"The work of a private man who wished to transcend. He trusted himself to produce from within."
U.S. Attorney Robert Leach traced the case back to 2009, when he says Holmes was becoming desperate as companies like Pfizer began declining partnerships with Theranos and she was running out of funding, according to reporters from NPR and Law360 inside the courtroom.
The prosecutor also stated Holmes ordered her subordinates to modify third-party machines “to deceive Walgreens and Safeway” and once handed investors a forged report from Pfizer claiming Theranos’ devices had “superior performance.”
>a forged report from Pfizer claiming Theranos’ devices had “superior performance.”
How nervous is Pfizer about being called as a witness?
>forged report from Pfizer claiming Theranos’ devices had “superior performance.”
https://i.imgur.com/mKNEcRf.png
https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1436157799852032002
"The Daily Wire does have more than 100 employees but we won't be enforcing Joe Biden's unconstitutional and tyrannical vaccine mandate. That's it. We'll use every tool at our disposal including legal action to resist."
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realDailyWire CEO JeremyDBoreing
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1435682845385764864
Psaki tells @weijia that Biden will announce six "new steps" in the COVID response on Thursday, including measures related to mandates and protecting children in schools
Should Americans expect new mitigation recommendations?
Psaki: "It depends on if you're vaccinated or not"
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1436073252330291211
“We are in a tough stretch and it could last for awhile,” the President said, stressing the power of the Delta variant.
https://twitter.com/margbrennan/status/1436024625457246209
NSC @emilyhorne46 confirms Taliban were “cooperative” in facilitating the departure of US citizens & residents on charter flights & calls it a good first step. WH describes Taliban as showing flexibility & being “businesslike & professional in our dealings with them.”#Afghanistan
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-afghanistan-qatar-kabul-taliban-171fa64b4ed5514b44834257b4d5d457
Flight takes about 200, including Americans, out of Kabul
An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday with the cooperation of the Taliban — the first such large-scale departure since U.S. forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago.
The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s new rulers. A dayslong standoff over charter planes at another airport has left hundreds of mostly Afghan people stranded, waiting for Taliban permission to leave.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, said the Taliban’s foreign minister and deputy prime minister helped facilitate the flight. Americans, U.S. green card holders and other nationalities, including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians, were aboard, the official said.
Qatari envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani said another 200 passengers will leave Afghanistan on Friday.
Ten U.S. citizens and 11 green-card holders made Thursday’s flight, State Department spokesman Ned Price said. Americans organizing charter evacuation flights said they knew of more U.S. passport and green-card holders in Mazar-e-Sharif and elsewhere awaiting flights out.
The White House said before the flight that there were roughly 100 U.S. citizens left in Afghanistan. But several veterans groups have said that number is too low because many citizens never bothered to tell U.S. officials they were in the country. And they said the figure overlooks green-card-carrying permanent U.S. residents living in Afghanistan who want to leave.
Many thousands of Afghans remain desperate to get out, too, afraid of what Taliban rule might hold. The Taliban have repeatedly said foreigners and Afghans with proper travel documents could leave. But their assurances have been met with skepticism, and many Afghans have been unable to obtain certain paperwork.
U.S. lawmakers, veterans groups and others are pressing the Biden administration to ensure that former Afghan military interpreters and others who could be in danger of Taliban reprisals for working with the Americans are allowed to leave.
In the U.S., National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said that Thursday’s flight was the result of “careful and hard diplomacy and engagement” and that the Taliban “have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort.”
“This is a positive first step,” she said, adding that the U.S. will continue trying to extract Americans and Afghan allies who want to leave.
As Taliban authorities patrolled the tarmac, passengers presented their documents for inspection and dogs sniffed luggage laid out on the ground. Some veteran airport employees had returned to their jobs after fleeing during the harrowing chaos of the U.S.-led airlift.
Irfan Popalzai, 12, boarded the flight with his mother and five siblings. He said his family lives in Maryland.
“I am an Afghan, but you know I am from America and I am so excited” to leave, he said.
The airport was extensively damaged in the frenzied final days of the U.S. airlift that evacuated over 100,000 people. But Qatari authorities announced that it had been repaired with the help of experts from Qatar and Turkey and was ready for the resumption of international airline flights.
“I can clearly say that this is a historic day in the history of Afghanistan as Kabul airport is now operational,” al-Qahtani said. He added: “Hopefully, life is becoming normal in Afghanistan.”
The flight was the first to take off from the Kabul airport since American forces left the country at the end of August. The accompanying scenes of chaos, including Afghans plunging to their deaths from the sides of military aircraft on takeoff and a suicide bombing that killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, came to define the end of America’s two-decade war.
The airport is no longer the Hamid Karzai International Airport, but simply Kabul International Airport, with the name of the country’s former president removed. Several Taliban flags flew from the terminal, which was emblazoned “The Islamic Emirate seeks peaceful and positive relations with the world.”
Hundreds of other Afghans who say they are at risk for helping the Americans have gathered for more than a week in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, waiting for permission to board evacuation flights chartered by U.S. supporters. Many are believed not to have the necessary travel documents.
In Mazar-e-Sharif on Thursday, an Afghan who worked 15 years as an interpreter for the U.S. military was moving from hotel to hotel and running out of money as he, his eight children and his wife waited for the OK from the Taliban to leave.
“I’m frightened I will be left behind,” said the man, whose name was withheld by The Associated Press for his safety.
The interpreter said he was one of many former U.S. employees whose special visas the United States approved in the last weeks of the American military presence in Afghanistan. But with the U.S. Embassy closed when the Taliban took Kabul on Aug. 15, it has become impossible to get the visa stamped into his passport.
He said he doesn’t trust Taliban assurances that they will not take revenge against Afghans who worked for the Americans.
“No, never,” he said. “I never believe them, because they are lying.”
Afghanistan war veteran Matt Zeller, who founded the organization No One Left Behind to help Afghans who supported American troops, said he does not believe it is possible for applicants to the special immigrant visa program to get a visa without an embassy in Kabul.
“For all intents and purposes, these people’s chances of escaping the Taliban ended the day we left them behind,” he said.
Price said the United States is looking at such steps as electronic visas to overcome the lack of an embassy in Afghanistan.
The organization War Time Allies estimates as many as 20,000 special visa applicants remain in the country, not counting those eligible under a more liberal rule change made in July. Add their families to that and the total amounts to more than 80,000 people, according to the group.
This. Too much AC?
https://twitter.com/BBCBarbaraPlett/status/1435973120754601984
#Taliban say keeping cabinet ministers on the US terrorist blacklist would be a violation of the Doha Agreement signed with Trump admin
https://apnews.com/article/europe-united-states-western-europe-madrid-terrorism-5756d66287def630882b123bdaf86123
Post-9/11, Europe’s weak spots make it a jihadist target
In the 20 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, a mixture of homegrown extremists, geography and weaknesses in counterterrorism strategies have combined to turn Europe into a prime target for jihadists bent on hurting the West.
Europe watched open-mouthed as the 9/11 attacks unfolded across the Atlantic. Life on the Old Continent, too, would be transformed by those events, with hundreds of people killed and thousands injured at the hands of Islamic extremists in the following years.
Since 9/11, Europe has witnessed many more jihadist attacks on its soil than the United States. Why? A variety of reasons, analysts say.
Over the past decade or so, “what we’ve seen in Western Europe is an unprecedented jihadist mobilization,” says Fernando Reinares, director of the program on Violent Radicalization and Global Terrorism at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid.
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-business-health-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-e23b46e3bcc5c1110ece87fb7d63974d
Analysis: Biden’s war on virus becomes war on unvaccinated
They’re a source of frustration. A risk to their fellow citizens. A threat to the nation’s economic recovery.
President Joe Biden is trying to concentrate the anger of the nation’s inoculated majority against the stubborn 25% of eligible Americans who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19.
Nearly 8 months after declaring “war” on the coronavirus as he took office, Biden on Friday announced far-reaching new federal requirements that could force millions to get shots. In doing so, he embraced those who haven’t rolled up their sleeves as a new foe amid a devastating surge in cases that is straining the nation’s health system and constricting its economy.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” Biden said from the State Dining Room. “And your refusal has cost all of us.”
The unvaccinated minority, he added, “can cause a lot of damage, and they are.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/58486790
Spanish bishop quit for love for Satanic-tinged erotic writer
When Spanish bishop Xavier Novell resigned last month, the Roman Catholic Church cited strictly personal reasons without going into detail.
It has now emerged in Spanish media that he fell in love with a woman who writes Satanic-tinged erotic fiction.
In 2010 at the age of 41, he became Spain's youngest bishop, in Solsona in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.
He has backed so-called conversion therapy for gay people and carried out exorcisms.
Seen as a rising star in Spain's Catholic Church, his decision to resign with the Vatican's approval came as a surprise last month. He is said to have met several times with Vatican officials as well as the Pope himself.
Xavier Novell was traditional in his remarks on abortion but his strident views on homosexuality and outspoken support for Catalonian independence were controversial.
It came as a shock when Religión Digital reported that he had fallen for divorcee Silvia Caballol, a psychologist and erotic novelist. The news site said that the former bishop was now looking for a job in the Barcelona area as an agronomist.
Caballol's books include titles such as The Hell of Gabriel's Lust and the trilogy Amnesia. In the blurb for one of her works, the reader is promised a journey into sadism, madness and lust and a struggle between good and evil, God and Satan with a plot to shake one's values and religious beliefs.
Neither the ex-bishop, who is now 52, nor the novelist have responded to the reports although Religión Digital quoted him as saying "I have fallen in love and want to do things properly".
The diocese has since responded by emphasising that "corroboration or not of this story is a strictly personal matter for him alone".
The issue has again raised the issue of celibacy within the Church. In earlier interviews, Xavier Novell admitted that in his youth he had fallen in love with an 18-year-old girl and he had later wanted to marry and have children before deciding on a different path.
His change of heart has prompted grumblings within the Church. Dominican nun Lucía Caram said he was "out of his mind" and criticised his promotion of "conversion therapy".
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/09/readout-of-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-call-with-president-xi-jinping-of-the-peoples-republic-of-china/
Readout of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Call with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The two leaders had a broad, strategic discussion in which they discussed areas where our interests converge, and areas where our interests, values, and perspectives diverge. They agreed to engage on both sets of issues openly and straightforwardly. This discussion, as President Biden made clear, was part of the United States’ ongoing effort to responsibly manage the competition between the United States and the PRC. President Biden underscored the United States’ enduring interest in peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and the world and the two leaders discussed the responsibility of both nations to ensure competition does not veer into conflict.
https://www.jpost.com/50-most-influential-jews/albert-bourla-678109
Albert Bourla: Meet the Greek king who sold Israel its COVID-19 cure
It is not uncommon to see Israeli diners cling their cups together in l’chaim to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. They know they would not be out at a restaurant or bar without the company’s elixir that, even as cases are once again rising, has allowed Israel to stay open.
Pfizer has shipped billions of doses of its vaccine to those who wanted and could afford it in the US and around the world. The company recently said it expects sales of the vaccine to hit almost $34 billion this year. But Israel was the first to fully benefit from the company’s innovation.
At Pfizer’s helm is a Jewish man from Thessaloniki, Greece: Albert Bourla.
Bourla has said that he chose to gamble on Israel because of its small population and its sophisticated data collection system.
Greece was an option, but its electronic medical record-keeping was not up to scratch, he said in August in an interview with the Financial Times. The company also considered Sweden, but Bourla told FT he was worried about upsetting other European Union countries.
“The biggest thing that became clear was Bibi [Netanyahu] was on top of everything, he knew everything,” Bourla said. “He called me 30 times, asking: ‘What about young people… What are you doing about the South African variant?’ I’m sure he was doing it for his people, but I’m also sure he was thinking: ‘It could help me politically.’”
But even as Netanyahu did not win the election and Israel received a new prime minister in Naftali Bennett, Bourla said that Netanyahu “did it very well.”
How did Pfizer become the first mRNA vaccine maker in the world, achieving Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration even before Moderna? On August 23, the FDA granted its coronavirus vaccine full approval.
The mRNA vaccines are proving to be the most effective and still safe. Others, such as AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson or Sinovac work, but are proving less effective – especially against variants.
Those who work at Pfizer told The Jerusalem Post that Bourla receives much of the credit. He challenged Pfizer scientists, manufacturing colleagues and employees across the organization to develop and deliver a vaccine in record time. He said, “if not us, then who?”
“The principle was that we must do it,” Bourla said in an interview with CNBC. “If we wouldn’t be able to have a solution by the time that it was needed, then we will be facing way worse problems around the world than us losing $2b.
“So, when I saw it from that aspect, it was a very easy call,” he continued. “We will go all in. If we lose because we failed to produce a solution, the company will not go down. It will be painful, but will not go down. But on the other hand, the company will be remembered because we did the right thing.”
Bourla never expected for the vaccine to be as successful as it has become. He learned about the breakthrough in a Zoom meeting with Pfizer’s general counsel and two statisticians.
“I heard the 95%, which I didn’t believe, I thought I didn’t hear it well,” Bourla told FT.
“If mRNA had failed, I think we would have been in a very, very difficult spot right now,” he said. “We would need to vaccinate way more people to get the same result, in many cases 40% to 50% more.”
Bourla has been with Pfizer for 25 years. He started in the company’s Animal Health division in 1993, working his way up through several global and senior positions. He served as Pfizer COO before becoming CEO in January 2019 – less than one year before the coronavirus crisis began.
A company spokesperson said that their boss encourages them to “take bold moves that help us achieve our purpose of delivering breakthroughs that change patients’ lives.”
COVID-19 showed Pfizer staff that Bourla was correct: The company is capable of delivering these kinds of breakthroughs.
Bourla attributes some of his success to growing up among Holocaust survivors who were not afraid to tell their stories. His mother and his father narrowly escaped persecution by the Nazis.
His father’s parents and two of his three siblings were among the tens of thousands of Sephardic Jews from Thessaloniki who died during those years. His mother was imprisoned and nearly murdered by a firing squad.
Before the Holocaust, there were around 55,000 Jews living in Greece. Some 95% were executed.
He told FT that his mother would recount the story of her near-death – “a story of horror but given with humor.”
Bourla doesn’t talk too much about his family’s background, but in an interview published in The New York Times he shared more than usual. He told the Times that his mother would say that she was “in a worse position once, and now I have you and your sister. Life is miraculous. Nothing is impossible.
“That was the spirit of her,” he said. “And she inspired me to be the same.”
He added in that interview that “my mother believed you can do anything in life. That there’s always a way. The way may not be clear in the beginning, but there is always a way. I owe her a lot because of that. She is my role model.
“What I got from my dad was to identify what can go wrong.”
>Meet theGreek kingwho sold Israel its COVID-19 cure
https://www.jta.org/2020/11/13/israel/israel-signs-covid-vaccine-deal-days-after-netanyahu-noted-how-pfizer-ceo-is-proud-of-his-jewish-heritage
Israel signs COVID vaccine deal days after Netanyahu noted how Pfizer CEO is ‘proud’ of his Jewish heritage
Israel’s government has signed an agreement with the Pfizer pharmaceutical company to acquire 8 million doses of its vaccine.
“This is a great day for the State of Israel and a great day on the way to our victory over the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday, adding that he is working “to ensure that we will receive the vaccine together with the leading countries around the world and that we will not get pushed back in line.”
The announcement came days after Netanyahu said in a video address that Israel would be able to sign a deal with Pfizer in part because the company’s CEO, Albert Bourla, told Netanyahu he is proud to be Jewish.
“Albert Bourla is very proud of his Greek heritage and of his Jewish heritage, from Thessaloniki,” Netanyahu said. “After this conversation, which was very productive and very practical, I’m convinced we will complete the contract with Pfizer.”
Pfizer announced on November 9 that late-stage trials of its vaccine were more than 90% effective. The pharmaceutical giant is now the leader among several companies working to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. Its vaccine still needs to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, along with Israel’s equivalent agency.
After keeping its COVID-19 cases to a minimum this spring, Israel began experiencing record-high numbers of cases in the summer and fall. While the numbers have since gone down, Netanyahu’s government has been criticized for inconsistency in its lockdown policies, and for providing exceptions to Israel’s haredi Orthodox population, which has experienced particularly high case numbers.
“We must all continue to keep the directives and the rules until the arrival of the vaccines, and even afterwards,” Netanyahu said Friday. “If we continue to work together with the same caution, responsibility and unity, we will be among the first in the world to successfully exit the coronavirus crisis.”
Netanyahu said that the vaccine should begin arriving in the country in January.
>Netanyahu said in a video address that Israel would be able to sign a deal with Pfizer in part because the company’s CEO, Albert Bourla, told Netanyahu he is proud to be Jewish.
Is it already the 10th of September..
jeez louise guise