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REVEALED: More than 1,000 inmates at California's San Quentin Prison now have coronavirus

As of Monday, 1,015 inmates in the prison had tested positive for COVID-19

The number has grown by 973 in just two weeks

The spike is thought to have been caused by an influx of inmates from California Institute for Men

Sixteen inmates there died from the virus; 121 were transferred to San Quentin on May 31

Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday some inmates would be removed to be cared for in medical facilities

It comes as the number of cases across the US continues to rise

More than 1,000 inmates at California's San Quentin Prison have tested positive for coronavirus, meaning more than a third of the entire facility's population now have the virus.

The number jumped from 823 on Sunday to 1,015 on Monday, a 22 percent increase. There have been 973 new cases in the prison in the last 14 days.

The prison now has by far the highest number of cases out of all of California's correctional facilities.

Last week, 30 of the cases were prison staff and five infected inmates were released.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8472293/More-1-000-inmates-Californias-San-Quentin-Prison-coronavirus.html

Netanyahu Warns Assad Not to Ally With Iran’s Ayatollahs, Hints Israeli Ops in Syria Will Continue

The Israeli Air Force has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria in recent years, justifying air and missile attacks by accusing Iran of trying to establish a proxy presence in the Arab Republic. Damascus has denied these claims, and accused Tel Aviv of blatant aggression.

Israel will continue its military operations against Iran in Syria to prevent its entrenchment in that country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced.

“We are absolutely resolved to prevent Iran from entrenching itself militarily in our immediate vicinity,” Netanyahu said, speaking to reporters at the start of a meeting with US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook on Tuesday.

“I say this to the ayatollahs in Tehran: Israel will continue to take the actions necessary to prevent you from creating another terror and military front against Israel. And I say to Bashar al-Assad: You’re risking the future of your country and your regime,” Netanyahu added.

The Israeli prime minister also approved the ramping up of sanctions against Iran to stop its alleged nuclear weapons ambitions. “I believe it’s time to implement snapback sanctions. I don’t think we can afford to wait. We should not wait for Iran to start its breakout to a nuclear weapon, because then it will be too late for sanctions,” he suggested.

Hook, for his part, said Israel and the United States “see eye to eye” on trying to extend the UN arms embargo against Iran past its October expiry date, and warned that a failure to do so would allow Iran to “freely import fighter jets, attack helicopters, warships, submarines” and other weapons, and then re-export them to Hezbollah, Hamas, Iraqi militias, and the Houthi militia in Yemen, among other groups.

Netanyahu also accused the international community of ‘colluding’ with Iran amid its attempts to “develop nuclear weapons” and wage “rampant aggression across the Middle East and beyond” through the arming, training, financing and dispatching of “terrorists.”

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202006301079757189-netanyahu-warns-assad-not-to-ally-with-irans-ayatollahs-hints-israeli-ops-in-syria-will-continue/

2022: A Vaccination Passport. The EU Keeps Quiet Over Suspicious Documents

Surprise, surprise, the European Commission (EC) had a “Roadmap on Vaccination” ready months before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

The Roadmap should lead to a “commission proposal for a common vaccination card / passport for EU citizens by 2022”.

Last updated during the third quarter of 2019, the 10-page document was followed, on September 12th, by a “global vaccination summit” jointly hosted by the EC and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Under the header “Ten Actions Towards Vaccination for All – Everyone should be able to benefit from the power of vaccination”, the summit manifesto laments that:

“Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines, lack of access, vaccine shortages, misinformation, complacency towards disease risks, diminishing public confidence in the value of vaccines and disinvestments are harming vaccination rates worldwide.”

And with them, arguably, the pharmaceutical companies’ profits.

In July 2017, for example, Italy made 12 vaccinations compulsory for children. In the aftermath, the prices of these very vaccines went up by 62%: from an average price per dose of € 14.02 up to € 22,74.

The global vaccination market is currently worth USD 27 billion a year. According to WHO estimates, it will reach USD 100 billion by 2025.

Since the EC-WHO global vaccination summit also discussed a renewed immunization agenda for 2030, the big pharma’s shareholders need not worry for the long-term performance of their stock.

One ought really not to “harm vaccination rates worldwide”.

The manifesto of the global vaccination summit goes on to list 10 “lessons (…) and actions needed towards vaccination for all”.

Each “lesson” is a gem of what the Italian neo-Marxist philosopher Diego Fusaro calls “the therapeutic capitalism”.

The wording is peremptory and leaves no room for nuance and debate. Adjectives such as “all” “everyone” “indisputably” abound. Statements in the conditional mood are absent.

More than a cautious, scientifically inspired and open-to-doubt plan of action, the tone – “to protect everyone everywhere”, “to leave no one behind” – is unsuitably messianic.

What about those who do not want to be “protected” that way? In Germany alone, roughly 10% of the whole population, or 8 million people, are strongly against a Corona vaccination.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/06/28/2022-vaccination-passport-eu-keeps-quiet-over-suspicious-documents/

Obama admits it: Riots and protests are 'tailor-made' for electing Joe Biden

Joe Biden is hiding in his basement, but maybe that's because the rabid-left looters, rioters, and protesters are carrying out his presidential campaign just fine for him.

What else can be concluded but that, given that President Obama has cynically admitted that the civil unrest covering the U.S. is "tailor-made" for electing Joe Biden?

Here's a report from National Review:

Former President Barack Obama told aides this month that the nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd are "a tailor-made moment" to help his former vice president Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump in November.

According to a New York Times story based on interviews with more than 50 Obama confidants, the former president was made anxious after riots and looting rocked many American cities in the days following Floyd's death and Trump began trumpeting "law and order" in response.

"Let's not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves," Obama wrote in a Medium post earlier this month.

But Obama's confidence has since grown as the protests have continued and Trump's polling numbers have dipped.

So in other words, more riots, more votes for Biden. Perhaps the idea is to beat the public down to such an extent that it feels that only a Democrat can solve it. Perhaps he sees in the polls that the public is blaming Trump.

The New York Times reported just a couple days ago that Obama is obsessed with ousting President Trump. That being the case, it's not unlikely that he will continue with his old Alinsky training, to oust Trump by any means necessary.

If riots will do it, Obama and his Democrats will be happy with more riots. Even the New York Times admitted that the riots excited him:

That calculus, though, may be changing in the wake of George Floyd's killing by the police in Minneapolis. As America's first black president, now its first black ex-president, Mr. Obama sees the current social and racial awakening as an opportunity to elevate a 2020 election dictated by Mr. Trump's mud-wrestling style into something more meaningful — to channel a new, youthful movement toward a political aim, as he did in 2008.

Opportunity? Elevate? That sounds a lot like "tailor-made."

This ought to be a wake-up call to voters, who are the only ones who can stop this cynical, diabolical plan on property-owners. Obama has a stake and interest in perpetrating riots and lootings, regardless of the cost to the little guy, because it advances his political aims. That's in characters, from the words of his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to "never let a crisis go to waste."

It's also amazingly cynical, given that nobody should be rooting for rioters as a means of benefiting politically. Yet here we are, and Obama is being lionized. It calls to mind that the Obama legacy can't be hosed out soon enough by Trump in his second term.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/06/obama_admits_it_riots_and_protests_are_tailormade_for_electing_joe_biden.html

WOW!… Joe Biden: “I’m Going to Follow the Doc’s Orders, I Will Not Hold Any Rallies”

How convenient.

Joe Biden told reporters he will hold NO CAMPAIGN RALLIES!

Joe Biden: “I’m going to follow the doc’s orders. I will not hold any rallies.”

Joe Biden can’t fill a gym.

He’s hoping the liberal media and tech giants will carry him over the finish line.

THIS IS HUGE!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/wow-joe-biden-going-follow-docs-orders-will-not-hold-rallies-video/

ScoMo's show of strength to China: PM launches $270billion beef-up of defence forces with new 370km-range missiles, drones, artillery systems and 800 extra troops as tensions with the communist superpower escalate

Scott Morrison will announce a major shift in defence policy to the Indo-Pacific

The government will spend $270billion beefing defence over the next ten years

The main aim of the beef-up is to deter aggression against Australia and its allies

More than half of $270bn will be spent on Australia's air and maritime forces

The federal government will spend $270billion over the next ten years on beefing up the Australian Defence Force with state-of-the-art equipment including long-range missiles and new artillery systems amid strategic and political tensions with China.

In a speech to ADF cadets in Canberra on Wednesday morning, Scott Morrison will announce a major shift in defence policy to focus on projecting Australian power into the Indo-Pacific.

It comes as the region faces growing instability after a brutal border dispute between India and China in the Himalayan mountains that killed at least 20 soldiers and with ongoing Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea and East China Sea.

The main aim of the beef-up, which will include hiring 800 extra soldiers, is to deter aggression against Australia and its allies - but the Prime Minister also wants to prepare the defence force for war in case tensions escalate.

Beijing and Canberra have been at loggerheads in recent weeks after Australia led global calls for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, which first surfaced in Wuhan late last year.

China retaliated by slapping an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley, suspending beef imports and telling students and tourists not to travel Down Under in an apparent attempt to damage the Australian economy.

More than half of $270billion will be spent on improving Australia's air and maritime forces, including buying new AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles from the US.

The missiles, which were designed in America in 2014, cost around $5million each and can hit a target 370km away, giving Australia significant new range.

They will be attached to F/A-18F Super Hornet planes and can also be paired with other defence aircraft. Troops will be trained how to use the weapon next year.

The government is also considering buying a range of other weapons and defence systems including the surface-to-air Missile, the High Mobility Rocket Artillery System and the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System.

In addition, between $5billion and $7billion will be spent on undersea surveillance systems, and up to $17billion will go towards buying more fighter aircraft.

Up to $11billion will be spent on remotely-piloted and autonomous combat aircraft, including air teaming vehicles.

And between $8 and $11.5 billion will buy long range rocket fires and artillery systems including two regiments of self-propelled howitzers.

http://www.mr-mehra.com/2020/06/scomos-show-of-strength-to-china-pm.html

Israel's Sovereignty Bill: How Much Will it Cost And Who Will Pay the Price?

Although it is still unclear whether Israel will press ahead with its intention to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, the Israeli media is already counting losses, saying the move would force the Jewish state to fork out a pretty penny on security and the absorption of Palestinians, money that the nation cannot spare.

Defence minister Benny Gantz said on Monday that the 1 July deadline, when Israel would extend its sovereignty over some parts of the West Bank, is not "a sacred date," stressing that his priorities lay in the tackling of COVID-19, not the inclusion of new territory.

Although the "annexation" plan remains on the table, Gantz is determined to first tackle the pandemic that shrank Israel's economy and sent the country's unemployment rates to unprecedented heights, before he gets the Jewish state into an endeavor that will force it to fork out a pretty penny, expenses that the nation cannot currently afford.

It is difficult to estimate how much money Israel would need to pump into its sovereignty plan, primarily because it is still unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would go ahead with the move and, if he does, how big of a land grab that would be and how many Palestinians Israel would absorb.

However, estimates suggest that had he chosen to press ahead with the bill, Israel would need to inject billions of dollars into its economy to keep the ambitious project afloat.

High Price of 'Annexation'?

To start off, Israel would need to handle the threat of potential Western sanctions. Although a consensus between the EU states is not yet on the table, the actual decision to apply Israel's sovereignty might make the bloc change its mind, also leading to the downgrade of the country's credit rating and the lifting of interest rates.

Secondly, the move would also entail a big security challenge and would require significant injections into the national defence budget that in 2019 already stood at slightly more than $20 billion; along with Russia, the US and Saudi Arabia, Israel ranks among the world's biggest defence spenders per capita. This is especially true if Palestinians remain true to their promises to set the West Bank and the Gaza Strip "on fire".

Israel knows firsthand how much economic damage riots and security instability can cause. Twenty years ago, with the eruption of the Second Intifada, the Jewish state suffered significant losses, seeing a drop in its GDP, flagging tourism as well as curtailed exports of technology and agricultural produce.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202006301079754539-israels-sovereignty-bill-how-much-will-it-cost-and-who-will-pay-the-price-/

Climate Advocate: 'I Would Like to Formally Apologize for the Climate Scare'

Michael Shellenberger has been a climate activist for 30 years, a liberal activist who went to Nicaragua in the 1980s to help the Sandinistas. He’s traveled the world for liberal causes, pushed the “existential threat” of global warming, but is now apologizing for promoting “climate alarmism.”

Environmental Progress:

On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years. Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem.

Schellenberger then debunks some facts that climate hysterics have been repeating for years that simply aren’t true. Here are a few.

Humans are not causing a “sixth mass extinction”

The Amazon is not “the lungs of the world”

Climate change is not making natural disasters worse

Fires have declined 25% around the world since 2003

The amount of land we use for meat — humankind’s biggest use of land — has declined by an area nearly as large as Alaska

Hear that, you sanctimonious scolds in the vegan movement?

Carbon emissions are declining in most rich nations and have been declining in Britain, Germany, and France since the mid-1970s

Netherlands became rich not poor while adapting to life below sea level

Habitat loss and the direct killing of wild animals are bigger threats to species than climate change

Wood fuel is far worse for people and wildlife than fossil fuels

Preventing future pandemics requires more not less “industrial” agriculture

So why keep your mouth shut all these years? The reasons won’t surprise anyone who has been aware of the suppression of opposing views in the mainstream scientific community that doesn’t comport with the majority.

But mostly I was scared. I remained quiet about the climate disinformation campaign because I was afraid of losing friends and funding. The few times I summoned the courage to defend climate science from those who misrepresent it I suffered harsh consequences. And so I mostly stood by and did next to nothing as my fellow environmentalists terrified the public.

Welcome to the world of climate skeptics, Mr. Schellenberger, most of whom have suffered personal and professional travails because of their beliefs.

The reasons for his decision to go public and fight the misinformation relate to the rise of the radical left in the West. Climate hysterics all over the world are raising the stakes in the debate over climate change. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the UN announced that the world will end in 12 years unless we take radical action. Britain’s “Extinction Rebellion” tried to “shut the country down.” The media have become even more hysterical.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/06/30/climate-advocate-in-epic-apology-for-climate-alarmism-n589012

Supreme Court Gives a Victory to Public Funding of Religious Schools

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that allowed a Montana scholarship program that benefitted mostly private school kids to go forward.

The state scholarship program gave $150 tax credits to donors who gave to school scholarship programs. The Montana Department of Revenue wrote rules that prohibited private religious schools from participating in the program because the state constitution banned state aid to religious schools.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the majority.

Associated Press:

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion that said the state ruling violates the religious freedom of parents who want the scholarships to help pay for their children’s private education. “A state need not subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious,” Roberts wrote.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayer seemed to invoke a strict constructionist view.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent that the high-court ruling “is perverse. Without any need or power to do so, the Court appears to require a State to reinstate a tax-credit program that the Constitution did not demand in the first place.”

If it’s not in the Constitution, it doesn’t need adjudicating? One would hope Sotomayer and the other liberals on the court would take that notion to heart.

Naturally, conservative activists are overjoyed at the decision.

Advocates for allowing state money to be used in private schooling said the court recognized in its decision that parents should not be penalized for sending their children to schools that are a better fit than the public schools.

“This opinion will pave the way for more states to pass school choice programs that allow parents to choose a school that best meets their child’s individual needs, regardless of whether those schools are religious or nonreligious,” said Erika Smith, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represented the parents in their court fight.

“School choice” means school vouchers and that doesn’t sit well with the teachers and their powerful unions.

But the president of the Montana Federation of Public Employees, which counts more than 12,000 teachers and other school workers as union members, called the decision “a slap in the face” to its members and the communities they serve.

“Today’s decision violates Montana’s commitment to public education, our children, and our constitution. Extremist special interests are manipulating our tax code to rob Montana children of quality education while padding the pockets of those who run exclusive, discriminatory private schools,” union president Amanda Curtis said.

Just once I’d like to read something from the left that isn’t full of wild charges and hysterical exaggerations.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/06/30/supreme-court-gives-a-victory-to-public-funding-of-religious-schools-n590120

Sidney Powell Drops a Bomb or Two on the Glaring Problems With the Flynn Case

Sidney Powell won a significant victory when her writ of mandamus was granted by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals requiring Judge Sullivan to dismiss the case against General Michael Flynn. At this time, Judge Sullivan has not entered the dismissal. Powell sat down with Jan Jakielek for an extended interview about the case and dropped a few bombs in the process.

Powell began by saying it is extraordinary that Judge Sullivan has not complied with the order. In her experience, this would typically occur within 24-48 hours. The briefing and hearing schedule have both been canceled, but the case has not been formally dismissed. She added that the full court could review the case, but in this circumstance, it would be unprecedented.

Her interest in the case was ongoing before she signed on the replace General Flynn’s prior defense team. Powell reports having ongoing concerns about the case, especially related to Andrew Weismann. Referring to him as the “lead villain” in her book License to Lie, she explained that the prosecutor had a long history of making up crimes, hiding exculpatory evidence, and railroading people with the enormous power of the federal government.

It is clear from the interview that Powell is stunned and dismayed by the decisions of Judge Sullivan in the case. She said he was the hero of her book for his previous Brady evidence rulings in the government’s public corruption case against former Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Initially, she was pleased that he would be presiding over the case and even wrote articles saying he was a champion of the rights of the accused to receive exculpatory evidence from the prosecution.

She took over the case from Covington and Burling approximately a year ago. Powell said in speaking with General Flynn, she was convinced he was innocent. Therefore no plea deal was going to be appropriate. From the government’s filings, Powell knew there was Brady evidence that had never been provided to Flynn’s legal team.

She filed a lengthy brief detailing the Brady evidence she was seeking and felt confident it would be granted. To her shock, Judge Sullivan did not order the production of the documents the government had listed in their filing. He denied every single one in a scathing response to her motion.

Powell was not aware U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen from the Eastern District of Missouri had been appointed by Attorney General Bill Barr to review the case. However, she began to receive Brady material as a result of that investigation. She also indicated it is her belief that some of what she has received came from the investigation of the U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is looking into the origins of the Russian collusion investigation.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2020/06/29/sidney-powell-drops-a-bomb-or-two-on-the-glaring-problems-with-the-flynn-case-n588095

Biden Pledges To ‘Restore’ U.S./WHO Relationship ‘For all its shortcomings, missteps’

Former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden held his first press conference in 89 days on Tuesday.

Speaking to the public from Wilmington, Deleware, Biden accused the President of mishandling the COVID-19 outbreak and explained a number of corrections he’d make to his policies, including increasing testing and contact tracing capabilities, and “restoring” the country’s relationship with the World Health Organization, recognizing that the organization’s had it’s ‘shortcomings and missteps.’

“We have to immediately restore our relationship with the World Health Organization for all its shortcomings and missteps over COVID-19. This is why WHO was created. It is essential to coordinating a global response during a pandemic. And the United States should be leading that response as we had in the past,” Biden said.

He added, “COVID-19 will likely worsen at the outset of flu season this year, so we need to put in place measures now, now to ensure the seasonal flu vaccine can be ready, available, and administered safely to those who need it under social distancing guidelines, especially for seniors.”

https://saraacarter.com/biden-pledges-to-restore-u-s-who-relationship-for-all-its-shortcomings-missteps/

‘We may all be moving to Canada soon,’ Schiff says at disinformation and election interference talk

On fighting online disinformation ahead of 2020 election, Schiff says Google-YouTube's strategy is to 'avoid the scrutiny of the other platforms and disclose as little as possible'

Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence committee, said Monday that he might want to move to Canada, during a discussion about disinformation and election interference on social media platforms.

“We may all be moving to Canada soon,” he said during the discussion on "Social Media Disinformation and Election Interference," organized by George Washington University.

The California Democrat made the comment before the moderator moved the discussion to Dominic LeBlanc, a member of the Canadian Parliament.

Schiff, who was one of the House’s impeachment managers in the case against President Trump, said he remains most concerned about Russian interference on social media heading into the November election and big tech’s handling of the issue.

The congressman's office was not available for comment before the publication of this story.

Reflecting on a recent House Intelligence committee hearing with social media companies, Schiff said he gets “the sense that there's something going on at Twitter, that maybe, we've reached the last straw for what the management of Twitter can take, in terms of what they're seeing how their platform is being used.”

He also said that Facebook will “need to be pulled and dragged into this era of corporate responsibility. The economic incentives are simply too powerful for continuation of the status quo.”

He shared his impression of Google after the hearing on foreign influence and election security took place.

“I, until proven otherwise, have the sense with respect to Google-YouTube that their strategy is to avoid the scrutiny of the other platforms and disclose as little as possible,” he said. "It’s not unlike the — although I'm sure they won't appreciate this analogy — the president's view that if you don't test it, there is no virus. If they don't discuss it, if they don't reveal it, there is no problem, and so nothing I guess from the hearing shook those impressions, but time will tell.”

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/we-may-all-be-moving-canada-soon-schiff-says-disinformation-and-election

Close To Half Of All Working Age Adults In The United States Do Not Have A Job Right Now

There is a lot of talk about the “unemployment rate” these days, but the way that it is calculated has become so convoluted that it is not really that meaningful anymore. Even during the so-called “good times”, more than 100 million U.S. adults were not working, but we were told that the unemployment rate was the lowest that it had been in decades. Of course now everything has changed. Since this pandemic began, more than 47 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits, and the mainstream media is going to make sure that fear of COVID-19 continues to paralyze our society for the foreseeable future.

In this article, I would like to discuss the employment-population ratio. According to Wikipedia, the employment-population ratio is “a statistical ratio that measures the proportion of the country’s working age population that is employed”. I believe that it is a far more accurate measurement than the “unemployment rate” is, and we have seen this ratio move quite dramatically over the past couple of months. According to CNBC, the employment-population ratio hit 52.8 percent in May, and that means that 47.2 percent of all working age Americans did not have a job…

Nearly half of the population is still out of a job showing just how far the U.S. labor market has to heal in the wake of the coronavirus.

The employment-population ratio — the number of employed people as a percentage of the U.S. adult population — plunged to 52.8% in May, meaning 47.2% of Americans are jobless, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the coronavirus-induced shutdowns tore through the labor market, the share of population employed dropped sharply from a recent high of 61.2% in January, farther away from a post-war record of 64.7% in 2000.

As you can see on this chart, we are definitely in unchartered territory.

We have never seen a collapse of this magnitude in all of U.S. history, and it has been truly horrifying to watch so many people lose their jobs.

It would be difficult to overstate just how far we have fallen. One analyst has pointed out that it would take 30 million new jobs for the employment-population ratio to return to the peak that we witnessed all the way back in 2000…

“To get the employment-to-population ratio back to where it was at its peak in 2000 we need to create 30 million jobs,” Torsten Slok, Deutsche Bank’s chief economist, said in an email.

Of course before we can start adding jobs we have got to stop the bleeding first, and at this point more than a million Americans continue to file new claims for unemployment benefits each and every week.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/close-to-half-of-all-working-age-adults-in-the-united-states-do-not-have-a-job-right-now/

The Fall of Eliot Engel: Israel-Firster Defeated in Congressional Primary

Sometimes listening to the morning news on television is a bit like entering into an alternate universe. Last Wednesday, the day after primary elections in New York State, CBS News reported that New York Congressman Eliot Engel was “facing a challenge” from Democratic Party challenger Jamaal Bowman. NBC News reported that Engel was “trailing.” The reality, according to the New York Times tally of the results that morning was that Bowman had beaten Engel by a margin to 60.9% versus 35.6% with more than 82% of votes counted. Even though it posted the numbers, the Times felt compelled to describe the apparently impending lopsided loss as if it were something less than that, as a “stiff challenge” for Engel.

The media deference to Engel derives from the fact that he is a protected species, possibly the leading Israel-firster in Congress. In 2003, Engel supported the invasion of Iraq and in the following year he organized a group of fellow congressmen to demand cuts in the U.S. contribution to the United Nations office that assists Palestinian refugees. He attended the infamous Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address to Congress in 2015 that many other Democratic lawmakers boycotted due to the insult to President Obama and afterwards called Netanyahu’s speech “compelling.”

Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Andrew Cuomo and Nancy Pelosi all had endorsed Engel, who has been in Congress for going on 32 years and currently heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Clinton explained that Engel “…is deeply committed to working with our allies to maintain American leadership on the global stage.” She was, of course, referring to Israel.

Engel was also endorsed by the Congressional Black Caucus even though Bowman is black, a demonstration of how politics in Washington works. Engel will in any event likely be replaced to chair the Foreign Affairs committee by a similar Jewish Israel-firster Brad Sherman of California, but his imminent defeat has already sent a shockwave through the centers of pro-Israel power in the United States.

Bowman, a progressive so-called Justice Democrat, is on record as favoring cuts in aid for Israel based on its human rights record. He has attacked Engel for being on the dole financially from defense contractors and also for being an active promoter of a military attack on Iran, even though the Iranians pose no threat to the United States. He has, in fact, made Israel something of an issue in his campaign, pointing out that Engel had been one of the few Democratic members of the House of Representatives to vote against President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. The JCPOA was the major foreign policy achievement of the Obama Administration and it set up a framework to prevent Iran from taking steps to produce a nuclear weapon. It was strongly opposed by Israel and its American lobby even though the agreement enhanced U.S. national security.

In 2016, after the Obama administration abstained on a United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, Engel responded with a House resolution condemning the U.N. Engel often in his career has boasted about his close relationship with Israel. Speaking at the 2018 national convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the U.S.’s principal Israeli lobby, he boasted how“There’s a bunch of legislation coming out of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I want to tell you that I sit down with AIPAC on every piece of legislation that comes out. I think it’s very, very important. In the past 30 years I have attended 31 consecutive AIPAC conferences in March, I haven’t missed one.” Some might suggest that serving in one country’s legislature and working for the interests of another country amounts to treason.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/eliot-engel-israel-firster-defeated-congressional-primary/5717160

The Department of Justice Warns of Inaccurate Flyers and Postings Regarding the Use of Face Masks and the Americans with Disabilities Act

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-warns-inaccurate-flyers-and-postings-regarding-use-face-masks-and

Department of Justice And Federal Trade Commission Issue New Vertical Merger Guidelines

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-and-federal-trade-commission-issue-new-vertical-merger-guidelines

DOJ moves forward in stripping Big Tech of Section 230 protections

In accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order concerning Big Tech censorship, the Department of Justice has put forth new guidelines urging tech companies to more fairly “police” the content that passes through their digital platforms.

Because several of Trump’s tweets have been “fact-checked” or removed in recent weeks, Attorney General William Barr has finally decided to take action in addressing a problem that has plagued the “Big Three” – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – for years.

Conservatives especially have been repeatedly targeted for sharing “misinformation” online, resulting in many of their pages being shadow-banned or removed. This is what happened to Natural News and the Health Ranger, as you are probably aware.

Since this type of selective censorship is showing no signs of relenting any time soon, AG Barr is ready to modify the qualifications for immunity that many tech companies currently hold under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

“Several online platforms have transformed into some of the nation’s largest and most valuable companies, and today’s online services bear little resemblance to the rudimentary offerings in 1996,” the department stated in a recent announcement.

“With the realities of the modern internet,” it went on to state, the time is ripe to adjust tech company immunity and better protect online free speech and the First Amendment.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/doj-moves-forward-in-stripping-big-tech-of-section-230-protections/

Israel: Fountain at Donald Trump Square turned blood-red in protest against annexation

Incident comes two days before the Israeli government is expected to reveal its plans for annexation of large swathes of the occupied West Bank

The fountain of Donald Trump Square in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva was vandalised on Sunday evening, Israeli police said on Monday, with the water turned blood-red by activists who also sprayed graffiti reading “Annexation will cost us blood”.

The incident came two days before the official date when the Israeli government was expected to reveal its plans for unilateral annexation of around one-third of the occupied West Bank.

The coalition government, currently led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has claimed that its plan for annexation - a move deemed in violation of international law - is compatible with US President Donald Trump’s much criticised Israel-Palestine plan.

Revealed in January, the plan by Trump's pro-Israel administration proposes that Israel stakes permanent claims to one-third of the West Bank, while offering the Palestinian Authority limited sovereignty over disjointed patches of land for a Palestinian state.

Israeli police said it was investigating the incident in Petah Tikva. The identities of those who tampered with the fountain were not announced.

"The vandalisation of public property is a nefarious act, which must be ripped out by its roots,” Petah Tikva's mayor, Rami Greenberg, was quoted by Israeli media as saying.

Avi Berkowitz and Scott Leith, two special advisers to US President Trump, arrived on Monday in Israel.

The US has repeatedly said that annexation is an Israeli matter, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stating last week that “decisions about Israelis extending sovereignty to those places are decisions for the Israelis to make”.

However, Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has reportedly asked Netanyahu to "greatly slow the process" of annexation as Washington struggles to contain the coronavirus outbreak while facing nationwide protests over police brutality and racism.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-donald-trump-fountain-blood-red-west-bank-annexation

First You Bomb and Starve a Country. Then You’re Praised for Sending in Aid.

The perverse diplomatic charade of Saudi Arabia starting a fire then getting credit for providing fire blankets.

The United Nations describes itself in its charter as an international moral authority created to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” But activists who are trying to end the U.S. war on Yemen say that, in a dark twist on this mission, the international body is withholding criticism from the U.S.-Saudi military coalition, and effusively praising its leaders, to avoid jeopardizing donations to humanitarian funds aimed at helping ease the suffering created by that war. As Jehan Hakim, the chair of the Yemeni Alliance Committee, puts it, “The same hand we’re asking to feed Yemen is the same hand that is helping bomb them.”

On June 15, UN Secretary-General António Guterres removed the U.S.-Saudi military coalition, which has been waging war in Yemen for more than five years, from an international blacklist of states and armed groups responsible for killing and maiming children, in a huge P.R. win for Saudi Arabia. He cited a supposed decrease in child killings, even as he acknowledged the coalition was responsible for killing 222 children last year, 171 of them from bombings—a number that certainly does not include the toll of famine and disease outbreaks (including Covid-19) worsened by the war and blockade. The UN’s move provoked instant rebuke from anti-war and humanitarian organizations, particularly as it coincided with reports that, the same day the report came out, the U.S.-Saudi coalition had bombed a vehicle in northern Yemen, killing 13 civilians, four of them children.

Hassan El-Tayyab, lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a progressive lobby organization, tells In These Times that the move has a simple explanation.

“To me,” he says, “it’s really clear what they’re trying to do: They’re trying to curry favor so that Saudi Arabia will pony up more money for Yemen to keep humanitarian aid going.”

El-Tayyab’s theory is supported by a number of indicators. In June 2016, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon publicly admitted that he removed Saudi Arabia from the same “child-killer list” in the UN’s 2015 report in response to unspecified threats to pull funding from UN programs. (Media outlets found these threats came from Saudi Arabia, one of the largest UN donors in the Middle East.)

“The report describes horrors no child should have to face,” Ban said at a press conference in 2016. “At the same time, I also had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many UN programs.”

Despite this admission, Ban did not immediately restore the U.S.-Saudi coalition to the blacklist, although it was eventually returned.

But there are more recent indicators to draw on. On June 2, the UN co-hosted a virtual donors’ summit with Saudi Arabia to raise money for humanitarian relief in Yemen, which is being devastated by Covid-19, in large part because the U.S.-Saudi coalition has decimated its hospital system, and a Saudi-led blockade is cutting off critical medical supplies. Guterres, who made the recent decision to scrub Saudi Arabia from the blacklist, gave the opening remarks for the event.

“I thank the Government of Saudi Arabia for co-hosting this pledging event, and for your continued commitment to humanitarian aid to the people of Yemen,” he said.

Saudi Arabia was the highest donor at the event, pledging a token $500 million in aid, the exact amount of money Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, spent on his personal yacht. The United States pledged $225 million, or less than the cost of three of the numerous F35 fighter jets the U.S. military has purchased from Lockheed Martin.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/first-you-bomb-starve-country-then-praised-sending-aid/5717333

Why Egypt is staying quiet on Israel’s West Bank annexation plan

Facing numerous crises at home and abroad, Cairo cannot afford to alienate Israel and the United States

Two weeks ago, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi flew by helicopter to visit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his presidential palace in Ramallah.

His Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, was also invited along. Photos from the event were meant to feature two of Israel’s neighbors at Abbas’s side. Both nations have fought multiple wars with Israel, both have signed historic peace treaties with the Jewish state, and both would reaffirm their commitment to the Palestinian cause and opposition to Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the West Bank.

But when the time came, one face was missing from the picture. Shoukry canceled his plans to attend in deference to other pressing issues on the Egyptian docket, senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub confirmed at a press conference in Ramallah last Sunday.

Shoukry’s failure to show up may symbolize the embattled Egyptian government’s ambivalent attitude toward Israel’s plan. While Egypt has expressed concern about annexation, the Palestinian cause may no longer be the regime’s main priority.

“There are far more substantial crises facing Egypt today: the coronavirus crisis and its attendant economic consequences, Turkish military intervention on Egypt’s longest border, the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. All of these crises take priority over annexation,” said Ofir Winter, who studies Egyptian-Israeli relations at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

More

https://www.timesofisrael.com/why-egypt-is-staying-quiet-on-israels-west-bank-annexation-plan/

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