By Eric Worrall | Watts Up With That | April 16, 2024
Apparently if it wasn’t for climate change, we wouldn’t be having so much of this hot and cold weather which is stretching household finances in California.
Study connects heatwaves and cold snaps to surges in payday lending, keeping people in debt and harming communities of color
By Hilary Beaumont | The Guardian | April 15, 2024
Two competing payday loan stores stand on the corners of an intersection in south Los Angeles. An area of persistent poverty, south LA is also a banking desert where payday lenders fill the gap. Long lines form inside the stores on the first of the month, when rent is due.
Guillermina Molina, a 60-year-old retired housekeeper, visits the same Speedy Cash each month. During the summer months – which are becoming increasingly hot – she runs her air conditioner but frets about her utility bills. “It’s kind of hard because the [power bill] is coming up too high because you gotta have the air conditioner on,” Molina said. …
California has some of the most expensive energy in the USA because of their green energy policies.
Regardless of whether you believe in future climate catastrophes, and whether California’s climate initiatives will have a global impact, right now it would be more accurate to say that climate policy rather than climate change is creating financial hardship for low income Californians. – Full article
REPPARE | BROWNSTONE INSTITUTE | APRIL 22, 2024
The Basics of Policy Development
All public health interventions have costs and benefits, and normally these are carefully weighed based on evidence from previous interventions, supplemented by expert opinion where such evidence is limited. Such careful appraisal is particularly important where the negative effects of interventions include human rights restrictions and long-term consequences through impoverishment.
Responses to pandemics are an obvious example. The world has just emerged from the Covid-19 event, which should have provided an excellent example, as broad new restrictive interventions were widely imposed on populations, while some countries offer good comparators by avoiding most of these restrictions.
The WHO calls such measures Public Health and Social Measures (PHSM), also using the largely synonymous term non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI). Even if we assume that countries will continue to enjoy full sovereignty over their national policies, WHO recommendations matter, if only because of epistemic authority or shaping of expectations. In 2021, the WHO established a PHSM Working Group which is currently developing a research agenda on the effects of PHSM. As part of this remit, it is expected that the WHO will re-examine their recommendations on PHSM rigorously to reflect the lessons from Covid-19. This process is envisaged to be completed by 2030.
It is therefore curious that the WHO, without providing any comparison of cost and benefit from Covid-19, concluded a 2023 meeting with public health stakeholders from 21 countries with a call to action on all countries “to position PHSM as an essential countermeasure alongside vaccines and therapeutics for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response.” With Member States due to vote in late May to make WHO recommendations within the International Health Regulations (IHR) effectively binding, “undertaking to follow the Director General’s recommendations before they are given, one would expect these recommendations would be based on a thorough and transparent review that justifies their imposition.” … continue
Priority question for written answer P-001044/2024
to the Commission
Rule 138
Robert Roos (ECR), Angel Dzhambazki (ECR), Tom Vandendriessche (ID), Mislav Kolakušić (NI), Ivan Vilibor Sinčić (NI), Jorge Buxadé Villalba (ECR), Francesca Donato (NI), Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (ECR), Hermann Tertsch (ECR)
The Commission is negotiating an international agreement on ‘pandemic preparedness and response’ with WHO countries.
In the draft text as amended by the EU drafting suggestions[1] dated 27 February 2024, Article 18 on communication and public awareness relies on the concepts of ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’.
Signatory countries should act ‘with the aim of countering’ (Article 18(1)) and ‘cooperate in preventing’ (Article 18(4)) misinformation or disinformation, with the Commission suggesting an amendment to oblige countries ‘to develop effective tools to identify and counteract misinformation and disinformation’ (Article 18(4)).
However, neither the draft agreement nor international law provide a definition of ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’.
- 1. Can the Commission define these concepts and explain how they should be understood, in the Commission’s view, taking into account the requirement to comply with the principle of legal certainty, which is an essential component of the rule of law principle and according to which the law must be certain, foreseeable and easy to understand?
- 2. In the Commission’s view, do the proposed obligations under Articles 18(1) and 18(4) entail restricting citizens’ fundamental right to freedom of expression, and if so, are these restrictions compatible with the applicable law, including the case law of the European Court of Human Rights?
Examining the Foundation’s prescient August 2019 purchase of BioNTech stock
By John Leake | Courageous Discourse™ | April 22, 2024
Reviewing BioNTech’s Disclosure of Classes of Share Capital for the year ended December 31, 2019, I noticed the following:
On August 30, 2019, BioNTech entered into agreements with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). BMGF agreed to purchase 3,038,674 ordinary shares with nominal amount of k€ 3,039 of BioNTech for a total of k€49,864 (k$55,000). These agreements require BioNTech to perform certain research and development activities to advance the development of products for the prevention and treatment of HIV and tuberculosis. In the event of a breach of the underlying conditions, including such research and development activities, BMGF has the right to sell its shares back to BioNTech at the initial share price or fair market value, whichever is higher, subject to certain conditions. BioNTech’s ability to pay dividends is also limited under the terms of these agreements.
Less than two years after the Gates Foundation purchased the stock (pre-IPO) at $18 per share, it peaked on Aug. 6, 2021 at $389. At that price, the Foundation’s $55 million investment was worth $1,182,044,186.00 ($1.182 billion).
On September 18, 2019—just nineteen days after the Gates Foundation took its huge position in BioNTech stock— a report titled A World At Risk was published by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, which was founded in 2018 by the World Bank Group and the World Health Organization. … continue
RT | April 22, 2024
A former White House aide who advised then-President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on counterterrorism initiatives has reportedly been accused of committing child sex crimes in the UK.
Rahamim “Rami” Shy, 46, was arraigned on Friday in Luton Crown Court, near London. He faces charges of possessing indecent images of children and arranging the commission of a child sexual offense, according to local media reports. The New Jersey resident was arrested in late February and jailed at HMP Bedford pending court proceedings.
Shy, who hasn’t yet entered a plea to the charges, is scheduled for another court hearing in June, The Daily Mail reported. His case is slated to go to trial in August.
The defendant held multiple roles in Obama’s administration, reportedly including coordination of the US government’s efforts to combat Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists. He was a senior advisor in the US Treasury Department from 2008 to 2014, working to disrupt terrorist financing and helping overseas allies impose sanctions on adversarial governments. He also advised the chiefs of staff at the Pentagon.
Shy’s Linkedin page, which has been deleted, said he advised the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. He studied at New York’s Columbia University and reportedly worked most recently at US banking giant Citigroup. A company spokesman told The Daily Mail that Shy was no longer a Citigroup employee.
Press TV – April 22, 2024
Israeli warplanes keep up the regime’s genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 26 people in an airstrike targeting the city of Rafah in the southern part of the coastal sliver.
Sixteen children and six women were among those who lose their lives when Israeli aircraft bombarded two residential buildings in the city, Qatar’s Al Jazeera reported on Monday.
Israeli aerial attacks also hit the city of Khan Younis in the south.
Elsewhere in the territory, the regime’s aircraft struck the town of al-Zawaideh and the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza and the Zeytoun neighborhood in Gaza City.
Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza as well as the al-Mughraqa and al-Zahra areas in the territory’s northern region were also targeted.
Israeli gunboats were also reported to have attacked Gaza’s central and southern coastline, while the regime’s drones targeted a school in al-Bureij. … Full article
Press TV – April 22, 2024
Israel has failed to provide evidence of claims that some workers with the UN relief agency UNRWA were affiliated with Palestinian resistance movements, an independent review for the UN says.
The review, by an independent panel led by ex-French minister Catherine Colonna and published on Monday, underscored the lack of substantiation for broader allegations made by Israel that accused numerous UNRWA employees of affiliation with Hamas or Islamic Jihad resistance groups.
“Israeli authorities have to date not provided any supporting evidence nor responded to letters from UNRWA in March, and again in April, requesting the names and supporting evidence that would enable UNRWA to open an investigation,” the report stated.
The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN in the wake of Israeli allegations, found that UNRWA has consistently supplied employee lists to Israel for vetting and that Israel “has not informed UNRWA of any concerns relating to any UNRWA staff based on these staff lists since 2011.”
The Colonna report also deemed UNRWA indispensable for providing essential humanitarian aid and services.
“In the absence of a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians, UNRWA remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank,” it said.
Following Israel’s allegations, Major donors cut their funding to the agency in January, which is the primary source of humanitarian aid not only to Gaza but also to Palestinian refugees throughout the region.
Israeli authorities, without providing evidence, claim that at least 12 UNWRA staff participated in the Oct. 7 operation against Israel and that they used UN vehicles. … Full article
By Ian DeMartino – Sputnik – 22.04.2024
The 21st Century Peace through Strength Act passed the US House of Representatives on Saturday, as part of a package of bills that also included military aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific.
US Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who sponsored the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act that passed the US House of Representatives, saw contributions to his campaign from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) increase an incredible 1,413% during the 2024 election cycle when compared to the 2022 cycle.
The 21st Century Peace through Strength Act includes the REPO Act, which enables Biden to seize Russian assets frozen in US banks and send them to Ukraine, a provision that will essentially ban TikTok from the US, and also contains sanctions against Palestinian resistance groups. … continue
RT | April 22, 2024
After stoking fears of Russian expansionism to win congressional approval for more Ukraine aid, US intelligence agencies should provide proof of their justification for continuing to fund a “proxy war” that will inevitably end in defeat for Kiev, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) has argued.
Speaking on Monday in an interview with former White House aide Steve Bannon, Greene pushed back against claims that Russian forces will take Poland and continue “marching across Europe” if they’re allowed to defeat Ukraine. She noted that US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) only agreed to push through the $61 billion Ukraine aid bill, which was approved on Saturday, after hearing intelligence briefings hyping the Russian threat.
“If the American people are going to have to pay for it, then show us this proof that was shown to Mike Johnson in the SCIF [sensitive compartment information facility],” Greene said. “Why is this classified information? If this is a real threat to all of Europe, if this is a threat to America and our national security, then roll out the presentation.” … continue
By Ron Paul | April 22, 2024
When future historians go searching for the final nail in the US coffin, they may well settle on the date April 20, 2024.
On that day Congress passed legislation to fund two and a half wars, hand what’s left of our privacy over to the CIA and NSA, and give the US president the power to shut down whatever part of the Internet he disagrees with.
The nearly $100 billion grossly misnamed “National Security Supplemental” guarantees that Ukrainians will continue to die in that country’s unwinnable war with Russia, that Palestinian civilians will continue to be slaughtered in Gaza with US weapons, and that the neocons will continue to push us toward a war with China.
It was a total victory for the war party. … continue
BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | INDIAN PUNCHLINE | APRIL 22, 2024
Russia’s free running in the Ukraine war in the most recent months is about to end this week as the Biden Administration has met with success in the US Congress on the long-stalled Ukraine aid bill. The aid approved by the House on Saturday would send $60.8 billion to Ukraine.
Senate approval is expected as soon a Tuesday this week. President Biden has promised, “I will immediately sign this law to send a signal to the whole world: we support our friends and will not allow Iran or Russia to succeed,”
To be sure, the US is doubling down to forestall an outright Russian military victory in Ukraine through this year. Unsurprisingly, Washington’s transatlantic allies are also rallying, which is the message coming out of the virtual meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of Allied Defence Ministers chaired by Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at Brussels on Saturday. … continue
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 22.04.2024
US and Philippine troops kicked off the largest iteration of their annual Balikatan exercises in decades this week, with this year’s drills involving some 11,000 US and 5,000 Filipino military personnel, plus forces from Australia and France. Geopolitical analyst and former US Marine Brian Berletic explains why the drills are so dangerous.
Chinese diplomatic and military officials slammed Washington and Manila over the Balikatan drills on Monday, accusing participants of attempting to “flex” their “gunboat muscles,” stoking confrontation in the South China Sea and undermining regional security.
“Reality has shown that those who make deliberate provocations, stoke tensions, or support one side against another for selfish gains will ultimately only hurt themselves,” Chinese Central Military Commission Zhang Youxia said, warning that US-led attempts at “maritime containment, encirclement and island blockades will only plunge the world into a vortex of division and turbulence.”
The Chinese military plans to increase its naval and air patrols in the South China Sea amid the US-Philippines exercises, which will run until May 10, and include everything from maritime security and air defense operations to cyber and information warfare, and simulate the seizure of islands in the vicinity of Taiwan and the South China Sea.
Crucially, drilling will include naval exercises outside the Philippines’ internationally recognized territorial waters near the disputed South China Sea – parts of which are claimed by both Manila and Beijing.
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte warned current President Bongbong Marcos Jr last week about the risks of cozying up with the US at the expense of balanced relations with China, accusing Washington of trying to provoke a war between the Philippines and China, and emphasizing that he doesn’t believe “America will die for us” if tensions grow into direct clashes. … continue
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 22.04.2024
Russia dramatically ramped up its air and missile strikes inside Ukraine in March in the wake of a coordinated campaign by Ukraine’s military targeting Russian infrastructure using drone warfare. The strikes created large holes in Ukraine’s air defenses which Kiev’s NATO patrons are now hoping to patch up.
Officials in the European Union and NATO have launched a pressure campaign targeting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to give their advanced air defense systems away to Ukraine.
“We all know who has them, we all know where they are, and we all know who really needs them,” a person briefed on the campaign told London-based business media in an article published Monday. … continue
“This vortex of war could drag Europe down”
BY DÉNES ALBERT | REMIX NEWS | APRIL 22, 2024
Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has issued a new warning about rising tensions in Europe, saying that world wars are never called world wars in the beginning, noting that the First and Second World Wars were initiated by a series of smaller conflicts.
“Brussels is playing with fire. What it is doing is an act of temptation. World wars are never called world wars in the beginning. The Third Balkan War, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the partition of Poland, and the end was a world war twice over,” he warned.
Tensions are rising in Europe, Orbán said in a post on his Facebook page on Sunday, pointing out that the mood on the continent is one of war, and that politics is dominated by the logic of war.
“The NATO secretary-general wants to set up a NATO-Ukraine mission. European leaders have already fallen into war, they see this war as their own war and are fighting it as their own war,” he said.
“At first, it was only about sending helmets. Then sanctions, but not on energy producers! Then, yes, on those too. Then, came the arms shipments. First firearms, then tanks, then planes, and then financial aid. More and more, tens of billions. Now, we’re somewhere around a 100 billion — in euros. Money, supplies, weapons, but the situation is not getting better, it’s getting worse,” the prime minister said. … continue
Global military expenditure increased by 6.8% in 2023 year-over-year and reached a new record high of $2,443 billion, with the three largest spenders being the US, China and Russia, according to new data published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
“World military expenditure rose for the ninth consecutive year to an all-time high of $2,443 billion,” SIPRI said.
Moreover, military expenditure increased in all five of the geographical regions defined by SIPRI, the institute added.
The US remained the world’s biggest military spender with a 37% share of the world total and $916 billion spent in 2023. It is followed by China with a 12% share and an estimated $296 billion spent on the military and Russia with a 4.5% share and an estimated $109 billion spent on defense last year, which represents a 24% increase compared to 2022.
Ukraine, the eighth largest spender in 2023, increased its military spending by 51% year-over-year to $64.8 billion, which is 58% of the country’s total government spending.
The Middle East has seen a 9% surge in military spending, with Israel’s spending growing by 24% to $27.5 billion amid its operation in the Gaza Strip, the institute added.
Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition | Alliance for Global Justice | April 18, 2024
Masaya, Nicaragua – Human rights experts and activists are expressing concern over a flawed and seriously unbalanced report of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN), released by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on February 24, 2024.
The UNHRC, says the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition, is lending itself to the U.S. regime-change strategy against Nicaragua by highlighting only evidence supplied by opponents of Nicaragua’s government, while omitting highly pertinent information submitted to the GHREN by a number of individuals and groups.
An open letter has been sent to the President of the UNHRC, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Secretary General, pointing this out. Former UN Independent Expert on International Order, Alfred de Zayas, described the GHREN as set up for the purpose of “naming and shaming” the Nicaraguan government, not for objective investigation. Signed by leading human rights experts, 49 organizations and more than 300 individuals, the letter says that the GHREN’s report should never have been published. … continue
By Brian Berletic – New Eastern Outlook – 22.04.2024
Throughout the 21st century, the United States has invaded and occupied multiple nations, including Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003, and Syria in 2014. It has also led to military interventions rendering once prosperous nations into failed states, including Libya from 2011 onward.
Beyond this more destructive and direct approach, the US has also admittedly interfered in the internal political affairs of other nations, attempting to overthrow elected governments and install client regimes in their place. … continue
By Andy May | Watts Up With That? | April 14, 2024
Facebook’s censorship is totally out of hand, and their “independent and nonpartisan fact checks” are anything but. Now they are censoring “Climate: The Movie.” The supposed “fact checks” provided by Science Feedback and Climate Feedback (they are two branches of the same organization) have been shown many times to be both partisan and ideologically driven. The “fact check” of Steve Koonin’s bestselling book Unsettled done by Climate Feedback was blisteringly criticized by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in a lead editorial by the WSJ editorial staff. […]
In short, the Science Feedback post is clearly incorrect in its claims that the movie is misleading. Science Feedback looks at the same data and facts that the movie examines and draws different conclusions than the eminent scientists in the movie. They have a different opinion than the experts in the movie. That does not mean the scientists in the movie are factually incorrect. Look at the data yourself, support for all 70 serious scientific claims made in the movie can be found here for those that want to see more. – Read full article
By Jo Nova | April 19, 2024
Quietly hidden in a paper about ancient pandemics is the most detailed estimate of Roman temperatures I’ve ever seen. For 800 years temperatures gyrated over a three degree range. The Climate Alarmists of Rome could have run the whole warming-cooling-warming-scare back to back for 400 years. But make no mistake, the good times, Pax Romana — were the warmest and wettest ones. The colder times are associated with aridity, plagues and collapse. … continue
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | April 19, 2024
Cases of pertussis — or whooping cough — in the U.S. dropped during the pandemic and today continue to be lower than pre-pandemic levels, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
“We are not seeing anything unusual,” Jasmine Reed, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson, told the news outlet.
However, in the same article — “Whooping Cough Rising in Some Countries. Why You May Need a Booster” — NBC contributor Kaitlin Sullivan reported that “outbreaks in Europe, Asia and parts of the U.S. should be a reminder to get vaccinated, experts say.”
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told NBC the current situation “won’t turn into a pandemic because we have a highly vaccinated population.”
Schaffner added: “However, let’s make sure that pregnant people get vaccinated, that babies are vaccinated on schedule, and the rest of us take the Tdap vaccine every 10 years.”
This is especially necessary to protect infants, who are especially vulnerable to the otherwise typically mild illness, NBC reported.
Experts told The Defender they thought the NBC report was unnecessarily alarming, cited outdated methods for protecting babies, and failed to consider serious and well-known concerns with the safety and efficacy of DTaP and Tdap vaccines. … continue
By Ian Brighthope | April 17, 2024
Today, on behalf of my professional friends and medical colleagues, I declare the mRNA vaccines to be class one carcinogens. mRNA is also a broad-spectrum mutagen. mRNA must be banned internationally. […]
Statistically significant increases in age-adjusted mortality rates of all cancer and some specific types of cancer, namely, ovarian cancer, leukemia, prostate, lip/oral/pharyngeal, pancreatic, and breast cancers, were observed in 2022 after two-thirds of the Japanese population had received the third or later dose of SARS- CoV-2 mRNA-LNP vaccine. These particularly marked increases in mortality rates of these ERα-sensitive cancers may be attributable to several mechanisms of the mRNA-LNP vaccination rather than COVID-19 infection itself or reduced cancer care due to the lockdown. – Read full article
RT | April 21, 2024
The approval of a large aid package for Ukraine by the US House of Representatives is the same as funding terrorism, according to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
In a post on her Telegram channel on Saturday, Zakharova said that the potential allocation of further military assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan would only aggravate the crisis in the world.
“Military aid to the Kiev regime is direct sponsorship of terrorist activities, funds sent to Taiwan is interference in the internal affairs of China, while aid sent to Israel is a straight way to unprecedented escalation of a conflict in the region,” she said. … Full article
By Eusebio Filopatro | Global Times | April 21, 2024
As the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, a peace conference is to be held in Switzerland this summer. But Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that Russia hadn’t been invited to participate in June’s talks. “It would have been funny if it weren’t so sad,” he commented.
Practically all Russian commentators, and even some prominent Western ones, trace the roots of the conflict in Ukraine to NATO’s attempts at incorporating Russia’s neighbor – as officially stated since at least as far back as 2008. A disregard for Russia’s status as an equal and sovereign partner was evident in the contempt for the Minsk agreements, which both former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Francois Hollande described as gimmicks to buy time for the only option that was seriously pursued, military confrontation. Later on, Vladimir Putin’s vocal request for security guarantees was dismissed yet again.
Fast forward a few years, and this historical tragedy has snowballed to its extreme conclusions. Politico recently reported Ukrainian officials’ concerns about a collapse of the frontlines. As Elon Musk calls for a negotiated settlement to come soon, he warns that the longer the war drags on, the larger the territory Russia will seek to annex. Even CNN is now explaining how Russia’s guided bombs are wreaking havoc on Ukrainian defenses. Meanwhile, the IMF has raised Russia’s growth outlook. In short, and irrespective of whether this will take weeks, months or years, Russia is well placed politically, economically and militarily to inflict the final blow.
The conditions of Ukraine’s sponsors are remarkably less favorable. … continue
“Largely symbolic and easy for Israel to bypass”
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | April 21, 2024
The State Department will place an ultra-Orthodox Israeli military unit on a blacklist preventing US weapons from reaching its soldiers. The sanctions, expected to be announced on Monday, have angered Tel Aviv. The move by Washington follows officials speaking with ProPublica about the White House failing to act even after the State Department determined Israel was in violation of US law.
Axios was the first outlet to report the pending sanctions on Saturday. The US is expected to blacklist the Netzah Yehuda battalion of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The battalion of about 1,000 soldiers makes significant accommodations for ultra-Orthodox Jews who enlist in the IDF.
The White House appears to have made the decision to sanction Netzah Yehuda after ProPublica reported that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was provided with a report that the Israeli military was committing war crimes in December but has failed to act. It is unclear if Netzah Yehuda was named in that report.
Netzah Yehuda will be placed on a blacklist under the Leahy Laws. Named for former Senator Patrick Leahy, the laws bar US military assistance to foreign militaries that commit war crimes. The sanctions will prevent any US training or weapons from being given to the soldiers in Netzah Yehuda. … continue
Press TV – April 21, 2024
The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has said that the role of major technology companies and international social media platforms in the killing of Palestinian civilians by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip must be investigated.
“These companies need to be held accountable if found to be complicit or not to have taken adequate precautions to prevent access to, and exploitation of, users’ information,” the Euro-Med said on Sunday.
The human rights group documented accounts of Palestinian civilians, who, as a consequence of their social media activity, have been singled out as suspects by Israel, despite having taken no military action.
The group noted that there are frequent reports that Israel uses a number of artificial intelligence-supported technological systems to illegally track and monitor Palestinians,
“Google and Israel are collaborating on several technology initiatives, including Project Nimbus, which provides the Israeli army with tools for the increased monitoring and illegal data collection of Palestinians, thereby broadening Israeli policies of denial and persecution, plus other crimes against the Palestinian people,” it said. … continue
Press TV – April 21, 2024
Austrian police authorities have arrested the director of a Palestinian news agency based in the Gaza Strip, which is aligned with the Hamas resistance movement, following spurious allegations and intense pressure from the Tel Aviv regime’s officials.
Gaza Now News Network wrote in a post published on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “the occupying Israeli regime is trying hard to prosecute anyone connected to the Palestinian media as part of attempts to silence the voice of wounded Gaza and stop disclosure of the Palestinian nation’s sufferings and the massacres being committed against women, children and the elderly.”
It added, “The latest of such attempts was the prosecution of Palestinian-born journalist Mustafa Ayyash. Austrian police stormed his house, tampered with his personal belongings, confiscated electronic devices, arrested him and his wife, and took him for interrogation.”
Gaza Now noted that the Austrian police hacked its WhatsApp account, which is followed by 300,000 users, and closed it down. They also shut the news network’s Facebook pages and accounts, which are followed by some eight million users.
It underscored that Israeli officials threaten Ayyash from time to time with prosecution and assassination, and hamper the activities of the news network on social media platforms.
This comes as the Israeli military had earlier targeted Ayyash’s family and killed scores of his relatives in a series of airstrikes in late November ahead of a temporary ceasefire. … Full article
By Hannan Hussain | Al Mayadeen | April 21, 2024
What a sight.
In Europe, the Israeli occupation’s lobbying against a Palestinian state is falling apart fast. For years, pro-Zionist forces have sought to justify support for the illegal occupation and acquire a pass for genocidal atrocities committed in Gaza. But rising initiative in Europe, particularly from Spain and Ireland, shows that “Israel” is no one to influence attitudes towards Palestinian liberties. The occupation regime’s prolonged onslaught on Gaza is only fueling statehood momentum in Europe.
Begin with Spain. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares recently said that all EU members must recognize Palestinian statehood “in a coordinated manner without delay.” Madrid’s initiative is part of a wider effort to engage with European capitals in the face of Israeli belligerence. More nations such as Ireland, Malta, and Slovenia have expressed their readiness to recognize Palestine, marking a departure from collective silence over Israeli war crimes, mass slaughter, and belligerence. … continue
Press TV – April 20, 2024
The Israeli regime’s forces have gunned down at least 14 Palestinians, including 10 fighters, during their ongoing days-long siege on Nour Shams, a refugee camp located in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
“So far, our crews have evacuated 14 martyrs from Nour Shams camp to the hospital,” the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday.
News agencies, meanwhile, reported sighting Israeli drones loitering overhead and armored vehicles roaming throughout the camp.
Earlier, the Palestinian health ministry said it had confirmed that as many as 11 people had been injured by the troops. Seven of those injured had been “wounded by live gunshots,” it said, adding that among the wounded was a paramedic shot while trying to get to the wounded.
Medics had been alerted to “a number of killed and injured” inside the camp, but the army was “denying them access to tend to the wounded,” the ministry noted.
Minister Muayad Shaaban, head of the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said residents were suffering from the “destruction of homes, shops, the electricity grid, the sewerage, the water network, and infrastructure.” … continue
The Cradle | April 21, 2024
Over 200 bodies were discovered in mass graves in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, authorities in the strip announced on 21 April.
Two mass graves were discovered at Khan Yunis’ Nasser Medical Complex, Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Sunday. “About 700 bodies are expected to be found,” it added.
“We found in the Nasser Complex corpses without heads and bodies without skins, and some of them had their organs stolen,” the media office went on to say. “The occupation executed dozens of displaced, wounded, sick, and medical staff” during its operations in Khan Yunis and Nasser Medical Complex.
Among the bodies found were those of children and elderly. Rescue teams reported seeing bodies wrapped in plastic bags with Hebrew writing on them. Many of the bodies had shown that their hands were tied behind their backs, indicating that they were executed, according to the media office.
Gaza’s Civil Defense said, “More than 150 martyrs [have been recovered], and about 500 people are missing after the massacres in Khan Yunis following the occupier’s withdrawal. It is unknown whether the missing people are detained or buried underground.”
The civil defense said that the Israeli army uses forced disappearance as a systematic policy against the people of Gaza. … continue
By Humaira Ahad | Press TV | April 21, 2024
Following Iran’s retaliatory military operation against Israel last Saturday, the so-called “defensive military alliance” formed by the Zionist regime comprised an odd member.
Apart from the regular Western allies of the Tel Aviv regime, including the United States, Britain, and France, Jordan was also part of this ‘unholy alliance”.
As per reports, Jordan opened its airspace to the Israeli regime and its Western allies to down some of the Iranian drones at the risk of putting its own people in harm’s way.
Being equipped with only about 60 older F-16 and F-5 aircraft, the Hashemite Kingdom lacks the capacity to independently intercept Iranian drones and missiles headed toward the occupied lands.
An Israeli media channel reported that Israeli fighter jets as well as French air defenses intercepted drones launched by Iran in the airspace of Jordan, drawing widespread anger and outrage. … continue
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 21.04.2024
The House of Representatives gathered for a rare weekend session Saturday to advance $95 billion in new assistance for Washington’s foreign allies and clients, including just shy of $61 billion for Ukraine. Moscow slammed the decision, saying it signals US ruling elites’ commitment to Ukraine’s destruction in a hopeless proxy war against Russia.
Saturday’s vote to provide new US aid to Ukraine is a sign of the US political class’s readiness to “waste” taxpayer money abroad instead of using it to focus on issues Americans actually care about, Congressman Paul Gosar has told Sputnik. […]
Gosar is one of a handful of conservative Republicans in the House who have sought to rein in defense spending and US funding for conflicts abroad in favor of dealing with more urgent priorities facing the US, including economic issues, the debt and the border crisis.
Gosar joined Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky this week in a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his seat for advancing the Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan aid bills.
The Arizona congressman has taken a hardline, principled ‘America First’ foreign policy stance, voting Saturday against not only Ukraine aid, but against $14 billion in additional assistance to Israel. Last year, he joined Representative Matt Gaetz, Senator Rand Paul and others in calling for an end to the illegal US military presence in northeastern Syria. In 2021, he joined with House Republicans to vote to repeal the 2002 Congressional authorization for the Iraq War. In October 2022, he extended an invitation to Presidents Putin and Zelensky to come to Arizona to hold negotiations to end the Ukrainian crisis. – Read full article
BY MIKE WHITNEY • UNZ REVIEW • APRIL 21, 2024
The man who is most responsible for the $95 billion giveaway to Ukraine and Israel, is the same guy who pretends to oppose America’s “wasteful” foreign wars. Donald Trump. It was Trump who consulted with Speaker Mike Johnson about the contents of the Ukraine aid package, just as it was Trump who concocted the idea of issuing loans instead of dispersing the standard welfare handout. It was also Trump who said:
“I stand with the Speaker, (Mike Johnson)” after which he added that Johnson is doing “a very good job.”
A “good job”??
So, secretly collaborating with the Democrat leadership to push through a bill that “reauthorizes FISA to spy on the American people without a warrant, (bans Tik Tok) fully funds Joe Biden’s DOJ that has indicted President Trump 91 times, and giving Biden’s political gestapo a brand new FBI building bigger than the Pentagon,” while not providing a dime to protect the southern border from the swarms of people entering the country illegally, is doing a “good job”?
The question we should all be asking ourselves is why has Trump decided to participate in this scam? He keeps saying that if he was president, he’d end the war in Ukraine in a day. If he’s sincere about that, then why did he collaborate on a bill that will drag the war out for another year or two? This is from a Twitter post by political analyst Michael Tracey:
Mission Accomplished. It is done: Donald Trump and the House GOP just completed one of the most epic swindles in political history, with Trump personally effectuating the largest-ever dispersement of Ukraine funding through his emissary, “MAGA Mike Johnson” (as Trump lovingly calls him) The $61 billion passed this afternoon is likely enough to underwrite the brutal, pointless trench warfare for at least another year or two. This after the same old endless media screeching that Trump and MAGA Republicans were being brainwashed by Putin and would never fund Ukraine. That fundamental hoax continues — only this time Trump was in on it…. Michael Tracey, Twitter
And the response from Luca Cabrilo:
Michael you’re 100% spot on. Trump could have at any point killed this monstrous bill if he wanted to, but he didn’t. He even let MAGA Mike go on TV and say that he and Trump are “100% agreed” on the Ukraine funding Trump screwed his base on this one, no other way about it.
Michael Tracey again: He didn’t just “not kill it,” he personally facilitated its passage.
Here’s more background from Tracey:
The bill, designed after consultations between Mike Johnson and Trump, mysteriously gives the President the ability to forgive the purported “loan” to Ukraine — immediately after the November election…
It’s all a big shell game and Trump is playing along with it to improve his political prospects. How else would you explain his performance in this dismal charade?
Trump obviously knows that his return to the White House will require significant compromise with the national security hawks and Zionists who run the government. So, we shouldn’t be too surprised that he’s trying to curry favor with them now. But for the people who thought Trump was a straightshooter; this has got to be a real eye-opener. They thought he could be trusted, but now it’s obvious that he’s just another Beltway phony trying to ingratiate himself with the Washington power-elite in order to shoehorn his sorry a** back into the Oval Office. … Full article
MOSCOW – The United States is prepared to pour weapons into Ukraine as long as necessary and spare no Ukrainian lives to make sure that its proxy continues fighting Russia, including via terrorist attacks and killings of journalists, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
“The ruling elites in the US, regardless of party affiliation, are ready to arm the regime in Kiev so that it will be able to fight up till the last Ukrainian and continue, among other things, terrorist attacks on civilian targets on Russian territory, sabotage attacks and killing journalists,” the ministry said in a statement.
The White House is no longer counting on a “mythical Ukrainian victory,” but wants the Ukrainian army to hold out at least until the presidential election in the US, in order not to ruin the image of US President Joe Biden, the ministry noted.
“The actions of the US, as a de facto party to the conflict, will be unconditionally and decisively rebuffed, and Washington’s ever-deeper plunge into hybrid warfare against Russia will turn out to be as loud and humiliating of a fiasco for the United States as it was in Vietnam and Afghanistan. In any case, the feverish attempts to save [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s neo-Nazi regime are doomed to failure. The goals and objectives of the special military operation will be fully achieved,” the ministry added.
On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would unlock $60.84 billion in Ukraine-related aid, if approved by the Senate.
RT | April 21, 2024
The US is considering sending additional military advisers to its embassy in Kiev, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder told Politico magazine on Saturday.
The troops would be serving a non-combat role, primarily supporting logistics, monitoring the delivery of US weapons, and assisting with weapons maintenance.
The news comes as the US House of Representatives passed a $61 billion aid bill on Saturday, with the Pentagon saying that the package would include “things like air defense and artillery capabilities.”
Although Ryder did not specify how many personnel could be sent to Kiev, citing “operational security and force protection reasons,” sources familiar with the matter told Politico that the number would be up to 60.
The additional advisers could work at the Office of Defense Cooperation at the embassy, Ryder explained. … continue
By Jefferey Jaxen | April 19, 2024
Humanity has arrived at a rare, explosive moment where several avenues of information are converging to shatter a major paradigm much of society and medicine has accepted as their reality. Which direction will we go?
It was last month that Englands health service announced it would stop prescribing puberty blockers to transgender kids. A move that aligned the UK with several other Nordic countries.
Now, the public received the full data dump that drove England’s decision in the form of The Cass Review commissioned by the NHS and lead by former President of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health Dr. Hillary Cass. Its findings:
- Clinicians should be “extreme cautious” giving powerful hormone drugs to kids 16 and under
- Most of the 23 clinical guidelines and recommendations for managing gender dysphoria in children and young people reviewed were not independent or evidence based
- Of the 50 studies on puberty blockers reviewed, only one was of high quality
- Of the 53 studies on the use of hormone treatment, only one was of sufficiently high quality
Perhaps most interestingly, the Cass Review speaks on the medical profession stating doctors can be cautious in implementing new findings yet “quite the reverse happened in the field of gender care for children,” writes the report.
“Based on a single Dutch study, which suggested that puberty blockers may improve psychological wellbeing for a narrowly defined group of children with gender incongruence, the practice spread at pace to other countries.”
The medically-run gender transiting of children has been a controversial subject for years. Its theory and medical practice began to see a major surge in 2014 to which the momentum has continued ever since. The reason, two Dutch studies, with small sample sizes, lack of a control group, and only short-term follow-up.
Despite the ‘robust’ science mainstream medicine purports to operate from, and demand detractors of their orthodoxy produce to argue against what they are doing, the medical transitioning of children using risky drugs and surgical procedures is not supported by ’science’ or even good evidence. … continue
By Peter C. Gøtzsche | Brownstone Institute | April 16, 2024
Overtreatment with drugs kills many people, and the death rate is increasing. It is therefore strange that we have allowed this long-lasting drug pandemic to continue, and even more so because most of the drug deaths are easily preventable.
In 2013, I estimated that our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer,1 and in 2015, that psychiatric drugs alone are also the third leading cause of death.2 However, in the US, it is commonly stated that our drugs are “only” the fourth leading cause of death.3,4 This estimate was derived from a 1998 meta-analysis of 39 US studies where monitors recorded all adverse drug reactions that occurred while the patients were in hospital, or which were the reason for hospital admission.5
This methodology clearly underestimates drug deaths. Most people who are killed by their drugs die outside hospitals… continue
RT | April 20, 2024
The US Senate has passed legislation renewing and expanding an expiring law that enables the government to conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans under the guise of protecting them from foreign threats.
The bill was approved by a 60-34 vote in the early morning hours of Saturday, authorizing a two-year extension of the so-called Section 702 program of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). […]
Critics of the program had demanded that reforms be made before renewing Section 702 to protect US citizens from unconstitutional spying. A 2023 investigation by the US FISA court found that the FBI had illegally used its surveillance powers against American citizens more than 278,000 times in a 12-month period. Congress voted down an amendment that would have required warrants for probes of communications involving Americans. … Full article
RT | April 20, 2025
Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has claimed that the man who defeated her in the 2016 election, Donald Trump, is a wannabe strongman who aims to murder his political enemies.
Speaking in a podcast interview posted on Friday by Democrat activist Mark Elias, Clinton said American voters had underestimated how “dangerous” Trump would be as president. She likened Trump, now the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s US presidential election, to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin does what [Trump] would like to do — kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive journalists and others into exile, rule without any check or balance,” Clinton said. “That’s what Trump really wants.”
Ironically, Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have themselves long been accused by some conservatives of eliminating people who pose a threat to their power or wealth. In fact, investigative journalist Danny Casolaro coined the conspiracist term “Clinton Body Count” in the late 1980s, in reference to the allegedly mysterious deaths of people with connections to the Clintons. Casolaro was found dead in a West Virginia hotel room in 1991 with his wrists slashed 10-12 times. His death was ruled a suicide. … continue
By Ian DeMartino – Sputnik – 20.04.2024
On Friday, the US vetoed granting Palestine full membership in the UN, which was promised to the Palestinians in 1948 when the state of Israel was created. The US has been Israel’s strongest supporter in the UN, previously vetoing three ceasefire resolutions before finally allowing a fourth to pass through abstention last month.
Earlier, Israel struck Iran in response to Iran’s attack last week, which was itself a response to Israel attacking Iran’s consulate in Damascus earlier this month. The attack, which was described by both sides as minor, came after Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not respond until after Passover, which runs from April 22 to April 30.
Israel’s apparent insistence on launching a regional war in the Middle East is dragging the United States with it “Into the garbage bin of history,” and US lawmakers seem willing to watch it happen, journalist Esteban Carrillo, the head of news at The Cradle, told Sputnik’s Political Misfits on Friday.
While discussing the recent US vote against Palestinian statehood in the UN, Carrillo explained that it is working against US interests.
“It’s completely a case of the tail wagging the dog. And US politicians just seem so content to just go along with it,” he explained. “What does Netanyahu have over the heads of these people? Because it doesn’t seem like they are even willing to consider at this point stepping away from this pariah that is just dragging them down into the garbage bin of history.” … continue
Sputnik – 20.04.2024
WASHINGTON – The US House of Representatives on Saturday passed legislation to provide for $26.38 billion in Israel-related aid, amid the country’s conflict with Palestinian organization Hamas and Iran.
House lawmakers passed the bill, dubbed the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, in a vote of 366 in favor and 58 opposed, sending it to the Senate for consideration.
The legislation provides $4 billion to replenish Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems, $1.2 billion for the Iron Beam defense system, $2.4 billion for US military operations in the region and $3.5 billion to procure advanced weapons systems, defense articles and services through the Foreign Military Financing Program.
The bill also prohibits funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency.
RT | April 20, 2024
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill authorizing the government to liquidate seized Russian assets and transfer the proceeds to Ukraine. It also includes measures forcing the sale of TikTok by its Chinese owners and authorizing stricter sanctions on Russia, China, and Iran.
The bill was passed by 360 votes to 58 on Saturday. Known as the ‘21st Century Peace through Strength Act’, it rolled together a number of previously disparate bills, most notably the so-called ‘Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act’, which allows the Biden administration to confiscate billions of dollars’ worth of Russian assets held by American banks and transfer them to Ukraine.
The US and EU have blocked an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The vast majority of these assets are held in Europe, but American banks are sitting on around $6 billion, according to multiple reports in US media outlets.
At present, the US has no legal mechanism to seize these assets, and has moved relatively paltry sums of seized Russian money to Estonia for use in Ukraine.
While the bill passed with bipartisan support, it was strongly condemned by fiscal conservatives and anti-war Republicans. US Senator Rand Paul warned earlier this year that “confiscating Russia’s sovereign assets is an act of economic war” that would undermine global confidence in the US.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a similar warning on Friday, while the Kremlin has declared that any actions taken against its assets would amount to flagrant “theft.”
The ‘Peace Through Strength Act’ also included a measure that would ban TikTok if the app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell off its US operations. … continue
Sputnik – 20.04.2024
WASHINGTON – The US House of Representatives on Saturday passed a bill with $60.84 billion in Ukraine-related aid, amid warnings from the Biden administration that Ukraine could face battlefield setbacks without further assistance.
The House of Representatives passed the bill, dubbed the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, in a vote of 311 in favor, 112 opposed and one voting present. House lawmakers rejected a series of Republican amendments to slash funding in the bill.
The legislation includes $23.3 billion to replenish defense articles and services provided to Ukraine, $13.8 billion for the procurement of advanced weapons systems and $11.3 billion for US military operations in the region. The bill also includes a measure to provide long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to Ukraine. … Full article
RT | April 20, 2024
US lawmakers have broken a logjam on providing more weapons and money to Ukraine by passing an emergency spending bill that had been stalled since last fall on concern that Washington was merely prolonging the conflict with Russia without offering a strategy for victory or a peace settlement.
The bill passed by a margin of 311-112 on Saturday in the US House of Representatives, with all Democrats and 101 Republicans voting in favor of providing $61 billion in new aid to Ukraine. It’s expected to be combined with aid bills for Israel and Indo-Pacific allies before being quickly approved by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden.
Members of Congress cheered and waved Ukrainian flags as the votes were being counted… Full article
By Svetlana Ekimenko – Sputnik – 20.04.2024
NATO allies should use anti-aircraft systems to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine from the territory of Poland, Nico Lange, senior researcher at the Munich Security Conference, stated in an interview with Tagesschau.
As Ukraine flounders on the battlefield amid manpower and hardware losses in the face of Russia’s steady advance, Lange insisted:
“From now on, partners should use the numerous ‘Patriot’ systems on our eastern borders to shoot down all Russian missiles and drones that they have within range over Ukraine,” referencing primarily the alliance’s air defense systems in eastern Poland.
“This would be fully covered under international law,” Lange assured, citing as an example the assistance of Israel’s allies in repelling an Iranian strike last week.
Lange, who served as chief of staff at the German Ministry of Defense from 2019-2022, argues the need for “unconventional solutions” as Western support for Ukraine requires “a change in strategy.” At the same time, in the long term, he called for increasing the production of air defense systems in Europe. … Full article
RT | April 20, 2024
A correspondent for the Russian news outlet Izvestia, Semyon Yeryomin, has been killed in a Ukrainian kamikaze drone attack in Zaporozhye Region, the outlet reported on Friday.
Yeryomin’s crew was filming near the village of Priyutnoye on Friday at the positions of a battalion of Russian troops. Yeryomin had recently been reporting about the Russian military’s attempts to divert attacks by Ukrainian kamikaze UAVs. On the way back from a filming location, the crew’s vehicle was attacked by a drone. According to witnesses who spoke to Izvestia, Yeryomin was fatally injured in the attack and later died from his wounds. […]
According to military expert Gennady Alekhin, who spoke to Izvestia, drones often target journalists specifically.
“This is not the first case of a targeted attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on media representatives,” Alekhin noted.
There have been a number of deaths of media figures linked with the Ukraine conflict over the past two years. These include Boris Maksudov, a Russian journalist from Russia 24 TV, RIA Novosti war correspondent Rostislav Zhuravlev, Oleg Klokov – director of Kherson’s Tavria TV, and Kaliningrad RuBaltic correspondent Aleksey Ilyashevich – all killed while covering the conflict on the ground.
Moscow has also accused Kiev of a number of targeted assassinations of Russian public figures, including journalist Darya Dugina and military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. … Full article
Strategic Culture Foundation | April 19, 2024
French President Emmanuel Macron wants a truce in Ukraine and Gaza for the duration of the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
Macron said this week that his proposal is consistent with the ancient concept of an Olympic Truce when, historically, hostilities would be put to the side to showcase higher ideals of human fraternity and peaceful aspiration. In short, demonstration of the edifying notion that sport is above politics.
Russia responded that it was not against the idea in principle. However, Moscow pointed out that Macron’s Olympic peace idea lacks any practical details to vouchsafe a genuine initiative.
To put it more bluntly, the French leader has no credibility to proffer such a potentially important accord. His vague proposal is riddled with contradictions.
Only a few weeks ago, Macron was airing the idea of sending NATO troops to fight in Ukraine against Russia. He has not retracted that reckless provocation, which could escalate the conflict to a world war between nuclear powers.
Now we are to believe that Monsieur President is a tribune for world peace. … continue
The Cradle | April 20, 2024
A report by Haaretz published on 18 April acknowledges that key allegations claiming Hamas committed mass rape on 7 October are false, including the shocking claim made by the New York Times that nails were driven into a woman’s groin.
On 28 December, the Times published an article claiming it had “viewed photographs of one woman’s corpse that emergency responders discovered in the rubble of a besieged kibbutz with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin.”
The authors of the article, Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz, and Adam Sella, cited the photograph as evidence that “attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a broader pattern of gender-based violence on Oct. 7.”
However, Haaretz stated in its 18 April report that its journalists had seen the photo in question but that it does not appear to show what the Times claimed. … continue
Press TV – April 20, 2024
University students in the United States have announced solidarity rallies to show support for the Palestinians caught in the Israeli regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Students at several universities planned to rally in solidarity with the Columbia University demonstrators after New York police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian activists protesting on the campus at New York’s Columbia University.
Students at the University of North Carolina, Boston University, and Harvard College announced student walkouts “in solidarity with steadfast Columbia students.”
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators continued with their protests at Columbia.
Pro-Palestinian protesters are “peacefully protesting for divestment from genocide,” said one of the organizers of the rallies, Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
On Thursday, New York police dismantled tents set up by pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University, arresting 108 protesters.
Law enforcement officers came into action apprehending the students after Columbia University President Nemat Minouche Shafik authorized the New York Police Department to raid the campus following a grilling at a House of Representatives committee on so-called anti-Semitism.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said police had made the arrests concerning alleged trespassing on the university campus.
Meanwhile, the Israeli regime forces continued the genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip, bombing the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, and killing at least seven more on Friday, most of them women and children.
The Israeli regime has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza since the beginning of the war. Many more have been injured while still many more have been forced to flee the Palestinian land.
The Cradle | April 20, 2024
The political leadership of Hamas is considering moving its headquarters outside Qatar amid increasing criticism from members of the US Congress for the Gulf nation’s support for the Palestinian resistance movement, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on 20 April.
The US financial newspaper quoted Arab officials as saying that Hamas had recently communicated with at least two countries in the region, including the Sultanate of Oman, about the possibility of its political leaders moving to their capitals.
The WSJ indicated that Hamas’s departure from Qatar could disrupt talks to reach a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement to release dozens of Israelis held captive in Gaza, and hundreds of the many thousands of Palestinians held captive in Israel. Such a departure may also make it difficult for Israel and the US to convey messages to Hamas, which Washington classifies as a terrorist organization, the WSJ added.
A well-informed Arab mediator told the newspaper: “The talks have already stopped again, with little sign or possibility of resuming them anytime soon, and the lack of trust is growing between Hamas and the negotiators.”
Another Arab mediator said: “The possibility of the ceasefire talks collapsing completely has become very possible.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the religious settler ministers in his coalition government have shown little interest in winning the release of the Israelis held captive by Hamas since 7 October.
Netanyahu has instead prioritized continuing the bombing of Gaza, which has killed not only over 33,000 Palestinians but also many of Hamas’ Israeli captives as well. … continue
By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | April 20, 2024
On April 13, the Islamic Republic of Iran changed the deterrence equation with the Zionist entity by striking it directly. While the success of this operation can be judged, in the short term, through the monitoring of the US and Israeli responses, it is important to understand that Iran’s retaliatory operation was in fact the culmination of decades of Israeli attacks on its territory and citizens.
Immediately after Iran’s retaliatory operation, dubbed True Promise, was concluded, the Western and Israeli establishments began working hard to concoct their own narrative as to what occurred. Interestingly, they couldn’t quite stick to a singular script and adopted two contradictory takes: The first was to pretend that the Israelis were the victim and that Iran’s attack was much larger in scope than expected; hence demonstrating Tehran’s ‘evil’ intent. The second was to argue that the Israelis, along with their UK, US, French, and Jordanian air defense alliance, pulled off one of the most successful defensive military campaigns in history and that Iran did basically no damage.
The two narratives make the Israelis both the victim and the hero of the story. Yet, they greatly contradict each other by arguing both that nothing happened and that the Iranian retaliation went way beyond what is allegedly acceptable. What these two stories also do is allow us the ability to debunk both independently and tell the real story behind what occurred. … continue
Press TV – April 20, 2024
Fighters from the Iraqi anti-terror resistance groups have launched a drone strike against a strategic target in the southernmost part of the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories in response to the attack on a military base housing a coalition of anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of anti-terror fighters, in a statement published on its Telegram channel, claimed responsibility for the attack on the “vital” site in the port of Eilat, which lies at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on Saturday morning.
It said the drone strike was carried out in continuation of the second phase of the struggle against the occupying Israeli regime, in support of Palestinians in Gaza, and in retaliation for the massacres that the usurping Zionist entity is perpetrating against ordinary people in the besieged territory.
The group noted that the strike also came in reprisal for grave violation of Iraqi sovereignty and in response to the aggression on Hashd al-Sha’abi camps.
Earlier, at least one person was killed and eight others wounded after a military base housing Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters came under an airstrike in Iraq’s central province of Babylon.
Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news channel reported that the “aerial assault” targeted the Calso military base south of Baghdad overnight, and hit the main entrance to the base and an office belonging to Hashd al-Sha’abi.
The report added that the attack was most likely carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles. … Full article
- USDA/China Doing Gain-of-Function Work on H5N1 Bird Flu Since 2021
- Informed Dissent
- ‘Tacit Admission of Guilt’: Two Top Journal Editors Decline to Testify Before Congress on Scientific Censorship
- Australia’s Communications Minister Tells People To Report Social Media Posts to the Chief Censor
- US house speaker announces ‘new axis of evil’
- There’s bad news from Brussels for Polish homeowners
- Uproar in Poland after Bundeswehr chief claims ‘Germany takes responsibility for eastern flank of NATO’
- NATO ‘one step away’ from sending troops to Ukraine – Orban
- US to Allocate $40Mln in Defense Aid to Argentina Wishing to Be NATO’s Partner – Embassy
- From the river to the sea – a call for rightful decolonisation
- US to expand flow of arms to Israel as Biden faces backlash
- Meta’s WhatsApp challenged for complicity in Israel’s Gaza genocide
- Army Abducts A Palestinian In Jericho, Injures Woman In Jenin
- Operation True Promise
- ISIS kills Palestinian fighters in Syrian desert
- Syria reports Israeli missiles hit air defence sites
- Iran’s air defenses down drones over Isfahan, Tabriz
- IRGC: Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor not among Operation True Promise’s targets
- History and people will remember this regressive action: Chinese FM on US veto of Palestine’s full UN membership
- US Shows True Attitude to Palestinians by Casting Veto on State’s Membership in UN – Russian Envoy
- Russia asks United Nations to consider sanctioning Israel
- From October 7 to April 13: the era of Liberation has begun
- Iranian retaliation saved international relations from total barbarism
- Iran not after tension, informed US of retaliatory operation against Israel: Foreign minister
- Wheels Within Wheels: Complexity is Real in War
- New US Anti-Iran Sanctions ‘Will Do Nothing’
- Blinken shelves special request to probe Israeli war crimes: Report
- Israeli military’s new killing tactic: ‘Drones luring Palestinians to their death’
- Netanyahu Not Seeking Reaching Agreement in Practice – Hamas Politburo Member
- Following ‘destructive’ statements, Qatar says reassessing role as mediator in Gaza truce talks
- China Hopes US Will Abide by International Law After ‘Non-Binding’ Gaza Resolution Remark in UNSC
- The collapse of the concept of a rules-based international order
- Ukrainian children ‘kidnapped’ by Moscow found in Germany
- Ukraine strikes hospital in Donbass, injuring eight – authorities
- Ukrainian soldiers threaten to go AWOL if they are not demobilised
- Insurers claim ‘government’ could have sabotaged Nord Stream – Kommersant
- Orban calls on the political leadership in Brussels to resign, cites EU’s endless failures
- Zelensky’s people trying to extort me, Western investor claims to FT
- Could the Russians Seize Congress?
- Facebook designates Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg a ‘dangerous individual’
- X Says “Anti-Misinformation” Agency Spreading Falsehoods Caused “Incalculable” Damage
- FBI Wanted to Install Backdoor to Spy on Users, Telegram Founder Tells Tucker Carlson
- New Paper Finds Effect of Human-Caused Carbon Emissions on Climate is “Non-Discernible”
- ‘AVOID FALSE BALANCE’: AP Style Guide Aims to Silence Dissent From Climate Alarmist Narrative
- Dutch Parliament instructs government to demand a delay in both WHO votes – and if no delay, to reject proposals
- Harvard psychiatrist: Americans should be able to walk into a pharmacy & buy antidepressants over the counter
- US-UK launch new strikes on Yemen’s Hudaydah
- West’s backing of Israel after Iran’s retaliation ‘reckless, irresponsible’: Legal analyst
- Expert disputes ‘crazy’ claim that Israel downed 99 percent of Iranian projectiles
- ‘No evidence’ Iran developing nuclear weapons – IAEA
- ‘Unsubstantiated’: Iran rejects Argentine court’s blaming for AMIA bombing
- Kiev regime promotes terror in liberated Donbass regions
- NATO member explains why it will bar Ukraine from joining
- EU leadership must go – Orban
- Qatar Says ‘Surprised’ by Congressman’s Threat for US to Reevaluate Bilateral Relations
- US responds to Palestine’s UN membership bid
- Israel court extends detention of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh’s sister
- Over 350 Humanitarian Sites and Convoys Have Been Attacked in Gaza
- UN: Israel’s attacks on schools in Gaza are ‘systematic’
- Gaza authorities slam Israel for torturing Palestinian children
- Israel obstructs UN investigation into alleged rape on 7 October, prevents interviews of victims
- NYT tells journalists covering Israel’s war to avoid words ‘genocide,’ ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘occupied territory’
- EU Officials Dodge Their Own Surveillance Law
- Surge Pricing For Power On The Way
- Rise And Fall Of The German Economy… Energy Debacle Leading To Economic Meltdown
- Why US Scheme to Kill Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 is Dead in the Water
- Israel urges more sanctions on Iran
- US Will Try to Rally Other Nations to Sanction Iran Over Israel Attack
- Putin: Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel best way to punish aggressor
- NATO member blames Israel for Iranian attack
- Ukraine Tells United States It Wants to Be Treated Like Israel
- US Navy Depletes $1Bln Worth of Weapons in Middle East in 6 Months – Secretary Del Toro
- US to Buy $17 Bln Lockheed Missile Defense Interceptors as Public Debt Balloons
- Scholz has one trump card in talks with China, but he’ll never use it
- Ukrainian Special Services Behind Attempted Murder of Opposition Blogger Shariy – Source
- “Mobilisation has turned into a real nightmare for Ukrainians” – former PM Mykola Azarov
- US trial unveils horrors of Abu Ghraib scandal, decades later
- Two Palestinians killed in West Bank amid drastic rise in settler attacks
- Mass grave found in courtyard of Shifa Hospital
- Israel still imposing ‘unlawful’ restrictions on Gaza aid, says UN rights office
- Iran’s strike on Israel was much more successful than it seems. Here’s why
- US makes failed bid for Iran to allow ‘symbolic strike’ by Israel
- ‘Nothing You Can Do to Stop Us’: Iran’s Strikes on Israeli Bases Establish Deterrence
- Germany confirms its collaboration with genocide
- Whither Free Speech? College Campuses Sacrifice Professed Values to Altar of Zionism – Report
- Censorship & persecution of dissident voices continues across the world
- What authority would scare and shame an already frightened population?
- Congress Summons WEF-Affiliated Media Alliance Co-Founder Over Demonetization Scandal
- US-NATO: The Cost of War in Occupied Europe
- US ban on Russian metals ‘cuts both ways’ – Kremlin
- Ukrainian FM publicly blackmails West over oil prices
- Germany Escalates Donbass Conflict as Ukraine Admits Frontline is Deteriorating
- German leader greeted in China by deputy mayor
- US media smears China for Western failure to defeat Russia
- Scott Ritter: Ukraine ‘Owned’ by US, While With Israel It’s the Other Way Around
- Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank
- Palestinian woman injured in settler attack in Jordan Valley
- Israel continues to block aid deliveries into famine-stricken Gaza: Rights group
- What you need to know about the Iranian attack on Israel but will not find in mainstream news
- Iran’s drone strike busts a number of myths and strains Israel-U.S. relations
- Iranian Media Confirms Use of Unstoppable Hypersonic Missiles in Israel Counterstrike
- Macron calls for ‘isolation’ of Iran
- US, UK, France, Jordan team up to defend Israeli airspace
- Zelensky backs Israel
- Russia Slams UNSC for Ignoring Attack on Iranian Consulate, Calls for End to Bloodshed
- Israeli army shells hundreds of displaced Palestinians in Gaza
- Israeli minister calls for full seizure of Gaza Strip
- Dozens of Palestinians injured in settler attacks across West Bank
- Massive Rallies Break Out in Japan Against WHO’s Pandemic Treaty
- Did the U.S. Death Rate from Measles Decline by over 98% Before Introduction of a Measles Vaccine?
- What Makes All Vaccines So Dangerous?
- 15 Federal Agencies Knew About EcoHealth’s Gain-of-Function Proposal in 2018 But Said Nothing
- Comprehensive Russian Temperature Reconstruction Shows Warmer Temperatures 1000 Years Ago!
- Man Made Global Warming
- Let’s Talk About the Moon
- Ottawa fails to condemn Israeli damage to Canadian embassy
- Strike on Israel ‘Just a Slap in the Face’ Previewing Iran’s True Capabilities
- Israeli general pegs cost of defending against attack – media
- Strike on Israel Shows US Bases Near Iran Are ‘Achilles Heel’ – Analyst
- Russia tells Israel to condemn Ukraine
- China urges restraint after Iran’s strike against Israel; Israel’s air defense system to face significant pressure: experts
- Scott Ritter: Iran’s Retaliatory Attack ‘Reestablished Deterrence’ to Hold Israel, US in Check
- Iran describes response to Israeli attack as ‘legitimate defense’
- HAARETZ: “ISRAEL HAS BEEN DEFEATED – A TOTAL DEFEAT”
- Germany Electric Car Sales Plummet 30% As Country Floats Idea Of Weekend Driving Ban!
- The WHO Accord: Global Governance is a Real Threat to American Sovereignty
- The dramatic mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic must finally seal the fate of the WHO (We Host Obtuseness)!
- Australia bins 35% of multi-billion dollar Covid vaccine supply
- $12 Billion Over 10 Years: Pharma, Medical Devices Industries Shell Out Direct Payments to US Physicians
- WHO Official Admits Vaccine Passports May Have Been a Scam
- US seeking to withdraw Israeli forces from Gaza after failing to achieve goals: Islamic Jihad
- WHEN IT’S OKAY TO NUKE A COUNTRY
- Indonesia won’t normalize with Israel because Indonesians won’t allow that
- Game Over? Persian Gulf Powers Reportedly Refuse to Give US Access to Bases for Anti-Iran Strikes
- IRGC seizes Israel-linked container ship in Strait of Hormuz
- US ban on Russian metals worse than ‘shot in the foot’ – Moscow
- Europe’s sinking economy: how many causes can we name while ignoring the Russia factor?
- ‘Russia turned off the gas’ – German leader
- New Order From Ukraine’s Top General Reveals Scale of Sabotage and Desertion in Army
- All for One and One for All
- EU criminalizes sanctions busting by member states
- US has ‘no viable plan’ for Ukraine – senator
- Western leaders reveal their total contempt for Palestinian lives
- ‘Silencing a witness to genocide’: Germany detains Gaza war surgeon
- Palestinian killed in settler attack on West Bank town
- Israeli Colonizers Injure Four Palestinians, Burn Cars, Near Ramallah
- War and Peace in an Ocean of Lies
- Abu Ghraib survivors to get their day in court
- Late admission: Who is really responsible for the chemical attacks in Syria?
- Ukrainian Defector’s Car Explodes in Moscow, Owner Sustains Minor Injuries – Assistant
- Russian Church slams plan to brand it ‘terrorist’
- Only 1.1% of Spaniards Consider Ukraine Conflict to Be Important Issue for Spain – Survey
- Switzerland to hold referendum on Russia sanctions
- Red Sea rising: Exposing the West’s diminishing naval power
- Israeli occupation forces open fire at Al Mayadeen crew vehicle in southern Lebanon
- Iran raps UK stance on Israeli strike as Cameron calls for restraint
- Hamas adhering to its conditions for prisoner deal: Haniyeh
- No consensus for Palestinian statehood at UNSC
- Bahrain: Hundreds of freed political prisoners chant for ‘Free Palestine’
- ‘Israel’ has conclusively lost the debate in Western popular culture
- Morocco activist sentenced to 5 years for criticising normalisation with Israel
- The CIA Wants More Power to Spy on Americans!
- Is Censorship the Biden Era’s Torture Issue?
- Brussels Fears “Disinformation” Campaign Before EU Elections
- US funds Ukraine outlets that censor and smear pro-peace Americans – report
- Ukraine and the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant: The Samson Solution
- Zelensky’s New Counteroffensive Will Spell Disaster for Ukraine – Senior Russian MoD Source
- EU state to give Ukraine fixed share of GDP annually
- Switzerland’s Largest Party Calls for Return to Neutrality in All Conflicts – Statement
- New NATO member plans to cut pensions
- Hungary refuses to submit to EU’s migration pact
- EU bias exposed: Not one Central and Eastern European appointed to leadership role across bloc last year
- Israeli settlers burn Palestinian home, vehicle in northern West Bank
- Israeli strikes kill more than 120 Palestinians in Gaza Strip in single day: Palestinian health ministry
- WCK says another aid worker gravely injured in separate Israeli strike in Gaza
- Brits should not be part of the genocide in Gaza
- Nicaragua shuts embassy in Germany amid ICJ case for abetting genocide
- Had UN condemned Israel, there’d be no need for retaliation – Iran
- How Big a Factor is Iran in the War on Gaza?
- US supports Israel against any threats by Iran, its proxies: Blinken
- Russia may drop moratorium on intermediate-range missiles – top diplomat
- Russia Worried US Decision to Put Mid-Range Missile System in Asia-Pacific Final
- China tells US it won’t be bullied on Russia
- Still Trying to End the Vietnam War Killings
- ‘Low Credibility’ Study Claims No Link Between Cellphone Use and Brain Tumors
- UK watchdog accuses Pfizer of making ‘misleading’ claims, ignoring side effects of COVID shot
- CDC Demonstrates Failure of Public Health Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Austrian officials must have known all along that “covid” was a nothing-burger
- Bill to Extend Mass Surveillance Program Fails House Vote
- French teen detained for demanding that foreign rapists be deported
- Jim Jordan Demands Big Tech CEOs and Feds Hand Over Censorship Collusion Documents
- NPR Editor Blasts the Public-Funded Company for Political Bias and Activism
- Four Palestinians injured by settler gunfire in West Bank
- Hamas financier killed in Lebanon, Mossad likely perpetrator
- Israeli occupation forces kill three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haneyya and their children
- US disagreeing with Gaza ceasefire resolution ‘destructive’: Russia
- Two Russian children killed in Ukrainian drone attack – governor
- Occupied Nation: How the CIA Created Modern Germany
- German democracy index claims Hungarian democracy worse than Ukraine’s despite Kyiv canceling elections
- Xi meets Lavrov, reaffirms China’s emphasis on partnership with Russia
- GMO condemns Israel’s assassination of al-Maghazi mayor in Gaza
- Israel blocks food trucks 3 times more than other aid in Gaza: UN
- US defense chief denies Israel committing genocide in Gaza
- Israel’s culture of rape and child abuse
- UK says will keep selling arms to Israel anyway
- Star wars coming – top US general
- UK and France Talk of Reviving WWI Alliance Over ‘Fear’ of Trump Return
- Russia launches terrorism probe into US and NATO officials
- Killing humanitarian workers as a strategy: Israel’s endgame in Gaza
- Hundreds of corpses recovered from vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital
- Palestine’s Sacrifice
- Israeli Milestones: From Six-Day Victory in 1967 to Six-Month Failure
- Google workers revolt over $1.2 billion contract with Israel
- Palestinian comedian’s Bahrain show cancelled after permit refusal
- German Intelligence Chief Advocates for Monitoring Speech and Thought
- ‘Withhold funds or expel them!’ – German lawmakers lose their minds after Slovak presidential victory of Pellegrini
- Desperados… NATO cranks up false-flag mode
- Why Did Washington Insist on the Kosovo War?
- No Russian misinfo on X, but Western influence ops present – Musk
- US pledges to prevent Russia from developing new energy projects
- Switzerland ‘violated human rights’ by not tackling climate change quickly enough, rules ECHR in landmark case
- Editors of Top Science Journals to Testify Before House Pandemic Committee, as Critics Call for End of Taxpayer Funding for ‘Corrupt’ Research
- Scotland Police May Be Forced To Make Budget Cuts To Deal With Authoritarian Speech Complaints
- Israel Seeks to Sell Weapons Used in Gaza Slaughter
- Saudi Arabia, Pakistan demand end to Israel’s hostilities in Gaza
- Israel withdrew from southern Gaza due to the resistance’s strikes, expert says
- Iran Warns it Has Nine Types of Missiles Able to Strike Israeli Territory
- China dismisses Washington’s threat of ‘consequences’
- All Ukrainians must fight – general
- IAEA condemns ‘reckless’ drone attack on Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant
Aletho News 