Signs of the Times

3 killed in lightning strike in Chhattisgarh, India

A 60-year-old woman, her daughter and a man were killed after being struck by lightning in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Saturday. The incident took place at Kesla village under Lailunga police station limits late Friday evening, a police official said. The deceased were identified as Khulaso Sarthi (60), her daughter Kamla (30) and Sukhiram Banjara (34), all residents of Lailunga, he said. "The victims were hit by lightning when they were trying to find shelter from rain," he said, adding that before the incident, they had gone to a nearby temple. On being informed, police rushed to the village and sent their bodies to the Community Health Centre in Lailunga for autopsy, the official said.

Signs of the Times

Shallow magnitude 6 earthquake in the North Atlantic Ocean

Very strong magnitude 6.0 earthquake at 10 km depth Date & time Oct 1, 2022 01:18:53 UTC Local time at epicenter Friday, Sep 30, 2022 at 11:18 pm (GMT -2) Status Confirmed Magnitude 6 Depth 10.0 km Epicenter latitude / longitude 53.7113°N / 35.5271°W

Signs of the Times

How the Sept 11th victims' families search for answers was met with Stonewalling, Lies and Political Theatre

Introduction On November 24, 2007, September 11th widow Lorie Van Auken whose husband Kenneth W. Van Auken had died in the North Tower spoke before an audience at the Episcopal Church-in-the-Bowery. In support of a campaign for the City of New York to investigate the 'attacks,' she remarked: "It turns out almost everything about 9/11 was out of the ordinary, including the fact that it was never properly investigated.... The reason that we need an investigation into 9/11 is because we never actually had one. The 9/11 Commission was not a real investigation. It was political theatre. The family members who were involved with the commission actually had more questions after the 9/11 independent commission was completed than we had before it was begun" [1]. Lorie Van Auken was one of a dozen members of the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, families went to memorial services for their loved ones and grieved in...

Signs of the Times

Stone spheres could be from ancient Greek board game

Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have suggested that mysterious stone spheres found at various ancient settlements across the Aegean and Mediterranean could be playing pieces from one of the earliest ever board games. There has been quite a lot of speculation around these spheres found at sites on Santorini, Crete, Cyprus, and other Greek Islands with theories around their use including being for some sort of sling stones, tossing balls, counting/record-keeping system or as counters/pawns. Previous research by the same team from the University of Bristol indicated that there was variability in sphere size within specific clusters and collections of spheres. Following on from this the team wanted to explore potential patterning within these sphere concentrations, to help give an insight into their potential use. The latest study published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports by Drs Christianne Fernée and Konstantinos Trimmis from the University of...

Signs of the Times

Putin signs treaties on accession of former Ukrainian regions to Russia

President Vladimir Putin has signed treaties on the inclusion of four former Ukrainian regions, into the Russian Federation. Friday's ceremony marked the start of the formal process of their accession. Heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, as well as the leaders of Kherson and Zaporozhye, Vladimir Saldo and Evgeny Balitsky, signed the documents together with Putin. The move follows official requests by the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, as well as the two southern Ukrainian regions, which had declared independence, to join Russia. All four territories held referendums on the issue between September 23 and 27, which saw overwhelming support for the move, according to results announced earlier this week by local election committees. In Donetsk, 99.23% of the people voted to reunite with Moscow, with Lugansk showing a slightly lower figure of 98.42%. Zaporozhye Region highly supported the idea of splitting from Ukraine and...

Signs of the Times

Head of Russian Security Council: West is the primary beneficiary of Nord Stream pipeline attack

The US stands to benefit economically from the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and has a record of targeting energy infrastructure with sabotage operations, the head of Russia's Security Council said. "Pretty much from the first minutes after the news of the explosions broke ... the West launched an active campaign for assigning blame. But it is obvious that the primary beneficiary, first of all in the economic sense, was the US," Nikolay Patrushev said on Friday. Comment: In politics, always ask who benefits from this act. The answer to the question can easily lead one to the likely culprit behind the action. He compared this week's incident with the attack on Nicaragua's oil infrastructure in Puerto Sandino in 1983. Back then CIA officers, based on a ship moored in international waters, coordinated a raid by commandos they had trained to fight against the Sandinista government, US press reported at the time. The US spy agency also provided speed boats for the raid,...

Signs of the Times

Right-wingers score wins in the EU, as Brussels hints at consequences

Europe's far-right scored another victory this week as Italy's Giorgia Meloni and her party, Brothers of Italy, won big in the country's general election. It marks the first time since 1948, when Italy's anti-fascist constitution came into force, that a party with fascist roots has come to power in the southern European country. This follows a similar pattern that happened in Sweden two weeks ago, when that country's far-right claimed a significant electoral victory. Seen as a beacon of liberal social democracy in places like the United States, Sweden will now be ruled by once-fringe populist rightists. We can even see this emerging in historical Eastern Europe, as the latest local elections over the weekend in the Czech Republic saw modest advances for the country's populist opposition. Led primarily by billionaire former prime minister Andrej Babis and his party, ANO, this is by no means a win for the ideological right - but it does show resentment for the prevailing center-right...

Signs of the Times

Norwegian energy operators spotted unidentified drones before Nord Stream blasts

Norway's offshore energy operators reported an increasing number of unidentified drones near their platforms in the days leading up to the apparent sabotage of the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines. The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority held a meeting with members of the country's oil and gas industry on Thursday, warning them that recent reports indicated "increased drone activity" over the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). "These craft have been of different sizes, and their presence has been growing - particularly in September," the agency stated, adding that the drone sightings are being investigated by the Norwegian police. In a letter dated last Friday, the agency warned Norway's maritime and aviation authorities that energy operators on the NCS had "recently given warnings/notifications of a number of observations concerning unidentified drones/aircraft close to offshore installations."

Signs of the Times

Ex-Polish FM deletes tweet implying US sabotaged gas pipeline

Polish MEP and former foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski has deleted a tweet in which he thanked the United States for apparently blowing up Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines. Sikorski still reckons the US had the "motive and the ability" to sabotage the lines. After the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines lost all pressure on Monday following a series of underwater explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm, Sikorski took to Twitter to gloat, posting a photo of a massive gas leak in the Baltic Sea and declaring, "Thank you, USA." He added that the apparent act of sabotage means that Russia will now need to negotiate with Ukraine and Poland to ensure the continued flow of gas to Europe. As of Thursday, Sikorski has deleted his thank-you message to Washington. In a tweet posted on Wednesday, he clarified that he was "glad that the Nordstream ... is paralyzed." "I naturally make working hypotheses about who had the motive and the ability to do so only on my own behalf," he...

Signs of the Times

West 'clinging to the past' - Putin

Unwilling to accept the inevitable end of its unipolar hegemony, the West is generating problems and crises everywhere in order to cling to the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. "We are witnessing a complex process of a more just world order being established " Putin told the video conference of intelligence and security chiefs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). "Unipolar hegemony is inexorably collapsing, this is an objective reality that the West categorically refuses to accept, and we see everything that follows from this." The US and its allies "cling to the past and try to dictate policy everywhere, from international relations and economics to culture and sports," Putin said, adding that the collective West "does not disdain any method of pressuring countries that choose a sovereign path of development, those who do not wish to submit but freely and independently choose their own future, safeguarding their culture, tradition and values."...

Signs of the Times

'I can't imagine our future differently': Donbass residents explain why they voted to join Russia

Last week, referendums on once-again becoming part of Russia were held in the Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) People's Republics, as well as in the liberated territories of Zaporozhye, Kherson, and Nikolaev regions (the latter was annexed to Kherson Region). According to the results, the 'For' option won all four by an overwhelming margin. RT's correspondent in Donbass, Vladislav Ugolny, has been observing the sentiment there for the past eight years. He describes how the referendums took place, what they meant to local residents, and why their outcome simply could not have been different. All arguments 'against' For those who are sufficiently immersed in the history of the struggle of the Russian residents of Ukraine for unity with their historic homeland, the results of the referendums are hardly surprising. But it is also worth pointing out from the start that not everyone in these regions took part in the vote. In 2020, one soldier told his comrades-in-arms that he was only...

Signs of the Times

"We're horrified": Major brands pull Twitter ad campaigns over child porn

When it comes to policing mean tweets - or any opinion to the right of Mao, Twitter's army of pink-haired social justice censors is on it. But when it comes to pedophiles, the social media giant's censorship is so lax that major advertisers - including Dyson, Mazda, Forbes and PBS Kids - have suspended their marketing campaigns or removed ads from 'parts of Twitter' because their promotions were featured next to tweets soliciting child pornography, Reuters reports. DIRECTV and Thoughtworks also told Reuters late on Wednesday they have paused their advertising on Twitter. Brands ranging from Walt Disney Co, NBCUniversal and Coca-Cola Co to a children's hospital were among more than 30 advertisers that appeared on the profile pages of Twitter accounts peddling links to the exploitative material, according to a Reuters review of accounts identified in new research about child sex abuse online from cybersecurity group Ghost Data. -Reuters

Signs of the Times

Israel admits its involvement in planning a war against Russia

On September 27, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that Tel Aviv would not recognise the results of referendums held in four districts of Ukraine, where even before the results of the referendums were summed up, it became clear that the overwhelming majority of local residents supported the entry of their districts into the Russian Federation. The Soviet Union severed diplomatic relations with Israel in 1967. Relations were restored only in 1991, shortly before the collapse of the USSR. Today, we can see how "enthusiastically" the Israeli leadership demonstrates its support for Washington's position on many issues. And all this is done for the sake of preserving American hegemony in a unipolar world, in order to please its overseas master, regardless of whether he is a Democrat or a Republican. The main thing is that Israel continues to receive guaranteed assistance from the world gendarme, which ensures the security of Israeli borders, enables the occupiers to pursue a policy...

Signs of the Times

The Americans did it

In his remarkable book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism, the Flemish psychologist Mathias Desmet explains how collective psychosis can cause people to lose their critical faculties. He cites a famous experiment in which a person can be made to say that one line on a diagram is the same length as another, when in fact it is longer, if seven or eight actors have pretended to come to the same conclusion before him. Desmet is writing mainly about the coercive psychosis of Covid. But the same arguments apply to the current collective psychosis about Russia. For years and decades now, we have been fed horror stories about Russia. These have of course only increased in intensity since the invasion of Ukraine. We have now reached a situation in which entire sections of the media, and their respective national governments, claim to believe things which are simply impossible. The latest example is the apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Russia has been immediately blamed...

Signs of the Times

EU parliamentarian calls to sanction Vanessa Beeley and all observers of Donbass referendums

MEP Nathalie Loiseau of France is lobbying for individual sanctions on all observers of the Russian-organized referendums in the Donbass region. She has singled out journalist Vanessa Beeley not only for her coverage of the vote, but for her reporting on the foreign-back war against Syria's government. A French Member of European Parliament (MEP), Natalie Loiseau, has delivered a letter to EU High Representative of Foreign Affairs, Joseph Borrell, demanding the European Union place personal sanctions on all international observers of the recent votes in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and certain Russian-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine. Obtained by The Grayzone from an EU source, the letter is currently being circulated among European parliamentarians in hopes of securing a docket of supportive signatures. "We, as elected members of the European Parliament, demand that all those who voluntarily assisted in any way the organization of these illegitimate...

Signs of the Times

Putin outlines goals of 'geopolitical adversaries'

Russia's adversaries in the West are willing to create crises and unleash violence anywhere in the post-Soviet world, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday. Addressing a meeting with the heads of intelligence for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Putin said Russia's "geopolitical adversaries" are prepared to turn any country "into a ground zero of a crisis," and to unleash "bloody massacres," Putin said by videolink. "We also know that the West is devising scenarios for inciting new conflicts in the CIS. But we already have enough of them." He pointed to the current military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, as well as "what is happening on the borders of other CIS countries," an apparent reference to recent border clashes between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan, as well as between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Signs of the Times

US Senate approves $12 Billion in new aid for Ukraine amid war

The US Senate approved $12 billion in new economic and military aid for Ukraine Thursday as part of a stopgap extension of the federal budget into December. The measure, agreed by senators of both parties, includes $3 billion for arms, supplies and salaries for Ukraine's military, and authorizes President Joe Biden to direct the US Defense Department to take $3.7 billion worth of its own weapons and materiel to provide Ukraine. It also provides $4.5 billion for Kyiv to keep the country's finances stable and keep the government running, providing services to the Ukrainian people. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to declare the annexation of parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops on Friday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced: "Seven months since the conflict began, it's crystal clear that American assistance has gone a long way to helping the Ukrainian people resist Putin's evil, vicious aggression. But the fight is far from over, and we must, we...

Signs of the Times

IDF to use armed drones for targeted killings in West Bank

IDF commanders in the West Bank have been given the green light to use armed drones to carry out targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists, with the approval of Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi. According to sources, commanders will now be allowed to use the platforms not only as cover and intelligence for forces during operations but also to carry out strikes should armed gunmen be identified as posing imminent threats to their troops. The order comes as Israeli security forces have encountered a significant rise in shooting attacks and massive gunfire during arrest raids, specifically in the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus. On Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed and 44 others injured during an arrest raid that saw heavy gunfire targeting troops who had entered Jenin's refugee camp to arrest Abd al-Rahman Hazem, brother of the terrorist who killed three civilians on Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Street in April. Kohavi later met with Central Command chief Maj.-Gen....

Signs of the Times

GOP Rep. Chip Roy blasts Democrats for handling of stock trading bill

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy is ripping Democrats for claiming publicly that they support a bill aimed at preventing lawmakers from insider trading. In a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Texas Republican slammed Democrats for not moving with any urgency to at least hold a vote on the STOCK Act. Roy noted that he had worked with Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger on the bill that would prevent lawmakers and members of their families from trading individual stocks. He wrote: "As you are aware, the House floor schedule this week contains the 'Possible Consideration of Legislation Related to the STOCK Act.' I am glad to see the House finally taking up the idea of reforming policies related to Member stock trading. However, as one of the original sponsors of reform language — notably introducing HR336, the TRUST in Congress Act, some 2 years ago with my Democrat colleague from Virginia, Abigail Spanberger — I was interested to see the 'final' language via Jake Sherman's...

Signs of the Times

Memory holed, part II: The "rigged" election

Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton raised doubts about elections in the same way, before and after votes. Matt Orfalea's follow-up video his "The Russians Hacked the Election" piece rescues for posterity another key piece of history likely to be suppressed: the fact that both Democrats and Republicans raised doubts about the legitimacy of the election process. This took place not only after 2016, but both before and after the 2020 vote. These campaigns were two sides of the same coin. Trump raised doubts about the reliability of mail-in votes, and admonished supporters ahead of time that a Trump loss should be understood as a fix. Meanwhile, Democrats and media figures — as well as a seemingly endless succession of named and unnamed intelligence sources — argued Russians were bent on corrupting the vote. Hillary Clinton went so far as to say Joe Biden shouldn't concede "under any circumstances."

Signs of the Times

"No evidence" US involved in Nord Stream pipeline attack because Pentagon says so

Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin has confirmed that the U.S. was not responsible for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline explosion, because the Pentagon told her so. Yes, really. Despite accusations flying that the United States could have been involved in the blasts that have reportedly could scupper the pipelines permanently, and without any investigation having taken place, Griffin's crack journalism has solved the case. Well, that's that then, case closed.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB FLASHBACK: Reagan Approved Plan to Sabotage Soviets Gas Pipeline In 1982

In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official. Thomas C. Reed, a former Air Force secretary who was serving in the National Security Council at the time, describes the episode in "At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War," to be published next month by Ballantine Books. Reed writes that the pipeline explosion was just one example of "cold-eyed economic warfare" against the Soviet Union that the CIA carried out under Director William J. Casey during the final years of the Cold War. At the time, the United States was attempting to block Western Europe from importing Soviet natural gas. There were also signs that the Soviets were trying to steal a wide variety of Western technology. Then, a KGB...

Signs of the Times

Genetically modified mosquitoes vaccinate a human

A box full of genetically modified mosquitos successfully vaccinated a human against malaria in a trial funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH). The study involved about 200 hungry mosquitos biting a human subject's arm. Human participants placed their arms directly over a small box full of the bloodsuckers.

Signs of the Times

Heavy rains in Barquisimeto, Venezuela causes flooding and power failures

Civil Protection in Barquisimeto, Lara state, reported that the rains recorded during the afternoon of Tuesday, September 27, caused flooded roads, power failures and fallen trees to be recorded in several areas of the region. The governor of the entity, Adolfo Pereira, offered on Tuesday a first report on the effects of the rains in the region. The authority pointed out that the rain caused at least six trees to collapse on Rotary Avenue. In total, at least 25 fallen trees are counted in various sectors. He explained that crews from the Iribarren fire department are attending to the situation.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Hurricane Ian knocks out power to 2 million on destructive path across Florida - at least 21 dead (UPDATE)

Ian was expected to dump 12 to 18 inches of rain on much of central and northeast Florida, with some locations being hit with as much as 2 feet of rain. Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday, lashing the region with torrential rain and winds of 150 mph and knocking out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses. The "catastrophic" system, one of the most powerful hurricanes to strike the U.S. in decades, came ashore near Cayo Costa, just west of Fort Myers, around 3 p.m. after strengthening to a powerful Category 4 storm, the National Hurricane Center said. Hours after landfall, top sustained winds had dropped to 105 mph, making it a Category 2 hurricane. Still, storm surges as high as 6 feet were expected on the opposite side of the state, in northeast Florida. "Our streets are pretty much underwater," said Mike McNees, the city manager on Marco Island. "The streets, at this point, are indistinguishable from the canals."

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Anti-Globalism Is Going Mainstream - Which Means Engineered Disaster Is About To Strike

I have noted in the past that criminals tend to brag about their criminality when they believe there's nothing anyone can do about it. Frankly, in their narcissism many of them can't help but revel in the moment and let everyone know how "superior" they are to the rest of us. We witnessed many moments like this from elitists within globalists institutions the past couple of years at the height of the pandemic pandemonium. There were people like the globalist academics at MIT proclaiming that we were "never going back to normal" and that we were going to have to accept the loss of many of our freedoms for the rest of our lives in order to combat the spread of covid. There were people like Klaus Schwab declaring the beginning of the "Great Reset" and the launch of what the Davos crowd calls the "4th Industrial Revolution." There have also been MANY political leaders like Joe Biden that strut around on the media stage accusing ideological opponents (conservatives mostly) of being...

Signs of the Times

"Historic levels of fraud": US watchdog estimates $45.6 billion bilked from pandemic unemployment program

A federal watchdog has found that $45.6 billion may have been scammed out of the nation's unemployment program during the pandemic, as fraudsters used a variety of methods to commit fraud - including using the Social Security numbers of dead people, hard-to-trace emails, and the identities of prisoners who were ineligible for aid. According to the Washington Post, a Thursday report by the inspector general for the Labor Department reveals that the program - which helped some 57 million families in the first five months of the crisis - became an easy target for criminals. To siphon away funds, scammers allegedly filed billions of dollars in unemployment claims in multiple states simultaneously and relied on suspicious, hard-to-trace emails. In some cases, they used more than 205,000 Social Security numbers that belonged to dead people. Other suspected criminals obtained benefits using the identities of prisoners who were ineligible for aid. But officials at the watchdog office...

Signs of the Times

30 ex-FBI agents stand up to support whistleblower who exposed agency's political bias

Thirty former FBI agents, including a retired deputy assistant director, head of counterterrorism and five SWAT team members, have spoken out publicly in support of suspended FBI whistleblower Stephen Friend. Their heartfelt messages, obtained exclusively by The Post, show a deep and widespread anguish about the politicization of the FBI. "It's time to stop the FBI from being the enforcer of a political party's ideology," says Ernie Tibaldi, a retired agent from San Francisco. "We need to re-establish the FBI as the apolitical and independent law enforcement entity that it always was."

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Unpacking the Ukraine 'Game Change': Is a major conflict inevitable?

Russia is preparing for an escalation in this war. She is augmenting her forces to the minimum level that could deal with a major NATO offensive. This decision was not precipitated by a significant attrition in the existing force. The facts are clear: The militias of Donetsk and Luhansk represent the majority of the Russian allied forces fighting in the Donbas. The militias have been reinforced by contract soldiers from the Wagner Group and Chechen fighters however, rather than by regular Russian forces. But this is about to change. The number of Russian regulars fighting in Ukraine will rise dramatically. However, the referenda in the Ukrainian oblasts come first; and those will be followed by the Government of Russia and the Duma accepting the results and approving the annexation of these territories. After that is concluded and the territories assimilated into Russia, any attack on the new Russian territories would be treated as an act of war against Russia. As former Indian...

Signs of the Times

Germany to spend €200 billion in attempt to stabilize soaring energy costs

Germany's government says it will spend up to €200 billion to help consumers and businesses cope with rising energy prices. Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Thursday that the government is reactivating an economic stabilising fund and "will do everything it can" to bring prices down. Comment: Without Russia's critical supplies, there's not much it can do. Well, unless they plan on going all Weimar and literally burning money to stay warm. Prices for natural gas -- used to heat homes, generate electricity, and power factories -- have surged across Europe amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Comment: Russia's special operation in Ukraine didn't stop energy supplies, the West sanctioned itself out of the market. Germany previously used the so-called "defensive shield" to support the country during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund will cap the price German customers pay for gas and relieve them from inflation.

Signs of the Times

Indonesia - 6 killed in South Kalimantan landslide triggered by heavy rain

At least 6 people died after heavy rain triggered a landslide in South Kalimantan Province in Indonesia on 26 September 2022. Heavy rain falling on unstable ground near the site of a gold mine led to a massive landslide in Buluh Kuning village, Sei Durian District of Kotabaru Regency, South Kalimantan Province, late on 26 September 2022. Indonesia's disaster management agency BNPB reported 6 people lost their lives in the landslide and emergency teams are searching for a further 5 people thought to be still missing. Six other were injured. Heavy digging equipment is expected at the site to aid the search operation.

Signs of the Times

The Bank of England just saved the stock market... for now

After a tough week, The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed nearly 550 points on Wednesday. It has been a brutal month for the market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 7.4%, or more than 2,370 points, in September. The main culprit has been the hawkish Federal Reserve, which not only continued to aggressively raise interest rates but also continues to forecast more big rate hikes ahead this year. The market now firmly believes a more severe recession is inevitable in 2023 once these rate hikes fully work their way through the economy.

Signs of the Times

Tropical Cyclone Noru leaves 4 dead, thousands displaced in Vietnam and Thailand - 18 inches of rain in 35 hours

Disaster authorities in South East Asia report that heavy rain from Tropical Cyclone Noru has caused severe flooding and landslides across parts of Vietnam and Thailand after previously causing widespread damage and flooding in the Philippines. Vietnam Before the storm struck in Vietnam as many as 327,937 people had been pre-emptively evacuated across the provinces of Thua Thien Hue, Danang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Bình Định. Vietnam's Disaster Management Authority (VDMA) reported wind damage in the provinces and cities of Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Kon Tum and Gia Lai from 28 September. Roofs were ripped from houses and areas were left without electricity.

Signs of the Times

Hungary's Orbán announces referendum on Russia sanctions, 'were not decided democratically but by bureaucrats & elites'

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced a referendum on the sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU due to the war in Ukraine. "The sanctions were not decided democratically, but were decided by Brussels bureaucrats and European elites," he said on Monday. "Although Europe's citizens are paying the price, they were not asked," he added. Orbán has been raging for months against the sanctions imposed on Russia, even though Hungary has always voted in favour of the sanctions packages at the Council of the European Union, which has to take these decisions unanimously. The country, however, was able to negotiate an exemption from the Russian oil embargo.

Signs of the Times

Lubbock police investigating death, 3 dogs believed to be involved captured

On Wednesday, the Lubbock Police Department posted an update regarding an investigation following a death and dog attack in the city. "A death investigation is underway by the Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit, following a dog attack in North Lubbock Tuesday morning," reads a portion of the tweet with a link to more information about the investigation. A death investigation is underway by the Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit, following a dog attack in North Lubbock Tuesday morning. Click here for more information: https://t.co/epcDvo4rJf pic.twitter.com/DVjRUFib4d — Lubbock Police Dept. (@LubbockPolice) September 28, 2022 The Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit is conducting a death investigation following a Tuesday morning North Lubbock dog attack, the release states.

Signs of the Times

The Netherlands: Unusually cold in late September

A couple of weeks ago, with a temperature of 13.3 degrees Celsius, it was the coldest September 18th since the start of measurements. In addition, September 27th was one of the coldest ever recorded, with the lowest temperature at 9 degrees Celsius. The previous record dates from 1926, when 10.4 degrees Celsius was recorded in the Dutch municipality of De Bilt. Meteorologist Wouter van Bernebeek told Dutch news site NU.nl: Around this time of year it's normal when it's 18 to 19 degrees Celsius. This week, some places will not even reach 10 degrees Celsius. We have had years with 25 degrees Celsius or more, even in October. In the coming days we will go to 15 to 16 degrees Celsius with fairly cold nights and possibly fog. You really can't call that a late summer.

Signs of the Times

Canada's gender authorities push for 'two spirit' inclusivity but can't even define the word

The term two-spirit is one that Canadians hear a lot these days, but few actually know it means. Turns out that's because "there is no way to define the term," according to a document produced by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (EFTO). "A lot of Americans ask me what 'two-spirit' means. the fact is that even Canadians don't know, & we aren't allowed to ask. so I was interested in this 30-page ... doc about the issue. Alas, page 10 informs us 'there is no way to define the term,'" tweeted Quillette editor Jon Kay.

Signs of the Times

German spies secretly helping Ukraine - media

The BND also reportedly backed the illegal 2003 US invasion of Iraq, despite Berlin's official line. German foreign intelligence service BND has been forwarding satellite imagery, radio and phone intercept data to Kiev for months, helping the Ukrainian war effort while Berlin has officially maintained it wasn't party to the conflict, Zeit magazine revealed on Wednesday. The information "can be incorporated into war planning and help the Ukrainian army to assess the combat effectiveness and morale of Russian units or to check their positions," Zeit wrote, describing it as the German contribution to the "turning point" on the battlefield. Zeit also revealed that German spies fed the US some intelligence from Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq invasion. Berlin had officially declined to share information with Washington during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, reportedly to BND's frustration. This time around, however, the spies unanimously decided that the "exceptional historical...

Signs of the Times

The Justice Department Was Dangerous Before Trump. It's Out of Control Now

The current Trump investigation is just the latest chapter of a long-brewing civil liberties nightmare. On Monday, August 8, Justice Department officials spent nine hours raiding the Mar-a-Lago home of Donald Trump, carrying out 12 boxes of material. When criticism ensued, FBI spokespeople in wounded tones insisted the press eschew the harsh term "raid," and use "execution of a search warrant" instead. "Agents don't like the word 'raid,' they don't like it," complained former assistant FBI counterintelligence director turned MSNBC analyst Frank Figliuzzi. He added with unintentional irony: "It sounds like it's some sort of extrajudicial, non-legal thing." But it was a raid, as the surprisingly enormous number of people who've been on the business end of such actions since 9/11 will report. The state more and more now avails itself of a procedural trick that would have horrified everyone from Jefferson to to Potter Stewart to Thurgood Marshall. Investigating, say, one lawyer,...

Signs of the Times

First probable impact crater discovered in Spain

The first probable impact crater in Spain has been identified in the southern province of Almeria. The discovery was presented last week at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 by Juan Antonio Sánchez Garrido of the University of Almeria. While around 200 impact structures have been identified around the world, the study is the first to identify signs of an impact crater on the Iberian Peninsula. The discovery is the result of 15 years of research by an international team of scientists from the University of Almeria, the Astrobiology Center of Madrid, the University of Lund and the University of Copenhagen. Prof Sánchez Garrido said: "We believe that the impact event occurred around 8 million years ago. We have investigated numerous aspects of the geology, minerology, geochemistry and geomorphology of the region. The basins of Alhabia and Tabernas in the area are filled with sediments dating back between 5 and 23 million years, and they overlie older metamorphic rocks. Much...

Signs of the Times

Who profits from Pipeline Terror?

Secret talks between Russia and Germany to resolve their Nord Stream 1 and 2 issues had to be averted at any cost. The War of Economic Corridors has entered incandescent, uncharted territory: Pipeline Terror. A sophisticated military operation - that required exhaustive planning, possibly involving several actors - blew up four separate sections of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) gas pipelines this week in the shallow waters of the Danish straits, in the Baltic Sea, near the island of Bornholm. Swedish seismologists estimated that the power of the explosions may have reached the equivalent of up to 700 kg of TNT. Both NS and NS2, near the strong currents around Borholm, are placed at the bottom of the sea at a depth of 60 meters. The pipes are built with steel reinforced concrete, able to withstand impact from aircraft carrier anchors, and are basically indestructible without serious explosive charges. The operation - causing two leaks near Sweden and two near Denmark...

Signs of the Times

New energy protest roils EU country

A crowd numbered in the tens of thousands gathered in Prague on Wednesday to protest against the Czech government, NATO, and the European Union. Demonstrators called for Czechia's neutrality and protested Prime Minister Petr Fiala's policy of sanctioning Russia, which has driven up energy prices. Meeting on St. Wenceslas' Day - a public holiday celebrating Czech statehood - the crowd took to Prague's main square, named after the medieval saint, and chanted slogans against the EU, NATO and Fiala's cabinet. Prague police would not give a specific figure of the estimated crowd size, calling it only "tens of thousands." The protest was organized by a group called 'Czech Republic First,' which Reuters described as a coalition of "far-right and fringe groups and parties including the Communists." CRF opposes the EU and NATO and has called for Czechia's military neutrality. "A government has two duties: to ensure our security and economic prosperity. This government does not fulfill...

Signs of the Times

Court orders production of Seth Rich laptop

Today, a federal judge ordered the FBI to "produce the information it possesses related to Seth Rich's laptop." This case involves a multi-year fight by attorney Ty Clevenger to obtain records relating to the FBI/DOJ investigation of Seth Rich, particularly whether Rich was involved in the hack of the DNC or had communicated with Wikileaks. This fight dates back to 2017 and includes two FOIA lawsuit. In the first lawsuit, the FBI produced no responsive documents. The parties knew the FBI had something, and so this sparked a second lawsuit - where the FBI somehow found 20,000 pages of potentially responsive documents. The court explains: Of those 20,000 pages, the government found 1,596 pages of responsive documents, of which the government withheld 1,469 pages under various FOIA exemptions (privacy, law enforcement exemption, etc.). The FBI also withheld the contents of Seth Rich's personal laptop, which it possesses, in its entirety, alleging the privacy of Rich's family in...

Signs of the Times

UK pension funds bond crash prompts historic Bank of England emergency intervention

The Bank of England launched a historic intervention to stabilize the U.K. economy, announcing a two-week purchase program for long-dated bonds and delaying its planned gilt sales until the end of October. The move came after a massive sell-off in U.K. government bonds — known as "gilts" — following the new government's fiscal policy announcements Friday. Comment: Lest we forget that there's much more happening to Western economies than just this announcement; including but not limited to: the proxy-war on Russia; 2 years of lockdowns; the energy crisis; as well as over a decade of worsening corruption and greed since the last crash. The policies included large swathes of unfunded tax cuts that have drawn global criticism, and also saw the pound fall to an all-time low against the dollar on Monday.

Signs of the Times

US urges Americans to leave Russia in wake of 'sabotage' of Nord Stream pipelines

The State Department is urging Americans to leave Russia "as soon as possible" in the wake of the suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines. The official reasoning they're giving to tell everyone to leave is to avoid getting conscripted in their mobilization effort but that logic only applies to dual citizens and this advisory is for all Americans. I suspect the real reason they're telling everyone to leave is the risk of a full-blown war breaking out due to the US, Ukraine or Poland being responsible for the extremely stupid, belligerent alleged bombing of the pipelines.

Signs of the Times

Top climate scientist slams "Goebellian" climate alarm and "ridiculous" attempts to demonize "fertiliser" carbon dioxide

Warming by carbon dioxide is logarithmic due to 'saturation' within the infrared spectrum, and any future doubling of the gas in the atmosphere will be associated with the same warming of around 1°C. This result is not considered controversial, argues atmospheric scientist and Emeritus Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT - although it might be noted that it is, since it fatally undermines the political 'settled' science concept of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming. Professor Lindzen notes that the present "absurd 'scientific' narrative" leaves us with a quasi-religious movement - atop of all this has been the "constant Goebellian repetition by the media of climate alarm". In a paper published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), Lindzen warns that unless we wake up to the absurdity of the motivating narrative, "this is only likely to be the beginning of the disasters that will follow from the current irrational demonization of CO2". These disasters, of course,...

Signs of the Times

U.S. announces $1.1 billion in aid for building Ukraine's military

The United States will provide an additional $1.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including funding for about 18 more advanced rocket systems and other weapons to counter drones, the White House announced on September 28. The package is aimed at helping Ukraine secure its longer-term defense needs under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds the purchase of weapons and equipment. This means it could take a year or more for Ukraine to get the systems. Most of the other military aid packages announced by the United States have thus far used Pentagon drawdown authority to provide weapons more immediately.

Signs of the Times

New Zealand's PM calls internet freedom & free speech a 'weapon of war' in UN speech

New Zealand communist Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern labeled internet freedom a "weapon of war" in her most recent UN speech before the General Assembly this week. Leftist Ardern, who ruled her country like a 20th Century despot during the COVID pandemic, called out for a new type of internet with "rules and transparency." In the next breath, she says she "values free speech so highly." She is the typical leftist elitist leader in the world today. And she insists on giving Communist Justin Trudeau a run for his money. Comment: She's allied with neither left nor right, she's merely a willing pawn using political parties to implement the establishment's nefarious agenda.

Signs of the Times

Bank Of England emergency action, what it means

Central Banks are intervening more in markets. I don't want to repeat what market participants are telling me about the Bank of England's (BoE) move to save pension funds from supposedly going belly up. They bought an unlimited amount of sovereign bonds to bring yields down and bond prices back up. They were supposedly afraid of a wave of insolvencies. That's the word on the streets of London. "The Bank of England is in a sense responsible for this because they have hopped onto this central banker hubris right now, which is to dampen demand to stop inflation," says Vladimir Signorelli, head of Bretton Woods Research. "I believe this means they are going to flood the U.K. monetary system with liquidity. When the Bank of England buys bonds, it puts more liquidity into the economy, but when you have more (British) pounds in the economy than is necessary, then you have a pound that gets weaker and weaker. It's money printing. That is their answer. Their answer to contraction is money...

Signs of the Times

Trans 'charity' Mermaids is a scandal unfolding before our eyes

A scheme to send 'harmful' breast binders to children behind parents' backs, and staff pushing puberty-blocking drugs. Is it time to withdraw its status as a charity? Like many troubled adolescents, the 13-year-old who logged on to an online forum was looking for guidance and support. Calling themselves a 'female to male trans' person, they spoke of their physical self-loathing. They were desperate, they said, to wear both a 'packer' — used to create the impression of male genitalia — and a 'binder', an item of clothing designed to flatten and constrict the breasts, and which can cause serious health issues. 'The thing is, my mum won't let me,' they wrote of the binder in 2019. 'She says it's neglect to do it for under-18s.' No binder? No problem. The chatroom moderator offered to send the item to the troubled teenager — behind their mother's back. Many would feel that such an intervention was questionable from any source. But this wasn't just an anonymous nobody — the offer came...

Signs of the Times

Moscow warns US against 'using Zelensky regime' as proxy

Washington risks becoming a direct party to the war with continued arms shipments, Moscow's envoy warned. Russia will act to defend all of its territory and people, as well as residents of regions in eastern Ukraine that voted to join the Russian Federation this week, Moscow's ambassador to the United States has said, accusing both Washington and NATO of stoking further violence with military aid to Kiev. Asked about recent comments from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken - who said the White House has no problem with Kiev using Western arms to attack territories that voted to join Russia - Ambassador Anatoly Antonov warned that the weapons shipments only risk "further escalation of the conflict." Comment: See: Ukraine can use Western weapons against 'territories seized by Russia' - US

Signs of the Times

Supply chain effects from Hurricane Ian could linger for weeks

Citrus growers, manufacturers, marine terminals at high risk of damage and delays The risk to manufacturing, agriculture and distribution sectors in Florida is rapidly intensifying as powerful Hurricane Ian takes aim at the state's southwest coast. But the economic ripple effects are likely to be felt well beyond the storm zone. Experts are predicting severe disruption to supply chains from flooding, power outages and wind damage that could stall factory and farm production, as well as freight movement through major port, airport, highway and rail nodes. The Tampa-to-Orlando corridor is chockablock full of huge retail and e-commerce distribution centers. Meanwhile, Typhoon Noru is similarly upsetting supply chains in Southeast Asia as it barrels across the South China Sea toward Vietnam. Ian is expected to make landfall in western Florida on Wednesday, according to forecasters. Major flooding from the storm surge is expected for communities along Tampa Bay. The storm could impact...

Signs of the Times

Stress has an odour and dogs can smell it - new research

Dogs can smell stress from human sweat and breath, a new study by Queen's University Belfast researchers has found. The study involved four dogs from Belfast - Treo, Fingal, Soot and Winnie - and 36 people. Researchers collected samples of sweat and breath from participants before and after they did a difficult maths problem. They self-reported their stress levels before and after the task and researchers only used samples where the person's blood pressure and heart rate had increased. The dogs were taught how to search a scent line-up and alert researchers to the correct sample. The stress and relaxed samples were then introduced but at this stage the researchers didn't know if there was an odour difference that dogs could detect.

Signs of the Times

Biden vows next hurricane to hit US will be named after a woman of color

As Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, Biden held a press conference to criticize the hurricane naming system and vow that the next major storm will be named after a woman of color. "Seriously! Irma? Michael? Andrew? Ian? What's with all these white names, folks?" said Biden to several of his dead acquaintances who he saw sitting in the audience. "Why can't we have a Rosa Parks hurricane? Or maybe an Oprah? For real! It's not a joke! Come on, man!" The World Meteorological Association immediately responded to Biden's request and confirmed they have several names of influential women of color they hope to use for the next deadly tropical cyclone. At publishing time, sources confirmed Hurricane Lizzo is scheduled to make landfall next week.

Signs of the Times

America Is Successfully Pursuing ESG = Extreme Shortages Guaranteed

Everything that needs electricity is made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil. In an all-electric world, there will be nothing to power without oil. Energy growth, electricity AND the products made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil and the fuels to power ships, planes, militaries, and space programs, are directly linked to prosperity and well-being across the globe. Today, most of the energy the world consumes is from hydrocarbons, with crude oil being the dominant source of transportation fuels. Today, crude oil is the ONLY source for the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil that makes more than 6,000 products for society. President Biden's U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projections are that world energy consumption of crude oil, coal, natural gas, electricity from renewables, and nuclear will grow by 56 percent between 2010 and 2040. Without any replacements or clones to what fossil fuels can provide the EIA forecasts that...

Signs of the Times

Scott Ritter interview: A New War

How Donbass Joining Russia Just Turned the Tables on Ukraine For eight years, Ukrainian nationalists have been brutally hammering home a clear message to the people of Donbass: "Go home to Russia! We don't want you here!" Every bomb dropped on Donetsk and Lugansk screamed, "Go to Russia or die!" The rape of every woman, the bones and flesh of every person blown apart in the markets of Donetsk, every splintered hospital, smashed church, every pile of rubble hollered, "Go back to Russia, filthy Moskal!" Now, after eight long years of persecution by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, the people of Donbass have at last agreed to return to Russia. And they are taking their land with them. After all, many of these families have lived in the Donbass region longer than Ukraine has been a country. For generations they have plowed the fields and mined coal, long before Ukraine became an independent nation in 1991, when the USSR breathed its last, gasping breaths. After five days of voting, the final...

Signs of the Times

Crimea: 'Donbass republics joining Russia marks a 'point of no return'

Well, it seems the results are now in: The leaders of the Lugansk and Kherson regions have officially petitioned President Vladimir Putin to be accepted into the Russian Federation. This move follows successful referendums on joining Russia, with the overwhelming majority in favor of the historic move. In a video address published on Wednesday, LPR head Leonid Pasechnik said his republic's citizens have not received any support from other countries, even though they have been continuously bombarded by the NATO-backed regime in Kiev for over eight years. Vladimir Saldo, leader of the Kherson region, wrote to Putin asking that his territory to be accepted into the Russian Federation, stating that the people of Kherson have expressed their desire to "reunite with Russia," a nation which has "always lived in their hearts." While Ukrainian comedian and President Volodymyr Zelensky insists the votes will change nothing, history and demographics are not on his side. As Crimea can attest...

Signs of the Times

Putin's words must be taken seriously - Merkel

Western countries should take Russian President Vladimir Putin and his statements seriously, former German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday. Her remarks came after the Russian leader issued a warning to the West last week, noting that those who use nuclear blackmail against Moscow "should know that the wind rose can turn around." In a rare public appearance at the opening of the Chancellor Helmut Kohl Foundation in Berlin on Tuesday, Merkel noted that Vladimir Putin's words should not be ignored. "Not dismissing them as a bluff, but taking them seriously is by no means a sign of weakness. On the contrary, this is a sign of political wisdom, which helps to preserve room to maneuver or, no less important, even to develop a new one." She was apparently referring to Putin's statement last week, in which he signaled that Moscow would use "all means to defend Russia and our people" if its territorial integrity is threatened.

Signs of the Times

Russia issues emergency call to UN Security Council

Moscow wishes to call an emergency UN Security Council session over the "provocations" at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday in a Telegram post. Both pipelines were severely damaged earlier this week in what many suspect was a deliberate attack. Danish authorities confirmed gas leaks from the pipelines not far from the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea on Monday after the operator reported a loss of pressure in both Nord Stream 1 and 2. Swedish and Danish authorities later confirmed a series of undersea explosions had been detected before the leaks were confirmed. Russian, American, and Swedish officials all said that the damage might have been the result of a targeted attack on pipeline infrastructure. No suspects behind the incident have officially been named, although in a tweet former Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski "thanked" Washington for destroying the pipeline. Moscow, which called the...

Signs of the Times

Denmark's Queen Margrethe strips four grandchildren of royal title, princes 'shocked'

Denmark's Queen Margrethe, Europe's only reigning queen and the continent's longest serving monarch, has stripped four of her eight grandchildren of their titles, the palace announced. The official reason was to allow the four children of her youngest son, Prince Joachim, to live more normal lives, and follows similar moves by other royal families in Europe to slim down their monarchies, the palace said. "As of January 1 2023, the descendants of His Royal Highness Prince Joachim will only be able to use their titles of Count and Countess of Monpezat, their previous titles of Prince and Princess of Denmark ceasing to exist," a statement from the royal palace said on Wednesday. . Comment: And so we can see that they won't live 'normal' lives at all.

Signs of the Times

Shooting at California highschool campus leaves at least six people injured - violence in Oakland surged when lockdowns began

At least six people were injured in a shooting at a school campus in Oakland, on Wednesday, authorities in the northern California city said. The shooting occurred at Rudsdale Newcomer high school, said Darren Allison, the Oakland assistant police chief. The school serves students who are at risk of not graduating and have recently immigrated to the US after fleeing their home countries "because of violence and instability", according to the school's website. It is one of four adjacent schools that serve middle and high school students on Fontaine Street in east Oakland. "The victims were affiliated with the school and we are determining the affiliation at this time," Allison said, although he declined to say whether any students or teachers were involved.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Poland attacks Germany and blames Russia: The Bornholm blow up repeats the Bornholm Bash

The military operation on Monday night which fired munitions to blow holes in the Nord Stream I and Nord Stream II pipelines on the Baltic Sea floor, near Bornholm Island, was executed by the Polish Navy and special forces. It was aided by the Danish and Swedish military; planned and coordinated with US intelligence and technical support; and approved by the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The operation is a repeat of the Bornholm Bash operation of April 2021, which attempted to sabotage Russian vessels laying the gas pipes, but ended in ignominious retreat by the Polish forces. That was a direct attack on Russia. This time the attack is targeting the Germans, especially the business and union lobby and the East German voters, with a scheme to blame Moscow for the troubles they already have — and their troubles to come with winter.

Signs of the Times

Deadly flash floods in Rijeka, Croatia - 11 inches of rain in 24 hours

Police in Croatia report one person died in flash floods in the port city of Rijeka after torrential rain on 28 September 2022. Croatian Meteorological and Hydrological Service (DHMZ) said 287.5 mm of rain fell in 24 hours in Rijeka. This is thought to be a record, beating the previous daily high of 249 mm set in 2013. Local media said unofficial figures showed the city recorded 140 mm of rain in just 2 hours. Streets of the city were swamped and traffic brought to a standstill. Homes and public buildings including a school and a police headquarters were damaged. Emergency services received around 200 calls for assistance.

Signs of the Times

16 goats killed by lightning in Maharashtra, India

As many as 16 goats died on the spot after lightning struck them while grazing on the mountain top. Fortunately, the girl who went to graze the goats and one person escaped from an incident at Khurchimal area in Akkalkuva taluka in Nandurbar district Wednesday. According to sources in Satpura Mountains, there was heavy rain in the hills of Khurchimal area Wednesday afternoon with thunder and lightning.In Akkalkuva taluka, damage has been reported in some places due to heavy rains. Pinky Sega Naik and Shantaram Kalla Naik of Khurchimal had taken the goats to graze on the hill near Umbria pada of Khurchimal in the morning.

Signs of the Times

Ukraine can use Western weapons against 'territories seized by Russia' - US

US Secretary of State Blinken says Washington won't recognize "annexed" regions as Russian. Washington has no objections to Kiev using Western-supplied weapons to target territories that may decide to join Russia, as the US considers the votes to do so illegitimate, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday. The US and its allies have supplied Ukraine with a variety of weapons, including tube and rocket artillery. At a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Washington, Blinken was asked if the US had any objections to Ukraine using those weapons to attack targets in Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson, which just wrapped up a vote on joining Russia.

Signs of the Times

Churches defend clergy loophole in child sex abuse reporting

It was a frigid Sunday evening at the Catholic Newman Center in Salt Lake City when the priest warned parishioners who had gathered after Mass that their right to private confessions was in jeopardy. A new law would break that sacred bond, the priest said, and directed the parishioners to sign a one-page form letter on their way out. "I/We Oppose HB90," began the letter, stacked next to pre-addressed envelopes. "HB90 is an improper interference of the government into the practice of religion in Utah." In the following days of February 2020, Utah's Catholic diocese, which oversees dozens of churches, says it collected some 9,000 signed letters from parishioners and sent them to state Rep. Angela Romero, a Democrat who had been working on the bill as part of her campaign against child sexual abuse. HB90 targeted Utah's "clergy-penitent privilege," a law similar to those in many states that exempts clergy of all denominations from the requirement to report child abuse if they learn...

Signs of the Times

'Where's Jackie?': Biden asks dead Indiana rep to identify herself in crowd

President Biden asked for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski to identify herself at a Washington event Wednesday, forgetting that the Indiana Republican died in a car crash last month. Biden made the embarrassing error while thanking bipartisan members of Congress at a nutrition event near the White House. "I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like Representative [Jim] McGovern, Senator [Mike] Braun, Senator [Cory] Booker, Representative Jackie — are you here? Where's Jackie? — I think she was going to be here," the president said.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Hurricane Ian knocks out power to 2 million on destructive path across Florida

Ian was expected to dump 12 to 18 inches of rain on much of central and northeast Florida, with some locations being hit with as much as 2 feet of rain. Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday, lashing the region with torrential rain and winds of 150 mph and knocking out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses. The "catastrophic" system, one of the most powerful hurricanes to strike the U.S. in decades, came ashore near Cayo Costa, just west of Fort Myers, around 3 p.m. after strengthening to a powerful Category 4 storm, the National Hurricane Center said. Hours after landfall, top sustained winds had dropped to 105 mph, making it a Category 2 hurricane. Still, storm surges as high as 6 feet were expected on the opposite side of the state, in northeast Florida. "Our streets are pretty much underwater," said Mike McNees, the city manager on Marco Island. "The streets, at this point, are indistinguishable from the canals."

Signs of the Times

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes east of South Sandwich Islands region

An earthquake of magnitude 6.5 struck east of the South Sandwich Islands region, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said on Thursday. The quake was at a depth of 2 km (1.24 miles), EMSC added. (Reporting by Jose Joseph in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger) Source: Reuters

Signs of the Times

New study: Transmission of epigenetic memory can be passed down through multiple generations

Without altering the genetic code in the DNA, epigenetic modifications can change how genes are expressed, affecting an organism's health and development. The once radical idea that such changes in gene expression can be inherited now has a growing body of evidence behind it, but the mechanisms involved remain poorly understood. A new study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz shows how a common type of epigenetic modification can be transmitted via sperm not only from parents to offspring, but to the next generation ("grandoffspring") as well. This is called "transgenerational epigenetic inheritance," and it may explain how a person's health and development could be influenced by the experiences of his or her parents and grandparents.

Signs of the Times

This kind of food shrinks your brain

Eating fast food — the epitome of highly processed "fake" foods — can have lasting ramifications on your brain health, so much so that researchers at Australian National University suggested you can cause "irreversible" damage by the time you reach middle age, just by eating a fast-food diet and not staying active. If you are middle-aged and haven't been eating the best, don't panic — you can start making healthier changes starting today. However, the new study is eye-opening, once again hitting home the importance of healthy eating when it comes to keeping your mind strong as you age. Fast Food Increases Risk of Type 2 Diabetes In a review by the scientists in the featured study, they stated that people today are consuming about 650 Kilocalories more daily than they were in the 1970s — an amount equivalent to a fast-food meal consisting of a burger, fries and soft drink. (A Kilocalorie, or Kcal, is equal to 1 Calorie, with a capital "C," while 1,000 calories with a lowercase "c"...

Signs of the Times

Libs of TikTok suspended from Twitter AGAIN

On Wednesday, the popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok revealed that she has been suspended from Twitter once again, receiving yet another seven day suspension. "Once again, I have received a wrongful 7-day suspension as the result of a targeted harassment campaign from the Left to deplatform me," Libs of TikTok wrote on Substack.

Signs of the Times

How to avoid a hybrid Orwellian-Huxleyian dystopia

One thing I've learned along the way of my explorations into the human condition is that, when we get chronically stuck in defensive nervous system states (fight, flight, fawn or freeze), we tend to become more: self-centred; manipulative; self-delusional; able to self-justify wrong-doing; resistant to admitting we are wrong, even to ourselves; resistant to backing down or apologising; prone to constructing own self-supporting narratives; unable to listen to advice from others or to understand different points of view; incapable of affinity, compassion or empathy. After all, the purpose of these defensive states is self-preservation, which includes the preservation of sense-of-self, identity, and belief systems. I feel that similar conclusions about defensive states carry over at a larger scale, at the institutional level, see: Trauma at the Institutional Level.

Signs of the Times

Is Italy's new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni just another globalist trojan horse?

In a recent substack article Italy's new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was presented as an anti-globalist crusader that vehemently supports family values and national sovereignty. But what if Meloni is simply yet another WEF puppet "penetrator" using reverse psychology to win the hearts and minds of her nation, when in reality she has been installed into power to surreptitiously advance the Great Reset agenda? What if Meloni is just another Rockefeller asset, and member of their Aspen Institute? It is worth nothing that the Aspen Institute has been awarded contracts by George Soros's Open Societies Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. What if was since her teenage years Meloni was a bonafide socialist?

Signs of the Times

Hurricane Ian ranks 'top 5' to ever reach landfall in US, according to Gov. DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday provided an update on Hurricane Ian hours after it made landfall in Southwest Florida as a Category 4 storm. DeSantis said the storm surge has likely peaked but has done a lot of damage and is going to continue moving through Florida. "You're going to see hurricane force winds in places in central Florida, perhaps," he said. "It's clearly a very strong tropical storm all the way until it exits the Florida peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean."

Signs of the Times

Jet fuel is still being found in USS Nimitz's water, despite assurances it was clear

Navy officials said Tuesday that tests of the aircraft carrier Nimitz's potable water system are still showing traces of jet fuel, despite indications last week that the system was flushed and restored. The investigation into how jet fuel is getting into Nimitz's water system continues, and when the ship's emergency detour to San Diego's Naval Air Station North Island will end remains unclear. Jet fuel was first found in the 47-year-old carrier's water system on Sept. 16 while it was conducting a pre-deployment cruise in the Pacific Ocean.

Signs of the Times

CIA warned Germany of pipeline attack - Der Spiegel

Germany was forewarned ahead of this weeks attack on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Der Spiegel claimed on Tuesday. The CIA told Berlin "weeks ago" that the Russian Nord Stream infrastructure was vulnerable, according to the magazine. Officials are now investigating after a massive gas leak appeared off the Danish island of Bornholm and seismologists confirmed detecting explosions on the sea floor. A tip from the US spy agency was "received in Berlin during the summer," the outlet said, citing "several people familiar with the matter." Officially, however, the federal government declined to comment on intelligence-related matters. Comment: The data is rather scant: Who did the CIA claim was going to attack? How did they know?

Signs of the Times

Washington bolsters military presence in Syria's oil-rich northeast - $107.1 billion stolen since 2011 invasion

US occupation troops brought in weapons, munitions, and logistics equipment from their bases in Iraq to Syria's Hasakah governorate earlier this week, according to local sources. The military convoy reportedly entered Syria through the Al-Waleed border crossing late on 26 September. It included 33 vehicles loaded with military equipment and headed for US occupation bases in the town of Rmelan. A US military cargo plane was also spotted landing at the occupation base at Kharab al-Jeer Airport in the countryside of Hasakah.

Signs of the Times

Russia tells EU to treat US as pipeline sabotage suspect

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has asked who the EU intends to punish with the "strongest possible response" for damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines. The diplomat said Poland's former foreign minister has already identified the US as the party behind the apparent sabotage. Radoslaw Sikorski is well connected to Washington elites through his employment at various think tanks. The two Nord Stream pipelines were seriously damaged this week in what is suspected to have been a deliberate attack. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called the incident "sabotage action" and warned that "any deliberate disruption of active European energy infrastructure is unacceptable and will lead to the strongest possible response."

Signs of the Times

Putin slams West's 'predatory' food 'swindle'

"Predatory" monetary and trade policies pursued by the US-led West are the primary cause of the global food crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Western nations are using their wealth and ability to print money to vacuum up food products from the global market, the Russian leader insisted during a government meeting on Tuesday. The unfolding crisis has been in the making for several years, he added. "Some leading nations have financial and food policies that led to the result we are observing now," Putin said, adding that the behavior could be described as "predatory, without any exaggeration." He noted that the US was a net exporter of food products last year, but now it is a net importer. The Russian leader also reiterated his criticism of the Ukraine grain deal, which allowed Kiev to export food via the Black Sea. The arrangement was mediated by the UN and Türkiye, but Russia believes it is not working as intended, arguing that the shipments do little to alleviate...

Signs of the Times

Constitution must be rewritten to stop Donald Trump, Politico's founding editor writes

Politico founding editor John F. Harris declared "The Best Way To Save The Constitution From Donald Trump Is To Rewrite It" in a Thursday column. Harris claimed that the former president, though "a constitutional menace," exploited the Constitution's "defects" in order to hold his position. For the sake of holding back a second Trump term as well as promote several progressive causes, he wrote that working around the Constitution might become a necessity. "Correcting or circumventing what progressives reasonably perceive as the infirmities of the Constitution, in fact, seems likely to be the preeminent liberal objective of the next generation. Progress on issues ranging from climate change to ensuring that technology giants act in the public interest will hinge on creating a new constitutional consensus. Trying to place more sympathetic justices on the Supreme Court is not likely to be a fully adequate remedy. "There are more fundamental challenges embedded in the document itself —...

Signs of the Times

Lasting brain impacts from COVID-19 are equivalent to decades of aging

Danilo Vitorovic, MD, a neurologist at Loma Linda University Health, supports claims that severe COVID-19 may age the brain by decades. "It's quite devastating to see these effects on the younger population." Brain fog, anxiety, and sleep disturbances are some long-haul COVID-19 symptoms, but recent studies have found that severe COVID-19 can cause lasting cognitive and mental health problems. Vitorovic says it's important to understand that the virus is not in the brain, but instead, the brain is reaping the consequences of severe COVID-19-associated whole-body inflammation. The brain aging process is driven at the cellular level by molecular changes that slowly accumulates with age. The changes are associated with increased inflammation, the tendency of neurons to die, and decreased ability to form new connections between neurons in the brain. Although cells possess mechanisms to repair or remove damage, they are not 100% efficient, and their efficiency declines with age. The...

Signs of the Times

Pornhub partners with child abuse charities to intercept illegal activity

There are 175,000 searches for sexual images on Pornhub that trigger child-abuse checks every month in the UK alone, according to data provided by a groundbreaking new chatbot designed to intercept illegal activity on the adult site. The startling figures are revealed as the chatbot is rolled out on Pornhub, the world's biggest pornography site, after a trial that began in March. When someone visiting the Pornhub site uses one of 28,000 words that are linked to the abuse of children - including codewords - it will prompt a pop-up message informing them that no results exist and that they are searching for potentially abusive and illegal imagery. The user will then be directed into a conversation about their behaviour and encouraged to get help from Stop It Now!, a helpline aimed at supporting offenders and preventing people watching online child abuse. Tech experts at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) - a UK-based organisation that removes images of child abuse from the internet...

Signs of the Times

Hundreds of thousands evacuated as Typhoon Noru makes landfall in Vietnam's Da Nang

Typhoon Noru made landfall near Vietnam's popular beach resort city of Da Nang on Wednesday morning, bringing powerful winds and heavy rain as hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated. Noru hit Vietnam at 5 a.m. Wednesday local time, according to CNN Weather, less than 36 hours hours after it left a trail of destruction in the Philippines - where it was known as Karding. The typhoon weakened a little prior to making landfall, but was still equivalent to a high-end Category 2 hurricane with winds near 175 kph, or about 109 mph. Winds eased and the storm weakened to the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane just before noon, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. But the province of Quang Nam, home to the historic city of Hoi An and beach resort hotspot of Da Nang suffered from floods.

Signs of the Times

Flesh-eating drug 'tranq' meant for animals now linked to thousands of heroin, fentanyl ODs

The flesh-eating animal tranquilizer xylazine has been linked to thousands of drug overdoses across the country as it inundates heroin and fentanyl supplies in places such as Philadelphia, Delaware and Michigan, reports say. Known on the street as "tranq," the sedative is now found in 91% of Philly's heroin and fentanyl supplies, according to a report earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal Science Direct. Anecdotal evidence suggests that its prevalence is also soaring in President Biden's home state of Delaware, it was reported last week.

Signs of the Times

Lightning strike kills four 4 in Karnataka, India

Four people, including a woman and her two children, were killed on the spot and one injured after being struck by lightning in S. Hosalli village in Yadgir district on Wednesday. The deceased have been identified as 17-year-old Sabanna, a native of S. Hosalli village, 25-year-old Monamma and her children four-year-old Banu and two-year-old Srinivas from Gajarkot village in Gurmitkal taluk. The injured identified as 32-year-old Bhimashankar, brother of Monamma's husband. Monamma, Bhimashankar, Banu and Srinivas were taking shelter under a tree while Sabanna was working in the field when lightning stuck. An injured Bhimashankar has been shifted to the District General Hospital.

Signs of the Times

Man has extremely lucky escape as motorbike sucked into sinkhole in Rajasthan, India

A motorcyclist had a lucky escape when a huge sinkhole suddenly opened up in the road in front of him. Shocking footage shows the silver scooter riding along when the tarmac caved in beneath its wheels, leaving the driver - named as Bhopal Singh Medu - out of control. The rear of the scooter fell into the pit first, before the rest of the scooter - and its hapless rider - followed. Luckily for the man several people stopped to come to his aid, dragging Bhopal out of the pit by his hands. Bhopal had been riding on Bhagat's Kothi-Basni road in Rajasthan, India, at the time of the accident.

Signs of the Times

Illegal alien accused of killing Deputy Michael Hartwick is one of nearly 1M illegal got-aways in US under Biden

An illegal alien accused of killing Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff's Deputy Michael Hartwick is one of nearly a million illegal aliens who have successfully entered the United States under President Joe Biden. As Breitbart News reported, 32-year-old illegal alien Juan Ariel Molina-Salles from Honduras has been arrested and charged with killing Sheriff's Deputy Michael Hartwick in a hit-and-run crash as the deputy was working detail on a construction site. Police allege that Molina-Salles was operating the large frontloader that hit and killed Hartwick. With many illegal aliens working on the construction site, Molina-Salles allegedly took off from the scene and gave his hard hat and vest to illegal alien Elieser Aurelio Gomez-Zelaya who proceeded to hide the articles of clothing.

Signs of the Times

Vaccination increases infection risk by 44%, Oxford study finds

Two doses of COVID-19 vaccine make you 44% more likely to be infected, a study from Oxford University has found, contradicting the basis of global vaccine policy, which assumes vaccination significantly cuts incidence and transmission. The study, published in the Lancet, looked at all infections reported in England among adults registered at a medical practice from December 8th 2020 to November 17th 2021, meaning it spanned the Alpha and Delta periods. It used a case-control design to estimate vaccine effectiveness, allowing potential confounding factors such as age, sex and underlying conditions to be controlled for, while individuals with prior infection were excluded. The results for effectiveness against positive Covid test (i.e., reported infection, which were found buried away in the supplementary appendix) are shown below. I've highlighted in yellow three key figures. The top two show that in the two weeks following the first jab individuals were three to four times more...

Signs of the Times

Virgin Atlantic allows male airline crew to wear skirts to "express true identity"

Virgin Atlantic is allowing male cabin crew and pilots to wear skirts and women to wear men's suits so staff can "express their true identity" at work. The Telegraph has more. The Sir Richard Branson-owned airline is dropping rules that require its employees to wear "gendered uniform options" in a U.K.-first for the aviation industry. And the changes will not be limited to Virgin Atlantic staff. In a signal that the days of passengers being referred to as "Mr" and "Mrs" are coming to an end on flights, the carrier has changed its ticketing system to allow gender neutral markers. Juha Jarvinen, Virgin Atlantic's commercial chief said the airline wanted staff "to embrace their individuality and be their true selves at work". He added: "At Virgin Atlantic, we believe that everyone can take on the world, no matter who they are. "We want to allow our people to wear the uniform that best suits them and how they identify and ensure our customers are addressed by their preferred pronouns."...

Signs of the Times

Escobar: Germany and EU have been handed over a declaration of war

The sabotage of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipelines in the Baltic Sea has ominously propelled 'Disaster Capitalism' to a whole new, toxic level. This episode of Hybrid Industrial/Commercial War, in the form of a terror attack against energy infrastructure in international waters signals the absolute collapse of international law, drowned by a "our way or the highway", "rules-based", order. The attack on both pipelines consisted of multiple explosive charges detonated in separate branches close to the Danish island of Bornholm, but in international waters. That was a sophisticated operation, carried out in stealth in the shallow depth of the Danish straits. That would in principle rule out submarines (ships entering the Baltic are limited to a draught of 15 meters). As for prospective "invisible" vessels, these could only loiter around with permission from Copenhagen - as the waters around Borholm are crammed with sensors, reflecting fear of incursion by Russian...

Signs of the Times

Professor fired for mocking microaggression 'policies' gets last laugh: university to fork over $165,000 in settlement

The University of North Texas has agreed to pay $165,000 in damages and attorneys' fees to settle a lawsuit filed by a professor it fired after he criticized fliers about microaggressions. Nathaniel Hiers had sued the university in April 2020, alleging the taxpayer-funded institution rescinded the math scholar's employment contract "without notice" for making a joke, a violation of his free speech rights. At issue was "a stack of fliers" on microaggressions Hiers noticed in the department faculty lounge in November 2019. He read them, found the ideas wanting, then wrote "Don't leave garbage lying around" in jest on a chalkboard, with arrows pointing to the fliers, the lawsuit had stated. Hiers was fired soon after, with his superiors citing the incident as the reason.

Signs of the Times

FDA is using the COVID-19 vaccines as a "Platform Technology" for mRNA vaccine trials.

There was a World Health Organization (WHO) consultation in April, 2021 (online publication ahead of Dec, 2022 print) whereby US government officials laid out strategies for the process of future mRNA vaccine approvals by the FDA. A summary of this meeting has just been published online, ahead of print. So, we no longer have to speculate about what the FDA has decided about considering future mRNA vaccines and using the past pre-clinical data package as the foundation for these vaccines as being a "platform" technology. The 2021 WHO informal consultation on regulatory considerations discussed these issues. Dr Keith Peden (Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration presented the FDA's experience and position on licensure of new mRNA vaccine products. WHO informal consultation on regulatory considerations for evaluation of the quality, safety and efficacy of RNA-based prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases, 20-22 April 2021 Emerg Microbes...

Signs of the Times

Grifters: EU politicians criticize Ukrainian 'welfare tourism'

German and Polish officials have pointed out cases of social benefit system abuse German opposition leader Friedrich Merz found himself under fire on Tuesday for pointing out that some Ukrainians who have sought shelter in his country are abusing the welfare system. Though Merz has apologized, the mayor of Przemysl in Poland - who said much the same thing on Monday - has not. "We are now experiencing welfare tourism from these refugees: to Germany, back to Ukraine, to Germany, back to Ukraine," Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Merz told Bild TV on Monday.

Signs of the Times

Former NATO adviser: US, UK sabotaged peace deal because they 'don't care about Ukraine'

Former Swiss intelligence officer and NATO adviser Jacques Baud on the next phase of the Russia-Ukraine war and new allegations that the US and UK undermined a peace deal that could have ended it. The West's aim "is not the victory of Ukraine, it's the defeat of Russia," Baud says. "The problem is that nobody cares about Ukraine. We have just instrumentalized Ukraine for the purpose of US strategic interests — not even European interests."

Signs of the Times

Hijab of contention: Death of a young woman has sparked mass protests in Iran. What's next?

For more than a week, Iran has been in the throes of mass protests provoked by the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old woman died in hospital after spending 48 hours in a coma. As some media outlets believe, and according to witness reports, her condition was a result of being beaten by morality police for wearing her hijab "improperly." Demands to punish those responsible for Amini's death were quickly followed by complaints about the country's economic woes and corruption. The authorities are scrambling to come up with a response, as Iran's president, Ebrahim Raisi, tries to put out fires on both the domestic and international fronts, and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is reportedly ill or possibly dying. Immorality police On September 13, Mahsa Amini, 22, and her brother were on their way to meet their family in Tehran when they were stopped by the morality police. This is nothing much out of the ordinary in present-day Iran and amounts to just a "routine" check of a woman's...

Signs of the Times

Germany to rely on nuclear reserve to avert winter shortage

Germany said it will keep two nuclear plants in a reserve until April to help limit the threat of winter blackouts in Europe's biggest economy. Two out of three of Germany's three remaining nuclear plants will be kept available if needed, a shift requiring a change in the law within weeks, Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters in Berlin. The government has been under intense pressure to delay the final phaseout after Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered a dramatic surge in energy prices. Germany plans to make a final decision on whether EON SE's Isar-2 and EnBW AG's Neckarwestheim will be needed before December. It will be based on data from a stress test of the grid that takes into account the availability of France's nuclear fleet, the reliability of which is worse than expected, Habeck said.

Signs of the Times

Israel explains remote-controlled checkpoint gun

The Israeli army has installed a remote-controlled gun turret in the Palestinian city of Hebron in the West Bank, saying it's to be used for crowd dispersal. The sci-fi-looking style is positioned at a checkpoint on Shuhada Street, a protest hotspot in the city, Haaretz reported at the weekend. The system, which is currently being tested, can fire stun grenades, tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets, while being controlled by a remote operator.

Signs of the Times

Forget the blame game, Nordstream sabotage is about the Great Reset & nothing else

Last night it was reported that "blasts" had damaged both Nordstream pipelines that carry gas exported from Russia to Germany and other nations across northern Europe. As a result, large amounts of natural gas were leaking into the Baltic sea, and supplies through the pipeline were completely shut off. The alleged incident has caused a furious round of blame tennis, with accusations flying back and forth across what - for the sake of simplicity - we'll call Iron Curtain 2.0. The European Union has claimed the pipes were "sabotaged", but doesn't directly blame anyone in their statement. The Telegraph is already blaming actively the Russians, specifically Western Bogeyman President Vladimir Putin. Headlining "Why Putin would want to blow up Nord Stream 2, and the advantages it gives him" On the flip side, the Russians have said the idea they would sabotage their own pipeline is "stupid" Some Western alternate media have pointed to Joe Biden's vow to totally shut down Nordstream 2...

Signs of the Times

FLASHBACK: NATO's BALTOPS 22 exercise is a perfect opportunity for underwater research and testing new technology

Comment: Means, motive, opportunity? A significant focus of BALTOPS every year is the demonstration of NATO mine hunting capabilities, and this year the U.S. Navy continues to use the exercise as an opportunity to test emerging technology, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Public Affairs said June 14. In support of BALTOPS, U.S. Navy 6th Fleet partnered with U.S. Navy research and warfare centers to bring the latest advancements in unmanned underwater vehicle mine hunting technology to the Baltic Sea to demonstrate the vehicle's effectiveness in operational scenarios. Experimentation was conducted off the coast of Bornholm, Denmark, with participants from Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport, and Mine Warfare Readiness and Effectiveness Measuring all under the direction of U.S. 6th Fleet Task Force 68.

Signs of the Times

FLASHBACK: NATO's BALTOPS 22 exercise is a perfect opportunity for underwater research and resting new technology

Comment: Means, motive, opportunity? A significant focus of BALTOPS every year is the demonstration of NATO mine hunting capabilities, and this year the U.S. Navy continues to use the exercise as an opportunity to test emerging technology, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa Public Affairs said June 14. In support of BALTOPS, U.S. Navy 6th Fleet partnered with U.S. Navy research and warfare centers to bring the latest advancements in unmanned underwater vehicle mine hunting technology to the Baltic Sea to demonstrate the vehicle's effectiveness in operational scenarios. Experimentation was conducted off the coast of Bornholm, Denmark, with participants from Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport, and Mine Warfare Readiness and Effectiveness Measuring all under the direction of U.S. 6th Fleet Task Force 68.

Signs of the Times

Sinkhole nearly swallows pickup truck in Cyprus

A large sinkhole swallowed a pickup truck in a rural area of Paphos on Tuesday, with reports pointing to water erosion caused by a pipeline months after a historic overflow at the country's fourth largest dam. Local media said a pickup truck fell into a sinkhole on Tuesday on a dirt road near Agia Varvara, Paphos district, with a video online later showing a single cab submerged in water and mud. The sinkhole was estimated to be about 10 meters long, with media speculating it was caused by erosion from a pipeline that passes through the exact location. In March 2022 overflow was reported at the Asprogia dam, colloquially known as Asprogia-Kannaviou due to an unresolved name war in the area, with additonal overflow or near-overflow incidents recorded over the years. Reports said the driver of the vehicle was not injured when the ground gave way.

Signs of the Times

Beaufort and Mackenzie Deltas in Canada blanketed as snowfall warnings issued

Winter is here. Snowfall began falling Monday evening, with snowfall warnings issued by Environment Canada for Fort McPherson and Tsiigehtchic on Sept. 26 and for Inuvik on Sept. 28. "Snow will continue this evening before tapering off near midnight," said the notice from Environment Canada. " Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow. Snowfall warnings are issued when significant snowfall is expected. "Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to NTstorm@ec.gc.ca or tweet reports using #NTStorm."

Signs of the Times

Crazy amount of waterspouts spotted across New York - 46 seen in 48 hours

The weather has been crazy over the last 48 hours and that has caused an abnormal amount of water spouts on lakes across New York State. We are still dealing with Lake Effect rain today and parts of the state are under a flood watch but the swirling of the weather system here in New York has caused numerous water spouts on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. According to Mike Chejka from WIVB, there were 46 confirmed waterspout sightings along the two lakes since Sunday afternoon. 46!!

Signs of the Times

Taliban sign fuel and grain import agreement with Russia

The Taliban have signed a provisional agreement with Russia to supply gasoline, diesel, gas, and wheat to Afghanistan, acting Afghan Commerce and Industry Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters. The announcement marks the first major international economic deal by the Taliban with a foreign government beyond its borders since the group came to power following the US's chaotic withdrawal from the country in August 2021. No country, including Russia, has formally recognised the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, although Russia is one of several countries that has maintained its embassy in the capital Kabul.

Signs of the Times

New Zealand calls it quits on aiding Ukraine's military

At a moment when Washington continues what's essentially an endless arms and financial aid pipeline to Ukraine, and as some defense officials express concerns over the Pentagon's own dwindling stockpiles, one country says it's giving up on arming Kyiv. New Zealand, which is one of the "Five Eyes" intelligence-sharing partners which includes the US, now says it can no longer keep up with supplying what Ukraine is asking for without depleting its stockpiles. "The New Zealand government has expanded sanctions on key Russians, but cannot provide further military assistance as it has nothing Ukraine wants," The Canberra Times reports Tuesday.

Signs of the Times

Australian caves are 500,000 years older than thought, and it could explain a megafauna mystery

South Australia's Naracoorte Caves is one of the world's best fossil sites, containing a record spanning more than half a million years. Among the remains preserved in layers of sand are the bones of many iconic Australian megafauna species that became extinct between 48,000 and 37,000 years ago. The reasons for the demise of these megafauna species are intensely debated. But the older the fossils we can find, the better we can understand the species' evolution and extinction. To date, determining the precise age of the caves has been difficult. However our research demonstrates, for the first time, how old Naracoorte's caves really are — and the answer is up to 500,000 years older than previously thought.

Signs of the Times

Clinic featured at child trans summit sends legal demand to Post Millennial to censor reporting

The Post Millennial wrote about the World Professional Association for Transgender Health conference in Montreal, Quebec, in September. We wrote about the panels at that conference, and what clinicians and activists were saying on those panels, including one on "Navigating The Changing Landscape With Littles And Their Families: Exploring The Role Of Mental Health Across Different Practice Settings With Transgender And Gender Diverse Pre-Adolescent Children." As a result, The Post Millennial received a legal demand from Children's Minnesota, which publicly available information states is the seventh largest pediatric health system in the United States, and advertises as "The Kid Experts."

Signs of the Times

This week in volcano news; Mauna Loa earthquake swarm, alert level raised at Taupo

This week, the alert level at the Taupo supervolcano in New Zealand was raised for the first time. Meanwhile at Mauna Loa in Hawaii, a new shallow earthquake swarm began during the volcano's continued yellow alert level. And, on Reunion Island, a new volcanic eruption began at the Piton de la Fournaise volcano, sending flows of molten rock down the volcano's edifice. This video will discuss these volcano related news stories, as told and analyzed by a volcanologist.

Signs of the Times

Lightning kills 3 in Bulgaria's capital

Three people were killed and another three injured by lightning in a park in the center of the capital of Bulgaria on Tuesday afternoon, the country's Interior Ministry said. The ministry's press office told Xinhua that the emergency services were alerted to the lightning strike at 6:17 p.m. local time (1617 GMT). The ministry did not provide details about the identity of the deceased. One of the injured, a Syrian citizen, was taken to the Pirogov Emergency Hospital. According to unconfirmed sources quoted by Bulgarian National Television (BNT), the three people killed were also Syrian citizens aged between 20 and 30 years. They were standing under a large tree when the lightning struck, BNT said.

Signs of the Times

Famous pro-vaccine doctor suspects Pfizer booster shot sent his cancer into overdrive

After realizing his COVID-19 booster shot may have sent his cancer into overdrive, Michel Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of immunology and pharmacotherapy at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, said going public with the information was the "right thing to do." Michel Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., professor of immunology and pharmacotherapy at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, suspects his third dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine may have sent his cancer into overdrive. Goldman, 67, is one of Europe's best-known champions of medical research and a lifelong promoter of vaccines.

Signs of the Times

Vegans and vegetarians depressed twice as often as meat-eaters: new study

Eating green and feeling blue? Vegetarians experience depressive episodes twice as frequently as meat eaters, according to a new study by Brazilian researchers published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. There's a "positive association between the prevalence of depressive episodes and a meatless diet," the study read.

Signs of the Times

Ukraine is on the offensive but struggling to get more powerful weapons

Ukraine's military is on the offensive against Russian forces and asking for more powerful weapons to press its advantage, but so far there is no sign that allies will step up their commitments. Instead, President Vladimir Putin dramatically raised the stakes in a Sept. 21 speech, threatening nuclear war and launching sham votes aimed at expanding Russia's borders into occupied Ukraine. Comment: Despite what's being claimed unilaterally across western media, Putin didn't actually 'threaten nuclear war.' Read the entirety of his speech here. While supporters have piled arms into Ukraine since Russia invaded in late February, they have shied away from sending the longest-range missile systems, combat aircraft and NATO standard tanks.

Signs of the Times

NASA's DART anti-asteroid satellite successfully smashes into space rock

NASA has completed a key step of its "Double Asteroid Redirection Test" (DART), smashing a satellite roughly the size of a vending machine into a small moon that's about half-a-mile in diameter. The moon, Dimorphos, is orbiting an even larger asteroid, Didymos, and while neither is in any danger of colliding with Earth, they're good test cases to see whether us puny humans smashing them with technology can cause them to change course.

Signs of the Times

15 killed in 'neo-Nazi' Russian school shooting

The male suspect reportedly died by suicide after the attack in the Udmurt Republic. Fifteen people were killed and many others injured in a shooting incident at a school in the city of Izhevsk in Russia's Urals region on Monday, the country's Investigative Committee has said. The male suspect was wearing a ski mask and a black T-shirt featuring Nazi symbols, officials added. They said he died by suicide after the attack and his identity is currently being established.

Signs of the Times

NATO-US prime suspects in Nordstream gas leaks

Russian-hating Polish PM pays tribute to culprit. Increasingly, it is relatively easy to put two and two together and figure out who is behind certain cui bono operations. The latest case in point is the "mysterious" Nordstream 1 and 2 massive gas leaks. As of this writing, the corporate propaganda media has not blamed Russia for the dangerous leaks, but they will probably get around to it sooner before later. Meanwhile, here is blue check Radek Sikorski, a member of the European Parliament for Poland, expressing his gratitude on Twitter: Now why would Mr. Sikorski post such a thing? Because he's a Russian-hating neocon, a former resident fellow of the organized war crime outfit, the American Enterprise Institute. He was also the executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative, a "nonpartisan" organization determined to push NATO right up to all exposed sides of Russia.

Signs of the Times

Giorgia on Our Mind

It's tempting to interpret the Italian electoral results this past Sunday as voters merrily hurling a bowl of lush papardelle with wild boar ragu over the collective bland faces of the toxic unelected Euro-oligarchy sitting in Brussels. Well, it's complicated. Italy's electoral system is all about coalitions. The center-right Meloni-Berlusconi-Salvini troika is bound to amass a substantial majority in both the Parliament's Lower House and the Senate. Giorgia Meloni leads Fratelli d'Italia ("Brothers of Italy"). The notorious Silvio "Bunga Bunga" Berlusconi leads Forza Italia. And Matteo Salvini leads La Lega. The established cliché across Italy's cafes is that Giorgia becoming Prime Minister was a shoo-in: after all she's "blonde, blue eyes, petite, sprightly and endearing". And an expert communicator to boot. Quite the opposite of Goldman Sachs partner and former uber-ECB enforcer Mario Draghi, who looks like one of those bloodied emperors of Rome's decadence. During his Prime...

Signs of the Times

Switzerland considers banning large-scale farming, despite looming global food shortages

By many measures, Ueli Stauffacher's poultry farm is exemplary. Located about 30 minutes southwest of Zurich, the chickens it raises for meat (called broilers in agricultural parlance) are housed in two spacious, well-kept barns. One of those barns is outfitted with heated floors that keep the birds' bedding dry and a state-of-the-art filtering system that strips away the overpowering smell of ammonia that typically characterizes chicken farms, leaving the air inside remarkably sweet and clean. Solar panels on the roof generate enough electricity to power the whole farm renewably. Stauffacher and his wife even host playgroups at the farm, complete with a brightly-decorated break room where children can watch the chickens through a window as they color and enjoy snacks.

Signs of the Times

Surprise! Norway-Poland gas pipeline opens on same day Nord Stream pipelines attacked

Leaders from Poland, Norway and Denmark have attended a ceremony to mark the opening of the new Baltic Pipe, a key stage in the drive to wean Poland and Europe off Russian gas. The pipeline will transport natural gas from the Norwegian shelf via Denmark and through the Baltic Sea to Poland. It is the centrepiece of a Polish strategy to diversify away from Russia that began years before Moscow's February invasion of Ukraine triggered a global energy crisis. The flows from Norway along with supplies via liquefied gas terminals are central to Poland's plan. The country was cut off from Russian gas supplies in April, allegedly for refusing to pay in roubles. Comment: There's nothing 'alleged' about it, those countries that agreed to pay in rubles continued to receive gas.

Signs of the Times

The Anglo-American Axis benefits from the ecological terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea

The unprecedented damage done to the Nord Stream pipelines Monday night was certainly an act of sabotage exactly as Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Russia suspect, though nobody can agree on who carried out this ecological terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea. Kiev, however, predictably blamed Russia for destroying its own pipeline in a remix of its earlier conspiracy theory alleging that Russia regularly bombs the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant that's also under its control. That ridiculous scenario can therefore reasonably be ruled out, especially since Moscow could just keep the tap turned off for technical reasons without risking getting caught sabotaging its own pipelines in NATO-controlled waters.

Signs of the Times

How to stop the escalation to war

The Ukrainian conflict is turning into a war between the West on one side and Russia and China on the other. Each side is convinced that the other one wants its loss. And fear is a bad advisor. Peace can only be preserved if each side recognizes its mistakes. This must be a radical change, because today neither Western discourse nor Russian actions correspond to reality. No political leader wants a war on his territory. When they do, it is usually out of fear. Each side fears the other, rightly or wrongly. Of course, there are always a few elements that push for a cataclysm, but they are fanatical and in the minority. This is exactly the situation in which we find ourselves. Russia is convinced, rightly or wrongly, that the West wants to destroy it, while the West is identically convinced that Russia is conducting an imperialist campaign and will eventually destroy its freedoms. In the shadows, a very small group, the Straussians, want confrontation. This is not to say that World...

Signs of the Times

EU leaders have forgotten about something kind of important

People are only ready to sacrifice so much 'for Ukraine' before they realize their leaders don't care about them Brussels overlords and assorted EU leaders, taking turns at the UN General Assembly podium beating the Western war-drums against Russia — all in the interest of "peace," neglect to ascertain what the average European actually wants. Contrary to their leaders' desires, the average European is only willing to personally give up so much "for Ukraine" — whatever that means, since it's pretty obvious that the people of Ukraine aren't benefiting from the current state of perpetual conflict the EU and the US are enabling, either. It's one thing for the average EU citizen to get behind lofty values, voiced from high above the daily struggles if it doesn't cost them anything. Or at least if the waters are sufficiently muddied that citizens can't easily connect the dots from their wallet to their leaders' relentless spending. Selling this seemingly endless conflict in Ukraine, a...

Signs of the Times

New Zealand Prime Minister calls for a global censorship program

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is the latest liberal leader to call for an international alliance to censor speech. Unsatisfied with the unprecedented corporate censorship of social media companies, leaders like Hillary Clinton have turned from private censorship to good old-fashioned state censorship. Speech regulation has become an article of faith on the left. Ardern used her speech this week to the United Nations General Assembly to call for censorship on a global scale. Ardern lashed out at "disinformation" and called for a global coalition to control speech. After nodding toward free speech, she proceeded to lay out a plan for its demise through government regulation: "But what if that lie, told repeatedly, and across many platforms, prompts, inspires, or motivates others to take up arms. To threaten the security of others. To turn a blind eye to atrocities, or worse, to become complicit in them. What then? "This is no longer a hypothetical. The weapons of war have...

Signs of the Times

The New York Times on Ukraine: Vietnam déjà vu

The New York Times is going full-bore for war in Ukraine. It is difficult to explain the yellow journalism, but the so-called "paper of record" did the same thing on Vietnam (see below). In other words, the Gray Lady is whoring again. It may be, as some allege, that the NYT has never met a war it did not want to get the U.S. involved in - or, once in, to escalate. However true that may be, I still cannot figure out why - why again. With four Ukrainian oblasts about to join Russia and a mercurial President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, making outlandish threats to take them - and Crimea - back, perhaps the Times believes it must move decisively to make it as difficult as possible for President Biden to behave more sensibly. The Guardian reported yesterday that "Zelensky has vowed to liberate the entire country as Russia pressed on with its supposed referendum in occupied areas of Ukraine ..." Zelensky said Ukraine's armed forces would throw the Russian forces out and retaliate...

Signs of the Times

Poland slams 'scandalous' EU warning

A warning by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that Brussels has tools to discipline Italy if its prospective center-right government fails to cooperate with the EU was "scandalous," according to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. The remark was a wake-up call for member states, the head of the Polish government said on Sunday, as quoted by state news agency PAP. Morawiecki asked: "Is this the kind of Europe we want? Is this democracy and rule of law? That Eurocrats in Brussels decide what a government should be?" He was responding to von der Leyen's suggestion that, should the new Italian government fail to meet the EU's policy expectations, the country could be disciplined. The top official said: "Whatever democratic government is willing to work with us, we're working together, If things go in a difficult direction, I've spoken about Hungary and Poland, we have tools."

Signs of the Times

Russia tells US to 'back off' its 'aggressive' course

The US is taking an increasingly aggressive stance towards Moscow, but no amount of economic sanctions and political pressure can sway it from defending its national interests, a top Russian diplomat said. Moscow's diplomacy regarding the US is an exercise in "crisis management", Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview on Russian television on Monday. "US behavior is increasingly confrontational and worrisome. We can see how [the Americans] are trying to mobilize their satellites, their vassals to confront Russia in a more aggressive and hardline manner. Washington's irresponsible, extremely aggressive, extremely assertive course is bringing us all to the dangerous line. We are warning against maintaining this course." The brinkmanship has been evident not only when it comes to the crisis in Ukraine, but also in the all-important issue of nuclear non-proliferation and reduction, Ryabkov said. Washington has pretty much dismantled the entire architecture of...

Signs of the Times

US government executive order advances biotech-transhumanist agenda

September 12, 2022, President Biden signed the "Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe and Secure American Bioeconomy."1 Specified in that order is the development of genetic engineering technologies and techniques "to be able to write circuitry for cells and predictably program biology in the same way in which we write software and program computers," as well as genetic technologies to "unlock the power of biological data" using "computing tools and artificial intelligence." Additionally, "obstacles for commercialization" will be reduced "so that innovative technologies and products can reach markets faster." What we have here is, in a nutshell, the creation of a fast-tracked mRNA pipeline.

Signs of the Times

Israeli troops evict Muslim worshippers from Al-Aqsa to make way for extremist settlers

Israeli soldiers escorted dozens of extremist settlers into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque through the Mughrabi gate on the morning of 26 September, forcing Muslim worshippers out of the holy site as they performed dawn prayers. Israeli troops also attacked Palestinian journalists covering the incursion in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem. As a result of the hostilities, at least two Palestinians needed medical attention, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. The latest breach of Al-Aqsa Mosque comes in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which began on Sunday.

Signs of the Times

New study reveals trace amounts of COVID vaccine mRNAs found in breast milk

A new study published Monday revealed trace amounts of COVID vaccine mRNAs were found in the breast milk of some lactating women. The Journal of the American Medical Association, an international peer-reviewed general medical journal published since 1993, released the study to the public and has now issued a warning for women breastfeeding infants younger than six months. "Caution is warranted regarding breastfeeding infants younger than six months in the first two days after maternal COVID-19 vaccination," the journal said in a tweet.

Signs of the Times

Refuting the defamation of Italy's Giorgia Meloni

English transcript of Giorigia Meloni's World Congress of Families 2019 Speech The video below is of a fantastic speech that was given by new (incoming) Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni to the World Congress of Families in 2019. In this video, I am providing a voiceover, because (of course) she presents in Italian. In my opinion, the importance of this speech is that it really puts the lie to the mainstream media storyline that Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d''Italia) are fascists. The words I am speaking in the video are an English translation of her words, and although I endorse many aspects of her platform, the views being presented are not necessarily mine. In particular, I agree with many of the points which she made (particularly about personal responsibility as well as the importance of family and children), but not all.

Signs of the Times

'Explosive' Typhoon Noru makes landfall in Philippines packing winds of 121mph - at least 9 dead, extensive damage to crops (UPDATE)

A super typhoon slammed into the Philippines, battering the heavily populated main island of Luzon with strong winds and heavy rain that are expected to cause flooding and destroy crops, authorities said. Super Typhoon Noru made landfall in Burdeos municipality on the Polillo islands, part of Quezon province, at 9.30am Irish time, according to the state weather forecaster. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 195km (121 miles) an hour as it charged towards the archipelago nation after an unprecedented "explosive intensification", the state weather forecaster said.

Signs of the Times

No, Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic was not "disastrous"

The latest edition of the Spectator carries a piece by Oliver Basciano entitled "Brace yourself for a coup in Brazil". Basciano speculates that due to President Bolsonaro's myriad failings, prominent among them his alleged failure to protect the Brazilian population from Covid (he was sceptical about lockdowns and the need for vaccines for those with natural immunity and about their safety), he will launch a coup rather than await the verdict of the online voting machines - which look set to deliver a victory to convicted fraudster, ex-President and darling of the Left, Lula Da Silva. To back up his claim about Bolsonaro's "disastrous handling of the pandemic" Basciano states that "some 685,000 Brazilians died". Brazil's a big country with a population of about 220 million. I'm always worried when someone puts in a big number with no context. Is 685,000 deaths a lot? It sounds a lot. But how does Brazil's pandemic performance compare with some of the poster boys and girls of the...

Signs of the Times

Hurricane Ian heads toward Florida after slamming western Cuba as a Category 3 storm

Hurricane Ian is heading toward Florida after raking western Cuba on Tuesday - and officials in the Sunshine State are pleading with people to flee the peninsula's west coast ahead of what could be life-threatening storm surge in the Tampa and Fort Myers areas and flooding rains. Ian, a Category 3 storm packing sustained winds of 115 mph, was over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico around 11 a.m. ET, having made landfall in Cuba early Tuesday as a Category 3, the US National Hurricane Center said. Cuba's tobacco-rich Pinar del Rio province lost power because of the storm, according to Cuban state television. Floodwater covered fields and fallen trees lay in front of buildings in San Juan y Martinez, a town in the province, images from state media outlet Cubadebate show.

Signs of the Times

Snap Covid-19 lockdown sparks rare protest in Chinese tech hub Shenzhen

Dozens of people have taken part in a rare protest in the southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, social media footage shows, after officials announced a snap lockdown over a handful of Covid cases. The megacity of more than 18 million people reported just 10 infections on Tuesday, but officials have still ordered residents in three districts to stay home as China sticks to its strict zero-Covid policy. Officials are also under pressure to snuff out outbreaks quickly ahead of a key political meeting in Beijing next month. Videos circulating on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo and Instagram since Monday — verified by AFP — show dozens chanting "lift the Covid lockdown" as rows of police in medical protective gear look on. In one clip a woman shouts: "Police are hitting people." The protest took place in Shawei, a neighbourhood in Futian district where the city government is based, AFP confirmed.

Signs of the Times

Meteor fireball over Malaga, Spain on September 27

A fireball hurtled across the Malaga night sky in the province in the early hours of this Tuesday morning, after entering the Earth's atmosphere at 60,000 kilometres an hour and travelling almost parallel to the ground. José María Madiedo, a researcher at the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics and the astrophysicist who heads the SMART project, said the rock had come from an asteroid. This type of rock which enters the atmosphere at great speed is called a meteoroid. When it collides with the air, its surface heats up and it becomes incandescent, turning it into a fireball.

Signs of the Times

Will China abandon zero Covid after the CCP National Congress in October?

Those of you with longer memories may remember my previous article, published in February, in which I suggested that Xi Jin Ping's political future would be strongly linked to the CCP 'Zero Covid' policy and its perceived success or failure. What, then, of Xi Jin Ping's bid for a lifetime term of office, to be decided at the NPC (National People's Congress) on October 16th? China's Zero Covid policy remains very much in place while others, notably New Zealand's, have been suddenly and embarrassingly abandoned. Jacinda Ardern's statement "We just need to respect everyone's individual decisions" with regard to ongoing mask-wearing is laughable from someone who sacked state employees who took the individual decision not to be vaccinated. But China's continuing policy has had deep and sometimes bizarre consequences. Chengdu, where most pandas come from, is a mega-city of 21 million people and was recently locked down for 19 days, until last weekend.

Signs of the Times

Early turnout numbers for referendums on joining Russia revealed

The referendums on joining Russia are continuing in the Donbass republics and Russian-controlled regions of southern Ukraine. On Sunday, the turnout already reached the required 50% threshold in the Donetsk and Lugansk republics and Zaporozhye Region, with only Kherson lagging behind. In the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), more than 76% of eligible voters have already cast their votes, according to official figures. The referendum in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) is proceeding at a similar pace, with some 77% of voters having shown up at the polling stations. Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, which were largely seized by Russian forces amid the ongoing conflict, have demonstrated a lower turnout. Still, the latter region has already met the required legal threshold, with some 51.55% of registered voters already casting their ballots, according to the head of the Zaporozhye electoral committee, Galina Katyshenko. Kherson has so far demonstrated lower turnout, with nearly 49% of...

Signs of the Times

The types of coerced

When coercion is applied to information or belief, people can tend to react in a set of predictable ways, some with differences, causes and effects that aren't immediately obvious. I've found it useful to categorize them. You might find these categories useful descriptors for those around you as well. Type 0 - The Indifferent A person who believes something and has little to no doubts about it because they are generally incurious, underinformed, and unconcerned with the area of information, logic or experience that might lead them to know they are being deceived. As many deceptions one might face are identifiable as a likely deception using only one's own life and past experience, the type 0 won't likely be very introspective. No coercion is therefore necessary.

Signs of the Times

Cut 'symbolic gestures', Braverman tells police in England and Wales

Suella Braverman has ordered police chiefs to spend less time on "symbolic gestures" and more time on policing. In an open letter to police leaders in England and Wales, in which she set out her policing agenda, the new home secretary said diversity and inclusion initiatives "should not take precedence" over tackling crime. "Unfortunately, there is a perception that the police have had to spend too much time on symbolic gestures than actually fighting criminals," she wrote in the letter, published on Saturday.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: Not the first time: Russia says it thwarted attack on energy link to Turkey, EU

Russia's security service said it thwarted a planned Ukrainian attack on infrastructure delivering energy to Turkey and Europe — a claim Kyiv denied. The gas market is particularly sensitive to this kind of developments as Moscow has used disruptions at energy infrastructure in the past to justify curtailments to supplies. The security services of the two countries have traded similar accusations in the past. The Russian Federal Security Service, known as FSB, "prevented an attempt by the Ukrainian special services to commit a sabotage and terrorist act at the facility of the oil and gas complex that supplies energy to Turkey and Europe," according to a statement on its website Thursday. A Russian citizen was detained, who the nation's security service claimed was recruited by Ukraine's special service.

Signs of the Times

Are more Americans waking up to the horrors of 'gender-affirming care'?

As the Left takes over all aspects of culture, you are not supposed to notice. When you notice, they first tell you that it isn't happening. Then when you provide the proof, they ask you why you care and proceed to extoll the virtues of whatever horror they're pushing. When you continue to point it out, it is encouraging violence. This trend is alive and well among trans activists as the horrors of gender-transition treatment for minors come to light. Here is trans activist and adult human male Parker Malloy lying and saying no one is doing genital surgeries on children. According to Molloy, Senator Ted Cruz and anyone objecting to the castration and mutilation of adolescents are encouraging murder:

Signs of the Times

Mexico earthquake triggers 'desert tsunami' 1,500 miles away in Death Valley cave

About five minutes after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit near Mexico's southwest coast Monday, typically calm water deep in a Death Valley National Park cave started sloshing against the surrounding limestone rock. The reverberations from the earthquake more than 1,500 miles away created what experts have called a "desert tsunami," which on Monday made waves erupt up to 4 feet high in the cave known as Devils Hole, a pool of water about 10 feet wide, 70 feet long and more than 500 feet deep, in Amargosa Valley, Nevada. The water in the partially filled cave has become an "unusual indicator of seismic activity" across the world, with earthquakes across the globe — as far as Japan, Indonesia and Chile — causing the water to splash up Devils Hole, according to the National Park Service website.

Signs of the Times

Most ludicrous US Department of Justice lies - Cui Bono?

In retrospect, the outcome of the cops-and-robbers drama that played out in the wake of the global financial crisis looks so manifestly predictable now: on the one hand, you had clear-cut criminal fraud perpetrated by Wall Street banks on a colossal scale (a fact freely admitted to by Alan Greenspan in Episode 01 and ratified in this episode by Senator Ted Kaufman), while on the other (and far heavier) hand you had a Department of Justice headed by a team from... Wall Street's go-to law firm from Washington, D.C. From the point of view of someone in 2022, the only thing more obvious than the rigged outcome here — the robbers won because the "cops" at the DOJ were the robbers' attorneys, DUH — was the fact that the deck at the DOJ was stacked to produce exactly that result. That much is obvious these days, so massively has graft and corruption not only grown, but come to be openly celebrated by the thoroughly mediocre public figures who pollute seemingly every political scene (at...

Signs of the Times

How could we have been so naive about Big Tech?

The 1998 movie Enemy of the State starring Gene Hackman and Will Smith seemed like fiction at the time. Why I didn't regard that movie - which still holds up in nearly every detail - as a warning I do not know. It pulls back the curtain on the close working relationship between national security agencies and the communications industry - spying, censorship, blackmailing, and worse. Today, it seems not just a warning but a description of reality. There is no longer any doubt at all about the symbiotic relationship between Big Tech - the digital communications industry in particular - and government. The only issue we need to debate is which of the two sectors are more decisive in driving the loss of privacy, free speech, and liberty in general. Not only that: I've been involved in many debates over the years, always taking the side of technology over those who warned of the coming dangers. I was a believer, a techno-utopian and could not see where this was headed. The lockdowns were...

Signs of the Times

How the Greenland ice sheet 'really' fared this year

The Greenland ice sheet's melt season is over, bringing the 2021-2022 season to a close. Below I take a deep-dive into how the poster boy for global warming fared over the past 12-months. 'SURFACE' MASS BALANCE Greenland's ice sheet gains snow and ice from September through to the following June, and then, as temperatures climb with onset of late-Spring, begins to lose more ice through surface melt than it gains from fresh snowfall. This is known as 'the melt season', which generally lasts until the end of August, with snow gains minus ice losses called the 'Surface Mass Balance' (SMB). The map below, courtesy of the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), plots the SMB over the past 12-months. The blue line in the upper chart shows the day-to-day SMB (in Gigatons), while the blue line in the lower chart depicts the accumulated SMB (again, in Gts), from the beginning of the season (Sept 1 2021). The grey line is the multidecadal average.

Signs of the Times

US facing natural gas shortage, reduced drilling and record shipments to Europe blamed - Reuters

Shale producers in the United States are struggling to meet growing domestic and international natural gas demand, according to an analysis by Reuters. The report concluded that a hotter-than-expected summer and a lack of alternative energy sources have left the nation's inventories below the seasonal average. It added that there were no signs of improvement in the level of inventories, despite the rise in gas prices. The latest data showed that the Permian Shale Basin, which contributes some 12% of US total gas output, and the rig count in the Permian, has been down for two weeks in a row. "Less drilling means less associated gas to add to the national total," the news outlet reported.

Signs of the Times

France to issue 'electricity forecasts' as energy crisis threatens winter blackouts

In France, in order to face the energy crisis, France Televisions committed itself on Friday to raise awareness among the French on the gestures to be implemented to avoid power cuts this winter, by relaying in particular Ecowatt, the weather forecast of electricity, on its antennas. The president of the public broadcasting group, Delphine Ernotte, and her counterpart of RTE (Réseau de transport d'électricité), manager of the high and very high voltage lines, Xavier Piechaczyk, signed on Friday a "new partnership" in this sense. When the time comes, France Télé will display on its antennas pictograms designed as part of the Ecowatt system, which allows users to see in real time the level of electricity available in the country thanks to a signal in three colors: green (normal), orange (tense), and red (very tense, synonymous with unavoidable blackouts if nothing is done to reduce consumption).

Signs of the Times

Massive sinkholes leave two missing and three injured in Guatemala

At least two people are missing and three others have been injured in Guatemala after two giant sinkholes opened up in a street south of the country's capital. The three injured people fell into a 15m sinkhole on Saturday while inside their vehicle and were rescued hours later by the emergency services. Rescue teams and members of the Guatemalan army have entered the sinkhole in search of the two missing people. The sinkholes formed on a street in the municipality of Villa Nueva, 20km south of capital Guatemala City. Guatemala's national disaster relief agency CONRED has set up in the affected area to investigate the sinkholes and determine if there are any risks to residents in the zone.

Signs of the Times

SOTT FOCUS: BOTH Nord Stream Gas Pipelines Deliberately Ruptured - German Govt Suspects "Sabotage" Caused by "Special Forces Linked to Ukraine"

Authorities in Germany are trying to establish what caused a sudden drop in pressure in the defunct Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, with a spokesperson for its operator saying it could have been a leak. Comment: It's actually both pipelines that are affected. And no, it's not a 'leak'. 'Someone' (*ahem* the USA) sabotaged both lines, causing gas to spew into the Baltic Sea. The pipeline has been one of the flashpoints in an escalating energy war between Europe and Moscow since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February that has pummelled western economies and sent gas prices soaring. Comment: NordStream has been the Anglo-Americans' target for almost a decade. Now, they've finally done it in. Nord Stream 2's operator said pressure in the undersea pipeline dropped from 105 to 7 bar overnight.

Signs of the Times

Boy (10) mauled to death by family's 2 pit bulls in South Africa

A 10-year-old Gelvandale boy was mauled to death this afternoon by the family's two pit bulls at his house in Antia Drive. According to Col. Priscilla Naidu, police spokesperson, it is alleged that at about 13:15, police were alerted to the incident and on arrival shot both dogs inside the house. "It is further alleged that Storm Nuku (deceased) and two other children were in the house with the dogs. At this stage, it is unclear what had happened when the two dogs turned on the boy. He succumbed to his injuries at the scene," Naidu said. Police were forced to shoot and kill both dogs. "An inquest docket will be opened for further investigation."

Signs of the Times

Planetary-scale 'heat wave' discovered in Jupiter's atmosphere

An unexpected 'heat wave' of 700 degrees Celsius, extending 130,000 kilometres (10 Earth diameters) in Jupiter's atmosphere, has been discovered. James O'Donoghue, of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has presented the results this week at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada. Jupiter's atmosphere, famous for its characteristic multicoloured vortices, is also unexpectedly hot: in fact, it is hundreds of degrees hotter than models predict. Due to its orbital distance millions of kilometres from the Sun, the giant planet receives under 4% of the amount of sunlight compared to Earth, and its upper atmosphere should theoretically be a frigid -70 degrees Celsius. Instead, its cloud tops are measured everywhere at over 400 degrees Celsius. "Last year we produced - and presented at EPSC2021 - the first maps of Jupiter's upper atmosphere capable of identifying the dominant heat sources," said Dr O'Donoghue. "Thanks to these maps, we demonstrated that...

Signs of the Times

Italy's new anti-one world government prime minister, Giorgia Meloni is being branded a 'fascist'

The CIA-run MSM are doing their utmost to frame a nationalist politician that has been fearlessly calling out their bioterrorism and central bankster One World Government agendas as a "fascist." Watch Giorgia Meloni's speech below and ask yourselves if anything that she said was in any way "fascistic," offensive, unreasonable or incorrect:

Signs of the Times

Gigantic ozone hole - 7 times larger than Antarctica's - widens over the Tropics

The increasing loss of ozone (O3) from 30°N - 30°S has steadily accelerated since the early 1980s despite the 1987 Montreal Protocol's ban on so-called "ozone depleting substances" like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Once again this suggests human activity does not drive ozone losses. Twenty years after the Montreal Protocol agreement limiting or banning CFC use scientists reported an order-of-magnitude-sized error in molecular chemistry measurements that threatened to severely undermine the commonly accepted anthropogenic explanation for how ozone depletion occurs. With the new measured evidence, a leading ozone researcher proclaimed the scientific "understanding of chloride chemistry has really been blown apart," as "we can basically no longer say we understand how ozone holes come into being."

Signs of the Times

Tunisians protest high prices and food shortages, chaotic scenes at supermarket over staples

Hundreds of Tunisians protested on Sunday night in the capital against poverty, high prices and the shortage of some foodstuff, escalating pressure on the government of President Kais Saied, as the country suffers an economic and political crisis. Tunisia is struggling to revive its public finances as discontent grows over inflation running at nearly 9% and a shortage of many food items in stores because the country cannot afford to pay for some imports. The North African nation is also in the midst of a severe political crisis since Saied seized control of the executive power last year and dissolved parliament in a move his opponents called a coup.

Signs of the Times

EU sanctions have 'backfired', Hungary should prepare for prolonged conflict in Ukraine - Orban

Sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia over its military offensive in Ukraine have "backfired," according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who pointed out that skyrocketing energy prices in Europe were the result of the restrictions. Speaking to parliament on Monday, the Hungarian leader warned that people should prepare for a "prolonged war" in Ukraine. He also stated that the EU's response to the conflict was the reason governments across Europe have started falling, referring to Sunday's elections in Italy where right-wing candidates were expected to take control of the government. Comment: And they indeed won. As they did in Sweden, just a few weeks ago. "We can safely say that as a result of the sanctions, European people have become poorer, while Russia has not fallen to its knees," said Orban, whose country, like many in the EU, currently faces surging inflation, plunging consumer confidence and a possible recession. "This weapon has backfired, with the...

Signs of the Times

British pound hits all-time low as PM Truss is accused of gambling with economy

The pound nosedived nearly 5 percent at one point to $1.0327, its lowest since the United Kingdom went decimal in 1971, reports said on Monday. On Monday, the British currency plummeted to an unprecedented $1.0327, extending a 3.61 percent dive from Friday, when new Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng enacted historic tax cuts. The pound's latest dive, which saw the British currency fall to near parity with the dollar, further prompted shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves to accuse Kwarteng and the Conservative Party's newly-picked Prime Minister Liz Truss of "recklessly" gambling with Britain's finances.

Signs of the Times

Iran protesters clash with police outside embassy in London

Protesters have clashed with police officers during demonstrations outside the Iranian embassy in London. The Met Police said members of the crowd threw missiles at officers and breached police lines in Princes Gate, Knightsbridge, on Sunday afternoon. It comes as protests in Iran spread across the world, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in custody after being detained by Iranian morality police. At least five officers were seriously injured, the Met Police said.

Signs of the Times

SOTT FOCUS: NewsReal: Putin's New Move in Ukraine: Russian Referenda

"Sham democracy!" screamed Western media in unison, following Putin's historic announcement on 21 September 2022 that referenda would be held shortly in the breakaway Donbass republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, along with two more neighboring regions of southeastern Ukraine. In this NewsReal, Joe and Niall discuss the Russian 'escalation' in southeastern Ukraine; the historic Italian election; the endless 'headlies' about Putin, nukes and Russia; Western leaders' god-awful 'leadership'; and Lavrov's dynamite speech at the 77th UN General Assembly. Running Time: 01:39:47 Download: MP3 — 68.5 MB

Signs of the Times

NASA alarmed as astronauts' spacesuits keep filling up with water

The spacesuits that allow astronauts to venture outside of the International Space Station have been declared "no-go" for upcoming spacewalks. That's because the suits' helmets keep filling with excess water, a potentially life threatening scenario astronauts have been battling with on multiple occasions, CBS reports. The massive and unwieldy suits, referred to as "extra-vehicular mobility units," (EMUs) aren't entirely off the table and could still be used in emergencies, according to NASA. "Until we understand better what the causal factors might have been during the last EVA with our EMU, we are no-go for nominal [extra-vehicular activity]," Dana Weigel, deputy manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center, told reporters on Tuesday, as quoted by CBS. "So we won't do a planned EVA until we've had a chance to really address and rule out major system failure modes."

Signs of the Times

Syracuse U. professor defends sexually explicit K-12 book

A Syracuse University professor is defending the inclusion of a sexually explicit book in the nation's K-12 schools, saying she doesn't see what is so "scandalous" about it. Katherine Kidd, coordinator of the Syracuse English Studies program, told the student paper The Daily Orange that keeping a book like "Gender Queer" out of schools "solely on the basis of it being sexually explicit limits discussions about young adults' discovery of gender identity in relation to their bodies." Kidd said banning the book — the most challenged publication of 2021 — "erases" the experiences of what folks like author Maia Kobabe describe, and added it's "scary" that it is being "challenged for pornographic material." Comment: Only fanatic idiots talk like this. Not including this book in school libraries does not, and cannot, "erase" someone's experiences. Get a grip, Kidd. Kidd's remarks were part of an article titled "SU professors emphasize reading banned books focusing on gender, sexuality"...

Signs of the Times

FBI lied to judge to obtain warrant for Beverly Hills seizure of $86 million in cash

The privacy invasion was vast when FBI agents drilled and pried their way into 1,400 safe-deposit boxes at the U.S. Private Vaults store in Beverly Hills. They rummaged through personal belongings of a jazz saxophone player, an interior designer, a retired doctor, a flooring contractor, two Century City lawyers and hundreds of others. Agents took photos and videos of pay stubs, password lists, credit cards, a prenuptial agreement, immigration and vaccination records, bank statements, heirlooms and a will, court records show. In one box, agents found cremated human remains. Eighteen months later, newly unsealed court documents show that the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles got their warrant for that raid by misleading the judge who approved it.

Signs of the Times

FBI's Matt Gaetz operation silenced an effective GOP voice

Gaetz was a highly effective member of Congress. Then all that changed with the publication of an anonymously sourced report accusing him of possibly being a child sex trafficker. Prior to March 2021, Rep. Matt Gaetz was known for prominently pushing against Beltway groupthink. The colorful Florida congressman had been one of the few Republicans to help win the public relations battle against the Russia collusion hoax, the conspiracy theory that President Donald Trump had stolen the 2016 election by colluding with Russia. When Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., held secret hearings, selectively released information, and lied about coordination with the so-called whistleblower during the Ukraine impeachment hearings, Gaetz led a group of Republican congressmen in protest. The move, which enraged the corporate media and other partisans, helped unify Republicans in their eventual defeat of the impeachment stunt.

Signs of the Times

Pit bull terrier kills 10-year-old girl in Argentina

A 10-year-old girl died this weekend in the border town of Paso de los Libres after being attacked in the street by a pitbull mix. The minor was immediately referred to the local hospital, but she died despite the doctors' attempt to revive her. As a consequence of the episode, relatives of the girl sacrificed the animal, with whose owner they are relatives, while the police and justice try to find the owner and determine the motivations and the context in which the events occurred. The attack, as LA NACION was able to reconstruct, occurred between 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. last Friday in the vicinity of the Las Tablitas neighborhood of Paso de los Libres, a town located in southeast Corrientes, on the Uruguay River, opposite Uruguayana, Brazil, distant about 370 kilometers from the provincial capital.

Signs of the Times

This Is the Way the World Ends

Feel like we're on the ragged edge of something new and awful? You are not alone.... That "singularity" so many blab about is not what they think it is: the merging of human intelligence with Bill Gates's Office products, leading to an orgasmic nirvana of infinite memoranda from your HR department concerning new diversity, inclusion, and equity policy. Rather, I speak of the magic moment when the necromancers of finance discover that the proverbial can they've been kicking is filled with Schrödinger's cat food... and the road they've been kicking it down actually comes to a dead end up their own highly-credentialed wazoos. Economics will never be the same hereafter. The bond market has gone south, and that spells The End for the great game of financialization. The bond market is Moby Dick compared to the little blowfish that is the stock market. The global money system is based on bonds, which are... what? That's right: loans... promises to pay you X at some future moment. So, what...

Signs of the Times

Kiev's NATO-backed terrorist attack in Kherson was a strike against democracy and journalism

No number of missiles will succeed in stopping the exercise of the locals' democratic rights as enshrined in the UN Charter nor in deterring world-class Russian journalists from reporting on this historic event. Kiev bombarded a hotel in the former Ukrainian city of Kherson with missiles on Sunday morning in what local authorities described as a NATO-backed preplanned terrorist attack. A former Rada official who'd since broken ranks with the US-installed fascist regime was killed as was another person, while two RT journalists who were covering that polity's ongoing referendum on joining Russia miraculously escaped unharmed. Considering the targets and the political context in which this civilian site was attacked, it can be said that it was meant as a strike against democracy and journalism. Regarding the first, Kiev and its NATO patrons want to intimidate the locals from exercising their political right to self-determination that's enshrined in the UN Charter. They're not content...

Signs of the Times

Woman survives mountain lion attack in Mill Creek Canyon, Utah

A woman survived a mountain lion attack Sunday morning while trail running with a friend in Mill Creek Canyon. The two women were on the Pipeline Trail around 8:30 a.m. when they rounded a corner and encountered a cougar. The woman closest to the mountain lion tried to back away, but the animal leaped at her. In that moment, she slipped and fell backward. The cougar clawed her, leaving two puncture wounds in her right leg, according to Faith Jolley, a spokesperson for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The other runner hit the cougar with a rock, and the two women were able to get away and hike down the trail together.

Signs of the Times

Is it time to accept that Omicron is not COVID-19?

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post announced: "President Biden, doubly boosted, is in a much more favorable position to fight COVID-19 than President Donald Trump was before the rollout of vaccines." NPR elaborated: "Even if you're the president, it's hard to avoid a breakthrough Covid infection." We all know many individuals who have been vaccinated and boosted, yet still get infected. How does that happen? One reason is that original COVID-19's SARS CoV-2 virus - to which human populations have built immunologic resistance through exposure, vaccine or both - no longer circulates. References to current illness as COVID-19 represents a category mistake (when a person talks about something as though it's a different type of thing from the thing it is). It was still pertinent to speak of 'COVID-19' after the late 2020 exit of the 'ancestral' version, since certain SARS CoV-2 descendants, via mutation, found gaps in our immunologic defenses to become next-generation (but milder)...

Signs of the Times

Republicans see over 492K net gains over Democrats in Florida voter registration

Republicans in Florida not only outnumber registered Democrats, but they have outpaced them in net gains by a difference of over 492,000 voters. Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced that Florida Republicans, for the first time, had overtaken Democrats among registered voters in the Sunshine State. "When I got elected governor, we had 280,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state of Florida," DeSantis said during a press conference in Seminole in November 2021. "Today, and it will probably be fully publicized very soon, today for the first time in the history of Florida, we've now overtaken Democrats. There are more registered Republicans in Florida than Democrats," he announced. Since then, that figure has only continued to grow. The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) announced in July 2022 that Republicans in the state made history again, doubling their lead on Democrats since March to over 200,000.

Signs of the Times

The disintegration of America stems from Biden's border

Nations that disintegrate suffer many pathologies, one of which is the deterioration of national territorial integrity. The Biden administration is willfully eroding our southern border and consequently facilitating the disintegration of the American state. The open border policy of Biden's regime allows individuals from virtually every country in the world to simply walk across our southern border, between the ports of entry. One estimate is that there are almost 5 million people who have illegally entered the country since Biden's inauguration. On a recent trip to the border I took several congressional colleagues: Representatives Mark Green (R-TN), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Mike Flood (R-NE), and Matt Rosendale (R-MT). Every time my colleagues and I go to the border, the conditions have worsened.

Signs of the Times

Texas DPS busts human smuggling attempt at border-city airport

Texas Department of Public Safety officials interdicted an aviation-based human smuggling attempt at an airport in the border city of McAllen. The DPS special agent found 19 migrants onboard after his pilot ordered air traffic controllers to ground the aircraft. Texas DPS officials in McAllen received a tip about three vehicles dropping off a group of suspected migrants at McCreery Aviation Company at the local airport. A DPS special agent and aircraft pilot working under Governor Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star border security mission ordered air traffic controllers to ground a Raytheron fixed-wing twin-engine aircraft.

Signs of the Times

Gov. Newsom whines Democrats getting 'crushed' by 'ruthless' Fox News hosts

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says Democrats have to do a better job countering the influence Fox News has over the American electorate. "These guys are ruthless on the other side. Ruthless on the other side," Newsom said during an event hosted by The Texas Tribune over the weekend. "That prime-time lineup by Fox, they're ruthless. They dominate the most important thing in American politics today, and that's the narrative. Facts become secondary to narrative. They dominate with illusion and we are getting crushed."

Signs of the Times

How an obscure intelligence-linked party fixed a second Brexit referendum and torpedoed Corbyn

The pro-EU Renew party emerged from out of nowhere at the height of "Corbynmania," pushing for a second Brexit referendum that led to the Labour leader's demise. The intelligence backgrounds of Renew's founders were kept under wraps - until now. When Britain's little-remembered Renew Party officially launched in the heart of Westminster in February of 2018, its founders addressed a room of mostly empty chairs. The party's youthful and little-known co-founder, Chris Coghlan, announced a bold pro-EU agenda centered on forcing a second Brexit referendum. Founded in the midst of a surge in popular support for the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, Renew arrived on the electoral scene at a time when the British establishment feared a genuine left-wing takeover of 10 Downing Street. While its launch initially attracted mockery from the press, with The Sunday Times describing it as a "damp squib," Renew eventually played a decisive but hitherto unacknowledged role in...

Signs of the Times

Big Apple exodus: New Yorkers switching driver's licenses to Florida in record numbers

New Yorkers continue to stampede south as record number swap to Florida licenses The COVID-driven rush of New Yorkers into Florida has turned into a stampede — with no end in sight. A record-breaking number of Empire State residents switched their driver's licenses to the Sunshine State version last month, according to a Post analysis of Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles data. A total of 5,838 New Yorkers made the switch in August — the highest recorded number for a single month in history, the numbers show. Year to date, 41,885 New Yorkers have handed over their licenses after moving south, a torrid pace that's pointing to a new annual record.

Signs of the Times

From respect to resentment: My history with the CIA

The US Central Intelligence Agency recently turned 75. I have my reasons to wish it doesn't see another birthday My initial introduction to the CIA was through the medium of film and literature. The spy versus spy mystique was alluringly romantic, with a definite 'good versus evil' vibe. I grew up, after all, during the Cold War, where the 'red menace' permeated every fiber of American popular culture. I opted to serve my country in the military, and not as a spy, receiving a commission in the Marine Corps in 1984 as an intelligence officer. My specialty was combat, not espionage, and it seemed that my path and that of the premier American intelligence agency were never to cross.

Signs of the Times

James Webb Space Telescope sends back stunning new images of Neptune

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope shows off its capabilities closer to home with its first image of Neptune. Not only has Webb captured the clearest view of this distant planet's rings in more than 30 years, but its cameras reveal the ice giant in a whole new light. Most striking in Webb's new image is the crisp view of the planet's rings - some of which have not been detected since NASA's Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe Neptune during its flyby in 1989. In addition to several bright, narrow rings, the Webb image clearly shows Neptune's fainter dust bands. "It has been three decades since we last saw these faint, dusty rings, and this is the first time we've seen them in the infrared," notes Heidi Hammel, a Neptune system expert and interdisciplinary scientist for Webb. Webb's extremely stable and precise image quality permits these very faint rings to be detected so close to Neptune.

Signs of the Times

BEST OF THE WEB: The two wings of postmodernism...

There is an old saying that "the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist." The basic idea is that it is very difficult to fight back against an enemy that you do not even know is there. If you can be convinced that something is not there, it becomes impossible for you to defend yourself. This is what is happening with postmodernism. The people who are making and using postmodern ideas to tear apart our society have created a situation where it is very difficult to point out to people that we are living in a postmodern world. This is, I think, by design. I think postmodern thinkers, advocates, and activists leverage certain features of postmodernism in the service of making it very hard to get a hold of. After all, if one cannot point out, highlight, explain, or other wise show people what postmodernism is, it becomes very difficult to fight against the effects of postmodernism. So let's discuss the difficulty of defining postmodernism, and...

Signs of the Times

Suspend all COVID-19 mRNA vaccines until side-effects are fully investigated, says leading doctor who promoted them on TV

Leading doctors have joined a call to suspend all COVID-19 mRNA vaccines until serious side-effects are fully investigated and the raw trial data from Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine trial are released for independent analysis to help determine the true benefits and potential harms for different age groups. Writing in the peer-reviewed Journal of Insulin Resistance, one of the U.K.'s most eminent Consultant Cardiologists Dr. Aseem Malhotra, who was one of the first to take two doses of the vaccine and promote it on Good Morning Britain on TV, says that since the rollout of the vaccine the evidence of its effectiveness and true rates of adverse events has changed. In a two-part research paper entitled "Curing the pandemic of misinformation on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines through real evidence-based medicine", real-world data reveal that in the non-elderly population the number needed to vaccinate to prevent one death from COVID-19 runs into thousands and that re-analysis of randomised...