No Agenda Episode 1662 - "Rousting Granny"

  No Agenda Episode 1662 - "Rousting Granny"
    "Rousting Granny"
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  Credits
    "Rousting Granny"
    Executive Producers:
      Dusty
      Barry Graul
      Baron Thadius
      Sir Rob, Knight of the Highlander Shooting Irons
      Anonymous
      Anonymous
      Laura Cram
      Dr Sir Otter Barronette of the flat water
    Associate Executive Producers:
      Dame Amanda of the Badger State
      The Highland Craigs
      MR AARON HEATH
      Eli The Coffee Guy
      Carter Smith
      Linda Lupatkin, Duchess of Jobs & Writer of Resumes
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    Knights & Dames
      Amanda Szalewski > Dame Amanda of the Badger State
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      Rob Simpson > Sir Rob, Knight of the Highlander Shooting Irons
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  Cover Art
    Art By: Tante Neel - tante_neel@getalby.com
  Shownotes
    Climate Change
      Nederlandse start-up mikt met nieuwe batterij op doorbraak in langdurige energieopslag
      How iron-air batteries could fill gaps in renewable energy | NOVA | PBS
      Climate Change in Jersey Schools BOTG
        ITM Sir,
        I trust this finds you well. I was just catching up with the latest episode, 1662, and the topic of Jersey schools came up. So I thought as someone with two children in the system, I could reflect some observations following your report.
        This nonsense has been going on for over a decade here. When my oldest daughter was in grade school, she is now a sophomore in collage, they started with the propaganda. Before the school year started, they would gather all of the parents and go over the topics that they’ll be covering.
        When the science portion came up, the teacher ran down the list and at the very end was climate change and what it meant to us. Now by this time, you had been covering the topic extensively, so I had some ammunition. And would relay the information to my daughter when they started up on the climate change portion.
        Over the ensuing years, my daughter would come home and report the nonsense they would be pushing in class. Examples like screening ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ while the teacher would sit in back getting choked up.
        When my daughter was in the sixth grade, she came home to let me know that she had upset the science teacher, who was on her soapbox about how we’re killing polar bears and then forced the class to watch a YouTube video entitled something like lone polar bear in the tundra starving to death because of climate change.
        The video showed an emaciated bear walking back and forth in the snow while the teacher explained that the video was shot deep in the arctic wilderness and was indicative of what all of the bears looked like.
        By the end of the video, my daughter raised her hand and asked if the video was shot in the tundra, then why was there a wall and two garbage cans at the edge of the frame. The question session was shut down.
        Soon after, I received a call from the teacher who didn’t appreciate being contradicted in the middle of class. I simply asked if it was wrong of my daughter to ask an obvious question when an unverified video was being used as evidence. I was abruptly bid a good evening and hung up on.
        And this trend has continued with my youngest, who is now ending fifth grade. Though, to date, they really haven’t mentioned climate change in the last few years. I have been told that, even though the state does mandate the curriculum, schools do have some leeway as to what they present.
        Sorry for the shaggy dog story. However, I would just like to reflect my thanks for the information and research y’all provide. Especially during COVID, as you helped to keep everyone in this house as calm as possible.
        Chris
      Dillo Dirt AustinTexas.gov
        On show 1662 y’all talked about using biosolids as fertilizer. Austin was one of the first cities to use this process. There is a faculty at Hornsby Bend where they turn Austin wastewater and biosolids into compost that you can use for your garden. I toured this facility while studying at UT 15 years ago. The end product is called Dillo Dirt. You can find out more about it here [https://www.austintexas.gov/department/dillo-dirt](https://www.austintexas.gov/department/dillo-dirt)
      Farmers v Biden: The Breaking Farm Credit Fiasco That Nobody is Prepared For | Beef News
      Gates-backed startup raises $26 million for climate vaccines | Frontline News
        A vaccine being developed by the company is designed to prevent animals from releasing methane emissions. Once vaccinated with the AkreaBio shot, an animal’s immune system is supposed to create antibodies that will target methane-producing microbes.
        The Boston-based startup secured its first major investment in late 2022 from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investment fund founded by billionaire Bill Gates.
        “Our vaccination-based approach allows for much-needed decarbonization of global meat and dairy products across multiple geographies, supporting greater sustainability in agriculture,” the company explains on its website.
        Link
      Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) | SKYbrary Aviation Safety
      John Daniel Davidson, senior editor at The Federalist and author of Pagan America The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come
      Scientists Confirm Microplastics Now Detected in Human Testicles : ScienceAlert
    Flags
      The History of the Pine Tree Flags of the American RevolutionGettysburg Flag Works Blog
    China
      Lai Ching-te - Wikipedia
    Big Tech AI and the Socials
      Erik Prince wants to sell you a "secure" smartphone that's too good to be true | MIT Technology Review
      Australian Digital ID BOTG
        I’ve been listening for over ten years and donate anonymously as I occasionally work for the Federal Government. I’d prefer to stay anonymous.
        I am “a person familiar with the matter” regarding Digital ID in Australia and I think you are misinterpreting the recently passed act.
        It doesn’t actually establish a single Digital ID for Australia. What it really does is establish a framework for a variety of different IDs to be established aligning with a common standard. The standards ensures a base level of security to protect consumers. If the government wanted to establish an Estonian style ID they could have done that without any legislation.
        The more important thing the act does is allow for better identity proofing. Currently, whenever I sign up to a service of any value I need to give a whole bunch of personal info such as passport info or a photo of my drivers license. This creates hundreds of hackable Ho EY pits.
        The act allows for an exchange of identity proof, without the need for actually sharing the underlying credentials, to open accounts. It paves the way for verifiable credentials. This process is established with strong, personal, consent provisions.
        I really think you’re doing the regime a disservice. As a long time denizen of gitmo down under I (among others) have worked hard to explicitly prevent the dystopia you’re assuming is being put in place.
        Love the show, I’ve really appreciated hearing your faith journey and hoping that you don’t find an exit strategy.
    Transmaoism
      Neuralink gets FDA approval for second brain implant patient: WSJ
      Ex Facebook, Nike DEI Manager Got 5 Years in Prison for Stealing $5M
      John Daniel Davidson, senior editor at The Federalist and author of Pagan America The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come
    Season of Reveal
      What the F.A.A. Bill Means for Travelers - The New York Times
        Biometrics at airport security: Despite efforts in the Senate to pause the Transportation Security Administration’s facial recognition program, the amendment didn’t make it into the final bill. The T.S.A. plans to expand the use of facial recognition technology at hundreds of airports throughout the United States.
        Air traffic control: Amid an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers there has been an increase in near collisions and other safety incidents. The bill includes measures such as setting goals to maximize the hiring of new controllers and increasing access to advanced air traffic control tower simulation training.
        Link
      Walmart (WMT) Earnings Rise as Wealthier Customers Shop at Retailer - Bloomberg
      World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab Is Stepping Down, Semafor Reports - BNN Bloomberg
    Israel vs Hamas
      Amal Clooney Supports ICC Arrest Warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu
      Hamas fighters and tunnels BOTG
        A dilemma not talked about is Hamas fighters reappear in force in in previously secured Gaza areas. Tunnel system is extensive and they can hide. IDF forces are beginning to believe they cannot eradicate, but need a political solution to bring PLA in to kick out Hamas and run the place. Longer this goes on, harder to get Hamas to accept PLA, and it wasn't going to be easy to begin with.
      ICC’s Warrant Request Appears to Shore Up Netanyahu’s Support in Israel - The New York Times
      Review of U.S. State Department Grants to OneVoice
        EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On December 2, 2014, at the urging of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Knesset voted to schedule new national parliamentary elections for March 2015. Within weeks, an international organization known as the OneVoice Movement absorbed and funded an Israeli group named Victory15 or “V15” and launched a multimillion-dollar grassroots campaign in Israel. The campaign’s goal was to elect “anybody but Bibi [Netanyahu]” by mobilizing center-left voters.1 The Israeli and Palestinian arms of OneVoice, OneVoice Israel (OVI), and OneVoice Palestine (OVP), received more than $300,000 in grants from the U.S. State Department to support peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine over a 14- month grant period ending in November 2014.2 In February 2015, the Subcommittee initiated an inquiry concerning the connection, if any, between OneVoice’s State Department grant funds and V15’s political activity. This report outlines the findings from that investigation.
        The Subcommittee concludes: • OneVoice Israel fully complied with the terms of its State Department grants. OneVoice designed and executed a grassroots and media campaign to promote public support for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations for the Department, as it said it would. Under the grant, OneVoice expanded its social media presence, built a larger voter database, and hired an American political consulting firm to train its activists and executives in grassroots organizing methods in support of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. • The Subcommittee found no evidence that OneVoice spent grant funds to influence the 2015 Israeli elections. Soon after the grant period ended, however, OneVoice used the campaign infrastructure and resources built, in part, with State Department grants funds to support V15. In service of V15, OneVoice deployed its social media platform, which more than doubled during the State Department grant period; used its database of voter contact information, including email addresses, which OVI expanded during the
        OneVoice Report.pdf
    Trump
      BREAKING: Newly Unsealed Doc Reveals Biden FBI Authorized the Use of DEADLY FORCE During Mar-a-Lago Raid - Armed Agents Prepared to Confront Trump | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila
    Housekeepers
      Butker and TLM BOTG
        Hello Adam
        Greetings, this is SirOhioBloke offering a first-hand perspective on the subject of Trad wives and your presentation on Harrison Butker, put forth in 1662. The relationship between the bishops and the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) is significant.
        In a nutshell: The bishops' connection to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) holds substantial importance. The rise of TLM poses a potential challenge to the NWO plans of Pope Francis's Vatican. Kansas has become a hub for Catholics who have a deep affection for Traditional Latin Mass, also known as Trads, and it's witnessing an influx of young couples who are settling down there as homesteaders. (You might want to look up the Catholic Land Movement). Butker is merely echoing the sentiments of the majority of students who have chosen Benedictine College, especially those who opted for it during the COVID plandemic.
        Delving Deeper with Annotations:
        Your observation regarding the deliberate ambiguity surrounding the "rest of the message" in Butker's speech resonates with me. I, too, had the opportunity to listen to the entire speech after it was shared in a Trad group on Facebook that I am a part of. For the past 14 months or so, we have been part of a TLM parish in Ft Wayne, Indiana.
        My daughter and her husband took the initiative to attend the TLM during Covid as it was among the rare places that remained open in the run-up to Easter 2020. Butker's comments about the denial of the sacraments refer to this period. The TLM parishes were the only ones to defy the Bishops' advisories to close their parishes. It's worth noting that the FBI had the TLM under surveillance in 2022 - 23, spying on the Trads (as discussed in Show 1592).
        TLM parishes are predominantly situated in the poorest neighborhoods. I have attended Latin Masses in Ft Wayne, South Bend, Toledo, and Columbus, and they are all centered in disadvantaged areas. This is a strategic move as the bishops have been directed by the Vatican (NWO) to suppress the TLM to the maximum extent possible. In Toledo there is an armed guard in the parking lot for the duration of the Mass.
        Contrarily, the parish I referred to in Ft Wayne has seen a growth of 30% in the past two years. There are many families that travel up to 2 hours each way to attend.
        Not every bishop supports the suppression, but they all seek to avoid falling out with the Vatican, thus they confine the TLM to one or two parishes in a diocese and locate them in underprivileged neighborhoods.
        Butker accurately points out the bishops' behavior concerning the Annual Catholic Appeal - they are silent until they need your financial support. They lacked the backbone to lead during COVID and as a result many Catholics are leaving the Novus Ordo parishes and are joining TLM parishes.
        Lastly, I want to highlight the bond between Kansas and the TLM. Numerous young couples are relocating to Kansas to adopt a homesteading lifestyle. They share a love for the TLM and aspire to revert to a simpler, more traditional lifestyle of homesteading and farming. This lifestyle has been adopted by my daughter and her husband locally, who currently milk two cows and sell raw milk via herd shares. My daughter would consider herself a trad wife! We have raw milk every day and it is delicious! (as mentioned in the show) It's crazy how many things you discuss in NA relate to my family!
        It was a pleasure to meet you in Indy this past January, and I hope you find this information helpful.
    Bird Flu
      Dairy Cattle Bird Flu Canada BOTG
        Hey Adam
        As a Canadian dairy farmer I was listening with interest to your last episode talking about bird flu, and culling cattle herds. This would be a big deal because there is apparently already a shortage of cattle. A week old angus/dairy cross calf that we used to be lucky to get 250$ for 4 years ago are now bringing $1400! The male dairy calves that were worth 50$ in the not so distant past are bringing upwards of a thousand dollars. Prices have crept up for the last 3 years and we keep thinking they gotta crash soon cause beef can’t be affordable, cause what are the fats worth if the newborn calf is worth 1000$+!
        It really does sound a lot like the end of beef for the proles, when combined with your info about the Texas fires.
        Thanks for the show.
        Josef
    Big Pharma
      Fish oil supplements may cause harm, study finds. ‘Is it time to dump them?’ expert asks | CNN
    Trump Biden Bobby
      Odds at BetOnline Sportsbook of Drug Biden tests positive for
      RFK Jr. Changes Abortion Stance After Pushback | The Epoch Times
      The Apprentice: the rise of Donald Trump - Festival de Cannes
    USD CBDC BTC
      US House approves FIT21 crypto bill with bipartisan support
      Text - H.R.4763 - 118th Congress (2023-2024): Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
    STORIES
      What the F.A.A. Bill Means for Travelers - The New York Times
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Thu, 23 May 2024 16:07
        Travel | What the F.A.A. Bill Means for Travelers https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/travel/what-the-faa-bill-means-for-travelers.html U.S. World Business Arts Lifestyle Opinion Audio Games Cooking Wirecutter The Athletic The legislation, which funds federal aviation programs for the next five years, cements new passenger protections, adds new routes and lets the T.S.A. continue to expand facial recognition programs. Here's what you need to know.
        Adding more flights in and out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was a topic of intense debate during the bill's negotiation. Credit... Patrick Semansky/Associated Press Published May 14, 2024 Updated May 15, 2024
        Automatic refunds for significant flight disruptions, fee-free family seating and accessibility improvements.
        Those are among the benefits for travelers in the bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for five more years, which Congress passed on Wednesday. After months of back and forth, and several short-term extensions, it will now head to President Biden's desk to be signed into law.
        The F.A.A. oversees all plane traffic in the United States, and the bill, which Mr. Biden has signaled he will sign, grants $105 billion to the agency and $738 million to the National Transportation Safety Board. In addition to strengthening passenger protections, it will pay for airport infrastructure, salaries and safety programs, and take aim at the air traffic controller shortage.
        Geoff Freeman, the president and chief executive of the U.S. Travel Association, called the renewal ''a big step toward vastly improving the travel experience.''
        ''Measures in the bill will address delays and cancellations and other travel hassles by modernizing airport technology, boosting the air traffic control work force and investing in additional improvements to our nation's airports and air travel system,'' he added.
        Here are some of the bill's highlights for travelers.
        Automatic refunds: The bill codifies the Department of Transportation's rule on automatic refunds for passengers when a flight is significantly delayed or canceled (beyond three hours for a domestic flight and six hours for an international flight). Customers will not need to request these refunds. And airline credits must be valid for five years.
        Biometrics at airport security: Despite efforts in the Senate to pause the Transportation Security Administration's facial recognition program, the amendment didn't make it into the final bill. The T.S.A. plans to expand the use of facial recognition technology at hundreds of airports throughout the United States.
        More round-trip flights from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport: There will be an additional five long-haul round-trip flights a day at Reagan National Airport, a topic of intense debate during the bill's negotiation. Opponents said the already busy airport could not support additional flights.
        Fee-free family seating: Airlines cannot charge families with young children extra fees so that they can sit together. The bill also says the Transportation Department must create a dashboard comparing minimum seat sizes on U.S. carriers.
        Penalties for airline violations: The Transportation Department's civil penalty for consumer violations will triple to $75,000, from $25,000, per violation.
        Accessibility for travelers with disabilities: The bill requires airline personnel to be trained in handling motorized wheelchairs, allows travelers to request seating to better accommodate their disabilities and will establish a new F.A.A. program dedicated to accessibility upgrades at commercial airports.
        Air traffic control: Amid an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers there has been an increase in near collisions and other safety incidents. The bill includes measures such as setting goals to maximize the hiring of new controllers and increasing access to advanced air traffic control tower simulation training.
        Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024.
      Neuralink gets FDA approval for second brain implant patient: WSJ
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Thu, 23 May 2024 15:59
        Elon Musk's brain implant company has gained approval to begin human trials on a second clinical patient, after the first patient has shared some words on his experience following over 100 days with the implant.
        The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given Neuralink approval to implant a chip in a second patient as part of its early clinical trials, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Monday morning. Neuralink expects to implant the device in an additional patient in June, and in as many as 10 people by the end of the year, according to the company.
        The Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) is essentially a chip that's installed in the brain, initially with the intent of restoring autonomy to quadriplegic people. The technology is currently limited to patients taking part in the initial clinical trial, dubbed the PRIME Study by Neuralink, though the company says over 100 quadriplegic people have signed up to be a part of its patient registry.
        Elon Musk announces Neuralink's next product Blindsight
        According to Neuralink, the study ''aims to evaluate the safety of our implant and surgical robot, and assess the initial functionality of our BCI for enabling people with quadriplegia to control external devices with their thoughts. We do not guarantee any benefit by participating in the PRIME Study.''
        On Monday, 30-year-old Noland Arbaugh, Neuralink's first patient who received the device in January, also spoke out about his experience thus far, being the first to get the implant. Among other points, he noted that the brain implant could potentially enable a way for him to provide for himself and his family long-term.
        In one of many recent interviews, Arbaugh also described how he became quadriplegic, and he describes exactly what the brain implant is: a chip the size of a quarter with 64 threads, each with 32 electrodes, which are picking up signals from nearby neurons and sending those signals via Bluetooth to the computer. In the past, Arbaugh has said that he would use a stylus and tablet to interact with digital devices, though the setup required him to use his mouth for the stylus instead of simply using his thoughts.
        Neuralink gained approval to install its first implant in a human last May, and the company began recruiting for the PRIME clinical trial in September. Those who are interested in being a part of this and other trials can apply to join the company's patient registry on its website.
        Hear Arbaugh talk about this and more in an interview shared by the YouTube channel Project Unity on Saturday.
        What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
        Neuralink gets FDA approval for second brain implant patient: WSJ
      Erik Prince wants to sell you a "secure" smartphone that's too good to be true | MIT Technology Review
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Thu, 23 May 2024 15:29
        Erik Prince's pitch to investors was simple'--but certainly ambitious: pay just '‚¬5 million and cure the biggest cybersecurity and privacy plagues of our day.
        The American billionaire'--best known for founding the notorious private military firm Blackwater, which became globally infamous for killing Iraqi civilians and threatening US government investigators'--was pushing Unplugged, a smartphone startup promising ''free speech, privacy, and security'' untethered from dominant tech giants like Apple and Google.
        In June, Prince publicly revealed the new phone, priced at $850. But before that, beginning in 2021, he was privately hawking the device to investors'--using a previously unreported pitch deck that has been obtained by MIT Technology Review. It boldly claims that the phone and its operating system are ''impenetrable'' to surveillance, interception, and tampering, and its messenger service is marketed as ''impossible to intercept or decrypt.''
        Boasting falsely that Unplugged has built ''the first operating system free of big tech monetization and analytics,'' Prince bragged that the device is protected by ''government-grade encryption.'' Better yet, the pitch added, Unplugged is to be hosted on a global array of server farms so that it ''can never be taken offline.'' One option is said to be a server farm ''on a vessel'' located in an ''undisclosed location on international waters, connected via satellite to Elon Musk's StarLink.'' An Unplugged spokesperson explained that "they benefit in having servers not be subject to any governmental law."
        The Unplugged investor pitch deck is a messy mix of these impossible claims, meaningless buzzwords, and outright fiction.
        The product is the latest example in a decade-long tradition of privacy- and security-focused smartphones that promise to do far more than your Android or iPhone can to protect you and your data. Ever since Edward Snowden's 2013 revelations about American spying, a new phone has popped up in this market at least once per year. The trend was already so prominent by 2014 that MIT Technology Review called ''ultraprivate phones'' one of the year's technology breakthroughs. Well, mea culpa. Almost every attempt to build this kind of phone has failed.
        While none of the experts I spoke with had yet been able to test the phone or read its code, because the company hasn't provided access, the evidence available suggests Unplugged will fall wildly short of what's promised.
        Too good to be true ''No device is impenetrable'--that's been proven over time,'' says David Richardson, vice president at the mobile security firm Lookout.
        The selling points of Unplugged's device, known as the UP Phone, are built on enormous promises of security and privacy that go beyond what any phone can accomplish. Buzzwords like ''government-grade encryption'' imply some kind of heightened protection, but'--as the company never mentions'--governments use the same standard encryption as the rest of us. When asked about the phrase by MIT Technology Review, Unplugged acknowledged "this messaging doesn't resonate well with our community" and said they won't use it moving forward.
        ''There are two things happening here,'' says Allan Liska, a cyberintelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. ''There are the actual attempts to make real secure phones, and then there is the marketing BS. Distinguishing between those two can be really hard.''
        Prince told investors the UP Phone is built by ''engineers with deep experience in lawful interception, surveillance, and spoofing capabilities.''
        While taking various privacy and security enhancements from open source projects, Unplugged president Ryan Paterson told MIT Technology Review via email, Unplugged's proprietary operating system developed their own "enhancements" including "based on knowledge not available to the public (zero-days) and others." A zero-day vulnerability is an unknown security weakness that can be attacked via exploit that can sell for millions of dollars.
        Unplugged's day-to-day technology operations are run by Eran Karpen, a former employee of CommuniTake, the Israeli startup that gave rise to the now infamous hacker-for-hire firm NSO Group. There, Karpen built the IntactPhone, which the company called a ''military-grade mobile device.'' He's also a veteran of Israel's Unit 8200, an agency that conducts cyber espionage and is the country's equivalent of the NSA.
        But anyone with that experience should be able to see through Prince's claim that the UP Phone is impossible to surveil.
        ''When I worked in US intelligence, we [penetrated] a number of phone companies overseas,'' says Liska. ''We were inside those phone companies. We could easily track people based on where they connected to the towers. So when you talk about being impenetrable, that's wrong.''
        ''This is a phone, and the way that phones work is they triangulate to cell towers, and there is always latitude and longitude for exactly where you're sitting,'' he adds. ''Nothing you do to the phone is going to change that.''
        The UP Phone's operating system, called LibertOS, is a proprietary version of Google's Android, according to an Unplugged spokesperson. It's running on an unclear mix of hardware that a company spokesperson says they've designed on their own. Even just maintaining a unique Android ''fork'''--a version of the operating system that departs from the original, like a fork in the road'--is a difficult endeavor that can cost massive money and resources, experts warn. For a small startup, that can be an insurmountable challenge.
        ''There's such a high volume of vulnerabilities that Android is disclosing and patching on an ongoing basis that you really do need to stay on top of all of those,'' says Richardson. Keeping all the software and hardware compatible with every new version of Android is something that very few companies other than tech giants can effectively do. To deal with that, some niche phones simply don't adopt new Android versions'--a cheaper but more dangerous road.
        Another key issue is life span. Apple's iPhones are considered the most secure consumer device on the market due in part to the fact that the company offers security updates to some of its older phones for six years, longer than virtually all competitors. When support for a phone ends, security vulnerabilities go unaddressed, and the phone is no longer secure. There is no information available on how long UP Phones will receive security support.
        Some other privacy phones are serious if imperfect products. The Librem 5, for example, is built by Purism, an American ''social purpose corporation'' specializing in privacy-oriented products. The phone is fully transparent and publishes source code and hardware details for anyone to see'--unlike Unplugged, which has released precious few details next to its big promises. Librem is based on Linux, a free and open-source operating system that gives the lie to Prince's false claim of being first to create an operating system outside Big Tech. Numerous commercially available phones have done this already.
        The Librem's critical reception has been nuanced: reviewers have praised the phone's ambition and details, as well as the relatively straightforward and honest marketing, a respectable feat in and of itself. (But, like so many Linux devices, it will appeal mostly to tech experts and people who can tolerate a significant learning curve.)
        GrapheneOS is another sober and credible project that has set out to deliver a secure, open-source, auditable operating system for Android phones.
        Unplugged sits on the opposite end of this spectrum. The company's claim that the phone is ''impenetrable'' recalls the ''hack-proof'' phone that John McAfee, known for being accused of running a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency fraud just before his death, tried to sell in 2017.
        The RedPillSince it was publicly unveiled in June 2022, the Unplugged phone has become an object of skepticism and scorn among cybersecurity experts.
        ''Words and phrases like 'government-grade' and 'impenetrable' are rightly mocked online by the computer security community because we know that they're used to fool people,'' says Nicholas Weaver, a cybersecurity researcher at the International Computer Science Institute.
        Weaver believes the UP phone is not so much about the technology as it is about the perceived sales opportunity. ''This is right-wing affinity fraud,'' he argues.
        In fact, the phone was originally called the ''RedPill Phone,'' a name based on a meme adored by the American far right. Prince is a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump, and he debuted the phone on ''War Room,'' a podcast hosted by former Trump strategist Steve Bannon. Bannon and his fans got a discount code from the show.
        It's initially surprising, then, to see Prince pitch investors on the idea that the phone will appeal to ''right wing and left wing alike.'' But this offers a clue as to why Unplugged dropped the RedPill name.
        Still, Prince may find a receptive audience in Bannon's followers'--which could matter greatly to the success of the phone. Its future will likely come down to how much customers believe in Prince and his claims.
        ''I think for the layperson, it comes down to trust,'' says Kyle Rankin, president of Purism. ''Does this vendor that's selling you a phone require you to trust them to be secure? And then if so, are they worthy of that trust? It boils down to that.''
        The question of trust has long been a tricky one for many security and privacy phones.
        For example, the security firm DarkMatter, an incognito intelligence agency for the United Arab Emirates that has reportedly been busted hacking dissidents and journalists, marketed its own ''ultrasecure'' phone called the Katim beginning in 2018. The same year, a sleek black phone dubbed Anom was marketed specifically to people involved in organized crime, promising an ''ultrasecure'' device ''hardened against targeted surveillance and intrusion.'' In fact, however, the phone company was secretly run by the FBI.
        Often the reasons for failure are simpler. The Blackphone, a security-first device that came out almost immediately after the Snowden leaks, is reported to have quickly fallen millions of dollars into debt because of low sales. And that device was more than $200 less expensive than the UP Phone.
        In short, the market is littered with failure. Ambitions to build a more secure smartphone are noble. Claims that your phone is impenetrable are misleading at best and dangerous at worst.
        The UP Phone is due out in November 2022.
        Updates: The story has been updated to include details provided by an Unplugged spokesperson. It was later updated to clarify the name of the Unplugged spokesperson.
      Lai Ching-te - Wikipedia
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        Archived Version
        Thu, 23 May 2024 14:31
        From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
        President of Taiwan since 2024
        Lai Ching-te (Chinese: è"´æ¸…å¾· ; Hanyu Pinyin: L i QÄngd(C) ; Tongyong Pinyin: L i Cing-d(C) ; Wade''Giles: Lai4 Ch'ing1-te2 ; PeÌh-Åe-jÄ: LÅa Chheng-tek ; Zhuyin Fuhao: ãŒãžË‹ ã‘ã§ã¥ ã‰ã'ËŠ ; born 6 October 1959[1][2][3]), also known as William Lai, is a Taiwanese politician and former physician who is currently serving as the 8th president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) since May 2024. He is the third member from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to assume the office of president, the third incumbent ROC vice president to succeed to the presidency, and the first to assume the office through election instead of immediate succession. He has also served as the chair of the DPP since 2023.
        Born to a working-class coal mining family in Taipei County, Lai studied rehabilitation and public health at universities in Taipei, ultimately obtaining a Master's degree from Harvard University in 2003. After serving as the president of the National Physician Support Association, Lai ran in the 1996 Legislative Yuan election, winning a seat representing Tainan City. After being re-elected to the Legislative Yuan four consecutive times, Lai ran for Mayor of Tainan in 2010. Lai won and served as mayor for seven years, winning reelection in 2014. In September 2017, President Tsai Ing-wen announced Lai would replace outgoing premier Lin Chuan.
        On 24 November 2018, Lai announced his intention to resign from the premiership after the Democratic Progressive Party suffered a major defeat in local elections, and left office on 14 January 2019 after the swearing-in of his successor Su Tseng-chang.[4][5] Lai mounted a challenge against Tsai in the 2019 Democratic Progressive Party presidential primary and after defeat, served as Tsai's running mate in the 2020 Taiwan presidential election in which the tandem was victorious.[6][7] In April 2023, Lai was nominated by the DPP as their presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential election and was elected with 40.05% of votes. He took office as President on 20 May 2024.
        Describing himself as a "pragmatic worker for Taiwanese independence", as he believes that it was possible to "love Taiwan while having an affinity to China",[8][9] and considers both titles of "Taiwan" or "Republic of China" that can be used equitably and interchangeably in respect of the country name.[8] Lai favors preserving the current status quo in regards to the political status of Taiwan, arguing that it is already an independent state under the name "Republic of China" that is not subordinate to the People's Republic of China (PRC), as well as strengthening relations with the United States and other liberal democracies.
        Early life and career [ edit ] Lai was born into a working-class coal mining family in Wanli, a rural coastal town in northern Taipei County (now New Taipei City) on 6 October 1958.[10] Lai's father died on 8 January 1960 of carbon monoxide poisoning while laboring in the coal mines of Wanli.[11][12] His widowed mother raised him and his five siblings as a single parent.[13][14]
        Lai underwent schooling in Taipei City and studied at both National Cheng Kung University in Tainan and National Taiwan University in Taipei, where he specialized in rehabilitation.[10] Lai then studied at the Harvard School of Public Health for a Master's degree in Public Health,[10] followed by an internship at National Cheng Kung University Hospital. He became an expert on spinal cord damage and served as a national consultant for such injuries.[10]
        Legislative career [ edit ] After serving as part of the support team for Chen Ding-nan's unsuccessful electoral bid for Governor of Taiwan Province in 1994,[15] Lai decided to enter politics himself. The next opportunity for election to a national body was the 1996 National Assembly, with Lai winning a seat representing Tainan City. Lai then joined the New Tide faction and stood as a candidate in the 1998 Legislative Yuan election, representing the Democratic Progressive Party in the second ward of Tainan City.[16][10] He was successful in this election, and subsequently was reelected three times in 2001, 2004, and 2008. In total he served 11 years as a legislator, and was selected as Taiwan's "Best Legislator" four times in a row by Taipei-based NGO Citizen Congress Watch.[17]
        Mayor of Tainan (2010''2017) [ edit ] Lai as Mayor of Tainan, 2017With the 2010 reorganization of the municipalities in Taiwan, Tainan City and Tainan County were amalgamated into a single municipality, called Tainan. After successfully being selected in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primaries in January 2010,[18] Lai stood as the DPP candidate for the mayoral election on 27 November 2010, gaining 60.41% to defeat Kuomintang candidate Kuo Tien-tsai.[19][20] He took office on 25 December 2010.
        As a result of his strong showing in the mayoral election coupled with his relative youth and his control of the DPP heartland city of Tainan, Lai was considered to be a potential candidate for a presidential run in 2016.[21] In 2013 an opinion poll ranked Lai as the most popular of the 22 city and county heads in Taiwan, with an approval rating of 87%.[22]
        Lai made on 5 June 2014 a visit to the city of Shanghai to assist an exhibition of art by the late Taiwanese painter Tan Ting-pho and met politicians of the Chinese Communist Party.[23][24]
        Lai stood for reelection on 29 November 2014 against Huang Hsiu-shuang of the Kuomintang. His opponent was considered to have such an uphill task in the DPP stronghold that she rode a black horse through the streets of Tainan as an election stunt; a hopeful allusion to her status as a "dark horse".[25] Lai, on the other hand, did not plan many campaign activities, choosing to focus on mayoral duties.[26] He eventually won the election by 45 percentage points,[27][28] the largest margin of victory in any of the municipal races in the election.[29]
        Lai stepped down as Mayor in September 2017, after being appointed to the Premiership.[30] He was succeeded in acting capacity by Lee Meng-yen.[31][32]
        Premiership (2017''2019) [ edit ] Premier Lai Ching-te led the cabinet during the swearing-in ceremony
        Lai Ching-te (center) with Ethan Tu (left) and Huang Wei-cher (right) in January 2019
        In September 2017, Premier Lin Chuan tendered his resignation to President Tsai Ing-wen, which was reluctantly accepted. A recent poll showed Lin's approval rating to be a mere 28.7%, with 6 in 10 respondents dissatisfied with the performance of his cabinet.[33] On 5 September, President Tsai announced at a press conference that Lai would become the country's next head of the Executive Yuan.[34]
        Lai took office on 8 September as the 49th Premier of Taiwan.[35] Following Lai's appointment as premier, Tsai's approval ratings reached 46%, rebounding by more than 16 points since August.[36] Lai made his first appearance as premier at the Legislative Yuan on 26 September, where he stated "I am a political worker who advocates Taiwan independence" but that "We are already an independent sovereign nation called the Republic of China. We don't need a separate declaration of independence".[37][38] Lai has appeared to have moderated his position on Taiwanese independence particularly when he proposed the idea of "being close to China while loving Taiwan" in June 2017.[39] He also expressed no desire to run against Tsai Ing-wen in the 2020 presidential election.[40] On 28 September, the New Party called on the KMT to join it in filing a formal complaint against the Premier for sedition.[41]
        In October 2017, it was reported that Lai had garnered the approval of 68.8 percent of respondents in a survey, while 23 percent expressed dissatisfaction.[42] However, critics say that his popularity may not last, due to his rapid reversal of his position on the issue of Taiwanese independence.[43] However, on 20 October, in response to General Secretary Xi Jinping's comments on the one China policy and the 1992 consensus at the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, Lai said that the Taiwanese government, following the directives of Tsai Ing-wen, would fulfill its promise of not changing the status quo between the two neighbors and not ceding before pressure from Beijing, which comes in the form of military intimidation and an international blockade.[44]
        In November 2018, Lai tendered his resignation to the president, after the ruling DPP was trounced in local elections.[45] Lai agreed to remain in office to help stabilize the government until the general budget was cleared by the Legislative Yuan in January 2019.[46][47] Lai's cabinet resigned on 11 January 2019 and Su Tseng-chang was appointed as new premier.[48][49]
        First presidential campaign (2019) [ edit ] On 18 March 2019, Lai Ching-te registered to run in the Democratic Progressive Party presidential primary, saying that he could shoulder the responsibility of leading Taiwan in defending itself from being annexed by China.[50] This is the first time in Taiwanese history where a serious primary challenge has been mounted against a sitting president.[51] The results of the DPP's primary poll released on 13 June shown that Tsai defeated Lai by winning 35.67 percent of the vote over Lai's 27.48 percent, officially becoming the DPP's presidential candidate for the 2020 election.[52]
        In November 2019, Lai accepted president Tsai Ing-wen's offer to become her running mate for the 2020 presidential election.[53] Tsai secured over 57% of the ballot, winning a record 8.17 million votes in the election and began her second term in 2020.[54][55]
        Vice presidency (2020''2024) [ edit ] Official portrait as vice president
        Lai exchanging gifts with Palauan President
        Surangel Whipps Jr. (left) on an official visit to Palau in November 2022
        During his vice presidency, Lai served as president Tsai Ing-wen's special envoy to Honduras for president Xiomara Castro's inauguration in January 2022.[56] After the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, he made a private trip to Tokyo to pay his respects and became Taiwan's most senior official to visit Japan in five decades.[57] In November 2022, Lai led representatives of Taiwan's travel agencies and industry associations to Palau to foster collaborations between the two countries.[58]
        In November 2022, president Tsai Ing-wen resigned as leader of DPP after the party's heavy losses in local elections.[59] Lai officially registered as a candidate for the DPP chair election in December.[60] Since Lai was the only candidate running, he became the new chairman of the DPP in 2023.[61][62]
        2024 presidential campaign [ edit ] In March 2023, Lai registered as the only person to run in the DPP's 2024 presidential primary and was officially nominated by the ruling party in April.[63][64] On 21 November 2023, Lai formally registered his campaign at the Central Election Commission along with his running mate, Hsiao Bi-khim.[65] Lai claimed victory on 13 January 2024, marking the first time that a political party had won three consecutive presidential terms since direct elections were first held in 1996.[66]
        Presidency (2024''present) [ edit ] On 13 January 2024, Lai was elected president of the Republic of China with more than 40% of the vote,[67] and was inaugurated on 20 May 2024.[68]
        Political views [ edit ] Previously, Lai was viewed as a "deep green" member of the DPP, advocating for Taiwanese independence.[69] He has since moderated his position, saying that there was no need to declare independence as "Taiwan is already a sovereign, independent country called the Republic of China."[70] Lai advocates strengthening Taiwan's relations with the United States and other liberal democracies.[71]
        Personal life [ edit ] Lai married Wu Mei-ju in 1986. Wu worked for Taipower, and was based in Tainan until Lai was elected mayor of the city, and she transferred to Kaohsiung.[72][73] The couple raised two sons.[13]
        Honors [ edit ] 2024, Order of Dr. Sun Yat-sen with Grand Cordon; Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon[74]Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] ^ "ç¨¼é"èŠç§äººLineå¸"èŸè‹±æ–‡åæ›'å…‰¼è"´æ¸…å¾·æ¯ãŒå¨å>>‰ããè‡è²žæŒåHope JWæ¯èª°¼Ÿ". www.ettoday.net (in Traditional Chinese). ETtodayæ–°èž. 14 July 2020. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020 . Retrieved 17 July 2020 . ^ Shepherd, Christian; Chiang, Vic (13 January 2024). "Taiwan elects Lai Ching-te as president. China calls it a dangerous choice". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286 . Retrieved 17 February 2024 . ^ "Taiwan's Next President Is Former Kidney Doctor Beijing Despises". Bloomberg.com. 13 January 2024 . Retrieved 7 March 2024 . ^ "Taiwan premier, cabinet to quit after local election trouncing". Channel NewsAsia. 10 January 2019. Archived from the original on 10 January 2019 . Retrieved 11 January 2019 . ^ "æž—ä½"é¾æŽŒäº¤éƒ¨ãé"è‰¯åŸºæŽ¥æ•é•· è‡å…§é–£ä¸‹å‘¨ä¸ä¸Šå·¥" (in Chinese). United Daily News. 12 January 2019. Archived from the original on 11 January 2019 . Retrieved 12 January 2019 . ^ éªåŒéé›ç‹å§--è¯åç>>è¨ è"´æ¸…å¾·¼šå'‹æ'ƒéŽåŠ è--ç¸½çµ±æ›´æ'‰å¯...åŠ›å®è­·å°ç£ å'æ...®æ"°¼šå†æ¬å…ä>>éŽæµ·¼Œè´ä¸‹éé›æ°å ´. æ°‘ä¸>>é²æ­¥é>>¨ (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 19 November 2019. Archived from the original on 2 January 2020 . Retrieved 21 November 2019 . æ°‘ä¸>>é²æ­¥é>>¨ä¸>>å¸­å'æ...®æ"°ä>>Š¼19¼‰æ—¥æ—(C)å‰å¾éé›¼Œè‡å‰¯ç¸½çµ±åƒé¸äººè"´æ¸…å¾·¼Œå‡ºå¸­ãŒå…ä>>éŽæµ·ãéé›å¤§è´ãæ°‘é²é>>¨éé›å¸‚8å¸­ç‹å§--è¯åç>>è¨è¨è…æ'ƒ¼Œè‡æ°‘é²é>>¨8ä½éé›å¸‚ç‹å§--åƒé¸äººé‚±è­°ç‘(C)ãé‚±å—å‰ãåŠ‰ä¸–èŠ"ãæž—å²±æ¨ºãæ'Žæ†æ¾¤ãè¶å¤(C)éºŸãè¨±æºå‚‘å'Œè"´ç‘žéš†ç>>è¨åƒé¸ã‚ ^ "Beijing 'interferes daily' in Taiwan's election, says Tsai Ing-wen". South China Morning Post. 19 November 2019. Archived from the original on 20 November 2019 . Retrieved 21 November 2019 . 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Retrieved 14 January 2024 . ^ a b Chau, Thompson (18 January 2023). "After Lai's father died in a coal mine disaster, Lai and his five siblings were brought up by their mother, who made ends meet by taking day job after day job. Born in present-day New Taipei, he was two at the time of the tragedy". Nikkei Asia. Archived from the original on 27 December 2023 . Retrieved 28 December 2023 . Lai Ching-te, whose coal miner father died while he was a toddler, took over as leader of Taiwan's ruling party on Wednesday, promising to address voter dissatisfaction and push through reforms ahead of a presidential election in less than 12 months. ... After Lai's father died in a coal mine disaster, Lai and his five siblings were brought up by their mother, who made ends meet by taking day job after day job. Born in present-day New Taipei, he was two at the time of the tragedy. ... Married and with two sons, Lai is more socially conservative than Tsai, a progressive but technocratic leader who has spearheaded reforms regarding indigenous rights and same-sex marriage, and established climate targets. He is also seen as an activist. In recent years, however, the 63-year-old has stayed away from making strident political statements and evolved into a statesmanlike vice president. ^ Campbell, Charlie (20 November 2023). "Taiwan's Presidential Frontrunner Faces a Balancing Act With China". Time. Archived from the original on 28 December 2023 . Retrieved 28 December 2023 . More than once when William Lai was a small boy, a passing typhoon blew the roof of his home clean away. It's a recollection that brings a wry smile to Taiwan's vice president, who grew up in the small coalmining hamlet of Wanli perched on the island's far north. Lai's father died in an accident in the pits when he was just 2 years old, leaving his mother to raise six children alone. Money was tight. Instead of toys, Lai had banyan trees to climb; instead of new clothes, he wore cast-offs; he didn't have privilege, he had to prove himself. ^ é"å®šå—çšç‰½æ‰‹å¼µæ­ç¾(C)æŒºè"´æ¸…å¾· (in Chinese), NOWnews ^ Wang, Chris (11 December 2013). "DPP [d]riven by factionalism as primary polls heat up". Taipei Times. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016 . Retrieved 11 September 2016 . ^ "Lai keeps DPP's solid grip on Tainan". Focus Taiwan. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012 . Retrieved 30 November 2010 . ^ 2009æ°‘é²é>>¨æåç¸£å¸‚é•·åé¸äººé£çµ (in Chinese). Democratic Progressive Party. 17 September 2010. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011 . Retrieved 30 November 2010 . ^ "William Lai takes Tainan by storm". Taipei Times. 28 November 2010. Archived from the original on 28 November 2010 . Retrieved 29 November 2010 . ^ "99å¹´ç›´è½å¸‚é•·é¸è‰ åé¸äººå¾—ç¥¨æ•¸". ä¸­å¤®é¸è‰å§--å'æ'ƒ. Archived from the original on 12 September 2020 . 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According to local media reports, Wu applied to be transferred from Taiwan Power Company's Tainan office to Hsinta Power Plant in Kaohsiung after Lai was elected Tainan mayor in 2010 to avoid any conflict of interest. ^ Wang, Flor; Wen, Kuei-shang (14 May 2024). "Outgoing President Tsai honors VP Lai, 12 other officials". Central News Agency . Retrieved 14 May 2024 . External links [ edit ] Lai Ching-te on Facebook
      The History of the Pine Tree Flags of the American RevolutionGettysburg Flag Works Blog
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Thu, 23 May 2024 12:58
        November 1st, 2019 by maria Many flags from the Revolutionary War era feature a pine tree, a symbol that might seem innocent at first, but once you know its history, the meaning is much deeper.England Lays Claim to White PinesLeading up to the American Revolution, Great Britain relied heavily on its Royal Navy, and in order to build and maintain this huge fleet of ships, they needed trees. By the late 17th century, the British had nearly depleted their own timber resources, and so they began harvesting and exporting Eastern white pines from Colonial New England.
        Under the Mast Preservation Clause in the Massachusetts Charter in 1691, Britain laid claim to any white pine measuring 24 inches in diameter or greater, and in 1722 a law passed in New Hampshire made it illegal to cut down white pines measuring 12 inches or more. The ''mast pines'', as they were named for their suitability as single-stick masts and booms, were identified by a Surveyor of the King's Woods, and marked with a broad arrow for exporting to England.
        The colonists resented the restrictions on the timber they used for their needs and livelihoods, and many continued to harvest the marked trees. The law caused more anger and backlash than the Stamp Act or even the Tea Tax, and eventually resulted in the Pine Tree Riot of 1772.
        Colonists Protest with Pine Tree RiotAfter being fined and refusing to pay for harvesting trees marked with the broad arrow, a New Hampshire mill owner, along with other mill owners and townsmen, assaulted the Sheriff and his Deputy by lashing them with tree switches, cutting off their horses' ears, manes and tails, and forcing them out of town through a jeering crowd.
        Occurring almost two years prior to the more well-known Boston Tea Party, the Pine Tree Riot was one of the first acts of forceful resistance against British royal authority by the American colonists, and among the disputes that culminated in the American Revolution.
        Pine Trees Become Symbol of IndependenceBecause New England's white pines were highly desired by Great Britain, they became a great source of symbolism for the colonists. Seen here on six different flags from the Revolutionary War era, the pine tree represents a resistance to colonization and a desire for independence.
        mariaAs Marketing Manager, Maria handles all things marketing & advertising for Gettysburg Flag Works.Before joining GFW, Maria worked in a variety of marketing roles from category management to sales and marketing research. Maria holds a Masters in Business Administration from SUNY Albany and an undergraduate in Business with a concentration in Marketing from LeMoyne College. Outside of work, Maria enjoys time with her two boys Quinn & Declan, Saratoga race track with her husband Brian, and taking excursions with her friends & family.
      World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab Is Stepping Down, Semafor Reports - BNN Bloomberg
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        Thu, 23 May 2024 02:04
        (Bloomberg) -- Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, is stepping down from active leadership of the body that convenes the annual meetings of global executives and politicians in Davos, Switzerland.
        Schwab, 86, announced his decision on Tuesday and is transitioning to a non-executive role by January 2025, according to a statement on the WEF website.
        ''The organization has also been undergoing a planned governance evolution from a founder-managed organization to one where a president and managing board assume full executive responsibility,'' the WEF said.
        The body didn't specify who would take those roles. Semafor reported the decision earlier.
        Schwab started what became the World Economic Forum in 1971 '-- initially called the European Management Forum '-- as a symposium on corporate management.
        In the following decades the event ballooned to become an annual gathering of some 2,500 corporate executives, financiers, and politicians and other public figures from more than 100 countries addressing matters such as inequality, migration, digital innovation and globalization.
        Schwab chose the Alpine location of Davos in a bid to make guests feel relaxed and speak freely, according to the Geneva-based nonprofit's website. With a slogan of ''committed to improving the state of the world,'' the forum attracts global attention and criticism, as well as a helping of conspiracy theories.
        Schwab, born in Germany, to parents of Swiss origin. While the organization he founded has frequently faced the charge of elitism, Schwab has consistently stressed the need for the kind of global cooperation it offered.
        ''Big challenges '-- environmental, poverty '-- cannot be solved by governments alone, or by business alone, or by civil society,'' Schwab told the Financial Times in defense of the conference in 2020. ''You need cooperation.''
        (Updates with WEF statement)
        (C)2024 Bloomberg L.P.
      Fish oil supplements may cause harm, study finds. 'Is it time to dump them?' expert asks | CNN
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        Wed, 22 May 2024 17:53
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        As an excellent source of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, daily fish oil supplements are a popular way to keep the risk of cardiovascular disease at bay.
        About 20% of adults older than age 60 in the United States frequently use these products with the aim of supporting heart health.
        However, a new study finds regular use of fish oil supplements may increase, not reduce, the risk of first-time stroke and atrial fibrillation among people in good cardiovascular health.
        Atrial fibrillation, also called AFib or AF, is a type of arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, that people often describe as a flutter or pounding in their chests.
        ''I can see the headline for this study as 'Fish oil supplements: Is it time to dump them or not?''' said cardiologist Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver.
        ''I say that because over-the-counter fish oil is very seldom recommended, is in none of the guidelines from professional medical societies, and yet that's what most people take,'' said Freeman, who was not involved in the study.
        The study analyzed data on over 415,000 people ages 40 to 69 participating in the UK Biobank, a longitudinal study of the health of people in the United Kingdom. Nearly one-third of those people, who were followed for an average of 12 years, said they regularly used fish oil supplements.
        For people without heart issues, regular use of fish oil supplements was associated with a 13% higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation and a 5% heightened risk of having a stroke, according to the study, published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Medicine.
        Over-the-counter fish oil suffers from a lack of purity and consistency, as well as the potential contaminants and heavy metals such as mercury that come with fish, Freeman said.
        ''In addition, studies over the last 10 years have not been very positive for over-the-counter fish oil,'' he added. ''Fish oil was either having no benefit or in some cases it may harm, such as with stroke and AFib. So that's not new.''
        In fact, the new study found that people with existing heart disease at the beginning of the research had a 15% lower risk of progressing from atrial fibrillation to a heart attack and a 9% lower risk of progressing from heart failure to death when they regularly used fish oil.
        Instead, prescription versions of fish oil, such as Vascepa and Lovaza, are used to counter such risk factors such as high triglycerides, a type of blood fat, in people with cardiovascular disease risk, Freeman said.
        ''But even in the prescription strength, highly purified versions of fish oil, the risk for AFib and sometimes stroke has also been present and doctors are cautious about that,'' Freeman said.
        ''Overall, I would say that the days where people just go to the store and buy buckets of fish oil pills to keep them well should be over, but fish oil may still have a role in people who are already sick.''
        When it comes to fish oil, ''the devil is in the details,'' said Alzheimer's preventive neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Boca Raton, Florida. He was not involved in the study.
        ''First, we recommend testing for omega-3 fatty acid levels '-- there are finger-prick tests you can buy online which are accurate '-- and then you should continue to test. You don't want to take fish oil if you don't need it,'' he said.
        Isaacson recommends trying to get your omega-3 fatty acids from food sources and says sardines and wild-caught salmon are the best sources, as they are high in these healthy unsaturated fats and lower in mercury. Farm-raised salmon is not the best choice, he said, due to impurities in the water in which they are raised.
        Lake trout, mackerel, herring and albacore tuna are also good sources, he said. However, due to the mercury levels in large fish such as tuna, he recommends consumption of albacore tuna should be kept to twice a week.
        Algae and seaweed are decent nonfish sources of omega 3s as well. Chia seeds, edamame (soy beans), flaxseed, hempseeds and walnuts are other plant-based options that are high in omega-3s. But the fatty acids are a different form than those found in fish. Studies have found plant-based omega-3s may be harder to metabolize in people with higher levels of omega-6s, another kind of unsaturated fats that's found primarily in vegetable oils.
        Prescription omega-3 fatty acids are superior to over-the counter options, experts say, due to their pureness and quality. But prescribed supplements can be expensive. For people who decide they want to purchase over-the-counter omega-3s, Isaacson provides these tips to his patients.
        First, freshness of the fish oil is key, he said, adding that ''buying from an online or retail superstore, such as Amazon or Costco, isn't the best idea.''
        ''We recommend buying it from only a handful of reputable companies, and from their specific website,'' Isaacson said. ''The difference in quality between fish oil stored in a hot warehouse that's close to expiration and fish oil that's recently been produced, sent directly from the company, and kept in the home refrigerator is night and day.''
        The US Food and Drug Administration doesn't monitor the supplement industry to assure each vitamin or mineral actually contains what it says on the label, nor does the federal agency test to see whether the ingredients are contaminated with bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, plastic residues and other impurities.
        However, there are some companies that have stepped into that role by testing various supplements and even some pharmaceuticals, so look for their labels on the supplements before purchase. The nonprofit organization US Pharmacopeia, or USP, sets the most widely accepted standards for supplements, experts say, but ConsumerLab.com and NSF International also do third-party testing.
      RFK Jr. Changes Abortion Stance After Pushback | The Epoch Times
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        Wed, 22 May 2024 17:42
        A day after receiving backlash over a comment that he supported abortion at full term, Mr. Kennedy said he changed his stance after listening to advisers.
        An early campaign promise Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made when he was still running in the Democrat primary last year has seen a stern test in recent weeks amid his comment that he supported abortion up to full term.
        Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times last August that he preferred to have advisers and team members who don't fully share his views and, as a candidate and president, he would listen to differing opinions and even change his mind if presented with a convincing argument.
        In May, a podcast interview with Sage Steele created a firestorm where Mr. Kennedy received a widespread backlash.
        He said that women should be able to terminate their pregnancy ''even if it's full term.''
        The comment drew criticism from pro-life groups and multiple people within his campaign.
        Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement that Mr. Kennedy ''has exposed himself as a true extremist'' who ''is no different from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris when it comes to supporting brutal abortions at any time for no reason, even when babies in the womb feel pain, with zero limits or exceptions.''
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        Angela Stanton King, a pro-life advocate and an adviser to Mr. Kennedy's campaign, has contributed insight on black voter outreach, and criminal justice and abortion policies.
        She denounced the candidate's view on backing full-term abortion on social media.
        Nicole Shanahan, Mr. Kennedy's running mate, sat down for a talk with Ms. Steele that was released a week before Mr. Kennedy's interview aired.
        Ms. Shanahan said that she was unaware that the candidate did not support limits on abortion.
        ''My understanding with Bobby's position is that, you know, every abortion is a tragedy, is a loss of life,'' Ms. Shanahan said, adding that she thought that he believed in limits on abortion and, perhaps, there was a miscommunication in his interview.
        A day after the interview with Sage Steele aired, Mr. Kennedy reiterated his early campaign promise that he would ''always be willing to listen to people and change my position.''
        ''I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point.
        ''I believe that point should be when the baby is viable outside the womb.
        ''Therefore, I would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did,'' he wrote on X.
        He noted that ''even in the reddest of red states, voters reject total abortion bans.''
        Mr. Kennedy has stressed that he does not like abortion, but he said he does not trust the government ''to have jurisdiction over people's bodies.''
        2024 presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (R) speaks with his vice presidential pick Nicole Shanahan (L) in Oakland, Calif., on March 26, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)That stance aligns with Mr. Kennedy's longtime support for medical freedom and bodily autonomy.
        During the COVID-19 pandemic, he attracted public attention with his vocal opposition to vaccine and mask mandates.
        Mr. Kennedy finished his post by describing a proposed policy called ''More Choices, More Life,'' which he believes will reduce abortion by supporting women who want to give birth.
        The platform features a plan for universally affordable childcare that will cap childcare expenses at 10 percent for most families.
        Almost three-quarters of women cite economic reasons to explain why they chose to abort a pregnancy, Mr. Kennedy explained.
        He vowed that his administration would ''support women in need so that abortion isn't their only choice.''
        Ms. King praised Mr. Kennedy for the adjustment.
        ''After a bunch of going back and forth, and not only by me, but also people on the campaign, we've all come to the agreement that late-term abortion is not something that this campaign is going to support,'' she said in a video posted on X.
        ''This is what you get when you begin to work in the independent space,'' she added, noting that the campaign is composed of conservatives, Democrats, and Libertarians; and people who are for and against abortion.
        Mr. Kennedy announced his candidacy to challenge President Joe Biden for the 2024 nomination in April 2023.
        Claiming that the Democratic National Committee was ''rigging the primary'' to favor President Biden, he decided to run as an independent last October.
        Ms. King remarked that the campaign team has members with varying views, but they work to find ''the best solution.''
        Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Shanahan do not fully agree on the abortion issue.
        His position differs from Ms. Shanahan's in that he believes the cutoff should be at fetal viability.
        However, both are aligned with the emerging national consensus of no restrictions up until a certain point and restrictions thereafter, Stefanie Spear told The Epoch Times in a statement.
        Many medical professionals believe fetal viability occurs at 23 to 24 weeks of gestation.
        Ms. Shanahan said in a podcast interview last week that the preferred limits on abortion move ''between 15 and 18 weeks.''
        In previous conversations with The Epoch Times, Mr. Kennedy has acknowledged that his position on the issue could cost him conservative votes.
        ''If you're a one-issue voter, and that's something that you deeply care about, I might not be the right candidate for you.
        ''But I feel like there's a lot of people now who want authenticity in their political leadership, and they want somebody who's going to tell them the truth,'' he told The Epoch Times last year.
        Most Americans base their votes on a range of issues and are most concerned about the direction of the country, Mr. Kennedy believes.
        ''I will talk to people regardless of their views and will assure them that I will listen to them, even if they don't vote for me,'' he told The Epoch Times.
        ''I want to talk to media members and voters who share differing opinions than mine, because how else are you going to persuade?''
        Abortion is not the first stance Mr. Kennedy has changed during his presidential campaign, which was launched as a Democrat in April 2023 before he opted to run as an independent last October.
        Mr. Kennedy said that, initially, he wasn't in favor of President Trump's border wall.
        But after seeing the border firsthand in Arizona last July, he changed his mind.
        He said there's a need for increased infrastructure and technology at the border, including more segments of a physical wall and sensors in areas where a wall isn't feasible.
        Theo Wilson, an adviser to Mr. Kennedy's presidential bid, said at a voter rally in Colorado on May 19 that ''it's impossible'' to see eye to eye on everything in an independent campaign.
        Mr. Wilson remarked that he did not agree with the candidate on some issues, ''but this is not like any other campaign when the people they're in are expected to be just mouthpieces'' of their candidate.
        ''In an independent campaign like the size of this one, you're going to have to sit across the table and hammer out agreements.
        ''You got to sit there like adults and figure out a path forward, and the one who sets the tone for that is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.''
      Hims & Hers Announces Access to GLP-1 Injections, Passing Cost Savings Onto Customers | Business Wire
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        Tue, 21 May 2024 23:01
        SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE )--Hims & Hers Health, Inc., the leading health and wellness platform, today announced the addition of GLP-1 injections to its comprehensive weight loss portfolio, giving customers an affordable way to consistently access safe, high-quality weight loss treatment.
        The company now offers access to GLP-1 injections in addition to weight management oral medication kits, so that customers can truly personalize their weight loss experience. Providing access to compounded GLP-1s means eligible customers can use medications with the same active ingredient as Ozempic® and Wegovy® without navigating the shortages and costs that are currently limiting access to the branded medications. Through a partnership with a leading US manufacturer of generic and 503B compounded injectable medications, Hims & Hers can help millions of Americans who have obesity and are looking for help safely managing their weight.
        ''The core of our business is to offer a truly personalized experience that customers can trust and rely on,'' said Andrew Dudum, CEO and co-founder of Hims & Hers. ''We've leveraged our size and scale to secure access to one of the highest-quality supplies of compounded GLP-1 injections available today. We're passing that access and value along to our customers, who deserve the highest standard of clinical safety and efficacy to meet their goals, and we're doing it in a safe, affordable way that others can't deliver."
        According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), around 70% of American adults have obesity or are overweight, and losing 5 to 10% of that body weight can reduce weight-related health risks, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. GLP-1 medications can support healthy weight loss along with a reduced calorie diet and increased exercise by helping manage blood sugar levels, curb cravings and suppress appetite, so people eat less without feeling deprived.
        The Hims & Hers platform is built on the belief that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to health and wellness treatments. Medical providers need a broad spectrum of solutions to address the needs of customers and that includes those with weight challenges. The current Hims & Hers Weight Loss offering is tracking to eclipse $100M in revenue by the end of 20251, as previously discussed, growing faster than any speciality in the company's history. Building on that success, offering access to compounded GLP-1s gives medical providers and customers consistent and affordable access to effective, trusted and safe medications.
        ''We know weight loss medications alone do not treat obesity effectively, so we've built a holistic weight management solution that supports customers as they combine powerful medications with healthy lifestyle habits, such as exercise, improved sleep, and eating nutritious foods,'' said Dr. Patrick Carroll, Chief Medical Officer of Hims & Hers. ''Our comprehensive approach to weight loss comes with support from medical providers who understand the nuance of weight gain and weight loss. We design all of our solutions to help customers be successful in the long term, and that means providing an experience personalized to the individual.''
        GLP-1 injections are fulfilled and shipped from Hims & Hers' affiliated pharmacies. Once consistent supply is available through the pharmacies' wholesaler, Hims & Hers plans to make branded options available to customers, expanding the offering beyond the current oral medication kits and compounded GLP-1 injectable medications.
        For more information, visit https://www.forhers.com/weight-loss or https://www.hims.com/weight-loss.
        Pricing & Availability
        Pricing for weight loss medications starts as low as $79/month for oral medication kits and $199/month for compounded GLP-1 injections. Pricing includes unlimited medical consultations with a licensed provider.Medications are prescribed based on what medical providers determine is medically appropriate and necessary for each patient.Oral medication kits and compounded GLP-1 injections are not available in all states.About Hims & Hers Health, Inc.
        Hims & Hers is the leading health and wellness platform on a mission to help the world feel great through the power of better health. We believe how you feel in your body and mind transforms how you show up in life. That's why we're building a future where nothing stands in the way of harnessing this power. Hims & Hers normalizes health & wellness challenges'--and innovates on their solutions'--to make feeling happy and healthy easy to achieve. No two people are the same, so the company provides access to personalized care designed for results. For more information, please visit www.hims.com and www.forhers.com.
        Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
        This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words ''believe,'' ''estimate,'' ''anticipate,'' ''expect,'' ''assume,'' ''imply,'' ''intend,'' ''plan,'' ''may,'' ''will,'' ''potential,'' ''project,'' ''predict,'' ''continue,'' ''could,'' ''confident,'' ''confidence,'' or ''should,'' or, in each case, their plural, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. There can be no assurance that actual results will not materially differ from expectations. Such statements include, but are not limited to, any statements relating to our financial outlook and guidance, including our mission to drive top-line growth and profitability and our ability to attain our medium- and long-term financial targets; our expected future financial and business performance, including with respect to the Hims & Hers platform, our marketing campaigns, investments in innovation, and our infrastructure, and the underlying assumptions with respect to the foregoing; statements relating to events and trends relevant to us, including with respect to our financial condition, results of operations, short- and long-term business operations, objectives, and financial needs; expectations regarding our mobile applications, market acceptance, user experience, customer retention, brand development, our ability to invest and generate a return on any such investment, customer acquisition costs, operating efficiencies and leverage (including our fulfillment capabilities), the effect of any pricing decisions, changes in our product or offering mix, the timing and market acceptance of any new products or offerings, the success of our business model, our market opportunity, our ability to scale our business, the growth of certain of our specialties, our ability to innovate on and expand the scope of our offerings and experiences, our ability to reinvest into the customer experience, and our ability to comply with the extensive, complex and evolving regulatory requirements applicable to our business, including without limitation state and federal healthcare, privacy and consumer protection laws and regulations. These statements are based on management's current expectations, but actual results may differ materially due to various factors.
        The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. Future developments affecting us may not be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described in the ''Risk Factors'' section of each of our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, and any of our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the ''Commission'').
        Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation (and expressly disclaim any obligation) to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. These risks and others described in the ''Risk Factors'' section of each of our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, and any of our subsequent filings with the Commission may not be exhaustive.
        By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. We caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and developments in the industry in which we operate may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in reports we have filed or will file with the Commission, including our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and any of our subsequent filings with the Commission. In addition, even if our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity, and developments in the industry in which we operate are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in such reports, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods.
        _________________________
        1 Current guidance as of May 6 does not reflect the addition of GLP-1 access on our platform and we are not updating guidance at this time.
      Scientists Confirm Microplastics Now Detected in Human Testicles : ScienceAlert
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        Tue, 21 May 2024 22:56
        We can now add testicles to the list of places where microplastics have managed to spread '' alongside human placentas, ancient rocks, clogged arteries, blue whales, baby poop, the wilderness of Antarctica, near the peak of Mount Everest, and the bottom of the ocean.
        Research led by the University of New Mexico looked at testicular tissue taken from both dogs and humans, finding microplastics in every sample, with an abundance almost three times higher in humans than in dogs.
        The team found an average 122.63 micrograms of microplastics per gram of tissue in canines, and 329.44 micrograms per gram in people.
        Besides giving us another sobering reminder of how plastic pollution is penetrating every part of our bodies, the study raises some concerning questions in regards to how these microscopic fragments might impact male fertility.
        "At the beginning, I doubted whether microplastics could penetrate the reproductive system," says environmental health scientist Xiaozhong Yu from the University of New Mexico.
        "When I first received the results for dogs I was surprised. I was even more surprised when I received the results for humans."
        Among the 12 different types of microplastics identified, the plastic polymer the researchers found the most of, in both dogs and humans, was polyethylene (PE) '' used in the manufacture of plastic bags and plastic bottles, and a major contributor to our plastic pollution problem.
        While the human tissue couldn't be tested for sperm count, the researchers did do this for the canine samples. They found higher levels of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic correlated to a lower sperm count in the animals.
        With PVC widely used for many industrial and household products, the worry is that plastic could be contributing to falling sperm counts worldwide '' which have already been linked to heavy metals, pesticides, and a variety of chemicals '' though these PVC results seen in dogs would need to be replicated in men, of course, for us to understand whether the same thing was happening in people.
        "The plastic makes a difference '' what type of plastic might be correlated with potential function," says Yu.
        "PVC can release a lot of chemicals that interfere with spermatogenesis and it contains chemicals that cause endocrine disruption."
        The research team was keen to compare canine and human testes because there are several biological similarities between our species, and because our canine pals live alongside us and in the same kinds of environments.
        We're still not sure exactly how microplastics might affect the human body in the long term, though previous research has found links to severe inflammatory responses and problems with the digestive system.
        Whether it's the human body or the natural world, all of this synthetic, non-biodegradable material can't be doing any good. The question is whether or not it's already too late to do something about removing it.
        "We don't want to scare people," says Yu. "We want to scientifically provide the data and make people aware there are a lot of microplastics.
        "We can make our own choices to better avoid exposures, change our lifestyle and change our behavior."
        The research has been published in Toxicological Sciences.
      Gates-backed startup raises $26 million for climate vaccines | Frontline News
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        Tue, 21 May 2024 22:54
      The Apprentice: the rise of Donald Trump - Festival de Cannes
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        Tue, 21 May 2024 22:52
        Presented in Competition in 2022, Holy Spider took us to Iran, investigating the true story of a series of femicides that rocked the native country of director Ali Abbasi. Then, in 2018, the highly original Border won the Un Certain Regard prize. This year, The Apprentice delves into the meteoric rise of Donald Trump, as he scales new heights as a real estate mogul.
        You're fired! So goes the iconic phrase with which Donald Trump abruptly dismissed losing contestants on hit reality TV show ''The Apprentice'', where he held the reins from 2004 to 2015. Written by Gabriel Sherman, also known for his New York Times bestseller on the history of Roger Ailes, founder of Fox News, this biographical film delves into Donald Trump's younger years and the support he received to become the powerful businessman we know today. Between 1970 and 1980, Roy Cohn, who had also worked with Senator McCarthy, played a pivotal role in shaping young Donald's career.
        Originally from Iran, director Ali Abbasi boasts an eclectic back catalogue of films. Influenced by the surrealism and magical realism of South-American authors Gabriel Garc­a Mrquez and Carlos Fuentes, the director made an impression with his film Border, presented in the Official Selection in 2018. The Apprentice, meanwhile, takes on a completely different tone, and is firmly rooted in reality, much like his previous feature Holy Spider. Sebastian Stan, known for his role of Carter in the series Gossip Girl, and ''Bucky'' Barnes AKA the ''Winter Soldier'' in the Captain America trilogy, portrays a young Donald Trump on his climb to the top.
      ICC's Warrant Request Appears to Shore Up Netanyahu's Support in Israel - The New York Times
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        Tue, 21 May 2024 22:34
        live Updates May 21, 2024, 6:02 p.m. ET
        Photos I.C.C. Arrest Warrants Maps of Rafah How Israeli Extremists Took Over ''The Hypocrisy of The Hague,'' read the front page of one mainstream daily that has often been critical of Israel's prime minister.
        Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arriving for a party meeting in Jerusalem on Monday. Credit... Oren Ben Hakoon/Agence France-Presse '-- Getty Images May 21, 2024 Updated 2:13 p.m. ET
        If the headlines in Israel were anything to go by, the request by the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor for an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to have granted the Israeli leader one of the most fortuitous turnarounds in his long and turbulent political career.
        ''The Hypocrisy of The Hague,'' blared Tuesday's front page of Yediot Ahronot, a popular mainstream daily that has often been critical of Mr. Netanyahu.
        Echoing the outrage expressed by Israelis across the political spectrum, and abandoning any semblance of impartiality, the front page denounced ''the intolerable gall'' of the chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, for what it described as putting Israel alongside the leaders of Hamas who ''seek to annihilate it.''
        The threat of arrest warrants comes against Mr. Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three leaders of Hamas, on charges of war crimes from the devastating Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel's punishing retaliatory campaign in Gaza.
        It appeared to broadly galvanize Mr. Netanyahu's opposition in his favor. Political rivals in Israel offered support. American officials, who had been critical of his plan to invade Rafah, roundly condemned the I.C.C. action.
        In the hours and days before, Mr. Netanyahu had appeared embattled, both domestically and internationally.
        The Israeli public had become increasingly frustrated with the government's failure, over seven months, to achieve its stated war goals of eliminating Hamas and bringing home the 128 hostages who remain in Gaza, alive and dead. Mr. Netanyahu's emergency war cabinet was on the brink of falling apart.
        Two key war cabinet members, Mr. Gallant and Benny Gantz, a former military chief, had publicly excoriated Mr. Netanyahu in recent days for failing to develop a plan for governing postwar Gaza. Mr. Gantz had even issued an ultimatum, saying his centrist party would quit the government if Mr. Netanyahu did not come up with a clear strategy by June 8.
        Israel has also been facing significant pressure to end its offensive from the United States, its most important ally. And as Israel's Parliament reconvened on Monday after spring recess, it became the focus of resurgent antigovernment protests reminiscent of those that rocked the country for months before the war.
        Image Demonstrators protesting the Netanyahu government and calling for a hostage deal in Jerusalem on Monday. Credit... Amir Levy/Getty Images But Mr. Netanyahu, a renowned political phoenix, may have been given a political lifeline and a new boost of popular support, though some analysts say the effect may be short-lived.
        ''For now, it strengthens Netanyahu,'' said Ben Caspit, a biographer and longtime critic of the prime minister and a columnist for Al-Monitor, a Middle East news site. ''He is happiest in the role of the persecuted victim,'' Mr. Caspit said of Mr. Netanyahu, adding that the international court's opprobrium was likely to bring supporters who had grown sick of the conservative leader back into the fold.
        Mr. Caspit said the chief prosecutor had, in Israel's view, scored his ''own goal'' by creating an impression of equivalence between the leaders of Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist group by much of the West, and Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant, who would be the first leaders of a democratic country to be indicted by the court.
        That perceived affront has rallied Israelis and some of Israel's foreign allies in a way that even the Hamas threat had failed to do in recent months. About 1,200 people were killed in the Oct. 7 assault, Israel says, making it the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry, in the ensuing war.
        Mr. Netanyahu's political rivals from within the government and the opposition have formed a united front against the court.
        In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Gallant described ''the parallel'' Mr. Khan had drawn between Hamas and the state of Israel as ''despicable.'' And Mr. Gallant was likely re-evaluating his options, according to experts.
        The court process places Mr. Gallant, Mr. Netanyahu's in-party rival, ''in the same boat,'' said Yonatan Touval, a senior analyst at Mitvim, an Israeli foreign-policy research institute, adding, ''Gantz will be hard pressed to leave the government.''
        Image Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the Israeli Parliament on Monday. Credit... Oren Ben Hakoon/Agence France-Presse '-- Getty Images Anticipating criticism about creating equivalency, Mr. Khan spoke of the need to apply the law equally to all sides in a conflict. ''If it is seen as being applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions for its collapse,'' he said.
        At this stage, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gantz primarily stand accused of using starvation as a weapon of war. Aid organizations and experts have attributed the hunger crisis in Gaza and a looming threat of famine to Israeli military restrictions on supplies entering the coastal enclave, as well as its strikes on aid workers.
        At the beginning of the war, Mr. Gallant promised a ''total siege'' on the territory, promising ''no electricity, no food, no fuel'' for Gaza, which is home to about 2.2 million people. But some aid routes were reopened in late October. Under international pressure, Mr. Gallant and other Israeli leaders have spoken more recently of the need to ''flood'' Gaza with supplies, and two additional land crossings and a floating pier were added to improve access in recent weeks.
        Aid groups say that Israel's operation in Rafah has further hampered aid access and that the amounts going in are still not enough.
        The Israeli military says it has facilitated thousands of aid operations and denies placing limits on food and medicine, blaming aid organizations for not adequately distributing the supplies after they have crossed the border, an assertion that the aid groups dispute. Israelis have also accused Hamas of stealing and selling the aid. Hamas has denied doing so.
        Few Israelis seem to want to see children starving to death in Gaza.
        ''We are Jews,'' said Hen Kerman, 32, a resident of Beersheba, a city in Israel's southern desert, who defined herself as being as far-right on the political map as they come. She added, ''We don't have the soul for that.''
        Most Israeli Jews, according to a recent poll, hold Hamas greatly responsible for the suffering in Gaza, saying the Oct. 7 assault left Israel with no choice but to go to war. With most Israelis drafted for years of military service at 18, and many going on to serve in the reserves, many of the country's citizens have personal ties with the military and insistently repeat an old Israeli adage that it is ''the most moral army in the world.''
        Playing on those sentiments, Mr. Netanyahu has presented the chief prosecutor's request for arrest warrants as a threat not just to him and Mr. Gallant, but to every Israeli.
        Image Palestinians rushing trucks transporting supplies in central Gaza this week. Credit... Agence France-Presse '-- Getty Images In a video statement that he issued in Hebrew for his domestic audience on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu said that the ''absurd and mendacious warrant'' sought by Mr. Khan in The Hague was ''directed not only against the prime minister of Israel and the defense minister but against the entire state of Israel. It is directed against the I.D.F. soldiers, who are fighting with supreme heroism against the vile Hamas murderers.''
        He said that Mr. Khan's actions would not stop Israel from waging its ''just war'' against Hamas until it was won.
        For Mr. Netanyahu, the I.C.C. is ''the best opponent he could ask for in order to galvanize support,'' said Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and analyst who worked as an aide to Mr. Netanyahu in the 1990s. Many Israelis already viewed the I.C.C. as hostile toward Israel, Mr. Barak said, and the fact that it did not attempt to adjudicate the role of Hamas until now, he said, added to Israeli antipathy toward the court.
        But in the longer term, Mr. Netanyahu's attempt to tie his fate to that of all Israelis could backfire, some analysts said.
        Israel is not a member of the I.C.C. and does not recognize its jurisdiction in Israel or Gaza, meaning that if the court's judges did issue warrants, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant would face no risk of arrest at home. They could, however, be arrested if they were to travel to one of the court's 124 member nations, which include most European countries but not the United States.
        In one troubling sign for Israel, France, an ally, did not condemn the chief prosecutor's request for warrants against Israeli leaders, as the Biden administration did, or distance itself, like Britain.
        Instead, the French government expressed support for the I.C.C. and its independence, saying in a statement that France had warned Israel for months about its obligation to respect international humanitarian law, particularly regarding the ''unacceptable'' loss of civilian lives in Gaza and insufficient humanitarian access.
        Ultimately, argued Mr. Caspit, the Netanyahu critic and biographer, Israelis will see that Mr. Netanyahu's leadership ''does not help, but harms Israel.'' The request for warrants reflects Israel's gradual slide into becoming a ''pariah state,'' Mr. Caspit said, making it vulnerable to international embargoes and boycotts.
        Mr. Khan also implicitly criticized Israel's once-respected judicial system, saying that the I.C.C. was forced to act only when a country's prosecutors failed to hold its own citizens to account.
        ''In short, Israel is slowly losing its standing as a liberal democracy whose judicial system can be relied on,'' Mr. Caspit said. ''That should worry all of us.''
        Any renewed support for Mr. Netanyahu would soon wane, he added, if, for example, the legal process were expanded to include soldiers and ''Israelis understand it will not only endanger Netanyahu's trips to Europe, but also their own.''
      Amal Clooney Supports ICC Arrest Warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 19:51
        Amal Clooney is among the group of U.K.-based lawyers who expressed their support for ICC (International Criminal Court) prosecutor Karim Khan's decision to request a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three Hamas leaders.
        On Monday morning, Clooney and the panel of legal experts published a report in which they shared that they were asked to provide an opinion on whether there were reasonable grounds to believe that the Israeli and Hamas leaders had committed war crimes. In the report, the panel declared that it agrees with Khan's assessment.
        In a statement shared on the site for the Clooney Foundation for Justice, Clooney wrote that she served on this panel because she believes ''in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives.''
        ''The law that protects civilians in war was developed more than 100 years ago and it applies in every country in the world regardless of the reasons for a conflict,'' Clooney continued. ''As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child's life has less value than another's. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine.''
        In an op-ed published by The Financial Times coinciding with the report's release, Clooney and the other five lawyers '-- Adrian Fulford, Theodor Meron, Danny Friedman, Helena Kennedy and Elizabeth Wilmhurst '-- shared that they ''engaged in an extensive process of review and analysis,'' including witness statements, expert evidence, official communications, videos and photographs to form their decision.
        The group ultimately unanimously agreed with Khan's conclusion that ''there are reasonable grounds to believe that three of Hamas's most senior leaders '-- Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh '-- have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of civilians, the taking of at least 245 hostages and acts of sexual violence committed against Israeli hostages.''
        They also found that evidence presented by Khan ''provides reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Israel's minister of defence Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity,'' which includes ''the war crime of intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the murder and persecution of Palestinians as crimes against humanity.''
        In their op-ed, the legal experts noted that the charges against the powerful figures ''have nothing to do with the reasons for the conflict,'' as their actions violate the ''long-established rules of international law that apply to armed groups and the armed forces in every state of the world.''
      BREAKING: Newly Unsealed Doc Reveals Biden FBI Authorized the Use of Deadly Force During Mar-a-Lago Raid - Armed Agents Prepared to Confront Trump | The Gateway Pundit | by Cristina Laila
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 19:45
        Joe Biden was ready to have his main political rival Donald Trump and his family killed for a publicity stunt!
        Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday unsealed numerous motions related to Jack Smith's classified documents case against Trump.
        One filing revealed Biden's FBI authorized the use of deadly force during their raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
        Tons of new unsealed filings on classified docs case''I will try to post as much as I can (there goes the workout) but this is mind-blowing.
        FBI authorized the use of deadly force at Mar-a-Lago pic.twitter.com/f0lR6UifAH
        '-- Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) May 21, 2024
        Armed FBI agents were prepared to confront Trump!!
        ''Should FPOTUS [Trump] arrive at MAL [Mar-a-Lago], FBI MM EM and OSCs will be prepared to engage with FPOTUS and USSS Security Team.''
        ''Should USSS provide resistance or interfere with FBI timeline or accesses, FBI MM EM will engage with [redacted] and [redacted] will engage with USSS POC's per existing liaison relationships.''
        Oh my God
        Armed FBI agents were preparing to confront Trump and even engage Secret Service if necessary.
        They were going to go door to door to terrorize MAL guests and even pick the locks.
        Gestapo pic.twitter.com/ViWahRIpTL
        '-- Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) May 21, 2024
        Below is a screenshot of the use of deadly force instructions.
        ''Law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force only when necessary, that is, when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person,'' the document read.
        Recall that Joe Biden paved the way for his Justice Department to arrest his political opponent after he retroactively revoked Trump's executive privilege.
        Biden revoking Trump's executive privilege opened the door for the former president to be subpoenaed '' the subpoena then opened the door for the Justice Department to charge Trump with federal crimes.
        Shortly after Trump was subpoenaed, the feds showed up to Mar-a-Lago and retrieved some documents and told the former president to put an extra lock on the storage locker.
        Two months later the FBI descended on Mar-a-Lago and rummaged through Trump's belongings without allowing any of his lawyers in the area.
        By November 2022, shortly after the Mar-a-Lago raid, Jack Smith was appointed special counsel to investigate the documents stored at Trump's Florida residence.
        By June 2023 Trump was indicted on 37 counts related to Jack Smith's classified documents case '' 31 counts for willful retention and the other 6 counts included conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, false statements and representations.
        This is a breaking story'...please check back for updates.
      Weekoverzicht #20 2024 '-- d|facto
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 19:36
        Timmermans I?In deze editie van het Weekoverzicht duiken Jeroen en Willem in het regeerakkoord van de nieuwe coalitie, dat helaas weinig meer blijkt te zijn dan oude wijn in nieuwe zakken.
        Verder richten ze hun aandacht op de internationale onrust rondom Oekra¯ne en Isral, maar met speciale focus op de recente aanslagen op de president van Slowakije en een Iers lid van het Europees Parlement, wat de noodzaak van de-escalatie onderstreept. Ze bespreken ook de controversile implicaties van het nieuwe WHO-verdrag en het frequente gebruik van de antisemitismekaart.
        Toch brengen ze ook goed nieuws: uit Macedoni komen positieve signalen en vooral uit Duitsland, waar de rechtsspraak de SIS-signalering van Abu Sittah van tafel heeft geveegd. Dit betekent een bijna gewonnen zaak voor David Icke, een uitkomst die in een echte rechtsstaat reeds vast zou staan.
        De presentatie kan je hier downloaden.
      Turning wastewater into fertilizer is feasible and could help to make agriculture more sustainable | ScienceDaily
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 19:20
        The wastewater draining from massive pools of sewage sludge has the potential to play a role in more sustainable agriculture, according to environmental engineering researchers at Drexel University. A new study, looking at a process of removing ammonia from wastewater and converting it into fertilizer, suggests that it's not only technically viable, but also could help to reduce the environmental and energy footprint of fertilizer production -- and might even provide a revenue stream for utilities and water treatment facilities.
        A Sustainable Nitrogen Source
        The production of nitrogen for fertilizer is an energy-intensive process and accounts for nearly 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions. In the last several years researchers have explored alternatives to the Haber-Bosch nitrogen production process, which has been the standard for more than a century. One promising possibility, recently raised by some water utility providers, is gleaning nitrogen from the waste ammonia pulled from water during treatment.
        "Recovering nitrogen from wastewater would be a desirable alternative to the Haber-Bosch process because it creates a 'circular nitrogen economy,'" said Patrick Gurian, PhD, a professor in the College of Engineering who helped lead the research, which was recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. "This means we are reusing existing nitrogen rather than expending energy and generating greenhouse gas to harvest nitrogen from the atmosphere, which is a more sustainable practice for agriculture and could become a source of revenue for utilities."
        A Cleaner Way to Clean
        Under the Clean Water Act of 1972 municipal water treatment facilities have been challenged to meet water quality standards for water that they discharge into waterways. Increasingly ammonia is seen as both a concern for aquatic environments as elevated levels of ammonia can result in overgrowth of vegetation in streams and rivers which can endanger fish species. The options for removing ammonia are generally time and space consuming and can be energy-intensive undertakings.
        One option being explored by several facilities in North America and Europe is a process called air-stripping. It removes ammonia by raising the temperature and pH of the water enough to convert the chemical into a gas, which can then be collected in concentrated form as ammonium sulfate.
        But deciding on making the investment to convert to air-stripping requires a complex study -- called a lifecycle analysis -- of its technological and financial viability.
        Exploring the Option
        The team, led by Gurian and Sabrina Spatari, PhD, from Technion Israel Institute of Technology, regularly perform these analyses to take stock of the full environmental and economic impact of various options for recycling and reuse of waste or side-stream products as sustainable solutions. Their analysis of this wastewater scenario suggests there is a complementary relationship that could result in a more sustainable path for both farmers and water management authorities.
        "Our analysis identifies a significant potential for environmental mitigation and economic benefit from implementing air-stripping technology at wastewater treatment plants for producing ammonia sulfate fertilizer," they wrote. "In addition to ammonia sulfate production as a marketable product, the benefit of reducing the ammonia load in the side-stream before it is recycled into the wastewater stream at the wastewater treatment plant provides an additional justification for adopting air-stripping."
        Using data from Philadelphia's water treatment facility and several others across North America and Europe, the team conducted its lifecycle assessment and economic feasibility studies. They looked at factors ranging from the cost of installing and maintaining an air-stripping system, to the concentration of ammonia and flow rate of the wastewater; to the sources of energy used to drive the collection and conversion process; to the production and transportation cost and market price of the fertilizer chemicals.
        Promising Results
        Findings of the life-cycle analysis show that air-stripping emits about five to 10 times less greenhouse gas than the Haber-Bosch nitrogen-producing process and uses about five to 15 times less energy.
        From an economic perspective, the overall cost of producing fertilizer chemicals from wastewater is low enough that the producer could sell them at a price more than 12 times lower than Haber-Bosch-produced chemicals and still break even.
        "Our study suggests that recovering ammonia can be cost-effective even at low
        concentration," they write. "Although high ammonia concentration is environmentally favorable, and can simultaneously support marginal production of ammonium sulfate with lower environmental impact, particularly for life cycle energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and several human and ecosystem health indicators, compared to the Haber-Bosch production."
        In addition, the study suggests that water treatment facilities may enjoy energy savings by air-stripping the ammonia to reduce levels before the water it reenters the waste treatment process. This is because it would cut the time and processing needed to treat the water and fits in well with softening processes that help to slow chemical deposition on the treatment plant infrastructure.
        While the team acknowledges that air-stripping would churn out fertilizer in smaller amounts than the industrial Haber-Bosch process, being able to collect and reuse any quantity of resources helps to improve the sustainability of commercial agriculture and prevents them from becoming water pollutants.
        "This indicates that air-stripping for recovery of ammonium sulfate could be a small part -- but an important step -- toward recovering and reusing the massive amount of nitrogen we use to sustain global agriculture," Spatari said. "And, significantly it presents an alternative for chemical production that does not have the same level of deleterious environmental and human health effects as the current process. This research suggests that water utility providers could also consider investing in technologies that would capture phosphorus and recycle it for agricultural use."
      Ex Facebook, Nike DEI Manager Got 5 Years in Prison for Stealing $5M
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 19:20
        A former diversity program manager at Facebook and Nike was sentenced to five years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $5 million to fund her luxury lifestyle.
        The sentence against Barbara Furlow-Smiles was announced on Monday by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
        "Furlow-Smiles shamelessly violated her position of trust as a DEI executive at Facebook to steal millions from the company utilizing a scheme involving fraudulent vendors, fake invoices, and cash kickbacks," US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said.
        Buchanan added: "After being terminated from Facebook, she brazenly continued the fraud as a DEI leader at Nike, where she stole another six-figure sum from their diversity program."
        According to the attorney's office, Furlow-Smiles began her elaborate fraud while working as a diversity, equity, and inclusion executive at Facebook from 2017 to 2021.
        In that role, she had access to the company's credit cards and the authority to make purchases and approve invoices for Facebook's vendors.
        She used her position to pay friends, family, and other associates for items and services that were never given to Facebook, according to the statement, hiding the phony expenses by filing counterfeit expenditure reports.
        Once these people received the money, they returned most of it to Furlow-Smiles in cash, either in person or sometimes by Federal Express or mail, the attorney's office said.
        It added that the so-called vendors included Furlow-Smiles' friends, relatives, interns from a former job, nannies and babysitters, a hair stylist, and even her university tutor.
        Furlow-Smiles also used the fraud to pay more than $18,000 in preschool tuition and close to $10,000 to an artist for specialty photos, it said.
        After getting fired from Facebook, she continued the fraud in her next role as DEI leader at Nike, "thinking she was untouchable," Buchanan said in a press release.
        Over six years, Furlow-Smiles used bogus charges and phony invoices to steal $4.9 million from Facebook and over $120,000 from Nike to fund a luxury lifestyle in California, Georgia, and Oregon, according to the attorney's office.
        "As a result, she not only threw away a lucrative career, but will serve time behind bars for her excessive greed," Buchanan said.
        Furlow-Smiles was also ordered to pay Facebook close to $5 million and Nike about $120,000 in restitution.
        Facebook and Nike are not the only companies to have faced issues of wire fraud.
        FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, and former Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch have been sentenced or are facing charges of wire fraud.
        The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center said it received a record 880,000 complaints of online fraud in 2023, with possible losses of over $12.5 billion.
      Donate '-- onevoicemovement
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 19:12
        Peaceworks condemns the actions of Hamas and the endless and senseless cycle of violence. For more than 20 years our organization has worked tirelessly to elevate and support the many brave Israelis and Palestinians striving to build a different reality for their societies. As the tragic events unfold in the region, we will remain laser-focused on our ultimate objective to end the conflict. Your support today will be directed to humanitarian efforts in Israel or Palestine, which you can indicate below.
        Thank you for your donation to the PeaceWorks Foundation. The OneVoice Movement is the flagship program of the PeaceWorks Foundation.
        The PeaceWorks Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non'profit organization; your contribution is fully tax-deductible by US law. Tax ID Number: 30-0102398. Wire Transfer and ACH Directions:
        Capital One Bank 1 Penn Plaza New York, NY 10119
        For account and routing information, please contact Bridget Markham at bridget@onevoicemovement.org.
        Check by Mail:
        Please make checks payable to PeaceWorks Foundation and mail to:
        OneVoice Movement244 Madison Avenue#1135New York, NY 10016
        Stock donation:
        Please contact Bridget Markham at bridget@onevoicemovement.org.For standard delivery mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service:
        Vanguard SecuritiesP.O. Box 982903El Paso, TX 79998-2903
        For trackable mail sent Registered, Certified, Priority, or Overnight:
        Vanguard Securities5951 Luckett Court, Suite A3El Paso, TX 79932
        Vanguard Securities Contact:Mr. Chris Whitney, telephone # (610) 503-3994
        Transfer represents a charitable gift deductible at the appreciated value.
      Dillo Dirt | AustinTexas.gov
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 18:58
        Compost is a soil product manufactured through the controlled aerobic, biological decomposition of biodegradable materials.
        Dillo Dirt' is compost made at Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant ( Hornsby Bend). It was the first program of its kind in the state and one of the oldest in the nation. Brush generated by City of Austin departments and residents is mixed with treated biosolids (wastewater sludge) and composted to create Dillo Dirt. The heat generated in composting (130 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit) is sufficient to virtually eliminate pathogens. After active composting for over a month, Dillo Dirt is "cured" for several months and screened to produce finished compost. Dillo Dirt is made from totally recycled materials which diverts waste from the landfill and reduces costs to citizens.
        Dillo Dirt' meets all Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ( TCEQ ) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements for unrestricted use including vegetable gardens. Like other composts, Dillo Dirt has many benefits such as reducing watering requirements and enriching the soil environment.
        You can drop off brush at the Hornsby Bend facility to be used to make Dillo Dirt. Click here for hours and instructions for drop-off.
        Important Contacts Compost Purchases Email: sales@synagro.com, Phone: 800-370-0035 Matt Niccum: mniccum@synagro.com, Phone: 936-203-7191 Dillo Dirt General Questions Email: dillodirt@austintexas.gov, Phone:512-972-1956 Dillo Dirt Uses and Application Rates Uses and application rates of Dillo Dirt compost for soil improvements Use Compostlbs per 1,000 sq ft ** (inches of depth)
        InstructionsTurfgrasses:EstablishmentSoil Incorporated1500 to 4000 lbs (1/2" - 2")Mix with top 4"-6" of soil. Use lower rate on fertile soil, higher rate on infertile soil. Surface Mulch700 to 4000 lbs(1/4" -2") Spread evenly on surface before seeding small species (Bermuda) or after seeding large seeded species (fescues.Maintenance300 to 700 lbs (1/10"-1/4")Spread evenly on surface. On cool season grasses, either apply high rate in fall or lower rate in fall and spring.
        Nursery Crop & Ornamentals(shrubs & trees)Establishment1500 to 4300 lbs(1/2"- 2 1/4")Mix with top 6"-8" of soil. Do not use where acidic-soil plants (azalea, rhodendron, etc) are to be grown).Maintenance300 to 600 lbs(1/10" - 1/5")Spread evenly on surface soil. Can be mixed into soil or used as mulch. Tree BallingUse at 50% rateMix based on compost with bark or soil.Potting Soil MixesNot more than 1/3 by volumeWater and drain mixes several times before planting to prevent salt injury to plants. Blending materials: peat, sand, perlite, vermiculite, and bark.To calculate cubic yards of Dillo Dirt' needed:area length (ft.) x width (ft.) x inches Dillo Dirt' · 324= cubic yards* Source: International Process Systems, Inc. Glastonbury, Connecticut **1,500 lbs. per 1,000 square feet is approximately equal to 1/2 inch depth of compost. Compost has a bulk density of about 1,000 lbs. per cubic yard and 40% moisture.Source: based on USDA publication ARM-NE-6, August 1979.
        Biosolids Reuse Contractor Information The City of Austin has a long-term contract with Synagro of Texas-CDR, Inc. (Synagro) for the composting of biosolids produced at Hornsby Bend. This contract was competitively bid and awarded on November 1, 2018. Synagro utilizes the Hornsby Bend facility for composting operations and produces Dillo Dirt' under Austin Water's oversight. In addition to Dillo Dirt, Synagro also produces AllGro® compost. AllGro meets all regulatory specifications for biosolids compost but is not required to meet the same quality specifications as Dillo Dirt.
        The Treatment ProcessOriginally established in the 1950's as a series of stabilization ponds used to treat biosolids from the City's wastewater plants, the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant has become an award-winning, nationally recognized biosolids recycling facility.
        Situated on 1,200 acres of land along the lower Colorado River, about eight miles east of downtown Austin, the facility is a model for innovative approaches to benefit the environment, such as reducing waste, producing compost, and protecting ecosystems.
        Biosolids (specifically primary and secondary waste-activated sludge) are pumped to Hornsby Bend from their sources at Walnut Creek and South Austin Regional wastewater treatment plants. The biosolids are then thickened by centrifuges to reduce volume and allow more time for treatment in the digesters.
        Anaerobic Digestion Once thickened, biosolids are stabilized by a process called anaerobic (without oxygen) digestion. The process occurs in eight two-million-gallon tanks called digesters. Digestion destroys more than 90% of the pathogens present in the biosolids. Methane gas is a by-product of the process and is consumed by onsite generators to produce electricity. After digestion, biosolids are thickened again by belt presses before they are composted.
        Biosolids Composting and Treated Water Reuse '‹'‹'‹'‹'‹ Water separated from the biosolids is treated in a 180-acre facultative pond system. The treated effluent is used to irrigate an onsite farm. Hay is harvested from this land by a contract farmer and the City receives a portion of the revenue. The dewatered biosolids are combined with chipped brush and composted in windrows measuring more than 500 feet long. Yard trimmings are picked up by Austin Resource Recovery (ARR) and ground into mulch at Hornsby Bend. After being ground, this material is mixed with biosolids for composting. The biological activity and heat from composting produces a stable organic product that can be safely used by the public. This compost is marketed and sold by the biosolids reuse contractor.
        Frequently Asked Questions Do you have a Donation Program? Several thousand tons of Dillo Dirt are available for donation to programs benefiting the citizens of Austin including public schools, parks, nonprofits, and other charitable organizations. The material is donated but the end user is responsible for transportation. Contact dillodirt@austintexas.gov for additional information. Is Dillo Dirt safe to use in my vegetable garden or for landscaping? Yes. Dillo Dirt meets EPA and TCEQ unrestricted use criteria, which includes use in vegetable gardens and landscaping. Why not landfill instead of recycling? Treating and recycling biosolids and yard trimmings is very beneficial to the soil. It is more cost-effective to recycle than landfill these materials. What about metals in the biosolids? Biosolids contain small quantities of metals that travel through the sewer system. The EPA and the TCEQ have established acceptable levels of metals to protect public health and the environment. Austin has a very aggressive and successful pretreatment program that monitors wastewater quality and controls industry discharges into the system. Dillo Dirt contains far less metals than the allowable maximums for unrestricted use. Some of these metals, including zinc, molybdenum, and chromium, are essential nutrients for plants.
        How do I use Dillo Dirt? Please see the tab above with application rates and usage instructions. How are my yard trimmings used for Dillo Dirt? Yard trimmings are picked up during brush bulk pickup by ARR and ground into mulch at Hornsby Bend. Other sources of brush include the public drop off located at Hornsby Bend. After being ground, this brush is mixed with biosolids and composted. Related Links: Dillo Dirt was awarded the US Composting Council Seal of Testing Assurance Check out the Texas Parks and Wildlife video; Birding in a Natural Wasteland Hornsby Bend is also nationally known for its biodiversity, ecotourism, and one of the best birding sites in Texas. Learn more about Birding and other events at Hornsby Bend.
      Terrified passengers recall moment of 'dramatic drop' on deadly Singapore Airlines flight: 'Awful experience'
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 18:55
        Terrified passengers have recalled the petrifying moment a Singapore Airlines flight took a ''dramatic drop'' due to turbulence Tuesday '-- leaving one man dead and others bloodied and screaming out in pain.
        Those on board the Boeing 777 jet said there was virtually no warning before the plane made a ''dramatic drop'' enroute from London to Singapore Tuesday afternoon.
        Passengers said there was virtually no warning before the plane made a ''dramatic drop.'' via REUTERS One passenger said there was a lot of ''head and spinal injuries.'' REUTERS''Everyone seated and not wearing seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling, some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it,'' Dzafran Azmir, a 28-year-old student, said.
        ''The crew and people inside lavatories were hurt the most because we discovered people just on the ground not able to get up,'' he continued. ''There were a lot of spinal and head injuries.''
        Another passenger, Andrew Davies, recalled how those with medical training were desperately trying to render aid '-- including to the 73-year-old British man who died on board after authorities say he suffered a heart attack.
        ''My heart goes out to the gentleman who lost his life and his poor wife. Awful experience,'' Davies, who lives in the UK, tweeted.
        ''Shouted for a defribulator [sic]. Passengers with medical training helping as much as they could. CPR on the poor gentleman that passed. Another passenger laid flat in aisle further behind me. Not sure what happened with them. Wish I could have helped more.''
        ''People's belongings scattered, coffee and water splattered the ceiling. Surreal. So many injured people. Head lacerations, bleeding ears. A lady was screaming in pain with a bad back. I couldn't help her,'' Davies added.
        Photos circulating online showed terrified passengers gripping their seats and a flight attendant bleeding from her nose in the aftermath of the turbulence.
        The passenger described the carnage he witnessed onboard the turbulent flight. Sky NewsMeanwhile, other images showed food and debris strew throughout the aircraft, as well as huge dents in the overhead bins where passengers had crashed through.
        Allison Barker, whose son Josh was onboard, recalled receiving a frightening text from him during the flight that read: ''I don't want to scare you, but I'm on a crazy flight. The plane is making an emergency landing'... I love you all.''
        ''It was terrifying,'' she told the BBC. ''I didn't know what was going on. We didn't know whether he'd survived, it was so nerve wracking. It was the longest two hours of my life. It was awful; it was petrifying.''
        Everything we know so far about the London-Singapore flight that killed 1, injured 30A 73-year-old British man was killed and more than 30 others were injured after a Singapore Airlines Boeing flight dealt with severe turbulence Tuesday.Geoff Kitchen, a 73-year-old British grandfather, was traveling on his dream vacation of a six-week tour of Asia and Australia with his wife when he died of a heart attack after the Singapore Airlines flight plunged more than 6,000 feet.The Boeing 777-300ER jet was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok at 3:45 p.m. local time, the airline said.Passengers have since detailed the terror on board, saying those who weren't wearing seatbelts were launched into the ceiling when the plane dropped abruptly. Photos circulating online showed food and debris strewn throughout the aircraft in the aftermath of the turbulence, as well as huge dents in the overhead bins.The plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok in the wake of the ordeal.
        Tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed the Boeing jet sharply dropping from an altitude of about 37,000 feet to 31,000 feet within just five minutes as it flew over the Andaman Sea.
        The plane, which was carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew, was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok in the wake of the ordeal.
        First responders rushed onboard to treat the injured, Thai officials said.
        Seven passengers were severely injured and 23 passengers and nine crew members sustained moderate injuries, Kittipong Kittikachorn, general manager of Suvarnabhumi Airport, told a news conference.
        ''Singapore Airlines offers its deepest condolences to the family of the deceased,'' the airline said in a statement. ''We deeply apologize for the traumatic experience that our passengers and crew members suffered on this flight.''
        The nationalities of the passengers included four Americans, 56 Australians, two Canadians, one German, three Indians, two Indonesians, one from Iceland, four from Ireland, one Israeli, 16 Malaysians, two from Myanmar, 23 from New Zealand, five Filipinos, 41 from Singapore, one South Korean, two Spaniards and 47 from the United Kingdom.
        With Post wires
      Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) | SKYbrary Aviation Safety
        Link to Article
        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 18:54
        DefinitionThe Inter Tropical Convergence Zone, or ITCZ, is a belt of low pressure which circles the Earth generally near the equator where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres come together. It is characterised by convective activity which generates often vigorous thunderstorms over large areas. It is most active over continental land masses by day and relatively less active over the oceans.
        The ITCZ is the band of bright white clouds that cuts across the center of the image above.
        Source: Wikicommons/NOAA
        DescriptionThe position of the ITCZ varies with the seasons, and lags behind the sun's relative position above the Earth's surface by about 1 to 2 months, and correlates generally to the thermal equator. Since water has a higher heat capacity than land (the ocean heats up more slowly than the land), the ITCZ propagates poleward more prominently over land than over water, and over the Northern Hemisphere than over the Southern Hemisphere. In July and August, over the Atlantic and Pacific, the ITCZ is between 5 and 15 degrees north of the Equator, but further north over the land masses of Africa and Asia. In eastern Asia, the ITCZ may propagate up to 30 degrees north of the Equator. In January, over the Atlantic, the ITCZ generally sits no further south than the Equator, but extends much further south over South America, Southern Africa, and Australia. Over land, the ITCZ tends to follow the sun's zenith point.
        Position of the intertropical convergence zone in January (in blue) and in July (in red). Source: Wikicommons. Author Mats Halldin, 13 Dec 2006.
        Where the trade winds are weak, the ITCZ is characterised by isolated Cumulus (Cu) and Cumulonimbus (Cb) (Cb) cells. However, where the trade winds are stronger, the ITCZ can spawn a solid line of active Cb cells embedded with other cloud types developing as a result of instability at higher levels. Cb tops can reach and sometimes exceed an altitude of 55,000 feet, and the ITCZ can be as wide as 300 nautical miles in places presenting a formidable obstacle to aircraft transit.
        Tropical Cyclone FormationAs the ITCZ migrates to tropical and subtropical latitudes and even beyond during the respective hemisphere's summer season, increasing Coriolis force makes the formation tropical cyclones within this zone more possible. Surges of higher pressure from high latitudes can enhance tropical disturbances along its axis.
        Threats to Flight SafetyAircraft flying through an active ITCZ (strong trade winds) will probably encounter some or all of the hazards associated with Cb clouds such as icing, turbulence, lightning, and wind shear. However, it is in this zone that the most severe effects may often be encountered. In particular, it is within the ITCZ that convective breakthroughs of the tropopause often occur, with the majority occurring over land, especially in the second half of each day. Convective penetration of the tropopause is less common over oceanic areas where the phenomenon is more likely to occur in the early hours of each day, generating more isolated cells. Research sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration has shown that 1% of tropical deep convective activity exceeds 46,000 ft altitude, with a small proportion of this reaching much greater heights. For further information on the potential hazards of transit through or near Cb cloud, see the article Cumulonimbus (Cb).
        Even at the altitudes flown by modern jet air transport aircraft, it is likely that minor adjustments to route will be required to avoid either passing through or above significant convective build-ups. Turboprop aircraft are unlikley to be able to climb over such convection activity and weather avoidance actions can take aircraft significantly off track. It is therefore prudent to carry additional contingency fuel forweather avoidance and icing.
        Related ArticlesTrade WindsTropical Revolving StormWeather Radar: Storm AvoidanceFurther Reading"Global distribution of convection penetrating the tropical tropopause": Liu and Zipser, University of Utah, 2005.
      How UW scientists tried to avoid reporting a virus research accident
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        Archived Version
        Tue, 21 May 2024 15:42
        This exclusive article is adapted from former USA TODAY investigative reporter Alison Young's forthcoming book "Pandora's Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk," which will be released April 25. In this excerpt, Young reveals for the first time details of a December 2019 lab safety breach involving one of the world's most infamous lab-created ''gain of function'' viruses '' and the efforts that were made to downplay the event, avoid notifying health authorities and oversight bodies, and keep the public and policymakers in the dark.
        Inside the high-security Influenza Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, two experienced scientists were pulling ferrets out of their HEPA-filtered cages on a Monday in December 2019. Another researcher, still in training, was also in the room to watch and learn.
        One by one, the animals were put into a biosafety cabinet, where a solution was washed into their nostrils. It's a procedure used to collect evidence of infection, and this particular experiment involved exposing the animals to a highly controversial lab-engineered strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus.
        The virus they were working with that day was far from ordinary, and there should have been no room for the safety breach that was about to happen and the oversight failures that followed.
        The experiment underway involved one of two infamous lab-made bird flu viruses that had alarmed scientists around the world when their creation became widely known nearly a decade earlier. In each case, scientists had taken an avian influenza virus that was mostly dangerous to birds and manipulated it in ways that potentially increased its threat to humans.
        In nature, the H5N1 virus has rarely infected humans. But when people have been sickened, usually through close contact with infected birds, more than half died. So it is fortunate that the H5N1 virus isn't capable of spreading easily from person to person. If the virus were ever to evolve in ways that gave it that ability, it could cause a devastating pandemic.
        Opinions in your inbox:Get exclusive access to our columnists and the best of our columns
        'Gain of function' research created controversial flu virusesAnd yet in late 2011 the world learned that two scientific teams '' one in Wisconsin, led by virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka, and another in the Netherlands, led by virologist Ron Fouchier '' had potentially pushed the virus in that direction. Each of these labs had created H5N1 viruses that had gained the ability to spread through the air between ferrets, the animal model used to study how flu viruses might behave in humans.
        The ultimate goal of this work was to help protect the world from future pandemics, and the research was supported with words and funding by two of the most prominent scientists in the United States: Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
        Kawaoka contended it would be ''irresponsible not to study'' how the virus might evolve in nature. ''Some people have argued that the risks of such studies '' misuse and accidental release, for example '' outweigh the benefits. I counter that H5N1 viruses circulating in nature already pose a threat,'' he said at the time.
        Yet these groundbreaking scientific feats set off a heated international debate over the ethics and safety of ''gain of function'' research. The controversy continues to this day.
        Concerns about the safety of biological research have taken on heightened urgency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and growing acceptance of the possibility that it was caused by a lab accident in China. In February, it was revealed that analysts at the U.S. Department of Energy had joined the FBI in leaning toward a lab accident as the most likely source of the pandemic, though other U.S. intelligence agencies lean toward a natural origin or are undecided.
        Where's the apology?:COVID may have leaked out of a Chinese lab after all. So much for 'misinformation.'
        Former U.S. surgeon general:We'll never know the full truth about COVID-19 origins. Political infighting won't help.
        The story of how the H5N1 viruses came to be created '' and how the University of Wisconsin and the Kawaoka lab would later respond to the 2019 safety breach during the ferret experiment '' raises uncomfortable questions about the tremendous trust the world places in these kinds of labs.
        We are trusting that every hour of every day their layers of laboratory containment equipment are working properly, that all of their employees are sufficiently trained, qualified and attentive, and that their written safety and incident response protocols are followed in real-life practice.
        When something goes wrong, we are trusting that the labs will immediately notify local public health officials who are responsible for preventing outbreaks and the federal authorities who oversee the safety of experiments with genetically engineered organisms.
        Given that so much about this work is shrouded in secrecy, what happened in Wisconsin raises the question: Should the public give this trust blindly?
        'Miscommunication' over quarantine alarmed NIH a decade agoIn 2013, six years before the 2019 safety incident with the ferret experiment at Kawaoka's lab in Wisconsin, another member of his research team accidentally pierced their finger with a needle that had an engineered H5N1 virus on it.
        It was a moment of poor judgment, human error around 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16, 2013, that set off a series of emergency calls that would eventually raise concerns in the nation's capital.
        An expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told officials at Wisconsin's state health department that while the likelihood the scientist would develop symptoms of H5N1 was ''low,'' the needlestick ''should be considered a serious exposure'' and treated aggressively. The chief medical officer at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services told the university that the researcher would need to quarantine for seven days and take a treatment-level dose of Tamiflu twice a day for 10 days.
        Six months earlier, while seeking funding and approval for the controversial experiments, Kawaoka had assured officials at the National Institutes of Health that the university had a designated quarantine apartment.
        But it turned out that wasn't the case.
        So lab officials told the researcher's family to pack up their belongings and go to a hotel. And the injured researcher was sent to quarantine at home.
        Officials in the NIH office responsible for overseeing research with engineered organisms were alarmed to learn that the university didn't have a dedicated quarantine facility for such emergencies.
        ''This policy is not what was communicated to us in Dr. Kawaoka's application to perform research with mammalian transmissible strains of H5N1,'' wrote Dr. Jacqueline Corrigan-Curay, acting director of the NIH Office of Biotechnology Activities, in a letter to the university.
        A researcher's home, the NIH told the university, was not an appropriate quarantine site for Kawaoka's high-risk studies because influenza viruses can be transmissible through the air, and many residences are in high-occupancy buildings, like apartments, that share air exchange and other infrastructure.
        Trying to provide an explanation, university officials told NIH there had been a ''miscommunication'' between Kawaoka and the university's administration. Wisconsin officials noted that the needlestick was not expected to put the researcher at high risk of infection, and that this engineered virus ''was determined not to be a mammalian-transmissible strain.''
        The scientist with the needlestick completed quarantine without showing symptoms or becoming ill.
        But even if a high-risk incident occurred with a more dangerous strain, UW officials told the NIH, the lab worker would still be quarantined at home.
        Could an accident have caused COVID-19?:Why the Wuhan lab-leak theory shouldn't be dismissed
        'I remember it very well':Dr. Fauci describes a secret 2020 meeting to talk about COVID origins
        It was a stunning change by the university to a critical safeguard that federal officials thought was in place for the Kawaoka lab's research. The NIH demanded the university find a dedicated quarantine facility outside of workers' residences, such as a hospital isolation room, or face the suspension or termination of its grant funding, correspondence shows.
        The university didn't want to use the UW Hospital as a quarantine site.
        Their concerns included that researchers might be unwilling to come forward about potential exposures if they faced being confined in hospital isolation rooms. The university and its medical team also worried about the increased potential for the public to learn about its lab accidents, noting in correspondence that ''it would be much harder to control the spread of information and as a result there would be a higher probability of incorrect information being told to (the) general public and potentially members of the media.''
        The university eventually agreed to NIH's demands. And on Dec. 24, 2013, the NIH gave its approval for Kawaoka's lab to resume its research manipulating H5N1 virus strains that were transmissible to mammals.
        Safety concerns led to US pause on 'gain of function' studiesBy 2014, there was a growing discomfort at the highest levels of the U.S. government about the risk of an accident with an engineered virus.
        Wisconsin's needlestick incident, which drew questions within NIH but wasn't publicly known, was soon followed by a series of high-profile accidents at federal labs in 2014 '' from safety breaches with anthrax and avian influenza at the CDC to the discovery of forgotten vials of smallpox that had been kept for decades in a storage room on the NIH campus.
        In October 2014, citing these federal lab incidents, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced a moratorium on new federal funding for certain gain-of-function research while the risks and benefits of the controversial experiments were studied.
        The funding pause remained in place for three years until it was finally lifted in December 2017. But it was only in 2019 that some of the halted experiments were quietly allowed to begin again under a revised federal oversight process, which was criticized for keeping secret the details of the new experiments and the basis for the government approvals.
        The Kawaoka lab was one of the first to receive approval and NIH funding.
        Not long after the Kawaoka lab was greenlighted in 2019 to resume work with its infamous lab-created H5N1 influenza virus '' the one that had helped spark the worldwide debate over gain-of-function research '' there was an accident.
        And in the days and weeks that followed, efforts were made to downplay the significance of the event, avoid notifying public health officials and oversight bodies, and keep the public and policymakers in the dark.
        A lot was at stake.
        Not only would the incident draw attention to safety issues at the UW lab, but it also would raise larger questions about the rigor and effectiveness of how the U.S. government was overseeing the riskiest experiments in which scientists are creating enhanced pathogens with pandemic potential.
        More clues could be found:Deleted COVID-19 genetic fingerprints show it's still possible to dig for lab leak evidence
        Scientist's air hose detached in lab while working with engineered virusWhen the accident happened on Dec. 9, 2019, Kawaoka's three scientists were working in an enhanced biosafety level 3 agriculture lab suite at the University of Wisconsin's Influenza Research Institute.
        This facility had been built specifically for Kawaoka's research and featured labs with negative air pressure, watertight and airtight seals, double HEPA-filtered exhaust air and redundant air handling systems.
        The experiment they were performing involved a virus whose name describes the components of its engineering: VN1203HA(N158D/N224K/ Q226L/T318I)/CA04. It was the virus described in Kawaoka's controversial H5N1 gain-of-function experiments that had been published nearly eight years earlier, the NIH would later confirm in written responses to my questions.
        It was the virus that had gained the concerning ability to spread between ferrets and had raised fears it could do this among humans.
        On that December day, two experienced researchers from Kawaoka's team were helping train a colleague as they collected samples from ferrets. The animals were part of a transmission experiment and had been in contact with other ferrets infected with this engineered H5N1 virus or another wild-type flu strain.
        The three scientists wore several layers of personal protection equipment. One of their most important pieces of personal protective equipment was the air-purifying respirator that each wore to ensure they didn't breathe any air from inside the laboratory. Even though they were using a biosafety cabinet, there was always the potential for virus to be present in the room's air.
        These kinds of high-tech respirators encase workers' heads in a protective hood with a clear face-plate. A blower attached to a belt delivers purified air through what looks like a vacuum cleaner hose that runs up the scientist's back and attaches to the hood behind their head.
        Labs are responsible for training workers how to properly assemble and use this kind of equipment.
        As one of the senior researchers prepared to start collecting samples from the next round of ferrets, the trainee realized there was a problem with their respirator.
        The powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR) hose had somehow disconnected from the unit that supplied safe, filtered air. Instead, the detached hose dangled loose in the lab's potentially contaminated air.
        The hose was ''immediately'' reconnected, Wisconsin officials later said, and one of the experienced researchers radioed out to the lab's operations manager as the trainee began the process of exiting the lab, incident records show.
        The trainee was initially told to follow the lab's quarantine procedure to keep them from spreading the virus if they were infected. The university would later say this was done ''out of an abundance of caution.'' But at some point, a lab compliance official released the worker from quarantine.
        It is unclear whether this quarantine release happened within minutes, hours or days of the incident. Nor is it clear whether university officials first consulted with any public health and oversight agencies.
        Kawaoka and university officials wouldn't agree to be interviewed and provided little information in response to my questions.
        State and local health officials weren't notified about lab accidentIf there were ever a virus requiring that everyone follow safety and incident reporting rules, this was it. The system of oversight in place that day had been created in response to the international furor over this very virus.
        Yet, after the trainee's respirator hose disconnected in December 2019, the university didn't notify local or state public health officials about the incident or consult with them before discontinuing the trainee's quarantine, despite representations going back years indicating this would occur following ''any potential exposure.''
        The university says it didn't need to notify them. That's because UW officials, in consultation with the university's health experts, made their own determination that no potential exposure had occurred.
        Officials at Public Health Madison & Dane County, the local health department, told me they defer to the university's judgment and expertise when it comes to lab safety issues. The department said it ''does not need to be notified of something that was determined to not be a significant exposure. It is also not incumbent on us to further evaluate whether there was a significant exposure, if UW reports that there was not.''
        The university also didn't immediately alert other key oversight entities that the public relies upon to ensure the safety of this kind of particularly risky research.
        UW officials waited two months '' until Feb. 10, 2020 '' to file a report that should have been made immediately to the NIH Office of Science Policy, which oversees U.S. research with genetically manipulated organisms like the engineered H5N1 influenza virus involved in the experiment.
        Records show the university's internal biosafety committee, which had approved the Kawaoka lab's research, wasn't ''apprised'' of the Dec. 9, 2019, incident until Feb. 5, 2020.
        The university was less slow in reporting the incident to the federal funding officials at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which provided the grant for the controversial experiments. But UW still waited 10 days '' until Dec. 19, 2019 '' to report the incident to NIAID program staff, according to information provided to me in writing by NIH officials.
        The grant's terms required immediate notification in the event of an ''illness or exposure.'' It was UW's contention, however, that ''neither of the two criteria were met'' because there was ''no reasonable risk of virus exposure,'' NIH officials told me. When the university eventually notified grant officials, it said it was doing so ''in the spirit of transparency and responsible conduct of research,'' the NIH said.
        UW officials, who for months wouldn't answer many of my questions about the incident, eventually said that Kawaoka ''informed his program officer at NIH in early December,'' before following up with an incident summary on Dec. 19.
        As I pressed NIH to reconcile the agency's statement with UW's account, a few more details emerged. NIH said that the first time UW contacted anyone at the agency was on Dec. 12, 2019 '' three days after the incident. That's when UW first requested a phone call from an NIAID program officer. A first discussion about the incident happened on Dec. 13, and on Dec. 16, during a follow-up discussion, NIAID staff asked UW to send in a written description of the incident.
        Both NIAID Director Anthony Fauci and NIAID Principal Deputy Director Hugh Auchincloss ''were briefed about the incident,'' the NIH said in a written response to my questions. But NIH would not tell me when Fauci and Auchincloss were briefed or whether they provided guidance on how the UW incident should be handled.
        UW officials said Kawaoka's lab immediately reported the incident to the CDC's select agent lab regulators. But the university didn't answer my questions about why the incident was immediately reported to the CDC '' and not NIH '' given UW's stated position that there wasn't any potential exposure.
        It is unclear whether Kawaoka's team consulted the CDC in advance of the university's decision to release the researcher from quarantine. CDC officials '' including Dr. Samuel Edwin, who heads the select agent program '' didn't answer my questions about this.
        University notified federal oversight team 2 months after lab accidentWhen the university finally notified the NIH Office of Science Policy about the ferret incident '' two months after it happened '' UW officials unsuccessfully tried to justify their significant delay by saying the incident was ''not reportable '' because even though the trainee's PAPR tube had detached, in their view there was ''no potential exposure.''
        The university's justifications, records show, included that the ferrets had been handled inside a biosafety cabinet and that the contact ferrets had been exposed to infected ferrets for only about 24 hours ''and were not shedding virus yet.''
        The university also told NIH officials that ''the air the observer would have breathed during the few seconds the hose was disconnected would have come from inside the PAPR hood, which would have been HEPA- filtered before the hose disconnected.''
        The lab's report to the NIH doesn't say how they determined this.
        The reason UW finally told the NIH oversight office about the incident was because lab regulators at the Federal Select Agent Program '' as well as the NIH office that funded the research '' ''recommended'' it be reported.
        The report UW finally submitted to the NIH Office of Science Policy includes the following notation: ''*Confidential '' do not release this information without written authorization of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.''
        What were the consequences of UW's delayed reporting of the incident? The NIH Office of Science Policy told me it ''reminded the institution about its reporting responsibilities,'' and ''noted that it should have been immediately reported to OSP.''
        If NIH delivered that message, UW officials say they never heard it. ''This is certainly the kind of information we would have remembered or recorded in notes taken at the time,'' a UW spokesperson said by email.
        UW repeatedly pointed to a short email from an NIH analyst thanking the university for its Feb. 10, 2020, report and adding that ''the actions taken in response to this incident appear appropriate.'' NIH says this email referred only to UW's ''biosafety actions,'' not to the university's failure to file an immediate report.
        In the end, the trainee apparently didn't become infected. But how the university and the lab oversight system handled the incident should be cause for concern.
        ''It is all too easy to sensationalize this research, to misconstrue events, and misrepresent the nature of incidents rightfully reported by institutions to regulatory agencies,'' said Kelly Tyrrell, UW's director of media relations, in a email that spoke in broad brushstrokes about the importance of research, the humanity of researchers, and how sometimes there can be differences in interpretations of incident reporting requirements and about regulations.
        Tyrrell said that UW takes safety seriously, and that the Kawaoka lab has never had an incident where public health or safety have been put at risk.
        ''There are few people in the world trained to understand the nature of the pathogens involved, the biosafety and biosecurity measures in place and the protocols developed and followed,'' Tyrrell continued. ''Most people are also not equipped to appropriately evaluate the risk. It is unfortunate that some seek to capitalize on this knowledge gap.''
        Alison Young is an investigative reporter in Washington, D.C., and serves as the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting for the University of Missouri School of Journalism. From 2009 to 2019, she was a reporter and member of USA TODAY's national investigative team. She has reported on laboratory accidents for 15 years. Her first book, "Pandora's Gamble: Lab Leaks, Pandemics, and a World at Risk," is scheduled for release on April 25.
      Farmers v Biden The Breaking Farm Credit Fiasco That Nobody is Prepared For
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        Archived Version
        Mon, 20 May 2024 14:06
        MAY 18, 2024 '' America's farmers, and farmlands are facing a multi-pronged attack from within the governing structures meant to protect the nation's food supply. The Beef Initiative has worked to outline the economic, regulatory, and private interests that are currently driving rural communities out of business. Now, a developing story helps to piece together another vital component of the total picture.
        Tennessee rancher and agricultural attorney Dustin Kittle, has just filed a lawsuit against President Joseph Biden for alleged failures to execute his duties as POTUS. According to the filing, and Congressional Research Council reports, Biden has failed to appoint two of the three-member board required for the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) to function.
        During the Trump administration, former banking specialist Rodney Brown had been tapped to serve as a member of the FCA Board. The Senate Agriculture Committee sat on Brown's appointment for two full years, finally returning Brown's nomination to Donald Trump once Biden took office.
        Donate to the I AM TEXAS SLIM FOUNDATION 501(c)(3) to support our work!
        Jeff Hall, whom Trump had appointed Brown to replace, is now the longest sitting member in the history of the FCA board, serving a twice expired term under Biden. Without an acting Board the FCA has not conducted proper oversight in over three years. Unfortunately, this non-functioning regulatory Board is tasked with overseeing the farm credit system and all of its lending institutions across the country.
        Unfortunately, this non-functioning regulatory Board is tasked with overseeing the farm credit system and all of its lending institutions across the country.
        According to the allegations, Kittle and other farmers have been extorted by threats to take their farmlands without remedy or oversight from the FCA.
        Dustin Kittle represents multiple clients who have loans at the farmer-owned co-op association known as Alabama Farm Credit. As a condition of lending, farmers are required to buy $1,000 dollars in stocks of the Alabama Farm Credit, making them stockholders and co-owners. The Alabama Farm Credit, as an institution, is prohibited from holding deposits, a condition of the federal law that governs the charter.
        Although the loans are often backed by the U.S. government, similar to student loans, farm credit has been allowed to take collateral'--a ton of collateral.
        In the late 1990's, regulators created an ambiguity in the law that allowed farm credit institutions to begin a program called a ''voluntary advance conditional funds held account.'' Unfortunately, nothing about it was actually voluntary.
        This careful use of legal language effectively allowed non-deposit farm credit institutions to condition the underwriting of loans for poultry farmers upon 33 to 65 percent assignments, paid from companies like Tyson or Pilgrim's Pride (USDA certified poultry tournaments) directly to the lending institution.
        On a 50 percent assignment, Tyson would cut two checks; one directly to the farmer for 50%, and the other to Farm Credit for the other half of the proceeds. According to Farm Credit, these forward payments helped to mitigate interest. The reality is likely closer to covering liquidity shortfalls, as the farm credit system appears to have been in financial trouble for some years.
        In 2021, these accounts suddenly disappeared without prior notice. One of Kittle's clients, a poultry farmer, is paid ahead by more than two years on his loan, yet he cannot access that money.
        Overnight, Alabama Farm Credit took an estimated 20-40 million dollars and moved that into the bank's general fund. Farmers, who must make upgrades to their poultry houses in order to remain in compliance with USDA, and now EPA regulations, are unable to access their own money in order to stay in the tournament system.
        Support America's farmers with the Feeding Forward Collection from The Beef Initiative and Beef News. Tennessee rancher Dustin Kittle's lawsuit against President Biden underscores the need for stronger oversight to protect farmers. Each purchase from this curated collection invests in rural communities and donates 30% to the I Am Texas Slim Foundation 501(c)(3), nurturing the next generation of farmers and ranchers. Enjoy delicious beef while making a positive impact. Shop now and help shape the future!
        Over A Barrel and Over Collateralized
        Farm Credit has now begun offering farmers high interest, variable rate loans at 10 percent or higher, so long as they pledge their properties as collateral. Unregulated by any banking oversight, or regulatory agency, Alabama Farm Credit has allegedly conducted appraisals in-house, drastically undervalued property, and at times, has cross-collateralized the properties of family members'--liening farms owned free and clear.
        According to court filings, during the Covid pandemic, Farm Credit began placing these loans in distressed status, even when a Farmer had never missed a single payment.
        According to FCA criteria, loans or lines of credit, can be placed into distressed status for any number of reasons. Perhaps an avian flu outbreak threatens your ability to pay your loan, or a fire rips through your herd, like it's done much of the Texas panhandle. Distressed status is the only option to restructure a loan under FCA regulations.
        Criteria for distressed loans outline two options available for the farmer;
        Distressed option to restructure Distressed notice of Farm Credit's option to foreclose in 45 days. According to annual stockholder reports, Alabama Farm Credit did not approve a single restructure of a loan from 2020-2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Alabama Farm Credit's CEO and executive staff, who have given themselves raises, and six-figure bonuses without approval from farmer stockholders, have now hired the largest law firm in the state with stakeholder dollars to pursue option 2.
        Filings indicate that farmers are sent a notice of distress on their loans, the first step to a Farm Credit foreclosure. Accounts are then turned over to Bradley Arant, the law firm, who is paid hourly with the farmer-stockholders' own money'--including the stolen funds from poultry farmers. The firm is contracted by the Farm Credit executives to negotiate with distressed farmers and take a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
        In that negotiation with the distressed farmer the lawyer demands a release of liability for future legal claims, and a non-disclosure agreement to keep farmers quiet.
        Essentially, what amounts to the extortion of farmers, has gone completely unchecked by the Farm Credit Administration, due to a non-functioning board, and egregious conflicts of interest.
        Foreign Ownership of US Farmland
        According to the most recent 2022 USDA report on Ag lands, 43.4 million acres of all U.S. farmlands, and 909,000 of non agricultural lands, are now owned by foreign interests.
        Since 2017, when things began to go off the rails at the FCA, ''foreign holdings have increased an average of nearly 2.9 million acres, ranging from 2.4 million acres to 3.4 acres per year.'' Also since 2017, the FCA has not made a single determination in favor of a farmer complaint against a Farm Credit lending institution.
        What began as a simple loan restructuring, may uncover, perhaps, the most egregious and predatory lending scandal this country has yet to fully feel the effects of. All of which, leads back to the FCA, Biden's failure to appoint a functioning FCA board, and special interests blocking a Trump era appointment in the Senate Agriculture Committee.
        Akin to the 2008 Freddie-Fannie fiasco, the Farm Credit scandal could have resounding impacts on America's food security, national security, and global commodity markets.
        This article is part of a developing story. Make sure to like and subscribe to get updates and, if you appreciate our work, please consider a monthly donation to the I Am Texas Slim Foundation. Your generous contributions help us to keep farmers and ranchers feeding America.
        Donate to the I AM TEXAS SLIM FOUNDATION 501(c)(3) to support our work!
        BeefNews.org is a project from The Beef Initiative and the I Am Texas Slim Foundation 501(c)(3). Subscribe below for updates, analyses, and editorials from The Beef Initiative and its partners.
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      VIDEO - New details emerge on Singapore flight hit by extreme turbulence - YouTube
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      VIDEO - Speaker Johnson: Congress reviewing possible actions against ICC after Israel arrest warrants - YouTube
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      VIDEO - Video 'It is time' to help Ukraine hit bases in Russia: Victoria Nuland - ABC News
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        ABC News' Martha Raddatz interviews Victoria Nuland on ''This Week.''May 19, 2024
      VIDEO - Why Israel is in deep trouble: John Mearsheimer with Tom Switzer - YouTube
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      VIDEO - Port gates open after software glitches; no cyber issue detected, SC Ports says
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        CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Ports Authority said the gates have opened and operations are online more than a day after software problems halted operations.
        Officials said the operating systems were running at 11 a.m. Tuesday and ships were being unloaded. Cargo pick-up and drop-offs are now accepted at all marine terminals and Inland Port Greer, Ports spokesperson Laura Clifton said.
        The ports will extend gates until 7 p.m. at the Wando and North Charleston terminals to help support motor carriers and cargo owners, she said.
        But she denied any evidence of a cyber incident being involved in the trouble.
        ''Our security operations center detected no cyber issue around the time the event occurred and our system vendor has confirmed a technical issue occurred with the system,'' she said.
        At 7:30 a.m. Tuesday the Ports Authority was having issues bringing the gate systems back online.
        ''As SC Ports continues to bring systems back online, we are working through some issues bringing our gate systems back up,'' the website states. ''While we work through this, no cargo pick up or drop off will occur during this time.''
        Originally, officials had hoped to reopen the ports by 8 a.m. Tuesday after a software issue forced the ports to remain closed Monday.
        It's the latest in a series of delays that began Sunday night.
        ''SC Ports is working diligently to reintroduce systems following a vendor software issue that impacted a server,'' its website states. ''Work is progressing, and we are reintroducing systems as they become available.''
        Monday night they said they planned to extend gate hours to handle the flow of cargo. Those times have not yet been shared.
        Port officials said on Sunday a software issue was affecting a server but it did not appear to be a cybersecurity issue. Earlier over the weekend, they said they hoped the ports would reopen by midday Monday. In a 1:30 p.m. update, port officials said no cargo pick-up or drop-off would occur.
        The SCDOT advised that traffic delays in and around the area are possible, especially during peak travel periods. Those who travel on Interstate 526 should plan ahead or seek alternate routes for their morning commutes.
        ''We are focused on resuming operations expeditiously and delivering excellent port service to our ocean carrier and cargo owner customers,'' its website states. ''We appreciate the support of our maritime partners and the broader community.''
        For more information, click here.
        Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.
      VIDEO - Trump social media post associated with Nazi Germany sparks backlash - YouTube
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      VIDEO - We're 'at least a decade away' from solving AI, says NYU Professor Gary Marcus - YouTube
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