4 Jul, 2023 19:11

World registers hottest-ever day

The average global temperature was above 17 degrees Celsius (62.62F) on Monday

The world registered its hottest ever day on Monday as temperatures surged across the globe, according to data released by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP).

The United States governmental body, which delivers national and global climate guidance and forecasts from its headquarters in Maryland, said on Tuesday that it recorded an averageglobal temperature of 17.01 degreesCelsius (62.62F) on Monday. This surpasses the previous high of 16.92 degrees Celsius (62.46F) from August 2016.

“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating,” climate scientist Friederike Otto said on Tuesday. “It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.” (Bullshit again!)

The warning comes as many southern US states remain in the grips of extreme heat in recent days. Corpus Christi, a city in Texas, registered a record temperature in June of 51 degrees Celsius (125F). Similar temperatures have also been recorded in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana.

China, meanwhile, has seen a prolonged heatwave, during which Beijing experienced almost ten days straight where temperatures exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95F). Some regions in North Africa recorded temperatures approaching 50 degrees Celsius (122F).

Even Antarctica, which is currently in its winter, recently experienced relatively balmy temperatures of 8.7 degrees Celsius (47.6F), breaking its July record.

Climate scientists have said that climate change, coupled with a strong El Nino warm-weather pattern, are responsible for the unusually high temperatures – and that there is more to come.

Zeke Hausfather, a researcher at the Berkeley Earth land temperature data analysis group, said in a statement to Reuters that the ongoing weather anomaly is “only the first in a series of new records this year.”

https://www.rt.com/news/579212-climate-world-hottest-day/

First Alert Weather: Storms possible for North Texas this Fourth of July

Story by Scott Padgett • 16h ago

NORTH TEXAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Monday marked another hot day in the books for North Texas with highs reaching 100 degrees.

Isolated strong-to-severe storms were also seen Monday. Outflow boundaries were in play and the most severe weather happened after 8 p.m.

More outflow boundaries helped storms build and train over the same area, and nearly five inches of rain fell between Little Elm to Prosper to Frisco—leading the National Weather Service to issue a Flash Flood Warning until 1 a.m….

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/first-alert-weather-storms-possible-for-north-texas-this-fourth-of-july/ar-AA1do6a4

4 Jul, 2023 18:09

Russia comments on grain deal extension

Moscow sees “no grounds” to prolong the deal, since it did not meet its original goals

Russia sees “no grounds” to prolong the Ukrainian grain deal past its July 17 deadline, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The UN-facilitated agreement, formally known as the Black Sea Initiative, hasfailed to meet its original goalsof steering graintowards poor nations, the ministry claimed. Instead, it has become a “purely commercial” schemethat ships produce to wealthy countries, whileRussian food and fertilizer exports remain blocked.

With the grain deal set to expire later this month, the collective West,Ukraine and even the UNitself haveramped up their “propaganda activities” on the matter, the ministry said in a statement.

“The arguments boil down to claims that, without Ukrainian fodder corn, theworld will die of starvation, while the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the West against Russia do not apply to food and fertilizers,” it noted.

In reality, the grain deal has become a “purely commercial” mechanism to export Ukrainian produce to “well-fed” countries instead of those experiencing food insecurity, the ministry continued. Some81% of produce shippedfrom Ukraine under the deal in the past year ended up in countrieswith “high and upper middle income levels,” it said, adding that theworld’s poorest countries, including Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia,accounted for only 2.6%.

Meanwhile, the situation regarding blocked Russian food and fertilizer exports “continues to degrade,” the ministry noted. The five“system” goals envisioned by the Russia-UN memorandum remain unmet.

They include allowing Russia’s major agricultural lender, Rosslekhozbank, back onto the SWIFT payments system, enabling deliveries of spare parts for agriculture machinery, reanimating the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, sorting out insurance and logistics, as well as“unfreezing” Russian assets. The first three goals are effectively “no longer on the agenda anymore,” while no tangible progress has been shown on the other two, the ministry said.

Against such a backdrop, Moscow sees “no grounds” to prolong the grain deal, the statement concluded. Originally signed on July 22, 2022 andintended to last three months, the deal was prolonged numerous times over the past year, despite growing concerns repeatedly voiced by Moscow over itsfailure to provide any benefits for Russia.

https://www.rt.com/russia/579208-ukraine-grain-deal-prospects/

Ukraine 'Preparing For Nuclear Explosion' As Russia Reduces Zaporizhzhia Plant Presence

TUESDAY, JUL 04, 2023 - 04:15 PM

Ukraine's PresidentZelensky has once again beenwarning the public and the West that Russia is planning to stage some kind of disastrous nuclear fallout event centered on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest. The claims from Ukrainian top officials have been persisting for weeks at this point, but have grown louder in the last several days, as Americans are busy with July 4th festivities.

"There is a serious threat because Russia is technically ready to provoke a local explosion at the station, which could lead to a [radiation] release,"Zelensky claimeddays ago at a joint news conference in Kyiv. Ukrainian intelligence is at the same time this week saying Russia's military is reducing its presence there and has told staff to relocate to Crimea.

The Guardian on Saturday cited Ukraine's intelligence arm, the GUR, to say that "several representatives of Russia’s state nuclear energy agency, Rosatom, have already left" and further that "Ukrainian employeeswho stayed at the plant and signed contracts with Rosatom had beentold to evacuateby Monday, preferably to Crimea, it said. (Maybe because Russia found their were reporting to kiev like earlier!)

All of this is of course impossible to confirm, and such allegations centered on Zaporizhzhia have been consistent throughout much of the war, at times coming from both sides.

"On Thursday Ukraine conducted nuclear disaster response drills in the vicinity of the power station, regional officials said," The Guardian wrote further.

The Kremlin has expressly denied the Ukrainian allegations:

Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, replied saying that he had written to the UN security council and secretary general, António Guterres, to state: "We do not intend to blow up this NPP [nuclear power plant], we have no intention of doing so."

All this has resulted in heightened international scrutiny over operations at the plant. Ukraine says "the world is watching."

TheUkrainian government has actually been making these claims for weeks, with some independent observers such as David Sachs saying this could set the stage for a "Gulf of Tonkin moment".

Ukraine are a bunch of terrorists, there’s no way Russia would leave the nuclear plant, none! And Kiev has been attacking the plant since the beginning of the war!

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-preparing-nuclear-explosion-russian-reduces-zaporizhzhia-plant-presence

Watchdog Group: Biden Administration Pushing To Make A.I. Inherently Left-Wing

Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

As artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology takes off, the Biden Administration is allegedly pursuing efforts to make sure that such new technology adopts a left-wing worldview by default.

According to Fox News, the report comes from the watchdog group American Accountability Foundation (AAF), which said in a new memo that top officials in the Biden White House are attempting to program “dangerous ideologies” into new A.I. systems.

“Under the guise of fighting ‘algorithmic discrimination’ and ‘harmful bias,’the Biden administration is trying to rig AI to follow the woke left’s rules,” said Tom Jones, the president of AAF. “Biden is being advised on technology policy, not by scientists, but by racially obsessed social academics and activists. We’re already seen the biggest tech firms in the world, like Google under Eric Schmidt, use their power to push the left’s agenda.”

“This would take the tech/woke alliance to a whole new, truly terrifying level,” Jones added.

One of the examples AAF cited in the memo is a plan released by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy last October, titled the “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.” The document claims, with no evidence, that there could be an “algorithmic discrimination” in the way A.I. responds to certain people based on race, gender, and other characteristics. Such programs, the White House orders, should be “reviewed for bias based on the historical and societal context of the data.”

The White House document recommends “proactive equity assessments as part of the system design,” among other tactics, in order to make the A.I. more left-wing. A similar report was released in May by the White House’s Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, titled the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, which similarly claims that “AI systems are prone to ‘hallucinate’ and recapitulate biases derived from the unfiltered data from the internet used to train them.”

In February, Biden signed an executive order demanding that all states “root out bias in the design and use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence.”

Such efforts to politicize A.I. were already hinted at – and warned against – by leaders in the field of A.I. and similar technology, such as Twitter owner Elon Musk.In December, Musk warned that “the danger of training AI to be woke — in other words, lie — is deadly.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watchdog-group-biden-administration-pushing-make-ai-inherently-left-wing

Secret Service Investigating How Cocaine Got In The White House

TUESDAY, JUL 04, 2023 - 03:15 PM

The Secret Service on Tuesday confirmed rumors from the day earlier that it was investigating an "unknown item" found inside the White House library on Sunday, which was described in radio traffic as a cocaine-like substance.

"On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service uniformed division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area," Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement, adding that the D.C. fire department determined the substance did not present a threat… although it certainly could present Hunter Biden with hours of brand new video material for his infamous notebook.

In a dispatch with an 8:49 p.m. timestamp, a firefighter with the D.C. department’s hazardous materials team radioed the results of a test: “We have a yellow bar saying cocaine hydrochloride.”

The brief broadcast was logged on a website called openmhz.com, which allows people to listen to live and archived radio transmission from police and fire departments. One of the officials familiar with the investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open case, said the 8:49 transmission was from the White House call Sunday night. The official described the amount of the substance as small, which likely means that most of it had already been consumed.

The discovery came two days after recovering crack cocaine addict Hunter Biden was last seen at the White House; yet even so there appears to be some "mystery" as to how the cocaine got there.

The Biden family arrived back at the White House for Independence Day celebrations as the Secret Service continues to investigate the finding.

Secret Service spokesman Gulielmi said that President Joe Biden was not in the executive mansion when the substance was discovered.

"The DC fire department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous. The item was sent for further evaluation and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending," he said, laughably hinting that there was some "confusion" as to how crack got inside the Blowden Biden family's DC estate as it is in the process of being auctioned off to Beijing. Here's a thought: since Hunter has a habit of recording his every close encounter with crack cocaine, just check his cell phone's latest video recordings.

In its report, ABC notes that "Cocaine hydrochloride can be used as an anesthetic or to control bleeding, but it is also considered to have effectssimilar to crack cocaine, according to the study National Library of Medicine National Center for Biotechnology Information", which suggests that thetype of cocaine found was of a particular variety especially near and dear to Hunter's heart.

"The physiological and psychoactive effects of cocaine are similar regardless of whether it is in the form of cocaine hydrochloride or crack cocaine (cocaine base),"the study says. You do learn something new every day.

The "item" was sent to a Secret Service lab for further testing, the sources said.

The White House on Tuesday referred reporter questions about the matter to the Secret Service, because what else could they say: "to pay for Hunter's crack addition, Joe had to sell even the Resolute Desk to Beijing." Of course, that's a silly joke: after all, just imagine what America's international allies - and enemies - would think if any of this Jerry Springer Special, live from the White House, turned out to be even remotely true…

The Biden's cocaine antics take place just days after the younger Biden reached a plea deal with Justice Department prosecutors to avoid jail time after lying on a federal form to purchase a firearm. He checked a box claiming that he did not use and was not addicted to illegal substances – a fact that would disqualify him from buying the gun. The form contradicting the timelines and claims made in Hunter Biden's own memoir.

Biden critics and conservative decried Hunter's plea deal, claiming that anyone other than the president's son would receive jail time for the same offense. The deal also saw Hunter plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors which would have been a felony - and meant prison time - for anyone else but the president's crack and whore-addicted son.

Come to think of it, there was plenty of reasons for Hunter to be celebrating in the aptly named China White house.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/secret-service-investigating-how-cocaine-got-white-house

Watch: RFK Jr Pushes Back When Accused Of Being A Candidate Who "Traffics Routinely In Conspiracies"

TUESDAY, JUL 04, 2023 - 02:45 PM

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

During an interview with leftist outlet Reason, Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr challenged the hosts to prove him wrong when they suggested that he continually spreads conspiracy theories

Reason editor at large Nick Gillespie told RFK Jr “One of the critiques of your candidacy or even your public profile is that you traffic routinely in conspiraciesand that kind of conspiracist mindset where almost everything that we take for granted is bad.”

“So it’s, you know, the Covid vaccines, you know, not only don’t work, but they’re more dangerous than Covid itself,” Gillespie continued, going on to reel off a list of ‘conspiracies’ that RFK has endorsed

5G and Wi-Fi are controlling, you know, controlling our mind. The government, you know, aspects of the government that are supposed to be in favor of trying to help people, actually hurting them. AIDS is not, you know, primarily caused by HIV or HIV is not involved in AIDS. Atrazine is changing frog sexuality and by implication, human sexuality. Your cousin is not, your cousin Michael Skakel is not guilty of the murder of Martha Moxley that he was found guilty of.

You know, the 2004 election in Ohio was stolen. It kind of goes on and on. Do you how do you answer people who say, you know, like this is the sign of somebody whose thinking is fundamentally conspiracy-minded rather than kind of dealing with brute reality? You know, that is difficult and, you know, and terrible, but is not what you seem to be making of it.

However, when Kennedy asked Gillespie to “show me where I get it wrong,” and offered to go through each example point by point, the host didn’t seem too keen.

“You did something that is very unfair. Which is, you made a series of characterizations of my beliefs that you read in the newspapers. Many of which are just wrong,” Kennedy stated.

Conspiracy Theory is a CIA term that was formulated to keep people from investigating government corruption. Specially the intelligence agencies crimes.

— MadCubaninTucson (@Arielhe97434333) July 3, 2023

This was a horrible interview - almost dishonest. I would have liked to hear he responses to each of the points.

— FLBIII Deux (@Jane4UsGirls) July 3, 2023

He wasn’t confronted. He was hit with accusations & given no chance to explain himself. The interviewer was gutless. If it was 1% true he would have given RFK the rope to hang himself

— Keith Shilts (@KeithAShilts) July 4, 2023

Funny how you cut off his response once he had a chance to defend himself.

Great journalism. 💩

— Dipperful (@Dipperful) July 3, 2023

Watch the full interview below:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-rfk-jr-pushes-back-when-accused-being-candidate-who-traffics-routinely-conspiracies

https://youtu.be/lqtONE93APQ

4 Jul, 2023 21:21

Russian nuclear giant claims Ukrainian attack on power plant imminent

Kiev is expected to strike the Zaporozhye facility with a 'dirty' nuclear device, a senior Russian official says

The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar, Russia. © Sputnik

Ukraine is expected to launch a large-scale attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) overnight, a senior Russian atomic energy industry official warned late on Tuesday.Kiev may also strike the plant with a missile stuffed with radioactive waste, he added.

The warning was voiced by Renat Karchaa, a senior aide to the head of Rosenergoatom, a subsidiary to Russia’s state-owned atomic energy giant Rosatom. The official cited intelligence data received by the industry.

“On July 5, literally overnight, while it’s still dark, Ukrainian forces will attempt an attack on the Zaporozhye plant with long-range high-precision munitions, as well as suicide drones,” he told Rossiya 24 TV channel.

Kiev is also expected to attempt a strike on the plant with a heavy, Soviet-made Tochka-U tactical ballistic missile, Karchaa went on. The munition has been filled with radioactive waste collected from the South-Ukrainian nuclear power plant, the official claimed.

While Karchaa did not elaborate, the apparent goal of the secondary attack is to cause an uptick in radioactivity readings in the region should the main launch fail to damage the facility enough to cause the release of hazardous materials into the air.

The ZNPP was seized by Moscow from Ukraine early into the ongoing conflict, getting formally transferred under Rosatom management as the Zaporozhye region became incorporated into Russia after a referendum. Both Moscow and Kiev have repeatedly accused each other of subjecting the Russian-controlled facility to artillery fire and drone strikes.

The rhetoric around the plant escalated in recent weeks, with the top Ukrainian official repeatedly claiming Moscow had been preparing a nuclear incident at the ZNPP. President Vladimir Zelensky, for instance, said Moscow wanted to cause a “radiation leakage” at the plant, while his aide Mikhail Podoliak accused Russia of placing mines in the plant’s cooling pond.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has called theclaims by Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials “yet another lie” coming from Kiev, stressing that Moscow remains in close cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The UN watchdog’s boss, Rafael Mariano Grossi, visited the facility recently and disputed Ukraine’s allegations, stating in his report that “no mines were observed at the site during the director general’s visit, including the cooling pond.” The danger to the ZNPP has also been questioned by the White House, with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying last week that Washington has not “seen any indication that that threat is imminent.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/579215-ukrainian-attack-nuclear-plant/

4 Jul, 2023 22:08

Multiple victims in Kiev strike on two Donbass cities – official

Dozens of people were injured in a “fierce” Ukrainian attack on Donetsk People’s Republic, the acting head of the region says

The city of Makeevka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic came under intense shelling late Tuesday night, according to the region’s acting head, Denis Pushilin. Ukrainian forces allegedly targeted residential districts of the town, damaging multiple houses, as well as a school and a hospital.

At least 25 people, including two young children, were injured in the strike, according to preliminary data shared by Pushilin on Telegram. The victims are receiving the necessary medical care, he added.

It is unclear what type of munition might have been used, but the blasts were felt by “most”residents of Makeevka and Donetsk, Pushilin claimed. The DPR mission to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination reported at least twelve hits from self-propelled multiple rocket launcher systems on Makeevka since 7pm.

The capital of the DPR also came under intense shelling on Tuesday, with at least two people reported killed and several injured earlier in the afternoon, according to the mayor of Donetsk, Aleksey Kulemzin. In total, theUkrainian forces attacked the city and its suburbs two dozen times on Tuesday, firing some 166 shells from 155mmartillery provided by Western nations, the official claimed.

Donetsk has been a frequent target of Ukrainian strikes since the outbreak of the conflict between Kiev and the Donbass republics back in 2014, as Ukraine’s military established heavily fortified positions around the city. The attacks on DPR’s capital intensified after the launch of Moscow’s military operation against Kiev in February 2022, leaving scores of civilians killed and delivering major damage to infrastructure.

The Donetsk People’s Republic became part of Russia last October together with the People’s Republic of Lugansk and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, following referendums in which the local populations voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move.

https://www.rt.com/russia/579217-makeevka-donetsk-attack-victims/