1668: Spillover

Ukraine is one of the leading countries of the world in a wide range of minerals. Although it covers only 0.4% of the Earth’s surface, contains about 5% of the world’s mineral resources. It ranks top-10 of the world for several raw materials (metallic and non-metallic) such as titanium, ball clays, Fe-Mn & Fe-Si-Mn alloys and gallium. Lithium, graphite or magnesium, among others, are also present in Ukraine. The abundance and diversity of minerals and metals is due to the complexity and variety of the Ukrainian geology.

**We recognize that many trans men and non-binary people may have mixed feelings about or feel distanced from words like “cervix.” You may prefer other words, such as “front hole.” We recognize the limitations of the words we’ve used while also acknowledging the need for simplicity. Another reason we use words like “cervix” is to normalize the reality that men can have these body parts too.**

Link

ITM!

Along the topic of bird flu and your recent clips of McCullough's discussion noting wild mallards spreading bird flu...

This APHIS tracker has been publishing avian influenza detections in wild birds since the start of 2022:

[https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/wild-birds](https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/wild-birds)

The majority of bird species (dozens) on this list are ​**highly** migratory. Some of these species harvested by hunters are Neotropical migrants that move between Canada and South America annually (for example: [https://science.ebird.org/en/status-and-trends/species/buwtea/abundance-map-weekly?week=4](https://science.ebird.org/en/status-and-trends/species/buwtea/abundance-map-weekly?week=4)). Marine mammal die-offs in South America resulted from avian flu ([https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2023/02/14/first-mass-mortality-of-marine-mammals-caused-by-highly-pathogenic-influenza-virus-h5n1-in-south-america/](https://www.unmc.edu/healthsecurity/transmission/2023/02/14/first-mass-mortality-of-marine-mammals-caused-by-highly-pathogenic-influenza-virus-h5n1-in-south-america/)).

Thank you for your courage!

--Your friendly Texan ornithologist

Adam,

While I respect Dr. McCullough and his work, I believe he is incorrect in his assessment in culling poultry flocks. His postulation that we need to let poultry get the disease and build immunity is undercut by his understanding of how poultry genetics work. All birds in a commercial setting is a multigenerational genetic selection process. Commercial birds do not reproduce, including both meat and egg laying birds. The final stage birds are "spent" so any genetic memory would not be passed along. There are only a handful of genetic breeding companies for commercial poultry, Aviagen, Cobb, Hybrid, Hendrix, and a few more smaller ones.

Rarely do disease outbreaks occur at genetic breeding facilities due to the high levels of biosecurity such as shower in and shower out. Would also like to point out that there is no gene editing from these companies, they just use tight selection processes for which the next generation of breeders will come from. This article from one of the genetic companies explains how the crossbreeding works, and why I believe that there isn't a way to pass along genetic information.

[https://layinghens.hendrix-genetics.com/en/articles/the-chicken-genetic-family-tree/](https://layinghens.hendrix-genetics.com/en/articles/the-chicken-genetic-family-tree/)

Will

While I respect Dr. McCullough and his work, I believe he

is incorrect in his assessment in culling poultry flocks. His

postulation that we need to let poultry get the disease and

build immunity is undercut by his understanding of how poultry

genetics work. All birds in a commercial setting is a

multigenerational genetic selection process. Commercial birds

do not reproduce, including both meat and egg laying birds.

The final stage birds are "spent" so any genetic memory would

not be passed along. There are only a handful of genetic

breeding companies for commercial poultry, Aviagen, Cobb,

Hybrid, Hendrix, and a few more smaller ones.

going to die anyway?

Rarely do disease outbreaks occur at genetic breeding

facilities due to the high levels of biosecurity such as

shower in and shower out. Would also like to point out that

there is no gene editing from these companies, they just use

tight selection processes for which the next generation of

breeders will come from. This article from one of the genetic

companies explains how the crossbreeding works, and why I

believe that there isn't a way to pass along genetic

information.

Link

Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating against employees and

applicants because of their honestly held bona-fide religious beliefs.

If those beliefs might interfere with the employer’s operations, the

employer must provide reasonable accommodations that would fix the

problem (if any such accommodations are available).

In this case,

a Christian woman had religious objections to taking the COVID-19

vaccine, so she never got the injections. She applied for a management

position at a home-healthcare company. Her interview went really well,

too—right up until they asked her about her vaccine status. That’s when

they closed up their notebooks and told her they couldn’t hire her.

The

district court in Michigan threw her case out, saying that she had no

claim as a matter of law. The Sixth Circuit reversed on appeal.

Although it didn’t comment on whether her case would ultimately have

merit, it ruled that she’d pleaded a plausible claim. We’ll see how she

ultimately fares, but for now, her case is headed back to the district

court to proceed like any other case.

A woman had sex with a guy in his car. He gave her HPV. She sued the

guy’s auto insurer (Geico) under his auto liability policy (yes, you

read that right).

The woman filed suit in Missouri, but the

district court dismissed her case, having held that Geico is an auto

insurer that owes no duty to people who contract STDs in an insured

automobile. She appealed to the Eighth Circuit. Oral argument happened

yesterday.

The issue is what hazards the policy covers. One

interpretation is that it covers damages arising only from the “use” of

the vehicle. If that interpretation is correct, then the question

having intimate relations in the insured vehicle—is “foreseeable.” One

of the judges on the panel said yes, absolutely. Other judges seemed

skeptical. We’ll see what the Eighth Circuit decides.

Two things

to note here. First, the woman previously won $5.2 million from the

guy who gave her the disease, but the Missouri Supreme Court vacated the

award for technical reasons. Second, note that the woman’s identity is

obscured—she’s referred to only as “M.O.”—but the dude she hooked up

with is identified publicly. As JCD would say, that’s bullcrap

An electric car capable of running for 1 million miles is within reach.

Link

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 17:01

By Michael Snyder

Every night, huge groups of young people are literally taking over streets in large cities all over America. In many cases, major intersections are completely blocked off for stunts and dangerous competitions involving vehicles. These events are called ''street takeovers'', and they are often accompanied by theft, violence and other acts of crime. You have probably heard of ''street takeovers'' happening in big metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Chicago, but at this point they are even happening in many rural areas. In fact, I just came across an article about how street takeovers have become a major problem in the state of Maine. As you will see below, the scale of these events is often so large that police will just sit back and do nothing to stop them. When they are outnumbered a hundred to one or a thousand to one, the police are often extremely hesitant to try to break things up.

Some of the biggest ''street takeovers'' in the nation occur in northern California, and this past weekend was certainly no exception'...

Acrid smoke is greeting San Franciscans on their way into work this morning after another terrifying night of sideshows took Oakland and the waterfront.

Police refused to intervene and not a single arrest was made among the thousands who risked their lives as cars tore round their city centers in what has become a routine occurrence.

The police know that these events are going to happen.

But they do nothing to prevent them.

And as they are taking place, the police just watch and make no arrests.

I suppose that is one way to get the crime rate to go down.

Of course lots of crimes are being committed at these events, and in many cases people are being seriously hurt'...

Onlookers were sent flying as cars plowed into them at one event in Oakland, and a torched Chevy provided a grisly centerpiece to the Embarcadero spectacle as tire smoke reduced visibility to near zero.

'We are on our own here,' tweeted one resident. 'Why do we pay taxes again?'

I think that is a very good question.

Why should residents pay taxes if the police are not going to protect them?

It is being reported that a Chevy Camaro was actually set on fire, and at one of the street takeovers a motorist ''was beaten and hauled out of his car'''...

A Chevy Camaro which broke down in front of the of Pier 1 building was set on fire as cheering spectators leapt on top.

Vehicles and spectators melted away as police eventually arrived with reinforcements but by 3am the action had moved to the intersection of Valencia and Cesar Chavez streets in the Mission District where passengers clung to the vehicles as their drivers struggled maintain control.

A motorist was beaten and hauled out of his car which was then stolen when he accidentally drove into an area taken over for a sideshow in Menlo Park in April.

Video showed him apologizing to a fellow spectator, who proceeds to pull a mask over his face and force him out of the car before driving off and pulling 'donuts'.

Meanwhile, chaos was also erupting on the streets of Los Angeles.

During one street takeover, a mob of approximately 50 young people decided to loot a nearby AutoZone store'...

The latest chaotic example of California's criminal and social justice reforms backfiring erupted in South Los Angeles early Monday morning, where a street takeover resulted in a mob of looters ransacking an AutoZone store.

Local media outlet KTLA reported that the Los Angeles Police Department received multiple calls of a street takeover at the intersection of Century Boulevard and Hoover Street around 0400 local time. Then, minutes later, a mob of 50 people looted a nearby AutoZone. Officials believe other stores in the area were hit as well.

''At least three businesses were hit within a four-mile radius and authorities were working to determine if the crimes were connected,'' Fox 11 said.

Video footage which has been shared on social media shows the mob ripping open a metal fence and ruthlessly looting the store.

Sadly, this sort of thing has become a regular feature of these street takeovers.

Of course the criminals in Los Angeles are going to steal stuff whether that is a street takeover going on or not.

At this point, theft has become so rampant in Los Angeles that even fire hydrants are being stolen on a daily basis'...

A California state water company has responded to an ever-growing rash of fire hydrant thefts in Los Angeles by installing locked shields to cover the bolts on hydrants to stop thieves.

Golden State Water Company owns and operates the fire hydrants and says thefts happen daily. South Los Angeles is one of the communities where thefts are high, with two of the most recent believed to have happened last Thursday, without neighbors even realizing it.

''It's mind-boggling that someone would just come into a neighborhood and just steal a fire hydrant,'' neighbor Krystail Cousins said. ''You're now putting a whole neighborhood in danger.''

Similar things are happening on the east coast as well.

In New York, panic buttons will soon be required in all retail stores because violence and crime have become so widespread'...

On Friday, the New York State Senate passed legislation that would make most big retail chains, including Walmart, to put panic buttons in their New York stores where employees can easily access them or provide staff with wearable, or mobile-phone-activated, panic buttons that summon emergency services.

The law, which is a reaction to rising threats to store clerks from thefts and violence, was already passed by the state's Assembly and now goes to Governor Kathy Hochul for signature.

Our politicians can't reverse what is happening to our society.

We are descending into chaos and they are powerless to stop it.

Needless to say, our national migration crisis is helping to fuel a lot of the crime that we are now experiencing.

Earlier this week, CNN published an article about an extremely violent gang from South America that is causing massive problems all over the country'...

An alleged multistate human trafficking ring forcing immigrant women into prostitution. The mysterious killing of a former police officer in South Florida. Attacks against police officers in New York. The arrest of a drug dealer in Chicago.

Local and federal officials say these apparently unrelated crimes have a common denominator: Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang that originated in a Venezuela prison and has slowly made its way south and north in recent years. They say it's now operating in the United States. The scale of its operations is unknown, but crimes attributed to alleged members of the gang have worried elected officials and some Republican members of Congress have asked the Biden administration ''to formally designate the vicious Tren de Aragua as a Transnational Criminal Organization.''

For several years, the criminal group has terrorized South American countries, including Venezuela, its country of origin, as well as Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru. Retired general 'scar Naranjo, a former vice president of Colombia and chief of the Colombian National Police, told CNN Tren de Aragua is ''the most disruptive criminal organization operating nowadays in Latin America, a true challenge for the region.''

But even though most Americans desperately want our wide open borders to be closed, the politicians in Washington won't do it.

No matter how bad things get, our politicians just continue to pursue extremely self-destructive policies that are literally destroying our communities.

All over America, our communities are being plagued by looting, violent crime, hordes of addicts, criminal gangs and wild throngs of restless youths.

Every night is a new nightmare in major cities across the nation, and if we stay on the path that we are on soon there will be very few areas in this country that are truly safe.

Michael's new book entitled ''Chaos'' is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder's extremely controversial new book entitled ''Chaos'' is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including ''End Times'', ''7 Year Apocalypse'', ''Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America'', ''The Beginning Of The End'', and ''Living A Life That Really Matters''. When you purchase any of Michael's books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: ''For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'' If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

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Archived Version

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:01

By Freya Barnes

Published: 20:31 EDT, 11 June 2024 | Updated: 06:30 EDT, 12 June 2024

The Pope has again used a homophobic term after apologising last month for saying gay men should not be admitted to church seminaries because 'there's already too much f*****ry' in closed-door meeting.

He used of the word 'frociaggine', a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as 'f*****ness', on May 20 during a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops.

According to Italian news agency ANSA, Pope Francis, 87, repeated the term on Tuesday as he met Roman priests, saying 'there is an air of f*****ness in the Vatican'.

He added that it was better that young men with a homosexual tendency not be allowed to enter the seminary - a college that trains students to become priests.

Asked about the latest report, the Vatican's press office made reference to a statement it had issued regarding Tuesday's meeting with the priests, in which the pope reiterated the need to welcome gay people into the Church and the need for caution regarding them becoming seminarians.

Pope Francis used of the word 'frociaggine', a vulgar Italian term roughly translating as 'f*****ness', on May 20 during a closed-door meeting with Italian bishops

Pope Francis attends a Mass in St Peter's Square for the first World Children's Day on May 26

After the first report of him using the word, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted unnamed bishops who were in the room as suggesting that the pope, as an Argentine, might not have realised that the Italian term he used was offensive.

The Pope had been credited with making substantial moves towards being more welcoming of the LGBT+ community during his 11-year papacy.

Some observers of the Vatican say his recent missteps undermine his authority and raise questions about his convictions and the reform path he has in mind for the Church.

In May, Italian news agency Adnkronos, citing sources, reported that the Pope said in his speech: 'Look, there is already an air of f*****ry around that is not good. There is today's culture of homosexuality with respect to those who have a homosexual orientation [who] are better off not being accepted [into the seminary].'

The remark was met with 'incredulous laughter', bishops told newspaper Corriere della Sera, but represents a huge step back for campaigners after prolonged efforts to reform the church's position on LGBTQ+ rights.

The Pope apologised the following week, with the Vatican releasing a statement that said: 'The Pope never intended to offend or express himself in homophobic terms, and he apologises to those who felt offended by the use of a term reported by others.'

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Archived Version

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:36

about lauren.

Agnostic. Bisexual. Fashionista. Hapless romantic.

Progressive pugilist swamp-slayer.

'‹

Southern by birth, Southern Californian by the grace of Gaia.

'‹

Lauren Windsor is the executive producer of The Undercurrent and Project Veritas Exposed, the executive director of American Family Voices, and a partner in Democracy Partners and

Mike Lux Media. In the 2020 cycle, she was the deputy communications director

for the Tom Steyer presidential campaign.

'‹

Lauren launched a blog in the years following the 2008 financial crisis,

from Southern California, Ground Zero of the mortgage meltdown.

She chronicled protests for Occupy Los Angeles;

launched a reporting web-show called The Undercurrent with The Young Turks;

and found her tribe under the mentorship of Robert Creamer, Joel Silberman, and Mike Lux.

Lauren's work has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Politico, and many other outlets, and she has appeared on The ReidOut with Joy Reid and The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC, Current Television, RT, Thom Hartmann TV and Radio, The Young Turks,

and the Background Briefing with Ian Masters.

'‹

"Lauren Windsor is an activist, sort of a guerrilla journalist,

who in recent months has been turning Republicans inside out."

Rachel Maddow

Journalist // October 2021

'‹

'‹

"[She's] good... Absolutely, I'm impressed."

Tim Phillips

Koch Brothers Operative & President, Americans for Prosperity

'‹

'‹

"[Lauren is] a relentless truth pirate."

John Cusack

Actor

'‹

'‹

"[Lauren has] balls of steel!!!"

Kathy Griffin

Comedian

'‹

'‹

"I congratulate [her] on [her] intensity. I admire [her]."

Foster Friess

Major GOP Donor

'‹

'‹

"The Wonder Woman of Democratic politics who stands up to Republican bullies,

has infiltrated the Koch brothers' inner sanctum, exposing the Koch whores,

all the while afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted."

Ian Masters

Host of public radio's "Background Briefing"

about.

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Archived Version

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:27

A fleet of Russian warships reached Cuban waters on Wednesday ahead of planned military exercises in the Caribbean in what some see as a projection of strength as tensions grow over Western support for Ukraine. (AP Video shot by Ariel Fernndez and Osvaldo Angulo)

A fleet of Russian warships reached Cuban waters on Wednesday ahead of planned military exercises in the Caribbean in what some see as a projection of strength as tensions grow over Western support for Ukraine. (AP Video shot by Ariel Fernndez and Osvaldo Angulo)

Published [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]

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Archived Version

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:25

CNN '--

The US and Ukraine are expected to sign a bilateral security pact on the sidelines of the G7 in Italy on Thursday, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN, in a deal that lays out a path for the US' long-term security relationship with Kyiv but that could also be undone by future US administrations.

The agreement follows months of negotiations between the US and Ukraine and is expected to commit the US for 10 years to continued training of Ukraine's armed forces, more cooperation in the production of weapons and military equipment, the continued provision of military assistance and greater intelligence sharing.

But the pledge is expected to be an ''executive agreement,'' the sources said, making it less formal than a treaty and not necessarily binding for any future presidents.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has not explicitly said whether he would continue support for Ukraine if he wins in November, saying only that he would negotiate a quick end to the Russia-Ukraine war without explaining how. He has also pushed European countries to contribute more to their own defense and said he'd ''encourage'' Russia ''to do whatever the hell they want'' if Europe didn't increase its defense funding.

The US-Ukraine agreement does not make a specific monetary pledge to support Ukraine's defense, two of the sources familiar with the agreement said. An annex in the agreement will lay out how the Biden administration plans to work with Congress on the implementation of the security commitments, one of the sources said, specifically the long-term funding that will be needed to support Ukraine's defense.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday that the US' commitment to Ukraine ''will continue to be right up front and clear'' at the G7, and that the US ''will take bold steps to show Mr. Putin that time is not on his side and that he cannot outlast us, as we support Ukraine fight for freedom.''

President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet during the summit, Kirby said, and the US will announce steps to unlock Russia's frozen assets for use in Ukraine's reconstruction after the war ends.

The pledge the US and Ukraine are expected to sign will be similar to the 14 other bilateral agreements Ukraine has already reached with other allies, including the UK, France and Germany. The US-Ukraine agreement will be the 15th such deal signed, one of the sources said, and 17 other countries have committed to negotiating similar bilateral security pacts with Ukraine.

As part of the deal, the US will promise to hold consultations with Ukraine immediately following a future attack by Russia to determine next steps, said the people familiar with the agreement's contours. The UK, France and Germany also included provisions calling for such talks within 24 hours of a Russian attack.

But the bilateral agreement with the US, like with Ukraine's other allies, will not include a mutual defense clause, which would commit them to defending Ukraine militarily in the event of another attack. While Zelensky has welcomed the bilateral commitments, he has said repeatedly that they are not a substitute for full NATO membership, which does have a mutual defense provision known as Article V.

The agreement comes as the US-Ukrainian relationship has begun to recover after faltering late last year and into this year amid a congressional fight over additional US funding for Ukraine '' something Biden personally apologized to Zelensky for during a meeting in Paris last week.

Biden also recently agreed to allow Ukraine to use US-provided weapons to strike into Russia directly, a major shift that Ukraine had been asking for months as Russia pummeled Kharkiv with missiles from just across the border.

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Archived Version

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 20:07

Temperatures in June 2024 are at half the level of 2023, the Met Office has said, although warmer weather is predicted towards the end of the month.

While London was experiencing 32C (89.6F) a year ago, temperatures were around 16C (60.8F) in the capital on Tuesday. Similarly Cambridge had temperatures of 30.3C (86.5F) on June 11 2023, and 15C (59F) on the same day in 2024.

Temperatures are around 2C (35.6F) below average for the time of year, with scattered showers this week that could turn into heavy rain by Thursday, while some areas could see ground frosts.

Is the weather bad for June?The Met Office said the cool temperatures were not unusual historically but they are a clear contrast to 2023's balmy weather.

''You only have to go back to 2020 to see a cool start to the month and the temperatures then were further below average than we're currently experiencing,'' said a spokesman. ''This is just normal variability of the UK weather.''

He added that ground frosts in June were much more common in the past, decreasing from 1.8 days for 1961-1990 to 1.3 days for 1991-2020, which could add to the sense that 2024's chill is unusual.

Latest UK weather forecastTemperatures are expected to rise closer to the average by the end of the week but rainy conditions could make it still feel chilly.

''The UK is currently under the influence of a cool pool of air from the north, with a northerly airflow helping to subdue temperatures somewhat for the time of year,'' said Stephen Dixon of the Met Office.

''From Thursday, a front of rain from the west will bring a period of wet weather for much of the country, with 20-30mm of rain likely in some western areas, with totals reduced somewhat further east.

''This front will be the start of a period of more unsettled weather, with low pressure continuing to have an influence on the forecast through the weekend and into the start of next week.

''This means an unsettled weekend of weather is likely for much of the UK, with a mixture of showers and some more persistent rain at times.''

But longer forecasts suggest that towards the end of June there may be warmer weather. The BBC said there could be a ''trend towards calmer and even summery conditions'' after the middle of the month in southern England and Wales.

Temperatures remaining a good few degrees below normal over the next few days ðŸ'‰thanks to a keen northerly wind which is drawing air from the Arctic 👇 pic.twitter.com/WmhuOnqd15

'-- Met Office (@metoffice) June 10, 2024The picture for Scotland was less sunny with ''a risk of somewhat wetter and windier conditions'', the BBC said.

Jonathan Webster, the curator of RHS Garden Rosemoor, which is preparing for its Festival of Roses, said the weather was actually prolonging some flowering periods.

''Because we've got the moisture the plants are growing away happily,'' he said. ''It's good for plants because it's been moist with a bit of heat.

''Now, it's not extreme cold, and some things will have an extended flowering period as we've still got moisture and the soil hasn't dried out.

''Heat can stress plants and flowers, so some things will last longer due to less stress of heat or drought. Heat makes flowers end sooner.''

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Archived Version

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 15:15

Oprah Winfrey was hospitalized with a stomach issue, best friend Gayle King revealed on Tuesday, who added that the host is on the mend.

"She had some kind of stomach thing where - stomach flu where stuff was coming out of both ends. I won't get too graphic," King said, according to the Daily Mail. "But needless to say, she ended up in the hospital, dehydrated, she had an IV, so it was a very serious thing."

When asked about Winfrey's current state, King added, "She will be okay." the revelation came during King's interview with author David Wroblewski, whose new book, "Familiaris," was selected for Oprah's book club.

After explaining Winfrey's absence, King added, "I hope she's not mad at me for sharing that detail."

This is a breaking story. Please refresh the page for updates.

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Archived Version

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 22:14

The financial world is bracing for a significant upheaval following Saudi Arabia's decision not to renew its 50-year petro-dollar deal with the United States, which expired on Sunday, 9 June, 2024.

The lapsed security agreement - signed by the United States and Saudi Arabia on 8 June 1974 - establishes two joint commissions, one on economic co-operation and the other on Saudi Arabia's military needs, and was said to have heralded an era of increasingly close co-operation between the two countries.

American officials at the time expressed optimism that the deal would motivate Saudi Arabia to ramp up its oil production. They also envisioned it as a blueprint for fostering economic collaboration between Washington and other Arab countries.

The crucial decision to not renew the contract enables Saudi Arabia to sell oil and other goods in multiple currencies, including the Chinese RMB, Euros, Yen, and Yuan, instead of exclusively in US dollars. Additionally, the potential use of digital currencies like Bitcoin may also be considered.

This latest development signifies a major shift away from the petrodollar system established in 1972, when the US decoupled its currency from gold, and is anticipated to hasten the global shift away from the US dollar.

Cross-border CBDC transactionsIn a more recent move, Saudi Arabia has announced its involvement in Project mBridge, a project which explores a multi-central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform shared among participating central banks and commercial banks. It is built on distributed ledger technology (DLT) to enable instant cross-border payments settlements, and foreign-exchange transactions.

The project has more than 26 observing members including the South African Reserve Bank, which was greenlighted as a member this month.

The better known observing members of mBridge are those of the Bank of Israel, Bank of Namibia, Bank of France, Central Bank of Bahrain, Central Bank of Egypt, Central Bank of Jordan, European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the World Bank.

In tandem, the project steering committee has created a bespoke governance and legal framework, including a rulebook, tailored to match the platform's unique decentralised nature.

Evolution of Project mBridgeProject mBridge is the result of extensive collaboration starting in 2021 between the BIS Innovation Hub, the Bank of Thailand, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

In 2022, a pilot with real-value transactions was conducted. Since then, the mBridge project team has been exploring whether the prototype platform could evolve to become a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) '' a stage now reached.

As it enters the MVP stage, Project mBridge is now inviting private-sector firms to propose new solutions and use cases that could help develop the platform and showcase all its potential.

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Archived Version

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:55

Trans, non-binary and gender-diverse people face significant barriers to accessing healthcare and are less likely than cisgender people to be screened for cancer. Barriers that can make participating in cancer screening challenging for people in the trans community include:

transphobia and discrimination limited healthcare provider knowledge about issues affecting trans people (such as gender dysphoria) a lack of trans-specific resources concerns about physical and emotional safetyBut getting screened for cancer is an important part of regular medical care for everyone because the earlier cancer is found, the better the outcome and treatment options will be.

Anyone with a cervix can get cervical cancer. Almost all cervical cancer cases are due to

HPV infection. HPV is spread through sexual contact including sexual intercourse, genital skin-to-skin contact and oral sex, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

If your medical records indicate that you are a man, you may not get reminders to get screened for cervical cancer. Talk to your healthcare provider about screening.

If you have a cervix and have ever had sexual contact with anyone, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, you should start having regular Pap tests by the time you're 25. You'll need a Pap test every 3 years or as recommended by your healthcare provider, whether or not you're taking testosterone. It's important to tell your healthcare provider if you are taking testosterone because this can cause changes to cervical tissue that can affect your test results.

Even if you are no longer sexually active, you should continue to have regular Pap tests. You should continue to be screened for cervical cancer until the age of 70. But if you are 70 and you have not had 3 negative Pap test results in the last 10 years, you should continue to be screened every 3 years until this is achieved.Your cervical cancer screening needs also depend on your medical history and if you have had any of the following types of surgery.

Total hysterectomy: If you've had your entire cervix removed as part of a total hysterectomy, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you still need a Pap test. If you have a personal history of cervical cancer or cervical dysplasia (a precancerous condition), you may still need to have regular screening.

Partial hysterectomy: If you have had a partial hysterectomy where your cervix was not removed, you should continue to have regular Pap tests.

Vaginectomy: If you have had a vaginectomy as part of gender-affirming surgery such as metoidioplasty (creation of a penis), you will not be able to have cervical cancer screening as your cervix will not be visible or accessible. A vaginectomy is a colpectomy (removal of the vagina) plus a colpocleisis (closure of the vagina). These procedures often occur after (or as part of) a full hysterectomy, during which your cervix would have been removed.

If you have never had sexual contact including sexual intercourse, genital skin-to-skin contact or oral sex, you do not need cervical cancer screening.

Your healthcare provider should help you understand the benefits and limitations of cancer screening. They should affirm your gender and perform any tests in a way that reduces your discomfort and any feelings of gender dysphoria you may have as much as possible. Bringing a trusted friend or loved one with you to your appointment may also help you feel more comfortable. And if you don't feel comfortable, you are allowed to leave and book another appointment with a different provider.

Find out more about cervical cancer screening and find a cervical screening program near you.

We recognize that many trans men and non-binary people may have mixed feelings about or feel distanced from words like ''cervix.'' You may prefer other words, such as ''front hole.'' We recognize the limitations of the words we've used while also acknowledging the need for simplicity. Another reason we use words like ''cervix'' is to normalize the reality that men can have these body parts too.

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Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:41

An electric car capable of running for 1 million miles is within reach.

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Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

In April, a group of people in a red Tesla driving through the Moroccan desert were glued to the odometer on the car's giant touch screen. ''Two million, Hans! Two million,'' exclaimed the front-seat passenger to the owner and driver, Hansj¶rg von Gemmingen-Hornberg. His 2014 Model S had become likely the first electric vehicle to drive 2 million kilometers, or more than 1.2 million miles. The car could have traveled from the Earth to the moon and back, twice, then circled the equator 11 times.

The journey wasn't entirely seamless. The car has had its share of repairs, including several battery and motor replacements. A handful of gas-powered cars have driven farther, most of all a 1966 Volvo that racked up some 3 million miles over five decades. But such fantastic mileages are becoming far easier to accomplish for ordinary commuters with electric cars. On a technological level, it's possible that we're not far from a time when nobody would flinch at an EV with as much mileage as von Gemmingen-Hornberg's'--that is, unless car companies themselves get in the way.

Unlike gas-powered engines'--which are made up of thousands of parts that shift against one other'--a typical EV has only a few dozen moving parts. That means less damage and maintenance, making it easier and cheaper to keep a car on the road well past the approximately 200,000-mile average lifespan of a gas-powered vehicle. And EVs are only getting better. ''There are certain technologies that are coming down the pipeline that will get us toward that million-mile EV,'' Scott Moura, a civil and environmental engineer at UC Berkeley, told me. That many miles would cover the average American driver for 74 years. The first EV you buy could be the last car you ever need to purchase.

Gas cars are already astonishingly durable. In theory, they can just keep getting repaired (that's how you get classic cars). But after they get to be about 12 to 15 years old, major problems such as a shot engine or a broken transmission are frequently not worth the cost of repair. Even without problems, a newer car is likely to have much better gas mileage than an older one, making a trade-in appealing. EVs are still so new that few of them are a decade old, meaning we have yet to figure out the exact limit of their life span. The ones that do exist give us some sense. Several older Teslas and Nissan Leafs have topped 300,000 miles'--as did the first three batteries in von Gemmingen-Hornberg's million-miler. His first Tesla, a Roadster purchased in 2009, has itself traveled more than 400,000 miles.

The biggest factor in EV longevity is the batteries. Just like those in a smartphone, they degrade over time. A battery might lose 1 or 2 percent of its maximum range each year, depending on how it is charged and used'--meaning that after 15 years, a car's range might have slipped from 300 miles to 210 miles per charge. Repairing a car's battery is difficult, if not impossible, and replacements are expensive, Ed Kim, the chief analyst at the consulting firm AutoPacific, told me. Many EV warranties today will cover replacements to a battery for either eight years or 100,000 miles of driving, and they are considered due for replacement once they've dipped below 70 percent of their initial capacity, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Batteries today are expected to take far longer to lose that much of their maximum charge'--potentially 300,000 miles, or about 15 to 20 years.

The life span should only improve. Batteries are ''one of the most active areas in EV development,'' Kim said. Prices are plummeting, which will make battery replacement more feasible. And as the range of new EV batteries keeps going up, longevity will also benefit. Some EV batteries, including the one in the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range, can already last for some 500,000 miles on the road, Moura said. One Chinese manufacturer recently announced a battery warranted for nearly 1 million miles. And even more durable battery designs, Moura said, are in the works. A researcher at Tesla has tested a battery that he claims could drive for 4 million miles, or roughly 100 years, under the right conditions.

Of course, how long a car can keep running is not necessarily the same as how long somebody wants to drive it. EVs are more high-tech than gas cars, and standard improvements'--longer range, faster charging, a better touch screen and infotainment system, improved autopilot features'--would compel people to buy new models, just as they do for any tech gadget today. But at some point, each successive model won't be all that much better than the last. ''Do I need a slightly better sensor so that the windshield wipers work better when it rains?'' as Loren McDonald, an EV consultant, put it to me. ''Maybe I don't.'' With continued battery improvements, more drivers may opt to stick with an older car rather than buy a new one. A decade-old EV that can go 400 miles on a single charge, instead of its initial 500 miles, will be more than sufficient for most drivers.

The longevity of EVs, and any appetite for new cars, might help address one of the primary complaints with these cars: that their sticker prices are too high for the typical American household. Used cars, which will continue to work well while requiring fewer repairs, will open up the EV revolution to much of the country. A used Tesla can already be purchased for roughly $20,000. ''We have to think about how we design these vehicles, not for the first owner, but for the third, the fourth, the fifth owner,'' Moura said.

Even if many people are content with driving the same EV for decades, car companies may try to stop them. Tesla, Ford, and other auto manufacturers will need people to buy new EVs, and may well create incentives for us to do so. In the EV age, car companies are acting more like tech companies and bringing more software to their cars than ever before. The entire auto industry could follow an adoption-and-replacement cycle a lot like that of the iPhone: It used to be common to buy a new iPhone every couple of years for a faster processor, better camera, and larger screen. Now the iPhone 15 isn't that different from the iPhone 11. But people do, of course, constantly buy new phones from Apple. The old ones are expensive or difficult to repair and, with every software update, seem to slow down just a bit more until the devices are no longer eligible for updates at all.

Whereas Apple commands a ton of brand loyalty and a dominant hold on smartphone sales, causing a car's battery or motor to degrade faster is a great strategy for losing customers. Carmakers' approach may not resemble planned obsolescence so much as ''planned improvements,'' McDonald said'--making older hardware incompatible with software updates or other new functions. Tesla's Autopilot, for instance, is only compatible with vehicles built after September 2014, and newer updates to the feature don't work with older cars that lack more advanced sensors and cameras. Car companies may be able to ensnare people in software-and-gadget ecosystems, just as Apple does. As Ford, GM, Tesla, and other automakers sell home-charging systems and other energy products, car owners might have to upgrade their vehicles to keep up. It's a sort of capture akin to how, even if you don't want to buy the new iPhone, you might pay for upgraded iCloud storage so you don't run out of memory, or buy an Apple Watch to easily check your iMessages.

The bigger concern is that the same battles over the ''right to repair'' an iPhone are also coming to cars. Even though EVs require fewer repairs, they aren't maintenance free. And right now, most EV repairs can be done only by manufacturers and their retailers. Any mechanic can fix pretty much any traditional car, but EVs require specialized parts and training that are hard to come by. Whether automakers will make the spare parts and technical knowledge needed to fix EVs available to independent repair shops is uncertain. Tesla has already faced multiple class-action antitrust lawsuits alleging that the company maintains an unlawful monopoly over maintenance and replacement parts. (A judge dismissed the suits in November, although the ruling did not weigh in on the monopoly question.) ''What I foresee is that [with] newer vehicles, the ability for an individual to repair it themselves is becoming less,'' Moura said.

Longevity is not just a bonus to EVs; it's central to their promise. Cars that spend more years on the road means less carbon from the manufacturing process, less mining for battery minerals, and less scrap metal. More used vehicles that cycle through more owners will mean the same. If car companies continue to act more like tech companies as their products become more like tech gadgets, an entire avenue of their green potential could be closed off.

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Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:35

This article originally appeared on Sonia Elijah Investigates and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Sonia Elijah

Researchers from The Netherlands point out COVID-19 vaccines may be to blame for 3 million excess deaths in 47 countries.A bombshell study was recently published in BMJ Public Health by a group of researchers (Mostert et al.) from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. The group's findings were shared in the mainstream media with The Telegraph daring to write: 'Covid vaccines may have helped fuel rise in excess deaths.'

Source: Excess mortality across countries in the Western World since the COVID-19 pandemic: 'Our World in Data' estimates of January 2020 to December 2022The researchers from The Netherlands analysed all-cause mortality reports abstracted from 47 countries using the 'Our World in Data' database. Only countries that had all-cause mortality reports available for all three consecutive years (2020''2022) were included. To calculate the baseline of expected deaths, a Karlinsky and Kobak's estimate model was used. This model uses historical death data in a country from 2015 until 2019 and accounts for seasonal variation and year-to-year trends in mortality.

The alarming results revealed:

The total number of excess deaths in 47 countries of the Western World was 3,098,456 from 1 January 2020 until 31 December 2022. In 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic onset and implementation of containment measures, records present 1,033,122 excess deaths. In 2021, the year in which both containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines were used to address virus spread and infection, the highest number of excess deaths was reported: 1,256,942 excess deaths. In 2022, when most containment measures were lifted and COVID-19 vaccines were continued, preliminary data present 808,392 excess deaths.

The authors went on to state:

During 2021, when not only containment measures but also COVID-19 vaccines were used to tackle virus spread and infection, the highest number of excess deaths was recorded: 1,256,942 excess deaths. Scientific consensus regarding the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions in reducing viral transmission is currently lacking.

During 2022, when most mitigation measures were negated and COVID-19 vaccines were sustained, preliminary available data count 808,392 excess deaths.

The researchers importantly pointed out:

Although Covid-19 vaccines were provided to guard civilians from suffering morbidity and mortality by the Covid-19 virus, suspected adverse events have been documented as well.

Both medical professionals and citizens have reported serious injuries and deaths following vaccination to various official databases in the Western World.

Their study is one of the few to examine excess deaths on a global level- a recent and disturbing phenomenon that has virtually been ignored by governments and the mainstream media.

I have covered the topic of excess deaths here, here and here.

Also, it is one of the few to dare point to the massive elephant in the room: the experimental COVID-19 ''vaccines'' that were heralded as ''safe and effective.'' The shots that allegedly ''saved over 20 million lives'' -that claim was based, of course, on mathematical modelling.

The authors spot lit studies documenting suspected adverse events following vaccination. For instance, the Fraiman et al. study which presented a secondary analysis of the placebo-controlled, phase III randomised clinical trials of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The results showed that the Pfizer trial had a 36% higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group. The Moderna trial had a 6% higher risk of serious adverse events among vaccine recipients.

They pointed to a study comparing adverse event reports to VAERS and EudraVigilance following mRNA COVID-19 vaccines versus influenza vaccines. A higher risk of serious adverse reactions was observed for COVID-19 vaccines in comparison to influenza vaccines. These reactions included cardiovascular diseases, coagulation, haemorrhages, gastrointestinal events and thromboses.

In addition, they referred to an important study which revealed that excess deaths were only seen in Germany ''from April 2021 onward.'' The German authors went on to state: These findings indicate that something must have happened in spring 2021 that led to a sudden and sustained increase in mortality.

Yes, what could have happened in the Sping of 2021?

Could it be the world's first and biggest rollout of experimental gene-based injections ever?

Mostert et al. saliently concluded:

Excess mortality has remained high in the Western World for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of COVID-19 containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines. This is unprecedented and raises serious concerns. During the pandemic, it was emphasised by politicians and the media on a daily basis that every COVID-19 death mattered and every life deserved protection through containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the same morale should apply. Every death needs to be acknowledged and accounted for, irrespective of its origin.

I couldn't agree more- every death does matter, including COVID-19 vaccine deaths that have been systematically suppressed and censored.

Copyright 2024 Sonia Elijah Investigates

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Archived Version

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:31

T here's turmoil in the EU as the far right advances. Macron risks all, trusting that people vote in protest for the remote EU parliament, but vote for real governments at home. After all, we sent Nigel Farage to fart rude taunts and abuse at MEPs for 20 years until Brexit, and he got nowhere much in the UK.

But Britain, with a resurgent Labour party set to sweep in, is on a reverse path. Our own hard-right wing, in the form of Farage's Reform party, may relegate the Conservatives to third place in votes, and the sideshow battles between the rump right will be a fascinating farrago. But the future is all with Labour and how it governs.

These demagogues are good at their art. A snap poll anointed Farage the ''winner'' in last week's TV debate on Britain's Got Talent criteria, his booming oratory shamelessly free of factchecking. Only one sulphurous issue propels him, the same immigration fears and factoids that power the far right across Europe.

That political elixir blends nationalism with disappointment and justified grievance, so easily blaming migrants for a lack of housing or NHS appointments, low wages, bad jobs. Those raw emotions have too often felt too visceral for conventional politicians to dare confront, leaving them mumbling awkwardly and promising the impossible. Borders do matter, determining nationhood and who shares in taxing and spending. Porous borders signal a state malfunction, as images of arrivals '' mainly men '' packed in perilous inflatables allow this small proportion of immigrants to be gleefully misrepresented as the bulk of big numbers here by invitation.

Farage thrives on shock '' not dog-whistles, but blasting full-foghorn racism at Rishi Sunak. ''He doesn't really care about our history '... This man is not patriotic. Doesn't believe in the country, its people, its history or frankly even its culture,'' he tells the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg. He and Boris Johnson, outstanding rogues of the era, are gifted performers licensed to say whatever pleases: theatricality, quick wit and a dose of sociopathy is all it takes (other EU populists share those traits). On the BBC, Farage gifts squillions in tax cuts, all to be paid for by sacking NHS diversity trainers. Taking the side of ordinary folk against the ''liberal elite'', he knows the magic of Orwell's ''ignorance is strength''.

But those who use immigration to lever themselves up have only one strong point. People have been tricked and lied to time and again. ''Stop the boats,'' Sunak emblazons on his lectern, exaggerating impossible promises made by every government. Farage's ''net zero'' immigration pledge is barely less preposterous. Governments must strive to control undocumented arrivals, but Canute would have warned about the futility of simply commanding ''stop''.

Instead of explaining the need for foreign workers, governments took the coward's way and promised what they can't and shouldn't deliver. Tony Blair said there'd be only 13,000 net migrants a year from newly admitted EU countries in 2004; in Labour's final term, net migration averaged 247,000 people per year, much of it from the EU. David Cameron knew promising only ''tens of thousands'' was impossible, as did Theresa May when copying him in her 2017 manifesto. The number rose to 333,000 in 2018. Of course, they all know they can't make such cuts without devastating economic damage. Sunak now pledges a visa ''cap''. His Rwanda ''plan'' is the supreme fiction, vastly expensive, wasting fruitless political energy on Suella Braverman's ''dream'' and ''obsession''. And it's not over yet: Labour suspects a secret Tory plan to get a flight off the ground before the election. If so, with five guards for every exile, astronomic costs, protests and last-minute court appeals, Sunak risks another fiasco.

Promising unicorns always ends badly. Dishonesty about immigration has bred the deepest distrust of politics. Delivering an honest explanation is easier now than ever before, as public opinion has swung markedly towards understanding migration. Most people can see the need: more than 150,000 vacancies for care workers leave 1.6 million frail people left in neglect. Cafes and restaurants close for lack of chefs. Britain's nuclear projects are short of the 138,000 workers they need by 2030. Who will fix the National Grid, water pipes and sewage outflows, let alone build Labour's 1.5m homes, with the number of construction workers in the UK falling by 14% since 2019? Few think it reasonable to count valuable foreign students in immigration numbers, as they go home. But leaving all this unargued too often lets Faragism win the day.

However, the public are already ahead, the majority turned realist: Brexit has proved to Britain how inextricably we are tied to trade and competition for skills. While Tories and Reform scrap over anti-immigration votes, Prof Rob Ford shows more than half of voters think immigration levels should stay the same or need to rise.

Labour this time looks less terrified of immigration, adamantly condemning the logistics of the Rwanda absurdity, staunchly opposed to international law-breaking and rejecting fantastical migration targets, beyond an undated intent for them to fall. (They will anyway, after the Hong Kong and Ukraine inflow.) Policy to get those more than 2.5 million sick people cured and into work, as well as investing in missing skills, apprenticeships and further education, should lead to more home recruitment. Raising pay and improving career paths start with a fair pay agreement for care workers. Curbing small boats, Labour will divert Rwanda money to beefing up a border force of inspectors and restoring EU crime-sharing data to catch the gangs: no magic ''stop'' promises, just keeping at it.

We shall see if a fissiparous European far right bound by anti-immigration sentiments can hold together. Back here, the sight of countries across the channel turning rightwards leaves distressed Spectator writers protesting that Britain's left turn is ''a wild anachronism''. But in Britain, it's they who are now the left-behind dying breed. I note their language changing to describing Europe as ''our continent'': do they yearn to return?

Guardian Newsroom: Election results special. Join Gaby Hinsliff, John Crace, Polly Tonybee, Jonathan Freedland and Zoe Williams on 5 July

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:31

French police launched tear gas at protests across the nation Activists were furious that the far-Right made massive gains in the EU elections The trend was seen across the continent as well By Perkin Amalaraj

Published: 20:54 EDT, 10 June 2024 | Updated: 21:13 EDT, 10 June 2024

French police across the country have launched tear gas at furious activists protesting the far-Right's massive gains in the European Union elections over the weekend.

Marine Le Pen's hardline National Rally party won a sweeping victory on Sunday night, taking home 32% of the vote during the election, the first time the continent has voted since 2019.

Macron's Renaissance party, meanwhile, took home a paltry 14.6% of the vote. In response, the French president dissolved France's parliament, the national assembly, and called a snap election.

Violent protests broke out across the country overnight, and carried on throughout the day.

One video, taken in Strasbourg, showed police tossing tear gas canisters with their bare hands down a wide boulevard.

Police move past burning trash during an 'antifascist rally' following the European election results, in Toulouse

President Emmanuel Macron said that he was confident French voters would make the 'right choice' in snap elections

Demonstrators shelter from tear gas fired by police during an 'antifascist rally' following the European election results, in Toulouse

Protestors stand in tear gas behind a burning barricade in Nantes, western France, on June 10, 2024

The French president dissolved France 's parliament, the national assembly, and called a snap election

Another, taken in the centre of Bordeaux, showed riot-gear equipped officers marching down a narrow street while firing tear gas at protesters.

In Paris, activists were seen thronging the city's Place de la R(C)publique, a site that hosts a 31ft tall statue of Marianne, the personification of the French Republic.

Many in Paris were seen holding signs in fervent protest against Le Pen and her 28-year-old protege and political 'wunderkind' Jordan Bardella.

One sign read: 'F*** Jordan Bardella.'

Another read: 'France is not Bardella.'

Thousands of people gathered on the Place de la Republique to protest against the electoral gains of the far right

A protestor wearing a mask stands front of French police as he demonstrates against the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) political party

Activists and demonstrators run from tear gas fired by police during an 'antifascist rally' in Toulouse

Thousands of people took to the streets following the surprise results, announced on Sunday night

A protestor stands next a rubbish bin burning during a demonstration against the French far-right party Rassemblement National

One sign at a protest in Paris on Monday read: 'France is not Bardella' - a reference to Le Pen and her 28-year-old protege and political 'wunderkind' Jordan Bardella

Many voters have been hit by the cost of living, have concerns about migration and the cost of the green transition and are disturbed by geopolitical tensions

Police chase a protester during an 'antifascist rally' following the European election results

With Bardella standing to her left, Le Pen last night appeared on stage to tell her supporters: 'We are ready to take power if the French show trust in us.'

Her statement came on a night where much of the rest of the bloc saw an equally dramatic swing to the Right, with major upsets being witnessed in Belgium, Germany and Austria.

Despite this, European Commission chief Ursula von Der Leyen boldly proclaimed 'the centre is holding', but warned 'the world around us is in turmoil.'

The EU election, which has been held across the continent over the last three days, is the first since Brexit, the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On top of these, many voters have been hit by the cost of living, have concerns about migration and the cost of the green transition and are disturbed by geopolitical tensions, including war in Ukraine, and hard and far-right parties have seized on this and offered the electorate an alternative.

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Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:26

Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians, so the saying goes.

This may be why a businessman in the south of England is proposing a novel solution: putting himself forward as a candidate in the UK general election as the first ''AI MP''.

AI Steve is a nominee on the list of candidates for the 4 July general election in Brighton Pavilion, last held by the Green party's Caroline Lucas, who is stepping down.

The man behind AI Steve is Steve Endacott, a self-described entrepreneur who lives in Rochdale, but ''maintains a house in Brighton''.

Endacott, who is the chair of an artificial intelligence company called Neural Voice but ''made his fortune'' in the travel sector, claims he will attend parliament to vote on policies as guided by AI Steve's feedback from his constituents.

He claims the AI representative would answer constituents' concerns and questions using a rendition of Endacott's voice and an avatar.

''AI Steve was created to ensure that the people of Brighton and Hove had 24/7 access to leave opinions and create policies,'' he wrote on his website.

Endacott, 59, describes himself as a ''capitalist with a socialist conscience''.

''Steve comes from a working-class background, with a mother who worked in Tesco and a father who unloaded ships in Sheppey docks.

''He understands the value of money and greatly appreciates that the success of his business exploits has left him relatively wealthy and able to enter politics without needing the financial rewards some others seek.''

On the environment, he says: ''Steve is deeply concerned about global warming but hesitates to join the Green party as he is focused on implementing practical and affordable green policies.''

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Endacott's party '' Smarter UK '' was not registered in time for the election so AI Steve will stand as an independent.

Endacott unsuccessfully stood for the Conservatives in a local election in Rochdale in 2022 in the ward of Milnrow & Newhey. He received 487 votes.

Other candidates in Brighton Pavilion include Sin Berry for the Greens, Tom Gray for Labour, Ashley Ridley for the Liberal Democrats and Sarah Webster for the Conservatives.

Endacott has been approached for comment.

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Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:13

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Tue, 11 Jun 2024 20:51

CULVER CITY, Calif., February 24, 2021 '-- ImmunityBio, Inc., a privately-held immunotherapy company, today announced the appointment of John Brennan, former Central Intelligence Agency Director, and Wesley Clark, retired U.S. Army General, to the company's board of directors, effective immediately.

With the appointment of Messrs. Brennan and Clark, the company's board expands to four directors, including Christobel Selecky, who was appointed to the board in August 2020, and Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, Chairman and CEO of ImmunityBio. All four directors are expected to serve on the combined board of ImmunityBio and NantKwest (Nasdaq: NK) upon completion of the pending merger.

''As we expand our activities in today's dynamic global environment, and make progress toward closing the NantKwest merger, assembling an outstanding Board to help oversee the continued execution of our strategy has been a top priority,'' said Dr. Soon-Shiong. ''We are excited to welcome John and Wesley to the ImmunityBio Board and look forward to benefiting from their significant international and government experience.''

''I am excited to join ImmunityBio at this important time for the company,'' said Mr. Brennan. ''ImmunityBio is doing pioneering work across oncology and infectious disease, and is poised to accelerate its progress when it joins together with NantKwest.''

Mr. Clark stated, ''ImmunityBio is a unique company with a promising pipeline and multiple opportunities to deliver breakthrough advances. I am honored to begin working with Patrick and the rest of the Board and management team, leveraging my global expertise as the company enters its next phase.''

About John Brennan

Mr. Brennan served for 25 years in a variety of roles at the CIA, rising from analyst to station chief, and finally being appointed as the agency's Director by President Barack Obama. He also served as Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Brennan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University, and is a Distinguished Fellow at the Fordham University Law School. He earned a Master of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, where he currently serves as a Distinguished Non-Resident Scholar and a senior advisor to the University's Intelligence Studies Projects.

About Wesley Clark

General Clark served for 34 years in the U.S. Army, rising through the ranks to earn his fourth star as a full general in 1996. He served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO where he commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War. Highly decorated throughout his career, Gen. Clark was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was class valedictorian. After graduating from West Point, General Clark was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he earned degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He earned a master's degree in military science from the Command and General Staff College. General runs Wesley K. Clark and Associates consulting firm and is Chairman and CEO of Enverra, a boutique investment bank.

About Christobel Selecky

Ms. Selecky is a chief executive, entrepreneur and board member with more than 30 years of healthcare industry experience. Ms. Selecky held several leadership positions over her 14-year career at FHP International Corporation, including as President of the FHP California Health Plan. She subsequently co-founded, and served as President, CEO, and Executive Chairman of LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, a national leader in the field of disease and population health management. Ms. Selecky serves on corporate and not-for-profit boards of directors and, as a consultant helping improve patient engagement, population health outcomes, and healthcare cost management. In addition to ImmunityBio, she currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Paris-based Teleperformance, Satellite Healthcare, and Griswold Home Care. She is active in several board governance organizations such as NACD and Women Corporate Directors and is also a lecturer in Healthcare Entrepreneurship in the MBA program at the University of California, Irvine.

NantKwest TransactionAs previously announced on December 21, 2020, ImmunityBio entered into an agreement to combine in a stock-for-stock transaction with NantKwest. The combination, which is expected to close in the first half of 2021, will create a leading immunotherapy and cell therapy company focused on oncology and infectious disease.

About ImmunityBio ImmunityBio, Inc. is a late-clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing next-generation therapies that drive immunogenic mechanisms for defeating cancers and infectious diseases. The company's immunotherapy platform activates both the innate (natural killer cell and macrophage) and adaptive (T-cell) immune systems to create long-term ''immunological memory.'' This novel approach is designed to eliminate the need for high-dose chemotherapy, improve upon the outcomes of current CAR T-cell therapies, and extend beyond checkpoint inhibitors.

ImmunityBio's platform is based on the foundation of three separate modalities: antibody cytokine fusion proteins, synthetic immunomodulators, and second-generation human adenovirus (hAd5) vaccine technologies.

Anktiva' (ImmunityBio's lead cytokine infusion protein) is a novel interleukin-15 (IL-15) superagonist complex and has received Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track Designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for BCG-unresponsive CIS non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). The company is also in Phase 2 or 3 trials for indications such as first- and second-line lung cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, metastatic pancreatic cancer, recurrent glioblastoma, and soft tissue sarcoma in combination with the company's synthetic immune modulator (Aldoxorubicin).

ImmunityBio is also developing therapies, including vaccines, for the prevention and treatment of HIV, influenza, and the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 with its second-generation human adenovirus (hAd5) vaccine technologies.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis communication contains forward-looking statements relating to the proposed transaction involving NantKwest, Inc. (''NantKwest'') and ImmunityBio, Inc. (''ImmunityBio''), including financial estimates and statements as to the expected timing, completion and effects of the proposed transaction and statements relating to NantKwest and ImmunityBio's future success in improving the treatment of various diseases and illnesses, including, but not limited to COVID-19 and cancer. Statements in this communication that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the ''Securities Act''), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the ''Exchange Act''), which are usually identified by the use of words such as ''anticipates,'' ''believes,'' ''continues'', ''could'', ''estimates,'' ''expects,'' ''intends,'' ''may,'' ''plans,'' ''potential'', ''predicts'', ''projects,'' ''seeks,'' ''should,'' ''will,'' and variations of such words or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are neither forecasts, promises nor guarantees, and are based on the current beliefs of NantKwest's management and ImmunityBio's management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to NantKwest and ImmunityBio. Such statements reflect the current views of NantKwest and ImmunityBio with respect to future events and are subject to known and unknown risks, including business, regulatory, economic and competitive risks, uncertainties, contingencies and assumptions about NantKwest and ImmunityBio, including, without limitation, (i) inability to complete the proposed transaction because, among other reasons, conditions to the closing of the proposed transaction may not be satisfied or waived, (ii) uncertainty as to the timing of completion of the proposed transaction, (iii) potential adverse effects or changes to relationships with employees, suppliers or other parties resulting from the announcement or completion of the proposed transaction, (iv) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the parties and others related to the potential transaction between NantKwest and ImmunityBio, (v) possible disruptions from the proposed transaction that could harm NantKwest's or ImmunityBio's respective business, including current plans and operations, (vi) unexpected costs, charges or expenses resulting from the proposed transaction, (vii) uncertainty of the expected financial performance of the combined company following completion of the proposed transaction, including the possibility that the expected synergies and value creation from the proposed transaction will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period, (viii) the ability of each of NantKwest or ImmunityBio to continue its planned preclinical and clinical development of its respective development programs, and the timing and success of any such continued preclinical and clinical development and planned regulatory submissions, (ix) inability to retain and hire key personnel, and (x) the unknown future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic delay on certain clinical trial milestones and/or NantKwest's or ImmunityBio's operations or operating expenses. More details about these and other risks that may impact NantKwest's business are described under the heading ''Risk Factors'' in NantKwest's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (''SEC'') and in subsequent filings made by NantKwest with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. NantKwest and ImmunityBio caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. NantKwest and ImmunityBio do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement or other information in this communication, except to the extent required by law. No representation is made as to the safety or effectiveness of these product candidates for the therapeutic use for which such product candidates are being studied.

Certain information contained in this communication relates to or is based on studies, publications, surveys and other data obtained from third-party sources and NantKwest's and ImmunityBio's own internal estimates and research. While NantKwest and ImmunityBio believe these third-party sources to be reliable as of the date of this communication, it has not independently verified, and makes no representation as to the adequacy, fairness, accuracy or completeness of, any information obtained from third-party sources. In addition, all of the market data included in this communication involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and there can be no guarantee as to the accuracy or reliability of such assumptions. Finally, while NantKwest and ImmunityBio each believes its own internal research is reliable, such research has not verified by any independent source.

No Offer or SolicitationThis communication is not intended to and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, sell or solicit any securities or any proxy, vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to or in connection with the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be deemed to be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act.

Additional Information and Where to Find ItIn connection with the proposed transaction, NantKwest filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4, which included a prospectus and joint proxy / solicitation statement of NantKwest and ImmunityBio (the ''solicitation statement/prospectus''). The registration statement was declared effective on February 1, 2021 and the solicitation statement/prospectus was first mailed to stockholders of NantKwest on or about February 5, 2021. NantKwest may also file other documents regarding the proposed transaction with the SEC. This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval. This communication is not intended to be, and is not, a substitute for such filings or for any other document that NantKwest may file with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION, INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO CAREFULLY READ THE ENTIRE REGISTRATION STATEMENT AND SOLICITATION STATEMENT / PROSPECTUS, AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THESE DOCUMENTS, CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN OR WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors and security holders are able to obtain free copies of the registration statement and solicitation statement/prospectus and other documents once they are filed with the SEC by NantKwest through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and security holders are able to obtain free copies of the prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC on NantKwest's website at www.ir.nantkwest.com.

Participants in the SolicitationNantKwest and certain of its respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from stockholders of NantKwest in connection with the proposed transaction under the rules of the SEC. Investors may obtain information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of directors and executive officers of NantKwest in NantKwest's proxy statement for its 2020 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 24, 2020, as well as its other filings with the SEC. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, are included in the registration statement, solicitation statement / prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC by NantKwest regarding the proposed transaction (if and when they become available). You may obtain free copies of these documents at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Copies of documents filed with the SEC will also be available free of charge from NantKwest using the sources indicated above.

Contacts

InvestorsSarah SingletonNantKwest, Inc.844-696-5235, Option 5

MediaAmy Jobe, Ph.D.LifeSci Communications315-879-8192ajobe@lifescicomms.com

Link to Article

Archived Version

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 20:44

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Tue, 11 Jun 2024 20:20

In the end, Apple's 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference proved to be a flop, with the stock sliding 1.9%, its worst WWDC performance since 2010 and the 4th worst in the iPhone era.

$AAPL finished down 1.9%. Worst performance since 2010. 4th worst performance in the iPhone era. https://t.co/IhzdKMYNU5

'-- Walter Piecyk (@WaltLightShed) June 10, 2024It wasn't supposed to be like this: Apple was supposed to make the grand introduction of (Open AI's ChatGPT) artificial intelligence features and pretend they are the company's, leading to the long-overdue surge in AAPL stock which has painfully underperformed most pure AI names. However, once the market realized that Apple can even in house its own AI module, that's when the wheels fell off (the "introduction" of a calculator for the iPad did not help Apple's trailblazing image).

But the slump in AAPL stock was just the start of its woes. Shortly after the close, in response to OpenAI founder Andrej Karpathy's observation that the laughably named "Apple Intelligence" as it will be called (and which Elon Musk said it is "neither Apple nor intelligent") will be a persistent layer on top of the entire Apple operating system, Elon Musk made the casual observation that Apple's approach means that "we can never turn it off", in other words it is an always on spying system feeding the OpenAI LLM (and who knows what and who else) with constant data.

So can we never turn it off?

'-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024That's when the fireworks started.

Realizing that his sworn enemy Sam Altman (whose "non-profit" ChatGPT only exists thanks to funding from Musk in the first place) is using his chatbot to supplant Amazon as the most ubiquitous spyware system in the world by having it installed across the entire Apple ecosystem, Musk first responded to an X user that he might have to launch his own phone "if Apple actually integrates woke nanny AI spyware into their OS"...

If Apple actually integrates woke nanny AI spyware into their OS, we might need to do that!

'-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024... before directly telling Tim Cook that "he doesn't want" the latest Apple product, and adding that "either stop this creepy spyware or all Apple devices will be banned from the premises of my companies."

Don't want it.Either stop this creepy spyware or all Apple devices will be banned from the premises of my companies.

'-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024And just to underscore that point, the Tesla CEO said that "If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation" and "visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage."

And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage

'-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024Musk saved the piece de resistance for last, slamming Apple as a dumb company which can't even come up with its own AI, and even dumber for promising it is "somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your privacy" even as it is "handing your data over to a third-party AI that they don't understand and can't themselves create is *not* protecting privacy at all!"

The punchline: "Apple has no clue what's actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They're selling you down the river."

It's patently absurd that Apple isn't smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy!Apple has no clue what's actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They're selling you down the river.

'-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024While we assume that much of Elon's outrage is genuine (mixed in with just a smidge of personal self-interest to have Grok handle the world's AI requests), this particular eruption by the world's richest man (or 2nd, or 3rd, or wherever he is now) is a good example of the coming AI wars where competing AI vendors will do everything in their power to have their LLM be the sofrware of choice for the entire world due to its ubiquitous data gather and analysis which will make China's "always on" spying nanny state seem like amateur hour by comparison.

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 21:27

Russia military exercises in Caribbean

Russia military exercises expected in the Caribbean 03:31 Four Russian warships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, will arrive in Havana next week , Cuban officials said Thursday, citing "historically friendly relations" between both nations, and as tensions escalate over Western military support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Cuba's foreign ministry said in a news release that the ships will be in Havana between June 12 and June 17, noting that none of them will carry any nuclear weapons and assuring their presence "does not represent a threat to the region."

The announcement came a day after U.S. officials said that Washington had been tracking Russian warships and aircraft that were expected to arrive in the Caribbean for a military exercise. They said the exercise would be part of a broader Russian response to the U.S. support for Ukraine.

Those exercises will likely include Russian long-range bombers flying along the U.S. East Coast, according to CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. Russian warships have made port calls in Cuba before, and warplanes have flown along the East Coast in the past as well, but this will be the first time in five years both will happen at the same time, Martin said.

The Russian Federation's Navy Admiral Gorshkov frigate arrives at Havana's port on June 24, 2019. ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP via Getty Images The U.S. officials said that the Russian military presence was notable but not concerning. However, it's taking place as Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that Moscow could take "asymmetrical steps" elsewhere in the world in response to President Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to strike inside Russia to protect Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city.

Martin noted the presence of four warships in Cuba "pales in comparison to the size of the exercises the U.S. military has been conducting with its NATO allies in Europe. So, this is not considered in any way a direct threat to the United States."

Still, the U.S. military will be tracking the exercises "very closely," Martin added. While the U.S. presence in the Caribbean is currently very light, the presence of military bases all along the East and Gulf Coasts means the U.S. could send ships and aircraft to the area quickly if necessary, Martin said.

Cuba's Foreign Ministry said that the four Russian ships are the frigate "Gorshkov," the nuclear-powered submarine "Kazan," the fleet oil tanker "Pashin" and the salvage tug "Nikolai Chiker."

During the fleet's arrival at the port of Havana, 21 salvos will be fired from one of the ships as a salute to the nation, which will be reciprocated by an artillery battery of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces, the foreign ministry said.

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In: Caribbean Cuba Joe Biden Politics Russia Vladimir Putin

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:46

From the MANHATTAN CONTRARIAN

Francis Menton

I'm old enough to remember a time when there were serious environmental concerns with internal combustion engine vehicles. NOx and SOx emissions caused a thick layer of brown smog in the atmosphere during calm weather spells in summer and winter; and a layer of black soot would cover the snow along the roadside in the winter. But gradually that all got cleaned up. Today the bona fide serious environmental concerns about internal combustion engines are far in the past. But the war to eliminate them '-- supposedly on environmental grounds '-- is just ramping up.

The Biden Administration is all in with the plan to get rid of the ICE car. Why? It seems to have something to do with the non-existent ''climate crisis.'' Meanwhile, Congress has passed no legislation authorizing the executive agencies to force ICE vehicles off the market. Nor is the Administration honest enough to admit that they are engaged in outlawing the vehicles that 90+% of the people drive.

Instead we get massive and thoroughly dishonest regulations effectively forcing the approaching end of the ICE vehicle without ever directly saying so. All with effective dates far enough into the future that the public will not notice that anything is happening in time for the upcoming election.

Two big new regulations on this subject have just gone final. First, there was EPA's ''Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light- Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles,'' issued on April 18. And then yesterday from the NHTSA (part of the Department of Transportation) we get ''Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks for Model Years 2027 and Beyond and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Heavy-Duty Pickup Trucks and Vans for Model Years 2030 and Beyond.'' The first is 373 pages in the three-column, single-spaced format of the Federal Register. The second is 1004 pages in standard double-spaced typing.

If you should take the time to read some or all of the 1377 pages of text, don't expect to find anywhere in all of that an admission that the plan is to suppress and ultimately eliminate the internal combustion car. Instead it's happy sweet talk about the supposed ''health'' benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Here is an example from among many, this from page 27,844 of Volume 89 of the Federal Register:

EPA is establishing both criteria pollutant and GHG standards in this rulemaking given the need for additional reductions in emissions of these air pollutants to protect public health and welfare and based on EPA's assessment of the suite of available control technologies for those pollutants, some of which are effective in controlling both GHGs and criteria pollutant emissions. Under these performance-based emissions standards, manufacturers have the discretion to choose the mix of technologies that achieve compliance across their fleets. EPA's modeling provides information about several potential compliance paths manufacturers could use to comply with the standards, based on multiple inputs and assumptions (e.g., in what we have termed the central case, that manufacturers will seek the lowest cost compliance path).

''Manufacturers have the discretion to choose the mix of technologies that achieve compliance . . . .'' Right. Everybody knows that the point of this is to force the majority of new car sales to be EVs or plug-in hybrids by some time in the early 2030s. But they'll never say it straight.

And it's the same with the new NHTSA Rule. This Rule sets new fleet-average fuel economy standards. NHTSA '-- aren't they supposed to be in the business of ''Highway Traffic Safety'' (that's the ''HTS'' part of their name)? Yes, but in the ultimate mission-creep, they are now the people behind the so-called ''CAFE'' (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards. Obviously, the people cannot be expected on their own to make appropriate trade-offs between fuel economy and other transportation needs (like carrying capacity). Thus, NHTSA now determines that beginning in the early 2030s, manufacturers must achieve average fuel economy for their fleets of 50+ miles per gallon.

But, you say, vehicles with internal combustion engines can't achieve that figure if they are bigger than a thimble. Exactly. So here is a small piece of NHTSA's justification:

Reducing gasoline consumption has multiple benefits '' it improves our nation's energy security, it saves consumers money, and reduces harmful pollutant emissions that lead to adverse human and environmental health outcomes and climate change. NHTSA estimates that relative to the reference baseline, this final rule will reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 659 million metric tons for passenger cars and light trucks, and by 55 million metric tons for HDPUVs through calendar year 2050. Again, these relative reductions are greater if the rule is compared to the alternative baseline, but demonstrating a similar level of absolute carbon dioxide emissions.

You say that you have a need for a vehicle that can actually carry a couple of passengers and maybe a few suitcases? What kind of a traitor are you? Your options are to buy an EV or hire a ricksha.

The agencies know full well that they are forcing a transition to EVs that customers do not want. How fast must the forced transition be? This piece from Atlas EV Hub from March 25 estimates that EPA's Rule by itself will force EV sales to be up to 69% of new vehicle sales by 2032:

The regulation is set to bring significant changes to the auto industry, potentially putting the United States on the glide path to full electrification. Manufacturers have several options to meet the new standards, and electric vehicles (EVs) will play a pivotal role in ensuring manufacturer compliance with these regulations. Under this final rule, battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric light-duty vehicles could make up 32 percent of all new vehicle sales in model year 2027, increasing to 69 percent by model year 2032.

The NHTSA CAFE Rule would require comparable, or perhaps even higher, percentages of EVs in manufacturer sales to achieve compliance.

Do you believe that the U.S. new vehicle market will switch over to mostly EVs so quickly over the next several years? I don't believe it for a minute. So what happens when manufacturers produce mostly EVs to comply with these Rules, and then nobody will buy them? This could be very entertaining.

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:23

CNN '--

A plane carrying Malawi's Vice President Saulos Chilima and nine other people has gone missing after it failed to make a scheduled landing on Monday, according to the presidential office.

The Malawi Defense Force Aircraft carrying Chilima and others left the capital of Lilongwe at 9:17 a.m. local time (3.17 a.m. ET), the presidential office and cabinet said in a statement.

The plane had been scheduled to land at the Mzuzu International Airport, about 380 km (240 miles) to the north of Lilongwe, but did not arrive and is no longer detectable by radar, according to authorities.

''All efforts by aviation authorities to make contact with the aircraft since it went off the radar have failed thus far,'' the presidential statement read.

''As such, the commander of the Malawi Defense Force, General Valentino Phiri, has since informed His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera of the incident, and the president has since canceled his scheduled departure for the Bahamas and ordered all regional and national agencies to conduct an immediate search and rescue operation to locate the whereabouts of the aircraft,'' the statement added.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 14:43

Leader of the French far right National Rally Marine Le Pen takes part during a meeting for the upcoming European elections Sunday, June 2, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to call a snap national election after a surge for his far-right rivals is a high-stakes move and a huge political gamble, analysts say.

Macron's decision to call a snap parliamentary vote comes after the right-wing National Rally (RN) party, with Marine Le Pen as the figurehead, won around 31% of the vote in Sunday's European Parliament election. That was more than double the 14.6% seen for Macron's pro-European and centrist Renaissance Party and its allies.

France's CAC 40 slumped 1.8% in the early hours of trading Monday morning with French banks trading sharply lower. BNP Paribas and Societe Generale led the Stoxx 600'²s losses, both down by around 6%. The eurowas also down some 0.4% against the dollaramid the uncertainty.

''This is an essential time for clarification,'' Macron said in a national address Sunday evening as he announced his decision to dissolve parliament.

''I have heard your message, your concerns and I will not leave them unanswered '... France needs a clear majority to act in serenity and harmony,'' he added. The first round of voting will take place on June 30, with a second to be held on July 7.

His party might lose. As it stands, Macron's Renaissance Party has 169 seats in France's lower house of parliament, out of a total of 577 seats, and the RN has 88 seats.

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 12:54

TIERRA Y TECNOLOGA Nº 59 | DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21028/hl.2022.05.17 | Autora: Hanna Liventseva. Chairman of the Board of Ukrainian Association of Geologists.

Ukraine is one of the leading countries of the world in a wide range of minerals. Although it covers only 0.4% of the Earth's surface, contains about 5% of the world's mineral resources. It ranks top-10 of the world for several raw materials (metallic and non-metallic) such as titanium, ball clays, Fe-Mn & Fe-Si-Mn alloys and gallium. Lithium, graphite or magnesium, among others, are also present in Ukraine. The abundance and diversity of minerals and metals is due to the complexity and variety of the Ukrainian geology.

This article presents the main metallic and non-metallic mineral resources of Ukraine and its geological context.

INTRODUCTION. GENERAL INFORMATIONUkraine (Ukrainian: УкÑаїна) is a country located in Eastern Europe. It has a surface of 603,500 km2 (for comparison '' Spain has an area of 504,782 km2 and France 674,685 km2).

Before Russia's attack on Ukraine on February 24th, Ukraine's population was about 40 million (5.2 million temporarily have left Ukraine during the war, and the total number of casualties is not precise).

Ukraine has 0.4% of the Earth's surface but about 5% of the world's mineral resources. Ukraine is a country with a developed mineral resource base, the diversity of which is due to the peculiarities of the geology of its territory.

The first feature is that the country contains the three main components of the geostructural zones of the earth's crust: platform, folded structures and transitional areas between them '' the foredeeps and depressions.

Each of these zones is characterized by a specific geological structure and by the distribution of certain types of minerals.

Another feature is that its geological structure involves very diverse rocks in composition and origin, which in terms of geological age belong to all periods '' from the oldest Archean era to the modern Quaternary period.

GEOLOGYThe southwestern part of the Eastern European Platform and the surrounding mountain structures of the Carpathians and Crimea, which are part of the Alpine Folding Region, are located on the territory of Ukraine.

Fig.1. Tectonic map of Ukraine.The most important structures that stand out in the platform part are: i) the Ukranian crystal Shield (Ukranian Shield), ii) Volyn-Podillya plate, iii) DiSners fold belt, iv) Dnipro-Donets depression and v) Black Sea depression

Precambrian formations form the foundation of the Eastern European platform and reach the surface within the Ukrainian Crystal Shield. The sedimentary cover of the platform is composed of all systems of the Palaeozoic.

The Ukrainian shield, located in the central part of Ukraine, is composed of strongly disturbed metamorphic, intrusive and metasomatic crystalline rocks of early Precambrian age (AR-PR1[1]) and their weathering crusts.

Most of the deposits of metallic minerals and the largest Kryvyi Rih iron ore basin, are connected with the crystalline base of the Ukrainian Shield. In addition, complex primary deposits of ilmenite-apatite ores, deposits of other non-ferrous, precious and rare metals (uranium, aluminium, copper, molybdenum, nickel, beryllium, lithium, germanium, niobium, tantalum, rare earth metals, scandium, gold, platinum). Diamonds, piezoelectric raw material, fluorite, graphite, talc magnesite, nepheline, and a large number of deposits dimensional stones and much more can also be found.

The platform cover, which overlies the crystalline basement, contains large deposits of manganese ores in the Nikopol Basin, complex ilmenite-rutile-zirconium ores in the middle of the Dnipro region, as well as exogenous uranium deposits, rare in quality and reserves of kaolin, bentonite clay, tungolites, benthones, benthones brown coal and other minerals.

The Volyn-Podillya plate, which passes into the Dniester pericratonic depression, is located west of the Ukrainian Shield and is an area of gradual immersion of the Precambrian crystalline base to a depth of 3 km.

Deposits of coal, sulphur, gypsum, and phosphorites are associated with sedimentary rocks of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.

The Dnipro-Donets depression is located northeast of the Ukrainian Shield, separating it from the southwestern slope of the Voronezh Anticlis. In the axial part of the Dnipro-Donets depression (Aulacogen), the Precambrian foundation is lowered by 6''15 km. At the base of the Dnipro-Donets depression lie volcanics and evaporite formations, covered by a thick stratum of terrigenous and carbonate rocks. The depression is filled with a thick layer of Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. This led to the presence of salt dome tectonics, which plays a significant role in the formation of positive structures that complicate the structure of the sedimentary cover of the depression. On the southeastern continuation of the depression, the Donetsk folding structure (Donetsk coal basin) stands out with a depth of the base of 48-20 km.

The Dnipro-Donets depression is associated with oil and gas deposits, rock salt, gypsum, and the Donets fold structure '' with coal, mercury ores, fluorite, etc.

The Black Sea depression is a deeply lowered southern edge of the platform with a thick thickness (up to 4''5 km) of Mesozoic deposits. Manganese ores, occurences of coal, bauxite, and poly metals are known here.

The Mountain of Crimea is a fragment of the Alpine-Himalayan folding-sliding belt. It is composed of intensively dislocated Triassic-Jurassic flysch deposits and more calmly overlying Upper Jurassic carbonate and sandy-clay Cretaceous, Paleogene and Neogene strata. This are associated with iron ores various salt types, limestones, etc.

The Ukrainian Carpathians include the Precarpathian regional depression with gray-, gas- and oil-bearing sedimentary rocks, the folded-cover region of the Carpathians with strong flysch and the Transcarpathian inner depression hosts volcanic-sedimentary formations associated with rock salt, zeolites, barytes, alunites, mercury and polymetallic mineralizations.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE MAIN MINERAL RESOURCES IN UKRAINEUkraine belongs to the leading mineral-raw countries of the world with a wide range of minerals.

About 20.000 mineral deposits and occurrences of 117 mineral types are found in subsurface of the country. Of these, 8,761 deposits and 1,288 recorded sites for 95 minerals types are of commercial value and are included in the Ukrainian Recorded Mineral Reserves (the state inventory). Of these 3,055 deposits were in production before the war, 147 are deposits of metallic minerals and 4,676 are non-metallic minerals (plus 2,233 combustible minerals and 1,705 ground waters) (Source: Information service on Mineral Resources of Ukraine- State Research and Development Enterprise ''State Geological Information Fund of Ukraine'' (SRDE ''Geoinform of Ukraine'') under the joint project with Geological Survey of Norway).

Of all these, about 10,000 deposits are of industrial importance and are taken into account by the State Balance of Mineral Reserves of Ukraine.

The industry has developed more than 3,500 deposits of 100 types of minerals. More than 2,000 mining, concentrating and processing enterprises were operating these deposits.

In 2018, Ukraine was the 3rd world producer of gallium (1.3% of world output) and rutile (12.3% of world output); the 5th world producer of titanium sponge (4.4% of world output), graphite (2.2% of world output), and bromine (1.3% of world output); the 7th world producer of iron ore (2.5% of world output) and manganese ore (4.2% of world output); the 8th world producer of kaolin/ball clays (4.9% of world output) and magnesium metal (0.8% of world output); the 9th world producer of ilmenite (4.2% of world output) and pig iron (1.7% of world output); and the 11th world producer of bentonite (1.0% of world output), peat (2.1% of world output), and raw steel (1.2% of world output) (Source: 2017-2018 Minerals Yearbook USGS)

Ukraine is a significant supplier for titanium ores, manganese ore, kaolin/ball clays, iron and gallium. It has great potential for extracting key minerals such as lithium (see fig 2.).

Fig.2. Ukraine is a significant global supplier of titanium, Mn-ferroalloys and kaolin/ball clays. In bold the Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), referring to the EC 2020 List of CRMs, the red dots represent the location of the mining sites of non-food, non-energy raw materials in Ukraine (source: S&P Global Market Intelligence). The materials with a share of less than 3% are excluded (source: RMIS European Commission).METALLIC AND NON-METALLIC MINERALSAs commented above, the Ukrainian metallogenic provinces are divided into: i) Ukrainian Shield, ii) Dniprovsko-Donetska metallogenic province, iii) Dnister '' Fore Black Sea metallogenic province and the iv) Carpathian-Crimean metallogenic province (Fig 3).

The Ukrainian Shield is characterized by the most variety of deposits. It is very common to find several types of minerals such as iron, titanium or uranium, among others. Granite-greenstone belts, developed in the Middle-Dniprean area are prominent in gold mineralization. Lithium pegmatite fields are located in the synclinal troughs and epicratonic depressions filled with Proterozoic volcanic-sedimentary formations.

The Dniprovsko-Donetska metallogenic province is characterized by the development of mercury, gold, polymetallic, copper mineralization, associated with carbonate-terrigenous, salt lagoon, evaporate and terrigenous red-color Paleozoic formations (Central, Bahmutsko-Nagolna tectonic-metallogenic zones).

The Dnister '' Fore Black Sea metallogenic province is distinct in the native copper mineralization in Vendian flood basalts (Lukivsko-Ratnivska metallogenic zone) and fluorspar in Vendian terrigenous-continental formation (Podilsko-Dnisterska metallogenic zone).

In the Carpathian-Crimean metallogenic province are typical the mineralizations of gold, polymetallic ores, mercury in andesite-basalt, liparite-dacite and green-schist formations (Transcarpathians, Marmaroska tectonic-metallogenic zone), and iron in the iron-sandy-clayey formation (Kerch iron ore area).

Fig.3 Metallogenic map of Ukraine (Source: SRDE '' Geoinform of Ukraine & Geological Survey of Norway).KAOLIN/BALL CLAYSAbout 10% of the world's kaolin/ball clays reserves are concentrated in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine accounts for 5% of world production of kaolin/ball clays, however only 20-30% of the extracted kaolin is processed, being most of it exported to other European countries such us Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, France or Turkey for its use in ceramics. At the same time, during the Soviet era, Ukraine provided 70% of the Union's needs for kaolin.

Kaolin/Ball clays deposits are located mainly in the Ukrainian Shield, where a kaoline-bearing province is located in a 350 km wide band that extends from north Polissya to Azov Sea for about 950 km. Kaolin/Ball clays deposits are also found in the Trans-Carpathian inner depression and in junction area of Dniprovsko-Donetska Depression and southern slope of Voronezskiy crystalline massif.

Today, the largest domestic producers of kaolin/ball clays concentrate were there are two kaolin mining and processing plants: Glukhovetsky in Vinnytsia and Prosyanivsky in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which operate on the basis of eponymous primary kaolin deposits

Fig 4 shows the Ukranian reserves and production of kaolin/ball clays.

Fig.4 Ukranian reserves and production by 1/1/2021. Source: SRDE '' Geoinform of Ukraine & Geological Survey of Norway).TITANIUMUkraine is one of the few countries in the world where titanium ores are mined. Ukraine has the largest reserves of titanium in Europe. 15 titanium deposits have been discovered in the country (4 of which are being developed). The main titanium resources are concentrated in bedrock deposits, although nowadays titanium production in Ukraine is only from placer deposits. The deposits are located in the Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Donetsk regions. The titanium industry in Ukraine consists of ilmenite and rutile production, titanium sponge production at the Zaporozhye Titanium & Magnesium Combine (ZTMK) and titanium ingot production by a few different smaller producers.

Titanium is considered as a Critical Raw Material (CRM) by the European Commission 2020 list of CRMs

The Ukrainian production of titanium in 2018 is shown in Fig 5.

Fig. 5 Titanium commodities from 2014 to 2018. Source; The Geological Surveys of United State- USGS.Fig 6: Titanium concurrences (predictive map). Source: European Geological Data Information-EGDI.MANGANESEUkraine has the largest reserves of manganese ores in Europe and one of the largest reserves in the world (see figure 7). The main reserves (about 228 Mt) are concentrated in the south of Ukraine: the Nikopol manganese basin in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions (33% of the explored reserves of the country) and the Veliko-Tokmakskoye field in the Zaporizhzhia region (67%). The Ukranian production of manganese from 2014 to 2018 is shown in Fig 8.

Figure 7: Distribution of manganese reserves in the world. ( Source: The future of mobility and its critical raw materials '' Scientific Figure on ResearchGate).Fig. 8 Manganese commodities from 2014 to 2018. Source; United State Geological Survey '' USGS.GALLIUMIn 2019 Ukraine was the 3th world producer of gallium (1.3% of world output). Gallium occurs in very small concentrations in ores of other metals. Most gallium is produced as a by-product of bauxite processing and the remainder is produced from zinc-processing residues.

Gallium is considered as a Critical Raw Material (CRM) by the European Commission 2020 list of CRMs.

Fig. 9: World Gallium Production and Reserves.Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2020.LITHIUMProterozoic rare-earth granite pegmatites comprise the potential source of lithium in Ukraine. Ukraine's confirmed reserves of lithium are the largest in Europe.

Lithium is considered as a Critical Raw Material (CRM) by the European Commission 2020 list of CRMs.

Fig.10 Lithium deposits (Source: Renewablematter.eu magazine).IRON OREAt the end of the 20th century, Ukraine produced 13.5% of the world's iron ore production. The total reserves of iron ore in Ukraine are estimated at 27.4 billion tons. The main area of the iron ore industry is the Kryvyi Rih iron ore basin, which provides more than 90% of iron ore production.

60 out of 88 deposits are located in the Kryvyi Rih basin, with reserves of 18.7 billion tons. Iron ore reserves in the Kremenchuk basin are 4.5 billion tons, and in the Belozersky iron ore district (Zaporizhzhia region) '' 2.5 billion tons. A significant part of the deposits of iron ore is developed by surface mining.

The Kerch iron ore basin is located on the Kerch Peninsula of the temporarily occupied Crimea. The deposits were developed by quarries. Iron ore mining has stopped.Due to the large number of commodities and deposits in Ukraine, this article only focuses on few raw materials. It is recommended to visit the site EIMIDA project '' European Integration of Mineral Raw Materials Data elaborated by the SRDE ''Geoinform of Ukraine'' and the Geological Survey of Norway with a database directly provided by the State inventory of mineral deposits and occurrences : https://eng.minerals-ua.info/

Fig 11. Example for the interactive maps provided by the EIMIDA platform service.REFERENCEShttps://minerals-ua.info/mapviewer/metallic.phphttps://minerals-ua.info/mapviewer/non-metallic.phphttps://www.europe-geology.eu/mineral-resources/mineral-resources-map/critical-raw-materials-map/Raw Materials Information System: https://rmis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/Critical Raw Materials list 2020 European Commission: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0474[1] Archean and Lower Proterozoic formation

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Governor Kathy Hochul announced today that the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles has launched the New York Mobile ID, a highly secure digital version of a state-issued driver license, learner permit or ID on a smartphone. The Mobile ID is a voluntary product designed for the convenience and security of New Yorkers and is available to IOS and Android users. Anyone who has a valid, state-issued driver license, learner permit or non-driver ID can download the secure Mobile ID app through Google Play or the App Store.

''We're thrilled to give New Yorkers access to this cutting-edge technology which provides convenience and added security for Mobile ID users and those who accept it,'' Governor Hochul said. ''Not only will New Yorkers be able to quickly display their IDs, but they will have control over the personal information they share.''

Through a partnership with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the New York Mobile ID (MiD) will be accepted at TSA security checkpoints at nearly 30 participating airports across the country including all terminals at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports. This will allow New Yorkers to verify their identity easily and securely for airport security screening.

DMV Commissioner Mark J.F. Schroeder said, ''Everything is on your cell phone these days, and now, your ID can be too. This is an exciting way to provide identification without having to dig through your wallet or purse to find your physical document. Rather than handing over your physical ID with lots of personal information, the Mobile ID gives you greater control over what personal data you share.''

TSA's Federal Security Director for LaGuardia Airport Robert Duffy said, ''We are pleased to be able to add this state-of-the-art digital ID to the list of acceptable IDs at our security checkpoints. Travelers who want to take advantage of this new capability will find that their New York mobile drivers license is a convenient option when going through the security process.''

Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said, ''The $8 billion investment to transform LaGuardia Airport is paying off in every way with an elevated customer experience and nation-wide and global recognition. From curb to plane, we are working with our partners to provide our customers a world-class experience. Security checkpoints are one of the main topics raised in our customer surveys, and the integration of new technologies such as mobile ID helps expedite the screening process and makes for a more positive and hassle-free travel experience.''

How to Get a New York Mobile ID

New Yorkers can get a New York MiD in a few simple steps:

Download the New York MiD app from the App Store or through Google Play.Register the phone number of the device the Mobile ID will be on. An individual's Mobile ID can only be on one device at a time to help protect their identity.Take a picture of the front and back of their physical ID (driver license, non-driver ID, or Learner Permit), using their phone's camera.Pose for a selfie. The app checks your photo and ID against information on file with the DMV to ensure you are who you say you are.Once your information is verified, your MiD is active and ready to use wherever it is accepted.Watch a step-by-step guide on how to enroll. All of the attributes on an individual's physical ID, like their document type (REAL ID, Enhanced ID or Standard ID) and class (D, E, Commercial A, B, or C, etc.), and other attributes like organ donor status, veteran status, and lifetime hunting or fishing permits will all be available in the New York MiD app and can be shared with a verifier whenever a New York MiD holder agrees to share their personal information.

The New York MiD serves as a companion to a physical ID, and not all businesses or stakeholders will initially accept mobile IDs, so New Yorkers should always continue to carry their physical driver's license or ID.

How to Use the New York Mobile ID

Currently, the New York Mobile ID is accepted at select TSA terminals at participating airports throughout the country. It can also be used at any other business, venue or organization that chooses to accept it including those in other states and countries.

To use the New York MiD at a TSA checkpoint, travelers will simply scan their smartphone at the identity reader. The smartphone will then display what information is being requested by the TSA, and only after authorizing the request, will the information be transmitted to the TSA. Since the information is shared digitally, there is no need for the traveler to hand over their smartphone at any time. Once the TSA receives the information from the New York MiD, the TSA officer will then verify the passenger's identity and flight status for a secure, convenient, and touchless identity verification experience. Travelers will find that participating TSA terminals are clearly marked with signage indicating they accept digital identity documents such as the New York MiD.

The DMV is working with various businesses, organizations, associations, and state government partners to expand their understanding of the New York MiD and how they can accept it. Any public or private entity that has a need to confirm an individual's identify or age verification can begin accepting the New York Mobile ID at any time. It gives businesses and organizations the confidence of knowing the ID presented to them can be authenticated in real-time, which means higher security for their business and their customers.

Resources and information about how to accept the New York MiD are available on the DMV website.

New York Mobile ID Is Private and Secure

The New York Mobile ID offers a convenient, contactless, and highly secure method for verifying identity, while protecting personal information and privacy. For the highest level of privacy and security, the New York MiD is not designed to look like a picture of a New York driver license, learner permit, or non-driver ID on a smartphone, and is not designed to be shown or handed to a verifier to obtain credential information visually.

Personal information found on the MiD is encrypted and only accessible when the Mobile ID holder consents to sharing it. It is transmitted to a verifier through a secure, digital connection so the user never has to hand over their phone. The user also controls what data to share. For example, when using a Mobile ID, wherever it is accepted, to make an age-restricted purchase such as buying tobacco or alcohol, a Mobile ID holder can prove their age without sharing any other unnecessary information like their name, height, or address.

The MiD app can only be unlocked through Face ID, TouchID, or a six-digit PIN. Information about usage including where, when, and what personal information the user has shared is encrypted and stored only on their personal device. The New York Mobile ID does not store or transmit data on when and where it is used.

The New York Mobile ID also allows the DMV to push updates to the app when information is updated directly with the DMV such as an address change or change to someone's driving status. This gives verifiers the confidence of knowing that the identity information they are accepting is authentic and up to date.

Learn more about New York Mobile ID.

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WASHINGTON '' Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was speeding and "at fault" for the car accident that landed him, his wife and another driver in the hospital on Sunday, according to a Maryland State Police report obtained by USA TODAY.

Fetterman, driving a Chevrolet Traverse, passed a witness on I-70 in northwest Maryland "at a high rate of speed, well over the posted speed limit" before rear ending a Chevrolet Impala around 7:45 a.m. near the exit to I-68, the six-page report said. The speed limit was 70 miles per hour.

Fetterman and the other driver were not tested for alcohol or substance use, the report said. No citations were given and an investigation is ongoing, according to a Maryland State Police statement to USA TODAY earlier this week. A spokesperson for Fetterman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

View in new tabBoth vehicles were towed from the site of the accident and Fetterman, his wife Gisele Fetterman, and the driver of the other car, a 62-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, were taken to War Memorial Hospital in West Virginia in ambulances.

USA TODAY attempted to contact the witness and other driver involved in the accident but were unable to reach them Wednesday. The names of the woman hit by Fetterman and the witness were included in the public police record but USA TODAY is not publishing them to protect personal privacy.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

Fetterman was treated for a bruised shoulder, according to a spokesperson for the senator. The couple was discharged Sunday afternoon and posted a video to X thanking supporters for well wishes. "Not the best way to spend our 16th wedding anniversary but we're doing well and happy to be back home in Braddock with the family," he wrote.

Fetterman has been the junior senator from Pennsylvania since 2023. He previously served as Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor and as the mayor of Braddock, near Pittsburgh.

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Bird flu cases tied to dairy cattle outbreak

Third human case of bird flu tied to dairy cattle outbreak 02:08 Officials in two of the three states probing their first cases of bird flu in dairy cattle this month said their hands are tied after the Food and Drug Administration pleaded with states to ramp up testing and restrictions on potentially infectious raw milk being sold to consumers within their borders.

Wyoming, Iowa and Minnesota announced their first detections of the virus in recent days, becoming the first new states to be added to the USDA's list of cases in weeks.

"There are no plans to conduct surveillance of raw milk for H5N1 and there are no plans for restrictions on raw milk sales due to the outbreak," Derek Grant, a spokesperson for the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, said to CBS News in a statement.

Wyoming and Iowa both have laws that significantly limit state oversight of products like raw milk to "informed end consumers" in the state.

"Because of this, foods sold under the Wyoming Food Freedom Act are not licensed or regulated by the WDA so there is no structure in place to conduct surveillance or place restrictions on sales," Grant said.

In Iowa, authorities said they are urging producers with sick cows to work with officials to test the cows for bird flu after finding that it spread to cattle and poultry farms. Officials stopped short of saying they would restrict infected farms from selling raw milk .

"Iowa's raw milk law explicitly precludes the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship from licensing and regulating raw milk dairies," spokesperson Don McDowell said in a statement.

FDA's recommendations to statesWhile raw milk is already prohibited from being sold over state lines, some states have laws that allow its sale within their borders, though several only allow raw milk to be sold on farms.

FDA officials said in a letter last week that cracking down on sales within states was out of their jurisdiction.

"The agency has ensured that our state regulatory partners are aware of our concerns and recommendations, including by sharing and communicating directly, and by making this letter available on our website," an FDA spokesperson said in a statement, citing "multiple engagements" with states over the issue.

One of the FDA's recommendations to states is the implementation of surveillance programs that would test for the H5N1 virus on dairy farms selling raw milk to try to "stop the sale of raw milk that may present a risk to consumers."

While recent research has found signs the virus might also be spreading between cows in the respiratory tract, officials have said for months that droplets of unpasteurized milk teeming with the virus were likely to blame for the majority of spread between cows as well as for spillovers to nearby animals and several cases in humans .

By contrast, the FDA has cited testing showing that pasteurized milk remains safe to consume. Pasteurization is a process that uses heat to kill off dangerous organisms in milk and dairy products.

The agency also is continuing to allow aged cheese made from raw milk to be sold over state lines, though it is unclear whether the aging process will be enough to curb the risk of the virus in the way it does for other pathogens.

"The FDA is continuing to gather data, conduct testing, and support research related to the safety of dairy products and H5N1 HPAIV, including aged raw milk cheeses," the spokesperson said.

Raw milk legalizationNot all states with cases say they are unable to regulate sales of raw milk from bird flu-infected cows. The laws in Iowa and Wyoming are different from some of the raw milk laws in other states, several of which give officials authority to regulate the marketplace.

At least eight states also have pending raw milk bills, according to a database published by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Minnesota's agriculture department acknowledged its state law allowed consumers to buy raw milk "in limited circumstances," but it said that any farms confirmed to have the virus are prohibited from selling raw milk to consumers.

"Herds affected with the virus are not allowed to sell raw milk direct to consumers because that milk is likely to contain harmful pathogens," Nicole Neeser, director of Minnesota's Dairy and Meat Inspection Division, said in a statement.

In Texas, one of the first states to report cases from the outbreak, health authorities are adding the H5N1 virus to their panel of routine surveillance testing of raw milk. Officials will also be conducting targeted testing in regions with infected herds.

"We have started testing raw milk from retail raw dairies that are near (in the same county or in a county adjacent to) a known outbreak of avian flu in commercial producer dairies," Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in an email.

In Ohio, where cases have also been confirmed in dairy cows, officials said the sale of raw milk to consumers is illegal.

Outside of some "herd-share agreements" where residents go directly to farms to pick up raw milk, Michigan said raw milk cannot be sold to residents in retailers or other stores.

Undetected dairy cow casesThe FDA's letter comes as authorities are probing how the virus appears to have shown up in new parts of the country, after a U.S. Department of Agriculture order in April required dairy cattle to be tested for the virus before being moved across state lines.

A USDA spokesperson denied that the new cases were a sign that the testing order was ineffective at stopping the spread to new states, saying that investigations so far have not linked the new cases to interstate cattle shipping.

In Minnesota, the state's board of health confirmed its recent case had "no interstate movements" before the state's first outbreak. Minnesota's agriculture department has been urging dairy producers to test sick cows and take other precautions to curb the spread of the virus.

"Consumers who choose to purchase unpasteurized milk from unaffected farms should discuss biosecurity and testing measures with the dairy farmer," Neeser said.

More from CBS News

In: Iowa Minnesota Bird Flu Wyoming Alexander TinAlexander Tin is a digital reporter for CBS News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers the Biden administration's public health agencies, including the federal response to infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19.

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Less than 100 miles east, artillery salvos pound Ukrainian defensive positions as Russian forces inch forward. But below the surface of this sprawling Donbas coal field, a dwindling number of miners are still working, extracting a fuel that is emblematic of one of Ukraine's biggest challenges.

The Kremlin is robbing this nation of the building blocks of its economy '-- its natural resources.

After nearly six months of fighting, Moscow's sloppy war has yielded at least one big reward: expanded control over some of the most mineral-rich lands in Europe. Ukraine harbors some of the world's largest reserves of titanium and iron ore, fields of untapped lithium and massive deposits of coal. Collectively, they are worth tens of trillions of dollars.

The lion's share of those coal deposits, which for decades have powered Ukraine's critical steel industry, are concentrated in the east, where Moscow has made the most inroads. That's put them in Russian hands, along with significant amounts of other valuable energy and mineral deposits used for everything from aircraft parts to smartphones, according to an analysis for The Washington Post by the Canadian geopolitical risk firm SecDev.

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Russia possesses vast amounts of natural resources. But denying Ukraine its own has strategically undermined the country's economy, forcing Kyiv to import coal to keep the lights on in cities and towns. Should the Kremlin succeed in annexing the Ukrainian territory it has seized '-- as U.S. officials believe it will try to do in coming months '-- Kyiv would permanently lose access to almost two-thirds of its deposits.

Ukraine would also lose myriad other reserves, including stores of natural gas, oil and rare earth minerals '-- essential for certain high-tech components '-- that could hamper Western Europe's search for alternatives to imports from Russia and China.

''The worst scenario is that Ukraine loses land, no longer has a strong commodity economy and becomes more like one of the Baltic states, a nation unable to sustain its industrial economy,'' said Stanislav Zinchenko, chief executive of GMK, a Kyiv-based economic think tank. ''This is what Russia wants. To weaken us.''

Late last month, 1,200 feet underground in the Donbas region mine, soot-caked workers clawed at the black coal seams with a sense of urgency. The coal hewed from the walls fuels a nearby power plant, part of an energy grid strained and weakened by the war.

''Those that left to fight at the front are fighting for us down here,'' said Yuri, a 29-year-old excavator operator. ''We need to get as much coal as we can. The country needs it.''

$12.4 trillion in lost wealth

Ukraine is widely known as an agricultural powerhouse. But as a raw-material mother lode, it's home to 117 of the 120 most widely used minerals and metals, and a major source of fossil fuels. Official websites no longer show geolocations of these deposits; the government, citing national security, took them down in early spring.

Yet SecDev's analysis indicates that at least $12.4 trillion worth of Ukraine's energy deposits, metals and minerals are now under Russian control. That figure accounts for nearly half the dollar value of the 2,209 deposits reviewed by the company. In addition to 63 percent of the country's coal deposits, Moscow has seized 11 percent of its oil deposits, 20 percent of its natural gas deposits, 42 percent of its metals and 33 percent of its deposits of rare earth and other critical minerals including lithium.

Ukraine's major resources

Coal

Russian-controlled

areas since Feb. 24

Crimea

annexed

by Russia in 2014

100 MILES

Natural gas

Crimea

Metals

Crimea

Oil

Crimea

100 MILES

THE WASHINGTON POST

Source: SecDev analysis

Ukraine's major resources

Coal

Russian-controlled

areas since Feb. 24

Russia-annexed

(Crimea) or separatist-controlled

(Donbas) areas since 2014

Crimea

100 MILES

Natural gas

Crimea

Metals

Crimea

Oil

Russian-controlled

areas since Feb. 24

Russia-annexed

(Crimea) or separatist-controlled

(Donbas) areas since 2014

Crimea

THE WASHINGTON POST

Source: SecDev analysis

Ukraine's major resources

Russian-controlled areas since Feb. 24

Russia-annexed (Crimea) or separatist-controlled (Donbas)

areas since 2014

Coal

Metals

100 MILES

Crimea

Crimea

Natural gas

Oil

Crimea

Crimea

Source: SecDev analysis

THE WASHINGTON POST

Ukraine's major resources

Russian-controlled areas since Feb. 24

Russia-annexed (Crimea) or separatist-controlled (Donbas) areas since 2014

Coal

Metals

100 MILES

Crimea

Crimea

Natural gas

Oil

Crimea

Crimea

Source: SecDev analysis

THE WASHINGTON POST

Some of those deposits are hard to reach or require exploration to assess their viability. Some were overtaken during either Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea or the Ukrainian government's eight-year war with Russian-backed separatists in the east.

Since the invasion began in February, however, the Kremlin has steadily expanded its holdings. According to SecDev and Ukrainian mining and steel industry executives, it has seized: 41 coal fields, 27 natural gas sites, 14 propane sites, nine oil fields, six iron ore deposits, two titanium ore sites, two zirconium ore sites, one strontium site, one lithium site, one uranium site, one gold deposit and a significant quarry of limestone previously used for Ukrainian steel production.

Roman Opimakh, director general of the Ukrainian Geological Survey, said the government is still assessing the war's impact on its mineral resources. But given how much of Ukraine's raw materials are in the east and south, he suggested that the value of lost reserves exceeds the total calculated in the independent analysis.

''There is a negative asset, which we've lost '-- resources which we use right now to support our industrial activities and to generate power,'' he noted. ''But there's another dimension of minerals of the future which are still under the ground. Unfortunately, there is a risk that the Ukrainian people will not get the benefits of the development of those materials.''

The bulk of the country's oil and gas reserves remain under its control. But for Western Europe, Russia's expanded land grab in Ukraine amounts to a tactical setback.

''Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory has direct implications for Western energy security,'' said Robert Muggah, SecDev co-founder. ''Unless the Europeans can rapidly diversify oil and gas sources, they will remain highly dependent on Russian hydrocarbons.''

The greatest threat is to Ukraine's future. During the 2014 Russian invasion, in which Ukraine lost roughly 7 percent of its land mass, critical Western investment in the energy and mining sector was scared away. The current war has had the same impact.

Polish-Ukrainian investment company Millstone & Co, for instance, struck a 2021 deal with an Australian mining company for active exploration at two untouched lithium sites. Once the war started, the companies froze those plans, said Millstone managing partner Mykhailo Zhernov.

One site '-- a deposit covered by farmland '-- now is so close to the front lines that Zhernov remains uncertain whether it is under Ukrainian or Russian control. Initial plans to build a lithium battery factory there have also been shelved.

Analysts say licenses for other mineral deposits sold by the Ukrainian government last year are now trading at deep discounts as investors question the viability of extraction.

''Every day, Ukrainians are losing their economy,'' Zhernov said. ''I know many investors who started geology research, but they have stopped because [of the war]. Everything, it's a bet now.''

The blow to Ukraine is far worse because of the Russian seizure of key Ukrainian ports and a broad blockade of the Black Sea. Some analysts see the lost sea transit routes as more significant than the lost mineral reserves '-- particularly coal, despite its current value '-- as other countries switch to greener energy.

''Raw materials like coal are not the future, they're the past,'' said Anders Aslund, an economist who has long studied Ukraine. ''It's more about whether Ukraine loses its ports, which I don't think they will. If they did not have those ports, they would need to build a completely new infrastructure for exports.''

Coal's practical and symbolic value

Coal is by far the most abundant of the deposits in Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine. The approximately 30 billion tons of hard coal deposits there have an estimated commercial value of $11.9 trillion, SecDev estimates. They also have symbolic value as a storied energy source, with the regional metropolises of Donetsk and Luhansk being built on the backs of coal miners and steelworkers.

The toxic combination of a loss of raw materials plus damaged, destroyed or seized infrastructure has vast implications for a core industry like steel, which until the war sustained 4 million Ukrainians. Two large factories were destroyed or overrun in the siege of Mariupol. Other factories have reduced production and face a host of challenges.

Across the country, many of the Soviet-era steel plants still run on coal. But the nation's losses to Russian-backed separatists in the east between 2014 and 2017 forced Kyiv to begin importing significant amounts of coal, both for those plants and thermal power plants. In 2021, imports amounted to almost 40 percent of Ukraine's coal consumption.

Along with coal mines, Russia has recently seized a significant limestone deposit used for steel production. The impact of that has been minimized because Ukrainian steel production has dropped so much because of the war '-- 60 percent to 70 percent '-- that factories have been able to make do with lower-quality limestone deposits in the west. But Yuriy Ryzhenkov, chief executive of the Ukrainian steel and mining giant Metinvest, warned that ramping back up to normal levels will mean ''we will have to import it.''

For the miners burrowing in what's left of the coal-rich tunnels in eastern Ukraine, extracting reserves has become an act of patriotism. The Post was granted access to a mine there on the condition that its exact location not be revealed and the full names of employees be withheld for security reasons. The energy firm that owns the coal field, DTEK Corp., also cited wartime restrictions on publishing details on strategic infrastructure.

The miners spent a recent morning of digging scattered throughout 40 miles of passages. Russian missiles have struck nearby communities, and should the towns between the mine and the front lines fall, there is little to separate the Russian troops from these workers.

Dmytro, a third-generation miner, led a crew of 157 before the war. A third of them have since enlisted as soldiers.

''We have to stop the occupiers from reaching us,'' he said. ''The Russians don't just steal our resources. They destroy everything in their path.''

Farther east, the onslaught unleashed by the invading army has laid waste to Ukraine's Donbas region, razing entire cities to the ground. Thousands of mine employees fled.

As it seeks to reactivate the economies in seized territories, Russia may try to restart some mining and steel production '-- as it has appeared to do in one of the two major steel plants in captured Mariupol. It's likely to face significant logistical hurdles, though, including a lack of access to previous buyers. While seizure of reserves may help achieve a war goal '-- to weaken pro-Western Ukraine '-- few predict Russia will be willing or able to make the large-scale investments required to extract the minerals.

Those assumptions are based in part on what Russia did with mines captured in 2014. Within a year or so, production was broadly curtailed, largely because Ukraine refused to buy coal from the occupied territories, and because Russia has its own abundant reserves. Moscow has also sought to flood some captured coal mines to render them useless should Ukraine regain lost territory.

DTEK chief executive Maxim Timchenko doesn't think the Russians really need these raw materials. ''They are just trying to destroy our economy,'' he said.

But such losses, if permanent, would compel what's left of Ukraine to realign its economy. The possible upside: a modernization that could make its dated steel plants more efficient and greener. Early estimates suggest the price tag for rebuilding the broader economy range upward of $750 billion.

Some economic experts suggest the war's longer-term impact could be blunted even if Ukraine were to cede significant land, as long as it were to fully embrace the technology and service sectors that helped fuel growth in recent years and expand its pursuit of alternative energies.

Still, it would face a massive task. Ukraine's more recent attempt to modernize its energy grid has been upended by war. Almost half its renewable energies plants '-- including 89 percent of its wind farms '-- are located in seized territory or conflict zones. More than half of its wind farms are shut down.

Any rebuilding effort with large-scale foreign investment would also probably require a true end to the fighting '-- as opposed to another protracted but contained conflict with Russia, as was seen in 2014.

''Not only will Ukraine have lost a lot of its territory and its resources, but it would be constantly vulnerable to another onslaught by Russia,'' said Jacob Kirkegaard, a fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. ''No one in their right mind, a private company, would invest in the rest of Ukraine if this were to become a frozen conflict.''

Anastacia Galouchka contributed to this report.

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 21:07

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:43

Lime, a popular electric scooter and bike rental service, has announced it will be implementing a ''no-go zone'' around a crosswalk painted with a large Pride flag mural in Spokane, Washington. The crosswalk has become the center of much discussion after the arrest of multiple teens for making skid marks on the painted pavement.

On June 6, the Spokane Police Department announced the arrest of three teenagers on charges of 1st Degree Malicious Mischief, all in relation to the alleged vandalism of a Pride flag-painted crosswalk at the intersection of Howard Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard.

According to the press release, ''911 received a complaint advising multiple subjects on scooters were causing damage to the newly painted Pride mural.''

ðŸ"¸'ðŸŒðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸ TEENS ARRESTED FOR HATE CRIME AFTER DRIVING SCOOTER OVER PRIDE MURALThe 3 teens, two of them unnamed as they're underage, were arrested in Spokane, Washington, and charged with 'malicious mischief' after their scooters left tire marks on a pride mural they rode over.'... pic.twitter.com/KdKTkESQzH

'-- Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 8, 2024The release continued: ''Officers observed widespread damage as black scuff marks consistent with scooter wheels were observed across the entirety of the mural. The area is clearly marked to keep traffic away as it was just re-painted to repair previous damage.''

Attached to the release were two photos demonstrating the extent of the damage, both of which showed faint black marks on the street painting consistent with thin tire marks.

Photo credit: Spokane Police DepartmentThe alleged vandalism, which was claimed by many to be motivated by homophobia, resulted in an outpouring of condemnation from Spokane's LGBT community and those purporting to be LGBT allies.

One journalist from a local media station, Adam Schwager, went viral after complaining that he had witnessed other teenagers running over the pride mural crosswalk while he was doing on-site reporting.

''A group of five to six kids just started doing donuts and creating skid marks on the Pride Mural. Right in front of me as we're reporting on three people getting arrested for doing the same thing last night,'' Schwager said, accompanying his post with a video of minors riding on what appeared to be rented Lime scooters.

A group of five to six kids just starting doing donuts and creating skid marks on the Pride Mural. Right in front of me as we're reporting on three people getting arrested for doing the same thing last night.@KHQLocalNews pic.twitter.com/FMXGAg77fx

'-- Adam Schwager (@schwagerTV) June 6, 2024But the arrest, along with the seemingly minimal damage caused to the crosswalk mural, has also prompted widespread mockery on social media.

Many users on X (formerly Twitter) posted in support of the teens arrested, while others questioned why a mural had been painted at a busy intersection if it was never intended to be scuffed by tire marks.

''we're going to paint something on the road and if you use that part of the road like you use any other part of the road, you're going to jail'' is just insane and retarded https://t.co/UcmT1xaHPm

'-- pagliacci the hated ðŸŒ' (@Slatzism) June 8, 2024While discussion surrounding the incident continues to rage on, the scooter rental company at the center of the alleged ''acts of vandalism'' has now issued a statement.

''All of us at Lime condemn these vile acts in no uncertain terms,'' Lime Director of Government Relations Hayden Harvey told The National Desk. ''At a time when our teams at Lime are beginning pride celebrations around the globe, it is disturbing to see the hate taking place in Spokane.''

Lime has now implemented a ''no-go zone'' over the crosswalk, meaning scooters driven over the mural will be remotely shut down. According to the company's website, entering a ''no-go zone'' will cause a Lime vehicle to ''gradually come to a stop,'' forcing a rider to walk their scooter until it is outside the zone.

The incident in Spokane is not the first time an individual has been arrested or investigated for ''defacing'' a pride mural painted on the street.

In February, a 19-year-old from Clearwater, Florida, was arrested after being caught on video doing ''burnouts'' with his truck on a pride crosswalk in Delray Beach. Dylan Brewer turned himself into the Delray Beach Police Department after the video began to circulate online. He was charged with felony criminal mischief over $1000 and reckless driving.

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Mon, 10 Jun 2024 20:22

Coles customers will only be able to purchase two cartons of eggs at any one time, the supermarket giant has announced.

The move is in response to a supply shortage caused by the recent outbreak of the bird flu strain H7N3.

The highly pathogenic H7N3 strain of bird flu has been detected on five egg farms in Victoria's southwest with more than half a million chickens euthanised in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.

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WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Avian flu hits egg supplies across the country.

The two egg carton limit is across its stores nationally, except for those outlets in Western Australia.

Coles has confirmed the restrictions will only be temporary.

Coles have placed restrictions on eggs, limiting customers to two cartons per person after the outbreak of Bird Flu in Victoria. Credit: AP ''We are working closely with all of our suppliers to ­ensure eggs remain available for our customers, and we are providing support to the industry in responding to the avian flu cases in Victoria,'' a Coles spokesman said.

The move came two days after bird flu was found at another Victorian farm '-- bringing the total of farms affected by the virus in recent weeks to five.

At two Victorian farms operated by Avgo and Surf Coast Eggs Farms in Meredith and Terang, 500,000 birds were euthanised after testing for two different strains on May 22.

The World Health Organisation has confirmed Australia's first human infection probably came from India in early March.

Victoria's chief veterinary officer Graeme Cooke said the newest detection was not unexpected.

''It's why our reasonable and risk-based restricted and control areas are in place and shows that Agriculture Victoria's comprehensive and ongoing surveillance activities are working well to date,'' he said.

Avian influenza is a viral disease of birds and is found across the globe.

If poultry contract the disease it can spread between birds or when contaminated poultry products, feed, equipment or other items are moved between sites.

The avian influenza virus can survive for long periods in droppings, respiratory secretions, water, feathers, eggs, and meat.

Authorities are confident they can get on top of the outbreak quickly and consumers should be assured it is still safe to eat eggs, Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said.

''There's no risk of contaminated eggs getting into the system, the supply system,'' Senator Watt said on Monday

''It's also important to remember that the strain of avian flu that we see in Victoria is not the particularly deadly strain that we have seen in other countries around the world, that's the way we intend to keep it.''

Stressful events can cause feelings of worry and unease, especially where there are levels of uncertainty involved, but there are things you can do to take care of yourself.

Woolworths and Aldi do not have limits on egg purchases and no other national stores have publicised limits.

Is your local Coles affected by the egg shortage?NSWColes customers can now only buy a maximum of two egg cartons.

VictoriaColes customers can now only buy a maximum of two egg cartons.

South AustraliaColes customers can now only buy a maximum of two egg cartons.

QueenslandColes customers can now only buy a maximum of two egg cartons.

Western AustraliaNo Coles store is affected.

ACTColes customers can now only buy a maximum of two egg cartons.

Northern TerritoryColes customers can now only buy a maximum of two egg cartons.

TasmaniaColes customers can now only buy a maximum of two egg cartons.

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'-- With AAP