Zelensky and team stole at least $400 million of Western aid – Seymour Hersh

Corruption in Ukraine may be on par with what was seen in Afghanistan, the investigative journalist claimed

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his senior officials are skimming American taxpayer dollars by the hundreds of millions, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed on Wednesday. The alleged grift even includes schemes involving trade with Russia itself.

Zelensky and his entourage embezzled at least $400 million from US funds meant for diesel procurement last year, Hersh claimed in a new article on Substack, citing a CIA estimate.

Meanwhile, Kiev has allegedly been buying diesel fuel, which is essential for the war effort, from Russia itself – and in the process skimming large sums of US funds earmarked for diesel payments.

Reports had earlier surfaced about how oil products originating in Russia had made their way to Ukraine through Bulgaria and Latvia. The scheme involving the Baltic state, which was reported in detail by the Latvian television program Neka Personiga, may have violated the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions.

An expert cited by Hersh compared the level of corruption in Ukrainian procurement to what was seen in Afghanistan, when a US-backed government was in charge in Kabul. According to his sources, ministries in Kiev compete to set up front firms in order to export weapons and ammunition, with the relevant officials profiting from kickbacks. The US government , meanwhile, has stated that it has seen no evidence of Western-supplied weapons in Ukraine being diverted elsewhere.

Hersh cited an intelligence source who referred to the January meeting between Zelensky and CIA Director William Burns. The US official allegedly presented a list of 35 generals and ministers known to the CIA to be corrupt. Senior Ukrainian officials also complained that Zelensky “was taking a larger share of the skim money than was going to the generals,” the source explained, comparing the meeting to a scene from a 1950s mob movie.

Hersh contends that the Ukrainian leader’s response was to fire staff from the Cabinet of Ministers, regional administrations, and other parts of the Ukrainian government. Kiev claimed the move was part of its anti-corruption strategy. Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov, who became mired in a scandal over purchases of overpriced food for troops, was widely expected to be sacked at the time, but he survived the purge.

Hersh’s sources blamed Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for the ongoing crisis in the US government, which allegedly suffers from discord between the White House and intelligence community. The two top foreign policy officials have shown “strident ideology and lack of political skill” over the Ukraine conflict, according to the sources.

https://www.rt.com/russia/574604-ukraine-zelensky-corruptlin-hersh/

>>18684113

Origin sauce

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/trading-with-the-enemy

Several Top Big Tech Firms Lay Off Thousands While Hiring Thousands of Foreigners

Big Tech is taking a beating, or at least we’d think they were, based on the lay offs announced by firms like Amazon, Meta (Facebook), and others. The Gateway Pundit has reported on these “unprecedented” layoffs over the last several months. The explosive growth these firms experienced during the “lockdowns” while small businesses were getting crushed apparently wasn’t sustainable. Fox Business reported back in April 2021 that there were 200,000+ excess business closures over the historic average.

However, a new study by the Economic Policy Institute reveals a shocking disservice to those who were laid off and a different narrative regarding “growth sustainability”: in 2022 and early 2023, the top H-1B employers have laid off or plan to lay off over 85,000 employees while consecutively hiring or planning to hire 34,000 new H-1B workers. The H-1B visa is used to hire specialty employees that meet educational requirements to work in a particular specialized field. The data EPI used does not specify if the laid off employees were H-1B visa recipients of American citizens.

According to the EPI’s report, “thirteen of the top 30 H-1B employers were outsourcing firms that underpay migrant workers and offshore U.S. jobs to countries where labor costs are much lower.”

Some notable firms mentioned in the EPI report:

Amazon laid off 27,150 employees in 2022 and 2023 Q1 while hiring 6,396 H-1B applicants

Google laid off 12,000 employees while hiring 1,562 H-1B applicants

IBM laid off 3,900 employees while hiring 1,239 H-1B applicants

Meta laid off 21,000 employees while hiring 1,546 H-1B applicants

Intel laid off 544 while hiring 877

Goldman Sachs laid off 3,200 employees while hiring 529 H-1B applicants

The EPI laid out “essential reforms” that should be implemented to protect American jobs and make employing Americans competitive again:

In the remainder of his term, President Biden should implement these essential reforms to restore integrity and fairness to the H-1B program:

Fix the outsourcing loophole by issuing policy guidance from DOL that requires secondary employers of H-1B workers (the companies that hire outsourcing firms to provide contract workers) to file labor condition applications. Guidance to require this was recently considered but never finalized, which would have prevented firms like Disney from replacing their U.S. employees with contracted H-1B workers.

Implement DOL’s delayed H-1B prevailing wage methodology rule, so that H-1B workers are paid a fair wage and employers are prevented from undercutting U.S. wage standards. The rule currently appears on the White House’s regulatory agenda but it is unclear whether a rule will ever be proposed.

Issue an updated version of USCIS’s H-1B visa allocation rule, which would distribute H-1B visas by wage level rather than random lottery. A rule like this would ensure that the highest-skilled H-1B workers are awarded visas and it also has bipartisan support.

Direct the Wage and Hour Division to enforce the requirement in the H-1B labor condition application for employers to pay the “actual wage” rate they pay to other employees with similar experience and qualifications. Particular attention should initially be focused on firms that continue to hire large numbers of H-1B workers after conducting mass layoffs.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/several-top-big-tech-firms-lay-off-thousands-while-hiring-thousands-of-foreigners/

"You Just Lied!": Elon Crushes BBC Reporter's Claims About 'Hate Speech' On Twitter

Less than a week after Twitter labeled the BBC "government funded media," owner Elon Musk gave an impromptu interview to the news agency on Tuesday evening at Twitter HQ, where he discussed topics ranging from layoffs, to misinformation, to his work habits, to the fact that most of the advertisers who left in a huff have now returned or said they will.

But who cares about most of that. Elon totally crushed the BBC reporter, James Clayton, by calling him out over the nanny state's favorite straw man - 'hate speech,' and then trying to get Clayton to admit he likes large black penises.

When asked why there's 'so much more hate speech on Twitter' since he took over, Musk pushed back - challenging Clayton to provide a single example. Clayton couldn't. Then says '

"You said you've seen more hateful content but you can't name a single example. Not even one."

To which Clayton replied: "I'm not sure I've used that feed for the last three or four weeks and I –"

"Then how could you see the hateful content? .. I'm asking for one example. You can't give a single one." Musk interjected. "Then I say sir that you don't know what you're talking about … because you can't give a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet. And yet, you claimed that the hateful content was high. That's false. You just lied!"

Clayton then points to "many organizations that say that that kind of information is on the rise."

"Give me one example!" says Musk.

Musk then amplified a discussion posted by Twitter user @KaneokaTheGreat, in which David Sacks explains how the establishment 'uses hate speech as a red herring to mask their true intention of exerting political censorship and controlling the narrative.'

"What the left has wanted to do since @elonmusk took over Twitter is to say that this is about allowing more hate on the platform, and that has never been the motivation for those of us who care about free speech… What is our main concern about censorship? It is political suppression. It's about narrative control.

"It's not like we want more hate on the platform. We want a level playing field. We don't want the thought police at Twitter putting their thumb on the scale of American democracy and deciding who has a voice and who doesn't. That's what this is really about. The people who believe in censorship want to make you think that this is about allowing more hate, and it's not."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/you-just-lied-elon-crushes-bbc-reporters-claims-about-hate-speech-twitter

Mass Casualty Incident Declared After Explosion at Dairy Farm in Dimmitt, Texas – Nearly 20,000 Cattle Die

A large explosion and fire broke out at South Fork Dairy in Dimmitt, Texas on Monday night.

The cause is still unknown. Reports say the explosion engulfed multiple structures.

The smoke from the explosion could be seen from as much as 80 miles away.

According to Texas authorities, more than 18,000 cattle died during the explosion.

“There’s some that survived, there’s some that are probably injured to the point where they’ll have to be destroyed,” according to Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/mass-casualty-incident-declared-after-explosion-at-dairy-farm-in-dimmitt-texas-nearly-20000-cattle-die-video/

Truck Carrying Toxic Soil From East Palestine Overturns, Dumping Contents Just Miles From Town

East Palestine, Ohio just can’t catch a break.

Weeks after a train derailment and ‘controlled burn’ of the toxic spill poisoned the air and water in the town, a truck carrying the toxic soil away from the site overturned, dumping its contents just miles away.

Authorities are claiming that the spill was contained.

Breitbart News reports:

Truck Carrying Toxic Soil from East Palestine Overturns, Dumps Contents into Environment

A truck carrying toxic soil from the February 3 train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, overturned four miles north of the derailment site and dumped approximately 20,000 pounds of soil into the environment on Monday.

A commercial tractor-trailer carrying 40,000 pounds of contaminated soil from the site of the East Palestine train derailment was involved in a crash just four miles from the small town, according to a report by WKBN.

The driver reportedly suffered minor injuries from the collision, and was cited for operating a vehicle without reasonable control.

His tractor-trailer had gone off the side of the road, hit a ditch and utility pole, and overturned onto its side. The Highway Patrol estimated that roughly 20,000 pounds of soil was spilled onto the road and berm.

The local fire department and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were called to the scene. The Ohio EPA claimed the spill was contained, and that it is not a threat to nearby waterways.

The roads where the crash took place were closed by the Ohio Department of Transportation, but were later reopened.

https://youtu.be/roAWsNOgTyA

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/truck-carrying-toxic-soil-from-east-palestine-overturns-dumping-contents-just-miles-from-town/

'Special' service: Declassified Guantanamo court filing suggests some 9/11 hijackers were CIA agents

What does the intelligence agency have to do with the suicide terrorist attack?

An explosive court filing from the Guantanamo Military Commission – a court considering the cases of defendants accused of carrying out the "9/11" terrorist attacks on New York – has seemingly confirmed the unthinkable.

The document was originally published via a Guantanamo Bay court docket, but while public, it was completely redacted. Independent researchers obtained an unexpurgated copy. It is an account by the Commission’s lead investigator, DEA veteran Don Canestraro, of his personal probe of potential Saudi government involvement in the 9/11 attacks, conducted at the request of the defendants’ lawyers.

Two of the hijackers were being closely monitored by the CIA and may, wittingly or not, have been recruited by Langley long before they flew planes into the World Trade Center buildings.

The story of two men

Of the great many enduring mysteries of the 9/11 attacks still unresolved over two decades later, perhaps the biggest and gravest relate to the activities of Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar in the 18 months leading up to that fateful day. The pair traveled to the US on multi-entry visas in January 2000, despite having repeatedly been flagged by the CIA and NSA previously as likely Al Qaeda terrorists.

Mere days before their arrival, they attended an Al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, during which key details of the 9/11 attacks are likely to have been discussed and agreed. The meeting was secretly photographed and videotaped by Malaysian authorities at the direct request of the CIA’s Alec Station, a special unit set up to track Osama bin Laden, although oddly, no audio was captured.

Still, this background should’ve been sufficient to prevent Hazmi and Midhar from entering the US – or at least enough for the FBI to be informed of their presence in the country. As it was, they were admitted for a six-month period at Los Angeles International airport without incident, and Bureau representatives within Alec Station were blocked from sharing this information with their superiors by the CIA.

“We’ve got to tell the Bureau about this. These guys clearly are bad. One of them, at least, has a multiple-entry visa to the US. We've got to tell the FBI,” Mark Rossini, a member of Alec Station, has recalled discussing with his colleagues. “[But the CIA] said to me, ‘No, it’s not the FBI’s case, not the FBI’s jurisdiction.’”

https://www.floridabulldog.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Canestraro-Declaration-dated-20-July-2021.pdf

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/columnists/mike-kelly/2022/03/13/sept-11-fbi-links-saudi-arabia-spy-attacks/9442454002/

https://www.newsweek.com/saudi-money-trail-140813

https://www.justiceinitiative.org/voices/denmark-cia-and-killing-anwar-al-awlaki

Trump & Mike Gill - How To Make The Change With A Few Good Goy & Jews

Florida Lawmakers Poised to Pass Law Allowing Death Penalty for Ped*philes

Florida lawmakers appear poised to pass legislation allowing the death penalty for pedophiles.

If passed, pedophiles could be sent to death if they commit sexual battery on a child under age 12.

According to a report from CBS News, “the House is scheduled Thursday to take up its version of the bill (HB 1297), while the Senate version (SB 1342) was approved Tuesday by the Rules Committee, positioning it to go to the full Senate.”

The Supreme Court has previously ruled that imposing capital punishment in rape cases is unconstitutional, but that may change with the new justices.

There has not been an execution for a crime that did not include murder in the United States since 1964.

After the bill passed the Rules Committee, Senate bill sponsor Jonathan Martin, a former prosecutor, said, “if an individual rapes an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 2-year-old or a 5-year-old, they should be subject to the death penalty.”

Aaron Wayt, who represented the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers at the meeting, defended pedophiles against the death penalty under the guise of caring about victims.

“This bill invites a longer, costlier (legal) process for the victim and their family that they will endure,” Wayt said, according to the CBS report. “While this crime, anyone convicted of it is vile, heinous, the Constitution itself, the case law, the Supreme Court demands a maximum of life in prison. And so while it’s not the vengeance we all want, it’s the justice that the Constitution demands.”

Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, a Democrat and victim of child sex abuse, appeared to support the bill.

“This is a life sentence that is handed down to young children,” Book said. “We’re talking about the youngest of the young in this bill. I was one of those kids. I still to this day at … 38 years old deal with the very, very real lasting effects of this crime. It never goes away. Sometimes you close your eyes and you see it. I don’t get a chance to make it stop.”

The CBS report explains, “Under the bills, defendants could receive death sentences based on the recommendations of at least eight of 12 jurors. Judges would have discretion to impose the death penalty or sentence defendants to life in prison. If fewer than eight jurors recommend death, defendants would receive life sentences.”

“Currently, unanimous jury recommendations are required before judges can impose the death penalty in murder cases. But lawmakers also are poised to change that requirement to allow death sentences after recommendations from eight of 12 jurors. The Senate has already passed such a change, and the House will take it up Thursday.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/florida-lawmakers-poised-to-pass-law-allowing-death-penalty-for-pedophiles/

Far-Left NGO ‘Democracy Fund’ Financed Efforts to Certify “Non-Voting Technology” and Use It to Monitor Elections on a Real-Time Basis

ALBERT SENSORS AND FAUX-CERTIFICATION OF NON-VOTING TECHNOLOGY INTIMATELY TIED WITH LEFTIST NGO

Guest post from the Editor of the Estancia News, David Clements, and Erin Clements

This morning we broke the story that tied the monitoring of elections to a massive censorship scheme, previously uncovered, in part, by the US House of Representatives:

The Department of Homeland Security’s private partner, Center for Internet Security (CIS), installed “Albert Sensors” all over the United States to monitor real-time data in election jurisdictions down to the county level. The program was present in only a handful of states in 2016, but was massively expanded after Donald Trump’s 2016 upset victory over Hilary Clinton.

While Albert Sensors quickly proliferated across the United States’ election infrastructure, CIS worked with left-wing NGOs, election officials, and Twitter, to set up a powerful censorship operation to squash all discussion of irregularities and fraud observed in the 2020 election.

What a coincidence.

Not only is CIS in the monitoring and censorship business, but they also piloted a faux-certification program called RABET-V—where they hired the owner of an electronic ballot delivery company to lead an effort to conclude that the nation’s “non-voting technology” (i.e. electronic pollbooks, election night reporting, etc.)—are “safe and secure.”

After the story broke this morning – a Twitter user reached out with a screenshot from this document about the RABET-V program published last month by CIS.

The tweet highlighted the fact that the Democracy Fund, a radical leftist NGO, provided the funding for the RABET-V program. The tweet was censored to “limited visibility” within hours.

Excerpt from CIS’s “RABET-V Final Pilot Summary and Next Steps”

The RABET-V pilot technology partners include Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S), Runbeck, KnowINK (owner of BPro), and VR Systems. The state of South Carolina donated its voter registration system to the project. All these companies have been highlighted by election integrity investigators and independent auditors as having major issues with their software and credibility with the public at large.

The team who developed and administered the RABET-V program had two representatives from CIS and the rest were from a shadow election consultant company called “The Turnout.”

Information on The Turnout is truncated on their website, but here’s a description of what The Turnout does in their own words: “Together with our clients, we’ve helped governments perform security self-assessments and upgrade their cybersecurity, visualize, and analyze their processes, and standardize and validate their elections data. Our projects range from data analysis and policy research to technology development, project administration, business process modeling, marketing, and more.”

Reading The Turnout’s “Articles” collection on their website reveals their biases. One article titled, “Reflecting on the 2020 Elections,” begins with Senior Policy Specialist stating that the 2020 elections were “the best-administered and most secure in United States history.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/exclusive-far-left-ngo-democracy-fund-funded-effort-to-certify-non-voting-technology-and-use-it-to-monitor-elections-on-a-real-time-basis/

Trump Accuses Macron of Pandering to China Following Taiwan Remarks

Former President Donald Trump has accused Emmanuel Macron of pandering to Beijing after the French president’s high-profile trip to the country.

“You’ve got this crazy world that’s blowing up and the United States has absolutely no say. And Macron, who’s a friend of mine, is over with China kissing his ass,” Trump, who during his administration hardened the U.S. stance on China, said in an interview with Fox News late on April 11.

The French leader has sparked anger for calling on the European Union to reduce dependence on the United States and avoid getting involved in a confrontation over self-ruled Taiwan, which China’s communist party has long sought to take over.

“The question asked of us Europeans is the following: is it in our interest for there to be acceleration on the topic of Taiwan? No. The worst thing we Europeans could do would be to be followers on this topic and to adapt to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction,” he said in a French media interview on Sunday at the end of his three-day trip. “Why should we go at a rhythm chosen by someone else?”

“We, Europeans, must wake up. Our priority is not others’ agendas in all regions of the world,” he said.

Backlash over Macron’s comments has snowballed over the past few days.

“French President Macron’s comments are disheartening because the CCP’s threat to Taiwan is a growing danger to the global balance of power,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who recently led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan, told The Epoch Times.

https://www.ntd.com/trump-accuses-macron-of-pandering-to-china-following-taiwan-remarks_912898.html

Meloni Govt Declares State of Emergency as Italy Sees Illegal Boat Migration Quadruple

Italy’s right-wing government on Tuesday declared a six-month national state of emergency to help it cope with a surge in migrants arriving on the country’s southern shores.

State TV said a special commissioner was expected to be named. Initial funding of 5 million euros (nearly $5.5 million) was also approved as part of the measure approved by Premier Giorgia Meloni and her Cabinet.

In a statement after the Cabinet meeting, the government said the state of emergency was deemed necessary “to carry out with urgency extraordinary measures to reduce congestion” at an overwhelmed migrant shelter on a tiny Italian island in the Mediterranean.

Also needed are “new structures, suitable both for sheltering as well as the processing and repatriation of migrants who don’t have the requisites to stay” in Italy, the government statement said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Italy’s governing coalitions also imposed a state of emergency, enabling the Cabinet to mandate many coping measures by decree, temporarily bypassing the usually long parliamentary process for funding and regulations.

“Let’s be clear, this doesn’t resolve the problem, whose solution is tied to a mindful and responsible intervention of the European Union,” Civil Protection and Sea Policies Minister Nello Musumeci was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency ANSA.

Largely unsuccessfully, Meloni’s government, like several others before, has pressed for more solidarity from fellow EU countries, which often don’t make good on pledges to accept some of the asylum-seekers hoping to find relatives or work in northern Europe.

Since the start of this year, some 31,000 migrants, either rescued by Italian military boats or charity ships or reaching Italy without assistance, have disembarked, according to Interior Ministry figures. That’s nearly four times the roughly 8,000 for the same period in each of the two previous years.

The arrivals of migrants, who set out in unseaworthy vessels launched by smugglers from northern African shores, seem destined to swell. Early on Wednesday, a smugglers’ boat, crowded with some 700 passengers, was expected to pull into the port of Catania, a major city in eastern Sicily.

Italian coast guard boats had been escorting the distressed fishing vessel toward shore when a breakdown forced it to need towing, slowing its advance. The coast guard had already transferred some 100 of the passengers when rough seas made that operation too risky, and the decision was taken to leave the rest of the migrants aboard until the vessel could reach port.

On one recent day alone, 26 migrant boats, many of them without needing rescue, reached the Lampedusa, a tiny Italian island south of Sicily. The facility on Lampedusa which shelters migrants so they can be provisionally identified as a first step toward any asylum application, was reeling under the relentless stream of arrivals.

The shelter is meant to accommodate about 350-400 people, but in recent days, there were 3,000. Italy chartered empty commercial ferries to transfer hundreds of them to Sicily or the mainland.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/12/meloni-govt-declares-state-of-emergency-as-italy-sees-illegal-boat-migration-quadruple/

Underage Transgender Top Surgery ‘Before And After’ Pictures Reportedly Removed By North Carolina Clinic

Uncensored “before and after” pictures of transgender top surgeries performed on underage girls have reportedly been removed from a North Carolina cosmetic surgery clinic’s website.

Screenshots disseminated Saturday on Twitter show preoperative and postoperative photographs of young people who identify as transgender and had their breasts removed at The Cosmetic Concierge in Charlotte, according to Reduxx.

The clinic removed three photographs of bare-chested minors from its website’s gallery, but an archived “before and after” page dated Jan. 22 appears to show that images of a 14-year-old, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old were once accessible.

Twitter user @SherriBissel captured the screenshots, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales posted them to Twitter.

Patient #4982 is described as a 16-year-old who underwent “[Female-to-Male] Chest Reconstruction with Peri-Areolar (Keyhole) Incisions.” Patient #1980 is a 15-year-old who received a “Double Incision with Nipple Grafts.” Patient # 1934 is a 14-year-old shown six months after “FTM Chest Reconstruction with Peri-Areolar (Keyhole) Incisions.”

All three patients were listed as “male.”

The original images reportedly showed the naked breasts of all three underage biological females.

The Charlotte clinic’s FAQ says that it only performs gender-affirming top surgeries on minors with parental consent.

“When considering gender confirming procedures for patients under the age of 18, we do require the consent of a parent or guardian along with the recommendation of a therapist,” the clinic said.

The Cosmetic Concierge made its Instagram and Twitter accounts private after the screenshots circulated on social media. The clinic’s Pinterest and YouTube accounts remain publicly accessible.

Dr. Hope Sherie is the surgeon specializing in sex-change procedures at The Cosmetic Concierge, specifically for women identifying as men. She has sponsored Point of Pride, a non-profit providing financial assistance and free chest binders to transgender youth.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/12/underage-transgender-top-surgery-before-and-after-pictures-reportedly-removed-by-north-carolina-clinic/

Report: Child Sex Trade is Flourishing in Southern Mexican State

A southern state in Mexico known for its Caribbean beaches and its ancient pyramids is seeing a dramatic rise in the sex trade involving young children. Government officials appear to be doing little to address the issue.

The rise in child trafficking cases is taking place in the state of Yucatan, Mexico’s NotiCaribe reported. In their article, the news outlet quoted Maria Ocana Dorantes, the head of a non-governmental organization called Casa Crisal which acts as a rescue shelter for abused children.

According to Ocana Dorantes, Yucatan has a long history of being used for the sex trade both by foreigners and locals and her organization works to provide psychological help to the survivors of those abuses.

In some cases, a child is brought into sexual slavery for as little as $30,000 pesos or $1,500, the activist claimed. So far in 2023, Casa Crisal had helped three victims of sex trafficking. In 2022, her group dealt with 19 cases where one of the victims was as young as eight months old.

Ocana Dorantes claims that the community is her biggest ally because, through their awareness and their pressure, the organization forced the government into action –something that otherwise would go unreported and unanswered.

The most recent case in Yucatan took place last month when the state’s attorney general’s office arrested 34-year-old Sofia Nidia “P” on sexual exploitation charges for prostituting multiple girls including her 13-year-old daughter at a motel in Yucatan.

During a presentation in 2022, Ocana Dorantes claimed that the sexual abuse of children has become normalized in Yucatan, La Jornada Maya reported. According to the activist, women and children often follow outdated cultural guidelines where they accept the abuse as normal, and oftentimes authorities are unable to act because the victim’s parents refuse to file a complaint with authorities.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/04/12/report-child-sex-trade-is-flourishing-in-southern-mexican-state/

Federal Government Borrowing Astronomical $6 Billion Per Day

The U.S. Congressional Budget Office said Monday the federal government has accumulated more than a trillion dollars in debt only six months into the fiscal year.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a report pointing out that those figures amount to an average of $6 billion per day so far in fiscal year 2023.

“Our fiscal challenges will only become more difficult the longer we wait to do anything,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the CRFB. “In just five years, the national debt will surpass its record as a share of the economy – set just after World War II, when we had no choice but to borrow to win the war. However, we’re in no such emergency now. It’s long past time that policymakers figure out a way to sustainably finance their priorities, not just add the costs to the national credit card.”

The data figures come as Republicans and Democrats approach a deadline to raise the debt ceiling or face defaulting on the national debt, an unprecedented event that would have huge ramifications for the U.S. and global economy.

Republicans have pointed to those figures as proof of the need for spending cuts.

President Joe Biden, though, has shown no interest in negotiating. Democrats argue the fiscal deadline is too risky to play with in negotiations.

The CRFB said if nothing changes, the annual deficit will hit $3 trillion by the end of this decade.

“That amount of borrowing outside of a national emergency is plainly unacceptable,” MacGuineas said. “Budgeting requires tradeoffs – often painful ones that politicians don’t want to grapple with. However, that is what they were elected to do, and they should consider the needs of both current and future Americans in upcoming fiscal negotiations. We simply cannot afford to ignore our unsustainable borrowing any longer.”

https://thepoliticalinsider.com/federal-government-borrowing-astronomical-6-billion-per-day/?utm_campaign=TPI04122023PMLB

US Working on 'Universal' Genetically Engineered Bioweapon: Russian Parliamentary Investigation

Russian lawmakers have completed an investigation into Washington's military-related biological activities at laboratories across Ukraine on the basis of findings made public by Russia's Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops over the past year.

Washington is working on a "universal" genetically engineered bioweapon designed to cause severe damage to enemies comparable to that of a "nuclear winter," a Russian parliamentary commission investigating US biolabs in Ukraine has concluded.

"The United States aims to develop a universal genetically engineered biological weapon capable of infecting not only people, but animals as well as agricultural crops. Its use involves, among other things, the goal of inflicting large-scale and irreparable economic damage on the enemy," the commission wrote in its final report.

"The covert and targeted use of such a weapon in anticipation of a positive inevitable direct military confrontation could create a significant advantage for US forces over the adversary, even against those who possess other types of weapons of mass destruction," the commission added. "The possession of such highly effective biological weapons creates, in the view of the US military, the real prerequisites to change the nature of contemporary armed conflicts."

The commission report indicated that unfortunately, contemporary scientific advancements in the fields of genetic engineering, biotechnology, toxicology and synthetic biology have increased the possibility of their use to create advanced biological weapons agents of a new generation - at the same time that detecting and identifying their use using traditional diagnosis tools has become extremely difficult. "The situation is aggravated by the fact that the production of such biological agents can easily be dispersed over various industrial enterprises, disguising them as products used for peaceful purposes," the document noted.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230412/us-working-on-universal-genetically-engineered-bioweapon-russian-parliamentary-investigation-1109381193.html

http://duma.gov.ru/media/files/yAyvTotA3CCDYVpDmjA4mfOIl8jAEc8R.pdf

Hillel Silverman, Dallas rabbi whose congregant killed JFK’s assassin, dies at 99

Silverman was spiritual leader of Shearith Israel from 1954 to 1964; Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner with links to the Mafia who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, was one of his congregants

“If you want to know about my brother, Jack Ruby, you should talk to Hillel Silverman. He was our rabbi in Dallas for 10 years before President Kennedy’s assassination, and he knew Jack very well.”

It was 1976, and I had convinced Eva Rubenstein Grant — a loud woman with an even louder red wig — to appear on an ABC program to speak about her brother, who fatally shot John F. Kennedy’s alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live television 13 years earlier.

It was years, however, before I was able to speak to Rabbi Silverman, for a TV program I was producing about the JFK assassination. Our conversation in 1991 was the first of several chats we had about Ruby (and other topics) and the glancing role Silverman played in the national trauma surrounding the president’s murder. He was one of the last surviving witnesses who testified in 1964 before the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination.

The Kennedy assassination was a relatively minor aspect of a 70-year career in the rabbinate, during which Silverman served as the founding rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, and then as the senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles for 16 years, among other pulpits.

Silverman, the son of a prominent Conservative rabbi, died in Los Angeles this week of pneumonia at the age of 99. It was one month after he celebrated his birthday — and the birth of a great-grandson and the upcoming wedding of a grandchild — at Valley Beth Shalom in Los Angeles, where in his last official role he served as a visiting scholar.

Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, who is being escorted by Dallas police detective Jim Leavelle (left), November 24, 1963 (Robert H. Jackson / Wikipedia)

JTA — “If you want to know about my brother, Jack Ruby, you should talk to Hillel Silverman. He was our rabbi in Dallas for 10 years before President Kennedy’s assassination, and he knew Jack very well.”

It was 1976, and I had convinced Eva Rubenstein Grant — a loud woman with an even louder red wig — to appear on an ABC program to speak about her brother, who fatally shot John F. Kennedy’s alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on live television 13 years earlier.

It was years, however, before I was able to speak to Rabbi Silverman, for a TV program I was producing about the JFK assassination. Our conversation in 1991 was the first of several chats we had about Ruby (and other topics) and the glancing role Silverman played in the national trauma surrounding the president’s murder. He was one of the last surviving witnesses who testified in 1964 before the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination.

Haviv Rettig Gur and David Horovitz on the judicial overhaul - ToI Community webinar

The Kennedy assassination was a relatively minor aspect of a 70-year career in the rabbinate, during which Silverman served as the founding rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, and then as the senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles for 16 years, among other pulpits.

Silverman, the son of a prominent Conservative rabbi, died in Los Angeles this week of pneumonia at the age of 99. It was one month after he celebrated his birthday — and the birth of a great-grandson and the upcoming wedding of a grandchild — at Valley Beth Shalom in Los Angeles, where in his last official role he served as a visiting scholar.

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Silverman was spiritual leader of Shearith Israel in Dallas from 1954 to 1964; Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner with links to the Mafia, was one of his congregants. Silverman told me in 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy and Oswald murders, that Ruby would attend services to say Kaddish, the memorial prayer, for his father.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hillel-silverman-dallas-rabbi-whose-congregant-killed-jfks-assassin-dies-at-99/

Project Icebreaker: The Beginning Of A One World Digital Currency System?

There has been extensive discussion in the past couple of years within alternative media circles about the dangers of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs); a currency framework very similar to blockchain based products like Bitcoin but directly controlled by central bankers. It’s a threat that some analysts including myself have been writing about for more than a decade, so it’s good to finally see the issue being addressed more in the mainstream.

The Orwellian nature of CBDCs cannot be overstated. In a cashless society most people would be dependent on digital products for exchanging goods and labor, and this would of course mean the end of all privacy in trade. Everything you buy or sell or work for in your life would be recorded, and this lack of anonymity could be used to stifle your freedoms in the future.

For example, say you like to eat steak regularly, but the increasingly authoritarian government decides to list red meat as a health risk and a “climate change risk” due to carbon emissions from cows. They determine by your purchase history (which they have full access to) that you have contributed more carbon pollution than most people by eating red meat often. They declare that you must pay a retroactive carbon tax on your past purchases of red meat. Not only that, but your insurance company sends you a letter indicating that you are a medical risk and they cut off your health coverage.

Products you consume and services you use can be tracked to create a psychological profile on you, which could then become a factor in determining your social credit score, just as CCP authorities do in China today. Maybe you refuse to purchase an annual mRNA booster shot, and the tracking algorithm makes a note of this. Now you are under suspicion for being “anti-vax” and your social credit score plummets, cutting you off from various public venues. Maybe you are even fired from your job.

In the worst case scenario, though, economic access is the greatest oppressive tool. With CBDCs in place and no physical cash in existence, your savings will never be truly yours and you’ll never be able to hold your purchasing power in your hands. The means of exchange would be bottle-necked by the banks, and governments would have the option to freeze your ability to transact. If one day you get angry about a particular government policy and openly call the system corrupt on social media, they can simply shut off your option to transfer your digital money to others until you submit, or die.

CBDCs give establishment officials the leverage to starve their political opponents with algorithmic precision. It would be a new world of technocratic oppression.

https://alt-market.us/project-icebreaker-the-beginning-of-a-one-world-digital-currency-system/

https://youtu.be/g4UaeWO_V6A

US bombs Syria’s Deir Ezzor after rocket attack targets occupation base

There is reportedly a coordinated Russian-Iranian decision to force Washington to withdraw from Syria

The US launched a number of airstrikes on Syria’s eastern city of Deir Ezzor on 11 April, targeting the areas of Hatla and Khasham, reports said.

The airstrikes came in response to a rocket attack the day before on the US occupation base in Deir Ezzor’s Conoco gas field.

“An ineffective rocket attack targeted coalition forces, at Mission Support Site Conoco, northeast Syria, today at 10:51 AM Eastern Standard Time (approximately 5:51 PM local time in Syria). One rocket struck the vicinity of the coalition outpost, and an additional rocket was found at the attack’s point of origin,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement.

“The attack resulted in no injuries or damage to the base or coalition property,” CENTCOM added.

However, sources told Al-Mayadeen news that the attack was “carried out with several rockets” and that “no information is available on the size of the losses inside” the base.

Around the same time as the attack, US forces shot down a drone believed to be Iranian, which fell in Al-Tabiyah village in Deir Ezzor’s eastern countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

This comes as part of a recent surge in attacks against US bases in Syria, which are attributed to groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

On 23 March, a drone strike targeted the US occupation base in northeastern Hasakah’s Kharab al-Jir military airport, killing a US contractor and injuring several other US servicemen. That evening, US warplanes struck Deir Ezzor, targeting the Syrian military and Iranian advisors.

On 24 March, the US strikes were responded to with yet another attack, targeting Washington’s base in the Al-Omar oilfield. Later that night, the Al-Omar base and another base were heavily targeted simultaneously in a daring and unexpected operation that resulted in further casualties among US troops.

These attacks have been on the rise and are increasing in frequency and intensity as a result of the continued illegal presence of US troops in the country – which consistently loot the country’s natural resources under the pretext of deterring ISIS.

According to a report released by Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar on 25 March, the attacks represent a coordinated Russian-Iranian decision to pressure Washington into withdrawing its military presence from the country.

As a result, Washington is bracing itself for further strikes against its forces in Syria. SOHR reported on 10 April that US troops in northeastern Hasakah have been reinforcing their bases with military and logistical supplies.

At the end of last month, a US military official vowed ‘harsh’ attacks against the IRGC in Syria.

https://thecradle.co/article-view/23537/us-bombs-syrias-deir-ezzor-after-rocket-attack-targets-occupation-base

Gunning for Conflict: Israel-Azerbaijan Collaboration Against Iran

In a bid to shift the region's balance of power, Israel has for years illicitly transported arms to Azerbaijan, impacting the latter's conflict with Armenia and creating a crisis with bordering Iran.

According to a 6 March investigation by Haaretz, Israeli weapons were being transported to the Azerbaijani military during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, which left thousands of civilians dead, wounded, and displaced.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the conflict, rooted in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region between Azerbaijan and Armenia, transformed into an open and bloody war, during which both sides faced sanctions and severe export restrictions from the US and Europe.

The revelation of Israeli arms exports to Azerbaijan has sparked controversy and criticism from Humans Rights Watch (HRW) because of the Azerbaijani military’s alleged human rights abuses, which include the use of banned cluster munitions and the targeting of civilian areas.

These revelations have also escalated tensions between Israel and Armenia. In the wake of the crisis, Yerevan recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv in 2020, and demanded that Israel cease all arms exports to Azerbaijan and adopt a neutral position in the conflict.

Flying in Israeli arms to Azerbaijan

According to the newly obtained documents, Azerbaijani cargo airline Silk Way Airlines has been landing at Israel’s Ovda airbase to transport explosives for around a decade. Israeli aviation law prohibits the routine transport of explosives from its more densely populated Ben-Gurion Airport, so in 2016, Silk Way was granted an exemption to continue landing at Ovda – with some of these flights reportedly using the official call sign of Azerbaijan’s defense ministry.

The revelation has also raised domestic concerns about potential dangers posed by the airline’s cargo, prompting Israeli authorities to launch an investigation into the airline’s regulatory compliance to safeguard the general public.

This comes after a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) disclosed that Silk Way allegedly made 350 secret flights between 2014 and 2017, illegally transporting hundreds of tons of weapons from Bulgaria to ISIS, Syria, and other regional states. The disclosure came to light after a reporter filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the US government in 2016.

The report also noted that Silk Way, which is owned by a company with past ties to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his family, has gained several lucrative contracts from the US military. Interestingly, the airline received $419.5 million in loans from the US Export-Import Bank to expand its fleet, purchasing three 747-8 cargo planes from Boeing to continue its operations, which have been described as “sinister.”

The Ex-Im Bank is a federal agency with the primary policy of supporting the acquisition of US-made products such as Boeing aircraft. However, the Azerbaijani airline has strongly denied the allegations that it operated hundreds of secret flights transporting weapons and has claimed that the report was the “result of an organized campaign of misinformation penned by geopolitically motivated authors.”

Despite the allegations, Silk Way has contractual relationships with several of the world’s biggest institutions, among them, the US military, Boeing and Boeing Global Services, the Canadian Department of National Defense, the German Armed Forces, the French Army, and the United Nations.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/gunning-conflict-israeli-azerbaijani-collaboration-against-iran/5815526

Bank records show millions in transaction between Hunter Biden, China firms: Sen. Johnson

Senator Johnson says the records show the Biden family was involved with the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson says the Chinese-American financial institution Cathay Bank has given Senate Republicans records showing millions of dollars going from Chinese companies to President Biden's son Hunter Biden.

Republicans and others started raising concerns during President Biden's successful 2020 White House campaign, if not earlier, that Hunter Biden used the family name and influence while his father was vice president to make millions in overseas business deals, which also could have compromised U.S. national security.

Johnson told The Washington Times the records show the Biden family involved with the now-defunct CEFC China Energy, which had connections to the Chinese Communist Party.

The firm gave $1 million to Hudson West III, which was a joint venture owned by Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong, who is a business associate of CEFC’s founder and chairman, Ye Jianming, reportedly according to the bank records.

"In my mind, it's the Chinese government telling Joe Biden, 'We got the goods on you, buddy. And we’re willing to dish it up,'" Johnson said.

The records provided by the bank also include those from the president's brother, James Biden.

Cathay Bank has offices in Los Angeles and China.

Johnson says the bank turned over the records to him and fellow GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa. Other banks have denied the senators' requests for the records.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/china-threatens-biden-revealing-hunter-bidens-bank-records-senate-republicans

Government confirms horrific figures on COVID Vaccine Deaths: 1 in 482 died within a month, 1 in 246 d died within 60 days, & 1 in 73 died by May 2022

The UK Government has published official figures on deaths following Covid-19 vaccination and they reveal that 1 in every 482 Covid-19 vaccinated people in England sadly died within one month of Covid-19 vaccination, 1 in every 246 Covid-19 vaccinated people in England sadly died within 60 days of Covid-19 vaccination, and 1 in every 73 Covid-19 vaccinated people were dead by May 2022.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK, and on the 6th July, they published a dataset containing a whole host of horrifying data on deaths by vaccination status in England between 1st Jan 2021 and 31st May 2022.

Table 9 of the dataset contains figures on ‘Whole period counts of all registered deaths grouped by how many weeks after vaccination the deaths occurred; for deaths involving COVID-19 and deaths not involving COVID-19, deaths occurring between 1 January 2021 and 31 May 2022, England’.

Here’s a snapshot of how the ONS presents the data –

https://expose-news.com/2023/04/12/government-confirms-horrific-figures-on-covid-vaccine-deaths/

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/deathsbyvaccinationstatusengland