1565: CL0P

Allow me to reintroduce myself, I am Angie. On episode #1482 my son sent a mailed in note for my birthday. Thank you both for the show, it is a staple in my household. I wanted to match this note with a donation. However, the donation page does not provide for bitcoin donations and I do not fiat over the internet, sorry. I would love to become a Dame one day, please help.

I have been thinking of writing to the show for a while of mine and my son's exposure to transmaoism. I decided after hearing last episode's clip advising parents of divorce to flee from California to save their children that I would finally send my Boots on the Ground report.

My son and I lived in Berkeley, CA from 2015 to 2021 - when he was four-years-old to when he was ten-years-old. I was born and raised in the Bay Area, specifically within the East Bay where much of a large extended family network is also located. Berkeley Unified School District offered resources by proximity to Cal, its staff, students, and programs. Berkeley came as an easy ideal choice to raise my son. I participated at my son's school as a room parent, elected executive board member of the PTA, and organized the annual book fair alongside the school's literacy coach.

In Kindergarten, my son wrote a poem in school about not being a boy. A few months later he requested that I use they/them pronouns. And-- without the detail of the years in-between-- by the time he was ten-year-old, I referred to my son using she/her pronouns, as my daughter, and set up weekly appointments with a therapist specializing in "gender-affirming" care.

For those four years, I obliged. It has always been said growing up in California that expectations of children based on whether a child is a boy or a girl is limiting and potentially abusive. So, for the four years that my son explored the ideas of gender as guided by the school community and just culturally living in the petri dish for what we now know is transmaoism, I displayed wholehearted support for his "journey". I had other reasons to not want to be typecast as a bad mother; I was assuming the role of mother and father, and I otherwise found family within this parenting community of the school and the city itself. Social pressure did not provide much choice.

I learned a lot during this time period, including the commonly shared bit of the likelihood of suicide and the intensity of emotional and mood disorders in my son if I do not choose a supportive stance. At the time, that idea was planted as a threat that I would lose the most important person in my life to pain and suffering if I did not act accordingly. So, I used the pronouns. I sent him to therapy. I inquired with others in the queer community how I could be supportive. I demanded the use of preferred pronouns as an act to prove to others that I am a loving mother. I wept and grieved in private.

The school he attended at the time was a Spanish immersion school. We were using terms like "Latinx" long before it hit mainstream. In support of gender neutrality, there was even effort to remove the feminine and masculine in the Spanish language that was being taught to the children by using the @ symbol instead of allowing a noun to end in an "a" or "e" (e.g., maestr@ instead of maestra (female teacher) or maestro (male teacher)). Much of the grandiose and promise of the trans exploration as children happened unknowingly by parents because the children were taught in Spanish, which many of the parents did not speak fluently. By the time the children's minds were captured, we were beholden to the social pressure.

What drove us out of California was the aggression and violence around those who chose not to vaccinate after lockdown-- not my wish to save my son from transmaoism. Suddenly, the precious community in which I entrusted my son flipped a switch. My lifelong friendships in the Bay Area were deserted for my lack of political choice (I heard a lot of "how could a [non-white] single mom not think that way?"; paraphrased), my once tight-knit extended family structure fell apart, and there were demands to make health choices or else. We moved to New England.

The byproduct of moving to avoid whatever seemed to be brewing in Berkeley at the time saved my son. There were not many trans kids around in our New England town when we arrived two years ago (though that has changed since we moved), and he decided he was not going to "be a girl". Now he is home schooled, playing in competitive sports, and exploring music, friendships, and classic literature. He is twelve now. I am so proud of him and we are so much closer to freedom than we once were. We listen to No Agenda together and discuss how he has come a long way since being influenced by the staff at his school back in Berkeley. He has opened my eyes to the intrusiveness of the internet; IRC platforms like Discord and within servers for popular games like Roblox are where many kids too freely express themselves in other personas of other genders that take them out of who they truly are. I assume they meet resistance in-person and especially toward parents when they feel forced to be someone they learn they do not want to be from others after a hyposis elsewhere. We do not own a television or use smart phones to engage with the internet. We read books, eat nutritiously, love our friends and neighbors, and take each day one day at a time.

While I am comforted that No Agenda is righteously shedding light to transmaoism, I fear we will become stuck in the "Can you believe it?"'s as this unfolds. I do not have answers as to how our children will regain their ability to love themselves. That is my prayer. I hope to hear more on how parents are fighting for their children. In the meantime, I would like to offer guidance in love to the No Agenda family:

Quantum leaps are only from 0 to 1. Verification is key. If you ever feel you are struggling, readjust by lowering your time preference. Results are within your reach. Energy is abundant. Love is lit. Control yourself and do not tread on me.

Angie

Hi Adam,

I am writing to agree with the statement by 'Sit Tenly Stoned' about trusted adults influencing children to be trans. This mirrors my experience of being told I was GAY as a teen around 10 years ago.

I had a tumultuous home life and was not well socialised. On multiple occasions "trusted" adults repeatedly assured me that it was "ok" if I was gay. The only genesis for this was that I didn't fit the Australian country boy stereotypes (I was bookish, soft-spoken, nasal voice). I never had or expressed any gay thoughts or feelings, but the constant implications from these adults and society in general led to me to question if everybody else was right and I was gay.

As a teen I suffered terribly from a near-constant attraction to women but was never attracted to men; so, I was able to put paid to questions about my sexuality. Children assured of transgenderism by trusted adults and society at large won't know if they're Arthur or Martha.

"1984" predicted current trends in society.

The protagonist Winston Smith: "They had played a similar trick with the instinct of parenthood. The family could not actually be abolished, and, indeed, people were encouraged to be fond of their children, in almost the old-fashioned way. The children, on the other hand, were systematically turned against their parents and taught to spy on them and report their deviations. The family had become in effect an extension of the Thought Police."

The antagonist O’Brien: "We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness."

In the morning, Adam&John,

here’s yet another person of no influence but hopefully of some interest.

I’ve started following you early during pandemic and became instantly hooked. Never before listened to podcasts but after seeing you on Joe Rogan and consequently finding No Agenda I was hooked on your show. The two of you truly produce best podcast in the universe, not to mention sound of superb quality.

Now, to cut the crap and to the core: but contribute some value of mine to value of yours I’ve recently started sustaining donation of $5/month and just sent sent modest donation of $60.06 as small thanks for what you do. You deserve more, but hey, I live close at the eastern edge of EU – Czechia – and while it’s not much of value to you, it is for me. I work as a designer in power generation industry, earning modest salary but hardly matching US wages. Well, hardly matching wages of any western countries. Local running joke is Czechia is unofficial poorest federal state (bundesland) of Germany. Sadly, it’s basicly economic reality.

Besides this minor contribution I have also something to add to the major topic you debate in last months: transgender movement. Although not living in US and not closely familiar with how this trend unwinds in there I feel this concerns me to some degree. I am what I’d call old-school transsexual. I’ve transitioned in 2006 – SRS, “bottom surgery”, however you’re comfortable to call it - male-to-female and had my share of issues which are long past me. It’s intriguing following current events and their reflection in your show while comparing it with my own experience. The formal part of my transition was very similar to what you shared from Dame/Sir Jamie few shows back. I was required to undergo 1+ year of sessions (roughly 15-20 hours) spent with trained psychologist-sexologist, also assessment by third-party psychologist to obtain independent assessment, all this to be allowed hormonal treatment(HRT). After 1 year of what’s called Real life test – in which I was required to live according to desired gender my case was passed to board consisting of 5 independent medical specialists who approved my sex reassignment surgery. All in all it took some 2.7 years from first contact with medical professional to medical transition and 14 months to just get on hormones. Imagine the outrage that would ensue this being the standard approach in US. Or anywhere else in the West for that matter. Oh, and all this has been covered by medical insurance. No payment from my side.

This was the official process that I had to undergo in order to change my name and receive the desired “F” on my ID, new birth certificate etc. Now, living as female was another matter. I admit, at the time I was freak. As my former friend described, anyone undergoing transition looks like “it”, androgynous being which was at the time considered gay and being trans wasn’t something you wanted to share with strangers. Mind, people in my country are rather conservative, dislike extremes and at the time it wasn’t really hip to be oddball. My desire – as any other trans person at the time – was to fit in and “pass” as the term goes; meaning you want to be fully accepted as desired sex without significant looks from others. That was ultimate goal for any trans person up until 5-10 years ago. In other words: I wanted to look pretty as a woman without unnecessary harassment and without attracting too much attention. No extreme make-up, no excessive dresses or affected speech.

Nowadays it seems this is no longer the case: seeing the beings on TikTok who sport pink hair, make-up and beard, wearing stilettos even while pushing garbage can(MtF) or many tattoos and look of drug addict(FtM) look like bad trip. Interesting are also some MtFs that reached into - mostly leftie – MSM who appear to be getting their clothing in their grandma’s wardrobe(70s blazers or polka dot dresses of very conservative cuts).

The looks is one part of what is different. Other is behaviour of those people. Mental lability, public shows of maladaptation and tendencies to show off are partly due to hormones. It’s difficult to cope with mood swings, especially with prior depressions. The difference I perceive is nowadays these people are given too much space, no reality check, they bring nothing of value to debate just demand acceptance without doing much to earn it. The public is expected to bend over and embrace “queerness” (whatever hides under the term). A huge mistake. Most of these modern trans-folks are suffering with mental issues – which might be outcome of their parents’ approach - and last thing they need is being fully accepted as they are. They need individual help, but being herded as a group through social media instead of being shown they have to adapt and grow personally they are getting comfortable as mob thus becoming drawback of society to which they bring nothing just a grief.

My personal gripe with these people is they are self-indulgent, often simple-minded, entitled while having no skills and not caring much about it. Plenty of these people are simply products of social media, best but not only example is Dylan Mulvaney. Without these media they would be forced to accept the reality outside of their bubbles, conclude their transition and get on with their life.

I eagerly follow your bits on these topics since I no longer am in the middle of these matters. In my view transsexuality is not much of identity, it’s phase. You feel uncomfortable, you search for an answers and finally you find it. You seek help, you struggle, you figure out the way out. You transition, adapt for some years and the ultimate goal is to pass as I mention above. What we – the invisible transsexuals - want is to become normal: to be comfy with ourselves, to earn our living, to enjoy sunny day, walk the dog, find some significant other, to get rid of obsessive thoughts. At least this used to be the goal of transition. Transition is a sort of 15minutes of fame. First life is hell and you want out, hormones put you into ordeal of lot of emotions nobody prepares you for and you experience something you never had before and never will after the whole phase ends. Certainly it’s different for MtFs and FtMs and sadly not everyone is strong enough to endure it. Some will end it, some get mentally unstable and lose their way(non-binaries?), some realize it’s not their path in various phases of the process and detransition. This should be debated way more, hundred percent! (sorry, I couldn’t resist :). There’s no way to make entirely sure transition is the way, but due process as is done or at least used to is a way to ensure detransitioning rate would be as low as possible.

I was intrigued by particular clips you’ve shared so please indulge me and let me add some bits and odds:

Your hairstylist story (#1551) and her observation that “trans-kids parents” are very often those who freaked out during COVID and pushing their kids towards transition is their way to get grip of control again is spot on. Aren’t those parents also millennials who are oftentimes kids of “helicopter parents”? There’s definitely emotional damage that goes across generations and what’s happening now is beginning of climax. What I wonder is what part plays the trans-maoism movement you describe. This is hardly planned from day one. Or is it??

Wachowski sisters clip (#1558); another interesting point was the observation that becoming a woman is a way to be loved. Certainly there’s so many young boys who feel left out, unwelcome in the society that transition might be a way out. It’s really fucked up society which unintentionally pushes their offspring to such extreme solutions. Does it work? Who knows, but listening to this clip I wanted to share this probably so far minor trend called transmaxxing. Basicly it views MtF transition as life strategy for young men who have low chance of finding relationship with girls. This trend is particular among incels and the pros are obvious to them: they get loved by society, they might get laid, they might not feel unattractive anymore and currently being trans is a good thing. The Sisi hypno being facilitator of their forced transition. If it turns out bad, they commit suicide thus beefing up statistics which in turn are used for sake of pushing trans-agenda on.

Montana anti-trans bill (not sure which recent episode it was); this was moot point by this trans representative. Yes, it’s likely trans people are dying due to higher suicide rate, but no, no amount of legislation can change that. The problem here is not legislation, it’s the fact these people usually have no real friends, no real support, are emotionally unstable due to hormones and are so focused on matter of transition they are on wrong tracks in their live. This fits the idea that transsexuality is not identity, it’s phase. It will end and each of us – have to give our lives some real meaning. The way it all unwinds in US doesn’t seem to support this notion and this might end up in future by even more detransitioners, suicides and drug addicts. And sure, nobody will care for them unless some appropriate statistics are needed. Awful.

Observation regarding people on TikTok who suffer with made up issues because they don’t suffer with any real hardships (#1554). Amen to that. We, the people, need to struggle, need some hardships, we need to experience lows in order to enjoy highs. Without lows there are no highs and without it there’s no life. From major part this is cause by overly caring parents who try to prevent their children experience any lacks, any hurts, any pains, anything negative. No further explanation needed I guess.

“Gender affirming care” newspeak (#1549 and many more). This reminds me of George Carlin and his old bit on evolution of shell shock into PTSD. He was truly ahead of his time.

Victoria Nuland speech on revival of Ukraine and getting back tech jobs(#1559); wasn’t she speaking of ukraine hacker groups and biotech labs staff? That would make sense…

Now, just short Boots-on-the-ground report™ from Czechia: we are fucked properly by EU but it wouldn’t be possible without our own democratically elected puppets. Our political representatives are also stuck deeply in US administration arse. Recently there’s talk about buying overpriced F-35s which should replace reliable and affordable Swedish JAS-39 Gripen and we of course toe the pro-Ukrainian line properly. The history is already slowly overwritten by our latest sock-puppet president who during recent celebration of end of WW2 said we were liberated by Ukrainian soldiers and not Soviet Red army. Also EU works tirelessly in pushing Ukrainians and their produce to the eastern EU member countries. There are growing tensions between Czechs and Ukrainians already. Ukrainian produce is being pushed to local markets despite the quality is dubious and often unacceptable on EU markets due to higher level of toxins and forbidden pesticides used in production, not to mention this being sort of Ukraine-EU trade war propagated by EU itself. Climate change scam is being stuck in our throats regularly, push for EVs, heat-pumps and zero-carbon economy is must for anyone here. Anyone who disagrees with climate change, Phizer jabs, current government, pro-Ukraine views, EU and M5M is denier, anti-vaxxer, Russian troll and deserves to be excluded from society.

The most painful part is that prior to 1989 we’ve already went through 40 years of centrally controlled socialism, government censorship, lack of freedom of speech, lack of freedom to travel, to own business etc. and it’s all back with so many fools jumping on the bandwagon. Not just young but also old who went through the ordeal of socialism era. Difficult to comprehend.

I am almost 40, remembering just bits and pieces from pre-1989 times and went through my youth during 90s, most free era of this country. Now I am considering leaving the country for it all gets bad to worse. 10 years ago Canada seemed like nice place but after Covid it makes no sense. Ditto Australia. Russia? Culturally it makes sense, but despite Russia being painted by West as Empire of Evil they also plan CBDC, they also work on medical tyranny and certain shady characters working with WEF are helping Putin’s government. And also the cold. The real upside is they have plenty of oil and gas so at least freezing to death is less likely option than in EU. And the US? Very appealing thought. Still can’t go there due to being unvaxxed, but that might pass soon. Being trans I might get some positive points, right? Also I love american cars and in general american culture still bears some attraction to freedom minded people. However seen from outside bad times are ahead but this likely applies to most of western countries.

Anyway, it’s getting too long and probably quite boring. So some last words: I love you both; you John for your wisdom, sense of humor and for being grounded. Your random stories are amazing and I could listen to them for hours, especially with your voice. And you Adam for your showmanship and looks, for being so optimistic and your constant strive to connect the dots. That was actually one of things that got me to listen to you: not just randomly coming up with theories, but also putting them into context and attempting to make sense of the mess around us. Also, we share birthday!

Thank you for the time you spent reading this. Hopefully it makes sense to you.

Thank you for your courage!

Alex

Hello John and Adam,

I am a Montessori preschool teacher in Washington state. I have yet to donate so feel a bit guilty about sending a note with no treasure reimbursement. Listening to the ongoing discussions on schools and Maoism has brought me to the point that I must write to ask you to look into Montessori education and how it can change the system. Anyone who has young children or who has a talent for working with them should look into Montessori and do some thorough research. There is a lot of misinformation about Montessori out there and many schools are masquerading as them. Maria Montessori’s name is not trademarked and many schools take advantage of this. Parents should do their research and find signs to look for in a good Montessori school. The best age to start is right away. There are many books on Montessori for newborns on through adulthood and even old age. Children are extremely impressionable and open to all stimuli and knowledge that are offered to them at the correct time. Montessori explains this and many other topics in her writings and lectures. She is not around anymore, but was responsible for the push of Montessori education in America. I believe this is the answer to the Maoist problem. A Montessori classroom is a community of children and adults that spend three years working together to promote peaceful conflict resolution, cooperation, and instilling the golden rule. Our children are aged 3-6 years old and enjoy spending time in nature, repeating common daily tasks with tangible results, working with materials that refine their senses, socializing and building confidence, and practicing common grace and courtesy techniques that teachers and older children model. The result is children who have appreciation for our earth, intrinsic motivations, and a good work ethic. Not to mention, these children are given the gift of a deep love of learning. When done correctly, Montessori can do wonders for a young child trying to learn about the world around him/her. We also instill peace, love, and respect for all living creatures. We grow and care for plants, care for classroom pets, and many teachers even relocate bugs and insects that come into the classroom. This is an awesome career field to get into and can be achieved quite easily. Many schools pay for training and offer generous benefit packages. Parents can read about it and find many tips to do Montessori in the home. I could go on for a long time about Montessori. When I first found it at the age of 30, I felt as if I had joined a cult. Now, six years later, and after struggling to get trained and certified during the pandemic, it feels more like a well thought out scientific process. Montessori was a doctor (first female in Italy) and wrote with a very scientific mind. It really works if it is done right and can save our country if more people get on board. Thank you if you read my whole note, I just had to share this information, I am surprised none of the wonderful audience or trolls have thrown in any info on Montessori. And yes, I listen to all episodes and don’t skip donation segments or listen at abnormal speeds. Your advice is priceless and has kept me safe and sane since summer of 2021. I plan to donate when I can, but don’t feel bad, I don’t donate to ANY other shows and always listen to you guys in full first before going on to a lesser podcast. Thanks for all you do! And if you share this note, please thank all of the producers who are supporting free loaders with good intentions like me. If you have 18 minutes and are interested at all, you should watch this video on Montessori Education https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljuw3grZ11Q

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PS drivers deliver more than five billion parcels a year in the U.S.—an

astonishing number that reflects, in part, our national addiction to

online shopping. In recent years, UPS’s revenue has increased

significantly—it was projected to exceed a hundred billion dollars for

the first time in 2022—but the company also has much more competition.

In New York City, delivery vehicles now clog the streets. Some belong to

UPS’s traditional competitors, like FedEx, but many display the Amazon

logo. Amazon remains UPS’s biggest customer—until recently, it accounted

for eleven per cent of UPS’s business—but it is now delivering many of

its own packages. In addition, UPS faces a multitude of new competitors,

including drivers who use their personal cars to drop off packages for

gig-economy companies like DoorDash. Amit Mehrotra, a managing director

and the head of transportation and shipping research at Deutsche Bank,

told me, “We’ve been in an environment in the last two or three years

that anybody with spare capacity in a Honda Civic could become a

competitor to UPS or FedEx.”

Link

Keyhole is code word for satellite IMINT. Talent is code word for aircraft IMINT.

Link to Article

Archived Version

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 16:29

Audiobooks '' "talking books" as they were first known '' are a fairly recent phenomenon, but they go back much further than Apple and Amazon. The concept of talking books began in the 1930s and existed for use by the visually impaired. It wasn't until the 1970s that books on tape began to soothe the anxiety of commuters. But it wasn't until they were absorbed into our phones that the medium really took off.

Since the iPhone era began, audiobooks have steadily grown. The industry has had a decade of double-digit growth, a trend expected to accelerate. According to a forecast from Wordsrated, a publishing industry research organization, audiobook sector sales can be currently estimated at over $5 billion '' near $2 billion from the U.S., the world's largest audiobook market '' and revenue is expected to grow 26.4% every year from 2022 to 2030, leading audiobook sales to be north of $35 billion by 2030. That makes audiobooks "the fastest-growing book format in the world by a wide margin," according to Wordsrated.

It also makes audiobooks one more market for AI to attempt to infiltrate, with AI-generated voices stepping in to take the mic from voice actors. Are consumers ready to have AI whispering into their ears? The truth is, it's already happening.

Alphabet 's Google Play and Apple Books utilize AI-generated voices to some extent, and the trend is likely to continue. Google Play offers publishers the ability to create auto-narrated audiobooks as long as publishers own the audiobook's rights and choose auto-narration. None are created without publisher consent, nor is it something that any consumer could legally create on their own.

"For many publishers, audiobook production can be a major investment," said Judy Chang, director of product management for Google Play Books. Paying for voice actors is part of the cost equation. "Publishers can assess audiobook demand for their titles before making an investment in human narration," she said.

How people hear booksPeople love audiobooks. They are second only to music as the most commonly consumed audio product. But AI voice use in audiobooks brings up what may be fairly described as a particularly intimate form of use for the new technology. It's not like asking Alexa for the weather or to play a song. And that may present a limit case for how far consumers (and companies) can or will go '' at least for now '' in swapping out human narrators for computer-generated voices.

"People are highly sensitive to sound," said David Ciccarelli, CEO of Voices, the largest voiceover marketplace. While your eye can discern movement at 24 frames per second, the ear can do so at a fidelity of 20,000 times per second. And he added, "Because most people listen to audiobooks with earbuds, there is an even greater sense of intimacy."

The quality of the narration is a significant issue as well, as it hinges largely on the listener's sense of connection with the voice. "Nearly 60% of listeners ditched an audiobook because they didn't enjoy the narrator '... people like listening to other people, especially when stories are told," Ciccarelli said.

Getting AI voice to not only sound human but connect with listeners isn't so easy to do. Voicing is, after all, acting, and the art of it is difficult to replicate. "What humans can do best that AI can't is timing," Ciccarelli said, "be it the awkward pause or a hilarious sense of comedic timing, it's difficult for an AI voice to get this right out-of-the-box."

Speed can be an issue for AI too, since the pace of a narration will vary in accordance with what is happening in the content of what's being read. We read some parts of a plot or an argument naturally at different speeds than other parts, but that's because we understand what we're reading. AI doesn't. "Professional narrators know when to speed it up and then revert to a normal reading pace," Ciccarell said. They also know how to pronounce words and don't have an issue with homographs.

AI voice will get better, and listener resistance to it will, accordingly, shrink. The question with game-changing new technologies isn't even if, but when. Ciccarelli knows that.

"The industry recognized that change is in the air and that AI, now that it's here, will only get better," he said. "It's gone from laughable to passable, and now, it's getting better all the time," he added. Voice cloning of professional voice artists is foreseeable, underlining the importance of going down that road ethically and protecting the work of voice actors' rights to "credit, consent, and compensation."

Even with AI voice, there is nominally a voice actor somewhere in the process. Speech-to-speech systems have become popular in media because they enable even higher fidelity emotional content to be expressed through synthetic voices, according to Bret Kinsella, Founder and CEO of Voicebot.ai. But these still require a voice actor whose voice is then transformed into another voice.

What voice actors sayFor some voice actors, the choice is being made to stay away. "I refuse VO work that states they'll take my voice and make an AI model from it," said Brad Ziffer, a voice actor with 14 years of experience. "The best way to protect myself is to just stay away," he said.

In the past two decades, narrators have gone from reading photocopies of printed books and editing out page turn sounds to reading on a tablet; from recording exclusively in studios to recording many titles at home. Audio editors have gone from splicing tape with razors to editing digital files by rolling back and recording over mistakes. Publishers have gone from delivering content on cassette to CD to digitally. "With each transition there comes fear and uncertainty, but through each transition we have learned, grown, adapted, and thrived," said Michele Cobb, executive director of the Audio Publishers Association.

Cobb says the growth of the audio industry is extending the range of opportunities, and new technology is part of it. As listenership grows and the appetite for audio content grows, publishers are publicizing originals and audio-first works that allow them to stretch their creative approaches and convince more consumers to be enticed to try audio, he said. "AI technology can help workflows. AI is not a new tool for voice talent, producers, and publishers, many of whom use it to improve their quality control in post-production," he said.

As of last week, that approach to voice production now includes The Beatles.

This evolution will inevitably include the risks posed by AI. "Regardless of profession the fear of someone's livelihood being displaced by a machine is real," Cobb said. "But I know I am not alone in appreciating the deep, rich, emotionally intelligent performance of my favorite narrator as they perform words in the effective oral tradition of human storytelling," he added.

Where ChatGPT and Alexa, Siri meetThe biggest change taking place right now is focused on text and image, not voice, with generative AI chatbots led by OpenAI's ChatGPT taking over more writing, including novels, and generative AI graphics models producing images. Kinsella noted that AI voice played a foundational role in the integration of AI into daily life at an earlier point. "Voice was actually the previous wave of AI'...Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant all use synthetic voices," he said. The input and output in these devices evolved to be voice-to-voice, and eventually, text-based AI forms may follow a similar development pattern. "ChatGPT brings back the text-first approach. Some use cases will remain text while others will naturally shift to voice-input first and then audio (synthetic voice) output over time," Kinsella said. "ChatGPT's mobile app enables voice input today but it does not have a text-to-speech for listenable responses. That will surely come for some use cases."

When it comes to publishing, audiobooks are a rising but still relatively small slice of the overall publishing pie, and the additional time and cost requirements will continue to influence decision-making.

"Some publishers prefer not to pay the additional cost and some authors are also reticent to take on that cost themselves," Kinsella said. "If the author records it in their own voice, there still is some studio and editing cost, and it can take many days to complete."

AI can make these barriers a little easier to get across.

Apple developed a program that mitigates or eliminates the friction in audiobook production as part of its effort to have more audiobooks for readers. Authors can have their audiobooks created at no initial direct cost and no time commitment. The companies that provide the service for Apple authors take a fee for every audiobook sold.

Amazon '-- which owns Audible, one of the dominant players in the sector '-- has a similar audiobook recording service, but it uses professional voice actors and not synthetic speech. "It would be logical for it to add voice clones or its Poly synthetic voices to this type of service, but I am not aware of any activity on this front," Kinsella said.

Apple declined to comment. Amazon did not respond to requests for information about its audiobook offerings.

The text formats most likely to be AI-spokenZiffer is naturally concerned about the role AI will play in his profession. "I'm very cautious regarding the world of AI. I believe it has great potential '... but it can be easy to abuse. Right now, I still believe a real human VO has no equal. Synthesized voice algorithms aren't there yet to be able to fully reproduce all the nuances of the human voice," he said.

With AI voice needing to conquer natural voice inflection, comprehension/interpretation of reading material, and the ability to bring emotion, and change of emotion, as the material dictates. As companies are beginning to experiment with AI, Ziffer said he would not be surprised if his income is impacted in some way. But he added, "I've yet to find a client who tells me they've chosen an AI voice over hiring me.

Ziffer expects AI to be most widely used among companies with smaller budgets or those focused on e-learning texts. "But for those who want the best, the job is best left to humans," he said. "Living, breathing actors who have real feelings, a brain and emotions and can breathe life into work are the best fit for a dynamic and believable VO. It may be easy to clone anything with technology, but nothing beats the real deal."

Andrea Collins, a voice actor with fifteen years of experience, also takes the view that AI will provide necessary tradeoffs for some companies. "I think it will become a great tool for clients who are looking for a project to be completed super quickly and for a reasonable price," she said. Texts where companies will forego the sound of a real voice for speed include presentations and compliance materials. Speed is an inevitable factor with general audiobook production too.

"In terms of audiobooks, I'm sure it will take a chunk out of the space as an AI voice can tackle 30,000 words a lot faster than a human can," Collins said.

She has yet to see AI have a significant impact on her finances, but she added, "My guess is that day will come. So rather than putting my head in the sand, I'm trying to get ahead of it"

Collins is taking steps to have her voice cloned this year. "Most of the established artists I know are doing the same thing. My hope is that my cloned voice will become another tool in my business where it can passively work on projects, while I can work on the ones that need a human voice with a bigger budget," she said.

John Kubin, a veteran voice actors, says peers in his profession need to be smart about managing the new AI reality. " I've said for a couple years now when the technology was just coming out that it would kill half the work for VO actors ... and while I still think this is true, it still might take a couple more years from now."

He is focused on what he expects to become a new market segment for long-form projects where AI and human-cloned voices can meet in the middle. "The 100,000-plus word scripts for a lot of these big projects I would never touch with a 10-foot pole. But with AI, I'll happily license out my AI-cloned voice and collect the free money," Kubin said.

He knows that many of his peers may continue to disagree about getting into bed with the machines. "I might be one of the very few creators/VO actors out there that think this is the best thing since sliced bread," Kubin said. But from a business standpoint, he said it will be a challenge to run counter to changes on the scale of AI. "I've joked for a while that, 'If I could just make money doing voice over ... without having to do voice over, that would amazing!' Well, here we are."

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 15:47

He went on, ''That's great news, because they're a solvent company'--your jobs are secure. But here's the bad news. A couple weeks ago, a brother, Esteban Chavez, died, twenty-four years old. From the heat!'' (Chavez, a UPS driver, was reportedly found unconscious in his package car while on his route near Pasadena. The medical examiner has not yet determined the cause of death.)

Last summer, UPS drivers around the country were using thermometers to check the heat in the back of their vehicles; on social media, photos were circulating of temperature readings above a hundred and twenty degrees. Drivers had been demanding that UPS install air-conditioning in its package cars. The company'--which had claimed that A.C. would be ''ineffective,'' because drivers get in and out of their vehicles so often'--said that, among other measures, it was ''accelerating the installation of fans'' in package cars, and providing drivers with water bottles, cooling towels, electrolyte drinks, and freeze pops.

Teamsters leaders have said that UPS's measures are not enough. Perrone mentioned another UPS driver who had recently made the news: ''There was a kid in Arizona. I don't know if you guys saw, the video went viral, where he collapsed'--on the doorstep.'' A doorbell camera had caught the moment, and the customer, who was not home at the time, was so disturbed by the footage that he made it public. In the video, the UPS driver stumbles toward the door with a parcel in hand, then falls to the ground, where he remains for a few moments, legs askew. The incident had occurred on a day when the temperature exceeded a hundred degrees.

''This is what I took from that video,'' Perrone said. ''They indoctrinate you so much that this kid got up after fainting from the heat in Arizona and rang the customer's bell! ''

(UPS said in a statement to The New Yorker, ''We have strong reasons to believe that this employee was not properly rested and hydrated prior to work that day and there may have been extenuating circumstances which resulted in the collapse.'' In addition, the company said, ''While there has recently been media attention on heat issues, we have always been faced with operating on hot days, especially in warmer climates. We believe that by training our people to be prepared'--and by providing ample resources for support and hydration'--we can continue to keep them safe.'')

Perrone told the crowd of drivers, ''Today, people are going to say, 'It's a nice day.' Yeah, it's a nice day. But your package cars are still going to be way over a hundred degrees.'' He talked about supervisors who tell drivers to find a ''shady area,'' or a ''cooling station.'' ''But the next day, what do they do? 'Oh, you had a gap in time.' What do they do? They call you in the office and ask you, 'What happened?' '' he said. ''Do not kill yourselves over this company when to them you are nothing more than a hand truck.''

Perrone handed the microphone back to Andrews. ''I know some of you guys start at eight-thirty-five'--just be sure to get in before then. I'll make this short and sweet,'' Andrews said. ''Working with this company as a driver for twenty years, every single summer in the extreme heat, we all know the question from the customer: 'Do you have A.C. in the vehicle?' Right? Obviously, the answer is no. And the same response would be from the customer: 'Well, that's a shame. UPS makes tons of money.' And they're a hundred per cent right.''

He announced a moment of silence ''for our brother Chavez.'' Andrews bowed his head, and his fellow-drivers joined him. For a few seconds, the crowd was silent.

Andrews did not permit the silence to last too long. ''Thank you,'' he said, lifting his head. The drivers gathered for a group photo, and soon afterward they hustled off to work, a blur of brown uniforms crossing Foster Avenue.

There is a slogan on the wall of Local 804 headquarters: ''Home of Ron Carey.'' Carey started as a UPS driver in Queens in the mid-fifties, then went on to be elected president of Local 804, in 1967. In Steven Brill's ''The Teamsters'' (1978), his seminal book about the union, Brill devotes an entire chapter to Carey, depicting him as an honest reformer, the antithesis of many of the men then wielding power within the union. (Its longtime leader Jimmy Hoffa, known for his clout and Mob connections, served time in federal prison for jury tampering, wire fraud, and other crimes.) In 1988, the Justice Department brought a racketeering lawsuit against the Teamsters, in an attempt to stamp out the Mob's influence, and in 1991 the union held its first democratic elections for its leaders. Carey won, defeating five men, including Hoffa's son, James P. Hoffa. When Carey took over, he got rid of the union's private jet and cut his own salary from two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars to a hundred and fifty thousand.

On August 4, 1997, four days after the Teamsters' contract with UPS expired, Carey led the company's workers in their first national strike. (By then, Jim Casey was no longer leading UPS. He died in 1983, at the age of ninety-five.) UPS's increasing reliance on part-time employees to work as package handlers had become one of the union's main issues; Carey decried these roles as ''part-time throwaway low-wage jobs.'' The strike halted UPS's operations. Peter Jennings, of ABC News, declared it ''the most dramatic confrontation between industry and organized labor in two decades.'' Airline pilots and autoworkers, as well as Senator Paul Wellstone and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, showed up at UPS workers' rallies. On the picket line outside the UPS hub in Maspeth, Queens, John Richiusa, a package-car driver, told an interviewer, ''There's enough money to share, and we're going to make them share it.''

The Teamsters cast their strike not only as a battle against their employer but as a fight for decent jobs for all Americans. Their slogan was ''Part-Time America Won't Work.'' Polls showed that a majority of the public supported the workers, and, in this P.R. battle, UPS found itself in a bind. ''Rhetorically, it would have been easier for UPS to vilify the workers and to argue that they were greedy,'' Deepa Kumar writes in her book ''Outside the Box,'' an analysis of media coverage of the strike. But ''UPS could not do this, because the drivers are its public face.''

By the time the strike ended, the Teamsters had won significant raises and ten thousand full-time jobs. Richiusa recalled, ''When we came back after the strike, they were applauding us in the street'''--along Queens Boulevard'--''and that's not hyperbole. Because they know how hard we work. They see us covered in sweat, with salt lines striping our shirts.''

''Aim for the ramen!''

Cartoon by Jeremy Nguyen

At Local 804, workers' euphoria did not last long. Carey lost his position shortly afterward, amid a scandal related to the financing of his relection campaign, and James P. Hoffa became president of the I.B.T. He held the position for twenty-three years. In 2021, Sean O'Brien, the leader of a local in Boston, won the election to succeed him, defeating a Hoffa-endorsed opponent. ''This is a moment that Local 804 members have waited for, and worked for, for a long time,'' Perrone wrote in the local's newsletter. ''We finally put a fork in the Hoffa era.''

The last UPS contract that Hoffa's team negotiated, in 2018, is still a source of rage and bitterness among many Local 804 members and other UPS workers across the country. It created a two-tier system for package-car drivers; those new to the job'--known as ''22.4s,'' after the contract provision'--occupied the bottom tier, with lower pay and less control over their schedules. Fifty-five per cent of the UPS workers who voted rejected the contract, but the I.B.T.'s leaders still imposed it on their members. (They invoked an archaic clause that was then in the Teamsters constitution, which permitted them to ratify a contract if less than two-thirds of the members had rejected it, and if less than half the members had voted.) ''That gave the International Union leadership power to shove the contract down our throats and they did it,'' 804's newsletter stated.

Scott Damone, the Local 804 business agent, told me that, for decades, the I.B.T.'s leaders had favored the drivers, who are more active in the union, fighting hard for raises for them while paying less attention to their part-time co-workers. About the leaders' past treatment of part-timers, he said, ''They kept watering down the compensation, and, when they couldn't water down the compensation any more, they went to benefits.'' In the coming contract negotiations, he said, ''it's going to be very important to right some of those wrongs.''

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 15:20

About Josh LambAfter graduating from the University of Kent in the summer of 2022 with a degree in History, Josh joined Proactive later that year as a journalist in the UK editorial team.Josh has reported on a range of areas whilst at Proactive, including energy companies during a time of global crisis, aviation and airlines as the sector recovers from the pandemic, as well as covering economic, social and governance issues. Read more

About the publisherProactive financial news and online broadcast teams provide fast, accessible, informative and actionable business and finance news content to a global investment audience. All our content is produced independently by our experienced and qualified teams of news journalists.

Proactive news team spans the world's key finance and investing hubs with bureaus and studios in London, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney and Perth.

We are experts in medium and small-cap markets, we also keep our community up to date with blue-chip companies, commodities and broader investment stories. This is content that excites and engages motivated private investors.

The team delivers news and unique insights across the market including but not confined to: biotech and pharma, mining and natural resources, battery metals, oil and gas, crypto and emerging digital and EV technologies.

Use of technologyProactive has always been a forward looking and enthusiastic technology adopter.

Our human content creators are equipped with many decades of valuable expertise and experience. The team also has access to and use technologies to assist and enhance workflows.

Proactive will on occasion use automation and software tools, including generative AI. Nevertheless, all content published by Proactive is edited and authored by humans, in line with best practice in regard to content production and search engine optimisation.

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 15:13

Century-old beverage Published : 15:50 ET, May 31 2023 Updated : 15:59 ET, May 31 2023 MODELO is one of North America and Latin America's most popular brands of beer.

Here's everything we know about Modelo's long history and ownership.

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Modelo has been around for almost 100 years Credit: Getty Images Who owns Modelo?Modelo is a beer brand that is owned by two different companies based on their location.

In the United States, Modelo is owned by Constellation Brands and its CEO Bill Newlands.

Everywhere outside of the United States, the popular Mexican beer is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

If retailers want to distribute the brand outside the US, they would need to contact Anheuser-Busch InBev and vice versa if distributors are inquiring within America.

In 2012, Anheuser-Busch InBev tried to obtain the rest of the stakes, however, by June 2013, both companies became one part of Grupo Modelo.

However, they were able to still have their own separate distribution rights.

When was Modelo founded?Modelo was founded in 1925 in Tacuba, Mexico by Groupo Modelo which also brews the brand Corona.

During the Prohibition era, Modelo was one of the beers that benefited due to South America being able to distribute alcoholic beverages when North America couldn't.

Since it was first bottled, the brand has released four different versions: Modelo Ore, Modelo Especial, Modelo Negra, and Modelo Chelada.

Like many beer brands, Modelo has also released its own spiked drink called Agua Frescas.

Modelo even has merchandise that can be sold in participating stores such as Walmart.

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In the United States, Modelo is owned by Constellation Brands Credit: Getty Images Where can I buy Modelo?Modelo can be sold in any local supermarket, liquor store, or retail corporation such as CVS or Walgreens.

Additionally, beer lovers can purchase Modelo online at:

InstacartTargetTotal Wine & MoreDoorDashWalmart

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 14:27

Podcaster Joe Rogan and billionaire Elon Musk have lashed out at a vaccine researcher who dismissed Rogan's recent interview with anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as 'nonsense'.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, on Saturday tweeted his concerns about Rogan's interview with Kennedy, a longshot Democratic presidential candidate.

Kennedy in the interview repeated his debunked claims that common childhood vaccines cause autism, which Hotez called 'just awful' as he lamented 'it's clear many actually believe this nonsense.'

Rogan fired back with a challenge: 'Peter, if you claim what RFK jr is saying is ''misinformation'' I am offering you $100,000.00 to the charity of your choice if you're willing to debate him on my show with no time limit.'

Musk quickly chimed in to goad on the drama on Twitter, which he owns, tweeting that Hotez 'just hates charity' and saying the scientist is 'afraid of a public debate, because he knows he's wrong.'

Robert F. Kennedy Jr appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast this week, repeating his debunked claims that common childhood vaccines cause autism

Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, on Saturday tweeted his concerns about the Kennedy interview

However, in multiple tweets, Hotez indicated his willingness to appear on Rogan's podcast, which reaches a massive audience of millions on Spotify.

'I'm happy to come on and have a meaningful discussion. I respect you and your show and I don't want an adversarial relationship. I think we can make some progress,' tweeted Hotez.

'And I'm open to a number of different options, but to be pressured to give you an answer on Twitter, now, with a ''take it or leave it'' demand that's not how I work. Honestly, I don't even think that would be in your best interests,' he wrote.

Kennedy also indicated his willingness to engage, tweeting: 'Peter. Let's finally have the respectful, congenial, informative debate that the American people deserve.'

During his appearance on Rogan's podcast on Thursday, Kennedy repeated his longstanding and debunked claims that common childhood vaccines cause autism.

'Everybody will say, "There's no study that shows autism and vaccines are connected." That's just just crazy. That's people who are not looking at science. It's part of the religion.'

The Democrat has made a name for himself by being a prominent anti-vaxxer, but his involvement in the anti-vaccine movement intensified after the pandemic and development of the Covid-19 vaccine.

His anti-vaccine charity, Children's Health Defense, prospered at the time, with revenues more than doubling in 2020 to $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators.

Rogan challenged Hotez to debate RFK Jr for a $100,000 donation to charity, while Musk quickly chimed in to goad on the drama on Twitter, which he owns

Rogan's challenge sparked a frenzied back-and-forth on Twitter, but Hotez indicated in multiple tweets that he would be willing to appear on the podcast

Kennedy Jr released a book in 2021, The Real Anthony Fauci, in which he accused the U.S.´s top infectious disease doctor of assisting in 'a historic coup d'etat against Western democracy' and promoted unproven COVID-19 treatments such as ivermectin, which is meant to treat parasites, and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine.

His push against the COVID-19 vaccine has linked him at times with anti-democratic figures and groups.

Kennedy Jr has appeared at events pushing the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and with people who cheered or downplayed the US Capitol riot.

Kennedy Jr has at times invoked his family's legacy in his anti-vaccine work, including sometimes using images of President Kennedy.

His sister Kerry Kennedy, who runs Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, the international rights group founded by their mother, Ethel, said her brother has at times removed some of the content at her request.

She told the Associated Press in a 2021 interview her brother is 'completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous.'

After Kennedy announced his presidential bid as a Democratic candidate in April, he is polling at about 15 percent among potential primary voters, compared to 62 percent for President Joe Biden.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (left) waves to the crowd at his 2024 campaign kick-off alongside his wife actress Cheryl Hines (right), of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame

Since Kennedy announced his presidential bid as a Democratic candidate in April, he is polling at about 15 percent among potential primary voters

Kennedy Jr has refused to openly speculate on Biden's mental fitness for office, but told Fox News that he jumped in the race because he is displeased with what Biden is 'doing with this country.'

He pointed specifically to the president's handling of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which he said should have been settled long ago.

The amount of American dollars that have been sent to Ukraine since the conflict began last year currently tops $130billion, a figure Kennedy pointed out far exceeds the budgets of many of the US alphabet agencies combined.

The candidate suggested that some of that money be spent stateside instead, citing the fact that 57 percent of Americans cannot afford a sudden $1,000 hardship expense.

Kennedy has also attracted a niche crowd of followers among conservatives for his vociferous COVID-19 vaccine skepticism, as well as his support for keeping biological males out of women's sports.

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 13:54

Screenshots from a viral video trying to suggest that military helicopters in California are ... [+] evidence of some nefarious plot.

TwitterHave you seen a video going viral about ''military movements'' in California, trying to suggest that some kind of war against everyday Americans is about to take place? The hype is completely manufactured nonsense. And experts say the kinds of military aircraft pictured are normal for any presidential visit'--something that's happening in Northern California this coming week.

The viral video, which has been shared on Twitter by a ''verified'' account named Derek Broes, includes a sensationalist caption that viewers are witnessing something that's ''NOT a drill.''

''BREAKING NEWS! Military landing in suburban neighbors [sic] in Larksper [sic] California. Massive military movements being reported in multiple states. Anyone have more info on this, please post below. My contact that sent this video is local military and says it is NOT a drill,'' Broes tweeted on Saturday.

Incredibly, the video has over 750,000 views on Twitter alone at the time of this writing. But, as several experts on military aircraft have pointed out on Twitter, there's nothing exceptional about the Marine helicopters in the video. They're typically used for moving around the President, support staff, journalists, and security detail.

''HMX-1 MV-22s that ferry around WH staff and press pool. Absolutely nothing abnormal here,'' Tyler Rogoway, the editor in chief of The War Zone tweeted on Saturday.

Broes, the person who's spreading this video online, misspells the town name Larkspur, which is just north of San Francisco. And while I couldn't independently confirm the aircraft are actually in that area and that it was taken today, it would make perfect sense that Marine helicopters would be near San Francisco right now.

In fact, President Joe Biden is visiting the region on Monday to drum up support among business leaders in the tech community. Biden is scheduled to meet with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on Monday in Los Gatos, according to the Mercury News. Others have pointed out the helicopters in the San Francisco Bay area without resorting to fear-mongering.

And it's not exactly like military aircraft are unknown in California, even when there's no presidential visit imminent. California is home to 32 U.S. military bases and regularly has aircraft zipping around. But that hasn't stopped this semi-anonymous Twitter user from hyping up the existence of military vehicles in the western U.S. Pointing out that it's not unusual to see these kinds of aircraft hasn't been persuasive to whoever is behind the Derek Broes account.

''Yeah, it's always a 'drill' or 'exercise','' Broes tweeted dismissively, suggesting that something nefarious is going on.

Broes shared another video on Saturday claiming that ''tanks'' were spotted in Idaho with the same kind of breathless announcement his Marine helicopter video got.

''BREAKING NEWS! Tank group on the highway in Idaho falls today!'' Broes tweeted.

But the video is most likely from June 14, when a military convoy from the Idaho Army National Guard's 1st of the 148th Field Artillery Regiment were scheduled to be on the streets. It was all publicly announced in advance, as you can see from this article published by the local news.

Again, it's not clear who this Derek Broes person might be, but they have a ''verified'' checkmark thanks to Twitter's new policy of no longer verifying anyone who can pay $8 per month.

It's perfectly reasonable to talk about the U.S. military's presence in the lives of Americans, given the fact that it really is completely normal to see military aircraft and has been for decades. But if you're an American who's genuinely shocked by the sight of military aircraft, I'm not sure what to tell you. There's absolutely nothing abnormal about seeing U.S. military helicopters in the sky, with or without a presidential visit.

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 11:40

Er gaat een schokgolf door tv-land nu de historisch slecht bekeken tv-avonden elkaar in rap tempo opvolgen. Is de tv-apocalyps nabij? Is de gevreesde ondergang van het medium daar?

(C) RTLTina Nijkamp, 's lands beroemdste kijkcijferkenner, is zich vanochtend helemaal wild geschrokken. Ze schrijft al een tijdje over de neergang van de lineaire kijkcijfers, maar de traditionele televisie scoort momenteel wel h(C)(C)l slecht. De kijkdichtheid, het percentage Nederlanders van zes jaar en ouder dat tv kijkt, is de laatste avonden extreem laag.

Weer laagterecordAl op vrijdagavond was het volgens Tina kommer en kwel met slechts 15,8 procent van de Nederlanders die tv keek. De winnaar op prime time, Het Onbekende, wist 3 procent van de Nederlanders te bekoren. ''Niet eerder is er zo weinig tv gekeken'', schreef ze op haar analysekanaal. ''Het vorige laagterecord was op 27 mei (16,1 procent).

De kijkdichtheid is gisteren, op zaterdagavond, n"g verder gedaald naar slechts 13,9 procent. Dit heeft Tina echt nog nooit gezien. ''Zelfs het Journaal van acht uur komt nog nauwelijks boven de miljoen uit.''

'Alles flopt!'Echt lles flopt op zo'n avond, ziet Tina. NPO 1's Zing scoorde 584 duizend kijkers, RTL 4's Blow Up had er 359 duizend en SBS 6's Jachtseizoen kwam uit op 407 duizend. ''Wat een dramascores allemaal. Liggen deze lage cijfers nou alleen aan het warme weer of heeft het ook te maken met het aanbod? Ja dat ook.''

Ze vervolgt: ''Afgelopen week zagen we namelijk ook dat Nederland voor de wedstrijd Nederland '' Kroati w(C)l de tv aan wilde zetten: daar keken bijna 1,9 miljoen mensen naar. En gisteren zagen we dus dat een HERHALING van Ik Vertrek interessanter wordt gevonden dan bovenstaande nieuwe programma's.''

Nul kijkersHet is allemaal heel pijnlijk, vindt Tina. ''Naast het laagterecord kijkdichtheid was er ook een dieptepunt in de geschiedenis van NPO 3. Om 20.19 uur had de zender 0 kijkers.''

Zoveel mensen keken er op dat moment naar het goededoelenblokje Socutera. ''Niet eerder in onze tv-geschiedenis scoorde de NPO een kijkcijfer 0 op dat tijdstip. Treurig maar waar. En het is inderdaad geen gewoon programma maar een Socutera uitzending maar toch.''

KijkcijfersDe kijkcijfers van zaterdag 17 juni 2023 (SKO):

Top 15Marktaandelen (18-24u, 6+)01. Journaal 20:00 (NPO1) 1.070.00001. NPO1 / 23.5%02. Journaal 18:00 (NPO1) 707.00002. RTL4 / 13.2%03. Ik Vertrek (NPO1) 701.00003. SBS6 / 12.9%04. EenVandaag (NPO1) 610.00004. NPO2 / 7.9%05. Zing (NPO1) 584.00005. NPO3 / 4.3%06. Hart van Nederland (SBS6) 582.00006. RTL7 / 4.0%07. Half acht nieuws (RTL4) 501.00007. RTL8 / 2.9%08. Beste Kijkers (RTL4) 474.00008. RTL5 / 2.8%09. Shownieuws (SBS6) 465.00009. Vero / 2.6%10. Sportjournaal (NPO1) 454.00010. NET5 / 2.0%11. Studio Sport (NPO1) 411.00011. Ziggo / 1.9%12. Het Jachtseizoen (SBS6) 407.00012. BBC / 1.7%13. Blow Up (RTL4) 359.00013. TLC / 1.3%14. Maarten van der Weijden (NPO1) 338.00014. Paramount / 1.3%15. Wat een uitvinding (SBS6) 333.00015. Discov / 1.2%Marktaandelen per zendergroep (18-24u, 6+)Meer kijkcijfers bij:01. Publieke Omroep 35,7%02. RTL Nederland 23,9%03. Talpa TV 18,3%Programma's die de top 15 niet haalden zijn onder meer RTL Boulevard (326 duizend), Nieuwsuur (304 duizend), Ondersteboven van de Amerika's (263 duizend) en Pinkpop (196 duizend).

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 04:55

Excuse me?

Move over Ozempic face and finger '-- belches are the latest nasty side effect of the popular weight loss drug.

The topic ''Ozempic burp'' has drawn 1.2 billion views on TikTok as unsatisfied users spill their guts about ''sulfur burps'' smelling of rotten eggs.

After just three days on the medication, one TikToker noticed she was burping more, while a diabetic recently lamented her ''absolutely horrible'' burping.

They aren't alone. Even Twitter owner Elon Musk, who admitted to using Wegovy last year to shed 30 pounds, said his burps are ''next level.''

Ozempic users are now complaining of foul-smelling sulfur burps. Getty Images As the Ozempic craze endures, reports of odd side effects have emerged. Getty Images On TikTok, patients on Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy are disgusted by their excessive belching. Getty ImagesDrugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, meaning they mimic the action of the GLP-1 hormone that signals fullness.

The meds slow the digestive system, which leads to a build-up of air '-- eventually coming out as a belch, according to Health Digest.

The foul aroma could be caused by stress, acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome and even a bacterial infection. There are also food triggers, such as broccoli, cauliflower, dairy, garlic and beer.

In clinical trials for semaglutide, the active ingredient in drugs like Ozempic, nearly 9% of patients reported belching as a side effect of the medication, while 6% noted acid reflux.

Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation were more prominent side effects.

Dr. Laura Davisson, the director of medical weight management at West Virginia University Health Sciences, recently told The Atlantic that about one-fifth of her patients on a GLP-1 receptor agonist experience the dreaded sulfur burps, assuring that it often subsides after a few months.

''Sometimes it's a matter of trial and error,'' she said.

''Some tips that we give people are things like: Don't eat really heavy meals; don't eat large portions at once; don't eat right before bed.''

Clinicians warn not to eat big or heavy meals and to quit late-night snacking if taking these drugs. AFP via Getty ImagesOther practitioners recommend proton pump inhibitors, which reduce the amount of stomach acid.

The Post has reached out to Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic and Wegovy, for comment.

This isn't the only disagreeable side effect leaving users howling.

Diarrhea, constipation, nausea, face sagging, bizarre dreams and more have been attributed to the weight loss drug. Getty Images/iStockphotoOzempic patients have reported bizarre dreams and excessive bowel movements, announcing they are now part of an exclusive dieters' society: The ''s''t the bed club.''

And they aren't exaggerating '-- they are, quite literally, defecating while sleeping, describing their experiences in disturbing Reddit posts. Others claim the polar opposite, not being able to let loose at all.

In addition to the saggy face trend, another phenomenon has emerged: Ozempic fingers.

Women have been flocking to jewelers to re-size their wedding rings after dramatic weight loss has slimmed their digits.

''Usually the summer is a very quiet time for jewelers, but this year we are seeing a huge influx of jewelry repairs due to clients losing weight,'' Melanie Fitzpatrick, co-founder of the jeweler LeMel, told The Post.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 20:38

Senior Tory MP warns against driving Boris out of partyA thought experiment. Fast forward to roughly June 13 next year - as good a stab as any for a General Election date.

Yes, inflation has come down but on all the other four pledges Rishi has failed. Britain's economy is still flatlining, national debt is still rising, though not nearly as alarmingly as NHS waiting lists and an armada of small boats is still arriving daily. It's a 2/10 end-of-term report for Rishi, at best.

So the disaffected voter looks to Labour.

Sir Keir Starmer seems a nice enough bloke, though no one is quite sure what he stands for. He doesn't like non-doms like Mrs Sunak (was) that's for sure and seems to think the loose change ending that policy will generate will prop up a massive expansion of the NHS, and some vague idea of a green revolution which will super-charge the economy, in a way no one seems quite able to coherently explain.

DON'T MISS: Farage says he may be 'forced' to make political comeback to sort out Tory mess

Could the holy trinity be the saviours of British politics? (Image: Getty)

Still, they've got to be better than the last lot haven't they?

Welcome to British Politics 101, disheartened, disillusioned, disinterested.

Or.... imagine a third party entering stage right, a party jointly curated by Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Richard Tice.

A party utilising the political structure of Tice's Reform Party but with the added value of Brexit-champion Nigel Farage and the celebrity stardust of Boris Johnson.

It's hard to imagine a dream team more likely to entice the silent majority of traditional conservative voters to put their cross in a box is it not?

It would be the biggest shake-up in British politics for generations and might very well shift the tectonic plates beneath the British establishment forever.

The ongoing problem for challengers to the two-party hegemony is, of course, Britain's first past the post system and Tice has acknowledged many times the way that particular system rewards the two main parties at the expense of new, smaller, contenders.

And indeed a Reform Party without Farage and Johnson would, in truth, be lucky to end up with a handful of seats, however hard they campaigned.

But a Reform with Farage and Johnson, that would be a game-changer.

A voice very well placed in Reform told me a Boris, Farage, Tice tag team is absolutely not being ruled out.

But, and it's a big but, Boris would have to re-invent himself. He would have to accept he has made mistakes and he would have to realise he is no longer top dog.

He would also have to U-turn on his green policy and, while that is an issue close to his missus Carrie's heart, Boris Remain/Leave de Pfeffel Johnson is not exactly a stranger to a pragmatic U-turn when it's needed.

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The Reform source added: "The position is that we have significant differences with Boris on policy, in particular areas like immigration, we believe in stopping the boats, and we want to scrap net zero. But, let's face it, there is no one better than Boris when it comes to re-inventing themselves.

"Boris is never going to lead the Conservative Party again so he either leaves mainstream UK politics or he re-invents himself.

"And then you would be looking at the most extraordinary general election. All bets are off, the Conservatives could actually come third."

It's well-documented that Farage and Tice have been talking about a possible future and, while Boris has not had direct contact yet, "his people" have been in contact.

"People friendly to Boris are well aware that if he re-invents himself there is a way back into mainstream UK politics... and think of the number of supporters he would bring," I was told, "this would be so much bigger than any of the previous attempts to change the political landscape of Britain.

The reality is the country is in tatters and people want something different - but for anything to happen Boris would have to re-invent himself in certain critical areas."

But it seems Reform are very aware of Boris's bull-in-a-china-shop tendencies and that he would need disciplined management.

"Boris needs a big team around him - to constrain him. Nigel and Richard are people of serious principle and conviction and would do exactly that," I was told.

So, to get back to that thought experiment, imagine June 14 next year where Boris, Farage and Tice are helming a party holding the balance of power in Britain after the most exciting election contest in decades.

Where the Tories are the new Lib Dems and Sir Keir Starmer has to ask permission from a triumvirate of proper old-school centre-right politicians for permission to blow his nose.

Impossible? You've got three boxes - Starmer, Sunak and Boris/Farage/Tice - where would you put your cross?

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 20:35

Canada is under fire once again as host of the world's most permissive assisted suicide program, where millions of people now say the homeless and poor should be eligible for state-sanctioned deaths.

A survey released this month found that more than a quarter of Canadians say being impoverished or unhoused is a good enough reason for a doctor to inject somebody with a deadly cocktail of drugs.

Even larger numbers of respondents said assisted suicide '-- or Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), as it is known '-- should be available to those with disabilities, mental illnesses or who cannot receive medical treatment.

For some, the poll of 1,000 adults shows that Canada has careened into a euthanasia free-for-all since it legalized procedures in 2016. More than 10,000 people end their lives under the scheme each year.

'One third of Canadians are fine with prescribing assisted suicide for homelessness. Shameful,' Lord David Alton, a British peer, tweeted on Wednesday.

Should Canada's roughly 30,000 homeless people be eligible for lethal injections? Large numbers of people say they should. Pictured: unsheltered people in Vancouver

More than a quarter of Canadians now say that being poor or homeless may warrant a deadly cocktail of drugs

'Homeless people need a roof over their heads, not a lethal injection. End homelessness, not the lives of the homeless.'

The survey, by Canadian polling firm Research Co, found that 27 percent of respondents said MAID should be available to those in poverty, while 28 percent said the same for the country's roughly 30,000 homeless people.

Another 43 percent of Canadians say the mentally ill should be allowed to get a doctor's help ending their lives, and half the nation says those with disabilities should be eligible for MAID.

The survey also found broad support for the program overall '-- nearly three quarters of Canadians say the country has the right policies in place for letting people seek medical assistance in dying.

The survey comes as Canada's politicians weigh whether to expand its assisted suicide program to allow children and the mentally ill to end their lives.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, warns of a 'slippery slope'

Many Canadians support euthanasia and the campaign group, Dying With Dignity, says procedures are 'driven by compassion, an end to suffering and discrimination and desire for personal autonomy.'

But rights groups say the country's regulations lack necessary safeguards, devalue the lives of disabled people, and prompt doctors and health workers to suggest the procedure to those who might not otherwise consider it.

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said Canada has been on a dangerous 'slippery slope' to widespread assisted suicide since the law was introduced in 2016.

'We said we were going to have safeguards and guardrails, but the next government can simply open it up further by making a decision '-- and that's exactly what's happening,' Schadenberg told DailyMail.com.

Euthanasia is legal in seven countries '-- Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain '-- plus several states in Australia. It's only available to children in the Netherlands and Belgium.

There were more than 10,000 deaths by euthanasia in 2021, an increase of about a third from the previous year

It's not yet clear whether the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (center) will push for expanding access to assisted suicides

Euthanasia is legal in seven countries '-- Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain '-- plus several states in Australia

Other jurisdictions, including a growing number of US states, allow doctor-assisted suicide '-- in which patients take the drug themselves, typically crushing up and drinking a lethal dose of pills prescribed by a physician.

In Canada, both options are referred to as MAiD, though more than 99.9 percent of such procedures are carried out by a doctor. There were more than 10,000 such deaths in 2021, an increase of about a third from the previous year.

Canada's road to allowing euthanasia began in 2015, when its top court declared that outlawing assisted suicide deprived people of their dignity and autonomy. It gave national leaders a year to draft legislation.

The resulting 2016 law legalized both euthanasia and assisted suicide for people aged 18 and over, provided they met certain conditions: They had to have a serious, advanced condition, disease, or disability that was causing suffering and their death was looming.

The law was later amended to allow people who are not terminally ill to choose death, significantly broadening the number of eligible people.

Critics say that change removed a key safeguard aimed at protecting people with potentially decades of life left.

Today, any adult with a serious illness, disease, or disability can seek help in dying.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 20:31

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A former Downing Street official who worked throughout the Covid crisis has revealed the true scale of the drunken debauchery under Boris Johnson '' with No 10 parties so wild that staff passed out on the stairway.

Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the whistleblower said the details in the Partygate report were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the raucous drinking culture and blatant rule-breaking throughout the pandemic.

They revealed that Mr Johnson was ''happy'' to have his staff drinking and oversaw a culture of endemic rule-breaking so widespread that it put No 10 at odds with the rest of the country.

The No 10 insider's new revelations add to the damning evidence in the privileges committee's scathing report into Mr Johnson '' found to have deliberately and repeatedly lied to parliament about Partygate.

The source spoke of their embarrassment at being part of a charade orchestrated to pretend staff were following rules while a grubby reality played out behind closed doors. It came as the insider revealed:

Boris Johnson was aware of regular drinks parties during lockdownThe former PM oversaw a ''toxic masculine culture'' at Downing StreetNo 10 staff were ill ''all of the time'' but were told ''no point'' wearing masksStaff travelling with Johnson and Priti Patel were told to put on masks while going through train stations in case of cameras''Panicking'' staff started shredding material and deleting pictures after initial Partygate storiesThe No 10 insider made clear the culture of non-compliance with Covid rules despite the draconian restrictions placed on the rest of the country.

Social distancing and mask-wearing were not enforced and regular parties '' including birthday bashes and ''wine-time Fridays'' '' continued during lockdown.

The former official said Mr Johnson was ''happy for people to be drinking'' even though he mostly drank water himself. ''He wanted to be part of the party '... The idea he saw nothing is total nonsense '' there is no way he didn't know they were going on.''

''There were so many parties,'' said the ex-official. ''Senior staff often stayed all night, sleeping under desks. One colleague was so drunk he was found passed out on the stairs.''

Boris Johnson celebrating his birthday at No 10 in June 2020

(PA Media)

The former official said the ''utterly ridiculous'' culture at No 10 meant it was ''widely accepted that we were all breaking the rules'', adding: ''When Sky News were live outside we all had to pretend we were adhering to the rules, it was pure theatrics.''

A July 2020 train journey to and from North Yorkshire, during which Mr Johnson and then home secretary Ms Patel where photographed wearing masks, saw staff told only to bother with masks when cameras were present, they claimed.

''Boris and Priti were on a train up north and we were all crammed into a VIP section of a train. Every time we were going through a station we'd all be ordered to put our masks on in case there were cameras on the platform,'' the former official said.

''Another particularly ridiculous moment was when Boris announced the lockdown. There he was on camera telling the nation to isolate, then as soon as they stopped filming, he and about five others crowded round a tiny screen to watch himself back '' it was ridiculous. Days later he had Covid.''

The whistleblower also revealed that there was a ''panic to get rid of evidence'' when the first Partygate stories broke at the end of 2021. ''People started shredding things and deleting pictures.''

''[Then No 10 communications director] Jack Doyle had handed out a load of awards at these parties and people had them hung up on the walls, but people ended up shredding them because they were evidence a gathering had happened.''

Boris Johnson and Priti Patel on journey from North Yorkshire to London in July 2020

(Andrew Parsons / No10 Downing St)

The whistleblower said they remain ''angry'' at the rule-breaking culture. ''We were all ill, all of the time, I had multiple chest infections and Covid twice. I asked a senior colleague why we weren't wearing masks inside early on, and she said, 'There's no point, I've seen the science.'

''Police were hunting people down using drones to catch them out walking with friends having a coffee, people were separated at funerals, I saw footage of people's goodbye messages from hospital '' all following rules set in this building. It was embarrassing.''

Becky Kummer, a spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, who lost her 77-year-old father at the height of the pandemic, said the latest claims showed that the crisis was treated as ''a good excuse for a knees-up'' at No 10.

''Families like mine did everything we could to stick to the rules and protect others,'' she told The Independent. ''It's an utter tragedy that Johnson was in charge when the pandemic struck and he should never be allowed to stand for any form of public office again.''

The whistleblower said many No 10 employees enjoyed a ''sudden rush of power'' when Mr Johnson arrived in June 2019, which got worse over time. ''Staff became arrogant, untouchable and weren't afraid of exercising that feeling.''

The ex-official also condemned the ''toxic masculine culture'', saying Mr Johnson ''respected and listened to men more than women''.

Boris Johnson near his home in Oxfordshire this week

(Reuters)

It comes as a Tory MPs were urged to ignore threats of deselection by Nadine Dorries and back the privileges committee report at a crunch vote in the Commons on Monday. No 10 refused to say whether Rishi Sunak would turn up to vote.

Senior Tory Damian Green, leader of the One Nation group, warned colleagues who are considering keeping clear that abstaining is ''not really rising to the importance of the occasion''.

However, Mr Sunak may be spared embarrassment after Mr Johnson told his supporters not to oppose the report in the Commons and enflame the row.

Sir Jake Berry, a friend of Mr Johnson, said it was an ''absolute disgrace'' that the privileges committee had warned MPs who criticised its work that it will produce a ''special report'' '' accusing the panel of trying to ''gag MPs''.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson has been revealed as the ''erudite'' new Saturday columnist at the Daily Mail, offering a veiled warning to Mr Sunak that he ''may have to cover politics from time to time''.

But the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) '' the body which rules on what jobs former ministers can take after office '' said it was a ''clear breach'' for Mr Johnson to have applied for approval only 30 minutes before announcing the Mail column in a video.

The ex-Tory leader is also said to be weighing up an audacious independent bid to become London mayor for a second time after his dramatic fall from grace in the party.

The Financial Times reported that Mr Johnson was considering whether to take on Sadiq Khan in May 2024. Guto Harri, who served as a key aide to Mr Johnson during his last stint at City Hall, told The Independent it would be a ''great idea''.

The Independent has approached Mr Johnson's spokesperson for comment on the new Partygate claims, as well as Ms Patel and Mr Doyle. No 10 declined to comment.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 20:20

Before last Wednesday, Lizzie Stoldt, a 27-year-old Manhattan publicist, had barely given a thought to New York City's air quality.

''I had heart surgery when I was younger, and even I had no idea air quality was something I should be concerned with,'' she said.

But as the skies turned smoky over the Big Apple last week, she started closely monitoring the AQI '-- air quality index '-- on her iPhone.

She was shocked when it went over 200 and eventually went past 400. (The Environmental Protection Agency defines a healthy range as 0 to 50 and moderate as 51-100.)

''I felt like I smoked an entire pack of cigarettes, and it was validating to see the numbers,'' she said. ''I was like, ''It's not just me. The air is just really really bad.'''

In recent days, skies have been blue and the AQI has been in the good or moderate range. But, experts warn that the wildfire smoke could return this weekend.

New Yorkers were alarmed by the orange skies that overtook the city last week, as wildfires raged hundreds of miles away in Canada. Brian Zak/NY Post A New Yorker covers their mouth while standing outside on June 7, 2023. Ron Adar / M10s / SplashNews.comStoldt isn't going to be caught off guard this time. She's been carefully monitoring the air quality daily.

''It's just been built into the routine now. Open the weather app, check the temperature, check the air quality,'' she said. ''I can pull out my mask now if I need to '... If it happens during the week I will use it as an excuse to work from home instead of walking through the smoke to get to work.''

New Yorkers are suddenly keenly aware of something those in the West have been aware of for years '-- air quality and how it can be suddenly and drastically affected by far-off wildfires.

Vigilant Gothamites are now monitoring the AQI as carefully as they do the chance of rain on a summer Saturday.

AirNow, an app run by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, gained 7.8 million new users last week '-- 1.7 million of them were from New York City, according to a report.

AirNow, an app run by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, gained 7.8 million new users last week '-- 1.7 million of them were from New York City, according to a report.''I'm up checking air quality like a maniac,'' tweeted social media user @stephginette from Brooklyn, at 5 a.m.

''Now, every time I smell a barbecue outside, I'm checking my phone for air quality,'' admitted another, Mike Faraca, who lives in New Jersey.

Will Gregory, 33, who works in tech and lives in the West Village, got a gadget from IKEA that monitors temperature, humidity and air quality in his home.

He's been fascinated by watching the numbers fluctuate, he told The Post.

''The highest it got last week on Wednesday was 195, but that was nothing compared to me cooking yesterday,'' Gregory said, surprised. ''I put some oil in a pan and got distracted. It burned and the numbers went up to 655.''

He's watching the numbers going into the weekend.

Will Gregory checks up on the AQI in his West Village apartment. Daniel William McKnight for N.Y. Post''If it keeps getting bad inside I will have to buy an air purifier,'' he said.

During ''normal'' days, when smokey skies don't make the news, he is hesitant to tell people, especially strangers he meets at the bar, that he is tracking the air pollution in his apartment.

''It's not really a topic that comes up naturally,'' he said.

But, for anyone that asks '-- he's got the information at the ready.

''Having the data is cool,'' he said.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 20:12

Very high pollen levels and hot weather are conspiring to bring discomfort to hay fever sufferers across the country, with the Met Office saying climate change could make pollen seasons longer and more extreme.

Weekly visitors to the site's hay fever advice pages have tripled in the past five weeks, according to NHS England, with 27,834 visits in 24 hours on Sunday '' one every three seconds. On Friday, the Met Office put 12 areas of the UK, covering England, Wales and most of Scotland, on red alert for ''very high'' pollen levels.

''We are seeing lots of high count days because the weather is very suitable for pollen emission from grasses,'' said Dr Beverley Adams-Groom, a senior palynologist at the University of Worcester, who leads the UK's pollen forecasting programme in association with the Met Office.

Adams-Groom said pollen counts this year were roughly average, but added: ''The problem for hay fever sufferers is not so much the size of the pollen count, since any amount over 50 pollen grains per cubic metre of air is problematic for the majority, it is more the perpetual onslaught of high days, due to the almost continuous good weather in many regions since the season began in late May/early June.''

If the hot weather continues into next week, the grasses will become exhausted more quickly, offering some respite to those with hay fever, she said. ''Already, I am seeing some evidence that this is happening, with grasses going over very quickly.''

Typically, the season for grass pollen, which causes most allergies, lasts from mid-May until July, while the weed pollen season generally covers the end of June to September. The Met Office pollen forecast show that some areas are getting a double hit.

Hay fever symptoms include sneezing, coughing, a runny or blocked nose, as well as red, itchy or watery eyes. Sufferers can also experience headaches, earache or lose their sense of smell.

Scientists predict that as global heating causes a higher frequency of hotter, drier summers and warmer wetter winters in the UK, the seasonal pollen pattern could change. ''There's a growing scientific consensus that climate change will impact the pollen season in the UK. It could result in longer pollen seasons,'' said a Met Office spokesperson.

Urban areas tend to have lower pollen counts than the countryside, but research has also shown that people in urban areas experience more severe symptoms because pollution can exacerbate the body's reaction.

Graph of visits to NHS hay fever web pageProf Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester who carried out the research, said: ''Pollution can damage the protective barriers in our nose and respiratory tracts so we're more likely to get things in, we're seeing that pollution can have an effect on immune sensing '... and it can narrow airways and make it difficult to breathe.

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''We are seeing more and more people developing hay fever. It has been increasing year on year and in the hospitalisation data, you can see that trend too. More of us are being very ill with it.''

Margaret Kelman, the acting head of clinical services at Allergy UK, said one in four adults in the UK were affected by hay fever and that the number had been increasing sharply. ''The number of people affected by hay fever has trebled in the last 30 years.''

The increase is partly due to better diagnosis, but is likely to also be climate-related. ''The weather affects hay fever exposure and symptoms because pollen counts are higher on dry, warm days with low humidity and a gentle breeze to help disperse the fine pollen granules into the air and keep the pollen grains circulating'' said Kelman.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 20:11

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 17:07

An editor at Radio New Zealand has been suspended and is under investigation for the time-honored practices of providing balanced and factual reporting, writes Tony Kevin.

Violent Maidan coup in Ukraine, 2014. (Wikipedia)

By Tony Kevin in Canberra Special to Consortium News

O n Friday The Guardian Australia website carried a news report, with a follow-up piece on Monday, whose implications for free speech are profoundly disturbing.

They concern a Radio New Zealand, or RNZ, broadcasting employee '-- unnamed, but everyone in the small New Zealand broadcasting world will soon know who it is '-- who has been placed on leave while their professional conduct is investigated. Obviously, a career hangs in the balance.

The malign ghosts of Orwell's 1984 stalk this story.

'Russian Garbage'

This unnamed person in RNZ committed the cardinal sin of ''inappropriate editing'' of incoming Reuters news feeds on the war in Ukraine to insert ''Russian garbage'' in the contemptuous words of Paul Thompson, chief executive of RNZ. That is to say, they drew on Russian news sources to insert balancing pro-Russian material to the incoming Western news agency feeds.

The Guardian tells us that in fact accurate information about Ukraine was added to the Reuters copy:

''The articles in question made a range of amendments: adding the word 'coup' to describe the Maidan revolution; changing a description of Ukraine's former 'pro-Russian president' to read 'pro-Russian elected government'; adding references to a 'pro-western government' that had 'suppressed ethnic Russians'; and on several occasions adding references to Russian concerns about 'neo-Nazi elements' in Ukraine.''

And more truth was added to the story, The Guardian says:

''In one article, a paragraph was added reading: 'The Kremlin also said its invasion was sparked by a failure to implement the Minsk agreement peace accords, designed to give Russia speakers autonomy and protection, and the rise of a neo-Nazi element in Ukraine since a coup ousted a Russian-friendly Ukrainian government in 2014.'

Another added that Russia launched its invasion 'claiming that a US-backed coup in 2014 with the help of neo-Nazis had created a threat to its borders and had ignited a civil war that saw Russian-speaking minorities persecuted.'''

This, it seems, is an offence not to be countenanced any longer in New Zealand. ''An RNZ spokesperson, John Barr, said in a statement after the first article came to public attention that 'RNZ is taking the issue extremely seriously and is investigating how the situation arose,''' the newspaper wrote.

The Guardian, in its effort to ''correct'' the story, says: ''Ukraine says these claims are discredited Kremlin propaganda '... The anti-corruption movement was peaceful and had widespread public support. Yanukovych fled to Russia months later after his security forces shot dead more than 100 unarmed protesters.''

[Consortium News has published numerous stories laying out the facts of the events of 2014, including these two exhaustively corroborated accounts: On the Influence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine and Evidence of US-Backed Coup in Kiev]

'Gutted'

The RNZ executive Thompson was ''gutted'' to learn what has been going on under his watch. We read that 250 past published articles have been gone through ''with a finetooth comb'' to investigate and counter such offensive inserted material, and thousands more are being reviewed.

Sixteen such offending articles have been found and warning commentaries added to them. Investigations continue while the staffer remains indefinitely suspended. The responsible minister is being briefed. Clearly these editors have not delved very deeply into the Ukraine story.

Luke Harding's Involvement

Both Guardian articles carry a tagline that says ''Additional reporting by Luke Harding.'' This should be a key warning to everyone in New Zealand's and Australia's broadcasting world, indeed in the entire English-speaking world.

Luke Harding at the Nordic Media Festival, 2018. (Thor Br¸dreskift / Nordiske Mediedager/ Wikimedia Commons)

Harding carries a formidable reputation as an inveterate anti-Russian British journalist with alleged strong links to the U.K. anti-Russian disinformation system and even to MI6, the U.K.'s secret intelligence service.

He was heavily involved in the Julian Assange affair and in the now discredited campaign to label former U.S. President Donald Trump as under Russian control. He is known as a leading Western disinformation warrior.

[Related: ASSANGE EXTRADITION: US Using The Guardian to Justify Jailing Assange for Life as the Paper Remains Silent

[Related : RUSSIAGATE: Luke Harding's Hard Sell]

Normal Editorial Practice

Australian Broadcasting Company journalists edit incoming feeds from Reuters and other wire services all the time. They add context, link to previous stories, add Australian-relevant material.

The problem is, this person in RNZ was adding such context from the ''wrong 'side.'''

The ABC has long been exposed as an obedient servant of the U.S.-dominated Five Eyes intelligence network and runs along approved anti-Russian and anti-Chinese editorial lines. RNZ, by contrast, is still widely respected in New Zealand. But it committed the sin of allowing counter-perspectives to be heard on the responsibility for the present tragic war in Ukraine.

Rendering of the ''Five Eyes'' intelligence network that includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S. (@GDJ, Openclipart)

Read the two Guardian articles to see what exactly Harding in London and his colleagues in U.K. disinformation appear to be objecting to. It sends a strong message across the Tasman Sea, from New Zealand to the Australian media world: We watch every word you say and every word you write.

Cancelled for the Same Thought Crimes

The examples of journalistic misconduct identified in the two articles match exactly research and opinions on the historical context and causes of the war in Ukraine and mounting Russia-West tensions that I have been trying to express publicly in Australia as an expert former senior diplomat since publication of my book Return to Moscow in 2017.

As a result I have been cancelled, unpersoned, silenced '-- dropped down the Australia Broadcasting Company memory hole, never to be allowed on its airwaves again.

[Related: Caitlin Johnstone: 60 Minutes Australia Churning Out War-with-China Propaganda]

An innocuous interview I conducted from Moscow with Paul Barclay for the respected ABC program ''Big Ideas'' in February 2022 was ''disarchived'' '-- yes, you read it right '-- a few weeks later, under pressure from unidentified critics.

Ukraine is Losing

The war in Ukraine now winds steadily towards its inevitable pro-Russian denouement. Russia clearly has the military edge and this will not change now. Billions of dollars' worth of supplied U.S./NATO equipment continues to be destroyed in combat.

In suicidal offensives ordered by the doomed Zelensky regime in Kiev, an estimated half a million Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or crippled since February 2022. [Exact casualty figures are very hard to come by]. Many more proxy warriors will die in coming weeks as this brutal war of attrition demanded by the U.S. and NATO continues to destroy what is left of poor Ukraine.

Australians and New Zealanders with na¯ve faith in the professional integrity of their national broadcasters will continue to be insulated from these tragic truths.

Fortunately, for those who dare to read them, there are now plenty of accessible reliable sources of alternative perspectives on Russia-West relations and the pivotal importance of the war in Ukraine in transforming the world. This world now looks very different from outside the Western laager. We are in the midst of huge global changes.

But, thanks to the likes of Harding and his Anglo-American friends, we won't find such information anywhere on the ABC or RNZ. We Antipodeans in the colonies will be the last to know.

Tony Kevin is a former Australian senior diplomat, having served as ambassador to Cambodia and Poland, as well as being posted to Australia's embassy in Moscow. He is the author of six published books on public policy and international relations.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 17:00

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccination dose, during a free distribution of COVID-19 rapid test kits for those who received vaccination shots or booster shots, at Union Station on January 7, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's independent panel of advisors raised doubts about the need to "periodically" update Covid vaccines, noting that it's unclear if the virus is seasonal like the flu.

Advisors on Thursday unanimously voted that new jabs for the fall should be monovalent '-- meaning they are designed against one variant of Covid '-- and target one of the omicron XBB strains. Those are now the dominant variants nationwide.

But the original voting question included language about whether the panel recommends a "periodic update" to Covid shots.

Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA's vaccine division, asked the panel's chair to strike the wording from the question after several advisors raised concerns.

"As worded, it seems to be saying, do we agree that there's gonna be a regular need to update? And I don't think that's clear," said Dr. Arthur Reingold, professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley.

The panel's concerns indicate there is still uncertainty around what the Covid pandemic will look like in the years ahead, even as cases and deaths decline nationwide.

The worries are also the latest pushback against the FDA's proposed shift to annual Covid shots earlier this year '' a simplified approach to vaccination that would involve yearly updates to the jabs. That's similar to how the U.S. rolls out new flu vaccines every fall and winter, which is the season when cases flourish.

But several advisors cautioned against calling Covid seasonal like the flu.

"It's not clear to me that this is a seasonal virus yet," said Henry Bernstein, a pediatrician at Cohen Children's Medical Center.

Dr. Mark Sawyer, professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, added that describing Covid as "seasonal" could ultimately confuse the public about "when and where they should get vaccinated, and how frequently."

"I'll join the choir here. I think using the word season is equally problematic," said. Dr. Sawyer. "It links the campaign to the influenza vaccine. I understand that it may be convenient and most efficient to give the vaccines together, but it's only been a few years and we really don't know what the Covid season is."

Unlike the flu, Covid's spread has often been erratic. The virus constantly mutates into new variants and has yet to settle into a predictable seasonal pattern.

In response to the advisors, FDA's Marks emphasized that Covid shots will likely require another update "at some point."

"This is not going to be the final formulation for this vaccine forevermore," he said.

A pharmacist prepares to administer COVID-19 vaccine booster shots during an event hosted by the Chicago Department of Public Health at the Southwest Senior Center on September 09, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott Olson | Getty Images

Shifting to an annually updated Covid vaccine is backed by former White House health officials Dr. Ashish Jha and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who believe the country can benefit from adopting a similar approach to the flu shot.

Each year, researchers assess strains of the flu in circulation and estimate which will be the most prevalent during the fall and winter before updating jabs.

"People go and get their annual flu vaccine, if they see this as a routine part of care. I don't '-- every time I get a flu vaccine, I don't think, is this my 28th flu shot or 29th flu '-- I just think, it's my annual flu shot," Jha said Wednesday in an interview on PBS News Hour.

"For most people, if they think of it as their annual COVID vaccine, they get it when they get their flu shot, I think it'll make it an important difference," he continued.

Recent polling suggests the public is open to the idea.

More than half of about 1,200 U.S. adult respondents said they would likely get an annual Covid vaccine if it were offered similar to a yearly flu shot, according to an April survey by health policy organization KFF. That includes 32% who would be "very likely" to do so.

It's unclear how many Americans will roll up their sleeves to get updated shots this fall and winter.

The uptake of the most recent bivalent boosters '-- which target the original Covid strain and omicron BA.4 and BA.5 '-- has been sluggish.

Only about 17% of the U.S. population '-- roughly 56 million people '--have received Pfizer and Moderna's boosters since they were approved in September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Leading Covid shot manufacturer Pfizer told CNBC last month that an annual Covid schedule could encourage more people to vaccinate each year.

The shift could help people view Covid shots as just another "very natural part" of protecting their health, said Dr. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer's chief scientific officer.

Pfizer is already preparing to shift to an annual schedule by developing "next-generation" versions of its shot, which aim to broaden and extend the protection people get from the virus to a full year.

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A small group of conservative doctors has sought to shape the nation's most contentious policies on abortion and transgender rights by promoting views rejected by the medical establishment as scientific fact, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post that describe the group's internal strategies.

The records show that after long struggling to attract members, the American College of Pediatricians gained outsize political influence in recent years, primarily by using conservative media as a megaphone in its quest to position the group as a reputable source of information.

The organization has successfully lobbied since 2021 for laws in more than a half-dozen states that ban gender-affirming care for transgender youths, with its representatives testifying before state legislatures against the guidelines recommended by mainstream medical groups, according to its records. It gained further national prominence this year as one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit to limit access to mifepristone, a key abortion drug.

With Roe v. Wade overturned, the legality of abortion has been left to the states. Some worry that access to certain types of contraception could be next. (Video: Julie Yoon, Hadley Green, Sarah Hashemi/The Washington Post)

Despite efforts to invoke the credibility of the medical profession, the American College of Pediatricians is viewed with skepticism by the medical establishment. For years, the group has presented statistics and talking points to state legislators, public school officials and the American public as settled science while internal documents emphasize how religion and morality influence its positions. Meeting minutes from 2021 describe how the organization worked with religious groups to ''affect the idea makers through the high courts, professional literature, and legislatures.''

It promotes conversion therapy, a discredited practice intended to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people that most medical societies warn can result in harm. Pediatric experts deemed a June 2022 report crafted by the group that undergirds a new Florida policy banning transgender care for Medicaid recipients as ''unscientific.'' Francis Collins, former longtime director of the National Institutes of Health, accused the group in 2010 of distorting his research to ''make a point against homosexuality.''

Jill Simons, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, disputed criticism that her organization promotes policies that do not follow science. ''Our recommendations are based on the medical research and what is best for children,'' she said.

Her organization exists to represent ''all the good pediatricians out there who agree with us who maybe are afraid to step forward,'' Simons, a Minneapolis pediatrician, said in an interview with The Post. ''Very smart people in the field of medicine have disagreed with a lot of the so-called consensus that is out there.''

Sam Wineburg, a Stanford University psychologist who studies online disinformation, highlights the American College of Pediatricians in his research as an example of a group that uses its name and scientific jargon to convey authority.

''It looks like an official medical organization, and you're easily duped into thinking that this is the umbrella organization for pediatricians in the United States,'' Wineburg said, noting the group has ''all of the superficial bells and whistles of credibility.''

The records of the American College of Pediatricians '-- a cache of more than 10,000 confidential files including strategic plans, meeting minutes, membership rosters, financial statements and email exchanges spanning at least 15 years '-- were exposed after the organization left the contents of its Google Drive publicly accessible, according to two people who individually accessed the material following the inadvertent breach and shared copies with The Post. The Post examined the documents' metadata, including the dates of each file's creation and modification, to determine that they have not been recently manipulated. The document breach was first reported by Wired.

Simons characterized the exposure as a ''malicious cyberattack and hate crime'' that was ''intended to intimidate and incapacitate.'' She would not comment on the contents of the documents.

''Those who are against us know that they can't beat us in debate about the facts of science or the research,'' Simons said. ''This deliberate attack on us shows that the American College of Pediatricians is having a huge impact, and that they're afraid of us.''

The organization's quest to ban the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors has culminated in a string of recent legislative wins following lobbying in at least eight states, internal documents show.

Arkansas first enacted such a law in 2021, after Michelle Cretella, then executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, described such care as ''experimental and dangerous'' to legislators. A federal appeals court temporarily blocked it.

Versions of the law have since passed at least 20 other state legislatures, including Florida, Idaho, Indiana, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri, Montana, Texas, North Dakota and Louisiana this spring alone; some face court challenges and one was vetoed by a governor. Similar bills are making their way through legislatures in North Carolina and Ohio.

At the federal level, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), an OB/GYN, recently reintroduced legislation endorsed by the American College of Pediatricians that would prevent doctors from performing ''gender transition procedures'' on minors and bar federal funds from being used for such procedures. Marshall's spokesperson said he is not a member of the group.

The American College of Pediatricians formed in 2002 after dozens of conservative doctors split from the nation's leading interest group of pediatricians, the 67,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics, over the academy's support for same-sex parenting. The academy had determined from its review of scientific literature that children with same-sex parents fare as well as those with heterosexual parents in emotional, cognitive, social and sexual functioning.

Joseph Zanga, founder of the American College of Pediatricians, who had led the American Academy of Pediatrics in the late 1990s, described the splinter organization as ''a Judeo-Christian, traditional-values organization'' in a 2003 interview with the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, which promoted conversion therapy. His organization's core beliefs are ''that life begins at conception, and that the traditional family unit, headed by an opposite-sex couple, poses far fewer risk factors in the adoption and raising of children,'' he said at the time. Zanga declined a Post request for an interview.

Internal records from 2010 show how the group tied homosexuality to health risks '-- even death '-- in a letter campaign to educators, citing a 1991 study to demonstrate that for each year adolescents delay ''self-labeling as 'gay','' the risk of suicide decreases by 20 percent.

According to more recent research, suicide risk rises with therapy directed at changing sexual orientation. Lesbian, gay and bisexual people who experienced conversion therapy were almost twice as likely to think about suicide and to attempt suicide compared with peers who had not experienced conversion therapy, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

The 2010 letter from the American College of Pediatricians to 14,800 public school superintendents urged school officials not to affirm any student expressing homosexuality. It directed them to a website operated by the group that pushed ''sexual reorientation therapy'' for those with ''unwanted homosexual attractions.''

Collins, the former NIH director who led the international Human Genome Project, said in a written statement at the time that the American College of Pediatricians pulled language out of context from his 2006 book to ''support an ideology that can cause unnecessary anguish and encourage prejudice.'' The group's characterization of homosexuality in its letter to superintendents is ''misleading and incorrect, and it is particularly troubling that they are distributing it in a way that will confuse school children and their parents,'' Collins said.

In recent years, the group has trained its focus on transgender care.

Records show the American College of Pediatricians launched a campaign against a St. Louis-based Catholic health system's transgender care policy in 2017 after SSM Health outlined guidance that included hormone therapy and potential referrals for ''gender assignment surgery.''

Cretella, then president of the American College of Pediatricians, urged the archbishop of St. Louis at the time, Robert Carlson, to issue a statement ''that will denounce SSM Health's embrace of transgender ideology over science and sound medical ethics, and demand that they rescind this policy,'' according to a Feb. 8, 2017, letter.

Carlson, in his March 31, 2017, response, informed Cretella that he had contacted other bishops who had SSM hospitals in their diocese or archdiocese. Carlson also included a copy of a letter to SSM Health requesting the system cease the implementation of the transgender treatment policy within the next 30 days and revise it in accordance with Catholic moral theology.

SSM Health, which operates hospitals in Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, told The Post it changed its transgender care policy in 2018 to comply with Catholic directives, but it would not say how the policy changed.

Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute, a D.C.-based research, policy and advocacy center focused on LGBTQ health, accused the American College of Pediatricians of ''intentionally and aggressively laundering pseudoscience through this veneer of respectability.''

''At first blush without knowing what's actually behind it, you would think it is a pediatric medical professional organization,'' Baker said. ''It's not. It's a tiny group of fringe conservatives who didn't like the fact that the field was leaving them behind.''

The group serves as a ''vital counterweight'' to the ''ideological capture'' facing medical societies, said Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank that he said relies on the American College of Pediatricians for scientific expertise.

''They have had the courage to take stands in court and to speak as medical professionals in relating their experience when it comes to questions of human dignity in unborn life, freedom of conscience, and the protection of children,'' Severino said.

But Mark Del Monte, chief executive of the American Academy of Pediatrics, noted the vast differences in membership size and policies between his more established, widely respected organization and the similarly named American College of Pediatricians.

''To the extent that people would be confused about who was presenting evidence-based science, that is a concern for us,'' Del Monte said. ''Every policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics represents a rigorous review of the available scientific evidence and an extensive writing process that includes extensive peer review '-- and a unanimous vote by the board.''

The academy, which said more than 95 percent of its members are physicians, has pointed to ''strong consensus among the most prominent medical organizations worldwide that evidence-based, gender-affirming care for transgender children and adolescents is medically necessary and appropriate.''

Records from early 2022 show membership of the American College of Pediatricians at about 700 people '-- just over 60 percent of whom self-identified as possessing medical degrees, including some holding prominent positions as hospital chiefs and a state health commissioner. The group, citing privacy, would not comment on the size or makeup of its membership.

Documents show the American College of Pediatricians worrying about its finances and trying to expand its reach in recent years. The group, supported by membership fees and donors, reported $123,131 in available funds as of January 2022, according to its financial spreadsheets.

The organization sent 15,000 mailers to ''conservative'' physicians between 2018 and 2019, according to postal receipts and spreadsheets of names and addresses. One 2018 planning document instructed the group to ''TARGET CHRISTIAN MDs'' in red letters as well as recruit pediatricians in ''red states.'' It also suggested contacting academics who have doctorates in sociology, epidemiology and bioethics.

Among the most prominent names listed on its internal membership records: John Hellerstedt, the Texas health commissioner from 2016 until 2022. Hellerstedt, in two phone conversations, declined to be interviewed.

Other members run departments at major hospitals in Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, as well as a school health service in California, according to a Post analysis of the group's membership list.

While agendas show the group opened and closed its meetings with prayer, Simons said, ''We're not a religious organization. Many of our members are people of faith.''

The group found an eager audience through conservative media, including the Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham shows on Fox News, the documents detail. Since 2016, the American College of Pediatricians has been mentioned in more than 200 articles published by conservative news sites such as Breitbart, Daily Wire, the Epoch Times, the Washington Examiner, the Blaze and the Gateway Pundit, according to a Post analysis. Its profile has continued to rise. The volume of articles mentioning the group during the first four months of 2023 was five times that of the same period in 2020, according to GDELT's online news database.

''They're part of a coordinated, politically motivated anti-science ecosystem,'' said Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor College of Medicine's National School of Tropical Medicine and an expert in misinformation.

Cretella, whose Rhode Island medical license expired in 2020, according to state medical board records, equated transgender care to child abuse during an appearance on Carlson's show in July 2017. Neither Cretella nor the American College of Pediatricians responded to questions about the circumstances leading to the expiration of her medical license.

A senior booker on Carlson's show contacted Cretella and other doctors affiliated with the group in August 2017 to respond to a Denver Post story about a transgender professional cyclist, according to emails in the documents. ''How would a male who is now a female not be at an advantage?'' the booker wrote.

''Scientifically speaking, all we can say is that a man dressed in chemical drag is still a man who should not be allowed to compete in women sports,'' replied Cretella, who was unable to appear on the show that night.

She suggested the booker contact another member, Paul Hruz, a pediatrics professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who voiced concern about children seeking hormone therapy during his appearance on the show. In a 2022 opinion on a North Carolina lawsuit over state coverage of gender-affirming care, a U.S. district judge excluded some of Hruz's testimony on transgender care after deeming it ''unreliable'' and lacking scientific basis. After initially agreeing to an interview, Hruz did not respond to subsequent outreach from The Post.

Despite its prominence in conservative circles, the group was concerned it had an image problem, documents show. The Southern Poverty Law Center had designated the American College of Pediatricians as a ''hate group'' in 2012 for its anti-LGBTQ positions '-- a label that Amazon said prevented the American College of Pediatricians from receiving donations through the company's now-defunct charity program, AmazonSmile. The group complained to Amazon, calling its policy unfair, according to emails to the company between 2014 and 2017. The company denied the group's appeals, writing ''that decision is final'' in its September 2017 response. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Post.)

Slides for a 2018 American College of Pediatricians board meeting focused on recruiting featured an image of Ku Klux Klan members titled ''Perception'' as well as an image of Justice League superheroes titled ''What Our Friends Think of Us,'' illustrating how drastically opinion about the group varied, with some viewing them as villains and others as heroes.

Since 2006, the group has partnered with other conservative organizations to file amicus briefs across at least 30 high-profile cases pertaining to same-sex marriage, gay parental rights, abortion and, in later years, transgender issues, according to a 2021 ''funding request prospectus.'' The group had also submitted an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade last year, emphasizing the group's belief in the ''sanctity of human life.''

The recent release of internal documents has only amplified its cause, said Simons, the group's executive director. The group is now fundraising for ''cyberattack recovery efforts.''

''There's a silent majority out there that stands with us,'' she said. ''This act has awoken a sleeping giant.''

The Heritage Foundation sent out a fundraising appeal on behalf of the American College of Pediatricians following the exposure of its internal documents: ''It's more important than ever for us to stand together '-- and support our pro-life, pro-American ally, American College of Pediatricians.''

Kevin Crowe contributed to this report.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 16:18

It was in spring 2017 that Jennifer Pahlka, then a member of the Pentagon's new Defense Innovation Board, found herself in a darkened U.S. military base watching a young analyst study aerial footage of a suspicious car. Well, the analyst was trying to parse the images: The Pentagon was relying on clunky, outdated software to highlight the vehicle's path with a bounding red box that never seemed to keep up with the video. ''I worked in the videogame industry in the '90s,'' Pahlka recalled to me recently, ''and the graphics were better.''

Over nearly 15 years of dealing with the government, Pahlka has encountered many such moments, when critical U.S. institutions were using technology that fell woefully short of the country's ambitions. It's why she's devoted her career to coaxing Washington toward greater digitization: as a deputy chief technology officer during the Obama administration and as the founder of Code for America, a San Francisco''based nonprofit that gathers technologists to advise local governments. The stakes are usually lower than wartime maneuvers, but she believes that antiquated government IT is far costlier than lawmakers, or the American public, fully realizes.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 14:54

The shock redundancy of Andrew Probyn has put a spotlight on the quiet revolution under way at the ABC to move away from traditional broadcasting on television and radio.

For many the idea that ''the national broadcaster no longer needs a political editor'' dedicated to TV news is absurd. But to management, who have seen the audience trends, the days of a senior journalist concentrating on filing for one 7pm bulletin is ''old fashioned'' and a luxury it can't afford. Probyn and 40 other staff in the news division have been made redundant in a major restructure along digital lines.

ABC News is bad already, crammed with crime stories and scandalously missing big international news. Sacking Andrew Probyn and replacing him with junior reporters who can get stuff on TikTok will drive down audience even further. The chair and board must reverse this.

'-- Bob Carr (@bobjcarr) June 16, 2023According to a 2022 presentation to executives seen by Weekly Beast, the ABC TV's broadcast reach is predicted to trend dangerously down, from 43% in 2021 to just 31% in 2027. Four out of 10 Australians currently watch ABC TV on a weekly basis. By 2032 it will be just two out of 10, and the vast majority of people under 40 won't be watching TV at all.

For a public broadcaster receiving $1.1bn a year it is not ideal to only reach a fraction of the population.

To be fair, all free-to-air broadcasters are facing the same challenges. The ABC is determined to find audiences on different platforms both owned by the ABC and on third party platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

That is why the ABC is replacing legacy jobs such as political editors, sound recordists and camera operators with dedicated social and digital reporters, digital distribution experts and people with skills and experience in vertical video.

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According to the internal presentation, Sky News Australia (4.9m) and Nine's 60 Minutes (2.9m) have more subscribers on YouTube than ABC News 1.73m and ABC News In Depth (1.14m). Those subscriber numbers have now risen to 5.3m, 3.3m, 1.8m and 1.3m respectively.

The ABC has defended the decision saying the parliament house bureau has more than 20 political reporters and editors who will lead the coverage. It also has a number of other senior correspondents in the bureau including Laura Tingle, David Speers and Greg Jennett and outside Canberra the ABC has Sabra Lane (AM), David Lipson (PM), Sarah Ferguson on 7.30, Annabel Crabb, Patricia Karvelas (RN Breakfast) and chief elections analyst Antony Green.

Changing channelsThe ABC's New South Wales political reporter, Ashleigh Raper, has exquisite timing. Hours before the ABC announced it was making 120 roles redundant, 41 in news, it was revealed she was leaving Aunty after 15 years and heading for a new high-profile job at the Ten network.

Well known to NSW audiences for her Covid reports and coverage of natural disasters like the Lismore floods and the Black Summer bushfires, Raper has been appointed network political editor. She will be reporting for Ten News First and appearing on The Project and Studio 10.

Former ABC reporter Ashleigh Raper has been appointed network political editor at 10 News First. Photograph: TenRaper will move to Canberra to replace Peter van Onselen, who quit the post in March to return full-time to his role at the University of Western Australia as a politics and public policy professor.

The separation hasn't gone well for PVO though, as he is now being sued by Ten for breach of contract after he referred to Channel Ten as ''the minnow of Australian commercial television'' in his regular column in the Australian. An expedited one-day hearing is set down for 29 June.

Leaving timeWeekly Beast can reveal Raper's appointment led to the immediate resignation of Ten's senior political journalist, Stela Todorovic, who quit on Tuesday when she was told she would not be getting PVO's old job. Sources said Todorovic had been assured by management she was in the running for the promotion as she has been acting in the role since PVO left. When she was overlooked for Raper, who has no federal political experience, she handed in her resignation. Todorovic will serve out her notice.

Todorovic's partner, Anthony Galloway, who is a political correspondent for the Sun-Herald and the Sunday Age, has also resigned his job but is working out three months' notice.

Galloway is joining former Fairfax executive Chris Janz's startup, Scire, which will cover business, technology and politics. A former economics correspondent for the SMH and the Age, Jennifer Duke, is also joining Scire.

Airport encounterOn Sunday night the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, was pursued through Canberra airport into the car park by a reporter from the Australian, Liam Mendes, who filmed her as he threw questions her way. Mendes, who posted the video on Twitter and on the website, reported that Gallagher ''was defiant and all but silent as she flew into a Canberra firestorm''.

But among veterans of Canberra reporting and Labor ranks the ongoing filming and repeated questioning after Gallagher said at the outset she had nothing to say was unwarranted and unusual by press gallery standards. While reporters do approach ministers at the airport for comment, they don't normally follow them up to their cars when they don't want to answer questions.

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Gallagher, who has denied misleading parliament over her knowledge of Brittany Higgins' rape allegation, had earlier said she ''categorically'' denies misleading parliament.

Mendes was formerly a paparazzo before he was hired by the Australian and was involved in two controversial incidents during that time. In 2016 he took the infamous ''granny panties'' photographs of the former Sunrise presenter Samantha Armytage for the Daily Mail.

The original headline of the story: ''Armytage dares to bare with giant granny panties showing a visible line'', was eventually changed to ''Armytage goes solo as she heads out on a shopping trip'' after widespread backlash. The Daily Mail apologised to Armytage for referring to her underwear.

In the same year Mendes was in the news again after police made an AVO application on behalf of a celebrity trainer, Michelle Bridges, after two encounters where Mendes photographed or filmed Bridges while she was at a restaurant and supermarket. A magistrate said Bridges' frustration at intrusions into her private life were understandable but did not warrant the making of an order.

'Invented' fear campaign?The front page story in the Australian on Wednesday, ''PM's IR agenda could trigger $13bn wipe-out and $373-a-year reduction in real wages'' was apparently bad news for Labor as it tries to sell its industrial relations reforms.

''Anthony Albanese's industrial relations crackdown on miners could trigger a $13bn hit to the economy and reduction in real wages of $373 a year, according to new industry modelling based on a 1% fall in productivity,'' the exclusive article said.

The paper's chief political correspondent, Geoff Chambers, claimed the report '' which was commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia '' predicted that the reforms would also lead to a ''reduction in real wages of $373 a year''.

It ''warns Labor's proposed suite of IR reforms could wreak havoc on flatlining productivity and flexibility across the mining sector and related supply chains'', he wrote.

There was no link to the report in the Australian's story or on the Minerals Council website.

But we've seen the 10-page document and it makes no mention of the government's industrial relations policies. It does not mention the Albanese Labor government, the IR reforms or Labor policy reforms at all.

In question time on Thursday the workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, said the article was part of a ''fear campaign'' and the link to Labor's IR policies had simply been ''invented''.

The Australian's national chief of staff, Richard Ferguson, said the article clearly states that the ''macro-economic modelling says restrictions on the mining sector and related supply chain industries would impact productivity''.

''The Minerals Council says the broad impacts of the government's IR changes on the mining industry would have at least a 1% drag on productivity,'' Ferguson told Weekly Beast. ''The modelling considered the impact of a 1% hit to productivity on the sector and what that would mean for the economy.''

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One man has been killed by one of the world's deadliest diseases in an outbreak in Namibia.

He was struck down with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), nicknamed the 'eye-bleeding fever' for its horrifying symptoms.

Officials in the African country are now scrambling to contain the tick-borne virus, which can spread between humans.

Dozens of contacts of the infected man have already been tracked down.

CCHF kills up to 40 per cent of everyone who gets infected, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

One man has been killed in Namibia by Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), nicknamed the 'eye-bleeding fever' for its horrifying symptoms. The patient was suspected of having the virus when he was first treated at a clinic in the eastern city of Gobabis on May 16. He was later transferred to Windhoek Central Hospital, in the country's capital, where he died on May 18, the Health Ministry said in a statement

The tick-borne virus has a mortality rate of up to 40 per cent according to the World Health Organization and causes symptoms similar to Ebola. It marks the seventh time in seven years that the pathogen has been seen in the nation

WHAT IS CRIMEAN-CONGO HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER (CCHF)? Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne viral disease.

It triggers symptoms including high fever, muscle pain, dizziness, abnormal sensitivity to light, abdominal pain and vomiting.

Later on, sharp mood swings may occur, and the patient may become confused and aggressive.

CCHF virus is widespread and the virus has been found among ticks in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe and South Western Europe.

In Europe cases of human infections have been reported from Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

In June 2008, a first case was diagnosed in Greece and Spain reported the first locally acquired case in August 2016.

Two cases were previously confirmed in the UK '-- one in 2012 and one in 2014 '-- which were imported from Afghanistan and Bulgaria.

A third case was detected in March 2022 in a woman who had recently travelled to central Asia.

Source: ECDC

The disease '-- similar to that of Ebola and Marburg '-- is listed by the UN agency as being one of nine pathogens deemed most likely to trigger a pandemic.

It marks the seventh time in seven years that CCHF has been seen in Namibia.

The government of the country, which borders South Africa, has deployed an emergency health committee to try to contain any further spread.

Twenty-seven of the man's contacts have already been identified, most of whom are health workers.

The patient was suspected of having the virus when he was first treated at a clinic in the eastern city of Gobabis on May 16.

He was later transferred to Windhoek Central Hospital, in the country's capital, where he died on May 18, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Laboratory results later confirmed he had contracted the tick-borne virus.

Initial symptoms include a fever, muscle aches, abdominal pain, a sore throat and vomiting.

CCHF can also cause mood swings and confusion, as well as sleepiness.

It can also trigger bleeds, usually from the nose or from broken capillaries on the eyes and skin.

Although transmitted through tick bites, it can spread between humans through bodily fluids including blood or among hospital patients if medical equipment is not properly sterilised.

The WHO warns CCHP outbreaks are a 'threat to public health services' and 'potentially results in hospital and health facility outbreaks'.

On Tuesday, the WHO identified CCHF among its nine 'priority' diseases that pose the biggest risk to public health.

They were deemed to be most risky due to a lack of treatments or their ability to cause a pandemic.

Covid is also on the list, along with Marburg, which has a case-fatality ratio of 88 per cent and Lassa fever, which kills around 1 to 3 per cent of those it infects.

Hyalomma ticks are the main carrier of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever. This type of tick is not established in the UK.

UK officials advise anyone visiting areas where the disease is endemic '-- including Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and Asia '-- to use tick repellents and check their clothing and skin carefully for the insects.

On Tuesday the WHO identified CCHF among its nine 'priority' diseases that pose the biggest risk to public health. They were deemed to be most risky due to a lack of treatments or their ability to cause a pandemic

The disease was first detected in Crimea in 1944 and given the name Crimean haemorrhagic fever.

But in 1969, medics realised the pathogen that triggered this disease was also responsible for an illness identified in the Congo in 1956.

This led to the virus being named Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, to encompass both locations.

Recent outbreaks in Africa have been limited in scope, with Senegal confirming one case of the fever in April.

Two cases have previously been confirmed in the UK '-- one in 2012 and one in 2014 '-- which were imported from Afghanistan and Bulgaria.

A third case was detected in March 2022 in a woman who had recently travelled to central Asia.

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, between 10,000 and 15,000 cases of CCHF occur annually, while an estimated three billion people are at risk of infection.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 14:39

A deadly virus that is killing nearly 50% of patients is "highly likely" to arrive in the UK along with other illnesses spread by insects which are "marching north" due to climate change

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is spread by ticks ( Image: Getty Images)

Brits are facing the "highly likely" arrival of a deadly disease due to climate change that kills nearly every second patient.

Scientists have been telling MPs about the dangers of new illnesses that are arriving in the UK, as the government attempts to prepare for new pandemics.

There is special concern over Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), which has a mortality rate of up to 40% and is difficult to prevent or treat, said the World Health Organization, with it spreading by ticks or animal tissue.

CCHF is on the WHO's list of 'priority' diseases, and it's found in eastern Europe and now France.

Other diseases include Rift Valley fever, which has a severe strain that is deadly for humans, Zika, and 'breakbone' fever which could all arrive in the UK with warmer weather.

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Ticks and other insects are heading north due to warmer weather ( Image:

Getty Images) There is concern that infections may not be picked up by doctors in the NHS, as previously they hadn't been expected, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee was told.

Professor Bryan Charleston, director of the Pirbright Institute, which studies infectious diseases in animals, said there was a ''slow march north'' of diseases.

He stated: ''There are broadly two (points), one is that the insect vectors will move, greatly increasing the range of their habitat because of climate change and we are seeing that.

''From a European perspective, the insects are spreading more north and then the viruses that they carry tend to follow.

''Alternatively there are examples like blue tongue virus which we had in 2007 where the virus is brought in by some other route and the vectors we have are competent for those viruses.

''So these two things we have to understand, the spread and the increased risk of these viral infections because of the slow march north of the vectors.''

Dengue fever is another disease that could move into new regions ( Image:

BSIP/Universal Images Group via)Looking as well at the risk to animals, he said: "One of the viruses we do not want in the country is African horse sickness, it's 80% mortality that could be spread by the midge that we have in the UK. This the awareness we need to have in terms of the risk assessment.''

And Prof James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, told MPs that it was ''highly likely'' that CCHF would reach the UK at some point but it is difficult to know which viruses will arrive and when.

"We don't know what is going to arrive until it does," he stated.

''Some tick-borne infections, so Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, are highly likely to spread in the UK through our ticks at some point,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University also said that climate change was mixing up the map of where to find certain illnesses.

'Dengue which is classically a South American, South East Asian disease and is hyperendemic in those countries [has] spread North, you're now seeing transmission in the Mediterranean,' he said.

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Disease of Humans and animals

Medical condition

Crimean''Congo hemorrhagic feverMale diagnosed with Crimean''Congo hemorrhagic fever, 1969SpecialtyInfectious diseaseSymptomsFever, muscle pains, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding into the skin[1]ComplicationsLiver failure[1]Usual onsetRapid[1]DurationTwo weeks[1]Diagnostic methodDetecting antibodies, the virus's RNA, or viral proteins (antigens).[1]Differential diagnosisDengue fever, Q fever,[2] Ebola virus disease[3]TreatmentSupportive care, ribavirin[1]PrognosisRisk of death ~25%[1]Crimean''Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a viral disease.[1] Symptoms of CCHF may include fever, muscle pains, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, and bleeding into the skin.[1] Onset of symptoms is less than two weeks following exposure.[1] Complications may include liver failure.[1] In those who survive, recovery generally occurs around two weeks after onset.[1]

The CCHF virus is typically spread by tick bites or close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons or animals.[1] Groups that are at high risk of infection are farmers and those who work in slaughterhouses.[1] The virus can also spread between people via body fluids.[1] Diagnosis can be made by detecting antibodies, the virus's RNA, or viral proteins (antigens).[1] It is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever.[1]

There are no FDA- or WHO-approved therapeutics for CCHF. Prevention involves avoiding tick bites, using safe practices in meat processing plants, and observing universal healthcare precautions.[1] A vaccine is not commercially available.[1] Treatment is typically with supportive care.[1] The medication ribavirin may also help.[1]

CCHF cases are observed in a wide geographic range including Africa, Russia, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Asia.[1] Typically small outbreaks are seen in areas where the virus is endemic.[1] In 2013 Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan documented more than 50 cases.[2] The fatality rate is typically between 10 and 40%, though fatalities as high as 80% have been observed in some outbreaks.[1] The virus was first observed in Crimea in the 1940s and was later identified as the same agent of what had been called Congo Hemorrhagic Fever.[4]

In the past 20 years, CCHF outbreaks have reported in Eastern Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union, throughout the Mediterranean, in northwestern China, central Asia, southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. CCHF is on WHO's priority list for Research and Development and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID) priority A list, as a disease posing the highest level of risk to national security and public health.

Signs and symptoms [ edit ] The clinical illness associated with CCHFV is a severe form of hemorrhagic fever.[5] Following infection by a tick bite, the incubation period is typically two to three days but can last as long as nine days, while the incubation period following contact with infected blood or tissues is usually five to six days with a documented maximum of 13 days. The onset of symptoms ushering in the pre-hemorrhagic phase is sudden, with fever, myalgia, (muscle ache), dizziness, neck pain and stiffness, backache, headache, Suhash disease, sore eyes and photophobia (sensitivity to light). Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting (which may progress to severe bleeding and can be fatal if not treated), diarrhea, abdominal pain and sore throat early in the acute infection phase, followed by sharp mood swings, agitations and confusion. After several days, agitation may be replaced by sleepiness, depression and lassitude, and the abdominal pain may localize to the upper right quadrant, with detectable liver enlargement. As the illness progresses into the hemorrhagic phase, large areas of severe bruising, severe nosebleeds, and uncontrolled bleeding at injection sites can be seen, beginning on about the fourth day of illness and lasting for about two weeks. Other clinical signs include tachycardia (fast heart rate), lymphadenopathy (enlarged lymph nodes), and a petechiae (a rash caused by bleeding into the skin) on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth and throat, and on the skin. The petechiae may give way to larger rashes called ecchymoses, and other haemorrhagic phenomena. There is usually evidence of hepatitis, and severely ill patients may experience rapid kidney deterioration, liver failure or pulmonary failure after the fifth day of illness.

In documented outbreaks of CCHF, fatality rates in hospitalized patients have ranged from 9% to as high as 70%, though the WHO notes a typical range of 10''40%, with death often occurring in the second week of illness. In patients who recover, improvement generally begins on the ninth or tenth day after the onset of illness. The long-term effects of CCHF infection have not been studied well enough in survivors to determine whether or not specific complications exist. However, recovery is slow.

Cause [ edit ] Virology [ edit ] The Crimean''Congo hemorrhagic fever orthonairovirus (CCHFV) is a member of the genus Orthonairovirus, family Nairoviridae of RNA viruses.[6]

The virions are 80''120 nanometers (nm) in diameter and are pleomorphic. There are no host ribosomes within the virion. Each virion contains three distinct RNA sequences, which together make up the viral genome. The envelope is single layered and is formed from a lipid bilayer 5 nm thick. It has no external protrusions. The envelope proteins form small projections ~5''10 nm long. The nucleocapsids are filamentous and circular with a length of 200''3000 nm.[7]Viral entry is thought to be clathrin-mediated with the cell surface protein nucleolin playing a role.[8]

Molecular biology [ edit ] The genome is circular, negative sense RNA in three parts '' Small (S), Medium (M) and Large (L). The L segment is 11''14.4 kilobases in length while the M and S segments are 4.4''6.3 and 1.7''2.1 kilobases long respectively. The L segment encodes the RNA polymerase, the M segment encodes the envelope glycoproteins (Gc and Gn), and the S segment encodes the nucleocapsid protein.[7] The mutation rates for the three parts of the genome were estimated to be: 1.09 — 10''4, 1.52 — 10''4 and 0.58 — 10''4 substitutions/site/year for the S, M, and L segments respectively.[9]

Population genetics [ edit ] CCHFV is the most genetically diverse of the arboviruses: Its nucleotide sequences frequently differ between different strains, ranging from a 20% variability for the viral S segment to 31% for the M segment.[10] Viruses with diverse sequences can be found within the same geographic area; closely related viruses have been isolated from widely separated regions, suggesting that viral dispersion has occurred possibly by ticks carried on migratory birds or through international livestock trade. Reassortment among genome segments during coinfection of ticks or vertebrates seems likely to have played a role in generating diversity in this virus.[citation needed ]

Based on the sequence data, seven genotypes of CCHFV have been recognised: Africa 1 (Senegal), Africa 2 (Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa), Africa 3 (southern and western Africa), Europe 1 (Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Russia and Turkey), Europe 2 (Greece), Asia 1 (the Middle East, Iran and Pakistan) and Asia 2 (China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).[citation needed ]

Transmission [ edit ] Ticks are both "environmental reservoir" and vector for the virus, carrying it from wild animals to domestic animals and humans. Tick species identified as infected with the virus include Argas reflexus, Hyalomma anatolicum, Hyalomma detritum, Hyalomma marginatum marginatum and Rhipicephalus sanguineus.[citation needed ]At least 31 different species of ticks from the genera Haemaphysalis and Hyalomma in southeastern Iran have been found to carry the virus.[11]

Wild animals and small mammals, particularly European hare, Middle-African hedgehogs and multimammate rats are the "amplifying hosts" of the virus. Birds are generally resistant to CCHF, with the exception of ostriches. Domestic animals like sheep, goats and cattle can develop high titers of virus in their blood, but tend not to fall ill.[12]

The "sporadic infection" of humans is usually caused by a Hyalomma tick bite. Animals can transmit the virus to humans, but this would usually be as part of a disease cluster. When clusters of illness occur, it is typically after people treat, butcher or eat infected livestock, particularly ruminants and ostriches. Outbreaks have occurred in abattoirs and other places where workers have been exposed to infected human or animal blood and fomites[citation needed ] Humans can infect humans and outbreaks also occur in clinical facilities through infected blood and unclean medical instruments.[13]

Prevention [ edit ] Where mammalian tick infection is common, agricultural regulations require de-ticking farm animals before transportation or delivery for slaughter. Personal tick avoidance measures are recommended, such as use of insect repellents, adequate clothing, and body inspection for adherent ticks.[citation needed ]

When feverish patients with evidence of bleeding require resuscitation or intensive care, body substance isolation precautions should be taken.[citation needed ]

Vaccine [ edit ] Since the 1970s, several vaccine trials around the world against CCHF have been terminated due to high toxicity.[14]

As of March 2011[update], the only available and probably somewhat efficacious CCHF vaccine has been an inactivated antigen preparation then used in Bulgaria.[14] No publication in the scientific literature related to this vaccine exists, which a Turkish virologist called suspicious both because antiquated technology and mouse brain were used to manufacture it.[15] More vaccines are under development, but the sporadic nature of the disease, even in endemic countries, suggests that large trials of vaccine efficacy will be difficult to perform. Finding volunteers may prove challenging, given growing anti-vaccination sentiment and resistance of populations to vaccination against contagious diseases. The number of people to be vaccinated, and the length of time they would have to be followed to confirm protection would have to be carefully defined. Alternatively, many scientists appear to believe that treatment of CCHF with ribavirin is more practical than prevention, but some recently conducted clinical trials appear to counter assumptions of drug efficacy.[14]In 2011, a Turkish research team led by Erciyes University successfully developed the first non-toxic preventive vaccine, which passed clinical trials. As of 2012, the vaccine was pending approval by the US FDA.[15]

Since the Ebola epidemic, the WHO jumpstarted a "Blueprint for Research and Development preparedness" on emerging pathogens with epidemic potential, against which there are no medical treatments.[16] CCHF was the top priority on the initial list from December 2015, and is second as of January 2017.[17]

Treatment [ edit ] Treatment is mostly supportive. Ribavirin has shown some efficacy in vitro[18] and has been used by mouth during outbreaks,[citation needed ] but there is uncertain evidence to support its use, and this medication can cause serious side effects including hemolytic anemia and liver damage.[19]

As of 2011[update] the use of Immunoglobulin preparations has remained unproven and antibody engineering, which raised hopes for monoclonal antibody therapy, has remained in its infancy.[14]

Epidemiology [ edit ] Colorized scanning electron micrograph of viral CCHF particles in yellow

CCHF occurs most frequently among agricultural workers, following the bite of an infected tick, and to a lesser extent among slaughterhouse workers exposed to the blood and tissues of infected livestock, and medical personnel through contact with the body fluids of infected persons.[10]

Geographic distribution [ edit ] As of 2013[update] the northern limit of CCHF has been 50 degrees northern latitude, north of which the Hyalomma ticks have not been found.[5]Per a WHO map from 2008, Hyalomma ticks occurred south of this latitude across all of the Eurasian continent and Africa, sparing only the islands of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Japan.[20] Serological or virological evidence of CCHF was widespread in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East (except Israel, Lebanon and Jordan), central Africa, Western Africa, South Africa and Madagascar.[20]

In 2008, more than 50 cases/year were reported from only 4 countries: Turkey, Iran, Russia and Uzbekistan. 5-49 cases/year were present in South Africa, Central Asia including Pakistan and Afghanistan (but sparing Turkmenistan), in the Middle East only the UAE and the Balkan countries limited to Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania.[20]

In Russia, the disease is limited to Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts, but climate change may cause it to spread into more northerly areas.[21]

A 2014 map by the CDC shows endemic areas (in red) largely unchanged in Africa and the Middle East, but different for the Balkan, including all countries of the former Yugoslavia, and also Greece, but no longer Romania. India's Northwestern regions of Rajasthan and Gujarat saw their first cases.[22]

Outbreaks [ edit ] From 1995 to 2013, 228 cases of CCHF were reported in the Republic of Kosovo, with a case-fatality rate of 25.5%.[23]

Between 2002''2008 the Ministry of Health of Turkey reported 3,128 CCHF cases, with a 5% death rate.[citation needed ] In July 2005, authorities reported 41 cases of CCHF in central Turkey's Yozgat Province, with one death.[clarification needed ] As of August 2008, a total of 50 deaths were reported for the year thus far in various cities in Turkey due to CCHF.[clarification needed ]

In 2003, 38 people were infected with CCHF in Mauritania, including 35 residents of Nouakchott.[24]

In September 2010, an outbreak was reported in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Poor diagnosis and record keeping caused the extent of the outbreak to be uncertain, though some reports indicated over 100 cases, with a case-fatality rate above 10%.[citation needed ]

In January 2011, the first human cases of CCHF in India was reported in Sanand, Gujarat, India, with 4 reported deaths, which included the index patient, treating physician and nurse.[25]

As of May 2012[update], 71 people were reported to have contracted the disease in Iran, resulting in 8 fatalities.[citation needed ]

In October 2012, a British man died from the disease at the Royal Free Hospital in London. He had earlier been admitted to Gartnavel General Hospital in Glasgow, after returning on a flight from Kabul in Afghanistan.[26]

In July 2013, seven people died of CCHF in the Karyana village of Babra, Gujarat, India.[27][28]

In August 2013, a farmer from Agago, Uganda was treated at Kalongo Hospital for a confirmed CCHF infection. The deaths of three other individuals in the northern region were suspected to have been caused by the virus.[29] Another unrelated CCHF patient was admitted to Mulago Hospital on the same day. The Ministry of Health announced on the 19th that the outbreak was under control, but the second patient, a 27-year-old woman from Nansana, died on the 21st. She is believed to have contracted the virus from her husband, who returned to Kampala after being treated for CCHF in Juba, South Sudan.[30]

In June 2014, cases were diagnosed in Kazakhstan. Ten people, including an ambulance crew, were admitted on to hospital in southern Kazakhstan with suspected CCHF.[citation needed ] In July 2014 an 8th person was found to be infected with CCHF at Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Pakistan. The eight patients, including a nurse and 6 Afghan nationals, died between April and July 2014.[31]

As of 2015[update], sporadic confirmed cases have been reported from Bhuj, Amreli, Sanand, Idar and Vadnagar in Gujarat, India. In November 2014, a doctor and a labourer in north Gujarat tested positive for the disease. In the following weeks, three more people died from CCHF.[32] In March 2015, one more person died of CCHF in Gujarat.[33]As of 2015, among livestock, CCHF was recognized as "widespread" in India, only 4 years after the first human case had been diagnosed.[34]

In August 2016, the first local case of CCHF in Western Europe occurred in Western Spain. A 62-year-old man, who had been bitten by a tick in Spain died on August 25, having infected a nurse.[35] The tick bite occurred in the province of vila, 300 km away from the province of Cceres, where CCHF viral RNA from ticks was amplified in 2010.[36] As of July 2017[update] it was unclear what specific ecology led to the Spanish cases.[37]

In August 2016, a number of Pakistani news sources raised concerns regarding the disease.[38][39] Between January and October 2016, CCHF outbreaks in Pakistan were reported with highest numbers of cases and deaths during August 2016, just before the festival of Eid-al-Adha (held on September 13''15 in 2016). It was hypothesized that the festival could play an important part as people could come into contact with domestic or imported animals potentially infected with CCHF virus.[40] The Pakistani NIH showed there was no correlation, and that CCHF caseshave coincided with the peak tick proliferation during the preceding 8''10 years.[41]

In 2017, the General Directorate of Public Health in Turkey published official records of infections and casualties involving CCHF between 2008 and 2017. Cases declined form 1,318 in 2009 to 343 in 2017 alongside a lowered mortality rate.[42] Cases are concentrated in rural areas of the Southern Black Sea Region, Central Anatolia Region, and Eastern Anatolia Region during early summer months.[43]

On February 2, 2020, an outbreak was reported in Mali involving fourteen cases and seven deaths, days before the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. In May 2020, a single case was reported in Mauritania.[44]

In 2022, an outbreak occurred in Iraq. Between 1 January and 22 May, 212 cases of CCHF were reported to the WHO. Of the 212 cases, 115 were suspected and 97 laboratory confirmed. Twenty seven deaths were recorded, of which 13 were in laboratory confirmed cases.[45]

History [ edit ] In ancient Celtic settlements in the Upper Danube area in Germany, the CCHF virus was detected in archaeological blood samples, indicating that it was endemic at the time.[46] The virus may have evolved around 1500''1100 BC. It is thought that changing climate and agricultural practices around this time could be behind its evolution.[9]

In the 12th century a case of a hemorrhagic disease reported from what is now Tajikistan may have been the first known case of Crimean''Congo hemorrhagic fever.[citation needed ]

In 1944, roughly 200 Soviet military agricultural workers were infected by Crimean hemorrhagic fever (CHF), leading to experiments showing a tick-borne viral etiology.[47]

In February 1967, virologists John P. Woodall, David Simpson, Ghislaine Courtois and others published initial reports on a virus they called the Congo virus.[48][49] In 1956, the Congo virus had first been isolated by physician Ghislaine Courtois, head of the Provincial Medical Laboratory, Stanleyville, in the Belgian Congo. Strain V3010, isolated by Courtois, was sent to the Rockefeller Foundation Virus Laboratory (RFVL) in New York City and found to be identical to another strain from Uganda, but to no other named virus at that time.[citation needed ]

In June 1967, Soviet virologist Mikhail Chumakov registered an isolate from a fatal case that occurred in Samarkand in the Catalogue of Arthropod-borne Viruses.[50] In 1969, the Russian strain, which Chumakov had sent to the RFVL, was published to be identical to the Congo virus.[51]

In 1973, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses adopted Crimean''Congo hemorrhagic fever virus as the official name.[52]

These reports include records of the occurrence of the virus or antibodies to the virus from ebola Greece, Portugal, South Africa, Madagascar (the first isolation from there), the Maghreb, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.[53][54][55]

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"Autochthonous Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever in Spain". The New England Journal of Medicine. 377 (2): 154''161. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1615162 . PMID 28700843. ^ Spengler JR, Bente DA (July 2017). "Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever in Spain - New Arrival or Silent Resident?". The New England Journal of Medicine. 377 (2): 106''108. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1707436. PMC 5922251 . PMID 28700846. ^ "Congo virus: Doctors warn against outbreak of disease". The Express Tribune. 17 August 2016. Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. ^ "Karachi: Congo virus claims another life - Pakistan - Dunya News". Archived from the original on 2016-09-04. ^ Karim AM, Hussain I, Lee JH, Park KS, Lee SH (April 2017). "Surveillance of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in Pakistan". The Lancet. Infectious Diseases. 17 (4): 367''368. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(17)30119-6 . PMID 28346174. ^ Alam MM, Khurshid A, Rana MS, Aamir UB, Salman M, Ahmad M (August 2017). "Surveillance of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in Pakistan". The Lancet. Infectious Diseases. 17 (8): 806. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(17)30403-6 . PMID 28741546. ^ "KKKA Ä°statistik Verileri". ^ Shahhosseini, Nariman; Wong, Gary; Babuadze, George; Camp, Jeremy V.; Ergonul, Onder; Kobinger, Gary P.; Chinikar, Sadegh; Nowotny, Norbert (September 9, 2021). "Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus in Asia, Africa and Europe". Microorganisms. 9 (9): 1907. doi:10.3390/microorganisms9091907 . ISSN 2076-2607. PMC 8471816 . PMID 34576803. ^ Greene, Leah; Uwishema, Olivier; Nicholas, Aderinto; Kapoor, Arushi; Berjaoui, Christin; Adamolekun, Emmanuel; Khoury, Carlo; Mohammed, Fatima Elbasri Abuelgasim; Onyeaka, Helen (2022-06-01). "Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa: Efforts, recommendations and challenges at hand". African Journal of Emergency Medicine. 12 (2): 117''120. doi:10.1016/j.afjem.2022.02.004. ISSN 2211-419X. PMC 8858690 . PMID 35223387. ^ "Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever - Iraq". World Health Organization. 1 June 2022 . Retrieved 1 June 2022 . ^ Garry Shaw (2016), "Human blood, organs, and a surprising virus detected in ancient pottery", Science (in German), doi:10.1126/science.aal0490 Conner J. Wiktorowicz et al.: Hemorrhagic fever virus, human blood, and tissues in Iron Age mortuary vessels. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Band 78, 2017, S. 29''39, doi:10.1016/j.jas.2016.11.009 (Online-Vorabver¶ffentlichung vom Dezember 2016) ^ Whitehouse, Chris A. (2004-12-01). "Crimean''Congo Hemorrhagic Fever". Antiviral Research. 64 (3): 145''160. doi:10.1016/j.antiviral.2004.08.001. ISSN 0166-3542. PMID 15550268. S2CID 9776329. ^ Simpson DI, Knight EM, Courtois G, Williams MC, Weinbren MP, Kibukamusoke JW (February 1967). "Congo virus: a hitherto undescribed virus occurring in Africa. I. Human isolations--clinical notes". East African Medical Journal. 44 (2): 86''92. PMID 6040759. ^ Woodall JP, Williams MC, Simpson DI (February 1967). "Congo virus: a hitherto undescribed virus occurring in Africa. II. Identification studies". East African Medical Journal. 44 (2): 93''8. PMID 6068614. ^ Chumakov MP, Butenko AM, Shalunova NV, Mart'ianova LI, Smirnova SE, Bashkirtsev Iu, et al. (May''June 1968). "[New data on the viral agent of Crimean hemorrhagic fever]". Voprosy Virusologii (in Russian). 13 (3): 377. PMID 4235803. ^ Casals J (May 1969). "Antigenic similarity between the virus causing Crimean hemorrhagic fever and Congo virus". Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 131 (1): 233''6. doi:10.3181/00379727-131-33847. PMID 5770109. S2CID 30654789. ^ Erg¶n¼l O, Whitehouse CA (2007). "Personal Reflections, Jack Woodall". Congo Hemorrhagic Fever: A Global Perspective . Netherlands: Springer. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-4020-6105-9. ^ Crowcroft NS, Morgan D, Brown D (March 2002). "Viral haemorrhagic fevers in Europe--effective control requires a co-ordinated response". Euro Surveillance. 7 (3): 31''2. doi:10.2807/esm.07.03.00343-en . PMID 12631941. ^ Al-Tikriti SK, Al-Ani F, Jurji FJ, Tantawi H, Al-Moslih M, Al-Janabi N, et al. (1981). "Congo/Crimean haemorrhagic fever in Iraq". Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 59 (1): 85''90. PMC 2396030 . PMID 6790183. ^ Okorie TG (March 1991). "Comparative studies on the vector capacity of the different stages of Amblyomma variegatum Fabricius and Hyalomma rufipes Koch for Congo virus, after intracoelomic inoculation". Veterinary Parasitology. 38 (2''3): 215''23. doi:10.1016/0304-4017(91)90131-e. PMID 1907050. External links [ edit ] Erg¶n¼l O (April 2006). "Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever". The Lancet. Infectious Diseases. 6 (4): 203''14. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(06)70435-2. PMC 7185836 . PMID 16554245. World Health Organization Fact Sheet

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Archived Version

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 14:37

A virus that kills one person every second is highly likely to be heading to the UK thanks to climate change, according to scientists. The UK Government has been warned about Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), which has a mortality rate of up to 40% and is spread by ticks or animal tissue.

CCHF is on the World Health Organisation's list of 'priority' diseases, and it's found in eastern Europe and now France. Other diseases the Uk has been warned to look out for include deadly Rift Valley fever, Zika, and 'breakbone' fever.

Warmer weather will allow the disease to spread to the UK, according to the WHO.

There is concern that infections may not be picked up by doctors in the NHS, as previously they hadn't been expected, the UK's Science, Innovation and Technology Committee was told.

Professor Bryan Charleston, director of the Pirbright Institute, which studies infectious diseases in animals, said there was a ''slow march north'' of diseases.

He stated: ''There are broadly two (points), one is that the insect vectors will move, greatly increasing the range of their habitat because of climate change and we are seeing that.

''From a European perspective, the insects are spreading more north and then the viruses that they carry tend to follow.

''Alternatively there are examples like blue tongue virus which we had in 2007 where the virus is brought in by some other route and the vectors we have are competent for those viruses.

''So these two things we have to understand, the spread and the increased risk of these viral infections because of the slow march north of the vectors.''

Looking as well at the risk to animals, he said: "One of the viruses we do not want in the country is African horse sickness, it's 80% mortality that could be spread by the midge that we have in the UK. This the awareness we need to have in terms of the risk assessment.''

And Prof James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, told MPs that it was ''highly likely'' that CCHF would reach the UK at some point but it is difficult to know which viruses will arrive and when.

"We don't know what is going to arrive until it does," he stated.

''Some tick-borne infections, so Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, are highly likely to spread in the UK through our ticks at some point,'' he said.

Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University also said that climate change was mixing up the map of where to find certain illnesses.

'Dengue which is classically a South American, South East Asian disease and is hyperendemic in those countries [has] spread North, you're now seeing transmission in the Mediterranean,' he said.

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Sat, 17 Jun 2023 14:37

'Several' US government agencies hit with cyberattack that exploited vulnerabilities in software - but the full extent remains unclearAttack exploits a new flaw in widely used file-transfer software known as MOVEit Similar attacks hit Johns Hopkins University, Shell Oil, and BBC in recent weeksREAD MORE: Massive cyber attack on thousands of firms including major airlinesBy Matthew Phelan For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 18:43 EDT, 15 June 2023

Several US government agencies have been hit in a global hacking campaign that exploited a vulnerability in widely used to transfer files from one computer to another.

'We are working urgently to understand impacts,' said Eric Goldstein, the executive assistant director for cybersecurity of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The hackers exploited a vulnerability in a program called MOVEIt, but it is unclear if sensitive information was compromised or if government systems have been disrupted.

While CISA did not specify how many federal agencies have been hit, Goldstein said that his agency 'is providing support to several federal agencies that have experienced intrusions.'

In addition to the federal agencies, the cyber attack has also targeted state governments in Minnesota and Illinois, and the state of Georgia's entire university system, as well as British broadcaster the BBC and Zellis, a payroll provider used by hundreds of companies in Britain

Thursday's report from the comes as the US has been hit with major attacks over the past few months.

In late May, the Russian-speaking gang of hackers known as CLOP began leveraging a new flaw, or exploit, discovered in a widely used file-transfer software known as MOVEit. The hackers seemed to penetrate as many vulnerable organizations as they could identify.

Progress Software, which owns MOVEit and distributes it as a 'secure managed file transfer software,' urged its customers to install updates to correct the flaw, alongside other security advice.

Johns Hopkins University released a statement this week alerting patients, students and the public that 'sensitive personal and financial information,' including health billing records from the university's well-regarded healthcare system may have been compromised in the attack.

CLOP claimed credit for similar assaults on state government systems in both Minnesota and Illinois, as well as on major international firms including British Airways and Shell.

The entire university system across the state of Georgia also reported that its dozens of state colleges and schools, including the 40,000-student University of Georgia, had been penetrated in the attack. University officials said they were still investigating the 'scope and severity' of the attack.

CLOP's tell-tale ransomware packages first emerged in February of 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center.

The hacker group's extortion attempts have occasionally been staggeringly lucrative, including payouts as high as $500 million.

Cybersecurity experts told CNN that, while CLOP was the first hacker group to make use of the MOVEit exploit, others may now have obtained the capabilities to launch copycat attacks, like those that hit US federal government agencies this week.

The ransomware group set a deadline of this past Wednesday, telling its victims to begin paying up or risk the public release of their stolen data.

The group also said that it would begin dropping names of their other alleged victims, but as of Thursday morning, no US federal agencies were listed.

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Archived Version

Sat, 17 Jun 2023 14:18

Updated

2020-06-05T14:14:00Z

HKU Design/Jip van Leeuwenstein Facial recognition technology is everywhere: More than half of Americans' faces are now logged in police databases.To push back against surveillance, designers have invented clothes and accessories that make your face undetectable. The accessories combine fashion and technology, and can trick algorithms meant to detect and identify faces.The designs have been used by protesters aiming to avoid police surveillance in places like Hong Kong and the US, but they aren't fail-proof '-- some new facial recognition algorithms are being developed to see past the visual tricks.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Loading Something is loading.

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Smile! You're on camera '-- or you were at some point in the past few years '-- and now your face is public domain.

Facial recognition technology is everywhere, and only becoming more pervasive. It's marketed as a security feature by companies like Apple and Google to prevent strangers from unlocking your iPhone or front door.

It's also used by government agencies like police departments. More than half of adult Americans' faces are logged in police databases, according to a study by Georgetown researchers. Facial recognition technology is used by governments across the globe to identify and track dissidents, and has been deployed by police against Hong Kong protesters.

To push back, privacy-focused designers, academics, and activists have designed wearable accessories and clothes meant to thwart facial recognition tech. Demonstrators from Hong Kong to the US have used the masks to remain anonymous at protests, and encrypted messaging app Signal has even started distributing free anti-facial recognition masks to George Floyd protesters.

Signal Facial recognition software uses artificial intelligence to detect faces or human figures in real-time. But that software is fallible '-- clothing can "dazzle" the software with misleading shapes that stop the AI from knowing what it's looking at. Other designs confuse AI with images of decoy faces, preventing it from making the right identification.

These designs are still niche, and have mostly only appeared as art installations or academic projects. But as facial recognition becomes more widespread, they may catch on as the next trend in functional fashion.

It should be noted, however, that the anti-facial recognition designs are not failproof, and some algorithms are already being developed to overcome them.

Here are the ingenious, bizarre designs meant to outsmart facial recognition tech.

A lens-shaped mask makes its user undetectable to facial recognition algorithms while still allowing humans to read facial expressions and identity.

HKU Design/Jip van Leeuwenstein The "surveillance exclusion" mask was designed by Jip van Leeuwenstein while he was a student of Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands.

The mask's curvature blocks facial recognition from all angles.

HKU Design/Jip van Leeuwenstein "Because of its transparency you will not lose your identity and facial expressions," von Leeuwenstein writes, "so it's still possible to interact with the people around you."

A Dutch design student invented a projector that superimposes an image of a different face over that of the wearer.

HKU Design/Jin-cai Liu Jing-cai Liu created the wearable face projector: A "small beamer projects a different appearance on your face, giving you a completely new appearance."

The device shifts rapidly between faces being projected, making detection even more difficult.

HKU Design/Jin-cai Liu Images of Liu's face projector went viral last year after misleading tweets claimed it was being used by protesters in Hong Kong. This claim was later debunked.

A Japanese college professor designed goggles fitted with LEDs that thwart facial recognition.

National Institute of Informatics/Isao Echizen Isao Echizen, a professor at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, designed the "privacy visor" as a safeguard against security cameras that could log someone's face without their permission.

Images from Echizen's lab shows how the visor blocks AI's ability to detect a face.

National Institute of Informatics/Isao Echizen The device is fitted with "a near-infrared LED that appends noise to photographed images without affecting human visibility."

When switched on, a user's face no longer scans as a human face to the AI, indicated by the lack of green boxes above.

A German designer created a cloth mask that resembles a blurred face.

Martin Backes "The full face mask Pixelhead acts as media camouflage, completely shielding the head to ensure that your face is not recognizable on photographs taken in public places without securing permission," creator Martin Backes writes.

CV Dazzle combines makeup, hair extensions, accessories, and gems to transform people's faces.

Cha Hyun Seok/Coreana Museum of Art The technique gets its name from a World War I tactic '-- naval vessels were painted with black and white stripes, making it harder for distant ships to tell their size and the direction they were pointed.

Sanne Weekers, a design student in the Netherlands, created a headscarf decorated with faces intended to confuse algorithms.

HKU Design/Sanne Weekers "By giving an overload of information software gets confused, rendering you invisible," Weekers wrote of the scarf.

Belgian scientists developed a prototype for a graphic print that could be added to clothing to "attack" and baffle surveillance technology.

KU Leuven/Toon Goedem(C) Belgian computer scientists Simen Thys, Wiebe Van Ranst, and Toon Goedem(C) designed "adversarial patches" as part of a study funded by KU Leuven.

"We believe that, if we combine this technique with a sophisticated clothing simulation, we can design a T-shirt print that can make a person virtually invisible for automatic surveillance cameras," the researchers wrote.

An artist created masks that evade facial recognition and send a message about invasions of privacy.

Zach Blas, Facial Weaponization Suite: Feminist Imperceptibilities, conversation performance, The New Romantics, Eyebeam, New York, NY, April 25, 2014. Courtesy of the Artist Christine Butler/Courtesy of Zach Blas "'Facial Weaponization Suite' protests against biometric facial recognition '-- and the inequalities these technologies propagate '-- by making 'collective masks' in workshops that are modeled from the aggregated facial data of participants, resulting in amorphous masks that cannot be detected as human faces by biometric facial recognition technologies," creator Zach Blas writes.

Blas' masks also explore the potential of algorithm-driven facial recognition to enact bias and produce false positives.

Facial Weaponization Suite: Mask, May 31, 2013, San Diego, CA. Image courtesy of the artist. Zach Blas Blas intended the masks pictured above to depict the "tripartite conception of blackness: the inability of biometric technologies to detect dark skin as racist, the favoring of black in militant aesthetics, and black as that which informatically obfuscates," he writes.

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Fri, 16 Jun 2023 18:25

Repeat on Sunday S Monday M Tuesday T Wednesday W Thursday T Friday F Saturday S

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Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:35

Jun 15, 2023 ' 4 min read

Apple does not accept Damus' peer-to-peer payments feature as it does not use Apple's in-app purchase system.This has implications for the broader Value for Value community.But Apple's guidelines officially allow exceptions that can be applied for Value for Value payments in apps.Apple warns DamusIn a message to the developer team of Damus, an app building on the Nostr protocol, Apple announced to remove the app from the iOS App Store due to missing compliance with guideline 3.1.1. This guideline states that users must use in-app purchases to unlock paid features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version). In-app purchases is a service by Apple for developers to accept payments directly in the app and a means for Apple to earn 30% on each payment. However, there are several exceptions to it, as listed in the official guidelines.

In the case of Damus, Apple claims that users can ''send tips associated with receiving content from digital content creators with a mechanism other than in-app purchase. Although tips or donations may be optional, if they are connected to or associated with receiving digital content, they must use in-app purchase in accordance with guideline 3.1.1.''

After an initial reaction of the Nostr community, Apple is open for a conversation and scheduled a meeting with the team behind Damus.

What are Zaps in DamusThe form of payments implemented in Damus is called zaps in the Nostr community. Zaps allow users to make bitcoin payments on the lightning network to one another on any Nostr client that implements them. Zaps have become incredibly popular. All major clients offer their users to send zaps to each other for a variety of use cases.

For example, instead of just liking, reposting, and sharing notes (notes are the same as tweets on Twitter), users can send bitcoin to one another.

There are a variety of use cases of zaps today. Sharing appreciation in the form of a real value contribution is one of them. Commonly known as Value for Value, this form of compensation is adopted in many other areas such as podcasting, video creation, writing, or software development. Hence Apple's reaction might impact a much bigger community of participants sharing value in the form of payments.Those who might be affected the most are people how deliberately chose V4V as their main income source as we see increasingly in podcasting or for whom V4V might be the only way of participating in the global economy - unbanked creators from developing countries, people who cannot use Paypal or Twitch for monetization or creators with a smaller audience, that does not yet attract sponsorships.

Over the last year we have been working with numerous businesses and developers to bring bitcoin to their apps and enable instant peer-to-peer payments between consumers and creators. Value for Value (V4V) payments is one of the first use cases of micropayments with a broad adoption among publishers and consumers.The passion the Alby team feels for the Value for Value model is based on the strong conviction about the rights of creators to be fairly compensated for what they create, and for fans to have more impact in supporting the creator they love. At Alby, we build on bitcoin to enable instant V4V payments of any amount across borders. Creators now have the chance to build up an independent revenue stream in addition to common advertising or affiliate-based compensation regardless of the size of their audience.

Ways to react on Apples accusationsIt is too early to speculate about the outcome in the case of Damus, but there are ways to take action now. At Alby, we created a report about integrating bitcoin payments in apps distributed on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. According to Apples guideline 3.2.1: "Apps may enable individual users to give a monetary gift to another individual without using in-app purchase, provided that (a) the gift is a completely optional choice by the giver, and (b) 100% of the funds go to the receiver of the gift. However, a gift that is connected to or associated at any point in time with receiving digital content or services must use in-app purchase." In the case of Damus and other 4V4 apps the receiving of the digital content isn't related to the gift and thus should be allowed.Along the way, we will update the document with the latest findings and recommendations for app developers. Updates may involve refining the terms of service or making adjustments to the UX copy. Sharing knowledge of how other apps deal with similar threads is crucial for all of us.

Steps aheadOverall it is important to raise awareness for this issue about banning apps from important distribution channels such as official app stores and work on a solution together with these providers. By speaking with a unified voice, we can effectively convey our message and intensify the pressure on these closed platforms to loosen their restrictions. For instance, Google will let Android developers use their own billing systems, starting with Spotify. That's why we are optimistic to achieve a positive outcome for both sides. In our point of view, sending zaps, boosts or boostagrams is not selling digital content. It's a form of feedback, a feedback backed by real value.

Please reach out to us if you have further questions, comments on the mentioned report or want to share learnings from similar cases. We will keep you posted, too.

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Archived Version

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 14:13

Lawyers representing the Government today urged the Covid Inquiry to go easy on them over any pandemic mistakes.

Officials in charge of the long-awaited probe were asked not to use a 'retroscope' in judging errors may early on in the crisis.

Lawyers also called upon bosses to acknowledge that decisions were made during the 'biggest peacetime crisis the country has faced', describing the pandemic era as an 'all-consuming period akin to a war' that required 'Herculean' efforts.

The Department of Health's lawyer, Fiona Scolding KC, said it would not 'necessarily have made the same decisions today with the benefit of hindsight'.

She claimed the agency, headed up by Matt Hancock during the height of the crisis, was often faced with 'hugely unpalatable options'.

The Department of Health's lawyer, Fiona Scolding KC, said it would not 'necessarily have made the same decisions today with the benefit of hindsight'. She claimed the agency, headed up by Matt Hancock during the height of the crisis, was often faced with 'hugely unpalatable options'

Meanwhile, James Strachan KC, representing the Cabinet Office, urged the inquiry to 'remember this was a global pandemic'.

Britain's Covid response has been described as 'one of UK's worst ever public health failures'.

The biggest criticisms levelled at the Government centre around the lack of protection given to care home residents and the lack of debate around lockdown policies.

More than 200,000 have died after testing positive for the virus.

What was established during the first day of the inquiry? As the first day of the evidential hearings began, more than 100 members of the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group also lined up outside, holding pictures of loved ones as they expressed frustration at feeling 'excluded from sharing key evidence'.

Bereaved families were promised they would remain 'at the heart' of the inquiry, which opened with a 17-minute film about patients who died alone.

Lady Hallett, who led inquests into the 7/7 London bombings, vowed 'their loss would be recognised' and she would undertake the thorough investigation they deserve.

Hugo Keith KC, the inquiry's chief lawyer, later told the inquiry that the lack of thought given to lockdowns was 'extraordinary'.

Mr Keith added: 'Very little thought was given to how '-- if it proved to be necessary '-- something as complex, difficult and damaging as a national lockdown could be put in place at all.

'Equally, there appears to have been a failure to think through the potentially massive impact on education and on the economy in trying to control a runaway virus in this way.'

Brexit hampered No10's pandemic preparations, Mr Keith also said yesterday.

He claimed that work managing a possible no-deal exit from the EU required an 'enormous amount' of logistical planning and might have drained critical resources and capacity needed to thwart potential infectious threats.

He told the chair of the inquiry: 'The pandemic struck the UK just as it was leaving the EU.

'That departure required an enormous amount of planning and preparation, particularly to address what were likely to be the severe consequences of a no-deal exit on food and medicine supplies, travel and transport, business borders and so on.

'It is clear that such planning, from 2018 onwards, crowded out and prevented some or perhaps a majority of the improvements that central government itself understood were required to be made to resilience planning and preparedness.

'Did the attention therefore paid to the risks of a no-deal exit '' Operation Yellowhammer as it was known '' drain the resources and capacity that should have been continuing the fight against the next pandemic, that should have been utilised in preparing the United Kingdom for civil emergency?

Later during the day, Claire Mitchell KC, the lawyer for Scottish bereaved families, told the inquiry that it would hear from former health secretary Matt Hancock as well as Sir Oliver Letwin, former minister for Government policy.

Although, Covid poses a much smaller threat nowadays thanks to the UK's wall of immunity from vaccines and repeated waves.

Addressing the inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett, Ms Scolding acknowledged the Department of Health has been accused of repeatedly making the 'wrong calls' in its guidance and lockdown policies.

She said: 'The aim of the department and those working in it was at all times to save lives, minimise serious illness and protect health and care, particularly during the first six months of the pandemic, when less was known about the virus and its transmission.

'There was frequently a need to issue guidance or create policies where there were in reality no good options.

'The department recognises the strength of feeling that certain decisions made by us were wrong.

'For example some people feel lockdowns should have been introduced earlier and for longer. Others hold an opposite and contrary view.'

But the department, now headed up by Steve Barclay, was 'often faced' with a 'series of hugely unpalatable options', Ms Scolding argued.

'All of which were certain to have negative impacts on the citizens of the UK in one way or another,' she added.

'Decisions were often extremely finely balanced.

Ms Scolding told the inquiry: 'The department will not seek during the course of this enquiry to say that it did everything right or that it would necessarily have made the same decisions today in 2023 with the benefit of hindsight.

'We will however propose that it is necessary to recognise the context of the time '-- particularly in respect of pandemic preparedness.

'It was very different to what we know now and would ask you my lady not to impose what we would call a retroscope upon decision making.'

Ms Scolding acknowledged that guidance issued by the department had taken a 'profound' toll on families and friends who were isolated.

She added: 'Guidance, support, equipment, services and policies during the pandemic was a Herculean task and was the greatest challenge ever faced by the NHS and adult social care sector.

'You will hear the department referring to various documents as battle plans and operations precisely because it was an all-consuming period akin to a war.'

Meanwhile, Mr Strachan, representing the Cabinet Office, acknowledged the impact of the pandemic 'went far beyond the many whose health suffered directly'.

'The virus and the measures taken in response affected the economy and society profoundly,' he added.

However, addressing Lady Hallett, he said: 'This inquiry will rightly focus on Covid's profound effects on the UK.

'But it is right to remember that this was a global pandemic. It affected the lives of everyone.

'No one country was left untouched and each government had to make extremely difficult choices in mitigating the suffering and hardship caused to its citizens.'

James Strachan KC, representing the Cabinet Office, urged the inquiry to 'remember this was a global pandemic'. He added: 'It affected the lives of everyone'

He added: 'My lady, the Covid pandemic was the biggest peacetime crisis this country faced in decades.

'Its consequences will be felt for decades to come but it is important to recognise the many sacrifices that have been and will continue to be made across our country as a result of this virus.

'There will be much to learn from scrutinizing with the full benefit of hindsight, what happened first in terms of preparation then examining the response in terms of the breadth and scale.'

However he acknowledged, that as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated, when announcing the inquiry in May 2021, 'it is essential the Government's actions, its structures, processes and judgements are examined vigorously, candidly and objectively'.

He told the inquiry this will ensure 'every possible lesson from this terrible global event as it affected the UK is learned and remembered'.

It comes after the inquiry's lead lawyer Hugo Keith KC told Lady Hallett yesterday, on the first day of the probe's public hearing, that Britain 'might not have been well prepared at all' for the pandemic.

Yesterday the inquiry's chief lawyer, Hugo Keith KC, presented the Inquiry with an extraordinarily complicated flow chart detailing the government's chain of command in helping to protect Brits from future pandemics. The diagram, created by the Inquiry to reflect structures in 2019, links together more than 100 organisations involved in preparing the country for any future infectious threats

Hugo Keith KC told the Inquiry yesterday that the nation was 'taken by surprise' by 'significant aspects' of the disease that has been recorded on 226,977 death certificates

Later, he told the hearing that officials failed to consider the 'potentially massive' impact that lockdowns would have on the UK.

And he suggested that those responsible for restricting public freedoms as the virus took hold had spent barely any time discussing the measures in advance.

This was despite the Government making preparations for a flu-like pandemic which would have affected public health in a different way.

Mr Keith said: 'Extraordinary though it may seem, given that it's a word that's forever seared in the nation's consciousness, there was very little debate pre-pandemic of whether a lockdown might prove to be necessary in the event of a runaway virus, let alone how a lockdown could be avoided.

'Very little thought was given to how, if it proved to be necessary, how something as complex, difficult and damaging as a national lockdown could be put in place at all.'

Brexit also hampered No10's pandemic preparations, Mr Keith also told the Inquiry.

He claimed that work managing a possible no-deal exit from the EU required an 'enormous amount' of logistical planning and might have drained critical resources and capacity needed to thwart potential infectious threats.

Lawyers for bereaved families also echoed concerns that the Government was preoccupied with Brexit in their opening statements to the first day of public hearings in the three-year official inquiry.

Brexiteer Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said it was 'quite remarkable' that anti-Brexit arguments should be aired 'in the forum of the Covid Inquiry'.

Mr Keith also presented the Inquiry with an extraordinarily complicated flow chart detailing the government's chain of command in helping to protect Brits from future pandemics.

The diagram, created by the Inquiry to reflect structures in 2019, links together more than 100 organisations involved in preparing the country for any future infectious threats.

But the flow chart, illustrated with a tangle of arrows and dotted lines, looked 'much more like a bowl of spaghetti than a clear and coordinated framework for a cogent national response', the lawyer for the Trades Union Congress told the inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett.

While other inquiries have opened across the world, the UK's will be the first to reach public hearings with evidence from witnesses.

Many familiar faces thrust into the limelight during the pandemic are expected to make an appearance.

This could include Sir Chris Whitty, Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, Sir Patrick Vallance and members of the Independent SAGE group of scientists.

Boris Johnson, David Cameron, George Osborne and Jeremy Hunt will also likely be among the politicians giving evidence to Hallett's inquiry.

Government data up to June 4 shows the number of Covid cases recorded since March 2020. As many as 70 witnesses will contribute to the first module on pandemic preparedness. Wednesday's session will this afternoon hear from Dr Charlotte Hammer, an epidemiologist from Cambridge University and Professor Jimmy Whitworth, an infectious diseases expert from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Government data up to May 12 shows the number of deaths of people whose death certificate mentioned Covid as one of the causes, and seven-day rolling average. Baroness Hallett told the inquiry she intends to answer three key questions: was the UK properly prepared for the pandemic, was the response appropriate, and can lessons be learned for the future?

Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson's former chief aide, is among other names expected to appear.

Claire Mitchell KC, the lawyer for Scottish bereaved families, told the inquiry yesterday that it would hear from former health secretary Matt Hancock as well as Sir Oliver Letwin, former minister for Government policy.

As many as 70 witnesses will contribute to the first module on pandemic preparedness.

Wednesday's session will this afternoon hear from Dr Charlotte Hammer, an epidemiologist from Cambridge University and Professor Jimmy Whitworth, an infectious diseases expert from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The first module will run for six weeks, until 20 July. The probe is not expected to conclude until 2026.

A separate Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry chaired by Lord Brailsford is looking at the pandemic response in devolved areas in Scotland.

Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he and the Welsh government are fully committed to the inquiry, though they maintain that there is no need for Wales to hold its own inquiry.

Will Boris Johnson be quizzed? Who else will be involved? And how long will it take? EVERYTHING you need to know about the Covid inquiry Why was the inquiry set up?

There has been much criticism of the UK government's handling of the pandemic, including the fact the country seemed to lack a thorough plan for dealing with such a major event.

Other criticisms levelled at the Government include allowing elderly people to be discharged from hospitals into care homes without being tested, locking down too late in March 2020 and the failures of the multi-billion NHS test and trace.

Families of those who lost their loved ones to Covid campaigned for an independent inquiry into what happened.

Then Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was right that lessons are learned, announcing in May 2021 that an inquiry would be held.

Will Boris Johnson be quizzed? If so, when?

It's not clear exactly when, or if, the former Prime Minister will be quizzed. No full list of witnesses has been published yet.

But given he was in charge of the Government for almost the entirety of the pandemic, his insights will prove central to understanding several aspects of the nation's response.

If called forward as a witness, he would be hauled in front of the committee to give evidence.

What topics will the inquiry cover?

There are currently six broad topics, called modules, that will be considered by the inquiry.

Module 1 will examine the resilience and preparedness of the UK for a coronavirus pandemic.

Module 2 will examine decisions taken by Mr Johnson and his then team of ministers, as advised by the civil service, senior political, scientific and medical advisers, and relevant committees.

The decisions taken by those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will also be examined.

Module 3 will investigate the impact of Covid on healthcare systems, including on patients, hospitals and other healthcare workers and staff.

This will include the controversial use of Do Not Attempt Resuscitation notices during the pandemic.

Module 4 meanwhile will assess Covid vaccines and therapeutics.

It will consider and make recommendations on a range of issues relating to the development of Covid vaccines and the implementation of the vaccine rollout programme in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Modules 5 and 6 will open later this year, investigating government procurement and the care sector.

Who is in charge of the inquiry?

Baroness Heather Hallett is in the charge of the wide-reaching inquiry. And she's no stranger to taking charge of high profile investigations.

The 72-year-old ex-Court of Appeal judge was entrusted by Mr Johnson with chairing the long-awaited public probe into the coronavirus crisis.

Her handling of the inquiry will be subject to ferocious scrutiny.

Until Baroness Hallett was asked to stand aside, she was acting as the coroner in the inquest of Dawn Sturgess, the 44-year-old British woman who died in July 2018 after coming into contact with the nerve agent Novichok.

She previously acted as the coroner for the inquests into the deaths of the 52 victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings.

She also chaired the Iraq Fatalities Investigations, as well as the 2014 Hallett Review of the administrative scheme to deal with 'on the runs' in Northern Ireland.

Baroness Hallett, a married mother-of-two, was nominated for a life peerage in 2019 as part of Theresa May's resignation honours.

How long will it take?

When he launched the terms of the inquiry in May 2021, Mr Johnson said he hoped it could be completed in a 'reasonable timescale'.

But, realistically, it could take years.

It has no formal deadline but is due to hold hearings across the UK until at least 2025.

Interim reports are scheduled to be published before public hearings conclude by summer 2026.

The Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war began in 2009 but the final, damning document wasn't released until 2016.

Meanwhile, the Bloody Sunday inquiry took about a decade.

Should a similar timescale be repeated for the Covid inquiry, it would take the sting out of any criticism of any Tory Government failings.

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June 16, 2023 | Part Of Washington Journal 06/16/2023 Washington Journal2023-06-16T06:59:59-04:00 https://ximage.c-spanvideo.org/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwaWN0dXJlcy5jLXNwYW52aWRlby5vcmciLCJrZXkiOiJGaWxlc1wvMmQ3XC8wMDFcLzE2ODY5MTM0NTdfMDAxLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciIsImhlaWdodCI6NTA2fX19 Viewers commented on a Gallup poll showing that social conservatism was at its highest levels in a decade.Viewers commented on a Gallup poll showing that social conservatism was at its highest levels in a decade.

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*This text was compiled from uncorrected Closed Captioning.

Related Video May 8, 2021 Open Phones, Part 2Viewers responded to the question, ''Is the Republican Party now the 'party of Trump?''' The question came amid debate'...

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RNC Research : Karine Jean-Pierre: "I'm a historic figure and I certainly walk in history every day." https://t.co/dWrlacCZh1

Sat Jun 17 20:56:51 +0000 2023

Hee-Haw The Viking 'š : @RNCResearch She may go down in history, but not like she thinks.It will be the chapter about the "Great Breakdow'... https://t.co/cQhZg1zCc4

Sun Jun 18 14:22:08 +0000 2023

American_Dawg : @RNCResearch https://t.co/r2GYr5VguD

Sun Jun 18 14:22:00 +0000 2023

Erick Jaeger : @RNCResearch https://t.co/ILnJrP7NVM

Sun Jun 18 14:21:53 +0000 2023

Kram Rellim : @RNCResearch Historically incompetent! '‘¸

Sun Jun 18 14:21:36 +0000 2023

CAPM : @RNCResearch How is Carpet munching historic

Sun Jun 18 14:21:13 +0000 2023

Bosco : @RNCResearch She reads from a book!

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Bobbi Krueger : @RNCResearch NOBODY WILL EVEN REMEMBER WHO SHE IS IN A COUPLE OF YEARS!!

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Ty dveney : @RNCResearch Your historic alright. The stupidest most lying and deceptive ''person '' that has ever stood at that po'... https://t.co/KK280MCW67

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AC : @RNCResearch Not for much longer.

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Eddie Adams Jr : @RNCResearch You're a diversity hire'... that's it'...

Sun Jun 18 14:20:20 +0000 2023

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 14:13

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 13:58

Millie Bobby Brown fans are divided after the Stranger Things star seemingly appeared annoyed by fans' phone use at a recent convention.

Brown was doing a Q&A panel at German Comic Con in Dortmund, Germany on April 29 when she seemingly became agitated by requests from fans to record messages, as well as the amount of fans on their phones in the audience.

A viral TikTok video posted May 9 shows the actress scolding the audience after a fan, who is recording on her phone, asks Brown to say hello to someone named Melissa.

"Hi Melissa! There we go!" Brown says, making an exaggerated waving gesture before telling the crowd, "You have to live in the moment. Put your screens down. Live in the moment."

Watch below:

In the comments section, some viewers criticized Brown for appearing "annoyed" and "like she [didn't] want to be there."

"When a celebrity begins to talk down to their fans it isn't a good sign," one user commented.

"Naw I'm sorry but those fans probably paid a lot of money to be there so they should be able to do what they please w their phones," another wrote.

"I guess she forgot all these people payed to see her," someone else commented.

"I get she was frustrated but the way she reacted absolutely embarrassed this particular fan who was being nothing but polite," another viewer shared.

Others, however, defended the star and empathized with her effort to set some boundaries.

"She went OFF? Lmao she politely asked," one fan wrote.

"She was so annoyed. I'd be too. The majority of the people didn't even have questions," another commented.

"The reasons she's saying it is because it was a q+a and everyone kept coming up and saying can you say hi to my camera and confessing their love to her," someone else explained.

"A lot of [people] go to stuff like this and only think about how many likes their video might get. Experiencing real life from behind a screen is wild," another user wrote.

READ MORE: 'She's 19' Trends on Twitter After Millie Bobby Brown Engagement

During the Q&A, Brown, who got engaged to Jon Bon Jovi's son Jake Bongiovi in early April, was also asked to show off her engagement ring, which she did while happily beaming.

When another fan asked who Brown considers a better kisser, Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things) or Louis Partridge (Lord Tewkesbury in Enola Holmes), the actress instead shouted "Jake!" '-- her fianc(C).

The topic also turned to Taylor Swift at one point as Brown was asked several questions about the pop star.

When asked to name her favorite Swift song, Brown shouted out the 10-minute version of "All Too Well." She also named Midnights and Evermore as her favorite Swift albums.

Celebrities Who Are Supposedly Rude to Fans

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Comments

My question now with all that we have learned, was it really a ''Respiratory Virus''?

The Secretary of Defense stated at the podium next to President Trump that this is a ''live exercise'' at the very beginning of this ''Pandemic''.

Here Pompeo states this is a ''live exercise'' https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4875167/user-clip-mike-pompeo-live-exercise

President Trump says to him after he states this and says ''you should have let us know''.

I meant to say Secretary of State.

Looking at the COVID pandemic as a military-run operation puts public laws and documents into light while painting a different picture of the whole was really in charge of the US response. Was this martial law?

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Sun, 18 Jun 2023 05:24

A Michigan suspect who authorities say expressed explicit neo-Nazi and antisemitic ideologies online was arrested Friday by the FBI who alleged he stockpiled weapons and was planning a mass shooting.

The United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan charged Seann Pietila, 19, of Pickford, Michigan with transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure another.

Investigators allege the suspect had communicated with another user on Instagram where they expressed strong views against the Jewish population, support for neo-Nazis and idolization of previous mass shooters, according to the criminal complaint.

When the FBI searched the suspect's home earlier Friday they found a cache of weapons, a Nazi flag, a ghillie suit, gas masks, and military sniper/survival manuals, the criminal complaint said.

A note found on Seann Pietela's phone by investigators.

Department of Justice

A search of the suspect's phone found a message in the Notes app where he had identified a synagogue in East Lansing, a date and a list of equipment, according to the complaint.

"Antisemitic threats and violence against our Jewish communities -- or any other group for that matter -- will not be tolerated in the Western District of Michigan," U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said in a statement. "Today and every day we take all credible threats seriously.

Attorney information for the suspect wasn't immediately available.

The suspect's mother, Brittany Stob, told ABC News in a phone call on Saturday that her son is still in jail pending a detention hearing next week.

Seann Pietela in a photo released in court documents.

Department of Justice

Stob asserted she believes her 19-year-old son is not violent and was not truly planning an attack, as alleged by federal prosecutors.

"He said some stuff online that he shouldn't have," Stob said. "He's a good kid. He would never hurt anybody."

Stob also said the guns and tactical gear seized by the FBI in the search of Pietila's home this week belonged to her and her husband, not her son.

Stob said her son began consuming antisemitic content online when he was isolated during the pandemic and didn't have access to the mental health treatment he needed.

The FBI said it received a report Tuesday about threatening communications made online, the complaint said. Meta provided investigators with information related to the user name associated with the threats and the FBI alleges it found several messages by the user, who was later identified as the suspect, making antisemitic slurs, and praising neo-Nazi ideology.

The suspect allegedly talked about his admiration for the 2019 Christchurch mass shooting in New Zealand, according to the criminal complaint. The date allegedly found on the notes app was the fifth anniversary of the New Zealand shooting.

Further investigation into the suspect's social media accounts found other images and posts that included posts of Nazi imagery and other mass shooters, the complaint said.

Among the contraband allegedly found in the suspect's home during the search warrant were magazines, a shotgun, a rifle, a pistol, various knives and firearms accessories, according to the complaint.

"No American should face threats against them based on their race or religion," James A. Tarasca, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Michigan said in a statement. "Crimes like the one alleged in this complaint have a profound effect not only on the intended target, but on their entire community."

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ALX 🇺🇸 : Whose idea was it to have John Fetterman introduce Joe Biden? https://t.co/VL7u4UJXUG

Sat Jun 17 17:04:42 +0000 2023

NameBlues.com Votre identit(C) Web3! : @alx @ExplainThisBob

Sat Jun 17 18:48:28 +0000 2023

LeRoy Galvan : @alx In your face America this is where we have come, GOD help us we need YOU!

Sat Jun 17 18:48:27 +0000 2023

P L : @alx The blind leading the blind, this is classic.

Sat Jun 17 18:48:26 +0000 2023

A. D. : @alx That's the dream team right there

Sat Jun 17 18:48:16 +0000 2023

InTwistSting : @alx Well, at least he dressed up for the occasion

Sat Jun 17 18:48:13 +0000 2023

Action Man 🇺🇸 : @alx They do it do it makes Bidens incoherent rambling sound normal

Sat Jun 17 18:48:11 +0000 2023

struggler : @alx a person from my generation would've introduced betterðŸ‚ðŸ¤...''‚¸

Sat Jun 17 18:48:02 +0000 2023

Sergio : @alx He's worse that Biden..:

Sat Jun 17 18:48:00 +0000 2023

David Liddell : @alx Embarrassing lol we in the real world are laughing at America well the Democrats America anyway these clowns make you look foolish

Sat Jun 17 18:47:55 +0000 2023

Lisa 🇺🇸ðŸðŸ¼ : @alx Biden understood every word.

Sat Jun 17 18:47:54 +0000 2023

RED SOX in 7 : @alx Why can he not wear proper clothes

Sat Jun 17 18:47:51 +0000 2023

Animus Libertas : @alx Why is he always in a sweatshirt?

Sat Jun 17 18:47:38 +0000 2023

Conservative : @alx The comments are gold

Sat Jun 17 18:47:30 +0000 2023

MitchC - Broken Arrow : @alx Those rubbing our noses in the incomptence being imposed on us, that we can do nothing about. The Bolshevik Cartel in DC hates America.

Sat Jun 17 18:47:26 +0000 2023

Corn : @alx Where do you start?

Sat Jun 17 18:47:25 +0000 2023

Joe : @alx "IM STANDING NEXT TO A COLAPSED BRIDGE HERE" This is too much!

Sat Jun 17 18:47:20 +0000 2023

Dragon51 : @alx Looks like the center for Tramatic Brain Injury

Sat Jun 17 18:47:20 +0000 2023

Crypto Moth : @alx Everyone should remember this clip immediately after the nuclear missiles have exploded & the skin is dripping from their face.

Sat Jun 17 18:47:18 +0000 2023

Bill Scott : @alx Two great minds.

Sat Jun 17 18:47:14 +0000 2023

Thomas Matthew : @alx Biden/Fetterman for 2024!

Sat Jun 17 18:47:13 +0000 2023

1eeripsa : @alx God save the Queen man!

Sat Jun 17 18:47:13 +0000 2023

🇺🇸Shall Not Be Infringed🇺🇸 : @alx https://t.co/xpH5n5MBO5

Sat Jun 17 18:47:13 +0000 2023

ニック : @alx What's infucture? They found the one guy that's worse than Biden.

Sat Jun 17 18:47:00 +0000 2023

Belayneh : @alx Both guys are the only one to understand each other.

Sat Jun 17 18:46:56 +0000 2023

James Morgante : @alx This has to be AI generated.

Sat Jun 17 18:46:46 +0000 2023

Kimahri. : @alx Haha makes biden sound more coherent🤪

Sat Jun 17 18:46:37 +0000 2023

Albert Rodrigues : @alx In the land of the blind ðŸŽthe 1 👁ed person is king 👑 LOL ðŸ‚

Sat Jun 17 18:46:29 +0000 2023

Brett High : @alx Is this ok? His opponent called a veggie tray a crudite. 🤣

Sat Jun 17 18:46:28 +0000 2023

joe brown : @alx Quick. Fast too.

Sat Jun 17 18:46:15 +0000 2023

marc gendron : @alx Funny part is Joe is the only one who understands Fettermann.

Sat Jun 17 18:46:13 +0000 2023

Traci Gallodoro : @alx It was caused by a fire ðŸ--¥ this guy is the only one that makes Biden look good.

Sat Jun 17 18:46:09 +0000 2023

@prepperzone : @alx Two people who are unfit to serve. 🤨

Sat Jun 17 18:46:08 +0000 2023

Giorgi Giovanni : @alx Lol ðŸ‚Kanye West for the president 2024!

Sat Jun 17 18:46:07 +0000 2023

enigma : @alx This is PATHETIC

Sat Jun 17 18:46:03 +0000 2023

Dawnie🇺🇸👨'ðŸ‘(C)'ðŸ‘...ðŸ--¨ðŸ''¬›ðŸ¥ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸ : @alx Same person who has not demanded he be in a fucking wheelchair from here on out- them clumps of air keep trippin that dude up

Sat Jun 17 18:46:02 +0000 2023

dogg star : @alx Good lord like the blind leading the blind over there

Sat Jun 17 18:45:54 +0000 2023

Emmett Benedum : @alx Unbelievable

Sat Jun 17 18:45:45 +0000 2023

daCdr : @alx Birds of a feather flock together

Sat Jun 17 18:45:45 +0000 2023

Ethlock $SKRIMP : @alx I feel sorry for Americans, idiocracy got nothing on those 2

Sat Jun 17 18:45:45 +0000 2023

Ash H : @alx https://t.co/JoDyxhkz7Z

Sat Jun 17 18:45:42 +0000 2023

Diogenes' balls : @alx Poor Fetterman was almost gonna quit senate trying to pronounce infrastructure. Tell your kids this is what wi'... https://t.co/PzT5bPiIK6

Sat Jun 17 18:45:38 +0000 2023

Kal-El : @alx Seems appropriate

Sat Jun 17 18:45:36 +0000 2023

The_Almighty_Reset : @alx Holy shit.

Sat Jun 17 18:45:22 +0000 2023

celticmagick (ジェイソãƒ") : @alx They go together like peas and carrots. Maybe between the two of them they can form a complete sentence?

Sat Jun 17 18:45:16 +0000 2023

Rich G : @alx https://t.co/yWq88C19W0

Sat Jun 17 18:45:16 +0000 2023

Italian Pride : @alx https://t.co/ASKMHgX2SS

Sat Jun 17 18:45:11 +0000 2023

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Story at-a-glanceJune 5, 2023, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk co-hosted a live Twitter discussion about issues they believe ought to be at the forefront of the political debate going into the 2024 presidential election Days

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Fri, 16 Jun 2023 14:18

A Biblical Response to the 'Transing' of America

In this teaching Pastor Gary gives a Biblical response to the cultural chaos and the corporate controversy that has overtaken our country with gender confusion, sexual perversion, and a ''woke'' agenda. How can we navigate all the madness without losing our hearts for those who are caught up in the madness? We should be outraged by all the cultural evil, but we should never lose the mission of the church because of our outrage over the madness of the world. At the same time, we must never condone the evil or affirm the delusion. Pastor Gary explains the ''WHY'' behind the madness and ''WHAT'' we should do in response.

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