FLASHBACK: White House Press Secretary Said Using Cluster Munitions Would Be A Potential 'War Crime'

Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki called Russia’s alleged use of cluster munitions a potential “war crime” in the early days of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration announced plans to primarily send M864 155-millimeter artillery shells, known as Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DPICM) and commonly called cluster munitions, which dispense smaller explosive weapons over an area to attack personnel and vehicles. Cluster munitions are controversial due to the risk posed by “dud” submunitions that could cause harm to civilians long after a conflict is over and were last manufactured in the 1990s, The Washington Post reported.

“There are reports of illegal cluster bombs and vacuum bombs being used by the Russians. If that’s true, what is the next step of this administration?” a reporter asked Psaki during the Feb. 28, 2022 press briefing. “And is there a red line for how much violence will be tolerated against civilians in this manner that’s illegal and potentially a war crime?”

“It is — it would be. I don’t have any confirmation of that,” Psaki responded. “We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime.”

Over 100 countries have banned the usage of cluster munitions, including the U.K., France and Germany, CNN reported.

Fox News host Pete Hegseth, substituting for “Jesse Watters Primetime” host Jesse Watters, replayed the clip Friday evening for former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii while the two discussed the Biden administration’s decision to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, reversing a previous policy of withholding the weapons.

“It was a war crime for Vladimir Putin, but it is okay for us to send it to the Ukrainians,” Hegseth said.

“This is exactly what I’m talking about, Pete. The hypocrisy of rules that apply to others, but not to them, making decisions based on their own selfish decisions for power, and their political decisions,” Gabbard said.

Both Hegseth and Gabbard have a history of military service, including deployments to Iraq.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/07/flashback-white-house-press-secretary-said-using-cluster-munitions-would-be-a-potential-war-crime/

NOAA Throws Cold Water On Media Hysteria Over Earth's 'Three Hottest Days On Record'

Numerous corporate media outlets drove the narrative that July 3-5 was the hottest 72-hour stretch ever on record, citing a computer model from the University of Maine which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has warned is not as dependable as traditional observational data.

The New York Times, Fortune, Axios and CBS News each cited the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer computer model in various Thursday reports asserting that this week’s global temperatures broke the previous record for hottest three-day stretch. The coverage came as NOAA said Thursday that the model’s findings are not a suitable substitute for observational data, since the model depends in part on unverifiable, computer-generated outputs, according to The Associated Press.

Axios’ Thursday headline asserted that “Earth sees three hottest days on record,” while The Times wrote in its Thursday story that “the past three days were quite likely the hottest in Earth’s modern history.” CBS News ran a chyron on a Thursday television segment which read, “Earth sees third straight hottest day on record,” while the first half of Fortune’s Thursday headline stated that “Earth hits record heat third day in a row.”

“Although NOAA cannot validate the methodology or conclusion of the University of Maine analysis, we recognize that we are in a warm period due to climate change,” NOAA said, according to the AP.

The Reanalyzer uses observational data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and then calculates various global temperature estimates based on that data using its model, according to the Reanalyzer’s website. The Reanalyzer’s model found that this week was the hottest week it has ever recorded.

NCEP is part of the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA, according to the National Weather Service’s website.

“The situation we are witnessing now is the demonstration that climate change is out of control,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said of the heat, according to The Guardian. “If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation, as the last two records in temperature demonstrates.”

NOAA, The New York Times, Fortune, Axios and CBS News did not respond immediately to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/07/noaa-throws-cold-water-on-media-hysteria-over-earths-three-hottest-days-on-record/

Ukraine labels US peace advocates ‘traitors’

A Kiev official fumed over American “imperialism” after a controversial NBC report

Americans who reportedly discussed peace in Ukraine behind Kiev’s back are traitors and imperialists, an ambassador at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said in response to a news story claiming that such talks took place.

“So, a group of anonymous US tankies discussing Ukraine with Russia behind Ukraine’s back? There’re [sic] another words to describe it: treason, betrayal, and pure imperialism,” tweeted Alexander Scherba, Kiev’s “ambassador for strategic communications” and a former envoy to Austria.

He was reacting to a NBC News report, based entirely on anonymous sources, which claimed that a group of former US national security officials have been conducting “track two” talks with “prominent Russians believed to be close to the Kremlin” for the past several months.

US President Joe Biden’s administration found issues with the NBC story, disavowing any role in the alleged talks. Washington “did not sanction those discussions,” a State Department spokesman said in a statement on Thursday.

Meanwhile, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CBS News that, while the White House was “aware” of the unofficial contacts, “I want to make it clear that these discussions were not encouraged or engendered by us and we were not supporting them in any active way.”

Richard Haass, the former head of the Council on Foreign Relations who was reportedly involved in the talks, mentioned the NBC report in a Substack post on Friday, seeking to address “some legitimate interest in my position mixed in with nasty, ad hominem attacks.”

Haass said he was “present” at the meeting between “several former senior US national security officials and a group of Russian diplomats led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov” that allegedly took place in April. No such meeting was acknowledged on Lavrov’s agenda during his visit to New York to chair the UN Security Council.

Moscow has described the NBC News report as “fake” and “disinformation,” without going into any details.

Russia has long said it has nothing to negotiate with the Ukrainian leadership, and will only deal with those in the West who are pulling its strings. The US has said that it will never discuss Ukraine without the direct involvement of Ukrainians. Kiev, meanwhile, insists that the only framework for ending the conflict is President Vladimir Zelensky’s “peace formula,” which would amount to Russian capitulation and has been rejected by Moscow as delusional.

https://www.rt.com/news/579363-ukraine-talks-report-traitors/

Less Than 3 Percent Of Adults Are In Perfect Health: Study

More than 97 percent of American adults have at least one risk factor for an early death, according to new research from Canada’s York University.

In June, researchers published an analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys to assess mortality risk among adults 20 years and older. Scientists analyzed the surveys between two different periods of time — 1988-1994 and 1999-2014 — to examine risk factors ranging from obesity and chronic illness to lifestyle habits such as drug use and alcohol consumption.

“Over 97% of individuals had at least one of the 19 risk factors examined with no difference in the prevalence over time,” their report concluded. “The prevalence of individuals who are free of all of the 19 examined risk factors was less than 3%, at all time points.”

The kinds of risks that were present in 1988-1994 compared to 1999-2014, however, shifted from physiological risks such as cancer and lung problems to mental risks and lifestyle issues like sedentary movement.

Health professor Jennifer Kuk, the lead author of the study, said in a university press release that “you can take this as a good news story or a bad news story, depending on how you want to look at these numbers.”

“What we discovered is that the relationship with risk factors and mortality changes over time, which could be explained by factors such as evolution in treatments and changes in social stigma,” Kuk said. “Overall, most of us have something wrong with us, and we’re more likely to have a lifestyle health-risk factor now than in the ’80s and that’s actually associated with even greater mortality risk now than before.”

Lifestyle habits from excess sugar consumption to drug use often feed chronic illnesses leading to premature death. A paper published in the journal Population Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder earlier this year found obesity raises the risk of early mortality by as much as 90 percent.

Nearly 42 percent of American adults aged 20 and older, meanwhile, were categorically obese between 2017 and 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Multiple studies published last year revealed Americans were in worse shape than previously thought at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Just 1 in 7 adults enjoyed “good cardiometabolic health” in 2018, just two years before the public health emergency. Only 1 in 5 adults was considered to have “optimal heart health” based on the American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8.”

New data from the U.S. Geological Survey this week is raising new concerns about the nation’s deteriorating health. Federal investigators found at least 45 percent of American tap water is likely contaminated with PFAS, known as “forever chemicals.” PFAS are synthetic chemicals found in everyday products such as cookware and food packaging. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has connected PFAS to obesity, cancer, and fertility issues. Last summer, the EPA issued a health advisory to raise the alarm on chemicals contaminating drinking water.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/07/less-than-3-percent-of-adults-are-in-perfect-health-study/