February 18th • 0m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Ukraine vs Russia
Dropped Dead Suddenly instead of Died Suddenly
Everyone is wearing Sheriff Badges with UKR and USA flags
BENZ OP
Big Pharma
Big Tech & AI
RFID overreaching for payment BOTG
I'm currently listening to Thursday's episode and just hit the part about multiple/other payment cards being charged at check out, and you guys called the story bogus.For what it's worth, I have an anecdotal story in regard to this scenario. Earlier in the week my wife told me that she noticed a charge on her credit card from the local produce store in our neighborhood, but she always pays with her debit card, and she mentioned this has happened more than once in the last few months.
We live in San Francisco (Noe Valley) and this has only happened to her, so far, and it appears to be localized to that specific produce store.
Replacement Migration
War on Cereal
Climate Change
Israel vs Hamas
Dutch F35 part are US property BOTG
Hi Adam,
In de laatste No Agenda Show horen we op 52 min. dat de Nederlandse rechter verboden heeft onderdelen voor de F-35 aan Israel te leveren. Wat ze er niet bij vertellen is dat de Amerikaanse overheid dit verbiedt.
Zie bovenstaande video waarin Arno Wellens, financieel onderzoek journalist, de hele voorgeschiedenis van de F35, ook wel het JSF project genoemd, uitlegt en als je van 34.00-38.30 min. luistert dan hoor je dat Nederland hier niks over te zeggen heeft.
2TTH - McConnel Tesl
Tesla Doors BOTG
The doors have a manual back up for opening on Teslas. The problem is most people don’t know it is there and or forget when panicking. I go over it with anyone driving my car without me and I remind them regularly as I talk about safety.
The manual open on a model three is at the front of arm rest. You just pull up and it will manually release the door latch even without power.
Lee
Submerging an EV is harder than it sounds BOTG
[Please don’t read my name. I’m an engineer in the auto industry.]
Regarding the discussion of a Tesla backing into a pond and sinking right away because they are so heavy.
It turns out, the battery packs and floor system Of BEVs are well sealed. When testing, and you have to remedy a “thermal event” by pushing the overheating vehicle into a massive dunk tank, these things supposedly bob like an Apple. You have to weigh them down with a massive amount of weight or keep them submerged with forklift tines on the roof.
Although, If it was a Model Y built in TX, that battery pack is filled completely with dense foam. It could sink easier if it was dense enough…
Trump
War on Jesus
STORIES
Who is behind 'He Gets Us' Jesus commercials? What to know about charity funding Super Bowl ad | Sporting News
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 17:59
There is no better opportunity for advertisers than the Super Bowl, which is watched by an average of more than 100 million Americans each year.
Naturally, the price of running a commercial during the game is enormous. A 30-second ad is estimated to cost about $7 million for Super Bowl 58, on top of the money it takes to create what are often elaborate commercials designed to grab headlines.
Viewers who watched Super Bowl 57 took note of a commercial with this tagline: "He Gets Us." This year, the ad campaign will have two separate commercials run during the CBS broadcast.
What are the "He Gets Us" commercials all about? Here's what you need to know about who's behind the ads and what message the campaign is trying to convey.
MORE SUPER BOWL 58: Commercials tracker | 25 best ads of all time
Who is behind the 'He Gets Us' commercials?This year, new charity organization Come Near is leading the "He Gets Us" ad campaign. The group is led by CEO Ken Calwell, though not many other details are known about the organization still in its infancy.
That represents a change from last year, when the ads were funded by the Servant Foundation. The campaign received criticism due to its connection to the Servant Foundation, which reportedly donated millions of dollars to a nonprofit fighting against abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights.
Among the donors behind the campaign is the family of billionaire Hobby Lobby co-founder David Green, whose son is a board member at Come Near.
The initiative is "backed by more than $100 million," according to AdWeek. It's unusual to see a Super Bowl commercial that doesn't directly tie to buying a product, which is one reason the "He Gets Us" ads received so much attention during Super Bowl 57.
There are two "He Gets Us" commercials set to run during Super Bowl 58: a 60-second ad during the first quarter, and a shorter 15-second ad in the second half.
What is the 'He Gets Us' campaign?"He Gets Us" spokesperson Greg Miller told Rolling Stone that the ads run during Super Bowl 58 "emphasize loving our neighbors like Jesus did, encouraging people to respect and serve each other."
Green has elaborated on the message behind the commercials in the past, telling "The Lifestyle Podcast" in 2023 that he want to change the perception that Christians are "beginning to be known as haters"
"We are people that have the very, very best love story ever written, and we need to tell that love story," Green explained.
"He Gets Us" ads are intended to appeal to viewers who don't consider themselves religious or at least aren't heavily interested in religion. The commercials intend to modernize Jesus and his message by connecting him to current world events such as racial injustice and immigration.
"We hope to remind everyone, including ourselves, that Jesus' teachings are a warm embrace, not a cold shoulder," the ad campaign's website says.
MORE SUPER BOWL 58: TV schedule | Halftime show | Ticket prices
While the campaign has been criticized for political messaging, those behind the movement have insisted it's apolitical. Though Hobby Lobby has longstanding conservative ties, many of the "He Gets Us" commercials reference Jesus as a fighter for social justice.
The campaign's website also insists the ads are not connected to an anti-gay agenda, explaining: "Let us be clear in our opinion. Jesus loves gay people and Jesus loves trans people."
The message of the commercials doesn't appear to be changing despite the new organization behind the ads, but viewers might be curious to see if the approach changes as at all as these ads debut in front of a gargantuan audience.
The potential impact of the Suez Canal privatization '' GIS Reports
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 17:54
Faced with unsustainable debt levels, Egypt is taking steps to privatize the highly profitable Suez Canal.
The construction of the 193-kilometer-long Suez Canal was completed in 1869, transforming maritime shipping by providing a direct link between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. (C) Getty Images In a nutshellEgypt is under growing economic strainCairo is attempting to privatize key assetsThe privatization of the Suez Canal could backfireThe Suez Canal is the crown jewel of the Egyptian economy, bringing in a steady stream of income that has withstood wars, pandemics and financial crises. Some 10 to 12 percent of world trade and 10 percent of global oil and gas shipments pass through the 193.3-kilometer channel, generating daily revenues of $21.7 million. If the authorities in Cairo were to shut it down, the disruption to supply chains would trigger a massive inflationary surge.
Given the strategic importance of the waterway, the creation of a fund allowing the sale of Suez Canal assets was met with a frosty reception from the Egyptian public and business sector. Selling some port facilities to private or foreign investors would take the country into the uncertain waters of free market economics. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is aware of this, but he has no other solution. At a recent summit in Dubai, he declared: ''Egypt needs a trillion dollars per year. Do we have the money? No. Do we have half? No. Do we have a quarter? No.''
The Suez Canal's profitability is not under debate. In fact, after carving out a new river section for supertanker transit, profits surged 25 percent, reaching $7.9 billion last year. This upward trajectory has continued throughout the first months of 2023, with a robust 35 percent rise in the first quarter. These revenues suffice for maintaining the canal and managing navigational hazards, such as the infamous grounding of the Ever Given container ship in 2021, which blocked the canal for six days.
Facts & figuresEgypt's most profitable assetDevelopment work on the canal is almost nonstop. The latest project to widen the waterway by an additional 10 kilometers of bidirectional traffic (between terminals 122 and 132) is nearing completion. It will allow an additional six vessels to pass through every day. More ships mean more revenue. On March 13 this year, Cairo celebrated a record number of vessels passing through in one day: 107.
Business and sovereigntyThere is a widespread fear that the Suez Canal could become the target of rushed deals. If the state gradually sells off shareholdings to refill its coffers, Cairo could eventually lose control over this highly profitable entity. The unease is amplified by President El-Sisi's decision to open equity in 32 companies to minority shareholders, aiming to draw in $40 billion in investments over the next four years.
Strictly speaking, the buyers are not from the business world. They are sovereign wealth funds, subject to diplomatic goodwill from the Arab world. Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund will invest $2 billion in fertilizer and logistics companies, as well as in the Commercial International Bank, one of the country's main banking institutions. The Saudi Public Investment Fund has positioned itself to take stakes in the energy sector, including in the petrochemical company MOPCO, for $266 million. The Gulf monarchies have understood the gravity of the Egyptian economic situation, which has become so dire that the government is now advising the poorest to survive on chicken feet.
From centralism to free marketThe Suez Canal's excellent financial health is not representative of Egypt's overall business climate. The Egyptian central bank devalued the currency by 20 percent to offset the knock-on effects of the Ukrainian crisis and to curb runaway inflation, which reached 33.9 percent during Ramadan. President El-Sisi knows that to avoid state bankruptcy, he must undertake the long overdue privatization of the economy to generate jobs and wealth.
The concern is that investors might primarily be attracted to the country's standout businesses, such as Wataniya Petroleum, with its network of 250 gas stations; Safi, a mineral water bottling company; and of course, the Suez Canal. These represent the safest and most lucrative investments with clear potential for growth.
These thresholds of profitability and transparency are not common for most Egyptian companies that have been asked to open up to private partners. Some business leaders have lived away from prying eyes for decades. They are not used to opening their books and formalizing their business model in writing. Even determining the purchase value of their business is a challenge. In addition to the potential for inflated valuation, there are inherent limitations associated with minority ownership. For instance, minority shareholders typically lack direct access to a company's top executives, making it more difficult to ensure good governance.
It has long been an unspoken tradition for the state to reward senior officers with prestigious positions in large companies when they retire. The current chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabie, is an admiral and the former commander of the Egyptian Navy. Though Mr. Rabie is a widely accepted and respected leader in his role, there are instances in other organizations where individuals have been assigned roles for which they lack proven competence. The negative impact of such placements on the efficiency and performance of these organizations is readily apparent.
President El-Sisi's drive toward privatization is risky because it threatens the vested interests of the Egyptian army, which has evolved into a political force over the years. The military has proven its capabilities in managing megaprojects, such as the $45 billion construction of the yet-unnamed new administrative capital '' a towering skyline sprouting from the desert. However, the same army can also be a source of resistance and obfuscation. The connections between the formal and informal economies are plentiful and often hard to trace.
For years, the World Bank, the IMF, the United States and the European Union have been urging Egypt to abandon the structures inherited from the Nasser era in favor of a new economic model that is more dynamic, more transparent and better suited to Egypt's immediate challenges. The privatization of the Suez Canal is both vital and precarious, given the current economic climate in Egypt. Debt alone accounts for 54 percent of public expenditures and domestic consumption is on a downward trend. Cairo is racing against the clock to implement necessary changes.
ScenariosSilk Road expansion via the Suez CanalThe Suez Canal is attracting investors. On the heels of Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes, which will invest $2 billion in steel plants in the Canal Economic Zone, Beijing could use the Suez Canal Authority Fund to consolidate its Silk Road initiative and seize the opportunity to invest in the Egyptian domestic consumer market that will emerge sooner or later.
Social tensions amid expansion of the Suez CanalThe development of the Suez Canal could cause tensions. Hundreds of Egyptians are being displaced from the town of Arish, where a new port is soon to be built. Anger could spread. The deteriorating social climate would halt Egypt's ambitious megaprojects. The economy would only be partially privatized, without any significant improvement in the living standards of the Egyptian people. Popular mobilization could lead to unrest and spark demonstrations that would have to be brutally suppressed. The chasm between Egypt's highly profitable entities and the rest of the failing economy would widen.
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Week 2 of the #FluorideLawsuit: EPA Rests Their Case, Admits Harm Related to Fluoride Exposure
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 17:49
The second week of the historic fluoride lawsuit has come to an end in San Francisco. What's next in the ongoing push to force the U.S. EPA to ban water fluoridation?SAN FRANCISCO '' On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finished presenting their expert witnesses, and rested their case in the second phase of the long-delayed fluoride lawsuit. Judge Edward Chen ordered the EPA and the plaintiffs, led by Fluoride Action Network (FAN) attorney Michael Connett, to reconvene via Zoom on February 20th at 9:30 am for closing statements and questions from the judge.
The lawsuit was filed by FAN, Moms Against Fluoridation, and individual plaintiffs who are seeking to prove that fluoride is a neurotoxin and should be banned. The lawsuit originally began after the EPA's 2016 decision to deny the plaintiff's petition under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
The final 3 days of the proceedings centered around the EPA's expert witnesses, Dr. David Savitz and Dr. Stanley Barone. A third EPA witness, Dr. Jesus Ibarluzea, was testifying in the form of a prerecorded video. Judge Chen decided he would view this video privately after the court adjourned.
The closing days of the trial featured several revealing moments, including Judge Chen and the EPA's witnesses acknowledging that fluoride can cause neurodevelopmental issues, and Dr. Barone struggling to answer a question regarding pregnant mothers and fluoride exposure.
Much of the discussion focused on the EPA's argument that while there is clearly an association between fluoride exposure and lower IQ, it is only at levels above 2 milligrams per liter of fluoridated water, not at, or near, the 0.7 milligram per liter recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
At one point Judge Chen asked Dr. Savitz if he agreed with the conclusion that there is evidence of harm from fluoride around 1.5 milligrams per liter of fluoridated water. Savitz said he would place emphasis on the 1 to 2 milligram per liter, and called for more studies in that range.
EPA Witness: Dr. David SavitzDr. David Savitz is Professor of Epidemiology in the Brown University School of Public Health. Savitz has also served as editor at the American Journal of Epidemiology, and as a member of the Epidemiology and Disease Control study section of the National Institutes of Health.
Judge Chen also asked Savitz if he had any particular criticism regarding the U.S. National Toxicology Program's (NTP) data on the impacts of fluoride above 1.5 milligrams per liter. Savitz said there ''appears that there is this association of higher fluoride exposure'' and lower IQ across the studies examined by NTP. While Savitz was critical of some of the conclusions drawn by the NTP researchers, he was careful not to disparage the researchers themselves.
Meanwhile, the EPA attempted to show the court that the NTP monograph looked at a limited number of studies on fluoride exposure for the less than 1.5 milligrams per liter. Their argument was essentially that the data is still unclear and thus the EPA should not be compelled to act under TSCA.
As a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (NASEM), Dr. Savitz reviewed the U.S. NTP draft report which has been the subject of much controversy. It is this report which emails obtained by the FAN attorneys show was blocked from public release by officials within the CDC and the Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine. The fact that NASEM reviewed the draft report was noted by several witnesses to be an unusual step taken by the academy.
During questioning of Dr. Savitz, the EPA read the NASEM statement on the NTP conclusion. The statement reads in part, '''...the monograph falls short of providing a clear and convincing argument that supports it assessment''. Essentially, NASEM, with Savitz' participation did not endorse the conclusions of the NTP regarding an association between fluoride exposure and lower IQ.
The NASEM went further by stating that the NTP report ''cannot be used to draw conclusions regarding low fluoride exposure concentrations, including those typically associated with drinking water fluoridation''. Dr. Savitz said he agreed with this conclusion.
During FAN's cross examination of Savitz, lead attorney Michael Connett attempted to make it clear that Savitz is not and was not an expert in the neurotoxicity of fluoride while he reviewed the NTP report for NASEM. FAN attorney Michael Connett drew attention to a $17 Million grant Savitz received from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, who are vocal advocates for water fluoridation.
Connett asked Savitz if it would be accurate to call him a ''newcomer'' to this topic, to which he agreed. Connett asked Savitz to confirm that he is not an expert on fluoride's toxicity. When Savitz offered a non-answer, Connett pulled up his deposition testimony where he clearly said, ''I would not say that I had done the necessary work'' to be an expert on fluoride's toxicity.
Connett also asked Savitz about a recent study which found an association between fluoride and ''executive function'' for girls. The term executive function relates to cognitive ability. When Connett asked if the study found a ''statistically significant association'' between fluoride exposure and impact on executive function, Savitz offered a qualified yes.
Connett quoted directly from the study, which reads:
''Maternal exposure to drinking water throughout pregnancy fluoridated at the level of 0.7 mg/L was associated with poorer inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility, particularly in girls, suggesting a possible need to reduce maternal fluoride exposure during pregnancy.''
Dr. Stanley Barone's Long PauseDr. Stanley Barone is a Senior Science Policy Advisor with the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OSCPP) in the EPA. He was also involved in the first ten risk assessments conducted by the EPA under TSCA.
When asked his expert opinion on the association between water fluoride levels and lower IQ, Barone said there was ''a lot of uncertainty related to the epidemiological data'' and ''a lot of uncertainty for the NTP report''.
However, under cross examination by Michael Connett, Dr. Barone answered ''yes'' when asked if he agreed that fluoride has been found to be a neurotoxin at certain levels. When questioned about specific levels of fluoride in the water, Barone was less willing to affirm this conclusion.
''You agree that there is an association of neurotoxicity with water fluoridation above levels of 2 mg/L?,'' Connett asked. ''At some level above 2, yes,'' Barone responded. This is where much of the debate remains. Both sides acknowledge fluoride's harms, but cannot agree at which concentration level potential harm begins.
A particularly powerful moment came when Connett began questioning Barone about the kidney's ability to excrete toxins like fluoride. Connett made the point that individuals suffering from kidney issues may have a more difficult time excreting fluoride which leads to increased build up in the body.
''You testified earlier today that there may be oversaturation going on in the kidney at the 95th percentile level in the fluoridated areas,'' Connett said. ''Do you feel comfortable as a risk assessor exposing pregnant women to a level of fluoride that is so high that the kidney is oversaturated?''
At this point, Dr. Barone sat silently while he processed the question. The courtroom was silent for about five to seven seconds as Barone contemplated his answer. In the end, he offered a qualified no, ultimately saying that his opinion was not ''germane'' to the discussion.
Late Breaking Study by Health CanadaOne of the points of disagreement between the EPA and FAN attorneys was the late admission of a newly published review of the evidence on the potential human health effects of fluoride. The study was conducted by Risk Sciences International under a contract with Health Canada, the federal public health agency for Canada. Health Canada is currently developing a water fluoridation policy for Canada.
While RSI was commissioned by Health Canada, the agency did not publish their results. Instead, Health Canada organized the ''Expert panel meeting on the health effects of fluoride in drinking water'' in June 2023 to release their conclusions of the RSI study. Dr. David Savitz was a part of this expert panel.
The differences in the conclusions of the published RSI report and the Health Canada Expert Panel are stark. The RSI report concluded, ''the evidence supports a conclusion that fluoride exposure reduces IQ levels in children at concentrations close to those seen in North American drinking water''. The report also acknowledged there was uncertainty about at which exact concentration harm begins.
The Health Canada Expert Panel appeared to disagree, writing that ''there is not a sufficient basis at this time to recommend a specific point of departure and health-based value for neurocognitive effects''.
During his cross examination of Savitz, Connett noted that members of the expert panel are advocates of water fluoridation. Connett specifically mentioned a Dr. Steven Levy, who has a background in dentistry and is a well known champion of fluoride. Dr. Savitz claimed to be unaware of whether members of the panel have advocated for or against fluoridation.
Does Fluoride Increase IQ in Boys?The EPA's third witness, Dr. Jesus Ibarluzea is the lead author of a study which examined the impacts of fluoride in the Basque region of Spain. This study controversially found that fluoride exposure can apparently increase IQ for boys.
Connett questioned Dr. Savitz about the merits of this study which is at odds with the rest of the available data. Judge Chen was also uncertain of how to judge this study, asking Savitz about how the conclusions were reached.
''Does this not raise some question about whether there is something wrong with this study?,'' Judge Chen asked Savitz. ''You got this result that seems totally counter-intuitive and not consistent with the other literature.''
''Absolutely, it raises the question,'' Savitz said.
Judge Chen will now review all of the evidence and testimony from witnesses before reconvening with both sides on February 20th for final questions and closing statements.
Stay tuned to TLAV for reporting on the final day of the 2nd phase of the fluoride lawsuit.
These delicious French cheeses could disappear, scientists warn - Vox
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 17:48
Camembert, I'm sorry to report, is in trouble.
The soft cheese, which smells a bit like feet, is on the ''verge of extinction,'' according to the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Other cheeses, including brie and various blues, are under threat, too, the group has warned.
This looming cheese crisis, this Camembert calamity, stems from a much bigger problem: a collapse in microbial diversity.
Each hunk of Camembert or smear of brie is an ecosystem, an assortment of fungi and bacteria that turn milk fats and proteins into hundreds of different compounds. Those compounds produce the flavors, smells, and textures we love.
In recent decades, however, the genetic diversity of some of those microbes has caved. And today, some of the most famous French cheeses rely on just a single fragile strain of fungi that is at risk of dying out.
This is bad news for France, bad news for bread, and bad news for lovers of fine cheese the world over. And it's a reminder that biodiversity matters, even when you can't see it. Life's finer things, indeed, depend on it.
A wheel of Camembert that this author was forced to buy and taste for this story. Benji Jones on assignment for Vox Why Camembert as we know it could disappearTo make cheese, producers typically take fresh milk and mix in bacteria and often fungi, including both yeasts and molds (fungi that tend to be fuzzy). Different microbe melanges produce different varieties of cheese.
Historically, Camemberts and bries likely relied on mold strains from a species of fungi called Penicillium biforme, according to Jeanne Ropars, an evolutionary biologist who works at a lab affiliated with CNRS. Each strain was slightly different genetically, and so the resulting cheeses had slightly different colors, flavors, and smells.
Roughly a century ago, however, cheesemakers identified a particular strain of P. biforme that was fast-growing and albino; it produced a fluffy white mold that was, apparently, quite appetizing. This strain, known as Penicillium camemberti, was henceforth considered the gold standard for brie and Camembert (which differ from one another mainly in size). It quickly dominated the cheese industry, and the diverse group of other mold strains used to make Camembert and brie, and the colors they produced, vanished from disuse.
Today, all Camembert and brie cheeses worldwide are inoculated with this one genetically identical albino strain of fungi, which is not found in the wild, Ropars said. That means that a brie from a grocery store in France and one from a bodega in New York City have identical (or nearly identical) Penicillium microbes.
This is a good thing for those who value uniformity; for people who expect their brie to look a certain way, just as they might want their tomatoes to be perfectly round and their apples bright red.
But uniformity comes at a cost.
A worker of the Farm Cite des Vents shows cheese curds, in Saint-Flour, central France, on February 28, 2023. Zoccolan/AFP via Getty Images For reasons that are not totally clear, the albino strain can't reproduce sexually, like most molds can '-- meaning, it can't ''breed'' with another individual to create new genetic diversity. So to create more of this fungi, cheesemakers have to clone it, not unlike how you propagate a plant using a cutting. Yet decades of replicating the same individual can introduce harmful errors into its genome, Ropars said.
That's what's happened with P. camemberti. In recent decades, the albino fungus picked up mutations that interfere with its ability to produce spores, and that makes it much harder to clone. Put simply: It's now difficult for cheesemakers to grow the key fungus used to make brie and Camembert.
''Camembert is not going to disappear tomorrow,'' Ropars said, and it's not clear how these challenges will impact cheese supply. ''But it's going to be more and more difficult to produce.''
Our foods, more broadly, are losing resilienceIn the world of cheese, this problem is not unique to Camembert and brie. The diversity of fungi used to make blue cheeses, like Gorgonzola and Roquefort, has also shrunk dramatically in recent decades, Ropars said. Farmers have similarly selected certain strains that produce the right look, aroma, and flavor, narrowing the genetic pool. So far, these strains '-- which are considered ''domesticated'' microbes '-- can still reproduce, but some are nearly infertile.
This rapid caving of genetic diversity threatens other food industries, too, as the author Dan Saladino writes in his book Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them. Most bananas we eat, for example, are genetically similar. That means that if a pathogen evolves the right machinery to kill one, it can kill many '-- which is a very real threat.
A cheese stand in Berlin, Germany. Sean Gallup/Getty Images Uniformity is especially bad in a warming world. Different genetic varieties of plants, such as wheat, have different strengths and weaknesses; some might be more tolerant to, say, long periods of drought. Losing diversity means losing different strengths that may ensure the survival of a particular food.
''When you lose diversity within a species, you lose adaptability,'' said Tatiana Giraud, a colleague of Ropars who also works at CNRS.
This diversity matters among communities of wild organisms, as well, Giraud said, whether or not you can see them. Fungal communities, though poorly studied, are invisible forces in the environment, operating in the background to ensure that ecosystems function properly. They can break down dead leaves and branches, help plants absorb nutrients, and clear toxins from the soil. Protecting the diversity of fungal species, scientists say, safeguards these critical services.
Get comfortable with funkier cheesesUltimately, this doesn't mean that we must bid farewell to brie, or that Camembert on toast is, let's say, toast. There is a way to save these cheeses, though it requires some changes in our own taste and tolerance.
To make Camembert or brie, cheese producers could simply inoculate cow's milk with other Penicillium biforme molds, which are naturally present in raw milk (these microbes would need to be manually added if the milk is pasteurized). As a group, Penicillium biforme has a lot of genetic diversity and these molds are able to produce sexually, Ropars said, which is key to maintaining genetic diversity.
P. biforme is closely related to the albino strain, though it might give the cheeses a slightly different look and aroma. Perhaps your wheel of brie would be a bit more blue or gray, or slightly funkier. But this is something that consumers should embrace, Ropars said: a diverse mix of flavors, of smells, a resilient collection of bugs.
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80% of Americans test positive for chemical found in Cheerios that may cause infertility
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 17:47
Four out of five Americans are being exposed to a little-known chemical found in popular oat-based foods '-- including Cheerios and Quaker Oats '-- that is linked to reduced fertility, altered fetal growth and delayed puberty.
The Environmental Working Group published a study in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology on Thursday that found a staggering 80% of Americans tested positive for a harmful additive called chlormequat.
The ''highly toxic agricultural chemical'' is federally allowed to be used on oats and other grains imported to the US, according to the EWG.
When applied to oat and grain crops, chlormequat alters a plant's growth, preventing it from bending over and thus making it easier to harvest, per the EWG.
Four out of five Americans, or roughly 80%, are being exposed to a little-known chemical called chlormequat that's found in popular oat-based foods, including Cheerios, according to the Environmental Working Group. scandamerican '' stock.adobe.com''Just as troubling, we detected the chemical in 92% of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios,'' the nonprofit organization said in a report published alongside the group's findings.
General Mills, which makes Cheerios, and PepsiCo, which makes Quaker Oats, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another particularly concerning data point: After testing for the presence of chlormequat in urine collected from 96 people between 2017 and 2023, the EWG's tests ''found higher levels and more frequent detections of chlormequat in the 2023 samples '... which suggests consumer exposure to chlormequat could be on the rise.''
The EWG warned that chlormequat exposure ''could be on the rise,'' though it's been shown to damage animals' reproductive health, as well as harm fetal development and delay puberty. Klarion '' stock.adobe.comFor reference, chlormequat was detected in 69% of study participants in 2017.
The number edged higher, to 74%, between 2018 and 2022, and spiked to 90% in 2023.
Since chlormequat typically leaves the body within 24 hours, such a high concentration of positive tests indicates that Americans are regularly being exposed to the chemical, according to the EWG's report earlier reported on by the Daily Mail.
Though research about chlormequat is ongoing, the EWG noted, studies have shown its potential effects on animals, which ''raises questions about whether it could also harm humans,'' the EWG said.
In animal studies, chlormequat has damaged reproductive systems and disrupted fetal growth in animals, ''changing development of the head and bones and altering key metabolic processes.''
EWG also tested 20 more oat-based foods for chlormequat, plus seven organic, 13 non-organic, and nine wheat-based products, the EWG said, though it didn't specify which brands' foods it tested.
Detectable levels of the chemical in question were found on 92% of non-organic oat-based foods, while only two samples of wheat-based foods '-- both of them bread '-- had low levels of chlormequat.
Only one of the seven organic samples had low levels of chlormequat.
The activist group said it would continue studying chlormequat and its harmful effects, and called for answers from the federal government, including whether the Food and Drug Administration should mandate that US foods be tested for chlormequat.
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However, the EWG noted, the US Environmental Protection Agency under President Biden's administration proposed allowing the first-ever use of chlormequat on barley, oat, triticale and wheat grown in the US.
The EWG declared that it opposes the ''dangerous'' April 2023 decision '-- which came in response to a request by chlormequat manufacturer Taminco.
Since chlormequat typically leaves the body within 24 hours, such a high concentration of positive tests indicates that Americans are regularly being exposed to the pesticide, which is also found in Quaker Oats products, the EWG said. Adriana '' stock.adobe.comThe FDA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taminco couldn't be reached for comment.
Until the government puts parameters around chlormequat and its use, the EWG urged consumers to opt for organic oats growth without synthetic chemicals like chlormequat when they want their oat fix.
''EWG recommendation for shoppers is to buy organic oat products since these oats are grown without the use of toxic pesticides such as chlormequat and glyphosate,'' EWG's vice president of science investigations, Olga Naidenko, told The Post.
Tucson area braces for homeless migrants as aid funds dry up
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 15:12
After an unprecedented effort to stave off unsheltered street releases of newly arrived migrants in Tucson, the nonprofit Casa Alitas and its local partners are now facing a reckoning.
At the end of March, the federal funding that has supported Pima County's migrant-aid effort will be exhausted.
With no additional funds in sight, county officials say by April, Casa Alitas shelters will have dozens of layoffs and Tucsonans will begin seeing Border Patrol agents releasing hundreds of legally processed migrants each day onto the streets, with little to no support services.
''What we are about to experience with street releases is homelessness on steroids,'' Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in a memo to the Board of Supervisors late Friday afternoon.
Inaction in the U.S. Congress means the chance of renewed federal funding before April is ''negligible, if not zero,'' Lesher wrote. So county officials are starting to wind down Pima County's critical role in the local migrant-aid effort, including logistical coordination, contracts management and the administration of funding reimbursement for contracted agencies, like the nonprofit Catholic Community Services, which oversees the Casa Alitas program, she said.
Catholic Community Services' shelters will lose 30 staff positions, the memo said.
The number of unsheltered releases will depend on the pace of migrant arrivals in the region but at current volumes, Tucson could see up to 400 people released by Border Patrol each day.
Pima County is analyzing possible ways to use the county's general funds to help mitigate the fall-out, Lesher said in the memo.
''But every dollar spent helping legally processed asylum seekers move on to their destination cities will be a dollar we can't spend on county residents who are struggling financially to afford adequate housing, or who are suffering from mental illness or drug and alcohol addiction,'' she said.
The Senate's failed bipartisan border-security package, co-sponsored by Kyrsten Sinema, I-Arizona, would have appropriated $1.4 billion to support temporary shelter for migrants and related support services throughout the country. GOP legislators called the long-awaited legislation ''dead on arrival'' within hours of its release, and the Senate voted to kill the bill a few days later.
''It is severely frustrating and disappointing that we are in this situation,'' Lesher said. ''This is a crisis of the federal government's making due to the failure to pass sensible border and immigration reform and to provide the necessary funding to local jurisdictions forced to deal with the deleterious effects of federal border policy.''
'Keeps me awake at night'
Even before Friday's notice from Lesher, local religious leaders have been working on contingency plans in case federal support didn't come through, and contemplating the consequences for vulnerable migrants arriving here.
''It's the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night,'' Bishop of Tucson Edward Weisenburger said earlier this month. Weisenburger oversees Catholic-affiliated programs within the Diocese of Tucson to ensure they are fulfilling their religious mission.
Bishop Edward Weisenburger, shown outside of St. Augustine Cathedral in Tucson, has been working on contingency plans for the situation now faced, of federal support not coming through for vulnerable migrants arriving here. "It's the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night," Weisenburger said.
Grace Trejo, Arizona Daily Star For Weisenburger, Casa Alitas' migrant-aid effort, through Catholic Community Services, is an embodiment of the Gospel. He's been moved to witness the gratitude of the migrant families, who often arrive at Casa Alitas having walked through the soles of their shoes, he said.
It's particularly emotional to see the sheer joy on the faces of children, who arrive with no possessions, to receive a small toy from volunteers at Casa Alitas, he said.
''It flows from Matthew's Gospel, where he says, 'What you do to the least of these little ones, you do to me,''' he said. ''I think it's one of the areas where Jesus is speaking profoundly, directly and literally.''
In recent weeks, Border Patrol has been releasing about 1,000 migrants per day in the Tucson sector, about half of them in Pima County and half in Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.
Pima County's migrant-aid relief effort now costs $1 million to $1.4 million per week, county officials say.
Without the assurance of more federal support, ''we have contracts that are going to start expiring and we can't in good conscience extend those contracts without knowing there's going to be funding there,'' said Pima County spokesman Mark Evans.
Catholic Community Services, or CCS, intends to continue their mission of helping refugees and asylum seekers, but using donor funds alone, the agency could likely only cover services for about 100 migrants per day, Lesher said in the memo.
''CCS is still developing its operational and funding plan for April 1 onward,'' Lesher wrote to supervisors. ''I will have more details for you on that soon, including the possibility of continuing to rent county facilities to CCS.''
Lesher's memo described two possible contingency plans to assist arriving migrants, ranging from a monthly cost of $126,000 to offer the ''bare necessities,'' to more than $1 million per month for a more robust offerings, including support staff and food.
But Lesher's recommendation was that the county not fund any of the options '-- even though she acknowledged Tucson local governments would still likely face costs related to increased homelessness.
''I believe it would be imprudent for the taxpayers of Pima County to also have to absorb the cost of providing even this minimal amount of sheltering as described above, as this is a federal problem that requires federal funding,'' she said.
Coordinated effort
Since 2019, the Tucson region's migrant-aid coalition has been allocated $65 million in mostly federal funding to temporarily shelter more than 400,000 legally processed migrants who have passed through here.
''The county's objective, since it agreed to assist the sheltering effort in 2019, has been to protect Tucson and the county from having hundreds of people with limited resources and English-language skills released onto city streets every day,'' Lesher said. ''County and city participation in this effort has prevented a humanitarian crisis from occurring daily.''
A woman lays on a green cot inside one of the two main rooms for migrants staying at the Casa Alitas Welcome Center in Tucson on Thursday.
Grace Trejo Border Patrol agents release migrants to Casa Alitas' care or into border communities, after they are finger-printed, given facial scans and background checks, and had their belongings inspected.
Thanks to dozens of state-contracted buses, those released in small border communities '-- like Nogales, Bisbee and Douglas '-- have been transported quickly to Tucson, where there's shelter and transportation infrastructure allowing migrants to rest, get medical attention and other supports before traveling to family or sponsors in the interior of the U.S., usually within one or two days.
Without that assistance, hundreds of migrants a day will be left unsheltered in border towns where there's little infrastructure to house them, said Sobeira Castro, director of emergency management for Santa Cruz County.
Migrants arrive without food, without ways to charge their cell phones, if they have them, and with inadequate clothing for cold weather, she said. Especially in the winter months, many who arrive are dealing with illness, too.
''Without Pima County and Casa Alitas' assistance, we would not be able to help these migrants. They would be basically unsheltered within the community and left on their own, without any guidance,'' Castro said.
In preparation for the loss of Pima County's support, Castro said her team has been developing posters in three languages that they'll post in public spaces, with information on the city's limited resources and maps to help migrants orient themselves.
''Some of them don't even know exactly where they are'' when border agents drop them off, she said.
Overcoming challenges
Casa Alitas director Diego Pi±a Lopez started at Casa Alitas as an intern in 2015. He's watched the program expand from a five-bedroom house, to operating out of the Benedictine Monastery in 2019, before expanding operations to the ''Welcome Center'' on Ajo Way and the Drexel Center, which it leases from Pima County, to meet surging demand. The agency also utilizes space in local hotels, through local government contracts, to help with overflow capacity.
''I think we've learned a lot in the last 1.5 years of (higher) flows and adapting,'' Pi±a Lopez said.
Long-time volunteer Debbie Bachel, 67, said she's been amazed by Casa Alitas' ability to adjust to the increased pace of arrivals.
''After the pandemic, when we'd see 100 people a day, we thought, 'Oh my goodness, how are we going to do it?''' she said. ''Now we're up to 1,000 to 1,300 (per day,) and we can do it.''
Bachel said the camaraderie between volunteers and staff, as well as Pi±a Lopez's leadership, drive that success.
''It's like a family,'' she said. ''I've worked with several charities, but I've never felt as much as I do with Casa Alitas like I'm a team member.''
Some volunteers at Casa Alitas say they feel a personal connection to the new arrivals.
As a second-generation American, Iris Weisman, 70, said she chose to volunteer with asylum seekers out of gratitude for those who helped her grandparents when they arrived in the U.S. from Belarus and Russia.
''It was very personal to me,'' Weisman said. Her grandmother fled Russia alone at age 14, arriving at Ellis Island in New York speaking no English, with nothing but a piece of paper with her brother's address written on it, she said.
When no one had come to pick her up by midnight, a security guard pinned the address to her coat and put her on a bus, asking the driver to make sure she got off at the right stop to find her brother's home, which she did, Weisman said.
''When I think about that, this is time for me to give back, in a way,'' she said. ''To be like that security guard and help people who are also escaping terrible lives, and who need just a little help to get from here to where they're planning on going.''
One of Casa Alita's newest helpers, 18-year-old Chris Amanat, said he was inspired by his own family history when he chose Casa Alitas for his senior-year internship through BASIS Tucson North charter high school.
A group of migrants wait to be processed at Casa Alitas Drexel Center.
Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star Amanat is fluent in French and Mandarin, and his skills have been an asset as he's helped do intake for an increasingly diverse group of people arriving at Casa Alitas, including many from the African country of Mauritania, where French is spoken.
Hearing asylum seekers' stories of their homeland, and the circumstances they left behind, strikes a chord with Amanat, who is the child of immigrants, too: His father's family moved from Iran to St. Louis when his father was an infant, and his mother's family immigrated from China.
''I've grown up with those stories throughout my childhood,'' he said. ''It's been very meaningful to meet people on their first steps. '... I try to be very welcoming. They remind me of what my family must have faced when they first came here.''
Harassment continues
On top of the funding uncertainty, Casa Alitas staff and volunteers are also facing an escalation in hostility often rooted in falsehoods, fueled by right-wing media personalities who have wracked up millions of views on their social media posts making false accusations about the migrant-aid effort in Tucson and elsewhere.
About 98% of Casa Alitas' guests pay for their own transportation to reach family or sponsors in the interior of the U.S., Pi±a Lopez said, despite false claims spread widely '-- including by Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb '-- that migrants are receiving generous Visa cards, phones and plane tickets to wherever they want.
For two weeks, Lamb, a Republican running for Kyrsten Sinema's U.S. Senate seat, has not responded to the Arizona Daily Star's requests for comment on his false assertions about non-governmental organizations, including that migrants receive $5,000 Visa cards.
Casa Alitas and Catholic Community Services have increasingly become the target of right-wing ire and conspiracy theories. Social media personalities have been showing up with video cameras unannounced at Casa Alitas shelters and demanding access, while falsely accusing staff, volunteers and local law enforcement of participating in, or refusing to investigate, ''human trafficking.''
The targeted harassment has ramped up since January, when right-wing media personality James O'Keefe shared multiple videos filled with false claims about Casa Alitas. In one video with nearly 3 million views, he claimed the Casa Alitas' Drexel Center was a ''secret'' facility that ''none of the American people knew about until now.''
''That's just absurd,'' said Evans of Pima County. ''They're only secret to people who don't know how to use Google.''
The Drexel Center's purchase, and Casa Alitas' work generally, have been covered by local, state, national and even international news outlets. Pima County's Board of Supervisors publicly debates and votes to approve funding for the programs, as the Star and other outlets have routinely reported.
''Just a month or so ago, I did an interview with the Financial Times of London,'' Evans said. ''We've been completely open and transparent about what we're doing here and why we're doing it. We're trying to protect the community from the deleterious effects of what would happen if hundreds of people a day were being released (without shelter) in Tucson.''
Casa Alitas has also given tours to Arizona's Congressional delegation, including Reps. Juan Ciscomani, Ruben Gallego and Raºl Grijalva, and Sens. Mark Kelly and Sinema, as well as Gov. Katie Hobbs, Evans said.
But two conservative legislators are now the latest to have shown up at Casa Alitas facilities, unannounced and with a camera running.
While in Arizona for a committee hearing in early February, Reps. Tom Tiffany, R-Wisconsin, and Doug LaMalfa, R-California, filmed their own attempt to enter a Tucson hotel where Casa Alitas shelters migrants when its other facilities are full.
The day before, O'Keefe had posted a video of himself in costume, with a secret camera, at the same hotel, in a video that garnered 4.4 million views.
Tiffany's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. He and LaMalfa shared a video of their visit on ''X,'' formerly Twitter, falsely claiming that O'Keefe had ''exposed'' that the hotel was ''housing illegals.''
Tiffany's Feb. 9 post now has more than 2 million views and nearly 3,000 comments underneath, including from Elon Musk.
Casa Alitas staff had been told to call police if strangers showed up demanding access, Evans said, and that's what they did when the unfamiliar legislators showed up last week.
''They were rightly skeptical of who was there,'' he said. ''They were anxious and spooked from the secret videos of them posted on Internet, and the Internet harassment they were experiencing from the day before,'' when O'Keefe posted his video.
In a Wednesday interview, Rep. LaMalfa told the Star that as legislators, he and Tiffany should have been allowed to inspect the facility and conduct interviews, whether or not they'd given notice.
''We showed ID,'' he said. ''We wanted to see exactly how they're running their operation there. When they would not even talk to us, that's what was concerning. They won't tell us what they're doing.''
LaMalfa falsely claimed to the Star that Casa Alitas was harboring ''illegals.'' All migrants housed at Casa Alitas have been processed and released by Border Patrol. Once they are released by Border Patrol, with a notice-to-appear for a court hearing, they are present in the country legally.
LaMalfa said nongovernmental organizations ''really don't seem to have accountability.''
''They're getting a lot of money pushed at them to (shelter) people here that really don't have any place here,'' he said. ''It isn't unreasonable for members of Congress, who are in charge of appropriating the money to do that, to be able to look at how the processes are working and what they're dealing with.''
Evans, and Casa Alitas director Pi±a Lopez, said the legislators would have been welcomed if anyone had known they were coming.
''If Rep. Tiffany had reached out to CCS or reached out to the county, we absolutely would have accommodated him and arranged for a tour for him to see what we're doing and the successes in protecting the community,'' Evans said. ''But we weren't given that opportunity. He just showed up. So he got rejected and took to the Internet to complain about it.''
''Love conquers fear''
For decades, U.S. legislators have failed to enact comprehensive reform to allow the U.S. immigration and asylum systems to cope with the new reality at the border, where most are turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents to request asylum and increasingly, families are arriving from diverse parts of the world.
A Thomas the Train toy sits in the middle of the common space in the Casa Alitas Welcome Center in Tucson on Thursday.
Grace Trejo In the Tucson sector, more than half of the 250,000 migrant apprehensions between ports of entry in fiscal year 2024, which began in October, have been members of families or unaccompanied children, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Bishop Weisenburger said, from the Christian perspective, centering the humanity of the most vulnerable among us is crucial in making moral policy decisions.
''How easy it is that we vilify immigrants,'' he said. ''But these are human beings. If you speak of immigration in the abstract, it's easy to make decisions. But if you go down and talk to someone whose relatives have been murdered, whose child finally died from hunger, you'll come to some different conclusions.''
Even as social-media personalities seek to exploit anxiety about immigration, Weisenburger counsels avoidance of fear-based reactions.
Fear is a natural human emotion, but it should not be the main driver behind decisions, Weisenburger said, referencing a message from the Gospel of John: ''Fear always takes us where we do not want to go,'' he said. ''Perfect love casts out all fear.''
''The scriptures are one long story of every time we give in to fear, we make pretty bad decisions,'' he said. ''If we allow love to come to life within us, we make much better decisions. And then, we work together and we actually fix some of these problems, and we make the world a better place.''
Get your morning recap of today's local news and read the full stories here: tucne.ws/morning
Photos of the U.S. '' Mexico border fence U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. A dog stands on a road commonly used by Border Patrol near Slaughter Ranch Museum Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. A border monument on the Mexico side of the border seen east of Douglas Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. The San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge sits on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico east of Douglas Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. A bull and cow graze near the site of new wall construction east of Douglas Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. The border seen stretching from hills east of Douglas into the Guadalupe Mountains Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. Flowers grow around border fencing near the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. Construction equipment set up at the site of new border wall construction on the US/Mexico border east of Douglas Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. A Border Patrol tower on the hills east of Douglas Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. Memorials place on graves at Julia Page Memorial Park in Douglas which sits along the U.S./Mexico border Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. A car drives through Douglas on a road parallel to the U.S./Mexico border wall Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. The Slaughter Ranch homestead Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. A lake on the Slaughter Ranch Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. A toy rocking horse placed on the side of East Geronimo Trail with a sign advertising five minute pony rides for 25 cents Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. Highway 2 in Mexico winds its way to Agua Prieta Thursday, Sept. 27, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. The vehicle in a ditch was driven through the international border fence in Agua Prieta, Mex., into Douglas, Arizona in July 1987.
David Sanders / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. Mexican citizens run back into Agua Prieta, Mexico through a hole in the border fence at Douglas, Ariz., after the U.S. Border Patrol scared them back across the border in 1997.
Linda Seeger Salazar / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. The Raul Hector Castro Port of Entry on May 1, 2018, in Douglas, Ariz.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Douglas, Ariz. The Douglas, Ariz., border crossing in 1968.
Tucson Citizen U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. U.S./Mexico border fencing next to a old church building in Lochiel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. Old border posts line the U.S./Mexico line near Lochiel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. A Soal Off Roading sticker placed on a U.S./Mexico border post near Lochiel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. Mountains in Santa Cruz County seen from Duquesne Road between Nogales and Lochiel seen Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. A monument in Lochiel marking where Fray Marcos De Niza entered Arizona Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. Brothers Ramon and Ed De La Ossa mend fencing on their family's ranch in Lochiel after moving cattle Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. The ranch which used to span both sides of the U.S./Mexico border has been in the family for three generations.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. Ed De La Ossa mends fencing on his family's ranch in Lochiel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. The ranch which used to span both sides of the U.S./Mexico border has been in the family for three generations.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. Ed De La Ossa moves cattle on his family's ranch in Lochiel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. U.S. Customs inspector Helen Mills, right, greets Mexican counterpart Raymundo Aguirre Castillo at the U.S. - Mexican border station at Lochiel, Ariz., in 1979.
Tucson Citizen U.S. '' Mexico border near Lochiel, Ariz. The US Customs building, right, at Lochiel, Ariz., is just a short distance away from the international border in May 1972. For ten years, Mills has been managing the port of entry, which is mostly made up of five houses, a school and an vacant church, inspecting vehicles as they head into the US. During the week, from Monday through Saturday, Mills opens the border gate from 8 am to 10 am and from 4 pm to 6 pm. On Sunday the gate is open from 8 am to 6 pm. In that time barely a dozen vehicles make their way across the border but it is a major convenience to the local residents.
Dan Tortorell / Tucson Citizen U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Pedestrians walk to the Nogales port of entry Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. A pedestrian walks across North Grand Avenue in Nogales near the U.S./Mexico port of entries Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer R. Hernandez uses a density-measuring device on the rear quarter-panel of a Mexico-bound passenger vehicle at the DeConcini Port of Entry on Nov. 2, 2016, in Nogales, Ariz.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. A Customs and Border Protection officer makes a visual check of a man's identification at the DeConcini Port of Entry on Feb. 15, 2017, in Nogales, Ariz. Busts of fraudulent border-crossing documents and the use of someone else's documents plummeted in Arizona and the rest of the border in the past decade.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Northbound commercial truck traffic lined up for inspection at the Mariposa Port of Entry on March 28, 2017, in Nogales, Ariz.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. In the commercial lanes a semi truck stops between the lanes looking for the first available opening at the Mariposa Port of Entry in 2015.
A.E. Araiza / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Javier Castillo inspects a north-bound Mexican tractor-trailer at the Arizona Department of Transportation's inspection facility at the Mariposa Port of Entry on Sept. 19, 2017, in Nogales, Ariz. ADOT's International Border Inspection Qualification program, led by ADOT's Border Liaison Unit, teaches commercial truck drivers what to expect during safety inspections when they enter Arizona ports of entry.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. A Border Patrol truck parked near the commercial port of entry in Nogales.
Josh Galemore, Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. An illegal alien scales the U.S.-Mexico fence back toward Sonora after a Nogales Police Department officer, right, spotted him west of the Mariposa Port of Entry, Nov. 15, 2018, in Nogales, Ariz.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Kory's, a store catering to wedding, quincea''era and formal gowns, located at 15 N Morley Ave, Nogales, Ariz., sits katty corner to the Morley Gate Border Station on January 30, 2019.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Sun shines through the U.S.-Mexico bollard fence west of the Mariposa Port of Entry, Nov. 15, 2018, in Nogales, Ariz.
Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz. Children from Nogales, Sonora, climb through a hole in the international border fence to trick-or-treat in Nogales, Arizona, on Halloween in 1987.
Jackie Bell / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Border monument #166 is seen on the right as construction continues on the new 30-foot tall bollard fence that replaces old U.S./Mexico border fence two miles east of the Lukeville, Arizona port of entry on October 8, 2019. Photo taken from Sonoyta, Sonora, Mexico.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Construction continues on the new 30-foot tall bollard fence along the U.S./Mexico border two miles east of the Lukeville, Arizona port of entry on October 8, 2019. Photo taken from Sonoyta, Sonora, Mexico.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. A Mexican worker rides his horse along a road south of the U.S./Mexican border wall on his way back into Sonoyta Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. New paneling of border wall seen about three miles east of the Lukeville/Sonoyta port of entry seen from the Mexico side of the border line Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Old mesh paneling is removed in preparation for new wall to be built about three miles east of the Lukeville/Sonoyta port of entry seen from the Mexico side of the border line Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. A construction worker prepares cables to lift a piece of the 30-foot tall bollard fence along the U.S./Mexico border fence two miles east of the Lukeville, Arizona port of entry on October 8, 2019. Photo taken from Sonoyta, Sonora, Mexico.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Border Patrol Officers to the side of a worksite about three miles east of the Lukeville/Sonoyta port of entry where new border wall is being installed seen from the Mexico side of the border line Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Old wall east of the Lukeville/Sonoyta port of entry seen from the Mexico side of the border line Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Raised wall east of the Lukeville/Sonoyta port of entry seen from the Mexico side of the border line Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. A work site east of the Lukeville/Sonoyta port of entry seen from the Mexico side of the border line Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Normandy fencing placed against a section of border fence west of Lukeville Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. A semi passes by Quitobaquito Springs as it drives along Highway 2 in Mexico Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. An area referred to as "flood gate" along the U.S./Mexico border near Sasabe, Ariz. is on the list of the Department of Homeland Security's priorities for building a border wall, but no funding has been allocated yet. September 16, 2019.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. Vehicle barriers mark the U.S./Mexico border within the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Sasabe, Ariz. on September 16, 2019.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. A portion of the U.S./Mexico bollard border fence ends on the right and vehicle barriers begin within the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Sasabe, Ariz. on September 16, 2019.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Integrated Fixed Tower, left, near Sasabe, Ariz. on September 16, 2019.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near Sasabe and Lukeville, Ariz. The new 30-foot tall bollard fence that replaced old U.S./Mexico border fence can be seen on the left. It's located about miles east of the Lukeville, Arizona port of entry on October 8, 2019. Photo taken from Sonoyta, Sonora, Mexico.
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. A US Border Patrol vehicle seen next to a section of new 30 foot high wall along the US/Mexico border near the commercial port of entry in San Luis Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. Old fencing is taken down along the United States/Mexico border seen from the northern end of San Luis, Mexico, Aug. 7, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. A security guard stand in a construction site where a new fence will be placed on the United States/Mexico border seen from the northern end of San Luis, Mexico, Aug. 7, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. Old fencing against new fencing along the United States/Mexico border seen from the northern end of San Luis, Mexico on Aug. 7, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. Crews prepare ground for a new fence to be placed on the United States/Mexico border seen from the northern end of San Luis, Mexico on Aug. 7, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. Vehicles in line to enter the United States from San Luis, Mexico on Aug. 7, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. New fencing along the United States/Mexico border seen from the northern end of San Luis, Mexico on Aug. 7, 2019.
Josh Galemore / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. A new section of fencing on the U.S. - Mexico border in California, just west of Yuma, Ariz., in 1993.
Yuma Daily Sun via AP U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. Sand drifts through the "floating fence" that marks the border running through the dunes, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, west of San Luis, Ariz.
Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. A sign warns of the dangers of trying to swim the All-American Canal just north of the Mexican border, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, west of San Luis, Ariz.
Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. A long string of lights illuminate the no-man's land between the triple fencing of the Mexican border, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, San Luis, Ariz.
Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star U.S. '' Mexico border near San Luis, Ariz. The border fence comes to an abrupt end at the currently dry Colorado River, Thursday, July 26, 2018, west of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora.
Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star Contact reporter Emily Bregel at ebregel@tucson.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @EmilyBregel
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Where We Stand on AI '' CARTOONIST COOPERATIVE
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 14:47
WE, THE ARTISTS OF THE CARTOONIST COOPERATIVE, DEMAND PUBLISHERS, EMPLOYERS, AND ANYONE COMMISSIONING ARTISTS TO PRIORITIZE THE LABOR OF HUMAN WORKERS. AS UNITED ARTISTS, WE CALL UPON ANY MAKER OF GENERATIVE ALGORITHMS OR AI TECH TO DEMOCRATIZE THE USE OF AND ACCESS TO GENERATIVE AI TOOLS.
OUR DEMANDS ON EMPLOYERS ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Publishers, employers, and commissioners must not require use of generative algorithms or generative AI (gen-AI) tools. Payment and timescales for any creative project must respect the needs of digital and especially traditional artists.Publishers, employers, and commissioners must disclose to both workers and the public if gen-AI has been used on any creative work, at any stage of the production pipeline.Publishing or other creative employment contracts must include a clause stating that said employer cannot use, sell, or license a creator's work to train any AI or algorithm. Any contract without such a clause shall be considered to be exploitative.REGARDING THE USE OF TOOLS:
As united artists, we disallow the submission of another artist's work to any gen-AI dataset without permission. Any acceptable possible submission must be for datasets that are transparent in how data is used, stored, and retained. Artists must be able to withdraw their work from such datasets at any time.Any artist making use of generative algorithms or AI must set payment and timescales for deliverables in a way that does not undercut digital and especially traditional artists. If such tools are used at all, we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE exclusive use of personal, homebrew models, especially those which are open-source and copyright-free.Any artist creating work with the assistance of a generative algorithm or AI must clearly indicate its use in publication of the work.Further: we encourage the hiring of artists by other artists over using AI, whenever possible. We call for prioritization and support of traditional artists, especially, as they are the group most likely to be negatively impacted by these tools.
We also acknowledge that the abuses of the tech industry do not begin with or are contained solely within AI programs. We call for an end to mass data-scraping and surveillance by individuals, companies, governments, and other entities. We call for AI-creating companies to prioritize the needs and wants of their workers in the Global South. And finally, we call for such companies and the Western tech industry generally to return power to regions most affected by the trade of conflict minerals. We stand against the child labor and environmental destruction baked into the core of AI, computers, smart tablets, and almost all machines.
We stand in solidarity with those most affected by these issues, and are committed to the creation of a just society for all workers in the creative industry supply chain, now and forever. '
Kelly Osbourne Says Ozempic Critics Wish They Could Afford It
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 13:02
The reality TV alum defended the medication even though her mom Sharon Osbourne warned to 'keep this stuff away" from younger people
Published on February 16, 2024 10:51AM EST
Kelly Osbourne. Photo:AFF-USA/Shutterstock
Kelly Osbourne praised Ozempic as "amazing" saying critics "are secretly doing it or pissed off that they can't afford it''Mom Sharon Osbourne has shared her negative experiences with the popular weight-loss drug, saying she's lost too much weight on itKelly defended Ozempic, saying it isn't "as boring as working out"Kelly Osbourne thinks Ozempic is ''amazing'' '-- even though her mom Sharon Osbourne publicly disagrees.
"The people who hate on it the most are the people who are secretly doing it or pissed off that they can't afford it," Kelly, 39, told E! Online. ''Unfortunately, right now it's something that is very expensive but it eventually won't be because it actually works."
However, the Osbournes matriarch, 71, recently said that ''you have to keep this stuff away from younger people'' after sharing that she'd lost too much weight on the popular diabetes drug.
Sharon Osbourne. Katja Ogrin/Getty
''I didn't want to go this thin,'' The Talk UK host said. ''It just happened.''
Ozempic is an FDA-approved prescription medication for people with type 2 diabetes. It's one of the brand names for semaglutide '-- also known as Wegovy and Mounjaro '-- which works in the brain to impact satiety, and is the latest weight loss trend.
Kelly, who had gestational diabetes while pregnant with son Sidney, now 14 months, defended the medication, saying, "People hate on it because they want to do it."
''There are a million ways to lose weight, why not do it through something that's isn't as boring as working out?"
Kelly Osbourne with son Sidney. Kelly Osbourne/Instagram
Kelly didn't say whether she's taken the drug, but she has perviously shared with fans details of her 85-lb. weight loss due to gastric sleeve surgery.
''I had surgery; I don't give a f--- what anyone has to say,'' Osbourne told hosts Dax Holt and Adam Glyn on their Hollywood Raw podcast, in response to rumors about plastic surgery. ''I will never ever ever lie about it ever. It is the best thing I have ever done.''
But mom Sharon isn't holding back from criticizing popular weight-loss methods; She recently told The Guardian that swearing off Ozempic and surgery has allowed her to ''finally'' be happy with her appearance.
Sharon Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne in 2017. Michael Kovac/Getty''I'm through with the weight loss and all that cosmetic stuff,'' she told the outlet. ''I was injecting myself with Ozempic and I lost three stone [about 42 lbs.] in four months. Too much. I now weigh seven stone [98 lbs.] and can't put on weight.''
''I'm shaping up fine," she said. ''I've finally become more accepting of my body, my looks.''
"F**k Around & Find Out": Truckers Warn Loads To NYC Will Be Rejected Starting Monday | ZeroHedge
Sun, 18 Feb 2024 12:57
Truck drivers transport between 70% to 73% of all freight in the United States. Therefore, when truckers begin discussing plans on social media to boycott loads to progressive hellhole New York City, it's important to pay attention.
X user Chicago1Ray, who appears to be a Midwest truck driver, shared a video late Friday night detailing that a number of truck drivers will begin denying loads to NYC on Monday.
"I don't know how far across the country this is - or how many truckers are going start denying loads to NYC - but I'll tell you - you f**k around and find out," Chicago1Ray said.
He continued: "We're tired of motherf**king leftist f**king with Trump. Okay ... Motherfu**ers start to get tired of this shit. Our bosses aren't going to care if we deny loads. We'll go somewhere else."
"You know how hard it is to get in and out of NYC?" the trucker emphasized.
I've been on the radio for over an hour and I've talked to at least (10) Truckers who are gonna start refusing loads of Monday for (NYC) ...I talked to (3) guys that I work with who texted the boss and told him no (NYC)Truckers are (95%) Trump... it'll get overturned on appeal'... pic.twitter.com/qVzx4RKUmd
'-- Chicago1Ray ðºð¸ (@Chicago1Ray) February 17, 2024By Saturday morning, the video had amassed nearly 3 million views. This comes after a New York judge handed former President Trump a penalty of $355 million plus interest on his civil fraud case.
Here's what X users are saying about the potential trucker boycott of NYC:
If truckers start denying loads to certain regime-controlled cities, it's going to get spicy.
'-- Albert Latham (@albert1776) February 17, 2024Boycot New York!
'-- Mississippi RN (@TraceyOFlynn3) February 17, 2024God bless our truckers. The people need to show their power. Enough. Bud Light for NY it is.
'-- Nomuck (@MagaNomuck) February 17, 2024Perhaps truckers in America have learned something from revolting farmers in Europe.
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4690 Operating System - Wikipedia
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 21:34
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Operating system formerly developed by IBM
4690 Operating System (sometimes shortened to 4690 OS or 4690) is a specially designed point of sale (POS) operating system, originally sold by IBM. In 2012, IBM sold its retail business, including this product, to Toshiba, which assumed support.[1] 4690 is widely used by IBM and Toshiba retail customers to run retail systems which run their own applications and others.
4690 is the successor product to IBM 4680 OS, which was in use by IBM customers since 1986.[2] The original 4680 OS was based on Digital Research's Concurrent DOS 286,[3] a system thereafter renamed to FlexOS 286 in November 1986.
In July 1993,[2] IBM adopted FlexOS version 2.32 as the basis of their 4690 OS version 1.[1][4] FlexOS 2.32 supported 286 (Intel 80286) and 386 (Intel 80386) modes and had no limit on applications running concurrently.
In 1995, IBM licensed IMS REAL/32 7.50, a derivative of Digital Research's Multiuser DOS and thereby a successor to Concurrent DOS 386, to bundle it with their 4695 POS terminals.[5]
According to the article "The Year of the Store?", IHL Consulting Group/RIS News, IBM 4690 OS still had a market share of 12% in the POS register client market in June 2005, when IBM was starting to phase it out in favor of IBM Retail Environment for SUSE (IRES).[2]
IBM continued to maintain 4690 OS until April 2015, with the most recent version released by IBM in May 2012 being IBM 4690 OS Version 6 Release 3, which was supported until 2017 under special contracts with big-name companies.
Meanwhile, Toshiba has released Toshiba 4690 OS Version 6 Release 4 (V6R4) in January 2014, and Version 6 Release 5 (V6R5) in January 2016. In 2018, a Linux-based successor of 4690 OS, named TCx Sky and codeveloped with Wind River Systems, was launched. Soon after, Toshiba discontinued 4690 OS for new customers; it is, however, still supported under service contracts signed between Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and stores still using 4690 OS on their POS terminals. The latest security update (CSD Level 2010) was released in December 2020, only for 4690 OS Version 6 Release 5.[6]
Retailers are using the 4690 Operating System for their operations because of its many retail-specific and reliability features. In addition to running on IBM hardware, third-party vendors have exploited the 4690 features on competitive hardware.
Supported hardware [ edit ] This IBM 4683 register uses a controller with a 4690 operating system.4690 supports many POS terminal devices, store controller servers, and combination controller''terminals. The 4690 documentation contains a list of supported POS devices, some in use over 20 years. The family of IBM Universal Serial Bus (USB) POS devices that 4690 supports includes keyboards, displays, and cash drawers. 4690 also supports other input/output (I/O) devices designed and conforming to IBM's USB POS device interface specifications. IBM makes interface specifications available to third-party vendors to enable them to connect their devices to POS terminals using RS-485, RS-232, and USB connections.
IBM provides a Controller Matrix document with a list of compatible IBM servers for use with 4690 OS as store controllers and controller''terminals. These servers represent current and formerly available devices which continue to be supported by 4690.
Notable features [ edit ] Perhaps the most notable feature of the 4690 OS is its ability to provide a "redundancy infrastructure". IBM designed the 4690 OS to work either as one server, or with one or more other 4690 servers. These servers are commonly called store controllers. When connected in a local area network (LAN), these 4690 store controllers provide redundant backup using mirrored data files. Using a system of master controller, alternate master, file server, and alternate file server designations, the controllers preserve data integrity and allow file backup in case a store controller fails and needs to be replaced.
A copy of the 4690 OS is maintained in each store controller. The 4690 POS terminals (registers) load a copy of 4690 from the store controller into memory when they Initial Program Load (IPL). The 4690 controllers provide terminal support in the form of terminal loading, price lookup, and transaction logging. Non-volatile memory is used to ensure that data is not lost in transit from the terminals to the store controller. Terminals are assigned to a primary store controller, and that controller is typically backed up by another controller. If the primary controller fails, the terminals automatically access the backup controller, providing uninterrupted sales at the POS terminal. If both the primary and backup controllers are unavailable, the terminal can go into a standalone state, or, some of the applications are able to support a Terminal Offline (TOF) state wherein terminals run offline using a terminal-based item file and logging stored in their own memory.
To maintain software at the store level, 4690 OS provides a software maintenance facility to manage updates. This facility provides checking to ensure that all updates have been transferred to the store, and the ability to apply the maintenance from store level commands or under central control. The updated software can be applied in test, which preserves the prior software in case the maintenance needs to be backed off for some reason.
4690 supports communications to the store controller in several forms. including TCP/IP, X.25, Systems Network Architecture (SNA), and asynchronous communications.
Commands [ edit ] The following list of commands are supported by the 4690 Operating System.[7]
Technology and software [ edit ] 4690 OS has been updated annually to address the needs of its user community and in anticipation of upcoming requirements.
4690 Version 5 incorporated new security enhancements, such as Secure Shell (SSH), IPsec, and enhanced operator security (allowing alphanumeric operator IDs, password complexity requirements, password expiration, etc.). This has helped its users address new security requirements from the credit card companies.
Another recent addition to 4690 was the ability to forward store hardware- and software-level events to a Remote Management system to facilitate central control and monitoring. File integrity monitoring and lockdown of 4690s are becoming increasingly important due to recent breaches caused by point-of-sale malware based threats.
4690 supports applications written in a CBASIC variant named IBM 4680 BASIC, Metaware High-C, and Java 2. The Java language-based ability at both the server and the client, along with the extension of Internet protocol suite TCP/IP ability to the client, enables Java applications at both the server and client to run concurrently with extant CBASIC or C applications. Users can make functional enhancements to extant applications by developing a new Java application that communicates with an extant application.
Versions [ edit ] IBM 4690 Operating System versions:
1 (July 1993)2 release 12 release 22 release 32 release 43 release 13 release 23 release 34 release 14 release 25 release 15 release 26 release 16 release 26 release 3 (May 2012)Toshiba 4690 Operating System versions:
6 release 4 (January 2014)6 release 5 Classic '' Enhanced (January 2016)[8]See also [ edit ] Digital ResearchToshiba TCx SkyFlexOSIBM 4680 OSIBM 4683IBM 4693IBM 4694IBM 4695IMS REAL/32IBM Retail Environment for SUSE (IRES)Distributed Data Management Architecture (DDM)Further reading [ edit ] IBM 4690 OS V6.2 Programming Guide (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V6.2 Configuration Guide (English) (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V6.2 User's Guide (English) (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V6.2 Communications Programming Guide (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V6.2 Messages Guide (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V5.2 Programming Guide (PDF) . IBM. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-25 . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V5.2 Configuration Guide (English) (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V5.2 User's Guide (English) (PDF) . IBM. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-25 . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V5.2 Communications Programming Guide (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V5.2 Messages Guide (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . IBM 4690 OS V4.1 IBM 4680 BASIC Language Reference (PDF) . IBM . Retrieved 2015-03-01 . These and many other documents could be obtained from IBM at the Retail Publications Download Center.[9]
In 2016, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, the current owner of 4690 OS, removed public access to all 4690 related manuals and publications from their servers.
In May 2018, 4690 OS was renamed to TCx Sky. The base operating system that runs under 4690 OS itself was changed to Wind River Linux with this revision.
References [ edit ] External links [ edit ] Official website Data Format Description Language (DFDL) schemas for IBM 4690 ACE to parse and write IBM 4690 ACE transaction logs
France - RNA criticism punishable in the future
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 21:23
Ein neuer Straftatbestand kann in Frankreich k¼nftig Menschen ins Gef¤ngnis bringen, die dazu auffordern, eine (laut 'Wissenschaft'') geeignete medizinische Behandlung zu unterlassen. Das Gesetz wurde am Mittwoch durch die Nationalversammlung geboxt. Kritiker nennen das Gesetz 'Artikel Pfizer''.
Ohne groe Aufmerksamkeit ist am Mittwoch in Frankreich ein Gesetz verabschiedet worden, das Widerstand gegen die mRNA-Behandlung unter Strafe stellen kann. Wer von mRNA oder anderen 'medizinischen Behandlungen'' abr¤t, die aber ' nach dem Stand der medizinischen Kenntnisse offensichtlich geeignet'' zur Behandlung sind, kann k¼nftig in Frankreich bis zu drei Jahre ins Gef¤ngnis wandern oder eine Geldstrafe von bis zu 45.000 Euro kassieren.
Repression gegen medizinische KritikerEs war eine umk¤mpfte Sache, aber das Macron-Regime hat letztlich seinen Willen durchgebracht. Zentral ist Artikel 4 im neuen Gesetz, der erst gestrichen, dann aber wieder eingesetzt worden ist. Darin wird ein neuer Straftatbestand geschaffen und die 'Aufforderung, eine therapeutische oder prophylaktische medizinische Behandlung abzubrechen oder zu unterlassen'' sowie 'die Aufforderung, Praktiken anzuwenden, die als therapeutisch oder prophylaktisch dargestellt werden'' unter Strafe gestellt. Damit kann k¼nftig auch jeder Widerstand an der mRNA-Behandlung (und anderen konzernmedizinischen Methoden) kriminalisiert werden.
Entsprechend schockiert zeigt sich deshalb etwa die Biologin Annelise Bocquet. Sie schreibt am Mittwochabend: 'An meine internationalen Freunde und Kollegen: Heute wurde in Frankreich ein Gesetz verabschiedet, das jeglichen Widerstand gegen mRNA-LNP-Injektionen als 'sektiererische Aberration'' bezeichnet. Es wird mit einer Strafe von bis zu drei Jahren Gef¤ngnis und 45.000 Euro geahndet.''
Werbung To my international friends and colleagues,
Today, a law was passed in France qualifying any opposition to mRNA-LNP injections as a "sectarian aberration". It carries a penalty of up to 3 years' imprisonment and 45,000 euros.
For your information'...
See you soon.'...
'-- Bocquet Annelise ð--¬ð§¬ð'ð' (@AnneliseBocquet) February 14, 2024
Der brisanteste Wortlaut im Gesetz, der auf die mRNA-Kritiker angewendet werden kann findet sich in Absatz 2:
' Die Aufforderung zur Aufgabe oder Unterlassung einer therapeutischen oder prophylaktischen medizinischen Behandlung wird mit einem Jahr Gef¤ngnis und 15 . 000 Euro Geldstrafe geahndet , wenn diese Aufgabe oder Unterlassung als vorteilhaft f¼r die Gesundheit der Zielpersonen dargestellt wird , obwohl sie nach dem Stand der medizinischen Kenntnisse offensichtlich geeignet ist , f¼r sie in Anbetracht der Krankheit , an der sie leiden , schwerwiegende Folgen f¼r ihre physische oder psychische Gesundheit zu haben .''
Artikel Pfizer: Das verabschiedete Gesetz im Orginalton.
Antidemokratisches Man¶verDie meisten Oppositionsfraktionen '' mit Ausnahme der Sozialdemokratischen Fraktion '' sahen in dem Gesetz eine Vorverurteilung sogenannter 'Alternativmedizin'' und eine Bedrohung f¼r Whistleblower. 'Die Aufrichtigkeit dieser Bek¤mpfung von gef¤hrlichen sektiererischen Entwicklungen darf nicht darin bestehen, Praktiken der erg¤nzenden Pflege oder den Konsum von phytotherapeutischen Produkten per Gesetz zu bestrafen'', hatte etwa Jean-Fran§ois Coulomme vom linken B¼ndnis 'La France insoumise'' gemeint. Thomas M(C)nag(C) von Le Pens 'Rassemblement national'' nannte das Gesetz schlicht 'eine freiheitsfeindliche Entwicklung''.
Zun¤chst waren die Pl¤ne der Regierung gescheitert und Artikel 4 konnte aus dem Gesetz gestrichen werden. Das hatte umgehend Polemik von Regierungsseite zur Folge. Ein Politiker von Macrons Partei sprach etwa danach von einer 'Allianz gegen die Wissenschaft'' f¼r die er sich 'sch¤me''.
Aber am Mittwoch setzte sich die Regierung dann '' mit einem f¼r das Macron-Regime typischen Man¶ver '' durch. So berichtet die franz¶sische Parlamentskorrespondenz dar¼ber:
Dabei h¤tte man [die Opposition, Anm,] nicht mit der Entschlossenheit der Regierung und der Mehrheit gerechnet. Am Mittwoch, den 14. Februar, am Ende der Pr¼fung des Gesetzentwurfs, ergriff der Vorsitzende des Rechtsausschusses, Sacha Houli(C) (Renaissance), n¤mlich im Plenarsaal das Wort, um eine zweite Beratung zu beantragen, wie es Artikel 101 der Gesch¤ftsordnung der Nationalversammlung erlaubt. Dieser besagt, dass 'eine zweite Beratung auf Antrag der Regierung oder des federf¼hrenden Ausschusses von Rechts wegen m¶glich ist''.
Brigitte Liso hat daher einen nderungsantrag zur Wiederherstellung '' und Umformulierung '' von Artikel 4 eingereicht. Die Berichterstatterin betonte zwar, dass der Straftatbestand nicht erf¼llt sei, 'wenn der Nachweis der freien und informierten Zustimmung der Person erbracht wird'', machte aber auch deutlich, dass der neue Wortlaut eine zus¤tzliche Dimension im Zusammenhang mit dem Schutz von Whistleblowern einbringe, der das Ziel des Gesetzes vom 9. Dezember 2016 ¼ber Transparenz, Korruptionsbek¤mpfung und Modernisierung des Wirtschaftslebens war. Ein Ziel, das im Text des nderungsantrags bekr¤ftigt wird, wonach 'Informationen, die von einem Whistleblower unter den in Artikel 6'' des zuvor zitierten Gesetzes genannten Bedingungen gemeldet oder weitergegeben werden, 'keine Provokation'' im Sinne von Artikel 4 des vorliegenden Gesetzentwurfs darstellen.
Quasi ohne Debatte wurde dieser leicht abge¤nderte Entwurf dann in erster Lesung mit 151 zu 73 Stimmen angenommen.
Florian Philippot, der Parteichef von 'Les Patriots'', einer Le Pen-Abspaltung, hatte bereits eine Woche vor dieser Aktion vor genau so einem Man¶ver der Regierung gewarnt. Artikel 4 nannte er 'nderungsantrag Pfizer''. Er schrieb damals auf X: 'Mit diesem nderungsantrag verurteilen Sie jeden, der auch nur den geringsten Zweifel an der mRNA-Injektion ¤uert und sich weigert, sie zu empfehlen! Die Nationalversammlung will sie mit Unterst¼tzung des Ordensrates (nat¼rlich!'...) wieder einf¼hren, obwohl sogar der Staatsrat sie als freiheitsfeindlich einstuft, das ist alles!''
Nun hat das Macron-Regime den Plan umgesetzt und den 'Pfizer-Zusatz'' durchgedr¼ckt. Was man in Frankreichs Parlament gerade erlebe, sei 'himmelschreiender Vorfaschismus'', sagt ein dort ans¤ssiger Beobachter gegen¼ber TKP: ''berall bestrafen, disziplinieren, zwingen.'' Der Pfizer-Artikel ist ein weiteres Kapitel. Auf wen der neue Straftatbestand abzielt wurde in der Debatte im Parlament klar deutlich. 'Die n¤chste Pandemie kommt'', konnte man etwa als Argument von Regierungsseite h¶ren.
Nun geht das Gesetz in den Senat zur¼ck. Auch dort k¶nnte es auf Widerstand treffen, allerdings haben die Macronisten M¶glichkeiten, diesen zu umgehen.
Hier finden Sie den gesamten Gesetzestext.
Bild 'Anti Mandatory Vaxx March '' Sat 20-11-21'' by Fishyone1 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Unsere Arbeit ist spendenfinanziert '' wir bitten um Unterst¼tzung.Folge uns auf Telegram und GETTR
FBI informant charged with lying about the Biden's ties to Ukrainian business | AP News
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 21:07
WASHINGTON (AP) '-- An FBI informant has been charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.
Alexander Smirnov falsely reported to the FBI in June 2020 that executives associated with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid Hunter and Joe Biden $5 million each in 2015 or 2016, prosecutors said in an indictment. Smirnov told his handler that an executive claimed to have hired Hunter Biden to ''protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,'' according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Smirnov in fact had only routine business dealings with the company in 2017 and made the bribery allegations after he ''expressed bias'' against Joe Biden while he was a presidential candidate.
Smirnov, 43, appeared in court in Las Vegas briefly Thursday after being charged with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record. He did not enter a plea. The judge ordered the courtroom cleared after federal public defender Margaret Wightman Lambrose requested a closed hearing for arguments about sealing court documents. She declined to comment on the case.
President Joe Biden, center, talks to his grandson Beau, left, as son Hunter Biden, right, looks on after dining at The Ivy in Los Angeles, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024. Today is Hunter Biden's birthday. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
The informant's claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden . An attorney for Hunter Biden, who is expected to give a deposition later this month, said the charges show the probe is ''based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses.''
The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, called for an end to the Biden impeachment inquiry.
Raskin said the allegations from the Republicans against Biden ''have always been a tissue of lies built on conspiracy theories.'' He called on Speaker Mike Johnson, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Republicans ''to stop promoting this nonsense and end their doomed impeachment inquiry.''
Comer, R-Ky., downplayed the importance of the informant, who had figured centrally to the start of the probe.
''To be clear, the impeachment inquiry is not reliant on the FBI's FD-1023,'' Comer said in a statement, referring to the form documenting Smirnov's allegations.
The chairman said the inquiry ''is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony,'' including interviews this week. He said the committee will continue to ''follow the facts'' and determine whether to proceed with articles of impeachment against Biden.
In the indictment, prosecutors say that Smirnov had contact with Burisma executives, but it was routine and actually took place in 2017, after President Barack Obama and Biden, his vice president, had left office -- when Biden would have had no ability to influence U.S. policy.
Smirnov ''transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy,'' the indictment said.
He repeated some of the false claims when he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023 and changed his story about others and ''promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials,'' prosecutors said.
If convicted, Smirnov faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
The charges were filed by Justice Department special counsel David Weiss, who has separately charged Hunter Biden with firearm and tax violations .
The Burisma allegations became a flashpoint in Congress as Republicans pursing investigations of President Joe Biden and his family demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the allegations. They acknowledged they couldn't confirm if the allegations were true.
Comer had subpoenaed the FBI last year for the so-called FD-1023 document as Republicans deepened their probe of Biden and his son Hunter ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Working alongside Comer, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa released an unclassified document that Republicans at the time claimed was significant in their investigation of Hunter Biden . It added to information that had been widely aired during Donald Trump's first impeachment trial involving Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani's efforts to dig up dirt on the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election. After Grassley released the document, the White House said the claims in it had been ''debunked for years.''
The impeachment inquiry into Biden over his son's business dealings has lagged in the House, but the panel is pushing ahead with its work.
Hunter Biden is expected to appear before the committee later this month. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, said he had long warned the probe was based on ''lies told by people with political agendas, not facts. We were right and the air is out of their balloon.''
A judge set a detention hearing for Feb. 20 for Smirnov, who was arrested at the Las Vegas airport after arriving in the U.S. from overseas.
___Associated Press writers Ken Ritter in Las Vegas and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
Whitehurst is a national criminal justice reporter for The Associated Press, based in Washington, D.C. She covers the Justice Department, public safety and legal issues.
Trump Media's merger with DWAC gets regulatory nod. Trump could get a stake worth $4 billion. - CBS News
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:53
Breaking down the Trump civil fraud decision
Breaking down the Trump New York civil fraud case decision 10:32 The funding partner for Trump Media & Technology Group said it has received regulatory approval from securities regulators that will allow it to proceed with a long-delayed merger. The combination could provide former President Donald Trump with a stake worth almost $4 billion.
Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), a so-called special-purpose acquisition company , said Thursday in a statement that the Securities and Exchange Commission had signed off on its proposed merger with Trump Media. DWAC said it plans to announce within two days a date for shareholders to vote on the deal.
The SEC said it doesn't comment on individual issuers.
Clearing this regulatory hurdle amounts to a major win for Trump and his media business, which runs the conservative-leaning Truth Social platform. The merger has been in the works since October 2021, but had stalled because of regulatory concerns and other roadblocks.
The plan has been for DWAC to merge with Trump Media, providing the former president's fledgling business with capital to expand its operations. But as the merger process dragged on, DWAC returned hundreds of millions of financing commitments to investors.
If the merger is completed, Trump would own nearly 79 million shares in the new business, or as much as 69% of the combined company, a DWAC filing shows. That stake could be worth as much as $3.95 billion based on DWAC's stock price on Thursday.
On Friday, the former president faced a major setback when the judge in his civil fraud trial banned Trump for three years from running the New York-based company that for decades has served as the hub of his global business empire. Trump and The Trump Organization were also ordered to pay penalties of $354 million in what is one of the stiffest corporate sanctions in New York history.
Shares of DWAC fell 4% on Friday.
"Moving forward, we aim to accelerate our work to build a free speech highway outside the stifling stranglehold of Big Tech," said Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican House member, in the statement accompanying DWAC's announcement about securing SEC approval to move forward with the deal.
For the first nine months of 2023, Trump Media had revenue of $3.4 million, up from $237,000 in the year-ago period.
More from CBS News
In: Donald Trump Truth Social Aimee PicchiAimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
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Alexei Navalny's 'cause of death' revealed: Russia claims opposition leader died from 'sudden death syndrome' in prison - but his body is MISSING while 'killers cover their tracks' | Daily Mail Online
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:21
Alexei Navalny died from 'sudden death syndrome' after collapsing on Friday, Russian investigators are alleged to have told the opposition leader's mother as she visited the brutal IK-3 Polar Wolf penal colony where he was being held this morning.
Lyudmila Navalnaya was seen today travelling to the colony in northern Russia, where she was told her son died after returning from a walk at 14:17 local time on Friday.
Navalny's allies say they were denied the opportunity to see the body, which would remain with the authorities until an investigation was complete.
Navalny's lawyer, who arrived in the town of Salekhard with Navalny's mother on Saturday, was allegedly told by the prison that the body was being held in the morgue.
A contact at the Salekhard morgue later denied the body was there - leaving yet more question marks around the shock death of one of Putin's most fierce critics.
'It's obvious that the killers want to cover their tracks and are therefore not handing over Alexei's body, hiding it even from his mother,' his team said in a post on Telegram.
The shock death of Putin's most fierce critic has sparked a wave of vigils and protests across Russia, prompting police to crack down with force and make hundreds of arrests since Friday.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and lawyer Vasily Dubkov arrive at the regional department of Russia's Investigative Committee in the town of Salekhard in the Yamal-Nenets Region, Russia February 17, 2024
His mother said she had seen her son in the prison colony on Monday. At the time, she said: 'He was alive, healthy, cheerful.'
Navalnaya was allegedly told her son had died from 'sudden death syndrome'
A car carrying Lyudmila Navalnaya, mother of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, arries to the prison colony in the town of Kharp on Saturday, February 17, 2024
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya in September 2020
Russian President Vladimir Putin smiles on Friday as he visits a forge in Chelyabinsk, Russia
Alexei Navalny, the fiercest foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was reported to have died in prison on Friday, according to Russia's prison agency.
The Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Navalny, 47, felt unwell after a walk and 'almost immediately lost consciousness'. Paramedics reportedly came to try to rehabilitate him without success.
What is Sudden Death Syndrome?Sudden adult death syndrome occurs when an otherwise healthy person passes away suddenly, with the cause likely being a heart condition.
In around one in 20 spontaneous heart-related deaths in the UK, no definite cause can be found.
During a post-mortem, a pathologist can usually detect abnormalities in a patient's heart tissue, which may show signs of artery disease or a clot in the lung.
When nothing is found, the cause of death is deemed to be Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS).
This was once known as sudden adult death syndrome, however, children can also being affected.
Cot death may be partly caused by the same factors responsible for SADS.
Although unclear, SADS is thought to occur due to a disturbance in the heart's rhythm, even if the person has no cardiovascular disease.
Due to the electrical function of the heart being affected, such disturbances can only be detected in life and not in death.
Rare diseases, such as Long QT Syndrome and sodium channel disease, can increase a person's risk of SADS.
Many people with these conditions have no symptoms and may never be diagnosed.
If a family looses a relative due to SADS, genetic testing can be carried out to determine if they are at risk of the aforementioned diseases.
Most of these conditions are made worse with exercise and therefore, if diagnosed, a doctor may advise a person to avoid playing sports.
Source: SADS
Navalny, who was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of 'extremism', had only recently been moved from his former prison in the Vladimir region of central Russia to a grisly 'special regime' penal colony above the Arctic Circle.
His allies, a brave minority in Russia fighting corruption, said at the time they feared for his life after he 'disappeared' in December to travel to the remote region notorious for its long and severe winters - just months before the closely-watched Russian presidential elections next month.
Navalny was last seen via video link during a court hearing on Thursday.
Dressed in black prison uniform, he appeared to be in good spirits - his trademark humour back on show.
'Your Honour, I will send you my personal account number so that you can use your huge salary as a federal judge to ''warm up'' my personal account, because I am running out of money,' he said.
State media reported he raised no health complaints during the session.
His mother said she had seen her son in the prison colony on Monday. At the time, she said: 'He was alive, healthy, cheerful.'
One of Navalny's lawyers, Leonid Solovyov, told the independent Novaya Gazeta paper that the Kremlin critic was 'normal' when a lawyer saw him on Wednesday.
But the Federal Prison Service announced his death in a statement yesterday, saying that Navalny felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to save him, to no avail.
The sudden death of the former Anti-Corruption Foundation leader has provoked a strong response from supporters as far afield as Japan, Poland, Finland, Mumbai and San Francisco.
In several Russian cities, authorities have clamped down on protests and vigils, pictured dragging supporters away from makeshift memorials. Masked police were seen taking away mourners at a monument for victims of Soviet repression in Moscow.
The OVD-Info protest-monitoring group said more than 270 people had been arrested across Russia at meetings and memorials to Navalny since his death was announced.
Hundreds of flowers and dozens of candles could be seen at the monument for victims of Soviet repression in Moscow and more flowers could be seen left in the snow on nearby pavements.
'Alexei Navalny's death is the worst thing that could happen to Russia,' read a note left among the flowers and Navalny photos by the monument.
Authorities in the Russian capital said Friday they were aware of calls online 'to take part in a mass rally in the centre of Moscow' and warned people against attending.
'We will not forget, we will not forgive. Those responsible will be punished!' the note said.
Police officers were also seen standing near a similar monument to political prisoners in St. Petersburg today.
Protests are illegal in Russia under strict anti-dissent laws, and authorities have clamped down particularly harshly on rallies in support of Navalny.
Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of late Russian opposition leader Navalny, and lawyer Alexei Tsvetkov leave the regional department of Russia's Investigative Committee, February 17
Lyudmila Navalnaya leaves the regional department of Russia's Investigative Committee in the town of Salekhard in the Yamal-Nenets Region, Russia February 17, 2024
People lay flowers and light candles near the memorial to political prisoners in St. Petersburg, Russia, 17 February 2024
Navalny's death shocked the world and immediately saw blame pointed towards Russia
Tributes are laid as people demonstrate outside the Russian embassy, following the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in Copenhagen, Denmark, February 17, 2024
A man lays flowers to the monument to the victims of political repressions for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow on February 17, 2024
Riot police officers are seen deployed at the monument in Saint Petersburg on February 17
Riot police officers are seen deployed at the monument to the victims of political repressions in St. Petersburg on February 17, 2024
Police officers detain a woman during a gathering in memory of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny near the Wall of Grief monument in Moscow, Russia February 17, 2024
Earlier today, Volodymyr Zelensky issued a chilling warning to critics of Putin's regime at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
'Putin kills whoever he wants,' the Ukrainian President said this morning. 'Be it an opposition leader or anyone else who appears as a target to him. He maintains power through corruption and violence.'
'Putin has murdered another opposition leader,' Zelensky said outright. The Kremlin has denied involvement in Navalny's death.
Zelensky spoke on the need to repel Putin's advances east and depose him - as Russia prepares for its closely-watched presidential elections next month.
He warned Saturday that his country's battle to repel Russian troops was being held back by a lack of long-range weapons and artillery shells.
'Keeping Ukraine in the artificial deficits of weapons, particularly in deficit of artillery and long-range capabilities, allows Putin to adapt to the current intensity of the war,' he told the Munich Security Conference.
' We have ruined the myth that Russian weapons are better than Western ones - that is why for the first time in Russian history Putin bowed to Iran and North Korea for help,' he said.
'Russia has only one specific military advantage at this time - namely the complete devaluation of human life. Constant Russian meat assaults prove this. International tolerance of the lack of rule of law in Russia since 1991 and Putin's policy of controlled poverty has led to the effect that human life is worthless for Russian state.
Speaking ahead of the two-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said: '[Putin] has just yesterday he tried to send us all a clear message as the Munich Security Conference opened, Putin murdered another opposition leader.
'So please, let's not fear Putin's defeat and the destruction of his regime. Let's instead work together to destroy what he stands for. It is his fate to lose, not the fate of the rules based world order to vanish.'
He told attendees: 'Do not ask Ukraine when the war will end. Ask yourselves why Putin is still able to continue it.'
He went on: 'Putin now openly justifies Hitler absolving him of responsibility of World War II and he makes the genocide of our people just the normal part of policy.'
'After the murder of Alexei Navalny it is absolute to pursue Putin as the legitimate head of the Russian state. He is a thug who maintains power through corruption and violence
'Putin only has two options ahead, to be in the dock in the Hague or to be killed by one of his accomplices who are now killing for him.'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at a conference in Munich on Saturday
The Ukrainian President said outright that Russia was responsible for the death of Navalny
Zelensky is not alone in accusing Russia of slaying the former lawyer and politician.
Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Saturday said Navalny's 'heroic opposition to Putin's repressive and unjust regime inspired the world'.
'We hold the Russian Government solely responsible for his treatment and death in prison,' Wong said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
US President Joe Biden was equally blunt, saying: 'Make no mistake, Putin is responsible for Navalny's death'.
Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov added: 'Alexei Navalny was tortured and tormented for three years... Murder was added to Alexei Navalny's sentence'.
Russian investigative reporter Maria Pevchikh wrote on X: 'Navalny was killed. It's not very clear how to live further, but we will definitely come up with something together.
'Alexey will live forever in millions of hearts, in our thoughts and memories. Otherwise, why are we needed?
'The murderers will be punished. Inevitably. We won't forgive anyone.'
Lord David Cameron signalled that there would be 'consequences' in the wake of the death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Speaking to broadcasters at the Munich Security Conference, the Foreign Secretary said: 'Reflecting overnight makes you think what an incredibly brave man this was. His life revealed so much about the true nature of (Vladimir) Putin's ghastly regime. And his death has revealed that all over again.
'There should be consequences. When appalling human rights outrages like this take place, what we do is we look at whether there are individual people that are responsible and whether there are individual measures and actions we can take. We don't announce them in advance, so I can't say anymore than that. But that is what we will be looking at.
'Of course we have already summoned the ambassador and made clear our views about this dreadful event and the way this person was treated.'
He said he would be meeting with G7 foreign ministers at the German gathering: 'I am clear that we will be taking action and I would urge others do to the same.'
The Kremlin said the West's reaction was unacceptable and 'absolutely rabid'. Putin has yet to comment on Navalny's death.
Lord David Cameron signalled that there would be 'consequences' in the wake of the death of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (pictured in Bulgaria, February 14, 2024)
Still, Navalny's vision for change in Russia will be kept alive by his team, his ally and spokesperson Kira Yarmysh said in an interview.
'We lost our leader, but we didn't lose our ideas and our beliefs', Yarmysh told Reuters via Zoom, speaking from an undisclosed location.
She said the team holds Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for what she called Navalny's murder.
She did not provide evidence for this but pointed to an incident in 2020 when Navalny survived what Western doctors said was a nerve agent poisoning attempt on his life.
Putin denied at the time that the Russian state had tried to kill Navalny, saying it would have 'finished the job' if it had really wanted to eliminate him.
'We knew that there was a risk, Alexei knew it as well. And yesterday they murdered him as they planned to do it three years ago', said Yarmysh.
Washington Post Report: Biden's DHS Is Planning ''Mass Release'' Of Illegals - modernity
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:20
A Washington Post report has claimed that the Department of Homeland Security is drafting plans to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement release thousands of illegal immigrants currently in custody into American cities and towns all at once.
The Post reports that ''U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drafted plans to release thousands of immigrants and slash its capacity to hold detainees after the failure of a Senate border bill that would have erased a $700 million budget shortfall, according to four officials at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.''
The report continues, ''Some of the proposed cost savings in ICE detention would occur through attrition '-- deportations '-- but much of it would have to happen through the mass release of detainees, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.''
Commenting on the development, RJ Hauman of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) questioned why this needs to happen when Congress allocated more money that the Biden Administration asked for as relates to detention facilities.
Congress gave the Biden Admin *more* money than they requested for the detention of illegal aliens. So what is ICE spending money on that created this volitional budget gap?Also keep in mind that the Trump Admin was able to EXCEED the appropriated amount of detention beds. https://t.co/6Q5yWLXirh
'-- National Immigration Center for Enforcement (@NICEnforcement) February 14, 2024The development comes as the Biden Administration is claiming that only Congress can fix the border disaster, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also warning that the number of deportations carried out by ICE agents may be culled unless the House and Senate pass legislation to ensure billions in funds for DHS to process border crossers more efficiently.
''Because congressional Republicans are choosing partisan politics over our national security and refusing to pass the bipartisan national security agreement that includes significant border reforms and funding, over the coming weeks, ICE will be forced to reduce operations because of budget shortfalls,'' Jean-Pierre said.
Meanwhile, officials in American cities are asking where exactly masses of illegal immigrants are going to fit in.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has said unequivocally that there is no room left in the city, noting ''Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not.''
''It's not like New York is not saying we are not a city of immigrants. We are. We have a rich history of immigrants, but we can't take the global problem and [have] it become our problem. That is unfair to New Yorkers, and is unfair to migrants,'' Adams added.
''We're not just saying we're out of room as a soundbite,'' He further warned, adding ''We're out of room, literally. People are going to be eventually sleeping on the streets.''
''I cannot break the law and enforce the law,'' Adams continued, adding ''I can't deport. I can't stop people from coming in, repeated criminal behaviour. I can't report to ICE for deportation.''
The only places left to go for masses of illegal immigrants are the homes of Americans.
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Related
FTC Proposes Ban on Impersonations of Individuals, Including With AI Deepfakes
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:19
The Federal Trade Commission proposed a new rule on Thursday that would ban the impersonation of individuals, including with the use of artificial intelligence, or AI, technology.
The announcement came the same day that OpenAI'--the company behind ChatGPT'--unveiled a new tool called Sora that can generate a minute-long video from a written prompt, raising new concerns about how the technology might be abused to create deepfakes videos of real people doing or saying things they did not in fact do or say.
"Sooner or later, we need to adapt to the fact that realism is no longer a marker of authenticity," Princeton University computer science professor Arvind Narayanan toldThe Washington Post in response to Sora's emergence.
"Today's proposed rules to ban the use of AI tools from impersonating individuals are an important change to existing regulations and will help to protect consumers from AI generated scams."
For its part, the FTC is mostly concerned about how technology can be used to fool consumers. In its announcement, the commission said that it had introduced the new rule for public comment because it had been getting a growing number of complaints about impersonation-based fraud, which has generated a "public outcry."
"Emerging technology'--including AI-generated deepfakes'--threatens to turbocharge this scourge, and the FTC is committed to using all of its tools to detect, deter, and halt impersonation fraud," the commission said.
The proposed rule comes the same day as the FTC finalized a rule giving it the ability to seek financial compensation from scammers who impersonate companies or the government and builds on that regulation.
"Fraudsters are using AI tools to impersonate individuals with eerie precision and at a much wider scale. With voice cloning and other AI-driven scams on the rise, protecting Americans from impersonator fraud is more critical than ever," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. "Our proposed expansions to the final impersonation rule would do just that, strengthening the FTC's toolkit to address AI-enabled scams impersonating individuals."
The FTC also said that it wanted public comment on whether the rule should prohibit AI or other companies from knowingly allowing their products to be used by individuals who are in turn using them to commit fraud through impersonation.
Public Citizen, which has advocated for greater regulation of AI technology, welcomed the FTC's proposal.
"The FTC under Chair Kahn continues to be bold and use all the tools in their toolkit to protect consumers from emerging threats," Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. "Today's proposed rules to ban the use of AI tools from impersonating individuals are an important change to existing regulations and will help to protect consumers from AI-generated scams."
OpenAI's preview of Sora raises the stakes in the debate surrounding AI regulation. So far, the technology is only being made available to certain professionals in film and the visual arts for feedback, as well as "red teamers'--domain experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias"'--to help assess risks, OpenAI said on social media.
"We'll be taking several important safety steps ahead of making Sora available in OpenAI's products," the company said.
One major concern surrounding deepfakes is that they could be used to manipulate voters in elections, including the upcoming 2024 presidential election in the U.S. The campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, raised alarms by using false images of former President Donald Trump embracing former White House Coronavirus Task Force chief Anthony Fauci in a video ad.
There are obvious errors in the Sora sample videos, as OpenAI acknowledged. Narayanan pointed out that a woman's right and left legs switch positions in a video of a Tokyo street, but also said that not every viewer might catch details like this and that the technology would likely be used to create harder-to-discredit deepfakes.
Another concern is the impact the technology could have on jobs and labor, especially in the arts. Director Michael Gracey, an expert on visual effects, told The WashingtonPost that the technology would likely enable a director to make an animated film on their own, instead of with a team of 100 to 200 people. The use of AI was a major sticking point in strikes by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Writers Guild of America last year, as Oxford Internet Institute visiting policy fellow Mutale Nkonde pointed out. Nkonde told the Post she also worried about the technology being used to dramatize hateful or violent prompts.
"From a policy perspective, do we need to start thinking about ways we can protect humans that should be in the loop when it comes to these tools?" Nkonde asked.
Tech and AI companies sign accord to combat election-related deepfakes
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:18
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, 2024.
Denis Balibouse | Reuters
A group of 20 leading tech companies on Friday announced a joint commitment to combat AI misinformation in this year's elections.
The industry is specifically targeting deepfakes, which can use deceptive audio, video and images to mimic key stakeholders in democratic elections or to provide false voting information.
Microsoft , Meta , Google , Amazon , IBM , Adobe and chip designer Arm all signed the accord. Artificial intelligence startups OpenAI, Anthropic and Stability AI also joined the group, alongside social media companies such as Snap , TikTok and X.
Tech platforms are preparing for a huge year of elections around the world that affect upward of four billion people in more than 40 countries. The rise of AI-generated content has led to serious election-related misinformation concerns, with the number of deepfakes that have been created increasing 900% year over year, according to data from Clarity, a machine learning firm.
Misinformation in elections has been a major problem dating back to the 2016 presidential campaign, when Russian actors found cheap and easy ways to spread inaccurate content across social platforms. Lawmakers are even more concerned today with the rapid rise of AI.
"There is reason for serious concern about how AI could be used to mislead voters in campaigns," said Josh Becker, a Democratic state senator in California, in an interview. "It's encouraging to see some companies coming to the table but right now I don't see enough specifics, so we will likely need legislation that sets clear standards."
Meanwhile, the detection and watermarking technologies used for identifying deepfakes haven't advanced quickly enough to keep up. For now, the companies are just agreeing on what amounts to a set of technical standards and detection mechanisms.
They have a long way to go to effectively combat the problem, which has many layers. Services that claim to identify AI-generated text, such as essays, for instance, have been shown to exhibit bias against non-native English speakers. And it's not much easier for images and videos.
Even if platforms behind AI-generated images and videos agree to bake in things like invisible watermarks and certain types of metadata, there are ways around those protective measures. Screenshotting can even sometimes dupe a detector.
Additionally, the invisible signals that some companies include in AI-generated images haven't yet made it to many audio and video generators.
News of the accord comes a day after ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced Sora, its new model for AI-generated video. Sora works similarly to OpenAI's image-generation AI tool, DALL-E. A user types out a desired scene and Sora will return a high-definition video clip. Sora can also generate video clips inspired by still images, and extend existing videos or fill in missing frames.
Participating companies in the accord agreed to eight high-level commitments, including assessing model risks, "seeking to detect" and address the distribution of such content on their platforms and providing transparency on those processes to the public. As with most voluntary commitments in the tech industry and beyond, the release specified that the commitments apply only "where they are relevant for services each company provides."
"Democracy rests on safe and secure elections," Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, said in a release. The accord reflects the industry's effort to take on "AI-generated election misinformation that erodes trust," he said.
Christina Montgomery, IBM's chief privacy and trust officer, said in the release that in this key election year, "concrete, cooperative measures are needed to protect people and societies from the amplified risks of AI-generated deceptive content."
WATCH: OpenAI unveils Sora
World's biggest tech companies pledge to fight AI-created election 'deepfakes'
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:16
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The world's biggest technology companies have pledged to fight ''deceptive'' artificial intelligence-generated content from interfering with global elections this year, as fears mount over the impact of misinformation on democracy.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and OpenAI were among 20 tech companies that said on Friday during the Munich Security Conference they would work together to combat the creation and spread of content designed to mislead voters, such as ''deepfake'' images, videos and audio.
According to the voluntary accord signed by the companies, the rapid development of AI was ''creating new opportunities as well as challenges for the democratic process'', and the spread of deceptive content could ''jeopardise the integrity of electoral processes''.
''With so many major elections taking place this year, it's vital we do what we can to prevent people being deceived by AI-generated content,'' said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta. ''This work is bigger than any one company and will require a huge effort across industry, government and civil society.''
Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, added that companies have ''a responsibility to help ensure these tools don't become weaponised in elections''.
The accord comes in the context of escalating concerns among lawmakers and experts about the potential for generative AI to imperil high-profile elections due to take place this year, including in the US, UK and India.
Tech companies that operate major social media platforms such as Facebook, X and TikTok have faced scrutiny for years about the existence of harmful content on their sites and how they tackle it.
But the explosion of interest in and availability of generative AI tools have fuelled concerns about how technology could undermine elections in particular.
In January, a robocall was sent to US voters in New Hampshire that claimed to be from President Joe Biden calling on them not to vote in the primary election. Last year, faked clips of politicians allegedly created using AI and then spread online were found in the UK, India, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia and Slovakia.
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The 20 tech companies that signed Friday's accord said they would work ''collaboratively'' on tools to root out the spread of harmful election-related AI content on their platforms, and take action in ''swift and proportionate'' ways.
Efforts could include adding watermarks to images that made clear their provenance and if they had been altered, for example.
The companies also pledged to be transparent about how they were tackling such deceptive content, and said they would assess their generative AI models '-- such as those behind OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT '-- to understand better the election-related risks they might pose.
The agreement is the latest in a series of voluntary commitments around AI that Big Tech companies have made in recent months. Last year, groups including OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Meta agreed to open their generative AI models for review by Britain's AI Safety Institute.
This month, as part of joining industry initiative the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, Google said it was ''actively exploring'' whether it could roll out watermarking tools that showed how an image had been created.
Meta also said in February that it would start labelling AI-generated images that users post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads ''in the coming months''.
Foreign dentists to be allowed to work in UK without qualification check
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:13
Foreign dentists are to be allowed to work in the UK without taking an exam to check their qualifications, under Government plans to solve the dental crisis.
Ministers plan to scrap the overseas entrance exam currently required to allow dentists from countries outside of Europe to come and work in Britain.
The plans would mean dentists trained abroad would be able to start work in the NHS without a formal check on the quality of their education, amid fears it will lead to substandard care.
Around four in five NHS dental surgeries are not accepting new patients, which has caused a surge in teeth-related A&E admissions, including among children with tooth decay.
The dentists' union accused the Government of trying to ''a fill a leaky bucket'' without addressing the real issues keeping the profession away from NHS work.
The proposals would see foreign dentists start working quicker, with the regulator the General Dental Council (GDC) given new legal powers to provisionally register dentists using its own judgment on their qualifications.
Officials claim this will ''ensure patient safety and quality of care are maintained'', while those on the new, provisional register would have to be supervised to work.
Dame Andrea Leadsom, the health minister, said the plan ''would abolish red tape that currently prevents fully qualified overseas dentists from working in this country, while ensuring the highest standards of care and patient safety''.
The shortage of NHS dentists led to hundreds of people queuing outside a new practice in Bristol from the early hours of the morning at the start of this month.
It was the first in the city to accept new patients in more than six months and the police were forced to intervene as the practice had to turn patients away.
Patient groups are concerned the plans won't fix the crisis, particularly if there is no obligation for foreign dentists to do NHS work.
Dennis Reed, director of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, said: ''It is not the number of dentists that's the issue, it's the number directly concentrating on NHS work.
''The worst possible outcome of this would be for large numbers of overseas dentists to come over and concentrate on private work.''
'Worst possible outcome'The British Dental Association (BDA) said the ''recovery plan'' was unworthy of the title, and that there was ''no evidence'' overseas dentists were more willing to do NHS work than those already in the UK.
A record number of dentists are registered to practise with the GDC, the union said, but the number doing NHS work has fallen to 2016 levels because of ''tick boxes and targets''.
It said the Department of Health had provided no modelling to back up its claims of ''millions'' of new appointments, and that there was no plan to increase capacity.
Eddie Crouch, BDA chair, said: ''A broken contract is forcing dentists out of the NHS with every day it remains in force.
''Overseas dentists are no more likely to stick with a failed system than their UK colleagues. Ministers need to stop trying to fill a leaky bucket, and actually fix it.''
Currently dentists who qualify outside of the European Economic Area are required to take an exam set by Britain's dental regulator, the GDC.
Dentists with qualifications from 14 select universities in Australia, South Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and New Zealand are also exempt from the exam, but only if they graduated before 2001.
Health leaders described the UK entrance exams as ''red tape'' and causing ''lengthy delays'' in dentists being able to register and start treating Brits.
Dental desertsIt comes a week after the NHS announced its recovery plan to fix so-called dental deserts by giving dentists cash incentives to relocate.
Among the bonuses on offer are £20,000 ''golden hello'' payments to move to areas without an NHS dentist, as well as up to £50 extra for patients who haven't had an appointment in two years, with the aim of creating 2.5 million extra appointments.
The minimum cost of an appointment is also set to rise from £23 to £28.
The proposals will be consulted on for three-months before being debated on by MPs in Parliament before any changes come into effect.
Jason Wong, the interim chief dental officer for England, said the ''proposals could be another vital step towards transforming NHS dental services to ensure faster access for patients.''
Stefan Czerniawski, a director at the GDC said it was an ''exciting opportunity'' but added that ''we need to take time to get this right''.
RFK Jr. Wins Major Legal Battle for Free Speech - Activist Post
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:13
RFK VICTORY IN COURT! Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Children's Health Defense win big in court battling Censorship! '' NY Teacher Michael Kane
By Adam Garrie
Independent presidential candidate and public health activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was handed a major legal victory on February 14, in his historic class action against the Biden administration.
US District Judge Terry A. Doughty of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued an injunction prohibiting the White House and multiple federal agencies from contacting social media companies to censor or suppress constitutionally protected free speech. Judge Doughty's injunction also prohibits social media companies from altering their visibility algorithms at the direct or indirect behest of public agencies.
The injunction will provide relief for Americans whose views on a wide range of public issues have been censored by companies including but not limited to Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, Google-owned YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter).
In issuing his injunction, the judge found: ''The Kennedy Plaintiffs demonstrated that not only have the Defendants shown willingness to coerce and/or to give significant encouragement to social-media platforms to suppress free speech with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic and national elections, but they have also shown a willingness to do it with regard to other issues, such as gas prices, parody speech, calling the President a liar, climate change, gender, and abortion.''
This is a significant victory for free speech advocates like Kennedy.
Doughty added that Kennedy and his co-plaintiffs ''are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that the White House Defendants, the Surgeon General Defendants, the CDC Defendants, the FBI Defendants, and the CISA Defendants jointly participated with social-media platforms to suppress protected free speech.''
Doughty's injunction further cited defendants as placing Kennedy on an Orwellian list known as the ''Disinformation Dozen.'' The people on this list were smeared by a non-US group known as the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which itself is the subject of ongoing litigation from social media company X, as reported by The New York Times.
Shortly after the Center for Countering Digital Hate made a presentation to the Surgeon General's Office about the supposed need to censor the so-called Disinformation Dozen, ''The Surgeon General's office thereafter ensured Facebook was censoring the 'Disinformation Dozen,''' according to Doughty's injunction.
Although Doughty recognized the urgency of the matter, the injunction will be stayed (paused) until the Supreme Court rules on a similar case, Murthy v. Missouri (previously filed as Missouri v. Biden), set to be heard in the nation's highest court beginning in March 2024. In this case, the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana sued the president, his administration, and multiple federal agencies, accusing them of colluding with social media and streaming platforms for the purposes of censoring speech protected by the First Amendment.
When announcing his candidacy for president in 2023, Kennedy explained he was motivated to fight government and Big Tech censorship, which targeted him. In July, he testified before the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, revealing details of the Biden administration's suppression of his speech.
Most disturbingly, at the start of Kennedy's appearance in front of the House Select Subcommittee, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) attempted to censor Kennedy's public testimony by demanding a closed-door session. In the end, Kennedy made his case to congressional representatives, drawing from evidence presented to Judge Doughty.
Due to the similarities between Kennedy's case and the Missouri case, a final decision on the merits of the matter of online speech will likely be made in the coming months. This precedent will not only affect Kennedy but also impact anyone who has been or is likely to be censored by social media companies at the behest of a government whose responsibility is to protect and uphold constitutional rights to speak, assemble, inquire, and worship freely.
The principles Kennedy is fighting for in the courts are identical to those that would form the core of his policies as president. Throughout his campaign, Kennedy has quoted his uncle, who as president said, ''We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.''
This quote helps clarify the spirit of the First Amendment as a piece of law that defines the United States as a nation unafraid of its citizens expressing themselves with peace, confidence, and passion.
Adam Garrie is a writer, speaker, and consultant on a wide range of current affairs as well as political risk. He is also the co-founder of HiCyrus, a data-driven tech startup that aims to fully democratize information access.
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JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock drop out of massive UN climate alliance in stunning move | Fox Business
Sat, 17 Feb 2024 20:00
JPMorgan Chase and institutional investors BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) on Thursday announced that they are quitting or, in the case of BlackRock, substantially scaling back involvement in a massive United Nations climate alliance formed to combat global warming through corporate sustainability agreements.
In a statement, the New York-based JPMorgan Chase explained that it would exit the so-called Climate Action 100+ investor group because of the expansion of its in-house sustainability team and the establishment of its climate risk framework in recent years. BlackRock and State Street, which both manage trillions of dollars in assets, said the alliance's climate initiatives had gone too far, expressing concern about potential legal issues as well.
The stunning announcements come as the largest financial institutions in the U.S. and worldwide face an onslaught of pressure from consumer advocates and Republican states over their environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities.
"The firm has built a team of 40 dedicated sustainable investing professionals, including investment stewardship specialists who also leverage one of the largest buy side research teams in the industry," the bank said in a statement shared with FOX Business. "Given these strengths and the evolution of its own stewardship capabilities, JPMAM (JP Morgan Asset Management) has determined that it will no longer participate in Climate Action 100+ engagements."
MEET THE LITTLE-KNOWN GROUP FUNDED BY LEFT-WING DARK MONEY THAT IS SHAPING FEDERAL CLIMATE POLICY
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, left, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
BlackRock, meanwhile, withdrew its U.S. business from Climate Action 100+, shifting involvement in the alliance to BlackRock's smaller international entity where a majority of clients are pursuing decarbonization goals, the Financial Times first reported Thursday. A spokesperson for BlackRock confirmed to FOX Business that the move had been made in recent weeks.
And State Street said its exit from the alliance was made because Climate Action 100+'s "phase 2" commitments conflicted with the firm's internal investing policies.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, testifies during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 6, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"SSGA has concluded the enhanced Climate Action 100+ phase 2 requirements for signatories are not consistent with our independent approach to proxy voting and portfolio company engagement," State Street said in a statement, according to the Financial Times.
BILLIONAIRE-FUELED ROCKEFELLER FUND COORDINATED CLIMATE LAWSUITS WITH DEM STATE AG: INTERNAL DOCUMENTS
Climate Action 100+ was formally established in December 2017 at the U.N. as a way of aligning the world's largest private sector financiers of greenhouse gas producers. Since the association was created, it has grown to include more than 700 financial institutions that are collectively responsible for a staggering $68 trillion in assets under management.
Activists hold a protest outside BlackRock headquarters in New York City on May 25, 2022. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The group '-- which is overseen by a nongovernmental steering committee comprised of ESG activists '-- calls for members to engage companies on "improving climate change governance," curbing carbon emissions and strengthening climate-related financial disclosure policies. Its actions have largely taken aim at investments benefiting the oil and gas industry, while boosting green energy investment strategies.
The Climate Action 100+ "phase 2" strategy, which was set to be implemented later this year, calls for member investors to actively engage with companies to reduce their carbon footprint.
CONSUMER GROUP REVEALS LEFT-WING GROUPS INCREASINGLY USING COURTS TO PUSH GREEN NEW DEAL
"More than 700 investors are committed to managing climate risk and preserving shareholder value through their participation in the initiative," a spokesperson for Climate Action 100+ told FOX Business on Thursday. "Since its inception, Climate Action 100+ has experienced remarkable growth '-- and that has only continued."
"The initiative has recently entered its second phase, which offers more ways investor signatories can participate," the spokesperson continued. "Last autumn alone, more than 60 new signatories joined, and we expect interest to continue growing."
Delegates applaud after the conclusion of the most recent United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Dec. 13, 2023. The conference included various agreements from financial institutions to curb investments in the fossil fuel se (Fadel Dawod/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Climate Action 100+, in addition to other global climate alliances and investor networks, has drawn the ire of Republican states and lawmakers who have argued their activities may infringe on government policymaking. They have also warned such associations are harming domestic energy companies which employ thousands of Americans and ensure low consumer prices.
MAJOR 'CLIMATE DECEPTION' LAWSUIT AGAINST BIG OIL VOLUNTARILY DISMISSED
In June, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, issued a subpoena to Ceres, a nonprofit advocacy organization that helps to oversee Climate Action 100+, alleging the group may be facilitating collusion through its climate-focused initiatives in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is seen during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"Today's decisions by JPMorgan and State Street are big wins for freedom and the American economy, and we hope more financial institutions follow suit in abandoning collusive ESG actions," Jordan wrote Thursday in a social media post on X.
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Additionally, state attorneys general, financial officers and agriculture commissioners have banded together in recent months to threaten legal action related to banks' involvement in climate alliances.
"JPMorgan, State Street, and BlackRock's departure is a necessary step in the right direction, but consumers should wait to trust these companies again," said Consumers Research executive director Will Hild. "By leaving the Climate Action 100+ climate cartel, they are signaling that the actions of millions of consumers and dozens of elected officials are having an effect."
"These asset management firms are clearly afraid of the bad press and legal actions taken against their destructive net zero push," Hild added.
Remove the types of "newsletter" and "blog" from the medium tag. · Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace · Discussion #608 · GitHub
Fri, 16 Feb 2024 18:49
Yes, the medium tag is a recent addition, but all the other types have a few feeds using them. Blog and Newsletter have zero (based on podcastindex API results), and I don't see it changing soon.
My understanding is that a "podcast" is loosely defined as an RSS feed with a media enclosure. By that token, newsletters and blogs are not really that on a feed level. I can see you might have some episodes that contain media, but rarely the whole feed.
I can't find discussion around the inclusion of these into the podcast namespace (and that could be due to my own lack of search skill), but I feel these medium types add noise and don't add value.
I am more than happy to be shown the error of my ways though, which I what I guess these discussion threads are for!
The iOS 17 changes in Apple Podcasts
Fri, 16 Feb 2024 18:08
The dust is beginning to settle on iOS 17's changes in the Apple Podcasts app - and the effects of those changes are becoming clearer to the industry.
In this special report: a timeline of the changes; how automatic downloads work and what changed; how the industry spotted it, and the effect it has had on podcasting.
We also cover how Apple Podcasts communicated it to the industry - and what we can learn for the future.
Let's dig in.
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A timelineOn iPhone and iPad, updates to the in-built apps, like Apple Podcasts, are done via an OS upgrade, rather than the usual App Store update experience. One of those upgrades, iOS 17, was announced on June 5.
On that day, Apple announced new features for Apple Podcasts in the upcoming iOS 17. Particularly, the app would support episode artwork; a better now-playing experience; and a improved search mechanism.
iOS 17 became available on Sep 18.
More than three weeks after the public launch of iOS 17, Apple Podcast made a quiet blog post, flagging that there had been ''improvements to the way Automatic Downloads are handled''. These improvements were flagged to us as a small change, and as a result, you'll see them mentioned quite low in Podnews on Oct 12.
iOS 17 was also slower than normal to roll out: with, according to OP3's open analytics, the majority of users switching to iOS 17 towards the end of November - so the effects weren't immediately obvious.
But, by Feb 2024, those ''small changes'' had cost Acast $7.2mn, as the company revalued its advertising contracts after a listening slump of 12%.
Bryan Moffett, COO at National Public Media which manages corporate sponsorship sales for NPR, told us that the effect differs for the type of show. Daily shows with habitual audiences saw a decline of around 10% in monthly downloads, he told us, but ''longer shows published on other cadences were, on average, showing 30% declines in monthly downloads''.
Other publishers that Podnews has spoken to tell us they have had to give make-goods to advertisers, after networks suddenly had not delivered as many downloads as first thought.
And data from the Triton Digital US Ranker makes it clear: on average, almost a third of weekly downloads have disappeared year-on-year.
How do automatic downloads work?By default, Apple Podcasts enables automatic downloads of podcasts for all shows that a listener follows. It's the only major podcast player that does this.
Automatic downloads mean that, when a new episode is posted for a show, Apple Podcasts will automatically download it. As the company's detailed blog post says, that normally happens in the background, when a phone is charged and connected to wifi.
This causes some problems for measurement, though. Our guide to podcast statistics explains:
Audio can be automatically downloaded to your phone, in case you want to hear it later. Or, audio can be downloaded when a listener wants to hear it - a ''user-initiated download'', or what most people mean when they say a ''stream''. Your podcast hosting company doesn't know which it is. It just knows it's a download. And, no podcast hosting company knows whether a piece of audio has ever been listened-to (a ''listen'' or a ''play''). It can only ever know it's been downloaded.
Automated downloads are paused when the device runs out of storage, or when the listener stops listening - if ''the listener does not play a show they follow for more than 15 days and hasn't played the latest five episodes'', says Apple.
Pausing of automated downloads didn't change with iOS 17. What changed is what happens when that listener starts listening again.
The change that Apple Podcasts madeLet's take the example of The Daily.
The Daily comes out six days a week: five weekday episodes and a longer ''Sunday Read''.
Mary listens to The Daily sometimes, when there's a story that she's interested in. She occasionally picks up her iPhone, looks at the episode list, finds an episode title she likes the look of, and listens to it.
As long as she listens enough, Apple Podcasts will always automatically download every show to her phone - even if she only listens once every two weeks. But, if she doesn't listen enough, Apple Podcasts will automatically pause those downloads.
What happens when she starts listening again is where the change happens.
According to Apple Podcasts'...
Before iOS 17, when a listener would unpause automatic downloads, the system would automatically download all unplayed episodes.
With iOS 17, Apple Podcasts will not download previous episodes and will resume automatically downloading new episodes.
Mary discovered a new show, so she stopped listening to The Daily. Apple Podcasts stops automatically downloading it after about 15 episodes. Two months and 35 further episodes later, she sees an ad for The Daily, and she remembers what a great show it is - so she listens to one of the recent shows.
Before iOS 17, Apple Podcasts downloaded all 35 unplayed episodes.
With iOS 17, Apple Podcasts just downloads one - the one Mary listened to.
That issue got significantly worse if Mary returned to a show after a longer period of time - say, six months, with, for example, 250 shows that had been unlistened to. Apple Podcasts would attempt to instantly download all 250 episodes: and that wouldn't go smoothly.
One person told us: ''The behavior we'd see in something like this would be that all 250 download requests would be made at nearly a rate of 20 downloads per second and the hosting platform would respond back to all of them, trying to sending 250 IAB certified downloads. Maybe 50 would succeed before iOS shut the app down. On the following day, the app would attempt the remaining 200; but again, iOS would shut it down. With this example, those 250 missed episodes would result in a total of 750 downloads over the course of five days''. Because of the speed of request, frequency capping solutions for advertisers weren't able to mitigate this issue.
A small change?Was it a small change? That's what we thought. After all, there can't be many people like Mary: people who ''follow'' a show but don't listen to every episode.
Except: we're all like Mary.
The Infinite Dial 2023 says that 120 million Americans listen to podcasts every month; but only 89 million every week. That's 31 million occasional listeners, each of whom might be marked as a dormant listener by Apple Podcasts.
In the UK, RAJAR's MIDAS Study suggests that 63% of podcast listeners listen to more than half of all theepisodes they download - so, 47% of all podcast listeners listen to fewer than half of the podcasts they download.
The only organization who knew for certain how much of an effect it would have? Apple Podcasts.
NPR's Bryan Moffett: ''We all knew for years there was a big delta between the data in Apple Podcasts analytics and the data from our logs. But there wasn't much we could do about it, and we couldn't correlate it with our log data. Because of that, I don't think anyone really put together the impact of those catch-up downloads on our shows. Apple could have helped us all understand that better.''
How it was noticedWe're told that publishers and hosting platforms had individual meetings with Apple trying to understand and communicate the issue, and Podnews has learnt of at least one meeting on this issue more than four years ago. People familiar with the issue tell us that without full data, Apple appeared to dismiss the reports; but there seem to have been many different organisations spotting the problem. ''This was an issue we, and Omny Studio, had been working with Apple on for two years since right after iOS 15 came out when we first saw the issue with some shows and excessive downloads of [the] back catalog,'' said Rob Walch of Libsyn on an episode of The Feed in October 2023. We're aware of analytics companies, podcast hosting companies, and publishers who all independently flagged-up an issue.
In 2022, Podscribe, a podcast attribution and analytics service, says that it pinpointed the issue and what was causing it; and the issue was taken to the IAB for potential mitigation in their measurement guidelines. One publisher told us: ''The best way we found was to limit dynamic campaigns to episodes no older than about 45 days. That reduced the far right end of the distribution. That's when we really began to understand what was happening.''
Additionally, Apple has a quality control team that regularly monitors the battery and storage use of all of its in-built apps, and we've been told that it was this team that independently spotted the issue.
Whoever spotted it - and it's likely that it was all of the above, working independently - what is clear is that Apple Podcasts knew about this behavior by late June, having made changes to auto-downloads for the forthcoming iOS 17 release.
It appears, though, that Apple Podcasts was not going to highlight the significant change in behavior that they'd made to the app. It wasn't flagged as part of the changes in iOS 17's Podcasts app, nor when iOS 17 was publicly available. It made one, small, change to an undated webpage, as the Web Archive shows:
''If a listener resumes playing that show, or changes the download preferences for that show, Apple Podcasts will resume downloading new episodes.'' is what Apple Podcasts said in July 2023.
''If a listener resumes playing that show, or changes the download preferences for that show, Apple Podcasts will resume downloading all unplayed episodes.'' is what they'd amended it to, without any notice, by September 2023.
Sounds Profitable, a membership organization of over 150 podcasting companies, may have forced Apple's hand. Apple seems to have rushed to publicly document this change just a day before Sounds Profitable released a ''joint statement'' signed by many of its members that detailed it. While some deny the extent of that group's involvement, Apple Podcasts only appeared to communicate the change once it knew that this third-party statement was due to come out.
Does it matter?The ''download'' has never been a particularly good reflection of ''listening'' even though many want to conflate the two. With this change, Apple seems to have put the two statistics better in line with each other. It's a good thing.
Some have been keen to paint this as a story of fraud - of publishers selling fake automated downloads to unsuspecting advertisers. That's not the case. It's always been known - and priced-in - that automatic episode downloads aren't always listened-to. This did not come as a surprise to anyone.
It's also a welcome change for the industry to ensure that more episodes are actually listened-to. As we've seen from new Podscribe data, podcast ads are performing better as a result. Particularly, ''impression-based'' buys on back-catalogs have made a significant improvement. This is good news for the podcast industry, and good news for advertisers.
However, Apple Podcasts is responsible for around 40% of all podcast downloads. Accordingly, Apple Podcasts has an significant influence on the $2bn podcast industry. It presumably has the instrumentation to estimate the effect of any change like this, too.
This change was significant. Without notice, it wiped off $7.3mn from just one podcast publisher's bottom line; and has significantly reduced revenues and downloads from many others.
Apple Podcasts has made significant unannounced changes in the past, with significant numbers of automatic downloads from the Apple Watch causing the IAB to issue new guidance and a new set of measurement guidelines.
If this tells us anything, it's that Apple Podcasts has a responsiblity to communicate clearly and effectively if it makes any significant changes to its app. We should be greatly concerned if it doesn't see the importance of clear communication.
And this also shows that, working together in the open makes us all stronger. Let's hope everyone in the industry does so.
RSS Music Charts | RSS Blue
Fri, 16 Feb 2024 17:47
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Matt Taibbi Posts Unhinged Messages from Elon Musk
Fri, 16 Feb 2024 17:40
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images & AP Photo/Michel Euler
Journalist Matt Taibbi posted screenshots of unhinged messages he received from billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Days after Taibbi accused Musk of restricting his account, the former Musk ally posted the screenshots from a conversation the two had had nearly a year prior.
''Since @elonmusk published parts of these conversations, I might as well include others,'' declared Taibbi on Thursday. ''I was under a 'blanket search ban' at one point and a lot of my 1.9 million followers still don't see my content.''
In the messages, dated April 2023, Taibbi could be seen asking Musk whether he was ''being shadowbanned'' following Musk's crackdown on Substack, which Taibbi writes for.
''We went on lockdown after discovering that Substack had stolen a massive amount of our data to prepopulate their Twitter rip-off,'' replied Musk. ''Looks like there is still a blanket search ban. Should be fixed by tomorrow.''
He added, ''Going forward, tweets with Substack will not appear in For You unless it is paid advertising, just like FB/Insta/etc.''
Taibbi questioned, ''Elon, I've repeatedly declined to criticize you and have nothing to do with your beef with Substack. Is there a reason why I'm being put in the middle of things? This really seems crazy.''
''You are dead to me,'' replied Musk. ''Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack.''
Prior to their falling out, Taibbi was seen as a close ally of Musk and was described by House Delegate Stacey Plaskett as one of ''Elon Musk's public scribes'' during a hearing in March 2023.
Their relationship deteriorated just weeks later after Substack, a website Taibbi writes for, announced the launch of a Twitter rival.
Musk retaliated by blocking all links to Substack, which prompted Taibbi to announce his departure from Musk's platform.
Taibbi criticized Musk in several other Twitter posts on Thursday, calling the social network ''worse than ever.''
''Supposed free speech champion @ElonMusk has decided to suppress this account forever, instead of just talking to me,'' protested Taibbi. ''@ElonMusk is uncomfortable around people who aren't afraid of him, and wants to prove he can hurt my business instead of just talking to me, even if it means suppressing access to news he thinks is important.''
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What Do 'Long COVID' And Transgender People Have In Common? | The Daily Caller
Fri, 16 Feb 2024 17:10
What do 'Long COVID' and the transgender movement have in common? No, this isn't the setup for a punchline. Despite assurances by the ''neutral'' medical establishment, they both fall under the umbrella of a broader left-wing agenda '-- and the results are clear from new findings on who actually ''suffers'' from Long COVID.
According to a new survey from USA Facts, transgender people experienced the highest rate of Long COVID. Of the transgender people who had COVID, 46% reported struggling with Long COVID afterwards, compared to just 32% among women and 22% among men. Among ''other'' '-- whatever non-binary nonsense that implies '-- the rate was 37%. Further, among the transgender people claiming to suffer from Long COVID, 42% reported ''severe'' symptoms, four times higher than men (10%) and women (9%).
Why do transgender people have the highest rates of Long COVID, while men have the lowest rates of Long COVID? pic.twitter.com/ljRNmaYTYZ
'-- Kevin Bass PhD MS (@kevinnbass) February 10, 2024
To use a favored term of the expert class, transgender people are ''disproportionately impacted'' by the disease '-- but it's worth considering why that may be. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, this is due to their ''lower access to health care and stigma regarding their gender or sexuality.'' Yet this is political dogma disguised as scientific analysis. However, the real answer is likely just as political.
Interestingly, both Long COVID and the current transgender craze gripping American children developed along a very similar trajectory. They are both loosely defined by the medical establishment, yet get touted as a purely scientific phenomena '-- objective truth. If you are a man who identifies as a woman, you are a woman. As a result, it becomes impossible for even medical authorities to define what a ''woman'' really is. Similarly, the Centers for Disease Control defines Long COVID ''broadly'' as any ''signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after acute COVID-19 infection,'' including ''fatigue,'' ''difficulty thinking,'' ''sleep problems'' and even ''depression or anxiety.'' So, Long COVID is pretty much anything you want it to be. (RELATED: Prestigious Medical Journal Retracts, Republishes Widely Cited 'Long COVID' Study Over 'Data Errors')
The real trick that captured medical and scientific authorities pull here is laundering one discrete, definable instance of a phenomenon into a broader, ideological movement. Transgender people, of course, exist in the objective sense '-- both throughout history and in that gender dysphoria is an established, clinical disorder. Yet that cannot explain the explosion of trans-identifying teens '-- mostly girls '-- over the past several years; there's clearly a social aspect at play that the ''experts'' will not admit for ideological reasons. Similarly, ''long'' illnesses clearly exist; anyone who's ever had a cold or flu can attest that unpleasant symptoms sometimes linger for weeks or months, which surely holds true for COVID as well. But clinically defining Long COVID as some miasmatic threat only serves to reinforce the CDC's own authority over a never-ending COVID crisis.
Ultimately, both fit into the larger left-wing worldview of the individual: whatever you feel is what you are. Objective truth is subordinate to your truth. With their institutional authority, the ''experts'' use the foundational kernel of truth to legitimize their own preferred, subjective re-definition '-- all while reinforcing their own authority as gatekeepers. This is the state of our ''expert'' class today.
Transgender people have a much higher rate of Long Covid than men and women do.
Not only that, their rate of severe symptoms from Long Covid is FOUR TIMES higher than it is for men and women who have Long Covid.
And the rate of nonbinary people is THREE TIMES higher.
Why? pic.twitter.com/KoBkKhwp35
'-- Kevin Bass PhD MS (@kevinnbass) February 10, 2024
And so for many on the left, all of the issues under this umbrella become inherently linked. Largely, it's a result of political leaders explicitly linking an array of issues under a banner of right-think. If you're a transgender person who questions leftist orthodoxy elsewhere, then your entire progressive credibility collapses; just look at how the left treats Caitlyn Jenner! If you believe in transgender ideology, you also likely believe that COVID is an epoch-defining threat to human life. If you believe in these things, you're more likely to trust the institutional authorities that reinforce your views, so you are then more likely to develop the neuroses that the officials parrot. Over time, the issues morph into proxies for in-group signaling.
But the linkage also arises from a more natural, sociological element '-- your belief in the subjective self. If you imbibe from the fountain of subjective truth, as transgender individuals inherently do, then you are more likely to want to stand out in highly individualistic ways. You're also more likely to see the world through the lens of victim and oppressor, your individualist expression inherently suppressed by social stigma. Transgenderism is but one outgrowth of this worldview, and 'Long COVID' is a natural corollary '-- to suffer perpetually from a disease propagated by the bad people, the science-deniers. (RELATED: New NYT Piece Could Signal Tide Is Turning Against Child Mutilation)
So the findings of USA Facts likely have some basis of objective validity. With all of the unnecessary surgical and chemical trauma transgender people put their bodies through, it's no surprise they would struggle more fighting off routine illnesses. But the disparities between transgender people and everyone else are far too great to overlook the obvious sociological explanations. They are more inclined to trust Trust The Science' that aligns with their preferences, as well as the experts who toe the party line.
And this in turn makes a debilitating fear of COVID more likely as well, since belief in progressive orthodoxy cannot extend to one issue and not the others without the risk of social sanction. The desire to stand out, to find distinction through your performance in the Oppression Olympics, makes the psychosomatic embrace of Long COVID ever more likely.
All the incentives '-- social and political '-- line up for Long COVID hysteria to metastasize in key segments of American society. Despite all the left's feigned concerns about at-risk groups, neurotic people searching for meaning are paying the heftiest price.
Special counsel Robert Hur to testify publicly on Biden investigation | The Hill
Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:45
U.S. Attorney Robert Hur arrives at U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Nov. 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark, File)
Special counsel Robert Hur will appear publicly before the House Judiciary Committee on March 12 to answer questions about his investigation into President Biden's handling of classified records.
The hearing, confirmed by a source familiar, comes as Republicans have called his failure to recommend charges for Biden part of a broader ''double standard'' amid former President Trump's prosecution on Espionage Act charges.
In a joint statement last week, House GOP leadership, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), argued that the special counsel's decision to not charge the president for his handling of classified materials ''exposes a two-tiered system of justice with politically motivated charges while carrying water for another amid similar allegations.''
Republicans have also made it clear they are eager to ask Hur about his comments on Biden's memory.
Three House committees on Monday asked Hur to turn over recordings and transcripts from his interview with Biden.
''Although Mr. Hur reasoned that President Biden's presentation 'as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory' who ''did not remember when he was vice president' or 'when his son Beau died' posed challenges to proving the President's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the report concluded that the Department's principles of prosecution weighed against prosecution because the Department has not prosecuted 'a former president or vice president for mishandling classified documents from his own administration,''' House Oversight and Accountability Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) wrote in a letter.
''The one 'exception' to the Department's principles of prosecution, as Mr. Hur noted, 'is former President Trump.' This speaks volumes about the Department's commitment to evenhanded justice.''
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