Former Haiti senator John Joël Joseph arrested over the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse

Haiti's National Police have arrested a former senator who is a prominent suspect in the killing of President Jovenel Moïse in Jamaica.

Key points:

More than 40 suspects have already been arrested

President Jovenel Moïse was shot dead when assassins stormed his private residence

No one has been charged for his murder

Police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said John Joël Joseph was in custody.

Mr Joseph is a Haitian politician and opponent of Mr Moïse'sTet Kale party.

Jamaica Police Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay said other people were arrested along with Mr Joseph and that authorities were trying to determine whether they were family members.

She said they were arrested before dawn on Saturday and declined to share other details.

"For more than one reason, we're not sharing more information," she said.

Mr Moïse was shot several times at his private residence in an attack that also injured his wife, Martine Moïse.

Mr Moïse had foreshadowed his death, telling a Spanish newspaper he had "about a million" enemies who wanted to kill him.

The masterminds behind the assassination

A still-unreleased police report obtained by the Associated Press quoted various sources that stated Joseph had several links to the attack, with at least one identifying him among the leaders.

The sources said Mr Joseph paid in cash for rental cars used by the attackers and had met with other suspects ahead of the killing, including Christian Emmanuel Sanon.

Mr Sanon is a well-known Haitian businessman and evangelical pastor who had expressed a desire to lead his country.

Associates have suggested that the true masterminds of the assassination duped Mr Sanon.

He was arrested shortly after the killing.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-16/former-haiti-senator-arrested-president-jovenel-moise-murder/100759352

Hospital System Drops Race-Based COVID Treatment Policy After Lawsuit Threats

One of the largest hospital systems in the country is dropping its policy that counted race as a more important factor in determining COVID-19 treatment options than diabetes, obesity, asthma, and hypertension combined.

This silliness was allowed at SSM Health, a nominally Catholic health system that operates 23 hospitals across Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. All hospital patients are “scored” as a means of triage in order to give those most in need priority treatment. SSM Health ignored the severity of a patient’s conditions in order to make race a weightier determining factor.

Washington Free Beacon:

SSM Health, a Catholic health system that operates 23 hospitals across Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, began using the scoring system last year to allocate scarce doses of Regeneron, the antibody cocktail that President Donald Trump credited for his recovery from COVID-19. A patient must score at least 20 points to qualify for the drug. The rubric gives three points to patients with diabetes, one for obesity, one for asthma, and one for hypertension, for a total of six points. Identifying as “Non-White or Hispanic” race, on the other hand, nets a patient seven points, regardless of age or underlying conditions.

As an ignorant layman, I would ask why in God’s name this isn’t considered radically unethical. But apparently, unequal outcomes between races trumps ethics and common sense when treating illness.

SSM Health gave a statement to the Free Beacon that denied using the race-based scoring system (they stopped using it last year). But they defended the practice anyway, stating that “early versions of risk calculators across the nation appropriately included race and gender criteria based on initial outcomes.”

The way the scoring system was used in practice was astonishingly stupid.

According to an internal memo obtained by the Free Beacon, the SSM scoring system was “based off the Utah Hospital Association and Utah Health Risk Stratification criteria,” which automatically gave two extra points to minority patients—the same amount as diabetes and obesity. The now-defunct rubric is much more radical, prioritizing healthy minorities over white patients with many of the largest risk factors for COVID-19. A 49-year-old white woman with hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and asthma would only get 19 points under the rubric, just shy of the 20 point threshold for antibody therapy. But a 50-year-old black woman with no underlying health conditions would receive 22 points, making her eligible.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hospital-system-drops-race-based-covid-treatment-policy-after-lawsuit-threats

Virginia's New AG Fires Civil Rights Division, Will Start Prosecuting Cases Dropped By 'Social Justice' DAs

Within hours of taking office, Virginia's newly sworn-in Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) cleaned house - firing dozens of lawyers, including those in the Civil Rights division - and announcing investigations into the Virginia Parole Board and Loudon County Public Schools.

"I've been told incoming AG @JasonMiyaresVA just FIRED the entire civil rights division in the Attorney General's office," tweeted VA State Senator Louise Lucas.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Miyares notified around 30 staff members they're being let go - including 17 attorneys and 13 staff members. The attorneys include the solicitor general, Herring's deputies, and reportedly Helen Hardiman - an assistant AG who worked on housing discrimination.

Miyares, who will take over Democratic AG Mark Herring, campaigned on a promise to pursue legislation that would enable state AGs to circumvent "social justice" attorneys who refuse to vigorously prosecute crimes. As Fox News noted in November, "Under current law, the AG's office can prosecute a case on behalf of a commonwealth's attorney – Virginia's version of a district attorney (DA) – so long as the DA requests it."

"George Soros-backed commonwealth’s attorneys are not doing their jobs," said Miyares in May 2021 comments to the Arlington County Republican Committee.

Liberal billionaire George Soros has repeatedly poured thousands into prosecutor's races in Virginia. In 2019, Soros provided a significant cash infusion to three winning progressive candidates, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti in Arlington County (nearly $1 million from Soros); Buta Biberaj in Loudon County ($850,000 from Soros); and Steve Descano in Fairfax County ($600,000 from Soros). Soros spent about $200,000 in a prosecutor's race in Norfolk this year. His candidate went on to win the race. -Fox News

When reached for comment, Miyares spokesperson Victoria LaCivita said: "During the campaign, it was made clear that now Attorney General-elect Miyares and Attorney General Herring have very different visions for the office," adding "We are restructuring the office, as every incoming AG has done in the past."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/vas-new-da-comes-out-swinging-fires-civil-rights-division-attorneys-launches-two

Thousands protest Europe’s first mandatory vaccine plan

The Austrian government’s plan to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory has sparked mass protests

Thousands of Austrians took to the streets of Vienna in protest of an upcoming parliamentary vote to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory, with protesters calling for the government to be replaced.

Protesters carried Austrian flags through the streets on Saturday as police in riot gear holding helmets could be seen standing in a line nearby. “Face your guilt and turn back!” one banner read, while others accused Austria’s right-wing ruling party – the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) – of splitting the nation with its coronavirus policies.

https://www.rt.com/news/546177-thousands-protest-mandatory-vaccination/

Ukraine says Russia not responsible for massive cyberattack

Kiev claims ‘cyber espionage’ group backed by Belarusian intelligence hacked Ukrainian websites

Friday’s massive cyberattack targeting Ukrainian government agencies was carried out by a group linked to Belarusian intelligence services, a senior Kiev security official claimed in a statement on Saturday.

"Our preliminary belief is that the group UNC1151 may be involved in this attack," the Deputy Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Sergey Demedyuk, said in a written comment to Reuters.

The “cyber-espionage group” in question is understood to be “affiliated with the special services of the Republic of Belarus,” according to the official.

The attack on the government’s websites “was just a cover for more destructive actions” which took place “behind the scenes,” Demedyuk said. He did not offer any further details, only suggesting that the “consequences” of the attack will be felt “in the near future.”

According to Demedyuk, UNC1151 has had a “track record” of targeting numerous countries. He claimed that the malicious software used in the attack was “very similar” to the one used by ATP-29 – the group often referred to as the “Cozy Bear.” ATP-29, along with “Fancy Bear” hackers, has been blamed for compromising the Democratic National Committee’s computers ahead of the 2016 US presidential election by American media.

Demedyuk added that the “cyber espionage” tactics of the group have been “associated with the Russian special services (Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation).”

Notably, Demedyuk appears to be the first Ukrainian official who has publicly confirmed that the attack was not carried out by a Russian group.

Another senior Ukrainian figure, the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Alexey Danilov, previously alleged in an interview with Britain’s Sky News that he was “99.9% sure” Moscow was behind the hack.

https://www.rt.com/russia/546174-ukraine-cyber-attack-belarus/

https://www.rt.com/russia/546174-ukraine-cyber-attack-belarus/

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Thieves reportedly targeting trains, delivery trucks in new front for package-robbing

Reports in Atlanta, Los Angeles indicate escalation of major theft problem.

https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/thieves-reportedly-targeting-trains-delivery-trucks-new-front-package-robbing

Criminals have reportedly opened up a new lucrative front in the ongoing package-theft epidemic throughout the U.S., targeting shipping infrastructure to steal goods before they even get to consumers' porches.

UPS Chief Executive Carol Tome told CNBC this week that one of the company's 18-wheeler shipping trucks was robbed several weeks ago in December. "[The driver] was stopped at gunpoint," she said. "He was zip-tied, thrown into the back of his feeder car, and they took the packages."

Images out of California, meanwhile, have rocketed around social media this week showing hundreds and hundreds of discarded and broken-open packages by train tracks in downtown Los Angeles.

Thieves have reportedly been jumping trains there and making off with heavy amounts of merchandise, much of it from retailers like Amazon and REI.

The escalation comes amid rising reports of "porch pirates" robbing delivered packages off of homeowners' porches, often in broad daylight.

https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/thieves-reportedly-targeting-trains-delivery-trucks-new-front-package-robbing

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10406879/Who-won-election-Trump-supporters-droves-MAGA-rally-2022.html