Global Reportage: Unbiased and Uncensored News: Recent Episodes

Global Reportage

Global Reportage brings you the latest developing stories, breaking news, features and analysis from Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and America. Buy me coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/globalreportage

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. All the content used in this audio recording belong to their respective owner. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Biden administration has now begun releasing Chinese illegal aliens into the U.S., according to reports.

Fox News captured Border Patrol releasing Chinese nationals to an NGO in Brownsville, Texas on Tuesday.

“CBP sources say they are being released w NTAs (notices to appear) because there are so many crossing and no more space to house them,” reported Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins.

FOX News captures exclusive video of Chinese nationals being released publicly to an NGO in Brownsville, TX. CBP sources say they are being released w NTAs (notices to appear) because there are so many crossing and no more space to house them

Jenkins over the weekend reported that a group of Chinese nationals were apprehended at the Rio Grande Valley border.

FOX News cameras were rolling as more Chinese nationals illegally cross into the RGV sector this morning… this group of 5 would not say how much they paid to smugglers. The RGV sector seeing a more than 900% increase in Chinese nationals since last year

The region has also seen a 900% spike in Chinese nationals crossing the border.

The CBP Nationwide Encounters report shows a massive spike in Chinese nationals in 2023 compared to the last three previous years.

According to the report, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 5,000 Chinese nationals just between October 1, 2022, and February 28, 2023.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Gloria Chavez claimed CBP apprehended 90 Chinese nationals illegally entering the U.S. last Thursday, the largest one-day apprehension of Chinese nationals at the border since 2010.

Cartels have reportedly tapped into the Chinese smuggling market and charge them triple what they charge other migrants because they’re coming from an industrialized first world nation.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://globalreportage524084185.wordpress.com/2023/03/25/biden-administration-is-releasing-horde-of-chinese-illegal-aliens-into-u-s/

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/freedom-reportage/support

We’ve heard many heartbreaking stories of American tourists venturing into Mexico only to be kidnapped or, worse, killed in crazy cartel drug war battles. It appears these days, no one is safe across the southern border, not even US-owned companies.

Bloomberg reported that Mexican marines and police officers seized US construction firm Vulcan Materials’ port terminal near Playa del Carmen in southern Mexico.

Footage from the seizure showed a long line of police and military units entering the property last Tuesday.

In a statement, Vulcan Materials claimed that Mexican officials did not possess any legal documentation to warrant the seizure of the terminal.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://globalreportage524084185.wordpress.com/2023/03/25/us-firms-no-longer-safe-in-mexico-as-mexican-army-seizes-us-owned-marine-terminal/

--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/freedom-reportage/support

Over the weekend, amid populist howls of outrage that a bailout of SVB would promote moral hazard (in the end depositors did get bailed out with a full recovery, but other unsecured creditors oddly enough would get nothing, while the common stock is a doughnut), we said that while technically true, the events that toppled SVB and now SBNY as well, are really a subsidy for the big banks.

Many view what’s happening as a question of moral hazard and a bailout of small banks. It’s really a subsidy of big banks: JPM was solidly green in Friday’s rout https://t.co/GAlJJ2iSLI— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 12, 2023

Today, one day after many small banks nearly failed amid a surge in deposit outflows, we read that “after the back-to-back collapse of three smaller banks, their biggest US counterparts are seeing a rush of depositors fearful the crisis will spread.”

According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan – or as we now call it JPMega – the largest US bank and about to become much, much bigger, alone received billions of dollars in recent days, and Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co. are also seeing higher-than-usual volume.

“The top six banks in the US are and have been too big to fail, the financial crisis over 10 years ago demonstrated that,” Michael Imerman, an assistant professor at the University of California Irvine’s business school, told Bloomberg. “So it’s safer to go with a name with higher degree of certainty.”

Other banks are seeing increased deposit inflows as well. Citizens Financial Group Inc. announced Monday that it “has seen higher than normal interest from prospective new customers over the past few days,” and that it would temporarily extend branch hours to accommodate.

Confirming BBG reporting, the FT writes that “Large US banks are inundated with new depositors as smaller lenders face turmoil“, which of course means that small bank deposits are getting drained.

so… small financial institutions are losing deposits quickly https://t.co/suZVs39Rkm— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 14, 2023

According to the FT report, “large US banks are being inundated with requests from customers trying to transfer funds from smaller lenders, as the failure of Silicon Valley Bank results in what executives say is the biggest movement of deposits in more than a decade.”

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://globalreportage524084185.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/too-big-to-fail-banks-flooded-with-billion-of-dollars-in-deposits-as-small-bank-run-out-of-cash/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

As Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin once observed, “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

The bailout package for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) introduced by US authorities shows that capitalism in America is “breaking down before our eyes,” billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin has reportedly stated.

“The US is supposed to be a capitalist economy, and that’s breaking down before our eyes,” Griffin told a major British business journal during an interview on Monday.

The statement came just one day after American regulators promised that all SVB customers — including those who had invested more than the $250,000 limit guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) — will be reimbursed in light of the bank’s collapse.

Warning that there’s “been a loss of financial discipline with the government bailing out depositors in full,” Griffin put the blame on regulators, who he said were “the definition of being asleep at the wheel.”

If the Biden administration had simply let the banks fail and only backstopped federally-insured accounts, it would have been “a great lesson in moral hazard,” according to the billionaire.

Griffin is far from the only influential investor to blast the decision to bail out bankers who decided to bet the farm on the prospect that low interest rates would last for years.

“What effectively happened over the weekend is that [Biden] nationalized the American banking system,” Canadian businessman and Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary told a mainstream US outlet on Monday.

“It’s no longer a risk, it’s no longer private in any sense. It is now backstopped by the government, ultimately, the taxpayer. So, it doesn’t matter how bad you are as a bank manager.”

O’Leary had previously blasted SVB’s “negligent board of directors” and “idiot management” for the financial fiasco, asking on social media on Sunday, “why should taxpayers bail them out?”

A senior Treasury spokesperson insisted Sunday that average Americans wouldn’t end up footing the bill for the bailout:

“For the banks that were put into receivership, the FDIC will use funds from the Deposit Insurance Fund to ensure that all of its depositors are made whole. … The Deposit Insurance Fund is bearing the risk. … This is not funds from the taxpayer.”

But according to conservative American commentator Liz Wheeler, that’s simply not the case.

“The FDIC bailout IS a bailout,” she wrote on Twitter Monday. “It’s not directly from taxpayers. But FDIC is composed of banks. Those banks will foot the bailout bill. Then they’ll pass that cost to consumers. That’s you.”

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://globalreportage524084185.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/american-capitalism-breaking-down-before-our-eyes-us-billionaire-warns/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

The average household no longer has any practical wealth, says billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who also said inflation is the worst thing an economy can have.

Responding to the Silicon Valley Bank fiasco, Icahn pointed out the American economy is “breaking down.”

“We’ve been on a spending spree and the rising tide the tide lifts all ships, but a lot of people in our economy are not doing well obviously,” Icahn said on Tuesday. “The net worth of the median household is nothing basically and you you just look at what is going on, I think Powell really has to raise interest rates sooner or later.”

“Inflation is the worst thing an economy can have, and I think people underrate that,” Icahn added. “…You’ve gone out on a binge, you’ve spent the family wealth, and you just keep spending.”

“At the end, you pay the price for it, and that’s what this country has done.”

During another appearance on Fox Business, Icahn warned that the SVB collapse was a sign of things to come.

“When things are good, the rising tide lift all boats. But when things start going down, then you see who’s naked,” he told Fox Business on Monday. “You’re going to see a lot of nakedness.”

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://globalreportage524084185.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/inflation-wiping-out-families-as-economy-breaks-down-says-carl-icahn/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

Six months before its collapse, Signature Bank chairman Scott Shay hosted a “know your pronouns” company seminar during which employers were lectured on how to pronounce “gender-neutral pronouns” such as “Ze” and “Hir”.

Maybe they should have been concentrating on more important matters.

Signature Bank was seized by the feds on Sunday after the closure of Silicon Valley Bank prompted nervous customers to withdraw more than $10 billion in deposits, with the bank’s failure representing the third largest in U.S. financial history.

The “Know Your Pronouns” symposium was part of Signature Bank’s “Social Impact” series and also involved Finn Brigham, a Manhattan-based corporate consulate on gender issues who was described as a “genderqueer trans masculine person” during the event.

Referring to former Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Shay bragged about how Signature Bank was “the first bank in the United States to have an openly gay man on our board.”

Staff were taught how to properly use the pronouns she, hers, he, his, they, them, ze, and hir by Brigham, who stated, “I don’t know if there’s anyone in the Signature Bank world, but probably you have clients that use ‘they’/’ them’ as pronouns. They’re gender-neutral pronouns on purpose.”

“‘Ze’ is another gender-neutral pronoun,,” he added. “The other part of that would be ‘hir’ — spelled H-I-R.”

Emphasizing its commitment to wokery, Signature Bank promoted “sustainability, diversity, equity, inclusion, community engagement, employee development, employee health and safety, and any other environmental, social, or governance-related initiatives.”

As we highlighted yesterday, Signature Bank wasted millions of dollars creating cringeworthy, woke music videos & TV shows about themselves, prompting critics to ask whether the cash could have been used more wisely elsewhere.

The bank’s commitment to regime narratives was also reinforced when it closed down Donald Trump’s accounts following the incident at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Maybe the lesson should be don’t put your money in woke banks, but given that virtually all of them are the same, that’s a difficult task to accomplish.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://globalreportage524084185.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/signature-bank-gave-lecture-on-gender-pronouns-6-months-before-collapse/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

Southern cartels are reportedly offering money to American teenagers via social media apps to smuggle illegal immigrants across the US border, Fox News claimed on Wednesday, citing various ads.

According to the broadcaster’s assertions, criminals pay adolescents and young people at least $3,000 a ride to pick up a group of migrants approaching the US border. The “quest” is to pass checkpoints in a vehicle loaded with migrants and drop them off at a pre-specified location, from where the immigrants are purportedly taken by a cartel member to hiding places, scattered throughout the border.

As Fox News also reported, children often use their parents’ cars without asking permission and adults sometimes are not aware of the child’s profitable “hobby.” The US Border patrol, distracted by an overwhelming influx of minor migrants, does not immediately react to such breaches, claims the media outlet story.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced on Tuesday that he would deploy 250 National Guard troops to the state’s border with Mexico “to support law enforcement efforts,” adding that there is “no action” foreseen from the federal government.

Earlier, a number of Republican senators visited the Southern border and reported that they had encountered what they described as “human traffickers and cartel members,” taunting them from “the other side of the river.”

The US border patrol has faced a huge wave of illegal immigration following the Biden administration’s relaxing of the former US president’s strict border policies. To date, the amount of people smuggled into the US is said to exceed statistics over the last 15 years, with recent estimates expecting 150,000 migrants to approach the US border on a monthly basis.

Biden has not classified the border situation as a “crisis” despite tense public attention and no official visit to the border has been planned by top administration members. At the same time, Biden has not lifted refuge admissions, standing at 15,000 people per year, although he earlier promised to raise that figure to 62,500.

The surge came amid Biden’s moves to overturn the previous administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. So far, the Biden administration has suspended US-Mexico wall construction, along with the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), and allowed unaccompanied migrant children to enter the country, prompting space and personnel shortages in temporary housing facilities.

The influx of migrants is also believed to be partially triggered by devastating storms that hit Central America in November 2020, along an adverse economic situation due, in part, to the coronavirus pandemic.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://globalreportage524084185.wordpress.com/2023/03/15/cartels-offering-american-teens-money-via-tiktok-to-smuggle-migrants/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

New research in pre-print publication at the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation shows a link between free spike antigens produced by the mRNA Covid shots and a form of heart inflammation known as myocarditis.

Harvard Medical School researchers examined 16 adolescents and young adults hospitalized at Massachusetts General Hospital or Boston Children’s with post-vaccination myocarditis from January 2021-February 2022. The subjects had “markedly elevated levels of full-length spike protein” in their blood, “unbounded by antibodies.”

The medical researchers affiliated with the hospitals, however, did not find free-floating spike antigens in the 45 “healthy, asymptomatic, age-matched vaccinated control subjects,” despite “essentially indistinguishable” antibody profiling and T-cell responses between the groups.

The medical study’s findings isolated the free spike antigens in the young subjects who developed post-shot heart inflammation.

“Immunoprofiling of vaccinated adolescents and young adults revealed that the mRNA vaccine–induced immune responses did not differ between individuals who developed myocarditis and individuals who did not,” the researchers note. “However, free spike antigen was detected in the blood of adolescents and young adults who developed post-mRNA vaccine myocarditis, advancing insight into its potential underlying cause.”

The study establishes further linkage between the mRNA shots and an increased risk of myocarditis in young people by providing a potential biomedical causal mechanism.

In October, Florida’s State Health Officer & Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo, M.D., issued guidance that recommended against mRNA shots being given to healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 40.

“The Florida Department of Health (Department) conducted an analysis through a self-controlled case series, which is a technique originally developed to evaluate vaccine safety,” Ladapo announced by press release.

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Over the last several months, consumer debt has climbed at a steep, steady pace as Americans struggle with rising prices. November was no different, with consumers piling on another $27.9 billion in debt.

With the 7.1% increase in consumer debt in November, Americans now owe a record $4.76 trillion, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve.

This is a big problem for the Fed as it tries to battle rising prices with interest rate hikes. The inflation that the central bank created is forcing people to go deeper into debt. Meanwhile, the inflation fight is making debt more and more expensive.

The Federal Reserve consumer debt figures include credit card debt, student loans, and auto loans, but do not factor in mortgage debt. When you include mortgages, US consumers are buried under more than $16.5 trillion in debt.

Americans are running up credit card balances at a dizzying pace. In November, revolving credit increased by $16.4 billion. With that 16.9% increase, Americans now owe nearly $1.19 trillion in revolving debt.

To put the increase into perspective, the annual increase in 2019, prior to the pandemic, was 3.6%. It’s pretty clear that with stimulus money long gone, Americans have turned to plastic in order to make ends meet as prices continue to skyrocket.

The rapidly growing levels of credit card debt should raise eyebrows, but as ZeroHedge pointed out in a tweet, the real problem is the double whammy of rising debt and interest rates.

Average credit card interest rates have eclipsed the record high of 17.87%. The average annual percentage rates (APR) currently stand at 19.59%.

NBC News reveals just how much rising interest rates are costing indebted consumers.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2023/01/11/rising-consumer-debt-interest-rates-are-a-ticking-time-bomb/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Boutique Ukrainian law firm T&M has launched an appalling new service allowing residents of Western European countries to “cleanse Europe of rashists,” a reference to the derogatory neologism used by officials in Kiev, which combines the words “Russian” and “fascist.”Titled “give in charge rashist” (apparently a bad translation of the Ukrainian title “turn in a rashist”), the webportal invites visitors who are “tired of potential invaders living near you” to “let us know and we will try to solve this issue in the legal field.”“We are a team of lawyers who decided to use legal methods to cleanse Europe of potential invaders,” the site explains. “No one will know who surrendered the rashist. It's completely free. You pay nothing, but you get a bonus to karma. You are making a personal contribution to a peaceful future.”Reporting a “possible aggressor” is said to be “easy.” Concerned citizens can easily use a form to anonymously submit the names and social media accounts of Russian citizens living in any European country, who may be “potentially dangerous” and a “carrier of propaganda and violence.”In return, the Lviv-based T&M “do everything to ensure that the relevant European authorities check the legality of such a person's stay in Europe,” and ”send a corresponding statement to the state authorities of the country in which the presence of a potentially dangerous rashist was reported.” The obvious desired end result is that the Russian in question will be arrested and deported, or perhaps even worse.A disclaimer at the bottom of the page states the service “is not intended to incite ethnic, racial, religious or other enmity,” and only serves to bring its stated targets “to justice.”This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/30/ukrainian-law-firm-runs-a-campaign-targeting-and-hunting-ordinary-russians-in-western-europe/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The head of the country’s radiation protection office says the Ukraine conflict could cause a wide range of catastrophesResidents in Germany must make preparations for nuclear emergencies, the President of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Inge Paulini, warned on Wednesday.In an interview with Funke media group newspapers, Paulini pointed out that “radiation does not stop at the borders,” and claimed that the ongoing military conflict between Moscow and Kiev has “made it clear to the general public that we have to be and remain prepared for a wide variety of nuclear emergencies.”Russia has repeatedly insisted that it does not intend to use atomic weapons in Ukraine and has referred to its nuclear doctrine which only allows the use of such munitions in a retaliatory fashion or in the case the country is faced with an existential threat from conventional warfare.Paulini also criticized Germany’s neighbors who have not phased out nuclear energy from their power grid. “On the contrary, many of our neighboring countries are planning new power plants,” she said, warning of the risks of accidents at these facilities, which could affect all of Europe.Germany in recent years has launched an initiative to wean itself off of nuclear energy, with the country’s Green Party pointing to the potentially catastrophic risks associated with producing it. The nation only has three operational nuclear power plants remaining after MPs voted in November to extend their operations until April 2023 in light of the ongoing energy crisis in Europe.Meanwhile, vice president of the Bundestag and FDP member Wolfgang Kubicki has blasted the government’s refusal to revise its overall approach to nuclear power plants and has warned of a potential default unless something is done to address the energy crisis.“We don’t want gas and oil supplies from Russia any more, at the same time our ‘green’ friends are restarting coal-fired power plants, while preventing a reasonable extension of the life of nuclear power plants,” Kubicki said earlier this week.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/30/germany-tell-residents-to-prepare-for-nuclear-emergencies/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The three-time World Cup winner is regarded by many as the greatest player of all time.

The world of football is in mourning after it was confirmed that Brazilian legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pele, has died aged 82.

Pele’s passing at the Albert Einstein Hospital in Brazil’s largest city follows a prolonged period of ill-health and a battle with colon cancer.

The football icon had a tumor removed from his colon in September last year, and had been visiting the hospital on a regular basis.

Fresh fears for his health emerged when he was readmitted for treatment in November.

Reports followed that Pele had been moved to palliative care due to chemotherapy treatment no longer having the required effect.

Doctors had announced earlier in December that the disease was progressing, prompting major fears surrounding the three-time World Cup winner’s condition.

It was confirmed on Thursday that the football icon had passed away.

Pele is survived by his third wife Marcia Aoki and seven children.

A prolific goalscorer during his playing days, Pele is regarded by many as among the finest footballers – if not the finest – of all time.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/30/brazilian-football-icon-and-footballs-first-global-superstar-pele-dies-aged-82/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Beijing’s Defense Ministry says deeper ties would help build a “China-Arab community with a shared future”

The Chinese Defense Ministry has signaled its readiness to strengthen military cooperation with the Gulf states in order to promote “world peace.” The statement came weeks after President Xi Jinping attended the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Saudi Arabia.

When asked by a journalist on Thursday about the “eight joint actions” proposed by Xi at the meetings, Defense Ministry spokesperson Tan Kefei said: “The Chinese military is willing to work with the militaries of Arab countries” to “jointly promote global security initiatives,” among other things.

Deeper ties would contribute positively to “the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future,” he added.

Tan went on to describe the Chinese Army as well as those of Arab nations as “important forces for maintaining world peace and stability.” He noted that Beijing and regional powers have shared military technology and held joint drills in recent years.

According to the ministry’s spokesperson, this “fruitful cooperation” has helped build “strategic mutual trust” between China and Arab countries.

President Xi was on an official visit to Riyadh at the invitation of King Salman from December 7-10.

Speaking at the Chinese-Arab summit, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman revealed that discussions had been held regarding the “creation of a free-trade zone between China and the countries of the Persian Gulf.”

On top of that, the Gulf states and China confirmed plans to jointly work toward solving “problems of food and energy security,” as well as cooperating on supply chains, the crown prince added.

Beijing and Riyadh signed a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding as a result.

The Chinese head of state also held a separate meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/30/china-reveals-plans-for-military-cooperation-with-arab-states/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The news cycle has been dominated by coverage of the sudden collapse of FTX, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, the arrest of its 30 year old founder Sam Bankman Fried and his unexplainable release on a 250 million dollar bond.The crash of FTX has shaken the crypto market, lost institutional investors billions – and individual customers millions – led to official investigations of FTX in several countries, and made some question whether the Bitcoin sphere might crash and burn outright, and perhaps cause wider problems for the financial system.Some take the view that FTX was a fraud all along, ever since its launch in April 2019. If that’s the case, it has grave implications for the US Democratic Party and Ukrainian government, as the company’s corrupt activity may have been used to fund both, openly and secretly.Where’s the money, Zelensky?On March 14, FTX launched a new online portal for cryptocurrency donations, Aid for Ukraine, in partnership with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation. Through this, crypto traders, both large and small, could donate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which FTX would convert into cash for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to spend on weapons and other war-related expenses.Very rapidly, the fund claimed to have amassed “over” $60 million in donations. By April 14, it was reported that just over $45.15 million of that sum had been splurged on digital rifle scopes, thermal imagers, monoculars, rations, armor, helmets, military clothing, tactical backpacks, fuel, communication devices, laptops, drones, medical supplies, and a “worldwide anti-war media campaign.”This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/25/is-there-a-link-between-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-aid-to-ukraine-and-the-democratic-party/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Members of Congress who declined to stand and applaud on cue for Ukraine’s leader have been branded as traitors, Matt Gaetz saysVladimir Zelensky’s speech to Congress on Wednesday night was a “North Korea-style act” in which US lawmakers were expected to stand and clap for the Ukrainian president or be branded as traitors, Representative Matt Gaetz has claimed.Gaetz (Florida) was among several Republicans, including Representatives Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Lauren Boebert (Colorado), who were called out by Newsweek and other media outlets for remaining seated while other lawmakers gave Zelensky multiple standing ovations. GOP Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and others who didn’t attend the Ukrainian leader’s latest appeal for additional aid to fight Russia were also criticized.“When we say you shouldn’t send endless amounts of money to this place where we’re exacerbating death and conflict, it’s like we’re traitors to the movement because Lauren Boebert and I didn’t stand up in some sort of North Korea-style performance,” Gaetz said on Thursday night in a Fox News interview.Historian and NBC News contributor Michael Beschloss was among the media figures who condemned those who weren’t sufficiently enthusiastic about Zelensky’s visit to Washington. He demanded to know “exactly why” some members of Congress refused to clap. “I’d like to know why that was for two reasons,” he said on MSNBC. “Number one: You’re a public servant, we’re allowed to know those things. You’re supposed to tell us if you’re serving in Congress what the reason was. Do you love Putin, or are you just opposed to democracy, or is there something else?”On Thursday, the Senate passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill that included nearly $45 billion in new funding for Ukraine. Congress has now approved about $100 billion for US assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its military offensive against Kiev in February.Gaetz speculated that congressional leaders saw Zelensky’s visit to Washington as “air cover” for an “indefensible” spending bill. “I feel no compunction to go out and applaud some foreign leader from a historically corrupt country who is begging for more than the $100 billion that the Congress has already set to send them.”This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/24/us-lawmaker-calls-zelenskys-speech-a-north-korea-style-act/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Ukraine’s corrupt oligarchs have diverted much of the financial support sent to KievSince the beginning of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, the US, EU, and their allies have provided Kiev with $126 billion worth of aid, a number almost equal to the country’s entire GDP. Moreover, millions of Ukrainians have found refuge in the EU, where they were given housing, food, work permits, and emotional support. The scope is huge, even by Western standards. Considering that the bloc has been funding Kiev while coping with an economic and energy crisis of its own, the assistance is perhaps especially notable.Kiev bases its endless funding requests on the collapse of its economy, due to the war, and its need to “resist Russian aggression.” But is the aid reaching its intended destination?While Ukraine has undergone a general mobilization affecting all men under the age of 60, many former and current high-ranking officials, politicians, businessmen, and oligarchs have moved to safety abroad – mainly to the EU.The mass flight of Ukrainian elites started even prior to the armed conflict. On February 14, 2022, 37 deputies from the Ukrainian president’s parliamentary faction (Servant of the People) suddenly went missing. Had MPs not been banned from leaving the country the very next day, others would have definitely joined them. Meanwhile, former officials and oligarchs enjoyed more freedom to move around. According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, 20 business jets took off from Kiev’s Boryspol airport on the 14th as well.Tycoons were at the front of the line. Entrepreneur and MP Vadim Novinsky, businessmen Vasily Khmelnitsky and Vadim Stolar, Vadim Nesterenko, and Andrey Stavnitzer all left the country on charter flights. Millionaire politician Igor Abramovich booked a private flight to Austria for 50 people – taking relatives, business partners, and fellow party members aboard. Oligarchs flew from Kiev to Nice, Munich, Vienna, Cyprus, and other EU destinations. Another group of businessmen took off from Odessa on private planes. The owner of Vostok Bank departed for Israel, while the head of the Transship group flew to Limassol. An ex-governor of the Odessa region, Stalkanat’s Vladimir Nemirovsky, also left the country.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/25/war-for-some-bentleys-for-others-as-americans-send-aid-ukraines-corrupt-elites-are-profiting-from-the-conflict/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Kiev’s demand for weapons and ammunition has outstripped the available supply The fighting in Ukraine has “exposed flaws in US strategic planning” and “revealed significant gaps” in the US and NATO military industrial base, the Washington Post reported on Friday. As Kiev’s forces consume more ammunition than the West can produce, the Pentagon seeks to cope by training them to fight more like Americans. “Stocks of many key weapons and munitions are near exhaustion, and wait times for new production of missiles stretches for months and, in some cases, years,” the Post noted, as part of a narrative about how the US has funneled some $20 billion in military aid to Kiev just this year. Only $6 billion of that has been in new weapons contracts, while the rest came from the Pentagon stockpiles. The US military-industrial complex can make about 14,000 rounds of ammunition for the 155-mm howitzers, the Post quoted US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, while Ukrainian forces go through about 6,000 a day during heavy fighting. The US military-industrial complex is “in pretty poor shape right now,” Seth Jones of the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) told the Post. “We are really low… and we’re not even fighting,” Jones said, adding that in scenarios where the US is facing China or Russia in a conventional conflict, “we don’t make it past four or five days in a war game before we run out of precision missiles.” Washington’s allies in Europe are in similar shape, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Michal Strnad, owner of a Czech ammunition conglomerate, said Ukraine chews through 40,000 rounds a month, while all of the European NATO members put together can produce 300,000 a year. “European production capacity is grossly inadequate,” Strnad said, adding that it would take up to 15 years to restock at current production rates, if the conflict were to somehow end tomorrow. Moscow has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that shipments of increasingly modern and long-range weapons could lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO, and accused the West of prolonging the conflict and causing civilian deaths in Ukraine. While Western officials have demanded a ramp-up of production for months, recent EU legislation blocked many investments into weapons manufacturing by designating it “not sustainable,” according to the Journal. Germany is now in the process of funding a factory in Romania that could produce both NATO and Soviet-caliber ammunition for Ukraine. The Pentagon is trying to deal with the problem by training Ukrainian troops to “fight more like Americans” and use different tactics, according to the Post. “I think if we can train larger formations — companies, battalions — on how to employ fires, create conditions for maneuver, and then be able to maneuver like you’ve seen [the US military] maneuver on the battlefield, then I think we’re in a different place.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/24/nato-armies-drained-by-ukraine-conflict-media/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A cursory look at the documents regarding the foundation of the Ukrainian state would make it appear quite European and democratic, which is exactly the reason why many might have dismissed Vladimir Putin’s talk about neo-Nazis in Ukraine as rhetoric and propaganda. The truth, however, is much more complicated and cannot be summarized by saying "Ukrainian president is Jewish, and thus all allegations are untrue".

Tell me who your heroes are, and I will tell you who you areOne historical figure who has emerged as a hero in post-Maidan Ukraine is Stepan Bandera, a leader and ideologist of the militant wing of the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Today, there are streets named after him, people sing songs in his honor and carry his portrait.

Born in Galicia (at the time part of Austria-Hungary) on January 1, 1909, Stepan Bandera was tried on terrorism charges in Poland on multiple occasions. In 1934, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He served his sentence until 1939, when he was released following the German invasion of Poland.

Bandera spent his younger years building a career in nationalist organizations. In 1928, he joined the Ukrainian Military Organization, and in 1929, he became a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists where he quickly gained influence. He was instrumental in the split of the organization into two factions in February 1940. Bandera became the leader of the more radical OUN-B, while more moderate members supported Andriy Melnyk's OUN-M.

Both factions supported Hitler’s Third Reich and collaborated with the Germans during WWII. Bandera personally negotiated the creation of the "Ukrainian Legion" under German command that was finally organized as two units. One, commanded by Roman Shukhevych became known as Nachtigall Battalion, and the other, commanded by Richard Yary, was the Roland Battalion. Both were the subunits under command of the Abwehr (the German military-intelligence service) special operation unit Brandenburgers.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/25/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-nazi-influence-in-modern-day-ukraine/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Juan Sinmiedo, who runs a popular Telegram channel documenting human rights abuses in Ukraine, published an explosive interview with ‘Boneface’ – real name Kent McLellan – a 32-year-old Neo-Nazi from Florida who joined the fascist volunteer Right Sector group during the Donbass war, and returned to fight alongside the Azov Battalion in January 2022.

The discussion with McLellan shatters many myths and lies that have been circulated about the Maidan coup, the current conflict in Ukraine, and the disturbingly strong influence of nationalist movements within the country.

McLellan, the son of the front man of Neo-Nazi rock band Brutal Attack, got involved with far-right activism while just a teenager, and had numerous run-ins with the law for subversive, racially-charged activities. He and other members of the racist organization American Front were detained by the FBI in May 2012, for preparing terrorist acts against ethnic minorities in Florida.

It was this background that led him to travel to Ukraine in 2014. The American fascist circles he moved in had direct links and regular contact with nationalist groups at the forefront of the Maidan, which at the time were hosting large public events “nearly daily in every Oblast that wasn't seeing war.” As did far-right movements in many other nearby countries, including Finland, Georgia, and Latvia.

It seems the US government approved of the presence of McLellan and others in Ukraine at that time. He says he got caught – it’s not clear by whom or what – teaching Ukrainians DNS poisoning, and the Americans “wanted to sit in and help.”

“They didn't want names or anything, but they wanted to monitor the situation. Without this backing I would've been charged with violation of [the] American neutrality act,” McLellan claims.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/25/all-the-real-skinheads-went-to-ukraine-an-american-neo-nazi-outlines-the-crimes-of-his-ukrainian-colleagues/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Ukrainian nationalists and the state persecute parishioners of the country’s largest church

“If you believe in God, I beg you, leave the church, let me bury my son!” a grief-stricken woman screams, kneeling in the snow in front of the priest. He is surrounded by Ukrainian officials and territorial defense fighters who are there to help him seize the church. A woman begs him in Ukrainian to stop. Her son, who went to the front and died in the battles for the city of Bakhmut, prayed in this church, and now the mother wants to bid him goodbye. “You didn’t let me pray in front of the icon yesterday, your men beat me up. I beg you to leave, let me bury Volodya!”

Both the woman and the priest are Orthodox Christians, but decades, and even centuries, of political and ecclesiastical turmoil on the territory of modern Ukraine has created a chasm between believers which has grown wider since Russia’s military offensive began, earlier this year.

In Ukraine, which is considered an Orthodox Christian country, not all believers feel comfortable and safe. This is because of actions of the state.

Freedom Reportage explores why Kiev has forgotten Christianity’s vow of “love thy neighbor,” and why believers are ready to use force against their own.

Historically, the religious situation in Ukraine has always been tense. Every political crisis has led to a split in the church: the very formation of the state, the 2014 Euromaidan, the creation of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine in 2018.

Ukraine has never had a united Orthodox church, and the nationalist-minded part of society has long been seeking one. The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) has for many years been the most active denomination, but has been forced to fend off accusations of “working for Moscow” because of its formal subordination to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russia’s attack has provoked a round of aggression against the UOC, with accusations of it “working for Russia” and “serving the Kremlin” heard with renewed vigor. Meanwhile, Kiev has made the fight against the UOC political.

Immediately after the start of the military operation, the seizure of churches by force began in many regions of Ukraine. In March, armed supporters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), formed under the previous president, Petro Poroshenko, disrupted a service in the Pokrovsky Church of the Cherkasy region. They started a fight, attacked the priest, and dragged him out of the church. On March 7, the OCU seized the Anno-Zachatievsky Church in the Ivano-Frankovsk region. Opponents of the UOC came to the church, expelled those in attendance , calling them “parishioners of the aggressor” and changed the locks on all the doors.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/25/war-of-the-churches-how-ukraine-has-become-unsafe-for-millions-of-orthodox-believers/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The Ukrainian leader promised to handle American taxpayer dollars “in the most responsible way” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky arrived in Washington in what US media described as a secretly arranged visit, though word of it was leaked to select outlets on Tuesday. He is expected to address Congress in the evening, urging the passage of a $1.7 trillion spending bill that includes $45 billion earmarked for Ukraine in 2023. In a video released on Tuesday, he said Ukraine was grateful for all the aid from the West but it was “not enough.” A battery of Patriot air defense missiles is among the $1.85 billion in military aid for Ukraine the Pentagon announced earlier in the day, though Biden pointed out that training Ukrainian troops to operate them, which is to take place at a US base in Germany, is “going to take some time.” Zelensky said that once the Patriots arrive, he will ask Biden for more of them. Zelensky addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, urging US lawmakers to drop all their disagreements and unite behind Ukraine, while advocating for the passage of a $1.7 trillion spending bill that includes $45 billion in military and other aid earmarked for Kiev in 2023. The Pentagon has disclosed that the US has sent $20 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine just this year. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu noted earlier on Wednesday that Kiev has already received more than $97 billion worth of weapons and ammunition, and that Russia was already fighting the entire West. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi asked all members to attend in person to hear the “historic” speech, which Zelensky delivered in English, repeatedly interrupted by standing ovations. After several minutes of applause, the former actor opened his speech by thanking “all those who value freedom and justice.” “It gives me great pleasure to share our first joint victory: We defeated Russia in the minds of the world,” the Ukrainian leader claimed. He thanked US lawmakers for supporting Kiev financially and militarily against Moscow, but reiterated that more arms are needed to defeat Russia on the battlefield. “We have artillery, yes, thank you… Is it enough? Honestly, not really,” he said interrupted by a burst of laughter. “More cannons and shells are needed.” Zelensky called for unity ahead of a power transition that will put Republicans in charge of the House next year. US congressional support for Ukraine aid has been largely bipartisan, but Republicans have been increasingly critical of the scale of the spending and the lack of oversight to prevent fraud. “Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way,” Zelensky told the audience, to another standing ovation. Earlier this month, the House of Representatives narrowly rejected a bill that called for an audit of Washington’s economic and military assistance to Kiev. The massive scale of US military aid to Ukraine even reportedly put the Pentagon’s own law enforcement agency on high alert for black market sales of weaponry and other potential fraud. Welcoming Zelensky to the Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Pelosi said the mammoth $1.7 trillion spending bill, which contains $45 billion in new aid for Kiev, will “hopefully” be passed within the next 48 hours. Earlier in the day, Zelensky met with President Joe Biden, who promised him that the American people will continue to support Kiev “as long as it takes.” However, when pressed by a reporter at a joint press conference on why the US cannot simply give Ukraine “all capabilities it needs” right away, Biden said the West wants to avoid a direct war with Russia. Moscow has repeatedly warned the US and its allies that shipments of increasingly modern and long-range weapons could lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO, and accused the West of prolonging the conflict and causing needless deaths in Ukraine.

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Active fighting in Mariupol began on February 24, 2022 – the first day of Russia’s military operation. It ended in late May, when the last fighters of the neo-Nazi battalion ‘Azov’, who were holding a line of defense at the Azovstal plant, finally surrendered.

In three months of fierce combat, most residential buildings were damaged or destroyed. The statistics have been confirmed by hundreds of frightening pictures of the nearly-ruined city, which were seen by the whole world. Ruined homes, broken roads, and destroyed infrastructure form a recognizable image of present-day Mariupol. And yet, thousands of people still live in the city. How do the locals feel about the war and life there today and has the city managed to recover in six months of ‘peaceful’ life? RT’s correspondent tried to find out.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/24/i-was-nearly-shot-for-not-knowing-ukrainian-mariupol-residents-on-the-horrors-of-war-and-the-citys-restoration/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The latest internal report from China’s top health authority allegedly claims that the ongoing spike in Coronavirus infections in the country may have seen as many as 37 million people contracting the virus in a single day this week, Bloomberg wrote on Friday.

Citing minutes from a meeting of China’s National Health Commission held on Wednesday as well as persons involved in the discussions, the outlet reported it’s believed that up to 248 million people, or nearly 18% of the country’s total population, have been infected with Covid this month.

The agency also reportedly estimates that more than half of the residents of China’s southwest province of Sichuan and the country’s capital Beijing have been infected since the government lifted its zero-Covid restrictions earlier this month.

No information on covid-related deaths was presented at the meeting, according to Bloomberg’s sources, who claim the board did discuss new and much narrower definitions used to count such fatalities. The agency reportedly acknowledged that deaths will inevitably occur as infections continue to spike and has allegedly sent out a warning to all regions to prepare for a surge in severe cases.

It is not clear, however, how exactly the NHC came up with the estimates reported by Bloomberg, as the agency officially claimed only 3,761 new local Covid-19 cases and zero deaths on Thursday, while putting the total number of infections this week at 14,285 along with seven deaths.

Obtaining accurate estimates has also been more difficult after Chinese National health authorities stopped announcing asymptomatic cases, after mass testing via a vast network of PCR testing booths was abandoned earlier this month, as most people started using rapid antigen tests at home to determine infection status.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/24/covid-spike-in-china-infected-37-million-in-one-day/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Whether this will go down as the greatest world cup of all time is still up in the air but it will surely go down as the finest World Cup final of all time, the most pulsating, one of the greatest games in history because of how Kylian Mbappé hauled France up off the canvas towards the end of normal time.

It had been billed as Messi v Mbappe, the Argentinian hero opening the scoring from the penalty spot and having a hand in Ángel Di María’s goal for 2-0. But then came Mbappé, shattering the notion that Argentina would close out the win with the minimum of fuss. This Argentina team do not really operate like that. They love to trade in late drama. Think of their wins over Australia and the Netherlands in the knockout rounds.

A part of the story was France’s champion courage, the 2018 winners being revived by a clutch of Didier Deschamps substitutions. That and Mbappé, who was unplayable from the 80th minute. He scored twice in 97 seconds to force extra-time; the first a penalty, the second a sublime side-on volley and there was a point towards the end of regulation time when he appeared hell-bent on making sure that the additional period would not be needed.

Back came Argentina in extra-time, Messi scoring his second for 3-2. But back came France, Mbappé equalising with a second penalty on 118 minutes for his hat-trick and the Golden Boot. He finished the tournament with eight – one more than Messi. He joined Sir Geoff Hurst as a hat-trick scorer in the men’s final.

At this point it is worth delving into the mayhem that gripped at the very end of extra-time.

Neither team were ready to accept that a penalty shootout was inevitable. Not a bit of it. Randal Kolo Muani, on as a substitute for the game of his life, could not stretch to head home a cross byMbappé and will have nightmares about the one-on-one that he failed to convert, the Argentina goalkeeper, Emiliano Martínez, coming out on top.

At the other end the Argentina substitute Lautaro Martínez blew a gilt-edged header and then Mbappé beat two men on yet another explosive burst but not a third. Never has so much been crammed into an extra-time finale.

So to penalties and, after Mbappé and Messi had scored, it was over to Emiliano Martínez and some of his dark arts to make the difference. After he had saved from the substitute Kingsley Coman, Martínez threw the ball away before the next France kick, forcing the 22-year-old Aurélien Tchouaméni to go and fetch it, further heightening his anxiety. Tchouaméni dragged his kick past the post.

Martínez had to be physically restrained by the referee, Szymon Marciniak, from confronting France’s next taker, Kolo Muani. Martínez was booked; Kolo Muani lashed home. But the scene was set for the substitute Gonzalo Montiel to win it – to crown Messi and Argentina.

When Montiel scored, Messi sank to his knees in the centre circle, engulfed by teammates. Argentina’s third World Cup will go down as Messi’s World Cup, just as the second in 1986 had belonged to Maradona. Both men came to transcend their teams and the tournaments, with Messi collecting the Golden Ball here as the competition’s star player. It has long felt as if he has had a celestial scriptwriter at work, guiding him to his destiny. The image of him and the trophy was what so many fans – and not just those from Argentina – had craved.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/18/will-this-go-down-as-the-greatest-world-cup-of-all-time/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Women who need to travel to another state to get kill their babies could have their travel, lodging, meals and other costs defrayed under a new grant program proposed by Senate Democrats.Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced legislation this week that would provide a $350 million per year grant program to help pay these costs for women. Total cost for the five-year program would be $1.75 billion, and the money would go to non-profit groups who can help women in states with strict abortion restrictions get to less-restrictive states to terminate their pregnancy.The two senators said the bill would give women more options after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and left it up to states to regulate abortion as they see fit.“In overturning Roe and passing one extreme state abortion ban after the next, Republicans have unleashed a full-fledged health care crisis that is jeopardizing women’s health and forcing them to stay pregnant against their will,” said Murray. “This moment calls for bold solutions — and that’s why I’ve proposed creating a new, historic abortion fund and why I’m proud to cosponsor Senator Baldwin’s bill to help get women the abortion care they need.”Baldwin’s home state of Wisconsin allows abortion up until 20 weeks of pregnancy, but she said women are being “forced to travel out of state just to see a doctor for critical health care, including abortion.”“By reducing the costs of travel for people seeking reproductive care, more Americans will be able to make the health care decisions that are best for their family, health, and future,” she said.Under the bill, $350 million per year would be distributed to non-profit groups that can help women seek out an abortion. The money would be awarded by the Treasury Secretary and would be aimed at groups that help people in states with “severely restricted access to abortion” and people who are more likely to have to travel out of state to get an abortion on more favorable terms.In addition to travel, lodging and meals, the subsidy can also cover childcare costs, translation services and post-procedure care, but not the cost of the procedure itself.Roe v. Wade was struck down in June in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case that ended constitutional protection for abortion rights and returned the matter to the states. Since that ruling, Democrats have pushed for policies aimed at helping women travel to states with less restrictive abortion policies, which could let them obtain abortions later in their pregnancy than allowed in their home state.The Defense Department reacted similarly, saying they would give service members time off and even fund some of the costs of traveling to another state for an abortion.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/14/democrats-propose-1-75b-abortion-travel-subsidy-to-help-baby-killers-violate-state-laws/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

US federal agencies worked closely with Twitter moderators to clamp down on what they saw as “disinformation” during the 2020 election. Executives went to great lengths to scrub certain content they deemed false and dangerous, following increasingly frequent sit-downs with law enforcement and intelligence orgs, according to the third installment of the “Twitter Files.”Late Friday night, journalist Matt Taibbi released “The Twitter Files,” a batch of emails sent by Twitter executives discussing the company’s decision to stop an October 2020 New York Post story in its online tracks.In October 2020, three weeks before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, The New York Post published an exclusive, possibly explosive story: Biden’s Secret Emails: Ukrainian exec thanked Hunter Biden for ‘opportunity to meet’ veep dad. The story purported to report the contents of a laptop brought to the tabloid by the owner of a Delaware computer repair shop, who said it had belonged to, and been abandoned by, President Biden’s second son, Hunter Biden. Emails and files found on the laptop revealed how Hunter had peddled influence with Ukranian businessmen, the Post claimed –and also included “a raunchy, 12-minute video” showing Hunter smoking crack and having sex.After the Post story was published, Twitter barred anyone from tweeting a link to it or sending it via direct message, labeling it “hacked material.” The company also suspended the Post’s account for multiple days, preventing it from tweeting further.Matt Taibbi kicked off a long thread of more than three dozen tweets, based on internal Twitter documents, that revealed what he described as “a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.”To Musk, this release clears a dark cloud hanging over Twitter as he works to mold Twitter in his image, cleansing and redirecting both its public perception and internal culture. It is possible that the CEO himself handed the documents to Taibbi, but we do not know for sure. Musk did hype the document dump ahead of and during its publication, but Taibbi cited only “internal sources.”In the thread, Taibbi shares screenshots from emails showing Twitter execs discussing the Post story and making efforts to block its distribution on the social network. The emails, Taibbi says, show the “extraordinary steps” Twitter took “ to suppress the story.”Amongst the trove of files includes messages from Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, revealing he was running out of “generic” names to disguise his increasingly regular meetings with federal officials ahead of the 2020 election in the company calendar.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/12/the-twitter-files-explained/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The Biden administration invited a non-binary drag queen to the White House to attend the Respect for Marriage Act signing ceremony on Tuesday.Marti G. Cummings, an anti-police activist and self-described “drag artist,” thanked Biden for inviting him to the White House event.“To be a non-binary drag artist invited to the White House is something I never imagined would happen,” the drag queen said. “Grateful doesn’t begin to express the emotions I feel.”Cummings has made several eyebrow-raising remarks about children regarding the LGBTQ movement on social media.“The kids are out to sing and suck d!” Cummings tweeted in March.Graphic photos on social media show Cummings posing in drag with half naked men, while others show him in drag posing with young children.A separate Instagram post by Cummings shows him and other drag queens surrounding a child wearing a rainbow flag shirt, bragging that the child “wants to perform with us next year!”Biden has a history of hobnobbing with drag queens and “transgenders” at the White House http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/14/biden-invites-drag-queen-who-said-the-kids-are-out-to-suck-dick-to-white-house-bill-signing-ceremony/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Just hours after refusing to attend a Senate hearing on his role in the collapse of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested by The Royal Bahamian Police Force.

Statement from the Attorney General of The Bahamas Sen. Ryan Pinder KC on the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried

On 12 December 2022, the Office of the Attorney General of The Bahamas is announcing the arrest by The Royal Bahamas Police Force of Sam Bankman-Fried (“SBF”), former CEO of FTX. SBF’s arrest followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition.As a result of the notification received and the material provided therewith, it was deemed appropriate for the Attorney General to seek SBF’s arrest and hold him in custody pursuant to our nation’s Extradition Act.At such time as a formal request for extradition is made, The Bahamas intends to process it promptly, pursuant to Bahamian law and its treaty obligations with the United States.Responding to SBF’s arrest, Prime Minister Davis stated, “The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law. While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere.”

Official Statement below:

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams unveiled Sam Bankman Fried’s indictment, revealing the disgraced Democrat mega donor was charged with eight crimes, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

“It’s fair to say that […] this is one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” Williams said.

“For every day of the past month, the dedicated prosecutors of this office and our partners from the FBI, SEC, and CFTC have been working around the clock to figure out what happened and to begin the process of seeking justice,” Williams said.

Williams said that FTX had been misappropriating funds as far back as 2019.

“FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy,” said SEC Director of Enforcement Gurbir Grewal. “That veneer wasn’t just thin, it was illegitimate.”

Bankman-Fried is being charged with not only allegedly defrauding customers of FTX, but also lenders who gave money to Alameda Research and those who invested in his exchange. He is also being charged with violations of campaign finance law. Williams said that stolen customer funds were used by Bankman-Fried to donate to political candidates and pursue influence.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/14/sam-bankman-fried-arrested-hours-before-congressional-testimony-set-for-prompt-extradition-from-the-bahamas/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

More and more evidence is coming to light that the ‘lockdown and wait for a vaccine’ strategy unleashed in 2020 was being cooked up inside the U.S. Government for decades before COVID-19 appeared and gave too many people an excuse to put the dreadful plan into action.

Recently the role of CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) in producing key lockdown guidance for America in March 2020 came to light.

Now, a pandemic plan from 2007 produced by the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) and currently hosted on the CISA website has emerged.

The plan contains the original list of pandemic ‘essential businesses’ that was used by CISA in 2020 to lock down America. The 2007 plan (which was itself based on a Department of Homeland Security planfrom the previous year) clearly states the intention to ban large gatherings “indefinitely”, close schools and non-essential businesses, institute work-from-home, and quarantine exposed and not just sick individuals. The aim is simple and clear: to slow the spread to wait for a vaccine.

During a pandemic, the goal will be to slow the virus’ transmission; delaying the spread of the virus will provide more time for vaccine development while reducing the stress on an already burdened healthcare system.

Here’s the relevant section of the 2007 NIAC plan in full.

2006 and 2007 were turning points in U.S. biodefence planning. Prior to 2006, such planning had been focused on biological attacks, but then major mission creep set in and the new draconian ideas were applied wholesale to general pandemic planning. This controversial switch in focus so riled leading U.S. disease expert D.A. Henderson, who had been involved with the project up to that point, that he issued his famous riposte objecting in the strongest terms to the new ideas.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/14/u-s-government-has-been-planning-to-lockdown-and-wait-for-a-vaccine-since-2007/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Hollywood bigwig Ari Emanuel, who together with the Anti-Defamation League led the charge to cancel Kanye “Ye” West, wrote a column on Friday calling on Blacks to reject “the virus of antisemitism and hate and division” and instead unite with Jews against Whites on the heels of ADL chief warning that “if we don’t get” Ye then the “myth” of Jewish control of the media and Hollywood will spread.Ari Emanuel: The Kanye West show must not distract us from the corrosive virus taking rootBy Ari Emanuel | Dec 09, 2022 at 5:00 amKanye West is not the big problem. Of course, praising Hitler is vile. And it’s easy to condemn – and get distracted. And what the cartoonish Kanye clown show distracts us from is what’s going on under the big top — how the virus of antisemitism and hate and division is spreading and attacking the foundations of our culture.In the last year, we’ve seen how antisemitic conspiracies from the far right about Jewish control of politics, finance and Hollywood have become mainstreamed. Dave Chappelle’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue was funny, but the problem with dancing on the line of antisemitic tropes is that he was doing it for an audience that no longer has a shared understanding of how dangerous they are. No doubt many thought it was funny. No doubt that it gave others permission to repeat their own versions of the tropes going forward. Every time someone like Kanye goes too far, the antisemitic Overton window gets shifted. And bit by bit, the line of what’s acceptable to say moves.It was not until Kanye praised Hitler that the official Twitter account from the Republican House Judiciary Committee took down the tweet reading, simply: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” The tweet had been up since Oct. 6. […]For today. It’s up to all of us to stop regarding silence as an acceptable option — not just for cartoonish praising of Hitler, but for more insidious, wink-wink, dog-whistle forms of hate directed at any group. At his postgame news conference on Nov. 30, LeBron James spoke out about the double-standard on being asked to speak out. He asked reporters why he’d been repeatedly pressed about the controversy over Kyrie Irving (about which, in fact, LeBron did speak out), but hadn’t been asked a single question about the 1957 photo, published last month in The Washington Post, showing Jerry Jones in a group of teens confronting Black students at a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.James is absolutely right. We should all speak out — about the hateful racism that’s unfolding in the photo, about Kyrie, about West, about Trump, and about the normalization of white supremacy, antisemitism and racism.Translation: “Jews and Blacks should get together and get whitey.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/12/ari-emanuel-blacks-must-reject-the-division-and-unite-with-jews-against-whitey/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

It appears Twitter CEO Elon Musk has found his next topic in the Twitter Files series.Musk dropped a bomb Sunday hinting he’ll release Twitter files related to White House Coronavirus Response Team leader Dr. Anthony Fauci and the COVID pandemic.“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk tweeted.Musk followed up with a meme mocking Fauci continually advising Joe Biden to keep locking people down to fight the COVID pandemic.When asked if he was about to release Twitter Files on COVID and the “suppression of what has turned out to be factual information,” Musk responded, “Oh it is coming bigtime.”This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/12/my-pronouns-are-prosecute-fauci-elon-musk-to-release-twitter-files-on-covid-and-dr-fauci/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Former Balenciaga fans filmed themselves burning and shredding up designer clothes from the fashion brand over its BDSM pedophile photoshoot scandal.

YouTuber Omi In a Hellcat declared Balenciaga was dead to him before burning all the shoes and clothes he bought from the Spain-based brand.

“Cancelled. And if you wear this bullsh*t, don’t come around my kids ever again,” he stated as he kicked his shoes into a pile.

“I’m not giving this sht away. I’m burning everything, because if you wear this, you represent pedophilia, and I don’t fck with it.”

“I’m the biggest Balenciaga fan. But these gotta go. Cancelled,” he added before burning apparel valued at thousands of dollars in his backyard grill.

Another Balenciaga patron, Chloe Hennessey from East London, filmed herself cutting up her luxury £600 hoodie, and a t-shirt and sunglasses worth £1,700 total.

Hennessey learned of the scandal after posting a video of herself on social media wearing her Balenciaga glasses.

“I actually love Balenciaga. They used to be my favorite brand,” she said. “I had been home with my son as he’s been sick, so I didn’t know what was going on, when I posted the video. I was really confused about people calling me a pedophile.”

“After I started investigation my whole TikTok was flooded with videos about what happened. I felt sick to my stomach.”

That’s when she decided to destroy her Balenciaga gear.

“People have asked why I didn’t just donate my stuff, but if I did someone else would be wearing it and promoting them,” she explained.

“Obviously I’m not rich, so it was annoying to have to get rid of all of it, but taking a stand is so much more important in my opinion.”

A TikTok user with 65,000 followers recorded herself tearing up her black leather bag, which she said cost $1,500.

“This is basically my everyday bag. It’s not going to be anymore,” she said before cutting the strap with scissors.

Other users across TikTok are also filming themselves destroying Belanciaga merchandise.

A street artist also vandalized a Balenciaga store’s shop windows in Central London with clean stenciled text that reads “PEDOPHILIA.”

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/01/balenciaga-fans-destroy-thousands-of-dollars-of-designer-clothes-in-protest-amid-bdsm-pedophile-photoshoot/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A retired Navy SEAL who became famous nearly 10 years ago after coming out as transgender announced he is detransitioning and called on Americans to “wake up” about how transgender health services are hurting children.

“Everything you see on CNN with my face, do not even believe a word of it,” Chris Beck, formerly known as Kristin Beck, told conservative influencer Robby Starbuck in an interview published earlier this month. “Everything that happened to me for the last ten years destroyed my life. I destroyed my life. I’m not a victim. I did this to myself, but I had help.”

“I take full responsibility,” he continued. “I went on CNN and everything else, and that’s why I’m here right now, I’m trying to correct that.”

Beck gained notoriety in 2013 when he spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper about transitioning to a woman.

“I was used … I was very naive, I was in a really bad way, and I got taken advantage of. I got propagandized. I got used badly by a lot of people who had knowledge way beyond me. They knew what they were doing. I didn’t,” he said during the interview.

Beck served in the US Navy for 20 years, including on SEAL Team Six. He was deployed 13 times and received more than 50 medals and ribbons for his service.

Beck said he’s speaking out about transgenderism to protect children in the current political climate, where there are gender clinics “over all of America.”

“There are thousands of gender clinics being put up over all of America,” he said. “As soon as [kids] go in and say, ‘I’m a tomboy or this makes me feel comfortable’ and then a psychologist says, ‘oh, you’re transgender’. And then the next day you’re on hormones – the same hormones they are using for medical castration for pedophiles. Now they are giving this to healthy 13-year-olds.”

“Does this seem right,” he asked. “This is why I am trying to tell America to wake up.”

Beck said that when he began transitioning, it took just an hour-long meeting at Veterans Affairs to be offered hormones.

“I walked into a psychologist’s office [and] in one day I have a letter in my hand saying I was transgender. I was authorized for hormones. I was authorized all this other stuff,” Beck said.

“I had so much going wrong in my system when I started taking those,” he added. “Some of that was paid for by the VA, and I’m sorry to the American people that I did that.”

Beck said he has been off of hormones for about seven years now.

“This is a billion-dollar industry between psychologists, between surgeries, between hormones, between chemicals, between follow-up treatments,” he continued. “There are thousands of gender clinics popping up all over our country. And each of those gender clinics is going to be pulling in probably over $50 million.”

This episode is also available as an article: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/12/retired-navy-seal-chris-beck-who-came-out-as-trans-announces-detransition-destroyed-my-life/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The world’s largest investment manager has gone all in – and says a global recession is right around the corner. What’s more, the financial tricks deployed by Central Banks in the past ‘won’t work this time.’

According to BlackRock, the global economy has entered a phase of elevated volatility, and that a recession is imminent due to central banks aggressively boosting borrowing costs to tame inflation. Their actions, according to a team of BlackRock strategists, will ignite more market turbulence than ever before.

“Recession is foretold as central banks race to try to tame inflation. It’s the opposite of past recessions,” the team wrote In their 2023 Global Outlook (embedded below), which says that the global economy has already exited a four-decade period of stable growth and inflation, and has now entered a period of heightened instability.

And when things get bad, “Central bankers won’t ride to the rescue when growth slows in this new regime, contrary to what investors have come to expect. Equity valuations don’t yet reflect the damage ahead.”

“What worked in the past won’t work now,” said the strategists. “The old playbook of simply ‘buying the dip’ doesn’t apply in this regime of sharper trade-offs and greater macro volatility. We don’t see a return to conditions that will sustain a joint bull market in stocks and bonds of the kind we experienced in the prior decade.”

So what can actually tame inflation? A deep recession, according to the report.

This episode is also available: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/12/12/blackrock-prepare-for-recession-unlike-any-other-and-what-worked-before-wont-work-now/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

As interest rates rise on everything from mortgages to car loans to Treasurys, interest is also rising on credit card debt.That’s not exactly great news, as so many indicators point to a recession—and the worsening job situation that comes with it—on the horizon. Many Americans may soon find themselves with more debt and higher interest rates, all while real wages are falling.Earlier this month, Bankrate.com reported that the average credit card interest rate has climbed to 19.04 percent. That’s a thirty-year high and the highest rate since 1991, when the rate hit 19.00 percent. That can mean real financial trouble for ordinary households, but it’s what we should expect in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s policy shift to finally allow interest rates to drift upward this year after more than a decade of quantitative easing and ultralow interest rates. Over the past year, the Fed has increased the target federal funds rate from 0.25 percent to 4.00 percent. NBC reports on how this affects credit card debt:Increasing the federal funds rate cranks up what’s known as the prime rate. That’s the interest rate banks charge their most creditworthy customers. Currently, it is 7%. The final annual percentage rate for a credit card is determined by the prime rate plus a bank’s margin for lending to a given customer.The new average is a substantial increase from the 16.3% average rate for credit cards at the beginning of the year. According to Bankrate, if you carry a $5,000 balance on a credit card—which is the current national average—making just the minimum payment each month at that rate would cost $5,517 in interest over 185 months, or about 15 years. At today’s 19.04% rate, you would pay $6,546.The Fed also reported that “the strength in credit card demand and access coincided with the record growth in credit card balances over the past year.” In its third-quarter report on household debt, the Fed further noted, “Credit card balances saw a $38 billion increase since the second quarter, a 15% year-over-year increase” and “the largest in more than 20 years.”Consumers apparently expect to be spending more with credit cards in the near future as well, as many are applying for even more consumer credit. According to a new report released by the New York Federal Reserve on Monday, Americans are pursuing less mortgage and auto debt, but continue to turn to credit cards:The application rate for credit cards remained robust during 2022, reaching 27.1% in October 2022, above its October 2021 level of 26.5% and its pre-pandemic reading of 26.3% in February 2020. The average application rate for credit cards for 2022 overall was 26.7%, 3.6 percentage points higher than the average rate for 2021.Should we be worried about this? Fed economists would tell you no. They assume that Americans have a huge savings stockpile that they can use to pay down debt or to avoid default. Yet this casual attitude toward mounting debt appears less and less warranted every day. With the job market softening, real wages falling, and interest rates rising, increasing debt can’t so easily be waved off.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/11/27/after-years-of-stimulus-come-surging-debt-and-falling-wages/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

In light of the Balenciaga disgrace, some are recalling a warning by Kanye West that children were being exposed to harmful subliminal messaging in media.As we previously highlighted, despite news outlets declaring the issue to be a “conspiracy theory,” the fashion label was forced to apologize for a fashion shoot which sexualized kids.Images to promote Balenciaga’s Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2023 collection showed young girls holding plush bear bags adorned with bondage gear.The bears are seen wearing padlocks, fishnets, leather harnesses, as well as ankle and wrist restraints.Another photo court showed documents concerning Ashcroft v Free Speech Coalition, a 2002 Supreme Court case. The case struck down a portion of the Child Pornography Prevention Act (CPPA) of 1996, ruling that “virtual” child pornography is protected speech.After Balenciaga claimed they were taking legal action against the photographer responsible for the shoot, Gabriele Galimberti said that Balenciaga was to blame for including the offensive items in the set up, and that he was a scapegoat.Twitter users highlighted a previous warning by Kanye West that the media was putting subliminal messages into content to harm kids.“Protecting your kids from the indoctrination of the media, the thousands and thousands of images that are fed to children by the age of 6 or 7,” said Kanye during a public event.“And within those images, there are images mixed in that we don’t know about as parents that are purposely mixed in to lower the kid’s superpower and esteem so that they can be more susceptible to consumption and feel that they need to consume and become part of the robotic numeric system that controls so much of the media,” he added.Echoing sentiments expressed by Candace Owens this week, Kanye is also reportedly planning to launch a campaign calling on celebrities to choose a side and disassociate with companies that are embroiled with the targeting and abuse of children.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/11/27/kanye-warned-about-protecting-kids-from-subliminal-messages-in-media/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

An advertising campaign for the luxury fashion brand Balenciaga showing disturbing images of young children holding stuffed animals wearing bondage gear.Balenciaga’s new ads feature kids with dolls in bondage gear and a reference to Ashcroft vs. Free Speech Coalition, a Supreme Court case that made simulated child pornography legal, in effect overturning part of a law that had been passed to protect children.Justice Rehnquist opposed the majority of the court and warned in his dissent that simulated child pornography must be illegal because in the future it would become indistinguishable from the real thing. The court majority ignored his warnings and today we know he was right.In a Twitter thread posted Monday, Shoe wrote, “the brand ‘Balenciaga’ just did a uh….. interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about ‘virtual child porn’ normal stuff.”The thread also pointed out the fashion brand left Twitter less than a week ago, with Shoe writing, “interesting timing.”In another odd move, the company deleted every single one of their Instagram posts.Their Instagram page has over 14 million followers.Other advertisements for Balenciaga products have suspicious themes as well, including children posing with rainbows, rolls of caution tape, leashes, collars, candles, wine glasses and of course those creepy bondage stuffed animals.The photos depicted children gripping teddy bears clad in S&M gear, and quickly started going viral. Almost immediately, people responded with outrage on social media, demanding a boycott of the company.Director and producer Robby Starbuck made a video further looking into the strange advertisements.Another Twitter user, Tom Fitton asked: ‘Will there be federal and state criminal investigations into the Balenciaga child pornography campaign? If not, why not?’Lets not forget that just a few days ago Balenciaga decided to cut ties with rapper Kanye West over his alleged antisemitism and rushed in to join the woke mob in a failed attempt to cancel him.Suberbowl MVP Cooper Kupp posted the following message on InstagramSome users took their rage out on Kim K and Bella Hadid for their association with the company. Kim, as you know, is the founder of SKIMS, which has long worked with Balenciaga. Bella is one of Balenciaga’s supermodels.One fan wrote, “When are you going to respond Kim?! Your reputation is on the line here.”This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/11/27/balenciaga-ads-show-young-kids-holding-sex-bondage-teddy-bears-with-child-porn-court-papers-in-background/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Former President Donald Trump acknowledged he recently met up with rap icon Kanye West, though he downplayed the meeting as “uneventful.”Posting to Truth Social Friday, Trump said West had made arrangements to meet with him last week before showing up at his Mar-a-Lago resort “unexpectedly.”“This past week, Kanye West called me to have dinner at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump stated the day after Thanksgiving.“Shortly thereafter, he unexpectedly showed up with three of his friends, whom I knew nothing about. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with many members present on the back patio. The dinner was quick and uneventful. They then left for the airport.”In a statement to Breitbart discussing the meeting, Trump’s campaign stated, “Kanye West very much wanted to visit Mar-a-Lago. Our dinner meeting was intended to be Kanye and me only, but he arrived with a guest whom I had never met and knew nothing about.”The two guests Ye brought with him were reportedly political strategist Karen Giorno and controversial leader of the America First movement Nick Fuentes.Earlier this week, the rapper now known as “Ye” tweeted he was at Trump’s West Palm Beach resort, and that he asked the former president to be his running mate.“First time at Mar-a-Lago Rain and traffic,” Ye tweeted. “Can’t believe I kept President Trump waiting,” he wrote, adding, “And I had on jeans Yikes.”“What you guys think his response was when I asked him to be my running mate in 2024?” he asked, despite Trump’s big announcement earlier this month declaring he would again be seeking the presidency.Meanwhile, Ye’s announcement he would again run for president in 2024 was much less ceremonious, with him mentioning it in an offhanded comment during a live recording inside one of his clothing factories.In an update posted to Twitter Thursday, Ye speaking beside his newly enlisted campaign worker former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannapolous claimed Trump behaved in a “would-be mob-esque” manner when explaining why he didn’t free the January 6 protesters, before going on to claim the former president issued an insult towards his ex-wife Kim Kardashian.“Trump is really impressed with Nick Fuentes,” claimed Ye.Kanye then described Trump as unhinged as he allegedly “screamed” at the rapper his presidential bid would not succeed.“When Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was going to lose, I mean, has that ever worked for anyone in history? Telling Ye that I’m going to lose?”“I’m like, ‘Hold on Trump, you’re talking to Ye.’”Back in 2018, Trump invited the rapper, who admits he “loves Trump,” to meet with him in the White House’s Oval Office, where Ye famously wore the president’s trademark Make America Great Again ball cap.It’s apparent Trump is unamused by Ye’s recent stunt, but is the rapper really serious about mounting another presidential bid, especially against a showstopper political force like Trump?This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/11/27/trump-downplays-quick-and-uneventful-meeting-with-kanye/--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Raising interest rates is a necessary but insufficient measure to combat inflation.

To reduce inflation to 2 percent, central banks must significantly reduce their balance sheets, which has not yet occurred in local currency, and governments must reduce spending, which is highly unlikely.

The most challenging obstacle is also the accumulation of debt.

The so-called expansionary policies have not been an instrument for reducing debt, but rather for increasing it. In the second quarter of 2022, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the global debt-to-GDP ratio will approach 350 percent of GDP. IIF anticipates that the global debt-to-GDP ratio will reach 352 percent by the end of 2022.

Global issuances of high-yield debt have slowed but remain elevated. According to the IMF, the total issuance of European and American high-yield bonds reached a record high of $1,6 trillion in 2021, as businesses and investors capitalized on still low interest rates and high liquidity. According to the IMF, high-yield bond issuances in the United States and Europe will reach $700 billion in 2022, similar to 2008 levels. All of the risky debt accumulated over the past few years will need to be refinanced between 2023 and 2025, requiring the refinancing of over $10 trillion of the riskiest debt at much higher interest rates and with less liquidity.

Moody’s estimates that United States corporate debt maturities will total $785 billion in 2023 and $800 billion in 2024. This increases the maturities of the Federal government. The United States has $31 trillion in outstanding debt with a five-year average maturity, resulting in $5 trillion in refinancing needs during fiscal 2023 and a $2 trillion budget deficit. Knowing that the federal debt of the United States will be refinanced increases the risk of crowding out and liquidity stress on the debt market.

According to The Economist, the cumulative interest bill for the United States between 2023 and 2027 should be less than 3 percent of GDP, which appears manageable. However, as a result of the current path of rate hikes, this number has increased, which exacerbates an already unsustainable fiscal problem.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/11/27/global-rate-hikes-risk-setting-off-a-global-debt-bomb/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Former President Donald Trump was reportedly smitten with conservative firebrand Nick Fuentes after Kanye “Ye” West brought him along for a group meeting at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night.

Behind the scenes: A source familiar with the dinner conversation told Axios that Trump “seemed very taken” with Fuentes, impressed that the 24-year-old was able to rattle off statistics and recall speeches dating back to his 2016 campaign.

– Paraphrasing the conversation, the source said Fuentes told the president he preferred him to be “authentic,” and that Trump seemed scripted and unlike himself during his recent 2024 campaign announcement speech.

– Trump responded, “You like it better when I just speak off the cuff,” the source said. Fuentes replied that he did, calling Trump an “amazing” president when he was unrestrained. “There was a lot of fawning back and forth,” the source added.

**Fuentes told Trump that he represented a side of Trump’s base that was disappointed with his newly cautious approach, especially with what some far-right activists view as a lack of support for those charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

– Trump didn’t disagree with Fuentes, but said he has advisers who want him to read off teleprompters and be more “presidential.”**Notably, Trump referred to himself as a politician, which he has been loathe to do in the past.

– Fuentes also told Trump that he would crush potential 2024 Republican rivals in a primary, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump asked for Fuentes’ opinion on other candidates as well.

Trump at one point turned to Ye and said, “I really like this guy. He gets me,” according to the source.

– “To be honest, I don’t believe the president knew who the hell [Fuentes] was,” the source added.
Trump asked if Fuentes was on social media such as Truth Social, the former president’s alternative to Twitter.

**– Fuentes told Trump that he was on Truth Social but had been banned from the social media platform Gettr because Trump adviser Jason Miller, the CEO of the company, wasn’t a fan of his.

– Trump asked whether it was because Fuentes was on the “fringe” of his supporter base, the source said. Fuentes acknowledged that he was, saying he’s “one of those people who got banned from everything.”**
Driving the news: Ye, whose Twitter account was recently restored after being restricted for anti-Semitic comments, posted a video on Thursday night titled “Mar-a-Lago debrief.”

Ye claims in the video that Trump was “really impressed” with Fuentes because “unlike so many of the lawyers and so many people that he was left with on his 2020 campaign, he’s actually a loyalist.”

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/11/27/trump-praised-nick-fuentes-during-group-meeting-with-ye-at-mar-a-lago-i-really-like-this-guy-he-gets-me/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

WASHINGTON, DC — As the date of next week’s midterm elections approaches, President Joe Biden used his Wednesday night address to warn everyone that the results may not immediately be known because it may take several days for enough Democrat votes to be harvested and double-counted.

“Despite the fact that third-world countries around the globe are capable of tallying their votes on the same day as their elections, it’s simply not realistic to expect that from the world’s most technologically advanced nation,” Biden shouted with an unnecessary amount of anger to the assembled crowd made up entirely of White House staffers and the media. “Folks, we’ve got to take our time, find out how far behind we are, and wait for the unmarked vans carrying bags full of ballots to arrive in the middle of the night. Then we gotta find out how many times we have to count each ballot. Tomato soup.”

As First Lady Jill Biden and Secret Service agents quickly grabbed the President and pulled him away from the podium, White House spokesperson Holly Caust provided the media with a backtracking statement. “What the President was actually trying to say is that we will make sure our democratic process plays out in its entirety without anyone’s right to vote being suppressed. There’s simply no time limit on counting votes, even if various state laws clearly state otherwise.”

At publishing time, Democrat operatives across the country were continuing to stock up on snacks and making sure the voting machines at polling stations were successfully connected to the internet in preparation for next week’s marathon vote-manufacturing sessions.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://freedomreportage.com/2022/11/06/joe-biden-says-it-may-take-several-days-for-democrat-votes-to-be-double-counted/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A number of conservative US lawmakers have repeatedly signaled their readiness to bring articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden if Republicans win back a majority in the House of Representatives in the November 8th midterms.

US President Joe Biden seems to have acknowledged that Republicans possibly taking over Congress in next week’s midterm elections may lead to him being impeached.

In an address to his supporters in San Diego, Biden said that he was “already being told if they [GOP members] win back the House and Senate, they’re gonna [sic] impeach” him.

“I don’t know what the hell they’re gonna impeach me for. I’m not joking. Recently they said ‘we should stop talking about that ’til we win’,” he added.

This followed No. 3 House Republican Elise Stefanik telling US media earlier this month that GOP lawmakers could decide to impeach the 46th president next year after probing his family’s foreign consulting businesses and his “illegal” request that OPEC+ delay oil production cuts until after the midterm elections.

The chair of the House Republican Conference argued that “when there’s an egregious abuse of power and high crimes and misdemeanors, that means anything is on the table.” Stefanik insisted that the White House’s request related to OPEC+ was a “very egregious, inappropriate and illegal action by the president.”

“I am very concerned about it, but it doesn’t surprise me. The Democrats are absolutely desperate. It is illegal and it will be taken into consideration,” Stefanik asserted.

The remarks were preceded by House Republican Bob Good stressing that he had “consistently said President Biden should be impeached for intentionally opening our border and making Americans less safe.” According to him, “Congress has a duty to hold the President accountable for this and any other failures of his Constitutional responsibilities, so a new Republican majority must be prepared to aggressively conduct oversight on day one.”

A recent YouGov survey revealed that at least 27% of US “adult citizens” expect a Republican-led Congress would impeach Biden — a view that is shared by roughly equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats, 32% and 29%, respectively.

Last year saw an array of GOP lawmakers accuse Biden of “high crimes and misdemeanors” and blame him for a spate of his policy failings, including the US’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the migrant crisis plaguing the US southern border with Mexico.

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Almost half of U.S. voters believe the federal government is controlled by a “secret cabal,” according to a new poll.

The Benenson Strategy Group, headed by Obama campaign pollster Joel Benenson, surveyed 1,000 Americans between Oct. 27-30 to see how much they were influenced by “QAnon” conspiracy theories.

“We wanted to test QAnon’s language that the world is controlled by a secret cabal,” Benenson told Axios. “Given that the U.S. is the world’s strongest democracy, we wanted to see how far the appeal of language like that might reach.”

The result: 44% of respondents believed the U.S. government is “controlled by a secret cabal.”

The respondents broken down by political affiliation: 66% of Democrats, 55% of Republicans, 54% of independents.

The majority of Republican respondents, 53%, believe the government is controlled by a secret cabal, while only 37% of Democrats believe that notion.

Interestingly, the same poll found “59% of voters agree that the U.S. is a strong democracy.”

Though the survey is framed as a measure of how Americans are influenced by “QAnon,” the fact many Americans believe a “secret cabal” pulls the strings of government isn’t all that surprising given public remarks by top globalists like World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab.

Schwab bragged during a 2017 conference that WEF acolytes “penetrate the cabinets” of world governments to push their Great Reset agenda and other related initiatives.

“And I have to say, when I mention our names, like [former German Chancellor] Mrs. Merkel, even [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and so on, they all have been young global leaders of the World Economic Forum,” Schwab said.

“So we penetrate the cabinets,” Schwab admitted. “So yesterday, I was at the reception for [Canadian] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and I would know that half of this cabinet or even more than half of this cabinet are our actually young global leaders of the world.”

Since Democrats control all three branches of government, it stands to reason the 44% of voters believe they are controlled by this secret cabal, a revelation that does not bode well for them with the midterms only days away.

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The Anti-Defamation League, the leading pro-Israel lobbying group in America, ordered a global advertiser boycott of Elon Musk’s Twitter on Friday for not doing enough to censor Kanye “Ye” West and other critics of their power.

The ADL released a statement on Twitter Calling on Advertisers to Pause Their Spend on Twitter:

“Today, we are joining dozens of other groups to ask advertisers to pause Twitter spending because we are profoundly concerned about antisemitism and hate on the platform. Here’s why we’re asking advertisers to #StopHateForProfit and #StopToxicTwitter“

This past Tuesday, Twitter’s new owner elonmusk met with representatives from U.S civil society organizations, including Greenblatt and Yael Eisenstat. Following that meeting, Musk pledged that “Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment,” including antisemitism. Since that meeting, Musk permitted Kanye West to start posting again. From Ye’s “Death Con 3” tweet to Kyrie Irving promoting an antisemitic film, we’ve seen celebrities use Twitter to disseminate antisemitic conspiracy theories and hate to tens of millions of followers.

ADL CEO Greenblatt put out a statement on Wednesday through his global boycotting pressure operation “Stop Hate For Profit”:

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Kanye West on Thursday returned to Twitter and shared scandalous texts purportedly from his Jewish trainer Harley Pasternak telling him to “please apologize to my people” or else he’ll have him “institutionalized again where they medicate the crap out of you, and you go back to Zombieland forever.”

West said during his now-censored interview on Drink Champs last month that Pasternak first put out the narrative that he was crazy when he was hospitalized for exhaustion in 2016.

“They put the ‘crazy’ narrative out there, my Jewish trainer, Harley Pasternak, who’s Lizzo’s trainer, put it out when I went to the hospital, put it in the press,” Ye said. “I got a bunch of friends that went to the hospital — it didn’t go to the press.”

“I would do anything, anything, if you could please apologize to my people,” Pasternak allegedly told Ye in a text that Ye shared on Thursday.

“I’m going to help you one of a couple ways,” he continued. “First, you and I sit down and have an loving and open conversation, but you don’t use cuss words, and everything that is discussed is based in fact, and not some crazy stuff that dumb friend of yours told you, or you saw in a tweet.”

“Second option, I have you institutionalized again where they medicate the crap out of you and you go back to Zombieland forever. Play date with the kids just won’t be the same."

“What should be obvious by now is that I was raised to stand for my truth regardless of the consequences,” Mr. West said. “So I will say this again. I was mentally misdiagnosed and nearly drugged out of my mind to make me a manageable well behaved celebrity.”

“I was told that if I expose the truth of the bad business practices everything is gonna be taken from me,” he said. “Including my black children.”

“And everyone has bore [witness] to the public Emmett Tilling of Kanye. But GOD has put something on my heart not to backdown.”

“This shows Harley admitting to knowing the truth of our origin but then later dismissing the facts within the same text chain[.] Mind you[,] This is how a Hollywood trainer speaks to a far more influential black celebrity when we get out of line.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Kanye “Ye” West on Friday tweeted that he’s starting to think that labeling black people “anti-Semitic” is just code for calling them the n-word.

In perhaps the first case ever of Twitter censoring a black person for using the n-word, Ye’s tweet was deleted for “violat[ing] the Twitter Rules.”

The tweet is archived here.

I don’t remember Vijaya Gadde ever censoring a black person for using the n-word but I guess Ye’s tweet was too much for Twitter’s new chief censor, Yoel Roth.

The user he quoted, DAYLYT30, also had his tweet deleted for violating Twitter’s rules.

Ye also shared a clip from an interview with rapper Charleston White saying Ye is being whipped again and again like a slave for “standing up.”

Ye on Thursday shared scandalous texts purportedly from his Jewish trainer Harley Pasternak telling him to “please apologize to my people” or else he’ll have him “institutionalized again where they medicate the crap out of you, and you go back to Zombieland forever.”

What should be obvious by now is that I was raised to stand for my truth regardless of the consequences,” Ye said. “So I will say this again[.] I was mentally misdiagnosed and nearly drugged out of my mind to make me a manageable well behaved celebrity.”

“I was told that if I expose the truth of the bad business practices everything is gonna be taken from me,” he said. “Including my black children.”

“And everyone has bore [witness] to the public Emmett Tilling of Ye. But GOD has put something on my heart not to backdown.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The Anti-Defamation League and the Brooklyn Nets put out a statement on Wednesday announcing that Kyrie Irving has agreed to be re-educated by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and pay $500,000 towards “causes and organizations that work to eradicate hate and intolerance.”

The $500,000 tax, which they’re calling a “donation,” is being matched by the Brooklyn Nets to bring the ADL’s total haul to $1 million.

Greenblatt described the shakedown as an “opportunity” for Irving to “learn and do better.”

Kyrie Irving explained that one evening he was searching for the Hebrew word “Yahweh” on Amazon, and the online retailer’s algorithm suggested ““Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” which he then shared a screenshot of on his social media account.

A few days after he was forced to pony up half a million dollars to the the ADL, Kyrie Irving was suspended indefinitely by the Brooklyn Nets because he refused to utter the exact words that they demanded him to repeat.

Many users on social media have compare Kyrie Irving to Kunta Kinte, the stubborn slave character in Alex Haley’s award-winning mini-series Roots, who refused to renounce and reject his history despite being mercilessly tortured and whipped in front of all the other slaves.

Kyrie later issued a statement saying “I am an OMNIST and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs. The “Anti-Semitic” label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in everyday. I embrace and want to learn from all walks of life and religions.”

But that still didn’t satisfy his detractors they wanted him to grovel and beg for forgiveness.

All evidence indicate that the establishment has had it in for Irving ever since he famously refused to take a Covid-19 vaccine during the height of the pandemic, which led the Nets to sideline him during the 2021 season in compliance with New York City vaccine edicts.

Irving is being subjected to the exact same type of “cancel culture” persecution by the leftist mob to which Alex Jones and Kanye West have been subjected.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The Anti-Defamation League and the Brooklyn Nets put out a statement on Wednesday announcing that Kyrie Irving has agreed to be re-educated by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and pay $500,000 towards “causes and organizations that work to eradicate hate and intolerance.”

The $500,000 tax, which they’re calling a “donation,” is being matched by the Brooklyn Nets to bring the ADL’s total haul to $1 million.

Greenblatt described the shakedown as an “opportunity” for Irving to “learn and do better.”

Kyrie Irving explained that one evening he was searching for the Hebrew word “Yahweh” on Amazon, and the online retailer's algorithm suggested ““Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” which he then shared a screenshot of on his social media account.

The 208 minute long documentary that got Kyrie in trouble with the ADL for sharing is still being sold on Amazon. As far as we know the ADL hasn't made any public request that Amazon take it down and the NBA has been unwilling to direct any criticism whatsoever towards the sellers of “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” nor have they indicated that they plan to discuss the matter with Amazon executives.

Kyrie didn't produce nor write “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America”, he has absolutely any connections with the producers of the documentary an amateur filmmaker named Ronald Dalton. His only crime was sharing the screenshoot of a movie Jeff Bezos and Amazon is profiting from, yet not any criticism towards Bezos?

It is truly remarkable how a member of one of the most socioeconomically disenfranchised group in America can be forced to pay half a million dollars in fine to one of the most successful group for sharing the screenshot of a documentary.

One of the unintended consequences of all the controversy the NBA, the media and the Nets has stirred by persecuting and tormenting Kyrie Irving, is that millions of people have gone on Amazon and watched “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” and it has gone from an obscure documentary with couple thousand views to one of the best selling documentaries in multiple categories. The audiobook version of “Hebrews to Negroes” is now the top-selling title in Amazon’s “Christian Living” category. Streisand effect in full effect.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

None

Refusing to comply with the NBA’s Covid vaccine mandate cost over $100 million and a four-year contract extension, Brooklyn Nets’ point guard Kyrie Irving explained Monday.

“I gave up four years, $100-and-something million deciding to be unvaccinated and that was the decision,” Irving told reporters during the Nets’ media day, adding he had to come to terms with the gravity of his decision.

“[Get this] contract, get vaccinated or be unvaccinated and there’s a level of uncertainty of your future, whether you’re going to be in this league, whether you’re going to be on this team, so I had to deal with that real-life circumstance of losing my job for this decision.”

Irving was sidelined by his team during home games throughout the 2021 season after famously refusing to adhere to New York City’s experimental mRNA jab mandate.

As a result, his contract has remained up in the air, and he says he feels he’s being given “an ultimatum” between getting the jab and being able to play.

“We were supposed to have all that figured out before training camp last year,” he told reporters. “And it just didn’t happen because of the status of me being vaccinated, unvaccinated. So, I understood their point and I just had to live with it. It was a tough pill to swallow, honestly.”

“On a serious note, I felt like I was forced with an ultimatum of whether or not I had a contract or not, whether or not I could be on the team or be around the team, whether or not I was vaccinated. So, tough conversations again that were had,” he said.

In a statement to ESPN, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks disputed Irving’s view, saying, “There’s no ultimatum being given here… Again, it goes back to you want people who are reliable, people who are here, and accountable. All of us: staff, players, coaches, you name it. It’s not giving somebody an ultimatum to get a vaccine. That’s a completely personal choice. I stand by Kyrie. I think if he wants, he’s made that choice. That’s his prerogative completely.”

Irving added his unpopular decision “came to be a stigma within my career,” but that he wasn’t simply intending to be a sacrificial lamb for the anti-Covid vaccine movement; he just wanted to stand for something bigger than himself.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Another pro-abortion activist called to ‘testify’ by Democrats in the House suggested Tuesday that it is better for minorities in America to be aborted than to be born and that she ‘owes her life’ to an abortion.

The House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel heard from Renee Bracey Sherman, the founder and executive director of abortion ‘storytelling group’ We Testify.

As such, GOP representatives were faced with another child like person up on the stand, speaking in a cringe inducing passive aggressive tone and clearly unable to control her emotions.

Bracey Sherman had even used a sharpie to scrawl the pronouns “SHE/HER” on the name plate provided to her by the house.

She told the panel that when she was 19 years old and pregnant she considered throwing herself down the stairs and drank “an unsafe amount of alcohol,” in the hope off achieving a miscarriage, which she admitted she counts as a “successful abortion”.

“That was when it [abortion] was legal in every state. Now, it is not [not true] and I know some will try the methods that I did,” she asserted.

“And I want them to know that there are safe methods to self-managing their abortions according to the World Health Organization,” the witness added, going on to promote ‘self managed’ abortions by taking pills.

At one point Bracey Sherman claimed that immigrant children once born are ripped from their families and caged, while ‘trans children’ are “turned into political fodder,” and ‘black and brown children’ live in fear of the police. She further claimed that all these issues are “not separate from abortion,” and should be taken into account by women when considering whether to go ahead with their pregnancy.

The clear insinuation here is that it might be better for some minority children not to be born alive.

Insane.

Bracey Sherman also claimed that she owes her life to an abortion because her mother had one before she was born because she “wasn’t in a relationship that was right for her.”

“I share that to exercise my right to free speech because there are organizations and legislators who want to make what I just said a crime,” Bracey Sherman concluded, further claiming “Everyone loves someone who has abortions.”

Democrats keep calling people as witnesses who sound and look like they are on the verge of a nervous breakdown to spew their cult like ideology. They refuse to define what a woman is, they claim denying men can get pregnant is ‘transphobic’ and that disagreeing with them incites violence.

Elsewhere during the hearing, a Democratic Rep. suggested that while discussing abortion the word ‘abortion’ shouldn’t be used, because it has “been weaponised” and has negative connotations.

Incredible.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A rapper’s disturbing music video glorifying abortion while twerking in front of a Planned Parenthood facility has gone viral. The song, called “BDF” by TNFW Nique, shows black women twerking while celebrating being “Baby Daddy Free” after getting an abortion at Planned Parenthood. The extreme video got the attention of Candace Owens last month, who condemned the rapper’s celebration of baby murder, which the video makes clear in the song’s chorus, “Murder on my mind.” “Do you have words? I don’t have them,” Owens said after showing a clip of the video. “I don’t have them, and I’m waiting for someone that feels that they are a better representation of black culture to speak out against this.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Another pro-abortion activist called to ‘testify’ by Democrats in the House suggested Tuesday that it is better for minorities in America to be aborted than to be born and that she ‘owes her life’ to an abortion. The House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel heard from Renee Bracey Sherman, the founder and executive director of abortion ‘storytelling group’ We Testify. As such, GOP representatives were faced with another child like person up on the stand, speaking in a cringe inducing passive aggressive tone and clearly unable to control her emotions. Bracey Sherman had even used a sharpie to scrawl the pronouns “SHE/HER” on the name plate provided to her by the house. She told the panel that when she was 19 years old and pregnant she considered throwing herself down the stairs and drank “an unsafe amount of alcohol,” in the hope off achieving a miscarriage, which she admitted she counts as a “successful abortion”. — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 19, 2022 Pro-abortion Democrat witness: I drank an "unsafe amount of alcohol" and "considered throwing myself down the stairs" to kill my unborn baby pic.twitter.com/zQj5C9HMPd — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 19, 2022 Pro-abortion Democrat witness Bracey Sherman calls a miscarriage a “successful abortion” pic.twitter.com/mEAUr6EfjB “That was when it [abortion] was legal in every state. Now, it is not [not true] and I know some will try the methods that I did,” she asserted. “And I want them to know that there are safe methods to self-managing their abortions according to the World Health Organization,” the witness added, going on to promote ‘self managed’ abortions by taking pills. At one point Bracey Sherman claimed that immigrant children once born are ripped from their families and caged, while ‘trans children’ are “turned into political fodder,” and ‘black and brown children’ live in fear of the police. She further claimed that all these issues are “not separate from abortion,” and should be taken into account by women when considering whether to go ahead with their pregnancy. The clear insinuation here is that it might be better for some minority children not to be born alive. Insane. — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 19, 2022 Pro-abortion Democrat witness suggests it's better for minorities in America to be aborted than born. pic.twitter.com/29idep96aa Bracey Sherman also claimed that she owes her life to an abortion because her mother had one before she was born because she “wasn’t in a relationship that was right for her.” — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 19, 2022 Pro-abortion Democrat witness: "I owe my life to an abortion" pic.twitter.com/34nzMVLkVN

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

CHINESE scientists probed weaponising coronaviruses five years before the Covid pandemic, bombshell documents reveal. Documents obtained by the US State Department reportedly show People’s Liberation Army (PLA) commanders predicted that World War 3 would be fought with biological weapons.

US officials obtained the papers which were written by military scientists and senior Chinese public health officials in 2015 as part of their own investigation into the origins of Covid-19, reports The Australian. Chinese scientists described SARS coronaviruses – of which Covid is an example – as heralding a “new era of genetic weapons”. They boasted the viruses could be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed in a way never seen before”. Tom Tugendhat MP and Australian politician James Paterson said the document raises major concerns about China’s transparency on the origins of Covid-19. Mr Tugendhat, chairman for the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: “China’s evident interest in bioweapons is extremely concerning. Even under the tightest controls these weapons are dangerous. “This document raises major concerns about the ambitions of some of those who advise the top party leadership.” China has long been accused of covering up or distorting its role in the early days of the pandemic, with claims the Communist Party manipulated case and death figures while withholding information from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Questions still remain over the origins of the virus as well after a much derided WHO probe earlier this year, with the organisation ordering a further investigation which factors in the possibly of a lab leak. Most scientists have said there is no evidence that Covid-19 is manmade – but questions remain whether it escaped from the a biolab in Wuhan. There is no evidence to suggest it was intentionally released by China. The Chinese language military document, titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons, outlines the Chinese military’s plans with regards to bioweapons. It reads: “Following developments in other scientific fields, there have been major advances in the delivery of biological agents. “For example, the new-found ability to freeze-dry micro-organisms has made it possible to store biological agents and aerosolise them during attacks.” US officials obtained the papers which were written by military scientists and senior Chinese public health officials in 2015 as part of their own investigation into the origins of Covid-19, reports The Australian. Chinese scientists described SARS coronaviruses – of which Covid is an example – as heralding a “new era of genetic weapons”.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The plaintiff alleges that the abortion provider calculated her pregnancy at just six (6) weeks, then prescribed her abortion pills. The named “defendants” are Planned Parenthood abortionist Meera Shah, M.D., as well as nurse practitioner Abigail Mensah, who worked for Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic (PPHP) and were involved in the care and treatment of the abortion client at Planned Parenthood’s White Plains Center and Spring Valley Centers. Court documents obtained by Live Action News revealed that the woman requested to remain anonymous, referring to herself as “Jane Doe.” In her court filing, she accused Planned Parenthood and the other defendants of conducting an “illegal abortion” on her while she was a “teenaged college student” at the age of 18. She called the ordeal “extremely disturbing.” The lawsuit, originally filed January 20, 2021 in the New York State Kings County Supreme Court, shows no further disposition and appears (according to Trellis) to have been sealed. Jane Doe affidavit Planned Parenthood lawsuit abortion pill 33 to 36 week pregnancy Abortion pills prescribed for six-week pregnancy According to the court document, on May 4, 2020, Jane Doe “obtained abortion information from Defendants via a fifteen minute, two second telehealth conference” without any physical exam. As a result, when Jane Doe advised Planned Parenthood that her last menstrual period was on March 23, 2020, they determined she was six weeks pregnant, before advising her that she could obtain abortion pills at PP’s Spring Valley Center, and, according to the lawsuit, Jane Doe “was not asked any further questions about the pregnancy, nor did she sign any consent forms.” The lawsuit further alleges that Planned Parenthood “failed to perform any type of ultrasound or other scan on Plaintiff while she was at the Spring Valley Center to accurately confirm the gestational age of the fetus.” The lawsuit also contends that after Dr. Shah prescribed the abortion pill regimen to Jane Doe, she “began taking the medication on May 4, 2020 to proceed with the abortion of what she believed was a six-week old fetus.” The abortion industry is maximizing profits with its self-initiated “no-test” abortion pill protocol, which fails to confirm the gestational age of the baby or rule out dangerous ectopic pregnancies. In addition, a failure to review the procedure and get signed agreements with the abortion client appears to be a violation of the FDA’s REMS safety system which requires a patient agreement be reviewed and signed by the abortion client. Abortion patient delivers near full-term baby into a toilet What happened after Jane Doe took the prescribed Planned Parenthood abortion pills was nothing short of horrific. According to the lawsuit, after consuming the pills, she delivered a fully formed baby boy into a toilet.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The sudden death of a progressive Democrat candidate in Florida who scolded people for refusing to take the Covid jab is being revisited on social media. In screenshots from truck driver and District 23 candidate Richard Rowe’s Facebook, the 41-year-old pro-vaccine politician mocked anti-vaxxers who he claimed “helped kill 700,000 Americans” before he himself passed away on October 28, 2021. “Just a reminder. God has a sense of humour,” reads a caption from a Twitter user who revisited the posts.

Posting a photo showing his Covid vaccine card, Rowe acknowledged he was taking the jab despite having already contracted Covid, writing, “Already had COVID last year, so not worried about catching it. Bit I want to maintain my smug sense of moral and intellectual superiority while making fun of Darwin’d anti-vaxxers. It’s actually pretty noble, really.”

Screen grabs show Rowe, who received his first Pfizer jab on August, 12, 2021, was bothered by people who refused to take the jab, at one point declaring, “Let Darwin do his work.” “Let me be real clear….I do not give a FUCK what happens to anti-vaxxers. I dont. Let Darwin do his work. They helped kill 700,000 Americans. I do not have the pity or tears to spare for any of them. It’s all dried up now. Sorry. At this point. I’m just hoping they feel 1/10th of the pain theyve caused everyone else. The kids will be fine. THEY’RE going to suffer. And I fucking well think they’ve earned it.”

Earlier in the year, in July, Rowe described his contempt for people who refused to wear face masks and who tune into Fox, Trump and OANN, again saying, “I DO NOT CARE what happens to you.”

He also made additional posts in September arrogantly dismissing anti-vaxxers’ concerns, suggesting he received a second vaccine that month.

In an interesting turn of events, Rowe died the following month, with a friend of his claiming he died unexpectedly while walking his dog.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A Chinese coronavirus whistleblower claims her husband is helping the Chinese Communist Party make her "disappear" for exposing the origins of COVID-19 during a bombshell interview in the latest episode of Fox Nation’s "Tucker Carlson Today."

Virologist and medical doctor Li-Meng Yan told Carlson that according to I-94 records, her husband has entered the United States with an HB-1 visa for two years and may be planning to harm her with the assistance of the CCP and some within the U.S.

Prior to her escape from China in April of 2020, Yan claimed that her husband attempted to "harm" her in a variety of ways, including poisoning, in order to stop her from fleeing the country.

Yan, who was working at a World Health Organization reference lab in Hong Kong during the onset of the pandemic, was assigned as a secret investigator to probe COVID-19, which was being called the "Wuhan pneumonia" at the time. However, she said she was warned by her supervisor, Dr. Leo Poon, not to ask too many questions.

She was told not to touch the "red-line" or else face the consequences from the CCP.

"Don't touch the red line-- that means ‘invisible principle,’" Yan said. "Don't break it. If not, I have to be responsible for that. It means the invisible things that China's government won't be happy [about]."

Utilizing her network of contacts – which included Chinese lab researchers, CDC-involved military, and civilian locations -- Yan soon noticed "abnormal" actions being taken by the CCP.

"So briefly, China's government knows those things happened in Wuhan. And it's definitely more than they announced, at least for the confirmed cases," Yan said. "They hide one-third of patients."

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A security firm called Strider Technologies published a report this week that said China paid leading scientists at America’s Los Alamos National Laboratory hefty sums of money to conduct research for the Chinese Communist government, including research with military applications that could threaten U.S. national security.

The report, titled The Los Alamos Club: How the People’s Republic of China Recruited Leading Scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory to Advance its Military Programs, offered a rather straightforward answer to its titular question — China recruited those scientists by offering them up to a million dollars each, and at least 154 of them accepted.

The Strider report is an extraordinarily detailed look at a problem that has been discussed at length in recent years, China’s extremely aggressive “talent recruitment” programs. The People’s Republic of China puts a great deal of effort into recruiting talented foreigners to serve its purposes, often without emigrating to China or leaving the positions they hold in free nations. Often, but not always, these recruitment programs target foreign citizens of Chinese heritage.

The most notorious of these initiatives is called the Thousand Talents Program (TTP). Many of the scientists in the Strider report were involved in TTP or its youth wing.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The New York State supreme court has ordered New York City to rehire and pay back wages to government employees who were fired for refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

David Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, issued an order in October 2021 requiring all city employees to be inoculated against the virus. Later, Chokshi issued a similar order for private-sector employees; Mayor Eric Adams signed a supplementary executive order to that latter mandate carving out exemptions for athletes, musicians, and other performers.

The court deemed both Chokshi’s and Adams’s orders “arbitrary and capricious,” while also finding that Chokshi’s violated the New York State constitution.

“The Health Commissioner cannot create a new condition of employment for city employees, . . . cannot prohibit an employee from reporting to work . . . [and] cannot terminate employees. The Mayor cannot exempt certain employees from these orders,” reads the opinion, which was authored by Judge Ralph J. Porzio. Porzio noted that vaccination against Covid-19 does not prevent transmission of the disease, but noted that the decision “is not a commentary on the efficacy of vaccination.”

“If it was about safety and public health, no one would be exempt. It is time for the City of New York to do what is right and what is just,” concluded Porzio.

The city has already filed an appeal according to a spokesman for the law department, who said that “the city strongly disagrees with this ruling as the mandate is firmly grounded in law and is critical to New Yorkers’ public health.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Pennsylvania government officials sent out at least 240,000 ballots to applicants they could not verify either by their Social Security or Driver’s License numbers.

15 Republican State Representatives sent a letter to Acting Secretary of the Commonwealth Leigh Chapman after they discovered over 240,000 illicit ballots were mailed in the state prior to the 2022 midterm elections.

“Due to the 2018 directive from your office instructing counties to register voters without verification of identity, the need to verify the identity and eligibility of mail and absentee ballot applicants is even more critical to the integrity of our elections. As of October 21, 2022, records of 2022 Mail Ballot Data shows that counties have already mailed over 240,000 unverified ballots,” the letter states.

The letter notes two contradictory statements: one by Deputy Secretary for Elections and Commissions Jonathon Marks who testified in court that unverified ballots can still be mailed out to applicants, but wouldn’t be counted officially in the election until ID was produced.

The other by the State Department itself, who claimed that ballots cannot be sent out until ID is first provided.

“Either the ballots are mailed to unverified applicants, or ballots are not mailed to unverified applicants but both statements cannot be true,” the letter notes. “Due to this conflicting information, conscientious election workers could unknowingly accept and count ballots for which no verification has ever occurred.”

The letter goes on to claim their figure of 240,000 came from the Pennsylvania State Department’s own data, and that the mailed ballots must be set aside in accordance with Pennsylvania law.

“According to the DoS data, as of October 21, 2022, a staggering 240,000 ballots are ‘NOT VERIFIED.’ That is an enormous number of ballots, which, according to the law, must be set aside and not counted for the 2022 General Election unless the voter produces ID,” the letter says.

“This will force the counties to, as one election county official described it, ‘go after the missing information’ to obtain proof of ID for the unverified ballots.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The attempt to overthrow the 2020 presidential election failed but insecurity, insurrection and anarchy still loom. Fear is mounting that the country could explode in two years depending on results at the voting booth—who is running and who loses their run for office.

When Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers, a national right wing group, testified during recent congressional hearings about the attack on the U.S. Capitol one year ago, he was blunt.

“I think we need to quit mincing words and just talk about truths and what it was going to be was an armed revolution. People died that day, law enforcement officers died this day, there was a gallows set up in front of the Capitol. This could have been the spark that started a new civil war,” he said.

And, he has warned, the danger isn’t over depending on how former President Trump, a key figure and accused conspirator, insurrection catalyst, and others respond during the 2024 presidential election.

He and others from across the political spectrum—from progressive to conservative and liberal to right wing—say America is in trouble and could explode into an all-out civil war.

Mr. Van Tatenhove said he was no longer part of the Oath Keepers, which is composed of current and former law enforcement, military personnel, first responders and others who insist their obligation is to defend their interpretation of the Constitution above all else.

Called to testify, he told committee members his onetime group is dangerous.

“I think the best illustration for what the Oath Keepers are, happened Jan. 6, and we saw that stacked military formation going up the stairs of our Capitol,” he told the House panel.

“I saw radicalization that started with my beginning of my time with them and continued over a period of time as the member base, and who (organization leader) Stewart Rhodes was courting, drifted further and further right into the alt-right world, into White nationalists and even straight up racists,” Mr. Van Tatenhove testified July 12.

Surveys show plenty of pessimism about America: A 2021 Zogby poll published by the Brookings Institution found that nearly half of Americans believed that a second civil war was likely.

White discontent is fueling an extreme and violent response, analysts like Sara Kamali, of the University of California Santa Barbara, warn.

She wrote about how and why the U.S.-based Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, Three Percenters, individuals, and groups attempted a collective coup on Jan. 6, 2021.

“White nationalists believe that White people and identity are under attack worldwide by immigrants, people of color and, increasingly, progressives and liberals who do not share their racist, religious, anti-government beliefs or conspiracy theories,” explained the professor in a piece published online at the Conversation.

White nationalists want to “reclaim land as a White state governed and inhabited by White people only,” Prof. Kamali said. She also noted, “the Oath Keepers have consistently taken stances that are racist and have warned of an impending civil war in the United States.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The family of deceased felon George Floyd is threatening to sue Kanye West after the superstar entertainer-turned-cultural critic told the truth about his death during a recent interview. West has made international headlines as of late, thanks to his disruption of the corporate media, uni-party narrative. Kanye West joined the Drink Champs Podcast in an episode that aired Saturday and told the truth about the death of George Floyd. That’s led Floyd’s family, who have profited to the tune of millions of dollars off of the BLM narrative surrounding his death, to publicly threaten legal action against West, apparently in their latest attempt to receive a financial court settlement. Thus far, in addition to receiving a more than $27 million settlement from the city of Minneapolis, where Floyd died while under arrest, his family has made tens of millions of dollars by way of GoFundMe and donations from big-money left-wing groups. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that,” Kanye West told the Drink Champs Podcast. West’s explanation for Floyd’s death echoes information that came out during the homicide trial of ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin. With the jury under immense media and political pressure, Chauvin was convicted of killing George Floyd at trial, despite the fact that Floyd had enough fentanyl and methamphetamine in his body to “kill three humans.” Despite the medical facts, the Floyd family attorney, Lee Merritt, claimed in a Sunday tweet that his clients are “considering suit for Kanye’s false statements” about the manner of Floyd’s death. “Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl and not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight,” Merritt went on, seeming to threaten that anyone who questions the George Floyd narrative will face consequences.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and Hollywood bigwig Ari Emanuel are demanding that Ye be canceled by Adidas, GAP, Apple and Spotify for his “anti-Semitic” views. “In light of Kanye West’s increasingly strident antisemitic remarks over the past few weeks, we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to continue to release new products from his Yeezy brand without any seeming acknowledgement of the controversy surrounding his most recent remarks,” Greenblatt wrote in a letter to Adidas. “We urge Adidas to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and to issue a statement making clear that the Adidas company and community has no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was criticized on Wednesday after suggesting that having an abortion could be a solution to high inflation and claiming that “having children” is why people are worried about the price of gas and groceries. “Right now we are walking away so often from the real issues that people care about. Abortion is an economic issue. It’s been reduced to this idea of a culture war. But for women in Georgia, this is very much a question of whether they’re going to end up in poverty in the next five years because women who are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies end up within poverty — they’re four times more likely to be impoverished in five years,” Abrams told the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle pressed Abrams further on how she plans to alleviate concerns voters have over the high cost of groceries and gas. Inflation rose 8.2% in September from last year. — Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 19, 2022 I didn't really expect Democrats to go with "you know, it's cheaper to feed your family if you kill a few of them" as a closing argument, yet here we are. https://t.co/046A8cLYnh “But let’s be clear. Having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas, it’s why you’re concerned about how much food costs. For women, this is not a reductive issue. You can’t divorce being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy from the economic realities of having a child. And so these are — it’s important for us to have ‘both and’ conversations. We don’t have the luxury of reducing it or separating them out,” Abrams said.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abram appalled conservative Twitter users with her argument that abortion can solve inflation by removing the burden of children on household finances.

Abrams made the claim conservatives called “EVIL” and “Positively ghoulish” on Wednesday while speaking to MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle on “Morning Joe.”

Barnicle pressed Abrams on how she might alleviate voters concerns over inflation and high gas prices. Abrams’ answer suggested that keeping abortion rights safe would help solve inflation.

She told Barnicle, “But let’s be clear. Having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas, it’s why you’re concerned about how much food costs. For women, this is not a reductive issue. You can’t divorce being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy from the economic realities of having a child.”

Mentioning her idea that economic success and abortion go hand in hand, Abrams added, “And so these are — it’s important for us to have ‘both and’ conversations. We don’t have the luxury of reducing it or separating them out.”

The candidate’s comments generated much outrage online.

Governor Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., rapid response director Christina Pushaw slammed Abrams, tweeting, “She is so bad at this.”

Virginia state delegate Nick Freitas remarked, “Under Democratic leadership, you can’t afford children, but don’t worry, they will force your neighbor to pay for your abortion!”

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk asked, “Why are Democrats like Stacey Abrams and Katie Hobbs so obsessed with full-term baby killing?”

Former Republican U.S. congressional candidate Lavern Spicer was shocked at the clip of Abrams, stating, “Stacey Abrams says killing your unborn children helps with inflation because you don’t have to worry about how much it costs to feed them. Stacey Abrams is a demon.”

Conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell couldn’t believe what Abrams was implying in the clip. He tweeted, “Stacey Abrams just said more abortions will help solve the inflation problem. You can’t make this up.”

Former congressman Vernon Jones asked, “Wait a minute, @staceyabrams believes and want you to believe having an abortion is a good way to drive down the cost of gas and food? D—!”

Attorney and podcast host Phillip Holloway claimed Abrams’ argument was not normal,” tweeting, “Wow. @staceyabrams is getting some bizarre political messaging advice. She’s conflating inflation and abortion. This is bizarre.”

Republican activist and former congressional candidate Matthew Foldi used Abrams’ word to sum up the state of Democrats’ current political fortune. He tweeted, “The Biden economy is so awful right now that @staceyabrams’ solution is for women to get abortions #gagov.”

Pro-life activist and Catholic priest Fr. Frank Pavone tweeted, “hmm, @staceyabrams thinks abortion can help with inflation. Killing living babies to help inflation is EVIL! We need to Vote Pro-life!!!”

Conservative author Marc Thiessen tweeted, “Stacey Abrams says the answer to inflation is abortion. If you kill your baby, you won’t have to feed it or drive it to school. You can’t make this stuff up.”

And Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer tweeted, “Positively ghoulish.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Georgia’s Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams suggested Tuesday that abortion is a viable solution to dealing with the costs of inflation.

When asked by MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” contributor Mike Barnicle what solutions she would bring as Georgia’s governor to address inflation, Abrams suggested aborting children is probably the best way to go.

“Let’s be clear. Having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas, it’s why you’re concerned about how much food costs,” Abrams said Tuesday, not realizing people without kids also pay for gas and food.

“For women, this is not a reductive issue. You can’t divorce being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy from the economic realities of having a child. And so these are — it’s important for us to have ‘both and’ conversations. We don’t have the luxury of reducing it or separating them out.”

Abrams went on to claim that abortion was an “economic issue,” claiming women who have unwanted pregnancies are much more likely to descend into poverty.

“Right now we are walking away so often from the real issues that people care about. Abortion is an economic issue. It’s been reduced to this idea of a culture war,” Abrams argued.

“But for women in Georgia, this is very much a question of whether they’re going to end up in poverty in the next five years because women who are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies end up within poverty — they’re four times more likely to be impoverished in five years.”

Abrams’ unhinged and delusional remarks were widely criticized on Twitter.

“I didn’t really expect Democrats to go with ‘you know, it’s cheaper to feed your family if you kill a few of them’ as a closing argument, yet here we are,” quipped National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A major supermarket chain in the UK is finalising plans to stock insects on its shelves and market them as a cheap food source for people struggling to afford to feed their families amid soaring inflation and the cost of living crisis.

The Daily Mail reports that Aldi is considering stocking ‘edible’ bugs and providing recipe kits for parents to prepare worms and crickets for their hungry children.

Potential products in the range include ‘sustainable’ cricket burgers, as well as ‘nuggets’ and ‘mince’.

Yummmmmy.

You will eat the bugs. You will own nothing. And you will be happy. pic.twitter.com/6Pkj5Ol4Td— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 20, 2022

Just when you thought this couldn’t get any more more dystopian, the supermarket is involved with a TV game show in which insect ‘farmers’ will pitch the bugs as the ‘next big thing’ for Aldi, according to the report.

One of the contestants, Aaron Thomas, commented, “We’re on a mission to change perceptions of insects as food; they’re one of the most sustainable protein sources in the world.”

Thomas further claims that crickets contain more protein than beef adding “We want to take bug consumption mainstream. If we’re able to get in front of Aldi’s audience, that would be an amazing opportunity.”

The move is the latest in a growing trend of pushing bug eating on the masses as a way of ‘saving the planet’.

How about a weed side salad? And why not wash down your worm food with a tall refreshing glass of sewage?

in 2020, the World Economic Forum published two articles on its website which explored how people could be conditioned to get used to the idea of eating weeds, bugs and drinking sewage water in order to reduce CO2 emissions.

A separate article published on the WEF website outlined how people can be conditioned to enjoy consuming ‘food’ which on the surface sounds disgusting.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

PARIS, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to protest against soaring prices as weeks of strikes for higher wages at oil refineries spurred demands for a general strike.

The leader of hard-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), Jean-Luc Melenchon, marched alongside this year’s Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Annie Ernaux. He called a general strike for Tuesday.

“You’re going to live a week like no other, we are the ones who started it with this march,” he told the crowd.

Melenchon followed the footsteps of four unions – but not France’s biggest, the moderate CFDT – which have called for strikes and protests on Tuesday for wage increases.

The four unions also called the protests to help protect the right to strike, after the government ordered the requisitioning of some oil refinery workers, a move seen by unions as a violation of their constitutional rights.

The march followed a call by the NUPES parliamentary coalition, which hopes to turn the page on domestic violence accusations that have recently dogged senior members.

Budget Minister Gabriel Attal said the left-wing coalition was attempting to exploit the current situation, marked by ongoing strikes at French utility EDF‘s nuclear plants and at French oil refineries.

“Today’s march is a march of supporters who want to block the country,” he said on French radio station Europe 1.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

“They’ve been fucking with me too long,” Ye said. “They put the ‘crazy’ narrative out there, my Jewish trainer, Harley Pasternak, who’s Lizzo’s trainer, put it out when I went to the hospital, put it in the press. I got a bunch of friends that went to the hospital — it didn’t go to the press.” “They did that just like they did in the documentary, on the third episode, they said ‘We love Ye like the rest of y’all, we know he’s a genius like the rest of y’all, but sometimes you have to turn the camera off on him,’” he continued. Ye also said his “White Lives Matter” t-shirt that was going to be put out by Dov Charney at LA Apparel was canceled because Charney was angry about his “Death Con” tweet. “He ain’t releasing the tee, because he’s Jewish,” Ye said. “And I’m like, see this is my exact point that I’m making! Jewish people have owned the black voice, whether it’s through us wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt or it’s all of us being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.” Ye said that when Charney told him he wants him to “visit the Holocaust Museum” he responded saying, “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood — that’s our Holocaust museum.” Ye said he’s gotten “used to being screwed by the Jewish media” because it’s happened to him so many times before. “Y’all done poked the bear too fucking long,” Ye said. “When I wore the White Lives Matter tee, I had four SoFi stadium shows — they canceled my shows! I said ‘it’s up!’”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Western speculation believes that the event could signify a triumph for Xi as he will most likely remain at the helm of the party for a third term. Should that happen, it would go against the tradition which has formed in Chinese politics over the last 30 years. Up to now, the reins of power in the country were handed over to a new generation of leaders at the end of the second term.

Thus, such a move would herald a new era in the history of modern China.

However, according to Aleksandr Lomanov, the Deputy Director for Scientific Work at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO RAS), the extension of Xi’s rule for another term is not indicative of the general direction of Chinese politics in the next five year.

“For the world at large, the important thing is not whether Xi Jinping is going to stay for another term. Most of the world’s countries don’t really care who is in charge in China. What is important is the kind of policies China is going to pursue in the future, and how stable the country is going to be,” Lomanov explained.

Also, the congress is expected to review the party’s work and achievements over the last five years as well as to announce the new composition of its ‘board of directors’ – the Political Bureau (Politburo) Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee, composed of the party’s top officials who make all the important decisions in the country. Today, it’s made up of seven members (historically, this number has ranged from five to nine).

It is believed that at least three of the party members currently serving on the Standing Committee will resign for various reasons, including China’s second most important man – Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang. He is required by law to step down as premier in 2023, since the term limit was only removed for the president.

2,300 CPC delegated are expected to take part in the upcoming congress, with the total number of party members exceeding 90 million people.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Jones is being ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars because some other people—who were not acting under any orders from Jones—allegedly committed some crimes on their own. It’s difficult to see, then, how Jones actually inflicted any actual damages on his supposed “victims” in this case. If people have harassed the parents, of course, that’s a crime for which the actual harassers are responsible. The real guilty parties here are the people who have committed acts of harassment. But it appears that Jones has been convicted here of simply saying things that the jury and the plaintiffs found objectionable.

In a free society, a private citizen saying things that other people are free to ignore is not punishable by law. In a society which does not respect free speech, however, merely saying words is apparently grounds of levying fines of hundreds of millions of dollars. (Actual threats of violence directed at specific persons are dangerous, but are not what we are talking about here, and that’s not what Jones has been accused of.)

The idea that Jones is somehow guilty for the acts of third parties he doesn’t even know follows from the basic twisted logic of defamation laws. The idea of defamation as a punishable legal matter is based on the notion that people do not have free will and are not responsible for their own actions.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The social network says the rapper will help build an “uncancellable” ecosystem with “all voices welcome”

Hip hop star and businessman Kanye West has agreed in principle to acquire social media platform Parler. The decision was announced after the rapper, who has legally changed his name to Ye, was suspended on Instagram and Twitter.

“This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech,” Parler CEO George Farmer said in a statement on Monday.

He added that “Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

According to Parler, the acquisition ensures “a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome.”

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” West said in a statement released by Parlement Technologies, Parler’s parent company. Parlement added that West was “taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech.”

Instagram and Twitter suspended West’s account this month and deleted messages directed at Jewish people. West claimed that rapper Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, was “controlled by the Jews” , and accused Jews of seeking to suppress those who oppose their “agenda.”

The remarks were condemned by the American Jewish Committee.

Parler was founded in 2018 by John Matze and Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of billionaire Rober Mercer, the co-owner of conservative news website Breitbart.

In the wake of the storming of the US Capitol building by supporters of former President Donald Trump in January 2021, the social network was removed from Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store, while Amazon dropped it from its web hosting service. The companies argued at the time that Parler permitted “violent content.”

After weeks of being offline, Parler found a new host. The social network also introduced stronger content moderation, which allowed its return to the App Store in May 2021 and the Google Store last month.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The country’s economy is expected to contract in the next 12 months, forcing employers to cut jobs, a survey of economists showed

The US will likely enter a recession in the coming year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing its latest survey of economists.

According to the report, the probability of a recession in the US within the next 12 months is 63%, up from 49% projected in the previous WSJ survey in July.

The economists polled said that risks had increased due to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to bring down inflation by hiking the key interest rate. The Fed has raised the federal funds rate by 75 basis points at each of its last three meetings, most recently in September, bringing the rate to the 3.00-3.25% range. Over half of the economists surveyed said they expect the Fed to hike rates further and even to do “too much,” which would destabilize the economy. They expect the country’s gross domestic product to contract by 0.2% in the first two quarters of 2023, while in the previous survey, they had predicted 0.8% growth during that period.

A shrinking economy would be expected to affect the labor market, as employers would be forced to cut jobs. Nonfarm payrolls are forecast to decline by about 34,000 per month in the second quarter of 2023 and by 38,000 a month in the third quarter. The unemployment rate is expected to rise from the current 3.5% to 3.7% in December, and to 4.3% by June 2023.

“The Federal Reserve is choosing between the lesser of two evils – take a recession with a rise in unemployment today or risk a more corrosive and entrenched inflation taking root,” Diane Swonk of KPMG told the news outlet.

On average, the economists expect a recession to be relatively short at around eight months, and the US economy to return to growth by the end of next year.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Researchers at Boston University have created a new strain of Covid-19 that has an 80% kill rate in humanized mice.

In an effort to research what makes Omicron so transmissible, the researchers cobbled the Omicron spike protein to the original strain of Covid-19. The resulting virus was five times more infectious than Omicron.

“The Omicron spike (S) protein, with an unusually large number of mutations, is considered the major driver of these phenotypes. We generated chimeric recombinant SARS-CoV-2 encoding the S gene of Omicron in the backbone of an ancestral SARS-CoV-2 isolate and compared this virus with the naturally circulating Omicron variant,” reads the pre-print.

The new research, which has not been peer-reviewed, was conducted by a team from Boston and Florida.

“In…mice, while Omicron causes mild, non-fatal infection, the Omicron S-carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80 percent,” the researchers wrote, adding that while the spike protein is responsible for infectivity, changes to other parts of its structure are responsible for its deadliness.

Researchers attached Omicron’s spike to the original wildtype strain that first emerged in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.The researchers looked at how mice fared against the new hybrid strain compared to the original Omicron variant. –Daily Mail

Daily Mail The researchers also looked at the effect of different strains on human lung cells grown in the lab – which Covid latches on to before instructing healthy cells to make copies of itself. They found that the modified strain produces five times more viral particlesthan the original Omicron strain (which all the rodents survived).

Educate yourself further by tapping into our store’s vast collection of books and movies.

This study provides important insights into Omicron pathogenicity. We show that spike, the single most mutated protein in Omicron, has an incomplete role in Omicron attenuation. In in vitro infection assays, the Omicron spike-bearing ancestral SARS-CoV-2 (Omi-S) exhibits much higher replication efficiency compared with Omicron. Similarly, in K18-hACE2 mice, Omi-S contrasts with non-fatal Omicron and causes a severe disease leading to around 80% mortality. This suggests that mutations outside of spike are major determinants of the attenuated pathogenicity of Omicron in K18-hACE2 mice. Further studies are needed to identify those mutations and decipher their mechanisms of action. –Biorxiv

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A jury in Connecticut has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $950 million to the families of eight victims who were killed during the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

For years, Jones had claimed that the shooting was staged and that the families were crisis actors in an effort by the government to confiscate Americans’ guns. The latest verdict is the second against Jones, following a ruling from a separate jury in Texas ordered Jones to pay $4.1 million in compensatory damages and $45.2 million in punitive damages, an amount that may soon be reduced due to state laws capping the amount of damages.

The Connecticut trial lasted three weeks and included testimony from the parents of victims and school employees, along with an FBI agent who responded to the shooting, CNN reported. The case itself is a consolidation of three other cases, brought about by various families and the FBI agent.

Since the shooting, Jones had repeatedly claimed the incident was a hoax, which families of the victims said throughout the trial led to harassment against them and continued anguish after losing their children. In 2018, the families began taking action against Jones and Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Jones’ conspiracy theorist organization Infowars.

Prosecutors asked the jury to award $550 million based on the number of impressions Jones’ false claims received online.

“You may say that is astronomical. It is,” Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the plaintiffs said while addressing the jurors. “It’s exactly what Alex Jones set himself up to do. That’s what he built. He built a lie machine that could push this stuff out. You reap what you sow.”

When Jones began facing lawsuits for his false claims, he acknowledged that the shooting did occur, but, as CNN reported, he didn’t comply with court orders during the discovery process of the lawsuits brought against him in Texas or Connecticut, which led to the families winning default judgments against him.

In August, Jones was ordered to pay Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse, who was killed in the mass shooting along with 19 other children and six educators, The Daily Wire previously reported.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Rohit Chopra said he was considering investigating PayPal over a now-retracted update to the user agreement that said users would be fined $2,500 for spreading misinformation.

“I’ve never actually never heard of a payment system thinking that it could fine someone for legal expression that their users are making,” Chopra told CNBC.

“We have ordered most of the Big Tech firms for information about how they are making decisions about who they kick off their platforms,” Chopra added. “But we also need to look into whether they believe they can be fining users for illegal activity.”

PayPal said that the updated policy was sent in error.

“An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information,” a PayPal spokesperson said. “PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy. Our teams are working to correct our policy pages. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused.”

Though, PayPal is still saying that it will fine users $2,500 for promoting “intolerance that is discriminatory.”

Despite retracting the policy, PayPal has been criticized, with Sen. Tim Scott saying that he would investigate the issue further.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

apper Kanye West said late Wednesday night that he was “happy to have” crossed the line by saying something that has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic because it now means that he can discuss cancel culture in the U.S.

“Hey, if you call somebody out for bad business, that means you’re being anti-Semitic,” West told reporters after he left the screening of Daily Wire host Candace Owens’ new documentary. “I feel happy to have crossed the line of that idea so we can speak openly about things like getting canceled by a bank.”

West’s comments were in reference to an email obtained by The Daily Wire that showed that a JPMorgan Chase bank was ending its banking relationship with West.

The statement, which was scant on details, was obtained by Candace Owens on the same day that Owens launched her new documentary on The Daily Wire, “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold.”

“We are sending this letter to confirm our recent discussion with [redacted] that JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A (the ‘Bank’) has decided to end its banking relationship with Yeezy, LLC and its affiliated entities (collectively, the ‘Company’),” the bank said in an email to West. “To provide the Company with sufficient time to transition to another financial institution, we will continue to maintain the accounts (attached as Exhibit A), including all related products and services, until November 21, 2022.”

“To avoid any transaction delays, we suggest that you stop processing Company transactions and/or using any products associated with the accounts five business days before the scheduled closure date set forth above,” the statement continued. “After that date, the Bank will close any open accounts, and after deduction of any permissible service charges and pending transactions, remit all remaining funds in the form of a check delivered to the Company at the address of record.”

JPMorgan Chase urged West to “act promptly [to] transfer your business to another financial institution before November 21, 2022.”

The bank encouraged him to reach out to them if he had any further questions.

The bank, according to Owens, gave “no official reason” about its decision to end its relationship with West.

News that the bank terminated its relationship with West comes as the rapper was in Nashville to attend the premiere of Owens’ documentary.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The US bank JP Morgan Chase which in 1998 was sued by Holocaust survivors for seizing Jews assets during WW2 and helping Nazis evade sanctions and more recently was subjected to billion of dollars in sanctions by US regulators for being complicit in helping Bernie Madoff carry out the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history has decided to end its business relationship with controversiol billionaire rapper Kanye West and his clothing brand Yeezy Inc over his alleged antisemtic rants on Twitter. Candace Owens, the conservative US commentator whom West has associated with in recent years, shared a letter from the bank, dated 20 September, on Twitter. The New York Times verified that the bank was ending its relationship with Yeezy LLC but would maintain the accounts until 21 November to allow sufficient time to transfer the account. West had previously criticised JP Morgan’s leadership online and said that the bank would not give him access to the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon. West responded to the bank severing ties with him as he left an event in Nashville on 12 October. Approached by Page Six, he said: “Hey, if you call somebody out for bad business, that means you’re being antisemitic. I feel happy to have crossed the line of that idea so we can speak openly about things, like getting cancelled by a bank.” He added that he was “the richest Black man in American history, that put $140m in JP Morgan”. After a recent array of antisemitic comments, West’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were also temporarily locked. In response to the social media restrictions, West then appeared on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, where portions of the interview in which he made conspiratorial remarks were edited out. The broadcast of a subsequent appearance on the LeBron James talkshow The Shop was cancelled after he reportedly used the platform to promote “hate speech and extremely dangerous stereotypes”. West has also found his nine-year business relationship with Adidas under review. In September, he shared a fake New York Times front page announcing the death of the brand’s chief Kasper Rørsted. In a statement published last week, the sportswear brand said it had taken the decision “after repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation”. It did not mention West’s recent comments but said “successful partnerships are rooted in mutual respect and shared values”. In a since-deleted post, West said the firm “stole” his designs. Earlier this week, West shared a new documentary, Last Week, which depicts him making executives from Adidas watch pornography on his phone and confronting them over the alleged theft of his work. In September, West said he was ending his partnership with clothing brand Gap, accusing the firm of failing to honour the terms of the deal.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles stopped multiple woke reporters in their tracks during his daily press conference when he was asked about going against Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and “representation.”

During the Tampa Bay coach’s press event Tuesday, he was fielding questions from reporters who felt it necessary to turn the Bucs’ upcoming game against Pittsburgh into a race issue. The NFL coach made it clear he wasn’t interested in their agenda.

One reporter asked Bowles about how he and Tomlin are “two of the few black head coaches in the league,” what their relationship was like, and about the interim head coach for the Carolina Panthers Steve Wilks “joining that fold.”

“I have a very good relationship with Tomlin,” Bowles replied. “We don’t look at what color we are when we coach against each other. We just know each other. I have a lot of very good white friends that coach in this league as well.”

“And I don’t think it’s a big deal,” he added. “As far as us coaching against each other, I think it’s normal … and we coach ball. We don’t look at color.”

— David Schiele WTSP (@Deacon_Schiele) October 12, 2022

Todd Bowles on coaching against Mike Tomlin this Sunday: "I don't think it's a big deal…we don't look at color."

Bowles on representation in coaching: "I think the minute you guys stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well."

*Questions included for context pic.twitter.com/JtehXqqKcW nother reporter then jumped in and appeared to scold the coach for not giving the woke response desired, and reminded him that “you also understand that representation matters, too, right?”

She then told the head coach about how seeing him there inspires others because “football players, they see you guys. You know, they see someone that looks like them, maybe grew up like them …”

“Well, when you say ‘see you guys’ and ‘look like them’ and ‘grow up like them’ means that we’re oddballs to begin with,” Bowles replied. “And I think the minute you guys start — stop making a big deal about it, everybody else will as well.”

Wilks was announced as interim head coach Monday after the Panthers fired coach Matt Rhule following the team’s dismal start to the 2022 season with a 1-4 start, as ESPN reported. Rhule was with the team for less than three years and amassed a total record of just 11-27.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

From conversations with family and friends, one detects an uneasy awareness of increasing risk to investments. There are two broad camps. The first and the majority are only aware that interest rates are rising, and their stocks and shares are falling in value but fail to make the connection fully. The second camp is beginning to worry that there’s something very seriously wrong.

Investors in the first camp have usually delegated investment decisions to financial advisers, and through them to portfolio managers of mutual funds. They have taken comfort in leaving investment decisions to the experts, and besides the odd hiccup, have been rewarded with reasonably consistent gains, certainly since the early noughties, and in many cases before. They trust their advisers. Meanwhile, their advisers are rewarded by the volume of assets under their management or by fees.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Ever since the recent unprecedented sabotage attacks on the Russia to Europe Nord Stream pipelines, the central question has continued to remain who did it and correspondingly cui bono?

Just when speculation and an avalanche of theories have inundated the web on an array of international outlets, the Biden administration has bluntly (and apparently lacking self-awareness) boasted that the pipeline bombings present an “opportunity”.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Friday joint press briefing with Canada’s top diplomat that the damage and disruption to the pipelines are being seen in Washington as a “tremendous opportunity” to greatly reduce European energy imports on Russia.

In addressing the ‘mystery’ sabotage incidents, Blinken began, “I think first it’s important to make clear that these pipelines – that is, Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 – were not pumping gas into Europe at this time. Nord Stream 2 never became operational, as is well known. Nord Stream 1 has been shut down for weeks because of Russia’s weaponization of energy.”

A mere few sentences later, he followed by saying “ultimately this is also a tremendous opportunity. It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs.”

He at the same time touted that the Untied States has now become “the leading supplier of LNG [liquefied natural gas] to Europe,” stressing too that the Biden administration is helping to enable European leaders to “decrease demand” and “speed up the transition to renewables.”

Tellingly, in that single section of comments while speaking alongside his Canadian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, Blinken had repeated the word “opportunity” while highlighting the European energy crisis no less than three times.

Canada’s Joly for her part pointed the finger at Russia for sabotaging its own pipeline during a panel discussion the same day, telling an Atlantic Council conference that the world is “not naïve” about who is responsible for the acts of “sabotage”. She’s the latest top official of a NATO government to do so.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

New York City signaled plenty of virtue over its “sanctuary city” status, though it has been overwhelmed with thousands of illegal immigrants being bused in from Texas, and the costs are skyrocketing. In another interesting development, NYPost reported Mayor Eric Adams is securing a deal with the Norwegian Cruise Line to house the migrants on a luxury cruise ship.

Sources tell NYPost Adams is finalizing a deal with Norwegian to rent a massive cruise liner for six months to house and process migrants before entering the city’s overwhelmed shelter system.

The vessel would be docked at Staten Island’s Homeport. Migrants would be allowed to come and go as they please while staying on the ship.

Sources explained the cruise ship rental would be much cheaper than building out another tent city in the metro area. The one in the Bronx, at the Orchard Beach parking, is slated to open soon and will cost $15 million per month to operate.

Adams is even holding talks with another ship operator, Tallink, to house Ukrainian refugees who fled their country earlier this year after the Russian invasion.

Fox News estimates around 15,500 illegal immigrants have flooded NYC since May as a record number of migrants are crossing into the US, with over 2 million migrant encounters by Customs and Border Protection this year.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent busloads of migrants from his state to NYC to raise awareness of the nation’s southern border crisis, thanks to the Biden administration’s inability to secure the border.

Adams last month warned:

“In this new and unforeseen reality, where we expect thousands more to arrive every week going forward, the city’s system is nearing its breaking point.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

So much for European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen's threats from days ago, which Italians clearly ignored as Giorgia Meloni's right-wing bloc is celebrating its historic, if largely expected, victory and a clear majority. Rod Dreher of The American Conservative sounds off on von der Leyen's failed attempts at bullying entire populations of Europe: "How dare she?! How dare this unelected globalist technocrat threaten a free and democratic people like this! It is an outrage. This threat to bring the EU mechanism to bear against Italy if Italian voters give Giorgia Meloni power at this weekend's election is a staggering moment. It shows what the EU is really about: not democracy, but rule by globalist elites."

This brings us to the question of 'Why do they hate her so much?' The below 2-minute clip of Meloni giving a prior event speech which went viral this weekend as the votes in Italy were being counted provides a glimpse of why they must be on suicide watch in Brussels. The new Italian Prime Minister describes eloquently that Italians and human beings in general are not mere identity-less consumers and economic playthings of the ivory tower technocrat class, but belong under God, country and family...

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Nearly 130 soccer match attendees in Malang, Indonesia, died Saturday after police sprayed tear gas in an attempt to stop fights between fans that resulted in a stampede.

The incident occurred after the Indonesian Premier League’s Sunday night game, when fans were upset by the loss of their team, Arema Malang. Arema fans rushed to the field following the match, reports say.

Thirty-four attendees died instantly by suffocation or trampling after crowds ran in a panic towards an exit gate in Kanjuruhan Stadium to avoid the tear gas, East Java Police Chief Nico Afinta said in a press conference.

“There was a pile-up,” Afinta said. “The buildup process resulted in shortness of breath and lack of oxygen.”

According to The New York Times, Afinta said he expects the death toll to rise. As many as 300 people were transported to hospitals, but many died on the way, Afinta said.

Wiyanto Wijoyo, the head of the Malang Regency health office, confirmed the incident to the Guardian: “More than 120 people died, they died of chaos, overcrowding, trampling and suffocation.”

The Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) will investigate the incident, according to a press statement.

The Australian Broadcasting Channel reported in 2019 that 94 people have died since 1994 due to violent events related to Indonesian soccer culture.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has bailed on an appointment to testify before the European Parliament’s special committee, where he was expected to face tough questions over secretive vaccine deals, Politico reports.

Albert Bourla, the Pfizer chief executive, during a visit last week, at a Pfizer factory in Belgium.Credit…Pool photo by John Thys Bourla was scheduled to appear before the panel on Oct. 10, alongside key officials involved in the EUs vaccine procurement process, in order to discuss how to respond to future pandemics. According to the report, “Other pharmaceutical executives have addressed the committee, including the CEO of Moderna and senior officials from AstraZeneca and Sanofi.”

Bourla? Not so much.

The committee’s chair, Belgian MEP Kathleen Van Brempt, told POLITICO she “deeply regrets” the decision taken by Pfizer.After a visit to BioNTech’s headquarters last week, Van Brempt had said in a written statement that she looked forward to discussions “with other CEOs” including “Mr. Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer” on October 10. -Politico

In early September, an audit repirt into the EU’s vaccine procurement strategy raised questions over Bourla’s relationship with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen before they struck a multibillion-euro vaccine deal.

The report, by the European Court of Auditors, found that von der Leyen had been directly involved in preliminary negotiations for the EU’s biggest vaccine contract, for up to 1.8 billion doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, which was concluded in May 2021. This was a departure from the negotiating procedure followed with other contracts, where a joint negotiating team made up of officials from the Commission and member countries conducted exploratory talks. -Politico

In April, von der Leyen admitted that she had been texting with Bourla for a month straight while they were negotiating the massive contract. Two months later, the texts disappeared, triggering accusations of maladministration by the EU’s ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly,” Reuters reported at the time.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, in Brussels, on Sunday.Credit…Ksenia Kuleshova for The New York Times Bourla and von der Leyen’s cozy relationship was noted last year by the NYT, which Bourla told they had “developed a deep trust, because we got into deep discussions.”

“She knew details about the variants, she knew details about everything. So that made the discussion, way more engaged.”

And now Bourla won’t have to answer questions about it.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is refusing to release the results of autopsies conducted on people who died after getting COVID-19 vaccines.

The FDA says it is barred from releasing medical files, but a drug safety advocate says that it could release the autopsies with personal information redacted.

The refusal was issued to The Epoch Times, which submitted a Freedom of Information Act for all autopsy reports obtained by the FDA concerning any deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System following COVID-19 vaccination.

Reports are lodged with the system when a person experiences an adverse event, or a health issue, after receiving a vaccine. The FDA and other agencies are tasked with investigating the reports. Authorities request and review medical records to vet the reports, including autopsies.

The FDA declined to release any reports, even redacted copies.

The FDA cited federal law, which enables agencies to withhold information if the agency “reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption,” with the exemption being “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

Federal regulations also bar the release of “personnel, medical and similar files the disclosure of which constitutes a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”

The Epoch Times has appealed the denial, in addition to the recent denial of results of data analysis of VAERS reports.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

White House National Security Council Strategic Comms Director John Kirby refused to explain why the Biden administration has been allowing Communist China to buy up large tracts of U.S. real estate near key military installations.

When asked Tuesday during a press briefing why Biden was ignoring the national security implications of allowing China, America’s greatest geopolitical adversary, to purchase U.S. land in key strategic areas at the expense of U.S. buyers, Kirby claimed he wasn’t equipped to answer the question.

“I think the question of home ownership is a little bit out of my swim lane,” Kirby responded. “What I will tell you is that the president has been, uh, nothing but clear about our concerns about Chinese unfair trade practices and economic practices.”

REPORTER: “China, foreign buyers, are buying up U.S. real estate, in some cases farms, around military installations. Is this on the administration’s radar?”

KIRBY: “I’m probably not the right person to ask about home ownership…”

REPORTER: “This isn’t about home ownership…”

When further pressed about China aggressively buying up U.S. farmland and real estate near military bases, Kirby obfuscated the issue by framing it as a “home ownership” situation rather than a national security concern.

“I’m probably not the right person to ask about home ownership here in the United States,” he said.

The reporter pushed back again, clarifying, “This isn’t about home ownership. This is about buying up land around military installations…”

At that point Kirby signaled press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to come to his rescue by dismissing the question altogether.

“We can get back to you after. We’re going to move on,” Jean-Pierre told the reporter.

Buyers from the People’s Republic of China purchased $6.1 billion in U.S. real estate in 2021, the most of any foreign buyer.

Earlier this summer, the Fufeng Group, a massive agricultural company tied to the Chinese government, bought 300 acres of farmland near Grand Forks, North Dakota, just down the road from a military base that houses sensitive drone technology.

Experts noted that China’s strategic buy-ups of U.S. real estate could have grave national security implications:

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A Chinese company’s purchase of farmland in North Dakota just down the road from a US Air Force base that houses sensitive drone technology has lawmakers on Capitol Hill worried about potential espionage by Beijing, according to a report.

Fufeng Group, a Shandong, China-based company that specializes in flavor enhancers and sugar substitutes, recently purchased 300 acres of farmland near Grand Forks, North Dakota, a rural area that lies about a 90-minute drive from the Canadian border.

Grand Forks is also 40 miles away from Grafton, North Dakota, where a limited liability company believed to be controlled by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates recently paid $13 million for thousands of acres of potato farmland, causing a stir among locals.

Three North Dakotans sold the land to Fufeng Group for $2.6 million, according to CNBC.

Like the Gates-linked purchase, the sale of local farmland to a Chinese company sparked a visceral reaction, according to one of the sellers, Gary Bridgeford.

That’s because the land is just a 20-minute drive from Grand Forks Air Force Base, which is believed to be the home of some of the country’s most sophisticated military drone technology.

Bridgeford told CNBC that some locals planted signs on his front yard condemning the transaction.

“I’ve been threatened,” he said. “I’ve been called every name in the book for selling property.”

Another local business owner, however, said the fears are justified. Craig Spicer, who runs a trucking company adjacent to the new Chinese-owned land, told CNBC: “It makes me feel nervous for my grandkids. It makes me feel nervous for my kids.”

Bridgeford insists that fears the Chinese government would use the area as a staging point for espionage operations are unfounded.

“How would they gain any knowledge of the base?” he asked. “It’s about 12 miles away. It isn’t like its next door.”

Bridgeford added: “People hear the China stuff and there’s concern.”

“But everyone has a phone in their pocket that was probably made in China. Where do you draw the line?”

Fufeng Group said it is planning to use the land to build a $700 million corn milling plant that would create at least 200 jobs as well as residual opportunities for logistics, trucking, and other services.

But US military officials are raising the alarm nonetheless. Senior Air Force officers circulated a memo in April warning that the presence of Fufeng Group in Grand Forks, a town of just 60,000 people, was a national security threat.

“Some of the most sensitive elements of Grand Forks exist with the digital uplinks and downlinks inherent with unmanned air systems and their interaction with space-based assets,” wrote US Air Force Maj. Jeremy Fox.

A Chinese firm with close proximity to such data “would present a costly national security risk causing grave damage to United States’ strategic advantages.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) has also expressed opposition to the presence of Fufeng Group, which he views as a front for the Chinese government.

“I think we grossly under appreciate how effective they are at collecting information, collecting data, using it in nefarious ways,” Cramer told CNBC.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A group of 31 dogs rescued from meat breeding farms in China arrived in the US to begin their new lives in American homes, an animal welfare group said Tuesday.

The pack of rescued pooches were the first to arrive in the US in over a year, due to a temporary government ban on importing canines from abroad that was sparked by fears of a rabies outbreak, according to the China Rescue Dogs organization.

“To know these dogs now have a second chance at life and will experience love for the first time, makes all the time spent on a project like this worthwhile,” the group’s Vice President, Brandy Cherven, said in a press release. “They were being sent to the slaughterhouse when we stepped in and saved them.”

The dogs were rescued April where owners were planning on selling them to slaughterhouses and the Yulin Dog Meat Festival.

Over 10 dog rescue organizations aided in the effort to bring the pups to the US. They spent the last three weeks in Vancouver, Canada waiting for approval to cross into the US.

Sixteen of the dogs are Golden Retrievers and 15 are Frenchies and Pugs, the group said. They did not give details on what the future holds for the dogs, but the group makes efforts to “provide them with loving homes,” they said on their website.

“This truly was a global effort with teams from China, Canada and the United States all coming together to save these dogs from slaughter,” Jill Stewart, President and Founder of China Rescue Dogs, saidThe CDC’s dog ban was due to an increased risk of the canine rabies virus variant.

During this period, organizations like China Rescue Dogs brought their furry friends into Canada to be adopted. Canada’s own ban on dogs — restricting street dogs from over 100 countries — will kick in Wednesday Sept. 28.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s husband has filed for divorce from the conservative firebrand, she confirmed Wednesday.

“Marriage is a wonderful thing and I’m a firm believer in it,” Greene told The Post in a statement. “Our society is formed by a husband and wife creating a family to nurture and protect. Together, Perry and I formed our family and raised three great kids. He gave me the best job title you can ever earn: Mom.”

“I’ll always be grateful for how great of a dad he is to our children,” she added.

The Georgia House representative’s husband, Perry Greene, filed for divorce Tuesday after 27 years of marriage, according to court documents.

The two were married in Aug. 1995 while Greene was still a student at the University of Georgia. They have three adult children together.

According to court documents, Perry Greene said the couple had split up before in the past. He wants to divvy up their assets and debts equally, the filing says.

Perry Greene said that his wife has been his “best friend” for the last 29 years, calling her “an amazing mom.”

“Our family is our most important thing we have done,” he said in a statement. “As we go on different paths we will continue to focus on our 3 incredible kids and their future endeavors and our friendship.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has asked who the EU intends to punish with the “strongest possible response” for damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

The diplomat said Poland’s former foreign minister has already identified the US as the party behind the apparent sabotage. Radoslaw Sikorski is well connected to Washington elites through his employment at various think tanks.

The two Nord Stream pipelines were seriously damaged this week in what is suspected to have been a deliberate attack.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called the incident “sabotage action” and warned that “any deliberate disruption of active European energy infrastructure is unacceptable and will lead to the strongest possible response.”

On Wednesday, Zakharova asked who exactly the warning would apply to.

“I don’t get it. MEP Sikorski thanked the US for what had happened, so whom is Ursula ‘threatening’ there?” she wrote on social media.

Zakharova was referring to the reaction to the incident by Sikorski, now an EU lawmaker, who posted a photo of the site where the explosions occurred on Twitter with the words: “Thank you, USA.” He described the incident as a “special maintenance operation.”

Sikorski added that “there’s no shortage of pipeline capacity for taking gas from Russia to Western Europe, including Germany,” referring to the Yamal-Europe land pipeline that goes through Belarus and Poland. After the damage to the Nord Stream strings, Russian President Vladimir Putin “will have to talk to countries controlling” the alternative route to resume supplies, he predicted.

Zakharova earlier asked if Sikorski’s tweets amounted to an “official statement that this was a terrorist attack.” Meanwhile, Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, thanked Sikorski for “making it crystal clear who stands behind this terrorist-style targeting of civilian infrastructure!”

There has been no shortage of threats from some Western nations against Russian undersea pipelines, particularly the Nord Stream 2 both before and after late February, when Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. It had been ready to pump gas since September last year, but was not put into operation due to Germany’s refusal to certify it. Polish President Andrzej Duda demanded last month that the pipeline be “totally scrapped.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

What is being touted as potential sabotage on the Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines might have dealt them irreparable damage, Germany’s Tagesspiegel reported on Wednesday, citing “government circles.” The two pipelines were seriously damaged earlier this week.

If the damage is not repaired quickly enough, too much salty sea water could run into the pipes lying at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and irreversibly corrode them, German officials have warned, according to the news media outlet. Denmark said on Wednesday that its authorities would be able to launch a probe into the issue no sooner than in a week or two due to “safety concerns,” Tagesspiegel added.

The media outlet does not mention any plans for repair work by either Russia or Germany.

A group of senior German MPs were quick to point the finger at Russia and blame Moscow for the incident. “An attack on the energy supply infrastructure is intended to spread fear and terror,” Roderich Kiesewetter, a German MP and spokesman for crisis prevention for the Conservative Union parliamentary group, told the RND media group.

“Therefore, it is likely that Russia is trying … to stir up uncertainty among the European population” and supposedly demonstrate its ability to attack critical infrastructure, he added, accusing Moscow of employing a “state terrorism” approach.

The head of the German parliament’s Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, told journalists that “it cannot be ruled out that [such attacks] will be directed by Russia in order to shake our markets.” She also used the occasion to call on Germany and the EU to “free” themselves from the “dependence on Russian raw materials as quickly as possible.”

Danish authorities confirmed leaks on the pipelines on Monday after their operator reported a loss of pressure on both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines earlier that day. Danish and Swedish authorities then spoke of a series of undersea explosions in the area. Russian, American, and Swedish authorities said the leaks might have been the result of a deliberate attack.

The EU vowed “the strongest possible response” to any attacks on its active energy infrastructure but stopped short of naming any suspects in the Nord Stream incident. Russia branded the incident a “terrorist attack” and said it would summon a UN Security Council meeting over it.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

While the US, Russia and most European governments have reserved judgment as to who might be behind Monday’s explosion that damaged both Nord Stream pipelines, former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski had no such qualms.

“Thank you USA,” Sikorski tweeted on Tuesday, alongside a photo of the massive gas leak in the waters of the Baltic Sea. Both pipelines were severely damaged off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, in what many now call a deliberate act.

Sikorski later tweeted, in Polish, that damage to Nord Stream means that Russia will have to “talk to the countries controlling the Brotherhood and Yamal gas pipelines, Ukraine and Poland” if it wishes to continue delivering gas to Europe. “Good work,” he concluded.

Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 lost all pressure on Monday, after what the Swedish and Danish authorities later said were a series of undersea explosions. The first pipeline was operating at reduced capacity after what Russia said were technical difficulties, while the second was fully pressurized but not operational, due to German refusal to certify it.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wondered if Sikorsky’s tweet amounted to an “official statement that this was a terrorist attack.” Meanwhile, Moscow’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, thanked Sikorski for “making it crystal clear who stands behind this terrorist-style targeting of civilian infrastructure!”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki didn’t go quite as far as Sikorski, but chose to describe the Nord Stream incident as “an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine.”

Not just any MEP, Sikorski is a former UK citizen and a fellow at numerous US and NATO think-tanks, as well as Poland’s former defense (2005-2007) and foreign minister (2007-2014). In October 2014, he was caught fabricating a claim about Russian President Vladimir Putin wanting to partition Ukraine with Warsaw, and was forced to recant.

Sikorski called Russia a “serial rapist” in January 2022 and in June told Ukraine’s Espreso TV that NATO had the right to give Kiev nuclear weapons. He is married to American pundit Anne Applebaum, who is also an outspoken foe of Russia.

While Sikorski thanked the US for the Nord Stream sabotage, Kiev blamed Russia. President Vladimir Zelensky’s adviser Mikhail Podoliak called it “a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression towards EU,” arguing the best response would be sending German tanks to the Ukrainian army.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Germany was forewarned ahead of this weeks attack on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Der Spiegel claimed on Tuesday.

The CIA told Berlin “weeks ago” that the Russian Nord Stream infrastructure was vulnerable, according to the magazine.

Officials are now investigating after a massive gas leak appeared off the Danish island of Bornholm and seismologists confirmed detecting explosions on the sea floor.

A tip from the US spy agency was “received in Berlin during the summer,” the outlet said, citing “several people familiar with the matter.” Officially, however, the federal government declined to comment on intelligence-related matters.

German security services are currently examining satellite imagery of the area where the explosions occurred, but see only “unremarkable” naval traffic, according to Spiegel. They are also convinced that only a state actor could have done this, suggesting “divers or a mini-submarine” could have installed mines or explosives on the pipeline.

Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 both suddenly lost pressure on Monday. Danish authorities reported a gas leak off Bornholm, while Swedish seismologists registered multiple explosions. The pipeline operator confirmed multiple gas lines suffered “unprecedented” damage and it was impossible to estimate when, or if, service might be restored.

By Monday evening, the German government was convinced the pipeline was targeted in a deliberate attack, according to the daily Tagesspiegel. Berlin was considering the possibility Ukraine or “Ukraine-affiliated forces” could be behind it, but also a “false flag” by Russia to make Ukraine look bad and drive EU energy prices even higher.

While acknowledging that the “permanent interruption of gas supplies from Russia” would be in Ukraine’s interest, Der Spiegel said such an attack would have “immense political disadvantages” for Kiev. The only motive for Moscow to blow up the pipeline, according to the magazine, would be to “blame other parties for the incident.”

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for an investigation to get “full clarity” on what happened with the pipeline. “Any deliberate disruption of active European energy infrastructure is unacceptable and will lead to the strongest possible response,” she tweeted.

Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said an attack on Nord Stream was “in no one’s interest,” but that it also represented a “significant opportunity” for Western Europe to abandon Russian natural gas in favor of alternative energy supplies, presumably such as US LNG, and “accelerate the transition to renewables” in order to fight climate change.

Meanwhile, Polish MEP Radislaw Sikorski thanked the US for the gas explosion, and argued that it means Russia will now have to negotiate with Ukraine and Poland if it wishes to deliver gas to Central Europe.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

NATO would not intervene if Moscow used nuclear weapons against Ukraine, Dmitry Medvedev has said, claiming that Kiev’s Western backers would be unwilling “to die in a nuclear apocalypse” for the country.

However, the former Russian president said it was highly unlikely that the conditions for warranting a nuclear response by Moscow would arise in Ukraine.

Medvedev made the comments as he discussed the hypothetical use of nuclear weapons by Russia on social media on Tuesday. He dismissed remarks by Western politicians, who have been warning Moscow against using nukes, as “diarrheic demagoguery.”

The conditions permitting the use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal are stated plainly and publicly in the country’s nuclear doctrine, Medvedev said. Moscow says it will only use its most deadly weapons if it or one of its allies is attacked with weapons of mass destruction or if its existence is at stake in a conventional conflict.

Hypothetically, if Ukraine were to pose a threat to Russia’s existence, Moscow could use nuclear weapons, he added, but the stakes would then be too high for third parties to get involved.

“I believe NATO would not intervene in the conflict even in this scenario. The safety of Washington, London, Brussels is more important for the Alliance than the fate of useless, perishing Ukraine,” Medvedev predicted.

“Sending modern arms to Ukraine is just a business with an extra seasoning of hatred towards us. Nothing more,” he said. “[American] and European demagogues would not die in a nuclear apocalypse. This is why they will swallow the use of any weapons in the ongoing conflict.”

The latest warnings against the use of nuclear weapons were led by US President Joe Biden following an address by Vladimir Putin last week, during which the Russian leader claimed Washington and its allies were seeking to partition Russia. He cautioned that Moscow would use all tools at its disposal to defend itself.

Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chair of Russia’s National Security Council, also warned that the country would not tolerate a nuclear-armed hostile neighbor.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky previously suggested that Kiev’s commitment not to have nuclear weapons could be withdrawn. The idea, which Zelensky voiced during a speech at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, prompted a furious response from Moscow, which perceived the remarks as a serious threat to Russia.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The US and its allies have increased intelligence gathering and surveillance over concerns that Russia could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, an American official has told Politico.

The West is worried that signs of Moscow deciding to “unleash the unthinkable” might “come too late,” according to the news outlet’s sources, cited in an article on Tuesday.

The ramping up of spying activities occurred after an address by Vladimir Putin a week ago, in which he slammed “some senior officials in NATO states” for suggesting that using nuclear weapons against Russia was justified. He made it clear that such a move won’t be left unanswered, noting that Russia has its own arsenal of destructive weapons, some of which surpass their Western-counterparts. “If the territorial integrity of our nation is threatened, we will certainly use all the means that we have to defend Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff,” the president said.

However, Putin’s words were interpreted by politicians and media in the US and EU as a “veiled threat” that Russia could deploy nuclear weapons during the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

“We’re watching it more closely,” a US government official with “access to intelligence on Moscow’s nuclear forces and strategy” told Politico.

According to the official, additional US and allied intelligence assets — in the air, space and cyberspace – are monitoring Russia’s activities. The West has also increased reliance on commercial Earth-imaging satellites to watch Russian units in Ukraine that could potentially receive a nuclear order from Moscow.

Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic coast, has also been attracting increased attention from Western intelligence agencies, due to the dual-use weapons systems and hypersonic missiles deployed there, the report said.

Acquiring advance knowledge of an imminent Russian nuclear attack could be difficult, the official acknowledged. That’s because Moscow has some two dozen weapons systems that can deliver both conventional and nuclear warheads, he added.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

In a bid to become “the most inclusive airline in the skies,” British Virgin Atlantic scrapped rules on Wednesday requiring its staff to wear gender-specific uniforms. This means male personnel may now wear red skirt suits to work.

The company, which is owned by billionaire Richard Branson, announced that it would update its gender identity policies to “champion individuality,” enabling its employees to wear clothing that “expresses how they identify.”

According to the airline’s press release, personnel are now free to choose any company-approved uniform, “no matter their gender, gender identity or gender expression.” The uniforms have been created for Virgin by British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood.

The updated policies also provide an option for both Virgin Atlantic staff and passengers to wear pronoun badges to make sure they are addressed with consideration for their gender identity.

The airline’s ticketing systems will also allow people with a gender-neutral marker in the passport to use ‘U’ or ‘X’ gender codes on their booking, as well as the gender-neutral title ‘Mx’. This feature, however, is available only in a handful of countries, including the US, India and Pakistan.

In addition, Virgin Atlantic has updated its “trans inclusion policies,” entitling members of this community to time off for medical treatments related to gender transition, and allowing them to choose changing and shower facilities.

The move, however, has been met with criticism by some members of the public who consider the decision to be controversial or even see it as “woke madness.”

The amendment of Virgin Atlantic’s policies comes after major US airlines agreed in July to update their systems by 2024 to enable clients to buy tickets with an “X” gender marker, which means the passenger considers themselves to be neither male nor female.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The US government is denying ‘preposterous’ allegations that it is behind a gas leak in the Baltic Sea on Wednesday.

It comes as Donald Trump suggested that ‘World War III’ could be near while sharing a video of President Joe Biden threatening to stop Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Mysterious and alarming leaks were found in both Nord Stream pipelines this week, prompting the European Union to call it the result of a ‘deliberate act.’

Multiple accusations have already been lobbed at the Kremlin amid ever-growing hostilities over its illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile Moscow is pointing the finger at the United States, declaring that Washington is ‘obliged’ to explain its alleged role in the ‘sabotage.’

A US official denied the accusations, according to the Washington Post.

Trump also appeared to back Russia’s theory on Wednesday when he posted on his Truth Social app a video of Biden from early February pledging to ‘bring an end to’ Nord Stream 2 if Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine.

‘Wow, what a statement. World War III anyone?’ Trump wrote along with the video.

The same video was also shared by the Russian government on Wednesday while suggesting Biden was behind the explosions that led to the Baltic Sea leaks.

Asked for clarification on his stance, Trump’s spokesman Taylor Budowich said ‘the statements speak for themselves.’

He also referred to an earlier post where Trump offered to lead negotiations between Russia and Ukraine while warning current US leaders to not ‘make matters worse.’

‘U.S. “Leadership” should remain “cool, calm, and dry” on the SABOTAGE of the Nord Stream Pipelines. This is a big event that should not entail a big solution, at least not yet,’ the former president wrote.

‘The Russia/Ukraine catastrophe should NEVER have happened, and would definitely not have happened if I were President. Do not make matters worse with the pipeline blowup.’

Explosions preceded three gas leaks in the Nord Stream Pipelines in Europe’s Baltic Sea

He ended with, ‘Be strategic, be smart (brilliant!), get a negotiated deal done NOW. Both sides need and want it. The entire World is at stake. I will head up group???’

And just before that, Trump compared the pipelines’ gas leak to the potentially devastated storm heading for the state of Florida. He said Hurricane Ian was not as ‘important’ as the damage in Europe’s waters.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Hurricane Ian unleashed devastation on southwest Florida after a 6ft storm surge plowed through Fort Myers destroying houses as water rose above the second story.

Horrifying footage showed wave after wave pummel the small city, swallowing buildings and cars as the monster tempest finally made landfall on Wednesday.

It sees the ‘unsurvivable’ torrent of water engulf palm trees in the tropical resort and rip some from their roots as it was forced forwards by 155mph winds – only the fifth storm in history to hit land at that speed.

Fort Myers was one of the first cities to be battered by Ian, with apocalyptic images from after the initial surge showing homes decimated by its wrath as roads turned into rivers.

Meanwhile Naples and Sanibel Island were also rocked by the ‘historic’ hurricane, with houses overwhelmed by water, debris flung through windows and some even ripped from their hinges.

And in Martin County, the sheriff’s office confirmed that this morning the body of 34-year-old construction worker Cody Dudek was found face down near Palm City.

Across the state at least a million households saw blackouts and Ron DeSantis said during a lunchtime update he expected the number to reach the millions as well as $45billion-worth of damage.

The Florida Governor urged residents who decided to brave the storm to stay in their properties or emergency bunkers while the hurricane blasted the coastline and neared on Category 5.

But some foolhardy locals ignored his pleas and flocked to the sea with inflatables and surfboards, while others gathered on piers to take risky photographs of the tempest.

It comes just days after Cuba was tormented by the vicious hurricane, which left millions of dollars of damage and at least two people dead.

Among the damage caused by Hurricane Ian in Florida today:

Vehicles were flipped on to their roofs after two tornadoes erupted across the state due to the hurricane;
Hundreds of thousands of homes across the south west of Florida were devastated by surging floodwater;
A man raced into the sea to rescue a cat from the raging water, with him hoisting it to safety on his shoulder;
Trees were ripped from their roots in multiple locations and power lines were torn from sidewalks;
Emergency service personnel paused operations as the eye of the storm descended on the south west.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

A fifth member of an Iranian volunteer paramilitary group died Sunday after clashing with what state media called “rioters and thugs,” as the country’s President Ebrahim Raisi warned that protesters would be dealt with “decisively” after days of nationwide unrest.

The person died from injuries sustained on Thursday in Urmia city in northwest Iran, Iranian state news agency IRNA said. Other members of Basij, a paramilitary organization connected to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have been killed in Qazvin, Tabriz, Mashhad and Qouchan.

The protests have been sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman detained by morality police on September 13 accused of violating the country’s conservative dress code.

Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators returned to the streets of Tehran and dozens of other provincial towns as darkness fell on Sunday, despite claims by state-run news agencies that pro-government rallies have put an end to the protests.

The protesters organized themselves despite a crackdown by security forces, arrests of protesters and internet disruption. Protesters chanted anti-government and anti-Supreme Leader slogans, as well as “death to dictator,” while venting their anger against the Basij militias.

Since Friday, demonstrations have taken place in at least 40 cities nationwide, including the capital Tehran, with protesters demanding an end to violence and discrimination against women as well as an end to compulsory wearing of the hijab.

At least 35 people have died in Iran in recent protests over the death of Amini, state media outlet the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) said late on Friday.

Amnesty International previously said that 30 people had died. CNN cannot independently verify the death toll — a precise figure is impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm — and different estimates have been given by opposition groups, international rights organizations and local journalists.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Boeing and its former CEO Dennis Muilenburg agreed to pay hefty fines to settle charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission that they misled the public about the safety of the 737 Max following two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.

The SEC alleges that, following an October 2018 crash of a Lion Air 737 Max jet that killed 189 people, Boeing and Muilenburg knew that part of the plane’s flight control system posed an ongoing safety concern yet told the public that the 737 Max was safe to fly. After a March 10, 2019 fatal 737 Max crash, the SEC alleges that Boeing and Muilenburg knowingly misled the public about “slips” and “gaps” in the certification process of that flight control system.

“In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement. “The Boeing Company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, failed in this most basic obligation. They misled investors by providing assurances about the safety of the 737 MAX, despite knowing about serious safety concerns.”

In a statement, Boeing said that the settlement “fully resolves the SEC’s previously disclosed inquiry into matters relating to the 737 MAX accidents.”

“Today’s settlement is part of the company’s broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 MAX accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders,” Boeing said.

The company and Muilenburg agreed to settle charges of violating the antifraud provisions of US securities laws, but they did not admit or deny the SEC’s allegations. Boeing agreed to pay a $200 million settlement and Muilenburg agreed to pay $1 million.

“Boeing and Muilenburg put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 Max all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeing’s image following two tragic accidents that resulted in the loss of 346 lives and incalculable grief to so many families,” said Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division in a statement.

Muilenburg lost the top job at Boeing in December 2019. But he left with stock options and other assets worth about $80 million at that time — though Boeing shares have lost more than half their value since then. It is unknown what Muilenburg did with his Boeing shares and options after his departure.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Italy will be led by the most far-right government since the fascist era of Benito Mussolini, early exit polls suggest.

An alliance of far-right parties, led by Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party -- whose origins lie in post-war fascism -- were on track to win between 41 and 45% of the vote in Sunday's general election, according to data from the Rai exit pollster Piepoli.

The ultra-conservative Brothers of Italy party looks likely to win between 22 and 26% of the vote, with coalition partners the League, led by Matteo Salvini, taking between 8.5 and 12.5% and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia scoring between 6 and 8% of the vote.

As the leader of a far-right coalition, Meloni, a 45-year-old Euroskeptic firebrand, is now set to become Italy's first female prime minister. Final results are expected early Monday.

Meloni's party has seen an astronomical rise in popularity in recent years, having won just 4.5% of the vote in the last elections, in 2018.

Their popularity underscores Italy's longstanding rejection of mainstream politics, seen most recently with the country's support of anti-establishment parties such as the Five Star Movement and Salvini's League.

Celebrating the early results on Sunday evening, Salvini said on Twitter, "Center-right in clear advantage both in the House and in the Senate! It will be a long night, but already now I want to say THANK YOU."

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Chinese President Xi Jinping is currently under house arrest, several media reports claimed on Saturday, adding that the capital Beijing is currently under army control. The reports have not been confirmed by either Chinese credible media, or have been independently confirmed by India TV.

The reports claimed further that international and domestic flights to and from Beijing have been halted, and that the city has been cut off from the rest of the world. Claims add that President Xi Jinping has been put under house arrest after he was removed from the post of PLA chief.

A report by News Highland Vision stated that ex-Chinese President Hu Jintao and former PM Wen Jibao persuaded Song Ping, a former member of the Standing Committee, to join them and take control of the Central Guard Bureau. The CGB is responsible for the security of the President, and the standing committee of the ruling Communist Party of China.

Army convoys leading to Beijing? Videos that surfaced on social media from unverified accounts suggest large army convoys taking rounds around Beijing. Tweets mention that President Jinping has been sacked.

The videos add that the large army convoy is about 80 km long and is headed to Beijing. Rumours suggest that military vehicles of the PLA were going towards Beijing on 22 September. The convoy allegedly started from Huanlai County near Beijing, ending in the city of Zhangjiakou.

Xi detained at the airport: Reports As soon as Jintao and Jibao took control of the CGB, rumours add, members of the Central Committee in Beijing were intimated on the phone. This led to Jinping allegedly being detained at the airport when he returned from Samarkand in Uzbekistan, where he attended the SCO summit. Reports stated that the members of CGB have had several closed-door meetings in the past 10 days. The same reports add that this action was taken with the aim of taking power away from Xi.

It is also being said that while Xi Jinping was at Samarkand, the ex-PM and President had plotted against the President. This was a result of Xi’s probability to become the Chinese President for the third consecutive time.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in protest since the death last week of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended in Tehran and taken to a ‘re-education centre’, apparently for not wearing her Hijab properly.

Iranian authorities said they will restrict Internet access in the country until calm is restored to the streets, as protests over the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police rocked the Islamic Republic, media reported.

Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in protest since the death last week of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended in Tehran and taken to a ‘re-education centre’, apparently for not wearing her Hijab properly.

Since Friday, demonstrations have taken place in at least 40 cities nationwide, including the capital Tehran, with protesters demanding an end to violence and discrimination against women as well as an end to compulsory wearing of the Hijab, CNN reported.

Dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed in the resulting clashes with security forces.

Amnesty International said on Friday that at least 30 people, including four children, had died. According to state media the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), 35 people have died.

Authorities hope that by restricting the Internet, they can bring the protests under control, CNN reported.

Speaking to state broadcaster IRIB on Friday, Iran’s Minister of Communications Ahmad Vahidi said, “Until the riots end, the Internet will have limitations. To prevent riot organization through social media, we are obliged to create Internet limitations.”

Vahidi’s comments came after videos on social media showed scenes of public defiance, with women removing and burning their headscarves and demonstrators chanting such slogans as, “women, life, freedom.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

China security officials death sentence: Two senior Chinese security officials, including a powerful former justice minister, were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption and abuse of power as the anti-graft campaign of President Xi Jinping gathered new momentum ahead of the next month’s Communist Party Congress which is expected to endorse a record third term for him.

Fu Zhenghua, former Justice Minister and one of China’s most powerful police chiefs, was on Thursday sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by the Intermediate People's Court of Changchun in northeast China's Jilin Province for corruption amounting to USD 17.3 million and abuse of power.

Hours later, the same court gave a similar sentence to former Jiangsu official Wang Like. He was also sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for bribery, conniving with criminal gangs and faking identity cards, official media here reported.

Wang is a former member of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee Communist Party of China (CPC) and former secretary of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee politics and law committee, state-run People’s Daily online reported.

Chinese media reported that Fu received a suspended death sentence to be commuted to a life sentence in two years. Fu’s conviction followed the jailing of three former regional police chiefs for corruption on Wednesday, all accused of disloyalty to Xi and being part of a “political clique” led by former public security vice-minister Sun Lijun, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

The convictions coming ahead of October 16 CPC Congress, which is widely expected to confer a rare third five-year term for Xi, set off speculations that the anti-graft campaign has picked up new momentum.

The anti-corruption campaign started by Xi, 69, after he came to power in 2012 sent shock-waves across China as over a million officials, including dozens of top military officers, were punished.

Xi, who heads the CPC, the military, besides the Presidency is due to complete his ten-year tenure later this year. He is widely expected to be endorsed for a record third term by the CPC's once-in-a-five-year Congress.

If endorsed, he will be the first CPC leader after founder Mao Zedong to continue in power beyond two terms and perhaps for life.

Fu, 67, was once regarded as a rising star in the ruling Communist Party of China, (CPC) as he led the investigation into former security czar Zhou Yongkang, who along with his family and officials worked with him bore the brunt of the anti-graft campaign.

Zhou, the highest-ranking politician of the previous Hu Jintao administration, was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for corruption and abuse of power.

Prosecutors alleged that Fu took advantage of his official authority or position to seek gains by helping others with their business operations, official positions, and legal cases.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Russia Ukraine War: Amid the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, the United States intelligence assessment earlier this month claimed that Russia was in the process of purchasing arms from North Korea, including millions of artillery shells and rockets. However, North Korea on Wednesday came forward and rubbished such claims, asking the US to stop making “reckless remarks” and to “keep its mouth shut.”

A North Korean defense official said it hasn’t exported any weapons to Russia during the war in Ukraine and has no plans to do so. Addressing the US intelligence reports, North Korea said it was just an attempt to tarnish the country’s image. The North Korean official stressed that Pyongyang has never recognized the “unlawful” UN Security Council sanctions against the country “cooked up by the US and its vassal forces.” The official said the export and import of military equipment is a “lawful right peculiar to a sovereign state,” according to an English translation of the statement provided by North Korea.

If North Korea were to actually supply arms to Russia, it would be in violation of the United Nations resolutions banning the country from importing or exporting weapons. “But we take this opportunity to make clear one thing. We have never exported weapons or ammunition to Russia before and we will not plan to export them,” said the official, who was described as a vice director general of the Defense Ministry’s general equipment bureau.

“It is not sure from where the rumor originated which the US is spreading, but it is aimed at tarnishing the DPRK’s image,” the official said, referring to the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

North Korea has sought to tighten relations with Russia over its aggression in Ukraine, blaming the US for the crisis and decrying the West’s “hegemonic policy” as justifying military action by Russia in Ukraine to protect itself.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday announced the partial mobilisation of its citizens. The development came soon after the Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk announced their plans to vote on joining Russia.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Russia recently opened its first recruitment centre in Moscow, and the city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that foreigners will be given permanent citizenship if a one-year contract to join the army is signed. The move comes as Russia faces significant battle reversals in Ukraine seven months into the war that shook the world.

“The Moscow government will deploy a full-fledged infrastructure in Sakharovo to assist the Russian Defense Ministry in the recruitment of foreign citizens into the military service,” The Moscow Times reported Mayor Sobyanin as saying in a post on Telegram.

Local authorities “will do everything necessary to make the signing of the contracts as convenient as possible,” the official statement said.

Media reports also suggested that President Putin has decided to toughen punishment for voluntary surrender and refusal to fight in Ukraine.

Russians are also leaving the country in masses after President Putin announced a “partial mobilisation”. This means that a certain percentage of Russia’s potential fighters will be asked to join the offensive on Ukraine. The total number of reservists to be called up could be as high as 300,000, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

Putin told PM Modi at the SCO summit that his country too wants to end the war against Ukraine as soon as possible. The US now claims Russian authorities planned to mobilize more than 1 million recruits, which the Kremlin denied.

Ukraine’s presidential office said the latest Russian shelling killed at least three people and wounded 19.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

The Fed Cannot Go Bankrupt The article itself is a fairly straightforward explanation of how the Fed works, and provides several options that the Fed might pursue in a rising interest rate environment. The authors contend that the Fed has intervened itself into a corner, where losses probably will increase as the Fed raises rates. David Howden opined that this might not happen, as the Fed will roll over its mostly short-term, low-yielding investments into higher-earning assets, which will tend to protect its net interest income and provide an operating profit. Furthermore, the Fed is not required to mark its low-yielding investments to market. Were it required to do so, the Fed’s true financial weakness would be revealed.

The Fed Ignores the Rule of Law But what can or will be done about it? Early in their essay, Kupiec and Pollock conclude that nothing will be done, despite the provisions of the law that created the Fed over one hundred years ago. The losses will not go away; they simply will be transferred to the unwitting public through loss of purchasing power. Per Kupiec and Pollock:

“Innovations” in accounting policies adopted by the Federal Reserve Board in 2011 suggest that the Board intends to ignore the law and monetize Federal Reserve losses, thereby transferring them indirectly through inflation to anyone holding Federal Reserve notes, dollar denominated cash balances and fixed-rate assets.

The “innovation” in accounting policies centers around the Fed’s newly minted “deferred asset” account, to which underwater assets will be transferred. Per Kupiec and Pollock:

Today, the Federal Reserve Board’s official position is that, should it face operating losses, it would not reduce its book capital surplus, but instead would just create the money needed to meet operating expenses and offset the newly printed money by creating an imaginary “deferred asset” (Section 11.96) on its balance sheet.

If the Fed were subject to the rule of law, either it would have stopped money printing years ago or its creditors would have forced it to close its doors. Yet the rule of law is completely ignored. Per Kupiec and Pollock:

The Federal Reserve Board’s proposed treatment of system operating losses is wildly inconsistent with the treatment prescribed by the Federal Reserve Act.

The Keynesians running our economic life may be reassured that the Fed cannot fail in a technical sense, but the public should be appalled. The continual monetization of the federal budget threatens the complete loss of the dollar’s purchasing power—to wit, a Weimar Republic–style catastrophe.

Unlawful Monetary Debasement Causes Capital Destruction Today’s monetary leaders fail to understand the true nature of money and, therefore, cannot conceive that there are real consequences to their outlandish irresponsibility in monetizing government debt and brazenly dismissing the rule of law. As the facilitator of monetary debasement, borne by the general public, the Fed fosters the destruction of societal capital.

The federal government does not have to answer to the law nor the public for its irresponsible and destructive spending. The purpose of insolvency is to force an institution, whether public or private, to stop destroying capital. Austrian school economists understand that capital must be created by hard work, innovation, frugality, and, most of all, savings. The market allocates scarce capital to those enterprises that create things worth more than those scarce inputs.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Russia-Ukraine war: The announcements of referendums starting Friday in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia regions came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said votes were needed, as Moscow loses ground in the war

Russia-Ukraine war: Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans Tuesday to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia. The concerted and quickening Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war against Ukrainian forces successfully battling to wrest back territory.

The announcements of referendums starting Friday in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia regions came after a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said votes were needed, as Moscow loses ground in the war that began nearly seven months ago.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev said folding regions into Russia itself would make redrawn frontiers “irreversible” and enable Moscow to use “any means” to defend them.

The votes, in territory Russia already controls, are expected with near-certainty to go Moscow’s way but are unlikely to be recognized by Western governments backing Ukraine with military and other support.

Luhansk and Donetsk together form much of the Donbas region, which has been gripped by separatist fighting since 2014 and which Putin has set as a primary objective of the Russian invasion.

In Donetsk, separatist leader Denis Pushilin said the “long-suffering people of the Donbas have earned the right to be part of the great country that they always considered their motherland.”

He added that the vote will help “restore historic justice that millions of the Russian people were waiting for.” Pressure within Russia and from Moscow-backed leaders in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine for votes to pave their way to becoming Russian increased in the wake of a Ukrainian counteroffensive — bolstered by Western-supplied weaponry — that is recapturing large areas of previously Russian-occupied territory.

In another signal that Russia is digging in for a protracted and possibly ramped-up conflict, the Kremlin-controlled lower of house of parliament voted Tuesday to toughen laws against desertion, surrender and looting by Russian soldiers. Lawmakers also voted to introduce possible 10-year prison terms for soldiers refusing to fight. If approved, as expected, by the upper house and then signed by Putin, the legislation would strengthen commanders’ hands against failing morale reported among soldiers.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that there are no prospects for a diplomatic settlement. Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by Putin, said on his messaging app channel that votes in separatist regions are important to protect their residents and “restore historic justice” and would “completely change” Russia’s future trajectory.

“After they are held and the new territories are taken into Russia’s fold, a geopolitical transformation of the world will become irreversible,” said Medvedev, who served as Russia’s president from 2008-2012.

“An encroachment on the territory of Russia is a crime that would warrant any means of self-defense,” he said, adding that Russia would enshrine the new territories in its constitution so no future Russian leader could hand them back.

“That is why they fear those referendums so much in Kyiv and in the West,” Medvedev said. “That is why they must be held.”

The recapturing of large areas of previously Russian-occupied territory, most notably in the northeastern Kharkiv region, has strengthened Ukraine’s arguments that its troops could deliver more stinging defeats to Russia with additional armament deliveries.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Children as young as four have been raped and tortured by Putin‘s thugs in Ukraine, UN experts have claimed.

The team from the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine have investigated alleged war crimes in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, finding evidence of sexual abuse, executions, bombing of civilian areas and torture.

They cited testimonies by former detainees of beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity in Russian detention facilities.

An unspecified number of Russian soldiers were found to have committed crimes of sexual or gender-based violence – with victims ranging in age from four to 82 years old, Erik Mose, the commission’s chairman, told the Human Rights Council.

He said the team was ‘struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited’, and the frequent ‘visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats’.

He said: ‘Based on the evidence gathered by the commission, it has concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine.’

Investigators carry a body bag past multiple corpses on the forest floor, near Izyum, eastern Ukraine, today

A worker carries a cross during a burial ceremony for unidentified persons killed in the Bucha district

Erik Mose, the commission’s chairman (pictured today) cited testimonies by former detainees of beatings, electric shocks and forced nudity

It comes as Ukrainian officials said today that 436 bodies have been exhumed from a mass burial site in Izium, 30 of them with visible signs of torture.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synyehubov, and the region’s police chief, Volodymyr Tymoshko, said three more grave sites have been located in areas retaken by Ukrainian forces in a counteroffensive this month

During their 10-day June trip to Ukraine, the UN team visited Bucha, a city outside Kyiv where Ukrainian authorities found mass graves and bodies strewn in the streets after Russian forces pulled out in late March.

‘We were struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited. The commission is currently investigating such deaths in 16 towns and settlements,’ Mose said.

He didn’t specify who or which side in the war allegedly committed the killings.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2022/09/23/prosecutors-tell-doj-leaders-not-to-charge-matt-gaetz-over-allegations-he-trafficked-a-17-year-old-girl-because-of-witness-credibility-questions/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2022/09/23/former-italian-prime-minister-silvio-berlusconi-defends-putins-invasion-of-ukraine-and-claims-despot-was-pushed-into-invasion/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday that strategic nuclear weapons can be used to defend “the Donbass republics and other territories accepted into Russia” and warned the “retired idiots with general’s stripes” at NATO that hypersonic missiles can “reach targets in Europe and in the United States.”

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, warned that “hypersound” (hypersonic weapons — ed.) could quickly reach targets both in the US and Europe. In his opinion, all residents of the NATO states should listen to Russia to understand that Russia has chosen its own path.– The Russian authorities have decided to incorporate the republics of Donbass and “other territories” into the country.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

Germany’s fresh and frozen food sectors are in the middle of their “worst crisis since the end of the Second World War” and could face a wave of bankruptcies and production restrictions, leading to gaps on store shelves, manufacturers associations have warned in an open letter to the German government.

The traditional Central European industrial powerhouse has been hit hard by the largely self-inflicted energy crisis stemming from Brussels’ decision to phase out Russian oil and gas to “punish” Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine. President Putin has warned that Europe is “in no position to dictate” its “will” to Russia on energy matters.

“There is a significant risk of gaps in the daily food supply for people in Germany. The situation is more than serious,” the letter, addressed to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Cem Ozdemir and published by Welt, warned.

The appeal was penned by the German Frozen Food Institute, the Association of German Cold Stores and Cold Logistics Companies, with five other industry groups including the Meat Industry Association, the Federal Fish Association and the German Fruit Trade Association.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/world-voices/support

In a 180-page white supremacist manifesto posted online before the racist May 14 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, domestic terrorist Payton Gendron wrote that he wanted “to spread awareness to my fellow whites about the real problems the West is facing.”

“This crisis of mass immigration and sub-replacement fertility,” the 18-year-old white man wrote, “is an assault on the European people that, if not combated, will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people.”

In addition to the Buffalo shooting, where the white supremacist terrorist slaughtered 10 innocent Black people and wounded three others, this white supremacist theory has inspired attacks on ethnic and religious minorities as far away as Christchurch, New Zealand, and El Paso, Texas.

French origins

The idea that nonwhite immigrants could eventually displace native-born white Europeans has roots in 20th century French ethnic nationalism. But the term itself was coined and popularized by French white nationalist author Renaud Camus (no relation to Albert Camus).

As he recently told the right-wing outlet Konflikt Magazin, he first came up with the expression in the 1990s in a small, medieval village in the south of France.

There, near “Gothic windows and Gothic fountains,” were Muslim women in veils and men in djellaba robes, he recalled. “I was, of course, accustomed like everybody else to seeing the change of people in [the predominantly Arab and Black] suburbs, but there it was especially striking.”

Camus said he later gave a speech titled “The Great Replacement” in a nearby town, and in 2011, self-published a book of the same title in French.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/30/what-is-this-white-supremacist-great-replacement-theory-every-fox-news-host-is-ranting-about/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The EU claims that it’s open to all refugees — but those from Ukraine get a much warmer reception than others

As a result of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, large numbers of people have been fleeing their homeland, en masse, for the past three months. Most have been seeking asylum in countries that are part of the European Union, which Kiev so desperately wants to join. According to UN estimates, six million had left by the middle of May.

The bulk of that burden has fallen on countries directly bordering Ukraine. Poland has received the most, more than 3.5 million people, breaking Germany’s record from two years ago, when, it became the first country in Europe to accept more than a million refugees (1.2 million), In that case, overwhelmingly from the Middle East during fighting in Syria.

Moreover, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia are part of the Schengen area, where there is no internal border controls. This means it is impossible to accurately determine whether the refugees have settled in the country they first entered or moved on.

Ukrainians fleeing the conflict automatically receive temporary protection status after crossing the border. They can immediately go to the EU country where it will be most convenient for them to find a place to live. For example, where their relatives or acquaintances reside.

At the same time, officially, refugees do not need documents to cross the border. Providing an identity card or passport, birth certificates for children, and medical documents is not a requirement, but a recommendation.

While crossing the border, Ukrainian residents have the right to apply for asylum, but the granting of official refugee status can take months.

Meanwhile what kind of assistance are those countries offering the refugees? In nations bordering Ukraine, they can stay in reception centers if they cannot live with friends or relatives. The EU has given Ukrainians the right to stay and work in 27 member states for up to two years. They will also receive social benefits, access to housing, medical care, and schools for their children.

Polish authorities have had to allocate about $1.8 billion to an emergency assistance fund to provide financial support for the refugees that have arrived. They already make up 8% of the country’s population, and the 300,000 Ukrainians who settled in Warsaw have increased the Polish capital’s population by 15%. Of course, all this has put an additional burden on transport, housing, and everyday life in the city, but authorities promise they will cope with the load.

The EU has become noticeably ‘kinder’ with respect to the suffering of refugees over the past two months. This would appear to be a significant step up, considering that nothing like this was offered to migrants from the Middle East. Refugees from countries like Sudan can only dream of receiving such hospitality.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/06/05/eu-selective-treatment-of-refugees-can-be-seen-in-the-warm-welcome-for-ukrainians-compared-to-those-from-other-places/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

While 90% of black voters backed Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, just 70% approve of his job performance two years in, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll published on Saturday.

Less than a quarter of respondents “strongly approve” of the president’s performance, an ominous note ahead of what is shaping up to be a difficult mid-term election for the Democratic Party, and 28% disapprove (either “strongly” or “somewhat”) with Biden’s work in office.

Additionally, just 60% of black voters say Biden is keeping most of his major campaign promises, while 37% say he is not. From the sky-high cost of living – climbing ever higher due to record inflation – to voting rights and policing reform, Biden’s perceived failure to deliver on the issues his supporters care about have given many of them second thoughts about whether they’ll even go to the polls at all come November.

Just a fifth of respondents thought Biden had budged the needle on criminal justice reform, whereas the leading response (42%) was that he had just done “a little,” while a third claimed he had done “nothing” on the issue. Biden faced significant opposition during the presidential primaries due to his central role in passing the 1994 crime bill, which included the controversial ‘three strikes’ provision that significantly increased the number of black Americans in prison, many of whom were often handed draconian sentences for relatively minor offenses.

The president has repeatedly defended his work on those laws, but his efforts to present himself as a crusader for criminal justice reform by pardoning three people and commuting the sentences of 75 nonviolent drug offenders, compared to the thousands incarcerated under ‘three strikes’ laws while he was a senator, have done little to change his image.

Black voters are less convinced after two years in office that Biden is sympathetic to their problems, with an 8-point drop from 74% in 2020 to 66% this year. However, three-quarters remain convinced that the Republican Party is racist against African-Americans, while just a quarter think the same about Democrats.

This uninspiring performance may have detrimental results at the polls, with fewer than two thirds of respondents (64%) saying they were “absolutely certain to vote” in the midterms when asked last month, compared to the 85% who said in June 2020 that they’d certainly vote in that year’s election.

Not everyone has blamed Biden for his poor performance, however. Poll respondents came up with numerous excuses for Democrats’ failure to deliver despite controlling both houses of Congress in addition to the presidency. “The Democratic Party doesn’t attack like a fist, they attack like five fingers. They go in different directions,” one survey respondent answered, while another suggested that the president could hardly be expected to accomplish much following on the heels of “someone as extreme as Trump” and claimed that the Democrat-controlled Congress was actually working against Biden.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/06/05/poll-shows-african-american-voters-ditching-democratic-party-in-droves/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/30/former-japan-pm-if-zelensky-refused-to-join-nato-gave-donbass-autonomy-there-would-be-no-hostilities/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A Uvalde mother says she was handcuffed while urging law enforcement officials to enter Robb Elementary School during Tuesday’s shooting, according to the Wall Street Journal. Angeli Rose Gomez, who has a second- and third-grader at the school, says that she was one of several parents begging police to breach the building. After a few minutes of increasingly urgent goading, Gomez alleges that federal marshals handcuffed her because she was intervening in an active investigation. Gomez said she tried to convince Uvalde police officers that she knew to convince the marshals to take the cuffs off, all while the scene around her grew increasingly hectic. She claims she even saw one desperate father get pepper-sprayed.

When her cuffs were finally removed, Gomez claims that she jumped the school fence and dashed inside to get her children.

In the above he footage, desperate parents, some of whom can be heard screaming in pain and agony while begging local law enforcement officials, to enter Robb Elementary School, where teachers and their kids were being slaughtered by 18-year-old domestic terrorist Salvador Ramos.

Local Uvalde police officers spent nearly an hour outside of the school restraining the parents to keep them from going inside until off duty Border Patrol agents eventually breached the classroom door and shot the gunman dead.http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/30/uvalde-mom-handcuffed-for-begging-cops-to-storm-school-later-stormed-into-school-and-rescued-her-child/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Local officers reportedly delayed US Border Patrol agents from going after gunman who killed 21 people at Texas school

Not only were local police slow to confront the shooter who killed 19 children and two adults in Tuesday’s Texas school massacre, they also reportedly refused to allow federal agents to confront the gunman until nearly an hour after they’d arrived on the scene.

Specially equipped US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents, who arrived at the Uvalde, Texas elementary school between noon and 12:10pm, weren’t allowed by local police to breach the adjoining classrooms in which the shooter had locked himself until just before 1pm, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing unidentified federal officials.

The federal agents found a chaotic scene when they arrived at the school, where people were pulling children out of windows and police tried to secure a perimeter. The agents, who arrived at the school “far earlier than previously known,” didn’t understand why they weren’t allowed to immediately charge the gunman, the Times said.

“We were told to wait,” a Border Patrol official told Yahoo News on Friday. “We were told to wait and wait, and the team wanted to go. But you have to understand, CBP is not the lead agency, so they had to wait, and now look what happened.”

Uvalde is located west of San Antonio, about 80 miles from the US-Mexico border. Tuesday’s incident began when a 911 caller reported seeing a man with a gun outside Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, reportedly entered the school through an unlocked door around 11:40am.

Rather than confronting the gunman immediately, as policing protocol requires in the case of an active shooter, 19 officers stood in the hallway outside the fourth-grade classrooms in which Ramos had locked himself, Texas director of public safety Steven McCraw told reporters on Friday. As more than 45 minutes ticked by, students inside the classroom desperately called 911 for help, in at least one case using a dead teacher’s phone.

“We were told to wait,” a Border Patrol official told Yahoo News on Friday. “We were told to wait and wait, and the team wanted to go. But you have to understand, CBP is not the lead agency, so they had to wait, and now look what happened.”

http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/30/uvalde-police-tried-to-stop-border-patrol-agents-from-charging-school-shooter/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The US Department of Justice has announced it will investigate law enforcement’s response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after witness reports painted a troubling picture of the police response to the incident which left 19 children and two teachers dead. A DOJ spokesman announced the probe on Sunday.

Requested by Uvalde mayor Don McLaughlin, the review aims to “provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events,” according to a statement from DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley. The agency will publish its conclusions after the review is complete.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/30/doj-opens-probe-into-school-shooting-response/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Major British media outlets are providing one-sided coverage of the Ukrainian conflict and are making efforts to exonerate neo-Nazis in the country, Steve Sweeney, an international editor at British newspaper the Morning Star, told RT.

Sweeney, who recently returned from the Ukrainian city of Lvov near the border with Poland, said he had to travel there himself because “the British media reporting [on Ukraine] is now incredibly restricted.”

“You have the Times, the Telegraph, the Guardian, the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 all really producing identical reports from Kiev and Lvov that don’t deviate at all from the government line, from the NATO line on what’s happening” in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, he said.

“A great effort is being made to really whitewash or rehabilitate the Azov [military battalion] as either having no influence in Ukraine or being just simply misunderstood nationalists,” the journalist pointed out.

The Azov battalion is an infamous nationalist unit in the ranks of the Ukrainian military. Its members have fought the Russian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol since the start of Moscow’s military operation. Many of them were killed, while the rest, including the commanders, laid down their arms earlier in May after being holed up at the Azovstal steel plant for weeks. Footage of the surrendering fighters reveals many of them sporting tattoos of Swastikas and other Nazi symbols.

Sweeney went as far as to describe the BBC’s reporting on the Azov battalion as “a masterclass in fascism denial.”

The Morning Star editor described what he saw in Lvov, saying “the city itself was essentially full of fascists and mercenaries, and people in military fatigues that are using civilian transport networks to enter Ukraine” from Poland.

The Azov battalion is an infamous nationalist unit in the ranks of the Ukrainian military. Its members have fought the Russian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol since the start of Moscow’s military operation. Many of them were killed, while the rest, including the commanders, laid down their arms earlier in May after being holed up at the Azovstal steel plant for weeks. Footage of the surrendering fighters reveals many of them sporting tattoos of Swastikas and other Nazi symbols.

Sweeney went as far as to describe the BBC’s reporting on the Azov battalion as “a masterclass in fascism denial.”

The Morning Star editor described what he saw in Lvov, saying “the city itself was essentially full of fascists and mercenaries, and people in military fatigues that are using civilian transport networks to enter Ukraine” from Poland.http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/30/british-media-whitewashing-ukrainian-neo-nazis-uk-journalist-tells-rt/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The rush to impose sanctions on Russia, and the departure of scores of companies from the country, following the launch of the military operation in Ukraine was done with a specific calculus: To devastate the Russian economy. However, in a globalized world where everything is linked, all actions have consequences.

Russia is one of the world’s leading exporters of fertilizers. According to the Fertilizer Institute in the US, in terms of the global export market, Russia accounts for 23% of ammonia, 14% of urea, and 21% of potash, as well as 10% of processed phosphate exports.

The World Bank’s Fertilizer Price Index rose nearly 10% in the first quarter of 2022, to an all-time high in nominal terms. The increase follows last year’s 80% surge. According to the projections, the prices will rise by almost 70% this year before falling – presumably – twelve months hence.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/30/hunger-games-how-the-worlds-farmers-have-become-collateral-victims-of-sanctions-against-russia/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A Supreme Court majority in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade was reportedly still in agreement long after a draft of the majority opinion was written in February.

The draft, which was leaked to the public last week, does not represent the final decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Justices are still able to suggest changes to the majority opinion or switch their votes altogether until the court publishes its decision in the case.

As recently as two weeks ago, however, the reported majority in favor of striking down Roe was still together, sources told The Washington Post. “[T]hree conservatives close to the court” told WaPo that “the majority of five justices to strike Roe remains intact,” a question that has stirred those on both sides of the debate that has erupted around the future of abortion law in the U.S. in the wake of the leaked draft.

Chief Justice John Roberts is not siding with the majority, telling his colleagues in December that he planned to write an opinion upholding both Mississippi’s restrictions on abortion, in question in Dobbs, as well as Roe to the extent possible. The majority of the court disagreed with the chief justice and were “more interested in an opinion that overturned the precedents,” WaPo reported, citing a source “close to the most conservative members of the court.”

The leak of the draft decision on May 2 sparked outcry across the political spectrum. Conservatives generally decried the leak of the document, unprecedented in recent history and a significant breach of trust among the nine justices of the high court. Leftists rallied to protest the contents of the draft and claimed that the end of Roe could spell the end of abortion access in the U.S. Notably, ending Roe would revert the question of legal access to abortion back to the states, where laws would vary widely.

Over the weekend, protesters demanding the Supreme Court uphold Roe demonstrated outside of the private residences of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Roberts. Earlier in the week, the pro-abortion group Ruth Sent Us doxed the five conservative members of the Supreme Court, posting their streets on online and calling for protests.

Last week, former Attorney General Bill Barr said that the Roberts may need to appoint a special counsel to uncover who leaked the draft of the decision. The leaker, Barr said, could be charged with obstruction of justice. http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/10/supreme-court-majority-still-supports-overturning-roe/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Department of Justice is remaining silent on continued protests by abortion activists outside conservative Supreme Court justices’ homes, despite a federal law that makes it illegal to attempt to “influence” federal officials and the outcome of a court case.

The pro-abortion protestors are targeting the private homes of the six Republican-appointed justices after the leak last week of a draft opinion signaled the Supreme Court intends to overturn landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.

Federal U.S. code 1507, states that any individual who “pickets or parades” with the “intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge, juror, witness, or court officer” near a U.S. court or “near a building or residence occupied or used by such judge, juror, witness, or court officer” will be fined, or “imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

Despite the language included in the federal statute, Attorney General Merrick Garland has not issued a public statement addressing the protests outside conservative justices’ homes. And the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Garland’s silence and the reason why protestors have not been arrested.

According to senior fellow at the National Review Institute and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy, the Biden DOJ is being silent on this for the same reason as the White House: “They are elevating their political interest in portraying the draft Supreme Court opinion as extreme over their constitutional duty to execute the laws faithfully and protect both the Court and the justices.”

“I would note that months ago, when Attorney General Garland unjustifiably dispatched the FBI to investigate parents who were protesting the inclusion of racist and anti-American materials in school curricula, Garland claimed that the Justice Department had an interest in protecting teachers and school administrators. Not only was it untrue that schools were under siege; the relationship between parents and schools is a state and local issue, not a federal one — hypothetically, if a parent were to assault a teacher, it would be a state crime, not a federal one,” continued McCarthy.

McCarthy referred to a DOJ memo from last fall, directing the FBI to investigate “threats of violence” at school board meetings in order to combat threats against school officials by angry parents. Garland received massive backlash for his directive because it came just days after the National School Board Association (NSBA) wrote a letter to Biden asking his administration to treat parent protests at school board meetings as possible acts of “domestic terrorism.”

“By contrast, the protection of the Supreme Court as an institution, and of the justices’ security, are patently federal matters over which federal law-enforcement has clear jurisdiction. It is inexcusable that the Justice Department is so silent and passive now, when it was loud and active over a manufactured controversy as to which it had no jurisdiction,” McCarthy told Fox News Digital.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/10/doj-silent-on-abortion-protests-at-justices-homes-despite-federal-law-prohibiting-pickets-to-influence-case/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/10/barr-on-scotus-home-protests-federal-crime-to-go-to-judges-residence-to-influence-decisions/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/10/abortion-rights-group-doxxes-supreme-court-justices-offers-stipends-for-protests/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A large group of demonstrators gathered outside conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s home on Monday night to protest his leaked draft opinion to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade case and end federal protections for abortion rights.

The demonstration — dubbed a “Vigil for Abortion Rights” — was organized by activist group Shut Down D.C., which said it would take its protests directly to the justice’s house in Northern Virginia “because it’s been impossible to reach him at the Supreme Court.”

The group marched down the street, some carrying a banner that read “Repro Freedom For All,” as others chanted “our bodies, our voice!” and “Alito is a coward,” video from Fox News shows.

Organizers said they planned to light candles at the foot of Alito’s driveway where speakers are expected to share their stories about abortion and hold a moment of silence “for the rights we know are ours” before marching away.

Scores of outraged abortion rights activists demonstrated outside the homes of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh over the weekend after the opinion leaked last week.

The protests prompted the Senate to pass legislation on Monday that ramps up personal security and other protections for Supreme Court justices and their families with protective details — similar to those given to members of Congress and White House officials.

Alito, appointed to the Supreme Court in 2006 by George W. Bush, penned the majority opinion that rejects the constitutionality of the Roe v. Wade 1973 decision, which has been the law of the land for nearly 50 years, as well as the subsequent Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision in 1992.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/10/abortion-rights-activists-hold-protest-outside-of-justice-alitos-home/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2022/05/10/sky-news-interview-cut-short-after-mention-of-zelensky-posting-soldier-with-ss-insignia/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has been listed as one of the candidates for the 2021 Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Prize of CAS for its achievement in identifying the COVID-19 pathogeny. China’s “bat woman” Shi Zhengli, and Yuan Zhiming, director of the WIV’s Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory were selected as the outstanding contributors of the WIV group candidates. CAS published the candidate list on its official website on Friday. The award is mainly given to individuals or research groups who have made or demonstrated significant achievements in the past five years. CAS awards 10 such individuals and research groups annually. CAS said the WIV quickly carried out pathogen identification after the outbreak of COVID-19, completed the entire virus genome sequencing and virus isolation within a short time, confirmed that the COVID-19 virus shares the same functional receptor as the SARS virus, systematically analyzed the basic biological characteristics of the virus, and revealed that coronavirus carried by bats may be the evolutionary ancestor of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The WIV scientists also established an animal model of COVID-19 infection by using human ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme2) transgenic mice and rhesus monkeys to simulate the symptoms and pathological changes of humans contracted with COVID-19. In addition, the research group established a variety of coronavirus serological tests, and nucleic acid detection techniques were established and applied to the detection of clinical samples, which revealed multiple transmission routes of the coronavirus such as fecal-oral transmission. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/24/wuhan-coronavirus-lab-shortlisted-for-outstanding-science-achievement-prize-by-chinas-academy-of-sciences/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) took part in a historic event on Tuesday when he successfully entered content, files and copies from the notorious Hunter Biden laptop.

While the contents of the infamous computer have been available to the public for nearly a year and a half, the establishment has been given the green light to move forward with discussing the laptop after it was “confirmed” to be legitimate by The New York Times last week.

Upon entering the laptop documents into the official record, Gaetz called for Hunter Biden to be subpoenaed.

Gaetz also questioned the Assistant Director of FBI Cyber Security on the whereabouts of the Hunter laptop.

“Where is it?” Gaetz sternly asked.

“I don’t know that answer,” the FBI Cyber Asst. Director stated.

The congressman called this response “astonishing.”

On Monday night, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis) delivered speeches on the Senate floor in which they exposed lucrative financial deals between the communist Chinese government and Joe Biden’s brother James as well as Joe’s son Hunter Biden.

A video clip going viral on Tuesday shows President Trump telling Real America’s Voice that Russian President Vladimir Putin should release any information he may have regarding the Biden family’s suspicious connection to the former Mayor of Moscow.

The deep corruption of the Biden family and their cohorts is being exposed at rates we’ve never seen.

However, mainstream media outlets are still ignoring the massive bombshell stories coming out about Hunter Biden, China, Ukrainian biolabs and more.

A recent study showed ABC, NBC & CBS haven’t so much as said the name Hunter Biden in 260 days.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/30/rep-matt-gaetz-successfully-enters-hunter-biden-laptop-hard-drive-into-congressional-record/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has accused the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of “working for the enemy” after it allegedly assisted in the evacuation of residents from the city of Mariupol to Russia. She implied that the international aid organization was more interested in Russian money than in supporting the Ukrainian cause.

The barrage of accusations came from Iryna Vereshchuk, who is Ukraine’s highest-ranking parliamentarian with responsibility for humanitarian affairs. She reiterated Kiev’s claims that Moscow was forcefully abducting Ukrainians from Mariupol, the port city that has seen some of the worst fighting since the month-long Russian attack on Ukraine began. The ICRC had helped with those evacuations, she has alleged.

“Ukraine never agreed to a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol to Russia. That’s obvious. They are occupiers. They are enemies. Not peacemakers. The Red Cross had no right to help evacuate people there,” she said in an interview with Ukraine’s Strana news outlet.

The ICRC has denied it has ever participated in forced evacuations, either in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world, and stressed that, as a neutral humanitarian organization, its aim was to provide relief, rather than to take one side or the other in a conflict.

We never help organize or carry out forced evacuations. This is true in Ukraine. This is true for everywhere we work around the world. We would not support any operation that goes against people’s will.— ICRC (@ICRC) March 26, 2022

It said it had assisted with westward evacuations from the city of Sumy, but added that its ability to help people in Ukraine was being impacted by the continued failure of the combatants to guarantee the safe passage of humanitarian convoys.

Vereshchuk has alleged that, contrary to its mission, the ICRC was “de facto working on the side of the enemy” and that it had been financially motivated to do so. “Money doesn’t stink,” she remarked, using the words the Roman emperor Vespasian said to his son to explain why taxing even urine was a good policy.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/30/ukraine-accuses-red-cross-of-working-for-enemy/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

PM Johnson says ceasefire not enough, Russia must “reverse course” in Ukraine

It will take more than a ceasefire in Ukraine for London to lift its sanctions against Russia, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his cabinet on Tuesday, insisting that Moscow must fully alter its policy towards its neighbor.

Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin “must be increased both through further economic measures and providing military aid to ensure Russia changes course completely,” Johnson told his ministers, according to his spokesman.

Foreign Minister Liz Truss had told the Sunday Telegraph earlier this week that sanctions “should only come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.”

Johnson’s comments came as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Turkey to discuss the “practical phase” of talks, according to Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin. He told reporters that the parties are preparing an agreement on the “neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine” and providing Kiev security guarantees in return.

As a sign of good faith, Russia intends to “drastically” de-escalate military activity near Kiev and Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, Fomin also announced. However, there was no talk of a ceasefire of any kind.

London and Washington have led the way in imposing a wide-ranging embargo on Russian goods, services, property, bank reserves, transactions, individuals, and government officials.

Though the US insists that “the world” has sanctioned Russia, the embargo has been limited to Washington’s NATO allies, plus Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Moscow sent its troops into Ukraine in late February, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the Donbass by force.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/30/uk-reveals-conditions-for-lifting-russia-sanctions/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Bill Gates recent land grab has made him America’s biggest farm owner almost overnight. With Gates now seizing control of America’s food supply, is it a coincidence that globalist institutions like the UN have suddenly started warning about an incoming global food shortage?

Some experts say it’s not a coincidence at all.

In total, Gates now owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. Land is wealth, land is power, and, more importantly, hundreds of thousands of acres of farm land provides Gates with the ability to control humanity in ways he has only dreamed about before.

But what if claims of food shortages are a dangerous sham and Gates is misleading humanity in order to provide cover and usher in a new era of chemical-intensive and industrial-style agriculture?

Wherever Bill Gates plies his trade, disaster for humanity looms.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/25/bill-gates-becomes-biggest-owner-of-farmland-in-us-food-shortages-for-humanity-announced/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

An ABC News reporter was left visibly enraged after President Joe Biden ruled out World War 3 during a NATO press briefing on Thursday.

“Sir, you’ve made it very clear in this conflict that you did not want to see World War 3,” MSNBC’s Cecilia Vega said. “But is it possible that in expressing that so early that you were too quick to rule out direct military intervention in this war? Could Putin have been emboldened, knowing that you were not going to get involved directly in this conflict?” http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/25/abc-journalist-furious-after-biden-rules-out-world-war-iii-we-want-war-mr-president/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

In recent weeks, the Russian Defence Ministry has peeled back layers of information about 30+ Pentagon-funded biolabs feared to be engaged in dangerous and illegal research into deadly pathogens in Ukraine. US officials and media initially denied that the labs existed, but a senior Biden administration official later confirmed their presence.

An investment firm connected to US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been implicated in the financing of the Pentagon’s military biological programme in Ukraine, the head of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops has announced, citing fresh documents.

RCBD Troops chief Igor Kirillov said in a briefing Thursday:

“Incoming materials have allowed us to trace the scheme of interaction between US government bodies and Ukraine’s biolabs. The involvement in the financing of these activities by structures close to the current US leadership, in particular the Rosemont Seneca investment fund managed by Hunter Biden, draws attention to itself.”

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/25/hunter-bidens-investment-fund-connected-to-financing-of-pentagon-funded-biolabs-in-ukraine/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the ‘New World Order’ are deliberately creating economic hardships around the globe in order to push the ‘Great Reset’ on humanity.

During a speech that was broadcast live on Russian television, Putin also slammed Russian oligarchs fleeing to Israel as a “fifth column” of “national traitors” who view themselves as a “superior race” and “cannot make do without foie gras, oysters or gender freedom as they call it.”

“Any nation, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth, spit them onto the pavement,” Putin said.

— Ben Judah (@b_judah) March 16, 2022

“I am convinced,” said Putin today in this chilling warning about how the West was seeking to use a “fifth column” to bring about the destruction of Russia, “that such a natural and necessary self purification of society will only strengthen our country.” pic.twitter.com/ZqhCQZsAqZ “I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-detoxification of society like this would strengthen our country, our solidarity and cohesion and our readiness to respond to any challenge,” he added.

Summit.news reports: The Russian president also directly addressed westerners who are being told by the legacy media that skyrocketing gas prices and other economic hardships are purely to blame on Putin.

“I want ordinary Western people hear me, too,” Putin said. “You are being persistently told that your current difficulties are the result of Russia’s hostile actions and that you have to pay for the efforts to counter the alleged Russian threat from your own pockets. All of that is a lie.”

“The truth is that the problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elite of your respective countries, their mistakes, and short-sighted policies and ambitions. This elite is not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in Western countries. They are obsessed with their own self-serving interests and super profits.”

No doubt that very same elite will now cite Putin’s criticism of them as reason to assert they have the moral high ground. http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/25/putin-new-world-order-are-deliberately-crashing-the-economy-as-part-of-the-great-reset/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Far-left globalist billionaire George Soros has complained that Russian President Vladimir Putin is thwarting the ‘New World Order’ from fulfilling its agenda.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 was the beginning of a third world war that has the potential to destroy our civilization,” he wrote.

Soros contrasts Chinese President Xi Jinping’s current stance with the extensive and cordial meeting between Xi and Putin on February 4.

The highlight of that meeting was the release of a 5,000-word statement announcing a “no limits” partnership between Russia and China.

“The document is stronger than any treaty and must have required detailed negotiation in advance,” Soros complained, expressing his surprise that Xi could have been willing to grant such unconditional support for Russia’s designs on Ukraine.

Zerohedge.com reports: Soros viewed this support as having emboldened Putin, a ruler who, as he approaches age 70, feels increasing pressure to make his mark on history, Soros states.

“Having obtained Xi’s backing, Putin set about realizing his life’s dream with incredible brutality,” wrote Soros.

More recent developments in Ukraine, where resistance to the invasion is fiercer and more determined than some expected, and support for Russia noticeably lower than Putin presumed, have prompted Xi to reassess his stance.

“Xi seems to have realized that Putin has gone rogue,” Soros observed.

On March 7, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the friendship between Russia and China was still “rock solid,” but then the next day Xi called French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to voice his support for their efforts to make peace and to advocate restraint, Soros noted. Since the invasion, both Macron and Scholz have spent many hours on the phone with Putin in an effort to work toward a resolution of the conflict.

“It is far from certain that Putin will accede to Xi’s wishes. We can only hope that Putin and Xi will be removed from power before they can destroy our civilization,” Soros concluded.

Earlier this year, Soros articulated his view that the year 2022 would be a “turning point” during which the world would pivot decisively either in the direction of openness and freedom or of dictatorship and repression. He pointed particularly to the Chinese Communist Party’s growing aggression on the world stage, coupled with domestic problems faced by the regime.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/25/george-soros-putin-is-stopping-the-new-world-order-from-fulfilling-its-agenda/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been in Belgium on a two-day official visit to attend meetings of European Union, G7 and NATO leaders about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine

However he was not made welcome by some MEPS and he was certainly not expecting to be humiliated in front of the entire European Parliament!

During a plenary session of parliament in Brussels on Wednesday several MEPs called Trudeau out, accusing him of violating human rights and turning Canada into “a dictatorship of the worst kind” following his handling of the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa.

German Member of the European Parliament member, Christine Anderson, joined Croatian MEP Mislav, and Romanian MEP Cristian Terhes in demolishing the Canadian Prime Minister as he as he dared to talk about defending democracy in Ukraine while destroying it in his own country.

She said Trudeau shouldn’t be allowed to speak to the European Parliament over the handling of the Freedom Convoy, and called him a “disgrace for any democracy.”

“A prime minister who openly admires the Chinese basic dictatorship, who tramples on fundamental rights by persecuting and criminalizing his own citizens as terrorists just because they dared to stand up to his perverted concept of democracy should not be allowed to speak in this house at all” Anderson said

— Christine Anderson (@AndersonAfDMdEP) March 24, 2022

🇨🇦🇬🇧|Yesterday, Canada's Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau visited the #EU Parliament to give a speech. I took the opportunity to give him an appropriate "welcome" there. Short, concise and right hitting the bull's eye! #ID pic.twitter.com/qpcQyGTixQ http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/25/german-mep-blasts-trudeau-at-eu-parliament-youre-a-disgrace-to-democracy/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

President Biden wants credit for nominating the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. But here is the shameful irony: Biden wasn’t always a supporter of Black women being on the Supreme Court. As a senator, Biden warned President George W. Bush that if he nominated the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, he would filibuster and kill her nomination.

The story begins in 2003, when Bush nominated Judge Janice Rogers Brown to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The D.C. Circuit is considered the country’s second-most important court, and has produced more Supreme Court justices than any other federal court. Brown was immediately hailed as a potential Supreme Court nominee. She was highly qualified, having served for seven years as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court — the first Black woman to do so. She was the daughter and granddaughter of sharecroppers, and grew up in rural Alabama during the dark days of segregation, when her family refused to enter restaurants or theaters with separate entrances for Black customers. She rose from poverty and put herself through college and UCLA law school as a working single mother. She was a self-made African American legal star. But she was an outspoken conservative — so Biden set out to destroy her.

Biden and his fellow Democrats filibustered her nomination, along with several other Bush circuit court nominees, all of whom had majority support in the Senate. Columnist Robert Novak called it “the first full-scale effort in American history to prevent a president from picking the federal judges he wants.” Democrats argued that she was out of the legal mainstream, but Republicans responded that she had written more majority opinions than any other justice on the California Supreme Court — and she was reelected with 76 percent of the vote, the highest percentage of all the justices on the ballot.

When Democrats derailed her nomination, Bush renominated her in 2005. Brown was eventually confirmed by a vote of 56 to 43 — after Democrats released her and several other Bush nominees in exchange for Republican agreement not to eliminate the filibuster for judicial nominations. Biden voted a second time against her nomination. He never explained why, if Brown was so radical, Democrats let her through but killed 10 other Bush nominees.

The following month, when Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced her retirement, Brown was on Bush’s shortlist to replace her. She would have been the first Black woman ever nominated to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. But Biden appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to warn that if Bush nominated Brown, she would face a filibuster. “I can assure you that would be a very, very, very difficult fight and she probably would be filibustered,” Biden said. Asked by moderator John Roberts “Wasn’t she just confirmed?,” Biden replied that the Supreme Court is a “totally different ballgame” because “a circuit court judge is bound by stare decisis. They don’t get to make new law.”

What Biden threatened was unprecedented. There has never been a successful filibuster of a nominee for associate justice in the history of the republic. Biden wanted to make a Black woman the first in history to have her nomination killed by filibuster. Bush eventually nominated Samuel A. Alito Jr.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/24/biden-blocked-the-first-black-woman-from-the-supreme-court/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting Friday at the request of Russia over the alleged development of biological weapons in Ukraine.

Russia on Thursday accused the United States of funding research into the development of biological weapons in Ukraine, which has faced an assault by tens of thousands of Russian troops since February 24.

Both Washington and Kyiv have denied the existence of laboratories intended to produce biological weapons in Ukraine, with the United States saying the allegations were a sign that Moscow could soon use the weapons itself.

Western states have accused Russia of employing a ruse by accusing their opponents and the United states of developing biological and chemical weapons to lay the ground for their possible use in Ukraine — something Moscow has been accused of doing in Syria.

At a monthly Security Council meeting on the use of chemical weapons in Syria — a case that remains unresolved and continues to suffer from a UN-denounced lack of information from Damascus — both Washington and London raised Ukraine.

“The Russian Federation has repeatedly spread disinformation regarding Syria’s repeated use of chemical weapons,” said the deputy US envoy to the UN, Richard Mills. “The recent web of lies that Russia has cast in an attempt to justify the premeditated and unjustified war it has undertaken against Ukraine, should make clear, once and for all, that Russia also cannot be trusted when it talks about chemical weapon use in Syria.”

Mills’ UK counterpart, James Kariuki, denounced Moscow’s attack on Ukraine and said the “parallels with Russian action in Syria are clear.”

“Regrettably, the comparison also extends to chemical weapons, as we see the familiar specter of Russian chemical weapons disinformation raising its head in Ukraine.”

In 2018, Moscow accused the United States of secretly conducting biological weapons experiments in a laboratory in Georgia, another former Soviet republic that, like Ukraine, has ambitions to join NATO and the European Union.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/11/un-security-council-to-meet-friday-on-biological-weapons-at-russias-request/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reportedly told Kiev to dispose of dangerous research materials kept in laboratories around the country to prevent the pathogens from being leaked or “accidentally” released.

The UN agency revealed the details behind its recommendation to Ukraine in statements to Reuters and Russia’s TASS news agency on Friday.

“As part of this work, WHO has strongly recommended to the Ministry of Health in Ukraine and other responsible bodies to destroy high-threat pathogens to prevent any potential spills,” the UN agency stated, as quoted by Reuters. It specified neither the nature of materials that should be destroyed, nor the date when it gave the advice.

The agency only reportedly told Reuters that it had been working with Kiev for “several years” to make sure “accidental or deliberate release of pathogens” never happens.

The Russian military previously accused Washington of creating and funding a network of “biolabs” in Ukraine as part of an alleged bioweapons program. Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed on Thursday that documents it seized in Ukraine’s research facilities suggest that the US was planning to “work on bird, bat and reptile pathogens,” and potentially study whether these animals could transmit such dangerous diseases as an African swine fever virus and anthrax.

On Friday, Moscow called for the UN Security Council to convene to discuss alleged US-backed biological weapons programs in Ukraine.

The US and Ukranian governments have both vehemently denied the claims, insisting that no bioweapons program has ever existed in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesky stated on Friday that most of his country’s bio-research facilities were inherited from the Soviet times, and were “focused on civilian science.”

On Thursday, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines admitted that Washington had “provided assistance” to the labs, but insisted that it was strictly “in the context of biosafety.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/11/who-advised-kiev-to-destroy-disease-causing-pathogens/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Russian army claimed Thursday that an attack on a children’s hospital in the southeastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which killed three including a child and caused global outrage, was a “staged provocation” by Ukraine.

“The Russian aviation carried out absolutely no missions to hit targets on the ground in the Mariupol area,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“The airstrike that allegedly took place is a completely staged provocation to maintain anti-Russian hype for a Western audience,” he said.

The bombing of the maternity hospital resulted in three deaths, including one child, according to the city’s mayor. An earlier tally by Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday said 17 people were injured.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24th. http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/11/russia-says-mariupol-hospital-attack-staged-by-ukraine/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Text messages and bulletins in Russian circulating social media allegedly show an effort by the Ukrainian government to recruit citizens to stage war propaganda to blame on Russian forces.

An account on alternative social media website Mastodon by a podcaster named Sir Gene Duke of TX reveals several flyers and text threads calling on citizens to start fires and film them in specific locations to then blame on Russian aggression.

“Ukrainian civilians getting texts offering to pay 10,000 [Ukrainian Hryvnia, equal to $329 USD] to film fires at specified locations. This of course comes to US propaganda as videos of Russian aggression,” Duke of TX claimed in a Saturday post.

“In fact, these are staged videos shot by paid Ukrainians. This is SO brilliant! They are paying random people to create propaganda that looks like its not professionally produced! Ukraine/CIA is totally winning the PR/Propaganda war!” he added.

The following flyer details in Russian (the most widely spoken language in Ukraine) a campaign to receive compensation for staging war propaganda.

“IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Greetings friend! I am calling on you to stop this mayhem in the country and finish the war! Let’s together topple our government! Shoot video of these places under coordinates (53.271579, 34.410514) and receive a compensation of a large sum of money, or a heavy load of a product of choice. 🙌🙌🙌 Our store closed its doors specifically because of them.”

This is the translation of the following text exchange:

-I can offer a job that pays 10k– how– go to this site for the voice recording (name of site) (here you will record the following message: there is a bomb at the bus station at the address Sievers Street, Rostov-on-Don, I repeat, there is a bomb) You need to call the police! BUT FIRST RECORD THIS MESSAGE And you need to record this message on video or audio! You will be paid 10k rubles only after you can prove you made the phone call.VoxWorker.com – voiceover of text online Online voiceover of text, word synthesizer in Russian. Online service of voiceover of text for male and female voices in Russian and English.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/07/ukrainian-officials-are-paying-civilians-to-create-fake-war-crime-evidence-to-blame-on-russian-aggression/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Audio has emerged of a Brazilian politician on a humanitarian mission to Ukraine discussing how “cheap” the local women are due to their vulnerable status.

Arthur Moledo do Val, also known as Mamãe Falei, is a Brazilian State Deputy with the center-right Democrat Party. Earlier this month, do Val travelled to Ukraine on a humanitarian mission to assess the current situation.

In newly-leaked audio messages sent by do Val, the politician is heard excitedly discussing the situation of Ukrainian women, rating the attractiveness of the females in the refugee line, and stating “they’re cheap because they’re poor.”

In the audio, do Val says he’s “at a loss for words,” continuing: “Picture a line of 200 meters or more, like that, filled only [with] goddesses. If you wait in line at the best nightclub in Brazil, the absolute best, you don’t get even close to the level of beauty found in the refugee line here.”

do Val noted that he had been using his Instagram to impress Ukrainian women as he currently has over 700,000 followers on the platform.

“Bro, I’m sick. I’m sick. I’m over now, there are four customs barriers. There are two little houses in each country. Brother, I swear to you, I counted: there were 12 goddesses of police officers. Goddesses,” he is heard saying in the messages. “Four of them were chicks who you’d be like… Man, I can’t even tell you. If she took a shit, you’d wipe her ass with your tongue. Unbelievable. Unbelievable, man. As soon as this war is over, I’m coming back here.”

🇧🇷🇺🇸🇺🇦 | Brazilian state congressman travels to a war zone and states that women in Ukraine are easy (cheap) because they are poor. http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/07/brazilian-politician-goes-to-ukraine-praises-cheap-women/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The United States and allied nations are reportedly discussing the line of succession for Ukraine government leadership in the event President Volodymyr Zelensky is captured or killed.

The Ukrainian Constitution outlines that the speaker of parliament succeeds the president if anything should happen to them in office, the New York Times reported. Ruslan Stefanchuk currently serves as speaker and has been photographed with Zelensky and attended key virtual meetings with European leaders since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The succession line for president beyond Stefanchuk, however, is unclear under the constitution. The country’s parliament may need to take additional steps to validate succession measures that extend beyond just top leaders, The Hill reported last month.

Ukrainian officials have meanwhile said they are focused on winning the battles against Russia instead of working on the line of succession.

U.S., English and European Union officials have stated they won’t recognize a puppet government set up by Russia if Kyiv falls, and having a firm succession plan that installs a legal leader would make it easier for allies to undermine a Russian-controlled government in the country, the New York Times reported.

“Every two days information comes out that I have fled somewhere — fled from Ukraine, from Kyiv, from my office. As you can see, I am here in my place, Andriy Borisovich (Yermak) is here. Nobody has fled anywhere. Here, we are working,” Zelensky said Saturday.

The Ukrainian president claims to have survived three alleged assassination plots against him. A group of Chechen special forces was sent to “eliminate our president” but was “destroyed directly,” according to a Telegram post published by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications.http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/07/us-and-allies-discuss-ukraines-line-of-succession-in-event-zelensky-is-captured-or-killed/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Robert J. O’Neill, the former U.S. Navy SEAL that killed Osama bin Laden, slammed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during an interview with TMZ over the weekend after Graham repeatedly called for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“As a sitting Senator, that’s not, he shouldn’t be saying that, there are backdoor channels,” O’Neill said. “I should be able to say it because, you know, I’m a civilian now, I’ve done, I’ve done my time. And Lindsey Graham he’s, you know, he’s been in just like everybody else in Washington, D.C., he’s been up there for 30 years or whatever. There are backdoor channels through the Senate Armed Service Committee which he is on, House Armed Services Committee is something else, you don’t need to come out there just to get views because you’re not trying to get ratings like a news station.”

“He can do backdoor channels, I disagree with him saying that, but it needs to be implied through backdoor channels,” he continued. “But I mean, something needs to happen. … You know, I know Lindsey Graham, I wish I knew what he was thinking, but I mean, lately there’s been a lot of people on Capitol Hill, both sides of the aisle, that don’t really know what the hell they’re talking about.”

TRANSCRIPT:

ROBERT J. O’NEILL, FORMER NAVY SEAL: As a sitting Senator, that’s not, he shouldn’t be saying that, there are backdoor channels. I should be able to say it because, you know, I’m a civilian now, I’ve done, I’ve done my time. And Lindsey Graham he’s, you know, he’s been in just like everybody else in Washington, D.C., he’s been up there for 30 years or whatever. There are backdoor channels through the Senate Armed Service Committee which he is on, House Armed Services Committee is something else, you don’t need to come out there just to get views because you’re not trying to get ratings like a news station. He can do backdoor channels, I disagree with him saying that, but it needs to be implied through backdoor channels. But I mean, something needs to happen. … You know, I know Lindsey Graham, I wish I knew what he was thinking, but I mean, lately there’s been a lot of people on Capitol Hill, both sides of the aisle, that don’t really know what the hell they’re talking about.TMZ: What advice would you give to someone who’s going to potentially take out Putin?O’NEILL: I don’t, you know, I again, I would just say try to talk some sense into him. I again I think I literally think Vladimir Putin is losing his mind and whomever is the closest person to him should say something. Say something. Like I said, I’ve been to war I don’t like war. I killed Bin Laden, I’m not happy with murder. But someone has to do something about this because so many innocent people dying every single day in Ukraine and it’s a shame, it’s over nothing. It’s over nothing. Having said that Bin Laden had it coming, just saying.

00:00/02:38Previewhttp://globalreportage.org/2022/03/07/navy-seal-who-killed-osama-bin-laden-slams-lindsey-graham-for-calling-for-putins-assassination/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Russian leader claims Moscow wanted to prevent the West from helping “nationalists”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he chose to attack Ukraine beyond the borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) to prevent the West from “endlessly” supplying “nationalists and radicals” with various resources, such as weapons and money. He added that the Russian forces were “practically done” destroying Ukrainian military sites, such as air defenses and weapons depots.

The president stated that he had ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine last week in order to neutralize the “real threat” coming from Kiev and NATO. Moscow has long protested the Western military infrastructure along its borders and Ukraine’s aspirations to join the US-led bloc.

“They began to say more actively that they will admit [Ukraine] to NATO. What will this lead to? All other members of the alliance must back Ukraine in the case of a military conflict,” Putin said. “They will [attack] Crimea, and we will be forced to go to war with NATO. Do you understand the consequences?” The president stated that he wanted Ukraine to become a neutral country.

Crimea voted to leave Ukraine and join Russia shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev. It was during that time that the DPR and LPR broke away from Ukraine.

“Let’s acquire nuclear weapons, they say [in Ukraine]. We can’t simply ignore it,” Putin said, referring to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s remark last month that Kiev might be forced to reconsider its status as a non-nuclear-weapons state.

Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24, arguing that it was defending the DPR and LPR. Putin also claimed he was seeking the “demilitarization and denazification” of the country.

Kiev said the attack was entirely unprovoked and appealed to the international community for help. Many countries, including the US, the UK, and EU member states, have since imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/07/putin-explains-why-ukraine-attack-went-beyond-donbass/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

This episode is also available as a blog post:

http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/07/heres-why-its-so-important-for-russia-to-denazify-demilitarize-ukraine/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

On 12 March 2014 a historic 10-minute video was uploaded to youtube that acquired over a million hits since then, and that presented and truthfully explained a compendium of video-clips which had been uploaded to the Web during the 2014 overthrow and replacement of Ukraine’s democratically elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, who had been called to the White House right after his 2010 electoral win and was asked by Obama to help to push his country toward joining NATO (though all of the opinion polls that had been taken of the Ukrainian public showed that the vast majority of Ukrainians viewed NATO to be their enemy, no friend of Ukraine). Yanukovych said no, and the Obama Administration (with the help of Google corporation) began by no later than 2011 to organize their coup to take down and replace Yanukovych so as to get Ukraine into NATO in order for America to become able to place its missiles only a five-minute striking-distance away from Moscow, for a retaliation-prohibiting blitz nuclear first-strike attack.

During 2003-2009, only around 20% of Ukrainians wanted NATO membership, while around 55% opposed it. In 2010, Gallup found that whereas 17% of Ukrainians considered NATO to mean “protection of your country,” 40% said it’s “a threat to your country.” Ukrainians predominantly saw NATO as an enemy, not a friend. But after Obama’s February 2014 Ukrainian coup, “Ukraine’s NATO membership would get 53.4% of the votes, one third of Ukrainians (33.6%) would oppose it.”

The 2014 coup in Ukraine was about two things: getting Ukraine into NATO, and seizing Russia’s biggest naval base, which ever since 1783 has been in Crimea, which (Crimea) the Soviet dictator had transferred to Ukraine in 1954 while still continuing Crimea as the Soviet Union’s biggest naval base. Obama, already by no later than June 2013, was planning to grab that naval base and turn it into yet another U.S. naval base. http://globalreportage.org/2022/03/07/evidence-that-ukraine-has-been-run-by-neo-nazis-since-february-2014/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Over 100 demonstrators were arrested on Friday after the Ottawa police service began to dismantle the Freedom Convoy protests. Some protesters were trampled by mounted police, including a handicapped elderly woman, as riot cops advanced with support from armored vehicles and SWAT units. Protesters remain camped outside Canadian federal buildings as of Friday night, though Ottawa police have managed to significantly tighten the perimeter. Images and video coming from the Canadian national capital of Ottawa today sent shockwaves around the globe. Hundreds were arrested and went peacefully, but police were at times brutal. One group of Canadian police officers on horseback were caught on video trampling protesters. The violence the Prime Minister has expressed concern about during the three-week protest in Ottawa didn’t unfold until Justin Trudeau’s Emergencies Act police army was sent in to disperse the crowd. The three major incidents Friday, under a form of martial law, were grotesque. Video of Toronto Police Mounted Unit officers charging into the crowd and at least one horse trampling multiple people — including an elderly woman with a walker — was disturbing.

Help fund our coverage of the Freedom convoy!

We are covering the freedom convoy to show you the other side of the story the mainstream media won't. Please donate to fund our journalism and to offset the cost of our coverage: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

According to a tweet sent by the official Ottawa police, one of the possible “enforcement actions” being taken against Canadian citizens participating in a peaceful protest against the mandates– beyond freezing their bank accounts — is that the state will confiscate their pet and, after 8 days, declare it “relinquished” if other “arrangements are not made.” This warning by the Ottawa government that protesters may have their pets be confiscated following their arrest was issued on the same day that videos emerged of Ottawa and Quebec police gearing up to go after peaceful Convoy supporters in the capital Moreover, position statements issued by the Ottawa Humane Society reveal that they may unilaterally euthanize any animal that they deem to be “not suitable for adoption.” Arbitrary behavioral and health tests would be used to make the call. These decisions about the life of a trucker’s pet would, thus, be made without their consent or knowledge while they are imprisoned for indefinite periods of time via the Emergency Powers of the Trudeau regime. “Attention animal owners at [the] demonstration,” Ottawa By-law writes in a Tweet. “If you are unable to care for your animal as a result of enforcement actions, your animal will [be] placed into protective care for 8 days, at your cost. After 8 days, if arrangements are not made, your animal will be considered relinquished.”

Help fund our coverage of the Freedom convoy!

We are covering the freedom convoy to show you the other side of the story the mainstream media won't. Please donate to fund our journalism and to offset the cost of our coverage: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The government of Canada has suspended the fundamental rights of its citizens and overridden their Charter Rights and Freedoms. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has attacked the foundation of Canada’s democracy to the point where citizens’ bank accounts can now be frozen and seized if they contributed to the Trucker’s Freedom Convoy. Yesterday, Trudeau’s Justice Minister David Lametti threatened on CTV News that “if you are a member of a pro-Trump movement who’s donating hundreds of thousands of dollars, or millions of dollars to this kind of thing, you ought to be worried” about your bank account being frozen. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Monday in an effort to crack down on protesters that have shut down parts of Ottawa and various border crossings with the U.S. Trudeau informed his cabinet and Canada’s premiers of his intent Monday morning. The prime minister’s announcement marks the first time the act, which replaced the War Measures Act in 1988, has been employed. “After discussing with cabinet and caucus, after consultation with premiers from all provinces and territories, the federal government has invoked the emergencies act to supplement provincial and territorial capacity to address the blockades and occupations,” Trudeau announced in a press conference. “I want to be very clear, the scope of these measures will be time-limited, geographically targeted, as well as reasonable and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address. The emergencies act will be used to strengthen and support law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country.” The Emergencies Act powers will “strengthen” law enforcement’s ability to fine and imprison protesters, according to the prime minister. The act will be enforced most heavily in areas of “critical infrastructure” such as airports and border crossings. Trudeau said that the act also ensures “essential services” such as towing away trucks used to blockade roads and highways. “In addition, financial institutions will be authorized and directed to render essential services to help address the situation including by regulating and prohibiting the use of property to fund or support illegal blockades,” Trudeau added.

Help fund our coverage of the Freedom convoy!

We are covering the freedom convoy to show you the other side of the story the mainstream media won't. Please donate to fund our journalism and to offset the cost of our coverage: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Some prominent French figures, including President Emmanuel Macron, are rejecting “woke” ideology that has been imported from the United States amid a breakdown in relations between the two nations.

A cover story by Le Spectacle Du Monde, one of France’s leading magazines, recently ran a piece titled “The Suicide fo America” in which it blames the deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan on a “woke dictatorship” and questioned whether the American “empire was collapsing,” Zenger News reported. The article also took American universities to task over alleged extremism and censorship on campuses. The story cited Yale University, where school officials urged students to reconsider Halloween costumes that might be racially insensitive.

Macron, who has been criticized by French progressives, told Elle Magazine this past summer that woke culture was “racializing” French society, Zenger reported.

“I see that our society is becoming progressively racialized,” he said.

Several members of his government have also shared anti-woke views, including Elisabeth Moreno, the french French delegate minister for gender equality and diversity. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/02/france-rejects-american-woke-culture-that-is-racializing-country/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Scientists have found traces of coronavirus that could bolster the theory that the pandemic began with a leak from a laboratory.

The discovery, from analysis of soil samples, suggests coronavirus may not have jumped from wildlife into humans naturally.

More evidence is needed, however, particularly relating to exactly when the virus entered the samples.

Scientists in Hungary found traces of a unique variant of coronavirus while examining DNA from soil from Antarctica that had been sent to the firm Sangon Biotech in Shanghai.

The researchers also found genetic material from Chinese hamsters and green monkeys, which may suggest the virus was being examined in a lab, using either the animals themselves or their cells.

Some of those who support the lab leak theory suggest Chinese scientists engineered the virus in a lab to make it more dangerous as part of an experiment, before the virus escaped.

Viscount Ridley, author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, suggested the latest evidence may support the lab leak theory due to the presence of ‘three key [Covid] mutations’ that are characteristic of the earliest sequences of the virus.

However, the findings must be interpreted with caution, as the soil DNA may have been contaminated with the virus by the first Covid patients, who were reported by China in December 2019.

The soil samples were sent in the same month to Sangon Biotech but it is not clear when they were analysed.

The findings, from Eotvos Lorand University and the University of Veterinary Medicine, both in Budapest, have been published online but not yet formally reviewed by other scientists.

Professor Jesse Bloom, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle in the US, re-ran the data from Hungary to confirm that the Antarctic samples did contain the virus. But he said the ‘ultimate implications remain unclear’.

http://freedomreportage.com/2022/02/11/early-version-of-covid-19-is-discovered-in-chinese-lab-fuelling-fears-that-scientists-were-studying-the-virus-prior-to-outbreak/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Inspired by the Canadian movement, truckers in Europe are planning to import the protest by driving to national capitals before “converging” on Brussels

Truckers in France are reportedly planning to emulate the Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’ by mobilizing groups of big rigs to protest vaccine mandates and other Covid-19 restrictions set by Paris. According to a BFM TV report, demonstrators plan to “paralyze” the French capital next week before joining a wider “European convergence” in Brussels.

The outlet reported that a leaflet announcing the ‘Freedom Convoy France’ has been circulated on social media networks, calling on “citizens” to “recover their freedom, their fundamental rights, unconditional access to care, education, and culture, respect for the essential values of our Constitution.” It also noted that the truckers in “Canada [had] paved the way for us.”

After final preparations on Monday and Tuesday, the convoy will set off in three waves from across France – with those furthest from Paris setting off on Wednesday, according to an itinerary on the leaflet. All three waves are expected to reach the national capital Friday evening. On Sunday, the convoy is slated to leave and “join our European friends” in Brussels.

The BFM TV report noted that a Facebook group, called ‘Le convoi de la liberte’, had been created on January 26 and reached nearly 197,000 members. The outlet said the convoy may reinvigorate protests against vaccination passes, which have apparently been flagging in recent weeks.

In addition, the report pointed to a ‘World Freedom Convoy’ group that has been set up on Telegram. This is thought to include demonstrators from Germany, Italy, and Croatia, among others. The Bruzz news outlet in Belgium reported on Thursday that some 40,000 people had joined the group within the past week – with the focus on free speech and the right to make one’s own health choices.

According to Bruzz news, the truck drivers hope to head toward their respective capital cities starting Monday before heading on to Brussels. The outlet noted that it was unclear how many would actually take part, but added that police were monitoring the situation.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that a Facebook group of US truckers called ‘Convoy to DC 2022’, who planned to drive to Washington, DC next month, had gained more than 100,000 members before being deleted by Meta. The organizers have reportedly since moved to Telegram, where over 28,000 have joined.

Help fund our coverage of the Freedom convoy!

We are covering the freedom convoy to show you the other side of the story the mainstream media won't. Please donate to fund our journalism and to offset the cost of our coverage: https://anchor.fm/freedom-reportage/support

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Speaking at Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference on Friday, globalist billionaire Bill Gates confidently warned the world a new pandemic is coming.

CNBC’s Hadley Gamble asked Gates, “How confident are you that we, as a global community, will deal with the next global pandemic better?”

“Well, there were a lot of people after the Ebola epidemic who were talking about what needed to be done, and in this pandemic, the countries that had exposure to SARS-CoV-1 were amongst the outliers,” Gates answered.

Next, Gates praised Australia’s authoritarian crackdown on its civilians as an example for other nations to follow.

“So, Australia is a true outlier,” he said. “They orchestrated diagnostics, they executed quarantine policies and they have a death rate in a different league than the other rich countries.”

“We’ll have another pandemic. It will be a different pathogen next time,” Gates told the CNBC anchor.

Regarding Australia’s drastic and inhumane Covid measures, Gates noted, “Everybody had the capability to do that. They have less PCR machines than other rich countries, they have more travelers coming from China than other countries.”

The Microsoft co-founder cited the millions of deaths, the economic toll, lack of schooling, depression, overdose deaths and other negative effects of lockdowns as results of Covid, not government policies.

Gates claimed, “The cost of being ready for the next pandemic is not super large,” adding, “It’s not like climate change where you know 10 trillion, 20 trillion, these are big numbers.”

According to Gates, “Global surveillance capability would cost a billion a year. The RND that we need to do to get magic vaccines and diagnostics and therapeutics, you know that’s less than 100 billion over the next decade. So, if we’re rational then yeah, we’ll catch it early and it won’t go global like it did this time.”

http://freedomreportage.com/2022/02/19/bill-gates-well-have-another-pandemic-it-will-be-a-different-pathogen-next-time/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Footage filmed by a middle school student in Elgin, Illinois, captured the moment he was forcibly sequestered in a classroom reportedly for not wearing a face mask.

“It is the law by Governor Pritzker to let me out of this room,” the child tells a U-46 school official who’s standing outside blocking the door from opening.

— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) February 11, 2022

“Please let me out.” A Middle school student in Elgin, IL was locked in a room for not wearing a mask despite Illinois being mask optional pic.twitter.com/m3hdWN3HnP “

You can’t lock me in a room. You can’t lock me in here,” the embattled student says.

As the student struggles to force the door open, he begs, “Please let me out.”

The video comes as confusion over whether mask rules are still in effect abound, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Wednesday saying he planned to lift restrictions statewide – however, not for school districts.

“Schools need a little more time for community infection rates to drop, for our youngest learners to become vaccine eligible and for more parents to get their kids vaccinated,” the governor said Wednesday.

The governor’s declaration, however, followed a ruling by a judge last Friday granting a temporary restraining order to block the state’s public health and education departments from imposing the mask and vaccine mandates.

http://freedomreportage.com/2022/02/17/please-let-me-out-begs-child-locked-in-classroom-for-not-wearing-mask/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Screenshots from DoD's own internal military database prove post-vaccination miscarriages and cancers up 300 percent over five-year average.Image Credit:Rumble screenshot

A viral video compiled using the military’s own Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) shows vaccine-induced side effects within the DOD’s own ranks, including cancers and miscarriages, have skyrocketed.

https://rumble.com/embed/vqwkv8/?pub=4

Information from the database was referenced by attorney Thomas Renz at a panel discussion held by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) last week titled, “Covid-19: A Second Opinion.”

During the panel, Renz stated via three whistleblowers that post-vaccination miscarriages and cancers were up 300 percent over a year, and that neurological disorders had increased ten-fold among DOD personnel.

“I have declarations from all three [that] this data is under penalty of perjury. We intend to submit this to the courts,” Renz told Sen. Johnson.

Renz went on to describe: “We have substantial data showing that we saw for example miscarriages increased by 300 percent over the five-year average almost. We saw almost 300 percent in cancer over the five-year average…We saw – this one’s amazing – so, neurological issues which would affect our pilots, over a thousand percent increase.”

A video breakdown, produced by military whistleblower group Terminal CWO – which claims to be made up of active duty Chief Warrant Officers – backs up Renz’s claims that adverse reactions are on the rise since the Covid jab’s rollout.

As explained by the video’s narrator, the DMED is similar to VAERS in that it documents adverse reactions, except that it pertains only to DOD personnel and “only medical providers can input information into the system.”

Screenshots provided by Terminal CWO from the DMED show an increase of 269% in cases of acute myocardial infarctions (heart attacks):

A 175% increase in acute pericarditis:

A 285% increase in acute myocarditis:

A 467% increase in pulmonary embolisms:

A 1,175% increase in disseminated intravascular coagulation (blood clotting):

A 590% increase in HIV cases:

A 1,529% increase in chest pain issues:

A 905% increase in dyspnea, or difficulty breathing.

The video also shows startling increases in other illnesses, including neurological issues such as Bell’s Palsy and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, menstrual issues, a 306% increase in spontaneous abortions, or miscarriages, and a near 300% increase in neoplasms (cancers).

http://globalreportage.org/2022/02/01/leaked-data-from-dod-database-shows-us-military-illness-skyrocketing-from-covid-vaccine/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Brandon Pollett, 33, was perfectly healthy prior to the vaccines according to his wife, Jessica, with whom he has a one-year-old daughter.

However, “After his second Pfizer vaccine, Brandon developed a headache right away then fever 48 hours after,” Jessica told the St. Charles Herald Guide.

“He had high fevers, terrible headaches, and his blood counts were not what they should be,” reports a GoFundMe for Brandon.

Brandon, who worked for 7 years as an instrument mechanic for the Shell Oil Company, visited the hospital on October 21, where he stayed until November 2, the GoFundMe states.

Jessica says doctors initially believed Brandon suffered from hemophagocytic lymphohistiocystosis, or HLH, but later diagnosed him as having a rare autoimmune disorder called Still’s Disease.

“After discharge, Brandon went home for about a month and was then re-hospitalized Dec. 14,” Jessica says.

This time, Brandon was diagnosed with HLH, and doctor’s began a treatment protocol that included chemotherapy.

Doctors also admitted to Jessica and Brandon the disease was directly caused by the vaccine.

“Unfortunately, none of the usual treatments have worked. The doctors have agreed that the COVID vaccine caused an immune response that led to the development of the autoimmune disease and HLH.”

Brandon ultimately succumbed to the illness on January 28.

“He fought so hard. I have never see someone put up such a fight. He said ‘I’m sorry, I tried to beat it’ as he was dying,” wrote a friend on Facebook.

An obituary for Brandon states he passed away “due to complications from the Covid-19 vaccine.” http://globalreportage.org/2022/02/01/33-year-old-dad-dies-after-developing-autoimmune-disease-following-2nd-covid-jab/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A fast-growing Facebook group called “Convoy to DC 2022” is calling upon American truckers to amass a convoy to head to Washington, DC to protest Joe Biden’s restrictive COVID measures.

Inspired by the massive 50,000-strong convoy of Canadian truckers surrounding Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the U.S. Freedom Convoy group, which has over 131,000 members as of writing, will reportedly start in California and traverse all the way to the nation’s capital.

“We are part of many large groups who believe in our founding fathers. We believe everyone has a voice. We support our freedom. Help us spread the word about this group and together we all can make it a better place. God Bless America,” the group states.

Brian Von D., the organizer of the Convoy to DC 2022 group, declared on Facebook last Thursday that “America is next” to experience a trucker-led revolution against COVID tyranny.

“

We’re done with the mandates, we’re done with the government telling us what to do, we will continue, and we will follow just like the rest of the world on these trucker protests, and they will be 100 percent legal, they will abide by the law,” Von D. said.

“America, it’s your turn. It’s your turn to step up and show what you’re made of,” Von D. continued, adding that “America has a lot more trucks” than Canada.

“The government overreach is coming to an end, and this is how we do it,” he added.

Another organizer of the U.S. convoy claimed that the trucker movement is not about any one country, but about “a movement across the globe to stand up to” the COVID tyranny imposed by world governments.

Rumors among the group are circulating that the White House is in “full panic” over emerging reports American truckers are preparing to descend upon DC.

The date for when the U.S. convoy will set off to DC has not yet been announced.

Given Facebook’s past efforts to censor truly grassroots movements that defy the official narrative, it’s likely the social media giant will try to suppress the spread of the group on its platform.

This comes amid reports Freedom Convoys are mobilizing in Australia and European countries following the example of the Canadian truckers.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/02/01/us-truckers-mobilizing-convoy-to-washington-dc-white-house-in-full-panic/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A North Carolina man is turning down an opportunity at a lifesaving kidney transplant, because the hospital is requiring he be vaccinated against COVID before the procedure.

Chad Carswell is a double amputee and has been undergoing dialysis up to three times a week. His kidney is functioning at four percent.

Carswell said he was going through the transplant process at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem when he was told he would need to be vaccinated in order to move forward.

“They said the last thing we need talk about is your vaccination status,” Carswell said. “And that’s when I politely told him there was nothing really to talk about. It wasn’t up for debate that I wasn’t getting it. And then he told me, you know you’ll die if you don’t get it. And I said I’m willing to die.”

The hospital says their policy follows the current standard in the U.S. saying the vaccine is required to protect the patient, who is at high risk for severe illness if they don’t have immunity prior to the transplant.

Carswell said he’s already had COVID twice and is not willing to get the vaccine, even if it means giving up on finding a kidney.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/31/im-willing-to-die-nc-man-denied-life-saving-kidney-transplant-over-vaccine-requirement/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Mega Democratic Party donor George Soros is contributing $125 million to his go-to Super PAC to aid Democrat-aligned groups and candidates in the 2022 election cycle.

The group receiving the enormous investment, Democracy PAC, has been Soros’ main instrument for campaign funding since 2019. He used it to channel over $80 million to candidates and organizations through the 2020 election.

The new nine-figure sum is intended to support “causes and candidates, regardless of political party,” who are dedicated to “strengthening the infrastructure of American democracy: voting rights and civic participation, civil rights and liberties, and the rule of law,” per a statement first shared with Politico.

Soros called the donation a “long-term investment” meant to finance political work beyond only this year.

Alexander Soros, George Soros’ son, will serve as president of Democracy PAC.

In a statement of his own, Alexander Soros, who is also deputy chair of the Open Society Foundations, cited as motivators the events of January 6, 2021 and “ongoing efforts to discredit and undermine our electoral process, reveal the magnitude of the threat to our democracy.”

The younger Soros added that this “is a generational threat that cannot be addressed in just one or two election cycles.”

http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/31/george-soros-to-spend-125-million-to-take-over-american-elections/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

WE, THE PHYSICIANS OF THE WORLD, united and loyal to the Hippocratic Oath, recognizing the imminent threat to humanity brought forth by current Covid-19 policies, are compelled to declare the following:

WHEREAS, after 20 months of research, millions of patients treated, hundreds of clinical trials performed and scientific data shared, we have demonstrated and documented our success and understanding in combating COVID-19;

WHEREAS, in considering the risks vs. benefits of major policy decisions, thousands of physicians and medical scientists worldwide have reached consensus on three foundational principles;

NOW THEREFORE, IT IS:

RESOLVED, THAT HEALTHY CHILDREN SHALL NOT BE SUBJECT TO FORCED VACCINATION (view supporting evidence)

Negligible clinical risks from SARS-CoV-2 infection exist for healthy children under eighteen

Long term safety of the current COVID vaccines in children cannot be determined prior to instituting such policies. Without high-powered, reproducible, long term safety data, risks to the long-term health status of children remain too high to support use in healthy children.Children risk severe, adverse events from receiving the vaccine. Permanent physical damage to the brain, heart, immune and reproductive system associated with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-based genetic vaccines has been demonstrated in children.Healthy, unvaccinated children are critical to achieving herd immunity. Natural immunity is proven to tolerate infection, benefiting community protection while there is insufficient data to assess whether Covid vaccines assist herd immunity.

RESOLVED, THAT NATURALLY IMMUNE PERSONS RECOVERED FROM SARS-CoV-2 SHALL NOT BE SUBJECT TO ANY RESTRICTIONS OR VACCINE MANDATES (view supporting evidence)

Natural immunity is the most protective, and longest-lasting solution against the development of COVID-19 disease and its more serious outcomes.Naturally immune persons are at the lowest risk of transmission, thus should not be subject to travel, professional, medical or social restrictions.Natural immunity provides the best source of herd immunity, a condition necessary for eradicating the Covid virus.

RESOLVED, THAT ALL HEALTH AGENCIES AND INSTITUTIONS SHALL CEASE INTERFERING WITH PHYSICIANS TREATING INDIVIDUAL PATIENTS (view supporting evidence)

Early intervention with numerous, available agents has proven to be safe and effective, and has saved hundreds of thousands of lives.No medicine already given regulatory approval shall be restricted from “off-label” use, particularly during this global humanitarian crisis caused by a rapidly mutating virus, which requires quick to adopt treatment strategies.Health agencies shall be prohibited from interfering with physicians prescribing evidence-based treatments they deem necessary, and insurance companies must cease blocking payments for life-saving medicine prescribed by doctors.

RECOMMENDED LEGISLATIVE OR EXECUTIVE ACTION:

We believe that violating any of these three principles unnecessarily and directly risks death to our citizens. We hereby recommend the leaders of states, provinces and nations legislate or take executive action to prohibit the three practices described above.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned has signed this Declaration. http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/31/17000-frontline-doctors-scientists-have-signed-the-rome-declaration-demanding-an-end-to-vaccine-mandates/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister left Ottawa along with his family to a ‘secret location’ after security concerns sparked over intensifying anti-vaccine mandate protests in the capital city. The protests in support of cross-border truckers began on Saturday when Parliamentary Protective Service estimated an amassment of nearly 10,000 demonstrators in Ottawa. A convoy of truckers against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate descended to the city, sparking an imminent violent turn of events

As the longest convoy in human history approaches his front door, Trudeau has taken it upon himself to go into hiding for precisely five days over COVID despite testing negative for COVID.

“Last night, I learned that I have been exposed to COVID-19,” Trudeau wrote in a Tweet. “My rapid test result was negative. I am following Ottawa Public Health rules and isolating for five days. I feel fine and will be working from home. Stay safe, everyone – and please get vaccinated.”

As the trucker convoy is officially set to arrive in Ottawa on Saturday, January 29, five days beginning on the 27th guarantees that Trudeau won’t have to face the tens of thousands of truckers and hundreds of thousands of everyday Canadians who have been tyrannized with lockdowns and vaccine mandates — even if they hold out for three days.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 27, 2022

Canadian truckers rule Amidst the escalating tensions, Canadian Parliament’s Seargent-at-Arms suspected the demonstrators could show up at official homes. So far, the PM’s office has refused to comment on the relocation of Trudeau, citing security reasons

This is, perhaps, the greatest act of cowardice from a sitting Canadian PM in this nation’s history. When Canadians finally take a stand, finally take real action, Trudeau merely waves it away, practically flipping them the bird through a single Tweet, ending it with “please get vaccinated” to rub salt in wounds he’s opened.

— 𝘽𝙧𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙪𝙢𝙚 (@BryanPassifiume) January 26, 2022

Speaking from Ottawa this afternoon, the PM describes #freedomconvoy2022 participants as a ‘small fringe minority’ expressing ‘unacceptable views’ that don’t represent the views of most Canadians pic.twitter.com/TtYcFE3Izr Trudeau’s decision to go into hiding comes only one day after he denounced the entire convoy, labelling it unacceptable and everyone participating as a “small, fringe minority.” He then went on to say that only through compliance with government mandates will Canadians ever see the return of their freedoms — truly, a dictatorial statement.

“The small, fringe minority of people are on their way to Ottawa, who are holding unacceptable views that they’re expressing, do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other, who know that following the science, and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values, as a country,” Trudeau stated, visibly shaken by the sheer number of freedom-loving Canadians coming to Ottawa to demand he stops the insanity.http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/31/justin-trudeau-goes-into-hiding-as-freedom-convoy-of-canadian-truckers-occupies-ottawa/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

NHK-Japan (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) | Japan's health ministry has listed inflammation of the heart muscle and of the outer lining of the heart in younger males as possible serious side effects of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID vaccines.

It says that as of November 14, out of every one million males who had the Moderna vaccine, such side effects were reported in 81.79 males aged 10 to 19 and 48.76 males in their 20s.

The figures were 15.66 and 13.32 respectively for those who had the Pfizer vaccine.

The ministry held a panel of expert on Saturday [Dec. 4] and proposed warning of the risk by printing "serious side effects" on the documents attached to the vaccines.

It will also require hospitals to report in detail incidents involving people who developed the symptoms within 28 days after being vaccinated, according to the law.

The plan was approved by the panel, and the ministry will notify municipalities.

RairFoundation.com | Japan announces that public and private sectors can not discriminate against those who refuse the experimental mRNA gene therapy injections.

Japan is now labeling Covid “vaccines” to warn of dangerous and potentially deadly side effects such as myocarditis. In addition, the country is reaffirming its commitment to adverse event reporting requirements to ensure all possible side effects are documented. http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/18/japan-drops-all-vaccine-mandates-places-myocarditis-warning-on-label/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A key vaccine advisor to the Israeli government has revealed he and his colleagues were “surprised” and “disappointed” last year as it became clear the jabs were not stopping the spread of Covid-19.

Professor Cyrille Cohen, head of immunology at Bar Ilan University and a member of the advisory committee on vaccines for the Israeli government, made the comments in a wide-ranging and frank interview with UK news website UnHerd on Wednesday.

Israel, with a population of just 9.4 million, led the world in vaccination against Covid-19 early, starting its rollout in December 2020.

In April 2021, Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said early trial data showed its vaccine “was 100 per cent effective against severe Covid-19”.

“Did you expect the vaccines to be better at preventing transmission than they were?” host Freddie Sayers asked Prof Cohen.

“Yes … especially based on what we had seen in March, in April,” he replied.

“The feeling we had in Israel last Spring, we were after a deadly month of January with more than 4000 people that died, we were after our third lockdown, and suddenly we were opening and opening and opening, and cases were going down, hospitals were getting empty. I’m not joking, my colleagues, doctors were dancing in the corridors out of joy (thinking) it’s over.”

Prof Cohen said he and his colleagues “did believe at that time that vaccines can prevent transmission”.

“What we believed is that vaccines can prevent transmission perhaps shortly after (being administered) but not over a long period of time, and therefore yes, we were surprised to discover at the end of the day that no, the vaccines are not protecting us, they are not causing what we call sterilising immunity,” he said. http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/23/israeli-officials-were-surprised-and-disappointed-vaccines-did-not-stop-transmission/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Nearly a month after Sheba Medical Center launched a landmark study to test the efficacy of a fourth COVID shot, the hospital said Monday that this fourth booster was only partially effective in protecting against the Omicron strain.

“The vaccine, which was very effective against the previous strains, is less effective against the Omicron strain,” Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, a lead researcher in the experiment said.

“We see an increase in antibodies, higher than after the third dose,” Regev-Yochay said. “However, we see many infected with Omicron who received the fourth dose. Granted, a bit less than in the control group, but still a lot of infections,” she added.

“The bottom line is that the vaccine is excellent against the Alpha and Delta [variants], for Omicron it’s not good enough,” she said.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/18/trial-conducted-by-israeli-experts-finds-4th-dose-not-good-enough-against-omicron/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Biden family offered their services to a huge, Chinese-government-linked energy consortium to expand its business around the world according to revelations from hundreds of emails documenting the deal found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, left in a Delaware repair shop in April 2019.

James Gilliar, a wiry, 56-year-old British ex-SAS officer, got to know Ye Jianming, the 40-year-old chairman of CEFC, when they were both working in the Czech Republic.

CEFC was a Chinese conglomerate, one of the largest energy companies in the world.

Ye’s task at was to spend $1.5 billion as quickly as possible to ensure the Czech Republic would become China’s “Gateway to the European Union,” a priority of President Xi.

Gilliar connected with Hunter Biden through trusted Biden family friend Rob Walker, a former Clinton administration official whose wife, Betsy Massey Walker, had been Jill Biden’s assistant when she was second lady.

Gilliar emailed Walker in February 2015 to praise Hunter’s appearance in Beijing at a board meeting of the fledgling investment fund Hunter had founded with John Kerry’s son, called BHR.

“Hunter was great,” Gilliar wrote to Walker. “True sheikh of Washington.”

He emailed Hunter a few weeks later: “It has been made clear to me that CEFC wish to engage in further business relations with our group.”

Gilliar knew CEFC was the capitalist arm of President Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative to spread China’s influence – and debt traps – across the world. No Chinese company executed its goals more ardently than CEFC and its young chairman, who was dubbed the “Belt and Road billionaire” in the press.

In the winter of 2015, Chairman Ye and CEFC Executive Director Jianjun Zang, a.k.a. “Director Zang,” flew to Washington, D.C. A meeting with Ye was scheduled in Hunter’s diary for Dec. 7, 2015, in a week that was a swirl of back-to-back Christmas parties hosted by Joe and Jill at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/chinese-titan-lavished-hunter-biden-with-3-carat-gem-offer-of-30-million/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

It is one of the great mysteries of the pandemic: Why have mainstream journalists, public health officials, and America’s elected leaders ignored “natural immunity” to Covid from prior infections?

The incessant agenda to get everyone ‘vaccinated’ — despite the now undeniable body of evidence the mRNA shots do nothing to stop the spread of the virus — has defied basic scientific reasoning. Even if the mRNA shots appear to lower mortality rates for those who are at risk, prior infections provide equal or even superior protection due to their spurring of antibodies. After all, this is what the mRNA shots are meant to accomplish in the first place.

Research in the past has established that natural immunity is a real thing and actually works. A famous, widely cited Israeli study that showed “natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization” was recently replicated in an independent study. Nonetheless, there has been a stubborn refusal by the part of the media to acknowledge natural immunity exists, and the overwhelming majority of Democrat voters do not believe that it works against Covid.

Enter a new study on natural immunity published in the European Journal of Immunology. The cutting-edge research shows that not only is natural immunity effective, it is superior to vaccinated immunity because it is much longer-lasting.

“Most subjects develop antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 following infection,” the study states. “In order to estimate the duration of immunity induced by SARS-CoV-2 it is important to understand for how long antibodies persist after infection in humans… We found that NAb [natural antibodies] against the WT virus [B-lineage variants] persisted in 89% and S-IgG in 97% of subjects for at least 13 months after infection.”

http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/05/new-study-shows-natural-covid-immunity-lasts-at-least-13-months/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Regulatory agencies including the CDC and FDA are “profoundly corrupt” and have pushed experimental Covid vaccines on the population with “grossly incomplete” data that does not meet even the bare minimum standards for safety, mRNA vaccine inventor Robert Malone said in an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews. After reviewing Pfizer’s Covid vaccine data presented to the Japanese government, Malone said he was “shocked” and “demoralized” at what he discovered. The agencies allowed the pharmaceutical giant with a criminal track record to proceed with human trials and granted Emergency Use Authorization for its Covid vaccine based on its “grossly inadequate information package.” The company appeared to have simply “cobbled together information that they’d obtained with other RNAs and other vaccines and put it in as a package in lieu of doing the actual studies,” said Malone, a vaccinologist whose main work has been in assembling and coaching teams to solve public health problems, often but not exclusively, for the government. Malone said he was so shocked by Pfizer’s poor data that he had another senior regulatory affairs person review it to confirm his observations. “It’s profoundly demoralizing,” the scientist said, adding that from his point of view the vaccine regulatory agencies are “profoundly corrupt” and “essentially acting outside any judicial restraint.” “They don’t care about what their standard rules are. They will do whatever they want to do. A lot of it seems to be driven by what [White House Covid adviser] Dr. [Anthony] Fauci’s personal beliefs are.” Because of emergency legislation that was put in place at the start of the outbreak, Malone said, “I don’t know that they can be held accountable. I think it’s an open-ended question whether the Health and Humans Services of the United States is fully extrajudicial now. Can they be held accountable in the courts, because they’re certainly not accountable to their own policies and procedures.”

http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/05/dr-malone-mrna-vaccine-creator-unloads-on-fauci-and-covid-cartel/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A man has set himself and his car on fire in front of horrified diners while screaming about Victoria’s Covid-19 vaccine mandates

The man emerged from a silver MG3 hatchback engulfed in flames near Church St in Richmond about 8pm on Saturday

Police officers and firefighters doused the man with water to extinguish the blaze with the help of about five witnesses

The bystanders helped restrain the man before police officers pinned him to the ground.

He was then taken into an ambulance and rushed to hospital.

Police said he had suffered life-threatening injuries.

One witness who helped restrain the man said his flesh was burning before the flames were put out with water.

‘His skin was burning. He was on fire. His skin is stuck to [my] shirt,’ she told The Herald Sun.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/02/melbourne-man-sets-himself-on-fire-while-screaming-about-covid-vaccine-mandates/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/02/mass-formation-psychosis-or-mass-hypnosis-the-madness-of-crowds/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Facebook admitted that its so-called “fact-checking” program is actually cranking out opinions used to censor certain viewpoints.

In its latest legal battle with TV journalist John Stossel over a post about the origins of the deadly 2020 California forest fires, Facebook, now rebranded and referred to as “Meta,” claims that its “fact-checking” program should not be the target of a defamation suit because its attempts to regulate content are done by third-party organizations who are entitled to their “opinion.”

Stossel’s original complaint questioned whether “Facebook and its vendors defame a user who posts factually accurate content, when they publicly announce that the content failed a ‘fact-check’ and is ‘partly false,’ and by attributing to the user a false claim that he never made?” Facebook, however, claimed that the counter article authored by Climate Feedback is not necessarily the tech giant’s responsibility.

Facebook went on to complain that Stossel’s problem isn’t with the Silicon Valley giants’ “labels” on his content but with the obscure organizations that Facebook employs to do its “fact-checking” dirty work.

http://globalreportage.org/2022/01/05/facebook-quietly-admits-in-court-its-third-party-fact-checks-are-opinions/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

People who spread “misinformation” about COVID-19 vaccines are “criminals,” according to the CEO of Pfizer. During an appearance at the globalist Washington D.C.-based think tank Atlantic Council, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla blamed a “very small” group of people for circulating information that leads to people being vaccine hesitant. “Those people are criminals,” he told Atlantic Council CEO Frederick Kempe. “They’re not bad people. They’re criminals because they have literally cost millions of lives.” Bourla went on to suggest that life would only ever get “back to normal” once the unvaccinated have been vaccinated. “The only thing that stands between the new way of life and the current way of life is, frankly, hesitancy to vaccinations,” he said. The increasing shift towards demonizing people who question the safety and efficacy of vaccines as not just “conspiracy theorists,” but actual criminals who deserve prison time is accelerating. As we previously highlighted, the UK government is trying to pass a new law that would jail people who post “false information” about vaccines for two years. Treating people who question billionaires that own transnational corporations responsible for $3 billion in corruption penalties as “criminals” is surely good for society, right? A similar process is in play when it comes to those who question the official dogma spewed by climate change technocrats. Before long, people won’t just receive social media bans for questioning orthodoxy, they’ll just be sent straight to prison. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/11/people-who-spread-misinformation-about-covid-19-vaccines-are-criminals-says-pfizer-ceo/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

An unclassified version of the US intelligence community’s coronavirus origins report includes an assessment from one agency which has “moderate confidence” that Covid-19 emerged from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan, while four other agencies assessed with “low confidence” that the virus has a natural origin. The rest of the US intelligence community (which was awfully confident Donald Trump was working with Russia) declined to commit one way or another. The one unnamed spy agency leaning toward the Wuhan lab theory with moderate confidence said COVID-19’s emergence probably involved experimentation, animal handling, or sampling from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to an unclassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The four unnamed spy agencies, and the NIC, with low confidence in the natural origin hypothesis assessed that the initial infection was most likely from an animal infected with either COVID-19 or a close progenitor virus, with those analysts giving weight to China’s alleged lack of foreknowledge and the numerous vectors of potential natural exposure. Brian Wilson breaks down the results of an Israeli study that demonstrates the durability and effectiveness of gaining a natural immunity to COVID-19 when compared to those who have been vaccinated with Pfizer’s mRNA gene therapy. That said, US officials say a lack of cooperation from China has hampered efforts to get down to the truth. As Bloomberg notes, “China’s government was also uncertain about the virus’s origins, which was a reason Beijing didn’t cooperate.” The report also concludes that the virus was not engineered as a biological weapon, and most agencies assessed that it was not genetically engineered. As we noted two days ago, Beijing threatened a “counterattack” if the report blamed China for the leak. On Wednesday, with the Biden Administration report set to be released in a matter of days, a senior Chinese bureaucrat warned during a press conference that Beijing would “retaliate” if the intelligence report fingers a lab leak from the WHO. “We will continue to cooperate with international organizations like the WHO in their research and in their search for the origins,” said Fu Cong, director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Arms Control Department. “But we do not accept baseless and unfounded accusations that are politically motivated. And if they want to baselessly accuse China, so they better be prepared to accept the counterattack from China.” http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/us-investigation-finds-evidence-covid-escaped-from-wuhan-lab/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The US and China are mired in a high-stakes info war related to the origins of the novel coronavirus, with US officials alleging that the virus may have been created in and leaked by a Chinese biolab, and the People’s Republic directing questions to the World Health Organization about the mysterious 2019 shutdown of a US military lab in Maryland. US intelligence agencies have gotten their hands on genetic blueprint data from virus samples being studied at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and are studying the information to see if it can help uncover Covid’s origins, CNN reports, citing multiple people said to be familiar with the investigation. The news network was not told how agencies supposedly got hold of the sensitive information, but its sources said it may have been hacked from computers connected to external cloud-based servers which were involved in creating and processing the data. US spooks are said to have tapped into the Department of Energy’s National Labs and their supercomputers to help process the information in accordance with President Biden’s request in May that intelligence put a report on his desk about coronavirus’s possible origins by the end of August. Biden made the request after his administration walked back on its earlier assumptions that the virus appeared to be of natural origins (a position long-supported by China and the WHO). Intelligence agencies have reportedly faced several problems in interpreting the information, including the need to recruit government scientists with the appropriate security clearances and knowledge of Mandarin. “Obviously there are scientists who are cleared. But Mandarin-speaking ones who are cleared? That’s a very small pool. And not just any scientists, but ones who specialize in bio? So you can see how this quickly becomes difficult,” one source, who was not authorized to provide his or her identity, said. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/us-intelligence-agencies-reportedly-hack-cloud-servers-containing-wuhan-lab-virus-samples/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A group of abortion activists ate handfuls of abortion pills outside the Supreme Court in protest of its hearing about the constitutionality of Roe v Wade on Wednesday. Standing in front of a banner that read “We Are Taking Abortion Pills Forever”, the activists chanted “Abortion pills forever!” Another angle of the group shows them chanting, “Abortion pills are in our hands, and we won’t stop.” Journalist Drew Hernandez commented on the protesters, calling them a “death cult.” “DEATH CULT: Ecstatic pro-baby murder activists take abortion pills in jubilation outside SCOTUS in DC in front of a banner that says ‘we are taking abortion pills FOREVER.’ This is what a death cult looks like,” Hernandez tweeted along with the clip of the group. As the Supreme Court began their oral arguments over the Mississippi-based Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, activists from both sides of the abortion issue demonstrated in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, separated by a steel barricade and some police. The Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case deals with the constitutionality of a law passed in Mississippi in 2018 outlawing abortions in cases where the unborn baby was more than 15 weeks.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/12/05/deranged-abortion-activists-eat-abortion-pills-outside-supreme-court-as-roe-v-wade-challenged/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Greece announced Tuesday that adults over 60 will be required to receive the COVID injection, and those who don’t comply will face monthly fines.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made the tyrannical announcement during a cabinet meeting in Athens following renewed media hysteria over the so-called “Omicron” variant.

“[The decision] tortured me, but I feel a heavy responsibility in standing next to those most vulnerable, even if it might fleetingly displease them,” Mitsotakis said.

“The new omicron variant is a concern for us and means we must be vigilant,” Mitsotakis said.

“We are focusing our efforts on protection of our fellow citizens, and for this reason, their vaccination will be mandatory from now on,” Mitsotakis told a cabinet meeting.

Greeks who don’t get the shot by Jan. 16 will face a recurring monthly fine of 100 euros, or about 112 USD.

Though about 63% of the country’s 11 million are ‘fully vaccinated’, about 520,000 Greeks over 60 still haven’t taken the injection.

The Greek government has not explained how they will check which adults over 60 have gotten the shot.

“No details were provided on how Greek authorities would be able to establish whether people over 60 have been vaccinated. One possible way could be to cross-check with government social security databases, although this would require notifying the independent data protection agency and potentially passing special legislation to do that,” the AP reported.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/12/05/greece-mandates-covid-injection-for-adults-over-60-monthly-fines-for-those-who-dont-comply/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Disturbing footage from Austria shows fascism has once again taken over the Eastern European nation, with supermarkets erecting fencing separating the unvaccinated from those who took the COVID jab.

Photos and videos from the German-owned Kaufland supermarket highlight the eerie resemblance between fascist policies of World War 2 and today’s COVID tyranny.

The metal fencing appears to be two meters high and blocks off certain access points of the store only accessible with a COVID vaccine passport.

Austria imposed lockdowns for unvaccinated citizens earlier this month in the wake of reports of the Omicron variant, which has so far not killed a single person, according to the World Health Organization.

Croatian President Zoran Milanović blasted Austria’s renewed tyrannical lockdowns and vaccine mandate last week, calling it a “catastrophe” reminiscent of 1930s “fascism.”

“Disaster. Catastrophe! I absolutely think that we are smarter than the Austrians and I think that the Swedish authorities are much smarter than them,” he declared.

“I said to me what’s going on in Austria is reminiscent of fascism. Excuse me. I watched what I said. Of course, I think the Austrian president is my friend.”

“It is not scientific and you are terrorizing people,” he added.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/12/05/supermarkets-in-austria-fence-off-vaccinated-from-unvaccinated/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Nevada on Thursday became the first U.S. state to impose a surcharge on workers who have not gotten a COVID-19 vaccine, though the penalty doesn’t take effect until the middle of next year.

All but two members of the state’s Public Employees’ Benefit Program Board (PEBP) voted during a meeting to approve a surcharge of$55 a month on unvaccinated workers.

The approved proposal also stipulates a surcharge of $175 a month for workers’ spouses, partners, and dependents 18 and older. That could be adjusted down the road.

The surcharges will go into effect on July 1, 2022.

They’ll help offset the costs of COVID-19 testing, Laura Rich, executive officer of the board, said.

Testing costs through September were estimated at $3.3 million.

The board did not analyze the cost of COVID-19 hospitalizations for the proposal because that would have made the surcharge for spouses and dependents “significantly higher,” Rich said. State rules bar making the surcharge on workers any higher.http://globalreportage.org/2021/12/05/nevada-becomes-first-state-to-impose-surcharge-on-unvaccinated-workers/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

On 3 December, NZ officially became an apartheid nation. Those who have chosen not to be double jabbed have been shut out of society.

New Zealand has begun a new phase in its coronavirus response in which there won’t be lock downs, but people who aren’t fully vaccinated and able to prove it with vaccine passes will be denied access to many services.

Apart from being able to access food, health care, petrol and pharmacies, hard-working Kiwis are being denied entry to all other public areas of society.

On the eve of this new Traffic Light System, Counterspin Media was at Texas Tea Bar & Grill, Picton, NZ, enjoying a last supper with a group of freedom-loving friends.

We spoke with Lisa Wakeford about how she was feeling, having already lost her job and now having lost her ability to go out socially to any establishment or even to get her hair cut.

Sheryl, a Texas Tea employee, was heartbroken about the fact she was losing her job due to the new rules and was still unable to go and visit her daughter in Melbourne, Australia, who needed her support as she is in an abusive relationship.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is fast losing popularity as these draconian laws are dividing NZ society and are hitting people hard.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/12/05/new-zealand-vaccine-apartheid-has-officially-begun/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

UFC President Dana White thanked Joe Rogan for recommending ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies to him after he and his family contracted the China Virus over Thanksgiving weekend.

White, who’s fully vaccinated, explained to TMZ on Saturday how after again contracting COVID he sought medical advice from Rogan, who quickly recovered from COVID himself by taking ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies.

“This morning I tested negative. Thank you, Dr. Joe Rogan!” White exclaimed.

“In all seriousness, Joe Rogan is a brilliant guy, and he talks to the most brilliant people out there. He studies, he does his homework on all this stuff, and it’s a fact that this works.”

In a previous interview on the “Jim Rome Podcast”, White recommended everybody look into ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies.

“Rogan has worked with over 30 or 40 people that have done this and he swears by it, and he’s a good friend of mine that I’ve known for over 20 years. So yeah, I believe in what he’s saying. I believe the things he explained to me on how this thing works made sense to me,” White said.

“If you got COVID, I would urge you to do this,” White added. “Not only did I believe in it before I did it, now I’ve actually done it. I’m on day three of COVID. Day three of COVID, smell and taste is back. I could not feel better and I’m doing two-a-day workouts while I’m going through COVID.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/12/05/ufc-president-dana-white-recovers-from-covid-after-taking-dr-joe-rogan-treatment/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Another nation has fallen prey to what is popularly called China’s ‘debt trap’ strategy. Uganda has lost its only international airport, the Entebbe International Airport, to China for failing to repay a loan, African media reported.

The government has failed to reverse a loan agreement with China which had repayment conditions for attaching its only airport.

In 2015, China’s Export-Import (EXIM) Bank lent Uganda $207 million at two per cent upon disbursement. The loan, meant for the expansion of Entebbe airport, came with a maturity period of 20 years including a seven-year grace period, News X reported.

However, as per international media reports, the Ugandan government waived off the clause for international immunity for securing the loan, following which the Chinese lender can retake possession of Entebbe International Airport without any international arbitration. A statement from the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) reportedly suggested that some provisions in the Financing Agreement with China exposed Entebbe International Airport and other Ugandan assets to be attached and taken over by Chinese lenders upon arbitration in Beijing.

Last week, Ugandan Finance Minister Matia Kasaija had apologised to Parliament for “mishandling” the multi-million dollar loan. The government has failed to modify the loan arrangement with the Chinese that had repayment restrictions that included the attachment of the country’s sole airport.

According to the latest media reports, a delegation of Ugandan officials also visited China earlier this year in an attempt to renegotiate the clauses of the loan agreement. However, the visit was unsuccessful as the Chinese authorities refused to allow any alteration in the original terms of the deal. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/uganda-loses-its-only-international-airport-to-china-for-failing-to-repay-loan/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The World Health Organization announced Friday it was naming a new Covid-19 variant “Omicron,” skipping over a politically sensitive letter of the Greek alphabet.

The WHO made the announcement about the B.1.1.529 variant out of Johannesburg, South Africa, passing over a letter many observers presumed would be next — “Nu” — as well as the subsequent letter, “Xi,” which composes part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping‘s name.

The virus joins earlier variants named for letters of the alphabet, including the Alpha variant out of the United Kingdom; the Beta variant out of South Africa; the Gamma variant out of Brazil; and the Delta variant out of India. Additional variants include Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, and Mu.

To date, “Nu” and “Xi” are the only letters the WHO has opted against using. Officials didn’t provide an explanation, but Paul Nuki, an editor for the London-based Telegraph, claimed Friday that a source said the decision to skip “Xi” was intentional. “Nu had been skipped to avoid confusion with the word ‘new;’ and Xi had been skipped to ‘avoid stigmatising a region,’” Nuki wrote on Twitter.

The United Nations agency has been famously deferential toward China, where Covid-19 began in the province of Wuhan. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Xi at the beginning of the outbreak, when he praised China for its “openness to sharing information” about Covid-19, despite the country’s initial refusal to let the agency’s scientists investigate. American intelligence later revealed China became aware of the virus in November 2019, months before the country began cooperating with health officials.

Former President Donald Trump committed last year to ending U.S. participation in the international agency, but President Joe Biden reversed the decision in January, when he sent Dr. Anthony Fauci to tell officials he was “honored to announce that the United States will remain a member.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/who-skips-greek-letter-xi-for-covid-variant-omicron/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

As protesters and governments alike braced for another round of unrest during the coming weekend, with most of the US preoccupied by the Thanksgiving holiday, Italy’s increasingly authoritarian government has declared instead that a growing number of government workers will be subjected to vaccine mandates.

According to the new rules, unvaccinated people will not be able to enter venues such as cinemas, restaurants and sports events.

Stringent new rules further blur the line between a vaccine mandate and the status quo in Italy, potentially prompting another wave of protests, like those that swept across Rome and a handful of other European cities recently as governments intensified their restrictions on vaccinations with increasingly authoritarian policies.

According to the Italian newswire service Ansa, the Italian government, led by former ECB head “super Mario” Draghi, has decided to “tighten the screws” so to speak, on Italians who have been “unwilling” to get the vaccine.

Reuters reports that Draghi has sharply restricted access to an array of services, making vaccines mandatory for a wider group of public sector workers.

Italy acted as much of Europe is increasing restrictions to try to grapple with a new wave of the pandemic.

Under the Italian measures, which will come into force from Dec. 6, unvaccinated people will not be able to enter venues such as cinemas, restaurants and sports events, Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government said in a statement.

Never one to avoid the press (unlike another world leader we could name), Draghi delivered a statement late Wednesday, claiming the situation in Italy is “getting worse” and that his government wanted to act before it was “too late.” “We want to be very prudent,” Draghi insisted, in a statement to Reuters.

“We are seeing the situation in bordering countries is very serious and we also see that the situation in Italy is gradually but constantly getting worse,” Draghi told reporters after the cabinet approved the new rules.

“We want to be very prudent to try to safeguard what Italians have achieved in the last year,” Draghi said, stressing the need to avoid a full-blown lockdown against the coronavirus that in 2020 caused Italy’s steepest post-war recession.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/italy-bans-unvaccinated-from-cinemas-restaurants-and-sports-events/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The US-based health organization EcoHealth Alliance sent virus samples found in Laotian bats between June 2017 and May 2019 for studying at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the White Coat Waste Project non-profit discovered via a Freedom of Information request.

Emails obtained thanks to the request said that viruses from “bats and other high-risk species” had been sent for studies, which, as earlier reports showed, included gain-of-function. The latter was used to study the possibility of these animal-origin pathogens jumping to humans.

The research was funded by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), although the National Institutes of Health (NIH) denies ordering or approving the use of the gain-of-function method.

The NIH, however, confirmed that EcoHealth Alliance had carried out such research, which is deemed dangerous by specialists due to the possibility of accidentally releasing highly contagious and deadly modified viruses into the world

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/new-unsealed-docs-show-us-firm-sent-virus-similar-to-covid-19-to-wuhan-lab/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Dr. Peter Hotez reacted to the new emergence of the Omicron variant, telling CNN’s Jim Acosta that the solution was vaccinations, not travel bans.

The Omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant was first designated by the World Health Organization as a “variant of concern” (VOC) on Friday. The United States has restricted travel from South Africa and other neighboring countries where Omicron has been spreading.

Hotez, a professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told Acosta it was important to maintain perspective, that so far “we’ve not seen any evidence that Omicron produces more severe disease than any of the other variants,” and while some previous variants had been partially vaccine resistant, this new one was “unlikely to be totally resistant.”

There were ongoing tests going on right now, said Hotez, and he expected we would have an answer about how vaccine resistant Omicron might be within the next two weeks.

“But what about these travel restrictions?” asked Acosta. “Is this the best way to slow the spread, or is it time to start requiring vaccinations to fly, worldwide? Or to conduct, you know, mandatory testing when people fly in from another country? What do you think?”

“What we do know is travel bans have not been very effective this entire pandemic,” replied Hotez, bringing up the travel ban from China imposed by former President Donald Trump, which was unable to stop the virus from entering the U.S. from southern Europe.

“I think much more productive than travel bans would be refocusing our energies on trying to vaccinate southern Africa, because that’s how these new variants emerge,” he continued. “They emerge out of large unvaccinated populations. Alpha came out of the unvaccinated population in the UK in 2020. Delta, the unvaccinated population in India, 2021. Now Omicron, among unvaccinated population in Africa.”

“So if the G7 leaders are serious about stopping new variants,” Hotez concluded, “forget about the travel bans, let’s go vaccinate the African people.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/28/cnn-medical-analyst-forget-about-the-travel-bans-lets-go-vaccinate-the-african-people/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Queensland MP George Robert Christensen called on citizens to rise up against Covid lockdown measures and vaccine mandates, comparing the governments implementing them with totalitarian regimes responsible for unspeakable atrocities.

Speaking before parliament Wednesday, Christensen said Aussie premiers were “drunk on power” and “trying to out-tyrant each other.”

“Fear is the justification of choice for coercion and control with non-vaccinated Australians increasingly demonized, ostracized and socially eradicated,” Christensen said.

More on Christensen and his landmark vote against his own party and additional lockdown restrictions from 7news.com.au:

The Morrison government narrowly avoided an embarrassment in parliament after rogue Queensland LNP George Christensen crossed the floor on Wednesday.

Mr Christensen voted with the opposition against the government’s bill to make changes to class action laws.

“The solution,” the former journalist outlined, “is a rediscovery of human dignity, along with – and I don’t say this lightly – civil disobedience.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/26/australian-mp-calls-on-free-citizens-to-rise-up-against-covid-tyranny/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The White House is telling American businesses “do not wait” to vaccinate employees, brushing aside a ruling by a federal court putting a hold on the OSHA mandate – and triggering calls to impeach President Joe Biden. “People should not wait. They should continue to go — move forward and make sure that they’re getting their workplace vaccinated,” deputy White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing on Monday, when asked about the pending case before the Fifth Circuit court of appeals. The remark initially flew under the radar, until it was highlighted by CNBC on Monday evening. Within minutes, critics of the administration pointed out that ignoring court orders may well be grounds for impeaching the president. Biden’s de facto vaccine mandate took the form of an emergency rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), requiring companies with 100 or more employees to make sure they are either vaccinated or get tested weekly at company expense. Originally announced in September, it did not go into effect until last week – and was promptly put on hold by the federal appeals court, pending several legal challenges. The US surgeon general said on Sunday the administration would defend the mandate in court, and called it “appropriate and necessary.” The deadline for the White House to respond to the court was Monday evening. Asked about the challenge, Jean-Pierre said the White House’s message to Americans was, “Do not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe. It is important and critical to do, and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness.” http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/11/white-house-tells-americans-to-ignore-court-hold-on-vaccine-mandate/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

US health officials are rushing to make sense of a startling discovery in a Philadelphia suburb on Tuesday: more than a dozen vials labeled “smallpox” and a close relative of the virus, “vaccinia.” The deadly virus was eradicated in the 20th century after killing more than 300 million people. Leadership at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received a nightmare message on Tuesday night alerting them that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had uncovered 15 vials in a storage freezer in eastern Pennsylvania: five were labeled “smallpox” and 10 were labeled “vaccinia,” according to Yahoo News, which viewed the alert. The discovery prompted a lockdown of the facility, which is owned by pharmaceutical giant Merck and is located in North Wales, about 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, local news reported. “There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials,” the CDC told CNN in a statement.” The frozen vials labeled ‘Smallpox’ were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research in Pennsylvania. CDC, its Administration partners, and law enforcement are investigating the matter and the vials’ contents appear intact,” the federal health agency added. “The laboratory worker who discovered the vials was wearing gloves and a face mask. We will provide further details as they are available.” Smallpox, also called variola, is one of the deadliest epidemic diseases known to man. The virus, which spreads either by inhaling infected droplets or by handling infected materials, kills up to 30% of the people who get it. Those who live often bear scars across their bodies caused by the pus-filled bubbles that grow on the skin, and many can also suffer blindness. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/21/dc-workers-find-mysterious-smallpox-vials-in-pennsylvania-storage-freezer/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

An investment firm founded by Hunter Biden facilitated a $3.8 billion purchase of an American-owned cobalt mine by a Chinese conglomerate, placing a key resource used in the manufacture of electric car batteries under foreign control, according to the New York Times. The mine, formerly owned by Freeport-McMoRan and located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was purchased in 2016 after Chinese mining outfit China Molybdenum announced a partnership with the Biden-founded Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) – with the Chinese contributing $2.65 billion and BHR contributing $1.14 billion to buy out a minority stakeholder, Lundin Mining of Canada. The money for Bohai’s share came “entirely from Chinese state-backed companies,” according to the report. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/21/hunter-bidens-private-equity-firm-facilitated-3-8-billion-chinese-purchase-of-american-owned-cobalt-mine/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/06/travis-scott-kept-performing-at-fatal-concert-as-crowd-shouted-stop-the-show/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A leader of the Black Lives Matter organization in NYC has threatened “bloodshed” and “riots” if NYC Mayor-elect Eric Adams keeps his campaign promise to reinstate the highly effective anti-crime unit of the NYPD amidst a citywide spike in shootings and crime. Hawk Newsome, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, made the threats after a heated meeting with the newly elected mayor, Eric Adams, a former NYPD police captain who won 86% of the votes to become the second black Mayor election in New York City. “If they think they are going to go back to the old ways of policing, then we are going to take to the streets again. There will be riots. There will be fire and there will be bloodshed,” Newsome said after the meeting. “There’s no way we’re going to let some Gestapos come in here and harm our people. We pray for peace, but Black opportunities prepare for the worst.” http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/14/blm-leader-threatens-riots-bloodshed-if-newly-elected-mayor-reinstate-nypd-anti-crime-unit-amidst-rising-crime-in-nyc/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

World number 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic is likely to be banned from defending his title at the Australian Open in January over his refusal to divulge his vaccine status and assertion that people should have freedom of choice.

The state of Victoria, where the tournament will take place, has announced that unvaccinated players won’t be able to compete, meaning crowds will be deprived of seeing one of the modern legends of the game.

Djokovic has repeatedly refused to reveal if he’s been jabbed and decried the medical apartheid that is being imposed via vaccine passports.

According to the tennis star, “with things being as they are,” he won’t be competing at Melbourne Park, where he won the title last year.

During a podcast earlier this week, Djokovic’s rival Nick Kyrgios said it wasn’t right to force athletes or anyone else to get vaccinated, a position championed by the Serbian.

“I must agree with him that the freedom of choice is essential for everyone, whether it’s me or somebody else,” the 34 year-old told reporters in Turin.

“Doesn’t really matter whether it’s vaccination or anything else in life. You should have the freedom to choose, to decide what you want to do. In this particular case, what you want to put in your body,” he added.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/21/world-number-1-novak-djokovic-likely-to-face-australian-open-ban-over-vaccine-freedom-stance/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Beginning his interview with Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait, Gates touched on the global vaccine rollout, complaining that in some “sub-Saharan African countries where the epidemic has not been as visible, demand for the vaccine is challenging to generate,” adding, “but we’ll do the best we can on that.” Of course, the Gates Foundation head never mentioned how or why African nations with low Covid numbers would need to be vaccinated against the virus. Regarding the next year of Covid, Gates said, “The death rate and the severe disease rates ought to be coming down dramatically, and by next summer getting to be quite a bit lower than the average seasonal flu level is assuming there’s no surprise variants, which right now is unlikely but can never be ruled out.” Micklethwait oddly said Covid “is like the flu” during the next question, which is strange considering the grief many people received for making similar comparisons last year. Next, Gates praised China for stopping Covid early, calling it a “huge blessing” before admitting the low amount of natural immunity in their population will force the communist nation to “drive their vaccination coverage up dramatically before they drop the wall” of strict Covid lockdowns and regulations. Micklethwait noted many people assume China is not telling the truth about their Covid numbers, but he said that “even if they fibbed a bit, they’re still amazingly good.” The Bloomberg editor-in-chief mentioned that Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia have good covid numbers, but are starting to “open up” unlike the Chinese who will likely be locked down for another year. At one point during the interview, Gates complained that attendees of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland were taking their masks off during the climate conference’s receptions. Continuing, Micklethwait asked what the world can do to prevent another pandemic once Covid is brought down to flu-like levels. Gates said countries need to engage in “germ games” in order to fund more Big Pharma solutions to the next epidemic. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/18/bill-gates-praises-chinas-covid-lockdowns-calls-for-who-surveillance-gestapo-more-globalism/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has made over $300 million worth of donations to fund media projects.

Recipients of this cash include many of America’s most important news outlets, including CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS and The Atlantic. Gates also sponsors a myriad of influential foreign organizations, including the BBC, The Guardian, The Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom; prominent European newspapers such as Le Monde (France), Der Spiegel (Germany) and El País (Spain); as well as big global broadcasters like Al-Jazeera.

The Gates Foundation money going towards media programs has been split up into a number of sections, presented in descending numerical order, and includes a link to the relevant grant on the organization’s website.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/18/revealed-documents-show-bill-gates-has-given-319-million-to-media-outlets/

Together, these donations total $166,216,526. The money is generally directed towards issues close to the Gateses hearts. For example, the $3.6 million CNN grant went towards “report[ing] on gender equality with a particular focus on least developed countries, producing journalism on the everyday inequalities endured by women and girls across the world,” while the Texas Tribune received millions to “to increase public awareness and engagement of education reform issues in Texas.” Given that Bill is one of the charter schools’ most fervent supporters, a cynic might interpret this as planting pro-corporate charter school propaganda into the media, disguised as objective news reporting.

The Gates Foundation has also given nearly $63 million to charities closely aligned with big media outlets, including nearly $53 million to BBC Media Action, over $9 million to MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation, and $1 million to The New York Times Neediest Causes Fund. While not specifically funding journalism, donations to the philanthropic arm of a media player should still be noted.

Gates continues to underwrite a wide network of investigative journalism centers as well, totaling just over $38 million, more than half of which has gone to the D.C.-based International Center for Journalists to expand and develop African media.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Jordan’s Football Association has petitioned a formal complaint to request a gender verification of an Iranian player after its women’s team lost to the Iranian team, casting doubt whether Iran’s goalkeeper is a man or a woman.

Former FIFA vice president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan shared the formal complaint letter filed by the JFA dated November 5, calling on the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to investigate the player in question.

Considering the evidence submitted by JFA and given the importance of this competition, we request the AFC to initiate a transparent and clear investigation by a panel of independent medical experts to investigate the eligibility of the player in question,” read the letter.

The player in question, Zohreh Koudaei, played in the goalkeeper’s position and helped Iran defeat Jordan in penalties, securing Tehran’s spot in the 2022 AFC Women’s Asia Cup. Koudaei has been questioned over her gender status, defending herself several times in Iranian newspapers in the past.

“The widespread talk about the goalkeeper’s gender is just an excuse not to accept defeat against Iranian women,” Maryam Irandoost the coach of the Iranian women’s team, was quoted as saying in statements carried by the Iranian Fars news agency.

After the Jordanian team’s defeat, it was natural for them to try to calm themselves under false pretexts,” she added. “I want to confirm that before the start of our qualifying journey, we conducted the necessary tests, as the medical staff carefully examined each player in the national team so that we would not face any problem in this regard.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/18/jordan-requests-gender-confirmation-of-female-iran-player-claims-goalie-is-a-man/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The judge presiding over the double homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has barred MSNBC from the courtroom after police detained a man who claimed to work for the outlet was allegedly trying to photograph jurors.

Kenosha Police Department reported that the man was “briefly taken into custody” on 17 November but “there was no breach of security regarding the jury, nor were there any photographs obtained”.

It’s a good thing that the jurors have not been doxxed.

But the fact that a journalist from NBC could have potentially done so reveals the truly disgraced state of our mainstream media.

Thursday afternoon, Kenosha Judge Bruce Schroeder informed the courtroom of an incident regarding a man that identified himself as “James J. Morrison,” who was pulled over for going through a red light, and was following the secure jury bus at around a one block distance. He told police that he was working for Irene Byon, who is a booking producer for NBC. NBC later confirmed that this Morrison was working for them at the time.

I’ve instructed that no one from MSNBC News will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial,” Schroeder said. “This is a very serious matter and I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is, but absolutely it would go without much thinking that someone who is following the jury bus, that’s an extremely serious matter and will be referred to the proper authorities.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/18/rittenhouse-trial-judge-bans-msnbc-after-nbc-producer-arrested-for-stalking-jurors-bus/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

On Sunday, Austria may become the first country in the world to impose a lockdown on just the unvaccinated among its population. Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said a final decision will be made over the weekend.

The Austrian government will make a determination on the two-tier lockdown system on Sunday, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday. He added that the decision will be made following meetings with the governors of Austria’s nine provinces.

Upper Austrian Governor Thomas Stelzer has already sought permission from the government to lock down his province from Monday onwards. The area is currently recording more cases of Covid-19 than any other province, a situation Stelzer described as “dramatic,” according to the Austrian Press Agency. The idea of a nationwide lockdown exclusively targeting the unvaccinated was first floated by the government in September, and designed to enter effect when 30% of ICU beds became occupied by Covid patients. That number currently stands at just over 20% and rising.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Schallenberg was clear about how restrictive the lockdown would be for the unvaccinated. “One cannot leave one’s home unless one is going to work, shopping (for essentials), stretching one’s legs – namely exactly what we all had to suffer through in 2020,” he stated.

Some 3.1 million Austrians – around 35% of the population – are not fully vaccinated. The country’s vaccination rate is one of the lowest in Europe, and Schallenberg described the lackluster jab takeup as “shameful.”

Should the government in Vienna go ahead with the lockdown plan, Austria would be the only country in the world to impose a lockdown solely on the unvaccinated. Other countries have used similarly heavy-handed methods to force compliance with the jab, however. In the US, the Biden administration has pressed private employers to fire staff who refuse the vaccine; so-called ‘vaccine passports’ are commonplace throughout Europe for entering bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues; and in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has explicitly backed a ‘two-tier’ system of freedom for the vaccinated and restrictions for the unvaccinated. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/13/australia-first-country-to-impose-nationwide-lockdown-for-the-unvaccinated/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg predicted on Sunday that supply chain issues plaguing multiple industries at the moment are going to continue as long as the coronavirus pandemic does.

Confronted about the supply chain issues by Fox News’ Chris Wallace – including the fact that standstills at the Port of Los Angeles have only worsened after it began operating on a 24/7 basis – Buttigieg could only say that businesses should expect relief from the issues when the pandemic ends as the problems are a “direct” results of the virus’ strain on the world

“Look, there are so many things that are still happening in our economy – distortions, disruptions, things in our supply chain that are affecting prices that are clearly a direct consequence of the pandemic,” Buttigieg, who recently faced heavy backlash for taking months-long paternity leave amid the crisis, said.

The “best thing” to do for the economy, the former mayor said, is to “put the pandemic behind us” by getting more people inoculated.

“For the very short term, there are steps we can take in [and] around the ports that we think are helping. In the medium term, again at risk of repeating myself, if we really want to see all of these disruptions [end], we got to end the pandemic. That’s what getting everybody vaccinated is all about,” he said.

Buttigieg has also touted Biden’s massive infrastructure spending bills that have been stuck in congressional negotiations as a way to partly relieve supply chain and inflation issues by pumping money into infrastructure and social programs like childcare that would help people get back to work. In a Sunday CNN interview, Buttigieg referred to “often outdated” infrastructure used to transport goods.

“Fundamentally, it’s up to the producers, the shippers and the retailers and we’re doing everything we can to help them move those goods across the infrastructure that’s often outdated,” he said.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/13/buttigieg-claims-us-supply-chain-issues-wont-end-until-pandemic-does/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

New concerns are being raised about side effects from the Moderna vaccine against the coronavirus.

Swedish health officials have now decided that a moratorium on giving the Moderna vaccine to anyone under 31 will be extended indefinitely, the U.K. Daily Mail reported. The pause on the Moderna shots had been scheduled to end on Dec. 1. Finland, Iceland and Denmark have taken similar steps. Norway is encouraging men under 30 not to get the Moderna shot, but is not mandating it. For months, the Moderna vaccine has been under scrutiny because of data that shows young men who receive it are at increased risk for myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac around the heart. The Daily Mail reported that one U.S. study that has not yet been peer-reviewed concluded that “young males under [age] 20 are up to six times more likely to develop myocarditis after contracting COVID-19 than those who have been vaccinated.”

The decision comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is putting Moderna’s plans for a shot aimed at the population from age 12 to 17 on hold due to concerns over risks of the ailments, according to The Wall Street Journal. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/24/sweden-suspends-moderna-shot-indefinitely-after-vaxxed-patients-develop-crippling-heart-condition/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Americans appear to be growing increasingly weary of President Joe Biden’s economic policies, pointing to empty shelves all over the country and snarled traffic at shipping hubs as “proof” of his administration’s incompetence.

EmptyShelvesJoe dominated Twitter’s trending topics for most of Thursday as social media users raked the president and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg over the coals, eviscerating their apparent inability to keep store shelves stocked even as cargo ships loaded with goods piled up along the coasts.

The hashtag has moved from social media into the real world, as someone got an airport agent to page “Empty Shelves Joe.” Photos of seemingly endless fleets of container ships along the California coast and mountains of cargo sitting in port have made the rounds on social media this week. The back-up appears to be the result of multiple overlapping problems, from labor shortages to transportation and environmental regulations, coming to a head at once. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/emptyshelvesjoe-trend-dominates-twitter-as-ships-back-up-at-ports-and-biden-administration-blames-trump/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

In a shocking revelation, federal employees of the United States government are accused of being involved in trafficking the body parts of aborted babies. This was found in emails uncovered by Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which have exposed grim details of how the US government employees worked with buyers to get ‘fresh’ aborted baby organs for medical and scientific experiments.

The email records received by the Judicial Watch confirm that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to pay $2,000 for each aborted child, totalling $12,000 per average box of harvested organs. The emails also shed light on the links between the US FDA with the Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), likely America’s largest fetal tissue trafficking firm.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/11/fda-purchased-body-parts-of-aborted-babies-for-science-reveals-emails-between-fda-officials-and-human-tissue-procurement-firm/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Davos-based World Economic Forum is kicking off its “Great Narrative” initiative with a meeting in Dubai. It will be headlined by WEF chair Klaus Schwab, the mastermind behind the “Great Reset.”

Schwab will open the event on Thursday with the United Arab Emirates Minister of Cabinet Affairs Mohammad Abdullah Al-Gergawi, followed by four other UAE officials and a journalist discussing their vision of the Gulf state’s future.

According to the WEF, the Great Narrative initiative is “collaborative effort of the world’s leading thinkers to fashion longer-term perspectives and co-create a narrative that can help guide the creation of a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable vision for our collective future.”

The project is supposed to involve “top thinkers” from multiple disciplines, “including futurists, scientists and philosophers,” and result in a book to be published in January 2022.

Schwab has shot to global prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing for a more globalized response to problems ranging from viruses to climate change that he dubbed the “Great Reset.”

“The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world,” he famously said in early 2020.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/11/welcome-the-great-narrative-brought-to-you-by-the-mastermind-of-the-great-reset/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The bad news for Moderna just keeps coming.

In the wake of a weak earnings report that sent Moderna shares cratering last week, French health authorities have just released a new advisory recommending that people under 30 don’t get the Moderna vaccine, recommending that they choose the Pfizer-BioNTech jab instead.

The decision draws on recently released data showing that the risk of heart inflammation from Pfizer’s jab “appears to be around five times lesser…compared to Modera’s spikevax jab”, per an opinion published by the HAS.

Cases of myocarditis mostly manifest within 7 days of vaccination, typically after the second dose has been given. Most patients who experience side effects are typically men under the age of 30, according to the HAS, which cited research studies.

HAS acts as an advisor to the French health sector but it doesn’t have the power to ban medicines or vaccines. The recommendation will apply to first and second doses, as well as a any “booster shot” doses available while the agency awaits additional data.

For French men and women aged 30 and over, however, HAS says it sees no problem with administering Moderna’s Spikevax in this group, stating that its efficacy was slightly higher than Pfizer-BioNTech’s jab.

Last month saw a handful of Nordic nations place varying restrictions on Moderna’s vaccine.

Tiny Iceland, meanwhile, has banned the Moderna jab from being used across the entire population.

Initially. Stockholm announced it would pause the use of Moderna for all of its population born in 1991 or after.

Helsinki followed suit, but halted the jabs for young, male Finns only based on a study involving Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden which found that men under 30 had a slightly higher risk of developing heart inflammation. Oslo also suggested that young Norwegian men should consider choosing Comirnaty, the Pfizer jab, over Moderna’s or any of the other options.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/11/french-health-authority-warns-men-under-30-to-avoid-moderna-jab/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains unclear, but recent revelations reinforce the likelihood that the true source was a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

A letter from Lawrence Tabak, the National Institutes of Health’s principal deputy director, to Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) confirms that the NIH funded research at the WIV during 2018-2019 that manipulated a bat coronavirus called WIV1. Researchers at the institute grafted spike proteins from other coronaviruses onto WIV1 to see if the modified virus was capable of binding in a mouse that possessed the ACE2 receptors found in humans — the same receptor to which SARS-CoV-2 binds. The modified virus reproduced more rapidly and made infected humanized mice sicker than the unmodified virus.

Starting in 2014, the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, funded the New York-based research nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance with annual grants through 2020 for “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”

Total funding was $3,748,715. More than $600,000 of that went to the Wuhan lab. Three other Chinese institutions received funding as well. The principal investigator was EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak, who, from the onset of the pandemic, has consistently campaigned in public and behind the scenes to convince people that SARS-CoV-2 did not come from the WIV but evolved naturally from animal-to-human transmission.

Tabak’s letter asserts that the modified virus becoming more virulent “was an unexpected result” and not “something that the researchers set out to do” — an odd claim, considering that the whole point of manipulating the virus was to investigate things that could make it more virulent.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/06/letter-confirms-wuhan-labs-covid-19-leak-was-funded-by-us-taxpayers/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The second man that Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot — in a spree that left another man dead and a third wounded — had a criminal history including once threatening to “gut” his brother “like a pig” while holding a butcher’s knife to his stomach, Rittenhouse’s attorney told a judge Friday.

“[Anthony] Huber told his brother that if he didn’t start cleaning a room in his house he was going to gut him like a pig,” Rittenhouse’s lawyer Corey Chirafisi said adding that Huber did this while holding a 6-inch butcher’s knife to the brother’s stomach.

Chirafisi raised 26-year-old victim Huber’s violent past outside of a jury’s presence on the fifth day of the Kenosha County homicide trial for Rittenhouse, 18.

Huber allegedly sat back watching the brother and his grandmother clean while threatening to kill the brother if he stopped, Chirafisi said.

“Huber grabbed his brother by the neck, dug his nails in and choked him for approximately ten seconds,” the lawyer said. “He put a knife to his brother’s left ear and his brother felt it cut.”

“I’m going to burn the house down with all you f—kers in it,” Chirafisi told the judge Huber said.

Huber was criminally charged for the incident and took a plea deal on a strangulation and suffocation charge, Chirafisi said.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/06/kyle-rittenhouses-lawyer-says-attacker-once-threatened-to-gut-his-brother/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The bigwigs heading to Scotland for the COP26 climate summit – where they ostensibly aim to help save the planet from greenhouse gases – will generate outsized emissions themselves by employing private jets for the trip.

More than 400 private jets carrying politicians and business executives to this week’s conference will belch out 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide, exceeding the emissions of 1,600 average Scots for a full year, according to an estimate by the UK’s Sunday Mail.

Private jets are very prestigious, but it is difficult to avoid the hypocrisy of using one while claiming to be fighting climate change,” environmental activist Matt Finch told the newspaper.

Heads of states and other leaders from across the globe will be among the private jet-setters – from Japan to India to Israel to even the UK itself. US President Joe Biden is reportedly scheduled to arrive on Air Force One on Monday.

That trip will follow the American president’s flight from Washington to Rome for this weekend’s G20 summit, where leaders pledged “meaningful and effective” climate action but offered few specifics on how they will keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

It’s not clear whether Biden will again deploy a massive motorcade, such as the 85-car parade of gas-guzzling vehicles that chaperoned his visit to the Vatican on Friday to meet with Pope Francis. Biden is expected to tout more than $500 billion in proposed US spending on environmental programs when he gets to Glasgow.

Critics blasted the COP26 participants for professing to fight climate change while doing nothing to pare their enormous carbon footprints. “Every world leader or dignitary that arrives to COP26 by private jet is an eco-hypocrite,” former member of the European parliament Nigel Farage said on Sunday in a Twitter post.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/02/global-elites-flying-private-jets-to-cop26-climate-conference-emit-more-co2-than-hundreds-of-citizens-would-in-a-year/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Taliban has long accused Washington of funding ISIS, and now they’re indirectly right, as a growing number of US-trained Afghan soldiers and intelligence officials are joining the terrorist group’s ranks to fight the Taliban. The US spent a staggering $88 billion arming and training Afghanistan’s military, only for Afghan forces to crumble before the Taliban’s lightning fast reconquest of the country in August. Though the Taliban have promised amnesty to these personnel, stories of violent reprisals have circulated, and according to the Wall Street Journal, a “relatively small, but growing” number of former Afghan soldiers and spies are flocking to the only outfit currently resisting Taliban rule – Islamic State terrorist group. Islamic State’s (IS, formerly ISIS) Afghan offshoot, IS-K, is eagerly absorbing these US-trained recruits. According to the former security officials and Taliban members the Wall Street Journal spoke to, some former government troops have joined for a paycheck, and others for lack of a better alternative to Taliban rule. “If there were a resistance, they would have joined the resistance,” former spy chief Rahmatullah Nabil told the paper, adding that “For the time being, ISIS is the only other armed group.” Though IS-K and the Taliban are both Islamic fundamentalist groups, their ideologies differ. The Taliban are a predominantly Punjabi nationalist organization with no stated goals beyond Afghanistan’s borders, and a tolerance for the country’s other Muslim sects. IS-K, by contrast, view Shiites and other Muslim sects as apostates and aim to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate, as IS attempted to do several years ago in Iraq and Syria. Initially suppressed by the Taliban, IS-K mounted a resurgence amid the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, carrying out a suicide bombing outside Kabul Airport in August that killed around 200 Afghans and 13 US troops. For the US military, it was the deadliest day in Afghanistan since 2011. It is unclear what “critical expertise in intelligence-gathering and warfare techniques” these new recruits will bring to IS-K, given that the supposedly 300,000-strong Afghan military they came from folded before the Taliban in a matter of weeks, with its members often fleeing or surrendering without firing a shot. http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/02/us-trained-afghan-soldiers-spies-joining-isis-terrorists-to-resist-taliban/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

In its latest effort to suppress “misinformation,” Twitter has signaled it will begin removing posts containing vaccine “conspiracies,” including claims vaccines are purposely used to cause harm and “control populations.” Starting next week, the social media giant will excise all posts that “invoke a deliberate conspiracy” or “advance harmful, false, or misleading narratives” about vaccines, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday, focusing particularly on inoculations against the coronavirus. “Using a combination of technology and human review, we will begin enforcing this updated policy on December 21, and expanding our actions during the following weeks,” it said, adding that the new rule would be enforced “in close consultation with local, national, and global public health authorities around the world.” Staff will be asked to remove posts that include any suggestion that vaccines “are used to intentionally cause harm,”“control populations,” or are “unnecessary,” as well as “false claims which have been widely debunked about the adverse impacts or effects of receiving vaccinations.” Beyond its pledge to coordinate with health officials, however, Twitter did not specify how it would determine which claims would qualify as having been “debunked.” The company also said that, from early next year, it would attach “warning” labels to tweets that “advance unsubstantiated rumors, disputed claims, as well as incomplete or out-of-context information about vaccines.” This expands on its previous moves to append similar notices to posts featuring claims of widespread voting irregularities and fraud during the 2020 election, with US President Donald Trump frequently becoming a target of the platform’s censors. Twitter has gradually clamped down on what it deems “misleading information” over a series of policy updates throughout the year, announcing in March that it would remove potentially “harmful” posts linked to Covid-19 and later rolling out warning labels for “less severe” pandemic disinformation. Wednesday’s rule change broadens those measures to posts about vaccines more generally, mirroring a similar decision taken by Facebook earlier this month.http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/02/in-latest-censorship-crackdown-twitter-to-scrub-posts-claiming-vaccines-cause-harm-or-are-used-to-control-populations/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

An Arkansas man held for three months after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was “tortured” in the District of Columbia jail, according to his attorney. Richard “Bigo” Barnett, 61, of Gravette was slammed into a concrete floor, threatened, kept in solitary confinement and denied prompt medical treatment when he thought he was having a heart attack, Joseph D. McBride of New York City wrote in an “emergency request” to Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union seeking an investigation into the way Barnett and four other “January Sixers” were treated in the jail. Barnett is charged with carrying a dangerous weapon — a stun gun — into the Capitol during the riot. He also faces six other charges. On April 27, Barnett was released from the District of Columbia jail and ordered to home detention pending trial. “My client, Richard Barnett, who did not assault any Capitol Police or destroy any property, was detained by the federal government for 109 days before being released over the objections of the Justice Department since he was neither a danger to society nor risk of flight,” McBride wrote in the letter dated Aug. 3. “His crime was putting his feet on one of [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s desks at the request of a press photographer.” http://globalreportage.org/2021/11/02/lawyer-says-gravette-man-charged-in-capitol-riot-tortured-in-d-c-jail/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Republican lawmakers are blasting reports that the Biden administration is discussing paying almost half a million dollars per person to illegal immigrants who were separated from their families at the southern border during the Trump administration — calling it “insanity,” “unacceptable” and a “slap in the face.”

First reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are considering the payments in order to settle lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others on behalf of families who crossed into the US from Mexico illegally to seek asylum. The families were separated under former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy in 2018.

While the average demand in each lawsuit amounts to around $3.4 million per family, the Biden administration is considering $450,000 per person — around $1 million per family.

Republicans — many of whom supported Trump’s immigration policies — took to Twitter to lambaste the potential payouts.

“Insanity. Rewarding illegal immigrants with hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars is the ULTIMATE insult to law-abiding citizens,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) wrote.

“President Biden wants to send the IRS to surveil your bank account while cutting checks—with your money—to people who’ve broken our laws.”

House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) echoed Womack’s sentiments, calling it a “slap in the face.”

“Pure insanity. The Biden administration is reportedly looking to pay $450,000 to illegal immigrants who knowingly broke the law,” he tweeted. “It’s a slap in the face to our law-abiding citizens who wake up, go to work, and pay their taxes.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/29/gop-blasts-possible-450k-payout-to-illegal-immigrant-families-by-biden/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Biden administration could pay out up to $1 billion to immigrant families that were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump administration.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services could end up paying out close to $1 million per immigrant family that was separated at the border. Sources told the Journal that around $450,000 a person is being considered, but that figure could change depending on each family’s circumstances.

Discussions of payouts have taken place over the course of the past few months between lawyers representing immigrant families that are suing the federal government and the government’s own lawyers, according to the Journal. Some government lawyers apparently viewed the payout amounts as excessive.

Margo Schlanger, a Homeland Security officer for civil rights and civil liberties during the Obama administration, told the Journal, “Damage class actions in this kind of case are pretty rare, it’s hard to think of a recent comparison.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is representing multiple families in a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy. In January, it issued a statement urging the incoming Biden administration to act quickly on the issue.

“The incoming administration must reunite the separated families in the United States, but we cannot stop there. These families deserve citizenship, resources, care, and a commitment that family separation will never happen again.”

The Biden administration created the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, and its latest progress report, released in September, confirmed it had reunified 50 children separated from their parents and provided access to behavioral health services. Another 2,171 children have been reunified through a court order and from the efforts of nongovernmental organizations.

However, the same report confirmed 1,727 children have not yet been reunified with their families, accounting for 33 percent of all those identified as separated from their parents by the Homeland Security Department under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy.

The ACLU is still battling its lawsuit with the Biden administration and according to the Journal, not all the families it’s representing will be eligible for a potential financial settlement.

The Office of the Inspector General conducted a review of the Justice Department’s zero tolerance policy and found that under former attorney general Jeff Sessions, the agency “failed to effectively prepare for, or manage, the implementation of the zero tolerance policy.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/29/biden-administration-considering-giving-450000-per-person-to-immigrants-separated-at-the-border/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Thousands of New York city workers including FDNY and NYPD officers are protesting against New York City Mayor’s vaccine mandate. Workers were recorded chanting ‘Let’s Go Brandon‘, the viral phrase used against Biden.

Thousands of city workers could be put on unpaid leaves if they don’t get the shot by Friday. That is Mayor Bill de Blasio’s threat, with vaccination rates at several large city agencies, including the NYPD and the FDNYP, lagging behind the general population.

“It’s time now. If you don’t want to get vaccinated, you’ll be put on unpaid leave. Well, the vast majority of human beings go to work to get paid. And also, I think for a lot of our first responders, there’s a calling. They believe in the work, they care about the work. Those two factors I think are going to cause the vast majority to get vaccinated,” Mayor de Blasio said.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/25/thousands-of-nypd-fdny-and-other-new-york-city-workers-protest-against-nycs-vaccine-mandates/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A whistleblower who defected from the Chinese Communist Party claimed China deliberately released COVID-19 at a military tournament just two months before the outbreak began spreading across the world.

Ex-Chinese Communist Party insider Wei Jingsheng said The World Military Games in October 2019 may have been COVID’s first super spreader event after numerous athletes became mysteriously ill.

“I thought the Chinese government would take this opportunity to spread the virus during the Military Games, as many foreigners would show up there,” he said in the new Sky News documentary What Really Happened in Wuhan, adding the Chinese military was conducting an “unusual exercise” at the time.

“[I knew] of the possibility of the Chinese government using some strange weapons, including biological weapons, because I knew they were doing experiments of that sort,” he said.

Though the athletes showed COVID-like symptoms, they were never tested for the coronavirus.

Jingsheng’s claim is backed up by a report by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee released last month concluding COVID-19 was likely released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to September 12, 2019.

The report also claimed the 2019 Military World Games was likely the “earlier super spreader event in the world.”

“At the same time, athletes at the Military World Games became sick with symptoms similar to COVID-19. Some of them carried the virus back to their home countries — creating one of the earliest super spreader events in the world,” wrote Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas).

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/25/chinese-whistleblower-claims-covid-outbreak-intentional-happened-in-october-2019-at-military-world-games-in-wuhan/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A bombshell report has concluded that scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and their affiliated partners attempted to secure $14 million in funding from the Pentagon’s scientific arm DARPA to genetically alter viruses, including bat coronaviruses, and make them more infectious to humans, just eighteen months prior to the subsequent outbreak and pandemic.

The London Telegraph reports the findings revealed by Drastic, a web-based investigations team set up by scientists from across the world to look into the origins of Covid-19. The documents they obtained, confirmed as genuine by former US government officials, show that DARPA turned down the request, saying the plans for yet more gain of function research were TOO DANGEROUS to the human population. The Telegraph notes that the documents reveal the Wuhan scientists “submitted plans to release skin-penetrating nanoparticles containing ‘novel chimeric spike proteins’ of bat coronaviruses into cave bats in Yunnan, China.” The documents also show that the plan involved genetically altering the bat coronaviruses to add “human-specific cleavage sites,” essentially making it easier for the virus to get into human cells. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/24/report-wuhan-lab-requested-funding-from-darpa-to-make-chimeric-viruses-genetically-alter-coronaviruses-to-make-them-more-infectious-to-humans/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Italy has seen an explosion of protests against the introduction of its vaccine passport scheme, with dockers in numerous towns and cities vowing to block ports until the government scraps the ‘green pass’ law.

The ‘green pass’ – which is a mandatory vaccination scheme in all but name, forces workers in both the public and private sector to take the jab in order to be paid.

Workers who try to do their jobs without taking the vaccine will be suspended without pay and face a fine of up to 1,500 euros.

The system is also mandatory for anyone wishing to enter a number of venues, including schools, universities, museums, stadiums, theaters, gyms, and indoor seating spaces at bars and restaurants.

Although Reuters erroneously describes today’s protests against the scheme as “scattered,” they are in fact large and widespread.

Business owner Ugo Mendes Donelli compiled a Twitter thread illustrating the intense level of the backlash.

“Many citizens won’t go to work,” he tweeted. “I can tell they are many because there is no traffic. We had such silence, in my area, only during the lockdown.”

According to Donelli, despite the media trying to downplay the protest numbers, there are around 10,000 demonstrators at the port of Trieste.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/24/italy-rocked-by-nationwide-protests-as-resistance-against-vaccine-passport-scheme-explodes/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A new poll which included over 2,000 participants finds that a clear majority of Brits – 54 per cent – think COVID-19 was leaked from the Wuhan lab, with just 25 per cent saying they don’t believe that to be the case.

The survey, which was was conducted by JL, found that an additional 21 per cent say they don’t know where the virus originated

The results of the poll contradict statements made recently by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who both said they doubted the lab leak theory.

‘Thinking about what you have heard about the origins of the coronavirus, do you believe it is true or false that it leaked from a Chinese laboratory?’

True: 54%

False: 25%

Don’t know: 21%

As we previously highlighted, an even higher number of Americans – 58 per cent – also believe that the virus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with even 43% of Democrats sharing that view.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/24/clear-majority-of-brits-think-covid-19-was-leaked-from-wuhan-lab/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The National Institutes of Health is now admitting to funding gain-of-function research on bats infected with coronaviruses at a lab in Wuhan, China despite repeated denials from Dr. Anthony Fauci that U.S. tax dollars were used on the funding.

In a letter to Rep. James Comer, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, an NIH official admits that a “limited experiment” was conducted in order to test if “spike proteins from naturally occurring bat coronaviruses circulating in China were capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor in a mouse model.”

The letter states that the laboratory mice infected with the modified bat virus “became sicker” than mice that were given the unmodified bat virus. In the letter which was released to the public on Wednesday, Lawrence A. Taba a top National Institute of Health official admitted American taxpayers helped fund gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses and noted that EcoHealth Alliance, which helped funnel money to the Wuhan lab “failed to report” findings “required by the terms of the grant.”

Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, who was critical of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s gain-of-function testimony in front of the Senate back in May where Fauci claimed, during an exchange with Sen. Rand Paul that “the NIH [National Institutes of Health] has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology [WIV],” writes that Wednesday’s letter “corrects untruthful assertions” from Fauci and former NIH director Dr. Francis Collins. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has repeatedly denied any NIH money went to such research in Wuhan, but his organization has given millions of dollars in grant money to the EcoHealth Alliance which funneled at least $600,000 to Wuhan coronavirus research. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/24/nih-admits-fauci-lied-about-gain-of-function-funding-to-wuhan-lab/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Twitter has suspended the official account of Indiana Rep. Jim Banks (R) on Saturday for acknowledging the biological reality of newly appointed rear admiral Rachel Levine.

The Department of Health and Human Services had announced Tuesday that former Assistant Secretary of Health Levine would be sworn in as the department’s “first-ever female four-star admiral.“

After Surgeon General Vivek Murthy celebrated Levine’s appointment as “the first female four-star officer to serve in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps” on Tuesday, Congressman Jim Banks criticized the description.

“The title of first female four-star officer gets taken by a man,” Banks, a Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, said.

Twitter’s ban notification to Banks claimed that calling a man a man “violate[s] our rules against hateful conduct,” adding that his biologically accurate tweet “promotes violence.”:

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/24/twitter-suspends-gop-congressmans-account-says-calling-trans-admiral-a-man-is-hateful-violent/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

CNN is reporting that a new study involving over 600,000 veterans has found that Johnson & Johnson’s covid vaccine’s protection “fell from 88% in March to 3% in August.” “A study published Thursday reported a steep decline in vaccine effectiveness against infection by August of this year, especially for people who received the J&J vaccine,” CNN reported over the weekend. “The researchers found that among more than 600,000 veterans, J&J’s vaccine’s protection fell from 88% in March to 3% in August.” As there are no requirements (yet) that people be triple-jabbed — or double-jabbed in the case of J&J’s shot — this means millions of Americans are getting fired for not having taken a shot that’s now 3% effective. On the flip side, we know from another Israeli study that “vaccinated individuals had 27 times higher risk of symptomatic COVID infection compared to those with natural immunity from prior COVID disease,” as epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff noted. CNN is reporting that a new study involving over 600,000 veterans has found that Johnson & Johnson’s covid vaccine’s protection “fell from 88% in March to 3% in August.” “A study published Thursday reported a steep decline in vaccine effectiveness against infection by August of this year, especially for people who received the J&J vaccine,” CNN reported over the weekend. “The researchers found that among more than 600,000 veterans, J&J’s vaccine’s protection fell from 88% in March to 3% in August.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/20/millions-of-americans-are-being-forced-to-quit-their-jobs-or-get-fired-for-not-taking-a-vaccine-that-is-now-3-effective/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

This Three women, who remain anonymous, have joined forces with the leading French feminist group ‘Osez le feminisme’ (Dare to be feminist) to file a complaint against Miss France accusing them of discrimination for allegedly selecting contestant winners based on their appearance.

Osez le feminism has long protested against Miss France, calling it a ‘vehicle for sexist values’.

The lawsuit alleges the pageant is in violation of French labor law by having discriminatory selection criteria, obliging aspiring winners to be more than 5ft 5in (1.65m) tall, single and ‘representative of beauty’.

French labor law forbids companies from discriminating on the basis of ‘morals, age, family status or physical appearance.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/21/miss-france-candidates-sue-pageant-for-choosing-winner-based-on-appearance-2/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The UK government has told Britons to do as they are instructed by the government “not just to save lives, but to keep your freedoms too” in an unscheduled address to the nation about the coming winter months.

Announced lunchtime, the Wednesday evening address to the nation by now-health secretary Sajid Javid — who replaced previous incumbent Matt Hancock after a series of scandals eroded faith in the politician — announced no new restrictions as feared, but instead buttressed the government’s position that the public needed to do as they are told to prevent future lockdowns.

Speaking from Downing Street’s new Whitehouse-style press room, Javid said: “We’ve always known the winter months would pose the greatest threat to our road to recovery… ahead of winter, just as we’ve expected, we’ve started to see this impact. Cases are rising.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/21/no-lockdown-for-now-downing-street-tells-brits-behave-or-lose-freedoms/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Audio leaked by a White House official reveals the Biden administration discussing with a Department of Justice lawyer how to get around religious exemptions from the vaccine mandate. In the audio, first reported by Human Events editor Jack Posobiec, DOJ attorney Marty Lederman is heard advising the Biden administration on how to fight back against religious exemption claims. “For instance, in the New York case that’s currently going on against the State of New York, the Thomas More Society is representing a bunch of doctors and nurses who claim that they would sin gravely in cooperation with the evil of abortion,” he began. “How would they be doing so? The claim is that all three of the current vaccines, either have fetal cells that were obtained by abortions in the vaccine itself, or in the case of Pfizer and Moderna that those vaccines were tested using fetal cells that had been aborted, and even the connection to the previous testing, makes them cooperative with evil in a way that their religion prohibits.” Lederman confessed that there’s little Biden can legally do to circumvent religious exemption claims, even if they’re “insincere.” “I don’t want to say anything too categorical but I believe that this claim will be very difficult for agencies to successfully claim that’s either insincere or not religious, even if it is,” he admitted. “Even if we know that many of those claims are not sincere, or are sincere but not religions, this is the most common behavior you’re going to confront probably, and it’s likely that you will have to take as a given the employee’s claim.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/20/leaked-white-house-call-shows-doj-lawyer-discussing-how-to-undercut-vaccine-religious-exemption-claims/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Hundreds of Netflix employees staged a walkout Wednesday in protest of comedian Dave Chappelle, who made jokes about the transgender community in his latest special “The Closer.”

The walkout was announced shortly after Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said he would not remove Chappelle’s special from the streaming platform.

Videos from the event outside the company’s offices in Los Angeles show confrontations between the protesters and Chappelle fans who showed up to simply say that “jokes are funny.”

One man who showed up to the anti-Chappelle demonstration had his “We Like Dave” signed stolen and was accosted by angry protesters.

The leaders of the walkout also used the anti-Chappelle walkout to release a predictable list of demands to Netflix, including hiring “more trans and non-binary content executives,” and increasing “investment in trans and non-binary content.”

Sarandos eventually apologized to the trans mob Tuesday for not acknowledging their “pain and hurt” regarding his decision to keep Chappelle’s comedy special on the Netflix.

“I screwed up that internal communication,” Sarandos told Variety. “I did that, and I screwed it up in two ways. First and foremost, I should have led with a lot more humanity. Meaning, I had a group of employees who were definitely feeling pain and hurt from a decision we made. And I think that needs to be acknowledged up front before you get into the nuts and bolts of anything. I didn’t do that. That was uncharacteristic for me, and it was moving fast and we were trying to answer some really specific questions that were floating. We landed with some things that were much more blanket and matter-of-fact that are not at all accurate.” http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/20/dave-chappelle-fans-face-off-against-netflix-employees-protesting-comedians-trans-jokes/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews declared restrictions for the unvaccinated will continue on into 2022.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Andrews commented he’s unsure why the state of New South Wales has set a timetable for easing restrictions on the unvaccinated, but that it won’t be happening in Victoria.

Premier Daniel Andrews today stated in no uncertain terms that unvaccinated Victorians will remain excluded from economic and social activities well into 2022. Premier also warned double dosed Victorians they may be locked up if they don’t take booster shots if required. pic.twitter.com/YP0uQj2bFM— real Rukshan (@therealrukshan) October 19, 2021

“That doesn’t make any sense to me in any event and we won’t be doing that here,” he said.

“Why would you get the system going, why would you have the thing up and running and then essentially pull down all of the architecture that you’ve built, the culture that you’ve changed – why would you change that four or five weeks later? We will not be doing that here.”

“I’m not going to say to someone, just wait it out, just wait for five weeks and then you will be able to the pub,” Andrews said.

“No, if you make the judgement not to get vaccinated and you reckon you can wait out us, or the public, or whoever you want to think you’re waiting out, you won’t wait out the virus cause the virus will be here for a long time and your only protection against it is being vaccinated.”

“This will be well into 2022… well and truly into 2022,” the Australian premier outlined, next describing how the state of Victoria will go after booster dose refusers.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Abortion clinics in Texas rushed to abort as many babies as they could prior to the deadline for a recently enacted fetal heartbeat bill. According to far-left media outlet 19thnews.org, a Whole Women’s Health clinic in Fort Worth last week had a waiting room packed with expecting mothers who wanted to terminate their unwanted pregnancies. The bill passed last month bans abortions after 6 weeks, or after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The 19th gave a sympathetic depiction of the abortionists who ended the babies’ lives: It was 8 p.m. on Tuesday when Marva Sadler looked at the patients waiting in the lobby, at the list of patients waiting to return, at even more patients waiting outside in cars surrounded by protesters — and realized they might not get to everyone. In four hours, a near-total ban on abortions in Texas was set to take effect, and two dozen people were still waiting for the procedure at Whole Woman’s Health in Fort Worth, one of the largest abortion care clinics in the state. The article discussed how abortionists at the clinic calculated exactly how many babies they could legally murder before the Texas bill went into effect, and went about doing so by aborting babies non-stop til midnight.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

As further evidence that the US school system has lost the plot, students in Georgia were instructed to consider ‘eating babies’ as a way of solving world hunger. How much more depraved does it have to get before people wake up?

In the ongoing series entitled ‘US Schools Go Insane,’ one institution apparently thought that by slapping a ‘satire’ sticker on the most profane idea imaginable, the contraband would go unnoticed. On behalf of satire, I’m happy to report it didn't work.

As part of the inventive English lesson, which probably spoiled more than one trip to the cafeteria, high school students at Richmond Hill were tasked with finding ways of ‘raising and eating of babies to solve the world hunger problem’. Yum. Rhonda Thomas, founder and president of Truth in Education, broke down the details of the class assignment in a shocking interview with The New American. The information from the lesson plan that she divulged is nothing short of – as Thomas herself described it – “satanic.”

“Since the child has passed we don’t need to take up any more land for cemeteries so we slap [the babies] on the grill and cook their flesh and make delicious hamburgers…For mass production, we would encourage the US government to create a business negotiation with China about trying to reduce their population by donating children to our government,” the instruction stated.

“We also take children from all organizations, including foster care.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

While the Colorado governor solidly endorses paranoia-inducing deceit within family units, it appears he is likely referring to children who are at least 18 years of age, as unlike other liberal areas, Colorado does not make exceptions for minors to receive the COVID-19 vaccines without permission of a parent or guardian.

This is what happens to school age children in San Francisco, where the child is allowed to “consent” to receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines if the parent cannot be reached in a timely fashion.

Additionally, at press time the vaccines are only available to children who are 12 and older, though the government is telling hospitals to prepare for mass vaccination of children as young as five. (READ MORE: NIH Website Study Finds ‘No Discernible Relationship’ Between Vaccine Status And COVID Cases, Infection Rate May Be Higher Among Fully Vaxxed)

“Big Government has no business whatsoever in telling our children to lie to parents, keep secrets, and do as they are told,” wrote a conservative pundit at Colorado Peak Politics. “If you don’t believe us, ask the Catholic Church how that worked out for them.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Ex NYT editor Bari Weiss drew media attention after telling CNN’s Brian Stelter about censorship and cancel culture, only for him to pretend that it’s not really happening – or if it is, it’s a good thing.

Appearing on Stelter’s ‘Reliable Sources’ show on Sunday, Weiss tried to explain how the “world has gone mad” with wokeness and cancel culture that led to self-censorship both in the media and elsewhere.

Among the examples she cited were the NY Times’ chief Covid-19 reporter calling it “racist” to investigate the lab leak theory; separating children by race in kindergarten and calling it progress; and not being allowed to condemn rioting, say there are differences between men and women, or say that the Hunter Biden laptop story is worth covering.

globalreportage #europe #france #BidenAdministration #Anthonyblinken #worldnews #Israel #France #Europe #EU #globalreportage #brexit #uk #England #warzone #investigation #corruption #fitness #pakistan #Russia #syria #middleeast #soldiers #military #China #Vatican #pope #Justice #humanrights

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

An anti-Biden rap song inspired by the viral “Let’s go Brandon!” trend is now sitting at the top of the iTunes hip-hop chart.

The song, performed by rapper Loza Alexander and entitled “Let’s Go Brandon,” first went viral on TikTok before making a fast rise up the iTunes hip-hop chart to clinch the number one spot.

The “Lets Go Brandon” song includes the lyrics, “Don’t nobody like his ass, huh? Tried to cover up, by telling the people are saying ‘Let’s go Brandon”. But we know what they saying, though. You can hear the chant in every post.”

The official music video has more than 1 million views as of Monday morning.

The song was inspired by the “Let’s Go Brandon!” trend that has been sweeping the country since NBC sports reporter Kelli Stavast interviewed NASCAR driver Brandon Brown following his victory at Alabama’s Talladega Super Speedway earlier this month. During the interview, the crowd could clearly be heard chanting “Fuck Joe Biden” in the background, which the NBC reporter desperately tried to pass off as “Let’s Go Brandon!”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Current and former Southwest Airlines staff have gathered outside the company’s headquarters in Dallas, Texas to celebrate “medical freedom” and called on the airline to ditch its vaccine mandate.

On Monday, hundreds of demonstrators held signs aloft that read, “Terminate the mandate,” “Freedom not force” and “No jabs for jobs,” as they convened at Southwest Airlines’ headquarters in Dallas to protest against the mandate.

Attendees chanted “My body, my choice” as they lined the highway outside the airline facility. Some carried US flags, while another waved a flag adorned with an eagle superimposed on the stars and stripes.

In footage shared on Twitter, one pilot taking part in the protest said that the airline must stop its “medical tyranny”.

A public invitation for the demonstration, shared on Facebook, called on people to exercise their First Amendment right in the name of “freedom, not force.”

Southwest Airlines set a deadline for staff to be vaccinated against Covid for the first week of October under a federal mandate as a company holding contracts with the US government. The airline canceled thousands of flights last week amid rumors of staff calling in sick to protest against the vaccine mandate, with Southwest saying the cancelations were due to air traffic control issues and disruptive weather.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/18/southwest-airlines-workers-protest-against-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-outside-firms-hq/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Davos Group is pushing a UN plan to use worldwide “vaccine passports” to enforce global carbon taxes, which would make the cost of travel even more expensive.

The World Economic Forum, which hosts the Davos Group meetings, claims that a worldwide vaccine passport would lead to a “harmonization of varying national laws,” a necessary step to enforcing a global carbon tax.

We’ve already seen the Biden regime working with other countries to collude on an agreed-upon minimum 15% corporate tax rate across the world, so the “harmonization” is not unheard of when it comes to a global tax.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/18/davos-group-pushes-vaccine-passports-to-enforce-global-carbon-taxes/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

There are many conspiracy theories – some believe that reptilians are running the US government and others believe that Coca-Cola uses the blood of Christian babies to produce its soft drinks. There are people who have seen “chemtrails” and others who advocate wearing tinfoil hats when watching television to protect from destructive brainwashing waves. Often, the prophecies of Scripture are interpreted as a commentary on some technological discovery or event. But there are also rational facts that it doesn’t make sense to deny because they are documented. These include the existence of the Bilderberg club, the CIA’s MK-Ultra project, and George Soros’ funding of dubious political activities in a number of countries.

The case described below relates to an officially documented fact, although there is something rather biblical about it. Patent WO/2020/060606 was registered on 26 March 2020. The patent application was filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, headed by Bill Gates, back on 20 June 2019, and, on 22 April 2020, the patent was granted international status. The title of the patent is “Cryptocurrency system using body activity data”.

So, what is this invention that the people at Microsoft decided to patent? The abstract of the patent application online states: “Human body activity associated with a task provided to a user may be used in a mining process of a cryptocurrency system. A server may provide a task to a device of a user which is communicatively coupled to the server. A sensor communicatively coupled to or comprised in the device of the user may sense body activity of the user. Body activity data may be generated based on the sensed body activity of the user. The cryptocurrency system communicatively coupled to the device of the user may verify if the body activity data satisfies one or more conditions set by the cryptocurrency system, and award cryptocurrency to the user whose body activity data is verified.”

In other words, a chip will be inserted into the body that monitors a person’s daily physical activity in return for cryptocurrency. If conditions are met, then the person receives certain bonuses that can be spent on something.

A detailed description of the “invention” provides 28 concepts for how the device could be used.

It also provides a list of countries for which the invention is intended. Essentially, this is all the members of the United Nations and a few regional organization specified separately – the European Patent Office, the Eurasian Patent Organization, and two African intellectual property protection organization.

Although inserting microchips into the body is nothing new – the Masonic Youth Child Identification Program has been in operation in the US for a while, and people calling themselves cyborgs exhibit various implants – Microsoft’s involvement is interesting. And why has the patent been given the code number 060606? Is it a coincidence or the deliberate choice of what is referred to in the Book of Revelation as the number of the beast?

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/bill-gates-vaccinations-microchips-and-patent-060606/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The death of friends due to Covid lockdowns and political persecution won’t discourage us – instead, they plant in us new seeds of resistance. Crappy movies and books can’t distract us forever.

Since the Taliban’s unexpected success in reclaiming their country, the one thing I’ve been losing sleep over is, well, why can’t we have what they have? Are we Americans really so gaslit and demoralized by the self-anointed “adults in the room” that we dare not challenge their presence? Things are already bad and getting worse for too many of us. The ongoing improperly motivated Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates are backing many of us into corners out of which we have no choice but to fight.

Just the other day, I was riding a public bus to purchase a vehicle in a distant town. The driver refused admittance to a scraggly man who had clearly been waiting for too long under the scorching sun. In all but America’s greatest metropolises, to ride the bus is to be a member of the nation’s underclass. It means you are carless, and might as well be shoeless.http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/why-cant-we-americans-do-what-the-afghans-did-and-take-back-control-of-our-country/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A Western Sydney official has compared the latest anti-Covid measures imposed on his area by the New South Wales (NSW) state government to the times of Nazi Germany. His comment, since removed, caused a rumpus on social media.

Mayor Steve Christou, of Cumberland City Council, tweeted an official graphic illustrating new lockdown rules on Friday. Having posted the image that warned residents of the mandate that requires them to have a permit to leave the region and to register their personal details to be allowed to visit a “singles buddy” within a five-kilometer (three-mile) reach, he wrote: “Welcome to Nazi Germany.” The comment from the councilor, who describes himself as having “a tendency to speak what I think,” was later deleted.

The official has previously expressed his opposition to the tightening of lockdown rules and any mandatory vaccination, describing the situation as “dictatorial madness.”http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/welcome-to-nazi-germany-in-now-deleted-tweet-sydney-mayor-compares-strict-new-lockdown-laws-to-hitler-era-regime/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Video footage of Melbourne police checking whether a man’s coffee cup was empty to verify his excuse for not wearing a mask is stirring the latest round of online outrage over Australia’s dystopian Covid-19 policies.

While it is unclear when exactly the video was recorded, the clip went viral on social media on Friday and Saturday, showing several police officers confronting a man on what appears to be a park trail. One of the officers grabs the man’s coffee cup while asking, “Do you mind if I check if there’s actually anything in that?” He shakes the cup, and after apparently establishing that there was liquid inside, he backs away and tells the man, “Enjoy your coffee.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/australian-cops-slammed-for-checking-mans-beverage-to-verify-his-excuse-for-not-wearing-covid-19-mask/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The US military is offering “condolence payments” to a family in Afghanistan after a badly planned drone strike killed 10 civilians, including seven children, in the country’s capital in August, though did not provide any numbers.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby revealed the offer on Friday, stating that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made a “commitment” to the Akhmadi family for compensation following the August 29 drone strike, “including offering ex gratia condolence payments” and State Department assistance in relocating family members to the United States.

The offer was raised during a virtual meeting between Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl and Dr. Steven Kwon, who employed one of the Akhmadis killed in the strike at his US-based aid organization, Nutrition & Education International, long active in Afghanistan.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/pentagon-offers-unspecified-condolence-payments-for-7-afghan-children-aid-worker-murdered-in-botched-drone-strike/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Police are investigating an incident in which they say passengers on a crowded Philadelphia commuter train stood by and did not even call 911 while a woman was assaulted and raped by a 35-year-old man in plain view. The alleged attack reportedly occurred around 11pm on Wednesday as a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) train traveled from Philadelphia to neighboring suburb Upper Darby. SEPTA said one of its employees eventually saw the rape in progress and called police, enabling officers to apprehend the partially clothed suspect, later identified as Fiston Ngoy, near the victim. Investigators say the sexual attack happened while others were standing around on the train and “did nothing.” “Were they watching? I don’t know. Again, we’re still going through the video but there was a lot of people, in my opinion, that should’ve intervened. Somebody should’ve done something. It speaks to where we are in society. Who would allow something like that to take place? So it’s troubling but again, we’re working on that and we’re trying to identify anyone that we saw coming on and off the El at that time,” Upper Darby Police Superintendent Tim Bernhardt said. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/philadelphia-man-arrested-for-allegedly-raping-woman-on-crowded-commuter-train-as-other-passengers-watched-did-nothing/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

As many as 17 American Christian missionaries and their families, including children, have reportedly been kidnapped by gang members in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

The kidnapping happened as the missionaries were leaving an orphanage, the New York Times reports.

The group are being held by the armed gang, a local security source told the AFP news agency.

The US government is yet to provide any information on the incident.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/17/us-missionaries-reportedly-kidnapped-in-haiti/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Vatican enjoys sovereign immunity that protects it from sexual-abuse lawsuits in local courts, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled, after a case was put forward by 24 people who claim to be victims.

On Tuesday, the top court dismissed a case submitted by two dozen people who claim to be survivors of child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic clergy from France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The alleged survivors had initially filed a class action in the Ghent Court of First Instance against the Holy See and several high figures in the clergy in 2011, demanding €10,000 ($11,600) in compensation for each victim because of the Church’s “policy of silence on the issue of sexual abuse.”

The lawsuit complained “of the structurally deficient way in which the Church had dealt with the known problem of sexual abuse within it.”

Just over two years later, however, the Ghent Court said that it did not have jurisdiction over the Holy See, prompting the individuals to escalate their case to the top European court.

The ECHR on Tuesday sided with the Belgian court in a 6-1 ruling, which concluded that it agreed with its findings that the Holy See enjoyed “diplomatic immunity” and “was recognized internationally as having the common attributes of a foreign sovereign, with the same rights and obligations as a state.”

Last week, a bombshell missive unveiled that up to 330,000 children were sexually abused by clergy and lay members of France’s Catholic Church over a period of seven decades. Between 2,900 to 3,200 priests and clergy were accused of assault during this time.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A 2,500-page report conducted by an independent inquiry into allegations of abuse and subsequent cover-ups within France’s Catholic Church has declared that a “veil of silence” allowed clergy to assault victims for decades.

Jean-Marc Sauve, the president of the commission that examined the allegations, found the French Catholic Church had shown “a profound and even cruel indifference towards the victim” up until the 2000s, condemning the church’s hierarchy and dysfunction for failing to stop it.

Over the past 70 years, the inquiry established roughly 216,000 children were the victims of abuse, with that number potentially growing to 330,000 when including lay members. Out of a total of 115,000 priests and clergy during that time, evidence showed 2,900 to 3,200 were accused of abuse.

Sauve blamed a “veil of silence” within the French Catholic Church, ensuring that victims were “not believed, not heard,” and allowing “systemic” abuse to proliferate for decades unchallenged.

“That is devastating, because the ratio between 216,000 and 3,000, it’s one aggressor for 70 victims. That is terrifying for the French society, for the Catholic Church,” Olivier Savignac, head of victims’ association ‘Parler et Revivre’, which means ‘Speak Out and Live Again’, said ahead of the report’s release. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/13/330000-children-were-abused-by-clergy-and-lay-members-within-frances-catholic-church-since-1950s/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Militant groups in northern Mali’s Kidal region have been trained by French officers, Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga claimed in an interview with RIA Novosti, saying two-thirds of his country is “occupied by terrorists.”

Mali has evidence that French forces present in its territory with a mission to counter terrorist groups have been instead “training” militants, the transitional government’s prime minister told Russia’s RIA news agency on Friday. According to the Malian official, France now controls an enclave in Kidal, with Mali having no access. “They have militant groups there, who have been trained by French officers. We have evidence of that. There is an expression in our language, saying that when you are looking for a needle in your room and someone, said to be helping you in the search, is standing on that needle, you will never find it. So this is the situation happening now in Mali, and we don’t want to bear with it,” Maiga said. The politician explained that terrorists now operating in Mali “came from Libya,” with France and its allies having destroyed the North African state in an ill-fated 2011 military intervention led by NATO. Initially, Bamako wanted to cooperate with Paris in fighting terrorists and asked for assistance with intelligence data and air support. “No one asked for its ground presence,” the prime minister said. While “eight years ago terrorists were present only in the northern part of Mali, in Kidal, now two thirds of the country are occupied by terrorists,” he added.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Protests in France against the vaccine passport mandate have escalated this weekend after protesters encountered masked people. During the demonstrations in the southern city of Toulouse, unmasked and masked people are seen in a video with 3.4 million viewers as they attack each other with sticks.

The official data reveals that over 120,000 people came together on Saturday, protesting the government’s decision to impose Coronavirus health passes for entering public places like cafes and restaurants. According to protesters, the decision is discriminating towards unvaccinated citizens.

The French Interior Ministry announced that out of 121,000 protesters, 19,000 were counted in Paris, where the police arrested 85 people, and three police representatives were reported to be injured.

People have been protesting against the matter for the ninth weekend in a row, although the official figures reveal that the number of participants has decreased in the last demonstrations.

Furthermore, the official authorities revealed that 140,000 people participated in the protest last weekend, whereas there were 237,000 protesters in early August.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Group of 20 (G20) has agreed to work together to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, even if it means having to coordinate efforts with the Taliban, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said after hosting an emergency summit.

The European Union opened the talks on Tuesday by pledging one billion euros ($1.2bn), which will go to urgent humanitarian needs and also to assist neighbouring countries taking in Afghans who have been fleeing since the Taliban took control of the country on August 15.

“There has basically been a convergence of views on the need to address the humanitarian emergency,” Draghi told reporters at the end of the special video conference.

United States President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many European leaders joined the virtual summit, which took place as the Taliban held its first face-to-face talks with a US-EU delegation in Qatar. China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sent representatives rather than attending themselves.

Draghi said the two leaders’ absence did not undercut the importance of the meeting organised by Italy, the current G20 chair.

“This was the first multilateral response to the Afghan crisis … multilateralism is coming back, with difficulty, but it is coming back,” Draghi said.

There was unanimous agreement among the participants about the need to alleviate the crisis in Afghanistan, where the country’s assets overseas have been frozen, banks have run out of money, civil servants have not been paid, and food prices have soared. Millions are at risk of severe hunger as winter approaches.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

France has been accused of stealing five million coronavirus vaccine doses destined for the UK.

President Emmanuel Macron allegedly worked with EU chiefs to divert the large batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs to his country earlier this year.

The vaccines were expected to arrive in the UK but were instead redirected from Holland at the eleventh hour, according to The Sun.

The newspaper quoted senior government sources as saying the “outrageous” move could have cost lives if not for the UK’s successful rollout of the Pfizer jab.

AstraZeneca boss Ruud Dobber had announced publicly on 22 March that a vaccine batch was expected to arrive in Britain from its Halix site in Holland.

But it reportedly never arrived, having instead been diverted to the EU’s scheme.

The Sun said it was also claimed France made a veiled threat to prime minister Boris Johnson that it would cut off supplies of Pfizer, which would have jeopardized Britain’s vaccine rollout.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

YouTube’s censorship of two German-language RT channels is part of ongoing ‘aggression’ against the outlet with both tacit and overt approval from Berlin, and will be met with reprisals, the Russian Foreign Ministry has warned. The Google-owned video platform deleted RT DE and Der Fehlende Part (DFP) channels on Tuesday, saying they attempted to circumvent a ‘community guidelines’ strike for ‘medical misinformation’ in four videos Describing the move as “an act of unprecedented information aggression” and “obvious manifestation of censorship and suppression of freedom of expression,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said YouTube acted “with obvious connivance, if not at the insistence,” of German authorities. While hoping that Tuesday’s action isn’t a media version of Barbarossa – the code name given to the Nazi Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union – Moscow said that it was particularly cynical, considering September 28 is the UN-designated international day for universal access to information. The ministry pointed out that Germany has subjected the Russian broadcaster to “many years of harassment, including blocking bank accounts, defamation” and more, and said the purpose of the aggressive act was to “silence the sources of information that do not fit the media landscape the German officialdom is comfortable with.” http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/02/russian-foreign-ministry-denounces-aggression-that-aims-to-silence-rt-after-youtube-bans-two-german-language-channels/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Finland, Denmark and Sweden are limiting the use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine in young people over concerns around rare cardiovascular side effects.

Finland’s national health authority, THL, announced Thursday that it would pause the use of Moderna’s Covid vaccine in young men. All males aged 30 or younger would be offered the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine instead.

The decision by THL followed announcements from its Swedish and Danish counterparts on Wednesday that both would be restricting the use of the Moderna vaccine in similar demographics.

In Sweden, the use of the vaccine will be stopped in people born in 1991 or later, while Denmark is pausing the Moderna shot in everyone under the age of 18.

The decision the three countries have made to limit the use of the Moderna vaccine centers around concerns it could be linked to cases of myocarditis, a condition where the heart muscle becomes inflamed. All three health authorities cited an unpublished Nordic study which had been sent to the European Medicines Agency for assessment, according to Reuters.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/09/finland-denmark-and-sweden-restrict-the-use-of-modernas-covid-vaccine-due-to-link-with-heart-inflammation/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Iceland will no longer administer Moderna’s mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, with the country’s chief epidemiologist citing the risk of rare heart inflammations seen in other Nordic countries.

The announcement was made by Icelandic health authorities on Friday. Officials stated that Iceland has been administering Moderna’s Spikevax shot over the last two months as a booster for those already inoculated with either two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or one shot of Johnson & Johnson’s jab.

Some 75% of Icelanders are fully vaccinated, and health officials maintain that there is a sufficient supply of Pfizer’s vaccine to continue the rollout without the Moderna shots. Pfizer’s is already recommended for under-18s in Iceland.

The decision to halt Moderna vaccinations was made after adverse effects to the shot were noted in several other Nordic nations, which have since restricted their own rollouts of the jab.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/09/iceland-stops-use-of-modernas-covid-vaccine-for-all-ages-over-heart-inflammation-concerns/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The US government spent $85 billion on the Afghan military, only to see it surrender to the Taliban without a fight. Now the son of a former defense minister is spending millions to buy a luxury mansion with a view of Los Angeles.

A man by the name of Daoud Wardak recently bought the Trousdale Estates property in Beverly Hills for $20.9 million, Yahoo News reported, citing real estate records. He was described as an “ethnic Pashtun refugee” born in 1977, with public records showing him as president of AD Capital Group, based in Miami, Florida.

Wardak already owns a $5.2 million at the St. Regis Bal Harbor resort in Miami Beach, according to the same sources. His new Beverly Hills mansion, known as the Carla Ridge Residence, was recently redesigned in a “contemporary minimalism” style and offers views of the Los Angeles skyline through its glass walls.

Daoud is the younger son of Abdul Rahim Wardak, who served as defense minister in the US-backed government in Kabul between 2004 and 2012. The former mujahideen fighter was a key player in setting up the Afghan National Army (ANA) – the same force that collapsed without a fight in August, leaving the Taliban in control of the country even before US troops had a chance to leave.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/09/son-of-former-afghan-defense-minister-buys-20-million-beverly-hills-mansion-media-reveals/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Former President Donald Trump lashed out against Haitian immigrants looking to enter the US, saying that hundreds of thousands of them were “flowing in” and “probably have AIDS,” echoing disparaging remarks he made toward Haiti during his tenure as president.

Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday evening, Trump said that allowing Haitians into the US is “like a death wish for our country.” He went on to make several unfounded claims about immigrants and even spoke of a conspiracy by other countries against the US.

“There’s one other thing that nobody talks about,” the former president said.

“So we have hundreds of thousands of people flowing in from Haiti. Haiti has a tremendous AIDS problem. AIDS is a step beyond. AIDS is a real bad problem.”

“So hundreds of thousands of people are coming into our country and if you look at the stats and you look at the numbers, if you look at just – take a look at what’s happening in Haiti, a tremendous problem with AIDS,” Mr Trump said. http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/08/trump-baselessly-claims-haitian-immigrants-entering-the-us-probably-have-aids-and-letting-them-come-in-is-like-a-death-wish/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister warns his nation is preparing for war with China and urges Australia to increase intelligence sharing and security cooperation as Beijing intensifies a campaign of military intimidation. Dozens of aircraft from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have flown sorties into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) since Friday, prompting the self-ruled island to scramble its own military jets.

Speaking to the ABC’s China Tonight program, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu declared that if the PLA were to launch an actual strike, his democratic state would be ready to repel it.

“The defense of Taiwan is in our own hands, and we are absolutely committed to that,” Mr Wu has told the ABC’s Stan Grant in an interview to be broadcast on Monday evening.

“If China is going to launch a war against Taiwan we will fight to the end, and that is our commitment. I’m sure that if China is going to launch an attack against Taiwan, I think they are going to suffer tremendously as well.”

The minister from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party believes other like-minded countries such as Australia should now come to the aid of his besieged nation by developing closer ties.

“We would like to engage in security or intelligence exchanges with other like-minded partners, Australia included, so Taiwan is better prepared to deal with the war situation. And so far, our relations with Australia [are] very good and that is what we appreciate”, Mr Wu added.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/04/taiwan-preparing-for-possible-war-with-china-asks-australia-for-help/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Facebook’s offices are as much of a mess for employees as its social media platforms are for users, according to anonymous workers who’ve spoken to reporters in the midst of the apparent companywide breakdown.

As the major Facebook outage dragged into hours, a Reddit poster claiming to be a member of the “recovery/investigation team” wrote the companywide snafu was indeed a “global outage for all FB-related services/infra[structure]” and explained that while repairs were underway, “the people with physical access is [sic] separate from the people with knowledge of how to actually authenticate to the systems and people who know what to actually do, so there is now a logistical challenge with getting all that knowledge unified.”

Facebook’s DNS [Domain Name Servers] were down due to what several commenters suggested was a configuration change that took effect right before the mega-crash.

“Something BIG seems to have died inside Facebook’s network,” Jim Salter, a reporter at ArsTechnica tracking the crashing-and-burning at Facebook HQ, observed, while DDoS protection provider Cloudflare’s senior vice president reported the entire Facebook network was unreachable

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/04/facebook-plunged-into-chaos-as-employees-cant-access-servers-or-even-their-workspaces/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp are all down, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg has another headache: The personal data of 1.5 billion customers, scraped from his platform, is reportedly being offered for sale on the dark web.

User IDs, real names, email addresses, phone numbers, and locations are among the data of more than 1.5 billion Facebook customers that’s up for sale, according to a report on the cybersecurity news outlet Privacy Affairs on Monday. The going price has been quoted as $5,000 for a million names.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/04/scraped-data-of-1-5-billion-facebook-users-offered-for-sale-on-the-dark-web-reports/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Mark Zuckerberg is facing some major financial consequences, according to Forbes, losing billions of dollars, as well as his No.5-richest man rank as users continue to be shut out of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

After mass complaints about the various platforms in the Facebook family being down, and users getting error messages when trying to log on, the company said it was working to resolve the issue.

With all four now off-air for several hours, Zuckerberg has faced a pile-on on rival social media platforms, and habitual Facebook users have taken to other apps that aren’t experiencing issues, such as Twitter and Telegram, to express their dissatisfaction. Many have even temporarily celebrated the absence of Facebook.

Zuckerberg has lost billions as a result of the outage, according to real-time tracking by Forbes. Its list of “today’s winners and losers” tracks from the close of business the previous day, meaning the CEO’s massive losses have clearly occurred since users began experiencing technical issues.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/04/zuckerberg-loses-over-7-billion-as-facebook-empire-outage-drags-into-hours/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Chinese military on Monday sent 52 military planes into Taiwan’s air defense zone — the most ever in a single day — one day after the U.S. issued a warning to Beijing over similar flights it conducted in recent days.

China has sent 145 flights into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone in the past four days, including Monday’s incursion, which was first reported by Fox News.

“The United States is very concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement on Sunday evening. “We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan.”

The flights began on October 1 when 38 People’s Liberation Army aircraft flew close to southwest Taiwan before circling back as modern China celebrated the 72nd anniversary of its founding, CBS News reported. Chinese planes flew 39 more sorties the next day and another 16 flights the day after that — all following a similar path.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/04/china-flies-52-military-planes-into-taiwanese-airspace-in-largest-incursion-ever/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Police in Melbourne arrested more than 100 demonstrators at a rally against mandatory vaccination. The protest came after Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews issued a fresh round of vaccine mandates, affecting over a million workers.

Andrews announced on Friday that all Victoria residents working outside their homes need to have a first Covid-19 vaccine dose by October 15 and be fully vaccinated by November 26. The mandate will affect around 1.2 million Victorians, the Guardian reported, working in a range of occupations including retail, law, media and professional sports. It comes on top of existing mandates for healthcare, education and construction workers.

These mandates, and the draconian lockdown implemented by Victoria authorities, have led to mass demonstrations marked by extreme police brutality. Locals in Melbourne took to the streets again on Saturday to protest against the mandates, but the several dozen demonstrators were outnumbered by cops, who soon chased them away on horseback, while officers on foot tackled and arrested some among the crowd.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/02/protesters-arrested-as-australian-police-crack-down-on-vaccine-mandate-demonstrators/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A top U.S. official on Friday apologized for how Haitian migrants were treated along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it’s not how border officials or the Department of Homeland Security behave.

The comments from Juan Gonzalez, the U.S. National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, came during a two-day official visit to Haiti to talk with local leaders about migration and other issues.

“I want to say that it was an injustice, that it was wrong,” he said. “The proud people of Haiti and any migrant deserve to be treated with dignity.”

The U.S. government recently came under fire for its treatment of Haitian migrants, with images showing men on horseback, corralling Haitian asylum seekers.

Gonzalez was visiting with Brian Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, amid ongoing expulsions of Haitians from the U.S. to their homeland. Since Sept. 19, the U.S. has expelled some 4,600 Haitian migrants from Del Rio, Texas on 43 flights, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Gonzalez said the gathering of migrants along the border is a public health emergency and warned those who are thinking of leaving not to risk their lives.

“The danger is too great,” he said.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/10/02/us-official-in-haiti-apologizes-for-treatment-of-migrants/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a founder of the Taliban who will control prisons under the new government in Afghanistan, said strict punishment, including amputations and executions, will return.

“Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi said in Kabul during an interview, which was published Thursday by the Associated Press. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam, and we will make our laws on the Quran.”

Under the Taliban’s previous rule of Afghanistan, Turabi served as justice minister and head of the so-called Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a position the Associated Press stated was “the religious police.” During that time, amputations and executions were carried out for criminal offenses, including theft and highway robbery.

According to Turabi, those same practices will be brought back.

“Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security,” Turabi said, claiming it was a deterrent to theft and other crime.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/09/26/taliban-founder-says-strict-punishment-amputations-to-return-to-afghanistan/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The FBI has launched an investigation into the alleged assault of a female soldier perpetrated by a group of male Afghan refugees being lodged at a New Mexico military complex.

The agency is pursuing a tip originating from the Fort Bliss Afghan refugee housing complex in New Mexico that a female service member, whose identity has not been revealed, was attacked on September 19 by a “small group of male evacuees,” Fox News first reported following receipt of confirmation from the FBI.

“We received the referral from Fort Bliss, and our office is investigating the allegation,” FBI public affairs officer special agent Jeanette Harper told Fox News.

“We can confirm a female service member supporting Operation Allies Welcome reported being assaulted on Sept. 19 by a small group of male evacuees at the Doña Ana Complex in New Mexico,” the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss Public Affairs wrote in a statement obtained by Fox News. “We take the allegation seriously and appropriately referred the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The safety and well-being of our service members, as well as all of those on our installations, is paramount.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/09/26/fbi-investigates-alleged-attack-on-by-male-afghan-refugees-on-female-us-soldier-at-new-mexico-base/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The US envoy to Haiti has resigned after just two months in the role, in protest at what he called the Biden administration’s “inhumane” mass deportation of Haitian migrants and asylum-seekers to what he said was a highly dangerous “collapsed state”. Daniel Foote’s angry resignation letter is a serious blow for an administration which came to office promising a more humane approach to immigration in the wake of Donald Trump’s policy of child separation. But it has been overwhelmed by a surge of Haitian migrants and refugees fleeing the implosion of the country’s society after the assassination in July of its president, Jovenel Moïse, triggered chaos that was then compounded by a powerful earthquake in August. Foote, who has previously served as deputy chief of mission in Haiti and ambassador in Zambia, was appointed special envoy after Moïse’s killing, which remains unsolved.

After some 14,000 migrants gathered in an impromptu camp under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) bureau started flying hundreds out on multiple flights every day, without the opportunity for asylum appeals or hearings. “I will not be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs to daily life,” Foote said in his letter to the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, that was leaked on Thursday. “Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own.”

http://globalreportage.org/2021/09/23/daniel-boote-u-s-special-envoy-to-haiti-resigns-over-inhumane-decision-to-deport-haitian-migrants/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Biden administration is advertising for a new contract to operate a migrant detention facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, with a requirement that some of the guards speak Spanish and Haitian Creole, according to government records.

A little-known immigrant holding facility on the base has a capacity of 120 people, the records say, and it “will have an estimated daily population of 20 people,” according to a solicitation for bids issued Friday by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the solicitation, formal bidding is expected to take place later this fall.

“The service provider shall be responsible to maintain on site the necessary equipment to erect temporary housing facilities for populations that exceed 120 and up to 400 migrants in a surge event,” the contract solicitation says.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Footage obtained Sunday night shows Border Patrol officers on horseback, waiting on the US side of the Rio Grande as migrants – some of them families with young children – wade through chest-deep waters trying to cross.

Officers can be seen charging their horses toward migrants carrying food and supplies. Some of them are swinging what appears to be lariats.

At one point, a Border Patrol officer appears to hit a man, sending him falling back into the water.

Many of those migrants were reportedly already camped out in a makeshift tent city under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. They had crossed back to Mexico to purchase water, food and diapers in Ciudad Acuña.

On Monday Psaki was asked about a double standard in letting Afghan refugees resettle in the US but forcefully turning away Haitian refugees at a time when the country is dealing with the aftermath of an earthquake and a presidential assassination.

‘Our immigration policy is not about one country or discriminating against one country over another. We want to end that and we want to put an end to what we saw over the last four years,’ she said, referring to the Trump administration.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The U.S. is flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signals the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades.

More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights Sunday, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, the official said.

The only obvious parallel for such an expulsion without an opportunity to seek asylum was in 1992 when the Coast Guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea, said Yael Schacher, senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International whose doctoral studies focused on the history of U.S. asylum law.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The race to airlift 15000 Haitian migrants back into harm’s way without offering them legal protection they are entitled to under US and international law using a dubious loophole to prevent them from applying for political asylum would be considered inhumane, cruel and un-American under any circumstance but Biden’s actions seem especially bizarre in the present moment as it is happening at the same time that the Biden administration is rushing to vet tens of thousands of hastily airlifted Afghan refugees for a shot at the American Dream. Perhaps some of the same planes that helped Afghan refugees crammed onto a Kabul tarmac escape the Taliban will now ferry the people crammed under that Texas bridge back to the bullet-ridden streets of Port-au-Prince.

Biden is following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott in failing to see these 14,000 Haitian souls as humans beings seeking a better life.

“We are all looking for a better life,” Junior Jean, a 32-year-old Haitian native who escaped the island’s many depredations four years ago only to survive by picking through garbage cans in Brazil’s largest city of Rio de Janeiro before making the dangerous trek to the U.S. southern border. As Jean spoke to an Associated Press reporter — one of the few journalists, it seems, who actually asked our fellow humans what they were doing here rather than going for the drone-powered scare shots — the two were surrounded by families trying to keep their small bags of food and water dry from the fast-moving river.

It feels like far too many Americans — including the ones making the decisions — don’t want to hear these personal stories, or to understand the reasons why someone would flee the only country they’d ever known to wander across a hostile Latin America for years, and why the longshot of asylum in America — where many of them know friends or family living comfortable lives on the other side of a manmade line — is worth a do-or-die gamble. Apparently seeing these Haitians as people just like us — who’d risk everything if necessary to make a better life for their children — would spoil the optics of our own political games.

http://globalreportage.org/2021/09/20/bidens-decision-to-ramp-up-deportation-of-haitian-migrants-to-violence-and-earthquake-ravaged-haiti-exposes-the-racist-cruel-inhumane-hypocrisy-his-administration/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The race to airlift Haitian migrants back into harm’s way without offering them legal protection they are entitled to under US and international law using a dubious loophole to prevent them from applying for political asylum would be considered inhumane, cruel and un-American under any circumstance but Biden’s actions seem especially bizarre in the present moment as it is happening at the same time that the Biden administration is rushing to vet tens of thousands of hastily airlifted Afghan refugees for a shot at the American Dream. Perhaps some of the same planes that helped Afghan refugees crammed onto a Kabul tarmac escape the Taliban will now ferry the people crammed under that Texas bridge back to the bullet-ridden streets of Port-au-Prince. Biden is following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott in failing to see these 14,000 Haitian souls as humans beings seeking a better life. http://globalreportage.org/2021/09/19/biden-administration-to-ramp-up-deportation-flights-to-haiti-reversing-promises-to-abandon-trump-era-xenophobic-policies/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Pentagon, in reversal, says airstrike failed to hit Islamic State militants as intended but instead killed an aid worker and 9 other civilians including 7 children.

Even as reports of civilian casualties emerged, the top U.S. general had described the attack as “righteous”.

The head of U.S. Central Command, Marine Corps General Frank McKenzie, said that at the time he had been confident it averted an imminent threat to the forces at the airport.

“Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake,” McKenzie told reporters.

He said he now believed it unlikely that those killed were members of the local Islamic State affiliate, ISIS-Khorasan, or posed a threat to U.S. troops. The Pentagon was considering reparations, McKenzie said.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

According to the book, Milley contacted Zuocheng after he had reviewed intelligence that suggested Chinese officials believed the United States was planning an attack on China amid military exercises in the South China Sea.

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK,” Milley told him during the first call, the book said. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. Gen. Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time,” Milley added, as reported by the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week. “It’s not going to be a surprise.”

The authors of the book also claim Milley contacted Zuocheng a second time to reassure him that the U.S. would not make any type of advances or attack China in any form, as Milley promised, “We are 100% steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.”

Those phone calls, according to the book, were never mentioned to Trump, as Milley believed his mental state had declined following the election, something about which he shared his thoughts in a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Jan. 8, the same day he called Zuocheng the second time. According to Pelosi, she spoke with Milley that day about “available precautions” to prevent Trump from engaging in military action.

The book also alleges that Milley made a phone call to the admiral in charge of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and suggested postponing any additional military exercises. The book also noted that Milley requested senior officers swear an “oath” that his involvement be necessary should Trump give an order to launch nuclear weapons during his final days in office.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

France has said it is recalling its ambassadors in the US and Australia for consultations, in protest at a security deal which also includes the UK.

The French foreign minister said the “exceptional decision” was justified by the situation’s “exceptional gravity”.

The alliance, known as Aukus, will see Australia being given the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.

The move angered France as it scuppered a multibillion-dollar deal it had signed with Australia.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

France has reacted with outrage to news that the United States and Britain would help Australia develop submarines, and that Australia would withdraw from a $66 billion 2016 deal to buy French-built submarines. At its heart, the diplomatic storm is also a business matter — a loss of revenue for France’s military industry, and a gain for American companies.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s foreign minister, told Franceinfo radio that the submarine deal was a “unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision” by the United States, and he compared the American move to the rash and sudden policy shifts common during the Trump administration.

“This looks like a new geopolitical order without binding alliances,” said Nicole Bacharan, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris. “To confront China, the United States appears to have chosen a different alliance, with the Anglo-Saxon world separate from France.” She predicted a “very hard” period in the old friendship between Paris and Washington.

France canceled a gala scheduled for Friday at its embassy in Washington to mark the 240th anniversary of a Revolutionary War battle.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Sheikh Haibatullah joined young religious students to fights the Soviets as part of the ‘Islamist resistance’. He continued his studies at a madrassa in Pakistan, and grew to become the religious ‘adviser’ of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar, and gradually reached the status of sheikh ul-hadith or outstanding religious scholar and mawlawi — two of the most senior religious titles.

His association with the Taliban traces back to when it was first founded in the 1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Due to his scholarly background, he is known more as a religious leader than a military commander. But when the Taliban captured Afghanistan’s Farah province, he was appointed to oversee law and order in the area. He was later appointed to the Taliban’s military court in Kandahar and eventually transferred to the Nangarhar province where he headed the military court.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A French drone strike killed the leader of the Islamic State group in the Greater Sahara, believed to be the mastermind of attacks in Niger that claimed the lives of four U.S. soldiers in 2017 and six French aid workers last year

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the death of Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi overnight calling him “enemy No. 1” in protracted anti-terrorism efforts in the region.

“[Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi], leader of the terrorist group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara was neutralised by French forces,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet on Thursday.

According to Macron’s office, al-Sahrawi personally ordered the killing of six French aid workers and their Nigerien colleagues last year, and his group was behind a 2017 attack that killed U.S. and Niger military personnel.

The August operation, which was months in the making, with drone strikes and commando assaults in a lawless region on the border between Mali and Niger, targeted Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, the leader of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.

“His death deals a decisive blow to the leadership of the Islamic State in the Sahel,” France’s armed forces minister, Florence Parly, told a news conference on Thursday, referring to the arid region south of the Sahara Desert. “They will without a doubt have trouble replacing him.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Al Quaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared in a video commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks despite rumors that he died months earlier. In the video, titled “Jerusalem Will Not be Judaized,” al-Zawahiri displayed knowledge of events that had taken place since last November, when rumors of his death began to emerge. She mentioned how he referenced a January 2021 raid of a Russian military base in Syria by Hurras al-Deen, a group aligned with al Qaeda.

”Amid rumors of his death, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri shown in a new 60-minute video, this time offering some evidence that he is not dead articularly, reference to events after December when rumors of death surfaced,” Katz continued.

Katz also noted how al-Zawahiri made no mention of a Taliban victory in Afghanistan and spoke only of U.S. forces making an exit from the country, which she said could have applied as early as February 2020 upon completion of the Doha Agreement

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Haiti’s chief prosecutor is seeking charges against Prime Minister Ariel Henry in relation to the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Bed-Ford Claude, the Port-au-Prince government commissioner, the equivalent of a federal prosecutor, on Tuesday asked the judge investigating the killing to charge Henry with involvement in the case over alleged phone calls Henry made with one of the main suspects.

Claude also requested that Henry be barred from leaving Haiti “due to the gravity of the facts exposed”.

“There are enough compromising elements … to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment,” Claude wrote in the order.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

In the early hours of the morning news broke that North Korea had launched missiles from its east coast towards Japan. Japan’s Coast Guard confirmed that two objects landed just outside their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Now images of the launch have been released by Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper and propaganda mouthpiece of North Korea’s ruling party.

The terrifying images, which show the deadly missiles taking off in a cloud of fire and smoke from the back of a train, were accompanied by a statement. It revealed that Park Jeong-cheon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and a leading member of the Politburo, oversaw the testing of the “railway-borne missile regiment”.

The statement read: “The 8th Congress of the Party… organized a railway-borne missile regiment to increase the capability of dealing an intensive multi-concurrent blow at the forces posing threats to us at a time of conducting necessary military operations.

“The regiment finished rapid movement and deployment according to the norm of the operation and action procedures of the railway-borne missile system, and accurately struck the target in the East Sea of Korea according to the firepower mission.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Joe Biden threw his weight behind the top US military officer on Wednesday, saying he had “great confidence” in the general who, according to a new book, made secret phone calls to Chinese Communist Army top General promising to provide warning of any impending US attack against China.

Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, defended his secret phone calls he made to his Chinese military counterpart in the final months of Trump’s presidency, signaling that the hitherto secret conversations were in keeping with his duties.

“I have great confidence in General Milley,” Biden said at the White House, when asked if the military leader had done the right thing by intervening

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The US, UK and Australia are setting up a trilateral security partnership aimed at confronting China, which will include helping Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines.

The initiative, called Aukus, was announced jointly by President Joe Biden and prime ministers Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, following US briefings which described the agreement as binding the three English-speaking countries together.

Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, said they were “natural allies” even though “we may be separated geographically” and said the alliance would create “a new defence partnership and driving jobs and prosperity”.

A senior US official described the agreement as “a fundamental decision, that binds decisively Australia to the United States and Great Britain for generations”.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

During the final months of former President Donald Trump‘s term, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made two secret phone calls to his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army after he had reviewed intelligence that suggested Chinese officials believed the United States was planning an attack on China amid military exercises in the South China Sea.

“General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK,” Milley told him during the first call, the book said. “We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you. Gen. Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time,” Milley added, as reported by the book, “Peril,” which is set to be released next week. “It’s not going to be a surprise.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, claimed Tuesday that someone in the White House other than President Biden is “calling the shots.”

Risch made the comments during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the senator called a “dismal failure.”

“One of the things we need to get to the bottom to is who is responsible for this? Who made the decisions?” Risch said. “[Biden] can’t even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or signing off on it.”

The senator cited an instance Monday in which the White House abruptly ended the feed of Biden’s briefing on wildfires with federal and state officials, cutting him off mid-sentence during a question to George Geissler of the National Association of State Foresters.

Risch said at Tuesday’s hearing, “This is a puppeteer act, if you would, and we need to know who’s in charge and who is making the decisions.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

http://globalreportage.org/2021/09/14/the-taliban-cut-off-the-heads-of-two-boys-who-were-nine-and-ten/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A pool of water located close to the Dead Sea in the biblical region of Moab – modern day Jordan – has mysteriously turned blood red.

Water from the red lagoon just inside the Jordanian border is being sampled by workers from Jordan’s Ministry of Water and Irrigation to determine the cause of the unsettling phenomenon which is as yet unexplained.

The images have sparked a furore on social media, with blood red waters carrying much significance in the Old Testament as one of the 10 plagues God cast upon the Pharaoh of Egypt to free the Jews from slavery.

According to the biblical tale, God turned the waters of the River Nile into blood, which killed the fish and prevented the Egyptians from drinking the foul water, in the first of 10 plagues that came as the Pharaoh’s punishment for refusing to free his Jewish slaves.

The eastern shores of the Dead Sea where the blood red pond is located also happens to be where the two legendary cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood before they were supposedly destroyed by God for their wickedness.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Taliban have shut down internet services in several parts of Kabul following massive protests in the Afghanistan capital. According to media reports, the Islamic militant group has decided to cut internet connections to curb the mobilisation of crowds in the area.

Reports said the Taliban intelligence ordered the internet blockage, fearing the circulation of the message through social media.

Earlier this week, hundreds of Afghans, including women, took to the streets to protest against the Taliban regime. A number of men and women also shouted slogans such as “Long live the resistance” and “Death to Pakistan” while marching in the streets to protest against the Taliban takeover.

Following these protests, the interim Taliban government issued a set of conditions for protests. According to the conditions for protests issued by the Taliban Ministry of Interior, demonstrators will now have to secure prior permission from the Taliban Ministry of Justice before holding a protest

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A Taliban spokesperson, rejecting all possibilities of women being included in the Afghanistan government under the Taliban rule, said: “A woman can’t be a minister, it is like you put something on her neck that she can’t carry”.

Quashing all possibilities of women being included in the government under the Taliban in Afghanistan, a spokesperson of the group said women should restrict themselves to giving birth.

Outraged by the formation of a hard-line, all-male Taliban government, scores of Afghan women,risking their lives, have taken to the streets to protest against the same.

Reacting to the protests and the outrage over the all-male government, the Taliban spokesperson Sayed Zekrullah Hashimi, in an interview to Tolo News, said, “A woman can’t be a minister, it is like you put something on her neck that she can’t carry”.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The higher education minister in the new Taliban government said that women will be allowed to study in gender-segregated universities.

Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities, including at post-graduate levels, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress is compulsory, the higher education minister in the new Taliban government said Sunday.

The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, laid out the new policies at a news conference, several days after Afghanistan’s new rulers formed an all-male government.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Taliban murdered a pregnant policewoman in front of her family on Saturday night, according to her son. Her death, in the central Afghanistan province of Ghor, adds to mounting concerns about the repression of women under the Taliban’s rule. The victim’s full name was Negar Masoomi, her sister told reporters. Her killing was also confirmed to international reporters by a local journalist in Ghor, who said she worked in Ghor prison and was eight months pregnant when she died. The Taliban told reporters they were not involved in her death, but have launched an investigation.

Video showed her son Mohammad Hanif giving his account of the murder, saying that the Taliban came inside the house where his family lives, then took himself and his brothers outside and tied them up.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The threat of violence has long been a harsh reality for many Afghan women: a survey by the Demographic and Health programme of USAID conducted in 2015 showed that 90% of women in some areas of the country have experienced violence from their husband. Women who manage to leave their abusive partners and families frequently experience further abuse from those who we may think of as trustworthy, including the police, doctors and government officials.

While safe houses for women did exist before the Taliban takeover – mostly in Kabul – these shelters were already perceived as shameful and immoral by many in Afghan society. For a survivor of violence living in a safe house, leaving for any reason is dangerous and requires a bodyguard, even to go to the doctor.

As a global health researcher, I have spent the past five years documenting women’s experiences of domestic violence in Afghanistan. We have talked to more than 200 women and men about violence against women and mental health across the country.

This has been one of the hardest places I have ever worked, politically and ethically. In most other countries, women who have survived violence are protected by government institutions, but in my experience, this has never been the case in Afghanistan. We have had to stop our research numerous times because the situation became too dangerous for survivors of violence, and we were afraid of putting the women we were trying to help at further risk.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

A Taliban spokesman made clear what kind of role women would play under the new regime, and it doesn’t bode well for those hoping for an inclusive government.

In an interview on Afghanistan’s Tolo News on Thursday, Sayed Zekrullah Hashimi said women are incapable of performing government duties.

“A woman cannot do the work of the ministry — you put something on her neck that she cannot carry,” Hashimi said, according to a translation

He dismissed the women who took to the streets to protest against the new government, arguing it does not indicate how most women in the country feel.

“The four women protesting in the streets do not represent the women of Afghanistan,” he said. “The women of Afghanistan are those who give birth to the people of Afghanistan and educate them on Islamic ethics.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Trump opened his Saturday video message by calling 9/11 a day of “great sorrow for our country” and one for honoring the “the bravery of our police, fire and first responders of every kind.”

“The job they did was truly unbelievable. We love them and we thank them,” the former president said.

The Republican then launched into an attack on Biden over the handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“It is also a sad time for the way our war on those that did such harm to our country ended last week. The loss of 13 great warriors and the many more who were wounded, should never have happened,” he said, referencing the 13 US service members who lost their lives on August 26 in an Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) bombing at the Kabul airport while chaotic evacuation flights were underway.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Frenchman who spent several months behind bars for slapping French President Emmanuel Macron this summer has said he has received many letters in support of his “political” action. Damien Tarel told BFM TV he feels “no regret” over attacking the head of the French state. “I deplore physical violence. Nevertheless, it was just a tiny slap. I believe Macron has recovered extremely well,” he said, adding that he plans to attend protests against Covid-19 health passes in the near future. The 28-year-old was released on Saturday after serving a prison sentence for slapping Macron in early June. He hit the president as he was greeting a crowd of spectators during a trip to southern France.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Former President George W. Bush compared domestic and foreign extremists Saturday, seeming to liken the protesters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to the 9/11 hijackers and calling on Americans to confront the growing threats from both groups. “There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home,” Bush said during a speech at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. “But in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The drone strike that the Pentagon claimed killed an ISIS-K suicide bomber in Kabul actually targeted an aid worker who had filled his car with water jugs, rather than explosives, according to a shocking new report.

Zemari Ahmadi, 43, was driving the 1996 Toyota Corolla that was destroyed in the August 29 drone strike, killing him and nine family members, including seven children, according to a New York Times investigation. According to the Times, killed in the drone strike were Ahmadi and three of his children, Zamir, 20, Faisal, 16, and Farzad, 10; Ahmadi’s cousin Naser, 30; three of Ahmadi’s nephews, Arwin, seven, Benyamin, six, and Hayat, two; and two three-year-old girls, Malika and Somaya.

The drone strike in Kabul came as US forces were on high alert following an ISIS-K suicide blast on August 26 that killed 13 US troops and scores of Afghans on August 26.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday during a briefing that President Biden‘s administration is “not going to allow” charter flights with unvetted passengers from Afghanistan to land on American military bases, due to safety concerns.

According to Psaki, the Biden administration continues to “press the Taliban” over the issue of evacuation flights, many of which contain Americans, not being allowed to leave Afghanistan.

“We don’t have a role in preventing flights from taking off,” Psaki told reporters. “We are not on the ground, so that is not something that the U.S. government is doing. At the same time, some of these planes and some of the issues [include] where are they going to land.”

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Americans engaged in the rescue of U.S. citizens, SIVs and green card holders left behind by President Biden in Afghanistan are horrified by what they describe as inexplicable delays from the State Department that are preventing evacuation flights from leaving the country.

The State Department’s delays are recklessly endangering American lives, three different individuals involved in the private evacuation effort told Fox News.

Rick Clay, who runs the private rescue group PlanB, told Fox News that the State Department is the only thing preventing the flights he’s organizing from leaving Afghanistan.This episode is also available as a blog post: http://globalreportage.org/2021/09/11/organizers-of-private-rescue-flights-blocked-from-leaving-afghanistan-by-state-department-say-blood-is-on-their-hands/

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The State Department refused to grant official approval for private evacuation flights from Afghanistan to land in third countries, even though the department conceded that official authorization would likely be needed for planes to land in those nations, according to leaked email.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid on Monday expressed that the group “desires” to join the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

He also informed that the Taliban will address Islamabad’s concerns about Pakistan based terror group ‘Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’ (TTP), Samaa News reported.

CPEC is a part of China’s most ambitious project ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, aimed at renewing the country’s historic trade routes in the coastal countries of south-east Asia.

In 2015, China announced the ‘China Pakistan Economic Corridor’ (CPEC) project which is worth USD 46 billion.

With CPEC, Beijing aims to expand its influence in Pakistan and across Central and South Asia in order to counter the influence of the United States and India.

The CPEC would link Pakistan’s southern Gwadar port (626 kilometers west of Karachi) in Balochistan on the Arabian Sea to China’s western Xinjiang region. It also includes plans to create road, rail, and oil pipeline links to improve connectivity between China and the Middle East.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the terror group known as the Haqqani network who is wanted by the FBI, has been named the Taliban’s interim interior minister, which was seen by some as a slap in the face to the U.S. and Western countries.

The Haqqani network is known to be a ruthless arm of the Taliban and has been blamed on attacks in the country against coalition forces. The FBI has a $10 million bounty on his head. It is believed that he is holding at least one American hostage, The Associated Press reported.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that an all-out war with neighbouring Russia is very much an ‘unfortunate’ possibility, but to prevent that he would first like to have a substantive meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “I think there can be,” Zelenskiy said when asked at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) summit if there could really be an all-out war with Russia. “It’s the worst thing that could happen, but unfortunately there is that possibility.”

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has been referred to as an “undeclared war” in the past, has rolled on for seven years and has already cost thousands of lives. It started when Russia seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, a move yet to be recognised by several Western powers. The conflict later extended to Ukraine’s east, where Moscow backs pro-Russian separatists at the Donbas region, with more troops (an additional 10,000, according to reports) amassing near the border. Kyiv says the conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed 14,000 people since 2014.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Chancellor candidate for the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and North Rhine-Westphalia premier Armin Laschet held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday. The visit comes just weeks before critical elections, with Laschet vying to become Germany’s n

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

China will provide almost $31 million worth of food, winter weather supplies, vaccines, and medicine to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, China’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.Hua Chunyin, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said the decision was announced during the first meeting of the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and would be “for emergency use to the Afghan people.”Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also announced that China will donate 3 million vaccine doses to Afghanistan in the first batch, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua. It is not clear when the vaccines are scheduled to be delivered.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Iran has emphasised its calls for the formation of an “inclusive” government in neighbouring Afghanistan, shortly after the Taliban formed what it said was an interim cabinet.

On Wednesday, a day after the Taliban announced the formation of the new Afghan government, which was dominated by its old guard and included no representation for women or members of the Shia community, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries – including Iran, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan – held a virtual meeting.

According to a foreign ministry statement on Thursday, Iranian top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian told his peers Iran was following up on the formation of “an inclusive government with the participation of all people” and hoped the Taliban would abide by its promises for such an administration.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Taliban militants invited journalists to the ruins of Eagle Base, the CIA base and detention facility just outside the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The US destroyed it while making a hasty retreat from Afghanistan after the country’s government fell in mid-August.

Militants from the elite Badri 313 unit accompanied journalists from outlets including the news wire AFP, the Los Angeles Times, and the Turkish news channel TRT World to inspect the site Monday.

The Taliban commander Mullah Hasnain told AFP that militants watched the base for 10 days as the US withdrew its forces and saw explosions at the site.

“We didn’t stop them, even the last convoy that went by road to the airport,” he said. “We didn’t attack them, because we followed orders from our top officials.”

Hasnain said one large crater at the site appeared to be an ammunition dump detonated by the US on August 27.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The United States managed to airlift more than 120,000 US citizens, Afghans and foreigners since the Taliban's lightning takeover on August 15 -- but hundreds of thousands were left behind.

In a sign of the pitfalls ahead, the government was accused Tuesday of wrongly taking credit for, and even actively obstructing, the first mission to get Americans out since the completion of the withdrawal at the end of August.

Republican congressmen Markwayne Mullin and Ronny Jackson heaped scorn on the government after helping stage the evacuation Monday of a Texas woman and her three children.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Taliban's fighters have been pictured showing off a host of US-made weaponry and vehicles. Some of them were seen in complete combat gear in social media posts and couldn't be distinguished from other special forces from across the world. There was no characteristic long beard, or traditional salwar kameez outfit, and certainly no rusted weapons. They seized these weapons after troops from the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (Ands) surrendered one city after the other.

The Taliban has also captured nine Afghan airbases, including those in Herat, Khost, Kunduz and Mazar-i-Sharif – but it’s not clear how many aircraft they have seized from there as satellite images are not available from these airports.

Taliban fighters and local media have been posting images of confiscated aircraft and unmanned drones from these airports. Some independent websites have also geo-located some of the aircraft.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Taliban has been showing off its own “Special Forces” on social media, soldiers in new uniforms equipped with looted American equipment who contrast sharply with the image of the usual Afghan insurgent.

Pictures and videos of fighters in the so-called “Badri 313” unit have been posted online for propaganda purposes to underline how the Taliban have better equipped and trained men at their disposal than in the past, experts say.

The soldiers are shown in uniforms, boots, balaclavas and body armour similar to those worn by special forces around the world — and unlike the shalwar kameez, turban and sandals of the traditional Taliban fighter.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Pakistan’s ISI chief Faiz Hameed’s visit to Kabul at a time when Pakistan is internationally accused of aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan has sparked off controversies. Ex-Pentagon official Michael Rubin has said that the visit, which was an ’emergency’ trip to discuss the evolving situation in Afghanistan proves that the Taliban are merely an ISI puppet.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The Taliban on Monday confirmed that Pakistan's powerful intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has met its de-facto leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, amidst efforts by the insurgent group to finalise a government in Afghanistan.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

The State Department on Tuesday expressed concerns over the makeup of the new interim Afghan government announced by the Taliban, including the lack of female leaders and the past actions of some of those appointed to top posts.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns on Thursday met Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and ISI head Lt Gen Faiz Hamid during which they discussed issues related to regional security issues and the current situation in Afghanistan, the military said.

The meeting was held after the Taliban on Tuesday unveiled a hardline interim government with at least 14 members of the Cabinet, including acting Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, being listed on the UN Security Council's terrorism blacklist.

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support

Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/global-reportage/support