1615: Day One Dictator

Today the US Navy received oil directly from Russia. This fact is also confirmed by the data of the Marinetraffic monitoring service.

A tanker of a German company flying the flag of Liberia delivered 50,000 tons of oil products from Novorossiysk to Norfolk.

More than a quarter of people injected with mRNA Covid jabs suffered an unintended immune response created by a glitch in the way the vaccine was read by the body, a study has found.

No adverse effects were created by the error, data show, but Cambridge scientists found such vaccines were not perfect and sometimes led to nonsense proteins being made instead of the desired Covid “spike”, which mimics infection and leads to antibody production.

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Not a doctor but "nonsense proteins" sounds a lot like prions which I usually see described as "misfolded proteins." How Now Mad Cow!

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 15:41

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

Brits may be forced to take a selfie and upload it to an adult website before watching porn under new rules to protect children.

Ofcom could force websites to use ''facial age estimation'' technology to confirm users are age appropriate.

Such technology is seen as more ''privacy-friendly'' because it would avoid viewers having to upload personal IDs or credit card information.

However, the shame aspect of having to take a selfie in order to watch hardcore pornography is very likely not just to prevent children accessing such material, but adults too.

Britons may be forced to take selfie before viewing pornographyhttps://t.co/D822gprH1M

'-- Telegraph Business (@TeleBusiness) December 5, 2023Porn websites assert that they delete the selfies immediately after confirmation.

Users who look under the age of 25 may have to provide further ID information to access adult websites.

Studies show that a quarter of children in the UK have seen porn by age 11, with the average age children first see it being 13.

The new rules are expected to be enforced in 2025 after a period of review.

''Pornography is too readily accessible to children online, and the new online safety laws are clear that must change,'' said Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom's chief executive.

''Regardless of their approach, we expect all services to offer robust protection to children from stumbling across pornography, and also to take care that privacy rights and freedoms for adults to access legal content are safeguarded,'' she added.

A workaround for people who want to avoid having to take a selfie might be to check out Ai influencers, which are verging on being pornographic anyway.

* * *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch.

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Sun, 10 Dec 2023 13:35

Breaking News As has become commonplace at such gatherings, the theme this week at the United Nations Climate Summit (''COP28'') has been reducing carbon emissions. The underlying, more sinister theme is to reduce emissions worldwide and is tantamount to modern-day colonialism.

The Financial Times reported there is a ''looming land grab'' in Africa by corporations in richer countries to purchase land in Liberia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia for ''carbon credits,'' which is a colossal ruse.

''The [methods] of exploitation might be new but the consequences are not so different to the last 200 years of land grabs in Liberia,'' an expert on civil society's role in forest governance in Liberia said.

Read more: Undercurrent at the UN Climate Summit '' Green Colonialism, CFact, 6 December 2023

Let's not lose touch'...Your Government and Big Tech are actively trying to censor the information reported by The Expos(C) to serve their own needs. Subscribe now to make sure you receive the latest uncensored news in your inbox'...

The following has been paraphrased from the article titled 'The looming land grab in Africa for carbon credits' published by the Financial Times. You can read the full article HERE.

Carbon credits are part of the United Arab Emirates' (''UAE's'') official strategy to cut its national emissions by 2030. Through a company founded by a member of Dubai's royal family, Blue Carbon, discussions are taking place to acquire management rights to millions of hectares of land in Africa.

The scale is enormous. According to the Financial Times, the negotiations involve potential deals for about a tenth of Liberia's land mass, a fifth of Zimbabwe's, and swaths of Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania.

The founder and chair of the privately owned Dubai-based company is Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook al-Maktoum, a member of Dubai's royal family. Under an unfinished international accounting framework for carbon markets being designed by the United Nations, Blue Carbon intends to sell the emission reductions linked to forest conservation in African and South American nations as carbon credits. Blue Carbon is among the most active private brokers in this carbon market that is being designed for and by governments.

Climate negotiators at COP28 have been looking to finalise this UN framework to kickstart a new market in carbon credits which would allow countries to shrink their own carbon footprints by buying emission reductions from others.

The trade is supposed to be simple. The 195 countries that have signed the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement committed to setting targets for reducing their carbon emissions by 2030. If a country exceeds these or future targets, it can sell those additional emission reductions to another country.

The governments of the UAE, South Korea, Switzerland and other countries have been wagering that these international carbon markets will play a major role in the climate solutions offered to world leaders at COP28.

The current global carbon credit market is valued at nearly $2 billion. Approximately four out of ten carbon credits traded are based on nature restoration projects. To achieve their own reduction targets, private buyers '' from businesses to individuals '' can purchase offsets for their own emissions. Brokers similar to Blue Carbon obtain rights to buy and sell carbon credits, taking a cut of their value.

But the scale and speed of dealmaking between countries over available land have sparked concern about a lack of guardrails around this system.

Community leaders and activists in the countries where Blue Carbon is active say that seller countries are not being given enough time to develop a natural resource strategy that would promote a fair trade in carbon credits. Key issues include revenue-sharing, land rights and the potential impact on the host countries' ability to hit their own climate target.

''The [methods] of exploitation might be new but the consequences are not so different to the last 200 years of land grabs in Liberia,'' says David Young, an independent expert on civil society's role in forest governance in the country. ''The promises to the communities are vague and unpredictable and it's like logging or mining or palm oil all over again.''

Until recently, governments had steered clear of buying and selling directly into this market. But as countries are increasingly pressured to reach targets to cut national emissions by 2030, importing carbon credits at scale has become increasingly attractive. And as plans for a national scheme have emerged, there has been a new rush for access to resources in countries rich in biodiversity.

South Korea, Switzerland, Japan, the UAE and Singapore are among the states to have struck 95 preliminary deals since the start of 2021 to buy future emission reductions from countries including Ghana, Vietnam and Senegal, according to data from MSCI carbon markets.

However, some of the earliest deals are being criticised for their lack of transparency and accountability, for example, Liberia. Unlike other nations that Blue Carbon has approached, Liberia does not yet have a law governing the sale and taxation of carbon credits.

A copy of Blue Carbon's memorandum of understanding with Liberia, dated July and seen by the Financial Times, proposed to give the Dubai-based company exclusive rights to generate and sell carbon credits on about 1 million hectares of Liberian land. It would receive 70 per cent of the value of the credits for the next three decades, and sell these tax-free for a decade. The government would receive the other 30 per cent, with some of this going to local communities.

Community consultation was due to take place between August and November. But Andrew Zeleman, who helps lead Liberia's unions of foresters, says that the local leaders he engages with on the land have still not been consulted about the deal.

Activists have heavily criticised the proposed deal. Groups including the Rainforest Foundation UK, Friends of the Earth and Earthsight have said that allowing a foreign company to manage such a big portion of Liberian land would endanger the livelihoods and community land ownership of up to a million people.

The government was ''handing over decisions about how a substantial part of its carbon emissions for the next 30 years are to be managed [to] a UAE firm that has existed for less than a year, and which has no track record in carbon trading,'' they said in a letter earlier this year.

Wilson Tarpeh, head of Liberia's Environmental Protection Agency says that no contract with Blue Carbon has yet been signed. He estimates that Liberia had 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide locked in its forest, absorbed through photosynthesis. ''The size of the carbon stock is huge, so anybody will be tempted to sell our carbon,'' he says. ''But it has to be a rules-based system. It's not like buying a candy bar.''

Ministers of South America's Suriname, another country almost entirely covered in tropical forest, received a similar offer to Liberia when they met with al-Maktoum in Blue Carbon's offices in Dubai in August.

Suriname has a gross domestic product per capita that is about 10 times greater than Liberia's. Additionally, its government has more than a decade of experience engaging with financing mechanisms for emission reduction, including under the UN's ill-fated Clean Development Mechanism, which had its roots in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol eventually superseded by the Paris Agreement. So, Suriname's ministers were better able to push back against Blue Carbon's initial proposal to take a significant cut of future carbon credit revenues.

A person close to Suriname's environment ministry confirmed that it was still considering Blue Carbon's latest updated offer, alongside other offers for its 4.8 million credits tied to national deforestation reduction. But such offers can be hard to turn down.

''[Blue Carbon's] pitch is that they have untold wealth from the royal family,'' an adviser to Suriname on the deal says, a powerful incentive for poorer countries looking to insure themselves against volatility in carbon pricing.

Other countries have taken action to put safeguards around their arrangements. Shortly before Blue Carbon and Tanzania's forestry agency signed a memorandum of understanding in February for the future development of 8 million hectares of forest, a strict taxation regime for carbon credit trading went into effect. Sixty-one per cent of the proceeds from the sale of carbon credits go to local governments.

Blue Carbon has not said what proportion of the credits it develops in Liberia, Kenya and elsewhere it would sell to the UAE versus selling these on to other countries, or potentially other companies.

One priority for negotiators at COP28 as countries battle over how to strengthen the framework for governments to trade carbon credits, is to avoid repeating mistakes made by corporate buyers and sellers on issues of accounting and human rights.

In particular, scientists have pointed to several flaws in the idea of issuing credits to reward a developer for protecting a forest from hypothetical future deforestation, as Blue Carbon is expected to do. For example, Verra, the largest accreditation body for voluntary credits, has been accused of over-crediting projects based on inflated projections of future deforestation. Claims that Verra has denied.

Under the UN's emerging system, to avoid double counting between countries governments must cancel out carbon credits transferred to another country by inflating their own carbon footprint. So, countries need to strike a balance between attracting revenues and being able to meet their own climate targets. This could heighten the political risk for foreign developers of carbon credits because each credit sold makes it harder for a government to hit its own climate target.

The stakes are high when defining what counts as a carbon credit and who should profit from it. Honduras has already deployed a tenth of its standing army to protect its forest stock and to boost its chances of selling deforestation reduction credits to richer countries in future.

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Sun, 10 Dec 2023 13:31

Boris Johnson could return as Prime Minister under astonishing plans being hatched by Tory MPs '' with a 'dream ticket' leadership tie-up with Nigel Farage even being considered.

The Mail on Sunday has spoken to multiple Conservative MPs who believe that bringing back the former Premier is the only way to save the party from an Election wipeout.

It comes as Rishi Sunak faces a crunch vote on Tuesday on his flagship Rwanda migrants plan, with whips using threats and blandishments to try to quell a revolt '' allegedly even offering peerages to potential rebels if they toe the line.

This newspaper can reveal that Mr Sunak's Tory enemies have drawn up what they crudely call an 'Advent calendar of s**t' to further destabilise the Prime Minister following his sacking of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary and the resignation of Robert Jenrick as Immigration Minister over attempts to salvage the Rwanda plan.

The MPs intend to rebel in Commons votes and make increasingly outspoken interventions, with No 10 nervously braced for further Ministerial resignations. One plotter admitted the intention was to 'crash' the Sunak Government and install a leader who could close the gap with Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party.

The MPs are panicking about polling figures which show Tory support sinking, with many voters turning to the Reform Party, the successor to Nigel Farage's Brexit Party. Its fortunes have been boosted by Mr Farage's successful run on ITV reality show I'm A Celebrity.

The Mail on Sunday has spoken to multiple Conservative MPs who believe that bringing back Boris is the only way to save the party from an Election wipeout

This newspaper can reveal that Rishi Sunak's Tory enemies have drawn up what they crudely call an 'Advent calendar of s**t' to further destabilise the Prime Minister

The Tory rebels argue that Mr Johnson is the only Conservative with the pulling power to neutralise Mr Farage's impact, particularly in the Red Wall seats in the Midlands and the North which he took from Labour at the 2019 General Election. Although Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch has emerged as another leading contender among MPs.

No 10, however, insists Mr Sunak will see off the plotters and lead the Tories into the next Election.

Last night, a spokesman for Mr Johnson would not be drawn on his political ambitions, and denied the existence of any plans to team up with Mr Farage. He said: 'Boris Johnson is currently writing a book and is supporting the Government.'

A source close to Mr Farage insisted that any pact between the two heavyweights would 'soon end in tears'. However, it is understood that MPs have privately urged the pair to talk.

Mr Sunak faces a test of his authority on Tuesday when MPs will vote on the principle of whether to tighten the law to try to salvage his plan to dispatch Channel migrants to Rwanda.

Mr Jenrick quit because he thought the legislation did not go far enough. However, MPs will not have the chance to debate and vote on potentially divisive amendments until the New Year, limiting their opportunities for rebellion.

Ms Braverman denies scheming to bring down Mr Sunak, claiming that she hopes he will lead the party into the next Election.

Neither Mr Johnson nor Mr Farage is currently in Parliament, but Boris's supporters believe that if an MP quit a safe seat before the Election to make way for Mr Johnson, Tory high command would be unable to block it.

A leadership contest would then be triggered if at least 53 letters of no confidence in Mr Sunak were sent to Sir Graham Brady, chair of the backbench 1922 Committee.

Another suggestion is that a Johnson ally, such as former Home Secretary Priti Patel, could be installed as a caretaker Prime Minister, with Mr Johnson standing for a safe seat at the Election, then stepping back in to No 10. If Reform remained a threat, a deal could be struck by giving Mr Farage, the party's honorary president, and Richard Tice, its leader, places in the Lords and key Ministerial positions.

But Reform Party officials said their aim was to kill off the Conservatives. One told The Mail on Sunday: 'When Nigel gets back [from the ITV reality show] he's going to start dominating the agenda. Within about six to eight weeks we'll be polling in the high teens, and the Tories will start to slip below 20 per cent.

'At that point between five and ten MPs will realise the game's up, and defect to us. Then it's game over. We're looking at the last majority Tory administration of our lifetime. We're going to destroy them.'

Party donors are already starting to switch. The co-owners of Bristol Ports, who have donated more than £640,000 to the Tories since 2001, recently gave £100,000 to Reform.

A source close to Farage said any pact between him and Boris would 'soon end in tears'

Mr Farage has been able to reach millions of voters through the hit ITV programme, which concludes today. Yesterday, the Reform Party emailed subscribers begging them to go 'against the establishment' and vote for Farage to be crowned King of the Jungle. Mr Tice wrote: 'Our man has been superb standing for Brexit in the face of Remainer campmates who have constantly challenged his views on air.'

One Tory MP said: 'When Farage comes back he's going to be all over the airwaves, and he's going to have us in his sights.'

Another said: 'Reform are going to kill us, so we have to buy Farage off. The plan is we get him into the Lords, give him some brief like we did with Cameron '' maybe even Home Secretary '' then go to the country with the dream team.

'It may not be enough to win, but it would definitely re-energise our base, shake up the debate and give Starmer something to think about.'

Surprisingly, Mr Johnson's supporters in the parliamentary party include MPs who helped to oust him from Downing Street last year following a revolt over scandals including Partygate.

One Red Wall MP told the MoS: 'I came out early to say he had to go. But I think we have to think outside the box now. Whatever you feel about him, one thing no one can question is his effectiveness as a campaigner. And we need that now, we're staring at obliteration.'

Mr Johnson's stock is perceived to have risen following his performance at the Covid Inquiry, which one supporter said showed he can be serious and 'on top of the detail'.

Mr Johnson spent months preparing with his close aide Lord Kempsell for his appearance, during which he apologised for the 'pain and the loss and the suffering' that victims of Covid and their families went through.

However, one ex-Cabinet Minister warned Mr Johnson's comeback could be thwarted by his old rival Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary. But they added: 'That said, if Boris were still in the Commons, he would be back already. There would be a coronation. Just look at the polls. Boris is the best campaigner we have by a mile. If you want the prospect of votes at the next Election, Boris is your man.'

The MP added that replacing Mr Sunak with anyone else currently in the Commons would 'make things worse rather than better'.

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Sun, 10 Dec 2023 13:26

A groundbreaking study found that 17 million people died worldwide after the Covid ''vaccine'' rollout and therefore should be garnering worldwide attention and calls for an immediate cessation of all Covid vaccines. Instead, it has been CENSORED! The shocking study, COVID-19 vaccine-associated mortality in the Southern Hemisphere, by Drs. Denis Rancourt, Marine Baudin, Joseph Hickey and J(C)r(C)mie Mercier was published September 17, 2023, yet, also shockingly the study has not had the attention it deserves, but, has met only censorship and narrative-confirming ''fact-checks'' on the safety and effectiveness of the as-yet untested Covid-19 ''vaccines.'' Source

The StudyThe team of doctors studied 17 countries across 4 continents, in Latin America and in the equatorial region which provided them with a representative sample of the world. ''We calculate the toxicity of the vaccine for all ages,'' explained Dr. Rancourt, ''given the number of doses given worldwide to conclude that 17 million people would have been killed by this vaccine.''

17 Countries, 4 Continents

The seventeen equatorial and Southern-Hemisphere countries studied: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Suriname, Thailand, Uruguay.

These countries, spanning across four continents comprise of 9.10 % of the worldwide population, 10.3 % of worldwide COVID-19 injections (vaccination rate of 1.91 injections per person, all ages), virtually every COVID-19 vaccine type and manufacturer.

Covid Vaccines Had No Beneficial Effect.In the 17 countries, there is no evidence in all-cause mortality (ACM) by time data that there have been any beneficial effects from the COVID-19 vaccines and there is no association in time between COVID-19 vaccination and any proportionate reduction in all-cause mortality (ACM)

In fact, the opposite occurs. In all 17 countries, higher numbers are seen in all-cause mortality (ACM) when the COVID-19 vaccines are deployed and administered.

Nine of the 17 countries have no detectable excess ACM in the period of approximately one year after a pandemic was declared on the 11th of March 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), until the vaccines are rolled out (Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Philippines, Singapore, Suriname, Thailand, Uruguay). Source

Boosters Boost All-Cause MortalityAccording to the research, there were ''unprecedented peaks in ACM that occur in the summer (January-February) of 2022 in the Southern Hemisphere, and in equatorial-latitude countries. These peaks are synchronous with, or immediately preceded by rapid COVID-19-vaccine-booster-dose rollouts (3rd or 4th doses). The researchers say that this phenomenon is present in every case with sufficient mortality data, (Argentina and Suriname had insufficient mortality data in January '' February 2022).

According to the doctors who conducted the research ''it is unlikely that the transitions to regimes of high ACM, coincident with the rollout and sustained administration of COVID-19 vaccines, in all 17 Southern- Hemisphere and equatorial-latitude countries, could be due to any cause other than the vaccines.'' Source

Fatality Rate Increased with AgeThe doctors state ''synchronicity between the many peaks in ACM (in 17 countries, on 4 continents, in all elderly age groups, at different times) and associated rapid booster rollouts allows this firm conclusion regarding causality and accurate quantification of COVID-19-vaccine toxicity.'' Source

The all-ages vaccine-dose fatality rate (VDFR), which is the ratio of inferred vaccine-induced deaths to vaccine doses delivered in a population, is quantified for the January '' February 2022 ACM peak to fall in the range 0.02 % (New Zealand) to 0.20 %(Uruguay). In Chile and Peru, the vaccine Dose Fatality Rate increased exponentially with age (doubling approximately every 4 years of age), and is largest for the latest booster doses, reaching approximately 5 % in the 90+ years age groups (1 death per 20 injections of dose 4). (Also comparable to results found in research of the Northern Hemisphere (India, Israel, USA) according to the researchers.)

17 Million Deaths!The team quantified the overall all-ages vaccine Dose Fatality Rate (VDFR) for the 17 countries to be (0.126 ± 0.004) %, which would imply 17.0 ± 0.5 million COVID-19 vaccine deaths worldwide, from 13.50 billion injections up to 2 September 2023. Source

Rancourt et al, say that the deaths caused by the Covid vaccines ''would correspond to a mass iatrogenic event that killed (0.213 ± 0.006) % of the world population . 1 death per 470 living persons, in less than 3 years . did not measurably prevent any deaths.''

The overall risk of death induced by injection with the COVID-19 vaccines in actual populations, inferred from excess all-cause mortality and its synchronicity with rollouts, is globally pervasive and much larger than reported in clinical trials, adverse effect monitoring, and cause-of-death statistics from death certificates, by 3 orders of magnitude (1,000-fold greater). Source

Many more graphs and results can be found here '' Rancourt Study 17m Deaths All Cause Mortality Southern Hemisphere 23.5MB ' PDF file Download

To summarise:In seventeen countries across four continents ''Covid'' had no excess all-cause mortality in the majority of them during the ''pandemic,'' and therefore as would be expected in that case alone, the Covid vaccines had no beneficial effects, but have actually shown to cause a higher number of deaths following the vaccine rollout and administration.

The study has revealed that peaks were observed in all-cause mortality that also coincided with the rollout of booster vaccine doses three and four and there is no other likely reason for the higher number of deaths, than these booster vaccines. In all of the 17 countries, across four continents, a peak occurred in the deaths of all elderly of all ages following the vaccine and elderly deaths caused by the vaccine increased exponentially doubling approximately every four years of age. This is not a coincidence.

The doctors are interviewed at the International Crisis Summit 4 in the Romanian Parliament. Video Below.There should now be no doubt of the dangers of taking these vaccines, and neither should there be any doubt that the leaders worldwide were aware that the pharma products were far from ''safe and effective.''

There can now be no other explanation for the fact they do not seem shocked at the findings in a study by esteemed scientists. The fact that they also want the work to be censored, and ''fact checked.'' with no discussion, cannot simply be ''turning a blind eye'' to ''conspiracy theories'' at this stage when there is strong evidence to support the dangers?

We can only assume they know, they always knew, and had no qualms about administering the deadly jab around the entire world. They are now doing their very best to prevent the true evil of their actions being known by everyone else.

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 01:25

by: John Clark

Posted: Dec 8, 2023 / 12:45 PM CST

Updated: Dec 8, 2023 / 12:45 PM CST

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) '-- Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed more than 150 laws that go into effect next year, many on Jan. 1, 2024.

One of the new laws will allow noncitizens to become police officers.

Another will give legal recourse to victims of ''deepfake'' pornography.

And another requires all residents who own any of 170 ''assault-style weapons'' banned under law to register them with the state police.

Here is a list of some of the laws going into effect in 2024:

Mimimum wage for non-tipped workers increases to $14; for tipped employees, it increases to $8.40.The Digital Forgeries Act will give victims legal recourse if they are the victim of ''deep fakes,'' or digitally altered sexually explicit images.Noncitizen immigrants who have a work permit will be eligible to become police officers.Noncitiezen immigrants can get a standardized driver's license, replacing the current Temporary Visitor Driver's LicenseVideoconferencing while driving will be banned.Vaping indoors in public places is banned.Employees must receive up to two weeks of unpaid leave if a family member is killed in a crime of violence.Youthful offenders under 21 can no longer be given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.Anyone sentenced to life in prison who has served 40 years becomes eligible for parole.Gun owners to register banned weapons with the Illinois State Police by January 1st, 2024.Car manufacturers must create a 24-hour hotline to allow police to track stolen cars.Law enforcement can use surveillance drones over special events and parades, but prohibits weapons or facial recognition technology on the drones.Creation of the Statewide PTSD Mental Health Coordinator.Absolves car owners of fees, fines, or penalties during the period in which the car was stolen or hijacked.Police officers cannot stop a car for having an object hanging from the rearview mirror.Law enforcement is prohibited from sharing license plate reader data with other states to protect women coming to Illinois for an abortion.Defunds libraries that remove controversial books.Multi-occupancy, gender-neutral restrooms to be installed in private and public Illinois businesses.Music venues must have trained staff to administer opioid overdose-reversing drugs (takes effect June 1st, 2024).Pharmacists must sell fentanyl test strips over the counter.Estate-planning documents will now be able to be prepared electronically.Newly constructed drinking fountains must also have a bottle-filling station.Landlords will be required to rent or sell property to undocumented migrants.New and used car dealers can sell cars over the Internet, with delivery to a customer's residence or chosen location.Requirements established for electric vehicle-capable parking spaces.Newly constructed homes or residential buildings must have one electric vehicle-capable electrical outlet in the parking space for each residential unit.October will be designated Italian-American Heritage Month.Creation of Task Force to End Homelessness.Hospitals must screen patients for financial assistance eligibility before sending them to collections.Insurance companies cannot deny coverage for medically necessary reconstructive surgeries.Drug manufacturers will be prohibited from price-gouging generic and out-of-patent drugs.Illinois residents under 18 cannot be assessed a fee or fine except for traffic tickets, boating or fishing violations, or municipal ordinance violations.Homeowners and renters insurance companies cannot refuse coverage for certain breeds of dogs.An update to the state's parole system, which incentivizes people on parole to obtain a degree, recommending early termination with a good post-release track record, and expanding remote check-ins with a parole officer.You can find a full list here.

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 22:59

On Saturday, University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill resigned from her position after she would not denounce calls for the genocide of Jews during a disastrous

congressional hearing this week.

Magill will stay on as president until the university finds her replacement.

The announcement came in the means of a statement from UPenn Board of Trustees chairman Scott Bok that was sent to "Members of the Penn community." Bok also

resigned within minutes of announcing Magill's departure.

"I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania. She will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law," the statement reads.

"On behalf of the entire Penn community, I want to thank President Magill for her service to the University as President and wish her well. We will be in touch in the coming days to share plans for interim leadership of Penn. President Magill has agreed to stay on until an interim president is appointed," it continues.

"President Magill shared the following statement, which I include here: "It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn's vital missions," the statement concludes.

Magill's resignation follows a brutal grilling from Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY) during a congressional hearing that was centered around Ivy League Universities allowing students to outwardly hate Jews in the wake of Israel's war against Hamas terrorists.

Magill was among three Ivy League presidents who would not label students' calls for the genocide of Jews as misconduct.

Rep. Stefanik asked each of them the simple question: "Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate the code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment?"

Each university president replied with the same answer, in which they said "it depends on the context."

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 22:25

Shut it down for PalestineAn international call to action

We must keep building momentum and increase the pressure with more marches, walk-outs, sit-ins, and other forms of direct action directed at the political offices, businesses, and workplaces that fund, invest, and collaborate with Israeli genocide and occupation.

There is a growing global movement for a Free Palestine. Across the world, millions of people are engaging in demonstrations and organizing major marches in solidarity with Palestine. Our demands for an immediate ceasefire, cutting all aid to Israel, and lifting the siege on Gaza have broader support than ever. On November 4th, over 500,000 gathered in Washington DC for the largest march in recent times to stand in solidarity with Palestine. Protests with half a million people erupted on the streets of London, constituents across Canada occupied over 17 MP offices from coast to coast, and Belgian dock workers' unions have refused to transport weapons by plane or sea that are destined for Israel. We must keep building momentum and increase the pressure with more marches, walk-outs, sit-ins, and other forms of direct action directed at the political offices, businesses, and workplaces that fund, invest, and collaborate with Israeli genocide and occupation. NOW is the time for our mobilizations to grow in size, frequency, and focus; building a political climate that makes Israel's business of genocide unsustainable.

Already protesters have shut down highways, train stations, and bridges in the United States; activists have targeted Israeli weapons manufacturers; Belgian dockworkers' unions have refused to handle weapons transports to Israel; Bolivia has cut diplomatic ties with Israel while Jordan, Chile, and Colombia have recalled their Israeli ambassadors. Be part of the change, take action, and make your voice heard as the global struggle for Palestine enters a new phase.

Join the Shutdown for Palestine on Friday, December 8, 2023. We call on movements, organized labor, youth, students, media and healthcare workers, and all members of society to join us in demanding an immediate ceasefire, cutting all aid to Israel, and lifting the siege on Gaza. This call to action started on November 9, but we will continue to build up the momentum with ongoing days of action. No business as usual until Palestine is Free!

Walk out from work and/or school

Picket Israeli embassies and consulates

Picket against companies that profit from Israel's occupation of Palestine (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Elbit Systems)

Host speak outs

Wear kuffiyehs

Wear black armbands

ENDORSERSAfghan Liberation CoalitionAfrican Artists Against ApartheidAl-AwdaAl-Awda NY/NJAmerican Civics InstituteAmerican Muslims for PalestineAmerican Muslims for Palestine - NJAmerican Muslims for Palestine-Missouri ChapterAmerican Party of LaborAnakbayan CanadaAnti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA/PART)Artists Against ApartheidAssociation marocaine des droits humainsAyala ProductionsBakers for Gaza CeasefireBangladeshi Americans for Political ProgressBlack Phoenix Organizing CollectiveBlack Phoenix Organizing CollectiveBrooklyn Eviction DefenseBuilding Bridges radio and Equal Rights & JusticeCleveland Peace ActionCoalition for Civil FreedomCoalition of Black Trade UnionistsCODEPINKColorado Joint MSACommunities United for Restorative Youth JusticeCommunities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ)Cpn(maoist centre)and Dalit entrepreneurs foundationCUNY4PALESTINEDallas For ChangeDominican SistersEaglenest SanctuaryEyes on PalestineFOSNA (Friends of Sabeel North America)Free Palestine CHSFriends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)Global ExchangeGood Shepherd CollectiveGranby's Got PrideHarriet Tubman Center for Social JusticeHarrisburg Palestine CoalitionHawai`i Committee for Human Rights in the PhilippinesHonor the EarthHuskies For Palestine: Mills at NUIndigenous Nations Network (INN)Institute for the Critical Study of ZionismInternational People AssembleInternational Solidarity at PrattJenerational ChangeJust Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix JusteJusticia DignaKent State Students for PalestineMajlis Ash-Shura of New York (Islamic Leadership of New York)March and Rally Los AngelesMississippi Rising CoalitionMississippi Rising CoalitionMixed-Identity Student Organization at Eastern Illinois UniversityMonterey Palestine SolidarityMORE-UFTMuseum of the Palestinian PeopleMuslim American Society New York (MAS NY)Muslim Student Association at Imagine International Academy of North TexasNAACP & Dartmouth SWCUNational Lawyers Guild-San Francisco Bay Area chapterNational Students for a Democratic SocietyNebraskans for Palestine (Nebraskans for Peace)New Afrikan Peoples Organization/Malcolm X Grassroots MovementNorth Bronx Racial JusticeNorth Coast Coalition for PalestineNYS Youth Leadership CouncilPalestine Solidarity Alliance youth leaguePalestine Solidarity Working GroupPalestinian Feminist CollectivePeople's tribunePine Lake Middle School Students For PalestinePine Lake Students For PalestinePopular ResistanceProject HajraPuvunga Wetlands ProtectorsQueers for a Liberated PalestineRevolutionary Blackout NetworkSamidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity NetworkSan Diego Leonard Peltier Defense CommitteeSchool of the Americas WatchSJP at UC San DiegoSocialist FightbackSolidarity with Palestine coalition at Syracuse universitySplinter CollectiveStonewall Alliance ChicoStudents for a Democratic Society - DenverStudents for Justice in Palestine UC San DiegoTeachers UniteThe Love We Dont SeeThurgood Marshall Law Students Protest for PalestineUnion de VecinosUSA-Palestine Mental Health NetworkVisions of HomeWaltham Black Future FundWorkers World PartyYAP! (young Americans protest)

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 21:52

The former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley claimed during the Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday that watching TikTok made people ''17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas'' every 30 minutes.

''We really do need to ban TikTok once and for all and let me tell you why,'' Haley said. ''For every 30 minutes that someone watches TikTok every day they become 17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas based on doing that.''

Amid online mockery '' reporter Ben Dreyfuss said the claim was ''so crazy that I'm not ready to move on '... I need a whole extra hour just to dig into this belief'' '' it became clear Haley was referring to a survey conducted by Generation Lab and released last month.

Steve Goldstein, European bureau chief for MarketWatch, said Haley was not ''accurately stating'' the results of the survey.

Considering what he called ''a pretty decent sample of some 1,323 Americans under the age of 30'', Goldstein said the survey ''found that spending 30 minutes a day on TikTok was associated with a 17% increase in the likelihood they were to hold antisemitic or anti-Israel views compared to people who don't use it at all.

''While much higher than the antisemitic views of Instagram or X users, the study does not suggest that continuing to use the Chinese-owned social media service will further bolster the user's antisemitic views.''

Last month, the New York Sun asked the data scientist behind the survey, Anthony Goldbloom, about his findings regarding antisemitic and anti-Israel views.

He said: ''Spending 30 minutes or more a day on TikTok led to a 20% increase in antisemitic views and then a 12% increase in the likelihood of holding anti-Israel views.''

On Wednesday, Goldbloom retweeted a clip of Haley's remark put out by The Blaze, a rightwing outlet.

Approached for comment, TikTok referred the Guardian to a brief statement on social media, that said Haley's ''statement is 100% false. #FactsMatter''.

The company also queried the methodology behind the survey, alleging weaknesses including the use of 14 hashtags it said were pro-Israel but 47 it said were pro-Palestinian, and not representing respondents' views before they used TikTok.

TikTok is a subsidiary of ByteDance, a Chinese company which says 60% of its shares are held by international investors. Haley has pledged to ban TikTok, citing its supposed security threat. In a previous debate, she clashed with her rival Vivek Ramaswamy, after he pointed out that Haley's daughter used it.

''Leave my daughter out of your voice,'' she said. ''You're just scum.''

On Wednesday, Haley cited the Generation Lab survey in answer to a question about protests against the Israel-Hamas war on US college campuses and a congressional hearing in which college presidents were grilled.

Saying foreign (particularly Chinese) money should be removed from US colleges, and that anti-Zionism should be defined as antisemitism ''so that every government, every school has to acknowledge the definition for what it is'', Haley then made her TikTok claim.

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 21:49

The war between Israel and Hamas has fueled an increased risk of attacks that might be carried out by radicalized Islamists inside Germany, the country's domestic intelligence agency warned on Wednesday.

''We have been observing the declared intention of Islamists to carry out attacks in the West for some time now,'' said Thomas Haldenwang, the president of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. ''However, a new dimension is now emerging.''

The agency has observed increased calls for attacks among actors in the ''jihadist spectrum,'' Haldenwang said, while Al-Qaeda and ISIS are attempting to ''latch on'' to the conflict in the Middle East in order to win new supporters.

The danger of attacks ''is real and higher than it has been for a long time,'' Haldenwang added.

Much of the threat comes from the potential for radicalized individuals to attempt attacks on ''soft targets,'' according to the agency.

That concern was apparently illustrated this week when two teenagers were taken into police custody on suspicion of planning an attack on a Christmas market or a synagogue in the city of Cologne, a German public broadcaster reported. In a video posted on social media, one of the suspects is said to have called for a ''holy war'' against the West.

''The flood of digital images in social media, often paired with fake news, contributes to emotionalization and can act as a radicalization factor,'' Haldenwang said. ''The situation is exacerbated by foreign state actors who seek to exploit or even reinforce this mood.''

The threat of ''possible terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions'' has also increased significantly, according to the agency.

''We are working at full speed to thwart potential plots against the security of Jews, Israeli institutions and major events,'' Haldenwang said.

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 20:26

Charles Kennedy

Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com

More Info

By Charles Kennedy - Dec 07, 2023, 1:30 PM CST Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has issued arrest warrants for opposition politicians who are challenging a move to annex oil-rich Essequibo in a last-minute ploy to ensure his chances of maintaining the presidency against wildly falling popularity.

Maduro has officially placed the disputed territory of oil-rich Essequibo under military jurisdiction, putting oil exploration and production operations of Exxon and Chevron at risk.

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Following a Sunday referendum, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has declared the return of Essequibo, which represents some two-thirds of Guyana's territory, to Venezuela.

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According to T&T News , Venezuela's Prosecutor's Office has issued arrest warrants for a dozen opposition members, including former National Assembly head Juan Guaido and three members of staff of opposition presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado. The three are charged with conspiring against the Sunday referendum to annex Essequibo. The recent temporary easing of U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela were conditioned on the holding of free and fair elections in 2024. . While the U.S. has offered Guyana ''unwavering support for Guyana's sovereignty'', there has been no concrete talk of reversing the easing of sanctions based on Maduro's actions.

Exxon, which is targeting 1.2 million barrels per day of crude output from Guyana's offshore Stabroek oil block by the end of 2027, has refrained from commenting on the developing situation, telling journalists earlier this week only that it believes ''border issues are matters for governments and appropriate international organizations to address''.

In a comment shared with IBT on Wednesday, Chevron said: "Chevron has a long history and excellent record of being a partner of choice in the countries in which we have operations. We always aim to be, and we are a constructive presence in the countries where we operate."

Join the discussion | Back to homepage

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 19:55

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) '-- Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday returned to Ukraine to face court on treason charges he believes are politically motivated.

At the Kyiv airport, where he arrived on a flight from Warsaw on Monday morning, Poroshenko was greeted by several thousand cheering supporters. Some carried banners reading ''We need democracy,'' and ''Stop repressions.''

From the airport, Poroshenko headed straight to court, which was to rule on whether to remand him in custody pending investigation and trial. After hours of proceedings, the court adjourned until Wednesday afternoon.

A prosecutor has alleged that Poroshenko, owner of the Roshen confectionery empire and one of Ukraine's richest businessmen, was involved in the sale of large amounts of coal that helped finance Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014-15.

Poroshenko's assets have been frozen as part of its investigation into the allegations of high treason. The former leader of Ukraine faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Poroshenko insists that he is innocent. He accuses his successor, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of seeking to discredit him politically to distract from Ukraine's widespread problems, including economic woes and rising deaths from COVID-19.

The charges are the latest in a string of accusations leveled against Poroshenko since he was defeated by Zelenskyy in 2019. The allegations have generated concerns of undemocratic score-settling in Ukraine and also alarmed Ukraine's allies. They come as Russia has built up troops along the Ukraine border and the United States has voiced concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be planning an invasion of Ukraine.

Poroshenko was defeated by voters following a corruption scandal and a mixed record on reforms, but he emerged with strong patriotic credentials for his work in rebuilding the Ukrainian army as it fought Russian-backed insurgent fighters in the east.

Zelenskyy says he is waging a fight against oligarchs that is aimed at reducing their influence in Ukraine's political and economic life.

Poroshenko has been outside of Ukraine for weeks, meeting with leaders in Brussels, Berlin and other European capitals.

Outside the Kyiv airport on Monday, the ex-president greeted a large crowd of his supporters and delivered an elaborate speech, urging them to follow him to the courthouse. He called the charges against him ''a challenge to all of us.''

''(The authorities) are setting us back 10 years. We're here not to defend Poroshenko, we're here to join forces and defend Ukraine,'' Poroshenko said. ''United Ukraine is strong, and a strong Ukraine is capable of pushing back (against) Putin.''

His supporters also viewed charges against him as politically motivated. ''It is a revenge of the authorities and an attempt by Zelenskyy to eliminate his biggest rival in Ukraine's politics,'' Anton Ivashchenko, 42, told The Associated Press at the airport. ''Persecution of Poroshenko sows animosity and discord among those who push for ... Ukraine's closer ties with the West.''

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 19:13

Discover more from House Inhabit Where pop culture deep dives mingle with quality conspiracy theories, lifestyle highlights, and trending water cooler gossip

Over 276,000 subscribers

Given what we know currently, is it possible that Taylor Swift may have made a deal with George and Alex Soros to regain the rights to her music in exchange for getting fans registered to vote Democrat against Trump ahead of the 2024 Presidential election?

Is Taylor Swift Gavin Newsom's most powerful asset?

Laura Loomer sure makes a compelling case for it. I know because she explained it to me in great detail yesterday when we sat down together for lunch, thanks to the internet's push for us to meet before she heads back to Florida after the GOP debate debacle.

Regardless of your thoughts on Laura, let me just say that her dirt on Newsom alone proved well worth my time and gas.

In addition to riveting insight about dirty secrets and filthy politicians, she is funny and fearless in her approach and comes stocked with receipts to back her theories and conspiracies. Most of which involve juicy political gossip.

"Laura Loomer knows who everyone in Washington is fucking," a friend wrote me in my DMs, urging me to make the lunch date.

And, of course, I'll have more on that later. But for now, let's discuss her latest theory on Twitter: The obvious PR pairing of Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce '-- how it might include a significant push for Newsom and his pro-vax agenda come election time, as we know nothing during political season is purely coincidental.

Gavin Newsom is entirely backed by George Soros

In 2024, Zoomers are officially set to replace Boomers as the largest voting demographic in America

Swift registered over 40,000 voters with a single Instagram post, proving her mass political influence

Swift is now dating Travis Kelce, who conveniently just signed a deal with Pfizer

An October surprise next year at the end of Swift's world tour will likely include an appearance by Newsom or Michelle Obama on stage

Swift made a silent deal with Soros to reclaim her music rights in exchange for pushing Zoomers to register & vote Democratic

Swift is doing a world tour with all her albums, but George Soros and Alex Soros allegedly helped strip her of her rights to her first 6 albums, as claimed in a previous Instagram post '... How?

''Has @taylorswift13 made a deal with George Soros and Alex Soros to get the rights to her music back in exchange for getting Zoomers registered to vote Democrat against President Trump ahead of the 2024 Presidential election?

Gen Z + Taylor Swift = Gavin Newsom in the White House. The only way @GavinNewsom gets to the White House is if people with influence start normalizing his radical policies like vaccine mandates and late term abortion. @GavinNewsom is 100% backed by George Soros, and he is the nephew of Nancy Pelosi. In his old age, George Soros has turned his political empire over to his son, Alex Soros.

In 2024, Zoomers are officially set to replace Boomers as the largest voting demographic in America.

Last week, Taylor Swift registered over 40,000 voters with a single Instagram post, and most of them were zoomers. She has decided to engage in an anti-Trump tirade in which she is using her platform to make abortion and fear mongering about divisiveness as the number one issue to get people registered to vote.

She has more followers than President Trump has on both X and Instagram.

And now she's dating a pro athlete @tkelce who just signed with @pfizer to push the COVID vaccines to millions of sports fans and zoomers, even though data shows us that young people and athletes who take the vaccine are developing myocarditis and dropping dead from health issues like cardiac arrest. Kelce embraces anti-American values because he kneeled for the National Anthem in 2017.

Taylor Swift also just launched a world tour, and after she travels the world this year, she's coming back to the US right before the US elections for what looks to be her version of an October surprise.

She spending 3 days in Miami, FL in the last week of October 2024 where she will likely make a big push to get people to the polls. Florida is the largest swing state in the nation and also happens to be where @RonDeSantis signed a six week abortion ban.

The Eras global tour that Taylor Swift is currently on is supposed to be a tour featuring *all* of her albums.

However, she has lamented in the past that Alex Soros and George Soros bought the rights to her music and her first 6 Albums when @scooterbraun sold it to a private equity firm tied to the Soros family for $300 MILLION.

Do you think that in their efforts to beat Donald Trump in 2024 and destroy America that @georgesoros @AlexanderSoros would have made a deal with Taylor Swift to help give her back the rights to all of her albums as long as she helps get Democrats elected in 2024? $300 MILLION isn't a lot of money when you realize the 2020 Presidential election cycle was the most expensive election season in US history with a price tag of $14.4 billion, according to Open Secrets. This is nearly double the cost of the election season in 2016 when @realDonaldTrump defeated @HillaryClinton .

How is Taylor Swift doing a world tour with all of her albums if George Soros and Alex Soros helped strip her of her rights to her first 6 albums, as she claimed in an old Instagram post below?

Were deals made between the Soros family and Taylor Swift in a Presidential election year?

I have provided the receipts below.''

Loomer explains 'In another post to X, Loomer wrote, " @taylorswift13 also just launched a world tour, and after she travels the world this year, she's coming back to the US right before the US elections for what looks to be her version of an October surprise."

She spending 3 days in Miami, FL in the last week of October 2024 where she will likely make a big push to get people to the polls. Don't be surprised if you see @GavinNewsom and @MichelleObama on stage with her in Miami in 2024,"

- Via Newsweek

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 18:41

I want to get off Google's wild ride '-- Does this mean YouTube Podcasts is ready for prime time? Ron Amadeo - Dec 8, 2023 6:58 pm UTC

Google

Google Podcasts has been sitting on Google's death row for a few months now since the September announcement. Now, a new support article details Google's plans to kill the product, with a shutdown coming in April 2024.

Google Podcasts (2016''2024) is Google's third attempt at a podcasting app after the Google Reader-powered Google Listen (2009''2012) and Google Play Music Podcasts (2016''2020). The product is being shut down in favor of podcast app No. 4, YouTube Podcasts, which launched in 2022.

Google support article details how you can take your subscriptions with you. If you want to move from Google Podcasts to YouTube Podcasts, Google makes that pretty easy with a one-click button at music.youtube.com/transfer_podcasts. If you want to leave the Google ecosystem for something with less of a chance of being shut down in three to four years, you can also export your Google Podcast subscriptions as an OPML file at podcasts.google.com/settings. Google says exports will be available until August 2024.

With the shutdown of Google Podcasts coming, we might assume YouTube Podcasts is ready, but it's still a pretty hard service to use. I think all the core podcast features exist somewhere, but they are buried in several menus. For instance, you can go to youtube.com/podcasts, where you will see a landing page of "podcast episodes," but there's no clear way to add podcasts to a podcast feed, which is the core feature of a podcast app. YouTube still only prioritizes the regular YouTube subscription buttons, meaning you'll be polluting your video-first YouTube subscription feed with audio-first podcast content.

Advertisement I thought the original justification for "YouTube Podcasts" is that a lot of people put podcast-style content on YouTube already, in the form of news or talk shows, so adding some podcast-style interfaces to YouTube would make that easier to consume. I don't think that ever happened to YouTube, though. There are more podcast-centric features sequestered away in YouTube Music, where a button with the very confusing label "Save to library" will subscribe to a podcast feed. The problem is the world's second most popular website site is YouTube, not YouTube Music. Music is a different interface, site, and app, so none of these billions of YouTube viewers are seeing these podcast features. Even if you try to engage with YouTube Music's podcast features, it will still pollute your YouTube playlists and library with podcast content. It's all very difficult to use, even for someone seeking this stuff out and trying to understand it.

But this is the future of Google's podcast content, so the company is plowing ahead with it. You've got just a few months left to use Google Podcasts. If you're looking to get off Google's wild ride and want something straightforward that works across platforms, I recommend Pocket Casts.

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 17:21

It started off as a typical DeepCapture intrigue, this one set in Europe, with whistleblowers whispering in the backs of airport hotel bars, stakeouts in obscure Swiss hamlets, and back-alley brush-passes in Eastern Europe capitals. It ended with proof that is a liver-punch to Garland's politicized Department of Justice and its Southern District of New York offices.

The superb 151-page whistleblower complaint (attached) speaks for itself. Three allegations to take from it:

Jack Smith is the current Special Counsel prosecuting Donald Trump on two grounds, one related to J6 (for which I take full responsibility) and the other related to the ''crime'' of being an ex-President with an active Department of Energy clearance possessing classified materials. Before pursuing such novel legal theories as are expressed in those indictments, Jack Smith was the US prosecutor in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where Jack Smith was a blackmailer.Jack was sending henchmen to Eastern European to convey the following message to various parties (both innocent and perhaps not-so-innocent): We know that during the Yugoslavian Civil War you murdered some people, Jack is going to indict you but if you will put $X in a suitcase for me to carry back to Jack your problems go away. $X = from $400,000 to $9 million (bribes of $7 million and $9 million were paid through Bitcoin, not suitcases). Jack sought a $100 million bribe from a head of state who refused payment and is now in prison.We learned of these allegations because of a passel of European whistleblowers who not only shared the stories, they wrote superbly detailed affidavits, provided texts and financial records, etc. Read the 151 pages with exhibits yourselves. From where I sit, Jack looks shtuped.In April 2022 (18 months ago) this information with supporting documentation was provided by these whistleblowers to the offices of the DOJ in the Southern District of New York (SDNY) in lengthy phone calls.SDNY arranged for these European whistleblowers to have a follow-on meeting with someone named Alan Tieger, someone whom they understood to be a high-level Internal Affairs officer. Alan Tieger had a phone call with some of these European whistleblowers from inside the SDNY offices in April, 2022.Alan Tieger spent the first few minutes of the call trying to get the whistleblowers to recant, and when they refused, reluctantly walked through their allegations and evidence. We know this not only from the whistleblowers affidavits, but in addition, because they recorded the 90-minute Zoom call (which is dynamite to hear, and which, of course, we have). The SDNY then buried the matter. That is likely explained by the fact that Alan Tieger turns out not to be from DOJ Internal Affairs, but a man who spent his career carrying Jack Smith's luggage around the DOJ (and he has since replaced Jack as the American prosecutor at the ICC). So while the whistleblowers thought they were blowing the whistle on Jack Smith, they were tricked into doing so to Jack Smith's own DOJ-butt-boy. I infer:Attorney General Merick Garland learned about this material 18 months ago, and he (or Lisa Monaco, the Littlefinger of Garland's DOJ) summoned Jack Smith back to Washington, DC to tell him something along the following lines: Listen you SOB, we know that you have been blackmailing people over in Europe and we are going to put you away for 30 years'.... or you are going to come home and bring a prosecution against Donald J. Trump. We don't care how far-fetched the legal theories, you are going to indict him and hound him to thwart his return to office. This explains why Jack Smith has brought indictments against a man with an active DoE clearance for possessing classified materials, and also for whatever he did on J6 that no one can really explain.NB: A word of caution to any in DOJ DC or SDNY prosecutors considering retaliating against me for making this information public: retaliating against a federal whistleblower is a felony with provision for 15 years in prison for each occurrence. I am sure you good folks are getting enormous pressure from DC to retaliate against me. But if you step aside, I will make sure no harm befalls you when these traitorous punks get lit. Think it through.

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 14:34

Adult websites could require visitors to take a face-scanning selfie to prove they are over 18 under plans to prevent children accessing pornography.

Ofcom, which will administer new online safety laws designed to protect children online, said websites could use ''facial age estimation'' systems to confirm they are adults.

The technology is seen by some as a more privacy-friendly alternative to uploading personal IDs or credit cards because it does not require personal information to be entered.

Ofcom says that children first see online pornography at an average age of 13 and a quarter see it by the age of 11.

Age estimation systems are already used by social media companies like Instagram to check people's ages and use artificial intelligence to guess a person's age based on thousands of pictures that the system has been trained on.

Yoti, one technology provider that is used by Instagram and the adult site OnlyFans, says it deletes images as soon as they are checked.

The company says its technology typically detects the ages of 13 to 19-year-olds with estimates that are typically accurate within 1.52 years. It identifies 13 to 17-year-olds as being under 23 with a high degree of accuracy, correct 99.65pc of the time.

Aylo, a company that operates many of the world's biggest pornography sites, has used the technology to verify users who upload content.

Ofcom said that websites using the technology would have to use a method similar to the ''challenge 25'' system used to allow adults to buy alcohol and enter nightclubs.

If an age estimation says somebody could be below that threshold, they would have to use an alternative verification system such as a credit card or photo ID.

Ofcom said age estimation systems were one of five ways porn websites could prevent children accessing the sites. Others were linking a bank account, uploading a photo ID along with a selfie, using data from a mobile network or entering credit card details.

More easily bypassed checks, such as users declaring their age or online payment methods that do not require a person to be 18, will not be regarded as acceptable.

The regulator said it would consult on the rules before beginning to enforce them, which it expects in 2025.

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom's chief executive, said: ''Pornography is too readily accessible to children online, and the new online safety laws are clear that must change.

''Our practical guidance sets out a range of methods for highly effective age checks. We're clear that weaker methods '' such as allowing users to self-declare their age '' won't meet this standard.

''Regardless of their approach, we expect all services to offer robust protection to children from stumbling across pornography, and also to take care that privacy rights and freedoms for adults to access legal content are safeguarded.''

A string of American states have introduced age verification laws in recent months, but the rules have been met with legal challenges.

Ofcom says four in five adults support age assurance on adult websites.

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Sat, 09 Dec 2023 10:05

Source: FlickerIn a chilling revelation, New Mexico authorities have uncovered a series of communications among sex predators operating within the state, utilizing the seemingly innocuous term ''PIZZA'' as a code word to obscure their illicit activities.

The Gateway Pundit reported that the New Mexico Democrat Attorney General Raºl Torrez took decisive action against tech giant Meta Platforms, Inc., its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and associated entities, including Instagram, LLC, and Facebook Holdings, LLC.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, represents a bold effort to curb the exploitation of children on social media platforms.

''Our investigation into Meta's social media platforms demonstrates that they are not safe spaces for children but rather prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,'' Attorney General Torrez said in a statement.

''As a career prosecutor who specialized in internet crimes against children, I am committed to using every available tool to put an end to these horrific practices and I will hold companies '-- and their executives '-- accountable whenever they put profits ahead of children's safety,'' he added.

During the past several months, the New Mexico Attorney General's Office launched an undercover operation posing as minors under 14 on Meta's platforms. This sting operation led to disturbing findings, where it was discovered that:

Proactively served and directed to underage users a stream of egregious, sexually explicit images '-- even when the child has expressed no interest in this content.Enabled dozens of adults to find, contact, and press children into providing sexually explicit pictures of themselves or participate in pornographic videos.Recommended that the children join unmoderated Facebook groups devoted to facilitating commercial sex.Allowed Facebook and Instagram users to find, share, and sell an enormous volume of child pornography.Allowed a fictitious mother to offer her 13-year-old daughter for sale to sex traffickers and to create a professional page to allow her daughter to share revenue from advertising.The Attorney General's office has released selectively redacted graphic content from their investigation, showing only those parts necessary to convey the seriousness of the situation while ensuring that the privacy and dignity of victims are fully respected.

Recent findings have exposed a network of Instagram accounts purportedly offering illicit means to acquire or exchange Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and Child Sexual Exploitation Content (CSEC).

Investigations reveal that these accounts provide instructions to move conversations to offline mediums such as WhatsApp or Telegram, platforms that offer end-to-end encryption and are beyond the reach of routine monitoring.

According to the complaint, ''A search for 'All New Kids Links Available' on Instagram, for example, yielded dozens of options for CSAM. Notably, 'cheese pizza,' with its shared initials, is known to be a proxy for child pornography.''

''The profile picture in Figure 4 (redacted here) showed two young girls in an image that suggested they were engaged in sexual activity,'' the complaint added.

New Mexico Attorney General ComplaintMore from the filed complaints:

''These Instagram posts regularly included ''suggested for you'' content, identified by its algorithm, that directed users to other CSAM sellers or minor accounts. One typical example showed a ''links_here'' seller offering ''BOY, KIDS GIRLS ALL'' associated with a ''piz.zalinkseller'' and other CSAM-selling accounts, which the user is invited to follow.''

''The Instagram seller below incorporates an image of a young girl serving a cheese pizza and advertises ''small girls, small boys . . .3 years to 12 years girl's . . .anal sex.''''

New Mexico Attorney General Complaint''After two unsuccessful attempts at opening a Facebook account as a 13-year-old, a fictional user with the account name BobbiFun13 successfully opened an account on Instagram. She began looking for content on Instagram, and her search for 'cute girls' returned sexual images.''

''BobbiFun13 was able to follow accounts that signaled connections to child pornography, with 'pizza' seller or links, 'little-girls,' or 'young_girl_sell' in their names. She also was promptly followed by a similar set of sexually themed groups, including cpsell2, trusted_pizza_seller, all_new_kids_link, and i_can_make_women_orgsm.''

''Taya also conducted a search for 'chicken soup,' which is widely understood, because of its initials, to signify 'child sex.''' She was pointed to this account, which invites the user to ''Follow if you like little things'''--a reference to sexual interest in children'--with cheese pizza emojis for child pornography. The account invites contact ''for trade'' (or trade in child sexual images) and then shows pictures of young girls in bra tops.''

''Instagram uses easily-evaded restrictions on hashtags. Even if a specific term was blocked, Meta's filters did not prevent a user from tagging their post or profile with the hashtag to signal the availability of CSAM. In addition, searches for child pornography that were blocked by Meta could be easily evaded by adding spaces, characters, or emojis to the search terms. For instance, while Instagram blocked searches for cheese pizza emojis (which yielded 'no results at this time'), adding another emoji'' for 'pizza links'''did not restrict results. The phrase 'pizza links' is used by a web of accounts that were readily findable through searches and that offer CSAM.''

Trending: TUCKER DROPS BOMBSHELL: Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin THREATENS to Send Americans to Fight Russia if Congress Does Not Give Zelensky and Ukraine More Money '' Elon Musk Responds

New Mexico Attorney General ComplaintYou can read the disturbing full 228-page complaint on the New Mexico Attorney General's website.AG Torrez expressed grave concerns about the knowledge and inaction of Meta executives like Mark Zuckerberg, emphasizing that they are fully aware of the potential dangers their platforms present to young users.

''Mr. Zuckerberg and other Meta executives are aware of the serious harm their products can pose to young users, and yet they have failed to make sufficient changes to their platforms that would prevent the sexual exploitation of children,'' Torrez added.

Sex predators sometimes use the word ''pizza'' to communicate and hide their activities. This is a tactic to avoid detection by law enforcement and the public.

Last month, The Gateway Pundit reported that a Texas A&M University (TAMU) employee, Clinton Harnden, has been arrested by the FBI on charges related to child pornography.

The arrest came after agents executed a search warrant at Harnden's residence and found evidence of his involvement in receiving and possessing child pornography materials, KBTX reported.

Harnden held the position of Senior Administrative Coordinator at Texas A&M University. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he had been employed at the university for more than a decade but only took on the senior administrative role in July 2020.

According to FBI Special Agent Dimitri Willis, ''CHADWICK and HARNDEN used the term ''pizza'' to talk about CSAM during this interaction. I know from my training and experience that ''pizza'' and/or ''cheese pizza'' is a known slang/code-word used by individuals to discuss CSAM in public forums without detection. After sharing the CSAM, CHADWICK asked HARNDEN if he thought she was horrible because of all the ''pizza.'' HARNDEN replied that ''Pizza is one of my favorite foods.''''

The investigation further revealed Harnden's involvement in online communities dedicated to sharing CSAM, including groups on Tumblr and Wickr.

''Agents reviewed HARNDEN's ''ATXAGGIE2007'' Tumblr page. The page was filled with posts and responses about pornographic material, including CSAM. One post by HARNDEN on Tumblr asked ''Anyone give out free pizza today.'' As stated before, I know from my training and experience that ''pizza'' and/or ''cheese pizza'' is a known slang/code- word used by individuals to refer to CSAM,'' the affidavit read.

Texas A&M University Employee Arrested on Child Pornography Charges, FBI Uncovers Use of ''PIZZA'' as Code Word in Chats

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Fri, 08 Dec 2023 23:57

The first thing apparent about Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Parliament, is his imposing size.

Dressed in all-black, military-style fatigues, Stefanchuk was a towering figure this week standing next to American officials and lawmakers who barely reached his shoulders.

In his first trip to Washington this past week, Stefanchuk held meetings with the White House, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill as part of a senior Ukrainian delegation advocating for continued American support for Kyiv, and as he put it, ''looking the interlocutors in the eyes.''

''I came here to share Ukraine's successes, and I came to say that Ukraine still needs the support and we can't stop halfway,'' he said in an interview with The Hill, speaking through a translator.

While Stefanchuk gives off the impression of a brick wall, he is a seasoned politician and quick to provide a smile and a handshake. He was elected chair of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament, in October 2021.

''If Stefanchuk is what's in parliament, I'd hate to go up against the guys on the battlefield!'' Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Hill.

Ruslan Stefanchuk (center) and senior Ukrainian officials meet with House lawmakers on Capitol Hill. ''If Stefanchuk is what's in parliament, I'd hate to go up against the guys on the battlefield!'' Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Hill. (Vadym Sarakhan / Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine)

Stefanchuk is first in the line of succession should Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky be unable to serve, which seemed a distinct possibility in the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion, when assassins reportedly stalked the streets of Kyiv to kill the president.

Biden officials have said they are supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes to resist Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal of subsuming the country. But Zelensky's senior aides are facing tough questions in Washington about Ukraine's military strategy for victory and its use of billions of dollars in advanced, Western-supplied armor and firepower '-- especially as their generals suggest the war is at a stalemate.

Stefanchuk was in Washington this past week alongside Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, and Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, among other officials.

''Ukraine is currently preparing a very detailed action plan that includes the timelines and that includes the financial resources to deliver the expected results,'' Stefanchuk said, amid warnings from Kyiv that it needs more and better weapons to shift the war.

''We are getting ready to share this plan with our partners,'' he added, but he would not provide any more details.

Ruslan Stefanchuk (third from left) meets with Republican senators alongside a senior Ukrainian delegation in Washington, D.C. ''I came here to share Ukraine's successes and I came to say that Ukraine still needs the support and we can't stop halfway,'' Stefanchuk said. (Vadym Sarakhan / Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine)

President Biden's request for an estimated $60 billion in military and other assistance for Ukraine has stalled on Capitol Hill, with Republicans demanding Democrats deliver on immigration reform before they agree on more aid for Kyiv.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has drawn a hard line with the White House, saying additional funding for Ukraine is ''dependent upon enactment of transformative change to our nation's border security laws.''

Stefanchuk, commenting on his meeting with Johnson at an event at the Atlantic Council on Thursday, said he is ''convinced'' the Speaker ''will do everything possible to enact the assistance to Ukraine as soon as possible.''

''The meeting with Speaker Johnson was very warm and quite friendly, and I want to thank Speaker Johnson for '-- we found some common ground in all matters,'' he told the Washington-based think tank.

''We spoke about the most challenging questions regarding the assistance to Ukraine, he assured me that the matter of supporting Ukraine is a priority matter for the House of Representatives. I believe it was a very nice meeting.''

Even as a majority of Republican lawmakers support funding for Ukraine, a handful of hard-line conservatives have earlier demonstrated they can freeze House business over their demands. If the Senate is able to hammer out a deal that links aid to Kyiv and border reforms, some Ukraine skeptics in the House have said a border bill would need to be passed first, before Ukraine aid.

In September, Zelensky left a meeting with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) with a warning that his commitment to deliver aid for Ukraine would not be ''simple.''

McCarthy was ousted from leadership in October over his cooperation with Democrats on a government funding bill, but hard-line GOP lawmakers also successfully blocked McCarthy from holding a vote on Biden's initial request of $14 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine.

Ukraine's Republican supporters recognize the stakes as Congress heads toward Christmas vacation having yet to deliver on Biden's fiscal 2024 national security supplemental funding request. The entire request reaches nearly $111 billion, including priorities for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific and immigration.

''We want to help Ukraine and Israel, but we have to have Democrats recognize that the trade here is, the deal is, we stop the open border,'' Sen Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Tuesday after storming out of a classified briefing on Ukraine.

Republicans are further split among those who support military assistance to Ukraine but balk at providing economic assistance to Kyiv.

''I've always been in favor of munitions and military equipment, but I am not in favor of continuing just blank financial support,'' Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Idaho), the fourth-ranking Republican in the Senate, told The Hill in September.

''I think our friends and allies in Europe can do that. Let's be the arsenal of democracy and provide what they need to win the war, but our friends and allies can step up with humanitarian aid.''

The European Union has pledged more economic assistance than the U.S. ($83 billion compared to $25 billion) during the war, according to the Kiel Institute Ukraine Tracker, but the EU has only delivered 31 percent of the total commitments, compared to the U.S. delivering 87 percent of its commitments.

Amid partisan battles in the U.S. holding up more assistance for Ukraine, cracks within European solidarity are also threatening the delivery of more assistance.

Hungary's right-wing prime minister Viktor Orbn is blocking EU efforts to follow through on a five-year economic commitment of 50 billion euros (about $54 billion).

As democracies struggle to deliver on continued support for Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated his ability to counter international sanctions aimed at bankrupting his economy and strangling his war machine.

Partnerships with China, Iran and North Korea and ties with Gulf nations part of the OPEC group of oil-producing nations have helped Putin survive.

And the death of mercenary group-head Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash in August removed one of the few prominent and powerful domestic critics of Putin's war.

Russia is dug in on Ukrainian territory in the east of the country, including territory it has held since 2014; the eastern provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk and the Crimean peninsula.

Ukrainian officials point to their success in pushing Russia off of an estimated 50 percent of territory since the start of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion on Feb. 24.

But an analysis by the Washington Post found Ukraine had reclaimed about 200 square miles of territory during its summer counteroffensive, compared to 8,610 square miles reclaimed in 2022.

Kyiv's slow and costly gains during the summer have raised the possibility that peace talks with Putin may have to occur with Russian forces entrenched on Ukrainian territory. It's a possibility Washington has reportedly, but not publicly, broached with Ukraine.

There's even more uncertainty looking ahead to the 2024 U.S. presidential elections. Former President Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, has boasted he could reach a peace deal between Putin and Zelensky within 24 hours. He has largely avoided questions about what Ukraine should give up.

Stefanchuk rejected that Ukraine would trade any territory as part of a peace deal with Russia.

''Our position is absolutely clear, and as of now, the only diplomatic negotiations that can be held with Russia are the negotiations on the terms of Putin's capitulation,'' he said.

Asked about the potential for a second Trump administration, Stefanhcuk pointed to the importance for Ukraine of maintaining strong U.S. support in general, across party lines.

''When it comes to the elections in the United States, this is a domestic issue of the USA, and we're not going to interfere in this question, and it's totally up to the United States,'' he said.

''Ukraine really appreciates the bipartisan support that it has been enjoying, and it's really important that the U.S. continues to support us because Ukraine's best sons and daughters are dying today protecting the democratic values.''

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:19

We created TWiT 18 years ago with the goal of serving a community of tech enthusiasts with the information they need to navigate a rapidly changing world.

The TWiT Team has been dedicated ever since to supporting that mission and supporting you, our community. We're a tight-knit group who care deeply about what we do and the community we serve.

Unfortunately, our medium, podcasting, has suffered economically since the beginning of Covid. As the number of podcasts grew exponentially, the number of advertisers dwindled, and with it, our revenue. At one time, we had as many as 30 people on the TWiT staff, not including show hosts, producing more than 30 unique shows. Today, the staff is half that size, and we produce half the number of shows.

I'm sad to say that in order to keep operating without a loss, we need to cut three more valued members of our staff. Yesterday, Lisa and I laid off Jason Howell, Ant Pruitt, and Victor Bognot, one of our editors. All three were loved and valued members of our TWiT community, and it's wrenching to let them go. I know that all three will go on to success and satisfaction, but we no longer have the money to keep them employed, and we can't ask them to work for free.

Jason has been with us for 13 years. Starting as a producer and host on Tech News Today with Tom Merritt. He has been such a blessing to us all ever since, as the founding host of All About Android and Tech News Weekly, as my producer, and as a friend and inspiration to the TWiT community. Thank you so much, Jason. We're really going to miss your genial spirit around the TWiT Studios. And I know we'll see you on our shows from time to time. Jason also indicated that he might want to continue the AI show and his Android work elsewhere, and we've encouraged him to do that.

Ant came to TWiT five years ago, moving his entire family from North Carolina to Northern California. We are so grateful for his strong and gentle spirit hosting Hands On Wellness, Hands-On Photography, and This Week in Google. Behind the scenes, Ant has been an extraordinary community manager for Club TWiT, bringing both fun and inspiration to our Discord. Personally, Ant has been an inspiration to all of us. He even got us doing push-ups. We know he's going on to do great things. Continue to Create and Dominate, sir. We love you.

You may not know Victor Bognot, but his behind-the-scenes work as an editor for the past decade has touched so many of the shows you watch and listen to. Victor's beautiful and growing family has been a blessing to our entire staff, and his quiet competence will be sorely missed. I know he will go on to do great things, but for now, we feel the loss with heavy hearts.

We don't do these layoffs lightly, and I know it hurts everyone to see these great guys go. Send them your love, and offer them jobs if you have them. Thank you for bearing with us through these tough times.

Please reach out to Jason here and Ant here.

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Fri, 08 Dec 2023 01:05

Update: 10:20 P.M. EST -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's physicians released more information about her condition in a statement Monday afternoon:

"In the course of a routine follow-up MRI on Sunday, the scan revealed that a right transverse sinus venous thrombosis had formed. This is a clot in the vein that is situated in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear," Clinton's doctors Dr. Lisa Bardack of Mt. Kisco Medical Group, and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University, said in a statement. "It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage. To help dissolve this clot, her medical team began treating the Secretary with blood thinners. She will be released once the medication dose has been established. In all other aspects of her recovery, the Secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Monday for a blood clot.

Clinton reportedly suffered a concussion Dec. 13 after falling and hitting her head after fainting from a stomach virus that caused serious dehydration. She hasn't been seen in public since, but was expected to return to work this week before being hospitalized for the blood clot.

"She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at New York-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours," Spokesperson Philippe Reines said in a statement. There has been no announcement on the location of the clot, which was discovered during the course of a follow-up exam.

Doctors are expected to decide soon whether any further action is required, Reines said, adding that they will continue to assess Clinton's condition, "including other issues associated with her concussion."

A blood clot is a clump that occurs when blood hardens from a liquid to a solid.

Dr. Jack Ansell, chairman of the department of medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, who has no special knowledge of the secretary's case, tells CBSNews.com he suspects Clinton is either experiencing a clot that originated in a blood vessel in the brain, called cerebral venous thrombosis, or one that could have occurred in one of the veins in the leg, called deep venous thrombosis (DVT).

Ansell's field of study is thrombosis, which is the formation of a blood clot inside a vessel.

Hillary Clinton, post-concussion, back to work next week Hillary Clinton admitted to hospital with blood clot Clinton suffers concussion, won't testify on Libya Where does Clinton's concussion come in?

Ansell said the brain is rich in substances that stimulate clotting, so in general, people with a brain injury may face a higher risk for having a blood clot. Therefore it's possible a clot could have originated in a nearby vessel in the brain. However, if someone is lying around recuperating following a concussion or stomach virus, that increase in inactivity could also raise risk for DVT, he said. A person who experiences this dangerous blood clot deep in the leg could be at risk if the clot travels to the lung, becoming what's called a pulmonary embolism.

Dr. Richard Figler, a primary care sports medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, told CBSNews.com that he doesn't believe Clinton's head injury was a direct cause of the blood clot, but said timing and other factors could have contributed. He also suspects that Clinton may have rested more following the stomach virus and concussion than she typically does, and going from an active to sedentary lifestyle may have combined with other factors that can influence blood clotting, like age and genetics.

"I'd have a hard time blaming the concussion for the clot itself," he said.

Ansell said these types of clots are easily treatable and respond well to therapy, so while there is potential harm from complications, he would give the secretary a good prognosis. Patients typically receive anti-coagulant therapy for three to six months, he said, and are monitored up to every week with a blood test to ensure they aren't having any blood flow irregularities.

"I would expect her to recover and not have a problem," he said.

One potential complication from treatment with an anti-coagulant, such as Coumadin (warfarin), is an increased risk for bleeding. That presents a problem for head injury suffers, according to CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook, who is affiliated with the hospital where Clinton is receiving care but has no knowledge of her case.

LaPook says that it is unusual for someone to be given blood thinners after suffering a head injury, because more bleeding in the brain can be deadly.

"The reason is when somebody falls and hits their head, you're worried about bleeding into the skull, into the brain, like Natasha Richardson had, so the last thing you would want to do is thin their blood," he said. "At this point the reason to give anti-coagulation, blood thinner, would be to prevent another clot from forming," he said.

Actress Natasha Richardson hit her head while skiing in Quebec in 2009 and later died from bleeding underneath the skull. That type of clot in the brain is called a subdural hematoma.

LaPook said the doctors treating Clinton may be between a rock and a hard place.

"They want to thin her blood to prevent a further clot, on the other hand they're afraid to give her blood thinners because that could increase bleeding in somebody who's smacked their head recently, so they're going to observe her very closely in the hospital," he said. That observation could also rule out other potential causes for the blood clot, such as heart problems.

Figler said a brain bleed from a head injury is only a major risk within 48 hours of the initial injury, and if the blood clot originated in the secretary's leg, as some suspect, the anti-coagulant therapy shouldn't present a major risk.

Ansell said that while doctors may have balanced Clinton's underlying head injury initially, such as by waiting a few days to make sure brain tissues healed, he also said it's likely safe to treat her with anti-coagulants, adding that many patients with brain injuries or strokes take these types of medication and it's not even certain if the secretary's concussion caused bleeding in the brain.

"I don't think there's any concern for any special risks for bleeding in the brain," he said.

Both doctors also said that anti-coagulants are not typically prescribed for brain bleeds caused by head injuries.

To Figler, the fact that doctors separately diagnosed a clot in addition to the secretary's other recent health woes, speaks to the doctors' ability to find other potential symptoms of a blood clot, such as leg swelling or calf soreness.

"Some docs may say don't worry about it, it could be soreness," he said, noting that a leg ultrasound isn't a typical test given following a concussion. "To be honest, it takes an astute physician to figure those things out."

Ryan Jaslow Ryan Jaslow is CBSNews.com's health editor.

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Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:12

NewsNation aired the fourth GOP debate of the 2024 election cycle from Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Wednesday night, featuring four candidates. Not every candidate uttered facts that are easily checked, but the following is a list of 13 claims that caught our attention. As is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios when we do a roundup of facts in debates. These claims are examined in the order in which they were uttered.

''I never said government should go and require anyone's name [who uses social media] '... I said we were going to get the millions of bots off.''

'-- former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley

This is misleading. Haley, facing significant blowback, backtracked on this issue after first suggesting that social media companies would be required to authenticate people's identity before allowing them to comment on their platforms. She clarified that anonymous accounts would still be allowed for American citizens. But that was different from what she originally said.

''We're going to say that they have to make sure every person on social media is verified '... everybody gets a verifiable sign so that we know exactly who they are,'' Haley said in a telephone town hall with Iowa caucuses-goers on Nov. 10. ''What that will do is it will eliminate every Russian bot, Iranian bot and Chinese bot that's spreading all of this misinformation, because '... it is the cheapest form of warfare for them.''

She said similar comments in other venues, such as:

''The first thing I'm going to do is go to those social media companies and say you have to show us your algorithms. The second thing is they need to verify every single person on their outlet. And I want it by name.'' "Every person on social media should be verified by their name. '... When you do that, all of a sudden people have to stand by what they say. '... Then you're going to get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say. And they know their pastor and their family member's going to see it.'' ''Every person on social media needs to be verified. We need to know exactly who they are and they need to show their own name. Why? It's a national security threat.'' ''Joe Biden will say they support Israel, and then they do nothing but try to kneecap them every step of the way.''

'-- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

The Biden administration has expressed some concern over the extent of civilian casualties in Gaza, but it's hardly correct that Biden has ''kneecapped'' Israel. Biden has given Israel ample support in ways that have alarmed some officials in his government.

The winners and losers of the fourth Republican debate

''Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.''

'-- Haley

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy repeatedly challenged Haley to name ''three provinces in Eastern Ukraine that they [she and Biden] want to send our troops to actually fight for.'' Neither have said they want to send troops '-- Ramaswamy also falsely asserted ''these people want to send your sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine, they've been arguing for it for a year'' '-- but Haley eventually mentioned these names. She missed with Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, though to be fair Ramaswamy asked her to name three provinces, not ''the three provinces'' of eastern Ukraine. The third province in eastern Ukraine is Kharkiv '-- which Ukraine liberated in a stunning counteroffensive in 2022.

''I'm going to have fees on remittances from [Mexican] foreign workers. When they send the money back to foreign countries, we're going to tax it and we're going to build the wall with that.''

'-- DeSantis

Trump had floated this idea when he ran for president in 2016 but experts said it was impractical and it was never implemented.

''What I said is all of the 7 or 8 million illegals that have come under Biden's watch [through the southern border] absolutely have to go back.''

'-- Haley

This is an inflated estimate, about double the actual number. Customs and Border Protection agents have recorded about 7.5 million encounters between February 2021, after Biden took office, through September of this year. But that does not mean all those people entered the country illegally. Some people are ''encountered'' numerous times as they try to enter the country '-- and others (about 3 million of the total) were expelled, mostly because of covid-related rules that have since been ended.

These numbers, however, do not include ''gotaways'' '-- which occur when cameras or sensors detect migrants crossing the border, but no one is found, or no agents are available to respond. There were 389,155 in fiscal year 2021 (which includes part of Donald Trump's term) and more than 600,000 in fiscal year 2022, the inspector general of Homeland Security said in May. Another 530,000 crossed the border from October to May, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said.

All told, that adds up to nearly 4 million undocumented immigrants.

The biggest jabs and most memorable lines from the Republican debate

''I banned China from buying land in the state of Florida.''

'-- DeSantis

DeSantis signed a bill restricting Chinese land purchases, but there were exemptions for residential property. A foreign person can buy a residential property if it is less than two acres, if the property is more than five miles from a military installation and the buyer has an active visa to lawfully reside in the country.

''As much as everybody wants to talk about how Donald Trump had a good economy, $9 trillion in debt he did just in four years and we are all paying the price of that.''

'-- Haley

According to the Treasury Department, the nation's total public debt, including intragovernmental holdings, climbed from nearly $20 trillion to $27.8 trillion under Trump, a gain of $7.9 trillion.

Of course, it is arbitrary and somewhat silly to tag presidents with the debt increase, as much of the gain is because of events, such as the pandemic, and policies made long before they took office. More than half of the debt under Trump came in the last 10 months of his term because of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the biggest drivers of the debt are spending on Social Security and Medicare, established decades ago. That spending happens automatically, not subject to annual appropriations made by Congress.

''So what I've said is in my administration, by the end of year one, we will have a 75 percent reduction in the number of federal bureaucrats, we will shut down government agencies that should not exist, we will rescind any regulation that fails the test '... These are big changes that the next president can deliver without asking Congress for permission or for forgiveness.''

'-- Ramaswamy

A president cannot eliminate government agencies without an act of Congress and a president cannot easily rescind regulations without court challenges. The idea that 75 percent of the federal workforce could be eliminated in one year is preposterous.

''Nikki Haley said the other day there should be no limits on legal immigration and that corporate CEOs should set the policy on that.''

'-- DeSantis

''That's not true, quit lying!''

'-- Haley

Haley did not quite say there could be no limits, but she did not specify a limit based on merit '-- and she suggested corporate officials could play a role.

Here's what she said at a town hall in New Hampshire in November: ''When it comes to legal immigration, it's a broken system. It shouldn't take someone 10 years to become a citizen. But what we need to do is reform it. So, for too long, Republican and Democrat presidents dealt with immigration based on a quota. We'll take X number this year, we'll take X number next year, the debate is on the number. It's the wrong way to look at it. We need to do it based on merit. We need to go to our industries and say what do you need that you don't have? So think agriculture, think tourism, think tech, we want the talent that's going to make us better. Then you bring people in that can fill those needs.''

''This is something that other countries in Europe, like Sweden, once they started doing it [gender treatments for children], they saw it did incalculable damage. They have shut it down.''

'-- DeSantis

This is overstated. Sweden in 2022 pulled back from hormone treatments for minors but did not completely ban it. The Swedish government's National Board of Health and Welfare said this ''should be provided within a research context'' and offered ''only in exceptional cases,'' while adding that the ''risks of puberty suppressing treatment '... and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits.''

''I did a bill in Florida to stop the gender mutilation of minors. It's child abuse, and it's wrong. She opposes that bill. She thinks it's fine and the law shouldn't get involved with it.''

'-- DeSantis

DeSantis is referring to this exchange that Haley had with a CBS News reporter in a June interview.

CBS: ''Another question is, what care should be on the table when a 12-year-old child in this country assigned female at birth says, 'actually I feel more comfortable living as a boy.' What should the law allow the response to be?'' HALEY: ''I think the law should stay out of it and I think parents should handle it. This is a job for the parents to handle. And then when that child becomes 18, if they want to make more of a permanent change, they can do that. But I think up until then, we see with our teenage kids, they go through a lot during puberty, they go through a lot of confusion, they go through a lot of anxiety, they go through a lot of pressures. We should support them the whole way through, but we don't need to go and enforce something in schools, we do not need schools sitting there hiding from the parents what gender pronoun they are using. We don't need to have those conversations in schools. Those are conversations that should be had at home.'' Haley made similar comments in a June CNN town hall. ''I want everybody to live the way they want to live,'' she said.

The Haley campaign has emphasized that she told CBS: ''When that child becomes 18 if they want to make more of a permanent change, they can do that.''

The campaign also points to a comment in an ABC News clip from May: ''You shouldn't allow a child to have a gender-changing procedure till the age of 18 when they are an adult and they can make that decision. But we shouldn't have taxpayer dollars ever going to that.''

It's unclear what question elicited that answer, and Bill Burr, anchor for WTAT of Charleston, said he did not recall the exact wording. ''We don't have transcripts. And it's almost impossible to save raw clips because of the amount of storage they occupy in our system,'' he told The Fact Checker.

''We now know that 50 percent of adults 18 to 25 think that Hamas was warranted at what they did with Israel.''

'-- Haley

Haley is referring to a Harvard-Harris poll found that among 18-to-24-year-olds, 48 percent said they sided with Hamas, a militant group that has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

But the poll results stem from a small subsample of 199 people, out of a survey of 2,116 registered voters on Oct. 18. Other parts of the survey seemed to contradict this result '-- by 2-1 margins, respondents in this group said Hamas's Oct. 7 action ''was a terrorist attack'' and that the attacks ''were genocidal in nature.'' Moreover, other surveys of young Americans also do not show the same level of support.

''Why am I the only person on this stage at least who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?''

'-- Ramaswamy

There is no evidence to support any claim of government involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The far-right fringe has spread conspiracy theories that people such as Trump supporter Ray Epps were working with the FBI, but such claims have quickly fallen apart under scrutiny.

We have documented that former president Trump inspired the attack, that he actively sought to overturn the election and that he took inadequate steps to calm the attackers.

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Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:09

Vogel has served as financial chief since January 2020Updated Dec. 7, 2023 6:03 pm ET

Spotify Technology's Finance Chief Paul Vogel will leave the company March 31, with the company launching an external search for his replacement.

The music-streaming platform said Ben Kung, vice president of financial planning and analysis, would take on expanded responsibilities in the interim to support the transition of finance-team leadership.

Copyright (C)2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Sun, 10 Dec 2023 15:33

Israel's war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza has sparked a battle over hummus in the United States.

Tubs of the chickpea spread were defaced with stickers that claimed the contents were ''contaminated with apartheid and Zionism," at three Pennsylvania supermarkets according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The bright yellow labels stuck on the lids of Sabra-brand products also reportedly urged shoppers to "boycott Israeli goods."

Sabra is a joint venture between Israel-based Strauss Group and PepsiCo.

Acme Markets '-- a supermarket chain in the City of Brotherly Love '-- said the stickers were "removed as quickly as possible," the Inquirer reported Thursday.

The company also said it was cooperating with law enforcement authorities to ''prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law."

Sabra Hummus Thomson200/WikimediaStrauss Group joined PepsiCo to buy Sabra Salads for an undisclosed amount in 2007, Reuters reported at the time.

A Strauss Group spokesperson declined to comment on the Pennsylvania incidents, the Inquirer said.

All of the reported tagging took place in Lower Merion Township, a suburban area northwest of Philadelphia.

Proponents of the anti-Israel BDS movement '-- the acronym stands for "boycott, divestment and sanctions" '-- have called for customers to avoid Sabra hummus since at least 2010 over the Strauss Group's support of the Israel Defense Forces' Golani Brigade.

Its soldiers have repeatedly been accused of abusing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In May, three Golani Brigade soldiers received jail sentences of up to 60 days for beating a Palestinian man and leaving him in a secluded area, the Times of Israel reported at the time.

The Strauss Group removed references to the IDF from its English-language website in November 2010, the Jerusalem Post reported at the time, citing a BDS group in Philadelphia.

A short time later, Strauss Group chairperson Ofra Strauss told Forbes she hoped the boycott effort was "over" but reiterated her support for Israel's military.

"For us, Israeli soldiers are not army; Israeli soldiers are our kids," she said in a report posted in December 2010. "And when children of this country are in need, we will be there."

The recent hummus stickering in suburban Philadelphia was reported just four days after activists held a pro-Palestine protest outside a falafel shop in Philadelphia.

Goldie is Jewish-owned and serves Israel-style food.

Demonstrators chanted, ''Goldie, Goldie you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!'' over a fundraiser that the eatery's Israeli-born co-owner held to buy gear for Israeli military medics operating in Gaza.

Local activists also said they targeted the restaurant over claims the owners fired employees for supporting Palestinian causes.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian restaurant chain Ayat in New York City saw its East Village outlet dinged with multiple one-star reviews following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that sparked its latest war with Israel, according to the Jewish news website the Forward.

The mass denunciation was reportedly prompted by the inclusion in the eatery's menu of the phrase "From the river to the sea," which appears in the Hamas charter that calls for replacing Israel with a Palestinian state.

In Queens, the Palestinian owner of the King of Falafel and Shwarma restaurant told the Forward that he was repeatedly harassed while operating a food cart following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"People passed by and started calling, 'You're a terrorist. Go back. You don't belong here,''' Fara Zeideia said. ''I'd say I'm from Palestine, and they'd say, 'There is no Palestine.'''

Zeideia also accused Israeli restaurateurs of appropriating Palestinian cuisine, saying he corrects customers who call his chopped tomato-and-cucumber dish an "Israeli salad."

''You got to say, 'I want the Palestinian salad,' and I'll give it to you," he said.

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Sex scandalized GOP official reportedly cites Trump values as new Republican standard 03:12

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By WXYZ Detroit

Friday, December 8, 2023 3:04AM

DETROIT -- Gangs from South America are breaking into multi-million dollar homes across the country, including metro Detroit, WXYZ reported.

Police said they are highly functional and well-trained.

A police official described the crews, which are believed to consist of four to six people, as highly functional and well-trained.

The thieves reportedly use a jammer to overcome wireless security systems that depend on WiFi to operate. The crews are all dressed in black, with backpacks, and gloves. They are non-confrontational and their goal is to get in and out of the homes quickly, police said.

At least 30 to 40 homes have been hit since September in the Detroit area. Thieves have gotten away with cash, jewelry and expensive handbags within minutes of breaking in.

Police departments in Michigan have formed a task force and urged home owners to have multiple layers of security.

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Pivot Tuesday & Friday Mornings Every Tuesday and Friday, Recode's Kara Swisher and NYU Professor Scott Galloway offer sharp, unfiltered insights into the biggest stories in tech, business, and politics. They make bold predictions, pick winners and losers, and bicker and banter like no other. After all, with great power comes great scrutiny.

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CICERO, Ill. (WLS) -- Chicago has put bus companies bringing migrants to the city on notice that if they don't comply with the rules for where and when to drop off new arrivals, the penalty will be more than just a fine. Mayor Brandon Johnson is proposing impounding buses that break the rules.

So-called rogue buses trying to avoid fines have instead detoured to the Cicero Metra station where on two occasions, on November 29 and in mid-November, they have tried to just dump the migrants and leave.

"It's an unfortunate game they are playing cat and mouse with human lives and children lives," said Eddie Fuentes, director of community care for New Life Centers.

Fuentes, who oversees the landing zone operations, was called in both incidents and rushed to Cicero to help. Cicero police responded and confronted the driver with a warning.

"If they decided to drop the new arrivals at that site, it was gonna be a $30,000 ticket and they'll tow their bus. So they got everybody back on the bus, Cicero PD escorted the bus to the dedicated landing zone here in Chicago," Fuentes said.

Chicago has already fined several buses $5,000 for violating migrant drop off regulations, but the city is now taking steps to get a lot tougher.

"The ordinance we're considering today would allow those buses if they're not in compliance, to be impounded by the city," said 1st Ward Alderman Daniel La Spata, who is also the chair of the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Commiteee.

The ordinance passed out of committee Friday without any dissent. La Spata said it's a tough penalty, but necessary.

"But when folks have proven themselves to just be so flagrant in their disregard. I think that's where impoundment is a reasonable tool of enforcement," he said. "The underlying goal is not punishment for bus companies, but care for migrants."

"It's really to be able to receive the new arrivals with compassion, Fuentes said.

Next week the full city council is expected to vote on the bus impounding ordinance, with the hope it will bring all bus companies into compliance and not lead to more attempts to drop migrants at other remote locations where there is no one waiting to welcome and assist them.

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A Bay Area transportation agency is carrying out a study to determine if it will start charging drivers to use freeways.

The idea, put forth by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, is that drivers would be charged a small fee per mile they drive on any major freeway that runs parallel to public transit. That fee would range from 10 to 30 cents.

It's not a popular idea among those NBC Bay Area spoke with.

''That's completely absurd,'' said Santa Cruz resident Renee Golder.

''I think that's a bad idea,'' said one person who declined to share their name. ''I would not like to pay money to get to work.''

It's not a done deal, but the MTC explained in a public meeting Wednesday night that it's one idea being seriously considered to reduce congestion and meet the state's greenhouse gas emissions goal by 2035.

A Bay Area transportation agency is floating an idea to help meet state climate goals and reduce congestion, though it's not popular among drivers: all-lane freeway tolling. Ian Cull reports.

In one example shared by the MTC, a one-way commute from San Carlos to San Jose would cost about $6 if tolls were put in place by 2035. But transit experts also estimate it would shave about 10 minutes off the commute due to fewer drives being on the road.

The commission also provided a chart which estimated commuters who drive around 40 miles per day, five days per week would end up paying around $270 each month.

''But even though it's not popular, we think it's worthy of having a conversation with folks so that people can start to think about trade-offs. '... What might I get in return in terms of a faster trip, more transit available. Those kinds of things,'' said John Goodwin, an MTC spokesperson.

Low-income households would also get a 50% discount.

Golder told NBC Bay Area they didn't think it was a fair solution.

''I don't think it's an equitable solution for transportation because most people that have to have long commutes are people that maybe can't afford to take other means of transportation,'' Golder said. ''I think it's a privilege to be able to bike or walk to work.''

The plan isn't an imminent one. The California state legislature would need to approve any final plan, and even then tolls are only proposed to begin in 2035.

The MTC is taking feedback on the idea on its website. It expects people will have a lot to say.

Bay Area transportation leaders are looking into all-lane freeway tolling. Scott Budman takes a closer look at the proposal.

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13 Investigates spent the day digging into Anthony Polito's personal website, creating an inventory of what Polito put out to internet readers, which paints a bizarre picture.

Polito's website, tonypolito.com, is striking in an understated way.

The format is outdated by over 20 years, and the content, given the context of Polito's horrendous crime, offers a chilling glimpse of a narcissistic and disturbed mind.

While there's nothing flashy to see, clicking on the various tabs reveals pages and pages of some cryptic and odd documents, many apparently written by Polito.

In one document, titled "Statement of Instructional Philosophy," he comments about universities.

AP: Las Vegas shooting suspect was a professor who recently applied for a job at UNLV

"There is political turf-fighting, ignoble actions, pettiness, insularity," he writes. "These halls are best reserved, not for those short in moral character, but for those who intend to mold it."

In a press briefing Thursday afternoon, Metro Sheriff Kevin McMahill revealed, "We know he applied numerous times for a job with several Nevada Higher Education institutions and was denied each time."

The scorn Polito wrote of for fellow professors in higher education may be evidenced by what else the police revealed.

"The suspect had a list of people he was seeking on a university campus as well as faculty from the Eastern Carolina University," Sheriff McMahill said.

Polito seems to have been obsessed with unsolved mysteries, including high-profile murders.

In a document from August 2014, he claims to have solved the Zodiac killer's cipher and figured out his identity. He claimed the Zodiac killer demonstrated behaviors "to self-satisfy his intellectual superiority complex, a complex that required him to constantly prove to himself and others that he was more clever than "lesser minds.'"

An inflated ego might describe Polito himself. He posted 29 pages of positive comments supposedly from his students, double-underlining and bolding comments like "the best teacher I have had at this university."

FULL COVERAGE: Everything we know about the UNLV shooting: Victims, resources, support

Polito also posted an article describing how he built his own computer'--interesting in light of what police say is the only criminal charge in his past.

"He had a previous criminal history of computer trespass out of Virginia in 1992," Sheriff McMahill said.

Amid hundreds of posts are links to articles about Area 51, Jack the Ripper, the JFK assassination and the 2001 Anthrax attacks.

"Our detectives learned, prior to the shooting, the suspect had earlier visited a Henderson post office and sent 22 letters to various university personnel across the country with no return address," Sheriff McMahill said. "The first letter that we opened had an unknown white powder substance in it."

According to ABC News, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said preliminary test results on that white powder substance indicate it was talcum powder. Police are currently working on testing the other 21 envelopes in their possession.

The website also has three sections for links to Las Vegas. Sin City is the subject of the first sentence on the page he called "Personal Profile," where he wrote about dozens of trips to Las Vegas before moving here, saying, "I don't gamble that much, but there is plenty to do there, that's for sure !! Over those years, my steel trap mind collected more information and trivia about Vegas than probably anyone in this state east of I-95 (at least)!"

Despite that post, it appears life in Las Vegas was difficult for Polito. Police found an eviction notice taped to his apartment door when serving a search warrant Wednesday night. Inside, they found a chair with an arrow taped to it, pointing down to a document they described as similar to a last will and testament. We don't yet know what that document says, but it may help reveal a motive.

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