>DOUGH
Robert Miles - Children
>What is best, in life?
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/318823
Netanyahu goes into quarantine after exposure to COVID-19 carrier
Opposition leader enters quarantine after being exposed to Knesset trainer who tested positive for COVID-19
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/318754
https://nypost.com/2021/12/17/gucci-louis-vuitton-skin-reptiles-alive-to-make-pricey-handbags-peta/
Gucci, Louis Vuitton skin reptiles alive to make pricey handbags: PETA
Louis Vuitton and Gucci are selling bags, belts and wallets made from snakes and lizards that were cruelly killed — some with their heads hacked off as they tried to scurry away — according to an explosive new investigation.
Some of the reptiles were bludgeoned repeatedly with a machete — with workers cutting off their legs even as the lizards floundered helplessly, according to hidden-camera video that captured the practices and was shared with The Post.
Other videos show snakes that were partially slit open, with hoses stuck down their throats to inflate them with water — apparently to make it easier to skin them alive, according to an investigation by animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.
“Because of their unique physiology, lizards do not die instantaneously after being decapitated and their brains can remain conscious and fully able to feel pain for over 30 minutes,” according to PETA.” The videos captured two instances in which lizards’ heads continued to move after they’d been hacked off from the rest of the body.
The disturbing photographs and video footage of the grisly killings at a facility in Indonesia represent the first time PETA has been able to demonstrate how these reptiles used in the luxury fashion industry are slaughtered, according to PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne.
“We have documented evidence of cruelty to reptiles in the supply chain for years,” Byrne told The Post, “but this is the first time we could expose how they are killed. This footage is straight out of a horror movie.”
On Monday, PETA sent letters to the heads of luxury conglomerate LVMH – which owns Louis Vuitton – and Kering, which owns Gucci.
LVMH did not respond specifically to the allegations regarding snakes, but it said in a statement to The Post: “LVMH respects all views and sensitivities on the use of animal-based raw materials and we support and are actively involved in the sector’s efforts to achieve the best possible practices. Our intention is to provide customers with a product that has been made in the most responsible and ethical manner possible.”
Kering, which stopped using fur in September, was informed in a separate letter from PETA President Ingrid Newkirk written to Chief Executive Francois-Henri Pinault that live lizards in its supply chain have their “legs tied tightly together” while they are “submerged in tubs of water before they were placed on a wooden block and decapitated.”
Kering said in a statement that “while we have taken these allegations very seriously, there is no evidence that Kering brands are directly or indirectly connected with this facility or those practices. Such practices are strictly forbidden by Kering’s animal welfare standards.”A Kering spokeswoman told The Post the company had launched an internal investigation. “Should there be a proven connection between this facility and our supply chain, we would immediately terminate the business relationship,” she said. “We are committed to continuously enhance traceability and animal welfare in our supply chains.”
Both luxury fashion houses use International Leather Works, the Indonesia-based company that procures exotic skins from the farms featured in the investigation, PETA’s Byrne said.
It is not the first time PETA has tangled with both companies over their supply chains.
In 2016, the advocacy group went to bat for crocodiles in Vietnam that were allegedly part of LVMH’s supply chain and held for months in “small, filthy concrete enclosures, some narrower than the length of their bodies,” Newkirk wrote in the Dec. 13 letter.
It has also targeted Kering over its use of fur, which the company has since given up.
PETA is planning protests at Gucci and Louis Vuitton stores in Las Vegas starting next week, Byrne said, and in New York City soon afterward — including the large Louis Vuitton store on East 57th Street.
The organization is calling on the fashion houses to commit to using vegan leather instead of exotic skins, Byrne said, pointing to the companies’ own websites that purport to use only businesses that treat animals humanely.
In fact, Louis Vuitton unveiled its first vegan leather sneaker made from corn, the company said in November.
The Charlie, as it’s called, is made from Biopolioli, a corn-based material that’s similar to polyurethane but more sustainable.
Gucci also introduced a new leather alternative sneaker in June that’s made from plants and wood pulp and viscose called the Demetra.
https://nypost.com/2021/12/17/ghislaine-maxwell-will-not-testify-at-sex-assault-trial/
Ghislaine Maxwell will not testify at sex-trafficking trial
Ghislaine Maxwell said Friday that she will not take the stand in her own defense at her sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan.
Judge Alison Nathan informed Maxwell of her right to testify, a decision that she can make independently of her legal team.
“Your Honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and so there is no need for me to testify,” Maxwell told the jurist.
The decision comes as Maxwell’s lawyers near the end of their defense of the former socialite, who is accused of grooming and trafficking several girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Maxwell faces a maximum of 70 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Prosecutors called some two dozen witnesses — including four accusers — over two weeks as they tried to prove Maxwell was inextricably linked to Epstein, including in his abuse of girls as young as 14.
One accuser, who testified using her first name, Carolyn, told jurors that Maxwell groped her as she was setting up a massage table at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion when she was 14 years old.
“She came in and felt my boobs and my hips and my buttocks,” Carolyn told jurors on Dec. 7.
Maxwell told her that she “had a great body for Mr. Epstein and his friends. She just said that I had good body type,” Carolyn added.
The accused madam had not been expected to testify, and her lawyers indicated this week that they intend to wind down their case as soon as Monday.
Before the trial started, legal experts told The Post that Maxwell taking the stand would be a risky move.
The fact that she’s locked up in jail during her trial puts her at a disadvantage on the stand, longtime defense attorney Mark Geragos said.
“She’s in custody, by all accounts, in a deplorable situation. That can be mentally debilitating,” he said.
“You’re up against a very skilled prosecutor who slept in their own bed, who’s well-fed, who got rest. On the stand, it’s a mental jiu-jitsu for the client. She’s already, from a psychical and mental standpoint, at a disadvantage,” Geragos added.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/17/covid-fauci-says-a-redefinition-of-fully-vaccinated-is-certainly-on-the-table.html
Fauci says a redefinition of fully vaccinated is ‘on the table’
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” President Joe Biden’s top medical advisor said that there was no doubt that optimum vaccination was with a booster dose.
Currently, individuals are considered to be fully vaccinated either two weeks after their second dose of a two-dose series, such as the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
A redefinition of what it means to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 is certainly “on the table,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday.
Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” President Joe Biden’s top medical advisor said that there was no doubt that optimum vaccination was with a booster dose.
Currently, individuals are considered to be fully vaccinated either two weeks after their second dose of a two-dose series, such as the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
But Fauci said on Friday that the regulators were open to reconsidering those definitions.
“There’s no doubt that optimum vaccination is with a booster,” he said.
“Whether or not the CDC is going to change that, it certainly is on the table and open for discussion. I’m not sure exactly when that will happen. But I think people should not lose sight of the message that there’s no doubt if you want to be optimally protected, you should get your booster.”