Twitter Says Government Demands To Remove Tweets From Journalists, News Outlets Jump 26%

Twitter on Wednesday announced that government demands to remove content posted by journalists and news outlets jumped 26% worldwide in the second half of 2020 vs. the first half of the year, Reuters reports.

According to the company's transparency report, 199 'verified' journalists and news outlets on its platform were subject to 361 legal demands to remove content - though the social media giant refused to say which countries had submitted them.

Meanwhile, Twitter received over 14,500 requests for information between July 1 and Dec. 31, of which 30% of the requests were honored. India is "the single largest source of all information requests from governments during the second half of 2020, overtaking the United States, which was second in the volume of requests," according to the report.

Such information requests can include governments or other entities asking for the identities of people tweeting under pseudonyms.

Twitter also received more than 38,500 legal demands to take down various content, which was down 9% from the first half of 2020, and said it complied with 29% of the demands. -Reuters

After engaging in several conflicts with countries - primarily India - over rules regulating social media content, Twitter announced last week that it had hired an interim chief compliance officer in India, as well as other executives tasked with ensuring that the company adheres to international laws.

In April, Twitter admitted to censoring criticism of the Indian government amid widespread reports that the official government death toll during the pandemic was misrepresented - and the actual figure could be as much as 30 times higher than reported.

As Jonathan Turley noted at the time:

With the support of many Democratic leaders in the United States, Twitter now regularly censors viewpoints in the United States and India had no trouble in enlisting it to crackdown on those raising the alarm over false government reporting.

Buried in an Associated Press story on the raging pandemic and failures of the Indian government are these two lines:

“On Saturday, Twitter complied with the government’s request and prevented people in India from viewing more than 50 tweets that appeared to criticize the administration’s handling of the pandemic. The targeted posts include tweets from opposition ministers critical of Modi, journalists and ordinary Indians.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/twitter-says-government-demands-remove-tweets-journalists-news-outlets-jump-26

Vax Squad to the rescue? North Carolina town first to roll out controversial ’Doses to Doors’ vaccine delivery program

A newly minted program intended to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine directly to people’s doors in a North Carolina town has sent chills down the spines of some residents, while others welcomed it as helpful service for the infirm.

The program, called “Doses to Doors,” is designed to target ZIP codes with low vaccine uptake and “dispel rumors” about the Covid-19 jab that may be circulating in those communities.

The program launched officially on Monday at the South Side Homes apartment complex in Charlotte, North Carolina, where volunteers from the nonprofit group Action NC distributed flyers with information about the shot.

“We’re not confrontational, it’s not like you have to get the shot,” member Robert Dawkins told local outlet WBTV. “We get people that will say ‘Yes, I will get the shot,’ but the follow-up has always been the issue,” Dawkins said. “Will they go? How can we get people to go out and go? So now that the health department is out with us, we miss that middle step now.”

Door-To-Door Vaccines Launch In North Carolina… pic.twitter.com/oWUlYMF9b5

— Covid-1984 (@Covid_1984_) July 13, 2021

One man reportedly even “jumped at the chance” to get the one-off Johnson & Johnson shot right on his porch, according to WBTV. The man said that he was too busy taking care of his grandkids to go to the pharmacy, claiming he would tell his family members he had been vaccinated in the hope of convincing them to follow suit.

Local healthcare personnel are said to be especially concerned as the Delta variant of the virus, reportedly the most contagious yet, sweeps the country. There is no evidence the variant is deadlier than previous mutations, however.

Despite the program’s self-declared success, neighboring Republican South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has urged his state health department to outright ban similar outreach efforts, noting that “enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the state’s vaccination efforts.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/529136-mecklenburg-vax-door-doses/

Lowenstein Lambastes Larry Fink: 'Activist' BlackRock & The Demise Of Shareholder Democracy

Exit, Voice, BlackRock

Why Shareholder Democracy Isn’t

Shortly before he died, John Bogle, who created the index fund, had a premonition of overreach.

Someday, he warned, a “handful” of institutions might gain voting control over “virtually every large U.S. corporation.”

Someday came last month, when Engine No. 1, an environmentally committed hedge fund, nominated four dissident directors for the board of ExxonMobil.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/lowesntein-lambastes-larry-fink-activist-blackrock-demise-shareholder-democracy

Social media sites will be slapped with fines if they do not remove racist abuse online, UK prime minister pledges

In an attempt to combat racist attacks online, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that social media sites will be fined 10% of their global revenue if they fail to remove abusive posts.

Johnson announced the move on Wednesday when addressing parliament, calling on major social media sites to do more to remove racist abuse or face sanctions.

Last night I met representatives of Facebook, of Twitter, of TikTok, of Snapchat, of Instagram and I made it absolutely clear to them that we will legislate to address this problem in the Online Harms Bill and unless they get hate and racism off their platforms, they will face fines amounting to 10% of their global revenues.

The decision comes following a slew of racist attacks on English footballers Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford after the three players missed penalties resulting in their country’s loss in the Euro 2020 final on Sunday. Johnson fervently condemned the subsequent racism, instead praising the England team as national “heroes.”

In the wake of the abuse, Facebook and Twitter took a proactive stance and removed racist tweets, pledging that they would continue to do so. Twitter released a statement that read: “We have swiftly removed over 1,000 Tweets and permanently suspended a number of accounts for violating our rules – the vast majority of which we detected ourselves proactively using technology.”

Instagram, on the other hand, came under fire for not doing enough to remove derogatory comments by people who posted monkey emojis under players’ posts and other racial slurs.

The Online Harms Bill was proposed by Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May. The legislation aims to hold social media sites accountable for controlling content, or face being fined £18 million ($25 million) or 10% of their global turnover.

Twitter amassed revenue of $3.7 billion in 2020. Instagram made $20 billion from advertisements alone, while its parent company, Facebook, generated a whopping $86 billion. Relatively new Chinese social media site, TikTok, made revenue of $34.3 billion.

https://www.rt.com/uk/529190-social-media-fined-racism-uk-pm/

Horowitz: Israeli government data shows natural immunity from infection much stronger than vaccine-induced immunity

Everything the public health "experts" said about the shortcomings of infection-induced immunity actually appears to hold true for the vaccines. If you speak to any man on the street, they will tell you, based on every censored article they read online, that vaccines are stronger than infection in terms of immunity. New data from Israel, the epicenter of mass vaccine hysteria, demonstrates just the opposite.

Israel's channel 13 reports very preliminary data showing that the resurgence of COVID infections in Israel is being driven almost exclusively by those who never had prior infection – whether they are vaccinated or not. In fact, 40% of the 7,700 new cases since May 1 in this very heavily tested and traced country were among those who were fully vaccinated.

Israel National News reports that this data was presented to the Israeli Health Ministry and yielded the following breakdown of breakthrough infections of those vaccinated vs. those with prior infection:

With a total of 835,792 Israelis known to have recovered from the virus, the 72 instances of reinfection amount to 0.0086% of people who were already infected with COVID.

By contrast, Israelis who were vaccinated were 6.72 times more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection, with over 3,000 of the 5,193,499, or 0.0578%, of Israelis who were vaccinated getting infected in the latest wave.

With over 60% of their respective populations now fully vaccinated, Israel and the U.K. are perfect case studies demonstrating that vaccines are not playing the predominant role in slowing down the viral spread. If you compare all of the European countries by recent cases per million to vaccination rates, you will find zero correlation, and in fact, eastern European countries with low vaccination rates seem to have fewer cases.

In Europe, there is no correlation between level of vaccination and covid infection - if anything, nations with mor… https://t.co/ZfjgJd3UFy

— PLC (@PLC)1626108448.0

Dr. Ryan Cole, a Mayo Clinic-trained pathologist who runs the largest independent laboratory in Idaho, explained to me how infection-induced immunity is much deeper and broader. "A natural infection induces hundreds upon hundreds of antibodies against all proteins of the virus, including the envelope, the membrane, the nucleocapsid, and the spike," said Dr. Cole, who has spent the past 16 months examining and culturing SARS-CoV-2 specimens. "Dozens upon dozens of these antibodies neutralize the virus when encountered again. Additionally, because of the immune system exposure to these numerous proteins (epitomes), our T cells mount a robust memory, as well. Our T cells are the 'marines' of the immune system and the first line of defense against pathogens. T cell memory to those infected with SARSCOV1 is at 17 years and running still."

https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-israeli-government-data-shows-natural-immunity-from-infection-much-stronger-than-vaccine-induced-immunity

Arizona Senate President Says 2020 Election Audit’s Ballot Count Doesn’t Match Maricopa Tally

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann on Tuesday said that the 2020 presidential election audit’s ballot count led by Cyber Ninjas differed from the Maricopa County tally, and that the discrepancy prompted the election review team to acquire new machines to recount the ballots.

“They haven’t released a number yet,” Fann, a Republican, said during in an interview with KTAR. “However, we do know that those numbers do not match with Maricopa County at this point.”

Jack Sellers, the chairman of the county’s Board of Supervisors, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that he was not surprised by the claim.

“While experienced professionals at the County used the latest certified tabulation technology and established processes to count almost 2.1 million ballots in accordance with Arizona law, the Senate contractors have taken a different approach. They’ve cycled through processes and procedures, chasing conspiracy theories while volunteers with no elections experience tried to accurately count votes as they spun by on turntables. Elections experts from across the country have said this method is flawed and will produce incorrect results,” he said.

The Arizona Senate Democratic Caucus also pushed back against Fann’s remarks, saying in a Twitter post, “This is a lie.”

The caucus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.ntd.com/arizona-senate-president-says-2020-election-audits-ballot-count-doesnt-match-maricopa-tally_642880.html

FCC Votes to Finalize Program to Replace Huawei Equipment in US Networks

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously on Tuesday to finalize a $1.9 billion program to reimburse mostly rural U.S. carriers for removing equipment from telecommunications networks from Chinese companies deemed national security threats like Huawei and ZTE Corp.

Last year, the FCC designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats to communications networks—a declaration that barred U.S. firms from tapping an $8.3 billion government fund to purchase equipment from the companies. The FCC in December adopted rules requiring carriers with ZTE or Huawei equipment to “rip and replace” that equipment.

“There is a serious risk that this equipment may be manipulated, disrupted, or controlled by foreign actors,” Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. “We will evaluate network after network, base station after base station, and router after router until we have rooted out our equipment that could undermine national security. It’s a daunting task.”

The issue is a big one for rural carriers that face high costs and difficulty finding workers to remove and replace equipment.

The FCC’s final order expands the companies eligible for reimbursement from those with 2 million or fewer customers to those with 10 million or fewer customers.

The FCC in September 2020 estimated it would cost $1.837 billion to remove and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment from networks.

https://www.ntd.com/fcc-votes-to-finalize-program-to-replace-huawei-equipment-in-us-networks_642913.html

Shameful! Britain Makes Vaccine Mandatory for Care Workers

Perhaps I spoke too soon when I said that President Macron’s Covid Fascist France is the worst country in the Western world. Now Boris Johnson’s Britain has become a strong contender for the title by voting to make the vaccine jabs compulsory for care home workers.

According to the Telegraph:

Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, on Tuesday pressed ahead with a vote on new regulations which will require people working in care homes to be fully vaccinated from October.

The regulations – which passed by 319 votes to 246 – will also apply to healthcare workers, tradesmen, hairdressers and others who need to enter a home to do other work unless they have a medical exemption.

There will be a 16-week grace period for care workers to get jabbed if they have failed to take up the offer already.

This is, of course, the thin end of the wedge. Once you have established a precedent for forcing people to take an injection as a condition of their employment, where do you stop?

Most of the MPs who voted for this illiberal measure will have been Conservatives. This is, to say the least, disappointing for anyone who was brought up to believe that the Conservative party stood for liberty, freedom of conscience, personal autonomy, smaller government. Clearly, it doesn’t now and it probably never did.

Still, at least one or two dissident voices appreciated the monstrousness of this new legislation. Below are two of them, Mark Harper, Conservative MP for Forest of Dean and William Wragg, Conservative MP for Hazel Grove.

Wragg said:

The government, Mr Deputy Speaker, is treating this house with utter contempt. Ninety minutes on a Statutory Instrument to fundamentally change the balance of human rights in this country is nothing short of a disgrace.

He’s right. The MPs who voted with this despicable motion have betrayed their country and its people.

Meanwhile, in France, on Bastille Day, there is the whiff of revolution in the air.

Here is some footage of the anti-‘Obligatory Vaccine’ protests today:

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/07/14/shameful-britain-makes-vaccines-mandatory-for-care-workers/

Freedom Day? Mandatory Vaccines for Carers, Khan’s Mask Mandate, and Vax Passports

The extent to which ‘Freedom Day’ will really mean ‘freedom’ for Britons has been called into question after, in the last three days, the House of Commons has backed compulsory vaccination for care workers, London’s mayor has ordered masks still be warn on public transport, and the prime minister has called for some venues to use vaccine passports.

Despite not seeing a document detailing the mandate’s impact and after only one and a half hours of debate, last night MPs voted by 319 votes to 246 in the House of Commons to make vaccination against the Chinese coronavirus mandatory for care workers. Only around 30 Conservative MPs rebelled against the government’s authoritarian proposal.

The rules would mean that from the autumn, any member of staff working at a care home registered with the Care Quality Commission must be inoculated unless they have a medical exemption, according to the Evening Standard.

Conservative MP William Wragg condemned his own party’s government for “treating this House with utter contempt. Ninety minutes on a statutory instrument to fundamentally change the balance of human rights in this country is nothing short of a disgrace.”

“Is that what we’re prepared to do to our fellow citizens as a Conservative government? It’s absolute lunacy. You’d expect this in a communist country,” Mr Wragg added.

Director of the privacy and civil liberties pressure group Big Brother Watch Silkie Carlo said on Tuesday night that “democracy is broken,” adding that “the pillars of democracy have absolutely crumbled over the past 18 months”.

Ms Carlo also speculated that “millions of other workers” could “now face vaccination demands at work due to the expanse of this law”. Some employers, notably Charlie Mullins of Pimlico Plumbers, had declared a ‘no jab, no job’ policy as early as January.

The vote comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday that the end of most restrictions would come on July 19th — the much-anticipated ‘Freedom Day’. Part of the end of lockdown would include the end of the legal requirement to wear masks in supermarkets, shops, public transport, and other indoor public spaces.

Despite the end of the law coming next week, Mr Johnson said that Britons should nevertheless continue to wear masks, specifically on public transport.

Labour’s London mayor Sadiq Khan also announced on Tuesday night that passengers on all Transport for London services, such as buses, rail, and the underground, must continue to wear masks, following pressure in recent weeks from left-wing trade unions.

Mr Khan said: “I’ve repeatedly made clear that the simplest and safest option would have been for the government to retain the national requirement for face coverings on public transport. I’m not prepared to stand by and put Londoners, and our city’s recovery, at risk. This is why, after careful consideration, I have decided to ask TfL to retain the requirement for passengers to wear a face covering on all TfL services when the national regulations change.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/07/14/freedom-day-mandatory-vaccines-for-carers-khans-mask-mandate-and-vax-passports/

Spain: Top Court Rules Coronavirus Lockdown Unconstitutional

MADRID (AP) – Spain´s Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that last year´s strict stay-at-home lockdown order by the government under a state of emergency was unconstitutional.

The court ruling was in response to a suit brought by the far-right Vox party.

It was a split decision according to a brief statement issued by the court. State broadcaster TVE says it was six magistrates in favor and five against.

While leaving intact most of the state of emergency´s terms, the court said that the key articles ordering the population off the streets except for shorts trips for shopping and unavoidable commutes for work and other official business were unconstitutional.

According to TVE, the ruling said that the limitations on movement violated citizens´ basic rights and therefore the state of emergency was insufficient to give them constitutional backing. The six magistrates said that a state of exception, which does allow the government to suspend basic rights, would have been necessary.

With the pandemic raging and hospitals filling up, Spain´s government declared the state of emergency on March 14, 2020. Six weeks passed before Spaniards could even go out for exercise as the government gradually relaxed the measures once the pandemic´s worst moment had passed.

It was not immediately clear if the ruling will open the gates for lawsuits against the government.

Over 81,000 deaths in Spain have been attributed to COVID-19.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/07/14/spain-top-court-rules-coronavirus-lockdown-unconstitutional/

EudraVigilance

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/research-development/pharmacovigilance/eudravigilance

Global Vaccine Passports Have Arrived Courtesy of Google, EU

On June 30th, 2021, the Google Developers blog announced the launch of vaccine passports in Android through its Passes API.

Less than 24 hours later, the European Union, long mired in a sea of national standards for digital jab records, rolled out its EU-wide vaccine passport.

Two completely different vaccine passport schemes unveiled on the same day, encompassing the whole of the Western world? What are the odds!

Exceedingly low, of course. This level of coordination belies yet another blitz in the ongoing rollout of a global, technofeudal control grid. The EU has arguably been at the forefront of this rollout – its standardized digital jab certificate is little more than an aggregator for the draconian technology now operating at the Nation-State level.

Adoption of this unified standard is already approaching 100% of EU Member States. Doublethink rhetoric of restoring the Schengen Area’s “freedom of movement” abounds, even as additional barriers to travel are erected.

In this sense, Google and the US are playing catch-up. While de facto vaccine passports have been implemented sparingly in places like New York, California, and Hawaii, an ever-expanding number of States have banned the notion outright.

Yet herein lies the insidiousness of the public-private partnership model: Technocrats can use governments where it suits them, corporations where it does not, and an increasingly bizarre fusion of the two where necessary. Even the propaganda rollout surrounding jab passports is bifurcated by this model, with the EU using official government bulletins while Google syndicates the news via trendy tech blogs.

And though many States in the US have passed legislation or executive action to curb the implementation of vaccine passports, Google couldn’t care less.

GOOGLE PASSES: VACCINE PASSPORTS FOR ALL, REGULATION BE DAMNED

Like the contact tracing API before it, political resistance alone is proving ineffective against the technological implements of the Great Reset. Even the staunchest State level opponents to this agenda have done nothing to halt the hyperactive Bluetooth surveillance grid running on Android and iOS devices – on the contrary, many have used taxpayer money to help finance its data harvesting operations.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/global-vaccine-passports-have-arrived-courtesy-of-google-eu/

WTH? Jill Biden Appears on Sesame Street to Promote “Race Literacy” to Little Children

Jill Biden made an appearance on Sesame Street to push “race literacy” to little children.

They are promoting this as something to help military families — because who could possibly speak out against a program for military families?

This is the wickedness of the left — disguising their divisive agenda behind children’s programs.

Sesame Street never had beautiful Melania Trump on their show.

IBTimes reported:

Dr. Jill Biden will appear on “Sesame Street” to help military families discuss kindness, fairness, and race with their kids.

Biden will appear alongside the turquoise muppet Rosita, who is a bilingual Mexican-American from a military family. With the exception of Melania Trump, every first lady since Barbara Bush has appeared on “Sesame Street.”

In a new clip of the conversation, Rosita tells Biden she is working on a project to celebrate how her military family makes her unique and gushes about becoming an “upstander.”…

…“In a military kid’s world, it’s common to see people of all races and backgrounds living, working, and playing together. Military parents and caregivers can help their children become good citizens of the world by using that unique opportunity to talk openly about racism and celebrate who they are inside and out.”

The new Coming Together initiative presents families with the opportunity to talk openly about race and celebrate everything about themselves.

The initiative also offers a variety of resources, including printable activities, articles for adults, professional development materials, and more.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2021/07/wth-jill-biden-appears-on-sesame-street.html

USDA Attacks Amish Farmers Selling REAL Food to Protect Corporate Industrial Farming

The vast majority of the American population is completely ignorant about the United States militarized industrial corporate food system that feeds most of the population, and is used to topple governments worldwide. Less than 1% of our population is involved in agriculture today feeding the other 99%+ of our population, and very few people even know this, even in the alternative media.

For example, this is what one person in the alternative media wrote recently:

A food war is brewing and American farmers and ranchers are on the front lines. Family owned farms are the backbone of America. Ninety-eight percent of U.S. farms are operated by families. Eighty-six percent of all U.S. agricultural products are produced on family farms or ranches. In 2018, about $140 billion worth of agricultural products were exported to the world, making the U.S. a top food exporter. Their blood, sweat, and tears bring food to tables across America and the world.

I seriously doubt that the person who wrote this even knew that they were parroting corporate talking points to present a wholesome image of American agriculture. Because the truth is that these “family farms” are just a handful of corporate billionaires who control the world’s food supplies and can weaponize it at any time, by creating “food shortages.”

These “family farms” are corporate mega-businesses dependent on cheap migrant labor, most of them here illegally to keep the U.S. food system propped up, and the only thing “family” about them is that the stockholders are all family members.

If this is a topic you are not well informed about, it is high time you wised up about just where your food actually comes from. If you have not read it yet, you need to read the article by Sam Parker we recently published here, which is the first time I have ever read such an exhaustive exposé that names names on just who controls the world’s food supplies:

Unmasking The Global Food Cartel: Is Massive Starvation and Population Reduction Their Next Move?

Most Americans have absolutely no clue where their food comes from, and are totally dependent on the commodity-based food system that fills the shelves of America’s grocery chains. As a result, Americans spend the lowest percentage of their income on food than any other nation in the world.

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2021/07/usda-attacks-amish-farmers-selling-real-food-to-protect-corporate-industrial-farming.html

NZ Gov: “We are the only source of Truth. Don’t listen to anyone else. We will tell you how to think.”

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/nz-gov-we-are-the-only-source-of-truth-dont-listen-to-anyone-else-we-will-tell-you-how-to-think/

LEAKED MEMO: George Soros Funding BLM to Nationalize Police

A leaked document from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations exposes the billionaire’s level of involvement in attempting to build what his organization describes as a “national movement” to reform local police forces across the U.S. The reform largely consists of federal guidelines for local police forces.

The document identifies an opportunity in the police killings of African-American men in Ferguson, Staten Island, North Charleston, and Baltimore. It relates that the U.S. contingent of Open Society held a planning meeting titled, “Police Reform: How to Take Advantage of the Crisis of the Moment and Drive Long-Term Institutional Change in Police-Community Practice.”

The extensive memo further documents that Soros-financed groups and personalities influenced President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, which last May released a final report consisting of 60 recommendations providing guidance to localities on how to modify policing practices.

The information was contained in a 59-page report on an Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Programs board meeting in New York from May 7-9 of last year.

The document states that the Foundations’ U.S. Programs (USP) was seeking to use “this moment” – meaning the so-called crisis in policing following high profile shootings and charges of racism – to “create a national movement” for police reform.

States the board meeting document:

The federal government is seeking philanthropic support for a number of its initiatives. In addition to seeking support to advance the implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Taskforce, the White House recently launched the Policing Data Initiative to explore how best to use data and technology to build trust, voice, and solutions to improve community policing. The Department of Justice recently selected the first six cities to host pilot sites for the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, which was launched last fall to help repair and strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve by exploring strategies intended to enhance procedural justice, reduce implicit bias, and support racial reconciliation.

We are gaining a better understanding of these efforts in order to determinehow best USP can use this moment to create a national movement. We have already had a set of preliminary conversations with about a dozen key stakeholders and will undertake a field scan to map the areas of work currently underway to advance police reform, including an assessment of the redundancies and gaps in work, and opportunities for collaboration. As we proceed, we will engage the funder network we helped to establish, the Executive Alliance on Men and Boys of Color, which now includes forty foundations.

https://wearechange.org/george-soros-funding-nationalized-policing-dawn-of-the-police-state/

EU unveils sweeping climate change plan

The European Union has announced a raft of climate change proposals aimed at pushing it towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

A dozen draft proposals, which still need to be approved by the bloc's 27 member states and the EU parliament, were announced on Wednesday.

They include plans to tax jet fuel and effectively ban the sale of petrol and diesel powered cars within 20 years.

The proposals, however, are likely to face months of negotiations.

The plans triggered serious infighting at the European Commission, the bloc's administrative arm, as the final tweaks were being made, sources told the AFP news agency.

"By acting now we can do things another way… and choose a better, healthier and more prosperous way for the future," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

"It is our generational task… [to secure] the wellbeing of not only our generation, but of our children and grandchildren. Europe is ready to lead the way."

The measures are likely to push up household heating bills, as well as increase the cost of flights in the EU. Financial assistance will be available for people to install insulation and make other long-term changes to their homes.

"We're going to ask a lot of our citizens," EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said. "We're also going to ask a lot of our industries, but we do it for good cause. We do it to give humanity a fighting chance."

Opposition is also expected from some industry leaders, such as airlines and vehicle manufacturers, as well as from eastern member states that rely heavily on coal.

One EU diplomat told Reuters that the success of the package would rest on its ability to be realistic and socially fair, while also not destabilising the economy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57833807

EPA Knew Fracking Chemicals Were Toxic, But Approved Them Anyway

Internal documents obtained by Physicians for Social Responsibility reveal that between 2010 and 2020, fossil fuel corporations injected into the ground potentially carcinogenic chemicals that can degrade into PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” after Obama's EPA approved their use despite agency scientists' concerns about toxicity.

Between 2012 and 2020, fossil fuel corporations injected potentially carcinogenic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or chemicals that can degrade into PFAS, into the ground while fracking for oil and gas, after former President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency approved their use despite agency scientists’ concerns about toxicity.

The EPA’s approval in 2011 of three new compounds for use in oil and gas drilling or fracking that can eventually break down into PFAS, also called “forever chemicals,” was not publicized until Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) obtained internal records from the agency through a Freedom of Information Act request, the New York Times reported Monday after reviewing the files.

According to PSR’s new report, “Fracking with ‘Forever Chemicals,’” oil and gas companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have since 2012 pumped toxic chemicals that can form PFAS into more than 1,200 wells in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Wyoming.

While the Times noted that the newly released documents constitute some of the earliest evidence of the possible presence of PFAS in fracking fluids, PSR’s report warns that “the lack of full disclosure of chemicals used in oil and gas operations raises the potential that PFAS could have been used even more extensively than records indicate, both geographically and in other stages of the oil and gas extraction process, such as drilling, that precede the underground injections known as fracking.”

BREAKING: Our new study turned up evidence that highly toxic, cancer-causing chemicals called PFAS were used for fracking at 1,200+ oil and gas wells across the country.

Read more: https://t.co/NzQbrvbN6s #ForeverFracked #PFAS

— PSR Environment (@PSRenvironment) July 12, 2021

“It’s very disturbing to see the extent to which critical information about these chemicals is shielded from public view,” Barbara Gottlieb, PSR’s Environment & Health Program director, said Monday in a press release. “The lack of transparency about fracking chemicals puts human health at risk.”

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/epa-fracking-chemicals-toxic-approved-anyway/

320 Killed in New Fighting in Central Yemen

Government reinforcements sent to contest area

Fighting in Yemen’s central Bayda Province began at the start of the month, with the government claiming to have captured several villages amid heavy fighting, before ultimately losing many of them in counteroffensives.

Government forces are pouring reinforcements into the area this week. The last 48 hours have seen a new round of heavy fighting, and reports from officials that 320 fighters were killed.

That is a huge death toll, covering fighters on both sides in just two days of fighting. It is impossible to confirm, as is often the case, with no figures offered by the Houthis and an unclear split between the two sides.

Heavy fighting over towns and villages in Yemen has been consistent throughout the war, and often these high death tolls don’t lead to resolutions, but rather just to endless reinforcements on both sides being thrown at towns of limited value.

The government’s attempt at taking Bayda came amid months of the Houthis contesting Marib, further to the north. In both cases, heavy death tolls in fighting haven’t led to either side decisively taking their respective targets. Rather, they seem to reflect the ongoing lack of conclusion to the Yemen War.

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/07/13/320-killed-in-new-fighting-in-central-yemen/