1419: Sleep Equity

Cyber Pandemic

Financial Pandemic

The next 5 years are going to be rough.

Don't want to become a cranky old fuck

Going to do something else at Block # 1,000,000

The federal reserve is collaborating with MIT to "explore" the development of a USDD. There's a layer 1 blockchain protocol called Algorand that is a

competitor to Ethereum thats founder named Silvio Micali. Below is his Wikipedia bio. They seem to be speeding up the 2023 target of the FedNow because of Chinas

plan to rollout the digital yuan at the Olympics next month. It's all coming together. Get yourself some Algorand just in case.

Silvio Micali is an Italian computer scientist, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the founder of Algorand. Micali's research centers on

cryptography and information security. In 2012, he received the Turing Award for his work in cryptography.

Erdoğan is clearly moving to contain Russian dominance of the Black Sea where Turkey’s Navy was dominant before 2014. At a June 2021 NATO meeting Erdoğan told NATO’s Secretary-General, “You are not visible in the Black Sea, and your invisibility in the Black Sea turns it into a Russian lake.” Turkey’s largest find in natural gas is off its black Sea coast which Turkey hopes will enable it to cut dependence on Russian gas imports. In 2020 some $41 billion in gas imports were mostly from Russia’s Gazrom via Turk Stream pipeline. Whether Turkey’s new gas discovery in the Black Sea, some 100 nautical miles from Turkey will be economical is far from clear and could take years to develop, making Erdoğan’s provocations of Russia more risky. The estimated gas find would equal about 13 years imports from TurkStream. But the discovery has clearly emboldened Erdogan in his moves against Russia.

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Bjorn Lomborg reports that the U.S. has only 3m:24s of battery storage capacity for electricity.

This makes fossil fuels critical for periods when solar and wind capacity are offline becuase of weather conditions or darkness.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 16:22

Tapp Coalition published a report about the true price of meat, 5th February 2020 in the European Parliament:

Aligning food pricing policies with the European Green Deal

Summary; https://canvas.disabroad.org/courses/4391/pages/the-tapp-coalitions-proposal-for-an-eu-meat-tax

This report is based on a report of CE Delft consultancy, commissioned by Tapp Coalition:

https://cedelft.eu/publications/a-sustainability-charge-on-meat/

Food prices do not reflect all costs relating to the production of consumption, like environmental costs, health and other costs. In addition, farmers often receive too low payments for a fair income. According to a FAO report in 2015, environmental external effects cost 2300 billion USD/year, more than double the market value of global food.

Many stakeholders, including governments, companies, universities and ngo's are involved in 'true pricing' initiatives to have a common understanding of methods to calculate the 'true price' of food. They do this with the aim to make sure external costs (like costs related to greenhouse gasses or biodiversity loss) are reduced and included in consumer prices, eg. by fiscal policies by governments or price policies of supermarkets or food companies. In addition, farmers have to be paid fair prices too, including all costs they make and payments for a fair living.

The TAPP Coalition has a focus on animal products like meat, dairy, eggs and fish. We started with developing studies to calculate a true price for beef, veal, pork and chicken meat in the Netherlands and the European Union in 2019. We translated this calculations to fiscal policies, to make sure consumers pay the 'true price' of meat products, including the price of greenhouse gasses, air pollution and biodiversity loss. For CO2 equivalents we use a price of 90 euro per ton CO2. On average, meat has to become 40 percent more expensive. Beef will be more expensive compared to chicken, because beef causes more greenhouse gas emissions. We propose a consumer tax of ca. 40 eurocents per 100 gram meat (average). Revenues will be used for:

1. lower prices for vegetables, fruits, potatoes, nuts and plant based meat products

2. payments to farmers for environmental, nature and animal welfare measures (1/3 to 1/2 of price increase meat)

3. compensation for low income households, to compensate for the higher price of meat (ca. 120 euro per year).

In The Netherlands, this combination of price corrections is accepted by a majority of the public: 63% of the population. We expect in other countries, this will be the same.

In the Netherlands, we propose to introduce a 'true meat price' starting in 2021 with low tariffs (16 euro cent per 100 gram meat on average), increasing to ca. 40 eurocents per 100 gram of meat in 2030. As a result, total meat consumption (in meat weight) falls from 45.3 kg per person in 2019 to 23.1 kg per person in 2030 (of which 9.3 kg pork, 2.5 kg beef and veal and 11.3 kg chicken). For information about the price elasticities used, see report CE Delft, Duurzaamheidsbijdrage vlees, 2019, Appendix A.4, to be translated in English and published 5th Feb 2020. Below is our proposal in a nutshell:

Click here to see all reports the plans for true pricing of meat are based on.

EU MEAT FACTS & SOLUTIONS FACTSEuropeans eat 69.3kg meat per capita in 2018 (source EU Commission)[1]

A sustainable, health diet means 10 or 16 kg meat per capita (sources: Wageningen University, EAT Lancet healthy reference diet)[2]. UK meat dietary recommendation: 18 kg red/processed meat[3]The 512 million EU citizens account for 6.8 percent of the world's population, but are responsible for 16 percent of the world'stotal meat consumption. World meat consumption growths with 1,2%/year [4].World meat production is expected to grow from 300 mln tonnes in 2015 to 376 in 2030 by FAO[5].EU citizens have a food footprint of 1070 kg of CO2 equivalent per year. Meat and dairy account for more than 75% of the climate impact from EU diets[6]. EU Meat and dairy products contribute 6 % of the economic value of food but to 24 % of the environmental impacts (including CO2-emissions)[7].Reducing meat and dairy consumption is advised by the UN to realise the Paris Climate Agreement[8]11% of the German population is vegetarian, 10% of Swedish, 8% of Polish and 7,2% of Italians[9].FAO expects global meat consumption to grow in 2050 compared to 2005 with over 50% (beef), 43% (pork) and 125% (chicken). Global annual meat consumption is growing with 1,2% (average 2014-2018). This is not at all in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. SOLUTIONSWe need meat consumption reduction policies, implemented by governments, starting in countries where meat consumption per capita is exceeding dietary guidelines and harms our health.

If European/OECD countries would increase the price of meat (like they did with CO2-taxes for fuels and unhealthy foods like alcohol too), they can use revenues for purpose to increase public support.Revenues of efficient fair meat prices in the EU28 could total '‚¬32 billion/year and can be used for: '‚¬10-15 billion/year payments to EU farmers for sustainability income support, '‚¬7-12 billion/year for subsidies/lower VAT on vegetables, fruits, plant-based food and healthy/organic food. Another '‚¬6 billion can be used for compensations of low-income households to make meat affordable for all. '‚¬4 billion can be used for developing countries to double nature reserves/forests, reduce greenhouse gasses, and adapt to climate change. In this way they can be seduced to agree with Climate Summit and Biodiversity Summit agreements in the end of 2020 in Glascow and China.A fair meat prices will include all environmental costs like CO2 equivalent emissions, air pollution and biodiversity loss. If CO2emissions would be priced 60 euro/ton CO2, EU meat prices would have to increase with 17 eurocent per 100 gram chicken, 36 eurocent per 100 gram pork and 47 eurocent per 100 gram beef in 2030, starting with 10 eurocent per 100 gram in 2022 for all meat products. This proposal is supported by 63% of Dutch consumers, if revenues are used to reduce VAT on vegetables/fruits and compensate farmers and low income households (source: tappcoalition.eu/news). This proposal is accepted by Dutch government to be part of the proposals for a new fiscal system and a new government and will be proposed to Parliament soon (input for the new elections spring 2021). Fair meat prices in the EU, including environmental costs are 17-47 eurocent/100 gram meatFair meat prices in the EU will lead to less consumption: -30% chicken, -57% pork, -67% beef in 2030Fair meat prices in the EU will reduce GHG emissions (CO2 eq) with 120 Mton/year in 2030(this equals 3% of all EU GHG emissions or all emissions of Denmark, Ireland, Slovakia and Estonia)Fair meat prices in the EU will have '‚¬32.2 billion per year across 28 EU Member States by 2030EU Fair meat prices have net EU welfare impacts of '‚¬ 8.8 billion/year in 2030, mostly climate-relatedFair meat prices are generally in line with food recommendations from a range of European civil society organisations, 3 leading European health NGOs "Farm to Fork needs an effective consumption strategy" and demands from farmers, united within Copa Cogeca[10]. EU Commission is advised to announce a minimum 'fair price meat fee' of 1 euro per kg meat in 2022 or 2023. Tariffs in 2025-2030 conform proposal CE Delft/TAPP Coalition.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/report-eu-agricultural-outlook-2018-30_en

[2] https://www.wur.nl/en/activity/Mansholt-Lecture-2019.htm and Willett W, RockstroÌm J, Loken B, et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT- Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet. 2019.

[3] https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/health-knowledge-gateway/promotion-prevention/nutrition/food-based-dietary-guidelines for UK : 350 gram red or processed meat per week maximum equals 18 kg per capita per year[4] http://www.fao.org/3/i9166e/i9166e_Chapter6_Meat.pdf

[5] http://www.fao.org/3/y4252e/y4252e07.htm

[6] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181023110627.htm

[7] Weidema et al., 2008[8] https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/

[9] https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/News/Data-news/Europe-is-going-veg

[10] https://www.copa-cogeca.eu/Download.ashx?ID=3726048&fmt=pdf

New Zealand Agriculture carbon scheme (1 cent/kg beef or milk in 2025) : https://www.mfe.govt.nz/consultation/action-agricultural-emissions

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 16:18

By The Athletic Staff

January 21, 2022 Updated 8:28 PM EST

Unvaccinated NFL players will no longer be subject to daily testing for the rest of the postseason, according to a league memo, obtained by The Athletic, that was sent to the remaining eight playoff teams. The significant development in the COVID-19 testing protocol was agreed to by both the league and the NFL Players Association.

Moving forward, all players, regardless of vaccination status, will be subject to "targeted" testing. The league is calling this "a comprehensive, symptom-based approach to testing," requiring anyone with COVID-19 symptoms to test. It also said the updated protocol "reflects our recent experience with the omicron variant."

The divisional round of the playoffs begins Saturday with the Bengals taking on the top-seeded Titans in the first game of the afternoon, followed by the Packers hosting the 49ers that evening. The Rams-Bucs and Bills-Chiefs games will take place on Sunday.

(Photo: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 16:11

New Hampshire is poised to become the first state in the United States to make Ivermectin available as an over the counter medication and sanction it as a protected treatment for COVID-19, under a bill before the House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee.

While similar bills proposed in three other states have been ill received, the primary sponsor of the New Hampshire bill told The Epoch Times she expects a slightly amended version to garner enough votes from the Republican majority committee to send it for approval to the GOP-controlled House of Representatives.

The House has already shown support for other COVID-related bills including statewide bans against both government and private-imposed mandates related to the virus.

''I have absolutely no doubt lives will be saved if human grade Ivermectin was available to COVID patients,'' state Republican Rep. Leah Cushman, also a registered nurse, told The Epoch Times about her proposed bill HB3005.

'Dangerous' Says DoctorBut Dr. David Levine of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center said that prescribing Ivermectin is ''dangerous and totally out of line with standard of medical care around the world.''

''I would never want this medication prescribed to myself or my family and would take legal action against anyone who recommended this to my loved ones,'' Levine wrote in his written testimony on the bill.

Dr. William Palmer, governor of the New Hampshire Chapter of the American College of Physicians, who also submitted written testimony on the bill, said he was concerned that if passed it would have the potential to overwhelm the state's health care system with cases of ''Ivermectin-induced side effects.''

Dr. Paul Marik, neurocritical care doctor who has published more than 600 peer review papers in his field, testified that Ivermectin, ''is one of the safest drugs on the face on this planet.''

According to Marik human-grade Ivermectin is approved for the treatment of viruses in 79 countries.

Quoting the World Health Organization's own data, Marik pointed out that 3.7 billion doses have been dispensed to humans since its discovery in 1987 as an anti-parasitic drug.

''So somehow Japanese people, Indian people, Brazilian people can tolerate it safely but it's toxic in Americans. You have to be kidding,'' Marik said.

Marik, who is a co-founder of the physician-comprised advocacy group Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), recently resigned from his position at the Eastern Virginia Medical School over his legal battles with the hospital for treating COVID patients with Ivermectin and other alternative medications.

He faced disciplinary action by medical licensing boards for promoting alternative treatments of other diseases.

'Successful' Says AnotherMarik cited several studies in his testimony that he said definitively proved Ivermectin has both viricudal and anti-inflammatory properties and that it has already been treated successfully used to treat deadly diseases like the mosquito-borne Zika virus and other similar viruses to the SARS-CoV-2 RNA viruses that causes COVID-19.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a study entitled ''Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19.''

''[Ivermectin] kills the virus so any assumption it doesn't is false propaganda,'' said Marik.

Cushman told The Epoch Times that in an effort to appease some concerns expressed about the bill she has submitted amendments to it include notices with any dispensary for human use that it is considered an ''off label'' use for treating COVID and also to create a state tracking system of any adverse reactions experienced by anyone who takes human-grade Ivermectin.

As it is now Ivermectin, which has been touted by a number scientific studies both in the United States and abroad as an effective treatment of COVID-19, is currently available as an anti-parasitic treatment for animals.

To obtain pharmacy-grade Ivermectin, Americans have to either order it from an on-line pharmacy in another country or get a prescription from a doctor.

Causing Controversy ElsewhereSeveral U.S. doctors who have prescribed Ivermectin for COVID patients have either already had their licenses stripped or been suspended.

In Florida and Arizona, two COVID patients died after their families lost legal bids to force hospitals to treat their loved ones with Ivermectin.

A bill similar to the New Hampshire proposal was recently introduced in Indiana before it's mostly Republican Health Committee, However, the bill drew an overwhelming amount of criticism from state medical officials who called it dangerous.

''This bill would set a dangerous precedent by having the government substitute its own medical advice for that of a trained, health care professional,'' vice president of the Indiana Pharmacists Association Darren Covington stated in written testimony against the bill.

Wisconsin physician Pierre Kory, among the few to testify in support of the Indiana bill, estimates that a treatment that includes Ivermectin could reduce COVID-19 deaths by about 75 percent.

In October, Arizona Republican Senator Kelly Townsed introduced a bill that would ban pharmacists from refusing to fill Ivermectin for ''off-label'' use during public health emergencies.

Earlier in Pennsylvania, GOP Rep. Dawn Keefer introduced a bill that would allow doctors to write prescriptions of Ivermectin as well as hydroxychloroquine sulfate for the treatment of COVID-19.

Neither bill has yet to leave committee.

In Alaska, lawmakers have discussed the idea for a bill that promotes Ivermectin as a treatment for COVID, but so far no bill on the issue has been introduced in the Last Frontier state.

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Alice Giordano is a former news correspondent for The Boston Globe, Associated Press, and New England bureau of The New York Times.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 16:09

ToplineBillionaire investor Mark Cuban launched an online pharmacy Thursday that offers more than 100 generic drugs at an affordable price with a goal of being ''radically transparent'' in its price negotiations with drug companies.

Mark Cuban attends the 2019 NBA Awards at Barker Hangar on June 24, 2019 in Santa Monica, ... [+] California. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)

Getty Images Key FactsThe Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Company (MCCPDC) is a registered pharmaceutical wholesaler and purchases drugs directly from manufacturers, bypassing middlemen to lower the price of more than 100 medications, it said in a statement.

For example, the leukemia drug imatinib is priced at $47 a month on MCCPDC compared to the $9,657 retail price.

The online pharmacy's prices for generics factor in a 15% margin on top of actual manufacturer prices and a $3 pharmacist fee, the statement said.

The markup on generics average ''at least'' 100%, the MCCPDC said, while the Wall Street Journal reports in some cases it exceeds 1,000%.

The company doesn't process insurance claims and requires customers to pay for their medications out of pocket, noting its drugs cost less than most insurance plans' deductible and copay requirements.

Customers have to request a new prescription from their provider to place an order for medications on the MCCPDC website.

Key BackgroundMCCPDC CEO Alex Oshmyansky reached out to Cuban with an idea for a low-cost generic drug company in a cold email. It was launched in January last year. They were motivated in part by ''Pharma Bro'' Martin Shrkeli's outrage-producing price hike of the lifesaving drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per tablet while Shrkeli was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. Cuban told Forbes last year the pricing for generic drugs was ''ridiculous.'' He said he decided to put his name on the company to ''show capitalism can be compassionate and to send the message I am all in.'' It's not clear how much he had invested in the company.

TangentThe company aims to complete the construction of an $11 million pharmaceutical factory in Dallas that spans roughly 22,000 square feet by the end of this year.

Big Number$4.5 billion. That's how much Forbes estimates Cuban, the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, is worth, as of Thursday.

Further ReadingMark Cuban's Online Pharmacy Opens (NBC5)

Billionaire Mark Cuban Wants To Lower Drug Prices With Generics Startup (Forbes)

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:59

News organizations both locally and nationally have been covering the rise of cargo theft in L.A.'s northeast train tracks in the past few days. Anchors on morning news have been quick to point out that there have been over 100 arrests, and even Forbes have been quick to point out the staggering $5 million worth of merchandise lifted. L.A. TACO first reported on this last November.

Union Pacific, the train company, has gone so far as blasting L.A. District Attorney George Gascon for his policy that has enabled this rampant rise in theft.

However, one major development that may be directly correlated with the rise in theft has continuously been left out: In September of 2020, due to pandemic-related budget cuts, Union Pacific laid off an unspecified number of employees across the railroad system. Including members of its railroad-only police force. Despite record profits in the billions in the last quarter of 2021.

All photos by Mike Ade for L.A. TACO.

A Union Pacific worker, who asked to remain nameless, came forward to L.A. TACO. In their opinion, the company should ''shoulder some of the responsibility instead of just pointing fingers.''

The Union Pacific Police department has jurisdiction over the 32,000 miles of track Union Pacific owns. Many of these ''special agents'' used to patrol this now infamous stretch of track. According to the source, the number of patrolling officers has been cut from 50 to 60 agents to eight, which the worker thinks has led to an increase in train robberies.

This past Saturday, 17 cars of a Union Pacific train derailed below Valley Boulevard and San Pablo Street. The tracks were lined with the debris and remains of cardboard boxes which some feel played a role in the train's derailment.

A Union Pacific spokesman said, ''The train crew was not hurt, and the cause is under investigation.'' Union Pacific workers quickly removed the train and started repairs. As of Monday night, train traffic resumed on the tracks, and the debris of boxes was being cleaned up. L.A. TACO reached out to Union Pacific's media team regarding the maintenance history of this stretch of the track, but they have yet to respond.

Opportunists have been accessing poorly secured cargo containers and claiming packages as their own. In a letter to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gasćon, penned by registered lobbyist and General Director of Union Pacific Adrian Guerrero, alleges that '' Since December 2020, Union Pacific has experienced an over 160% increase in theft in criminal rail theft in LA county,'' he said. ''In several months during that period, the increase from the previous year surpassed 200%. In October 2021 alone, the increase was 356% over October 2020.''

The letter also attempted further to politicize L.A.'s no-cash bail policy / Special Directive 20-07 (''Studies show that prosecution of the offenses driving the bulk of misdemeanor cases have minimal, or even negative, long-term impacts on public safety.'') as many corporations have. Even though, according to LAPD data, property crime is down.

Guerrero continued saying, ''These individuals are generally caught and released back onto the streets in less than 24 hours. '‹'‹Even with all the arrests made, the no-cash bail policy and extended timeframe for suspects to appear in court is causing re-victimization to Union Pacific by these same criminals.'' Community activists think otherwise, supporting the DA's no-cash bail policy, stressing that further criminalizing people of lower socioeconomic status for non-violent crimes isn't a real solution.

Gasćon's office responded with a public statement saying, ''Our office is committed to working with law enforcement to ensure collective safety across Los Angeles County's sprawling infrastructure, whether it's at our ports or on railroad tracks.''

A connection worth questioning can be found with the controversy surrounding Emanuel Padilla. Padilla is a protester who was accused of dragging a Sheriff's barricade (with ill intentions) towards Union Pacific-owned tracks near the Compton Sheriff's station in November of 2020.

Padilla was initially charged with unlawful obstruction of a railroad track and a felony count of train wrecking, which carries a potential life sentence. Jackie Lacy, Gasćon's predecessor, wanted to prosecute.

On his second day on the job, the newly appointed Gasćon had Padilla's charges dismissed , citing inconsistencies in the video evidence of the incident, noting that the facts didn't align with the Sheriff's reports' descriptions.

Union Pacific has gone on record to state that they're working with clients to enhance security around the area, through the use of drones, additional agents, specialized fencing, and trespass-detection systems. The Chief of the Union Pacific police department is scheduled to meet with LAPD officials later this week.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:59

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comWASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - A judge in Texas ruled on Friday that President Joe Biden could not require federal employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus and blocked the U.S. government from disciplining employees who failed to comply.

It was the latest setback to White House efforts to require various groups of American workers to get vaccinated.

Biden had issued an order requiring about 3.5 million government workers to get vaccinated by Nov. 22 barring a religious or medical accommodation -- or else face discipline or firing.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comU.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown said the question was whether Biden could "require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment. That, under the current state of the law as just recently expressed by the Supreme Court, is a bridge too far."

Brown, based in Galveston and appointed by then-President Donald Trump, said the government could protect public health with less invasive measures, such as masking and social distancing.

The judge's ruling is the latest in a series of court decisions to go against government vaccine requirements.

The White House said more than 93% of federal employees have received at least one vaccination and 98% have been vaccinated or are seeking a religious or medical exemption.

"We are confident in our legal authority," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in response to the judge's ruling.

The Justice Department on Friday said it would appeal the ruling. The government has noted numerous other courts that had rejected similar challenges and that federal agencies have said they will not discipline or punish employees with pending exemption requests.

The judge said it was his understanding that the government was going to be begin disciplining non-compliant employees imminently. The White House said this month it wanted federal agencies to begin mandating regular COVID-19 tests weekly by Feb. 15.

Brian Fouche, a survey statistician with the Department of Commerce with 16 years government experience, was told in a Jan. 19 letter that he would be suspended for 14 days beginning Jan. 30 because he refused to disclose his vaccination status, according to court documents.

The letter from the U.S. Census Bureau informed Fouche that his "misconduct is very serious and will not be tolerated," according to a copy of the letter in court records. The letter said failure to comply with the vaccine requirements could lead to his dismissal.

The order covers federal workers in the executive branch -- but did not apply to postal workers or legislative or judicial employees.

In mid-January, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the president's COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses, a policy conservative justices deemed an improper imposition on the lives and health of many Americans. The court allowed a separate federal vaccine requirement for healthcare facilities. read more

A third major vaccine requirement aimed at employees of federal contractors like airlines and manufacturers was blocked by a federal judge in December. read more

COVID-19 has killed more than 860,000 people in the United States in the two-year-long pandemic and has weighed heavily on the economy.

Many large employers such as United Airlines and Tyson Foods Inc have touted their success in using mandates to get nearly all staff vaccinated. The Supreme Court ruling that blocked the mandate for larger businesses prompted some employers, including Starbucks, to abandon vaccine requirements for staff. read more

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich praised the ruling Friday, vowing to continue "to fight to protect your liberties."

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by David Shepardson, Diane Bartz and Jeff Mason; writing by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Howard Goller, Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:58

The first American shipment of ''lethal aid'' to Ukraine has touched down in Kyiv, the country's U.S. Embassy said Saturday, less than 24-hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Russian counterpart.

The shipment ''demonstrates U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression,'' the embassy said in a tweet.

The shipment included ''close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine.''

Washington approved a $200 million package of additional military assistance to Ukraine in December.

It came amid escalating concern from Kyiv and its Western allies of an imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, more than 100,000 of which have amassed at its border in recent weeks.

Russia has denied it is planning an invasion, but President Vladimir Putin issued several demands to the West.

These included permanent prohibition on Ukrainian membership in NATO and the removal of most of the U.S. and allied military presence in eastern Europe. The U.S. says that's a nonstarter.

The U.S. shipment came after the defense ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said in a joint statement late Friday that their countries would send U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.

They said Estonia would provide Javelin anti-tank weapons while Latvia and Lithuania were sending Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other related equipment.

Blinken said in a tweet Saturday that Washington saluted the three NATO nations and former Soviet republics ''for their longstanding support to Ukraine,'' adding that he had ''expedited and authorized'' the transfers.

It was not immediately clear when the weapons and equipment would be sent.

Blinken met with with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday. He told a news conference that Lavrov repeated that Russia has ''no intention of invading Ukraine,'' but added that it is ''deeds and actions, not words, that make the difference.''

He said he told Lavrov that if Russia wants to convince the world that it has no intention of aggression toward Ukraine, it should begin by removing Russian forces from Ukraine's borders and continuing to engage in dialogue.

Lavrov, meanwhile, said Russia expected ''concrete answers to our concrete proposals.'' Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister for foreign affairs, told the U.S. on Twitter Friday:. ''Thank you @POTUS for the unprecedented diplomatic and military assistance for Ukraine''.

Associated Press contributed.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:54

A vaccine mandate is now in effect for cross-border truckers coming into Canada. Canadian truckers who are not fully vaccinated will have to show proof of a negative PCR test collected within 72 hours of arriving at the border and will need to quarantine after arrival, while unvaccinated American drivers will be denied entry.

Women's Trucking Federation of Canada CEO Shelley Walker said her organization would have liked to see a time extension before implementation.

''I know there's probably a lot of people out there that said COVID's been going on a long time, our industry knew about this since November,'' she said. ''But there was always the hope that it would go away.''

Walker said she's heard from some drivers who returned from the U.S. before the policy took effect at midnight.

''A few of them put in a 16-hour driving day, but they were not getting stranded down in the U.S.,'' she said. ''There is a shortage of PCR tests, and where do you go in a vehicle that's 70 to 75 feet long?''

While Canadian drivers will not be denied entry, those who do not follow the policy could face enforcement action or fines. Walker said truckers are planning a convoy to Ottawa in protest.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance has said between 10 to 15 per cent of cross border drivers could be lost, during an already ongoing labour shortage for the industry.

UBC Sauder School of Business professor Mahesh Nagarajan said there will likely be shipping delays as a result of the new mandate, but it's hard to predict the extent.

''You are now looking at an already scarce pool of drivers. Now that pool has gotten a bit shorter. So what you would have to do is you have to re-optimize your trucking, where you would take the vaccinated drivers and hopefully get them across the border,'' he said. ''It's a business trade-off, because the disruption that a Covid outbreak can cause in a company is much higher than the fact that some of them will not be vaccinated.''

A vaccine mandate is also expected on the U.S. side in the coming days.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:18

We represent federal employees and contractors who have devoted their professional lives to service. They have been on the front lines of the pandemic, continuing to serve their country no matter the risk.

From fighting terrorism, prosecuting criminals and protecting our borders; to protecting our environment, building our economy and supporting our farmers, these federal employees only want to be treated fairly in return for their service.

They are asking their government and their employer to give them more consideration than to fire them from their jobs after years of dedicated service because of their health conditions or medically informed decisions.

Just as federal employees work every day to ensure the laws are applied fairly to their fellow citizens, so should the laws be applied fairly to federal workers.

Support our Efforts and Donate NowFeds 4 Medical Freedom is a fiscal sponsee of Fiscal Sponsorship Allies, Inc. (EIN: 85-0839183), a charitable subsidiary of Charitable Allies, Inc., an Indiana nonprofit corporation and recognized public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3). Donations to Fiscal Sponsorship Allies, Inc. for Feds 4 Medical Freedom are tax-deductible as provided in IRC § 170(c)(3) of the United States Tax Code.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 14:23

A new study shows that Covid-19 vaccines don't impair fertility in men or women '-- but a Covid infection could potentially affect a man's fertility for up to 60 days.

Research funded by the National Institutes of Health and published on Thursday in the American Journal of Epidemiology tracked data from more than 2,100 women and some of their partners in the U.S. and Canada for roughly a year, ending in November 2021.

It found that getting vaccinated against Covid had no discernable effects on fertility rates in either men or women, adding to a growing body of evidence regarding the safety of Covid vaccines.

The study also found that men who tested positive for Covid within 60 days of their partner's menstrual cycle were 18% less likely to conceive during that cycle, compared with men who had not tested positive.

"There's not necessarily any harm in trying to conceive shortly after having Covid, but it may just take a bit longer," Amelia Wesselink, a study co-author and research assistant professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, tells CNBC Make it.

Wesselink says the findings showed no long-term effects from Covid infections on male fertility, or any effects on female fertility.

How Covid infections might affect male fertilityMore research is needed to determine why male fertility drops after Covid infections. However, it's worth noting that fever is a common Covid symptom '-- and fevers are known to temporarily reduce sperm count and motility, according to the NIH.

Dr. Boback Berookhim, director of male fertility and microsurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, says men who had symptomatic Covid with high fevers can potentially experience a temporary decline in sperm count that's likely to rebound after a couple months.

"Sperm production generally requires normal body temperatures," he says.

Dr. Adi Katz, Lenox Hill's director of gynecology, says inflammation caused by an infection may also play a role in reducing sperm quality. Multiple studies have now shown that Covid infections can affect male fertility, mostly in people who fall moderately to severely ill, she adds.

Researchers in the NIH-funded study noted that the short-term decline in male fertility could potentially be avoided by getting vaccinated against Covid. Wesselink says she hopes the study results can help couples make informed decisions about Covid vaccinations, and provide reassurance that getting vaccinated will not harm their chances of conceiving.

To conduct the study, researchers collected data from more than 2,100 women, ages 21 to 45, in the U.S. and Canada from December 2020 through November 2021. Subjects were asked to complete health questionnaires online every eight weeks until they became pregnant, or for a year if they did not.

Participants were also asked questions about their male partners, and given the option to invite their partners to complete similar questionnaires. Nearly 25% of them did so. At the time of the study, 73% of the women and 74% of the men had received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 14:11

Gleneden Family Farm is a naturally, ethically and regeneratively managed, small scale, mixed organic farm nestled in a small valley near Cunningham's Gap, just 1.5hrs drive west of Brisbane. Gleneden is owned and run by our family '' the Morrises '' Rohan, Fiona, Eden and Jethro.

In 2016, with the financial support of like-minded family we purchased ''The Falls'', a rundown but beautiful 250ha ex-dairy farm. It was perfect for what we wanted to do '' to restore the function and beauty of the natural landscape using natural (organic), ethical and regenerative farming techniques, open our farm for others to learn from and enjoy, and produce delicious and nutritious food for our family and our community. In memory of Rohan's family farm we renamed our new farm ''Gleneden''.

At Gleneden, we combine old fashioned farming traditions, values and homesteading crafts, with new and innovative natural, ethical and regenerative farming techniques. Our farming decisions are based on our holistic management plan '' to live a contented life, connected to the land we love and manage in a way that cares for the land, our community and our family. All our animals are pastured, living free range in the paddock and are moved regularly for optimal health and to reduce overgrazing. Why do we choose to manage our farm ethically? Because providing healthy food in a regenerative way for our community feels like the right thing to do.

We believe that a farm should be a safe, welcoming and beautiful place. Full of happy and healthy animals, plants and humans! Our farm is open daily by appointment for produce, tours and camping. We also host volunteers and interns in the hope of learning from and inspiring others on the regenerative food and farming journey.

We would like to acknowledge the local Githabul people as the first nation to care for this country and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We are just the current caretakers of this small piece of paradise and with your support hope to leave it in better condition for generations to come.

Camping, Heritage Displays and Farm Tours can be booked directly by contacting us via our contact us page or by calling (07) 4666 1273

Natural /Ënatʃ(É)r(É)l/ adj

Existing in or derived from nature; having had a minimum of processing or preservative treatment; In accordance with the nature of, or circumstances surrounding, someone or something. Oxford English Dictionary.

Relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these; Morally good or correct; Avoiding activities or organizations that do harm to people or the environment. Oxford English Dictionary.

Regenerative /rɪËdÊ'ɛn(É)rÉtɪv/adj

Tending to or characterised by regeneration. Oxford English Dictionary.

Regenerative Agriculture combines old (pre-industrial) traditions used in sustainable farming communities for centuries with modern scientific and applied understanding of organic farming, ethical animal husbandry, agro-ecology, permaculture, holistic management and agro-foresty. It's a way of farming that uses techniques that mimic natural systems, protect natural areas and improve the health of the landscape so it can be managed sustainably. In Australia, modern conventional agriculture has degraded significant areas of farmland and being sustainable (meaning to sustain in its current degraded condition) is no longer enough to maintain healthy ecosystems. It's about farming for the long-term for the benefit of everyone rather than short term financial gain. At Gleneden we use regenerative farming techniques to increase biodiversity, enrich soil health, increase carbon sequestration, improve waterway condition and quality and enhance ecosystem services on which we all depend for clean air, water and food. Regenerative farming also increases farm productivity, resilience to climate change and produces more nutritious and delicious food.

Over time, smaller more productive regenerative farms and farm families, increases the viability and resilience of our dying local rural communities.

These are some of the regenerative farming techniques we use at Gleneden:

Holistic managementNatural sequence farmingRotational grazing (for all species)Organic farmingPerennial native and planted pastures (rather than yearly annual monoculture cropping)No-till farming and direct seedingMulti species pasture croppingSolar water pumpingElectric fencing (Wildlife friendly)Heritage breeds and seedsCompostingDiversity of animal typesRe-vegetation and fencing of sensitive waterwaysPlanting and maintaining native vegetation corridorsMaintaining over 30% native forest coverIf you would like more information about our farming methods please contact us or better yet come and have a look! Our gate is always open for inspections when we are home but please book ahead to avoid disappointment. And don't forget your gumboots!

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are just some of the questions we are often asked. For more check our other pages which have more FAQ's relevant to those areas eg. camping. If you haven't found the answer to your question we'd be more than happy to answer it via email morrises@glenedenfamilyfarm or phone (07) 466 1273.

Are you certified organic?

Gleneden Family Farm is Certified Naturally Farmed (Granite Belt) which is an internationally recognised Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) under the IFOAM - Organics International standard. More details about what a PGS is can be found at www.ifoam.org/about/ifoam/standards.pgs.html.

CNF Granite belt is a PGS group based in Stanthorpe that have adopted the Australian Organic Standard for inputs and practices with record keeping and forms taken from CNF Capricornia Coast Group (www.certifiednaturallyfarmed.org.au). Farm audits are carried out yearly by the group and an invited independent auditor. All results and records are available for public scrutiny. Gleneden has chosen to be part of a CNF for its supportive networking and mentoring rather than purely for a marketing tool.

What does pastured mean?

Pastured means the animals are raised outdoors, on open fields, with plenty of space to graze and live as natural a life as possible. They are moved regularly to fresh pasture so that the land is never over-grazed. We use mobile shelters and solar electric fencing so that the animals can be protected from the elements and predators but they are never confined indoors. Our pigs and chickens enjoy access to grazing as well as the chemical free feed they require (omnivores eat meat). The rich mix of grasses, bugs, roots and other goodies they find also makes their meat rich tasting and delicious without the sickly insipid taste modern confined pork has.

How do I buy your produce?

Our produce is available by either joining the Gleneden Farm Community CSA (box subsciption) or by visiting our Farm Shop. To find out more please visit this page of our website.

Do you have volunteers or offer Internships?

Yes we do offer Internships. To find out more please visit this page of our website.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 13:51

A handful of super-charged fund managers control $34 trillion of assets and most of the ESG inflows, giving them 'carte blanche' to shape corporate policies.

The embrace of ESG by an ETF power bloc of BlackRock, Vanguard Group, Fidelity Investments, Capital Group and State Street may augur a dark future where they hold the power to sway shareholder votes, according to RIAs, fund trackers, hedge funds and ESG advocates alike.

Vincent Deluard: Shareholder democracy will not work as intended. The rising chorus of critics say the elite exchange-traded-fund producers from Boston, New York, Philly and Los Angeles pose a rising threat to "shareholder democracy" -- albeit because the power has been thrust upon them.

Investors and advisors have not only funneled their assets to the ETF elite for the past decade but also made them all powerful by giving carte blanche to deploy Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) filters that would freeze out scores of companies.

But now American investors need to be careful about what they asked for, says Vincent Deluard, global macro strategist at New York City brokerage, StoneX.

"It doesn't matter whether it's Vanguard, BlackRock, Fidelity or the California Public Employees Retirement System; if two or three investors control 20% to 40% of the vote of every US company, shareholder democracy will not work as intended," he says, via email.

Between them, the big five manage $27.7 trillion in client assets globally, and administer over $34 trillion. In US equities alone, the grouping manages $15.07 trillion, or 61.89% of all assets held in US equity funds, according to Morningstar Direct.

Kingmakers Indeed, one veteran Morningstar voice is troubled by the potential implications of placing so much power in the hands of so few, warning that their growing stranglehold on US equity funds will hand them a de-facto veto on all major corporate decisions by 2040.

Peter Krull: 'I simply don't trust them, or their motives.' "I'm concerned about the amount of power they wield, even if they wield that power well. If the sales trend over the past decade continues, then the 35% [cumulative voting] position will occur circa 2040," says Morningstar vice president for research, John Rekenthaler. via email.

"[Then they] truly would be kingmakers. Unless a proposal is so wildly unpopular as not to attract even a 15% vote from remaining shareholders, [they] could ensure the initiative passes."

"Conversely ... they could effectively shut down almost any activist activities," he adds, in a June 7 Op-ed.

BlackRock and SSGA signaled a willingness to comment on these raised concerns but ultimately declined. Vanguard did not respond to a request for comment.

Rekenthaler says what triggered the alarm was Vanguard, BlackRock and SSGA's early June decision to combine forces to topple a quarter of the Exxon Mobil board.

The trio acted in support of a bid by tiny activist ETF vendor Engine No. 1 to stack the oil giant's board with pro-ESG candidates.

The ETF group surely had a positive motive.

Much of the ESG movement opposes fossil fuel companies that seek to maximize profits based on selling polluting products to customers who pump tons of carbon dioxide-- a greenhouse gas-- into the atmosphere.

"This topic wasn't on my radar when the biggest fund managers ... endorsed the status quo. I paid greater attention after the ExxonMobil vote," says Rekenthaler.

"The issue for me isn't how [this] big three voted, but my belated realization of what power they now possess," he explains.

That's no outlier, reports The Telegraph.

"BlackRock voted against 255 board directors at companies including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and oil and gas firm Exxon Mobil in the year to June 30, because they failed to act on climate issues," it wrote. "This is more than four times the 55 executives it rejected the year before."

Double edged sword ESG advocates are also wary of that the power of big asset managers. They see it as a double-edged sword that, indeed, cuts both ways.

"I personally don't want Blackrock, Vanguard and SSGA to be the ultimate arbiters of proxy proposals, because I simply don't trust them or their motives," says Peter Krull, CEO of Asheville, N.C., RIA, Earth Equity Advisors, with $145 million of AUM.

"Worst case scenario is that the big three suddenly turn their backs on any sort of positive ESG voting," he adds, via email.

Indeed, even today the record of major fund managers in proxy votes shows that more often than not they effectively block pro-ESG initiatives, according to a Morningstar report.

In 2020, BlackRock funds, for instance, voted in favor of just 16% of ESG proposals put forward, and Vanguard backed just one-in-four,

Overall, Vanguard manages $7.9 trillion globally, BlackRock $9.5 trillion, SSGA $3.9 trillion and Capital Group $2.3 trillion. Fidelity administers $10.4 trillion and manages $4.1 trillion.

In US equity funds alone, Vanguard manages $6.8 trillion, BlackRock $2.65 trillion, Fidelity $2.4 trillion, American Funds $2.2 trillion and SSGA $970 billion, according to Morningstar Direct.

The rise of a corporate control of millions of proxy votes on behalf of investors in pursuit of their own agendas was inevitable, according to Joshua Levin, co-founder and chief strategy officer of the now JP Morgan-owned direct indexer OpenInvest.

Joshua Levin: There are significant concerns around principal engagement, conflicts of interest, and monumental voting blocs "The problem is not passive managers, active managers, or consumers. The problem is a paper-based legacy system that favored corporatism.

"This system was already heavily consolidated in favor of corporate managers [and] it is largely paid for by corporations ... [who] have enjoyed nearly impenetrable board voting power as a result," he says, via email.

"What's happening now is that indexing consolidation is shifting some of that power from corporations to asset managers, and people are concerned. But I expect that index manager proxy power is a temporary way point," he adds. See: As part of sale to J.P. Morgan, OpenInvest is orphaning RIA clients.

Waypoint, or not, a raft of industry figures now assert that growing pressure to back 'ethical' shareholder resolutions in proxy votes has handed fund giants a license to use their increasingly decisive voting powers as they see fit, albeit wrapped in an ESG mandate.

Significant concerns In recent years, activist groups including the Sierra Club have lobbied hard to compel asset managers to support shareholder resolutions favoring the aims of the surging "ethical" ESG movement. See: Sierra Club slams Larry Fink's 'lip-service' to green future.

Fund vendors, as a result, have begun to highlight their ESG credentials. Indeed, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently described what he saw as a "tectonic shift" toward ESG.

ESG lobbyists also have surging ESG asset growth to boost their ambitions.

In the last year, the value of domestic ESG fund investments more than doubled, up 123% year-over-year, to $266 billion, as of March, 2021, according to Morningstar Direct.

Indeed, since March, US ESG fund assets jumped another 14%, to $304 billion, including $17.5 billion of net inflows, according to the latest July Morningstar report.

RIAs have also come under pressure from ESG lobbyists to take a more active role in convincing their clients to invest in ESG funds. See: RIAs are just not that into ESG investing -- at their peril, a new study says.

For years, however, the shoe was on the other foot.

"There are significant concerns around principal engagement, conflicts of interest and monumental voting blocs that historically defaulted to management positions," he explains.

Yet the more asset managers get proactive about pushing an agenda during corporate proxy votes, the more corporate decision-making becomes contingent on the caprice of a small group, according to Levin.

"Rekenthaler [was] right to call out potentially concerning levels of control over shareholder voting from the big index managers," he says.

Threat to free enterprise All of the big five fund companies have backed pro-ESG shareholder resolutions in recent years.

Michael O'Leary: [Investors] can't be expected to cast ten thousand ballots themselves In June 2020, Vanguard backed resolutions to cut carbon emissions at United Parcel Service, J.B. Hunt Transport Services and oil driller Ovintiv. Later in the year, BlackRock pledged to back an increasing number of ESG resolutions in corporate voting, and

Backing ESG resolutions is increasingly good for business, too, as ESG funds grow in popularity. It also contributes to a company's corporate social responsibility agenda.

Yet Engine No. 1's plucky campaign to put four of its own candidates on Exxon Mobil's board has focused several industry minds on the possibility that the concentrated voting power of halo wearing ETF makers could pose a threat to the free enterprise system.

The mouse that roared Founded last year by a consortium of private equity investors--Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Bain Capital alumni--Engine No. 1, began targeting Exxon in Dec. 2020.

Three of its four candidates now sit on the Exxon board, despite the fact that Exxon outspent its campaign by a factor of ten. Indeed, Engine No. 1 only achieved its goal as a result of Vanguard, BlackRock and SSGA's decision to back the company's bid as a bloc.

In doing so, the three firms demonstrated that they hold the balance of power, even at a company as individually powerful as Exxon, which has a market capitalization of $243.75 billion.

Today, Vanguard, BlackRock and SSGA, alone, control a minimum 43.47% of the domestic fund industry's holdings in US-listed companies, and they have posted the highest net new US equity ETF and mutual fund sales, according to Morningstar Direct.

Engine No.1 launched its first ETF (VOTE), Jun. 22. VOTE tracks the Morningstar US Large Cap index, and the company has pledged to push ESG resolutions across the companies it invests in.

New York City robo-advisor Betterment also just rebalanced its ESG portfolios to include VOTE.

Fifty years out of date The concentration of corporate voting power among fund vendors hinges specifically on the fact that ETFs and mutual funds disintermediate investors from the stock they hold, leaving the job of buying and selling to expert traders.

Now, as a result of the massive surge in popularity of "set-and-forget" index ETFs in the wake of the last financial crisis, the largest asset managers are responsible for the proxy votes of millions of shareholders.

It's a problem that needs to be solved, says Michael O'Leary, managing director at Engine No. 1, via email.

"Disintermediated voting is a great solution for the way people invested fifty years ago before the advent of index investing. Today, many investors hold hundreds or thousands of stocks through index funds. They can't be expected to cast ten thousand ballots," he explains.

The system worked, when no one paid attention, adds Levin.

"Proxy voting has traditionally been a perfunctory backwater, where large asset managers are mainly concerned with fiduciary compliance and operational ease. The common logic has been to default to management positions for those reasons, and no one looked askance," he explains.

System flaw

The systems built to manage proxy voting also weren't designed to handle the scale of today's fund industry, or the complexity of ESG, says Deluard

This leaves asset managers and the outsourcers they depend on underfunded and understaffed, he explains.

"Practically, BlackRock and Vanguard do not have the staff or the expertise to cover all the votes they are a part of, [so they also] rely on equally understaffed and unaccountable proxy voting firms," he continues.

"[Proxy advisors] focus on 'low-cost/low-value voting', which doesn't require much research.

"They typically vote for independent directors, splitting the roles of CEO and board chairman, and against poison pills and multiple-class share structure[s] ... [which] may reduce governance risk but is unlikely to move the [ESG] needle," he says.

At one major proxy outsourcer, Institutional Shareholder Service, a team of some 270 global research analysts covers 40,000 shareholder meetings and an estimated 250,000 votes.

BlackRock, which boasts of having the "largest global stewardship team in the industry," employs roughly 50 staff over 85 voting markets.

It's good to be king One solution floated by Levin, among others, is to use technology to strip voting power from fund vendors and hand it back to the individual investor, although some say the proposal is pie-in-the-sky.

"Exposing voting rights to individual investors is right around the corner. Rekenthaler points out the sheer volume of ballot measures. Yet to use a metaphor, while there is an overwhelming volume of songs I could choose from, this doesn't stop me from streaming music," Levin explains.

"Once there's sufficient consumer awareness, then there's a market to deploy the curation technologies that can make proxy voting a thrilling experience. I also expect financial advisors, influencers, and other intermediaries will play a big part of that on-platform curation," he adds.

Yet fund companies are unlikely to just hand over the power they've become used to holding, says Deluard.

"Why not develop tools which would allow motivated Gen-Z-ers and Millennials to vote via their Vanguard account or Robinhood app? My guess would be that Larry Fink would resist the idea."

"It's good to be king," he adds.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 12:59

Local media in China's capital of Beijing report that with only two weeks to go before the Winter Olympics begin, city health authorities have resumed a controversial practice from early in the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic: using anal swabs to check for infections.

Insider on Wednesday translated a report from the state-owned Beijing News that described at least 27 residents of an apartment building in the Haidian district getting the anal swab test last week.

The Beijing News article mentioned the curious practice in passing. There was only a single reference to the swabs piled up among the equipment carried by the coronavirus testing unit dispatched to the Haidian apartments. The thrust of the article was that everyone involved felt nervous about the coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, but everyone was willing to do their part to control it.

Haidian is the epicenter of one of Beijing's current coronavirus outbreaks. District health officials have so far admitted to two cases of local transmission. Both patients supposedly caught the omicron variant of Chinese coronavirus from the same third individual.

Chinese health officials claim the third person contracted omicron by handling packages from Canada, a scenario deemed highly improbable by U.S. and international agencies. City authorities sealed this Patient Zero's home and workplace, then reportedly collected thousands of test samples from people who lived or worked in the same locations.

China used anal swab testing on American diplomatic personnel in February 2021, prompting a complaint from the U.S. State Department to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The Chinese government said the anal testing was administered ''in error.''

Japan also complained about China using anal testing on visiting Japanese citizens and demanded an end to the practice, saying the tests were physically uncomfortable and caused ''great psychological pain.'' At one point, China was reportedly using anal swab testing on most foreign travelers.

Anal testing is considered unnecessary, intrusive, and prone to returning false positives. There have been few reports of such tests from anywhere outside China.

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 12:17

With more than $1.6M in support from an online fundraiser, truckers plan to take their protest across the country to Parliament Hill

Publishing date:

Jan 22, 2022

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10 hours ago

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3 minute read

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Cross-border transport trucks cross paths on the Peace Bridge at the Canada-U.S. border in Buffalo, N.Y., Jan. 10, 2018. Photo by Hyungwon Kang / REUTERS / FILESA fundraising effort for a convoy of protesting truckers heading to Ottawa from across Canada has topped $1.7 million in donations.

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With more than 22,000 people donating, and thousands of truckers expected to protest vaccine mandates and cross-border supply chain concerns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may soon see a groundswell of emotion, anger and concern.

Truckers are planning a massive demonstration on highways across the country, with many set to leave British Columbia Sunday before landing in Ottawa on Jan. 29.

''To our fellow Canadians, the time for political overreach is over,'' the Freedom Convoy GoFundMe page says. ''Our current government is implementing rules and mandates that are destroying the foundation of our businesses, industries and livelihoods.''

Those organizing the convoy say ''small businesses are being destroyed, homes are being destroyed and people are being mistreated and denied fundamental necessities to survive. It's our duty as Canadians to put an end to these mandates.''

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We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

The truckers' vaccine mandates that began this month '-- requiring American and Canadian drivers to be fully vaccinated to cross the border '-- are a hot-button issue. For a day, with supply chain experts talking of shortages, the Trudeau government backed down but later reversed their position and the original edict stuck.

One of the most emotional moments came this week when trucker Jacob Unger was questioned at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor over not wearing his mask in his cab while talking to authorities and refusing to give his phone number and address to public health authorities and police. At one point a Public Health Agency of Canada inspector is seen on video throwing the tests and paperwork inside his cab.

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Crossing the border legally, this was happening to Unger at the same time as more people crossed unofficially at Roxham Rd. in Quebec, where law enforcement often carry entrants' bags across into Canada, and at the same time as reports of empty grocery store shelves have started to pop up across the country.

Of course, you wouldn't know people were still freely entering country illegally at Roxham Rd. if you listened to Trudeau commenting at a news conference on Friday about the family of four that froze to death in Manitoba while trying to cross the border into the U.S. last week.

''This is why we are doing all we can to discourage people from crossing the border in an irregular or illicit manner,'' the prime minister said. ''We know there are great risks in doing so.''

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On the Unger situation, Public Health Agency Of Canada spokesman Andre Gagnon said they are ''aware of the video in question'' but ''we do not discuss details of specific cases.''

He added ''as of Jan. 15, 2022, unvaccinated, or partially vaccinated Canadian truck drivers with right of entry continue to be allowed entry to Canada, but are subject to pre-entry testing, testing on arrival and Day 8, and quarantine requirements'' and they ''would like to thank industry and truckers, as we have seen extremely high compliance since the new measures were implemented last Saturday.''

With Canada's supply chain being threatened by the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border, it wasn't hard to find empty shelves at this grocery story in Etobicoke on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

With Canada's supply chain being threatened by the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border, it wasn't hard to find empty shelves at this grocery story in Etobicoke on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

With Canada's supply chain being threatened by the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border, it wasn't hard to find empty shelves at this grocery story in Etobicoke on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

With Canada's supply chain being threatened by the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border, it wasn't hard to find empty shelves at this grocery story in Etobicoke on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

With Canada's supply chain being threatened by the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border, it wasn't hard to find empty shelves at this grocery story in Etobicoke on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

With Canada's supply chain being threatened by the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border, it wasn't hard to find empty shelves at this grocery story in Etobicoke on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

With Canada's supply chain being threatened by the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers crossing the border, it wasn't hard to find empty shelves at this grocery story in Etobicoke on Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Photo by Joe Warmington / Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

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As I have written in a previous column , many independent truckers warned low product supply could become a real problem.

The Prime Minister's Office is skeptical. Former Trudeau spokesman Alex Wellstead cheekily tweeted: ''just terrible. This is the third grocery store I've been to this week that's been empty. Where are the pumpkins?''

This has emboldened protesters.

''We are taking our fight to the doorsteps of our federal government and demanding that they cease all mandates,'' the convoy's organizers said

https://twitter.com/AlexWellstead/status/1484613365448204297

The federal and provincial governments, however, seem reluctant to do so and continue pushing Canadians for a third vaccine dose as Omicron infections spike.

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Trudeau has said the truckers' mandatory vaccine plan has been in place since November. Federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra doubled down on Friday.

''Tomorrow, the United States vaccine mandate on freight drivers will come into effect,'' he said. ''Now both countries will have rules prohibiting unvaccinated truckers from crossing the border.''

The Canadian Trucking Alliance indicated last week it ''strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways and bridges'' while saying ''members of the trucking industry who want to publicly express displeasure over government policies can choose to hold an organized, lawful event on Parliament Hill'' but ''not disrupt the travelling public.''

Rather than head to a showdown, it would be better for both sides to lower the temperature, sit down and look for reasonable compromise. Is forcing vaccine compliance worth risking Canada's food supply chain?

Whatever your view, there is a protest about to roll with thousands of trucks and more than $1.7 million raised to help them do it.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

twitter.com/joe_warmington

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Archived Version

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 12:14

Attribution: US National Archives and DVIDSImage License:This file is in the Public DomainLicense & Image Link: LINK By F. William Engdahl 23 January 2022 Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is notorious for slippery dealings with supposed allies whether NATO or the EU. However his greatest perfidy seems now to be directed against Turkey's relationship with Putin's Russia. Over the past two or more years in its dealings with Ukraine, Armenia, Syria, Libya and now most recently, in the failed revolution in Kazakhstan, Erdoğan has shown a clear pattern of not merely opportunism but actually perfidy or betrayal of trust, as in double-cross, in his dealings with Russia despite being dependent for energy and advanced defense equipment. Why, is the question.

Erdoğan and Kazakhstan's Failed Revolution

From evidence that has emerged from the recent bloody riots and attacks by armed militants, on the Almaty airport, media and government buildings of Kazakhstan, including the gruesome beheading of at least two police officers by ISIS-like Jihadists, it is clear that there were two parallel destabilizations going on. One was the initial fa§ade of peaceful protests against fuel price rises from the government of the energy-rich country which allowed Washington and the EU to call for ''dialogue.'' These were led by ''human rights'' activists trained by millions of dollars from the CIA-tied National Endowment for Democracy, likely the Soros Foundation-Kazakhstan and various other NGOs steered by CIA or MI-6. It's clear that this was a kind-of ''pseudo-Color Revolution'' cover, behind which was a far more nasty regime change coup attempt.

The more serious attack was from an estimated 20,000 trained terrorists including foreign Jihadists, and organized crime thugs led by the head of Kazakh organized crime, Arman Dzhumageldiev. It is this second violent group that bears scrutiny. It appears Erdoğan's MIT intelligence and military are deeply involved in the training and arming of the putschists, together with the CIA and MI-6. Asia Times Editor Pepe Escobar states that there was a '''secret' US-Turk-Israeli military-intel operations room based in the southern business hub of Almaty, according to a highly placed Central Asia intel source. In this ''center,'' there were 22 Americans, 16 Turks and 6 Israelis coordinating sabotage gangs '' trained in West Asia by the Turks '' and then rat-lined to Almaty.''

Erdogan and the Muslim Brotherhood

For years Erdoğan has been covertly training Al Qaeda and ISIS (terrorist organizations, both banned in Russia) jihadists inside Turkey and transporting them secretly over the border to Idlib and other strongholds inside Syria to join ISIS or the Syrian arm of Al Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, to wage war against Bashar al Assad (and de facto against Russia there). In addition, for years Erdoğan has also been extremely close to the Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), the secret political Islamic organization that worked with the CIA and MI-6 during the Arab Spring and decades before.

After the 2013 al Sisi military coup ousting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, an estimated twenty thousand Brotherhood cadre were welcomed by Erdoğan's AKP and given exile in Turkey. Since Qatar was forced to reduce its active support for the secret Muslim Brotherhood organization Erdoğan has emerged as the primary supporter and protector of the organization. In a 2020 interview with Russian TV, Syria's President al Assad said that Erdoğan's Muslim Brotherhood ideology, not Turkish national interests,'' is the cause of his sending troops illegally into Syria, to fight for al Qaeda in Idlib.''

As Erdoğan began to distrust the huge organization of Fethullah G¼len, now in exile in Pennsylvania and accused of the failed 2016 coup against Erdoğan, it is clear that Erdoğan drew closer to the international network of the Muslim Brotherhood to expand his neo-Ottoman ambitions. Erdoğan's head of MIT intelligence, Hakan Fidan, according to French journalist Thierry Meyssan, was active in spreading Turkish Jihadi influence throughout Central Asian former Soviet republics as far back as 2003. Today Istanbul is the de facto Muslim Brotherhood capital.

This had direct relevance on the recent coup attempt in Kazakhstan. The reported key on-the-ground organizer of the attacks in Almaty and other key cities against the government of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev , was the now-ousted nephew of former President Nazarbayev, Samat Abish, a known Muslim Brotherhood member. Abish was just fired as First Deputy Chairman of the National Security Council, a key post since Nazarbayev named him in 2015. The Muslim Brotherhood has been designated a terrorist organization by countries such as Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Russia, UAE, and Syria.

The fact that Erdoğan is the prime backer today of the terrorist-backing Muslim Brotherhood''the de facto ''mother'' for Al Qaeda and ISIS among other Jihadist groups worldwide''combined with the fact that Erdoğan's MIT, along with MI-6, CIA and Mossad were secretly training terrorists inside Kazakhstan for the attacks, and the fact that the key organizer of the January Kazakh armed insurrection, Samat Abish, is a known Muslim Brotherhood member, all suggest that the Erdoğan role in the Kazakh events was far more central than is being reported, despite Erdoğan 's press comments of support for Tokayev.

Notably, the person named head of Britain's MI-6 foreign intelligence in June 2020 is Richard Moore. Moore is a Turkish specialist who spent three years as an MI-6 agent in Turkey in the early 1990s and as Ambassador to Turkey in 2014-2017. The role of MI-6 against Russia is obviously far deeper than many imagine. The fact that a Turkish expert has been named head of MI-6 is highly significant and suggests the British-American intelligence agencies use of Erdoğan's Turkey to destabilize the entire Muslim former Soviet Union is highly probable. The opportunist Erdoğan is clearly happy to be of help to his Anglo-American friends in this.

Turk Drones for Ukraine

And destabilization of Kazakhstan, a vital ''near-abroad'' state for Russian security and economy, is far from the only area that Erdoğan is pressing Putin's Russia. In Ukraine, Erdoğan has been highly provocative against Russia, openly supporting Ukraine's bid to join NATO, a security red line for Moscow. He has also sold Bayraktar TB2 unmanned armed vehicles, Turkish drones, to Kiev for use against the ethnic Russians in Donbass. After the 2014 Maidan CIA coup in Ukraine, Erdoğan began moving closer to Kiev. In April 2021 Ukraine's comedian-turned-president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met Erdoğan in Turkey to discuss Ukrainian purchase of Turkish military drones following their high success in the Azeri-Armenia Nagorno-Karabakh war earlier. Zelensky requested Turkish support for its dispute with Russia. Erdoğan replied by calling Russia's annexation of Crimea, where the population is still 12% Turkic Tatar, illegal.

Erdoğan is clearly moving to contain Russian dominance of the Black Sea where Turkey's Navy was dominant before 2014. At a June 2021 NATO meeting Erdoğan told NATO's Secretary-General, ''You are not visible in the Black Sea, and your invisibility in the Black Sea turns it into a Russian lake.'' Turkey's largest find in natural gas is off its black Sea coast which Turkey hopes will enable it to cut dependence on Russian gas imports. In 2020 some $41 billion in gas imports were mostly from Russia's Gazrom via Turk Stream pipeline. Whether Turkey's new gas discovery in the Black Sea, some 100 nautical miles from Turkey will be economical is far from clear and could take years to develop, making Erdoğan's provocations of Russia more risky. The estimated gas find would equal about 13 years imports from TurkStream. But the discovery has clearly emboldened Erdogan in his moves against Russia.

Turkey Moves Against Armenia

In September 2020 the Turkish-trained army of Azerbaijan broke a fragile cease fire in the predominately Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave with military force. It later was confirmed that not only did Turkish drones deal a devastating blow to the poorly-prepared Armenian forces, but also that Turkey's MIT had secretly supplied seasoned Jihadi fighters from Syria into the war where they committed war crimes against ethnic Armenians.

The game changer was Azeri deployment of deadly Turkish military drones against Armenian targets. The drones are made in Turkey using Ukrainian engines. The loss of Armenian territory was a humiliating defeat not only for Armenia, but also for Putin, as Armenia is a member of Russia's Eurasian Economic Union. It gave Turkey a huge credibility boost across Central Asia.

RAND and Great Turan Converge

In 2019 the RAND Corporation in Washington delivered a report to the US Army command with the focus of forcing Moscow to intervene in threats to its border security in order to seriously weaken her stability. Aside from more economic sanctions, the report advocated, ''causing Russia to overextend itself militarily or economically or causing the regime to lose domestic and/or international prestige and influence.'' The RAND report called among other things for arming Ukraine against Russia in Donbass; promoting regime change in Belarus; increasing support for the Jihadists in Syria who oppose Syria's Russian presence; exploiting tensions in South Caucasus including Nagorno-Karabakh, and reducing Russian influence in Central Asia including Kazakhstan. Much of Washington-backed actions against Russia in the last three years have followed the outlines of that RAND strategy.

In 2009 Erdoğan created something called Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States with its Secretariat in Istanbul. Its members include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey. The nominal goal is to emphasize their ''common history, common language, common identity and common culture,'' to cite their website. It is referred to in Turkey as Erdoğan's Great Turan, a sort of neo-Ottoman Empire that would ultimately include most Central Asia and huge parts of Islamic Russia, China's Xinjiang province, Mongolia and Iran. He recently showed a framed map of Great Turan given him in November by the leader of the Far-Right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bah§eli.

It's understandable why strategists in Washington and London would get excited by such Erdoğan ambitions. For them Erdoğan's desire to create a huge Great Turan Turkic region of influence with Istanbul at the heart serve a highly useful purpose for NATO'--the destruction of Russia as a functioning nation and power.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine''New Eastern Outlook''

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 12:03

Jan. 22, 2022, 10:51 AM EST / Updated Jan. 23, 2022, 3:30 AM EST

By Rhoda Kwan

The first American shipment of ''lethal aid'' to Ukraine has touched down in Kyiv, the country's U.S. Embassy said Saturday, less than 24-hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his Russian counterpart.

The shipment ''demonstrates U.S. commitment to helping Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression,'' the embassy said in a tweet.

The shipment included ''close to 200,000 pounds of lethal aid, including ammunition for the front line defenders of Ukraine.''

Washington approved a $200 million package of additional military assistance to Ukraine in December.

It came amid escalating concern from Kyiv and its Western allies of an imminent invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, more than 100,000 of which have amassed at its border in recent weeks.

Russia has denied it is planning an invasion, but President Vladimir Putin issued several demands to the West.

These included permanent prohibition on Ukrainian membership in NATO and the removal of most of the U.S. and allied military presence in eastern Europe. The U.S. says that's a nonstarter.

The U.S. shipment came after the defense ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said in a joint statement late Friday that their countries would send U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.

They said Estonia would provide Javelin anti-tank weapons while Latvia and Lithuania were sending Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and other related equipment.

Blinken said in a tweet Saturday that Washington saluted the three NATO nations and former Soviet republics ''for their longstanding support to Ukraine,'' adding that he had ''expedited and authorized'' the transfers.

It was not immediately clear when the weapons and equipment would be sent.

Blinken met with with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday. He told a news conference that Lavrov repeated that Russia has ''no intention of invading Ukraine,'' but added that it is ''deeds and actions, not words, that make the difference.''

RecommendedHe said he told Lavrov that if Russia wants to convince the world that it has no intention of aggression toward Ukraine, it should begin by removing Russian forces from Ukraine's borders and continuing to engage in dialogue.

Lavrov, meanwhile, said Russia expected ''concrete answers to our concrete proposals.'' Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's minister for foreign affairs, told the U.S. on Twitter Friday:. ''Thank you @POTUS for the unprecedented diplomatic and military assistance for Ukraine''.

Rhoda Kwan

Associated Press contributed.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 03:45

4:00 AM IST, 21 Jan 20225:09 AM IST, 22 Jan 20224:00 AM IST, 21 Jan 20225:09 AM IST, 22 Jan 2022

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is preparing to release an initial government-wide strategy for digital assets as soon as next month and task federal agencies with assessing the risks and opportunities that they pose, according to people familiar with the matter.

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is preparing to release an initial government-wide strategy for digital assets as soon as next month and task federal agencies with assessing the risks and opportunities that they pose, according to people familiar with the matter.

Senior administration officials have held multiple meetings on the plan, which is being drafted as an executive order, said the people. The directive, which would be presented to President Joe Biden in the coming weeks, puts the White House at the center of Washington's efforts to deal with cryptocurrencies.

Federal agencies have taken a scatter-shot approach to digital assets over the past several years and Biden's team is facing pressure to lead on the issue. Industry executives often bemoan what they say is a lack of clarity on U.S. rules and others worry that an embrace by China and other nations of government-backed coins could threaten the dollar's dominance.

The White House declined to comment.

The Biden administration's increased focus comes at a time of broad consumer interest in the volatile crypto market. Bitcoin, the biggest and most liquid cryptocurrency, fell below $37,000 on Friday, compared with an all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November.

The late-stage draft of the executive order details economic, regulatory and national security challenges posed by cryptocurrencies, said the people who asked not to be named discussing internal deliberations. It would call for reports from various agencies due in the second half of 2022.

One such study would come from the Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group that includes the heads of Washington's top financial watchdogs, looking at the possible systemic impacts of digital assets. Another government report would look at illicit uses of the virtual coins.

Meanwhile, the directive would also require other agencies to weigh in -- carving out roles for everyone from the State Department to the Commerce Department. Some of those tasks will be meant to ensure that the U.S. remains competitive as the world increasingly adopts digital assets.

The administration's plan, including the directives in the order, could be further modified before it's finalized, the people cautioned.

The administration is also expected to weigh in on the possibility of the U.S. issuing a government-backed coin, known as a central bank digital currency or CBDC, the people familiar with the talks said. But, according to one of the people, the administration is likely to hold off on taking a firm position, as the Federal Reserve is still considering the issue. On Thursday, the Fed released a preliminary paper on the matter and opened a public comment period through May 20.

A CBDC could be a way for the U.S. to stay competitive with the explosive growth of private cryptocurrencies and coins produced by other nations, including China. The Fed said it does not intend to move forward without the support of the White House and Congress.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 02:51

SB866:v99#DOCUMENT Bill Start CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE'-- 2021''2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill

No. 866

Introduced by Senators Wiener and Pan(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Wicks)(Coauthor: Senator Newman)(Coauthors: Assembly Members Aguiar-Curry, Friedman, Low, Ting, and Akilah Weber) January 20, 2022 An act to add Section 6931 to the Family Code, relating to minors.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

SB 866, as introduced, Wiener. Minors: vaccine consent.

Existing law prescribes various circumstances under which a minor may consent to their medical care and treatment without the consent of a parent or guardian. These circumstances include, among others, authorizing a minor 12 years of age or older who may have come into contact with an infectious, contagious, or communicable disease to consent to medical care related to the diagnosis or treatment of the disease, if the disease or condition is one that is required by law or regulation to be reported to the local health officer, or is a related sexually transmitted disease, as may be determined by the State Public Health Officer.

This bill would additionally authorize a minor 12 years of age or older to consent to vaccines that meet specified federal agency criteria. The bill would authorize a vaccine provider, as defined, to administer a vaccinepursuant to the bill, but would not authorize the vaccine provider to provide any service that is otherwise outside the vaccine provider's scope of practice.

Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NO

Bill TextThe people of the State of California do enact as follows:

6931. (a) A minor 12 years of age or older may consent to a vaccine that is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration and meets the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACIP) without the consent of the parent or guardian of the minor.

(b) An authorized vaccine provider may administer a vaccine pursuant to subdivision (a). For purposes of this section, ''authorized vaccine provider'' means a person licensed pursuant to Division 2 (commencing with Section 500) of the Business and Professions Code or a clinic or health facility licensed pursuant to Division 2 (commencing with Section 1200 of the Health and Safety Code), or any other provider authorized by the state.

(c) This section does not authorize a vaccine provider to provide any service that is otherwise outside the vaccine provider's scope of practice.

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Sat, 22 Jan 2022 22:43

Farmers in the developing world say they are curtailing production, which means global hunger could worsen

By

Jon Emont in Singapore and

Jenny Carolina Gonzalez in Bogot, Colombia

Jan. 21, 2022 8:03 am ETFrom South America's avocado, corn and coffee farms to Southeast Asia's plantations of coconuts and oil palms, high fertilizer prices are weighing on farmers across the developing world, making it much costlier to cultivate and forcing many to cut back on production.

That means grocery bills could go up even more in 2022, following a year in which global food prices rose to decade highs. An uptick would exacerbate hunger'--already acute in some parts of the world because of pandemic-linked job losses'--and thwart efforts by politicians...

From South America's avocado, corn and coffee farms to Southeast Asia's plantations of coconuts and oil palms, high fertilizer prices are weighing on farmers across the developing world, making it much costlier to cultivate and forcing many to cut back on production.

That means grocery bills could go up even more in 2022, following a year in which global food prices rose to decade highs. An uptick would exacerbate hunger'--already acute in some parts of the world because of pandemic-linked job losses'--and thwart efforts by politicians and central bankers to subdue inflation.

''Farms are failing and many people are not growing,'' said 61-year-old Rodrigo Fierro, who produces avocados, tangerines and oranges on his 10-acre farm in central Colombia. He has seen fertilizer prices double in recent months, he said.

Christina Ribeiro do Valle, who comes from a long line of coffee growers in Brazil, is this year paying three times what she paid last year for the fertilizer she needs. Coupled with a recent drought that hit her crop hard, it means Ms. do Valle, 75, will produce a fraction of her Ribeiro do Valle brand of coffee, some of which is exported.

There is also a shortage of fertilizer. ''This year, you pay, then put your name on a waiting list, and the supplier delivers it when he has it,'' she said.

The coffee beans won't develop as they should for lack of fertilizer, she said'--not just this year but also in 2023. ''It's like a child that's malnourished,'' she said.

Farmers in the U.S. are also feeling the pinch, with some shifting their planting plans. But the impact is expected to be worse in developing countries where smallholders have limited access to bank loans and can't pay up front for expensive fertilizer.

Fertilizer demand in sub-Saharan Africa could fall 30% in 2022, according to the International Fertilizer Development Center, a global nonprofit organization. That would translate to 30 million metric tons less food produced, which the center says is equivalent to the food needs of 100 million people.

''Lower fertilizer use will inevitably weigh on food production and quality, affecting food availability, rural incomes and the livelihoods of the poor,'' said Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's trade and markets division.

As the pandemic enters year three, more households are having to cut down on the quantity and quality of food they consume, the World Bank said in a note last month, noting that high fertilizer prices were adding to costs. Around 2.4 billion people lacked access to adequate food in 2020, up 320 million from the year before, it said. Inflation rose in about 80% of emerging-market economies last year, with roughly a third seeing double-digit food inflation, according to the World Bank.

Diammonium phosphate, or DAP, a commonly used phosphate fertilizer, cost $745 per metric ton in December'--more than double its 2020 average price. December prices for Eastern European urea, a widely exported nitrogen fertilizer, were nearly four times the 2020 average.

The price-increases stem partly from global energy costs, with the average natural-gas price in Europe for the October-December quarter 10 times as much as that for the year of 2020, according to World Bank data. Nitrogen production facilities rely heavily on natural gas to convert chemical raw materials into finished products, so rises in the natural-gas price often flow through into fertilizer costs. Major fertilizer producers including China, Turkey, Egypt and Russia also curbed exports in the second half of 2021, further pushing up global prices.

A more recent factor is European Union and U.S. sanctions on Belarus, a major exporter of potash, which is a key ingredient of mineral fertilizers. Norway-based Yara International ASA , one of the world's largest fertilizer makers, said this month it would wind down its sourcing of Belarusian potash by April.

''Belarus represents 20% of the global production of potash so clearly they are a significant supplier,'' said Chief Executive Svein Tore Holsether in an interview. ''If that part doesn't make it out of Belarus then I don't see anyone ready to turn up the volumes,'' he said.

Tony Will, chief executive of CF Industries Holdings Inc., a leading nitrogen fertilizer manufacturer based in Deerfield, Ill., said he expected lower fertilization levels this year to result in reduced agricultural yields. The company has only reopened one of the two U.K. plants it closed in September, citing high natural-gas prices and low availability of truck drivers. Plants in North America, where gas prices are lower, are running at maximum capacity, Mr. Will said.

Industry experts say European production is likely to be constrained as long as natural-gas prices remain high there, with shortages in parts of the developing world amplified by trade restrictions in other major fertilizer exporters.

On Indonesia's Sumatra island, coconut grower Burhanuddin Rafik is seeking out alternatives to fertilizer. He says farmers in his area have resorted to using monosodium glutamate, or MSG, a flavor enhancer that contains high levels of nitrogen and is used in local dishes. He and others are also trying organic methods, like spreading ash and plant debris on their crops.

Faustin Lohouri Bi Tra, who grows corn, rice and soy seeds for other farmers on a 500-acre plantation in Ivory Coast, said if fertilizer prices remain high into April, he might have to slash his own planting by half or more. He can only raise prices so much before his seeds become too expensive for local farmers. ''When I tell them the price of seeds is $3 per kilogram, they start to cry,'' he said.

In an oven-hot, largely flat corner of southern Colombia, Marcos Baquero, 48, said high fertilizer costs were prompting him to try to figure out how to coax a bigger yield from his small farm.

''Farmers need to produce 50% more than they produced before,'' said Mr. Baquero, though he said he believed that many would simply give up on farming.

While he usually gets 35 tons of watermelon a hectare, he now wants to see if he can produce 40 tons. As for corn, he would like to increase the yield from the 6 tons to 10 tons he now produces to as much as 20 tons a hectare.

''This is very painful for us farmers,'' he said, ''and it's getting very difficult to work.''

'--Jeffrey T. Lewis in S£o Paulo contributed to this article.

Write to Jon Emont at jonathan.emont@wsj.com

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Sat, 22 Jan 2022 20:16

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This paper examines the pros and cons of a potential U.S. central bank digital currency, or CBDC, and is the first step in a discussion of whether and how a CBDC could improve the safe and efficient domestic payments system. Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation (PDF) invites comment from the public. Importantly, the paper does not favor any policy outcome.

The paper summarizes the current state of the domestic payments system and discusses the different types of digital payment methods and assets that have emerged in recent years, including stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. It concludes by examining the potential benefits and risks of a CBDC, and identifies specific policy considerations.

Consumers and businesses have long held and transferred money in digital form, via bank accounts, online transactions, or payment apps. The forms of money used in those transactions are liabilities of private entities, such as commercial banks. Conversely, a CBDC would be a liability of a central bank, like the Federal Reserve.

While a CBDC could provide a safe, digital payment option for households and businesses as the payments system continues to evolve, and may result in faster payment options between countries, there may also be downsides. They include how to ensure a CBDC would preserve monetary and financial stability as well as complement existing means of payment. Other key policy considerations include how to preserve the privacy of citizens and maintain the ability to combat illicit finance. The paper discusses these and other factors in more detail.

To fully evaluate a potential CBDC, Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation (PDF) asks for public comment on more than 20 questions. Comments will be accepted for 120 days and can be submitted here.

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Sat, 22 Jan 2022 13:20

Tapp Coalition published a report about the true price of meat, 5th February 2020 in the European Parliament:

Aligning food pricing policies with the European Green Deal

Summary; https://canvas.disabroad.org/courses/4391/pages/the-tapp-coalitions-proposal-for-an-eu-meat-tax

This report is based on a report of CE Delft consultancy, commissioned by Tapp Coalition:

https://cedelft.eu/publications/a-sustainability-charge-on-meat/

Food prices do not reflect all costs relating to the production of consumption, like environmental costs, health and other costs. In addition, farmers often receive too low payments for a fair income. According to a FAO report in 2015, environmental external effects cost 2300 billion USD/year, more than double the market value of global food.

Many stakeholders, including governments, companies, universities and ngo's are involved in 'true pricing' initiatives to have a common understanding of methods to calculate the 'true price' of food. They do this with the aim to make sure external costs (like costs related to greenhouse gasses or biodiversity loss) are reduced and included in consumer prices, eg. by fiscal policies by governments or price policies of supermarkets or food companies. In addition, farmers have to be paid fair prices too, including all costs they make and payments for a fair living.

The TAPP Coalition has a focus on animal products like meat, dairy, eggs and fish. We started with developing studies to calculate a true price for beef, veal, pork and chicken meat in the Netherlands and the European Union in 2019. We translated this calculations to fiscal policies, to make sure consumers pay the 'true price' of meat products, including the price of greenhouse gasses, air pollution and biodiversity loss. For CO2 equivalents we use a price of 90 euro per ton CO2. On average, meat has to become 40 percent more expensive. Beef will be more expensive compared to chicken, because beef causes more greenhouse gas emissions. We propose a consumer tax of ca. 40 eurocents per 100 gram meat (average). Revenues will be used for:

1. lower prices for vegetables, fruits, potatoes, nuts and plant based meat products

2. payments to farmers for environmental, nature and animal welfare measures (1/3 to 1/2 of price increase meat)

3. compensation for low income households, to compensate for the higher price of meat (ca. 120 euro per year).

In The Netherlands, this combination of price corrections is accepted by a majority of the public: 63% of the population. We expect in other countries, this will be the same.

In the Netherlands, we propose to introduce a 'true meat price' starting in 2021 with low tariffs (16 euro cent per 100 gram meat on average), increasing to ca. 40 eurocents per 100 gram of meat in 2030. As a result, total meat consumption (in meat weight) falls from 45.3 kg per person in 2019 to 23.1 kg per person in 2030 (of which 9.3 kg pork, 2.5 kg beef and veal and 11.3 kg chicken). For information about the price elasticities used, see report CE Delft, Duurzaamheidsbijdrage vlees, 2019, Appendix A.4, to be translated in English and published 5th Feb 2020. Below is our proposal in a nutshell:

Click here to see all reports the plans for true pricing of meat are based on.

EU MEAT FACTS & SOLUTIONS FACTSEuropeans eat 69.3kg meat per capita in 2018 (source EU Commission)[1]

A sustainable, health diet means 10 or 16 kg meat per capita (sources: Wageningen University, EAT Lancet healthy reference diet)[2]. UK meat dietary recommendation: 18 kg red/processed meat[3]The 512 million EU citizens account for 6.8 percent of the world's population, but are responsible for 16 percent of the world'stotal meat consumption. World meat consumption growths with 1,2%/year [4].World meat production is expected to grow from 300 mln tonnes in 2015 to 376 in 2030 by FAO[5].EU citizens have a food footprint of 1070 kg of CO2 equivalent per year. Meat and dairy account for more than 75% of the climate impact from EU diets[6]. EU Meat and dairy products contribute 6 % of the economic value of food but to 24 % of the environmental impacts (including CO2-emissions)[7].Reducing meat and dairy consumption is advised by the UN to realise the Paris Climate Agreement[8]11% of the German population is vegetarian, 10% of Swedish, 8% of Polish and 7,2% of Italians[9].FAO expects global meat consumption to grow in 2050 compared to 2005 with over 50% (beef), 43% (pork) and 125% (chicken). Global annual meat consumption is growing with 1,2% (average 2014-2018). This is not at all in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. SOLUTIONSWe need meat consumption reduction policies, implemented by governments, starting in countries where meat consumption per capita is exceeding dietary guidelines and harms our health.

If European/OECD countries would increase the price of meat (like they did with CO2-taxes for fuels and unhealthy foods like alcohol too), they can use revenues for purpose to increase public support.Revenues of efficient fair meat prices in the EU28 could total '‚¬32 billion/year and can be used for: '‚¬10-15 billion/year payments to EU farmers for sustainability income support, '‚¬7-12 billion/year for subsidies/lower VAT on vegetables, fruits, plant-based food and healthy/organic food. Another '‚¬6 billion can be used for compensations of low-income households to make meat affordable for all. '‚¬4 billion can be used for developing countries to double nature reserves/forests, reduce greenhouse gasses, and adapt to climate change. In this way they can be seduced to agree with Climate Summit and Biodiversity Summit agreements in the end of 2020 in Glascow and China.A fair meat prices will include all environmental costs like CO2 equivalent emissions, air pollution and biodiversity loss. If CO2emissions would be priced 60 euro/ton CO2, EU meat prices would have to increase with 17 eurocent per 100 gram chicken, 36 eurocent per 100 gram pork and 47 eurocent per 100 gram beef in 2030, starting with 10 eurocent per 100 gram in 2022 for all meat products. This proposal is supported by 63% of Dutch consumers, if revenues are used to reduce VAT on vegetables/fruits and compensate farmers and low income households (source: tappcoalition.eu/news). This proposal is accepted by Dutch government to be part of the proposals for a new fiscal system and a new government and will be proposed to Parliament soon (input for the new elections spring 2021). Fair meat prices in the EU, including environmental costs are 17-47 eurocent/100 gram meatFair meat prices in the EU will lead to less consumption: -30% chicken, -57% pork, -67% beef in 2030Fair meat prices in the EU will reduce GHG emissions (CO2 eq) with 120 Mton/year in 2030(this equals 3% of all EU GHG emissions or all emissions of Denmark, Ireland, Slovakia and Estonia)Fair meat prices in the EU will have '‚¬32.2 billion per year across 28 EU Member States by 2030EU Fair meat prices have net EU welfare impacts of '‚¬ 8.8 billion/year in 2030, mostly climate-relatedFair meat prices are generally in line with food recommendations from a range of European civil society organisations, 3 leading European health NGOs "Farm to Fork needs an effective consumption strategy" and demands from farmers, united within Copa Cogeca[10]. EU Commission is advised to announce a minimum 'fair price meat fee' of 1 euro per kg meat in 2022 or 2023. Tariffs in 2025-2030 conform proposal CE Delft/TAPP Coalition.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/report-eu-agricultural-outlook-2018-30_en

[2] https://www.wur.nl/en/activity/Mansholt-Lecture-2019.htm and Willett W, RockstroÌm J, Loken B, et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT- Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet. 2019.

[3] https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/health-knowledge-gateway/promotion-prevention/nutrition/food-based-dietary-guidelines for UK : 350 gram red or processed meat per week maximum equals 18 kg per capita per year[4] http://www.fao.org/3/i9166e/i9166e_Chapter6_Meat.pdf

[5] http://www.fao.org/3/y4252e/y4252e07.htm

[6] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181023110627.htm

[7] Weidema et al., 2008[8] https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/

[9] https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/News/Data-news/Europe-is-going-veg

[10] https://www.copa-cogeca.eu/Download.ashx?ID=3726048&fmt=pdf

New Zealand Agriculture carbon scheme (1 cent/kg beef or milk in 2025) : https://www.mfe.govt.nz/consultation/action-agricultural-emissions

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Sat, 22 Jan 2022 13:18

Detailhandel Richard Smit Lisa van der Velden 21 jan 15:15Door te stunten met kiloknallers maken supermarkten verlies op varkensvlees, terwijl vleesvervangers relatief prijzig zijn. De omgekeerde wereld, vinden duurzaamheidsdeskundigen. Zij pleiten voor 'true pricing'.

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Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:17

PodLP is the podcast app for the next billion listeners, available for free on the KaiStore for KaiOS and JioStore for JioPhone.

PodLP v2.1 is Here + New Sponsorship Opportunities!The new PodLP v2.1 which adds a sleep timer, playback info & notification, improved downloads, and more was published on the KaiStore as of 11/5!

Read more...

PodLP Launches on KaiOS 3.0PodLP launches on the KaiStore for KaiOS 3.0, beginning with the sub-$100 TCL Flip Pro and Alcatel Go Flip 4 launched this week in the United States.

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Celebrating One Year of PodLPToday marks the 1 year anniversary since PodLP first launched on the KaiStore.PodLP was built to connect first-time internet users on KaiOS smart feature phones with top-notch podcasts''providing access to news, sports, worship, entertainment, and more across many languages and cultures.

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Podcasting 2.0 Integration in PodLPPodLP adds support for Podcasting 2.0 features including the Person, Location, and Funding tags that are part of the community-driven podcast namespace.

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IPv6 and the Future of PodcastingThe majority of podcasts are hosted on IPv4-only networks as of March 2021. This has a negative impact on content availability, especially in emerging markets that lead the world in IPv6 adoption.

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Fri, 21 Jan 2022 17:05

Google aims to bring services such as Google Maps and YouTube to KaiOS-powered feature phones such as the JioPhone and Nokia's 8110 'Matrix Phone'. And it's putting money behind the platform too. Google has invested $22 million in KaiOS Technologies, the Hong Kong-based company which develops the feature phone platform in a Series A round of funding.

Aside from the investment, Google has also agreed to work with the KaiOS team and optimize services such as Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, and Google Assistant for the KaiOS platform.

''We want to ensure that Google apps and services are available to everyone, whether they are using desktops, smartphones, or feature phones. Following the success of the JioPhones, we are excited to work with KaiOS to further improve access to information for feature phone users around the world'', Anjali Joshi, VP of Product Management, Next Billion Users (Google) said in a joint press release.

KaiOS has given rise to a new class of devices called 'smart feature phones', which are basically feature phones with slightly improved hardware, advanced connectivity options and support for modern apps. Reliance's JioPhone was the world's first feature phone to support Google Assistant and is also in line to run WhatsApp.

''This funding will help us fast-track development and global deployment of KaiOS-enabled smart feature phones, allowing us to connect the vast population that still cannot access the internet, especially in emerging markets'', said the CEO of KaiOS Technologies, Sebastien Codeville.

The company is also working with smartphone manufacturers such as TCL, HMD Global, Micromax and carriers like Reliance Jio, Sprint and AT&T among others, participating in the development of smart feature phones with advanced features.

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Fri, 21 Jan 2022 04:49

The Federal Reserve building is seen in Washington, U.S., October 20, 2021. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comJan 20 (Reuters) - Creating an official digital version of the U.S. dollar could give Americans more, and speedier, payment options, but it would also present financial stability risks and privacy concerns, the U.S. Federal Reserve said in a long-awaited discussion paper released on Thursday.

The paper made no policy recommendations and offered no clear signal on where the Fed stands on whether to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a digital form of cash in your pocket. The Fedsaid it would not proceed with creating one "without clear support from the executive branch and from Congress, ideally in the form of a specific authorizing law."

The paper tiptoes around a subject that has sparked debate inside the Fed's top ranks, even as other central banks across the globe are exploring the adoption of digital currencies.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comNevertheless,it sets the stage for the central bank to collect public feedback on the potential costs and benefits of a CBDC, which could ultimately advance legislation long-term.

"While a CBDC could provide a safe, digital payment option for households and businesses as the payments system continues to evolve, and may result in faster payment options between countries, there may also be downsides," Fed officials wrote.

Challenges include maintaining financial stability and making sure the digital dollar would "complement existing means of payment," the Fed said. The central bank also needs to tackle major policy questions such as ensuring a CBDC does not violate Americans' privacy and that the government maintains its "ability to combat illicit finance."

Unlike cryptocurrencies, which are typically run by private actors, a CBDC would be issued and backed by the central bank. It would differ from electronic transactions that happen through large commercial banks in that it could give consumers a direct claim to the central bank, similar to physical cash.

About 90 countries are exploring or launching their own CBDCs, according to the Atlantic Council. A widely used digital euro, yuan or dollar may still be years away, but the projects could dramatically disrupt the global financial system.

Despite steering clear of policy recommendations, the Fed did shed some light on how a digital dollar might function.

Critically, it said a digital dollar would "best suit" U.S. needs if it were intermediated through the current financial system. That means individuals would not have CBDC accounts directly with the Fed, an approach backed by some Democrats who say a digital currency could help the unbanked. Banks worried that such an approach would eat into their deposit base.

Still, Fed officials said they are not ruling anything out.

The central bank will collect comments on the issue via an online form for 120 days.

Thursday's paper is separate from research the Boston Fed has been working on with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to explore the technological aspects of a CBDC. That research, including coding that could be used for a potential U.S. CBDC, will be released as early as next month.

BOARD DIVISIONS

The paper partially echoed the views of Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who has said such a project must have broad support and ideally be mandated by Congress.

Fed Governor Lael Brainard, meanwhile, has said it is not "sustainable" for the United States to hold off on pursuing a digital dollar at time when competing economies are moving ahead.

Others, including Fed Governor Christopher Waller, are more skeptical and point out that many dollar transactions are already digital.

Jonathan McCollum, chair of federal government relations for Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, said some in Washington worry the United States could weaken its position as the holder of the global reserve currency if it does not move ahead.

"The U.S. has the opportunity to set the rules for how digital currencies function in the international financial system, but it is critical we start now," he said.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Jonnelle Marte; Additional reporting by Pete Schroeder and Michelle Price; Editing by Andrea Ricci

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Archived Version

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 01:52

The Federal Reserve has for the first time launched a period of debate and public comment on the introduction of a central bank digital currency, as it seeks to keep pace with global financial innovation and maintain the supremacy of the dollar.

After months of anticipation, the Fed on Thursday released a lengthy discussion paper that will serve as the basis of what is expected to be a heated and consequential debate at the heart of the central bank in the coming months '-- though it made clear it did not ''favour any policy outcome'' at this point.

''We look forward to engaging with the public, elected representatives, and a broad range of stakeholders as we examine the positives and negatives of a central bank digital currency [CBDC] in the United States,'' Jay Powell, Fed chair, said in a statement.

The Fed had been hesitant to embrace a central bank digital currency in recent years, saying it would only do so if the benefits outweighed the costs. It has lagged authorities in China, which is piloting a digital renminbi. The European Central Bank has also made inroads with the technology.

Powell has previously said any CBDC should serve ''as a complement to, and not a replacement of, cash and current private-sector digital forms of the dollar, such as deposits at commercial banks''.

''The Fed is finally wading into a topic that is unavoidable for central banks as they contemplate how to secure monetary and financial stability amid various innovations in financial technologies, including an accelerating shift to digital forms of payment, that are reshaping financial markets and institutions,'' said Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University with expertise on digital currencies.

The Fed is asking for public comments on a potential CBDC over the next 120 days, and no decisions have yet been made about how it will be structured or if it will be rolled out.

''While a CBDC could provide a safe, digital payment option for households and businesses as the payments system continues to evolve, and may result in faster payment options between countries, there may also be downsides,'' the Fed said.

''They include how to ensure a CBDC would preserve monetary and financial stability as well as complement existing means of payment. Other key policy considerations include how to preserve the privacy of citizens and maintain the ability to combat illicit finance,'' it added.

The Fed said it would not proceed without ''clear support from the executive branch and from Congress, ideally in the form of a specific authorising law''.

Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, told the Financial Times during a panel hosted earlier on Thursday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that the Fed was unlikely to be ''very aggressive'' in its plans to proceed if it chooses to do so.

''There is room for introducing that cautiously, but you're not going to anytime soon, I think, replace the core bank-centred system of financial intermediation,'' he said.

The Fed appeared attuned to the risks and acknowledged that a CBDC could ''fundamentally change the structure of the US financial system''. It flagged the potential for bank funding expenses to increase should bank deposits fall as an interest-bearing digital dollar became more widely available. This is turn could raise the cost of credit for households and businesses.

However, it noted certain design parameters that could help avoid this outcome, including capping the amount of CBDCs someone could hold.

The Fed also said it would ''best serve the needs'' of the US to have the private sector offer accounts or digital wallets to ''facilitate the management'' of all related holdings and payments. They suggested commercial banks and regulated non-bank financial services institutions could lead that charge.

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''Individuals, businesses, and governments could potentially use a CBDC to make basic purchases of goods and services or pay bills, and governments could use a CBDC to collect taxes or make benefit payments directly to citizens,'' the Fed said.

Inaction also has consequences, the Fed said. Failure to develop a digital US currency might erode the country's supremacy in global markets, the discussion paper warned.

''It is important'‰.'‰.'‰.'‰to consider the implications of a potential future state in which many foreign countries and currency unions may have introduced CBDCs,'' the Fed said. ''Some have suggested that, if these new CBDCs were more attractive than existing forms of the US dollar, global use of the dollar could decrease '-- and a US CBDC might help preserve the international role of the dollar,'' it added.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:46

Washington (CNN)When President Joe Biden passingly said in a voting rights speech last week that he had been "arrested" in the context of the civil rights movement -- even suggesting this had happened more than once -- it was a classic Biden false claim: an anecdote about his past for which there is no evidence, prompted by a decision to ad-lib rather than stick to a prepared text, resulting in easily avoidable questions about his honesty.

Biden's imaginary or embellished stories about his own history were the most memorable falsehoods of his first year in office. They were not, however, the only ones.

The President also made multiple false claims about important policy matters, notably including three subjects that occupied much of his time: the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the economy and the Covid-19 pandemic.

And Biden was incorrect on numerous occasions when ad-libbing about a wide assortment of facts and figures -- sometimes in a way that appeared inadvertent, but other times in a way that helped him make a political point.

Unlike his

uniquely dishonest predecessor, Biden did not bury fact-checkers in a daily avalanche of serial falseness. Biden never came close to making a dozen false claims in a single speech, let alone

five dozen false claims in one address, as Trump once did. In fact, the total number of Biden false claims so far is in the dozens, while Trump delivered

well over 1,000 total false claims in his own first year and more than 3,000 the next year.

So Biden is no Trump. With that said, dozens of false claims from the President of the United States is not nothing. And considering that Biden added dozens more claims that were misleading or lacking in important context, he provided more than enough material to keep fact-checkers on their toes.

Here is a roundup of Biden's first year in inaccuracy. The White House declined to comment for this article; it has previously commented for individual fact checks on some of the false claims we are discussing again below.

False claims about his own past

Biden made a series of claims about his own past that were just not true. It was these easy-to-understand, hard-to-defend personal falsehoods -- more than his false claims about complex policy issues or obscure statistics, which supporters could more easily dismiss as good-faith errors -- that provided the best ammunition for

opponents looking to portray him as deceptive.

And like some of Trump's

tall tales about his past, Biden's tended to be peripheral to his message. In other words, he was hurting his reputation for little possible gain.

While talking in November to technical college students standing near a truck, Biden

claimed, "I used to drive a tractor-trailer," though only for "part of a summer." This was similar to something he had said at a Mack Trucks facility in July, when he

claimed, "I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man," adding, "I got to." There is no evidence Biden ever drove a big truck; the White House previously noted to CNN that he once had a job driving a school bus (which is not an 18-wheeler or a tractor-trailer) and that, as a senator in 1973, he spent a night riding in a cargo truck (not driving it).

Biden

repeatedly told a story about a supposed conversation during his vice presidency with an old friend, an Amtrak train conductor, that

could not possibly have happened because the man was dead at the time. He

repeatedly boasted that he had traveled "17,000 miles" with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though that number is

not even close to correct.

Biden distracted from his voting rights message with the baseless claim last week, which he had made before, about having been arrested during a civil rights protest; in some of the

previous versions of the story, he had merely claimed a police officer had taken him home from a protest. (There is evidence Biden participated in some civil rights activities in his youth but no record of any arrest.)

And Biden told two different inaccurate stories while trying to emphasize his connection to the Jewish community.

At a September event in honor of the High Holy Days, Biden told Jewish leaders that he remembered "spending time at" and "going to" Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, the site of an antisemitic massacre in 2018; he had spoken by phone to the synagogue's rabbi in 2019 but

never went. At a Hanukkah event in December, Biden claimed that late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir had invited him to meet with her during the Six-Day War of 1967 (he actually met with her weeks before the Yom Kippur War six years later) and, more significantly, that she had wanted him to be "the liaison between she and the Egyptians about the Suez, and so on and so forth."

There is

zero evidence Meir ever wanted to use a 30-year-old rookie US senator as a "liaison" with a major adversary.

False claims about Afghanistan

Biden was bedeviled over the summer by his chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. And he made a variety of false claims as he tried to defend his handling of the situation -- further undermining his authority on an issue on which he was

already struggling to persuade the public.

In August, the President said, "What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point, with al Qaeda gone?" Al Qaeda had been degraded in Afghanistan, but it

wasn't "gone" -- as a Pentagon spokesman

acknowledged on camera that same day. In an interview that week, Biden defended the US withdrawal in part by claiming that the concept of nation-building in Afghanistan "never made any sense to me" -- though, in fact, he had

explicitly advocated nation-building in the early years of the war, both in Afghanistan and more broadly.

In July, when Biden was under pressure to quickly relocate Afghans who had assisted US troops, he said "the law doesn't allow" Afghan translators to come to the US to await the processing of their visa applications. But experts in immigration law

immediately said this wasn't true, given the administration's authority to grant "parole," and, indeed, the Biden administration

ended up using parole later in the summer to do what Biden had claimed wasn't permitted.

In December, Biden said in another interview that "I've been against that war in Afghanistan from the very beginning." While he

eventually grew opposed to the war, he was not against it from the start -- as

fact-checkers pointed out when he had made similar remarks during his presidential campaign.

False claims about the economy

The state of the economy was a key rhetorical battleground between Biden and his critics: He argued it was thriving; they argued it was failing. And although both sides often cited valid data points, the President also made some false claims to bolster his case.

Biden occasionally overstated progress and understated problems. Asked at a CNN town hall in July about inflation in automobile prices, he claimed that the cost of a car was "kind of back to what it was before the pandemic"; the cost had

actually increased substantially since late 2019 and early 2020. In an economic speech in November, he

greatly exaggerated the extent of the decline in the unemployment rate during his tenure.

To try to sell his economic policies, Biden sometimes made inaccurate statements about what experts had said about them. In May alone, he

falsely claimed that there was a consensus among economists about how many jobs his American Jobs Plan would create,

significantly overstated how many jobs the firm Moody's Analytics in particular predicted the plan would create and

falsely claimed that the last five leaders of the Federal Reserve had said the plan would produce economic growth -- wrongly describing both the contents and the authorship of an

article that was actually written by five former Internal Revenue Service chiefs.

Later in the year, Biden

misleadingly framed another Moody's jobs estimate. And he

repeatedly omitted the key phrase "longer-term" from an assertion by Nobel-winning economists that his $1.9 trillion Build Back Better agenda would "ease longer-term inflationary pressures" -- leaving Americans to believe that these economists might have said his agenda would reduce the inflation hurting their bank accounts today.

False claims about the Covid-19 pandemic

Many of Biden's first-year speeches were devoted to the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden was almost incomparably more accurate on this subject

than Trump was, tending to factually convey the severity of the situation rather than match his predecessor's fantastical rhetoric about how

bad numbers were not actually bad numbers and how the virus would

just disappear.

But Biden made a smattering of false claims on this topic, too.

At the CNN town hall in July, Biden made the

inaccurate categorical promise that "you're not going to get Covid" if you're vaccinated. It was clear even before the emergence of the Omicron variant that vaccinated people were still getting infected with the virus, though the vaccines made them much less likely to get seriously ill; vaccinated people on the President's own staff had been infected. Biden also went too far at the town hall when he categorically pledged that "if you're vaccinated, you're not going to be hospitalized, you're not going to be in the ICU unit and you're not going to die"; these outcomes happen, too, though they are much less common among vaccinated people.

Biden sometimes exaggerated on the subject of his administration's work to get Americans vaccinated --

misleadingly playing down the Trump administration's

own vaccine purchases and, in May,

overstating how the US vaccination rate compared with those of the rest of the world. And he made various errors in discussing pandemic-related facts and figures.

In February, Biden claimed that "suicides are up" amid the pandemic; experts said at the time that the

claim was premature, and it turned out to be

wrong (though suicide rates did increase for some specific demographic groups). In October, the President

wrongly told Americans that there were "over 800,000" vaccination sites in the country; he had added an extra 0 to the correct figure he usually used, 80,000.

False claims in unscripted settings

When Biden stuck to prepared speeches vetted by his staff, he tended to be factual (though certainly wasn't perfect). When he ad-libbed or participated in unscripted exchanges with journalists and citizens, he was more likely to sprinkle in inaccuracies -- making false or misleading claims about everything from his

handling of the situation at the southern border to

Virginia political history to

gun laws to the

size of a tax break for people who own racehorses.

During Biden's

first 100 days in the Oval Office, he was repeatedly incorrect or misleading in describing the actions of the Trump administration.

And he made one particularly notable misleading claim during that early period. At a heated moment of the national debate over

Georgia Republicans' new elections law, Biden did a television interview in which he criticized the law

in part by misstating what it says.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 14:58

VALLEY TOWNSHIP, MONTOUR COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) '-- A trailer carrying 100 monkeys collided with a dump truck off I-80 Friday, four monkeys have gone missing.

As of Saturday morning, one monkey is still unaccounted for. If anyone sees the monkey please do not try to catch it, call 911 and wait for the authorities.

According to State Police, the incident occurred around 3:30 p.m. on Route 54 off Interstate 80 when four monkeys got loose during the commotion of the crash.

Eyewitness News is working on getting confirmation if the monkeys have been captured.

PA Game Commission is looking for the missing monkeys in a wooded area with the assistance of a helicopter provided by the Pennsylvania State Police.

Pennsylvania State PolicePennsylvania State PolicePennsylvania State PoliceWhen word got out that these three-pound monkeys were on the loose, the Allen family sprang into action.

''We just decided to come and try, see if we could find one,'' said Nate Allen.

These Montoursville residents are animals lovers and drove half an hour to search the woods along Route 54 just off I-80.

That's the spot where State Police and game wardens searched for the primates.

''I saw it on Facebook, and actually this started as kind of a family fun joke about just making an experience and going to try and save a monkey, so I actually brought a kennel, flashlights night vision goggles,'' stated Allen.

The bitter cold did not deter their efforts to lend a hand.

''We were worried because my one friend is a state police officer and she's like, you know, they can't be out there that long! So we said oh no,'' explained Elisa Allen.

Troopers on the scene stated that the monkeys weigh about three pounds. Route 54 was closed in both directions, however, as of 8:00 p.m., it reopened.

Officials are warning the public to keep their distance if they spot a monkey and to call 911. This is an ongoing story we will update you with the latest as the information is released.

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Sun, 23 Jan 2022 12:25

Dr. Zelenko | Exposing "The Great Reset" Plan to Enslave Humanity Through Transhumanism, Human A.I. Symbiosis & Nano-Tech

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ReAwaken America Tour History:*April - Tulsa, Oklahoma was 100% Sold Out*June - Tampa, Florida Was 100% Sold Out*July - Anaheim, California Was 100% Sold Out*August - Grand Rapids, Michigan Was 100% Sold Out*September - Colorado Springs, CO Was 100% Sold Out*November - San Antonio, TX Was 100% Sold Out*December - Dallas, TX Was 100% Sold Out

ReAwaken America Tour Featured / Past Speakers Include:General Flynn, Mike Lindell, Robert F. Kennedy, Texas Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxton, Charlie Kirk, Chad Prather, Pastor Phil Hotsenpiller, Robert Kennedy Jr., Ian Smith, Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Owen Schroyer, Melissa Tate, Trump-Attorney Jenna Ellis, Dave Scarlett, Senator Wendy Rogers, Doctor Richard Bartlett, Gene Ho, Patrick Byrne, Scott McCay, Anna Khait, Sam Sorbo, Doctor Mark Sherwood, Attorney Thomas Renz, Doctor Stella Emmanuel, Attorney Leigh Dundas, Doctor Jim Meehan, Sheriff Vic Regalado, Joey Gilbert, Doctor Sherri Tenpenny, Doctor Rob Marsh, Leila Centner, Lori Gregory, Kevin Jenkins, Doctor Carrie Madej, Doctor Judy Mikovits, Steve Maxwell, Doctor Eric Nepute, Alfie Oakes, Sidney Powell, Doctor Alan Keyes, Pastor Artur Pawlowski, Mike Provenzano, Doctor Shannon Kroner, Doctor Andy Wakefeld, Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, Amanda Grace, Doctor Cordie Williams, Pastor Mark Burns,etc.Find Jobs That Don't Require the COVID-19 Vaccines- https://timetofreeamerica.com/no-jab-jobs/Request Your COVID-19 Vaccine Religious Exemptions: www.NewLifeHarvestChurch.org & www.JacksonLahmeyer.comWant to Join the ReAwaken America Tour? Request Tickets At:https://timetofreeamerica.com/Episode 1 of the ReAwaken Tour Documentary Has Been Released - WATCH NOW - https://reawakeningseries.com/

Join the Airline Injunction Action Against the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate: https://timetofreeamerica.com/airline-injunction/#scroll-contentFind Affordable & Effective COVID-19 Treatments: https://tapme.ws/rnJfL4Buy ReAwaken America Shirts, Hoodies and Books Today At: https://tapme.ws/COuEDMGet the 100% Affordable & Effective COVID-19 Treatments At: https://timetofreeamerica.com/proven-treatments/#scroll-contentwww.VladimirZelenkoMD.com/ - 7,000 COVID-19 Patients (3 Deaths)www.Sherwood.TV - 9,000 COVID-19 Patients (0 Deaths)www.MeehanMD.com - 3,200 COVID-19 Patients (0 Deaths)www.MyGoToDoc.com - 4,500 + COVID-19 Patients (0 Deaths)www.OneCrossHealth.com - 1,500 COVID-19 Patients (0 Deaths)www.NeputeWellness.com - 10,000 COVID-19 Patients (0 Deaths)www.SynergyHealthDPC.com/www.DrStellaMD.comwww.AmericasFrontLineDoctors.orgwww.BudesonideWorks.com - Doctor Richard Bartlett

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Learn How to Wake Up Your Friends and Family While Showing Your Support:https://store.thrivetimeshow.com/Support Mike Lindell and America's Quest for Election Integrity At:

https://www.mypillow.com/clayThe Fourth Industrial Revolution and genetically modified humans - https://rumble.com/vld6yh-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-and-genetically-modified-humans.html

Question #1 - Does the Mark of the Beast Technology Now Exist?Why Did Microsoft File for a Patent for a Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity with a Publication Number WO-2020-060606? https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2020060606Revelation Chapter 13: 16-18 (Revelation was written by John the Apostle While Being Exiled On the Island of Patmos)16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.''Methods and systems of prioritizing treatments, vaccination, testing and/or activities while protecting the privacy of individuals - Methods and Systems Patent #11-107588 - https://trea.com/information/methods-and-systems-of-prioritizing-treatments-vaccination-testing-andor-activit/patentgrant/e2dfec3c-d33d-44ac-bdb9-a5cfd91f1193Why Are There Advanced Nano-Technologies Found Inside the COVID-19 Vaccines? Their Patents Prove Their Nefarious PlanPatent # 10-703-789-B2 - https://www.modernatx.com/sites/default/files/US10703789.pdfPatent # 2010 0216804 - https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/25/ce/6d/84cb16adb713b2/US20100216804A1.pdfPatent # 20201859Patent # 2012 0265001 ?Down a Vaccination Exemption Form Today At: www.Team1986.comModels are false - https://timetofreeamerica.com/the-models/#scroll-contentPCR tests are false - https://timetofreeamerica.com/case-inflation/#scroll-contentCOVID is 100% treatablehttps://timetofreeamerica.com/case-inflation/#scroll-contentKary Banks Mullis was an American biochemist. In recognition of his invention of the polymerase chain reaction technique, he shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith and was awarded the Japan Prize in the same year.

There is no SAVIOR without the luciferase vaccines:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24715289/Bill Gates Spirit Advisor - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=marina+abramovic+spirit+cooking&t=hd&va=u&iax=images&ia=images

Jeffrey Epstein / Bill Gates Worked to Create Their Own Race - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.htmlWO2020060606 - CRYPTOCURRENCY SYSTEM USING BODY ACTIVITY DATA https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2020060606What Is In the COVID-19 Vaccines? https://timetofreeamerica.com/vaccines-gates/#scroll-contentQuestion #2 - Why Is Congress Working On Legislation Called H.R.666? - Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2021 Proposed Legislation? - https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/666Question #3 - Why Is Congress Working on Legislation Called H.R.6666? - COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act? https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6666/textQuestion #4 - Why Is the Centers for Disease Control Calling for the Implementation of Nazi-Style Concentration Camps That They Are Calling Green Zones?https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/global-covid-19/shielding-approach-humanitarian.htmlWhy Did the Governor of Tennessee Sign an Executive Order Authorizing the State to Remove People from Their Homes? https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/pub/execorders/exec-orders-lee83.pdf '' Read Paragraphs 8, 14 and 18

Why Is GovernmentJobs.com Hiring Isolation & Quarantine Team Consultants, Isolation, and Vaccine Strike Team Staff?Lewis County '' Centralia, WA Isolation & Quarantine Team Consultants (PS2) '' Non-Permanent '' DOH5814 https://www.governmentjobs.com/jobs/3233390-0/isolation-quarantine-team-consultants-ps2-non-permanent-doh5814Thurston County, WA Isolation & Quarantine Facility Staffing - COVID-19 Response https://www.governmentjobs.com/jobs/2918801-0 via @GovernmentJobsColumbus, GA COVID-19 Vaccine Strike Team Staff https://www.governmentjobs.com/jobs/3220847-0 via @GovernmentJobsWhy Does the Centers for Disease Control Have a Section on Their Website Dedicated to Describing Quarantine Stations and Their Jurisdictions?https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/quarantine-stations-us.htmlBill Gates- and George Soros-Backed Organization Buys Out COVID-19 Testing Company '' https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/bill-gates-and-george-soros-buy-out-covid-19-testing-company_3909833.html?utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-07-20-2&mktids=4c7b77485753b708172bad88c5db2e09&est=Pntf4x%2FYSo3qmf8tbswC35G5Or9yEvDiGG0nyIkn%2B6jUssSBm7uf7Yc4ZKjFAJWiNsX2

Question #5 - Why Are International Celebrities and Powerful People Like Bill Gates Celebrating and Seeking the Satanic Guidance of the Spirit Cooking Marina Abramović Spirit Cooking?https://duckduckgo.com/?q=marina+abramovic+spirit+cooking&t=hc&va=o&iax=images&iar=images&ia=imagesMicrosoft Commercial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XmTRpfTvKI

Question #6 - Why Are Satanists Suing for Their Religious Right to Ritual Abortions? https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/mar/6/satanists-sue-for-religious-right-to-ritual-aborti/Question #7 - Why is Senomyx A Food Additive In the American Food Supply?Senomyx develops patented flavor enhancers by using ''proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems.'' These receptors are made from HEK293. HEK stands for Human Embryonic Kidney cells.Which Companies Are Using Aborted Human Fetuses in Their Food? https://dta0yqvfnusiq.cloudfront.net/allnaturalhealingsrq/2019/05/Companies-That-use-Aborted-Human-Fetuses-in-their-Foods-5ce5f2e5eb52e.pdfCompany Uses Cells From Abortions to Test Artificial Flavors - https://www.lifenews.com/2011/03/29/company-uses-fetal-cells-from-abortions-for-artificial-flavors/https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/confused-about-the-pepsi-fetal-cell-issue-here-are-the-facts/http://www.stopthecrime.net/senomyx.pdfWhich Companies Are Using Aborted Human Fetuses in Their Food? https://dta0yqvfnusiq.cloudfront.net/allnaturalhealingsrq/2019/05/Companies-That-use-Aborted-Human-Fetuses-in-their-Foods-5ce5f2e5eb52e.pdf

Question #8 - Why Was Jeffrey Epstein Working to Seed the Human Race With His DNA? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.htmlWhat's Included In the COVID-19 Shots?Dr. Jane RubyWhy is graphene oxide, PEG (Polyethylene Glycol), M-RNA modifying nano-technology, SM-102, luciferase, fetal-tissue cell lines and inside the COVID-19 vaccines? Watch - https://rumble.com/vl9hlz-dr-jane-ruby-are-the-covid-19-vaccine-mandates-a-campaign-of-murder.htmlVAXXED Patients' Blood Examined, Horrific Findings Revealed by German Physicians! - https://rumble.com/vldaex-vaxxed-patients-blood-examined-horrific-findings-revealed-by-german-physici.htmlQuestion #9 - Why Are Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Others Obsessed with Transhumanism (Mixing Clay with Iron)?Could Elon Musk's Neuralink brain chips make us all as smart as he is? https://nypost.com/2021/03/06/rockets-brain-chips-is-elon-musk-superhero-or-supervillain/''Please consider working at Neuralink! Short-term: solve brain/spine injuries Long-term: human/AI symbiosis. Latter will be species-level important. Work at either at our Bay Area or Austin locations.'' - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1356027336387252235?lang=enDaniel Chapter 2: 40 - 43: ''40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.''Question #10 - Why The Satanic Temple of Texas files suit to defend its religious right to child sacrifice...tell us more about this? https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/mar/6/satanists-sue-for-religious-right-to-ritual-aborti/Why does the Pope's Audience Hall look like a Snake Head? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pope+snake+building&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images&iar=imageshttps://duckduckgo.com/?q=pope+audience+hall+stage&t=h_&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F9f%2Ff0%2F7c%2F9ff07ccc8521044593f7971a13bef0e6--paul-vi-pope-john-paul-ii.jpgQuestion #11 - Why Did Jeffrey Epstein Have a Satanic Temple on His Island?

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=jeffrey+epstein+island+temple&t=hc&va=o&iar=images&iax=images&ia=imagesQuestion #12 - Why Did the Billionaire Bill Gates Who Is Developing the Vaccines Choose to Invest His Time with the World's Most Prolific Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates.htmlQuestion #13 - Why Are Luciferians Obsessed with Wearing Masks and Standing 6 Feet Apart from Each Other During Their Satanic Rituals? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bohemian+grove&t=hc&va=o&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fsecureservercdn.net%2F198.71.233.44%2F8m7.439.myftpupload.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fimage31Optimized.jpg%3Ftime%3D1574392049

Question #14 - Why Would the Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab Write a Book Titled COVID-19 - The Great Reset, Which Advocates for the Complete Destruction of Our God-Given Freedoms, the American Way of Life and the Implementation of a One World Government? Imphttps://www.amazon.com/COVID-19-Great-Reset-Klaus-Schwab/dp/2940631123/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=the+great+reset&qid=1615556362&sr=8-2Question #15 - Why Is Moderna Now Referring to Their Vaccines Technology As the ''Software of Life''? Technology - https://www.modernatx.com/mrna-technology/mrna-platform-enabling-drug-discovery-developmentQuestion #16 - Why is Luciferase Technology Being Developed? https://www.moleculardevices.com/sites/default/files/en/assets/newsletter/november-2020.html#gref An enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of a luciferin, causing it to produce a visible glow.Question #17 - What Is the Statistical Probability of This?''2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.'' Revelation 13:2Question #18 - Why is graphene oxide, PEG (Polyethylene Glycol), M-RNA modifying nano-technology, SM-102, luciferase, fetal-tissue cell lines and inside the COVID-19 vaccines?Graphene Oxide - Graphene oxide (GO) is a unique material that can be viewed as a single monomolecular layer of graphite with various oxygen-containing functionalities such as epoxide, carbonyl, carboxyl, and hydroxyl groups.Learn What Is In the COVID-19 Shots: https://timetofreeamerica.com/vaccines-gates/#scroll-contentQuestion #19 - Are We Living Through Matthew Chapter 24?And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.All these are the beginning of sorrows.Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.Examples:Mainstream MediaDoctor FauciBill GatesAnd because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.Elon Musk's Starlink to Deliver Internet Nearly Worldwide Within Weeks https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-29/musk-s-starlink-to-bring-internet-nearly-worldwide-within-weeksQuestion #20 - If God Has Not Given Us a Spirit of Fear, Who Has Been Giving Us the Spirit of Fear? 2 Timothy 1:7Where did the fear start?FACT - The models created by the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute and Neil Ferguson that said that 2.2 million people would die were nefariously false.NOTABLE QUOTABLE - ''7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.'' - 2 Timothy 1:7NOTE: Fear blocks logic by causing your amygdala to become overactiveQuestion #21 - Why Would the Majority of Pastors Refuse to Teach from the Book of Revelation Chapter 13?Revelation 13:2 - 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.Revelation 13: 9-18 - If any man have an ear, let him hear10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.NOTE: The book of Revelation which warned Christians about ''The Mark of the Beast'' was written on the island of Patmos by John.Could It Be That We Are Wrestling Not Against Flesh and Blood, But Against Principalities, Powers, Rulers of the Darkness of this World and Against Spiritual Wickedness in High Places?Question #22 - Why Is It Only Christians By and Large Who Know the Truth About What Is Really Going On?FACT - The 100% effective COVID-19 treatments and therapies are being withheld from you for nefarious purposes.NOTABLE QUOTABLE - ''31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'' - John 8:30-36Question #23 - COVID-19 = Certificate Of Vaccination ID - 19 (AI)Why Did MIT Develop Specialized Dye, Delivered Along with a Vaccine That Could Enable ''on-patient'' Storage of Vaccination History? https://news.mit.edu/2019/storing-vaccine-history-skin-1218Question #24 - Why Did the Military Just Now Develop a New Weapon Called LOCUST?''15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.'' - Revelation 9:15''9 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.'' - Revelation 9: 1-3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW77hVqux10''And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.'' - Revelation 18:23Question #25 - Are the Elements Ready to Create the Third Temple?''25 ''Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One,[a] the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.[b] The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.'[c] In the middle of the 'seven'[d] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple[e] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.'' - Daniel 9:25-27Daniel 9:25-27Admit You Are a SinnerBelieve Christ Is Lord and Died for Our SinsConfess Your SinsRevelation 11 - ''And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.11 And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.14 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.''Question #26 - Why Is Hydra Bulgares In the COVID-19 Vaccines?Learn more about Hydra Bulgares https://biology.ucdavis.edu/news-events/model-organisms/hydrahttps://biology.ucdavis.edu/news/1-million-keck-foundation-grant-backs-research-build-brainListen to Kim Clement Prophecies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxvPiERZSQo

The Poem Referenced by Dr. Zelenko:''Do you believe in life after delivery?'' The other replied, ''Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.''''Nonsense'' said the first. ''There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?''The second said, ''I don't know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can't understand now.''The first replied, ''That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.''The second insisted, ''Well I think there is something and maybe it's different than it is here. Maybe we won't need this physical cord anymore.''The first replied, ''Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.''''Well, I don't know,'' said the second, ''but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.''The first replied ''Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That's laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?''The second said, ''She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.''Said the first: ''Well I don't see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn't exist.''To which the second replied, ''Sometimes, when you're in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.''- štmutat" a L(C)leknek

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James Lindsay, watching narratives crumble : The World Economic Forum's Great Narrative Conference: "The good news is the elite across the world trust each othe'... https://t.co/YILZelt5tl

Fri Jan 21 02:43:39 +0000 2022

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James Lindsay, watching narratives crumble : A lot of content that will get someone banned! https://t.co/jtM8u90zMR

Sat Jan 22 01:00:58 +0000 2022

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) '-- A University of Arkansas professor pleaded guilty Friday, Jan. 21 to one count of making a false statement to the FBI about the existence of patents for his inventions in China according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office Western District of Arkansas.

Simon Saw-Teong Ang, 64, of Fayetteville, entered his guilty plea over charges of making a materially false and fictitious statement and representation to an FBI special agent. According to court documents, 24 patents filed in the People's Republic of China have Ang's name or Chinese birth name.

The University of Arkansas required individuals such as Ang to promptly give the university ''full and complete'' disclosures of inventions, and university policy provided that it, not the inventors, would own all inventions created by those subject to the policy.

According to documents, the policy was established ''in furtherance of the commitment of the university to the widest possible distribution of the benefits of university research, the protection of inventions resulting from such research, and the development of inventions for the public good.''

Despite this requirement, the release says Ang did not disclose his patents to the university, and when interviewed by an agent, lied about his involvement in the inventions. He specifically lied about having his name listed as ''inventor'' on numerous patents in the foreign country.

In addition, Ang also received numerous talent awards from the People's Republic of China government, which he did not list on the university's annual conflict of interest disclosure forms, according to the release.

Ang's sentencing is expected to take place in approximately four months, the court said. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. His plea agreement also states that if the court wishes to give him a sentence that is not a year and a day, he has the right to withdraw from the agreement, according to the release.

A federal district court judge will determine a sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

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Sat, 22 Jan 2022 09:38

Joe Rogan, the comedian, TV commentator and podcaster, reacts during an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in May 2020. Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images Joe Rogan, the comedian, TV commentator and podcaster, reacts during an Ultimate Fighting Championship event in May 2020.

Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images An open letter urging Spotify to crack down on COVID-19 misinformation has gained the signatures of more than a thousand doctors, scientists and health professionals spurred by growing concerns over anti-vaccine rhetoric on the audio app's hit podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

The medical and scientific experts slammed Rogan's track record of airing false claims about the coronavirus pandemic, vaccines and unproven treatments, calling it "a sociological issue of devastating proportions." Spotify, they say, has enabled him.

While audio apps so far have escaped the scrutiny that has befallen social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the pressure on Spotify illustrates how podcasts have emerged as an influential source of misinformation.

In a December episode of his podcast, Rogan interviewed Dr. Robert Malone, a scientist who worked on early research into the mRNA technology behind top COVID-19 vaccines, but who is now critical of the mRNA vaccines.

Malone made baseless and disproven claims, including falsely stating that getting vaccinated puts people who already have had COVID-19 at higher risk.

The episode immediately raised alarm bells for Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago's School of Public Health, who signed the letter. She is part of a community of experts who debunk medical misinformation on social media, and she says she received hundreds of messages from followers about Rogan's Malone interview.

"Their friends and family were sending it to them as evidence that the vaccines are dangerous and that they shouldn't get it," she said. "It provides a sense of false balance, like there's two sides to the scientific evidence when, really, there is not. The overwhelming evidence is that the vaccines are safe and that they're effective."

Rogan's reach worries health expertsWallace was particularly worried because Rogan, a stand-up comedian and TV personality, has such a big audience. While Spotify does not disclose how many people listen, his show ranked as the platform's most popular podcast globally for the last two years. And he's worth a lot to the company: In 2020, he signed an exclusive licensing deal with Spotify reportedly worth $100 million.

"We are in a global health emergency, and streaming platforms like Spotify that provide content to the public have a responsibility not to add to the problem," Wallace said.

It wasn't the first time Rogan or his guests have floated dubious or outright false information about the pandemic. He has claimed young and healthy people don't need COVID-19 vaccines. He has promoted taking ivermectin as a treatment, which the Food and Drug Administration has warned against.

Wallace and the other letter signers are not asking Spotify to kick Rogan off its platform. But they want the company to be more transparent about its rules, do more to moderate misinformation and make it easier to flag these kinds of baseless claims.

Spotify declined to comment to NPR. It has previously said it bans "dangerous false, deceptive, or misleading content about COVID-19 that may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health."

The company says it has taken down 20,000 podcast episodes for breaking that policy since the start of the pandemic. It has also taken down other episodes of Rogan's show, including an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. But Rogan's Malone interview is still available.

Last year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told Axios that the company does not take responsibility for what Rogan or his guests say. He compared the podcaster to "really well-paid rappers" on Spotify, saying, "We don't dictate what they're putting in their songs, either."

Rogan did not respond to NPR's request for comment.

Researchers say scrutiny of podcasts is overdueMisinformation researchers say it was only a matter of time until the spotlight turned to podcasts.

"Wherever you have users generating content, you're going to have all of the same content moderation issues and controversies that you have in any other space," said Evelyn Douek, a research fellow at Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute.

So why haven't podcasts gotten the same kind of attention as social networks?

For one thing, it's a fragmented medium. Podcasts exist across lots of different platforms and apps.

Douek says it's also harder to ferret out falsehoods and hate speech in podcasts compared with posts written on Facebook and Twitter.

But audio can be a powerful way to spread misinformation because of all the qualities that make the format so compelling to listeners, said Valerie Wirtschafter, a senior data analyst at the Brookings Institution.

"The podcaster is in your ear," she said. "It's a really unique relationship in that respect, and so the podcaster gains a level of authority and a level of credibility among listeners."

Wirtschafter says as more people become aware of how misinformation spreads online, audio deserves the same scrutiny as social media.

She has studied how the "Big Lie" that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump spread on political podcasts in the lead-up to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. She found that half the episodes of the most popular shows released between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021, contained misleading or false claims about voter fraud and election integrity.

"We're not talking about fringe ideas," she said. "These are the most popular podcasts in the United States."

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Fri, 21 Jan 2022 11:01

United Kingdom

By Euronews with AP, AFP ' Updated: 20/01/2022 - 19:48

An anti-Conservative Party protester holds a placard with an image of British PM Boris Johnson including the words "Partygate" in London, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. -

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Matt Dunham / APA lawmaker from Britain's governing Conservatives accused the government of blackmailing opponents of prime minister Boris Johnson as the party's internal rifts deepened following the Downing Street's "Partygate" scandal.

Senior Tory politician William Wragg disclosed the alleged intimidation campaign on Thursday as Downing Street battles to shore up Johnson against calls from within the party for his resignation.

Wragg said legislators calling for a challenge to Johnson's leadership have faced "intimidation," and urged them to contact the police.

Wragg accused Johnson's staff, government ministers, and others of "encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass those they who suspect of lacking confidence in the prime minister."

"The intimidation of a member of parliament is a serious matter. Reports of which I am aware would seem to constitute blackmail," said Wragg, one of seven Tory MPs who have publicly called for a party confidence vote.

He also alleged that rebellious lawmakers had been threatened with a loss of public funding for their constituencies.

Inside the House of Commons, opposition lawmaker Alistair Carmichael asked speaker Lindsay Hoyle how members can protect themselves from "tactics of the mafia."

Hoyle, addressing the chamber in somber tones, said "the investigation of allegedly criminal conduct is a matter for the police," after offering private contact from members in writing.

She also said any such campaign would amount to "contempt" of parliament, which is a criminal offence.

Johnson has denied the allegations that his aides had tried to "blackmail" and threaten Conservative rebels.

He told reporters he has "seen no evidence, heard no evidence, to support any of those allegations."

"What I am focused on is what we're doing to deal with the number one priority of the British people, which is coming through Covid," he said on a visit to a medical clinic in southwest England.

Johnson refused to confirm his aides' assertion that he would fight any no-confidence vote, nor to comment further on the dramatic defection of Conservative MP Christian Wakeford to the Labour party on Wednesday.

'Narcissistic rabble'The alleged intimidation campaign includes threats to withdraw funding from rebels' constituencies and to leak damaging stories to the press.

Wakeford said he had been told his seat in northwest England could lose a school if he did not fall into line.

Prior to Wragg's explosive intervention, Johnson allies had been talking up the prime minister's chances of survival, after Wakeford's cross-party switch focused Tory minds on the threat from a resurgent Labour opposition.

One anti-Johnson plot by younger Tory MPs, livid at breaches of lockdowns by partying Downing Street staff, appeared to be fizzling out despite one senior backbencher telling him to his face to quit "in the name of God".

"The prime minister is probably thanking Christian [Wakeford] for what he did because it's made a lot of people think again, think twice," Tory MP Andrew Percy told BBC radio.

"It's kind of made people a bit more relaxed, it's calmed nerves," he said.

"I think people have recognised that actually this constant navel-gazing and internal debating is only to the advantage of our political opponents."

Before Wakeford's defection, the plotters appeared confident that they were close to the 54 letters needed to force a no-confidence vote in Johnson by Conservative MPs.

But the secretive process remained on hold, with some rebels even withdrawing their letters in response to Wakeford joining Labour, according to reports.

The right-wing Daily Mail newspaper said that against a backdrop of crisis at home and abroad, it was no time to be changing leaders.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is "poised to start a war" in Ukraine, and UK inflation is soaring, it said in a front-page editorial.

"Yet a narcissistic rabble of Tory MPs are trying to topple [a] PM who's leading us out of Covid. In the name of God, grow up!"

Awaiting internal inquiryCritics accuse Johnson of lying to parliament about what he knew and when about the parties held at 10 Downing Street in an apparent breach of his own government's COVID-19 rules over the past two years.

While apologising for the parties, Johnson denied misleading the country and insists that all sides should await the findings of an internal inquiry by senior civil servant Sue Gray.

On Wednesday, he indicated in parliament that Gray's findings could come out next week, as he defiantly vowed to fight on as leader to the next general election due in 2024.

Health secretary Sajid Javid agreed that any minister "from the prime minister down" would have to resign if found to have broken the law and the government's ministerial code.

But Javid stressed that he believed Johnson was secure in his job.

Artist Tracey Emin meanwhile said she wanted a red neon "More Passion" sign she designed which hangs in Downing Street to be removed because of the scandal.

"I want it taken down and this government '-- I will tell you what they need, they need compassion. That's what they need, not passion. They don't need more party atmosphere," she told BBC radio.

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Fri, 21 Jan 2022 03:40

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday defended the Biden administration's economic achievements over the president's first year in office and said that she hopes to see inflation closer to 2% by the end of 2022.

She highlighted robust gains in the U.S. labor market over the last 12 months, including the addition of over 6 million jobs and an unemployment rate under 4%.

"A year ago, if you go back to the challenges that we were facing, and the Federal Reserve was facing, unemployment was extremely high. We were all worried that we would be facing a situation like we had after 2008, when it took almost a decade to get back to full employment," Yellen said.

"I think it has to be viewed as a remarkable success that the unemployment has fallen the most in a year in American history," the Treasury secretary told CNBC's "Closing Bell."

Employment remains a strong point for the White House and the Treasury secretary. Rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. employers added a record 6.4 million jobs in 2021 while the unemployment rate holds under 4%, according to the latest Labor Department data.

As President Joe Biden's choice to lead the department, Yellen spent much of 2021 coordinating White House economic policy and the disbursement of Covid-19 emergency funds to American consumers and businesses.

Yellen did acknowledge that economic landscape isn't perfect and pain inflation is causing households that haven't seen proportional wage gains.

"I expect inflation throughout much of the year '' 12-month changes '' to remain above 2%," she said. "But if we're successful in controlling the pandemic, I expect inflation to diminish over the course of the year and hopefully revert to normal levels by the end of the year around 2%."

She and other administration advisors have in recent months sought to quell public concerns about a sharp rise in prices thanks to widespread supply-chain disruptions and fierce demand for goods. The Labor Department said earlier in January that prices rose 7% in December on a year-over-year basis, the fastest pace of inflation since 1982.

Yellen iterated comments made by Biden on Wednesday, when the president said he thinks it's time the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell "recalibrate" monetary policy to tamp down on prices. The Fed is tasked with keeping inflation around 2% and has the power to raise interest rates to fight prices across the economy.

Powell and fellow Fed officials have been signaling for months that the globe's most powerful central bank will soon hike borrowing costs. While the timing of the first increase is unclear, Wall Street puts a 90% probability of a quarter-point rate hike in March.

Yellen advised the president on his nominees to the Fed's board, including a second term for Powell, whom she has repeatedly praised for helping the central bank support the economy during the pandemic.

More recently, Yellen has defended the Biden administration's attempt to pass a massive climate change, child care and worker-focused piece of legislation known as the Build Back Better plan. Republicans are united in their opposition to the bill, which they say will make the current rash of inflation even worse.

But resistance from within Democratic ranks is ultimately what's paused progress in the Build Back Better legislation. Centrist Democrats like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have repeatedly voiced concerns over the bill's size and scope and how it could affect prices.

Yellen and the rest of the Biden administration have disputed those concerns and have tried to show that the already-enacted infrastructure legislation and the Build Back Better plan will help address supply chain issues and hot inflation.

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Thu, 20 Jan 2022 21:32

President Biden's Presidential Inaugural Committee will mark his first anniversary in office by blanketing today's airwaves '-- from breakfast to evening news to prime time '-- with a video promoting a recovering, resilient America.

The video is narrated by Tom Hanks, who was part of Biden inaugural festivities, and features cameos by everyday Americans '-- a UPS driver, a Teamster from Michigan and a bed-and-breakfast owner in Wisconsin. "I can feel the change," says Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse who was the first person in the U.S. to get the COVID vaccine.

President Biden says near the end: "I've never been more optimistic about America's future."What's happening: The committee, which was nominated for an Emmy, is spending several million dollars in leftover inaugural funds to air the ad on broadcast and cable TV today.

The PIC then will spend a similar amount over the next week to amplify the video on digital platforms.The committee said in a statement to Axios: "In recognition of the President's first year in office, the Biden-Harris Presidential Inaugural Committee believed it was important to celebrate the strength and perseverance of the American people in the face of extraordinary adversity, just as we did a year ago today."

"Through the voices of those Americans '-- including some who participated in last year's celebration '-- the video also highlights the progress that's been made over the last year."Between the lines: With COVID limiting events at the White House, the ad aims to connect with the public as past inaugural committees have done in person.

The context: Past inaugural committees have used leftover funds in various ways, including donating to the White House Historical Association or renovations in the presidential residence.

The ad doesn't comment on a candidate or party. As a 501(c)(4) organization, the committee is free to comment on the president whose inauguration it staged, Axios was told. Watch the video.