unsuccessful negotiations and the Chechens' threat that it would start killing hostages, Russian security forces pumped an aerosolized combination of two fentanyl analogues into the theater to incapacitate the inhabitants and permit the building to be stormed. The terrorists and approximately 130 of the hostages were killed. Most hostages died from exposure to a lethal dose of the fentanyl compounds (recall that margin of safety issue discussed earlier). (Original emphasis)

A fentanyl rocket could poison people in the area of impact or even after a denotation from above a target area, meaning that fentanyl variants could be dispersed even if such a rocket were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

However, it is unclear how exactly fentanyl would be dispersed to avoid vaporization. It may need to be in the form of an aerosol to survive impact or explosion. The Arms Control Association notes that chemical weapons typically require a mechanism that expels a chemical agent through an explosive charge. Other methods to disperse agents, however, do not require rockets.

The MDA told staff that syringes with antidotes to opioids would be distributed as they became available. However, a source told Breitbart News that there is a fear that the country would not have enough antidotes to deal with the scale of possible attacks.

Chemical weapons have been referred to once before in the ongoing conflict. Israel's ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, told Sky News last month that some Hamas terrorists who infiltrated the country on October 7 were found with USB drives containing instructions for making cyanide weapons.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: 'Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order'. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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Fri, 10 Nov 2023 23:27

The Israeli government is demanding answers from western media outlets including CNN, Reuters, The Associated Press and The New York Times following a media watchdog report that suggested freelance photographers they each hired may have been embedded with Hamas on October 7th.

The issue - highlighted by Honest Reporting - concerns four freelance photographers from Gaza whose works have been published by the media outlets.

Among them is Hassan Eslaiah, a photographer who has now been seen in an image with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

All four outlets deny having any prior knowledge of the Hamas attack and insist they have cut ties with the reporters. The New York Times today hit out at Honest Reporting for its 'vague insinuations', defending the photographer it had hired.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other cabinet ministers are demanding more information.

Hassan Eslaiah, an AP/CNN photographer, with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an undated photo

Eslaiah posted this video on October 7 showing the ransacking of an Israeli tank

'The National Public Diplomacy Directorate in the PMO views with utmost gravity that photojournalists working with international media joined in covering the brutal acts of murder perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7th in the communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

'These journalists were accomplices in crimes against humanity; their actions were contrary to professional ethics.

'Overnight the GPO issued an urgent letter to the bureau chiefs of the media organizations that employed these photographers and sought clarifications on the matter. The National Public Diplomacy Directorate demands that immediate action be taken,' a statement posted on Israel's Prime Minister's X account reads.

Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud and Hatem Ali have also been providing western media outlets with photos of the conflict since October 7. They have worked with CNN, The AP, Reuters and The New York Times, according to an expose by Honest Reporting.

There are grave concerns over what each of the photojournalists knew and when.

Israel's government has demanded an explanation from the media outlets, all of which have denied having prior knowledge of the attack.

In response to the criticism, a CNN spokesperson told DailyMail.com: 'We had no prior knowledge of the October 7th attacks.

'Hassan Eslaiah, who was a freelance journalist working for us and many other outlets, was not working for the network on October 7th.

'As of today, we have severed all ties with him.'

In a previous statement, the network said it had not found 'reason to doubt the journalistic accuracy' of his work.

The New York Times issued a full-throated denial of the allegations.

It had hired photographer Yousef Masoud, whose photographs portray the violence in Gaza.

'The accusation that anyone at The New York Times had advance knowledge of the Hamas attacks or accompanied Hamas terrorists during the attacks is untrue and outrageous. It is reckless to make such allegations, putting our journalists on the ground in Israel and Gaza at risk. The Times has extensively covered the Oct. 7 attacks and the war with fairness, impartiality, and an abiding understanding of the complexities of the conflict.

'Though Yousef was not working for The Times on the day of the attack, he has since done important work for us. There is no evidence for Honest Reporting's insinuations. Our review of his work shows that he was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded,' the newspaper said.

The Associated Press, in its statement, denied having any prior knowledge of the attack and insisted the first photos it received were taken after it began.

'The first pictures AP received from any freelancer show they were taken more than an hour after the attacks began.

'No AP staff were at the border at the time of the attacks, nor did any AP staffer cross the border at any time.

The image taken by Eslaiah was published by the Associated Press on the day that the Hamas attack began

Palestinians walk away from the kibbutz of Kfar Azza, Israel, near the fence with the Gaza strip on October 7 in a picture taken by Eslaiah

'We are no longer working with Hassan Eslaiah, who had been an occasional freelancer for AP and other international news organizations in Gaza.

'AP uses images taken by freelancers around the world. When we accept freelance photos, we take great steps to verify the authenticity of the images and that they show what is purported.

'The role of the AP is to gather information on breaking news events around the world, wherever they happen, even when those events are horrific and cause mass casualties.'

Two photos published by Reuters on October 7 were taken close to the Gaza border as the Hamas invasion began.

In this photo from October 7, taken by Ali Mahmud, Hamas militants are shown transporting the body of Shani Louk. Her body is not shown but is to the side of the men's feet

Shani Louk was among those kidnapped and killed by Hamas from the music festival on October 7

Honest Reporting notes that photographers Mohammed Fayq Abu Mostafa and Yasser Qudih 'happened to be at the border just in time for Hamas' infiltration.'

In response to the reporters, a Reuters spokesperson said that the agency acquired pictures on October 7 from photographers that it did not previously have a relationship with.

'The photographs published by Reuters were taken two hours after Hamas fired rockets across southern Israel and more than 45 minutes after Israel said gunmen had crossed the border. Reuters staff journalists were not on the ground at the locations referred to in the HonestReporting article,' the statement also reads.

'Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and The New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically,' the HonestReporting feature read.

In his video front of attack, Eslaiah appears to be wearing his own clothes and is not identifiable as a member of the media.

One of the other photojournalists named in the report is Yousef Masoud, who has been photographing Hamas fighters in Gaza for years. This photograph, taken in December 2022, shows militants posing with weapons

In 2021, it was widely reported that the Associated Press used the same office space as Hamas in Gaza.

Eslaiah was previously pictured in a loving embrace with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an undated photo.

Honest Reporting was founded by veteran Israeli journalist Gil Hoffman. Its motto is the 'audience deserves to know.'

'When international news agencies decide to pay for material that has been captured under such problematic circumstances, their standards may be questioned and their audience deserves to know about it,' one section of their report on Eslaiah reads.

'And if their people on the ground actively or passively collaborated with Hamas to get the shots, they should be called out to redefine the border between journalism and barbarism.'

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Fri, 10 Nov 2023 22:35

Days after a raid at Mr. Adams's chief fund-raiser's home, federal agents took the mayor's phones and iPad, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The F.B.I. seized electronic devices from Mayor Eric Adams in a dramatic escalation of a federal campaign contribution investigation. Credit... Stephanie Keith for The New York Times Nov. 10, 2023 Updated 5:14 p.m. ET

F.B.I. agents seized Mayor Eric Adams's electronic devices early this week in what appeared to be a dramatic escalation of a criminal inquiry into whether his 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government and others to funnel money into its coffers.

The agents approached the mayor after an event at New York University on Monday evening and asked his security detail to step away, a person with knowledge of the matter said. They climbed into his S.U.V. with him and, pursuant to a court-authorized warrant, took his devices, the person said.

The devices '-- at least two cellphones and an iPad '-- were returned to the mayor within a matter of days, according to that person and another person familiar with the situation. Law enforcement investigators with a search warrant can make copies of the data on devices after they seize them.

A lawyer for Mr. Adams and his campaign said in a statement that the mayor was cooperating with federal authorities, and had already ''proactively reported'' at least one instance of improper behavior.

''After learning of the federal investigation, it was discovered that an individual had recently acted improperly,'' said the lawyer, Boyd Johnson. ''In the spirit of transparency and cooperation, this behavior was immediately and proactively reported to investigators.''

Mr. Johnson said that Mr. Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing and had ''immediately complied with the F.B.I.'s request and provided them with electronic devices.'' Mr. Adams had attended an anniversary celebration for the ASD Nest Support Project, an initiative at New York University that works with public schools to enhance education for autistic learners.

The statement did not identify the individual, detail the conduct reported to authorities or make clear whether the reported misconduct was related to the seizure of the mayor's devices. It was also not immediately clear whether the agents referred to the fund-raising investigation when they took the mayor's devices.

Mr. Adams, in his own statement, said that ''as a former member of law enforcement, I expect all members of my staff to follow the law and fully cooperate with any sort of investigation '-- and I will continue to do exactly that.'' He added that he had ''nothing to hide.''

The surprise seizure of Mr. Adams's devices was an extraordinary development and appeared to be the first direct instance of the campaign contribution investigation touching the mayor. Mr. Adams, a retired police captain, said on Wednesday that he is so strident in urging his staff to ''follow the law'' that he can be almost ''annoying.'' He laughed at the notion that he had any potential criminal exposure.

Spokesmen for the F.B.I. and the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, whose prosecutors are also investigating the matter, declined to comment.

The federal investigation into Mr. Adams's campaign burst into public view on Nov. 2, when F.B.I. agents searched the home of the mayor's chief fund-raiser and seized two laptop computers, three iPhones and a manila folder labeled ''Eric Adams.''

The fund-raiser, a 25-year-old former intern named Brianna Suggs, has not spoken publicly since the raid.

Mr. Adams responded to news of the raid by abruptly returning from Washington, D.C., where he had only just arrived for a day of meetings with White House and congressional leaders regarding the migrant influx, an issue he has said threatens to ''destroy New York City.''

On Wednesday, he said his abrupt return was driven by his desire to be present for his team, and out of concern for Ms. Suggs, who he said had gone through a ''traumatic experience.''

''Although I am mayor, I have not stopped being a man and a human,'' he said.

But he also said he did not speak with Ms. Suggs on the day of the raid, to avoid any appearance of interfering in an ongoing investigation.

Image The seizure of Mr. Adams's devices took place days after the F.B.I. raided the Brooklyn home of his chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs. Credit... Stephanie Keith for The New York Times The warrant obtained by the F.B.I. to search Ms. Suggs's home sought evidence of a conspiracy to violate campaign finance law between members of Mr. Adams's campaign, the Turkish government or Turkish nationals, and a Brooklyn-based construction company, KSK Construction, whose owners are originally from Turkey. The warrant also sought records about donations from Bay Atlantic University, a Washington, D.C., college whose founder is Turkish and is affiliated with a school Mr. Adams visited when he went to Turkey as Brooklyn borough president in 2015.

The warrant, reviewed by The New York Times, indicated authorities were looking at whether the Turkish government or Turkish nationals funneled donations to Mr. Adams using a so-called straw donor scheme, in which the contributors listed were not the actual source of the money. The warrant also inquired about Mr. Adams's campaign's use of New York City's generous public matching program, in which New York City offers an eight-to-one match of the first $250 of a resident's donation.

The federal authorities also sought evidence of whether any Adams campaign member provided any benefit to Turkey or the construction company in exchange for campaign donations.

Image The Turkish Consulate in Manhattan on Thursday. Credit... Sara Hylton for The New York Times This is not the first time Mr. Adams or people in his orbit have attracted law enforcement scrutiny. In September, Eric Ulrich, Mr. Adams's former buildings commissioner and senior adviser, was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, on 16 felony charges, including counts of bribetaking and conspiracy.

In July, Mr. Bragg indicted six people, including a retired police inspector who once worked and socialized with Mr. Adams, on charges of conspiring to funnel illegal donations to the mayor's 2021 campaign.

Separately, the city's Department of Investigation was investigating the role of Timothy Pearson, one of the mayor's closest advisers, in a violent altercation at a migrant center in Manhattan.

Mr. Adams has also had skirmishes with the law before becoming mayor. Soon after he was elected Brooklyn borough president, he organized an event to raise money for a new nonprofit, One Brooklyn, which had not yet registered with the state. The invitation list was based on donor rolls for nonprofits run by his predecessor, records show.

A city Department of Investigation inquiry concluded Mr. Adams and his nonprofit appeared to have improperly solicited funding from groups that either had or would soon have matters pending before his office. Mr. Adams's office emphasized to investigators that the slip-ups had occurred early in his administration and promised to comply with the law going forward.

Earlier, while Mr. Adams was a New York state senator, the state inspector general found that he and other Senate Democrats had fraternized with lobbyists and accepted significant campaign contributions from people affiliated with contenders for a video lottery contract at Aqueduct Racetrack.

In response to a Times examination of his fund-raising record in 2021, Mr. Adams attributed the scrutiny in part to his race.

''Black candidates for office are often held to a higher, unfair standard '-- especially those from lower-income backgrounds such as myself,'' he said in a statement then. ''No campaign of mine has ever been charged with a serious fund-raising violation, and no contribution has ever affected my decision-making as a public official.'' He added: ''I did not go from being a person that enforced the law to become one that breaks the law.''

Mr. Adams is not the first city mayor whose fund-raising has attracted federal scrutiny. In 2017, federal prosecutors examined episodes in which Bill de Blasio, who was then the mayor, or his surrogates sought donations from people seeking favors from the city, and then made inquiries to city agencies on their behalf.

In deciding not to bring charges, the acting United States attorney, Joon H. Kim, cited ''the particular difficulty in proving criminal intent in corruption schemes where there is no evidence of personal profit.'' Mr. de Blasio received a warning letter about those activities from the city's Conflicts of Interest Board.

William K. Rashbaum is a senior writer on the Metro desk, where he covers political and municipal corruption, courts, terrorism and law enforcement. He was a part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. More about William K. Rashbaum

Dana Rubinstein is a reporter on the Metro desk covering New York City politics. Before joining The Times in 2020, she spent nine years at the publication now known as Politico New York. More about Dana Rubinstein

Michael Rothfeld is an investigative reporter on the Metro desk and co-author of the book ''The Fixers.'' He was part of a team at The Wall Street Journal that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for stories about hush money deals made on behalf of Donald Trump and a federal investigation of the president's personal lawyer. More about Michael Rothfeld

A version of this article appears in print on

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INQUIRY WIDENS AS F.B.I. SEIZES ADAMS'S PHONES

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Fri, 10 Nov 2023 15:54

WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N), one of the world's largest defense and space contractors, said on Wednesday it was investigating a cyber incident that impacted elements of its parts and distribution business and cooperating with a law enforcement probe into it.

Boeing acknowledged the incident days after the Lockbit cybercrime gang said on Friday it had stolen "a tremendous amount" of sensitive data from the U.S. planemaker that it would dump online if Boeing didn't pay ransom by Nov. 2.

The Lockbit threat was no longer on the gang's website as of Wednesday, and it didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Boeing declined to comment on whether Lockbit was behind the cyber incident it disclosed.

"This issue does not affect flight safety," a Boeing spokesperson said. "We are actively investigating the incident and coordinating with law enforcement and regulatory authorities. We are notifying our customers and suppliers."

Boeing's parts and distribution business, which falls under its Global Services division, provides material and logistics support to its customers, according to the company's 2022 annual report. Some webpages on the company's official website that had information on the Global Services division were down on Wednesday, with a message that cited technical issues.

"We expect the site to be back up soon," the pages said.

A Boeing logo is seen at the 54th International Paris Airshow at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France, June 18, 2023. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Lockbit was the most active global ransomware group last year based on the number of victims, and it has hit 1,700 U.S. organizations since 2020, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The hacking group typically deploys ransomware on a victim organization's system to lock it up, as well as stealing sensitive data for extortion.

It's unclear what data Lockbit may have stolen from the company. Brett Callow, a ransomware expert and threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said that while organizations may pay cybercriminal gangs when demanded ransom, that doesn't guarantee that data won't be leaked.

"Paying the ransom would simply elicit a pinky promise from LockBit that they will destroy whatever data they obtained," Callow said. "There would, however, be no way of knowing for sure that they actually had."

The loss of military-related information would be "extremely problematic", he added. Boeing did not comment on whether any defense-related data had been impacted in the cyber incident.

The CISA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Boeing statement.

Reporting by Valerie Insinna; Editing by Chris Reese, Lisa Shumaker, Jamie Freed and Lincoln Feast.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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95%

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 19:29

Suspicious letters sent to election offices

Authorities are investigating at least a dozen suspicious letters, in six states, at least one laced with fentanyl, sent to election offices.

Stories worth watching 16 videos

Suspicious letters sent to election offices

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 19:24

Suspicious letters, including some that field-tested positive for fentanyl, were sent to election workers in multiple states, U.S. officials say. CBS News chief national affairs and justice correspondent Jeff Pegues has more.

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 19:12

A teenage mom delivered a baby boy in fetal distress at 25 weeks gestation. Doctors tried to resuscitate the child '' with ventilation, cardiac compressions, chest tubes and other methods '' to no avail. The neonatologist later discovered that the mother had a previously undiagnosed case of syphilis.

The baby's death at a Wisconsin hospital illustrates some the dangers babies face in their first year of life. It's also the type of scenario doctors are examining as they try to understand a grim new trend. For the first time in two decades, the number of U.S. infants who died in their first year of life is on the rise, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics, or NCHS.

''We don't live in a vacuum,'' Dr. Dennis Costakos, director of neonatal and perinatal medicine at the Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin, told USA TODAY. ''The health of the baby is often directly related to the health of the mother.''

Experts consider infant mortality a key indicator of overall population health. The latest federal statistics reflect a jump in the death rate for just one year, 2022; however, they raise concerns because the U.S. has also failed in other key population metrics: maternal mortality rate has increased and the average life expectancy is declining.

Black Maternal Health Week:Experts call out factors making pregnancy far less safe for Black people in America

Increases 'add up to general trend'The NCHS report marks the first statistically significant increase in infant deaths since 2002. Before this report, the U.S. had seen a 22% decline in child deaths over 20 years, although the U.S. continually had higher infant death rates than other high-income countries.

The change in 2022 data represents a notable moment for public health officials: an increase to 5.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 5.44 in 2021.

''All of these increases, even the small increases, they all just add up to a general trend,'' report author Danielle Ely, an NCHS health statistician, told USA TODAY.

The report used figures from the National Vital Statistics System of birth and death records across 50 states and the District of Columbia for children's first year of life. The provisional figures will be finalized in a report expected next spring. However, its authors decided to release the data early to provide a warning to healthcare providers and officials of the growing trend.

The figures also correspond with the child poverty rate doubling in 2022. Another factor for providers to consider: expanded Medicaid coverage that was available during the COVID-19 pandemic has been cut.

Keeping women and children in good health has to be a conscientious, proactive undertaking said Georgia Machell, interim president and CEO of the National WIC Association, a nonprofit that represents nutrition service provider agencies that implement the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for the Women, Infants and Children program.

''There needs to be investment in the safeguards in order to support families to reduce infant mortality,'' Machell said.

Vaping and children:Tobacco use among high schoolers is going down, but increasing for middle schoolers, CDC says

Report details: what did researchers find?The increase in 2022 infant deaths spanned several demographic groups, with some demographic groups being spared.

The largest statistical uptick in infant deaths was among babies born to Native American and non-Hispanic white women between 2021 and 2022 '' for Indigenous infants, from 7.46 to 9.06 per 1,000 births, and for white infants, from 4.36 to 4.52. The infant death rate among children born to Black women climbed from 10.55 to 10.86. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders also saw a small rise in infant deaths (from 7.76 to 8.5), as did Hispanic people (4.79 to 4.88), though deaths of infants born to Asian American women declined, from 3.69 to 3.5.

Additionally, there were rises in the death rates of babies born preterm '' at less than 37 weeks gestation '' as well as the rates of infants who died less than 28 days after birth, and those who died 28 days or more into their first year. There were small increases in death rates of babies of mothers 24 and younger and babies born to women 30 to 39. And there was a significant jump in deaths of babies born to mothers 25 to 29.

Among the 10 leading causes of death for babies, maternal complications and bacterial sepsis saw increases in mortalities, the report said.

These states saw biggest rise in infant mortality ratesThe deaths were far higher in some regions of the country: Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Texas saw significant increases in infant mortality rates.

Several of these states moved to restrict abortion access since the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022, though experts warned it may be too soon to gauge any correlation between restricted access to reproductive healthcare and infant mortality.

''Any time we see it trending in the wrong direction, our alarm bells are going off,'' said Dr. Alison Gemmill, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health and a demographer, in a phone interview.

Gemmill has forthcoming research suggesting there was a rise in infant and neonatal mortality in Texas after lawmakers in 2021 enacted Senate Bill 8, a law banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy.

Among high-income countries, the U.S. spends far more on healthcare, yet it has the highest infant and maternal death rate, a recent study from the Commonwealth Fund found. In the U.S., maternal mortality rates have jumped in recent years, particularly among Black and Native women. Black women had death rates nearly three as high as non-Hispanic white women.

The latest national figures are alarming for Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of the City University of New York's Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, but he said it is far more alarming that the U.S. has been unable to significantly reduce its mortality rate below what it was in 2000, when 6.89 out of 1,000 births resulted in a baby dying in its first year. Since 2000, infant deaths in the U.S. only declined by one per 1,000 births.

The American infant mortality rate of 5.6 per 1,000 births is about three times as high as Norway's, which El-Mohandes said is notable.

''We need to know who we are comparing ourselves to,'' El-Mohandes said, ''and what infant mortality can look like.''

The U.S. has put spacecraft on Mars in the past two decades, El-Mohandes said. He hopes the country puts equal emphasis on reducing the number of babies who die before their first birthday.

Eduardo Cuevas covers health and breaking news for USA TODAY. He can be reached at EMCuevas1@usatoday.com.

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 14:56

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Sat, 11 Nov 2023 13:46

Media caption, France's President Macron urges Israel to stop killing Gaza's women and children

By Katya Adler & Toby Luckhurst

BBC News, Paris

Israel must stop killing babies and women in Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron has told the BBC.

In an exclusive interview at the ‰lys(C)e Palace, he said there was "no justification" for the bombing, saying a ceasefire would benefit Israel.

While recognising Israel's right to protect itself, "we do urge them to stop this bombing" in Gaza, he said.

But he also stressed that France "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas.

France - like Israel, the US, the UK, and other Western nations - considers Hamas a terrorist organisation.

When asked if he wanted other leaders - including in the US and the UK - to join his calls for a ceasefire, he replied: "I hope they will."

After a month of Israeli bombardment and nearly two weeks after Israel launched a major ground offensive into the territory, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday that 11,078 people had been killed, while 1.5 million had fled their homes.

Israel says it attacks military targets in line with international law and takes steps to reduce civilian casualties, like issuing warnings ahead of strikes and calling on people to evacuate.

Speaking the day after a humanitarian aid conference in Paris about the war in Gaza, Mr Macron said the "clear conclusion" of all governments and agencies present at that summit was "that there is no other solution than first a humanitarian pause, going to a ceasefire, which will allow [us] to protect... all civilians having nothing to do with terrorists".

"De facto - today, civilians are bombed - de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop."

He said it was not his role to judge whether international law had been broken.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded quickly to Mr Macron's comments, saying nations should condemn Hamas, not Israel.

"The crimes that Hamas [is] committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world," a statement from Mr Netanyahu's office read.

In a wide-ranging interview at the end of the first day of an annual Paris Peace Forum, President Macron also discussed:

Fears of violence spilling over from the Middle East into France, urging citizens of all faiths to be "united against antisemitism"Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying it was France's "duty" to help Ukraine - but suggesting there may come a time for "fair and good negotiations" with MoscowExtremism online, saying Facebook's parent company Meta and Google "just don't deliver" on moderationAnd the dangers of climate change, saying it was pushing people around the world toward "terrorism".Starting by discussing Gaza, Mr Macron said France "clearly condemns" Hamas's attacks on Israel on 7 October which sparked the war. Hamas gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 240 others hostage in its unprecedented cross-border assault it launched that day.

"We do share [Israel's] pain. And we do share their willingness to get rid of terrorism. We know what terrorism means in France." But he said there was "no justification" for the ongoing bombing of civilians in Gaza.

"It's extremely important for all of us because of our principles, because we are democracies. It's important for the mid-to-long run as well for the security of Israel itself, to recognise that all lives matter."

Image source, EPA

Image caption, The French president gave the interview after the first day of the Paris Peace Forum, an annual summit in the French capital

When asked, he refused to say that Israel had broken international law in Gaza. "I'm not a judge. I'm a head of state," he said, adding it would not be right to criticise Israel in this way - "a partner and a friend" - just a month after it was attacked.

But Mr Macron said he disagreed that the best way for Israel to "protect [itself] is having a large bombing of Gaza", saying it was creating "resentment and bad feelings" in the region that would prolong the conflict.

Israel has said it will start daily four-hour military pauses in parts of northern Gaza as it continues its offensive. Its defence minister however stressed the pauses would be "localised" and would "not detract from the war fighting".

Condemn antisemitism 'without ambiguity'

Ahead of a march against antisemitism on Sunday which a large section of France's political class will attend, President Macron called on all French citizens to condemn antisemitic acts "without ambiguity".

He said France had probably Europe's biggest Muslim community and a big Jewish community too, and with France and the rest of Europe seeing a big rise in antisemitism, all French citizens had to be united against antisemitism, and had to "share the pain or the compassion of Palestinians".

Image caption, Mr Macron gave the exclusive interview to the BBC at the ‰lys(C)e Palace

Mr Macron then moved on to other global issues, including Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He said if Russia were allowed to win its war, "you will have a new imperial power" in Europe, that could threaten other former Soviet states like Georgia and Kazakhstan, as well as the whole continent.

"Because, definitely, it's imperialism and colonialism that Russia is doing [in Ukraine]," he said.

The French president said it was the "duty" of his country and all countries to support Ukraine in its defence. But he also said the next month would be critical, as it struggles to retake lost land in counteroffensive operations.

He said it was "not yet" time for Ukraine to come to the table, and stressed the decision to negotiate was Kyiv's alone. But he added there may come a time to "have fair and good negotiations, and to come back to the table and find a solution with Russia".

Mr Macron also discussed online extremism - a key topic at the Paris Peace Forum. He singled out Facebook's parent company Meta and Google, saying the companies "simply don't deliver" on promises they made to moderate hate speech on their platforms.

He said many online platforms lacked sufficient moderators for French language content, calling it a "shame", and promising to "push them" on the issue - although he said TikTok had improved the number of moderators for its French language content.

And he said that climate change was causing terrorism in parts of the world, specifically mentioning the effects of global warming in lower water levels at Lake Chad in West Africa.

"As a consequence of climate change, a lot of families living as fishermen [suffered]... A lot of species just disappeared. And it created politics [that] pushed a lot of people to terrorism."

But when asked if he ever felt depressed by the sheer number of issues facing the world, Mr Macron said he saw it as "a chance and an honour to have responsibilities [as head of state]".

"We need international cooperation [to tackle global issues]... This is a unique chance."

More on Israel-Gaza war

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Archived Version

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 13:21

CNN '--

Israeli tanks have surrounded a Gaza hospital, its director told CNN, as the territory's largest healthcare facility came under a reported ''bombardment,'' heightening fears Friday that Israel's military campaign is further endangering Gazan patients and medical staff.

Mustafa al-Kahlout, who heads the Al Nasr hospital and Al Rantisi Pediatric hospital in northern Gaza, told CNN that they were surrounded and asked for the Red Cross to assist with an evacuation. ''We are completely surrounded, there are tanks outside the hospital, and we cannot leave,'' al-Kahlout said.

The hospital complex is close to Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and Al Shati camp, where ground fighting was reported by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas separately. ''We do not have electricity, no oxygen for the patients, we do not have medicine and water,'' al-Kahlout said. ''We do not know our fate.''

His call comes after strikes were reported near several other hospitals in northern Gaza, including al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the territory's largest medical facility.

Why an American nurse who got out of Gaza says she would go back

A World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson said Friday that al-Shifa was ''coming under bombardment,'' adding that 20 hospitals in the Gaza Strip were ''out of action.''

Asked about a potential Israeli airstrike on al-Shifa hospital on Friday, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in a briefing: ''I haven't got the detail on al-Shifa but we do know they are coming under bombardment.''

The Israeli military claimed late Friday that a misfired projectile launched from inside Gaza was responsible for the strike on the al-Shifa hospital.

''Earlier today, the IDF received reports of a hit on the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The Hamas-run media office in the Gaza Strip immediately claimed that this was a strike carried out by the IDF,'' IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said in a statement sent to CNN.

The IDF said that an examination of its operational systems had indicated that ''a misfired projectile launched by terrorist organizations inside the Gaza Strip hit the Shifa Hospital.''

Hecht went on to claim that the projectile had been aimed at ''IDF troops operating in the vicinity.''

Several social media videos showed people injured in what was described as al-Shifa's outpatient clinic.

It is unclear what struck the hospital, but the videos show injured people lying on the ground of the outdoor clinic. Witnesses in the videos are saying it was strikes on the area. CNN could not verify it was strikes.

In a Facebook statement, Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza said that due to the ''targeting (of) the vicinity of Al Awda Hospital'... and the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital'' by Israeli forces, 10 of its employees were injured, infrastructure was hit and nine vehicles were impacted.

This included ''two ambulances that were completely damaged,'' the hospital statement said.

In a statement Saturday, Doctors Without Borders said it had lost contact with its staff inside Al-Shifa Hospital. ''Over the last few hours, the attacks against Al-Shifa Hospital have dramatically intensified. Staff at the hospital reported a catastrophic situation inside,'' the humanitarian group said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The group said it was extremely concerned about the safety of staff and patients at the medical facility, some of whom were in critical condition and unable to move or evacuate.

''There is a patient who needs surgery. There is a patient who's already asleep in our department. We cannot evacuate ourselves and [leave] these people inside. As a doctor, I swear to help the people who need help,'' the group quoted Dr. Mohammed Obeid, a surgeon at the hospital, as saying.

At the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, meanwhile, an imminent shutdown could lead to the death of patients, including babies, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) warned in a statement early Saturday local time.

''Al-Quds Hospital is at risk of closure in the upcoming 3 hours due to the depletion of fuel supplies and the non-arrival of aid,'' the PRCS said. ''500 patients and injured will be deprived from medical care. Those who are at the ICU and babies in incubators will lose their lives.''

On Wednesday, the PRCS said it was scaling back most of its operations amid fuel shortages to ensure the provision of minimal services.

Human rights groups say Israel's mass bombardment of civilian areas, evacuation orders and blockade of the territory amount to war crimes.

The IDF has not commented on the incidents but has repeatedly called on civilians to move south of Wadi Gaza, a waterway bisecting the center of the Strip, as it intensifies its assault on Gaza City and the north of the territory.

The IDF has said Hamas is embedding itself in civilian infrastructure and that it will strike Hamas ''wherever necessary.'' Earlier this month, the IDF released aerial images that it claimed showed rocket launchers and an opening to a tunnel near a pair of Gaza hospitals. CNN cannot verify those claims. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health and Hamas-controlled government media have rejected claims that hospitals are being used as shields for attacks.

Israel began its offensive inside Gaza, following the October 7 Hamas attacks. While Israel had previously said 1,400 people were killed in the attacks, officials said Friday they now believe the total number of people killed to be around 1,200.

The death toll includes foreign workers and other foreign nationals, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat confirmed.

The current estimate of 1,200 is not a final number, Haiat emphasized, because some of the bodies are yet to be identified.

The Israeli military has since stepped up its campaign on northern Gaza in recent days, effectively cutting the territory in two, with its ground operations and fiercest aerial bombardment apparently concentrated in the north.

The offensive has so far killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, drawing from sources in the Hamas-controlled territory. Israeli strikes have killed at least 4,506 children and 3,027 women, according to the ministry, which said that over 27,000 other people have been injured. CNN cannot independently verify these numbers.

But the impact on healthcare facilities has raised concerns about the dire humanitarian situation for those remaining in northern Gaza. The majority of hospitals in Gaza '' 18 out of 35 '' have stopped functioning, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which draws its figures from the Hamas-controlled territory, said on Thursday.

In addition, 71% of all primary-care facilities have shut down due to damage or lack of fuel, the ministry said. Its statement said that the hospitals that remain open are limited in what they can provide and are shutting gradually downwards.

Meanwhile, Volker T¼rk, the top United Nations human rights official, on Friday raised doubts over Israel's unilateral establishment of ''safe zones'' in Gaza, saying that nowhere within the territory was safe for civilians.

Streams of Palestinians '' including women, children and the elderly '' are making their way south in a growing exodus along daily evacuation corridors announced by the Israeli military.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that ''far too many Palestinians have been killed, far too many have suffered these past weeks'' '' one of his most direct condemnations of the civilian toll that the Israeli offensive has taken in Gaza.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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Archived Version

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 13:04

Fauda '' the Hebrew and Arabic word for chaos '' is a hit Netflix drama series based around a group of undercover Israeli agents '' which has been hailed for featuring both Palestinians and Israelis as human beings caught up in conflict.

It has gained an audience far beyond that troubled part of the world, revealing some of the complexities often hidden to international viewers.

Matt Frei spoke to its Co-creator Avi Issacharoff in Tel Aviv.

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Archived Version

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 23:24

A new weight loss drug called Zepbound passed approval by the FDA this week. It should be available after Thanksgiving. It's touted as the best one yet.

In recent years, medicines used for diabetes were in short supply as people realized they could use them to lose weight.

The newly-approved drug takes aim at obesity.

''Patients using this medication saw weight loss. Depending on whether you had diabetes or not, anywhere from 16 to 22 percent,'' added Emergency Medicine Physician Dr. Owais Durrani. ''They applied for FDA approval, and we have Zepbound.''

A once-weekly injectable, it's part of a new class of medications that fool the brain into thinking you're full.

Zepbound suppresses the appetite by mimicking a hormone that signals the brain the stomach is full.

But unlike some diabetes drugs, including Ozempic, this drug also imitates a second hormone that improves how the body manages sugar and fat.

Side EffectsNausea Stomach pain Indigestion A six-week supply of the drug will cost over a thousand dollars.

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Fri, 10 Nov 2023 23:15

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