Previously Redacted Email Between Peter Daszak, Anthony Fauci Suddenly Sees Light Of Day
A group of Republican senators released the full contents of an April 2020 email between the leader of a nonprofit group with close ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Dr. Anthony Fauci that had previously been redacted.
https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/30/redacted-email-peter-dasszak-anthony-fauci/
Texas Catholic Charity Will Defy Governor’s Order to Cease Busing Migrants
A Texas Catholic charity announced it will continue to transport migrants in defiance of an executive order issued by the governor after it was revealed several of those migrants were COVID-19 positive.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order this week to stop the ground transportation of migrants who were detained and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The order came after the City of La Joya issued an alert over the release of migrants with COVID-19 who were staying at a hotel without quarantine protocols. The hotel rooms are paid for by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV).
According to Border Report, Sister Norman Pimentel, the executive director of CCRGV, said they would continue to move migrants until they are directly told otherwise.
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/07/30/texas-catholic-charity-will-defy-governors-order-to-cease-busing-migrants/
Australia deploys army to enforce COVID lockdowns in Sydney
The Australian military is being deployed to enforce coronavirus lockdowns in Sydney after COVID-19 cases have remained high despite restrictions being active for five weeks.
Officials in Sydney have ordered mandatory testing and mask-wearing outdoors as an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant is putting suburbs at risk of spreading the virus, Reuters reported.
This week, the beginning of the sixth week of lockdowns, the state of New South Wales reported 170 new local cases, mostly in the capital of Sydney, which is down from a record 239 cases a day before. At least 42 of the people who tested positive for COVID spend time in the community while contagious.
Residents of areas with high numbers of infections must stay within three miles of their homes and be tested for COVID every three days in order to be permitted to do essential work outside their area.
In response to fears of community spread, about 300 Australian army personnel will be deployed on Monday to assist police by going door to door to the homes of people who have tested positive for COVID to ensure people are obeying the restrictions.
"The sheer volume of increase over the last week (means) the level of compliance (enforcement) has gone from hundreds into thousands," said Mick Fuller, the police commissioner of New South Wales.
Police have already been given the power to close businesses found to be in violation of the restrictions. The army personnel will be under police command and will not be armed.
Public health officials in Australia said that people are waiting too long to get tested after developing COVID symptoms and are risking spreading the virus to vulnerable family members or other people in the community.
The increased enforcement measures are being met with resistance from Sydney residents, many of whom are immigrants to their communities.
"They've got no other ideas than to bring in the military as a last resort because they're lost for answers on issues they created," Steve Christou, mayor of the suburb of Cumberland, where 60% of its 240,000 residents are immigrants, said.
"They are a poor community, they are a vulnerable community, and they don't deserve these lockdowns or these extended and harsh measures that they have now been targeted with," he told Reuters.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Australia has adopted some of the strictest lockdown policies of any developed nation. While their overall case count is much lower than other countries, estimated at 34,000 cases and fewer than 1,000 dead, only 18% of Australians over age 16 have been fully vaccinated against COVID.
Government officials say lockdown policies will continue until more people become vaccinated.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/australia-army-enforce-covid-lockdowns
GOP Senator Kevin Cramer Says He’s ‘Grateful’ for Capitol Cop Who Killed ‘Criminal’ Ashli Babbitt for ‘Not Complying’
Cramer is also protecting Ashli Babbitt's killer.
While fielding questions as part of a radio program, North Dakota GOP Senator Kevin Cramer called 14-year Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt a “criminal,” and said he’s “grateful” for the Capitol Police Officer who killed the unarmed January 6th protestor for “not complying” with his orders from the other side of a barricaded door.
The comments from Senator Kevin Cramer came as citizens of North Dakota called in to “The Jay Thomas Show” to speak with their elected official directly. While on the line with the Senator, one caller asked that Cramer reveal the identity of the Capitol Police Officer who shot an unarmed election integrity protestor, Ashli Babbitt, to death from the opposite side of a barricaded door inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th.
“I’m quite sure – this is my gut feeling – that everybody knows the name of the guy that shot her,” the caller said, before asking Cramer to “be the one to leak his name.” Cramer asked the caller, “Why would I do that?” The caller replied that the American people “have a right to know.”
Still refusing to name the officer who killed Babbitt, Cramer told the caller that Babbitt was a “criminal” who was shot for the crime of “not complying with officers,” before again questioning why the American people would need to know the name of the “innocent” officer and eventually claiming that even he, as a United States Senator, has no idea who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt.
“The person that shot her is a police officer shooting a criminal not complying with officers telling her, ‘Stop. Don’t come through that window. We have guns drawn. Don’t do it,'” Cramer said. “They’re protecting people, and the officer was found to be innocent of any wrongdoing. So then what would be the purpose of releasing that officer’s name? What do you need to know the officer’s name for?”
“I don’t need to know it. I don’t know it. Why would you need to know it?” Cramer continued. Refusing to give in, the caller pressed Cramer, drawing comparisons to other highly publicized police shootings in which, regardless of whether or not the officer was charged with any wrongdoing, their names were released to the public.
“For crying out loud, if you shoot an illegal alien we’re going to know that police officer’s name,” the caller told Cramer. “This is a police officer that shot somebody in our capitol and his name is being withheld!” Still, Cramer backed the move not to release the officer’s name, telling the caller that he would look into what the laws surrounding the decision before remarking that he is “grateful” for the officer that shot Babbitt. “I’m just grateful for the person quite honestly,” Cramer said as the call was ended.
https://nationalfile.com/gop-senator-kevin-cramer-says-hes-grateful-for-capitol-cop-who-killed-criminal-ashli-babbitt-for-not-complying/
Gates Foundation Is Longtime Partner Of Chinese Communist Group Which Funded Military-Linked Coronavirus Research At Wuhan Lab.
The National Natural Science Foundation of China, which has extensive ties to China’s military and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on scientific research for over five years.
The unearthed ties between the Gates Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) follow a National Pulse exposé revealing how the Chinese scientific organization funded People’s Liberation Army (PLA) research and bat coronavirus studies at the Wuhan lab. Beyond describing itself as a state-owned scientific group that is “guided by President Xi Jinping’s Socialist thoughts,” the NSFC has inked “strategic cooperative agreements” with the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission.
In October 2015, however, the Gates Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with the NSFC to “jointly support research projects and bilateral workshops.” Together, the Gates Foundation and NSFC would “co-fund awards of up to US$1M and 4 years for collaborations between Chinese and international investigators.”
The agreement is still active, as the Gates Foundation’s most recent annual report details collaborative work on “joint research projects” and “bilateral workshops.” The two foundations “will accept joint research applications in the areas of global health and agriculture in the year of 2020,” the NSFC summary adds.
The Gates Foundation and NSFC have also collaborated on COVID-19 research, as the group was one of several Chinese Communist Party-run scientific organizations identified as a “partner” on a $5 million grant to “identify and confirm cases, safely isolate and care for patients and accelerate the development of treatments and vaccines.”
NSFC officials have also visited Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, including Vice President Hou Zengqian, who met with the foundation’s current CEO in October 2019. In 2016, an NSFC delegation met with the Gates Foundation Deputy Director of Discovery & Translational Sciences.
https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/gates-foundation-partners-with-chinese-military-funder/
74 Percent of COVID-19 Cases From Massachusetts Outbreak Occurred in Fully Vaccinated People: Study
A COVID-19 outbreak in a Massachusetts county in July primarily occurred among vaccinated people, sparking fears that a variant of the CCP virus can impact that population more than other strains.
Of the 469 cases detected in Barnstable County, 74 percent occurred among the fully vaccinated, according to a new study published on Friday.
Genomic sequencing of 133 patients showed most of them were infected with the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
The bulk of the infected people did not require hospital care, but among the five that did, four were fully vaccinated.
The study, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), helped drive agency officials to change masking guidance.
CDC officials announced Tuesday that even vaccinated persons should wear masks indoors, an abrupt shift from under three months ago.
The CDC was unable to point to any published data at the time of its announcement.
The agency recommended that both the vaccinated and unvaccinated should don face coverings indoors in areas with high or substantial transmission of the CCP virus. More than half the counties in America meet one of those designations.
Researchers, though, said their investigation suggests people in any area should wear masks inside.
“Findings from this investigation suggest that even jurisdictions without substantial or high COVID-19 transmission might consider expanding prevention strategies, including masking in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status, given the potential risk of infection during attendance at large public gatherings that include travelers from many areas with differing levels of transmission,” they wrote.
Some of the researchers are CDC officials. Others are with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which declined to facilitate an interview on the findings.
The cases in Barnstable County stemmed from summer events and large public gatherings held between July 3 and July 17, the researchers said in the study.
https://www.ntd.com/74-percent-of-covid-19-cases-from-massachusetts-outbreak-occurred-in-fully-vaccinated-people-study_652044.html
White House chatter is that lockdowns for delta variant all but a done deal. 2nd Week of August
Leaked slides from CDC.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/lockdowns-for-delta-variant-all-but-a-done-deal/
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte: “If they don’t want to be vaccinated, they should not be allowed to go out of their homes”
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has said that local officials should detain people who refuse Covid-19 vaccinations inside their homes, a move that legal experts said would be unconstitutional.
In a late-night public address on Wednesday, Mr. Duterte argued that the coronavirus emergency trumped laws guaranteeing freedom of movement, calling his order “the law of necessity.”
“If they don’t want to be vaccinated, they should not be allowed to go out of their homes,” Mr. Duterte said. “They may say there is no law, but should I wait for a law knowing that many will die?”
In his address on Wednesday, Mr. Duterte said that village chiefs — elected officials who serve at the lowest level of local government in urban and rural areas — should force people who won’t be vaccinated to stay home and that, if questioned, they could respond that they were acting on “orders of the mayor,” a reference to the strongman approach he used when serving as the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao.
It was not immediately clear how Mr. Duterte, who is known for bombastic statements and endorsing hard-knuckled police tactics, planned to enforce such a plan or when it would go into effect. Last month, he threatened to jail people who refused shots.
www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/world/duterte-philippines-covid-vaccine.html
his is from June:
Philippines President Duterte Threatens To Jail People Who Refuse Covid-19 Vaccine
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday threatened to jail people who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 following reports of low turnout at various vaccination sites in the country, in a statement which comes amid criticism of the leader’s handling of the pandemic which has caused 23,000 deaths in the Southeast Asian nation.
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/philippines-president-rodrigo-duterte-if-they-dont-want-to-be-vaccinated-they-should-not-be-allowed-to-go-out-of-their-homes/
Vaccine Lobby vs the Unvaccinated: The Global COVID-19 Faultline May Now Be Unbridgeable
When the global COVID-19 vaccination drive kicked off earlier this year, two distinct faultlines gradually emerged, separating the relatively monolithic pro-vaxxer camp from the more heterogeneous assemblage of fence-sitters, sceptics and outright vaccine refuseniks. The new divide reflected a larger chasm that has prevailed since the watershed event of Sept 11 2001. It was a divide between those who lapped up mainstream narratives and those who instinctively questioned them.
Doubts over the novel coronavirus were sown from the onset by scientific data which appeared sketchy, contradictory and outright dodgy. Big Tech’s digital pogroms against undesirable questions and expert opinions reinforced suspicions further. It was clear that earnest scientific inquiry, which thrives on vigorous debates, will not be tolerated.
This ironically resulted in the “free world” resorting to the likes of TikTok – a Chinese platform once targeted by the Trump administration – to post their opinions and grievances, including a litany of adverse reactions to various vaccines. Despite this, Western elites still have the gall to view themselves as champions of “free speech” even as mass protests against the New Normal roil their cities.
The hypocritical actions of countless leaders, celebrities and “influencers” worldwide who routinely flouted the very lockdowns they had advocated inevitably hardened public scepticism. If there are different sets of norms for the ruling and the ruled, why shouldn’t there be space for divergent opinions over the coronavirus?
The Informed Unvaccinated
A recent MIT study revealed that coronavirus sceptics were generally better-informed and scientifically literate vis-a-vis their vaccinated counterparts. The unvaccinated cohort also appeared more “sophisticated” in the use of “datasets from official sources” as well as “state-of-the-art visualization methods” to interpret the COVID-19 conundrum. The qualitative contrasts between the pro-vaxxer and unvaccinated camps are nicely encapsulated in this video clip.
Mainstream tirades against vaccine holdouts – including profanity-laden epithets such as “morons” and calls to “remove them from society” – further alarmed the unvaccinated. Faced with such gratuitous hostility, vaccine refuseniks can be forgiven for regarding the growing inoculation divide as one between septic tanks and sceptic camps.
One set is fuelled by an intractable Wokist dogma that seeks to undermine every society along its path of contagion. Information is curated by anonymous fact-checkers with little or no domain-level expertise. Obedience is demanded in its totality; otherwise every molehill will be raised to the level of a Mt. Everest through a hyper-trolled hissy fit. Trying to understand the Wokist mindset is like data-mining a bottomless sewer.
Vaccine sceptics, as the author observed, are generally informed by caution, a spirit of inquiry and a prophylactic approach to the pandemic. They have been boosting their immune systems through a variety of means since the outbreak. The author himself spends up to 3 hours a day on jungle treks!
https://www.activistpost.com/2021/07/vaccine-lobby-vs-the-unvaccinated-the-global-covid-19-faultline-may-now-be-unbridgeable.html
Los Angeles Times: Bring On The Crackdown. The Unvaccinated Must Be Held Accountable
They deeply care about your health.
The same people who support defunding the police and who don’t care about a tsunami of a million illegal aliens potentially infected with COVID flooding across the border are doing this purely on the basis of “science.” Force will be used to moved the “unvaccinated” out of their comfort zones. Except when they are illegal aliens. In that case, it would be an outrageous violation of their civil liberties!
Los Angeles Times:
“The Delta variant is spreading rapidly in California and nationwide, but happily so are crackdowns by public and private employers aimed at limiting the ability of their unvaccinated workers to infect others with COVID-19.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new rules requiring vaccination or regular testing and masking for the 246,000 state government employees; the rules will apply as well to workers at both private and public healthcare and long-term care facilities. Similar workforce rules have popped up around the nation, including in the city of Los Angeles.
On Thursday, President Biden said civilian federal workers and on-site contractors, too, would need to receive COVID-19 vaccination or submit to regular testing and other infection-control restrictions to remain on the job. Meanwhile, Google, Facebook and a number of other tech companies say they will require employees to be vaccinated in order to return to their desks when their offices eventually reopen.
Hooray. It’s time the stubbornly unvaccinated are held to account for their part in the resurgence of COVID-19. …
But whatever the reasons people may have for not getting vaccinated, we need to move them out of their comfort zones for the sake of their own safety — and ours. …”
Obviously, it is wrong.
Every adult has the right to make their own health decisions. It used to be a free country.
What do you expect though from the people who believe they have the right to censor the internet and weaponize the “intelligence community” against private citizens and who see Trump supporters as “enemies of the state” and “domestic extremists” anyway? They’ve already made up their minds long ago that you are less than a citizen and have no constitutional rights worthy of their respect. Illegal aliens are treated far better than this class of American citizens.
Note: BTW, you are “fascism” and “authoritarianism” for sitting in your house, watching these people in disbelief and voicing your opinion on the internet. You shouldn’t be allowed to do that! It’s extremism!
http://www.occidentaldissent.com/2021/07/30/los-angeles-times-bring-on-the-crackdown-the-unvaccinated-must-be-held-accountable/
Ontario Pension Fund, Goldman Sachs Agree to Buy Majority Stake in Covid-19 Test Provider
Deal expected to close by the end of the year
A group headed by Canadian pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s infrastructure arm agreed Friday to buy a majority stake in Germany’s Amedes Holding GmbH, a provider of medical-diagnostic services including Covid-19 tests.
The deal valuation wasn’t disclosed. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the acquisition values the business at close to 1.6 billion euros including debt, equivalent to about $1.9 billion, citing people familiar with the matter.
Omers and Goldman, plus AXA Investment Managers—the asset-management business of global insurer AXA SA—are buying the controlling stake from European buyout firm Antin Infrastructure Partners.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/goldman-sachs-ontario-pension-fund-close-to-deal-to-buy-covid-19-test-provider-11627642438
PG Porn? Ex-Tory MP's Daughter Lands in Hot Water After Suggesting Making Adult Films for Teens
As is the case with numerous tweets made in the heat of the moment, journalist Flora Gill's post was quickly screen-grabbed and reported by netizens despite the author rushing to delete it.
UK journalist and daughter of a Tory home secretary, Flora Gill, has landed in hot water online after she proposed to "create porn for children" in a tweet. In a separate post, she quickly corrected herself, saying she meant teens aged 14+.
Gill claimed that many underage children are watching porn regardless of whether they are prohibited from doing so, and argued that if they are doing it anyway, then they should watch "entry-level porn […] where everyone asks for consent and no one gets choked". The journalist added that most of the porn available online is "hard core, aggressive" and gives a "terrible view of sex".
It is not hard to predict what happened next – such a proposal quickly found stringent opponents, who soon filled in the comments section below her tweets. Gill, in turn, said she refused to be "swept up into another twitter cesspool", and deleted the controversial posts and urged everyone to take a deep breath.
Unfortunately for Flora Gill, the internet does not work that way and Twitterians ignored her pleas to pretend that these tweets never happened. Instead, screenshots of her posts resurfaced online, continuing to generate condemnation of the British journalist.
https://sputniknews.com/viral/202107301083492951-pg-porn-ex-tory-mps-daughter-lands-in-hot-water-after-suggesting-making-adult-films-for-teens/
Australia will not reopen its borders for travel until 80% of the population is vaccinated – PM Scott Morrison
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/australia-will-not-reopen-its-borders-for-travel-until-80-of-the-population-is-vaccinated-pm-scott-morrison/
Hunter gets California healthy: Biden, 51, dons a VERY tight wetsuit and hits Malibu beach with surf legend Strider Wasilewski amid ongoing controversy over his $500K art deals
Hunter Biden was seen on Wednesday living the California dream - surfing in Malibu with former professional surfer Strider Wasilewski, and beaming from ear to ear as he managed to stand on his board.
Biden, 51, is no stranger to hitting the waves on the Golden State's coast, having vacationed at a Laguna Beach surf resort with his cousin Caroline in 2018.
But on Wednesday he was evidently hoping to improve his skills and learn from the best.
Wasilewski has been a towering figure on the surf scene for over 30 years, growing up in Los Angeles in the 1970s and working as a pro rider for Quiksilver and modeling alongside Cindy Crawford, Olivia Newton-John and Darryl Hanna in between.
Now 49, he is a regular commentator for World Surf League. Last month he was surfing with the Jackass crew for their new film, with skateboard legend Tony Hawk.
Wasilewski was seen guiding Biden, learning on a pink board.
http://www.cuzzblue.com/2021/07/hunter-gets-california-healthy-biden-51.html
Tunisia MP arrested for accusing president of 'coup'
Tunisian security forces arrested a parliament member at his home today, his wife said, after he criticised President Kais Saied on Facebook and called his seizure of governing powers a coup.
Yassin Ayari, who represents a small party in parliament, has expressed frequent previous criticism of Saied, who on Sunday dismissed the prime minister, froze parliament for a month and said he was taking over executive authority.
Saied used Article 80 of the constitution to take full control of the government and the judiciary, in what many have said is a coup which is backed by the same Gulf states that supported Egypt's 2013 coup against the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210730-tunisia-mp-arrested-for-accusing-president-of-coup/
Trump urged DOJ officials to call election corrupt 'and leave the rest to me'
Former President Trump pressured top officials in the Department of Justice (DOJ) to call the 2020 presidential election results corrupt, according to documents released by the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
The documents are notes from former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen’s deputy, Richard Donoghue, that were allegedly taken during a call between Trump, Rosen and Donoghue on Dec. 27.
Donoghue wrote that he told Trump during the call that the Justice Department could not change the outcome of the election, with Trump allegedly replying he understood that.
“Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me” and other allies in Congress, Donoghue wrote that Trump said in his summary of the notes for the call.
Other members of Congress mentioned during the call were Republican Reps. Jim Jordon (Ohio) and Scott Perry (Pa.), according to The New York Times.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson (Wis.) was also mentioned during the call, according to the notes seen by the Times. However, the lawmakers weren’t named as the allies Trump expected to help him in an effort to overturn the election results.
Trump has yet to accept his loss to President Biden in the 2020 presidential election and still claims there was widespread voter fraud, despite presenting no evidence.
Donoghue reportedly told Trump during the call that the DOJ had conducted “dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews” and no widespread voter fraud was found.
Trump still allegedly asserted in the call that the elections in Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona were “corrupted.”
Trump then reportedly said no one trusted the FBI and the DOJ’s “inactions” had made people “angry," according to the notes.
“You guys may not be following the internet the way I do,” Trump said, according to the notes of the call. “People want me to replace DOJ leadership.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/565635-trump-pressured-top-justice-dept-officials-to-call-election-results
Federal Government Gives Millions to Group That Supports Defunding the Police
Vera Institute of Justice has received $89 million in contracts and grants this year
The federal government provides tens of millions of dollars each year to a nonprofit group that supports the movement to defund police departments and dismantle the criminal justice system.
Officials with the Brooklyn-based Vera Institute of Justice have urged the government to "radically dismantle" police departments in order to fix a system they say dehumanizes people of color. The institute is heavily funded by the federal government. So far this fiscal year, the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies have awarded the Vera Institute more than $89 million in contracts and grants. The organization has received $811 million in federal funding since 2008, according to USA Spending, a federal budget database.
Vera’s support for the "defund the police" movement comes amid a contentious political debate over policing in America. Democrats see the issue as a political third rail and have tried to distance the party from anti-police rhetoric popular on the left. While members of the Democratic Party have embraced the defund movement, President Joe Biden claimed this month that Republicans are "lying" when they say Democrats support the concept.
The Vera Institute, which calls itself a "justice reform change agent," also received stipends from traditional progressive donors, such as George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. The billionaire’s philanthropy gave more than $10 million to Vera from 2016 to 2019.
Two top executives at Vera rallied to the defund cause following the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020.
"Vera is committed to dismantling the current culture of policing and working toward solutions that defund police and shift power to communities," Vera president Nicholas Turner wrote on June 8, 2020.
Turner, who received $420,000 in salary and benefits at Vera in 2019, urged support for "the outrage we’re seeing—in the streets, in our communities, and in the media."
"Now is the time to stop tinkering with police reform and to enact wholesale change," Turner said. "We’re building on this unique moment of public awareness, outrage, and calls to defund the police."
Another Vera officer, Jamila Hodge, said it was "time for us to radically dismantle" the criminal justice system. Writing in June 2020, she said the criminal justice system "dehumanizes and devalues Black people" and is rooted in "our nation’s legacy of slavery and white supremacy."
Vera, which took in $174 million in revenue for the year ended June 30, 2020, receives the bulk of its federal funding to represent illegal aliens and refugees seeking entry to the United States. The Justice Department has awarded Vera grants and contracts through various subagencies, including the Office for Victims of Crime and the Office for Violence Against Women, which provide assistance to crime victims. Other grants have been for research, including $750,000 to conduct a randomized trial on the effect of "innovative" youth housing on crime.
https://freebeacon.com/politics/federal-government-gives-millions-to-group-that-supports-defunding-the-police/
Another Israeli Spy Story: When Will It End?
One wonders when the penny will drop and the American people will rise up and say “enough is enough,” Philip Giraldi writes.
It is perhaps not necessary to point out how the mainstream media in the United States as well as in Europe and Oceania persist in ignoring or otherwise covering up stories that make the Israelis look bad. Recent accounts of the slaughter of children and mostly civilians in Gaza by Israeli planes, missiles and artillery consistently try to depict the conflict as warfare between two comparable opponents, ignoring the enormous disparity in the military force available to the two sides. Israel has a modern army, air force and navy while Hamas has nothing but some small arms as well as improvised rockets and incendiary balloons.
The reluctance to criticize Israeli behavior is largely attributable to the power of the Zionist lobbies in the respective countries but it is also at least in part due to the complicity of Western governments in conniving at the Jewish state’s actions in its own region. The persistence in Israeli demands for war against Iran, preferable fought by the United States, was clear again this past week when the new government in Jerusalem declared that it would be increasing its military budget in anticipation of war with the Islamic Republic. Perhaps not surprisingly, the U.S. Congress also has several bills pending that would increase military assistance to Israel by a factor of three.
Aside from their overwhelming affection for the Jewish state, politicians and talking heads in Washington have always sought to have an enemy to explain why the foreign and national security policies have been such failures. Russia was so designated during the long years of the Cold War and more recently both the White House and Congress have begun to warn that it is China that is seeking to confront democratic norms and “export its authoritarian model.”
Given all of that, there must have been shock in a number of newsrooms when it turned out that the guilty party behind an explosive spy story that was revealed recently appears to be none other than America’s “closest ally and best friend.” It seems that a private Israeli surveillance plus security firm consisting of former cyberwarfare military and intelligence officers and having close ties to the Benjamin Netanyahu government has been selling advanced spyware to at least 45 governments. The sales are in theory restricted for use only in terrorism and criminal cases, but somehow the resource has instead been routinely used against journalists, political activists, business executives, and politicians. Saudi Arabia, for example, used the spyware to track dissident journal Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018.
And even though the software has been regularly used against U.S. government officials and journalists, it appears that the Biden Administration has been aware of its capabilities and has done nothing to stop it. In its own defense, the Israeli company NSO that developed the spyware has claimed, implausibly, that it can no longer be used to hack U.S. phones. That assertion was debunked by former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who tweeted “NSO’s claim that it is ‘technologically impossible’ to spy on American phone numbers is a bald-faced lie: a exploit that works against Macron’s iPhone will work the same on Biden’s iPhone. Any code written to prohibit targeting a country can also be unwritten. It’s a fig leaf.”
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/07/29/another-israeli-spy-story-when-will-end/
Justin Trudeau Calls Torching of Canadian Coptic Church 'Unacceptable' But 'Understandable'
A Coptic Christian church was recently burned to the ground—not in Egypt, where the torching of Coptic churches is not an uncommon occurrence, but in Canada, also known as “the church-burning centre of the Western world.”
In the early morning hours of July 19, St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Surrey, which served 500 families and provided food for the homeless, was set aflame and completely destroyed. Only one charred wall remains standing.
According to the report, “The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Surrey RCMP [police] said it is being treated as ‘suspicious.’ The St. George Coptic Orthodox Church was also the target of an attempted arson just last Wednesday, although authorities do not know if the two incidents are connected.”
What, exactly, do Canadian mounted police find “suspicious”? The church was clearly targeted for arson, as evidenced by the fact that it was targeted for arson a few days earlier, and at the very same time (between 2:30-4:00 a.m.). On July 14, surveillance video captured a woman lighting a fire, one that failed to catch, at the church door. That the “authorities do not know if the two incidents are connected” seems like wishful thinking.
What is deserving of the term “suspicious” is that, days after the church reported the first failed arson attempt to police—which should have led to better awareness and security for the church—another successful arson attempt took place.
After expressing its “immense sadness and pain” at the loss of the church, a statement from the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Mississauga called on Premier John Horgan and the authorities to expedite the investigation, correctly observing that “The timing of this fire … raises many questions about what the authorities did to protect our church, especially considering the attempt on the same church this past Wednesday.”
Similarly, congregant Nancy Khalil, whose family helped build the now destroyed sanctuary, as well as dozens of “priceless” hand-painted icons, also expressed disappointment that “neither provincial nor federal leaders had yet spoken out about the fire.” “It hurts,” she said, “to see no word from the government. I’m very, very much hoping for at least a statement from the premier to condemn what is happening.”
She shouldn’t hold her breath. Canada’s leaders couldn’t care less about yet another church burning to the ground. Before this Coptic church was burned, at least 50 other churches, mostly Catholic, a few Anglican, were also vandalized or torched in Canada. Here’s how Canada’s leading voices responded:
Harsha Walia, the head of British Columbia’s Civil Liberties Association—which claims to “promote, defend, sustain, and extend civil liberties and human rights”—tweeted: “Burn it all down.”
Prominent Newfoundland lawyer, Caitlin Urquhart, feels the same way—“Burn it all down.”
Heidi Mathews of Harvard Law School bizarrely described the vandalization and torching of churches as “the right of resistance to extreme and systemic injustice.”
As for the prime minister himself, Justin Trudeau, after offering the usual lip service and saying that ongoing church attacks are “unacceptable,” said: “I understand the anger that’s out there … against institutions like the Catholic Church. It is real, and it is fully understandable given the shameful history that we’re all becoming more and more aware of.”
https://pjmedia.com/columns/raymond-ibrahim/2021/07/30/canadian-leftist-church-hate-comes-for-coptic-christians-surrey-church-burns-in-suspicious-fire-n1465810
Former Head NSA Lawyer: Tucker Carlson’s Allegations Merit Further Investigation
The National Security Agency’s reported internal review of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s spying allegations suggests that the matter should be investigated further, according to a former NSA general counsel.
Citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter, The Record reported last week that the NSA’s internal review found that government officials indeed “unmasked” Carlson’s identity in classified documents—supporting some of the claims the Fox News host has made against the agency.
“The nation’s top electronic spy agency found that Carlson was mentioned in communications between third parties and his name was subsequently revealed through ‘unmasking,’ a process in which relevant government officials can request the identities of American citizens in intelligence reports to be divulged provided there is an official reason, such as helping them make sense of the intelligence documents they are reviewing,” The Record reported.
According to former NSA general counsel Stewart Baker, this report supports the calls for an investigation made by Carlson and others. The report also supports the NSA’s earlier statement that it did not “target” Carlson, Baker said.
“So what about NSA/Carlson should be investigated and perhaps disclosed? The unmasking request, mainly. Motive matters. First, the requester should have given a reason for the unmasking. How plausible was it, given the requester’s position?” Baker said on Twitter.
“The second question about NSA/Carlson unmasking: How was Carlson identified when masked? ‘US Journalist’? ‘US Citizen’? That will help gauge whether the requester really needed to know the identity behind the mask,” Baker continued.
“Traditionally, the intelligence communities would investigate the NSA/Carlson flap with full access to the classified data, and issue a report summarizing the investigation without disclosing the classified information,” the former head NSA lawyer added. “Not too hard if NSA has already done its own probe.”
Baker, now a partner at Steptoe & Johnson, also said that some aspects of the investigation would need to be protected due to the sensitivity of the intelligence operation. The NSA can’t provide the full context of the Carlson probe without disclosing a target and probably the method of intercept—both highly classified, according to Baker.
Baker did not comment further when reached by The Epoch Times, saying that his statements are self-explanatory. The NSA, for its part, also declined to comment.
“Mr. Silva, We have nothing for you,” the agency said in response to an email inquiry. “Very respectfully, NSA Public Affairs.”
Fox News has called the alleged unmasking of Carlson “entirely unacceptable.”
“For the NSA to unmask Tucker Carlson or any journalist attempting to secure a newsworthy interview is entirely unacceptable and raises serious questions about their activities as well as their original denial, which was wildly misleading,” Fox said in a July 24 statement read by Mark Steyn, who was filling in for Carlson on Tucker Carlson Tonight.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/former-head-nsa-lawyer-tucker-carlsons-allegations-merit-further-investigation_3926454.html
U.S. Navy Sailor Charged For Setting Fire to USS Bonhomme Richard, Identity Kept Secret
The USS Bonhomme Richard, a $3 billion amphibious assault ship, was set ablaze on July 12, 2020 under mysterious circumstances with the government refusing to release any information on what happened.
"It's probably just a coincidence that this multi-billion dollar fire broke out during a nationwide surge in arson due to the Racial Reckoning," Steve Sailer commented last month.
On Thursday, the same day Biden was set to dominate the news cycle with his announcement that vaccines would be mandated for federal workers, the Navy dropped the news that a member of the Bonhomme Richard's crew was being charged for setting the blaze.
They refused to identify who it was, which is likely a tell in itself.
From CNN, "Navy charges sailor in connection with 2020 fire on USS Bonhomme Richard":
The US Navy has charged a sailor in connection with the 2020 fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard amphibious warship while it was in port in San Diego, a Navy spokesperson said Thursday.
The charges are based on evidence found during the criminal investigation into the fire, Navy spokesperson Cmdr. Sean Robertson said in a statement, which is "sufficient to direct a preliminary hearing in accordance with due process under the military justice system."
The sailor, whom the Navy has not publicly identified, was a member of the Bonhomme Richard's crew at the time, Robertson added.
Vice Adm. Steve Koehler, commander of the 3rd Fleet, is considering court-martial charges and ordered a preliminary hearing that will make recommendations under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for further proceedings "including whether or not there is probable cause to believe an offense has been committed and to offer a recommendation as to the disposition of the case," Thursday's statement said.
CNN previously reported that a sailor was being questioned over the possibility that they may have intentionally set a fire.
[…] The Bonhomme Richard was designed to support Marine Corps operations, but it was de-commissioned and scrapped after a damage assessment found that restoring the ship would cost billions of dollars.
Navy officials said that restoring the ship would cost $2.5 billion to $3.2 billion and take five to seven years, saying that some 60% of the vessel would need to be replaced.
The BLM riots caused an estimated $2 billion in damages. If this was connected, it would more than double that number.
Are we every going to find out what really happened?
I'm reminded of a hate hoax in the Navy in 2017 wherein a 27-year-old black seaman by the name of Marquie Little was caught vandalizing his own bunk with n-words and covering it in trash.
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=62421
Walmart Doubles Down On The COVID Vaccine, Pays Workers $150 To Get The Shot
Walmart (WMT) is giving its employees even more reason to get vaccinated as it has doubled its COVID vaccine incentive to $150 for workers who get the shot while also encouraging them to mask up in certain regions of the country.
The retail giant previously paid $75 to employees who received their COVID vaccine. They will also receive an additional $75 on their Aug. 19 paycheck, CNBC reported.
“We continue to watch with deep concern the developments of the pandemic and the spread of variants, especially the Delta variant,” Walmart said in a memo sent to employees obtained by USA Today. “We know vaccinations are our solution to drive change. We are urging you to get vaccinated and want to see many more of you vaccinated.”
Walmart’s $150 incentive program, which will remain effective until Oct. 4, follows a request from President Joe Biden to states and cities on Thursday to pay citizens who have received their COVID vaccine $100 using federal rescue funds.
Along with offering its employees more encouragement to get vaccinated, Walmart and Sam’s Club will once again require its employees to wear face masks in certain parts of the country where COVID cases are surging effective immediately, USA Today said.
However, customers will not be required to wear masks but are “strongly encouraged” to do so, Walmart told the news outlet in a statement.
The face mask requirement for employees is “not applicable in all stores. Managers will refer to the CDC site for updates relevant to their county each Monday,” Walmart continued.
https://www.ibtimes.com/walmart-doubles-down-covid-vaccine-pays-workers-150-get-shot-3263403
Arizona: Healthcare Workers Rally Against COVID-19 Jab Mandates – Employees REQUIRED To Show Proof of Jab By November 1st
In Phoenix, Arizona, healthcare workers and supporters of medical freedom rallied against mandatory vaccines at the Arizona State Capitol.
Banner Health which is Arizona’s largest private employer and Honor health have both announced that proof of vaccination will be a requirement of employment.
If employees cannot show proof of vaccination by November 1st, they will be terminated.
Honor health was Arizona’s ninth-largest employer in 2019, with 11,919 employees to Banner’s 44,718.
Over 50,000 people will be coerced into taking this experimental vaccine if they want to keep their jobs.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/arizona-healthcare-workers-rally-covid-19-jab-mandates-employees-required-show-proof-jab-november-1st/
Switzerland Drops Magnitsky Case Probe, Plaintiff Claims Foul Play
Swiss authorities dropped on Tuesday a decade-long graft investigation linked to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who uncovered the multi-million scandal and then died in a Moscow prison in 2009.
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) released astatement saying it was closing its probe into whether Russian officials defrauded tax authorities at home and then laundered their proceeds in Switzerland.
This allegation was brought forward by Magnitsky’s client, businessman Bill Browder's investment fund Hermitage Capital.
“Based on its extensive enquiries, the OAG can now confirm that the investigation has not revealed any evidence that would justify charges being brought against anyone in Switzerland,” the statement said.
In 2008, Magnitsky claimed that organized crime groups and Russian authorities conspired to use Browder’s Hermitage Capital Management to conduct tax fraud worth US$230 million, and launder the money in Swiss banks.
Shortly after blowing the whistle on these fraud accusations, Magnitsky was arrested for tax evasion. He was allegedly mistreated anddenied medical care while awaiting trial and died in prison in November 2009.
After Magnitsky’s passing, Browder left Moscow and continued his effort to investigate the Russian tax fraud case and his lawyer’s death from abroad, alerting Swiss authorities about the case in 2011. While conducting the inquiry, Swiss officials seized $19.6 million in funds from suspicious bank accounts, owned by people the U.S. has already sanctioned.
The probe ended this week without any charges. All but $4.3 million of the frozen funds were released.
“This is a stain on Switzerland,” Browder said in response. He asserts that political corruption silenced the case, and is allowing for these crimes to sit unpunished.
The former Swiss attorney general, Micheal Lauper, was accused of accepting gifts from Russian officials and holding off the record meetings with Russian authorities to discuss the Magnitsky affair. In 2018, he wasspotted vacationing in Siberia with Russian Deputy Prosecutor General, Saak Karapetyan.
Browder connected this controversy with the insufficient results of the case in atweet on Wednesday. “The collapse of the Swiss Magnitsky case comes amid accusations of bribery and political meddling at the highest levels of the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's office,” he wrote.
Browder plans to fight the decision–and question the OAG’s ability to honorably prosecute the case. He has until the end of July to submit his appeal.
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/14941-switzerland-drops-magnitsky-case-probe-plaintiff-claims-foul-play
8 arrests following the seizure at sea of 15 tonnes of hashish by Spanish authorities
With the support of Europol, the Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) and Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria), in cooperation with the Portuguese Judicial Police (Polícia Judiciária) have dismantled an organised crime network involved in large-scale drugs trafficking, arresting eight of its members. These criminals were about to smuggle 15 tonnes of hashish into Spain when they were arrested.
The investigation began at the end of last year after the Spanish investigators uncovered an organised crime group smuggling hashish from Morroco to Spain using different types of vessels. Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) assisted with the analysis of the criminals’ financial transactions, mapping out the full network spread out across Spain and Portugal.
The investigation quickly focused on one particular vessel – known as the SEEFUCHS acquired by the criminal group in November 2020. The vessel was moved by the criminals to the Portuguese town of Portimao, where they changed its colour and increased its storage capacity.
In June of this year, the SEEFUCHS set sail to Morocco, under close surveillance from law enforcement. Once the drugs were loaded onto the vessel, the criminals sailed back towards the Gibraltar Strait. The vessel was stormed by Spanish law enforcement some 100 nautical miles south of the Spanish coast.
During the assault, five individuals were arrested and 15 tonnes of hashish seized in the boat’s cargo. Five house searches were carried out simultaneously across Spain, resulting in the arrest of three other members of this same gang, together with the seizure of €60 000 in cash. A luxury yacht which was also used for drugs transportation was seized in Lanzarote.
A Europol specialist was deployed to Spain during the action day to support the authorities with the cross-checking in real time of operational information gathered during the raids carried out on that day.
https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/8-arrests-following-seizure-sea-of-15-tonnes-of-hashish-spanish-authorities
18 arrested for smuggling more than 490 migrants across the Balkan route
Up to 100 people accommodated in a 60 m2 (un)safe house
Officers from the Romanian Police (Poliția Română) and Border Police (Poliția de Frontieră Română), supported by Europol, dismantled an organised crime group involved in migrant smuggling across the so-called Balkan route.
The action day on 29 July 2021 led to:
22 house searches
18 suspects arrested
Seizure of munitions, five vehicles car, mobile phones and €22 000 in cash
The criminal network, active since October 2020, consisted of Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian and Romanian citizens. The criminal group had cells in the countries across the Balkan route from where regional facilitators managed the recruitment, accommodation and transport of migrants from Jordan, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Several criminal cells based in Romania facilitated the border crossing from Bulgaria and Serbia of groups of migrants and arranged their temporary accommodation in the area of Bucharest and in western Romania. The migrants were then smuggled to Hungary on their way to Germany as a final destination. In total, 26 illegal transports of migrants were intercepted and 490 migrants were detected in an attempt to illegally cross the Romanian border. Very well organised, the criminal group was involved in other criminal activities as well, such as drug trafficking, document fraud and property crime.
Up to € 10 000 per migrant
Migrants were paying between € 4 000 and € 10 000 depending on the trafficking segment. For example, the price for facilitating the crossing from Romania to Germany was between € 4 000 and € 5 000. The migrants, some of which were families with young children, were accommodated in extremely poor conditions, often with no access to toilets or running water. For the safe houses, the suspects rented accommodations or used the residences of group members, mainly situated in the areas of Călărași County, Ialomița County and Timișoara. In one of the safe houses, measuring about 60 m2, the suspects hid 100 people at the same time. The migrants were then transferred in risky conditions in overcrowded lorries between merchandise and in vans hidden in concealments without proper ventilation.
Europol facilitated the exchange of information and provided analytical support. On the action day, Europol deployed one analyst to Romania to cross-check operational information against Europol’s databases in real time to provide leads to investigators in the field.
https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/18-arrested-for-smuggling-more-490-migrants-across-balkan-route
Dark Web Narcotics Dealer “Fentmaster,” Responsible For Overdose Death, Sentenced To 15 Years In Prison
Chukwuemeka Okparaeke Netted Millions by Distributing Kilograms of Fentanyl Analogues and Synthetic Opioids Through a Darknet Marketplace and the United States Mail, Completing Over 7,000 Sales
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/dark-web-narcotics-dealer-fentmaster-responsible-overdose-death-sentenced-15-years
Iranian State Media Calls Attack On Israeli-Managed Ship "Retaliation"
update(1:44ET): An Iranian state media report has called the earlier attack of the Israeli-managed tanker off Oman "retaliation" for recent Israeli attacks inside Syria.
So it appears the Iranians are owning up to the Friday attack on the Mercer Street tanker which left two international crew members dead.
Israeli officials are also now widely being cited in local media as saying Iran was behind it.
Important: #Iran's Al-Alam writes that the attack on the MT Mercer Street was in response to alleged Israeli airstrike targeting Dabaa military airport in #Syria. So a maritime reprisal for an airstrike. 1/2https://t.co/wHrbV8J54t
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) July 30, 2021
*
The UK Defence Ministry is confirming an overnight attack on an Israeli-managed tanker in the Arabian Sea off the Coast of Oman. Though few details have been given, or whether the incident could have been related to piracy - which is not uncommon in those waters - suspicions are on Iran given the recent history of tit-for-tat vessel attacks in Mideast waters.
London-based Zodiac Maritime, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer, has issued a statement saying two crew members died as a result of the attack, including one Romanian and one British crew member, aboard what's been identified as the "Mercer Street" petroleum products tanker.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tanker-managed-israeli-billionaire-attacked-oman-2-crew-killed
CNN Warns Americans: ‘It’s About to Get Much Harder to Not Be Vaccinated’
CNN is warning Americans that it is “about to get much harder not to be vaccinated” — a caution which follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressing the need to ramp up its messaging as the American people question its motives and science behind its latest edicts.
This week, President Biden blamed unvaccinated Americans for the CDC’s updated guidance, requiring vaccinated people to wear masks in indoor areas “of substantial or high transmission.”
“We have a pandemic, because of the unvaccinated and they’re sowing enormous confusion,” Biden said. “If those other 100 million got vaccinated, we’d be in a very different world.”
Millions of Americans have expressed concerns over the vaccines, all of which have yet to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some have cited a lack of trust in the expedited vaccine development, while others worry about adverse side effects — both short-term and long-term, the latter of which remains largely unknown. Others have cited a lack of trust in drug companies and the government itself. Ultimately, a majority of unvaccinated Americans have indicated that they remain solid in their decision to forgo the vaccine as the Biden administration attempts to grapple with it. An internal CDC document obtained by the Washington Post this week revealed the federal agency’s internal panic, expressing the need to ramp up its messaging to urge Americans to get the shot.
The CNN article, however, contends it may not even be necessary for the federal government to do something as radical as mandating the vaccine, suggesting it may become nearly impossible to participate in everyday life without one if employers, stores, and hospitals impose requirements one by one.
“The federal government may not try to force people to get the Covid vaccine,” the report reads. “And it may not have to.”
“Your employer, the restaurant where you want to eat, the concert venue you want to visit or the country where you want to travel may do it for them,” it adds.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/30/cnn-warns-americans-its-about-to-get-much-harder-to-not-be-vaccinated/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/07/30/cnn-warns-americans-its-about-to-get-much-harder-to-not-be-vaccinated/
We Face PURE EVIL - Be Not Deceived; We're in a Fight for Survival
A world government ("globalism") already exists in the form of the United Nations. The World Health Organization is an agency of the UN.
The mainspring of this world government is the Masonic Jewish central banking cartel which controls the credit of most countries and
creates the medium of exchange (credit, currency) out of thin air in the form of a debt to itself.
This is something all nations could do themselves, debt and interest free.
All social institutions have been subverted to protect and expand this fraud by formalizing the New World Order.
Politicians, doctors, celebrities, professors, media, judges, cops, preachers do not serve the public who pay their salaries.
Most are opportunists and traitors chosen from the ranks of Freemasonry (Jewish Cabalism, Satanism.) The rest are dupes.
The Aim of Freemasonry is the Triumph of Communism and Altiyan Childs- Humanity is Held Hostage by a Satanic Cult (Freemasonry)
Our national credit cards and taxes finance people determined to destroy us.
The covid "vaccines" are designed to destroy, dispossess and control humanity.
We need to call out Evil.
We are foot soldiers in a spiritual war.
Even though our minds and spirits have been dulled by trivia
We can't evade this draft. They are gunning for us, and our children. This is genocide.
Don't believe the glib assurances in the mass media.
https://henrymakow.com/2021/07/we-face-pure-evil.html
“All Options Are on the Table” – New York City Considering Vaccine Mandates For All Restaurants
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday that “all options are on the table” when it comes to vaccine mandates.
“We need mandates,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio said his health department has the “power” to mandate vaccines since playing nice and offering incentives is no longer working.
“We’ve tried incentives for months and months…we need something tough at this point. We need mandates. We’ve got to show people,” De Blasio said Friday during an interview on CNN.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/options-table-new-york-city-considering-vaccine-mandates-restaurants/
“Historic Victory”: Bayer to End US Residential Sales of Glyphosate-Based Herbicides
In a move that environmental groups celebrated as a “historic victory” following years of campaigning to remove Roundup and similar weedkillers from store shelves, Bayer on Thursday announced that it will halt the sale of glyphosate-based herbicides to consumers in the U.S. lawn and garden market by 2023.
“Bayer’s decision to end U.S. residential sale[s] of Roundup is a historic victory for public health and the environment,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety (CFS), said in a statement.
“As agricultural, large-scale use of this toxic pesticide continues,” he added, “our farmworkers remain at risk. It’s time for EPA to act and ban glyphosate for all uses.”
While calling the announcement “an important victory to protect the health of Americans,” Kendra Klein, senior scientist at Friends of the Earth, stressed that “action on this toxic weedkiller can’t wait until 2023. Major home and garden retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s must lead the industry by ending the sales of Roundup immediately.”
The key ingredient found in Roundup, the world’s most widely used herbicide, is glyphosate. Described by the World Health Organization as “probably carcinogenic,” glyphosate poses threats to human health and to pollinators such as bumblebees and monarch butterflies.
Bayer stated that it will switch Roundup and other glyphosate-based weedkillers to formulas that “rely on alternative active ingredients” in order to “manage litigation risk and not because of any safety concerns.”
Thursday’s decision came in response to several legal battles that Bayer, a German pharmaceutical and biotech corporation, inherited when it acquired Monsanto, a U.S. agrochemical giant and creator of Roundup, in 2018.
Last year, Bayer announced multiple massive settlements totaling more than $11 billion to compensate individuals harmed by two Monsanto herbicides.
In one case, the company agreed to pay $10.9 billion to about 125,000 people who alleged the use of Roundup was to blame for their cancer diagnoses.
The Roundup litigation settlement was preceded by three high-profile lawsuits, in which juries sided with plaintiffs suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma “in finding that their exposure to glyphosate contributed to their cancers,” CFS explained. “Plaintiffs Edwin Hardeman, DeWayne Johnson, and Alberta and Alva Pilliod were each awarded between $25 to $87 million.”
https://www.naturalblaze.com/2021/07/historic-victory-bayer-to-end-us-residential-sales-of-glyphosate-based-herbicides.html
https://www.naturalblaze.com/2021/07/historic-victory-bayer-to-end-us-residential-sales-of-glyphosate-based-herbicides.html
Man, 36, who hid in a 15-year-old girl's closet for more than a month - and snuck out to sexually abuse her when her parents left for work - gets 15 years in prison
Man managed to live in his 15-year-old girlfriend’s wardrobe for weeks, secretly dashing out to have sex with her – while her parents were living in the house
Johnathan Lee Rossmoine pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of sexual relations with a minor
The 36-year-old Louisiana native said he had made regular trips to the 15-year-old girl's home in Spring Hill, Florida, where he stayed in the girl's closet
Rossmoine was arrested in September 2020 after the girl's parents discovered the grown man was living in their daughter's wardrobe
He was charged with four counts of lewd behavior with a victim between 12 and 16, obscene communication, and using a computer to lure a child
Rossmoine will receive 10 years of sex offender probation upon his release and be required to report as a sexual offender for life
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9843905/Man-hid-girls-closet-abused-parents-downstairs-jailed-15-years.html