WORLD NEWS
Germany Rations Gas Amid Russian Cuts, Mandates Return To Coal For Electricity Production
German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Sunday that the country will limit the use of natural gas for electricity production amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a cut in supplies from Russia.
As a member of the environmentalist Green Party, Habeck pushed through legislation in April to raise Germany’s energy target to 80% renewables. He is also an opponent of nuclear energy.
Habeck said that Germany will try to compensate for the move by increasing the burning of coal, a more polluting fossil fuel.
“That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage,”
The decision comes just days after Russian gas company Gazprom announced that it was sharply reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for technical reasons, but which Habeck said appeared to be politically motivated.
“It’s obvious that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s strategy is to unsettle us by driving up the price and dividing us,” Habeck said.
“We won’t let that happen.”
Habeck’s Press Release on Reducing Natural Gas Consumption.
Gas Reduction in Electricity Sector
“The situation on the gas market has deteriorated in recent days. The missing quantities can still be replaced, and the gas storage tanks are still being filled, albeit at high prices. Security of supply is currently guaranteed. But the situation is serious. We are therefore further strengthening precautions and taking additional measures to reduce gas consumption. This means that gas consumption must continue to fall, so more gas must be stored in storage, otherwise things will get really tight in winter. We will now take the next steps. For months we have been in the process of sharpening tools, creating new ones and removing existing obstacles. We are accelerating the expansion of renewable energies in an unprecedented way, we are pushing through the storage of gas and driving the expansion of LNG terminals and energy efficiency measures. The urgency of these tasks determines our ongoing work. Now we’re going to pull out and use another set of tools. We will reduce gas consumption in the electricity sector and in industry and force storage tanks to be filled. Depending on the situation, we will take further measures.”
“With the law, we are setting up a gas replacement reserve on demand. And I can already say: We will call off the gas replacement reserve as soon as the law comes into force. That means, to be honest, more coal-fired power plants for a transitional period. That’s bitter, but in this situation it’s almost necessary to reduce gas consumption. We must and we will do everything we can to store as much gas as possible in summer and autumn. The gas storage tanks must be full in winter. That has top priority,” said Habeck.
Rapid Expansion of LNG Infrastructure
Germany has not yet had a port where liquid gas can be landed. However, this is necessary in order to strengthen the gas supply from non-Russian sources and thus become independent of Russian imports. The federal government is therefore pushing ahead with the construction of so-called floating LNG terminals. First, it has secured four special ships, so-called FSRU , on which liquid gas is converted back into gas. Secondly, with on LNG Acceleration Act, it has created the legal prerequisites to accelerate the construction of the necessary connections on land so that two of the four FSRU ships can go into operation in winter and thus LNG can be fed into the German gas supply network. Everyone involved is working hard on this.
As MishTalk’s Mike Shedlock notes, those are two of seven points of Habeck’s plan.
He notes storage tanks are only 56% full.
Not to worry, that’s ahead of a year ago. But a year ago Germany was getting 100% of the gas it wanted from Russia. Now it’s only getting 40% of the gas it was getting a year ago.
That means it will take 2.5 times as long to fill up the tanks, thus the need to ration natural gas and use coal.
Another sport imposes transgender ban
International Rugby League has followed swimming counterpart FINA’s lead
The International Rugby League (IRL) is the latest sporting federation to ban transgender women from taking part in elite female sport after an announcement made on Monday.
Swimming body FINA held a vote on Sunday to prevent trans women that had gone through any part of male puberty from participating in women’s events as it also plans to make an ‘open’ category in the future.
At the turn of this week, the IRL has followed suit by banning athletes who have transitioned from male to female from international matches as it works out a new policy.
In a statement, the IRL said that further consultation and research is needed before it can finalize its stance.
In the meantime, trans athletes will not be able to participate in the Women’s Rugby League World Cup this year, which it will use to help develop a “comprehensive inclusion policy”.
China continues to lead the world in implementing the Globalists’ Great Reset, as financial systems around the world begin to collapse. Watching what is happening in China, if you can find the heavily-censored news, will give a preview of how things are likely to unfold in other countries.
Bank failures now seem to be accelerating in China, as panic begins to set in among the public, and it is being reported that in some areas people are standing in line for many hours trying to withdraw funds from their accounts.
The run on banks is apparently a reaction to the story we covered last week where over 1 million residents in China’s Henan Province were prevented from withdrawing their money from their bank, with many losing their entire life savings. As protesters were heading to Henan province’s capital Zhengzhou to demand to get their money back, Chinese health authorities used their COVID-19 tracking app to turn up “red,” forcing them into quarantine, in order to stop the protests. See:
Chinese Protesters Demanding Bank Funds Returned Reportedly Stopped by Health Code Apps Turning Red
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Biden leading US to ‘world war’ – Trump
The former president claims that the Ukraine conflict would never have happened on his watch
Former US President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Monday that President Joe Biden has eviscerated the national economy and dragged the country toward a “world war” over Ukraine.
Trump also added that he “doesn’t know of anything” that would stop him running for office again in 2024.
“Our country is in a lot of trouble,” Trump told Newsmax host Eric Bolling. “Our country has never been like this.”
And we’re in serious danger with what’s going on in Ukraine and with Russia. You could end up with a world war the way they’re handling it. It’s crazy what they’re doing. It’s crazy.
The former president insisted that if he was still in power, “the Ukraine war would have never happened – Russia going into Ukraine – would have never ever happened.”
Newsom Takes Shot at Red State Murder Rates in Truth Social Debut
California Gov. Gavin Newsom caught the nation by surprise June 16 when he made his debut on Truth Social and took a shot at red states over high murder rates.
Newsom’s first “truth”—truths are to Truth Social as tweets are to Twitter—is a short video of himself talking about murder rates, and while essentially true does not tell the whole story about crime in deep blue, Democrat-run cities.
Truth Social is a conservative social media platform launched by former President Donald Trump after he was unceremoniously banned from Twitter near the end of his presidential term in January 2021.
Newsom announced on Twitter that he joined Truth Social to “call out Republican lies.”
“I just joined Trump’s Truth Social. Going to be on there calling out Republican lies. This could get … interesting,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Hey everybody, it’s Gov. Gavin Newsom. And I know we’re all on this platform in search for the truth. But, the truth is I’ve not been able to find a simple explanation for the fact that we have a red state murder problem. Eight of the top 10 states with the highest murder rates happen to be red states,” Newsom says in the video. “So, the question is simple. What are the laws and policies in those states that are leading to such carnage?”
Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes welcomed Newsom to the platform, saying it is a free speech platform where users aren’t censored for their political views.
“Truth Social exists so that people of all political perspectives can express their views without being discriminated against,” Nunes told The Epoch Times on June 17. “We’re glad Gov. Newsom is embracing the Truth Social ethos and engaging in robust debate on our rapidly growing free speech platform.”
Nunes, a former Republican U.S. Representative, resigned from Congress in January to lead Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social.
Embedded ESU members wore a specific ‘bracelet on their left wrist identifying them as MPD personnel’
While there is growing speculation that federal agents and Capitol Police were involved in instigating acts of violence during the Jan. 6, 2021 protests and recording responses for the purposes of entrapment, evidence now proves that “plainclothes” members of a special Electronic Surveillance Unit (ESU) were embedded among the protesters for the purposes of conducting video surveillance. Evidence also points to a day of security deficiencies and police provocation for the purpose of entrapment.
According to a report—First Amendment Demonstrations, issued Jan. 3, 2021, by Chief of Police Robert Contee of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Homeland Security Bureau, Special Operations Division, obtained exclusively by The Epoch Times—the MPD began to activate Civil Disturbance Unit (CDU) platoons on Jan. 4, 2021. Full activation of 28 platoons was scheduled to occur on the following two days.
According to the Department of Justice website, “A CDU is composed of law enforcement officers who are trained to respond to protests, demonstrations, and civil disturbances for the purpose of preventing violence, destruction of property, and unlawful interference with persons exercising their rights under law.”
The objective of MPD was “to assist with the safe execution of any First Amendment demonstration and ensure the safety of the participants, public, and the officers.” CDU personnel and Special Operations Division (SOD) members were to “monitor for any demonstration and/or violent activity and respond accordingly,” according to the report.
There has been speculation that federal agents and Capitol Police were involved in instigating acts of violence during the protests for the purposes of entrapment. As Red State reported in October 2021, “multiple surveillance videos show masked men opening up the doors to the U.S. Capitol Building to allow protesters to enter. In fact, one video shows them entering while Capitol Police officers simply stand around. Yet, we have no idea who those men are.”
Massachusetts School Stripped of Catholic Status for Refusing to Take Down Gay Pride, BLM Flags
A middle school in Massachusetts has been banned from calling itself Catholic for insisting to fly gay pride and Black Lives Matter (BLM) flags, which church leaders say embody an agenda that contradicts Catholic values.
Nativity School in Worcester is no longer allowed to identify as a Catholic school, according to a decree issued by the bishop of the Diocese of Worcester. The school is also prohibited from hosting Mass and sacraments on its campus or sponsoring these activities in any church building within the diocese.
“The flying of these flags in front of a Catholic school sends a mixed, confusing, and scandalous message to the public about the Church’s stance on these important moral and social issues,” Bishop Robert McManus of the Diocese of Worcester wrote in the order.
“It is my contention that the ‘Gay Pride’ flag represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle,” McManus said. “This is also true of ‘Black Lives Matter.’ The Catholic Church teaches that all life is sacred and the Church certainly stands unequivocally behind the phrase ‘black lives matter’ and strongly affirms that all lives matter.”
The bishop also noted that the Black Lives Matter organization “seeks to disrupt the family structure, in clear opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
The BLM activist group, whose co-founders have described themselves as “trained Marxists,” initially declared on its website that it wants to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” The dismantling of traditional family structure remains a key tenet of Marxism.
Nativity has been displaying gay pride and BLM flags since early 2021, and continued to fly them after McManus was made aware of them in March and demanded their removal.
McManus wrote that as a diocesan bishop, he has the authority to determine whether a school claiming to be Catholic is acting in a way that is contrary to Catholic teachings, and that Nativity’s defiance leaves him “no other option but to take canonical action.”
In response to the decision, Nativity claims that flying the flags is meant to show support for “marginalized people,” which aligns with Catholic values.
“The flags simply state that all are welcome at Nativity, and this value of inclusion is rooted in Catholic teaching,” Nativity School President Thomas McKenney said in a statement. “Though any symbol or flag can be co-opted by political groups or organizations, flying our flags is not an endorsement of any organization or ideology, they fly in support of marginalized people.”
The school said it has no plan to take down the flags and may appeal the decree through “appropriate channels.”
Uvalde shooting: Photos show armed police waiting in school hallway
The first images showing armed police waiting in a corridor during last month’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas have emerged.
Officers arrived earlier in the attack and with more powerful weapons than previously reported, including rifles and riot shields, according to US media who have seen investigative documents.
Police have been accused of failing to act quickly enough to stop the attack.
Twenty-one people, including 19 children, died in the shooting.
Texas police have not publicly commented on the reports, from the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV.
More details of the 24 May shooting at the Robb Elementary School classroom are expected to be presented at a public hearing in the Texas Senate later on Tuesday.
The Austin American-Statesman and KVUE say the documents, the source of which has not been revealed, show that the gunman entered the school at 11:33 local time.
They say 11 police officers arrived within three minutes, and an officer with a ballistic shield was in the building at 11:52.
This happened after school district police chief Peter Arredondo had reported that the gunman had “shot a lot” and that the police only had “pistols”, according to the media outlets.
The new information shows Mr Arredondo also tried to speak to the gunman, asking him whether he could hear him, the Austin American-Statesman says.
The police finally breached the door into the classroom where the gunman was at 12:50. He was shot dead by members of the US Border Patrol Tactical Unit.
During the attack, children were frantically calling 911 to report multiple gunshot victims. Worried parents also tried to rush in, as police physically prevented them from entering.
Investigators say that messages from the children were not being relayed to the officers at the scene, who were waiting for more firepower to arrive before confronting the rifle-wielding killer.
Officials said the police wrongly thought that the shooter was contained and held their positions even after further shots were heard from inside the classroom.
The police also waited for a master key to arrive so that the classroom doors could be opened, even though it had not been established that the doors were locked, while tools were also available that could have been used to break them down, the Texas Tribune reported.
The reported delayed response has been the focus of several investigations on both state and federal levels.
On Monday, the parents of the victims and other members of the community called for the resignation of Mr Arredondo at a meeting of the school’s board.
Senate Dems Blocked Proposal to Tell Military Parents If Their Children Wanted to ‘Transition’
Senate Democrats recently voted down an amendment aimed at notifying parents at Department of Defense (DOD) schools if their children want to transition genders.
“When our brave men and women are fighting on the battlefield, their children must be protected from government-funded indoctrination,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said in a statement.
The amendment would have required DOD schools to notify parents of any matter relating to their child’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being, and ensure that legal adults are aware of the healthcare support their minor dependents receive.
Blackburn cited a July 2021 report by the Daily Signal that said there is video evidence from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA)’s Equity and Access Summit in May 2021 that showed a seventh grade language arts and high school humanities teacher telling other teachers to protect children from parents who do not know about their child’s “transition.”
Another presenter at the summit, an English and drama teacher in Stuttgart, Germany, said to “out” children to their parents would be “unsafe” and put them “at risk” at home, and school might be the only safe place for them to be their authentic selves with their chosen “safe” adult, the report said.
The other Blackburn amendment would have required the DOD to brief Congress on its spending on DEI initiatives.
“These proposals are not controversial. Democrats should be happy to support them and help refocus the energy and effort at the Defense Department where it belongs – on fighting our adversaries,” Blackburn added.
The amendments were to the annual defense authorization bill for 2023 that authorizes DOD activities and spending, known as the National Defense Authorization Act. Senate Democrats voted down the amendments during a committee meeting last week on their draft of the NDAA, known as a markup.
The markup will be introduced in the Senate, where it will be considered, then later meshed with the House’s version for final passage in both chambers, before being sent to the president.
“The U.S. military must focus on confronting the New Axis of Evil – Communist China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. These regimes do not care how woke our military is or what our soldiers’ pronouns are,” Blackburn said.
Pollak: Transgenderism is Dragging Down the Democratic Party
The transgender issue is beginning to split Democrats as they face a reckoning in 2022 and 2024 over a “woke” left-wing that has seized control of the party and the White House, and even the military, but which the country continues to reject.
Many, if not most, Americans are prepared to tolerate biological males and females who want to live as women and men, respectively. And few would object to calling a transgender individual by his or her chosen (singular, at least) pronoun.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2020 in Bostock v. Clayton County that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination in the workplace based on sexuality or transgender identity. The majority opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch — a Trump appointee, no less.
Though many conservatives expressed misgivings about Gorsuch’s opinion, there was no political backlash, perhaps because there was almost no impact: the transgender population is very small, and most people simply shrugged.
But the transgender movement has gone far beyond seeking tolerance, or ending discrimination against a small minority. It seeks to redefine what gender itself means to the rest of the population, to convince Americans that there is no link between biological sex and gender at all. It is attempting to do this despite the rather obvious scientific fact of sexual dimorphism, and the anthropological reality that many languages — unlike English — assign gender not just to people, but to inanimate objects.
To remake gender, activists are starting with children. This is not, in most cases, because activists are “grooming” children to engage in sex. Rather, they are trying to indoctrinate them for political reasons. As Abigail Shrier, author of Irreversible Damage, recently noted on Twitter, “I’ve found that most of the activists do not want a sexual relationship with the children. They want to pry the child away from their families and supplant the family’s values with their own. That’s bad enough.”
The transgender movement not only has an ally in the White House: the White House is its vanguard. It was then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki who popularized the phrase “don’t say gay” to describe — and distort — a Florida law that bars instruction on sexuality and gender to children in third grade or below. It was President Joe Biden who signed an Executive Order last week banning “conversion therapy” for children, having already endorsed “gender-affirming” drugs or surgery for minors.
Throughout, the Biden administration has used the phrase “LGBTQI+ kids” or variants thereof, always presuming that “kids” — children — of indeterminate age have some idea of their sexual preference, or that prepubescent thoughts about gender must be taken at face value.
As blogger Andrew Sullivan has noted, this is making life harder, not easier, for gay male teens. And it is provoking outrage among many parents, incensed that their children are being exposed to sexual or explicit ideas.
Democrats who are worried about their party’s ability to win future elections — after the ongoing electoral uprisings in San Francisco and among Latino voters — are sounding the alarm bells.
Former party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has suggested that the party is risking its fortunes by following the transgender movement down a radical path that ensures its defeat. Her statement is striking, given that in 2008 she was seen as more pro-LGBT than then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).
Thus far, few are listening. The party’s talking points after the recall of San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin earlier this month were that “progressive” cities don’t have a crime problem; rather, it’s Republican states that have a “red state murder” problem.
But defeat in congressional races in 2022 could force Democrats to take a hard look at their indulgence of a radical movement whose fundamental ideological orientation is at odds with the voters and the country its candidates wish to serve.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
10,000 Flights Delayed Over Holiday Weekend As Aviation Chaos Concerns White House
Travel chaos impacted thousands of Americans trying to catch a flight during the Father’s Day and Juneteenth holiday weekend.
Flight tracking website FlightAware shows more than 10,000 flights were delayed or canceled nationwide between Friday and Sunday due to pilot shortages and bad weather, which comes days after top airline executives spoke with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg about how to resolve flight disruptions.
“That is happening to a lot of people, and that is exactly why we are paying close attention here to what can be done and how to make sure that the airlines are delivering,” Buttigieg told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.
Buttigieg said he could penalize airlines that fail to meet consumer-protection standards.
According to data from the Transport Security Administration, passenger throughput at U.S. security checkpoints at airports topped nearly 2.4 million on Friday, the highest checkpoint volume since the Sunday after Thanksgiving and 100,000 more travelers than the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.
The combination of reduced flights, pilot shortage, soaring jet fuel costs, and robust flying demand has sent ticket prices sky-high.
American Airlines Ending Service in Three Cities Due to Pilot Shortage
American Airlines will halt services in three cities this coming autumn due to an ongoing pilot shortage in the airline industry.
The services will end on September 7 in the cities of Islip and Ithaca, New York, along with Toledo, Ohio.
Regional Airline Association (RAA) previously reported the shortage mostly stems from the pandemic, during which the industry faced internal strife over vaccine mandates. Per Fox Business:
Last month, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci said the carrier will have daily cancelations through June 1 due to the pilot shortage.
The carrier had been having operational challenges since April due to not having enough pilots to fly its spring schedule, Minicucci said in a note to customers last month.
Of its 1,200 daily flights, it’s been canceling about 50 of them, Minicucci said.
JetBlue also reduced flights throughout the summer over staffing issues while United Airlines has upped its training program to hopefully ready 5,000 new pilots by 2030.
Some pilots believe the current shortage was entirely self-inflicted by the industry.
“When I got hired, 88% of the guys at American worked for our military,” retired American Airlines Captain Bob Morgan told Fox Business. “The military stopped making that many pilots; they also put a really onerous 10-year commitment after flight school, which makes it an 11, 12-year commitment. So they don’t produce the pilots.”
“I think it’s really, really criminal,” Morgan added. “Do you want to spend $150,000 to $200,000 to get into an industry where you really need 30 years because the skills are not super transferable?”
California’s gas tax goes up July 1
California’s gas tax is scheduled to increase on July 1 after legislative leaders rejected Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to suspend the hike to help drivers cope with skyrocketing gas prices at the pump.
The programmed annual gas tax hike is set to occur on July 1, 2022, with an increase of 5.6%. That takes the current tax up to 53.9 cents per gallon, a jump of 2.8 cents.
Drivers will pay nearly 3 cents more per gallon when the inflationary increase takes effect. That tax is built into the price of gas in California, which is hovering around $6.40 per gallon on average.
This automatic increase is due to Senate Bill 1 which was signed into law in 2017 and incrementally raises the fuel excise tax each year.
California already has the highest taxes on gasoline in the United States.
Gas prices in California are the highest in the U.S., reaching close to $7 per gallon in some parts of the state.
According to the state, most of the money goes to fix potholes and rebuild deteriorating roads, and bridges, and to improve public transportation.
State lawmakers are at a standstill on how to provide gas relief to drivers in California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a plan in March that would give a $400 rebate in the form of a debit card per registered vehicle owner, and up to $800 for drivers with more than one vehicle.
However, Democrats in the legislature did not want to tie relief to car ownership, and instead proposed a plan that would give relief to people who earn up to $125,000 or joint filers up to $250,000, and the relief would be $200 for each person.
Twitter board unanimously recommends shareholders approve Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover
Twitter‘s board of directors has unanimously recommended to shareholders that they approve Elon Musk‘s $44 billion offer to take over the company.
In a regulatory filing on Tuesday morning, Twitter’s board urged shareholders to approve the buyout at Musk’s proposed price of $54.20 per share during a special meeting later this year.
Though Musk has threatened to pull out of the merger agreement he signed on April 25, citing concerns over fake accounts, Twitter’s board has insisted that it will enforce the terms of the agreement.
A date for the shareholder vote has not yet been set, but the merger agreement includes a deadline of October 24 to consummate the deal.
Musk Confirms Tesla to Fire 10% of Workers in Next 3 Months
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Tuesday that his electric vehicle company will fire 10% of the workforce over the next three months.
“Tesla is reducing roughly 10% of its salaried staff in the next three months,” Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum.
The statement confirmed reports that have been circulating in the media for two weeks now.
The announcement comes days after Tesla shareholder Solomon Chau filed a lawsuit against the billionaire entrepreneur, Tesla Inc. and its board of directors over their alleged encouragement of discriminatory practices in the workplace. The document cites multiple cases of verbal abuse, racial and sexual discrimination and harassment against Tesla’s employees.
The plaintiff believes that Tesla’s “toxic workplace culture” caused “financial harm” and “irreparable” reputational damage to the detriment of the firm’s stockholders.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX were being jointly sued for $258 billion over claims that they had engineered a racketeering scheme involving the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Fabric That Can “hear” Your Heartbeat Developed by MIT Scientists
Fabric that can “hear” one’s heartbeat via high-tech fibers has been developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The tech could also be used on clothes worn by pregnant women to help them pick up their baby’s heartbeat.
This potentially revolutionary tech could give rise to wearable hearing aids and clothes that can speak to each other. It works by first converting sounds into mechanical vibrations before they are converted again into electrical signals, similar to how the ear works. All fabrics vibrate in response to sounds, although these responses are normally far too small to be audible.
Researchers stitched a single fiber to a shirt’s inner lining, just over the chest region, and found it accurately detected the heartbeat of a healthy volunteer, along with subtle variations in the heart’s “lub-dub” features. They say the possibilities for the new technology are endless.
“It can be integrated with spacecraft skin to listen to accumulating space dust, or embedded into buildings to detect cracks or strains,” says lead author Dr. Wei Yan, who helped develop the fiber as an MIT postdoc, in a statement. “It can even be woven into a smart net to monitor fish in the ocean. The fiber is opening widespread opportunities. Wearing an acoustic garment, you might talk through it to answer phone calls and communicate with others.
“In addition, this fabric can imperceptibly interface with the human skin, enabling wearers to monitor their heart and respiratory condition in a comfortable, continuous, real-time, and long-term manner,” adds Dr. Yan, who is now an assistant professor at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
The researchers say the fabric allows wearers to monitor their heart and breathing in a comfortable way over long periods and could also be used to answer phone calls and communicate.
Big Brother Banks Force Employees To Install Surveillance Software
After a series of scandals – including 1MDB, fired managers who expensed strip club receipts or texted colleagues pictures of S&M sessions, and of course – the $150 million fine they paid “for significant compliance failures” in regards to Jeffrey Epstein – Deutsche Bank has now gone full Big Brother on its employees as government pressure to do so intensifies.
According to the Financial Times, Germany’s largest lender has started requiring certain bankers to download and install mobile surveillance app Movius, which allows compliance staff to monitor calls, text messages and WhatsApp conversations, according to people familiar with the matter.
Movius has partnerships with various telecoms, such as Spring, Telstra, Telefónica and Blackberry, and was used by several financial institutions during the pandemic in order to monitor employees working from home, particularly those in heavily regulated roles such as trading.
DB has been installing the software on employees’ work phones over the last several weeks, after several high-profile embarrassments involving DWS executives and WhatsApp.
A former executive of Deutsche’s asset management arm, DWS, has flagged the alleged extensive use of WhatsApp by outgoing chief executive Asoka Wöhrmann and other DWS executives in a whistleblower complaint to Germany’s financial watchdog BaFin, the Financial Times has reported.
The FT also reported this year that Deutsche chief executive Christian Sewing exchanged friendly WhatsApp messages with a German businessman who the bank had ditched as a client after a number of potentially suspicious payments. -FT
Though this isn’t the first time Deutsche Bank has made headlines for surveilling employees, the German lender joins the likes of JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Julius Baer, Jeffries and Cantor Fitzgerald in the use of Movius in recent years – and comes as banks are expanding their use of monitoring software amid government crackdowns on banks’ record-keeping practices and general compliance. Both the US Government and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, as well as BaFin in Germany, have demanded that banks explain how they monitor their staffs’ personal communications.
According to the Times, Deutsche was approached by BaFin earlier this year and asked to explain how staff use messaging apps. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that the bank was testing out a new IT solution to improve how they monitor communications.
Credit Suisse, HSBC and JPMorgan have all had issues related to employee communications over the past few years. Credit Suisse fired one investment banker after using unapproved messaging apps to communicate with clients, while HSBC’s compliance department carried out an investigation into the use of personal messaging earlier this year resulting in the dismissal of an unnamed FX trader over a broker buying him tickets to a sporting event.
JPMorgan, meanwhile, agreed to pay $200 million to the SEC and the CFTC over its failure to maintain records of staff communications on personal devices.
—> Video: Mobile Unified Communications for the New World of Work
HEALTH
Florida Fish Found to have Prescription Drugs in System
A three-year study found that bonefish had an average of seven pharmaceutical drugs present in their tissues.
A recent CNN article discussed an interesting study conducted by researchers at Florida International University and Bonefish & Tarpon Trust. The latter, as suggested by their name, is a Miami-based nonprofit concerned with conservation of bonefish and tarpon. The study was intended to determine the effects of human wastewater contamination on fish in the area, and the results were surprising.
Researchers gathered blood and tissue samples from 93 bonefish from the waters around the Florida Keys and Biscayne Bay. Tests revealed that each fish had an average of seven pharmaceutical drugs present including blood pressure drugs, antidepressants, prostate treatment medications, antibiotics, and pain relievers. The findings suggest serious issues with the wastewater infrastructure that pose a threat to fisheries.
Commonly prescribed statin drug increases risk of type 2 diabetes
Statin use is at an all-time high in the United States, as doctors continue to prescribe these medications to prevent heart disease. But, are you fully aware of the side effects of Lipitor and other statin drugs?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “slightly more than half of U.S. adults (54.5%, or 47 million) who could benefit from cholesterol medicine are currently taking it.” But unfortunately, many patients blindly accept the recommendations of the American Heart Association (AHA) and their doctors, filling prescriptions for statin medications without examining their side effects.
Read carefully: The side effects of Lipitor can be life-threatening
One of the most commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs – Lipitor – came under fire many years ago for its potential risks. Yet, millions of Americans continue taking the drug without being informed about the potentially dangerous side effects. The drug is supposed to work by blocking an enzyme in the liver to help reduce cholesterol production. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this medication has a history of inducing higher blood sugar in some individuals. The bottom line, over time, statin drugs can significantly increase the risk of type-2 diabetes.
The side effects of Lipitor and other cholesterol-lowering drugs are too many to name, especially considering some complications of these drugs may go unreported, undiagnosed, or even purposefully left off warning labels. After all, it was not until 2012 that taking Lipitor became one of the risk factors for diabetes, despite countless patients and many studies suggesting the drug could raise blood sugar and cause type 2 diabetes. But, be warned, some other side effects of Lipitor include abdominal pain, digestive health issues, joint pain, memory loss, and liver problems.
In addition to these side effects, Lipitor is known to deplete the body of CoQ10, a naturally occurring enzyme in the body. CoQ10 is essential for cellular health and has been shown to play an important role in heart health. People with diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and other serious illnesses tend to have lower levels of CoQ10 than others. Cholesterol-lowering drugs drain the body of CoQ10, enhancing the drugs’ side effects and making the heart less resistant to problems.
Green Tea Linked to Decreased Risk for Dementia
In a study, people who drank green tea one to six days a week had less mental decline and a lower risk of dementia than non-tea drinkers
The epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in green tea is a powerful antioxidant responsible for body-wide health benefits such as blood pressure and weight maintenance, lowered risk of certain cancers, energy boost and antimicrobial properties
Green tea also contains theanine, an amino acid that crosses the blood-brain barrier and has psychoactive properties
Drinking green tea is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes, as well as mortality due to heart disease.
Research also shows holistic benefits from green tea consumption, including lower blood pressure, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation.
Drinking Green Tea Every Week May Slow Mental Decline
Overall, tea has about eight to 10 times more polyphenols than fruits and vegetables, but because it’s the catechins that researchers believe are the keys to tea’s health benefits,30 green tea is what they’ve focused on most in their studies.
For example, green tea shows promise for protecting brain health. In a study presented at the 2015 International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, those who drank green tea one to six days a week had less mental decline than those who didn’t drink it.31 In addition, the researchers revealed that tea drinkers had a lower risk of dementia than non-tea drinkers. It’s not the first time green tea has been linked to brain health.
In a study of 12 healthy volunteers, those who received a beverage containing 27.5 grams of green tea extract showed increased connectivity between the parietal and frontal cortex of the brain compared to those who drank a non-green tea beverage
The increased activity was correlated with improved performance on working memory tasks, and the researchers believe the results suggest green tea may be useful for treating cognitive impairments, including dementia.
Millions Face New Fluoridation Threats
Government-funded studies confirm skyrocketing fluorosis rates, fetal and infant neurotoxicity, and numerous other side effects from fluoridation
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has helped create and promote a new fluoridation system they hope will expose nearly 20 million more Americans to harmful levels of fluoride
The governments in the United Kingdom and New Zealand have passed bills that will effectively mandate fluoridation throughout their nations
COVID RELATED NEWS
White House Health Official Makes False Claim About COVID-19 Vaccines
A White House official made a false claim on June 20 about COVID-19 vaccines while encouraging parents to get their young children vaccinated.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, said that “there have not been any serious side effects of these vaccines.”
Contrary to Jha’s claim, severe allergic reactions, blood clotting, heart inflammation, and paralysis are among the serious side effects linked to the three COVID-19 vaccines that are available in the United States.
“There is a well-documented risk of myocarditis from the COVID vaccine, especially in young men and adolescent boys, and an elevated risk of clotting in young women with the Moderna vaccine,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“It’s not right for government scientific advisers to downplay documented risks of the vaccine because it ultimately undermines confidence in public health.”
White House officials didn’t return a request for comment.
Jha, who recently took a post with the Biden administration and is on a break from being dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, was on a media tour on June 20 promoting COVID-19 vaccination for children younger than 5.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for young children last week, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that virtually every child who’s now eligible get one of the vaccines.
Jha said the steps happened because the data on the vaccines were “quite compellingly clear” and that the vaccines were both safe and effective, even though major questions have arisen about their safety and efficacy.
“It’s really reassuring to know that for young kids, these vaccines are exceedingly safe,” Jha said.
Children in Moderna’s trial were more likely to suffer a severe adverse event after vaccination than after getting a placebo, while more vaccinated volunteers in Pfizer’s trial experienced severe COVID-19 cases when compared to the placebo group.
“The phrase ‘safe and effective’ has become meaningless and can no longer be trusted. It has been hijacked by commercial interests. A more accurate phrase would be ‘buyer beware,’” Kim Witczak, a drug safety advocate who started a group called Woody Matters, told The Epoch Times in a recent email after reviewing the data from the trials.
Jha also said the vaccines “are doing an extraordinary job at keeping kids out of the hospital.” While that appears to have been the case earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, it may not be now, according to data presented during meetings with the government’s vaccine advisory panels last week.
For example, effectiveness against hospitalization was just 22 percent after 60 days among 12- to 15-year-olds who received Pfizer’s vaccine, according to data from the CDC’s VISION network.
Other studies indicate higher effectiveness, but it’s unclear whether the vaccines are doing an “extraordinary job.” There’s also no clinical evidence that the vaccines will shield against severe COVID-19 cases in young children.
Pfizer Document Reveals High Rate Of Vaccinated Pregnant Women Who Lost Their Babies
According to traditional medicine, vaccines were never given to pregnant women or even those who trying to conceive. mRNA vaccines were and still are not approved by the FDA and yet are being widely promoted to pregnant women in a complete flip-flop of successful medical practice. The real science no longer matters. Pseudo-science is calling the shots.
On June 3, 2021, retired neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock recorded the insanity of this u-turn:
As stated, as of May 20, 2021 approximately 1,140 pregnant women reported adverse events after receiving one or two doses of this vaccine. In the past, it was standard knowledge that a woman should not receive any vaccine during pregnancy or if a woman even intends to get pregnant. The WHO agreed with this policy but because of objections from the CDC, they switched their recommendations from no vaccines to endorsing the vaccination of all pregnant women. This is despite the admission by all the makers of these vaccines that no studies of the effect of these vaccines on pregnant women or their babies had been conducted.
Blaylock was vilified for his view that “immune stimulation early in pregnancy results in high rates of miscarriage” while noting that, according to VAERS data, “we have had 351 reports of miscarriage and premature births among women vaccinated during pregnancy.”
One year later, after Pfizer lost its quest to hide internal documents forever, they were sprung by a FOIA request plus a court order. Those documents reveal that 82% – 97% of vaccinated pregnant women lost their babies! According to Operation Rescue,
In the most recent release, on May 2, 2022, a document titled ‘reissue_5.3.6 postmarketing experience.pdf’ disclosed on page 12 that by February 8, 2021, 270 women had received the mRNA injection during pregnancy. But 238 cases were apparently not followed (“no outcome provided”). And, therefore, the pregnancy outcomes for those women are unknown.
In analyzing Pfizer’s own data, it is clear that 82% – 97% of the documented pregnancy outcomes resulted in death. (The 15-point variation is dependent on the final outcome of those in the “outcome pending” category.)
This clearly means that Pfizer knew full well that their EUA-only mRNA injections could have catastrophic outcomes for pregnant women and yet its executives opened the floodgates of propaganda to inject as many pregnant women as possible.
On June 2, 2022, one journal reports, “Pfizer Says The COVID-19 Vaccine Is Safe For Pregnant And Breastfeeding Women Despite Misleading Reports”. Pfizer objects, claiming that the above data is outdated and that new studies have been completed showing complete safety for pregnant women. The article notes,
According to Hopkins Medicine, over 200,000 pregnant women have received the COVID-19 vaccine without developing any adverse effects.
In fact, an article is currently published on the Johns Hopkins website that states,
Why is it important for people who are pregnant to get vaccinated?
Data strongly indicates that the benefits of getting a COVID-19 vaccine far outweigh risks for people who are pregnant or might become pregnant. The CDC states:
Although the overall risks are low, people who are pregnant or recently pregnant are at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 compared with people who are not pregnant. Severe illness includes illness that requires hospitalization, intensive care, need for a ventilator or special equipment to breathe, or illness that results in death. Additionally, people who have COVID-19 during pregnancy are at increased risk of preterm birth and stillbirth and might be at increased risk of other pregnancy complications.
In the meantime, search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! have scrubbed virtually all reports that speak critically about mRNA safety for pregnant women.
The bottom line is that you must choose whether to believe the medical cartel’s disingenuous propaganda or people like Dr. Russell Blaylock and many other experts and scientists who are sounding the alarm.
CANCEL CULTURE
Woke Kellogg’s Is Breaking Up After Years of Disappointing Performance
The Kellogg Company, one of the original perpetrators of Woke Capitalism, said Tuesday that it is breaking itself up into three independent companies.
The company will split into three publicly-traded companies whose names will be determined later, Kellogg said. The break-up, which is expected to be a tax-free transaction, has been approved by its board of directors.
“Kellogg has been on a successful journey of transformation to enhance performance and increase long-term shareholder value,” said Steve Cahilane, the company’s chief executive and board chairman.
Breitbart News reported in 2017:
Every time an American family picks up a box of Kellogg’s cereal at the grocery store, it is contributing to the wealthy radical leftwing foundation that agitates for open borders, supports George Soros’s Open Society Insitute, and pushes a host of leftwing causes.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is the largest shareholder of the Kellogg Company. According to its 2016 tax filing, the Kellogg Foundation’s trust owns approximately $5.2 billion of stock in the company, about 20 percent of the company’s equity. The other large holders are mostly passive investors such as mutual funds and their ownership is a fraction of the foundation’s. That means that the foundation effectively controls the famous cereal company.
Back in 2016, the Kellogg Company called for a blacklist of Breitbart, saying that the news organization did not reflect its values. This prompted a #dumpkellogg’s boycott in response that AdWeek described as inflicting huge damage to the company’s reputation.
Kellogg shares have been volatile over the past five years but have failed to gain value. Five years ago, the stock traded at around $70 a share. On Monday, shares were around $67.50. Year-to-date, however, the stock has gained around four percent, outperforming the major indexes which recently entered into bear market territory. Shares were trading around $73 at the time Kellogg announced its blacklisting of Breitbart. The all-time high was around $81 a share in the spring of 2016.
The new businesses will be divided into a global snacking company, a North American cereal company, and a plant-based food company.
Navy Training on how to Use Proper Pronouns and Safe Spaces instead of Fighting Wars
As a follow-up to our article earlier in the week on how democrats were trying to destroy military morale, purge patriots and create an army of social justice warriors, we have now learned that the U.S. Navy is now training its members to create a “safe space” by using proper gender pronouns in a new instructional video modeled after a children’s show.
The Navy, once the branch that proudly created some of the most elite warriors in the world, has shifted its focus from creating Navy Seals to creating safe spaces for mentally ill people to regender themselves and force people into calling them by some bizarre set of pronouns.
“Hi! My name is Jony, and I use he/him pronouns,” Naval Undersea Warfare Center engineer Jony Rozon, who sports a rainbow-colored t-shirt, states in the video’s opening.
The official training video is meant to emphasize “the importance of using correct pronouns as well as polite etiquette when you may not be sure of someone’s pronouns,” according to the Navy, which late last month published the video online. The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service touts the footage as an “official U.S. Navy video” posted by Air Force staff sergeant John Vannucci.
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