Belarusian foreign minister dies suddenly

64-year-old Vladimir Makey held the position since 2012

Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makey, died suddenly on Saturday, news agency Belta has reported, citing the ministry’s spokesman, Anatoly Glaz. He had held his position for a decade.

The news outlet has not provided any details about the circumstances or causes of the 64-year-old's death. He was scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in the coming days.

A career diplomat, Makey worked with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry since 1993 after graduating from Austria’s Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He represented Belarus in the Council of Europe and served as an adviser to the Belarusian ambassador to Paris in the 1990s.

In the 2000s, he worked as an aide to President Aleksandr Lukashenko and headed the presidential administration between 2008 and 2012 before taking up the position of foreign minister.

Just one day before his death, Makey met with the Vatican’s ambassador to Minsk, Ante Jozic. The meeting marked the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Belarus. The minister and the ambassador discussed bilateral relations, as well as the position of the Catholic Church in Belarus, the ministry said at the time.

In early November, the minister visited India, where he met with diplomats and entrepreneurs. Makey also discussed bilateral trade and economic cooperation with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, according to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. On the topic of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the two diplomats called for a “speedy resolution through peaceful means,” the ministry added.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow is shocked by the news of the senior diplomat’s passing.

https://www.rt.com/russia/567231-belarusian-foreign-minister-dies-at-64/

Here We Go: CDC Says It’s Monitoring a New COVID Variant Known as “XBB” – Deemed ‘Most Vaccine Resistant Strain Ever’

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it is monitoring a new COVID-19 variant known as “XBB,” which is responsible for an estimated 3.1% of all new infections in the United States, according to Yahoo News.

Back in October, health officials in the US said they were tracking a new Covid strain that is being called the “most vaccine-resistant ever” after causing a surge in cases in Singapore.

The recent outbreak of infections in Singapore has been traced to XBB, a “recombinant” of the Omicron subvariants BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75.

“Preliminary research suggests the Omicron subvariant XBB might carry a higher infection risk and be more resistant to neutralizing antibodies from booster vaccine doses and antibody drugs, but more studies are needed, according to Verywell Health.

According to the latest weekly estimates from the CDC, the Northeast is where the strain has spread the farthest. In this week’s CDC’s “Nowcast,” over 5% of infections in the areas spanning New Jersey through Maine are related to XBB.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/go-cdc-says-monitoring-new-covid-variant-known-xbb-deemed-vaccine-resistant-strain-ever/

'The dinner tables turned': PETA posts cartoon of turkey family preparing to eat a human

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals posted a tweet the day before Thanksgiving that depicted a family of turkeys, or more specifically human bodies with turkey heads, preparing to eat a human being for dinner.

"POV: The dinner tables turned & a family is gathering around your dead body to share why they're thankful," PETA tweeted.

Jerry Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner mockingly replied to the post, tweeting, "the turkeys must be destroyed before they rebel against us."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/peta-cartoon-turkeys-eat-human

Meta Confirms US Military Running Fake Social Media Accounts to Push Propaganda

"Individuals associated with the US military" are linked to an online propaganda campaign

Facebook’s parent company Meta has acknowledged the discovery of several clusters of fake accounts and pages believed to be linked to individuals “associated with the US military,” according to the company’s latest adversarial threat report published this week.

“Although the people behind this operation attempted to conceal their identities and coordination, our investigation found links to individuals associated with the US military,” the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The influence campaign was discovered earlier this year and in total Meta removed 39 Facebook and 26 Instagram accounts, as well as 16 pages and two groups, all for violating the company's policy against “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”

The social media giant admitted that the large-scale operation ran beyond those several dozen accounts and across many other internet platforms, including Twitter, YouTube and Telegram – as well as major Russian social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. It seemingly attempted to downplay the discovery by insisting that the “majority of this operation’s posts had little to no engagement from authentic communities” and highlighting similar “deceptive campaigns” by China and Russia.

Meta’s acknowledgement substantiates a bombshell investigation by the Washington Post that revealed the Pentagon was forced to launch a “sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare,” after a variety of social media accounts, which its operatives used to target foreign audiences in elaborate psychological warfare efforts, were exposed.

The takedown of the influence network was initially highlighted by researchers at Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory, which back in August published a report about online networks allegedly pushing “pro-Western,” anti-Russia and other politicized narratives.

While the original study did not pin blame for the fake accounts on any particular actors, two officials later told the Post that US CENTCOM – the combatant command which oversees forces in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia – “is among those whose activities are facing scrutiny” for its influence operations.

At the time, CENTCOM refused to comment on whether any of the suspicious accounts were created by its personnel or contractors, but one official claimed such behavior would “absolutely be a violation of doctrine and training practices.”

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/the-state/meta-confirms-us-military-running-fake-social-media-accounts-to-push-propaganda

Taiwan President Quits as Party Head After China Threat Bet Fails to Win Votes

TAIPEI—Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Saturday after her strategy to frame local elections as showing defiance to China’s rising bellicosity failed to pay off and win public support.

The elections for mayors, county chiefs, and local councilors are ostensibly about domestic issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and crime, and those elected will not have a direct say on China policy.

But Tsai had recast the election as being more than a local vote, saying the world is watching how Taiwan defends its democracy amid military tensions with China, which claims the island as its territory.

The main opposition party the Kuomintang, or KMT, was leading or claimed victory in 13 of the 21 city mayor and county chief seats up for grabs, including the capital Taipei, compared to the DPP’s five, broadly in line with expectations and similar to the results of the last local elections in 2018.

“The results failed our expectations. We humbly accept the results and accept the Taiwanese people’s decision,” Tsai told reporters at party headquarters as she quit as party head, which she also did after 2018’s poor results.

“It’s not like the DPP has never failed before,” Tsai, who will continue serving as president until 2024, added. “We don’t have time to feel sorry. We fell, but we will stand up again.”

Tsai said she had rejected a resignation offer from Premier Su Tseng-chang, also a senior DPP member, adding she had asked him to stay in office to ensure her policies would be properly implemented.

The Cabinet said Su had agreed to stay due to the need for stability amid the “arduous” domestic and international situation.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the result showed that mainstream Taiwanese public opinion was for peace, stability, and “a good life,” and that Beijing would keep working with Taiwan’s people to promote peaceful relations and to oppose Taiwan independence and foreign interference.

‘Red’ Accusations

Both the DPP and KMT, which traditionally favors close ties with China, though it strongly denies being pro-Beijing, had concentrated their campaign efforts in wealthy and populous northern Taiwan, especially Taipei, whose mayor from the small Taiwan People’s Party could not run again due to term limits.

The KMT has accused Tsai and the DPP of being overly confrontational with China, and of trying to besmirch the party for being “red”—a reference to the colors of the Chinese Communist Party.

It focused its campaign on criticizing the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially after a surge in cases this year.

KMT Chairman Eric Chu celebrated their victory but said they would also protect Taiwan’s freedoms.

https://www.ntd.com/taiwan-president-quits-as-party-head-after-china-threat-bet-fails-to-win-votes_884194.html

Donalds: We Need Biden Suspicious Activity Reports, Even Maxine Waters Has Called for Congress to Get Suspicious Activity Reports Easier

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “John Bachman Now,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) called for Congress to receive the suspicious activity reports on President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and his brother, Jim, and pointed out that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has criticized the Treasury Department for restricting Congress’ access to these reports and filed legislation to make it easier for Congress to access the reports.

Donalds stated, “I want the American people to understand something, whether it was President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, or President Trump, Congress had the ability to access suspicious activity reports. When Joe Biden became President of the United States, he changed the rules. Even Maxine Waters filed a bill to change it back. This is critical information. Most people might get a suspicious activity report one time in their life, maybe one. Hunter Biden and Jim Biden, the President’s brother, have over 150. This makes no sense at all. So, of course, Congress should get this information, especially when Joe Biden changed the rules when he came into the White House.”

In 2018 and 2020, Breitbart Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer published Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption. Each book hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and exposed how Hunter Biden and Joe Biden flew aboard Air Force Two in 2013 to China before Hunter’s firm inked a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China less than two weeks after the trip. Schweizer’s work also uncovered the Biden family’s other vast and lucrative foreign deals and cronyism. Breitbart Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris’ investigative work at the New York Post on the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” also captured international headlines when she, along with Miranda Devine, revealed that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter’s businesses, appearing to even have a 10 percent stake in a company the scion formed with officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/11/26/donalds-we-need-biden-suspicious-activity-reports-even-maxine-waters-has-called-for-congress-to-get-suspicious-activity-reports-easier/

Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking operation benefited banks, accusers allege in lawsuit

Deutsche Bank says claims by Epstein's accusers lack merit

Women who accused Jeffrey Epstein of abuse filed a lawsuit against two banks they claim benefited financially from his sex trafficking system.

Two separate lawsuits, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, are headed by women who remain anonymous in the filings and are suing Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The allegations include a claim the banks are at fault for "assisting, supporting, facilitating, and otherwise providing the most critical service for the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking organization to successfully rape, sexually assault, and coercively sex traffic."

The accusers claim the banks had knowledge of the pattern of sex trafficking from Epstein — an allegation denied by Deutsche Bank.

"We believe this claim lacks merit and will present our arguments in court," a spokesperson for Deutsche Bank said.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/financials/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-operation-benefited-banks-accusers-allege-lawsuit

Zelensky asks US for chemical weapons, ex-deputy of Kiva says

RIA Novosti. Volodymyr Zelensky asked the United States for chemical weapons for subsequent use in the Donbass, according to ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ilya Kiva.

"According to a source from the president's office, Zelensky asked Washington to urgently provide chemical weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine , which he is going to use in Donbas. The Kiev regime is in a panic, and they may not be limited to a terrorist attack at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant ," Kiva wrote in his Telegram channel .

https://ria.ru/20221124/khimoruzhie-1833889514.html?rcmd_alg=slotter

The rise and fall of the opium-fueled Sassoon dynasty, the ‘Rothschilds of the East’

In ‘Sassoon,’ Prof. Joseph Sassoon tells how his distant family of Baghdadi Jews fled to India and built an empire on the legal narcotics trade, hobnobbing with the British royals

They established a global business empire that stretched across three continents, and became friends and confidants of Britain’s aristocracy and royal family. But the Sassoon dynasty, which made its millions as traders in opium, cotton, tea and silk, stemmed not from London, Paris or New York — but Baghdad.

The family’s meteoric rise and equally dramatic fall is told in gripping yet meticulous detail by history professor Joseph Sassoon in his new book “The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire.” (A Hebrew edition will follow in June.)

It’s not simply a tale of refugees who came to be known as the “Rothschilds of the East,” but also of bitter family disputes, trailblazing female pioneers and a legacy carelessly squandered. “Think ‘Succession’ with yarmulkes,” as the New York Times recently put it.

The story begins with David, the dynasty’s founding father, escaping Ottoman Baghdad for Iran in the late 1820s. The son of Sheikh Sassoon ben Saleh, a long-serving former chief treasurer to the city’s pashas, David had been threatened and held hostage by Baghdad’s notoriously greedy and rapacious governor. When the aging Sheikh, once “the most eminent Jew in Baghdad,” joined him soon after, it capped a remarkable fall from grace for the family.

For Joseph Sassoon, the story of their exile from Baghdad — one echoed by his own family fleeing the Iraqi capital during Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule — sparked a connection to his distant relatives. “That sense of looking for security, longevity and stability is so ingrained in anyone who was a refugee,” he tells The Times of Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-opium-fueled-sassoon-dynasty-the-rothschilds-of-the-east/

FTX donated $1 million to the Super-PAC linked to Mitch McConnell, The Senate Leadership Fund, on October 27 just days before FTX declared bankruptcy.

https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1596509296627707905

Elon Musk’s connection with Graphene Oxide

https://pennybutler.com/elon-musk-neuralink/

John Bolton Coauthored Strategy on Creating Bioweapons to Ensure US 'Global Leadership': Russian MOD

Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops have released trove after trove of confidential documents detailing Pentagon bioweapons programs across the globe, particularly in Ukraine. US officials and media have broadly ignored the revelations, but part of the information has been corroborated in independent reporting.

John Bolton, the Washington arch-neocon who served as one of the architects of George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, and as former President Donald Trump's national security advisor before resigning in disgrace, was intimately involved in formulating the US drive for global dominance in bioweapons research, a top Russian military official has indicated.

"The ongoing research by the United States to enhance the pathogenic properties of microorganisms is forcing us to rethink the statements of US officials in charge of countering biological threats. One such official is John Bolton, who [previously] served as the US national security advisor," Russian RCBP Troops chief Igor Kirillov said in a briefing Saturday.

"Consider Bolton's September 2000 report 'Rebuilding America's Defenses,'" Kirillov said, recalling the paper's call for the US to take steps to maintain its military superiority deep into the 21st century. "The paper noted that to achieve a position of world leadership, the United States must maintain its military superiority, and one of the ways to do so was the creation of biological weapons. At the same time, the paper indicated that advanced forms of biological weapons capable of targeting certain genotypes could change the role of this type of weapon - from a deterrent into a beneficial policy tool," the senior officer said.

Kirillov further recalled that John Bolton led the US delegation to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention's Fifth Review Conference in November-December 2001. Thereafter, Washington blocked the functioning of the UN body's verification mechanism, as well as proposed measures to check bioweapons storage sites, citing threats such verification measures would pose to US "national interests." Bolton also characterized the BTWC's verification protocol as "dead," and promised that it's "not going to be resurrected."

The MoD's briefing included the relevant quote from the 2000 document, which would go on to serve as a blueprint of sorts for the Bush administration's foreign and security policy.

The "Rebuilding America's Defenses" paper's reference to the need for "some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor" for neocons to be able to implement their empire-building plans raised eyebrows among journalists and historians in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, which took place one year after the paper was published.

New Documents

As is typical in his briefings, Kirillov accompanied his presentation with a fresh trove of documents, including papers related to US efforts to build up the country's military-biological potential. Unlike in earlier briefings, which featured classified materials, most of the documents cited in Saturday's presentation are already publicly available, with the MoD's take focusing on analyzing what is said and reading between the lines to uncover their implications.

The docs included the National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Plan, a policy document published by the White House in October detailing US efforts ostensibly aimed at "countering biological threats, enhancing pandemic preparedness, and achieving global health security." Kirillov pointed out that the strategy has received $88 billion in funding for its implementation over five years, including $17 billion during the first year.

Pointing to the document's statement that "biological risk management requires understanding and assessing biological risks and taking steps to mitigate those risks, regardless of whether they originate in the United States or abroad," Kirillov cited this as evidence of US attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of other states.

https://sputniknews.com/20221126/john-bolton-coauthored-strategy-on-creating-bioweapons-to-assure-us-global-leadership-russian-mod-1104729167.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20130817122719/http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

Biden Admin Reverses Trump Ban On Chevron Pumping Venezuelan Crude

Update(1355ET): On Saturday the White House unveiled a monumental shift in its Venezuela policy, given only a short time ago Washington didn't even officially recognize Nicolás Maduro as the socialist Latin American country's legitimate ruler, announcing the easing of oil sanctions which allows Chevron to pump Venezuelan crude and export it to the United States.

Chevron was forced to halt all drilling there just under three years ago due to Trump administration sanctions, also amid a US policy that recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as "interim president".

Bloomberg confirms following the fresh White House statement, "Chevron received a six-month license that authorizes the company to produce petroleum or petroleum products in Venezuela, according to a general license from the US Treasury Department. The San Ramon, California-based driller is also allowed to resume exports of crude oil that had been been halted since 2019, when the US ratcheted up sanctions against the OPEC producer."

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/us-closer-issuing-chevron-license-pump-oil-venezuela

An Update on That mRNA Lettuce Research

In September 2021 the OP published an article about putting mRNA vaccines into lettuce.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) had awarded a research group from UC-San Diego, UC-Riverside, and Carnegie Mellon $500,000 to investigate this potential new technology. This project had three major goals. The first was to determine whether or not DNA containing the mRNA vaccines could be delivered to plant cells. The second was if, once in the plant cells, the mRNA could replicate and produce amounts of mRNA comparable to the mRNA vaccines currently on the market. The third point of the research was, assuming mRNA could replicate in the cells, to determine the correct dosage.

The researchers claim that this project has the potential to produce mRNA vaccines that aren’t as temperature sensitive as the mRNA vaccines currently on the market. They believe that, in the long run, this has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of producing and storing mRNA vaccines because cold storage is so expensive.

At the time, a flurry of news articles about this research project was released, enough that USA Today felt the need to “fact check” the claim that people might be eating vaccines in salads.

Those of us who were so intrigued and concerned last year may be wondering, have they made any progress?

Is this coming to a plate near me soon?

How concerned should I be?

UC and Carnegie Mellon have not posted any updates since last year. In the USA Today fact-checking article above, the head researcher, Dr. Juan Pablo Giraldo, admits that the technology is many years away.

“This research will take a couple of years to show proof of concept of the technology. . . If successful, it will need more studies and several more years for people to use leafy greens as mRNA vaccine factories.”

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2022/11/an-update-on-that-mrna-lettuce-research.html