Today's News: February 09, 2022

WORLD NEWS

The Foreign Ministry said Pyongyang would not “waste time” with “submission” and “obedience” to Washington

RT – North Korea has claimed it could “shake the world” by firing a missile at the United States and suggested it had hydrogen bombs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and hypersonic missiles at its disposal.

“In today’s world where many countries waste time dealing with the United States with submission and blind obedience, there’s only our country on this planet that can shake the world by firing a missile with the US mainland in its range,” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday.

“There are more than 200 countries in the world, but only a few have hydrogen bombs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and hypersonic missiles.”

The Foreign Ministry also called its recent string of missile tests “remarkable achievements,” but stressed that the country was ultimately interested in “war deterrence.”

Responding to the statement, a US State Department spokesperson told The Hill that Washington sees Pyongyang as “a threat to international peace and security and the global nonproliferation regime,” but insisted that the US “harbors no hostile intent” towards the reclusive nation.

They also said Washington is committed to “limiting the reach” of North Korea’s “most dangerous weapons programs” and keeping US military personnel and their allies safe.

North Korea has already conducted seven missile tests this year alone, many of which were fired towards the Sea of Japan. The country confirmed last week that it had test-fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile for the first time since 2017. The missile is believed to be capable of striking the US territory of Guam.

Iran unveils new long-range missile

The projectile can travel distances of 1,450 km, according to state media

RT – Iran has presented the homegrown ‘Kheibar-Shekan’ missile, boasting a range of 1,450 kilometers, state media reported on Wednesday.

The projectile was unveiled in the presence of Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major-General Mohammad Bagheri and other military officials.

Local outlets reported that the weapon would join Iran’s arsenal of “long-range” projectiles; although its capabilities are more in line with the low-to-medium-range missiles of Western armed forces.

It was developed and built by scientists of the Air Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran has pushed forward with indigenously developed military hardware in recent years, amid sanctions imposed by the US.

According to state media, the rocket uses solid fuel and weighs a third less than other similar projectiles. Preparation and firing time have been reduced by a sixth.It was unveiled during a top brass visit to a Revolutionary Guards missile base.

Iran has been increasingly keen to demonstrate its defensive capabilities over the past year, holding multiple wargames, military drills, and unveiling its latest homegrown hardware.

Protesters defy police threat with fuel cans

Ottawa’s police chief had threatened to arrest anyone who provides ‘material support’ to demonstrating truckers

RT – Hundreds of protesters appeared to mock Ottawa Police’s threat to arrest anyone caught providing fuel to demonstrating truckers by marching through the city carrying red fuel cans this week.

The police warned on Sunday that anyone caught providing “material support,” such as fuel, to the truckers protesting against Covid-19 restrictions would be arrested in an attempt to starve the demonstration of resources.

However, hundreds of protesters responded to the threat by carrying red fuel cans – mostly empty or filled with water – through the streets of Ottawa.

One video showed protesters marching towards parliament with fuel cans in hand, while another showed a man carrying two cans labeled “Got gas?”

Trudeau scolded over swastika-waving anti-vax condemnation

The prime minister had claimed those displaying Nazi flags among the Freedom Convoy protesters did not represent the rest of Canada

RT – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been accused of provoking the ire of anti-vaxxers after he took aim Freedom Convoy protesters, some of whom had been spotted waving flags associated with the genocidal Nazi regime.

Conservative lawmakers, including the party’s interim leader Candice Bergen, said on Monday night that Trudeau was fueling discontent at a time when many Canadians were hoping for life to return to normal.

‘We are at a crisis point, not just outside the doors and across the country, but the country overall,” Bergen said, adding that “so much of it is because of the things he’s said and done.”

The comments came after truckers from the so-called ‘Freedom Convoy’ blocked the Ambassador Bridge – the busiest route connecting Canada to the US. The activism originally started as a protest against a vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, but demonstrators have now vowed not to leave Ottawa until all Covid restrictions are lifted.

Speaking on Tuesday, Trudeau said the dangerous and economically painful activism “had to stop.”

“This is a story of a country that got through this pandemic by being united – and a few people shouting and waving swastikas does not define who Canadians are,” the prime minister told lawmakers during an emergency debate.

“People of Ottawa don’t deserve to be harassed in their own neighborhoods, don’t deserve to be confronted with the inherent violence of a swastika flying on a street corner, or a Confederate flag, or the insults and jeers just because they’re wearing a mask. That’s not who Canadians are,” he argued.

Trudeau added that Covid-19 restrictions were not forever.

High-profile Americans including former President Donald Trump and Tesla founder Elon Musk have both spoken in favor of the trucker protest.

U.S. NEWS, POLITIC & GOVERNMENT

Biden DHS Declares Heightened Terrorism Threat

Epoch TImes – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Feb. 7 declared a heightened terrorism threat due to “false and misleading narratives,” misinformation, and “conspiracy theories.”

“The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors,” the DHS bulletin said.

The agency did not say what foreign or domestic actors are responsible for the alleged proliferation of misinformation or disinformation.

“Mass casualty attacks and other acts of targeted violence conducted by lone offenders and small groups acting in furtherance of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances pose an ongoing threat to the nation,” the DHS continued, adding that some individuals are seeking to “sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions.”

Some individuals, the bulletin alleged, are calling for violence against critical infrastructure, faith-based institutions like churches or synagogues, colleges, government personnel or facilities, and other targets.

As an example of key factors that allegedly contribute to the heightened threat environment, the DHS said there are misleading narratives surrounding COVID-19 and claimed that some individuals have used COVID-19 mandates or vaccines to carry out attacks since 2020. The agency did not elaborate or provide additional evidence for its allegations. The DHS also listed online claims of election fraud as a contributor, and it also did not provide additional details or evidence.

The agency said that “foreign terrorist organizations and domestic threat actors continue to amplify pre-existing false or misleading narratives online to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions. It said violent extremists, including the individual who recently launched an attack against the synagogue in Texas, highlight “the continuing threat of violence based upon racial or religious motivations, as well as threats against faith-based organizations.”

The ISIS terrorist group and its affiliates “may issue public calls for retaliation due to the strike that recently killed ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi,” the bulletin said. The Biden administration announced last week that al-Qurayshi was killed during a raid in northern Syria.

The bulletin also made note of alleged recent threats to black colleges and universities across the United States.

“Domestic violent extremists have also viewed attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure as a means to create chaos and advance ideological goals, and have recently aspired to disrupt U.S. electric and communications critical infrastructure, including by spreading false or misleading narratives about 5G cellular technology,” the bulletin continued.

The DHS said the heightened threat alert will expire on June 7, 2022.

Biden Spending $30M on Crack Pipe Distribution to Advance ’Racial Equity’

Breitbart – President Joe Biden’s administration is spending $30 million to distribute things like crack pipes to advance “racial equity” as part of a “Harm Reduction Plan.”

The American Rescue Plan, which passed the Senate with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris, provides the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funding to carry out the multimillion-dollar grant program.

The grant program references Biden’s executive order 13985 titled “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government” that he signed on his first day in office.

The program accepted applications from nonprofit organizations and local governments until Monday, with funds scheduled to be distributed in May. The federal government will give approved entities funds to make drug use safer and to advance “racial equality.” Applicants who treat drug users in “underserved communities” are prioritized to receive funding. “Underserved communities” refers to black, Latino, LGBTQ, and other minority groups who have been “adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.”

According to the grant document:

The purpose of the program is to support community-based overdose prevention programs, syringe services programs, and other harm reduction services. Funding will be used to enhance overdose and other types of prevention activities to help control the spread of infectious diseases and the consequences of such diseases for individuals with, or at risk of developing substance use disorders.

The grant document encourages funds to be spent on “safe smoking kits/supplies,” among other things. An HHS spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon that pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, or “any illicit substance” are included in these kits.

“Syringes,” “safe sex kits,” and “harm reduction vending machine(s)” are also on the list of materials entities should purchase with grant funds.

The winners of the grant awards “have not been announced” yet, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s website.

Federal law prohibits the sale or distribution of drug paraphernalia unless authorized by the government. Democrat strongholds like San Francisco and Seattle have implemented their own crack pipe distribution plans. However, other municipalities have stayed away from the idea. For example, Louisville, Kentucky, briefly allowed stores to sell drug kits before ultimately banning the sale of them.

News of Biden’s crack pipe distribution plan sent social media users into a frenzy.

“So the Biden Administration thinks it’s a great idea to give out crackpipes but definitely not Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine. Let that sink in,” tweeted Donald Trump Jr.

Schweizer: Joe Biden Was a ‘Beneficiary’ of Hunter’s Deals with China

Breitbart – Breitbart News senior contributor Peter Schweizer said Tuesday on FNC’s “America’s Newsroom” that President Joe Biden was a “beneficiary” of his son Hunter’s business deals with China.

Schweizer, the author of Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, said, “What was initially a story of cronyism and corruption we now have to recognize is an intelligence story, and it’s not just a question of the Bidens getting rich. We have to start having the conversation and investigating whether the Biden family may be compromised.”

He continued, “We knew that there was a commercial tie in the past, that Hunter Biden put it together. I broke story in 2018. What we now know are two separate strands that are critically important. Using the Hunter Biden laptop and using emails from a Gmail account of one of Hunter’s business partners, he gave us access to the email account. We now know that every deal that the Bidens got in China came through individuals with links to the highest level of Chinese intelligence.”

Schweizer added, “We also now know that Hunter Biden did these deals, but the larger family benefited. We know that James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, got at least $2 million of that money from China. We also now know that Hunter Biden was subsidizing his father’s lifestyle. He was paying for his bills. He was paying for renovations on his home up in Delaware while Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States. It’s not only illegal according to ethics laws. It also shows that Joe Biden is now a beneficiary of the foreign dealings that Hunter Biden has had. It’s no longer good enough for him to say, well, I didn’t have anything involved. He was a beneficiary.”

NYT Editor Was ‘Concerned’ and ‘Confused’ About Palin Editorial

Epoch Times – NEW YORK—Two top editors from The New York Times testified in its libel trial brought on by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R) in federal court on Feb. 8.

Linda Cohn, the junior of the two, said she had voiced her concerns about the editorial at the heart of the lawsuit after reading a draft of it late in the afternoon on June 14, 2017.

“I was concerned about the graph–paragraph–on gun control,” she said under direct examination by one of Palin’s lawyer, Kenneth Turkel.

Cohn took her concern to James Bennet, who was the editor with the final word on the piece. In his office she said to him, “You need to look at this,” she recalled.

She also testified she was “a little confused” about “what we wanted out of this piece.” Cohn wasn’t sure if the editorial was about political rhetoric, gun control, or both, and wanted Bennet “to weigh in.”

“He said he would take a look at it.”

The first draft of the editorial was written by Elizabeth Williamson, who’s already testified.

Any editors who made revisions made them in Scoop, a computer program designed for newspapers and reporters. A component of the program is editors can write notes in it for themselves or for anyone else to see.

Cohn made two notes in the draft. One was, “Do we know of any political figures on the left who have incited violence?”

According to Palin the published editorial claims she, a Republican, incited political violence but makes no mention of Democrats doing so, even though there were many examples current at the time.

One of those examples was a meme that comedian Kathy Griffin circulated with her holding the severed head of President Donald Trump. It was out just two weeks before the shooting at a Republican Congressional baseball practice, which prompted the editorial.

Cohn said she had thought of the meme, but only wanted to include elected officials. She also testified that examples of incitement were “everything from the Tea Party on.”

The editorial included a map Palin’s political action committee (SarahPAC) had distributed with crosshairs superimposed over districts of Democrats.

Cohn did not question including this in the paragraph about the gunman in a mass shooting that involved Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) in 2011.

He wasn’t “taking orders from the map,” she said.

The only issue she took with the map was to say whether it was published “weeks” or “months” before the attack.

Defense attorney David Axelrod asked Cohn if she considered adding Palin’s name to the correction issued the next day.

“Yes, we talked about it,” she said, but added the newspaper has a policy about not repeating the mistake in a correction.

She also said she didn’t want to put Palin’s name “in the same proximity of this horrible shooting.”

Axelrod backtracked a little and asked her about other pieces of the editorial. Ultimately, Cohn saw no reason not to publish it.

After the backlash the editorial was revised, but still referred to Palin.

“I think it’s just an example of the kind of rhetoric at the time,” she said.

Bennet, the senior editor of the two, took the stand next.

He corroborated Cohn’s testimony that she came to his office with concerns about the editorial and testified he rewrote it himself.

On the evening it was posted Bennet started to feel the heat. He said to the court, “This is my fault, right? I wrote these sentences and I’m not looking to shift the blame to anyone else.”

At 5:08 the morning after the editorial posted he wrote on Twitter, “I’m very sorry for my own failure on this yesterday,” and wrote about a possible correction.

“I had not gotten much sleep and that morning is a bit of a blur to me,” Bennet said.

He testified that about six months later he appeared before the newspaper’s board to take responsibility and to apologize.

“Did you ever apologize to Gov. Palin?” asked Palin’s other attorney Shane Vogt.

“My hope is that as a consequence of this process that I have,” he answered.

As he has since the trial began, Judge Jed Rakoff peppered the day with jokes.

He started with telling both sets of attorneys he’s tempted to ditch the trial and have everyone hangout in the park together because “there’s a touch of spring in the air.”

When the jurors were seated, he said to them, “I hope you appreciate the fact that council and I arranged a beautiful day for you today.”

Rakoff ended the day little early as he had a class to teach at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Dystopia Disguised as Democracy: All the Ways in Which Freedom Is an Illusion

Rutherford Institute – “The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”—Frank Zappa

We are no longer free.

We are living in a world carefully crafted to resemble a representative democracy, but it’s an illusion.

We think we have the freedom to elect our leaders, but we’re only allowed to participate in the reassurance ritual of voting. There can be no true electoral choice or real representation when we’re limited in our options to one of two candidates culled from two parties that both march in lockstep with the Deep State and answer to an oligarchic elite.

We think we have freedom of speech, but we’re only as free to speak as the government and its corporate partners allow.

We think we have the right to freely exercise our religious beliefs, but those rights are quickly overruled if and when they conflict with the government’s priorities, whether it’s COVID-19 mandates or societal values about gender equality, sex and marriage.

We think we have the freedom to go where we want and move about freely, but at every turn, we’re hemmed in by laws, fines and penalties that regulate and restrict our autonomy, and surveillance cameras that monitor our movements. Punitive programs strip citizens of their passports and right to travel over unpaid taxes.

We think we have property interests in our homes and our bodies, but there can be no such freedom when the government can seize your property, raid your home, and dictate what you do with your bodies.

We think we have the freedom to defend ourselves against outside threats, but there is no right to self-defense against militarized police who are authorized to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance, and granted immunity from accountability with the general blessing of the courts. Certainly, there can be no right to gun ownership in the face of red flag gun laws which allow the police to remove guns from people merely suspected of being threats.

We think we have the right to an assumption of innocence until we are proven guilty, but that burden of proof has been turned on its head by a surveillance state that renders us all suspects and overcriminalization which renders us all lawbreakers. Police-run facial recognition software that mistakenly labels law-abiding citizens as criminals. A social credit system (similar to China’s) that rewards behavior deemed “acceptable” and punishes behavior the government and its corporate allies find offensive, illegal or inappropriate.

We think we have the right to due process, but that assurance of justice has been stripped of its power by a judicial system hardwired to act as judge, jury and jailer, leaving us with little recourse for appeal. A perfect example of this rush to judgment can be found in the proliferation of profit-driven speed and red light cameras that do little for safety while padding the pockets of government agencies.

We have been saddled with a government that pays lip service to the nation’s freedom principles while working overtime to shred the Constitution.

By gradually whittling away at our freedoms—free speech, assembly, due process, privacy, etc.—the government has, in effect, liberated itself from its contractual agreement to respect the constitutional rights of the citizenry while resetting the calendar back to a time when we had no Bill of Rights to protect us from the long arm of the government.

Aided and abetted by the legislatures, the courts and Corporate America, the government has been busily rewriting the contract (a.k.a. the Constitution) that establishes the citizenry as the masters and agents of the government as the servants.

We are now only as good as we are useful, and our usefulness is calculated on an economic scale by how much we are worth—in terms of profit and resale value—to our “owners.”

Under the new terms of this revised, one-sided agreement, the government and its many operatives have all the privileges and rights and “we the people” have none.

University to pay $243mn to victims of alleged sex abuse by gynecologist

RT – The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has agreed to pay $243.6 million to 203 women who alleged that the university’s former gynecologist-oncologist, Dr. James Heaps, sexually abused them during vaginal and breast exams. The settlement was announced on Tuesday.

Heaps, who denies the allegations, was a faculty member at the David Geffen School of Medicine and carried out medical examinations at UCLA Health. His involvement with UCLA in various roles spanned 1983 to 2018. In a statement to the media, the university called Heaps’ alleged conduct “reprehensible.”

“We admire the courage of the plaintiffs in coming forward and appreciate plaintiffs’ counsel’s commitment to resolving the claims,” UCLA Health said.

“The idea that for 30 years he preyed on these women who were incredibly vulnerable – it shocks the conscience,” the plaintiffs’ co-counsel John Manly said.

Leonard Levine, Heaps’ lawyer, reiterated that his client “has adamantly denied engaging in any of the conduct he has been accused of.” He added that Heaps remains confident he will be “totally exonerated” in court.

Heaps currently awaits a criminal trial on charges of 21 felony counts of sexual abuse.

In 2020, UCLA had already agreed to a $73 million class action settlement, paying out between $2,500 and $250,000 to Heaps’ former patients.

Share of Americans who blame Trump for Capitol riot revealed

A new poll shows that fewer Democrats and Republicans than ever believe the former US president was responsible for the unrest

RT – A steadily decreasing number of Americans believe former President Donald Trump carries full or partial blame for the riot at the US Capitol in 2021, according to a new survey. The trend is true for both Republicans and Democrats.

A Pew poll published on Tuesday surveyed more than 5,100 people about whether Trump is culpable for the unrest in the nation’s capital, with a total of 32% now saying he bears no responsibility at all, compared to 24% last year. While more than half, or 52%, said he carries “a lot” of blame in 2021, that figure has dropped to just 43%.

The trend applies to members of both major parties. Though 70% of Democrats still say Trump deserves a lot of the blame, 81% said the same last year. Just 5% previously claimed he bore no responsibility, next to 12% as of this week.

Support from GOP-leaning respondents appears to have grown over the past year, as 57% now say Trump was not at fault for the riot, more than 10 points higher than before.

While skepticism over allegations that Trump ‘incited’ the unrest is seeing a decline, major partisan divisions remain over other aspects of the issue. Though 65% of Republicans said “too much attention” has been paid to the January 6 riot – nearly a supermajority – just 11% of Democrats said the same, with 48% instead arguing the incident received “too little” focus.

Opinion on the congressional investigation into the riot was similarly divided between the parties. Asked about the outcome of the probe and the likelihood it would be “fair and reasonable,” 46% of Republicans answered “Not at all,” while a mere 2% said they are “very” confident it would be. Some 27% of Democrats said they were very confident, next to just 10% who responded “Not at all.”

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Technocrats Demand Meat Tax to Fight Climate Change

Technocracy News – The vast majority of rank-and-file citizens disbelieve the global war on red meat, and yet the environmental extremists will not let go of their demands to destroy the industry and drive people to eat insect protein instead. This battle is intensifying everywhere and is unmistakable. The price of quality beef in the US has doubled in the last 2 years and is still rising. ⁃ TN Editor

A group of environmental economists in Germany is demanding that huge taxes be imposed on meat products to fight climate change, with calls for beef to be 56 per cent more expensive.

Asserting that livestock is responsible for 13 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, researchers from TU Berlin’s Chair of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources are demanding limitations on meat consumption in order to “attain greenhouse gas neutrality.”

“Livestock farming is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, soil and water pollution, and precious forests are being cleared for pastures and food crops,” said the leader of the group, Professor Linus Mattauch.

“Evidence suggests the environmental impacts are so large that the world can’t meet climate goals and keep vital ecosystems intact without reducing the consumption of meat – at least in Western high-income countries,” he added.

Mattauch wants governments to “start thinking about also taxing meat to reduce its consumption,” asserting that this is the “most efficient path to preventing further strain on our planet.”

“According to the group’s model calculations, the direct cost of livestock farming in relation to climate change is as high as $9.21 per kilogram of beef,” reports ReMix News. “Applying this cost to the price of beef could result in beef products being as much as 56 percent more expensive. Similarly, poultry would cost 25 percent more, and lamb and pork would rise by 19 percent.”

Such taxes will of course primarily impact the poor, who in many western countries are already suffering due to rampant food inflation.

No doubt the solution to that will be amplifying efforts to encourage everyone to start eating bugs as an alternative and “sustainable” source of protein.

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

In January last year, the EU officially approved the sale of worms as food to be consumed by humans.

Last month, Vanderbilt University Professor Amanda Little argued that everyone in the world needs to start dining on insects and that the EU’s approval of them conferred a form of “dignity” to their consumption.

One group of people who won’t be eating bugs is technocrat globalists.

Despite insisting that everyone else reduce their living standards and ration their meat eating to save the planet, during last year’s Cop 26 summit, attendees enjoyed a menu full of animal-based dishes that were at least double the carbon footprint of the average UK meal.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

What is Pegasus spyware and how does it hack phones?

The Guardian – It is the name for perhaps the most powerful piece of spyware ever developed – certainly by a private company. Once it has wormed its way on to your phone, without you noticing, it can turn it into a 24-hour surveillance device. It can copy messages you send or receive, harvest your photos and record your calls. It might secretly film you through your phone’s camera, or activate the microphone to record your conversations. It can potentially pinpoint where you are, where you’ve been, and who you’ve met.

Pegasus is the hacking software – or spyware – that is developed, marketed and licensed to governments around the world by the Israeli company NSO Group. It has the capability to infect billions of phones running either iOS or Android operating systems.

The earliest version of Pegasus discovered, which was captured by researchers in 2016, infected phones through what is called spear-phishing – text messages or emails that trick a target into clicking on a malicious link.

Since then, however, NSO’s attack capabilities have become more advanced. Pegasus infections can be achieved through so-called “zero-click” attacks, which do not require any interaction from the phone’s owner in order to succeed. These will often exploit “zero-day” vulnerabilities, which are flaws or bugs in an operating system that the mobile phone’s manufacturer does not yet know about and so has not been able to fix.

In 2019 WhatsApp revealed that NSO’s software had been used to send malware to more than 1,400 phones by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability. Simply by placing a WhatsApp call to a target device, malicious Pegasus code could be installed on the phone, even if the target never answered the call. More recently NSO has begun exploiting vulnerabilities in Apple’s iMessage software, giving it backdoor access to hundreds of millions of iPhones. Apple says it is continually updating its software to prevent such attacks.

Technical understanding of Pegasus, and how to find the evidential breadcrumbs it leaves on a phone after a successful infection, has been improved by research conducted by Claudio Guarnieri, who runs Amnesty International’s Berlin-based Security Lab.

“Things are becoming a lot more complicated for the targets to notice,” said Guarnieri, who explained that NSO clients had largely abandoned suspicious SMS messages for more subtle zero-click attacks.

Four Attorneys General Claim Google Secretly Tracked People

Mercola – If you’ve ever felt like Google’s watching you, it’s because they, quite literally, are. “The truth is that contrary to Google’s representations it continues to systematically surveil customers and profit from customer data,” Karl A. Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia, said in a statement.1

He’s among four attorneys general who have sued Google for its deceptive practices in collecting location data from the public. The separate lawsuits allege that Google continued to track location data of its users even after they had disabled location tracking.

“Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data the company could access,” Racine said.2

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Four attorneys general have sued Google for its deceptive practices in collecting location data from the public

The separate lawsuits allege that Google continued to track location data of its users even after they had disabled location tracking

Google’s misleading claims to users regarding privacy protections available in their account settings have been ongoing since at least 2014

The attorney general for the District of Columbia launched an investigation into Google after a 2018 AP News report revealed Google was tracking people’s movements even when they’d opted out of such tracking

The suits allege that Google’s products are designed to pressure users to allow location tracking “inadvertently or out of frustration,” in violation of state consumer protection laws

IRS Abandons Plans to Require Third-Party Facial Recognition

Epoch Times – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will not use a third-party company to verify new accounts with facial recognition, the agency announced on Monday in a news release.

The proposed move, which would have used the company ID.me, was criticized resoundingly by privacy advocates and some members of Congress, who say the technology is flawed and would not recognize users if they experienced significant physical changes. Previously, the IRS said it would use the software to cut down on fraudulent accounts.

The IRS “will transition away from using a third-party service for facial recognition to help authenticate people creating new online accounts,” according to its news release. “The transition will occur over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season.”

At the same time, the agency continued, it will “bring online an additional authentication process that does not involve facial recognition.” It’s not exactly clear how that will be accomplished ahead of the tax-filing deadline in mid-April.

“The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a statement. “Everyone should feel comfortable with how their personal information is secured, and we are quickly pursuing short-term options that do not involve facial recognition.”

The IRS’s change will “not interfere” with taxpayers’ capability to file their tax returns or pay the taxes owed, the agency confirmed.

“During this period, the IRS will continue to accept tax filings, and it has no other impact on the current tax season. People should continue to file their taxes as they normally would,” said the IRS.

Some members of Congress hailed the move on Monday.

“This is big,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote on Twitter in response to the IRS’s policy change. “While this transition may take time, the administration recognizes that privacy and security are not mutually exclusive.”

Under the now-abandoned policy, in order to apply for the ID.me service, users would have to submit copies of bills and another form of ID, including a license, state ID, or a passport. They would also have to take a photo of themselves, or they would have to send it a recorded video of themselves if there were not enough materials available. The IRS, at the time in January, noted that people won’t have to submit to facial recognition software to file their taxes.

Security researcher Brian Krebs, who operates the blog Krebs on Security, wrote in a January post that ID.me users can delete their biometric data at any time.

“When I asked the support technician who conducted the video interview to remove my biometric data, he sent me a link to a process for deleting one’s ID.me account. So, it seems that removing one’s data from ID.me post-verification equals deleting one’s account, and potentially having to re-register at some point in the future,” he wrote.

‘Black Mirror-Like’ Robo-Dogs Patrol US Border, Searching For Illegals

The Daily Signal – Don’t rejoice that robo-dogs are going to solve the border crisis, because they will not. Technocrats within the government are merely using the border crisis as an opportunity to test their dystopian technological solutions that are designed to autonomously herd and control groups of people. Such robots are only “search and identify” today but could just as easily be converted into “search and destroy” in the future. ⁃ TN Editor

President Biden’s southern border crisis isn’t going away anytime soon as Republicans stress the need to beef up border security amid a flood of illegals crossing into the US. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently adopted quadrupedal machines to patrol the border’s harsh landscape, extreme temperatures, and dangerous obstacles to search for illegals.

DHS’ research and development team, the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), released a statement on Tuesday specifying the use of Ghost Robotics’ robot dog ‘Ghost Vision 60’ by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on the southern border to test new surveillance methods. The robot dog’s appearance is eerily similar to the rover dogs in the popular dystopian Netflix series “Black Mirror.”

“The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” said S&T program manager, Brenda Long. “This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or what we call ‘AGSVs.’ Essentially, the AGSV program is all about…robot dogs.”

Ghost Vision 60 is a mid-sized high-endurance, agile, and durable all-weather ground drone that can navigate autonomously or be controlled manually on the border. The robot can be equipped with numerous payloads, including thermal and night vision cameras.

The 100-pound robot dog could one day become mechanical reinforcements for border agents who are currently overwhelmed by a flood of illegal activity (thanks to Biden). The robots can traverse areas where border agents would generally stay clear for safety reasons.

“Just like anywhere else, you have your standard criminal behavior, but along the border you can also have human smuggling, drug smuggling, as well as smuggling of other contraband—including firearms or even potentially, WMD.

“These activities can be conducted by anyone from just a lone individual, all the way up to transnational criminal organizations, terrorists or hostile governments—and everything in between,” explained Agent Brett Becker of the CBP Innovation Team (INVNT).

Testing of the robots comes as illegal border crossings hit record highs, detention centers overflow, and cartels incite chaos along the border. Republicans have called the border a “crisis” while the Biden administration downplays the ongoing mess.

COVID RELATED NEWS

mRNA Jab Deaths And Injuries Are Soaring In Europe

Technocracy News – Data scoffers, nit-pickers and trolls will come out in droves over these numbers to question credibility and gaslight people into thinking what they are seeing is false. The word “genocide” is more appropriate because all of these trials should have been halted when deaths exceeded 100. The experimental shot pushers know full well that people are dying and yet they ramp up efforts to corral even more people to take the jabs. This is Technocracy’s coup d’etat. ⁃ TN Editor

The European (EEA and non-EEA countries) database of suspected drug reaction reports is EudraVigilance, verified by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and they are now reporting 38,983 fatalities, and 3,530,362 injuries following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots:

From the total of injuries recorded, almost half of them (1,672,872 ) are serious injuries.

“Seriousness provides information on the suspected undesirable effect; it can be classified as ‘serious’ if it corresponds to a medical occurrence that results in death, is life-threatening, requires inpatient hospitalisation, results in another medically important condition, or prolongation of existing hospitalisation, results in persistent or significant disability or incapacity, or is a congenital anomaly/birth defect.”

A Health Impact News subscriber in Europe ran the reports for each of the four COVID-19 shots we are including here. It is a lot of work to tabulate each reaction with injuries and fatalities, since there is no place on the EudraVigilance system we have found that tabulates all the results.

Since we have started publishing this, others from Europe have also calculated the numbers and confirmed the totals.*

Here is the summary data through January 29, 2022.

Total reactions for the mRNA vaccine Tozinameran (code BNT162b2,Comirnaty) from BioNTech/ Pfizer: 17,578 deaths and 1,704,757 injuries to 29/01/2022

Unmasking CDC’s Latest Mask Study: How Government Gets It Wrong Again

The Daily Signal – Coming soon to your Twitter feed: another Centers for Disease Control and Prevention poster on the virtues of mask-wearing.

“People who reported always wearing a mask in indoor public settings were less likely to test positive for COVID-19 than people who didn’t,*” the poster announces.

Astute readers will notice the asterisk (*) in the poster’s title.

The fine print at the very bottom of the poster explains: “*Not statistically significant.”

That means the study on which it based the poster didn’t establish the findings depicted in the poster.

But that didn’t stop the CDC from publishing the spiffy graphic, which proclaims that “wearing a mask lowered the odds of testing positive.”

How Fact Checking Is Controlled and Faked

Mercola – Prior to 2015 or 2016, you could still read what you wanted online without much interference. This has since changed, as propagandists have infiltrated the media and, along with other major players, like Big Tech and government, set out to control information. Fact-checking — a once-obscure term that’s since gone mainstream — is one part of the campaign to control what you see online, and therefore what you think and how you perceive reality — but it’s all a ruse.

Speaking with Jan Jekielek, The Epoch Times senior editor and host of the show “American Thought Leaders,” investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson explains how virtually everything you see and hear online has been co-opted, or taken over to serve a greater agenda:1

“One has to understand that nearly every mode of information has been co-opted, if it can be co-opted by some group. Fact checks are no different either, they’ve been coopted in many instances or created for the purpose of distributing narratives and propaganda.

And your common sense is accurate when it tells you that the way they chose this fact check and how they decided to word it so they could say this thing is not true when at its heart it really is true, but the message they’re trying to send is that you shouldn’t believe it, your common sense is right.

That’s been created as part of a propaganda effort by somebody, somewhere, as part of a narrative to distribute to the public so virtually every piece of information that can be co-opted has been.”

Fact-checking is one part of the campaign to control what you see online, and therefore what you think and how you perceive reality

Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson explains how virtually everything you see and hear online has been co-opted, or taken over to serve a greater agenda

Instead of real journalists and reporters, the media is infiltrated with propagandists who dictate what’s “fake news” and what’s not

The public is being manipulated to want their information censored by third-party “fact”-checkers, which were introduced as a tool to confuse and control the public further

“Conspiracy theory”, “debunked”, “quackery” and “antivaccine” are examples of terms that are being used as propaganda tools; if you hear them, it should make you dig deeper for the truth

Those who rely solely on the internet for their information are at serious risk of being controlled; you can fight back by doing your own research, trusting your cognitive dissonance and using your common sense

INFOGRAPHIC: Approved and Non-FDA Approved COVID-19 Treatments

Epoch Times – Click on Image to Enlarge

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago, hundreds of studies have examined the efficacy of dozens of drugs and other compounds in treating the disease. While the research is still ongoing, a sizable number of treatments have shown promise. A growing number of them have been authorized by the U.S. government, though virtually all of those approved sport hefty price tags.

Meanwhile, doctors and public health authorities around the world have also found a number of much cheaper treatment methods to be effective. The FDA hasn’t greenlit any of those, even the safest and least controversial ones.

The FDA says that in the approval process, its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research “particularly focuses on the results of randomized, controlled clinical trials, which we consider to be the gold standard.” Conducting such trials is a long and expensive process, and receiving a full approval usually takes years.

An emergency use authorization (EUA), on the other hand, has different rules. As the FDA explains, first the Health and Human Services secretary needs to declare an emergency that involves “chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents, including emerging infectious disease threats” that are “causing a serious or life-threatening disease or condition.” The FDA then can issue EUAs for products that “may be effective” to treat, prevent, or diagnose whatever is causing the threat. The FDA weighs whether “the known and potential benefits of the product … outweigh the known and potential risks” and whether there’s “no adequate, approved, and available alternative.” The FDA thus has the latitude to authorize even drugs that aren’t backed by robust or conclusive research. The totality of the evidence simply needs to weigh toward the benefits, rather than the risks.

Doctors can actually prescribe any treatment already approved by the FDA, even if it’s not authorized specifically for COVID-19—so-called off-label prescription. But the authorized status makes a difference. Hospitals, for example, can get additional Medicare reimbursement for COVID-positive patients when they provide an authorized treatment.

In addition, the U.S. administration has issued documents during the COVID-19 pandemic discouraging nonauthorized treatments. As a result, many doctors have been pressured to avoid off-label prescriptions for COVID-19, even if they believe a particular patient would benefit from the treatment.

HEALTH

CDC Alert: Listeria Outbreak Linked to Salad Kills 2, Hospitalizes 13

Epoch Times – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an alert saying a listeria outbreak tied to Dole salads is connected to the deaths of two people and has sickened 17 others across 13 states.

The salads, which were recalled by Dole in December, include a variety of different mixes. They were sold in either bags or plastic clamshell packaging, according to the agency, which said they include Caesar salads, mixed greens, and garden salads.

An active investigation is underway into how listeria, which can cause severe illness namely in older individuals and those with weakened immune systems, contaminated the salads, the CDC said.

The impacted salads are sold under several different brand names such as Ahold, Dole, HEB, Kroger, Lidl, Little Salad Bar, Marketside, Naturally Better, Nature’s Promise, President’s Choice, and Simply Nature, the alert said.

The recalled salads have “Best if used by” dates between Nov. 30, 2021, and Jan. 9, 2022, the CDC said. They also have lot codes that start with the letters “B,” “N,” “W” or “Y.”

For those who suspect they may have the salad in their refrigerators, the CDC recommends to “throw them away or return them to where you bought them.”

The agency further recommends that people clean their refrigerators, surfaces, or items that might have touched the recalled products as listeria can survive “in the refrigerator and can easily spread to other foods and surfaces.”

The CDC said that it is also investigating another listeria outbreak connected to Fresh Express packaged salads, which occurred in December of last year and led to 10 hospitalizations and one death.

That recall includes use-by dates with the product codes Z324 through Z350. Affected brands include Bowl & Basket, Giant Eagle, Fresh Express, Marketside, O Organics, Little Salad Bar, Signature Farms, Simply Nature, Weis Fresh from the Field, and Wellsley Farms, said the agency.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a “listeria infection is a foodborne bacterial illness that can be very serious for pregnant women, people older than 65 and people with weakened immune systems.” It further notes that “healthy people rarely become ill from listeria infection, but the disease can be fatal to unborn babies, newborns and people with weakened immune systems.”

Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, nausea, chills, diarrhea, while more serious symptoms can include stiff neck, headache, convulsions, and a loss of balance, the clinic’s website says.

“Symptoms might begin a few days after you’ve eaten contaminated food, but it can take 30 days or more before the first signs and symptoms of infection begin,” it reads.

Most Bottled Water Contaminated With Plastics

Mercola – This article was previously published April 21, 2018, and has been updated with new information.

Plastic has become an incredibly harmful convenience, now threatening environmental and human health alike, and in more ways than one. There’s the issue of bulk plastics in our landfills, where it will remain indefinitely since most plastic does not biodegrade,1 and microplastics — microscopic pieces of degraded plastic — which now choke waterways across the globe and contaminate drinking water and sea life.

On top of that, there are the chemicals used in the production of plastic, many of which have hormone-mimicking activity, thereby threatening animal and human health, including reproductive health. Disturbingly, recent tests reveal most bottled water contains microplastic pollution2 — contamination thought to originate from the manufacturing process of the bottles and caps.

As shown in the featured video, in 2018 a CBC Marketplace investigation of bottled water found plastic contamination, including rayon and polyethylene, in 30 of 50 water bottles tested. Plastic was even found in bottled water that was sold in a glass container.

Researchers at the State University of New York also tested 259 bottles of 11 popular bottled water brands for the presence of microscopic plastic on behalf of Orb Media, a nonprofit journalism organization. Brands included Aquafina, Nestle Pure Life, Evian, Dasani and San Pelligerino. On average, the bottled water tested contained 325 pieces of microplastic per liter; just over 10 of those pieces were at least 100 microns in size, the rest were smaller.

Most of these bits and pieces are so tiny they’re invisible to the naked eye. To reveal them, the researchers used a special dye that binds to plastic, combined with infrared laser and blue light. Using orange-colored glasses, you can see the particles appear light up like stars in the night sky when the water sample is viewed under a microscope.

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

Tests reveal bottled water contains nearly twice as many microplastic particles per liter as tap water. The contamination was thought to originate from the manufacturing process of the bottles and caps

Researchers tested 259 bottles of 11 popular bottled water brands for the presence of microscopic plastic. On average, the bottled water tested contained 325 pieces of microplastic per liter

Only 17 of 259 bottles were found to be free of microplastic particles, and none of the brands tested consistently free of plastic contaminants. The worst offender was Nestlé Pure Life, the most contaminated sample of which contained 10,390 particles per liter

In response to these findings, the World Health Organization vowed to launch a safety review to assess the potential short- and long-term health risks of consuming microplastic in water

A report by the U.K. Government Office for Science warned that plastic debris littering the world’s oceans — 70 percent of which does not biodegrade — is likely to triple by 2025 unless radical steps are taken to curb pollution

Encouraging Signals from the Justice Department on Safe Consumption Sites

CATO – The Associated Press reports the U.S. Department of Justice announced it is “evaluating supervised consumption sites, including discussions with state and local regulators about appropriate guardrails for such sites, as part of an overall approach to harm reduction and public safety.” This is welcome news.

As I explained in a 2019 Cato Policy Analysis, safe consumption sites (also called “safe injection sites” and “overdose prevention sites”) have established a track record of saving lives and preventing the spread of HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases since the late 1980s. This harm reduction strategy is used throughout Europe, Canada (which now has 38 sites), and Australia. In fact, the U.S. is an outlier among developed countries—federal law, 21 U.S.C. Section 856, dubbed the “Crack House Statute,” outlaws knowingly maintaining premises where controlled substances are used or stored.

When a private, self‐funded organization in Philadelphia sought, with the City Council’s endorsement, to open Safehouse in the city’s Kensington District, it was thwarted by the Trump administration’s Justice Department. After losing in the Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The harm reduction project is now in legal limbo.

Defying federal law, last summer the Governor of Rhode Island signed a bill permitting privately‐funded safe consumption sites beginning this spring. New York City opened two safe consumption sites last November and plans to open two more in coming weeks. San Francisco plans to officially open a site in the coming weeks. In the meantime, a de facto site is working under the radar in a Tenderloin District Linkage Center. The state legislature is entertaining a bill to legalize safe consumption sites statewide starting in 2023.

Since 2014 a safe consumption site has been secretly saving lives in the U.S. while being monitored by researchers at an independent non‐profit research institute based in North Carolina. The researchers provide data in the peer‐reviewed medical literature which they update regularly, while keeping the name and location of the site confidential. To avoid interdiction, the site is only able to operate part‐time.

In July 2020 the researchers provided five years (2014–2019) of data in the New England Journal of Medicine. There were 10,514 injections through 2019, with 33 overdoses over the 5‑year period—all of which were reversed. They reported that the types of drugs changed over that period, with combinations of opioids and stimulants comprising 5 percent of injections in 2014 and 60 percent of injections in 2019.

Last month these researchers reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that facility users were 27 percent less likely to visit emergency departments, had 54 percent fewer emergency department visits, and were 32 percent less likely to be hospitalized. Those who were hospitalized spent 50 percent fewer nights in the hospital. Therefore, in addition to saving the lives of people who inject drugs, safe consumption sites can reduce stress on the health care system.

Unfortunately, there will always be critics who claim safe consumption sites enable drug use. Like those who cling unrealistically to a “zero‐COVID” policy, harm reduction critics seem to think we can achieve a drug‐free society. Harm reduction advocates are realistic and non‐judgmental. Their goal is to reduce the harms that attend the use of drugs obtained in the dangerous black market.

And harm reduction comes naturally to us doctors. When we prescribe blood pressure, diabetes, or cholesterol‐lowering drugs to patients who are unwilling or unable to give up unhealthy lifestyle choices, we practice harm reduction.

Dr. Zelenko: ‘We could have ended pandemic long ago’

WND – When Upstate New York physician Dr. Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko drew the attention of President Trump back in the spring of 2020 with a simple protocol of cheap, proven, widely available drugs for COVID-19 that included hydroxychloroquine, he had successfully treated more more than 350 patients, with only one needing hospitalization.

Nearly two years later, amid continued government and media suppression of early treatments, Zelenko told WND in a video interview that he and his team have administered what is now know as the Zelenko Protocol to more than 7,000 COVID patients, with only three deaths.

Moreover, his cocktail of hydroxychloroquine, the popular antibiotic azithromycin and zinc sulfate – along with other combinations of drugs, such as ivermectin – has been adopted by more than 1,000 physicians around the world, along with America’s Frontline Doctors.

Among them are Dr. George Fareed, a former professor of virology at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Brian Tyson. Since April 2020, they collectively have treated more than 7,000 COVID-19 patients in California’s Imperial Valley, with only a few deaths. And no patient died who was treated within the first seven days.

Zelenko has explained that the key virus killer is zinc, which has a known antiviral effect, and it’s drugs like hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and quercetin that “open the door to the cell and let the zinc in.”

Since the spring of 2020, he also has been using blood thinners, steroids, monoclonal antibodies and other treatments, but he said he has never changed his messaging since making his appeal to President Trump.