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***

Guest is Karen Kingston, a Biotech Analyst and med-legal advisor with over 20 years of experience driving blockbuster commercialization efforts for medical devices and prescription therapies. She was once a Cardiovascular Sales Representative for the Northeast Region of New York at Pfizer.

This session is about the crossover study in which Pfizer injected as many infants and toddlers as parents would basically allow.
The results suggest devastating consequences of this study: stunningly few “subjects” aged 6 months to 4 years showed up for their first study visit, which was scheduled a week after the third dose.

According to the EUA document, many infants and toddlers suffered epilepticus, meaning multiple seizures per day, some of which were associated with permanent brain damage confirmed by EEG.

*

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Five E-Books Now Available on Global Research!

July 14th, 2022 by The Global Research Team

Global Research is glad to announce our publication of five e-Books. 

They are made available free of charge with a view to reaching out to people worldwide.

We are envisaging a PDF version of these e-Books that can be downloaded straight to your devices; in the meantime, you can read them on our website, www.globalresearch.ca. They are accessible in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website drop down menu on the top banner of our homepage (desktop version only).

 

 

 


Global WAR-NING! Geoengineering Is Wrecking Our Planet and Humanity

Edited by Prof. Claudia von Werlhof

After more than one year of “lockdowns” all over the world, the issue of “global warming” and “climate change” is back on the table of the international debate.

It seems that natural catastrophes have started to surround us everywhere – from the animal world next to us as well as from the sky above us. Is “nature” the enemy that has to be combatted today, be it by vaccinating humanity against the coronavirus that allegedly jumped out of the wilderness attacking us, be it by tearing down industrial production and consumption in order to avoid the alleged greenhouse gas CO2 emissions, being officially identified as the sole culprit of a so-called global warming? Or be it by applying methods of an alleged civil “geoengineering” against an ongoing climate change that seems to threaten the world?

Click here to read the e-Book.


The 2020-22 Worldwide Corona Crisis: Destroying Civil Society, Engineered Economic Depression, Global Coup d’État and the “Great Reset”

By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

In the course of the last 22 months starting in early January 2020, I have analyzed almost on a daily basis the timeline and evolution of the COVID crisis. From the very outset in January 2020, people were led to believe and accept the existence of a rapidly progressing and dangerous epidemic.

I suggest you first read the Highlights, the Preface and Introduction before proceeding with Chapters II through XIII.

Each of the thirteen chapters provides factual information as well as analysis on the following topics:

  • What Is COVID-19, what is SARS-CoV-2, how is it identified, how is it estimated?
  • The timeline and historical evolution of the Corona Crisis,
  • The devastating economic and financial impacts,
  • The enrichment of a social minority of billionaires,
  • Social engineering and the destabilization of the institutions of civil society
  • How the lockdown policies trigger unemployment and mass poverty Worldwide,
  • The devastating impacts on mental health.

Click here to read the e-Book.


The US-NATO War of Aggression Against Yugoslavia

By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

This e-Book is a retrospect. It takes the reader back in history. Several of the texts were written at the height of 1999 bombing campaign or shortly thereafter.

Twenty-two years ago in the early hours of March 24, 1999, NATO began the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. “The operation was code-named “Allied Force ” – a cold, uninspired and perfectly descriptive moniker” according to Nebosja Malic.

In 1999, when Belgrade was bombed, the children’s hospital was the object of air attacks. It had been singled out by military planners as a strategic target.

NATO stated that to “save the lives” of the newly borne, they did not bomb the section of the hospital where the babies were residing, instead they targeted the building which housed the power generator, which meant no more power for the incubators. What this meant that was that the entire hospital was for all sakes and purposes destroyed and many of the children died.

I visited that hospital, one year after the bombing in June 2000 and saw with my own eyes how they did it with utmost accuracy. These are war crimes using NATO’s so-called smart bombs.

Click here to read the e-Book.


Our Species Is Being Genetically Modified. Are We Witnessing Humanity’s March Toward Extinction? Viruses Are Our Friends, Not Our Foes

By David Skripac

When the alleged “pandemic” was declared in March of 2020, I, like millions of other people around the world, was paying close attention to politicians and public health officials as well as to bureaucrats from the Rockefeller Foundation-created World Health Organization (WHO), all of whom announced, in almost perfect synchronicity, “This is the new normal until a vaccine can be developed.”

How odd, I thought. Why is it that the immediate default position is a vaccine? And why is it that a single coronavirus is being blamed for causing people to fall ill in every corner of the earth? Could something else—perhaps one or more toxins in the environment—be the real culprit?

Click here to read the e-Book.


History of World War II: Operation Barbarossa, the Allied Firebombing of German Cities and Japan’s Early Conquests

By Shane Quinn

The first two chapters focus on German preparations as they geared up to launch their 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, called Operation Barbarossa, which began eight decades ago. It was named after King Frederick Barbarossa, a Prussian emperor who in the 12th century had waged war against the Slavic peoples. Analysed also in the opening two chapters are the Soviet Union’s preparations for a conflict with Nazi Germany.

The remaining chapters focus for the large part on the fighting itself, as the Nazis and their Axis allies, the Romanians and Finns at first, swarmed across Soviet frontiers in the early hours of 22 June 1941. The German-led invasion of the USSR was the largest military offensive in history, consisting of almost four million invading troops. Its outcome would decide whether the post-World War II landscape comprised of an American-German dominated globe, or an American-Soviet dominated globe. The Nazi-Soviet war was, as a consequence, a crucial event in modern history and its result was felt for decades afterward and, indeed, to the present day.

Click here to read the e-Book.


Please help us in this endeavor. Kindly forward to family, friends, colleagues, and your respective communities.

If you wish to make a donation to support the e-Book Project click below.

 

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The Global Research Team

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Video: Dutch Farmers Rise Up Against Food System ‘Reset’

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, July 13, 2022

The Netherlands intends to halve its nitrogen and ammonia pollution by 2030. To reach that goal, the Finance and Agriculture Ministry now wants to reduce the number of livestock by 30%. As a result, many farmers will be driven out of business. As with current energy shortages, the resulting reductions in farming are said to be an “unavoidable” part of the Green Agenda to improve air, soil and water quality.

Handling International Crises: From JFK to Biden

By Rick Sterling, July 13, 2022

Since Biden appointed the chief architect of the Ukraine coup, Victoria Nuland, to be the third top official at the State Department, one cannot realistically expect a change in policy from this administration.

Chris Hedges: NATO — The Most Dangerous Military Alliance on the Planet

By Chris Hedges, July 13, 2022

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the arms industry that depends on it for billions in profits, has become the most aggressive and dangerous military alliance on the planet. Created in 1949 to thwart Soviet expansion into Eastern and Central Europe, it has evolved into a global war machine in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Alert: New York State Sets Dangerous Precedent for Draconian Quarantine Regulations

By Sara Middleton, July 13, 2022

A sobering precedent is now in force in New York state.  Going far and beyond the official guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – that is, stay home and isolate for 5 to 10 days if you test positive for COVID-19 – the New York governor and those in her corner want to exert an unimaginable level of control over its free citizens.

Soaring Energy Exports Send Russia’s Account Surplus to Record High

By Julianne Geiger, July 13, 2022

Russia’s account surplus reached a new record for the second quarter, according to data released by the central bank cited by Bloomberg. The surplus, now more than $70 billion, comes on the back of surging oil and gas—and other commodities as well—exports, which outweighed the sanctions placed on the country by Western powers.

Akron, Ohio Declares State of Emergency After the Police Execution of Jayland Walker

By Abayomi Azikiwe, July 13, 2022

Protests have continued in Akron, Ohio after the June 27 police killing of Jayland Walker, 25, who had 90 bullets fired at him by officers, 60 of those rounds struck the victim. After the release of a police video of the shooting of Walker, who was unarmed, people poured into the streets to demand justice for the African American motorist.

Dismantling the U.S. Constitution: Police No Longer Have to Honor “The Right to Remain Silent”

By John W. Whitehead and Nisha Whitehead, July 13, 2022

Although the Supreme Court stopped short of overturning its 1966 ruling in Miranda v. Arizona, the conservative majority declared that individuals cannot hold police accountable for violating their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

Vicarious Zeal: Fighting to the Last Ukrainian

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, July 13, 2022

On May 1, after travelling to Kyiv, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised the colours.  “America,” she declared with earnestness, “stands with Ukraine until victory is won.”  She made little effort to expound on what this would entail, be it the expulsion of Russian forces from all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, or the “meat grinder” solution, leaving Kyiv and Moscow to bleed, weakening the latter and strengthening NATO security over a dead generation.

European Union Finally Admits COVID-19 Vaccines Destroy Your Immune System

By Arsenio Toledo, July 13, 2022

The European Union (EU) has finally admitted that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines destroy the immune system and make people more susceptible not just to COVID but to all diseases. According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), taking booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines every four months could weaken the immune system and tire people out.

Beware the Prophets of Doom – Organic Food, Fertilisers and Fossil Fuels

By Colin Todhunter, July 13, 2022

Much has been written in recent months about supply chain crises stemming from the conflict in Ukraine and the effects on gas and oil. Perhaps up to two thirds of the global population are reliant on nitrogen-based synthetic fertilisers for much of their food. As a result, alarm bells have been ringing over fertiliser and food shortages, which will hit the world’s poorest the worst.

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Handling International Crises: From JFK to Biden

July 13th, 2022 by Rick Sterling

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

 

Since Biden appointed the chief architect of the Ukraine coup, Victoria Nuland, to be the third top official at the State Department, one cannot realistically expect a change in policy from this administration.

There are significant parallels between the international crises in Cuba in 1962 and Ukraine today. Both involved intense confrontations between the USA and the Soviet Union or Russia. Both involved third-party countries on the doorstep of a major power. The Cuban Missile Crisis threatened to lead to WW3, just as the Ukraine crisis does today.

Cuban Missile Crisis and  the current crisis in Ukraine 

In 1961, the US supported the “Bay of Pigs” invasion of Cuba. Although it failed, Washington’s hostile rhetoric and threats against Cuba continued, and the CIA conducted many failed assassination attempts against Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Cuba, seeking to defend itself, or at least have a means of retaliating in case of another attack, sought missiles from the Soviet Union. The Soviets agreed and began secretly installing the missiles. As a sovereign nation having been attacked and under continuing threat, Cuba had the right to obtain these missiles.

US President John F. Kennedy thought otherwise. Invoking the Monroe Doctrine, he said the missiles endangered the US and must be removed. He imposed an air and sea quarantine on Cuba and threatened to destroy a Soviet ship traveling on the high seas to Cuba. The world was on edge, and there was global fear that World War 3 was about to erupt. In my homeland Canada, we went to bed seriously worried that nuclear war would break out overnight.

Fortunately for humanity, cooler heads prevailed, and there were negotiations. The Soviets agreed to withdraw the missiles in Cuba. In return, JFK agreed to withdraw US missiles in Turkey aimed at the Soviet Union. The Cubans were furious, thinking they had been betrayed and lost their means of defense. But the Soviets had the bigger picture in mind, along with a US commitment to not invade Cuba.

The situation now in Ukraine has similarities. Instead of missiles in Cuba being a threat to the US, NATO in Ukraine is seen as a threat to Russia. NATO has steadily expanded east and installed missiles in Poland and Romania. Since 2008, Russia has explicitly said that Ukrainian militarization by NATO was a red line for them. Kiev is much closer to Moscow than Havana is to Washington. If it was justifiable for JFK to give the ultimatum regarding missiles in Cuba, is it not justifiable for Russia to object to Ukraine being a part of a hostile military alliance?

Different Responses

In 1962, the US and the Soviet Union realized that escalating tensions and hostilities must be avoided, and they turned to negotiations. They found a mutually acceptable compromise.

The situation seems more dangerous today. Instead of seeking an end to the war, the US and NATO are pouring in weapons and encouraging more bloodshed. It appears to be a proxy war with the US prepared to fight to the last Ukrainian. There are calls to escalate the conflict.

Ukraine Background 

Knowing the background to the current crisis is essential to understanding Putin’s actions. Unknown to most Americans, a crucial event took place in 2014 when a violent US-supported coup overthrew the democratically elected Ukrainian government. US State Department official Victoria Nuland handed out cookies as Senator John McCain encouraged the anti-government protesters. In a secretly captured conversation with the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Nuland selected who would run the government after the pending coup. In the final days, opposition snipers killed 100 people on both sides to inflame the situation and “midwife” the coup. Oliver Stone’s video “Ukraine on Fire” describes the background and events.

On the first day in power, the coup government issued a decree that removed Russian as a state language.

Within weeks, Crimea organized a referendum. With 85% participation, 96% voted to leave Ukraine and reunite with Russia. Why did they do this? Because most Crimeans speak Russian as their first language, and Crimea had been part of Russia since 1783. When Soviet premier Khrushchev transferred Crimea from the Russian republic to the Ukrainian republic in 1954, they were all within the Soviet Union.

In Odessa, anti-coup protesters were attacked by ultra-nationalist thugs who killed 48, including many burned alive as they sought refuge in the Trade Unions Hall. In eastern Ukraine, known as the Donbass, the majority of the population also opposed the ultra-nationalist coup government. Civil war broke out, with thousands killed.

With the participation of France, Germany, the Kiev government, and eastern Ukraine rebels, an agreement was reached and approved by the United Nations Security Council. It was called the Minsk Agreement. Russia has repeatedly encouraged the implementation of this agreement. Instead of negotiations and peace, the Kiev government and NATO have done the opposite. Since 2015, there have been more weapons, more threats, more NATO training, more encouragement of ultra-nationalism plus NATO military exercises explicitly designed to threaten and antagonize Russia. This is not speculation; it is described in a 2019 Rand report about “Overextending and Unbalancing Russia.”

Endangering the world

The Biden administration appears to want to prolong the conflict in Ukraine. President Biden declared in a “gaffe” that Putin must be replaced. Defense Secretary Austin has said the US goal is to “weaken Russia”. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinks Afghanistan in the 1980s is a “model” to follow in Ukraine by bogging Russia down in a protracted war. Republican and Democratic senators Graham and Blumenthal visited Kiev on July 7 and called for sending even more weapons. There is evidence that the US and UK have been advising Ukrainian president Zelensky to NOT negotiate.

The Need for Courage and Compromise

With war and bloodshed happening now, we need cooler heads to prevail as in 1962. We can have a LOSE – LOSE situation, endangering the whole world, or a compromise that guarantees Ukrainian independence while providing security assurances to Russia.

JFK had the courage and wisdom to resist the CIA and military generals who wanted to escalate the crisis. Does Joe Biden? There is a huge difference between the two presidents. JFK knew war first hand. He was injured and his brother died in WW2. He became an advocate for peace. It may have cost him his life, but millions of people were saved. In contrast, Joe Biden has been a proponent of every US war of the past three decades.  Not only that, he was a major player in the 2014 Ukraine coup and aftermath.

Since Biden appointed the chief architect of the Ukraine coup, Victoria Nuland, to be the third top official at the State Department, one cannot realistically expect a change in policy from this administration. Neo-cons are in charge.

If we are to avoid disaster, others must speak up and demand negotiations and settlement before the situation spirals out of control.

*

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Rick Sterling is an investigative journalist in the SF Bay Area. He can be contacted at [email protected]. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Al Mayadeen English

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

In the oldest liberal democracy in the World you can win elections with an unparalleled majority of votes and have the strong support of the MPs and party members.  You can survive a series of really serious crises, image gaps and real social and economic problems – but the position of the Prime Minister is decided upon by the Inner Party, responsible only to Big Money and the Plutocracy. 

Last minute coup

And that is not the end yet.  Forced resignation of Boris Johnson has already been hailed in some commentaries as “a triumph of British democracy” and even “success of the parliamentary control”, despite the fact that a month ago the Prime Minister clearly won a no-confidence vote, with support of 59% of Tory MPs.

He was also widely popular among party members remembering who led the Conservative Party to Thatcher-like election triumph.

However, BoJo’s resignation was wanted by the frontbenchers, the party elites understanding perfectly well that they have to either play zero-one now, or the Prime Minister will prevail.

This threat was confirmed when the favourite of Tory sponsors, then the Chancellor Rishi Sunak was hit by the news about his wife’s £20 million tax avoidance.  In April that affair effectively distracted the public from BoJo’s previous problems, and the entire black-PR campaign was evidently carried out with at least the Joy of No 10.

However, the war perspective was probably the key, as it is really difficult to recall the Prime Minister of the War Cabinet, and BoJo has already skillfully used the Ukrainian crisis to disarm the Partygate (Downing Street cheese & alcohol parties during the lockdown period).

So, this was the very last moment for an attack.  That was decisive in the realities of the British Plutocracy and as we can see Johnson’s dismissal had nothing to do with the semblance of liberal democracy, more and more outdated.  Let’s be honest, for the UK, Oligarchy is absolutely natural, … a traditional form of power, so there is no need to hide it anymore.

Long preparations

Candidates for Johnson’s successor have been prepared for months because that’s how long it has taken to grill the Prime Minister.

As we remember, attempts have been made to shoot him off by hunting down the former chief advisor (and now fierce enemy) Dominic Cummings,  called the Father of BREXIT, and discussing the impact of the “work event” with cheese and wine by Downing Street employees on the spread of the Coronavirus.

Johnson, however, has endured so far, though many say that as a Zombie who has not noticed his own death.  In fact, BoJo’s only chance was the war with Russia, and the growing UK military involvement in Ukraine, Baltic States and Poland indicated that Johnson was desperate to accomplish this scenario.  His departure does not mean, however, that there will be no war.

Too early for Joy

War hawks have their favourites, which can also count on the votes of tough BREXITers.  While the Foreign Secretary, Luz Truss already proved in the midst of a war crisis that she is certainly not the sharpest knife in a drawer, the hardliners still have the Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace whose main achievement was to empty the canteen bar of the Scots Guards at a time when he was an officer of this formation.

Wallace has already ruled himself out, but still receives high support in the polls.  Johnson’s main opponents, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid were long considered favourites, but who enters the conclave as a papabile – leaves that as a cardinal,  and backbenchers can remember who tried to overthrow their own Cabinet.

But if the new UK Prime Minister supposed to be a representative of  minorities, so why not Nadhim Zahawi, Mr. Vaccine, who first received BoJo’s nomination for the new Chancellor and then shot the proponent in the back?

On the other hand, if the Tories would like to “Macronise” themselves (i.e. return to David Cameron’s style), then the ideal candidate of the centrist compromise and conservative coolness could be the highly promoted Penny Mordaunt, once a magician’s assistant, who has a skill valued not only in British politics.

Finally, to satisfy those who like when changes do not change anything, there are Jeremy Hunt or even Michael Gove.  The latter is likely to be the last hope of the Spitting Image creators, who lose with BoJo their inexhaustible source of sketches and inspiration.

Return to the 1980s?

Inflation in the UK has already reached 9.1%, what is the worst result since Margaret Thatcher’s first years.

A wave of strikes is sweeping throughout the country, including railroad and transport workers, airport personnel, postmen, even call-centre advisors.  While BREXIT supporters (especially farmers and fishermen) are disappointed in maintaining trade ties with European competitors, many service sectors suffer from restrictions that make economic immigration into lower-paid jobs practically impossible.

In addition, the Government of Scotland called for another independence referendum on the 19th October 2023, despite the disapproval already expressed by Johnson.  With all these problems war still seems to be an attractive form of “escaping forward”.

Of course not for ordinary Britons, who in all polls state that their main problem is the rising cost of living, not theRussian threat.

In fact, when asked directly by the European Council on Foreign Relations pollster, more English, Scottish and Welsh responded that they would support peace now and at all costs, than a peace called “justify” by western governments and the Kiev junta (22% to 21% with as much as 32% hesitating and 26% without a clear opinion). The war BoJo had no time to start can be then too politically expensive for his heir.

Second Crimean War?

However, Westminster’s involvement in sustaining and expanding the conflict with Russia continues to grow.

In Warsaw, Vilnius and Kiev we can notice strong confusion now: will the Eastern Europeans, having declared themselves on the side of the new, British form of Europe organisation of Europe – stay now with their hands in the Queen’s potty, with worthless British guarantees?  The commentators with faster reflexes, have already announced that Vladimir Putin must certainly be behind Johnson’s fall, because who else could?!

And only the most cautious ones point out that the dominant feature of the United Kingdom’s international strategies has always been their stability and consistency, which lasted despite Cabinet, parties and leadership changes, ignoring technical nuances and current small interests.

After all, the UK has neither permanent friends nor permanent enemies, because it has no friends at all, and the enemy is anyone who is assigned such a role by the Empire’s elite.

 

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Konrad Rękas is a renowned geopolitical analyst and a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin extended a fast-track process to obtaining Russian citizenship for all Ukrainians.

A decree signed by Putin says residents of Ukraine and the breakaway Donbas republics “are entitled to appeal for admission to citizenship of the Russian Federation via simplified procedure.”

The decree makes it so that Ukrainians no longer need to meet a series of preconditions to obtain Russian passports, such as taking a Russian language test and living in Russia for five years.

Russia first applied the simplified citizenship process to the Donestk and Luhansk oblasts in the Donbas in 2019. In May, Putin extended the waiver to the southeastern oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, both of which are now mostly controlled by Russia.

According to the UN, over 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled to Russia since Putin launched the invasion on February 24. The decree gives the Ukrainians that have fled to Russia the option of staying regardless of what region they came from.

Ukrainian officials slammed Putin’s move and have accused Russia of forcing Ukrainians to flee to Russian territory.

“The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people, but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and unable to return,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Putin’s decree is also being taken as a signal that the Russian leader is planning to annex Ukrainian territory. Russian-installed officials in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia have both said they’re considering holding a referendum on joining Russia.

*

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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

Featured image is from rusi.org

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

A sobering precedent is now in force in New York state.  Going far and beyond the official guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – that is, stay home and isolate for 5 to 10 days if you test positive for COVID-19 – the New York governor and those in her corner want to exert an unimaginable level of control over its free citizens.

It seems petty that tyrants come up with more and more egregious ways to terrorize citizens.  Is this a preview of what’s to come for the rest of the United States – and is there something we can do to help?

Editor’s UPDATE: The New York State Governor’s forced quarantine regulation has been STRUCK DOWN as unconstitutional by NYS Supreme Court Judge Ronald Ploetz.  It is null, void and unenforceable, and the Court has prohibited the Governor and DOH from continuing to issue the regulation!

This can be viewed as a “victory” but, political tyrants won’t stop with their desire to lockdown and control the population.  We must remain vigilant in protecting our freedoms.  Stay tuned to NaturalHealth365, as we continue to monitor these situations.

New York State can now send you and your children into forced quarantine – even if you’re not “sick”

Thanks to an April 2022 update to the New York Codes, Rules, and Regulations, the NY Commissioner of Health or appointed alternatives can now force people to isolate or quarantine for the suspicion of carrying a “highly communicable disease,” a pathetically broad category in which even the common cold falls.

Found within Section 2.13 Isolation and Quarantine Procedures of regulation 10 NYCRR 2.3, the updated document states that isolation “may include home isolation or such other residential or temporary housing location.”

It adds that any attending physician who discovers a “case or suspected case of a highly contagious reportable communicable disease” (emphasis ours) must “cause the patient to be appropriately isolated and contact the State Department of Health and the local health authority where the patient is isolated and, if different, the local health authority where the patient resides.”

“Whenever appropriate,” the regulations continue, the State Department of Health or local health authority shall “coordinate with local law enforcement to ensure that [individuals forced into quarantine or isolation] comply with the order.”

What this means, minus the legal jargon:

The NY Department of Health or other officials now have full discretion over who can be sent to quarantine camps and detention centers – and they do not even need to confirm that detained individuals are actually sick. Being suspected of being sick is good enough for them.

There is no time limit, age limit, or location limit regarding these isolation and quarantine camps – these decisions are up to the state government now.

According to Bobbie Anne Cox, an attorney who filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court back in April regarding these draconian measures (and is doing so pro bono), this exact same power grab was attempted by a NY legislator several years ago in NYS – but at the time the proposed bill received not a single co-sponsor.

Today’s updated regulations are blatantly unconstitutional and an “outrageous assault” on individual liberty, according to Dr. Peter R. Breggin, MD, who recently interviewed Cox.  He adds that Cox’s efforts are essential for putting an end to this frightening march toward Orwell’s 1984-type reality for America.

Get Involved – here’s how

New York citizens are on the precipice of losing their freedoms, and it’s naive to assume this new power grab won’t cross state borders.

This cannot be overstated.  Imagine the precedent this is setting, especially in a world where monkeypox, the flu, threats of smallpox, and SARS-CoV-2 (still hanging on by a thread in the media) are constantly blasted on the news, stirring up fear and chaos.

Who knows how much harder public health officials, politicians, and global elites will push for more control over the lives of sovereign individuals.  We do know that taking action is one of the only things we can possibly do to try to turn the tide on these egregious violations of our individual rights and freedoms.

To join the fight against New York state officials – including Governor Hochul, DOH Commissioner Bassett, the Department of Health, and the Public Health & Health Planning Council – consider joining Uniting NYS and promoting their cause.

*

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Video: Dutch Farmers Rise Up Against Food System ‘Reset’

July 13th, 2022 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

The Netherlands intends to halve its nitrogen and ammonia pollution by 2030. To reach that goal, the Finance and Agriculture Ministry now wants to reduce the number of livestock by 30%. As a result, many farmers will be driven out of business. As with current energy shortages, the resulting reductions in farming are said to be an “unavoidable” part of the Green Agenda to improve air, soil and water quality

Cattle are fed nitrogen in the form of crude protein. While protein is an essential nutrient for cows, nitrogen is not efficiently broken down by cattle, so a lot of it is excreted in the urine and feces as urea. When urine and feces get mixed together, the urea is converted into ammonia

Since the amount of ammonia produced is related to the crude protein the animals are fed, one suggested way to lower the ammonia is to reduce the amount of crude protein in the animals’ diet. A potential problem with that idea is that cattle have protein requirements just like humans do. If they don’t cut crude protein, they’ll have to downsize their herds, and if smaller herds aren’t financially feasible, they’ll have to shut down altogether

The decision to decimate cattle farming in the name of environmental protection rings hollow in the face of looming food shortages and potential famine worldwide. It appears they’re intentionally trying to make meat so scarce and expensive that regular people can’t afford it. They can then introduce synthetic meat alternatives and insect protein, both of which are part of The Great Reset’s food plan

While the notion of a pollution-free world is an attractive one, ultimately, the Green Agenda isn’t about the environment — it’s about creating a control system in which the world’s resources are owned by the richest of the rich, while the rest of the population is controlled through the allocation of those resources, and that includes the allocation of food

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The Netherlands is currently in an uproar over the government’s decision to reduce the number of livestock by 30% in an effort to halve its nitrogen and ammonia pollution by 2030.1 As a result of this “green” policy, many farmers will be driven out of business.2 As with current energy shortages, the resulting reductions in farming are said to be an “unavoidable” part of the Green Agenda to improve air, soil and water quality.3

The Dutch government has even appointed a new Minister of Nature and Nitrogen to oversee the climate goals.4 Provincial authorities now have one year to work out how they’re going to meet the emission reduction targets.

In a public statement about the new emissions targets, the Dutch government admitted that “The honest message … is that not all farmers can continue their business.”5 Those who do continue will have to come up with creative solutions to meet the new emissions restrictions.

How Do Cows Contribute to Nitrogen and Ammonia Pollution?

Cattle are fed nitrogen in the form of crude protein. While protein is an essential nutrient for cows, nitrogen is not efficiently broken down by cattle, so a lot of it is excreted in the urine and feces as urea. When urine and feces get mixed together, the urea is converted into ammonia.6,7

Since the amount of ammonia produced is related to the crude protein the animals are fed, one suggested way to lower the ammonia is to reduce the amount of crude protein in the animals’ diet. (Other factors such as season also impact ammonia production, but farmers have no control over that.)

A potential problem with that idea is that cattle have protein requirements just like humans do. It’s particularly crucial for healthy development, muscle growth and lactation. As noted in a 2009 paper8 by Jane Parish, a beef cattle specialist in Mississippi, “Providing adequate protein in beef cattle diets is important for animal health and productivity as well as ranch profitability.”

Responsible farmers give their cattle just the right amount, so cutting crude protein could impact both the animals’ health and farm productivity. If they don’t cut crude protein, they’ll have to downsize their herds, and if smaller herds aren’t financially feasible, they’ll have to shut down altogether. Needless to say, many are outraged, as skyrocketing fertilizer and feed costs have already cut profits for farmers and raised prices for consumers.

Curious Timing

As noted in a July 1, 2022, report by Peter Imanuelsen, an independent journalist in Sweden, the timing of this brazen attack on cattle farmers is a curious one, and one that can only really be explained as an intentional strategy to force us into The Great Reset by manufacturing a food crisis:9

“We will likely see even more expensive food next year, and unfortunately probably famines in some parts of the world. So, what do the genius politicians in Europe do? They want to shut down farms because of climate change of course! That will surely help! The cows are farting too much!

That’s not a joke by the way. In New Zealand, they want to implement a tax on cow farts and burps! I really don’t get this. We are facing a food crisis and they want to shut down farms in the name of climate change? I guess they really want you to eat the bugs and be happy. They are working on making meat so expensive that the common people won’t be able to afford it. Are you enjoying The Great Reset?”

In response to the new nitrogen and ammonia restrictions, an estimated 40,000 Dutch farmers have gathered in protest, arguing the attack on farming is irrational and unfair, as other industries responsible for far greater amounts of pollution — such as transport, construction and aviation — aren’t facing the same restrictions.

They’ve blocked a number of highways with tractors and even sprayed manure on the town hall in Lochem.10 Local police have reportedly responded by shooting at some of the farmers. Jimmy Dore reviews the situation in the video above.

What’s Wrong With Nitrogen?

As explained by Plant Based News,11 nitrogen makes up about 78% of the earth’s atmosphere and is essential for life. However, in excess, and in the wrong areas, it can damage the ecosystem. Nitrogen runoff from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and farms using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers can leach into and contaminate water supplies.

Nitrogen runoff can also cause algae blooms when it enters lakes or oceans. This depletes the water of oxygen and creates dead zones where no aquatic life can be sustained. This is why I’ve long advocated against CAFOs and conventional industrial farms that rely on chemicals to grow food.

That doesn’t mean livestock are a blight on the eco system, however. Quite the contrary. Livestock raised in accordance with regenerative agriculture principles will heal and massively improve soil quality and help stabilize the climate. So, it’s not cows per se that are the problem. It’s the industrialization of cattle ranching that causes it to have a negative impact. The answer, then, is not to eliminate meat production. The answer is to transition into a regenerative system.

Since the transition can take a few years, during which profits may be marginal or absent, many farmers hesitate to take this step on their own. Government could facilitate the transition by subsidizing farmers that make the switch, but none have opted to do so. Why? Could it be because regenerative farming is the converse of what The Great Reset is all about?

Dutch Climate Rules Will Cut Meat Availability Across EU

In 2019, the highest administrative court in The Netherlands, the Council of State, ruled the Dutch government was in breach of European Union law that called for stark cuts in nitrogen emissions.12

Following that ruling, some 18,000 infrastructure projects were abandoned in an attempt to meet the EU restrictions. The Dutch government also lowered the maximum daytime speed limit on highways to 100 kilometers an hour (61 mph). All of that still wasn’t enough though, so now the Finance and Agriculture Ministry wants to reduce the number of livestock by 30%.

The Netherlands has a significant number of farmers. In any given year, they raise some 4 million beef cattle alone. But reducing the number of cattle by 30% will not only have ramifications for the Dutch, but all of the EU, because The Netherlands is the largest meat exporter in the EU.13

In September 2021, Rudi Buis, a spokesperson for the Dutch agriculture ministry, told The Guardian:14

“We are a relatively small country with a lot of inhabitants, industry, transport and agriculture, so we are reaching the limits of what nature can take. There is a high level of urgency for us to tackle the nitrogen compounds problem. This means that in the near future, choices must be made.”

Apparently, the option they’ve chosen is starvation and nutritional deficiencies for all. The saddest part of it is that eliminating meat production is not going to have the fabulous impact they say it will have. It’s a fraudulent greenwashing enterprise that will destroy humanity instead.

While the notion of a pollution-free world is an attractive one, ultimately, the Green Agenda isn’t about the environment — it’s about creating a control system in which the world’s resources are owned by the richest of the rich, while the rest of the population is controlled through the allocation of those resources, and that includes the allocation of food.

The Global Food Reset Foretold by the Rockefeller Foundation

While looming food shortages are now blamed on climate change and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Rockefeller Foundation discussed coming food shortages as an inevitability back in July 2020, and called for a revamping of the food system to address it. Seeing how true prophets are few and far in between these days, it seems more reasonable to suspect that paper was delineating a known, intentional plan.

The document in question, titled “Reset the Table: Meeting the Moment to Transform the U.S. Food System,”15 was published July 28, 2020. It describes how the COVID pandemic had caused “a hunger and nutrition crisis” in the U.S. “unlike any this country has seen in generations.”

Mind you, COVID was declared a pandemic March 11, 2020, so by the time this Rockefeller report was published, the pandemic had only existed for four months, and while certain high-risk groups did experience food insecurity, such as children whose primary meal is a school lunch, widespread food shortages, in terms of empty shelves, were not widely prevalent or particularly severe in the U.S.

The title itself is also revealing, as it’s a clear play on The Great Reset, which was officially announced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Prince of Wales in early June 2020.16 The title alone tells us that the Rockefeller Foundation’s call for a food system reset is part and parcel of the WEF’s Great Reset. Many of the contributors to the Foundation’s paper are WEF members, which further strengthens this connection.

In the foreword,17 Rockefeller Foundation president Dr. Rajiv Shah also stresses that “a comprehensive playbook” to address the food system will also need to address other issues, “such as living wages, housing and transportation,” and that “all of us” — meaning the self-proclaimed designers of the future — “need to write that playbook together over the coming year.” What better way to predict the future than to actually create it?

All of those things — wages, housing and transportation — are all facets that will undergo dramatic revision under The Great Reset’s Fourth Industrial Revolution, as artificial intelligence, robotics, surveillance, social engineering and transhumanism (the merger of man with machine) take over.

Summary Take-Home of ‘Reset the Table’

In summary, “Reset the Table” describes how they intend to seize control of the food supply and the supply chain under the guise of “equity,” “fairness” and “environmental protection.” As noted by ThreadsIrish on Substack:18

“The document is very much framed in the Hegelian dialectic of problem, reaction, solution. Here is the problem that they have created (COVID) and now they want to implement the solution (Transforming the global food supply). Naturally this is all ties into lands being destroyed, climate change and trying to move people back into smart cities (Page 5). Surprise, surprise.”

One key to this enterprise is data collection. They want to collect data on everyone’s spending and eating habits, and to facilitate that data collection, they want to shift everything into an online environment, including education, medicine and the buying of food.

Another key to success is “changes to policies, practices and norms.” The goal is to centralize control of the food supply into a single executive office, which is right in line with the idea of a “one world government.” As WEF member Henry Kissinger once said, “Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.”

From Beef to Crickets

Getting back to the issue of Dutch beef production being strangled, the reason global leaders seem so unconcerned with dwindling meat production is probably because they don’t want us to eat meat. They intend for us to eat lab grown synthetic meat that can be patented, and insects,19 which can easily and inexpensively be produced in mass quantities using very little land.

As noted in a July 2021 WEF article titled, “Why We Need to Give Insects the Role They Deserve in Our Food Systems,”20 insects are “a credible and efficient alternative protein source requiring fewer resources than conventional breeding,” and “a healthy ingredient” that is highly digestible and particularly suitable for senior nutrition.

Insect farming also requires few natural resources, such as water, and could reduce agricultural pollution by nearly 99%. The article points out that the last barrier to making insect burgers the norm is “preconceived ideas about insects as a source of food and legislation with regard to the use and consumption of proteins derived from insects.”

There are indications that “Reset the Table” is promoting a diet of insects as well, because while it stresses the need for a “healthy diet” and “sustainable agriculture,” the words “organic” and “grass fed” do not appear a single time, and the word “natural” is only used in reference to “natural disasters.”

In other words, their versions of “healthy diet” and “sustainable agriculture” do not include what we know are basic criteria for a healthy, nutritious, sustainable and regenerative food supply. The Foundation’s call for changes to “policies, practices and norms” also indicates that the diet they’re talking about involves something that is outside the norm.

Both lab-grown meat and insects are outside the norm of what most people are willing to put in their mouth, and thus policies about what constitutes “food” need to be changed, as do food production practices and social norms about what’s acceptable to eat and what’s not.

Scientists Question Safety of Lab-Grown Meat

While venture capitalists see lab-grown meat alternatives as the cash cow of the future, many scientists are leery. In mid-June 2022, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) held a webinar in which a panel of experts addressed a number of questions surrounding lab-grown meats, including safety and regulatory issues.21

One of the panelists was Michael Hansen, Ph.D., a senior staff scientist with Consumer Reports. He raised concerns about cell-cultured meats, where biopsied cells from an animal are grown in fetal bovine blood (extracted from a live, aborted baby calf).

His main concern revolves around the use of manipulated DNA segments, as that could have unforeseen consequences, but he pointed out that we also have no data on the nutritional composition of this kind of meat. As reported by The Defender:22

“According to Hansen, the piece of flesh biopsied from the animal is an undifferentiated stem cell. The products use bio-engineered proteins in a nutrient solution to induce the cells to differentiate into muscle for meat. This is done in bio-reactor vats similar to those used to make beer.

While scientific papers have covered topics related to cell-cultured meat, Hansen said, none has actually analyzed the nutritional characteristics of the finished product, and academics have not received samples. This implies ‘problems behind the scenes,’ Hansen said, adding, ‘I doubt this technology will work.'”

Tom Neltner, chemicals policy director at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), was also part of the panel. Neltner noted that while sustainable protein sources are needed, lab-grown meats will be proprietary, meaning the full ingredients list and how they’re made is a trade secret, so “We won’t know their effect or what they are.” The Defender added:23

“The concept of proprietary foodstuffs … led the panelists to address the regulation of cell-cultured meat and the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which one panelist called a ‘captured’ agency.

Neltner said he worried cell-cultured meat could be ushered into the food supply under the FDA’s Generally Recognized As Safe program. Under the program, a company simply tells the FDA its product is safe, based on the company’s own documentation, and bypasses the public comment process.’

Neltner, whose primary focus at the EDF is food additive safety, said he preferred companies be required to submit to the FDA a ‘food additive petition,’ which includes a ‘right to challenge.’

Panelists also raised concerns about the effects novel ingredients may have on aspects of the human microbiome. Hansen pointed out that 10 years ago, we could not culture and study microbiome components. But now we can, and it’s important that we know these effects.

For example, Hansen said, it is now known that the genome and genes themselves can be affected by epigenetic changes without even touching the DNA …

Hansen said biopsied cells of an animal used in cell-cultured meat do not contain the immunity actions from the animal’s immune system, which could leave bio-reactor vats susceptible to bacteria like salmonella, fungi and worse unless antibiotics are used. Cell-cultured meat producers claim they may not have to add antibiotics, although even alcohol distillers have to add them to their vats, Hansen said.”

Prepare for Food Shortages

Everything now points to food shortages and famine becoming a reality in many parts of the world, including the U.S. and Europe.24 As yet, stores are still fairly well stocked with essentials, but that will change come winter and into 2023. This means you may only have another six months or so to stock up.

This past Monday, I published an article with suggestions for how to prepare. That article, “Get Prepared With Shelf-Stable Foods,” will be made available for free on Substack, so if you missed it, you can review it now.

*

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Notes

1, 4, 9, 10 Substack, The Freedom Corner with PeterSweden July 1, 2022

2 Bloomberg June 28, 2022

3, 5 Indian Express July 3, 2022

6 Science Daily June 29, 2016

7 Penn State Nitrogen from the Farm

8 Cattle Business in Mississippi April 2009, Protein Requirements of Beef Cattle

11, 12, 13 Plant Based News September 27, 2021

14 The Guardian September 9, 2021

15 Rockefeller Foundation Reset the Table

16 Weforum June 3, 2020

17 Rockefeller Foundation Reset the Table (PDF) Foreword

18 ThreadsIrish June 18, 2022

19, 20 WEF July 12, 2021

21, 22, 23 The Defender June 27, 2022

24 Substack Maajid Nawaz April 25, 2022

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***

The EU has frozen Russian assets worth €13.8 billion since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but this large sum remains largely untouched across the bloc, a high-ranking European Commission official said on Tuesday (12 July).

“For the moment, we have frozen – coming from oligarchs and other entities – €13.8 billion, so it’s quite huge,” European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told reporters in Prague.

“But I must say that a very large part of it, more than €12 billion (…), is coming from five member states,” he said, refusing to name the five countries, adding that he expected other member states to step up their efforts soon.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner put the value of assets frozen by the country alone at €4.48 billion in mid-June.

At the end of June, an international sanctions task force said its members, including several EU countries, had blocked $30 billion in assets belonging to Russian oligarchs and officials.

The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force (REPO) said its members, who also include the US, Canada, Britain, Japan and other allies, had immobilised $300 billion owned by the Russian central bank.

The EU has so far adopted six sanction packages against Russia, including a ban on most Russian oil imports approved in early June.

A total of 98 companies and 1,158 individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, have seen their property frozen and been banned from entering the EU.

Exploring to seize

However, as the financial reconstruction of Ukraine will require huge sums to rebuild the country after the war, the EU and member states are increasingly looking for ways how to potentially use frozen assets for this purpose.

Ukraine’s Justice Minister Denys Maliuska in Prague on Tuesday repeated calls for seized assets to be used to cover compensation for war damages.

“Currently they are protected by sovereign immunity, but our understanding is that assets of a state (that) started a war, committed aggression, shall not be protected by sovereign immunity,” he said.

“We are suffering from economic losses, and it does not make sense to cover all those losses with Ukrainian or European taxpayers’ money,” Maliuska added.

Many member states, for various reasons, are struggling to freeze assets of people sanctioned by the EU for their ties to the Kremlin. Furthermore, they lack legal powers to confiscate frozen assets.

In May, the Commission unveiled plans to make it easier to confiscate frozen assets linked to serious illegal activities and suspected criminals, including those evading EU sanctions against Russia.

Under the proposal, which still has to be approved by EU leaders, the violation of EU restrictive measures would be added to the list of crimes, which would create a legal basis for criminal offences and penalties across the EU.

Such common EU rules, in theory, would make it easier to investigate, prosecute and punish violations and, in the next step, seize assets with the help of the new ‘Freeze and Seize’ Task Force, set up by the Commission in March.

Although EU leaders initially were meant to green-light the European Commission proposal in June, Reynders said on Tuesday he expected a final political agreement after the summer with the policy possibly taking effect in the autumn.

To determine the feasibility of seizures, the European Commission earlier this month gave its approval to a pilot project to explore aspects such as sanction adoption, asset freezes, asset confiscation, and reintroduction of the confiscated assets into the national economy for social use, as well as into the EU budget for public spending in Ukraine.

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Russia’s account surplus reached a new record for the second quarter, according to data released by the central bank cited by Bloomberg.

The surplus, now more than $70 billion, comes on the back of surging oil and gas—and other commodities as well—exports, which outweighed the sanctions placed on the country by Western powers.

The surplus was also bolstered by high prices and decreasing imports—to $72.3 billion in Q1 from $88.7 billion in Q2—thanks to the sanctions, which have a greater effect on imports than on exports.

The sanctions on Russia’s energy exports have made scant progress in restricting funds flowing into Russia that it could use to carry on its aggression in Ukraine. India, for one, is purchasing record amounts of Russian crude oil—to the tune of nearly a million barrels per day as of June—this is about one-fifth of India’s total crude oil imports, according to Reuters.

China has also been importing record amounts of cheap Russian crude during June, even in the midst of Covid lockdowns. Russia is China’s main supplier of crude oil, and neither India nor China is showing signs of reluctance in snapping up Russian crude—a sanctioned commodity by Europe and the United States.

It’s not just oil. Russia is also said to be close to a deal with Brazil to supply the South American country with cheap diesel, Reuters reported on Monday. Brazilian President Bolsonaro, facing a tough reelection in October due to high fuel prices, has enjoyed an amicable relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian exports were $153.1 billion in the second quarter after reaching $166.4 billion in the first quarter.

The United States has plans to discuss a possible oil price cap on Russian crude with major crude oil purchasers like India to garner support for such a plan—a plan that would seek to allow buyers to continue purchasing Russian crude but cap the revenues that Russia receives for those purchases.

*

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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group.

Featured image is from OilPrice.com

Vicarious Zeal: Fighting to the Last Ukrainian

July 13th, 2022 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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***

As the bloody conflict in Ukraine continues, the rhetoric from the imperial spear-holders in Washington and some allies is becoming increasingly fixated with one object: victory against Russia.  Such words should be used sparingly, especially given their binding, and blinding tendencies.  When the term “unconditional surrender” was first used by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the January 1943 Casablanca conference in the context of defeating Nazi Germany, not all cheered.  It meant a fight to the finish, climbing the summit and dictating terms from a blood-soaked peak.

With such language crowning the efforts of the Allies, the Axis powers – certainly Germany and Japan – could continue fighting the war of extermination, aware that no terms they could submit would be taken seriously.  There would be no compromise in this existential confrontation.  It made the Allied advance in Western Europe slower and enabled the Soviet Union to expel German forces and duly occupy most of Eastern Europe.  It made negotiations about whether Japan would retain its emperor on surrendering nigh impossible, leaving the route open for the use of atomic weapons against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The supply of weapons to Ukraine in its efforts against Russia has become a zealous mission that will supposedly achieve victory. Messianic impulses tingle and move through the Washington and London establishment, with some echo in Warsaw and the capitals of the Baltic states.  An air of unreality – be it in terms of negotiating the future of Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation – fills such corridors of power.

On May 1, after travelling to Kyiv, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raised the colours.  “America,” she declared with earnestness, “stands with Ukraine until victory is won.”  She made little effort to expound on what this would entail, be it the expulsion of Russian forces from all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, or the “meat grinder” solution, leaving Kyiv and Moscow to bleed, weakening the latter and strengthening NATO security over a dead generation.

Her remarks did enough to worry Michael T. Klare, defence correspondent for The Nation.  “Nowhere, in her comments or those of other high-ranking officials, is there any talk of a negotiated settlement in Ukraine, only of scenarios leading to Russia’s defeat, at whatever cost in human lives.”

The vagueness of the term has led to grand, sanguinary calls to battle unenlightened Russian barbarism, with the UK and US governments repeatedly calling this a conflict that involves the whole west, even the world.  Peering more closely at the rhetoric, and another sentiment comes to the fore: the desire to bloody Russia vicariously while arms manufacturers take stock.

For over a decade, Ukraine has been something of a plaything in branches of the US State Department, and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman can be found telling the BBC’s Newshour that Russia had to “suffer a strategic failure” in Ukraine.

The checklist for doing so, as outlined by US President Joe Biden, is lengthy.  “We will continue providing Ukraine with advanced weaponry, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, Stinger antiaircraft missiles, powerful artillery and precision rocket systems, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, Mi-17 helicopters and ammunition.”

On this score, the hawks are in the ascendancy.  Anyone uttering the view that a Ukrainian victory would hardly be total, let alone likely, have been reviled, as British military historian and journalist Max Hastings writes.  They are tarred and feathered as either “ultra-realists” or appeasers.

Hard-headed peace talks, let alone anything approximating to negotiations have, as a result, also become taboo.  The early June suggestion by French President Emmanuel Macron that, “We must not humiliate Russia, so that the day the fighting stops, we can build a way out through diplomatic channels” was met with disdain and fury in Kyiv.

The previous month, the world’s oldest Machiavellian devotee, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, dared mention the need for the warring parties to commence talks.  Unconvicted war criminal he may be, his view that “negotiations need to begin in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome” was hardly controversial.  But the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded by foraging in the dustbin of history.  “It seems that Mr Kissinger’s calendar is not 2022, but 1938.”

In Kyiv, the very idea of making a deal with Moscow is being met with revulsion.

“They have killed too many people,” opines Oleksii Movchan of the Ukrainian Parliament representing Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People Party. “They have destroyed too many cities.  They have raped too many women.  If the war stops now and the world tries to accommodate Putin, then international law will have no meaning.”

For the moment, support from the US is taking the form of logistical and material assistance in what has already been called by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a proxy war against Moscow.  With each ghoulish weapons update, we can read about the types of murderous devices used, and how effective they were.  The latest featured an attack on Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region by Ukrainian forces using US-supplied Himars missiles.  Kyiv’s line: the attack was a success, destroying a Russian ammunition depot, killing dozens of Russian military personnel.  The Russian angle: homes and warehouses storing fertiliser had been pulverised, killing five and wounding 80.

Ukrainians have become surrogate democrats and freedom fighters (these terms are not necessarily identical) and Washington is willing to ensure, at least for the moment, that they have the weapons.  Other countries in Europe are willing to keep the borders open to Ukraine’s refugees.  But how long will this last?  Hearts can, in time, harden, leaving way for national self-interest to take hold.  At some point, the weapons will have to be put down, the war making way for the jaw.  Till then, the unofficial policy of fighting to the last Ukrainian will be in vogue.

*

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

Featured image is from OneWorld

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***

Protests have continued in Akron, Ohio after the June 27 police killing of Jayland Walker, 25, who had 90 bullets fired at him by officers, 60 of those rounds struck the victim.

After the release of a police video of the shooting of Walker, who was unarmed, people poured into the streets to demand justice for the African American motorist.

Police claimed that Walker had fired at them during a chase, however, he was not carrying any firearm when he was struck down in the hail of bullets fired by Akron police. The police later claimed they discovered a handgun in Walker’s vehicle after he had already been executed.

This incident represents a continuation of police violence directed towards African Americans across the United States. More than two years since the brutal police killings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis along with the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery by vigilantes in Brunswick, Georgia, the various law-enforcement agencies have been given even more resources by the federal government to carry out their brutal treatment of Black and People of Color Communities.

In fact, Democratic President Joe Biden has repudiated the demand which grew out of the mass demonstrations of 2020 to defund the police. Biden went out of his way during his State of the Union Address earlier in the year to call for more resources being turned over to the police. Substantial amounts of funds which were ostensibly allocated by the U.S. Congress to address the socioeconomic crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, have been turned over to law-enforcement departments around the country.

Akron is a city of 197,000 people, the fifth largest municipality in the state of Ohio within a broader metropolitan area with a population of 703,000, which also encompasses Cleveland and Canton. Once known as the rubber capital of the world due to the role of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, since 1960, Akron as a municipality has lost approximately 100,000 residents. 31.5% of the people living in Akron are African Americans

During the Independence Day weekend, Akron erupted in mass demonstrations and rebellion where several businesses reported property damages. It was reported by local police that 49 people were arrested on July 3-4 and charged with rioting. These developments prompted Mayor Dan Horrigan to declare a state of emergency in Akron.

The Akron Beacon Journal reported on the events saying:

“After Mayor Dan Horrigan and Police Chief Steve Mylett gave a 1 p.m. press conference Sunday (July 3) to discuss the video the city released of Walker’s death, hundreds of people gathered outside Quaker Station on Broadway downtown for an Akron NAACP Community Peace Rally. A large crowd rallied at the Harold K. Stubbs Justice Center downtown at around 10 p.m. As chants demanding justice for Walker continued, some began hurling water bottles and other objects at the building. Despite organizers calling for peace and expelling one person who had pulled down a street sign, the situation grew more hectic as police shot tear gas canisters into crowds of protesters. Protesters fled, while some launched smoke bombs into the streets. One protester began using a bat to break windows of snowplow trucks the city had used to block traffic in front of the Justice Center. On South Main Street windows were smashed and planters overturned. Downtown Akron Partnership President and CEO Suzie Graham said there was damage at 19 properties, with an estimated count of 101 broken doors and windows, as well as a broken pane of glass in a bus shelter.”

State of Emergency Targets Well-known Activists

The unrest in Akron has been downplayed in the national media in the U.S. There was the reporting of the brutal execution of Jayland Walker, yet there has been almost no follow-up on the subsequent demonstrations and arrests. However, other issues have dominated the corporate and government-controlled television, newspaper and radio networks.

Image on the right: Jayland Walker and family (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

Much attention is being paid to the January 6 hearings in the Congress. In addition, a series of mass shootings has shifted the focus to the question of gun control. Not to mention the incessant reporting on the Ukraine war where the actual battlefield events are often characterized in Cold War propaganda terms.

Despite the failure of the White House to make a statement decrying the police killing of Jayland Walker, there are those who continue to advocate for an electoral strategy aimed at putting more Democrats in the House of Representative and the Senate. Nonetheless, there is tremendous discontent among the Democratic Party’s electoral base with specific reference to African Americans. This is potentially a serious problem for the Democratic-dominated House and evenly divided Senate.

Family members and supporters of victims of police brutality converged on Akron to express their solidarity with their counterparts in this Ohio city. Jacob Blake, Jr. was severely wounded by Kenosha, Wisconsin police in 2020, being shot seven times while moving away from the police to enter a vehicle. Blake’s father, already suffering from chronic health issues, stepped forward to demand justice for his son. The prosecutorial authorities in Wisconsin failed to indict the police officers involved in this heinous act of law-enforcement misconduct.

In addition, the family of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Hakim Littleton of Detroit, demanded in public and courtroom settings that the police officers responsible for the death of their loved ones. The response by the courts have been mixed. The murderers of George Floyd were indicted and convicted in state and federal courts. However, no punishment was meted out to the killers of Breonna Taylor and Hakim Littleton.

The activism of the families of police victims has been highlighted in Akron. One report emphasized:

“The aunt of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in a botched police raid, and the father of Jacob Blake, another African American permanently paralyzed after getting shot by Kenosha cops, were arrested this week while protesting against police brutality in Akron, Ohio. Bianca Austin and Jacob Blake Sr. traveled together with Families United, a group against police brutality, to protest against the harrowing shooting of unarmed Jayland Walker. Amid the chaotic protest Wednesday night, Austin was arrested and Blake Sr. was transported to a local hospital. Police booked Austin at the local jail on charges of alleged rioting, disorderly conduct, and failure to disperse, while a bench warrant was issued to arrest Blake Sr.”

This type of conduct by the Akron police indicates clearly that they are more concerned with covering up for those officers under investigation in the brutal death of Walker. The same pattern has been repeated in municipalities, suburbs and rural areas throughout the U.S.

An attempt to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act during 2021 failed in the Senate where even some Democrats would not support any significant reforms related to holding the police accountable for their deadly behaviors. The failure of legislation promised by the Biden administration encompasses a wide array of issues.

There was the inability to codify within legislative action the right of women to reproductive freedom in light of the overturn by the Supreme Court of the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. Today there are questions about whether individual states can investigate and prosecute women for seeking abortion care in states other than where they live.

Moreover, the abortion ban raises questions about the potential future actions of the conservative-dominated court. The 14th amendment to the Constitution purportedly guarantees equal protection under the law, privacy and the right to legal due process. Nevertheless, five justices on the Supreme Court were empowered to make a decision which most people in the U.S. do not support that effectively disregards the rights of at least half of the population.

These decisions call for independent action on the part of African Americans, Latin Americans, all oppressed nations and communities, including women of all nationalities, to gather together in order to ensure that the rights of peoples be protected and enshrined in the law. Until this attitude is adopted among the hundreds of millions of those negatively impacted by right-wing legislation and intrusions into the collective will of the people, the ruling class will continue its program to rob the masses of their inherent rights as human beings.

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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Relatives of Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

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***

For months, pandemic critics have pointed out the hypocrisy of government officials suppressing early treatment for COVID-19 and promoting the disastrous public health movement of locking down the world.  Health authorities coerced people (using millions of dollars in propagandized advertisements and celebrity endorsements) into taking a new gene-related therapy with the promise to prevent transmission of a highly survivable viral infection – never mind that later the jab was shown to be completely ineffective at preventing transmission after all.

The gaslit general public is now supposed to believe, of course, that these shots were “never” about stopping transmission but only about reducing the risk of severe illness and death.  However, official data from the UK shows yet again that even that claim is completely unfounded.

Vaxxed individuals in the UK significantly more likely to die of all causes than unvaxxed, analysis of official data reveals

The latest figures released in May by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that people who received COVID shots are much more likely to die of any cause than vax-free individuals.  Incredibly, this trend appears to hold for all age groups. 

Here are some of the most alarming data shared by ONS:

  • Approximately 70,000 individuals have died within 28 days following a COVID shot in England, and some 179,000 persons have died within 60 days post-jab
  • Getting a COVID vax increases the risk of death among kids aged 10-14 by anywhere from 8,100% to 30,200% (these figures were calculated by the Daily Expose based on official ONS data)
  • The dramatic increase in death rates from all causes is apparently showing up within five months

To be clear, these alarming trends were not always the case.  Within the first two months after COVID shots began rolling out in England starting on December 8, 2020, it was the unvaxxed individuals who appeared more likely to die of any cause other than COVID-19.

By April, however, the rates started to normalize, and from May 2021, a major flip happened, with age-standardized mortality rates showing that vaxxed folks were more likely to die than the unvaxxed by any cause other than COVID-19.

Interestingly, the Daily Expose suggests that the age-adjusted mortality rates seem to correlate with the order in which people received the COVID-19 injections, as England rolled out their COVID shot program by age, with the oldest citizens being offered the shots first.

Month after month, the ONS data suggests that younger and younger age groups (from 90+ down to 50-59) began experiencing dramatic upticks in mortality.  The Daily Expose says of their analysis that this data could very well indicate that “the COVID-19 injections take approximately 5 months to completely decimate the immune system to the point where a person’s chances of dying of any cause are significantly increased.”

If this is what official data shows, one has to wonder what’s not being discussed

We would be remiss not to remind readers that the number of injuries, illnesses, and deaths post-jab are most likely underreported, even at this stage in the pandemic.  Doctors are quick to dismiss concerned patients and caregivers, touting the tired adage that “correlation does not equal causation.”

Yes, correlation does not equal causation.  But two factors can’t have a causal relationship without being correlated – and the growing trends in data pointing to a correlation between these mRNA shots and negative health outcomes is nearly becoming too great to ignore.

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Featured image is from Zero Hedge

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***

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.”—Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

We are witnessing the gradual dismantling of every constitutional principle that serves as a bulwark against government tyranny, overreach and abuse.

As usual, the latest assault comes from the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a 6-3 ruling in Vega v. Tekoh, the Supreme Court took aim at the Miranda warnings, which require that police inform suspects that they have a right against self-incrimination when in police custody: namely, that they have a right to remain silent, to have an attorney present, and that anything they say and do can and will be used against them in a court of law.

Although the Supreme Court stopped short of overturning its 1966 ruling in Miranda v. Arizona, the conservative majority declared that individuals cannot hold police accountable for violating their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent.

By shielding police from lawsuits arising from their failure to Mirandize suspects, the Supreme Court has sent a message to police that they no longer have to respect a suspect’s right to remain silent.

In other words, concludes legal analyst Nick Sibilla, “the Supreme Court has effectively created a new legal immunity for cops accused of infringing on the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination.”

Why is this important?

In totality, the rights enshrined in the Fifth Amendment speak to the Founders’ determination to protect the rights of the individual against a government with a natural inclination towards corruption, tyranny and thuggery.

The Founders were especially concerned with balancing the scales of justice in such a way that the innocent and the accused were not railroaded and browbeaten by government agents into coerced confessions, false convictions, or sham trials.

Indeed, so determined were the Founders to safeguard the rights of the innocent, even if it meant allowing a guilty person to go free, that Benjamin Franklin insisted, “It is better a hundred guilty persons should escape than one innocent person should suffer.”

Two hundred-plus years later, the Supreme Court (aided and abetted by the police state, Congress and Corporate America) has flipped that longstanding presumption of innocence on its head.

In our present suspect society, “we the people” are all presumed guilty until proven innocent.

With the Vega ruling, we have even fewer defenses for warding off government chicanery, abuse, threats and entrapment.

To be clear, the Supreme Court is not saying that we don’t have the right to remain silent when in police custody. It’s merely saying that we can’t sue the police for violating that right.

It’s a subtle difference but a significant one that could well encourage police to engage in the very sort of egregious misconduct at the heart of the Vega case: in which a police officer investigating a sexual assault isolated a suspect in a small, windowless room; refused him access to a lawyer or work colleagues; accused him of molesting a female patient; threatened him with violence; implied that he and his family would be deported; and terrorized him into signing a false confession dictated by the cop.

Although Terence Tekoh was eventually tried and acquitted, the Supreme Court refused to hold police accountable for browbeating an innocent man into making a false confession.

The Vega ruling threatens to turn the clocks back to a time when police resorted to physical brutality (beating, hanging, whipping) and mental torture in order to obtain confessions from suspects without ever informing them of their Fifth Amendment rights.

This was exactly the kind of misconduct that the Warren Court sought to discourage with its 5-4 ruling in Miranda v. Arizona.

As the Court concluded in Miranda almost 60 years ago:

The prosecution may not use statements, whether exculpatory or inculpatory, stemming from custodial interrogation of the defendant unless it demonstrates the use of procedural safeguards effective to secure the privilege against self-incrimination. By custodial interrogation, we mean questioning initiated by law enforcement officers after a person has been taken into custody or otherwise deprived of his freedom of action in any significant way. As for the procedural safeguards to be employed, unless other fully effective means are devised to inform accused persons of their right of silence and to assure a continuous opportunity to exercise it, the following measures are required. Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him, and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed. The defendant may waive effectuation of these rights, provided the waiver is made voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently. If, however, he indicates in any manner and at any stage of the process that he wishes to consult with an attorney before speaking, there can be no questioning. Likewise, if the individual is alone and indicates in any manner that he does not wish to be interrogated, the police may not question him. The mere fact that he may have answered some questions or volunteered some statements on his own does not deprive him of the right to refrain from answering any further inquiries until he has consulted with an attorney and thereafter consents to be questioned.

The end result as one analyst notes: “Miranda v. Arizona, in creating the ‘Miranda Rights’ we take for granted today, reconciled the increasing police powers of the state with the basic rights of individuals.”

By largely doing away with Miranda, the Supreme Court has made its present position clear: anything goes if you’re a cop in the American police state.

Indeed, pay close to attention to the Court’s rulings lately, and the broader picture that emerges is of a judiciary that is playing fast and loose with the rule of law, picking and choose which rights to uphold and which can be discarded, in order to expand the power of the police state at the expense of the people’s rights.

If left unchecked, this constitutionally illiterate ruling will open the door to a new era of police abuses.

By shielding police from charges of grave misconduct while throwing the book at Americans for violating any of a rapidly expanding assortment of so-called crimes, the government has created a world in which there are two sets of laws: one set for the government and its gun-toting agents, and another set for you and me.

If you’re a cop in the American police state, you can already break the law in a myriad of ways without suffering any major, long-term consequences.

Indeed, not only are cops protected from most charges of wrongdoing—whether it’s shooting unarmed citizens (including children and old people), raping and abusing young women, falsifying police reports, trafficking drugs, or soliciting sex with minors—but even on the rare occasions when they are fired for misconduct, it’s only a matter of time before they get re-hired again.

For instance, police officer Jackie Neal was accused of putting his hands inside a woman’s panties, lifting up her shirt and feeling her breasts during a routine traffic stop. He remained on the police force. A year later, Neal was accused of digitally penetrating another woman. Still, he wasn’t fired or disciplined.

A few years after that, Neal—then serving as supervisor of the department’s youth program—was suspended for three days for having sex with a teenage girl participating in the program. As Reuters reports, “Neal never lost a dime in pay or a day off patrol: The union contract allowed him to serve the suspension using vacation days.”

Later that same year, Neal was arrested on charges that he handcuffed a woman in the rear seat of his police vehicle and then raped her. He was eventually fined $5,000 and sentenced to 14 months in prison, with five months off for “work and education.” The taxpayers of San Antonio got saddled with $500,000 to settle the case.

Now here’s the kicker: when the local city council attempted to amend the police union contract to create greater accountability for police misconduct, the police unions flexed their muscles and engaged in such a heated propaganda campaign that the city backed down.

This is how perverse justice in America has become, and it’s happening all across the country.

Incredibly, while our own constitutional protections against government abuses continue to be dismantled, a growing number of states are adopting Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights (LEOBoR)—written by police unions—which provides police officers accused of a crime with special due process rights and privileges not afforded to the average citizen.

In other words, the LEOBoR protects police officers from being treated as we are treated during criminal investigations: questioned unmercifully for hours on end, harassed, harangued, browbeaten, denied food, water and bathroom breaks, subjected to hostile interrogations, and left in the dark about our accusers and any charges and evidence against us.

These LEOBoRs epitomize everything that is wrong with America today.

Now every so often, police officers engaged in wrongdoing are actually charged for abusing their authority and using excessive force against American citizens. Occasionally, those officers are even sentenced for their crimes against the citizenry.

Yet in just about every case, it’s still the American taxpayer who foots the bill.

The ones who rarely ever feel the pinch are the officers accused or convicted of wrongdoing, “even if they are disciplined or terminated by their department, criminally prosecuted, or even imprisoned.”

In fact, police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be held financially accountable for their actions.

No matter which way you spin it, “we the people” are always on the losing end of the deal.

With the Supreme Court’s ruling in Vega v. Tekoh, the scales of justice have shifted out of balance even more.

Brace yourselves: as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, things are about to get downright ugly.

*

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This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

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***

The European Union (EU) has finally admitted that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines destroy the immune system and make people more susceptible not just to COVID but to all diseases.

According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), taking booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines every four months could weaken the immune system and tire people out. (Related: Qatari study finds mRNA vaccines actually DECREASE immunity against COVID-19.)

Despite this revelation, the EU is still recommending that people take COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. What the EMA wants to change is the time in between booster doses.

“[Boosters] can be done once, or maybe twice, but it’s not something that we can think should be repeated constantly,” said Marco Cavaleri, the EMA’s head of biological health threats and vaccines strategy. “We need to think about how we can transition from the current pandemic setting to a more endemic setting.”

But this revelation from the EMA has not stopped the EU from approving more vaccine doses for its population.

The EMA and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) approved the recommendation giving people between 60 and 79 years old second booster doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

People with medical conditions that make them more susceptible to diseases are also now eligible to receive a second mRNA booster in the 27-nation bloc.

The approval of additional boosters for more vulnerable sectors of society was reportedly rushed following the recent rise in infections in perhaps the most vaccinated continent on the planet.

“With cases and hospitalizations rising again as we enter the summer period, I urge everybody to get vaccinated and boosted as quickly as possible,” said European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides. “There is no time to lose.”

“I call on member states to roll out second boosters for everyone over the age of 60 as well as all vulnerable persons immediately,” she added.

ECDC Director Andrea Ammon is also claiming that the continent is seeing “increasing COVID-19 case notification rates and an increasing trend in hospital and ICU admissions and occupancy in several countries.”

“This signals the start of a new, widespread COVID-19 wave across the European Union,” said Ammon. “There are still too many individuals at risk of severe COVID-19 infection whom we need to protect as soon as possible.”

More COVID-19 vaccinations will increase likelihood of death

“The Daily Veracity” host Vincent James noted that even amending the time in between booster vaccinations likely won’t make any difference and people will still experience debilitating effects upon taking the vaccines.

“If the vaccine and repeated doses of the vaccine destroys your immune system, which is what the European Union admitted recently, then this makes you more susceptible to all diseases,” warned James. “And if it makes you more susceptible to diseases, then it makes you more likely to die, because the vaccine destroys your immune system.”

James warned people against taking even just one COVID-19 vaccine, as evidence points to the fact that not only do they destroy the immune system, “but also they just straight up kill you.”

*

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Featured image is from BigPharmaNews.com

What the Leaked EMA Emails and Docs Reveal: Major Concerns with Pfizer C-19 Vaccine Batch Integrity and the Race to Authorize

By Sonia Elijah, July 12, 2022

The time period of the email correspondence in question stretches from November 10 – 25, 2020, just weeks before the EMA granted CMA (conditional marketing authorization) for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covdid-19 vaccine on December 21, 2020.

NATO: By Making China the Enemy, the Alliance Is Threatening World Peace

By Jonathan Cook, July 12, 2022

As the saying goes, if you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The West has the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato), a self-declared “defensive” military alliance – so any country that refuses its dictates must, by definition, be an offensive military threat. That is part of the reason why Nato issued a new “strategic concept” document last week at its summit in Madrid, declaring for the first time that China poses a “systemic challenge” to the alliance, alongside a primary “threat” from Russia.

Ukraine and NATO’s Hardline Position on Expansion: End the War, Lift the Sanctions, Initiate Peace Negotiations

By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, July 12, 2022

NATO’s hardline  position on expansion and membership is further reinforced by a motive which has become more obvious in the course of the war. Some members of NATO and the US leadership are keen to exploit the war to emasculate Russia as a military power.

India to Boost Sakhalin-1 Oil Output

By M. K. Bhadrakumar, July 12, 2022

After Sakhalin-2, Moscow also plans to nationalise Sakhalin-1 oil and gas development project by ousting US and Japanese shareholders. But Moscow will make an exception for India so that OVL which holds 20% stake will remain & continue to work. Moscow grapevine is that while Rosneft will continue to hold controlling share, more Indian companies may be inducted to replace US & Japan and thereby also ensure a sales market in India. 

Ex-NATO Commander Calls on Ukraine to Blow Up Crimean Bridge

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Ukrainian News, July 12, 2022

This bridge was geared towards train transport routes linking Western and Eastern Europe to the Caspian Sea basin, Kazakhstan and China. It is therefore an integral part of the Eurasian Project (linking up with China’s Belt and Road initiative). In recent developments, “former Commander-in-Chief of the NATO Allied Forces in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, said that the Crimean Bridge is a legitimate target for attack by Ukraine”.

Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Extension of United Nations Mandate in Haiti and Calls on Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to Support Haitian Independence and Sovereignty

By Black Alliance for Peace, July 12, 2022

Since beginning a 2-year term on the UNSC, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Mexico has supported U.S.-backed initiatives that would extend BINUH’s occupation of Haiti. Mexico and the United States are “co-penholders” for this process, indicating the leadership role of the Mexican government in bringing forth this year’s UNSC resolution on Haiti.

‘Head-Spinning’: FDA Quietly Grants Full Approval of Pfizer Comirnaty Vaccine for Adolescents

By Megan Redshaw, July 12, 2022

In an FDA press release, the agency said full approval of Comirnaty follows a “rigorous analysis and evaluation of the safety and effectiveness data,” and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine “has been, and will continue to be authorized for emergency use in this age group since May 2021.”

Video: Swedish Study: Pfizer Jab Installs DNA into the Human Genome

By Alexandra Bruce, July 12, 2022

Dr Peter McCullough, Dr Richard Bartlett and Dr Simone Gold join Joni Table Talk host, Joni Lamb to discuss the Swedish in vitro study that shows the Pfizer jab installs DNA into the human genome.

The Nitrogen Problem in Agriculture

By Dr. Vandana Shiva, July 12, 2022

The nitrogen problem in Agriculture is a problem created by synthetic nitrogen fertilisers made from fossil fuels. Nitrogen fertilisers contribute to atmospheric pollution and climate change in the manufacture and the use of fertilisers.

“One-sided News on Ukraine”: Open Letter to CBC on Its Defamation of Eva Bartlett

By Karin Brothers, July 12, 2022

The implication that Eva Bartlett’s reporting is bought and paid for by Russia (made, incidentally, by those whose opinions seem to have been bought and paid for by Canadian taxpayers) is defamatory.

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***

First published on May 1, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci and two co-authors published an article on March 26, 2020 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Anthony  Fauci is head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In the article, linked below, he states that COVID-19 may turn out to be comparable to a seasonal flu or similar to two relatively minor flu pandemics in 1957 and 1968. It is estimated that seasonal flu kills about 500,000 people globally every year and the two flu pandemics he cited each are thought to have killed about a million people globally. Below is an excerpt of the article. 

Covid-19 — Navigating the Uncharted

“On the basis of a case definition requiring a diagnosis of pneumonia, the currently reported case fatality rate is approximately 2%. In another article in the Journal, Guan et al. report mortality of 1.4% among 1099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19; these patients had a wide spectrum of disease severity. If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.“

It is not over yet, but this is much less than what our hysterical media and politicians have led us to believe. In the beginning of this historic, media-fueled panic, it sounded like millions would die in the US alone and tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, globally.

Ana Laura Palomino García on Patriot Fire Net 

***

Global Research Editor’s note

Ironically, the media panic referred to by Ana Laura Palomino García is being fuelled by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is playing a central role as a spokesperson in mainstream media reports.

His analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine is in sharp contrast with some of his frenzied statements on network TV, often taken out of context and/or misquoted by the media including press reports and headlines.

Dr. Anthony Fauci  is described as America’s trustworthy voice on coronavirus,  “often correcting President Donald Trump” who compares the COVID-19 to the Seasonal Flu. But isn’t that what Fauci is doing in his NEJM article. (In that regard Trump’s comparison is correct).

“Over the weekend, Fauci told CNN that the pandemic could ultimately kill between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the US should mitigation be unsuccessful.”

“Serving a president who initially dismissed coronavirus by comparing it to seasonal flu, Fauci has been even-handed in public.” (emphasis added)

Fauci is by far  a CNN favorite, providing “authoritative” statements on the virus:

Fauci tends to contradict himself.

He certainly does not inform Americans in a cautious way. He does not reassure Americans.

His authoritative statements often have no factual backing.

The Guardian screenshot,  March 29

He not only misleads Americans, he fails to acknowledge the statements of the WHO which confirm unequivocally that:

The most commonly reported symptoms [of COVID-19] included fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath, and most patients (80%) experienced mild illness. Approximately 14% experienced severe disease and 5% were critically ill. Early reports suggest that illness severity is associated with age (>60 years old) and co-morbid disease. (largely basing on WHO’s assessment of COVID-19 in China)
 The Hill, March 19, 2020

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, March 31, 20120

***

Thanks to Ana Laura Palomino García for having brought the NEJM article to our attention

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Featured image: Anthony Fauci (R), director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease and Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speak with reporters during a press briefing about the Zika virus at the White House in Washington February 8, 2016.  REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

El tsunami financiero global planificado acaba de comenzar

July 12th, 2022 by F. William Engdahl

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***

The war in Ukraine is dragging on. Today, the 11th of July 2022 is the 138th day of an armed conflict that began on the 24th of February when Russian president, Vladimir Putin, declared that his country is launching a special military operation in Ukraine.

As one should expect, a few thousands have been killed so far on both sides. Among Ukrainians both soldiers and civilians are victims. Russian casualties have been mainly soldiers. There has also been massive infrastructure destruction in Ukraine.

The outflow of refugees from Ukraine to Poland and other European countries has been heart breaking. The other consequence of the war has been the imposition of severe economic sanctions upon Russia by the United States of America and other Western countries.

The sanctioning of the export of oil and gas from Russia has plunged a number of European states into economic crisis.

Inflation has soared sky-high and people are struggling to make ends meet especially in those countries where incomes have stagnated for some time. Since Russia is also a major exporter of wheat, Western sanctions have also multiplied the sufferings of people in poor wheat importing countries such as Egypt. Like the fuel supply chain, the global food supply chain has been strained more by the sanctions than by the actual war itself in Ukraine.

In spite of what sanctions and the war have done to families and economies thousands of kilometres away from the scene of the conflict, there are elements on both sides who want the war to go on. There are many Russians who argue that since they have gained control of almost the whole of southern and eastern Ukraine, known as Donbas, (which is where many Russian –speaking Ukrainians live) they should press ahead and consolidate their position. Besides, there is nothing to indicate that NATO is willing to exercise restraint over its eastward push towards Russia or refrain from incorporating Ukraine into NATO — which were the principal reasons why Russia was provoked into invading Ukraine in the first place.

If anything, the strategy document  adopted by NATO at the end of its summit in Madrid in June 2022, asserts emphatically that the doors of NATO  “remain open to all European democracies that share the values of our Alliance“ and “Decisions on membership are taken by NATO allies and no third party has a say in this process.”

NATO’s hardline  position on expansion and membership is further reinforced by a motive which has become more obvious in the course of the war. Some members of NATO and the US leadership are keen to exploit the war to emasculate Russia as a military power. This is why they would like to prolong the war. In Ukraine itself, the government in Kyiv, the capital, and a substantial segment of the populace in the Western part of the country perceive themselves as part of Western Europe and would want to see NATO emerge triumphant in the war. The Kyiv government is determined to re-take territory lost to Russia in recent weeks.

It is because these two positions are antagonistic to one another, that the Russian stance, on the one hand, and the Ukraine-cum-NATO-cum Western stance, on the other, appear so irreconcilable. This may also explain why sincere efforts by Indonesian President, Widodo and Pope Francis of the Vatican have not borne any fruit so far. Nonetheless, men and women of goodwill everywhere should go on trying.

It is in that spirit that we are proposing an international conference that will bring together all the main actors in this crisis and leaders of important nations and regional and international organisations to explore short-term, medium-term and long-term solutions to the crisis that confronts us which actually began in 2014. At the crux of it is of course the current war in Ukraine. The conference must at all costs bring the war to an immediate end. In doing so, it should conduct an honest examination of the trends and forces that led to the war. It must also analyse the central security concerns of our time with the clear aim of constructing a viable global security architecture. This architecture should eliminate the hegemonic power of any one nation or cluster of nations over the international system.

Given the disastrous consequences of sanctions, the conference should also eliminate all unilateral sanctions and subject collective sanctions undertaken through the UN to strict controls and checks by the UN General Assembly. For instance, only if 90% of GA members vote for a sanction should it be applied. Its implementation should be monitored by a special committee of GA members which will recommend when the sanction should be lifted.

Finally, who in the international arena should initiate the proposed conference? All its shortcomings notwithstanding, the office of the UN Secretary-General is the best institution to take up this challenge. It is an office that commands legitimacy in relation to the task at hand. Besides, the UN Secretary-General has the authority to do so.

It is urgent. And he must act immediately.

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Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, Founder and President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), prominent human rights advocate, author and academic, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

Featured image is from The LIbertarian Institute

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India to Boost Sakhalin-1 Oil Output

July 12th, 2022 by M. K. Bhadrakumar

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Ex-NATO Commander Calls on Ukraine to Blow Up Crimean Bridge

July 12th, 2022 by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

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Global Research Editor’s Note

In December 2013, Moscow signed a bilateral agreement with the Yanukovych government in Kiev pertaining to the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait, connecting Eastern Crimea (which was part of Ukraine) with Russia’s Krasnodar region.

That agreement was a followup to an initial agreement signed in April 2010 between the two governments.

The Russia-Ukraine 2013 agreement pertaining to the construction of the bridge had, for all purposes already been scrapped before March 16, 2014.

Image right: new Kerch bridge links Eastern Crimea (road and rail transportation) to  Russia’s Krasnodar region. (image right).

Crimea’s union to Russia was already in the pipeline prior to the referendum, it was a fait accompli.

Less than two weeks before the March 16 2014 Referendum, at the height of the crisis in Ukraine, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the state-road building corporation Avtodor, or “Russian Highways” “to create a subsidiary company that would oversee the building of a bridge across the Kerch Strait”.

This bridge was geared towards train transport routes linking Western and Eastern Europe to the Caspian Sea basin, Kazakhstan and China. It is therefore an integral part of the Eurasian Project (linking up with China’s Belt and Road initiative).  

In recent developments, “former Commander-in-Chief of the NATO Allied Forces in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, said that the Crimean Bridge is a legitimate target for attack by Ukraine”.

See Ukraine News article below.

Michel Chossudovsky, July 12, 2022

***

Former Commander-in-Chief of the NATO Allied Forces in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, said that the Crimean Bridge is a legitimate target for attack by Ukraine. It is reported by Express on Friday, July 8.

Breedlove indicated that damage to the Crimean Bridge would be a devastating blow to the Kremlin, as it links the Russian mainland to the peninsula. The General called on Ukraine to attack the bridge with Harpoon missiles.

“The Kerch Bridge is a legitimate target. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Russians are worried about the Kerch Bridge. For them, it is incredibly important. Now that the West has provided Ukraine with Harpoon subsonic cruise missiles with a range of up to 200 miles (321 km), I think the Russians have every reason to worry that Ukraine could attack the bridge,” Breedlove said.

The General said that all bridges have their weak points, and if to hit the Kerch Bridge in the right place, it can fail for some time, but to destroy the structure a more massive bombardment is needed.

As Ukrainian News Agency reported, on April 21, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksii Danilov said that as soon as Kyiv had a chance to hit the Kerch or Crimean bridge, it would be done.

On June 15, Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmytro Marchenko, in an interview with Radio Liberty, said that the Crimean Bridge would be the number one target for destruction.

On June 16, the Defense Intelligence under the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine received and published detailed technical documentation of the Crimean Bridge.

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On Wednesday, July 13, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will vote on an extension of the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH) in Haiti. Since beginning a 2-year term on the UNSC, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Mexico has supported U.S.-backed initiatives that would extend BINUH’s occupation of Haiti. Mexico and the United States are “co-penholders” for this process, indicating the leadership role of the Mexican government in bringing forth this year’s UNSC resolution on Haiti. 

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) condemns in the strongest possible terms Mexico spearheading the renewal of the United Nations Integrated Office (BINUH)’s mandate in Haiti. The Haitian people view BINUH’s presence as a foreign occupation that undercuts Haiti’s independence and sovereignty. In solidarity, BAP, along with other civil society organizations, delivered an open letter to President López Obrador deploring Mexico’s role in extending the UN occupation.

In this letter, we ask AMLO to reconsider Mexico’s role as a co-penholder (with the United States) of the UNSC mandate, effectively serving the interests of Western imperialism in Haiti. We argue that not only does the UN occupation deny the sovereignty of the Haitian people, but it has both increased violence and instability in the republic while undermining the goal of national independence and self-determination for all countries in the Americas.

AMLO has emerged as one of the more progressive voices in the hemisphere, ostensibly working towards more equitable relationships between the peoples and nations of the region. BAP was heartened by and commended AMLO’s decision not to attend last month’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, as a call for fair representation and recognition of the sovereignty of all nations. In this vein, we have asked AMLO if — for some reason — Haiti does not count among those countries whose sovereignty and independence should be respected.

Like Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2004, who displayed his “leadership” by spearheading military action during the 2004-17 UN occupation of Haiti (MINUSTAH), AMLO’s support of BINUH’s mandate will result in the Haitian people paying the price for others’ political gains. Unfortunately, this is all too common among so-called “progressive” and “leftist” politicians in the Americas, who conform to the U.S.-led imperialistic system that these UN occupations represent.

Instead, we ask AMLO to contribute toward ending the foreign control of Haiti. This would be a positive step toward allowing Haitian people to determine their own fate, reversing regional militarization, and facilitating the realization of the Americas as a Zone of Peace, as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States has called for.

We say No to Occupation. Yes to Self-Determination.

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Trial Site News recently were able to review leaked internal emails from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and meeting report between the agency and Pfizer. The EMA oversees the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products for the European Union. Like other regulatory health bodies, its main responsibility is to protect and promote public health. Snapshots of internal EMA email correspondence; a November 26, 2020, PowerPoint presentation from a pivotal meeting between Pfizer and the agency, as well as a confidential 43-page Pfizer report were provided by an anonymous source because of their trust in Trial Site’s commitment to transparency, accessibility, and accountability in furtherance of a highly ethical, quality-focused and public health-centric biomedical research industry.

Regulatory agencies, like the EMA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are chartered to make decisions based to better the public. External influences such as political or media pressure are not meant to be a driving factor in their decision-making, however, when it came to pandemic conditions and the fast-tracked conditional marketing authorization of the Covid-19 vaccines (particularly for the mRNA-based vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), it appears the latter won the day.

The time period of the email correspondence in question stretches from November 10 – 25, 2020, just weeks before the EMA granted CMA (conditional marketing authorization) for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covdid-19 vaccine on December 21, 2020.

The FDA granted EUA (emergency use authorization) for this vaccine on December 11 with the MHRA making it first to the finish line on December 2. Here this author uses the term ‘finish line,’ as the emails do reveal an intense, almost competitive-like rush to authorize the Covid-19 vaccines, as quickly as possible. Understandably, the world was gripped by a pandemic at the time, where there was immense impetus to authorize a vaccine to protect people from the novel coronavirus.

The Rush into EUA

In an email from Marco Cavaleri, at the time the EMA’s Head of Biological Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy, communicated with urgency how the U.S. FDA “are going to rush into EUA.”

Cavaleri refers to this ‘rush’ being ‘pushed hard by Azar and US GOV.’ Under the Trump administration, Alex Azar, former pharmaceutical executive was the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2018-2021. The FDA is an agency that falls directly under the HHS.

It’s worth noting that when Azar was former president of Lilly USA LLC, a division of Eli Lilly, drug prices skyrocketed under his leadership. The pharmaceutical company was also embroiled in a class-action lawsuit under his tenure where it was accused of exploiting the drug pricing system to increase profits for its insulin drug. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean this executive was complicit in any way, but the timing is noteworthy.

Cavaleri’s email speaks to the extent of how politics (and the US government) was driving the FDA’s regulatory process, making sure it was going at ‘warp speed’. And of course, on that note Trump’s Operation Warp Speed was to ensure all vaccine development records would be shattered. The intentions were undoubtedly good given the outbreak of the worst pandemic in a century.

However, across the Atlantic in Europe’s regulatory agency tension mounted as the pressure to accelerate deadlines made the air and general mood tense—the pressure and anxiety was palpable in the reviewed email exchanges.

Persons of high integrity and clarity as to their roles and commitments as stewards of public health emerged. For example, one individual demonstrated palpable concern over accelerated timelines to ensure they would meet the ‘deadline’ for vaccine authorization at the expense of a robust assessment. He was Noel Wathion, at the time the EMA’s deputy executive director, but who has since retired. This EMA official importantly pointed out, ‘We are speeding up as much as possible, but we also need to make sure that our scientific assessment is as robust as possible. Let’s not forget the responsibility/accountability attached to the recommendation to the EC to grant a CMA.’

Wathion assumes the FDA (and the MHRA’s) EUA would be issued before the EMA granted its own CMA, which turned out to be correct. What’s interesting is his concern to address the ‘damage limitation’ resulting from the probable outcome of the EMA finishing last in this regulatory race and his fear that this would result in public opinion and the media turning against the agency.   Speed seemingly superseded concerns of quality based on a careful review of these emails.

In a November 19 email, Wathion reveals a ‘rather tense’ TC (teleconference call) with the European Commissioner (Ursula von der Leyen) which was ‘at times even a bit unpleasant.’ This reflects the mounting pressure which the EMA staff were under to issue CMA quickly following an EUA granted by the FDA/MHRA for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Von der Leyen is implicated in potentially being responsible for this tense environment with ‘a delay of several weeks…not easily acceptable for the EC [European Commission].’

In early 2022, Trial Sites News reported how von der Leyen was embroiled in scandal when a group of independent MEPs demanded her immediate resignation and full disclosure of a series of private text messages between her and Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla. Only a small portion of these texts were ever disclosed. Of the ones that were, they revealed her negotiating portions of a European-wide vaccine deal, unilaterally with Bourla via a series of texts! Clearly standard protocols in Europe were thrown out the window in favor of expediency and this seemingly was tied to a unified competitive pressure on all three regulatory agencies.

Wathion lays bare his reflections after this particular TC, and shockingly writes how ‘the political fall-out seems to be too high even if the “technical” level at the MSs [Member States] could defend such a delay in order to make the outcome of the scientific review as robust as possible.’  Put another way the continuous broadcast of science first appeared as a cover for politics first.

Wathion points out that a potential delay of several weeks to secure ‘robust assurance in particular as regards CMC and safety’ will be met with ‘criticism from various parties,’ including media, EC (European Commission) and EP (European Parliament). Wathion speaks of his fear that if the deadline ‘to align as much as possible with the “approval” timing by FDA/MHRA’ cannot be met- ‘we will be overwhelmed from all fronts and be in the middle of the storm.’ However, this potential delay appeared to be necessary ‘in order to make the outcome of the scientific review as robust as possible.’ This implies that speed at the expense of safety was the order of the day to avoid ‘political fallout.’ Clearly, politics was dictating Covid-19 vaccine authorisation protocol, not the science.

In the above email from Marco, the EMA official reveals that Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla ‘lobbied’ Peter Marks, and this could be interpreted as highly controversial, given Marks is the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the FDA. Pfizer’s apparent access into the federal watchdog raises significant questions at the least, if not introduces the possibility for disturbing entanglements between industry and a purportedly independent, scientific federal agency.

Major concerns with the integrity between vaccine batches

An email from Cavaleri (see below) reveals at that time the FDA knew of ‘some issues’ associated with the CMC which needed to be sorted out and may ‘end up being the difficult bit.’ CMC refers to the Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls, also referred to as pharmaceutical quality, which covers various procedures used to assess and ensure the safety and consistency between pharmaceutical product batches.

An email from Evdokia Korakianiti (an EMA scientific administrator) explains in more detail what these “issues” were and how they were in fact major concerns to do with the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine.

Alarmingly, significant differences in the levels of mRNA integrity between Pfizer-BioNTech’s commercial (large scale) and clinical vaccine batches (small scale) were observed. ‘~78% mRNA integrity’ in the clinical ones and ‘~ 55% in the proposed commercial batches’ with the ‘root cause’ not yet identified. Safety and efficacy implications due to this concern were also noted in the email ‘as yet to be defined.’

In a confidential Pfizer report, which was also leaked along with the EMA emails, the company states that according to Acuitas Therapeutics’ (the biotech company who developed the lipid nanoparticle platform for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine) own general experience, ‘a minimum threshold is approximately 70%.’ (See screenshot below)

Then on page 30 it states: ‘The efficacy of the product is dependent on expression of the delivered RNA, which requires a sufficiently intact RNA molecule.’ (See screenshot below)

This exact phrase ‘requires a sufficiently intact RNA molecule’ was used in the email from EMA staffer, Evdokia Korakianiti, which I included above, sent on November 23, 2020- now we likely know where Korakianiti referenced it from.

For the commercial batches (which were going to be rolled out across the globe) to have such a significantly lower level of mRNA integrity (intact RNA molecule) is greatly concerning given its intrinsic tie to the efficacy and potential safety of the product.

The next day Veronika Jekerle, Head of Pharmacy Quality Office, writes to Evdokia (see below).

The difference in the level of mRNA integrity was again noted as a major concern ‘shared by most member states’ and its ‘potential impact on safety.’ Jekerle highlights in bold, “Anapproval by the end of the year could potentially be possible, if these concerns + GMP will be resolved.”

This gives rise to the critical question- how were all these concerns resolved when CMA was granted only a few weeks later, on December 21? A possible way it was resolved is explained later in this report.

In contrast to the concerns of some of the other EMA officials, Marco Cavaleri writes around the same time in the following email (see below) that the mRNA content is not a major concern, according to the FDA – ‘the issue on the mRNA content not perceived as major.’ He also shockingly states, ‘unclear if GCP inspections ever done.’ This revelation is highly concerning given that GCP refers to Good Clinical Practise, which is ‘an international ethical and scientific quality standard for designing, conducting, recording and reporting trials that involve the participation of human subjects.’

What’s even more alarming is his following statement- ‘no major interest from FDA.’ This looks to reveal the regulatory agency’s apparent lack of concern or even interest on whether GCP inspections were completed, in the context of Pfizer’s clinical trials, which was relied on by the FDA to grant EUA for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In one of this author’s previous investigative reports for Trial Site News, we noted that the FDA only inspected 1% of Pfizer’s trial sites.

Further damming information is revealed (see screenshot below) when multiple regulatory agencies: Health Canada (HC), EMA, MHRA and FDA are all aware of the issue with % mRNA integrity, yet FDA and Health Canada make an unsubstantiated claim that ‘safety concerns associated. Are more of a theoretical concern.’

Health Canada then appears to contradict itself because its later described as showing particular concern about one region receiving ‘all the suboptimal material.’ Obviously, it didn’t want to be that region.

Shockingly, the end of the email reveals the ‘Applicant [Pfizer] has shared with FDA and us [EMA]/MHRA only today and issue with visible particles in the DP [drug product] appears to be lipid nanoparticle components.)’

This is highly concerning due to this significant issue being made known to the three key regulatory agencies on November 25, only a few weeks away before the EMA granted CMA and the FDA granted EUA for the Pfizer vaccine. Alarmingly, it was just days before the MHRA granted authorization in the UK on December 2, 2020. Veronika’s assumption that the ‘visible particles’ could be LNPs (lipid nanoparticles) is hard to accept given nanoparticles are not visible to the naked eye. Other anomalies were apparent, yet this was probably still a historical effort in terms of speed of vaccine development. It seems clear however some more time was needed.

How % mRNA integrity was apparently resolved

The discrepancy between batches appears to have may been resolved when it’s mentioned that the ‘latest lots [received by the FDA] indicate the % intact RNA are back around 70-75%.’

However, in a leaked report of a meeting with Pfizer and the EMA on November 26, 2020, a day after Veronika’s email, it shockingly reveals that the RNA integrity specification was revised down to >=50% for drug product shelf life, significantly lower than the minimum threshold of 70% that Acuitas Therapeutics had stipulated and the average 78% of the clinical batches. Was this the EMA’s (and potentially FDA/MHRA/HC) way of ‘resolving’ the issue to ensure ‘an approval by the end of the year’?

Mention is made of ‘uncertainties about consistency of product quality and hence uncertainty as regards product safety and efficacy of the commercial product.’ Yet, it’s baffling how lowering the RNA integrity specification would remedy that major objection.

In another slide the artifact states, ‘Truncated [shortened] and modified RNA species should be regarded as product- related impurities.’ This confirms that these shortened mRNA species which lowered the level of %mRNA integrity were classed as impurities. Another alarming concern arising from these impurities is flagged ‘the possibility of translated proteins other than intended spike protein (S1 S2) resulted from truncated and/or modified mRNA species should be addressed.’ (See screenshot below)

The evidence in this report confirms that regulatory bodies like the FDA, MHRA, EMA and Health Canada knew of the differences in batches, regarding % mRNA integrity and because of that the effect on ‘safety and efficacy’ was unknown. The leaked Pfizer/EMA meeting report raises material concerns assuming the issue was resolved by simply lowering the RNA integrity specification. In other words, perhaps it was never resolved.

A particular website that has drawn a lot of attention recently, which speaks to the difference between batches is howbadismybatch.com. It’s a comprehensive database with analysis on ‘batch codes and associated deaths, disabilities and illnesses for Covid 19 Vaccines.’ By entering a batch number of any of the Covid-19 vaccines, it tells you the frequency of adverse events reported associated with that batch.

I spoke with Sasha Latypova, who has run clinical trials for over 25 years and owns her own biotech company, to ask her expert opinion on the leaked documents. She said,

“The lack of mRNA integrity and presence of uncharacterized fragments of RNA in batches of Pfizer’s product was identified as a “Major Objection” – a formal regulatory red flag, deemed a product impurity and would have been a showstopper in any normal drug approval process. At a minimum, it required an additional “bridging” clinical trial to evaluate the clinical effects which would have taken months to design and conduct properly. Panic overruled scientific integrity, and an arbitrarily lowered batch acceptance standard was adopted for the sake of meeting a politically motivated deadline. To date, this issue remains unresolved and could be the underlying cause for the enormous variation in the rates of adverse events and deaths observed for different manufacturing batch numbers in the CDC VAERS and other databases.’

Latypova made an apt reference to the fate of the Titanic, by drawing a comparison in the way regulatory bodies conducted their ‘warp speed’ process of authorising the Covid-19 vaccines. The Titanic’s captain, Edward J. Smith, was aiming to better the crossing time of another vessel, which meant the ship was travelling way too fast, in waters known to have ice. This set it on a fatal collision with an iceberg and the rest is history.

In light of the evidence included in this report and the fact that the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine is one of the most lucrative products in history (last year Pfizer made $37 billion in sales with predictions for 2022 being $32 billion), this author strives to open a discussion with some vital questions which must be addressed by the regulatory agencies involved, Pfizer and those in the scientific/medical community:

What are the safety and efficacy implications of a significantly lowered mRNA integrity (arising from truncated and modified mRNA) in the commercial batches of this vaccine?

Exactly what are the visible particles observed in the DP (drug product) that Pfizer shared last minute with the EMA, FDA and MHRA and what are its safety and efficacy implications?

Answers to these questions are of major public importance.

Trial Site News recently were able to review leaked internal emails from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and meeting report between the agency and Pfizer. The EMA oversees the evaluation and supervision of medicinal products for the European Union. Like other regulatory health bodies, its main responsibility is to protect and promote public health. Snapshots of internal EMA email correspondence; a November 26, 2020, PowerPoint presentation from a pivotal meeting between Pfizer and the agency, as well as a confidential 43-page Pfizer report were provided by an anonymous source because of their trust in Trial Site’s commitment to transparency, accessibility, and accountability in furtherance of a highly ethical, quality-focused and public health-centric biomedical research industry.

Regulatory agencies, like the EMA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are chartered to make decisions based to better the public. External influences such as political or media pressure are not meant to be a driving factor in their decision-making, however, when it came to pandemic conditions and the fast-tracked conditional marketing authorization of the Covid-19 vaccines (particularly for the mRNA-based vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), it appears the latter won the day.

*

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***

Sri Lanka is collapsing. The economic crisis has led local citizens to take extreme measures, resorting to violence as a way of achieving changes in national politics. On July 9, protesters invaded and occupied several residences of politicians and official government offices, including the presidential palace and the home of the head of the parliament. Some of the invaded places were looted and destroyed with depredation and fire, forming a real scenario of civil conflict.

Consequently, the government entirely disintegrated. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned, as informed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who shortly afterwards also left his office, making the fall of the government absolute and irreversible. Rajapaksa has been fleeing his official residence since last Friday due to fear caused by the protesters. There is no reliable information about his current location.

A provisional government is being formed in order to operate a process of political transition. Information on how this process will take place is not yet accurate and certainly everything will depend heavily on the ability of the agents involved to garner popular support, considering the moment of strong tension and instability, when the local people seem to be willing to do anything to demand their rights.

Popular fury is comprehensible if the national scenario is analyzed in depth. The Sri Lankan government was unable to manage the situation of economic crisis that affected the country in recent months, reaching the extreme of virtually emptying its foreign currency reserves. The trigger for the crisis was the energy shortage as a consequence of the lack of resources for the importation of fuels. Inflation simply prevented the transit of people and goods through the country, leading the government to implement a radical measure banning private consumption of gasoline and diesel, allocating the fuel stock only to the state sectors. Sri Lanka was the first country in the world to take this type of measure since the 1970s – and, as can be seen, it was not a pleasant experience for the population.

However, the crisis is not limited to recent episodes. The absence of foreign resources is due to a series of imprudent decisions taken by the government since last year, among which the choice for a radical environmental policy stands out. Rajapaksa bet on the ecological agenda as a way to promote his personal political image and garner international support. For example, his 2019 election campaign was awarded as the “world’s first zero carbon campaign”. In his government, he strove to accelerate a project of “green and clean economy”, which motivated him to impose in 2020 a law banning the use of fertilizers and pesticides throughout the national territory.

His goal was to make Sri Lanka the first 100% organic farming nation in the world, which would undoubtedly please the Western pro-green agenda governments and multinational companies that invest in climate improvement projects. However, all he managed to do was generate widespread famine, chaos and financial collapse. In just six months, more than a third of the country’s arable land was completely unusable. Rice production fell by more than 20%, leading the government to spend about 450 million dollars on cereal imports to alleviate hunger, which also did not work well as rice reached an inflation of more than 50% due to the import costs.

In addition, the tea sector, which is the main product of the country’s exports, suffered losses of more than 425 million dollars. The government was then finally forced to distribute an extra package of more than 200 million to reimburse affected farmers, as well as suspending the law and resuming the use of chemicals on crops.

Undoubtedly, Rajapaksa was wrong in betting on making his country the “green paradise” desired by Western liberal democracies. Certainly, if more prudent measures had been taken earlier, the current chaos would have been avoided. If the government had only limited the use of chemical products to safe doses, instead of banning it completely, it would not have generated structural hunger and would not have had to spend so much to import food – which would have made it possible to preserve financial reserves to maintain stable supplies of fuel, avoiding the current crisis.

Rajapaksa was a distinguished political leader in many points and garnered international support for many of his initiatives, but his legacy shows how adhering to the radical environmentalism encouraged by the West can be a mistake with serious social consequences. While a small Asian country has its economy devastated and its government overthrown for adhering to organic agriculture and the zero-carbon project, European governments are currently softening their environmental laws due to the energy crisis resulting from the conflict in Ukraine, even promoting deforestation for resources extraction.

There is a big difference between what liberal democracies advocate in theory and what they actually practice. Rajapaksa tried to fully materialize the utopian discourses of Western environmentalism and the result was the collapse of his country.

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Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on Twitter.

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Millions of people in the UK are beset by insecurities and worries about the rising cost of living. Fuel and energy prices are escalating, variously blamed on Brexit, Covid, and the war in Ukraine. A recent survey reported that 67% of Britons are worried about paying food and fuel bills, and 56% believe their household finances have worsened in the past 12 months.

The NHS is experiencing huge pressures. Rachel Clarke, a palliative care doctor and the author of ‘Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic’, said in March that the NHS:

‘is not coping much better now than it was at Covid’s peaks. We are drowning – in Covid patients, cancer patients, the patients on the waiting list backlogs, and the patients whose conditions have become infinitely more complex and harmful because they’ve been waiting so long. There are so few staff – and those left are so burned out and traumatised – that patients are inevitably being neglected.’

Too many people in this country are relying on food banks. Between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, the Trussell Trust network, the UK’s largest foodbank organisation, distributed over 2.1 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis. This is an increase of 81% compared to the same period five years ago.

Hundreds of thousands of disabled and chronically ill people are having to wait an average of five months for disability benefits. Employees are working long hours on short-term and zero-hour contracts. There are persistent delays and poor services on public transport. And people have to wait inordinately long times to obtain driving licenses and passports.

All of this is taking place against the reality of industrial action and rising public dissatisfaction with what passes for ‘news’ or ‘politics’ in the Westminster bubble, or any of the other bubbles inhabited by Western elites.

Public trust in the ‘mainstream’ media has dropped dramatically in recent years. According to a recent analysis by Press Gazette, BBC News experienced the biggest drop in public confidence, along with the Times and the Telegraph. BBC News, regularly touted by its managers and senior journalists as the ‘gold standard’ in reliability and accuracy, has seen trust in its journalism drop from 75% four years ago to 55% now.

For what it’s worth, that still leaves it the most trusted newsbrand in the UK, along with ITV news, also at 55%. Channel 4 News was just behind on 54%. Sky News saw trust in its output decline from 62% to 45%. The Guardian could only manage 48% (remarkably high, given its record), down from 61%.

Press Gazette summed up the findings:

‘Major newsbrands have a crisis of trust’.

Former Guardian journalist Jonathan Cook observed:

‘Is the reason all establishment media are seeing huge drops in audience trust the fault of Russian disinformation? Or is it because they act as brazen mouthpieces for the establishment? Be sure all these outlets will tell you it’s down to Russia.’

Commenting on the low trust figures, Cook added:

‘half of audiences think our main news shows actually peddle fake news.’

Rossalyn Warren, Reuters audience editor, recently shared a headline finding from the Oxford-based Reuters Institute that:

‘46% of people (mostly women and young people) actively avoid the news because it has a negative impact on their mood. That’s up from 24% in 2017.’

The prevailing public mood was pithily summed up by writer Umair Haque as a ‘feeling of downward mobility’. This, he said, is how many people feel today:

‘They don’t feel good. Confident. Assured. Optimistic. They feel…worthless. Defeated. Helpless and hopeless. Traumatized and weary.’

Haque continued:

‘I can’t take it anymore. I can’t take it financially — how am I going to make ends meet? I can’t take it economically — no matter how hard you work, little seems to change. I can’t take it culturally — nothing, no one out there seems to help me, aid me, be there for me. I can’t take it socially — this whole society feels like it’s against me.’

There is, warned Haque, a ‘tsunami of demoralisation’ sweeping our societies:

‘And as people grow demoralized, they grow de-moralized. Their moral centers and cores stop working. Only the strong survive, and the weak perish? I had better become ruthless, cunning, cruel. I must learn how to be a knife. Not a lever, not an open hand. A closed fist. In the bitter battle for self-preservation, the great virtues — empathy, grace, truth, knowledge — all themselves become needless luxuries and unaffordable indulgences.’

To some extent, in this harsh depiction, Haque was playing devil’s advocate. But his point was clear. Many of us are struggling and perhaps tempted to protect and preserve what we have, in our own limited spheres; and woe betide anyone who gets in our way.

However, rather than feel despair or harden our hearts, an alternative approach is to admit that many of us sometimes feel demoralised, even overwhelmed, and to share that feeling with others. As Haque said:

‘You’re not alone, my friend.’

That may be a small step on a new journey that we all need to take. Because we have to accept that real change is not going to come from our ‘leaders’, but from ourselves.

Consider the rail strikes that have been taking place in the UK. The most overtly right-wing press – the likes of the ‘soaraway Sun’ – wailed about ‘a return to the 1970s’ driven by ‘Marxist thugs’. Such defamation is to be expected in the vitriolic pages of the billionaire-owned press.

But how different is this from the more subtle vilification by an ostensibly neutral BBC journalist? On the eve of recent industrial action, Nick Robinson, former BBC political editor and now a Radio 4 Today presenter, tweeted:

‘Who’s the man behind the strikes which are threatening a week of rail chaos? Is he a champion of workers who deserve a pay rise or a politically motivated dinosaur? You decide after listening to my half hour conversation with Mick Lynch @RMTunion

This might appear a relatively minor example. But it is symptomatic of the insidious, endemic anti-working class, anti-trade union stance embedded in BBC News ‘impartiality’. Robinson would never say of a senior Tory leader:

‘Is he a public servant or an oligarchy-serving, greed-driven predator?’

Scale up Robinson’s attitudes, shared across leading BBC News presenters and editors, and you get what the BBC represents; indeed, what the BBC is: a state-affiliated broadcaster relentlessly pitching elite perspectives on domestic and international affairs. Challenges are routinely met with disdain, blanking or arrogance.

‘Once You See How The Super Rich Run Everything Solely For Their Own Benefit You Cannot Unsee It’

In his calm, articulate determination to get his points across in recent media interviews, many of them conducted risibly by highly-paid celebrity journalists, RMT union leader Mick Lynch has been a ray of hope for many people.

Speaking live on BBC News from a picket line in London last month, Lynch said:

The whole country is suffering. And we have got a membership and a trade union that is prepared to fight for what we’ve got. What the rest of the country suffers from is the lack of power.’

Lynch expanded:

‘The lack of the ability to organise and the lack of the wherewithal to take on these employers that are continually driving down wages, and making the working class in this country poorer, year on year on year, while the rich get richer and dividends are accelerated and the stock market is reasonably healthy. We’ve got full employment and falling wages, and that is a situation that has never happened before and it cannot be tolerated by working people or by the trade union movement.’

In a Sky News interview, the union leader highlighted the deceptive rhetoric of many businesses:

‘What we’re seeing here is a smokescreen caused by Covid, and many employers are taking this opportunity. They’re using what is a temporary phenomenon – Covid – and the temporary phenomenon of people being told not to go to work as a smokescreen to get rid of decent conditions, decent pay rates and decent agreements.’

Making the kind of rational, reasonable points that rarely get an airing on state-corporate ‘news’ outlets, Lynch added:

‘Everybody wants our cities, towns and villages to recover. The way we do that, and one of the most important aspects of that, is by having a decent public transport system that can be relied on, is safe and accessible. Cutting staff, cutting services and cutting funding is the opposite to that, and nobody in our community should tolerate that from this government of billionaires who tell everyone else they’ve got to tighten their belts while they’re raking it in.’

Lynch’s assured media performances, particularly when confronted with ludicrous questions, won him praise from many corners. A Guardian piece observed that the union boss had been ‘deft, scornful and effective.’

Political economist Matt Bishop noted:

‘What’s remarkable about the Mick Lynch coverage is just how rarely we hear straightforward, working-class lefty union people in mainstream debate. Our media is dominated by a privately educated professional pundit class, their MP and banker chums, and it’s all the poorer for it.’

Exactly. Although, of course, it is not ‘mainstream’ debate. It is a tightly-controlled ‘debate’ that exists within the severely skewed bias of a state-corporate media, owned and managed by elite interests.

Even Mark Solomons, a former industrial correspondent at the Sun noted in an article in the right-wing Spectator, that:

‘Lynch is currently dominating TV screens and social media, making mincemeat out of politicians and broadcast interviewers alike.’

Solomons added:

‘He has stuck to his guns, confounded his opponents, and used simple, plain-talking language. He comes across as a working-class man who has made it to the top of his profession without selling out his principles, someone who makes it quite clear why the union is doing what it is doing irrespective of whether or not we agree with him.’

There was understanding and support from members of the public. An anonymous 53-year-old manager of an NHS mental health team living in south London blamed the government for the rail strikes:

‘I wish the government would meaningfully and consistently fund public infrastructure and the key workers who keep our city and society running. I’m tired of services being cut to the bone, everything being done on the cheap and workers being told to simply work harder to fill the gaps.’

Giles Barret, a 38-year-old owner of a recording studio, said:

‘Collective action is the reason we have a weekend, among many other hard-won rights, and we must never stop fighting for them – capital certainly won’t.’

And David Ling, a 69-year-old pensioner, also pointed to the bigger picture behind the rail strikes:

‘There’s so many problems in this country that are caused by austerity, privatisation and cutbacks that in the end it’s gonna be a reaction. It’s not just the railway workers – it’s teachers and nurses and everything. In the end, something’s got to give. You can’t carry on cutting back and people scrimping and saving. It doesn’t work.’

Barnaby Raine of Novara Media commented approvingly of Mick Lynch’s media performances:

‘Our whole media debate is a surreal circus until someone bursts it open.’

An opinion poll showed that public opinion had shifted dramatically in support of rail strikes following Lynch’s media appearances. Previously, support for the strike was at 38%, while opposition to the strike was 43%. Afterwards, support for the strike had risen 7% to 45%, while opposition to the strike had dropped 6% to 37%.

On Twitter, political writer John Traynor provided a potent summary of why Lynch had been so effective at getting his points of view across to the public.

First:

‘Lynch knows that what he is saying is both factually correct and consistent. This contrasts with conservative voices who know what they are spouting is [a] pack of lies and drivel, and comically inconsistent.’

Second:

‘Lynch understands fully what he is talking about. His knowledge allows him to counter any derisory interruption. This contrasts with conservative voices who know only a few mendacious soundbites with no in depth knowledge, and this causes them to fall.’

Third:

‘Lynch speaks sincerely; he believes in all the points he makes. This contrasts with conservative voices who believe in nothing and are just playing a part for money.’

Matthew Todd, author of the best-selling LGBT mental health book, ‘Straight Jacket’, said via Twitter that:

‘Ive worked in the media alongside politicians for 25 years. Once you see how the super rich run everything solely for their own benefit you cannot unsee it. If people understood what lies in store for us they wouldn’t be on strike, there would be a revolution #RailStrikes

Despite this brief opening in permissible debate around the economy, if Lynch continues to be this effective, then the state-corporate media will revert to type and attempt to crush him, just as they did with Jeremy Corbyn.

The Guardian Is ‘A Tool Of The British Establishment’

Indeed, in a recent compelling interview with Matt Kennard of Declassified UK, Corbyn opened up about the experience he had gone through as Labour Party leader during which he had been the target of arguably the biggest ever propaganda blitz against a British political leader. He was particularly scathing of the Guardian which, long ago, may have been regarded by some as a reliable left-leaning newspaper:

‘I have absolutely no illusions in the Guardian, none whatsoever. My mum brought me up to read the Guardian. She said, “It’s a good paper you can trust”. You can’t. After their treatment of me, I do not trust the Guardian.”’

He continued:

‘There are good people who work in the Guardian, there are some brilliant writers in the Guardian, but as a paper, it’s a tool of the British establishment. It’s a mainstream establishment paper. So, as long as everybody on the left gets it clear: when you buy the Guardian, you’re buying an establishment paper.’

Indeed, the Guardian and BBC News were central to the establishment’s cynical exploitation of antisemitism allegations to kill Corbyn’s chances of becoming Prime Minister:

‘an analysis of the Guardian’s treatment of the time that I was leader of the party needs to be made because they and the BBC had more unsourced reporting of anti-semitic criticisms surrounding me than any other paper, including the Mail, The Telegraph and the Sun.’

As for the British media as a whole:

‘We have a supine media in this country. The British self-confidence of saying we’ve got the best media in the world, the best broadcasting in the world, the best democracy in the world. It’s nonsense, utter, complete nonsense. We have a media that’s supine, that self-censors, that accepts D-Notices, doesn’t challenge them, and the vast majority of the mainstream media haven’t lifted so much as a little finger in support or defence of Julian Assange.’

Today, Labour has a new ‘leader’ who is trying as hard as possible to stifle left policies and voices within the party, dragging it relentlessly towards the right; or what Sir Keir Starmer calls the ‘centre ground’. In an Observer opinion piece, ‘Labour has now claimed the centre ground – and has shown it can win’, this Blairite establishment stooge boasted:

‘Since the horror of the last general election, we have rolled up our sleeves and focused on listening to the public and changing our party. We’ve rooted out the poison of antisemitism, shown unshakeable support for Nato, forged a new relationship with business, shed unworkable or unaffordable policies and created an election machine capable of taking on the Conservatives. Being able to win again has taken more than two years of hard graft from all those who ache to see the transformation a Labour government would bring the country we love.’

As political writer Steve Topple noted, Starmer’s comments were largely ‘vacuous dross and detached from reality’. In particular:

‘Labour has “shed unworkable or unaffordable policies” but with no clear reference to what these are. Clearly, it’s those promises he made during the Labour leadership election. Remember those? The talk of nationalisation of industries and services? We can now categorically see that Starmer’s pledges were nothing short of manipulation of party members. This is despite the fact that with things like rail renationalisation, the public consistently supports it.’

A ’Bent’ System Of Government

Peter Oborne, former political editor at the Spectator and former Daily Telegraph chief political commentator, recently warned of the rising oligarchical nature of politics in the UK, whether Conservative or Labour:

‘You would hope that in a well-managed democracy the purpose of political power was to challenge the super-rich, make sure they didn’t get what they wanted. Under [Boris] Johnson, political power has been a vehicle for the super-rich to make sure that they do get what they want.’

Oborne offered this damning verdict on our supposed ‘free press’:

‘The second element of Johnson is that the media class and the political class have merged in Downing Street; they are the same thing. And so all the stuff which we as journalists get taught at journalism school – it’s the task of the press to hold government to account, and there is a sort of separation of powers – is no longer the case. There has been a merger.’

Oborne called Johnson ‘the billionaire’s bitch’. Why? First, because Johnson was, before he announced his resignation as Tory leader on 7 July, dependent on billionaire donors to the Tory party who saw him – until recently, at least – as the best option to represent their interests:

‘You can see what they want is access to power, it’s contracts – we saw this with Covid when Tory donors were rewarded endlessly.’

Second, because Johnson has curried favour with billionaire newspaper proprietors, such as the Barclay brothers, owners of the Telegraph, and Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Times and the Sun.

In an article titled, ‘Boris Johnson is finished. But will the rotten system that created him fall too?’, Oborne pointed out:

‘The Murdoch Press, Associated Newspapers and the Telegraph group control approximately three quarters of the newspaper reading market. These three groups have been central to Johnson’s success.

‘Every title in all these groups supported Johnson’s bid for the Tory leadership, his 2019 general election campaign, and through last month’s vote of confidence. Throughout all of this they played down the corruption, fabrication, scandal, cronyism, law-breaking and incompetence of the Johnson government.’

Oborne found some hope in democratic pressures at last having some effect:

‘Very late in the day the reputational damage of sticking with Johnson has struck home. The newspapers, finally scared of their readers, are running for cover. On Wednesday, Rupert Murdoch’s Times belatedly pulled the plug – “The prime minister has lost the confidence of his party and the country. He should quit now”.’

Faced with the prospect of crumbling support from even the right-wing press, together with multiple resignations across government, Johnson finally bowed to the inevitable and resigned as Tory leader, while remaining as Prime Minister until a new leader can be elected in the autumn.

What will happen next? Oborne warns that nothing much will change:

‘The global super-rich are looking for a British prime minister who will look after their interests without the reputational damage. Ex-chancellor Sunak, now the bookies’ favourite, looks like their choice.

‘A near-billionaire himself, he at least has no incentive to take bribes. But he’s been at the heart of the bent Johnson system of government for almost three years, repeating the prime minister’s lies and tolerating his incompetence, bigotry and incessant sleaze.’

Whether Sunak or someone else takes over, warned Oborne:

‘The next Tory leader will almost certainly pursue the same policies as Johnson.

‘On Brexit. On civil liberties. On the Human Rights Act. The same English nationalism and cheap, ugly, vicious populism.’

He added:

‘Remember that all the leading candidates in the leadership contest served in Johnson’s cabinet. They supported his policies, and in many cases repeated his lies.

As for Keir Starmer, Knight Commander of the Order of Bath, Oborne is scathing, pointing out that the politician ‘dishonestly’ represented himself as coming from the left when bidding to become Corbyn’s successor. Since Starmer was elected Labour leader, he has been ‘trying to buy into the Blair model’ of relying on donors, appeasing newspaper proprietors, ‘ruthlessly’ excluding the trade unions, and indeed attacking the left, notably Stop the War and any Labour MPs critical of Nato:

‘He made a choice to define himself not against Boris Johnson, the billionaire’s person. He decided to define himself as not being Jeremy Corbyn. That was the classic Blairite pivot. Blair chose to win by sucking up to Rupert Murdoch, and sucking up to the billionaires, and Starmer appears to be doing just the same thing.’

Oborne predicts that, if Starmer ever becomes Prime Minister, all he would be is ‘maybe a more scrupulous version of Boris Johnson’; in other words, ‘a slightly softer version of oligarchical politics.’

If the public is to get what it supports and deserves – not least a basic standard of living, and a rational and urgent response to the climate crisis – we all need to take action now.

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In a move Children’s Health Defense President Mary Holland called “head-spinning,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted full approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents 12 through 15 years old.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday granted full approval of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents 12 through 15 years old.

In an FDA press release, the agency said full approval of Comirnaty follows a “rigorous analysis and evaluation of the safety and effectiveness data,” and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine “has been, and will continue to be authorized for emergency use in this age group since May 2021.”

Pfizer’s press release announcing the approval said the Comirnaty vaccine has been available under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) since May 2021 for the adolescent age group.

Yet, Comirnaty is not available in the U.S for any age group and is not the same formula as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine currently authorized under EUA and being distributed as a “fully approved” vaccine.

“The approval of Comirnaty for adolescents 12 to 15 is head-spinning,” said Mary Holland, president and general counsel for Children’s Health Defense.

Holland added:

“The FDA failed to convene an expert committee and failed to appropriately weigh the risk-benefit profile of this vaccine for this age group. Even Vaccine cheerleader Dr. Paul Offit acknowledged FDA decisions are being made based on political pressure, not science when, in commenting on the agency’s vote last week to allow reformulated booster shots, he said it felt like ‘the fix was in.’”

Holland said that at base, “this is a move by pharma to ensure liability protection” under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. Some states likely will attempt to put Comirnaty on the childhood vaccine schedule, despite the myriad known and unknown risks, Holland said.

“Pfizer‘s fraud and collusion with government is becoming more evident by the day,” Holland said. “CHD, already challenging the authorizations for those six months through age 11, will be at the forefront of challenging this approval for teenagers.”

Efficacy claims based on old analysis of 16- to 25-year-olds — before Delta, Omicron variants

Pfizer said Friday’s approval is based on data from a Phase 3 clinical trial of 2,260 participants ages 12 through 15.

About half of the participants, “elicited SARS-CoV-2–neutralizing antibody geometric mean titers (GMTs)” demonstrating “strong immunogenicity in a subset of adolescents one month after the second dose,” Pfizer said.

It is unknown what happened to antibody levels after one month, but peer-reviewed research suggests vaccine protection conferred by second and third doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine wanes rapidly against the Omicron variant.

“Our study found a rapid decline in Omicron-specific serum neutralizing antibody titers only a few weeks after the second and third doses of [the Pfizer-BioNTech] BNT162b2,” said the authors of a May 13 study published in JAMA.

To further support its claim that Comirnaty is effective in the 12 to 15 age group, Pfizer used an old analysis of 16- to 25-year-olds conducted before the Delta and Omicron surges.

“The efficacy analysis was conducted between November 2020 and May 2021, which was before the Delta and Omicron surges,” and the “only SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern identified from the confirmed COVID-19 cases in this age group was Alpha,” Pfizer said in its press release.

FDA experts question neutralizing antibodies as standard for vaccine effectiveness

During a June 28 meeting of the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), vaccine experts raised concerns that neutralizing antibodies did not correlate to clinical protection — noting Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine had a two-fold increase in neutralizing antibody levels compared with Pfizer’s vaccine during clinical trials, but it did not translate into a clinically significant difference in terms of protection against severe disease.

Dr. Ofer Levy, VRBPAC member and infectious disease physician at Boston Children’s Hospital, said during the meeting there is still “no established correlate of protection,” referring to the level of antibodies needed to confer protection.

“You have a lot of data now,” Levy told Pfizer. “What is your relative protection?”

“I would say there is no established correlate of protection,” Kena Swanson, Ph.D., vice president of viral vaccines at Pfizer, told Levy.

Levy said:

“I would like to hear from FDA what their overall approach will be around improving our understanding of correlate protection. We spend a good amount of time reviewing antibody data. We have no doubt antibody data is important. We don’t have a level of antibody that anybody is comfortable stating is correlated [with] protection.

Levy, who said antibodies are important, but T cells are more important, called for federal leadership to establish a “standardization of the T-cell assay and encourage or in fact require the sponsors to gather that information.”

“So what is the effort to standardize the pre-clinical assays?” Levy asked. “This is an effort that’s critical not just now but for future cycles of vaccine revision. If we aren’t able to define a standard for correlate protection we are fighting with one arm behind our back.”

Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, acknowledged the importance of Levy’s question and said they are “having conversations” with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and throughout government about how they might move forward, but it is something they “don’t have an answer to yet.”

Marks said as vaccines are developed in the future, it will “become even more important” to define a standard of correlate protection because “we won’t be able to have a large naive population to vaccinate with newer vaccines.”

“We will need to understand the T-cell response better,” Marks said. “I take your point, it’s just that we haven’t solved the problem yet.“

Comirnaty not available in the U.S. 

According to Pfizer’s press release, Comirnaty was previously made available to the 12 to 15 age group in the U.S. under EUA and 9 million U.S. adolescents in this age group have completed a primary series.

“The vaccine, sold under the brand name Comirnaty for adults, has been available under an emergency use authorization since May 2021 for the 12-15 age group,” Reuters reported. “It will now be sold under the same brand name for adolescents as well.”

Yet, Pfizer’s information hotline says it has no specific information on when Comirnaty will be available.

The FDA said Friday the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine “has been, and will continue to be, authorized for emergency use in this age group since May 2021.”

The CDC’s website states that Comirnaty is “not orderable.”

A branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services overseeing the Strategic National Stockpile indicated Comirnaty was not available because Pfizer did not have time to change the labels.

According to FDA documents, Comirnaty is not available in the U.S. and nobody has received a fully approved and licensed COVID-19 vaccine.

“Comirnaty has not been made available under EUA,” said Dr. Madhava Setty, physician and senior science editor for The Defender.

Setty added:

“The FDA and Pfizer have already stated very quietly, that they have no intent of manufacturing Comirnaty for distribution. Everyone is getting the non-licensed formulation that carries no liability for pharmaceutical companies.”

The CDC website confirms this, stating the Comirnaty formulation “will not be manufactured or made available in the near term even if authorized.”

The FDA on Aug. 23, 2021, approved Pfizer’s biological licensing application (BLA) for its COVID-19 vaccine named Comirnaty for people age 16 and older.

CHD challenged FDA on Comirnaty ‘approval’ for adults

As The Defender reported, there were “several bizarre aspects to the FDA approval” that proved confusing — which led to CHD suing the FDA over its approval of Comirnaty.

The FDA acknowledged that while Pfizer had “insufficient stocks” of the newly licensed Comirnaty vaccine, there was “a significant amount” of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine — produced under EUA — still available for use.

The FDA said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine under EUA should remain unlicensed but could be used “interchangeably” with the newly licensed Comirnaty product.

The FDA also said the licensed Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine and the existing Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were “legally distinct,” but proclaimed their differences did not “impact safety or effectiveness.”

Yet, there is a “huge real-world difference” between products approved under EUA compared with those the FDA has fully licensed.

EUA products are experimental under U.S. law and cannot be mandated. A licensed vaccine, such as Comirnaty, can be mandated by employers and schools.

Although Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine can be mandated, it has no liability shield. Vials of the branded product, which say “Comirnaty” on the label, are subject to the same product liability laws as other U.S. products.

Only COVID-19 vaccines distributed under EUA — which in the U.S. includes Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — have liability protection under the 2005 Public Readiness and Preparedness Act (PREP).

Under PREP, the only way an injured party can sue a pharmaceutical company for an injury caused by an EUA vaccine is if he or she can prove willful misconduct and if the U.S. government has also brought an enforcement action against the party for willful misconduct. No such lawsuit has ever succeeded.

Comirnaty cannot receive liability protection unless it is fully approved for children and added to the CDC’s immunization schedule bringing it under the auspices of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

Pfizer-BioNTech and Comirnaty vaccines aren’t interchangeable 

The FDA on Oct. 29, 2021, authorized a manufacturing change to allow an additional formulation of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that uses tromethamine (Tris) buffer instead of phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) used in the originally authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

The FDA on Dec. 16, 2021, approved a supplement to the Comirnaty BLA to include a new 30 mcg dose formulation that uses the Tris buffer instead of the PBS buffer used in the originally approved vaccine.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may contain either the PBS buffer or tris buffer, except for the 5 to 11 age group. The Comirnaty vaccine contains the Tris buffer.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine used for the 5 to 11 age group uses a Tris buffer, despite clinical trials having been conducted using Pfizer’s vaccine containing the PBS buffer.

According to Pfizer’s July 8 press release, the FDA relied upon studies conducted prior to the formula change to justify the approval of Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine for adolescents ages 12 to 15.

The type of buffer used in a COVID-19 vaccine can affect the potency of the vaccine, how it is stored and the propensity to develop potential adverse events, TrialSite News reported.

​​According to Cleveland Clinic, Tris is commonly used for the prevention and treatment of metabolic acidosis associated with various clinical conditions such as heart bypass surgery or cardiac arrest. It is also used in other vaccines, including Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, dengue, smallpox and Ebola vaccines.

The FDA categorizes tromethamine as a category C drug and suggests using tromethamine only if clearly needed.

It is unknown if tromethamine will harm an unborn baby, but animal reproduction studies have shown an adverse effect on the fetus, and there are “no adequate and well-controlled studies in humans.”

“The FDA-evaluated manufacturing data [to] support the change in this inactive ingredient and concluded it did not impact the safety or effectiveness of the product,” Marks, said during an October 2021, press briefing.

According to the FDA’s Letter of Authorization, reissued on Oct. 29, “analytical comparability assessments” revealed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine formulations containing Tris and PBS buffers were “analytically comparable.”

Yet, no human or animal trials were conducted to determine the safety or efficacy of the new formula.

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Megan Redshaw is a staff attorney for Children’s Health Defense and a reporter for The Defender.

Featured image is from CHD

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Dr Peter McCullough, Dr Richard Bartlett and Dr Simone Gold join Joni Table Talk host, Joni Lamb to discuss the Swedish in vitro study that shows the Pfizer jab installs DNA into the human genome.

Dr Gold, who is also a lawyer says that this discovery opens up a new avenue for lawsuits against the tyrannical vaxxine mandates, citing the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, which protects individuals against discrimination based on their genetic information in health coverage and in employment.

The abstract of the study, “Intracellular Reverse Transcription of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 In Vitro in Human Liver Cell Line” reads:

Preclinical studies of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, showed reversible hepatic effects in animals that received the BNT162b2 injection. Furthermore, a recent study showed that SARS-CoV-2 RNA can be reverse-transcribed and integrated into the genome of human cells. In this study, we investigated the effect of BNT162b2 on the human liver cell line Huh7 in vitro. Huh7 cells were exposed to BNT162b2, and quantitative PCR was performed on RNA extracted from the cells. We detected high levels of BNT162b2 in Huh7 cells and changes in gene expression of long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1), which is an endogenous reverse transcriptase. Immunohistochemistry using antibody binding to LINE-1 open reading frame-1 RNA-binding protein (ORFp1) on Huh7 cells treated with BNT162b2 indicated increased nucleus distribution of LINE-1. PCR on genomic DNA of Huh7 cells exposed to BNT162b2 amplified the DNA sequence unique to BNT162b2. Our results indicate a fast up-take of BNT162b2 into human liver cell line Huh7, leading to changes in LINE-1 expression and distribution. We also show that BNT162b2 mRNA is reverse transcribed intracellularly into DNA in as fast as 6 h upon BNT162b2 exposure.

See full video below or click here.

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Systemic Harms to Our Children

July 12th, 2022 by Dr. Robert Malone

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I recently had a parent write to me that the overnight camp that they were going to send their child to (fees already paid), had just notified them that mask use was to be required of students at all times. Was there anything I could do? Unfortunately, I can not change the mind-set of a summer camp on the west coast. The CDC is once again promoting policies with no basis in scientific fact, but these policies are reflexively accepted by those whom we trust to care for our children.

COVID may be “over” for many of us, but not so for many of our children.

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Carbon dioxide rises beyond acceptable safety levels in children under nose and mouth covering: Results of an experimental measurement study in healthy children

Environ Res. 2022 Sep; 212: 113564. 2022 May 28. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113564

This shocking paper had no coverage by the state-sponsored media, even though it shows that the average CO2 levels in inhaled air with nose and mouth coverings in children between age 6 and 17 is well beyond acceptable levels.

From the Abstract

We used short term measurements under surgical masks and FFP2 masks according to European norm EN 149, compared to baseline in an experimental, intra-individually controlled study over 25 min. CO2 content was measured every 15 s using an automated dual-wavelength infrared CO2 measurement device (G100, Geotech, Leamington Spa, UK) over 25 min in a short-term experimental setting, with children seated. After baseline measurement children were provided with two types of commonly worn NMC: surgical masks and FFP2–masks in randomized sequence for 3 min each. We kept ambient CO2-levels below 1000 parts per million (ppm) through frequent ventilation. We measured breathing frequency and pulse as potential physiological moderator variables. Forty-five children, 25 boys, 20 girls, with a mean age of 10.7 years (standard deviation 2.6) were measured. We measured 13,100 ppm (SD 380) under surgical mask and 13,900 ppm (SD 370) under FFP2 mask in inhaled air. A linear model with age as a covariate showed a highly significant effect of the condition (p < 1*10−9). We measured 2,700 ppm (SD 100) CO2 at pre-baseline and 2,800 ppm (SD 100) at post-baseline, a non-significant small difference. Appropriate contrasts revealed that the change was due to the masks only and the difference between the two types of masks was small and not significant. Wearing of NMC (surgical masks or FFP2- -masks) raises CO2 content in inhaled air quickly to a very high level in healthy children in a seated resting position that might be hazardous to children’s health.

From the Conclusions:

In conclusion we have produced experimental data that show that carbon dioxide content in inhaled air rises on average to 13,000 to 13,750 ppm no matter whether children wear a surgical or an FFP2 mask. This is far beyond the level of 2,000 ppm considered the limit of acceptability and beyond the 1,000 ppm that are normal for air in closed rooms. This estimate is rather on the low side, as we only measured this after a short time without physical exertion. Decision makers and law courts should take this into consideration when establishing rules and guidance to fight infections.

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Another recent study showing another major issue with masking:

Face masks disrupt holistic processing and face perception in school-age children

Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2022 Feb 7. doi: 10.1186/s41235-022-00360-2

This paper’s conclusion:

The current study provides evidence for quantitative and qualitative changes in the processing of masked faces in children. Changes in face recognition performance and alteration in the processing of partially occluded faces could have significant effects on children’s social interactions with their peers and their ability to form relationships with educators. Previous research in adults has already demonstrated the detrimental effect of reduced face perception abilities on one’s level of social confidence and quality of life

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For the full and complete resource on the dangers of masking, the Brownstone Institute has documented over 150 comparative studies and articles on mask ineffectiveness and harms.

More than 150 Comparative Studies and Articles on Mask Ineffectiveness and Harms

Brownstone Institute, DECEMBER 20, 2021

Sadly, our children will bear the catastrophic consequences and not just educationally, of the deeply flawed school closure policy for decades to come (particularly our minority children who were least able to afford this). Many are still pressured to wear masks and punished for not doing so.

The annotated bibliography in this article is very compelling and shows that masking has significant harms. These studies are clear that masks do not work to control the virus and that masking can be harmful, particularly to children.

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However, The CDC still recommends masking of K-12 students if the community levels of COVID are high or if there are students in the school who might get very sick from COVID.

From the CDC website:

“ECE (Early Childhood Education) programs may choose to implement universal indoor mask use to meet the needs of the families they serve, which could include people at risk for getting very sick with COVID-19.”

“Schools with students at risk for getting very sick with COVID-19 must make reasonable modifications when necessary to ensure that all students, including those with disabilities, are able to access in-person learning. Schools might need to require masking, based on federal, state, or local laws and policies, to ensure that students with immunocompromising conditions or other conditions that increase their risk for getting very sick with COVID-19 can access in-person learning.”

The CDC lists 20% of the USA as being at “high risk” for COVID.

So, what do they recommend for areas that they place in the “high COVID-19 Community levels

Yep- basically the CDC still recommends masks for over 20% of our K-12 children. They also recommend that ALL children be masked if there are children who might become very sick in the classroom. That children at risk for sever COVID must not be separated in any way, but instead the entire school should be masked to protect the vulnerable… this includes those children in early education programs.

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Josh Stevenson, in an April 21, 2022 Brownstone Institute article entitled “The Mask Studies You Should Know” has summarized many of the key papers:

Mask Mandates:

SOUTHERN MEDICAL JOURNAL: Analysis of the Effects of COVID-19 Mask Mandates on Hospital Resource Consumption and Mortality at the County Level

“There was no reduction in per-population daily mortality, hospital bed, ICU bed, or ventilator occupancy of COVID-19-positive patients attributable to the implementation of a mask-wearing mandate”

Use of face masks did not impact COVID-19 incidence among 10–12-year-olds in Finland 

“We compared the differences in trends of 14-day incidences between Helsinki and Turku among 10–12-year-olds, and for comparison, also among ages 7–9 and 30–49 by using join point regression. According to our analysis, no additional effect seemed to be gained from this, based on comparisons between the cities and between the age groups of the unvaccinated children (10–12 years versus 7–9 years)”

Mask mandate and use efficacy in state-level COVID-19 containment

“Mask mandates and use are not associated with slower state-level COVID-19 spread during COVID-19 growth surges”

Harms of Masking

CEREBRAL CORTEX: Reading Covered Faces

“ Au fait research on reading covered faces reveals that: 1) wearing masks hampers facial affect recognition, though it leaves reliable inferring basic emotional expressions; 2) by buffering facial affect, masks lead to narrowing of emotional spectrum and dampen veridical evaluation of counterparts; 3) masks may affect perceived face attractiveness; 4) covered (either by masks or other veils) faces have a certain signal function introducing perceptual biases and prejudices; 5) reading covered faces is gender- and age-specific, being more challenging for males and more variable even in healthy aging; 6) the hampering effects of masks on social cognition occur over the globe; and 7) reading covered faces is likely to be supported by the large-scale assemblies of the neural circuits far beyond the social brain.”

Masking Emotions: Face Masks Impair How We Read Emotions

“The main insight of the present research is that face masks’ use influences emotion inference from faces for all ages and especially for toddlers.”

Making pre-school children wear masks is bad public health

“In summary, the benefits of masking pre-school children are unclear but are probably too small to make a major difference to individuals risks from SARS-CoV-2 or epidemic control (even before considering variable likely compliance amongst toddlers). In contrast, the harms of this policy are likely to be damaging, potentially considerably so. Given this, and the influence that the CDC and Dr Fauci have both in the US and globally, we believe an urgent re-consideration of this policy is needed”

Little evidence for facemask use in children against COVID-19

“Face masks also have potential disadvantages, such as hindering verbal and non-verbal communication. There is a risk that children will keep touching their masks and actually increase the viral load on their hands. Using face masks also risks replacing social distancing, as some parents may be tempted to send their children to school or daycare wearing a mask if they have minor symptoms rather than keeping them at home. Finally, the commercially made masks that are currently available, especially the N95 masks that are said to offer greater protection, rarely fit children. Hence the use of such masks might lead to a false sense of safety, despite leaking viruses due to their poor fit. However, the most important drawback of face masks in children may well be that their use could reduce the focus from other measures that may be more important, such as hand washing, social distancing and staying at home when they are sick.”

Wearing N95, Surgical, and Cloth Face Masks Compromises the Perception of Emotion

“Across conditions, participants perceived significantly lower levels of the expressed (target) emotion in masked faces, and this was particularly true for expressions composed of more facial action in the lower part of the face. Higher levels of other (non-target) emotions were also perceived in masked expressions. In the second study, participants rated the extent to which three categories of smiles (reward, affiliation, and dominance) conveyed positive feelings, reassurance, and superiority, respectively. Masked smiles communicated less of the target signal than unmasked smiles, but not more of other possible signals. The present work extends recent studies of the effects of masked faces on the perception of emotion in its novel use of dynamic facial expressions (as opposed to still images) and the investigation of different types of smiles.”

Face Masks Impair Basic Emotion Recognition

“These main effects indicated that emotion recognition was significantly reduced overall when faces wore masks (M = 0.52, SE = 0.007) relative to when they did not (M = 0.75, SE = 0.007) with this reduction evident across all emotions”

Facial masks affect emotion recognition in the general population and individuals with autistic traits

“Results showed that the ability to identify all facial expressions decreased when faces were masked, a finding observed across all three studies, contradicting previous research on fear, sad, and neutral expressions. Participants were also less confident in their judgements for all emotions, supporting previous research; and participants perceived emotions as less expressive in the mask condition compared to the unmasked condition, a finding novel to the literature. An additional novel finding was that participants with higher scores on the AQ-10 were less accurate and less confident overall in facial expression recognition, as well as perceiving expressions as less intense. Our findings reveal that wearing face masks decreases facial expression recognition, confidence in expression identification, as well as the perception of intensity for all expressions, affecting high-scoring AQ-10 individuals more than low-scoring individuals.”

Impact of Face Masks on Audiovisual Word Recognition in Young Children with Hearing Loss During the Covid-19 Pandemic

“Standard surgical and custom apron shield masks significantly hampered word recognition, even in quiet conditions.”

Face masks reduce emotion-recognition accuracy and perceived closeness

“Our preregistered study with 191 German adults revealed that face masks diminish people’s ability to accurately categorize an emotion expression and make target persons appear less close. Exploratory analyses further revealed that face masks buffered the negative effect of negative (vs. non-negative) emotion expressions on perceptions of trustworthiness, likability, and closeness.”

Pilot study on burden of fungal contamination in face masks: need for better mask hygiene in the COVID-19 era

“High rates of fungal contamination observed in our study emphasizes the need for better mask hygiene in the COVID-19 era”

Short report on the effects of SARS-CoV-2 face protective equipment on verbal communication

“The use of face personal protective equipment causes significant verbal communication issues. Healthcare workers, school-aged children, and people affected by voice and hearing disorders may represent specific at-risk groups for impaired speech intelligibility.”

Titanium dioxide particles frequently present in face masks intended for general use require regulatory control

“However, the warning of Palmeiri et al.5 for the possible future consequences caused by a poorly regulated use of nanotechnology in textiles should be extended to face masks where TiO2 particles are applied conventionally, as a white colorant or as a matting agent, or to assure durability reducing polymer breakdown by ultraviolet light3,4. These properties are not critical for the functioning of face masks, and synthetic fibers suitable for face mask can be produced without TiO229 as was observed in the layers of several masks (Table 1). Moreover, uncertainties regarding the genotoxicity of TiO2 particles remain14. Therefore, these results urge for the implementation of regulatory standards phasing out or limiting the amount of TiO2 particles, according to the ‘safe-by-design’ principle.”

Need for assessing the inhalation of micro(nano)plastic debris shed from masks, respirators, and home-made face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic

“the risk of inhaling plastic microfibers, particles, and fragments from the inside of masks and respirators has only been anecdotally examined”

Use of face mask by blood donors during the COVID-19 pandemic: Impact on donor hemoglobin concentration: A bane or a boon

“This study including 19504 blood donors spanning over one and a half year shows that prolonged use of face mask by blood donors may lead to intermittent hypoxia and consequent increase in hemoglobin mass”

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But it gets worse…

Headstart, which enrolls babies, toddlers and young children still requires universal masking –if the child is aged of two years old or older. Headstart serves over a million children per year – and most of these must be masked. Yep, you read that right. From their website:

I think we can expect by the new school year (fall, 2022), the use of masks in toddlers and young children in Headstart will be dropped if the child is vaccinated.

They will essentially require vaccination of our youngest and most impoverished children. Even though the vaccinations do not stop transmission and spread. Even though the vaccines have not been fully tested and are neither safe or effective…

When does it end?

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This all gets kind of old doesn’t it? But that doesn’t mean that we should not pay attention or that we should just comply. Because we can’t afford to ignore these absurd bureaucratic policies that are grounded far more in bizarre ritualistic behavior based on myths, and the need to control and intimidate, than they are in scientific facts. We have to protect our precious children. We have to protect their physical and mental health. We have to ensure that they have every opportunity to develop normally.

The bottom line – this fight isn’t over yet. Our children are still being forced to wear masks if they are very young or in many areas in the USA. That is eight hours of continuous mask use while at school or in the case of summer camps, it could literally mean 24 hours a day. Just think about that.

This is not ok. The HHS can not be allowed to continue to require and/or recommend the use masks for children.

But back to the parent in my opening paragraph, whose child was being required to wear a mask. In response, I can only answer as to what would I do if I had children in a public or private school or camp that required masking. The answer is simple. My family would not comply. That means my children would not go to that venue. Even if it meant losing those fees. Masking of children is not ok.

Right now, parents are lucky because there are so many options for home, private and co-op schools. Social media abounds with opportunities to educate children without paying a fortune and without enrolling in public programs. But there is no question, educating our children without attending public institutions is hard and will require great sacrifice. I urge folks to reach out to relatives, friends and family for help. Most people have more support than they realize. The community must help to protect our children.

We can not stop our out-of-control government, but that does not mean that we do not have choices.

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How Masks Make You Sick Instead of Protecting You

July 12th, 2022 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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Using CDC data, no significant differences were found in COVID-19 case growth between states with or without mask mandates, during periods of low or high transmission

The widespread use of masks did not reduce COVID-19 transmission in Europe, and a moderate positive correlation was found between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe

An update to a CDC study on school mask mandates, using nearly six times more data, found no significant relationship between mask mandates in U.S. schools and COVID-19 case rates

In Kansas, counties with a mask mandate had significantly higher COVID-19 case fatality rates than counties without a mask mandate

One way masks cause harm may be the “Foegen effect” — the idea that deep re-inhalation of droplets and virions caught on facemasks might make COVID-19 infection more likely or more severe

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, 80% of U.S. states mandated masks to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, but accumulating research shows mask mandates and use do not lower the spread of the virus.1 While rules requiring masks did increase compliance, they didn’t translate to lower transmission growth rates, whether community spread of SARS-CoV-2 was low or high.

Even before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, mask mandates were put in place without ever properly evaluating efficacy, but that didn’t stop them from dividing communities and being used as a form of virtue signaling and a visible reminder of compliance with the “new normal.”

Now, with research showing not only that masks don’t protect you but may actually make you sick, the rationale behind their widespread mandated usage must be questioned.

Mask Mandates Didn’t Lower COVID-19 Cases

Using CDC data, researchers with the University of Louisville calculated total COVID-19 case growth and mask use for the U.S. No significant differences were found in case growth between mandate and non-mandate states during periods of low or high transmission.

“Surges were equivocal,” they noted, concluding, “Mask mandates and use are not associated with slower state-level COVID-19 spread during COVID-19 growth surges.”2 While stating that their findings “do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mask use,” they did note that “masks may promote social cohesion as rallying symbols during a pandemic.”3

Similarly dismal results from mask mandates were demonstrated in Europe. A study published in Cureus analyzed data from 35 European countries, including morbidity, mortality and mask usage, over a six-month period. The researchers noted:4

“Mask mandates were implemented in almost all world countries and in most places where masks were not obligatory, their use in public spaces was recommended … These mandates and recommendations took place despite the fact that most randomized controlled trials carried out before and during the COVID-19 pandemic concluded that the role of masks in preventing respiratory viral transmission was small, null, or inconclusive.”

When the data were analyzed, the study also revealed that the widespread use of masks did not reduce COVID-19 transmission. Worse, a moderate positive correlation was found between mask usage and deaths in Western Europe, which “suggests that the universal use of masks may have had harmful unintended consequences.”5

Mask Mandates in Schools Didn’t Reduce COVID-19 Cases

As part of the government sponsored propaganda campaign, a widely cited CDC study, published in October 2021, reported that counties without school mask mandates had larger increases in COVID-19 case rates in children after the start of school compared with counties that had school mask mandates.6

The study was used to support school mask mandates, but a team of researchers revisited the research, incorporating a larger sample size and longer study period. The updated study,7 published in May 2022, used nearly six times more data compared to the original study and found no significant relationship between mask mandates in U.S. schools and COVID-19 case rates. According to the researchers:8

“We failed to establish a relationship between school masking and pediatric cases using the same methods but a larger, more nationally diverse population over a longer interval. Our study demonstrates that observational studies of interventions with small to moderate effect sizes are prone to bias caused by selection and omitted variables. Randomized studies can more reliably inform public health policy.”

On Twitter, surgeon and public policy researcher Dr. Marty Makary pointed out that the CDC’s original study appeared to include cherry-picked data and the agency refused to publish an update using the more extensive data:9

“This study demonstrates how the CDC was cherry-picking data to support their school mask dogma. The article states that CDC’s MMWR journal rejected publishing this re-analysis. Most likely because it exposed the CDCs salami-slicing of data & use of science as political propaganda.”

It should be noted that a previous CDC study found mask requirements for students had little effect on COVID-19 incidence in Georgia schools, while improved ventilation, such as opening a window, reduced cases more than mask mandates for staff and teachers.10

The Foegen Effect: Mask Mandates Increased COVID-19 Deaths

A profoundly important study was conducted by German physician Dr. Zacharias Fögen to find out whether mandatory mask use influenced the COVID-19 case fatality rate in Kansas from August 1, 2020, to October 15, 2020.11 He chose the state of Kansas because, while it issued a mask mandate, counties were allowed to either opt in or out of it.

His analysis revealed that counties with a mask mandate had significantly higher case fatality rates than counties without a mask mandate. “These findings suggest that mask use might pose a yet unknown threat to the user instead of protecting them, making mask mandates a debatable epidemiologic intervention,” he concluded.

That threat, he explained, may be something called the “Foegen effect” — the idea that deep re-inhalation of droplets and virions caught on facemasks might make COVID-19 infection more likely or more severe.

“The fundamentals of this effect are easily demonstrated when wearing a facemask and glasses at the same time by pulling the upper edge of the mask over the lower edge of the glasses. Droplets appear on the mask when breathing out and disappear when breathing in.”

“In the “Foegen effect,” the virions spread (because of their smaller size) deeper into the respiratory tract. They bypass the bronchi and are inhaled deep into the alveoli, where they can cause pneumonia instead of bronchitis, which would be typical of a virus infection.

Furthermore, these virions bypass the multilayer squamous epithelial wall that they cannot pass into in vitro and most likely cannot pass into in vivo. Therefore, the only probable way for the virions to enter the blood vessels is through the alveoli.”12

Wearing Masks Could Be Related to Long COVID

Fögen explained that wearing masks could end up increasing your overall viral load because, instead of exhaling virions from your respiratory tract and ridding your body of them, those virions are caught in the mask and returned. This might also have the effect of increasing the number of virions that pass through the mask, such that it becomes more than the number that would have been shed without a mask.

The fact that “hypercondensed droplets and pure virions in the mask might be blown outwards during expiration, resulting in aerosol transmission instead of droplet transmission” is another issue that could make transmission worse instead of better, and the use of “more protective” masks could also backfire, making COVID-19’s long-term effects worse. Fögen explained:13

“The use of “better” masks (e.g., FFP2, FFP3) with a higher droplet-filtering capacity probably should cause an even stronger “Foegen effect” because the number of virions that are potentially re-inhaled increases in the same way that outward shedding is reduced.

Another salient point is that COVID-19-related long-term effects and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children may all be a direct cause of the “Foegen effect.” Virus entry into the alveoli and blood without being restricted to the upper respiratory tract and bronchi and can cause damage by initiating an (auto) immune reaction in most organs.”

Clear Risks of Prolonged Mask Use

Two expert reports spoke out against the use of masks for children in 2021. The first, a psychology report,14 stated that masks are likely to be causing psychological harm to children and interfering with development.15 “The extent of psychological harm to young people is unknown,” the report stated, “due to the unique nature of the ‘social experiment’ currently underway in schools, and in wider society.”16

The second report focused on health, safety and well-being,17 noting potential permanent physical damage to the lungs caused by fibrosis from inhalation of fibrous nanoparticles.

“There are real and significant dangers of respiratory infection, oral health deterioration and of lung injury, such as pneumothorax, owing to moisture buildup and also exposure to potentially harmful levels of an asphyxiant gas (carbon dioxide [CO2]) which can cause serious injury to health,” the authors explained.18

Normally, the CO2 then dissipates into the air around you before you take another breath. In the open air, carbon dioxide typically exists at about 400 parts per million (ppm), or 0.04% by volume.

The German Federal Environmental Office set a limit of CO2 for closed rooms of 2,000 ppm, or 0.2% by volume. If you’re wearing a facemask, the CO2 cannot escape as it usually does and instead becomes trapped in the mask. In a study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers analyzed the CO2 content of inhaled air among children wearing two types of masks, as well as wearing no mask.19

While no significant difference in CO2 was found between the two types of masks, there was a significant elevation when wearing masks compared to not wearing them. CO2 in inhaled air under surgical and filtering facepiece masks came in between 13,120 ppm and 13,910 ppm, “which is higher than what is already deemed unacceptable by the German Federal Environmental Office by a factor of 6,” the researchers noted.20

Also important, this level was reached after only three minutes, while children wear masks at school for a mean of 270 minutes at a time. Even the child who had the lowest measured CO2 level had a measurement three-fold greater than the closed room CO2 limit of 0.2%. However, younger children appeared to have the highest CO2 values; a level of 25,000 ppm was measured from a 7-year-old wearing a facemask.21

Bacterial Infection Risk, Problems With Social Learning

The full consequences of prolonged mask use are only beginning to be understood. The University of Louisville researchers noted, however, that using a mask for more than four hours per day “promotes facial alkalinization and inadvertently encourages dehydration, which in turn can enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection risk.”22 Other reported adverse effects include:23

After a lawsuit was brought by Leslie Manookian’s Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF), U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle finally voided the CDC’s U.S. mask mandate on airplanes and public transit in April 2022.24 The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has appealed the court order,25however, making it clear that they don’t intend to give up on mask mandates without a fight. In response, HFDF issued the following statement:26

“DoJ’s statement [that it would appeal] is perplexing to say the least and sounds like it comes from health policy advocates not government lawyers. The ruling by the US District Court ruling is a matter of law, not CDC preference or an assessment of ‘current health conditions.’

If there is in fact a public health emergency with clear and irrefutable science supporting CDC’s mask mandate, does it not warrant urgent action? Why would DoJ and CDC not immediately appeal?

HFDF is left with no option but to conclude that the Mask Mandate is really a political matter and not at all about urgent public health issues or the demands of sound science. While DoJ and CDC play politics with Americans’ health and freedoms, HFDF trusts individual Americans to make their own health decisions.

HFDF is confident that Americans possess ample common sense and education to understand that there are real questions about mask efficacy and risk and that CDC’s policy reflects neither.”

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Notes

1, 2, 3, 22, 23 MedRxiv May 25, 2021

4, 5 Cureus. 2022 Apr; 14(4): e24268

6 MMWR October 1, 2021

7, 8 The Lancet May 25, 2022

9 Townhall June 1, 2022

10 U.S. CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report May 21, 2021

11 Medicine February 18, 2022

12, 13 Medicine February 18, 2022, 4.1

14, 16 Psychology Report in respect of Civil Proceedings April 9, 2021

15 Express April 11, 2021

17, 18 Health, Safety and Wellbeing Report in respect of Civil Proceedings April 9, 2021

19, 20, 21 JAMA Pediatrics June 30, 2021

24 US District Court Middle District of Florida Case No: 8:21-cv-1693-KKM-AEP

25 KHN June 1, 2022

26 Health Freedom Defense Fund April 20, 2022

Featured image is from Mercola

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The Nitrogen Problem in Agriculture

July 12th, 2022 by Dr. Vandana Shiva

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The nitrogen problem in Agriculture is a problem created by synthetic nitrogen fertilisers made from fossil fuels. Nitrogen fertilisers contribute to atmospheric pollution and climate change in the manufacture and the use of fertilisers.

The manufacture of synthetic fertiliser is highly energy intensive. One kg of nitrogen fertiliser requires the energy equivalent of 2 litres of diesel. Energy used during fertiliser manufacture was equivalent to 191 billion litres of diesel in 2000 and is projected to rise to 277 billion in 2030. This is a major contributor to climate change, yet largely ignored. One kilogram of phosphate fertiliser requires half a litre of diesel.[1]

Nitrogen fertilisers also emit a greenhouse gas, N2O, which is 300 times more destabilising for the Climate System than CO2.

Nine planetary boundaries (Steffen et al. 2015)

The linear extractive agriculture system based on fossil fuels is rupturing ecological processes and planetary boundaries. The 3 planetary boundaries that have been transgressed to a danger zone are Biodiversity and nitrogen pollution from chemical fertilisers. The most severe violations of planetary boundaries is due to fossil fuel, chemical intensive industrial globalised agriculture -the disruption of Biodiversity Integrity and Genetic Diversity leading to biodiversity loss and species extinction and the biochemical nitrogen and phosphorus cycles caused by large scale monocultures and large scale use of chemical pesticides Erosion of genetic diversity and the transgression of the nitrogen boundary have already crossed catastrophic levels. All three overshoots are rooted in the chemical intensive, fossil fuel intensive industrial model of agriculture. 93% of cultivated crops have disappeared.

The scientific and just response to the nitrogen problem is to shift from fossil fuel chemical agriculture to biodiverse ecological agriculture and regenerative farming and to create transition strategies for farmers to shift to ecological agriculture which regenerates soil nitrogen while making farmers free of harmful and costly chemicals. Chemical free food is good for the Health of the Planet and People. [2]

The unscientific, unjust, and undemocratic response to the chemical industry created nitrogen problem is to reduce farmers instead of reducing dependence on chemical fertilisers as is happening in the Netherlands. [3]

To reduce chemical fertiliser use, governments need to make the fertiliser industry pay for nitrogen pollution, and redirect subsidies from industrial agriculture to ecological farming. Criminalising farmers for the crimes of the chemical industry is unfair and unjust. We need more farmers, not less, to regenerate the earth through an economy of care and belonging, and to produce real food which regenerates the health of the planet and our health.

There is a dystopian vision of a future of “Farming with farmers”, a digital agriculture with larger farms, more fertiliser use, more biodiversity loss.

While creating “Farming without Farmers” billionaires like Bill Gates are promoting more synthetic fertiliser use, aggravating the nitrogen problem.

Gates is promoting nitrogen fertilisers and chemical intensive GMO soya as raw material for  lab made fake food which is being labelled as “plant based”. [4]

The billionaire recipe is to have larger chemical intensive monoculture artificially fertilised by synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, which will emit nitrous oxide, a greenhouse Gas.

In total denial of climate science and the soil ecology, Gates is continuing the “chemical hocus pocus” when he says we need to use more fertiliser.

“To grow crops, you want tons of nitrogen-way more than you would ever find in a natural setting. Adding nitrogen is how you get corn to grow 19 feet tall and produce enormous quantities of seed”[5]

This statement is scientifically and ecologically false.

Soil is a living system. There are multiple pathways to regenerate the Soil and Soil Nitrogen and heal the nitrogen cycle.

The living soil was forgotten for an entire century with very high costs to nature and society. Soil was defined as an “empty container” for pouring synthetic fertilisers into, which were falsely seen as the source of soil fertility. “Bread from air” was the slogan after the discovery of the Haber Bosch process for fixing atmospheric nitrogen by burning fossil fuels. The illusion grew that we did not need soil.

There was the exaggerated claim that artificial fertilisers would increase food production and remove all ecological limits that land puts on agriculture. Today the evidence is growing that artificial fertilisers have reduced soil fertility and food production and contributed to desertification, water scarcity and climate change. They have created dead zones in the oceans.

The Process used to make explosives by burning fossil fuels at high temperature to fix atmospheric nitrogen were later used to make chemical fertilisers.

Justus von Liebig was the father of organic chemistry, the first scientist to explain the role of nitrogen in plants, which was quickly appropriated by greed for commerce. A new industry was created for external inputs of nitrogen, dubbed as “growth stimulants”. Outraged at the distortion of his scientific findings, in 1861 wrote a book, ”The Search for Agricultural Recycling”.

Liebig’s book was the voice of a true scientist, protecting his truth from distortions of a pseudo-science being created by commercial interests. As he writes “I thought it would be enough to just announce and spread the truth as is customary in science. I finally came to understand that this wasn’t right, and the altars of lies must be destroyed if we wish to give truth a fair chance.” The truth that Liebig was defending was that the soil is living, and its life depends on recycling, or what Sir Albert Howard later called “The Law of Return” in his “An Agricultural Testament” nearly half a century later. The lie he wanted to destroy was what he called the “chemical hocus pocus”, that you can keep extracting nutrients from the soil, giving nothing back, and have “high yields”.

Selling more fertilisers is good for the profits of the chemical industry, but it is not good for the soil or the climate. It violates nature’s law of return. And it denies farmers the ecological alternatives to regenerate and renew soil nitrogen.

Farmers did not create the nitrogen problem. The problem is created by the chemical industry. According to the Polluter pays principle, the chemical industry must pay for the pollution. Farmers are consumers of fertilisers, not the manufacturers. They are victims of a chemical intensive industrial agriculture system, like the biodiversity of plants, and animals, and the consumers whose health is degenerating with industrial food style chronic diseases. The planet and people need more farmers, not less.

Sacrificing farmers pretending to address the nitrogen problem is dishonest because it blames the farmers for a problem created by the chemical industry. It is dishonest and inconsistent to say farms and farms must be reduced while continuing to promote the use of chemical fertilisers as Gates, the Chemical Industry and governments are doing.

While the chemical industry has spread the myth that chemical fertilisers are necessary for food production and address hunger, they have destroyed biodiversity by promoting monoculture, and they have contributed to desertification of soil by destroying the biodiversity of living soil. The destruction of soil organic matter destroys the capacity of soil to conserve moisture, thereby creating the need for intensive irrigation, and therefore further disrupting the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles.

Our practice and research at Navdanya over the last two decades shows the regenerative ecological agriculture builds up soil nitrogen, while synthetic fertilisers deplete it. [6]

Reducing fertiliser use does not reduce yields.[7]

The more nitrogen fertiliser you use the more you must use, because nitrogen fertilisers kill the live organisms in the soil.

Fertiliser response has dramatically reduced. Sharma and Sharma (2009) mentioned about the declining fertiliser response for the last thirty years from 13. 4 kg grain kg nutrient in 1970 to 3. 7 kg grain kg nutrient in 2005 in irrigated areas. According to Biswas and Sharma (2008) while only 54 kg NPK / ha was required to produce around 2 t /ha in 1970, around 218 kg NPK/ha was used in 2005 to sustain the same yield.

Chemical fertilisers are leading to a decline in productivity because they are destroying soil health. During three and half decades, fertiliser productivity has declined from 48 kg food grains/kg NPK fertiliser in 1970-71 to 10 kg food grains/kg NPK fertiliser in 2007-08.[8]

Since synthetic fertilisers are fossil fuel based, they contribute to the disruption of the carbon cycle. But they also disrupt the nitrogen cycle. And they disrupt the hydrological cycle, both because chemical agriculture needs ten times more water to produce the same amount of food than organic farming, and it pollutes the water in rivers and oceans.

Pulses fix nitrogen non-violently in the soil, instead of increasing dependence on synthetic fertilisers produced violently by heating fossil fuels to 550 degrees centigrade. Chick-pea can fix up to 140 kg nitrogen per hectare and pigeon-pea can fix up to 200 kg nitrogen per hectare that fix nitrogen non-violently.

Returning organic matter to the soil builds up soil nitrogen. A recent study we are undertaking shows that organic farming has increased nitrogen content of soil between 44-144 %, depending on the crops.

Since war expertise does not provide expertise about how plants work, how the soil works, how ecological processes work, the potential of biodiversity and or- ganic farming was totally ignored by the militarised model of industrial agriculture. [9]

To address the nitrogen problem, we need to bring back biodiversity in farming.

Farming did not begin with the green revolution and synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. Whether it is the diversity based systems of India-Navdanya, Baranaja, or the three sisters planted by the first nations in North America, or the ancient Milpa system of Mexico, beans and pulses were vital to indigenous agroecological systems.

As Sir Albert Howard, known as the father of modern agriculture, writes in “An Agricultural Testament, comparing agriculture in the West with Agriculture in India:

“Mixed crops are the rule. In this respect the cultivators of the Orient have followed Nature’s method as seen in the primeval forest. Mixed cropping is perhaps most universal when the cereal crop is the main constituent. Crops like millets, wheat, barley, and maize are mixed with an appropriate subsidiary pulse, sometimes a species that ripens much later than the cereal. The pigeon pea (cajanusindicus), perhaps the most important leguminous crop of the Gangetic alluvium, is grown either with millets or with maize. . . Leguminous plants are common. Although it was not until 1888, after a protracted controversy lasting thirty years, that Western science finally accepted as proved the important role played by pulse crops in enriching the soil, centuries of experience had taught the peasants of the east the same lesson.”[10]

Vegetable protein from pulses is also at the heart of a balanced, nutritious diet for humans. The Benevolent Bean is central to the Mediterranean diet. India’s food culture is based on “dal roti” and “dal chawal”. Urad, moong, masoor, chana, rajma, tur, lobia, gahat have been our staples. India was the largest producer of pulses in the world. And our proteins are rich in nutrition, delicious in taste.

Pulses have been displaced by the Green Revolution monoculture, and now the spread of monocultures of Bt cotton.

The nitrogen problem due to synthetic nitrogen fertilisers is real. Uprooting farmers is a false, violent, unjust solution. Governments that have subsidised and promoted the fertiliser industry now need to shift public tax money to regenerative agroecology that is chemical free. New Agroecology schools need to be open for farmers to make a transition to ecological agriculture over a 3–5-year period. We need democratic debates on the use of public money to serve the public good, not private greed. Since how we grow our food impacts our health and the health of the planet, growers and eaters of food need to join hands to regenerate the health of the soil and communities.

The Living Soil is the answer to the Nitrogen problem. To regenerate living soil, we need regenerators. Farmers are the custodians and caretakers of the land. We need to create a new culture of Earth Care in agriculture. Getting rid of farmers is an extinction and extermination project which has no place in free, democratic just societies.

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Notes

[1] Shiva V., Soil Not Oil, 2008

[2] Shiva V., “Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change”, Synergetic Press, 2022 https://synergeticpress.com/catalog/agroecology-and-regenerative-agriculture-sustainable-solutions-for-hunger-poverty-and-climate-change/

[3] Gus, Camille. ‘Police Fire on Dutch Farmers Protesting Environmental Rules’. POLITICO, 6 July 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/police-fire-dutch-farmer-protest-nitrogen-emission-cut/

[4] Gates, Bill. ‘Why I Love Fertilizer’. Gatesnotes.Com, https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Why-I-love-fertilizer

[5] Gates, Bill, How to avoid a Climate Disaster, Allen Lane, 2021 – pg 123

[6] Navdanya, “Seeds of Hope, Seeds of Resilience”. 2017 https://navdanyainternational.org/publications/seeds-of-hope-seeds-of-resilience/

[7] Harvey, Fiona, and Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent. ‘Using Far Less Chemical Fertiliser Still Produces High Crop Yields, Study Finds’. The Guardian, 27 June 2022. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/27/using-far-less-chemical-fertiliser-still-produces-high-crop-yields-study

[8] Aulakh, M. S. and Benbi, D. K. 2008. Enhancing fertiliser use efficiency. In  Proceedings of FAI Annual Seminar 2008, 4-6 December, 2008. The Fertilizer Association of India, New Delhi, India. pp. SII-4 (1-23).

Subba Rao, A. and Reddy, K. S. 2009. Implications of soil fertility to meet future demand: Indian scenario. In Proceedings of the IPI-OUAT-IPNI International Symposium on Potassium Role and Benefits in Improving Nutrient Management for Food Production, Quality and Reduced Environmental Damages, Vol. 1 (Eds. MS Brar and SS Mukhopadhyay), 5-7 November 2009. IPI, Horgen, Switzerland and IPNI, Norcross, USA. pp. 109-135.

[9] Navdanya, “Pulse of Life”, 2016. https://navdanyainternational.org/publications/pulse-of-life-the-rich-biodiversity-of-edible-legumes/

[10] Sir Albert Howard. An Agricultural Testament. pg 13

Sleeping Terrorist Cells in Syria

July 12th, 2022 by Basma Qaddour

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The battlefields in Syria are quiet, but the conflict is far from resolution.  Despite the lack of focus on Syria by the US, EU and NATO, there are still developments in the region and among the various players.  Resolving the Syrian conflict seems to be on the back-burner of the Biden administration, and yet the US President will soon visit the Middle East.  

What new developments are brewing in Syria?  To answer that question, Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse interviewed Basma Qaddour, a Syrian journalist, co-author of “Voices from Syria” book, and head of the news department at Syria Times e-newspaper.

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Steven Sahiounie (SS):   Turkey broke a good relationship with Syria in 2011 by supporting the US/NATO attack on Syria. There are reports that Iran may be meditating between Turkey and Syria. In your opinion, do you think Turkey can repair their relationship with Syria?

Basma Qaddour (BQ):  Erdogan is a dodgy person, and what he is doing is just a tactic for gaining time and scoring internal points before the elections [to be held in June 2023], which is his most important goal.

He tries to take advantage of any Iranian or Russian initiative, if they serve his interests.

At the same time, he wants to tell the West that he has other options if Turkey’s demands are not met since the Financial Times summed it up by saying: “Erdogan is an infuriating, but indispensable ally!”

SS:  Turkey has threatened a new military operation in northern Syria. James Jeffrey, former US envoy to Syria, has told the Kurdish SDF that they should repair the relationship with Damascus who could defend them against Turkey. In your opinion, will the Kurdish militia make a deal with Damascus?

BQ:  These goals are clear and known; therefore, it has been reported that the goal of the current Iranian mediation between Syria and Turkey is to defuse the potential explosion in north of Syria by putting pressure on the “Syrian Democratic Forces” [SDF] and making them understand that the only solution is to hand over certain areas to the Syrian Army in order to prevent the Turkish military operation.

Here, we have to mention that Moscow conveyed the same message to the SDF leaders clearly, but the information indicates that the SDF leaders are trying to maneuver as new reinforcements for the Syrian army have entered the border areas and the leaders have not decided their position regarding the complete handover of these areas, which is currently the only possible solution.

According to information from Tehran and Ankara, Iranian Foreign Minister informed the Turkish President about Tehran’s strong opposition to any Turkish military operation, and that it would not allow the change of equations in the north of Syria, and it would support its Syrian ally with all capabilities, including the direct military presence, which is the same message Erdogan received from Moscow. So Erdogan accepted the political and diplomatic approach as the best current solution.

Actually, Erdogan’s margin of maneuvering is narrowing because NATO has not offered him anything new. He knows that those who support the separatist project in Syria are his American and European allies, and that the solution to this file will be reached only through coordination with Damascus.

The facts related to Turkey’s occupation of 8,830 km2 of Syrian territory, and its Turkification operations in the areas it occupies are among the reasons that makes Syria skeptical about Turkish intentions.

SS:  Recently, the Iranian foreign minister was in Damascus and met President Bashar al-Assad. In your opinion, are there new developments between the two countries?

BQ:  Damascus welcomed the Iranian mediation because of its confidence in the Iranian ally, and not because of the words Erdogan, who does not keep his word.

To sum up, Iranian mediation may succeed in imposing a truce, nothing more, to prevent the Turkish military operation towards Manbij and Tal Refaat, and it is too early to talk about the expansion of the mediation towards a future vision for bilateral relations between Syria and Turkey.

SS:  “Israel” has made repeated airstrikes on Syria since 2011 recently, an “Israeli” airstrike did heavy damage to the Damascus international Airport. How will Syria and the resistance respond?

BQ:  War is not picnic. Syria is aware of the fact that the Israeli enemy wants a pretext to ignite the region, especially after it was unable to drag the United States to wage a war against Iran despite all the incitement.

Therefore, Syria, which has now reached the highest point of “Strategic Patient”, will never be drawn into a battle whose time and place are defined by the enemy.

Syria fights against one enemy in many fronts, and it knows that the only deterrent that Israeli enemy’s leaders understand is the military deterrent that causes losses to the Israeli entity.

SS:   Recently, the sleeping cells in south of Syria, have been assassinating Syria army soldiers and civilians.  Do you think that the Syrian army will start a military operation in Deraa to clean out these terrorist cells?

BQ:  It early to predicate what would happen in the south of Syria before the end of Biden’s visit to the region this week. The sleeping terrorist cells implement the orders of their operator and they serve western agenda. As you know, there are reports about a plan to establish a “safe zone” there with the support of US and Israel. This plan dates back to 2015 regardless of the change of reasons for establishing it.

All US’s acts, plans and decisions in the ME region serves only the Israeli entity, you can take this to the bank.

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from MD


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Barely Legal: The Global Uber Enterprise

July 12th, 2022 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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The lobbying of Uber should, along with those of other corporate giants, only surprise those prone to pollyannaish escapism.  Its hungry, desperate behaviour takes place in plain sight, and denials merely serve to emphasise the point.  It resembles, in some crudely distant way, the operating rationale of the notorious British sex pest Jimmy Savile, who preyed upon his victims with the establishment’s complicity.

In terms of the gig economy, there are few more ruthless buccaneers than this San Franciscan ride-share company that has persistently specialised in cutting corners and remaking them.  Those taken aback by the latest leaked files about Uber’s conduct would do well to remember the initial stages of the company’s growth, and the protests against it.  Globally, the taxi fraternity raged against the encroachment of this new, seemingly amorphous bully.  Some authorities heeded their wishes, seeing an alternative option in transportation.

In September 2017, Transport for London refused to renew the company’s license, accusing the company of lacking “corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications.”  For all such rowdy, boisterous resistance, the company continued to spread its tentacular reach, inculcating users and drivers with ratings, incessant surveillance and behavioural observation.

The Uber leaks give us ringside seats to the decision making of the company.  Files numbering some 124,000 spanning the period between 2013 to 2017, were leaked to The Guardian and found their way to 180 journalists across 29 countries through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).  These include the savoury essence of over 83,000 emails, iMessages and WhatsApp messages exchanged between then CEO Travis Kalanick and various company executives.

The ICIJ brings out a big gun from the off.  In 2015, France’s taxi drivers showed their incensed displeasure with the company by setting fire to tyres, overturning cars and blocking access to airports.  The result of the protest was initially significant, leading to a suspension of the company’s operations and a nationwide ban.  “Needing a friend in government to smooth things over,” states the ICIJ with gotcha confidence, “Uber’s chief European lobbyist sought help from a young French minister on the rise: Emmanuel Macron.”

They had good reason to feel plucky.  Mark MacGann, the lobbyist in the question, is found sending a text to the then French economy minister on October 21, 2015 expressing concern about the ban.  “Could you ask your cabinet to help us to understand what is going on?”  Macron promises to “look into this personally” and urges “calm at this stage”.

Within hours, the suspension order was being reconsidered.  “The local government in Bouches du Rhones will modify its decision and press release to clean up the statements that set off such confusion,” a relieved and grateful MacGann informs Macron.  “Thank you for your support.”  Macron expresses his own gratitude for the company’s “measured response.”

This picture, according to the leaked messages, emerges from some dozen undisclosed communications and, at the latest count, four meetings between representatives of Uber and Macron.  It prompted French MP Aurélien Taché to call it “a state scandal.”  Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the left opposition party France Unbowed gave the perpetrator of the scandal an even better description.  Macron had shown himself to be a lobbyist for a “US multinational aiming to permanently deregulate labour law”.

The current French President is not the only one to have been taken in by the service.  The Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, had some advice to give the company.  “Right now you are seen as aggressive,” he said with dreary triteness.  His solution to Kalanick: “Change the way people look at the company”.  Focus on the good.  “This will make you seem cuddly.”

Given the protests against Uber globally, both in terms of drivers and users, the company chewed over a strategy of reverse emphasis.  The true problem, went this line of marketing, was the vicious, lazy, monopolising taxi driver.  Along the way, the company could also discount the welfare of Uber drivers while extolling the merits of a more liberal marketplace hankering for transportation options.  “Violence,” exhorted Kalanick like the privateers of old, “guarantee[s] success.”

Spokesperson for Kalanick, Devon Spurgeon, comes close to degrading the old cabbies, suggesting that the Uber model was refreshingly competitive in the face of industry sclerosis.  Kalanick and company, explained Spurgeon to the ICIJ, “pioneered an industry that has now become a verb.”  To do so required them to break a few eggs and rules on the way “in an industry where competition had been historically outlawed.  As a natural and foreseeable result, entrenched industry interests all over the world fought to prevent the much-needed development of the transportation industry.”

Perhaps most revealingly of all, and typical of the East India Company ethos of this titan, was the delight company members found in flouting laws and soiling regulations.   Its “other than legal status” was a point of constant excitement, notably in a range of countries from South Africa to Russia.  In the uncoated words of Uber’s head of global communications, Nairi Hourdajian, written to a colleague in 2014 as attempts in Thailand and India to shut down the company were afoot,  “Sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just fucking illegal.”

The battles against Uber’s corporate banditry continue, none more passionately and committedly waged than by the workers themselves.  Uber drivers have managed to make a case in the Netherlands and the UK that they are protected by the jurisdiction’s labour laws.

The same cannot be said about the United States, where freedom of contract and the tyranny of uneven pay prevail.  As Joe Biden, well wooed by Kalanick as US Vice President, said in his adjusted 2016 speech at the World Economic Forum at Davos, there was a company able to give millions of workers “freedom to work as many hours as they wish, manage their own lives as they wish”.  The Uber cofounder was less enthused by the vice presidential vessel.  “Every minute late [Biden] is,” he wrote in a text to a co-worker, “is one less minute he will have with me.”

The company’s board can also rest easy in one respect.  They have majority shareholder support to ensure that a lack of transparency regarding spending and lobbying activities will be permitted to continue.  While the veil continues to operate, current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is also aggressively pursuing a policy of sprucing and cleaning the company’s image.  This pirate of transportation is turning cuddly.

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

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***

Guests:

Prof. Dr. Martin Schwab, lawyer and counsel in the military appeal proceedings of two German army officers

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Kämmerer, human biologist, immunologist, cell biologist and expert witness in advertising appeal proceedings

Prof. Dr. Werner Bergholz, former professor of electrical engineering and advisor of the Bundestag

This session is about:

On July 8, the 5th day of the trial, the court agreed with the legal opinion of the defendant and dismissed the lawsuit of two Bundeswehr officers, who objected to the administration of the COVID vaccines to the Bundeswehr.

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Featured image is a screenshot from the video

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***

On the morning of July 6th, the CBC crossed the line from merely putting out its usual one-sided news on Ukraine to a defamatory attack on independent journalists who report live from the Donbass.  While they named Americans John Mark Dougan and Patrick Lancaster, they reserved particular venom for the highly-respected Canadian Eva Bartlett.

The National News anchor Ian Hanomansing featured Justin Ling, a writer who has written hit pieces on journalists whose accounts counter state propaganda. They suggested that those who report the news about the Ukrainian conflict with any acknowledgement of Russia’s perspective must be in Russia’s pay or in some way controlled by Russia.

The implication that Eva Bartlett’s reporting is bought and paid for by Russia (made, incidentally, by those whose opinions seem to have been bought and paid for by Canadian taxpayers) is defamatory.  She has a well-earned reputation for courageous eyewitness in the most dangerous situations, including in Gaza when it was under devastating Israeli bombardment in 2008/9, in Syria (where she publicized western false flag attacks), as well as in Ukraine, where she showed the reality of the supposed “mass graves” in Maripol.

Implying that those who call out US responsibility for fomenting the Ukrainian conflict are Russian pawns is cover for those propagating western propaganda — propaganda that:

  • ignores the US-backed 2014 coup against the democratically- elected Ukrainian president;
  • ignores Zelensky’s landslide victory on the platform of making peace with Russia;
  • ignores the U.S. undermining of the Minsk Accords that would have enabled that peace;
  • ignores the Kiev government’s ongoing attacks on Donbass civilians [now with the use of new U.S. weaponry!] that have killed over 15,000 Ukrainians since 2014; and that
  • even ignores the now-public evidence that the US motive in training tens of thousands of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi soldiers for the last eight years was to prepare them for this proxy war that would weaken Russia and get rid of Putin.  (Note that Canada has also trained Ukraine’s neo-Nazi soldiers.)

Americans who have spoken out about the U.S. set-up of Russia for this conflict include:

  • Former Pentagon advisor Col. Douglas McGregor;
  • Former Virginia State Senator Col. Richard Black;
  • Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago;
  • Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Wall Street Journal Editor Paul Craig Roberts;
  • Former CIA Russia specialist Ray McGovern;
  • Veteran of the CIA and State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism Larry C. Johnson; and
  • Former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter.

The CBC owes Eva Bartlett and her colleagues a public apology for their defamation.

To make amends, it might present one of Eva Bartlett’s reports to show viewers a sample of honest reporting on this issue.

Sincerely,

Karin Brothers, Toronto

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The current 2021-22 attempt to foment regime change in Cuba, backed by the US, Europe and even Canada, began in 2018/2019. Many of the individual artists involved in the 2018/2019 protests against the Cuban government (especially its Ministry of Culture) served as the vanguard of the July 11 protests. They have very recently been tried and sentenced, provoking another backlash by their sponsors (the US and its allies) on the occasion of the July 11 anniversary, aimed to subvert the Revolution.

In this article written in April 2019, Arnold August outlines what the 2018/2019 incidents were all about. “There is a wide-open debate/polemic in Cuba regarding Decree 349 on culture and the drafting of the rules for its future application. The controversy is also stirring on the international scene, especially in North America, Europe and Latin America.”

In this video our Contributing Editor expressed, from the point of view of a Canadian, that Cuba having a Ministry of Culture is actually very positive.

Only several days after the 2021 July 11 protests, August was interviewed by TeleSur.

On July 26, 2021, a webinar took place titled “What is Happening in Cuba?” Here is the video contribution by August on the role of US and its allies in fueling the protests.

On August 29, 2021, a webinar took place on the topic: Ending US aggression on Cuba is Key to World Peace. It was organized by the International Manifesto Group, the Black Alliance for Peace, No Cold War and Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. The Canada Files was the media sponsor. Among the speakers was Cuban journalist Iroel Sánchez, providing a valuable and not often heard about insight from the ground in Cuba.  See video below.

TCF posted an expanded video version of the August 29, 2021 contribution by August to the webinar “Ending US Aggression on Cuba is Key to World Peace,” for which TCF was the media sponsor. The thrust of this video is: Canadian ‘left’ media & government support colour revolution narratives against Cuba.” 

On September 21, 2021, The Real News Network (TRNN) contributor Radhika Desai is joined by August to discuss the protests in Cuba, the media narratives about the protests, and the prospect that the Biden administration will succeed in exploiting Cuba’s current troubles to achieve its interventionist ends. Video here.

More on the media manipulation on July 11 by August. Video July 28, 2018.

From the July 11 protests, the US-led regime change policy led to another attempt to provoke incidents, this time scheduled for November 15, 2021. In this article for TCF by our Contributing Editor, it is pointed out that “as a follow up to the July 11-12 protests, the same opposition figures and groups that participated in them, requested permission for marches to be simultaneously held in several cities across Cuba on November 15.” Read article here.

Despite their request to demonstrate being refused, the regime-change activists went ahead with their plans for a “peaceful demonstration.” August’s article for TCF was unique, as he wrote: “On July 11, 2021, regime-change demonstrations of the ‘colour revolution’ type broke out in several cities across Cuba, turning violent in some instances. They were driven mainly by pro-US social media prompts, with some Cuban citizens joining in for legitimate reasons in the context of the current system and not against it. Since then, the same forces, operating under a new banner and a private, two-month-old Facebook group named Archipiélago, are gathering for a second round of demonstrations to take place on November 15. To delve into it, I applied to become a member and was eventually (and surprisingly) accepted.” Thus, while much has been written about the November 15 plans, this is the only one that deconstructs from the inside the false narrative of “peacefully artists” in their own words and images. The article, also serves as an anti-dote to the current US-led outcry regarding the trials and sentencing of “artists” involved in the July protests. Article here.

The November 15 colour revolution attempt failed. Once again, the only article that unearthed the main reason for its failure is this one by Arnold August: “Archipiélago’s Cuban Protest Failure: Repression, Suppression, Intimidation, Detention – or Revolution?

On June 30, 2022, Arnold was interviewed on By All Means Necessary (Radio Sputnik) by Jacquie Luqman to discuss the real story of the prosecution of the artists responsible for the song “Patria Y Vida” in Cuba, the US involvement in using these artists to undermine the Cuban revolution in an effort to overthrow the Cuban government, why the desecration of Cuban symbols and US involvement in this song matter so much to the Cuban government, and how the race card has been used by the US government to undermine Cuba under a veneer of progressivism. Interview here.

The Canada Files will carry follow up articles and videos on the Cuban “protest” issue.

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This article was originally published on The Canada Files.

Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah has broken numerous stories, including how the Canadian Armed Forces trained neo-Nazi “journalist” Roman Protasevich while he was with the Azov Battalion, and how a CIA front group (the NED) funded the group (URAP) which drove the “Uyghur genocide” vote in parliament to pass this February. Jonah recently wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.

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America’s New “Angels of Death”: Inject Humanity with a Gene-altering Death-dealing Technology. Medical Professionals Cannot Claim Ignorance

By Prof. Bill Willers, July 11, 2022

Early in the declared Covid19 Pandemic, America’s medical community —  and this included America’s pharmacies    coalesced around a system of outlawing medicines known to be effective, safe and inexpensive, notably ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine  In time, it became obvious that withholding early treatment was crucial for the pharmaceutical industry’s project to vaccinate the world against a claimed Covid19 virus.

True Leadership at a Time of Crisis

By Julian Rose, July 11, 2022

Minds that work three dimensionally cannot solve the problems of the world. They can only make them worse. Those who see themselves as being ‘in charge’ of world events are not able to understand the actual nature of the problems they are supposed to deal with, so obviously they can’t change them for the better.

Blinken’s Gone Bonkers: Russia Is Alleviating, Not Worsening, Sri Lanka’s Crisis!

By Andrew Korybko, July 11, 2022

By pointing to dramatic footage of recent events in Sri Lanka and telling everyone that President Putin was personally responsible for provoking chaos in a far-away land, Blinken is scaremongering by getting Westerners to fear that their country might be the next to go bankrupt and subsequently descend into disorder unless they support all of their government’s efforts to preemptively “thwart this tyrant”.

The Imposition of Global “Green Capitalism”: Farmers Demand Their Rights in Europe

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida, July 11, 2022

The impositions of global “green capitalism” are not being pacifically accepted in all parts of Europe. Dutch farmers have started a popular insurrection against a bill that severely harms local agribusiness. The protests quickly spread, resulting in an international phenomenon, with episodes in other countries which have similar problems.

World Economic Forum ‘Anti-Corruption’ Champion Is Pfizer Director and Reuters CEO. “No Conflict of Interest”

By Natalie Winters, July 11, 2022

Jim Smith – whose concurrent roles as a Pfizer board member and Reuters CEO appear to pose a conflict of interest – serves as a board member of the World Economic Forum’s anti-corruption initiative.

Taiwan and the Making of an “Asian” NATO

By Danny Haiphong, July 11, 2022

NATO’s ambitions are nothing more than an extension of U.S. foreign policy objectives. The primary objective of U.S. imperialism at this moment in history is the containment of China—a euphemism for war.

Is Iraq’s Notorious ‘Oil for Food Program’ to be Repeated in Libya?

By Dr. Mustafa Fetouri, July 11, 2022

The United States Ambassador to Tripoli, Richard Norland, who is also his country’s Envoy to Libya, has been openly pushing forward a plan to deny the Libyan State the freedom of using the oil revenues in accordance with Libyan sovereignty over its resource. Oil makes roughly 98 per cent of the country’s foreign currency earnings and the country has plenty of it.

Pfizer Classified Nearly Every Severe Adverse Reaction During COVID Vaccine Trials as “Not Related to Shots”

By Ethan Huff, July 11, 2022

The reason why Pfizer’s Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccine” was declared to be “safe and effective” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is because Pfizer lied about the outcomes of its clinical trials.

The Dollar vs. the Yuan: Global Inflation, The Federal Reserve and China’s Measures to Stabilize Her Economy

By Peter Koenig, July 11, 2022

Under normal circumstances inflation occurs, when too many monetary units (US dollars, Euros, Chinese Yuan) chase too few goods. But we are not living in normal times. To the contrary. We are living in an increasingly divided world, not only in political terms – West vs. East / Global North vs. Global South – but also in monetary terms.

Being Salt of the Earth… And the Plight of Children of the World. Prof. Siegwart-Horst Günther

By Dr. Rudolf Hänsel, July 11, 2022

Salt is the sustaining principle that counteracts corruption or rot. The imagery of the “salt of the earth” was recently expressed by a wonderful interviewee, which immediately won me over. The topic of discussion was the human sense of community as the unshakeable logic of human coexistence and the question: Will human sense of community and the spirit of responsibility overcome greed for power and violence?

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Various right-wing groups across the Americas are preparing demonstrations in support of the one-year anniversary of the exaggerated and media-manipulated protests that took place in Cuba on 11 July 2021. In perfect lockstep, the Biden administration has issued further sanctions on Cuba—visa restrictions on 28 Cuban officials whom they have declined to name. The Black Alliance For Peace (BAP) denounces these efforts to smear the Cuban process and continues to stand in revolutionary solidarity with the peoples of Cuba.

“It remains clear,” says BAP South member, Salifu Mack, “that the enemies of African people and the Cuban Revolution will not rest until total death and destruction are visited upon the island, all in the name of white supremacy and U.S. imperialism.”

In announcing the 28 new sanctions on Cuba on 9 July 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is quoted saying that the sanctions have been implemented to “support greater freedom and economic opportunities for the Cuban people.” The Biden administration has declined to name the 28 Cuban officials that they claim these sanctions have been applied to. BAP understands that sanctions targeted toward any person or group of persons, especially in a country like Cuba, which has struggled under the weight of 60 years of a U.S. economic blockade, severely limits the country’s ability to advocate for itself on the international stage. The U.S. economic blockade already excludes Cuba from international trade and banking, punishes countries which try to circumvent it, and overcomplicates immigration from the island.

“We have seen how sanctions have been used to attack efforts toward self-determination in countries like Libya, Zimbabwe, and Eritrea,” says Austin Cole of BAP Haiti/Americas Team. “And we have also seen recently how sanctions against Russia backfire as the U.S. and NATO attempt to maintain hegemony in Eastern Europe.”

Of the 28 new sanctions being imposed upon Cuba, Blinken remarked that this measure is aimed at those who, in his opinion, allowed or facilitated violent and unjust arrests, false trials and prison sentences for those involved in the riots that took place in July of last year. As a continued strategy, U.S. imperialism is leaning into the trope of “critical support to political prisoners.”

Today the United States holds more than 2 million people within its jail cells, the equivalent of roughly 25% of the world’s prison population. Among that prison population is an aging demographic of political prisoners, like Mutulu Shakur, Mumia Abu Jamal, Joseph Bowen, Veronza Bowers, Kamau Sadiki, Ruchell Magee, Leonard Peltier, Ed Poindexter, and Rev. Joy Powell. While the enemies of the Cuban revolution attempt to make heroes out of Cuban citizens who now face the consequences of collaborating with U.S. imperialism, African freedom fighters are rotting away in prisons, being denied life-saving medical treatment, and are only strategically released on their deathbeds.

Additionally, there is an extreme irony in a country that supports reactionary riots throughout the world, yet regularly brutalizes protestors seeking justice within its borders and is helpless to stop its epidemic of mass shootings.  As U.S. hegemony continues to weaken, meeting formidable challenges across Latin America and the Caribbean, its violence returns home and compounds against its domestic colonies.

The week to come is certain to be filled with the same circular and baseless attacks using “anti-Blackness” in Cuba as a tool to turn Africans in the U.S. away from support of the Cuban Revolution. BAP is clear that anti-Black racism, a development of colonialism, will only be eradicated with the defeat of colonialism. While U.S. non-profits and NGOs pour billions every year into toothless “diversity and inclusion” and “anti-racist” marketing schemes, we have faith in the people of Cuba to lead their own processes, without U.S. interference, in establishing a world where People(s)-Centered Human Rights—based on materialist reconfigurations of land, healthcare and education—are at the forefront.

When Black people in the U.S. repeat the same positions and talking points of the U.S. government they are not helping Afro-Cubans in Cuba. They are giving cover to the regime change agenda of U.S. imperialism.

The Black Alliance for Peace calls on all serious anti-imperialists in the U.S. to continue standing with the Cuban Revolution. We must be clear that sanctions and other forms of U.S. interventions are an affront to national sovereignty and the right to self determination. It is the duty of African people living within the belly of the beast to remain vigilant against opportunism and co-optation.

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True Leadership at a Time of Crisis

July 11th, 2022 by Julian Rose

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Minds that work three dimensionally cannot solve the problems of the world. They can only make them worse.

Those who see themselves as being ‘in charge’ of world events are not able to understand the actual nature of the problems they are supposed to deal with, so obviously they can’t change them for the better.

For example, those trained in banking have a two dimensional thinking process. They can see only ledgers, numbers and material gain.

Those heading leading corporations see only what their corporations can profit from. How to make them ever more profitable. Those who go into politics accept the three dimensional prison that politics is. Anyone thinking outside this box won’t last long in politics. The list goes on – interminably.

But suffice it to say that the great majority of ‘leaders’ of this world come from the above categories. Plus a smattering of billionaires, royals and a handful or two of psychopaths and megalomaniacs.

None of these, quite obviously, come anywhere near fulfilling the need for wisdom or the pursuit of truth and justice. Such values don’t even enter the picture. They are seen as the preserve of those lost in a world of illusion.

So long as this status quo prevails, no change for the better can happen – on the global stage. That place where all attention is focussed, therefore from which all actions emanate. Two/three dimensional actions bereft of insight, wisdom, truth or courage.

Those who believe and follow the edicts of these incapacitated directors of society, live in a prison of their own construction. It’s a dark place of delusional slavery to whatever they hear on ‘The News’. The State uses them to keep its two/three dimensional plans on-track.

In the world we want to become manifest, none of the two/three dimensional thinkers has any part. As we know, if we care to stop and reflect on it, only those with genuine breadth of vision, qualities of humane leadership and a deep devotion to the manifestation of truth, can fulfil the necessary qualities to direct our planet in the way – deep down – we all want and long for.

It’s a surprisingly simple message I am articulating: joining together in refusing to cooperate with those who we know have no qualities capable of improving the health and welfare of humanity and of our planetary ecology – is the only strategy which can end their sterile destructive reign.

We know that only those capable of a deep grasp of life’s challenges and how to set-about confronting them, can put us on the road we all want to be on. Make us feel moved to support the path of liberation from our slave driving oppressors – and from our own weakness –  that leads over and over again into submission to their toxic demands.

The path to victory demands dedication. Dedication to listening to our hearts, not our minds. Only to our minds when they are first informed by our hearts and by a sound sense of morality.

We are becoming aware that this is the channel through which victory will be achieved. The only channel. It is the opposite dimension from the destroyers we are up against. They fear it, because they don’t understand it. It is outside their two/three dimensional prison. Yet it is our greatest asset; our wealth as true sentient humans. Our power as spiritual warriors.

It is time to ditch all distractions from this path. Only that which supports our great awakening must be put at the top of our ‘must do’ list from now on. And the further items down that list must all be in support of this great affirmation, this passion for truth.

There is nothing else ‘to do’.

If we fail to listen and act on the voice of our deepest hearts and intuitions, we can never be free. That message, determinedly put into practice in the outside world, will unlock the gates of all barricades erected to disempower us – and will set us free.

There is no other task.

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Julian Rose is an early pioneer of UK organic farming, writer, international activist, entrepreneur and holistic teacher. Julian’s acclaimed book ‘Overcoming the Robotic Mind – Why Humanity Must Come Through’ is particularly recommended reading for this time: http://julianrose.info/ 

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

Guests: Jeroen Pols, co-founder of Viruswaarheid and lawyer and Willem Engel, co-founder of Viruswaarheid.

This session is about the farmers’ protests in the Netherlands, settlement plans on farmland, expropriation of one-third of farmers based on intended nitrogen application savings and farmers’ protest responses, and use of police armed force.

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***

The impositions of global “green capitalism” are not being pacifically accepted in all parts of Europe. Dutch farmers have started a popular insurrection against a bill that severely harms local agribusiness. The protests quickly spread, resulting in an international phenomenon, with episodes in other countries which have similar problems. With this, it is evident that the globalist pseudo-ecological agendas will not be so easily received in all countries and may face strong popular resistance.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte intends to impose a law to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 70-95% by 2030. This gaseous chemical compound comes mainly from the urine of cattle, pigs and other animals, but can also be observed in the use of ammonia in fertilizers. Dutch farmers claim that this measure will result in the extinction of at least 30% of all the country’s farms, considering that rural workers could be banned from using fertilizers and would have to reduce the number of animals in their own properties. The protesters’ dissatisfaction is also justified by the fact that nitrogen reduction measures are not imposed on other sectors of the economy, such as the airline industry – which makes the topic seem something like a specific attack against agribusiness, promoted by the environmentalist militants.

In fact, agribusiness is a very important sector of the Dutch economy. Currently, the country has about 55 thousand rural enterprises, totaling more than 95.4 billion euros. The instability of the sector has led to crises, tensions and instabilities. Farmers are protesting with full force, obstructing food supplies in cities, which is leading to shortages and rising prices. In several images and videos posted on internet it is possible to see supermarkets with empty shelves and people desperate in search of basic products.

The farmers are led by Sieta van Keimpema, president of the “Farmers Defense Force” and have been active since June. The intensity of the demonstrations has increased in recent days precisely due to the government’s refusal to listen to the demands of rural producers, in addition to threats made repeatedly by the authorities to confiscate farms from agriculturalists who do not respect the new rules.

The police reaction, as expected, has also been violent. Several arrests have already been made. In the second week of July agents went to the extreme of firing shots at the civilian population during some demonstrations, which has been the target of criticism by activists around the world. In addition, very strong blockades have been organized by the police, with cars forming barricades to prevent the insurgents from passing. The objective of the agents is to prevent the situation in the country from reaching absolute chaos, but in fact this seems to be getting closer and closer.

As there are similar bills in other countries, Dutch farmers have received international support. Farmers in Italy, Poland and Germany also joined the demonstrations started by the Dutch. As the pressure to increase ecological policies is a global agenda, with strong international incentives for the approval of measures against the emission of gases, the formation of a united front between rural workers from different countries is strengthened. These workers share in common the fear that the direct effects of such measures will lead to the bankruptcy of rural enterprises that guarantee the income of the European peasant population. On the other hand, the governments of such countries seem little concerned with such issues, being only committed to obeying the pro-green capitalism agendas imposed by international elites.

The most interesting point is that the topic has been largely ignored by Western media agencies. In the headlines of the main western media, the issues most talked about are the Ukrainian conflict and the political crises around the world, but the case of European farmers remains largely ignored, despite the episode representing a potential continental crisis. The objective of this strategy is quite simple: to omit from the public opinion the arguments of the farmers and to spread the image that the environmental laws are “positive for all”. Something similar happened with other events, such as the truck drivers’ protests in Canada, when popular clamor against sanitary impositions were ignored by media agencies in order to prevent “anti-vaccine riots” from occurring around the world.

In fact, what is happening is just another episode of confrontation between producers and ideological militants, where workers who generate material riches have their interests harmed by an agenda that, in the name of “ecology”, imposes norms that severely hurt the lives of ordinary citizens. It is obvious that environmental concerns are legitimate, but it also seems clear that supply chains cannot be abruptly interrupted and modified just to seek “ecologically correct” results. In the same way that there is a human interest in preserving natural resources for future generations, there is a human interest in feeding the current population – and providing food in a satisfactory way will become impossible if Western governments continue to promote the failure of rural enterprises.

This posture of submission by European governments to the agendas vertically imposed by the WEF will lead to a scenario of internal polarization with a strong potential for civil conflict, opposing producers against decision-makers and ideological militants. Either European governments act sovereignly, banning globalist agendas that do not interest their people, or the political crisis that currently affects the continent will continue for many years to come.

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Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on Twitter.

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***

Jim Smith – whose concurrent roles as a Pfizer board member and Reuters CEO appear to pose a conflict of interest – serves as a board member of the World Economic Forum’s anti-corruption initiative.

Smith’s leading role with the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Partnering Against Corruption Initiative follows controversy over his position at the pharmaceutical giant and mainstream media outlet, which frequently reports on Pfizer. Reuters has published tens of thousands of articles covering or mentioning Pfizer, though the articles never disclose Smith’s affiliation with either entity.

Smith serves on the board of the WEF’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative, dubbed the “leading business voice on anti-corruption and transparency.”

“It is one of the Forum’s strongest cross-industry collaborative efforts and is creating a highly visible, agenda-setting platform by working with business leaders, international organizations and governments to address corruption, transparency and emerging-market risks,” explains a WEF synopsis.

In this role, Smith has contributed articles to the WEF website, including a 2017 piece: “Corruption and the Erosion of Trust.”

“Today’s common struggle against corruption goes far beyond compliance. More problematic is the profound and worsening trust deficit that exists between institutions and individuals,” Smith begins before lamenting the public’s loss of trust in mainstream media outlets:

“The widespread perception that institutions—both public and private—are not acting in the interests of the people they serve pervades the thinking of communities across the globe. News organizations, which have historically served as the watchdog for governments and business leaders, are less trusted by the public than ever before.”

“Public confidence has been corroded by a concentration on near-term priorities and payoffs, propelled by election-cycle politics or quarterly results targets that too often leave children worse off than their parents,” laments Smith.

The article, however, comes amidst the Federal Drug Administration and Pfizer attempting to delay the release of documents related to the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine.

The WEF has been accused of exploiting COVID-19 to advance its “Great Reset” agenda to advance its radical agenda of abolishing private property ownership.

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Natalie Winters is the Lead Investigative Reporter at the National Pulse and co-host of The National Pulse podcast.

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Cuban Economic and Migration Crisis to Get Worse

July 11th, 2022 by Uriel Araujo

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***

Thanks to US blockade and other factors, Cuba’s economy is in very bad shape. So-called freedom protests are set to kick off again, and  Cuban Gen. Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja sudden death, due to a heart attack, has possibly created a kind of power vacuum, as he was a potential next leader. A year ago, the largest protests in decades took place in the island, on July 11 and July 12. They were motivated mostly by problems regarding shortages, power outages, and long lines for food items and fuel. Today, the same problems remain, albeit with some improvements.

COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed and that has partly revitalized the country’s tourism sector. It depends heavily on foreign tourism and foreign currency. However, the economy remains in crisis. Even though American President Joe Biden has eased some of the North American sanctions, most of the ones imposed by the former President (Donal Trump) remain in force and the Cuban economy thus remains squeezed. Havana’s government has taken some measures, albeit still timid, such as allowing the opening of some small businesses, but these too have had limited effect so far. Inflation is on the rise and so is emigration. In this sense, Cuban economic policy is much more strict than that of other socialist nations, such as China and even Vietnam.

The recent shift to a single Cuban currency, as well as the loss of Venezuelan subsidies do not seem to have worked very well. Of course, the global economic situation does not help. Of course, this gives an opportunity for dissidents to attack the Cuban system itself and to demand liberal democratic reforms and so on. In any case, the Cuban government fears an American-fueled “spring” of protests aimed at “regime change” – a goal Washington has long pursued – and therefore conducted a severe crackdown of the demonstrations last year.

However this might have backfired in the sense that it has generated further dissatisfaction among many sectors of Cuban society. The authorities insist that people have been charged with crimes such as vandalism for violating public order and therefore they cannot be considered political prisoners.

To make things even worse, the sugar harvest this season has been only half of what was expected. It will cover domestic demand but meeting international commitments will not be possible. The causes of this lie in pandemic related shortage of oxygen, but are also worsened by US sanctions.

The problem is that the Cuban economic crisis is also a migration crisis: since the beginning of the year at least 2,000 Cubans who tried to emigrate to Florida by sea have been deported by North American authorities, and last month 25,000 crossed the Mexican border after emigrating to different Central American countries. Emigration in fact has reached a new peak, with a total of 140,000 Cuban citizens having illegally entered US territory since October last year. Those are higher figures than that of the famous Mariel exodus crisis of 1980. All of this creates just the right climate for further demonstrations. And the economic and emigration crisis are also part of a larger domestic political crisis.

Even though Washington focuses mostly on countering Beijing on the Indo-Pacific, by broadening its engagement in South Asia and beyond, it cannot help but notice that China has also increased its presence in the Caribbean. In November 2020 I wrote that Havana should be in the spotlight in the near future, due to its increased cooperation with Beijing since at least 2018, when Chinese National Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and Cuban Minister of the Armed Forces Cintra Frias pledged to deepen both nations’ military and security ties. Since then, there were some signs of Chinese military presence on the island, although this has not been confirmed. Washington in turn has been quite busy militarizing the Caribbean Sea since at least 2020 to encircle Venezuela. The two great powers also compete for influence in both Guyana and Suriname, in the context of major oil discoveries in the region in 2020.

On July 1, Cuban representatives signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese company Zhongyulidu Technology Ltd to promote Cuba’s cultural heritage and tourism on Chinese digital platforms. A month ago Cuba-China cooperation presented their jointly-produced Pan-Corona Vaccine. Overthrowing the government in Havana and supporting pro-Western political actors would certainly serve American geopolitical interests in the region.

To sum it up, one should expect an escalation of protests in Cuba over the domestic crisis and one should also expect an attempt by Washington to exploit the situation by pushing for regime change in the island through the usual means of clandestinely fomenting “spring” revolutions – as it has attempted to do so in recent years in Belarus and elsewhere.

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Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts.

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***

The United States Ambassador to Tripoli, Richard Norland, who is also his country’s Envoy to Libya, has been openly pushing forward a plan to deny the Libyan State the freedom of using the oil revenues in accordance with Libyan sovereignty over its resource. Oil makes roughly 98 per cent of the country’s foreign currency earnings and the country has plenty of it.

In a tweet on 28 June, the US embassy has, for the first time, unveiled what it called “efforts” to “establish a Libyan-led mechanism to provide transparency regarding how oil revenues are spent”. The idea is not new, but the way it is being presented now is completely unheard of before and remains vague, with very little details.

Basically what is being floated by Ambassador Norland was agreed to in the first Berlin Conference on Libya in January 2020. As part of stalling the Libyan conflict, the Conference agreed to establish a Libyan-led economic commission of experts to oversee “structural economic reform”, creating the economic track of the settlement process facilitated by the United Nations. The aim, then, was to make sure that oil revenues are equally distributed among Libyans through a unified mechanism to avoid any suspension of oil production and exports of the country’s lifeline, oil, ultimately de-weaponising oil in the conflict.

But what Mr. Norland’s proposal goes far beyond a process to, equally, share oil revenues among Libyans and, if implemented, it will, literally, strip the Libyan State and its relevant sovereign institutions, like the Central Bank and Audit Bureau, of any freedom in handling oil money. Any present or future government will not be free to budget freely as it is supposed to, until the entire conflict is settled.

Critics believe what the US Ambassador is proposing is an amended copy of the notorious “oil for food program” that was imposed on Iraq in 1995 to deny Iraq the freedom of managing and utilising its oil revenues. The program, part of sanctions against late Saddam Hussein’s government, ultimately became highly corrupt bureaucracy, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, as more of them became poorer and unable to afford food and medicine. Under that mechanism, Iraq was unable to buy its needs without the approval of the program management, which usually investigated every single purchase including baby formula and other basic necessities.

Ambassador Norland’s idea, which he dubbed “Mustafeed” beneficiary in Arabic, lacks clarity and very little has been said to clarify it. Yet, it has been the subject of wider debate among Libyans across social media with most comments criticising what they see as serious infringement of Libya’s independence and sovereignty. However, in a tweet on 28 June, after meeting the current Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, in Tripoli, Richard Norland tweeted “I complimented the PM’s engagement on Mustafeed so far,” implying that Mr. Dbeibeh is supporting the proposal.

“Mustafeed” refers to a supervisory process in which all oil money is allocated into the budget of Libya through recommendations of a panel made up of the UN, European Union, Egypt, US and Libya as its Chair. Until a political settlement is reached, all oil money, usually used to finance imports of food, medicine and other essentials, will not be spent on any other budgetary items, except essentials. Furthermore the accounts of the Libyan State will be reviewed by a third party—likely to be an independent accounting firm—illegal under current Libyan laws.

The aim is to deny the militias the funding they have been enjoying over the years through their nominal support and sometimes blackmail of the successive governments that came to power in Libya over the last decade.

While this is a noble cause that would limit the financial attrition of the country, it is also a  clear attempt to deny the Libyan State its sovereign decision-making over its resources by simply handing it over to foreign powers that are, essentially, the main cause of the country’s ills since 2011. Before “Mustafeed” was unveiled, many foreign players in Libya were calling for some kind of sharing of the oil revenue, a step many criticised because it could lead to partition of the country along its geographical regions: East, West and South—an idea supported by many politicians, particularly in eastern Libya, disguising it as federalist system similar to what Libya used to be in the wake of its independence in 1951.

Many believe the international military intervention in Libya in 2011 was, partly, to dominate and control part of the country’s huge oil wealth. Today, as it was then, Libya remains a wealthy nation with proven oil reserves estimated to be more than 48 billion barrels, the third in Africa, but the decade-long conflict has diminished its production capacity. Because of the conflict and lack of central government, the country is producing less than half a million barrels/day, when it should be capitalising on higher energy prices through increased production. International oil prices have skyrocketed since the start of the war in Ukraine, but Libya, despite its potential, has not benefited from this windfall.

The “Mustafeed” plan, if implemented, will not be anything but another form of “oil for food program”, since the country is still considered as a threat to international peace and security. Dozens of UN Security Council resolutions, since 2011, were adopted under Chapter VII of the UN designating Libya as security threat.

However, “Mustafeed” is very likely to be a difficult political sell for any politician who might be tempted to sign up to the idea. Despite everything that happened in the country, the majority of Libyans still reject foreign meddling in their affairs.

Foreign interference in Libya has been one of the triggers of the recent wave of public demonstrations that has been taking place across Libya over the last two weeks.

In a wider context, Ambassador Norland also linked “Mustafeed” to the White House initiative of conflict prevention and resolution unveiled by the Biden administration last April. In this case, taking control of Libya’s oil money will certainly limit the potential of waging war among different Libyan protagonists, but will not end the conflict while it will certainly eat away whatever sovereignty Libya has left.

As the political stalemate continues, similar ideas to “Mustafeed” are likely to become part of the debate about how to end the country’s political conflict which is poisoning every aspect of life, but fail to offer a solution.

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A Canadian expert in messenger RNA (mRNA) was suspended for two months without pay for criticizing the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for children.

Dr. Patrick Provost, microbiology and immunology professor at the Université Laval (ULaval) in Quebec province, was punished for remarks he made in front of a panel of doctors and scientists back in December 2021. He said that the risks of injecting children with an experimental gene-altering mRNA COVID shot outweigh the potential benefits.

His remarks were not without basis as he studies mRNA in his own laboratory as part of his position at the university.

“Being censored for doing what I’ve been trained to do – and hired to do – well, it’s hard to believe,” said Provost. “I had some concerns about something, [so] I searched the literature, I prepared a speech [and] delivered it to the public.

The professor only learned on June 14 that ULaval was suspending him for eight weeks without pay.

“We need to be allowed to question again,” Provost remarked. “We should be able to discuss any ideas [and] any opinions. Because I express opinions against the narrative of the government, I was suspended.”

Provost was not the only academic who was punished for standing up against COVID-19 vaccines for children. ULaval also suspended biology professor Nicolas Derome for bringing up his concerns about the shots back in November 2021.

Simon Viviers, vice president of ULaval’s faculty union, said a grievance against the “attack on academic freedom” had been filed. He added that the penalties on Provost and Derome will make other professors think twice about making public comments on certain issues.

“To allow [a university] to judge the validity of the comments made by a university professor in public and to sanction him in this manner is extremely problematic,” he commented. “It could really have a dissuasive effect [and] even lead to self-censorship.”

MSM takes down Provost’s article shortly after publishing it

Apart from his suspension from ULaval, Provost’s article titled “The true portrait of COVID-19 in Quebec” was removed by the mainstream media outlet that first published it.

The piece published on June 22 in Le Journal de Quebec debunked the mainstream COVID-19 narrative. Provost wrote that the COVID-19 death rate is “greatly overestimated” due to a number of factors, including an infection rate “several times higher than reported” and the inclusion of “deaths with, and not because of, COVID-19” in the tallies.

He went on to say that a higher rate of “all-cause” death amongst the elderly only took place during the first wave from April to June 2020, as well as shortly after the imposition of the holiday lockdown or curfew and the deployment of the third vaccine dose in January 2022.

While he did not associate the vaccines with higher death rates, he presented the data from around the world compiled by insurance companies showing an almost 40 percent spike of excess death-rate claims in largely vaccinated or boosted populations.

Provost asked: “Did the pandemic … justify imposing such severe and comprehensive health measures, rather than targeted ones, to circumscribe a threat that targeted a well-known category of people?”

Quebecor, the parent company of Le Journal de Quebec, took down the article – but independent media outlets such as Libre Media have republished it.

“You are condemned by the media, by the government, and you are chased and put down,” lamented Provost.

Visit MedicalCensorship.com for more stories about the silencing of doctors critical of COVID-19 vaccines.

Watch the video of a British TV executive revealing the MSM’s shocking censorship on “The HighWire.”

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***

The reason why Pfizer’s Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccine” was declared to be “safe and effective” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is because Pfizer lied about the outcomes of its clinical trials.

Pfizer’s clinical trial documents, which started getting released on June 1 by the FDA as part of a lawsuit and court-ordered disclosure schedule, reveal that the company classified nearly every severe adverse event that occurred as being “not related to shots.”

The 80,000-page document pile from Pfizer includes an extensive set of Case Report Forms (CFRs) from the company’s Phase 3 trials, which were conducted at various locations throughout the United States.

“The CRFs included in this month’s documents contain often vague explanations of the specific symptoms experienced by the trial participants,” writes Michael Nevradakis, PhD, for The Defender, a project of Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

“They also reveal a trend of classifying almost all adverse events – and in particular severe adverse events (SAEs) – as being ‘not related’ to the vaccine.”

Just like they did with covid itself, vaccine deaths were blamed on everything but the jabs themselves

In one instance, a woman in her 50s who participated in a Pfizer clinical trial at the Sterling Research Group in Cincinnati, Ohio, died of an apparent myocardial infarction on Nov. 4, 2020, after receiving two injections two months prior.

“The patient had a medical history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, hypothyroidism, osteoarthritis of the knees and attention deficit disorder,” reports explain.

“Her death was listed as ‘not related’ to the vaccine, and was instead attributed to ‘hypertensive cardiovascular disease.’”

Another female of roughly the same age, also out of Cincinnati, died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 21, 2020, after getting shot in the months prior. Her death was categorized as “not related” to the injections as it “occurred 2 months after last receipt of study agent.”

A mid-60s male who participated in a Texas-based Ventavia Research Group trial got jabbed in August 2020 and died in November 2020 from an apparent myocardial infarction. His death was blamed on a “failed cardiac stent” and pneumonia attributed to an undisclosed “infection.”

A fully injected teenage female who was diagnosed with right lower extremity deep vein thrombosis on Nov. 15, 2020, was hospitalized for her “serious” condition and later died, only to have Pfizer list the cause of death as a “fracture.”

A male in his mid-70s who was jabbed around the same time and quickly developed abdominal adhesions, altered mental status, and acute hypoxic respiratory failure later died from congestive heart failure. His death was blamed by Pfizer on a “prior surgery.”

Another male of roughly the same age out of Boston received both Pfizer injections and developed pneumonia and a peripheral edema. He later died after being hospitalized for pneumonia, only to have his death attributed by Pfizer to “existing neuropathy.”

“During his hospitalization with pneumonia, his blood pressure was measured as high as 179/72, with a heart rate reaching 105 beats per minute and an oxygen saturation level that fell to 92.0,” Nevradakis writes.

“In total, he had three emergency room visits during the observation period.”

On and on the list goes with patient after patient clearly dying from the jabs, but not being categorized as such in Pfizer’s trial results. This is what you call fraud, and it is what Pfizer engaged in to participate in and profit from Operation Warp Speed.

“Now are people understanding why this information was not supposed to be released for 70 years?” wrote a reader at The Defender. “They tried to bury this … After 70 years, everyone who had taken the ‘clot-shot’ would have been dead.”

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TikTok is facing multiple lawsuits from parents who say their children died of strangulation attempting the “blackout challenge,” after the app showed them videos of other people trying it. One suit filed against the company in June alleges that at least seven specific children died last year while attempting the challenge, which the complaint says “encourages users to choke themselves with belts, purse strings, or anything similar until passing out.” All the children who reportedly died were under 15 years old.

We’re not going to get into the distressing details of the cases, but you can read the full complaint below for more background on some of the children, and how they ended up doing the challenge.

The most recent lawsuit was filed by the parents of eight-year-old Lalani Walton, and nine-year-old Arriani Arroyo. However, it cites several other children that also died after attempting the challenge as evidence that TikTok was aware of the problem. In addition to Walton and Arroyo, the cases it lists are:

  • A 10-year-old in Italy who reportedly died in January 2021
  • A 12-year-old in Colorado who reportedly died in March 2021
  • A 14-year-old in Australia who reportedly died in June 2021
  • A 12-year-old in Oklahoma who reportedly died in July 2021
  • A 10-year-old in Pennsylvania who reportedly died in December 2021

The mother of the Pennsylvania 10-year-old, Nylah Anderson, is also suing the company, alleging that the app “pushed exceedingly and unacceptably dangerous challenges.” In response to that suit, TikTok told The Washington Post that it had blocked users from searching for the blackout challenge — instead, users see one of its warning screens, saying that “some online challenges can be dangerous, disturbing, or even fabricated,” and get linked to a page in the app about assessing challenges and warnings.

The screen TikTok shows when a user searches for the blackout challenge. (Source: The Verge)

However, Smith and Arroyo’s newer suit alleges that their children weren’t searching for challenges when they saw the videos. Instead, it says, TikTok put it right in front of them on the app’s main screen, the For You page. The suit accuses the company of having “specifically curated and determined that these Blackout Challenge videos – videos featuring users who purposefully strangulate themselves until losing consciousness – are appropriate and fitting for small children”.

On the record, TikTok spokesperson Mahsau Cullinane would only provide the company’s previous statement:

This disturbing ‘challenge,’ which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform and has never been a TikTok trend. We remain vigilant in our commitment to user safety and would immediately remove related content if found. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family for their tragic loss.

Challenges are a core part of the TikTok experience — to the point where competitors have started trying to integrate them into their platforms in an attempt at appealing to TikTok users. Some challenges simply involve doing a dance move, while others are less benign. One infamous challenge that spread among the platform’s users encouraged students to steal or destroy school property. The platform is so well-known for its challenges that the company is sometimes linked to ones that spread on other sites or apps, or even ones that are seemingly made up.

Smith and Arroyo’s suit argues that because TikTok advertises and pushes some challenges, it has a “duty to monitor the videos and challenges shared, posted, and / or circulated on its app and platform to ensure that dangerous and deadly videos and challenges were not posted, shared, circulated, recommended, and / or encouraged.”

The company has faced lawsuits and fines over the access children have to its platform before. In 2019, it agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle charges from the Federal Trade Commission that it allowed users under 13 to sign up without a parent’s permission. About a year later, it introduced Family Pairing mode, which lets parents link their accounts to their children’s and control the amount of content they see and how much time they can spend on the app.

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***

Under normal circumstances inflation occurs, when too many monetary units (US dollars, Euros, Chinese Yuan) chase too few goods. But we are not living in normal times. To the contrary. We are living in an increasingly divided world, not only in political terms – West vs. East / Global North vs. Global South – but also in monetary terms.

The gradual but ever faster faltering of the US dollar hegemony, followed by related so-called hard currencies, like the Euro, the British Pound, the Japanese Yen, as well as the Australian and Canadian dollars, is giving eastern currencies, especially the Chinese Yuan and to some extent also the Russian Ruble a thrive towards stability.

Why is that? For a number of reasons. First, the Chinese Yuan and the Russian Ruble, as well as many other eastern currencies, are backed by their economies and in both cases also by gold. For that reason alone, they have an inherent stability, western fiat currencies – which are based on nothing – do not have.

A new and coming eastern currency stability mechanism may soon be a basket of some twenty commodities that are widely and universally used, in addition to the strength of the local economy.

This idea is not new, but has recently been reintroduced by Russia’s Sergei Glazyev. As of 2021, he is the Commissioner for Integration and Macroeconomics within the Eurasian Economic Commission, the executive body of the Eurasian Economic Union. Sergei Glazyev is also President Putin’s economic advisor.

It is a clear distinction from western fiat currencies which are based on no solid substance, other than debt creation. In other words, western dollar-based currencies – beginning with the US dollar itself – are unsustainable pyramid schemes which sooner or later are bound to implode, or at best gradually collapse.

What we are witnessing today, is a steady decay of western currencies which are currently been artificially propped up by manipulation of interest rates, as well as artificially caused inflation, based on artificially created shortages of food, energy and other commodities. The pretext used for such shortages – totally false indeed – is the Russian-Ukraine war.

Such shortages, especially food shortages and resulting mass famine, had been planned for over ten years and were already reflected in the 2010 Rockefeller Report. They are being carried out now.

In today’s (western) world, inflation and monetary (in)stability are manufactured or manipulated. They are being used like “cold war” weapons by the west internally, initiated by the US, to play western currencies against each other and to assure dollar hegemony will continue.

To the extent possible and especially through the east-west trade-related interdependency, mostly through the powerhouse China, the west is hoping to also destabilize the economies of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members, especially China.

China’s western currency reserves amounted in May 2022 to some US$ 3.12 trillion equivalent, at least two thirds of which are in US dollar denominated assets. Given the Chinese – US, as well as western economies’ trading interrelation, dedollarization remains a challenge for China.

The Federal Reserve

Despite forecasters’ expectations of a half-a basic point increase, under the pretext of fighting inflation, the FED announced on June 15 the largest interest rate hike in 28 years, namely an increase of three-quarters of a percentage point — the biggest hike since 1994. That follows a quarter-point increase in March and a half-point jump in May. On July 5, 2022, the FED’s base rate was between 1.5% and 1.75%.

This, the FED said, was a move towards regaining control over soaring consumer prices.

However, consumer prices were up 8.6% from a year ago. In other words, the FED pretends to fight an 8.6% annual inflation with an interest rate hike of less than 2%. This is unrealistic.

The real reason for these sudden interest rate increases is to be sought elsewhere. Namely, the gradual but steady loss of the US dollar’s value in the global monetary market. This has to do with a number of factors, among them, the steadily faltering trust in the US economy, but predominantly with Washington’s dollar-based worldwide “sanctioning” of countries that do not conform to US policies, but instead want to preserve their political and economic sovereignty.

Increasing interest rates is expected to draw investors to dollar denominated assets – at least temporarily; thereby “postponing” the collapse of the US dollar hegemony.

The global flow of US dollars accounts today for between 50% and 60% of all trading currencies in the world. With this quantitative supremacy. Plus, interest rates increases, the US dollar may be able to extend her currency domination provisionally – but the fall of the dollar and dollar-related and dependent currencies will undoubtedly follow.

The result of this FED interest hike can already be seen, in as much as the exchange rate US dollar and Euro is almost 1:1, and the dollar is moving in the same direction vis-à-vis the British Pound.

The inflation-driven price increases reflect not only rising costs for gasoline and groceries, but also for rent and airfares and a wide range of services.

Overall, however, the FEDs interest hike, even at a record-level over the past almost 30 years,  does not stop or even brake inflation which is expected to soon enter the two-digit dimension. The gap between base-interest and inflation is too wide. But it may bring temporarily more stability to the US dollar.

China’s Yuan

What is China doing for their currency’s – the Yuan’s – stability?

In addition to having already a real economy-based currency, and the prospect of moving towards commodity-based and backed currency, the State Council of China issued at the end of May 2022 a policy package, including 33 measures covering fiscal and financial policies, as well as policies on investment, consumption, food and energy security, industrial and supply chains and people’s livelihoods. These are some highlights of the package:

  • In finance, China will further enhance value-added tax credit refund policies and quicken its fiscal spending schedule. Local government special bonds issuance and utilization will be accelerated with a service extension. Government financing guarantee policies will be activated and social security premiums deferral and employment support policies will be enhanced;
  • In terms of monetary and financial policies, China encourages delayed repayment of capital and interests on loans for small and medium-sized enterprises, self-employed individuals, truck drivers, and personal housing and consumption loans affected by COVID-19. Inclusive loans to micro and small businesses will be expanded. Real lending rates will be stable with a slight decline, and improvements will be made to the financing efficiency of capital markets;
  • In stabilizing investment and promoting consumption, China will accelerate some approved water conservancy projects and speed up investment on transportation infrastructure, continue to build urban underground pipelines, stabilize and expand private investment, promote the healthy and standardized development of the platform economy, and stimulate purchases of cars and home appliances;
  • Regarding food and energy security, policies on grains profit guarantee for farmers will be intensified. Quality coal will be produced while ensuring safety, environment-friendliness and efficient utilization. In addition, some major [alternative] energy projects will be launched;
  • To stabilize industrial and supply chains, China will reduce utility costs for market entities, gradually reduce and exempt their rent, and help ease the burden on sectors and companies severely affected by the pandemic. Enterprises’ work resumption, and smooth transportation and logistics policies will be optimized. More support will be provided to logistics hubs and enterprises. Major foreign-funded projects will be prioritized to attract foreign investments; and
  • As for policies concerning people’s livelihoods, China will implement support policies for housing provident funds, bolster the employment and entrepreneurship of rural migrant population and rural labor, and enhance social security guarantee measures.

From a Uni-Polar to a Multi-Polar World

The future points clearly away from a western-dominated unipolar world – or On World Order (OWO) to a multi-polar world, that may be based on some strong economic “hubs”, while preserving individual countries’ sovereignty.

The above policies are to strengthen and stabilize in the long-term the Chinese economy – which will be further enhanced by trade and political association with other related regional economies, like those of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), the SCO, as well as further down the road the BRICS+ countries.

Among the particular socioeconomic achievements that will keep China’s and associated currencies and financial systems stable and apart from the western shortage and inflation-driven economies, is the ASEAN+ Five world’s largest and most comprehensive free-trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The RCEP is a free trade agreement among the Asia-Pacific ASEAN nations of, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The trade deal also includes five non-ASEAN signatories, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and China.

The RCEP is the world’s largest free trade agreement. It was negotiated during eight years and entered into effect on 1 January 2022. According to a recent UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) study, it represents 30.5% of the world’s GDP. The only other blocs coming close to that are the US-Mexico-Canada agreement – NAFTA (28%) and the EU (17.9%).

The RCEP is expected to expand quickly, as the 15 countries will likely generate world-embracing dynamics, while at the same time, remaining self-contained as a sovereign bloc, meaning trading within and protected from western influences.

The bloc’s trading currencies will be predominantly the Yuan (a digital yuan primarily for international trade is expected to be rolled out possibly as early as later this year or early 2023), but also local currencies – but not the US dollar and other western currencies under the dollar hegemony.

Another element for enhancing eastern financial stability, is the BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Earlier this year, Iran applied for BRICS membership. Iran is already a member of the SCO.

At present, the BRICS represent 40 percent of world population, 25 percent of the global economy, 18 percent of world trade. The BRICS are the fastest growing bloc of countries, contributing some 50% to world economic growth.

Finally – but not least – are the interrelated Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), initiated by President Xi Jinping in 2013. The BRI is also called the New Silk Road, inspired by the concept of the Silk Road established during the Han Dynasty over 2,000 years ago – an ancient network of trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean via Eurasia for centuries.

In March 2022, the number of countries that have joined the BRI by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China is 146, plus 32 international organizations. The countries of the BRI are spread across all continents: 43 countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The BRI has several trading routes, including maritime routes, connecting countries with transport and other infrastructure links, as well as joint ventures for energy exploitation or industrial production processes, cultural and educational exchanges – and many more country and regional links. It is “Globalization” with Chinese characteristics, where individual autonomies are respected.

This initiative goes hand in hand with another one, the Global Development Initiative (GDI), announced by President Xi Jinping at the UN General Assembly in 2021.

GDI complements BRI as a support and cooperation mechanism for large international financial and development bodies, such as the South-South Cooperation Fund, the International Development Association (IDA is part of the World Bank Group), the Asian Development Fund (ADF), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

This eastern, China-based network of mutually enhancing financial institutions, trade agreements, economic policy think tanks – and much more – shield against western attempts to interfere with and destabilize these eastern bloc financial, economic and monetary mechanisms.

These networks also represent a stronghold for a sound future for an easter-led socioeconomic development framework – a solid base for a common future in PEACE for mankind.

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

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„Wir leben in einem Zeitalter der Angst, die durch Desinformation hervorgerufen und durch absolute Tyrannei noch verstärkt wird. (…) Ist dies die Art von ‚Demokratie‘, die wir an künftige Generationen weitergeben.“  Mit diesen Worten beginnt der „Newsletter“ der globalen Plattform „Global Research“ vom 8. Juli 2022.

„Jeder Mensch besitzt einen mehr oder weniger großen Einflussbereich in einer scheinbar hoffnungslosen Situation“, schrieb Albert Camus zur Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs in einem „Brief an einen Verzweifelten“.

Das heißt, jeder Bürger kann das „Salz der Erde“ sein, wie es in Matthäus (Mt 5,13) geschrieben steht. In der Bergpredigt vergleicht Jesus seine Jünger mit dem damals wichtigen und wertvollen Salz und sagt: „Ihr seid das Salz der Erde.

Salz ist das erhaltende Prinzip, das Verderben oder Fäule entgegenwirkt. Die Bildrede vom „Salz der Erde“ äußerte vor kurzem eine wunderbare Interviewpartnerin, was mich sofort für sie einnahm. Diskussionsthema war das menschliche Gemeinschaftsgefühl als unerschütterliche Logik menschlichen Zusammenlebens und die Frage: Werden menschliches Gemeinschaftsgefühl und der Geist der Verantwortlichkeit Machtgier und Gewalttätigkeit überwinden?

Wir waren uns einig, dass wir etwas Geduld aufbringen müssen: Viele Mitbürger wachen langsam auf und beginnen, selbst zu denken und zu handeln: Siehe die ermutigenden Berichte über regierungskritische Proteste der Bauern in den Niederlanden, Spanien und Portugal sowie die zunehmenden Proteste in anderen Teilen der Welt.

Ein „leuchtendes Beispiel“ für den Appell, Salz der Erde zu sein, war der ehemalige Mitarbeiter von Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné, Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Siegwart-Horst Günther, einer der ärztlichen Vorbilder der Neuzeit, der sich über seine humane ärztliche Tätigkeit am einzelnen Menschen hinaus auch unbestechlich für die wissenschaftliche Wahrheit und die Humanität in unserer Welt einsetzte.

Opfer von Kriegen ins Auge fassen und für Mütter und Kinder der Welt Verantwortung übernehmen

Als im Vietnamkrieg das hochgiftige Entlaubungsmittel „Agent Orange” und die Brandwaffe „Napalm“ eingesetzt wurden, waren die Menschen der Welt entsetzt. Das war kein Krieg mehr, sondern es war Schlächterei an Zivilbevölkerung und Natur.

Die Waffenindustrie – auch die Atomwaffenindustrie – hat seit Vietnam ihr Geschäft hinter dem Rücken aller internationaler Abkommen zügig weiterentwickelt, sodass die illegalen Angriffskriege immer mörderischer, hinterhältiger, flächendeckender und genozidaler wurden. Oder wie das US-Imperium sagt „effizienter“.

In der vorderasiatischen Republik Jemen sterben inzwischen alle zwei Stunden eine Mutter und sechs Babys.

Bereits am 19. Februar 2019 veröffentlichte der Autor den Artikel „Beihilfe zum Genozid. Der vom Westen unterstützte Krieg Saudi-Arabiens im Jemen könnte für Millionen Kinder den Hungertod bedeuten.“ (1)

Heute haben wir Krieg in der Ukraine – und: „Wer das Weinen verlernt hat, der lernt es wieder bei der Bombardierung der Ukraine.“ (2)

Alle Bürger dieses Planeten müssen dringend beginnen, die Folgen dieser Kriege, das heißt die Opfer der weltweiten Waffengeschäfte ins Auge zu fassen.

Multiple Formen von Karzinomen und missgebildete Neugeborene hat es bei der Zivilbevölkerung des Iraks, Afghanistans und Ex-Jugoslawiens (Serbiens) in der Vergangenheit nicht gegeben. Sie sind das Resultat barbarischer Kriege.

Wir alle haben eine Verantwortung für die Mütter und Kinder dieser Welt. Schauen wir hin und beginnen wir, das Leid zu lindern, weiteres zu verhindern und auf die Beendigung der Kriege hinzuwirken.

„Jeder Mensch besitzt einen mehr oder weniger grossen Einflussbereich.“

Literaturnobelpreisträger Albert Camus, einer der wichtigsten Intellektuellen des 20. Jahrhunderts äusserte sich in seinem Tagebuch auch zum Zweiten Weltkrieg und zur Rolle des Individuums in einer als hoffnungslos empfundenen Situation. Es sind Gedanken, die Camus‘ Aktualität bis in unsere heutigen Tage dokumentieren und zutiefst berühren (3).

Gleich nach Ausbruch des Krieges schreibt er: „Nichts ist unentschuldbarer als der Krieg und der Aufruf zum Völkerhass. Aber ist der Krieg einmal ausgebrochen, ist es zwecklos und feige, sich unter dem Vorwand, man sei nicht für ihn verantwortlich, abseits zu stellen.“ (4)

Was der einzelne Mensch in einer solchen Situation seines Erachtens zu überdenken und zu tun hat, beschreibt Camus in einem „Brief an einen Verzweifelten“:

„Sie haben eine Aufgabe, zweifeln Sie nicht daran. Jeder Mensch besitzt einen mehr oder weniger grossen Einflussbereich. Er verdankt ihn seinen Mängeln ebenso wie seinen Vorzügen. Aber wie dem auch sei, er ist vorhanden, und er kann unmittelbar genutzt werden. Treiben Sie niemanden zum Aufruhr. Man muss mit dem Blut und der Freiheit der anderen schonend umgehen. Aber Sie können zehn, zwanzig, dreissig Menschen davon überzeugen, dass dieser Krieg weder unabwendbar war, noch ist, dass noch nicht alle Mittel versucht worden sind, ihm Einhalt zu gebieten, dass man es sagen, es wenn möglich schreiben, es wenn nötig hinausschreien muss! Diese zehn oder dreissig Menschen werden es zehn anderen weitersagen, die es ihrerseits weiterverbreiten. Wenn die Trägheit Sie zurückhält, nun gut, so fangen Sie mit anderen von vorne an.“ (5)

Abschließend ermutigt Camus den Ratsuchenden, nicht an der Geschichte zu verzweifeln, in der das Individuum alles vermag: „Individuen sind es, die uns heute in den Tod schicken. Warum sollte es nicht anderen Individuen gelingen, der Welt den Frieden zu schenken? Nur muss man beginnen, ohne an so große Ziele zu denken. Vergessen Sie nicht, dass der Krieg ebenso sehr mit der Begeisterung derer geführt wird, die ihn wollen, wie mit der Verzweiflung derer, die ihn mit der ganzen Kraft ihrer Seele ablehnen.“ (6)

An anderer Stelle seiner Tagebucheintragungen bekräftigt Camus seinen Standpunkt: „Es gibt ein einziges Verhängnis, nämlich den Tod, und darüber hinaus gibt es keines mehr. In dem Zeitraum, der von der Geburt bis zum Tod reicht, ist nichts festgelegt: Man kann alles ändern und sogar dem Krieg Einhalt gebieten und sogar den Frieden erhalten, wenn man es inständig, stark und lange will.“ (7)

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Siegwart-Horst Günther

Prof. Günther (1925-2015) war einer der beeindruckendsten Ärztepersönlichkeiten unserer Zeit. Während seines ganzen Lebens war er in den Kriegs- und Krisengebieten des Mittleren Ostens tätig. Tausenden von Menschen hat er ganz konkret vor Ort geholfen. Auch war er Begründer der Vereinigung „Gelbes Kreuz International“, einer Hilfsorganisation für Kinder in Not auf der ganzen Welt.

Als junger Mann war Günther ein Gegner Adolf Hitlers und wurde deshalb bis zum Ende des Krieges ins Konzentrationslager Buchenwald gesteckt. Von 1945 bis 1950 studierte er Medizin, Philosophie und Ägyptologie. Als fertiger Arzt arbeitete er bei Albert Schweizer im Urwald-Hospital von Lambaréné. Schweitzer begrüßte ihn mit den Worten: „Schön, dass du kommst und uns hilfst.“ (8)

Von 1990 bis 1995 lehrte und arbeitete Prof. Günther an der Universität und im Universitätshospital in Bagdad (Irak). In seiner Dankesrede zur Verleihung des „Nuclear-Free-Future-Awards“ am 18. Oktober 2007 sagte er: „Als ich 1991, nach dem 1. Golf-Krieg, entdeckte, dass die Alliierten in diesem für mich völkerrechtswidrigen Krieg Uran-Geschosse eingesetzt hatten, mit allen ihnen schon damals bekannten schrecklichen Konsequenzen, war ich wegen dieser Ungeheuerlichkeit zutiefst empört. Krieg sollte sowieso obsolet sein, aber der Einsatz dieser Munition und Bomben aus abgereichertem Uran ist eine Menschen und Umwelt verachtende Ungeheuerlichkeit.“ (9)

Diese Ungeheuerlichkeit, die Professor Günther aufgedeckt hatte, brachte ihm viel Ärger ein, besonders in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, wo er in den 90er Jahren dafür geradezu diskreditiert und verfolgt wurde. Doch auf die Frage eines Freundes auf einer beschwerlichen und nicht ungefährlichen Autofahrt im Irak, antwortete der bereits 79jährige:

„Wissen Sie, mein junger Freund, ich bin Arzt und meinem hippokratischen Eid verpflichtet, und dieser Eid kennt keine Altersgrenzen.“ (10)

Günthers Name und seine Erkenntnisse über das von ihm entdeckte „Golf-Kriegs-Syndrom“ werden unter anderem durch den Film „Der Arzt und die verstrahlten Kinder von Basra“ und den Film „Todesstaub“ (2004-2007) in Erinnerung bleiben (11).

In seinem Buch „Hunger und Not der Kinder im Irak“ von 2007 schrieb Prof. Günther: „Als ehemaliger Mitarbeiter von Dr. Albert Schweitzer bin ich seit vielen Jahren im Rahmen humanitärer Hilfeleistungen in Spannungsgebieten tätig und sehe dort täglich die große Not und das Sterben von Menschen, vor allem von Kindern. In Kosovo, wie auch in der Golf-Region, werden in letzter Zeit immer wieder neu UN-Diskussionen geführt, aber der Hunger und das Sterben gehen weiter.“ (12)

Albert Schweitzer war der Überzeugung, dass die Gefahr neuer Vernichtungskriege nicht durch internationale Vereinbarungen oder irgendwelche Institutionen, sondern allein durch die sittlich bestimmte Haltung aller Verantwortlichen gebannt werden kann. Unerschütterlich glaubte er daran, dass sich nur vom Geiste her, in der sittlichen Haltung des Einzelnen und der Nationen, jene entscheidende Wirkung vollziehen kann, die der Welt den Frieden sichert (13).

Im Nachwort seines Buches “Hunger und Not der Kinder im Irak“ schrieb Prof. Günther: „Als Teilnehmer des Zweiten Weltkrieges, der viele Verbrechen miterleben musste und selbst Leidtragender war, bin ich mit wachsendem Mitgefühl den Verbrechen der neuen Kriege und ihrer Folgen nachgegangen. Dazu hat mich nicht zuletzt meine Freundschaft zu Albert Schweitzer und unsere gemeinsame Tätigkeit im Urwaldspital in Lambaréné veranlasst. Ich werde deshalb nicht müde, auch an dieser Stelle an alle Menschen zu appellieren, Frieden zu erhalten und Hilfe dort zu leisten, wo sie gebraucht wird. Am Golf, in Ex-Jugoslawien, in Afrika, in Lateinamerika. Und wenn diese Gedanken auch nur beim Leser eine nachhaltige Wirkung hervorrufen sollte, schon dann hätte sich die Mühe gelohnt.“ (14)

„Uran-Geschosse: Nach Zyklon B eine neue deutsche Kampf- und Massenvernichtungstechnologie“

Abschließend ist es dem deutschen Autor ein Anliegen, von den bewegenden persönlichen Begegnungen mit Prof. Günther in der Schweiz zu berichten, die sich tief in dessen Bewusstsein eingegraben haben und deshalb nicht vergessen werden:

Bei vielen weltanschaulichen oder pädagogisch-psychologischen Gesprächs-Abenden war auch Prof. Günther anwesend – mit fast 90 Jahren gesundheitlich etwas angeschlagen. Ging es in der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion um das Thema Depleted Uranium (DE) und den Einsatz der hochgiftigen und radioaktiven Urangeschosse in den Kriegen im Irak, in Afghanistan oder Ex-Jugoslawien, dann trat Prof. Günther jeweils kurz an den Rednertisch, setzte sich und sagte ruhig, aber entschieden:

„Urangeschosse sind eine deutsche Technologie, eine deutsche Erfindung! Nach Zyklon B eine neue deutsche Kampf- und Massenvernichtungstechnologie!“ (15)

*

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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel ist Lehrer (Rektor a. D.), Doktor der Pädagogik (Dr. paed.) und Diplom-Psychologe (Schwerpunkte: Klinische-, Pädagogische- und Medien-Psychologie). Als Pensionär arbeitete er viele Jahre als Psychotherapeut in eigener Praxis. In seinen Büchern und pädagogisch-psychologischen Fachartikeln fordert er eine bewusste ethisch-moralische Werteerziehung und eine Erziehung zum Gemeinsinn und Frieden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Noten

1. „RUBIKON“

2. „Global Research“, May 01, 2022

3. Marin, L. (Hrsg.). (2013). Albert Camus – Libertäre Schriften (1948-1960)

4. a. O., S. 268

5. a. O., S. 273

6. a. O.

7. a. O., S. 267

8. https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/archiv/2015/nr-34-3-februar-2015/zum-tod-von-professor-dr-dr-siegwart-horst-guenther

9. a. O.

10. a. O.

11. a. O.

12. Dr. Dr. Günther, Siegwart-Horst (2007). Hunger und Not der Kinder im Irak. Zürich, S. IV

13. https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/archiv/2015/nr-34-3-februar-2015/zum-tod-von-professor-dr-dr-siegwart-horst-guenther

14. Dr. Dr. Günther, Siegwart-Horst (2007). Hunger und Not der Kinder im Irak. Zürich, S. XV f.

15. a. O., S. IV 

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***

“We live in an age of fear, caused by disinformation and reinforced by absolute tyranny. (…) Is this the kind of ‘democracy’ we are passing on to future generations.”  These are the words with which the “Newsletter” of the global platform “Global Research” of 8 July 2022 begins.

“Every human being possesses a greater or lesser sphere of influence in an apparently hopeless situation”,wrote Albert Camus at the time of the Second World War in a “Letter to a Desperate Man”.

That is, every citizen can be the “salt of the earth”, as it is written in Matthew (Mt 5:13). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares his followers to salt, which was important and precious at that time, and says: “You are the salt of the earth.”

Salt is the sustaining principle that counteracts corruption or rot. The imagery of the “salt of the earth” was recently expressed by a wonderful interviewee, which immediately won me over. The topic of discussion was the human sense of community as the unshakeable logic of human coexistence and the question: Will human sense of community and the spirit of responsibility overcome greed for power and violence?

We agreed that we have to be patient: Many fellow citizens are slowly waking up and beginning to think and act for themselves: see the encouraging reports of anti-government protests by farmers in the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, and the increasing protests in other parts of the world.

A “shining example” of the appeal to be salt of the earth was the former co-worker of Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné, Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Siegwart-Horst Günther, one of the medical role models of modern times, who, beyond his humane medical work on the individual, was also incorruptibly committed to scientific truth and humanity in our world.

Focusing on the victims of war and taking responsibility for the mothers and children of the world

When the highly toxic defoliant “Agent Orange” and the incendiary weapon “Napalm” were used in the Vietnam War, the people of the world were horrified. This was no longer war, but butchery of civilians and nature.

Since Vietnam, the arms industry – including the nuclear weapons industry – has rapidly developed its business behind the back of all international agreements, so that the illegal wars of aggression have become ever more murderous, insidious, widespread and genocidal. Or, as the US empire says, “more efficient”.

In the Near Eastern Republic of Yemen, a mother and six babies now die every two hours.

Back on 19 February 2019, the author published the article “Aiding and abetting genocide. Saudi Arabia’s Western-backed war in Yemen could mean starvation for millions of children.” (1)

Today we have war in Ukraine – and: “Those who have forgotten how to cry are learning it again in the bombing of Ukraine.” (2)

All citizens of this planet must urgently begin to consider the consequences of these wars, that is, the victims of the global arms trade.

Multiple forms of carcinomas and malformed newborns have not existed in the civilian populations of Iraq, Afghanistan and former Yugoslavia (Serbia) in the past. They are the result of barbaric wars.

We all have a responsibility to the mothers and children of this world. Let us look and begin to alleviate the suffering, prevent further suffering and work towards ending the wars.

“Every human being possesses a greater or lesser sphere of influence.”

Nobel laureate in literature Albert Camus, one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century also commented in his diary on the Second World War and the role of the individual in a situation perceived as hopeless. These are thoughts that document and deeply touch Camus’ relevance to our own day (3).

Immediately after the outbreak of the war, he wrote: “Nothing is more inexcusable than war and the call to hatred of nations. But once war has broken out, it is futile and cowardly to stand aside under the pretext that one is not responsible for it.” (4)

What he thinks the individual has to think about and do in such a situation is described by Camus in a “Letter to a Desperate Man”:

“You have a task, do not doubt it. Every man possesses a more or less large sphere of influence. He owes it to his defects as much as to his merits. But be that as it may, it is there, and it can be used immediately. Do not drive anyone to riot. You have to be sparing with the blood and freedom of others. But you can convince ten, twenty, thirty people that this war was not inevitable, nor is it, that all means have not yet been tried to stop it, that it must be said, written if possible, shouted out if necessary! These ten or thirty people will spread the word to ten others, who will in turn spread it. If inertia holds you back, well, start all over again with others.” (5)

In conclusion, Camus encourages the advice-seeker not to despair of history, in which the individual is capable of everything: “Individuals are the ones who send us to our deaths today. Why should other individuals not succeed in giving peace to the world? Only one must begin without thinking of such great goals. Remember that war is waged as much with the enthusiasm of those who want it as with the despair of those who reject it with all the strength of their souls.” (6)

Elsewhere in his diary entries, Camus reiterates his point: “There is one doom, death, and beyond that there is none. In the period that extends from birth to death, nothing is fixed: One can change everything and even put a stop to war and even preserve peace if one wants it fervently, strongly and for a long time.” (7)

Prof. Siegwart-Horst Günther

Prof. Günther (1925-2015) was one of the most impressive medical personalities of our time. Throughout his life he was active in the war and crisis areas of the Middle East. He helped thousands of people on the ground in a very concrete way. He was also the founder of the association “Yellow Cross International”, an aid organisation for children in need all over the world.

As a young man, Günther was an opponent of Adolf Hitler and was therefore sent to Buchenwald concentration camp until the end of the war. From 1945 to 1950 he studied medicine, philosophy and Egyptology. As a finished doctor, he worked for Albert Schweizer in the jungle hospital of Lambaréné. Schweitzer greeted him with the words, “It’s good of you to come and help us.” (8)

From 1990 to 1995, Prof. Günther taught and worked at the university and university hospital in Baghdad (Iraq). In his acceptance speech for the “Nuclear-Free-Future-Award” on 18 October 2007, he said: “When I discovered in 1991, after the 1st Gulf War, that the Allies had used uranium shells in this war, which to me was illegal under international law, with all the terrible consequences known to them even then, I was deeply outraged because of this monstrosity. War should be obsolete anyway, but the use of these depleted uranium munitions and bombs is a human and environmental monstrosity.” (9)

This monstrosity that Professor Günther had uncovered brought him a lot of trouble, especially in the Federal Republic of Germany, where he was virtually discredited and persecuted for it in the 1990s. But when asked by a friend on an arduous and not harmless car journey in Iraq, the already 79-year-old replied:

“You know, my young friend, I am a doctor and I am bound by my Hippocratic oath, and this oath knows no age limits.” (10)

Günther’s name and his findings on the “Gulf War Syndrome”, which he discovered, will be remembered for the film “The Doctor and the Radiated Children of Basra” and the film “Death Dust” (2004-2007), among others (11).

In his 2007 book “Hunger und Not der Kinder im Irak” (Hunger and Need of Children in Iraq), Prof. Günther wrote: “As a former employee of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, I have been active for many years in the context of humanitarian aid in areas of tension and see the great need and dying of people, especially children, there every day. In Kosovo, as in the Gulf region, UN discussions have been renewed recently, but the hunger and dying continue.” (12)

Albert Schweitzer was convinced that the danger of new wars of extermination cannot be averted by international agreements or any institutions, but only by the morally determined attitude of all those responsible. He unshakably believed that only from the spirit, in the moral attitude of individuals and nations, can that decisive effect take place which secures peace for the world (13).

In the epilogue of his book “Hunger and Need of the Children in Iraq”, Prof. Günther wrote: “As a participant in the Second World War, who had to witness many crimes and was himself a sufferer, I have followed the crimes of the new wars and their consequences with growing compassion. Not least, my friendship with Albert Schweitzer and our joint work in the jungle hospital in Lambaréné prompted me to do so. I will therefore never tire of appealing to all people to keep the peace and provide help where it is needed. In the Gulf, in former Yugoslavia, in Africa, in Latin America. And if these thoughts should evoke even a lasting effect in the reader, already then the effort would have been worthwhile.” (14)

“Uranium bullets: after Zyklon B, a new German combat and mass destruction technology”

Finally, it is the German author’s concern to report on the moving personal encounters with Prof. Günther in Switzerland, which have etched themselves deeply into his consciousness and will therefore not be forgotten:

Prof. Günther was also present at many ideological or pedagogical-psychological discussion evenings – at almost 90 years of age, his health was a bit frail. If the scientific discussion was about the topic of Depleted Uranium (DE) and the use of the highly toxic and radioactive uranium shells in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or former Yugoslavia, then Prof. Günther always stepped briefly to the speaker’s table, sat down and said calmly but firmly:

“Uranium shells are a German technology, a German invention! After Zyklon B, a new German combat and mass destruction technology!” (15)

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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a teacher (retired headmaster), doctor of education (Dr. paed.) and graduate psychologist (specialising in clinical, educational and media psychology). As a retiree, he worked for many years as a psychotherapist in his own practice. In his books and educational-psychological articles, he calls for a conscious ethical-moral values education and an education for public spirit and peace. 

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Notes

(1) “RUBIKON”

(2) “Global Research”, May 01, 2022

(3) Marin, L. (ed.). (2013). Albert Camus – Libertarian Writings (1948-1960).

(4) op. cit., p. 268

(5) op. cit., p. 273

(6) op. cit.

(7) op. cit., p. 267

(8) https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/archiv/2015/nr-34-3-februar-2015/zum-tod-von-professor-dr-dr-siegwart-horst-guenther

(9) op. cit.

(10) op. cit.

(11) A. a. O.

(12) Prof. Dr. Dr. Günther, Siegwart-Horst (2007). Hunger and hardship of children in Iraq. Zurich, p. IV

(13) https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/archiv/2015/nr-34-3-februar-2015/zum-tod-von-professor-dr-dr-siegwart-horst-guenther

(14) Prof. Dr. Dr. Günther, Siegwart-Horst (2007). Hunger and the plight of children in Iraq. Zurich, p. XV f.

(15) op. cit., p. IV

Featured image is from Countercurrents

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Shinzo Abe: A Controversial Visionary

July 11th, 2022 by M. K. Bhadrakumar

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When politicians die, especially an untimely death in tragic circumstances, obituaries tend to go overboard. A sense of perspectives is lost when obituaries become eulogies. But you can’t falsify history. And in the final analysis, it is the forces of history that write the course of politics rather than individuals, and the fact is Japan has a gory past, a blood-soaked and brutal imperial past. 

Almost all of Japan’s neighbours paid a high price for its hegemonist ambitions and thirst for territorial conquests. Shinzo Abe’s grandfather who founded Japan’s ruling party was himself a war criminal. 

Japan perpetrated unspeakable crimes on conquered peoples even by the standards of colonialism, especially the Korean and Chinese peoples. Therefore, when Abe’s legacy gets evaluated dispassionately some day, as it surely will, what may well stand out as his single most outstanding contribution is that he summarily turned around ‘pacifist’ Japan and dragged it back unwillingly to its ‘militaristic’ past. There is no question about it. 

But how this will pan out in Asian politics and Japan’s political economy in a medium and long term leaves troubling question marks.The point is, Abe did not even ascertain his countrymen’s wishes to change the country’s constitution but was uneasy that the nation might not endorse his agenda. 

What moved the young assassin to commit such an abominable crime we do not know, but his abject surrender owning the crime suggests that he was a man of strong convictions and the murder was far from an impulsive act. What it reminds us is that Abe was a controversial figure within Japan. 

Abe’s reform programme widened the gap between the rich and the poor and fuelled social discontent while Abe’s abandonment of Japan’s ‘pacifism’ did not enjoy a national consensus. Abe’s populism obfuscated his real agenda, and his use of baser instincts such as racial and ethnic prejudices and his manipulation of the media and suppression of free press damaged Japan’s democratic foundations.

Therefore, a big question mark needs to be put on his ‘vision,’ as his admirers tend to put it. Frankly, Abe has become a polariser in the world opinion — simply put, one-dimensional Sinophobes warm up to him like nobody’s business and in the process overlook his flawed legacy in an outpouring of emotions.

The Quad’s troika itself used a catching expression in its curious obituary for Abe. It praised Abe as a “transformative leader for Japan” and discreetly left it at that. The Quad’s troika is right in estimating that Abe “played a formative role in the founding of the Quad partnership and worked tirelessly to advance a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.” He was indeed an ardent votary of the containment strategy against China. 

But Abe was also a master of doublespeak and once made significant  contributions to improving Japan’s ties with China and even publicly expressed willingness to cooperate with the Belt and Road Initiative! Quad was almost entirely built on the strength of the relationship Abe worked out  with Prime Minister Modi, with whom he shared a deep distrust of China. 

However, Japan’s Indo-Pacific policy has since morphed into robust support for accelerating the pace of NATO’s entry into Asia. That said, the fact remains that throughout its history, Japan always tenaciously sought to maintain its autonomy in the international system. How this contradiction gets resolved remains to be seen. Clearly, Japan finds it difficult to get accustomed to its status behind China in Asia’s power dynamic and needs NATO support to level with China.  

Abe, without doubt, was a close friend of India. His regards for India harks back to the Manmohan Singh government. Yet, how far India subscribes to this new dimension to Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy in the direction of pioneering an “Asian NATO” is unclear. Traditionally, India never had a bloc mentality. Besides, Quad or Indo-Pacific strategy is not to be equated with India’s Act East policy, either.   

Abe’s place as the longest serving Japanese prime minister (9 years) is largely due to his charisma, the force of his personality, and his formidable political talent. But his legacy for Japan’s future in terms of his ambitious domestic reform agenda — “Abenomics” or the surge in state spending and super-easy monetary policy aimed at kickstarting Japan’s stagnant economy — is rather patchy. Japan’s debt increased dramatically and Abe’s reforms indeed weakened the yen. 

The reforms’ promise to reshape an economy hobbled by low productivity, a rapidly ageing population and a rigid labour market, proved elusive. On top of it, COVID-19 wiped out the short-term benefits brought by Abenomics, such as an inbound tourism boom, reflated growth and rising job availability. Looking ahead, Abe’s death could stimulate the extreme Japanese right wing to promote populist, xenophobic and even extreme political goals. 

Japan’s two giant neighbours China and Russia are increasingly coordinating their security presence in the Far East. These two big powers will counter Japan’s partnership with the NATO, no matter what it takes, and that may become the salience of the geopolitics of Asia-Pacific in the period ahead. Moscow has openly accused Japan of revanchist tendencies vis-a-vis Kuril Islands, which pose threat to regional security and stability. 

If the US and NATO’s prestige suffers a lethal blow in Ukraine, which seems likely, Japan’s political and policy goals would lose traction. But Prime Minister Kishida is firing all cylinders to inject swagger into Japan’s ties with major European powers — especially, with Germany, with which it once had an alliance known as the Anti-Commintern Pact (1936) built on the common concerns of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan over the steady rise of Soviet power under Josef Stalin.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Kishida recently visited each other’s capitals in quick succession to renew the historical bonding in the current circumstances. To be sure, Abe’s departure comes at a time when Japan may find itself at the crossroads of Asian politics and world order.  

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On June 25, the U.S. Navy sent a warship, the USS Benfold, to the South China Sea, only one day after a U.S. spy plane provocatively flew over the Taiwan Strait under the close monitoring of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

According to CNN, the U.S. flyover came after China sent 29 planes into Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

Image

Satellite image of USS Benfold entering South China Sea on June 25 through Verde Island passage. [Source: twitter.com]

From China’s point of view, the U.S. spy plane mission on June 24 was especially provocative because it was the first U.S. military activity in the region after China made it clear that there are no “international waters” in the Taiwan Strait.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China claims jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan Strait - Wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org

The PLA Eastern Theater Command organized aerial and ground forces and tracked the spy plane’s movements on high alert throughout its entire course on June 24 according to Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson of the PLA Eastern Theater Command.

Shi slammed the Biden administration’s move as being “intentional,” whose purpose was “to disrupt the regional situation and endanger the cross-Straits peace and stability. We firmly oppose this,” she said.

Turning Taiwan into a Porcupine

Ever since the Obama administration launched a “pivot to Asia,” the U.S. has expanded its military forces and provocative military maneuvers in an effort to encircle and intimidate China. The Biden administration, following Trump, has extended this policy, with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stockpiling the National Security Council (NSC) with China hawks.[1]

U.S. strategic planners consider Taiwan—which broke away from China in 1949 after the defeated Guomindang in China’s civil war took refuge there with U.S. backing—essential in blockading China and a key source for the manufacture of advanced computing chips essential to the U.S. military and industry.[2]

When Biden made a commitment to backing Taiwan militarily, he effectively overturned the “One China Policy”—established when the U.S. resumed diplomatic relations with China in 1979—recognizing Beijing to be the legitimate government of all China, including Taiwan.[3]

Since 2019, the U.S. has sold more than $14 billion in weaponry to Taiwan and sent military advisers to train its Special Forces. A U.S. government official described the U.S. strategy as being designed to turn Taiwan into a “porcupine”— a territory bristling with armaments and other forms of U.S.-led support that makes it “appear too painful to attack.”

Rejecting China’s Claim of Sovereignty over the Taiwan Strait

In line with this latter strategy, the Biden administration rejects China’s claims to sovereignty over the Taiwan Strait. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said that the spy plane’s transit demonstrates the United States’s “commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told Bloomberg News that “the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway” where freedom of navigation and overflight “are guaranteed under international law. The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and that includes transiting through the Taiwan Strait.”

According to Price, China’s assertion that “there are no international waters” in the Taiwan Strait is not legitimate but is intended to “deter the U.S. from sailing through the Strait,”something that Beijing says “harms stability and send[s] the wrong signal to ‘Taiwan independence forces.’”

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China has ratified but the U.S. has not, nations are entitled to territorial waters stretching 12 nautical miles (22km) from their coast.

They may also claim an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) stretching another 200 nautical miles—beyond that are the high seas.

At its widest, the Taiwan Strait spans about 220 nautical miles; however, at its narrowest, it is 70 nautical miles—meaning recent U.S. actions are illegal.

If one accepts that Taiwan is part of China, as the U.S. nominally still does under the One China policy, then the entirety of the strait generally falls under Chinese jurisdiction—as China alleges.

A Habitual Aggressor

According to the Global Times, the USS Benfold—a guided missile destroyer built by Ingalls Shipbuilding—is a habitual aggressor in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

In January 2022, the destroyer illegally entered the Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea without authorization from the Chinese government, leading the PLA Southern Theater Command to organize naval and air forces to warn it away.

U.S. Navy spokesmen referred to the USS Benfold’s operations as “freedom of navigation operations.”

They accused China of violating international law by establishing baselines around dispersed islands like the Paracels in the South China Sea, which allows China to “claim more internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf than it is entitled to under international law.”

China, however, accuses the U.S. of “infring[ing] on China’s sovereignty and security,” while “pursuing maritime hegemony and militarizing the South China Sea. Facts fully prove that the U.S. is a ‘risk-maker’ in the South China Sea and the ‘biggest destroyer’ of peace and stability in the South China Sea.

The South China Sea Is Not the Gulf of Mexico

We should remember that the name of the Sea where the U.S. is sending its naval vessels and spy planes is the South China Sea—and not the Gulf of Mexico.

If China were sending its warships on provocative missions off the coast of Mexico or Canada, U.S. leaders would respond with hysterics and probably immediately begin bombing.

Rising Specter of Nuclear War

Mark Selden, the editor of The Asia-Pacific Journal and academic expert on China, raised concern in an interview about “the rising specter of nuclear war,” particularly “in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine” and “at a time when [the] U.S. calculus has shifted from welcoming growing Chinese economic and geopolitical strength, notably in the Nixon era, to across-the-board pressures on China.”

According to Selden, the shifting U.S. calculus “includes mounting U.S. military support for Taiwan and stepping back from its position of calculated ambiguity on the future of the island in favor of direct and indirect challenges of China’s claims. The result is the largest increase in U.S. military spending since World War II in the form of $70 billion in aid…at a time when U.S.-China conflict again centers on Taiwan.”

Tally of Provocative Military Maneuvers

The Committee for a SANE U.S.-China Policy, an activist group that aims to prevent war, has compiled a tally of provocative military maneuvers and close encounters between the U.S. and China since January 2021 in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

According to their findings, the U.S. in that time initiated 45 incidents, and the Chinese 53.

Joseph Gerson and Michael T. Klare, the founders of the committee, write that “almost every day, China and/or the United States deploy their ships and warplanes in a menacing (“muscle-flexing”) fashion to demonstrate resolve and to throw the other side off balance….While officials on both sides claim that their forces are merely conducting military drills that pose no threat to their rival, these mock combat operations in the vicinity of opposing forces send an unmistakable signal of hostile intent. It is not unusual, moreover, for ships and planes of one side to monitor the operations of the other, and even, on occasion, to interfere with them. When this occurs, there is always the risk of a collision or unintended shooting incident, leading to further military action and full-scale conflict.”

A picture containing text, outdoor, boat, sign Description automatically generated

Source: apjjf.org

In short, the specter of war between the U.S. and China has never been greater. It is up to us, consequently, to try to avert conflict and restore legality and sanity to U.S. foreign policy through concerted political activism.

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Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: [email protected].

Notes

  1. One of the hawks was Kurt Campbell, an architect of Obama’s pivot who declared that “the period that was broadly described as engagement [with China] has come to an end.” 

  2. Peter Symonds, “U.S.-China tensions flare over Taiwan Strait,” World Socialist Website, June 24, 2022, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/06/25/pbhh-j25.pdf. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company produces more than 90% of the world’s most advanced computing chips. 
  3. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have introduced the bipartisan Taiwan Policy Act into Congress that, according to Peter Symonds, “would drop any pretense of ‘strategic ambiguity’ and commit the U.S. to a war with China over Taiwan. As well as providing almost $4.5 billion in military assistance to Taiwan, the bill would designate Taiwan as a Major Non-NATO ally.” 

Featured image: Biden laughing in 2021. [Source: ia.acs.org]

The West Is Abandoning Ukraine?

July 11th, 2022 by Eric Zuesse

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On July 7th, Bloomberg News headlined “EU Bureaucracy Seen Blocking 1.5 Billion-Euro Loan to Ukraine”, and reported that, “The executive arm of the European Union is blocking a 1.5 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) loan for Ukraine as caution prevails over the country’s urgent needs, according to officials.”

America alone has donated and loaned, during this year, $54 billion to Ukraine, mostly for U.S.-made weapons, which have been rushed there from existing U.S. stockpiles, which stockpiles will need to be restocked with new weapons-orders from firms such as Lockheed Martin, whose corporate stock value is up 12% thus far this year. However, this is a mid-term election-year in America, and inflation is already running against political incumbents, especially Democratic Party ones. On June 10th, the AP bannered “US inflation at new 40-year high”, and reported that “Consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from a year earlier.” Already, on May 20th, the AP had bannered “War fuels surging prices in Europe” and reported that “The war has accelerated inflation across Europe and the world, with prices for energy, materials and food surging at rates not seen for decades. It’s causing sticker shock at the grocery store, gas pumps, electricity bills and construction sites.”

A new loan of $1.5B to Ukraine being turned down means that any larger loan by the EU to Ukraine will now be impossible. For the U.S. Government to jump in and fill the mounting voids in Ukraine would be virtually impossible, under present political conditions. However, unless those voids become somehow filled, what are the prospects for The West to win its war in Ukraine, against Russia?

The West (U.S. and its allies) is becoming terrified at how deep a financial hole Ukraine has cost it, and so is now stopping to lend it more money. That’s sudden.

I wrote today to a friend who ardently supports Ukraine in this war:

Should The West now invade Russia in order to prevent the collapse of Ukraine? What do you, who condemn Russia and support Ukraine in this war, propose that Western ‘democracies’ now do?

You support NATO/U.S.’s January 7th decision to ignore Putin’s long-repeated (and as-of 17 December 2021, formal) demands for NATO to roll itself back to its 1991 borders like it had many times promised to Gorbachev that it would permanently remain (move “not one inch eastward”), and you also support Obama’s February 2014 coup to grab Ukraine (the part of Russia’s border that’s the nearest to Moscow) to add Ukraine to EU and then to NATO for U.S. missiles ultimately to become placed there, a five-minute flight-time away from blitz-attacking Moscow; but should Biden and company now invade Russia because Russia will no longer tolerate this — Putin’s saying that these “provocations” have gone too far and he’ll no longer tolerate it? Is that what you would do, if you were Biden & co.? What do you think the ‘democrat’ Biden should do, now? I would like to know your view regarding this very-much-real-world, here-and-now, practical problem.

He responded: “I no longer want to talk about Ukraine. … So let’s just put this behind us.”

I think it’s instead a question that everybody should be thinking about, now, because it’s very much in front of us — all of us — no matter how much a person wants to retain existing prejudices. Ignoring Russia’s essential national-security needs has already cost the world (except for weapons-makers) a lot (and might now cost Ukrainians everything), and will cost everyone vastly more if it doesn’t stop soon. What U.S./NATO did on January 7th is turning out to have been disastrous for virtually everyone.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s next book (soon to be published) will be AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change. It’s about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public. 

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Earlier today we wrote that Germany’s largest landlord, Vonovia, had taken the unprecedented step of restrictring heating at night, a terrifying preview of what lies in stock for the “most advanced” European nation this winter. Alas, it’s going to get worse, much worse.

According to the FT, Germany is now rationing hot water, dimming its street lights and shutting down swimming pools as the impact of its energy crunch begins to spread like the proverbial Ice-Nine wave, from industry to offices, leisure centers and residential homes.

The reason behind Germany’s slow motion paralysis is well-known: the huge increase in gas prices triggered by Russia’s move last month to sharply reduce supplies to Germany has plunged Europe’s biggest economy into its worst energy crisis since the oil price shock of 1973 (see “What’s Unfolding In Europe In Recent Days Is A Fresh Big Negative Supply Shock“)

With electricity prices hitting never before seen levels, gas importers and utilities are fighting for survival while consumer bills are going through the roof, with some warning of rising friction (not to mention the infamous wheelbarrows full of cash).

“The situation is more than dramatic,” said Axel Gedaschko, head of the federation of German housing enterprises GdW. “Germany’s social peace is in great danger.”

Unfortunately, as tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine escalate, officials fear the situation could get worse. On Monday, as we reported last week, Russia is shutting down its main pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream 1, for 10 days of scheduled maintenance. Many in Berlin fear it will never reopen.

Commenting on the infamous July 22 day when Russian gas flows are expected to resume, DB’s Jim Reid writes that “while we all spend most of our market time thinking about the Fed and a recession, I suspect what happens to Russian gas in H2 is potentially an even bigger story. Of course by July 22nd parts may have be found and the supply might start to normalise. Anyone who tells you they know what is going to happen here is guessing but as minimum it should be a huge focal point for everyone in markets.”

The bank also conveniently warns that “if the gas shutoff is not resolved in coming weeks this would lead to a broadening out of energy disruption with material upfront effects on economic growth, and of course much higher inflation.”

Anticipating the worst case outcome, Germany last month took a crucial step towards rationing gas when economy minister Robert Habeck activated the second stage of the country’s gas emergency plan. “The situation on the gas market is tense and unfortunately we can’t guarantee that it will not get worse,” he said on Tuesday. “We have to be prepared for the situation to become critical.”

Habeck, who says he is now taking shorter showers, has appealed to the population to save energy — and municipalities and property owners have heeded the call.

As we reported this morning, Vonovia, the country’s largest residential landlord, said it would be lowering the temperature of its tenants’ gas central heating to 17C between 11pm and 6am. It said the measure would save 8 per cent in heating costs.

A housing association in the Saxon town of Dippoldiswalde, near the Czech border, went a step further this week, saying it was rationing the supply of hot water to tenants. From now on they can only take hot showers between 4am-8am, 11am-1pm and 5pm-9pm.

“As we announced in our general meeting, we have to save for the winter,” a notice in the affected blocks reads.

Such measures could become routine in the coming weeks. Helmut Dedy, head of the German Association of Towns and Cities, said the “whole of society” must now cut down on its energy consumption, saving in summer “so we have warm flats in winter”.

“Every kilowatt-hour we save helps to fill the gas storage a bit more,” he said as he appealed to town councils up and down the country to take emergency action. He had a few suggestions: turn off traffic lights at night; shut off hot water in council buildings, museums and sports centres; adjust air conditioners; and stop illuminating historic buildings

Some have already taken measures. The district of Lahn-Dill, near Frankfurt, is switching off the hot water in its 86 schools and 60 gyms from mid-September, a move it hopes will save it €100,000 in energy costs, and Düsseldorf has temporarily closed a massive swimming pool complex, the Münster-Therme. Meanwhile, Berlin has turned down the thermostat on open-air swimming pools, reducing their temperature by 2 degrees. In western Germany, Cologne is dimming its street lighting to 70 per cent of full strength from 11pm.

Residential customers are also taking action, reactivating wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. Sales of firewood, wood pellets and coal, as well as of gas canisters and cartridges, have shot up.

It is unclear how far such measures will soften the impact of higher heating bills, which which be through the roof. The GdW said the Ukraine war will push up energy prices for consumers by between 71 per cent and 200 per cent, amounting to additional annual costs of between €1,000 and €2,700 for a one-person household and up to €3,800 for four people, compared with 2021 levels.

Costs could increase even more as a result of a new law working its way through the German parliament. This would allow the government to impose an emergency levy on all gas consumers to spread the cost of higher prices more evenly. It is designed to prevent gas importers becoming insolvent, a scenario ministers fear could cause a Lehman Brothers-style meltdown of the whole sector. Uniper, the largest importer of Russian gas in Germany, is already in talks with officials on a state bailout that experts say could be as large as €9bn.

In the meantime, German consumers — both industrial and residential — are reverting back to East Gcutting their energy use. A study by the Hertie School in Berlin said industrial gas consumption fell 11 per cent in March and April this year, compared with the same period in 2021, and by 6 per cent in private households.

Much more needs to be done, said Lion Hirth, one of the study’s co-authors. “The decline in demand that we’ve seen up until now is unfortunately far from adequate to completely close the supply gap threatening us this winter,” he said. In his appeal to Germany’s municipalities this week, Dedy made a similar point. “The situation is very serious,” he said. “It’s already clear we’re going to have to leave our comfort zone.”

Let’s just hope that by exiting the “comfort zone” Germany does not enter the “war zone” – it’s traditionally not a happy ending for Europe when that happens…

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Video: European Farmers Fight Back Against the Globalist Scheme to Destroy the World’s Food Supply

By Amy Mek, July 10, 2022

For weeks there have been protests by farmers in the Netherlands against their left-wing government’s Great Reset policies, the EU’s “Green Deal,” and the associated forced closure of farms. Their government’s radical ‘climate change’ measures aim to slash emissions in some provinces by 95%. That would mean the end for about 30 percent of the farmers.

Beware of the QR Code, Remember Agenda ID2020?

By Peter Koenig, July 11, 2022

What we are confronted with now is much worse. It’s Agenda ID2020 on steroids. It’s the worldwide invasion of the QR code – QR coding of everything, including Agenda ID2020 – and all of your most intimate data, health, personal behaviors, habits – track records of where we have been and even where we may be planning to go. Nothing will escape the QR code.

In Kyiv, Sen. Blumenthal Says He Hopes to See a ‘Hand-to-Hand Insurgency’ in Russian-Occupied Ukraine

By Dave DeCamp, July 11, 2022

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) visited Kyiv with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Thursday and said he hopes to see a “hand-to-hand insurgency” in territory Russia has captured since it invaded Ukraine.

Burying Bad News: US Condemned Over Report on Shireen Abu Akleh’s Killing

By Umar A Farooq, Zainab Iqbal, and Azad Essa, July 11, 2022

The United States has been accused of burying its findings on the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, and is facing criticism for issuing statements that appeared to absolve Israel of all responsibility over the killing.

Video: Infertility and “Depopulation”: A Diabolical Agenda

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, July 10, 2022

“Infertility: A Diabolical Agenda,” is the fourth vaccine-related documentary by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. It tells the story of an intentional infertility vaccine program conducted on African women, without their knowledge or consent.

Shinzo Abe: How Will History Remember Him?

By Dr. Robert Farley, July 10, 2022

Abe led the movement to reinterpret Article 9 of the Japanese constitution to allow more varied and vigorous kinds of military policy. Long interpreted as a ban on offensive military activity (and indeed possibly any kind of military institutionalization at all), Article 9 put what many believed were sensible limits on Japan’s ability to wage war.

Hoisted by Their Own Petard: Wimbledon’s Russian Player Ban

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, July 10, 2022

t was, all and all, an odd spectacle.  The Ladies’ Singles victor for Wimbledon 2022 had all the credentials that would have otherwise guaranteed her barring.  Being Russian-born, news outlets in Britain walked gingerly around The All England Club’s decision to ban Russian players yet permit Elena Rybakina to play.

Cash Ban: Belgium Obliges All Shops to Accept Cards

By Andrei Fesyun, July 10, 2022

A law came into force in Belgium which obliges every shop to accept card payments. Paying only in cash is no longer possible. Those responsible assert that a no-cash ban is planned in the medium term. Critics worry about a possible attempt to create consumption and movement profiles.

The Unending Farce of US Sanctions Against Russia

By Joseph Solis-Mullen, July 10, 2022

Rather than working diplomatically to resolve the civil war in Ukraine that it played a principal role in precipitating (by backing the unconstitutional transfer of power in that country in 2014), the Biden administration spent the months leading up to the Russian invasion in February assiduously working to make sure “extreme” economic sanctions could be put in place.

Canadian Mining in Africa: Looting a Continent

By Michael Welch, Yves Engler, and Bianca Mugyenyi, July 09, 2022

In spite of all our enlightened thinking around racism, “Black Lives Matter,” and calls for “diversity, equity and inclusion” on our workplaces and our partnerships, Africa, a continent bearing nearly a fifth of the world’s population doesn’t register as more than a backdrop of “tragic suffering and endless despair” to quote a year old article on the media watchdog site FAIR.org.

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Australia Whistleblower Relief: Dropping the Collaery Case

July 11th, 2022 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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***

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) visited Kyiv with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Thursday and said he hopes to see a “hand-to-hand insurgency” in territory Russia has captured since it invaded Ukraine.

“Long-range artillery is very, very important. But so is the hand-to-hand insurgency that we are hoping to see in eastern Ukraine, in the territory that’s already been occupied by the Russians,” Blumenthal said.

Both Blumenthal and Graham voiced support for an insurgency in eastern Ukraine in the latest sign that the US plans to support Ukraine in its war against Russia for years to come. But the main purpose of the visit was to discuss a plan to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Currently, only Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Cuba are designated as state sponsors of terror. Cuba’s designation was lifted by President Obama, but the Trump administration put Havana back on the list as one of its last foreign policy moves.

Graham said he believes the designation would have near-unanimous support in the Senate. In May, the two senators introduced a resolution that would call for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to make the designation.

The senators also called for more weapons shipments to Ukraine. Blumenthal said the US should send HIMARS rocket systems with “longer ranges” than what has been provided, more Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and air defense systems.

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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

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***

The United States has been accused of burying its findings on the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, and is facing criticism for issuing statements that appeared to absolve Israel of all responsibility over the killing.

The State Department announced earlier this week that gunfire from Israeli positions “was likely responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh” but dismissed the incident as the unintentional “result of tragic circumstances”.

Abu Akhleh, a veteran journalist with Al Jazeera Arabic, was killed by Israeli forces on 11 May during an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp, several eyewitnesses, including Middle East Eye contributor Shatha Hanaysha, have said.

The Israeli military denied responsibility for the killing but in the days and weeks after the incident, several publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, as well as international bodies including the United Nations, concluded that Israeli forces had in fact killed Abu Akleh.

Since the State Department’s announcement, Palestinian activists have taken issue with the vague and inconsequential statement and criticised the decision to make it public on 4 July – US Independence Day – a major national holiday when many people are spending time with their families and not focusing on the news.

“Of course it was done on July 4th, at a time when nobody’s really going to be paying attention to the outcome,” Diana Buttu, a Palestinian human rights lawyer and former legal advisor to the negotiating team of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, told Middle East Eye.

“It was on a long weekend where people are away and that’s the point. Since Shireen was murdered by Israel, the US administration has gone out of its way to try to crush this.”

Buttu said the statement was carefully crafted to avoid any tensions ahead of US President Joe Biden’s scheduled visit to Israel next week.

Last month, the administration reportedly asked Israel to halt home demolitions, evictions of Palestinians and any decisions on settlement building “until after Biden’s visit”, saying they want “quiet and calm” for Biden’s visit.

“It is not surprising in the least to see this buried announcement of a supposedly inconclusive verdict about just who murdered Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh issued by the State Department,” Omar Zahzah, an organiser with the Palestinian Youth Movement, told MEE.

“The imperialist capitalist US government has long made it clear that Palestinian life, dignity and freedom is worthless to its oppressive interests and investment in the subjugation of the Global South.”

US nationals killed by Israel

In its statement, the State Department said its investigation found “no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances”. It said that the incident had taken place “during an IDF-led military operation against factions of Palestinian Islamic Jihad on May 11, 2022, in Jenin, which followed a series of terrorist attacks in Israel”.

In response, Abu Akleh’s family released a scathing rebuke. In a statement released on Monday evening, the family described Washington’s assessment as “frankly insulting to Shireen’s memory”.

The family, as well as activists who spoke to MEE, noted that the focus on the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was an attempt to spin the narrative around what happened, rather than seek actual accountability.

“The focus became on the bullet and which gun fired the bullet and all of these sorts of stupid things, rather than on what we know to be true,” Buttu said.

“It’s because she was reporting on [Israel’s] military occupation that she was killed.”

Buttu said that given Israel’s advanced military capabilities and sophisticated technologies, she has doubts Israel does not know the identity of the killer.

In 2018, the Israeli forces posted a now-deleted tweet in which they said, “We know where every bullet has landed” after 773 Palestinians in Gaza were shot with live ammunition from Israeli forces during mass demonstrations.

“They have the system of being able to know where their soldiers are and who’s doing the firing. They know the person who shot Shireen. For sure they do. This isn’t a question in the dark,” Buttu said.

Ramzy Baroud, a Palestinian-American journalist and author, told MEE that he believes it was a mistake to even allow the US to take part in the investigation, to begin with.

“Giving the State Department the opportunity to opine on the subject has both validated the US view on the matter and greatly confused the existing body of evidence, which seemed conclusive in asserting that Shireen was murdered by Israel,” Baroud said.

In a news conference on Tuesday following the release of its assessment, State Department spokesperson Ned Price doubled down and said that “they found no reason to believe that it was an intentional killing, but rather the result of tragic circumstances in the course of a raid”.

Price added that Washington would continue to call for accountability, saying “this clearly was the case of a wrongful death”.

“Our goal – and what we believe is the collective goal of the parties – is to see to it that something akin to this, the killing of a journalist in a conflict zone, can’t happen again, must not happen again,” Price said.

Yet just several weeks after Abu Akleh’s death, another Palestinian journalist, 31-year-old Ghufran Harun Warasneh, was shot and killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. It was her third day of work at her new job at a local media network.

What should accountability look like?

Palestinian advocates say Washington’s assessment of the killing is another attempt to sweep the killing of a Palestinian and US national at the hands of Israel under the rug.

In January, Omar Asaad, an 80-year-old Palestinian American, died of a heart attack after he was violently detained by Israeli soldiers during a raid on Jaljulia village, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

An Israeli army probe led to the dismissal of two officers, something the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem described as a “slight rebuke”.

Still, Noura Erakat, a Palestinian-American human rights lawyer and professor at Rutgers University, told MEE that now is the time for the international community, and especially journalists, to increase their scrutiny over the probe into the killing.

“If we now know that Israel lies blatantly and can kill and get away with it, it should be imperative for journalists to now shift the way that they actually cover this issue with greater scrutiny,” Erakat said.

“That’s what accountability would look like, in my opinion. We’re not going to get accountability for shootings and murder, but there should be a shift of how we interpret and understand information as a result of these findings.”

On Tuesday evening, following the State Department’s statement, a group of 11 Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation that would force the US government to investigate the killing and also investigate whether American weapons were used.

The legislation, spearheaded by Congressman Andre Carson, was submitted as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which authorises the Pentagon’s annual budget.

Ayah Ziyadeh, advocacy director at American Muslims for Palestine, said that accountability would begin with a suspension of “all military funding for Israel” and would end with those responsible for Abu Akleh’s killing being brought to justice.

“In the meantime, it is simply unacceptable for the President of the United States to conduct an ordinary diplomatic visit to a state that practices apartheid, and this is especially the case on the heels of the killing of an American journalist by this apartheid government,” Ziyadeh said.

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Featured image: Shireen Abu Akleh was an icon in Palestine and throughout much of the Arabic speaking world for her reporting from the occupied territories (Illustration/MEE)

Pawns with Lawns

July 10th, 2022 by Mickey Z

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The single most irrigated crop in the United States is (drum roll please) lawn. 

Yep, 40 million acres of lawn exist across the Land of Denial — and Americans collectively spend about $40 billion on seed, sod, and chemicals each year. 

And then there’s all that water. Lawns in America require nearly 9 billion gallons of (usually drinking-quality) water per day. Nearly a third of all residential water use in the U.S. goes toward what is euphemistically known as “landscaping.”

We have become a robotic nation of pawns with lawns.

As described by Ted Steinberg, author of American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn, when it comes to lawns, social and ecological factors often work in coordination.

“Perfection became a commodity of post-World War II prefabricated housing such as Levittown, NY, in the late 1940s,” writes Steinberg. “Mowing became a priority of the bylaws of such communities.”

Lawn mowers produce several types of pollutants, including ozone precursors, carbon dioxide, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (classified as probable carcinogens) — adding up to five percent of all air pollution. In fact, operating a typical gasoline mower produces as many polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as driving a car 95 miles. However, some folks are legally required to maintain a lawn (more about that shortly).

Besides the air and noise pollution of mechanized mowers, there’s another form of toxicity directly related to America’s lawn addiction.

“Lawns use ten times as many chemicals per acre as industrial farmland,” writes Heather Coburn Flores, author of Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community. “These pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides run off into our groundwater and evaporate into our air, causing widespread pollution and global warming, and greatly increasing our risk of cancer, heart disease, and birth defects.”

“If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials,” wrote Rachel Carson six decades ago, “it is surely because our forefathers could conceive of no such problem.”

We now produce pesticides at a rate more than 13,000 times faster than we did when Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1962. The EPA considers 30 percent of all insecticides, 60 percent of all herbicides, and 90 percent of all fungicides to be carcinogenic, yet Americans spend about $9 billion on over 20,000 different pesticide products each and every year.

As mentioned above, maintaining a noxious and unproductive lawn isn’t just a simple case of one-size-fits-all conformity in the face of all logic and evidence; it’s often the law. Here are but two of countless examples of life in the Land of the Free™:

Jim Ficken from Dunedin, Florida was out of town tending his late mother’s estate. Here’s what happened from there: “The handyman he hired to mow his lawn during his absence also died, and the grass exceeded the city’s 8-inch height restriction. Unknown to Finken, he was racking up fines of $500 per day.”

The fines reached $29,000 and the city has attempted to foreclose on his house. At the end of April 2021, a federal judge ruled that Finken must pay the fines, but he isn’t giving up and plans to appeal.

How about Joseph Prudente of Beacon Woods, Florida? He was sentenced to jail for failing to sod his lawn as required by the local homeowner covenants. Before you label Mr. Prudente a modern-day insurrectionist, take note that the reason he failed to live up to his suburban obligation was predictable: he couldn’t afford to replace his sprinklers when they broke.

“It’s a sad situation,” said Bob Ryan, Beacon Woods Homeowners Association board president. “But in the end, I have to say he brought it upon himself.”

I’m guessing Mr. Ryan has never heard of Food Not Lawns.

Imagine each house not with a lawn but instead with a small organic “Victory” garden from which the entire family is fed. Imagine those without a lawn joining their local community garden to re-connect and grow their own.

Be warned: Gardening is now being touted as the cause of all the “sudden deaths” since 2021. After all, what else could possibly be responsible for seemingly healthy people “suddenly” dropping dead?

The sterile lawn — complete with its requisite sprinkler, a cocktail of chemicals needed to “maintain” it, bug zapper, and “keep off the grass” sign — is an ideal symbol for America’s pathetic cookie-cutter culture.

Lawns, writes Ted Steinberg, are “an instrument of planned homogeneity.” He asks: “What better way to conform than to make your front yard look precisely like Mr. Smith’s next door?”

Homogeneity and conformity.

The powers that (shouldn’t) be are dedicated to controlling your mind, destroying your health, and enslaving/dehumanizing you. When will you have the courage to think your own thoughts and stand up to their illegitimate power?

This process goes further than just self-identifying as oppositional to the architects of a global nightmare. Instead, the truest form of rebellion is creation. In this particular example, it’s rejecting the lawn paradigm not because it makes you feel like a badass. But rather, do it because it is the future path you want to carve.

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All images in this article are from Post-Woke

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

The World Health Organization began working on an anti-fertility vaccine in the 1970s, in response to perceived overpopulation. For 20 years, the WHO’s Task Force on Vaccines for Fertility Regulation worked with population control in mind

In 1993, the WHO finally announced a birth-control vaccine had successfully been created to help with “family planning.” The anti-fertility vaccine uses hCG conjugated (chemically bonded) to tetanus toxoid, used in the tetanus vaccine. As a result, a woman will develop antibodies against both tetanus and hCG

HCG is the first signal that tells the woman’s body she’s pregnant. In response to this signal, her ovaries then produce progesterone, which maintains the pregnancy to term. By combining hCG with tetanus toxoid, it causes this crucial pregnancy hormone to be attacked and destroyed by the woman’s own immune system

In 1995, the Catholic Women’s League of the Philippines won a court order halting a UNICEF tetanus program that was using tetanus vaccine laced with hCG. Three million women between the ages of 12 and 45 had by that time already been vaccinated. Anti-hCG-laced vaccines had also been found in at least four other countries

Also in 1995, the Kenyan government launched a WHO tetanus campaign under the guise of eradicating neonatal tetanus. An investigation found the vaccine given to girls and women, aged 15 to 49, contained hCG, and evidence suggests this was an intentional population control agenda

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“Infertility: A Diabolical Agenda,” is the fourth vaccine-related documentary by Dr. Andrew Wakefield. It tells the story of an intentional infertility vaccine program conducted on African women, without their knowledge or consent.

While it’s been brushed off as a loony conspiracy theory for years, there’s compelling evidence showing it did, in fact, happen, and there’s nothing to prevent it from happening again.

The Backstory

As explained in the film, the World Health Organization began working on an anti-fertility vaccine, led by Dr. G.P. Talwar in New Delhi, India, in the 1970s, “in response to perceived overpopulation.” For 20 years, the WHO’s Task Force on Vaccines for Fertility Regulation worked with population control in mind.

In 1993, the WHO finally announced a birth-control vaccine had successfully been created to help with “family planning.”1 The paper trail reveals that by 1976, WHO researchers had successfully conjugated, meaning combined or attached, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) onto tetanus toxoid, used in the tetanus vaccine. As a result, when given to a woman, she develops antibodies against both tetanus and hCG.

HCG is a hormone produced by cells surrounding the growing embryo. These hormone-producing cells protect and support embryonic growth and eventually form the placenta.

As explained in the film, hCG is the first signal that tells the woman’s body she’s pregnant. In response to this signal, her ovaries then produce a second hormone, progesterone, which maintains the pregnancy to term.

By combining hCG with tetanus toxoid, it causes this crucial pregnancy hormone to be attacked and destroyed by your immune system, as it’s now misperceived as an invading pathogen. Since hCG is destroyed, progesterone is never produced and, hence, the pregnancy cannot be maintained.

So, if you’re already pregnant when taking this witches’ brew, it will likely result in a spontaneous abortion, and if you’re not already pregnant, you won’t be able to get pregnant, as this crucial pregnancy hormone is under constant attack by your immune system. Repeated doses prolong these effects, effectively rendering you sterile.

The WHO Has Been in the Depopulation Business for Decades

As detailed in a Scientific Research paper published in 2017,2 “WHO publications show a long-range purpose to reduce population growth in unstable ‘less developed countries.’”

In other words, the WHO’s longstanding policy has been to support depopulation in third world countries, and they’ve studied depopulation strategies in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, The Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey, Ethiopia and Colombia for decades.3

While creating an anti-fertility vaccine for those who really don’t want children is one thing, using deception to lure girls and young women into taking it is another entirely. As it turns out, the WHO is not above using deception and trickery to shut down fertility in populations they deem unworthy of reproduction.

The Great Deception

The central figures of the film are two Kenyan gynecologists, Drs. Wahome Ngare, and the late Stephen K. Karanja. Both state in the film that infertility is now the biggest gynecological problem in Africa. In recent years, there’s been a significant increase in women losing their pregnancies and couples who cannot conceive.

“I have seen the tears. They lose their identity. You die inside,” Antoninah Mutinda says. She knows, because she’s one of the African women whose fertility has been mysteriously impacted. After her third miscarriage, she was tested and found to have extremely high anti-hCG antibodies. She now suspects the tetanus vaccine she was given may be the culprit.

The anti-fertility vaccine was rolled out in the mid-‘90s, but despite support from the Kenyan leadership and “elite groups,” it was not popular among Kenyan women, who were concerned about the potential for abuse. They worried it might be disguised as a regular tetanus vaccine program.

Their concerns were valid because, as it turns out, this had already happened. In 1995, the Catholic Women’s League of the Philippines won a court order halting a UNICEF tetanus program that was using tetanus vaccine laced with hCG. Three million women between the ages of 12 and 45 had by that time already been vaccinated. Anti-hCG-laced vaccines had also been found in at least four other countries.

Undeterred by bad press, that same year, 1995, the Kenyan government launched a WHO tetanus campaign under the guise of eradicating neonatal tetanus. There were telltale signs that something was wrong, however, because it was already standard practice to vaccinate pregnant women against tetanus. Now, the WHO insisted women who weren’t pregnant needed the shot as well, in case they were to become pregnant.

Karanja learned of the deceptive anti-fertility campaigns in other countries during a medical conference in 1995, and became immediately suspicious of the tetanus campaign in his own country. Karanja convinced leaders of the Catholic church — one of the largest health care providers in Kenya — to test the tetanus vaccine being given, to make sure there was no foul play.

Without explanation, the WHO suddenly abandoned the campaign. Alas, 19 years later, in 2013, they were back. All girls and women, 15 to 49 years of age, were instructed to get vaccinated with a series of five injections, six months apart. This, it turns out, is the exact schedule required for the anti-fertility vaccine to produce sterility. Regular tetanus prevention requires only one injection every five to 10 years, and under no circumstance would you need five of them.

Vaccines Test Positive for Anti-hCG

The Catholic Church decided to test the vaccines, and collected three sample vials directly from clinics during the 2014 campaign. The samples were then sent to three independent laboratories for testing. As feared, they found hCG in them. Another six vials were then collected, and tested by six independent labs. This time, half were found to contain hCG.

At this point, the Catholic Church went public, urging girls and women to not comply with the vaccination campaign. In an effort to settle the dispute, an investigative committee was formed, consisting of three representatives selected by the Catholic bishops, and three government officials.

It was agreed that the nine vials already collected would be retested, along with 52 samples from a distributor who sells tetanus vaccine to the Kenyan government. This time, a more precise type of test, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), was chosen.

Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, director of medical services for the Kenyan government, contracted agriQ Quest to perform this testing. However, he urged them to test samples provided directly by him rather than the vials previously agreed upon. AgriQ Quest decided to analyze both batches.

The vials that tested positive for hCG using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), still tested positive using HPLC, but none of the samples provided by Muraguri tested positive.

A Decades’ Long Cover-Up

Shockingly, the government then demanded agriQ Quest “alter their report to indicate that they were safe to be administered.” When agriQ Quest refused, the government, the WHO and UNICEF responded by launching a public attack, accusing the Catholic Church of “peddling misinformation.”

And, since the only samples found to contain hCG were those provided by the Church, the government accused them of tampering with the vials in an effort to undermine confidence in the vaccine.

An added twist here is that the vials that tested positive had the same batch numbers as vials that tested negative. Only later did agriQ Quest discover that these negative vials had fake labels on them. They were not, in fact, from the same lots as those that tested positive. They weren’t even made by the same manufacturer.

AgriQ Quest also claims they can prove the positive samples were not tampered with, because they did not test positive for hCG in general. The test clearly shows the hCG was conjugated with tetanus toxoid, and this cannot occur by simply adding hCG to a vial of tetanus vaccine.

The conjugation — the chemical linking or bonding — of hCG to the tetanus toxoid can only occur during the manufacturing process. This is the smoking gun that proves the neonatal tetanus vaccine campaign was a cover for a population control campaign.

Muraguri also lied when he claimed the Kenyan government had only one supplier of tetanus vaccine. As it turns out, there were two. Biological E. Limited provided a regular tetanus vaccine, while the hCG-positive batches came from Serum Institute of India — the same country where most of the WHO’s anti-fertility research had been conducted.

Both Ngare and Karanja paid a steep price for their vigilance. The medical board called them for disciplinary action. Karanja was issued a gag order, and since 2014 was not allowed to speak publicly about vaccines in Kenya. He broke that gag order for this film. April 29, 2021, Karanja died, allegedly from COVID infection.

A Truly Diabolical Agenda

Speaking for millions of women just like her, Mutinda, who has now struggled with infertility for years, says:

“To imagine there’s a system somewhere, that some people somewhere are behind my inability to carry pregnancy to term, that is a diabolical agenda!”

Before his untimely death, Karanja shared a message with the world, through the makers of this film:

“When they are through with Africa, they’re coming for you.”

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Notes

1, 2 Scientific Research October 2017; 4(10)

3 Loveworldsat.org August 2018

Featured image is from LifeSiteNews