Google, Soros, & Gates-Fund Media Outlet ‘Project Syndicate’ Publishes Op-Eds For China’s State Media.

Project Syndicate – a media outlet that counts funding and written contribution from George Soros, Bill Gates, the United Nations, and Google – is engaged in “media partnership” deals with several Chinese state-run media outlets, The National Pulse can today reveal.

The globalist propaganda outlet – founded in 1995 – has also been lauded by the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with its Twitter account praising the outlet’s content defending genocide in Xinjiang as “objective and informative.”

Project Syndicate published op-eds and analysis from “prominent political leaders, policymakers, scholars, business leaders, and civic activists” and partners with non-western media outlets to amplify their spread.

“News organizations in developed countries provide financial contributions for the rights to Project Syndicate commentaries, which enables us to offer these rights for free, or at subsidized rates, to newspapers and other media in the developing world,” the outlet summarizes.

Among the state-controlled media outlets Project Syndicate partners with, however, are China Global Television Network (CGTN), China Daily, and Global Times.

Together, these sites have published nearly 2,000 articles from the outlet, including content praising the Chinese Communist Party and attacking the U.S. and populism. What’s more, the Chinese state-run media outlets appear to exploit Project Syndicate content for legitimacy, often burying the fact that the content was obtained through Project Syndicate at the bottom of articles:

https://thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/google-soros-gates-fund-project-syndicate-linked-to-ccp/

Pornhub CEO’s $20 Million Mansion Goes Up In Flames, Police Suspect Arson

The mansion, still under construction, features 8 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, an art gallery, a gym, and 9 parking spots.

Police in Montreal, Canada are investigating after the unfinished 8 bedroom, 11 bathroom mansion of Pornhub CEO Feras Antoon went up in flames over the weekend. The mansion was still under construction, though Antoon recently placed it on the market for an impressive $19.8 million Canadian.

The fire was reported on Sunday night, and ultimately required more than 80 firefighters until 2:30 a.m. the next day to stop the blaze. Neighbors were evacuated from their premises for fear the fire would spread. Police say that after the fire subsided, arson investigators were sent in to determine whether the disastrous fire was set intentionally.

“Police officers who arrived on site were able to see that the fire began inside the residence,” Montreal police media relations officer Julien Lévesque told Vice. “Earlier this morning… our arson squad from Montreal police took charge of the investigation. They were onsite this morning to analyze all the scene, meet some witnesses to try to understand what was the cause and the circumstances of the beginning of this fire.”

Antoon refused to speak to the media at length, citing the police investigation into the cause of the fire. “The residence was under construction. I am grateful that my family and I and our neighbours are safe. Out of respect for the ongoing police investigation, I will not be commenting further.”

Prior to the fire, local media expressed incredulity about the status of the luxury home. Antoon purchased the property with cash in 2016 for only $2.3 million, and began building the mansion. Still unfinished, Antoon put the mansion on the market for nearly $20 million, and nobody involved with the original purchase or construction spoke to local media when asked why the 61,130 square foot property was placed on the market.

“The imposing castle would have up to eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms and nine parking spaces. A piano room with an art gallery and a gym are also included in the description of the many rooms,” reported TVA Nouvelles, a French-language media company based in Montreal. “‘The exterior is almost finished as well as the interior partitions. This is a unique opportunity to acquire the mansion at this point and complement the proposed design or customize it to your own taste,’ reads the Royal LePage website.” The property was also planned to have multiple stories, with multiple elevators for the resident’s convenience.

For more than a year, Pornhub has faced allegations of willfully ignoring the presence of child pornography on the explicit website. As National File reported, in March of last year, “Pornhub admitted that ‘cases of children in their videos’ constitute ‘less than one percent of its content.’ As the website has 6.8 million uploads yearly, this could mean that the total number of child rape videos on the website could be as high as 68,000 per year.”

https://nationalfile.com/pornhub-ceos-20-million-mansion-goes-up-in-flames-police-suspect-arson/

Biden to Mandate $15 Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors

President Joe Biden on Tuesday will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their workers at least $15 an hour.

Federal agencies on Jan. 20, 2022, must include a $15 minimum wage in all new contract solicitations. By March 30 of next year, all agencies will need to implement the minimum wage into new contracts and into existing contractors when the parties exercise their option to extend such contracts, which often occurs annually, according to the White House.

The order will also stipulate an indexing of the minimum wage to an inflation measure, which means that contractors will have to compensate their lowest-paid workers even more in the coming years.

Another piece revokes former President Donald Trump’s executive order which allowed outfitters and guides operating on federal lands more flexibility in what they paid their workers. Those companies will be forced to pay their workers at least $15 an hour under Biden’s order.

The White House is alleging the order “will promote economy and efficiency in federal contracting, providing value for taxpayers by enhancing worker productivity and generating higher-quality work by boosting workers’ health, morale, and effort.”

It also claims the order will reduce turnover, absenteeism, and supervisory costs.

“As a result of raising the minimum wage, the federal government’s work will be done better and faster,” it said in a statement.

When Biden was vice president, then-President Barack Obama issued an order requiring federal contractors to pay workers $10.10 an hour, with the wage indexed to inflation. The rate at present is $10.95 an hour.

The order will impact hundreds of thousands of federal contract workers, according to the Biden administration. An estimated 5 million workers are on contract with the federal government, according to New York University professor Paul Light.

Biden and congressional Democrats tried to raise the minimum wage for all U.S. workers to $15 an hour earlier this year, but were stymied by the Senate’s top rules expert.

https://www.ntd.com/biden-to-mandate-15-minimum-wage-for-federal-contractors_603903.html

Iranian and American ships avoid NEAR MISSES in tense Persian Gulf encounter, says US Navy

The US Navy has claimed there were two near misses between Iranian and American vessels in the Persian Gulf earlier this month, accusing Tehran’s ships of “unsafe and unprofessional” conduct in the waters.

Speaking on Tuesday, Commander Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the US Navy’s Middle East-based Fifth Fleet, told the Associated Press that there had been two incidents of “unsafe maneuvers” by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In a video published by the US Navy, the Iranian Harth support ship appears to cut in front of the United States Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) ‘Monomoy’ on April 2, causing the American vessel to suddenly stop with its engines smoking

Rebarich said the USCGC ‘Wrangell’ was also subjected to the same aggressive behavior.

“The US crews issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio, five short blasts from the ships’ horns, and while the [Iranian] Harth 55 responded to the bridge-to-bridge radio queries, they continued the unsafe maneuvers,” the spokeswoman said.

She added that the Iranian vessel finally moved away from the US ships after about three hours of being issued warnings, with the Americans allegedly carrying out further defensive maneuvers.

Iran has not commented on the incident.

Rebarich described the encounter as the first “unsafe and unprofessional” actions involving Iran since April 15, 2020. In previous years, the US Navy has recorded considerably more such alleged incidents, notably 35 in 2016.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard sits under the control of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with the president acting as second-in-command.

The terse naval movements took place as negotiators in Vienna discussed the return of both the US and Iran to the 2015 nuclear pact, which put limits on the latter’s atomic ambitions. Relations between the two countries grew considerably strained during President Donald Trump’s administration, with the US leader pulling America out of the 2015 deal and subjecting Iran to crippling sanctions.

https://www.rt.com/news/522269-iran-usa-vessels-miss-persian/

Canadian government accused of ‘assault’ on free speech over proposal to police videos posted on social media

Critics of Canada’s Liberal government are accusing it of mounting an ‘assault’ on free speech after it proposed modifications to a broadcasting law that would enable it to regulate user-generated video content on social media.

At the heart of the controversy is ‘Bill C-10’, an amendment to the Canadian Broadcasting Act (1991) that purports to give the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) oversight abilities over online streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.

When the Trudeau government introduced the bill, it contained language exempting content created by individuals. But that clause was removed by a parliamentary committee during the bill’s final review stages on Friday, creating an avenue for the CRTC to treat YouTube videos and TikTok posts uploaded by Canadian users as ‘programs’ – the same way it does broadcast networks.

The move “doesn’t just infringe on free expression, it constitutes a full-blown assault upon it and, through it, the foundations of democracy,” according to former CRTC commissioner Peter Menzies.

“It’s difficult to contemplate the levels of moral hubris, incompetence or both that would lead people to believe such an infringement of rights is justifiable,” Menzies told the National Post newspaper.

The bill’s critics said the changes – made by the Liberal-dominated House of Commons Heritage committee – were especially alarming in light of recent proposals by Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault to give Ottawa the power to order platforms to take down content deemed objectionable.

At present, online services like Netflix and Amazon Prime are not subject to Canadian content rules.

A spokesperson for Guilbeault told the Toronto Star that the bill would still “exempt individual users from being considered broadcasters” and the clause was simply removed to allow for better regulation of things like music playlists.

“Where content uploaded by individual users is curated by a platform, and is deemed of significant impact, that platform, not the users, could be subject to the Broadcasting Act,” she told the paper.

But critics aren’t buying it. Cara Zweibel, fundamental freedoms programs director at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, contends that the legislation “opens up a regulatory door” for Ottawa to implement future regulations on user content.

https://www.rt.com/news/522246-canadian-government-free-speech-assault/

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Qualifies For Yet Another $11 Billion In Stock Options

Tesla's quarterly report on Monday - the one that was helped along by more ZEV credit sales and the company daytrading cryptocurrency - has triggered two options payouts to the tune of $11 billion for CEO Elon Musk.

Each of two new tranches of options gives Musk the option to buy 8.4 million shares of Tesla at $70 each, which is a more than 90% discount from the current market price.

The company said it incurred a $299 million expense related to Musk's pay package, "driven by an increase in market capitalization and a new operational milestone becoming probable," Reuters reported.

"The shares from four previous tranches, plus the fifth and sixth tranches, could generate a profit of nearly $34 billion, or almost $6 billion per tranche," the report continued.

We have documented over the last couple years the billions of dollars in compensation Tesla CEO Elon Musk has received as a result of - not production goals - but compensation awards tied to metrics like market cap, EBITDA, and basically the company's stock price going up.

As a result, Musk saw his net worth rise over $100 billion in 2020.

Many who were critical of Musk's compensation plan said it offered little incentive for the company to reach profitability, only to grow in size of market cap. Back in 2018, even the New York Times called Musk hitting his pay plan goals "laughably impossible".

And yet, here we are…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-qualifies-yet-another-11-billion-stock-options

Denmark Arrests 6 Men for Allegedly Joining, Financing ISIS

COPENHAGEN, Denmark—Police in Denmark said Tuesday they have arrested six men who are suspected of joining and financing the ISIS terrorist group in Syria.

Two of those arrested, ages 29 and 30, allegedly traveled to Syria in 2014 where they were recruited by the terrorist group. They are suspected of violating Danish terror laws and, if found guilty, they face up to six years in jail. The 29-year-old man tried to reenter Syria in 2015, police said in a statement.

Five of them are also suspected of sending money to financially support the group. One of them, the 29-year-old, allegedly transferred funds from 2013 to 2017.

Police said in a statement that they believed that the 29-year-old man used the four others as middlemen for the money transfers. If found guilty of financing a terror group, they face up to 10 years in prison.

None of the men were identified in line with Danish practice.

The arrests of the men, ranging in age from 27 to 35, were made in Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city. Police and the Danish Security Intelligence Agency took part in the arrests.

https://www.ntd.com/denmark-arrests-6-men-for-allegedly-joining-financing-isis_603914.html

Harry, Meghan Join the Bidens, Kamala Harris, for Celebrity-Studded Multi-Network Vaccine Benefit Concert

Meghan and Prince Harry will join the Bidens and Kamala Harris in headlining a Live Aid-style benefit concert, dubbed “VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World”, to call on global leaders to “commit to vaccine equity” and ship coronavirus jabs to developing nations.

The famously woke couple — who relocated to California after stepping away from their duties as members of the British Royal Family to pursue money-making projects and left-wing activism — has been tapped by the non-profit Global Citizen to serve as campaign chairs for their world-wide vaccine push.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will both appear at the concert in Los Angeles, which will be pre-taped and streamed online and aired on American broadcasters ABC, FOX, and CBS on May 8th.

The star-studded event will also feature appearances from President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden as well as from Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a statement, Harry and Meghan said: “Over the past year, our world has experienced pain, loss, and struggle—together. Now we need to recover and heal—together.

“We can’t leave anybody behind. We will all benefit, we will all be safer, when everyone everywhere has equal access to the vaccine. We must pursue equitable vaccine distribution, and in that, restore faith in our common humanity. This mission couldn’t be more critical or important.”

A slew of American celebrities is set to attend VAX LIVE, including Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn, and Sean Penn, who will give speeches on the importance of “vaccine equity”.

Musical performances are also planned by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, among others, with singer Selena Gomez hosting.

VAX Live has partnered with the White House for its so-called “We Can Do This” initiative, in order to “help reduce vaccine hesitancy” and to encourage mask-wearing and social distancing measures.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković of Croatia are also planned to attend the concert.

President Macron said: “Last autumn, I called for the sharing of the doses ordered by our countries, to ensure both solidarity and health security.”

“Today I call on all my colleagues to join this momentum and make a commitment at VAX LIVE.”

Global Citizen said that the concert will call on governments around the world to donate $19 billion in doses of coronavirus vaccines and other resources to poorer nations, echoing calls from the recently installed head of the World Trade Organization Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as well as from American billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/04/27/harry-meghan-join-the-bidens-kamala-for-celebrity-studded-multi-network-vaccine-benefit-concert/

Kamala Harris: Violence Against LGBTQ People and Afro-Descendants a ‘Root Cause’ of Migration Crisis

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday highlighted violence against minority groups as a “root cause” of migration that she wanted to tackle in Central America.

Harris hosted a video conference call with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei Tuesday afternoon to discuss the migrant crisis, calling out violence against “women, Indigenous people, LGBTQ people, and Afro-descendants” in the country.

She said:

There are also longstanding issues that are often called the “root causes” of immigration. We are looking at the issue of poverty and the lack, therefore, of economic opportunities; the issue of extreme weather conditions and the lack of climate adaptation; as well as corruption and the lack of good governance; and violence against women, Indigenous people, LGBTQ people, and Afro-descendants.

Harris said she wanted to help Guatemala after describing the region as a source of violence against minorities and the host of poverty and corruption.

“We want to work with you to address both the acute causes as well as the root causes in a way that will bring hope to the people of Guatemala that there will be an opportunity for them if they stay at home,” she said.

Harris said the United States had a responsibility to improve living conditions for Guatemala.

“Part of the spirit behind our work is that, of course, the Western Hemisphere is our collective home, and the people in it and our neighbors — including the people of Guatemala — are nearby and we have a responsibility, therefore, to engage,” she said.

Harris is expected to travel to Guatemala in June to further highlight the migrant crisis after President Joe Biden put her in charge of diplomacy with Central American countries to help stop the flood of migrants coming to the Southern border.

The vice president has repeatedly claimed she is not in charge of the overall migrant crisis at the border but the “root causes” in countries like Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

“The president has asked Secretary Mayorkas to address what is going on at the border… I have been asked to lead the issue of dealing with root causes in the Northern Triangle,” she said at an event earlier this month.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/04/27/kamala-harris-violence-against-lgbtq-people-and-afro-descendants-a-root-cause-of-migration-crisis/

Chief of Border Patrol Bucks Biden, Will Say ‘Alien’ Until Law Changes

A law enforcement source, speaking on a condition of anonymity, provided Breitbart Texas with a memorandum authored by Rodney S. Scott, Chief of the United States Border Patrol. In the April memo, Scott advises Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller that he cannot endorse a new communications and vocabulary policy set in motion by the Biden Administration.

The policy change requires Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to refrain from the use of the terms “alien, unaccompanied alien children, undocumented alien, illegal alien, and assimilation” in internal and external communications. The terms must be substituted with “non-citizen, non-citizen unaccompanied children, undocumented non-citizen, and civic integration.” The policy went into effect on April 19.

Chief Scott’s memorandum recommends waiting for the enactment of United States Citizenship Act of 2021 which would remove the prohibited terminology from the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under current immigration law, the term “alien” is legally defined as a foreign national present in the United States.

Chief Scott states in his memorandum that he would not undermine the effort to implement and enforce the new policy but had reservations about politicizing his agency. He explains his rationale:

The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) is and must remain an apolitical federal law enforcement agency. Over the years, many outside forces on both extremes of the political spectrum have intentionally, or unintentionally politicized our agency and our mission. Despite every attempt by USBP leadership to ensure that all official messaging remained consistent with law, fact, and evidence, there is no doubt that the reputation of the USBP has suffered because of the many outside voices. Mandating the use of terms which are inconsistent with law has the potential to further erode public trust in our government institutions.

Despite Scott’s objection, the policy was ultimately put in place and remains in effect. It will not, however, impact official reports and legal documents that must contain the terms codified in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/04/27/exclusive-chief-of-border-patrol-bucks-biden-will-say-alien-until-law-changes/

‘Able-Bodied’ Is Offensive, Claims Disability Charity

A charity for the disabled has urged us to avoid using words like ‘able-bodied’ lest it offend people who aren’t, er, as bodily able as people who are able-bodied. This is insanity – and I shall demonstrate it why it is insanity in just a moment.

According to the Telegraph:

A list of appropriate and inappropriate terms for those with disabilities has been released by Leonard Cheshire, adding that the language used is “vital”.

The charity, set up in 1948 by RAF group captain Leonard Cheshire, said that people should say “non-disabled” rather than “able-bodied.”

The term “able-bodied” is seen by some people in the disabled community as implying that all people with disabilities do not have “able bodies”.

“Blind” should also be avoided, according to their list, with people urged to use “person with visual impairment” instead.

To help the campaign, the charity has enlisted the support of disabled rapper Kray-Z Legz who is quoted by the Telegraph thus:

Language is a powerful thing and it can be very degrading. I have personally been bullied, stared at and spoken to like a child. I can’t count the times somebody has used offensive words to describe me, even though they are being genuinely curious and friendly.

And there, ladies and gentlemen, you see perfectly illustrated why this confected debate about permissible language is stupid, dangerous and counterproductive.

If, as Kray-Z Legz says, the people using these ‘offensive’ words are ‘genuinely curious and friendly’ then what, exactly, is his problem?

Taking offence is a matter of personal choice. No one has to take offence about anything. Normally, or at least traditionally, it’s a function of the offence-giver’s perceived intention. That is, if you think somebody is deliberately having a go at you then you will take umbrage. If, on the other hand, you think their intentions are good and that they merely misspoke or if maybe they are someone much older using phraseology which was acceptable for their own generation but which is now considered politically incorrect, then you generally give them a lot more leeway.

Why take offence when none is intended? That way madness — not to mention the dirty, passive-aggressive trick of cry-bullying — lies.

As Kray-Z Legz rightly says, ‘language is a powerful thing.’ Which is precisely why the kind of woke activists who push for these linguistic changes are so relentlessly eager to take control of it. By continually changing the rules on what terms are and aren’t acceptable, they keep ordinary people treading on eggshells, never knowing quite what they can and can’t say, ever trepidatious of giving offence.

It really has much more to do with power politics than it does protecting vulnerable people from hurt feelings…

…that and generating fake controversies in order to raise your charity’s public profile.

Well if that was the intention Leonard Cheshire, I’m certainly not playing your game. Stick to the good and important work you were founded for, and skip the politics. Next time I see someone rattling a collection tin for your charity you’re getting nothing from me. I have every respect for the disabled. None at all for bullying wokerati dictating what language I can and can’t use and trying to make me feel guilty when I’ve done nothing wrong.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/04/27/able-bodied-is-offensive-claims-disability-charity/

Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer confirmed to cause brain damage, neurodegenerative disease

A new report has found that the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injection from Pfizer and BioNTech causes long-term neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Published in the journal Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, the paper reveals that the Pfizer jab has the potential to induce prion-based diseases, which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are neurodegenerative diseases that damage the brain.

“The current RNA based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were approved in the U.S. using an emergency order without extensive long term safety testing,” the report reveals, referring to the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in the jabs that has never before been administered to humans.

mRNA technology, it turns out, permanently alters human DNA, turning what used to be a human being into a chimera-like human hybrid being.

The genetically modified (GMO) proteins used in Pfizer’s Chinese Virus jab integrate themselves into the human genome where they remain permanently. There is no going back once you get jabbed, in other words.

This is confirmed by the National Library of Medicine, by the way, which determined that the impact of mRNA is irreversible. Thus, anyone who gets an experimental mRNA injection is a human guinea pig who is taking a massive health risk.

“The RNA sequence of the vaccine as well as the spike protein target interaction were analyzed for the potential to convert intracellular RNA binding proteins TAR DNA binding protein (TDP-43) and Fused in Sarcoma (FUS) into their pathologic prion conformations,” the report goes on to explain.

TDP-43, by the way, is the protein believed to cause dementia, ALS and Alzheimer’s. Similarly, the FUS protein is linked to ALS and Hereditary Essential Tremors, according to the Human Genome Database.

https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-04-27-covid19-vaccine-pfizer-brain-damage-neurodegenerative-disease.html

https://scivisionpub.com/pdfs/covid19-rna-based-vaccines-and-the-risk-of-prion-disease-1503.pdf

Freudian slip - Referring to Vaxxers - "They're running out of people who want to be EUTHANIZED"

https://www.bitchute.com/video/cfDocVObAmAG/

Are central banks directly financing governments or just pumping up asset prices?

This morning has seen policy announcements from two of the world’s main central banks. First from Japan which has taken policy further than anyone else and then from the world’s oldest central bank the Riksbank of Sweden. However there was a claim yesterday in The National that the UK and the Bank of England in particular has taken things even further than the Bank of Japan.

When it came to the pandemic, the Bank of England side-stepped QE and started buying government bonds (debt) directly. This has provided the money needed to support the UK economy during the pandemic.

This is from a comment piece by Jim Osborne of the Scottish Banking and Finance Group and it continued in the same vein.

While the Bank of England has been directly financing the UK Government, it has also provided loan guarantees to the private banks to encourage them to lend to businesses and support them through the prolonged lockdown of the economy.

A sort of doubling down on the direct financing front. and then we have something which even the most extreme central bankers may balk at.

The Bank of England has always been able to provide direct finance to the Government – it is the primary function of a central bank.

The first bit is true it can but if something is a primary function you might expect it to be used whereas in fact it has not done so since the early part of 2009. You may remember the media furore over the potential re-activation of the Ways and Means account in April of last year. The media have been much quieter about the fact that the amount there has remained at a nominal £370 million and in fact has been that since the spring/summer of 2009. It was used when the credit crunch hit for a few months and rose to just under £20 billion but has not been used since.

As for Bank of England QE purchases of which there will be another £1.48 billion this afternoon these are not direct financing either.It follows a rule that it does not buy a bond for a Beatles week ( 8 days for non Beatles fans). So it is smoothing the road but it is not directly financing the government as claimed.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/are-central-banks-directly-financing-governments-or-just-pumping-up-asset-prices/

Canada introduces bill to police all internet speech

Desperate to transform his country into a clone of communist China, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has introduced new legislation that would censor the Canadian internet and make everything on it politically correct.

Citing the threat of “hate speech” and “hurtful” language, particularly against politicians like himself, Trudeau wants to force all social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, to start immediately removing all content that someone on the left might feel is “offensive.”

“Once a publication is flagged, it will have to be taken down within 24 hours of having it being flagged,” confirmed Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, who announced the plan during a recent videoconference with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

A new regulatory body would be established on the taxpayers’ dime to police all internet content, Guilbeault added. Tech giants that refuse or fail to comply would incur financial penalties that would have to be paid to Trudeau and his cronies.

“My job is to ensure the safety and security of the Canadian population. That’s what I’m here for,” Guilbeault stated during the bill’s official unveiling.

“I think it’s going to be a really good remedy to a number of problems, but it won’t solve everything. One of the issues I’ve learned, looking at different models, is you shouldn’t try to tackle everything from the get-go.”

Nothing hurts a population more than to have its government decide which speech is “acceptable” and which is not. Yet, Guilbeault says that putting a stranglehold on Canadian free speech will “ultimately … create a safer environment for all people online and not just for a handful.”

Trudeau already invited communist Chinese troops to train on American soil – why not also stamp out Canadian free speech?

As you may recall, Trudeau welcomed with open arms communist Chinese troops, which were brought in to Canada to train. It only makes sense, then, for Trudeau to launch a Chinese-style censorship scheme, which will soon be taken up for a vote by the Canadian parliament.

According to Guilbeault, too many Canadian politicians have been “retreating from public service” because some people are saying mean things about them online. To ensure that their feelings are not hurt ever again, Guilbeault and Trudeau want to regulate all online speech to create a “safer environment” for politicians.

https://patriotrising.com/canada-introduces-bill-to-police-all-internet-speech/

'Crooked' Massachusetts mayor, 29, appears in court charged with posing as tech entrepreneur to swindle $230,000 from investors to spend on adult entertainment, Mercedes, jewels, luxury travel and designer clothes

Adult entertainment. A personal trainer. A helicopter tour of historic mansions in Newport, Rhode Island.

Those were some of the things a former young Massachusetts mayor bought with $230,000 from investors who believed they were supporting the creation of a smartphone app, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday.

That was before 23-year-old Jasiel Correia won the race for Fall River mayor in 2015 and turned his administration into a 'government of extortion and bribery,' Assistant US Attorney Zach Hafer said.

The fraud and corruption case against Correia kicked off in Boston's federal court with the prosecutor seeking to portray the now 29-year-old as a con artist who shrewdly stole from investors to bankroll his grand lifestyle and build his ambitious political career.

'This is a case about lying, cheating, stealing and shakedowns,' Hafer, chief of the U.S. attorney's office's criminal division, said in his opening statement.

Correia is charged with stealing about two-thirds of almost $400,000 he got from seven investors for his app called SnoOwl, which was designed to help businesses connect to consumers.

Prosecutors say that as mayor, Correia also extorted hundreds of thousands of dollars from marijuana businesses seeking to operate in Fall River and forced his chief of staff to give him half of her salary in order to keep her city job.

It's the first high-profile trial to get underway in Boston's federal court since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Only 26 people - including 14 jurors - are allowed in the courtroom, and plexiglass barriers have been installed around the judge's bench, the witness stand and between the lawyers' tables.

Correia, wearing a dark suit and tie, walked into the courthouse with his mother and fiancé.

http://www.hideoutnow.com/2021/04/crooked-massachusetts-mayor-29-appears.html

Facebook Stopped Employees From Reading An Internal Report About Its Role In The Insurrection. You Can Read It Here.

Last Thursday, BuzzFeed News revealed that an internal Facebook report concluded that the company had failed to prevent the “Stop the Steal” movement from using its platform to subvert the election, encourage violence, and help incite the Jan. 6 attempted coup on the US Capitol.

Titled “Stop the Steal and Patriot Party: The Growth and Mitigation of an Adversarial Harmful Movement,” the report is one of the most important analyses of how the insurrectionist effort to overturn a free and fair US presidential election spread across the world’s largest social network — and how Facebook missed critical warning signs. The report examines how the company was caught flat-footed as the Stop the Steal Facebook group supercharged a movement to undermine democracy, and concludes the company was unprepared to stop people from spreading hate and incitement to violence on its platform.

The report's authors, who were part of an internal task force studying harmful networks, published the document to Facebook's internal message board last month, making it broadly available to company employees. But after BuzzFeed News revealed the report's existence last week, many employees were restricted from accessing it.

“Is there a reason the Workplace Note has been taken down?” one employee wrote on the message board after the report became restricted. “I suspect employees would prefer to read it for themselves and draw their own conclusions.”

“It’s pretty common that critical writing about the company gets removed under some trumped-up excuse if it gains any internal or external traction, it’s not about the public visibility but the morale effects I imagine,” another worker said.

“I suspect employees would prefer to read it for themselves and draw their own conclusions.”

Given the newsworthiness and historical significance of the report and its revelations about the events of Jan. 6, BuzzFeed News is publishing the full text below.

“The authors never intended to publish this as a final document to the whole company," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "They inadvertently published it to a broad audience and they simply restricted it to the internal working group it was intended for."

The spokesperson added that it was the authors who restricted access to the report.

The company has defended its work to protect the 2020 election. Last month in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that though the company had not caught all election interference before the insurrection, it had “made our services inhospitable to those who might do harm.”

“We are committed to keeping people safe on our services and to protecting free expression, and we work hard to set and enforce policies that meet those goals,” he wrote in prepared comments to that committee. “We will continue to invest extraordinary resources into content moderation, enforcement, and transparency.”

On Tuesday, Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy, is set to testify in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on algorithmic amplification on technology platforms alongside executives from YouTube and Twitter.

More

http://www.madnesshub.com/2021/04/facebook-stopped-employees-from-reading.html

Israel condemns 'preposterous' report accusing it of 'crimes against humanity' and 'apartheid' towards Palestinians

Human Rights Watch released a new 213-page report on Tuesday accusing Israel of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians and its own Arab minority

Israel has rejected the report but it has been welcomed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

The report comes just weeks after the International Criminal Court announced it would investigate war crimes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip

Israel has condemned a report by an international rights watchdog that accused the country of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians and its own Arab minority that amount to crimes against humanity.

Israel's foreign ministry said claims made in Human Rights Watch's report were 'both preposterous and false' and accused the New York-based organisation of harbouring an 'anti-Israeli agenda,' saying it had sought 'for years to promote boycotts against Israel'.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the 213-page report, published on Tuesday.

'It is urgent for the international community to intervene, including by making sure that their states, organisations, and companies are not contributing in any way to the execution of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine,' a statement from Abbas read.

HRW said the report is not aimed at comparing Israel with apartheid-era South Africa, but rather at assessing 'whether specific acts and policies' constitute apartheid as defined under international law.

The report's release comes just weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it would investigate war crimes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with the Israeli military and armed Palestinian groups including Hamas named as possible perpetrators.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9516049/Israel-condemns-report-accusing-crimes-against-humanity-apartheid-Palestinians.html

As Yemen War Intensifies Biden Set To Resume Weapons Sales

US President Joe Biden declared in February that the United States was seeking to end the Saudi-led coalition’s war on Yemen, which was promised to come with stopping offensive weapons sales to the Saudi Kingdom. Yet now it seems that this was all a facade.

Last week the New York Times reported that US officials had stated their intention to approve a 23 billion dollar weapons deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), finalized under the Trump administration. The weapons deal includes the sale of armed reaper drones and F-35 fighter jets to the UAE, which has played a large role in the war on Yemen, and for this reason the weapons sale was supposedly under review.

Whilst the ‘under review’ weapons deal with Saudi Arabia – worth almost 500 Billion primarily in armaments – is yet to be commented on by the Biden administration, an indication of any US government intention to stop the deal is absent.

In early February President Biden signaled that under his administration the US-Saudi relationship was heading towards a massive shift. Joe Biden stated that he sought to end the war in Yemen, responsible for the number one humanitarian crisis on the planet, asserting that US support for “offensive actions” would stop immediately.

We also heard from Biden that he was going to cancel “relevant arms sales” to the offensive actions they are now supposed to be opposed to. Yet unfortunately, as is the case with most career politicians, the language the US President used was extremely misleading.

Since Biden’s announcement of stopping US government support for Saudi offensive action against Yemen, the war has only escalated, and as Saudi Arabia’s fighter jets/drones carry out strikes near the cities of Ma’rib and Sanaa, the US has remained completely silent. This is because the US has an endless capacity for describing offensive actions as defensive in essence.

If the US government truly wished to end the offensive war in Yemen, then the immediate decision should have been to cancel all weapons sales to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Yet, the UAE can now look forward to being rewarded with high tech killer drones and the latest US fighter jet technology, clearly not to be used for defensive purposes.

The US has in practice removed Yemen’s Ansarallah, which controls the country’s capital Sanaa, from the designated terrorist list, yet this is just not good enough. The terrorist designation, as an 11th hour decision from the Trump administration, would have made it more difficult for international aid to find its way to the some 12 million impoverished children of Yemen, however the biggest obstacle still remains the illegal blockade.

The Saudi imposed blockade of Yemen’s Hodeidah Port and Sanaa Airport, with the complicity of the US, EU and UK, has destroyed the breadline to Yemen. The blockade is perhaps the single worst killer of Yemeni civilians and has driven the country’s population to the depths of extreme poverty by depriving them of the basic necessities needed for survival.

https://www.activistpost.com/2021/04/as-yemen-war-intensifies-biden-set-to-resume-weapons-sales.html

== Lee Camp: The CIA Has Been Taking Over for Decades — Even Former Presidents Tried to Warn Us

If you’re looking for proof the CIA and the whole cavalcade of other intelligence agencies working with them have gotten too big, look no further than the DNI’s latest report.

by Lee Camp

Princeton, New Jersey (Scheerpost) — December 22, 1963 — exactly one month after President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, former President Harry S. Truman published an op-ed in the Washington Post that most people, especially our perfumed ruling elite, wanted to ignore.

Truman, who signed the CIA into existence just after World War II, wrote:

I think it has become necessary to take another look at the purpose and operations of our Central Intelligence Agency—the CIA. […] For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas. …There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.”

Not only did that adorn the pages of the Washington Post one month after JFK’s death, Truman hand wrote the first draft just one week after JFK met up with a bunch of bullets in Dallas. Sure, one may wish Harry had sent his thoughts to John a month before the President’s televised execution. Maybe he could’ve sent a singing telegram or something. But let’s at least give Truman partial credit for the belated message.

Before his death, President Kennedy also held no love for the Central Intelligence Agency. Following the calamitous Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy said he wanted to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.”

Point being, clearly Truman, who created the CIA, and Kennedy, who met a mysterious untimely end by professional killers, knew the agency had run amok.

Yet the CIA is still here, bigger and filled with more Bond villains than ever, and now they have a whole cavalcade of other intelligence agencies working with them. The Intelligence Community just recently put out a report that showed that their component agencies are indeed working to surveil, harass, and attack an assortment of U.S. citizens.

This particular report from the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was written in consultation with the CIA, the FBI, the DIA, the DHS, and a partridge in a pear tree. (An evil, kinda dastardly partridge. Not a good partridge at all. Like the kind of partridge that would eat the last pickle and then put the jar back in the fridge, so that later when you’re excited to grab a delicious crispy pickle, there’s nothin’ there but a jar full of pickle urine. So yeah, the worst partridge.)

https://www.mintpressnews.com/cia-taking-over-decades-dni-report/276846/

The Global Deep State: A New World Order Brought to You by COVID-19

“A psychotic world we live in. The madmen are in power.”― Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle

For good or bad, COVID-19 has changed the way we navigate the world.

It is also redrawing the boundaries of our world (and our freedoms) and altering the playing field faster than we can keep up.

Owing in large part to the U.S. government’s deep-seated and, in many cases, top-secret alliances with foreign nations and global corporations, it has become increasingly obvious that we have entered into a new world order—a global world order—made up of international government agencies and corporations.

This powerful international cabal, let’s call it the Global Deep State, is just as real as the corporatized, militarized, industrialized American Deep State, and it poses just as great a threat to our rights as individuals under the U.S. Constitution, if not greater.

We’ve been inching closer to this global world order for the past several decades, but COVID-19, which has seen governmental and corporate interests become even more closely intertwined, has shifted this transformation into high gear.

Fascism has become a global menace.

It remains unclear whether the American Deep State (“a national-security apparatus that holds sway even over the elected leaders notionally in charge of it”) answers to the Global Deep State, or whether the Global Deep State merely empowers the American Deep State. However, there is no denying the extent to which they are intricately and symbiotically enmeshed and interlocked.

Consider the extent to which our lives and liberties are impacted by this international convergence of governmental and profit-driven corporate interests in the surveillance state, the military industrial complex, the private prison industry, the intelligence sector, the security sector, the technology sector, the telecommunications sector, the transportation sector, the pharmaceutical industry and, most recently, by the pharmaceutical-health sector.

All of these sectors are dominated by mega-corporations operating on a global scale and working through government channels to increase their profit margins. The profit-driven policies of these global corporate giants influence everything from legislative policies to economics to environmental issues to medical care

Global Disease

The COVID-19 pandemic has propelled us into a whole new global frontier. Those hoping to navigate this interconnected and highly technological world of contact tracing, vaccine passports and digital passes will find themselves grappling with issues that touch on deep-seated moral, political, religious and personal questions for which there may be no clear-cut answers.

We are about to find our ability to access, engage and move about in the world dependent on which camp we fall into: those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who have not.

https://www.activistpost.com/2021/04/the-global-deep-state-a-new-world-order-brought-to-you-by-covid-19.html

PM forces vote to make a Likud colleague justice minister; AG says it’s illegal

Unclear whether Israel has new justice minister after chaotic cabinet meeting; Netanyahu blocks Gantz from taking post, pushes nomination of ally, defies AG; High Court to convene

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called a cabinet vote that appointed one of his Likud allies as justice minister, in what Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit immediately rejected as an illegal violation of the premier’s coalition agreement with Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, which is itself anchored in Israeli law.

Gantz tried to block that vote, and Mandelblit warned that it was being held in breach of the law, but it went ahead and the appointment of Likud’s Ofir Akunis was approved by the ministers.

At the end of the virtual meeting, marked by shouting and screaming, it was not immediately clear whether Israel had a new justice minister, though Mandelblit, the government’s chief legal adviser, made clear his stance that the vote was invalid. Mandelblit shouted at Netanyahu that “you passed an illegal measure against the opinion of the attorney general – an unprecedented move. Minister Akunis is not Israel’s justice minister.”

Netanyahu soon after the vote insisted that Akunis had been appointed justice minister “legally and by a majority of votes,” but nonetheless indicated that the appointment was not final: He asked Mandelblit to seek a 48-hour delay from the High Court of Justice on the matter, “in order to try to reach an agreement between the sides.”

The High Court of Justice was slated to convene on Tuesday evening to rule on the matter.

Less than an hour before that session, Mandelblit issued his official stance to the court, saying Netanyahu and his backers in the cabinet had acted “knowingly” and “illegally” in pushing through Akunis’s appointment.

“There is no escape from issuing an order instructing the government to fill the position of justice minister without delay,” Mandelblit wrote.

Would-be prime minister Naftali Bennett, head of Yamina, responded to the chaos by warning, “The State of Israel is approaching an abyss of anarchy.”

Israel has been without a justice minister for nearly a month since Gantz’s term as interim justice minister ended at the end of beginning of April. The office has since been significantly constrained in its ability to operate, and various government panels, including the coronavirus cabinet, have also been brought to a standstill due to the vacancy.

The High Court convened on Sunday to hear a petition against the government over its failure to appoint a justice minister and gave ministers 48 hours to do so before it would be forced to intervene with its own ruling. Netanyahu notified the High Court that day that he would bring the issue of the justice minister before the cabinet but avoided making any additional commitments.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-court-to-convene-after-pm-gantz-fail-to-name-justice-minister-by-deadline/

China Exploits Lobbying Loophole to Dodge Disclosure

Huawei, TikTok hide multimillion-dollar lobbying operations on Capitol Hill

Chinese tech companies facing federal indictment and sanctions are exploiting a legal loophole to hide their army of Capitol Hill lobbyists from public scrutiny.

Chinese tech giants such as Huawei and Tiktok have spent millions of dollars hiring lobbyists to push their agenda in Congress in the last 10 years. But the companies—all of which are either owned or closely linked to the Chinese government—have avoided registering the vast majority of their lobbyists as foreign agents through a loophole.

Lobbyists for foreign entities must register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and disclose detailed information about their influence-peddling operations. Huawei, a telecommunications company facing multiple indictments, has spent more than $8 million to hire more than 20 lobbyists to work the Hill in the last decade; none of these lobbyists have registered as foreign agents connected to Huawei. Tiktok's parent, Bytedance, has also never filed FARA disclosures concerning its multimillion-dollar attempt to influence the federal government.

This unseen group of Chinese tech lobbyists has scored key victories. Tiktok lobbyists fought off Republican attempts to remove the popular short-video app from the app store in 2020. Without FARA registration, government watchdogs will struggle to track how these foreign corporations were able to extract concessions from a Beltway elite that is increasingly hostile to China.

"We've been quite concerned about the loophole for a long time," Mandy Smithberger, a director at the Project on Government Oversight, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Federal law exempts lobbyists from foreign agent registration "as long as the representation is not on behalf of a foreign government or foreign political party." Because they are only advocating on behalf of regime-linked companies, these foreign lobbyists only have to comply with federal Lobbying Disclosure Act requirements, which have far fewer transparency standards. Subjecting foreign tech lobbyists to FARA would force them to disclose a wide swath of information—every single pamphlet, email, and document that they send to members of Congress—and comply with stricter rules regarding campaign donations. Domestic lobbyists are able to keep most of that information secret, so long as they reveal their compensation and the issues they lobbied for.

The lobbying exemption was carved out in the 1990s to reduce red tape for the many foreign companies active in the United States, according to Smithberger. Companies such as Toyota and Rolex, the thinking went, were independent corporations rather than agents of a foreign government.

But while Huawei and Tiktok are nominally independent companies, the Chinese Communist Party exercises significant control over them through internal party committees and regulations. Those state ties raise the question of whether these tech companies are truly advocating for their own corporate interest or are lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.

"FARA certainly has a very Western interpretation of the lines between corporations and governments. It doesn't reflect how in some countries, those two are pretty synonymous," Smithberger said.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-exploits-lobbying-loophole-to-dodge-disclosure/

Washington Post ripped for ending Biden fact-checking database for rest of his term

100 days into Biden presidency, WaPo mothballs fact-checking 'database'

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler drew fierce criticism Monday after saying he did not plan to maintain a "database" for President Biden's falsehoods beyond his first 100 days in office.

"I have learned my lesson," Kessler tweeted. "'Learned my lesson' means who knows what the next four years will bring."

The Post famously maintained a database of former President Donald Trump's falsehoods during his entire term in office. Kessler called it a "wild ride."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-ripped-ending-biden-fact-checking-database

House Republicans press Biden ATF nominee for probe on whether Hunter Biden illegally bought gun

"You are not exempt from the law no matter who you are, even if your last name is Biden," the letter states.

More than 20 House Republicans have sent a letter to David Chipman, President Biden's nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, urging him to investigate an allegation that Hunter Biden falsified information on a background check to buy a firearm.

The letter, obtained by the Daily Caller, asks Chipman, should be confirmed, to publicly commit to investigating the matter involving President Biden's son.

The letter, written by Virginia GOP Rep. Bob Good, references a recent Politico story alleging Biden answered "no" to a question about drug use on an October 2018 firearms transaction record.

Five years earlier he was discharged from the Navy for cocaine use. Biden also admits in a recently published memoir to drug use.

"I write to ask that you publicly commit to investigate allegations that Hunter Biden falsified information during a background check in order to illegally obtain a firearm should you be confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives," the GOP lawmakers' letter states. "You are not exempt from the law no matter who you are, even if your last name is Biden."

Lying on a federal background check is a felony, punishable to a maximum10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/hunter-biden-could-face-federal-probe-allegedly-illegally-buying

WATCH: Biden says he may get ‘in trouble’ for answering reporters’ questions

President Joe Biden on Tuesday briefly answered a question from a reporter when he was in between events. He admitted, however, that answering those questions was going to get him “in trouble.”

One reporter could be heard asking the Commander in Chief about the devastating surge in COVID-19 cases in India.

Then, Biden said, “I’m sorry, this is the last question I’ll take. Then, I’m really in trouble.”

https://saraacarter.com/watch-biden-says-he-may-get-in-trouble-for-answering-reporters-questions/

North Carolina Woman Sentenced for Production and Distribution of Child Pornography

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/north-carolina-woman-sentenced-production-and-distribution-child-pornography

CNN: Here's A List Of Free Stuff You Can Get If You've Been Vaxxed

Come and get your good boy points!

From CNN, "Got vaccinated? Here's all the free stuff you can get":

Budweiser

Now through May 16, or while supplies last, Budweiser is giving a free beer to anyone 21 years old and up – who provide their proof of vaccination on ABeerOnBud.com. Bud fans first have to first register at the company's mycooler.com website.

Wow!

One whole free beer!

Make sure you give them all your information so they can sell it to advertisers at a profit!

CNN continues:

Junior's Cheesecake

From now through Memorial Day, Junior's Restaurant will be offering a free mini cheesecake to anyone who shows their vaccine card at their landmark restaurant at Flatbush Ave. and DeKalb in Downtown Brooklyn. (In New York City only.)

Krispy Kreme

You can get one free glazed doughnut every day if you take your vaccination card to any Krispy Kreme location in the US, the company said in a press release. The card must show one or two shots of any Covid-19 vaccine to qualify, and the offer must be redeemed in store. And no, you don't need to purchase anything to get your daily free doughnut.

Nathan's Hot Dogs

If you visit Nathan's Famous in Coney Island with your vaccination card on the same day you get vaccinated you get a free hot dog. (In New York City only.)

White Castle

Between April 22 and May 31, burger chain White Castle is giving a free dessert-on-a-stick to anyone with proof they have received a Covid vaccine, according to the company. White Castle offers four versions of the dessert on a stick: Gooey Buttercake-on-a-Stick, Fudge Dipped Brownie-on-a-Stick, Fudge Dipped Cheesecake-on-a-Stick and, as of earlier this month, its Birthday Cake-on-a-Stick in honor of the company's centennial this year. No other purchase is necessary.

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62189

All In Against SouthFront: US Intelligence To Create New Foreign Malign Influence Center

The US top spy agency is going to establish a new center to combat hostile foreign meddling in U.S. national affairs. The decision was made following multiple assessments that Russia and other US enemies allegedly have sought to sway elections and sow chaos among the American people.

The “Russian dire threat” has been the main duty of US intelligence for years. The US treasure has already been drained on billions of dollars allocated to fight against the mythical Russian information campaigns, which de facto resulted in the war against SouthFront that has $5000 budget.

Now, in addition to numerous American special services, NATO, EU structures, another mighty center for comabing external threats is being established.

The Foreign Malign Influence Center will be created by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) “in light of evolving threats and in support of growing policy and congressional requirements,” according to the statement by an agency spokesperson to POLITICO on April 26.

The ODNI is intended to become a hub “inclusive of analysts from all” intelligence elements and serve as the federal government’s “integrator to all intelligence pertaining to foreign malign influence and provide appropriate assessments to policymakers.”

The ODNI establishment is an initiative proclaimed by the head of the American national intelligence Avril Haynes. She began emphasizing the need to create the center after being sworn into office in January, calling efforts to stem influence operations an “incredibly important issue.”

Following this initiative, a declassified report that marked “the most comprehensive intelligence assessment of foreign meddling in the 2020 election” was released in March. Russian President Vladimir Putin was accused of having “authorized efforts to damage Joe Biden’s candidacy and mounted operations to influence people close to President Donald Trump.” Iran and China were also listed in the report for their alleged attempts to affect the election.

The ODNI, as the main tool for detection of malicious foreign activity, is expected to be established “as soon as possible”. Neither the approximate timeline nor the center’s budget were not disclosed.

Obviously, the new super center will cost the US budget a good deal of money.

For the part of SouthFront, we would like to address the Biden administration:

Dear friends, SouthFront is on the brink of ending its activity. If it happens the US will lose the major threat to fight with and there will be no more reason to invest in the US mighty intelligence services!

Thus, we are asking the US administration for a donation support. For some reason, the Russians refuse to fund SouthFront, and ignore our requests. Probably, the White House could address the FSB or the GRU, so that they finally allocate SouthFront with few thousand dollars for mutual Russian-American benefit.

We would be glad to further please you with our work, but without your support, this will not be possible.

Sincerely yours,

SouthFront Team

https://southfront.org/all-in-against-southfront-us-intelligence-to-create-new-foreign-malign-influence-center/

CBP Officers in Cincinnati Seize $4.26 Million in Fake Jewelry

CINCINNATI— On April 26, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Cincinnati seized 9,377 pieces of jewelry from a shipment originating in China and destined to an address in McAllen, Texas.Ring

Officers inspected the shipment on March 30 and found thousands of jewelry items bearing protected trademarks from Tiffany, Pandora, Cartier, Bvlgari, Dior, Gucci, Chanel, Rolex, Versace, and Tous. Unprotected “generic” jewelry was comingled in the same box with protected jewelry that was undervalued on the invoice. Officers reached out to CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE), and an import specialist determined the jewelry was counterfeit. Had they been genuine, the items would have been worth more than $4.2 million although the declared value was only $119.

“Intellectual property theft harms the U.S. economy and threatens the security, health, and safety of the American people,” said Cincinnati Port Director Richard Gillespie. “Our officers are committed to protecting private industry and consumers and ensuring that legal trade continues to power our economy.”

CBP has established an educational initiative to raise consumer awareness about the consequences and dangers that are often associated with the purchase of counterfeit and pirated goods. Information about the Truth Behind Counterfeits public awareness campaign can be found at https://www.cbp.gov/FakeGoodsRealDangers.

Intellectual property rights (IPR) protection is a priority trade issue for CBP. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, CBP and their partner agency Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) seized 27,599 shipments containing IPR violations with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) of over $1.5 billion had the goods been genuine. Watches and jewelry represent 15 percent of all IPR seizures and continue to top the list of all seized IPR materials.

CBP conducts operations at ports of entry throughout the United States, and regularly screens arriving international passengers and cargo for narcotics, weapons, and other restricted or prohibited products. CBP strives to serve as the premier law enforcement agency enhancing the Nation’s safety, security, and prosperity through collaboration, innovation, and integration.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-officers-cincinnati-seize-426-million-fake-jewelry