Signs of the Times

Earth's spin has slowed, but we still may need a negative leap second

After speeding up during 2020, Earth's rotation has settled down. But timekeepers say we still may need a "negative leap second" in the next decade. On average, each Earth day contains 86,400 seconds. But Earth's rotation isn't perfect; it varies slightly all the time depending on the movement of the core, oceans and atmosphere. Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), the official international timekeeping method, is based on the atomic clock, which measures time by the movement of electrons in atoms that have been cooled to absolute zero. Atomic clocks are precise and invariable. So when Earth's rotation and the atomic clocks don't quite sync up, something has to give. When astronomical time, based on Earth's rotation, deviates from UTC by more than 0.4 seconds, UTC gets an adjustment in the form of a "leap second." Sometimes leap seconds are added, as last happened on New Year's Eve 2016, when a second was added at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds of Dec. 31. Scientists have added a...

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US intelligence agencies issue 'dire warning over climate change' - what's in it for them?

In a 27-page report, all 18 US intelligence agencies issued their first-ever collaborative warning over the threat posed by climate change, to the US and to global security. The report's key takeaways are that climate change will "exacerbate risks to US national security interests as the physical impacts increase and geopolitical tensions mount about how to respond to the challenge." US intelligence agencies also believe that developing countries will face the most severe ramifications of climate change due to their inability to finance necessary safeguards, which could create "additional demands on US diplomatic, economic, humanitarian, and military resources." Comment: The US has demonstrated that it cares for developing nations only in as much as how it can use them for its own benefit, however, it is true that if host nations were to suffer additional difficulties due to climatic stress, it's likely they would be less accommodating to their American 'guests'. As an aside,...

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The Great Resignation? First-time data map shows where Americans are quitting jobs the most

Kentucky, Idaho, South Dakota and Iowa reported the highest increases in the rates of workers who quit their jobs in August, according to a new glimpse of quit rates in the labor market released Friday. Comment: It's notable that this is the first time data like this has been collated and presented in this way, it also means we have no exact comparison for previous years. The largest increase in the number of quitters happened in Georgia, with 35,000 more people leaving their jobs. Overall, the states with the highest rates of workers quitting their jobs were Georgia, Kentucky and Idaho. The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics builds out a portrait of August's labor market, with historic levels of people leaving jobs and a near-record number of job openings showing the leverage workers have in the new economy. It offers the first detailed insight into the state-by-state geography of this year's Great Resignation.

Signs of the Times

The world according to President Putin

Russian president, in Sochi, lays down the law in favor of conservatism - says the woke West is in decline. The plenary session is the traditional highlight of the annual, must-follow Valdai Club discussions - one of Eurasia's premier intellectual gatherings. Vladimir Putin is a frequent keynote speaker. In Sochi this year, as I related in a previous column, the overarching theme was "global shake-up in the 21st century: the individual, values and the state." Putin addressed it head on, in what can already be considered one of the most important geopolitical speeches in recent memory (a so-far incomplete transcript can be found here) - certainly his strongest moment in the limelight. That was followed by a comprehensive Q&A session (starting at 4:39:00). Predictably, assorted Atlanticists, neocons and liberal interventionists will be apoplectic. That's irrelevant. For impartial observers, especially across the Global South, what matters is to pay very close attention to how...

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CDC Director: Fully vaccinated definition to be updated

Yesterday, in a press conference, the director of the CDC warned that they may have to "update" the definition of "fully vaccinated". At the virtual presser accompanying the approval of "mix-and-match" booster jabs, Dr Rochelle Walensky told reporters that: We will continue to look at this. We may need to update our definition of 'fully vaccinated' in the future, The "updated" definition would potentially mean only people who have had the third "booster" shot would be considered "fully vaccinated", while people who have had the two original shots are no longer "fully vaccinated". Whilst the warning might just be a ploy to scare people into getting their "booster" without forcing them to, it should be noted a revised definition of "fully vaccinated" has already been adopted in other countries.

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Wait, what? Virginia school board sues FOIA recipients for receiving FOIA'ed documents it handed to them

From the nice-gov't-work-if-you-can-get-it dept: Yeah, it can suck when you fail to handle FOIA requests properly and give the public more information than you intended to. It sucks for the government. It doesn't suck for the public, which is rarely treated to anything more than the most minimal of transparency. Unfortunately, government agencies don't always react well when they've screwed things up. Sometimes the blowback is limited to ineffectual shouting or paper waving. Sometimes, however, it's a lawsuit seeking a court order to prevent people from accessing (or sharing) documents they've legally obtained from a government agency.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Lithuania vaccinated ~75% of its adults and instituted a very strict vaccine pass program: Rates are still rising, but civil liberties are vanishing

You'll never BELIEVE what happened next. (Or maybe you will.) For months, Lithuania - once the home of peaceful and surprisingly effective resistance to Soviet tyranny - has engaged in increasingly strict medical fascism. Adults who refuse the Covid vaccine are essentially barred from work, shopping, and public life. Even food shopping and visits to doctors are difficult. Violators face hefty fines. A Lithuanian who goes by "gluboco" has catalogued the restrictions:

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Lithuania vaccinated ~75% of its adults and instituted a very strict vaccine pass program - failing as badly as the West

You'll never BELIEVE what happened next. (Or maybe you will.) For months, Lithuania - once the home of peaceful and surprisingly effective resistance to Soviet tyranny - has engaged in increasingly strict medical fascism. Adults who refuse the Covid vaccine are essentially barred from work, shopping, and public life. Even food shopping and visits to doctors are difficult. Violators face hefty fines. A Lithuanian who goes by "gluboco" has catalogued the restrictions:

Signs of the Times

CNN torched by real journalists for 'embarrassing' statement on Joe Rogan: Sounds like an 'advocacy group,' not a news network

'You don't have to endorse Rogan to abhor CNN's coverage of this topic,' WaPo media critic Erik Wemple wrote CNN has renewed criticism of its journalistic ethics after issuing a blistering statement in response to podcast giant Joe Rogan. Last week, CNN remained silent as Rogan accused the liberal network of "lying" over its coverage of his use of ivermectin after he announced he tested positive for COVID, a treatment its anchors repeatedly characterized as "horse dewormer" and a "livestock drug" despite the common human form of ivermectin having been prescribed to Rogan by a doctor. Rogan intensely grilled CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta during his appearance on The Joe Rogan Podcast. Rogan forced Gupta to admit his colleagues should not have said such claims about his use of ivermectin. CNN was widely panned for pushing its false narrative about Rogan and Gupta was also criticized for his attempt to spin the disastrous interview.

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Liberal parent tries to figure out how to cheer for son Brandon

Local liberal Joe Bailey has for years enjoyed cheering on his son Brandon at his Little League soccer games, but lately that has proven difficult, since his cheering typically involves shouting the insurrectionist chant "Let's Go Brandon" from the stands. "I try to be so careful, but every so often in the excitement, I let slip a 'Let's go Brandon!'" said Bailey. "Then all the parents join in chanting, the game devolves into fits of laughter, and all the Trump supporters are trying to give me a high-five. It's horrible!" According to sources, Mr. Bailey has thought about changing his son's name to something like "Bandleigh" or "Braidlynio" to make things a bit easier. "Woooo!" said Bailey as his son made a great play, trying desperately to avoid using the dreaded phrase. "Let's go... bud! Well played! Positive reinforcement!" Just then, Brandon scored a goal, causing his dad to jump to his feet and involuntarily scream "LET'S GO BRANDON!", causing the entire crowd to join in. Joe...

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Public health or private wealth? How digital vaccine passports pave way for unprecedented surveillance capitalism

The titans of global capitalism are exploiting the Covid-19 crisis to institute social credit-style digital ID systems across the West. The death by starvation of Etwariya Devi, a 67-year-old widow from the rural Indian state of Jharkhand, might have passed without notice had it not been part of a more widespread trend. Like 1.3 billion of her fellow Indians, Devi had been pushed to enroll in a biometric digital ID system called Aadhaar in order to access public services, including her monthly allotment of 25kg of rice. When her fingerprint failed to register with the shoddy system, Devi was denied her food ration. Throughout the course of the following three months in 2017, she was repeatedly refused food until she succumbed to hunger, alone in her home. Premani Kumar, a 64-year-old woman also from Jharkhand, met the same demise as Devi, dying of hunger and exhaustion the same year after the Aadhaar system transferred her pension payments to another person without her permission,...

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Infection rates for vaccinated at double that of unvaccinated, UKHSA suggests vaccines may hobble the immune response on infection

Another week, another Vaccine Surveillance report (now published by the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the successor to Public Health England), and with it more worrying news on the vaccine front. Infection rates in the double-vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated continue to rise, meaning unadjusted vaccine effectiveness continues to decline. Infection rates are now higher in the double-vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated by 124% in those in their 40s, 103% in those in their 50s and 60s and 101% in those in their 70s, corresponding to unadjusted vaccine effectiveness estimates of minus-124%, minus-103% and minus-101% respectively. For those over 80 the unadjusted vaccine effectiveness is minus-34% while for those in their 30s it is minus-27%. For 18-29 year-olds it is 25%, so still positive but low, while for under-18s it is 90%, the only age group showing high efficacy. Vaccine effectiveness against emergency hospital admission and death continues to hold up, though...

Signs of the Times

Biden delays release of JFK assassination records, blaming COVID-19 pandemic

The US will "unfortunately" continue to delay the public release of records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and officials say the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame. The move was announced in a memo signed by President Joe Biden and released by the White House Friday. Biden wrote: "Temporary continued postponement is necessary to protect against identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the conduct of foreign relations that is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in immediate disclosure." In 1992, Congress ruled that "all Government records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . . . should be eventually disclosed to enable the public to become fully informed about the history surrounding the assassination." The act allowed the government to postpone the release to "protect against an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or the...

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The decay of science in the age of lockdowns

Science is about rational disagreement, the questioning and testing of orthodoxy and the constant search for truth. With something like lockdown - an untested policy that affects millions - rigorous debate and the basics of verification/falsification are more important than ever. Academics backing lockdown (or any major theory) ought to welcome challenges, knowing - as scientists do - that robust challenge is the way to identify error, improve policy and save lives. But with lockdown, science is in danger of being suppressed by politics. Lockdown moved instantly from untested theory to unchallengeable orthodoxy: where dissenters face personal attack. Understandable on social media perhaps, but it has now crept into the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in a recent article about the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD). The GBD, which I wrote, together with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at Stanford and Dr. Sunetra Gupta at Oxford, argues for focused protection. Rather than a blanket lockdown which...

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US officials walk back Biden's remarks on Taiwan, say 'strategic ambiguity' policy has not changed

US officials scrambled on Friday to clarify that Washington's policy toward Taiwan had not changed, after an apparent gaffe by US President Joe Biden Thursday night when he said on CNN that the United States would come to the island's defence in the event of an attack by China. "There is no change in our policy," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing, as she fielded numerous questions about whether Biden's comments signaled an end to Washington's long-held position of "strategic ambiguity". Asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper whether the US would come to Taiwan's defence if mainland forces attacked, Biden said: "Yes, we have a commitment to do that." The US does not maintain official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is required by the Taiwan Relations Act to support the self-governed island's efforts to defend itself, including through arms sales. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province, destined for eventual reunification with the mainland, by force if...

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Biden administration said it left 100 Americans in Afghanistan, now admit it is far more

The Biden administration is in touch with nearly 400 Americans who are stranded in Afghanistan, a figure that far exceeds the administration's claims that about 100 Americans were left in the nation following the United States' hurried exit from Kabul, according to a senior congressional source who was briefed Thursday by the State Department. With Afghanistan in the administration's rear-view mirror, U.S. officials are providing exact figures on the number of Americans who are still stranded and want to leave — although they are doing so in private, off-the-record forums — according to two senior congressional aides, who relayed the contents of the non-public call to the Washington Free Beacon. The United States is in touch with 363 Americans who are stuck in war-torn Afghanistan and around 176 U.S. permanent residents who are asking to be evacuated immediately, Biden administration officials said on the call with congressional staff, according to the source, who requested...

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Putin slams restrictions against RT DE as an attack on 'freedom of speech' but warns against any counterproductive retaliation

The removal of two YouTube channels of RT's German language service (RT DE), once described by its editor-in-chief as a "declaration of media war against Russia," is an infringement on freedom of speech, Vladimir Putin has said. Speaking on Thursday to gathered experts and journalists at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, the Russian president noted that RT DE has been prevented from working in Germany in numerous ways, but warned against any retaliation that could cause more issues. "As far as a response is concerned, we have to be careful," Putin said, calling the restrictions against RT DE a "mistake," but appearing to suggest that it could be worked out and rejecting the idea of an immediate response. "Reciprocal measures should not be counterproductive," he said. In September, RT DE's main YouTube channel, as well as another channel of the service called Der Fehlende Part (DFP), were deleted after the social media giant accused them of trying to circumvent community...

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WH tries to spin as Biden loses more support than anyone in office since WWII

It's always something to see the White House spin on any given topic — it so deviates from the truth and reality, sometimes stunningly so, with what they would have you believe or accept. But they have a lot to try to argue away with the recent job approval polls on Joe Biden. It's not just one poll, but he's been cratering now since August in all kinds of polls, across all groupings and categories of concerns. The latest Gallup poll has him with the biggest drop in approval of any one in the office since World War II. In that poll, his approval ratings in his first nine months have nosedived by 11 percent, as independents throw him over and just 42 percent of Americans think he's doing a good job. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had a truly novel take on why Joe Biden's approval ratings are so incredibly low, and it shows what disdain the White House has for the opinion of the American people.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Russian Lockdown Lite: Moscow mayor decrees another two weeks of 'non-working days' to 'lower Covid infection rates'

"You deal with your lockdowns first, then we can shake hands." Those were the words with which Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, greeted a group of European delegates last June at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event hailed as a grand ceremony to signal Russia's emergence from the pandemic. Four months later, infections and deaths from COVID-19 have skyrocketed in Russia amid intractable vaccine hesitancy and pandemic fatigue, and various stay-at-home measures have been introduced across the country to curb the rapid spread of the virus. And on October 21, Moscow announced it was imposing the kind of lockdown that Matviyenko, and many other Russian officials, had publicly ridiculed. The announcement by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin -- who avoided the word "lockdown" but ordered so-called "nonworking days" and the closure of most indoor public spaces between October 28 and November 7 -- came the same day authorities reported a record...

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Sinister Rockefeller food system agenda - They created it, and now want to destroy it

No one group has done more to damage our global agriculture and food quality than the Rockefeller Foundation. They began in the early 1950s after the War to fund two Harvard Business School professors to develop vertical integration, which they named "Agribusiness." The farmer became the least important. They then created the fraudulent Green Revolution in Mexico and India in the 1960s and later the pro-GMO Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa - since 2006. Money from the Rockefeller Foundation literally created the disastrous GMO genetically-altered plants with their toxic glyphosate pesticides. Now, again, the foundation is engaged in a major policy change in global food and agriculture - and it's not good. In their latest report, True Cost of Food: Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System, the Rockefeller Foundation is deeply engaged in a coordinated effort to radically change the way we produce food and how we calculate its true cost. They claim it is part...

Signs of the Times

SOTT FOCUS: Putin Warns Wokeness is Destroying West: "It Happened in Russia 100 Years Ago, it's Evil, and it Destroys Values"

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed during a speech on Thursday the far-left woke ideology that he said is causing societal ills throughout the Western world, saying that it is no different than what happened in Russia during the 1917 revolution. Putin made the remarks during a plenary session of the 18th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi where the topic was "Global Shake-up in the 21st Century." Putin's remarks were translated by an interpreter and that video was uploaded to the Russian government's website. "We see with bemusement the paralysis unfolding in countries that have grown accustomed to viewing themselves as the flagships of progress," Putin said during an event where he spoke for a few hours. "Of course, it's none of our business what is happening - the social and cultural shocks that are happening in some Western countries. Some believe that aggressive blotting out of whole pages of your own history, the affirmative action in the...

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Brian Laundrie's autopsy is INCONCLUSIVE: Remains found in Florida reserve sent to an anthropologist

Brian Laundrie's autopsy is inconclusive, Florida authorities have said, and the remains are now being sent to an anthropologist to try and determine how he died. No manner or cause of death was determined. 'I can confirm that the remains were being sent to an anthropologist for further evaluation,' Steve Bertolino, the Laundrie family lawyer, told DailyMail.com. Laundrie's remains were found on Wednesday in the T Mabry Carlton Jr Memorial Reserve. The 23-year-old was last seen on September 13, his parents said, when he left to go for a hike. Laundrie was the sole 'person of interest' in the murder of his fiancee, Gabby Petito, who was found dead in Wyoming. The pair had been on a road trip and documenting their travels on social media.

Signs of the Times

Putin warns wokeness is destroying the West: It happened in Russia, it's evil, it destroys values

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed during a speech on Thursday the far-left woke ideology that he said is causing societal ills throughout the Western world, saying that it is no different than what happened in Russia during the 1917 revolution. Putin made the remarks during a plenary session of the 18th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi where the topic was "Global Shake-up in the 21st Century." Putin's remarks were translated by an interpreter and that video was uploaded to the Russian government's website. "We see with bemusement the paralysis unfolding in countries that have grown accustomed to viewing themselves as the flagships of progress," Putin said during an event where he spoke for a few hours. "Of course, it's none of our business or what is happening, the social and cultural shocks that are happening in some countries in the Western countries, some believe that aggressive blotting out of whole pages of your own history, the...

Signs of the Times

New (fake?) Facebook 'whistleblower' emerges with explosive claims on hate speech

A new whistleblower is speaking out against Facebook executives and how they allegedly undermined attempts to guard against misinformation and hate speech There's more trouble in Zuck-town. A new Facebook whistleblower has reportedly emerged, dishing to US regulators that an official at the social network in 2017 blew off concerns about hate speech as a "flash in the pan," adding that while "some legislators will get pissy" Facebook is "printing money in the basement." The new whistleblower told the Securities and Exchange Commission under penalty of perjury that the company has constantly shrugged off concerns about hate speech and misinformation in pursuit of growth, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Signs of the Times

Meteor fireball seen over central USA

We received 38 reports about a fireball seen over AR, CO, IA, IL, KS, MO, MN, ND, NE, OK and TX on Saturday, October 23rd 2021 around 11:54 UT. For this event, we received one video.

Signs of the Times

Meteor fireball seen over northeast US and Canada

We received 30 reports about a fireball seen over CT, MA, NH, NY, Ontario, Québec and VT on Saturday, October 23rd 2021 around 10:12 UT. For this event, we received 5 videos and 2 photos.

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Outrage forces National School Boards Association to pen apology for comparing parents to 'domestic terrorists'

The initial letter from the NSBA called on the White House to "deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation." The National School Boards Association apologized Friday for a letter it previously sent to the Biden administration in which it likened the actions of parents at school board meetings to acts of "domestic terrorism." In a memo to its members, the NSBA addressed the recent media attention it has received, as well as the distancing of over 20 state school boards associations. "On behalf of NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter," the association wrote in the memo. "There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter. We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance. We apologize also for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations.

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60,000 years ago humans lived in the rainforests of Laos

Some of the oldest evidence for modern humans living in rainforests has been found in a cave in Southeast Asia. Researchers analysed fossilised teeth discovered in Laos, revealing that these humans ate fruits and meat as part of an omnivorous diet. Comment: It has been found time and again that humans who, for whatever reason, ate a high carbohydrate diet, suffered for it: 25,000 year old human jawbone discovered in Indonesian cave oldest found in Wallacea, dental problems reveal heavy carbohydrate diet Early modern humans were in Southeast Asia were eating a wide range of foods to help them survive in rainforests. An international team of researchers found that our Southeast Asian relatives were eating a range of plants and animals over 60,000 years ago, setting them apart from the largely meat-based diet it has previously been suggested many other populations of humans were eating at the time.

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Trump to form own media company, social platform to counter censorship

Former President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he is launching a new media company — complete with a social media platform that will begin rolling out in November. Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) said in a statement that its mission was to "create a rival to the liberal media consortium and fight back against the 'Big Tech' companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America." The new company's first project is its social network, dubbed TRUTH Social, which is set to launch in beta for "invited guests" next month and come online nationwide in the first three months of 2022. A web page inviting people to sign up to be part of the beta launch describes TRUTH Social as "America's 'Big Tent' social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology."

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Strong wind in Moscow collapses scaffolding at Kremlin's wall

It was reported that the incident occurred due to strong winds.Passage to Red Square has been blocked after the scaffolding partially collapsed from the Kremlin wall earlier on Friday.According to TASS, passages to the square are currently blocked from all nearby streets. As the security officials which control the perimeter stated, Red Square was closed due to the collapse.There are several people on the Kremlin wall in the area of the Spasskaya Tower near the battlements that were damaged in the accident. One of the elements on the wall is completely missing.Earlier, the Russian Federal Protective Service's Office of Public Affairs told TASS that the incident occurred due to strong winds, no injuries have been reported.

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Mammoths survived in Siberia until just 3,900 years ago, climate change likely responsible for extinction, new study reveals

Thousands of years ago, massive woolly mammoths roamed the Mammoth Steppe — a chilly, but flourishing Arctic ecosystem that was once the largest biome on Earth. These megafauna trampled high grasses and fed on ample vegetation. Comment: Note that this "ample vegetation" isn't present today in those regions formerly inhabited by mammoths. Woolly mammoths thrived there — until they disappeared. According to some scientists, the appearance of humans in the Arctic coincided with the extinction of the woolly mammoth. Now scientists have a new hypothesis — one that lets humans off the hook for the animal's demise. It also suggests a new timeline for woolly mammoth extinction.

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Uptick in Israeli illegal settler attacks serves Bennett government policy: Terrorize Palestinians and steal more land

There are more than two settler attacks on Palestinians a day this year on average. According to two Israeli human rights experts, the violent settlers are working with the cooperation of the army and the Israeli government. Settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is rising rapidly this year, with more than 2 attacks a day on average, per the Israeli military- a far greater rate than a year ago. According to two Israeli human rights experts, the violent settlers are working with the cooperation of the army and the Israeli government to take over more and more land for Jewish settlement under a policy of pushing Palestinians out of Area C. Just what Naftali Bennett said he wanted. "Settler violence is a tool for achieving political aims. It's a tool that serves the government, serves the government policy of taking over land, and therefore it is flourishing; therefore it is successful," says Lior Amihai, executive director of the human rights group Yesh Din.

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Strong wind in Moscow blow off parts of roof at Kremlin's wall

Strong wind in Moscow blow off parts of roof at Kremlin's wall.

Signs of the Times

Sinister Rockefeller Food System Agenda - They Created It And Now Want To Destroy It

No one group has done more to damage our global agriculture and food quality than the Rockefeller Foundation. They began in the early 1950s after the War to fund two Harvard Business School professors to develop vertical integration which they named "Agribusiness." The farmer became the least important. They then created the fraudulent Green Revolution in Mexico and India in the 1960s and later the pro-GMO Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa since 2006. Money from the Rockefeller Foundation literally created the disastrous GMO genetically altered plants with their toxic glyphosate pesticides. Now again, the foundation is engaged in a major policy change in global food and agriculture and it's not good. In their latest report, True Cost of Food: Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System, the Rockefeller Foundation is deeply engaged in a coordinated effort to radically change the way we produce food and how we calculate its true cost. They claim it is part of a...

Signs of the Times

'Exercise extreme caution': 40 shipping containers lost in rough seas off Vancouver Island

The Canadian Coast Guard and United States Coast Guard are warning boaters after 40 shipping containers were tossed from a cargo ship Friday in rough seas off Vancouver Island. The containers were adrift approximately 69 kilometres west of Vancouver Island just before 3 p.m., according to U.S. officials. (USCG) The cargo vessel Zim Kingston was inbound for Vancouver when it listed to one side, dropping the containers into the ocean near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the authorities said. The U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center sent out a broadcast to mariners Friday afternoon warning that the lost containers may be partially submerged and not easily visible from the surface. "Mariners should exercise extreme caution" when transiting the region, the centre warned. The Canadian Coast Guard also sent out a notice on NavWarn about the affected area.

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Alicante province in Spain suffers widespread flooding

According to the State Meteorological Agency, AEMET, Alicante province endured some exceptional spells of rainfall during Friday, October 22. In the southern half of the Valencian Community, especially in the Vega Baja del Segura area, where the Dama de Guardamar school was forced to be evacuated. As reported by the Emergency Coordination Centre on its Twitter account, around 30 cars were reported as stranded in floodwater caused by the heavy rains in urban areas of this Alicante region. By about 2pm the rains had stopped and started to head north from Vega Baja, where they hit Baix Vinalopo and Alicante. Here the storms deposited significant amounts of more than 70 litres/m² of rain in the municipality of Torrevieja.

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BEST OF THE WEB: Baldwin shooting incident: Court documents reveal Assistant Director - who worked on The Crow sequel - unknowingly handed actor loaded gun

Comment: That is one freaky-deaky coincidence... An assistant director handed Alec Baldwin a prop firearm and yelled "cold gun" before the actor fired and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, according to court documents. The "cold gun" remark was meant to indicate that the weapon did not have live rounds, according to an affidavit for a search warrant for the movie set filed by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office and obtained by CNN affiliate KOAT. According to the affidavit, Baldwin was handed one of three prop guns by assistant director David Halls that were set up in a cart by an armorer. Halls did not know there were live rounds in the gun, the affidavit said. But when the actor fired the gun, a live round hit Hutchins, 42, in the chest and wounded Souza, 48, who was nearby, according to the affidavit. Hutchins was pronounced dead at the hospital after being airlifted, the affidavit says.

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Chinese scientists build anti-satellite weapon that can cause explosion inside exhaust

A team of Chinese military researchers say they have built and tested an anti-satellite robotic device that can place a small pack of explosives into a probe's exhaust nozzle. Rather than blowing the satellite into pieces, the melt-cast explosive can produce a "time-controlled, steady explosion", Professor Sun Yunzhong and colleagues from the Hunan Defence Industry Polytechnic in Xiangtan wrote in a paper published in the domestic journal Electronic Technology & Software Engineering last month. The device could stay inside the satellite for an extended period by using a locking mechanism driven by an electric motor. If needed, the process can be reversed to separate it from the target. The project was funded by a government scheme to develop a new type of warhead for rocket missiles, according to the paper.

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Untimely snow damages apple orchards in South Kashmir

The untimely snowfall that started from Friday night in Kashmir has come not just too early in the season but also as a blight on the valley's apple orchards. Reports reached Rising Kashmir from south Kashmir's Shopian district said the orchards haves suffered extensive damage caused to apple trees due to the heavy snow that accumulated on leaves and branches.

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Devastating explosion at gunpowder production facility near Russian city of Ryazan leaves 16 people dead & one badly injured

An explosion and fire at the gunpowder production department of a synthetic fibers plant near the Russian city of Ryazan, about 270 kilometers south of Moscow, has killed sixteen people and injured one other, it has been reported. "17 people were injured, seven of them died, one was hospitalized, the fate of nine people remains unknown," the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed to RIA Novosti, on Friday morning. However, in the time since, the nine missing persons have all reportedly died. The fire broke out early Friday morning due to what was described by the ministry as "the result of a technological process." According to Vladimir Lukantsov, the head of Shilovsky District, the region where the factory is located, a total of 17 people were in the facility at the time of the explosion.

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Parts shortages hit auto repair shops, taking weeks to fix vehicles

A global semiconductor shortage has reduced new car production and boosted used car demand. The average used car age on U.S. highways hit 12.1 this year, a record high, and has unleashed a repair boom. But with snarled supply chains, auto repair shops have had difficulty sourcing parts and told customers their cars could take weeks to fix, according to Bloomberg. Paul McCarthy, chief executive of the Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association, said that auto parts and repair industry is getting slammed like everyone else - delays stretching from weeks due to port congestion have produced hefty backlogs. "This is the most difficult supply-chain environment that I have ever seen," AutoZone Inc. CEO William Rhodes said in a September earnings call. AutoZone is operating at "the lowest level of in-stock that I can ever remember," he said. For repair shops, breaking the news to customers that their broken cars might not be fixed for weeks because of a part of backorder has been...

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US retailers lining store shelves with props to hide supply shortages caused by lockdowns

Americans are waking up to the fact that shortages of everyday products such as ice cream, frozen food, soda, chicken, spices, coffee, fish sticks, snacks, and toilet paper are popping up all over the country as supply chains remain heavily congested 19 months after the virus pandemic first began. Instead of leaving some store shelves bare, which might insight fear and buying panic among consumers, some stores are lining their empty shelves with meaningless items to appear as full as possible. A little more than a week ago, hashtag #EmptyShelvesJoe was one of the hottest trends across Twitter but was quickly squashed by Twitter police. People from all over the country went to their local supermarkets and big-box outlets to point out how supply chain snarls have left some store shelves bare.

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New Zealand's COVID-19 cases hit record despite vaccination push

New Zealand on Tuesday (Oct 19) recorded its highest number of daily COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic as a Delta-variant outbreak that dashed the nation's "Covid Zero" hopes showed no signs of easing. Health authorities announced 94 new cases, exceeding the previous daily record of 89 set in April last year during the first wave of COVID-19 infections. While case numbers remain low by most international standards, they have been steadily growing since the highly transmissible Delta variant was first found in New Zealand in mid-August.

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China-linked campaign pushes unfounded claim tying Maine lobster to COVID: report

Researchers have spotted an unusual Chinese campaign to suggest that Maine lobsters may have been the source of COVID-19. An investigation conducted by University of Oxford in conjunction with NBC News found the idea was floated by a Chinese diplomat, who tweeted an unfounded claim that lobster shipped from Maine to a market in Wuhan, China, could be the source of the outbreak. Disinformation researcher Marcel Schliebs then found some 550 other Twitter accounts that amplified the theory, sharing the baseless claim in English, Spanish, French, Polish and Korean, with the accounts all posting at similar times.

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Biden: Police, emergency responders should be fired if they won't get vaccinated

During a town hall on CNN on Thursday, President Joe Biden said police officers and emergency responders should be let go if they refuse their employers ' mandates to get vaccinated against COVID. Anchor Anderson Cooper said, "Mr. President, let me ask you a follow-up about that. As many as one in three emergency responders in some cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, right here in Baltimore, are refusing to comply with city vaccine mandates. I'm wondering where you stand on that. Should police officers, emergency responders be mandated to get vaccines? And if not, should they be stay at home or let go?" Biden said, "Yes and yes. By the way, by the way, I waited until July to talk about mandating because I tried everything else possible. The mandates are working. All this stuff about people leaving and people getting it, you have everyone from United Airlines to Spirit, all these airlines all 96, 97% of the people have gotten the vaccine. All the talk about all these folks who are...

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NIH changes story, confirms it funded Wuhan experiment that made bat coronavirus more dangerous

Two weeks after National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins announced his retirement, his agency has complicated congressional testimony by Collins and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci about alleged gain-of-function virus research sponsored by the U.S. Both officials have denied approving grants for such research through the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan Institute of Virology, but a letter Wednesday from NIH Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak to House Oversight Committee ranking Republican James Comer describes an unforeseen experimental result that calls the denials into question. The letter shows that "NIH — and specifically, Collins, Fauci, and Tabak — lied to Congress, lied to the press, and lied to the public," Richard Ebright, lab director at Rutgers University's Waskman Institute of Microbiology, tweeted Wednesday night when sharing the letter. "Knowingly. Willfully. Brazenly."

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ALIEN MYSTERY UFOs crippled ten of my nuclear missiles at ANOTHER top-secret US air base, claims ex-NASA moon landing engineer

A former nuclear missile base boss, who later developed backpacks for NASA Apollo astronauts, has claimed a UFO crippled ten of his nukes in their silos. Retired US Air Force Captain David D Schindele yesterday alleged the bizarre incident unfolded in 1966, while he was a missile launch crew commander in the Minot Air Force Base missile field in North Dakota.

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Anti-Asian hate crimes 'up 76 per cent' in Los Angeles County

Anti-Asian hate crimes increased by 76 per cent in Los Angeles County last year, mirroring a disturbing trend in many other jurisdictions as physical and verbal attacks on Asian-Americans rose during the Covid-19 pandemic. Of the 44 anti-Asian hate crimes reported in LA County in 2020, more than three-quarters involved physical violence - a marked increase from 58 per cent in 2018, the LA County Commission on Human Relations said in a report released Wednesday. In 2019, 25 anti-Asian hate crimes were reported.

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Teachers at Colorado Springs school force children to tape masks to their face

Teachers at a Colorado Springs middle school forced children to tape masks to their face in what is being described as an act of "child abuse." Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin highlighted the case of 6th grader Rylee M., who texted her mother to tell her that a teacher had given her a warning then handed her blue painter's tape to seal the mask to her face. According to Rylee, at least one other student was forced to perform the same humiliating and potentially dangerous procedure because the teacher insisted their masks were not being worn "properly."

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UFO watchers stumped by jaw-dropping clear footage of mystery black shape in the sky

The unexplained UFO sighting in Chicago, Illinois left mum Aiyana "creeped out" and is just one of several reported in the US in recent weeks. A woman was left in "total confusion" and "creeped out" after she saw a strange black shape floating in the skies. Aiyana, who asked that her second name be withheld, recorded the surreal footage from the roof of her home in Chicago, Illinois.

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Debunking anti-Chinese psyops: Social credit as distasteful necessity in an age of asymmetric warfare

It is frightening how oligarchically-minded figures of a Great Resetting nature wish to use the structures of social credit to modify group behaviour under a post-Truth, depopulated/de-carbonized world order. Ever since COVID-19 made a crazy world even crazier, many good people have become absorbed into anti-Chinese hysterics all across the Five Eyes-managed parts of the rules-based liberal west. Every day, new accusations that China is running spy rings, honey pots, Trump's overthrow, and even the Great Reset itself as part of a larger plot to undermine western democracy are repeated across the conservative press landscape. The two biggest "proofs" of China's evil heart are: 1) China's use of social credit that deprives people of freedom (and broader state regulation of the internet and video games), followed by

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Physicists announce results that boost evidence for new fundamental physics

Results announced by the LHCb experiment at CERN have revealed further hints for phenomena that cannot be explained by our current theory of fundamental physics. In March 2020, the same experiment released evidence of particles breaking one of the core principles of the Standard Model - our best theory of particles and forces - suggesting the possible existence of new fundamental particles and forces. Now, further measurements by physicists at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory have found similar effects, boosting the case for new physics. The Standard Model describes all the known particles that make up the universe and the forces that they interact through. It has passed every experimental test to date, and yet physicists know it must be incomplete. It does not include the force of gravity, nor can it account for how matter was produced during the Big Bang, and contains no particle that could explain the mysterious dark matter that astronomy tells us is five times more abundant...

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BEST OF THE WEB: Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin shoots dead cinematographer, wounds director... on set of movie about an accidental killing

Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer and injured a director during a tragic accident when a prop gun discharged on the New Mexico movie set of the film Rust, authorities said. The filming location at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Sante Fe was sent into lockdown and production was halted following the accidental double shooting at around 2 p.m. "There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks," a production spokesperson told Deadline. The Western drama's director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, 42, and its director, Joel Souza, 48, were struck in the incident, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. Comment: He shot TWO people with blanks?? Hutchins was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and died from her injuries. Souza was being treated at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, authorities said.

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UK minister claims MPs can make "informed" choice over mask wearing, lockdown threatened if public do not take precautions

UK Health Minister Edward Argar has defended MPs who fail to wear masks in Parliament, claiming they can make an "informed view" on whether to follow guidance despite the health secretary asking the public to wear face coverings. Speaking on Thursday, Argar rebuffed criticism that MPs are not following government guidance by claiming that politicians are entitled to adopt an "informed view" about whether advice to wear one in enclosed places applies to Parliament. "There's clearly a leadership role for members of Parliament on all sides," Argar said, adding, "I think it's for those individual members of Parliament to read the guidance, consider it, bear in mind what Sajid [Javid] has said, and reach their own views." Comment: Apparently many in parliament think the public aren't capable of making the same "informed" choice. That's because a significant number of them think that they're smarter than the average citizen, it's also likely because many of them are well aware that the...

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Ukraine's President Zelensky sees huge drop in popularity amid increasingly authoritarian rule

The popularity rating of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has plummeted almost 10% in just one month, and his party Servant of the People would come in second place if an election were held today, a poll has shown. The fall in the favorability of both Zelensky and his faction comes as the politician has been slammed from many sides for what some see as growing authoritarian tendencies, including purging party members for disagreements and organizing a vote against the speaker of the parliament. The poll, conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), found that just 24.7% of Ukrainians would vote for Zelensky, a significant drop from the 33.3% in September. Zelensky is still ahead of the pack, however, beating out former president, Petro Poroshenko (15.6%), and former prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko (12.2%).

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Mosquitos from East Asia spreading throughout Europe could be vector for viruses - study

An invasive species of mosquito from East Asia is slowly spreading throughout Italy and could serve as a vector for viruses, according to a new scientific report. An article in the Parasites & Vectors scientific journal last week claimed to have evidence that the concerning mosquitos, known as Aedes koreicus, have been expanding toward southwest Italy since being discovered in the north in 2011.

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National School Board Group communicated with White House while crafting letter likening involved parents to terrorists

The National School Board Association communicated with the White House before releasing a letter requesting federal intervention to investigate whether alleged threats leveled by parents against school-board members qualify as domestic terrorism under the Patriot Act. Email correspondence obtained by nonprofit Parents Defending Education and first reported by the Washington Free Beacon shows that White House officials coordinated with the NSBA to iron out the details of the letter before it was officially published. NSBA interim executive director Chip Slaven wrote, "in talks over several weeks with White House staff, they requested additional information on some of the specific threats, so the letter also details many of the incidents that have been occurring."

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Thousands of California parents take part in statewide walkouts protesting school vaccine mandates

Thousands of California parents and teachers who oppose school vaccine mandates took part in a statewide walkout Monday. SkyFOX was over a crowd of several dozen protesters carrying signs outside Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. A group of over a dozen parents gathered outside Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood calling for school board members to resign and an end to vaccine mandates. Southern California parents make their voices heard "I'm here protesting the mandate because we don't believe that we should take it religiously, ethically or morally. We shouldn't be forced to take something without all the data," said Los Angeles Unified School District employee Hovik Saponghian.

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8 firsthand accounts of recent UFO sightings in Horry County, South Carolina

Do you ever feel like...somebody's watching you? Or maybe multiple somebodies? Extraterrestrial somebodies, maybe? For whatever reason — you can pick your own theory — the Myrtle Beach area has been a hotspot for UFO sightings for years. Tracked in a government database that keeps the identities of witnesses anonymous, dozens of stories recount first-hand experiences with mysteries in the sky. Some narratives are from tourists. Others identify themselves as former military members, cosmos enthusiasts or retired law enforcement officers.

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'Simply monstrous': Putin says teaching young children they can easily swap genders is a 'borderline crime against humanity'

A growing campaign in the West to do away with gender-based language defies reason and is subverting human nature, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed, arguing children should not be taught biological sex does not exist. "The discussion about the rights of men and women has turned into a total phantasmagoria in a number of Western countries," Putin said in a speech to dignitaries and reporters at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, Russia on Thursday. "Those who risk saying that men and women still exist, and that this is a biological fact, are virtually ostracized." He listed examples, such as banning words like "mother" and "father" in favor of terms like "parent one and parent two", as well as "banning the phrase 'breast milk' and replacing it with 'human milk' so that people insecure about their own gender wouldn't get upset."

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Amazon and Google: partners in Israeli apartheid

The best-selling Irish novelist Sally Rooney is openly shunning Israel after recent reports from human rights groups warned that Israel practices apartheid, systematically oppressing Palestinians under its rule. But while Israel risks becoming a pariah among some cultural producers, it is being aggressively embraced by globe-spanning corporations like Amazon and Google - among the wealthiest companies in history. The two tech giants are not just lining up to do business with Israel. They are actively working to build and improve the technological infrastructure Israel needs to surveil Palestinians and confine them to the ghettos Israel's army has created for them. Through their collaboration on Israel's Project Nimbus, both companies are helping to remove any pressure on Israel to make peace with the Palestinians and are instead becoming partners in Israeli apartheid. Now workers for both companies are speaking out - most of them anonymously for fear of what they call...

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Donald Trump is launching a new social network called Truth Social

Former President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he's launching a new social network called Truth Social, whose goal is to push back against Big Tech, according to a press release purported to come from one of his companies. The Trump Media and Technology Group, which made the announcement, said the social network will begin a limited beta launch in November, with a wider rollout expected in the first quarter of 2022. Trump said in the press release sent to the media: "I created Truth Social and TMGT to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech. We live in a world where the Taliban has a presence on Twitter, yet your favorite American president has been silenced." There's a site for Truth Social where people can join a waiting list for the social network, as well as a link to preorder the iOS app. Screenshots of the app suggest Truth will have profile pages with a Twitter-like timeline of posts. Plans to launch a new social network underscore how Trump is trying to rejoin the online...

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Ex-Minneapolis police officer sentenced to 57 months in the killing of a 911 caller

A Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman after she called 911 to report a possible rape happening behind her home was sentenced Thursday to nearly five years in prison — the maximum allowed for manslaughter after his murder conviction was overturned. Mohamed Noor was initially convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a 40-year-old dual U.S.-Australian citizen and yoga teacher who was engaged to be married. But the Minnesota Supreme Court tossed out Noor's murder conviction and 12 1/2-year sentence last month, saying the third-degree murder statute didn't fit the case because it can only apply when a defendant shows a "generalized indifference to human life," not when the conduct is directed at a particular person, as it was with Damond. Judge Kathryn Quaintance, who also presided at Noor's trial, granted prosecutors' request to impose the maximum sentence called for by state sentencing guidelines...

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Plainclothes officers to video call stations to verify their credentials when stopping women - Met police chief

Met Police officers out of uniform will video call station control rooms when stopping women, its chief has announced, as the force makes changes in an attempt to restore public trust in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder. Speaking on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick announced the launch of the force's 'safe connection' initiative, which she said "allows a woman who is stopped by such a police officer immediately to have verification" that this person really is a member of law enforcement. The Met chief said that "my plainclothes officers will call into a control room, they will then have a video call with a sergeant in uniform who will say 'Yes, that's so and so, he's PC X, Y, Z' - so a quick, easy way, which again is instigated by the officer, not by the woman having to ask for this... which I hope will be one way people can feel reassured." The verification check comes after a serving Metropolitan firearms officer, Wayne Couzens, used his warrant...

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Judge upholds University of North Carolina's affirmative-action policies

A federal judge ruled on Monday that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill did not discriminate against white and Asian applicants in its admissions process, in response to a lawsuit by conservative legal group Students for Fair Admissions. U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs said the university could continue to consider an applicant's race during the admissions process, writing that "because race is so interwoven in every aspect of the lived experience of minority students, to ignore it, reduce its importance and measure it only by statistical models misses important context." Biggs added that UNC "continues to have much work to do" to improve diversity in its student body. UNC spokeswoman Beth Keith said in a statement: "This decision makes clear the university's holistic admissions approach is lawful. We evaluate each student in a deliberate and thoughtful way, appreciating individual strengths, talents and contributions to a vibrant campus community where students from...

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Google doesn't like being shown inconvenient problems, ex-ethical AI co-lead 'fired' by the tech giant over her research

Google clamped down on Timnit Gebru, the former co-lead of ethical AI team, because she not only revealed bias in its large language models, but also called for structural changes in the AI field, Gebru told Going Underground. Dr. Gebru was the first black female research scientist at Google, and her controversial parting with the tech giant made headlines last year. It followed her refusal to fulfill the company's demand to retract a paper on ethical problems arising from the large language models (LLMs) that are used by Google Translate and other apps. Gebru insists she was fired for her stance, while Google claims she filed her resignation. In Monday's episode of RT's Going Underground program, she told the show's host, Afshin Rattansi, why she split with Google.

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Hundreds of Greek doctors stage 24-hour strike to protest compulsory Covid vaccination and staff shortages

Hundreds of doctors working in state-run hospitals in Greece marched through the capital, Athens to decry compulsory Covid vaccination and government plans that they believe will only worsen staff shortages. Around 500 protesters took to the streets in Athens on Thursday, marching past parliament toward the Health Ministry as part of their 24-hour strike. Photos and footage uploaded to Twitter show people with banners and flags as they walked through the capital.

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'Long and strong' earthquake rattles New Zealand, initial measurement at 5.9 magnitude

New Zealand has been hit by a huge 5.9 magnitude earthquake that was felt across the country - with buildings shaking on both islands. The quake struck near Nueva Plymouth on the North Island, but was felt as far south as Christchurch on the South Island, at 10.58am local time on Friday. GeoNet said the quake was recorded at a depth of about 210km and was originally measured at 5.4 magnitude before being upgraded to 5.9. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was briefly rattled by the tremor, which struck as she was addressing the nation for a Covid-19 update.

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Science-free vet 'professor' says vegan pet food as healthy for cats and dogs as meat

But plant-based meals still need added nutrients, says academic, and BVA warns over dietary deficiency Vegan diets are just as healthy for cats and dogs as meat-based pet food, according to research that will further fuel a row over whether owners should feed their pets plant-based meals. Andrew Knight, a veterinary professor at the University of Winchester, said his research showed that cats and dogs had as good, or better, health outcomes on plant-based diets as they did when fed on meat pet foods, provided these were carefully formulated with additional synthetic nutrients. Comment: Why not just feed what nature prepares? That would be meat. Knight's findings came after warnings that pet owners could be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 if they fail to feed a "suitable diet" meeting their dog's nutritional needs - a £20,000 fine or a 51-week jail sentence could ensue.

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BEST OF THE WEB: Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin shoots dead cinematographer, wounds director on set of movie about accidental killing

Comment: Oh how the mighty have fallen. Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer and injured a director during a tragic accident when a prop gun discharged on the New Mexico movie set of the film Rust, authorities said. The filming location at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Sante Fe was sent into lockdown and production was halted following the accidental double shooting at around 2 p.m. "There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks," a production spokesperson told Deadline. The Western drama's director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, 42, and its director, Joel Souza, 48, were struck in the incident, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. Comment: He shot TWO people with blanks?? Hutchins was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and died from her injuries. Souza was being treated at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, authorities said.

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Torrential rainfall triggers deadly floods in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire - 2.3 inches of rain in just 30 minutes

At least 4 people have died and several were injured after heavy rain caused flooding and severe material damage in parts of the city of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in West Africa. Heavy rain caused buildings to collapse as well as flooding and landslides in several parts of the city. Roads were blocked and vehicles left stranded in flood waters. Images shared on Social Media showed wrecked cars and damaged homes. The municipalities of Yopougon, Attécoubé, Abobo and Adjamé were among the worst affected. GSPM firefighters helped rescue or evacuate people from floods and damaged buildings. As of 22 October, GSPM reported 4 fatalities and 4 people injured.

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Tornado damages Brisbane airport as supercell storm batters south-east Queensland, Australia - Almost 4 inches of rain in an hour reported

A tornado has damaged buildings at Brisbane airport as a supercell thunderstorm battered south-east Queensland. The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed a tornado formed near the airport at about 10am on Friday, with video footage showing it touching down for only a minute or two. The storm cell hit about 11am, with footage taken at the airport showing catering pods being blown around on the tarmac near a boarding gate. The Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) said there was some damage, mainly centred on the international terminal.

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Child apparently killed in attack by family dog in Creek County, Oklahoma

A child who died Wednesday night was apparently attacked by a family dog, the Creek County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Details about the child, such as age, were not provided. The Sheriff's Office said it got a call around 7:20 p.m. about a missing child south of Kiefer. After deputies got there, a family member found the child on the property, and the child was pronounced dead soon after. The dog is being held at an animal control facility.

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Mud volcano Shugo erupts in Krasnodar Krai, Russia

Not far from the village of Varenikovskaya, the active mud volcano Shugo began to erupt. Its height reaches 163 meters. It is the largest in the Kerch-Taman volcanic region. The volcano is very dangerous. Hot mud flies out of its craters, which scatters several tens of meters. But now the craters are inactive: rare and unstable ejections can be observed. According to the head of the Crimean region, Sergei Les, the volcano has been active for many years. His incessant work is associated with the growth of the Caucasian mountain system. Volcanic mud, which contains bromine and iodine, is regularly replenished. Now Shugo is under protection and will be closed for tourists for the time being for safety reasons. (Translated by Google)

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SOTT FOCUS: The Hidden Symbols and Messages in Korean Psycho-Drama 'Squid Game'

The Netflix series "Squid Game" is about poor people taking part in horrific games while elite "VIPs" watch the show for entertainment. Through messages and symbolism, "Squid Game" reveals what is truly about: The incurable sickness of the elite. If you enjoy watching people getting killed execution-style, boy do I have the Netflix series for you. It's called Squid Game and it also features a bunch of people falling from high platforms and splattering onto the ground. Indeed, you will witness so many brutal deaths in Squid Game that you won't have a choice but to become desensitized to them. Even the characters in the series end up having whole conversations about their childhood or something while others are getting shot in the face about ten feet away from them. They don't care anymore. And you won't either. And that's kind of the point. Despite the fact that Squid Game features extreme levels of gore and violence, the marketing surrounding it seems insidiously conceived to be...

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Meteor fireball over Seattle (2021-09-25)

Meteor fireball blazing through the Big Dipper/Ursa Major over #Seattle this morning.@amsmeteors @NWSSeattle @westseattleblog @WestSeaWx @KSeattleWeather @WaWxChasers @BenjaminJurkovi @sigmas @KClarkWx @abbyacone @ScottSeattleWx #meteor pic.twitter.com/opjQYCoQXR — Kevin Freitas (@kevinfreitas) October 19, 2021

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BEST OF THE WEB: Movie god Alec Baldwin shoots dead cinematographer, wounds director on set of movie about accidental killing

Comment: Oh how the mighty have fallen. Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer and injured a director during a tragic accident when a prop gun discharged on the New Mexico movie set of the film Rust, authorities said. The filming location at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Sante Fe was sent into lockdown and production was halted following the accidental double shooting at around 2 p.m. "There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks," a production spokesperson told Deadline. The Western drama's director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, 42, and its director, Joel Souza, 48, were struck in the incident, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. Comment: He shot TWO people with blanks?? Hutchins was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque and died from her injuries. Souza was being treated at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, authorities said.

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G.E., Lockheed Martin employees in US walk out in protest over vaccine mandates

Major Greenville County employers like General Electric and Lockheed Martin have started requiring employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19 to comply with the federal mandate, but some employees have said that they are against that. And they've taken to the streets. About 150 to 200 protestors, most of them GE workers dressed in the slate-gray GE uniforms, gathered outside the GE gas plant in Greenville Thursday to make their feelings known. Some said they had taken half a day off; some said that they had chosen not to go to work at all.

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Militant from Seattle's 'autonomous zone' sentenced for attempted attack on Trump supporters in Florida

Daniel Alan Baker, a US Army veteran turned Syrian militia member, who attempted to rally far-left activists to surround pro-Trump protesters with guns at the Florida state Capitol in January, was sentenced last week to 44 months in jail followed by three years of federal supervision. According to the Tallahasee Democrat, Baker, 34 was convicted in May after he used the internet to transmit "true threats" to kidnap or injure the pro-Trump protesters. The jury was back with a verdict in only four hours. During the trial, the FBI used Baker's posts on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to show how he "escalated, indicating a potential for immediate threat during upcoming protests in Tallahassee."

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US 'intelligence community' and Fed issue separate reports concluding the same thing: 'Climate change' is major national security threat

US intelligence services said Thursday for the first time that climate change poses wide-ranging threats to the United States' national security and stability around the world. More extreme weather "will increasingly exacerbate a number of risks to US national security interests, from physical impacts that could cascade into security challenges, to how countries respond to the climate challenge," the White House said in a summary of the intelligence reports. The prediction was made in the first official assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, which oversees the sprawling US intelligence apparatus. The document "represents the consensus view of all 18" elements in the intelligence community, the White House said. According to the agencies, climate change is driving "increased geopolitical tension as countries argue over who should be doing more," cross-border "flashpoints" as countries respond to climate change impact by trying to secure their own...

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BEST OF THE WEB: Human remains found in same area as Brian Laundrie's possessions in Florida nature reserve - UPDATE: FBI confirms identity

Comment: Update 21 October 2021 Human remains were found in the same area where personal belongings were found of Brian Laundrie, Gabby Petito's fiancé who's been missing for over a month, officials said Wednesday. A senior law enforcement official says what appears to be partial human remains have been found in the Carlton Reserve in a location that was previously under water. There is no confirmation the remains belong to Laundrie. The remains were found near a backpack, according to this source, which may be consistent with the type of items Laundrie may have had in his possession. Laundrie's parents directed FBI agents and North Port police to the location where "some articles belonging to Brian were found," according to a statement by Laundrie attorney Steven Bertolino.

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Comparison of official govt reports suggest fully vaccinated developing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome much faster than anticipated

Latest UK PHE Vaccine Surveillance Report figures on Covid-19 cases show that doubly vaccinated 40-79 year olds have lost 44% of their immune system capability. Their immune systems are deteriorating at around 5% per week (between 3.8% and 9.1%). If this continues then 30-59 year olds will have zero Covid/viral defence (and perhaps a form of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) by Christmas and all double vaccinated people over 30 will have completely lost the part of their immune system that tackles Covid-19 by January next year. The 5 Public Health England (PHE) tables below from their excellent Vaccine Surveillance Report of all fully genome sequenced delta cases, separated by 5 weeks, clearly show the progressive damage that the vaccines are doing to the immune system's response. PHE have done so much great work and the picture is very clear. Here is the weekly decline in doubly vaccinated immune system performance compared to unvaxxed people. Vaccine efficacy is measured using...

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Oldest evidence of humans on Tibetan plateau may also be handprint art

Dr. David Zhang and his team's investigations of Quesang on the Tibetan Plateau in 2018 and 2020 sparked controversy, along with the discovery of potential parietal art. Dr. David Zhang first found hand and footprints near the hot spring bath in 1988 at the active Quesang Hot Spring near Quesang Village, about 80 km northwest of Lhasa, Tibet. Recent research conducted between 2018 and 2020 resulted in the finding of the possible parietal art. According to Zhang's team, whose findings were published in Science Bulletin, the tracks are between 169,000 and 226,000 years old, dating back to the Earth's last ice age.

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Putting the pandemic's death toll into perspective

There are two 'official' death tolls on the Government's COVID-19 dashboard. 138,852 is the number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test. 162,620 is the number of deaths with COVID-19 on the death certificate. The main reason the latter is larger than the former is lack of testing during the first wave. In the spring of last year, about 15,000 people in whose death COVID-19 was a contributing factor died without being tested. So is 162,620 the pandemic's true death toll? No. And that's because it includes a large number of deaths that probably would have happened anyway. How do we know this? Because if we calculate the excess deaths - the number of deaths in excess of what we'd expect based on previous years - we get a much lower number. The official death toll for England and Wales, based on death certificates, is 147,031. Yet if we add up all the deaths since the start of March 2020, and subtract the average over the last five years, we get a figure of 117,476 (about 20%...

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Feeding the Liberal flock: The real reasons for the congressional 1/6 committee

The Biden DOJ has not charged one 1/6 defendant with insurrection, sedition or plotting to kidnap or kill. Democrats need Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney to satiate liberal anger. What follows is the last section of my article earlier this week, documenting why Congress's Select Committee to Investigate 1/6 is both unconstitutional and an assault on civil liberties. Underlying so much of the anger and resentment surrounding 1/6 is the complete dissonance between the narrative fed to the citizenry by Democrats and their media allies on the one hand, and the legal realities on the other. It must be infuriating and baffling to a large sector of the population to have been convinced that what happened on January 6 was an unprecedentedly dangerous insurrection perpetrated by an organized group of seditious traitors who had plotted to kidnap and murder elected officials, only for the Biden DOJ to have charged exactly nobody with any criminal charges remotely suggesting any of those...

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Leaked audio reveals DOJ official questioning sincerity of Americans' religious exemptions to COVID vaccine

White House officials don't care about religious exemptions from vaccine mandates, and they don't think people who bring religious exemptions from vaccine mandates are "sincere" in their beliefs. Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec broke the news on Human Events Daily, exposing the Biden administration's complete disregard for Americans' religious liberty rights. DOJ attorney Marty Lederman can be heard on a phone call from September advising the administration as to how to combat employees religious exemption demands from the vaccine mandate.

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Russia scrambles fighter jets to head off US warplanes near country's airspace, days after warship intercepted near borders

The Russian Air Force has escorted two US bombers over the Black Sea, after radar operators identified the planes flying close to the border, just days after an American warship was tailed as it moved toward the country's waters. On Wednesday, Moscow's Ministry of Defense said that a pair of the country's Su-30 fighter planes took off and followed two US B-1B strategic bombers over southeastern Europe, after the foreign aircraft were detected in the region. The ministry said in a statement: "Russian fighter crews identified the aerial targets as two US Air Force supersonic strategic B-1B bombers, accompanied by two KC-135 refueling planes, and escorted them over the waters of the Black Sea. After the foreign warplanes had been turned away from Russia's state border, the Russian fighters safely returned to their home air base."

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Poland will be punished for challenging EU law primacy, European leader warns, as Warsaw claims Brussels is devoid of democracy

The European Commission president has warned that Poland will face penalties for its move to make EU law subordinate to national law, after a Warsaw court backed the government's defiance of Brussels' supremacy. Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said there were three options available to the EU after Poland challenged the primacy of the bloc's laws over its national law. "This ruling calls into question the foundations of the European Union. It is a direct challenge to the unity of the European legal order." She added that they were carefully considering their response after Poland's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that parts of European law were incompatible with the Polish constitution. Von der Leyen said the first option is so-called infringements, where a legal challenge brought by the EC could lead to fines. Secondly, Brussels could withhold access to EU funds from Poland. Thirdly, the EU could...

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Capitalism has run out of steam? Putin warns that world's existing economic model is causing huge growth in inequality globally

The current model of capitalism, the economic system in most of the world, is causing growing inequality, both within countries but also between them on the global stage, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Speaking to gathered experts and journalists at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, the Russian president said that many people around the world are suffering from disappointed expectations and a lack of prospects, which leads to "uncontrolled migration" as some seek better life opportunities elsewhere. "Everyone says that the existing model of capitalism, which is now the basis of the social order in the vast majority of countries, has run out of steam. There is no longer any way out of the tangle of more and more confusing contradictions. "In the richest countries and regions, we see growing inequality of material benefits and of opportunities within society, and at the international level too." Putin went on to explain that many around the world still suffer...

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US police hungry for discarded military gear now use climate change as pretext to get priority delivery

The DoD program that arms police departments with surplus military equipment is prioritizing requests citing 'climate disaster' preparation - but the mine-resistant vehicles aren't necessarily being used for rescue operations. The bureaucratic shift in how sheriff's offices and precincts justify their requests for military-grade vehicles under the Pentagon's controversial 1033 Program was reported on Wednesday by the Huffington Post. The report is based on the outlet's continued analysis of a trove of documents from the hand-me-down scheme that came into its possession earlier this year. Local jurisdictions are increasingly citing extreme weather and other natural calamities in their applications, since Congress tweaked the program in its annual defense spending bill. Lawmakers instructed the DoD to give priority to "applications that request vehicles used for disaster-related emergency preparedness, such as high-water rescue vehicles" - a move that HuffPo describes as having...

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Washington must be going MAD: Nuclear-era logic of Mutually Assured Destruction to make America safe, Chinese media boss jibes

The editor-in-chief of a Chinese state media group subtly mocked the US, suggesting it re-adopt the Cold War doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) after Washington was shocked by Beijing's missile tests. The Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin mocked Washington in a tweet on Thursday after a week in which the US reiterated its concern and surprise by Chinese hypersonic missile tests in the summer. Hu was responding to a story published on Thursday from The Financial Times, which stated that China conducted two hypersonic missile tests this summer, and not one as originally reported at the weekend. The state media boss wrote: "In face of speculation of China's hypersonic weapons, the US needs to keep rationality and returns to the logic of major power game in the nuclear era. MAD [Mutually Assured Destruction] won't make the US unsafe. The US must abandon the crazy idea that it can strike China and Russia, but they can't strike it." MAD is a doctrine associated with the...

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Settler violence and Israel's impenetrable web of impunity

As happens each year during the Palestinian olive harvest, Israel's illegal settlers are destroying olive trees and attacking Palestinian farmers. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that in the year to August this year, over 9,300 olive trees were destroyed by Israeli settlers; the damage peaked during harvest time. Palestinian access to agricultural land is seriously hampered by Israel's restrictions on movement as well as settlement expansion. Settler violence exacerbates an already untenable situation; without access to their land, Palestinian autonomy is reduced. Moreover, settler violence ensures that Palestinians can't look much beyond the immediate consequence of Israel's colonial-occupation: the struggle to survive. In response to the predictable settler violence, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh has called upon the UN to monitor attacks, especially during the olive harvest. In his weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah, Shtayyeh...

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Drone whistleblower thrown in pen with terrorists

Is society safer with Daniel Hale, who exposed U.S. drone civilian killings, being housed with some of the most dangerous prisoners in America? Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale was sent on Sunday to the notorious Communications Management Unit (CMU) at the maximum-security U.S. Penitentiary (USP) at Marion, Illinois to serve a 45-month sentence, rather than to the low-security prison at Butner, North Carolina, where federal Judge Liam O'Grady had recommended he go. Butner is a prison hospital complex, and O'Grady was cognizant of Daniel's need for psychological therapy to deal with post traumatic stress disorder from his time as a U.S. Air Force drone operator. USP Marion, on the other hand, is a former "Supermax" prison that was built in the early 1960s as a replacement for Alcatraz. It was converted into a CMU to keep terrorists from being in contact with the media. The Bureau of Prisons, which apparently knows better than a federal judge, decided that the American public must be...

Signs of the Times

Comparing all-cause mortality rate by age group: Vaccinated vs unvaccinated

In a previous article we argued that to determine the overall risk-benefit of Covid-19 vaccines it is crucial to be able to compare the all-cause mortality rates between the vaccinated and unvaccinated in each different age category. However, current publicly available UK Government statistics do not include raw data on mortality by age category and vaccination status. Hence, we are unable to make the necessary comparison. In a new paper we explain how we attempted to reverse engineer estimates of mortality by age category and vaccination status from the various relevant public Government datasets; unfortunately, we found numerous discrepancies and inconsistencies which indicate that the Office for National Statistics reports on vaccine effectiveness are grossly underestimating the number of unvaccinated people. Hence, official statistics may be underestimating the mortality rates for vaccinated people in each age category. Although we have not subjected this data to statistical...

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Lockdown: Where did 'the science' come from?

In a previous post, I looked at where 'The Science' of community masking came from. Here I'll do the same thing for lockdowns. As many lockdown sceptics (including myself) have noted, lockdowns represent a radical departure from conventional forms of pandemic management. There is no evidence that, before 2020, they were considered an effective way to deal with influenza pandemics. In a 2006 paper, four leading scientists (including Donald Henderson, who led the effort to eradicate smallpox) examined measures for controlling pandemic influenza. Regarding "large-scale quarantine", they wrote, "The negative consequences... are so extreme" that this measure "should be eliminated from serious consideration". Likewise, a WHO report published mere months before the COVID-19 pandemic classified "quarantine of exposed individuals" as "not recommended under any circumstances". The report noted that "there is no obvious rationale for this measure". And we all know what the U.K.'s own...

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Miami private school says students who get COVID vaccine must quarantine for 30 days

A private school in Miami, Florida, that announced earlier this year it would not employ teachers who receive a COVID-19 vaccine now says that any student who gets vaccinated must stay home for 30 days after each shot. Centner Academy's chief operating officer told parents in a letter that "if you are considering the vaccine for your Centner Academy student(s), we ask that you hold off until the Summer when there will be time for the potential transmission or shedding onto others to decrease." The letter informed parents that students who receive a COVID-19 vaccine dose must quarantine, WSVN-TV reported.

Signs of the Times

Apparent human remains found in same area as Brian Laundrie's possessions in Florida nature reserve

Human remains were found in the same area where personal belongings were found of Brian Laundrie, Gabby Petito's fiancé who's been missing for over a month, officials said Wednesday. A senior law enforcement official says what appears to be partial human remains have been found in the Carlton Reserve in a location that was previously under water. There is no confirmation the remains belong to Laundrie. The remains were found near a backpack, according to this source, which may be consistent with the type of items Laundrie may have had in his possession. Laundrie's parents directed FBI agents and North Port police to the location where "some articles belonging to Brian were found," according to a statement by Laundrie attorney Steven Bertolino.

Signs of the Times

'Mossad espionage network' busted in Turkey: 15 men arrested for spying on Palestinians & foreign students

Turkey's intelligence agency reportedly cracked a Mossad spy ring in an operation earlier this month, exposing five cells and arresting 15 men suspected of conducting covert activities on foreign students and Palestinians. After tracking the network for over a year, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) shared the information with counter-terrorism forces. According to the Sabah daily newspaper, a 200-strong team raided the cells in a secret operation across four provinces on October 7. The Turkish newspaper reported that the arrested men had been instructed to gather information on foreign students, particularly Palestinians, enrolled in Turkish universities - with an eye on those thought to have a future in the defense industry. The spies were also allegedly tasked with looking into a number of other unspecified associations and organizations that hosted Palestinians in Turkey.

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The killing of Gaddafi 10 years ago has resulted in the death of the nation of Libya and the destruction of its people

Muammar Gaddafi led his nation to become the wealthiest in all of Africa. A decade after his demise, it is riven by tribalism, terrorism and slavery, all because the West could not allow an Arab leader to succeed. There was never really an 'Arab Spring' in Libya the way there was in Egypt or Tunisia. Protests were much smaller, and as time went on to show, the biggest players turned out to be extremist groups and foreign actors, each trying to get a slice of the country. NATO's bombing of Libya and support for rebels seeking to overthrow Gaddafi had little to do with wanting the country to prosper. Under the guise of 'human rights' and 'democracy', the Western military alliance helped murder one of the Arab world's most prominent leaders in order to steal Libya's resources and protect Western hegemony. Later on, as part of Operation Timber Sycamore, the CIA would find additional utility in Gaddafi's ousting: funnelling Libya's stockpiles of weapons and ammunition over to Syria to...

Signs of the Times

Storm Aurore blasts parts of Western Europe leaving 250,000 French homes without power - 109 mph winds recorded

A powerful autumn storm, named Aurore, blasted parts of western Europe on Thursday, knocking out power to a quarter of a million French homes and damaging buildings in at least four countries. Train services were disrupted by uprooted trees littering tracks in France, Germany and the Netherlands and roofs were ripped off many buildings, including at part of the stadium used by the professional soccer club in the Belgian port city of Antwerp. A tornado early Thursday caused damage in Schwentinental, a town near the German Baltic Sea port city of Kiel. Fire service official Kai Laessig told German news agency dpa that it destroyed greenhouses and brought down trees, which hit cars, but no one was injured. Several houses were damaged.

Signs of the Times

'Testing the same weapons': North Korea denounces US 'double standard' after Washington condemns submarine missile test

US overtures of diplomacy are hypocritical and don't match Washington's actions, North Korea said, after a UN Security Council session hastily convened to condemn its recent test of a submarine-launched missile. "It is a clear double standard that the United States denounces us for developing and testing the same weapons system it already has or was developing, and that only adds suspicions to their sincerity after saying they have no hostility towards us," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying on Thursday. The US and the UN Security Council could face "more grave and serious consequences" if they react inappropriately to the launch, the spokesperson added, warning them against "fiddling with a time bomb."

Signs of the Times

Washington State Patrol faces staff shortages & multimillion replacement costs as officers quit over Covid vaccine mandate

Some 127 Washington State Patrol employees, more than half of them officers, were terminated after a vaccination deadline passed this week, with the force now bracing for staff shortages in critical areas and major costs. Seventy-four commissioned officers - including 67 troopers, six sergeants and a captain - as well as 53 civil servants were "separated from employment" as they missed the October 18 deadline to provide proof of vaccination, the Washington State Patrol (WSP) reported earlier this week. The WSP stated that the employees quit the force "for varying reasons and in varying ways," with chief John R. Batiste declaring that "we will miss every one of them." "I extend a hardy thanks to those who are leaving the agency. I truly wish that you were staying with us," he said.

Signs of the Times

Manam Island volcano erupts in Papua New Guinea

The Manam Island volcano has been active for the last two months but remained at peace until Tuesday when it exploded into action, belching thick smoke, plume, lava and fire in a spectacular show. Dugulava ward seven councillor of Manam Island Paul Maburau told The National yesterday that it erupted at about 10pm and the islanders who had gone back there from the care centre at Bogia were afraid and calling for help constantly. Maburau, who is in Bogia, said he had texted Madang Governor Peter Yama and Bogia MP Robert Naguri on the situation on the island and Naguri responded saying there would be help coming for the people. "Our MP said he will arrange for fuel to bring our people to a safe area and we will move them if there is a huge eruption," he said. JMA #Himawari8 True Color RGB images showing an eruption of the #Manam volcano in #PapuaNewGuinea: https://t.co/H5BcDTKjsn Low/mid-level ash laden cloud (shades of brown/tan) were seen drifting westward and northward, while the...

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First of over 200 bodies being exhumed from Lugansk mass grave.

Note from Eric Zuesse: A friend, Russell Bentley, in Lugansk in the far-eastern Donbas region which had been part of Ukraine until Obama's 2014 coup in Ukraine overthrew Ukraine's democratically elected and neutralist President and replaced his Government by racist-fascist (or nazi) anti-Russian zealots, who promptly launched an ethnic-cleansing campaign against the residents in Donbas (which region of Ukraine had voted 90%+ for that neutralist to become Ukraine's President) sent me this grim follow-up news-report: Russell Bentley: I recently witnessed the exhumation of human remains from a mass grave that contains over 200 bodies. It was a profound and profoundly disturbing experience. Each body in this grave represents an unnecessary and unjust death, a murder, and each of these over 200 murders can never be forgotten or forgiven. There is a message that cries out from these bones that must be heard and understood, and acted upon by all good people in the world. Otherwise,...

Signs of the Times

Logjam: Record 100 ships waiting offshore at LA ports with cargo

The logjam of cargo, container, and tanker ships trying to access Long Beach and Los Angeles ports has hit a record of 100 vessels as of Monday evening. Another 45 are expected to arrive in the next three days. A view of the vessels from space looks like matchsticks scattered around the Southern California coastline, as ship captains pick their spot to spend the next week or longer waiting for a summons to dock. The ships are scattered along the shoreline for at least 20 miles. The number of 100 vessels at anchor in the sea is a dozen higher than Friday and breaks a former record of 97 on Sept. 19, according to Capt. J. Kipling Louttit with the Marine Exchange of Southern California. The Marine Exchange is responsible for coordinating shipping traffic and piloting the vessels into port.

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Letting Ukraine join NATO would be a dangerous escalation with Russia, and a disaster for Kiev & the West itself

Russia's position on Ukraine's hopes of joining NATO is well known: It's a red line that, if crossed, would have profound repercussions for Moscow, Kiev and the whole military bloc. 'Active measures' have even been promised. In a documentary recently aired on French TV, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has confirmed exactly that. You may, of course, disagree with this assessment, or even resent it. But, equally obviously, to ignore it would be stupid. Governments sometimes bluff, it's true. Yet it would be a reckless gamble to count on Russia not meaning what it says when it sends such a clear warning. Especially since it does not only oppose full NATO membership for Ukraine, but also what Moscow sees as the excessive expansion of Western military infrastructure in Ukraine. This, as well, has been identified as a "red line."

Signs of the Times

At least 13 people dead due to heavy snowfall in Uttarakhand, India

At least 13 people, including 10 trekkers, have died at separate places in Uttarakhand after getting trapped due to snowfall in the mountainous region, officials said on Thursday. The dead include three porters working for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), posted along the India-China border in Uttarkashi district. Five people have been rescued while six remain missing. One of the trekkers' groups went missing en route to Lamkhaga Pass near Harsil in Uttarkashi district, 230 km from Dehradun, on October 14. Of the nine porters accompanying them, six managed to return safely. They informed the authorities about the three missing porters and eight trekkers. District disaster management officer (Uttarkashi) Devendra Patwal said the rescuers compromising State Disaster Response Force and air force personnel spotted five of the bodies near Lamkhaga Pass on Thursday morning. "The bodies will soon be airlifted from the spot," he said. "The rescue workers managed to rescue one of the...

Signs of the Times

Christopher Steele: Corrupt product of a corrupt FBI

Christopher Steele is a symptom, not a cause, of what ails the FBI. The nation's top law enforcement agency flagrantly involves itself in U.S. elections on behalf of the Democratic Party. Just as the special counsel's investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane — the FBI counterintelligence probe launched in the summer of 2016 to sabotage Donald Trump's presidential campaign — is showing signs of life, one of the central figures in the hoax is attempting to burnish his sullied image. ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos has produced a documentary featuring Christopher Steele, the man responsible for the so-called dossier bearing his name. "Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier," streamed on Hulu Monday night; promotional clips hinted that, far from a hard-hitting interview exposing Steele for the charlatan he is, Stephanopoulos gave Steele a chance to spin his story ahead of possible new indictments related to John Durham's inquiry into the Trump-Russia...

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Panic? Dem candidate Terry McAuliffe abruptly ends interview, tells local Virginia reporter, 'You should've asked better questions'

Both McAuliffe, Glenn Youngkin were offered 20-minute interviews, according to WJLA Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe cut his interview short with a local Virginia TV station and scolded the reporter for not asking "better questions." WJLA 7News reporter Nick Minock conducted interviews with the former governor and his GOP rival Glenn Youngkin, sharing highlights on air while releasing the full interviews and transcripts online. However, WJLA anchor Jonathan Elias offered a disclaimer to viewers who may notice that Youngkin's interview was much longer than McAuliffe's.

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Private passenger plane slides off runway & bursts into flames in Texas, LAX sees Japan Airlines Boeing 777 engine burst into flames midair

A private plane carrying 18 baseball fans and three crew from Houston to the American League Championship Series in Boston ran off a runway and burst into flames on Tuesday - but everyone on board survived and only one person suffered a minor injury. The McDonnell Douglas MD-87 rolled through a fence and caught fire while trying to take off from the Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire near Katy, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The youngest person on board the plane was a 10-year-old child, officials said.

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Confusing: Dropping word 'mother' from policy doc made Scotland a darling of top LGBT+ group whose own site uses the word

The pro-LGBT+ advocacy group Stonewall reportedly bumped the Government of Scotland up its controversial Diversity Champions list after it dropped the word 'mother' from its maternity-leave policy, and some people are puzzled. The influence of Stonewall, the powerful British LGBT+ charity, was the focus of an investigation by BBC reporter Stephen Nolan, who released his findings in a series of podcasts last week. One particular detail has caught the public attention after being highlighted by some media outlets. To be in the good graces of the group, a government needs to erase motherhood - or at least not use the word 'mother' in documents even as relevant as a state maternity-leave policy. According to Nolan, that's how the Scottish government managed to "score points" with Stonewall. The gendered word got excluded from the documents in favour of the more inclusive terms like "spouse" or "partner." The move is presumably supposed to make the policy more friendly to trans people,...

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UK's "burnt out" GPs warn many will quit if gov't force face-to-face appointments - same doctors who voted against training more doctors in 2008

GP leaders have warned that giving patients guaranteed face-to-face appointments could lead to a crippling exodus of family doctors already exhausted by the pandemic and despairing of being "pilloried" by ministers. The profession's key bodies said the government's plan to force them to see in person every patient who asks will exacerbate the already serious shortage of doctors, especially as the proposal includes "naming and shaming" surgeries that do not comply. Comment: Rather divisive policy being proposed by the government which won't actually solve the problems plaguing the NHS but will contribute to hastening its demise. Opposition parties also rounded on the government's blueprint for change, with the former Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt saying ministers were taking the wrong approach.

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Bollene beheading: Manhunt for 'armed & dangerous' suspect after decapitated body found in southern France

A man has been found "beheaded and eviscerated" in the southeastern French commune of Bollène. A police search is now underway for the suspect, whom they say is armed with a knife and dangerous. The macabre murder took place in the Vaucluse district of the famed Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur tourist region. Warning that the suspect was armed, the Vaucluse gendarmes posted a mugshot to social media and ordered any residents who saw the man not to confront him. A law enforcement source told the AFP news agency that whether or not the incident was a terrorist act was "not absolute at this stage of the inquiry."

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Floods, landslides kill at least 88 in Nepal - 14 inches of rain in 24 hours (UPDATES)

At least 48 people have been killed and 31 others gone missing in floods and landslides caused by unseasonal rainfalls over the last three days in Nepal. The unexpected rainfalls, after the monsoon season receded two weeks ago, flooded rivers and streams and sparked landslides across the country. "In addition to 48 deaths and 31 missing, 23 people have been reported injured by Wednesday afternoon," Phanindra Mani Pokharel, spokesperson for the Ministry of Home Affairs, told Xinhua. "The casualties might increase." Besides, 20 houses have been fully destroyed in rain-induced disasters along with paddy ready for harvest on hundreds of acres of land, and 20 of the 77 districts in the country have been highly affected by the disasters, said Pokharel.

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Meteor fireball seen over Hungary

It was visible to the southwest at 6:28 p.m. We are waiting for your photos! Based on the comments on our Facebook post, hundreds of our readers saw the event. As it did not darken completely after sunset, relatively few recordings were made of the otherwise spectacular phenomenon. Admission of Orsolya Bernáth from Martonvásár, thank you!

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Billionaire wants to build a utopia in the US desert that would house 5 million people

Welcome to Telosa, a $400bn "city of the future," according to its founder, the billionaire Marc Lore. The city doesn't exist yet, nor is it clear which state will house the experiment, but the architects of the proposed 150,000-acre project are scouting the American south-west. They're already predicting the first residents can move in by 2030. Telosa will eventually house 5 million people, according to its website, and benefit from a halo of utopian promises: avant-garde architecture, drought resistance, minimal environmental impact, communal resources. This hypothetical metropolis promises to take some of the most cutting-edge ideas about sustainability and urban design and make them reality.

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2 of family killed in lightning strike in West Bengal, India

Two members of a family were killed after lightning struck them in West Bengal's Malda district, police said on Thursday. The incident took place in Alal gram-panchayat area under the Gajol Police Station limits on Wednesday when the two were working in a paddy field, an officer said. Manirujjaman (36) and his nephew Amir Hossain (14) died on the spot, he said. The bodies have been sent to Malda Medical College for post-mortem examinations, the officer added.

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Meteor fireball over central Spain (October 21)

This stunning bolide was recorded over Spain on 2021 October 21, at 1:16h local time (which is equivalent to 23:16 universal time on October 20). It was produced by a fragment (a meteoroid) from a comet. This fragment impacted the atmosphere at about 237.000 km/h. The fireball began at a height of about 137 km over the northeast of the province of Segovia, and ended at an altitude of around 75 km over the north of the province of Ávila. The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from the meteor-observing stations located at La Hita (Toledo), La Sagra (Granada), Sevilla, Sierra Nevada (Granada), Huelva, El Guijo (Madrid), and Calar Alto (Almería). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).

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Massive gas explosion rips through building in northern China, 3 killed, 30+ injured

A powerful gas explosion tore through a street in the Chinese city of Shenyang, reducing nearby buildings to rubble and injuring dozens. At least 3 people were killed in the blast. The massive blast erupted around 8:30am local time on Thursday, state media reported, noting that it's not clear what triggered the explosion so far. More than 30 people were wounded, and have all been taken to the hospital. Footage on social media shows the moment of the explosion, which sent enormous plumes of dust into the sky, while other visuals show the aftermath of the blast.

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6.0-magnitude quake hits south of Fiji Islands: USGS

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.0 jolted south of the Fiji Islands at 08:10:43 GMT on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 497.22 km, was initially determined to be at 25.2396 degrees south latitude and 179.644 degrees east longitude.

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Lighting kills 11 cows simultaneously in Cambodia

At least 11 cows were killed by lightning at the same time. The incident is said to have happened at about 09:30 October 20, in a rice field in Boeung Tim village, Ta Pon commune, Sangke district, Battambang province. The cows were killed by lightning as their owners chased them to graze together the fields while others while others were killed while tied up in the barn. There was heavy thunderstorm in the early hours of Wednesday in some districts in Battambang province.

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Protesters claim Italian authorities tampered with 'live webcam' to show empty square instead of huge anti-vaccine-passport rally

Protesters in Italy have claimed that the authorities rigged a supposedly live webcam to show an empty square in Trieste's city center while it was packed with demonstrators against the vaccine passport mandate. On Monday evening, crowds gathered in the Piazza Unita d'Italia in Trieste to protest against the government's imposition of a 'green pass'. The government had made it a legal requirement for all workers to be vaccinated or provide a negative Covid-19 test from the previous 48 hours. Videos from the square showed hundreds of people staging a sit-in in the northern Italian city, however, as highlighted by one of the protesters in a widely shared video, the city's webcam suggested the piazza was almost empty. The footage starts with the camera focusing in on a protester's phone in which SkylineWebcams.com's live stream for Trieste's Piazza Unita d'Italia is shown. The empty square, as seen on the live webcam, appears to be in stark contrast to the reality, as the demonstrator...

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'I've never been so scared in my life': Golden, B.C. woman nearly hit by meteorite

Comment: This was featured on SOTT.net October 8th, 2021 originally from the Cowichan Valley Citizen: British Columbia woman awakes to a hole in her roof and a space rock on her pillow The update below includes an interview with the residence of the house that was hit. Ruth Hamilton was sound asleep last week when she was awoken by her dog barking, the sound of a crash through her ceiling and the feeling of debris on her face, the resident of Golden, B.C., said Monday. She said she jumped out of bed and turned on the light to figure out what had happened, and discovered a hole in her ceiling. "I've never been so scared in my life," she said of the Oct. 3 incident. "I wasn't sure what to do so I called 911 and, when I was speaking with the operator, I flipped over my pillow and saw that a rock had slipped between two pillows."

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SOTT FOCUS: MindMatters: Gurdjieff, Fourth Way, and Solioonensius in the New Normal - with Alan Francis

Gurdjieff escaped the Russian Empire during the outbreak of mass madness otherwise known as the Great Russian Revolution. He lived and taught in France during the Nazi occupation. But the connection between Gurdjieff, the Fourth Way, and totalitarianism isn't much discussed, so on this episode of MindMatters we welcome back Alan Francis of the International School of the Fourth Way to discuss the place and function of the Work in the current rumblings of mass madness. Alan stresses the importance of maintaining a personal inner presence, working with others and for a larger aim. Large social projects inevitably devolve - often to mass murder and injustice. But meaningful change can only come from the individual. Alan also discusses fear - its purpose and and how to manage it - the opportunities offered by the present times for self-development, and updates us on his progress opening a Fourth Way school in Spain (click here to support his work), as well as his upcoming book. Alan's...

Signs of the Times

Vikings present in North America in 1021 C.E., new dating in Newfoundland suggests

Three rough pieces of wood — discarded sections of branches and tree stumps found among the refuse Vikings left behind after their short sojourn in Newfoundland — have turned out to be some of the more important evidence of the Norse in North America. The scars left by iron blades on these sections of fir and juniper can still be seen after more than 1,000 years. Was it the legendary Viking explorer Leif Eriksson himself whose blade chopped off these unwanted scraps? Might it have been Thorfinn Karlsefni or his wife, Gudrid, the lesser-known explorers of a different Viking saga who tossed these useless scraps aside? Many questions may never be answered, but researchers now have an extraordinarily precise date for when Norse hands and blades worked in the New World.

Signs of the Times

The unvaccinated are looking smarter every week

There is a massive propaganda push against those choosing not to vaccinate against COVID-19 with the experimental mRNA vaccines. Mainstream media, the big tech corporations, and our government have combined efforts to reward compliance and to shame and marginalize non-compliance. Their mantra says that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Persons who choose not to vaccinate are characterized as unintelligent, selfish, paranoid people who don't read much and live in a trailer park in Florida (or Alabama, or Texas, or name your state). Never has there been such an effort to cajole, manipulate through fear, and penalize people to take an experimental medical treatment. However, as time has passed with this pandemic and more data accumulates about the virus and the vaccine, the unvaccinated are looking smarter and smarter with each passing week. It has been shown now that the vaccinated equally catch and spread the virus. Vaccine side effect data continues to accumulate that make...

Signs of the Times

The US wants to turn Ethiopia into Bosnia

It was earlier feared that the American hybrid war on Ethiopia aims to turn the country into Yugoslavia, which implies its full dissolution along regional lines. Arminka Helić, member of the British House of Lords and served as special adviser to Foreign Secretary William Hague from 2010 to 2014, deceitfully claimed that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed risked advancing this scenario through the Ethiopian National Defense Forces' (ENDF) ongoing anti-terrorist operation in the northern Tigray Region in an article that she published at Politico in August titled "In Ethiopia, Echoes Of Yugoslavia". In reality, it is those U.S.-backed foreign forces, including corrupt UN officials, that are meddling in the Horn of Africa country who are the ones pushing this outcome. PM Abiy is, in fact, counteracting their efforts to advance the Yugoslav scenario in Ethiopia. Her article was rebutted by Ethiopia's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, and EU institutions Hirut Zemene a few days later at the...

Signs of the Times

Biden obviously doesn't care about border security or human trafficking, since the government has lost 45,000 kids

The incompetence of the Biden administration is never-ending. It has turned the longest-running American crisis, illegal immigration on our southern border, from a failure of liberal policy to a failure of liberal processes. This shouldn't surprise anyone, because if there is one thing worse than liberal ideas, it's liberal implementation of liberal ideas. Hello? Obamacare? According to the progressive site Axios, Biden's immigration czar - Hello? Vice President Harris? - has somehow managed to lose contact with 45,000 unaccompanied minors she let into the United States after they appeared at the border this year.

Signs of the Times

Dozens of top nuclear scientists with 'highest security clearances' being fired from Los Alamos Lab after vax mandate

A last Friday deadline for Los Alamos National Lab employees to get vaccinated has come and gone, with a judge on the same day denying a request by 114 employees there to block the nuclear lab's vaccine mandate from taking effect. In the last days the employees, including top nuclear engineers and scientists, have literally taken to the streets outside the lab, protesting the mandate which orders them to get their first dose of the Covid vaccine or face termination. Concerning the lawsuit filed by the employees, The Hill wrote earlier that "Workers at the New Mexico laboratory, which created the atomic bomb, filed a lawsuit claiming that exemptions to the mandate have been denied without proper justification."Specifically the workers, among them dozens of scientists, are pushing back against federal contractor Triad National Security LLC, which runs the lab under contract of the US Department of Energy.

Signs of the Times

New Capitol video contradicts Justice Department, media narrative on January 6

Over the objection of Joe Biden's Justice Department, a lengthy video clip showing U.S. Capitol Police allowing hundreds of people into the building on the afternoon of January 6 has been released to the public. In July, Ethan Nordean, an alleged Proud Boy member charged for various crimes now held in a Seattle jail awaiting trial, petitioned the court to remove the "highly sensitive" designation on surveillance video that recorded Nordean entering the building with permission by U.S. Capitol Police. A group called the Press Coalition, representing news organizations including CNN, the New York Times, and the three major broadcast news networks, filed a motion in September to intervene in Nordean's case and make the video footage public. The full recording was posted on Twitter by BuzzFeed reporter Zoe Tillman this morning. Capturing the activity in a small hallway on the upper west side terrace of the Capitol building, the clip runs from 2:25 p.m. until about 3:00 p.m. This is...

Signs of the Times

Facebook is planning to change its name

RUMOURS in tech circles suggest Facebook is planning a name change imminently. Sources well placed within the trusted circle of the company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg have leaked a number of the names being reconsidered in a rebrand that if successful, will make the public forget about the 1,345 weekly scandals engulfing the social network. While some branding experts have suggested the company's reputation is so beyond salvaging that cancer has a better chance of a rebrand, here are the contenders: The Doom Machine Rationale: better reflects users' true feelings towards the platform, and the eroding effect it has had on public discourse and the mental well-being of your aunt Sharon. Acebook Rationale: it's fun! It's fresh! It's much easier coming up with a new name than actually fixing the huge number of problems/legal trouble you find yourself in. Havyurdata Rationale: complain all you like, they have your data now and they're not giving it back, and with Havyurdata they'll have a...