A New Drug Called "Tranq" Is Worsening Philadelphia's Already Out-Of-Control Drug Problem

As if Philadelphia didn't have a big enough problem on its hands with its "zombie streets" in the Northeast lined with drug users…

…a new drug is making its way out into the city. Philly Voice published a new piece this week detailing the veterinary sedative xylazine, also known as "tranq", which is now being "pervasive" in the drug scene and is mixed with fentanyl.

It is responsible for "more complex overdoses and painful skin wounds," the report says. The drug is a "anesthetic and pain reliever" that "is used by vets to treat horses and cattle". The appeal of mixing it with Fentanyl is that it can extend the perception of a person's high.

It has been found in 90% of dope samples that the city tested last year, the report says. Last year, it was found in 44% of Fentanyl overdose deaths in the city and was found in 34% of all overdose deaths. It marks a 39% increase from the year prior.

Jennifer Shinefeld, a field epidemiologist for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, commented: "Xylazine was initially added into the drug supply because a heroin high lasts for 6-8 hours, but a fentanyl high lasts from 1-2 hours."

"The tranquilizer was being added to mimic a traditional heroin high, but also to allegedly prolong the effects."

Fentanyl is already responsible for the lion's share of the city's overdoses, the report notes:

Among Philadelphia's 1,276 fatal overdoses in 2021 — the city's deadliest year on record — fentanyl was linked to 71% of fatalities. The drug was present in 94% of fatal overdoses in which opioids were found, showing the extent to which fentanyl has supplanted heroin as the predominant opioid.

And now using xylazine as an additive is "further complicating drug interactions in people who use these substances, requiring urgent changes to Philadelphia's public health response".

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/new-drug-called-tranq-worsening-philadelphias-already-out-control-drug-problem

I swear there's an old movie with this in it

Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch forced to give evidence under oath in the US. Will they perjure themselves? We all know the answer!

Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch forced to give evidence under oath in the US. Will they perjure themselves? We all know the answer!

https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2022/12/07/rupert-murdoch-and-lachlan-murdoch-forced-to-give-evidence-under-oath-in-the-us-will-they-perjure-themselves-we-all-know-the-answer/

Minister ‘Misled Parliament’ on Foreign Office Role in Secret Assange Operation

New information suggests the UK government may be covering up the extent of its involvement in the arrest and incarceration of the WikiLeaks founder.

A British MP has accused a Foreign Office minister of “misleading parliament” over his department’s involvement in the secret operation to arrest Julian Assange.

Kenny MacAskill MP, a former Scottish justice secretary, asked the Foreign Office “whether any people working on Operation Pelican were based within [its] Department’s premises.”

Pelican was the secret Metropolitan Police-led operation to seize Assange from his asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, which was mounted in April 2019.

Junior foreign minister David Rutley told parliament last week in answer:

“No Foreign and Commonwealth Office [FDCO] officials were directly assigned to work on Operation Pelican.”

However, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request in July last year, the Foreign Office had already admitted:

“Three FCDO officials did some work on Operation Pelican, the most senior of which was Head of Latin America Department.”

Declassified on Tuesday revealed the UK government had assigned 15 staff to Pelican, but this number did not include any Foreign Office personnel.

‘Misled parliament’

Under the Ministerial Code, ministers have a duty to “be as open as possible with parliament” and to “give accurate and truthful information”. A House of Commons guide states that “this requirement governs the answers ministers provide to parliamentary questions”.

The misleading of parliament is a serious charge that can lead to a minister’s resignation or sacking.

David Rutley, the Conservative MP for Macclesfield, has been foreign minister for the Americas and Caribbean since October 2022, and serves under foreign secretary James Cleverly.

A supporter of Rishi Sunak, Rutley has met the US ambassador to Britain and travelled to Colombia and Panama since taking up office.

Kenny MacAskill, MP for East Lothian, told Declassified:

“This new information shows that foreign minister David Rutley misled parliament in answering my recent question. It demonstrates not just the standard obfuscation I have become used to, but actual distortion of the facts about the UK government’s effort to ‘get’ Julian Assange.”

He added:

“The actions of the British government have not simply been to assist the US. They have been active and willing participants in the state-sponsored cruelty meted out to Assange. And then tried to hide it all.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/minister-misled-parliament-foreign-office-role-secret-assange-operation/5801458

EU nation MP hires witch aide

Many warlocks and witches are actively involved in Latvia’s politics, the witch insists

Latvian MP Nataļja Marcenko-Jodko has hired a prominent local witch and ‘healer’ as her aide, official data on the website of the country’s parliament – the Saeima – shows. Her name is Sanita Petere, but she is more commonly known as the “White Witch.”

Latvian media outlets reached out to the witch herself for comment, with Petere insisting that the country’s parliament was just the right place for a woman in her line of business.

“Can’t a witch be in the Saeima?” she said. “I think we are very important and useful in politics,” adding that many of her ‘colleagues’ are actively involved in the political life of the country.

The witch is no stranger to politics herself. She ran for parliament in the most recent polls, but failed to get elected, and was even previously nominated for the welfare minister role by the For Stability! party.

Petere is best known in the country as a self-styled healer and a lithotherapy practitioner. The ‘therapy’, also known as ‘crystal healing’, is an alternative-medicine practice that uses various semiprecious stones and crystals to purportedly transform a body’s aura, flushing out bad energy and replacing it with the good kind.

https://www.rt.com/russia/567857-latvian-mp-witch-aide/

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Texas Governor Abbott Bans TikTok on State Devices

“TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users' devices," Abbott said.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/texas-gov-greg-abbott-bans-tiktok-state-devices/story?id=94718981

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DHS Mayorkas Rewards Haitian Exodus with TPS Temporary Amnesty

President Joe Biden’s border agency is using the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program to pull another 110,000 Haitian migrants deeper into Americans’ economy and society.

The much-expanded TPS program now gives temporary work permits and legal residency to 250,000 poor Haitian migrants. That total includes roughly 110,000 Haitian illegal migrants who have walked across the border since the prior expansion of the Haitian TPS program in July 2021.

The expansion comes as Biden’s pro-migration border chief — Alejandro Mayorkas — is dismantling the Title 42 barrier on U.S. borders, and as more Haitians emigrate rather than fight to preserve their nation’s government. The New York Times reported on November 29:

“That has always been the U.S. government’s biggest Haitian nightmare, a mass migration event,” said Daniel Foote, who served as the U.S. special envoy to Haiti for part of last year. “It’s already upon us; the next step becomes biblical, with people falling off anything that can float. We aren’t that far away from that.”

Yet U.S. migration advocates want to extract even more Haitians.

For example, former White House official Tyler Moran called for a new visa program to fly migrants straight out of Haiti. “A parole program similar to Venezuela could provide a legal pathway for those who haven’t left [Haiti] and who are seeking protection,” she tweeted on December 5. The legally questionable Venezuelan parole program is awarding at least 24,000 visas to Venezuelans in Venezuela.

It is periodic rolling amnesty … Once a country gets TPS, not only do the illegal aliens who are here benefit from the work permits that they get, but all future [migrants] from that country will get work permits when the temporary [TPS] benefit comes up for renewal every 18 or 24 months.

I don’t think there’s a [precise] plan, but I can see them doing this with Honduras, even El Salvador — those are the big TPS cases. Obviously, when Venezuelan TPS expires, all new Venezuelan illegal aliens will get the redesignation of TPS.

“Nobody has challenged it [in court] yet — I don’t even know who can sue,” he added.

President Donald Trump sought to shrink the TPS program down to about 100,000 migrants, including roughly 50,000 Haitians. But he was blocked by progressive judges.

The economic impact of the accelerating Haitian exit has largely been ignored by the establishment media. The overall migration also has been downplayed, aside from the visually shocking arrival of roughly 15,000 Haitian migrants at the Del Rio bridge in September 2021. That border rush occurred two months after Mayorkas first expanded the Haitian TPS program in July 2021.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/12/07/mayorkas-expands-temporary-tps-amnesty-reward-haitian-illegals/

Hillsong manager tells court it was 'appropriate' for Frank Houston to receive retirement package

The general manager of the Hillsong Church has told a court he believed it was "entirely appropriate" for self-confessed paedophile Frank Houston to have received a financial retirement package when he was removed from the church's ministry.

Key points:

A Hillsong manager said he did not think reporting the abuse to government child protection authorities was warranted

The manager said he reported it to his boss, Brian Houston

He denied he wanted to protect the reputation of Frank Houston or the church

George Aghajanian gave his opinion on day four of a special fixtures hearing at the Downing Centre Local Court, where Hillsong founder Brian Houston is defending a charge of concealing his father's sexual abuse.

Mr Houston's lawyers argue it was reasonable not to report the allegations to police because the victim did not want authorities to know.

Historical sex offences committed by Frank Houston against Brett Sengstock, who was seven years old at the time, came to the attention of senior church leaders with the Assemblies of God in late 1999

It was Mr Aghajanian who first told Brian Houston, then working as a senior pastor of the Sydney Christian Life Centre.

At a meeting in November 1999, Frank Houston's credentials were withdrawn, but he stayed on as an employee of the church for another year.

Today Mr Aghajanian told the court that at a meeting in November 2000, the national executive of the Australian Assemblies of God removed Frank Houston from the payroll but agreed to pay him and his wife (who was also a pastor) a financial retirement package.

"Your opinion is, it was entirely appropriate?" Magistrate Gareth Christofi asked Mr Aghajanian.

"Yes," he responded.

"Both for Hazel and Frank?"

"Yes."

He was asked whether he thought Frank Houston should perhaps not have received the payment.

"I hadn't thought of it to be honest, until now," he replied.

When asked why he had not reported the abuse against Mr Sengstock to the Department of Community Services (DOCS, now the Department of Communities and Justice), Mr Aghajanian said he did not believe the action was warranted.

"The matter related to an incident that pre-dated our church … and the victim was an adult," he said.

"I received an allegation. I reported it to my boss, who was Brian, and he reported it to the [Assemblies of God]."

"I felt at the time we had dealt with the matter appropriately and it was in other people's hands to determine what was to happen to Frank."

He denied that he had been motivated by a desire to protect the reputation of Frank Houston or the church.

Mr Aghajanian said he had not been aware of any requirement to report disciplinary actions taken against church staff members to the Office of the Children's Guardian.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-08/brian-houston-court-hearing-sydney-alleged-concealment/101748034