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Google co-founder among Billionaires subpoenaed in Epstein-linked case – WSJ

Hyatt Hotel's Thomas Pritzker and mogul Mortimer Zuckerman are also reportedly being asked for evidence in a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase

Google co-founder Sergey Brin and several other billionaires have been issued with subpoenas by the US Virgin Islands as part of a civil lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, informed sources have told the Wall Street Journal.

Other tycoons to have been approached include the executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Thomas Pritzker, real-estate mogul Mortimer Zuckerman, and investor Michael Ovitz, the outlet reported on Friday.

The subpoenas from the attorney general of the US Virgin Islands seek any communications and documents related to JPMorgan Chase and Epstein from some of the wealthiest men in America, the sources said.

The exact reasons why Brin, Pritzker, Zuckerman and Ovitz are being asked for data as part of the case “couldn’t be determined,” the WSJ noted.

Under US law, lawyers working on civil cases can issue subpoenas to individuals who aren’t party to a lawsuit, but are believed to be capable of providing important evidence.

Earlier this week, the media reported that the longtime CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon had agreed to be interviewed under oath in May as part of the case.

The lawsuit against one of most prominent Wall Street banks was brought by an alleged Epstein victim.

The US Virgin Islands, where Epstein owned a home, sued JPMorgan late last year in a Manhattan federal court, alleging that the bank had received referrals of high-value business opportunities from the convicted sex offender and knowingly allowed continued cooperation with him, while ignoring internal warnings about his illegal behavior.

JPMorgan insists it had been unaware of Epstein’s criminal activities and therefore couldn’t be held liable.

Epstein, who died in a prison cell in 2021 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, had been a client of JPMorgan for 15 years, between 1998 and 2013. The last five of those years were after he already pleaded guilty to procuring a child for sex work and soliciting a prostitute.

https://www.rt.com/news/573964-google-brin-jpmorgan-epstein/

UK Govt Data: Young Women Who Took AstraZeneca Vax Had 3.5 Times Higher Risk of Heart Death

The United Kingdom’s official statistician has released data which indicates young women experienced three and a half times more risk of dying from heart-related issues in the three months following taking a single dose of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

A dataset released this week from Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), which analysed the hospitalisation, vaccination status, and death records of those who took coronavirus vaccines within the 12 to 29-year-old age group found that there was evidence to support the idea that there was higher risk among women for heart attacks or other heart-related issues after taking just one dose of a non-mRNA vaccine, including the jab produced by AstraZeneca.

The report also stated that there was no discernible increased risk of death in the overall population of 12 to 29 year-olds in England in the three months following their first injection. The statistician noted that the number of people who died was relatively low compared to the number of vaccines administered, with 59 vaccine-related deaths recorded out of the 144.7 million doses given.

In all since Coronavirus became known, the government records 187,546 deaths “with COVID-19 on the death certificate”.

The heart-related deaths, which included cardiac arrest, heart disease, and myocarditis, were recorded as being 3.5 times higher among young women in the first 12 weeks after receiving their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. However, the statistician said younger men were not at the same risk of heart deaths for either the non-mRNA, which mainly came in the form of AstraZeneca in Britain or the novel mRNA jabs produced by Pfizer and Moderna.

The ONS also studied the increased risk of death for those who tested positive for the Chinese coronavirus and discovered that it raised the risk for cardiac and other causes of death.

Explaining the possible reason for higher fatality among young women, the ONS document suggested that non-mRNA vaccines were mainly given to young people who were already clinically vulnerable, which may explain the data.

The ONS said:

Following safety concerns, the ChAdOx1 Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine was withdrawn for people aged under 30 on 7 April 2021. At that time vaccination for young people was only for those who were prioritised, therefore the young people who received a non mRNA vaccine were more likely to be clinically vulnerable and risks for this group may differ from the population in general.

Commenting on the release, a senior statistician at the ONS, Vahé Nafilyan said: “We find no evidence that the risk of cardiac or all cause death is increased in the weeks following vaccination with mRNA vaccines.

“However, receiving a first dose of a non-mRNA vaccine was associated with an increased risk of cardiac death in young women.

“Vaccination with the main non-mRNA vaccine used in the UK was stopped for young people following safety concerns in April 2021, and most of the young people who received it would have been prioritised due to clinical vulnerability or being healthcare workers. Therefore, these results cannot be generalised to the population as a whole.

“Whilst vaccination carries some risks, these need to be assessed in light of its benefits. Our analysis shows that the risk of death is greatly increased following a positive test for Covid-19 even in young people and many studies show that vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalisation or death following Covid-19 infection.

“We will continue to monitor data on vaccinations as further doses are rolled out and produce analyses such as this study that contribute to the body of knowledge on risks and benefits of vaccination.”

Continuing in the science journal Nature, the ONS authors again said that part of the explanation for young women being at a higher risk from the vaccine could be that they were already people who had health problems and therefore were more likely to desire to seek protection from the jab. It is also worth noting that the study did not claim that any of the deaths were directly caused by the vaccine, as other factors, including later contracting the Chinese virus could have been at play.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/01/uk-govt-data-young-women-who-took-astrazeneca-vax-had-3-5-times-higher-risk-of-heart-death/

Raiffeisen Bank eyes exit from Russia amid Western pressure

The lender has warned that its likely departure will cause a decline in profit

Austrian banking group Raiffeisen, one of the last major Western lenders in Russia, announced on Thursday it was considering selling its business in the sanctioned country amid mounting pressure from the US and EU.

Raiffeisen plays a crucial role in the Russian economy, providing a lifeline for euro payments to and from the country. It’s one of only two foreign banks on the Russian Central Bank’s list of 13 systemically important credit institutions, the other being Italy’s UniCredit.

Speaking at the bank’s annual general meeting, CEO Johann Strobl announced that Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) “will pursue possible transactions that can lead to a sale or a spin-off of Raiffeisenbank Russia and its deconsolidation from the RBI group.”

In recent months, Austria’s second-biggest credit institution has been under growing pressure from Western officials and investors. The European Central Bank (ECB) reportedly urged the lender to quit the Russian market after a top US official visited Vienna last month, and voiced concerns about the lender’s operations in Russia. The RBI Group, which owns the bank, has been under scrutiny from the US and the EU over potential breaches of Western sanctions.

Meanwhile Raiffeisen’s Supervisory Board Chairman, Erwin Hameseder, has taken aim at “morally arrogant” critics of the bank’s operations in Russia, accusing them of “black and white moral thinking” from a “risk-free zone of comfort.”

He noted that most Western businesses have not left Russia, adding: “that is reality.”

Raiffeisen warned that the decision to exit its highly profitable business in Russia would lead to “a decline in income generated by Raiffeisen Bank Russia” and impact RBI’s customers.

A senior Raiffeisen executive told Reuters that the bank was in talks with two potential buyers, including one from Russia, stressing that any spin-off would take four to seven months.

The lender said it will keep some business in Russia, where it employs more than 9,000 people, “to meet the conditions of its banking license and support customers.”

https://www.rt.com/business/573907-raiffeisen-russia-exit-sanctions/

'Unacceptable incompetence': CDC made dozens of basic data errors on COVID, epidemiologists find

The CDC found itself hoist with its own petard by making 25 basic statistical and numerical errors related to COVID-19, particularly with regard to children, while purporting to expose COVID vaccine misinformation, according to an analysis led by University of California San Francisco epidemiologists.

The preprint, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, documented 20 errors that "exaggerated the severity of the COVID-19 situation" and three that "simultaneously exaggerated and downplayed" severity, while one each was neutral or exaggerated vaccine risks.

More than half were from 2022, but nearly as many were made in the first two months of 2023 as in all of 2021, they found. Several errors were related to the agency's COVID data tracker, which failed to align with its National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), and the CDC corrected at least in part 13 of the 16 errors brought to its attention.

The paper emphasizes how widely CDC errors can spread even if they are later corrected, with YouTube and Spotify linking its website on videos and podcasts that discuss COVID and the wide deference to CDC guidance in schools, businesses and healthcare facilities.

"The errors are damning," coauthor Vinay Prasad, a former National Institutes of Health fellow, said on Twitter. "Basic counts of dead kids, causes of childhood death. Unacceptable incompetence."

UCSF's Alyson Haslam, a former CDC fellow who works in Prasad's lab, made the final call on CDC errors that Prasad, Tracy Beth Hoeg and independent Georgia COVID analyst Kelley Krohnert collectively agreed "were indisputable and incorrect, as a matter of fact, and not preference or opinion."

The trio conducted "real time" review of news sources, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meetings and materials, the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and the Twitter accounts of the CDC and its director, as well as reports sent to them by others, going back to 2021.

The errors were heavily weighted toward exaggerating COVID's risk to children. Fifteen of the 16 pertaining to children's data "enhanced the perceived risk" of the virus and more than half the total errors involved mortality statistics, with the CDC data tracker "consistently" reporting higher deaths for children and adolescents than did NCHS.

Perhaps the most consequential error was the CDC's repeated promotion of a preprint that deemed COVID a "top 5" cause of death in children, which the agency only corrected in one place months later.

That paper compared 26 months of COVID deaths, where the virus was "one of several contributing causes to deaths," to 12 months of deaths from other causes that were "identified as the single underlying cause of death … which by design exaggerates" the COVID risk to kids, the paper says.

Not only was the claim made in ACIP and FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meetings, but also at a White House briefing by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and by ACIP's chair in a subsequent meeting "after the errors were identified." Only ACIP's page on "vaccination evidence for young children" includes the correction.

The agency was plain sloppy in other errors, the authors allege. It listed pediatric deaths as 4% of COVID deaths when it meant to write 0.04% and gave a lower estimated rate of pediatric infections than symptomatic illness, with some errors remaining live for seven months.

"These errors have been made repeatedly and were likely to have affected discussion of pandemic policies," particularly the CDC's guidance calling for "school closures, mask mandates, and strong recommendations for vaccinations and multiple boosters even among children who have recovered from the virus," the authors conclude.

https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/unacceptable-incompetence-cdc-made-dozens-basic-data-errors-covid

Court sanctions Google for destruction of 'Chat' communications after lawsuit

Google uses an internal chat system which automatically deletes all communications on a 24 hour cycle. The court found that Google had an obligation to take steps to preserve those chats and to disclose to the plaintiffs that such chats existed, not wait until they were asked about it.

In a March 28 ruling, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California sanctioned Google for not taking “reasonable steps to preserve electronically stored information that should have been preserved in the anticipation or conduct of litigation.”

The sanctions include monetary costs for coverage of plaintiffs’ reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs in bringing the motion to sanction “including the joint statement that preceded the motion and the evidentiary hearing and related events. Plaintiffs are directed to file by April 21, 2023, a statement of proposed attorneys’ fees and costs with adequate documentation.”

The court stopped short of “terminating sanctions” instead ruling that “The determination of an appropriate non-monetary sanction requires further proceedings” stating that “This antitrust case will not be decided on the basis of lost Chat.”

The motion for sanctions for destruction of evidence hinges on an ongoing multidistrict litigation (MDL) brought by Epic Games, Inc., the consumer plaintiffs, the Attorneys General of 38 states and the District of Columbia, and the Match Group plaintiffs for monopolizing the smartphone application market in violation of state and federal antitrust laws.

Attorney General Rob Bonta, as one of the plaintiff AGs that brought the suit, said in a released statement, “Let this send a strong message: California will not let companies hide from accountability when they break the law.”

The plaintiffs allege that Google illegally monopolized the Android app distribution market by engaging in exclusionary conduct, which has harmed the different plaintiff groups in various ways. Google amassed a number of exclusionary deals with phone makers and carriers exerting control over app distribution on Android phones through its Google Play Store, putting competitors at a disadvantage.

The sanction noted, “The principle of proportionality demands that the remedy fit the wrong, and the Court would like to see the state of play of the evidence at the end of fact discovery. At that time, plaintiffs will be better positioned to tell the Court what might have been lost in the Chat communications.”

Google uses an internal chat system which automatically deletes all communications on a 24 hour cycle. The court found that Google had an obligation to take steps to preserve those chats and to disclose to the plaintiffs that such chats existed, not wait until they were asked about it. As such, internal staff chats since the antitrust suit was brought, were automatically wiped by the Google system. Google did not reveal the Chat practices to plaintiffs until October 2021, many months after plaintiffs first asked about them. The deleted Chats “cannot be restored or replaced through additional discovery.”

“The parties do not dispute that Google bore that duty as of August 2020, when the first constituent lawsuit in the MDL was filed by Epic Games.

At the heart of this dispute is a simple question: did Google do the right thing with respect to preserving Chat communications in this case? There is no doubt that Google was perfectly free to set up an internal IM service with any retention period of its choosing for employees to use for whatever purposes they liked. The overall propriety of Chat is not in issue here.

What matters is how Google responded after the lawsuits were filed, and whether it honored the evidence preservation duties it was abundantly familiar with from countless prior cases,” the sanction ruling stated.

The record establishes that Google fell strikingly short on that score. Several aspects of Google’s conduct are troubling…..the duty to preserve relevant evidence is an unqualified obligation in all cases. The Court’s Standing Order for Civil Cases expressly spells out the expectation that “as soon as any party reasonably anticipates or knows of litigation, it will take the necessary, affirmative steps to preserve evidence related to the issues presented by the action, including, without limitation, interdiction of any document destruction programs and any ongoing erasures of e-mails, voice mails, and other electronically-recorded material.

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/court-sanctions-google-destruction-chat-communications-after-lawsuit

Musk reveals part of Twitter’s algorithm

The SpaceX and Tesla chief has implemented wide-ranging changes to the platform since purchasing it last year

Twitter chief Elon Musk has provided users with a glimpse behind the scenes of Twitter’s content distribution algorithm, as the social network’s owner and CEO seeks to increase transparency in the social network.

In a blog post published on Friday, Twitter announced that it had released large swathes of the product’s source to the Github code-sharing platform, saying that under its role as the “town square of the internet” it has a responsibility towards open transparency. This includes revealing the code for the recommendations algorithm which determines what users see on their personal feeds.

The move follows scrutiny from users and politicians alike about the type of content that social networks like Twitter deliver to their user base. It will also allow programmers opportunities to suggest improvements.

In a Friday tweet, Musk wrote that the release of Twitter’s source code will allow third parties “to determine, with reasonable accuracy, what will probably be shown to users.”

“No doubt, many embarrassing issues will be discovered, but we will fix them fast!” he added.

However, some of Twitter’s more sensitive arrays of code will remain private – such as the algorithms which determine how advertisements are served to users, as well as code which serves user privacy and which prevents the distribution of child sexual imagery on the website.

Sections of Twitter’s code were leaked to Github last week but were subsequently removed at the request of the social media giant. In a legal filing, Twitter petitioned the US District Court for the Northern District of California to order Github to disclose “all identifying information” on the user account which posted the leaked code. Source code to web platforms such as Twitter is considered to be intellectual property and could lead to charges of criminal copyright infringement.

Musk purchased Twitter in a $44 billion deal last October. Under his leadership, Twitter has implemented several changes such as the introduction of paid verification status. ‘Legacy verification’, which was previously free to high profile users to distinguish them from fraudulent or satirical accounts, is set to be removed on Saturday. Instead, users who request a blue check verification will be required to pay a monthly subscription.

https://www.rt.com/news/573969-tech-musk-releases-twitter-code/

From WWI to the Ukraine conflict, war propaganda evolves, but never changes

Lionizing your own side and demonizing the enemy has been as important as battlefield victories

By Matthieu Buge, who worked on Russia for the magazine l’Histoire, the Russian film magazine Séance, and as a columnist for Le Courrier de Russie. He is the author of the book Le Cauchemar russe ('The Russian Nightmare').

Since the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Western spin-doctors have been busy. But despite the rapid technological progress that changed the world over the last decades, the principles of war propaganda remain the same.

Thomas Hobbes, the 17th century English philosopher, considered war as the natural state of mankind. His 20th century counterpart, Carl Schmitt, explained that war is the utmost political action. Consequently, just as with any policy, war has to be the subject of intense propaganda from all sides of a conflict. War propaganda, however, is something quite recent in human history. War always had to be justified in some way, but the appearance of photography, modern communications technology and mass media meant it has become an essential part of warfare.

The birth and fate of war propaganda

The first modern coverage by a journalist of an armed conflict is usually considered to be William Howard Russell’s work during the Crimean war of 1852-1855. However, politicians and armies started to really take the impact of journalism on populations into consideration only with the Boer war, fought between the British Empire and Dutch-speaking republics of southern Africa in 1899-1902.

The British government faced a lack of support at home and a propaganda strategy from the Boers, who internationally directed their newspapers and agents in the hope of gaining foreign support. A war-time propaganda strategy had to be, and was, elaborated.

As Kenneth O. Morgan, from Queen’s college, Oxford, puts it: “The consequences of the Boer War on the media and its representation of war were inevitably massive […] The media coverage did have an important effect in helping to stimulate anti-war sentiment in the later stages of the war."

Democracies such as France and the UK even began to work closely together during the First World War. During the 1920s and ‘30s, they elaborated various strategies, including radio programs and air-dropped propaganda leaflets, in order to have the enemy population revolt against its leaders or at least develop anti-war sentiments. However, during a conflict, internal stability and unity are essential, and as such war propaganda has to focus mainly on domestic publics.

In a 1944 text entitled ‘What is propaganda?’ (available on the site of the American Historical Association), Professor Ralph D. Casey drew a quite surprising conclusion:

https://www.rt.com/news/573441-war-propaganda-wwi-ukraine/