Pentagon To Pay For Soldiers To Manufacture Motherless And Fatherless Babies

The U.S. Department of Defense plans to revamp its assisted reproductive technologies (ART) policies to ensure service members’ taxpayer-funded benefits cover the creation of motherless and fatherless children via in vitro fertilization for single and same-sex soldiers.

The policy change stems from a lawsuit brought by an abortion and transgender activist group against both the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs over their requirements for ART like in vitro fertilization, egg and sperm retrieval, and egg and sperm cryopreservation.

DOD and VA rules previously limited morally and ethically prohibited the reproductive procedures funded by hardworking Americans’ dollars to service members and veterans who were married to someone of the opposite sex, could use their own gametes for any ART procedures, and had received an infertility diagnosis linked to injury, illness, or a service-connected disability.

When the National Organization for Women’s New York City Chapter (NOW-NYC), represented by Yale law students, filed a federal complaint over the “exclusionary coverage limitations” in August 2023, however, the Pentagon pivoted. NOW-NYC initially alleged the DOD and VA’s policies are “arbitrary,” unconstitutional, and violate the Affordable Care Act because they don’t force taxpayers to pay for overcoming natural biological limits for soldiers who are LGBT, unmarried, or want to buy sperm or eggs.

The DOD seemingly agreed with this characterization when it signaled to the court last week that, while it planned to keep the injury or illness infertility requirement, it would overhaul its TRICARE policies so soldiers no longer have to be married or of opposite sexes to get taxpayer-paid IVF and sperm and egg buying. The modifications are expected to be solidified in a memorandum by the end of February.

The VA, which defines “infertility” as a male and female’s inability to reproduce on their own after 12 months of trying, did not signal any changes to its ART policies yet. That didn’t stop NOW-NYC from celebrating the DOD’s shift as a “big win” and the “first step” towards future legal action that would expand taxpayer-funded ART even further.

“We will continue to challenge DoD and VA to remove all discriminatory barriers so that each and every service member and veteran who needs this reproductive care can access it,” NOW-NYC Executive Director Sonia Ossorio warned in a statement.

This isn’t the first time activists have used lawsuits to force taxpayers to help people who choose naturally sterile sexual encounters manufacture children purposefully separated from their biological parents. A gay couple in New York sued the city government in 2022 because they did not meet the city’s definition of infertile. Even though both plaintiffs were male and biologically incapable of naturally procreating, they claimed they met the medical definition of infertile and were entitled to insurance benefits to use a purchased egg and a rented womb to buy children.

https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/29/pentagon-to-pay-for-soldiers-to-manufacture-motherless-and-fatherless-babies/

Pentagon Admits It Has No Evidence Iran Was Behind Drone Attack That Killed 3 US Troops in Jordan

Regardless, the Pentagon says Iran 'bears responsibility'

The Pentagon on Monday said Iran “bears responsibility” for the drone attack in northeastern Jordan that killed three US troops but admitted it has no evidence that Iran was directly involved.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the responsibility fell on Iran due to its support for Iraqi Shia militias the US believes carried out the attack.

“In terms of attribution for the attack, we know this is an [Iran]-backed militia. It has the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah, but [we’re] not making a final assessment,” Singh said at a press conference. “Iran continues to arm and equip these groups to launch these attacks, and we will certainly hold them responsible.”

When asked if the US knew Iran and Iranian leaders were “actually behind this attack, as in planned, coordinated, or directed it,” Singh admitted the US had nothing to show that.

“We know that Iran certainly plays a role with these groups, they arm and equip and fund these groups. I don’t have more to share on — terms of an intelligence assessment on if leaders in Iran were directing this attack,” she said.

Singh was again asked about the claim that Iran was behind the attack and said the US just knows that “Iran funds these groups” and had nothing more to add. Later in the press conference, she said Iran “bears responsibility” for the killing of three American soldiers.

Also on Monday, The New York Times reported that US intelligence officials have no evidence Iran had advanced knowledge of the attack. “American intelligence officials say that while Iran provides weapons, funding and sometimes intelligence to its proxy groups, there is no evidence that it calls the shots — meaning it may not have known in advance about the attack in Jordan,” the report reads.

Iran has strongly denied it was behind the attack and said the resistance factions were targeting the US forces in the region due to its support for the Israeli slaughter in Gaza. Since mid-October, US bases in Iraq and Syria have come under attack about 160 times, and the US has never produced evidence to show Iran was directing the operations.

The comments from Singh came as President Biden is mulling what his response will be to the killing of the three American troops. He is under pressure from hawks in Congress to bomb Iran directly, and a previous report from the Times said that’s something the administration would consider in response to the death of US troops despite the risk of a full-blown war with Iran.

https://news.antiwar.com/2024/01/29/pentagon-admits-it-has-no-evidence-iran-was-behind-drone-attack-that-killed-3-us-troops-in-jordan/

Netanyahu: Israel won’t free ‘thousands of terrorists’ or withdraw IDF for hostage deal

While his right flank blasts a framework that Israel reportedly agreed to in Paris, Netanyahu says IDF will not leave Gaza; Hamas says it is studying proposal

As reports emerged about a potential hostage framework deal with Hamas that includes an extended pause in the fighting and the freeing of a large number of Palestinian security prisoners, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday told students at a pre-military academy in the West Bank that Israel would not release “thousands of terrorists.”

“We will not remove the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists,” he pledged, speaking at the Bnei David academy in Eli. “None of this will happen. What will happen? Absolute victory!”

Multiple media reports indicated Israel agreed during a meeting in Paris on Sunday with the US, Qatar, and Egypt to a framework that would see all Israeli hostages released, starting with women, children, the elderly and the sick. There would be “phased pauses” in Israel’s war against Hamas while the process played out, the reports said.

Eli, January 30, 2023. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

As reports emerged about a potential hostage framework deal with Hamas that includes an extended pause in the fighting and the freeing of a large number of Palestinian security prisoners, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday told students at a pre-military academy in the West Bank that Israel would not release “thousands of terrorists.”

“We will not remove the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists,” he pledged, speaking at the Bnei David academy in Eli. “None of this will happen. What will happen? Absolute victory!”

Multiple media reports indicated Israel agreed during a meeting in Paris on Sunday with the US, Qatar, and Egypt to a framework that would see all Israeli hostages released, starting with women, children, the elderly and the sick. There would be “phased pauses” in Israel’s war against Hamas while the process played out, the reports said.

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Israel would also allow more aid into Gaza and would release very large numbers of Palestinian prisoners.

The framework reportedly does not provide for a permanent ceasefire, but also does not rule one out.

The Prime Minister’s Office on Monday issued a statement that did not deny that Israel had agreed to a framework for a hostage release, but did say that “the reports about a deal are incorrect and include [ostensible] conditions that are not acceptable to Israel.”

According to Channel 12 news, the offer centers around a 45-day pause in the fighting in exchange for 35-40 hostages in the first stage. Some 100-250 Palestinian prisoners would be released for each hostage.

Addressing the reports on Tuesday, Netanyahu pledged to the students that Israel “will not end this war with less than the achievement of all its goals. This means the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages, and the promise that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-israel-wont-free-thousands-of-terrorists-or-withdraw-idf-for-hostage-deal/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-israel-wont-free-thousands-of-terrorists-or-withdraw-idf-for-hostage-deal/

But we cant see the evidence

NINE TORY MPS ACCEPT ISRAEL LOBBY MONEY AMID GAZA GENOCIDE

Conservative politicians have accepted nearly £20,000 in funds from the Israel lobby, including for “solidarity” missions to the country, while Israel engages in war crimes, Declassified finds.

At least nine UK Conservative MPs have accepted donations from the pro-Israel lobby since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Declassified has found.

The lobby organisations in question are parliamentary group Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and the European Leadership Network (ELNET) which describes itself as a “leading NGO dedicated to strengthening Europe-Israel relations”.

With a total value of £19,857, the donations have been used to finance a series of trips to Israel, which have been described as “solidarity” missions.

‘24 delegations to Israel’

CFI is a pro-Israel lobby group which was set up in 1974 by Michael Fidler, a Tory politician described in one biography as having political views “reminiscent of the philosophy of Enoch Powell”.

On its website, CFI boasts it has coordinated “24 delegations to Israel for over 180 Conservatives since the May 2015 General Election”.

Over the last decade, it has taken more MPs on overseas trips than any other political donor in Britain, according to an investigation by OpenDemocracy.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/nine-tory-mps-accept-israel-lobby-money-amid-gaza-genocide/

Operation Starve Paris: French farmers begin 'indefinite' tractor siege of the capital as it's warned the city only has THREE DAYS of food, Toulouse is 'cut off' and hay bales are used to build blockades

In recent weeks there has been a slew of protests in France, a major agricultural producer, by farmers angry about incomes, red tape and environmental policies they say undermine their ability to compete with other countries.

Protesting farmers started the operation by blocking the A13 highway to the west of the capital, the A4 to the east and the A6 on which hundreds of tractors rolled towards Paris from the south. The government in response has deployed some 15,000 police officers.

By mid-afternoon they appeared to have met their objective of establishing eight chokepoints on major roads into Paris, according to Sytadin, a traffic monitoring service.

'We need answers,' said Karine Duc, a farmer in the southwestern Lot-et-Garonne department as she joined a convoy of tractors heading for Paris. 'This is the final battle for farming. It's a question of survival,' she added.

A banner on a tractor in the convoy said: 'We will not die in silence.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13018123/Farmers-Paris-France-cities-today-latest-protest.html

Four Massachusetts State Troopers, Two Others Arrested for Alleged Bribery Conspiracy

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/four-massachusetts-state-troopers-two-others-arrested-alleged-bribery-conspiracy

Russia Hit With Widespread Internet Outage Nationwide

Russia's Digital Ministry announced on messenger platform Telegram that a "technical problem" has led to widespread internet outages across the country.

"A technical problem has arisen affecting the .RU zone, associated with the global DNSSEC* infrastructure. Specialists from the Internet Technical Center and MSK-IX are working to eliminate it," the ministry said.

X users say dozens of Russian websites are down:

Bloomberg reported that "the most popular local search engine Yandex.ru" and websites of large banks, including Sberbank PJSC and VTB Group, were also affected by the outage. Outages were reported across Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, and the Sverdlovsk and Novosibirsk regions.

The ministry continued: "The problem has now been resolved for subscribers of the National Domain Name System. Restoration work is underway. We will keep you updated on the situation."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-hit-widespread-internet-outage-nationwide

Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan handed 10-year jail sentence, party says

In short: Former Pakistani PM and cricket captain Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for leaking a classified diplomatic cable

Khan denies leaking the cable, but says it provides proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistani military and US government to topple his government in 2022

What's next? Khan is likely to remain in jail while his political party challenges the decision

A Pakistan court has handed former prime minister and national cricket captain Imran Khan a 10-year jail term for leaking state secrets, the former premier's media team says.

The case centres on allegations that Khan made public a secret cable sent by the country's ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.

Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on Tuesday said both Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had been sentenced to 10 years each by a special court.

It said the party would challenge the decision and called Khan's trial a "sham".

"We don't accept this illegal decision," Khan's lawyer Naeem Panjutha posted on X.

One of Khan's aides, Zulfikar Bukhari, said the legal team was given no chance to represent the former prime minister or cross examine witnesses, adding that the proceedings were carried out in jail.

A complete disgusting mockery of law in this absolutely ridiculous trial.

InshAllah, the revenge will be taken through vote inshAllah. Such sham trials have their future written in dustbin. #_ #_ https://t.co/cl2v9sbkD9

— PTI (@PTIofficial) January 30, 2024

It is the second conviction for the embattled former cricket star in recent months. He was previously sentenced to three years in a corruption case.

While his jail term was suspended as he challenged the corruption conviction, it had already ruled him out of the country's general elections next week.

Despite being ruled out of the election, Khan's legal team was hoping to have him released from jail, where he has been since August last year.

The latest conviction means that is unlikely, even as the charges are contested in a higher court.

Khan has been fighting dozens of cases since he was ousted from power in a parliamentary vote of no confidence in 2022.

He says the cable he was convicted of making public was proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistani military and US government to topple his government in 2022, after he visited Moscow just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Washington and Pakistan's military deny the accusations.

The former prime minister has previously said the contents of the cable appeared in the media from other sources.

Khan's PTI party, which won the 2018 elections, suffered a major setback earlier this month when a court upheld the Election Commission's decision to strip the party of its traditional election symbol, the cricket bat.

His candidates are now contesting elections as independents, many of them on the run from what the party calls a crackdown backed by the country's powerful military. The military denies this.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-30/imran-khan-pakistan-pm-cricket-captain-state-secrets-sentence/103406776

Lidia Thorpe accuses Labor of being 'complicit' in genocide after Penny Wong pauses Gaza aid over allegations UNRWA staff involved in October 7 terror attack

Senator Lidia Thorpe has accused the government of being “complicit” in genocide, citing Penny Wong’s decision to pause aid to Gaza amid allegations several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas’ October 7 terror attack.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has slammed the government for pausing aid to Gaza following allegations several UNRWA staff were involved in Hamas' October 7 terror attack in Israel, accusing Labor of being “complicit” in genocide.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East on Friday announced it had started an investigation into claims from Israeli authorities 12 employees were allegedly involved in the deadly assault.

Nine of the staff were sacked, one is dead and the UN is clarifying the identity of the remaining two.

In response, Australia joined countries including the United States and Canada in temporarily pausing funding to the agency.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong in a statement on Saturday welcomed UNRWA’s immediate response to the claims in terminating contracts and launching an investigation.

"Australia will engage closely with UNRWA on investigations and is consulting with international partners. While we do this, we will temporarily pause disbursement of recently announced funding,” she said.

Ms Thorpe took aim at Ms Wong in a post to X on Tuesday, arguing her decision to cut aid to Gaza in the wake of the allegations would “cost innocent lives”.

“Penny Wong’s decision to cut off critical aid to people in Gaza has been condemned as collective punishment, and will cost innocent lives,” Ms Thorpe said.

“For the alleged crimes of 12 individuals, Wong is depriving 13,000 UNRWA employees of the resources they need to provide food, water and life-saving medical supplies to the two-million people they support in Gaza. She has given no clear justification for the move."

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/lidia-thorpe-accuses-labor-of-being-complicit-in-genocide-after-penny-wong-pauses-gaza-aid-over-allegations-unrwa-staff-involved-in-october-7-terror-attack/news-story/76ca86cf6fd471de5db0725e1dd7cf4f

>>20330797

Elon and Ben Shapiro defend genocide at Auschwitz

https://youtu.be/rdznJeAbm7Y

Israeli Defense Minister Announces Imminent Ground Troop Deployment on Lebanese Border

Israeli troops will “very soon go into action” near the country’s northern border with Lebanon, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said tonight, as tensions surge amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Gallant told troops near the border with the Gaza Strip that others were being deployed to Israel’s north.

“They will very soon go into action… so the forces in the north are reinforced,” Gallant said.

“The forces close to you… are leaving the field and moving towards the north, and preparing for what comes next,” he said.

He added that reservists would be gradually released “to prepare and come ready” for future operations.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israeli-troops-to-go-into-action-soon-at-lebanon-border-says-defense-minister/

Narrative control

NOTABLE

Biden's Trojan Horse Immigration Deal Would Allow Another 1.8 Million Migrants

Republican Senators are willing to sell the farm for what would be a terrible deal even if Biden elected to honor the terms…

CBS reports Biden and senators on verge of striking immigration deal aimed at clamping down on illegal border crossings

Trojan Horse Deal Details

The agreement is expected to give the executive branch a new legal authority to effectively suspend asylum in between official ports of entry when migrant crossings surpass certain thresholds.

The power, which Mr. Biden referred to as an authority to “shut down the border” on Friday, would be mandated after average daily migrant crossings hit 5,000 over seven days, or 8,500 in a single day.

It could also be activated on a discretionary basis after average daily crossings surpass 4,000 in a week.

There would also be a limit on the number of days each year the president could invoke the authority.

1: Biden already the authority to secure the border. He has no interest in doing so or he would have already done so. The administration even ripped open holes in the razor wire fence that Texas erected. If that’s not a come on in message, what is?

2: Has anyone done the math on this? 5,000 a day for 365 days is 1,825,000. There’s your trojan horse right there. We already know what’s inside.

3: Point three is a joke. What’s with this “could” stuff as if Biden would actually do it. Besides, does anyone expect a legitimate count?

1. Point four is an even bigger joke. It would limit the number of days Biden could shut the border even if he wanted to.

Huge Irony of the Deal

The irony of the deal is that the flip side is over a hundred billion in additional spending on Ukraine and Israel that should not be spent at all.

And there’s still more. Here’s bonus point five.

“While the proposal negotiated by the White House and lawmakers would penalize those who enter the U.S. illegally, it would preserve asylum at official ports of entry. In fact, it would require U.S. border officials to continue processing more than 1,400 asylum-seekers daily at these official border crossings when the “shutdown” authority is invoked, sources told CBS News.“

And how does this miracle happen? Here’s bonus point six.

“All the provisions being negotiated would require an enormous surge in personnel and resources, including detention facilities and deportation flights, to be implemented. The Biden administration has asked for $14 billion to fund border operations and hire additional asylum officers, border agents and immigration judges.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bidens-trojan-horse-immigration-deal-would-allow-another-18-million-migrants

>>20330588

post the memo

‘You become a traitor and a bad Jew’: Israeli anti-war activists speak to RT about their country’s actions

Despite the extremely high level of support for the war in Israeli society, some Israelis advocate peace and condemn their government

For more than 115 days Israel has been fighting in Gaza, in a bid to free its 136 hostages and destroy Hamas, the Islamic militant organization responsible for the October 7 massacre that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis.

So far, over 26,000 Palestinians have died in the relentless Israeli shelling. Thousands more have been injured. Israel is facing strong international pressure to end the war, but officials in Jerusalem are refusing to budge, while a recent poll indicated that 87% of Israeli Jews support the operation and want it to continue.

Yet, there are also those who refuse to follow the majority view. RT spoke to two representatives of the so-called anti-war bloc, which is calling for an end to Israel’s occupation. Gaia Dan is a 23-year-old Jewish student originally from Haifa in northern Israel. Dr. Salim Abbas is an Arab geologist. Both are concerned about the route Israel is taking, and have been resorting to demonstrations to change the reality.

‘There is no justification for the murdering of innocent civilians’

RT: First of all, how did the events of October 7 impact you? What was your reaction?

Dan: I was at my place in Be’er Sheba, where I am renting an apartment for my studies. I had just come back from Canada and I was really sick. Suddenly the alarms went off and I was too sick and confused to understand what was going on. Only after two hours of alarms did I realize what was happening and went down to the neighborhood shelter. At the time they said there was an infiltration of terrorists… no one in my vicinity understood the magnitude of the incident. The next day I returned to Haifa and started to slowly realize what had actually occurred. At that moment what I felt was mainly great pain. We knew it would happen someday, because there is a limit to how much you can belittle and how arrogant you can be when it comes to Gaza, but the pain was enormous, the pain for the innocents who died and those who would die later.

Abbas: The events of October 7 surprised us all, and especially me, I did not believe that Palestinian freedom fighters could commit such atrocities and descend to such a disgusting and painful level as the behavior of the occupation army and the fascist settlers. I believed in a just struggle of an entire people living under continuous humiliation, oppression and murder but there is no justification for the murdering of innocent civilians.

On October 7, I was on my way to a Palestinian village in the occupied territories (near Qalqilya), where we were supposed to pick olives with Jewish friends. But the news did not stop pouring in. Even now, with after more than 105 days, the magnitude of the tragedy and the failure – due to which I lost good friends, and some are still kidnapped – have not been determined yet.

’This is pure revenge’

RT: What promoted you to take this path of demonstrating against the war?

Dan: When October 7 happened, I was in no hurry to leave the house with chants of protest. I believed there was still a chance for negotiations. But as time passed, and the bodies in Gaza piled up, I realized that it is not in our culture to negotiate; we only understand the militant language. They slaughtered us so we will slaughter them back. This is pure revenge.

But I’m not ready for them to act on my behalf. I am not ready for them to ignore the big picture of why the events of October 7 took place. I’m not ready for people to be massacred, or settlements inside our outside the Green Line to be erected. Not ready for them to lie that what they are doing is for our security.

Plus, I have an aversion to people who sit on the sidelines and are ready to watch the world burn. I don’t have this privilege.

https://www.rt.com/news/591547-israel-anti-war-activists/

Spycraft and Statecraft

Transforming the CIA for an Age of Competition

By William J. Burns

January 30, 2024

For as long as countries have kept secrets from one another, they have tried to steal them from one another. Espionage has been and will remain an integral part of statecraft, even as its techniques continually evolve. America’s first spies spent the Revolutionary War using ciphers, clandestine courier networks, and invisible ink to correspond with each other and their foreign allies. In World War II, the emerging field of signals intelligence helped uncover Japanese war plans. During the early Cold War, the United States’ intelligence capabilities literally went into the stratosphere, with the advent of the U-2 and other high-altitude spy planes that could photograph Soviet military installations with impressive clarity.

The simple stars etched on the memorial wall at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, honor the 140 agency officers who gave their lives serving their country. The memorial offers an enduring reminder of countless acts of courage. Yet those instances of heroism and the CIA’s many quiet successes remain far less well known to the American public than the mistakes that have sometimes marred the agency’s history. The defining test for intelligence has always been to anticipate and help policymakers navigate profound shifts in the international landscape—the plastic moments that come along only a few times each century.

As President Joe Biden has reiterated, the United States faces one of those rare moments today, as consequential as the dawn of the Cold War or the post-9/11 period. China’s rise and Russia’s revanchism pose daunting geopolitical challenges in a world of intense strategic competition in which the United States no longer enjoys uncontested primacy and in which existential climate threats are mounting. Complicating matters further is a revolution in technology even more sweeping than the Industrial Revolution or the beginning of the nuclear age. From microchips to artificial intelligence to quantum computing, emerging technologies are transforming the world, including the profession of intelligence. In many ways, these developments make the CIA’s job harder than ever, giving adversaries powerful new tools to confuse us, evade us, and spy on us.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/cia-spycraft-and-statecraft-william-burns

This guy lives in fantasyland or thinks we are blind and cannot see his BS