- Direct [link] to the mp3 file
- Experimental IPFS RSS Feed
- Executive Producers:
- Jasmin, Nancy & Alexander the Great!
- Elizabeth, Dame Anonymous of Colonial Place
- Associate Executive Producers:
- Become a member of the 1447 Club, support the show here
- Title Changes
- Dame Carol Ann of East Hatchet Ranch -> Baroness of Southern Colorado
- End of Show Mixes: Sir Michael Anthony - GWFF & Sir Chris Wilson
- Engineering, Stream Management & Wizardry
- Mark van Dijk - Systems Master
- Ryan Bemrose - Program Director
- Clip Custodian: Neal Jones
- Twitter
- What happened over the weekend?
- Bots and followers = due diligence of # of users
- Break twitter and offer and alternative
- EU and other countries will block twitter
- Oct 24th $1 Billion breakup fee
- Why no other suitors? No value?
- Only one way to 'fix' twitter'
- Everyone must register! - No more anonymity
- Elon will ruin twitter by removing anonymity on behalf of the USG
- When deplatforming on twitter stops, the game can no longer be played.
- Ukraine
- Biden to ask Congress for new powers to seize Russian assets
- Biden is expected to propose a “comprehensive legislative package that will enhance the United States Government’s authority to hold the Russian government and Russian oligarchs accountable for President Putin’s war against Ukraine.” The measures would result in the “forfeiture of property linked to Russian kleptocracy,” allowing the US government to “use the proceeds to support Ukraine.”
- Under the proposal, authorities would be able to impound property in the US “owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs and that has a connection to specified unlawful conduct.” Moreover, Biden wants to make it a crime “for any person to knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government.” The statement released by the White House, however, does not specify what criteria would be used to determine which dealings could be classified as “corrupt.”
- Food Intelligence
- Yak BOTG
- Ordered Yak meat from the Colorado based farmer that John mentioned in 1441.
- I told the owner, who wrote me a very nice note after he received payment, that I’d learned about his farm from NA and he told me there’d been an explosion of orders.
- Might be time to make The Yak the official NA GitMo national animal.
- And Night Fever was 1977, not the 80s.
- (Roller skating in Rock Center segment)
- Great Reset
- French Ballots
- France elections: the ballots for Marine Le Pen are deliberately spoiled.
- The video shows how the ballots for Marine Le Pen are already in specially sealed voting bags, which are already torn, which
- automatically recognizes them as unsuitable for counting.
- Fiber Cuts in France
- Multiple physical cable cuts in multiple diverse locations in France.
- Several networks that connect the internet infrastructures of major French
- cities were cut overnight, in a short interval. A state source evokes with
- "the Obs" a "coordinated malicious act", which confirms SFR and Free
- affected. An investigation has been opened.
- Why we’re linking employee compensation to ESG sustainability goals | Mastercard Newsroom
- Last year, we introduced a new compensation model for our executives at the executive vice president level and above. Their bonus was determined in part by the company’s performance on three Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance priorities: carbon neutrality, financial inclusion and gender pay parity. Because of their work and yours, we either met or exceeded our goals.
- Pizza Playbook
- Jimmy Saville Netflix 'documentary"
- Nothing about the Orphanages
- Nothing bout the rampant nature in sports, BBC, Politics etc
- Mandate & Boosters
- COVID Dog Test
- Today and tomorrow I am working a mma event in Arlington Texas
- Upon arrival I had to put on a mask and breath into it for 5 minutes
- Then I stand in line hold my mask in my left hand while the covid dog walked down the line
- If he sat down you were positive
- BLM LGBBTQQIAAPK+ Noodle Boy
- STORIES
- Northern Ireland faces loss of 1 million sheep and cattle to meet climate targets | Environment | The Guardian
- Northern Ireland will need to lose more than 1 million sheep and cattle to meet its new legally binding climate emissions targets, according to an industry-commissioned analysis seen by the Guardian.
- The large-scale reduction in farm animals comes after the passing of the ''jurisdiction's first ever climate act, requiring the farming sector to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and reduce methane emissions by almost 50% over the same period.About a third of human-caused methane emissions come from livestock, mostly from the burps and manure of beef and dairy cattle. Analysis by KPMG, commissioned by industry representatives including the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU), estimates more than 500,000 cattle and about 700,000 sheep would need to be lost in order for Northern Ireland to meet the new climate targets.
- Separate analysis by the UK government's climate advisers suggests chicken numbers would also need to be cut by 5 million by 2035. Both the pig and poultry sectors in Nothern Ireland have seen rapid growth in the past decade.
- Agriculture accounts for about 27% of Northern Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, with the vast majority coming from livestock. Photograph: Bernard O'Kane/AlamyNorthern Ireland has for some years been the only devolved administration without dedicated climate legislation and targets for emissions reduction. The region's agrifood industry and associated farming groups have long raised concerns about the expected impact of emissions reductions.Agriculture accounts for about 27% of Northern Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions, with the vast majority coming from livestock. Its heavily export-driven meat industry principally supplies Great Britain, but it also exports to China and North America.
- The country's principal poultry processor, Moy Park (a subsidiary of the Brazilian meat giant JBS), has grown into one of Europe's biggest such firms and Northern Ireland's largest company, while the Armagh-based JMW Farms pig producer saw its gross turnover nearly treble to £54m between 2011 and 2020.
- A spokesperson for KPMG said: ''Under the [Climate Change Act's] net-zero target, we have assumed that 'beef and other cattle', 'dairy' and 'sheep' do the most work to decarbonise due to these sectors accounting for the largest livestock-related impact on NI's carbon emissions.
- ''Both the 'pig' and 'poultry' sectors have a minor impact on agriculture carbon emissions (2% and 1%, respectively) and, therefore, any effort to decarbonise can be assumed to have a minor impact on total carbon emissions.''
- Ewa Kmietowicz, head of the land use mitigations team at the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: ''If you look at the evidence on the lifecycle of greenhouse gas emissions, the red meat livestock sources '' beef, dairy, sheep '' have the highest emissions because they're ruminant and they have high methane emissions.
- ''But pigs and poultry also have a lot of indirect emissions through fodder growth and supply. A lot of food for pigs is imported in the UK, which wouldn't necessarily impact on UK territorial emissions, but it's still important because we don't want to increase consumption emissions for the UK.''
- Chris Stark, CCC chief executive, told the Guardian that a switch to arable farming would probably be necessary if food production levels are to remain the same in Northern Ireland. ''A condition in our modelling is that we produce the same amount of food per head in 2050,'' he said. ''But it's very difficult to do this unless you see a change in farming practice, and especially unless you see a shift in arable farming versus livestock.
- ''So it's a big challenge '' and I'm interested to see what the executive comes up with now, since the majority of emissions come from animals. That will very soon come home to roost for Northern Ireland.''The devolved Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs has been contacted for comment.
- Sign up for the Animals farmed monthly update to get a roundup of the biggest farming and food stories across the world and keep up with our investigations. You can send us your stories and thoughts at animalsfarmed@theguardian.com
- Durham's latest: He has hundreds of e-mails between Fusion GPS and reporters
- Special Counsel John Durham just filed this motion in response to the efforts of Hillary for America, Fusion GPS, et al. to keep secret (by use of the attorney-client and work product privileges) communications involving Fusion GPS. You can read it here.
- Durham states the ''purported privilege holders who have intervened do so in a case in which the defendant has denied representing any client when he brought the Russian Bank-1 allegations to the FBI.'' The privilege controversy thus entraps Sussmann to a certain extent, seemingly precluding his denial that he was working on behalf of a client. Brilliant.
- Additionally, Durham casts doubt on the declaration of Marc Elias that Fusion GPS was retained to provide ''legal advice.'' Here he makes a key point:
- ''if rendering such advice was truly the intended purpose of Fusion GPS's retention, one would also expect the investigative firm to seek permission and/or guidance from [Hillary for America] or its counsel before sharing such derogatory materials with the media or otherwise placing them into the public domain.''
- In support of that point, Durham states he is in possession of ''hundreds of emails in which Fusion GPS employees shared raw, unverified, and uncorroborated information '' including their own draft research and work product '' with reporters.'' (He even filed them under seal with the court.) These include:
- Emails with Slate's Franklin Foer from May 14, 2016 in which Fusion GPS conveys information on a Trump advisor and Alfa Bank.
- July 26, 2016 e-mails from Fusion GPS to the Wall Street Journal communicating allegations from Christopher Steele stating ''a Trump advisor meeting with a former KGB official close to Putin '... would be huge news.''
- July 29 and July 31, 2016 emails with a reporter (Washington Post's Tom Hamburger) concerning Carter Page's investments and meetings with Russians - of which the reporter said ''Its bullshit.''
- July 27, 2016 e-mails between an ABC News reporter (Matthew Mosk) and Fusion GPS concerning Sergei Millian. Fusion GPS responded with a ''comprehensive report'' regarding Millian.
- Fusion GPS communications with NY Times reporters pushing more dirt on Millian.
- This e-mail from a Fusion GPS co-founder to the New York Times - dated October 31, 2016 - pushing the Alfa Bank allegations and stating the US Government is investigating.
- Here are e-mails between Franklin Foer and Fusion GPS, in which they discuss going after Carter Page in May 2016.
- Fusion GPS and Franklin Foer (then-working with Slate, and now with The Atlantic) e-mails - in which Fusion GPS alleges Millian is ''clearly KGB.'' Take a close look at Foer's interactions with Fusion GPS. This is the press you don't see: groveling to opposition researchers, begging for their assistance with ''omissions and errors,'' and pleading that his draft not be distributed to the competition. In other words, entirely consistent with the journalistic standards of Slate.
- And here is Fusion GPS telling a WSJ reporter to call Adam Schiff or Diane Feinstein about Carter Page. This is solid evidence that Fusion GPS, by July 26, 2016, had briefed Schiff and Feinstein (and their staffers - including Daniel Jones, a person of interest in the Durham investigation) about their Trump/Russia ''research.''
- As Durham makes clear, no lawyers are copied in these e-mails and this doesn't have anything to do with legal advice. And even if there were some type of privilege or work product, it was waived when Fusion GPS distributed the info to the press.
- There are a number of other important observations. The Fusion GPS witness who will testify is the ''tech maven'' referenced in their e-mails with the New York Times. This appears to be confirmation that Laura Seago will be the Fusion GPS employee to testify.
- Here's more on the Fusion Witness and her knowledge of what went down leading up to the 2016 election:
- Durham also destroys the declarations of John Podesta and Robby Mook on behalf of Hillary for America (we discussed the declarations here), stating Mook has stated Perkins Coie was to handle and oversee ''international'' opposition research. Mook also received ''general updates concerning'' these findings though he says he was unaware who had been specifically retained.
- As to Joffe's privilege arguments? They fail because ''Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS to assist HFA and the DNC, not [Joffe].''
- Today's filing follows a series of interesting developments disclosed in these last few days. On Friday, April 22, attorneys for Michael Sussmann filed this motion relating to evidentiary issues. I'll spare you the long and boring legal arguments (your humble author favors brevity) and get to the good stuff: the Special Counsel has issued trial subpoenas to the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
- The reason for calling the Clinton Campaign and DNC as trial witnesses is to get them to testify to their assertion of attorney-client privilege under oath. As you might recall, the Clinton Campaign, the DNC, Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, and Rodney Joffe have all made appearances in this case in order to fight against the production of records to Durham. We reported on that story here, stating Durham requested the court require production of records that included ''emails and attachments between and among'' Perkins Coie, Rodney Joffe, and Fusion GPS.''
- On behalf of the Clinton Campaign, Robby Mook (Hillary's campaign manager) and John Podesta (the Clinton Campaign chair, who has already been interviewed by Durham) submitted declarations in support of the position that Fusion GPS was assisting with ''legal services and legal advice to [Hillary for America].''
- One would rightly assume, then, that those trial subpoenas were issued to Robby Mook and John Podesta.
- Last Friday also saw this filing by Special Counsel Durham which also addressed evidentiary issues. It explained a ''joint venture'' starting in June 2016 by Rodney Joffe and his team of researchers to collect derogatory information on Trump and his associates. Durham described the goal of the joint venture to be: ''to gather and disseminate derogatory non-public information regarding the internet activities of [Trump] and his associates.
- This ''joint venture'' '' what is also called a conspiracy '' continued into August 2016, where:
- Sussmann, Rodney Joffe, and ''agents of the Clinton Campaign'' met at the Perkins Coie office of Mark Elias where they discussed the same Alfa Bank allegations that Sussmann would give to the FBI. ''The evidence will show that at the meeting, the parties agreed to conduct work in the hope that it would benefit the Clinton Campaign, namely, gathering and disseminating purportedly derogatory data regarding Trump and his associates' internet activities.''
- In furtherance of this scheme, Durham states the evidence (much of which is already public) will show:
- An August 12, 2016 meeting with a co-founder of Fusion GPS (Steele or Fritsch) with Sussmann, Elias, and Rodney Joffe. This meeting was billed to the Clinton Campaign.
- Joffe enlisted the CEO of an internet company to ''mine and analyze vast amount of Internet traffic for any derogatory information he and his employees could find about Trump and his associates' internet connections and online communications.'' This included those already targeted by Fusion GPS.
- Joffe's coordination with his team of researchers (including those at Georgia Tech '' one of whom has immunity) to compile what is now known as the Alfa Bank hoax.
- Joffe's continued meetings with Fusion GPS and Perkins Coie, in which he made clear his desire to make sure the ''VIPs'' at Perkins Coie and the Clinton Campaign would be ''happy'' with the project.
- One final observation: DARPA and confidential data.
- The Sussmann indictment mentions ''non-public Internet data'' that was exploited by Joffe, et al, for the purposes of their political hit-job. This information was provided to Georgia Tech as part of a prospective contract with DARPA to ''identify the perpetrators of malicious cyber-attacks and protect U.S. national security.'' (More details here.) After the indictment, it was revealed that Durham's team has interviewed former DARPA employees.
- Based on this information, we hinted that ''there might be charges relating to the misuse of classified government data from DARPA.''
- We now have confirmation that this contract included classified information.
- Take a look at this e-mail (obtained by Twitter sleuth UndeadFOIA) where Andrew DeFelippis, who is part of Special Counsel Durham's team, states that ''DARPA has no objections to Georgia Tech's provision of any records or information (both classified and unclassified) to our team and to the grand jury.''
- Cancelling Student Debt Would Add to Inflation | Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
- Lawmakers and advocates have loudened their calls to cancel student loan debt before the current re-payment moratorium ends on May 1st. Given the current state of the economy, we estimate cancelling all $1.6 trillion of student debt would increase the inflation rate by between 10 and 50 basis points (0.1 to 0.5 percentage points) in the 12 months after repayment is scheduled to begin. This would represent a 4 to 20 percent increase relative to the median Federal Reserve inflation rate forecast.
- Full debt cancellation would cost the federal government roughly $1.6 trillion, while improving household balance sheets by a similar amount. Consistent with our prior analysis, we estimate this would translate to an $80 billion reduction in repayments in the first year, which would in turn increase household consumption by $70 to $95 billion once the effect of higher wealth is considered.
- Often, higher consumption leads to higher economic output.1 However, the economy is currently unable to meet existing demand in light of elevated disposable income, strong balance sheets, lingering supply constraints, and other factors. This disconnect helps to explain the why the inflation rate hit a 40-year high in the past year, and why further increasing demand could result in higher prices rather than higher output.
- Assuming the economy remains hot and 90 percent of new consumption leads to price increases as opposed to increases in output, we estimate cancellation of all outstanding student debt would boost personal consumption expenditure (PCE) inflation by 37 to 50 basis points (0.37 to 0.5 percentage points) in the year after debt repayments are scheduled to resume. Even if only one-third of new consumption feeds into prices and the Fed responds with further tightening, we estimate student debt cancellation would increase inflation by 10 to 14 basis points.2
- Importantly, none of these estimates incorporate the possible effect that broad student debt cancellation could have on tuition prices. Prospective students may expect future rounds of debt cancellation, which could increase their willingness to take on more debt, thus decreasing their sensitivity to the prices that schools charge and ultimately making it easier for schools to increase prices even faster than they already do.
- The inflation effect of cancelling $1.6 trillion in student debt would be small relative to the enormous amount involved, since repayments are spread out over time and the benefits of debt cancellation accrue mainly to higher earners, who tend to save more of their money.3 However, the increase is significant relative to the underlying inflation rate. It would represent a 4 to 20 percent increase relative to the Fed's latest inflation forecast and a 5 to 25 percent increase above its target.
- Moreover, even a modest increase in inflationary pressures could feed into current inflation dynamics, increasing the risk of a wage-price spiral and making it harder for the Federal Reserve to re-anchor inflation expectations around its current target. Much of this increase would also occur if the Biden administration continued the student loan payment moratorium for another year, since it would result in the same increase in cash flow to individuals.
- Besides adding $1.6 trillion to the national debt and disproportionately benefiting higher-income individuals, we find student debt cancellation would cause prices to increase faster than they already are, exacerbating inflationary pressures.
- 1 In November of 2020, we estimated full student debt cancellation would boost output by roughly 0.3 percent per year in years that output remained significantly below potential. Considering current economic dynamics, we now estimate full student debt cancellation will boost output by 0.0 to 0.3 percent over an equivalent time period. In June of 2021, we estimated cancelling $10,000 per person in student debt would increase output by 0.04 over three years, and cancelling $50,000 per person of student debt would increase output by 0.13 percent. These estimates assumed that higher inflation (and interest rates) would limit the potential economic gains from such debt cancellation but would not be fully limiting until the beginning of 2024. Given current economic dynamics, we now expect smaller output gains, particularly in 2022, but have not updated our analysis.
- 2 While we have not yet estimated the inflation impact of partial debt cancellation, we expect it would be roughly proportional to the amount forgiven.
- 3 As a comparison, $1.6 trillion of additional ''recovery rebates'' would increase inflation by 115 to 510 basis points using the same methodology.
- Google goes woke! Search engine launches 'inclusive language' function | Daily Mail Online
- Google goes woke! Search engine launches 'inclusive language' function to cut down on politically incorrect wordsUsers typing 'landlord' will see warning it 'may not be inclusive to all readers'Gender-specific terms like 'policemen' should be replaced by 'police officers' Nudging users towards woke language is being seen by critics as a step too far By Chris Brooke for the Daily Mail
- Published: 20:39 EDT, 24 April 2022 | Updated: 09:37 EDT, 26 April 2022
- Google has launched an 'inclusive language' function designed to avoid the use of politically incorrect words.
- Users typing 'landlord' will see a warning that it 'may not be inclusive to all readers' with the suggestion they should try 'property owner' or 'proprietor' instead.
- The word 'humankind' is a suggested alternative to what the online giant apparently sees as the controversial term 'mankind'.
- Users typing 'landlord' will see a warning that it 'may not be inclusive to all readers' with the suggestion they should try 'property owner' or 'proprietor' instead
- Gender specific terms such as 'policemen' or 'housewife' should also be replaced by 'police officers' and 'stay-at-home spouse', according to the new Google Document style programme. It is now being rolled out to what the firm calls enterprise-level users.
- Many computer document systems use methods to correct spelling and grammar.
- But nudging users towards woke language is being seen by critics as a step too far. Tests on the system have also thrown up major flaws.
- A transcribed interview with ex Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke, in which he uses offensive racial slurs and talks about hunting black people, prompted no warnings.
- But it suggested President John F Kennedy's inaugural address should say 'for all humankind' instead of 'for all mankind'.
- Many computer document systems use methods to correct spelling and grammar. But nudging users towards woke language is being seen by critics as a step too far. Tests on the system have also thrown up major flaws
- Silkie Carlo, of campaign group Big Brother Watch, told the Sunday Telegraph: 'Google's new word warnings aren't assistive, they're deeply intrusive.
- 'This speech-policing is profoundly clumsy, creepy and wrong, often reinforcing bias.'
- Sam Bowman, of online magazine Works in Progress, said: 'It feels pretty hectoring and adds an unwanted political/cultural slant to what I'd rather was a neutral product [as] a user.'
- A Google spokesman said: 'Our technology is always improving, and we don't yet [have] a solution to identifying and mitigating all unwanted word associations and biases.'
- Why we're linking employee compensation to ESG sustainability goals | Mastercard Newsroom
- As a company, we are committed to doing well by doing good. It's something that makes us unique. It's core to our values and we expect it of ourselves. It shows up in many forms inside and outside of Mastercard. We see it in our In Solidarity commitment to narrow the racial wealth and opportunity gap and the Priceless Planet Coalition, which aims to plant 100 million trees by 2025. It's also embodied in our innovations like True Name and the Touch Card. Regardless of the specific initiative or product, it means leading our business with empathy to help us build better solutions for everyone. Last year, we introduced a new compensation model for our executives at the executive vice president level and above. Their bonus was determined in part by the company's performance on three Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance priorities: carbon neutrality, financial inclusion and gender pay parity. Because of their work and yours, we either met or exceeded our goals.
- Each and every one of us shares the responsibility to uphold our ESG commitments. That's why we're extending that model to our annual corporate score and all employees globally, taking our shared accountability and progress to the next level. The corporate score rewards employees for going above and beyond to deliver strong results for the company. Beginning this year, achieving our ESG goals will now factor into bonus calculations for all employees.
- Our ESG priority areas remain the same, with a sharpened focus on the environment, including reducing emissions and partnering with suppliers committed to decarbonization. While our global efforts go much broader and deeper, we're tying compensation to emissions, financial inclusion and the gender pay gap because we have a substantial impact in these areas and because they closely align with our vision. Making personal, financial and environmental success attainable for everyone '' that's how we power economies and empower people.
- Our responsibility, and our success, is shared. And now we're ensuring the recognition is too. When we put the full force of all of us behind our goals, there's nothing we can't achieve.
- Central African Republic adopts bitcoin as legal tender
- Bitcoin is a volatile asset, and has been known to swing more than 10% higher or lower in a single day.
- Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images
- The Central African Republic has become the second country in the world to adopt bitcoin as official currency, after El Salvador took the same step last year.
- Lawmakers in the CAR's parliament voted unanimously to pass a bill legalizing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, according to a statement from the presidency.
- Bitcoin will be considered legal tender alongside the regional Central African CFA franc.
- Obed Namsio, chief of staff to President Faustin-Archange Touadera, called the move "a decisive step toward opening up new opportunities for our country," according to Reuters.
- The CAR is rich in diamonds, gold and other valuable minerals, but ranks as one of the world's poorest and least-developed countries.
- Roughly 71% of CAR's 5.4 million inhabitants were living below the international poverty line in 2020, according to the World Bank.
- The country, which is landlocked in the heart of Africa, has been gripped by political instability and violence for years.
- "The big question is who the cryptocurrency ruling is for," David Gerard, an independent author who has followed crypto closely over the years, told CNBC.
- "Internet coverage in the CAR is 11%. Perhaps the government has been told that this will bootstrap payments in the country, but it's not clear how."
- The move to consider bitcoin legal tender received praise from the crypto community, and was hailed as another step toward mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
- Read more about cryptocurrencies from CNBC ProBut it can also be viewed as controversial. There were protests in El Salvador after the country introduced the Bitcoin Law, and the country faced criticism from the International Monetary Fund.
- The IMF has urged El Salvador to drop bitcoin as legal tender, raising concerns over the risks it poses to financial stability and consumer protection.
- Bitcoin is a notoriously volatile asset, which raises questions about its role as a standard method of payment. It was last trading at around $39,686 Thursday, down 6% in the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has lost around 42% of its value since an all-time peak above $68,000 in November.
- Many Western governments have raised the alarm about the potential use of cryptocurrencies by Russia to evade sanctions amid the country's invasion of Ukraine.
- CAR is a close ally of Russia, with Russian mercenaries having provided direct assistance to the government, according to the UN.
- Experts suggested the move could help small countries like the CAR reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar for global trade.
- Ransu Salovaara, CEO of crypto platform Likvidi, noted that the dollar has been the global oil currency since the 1950s.
- "Oil dependence is a major issue now, because of the Ukraine and the SWIFT banking ban, so global, unstoppable cryptocurrencies like bitcoin can really shine," he added.
- Evusheld Antibody Treatment for COVID-19 High-risk Groups | SCDHEC
- Evusheld is not a replacement for COVID-19 vaccines, and everyone eligible to receive one of the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines should do so.
- On Dec. 8, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization for AstraZeneca's Evusheld, a prevention therapy for certain high-risk individuals that can help protect them from COVID-19 before they are exposed to the virus. Evusheld is the first pre-exposure prophylaxis product for COVID-19 apart from vaccines.
- Being fully vaccinated and getting your booster shot is the most effective way to protect yourself from COVID-19 (including all of the variants). However, people whose immune systems are so substantially weakened that they do not develop immunity from the vaccines or those who can't be vaccinated because of severe allergic reactions are at increased risk for COVID-19. For those individuals, medical professionals may recommend Evusheld as a way to offer protection in case those individuals become exposed to the COVID-19 virus.
- What is Evusheld?Evusheld is a combination of two medications given together: tixagevimab and cilgavimab. Both are monoclonal antibodies, which are lab-made proteins that act like antibodies made by your immune system to fight an infection. Evusheld is administered by two injections immediately given one after another. Based on clinical trial data, Evusheld is administered every six months to offer the most protection.
- Who can get Evusheld?Not everyone is eligible for Evusheld. It's authorized for people ages 12 and older who weigh at least 88 pounds. You also can't be currently infected with COVID-19 or have a known recent exposure to the virus; that is, be in your isolation or quarantine periods. Additionally, you need to meet one of the following criteria:
- You have a health condition that likely won't allow your body to develop a strong enough response to the COVID-19 vaccine (e.g., immunocompromised because of cancer currently)You're taking medications that prevent a strong enough response to the COVID-19 vaccine (e.g., chemotherapy or transplant anti-rejection medications)You're unable to get the vaccine due to severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) to all of the COVID-19 vaccines or their ingredientsI meet the criteria for Evusheld. How can I receive it?The HHS COVID-19 Therapeutics Locator can help you find locations where Evusheld is available. Please do not simply walk in. You need a health care provider to prescribe the treatment for you.
- What are the common side effects of Evusheld?As with all medications, Evusheld may cause side effects, most being mild to moderate. Headache, feeling tired, and cough were the most common side effects during clinical trials. Talk to your health care provider about potential side effects and how to best manage them.
- For more information, view the FDA's fact sheet about Evusheld.
- For Healthcare ProvidersAs of mid-December 2021, South Carolina has received limited doses of Evusheld from the federal government. DHEC expects to receive future allocations off Evusheld from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) based on HHS's review the national supply.
- Health care providers interested in providing any type of monoclonal antibody treatment should contact DHEC at COVID19DRUG@dhec.sc.gov.
- Biden to ask Congress for new powers to seize Russian assets '-- RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
- The US president is expected to formally ask lawmakers to give him the authority to seize ''oligarch assets'' and ''enable the proceeds to flow to Ukraine''
- US President Joe Biden will officially ask Congress later on Thursday to grant him the authority to seize the assets of wealthy individuals believed to have links to the Kremlin and use them to help Ukraine, the White House has revealed in a statement.
- Biden is expected to propose a ''comprehensive legislative package that will enhance the United States Government's authority to hold the Russian government and Russian oligarchs accountable for President Putin's war against Ukraine.'' The measures would result in the ''forfeiture of property linked to Russian kleptocracy,'' allowing the US government to ''use the proceeds to support Ukraine.''
- Under the proposal, authorities would be able to impound property in the US ''owned by sanctioned Russian oligarchs and that has a connection to specified unlawful conduct.'' Moreover, Biden wants to make it a crime ''for any person to knowingly or intentionally possess proceeds directly obtained from corrupt dealings with the Russian government.'' The statement released by the White House, however, does not specify what criteria would be used to determine which dealings could be classified as ''corrupt.''
- To be ''forfeited'' under Biden's proposal is also property ''that Russian oligarchs use to facilitate the evasion of sanctions'' '' something that US law currently does not allow for. In addition, the US president is expected to ask lawmakers to add sanctions evasion to the definition of ''racketeering activity.''
- Docs: Spygate Researchers Did Work For Former Special Counsel Mueller
- The U.S. Department of Defense and private individuals pumping the Alfa Bank hoax also assisted former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump for supposed collusion with Russia, newly discovered documents suggest.
- The Georgia Tech researchers embroiled in the Alfa Bank hoax prepared white papers for the U.S. Department of Defense about the Democratic National Committee hack and created a ''Mueller List'' on the Russian intelligence agency hackers, the newly obtained documents indicate. The white papers were prepared for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a section of the U.S. Department of Defense.
- A recent dump of documents from Georgia Tech reveals that explosive detail and several other facts connected to the continuing special counsel investigation into Spygate. Here's a rundown.
- White Papers for the U.S. Department of DefenseLast month, The Federalist first reported that Special Counsel John Durham's team asked lead Georgia Tech researcher Manos Antonakakis: '''Do you believe that DARPA should be instructing you to investigate the origins of a hacker (Guccifer_2.0) that hacked a political entity (DNC)?''' Antonakakis responded that that was a question for the DARPA director, an implied acknowledgment that yes, DARPA had asked him to investigate the hack.
- In response, DARPA's chief of communications denied any involvement ''in efforts to attribute the DNC hack.'' ''Dr. Antonakakis worked on DARPA's Enhanced Attribution program, which did not involve analysis of the DNC hack,'' DARPA spokesman Jared Adams told the Washington Examiner. Adams further told the Washington Examiner that ''DARPA was not involved in efforts to attribute the Guccifer 2.0 persona, nor any involvement in efforts to attribute the origin of leaked emails provided to Wikileaks.''
- But now an email obtained by The Federalist indicates Georgia Tech researchers drafted a series of white papers for DARPA, including on the ''DNC attack attribution,'' and on what they called a ''Mueller List'' of ''domains and indicators related'' to DNC hackers.
- The email dated July 23, 2021 followed Durham dropping a second subpoena on Georgia Tech for more documents related to its investigation of the Alfa Bank hoax and other related issues. (More on that subpoena below). In that email, a lawyer representing David Dagon, the second Georgia Tech researcher involved in the Alfa Bank hoax who also worked on the DARPA Enhanced Attribution program, shared a list of ''documents/data sources'' Dagon believed would be responsive to the subpoena of Georgia Tech documents.
- Listed under the heading of ''DARPA whitepapers'' were four documents, including ''Whitepaper on DNC attack attribution''; Analysis of attacks of EOP (Executive Office of the President) networks''; ''Whitepaper for DOJ on APT-29 related hackers, crypto coin transactions, and analysis that includes Yota-related domains''; and '''Mueller List''--list of domains and indicator related to APT-28.''
- Of these DARPA whitepapers, the first and fourth both relate to the DNC hack, with the final paper also connecting to the Mueller investigation. APT-28 is the more formal name for the Russian intelligence group of hackers known colloquially as Fancy Bear. As part of his investigation, Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence agents allegedly working as Fancy Bear with crimes related to the DNC hack.
- This email represents the latest evidence suggesting Georgia Tech and DARPA assisted in the DNC hack investigation and Mueller's investigation, notwithstanding DARPA's strident denials.
- Yota-Related DomainsThe above email raises a second question worth probing, namely whether tech executive Rodney Joffe used the whitepaper Georgia Tech researchers prepared for DARPA on ''Yota-related domains'' in his continued attempt to frame Trump as colluding with Russia.
- As I explained earlier this week, in February 2017, Michael Sussmann, allegedly on behalf of Joffe, presented the CIA four files of data purporting to show the use of the Russian-made Yotaphone near Trump. The Yotaphone supposedly traveled with Trump to Michigan and later to the Executive Office of the President during the presidential transition period.
- The Yotaphone hoax, as I detailed, represents a huge scandal because it involved both the exploitation of sensitive data related to the EOP and the apparent physical (or electronic) surveillance of Trump. Further, the data provided to the CIA was deceptive by omission and peddled to trigger a CIA investigation of the sitting president of the United States of America.
- But the above email now adds to the scandal the possibility that the DARPA-funded research on the Yota domains was shared with Joffe or other outsiders, who then used that intel to track the Russian-based Yotaphones to create the conspiracy theory later peddled to the CIA. This potential scenario needs further investigation.
- Georgia Tech Gave Mueller a Large File of Trump-Related Material That Went MissingThat the Georgia Tech researchers worked with Mueller's investigation into Trump also seems clear from an exchange between lead prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis and the Georgia Attorney General's Office, which represented Georgia Tech in its response to the subpoena. In that email thread, the attorney representing Georgia Tech noted that DeFilippis had ''indicated that there was a 'fairly large file of Trump related materials' that had been assembled for production to the office of Special Counsel Robert [Mueller] or the DOJ.''
- ''We are unable to locate such a file,'' the email continued, even though ''Dr. Antonakakis has searched his server for such a file and did not find anything meeting that description.''
- Whether the ''fairly large file of Trump related materials'' was ever found is unknown.
- Durham Is Digging Far and WideThe most recent Georgia Tech documents also reveal the breadth and scope of the potential conspiracies Durham is investigating, with a subpoena from July 2021 to Georgia Tech and its related organization seeking documents related to ''a purported secret communications channel between the Trump Organization, Spectrum Health, and the Russian Bank Alfa Bank,'' as well as material related to ''the purported presence or use of Russian-made Yotaphones by or in the vicinity of Donald Trump or individuals affiliated with Donald Trump.''
- Significantly, the subpoena also sought ''all documents, records, and information'' related to the Alfa Bank and Yotaphone research, including work conducted under or pursuant to contracts with DARPA.
- The Georgia Tech documents also reveal that this subpoena is the second served on the university by the special counsel's office, with the first issued in fall 2020, according to another email. (One wonders what the original subpoena sought and what put the investigators onto the Alfa Bank and Yotaphone trail.) Emails released also indicate that the special counsel's office subpoenaed documents from Dagon.
- Immunity for DagonEmails included in the Right-to-Know release from Georgia Tech also provide more texture to the Durham case against Sussmann, who is currently awaiting trial next month on a charge that he lied to the now-former FBI General Counsel James Baker in providing Baker data and white papers purporting to establish the Trump-Alfa Bank secret communication network.
- Last Friday, in response to Sussmann's claim that Durham should be required to provide Joffe immunity so the tech executive would testify on Susssmann's behalf, the special counsel noted that to date it had only immunized one witness'--Dagon. The special counsel noted that it granted Dagon immunity on July 28, 2021, ''because, among other reasons, at least five other witnesses who conducted work relating to the [Alfa Bank] allegations invoked (or indicated their intent to invoke) their right against self-incrimination.''
- The documents reviewed by The Federalist show that, as of July 26, 2021, Dagon was ''en route to DC for his meeting with the Special Counsel and testimony with the Grand Jury,'' meaning the immunity grant came late in the day for Dagon. Another email from Dagon's attorney to Georgia Tech noted that ''David Dagon was given full statutory immunity by the Special Counsel in its investigation.''
- ''He has been cooperating and working with the Special Counsel's team and testified before the Grand Jury on three days,'' Dagon's attorney Jody Westby told the Georgia Tech legal team, in the context of requesting payment from the university for the legal services Westby and her team performed on behalf of Dagon.
- That Dagon testified for three days before the grand jury suggests the special counsel's team had quite a few questions to ask the cyber researcher. From another email, it seems likely that, whatever Dagon said, he convinced the special counsel's office that Antonakakis was not involved in any criminal activity. On July 29, 2021, Antonakakis' attorney Mark Schamel emailed DeFilippis, noting that now that the special counsel has ''appropriately categorized Dr. Antonakakis as a witness,'' they would happily discuss a follow-up meeting with Durham's team.
- Georgia Tech Entered a Joint Defense Agreement'--Until It Didn'tAnother fascinating detail contained in the Georgia Tech dump concerned the apparent joint defense agreement the individuals ensnared in the Alfa Bank hoax initially entered into with each other. A ''joint-defense agreement'' is where parties agree to exchange confidential information and work together, typically, but not always, in relation to a criminal investigation. When parties have entered a joint-defense agreement, they may share information and communications with each other, without the communications losing the protection of attorney-client privilege.
- After the special counsel dropped its second subpoena on Georgia Tech, Dagon's attorney emailed a lawyer at Georgia Tech, noting that Dagon would not be responding to the subpoena served on Georgia Tech'--that was solely Georgia Tech's responsibility. Dagon's attorney then added: ''We have never seen the first subpoena Georgia Tech produced or your production; nor have we seen this second subpoena. Although Georgia Tech agreed to an informal joint defense agreement, after we produced our subpoena and relevant documents, Georgia Tech pulled back from that and refused to share any information, . . . We are also not privy to your discussions with the Special Counsel office.''
- A few days later, Dagon's attorney provided more background when she emailed the Georgia attorney general's office, noting that Georgia Tech ''cannot produce those white papers,'' in reference to three white papers Dagon's lawyer had provided Georgia Tech's lawyer in September 2020.
- Those white papers, Dagon's lawyer noted, ''were shared under a joint defense/common interest agreement and came from other counsel.'' ''We shared them with Ga Tech when we were in a joint defense agreement with them, until [Georgia Tech's lawyer] decided Ga Tech could not participate anymore, supposedly on advice from the Georgia AG office,'' Dagon's attorney snarked.
- This exchange suggests that Georgia Tech, in addition to having entered into a joint defense agreement with Dagon, had entered into one with another of the players involved in the Alfa Bank hoax, although which one is unknown.
- Also of interest is that Dagon's attorney noted that she expects ''all of our communications with GA Tech counsel's office will be protected from disclosure, since the subpoena does not ask for documents related to David Dagon's counsel.'' The question, then, is whether special counsel Durham ever saw those three white papers or ever followed up with a subpoena for communications with Dagon's attorney. If not, he may want to do so now.
- Margot Cleveland is The Federalist's senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize'--the law school's highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.
- Pelosi, Ukrainian ambassador to unveil Capitol photo exhibit of Russian invasion | The Hill
- Greg NashSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is seen during a ceremony as Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) lies in state in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. Young passed away at the age of 88 serving 49 years in the House and the longest-serving Republican in the House of Representatives.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova are set to unveil a Capitol photo exhibit of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Pelosi's office announced on Tuesday.
- ''In partnership with the Embassy of Ukraine, images capturing the horror of the Russian invasion and the heroism of the Ukrainian people will be showcased in this exhibit for six weeks,'' her office said in a release.
- The photo exhibit will be unveiled at 4 p.m. on Thursday and will be open for viewing on days when the House is in session between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
- The development comes more than two months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has remained unsuccessful at taking Ukraine's capital and has since launched a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine.
- Earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- Those officials, the highest-ranking U.S. officials to meet with Zelensky yet, offered bleak assessments of how Russia was faring during the conflict, both economically and militarily.
- ''Russia has sought as its principal aim to totally subjugate Ukraine, to take away its sovereignty, to take away its independence. That has failed. It's sought to assert the power of its military and its economy,'' Blinken said alongside Austin on Monday.
- Warren introducing legislation to address civilian harm from military operationsBiden to speak Thursday on Ukraine's fight against Russia: White House''We of course are seeing just the opposite: a military that is dramatically underperforming, an economy, as a result of sanctions, as a result of a mass exodus from Russia, that is in shambles,'' he continued. ''And it's sought to divide the West and NATO. Of course, we're seeing exactly the opposite.''
- Still, Russia has said that the threat of nuclear capabilities should not be underestimated.
- ''It is real. It should not be underestimated,'' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian state media late Monday regarding the threat of nuclear war.
- Tags Antony BlinkenLloyd AustinNancy PelosiOksana MarkarovaVolodymyr Zelensky
- Internet down in multiple cities across France after suspected sabotage
- Internet and phone services were down or running slowly in several French cities on Wednesday after fibre optic cables were cut overnight in suspected attacks on the crucial data infrastructure, telecom operators said.
- "The attacks took place overnight at 4:00 am (0200 GMT). Our teams have been at work since this morning," said a spokesman for Free, the worst-affected internet and mobile phone service provider.
- In a message on Twitter, the company referred to "multiple malicious acts" targeting its cables, which led to outages and slow connections for many clients.
- Competitor SFR said it had experienced "several fibre cuts" in the Paris region and in Lyon in southeast France.
- Other operators such as Bouygues Telecom and market leader Orange were not affected because they use different networks, but problems were reported by users around the country, including in regional cities such as Strasbourg, Reims and Grenoble.
- Paris cables have been cut "Cuts to cables have been confirmed in the Paris region affecting fixed and mobile services," wrote Cedric O, the digital affairs minister, on Twitter.
- Experts said that apparently coordinated attacks on fibre optic cables were unprecedented.
- "This sort of incident at this scale never happens," one security source told AFP on condition of anonymity. "It's the first time and we don't know who it is for the moment."
- The affected operators said their technicians had been working overnight to restore services, with Free saying the problems were "contained".
- Other IT companies such as cloud computing groups were also hit by the outages, which forced Free and SFR to move their data on to alternative routes.
- "It's a bit like the motorways being blocked and you need to redirect all the traffic on to other roads," said Sami Slim, of the data centre company Telehouse.
- "It can result in small outages, but the internet works," he said.
- The cuts targeted so-called "backbone" cables which carry huge quantities of data between different regions and typically run along motorways or rail tracks.
- The Paris-Lyon and Paris-Strasbourg links were apparently targeted.
- In March 2020, fibre optic cables used for Orange's network were intentionally cut in the Paris region, depriving tens of thousands of users of internet connections.
- Europe Is Building a Huge International Facial Recognition System | WIRED UK
- For the past 15 years, police forces searching for criminals in Europe have been able to share fingerprints, DNA data, and details of vehicle owners with each other. If officials in France suspect someone they are looking for is in Spain, they can ask Spanish authorities to check fingerprints against their database. Now European lawmakers are set to include millions of photos of people's faces in this system'--and allow facial recognition to be used on an unprecedented scale.
- The expansion of facial recognition across Europe is included in wider plans to ''modernize'' policing across the continent, and it comes under the Pr¼m II data-sharing proposals. The details were first announced in December, but criticism from European data regulators has gotten louder in recent weeks, as the full impact of the plans have been understood.
- ''What you are creating is the most extensive biometric surveillance infrastructure that I think we will ever have seen in the world,'' says Ella Jakubowska, a policy adviser at the civil rights NGO European Digital Rights (EDRi). Documents obtained by EDRi under freedom of information laws and shared with WIRED reveal how nations pushed for facial recognition to be included in the international policing agreement.
- The first iteration of Pr¼m was signed by seven European countries'--Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Austria'--back in 2005 and allows nations to share data to tackle international crime. Since Pr¼m was introduced, take-up by Europe's 27 countries has been mixed.
- Pr¼m II plans to significantly expand the amount of information that can be shared, potentially including photos and information from driving licenses. The proposals from the European Commission also say police will have greater ''automated'' access to information that's shared. Lawmakers say this means police across Europe will be able to cooperate closely, and the European law enforcement agency Europol will have a ''stronger role.''
- The inclusion of facial images and the ability to run facial recognition algorithms against them are among the biggest planned changes in Pr¼m II. Facial recognition technology has faced significant pushback in recent years as police forces have increasingly adopted it, and it has misidentified people and derailed lives. Dozens of cities in the US have gone as far as banning police forces from using the technology. The EU is debating a ban on the police use of facial recognition in public places as part of its AI Act.
- However, Pr¼m II allows the use of retrospective facial recognition. This means police forces can compare still images from CCTV cameras, photos from social media, or those on a victim's phone against mug shots held on a police database. The technology is different from live facial recognition systems, which are often connected to cameras in public spaces; these have faced the most criticism.
- The European proposals allow a nation to compare a photo against the databases of other countries and find out if there are matches'--essentially creating one of the largest facial recognition systems in existence. One document obtained by EDRi says the number of potential matches could range from between 10 and 100 faces, although this figure needs to be finalized by politicians. A European Commission spokesperson says that a human will review the potential matches and decide if any of them are correct, before any further action is taken. ''In a significant number of cases, a facial image of a suspect is available,'' France's interior minister said in the documents. It claimed to have solved burglary and child sexual abuse cases using its facial recongition system.
- The Pr¼m II documents, dated from April 2021, when the plans were first being discussed, show the huge number of face photos that countries hold. Hungary has 30 million photos, Italy 17 million, France 6 million, and Germany 5.5 million, the documents show. These images can include suspects, those convicted of crimes, asylum seekers, and ''unidentified dead bodies,'' and they come from multiple sources in each country.
- New Zealand to Create Lifetime Ban on Tobacco For Much Of Its Population | Cigar Aficionado
- How long do you have to wait until you're old enough to buy a cigar, or another tobacco product? If you live in New Zealand, the answer may be forever, thanks to a new rule aimed at creating a lifetime ban on buying smoked tobacco for a good portion of the country's population.
- Today, the island country's Ministry of Health announced the Smokefree 2025 Action Plan aimed at completely eliminating the sale of tobacco products, specifically those that are smoked, which inherently seems to include cigars. The plan won't take immediate effect and won't directly affect those who are currently old enough to purchase tobacco. Rather, it is for the next generation.
- Under the newly proposed legislation, there will be a progressive raising of the legal buying age for smoked tobacco products every year. Increasing the minimum age will mean that eventually no one in New Zealand will be able to purchase tobacco, and it's specifically aimed at the youth of the country. Currently, people who are 18 years old are able to purchase tobacco, but if this law passes, beginning in 2025 that minimum will increase to 19. In 2026, it will be 20; in 2027, it will be 21; in 2028, it will be 22; and on and on for eternity.
- What that means is today's 14 year olds will never be able to legally purchase a tobacco product in New Zealand in their lifetime.
- Although the original bill outline doesn't explicitly state which products are included in the newly proposed law, it refers to them as all ''smoked tobacco products.'' As with most tobacco legislation, this is aimed at cigarette smokers, but the wording appears to cover all tobacco that is smoked, including cigars.
- EgyptAir flight MS804 fatal crash caused by pilot Mohamed Said Ali Ali Shoukair's cigarette
- An EgyptAir flight that crashed en route to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board, was brought down by a pilot who had a cigarette in the cockpit and started a fire, a new report found.
- EgyptAir flight MS804 was traveling on May 19, 2016, from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Cairo International Airport when it fell out of the sky between the Greek island of Crete and northern Egypt.
- France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) has since concluded that pilot Mohamed Said Shoukair's mid-air smoke break led to a fire onboard the Airbus A320 jet when his cigarette ignited oxygen leaking from an oxygen mask in the cockpit.
- The air disaster resulted in the deaths of 56 passengers and 10 crew members, among them 12 French nationals, 30 Egyptians, two Iraqis, one Canadian and one British citizen.
- Mohamed Said Shoukair lit a cigarette in the cockpit of EgyptAir flight MS804, causing oxygen to leak from an emergency mask to combust. The Sun/ FacebookEgyptian authorities initially said that the plane crash was the result of a terrorist attack, claiming that traces of explosives had been found on the bodies of the victims, but those allegations were widely discredited.
- In 2018, France's BEA determined that the flight went down because of a fire onboard based on analysis of data from the aircraft's black box recorder, which was recovered from deep water near Greece by the US Navy '-- though at the time investigators did not say what specifically caused the onboard inferno.
- But in March 2022, BEA released a new report that alleges that oxygen had leaked from a pilot's oxygen mask in the cockpit shortly before the crash, based on black box data that captured the sound of the oxygen hissing.
- Some of the passengers' belongings and parts of the wreck of EgyptAir flight MS804 are found north of Alexandria, in Egypt on May 21, 2016. Getty ImagesThe oxygen mask in question had been replaced just three days before the fateful flight by an EgyptAir maintenance worker, but for an unknown reason it had its release valve set to the ''emergency position,'' which, according to the Airbus safety manual, could lead to leaks.
- Incredibly, at the time of the incident, EgyptAir pilots were allowed to smoke in the cockpit '' a rule that has since changed. The onboard smoking, combined with the leaking oxygen, had set the stage for the fire, according to French aviation experts.
- The deadly plane crash is currently the subject of a manslaughter case before the Paris Court of Appeals.
- Egyptian authorities claimed EgyptAir flight MS804 was brought down in a terrorist attack, despite no group claiming responsibility. Dimitris Legakis / Splash News French soldiers aboard an aircraft carry out searches for debris from EgyptAir flight MS804 over the Mediterranean Sea on May 22, 2016. AFP/Getty ImagesThe 134-page report, which was reviewed by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra, was released to the Parisian court at the request of local judges.
- Egypt has refused to release its own report into the crash and in 2018 rejected BEA's initial findings, dismissing them as ''unfounded.''
- Families of victims have accused the Egyptian authorities of failing to cooperate with the investigation into the crash.
- EgyptAir employees and relatives of the victims on EgyptAir flight MS804 light candles during a commemoration in Cairo, Egypt on May 26, 2016. Getty ImagesAntoine Lachenaud, a lawyer representing the family of Clement Daeschner-Cormary, a 26-year-old passenger who died, said the new report showed that the crash was caused by human error.
- ''When warnings are ignored in a systematic manner this results in a crash and it becomes impossible to maintain that this is due to chance,'' he said.
- Twitter and Elon Musk - by John C Dvorak - The Oasis
- Sometime back, a Stanford adjunct professor and friend, Fred Gibbons, clued me into Elon Musk. Gibbons, an old Silicon Valley maven who knew the ropes, said, ''No matter what anyone thinks, Elon Musk is the real deal.'' I knew what he meant by that since I was schooled by the valley BS and its legions of phonies and posers.With that in mind, it's doubtful that Musk is going to mess up Twitter to any real degree besides causing a panic among the liberals who think it is their personal sandbox. In fact, they are the ones doing what they can to ruin it for anyone who does not think their way. This group of knee-jerk liberals includes the ownership of the company.
- Let's remember that Twitter began as a ''microblogging'' platform where users could make short comments about the world around them. You could follow people you thought were interesting.
- Musk, by definition, is a smart businessman (who uses the media to get attention in much the same way Trump does). You must assume that he actually sees some sort of money-making opportunity that nobody else sees or understands.
- It's not about politics or Democrats or Republicans; it's about opportunity.
- Twitter, in fact, does a piss-poor job of finding the psychographic groups that can be identified using their own tweets and targeting them for pricey ads. As it now works, the ad delivery mechanism is slipshod and relies on sketchy link-bait.I've seen technology from the 1980s that could take a database of email from thousands of employees, break it down, and use to identify experts within any organization that were not working in their areas of expertise.
- The idea was to mine the employee base to fill job openings without bringing new (and disruptive) people into the corporate culture.
- These sort of systems, usually palmed off as A.I. (artificial intelligence), have been under development for decades. The closest anyone comes to using this sort of analysis for advertising is Facebook. But it seems distracted by virtual reality devices and Democratic election schemes.
- Google also has a clue, although its natural mechanism is self-selection. In other words, when you search for a weed whacker you have self-selected. Google figures that if you search for weed whackers, you want to buy one '' bingo, here is an ad!
- Twitter, meanwhile, seems to be putting its efforts NOT into making money but rather moderating content. It wants to make sure that nobody at a cocktail party could think that the CEO might be a Republican. Heaven forbid!
- I'm someone (with a blue checkmark) who has been using Twitter since 2008 (@therealdvorak). It's obvious to me that the entire system slants in favor of liberal progressive politics and dissuades conservative voices.
- It kicks off people who don't follow certain government policies laid down by the CDC, for example. What does the CDC have to do with someone's opinion? This is a ruse '' and one among many '' to keep you in line with the liberal belief system.
- They will say that you, a customer of the service, cannot say that masks do not work because it is spreading misinformation '' according to the CDC. Your retort might be that you are citing the CDC itself from an earlier study. Too bad, you are kicked off.
- In other words, your ability to express any sort of new, differing, or contrary opinion about any number of topics is verboten. You are removed by edict with no due process (there it is again). It turns out that the policies are those of the Progressives within the Democratic Party. The rest of the users be damned.
- Due to the nature of certain credulous readers, I am obliged to say that the above tweet is satirical. That said '-- NAILS IT.Musk has to see this cavalier approach as throwing money away. Besides not maximizing advertising potential, the company alienates half of its potential customers.
- And you know that I am only seeing a small piece of the potential for Twitter as a gold mine that needs the right mining engineers. Who knows what scheme is afoot?
- That said, it makes you wonder what is wrong with the media and the panicked mavens who think this is the end of the world and of democracy. Get a grip. '-- JCD
- For more independent media listen to the No Agenda Podcast.
- China H3N8 Bird flu: World's first H3N8 Bird Flu in Human infection reported in China
- A four-year-old boy from central Henan province in China has been reported as the first human case of H3N8 bird flu infection by the Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) in its press release.
- Bird flu or avian flu is an infectious type of influenza that spreads among birds but in rare cases, also affects humans. The largest bird flu outbreak occurred in 2005, where a strain of avian influenza virus, H5N1, led to the death of 140 million birds, mostly culled to stop the infection from spreading. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, human infections of these viruses are closely tracked.
- Last year, the NHC confirmed the first human infection with the H10N3 bird flu, even though there was no subsequent human-human transmission of the virus later on.
- Case of H3N8 human infectionIn the recent case, the boy reported fever and other symptoms on the 5th of April and was admitted to a local medical institution after his condition worsened by the 10th of April. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention took specimens for testing on the 24th, after which they were found to be positive for H3N8.
- Following this, close contacts of the child were also tested for the virus but were found negative and asymptomatic. It is likely that the child contracted the disease from the chickens and ducks that were being raised near his house, the press release said.
- The health authorities also said that the preliminary assessment of the virus shows that it does not have the ability to infect humans. The virus has spread globally and has been found in poultry, seals, dogs, and also horses but this is the first reported case of human infection. Last year, the first human infection of the H5N8 variant of the virus was detected in Russia.
- What can we do? The human infection is likely to be a rare case of bird-to-human cross-species transmission and the risk of an outbreak is low. Nevertheless, the health authorities have advised the public to avoid contact with sick or dead poultry, follow practices of dietary hygiene and seek medical treatment if one develops fever and respiratory symptoms.
- Sustained monitoring of poultry and humans at the human-poultry interface can help us prevent a bird-flu outbreak, experts said in a paper published this week.
- COVID-19 vaccine can elicit a distinct T cell-dominant immune-mediated hepatitis
- In a recent study published in the Journal of Hepatology, researchers reported that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination could elicit a distinct T cell-dominant immune-mediated hepatitis.
- Vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is critical to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, several reports have surfaced indicating autoimmune hepatitis (AIH)-like conditions post-COVID-19 vaccination, not observed during clinical trials. Liver injury has been observed with both vector- and messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based vaccines with a varying period of vaccination-to-symptom onset.
- Study: SARS-CoV-2 vaccination can elicit a CD8 T-cell dominant hepatitis. Image Credit: NIAID
- The study and findingsIn the present study, researchers described the case of a male who presented with acute mixed hepatitis post-first BNT162b2 vaccine dose and severe hepatitis post-second dose.
- The patient, aged 52 years, had no medical history except hypothyroidism and developed nausea, pruritus, loss of appetite, and fatigue. The onset of symptoms was about 10 days after the first BNT162b2 dose. Subsequently, the patient developed jaundice, and a liver function test (LFT) indicated acute mixed hepatocellular/cholestatic hepatitis and was admitted to a primary care center after 25 days of first vaccination.
- Hepatitis A, B, C, or E virus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Epstein-Barr virus- infections were ruled out as the cause based on serological or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Forty-one days post-first dose, the patient took a second BNT162b2 vaccine, and 20 days after the second dose, the patient had fatigue and nausea. Laboratory testing confirmed the relapse of acute mixed hepatitis, and 26 days after the second vaccination, the case was referred to the tertiary care center.
- Autoimmune serological tests revealed mild hyperglobulinemia, antinuclear antibodies (ANA), and borderline positivity for anti-mitochondrial M2 antibody (AMA-M2) and anti-smooth muscle antibodies, while anti-liver kidney microsomal (LKM) antibody tests were negative. The liver biopsy revealed interface hepatitis with moderate lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate and lobular necrotic and apoptotic foci. These clinical findings were consistent with a probable AIH, and the treatment was 9 mg of budesonide/day. In the ensuing weeks, levels of liver enzymes dropped, and another relapse occurred after 39 days of therapy initiation, controlled by systemic steroids and ursodeoxycholic acid. LFTs normalized in eight weeks, and anti-spike (S) antibodies showed no significant fluctuations.
- Further, the team found infiltrates of T and B lymphocytes, macrophages, granulocytes, and plasma cells in the liver. A 5.3-fold increase in immune cells was observed relative to control (non-diseased) tissue. The cluster of differentiation 8 (CD8) T lymphocytes was the most abundant among immune cells, a condition unanticipated for AIH. Contrastingly, B and plasma cells were relatively lower, unlike typical AIH presentations, albeit more enriched than controls. Spatial analysis of liver parenchyma for different subsets of immune cells revealed more extensive immune infiltration in the periportal areas. While B and plasma cells were enriched predominantly in the periportal regions, a panlobular distribution was noted for CD8 T lymphocytes. Notably, cytotoxic CD8 T cells (characterized by granzyme B) were highly accumulated, while the levels of other granzyme B-expressing cells remained unchanged.
- Next, flow cytometry analyzed intrahepatic and peripheral populations of CD8 T cells in depth. The intrahepatic CD8 T cell pool showed enrichment of markers for activation (CD38) and tissue residency (CD103, CD69, and C-X-C Motif Chemokine Receptor 6 [CXCR6]). CD8 T cells in peripheral blood also expressed CD38. Intriguingly, CD38 expression was markedly higher in the patient (75.9%) than in control (15.4%) matched for post-vaccination time without hepatitis development. A 3.4-fold enrichment of SARS-CoV-2 S-specific CD8 T lymphocytes was noted in the intrahepatic CD8 T cell population compared to peripheral blood.
- Moreover, S-specific CD8 T lymphocytes were 10.2-fold more abundant in the peripheral blood than T lymphocytes specific for an Epstein-Barr virus-specific T cell control epitope. A stable frequency of S-specific CD8 T cells was noted in circulation, and the CD38 levels decreased with budesonide therapy. Nevertheless, CD38 expression on CD8 T cells specific for SARS-CoV-2 S protein and other cytotoxic markers were elevated when a relapse occurred during budesonide treatment but normalized after treatment with systemic immunosuppressants.
- ConclusionsThe researchers noted a slight increase in peripheral immunoglobulins and intrahepatic enrichment of plasma and B cells. Strikingly, cytotoxic CD8 T cells (CD38-expressing) were the most enriched to the extent that they were the most abundant immune cells in the liver.
- These observations implicated T cells as the pathogenic cell type associated with the vaccination-related immune hepatitis as the novel AIH subtype. These findings indicated that vaccination with BNT162b2 might cause immune-mediated hepatitis by vaccine-elicited cellular immunity mechanisms.
- SARS-CoV-2 vaccination can elicit a CD8 T-cell dominant hepatitis, Boettler T, Csernalabics B, Sali(C) H, Luxenburger H, Wischer L, Alizei ES, Zoldan K, Krimmel L, Bronsert P, Schwabenland M, Prinz M, Mogler C, Neumann-Haefelin C, Thimme R, Hofmann M, Bengsch B, Journal of Hepatology (2022), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2022.03.040, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168827822002343
- Le gouvernement va lancer une application d'identit(C) num(C)rique
- D(C)sormais, il sera possible de stocker dans une application son identit(C) num(C)rique. Un projet du gouvernement initialement lanc(C) en 2019, puis abandonn(C).
- Le SGIN rempla§ant d'AlicemLe minist¨re de l'Int(C)rieur vient de publier un d(C)cret autorisant la cr(C)ation d'un moyen d'identification (C)lectronique baptis(C) Service de garantie de l'identit(C) num(C)rique >> (SGIN). Le projet ? Cr(C)er une application mobile pour stocker son identit(C) num(C)rique.
- Le d(C)cret, publi(C) ce mercredi 27 avril vient remplacer le d(C)cret de 2019. En effet, l'ancien d(C)cret avait pour objectif la cr(C)ation d'Alicem, qui se basait sur la reconnaissance faciale. Fortement controvers(C), le projet a finalement (C)t(C) abandonn(C). D(C)sormais, exit la reconnaissance faciale, le dispositif fonctionnera grce la puce NFC pr(C)sente sur les smartphones. Il s'agit de la puce qui permet notamment le paiement mobile, ou l'acc¨s aux transports en commun.
- Par ce nouveau d(C)cret, sign(C) par Jean Castex et G(C)rald Darmanin, le gouvernement souhaite cr(C)er une application. D(C)crite comme la cr(C)ation d'un traitement de donn(C)es caract¨re personnel permettant aux titulaires d'une carte nationale d'identit(C) comportant un composant (C)lectronique d'utiliser un moyen d'identification (C)lectronique pour s'identifier et s'authentifier (C)lectroniquement aupr¨s d'organismes publics et priv(C)s. >>
- Pour g(C)n(C)rer des attestations (C)lectroniquesAutrement dit, l'usager qui le souhaite, pourra scanner sa carte d'identit(C) dans l'application. Cependant, il sera n(C)cessaire de poss(C)der une des nouvelles cartes d'identit(C) biom(C)triques. Puis, les informations pourront ªtre directement transmises d'autres services, qui demandent habituellement une copie de la carte d'identit(C).
- lire aussi Pourquoi M(C)lenchon demande-t-il aux Fran§ais de l'(C)lire Premier ministre ?
- Aussi sur Mediavenir Affaire Mckinsey : le gouvernement organise une conf(C)rence de presse
- En effet, d'apr¨s le d(C)cret, l'application en lien avec le SGIN, pourra stocker des donn(C)es, comme le nom, le pr(C)nom, la date de naissance, l'adresse, la photo, l'adresse mail ou encore l'adresse postale. Cela permet l'usager, notamment, de g(C)n(C)rer des attestations (C)lectroniques comportant les seuls attributs d'identit(C) dont il estime la transmission n(C)cessaire aux tiers de son choix >>.
- Pour le moment, on peut imaginer que cette application servira notamment prouver sa majorit(C). Un outil efficace pour lutter contre l'exposition des mineurs des contenus inappropri(C)s. De nombreuses applications requi¨rent une copie d'une pi¨ce d'identit(C) pour fonctionner. Par exemple l'application de la FDJ pour jouer en ligne. Ou encore Airbnb, la plateforme de location de logements entre particuliers.
- Pour le moment, le minist¨re de l'int(C)rieur n'a pas encore communiqu(C) autour de ce projet. Mais G(C)rald Darmanin devrait sans tarder apporter de plus amples pr(C)cisions sur les fonctionnalit(C)s de cette nouvelle application.
- Biden Cynically Uses Ukraine to Cover Food Sabotage | New Eastern Outlook
- Biden Cynically Uses Ukraine to Cover Food Sabotage P 26.04.2022 U F. William Engdahl
- It's beginning to look like some bad actors are deliberately taking steps to guarantee a coming global food crisis. Every measure that the Biden Administration strategists have been making to ''control energy inflation'' is damaging the supply or inflating the price of natural gas, oil and coal to the global economy. This is having a huge impact on fertilizer prices and food production. That began well before Ukraine. Now reports are circulating that Biden's people have intervened to block the freight rail shipping of fertilizer at the most critical time for spring planting. By this autumn the effects will be explosive.
- With the crucial time for USA spring planting at its critical phase, CF Industries of Deerfield, Illinois, the largest US supplier of nitrogen fertilizers as well as a vital diesel engine additive, issued a press release stating that, ''On Friday, April 8, 2022, Union Pacific informed CF Industries without advance notice that it was mandating certain shippers to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad effective immediately.'' Union Pacific is one of only four major rail companies that together carry some 80% of all US agriculture rail freight. The CF company CEO, Tony Will stated, ''The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers. Not only will fertilizer be delayed by these shipping restrictions, but additional fertilizer needed to complete spring applications may be unable to reach farmers at all. By placing this arbitrary restriction on just a handful of shippers, Union Pacific is jeopardizing farmers' harvests and increasing the cost of food for consumers.'' CF has made urgent appeals to the Biden Administration for remedy, so far with no positive action.
- CF Industries noted that they were one of only thirty companies subject to the severe measure, which is indefinite. They ship via Union Pacific rail lines primarily from its Donaldsonville Complex in Louisiana and its Port Neal Complex in Iowa, to serve key farm states including Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas and California. The ban will affect nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), as well as diesel exhaust fluid, DEF (called AdBlue in Europe). DEF is an emissions control product required for diesel trucks today. Without it engines cannot run. It is made from urea. CF Industries is the largest producer of urea, UAN and DEF in North America, and its Donaldsonville Complex is the largest single production facility for the products in North America.
- At the same time, the Biden gang has announced a fake remedy for record high gasoline pump prices. Washington announced the EPA will allow a 50% increase in corn-based biodiesel and ethanol fuel mix for the summer. On April 12 the Secretary of Agriculture announced a ''bold'' initiative by the US Administration to increase the use of domestically-grown corn-ethanol biofuels. Secretary Tom Vilsack claimed the measure would '' reduce energy prices and tackle rising consumer prices caused by Putin's Price Hike (sic) by tapping into a strong and bright future for the biofuel industry, in cars and trucks and the rail, marine, and aviation sectors and supporting use of E15 fuel this summer.''
- Only the capitalized ''Putin Price Hike'' is not a result of Russian actions, but of Washington Green Energy decisions to phase out oil and gas. The energy price inflation is also about to go vastly higher in coming months owing to US and EU economic sanctions on export of Russian oil and likely gas. However the central point is that every acre of US farmland dedicated to growing corn for biofuels removes that food production from the food chain, to burn it as fuel. Since passage of the 2007 US Renewable Fuel Standards Act, which mandated annually rising targets for production of corn for ethanol fuel blends, biofuels have captured a huge part of total corn acreage, more than 40% in 2015. That shift, mandated by law, to burning corn as fuel had added a major price inflation for food well before the covid inflation crisis began. The USA is by far world's largest corn producer and exporter. Now to mandate a significant increase in corn ethanol for fuel at a time of astronomical fertilizer prices, and fertilizer rail shipping are being blocked reportedly by White House orders, will send corn prices through the roof. Washington knows this very well. It is deliberate.
- No wonder the price of US corn reached a 10-year high in mid-April, as exports from Russia and Ukraine, major sources, are now blocked by sanction and war. Aside from the energy-inefficient use of US corn for biodiesel supply, the latest Biden ethanol initiative will add to the growing food crisis while doing nothing to lower US gasoline prices. A major use for US feed corn is as animal feed for cattle, pigs and poultry as well as for human diets. This cynical biofuel order is not about US ''energy independence.'' Biden ended that in his first days in office by a series of bans on oil and gas drilling and pipelines as part of his Zero Carbon agenda.
- In what is clearly becoming a US Administration war on food, the situation is being dramatically aggravated by USDA demands for chicken farmers to kill off millions of chickens in now 27 states, allegedly for signs of Bird Flu infection. The H5N1 Bird Flu ''virus'' was exposed in 2015 as a complete hoax. The tests used by the US government inspectors to determine bird flu now are the same unreliable PCR tests used for COVID in humans. The test is worthless for that. US Government officials estimate that since first cases were ''tested'' positive in February, at least 23 million chickens and turkeys have been culled to allegedly contain the spread of a disease whose cause could be the incredibly unsanitary cage confinement of mass industrial chicken CAFOs. The upshot is sharp rises in prices of egg by some 300% since November and severe loss of chicken protein sources for American consumers at a time when overall cost of living inflation is at a 40-year high.
- To make matters worse, California and Oregon are again declaring water emergency amid a multi-year drought and are sharply reducing irrigation water to farmers in California, who produce the major share of US fresh vegetables and fruits. That drought has since spread to cover most agriculture land west of the Mississippi River, meaning much of US farmland.
- US food security is under threat as never before since the 1930s Dust Bowl, and the Biden Administration ''Green Agenda'' is doing everything to make the impact worse for its citizens.
- In recent comments US President Biden remarked without elaborating that the US food shortages are ''going to be real.'' His administration also is deaf to pleas of farmer organizations to allow cultivation of some 4 million acres of farmland ordered left out of cultivation for ''environmental reasons. However this is not the only part of the world where crisis in food is developing.
- These deliberate Washington actions are taking place at a time a global series of food disasters create the worst food supply situation in decades, perhaps since the World War II end.
- In the EU, which is significantly dependent on Russia, Belarus and Ukraine for feed grains, fertilizers and energy, sanctions are making the covid-induced food shortages dramatically worse. The EU uses its foolish Green Agenda as an excuse to forbid the Italian government from ignoring EU rules limiting state aid to farmers. In Germany, the new Green Party Agriculture Minister Cem zdemir, who wants to phase out traditional agriculture allegedly for its ''greenhouse gas'' emissions, has given farmers who want to grow more food a cold response. The EU faces many of the same disastrous threats to food security as the USA and even more dependence on Russian energy which is about to be suicidally sanctioned by the EU.
- The major food producing countries in South America, especially Argentina and Paraguay, are in the midst of a severe drought attributed to a periodic La Ni±a Pacific anomaly that has crippled crops there. Sanctions on Belarus and Russia fertilizers are threatening Brazil crops, aggravated with bottlenecks in ocean transport.
- China just announced that owing to severe rains in 2021, this year's winter wheat crop could be the worst in its history. The CCP also has instituted severe measures to get farmers to expand cultivation to non-farm lands with little reported effect. According to a report by China watcher Erik Mertz, ''In China's Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Liaoning provinces, officials have reported one in three farmers lack sufficient seed and fertilizer supplies to begin planting for the optimum spring window'... According to sources within these areas, they are stuck waiting on seed and fertilizer which have been imported to China from overseas '' and which are stuck in the cargo ships sitting off the coast of Shanghai. '' Shanghai, the world's largest container port, has been under a bizarre ''Zero Covid'' total quarantine for more than four weeks with no end in sight. In a desperate bid by the CCP ''ordering'' increased food production, local CP officials throughout China have begun transforming basketball courts and even roads into cropland. The food situation in China is forcing the country to import far more at a time of global shortages, driving world grain and food prices even higher.
- Africa is also severely impacted by the US-imposed sanctions and war ending food and fertilizer exports from Russia and Ukraine. Thirty five African countries get food from Russia and Ukraine. Twenty two African countries import fertilizer from there. Alternatives are seriously lacking as prices soar and supply collapses. Famine is predicted.
- David M. Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Program, declared recently on the global food outlook, ''There is no precedent even close to this since World War II.''
- Notably, it was the Biden Treasury Department that drew up a list of the most comprehensive economic sanctions against Russia and Belarus, pressuring a compliant EU to dutifully follow, sanctions whose impact on global grain and fertilizer and energy supply and prices was entirely predictable. It was in effect a sanction on the US and global economy.
- These are but the latest examples of deliberate US Government sabotage of the food chain as part of the Biden Green Agenda, of Davos WEF, Bill Gates and the Rockefeller Foundation, as part of their dystopian Great Reset eugenics agenda. Traditional agriculture is to be replaced by a synthetic lab grown diet of fake meats and protein from grasshoppers and worms, worldwide. All for the supposed glory of controlling global climate. This is truly mad.
- F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine ''New Eastern Outlook''.
- Russia Halt Gas Supplies to Poland, Onet.pl Reports - Bloomberg
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- VIDEO - Boeing lost billion dollars on Trump Air Force One plane deal
- Boeing disclosed Wednesday that it has lost a whopping $1.1 billion in costs related to its deal with the Trump administration to modify two 747 jumbo jets to serve as Air Force One '-- and CEO Dave Calhoun admitted the aviation giant "probably" should not have cut the deal in the first place.
- Even more losses on the Air Force One contract could be coming in future quarters, Boeing warned in a regulatory filing.
- Air Force One is the official designation for any plane carrying the president of the United States.
- "Air Force One I'm just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn't have taken," Calhoun said on a call with analysts.
- "But we are where we are, and we're going to deliver great airplanes," Calhoun said, shortly after Boeing reported a loss for the first quarter of 2022.
- "And we're going to recognize the costs associated with it."
- Boeing on Wednesday disclosed a net loss of $1.2 billion for the first quarter, with a charge of $660 million associated with delays and higher costs for the Air Force One program.
- U.S. President Donald Trump arrives from a day trip to Georgia aboard Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S. July 15, 2020.
- The company said the first-quarter charge on the Air Force One program brings the total loss tied to it to more than $1.1 billion.
- "Risk remains that we may be required to record additional losses in future periods," Boeing said in a securities filing.
- Boeing's deal for the Air Force One jets was cut by then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg and then-President Donald Trump in February 2018.
- It requires Boeing, not the federal government, to eat any overruns in the cost of modifying the two Boeing 747 jets.
- Under that fixed-price contract, Boeing is being paid about $4 billion for the work. The first of the two planes was set to be delivered in 2024, but an Air Force budget proposal from earlier this month doesn't expect that until 2026.
- Trump in 2018 bragged that "Boeing gave us a good deal. And we were able to take that."
- Four years ago, Boeing spoke favorably about the move.
- "Boeing is proud to build the next generation of Air Force One, providing American Presidents with a flying White House at outstanding value to taxpayers," it tweeted in February 2018. "President Trump negotiated a good deal on behalf of the American people."
- Trump also told CBS News that the planes would get rid of Air Force One's traditional baby blue color scheme in favor of "red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate."
- "Air Force One is going to be incredible," Trump said at the time. "It's going to be top of the line, the top of the world."
- A month after being elected president in November 2016, Trump had griped on Twitter about the "out of control" costs of Boeing's then deal to build a new Air Force One.
- "Cancel order!" Trump tweeted at the time.
- He later boasted that his negotiations with Muilenburg saved $1.5 billion for taxpayers.
- Boeing fired Muilenburg as CEO in December 2019 for how he handled two crashes of the company's 737 Max jets that killed 346 people.
- He was denied a severance package, but received $60 million in pension benefits and company stock, Boeing said a month after he was ousted.
- VIDEO - (19) Peter McCullough, MD MPH on Twitter: "With 75% of American children C-recovered, probably this exposure at baseline with an adeno-, roto-, entero- or other virus that is triggering these cases of hepatitis. It appears serious with jaundice, h
- Peter McCullough, MD MPH : With 75% of American children C-recovered, probably this exposure at baseline with an adeno-, roto-, entero- or oth'... https://t.co/5sKf1GO3U6
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- VIDEO - (19) Suzanne Seddon on Twitter: "They have started rolling out the bugs in Australia & how beneficial they are. I won't be eating any bugs NEVER'...Will you?ð¤ð¤® https://t.co/eN6yT3lpH5" / Twitter
- Suzanne Seddon : They have started rolling out the bugs in Australia & how beneficial they are. I won't be eating any bugs NEVER'...Wil'... https://t.co/TgqQbMqeRA
- Wed Apr 27 22:27:25 +0000 2022
- Alexander : @suzseddon Nope ð¤ð¤®
- Thu Apr 28 14:30:17 +0000 2022
- BeefyJackMcBeef : @suzseddon I had fried locusts when in Lebanon, was a bit like eating Twiglets in consistency.
- Thu Apr 28 14:00:49 +0000 2022
- VIDEO - (20) Bel on Twitter: "https://t.co/oQuPKT8NDZ" / Twitter
- Bel : https://t.co/oQuPKT8NDZ
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- VIDEO - (23) Jerry Dunleavy on Twitter: "Twitter manipulating the reach of stories for political reasons during an election? Nah, that could never happen. https://t.co/fkls7RzDf3" / Twitter
- Jerry Dunleavy : Twitter manipulating the reach of stories for political reasons during an election? Nah, that could never happen.https://t.co/fkls7RzDf3
- Tue Apr 26 03:07:50 +0000 2022
- VIDEO - (15) Washington Free Beacon on Twitter: "Here's a compilation of liberals losing it over @elonmusk's Twitter buyout: Via @thaleigha_ https://t.co/2XfmVU7qY5" / Twitter
- Washington Free Beacon : Here's a compilation of liberals losing it over @elonmusk's Twitter buyout: Via @thaleigha_ https://t.co/2XfmVU7qY5
- Tue Apr 26 23:45:00 +0000 2022
- VIDEO - (1271) Jack Dorsey Asks Elon Musk How to Fix Twitter - YouTube
- VIDEO - Twitter HYSTERIA: MSNBC Host Displays Zero Self Awareness
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- For more exclusive interviews, insight, and analysis like this, SUBSCRIBE to The Charlie Kirk Show TODAY: https://apple.co/2VCxGshAnd for EVEN MORE'--tune in to The Charlie Kirk Show LIVE on Salem Radio Network affiliates across the country, 5 days a week from 12'--3PM ETTo listen live, turn on post notifications on YouTube, check your local affiliates, or head to https://charliekirk.comðºð¸
- VIDEO - (9) British GLAMOUR on Twitter: "ð(C)¸ð(C)¸ð(C)¸ð(C)¸ https://t.co/fT4aRKOLqB" / Twitter
- British GLAMOUR : ð(C)¸ð(C)¸ð(C)¸ð(C)¸ https://t.co/fT4aRKOLqB
- Tue Apr 26 15:00:33 +0000 2022
- Razor's Edge : @GlamourMagUK ð¤£ððSaying this so candidly
- Thu Apr 28 12:21:18 +0000 2022
- Hajiman : @GlamourMagUK Black metal became mainstream, who would've thought
- Thu Apr 28 12:16:46 +0000 2022
- Roy : @GlamourMagUK Whatever happened to a good ole fashioned blow job?
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- ð(C)ð¥ð(C)ð(C)ð(C)ð(C) : @GlamourMagUK @thisvideo_bot
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- Raz : @GlamourMagUK So Machine Gun Kelly is a lunatic? Color me socked ððð
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- saly mc duff : @GlamourMagUK SHAME ON YOU GLAMOUR
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- Saturnin3 : @GlamourMagUK God this is so boring. Imagine being the target audience for this? Your life must be AWFUL to pay attention to this.
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- VIDEO - (8) Greg Price on Twitter: ".@PhilipWegmann: "Isn't half of the equation" with student debt universities jacking up tuition prices every year? Psaki: "I don't know." https://t.co/sCT0Rn7Tns" / Twitter
- Greg Price : .@PhilipWegmann: "Isn't half of the equation" with student debt universities jacking up tuition prices every year?'... https://t.co/hGqphQSmiJ
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- VIDEO - BREAKING: Biden administration creates 'Disinformation Governance Board' under DHS to fight 'misinformation' | The Post Millennial
- The Department of Homeland Security is setting up a new board designed to counter misinformation related to homeland security, with a focus specifically on Russia and irregular migration. The board will be called the "Disinformation Governance Board, and will be headed by executive director Nina Jankowicz.
- . @elonmusk https://t.co/kFfUwHMzhV
- '-- Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) April 27, 2022Speaking with the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee on Wednesday afternoon, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "Our Undersecretary for Policy, Rob Silvers is co-chair with our Principal Deputy General Counsel, Jennifer Gaskell, in leading a just recently constituted misinformation disinformation governance board. So we're bringing '-- the goal is to bring the resources of the department together to address this threat."
- Jankowicz was previously a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, and had advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry as part of the Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship, according to Politico.
- President Biden has decided the federal government will launch a Disinformation Governance Board under the authority of the Homeland Security DepartmentDid you just think they would let you have free speech back?
- '-- Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) April 27, 2022Jankowicz also oversaw Russia and Belarus programs at the National Democratic Institute. She announced the new Board via Twitter on Wednesday.
- Cat's out of the bag: here's what I've been up to the past two months, and why I've been a bit quiet on here.Honored to be serving in the Biden Administration @DHSgov and helping shape our counter-disinformation efforts. https://t.co/uN20vl7qqV pic.twitter.com/JEn4FqLdck
- '-- Nina Jankowicz ???? (@wiczipedia) April 27, 2022Jankowicz has previously said that she was concerned that Twitter had determined early in 2022 to stop limiting speech from users about the 2020 presidential election, saying that "considering the long-term damage these lies do to our democracy," she was "dismayed about this decision."
- Her view about elections, whether foreign or domestic, are that they "aren't an end point," but are "an inflection point," and that the policies of social media companies as regards free speech "need to reflect that."
- Jack Posobiec, of Human Events Daily, brought receipts.
- This is the new head of Biden's Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board pic.twitter.com/BqGhIaBdKR
- '-- Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) April 27, 2022Jankowicz was an advisor to the government of Ukraine. She also stated her opinion that Hunter Biden's laptop, the contents of which were reported by the New York Post, was Russian disinformation. This was entirely false. Jankowicz will be leading the charge against misinformation, of which she believed the laptop actually was an example.
- Jankowicz is a former advisor to the Ukrainian government, under a Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship pic.twitter.com/rgBWklyERb
- '-- Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) April 27, 2022Jankowicz also does not appear to be a fan of free speech, saying that setting up free speech in opposition to censorship is "a false dichotomy."
- DHS head of the Disinformation Governance Board pic.twitter.com/XrWhYaIPF3
- '-- Jack Posobiec ?? (@JackPosobiec) April 27, 2022This is a breaking story and will be updated.
