Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake in Eastern Afghanistan Kills at Least 1,000 People

A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan Wednesday.

At least 1,000 people are dead and 1,500 more are injured after the quake struck the Paktika province.

Fox News reported:

An earthquake in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 1,000 people and injured 1,500 others Wednesday morning, according to local authorities, although details of the incident remain limited.

Officials said the death toll is expected to rise even further as the earthquake has become the deadliest temblor in two decades.

The 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit the Paktika province of the country, just 10 months after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal and the departure of most of the international community from the region following last summer’s Taliban takeover, which complicates efforts to offer relief to the nation’s 38 million people.

The death toll was given by Afghan emergency official Sharafuddin Muslim. Wednesday’s earthquake was the deadliest since 2002, when a 6.1 magnitude temblor killed about 1,000 people in northern Afghanistan immediately following the U.S.-led efforts to overthrew the Taliban government following the 9/11 attacks.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/magnitude-6-1-earthquake-eastern-afghanistan-kills-least-1000-people/

Lithuania ready to expand Kaliningrad blockade – president

The country is prepared to face retaliatory steps by Russia, Gitanas Nauseda has said

Vilnius is ready to expand the list of goods banned from transit to Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad should the European Union introduce new sanctions against Moscow, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Wednesday. The country is also ready to face any potential retaliatory measures Russia might introduce, he told Reuters in an interview.

“We are ready and we are prepared for unfriendly actions from Russia, such as disconnection from the BRELL [power grid] system, or others,” Nauseda said.

The president stressed that the transit restrictions were not a sovereign move by Lithuania, but merely the implementation of the EU sanctions against Moscow introduced over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. “We feel the support of the European Union, because this is a decision made by the European Union,” he said, adding that the country was ready to expand the list of banned goods should the bloc introduce new restrictions against Russia.

“We are looking forward to implementing the next stages of the sanctions, and it would be very good if the European Commission explains their content to the Russian authorities. It could remove some of the current tensions, which are not in the interest of either the European Union or Russia,” Nauseda stated.

Over the weekend, Lithuania’s national railway operator banned the flow of sanctioned goods between the region and the rest of Russia, citing guidelines from the European Commission. The restrictions have also affected road traffic into the exclave, according to Kaliningrad officials. Both Vilnius and the EU insist that the restrictions do not amount to a “blockade” of the exclave.

Moscow, however, has unequivocally branded Vilnius’ move as an “economic blockade” of Kaliningrad Region, stating that it violated the country’s international obligations to ensure the uninterrupted transit of goods to the exclave. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Vilnius’ decision was “unprecedented” and in “violation of anything and everything.”

The head of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolay Patrushev, warned that the “blockade” might invoke a response from Moscow that would “have a serious negative impact on the people of Lithuania.”

“Of course, Russia will respond to hostile actions. Appropriate measures are in the works, and will be adopted in the near future,” Patrushev told reporters during a visit to Kaliningrad on Tuesday.

https://www.rt.com/russia/557626-lithuania-president-kaliningrad-blockade/

WH Press Sec almost accidentally said the truth:

"The president has been very clear in making sure that he does everything that he can to elevate—to alleviate the pain that American families are feeling when it comes to gas prices."

https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/1539306572538871808

BRICS developing global reserve currency – Putin

It will be based on a currency basket of the five-nation bloc, according to the Russian president

President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – are currently working on setting up a new global reserve currency.

“The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked out,” he said at the BRICS business forum.

According to the Russian president, the member states are also developing reliable alternative mechanisms for international payments.

Earlier, the group said it was working on setting up a joint payment network to cut reliance on the Western financial system. The BRICS countries have been also boosting the use of local currencies in mutual trade.

https://www.rt.com/business/557627-brics-developing-global-reserve-currency/

The Federal Bureau of Tweets: Twitter Begins Hiring Alarming Number of FBI Agents

Twitter has been on a recruitment drive of late, hiring a host of former feds and spies. Studying a number of employment and recruitment websites, MintPress has ascertained that the social media giant has, in recent years, recruited dozens of individuals from the national security state to work in the fields of security, trust, safety and content.

Chief amongst these is the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The FBI is generally known as a domestic security and intelligence force. However, it has recently expanded its remit into cyberspace. “The FBI’s investigative authority is the broadest of all federal law enforcement agencies,” the “About” section of its website informs readers. “The FBI has divided its investigations into a number of programs, such as domestic and international terrorism, foreign counterintelligence [and] cyber crime,” it adds.

For example, in 2019, Dawn Burton (the former director of Washington operations for Lockheed Martin) was poached from her job as senior innovation advisor to the director at the FBI to become senior director of strategy and operations for legal, public policy, trust and safety at Twitter. The following year, Karen Walsh went straight from 21 years at the bureau to become director of corporate resilience at the silicon valley giant. Twitter’s deputy general counsel and vice president of legal, Jim Baker, also spent four years at the FBI between 2014 and 2018, where his resumé notes he rose to the role of senior strategic advisor.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/the-federal-bureau-of-tweets-twitter-begins-hiring-alarming-number-of-fbi-agents/

Over 1,000 Southwest Airlines Pilots Protest Outside Dallas Airport

Over 1,000 Southwest Airlines pilots protested together outside Dallas Love Field Airport on Tuesday morning.

The Southwest Pilots Association (SWAPA) said the picketing was carried out in a protest over poor working conditions.

In a statement posted by the union, the SWAPA listed six reasons for the protest:

– 896 – Number of days since SWAPA proposed a new, industry-leading contract to attract the next generation of aviators.

– 1984 – The last year that Southwest Airlines made any meaningful improvements to CBA language covering maternity leave for Pilots.

– 20,000 – Number of days off Pilots have lost to schedule mismanagement over the last 12 months.

– 164,084 – Number of days over the last 12 months that SWAPA Pilots have voluntarily flown on days off to get SWA passengers to their desired destinations.

– 312,084 – Number of times SWAPA Pilots’ schedules have been changed over the last 12 months.

– 110,915,000 – Number of passengers SWAPA Pilots have carried safely to their destinations over the last year.

https://nationalfile.com/video-over-1000-southwest-airlines-pilots-protest-outside-dallas-airport/

UK National Incident Declared: Vaccinations Urged as Polio Virus Detected in London Sewage

Parents living in London have been told to ensure their children are fully immunised against polio after traces of the disease were found in the capital’s sewage system.

The news comes just two weeks after the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) observed coronavirus vaccination infrastructure should stay in place to ensure other diseases such as polio can be countered in the future.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says it was probably imported to London by someone who was recently vaccinated overseas with a live form of the virus, the BBC reports.

It says the risk is low, but parents should still check the immunisation status of children to ensure they are fully up-to-date.

“Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk,” said Dr Vanessa Saliba, consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA.

Over the past four months, the UKHSA has found the polio virus in samples collected from the Beckton sewage works, which serves a population of four million in north and east London.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/06/22/uk-national-incident-declared-vaccinations-urged-as-polio-virus-detected-in-london-sewage/

Any BS will do to get a needle in your arm

Attorney General Intervenes After Bill Gates Buys A Massive Amount Farmland In North Dakota

The office of the Attorney General of North Dakota sent a letter Tuesday asking Red River Trust, a group with ties to billionaire Bill Gates, to prove the company’s use of the land does not violate the state’s Corporate Farming Laws.

The trust had acquired six parcels of land in Pembina County.

“I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood,” Agricultural Commissioner Doug Goehring, according to Valley News Live. “Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this.”

The letter stipulated that under North Dakota law, there are “certain limitations on the ability of trusts to own farmland or ranchland.”

“The Corporate or Limited Liability Company Farming Law has certain exceptions, such as permitting registered family farms or allowing the use of the land for business purposes,” the letter continued.

According to the letter, corporations that are in violations of this law will have a year to divest themselves of the land and are subject to a civil fine of $100,000.

“Our office needs to confirm how your company uses this land and whether this use meets any of the statutory exceptions, such as business purpose exceptions, such as the business purpose exception, so that we may close this case and file it in our inactive files,” the letter continued.

As of January 2021, Bill Gates is the largest owner of farmland in the U.S., owning 242,000 acres across 18 states, according to the Daily Mail.

https://dailycaller.com/2022/06/22/attorney-general-bill-gates-farmland-north-dakota/

Fox News parent must face defamation lawsuit over election coverage

A Delaware judge on Tuesday rejected a motion by the parent of Fox News Network to dismiss Dominion Voting Systems Inc's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit over the network's 2020 presidential election coverage.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis, who last December said Dominion could sue Fox News Network, said the voting machine company can also sue Fox Corp on a theory it was directly liable for statements on the network.

Fox Corp did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In a statement, Dominion said: "We are pleased to see this process moving forward to hold Fox accountable."

Dominion accused Fox of trying to avoid viewer defections to conservative rivals Newsmax and One America News by amplifying false theories that the company rigged the 2020 election so Republican Donald Trump would lose to Democrat Joe Biden.

Some theories were floated by Trump surrogates like the lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, and included claims that votes were changed through algorithms created in Venezuela to rig elections for that country's late president Hugo Chavez.

In court papers, Dominion claimed that Fox Corp, through Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch directly participated in, approved and controlled the network's election coverage and its aftermath.

Without ruling on the merits, Davis said the allegations permitted "reasonable" inferences that Fox Corp acted with malice and proximately caused Dominion's alleged damages.

"Dominion has adequately pleaded actual malice with respect to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch," the judge wrote.

Davis dismissed a related defamation claim against another Fox entity, Fox Broadcasting, for posting the challenged statements on fox.com, citing a lack of evidence that anyone there was "subjectively aware of anything."

Smartmatic, another voting machine company, is also seeking billions of dollars in damages from Fox and various Trump allies it has accused of defamation.

The case is US Dominion Inc et al v Fox Corp, Delaware Superior Court, No. N21C-11-082.

https://news.yahoo.com/fox-news-parent-must-face-194011934.html

Washington supports blockade of Russian exclave by NATO member Lithuania

The US says that it “appreciates” anti-Russian sanctions imposed by EU nations and that its military is committed to the defense of Lithuania, after the country banned some Russian goods from passing through its territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Ned Price, the spokesman for the US state department, dismissed Moscow’s displeasure with the Lithuanian blockade of its territory as “saber-rattling” and “bluster.” Speaking at a daily briefing, he said he didn’t want to “give it additional time.”

“We, of course, appreciate the unprecedented economic measures that many countries around the world… including in this case Lithuania, have joined us in taking against Russia for its unprovoked war in Ukraine,” he said.

Price said that the US would protect Lithuania from any military attack, as is due under its NATO obligations.

“Lithuania has been a stalwart partner in this. We stand by NATO. We stand by our NATO Allies, and we stand by Lithuania,” he said.

The row between Russia and its Baltic neighbor erupted last week after Lithuania started blocking the transit of goods between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad region. The partial restrictions came into force last Saturday, with Vilnius claiming it was a natural part of enforcing EU sanctions against Russian trade. Roughly half of the traffic is estimated to be affected. The banned items include coal, metals, and construction materials.

Moscow said the restrictions were crossing every line and warned that there would be serious consequences for what it described as a Lithuanian blockade of its exclave. The decision clearly violated international law, the Russian government noted. Some experts suggested that it could even amount to a casus belli – a cause to start a war over.

Kaliningrad region is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania and has access to the Baltic Sea, which technically allows Russia to ferry goods to it. The relatively small exclave also hosts a significant number of Russian troops and weapon systems, making it a key component in the country’s national security.

https://alethonews.com/2022/06/22/washington-supports-blockade-of-russian-exclave-by-nato-member-lithuania/

NATO Engaged in Direct Aggression Against Russia

A wider war is Washington’s goal

Paul Craig Roberts

As I have many times written, the Kremlin’s Ukraine operation cannot be limited. Washington will not permit it to be limited. Washington has already widened the conflict, and is now widening the conflict further. The insane Jewish neoconservatives who have control over US foreign policy have prevailed on tiny, helpless Lithuania to violate the agreement with Russia for the provision of Kaliningrad and has received a Russian ultimatum. The moronic State Department spokesman Ned Price dismissed the ultimatum as “bluster.” The White House idiot says Washington backs Lithuania. In other words, Washington is egging on a wider war.

The conflict in Donbass has gone slowly, because it is a war in the midst of Russian people attached to Ukraine by Soviet leaders. The Russian troops are fighting under restrictions to minimize death and destruction in the Donbass region, from which Ukrainian forces are being driven out and destroyed. A wider war will not be fought among Russian populations. The world has never seen such recklessness as Washington and NATO are demonstrating. The sordid and utterly corrupt Democrats desperately need a war in order to rally Americans to the government and prevent a Democrat wipeout in the election. In their effort to hold on to power, the Democrats and whore media are widening the war. This is dangerous beyond belief. The Russian government declared some time ago that Russia will never again fight a war on her own territory.

It is astounding that the Kremlin believed that their intervention in Donbass could be limited. How the Kremlin managed to misread the West after such a total rebuffing of the Kremlin’s efforts to reach a mutual security agreement with the West is inexplicable. Apparently, the Kremlin has not taken the Wolfowitz Doctrine seriously. The Kremlin and the dumbshit Russian Atlanticist Integrationists need to learn it by heart and repeat it every morning upon awakening as it is the operative doctrine. Under this doctrine the Kremlin has two choices. Russia can surrender its sovereignty or Russia can destroy the West. Russia has no other alternative. The entire world needs to understand this.

https://www.rt.com/russia/557466-nato-engaged-direct-aggression-russia/

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/06/22/nato-engaged-in-direct-aggression-against-russia/

Democrats Vow ‘Transformative’ Plan to Add 1M Foreign-Born Residents to U.S. Voter Rolls in 4 Years

Democrats are vowing to implement a “transformative” plan that seeks to add about a million foreign-born residents on green cards to United States voter rolls by securing them naturalized American citizenship.

Former Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) has launched the group “Our Nation’s Future” with support from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) with the goal of helping one million green card-holders gain naturalized American citizenship within the next four years.

Such a goal would ensure that about a million foreign-born residents are likely added to U.S. voter rolls in key swing states, both Gutierrez and Durbin seemingly acknowledged. Gutierrez, specifically, called the plan “transformative” for upcoming elections.

“In America, the overwhelming growth population is Hispanic, and even a conservative Republican can count,” Durbin said during a news conference. “And if they can count they know in future elections, their fate may be decided by those same Hispanic Americans.”

Already, President Joe Biden has instituted a plan that has surged naturalization rates ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections.

From October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021 about 855,000 green card-holders became naturalized American citizens — the highest annual number of legal immigrants getting naturalized in more than a decade. Put another way, more than 2,300 green card-holders were naturalized every day in Fiscal Year 2021.

Compare that to Fiscal Year 2020, when about 625,400 green card-holders were naturalized. In Fiscal Year 2019, about 844,000 green card-holders were naturalized and the year before that, in Fiscal Year 2018, nearly 762,000 were naturalized.

The last time naturalization rates were this high was in Fiscal Year 2008, when more than a million green card-holders became naturalized American citizens.

Research and the establishment media have consistently admitted that the larger a region’s foreign-born population, the more likely that region is to vote for Democrats over Republicans.

In 2019, for example, The Atlantic‘s Ronald Brownstein found that nearly 90 percent of House congressional districts with a foreign-born population above the national average are won by Democrats. This means every congressional district with a foreign-born population exceeding 15 percent has a 90 percent chance of electing Democrats and only a ten percent chance of electing a Republican.

The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Axios, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal have all admitted that rapid demographic changes spurred by mass immigration are tilting the nation toward a permanent Democrat political majority.

“The single biggest threat to Republicans’ long-term viability is demographics,” Axios acknowledged in 2019. “The numbers simply do not lie … there’s not a single demographic megatrend that favors Republicans.”

Already, the U.S. has the most generous immigration system in the world — expected to bring in 15 million new foreign-born voters by 2042. About eight million of those voters will have arrived entirely due to the process known as “chain migration” whereby newly naturalized citizens can bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the U.S.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/06/21/democrats-vow-transformative-plan-to-add-1m-foreign-born-residents-to-u-s-voter-rolls-in-4-years/

Biden State Department Selects Blackrock Chairman Donilon to Oversee China Relations

The grossly incompetent and/or corrupt Biden State Department has picked Obama’s former National Security Advisor and current Chairman of Blackrock Investment Institute to lead Biden’s relations with China.

The Washington Free Beacon reported today on Dillion’s proposed hire.

The Biden administration’s pick to advise the State Department on “strategic competition” with Beijing chairs an investment think tank that urged Americans to triple their investments in China.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday selected BlackRock Investment Institute chairman and Obama administration national security adviser Tom Donilon to co-chair the Foreign Affairs Policy Board amid the State Department’s pivot to China.

Donilon’s work at BlackRock could pose a conflict of interest for the board, which provides “advice, feedback, and perspectives” to senior State Department officials on foreign policy matters. Under his leadership, the Investment Institute has urged investors to dramatically increase their stakes in Chinese companies. What’s more, BlackRock views “strategic competition” with China as bad for the company’s bottom line.

“Strategic competition between the U.S. and China and resulting tensions have also contributed to uncertainty in the geopolitical and regulatory landscapes,” reads BlackRock’s most recent annual report. The firm listed U.S.-Chinese competition as a factor that could hurt its revenue and profit. BlackRock opened a mutual fund in China in September, making it the first American firm approved to sell financial products there.

BlackRock’s Chinese entanglements have raised concerns that the company is undermining the United States. The company has come under fire for investing in sanctioned Chinese companies, including surveillance giant Hikvision. Even progressive megadonor George Soros called BlackRock’s investments in China a “tragic mistake” that would damage U.S. national security interests.

Donilon has sided with China in the debate over tariffs imposed during the Trump administration. He chided government officials in 2019 about the tariffs and inaccurately warned that they would cause a global recession.

“Future generations of Americans will judge today’s leaders harshly for squandering this moment,” Donilon wrote in an article touted by China Daily, a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party.

Tariffs “are hurting U.S. businesses, consumers, and farmers,” Donilon wrote. “They are alienating U.S. allies. And, analysts warn, they are increasing the risk of a global recession.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/biden-state-department-selects-blackrock-chairman-donilon-oversee-china-relations/

US airman arrested over insider bombing attack that hurt 4 US troops

A U.S. Airman has been arrested in connection with a suspected insider attack at a U.S. base in Syria in April, during which someone planted a bomb that injured four fellow service members when it exploded.

In a statement first provided to CNN, U.S. Air Force spokeswomen Ann Stefanek said “As part of an ongoing investigation, on June 16, an Airman was taken into custody stateside in conjunction with the attack in Green Village, Syria.”

Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the name for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria initially attributed an explosion at the Green Village base in eastern Syria to outside indirect fire weapons, but later determined the evidence showed a “deliberate placement of explosive charges by an unidentified individual(s)” indicating someone had brought the explosives onto the base to carry out the attack.

The April explosion damaged an ammunition holding area and shower facility on the base. OIR officials initially reported two U.S. service members were wounded, but later said two more U.S. service members were also wounded. All four U.S. service members were eventually diagnosed and treated for traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) but have been able to return to duty.

Earlier this month, the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) announced it had identified a U.S. service member as a possible suspect in the April insider bombing attack. CID spokesman Patrick Barnes said the suspected service member had been brought back stateside while investigators continued to study the incident.

“After reviewing the information in the investigation, the Airman’s commander made the decision to place him in pretrial confinement,” Stefanek added in her statement to CNN on Tuesday.

Stefanek did not identify the Airman that had been arrested and no charges have been announced.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/06/us-airman-arrested-over-insider-bombing-attack-that-hurt-4-us-troops/

Report: Israel Keeping US In the Dark on Its Covert Attacks Inside Iran

Israel has ramped up its attacks and assassinations inside Iran, and the US hasn't asked Israel to stop

Citing current and former US officials, CNN reported Tuesday that Israel has ramped up its covert attacks and assassinations inside Iran but has kept the US in the dark about its operations.

Over the past month, Israel has been suspected of being behind a string of mysterious deaths inside Iran. US officials told CNN that Israel was responsible for the killing of Hassan Sayyad Khodaei, a colonel in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who was gunned down in Tehran at the end of May.

Israel was also likely behind the death of a young Iranian engineer, who was killed in a drone attack on an Iranian military facility outside of Tehran. Israel is suspected because it has launched similar operations against Iranian facilities in the past. Iran believes Israel was also behind the killing of two Iranian scientists, who were both poisoned separately at the end of May and died within a few days of falling ill.

Other mysterious deaths have occurred inside Iran, including two men working for the IRGC in the aerospace industry, who were labeled “martyrs,” suggesting Iran thinks they were killed.

While it’s not known if Israel was responsible for all the deaths, it’s clear there has been a serious escalation in its covert operations inside Iran. The CNN report said that Israel hasn’t informed the US of its plans ahead of time and that the US has taken a “hands-off” approach to the operations and hasn’t directly asked Israel to stop.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/06/21/report-israel-keeping-us-in-the-dark-on-its-covert-attacks-inside-iran/

Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum indicted on conspiracy, wire fraud charges

Andrew Gillum narrowly lost to Ron DeSantis in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election

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Former Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum was indicted on charges including conspiracy and 19 counts of wire fraud, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Gillum, who was once mayor of Tallahassee, is accused of acting in concert with associate Sharon Janet Lettman-Hicks to solicit funds using false representations and promises.

"The Indictment further alleges the defendants used third parties to divert a portion of those funds to a company owned by Lettman-Hicks, who then fraudulently provided the funds, disguised as payroll payments, to Gillum for his personal use," a Justice Department press release said.

The Justice Department did not go into details of the allegations, only to say the alleged scheme went on from 2016 to 2019. Local reporting from the Tallahassee Democrat indicated that the charges are based on campaign contributions that Gillum and Lettman-Hicks allegedly solicited from undercover FBI agents.

Gillum is also charged with making a false statement to the FBI.

In a statement issued by his campaign and published by the Tallahassee outlet, Gillum denied wrongdoing.

"I have spent the last 20 years of my life in public service and continue to fight for the people," Gillum said . "Every campaign I've run has been done with integrity. Make no mistake that this case is not legal, it is political."

Gillum is scheduled for an initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

The former mayor nearly became Florida governor in 2018, losing a close race to current Gov. Ron DeSantis. Since then, he has faced a string of troubles.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-florida-gubernatorial-candidate-andrew-gillum-indicted-conspiracy-wire-fraud-charges

Ukraine Attacked Russian Oil Refinery With Chinese Commercial Drones (Video)

Ukraine has reportedly used Chinese-made commercial drones to attack one of Russia’s largest oil refineries on June 22.

Two drones struck the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the Rostov region, which is located just five kilometers away from the border from Ukraine, at around 9:25 a.m. Moscow time. The refinery is reported to be one of the largest in Russia’s southern region with a capacity of up to 7.5 million tons per year.

“As a result of terrorist actions from the western border of the Rostov region, two unmanned aerial vehicles attacked the technical facilities [of the plant],” the Novoshakhtinsk refinery said in a statement. “[as a result] an explosion occurred, starting a fire”.

The large fire caused by the drone attack was completely extinguished by firefighters within an hour and a half only. No casualties were reported.

Footage published to social media showed what appears to be a Chinese-made Skyeye 4450mm drone impacting the Novoshakhtinsk refinery.

https://youtu.be/wbShlwFz7wo

The Skyeye 4450mm, which can be bought as a kit from Ali Express for $6,500, is made of fiberglass and has a wingspan of 4,450 meters. The kit does not come with an engine. However, the recommended engine, DLE170, can be bought separately for $1,149 from the same website. The drone can carry a payload of 12-20 kilograms.

Ukrainian specialists have apparently turned the Skyeye 4450mm into a suicide drone, likely by installing a satellite-aided navigation system, a mission computer and a warhead.

How exactly these two improvised suicide drones were able to penetrate Russia’s air defense means remain unclear. The Russian military will likely reinforce its air defense network in Rostov as a result of the attack. Despite the very limited damage, the attack represents a very serious escalation by Kiev.

The attack will not likely go without a response. Russia has already warned Kiev that any attack on its territory will be met with strikes on “decision-making centers in Ukraine.

https://southfront.org/ukraine-attacked-russian-oil-refinery-with-chinese-commercial-drones-video/

Assange Put on Suicide Watch After Patel Decision, Father Says

John Shipton said Julian Assange was stripped naked and put in an empty cell to prevent him from killing himself over the home secretary’s decision to sign his extradition order, Joe Lauria reports.

After British Home Secretary Priti Patel signed Julian Assange’s extradition order on Friday the authorities in Belmarsh prison stripped Julian Assange and threw him into a completely empty cell in an attempt to prevent his suicide, Assange’s father has said.

It was just one more instance in which the prison humiliated his son, Shipton told a rally on Tuesday night at the offices of the junge Welt newspaper in Berlin. About 300 people attended, with an overflow crowd watching on close circuit TV in the courtyard.

Testimony was heard from expert defense witnesses during Assange’s extradition hearing that he might try to end his life in prison once he learned he was going to the United States.

It is not the end of the road for Assange legally, however. His lawyers have until July 1 to file for an appeal of Patel’s decision to the High Court. They also intend to apply for a cross appeal of issues such as the political nature of the charges, the threat to free speech and the reported C.I.A. plot to kidnap or kill Assange before his arrest.

Shipton and Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother, are in Berlin to lobby the German government to put pressure on the United States to drop the case against Assange.

On Monday, the Shiptons met with Tobias Lindner, the minister of state, at the German foreign ministry. “It was a practical and appropriate step for Tobias to take, to welcome Julian Assange’s father and bother into the foreign ministry,” John Shipton said. “The invitation in itself and the meeting in the foreign ministry indicates that the German government is sincere in bringing about the freedom of Julian Assange.”

But Shipton said he would like to hear a public statement from Germany in support of his son. “We’d like Tobias to confirm what he’s said.”

A German government spokesman on Monday said however that Germany was unlikely to intervene with either the U.K. or the U.S. “This is a legal process that is already in motion, so I would be a little wary of political intervention,” he said, the French Press Agency (AFP) reported.

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/06/22/assange-put-on-suicide-watch-after-patel-decision-father-says/

As of 2020 The Pakistani Government Was Still Implying That a Sandy Hook Victim Was Killed Again in Peshawar

Years ago I deleted every single Sandy Hook article on my websites. I now regret it. I grew tired of death threats, from various parties, and lawsuits threatened by Noah Pozner’s father Lenny.

I gave up my free speech because of intimidation. Lenny Pozner did NOT threaten my life, I want to make that clear, but he did tell me to rip down many articles and threatened lawsuits if I did not.

Guess what? I complied.

I more than complied. After a few letters about various “Sandy Hook” articles, I grew tired and ripped them all down. Today I regret giving up my free speech because of simple intimidation tactics. I got scared and went soft.

Many years later I am disabled and have nothing to be sued for, so go ahead Mr. Pozner…sue me.

And for those that made death threats, all that stands between you and I is air and opportunity.

What happened in Newtown, CT was a tragedy for sure. So this article is not meant to be an insult to any of those who suffered. But it is meant to question if the story went as we were told. THAT IS MY JOB.

First, let me start by saying that I probably did avoid lawsuits by ripping down those articles. This is from People Magazine April 17, 2018…

Sandy Hook Parents Sue Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones for Defamation: ‘Enough Is Enough’

Three parents who lost children in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting have filed two defamation suits against Alex Jones, the notorious radio host and conspiracy theorist who has called the massacre a “giant hoax,” PEOPLE learns.

On Monday, Houston attorney Mark D. Bankston filed the suits in Travis County District Court in Austin, Texas, where Jones is based.

Jones hosts an eponymous radio show and owns Infowars.com, a website that has trafficked in conspiracy theories on various topics including Sandy Hook.

Bankston is representing Neil Heslin, whose 7-year-old son, Jesse Lewis, was killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut; and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose 6-year-old son, Noah, was also killed.

The shooting left 20 children and six adults dead at the school before the shooter killed himself.

Heslin is seeking in excess of $1 million in damages from Jones and Infowars as well as Infowars reporter Owen Shroyer and Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems, according to the complaint, which was obtained by PEOPLE. READ THE REST

https://www.dcclothesline.com/2022/06/22/as-of-2020-the-pakistani-government-was-still-implying-that-a-sandy-hook-victim-was-killed-again-in-peshawar/

Pornhub Parent Company’s CEO, COO Are Departing as Scrutiny Builds Over Alleged Nonconsensual Content

MindGeek says executive departures are unrelated to accusations

Two top executives at the parent company of major pornography site Pornhub have resigned, the company said Tuesday, amid scrutiny of alleged nonconsensual sexually explicit videos hosted on the site.

MindGeek Chief Executive Feras Antoon and Chief Operating Officer David Tassillo are leaving, the privately held company said in a statement. The leadership changes have been in the works since early 2022, MindGeek said. Messrs. Antoon and Tassillo will remain shareholders, the company said.

Investigations by several news organizations, including the New Yorker earlier this month, reported that Pornhub, one of the world’s most popular pornography sites, allegedly hosted videos that included nonconsensual and underage sex. The Wall Street Journal hasn’t independently verified the accusations in those articles.

A spokesman said the departures aren’t related to the accusations against MindGeek. The company said it has enacted safeguards and that it removes incidents of child sexual-abuse material. “MindGeek has more comprehensive and effective policies than any other major platform on the internet,” the company said.

“MindGeek’s executive leadership team will run day-to-day operations on an interim basis, with a search underway for replacements,” the company said. Both executives had more than a decade of experience in leadership roles with the company, it added.

MindGeek has more than 1,000 employees and its network of sites attracts over 150 million daily visitors, according to the company. In addition to Pornhub, it also owns other popular porn sites such as RedTube and YouPorn.

Several lawsuits have been filed against MindGeek in recent years. A class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in February alleged that MindGeek disseminated child pornography and violated federal sex trafficking laws. The suit alleges MindGeek profited from and failed to prevent illegal content from flowing.

MindGeek is headquartered in Luxembourg but has other offices around the world, including in Montreal and Los Angeles. A federal privacy official in Canada launched an investigation into MindGeek last year.

A MindGeek spokesman didn’t immediately comment about the litigation or the Canadian investigation.

https://archive.ph/oIFhp#selection-249.0-525.99

https://www.ibtimes.com/costco-fall-store-openings-2022-heres-which-locations-are-coming-near-you-3548151

GI-TOC: Network that Trafficked Over 30 Tonnes of Ivory Yet to Face Justice

Despite charges of illicitly trafficking over 30 tonnes of ivory for over a decade now, the alleged members of one of Africa’s largest wildlife-trafficking networks have by and large managed to evade conviction, according to a risk bulletin compiled by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).

Although several alleged members of one of the world’s most active wildlife-trafficking syndicates have been circulated through various African courts since 2010, few cases have reached their conclusion and fewer still have resulted in a conviction.

Liberian national Moazu Kromah—also know as ‘Kampala Man’—is believed to stand at the head of this criminal organization, and although his network is linked to at least 15 major ivory-trafficking cases responsible for the theft and transport of over 30 tonnes of ivory, only one has ended in a guilty sentence with the two accused receiving only two-year sentences.

Despite Kromah’s arrest in 2017, his extradition to the U.S. two years later, and finally his guilty plea for three wildlife-trafficking offenses in March this year, the speed at which his case was processed has raised troubling concerns as to when the network as a whole will face justice for their actions.

The Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) and Natural Resource Conservation Network (NRCN), who for several years investigated Kromah’s syndicate, described the man as “the centre of a vast ring of organized criminals…connected to at least four other major criminal syndicates…supplying the biggest wildlife criminal syndicates worldwide.”

At the time of Kampala Man’s arrest in 2017, the UWA and NRCN also recovered over 430 pieces of ivory weighing in at over 1.3 tonnes.

However, his criminal proceedings ran into several speed bumps following his incarceration. Kromah reportedly bribed several officials to bury his case and Interpol documents were later uncovered in his home, further suggesting that he had corrupted Uganda’s courts, according to GI-TOC.

Though he remained free as of 2018, by this time American authorities had entered the fray. Kromah was persuaded to travel to the U.S. to sell rhino horns where he was arrested for wildlife trafficking once and for all in June 2019.

Authorities soon uncovered the scope of Kampala Man’s criminal syndicate, which shipped ivory and other animal parts from several African nations including Kenya, Mozambique, and Uganda.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/16476-gi-toc-network-that-trafficked-over-30-tonnes-of-ivory-yet-to-face-justice

Former Head of Corporate Communications of $21 Billion Biopharmaceutical Company Admits Insider Trading

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/former-head-corporate-communications-21-billion-biopharmaceutical-company-admits-insider

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/rabbi-weiss-indicted-on-three-charges/article_baa2b200-f0a2-11ec-bed9-03b6e551a3c6.html

The Billionaire Family Pushing Synthetic Sex Identities (SSI)

The wealthy, powerful, and sometimes very weird Pritzker cousins have set their sights on a new God-like goal: using gender ideology to remake human biology

One of the most powerful yet unremarked-upon drivers of our current wars over definitions of gender is a concerted push by members of one of the richest families in the United States to transition Americans from a dimorphic definition of sex to the broad acceptance and propagation of synthetic sex identities (SSI). Over the past decade, the Pritzkers of Illinois, who helped put Barack Obama in the White House and include among their number former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, current Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and philanthropist Jennifer Pritzker, appear to have used a family philanthropic apparatus to drive an ideology and practice of disembodiment into our medical, legal, cultural, and educational institutions.

I first wrote about the Pritzkers, whose fortune originated in the Hyatt hotel chain, and their philanthropy directed toward normalizing what people call “transgenderism” in 2018. I have since stopped using the word “transgenderism” as it has no clear boundaries, which makes it useless for communication, and have instead opted for the term SSI, which more clearly defines what some of the Pritzkers and their allies are funding—even as it ignores the biological reality of “male” and “female” and “gay” and “straight.”

The creation and normalization of SSI speaks much more directly to what is happening in American culture, and elsewhere, under an umbrella of human rights. With the introduction of SSI, the current incarnation of the LGBTQ+ network—as distinct from the prior movement that fought for equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans, and which ended in 2020 with Bostock v. Clayton County, finding that LGBTQ+ is a protected class for discrimination purposes—is working closely with the techno-medical complex, big banks, international law firms, pharma giants, and corporate power to solidify the idea that humans are not a sexually dimorphic species—which contradicts reality and the fundamental premises not only of “traditional” religions but of the gay and lesbian civil rights movements and much of the feminist movement, for which sexual dimorphism and resulting gender differences are foundational premises.

Through investments in the techno-medical complex, where new highly medicalized sex identities are being conjured, Pritzkers and other elite donors are attempting to normalize the idea that human reproductive sex exists on a spectrum. These investments go toward creating new SSI using surgeries and drugs, and by instituting rapid language reforms to prop up these new identities and induce institutions and individuals to normalize them. In 2018, for example, at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at the University of California Los Angeles (where the Pritzkers are major donors and hold various titles), the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology advertised several options for young females who think they can be men to have their reproductive organs removed, a procedure termed “gender-affirming care.”

The Pritzkers became the first American family to have a medical school bear its name in recognition of a private donation when it gave $12 million to the University of Chicago School of Medicine in 1968. In June 2002, the family announced an additional gift of $30 million to be invested in the University of Chicago’s Biological Sciences Division and School of Medicine. These investments provided the family with a bridgehead into the world of academic medicine, which it has since expanded in pursuit of a well-defined agenda centered around SSI. Also in 2002, Jennifer Pritzker founded the Tawani Foundation, which has since provided funding to Howard Brown Health and Rush Memorial Medical Center in Chicago, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Foundation Fund, and the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health, all of which provide some version of “gender care.” In the case of the latter, “clients” include “gender creative children as well as transgender and gender non-conforming adolescents …”

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/billionaire-family-pushing-synthetic-sex-identities-ssi-pritzkers

Super gonorrhoea warning: Austrian man catches drug-resistant strain of STI from Cambodian prostitute as experts claim virus poses 'major global threat'

Unnamed man in his 50s caught the STI by not using a condom in Cambodia

Tests revealed he had super gonorrhoea, which is resistant to regular drugs

Experts warned the spread of the super strain could makes cases untreatable

Comes as MPs were today warned more needs to be done to tackle superbugs

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10941755/Austrian-man-catches-Super-gonorrhoea-Cambodian-prostitute.html

Today's fear porn