Israel Launches Missiles On Southern Syria Amid Reports Hezbollah Entrenched Along Golan Border

Just days after the Friday meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Israel has once again launched major strikes on southern Syria, which reportedly struck Hezbollah-linked targets near the border between the two countries.

Damascus says it has a right to respond after the Monday morning attack, describing in a foreign ministry statement: "The Israeli forces this morning showed another aggression in the southern region. This is taking place as part of a series of aggression against Syria's sovereignty."

Syrian media confirmed multiple Israeli missile strikes on Madinat al-Baath on the Syrian side of the Golan border - an attack which was preceded by Israeli forces dropping leaflets over the area warning people there not to cooperate with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group backed by Iran.

Israeli media is reporting that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) used helicopters in the attack:

The three sites were all reportedly connected to Hezbollah’s so-called Golan File, its efforts to establish a front along the Golan border from which it can carry out attacks against Israel.

According to Syrian media, two of the sites were observation posts used by the Lebanese terror group, while the third target was a site just next to a Syrian military facility that Israel has long claimed was working with Hezbollah, the offices of Cpt. Bashar al-Hussein, commander of a reconnaissance company in the Syrian army’s 90th Brigade.

Israeli leaders have for years warned that they will not tolerate a Hezbollah or Iran-linked presence along Israel's border, though for years during the height of the Syrian war al-Qaeda and ISIS groups were entrenched in the same region before being defeated by pro-Assad forces.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-launches-missiles-southern-syria-amid-reports-hezbollah-entrenched-along-golan

Fauci slams Rand Paul’s claims US-funded bat virus research led to Covid-19 after senator demands his firing amid longstanding row

White House Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has lashed out at claims made by Senator Rand Paul that US-funded bat virus research in China could have spawned Covid-19, rebuffing the idea as “molecularly impossible.”

Speaking on Sunday to ABC News, Fauci blasted accusations made by Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had funded research in Wuhan which resulted in the origination of the coronavirus: “He's absolutely incorrect. Neither I nor Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the NIH, lied or misled about what we've done.”

The senator also called for Fauci to be fired by US President Joe Biden “for lack of judgement,” and said it is unlikely he will “admit that he lied” in an interview with Axios on HBO. “He's gonna continue to dissemble, and try to work around the truth, and massage the truth,” Paul remarked.

The remarks come after the NIH’s principal deputy director, Lawrence Tabak, revealed last week that nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance did experiment on coronaviruses in China with the organization’s funding, but he denied this had anything to do with the virus that causes Covid-19.

Fauci also reiterated this and said that the viruses being studied “were distant enough molecularly that no matter what you did to them, they could never, ever become SARS-CoV-2.” It would be “molecularly impossible,” he insisted.

In a letter sent to Republican lawmakers, Tabak said the experiment found mice infected with one bat coronavirus “became sicker than those” given another type.

Despite there being a 96-97% similarity between SARS-CoV-2 and the RaTG13 and BANAL-52 bat coronaviruses, Tabak insisted “the bat coronaviruses studied under the EcoHealth Alliance grant could not have been the source of … the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The World Health Organization announced a renewed probe to determine the origins of the coronavirus earlier this month. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian promised that Beijing would continue to support and participate in finding out where the virus came from, but said it will “firmly oppose any form of political manipulation.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/538390-molecularly-impossible-fauci-coronavirus-origins-funding/

ADL Publishes Ridiculous Halloween Costume Guide Urging Parents to Avoid ‘Costumes That Perpetuate Gender Norms’

The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry. The organization was historically a leading voice against anti-semitism in America. Not today.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a ridiculous Halloween costume guide that urges parents to avoid costumes “that perpetuate gender norms.”

The guide also railed against the typical “offensive” costumes that use “cultural appropriation” or “cultural stereotypes.”

“Halloween is a week away and you and your family might be brainstorming costume ideas,” the ADL tweeted on Sunday. “Check out our resource for reminders about how and why to avoid cultural appropriation, cultural stereotypes, and costumes that perpetuate gender norms.”

The guide directed parents not to allow their children to dress up as Native Americans, for example.

“Many children and families don’t realize that their costume choices are potentially hurtful or offensive. For example, a child who may be interested in Native American stories and history wants to dress up as a Native American person. Consider it an opportunity to talk with them about how Native American dress is not a costume. Instead, it is an essential part of identity, unique to each different tribe with their own customs and ways of dress,” the guide stated.

The guide went on to whine about how girl costumes tend to be “pretty” and boy costumes tend to feature things like superheroes.

“Many Halloween costumes perpetuate gender stereotypes and exclude those who don’t conform to traditional gender norms, especially those who are transgender, non-binary or gender non-conforming. Be mindful that you may have students who feel excluded and marginalized by the overly gendered way Halloween costumes are marketed,” the ADL wrote.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/10/adl-publishes-ridiculous-halloween-costume-guide-urging-parents-avoid-costumes-perpetuate-gender-norms/

Facebook tells staff to expect ‘more bad headlines’ amid DAMNING reports based on whistleblower leaks – media

Facebook has reportedly told staffers to “steel [themselves]” against “more bad headlines” in the “coming days” amid the ongoing publication of critical news articles citing internal reports leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen.

In a memo sent on Saturday, which was seen by Axios, Facebook Vice-President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg apparently warned employees that the news coverage would likely contain “mischaracterizations of our research, our motives and where our priorities lie.” He instructed them to “listen and learn from criticism when it is fair, and push back strongly when it’s not.”

“But above all else… We should keep our heads held high and do the work we came here to do,” Clegg reportedly told staffers in the memo. The warning came as reports emerged about how the company does not understand how its own algorithms work and struggles to combat hate speech, among other failings.

Earlier this month, Frances Haugen, a former product manager in Facebook’s civic misinformation team, testified in US Congress that the company prioritized “profit over safety,” does not take adequate precautions to ensure the safety of its 2.9 billion users, and downplays the harm it can cause to society. She said it has repeatedly misled both investors and the public.

The thousands of pages of internal memos Haugen leaked offer a glimpse into the tech giant’s inner workings. According to several documents, employees had spoken out about how its central algorithms reward outrage and hate speech. A June 2020 memo noted that it was “virtually guaranteed” that key Facebook’s systems show “systemic biases based on the race of the affected user” – suggesting that content from some racial backgrounds are being prioritized.

Another note by a research group in March 2021 showed that Facebook acts on as few as between 3% and 5% of cases relating to hate speech and about 0.6% of cases involving violent content. Because it is “extraordinarily challenging” for algorithms to understand language context, one memo countered Facebook’s claims about its artificial intelligence programs’ ability to spot hate speech and abuse. It said that the platform would struggle to remove anything beyond 10-20% of such content.

By 2019, however, Facebook had apparently decided to rely more on AI content moderation and began to reduce funding for human oversight when it came to hate speech. According to the documents, things came to a head during the January 6 Capitol riots when the company allegedly struggled to curb the spread of hate speech and misinformation on its platform.

Leaked memos by Haugen detail how Facebook had turned off some emergency safeguards too soon after the November 2020 election, only to then rush to switch these back on after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. The hate-speech problem is apparently much worse in non-English-speaking countries – with one document revealing that in 2020 the company only devoted 13% of its budget for developing misinformation detection algorithms to combating threats outside the US.

https://www.rt.com/usa/538413-facebook-bad-headliness-whistleblower-leaks/

New Evidence Reveals Facebook Censoring Conservative Content; Breitbart Traffic Hobbled

The Wall Street Journal just published a detailed story substantiating what many have suspected of Facebook, that it’s been censoring right-wing content. Admittedly, this finding is in “dog bites man: terrain. Gizmodo had ascertained that through an analysis of “Trending Topics” in May 2016, meaning well before the Trump win led Democratic/establishment screeching about Russian influence and clamping down on opinion suddenly deemed responsible and necessary.

However, Facebook operates on the premise that it can tell howlers to Congress and the public and large, and no one heretofore has been able to disprove its self-serving and dubious claims. So lifting the veil on Facebook’s process, such as it is, for booting content and providers from its platform serves to restrict its ability to prevaricate. It could even lead to a sensible policy or two.

The Journal story relies on internal chats and focuses on Breitbart as an object of Facebook restrictions. The picture is not pretty. Facebook appears to lack any clear-cut policies, which means employees views and arguments held way too much sway. Fox also gets hated-on by Facebook staffers, but there’s no indication in this story that there’s any smoking gun as far as Fox is concerned.

It’s no surprise that Facebook’s efforts at moderation are a train wreck. This tiny site has highly experienced moderators make considerable effort to keep the discussion civil and informative. Moderation does not scale.

And that’s before the wee problem of Facebook having what sure sounds like unduly fuzzy objectives. I find it hard to understand, save its presumably huge legal budget, why Facebook has put itself in the position of intervening in content as much as it does. This degree of control over content makes it hard for Facebook to deny that it’s a publisher, as opposed to a platform.

It’s puzzling that Facebook hasn’t attempted to stare down the thought police and banned content and sites only that peddled hate speech (as in the kind that could be successfully prosecuted) and exhortations to commit violence. Cracking down on misinformation? Seriously? After two plus years of Russiagate fabrications? As Lambert points out, the discussion among scientists on Covid aerosol transmission would have been expunged under the “misinformation” standard because both the CDC and WHO rejected it.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-evidence-reveals-facebook-censoring-conservative-content-breitbart-traffic-hobbled

If EU ‘starts WW3’ against Poland by withholding promised funding, Warsaw will defend itself with ‘any weapons available’ – PM

Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki has warned the EU against acting “with a gun to our heads,” claiming Warsaw would defend itself by any means available if the EU launched a “third World War” by holding back Covid-19 recovery funding.

The strongly worded statement came after the European Commission threatened to leave Poland without billions in grants and loans as a response to a controversial decision by the country’s Constitutional Tribunal, which prioritized national laws over those of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

“What will happen if the European Commission starts a third World War? … We are going to defend our rights with any weapons which are at our disposal,” Morawiecki said, when asked by the Financial Times if Poland could now veto important legislation such as the EU’s landmark climate package.

“We feel this is already discriminatory and a diktat type of approach [by Brussels]. But if it’s going to get even worse, we’ll have to think through our strategy,” he added.

The prime minister described the European Commission’s withholding of the €36-billion grant for post-pandemic rebuilding as a “breach of the rule of law,” and said Poles would not “surrender.” In order to find a compromise, he added, the EU should reverse its recent decision to fine Warsaw daily until it implemented ECJ decisions regarding its judicial reform.

“This would be the wisest thing they can do because then we are not talking to each other with a gun to our head. This very situation creates a relative lack of our appetite for any further actions,” he said.

https://www.rt.com/news/538387-warsaw-eu-covid-loans-dispute/

‘Return to dialogue’: Intl community demands release of Sudan’s PM detained during military coup in wake of internal unrest

International parties have voiced their concern and condemnation after the Sudanese military staged a coup, arresting the prime minister as well as other senior civilian leaders and dissolving the government.

In a statement on Monday, African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat demanded the release of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and other officials of the transitional government, and called on the Sudanese military to respect human rights.

“The chairperson calls for the immediate resumption of consultations between civilians and military,” Mahamat said, adding that dialogue and consensus was the only path to “save the country and its democratic transition.”

Neighboring Egypt and regional power Saudi Arabia both called for restraint and demanded that all parties work for the welfare of the country.

Britain, the former colonial ruler of Sudan, described the coup as “an unacceptable betrayal of the Sudanese people and their democratic transition.” Britain’s Africa minister, Vicky Ford, tweeted that those who did not respect the right to protest must be held to account – seemingly a reference to reports that demonstrators had been fired on by the military. Ford also demanded civilian leaders be released from their captivity.

“The actions of the military represent a betrayal of the revolution, the transition, and the legitimate requests of the Sudanese people for peace, justice, and economic development,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell argued.

The US Embassy in Khartoum said it was “gravely concerned” by reports that the military had acted against the civilian government, and “condemned” actions that undermined the country’s transition to democracy.

Mirroring Western bodies, the UN also reiterated calls for the release of the prime minister. “All parties must immediately return to dialogue and engage in good faith to restore the constitutional order,” according to the organization’s special representative in Sudan, Volker Perthes.

https://www.rt.com/news/538418-sudan-international-reaction-coup/

Exclusion zones needed to block ‘idiot’ anti-vaxxers from holding protests outside schools, UK health secretary says

The UK’s health secretary, Sajid Javid, has said the government is considering placing exclusion zones around schools to stop protests by anti-vax “idiots,” amid concerns about the growing scale of the problem.

Speaking to Britain’s Sky News on Monday, Javid joined the chorus of politicians supporting restrictions around schools to prevent anti-vaxxers from targeting children with misinformation about Covid jabs.

“You’ve got, frankly, these idiots outside their school spreading vicious lies,” Javid said, adding that the government believes “It is becoming a growing problem as time goes by.”

Among the options the health secretary said were under consideration are exclusion zones around schools to halt these protests. However, Javid said it should be up to local officials to decide what restrictions to impose, rather than the national government.

The senior Tory’s backing of exclusion zones came after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on councils to use exclusion zones to prevent “sickening” anti-vaxxers from pushing “dangerous misinformation” to school-aged children.

A recent survey by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the UK’s leading trade union for heads of schools, colleges, and trusts, warned that around eight in 10 schools are being targeted by anti-vaxxers, through emails, on-site protests, and threats of physical harm.

After one of these demonstrations by anti-vaxxers, the head teacher at a school in Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne said it had left pupils in distress after they were shown “pictures of dead and disfigured children.”

https://www.rt.com/uk/538381-anti-vaxx-exclusion-zones-schools/

Facebook ‘whistleblower’ Frances Haugen represented by US intelligence insiders

The background of Frances Haugen’s Whistleblower Aid legal team indicates she was cultivated to complete Facebook’s transformation into a vehicle for the US national security state.

A former employee of Facebook named Frances Haugen earned national renown after appearing before Congress on October 5, 2021 to accuse the company where she once worked of everything from poisoning the minds of young American women to aiding and abetting global evildoers.

While Haugen has presented herself as a “whistleblower” who risked it all to expose the secrets of the powerful, she was cultivated and legally represented by an organization led by former intelligence insiders with close ties to the US national security state.

Called Whistleblower Aid, the outfit was founded by a national security lawyer, Mark Zaid, who has been accused of ratting out his client, CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling, to his employers in Langley. Zaid is joined by a former State Department official and government-approved whistleblower, John Tye, ex-CIA and Pentagon official Andrew Bakaj, and veteran US government information warrior, Libby Liu, who has specialized in supporting color revolution-style operations against China.

John Kiriakou, the CIA whistleblower jailed for exposing the agency’s role in the serial torture of terror suspects, commented to The Grayzone, “Mark Zaid presents himself to the public as a whistleblower attorney, however, he is anything but. Instead, he has betrayed his clients and come down on the side of prosecutors in the intelligence community. He is not to be trusted.”

Kiriakou continued, “My own personal belief is that he is the intelligence community’s preferred ‘whistleblower’ attorney because he’s willing to place their interests over his clients.”

Tech billionaire and media mogul Pierre Omidyar has provided funding to Whistleblower Aid, as well as to a public relations firm assisting Haugen. Omidyar has played his own role in US foreign interventionism, sponsoring anti-government media outlets and activists alongside US government agencies in states where Washington seeks regime change.

Following the October 5 remarks by the “Facebook whistleblower,” Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection Chair Sen. Richard Blumenthal commended Haugen for her “courage” and “strength” in “standing up to one of the most powerful, implacable corporate giants in the history of the world.” For her part, Haugen claimed to have come forward with her testimony “at great personal risk.”

More

https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/21/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-us-intelligence/