US created Ukraine conflict – Shoigu
RT | April 26, 2024
The Ukraine conflict is Washington’s doing and the US is deliberately trying to prolong the fighting, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday during a meeting with his counterparts from Asian nations.
Shoigu is taking part in a gathering of military chiefs from members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a nine-strong mutual defense organization. The Russian minister used the forum hosted by Kazakhstan to reiterate Moscow’s position on the origins of its conflict with Ukraine.
He identified Washington as a major source of global instability, citing its record of military interventions abroad, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. The US also uses less direct financial and diplomatic tools to damage its opponents, including by fueling chaos in different parts of the world, Shoigu alleged.
“The US had first created, and now is deliberately prolonging the Ukraine conflict,” the minister stated. “As it signals purported intention to de-escalate, the West keeps pumping Kiev with weapons.”
Ukraine cannot properly control the donations, meaning there is the risk that they could end up with terrorist groups, Shoigu warned.
“They provide real-time intelligence, train Ukrainian troops, deploy Western military specialists and mercenaries on the battlefield,” he added, describing the involvement by various NATO members.
The US and its allies claim that Russia launched an “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine in February 2022, and they have since sent tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Kiev.
Shoigu accused the US of double standards regarding a nation’s right to self-defense. He cited Washington’s blocking of a UN Security Council resolution which would have condemned Israel for attacking an Iranian consulate in Damascus in early April. Tehran’s eventual retaliatory attack was the result of this obstruction, the Russian minister said.
Iran joined the SCO last year and was also taking part in the meeting in Kazakhstan.
Russia Never Threatened NATO, Has No Interests in Attacking Member States – Shoigu
Sputnik – 26.04.2024
ASTANA – Russia has never threatened NATO and has neither geopolitical nor military interests to attack the states of the alliance, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.
“Russia has never threatened NATO. We have neither geopolitical nor military interests to attack the states of the bloc. We are simply protecting our people in our historical territories,” Shoigu said during a meeting of defense ministers of the SCO member countries in Astana.
Russia has always made maximum efforts to maintain strategic stability and balance of power in the world, the minister added.
The SCO was founded in 2001. India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are its full members. Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia are observer states; Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt, Cambodia, Nepal, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar, Bahrain, and Kuwait are dialogue partners.
US Plans on Military Infrastructure in Central Asia Threatens SCO Space Stability
The US intention to deploy military infrastructure in the Central and South Asia is direct a threat to stability in the SCO space, the minister noted.
“I believe that all those present share the opinion that the deployment of military infrastructure in the region by the United States and its allies is unacceptable. Such intentions must be regarded as a direct threat to stability in the SCO space,” Shoigu said.
Commenting on the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, Shoigu said that US-oriented military and political structures are trying to remake security system in the region to dominate this part of the planet.
Additionally, the minister added that the return of radical Islamists from the Middle East and North Africa to Southeast Asia creates prerequisites for new hot spots.
The United States uses the tactics of inciting hotbeds of instability in the world, generating security threats, while it simultaneously offers military assistance, Shoigu pointed out.
On Tuesday, the US Senate passed the $95 billion legislation with approximately $61 billion in Ukraine-related funding, $26 billion in Israel-related funding and $8 billion for Indo-Pacific security initiatives in a vote of 79-18. The Biden administration is reportedly readying a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine sourced from the legislation.
“[The US] uses a technique that has been proven many times — inciting and maintaining hotbeds of instability in various regions of the world, generating security threats while simultaneously offering military assistance to neutralize them,” he said.
Continued Strikes by Ukraine on Zaporozhye NPP Can Lead to Catastrophic Consequences
Shoigu also touched upon potential catastrophic consequences caused by the ongoing Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
“The ongoing strikes of the Ukrainian armed forces on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which could lead to catastrophic consequences, are of particular concern,” Shoigu emphasized.
The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant is located on the left bank of the Dnepr River and is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. It came under the control of Russian forces in early March 2022 and has since been repeatedly shelled by Ukrainian forces, raising international fears of a possible nuclear accident.
Blinken’s Failed Diplomacy: Feeble and Hostile Threats against China by Top-ranking US Officials Visiting Beijing
By Drago Bosnic | Global Research | April 25, 2024
On April 24, US State Secretary Antony Blinken landed in China and officially started his (hopefully) diplomatic visit. The relationship between the two countries has worsened significantly. Beijing’s peaceful overtures have been met with nothing but hostility in Washington DC. The United States is simply terrified of the prospect that China will overtake it. However, this has already happened in many ways.
When not murdering millions around the world, America is still trying to figure out whether public toilets should be “mixed-gender”, while China is busy building not just itself, but the world, too.
Most of the planet is perfectly aware of this disparity and is making it clear that cooperation with Beijing is a matter of choice, while having anything to do with Washington DC mostly boils down to coercion, as the political elites there are simply incapable of conducting “diplomacy” without resorting to arm-twisting.
Blinken is going to China precisely with such bearing, pompously announcing that he “arrives with a warning that the US and its European allies are no longer prepared to tolerate China’s sale of weapon components and dual-use products to Russia”. The political West insists that this is “helping Vladimir Putin rebuild and modernize his arms factories, enabling him to intensify his onslaught on Ukraine”. Caught in the web of its own endless stream of lies, the belligerent power pole is trying to blame anyone but itself. However, this is all futile, particularly when it comes to superpowers such as China. Beijing will certainly decide whether or not to do business with someone and the political West has no say in it whatsoever. Blinken will have three days to relay the US position and if that time will be used to make toothless threats and attempt blackmail, he should’ve certainly picked another country.
The mainstream propaganda machine thinks that the relations between the US and China are improving, citing Blinken’s planned attendance at a basketball game as the indicator of this.
However, the simple fact that none of the top-ranking officials greeted him when he flew in indicates something completely different. Blinken is supposed to meet Beijing’s veteran Foreign Minister Wang Yi tomorrow. The encounter is expected to last at least six hours and might even include President Xi Jinping. This will certainly depend on Blinken’s command of actual diplomacy, as the aforementioned threats he pompously announced are only for domestic consumption and are entirely void in China. The US might threaten with sanctions, but this is a two-way street and any reciprocal measures would certainly hurt America’s economic and maybe even national security interests. It’s entirely up to the US whether things will take such an unpleasant turn.
The troubled Biden administration reportedly raised the issue of the supposed “support” for Russia directly with President Xi Jinping, while US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen did the same during her recent visit to China. However, Beijing seems completely unconcerned, as it has repeatedly stated that Washington DC’s threats regarding its close ties with Moscow mean nothing, particularly as the US and its vassals and satellite states keep escalating their aggression in the Asia-Pacific. It seems that simply maintaining normal economic and financial relations with Russia now boils down to “helping” its efforts to push back against NATO aggression in Europe. After all, even if countries like China, Iran and North Korea are building closer ties with their northern neighbor, it can only be expected that everyone the political West keeps threatening will find ways to unite their forces and push back together.
“Let me stress again that China’s right to conduct normal trade and economic exchanges with Russia and other countries in the world on the basis of equality and mutual benefit should not be interfered with or disrupted,” Wang Wenbin, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, stated just before Blinken’s arrival, adding: “China’s legitimate and lawful rights and interests should not be infringed on.”
US officials insist that Beijing supposedly “gave up on the idea of sending weapons directly to Moscow thanks to their threats“. However, the entire claim is essentially a multilayered lie, as there’s no evidence whatsoever that China ever planned on arming Russia, let alone that it stopped doing so because of the political West’s pressure. On top of that, Washington DC is trying to disrupt the rapidly growing trade between the two (Eur)Asian giants, particularly through claims that Beijing is supplying so-called “dual-use” industrial goods. This is where the endless hypocrisy and mental gymnastics of the political West become most evident. While the US just decided to send dozens of billions worth of weapons to directly undermine Russia’s and China’s basic national security interests, it’s accusing the latter of “helping” the former by simply trading with it, as the so-called “dual-use” industrial goods can be pretty much anything.
Worse yet, the US and its vassals and satellite states are surrounding both Beijing and Moscow with long-range missiles and deploying troops not only in their vicinity, but directly on their borders. Still, according to their own admission, “the Blinken team is worried that China’s response to pressure over Russia could be to slow down progress in other areas of the bilateral relationship”. This also includes the (Eur)Asian giant’s close ties with North Korea, as the US wants it to put pressure on Pyongyang. Washington DC is particularly terrified of the prospect that Russia, China and North Korea are forming a more monolithic alliance that the political West will be simply hopeless to match. However, they have nobody else to blame but themselves. Constant threats and attempts to undermine all three of these countries left them with no other choice but to work together. After all, that’s one of the reasons why BRICS itself exists.
Blinken threatens China over Russia ties
RT | April 26, 2024
Washington is ready to introduce more sanctions against China over its alleged transfer of dual-use goods and components, which can supposedly be used by the Russian military industrial complex, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the US official recalled that Washington has already imposed sanctions against more than 100 Chinese entities and is “fully prepared to act” and “take additional measures.”
Blinken claimed that China’s alleged support for the Russian defense industry raises concerns not only about the situation in Ukraine, but also about a “medium to long-term threat that many Europeans feel viscerally that Russia poses to them.”
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal had also reported that the US was drafting sanctions that could cut off some Chinese banks from the global financial system unless Beijing severs its economic ties with Russia.
The outlet claimed that US officials believe trade with China has allowed Russia to rebuild its military industrial capacity and could help it defeat Ukraine in a war of attrition.
Beijing, in turn, has accused the US of hypocrisy for providing billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine while “unreasonably criticizing the normal trade and economic relations between Russia and China.”
“This is a very hypocritical and irresponsible approach,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbing told reporters on Friday in response to Blinken’s concerns about Beijing’s support of Moscow.
China has also vehemently rejected accusations leveled by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of “fueling” the Ukraine conflict. Beijing has instead blamed NATO for instigating the crisis by continuing its expansion in Europe and refusing to respect Russian national security concerns.
Following his meeting with Blinken, President Xi suggested that the US and China “should be partners, not rivals” and should strive towards achieving “mutual success and not harm each other.”
“I proposed three major principles: mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation. They are not only a summary of past experience, but also a guide to the future,” the Chinese leader was quoted as saying.
Beijing has maintained a policy of neutrality on the Ukraine conflict, with Chinese officials repeatedly stating that the country is not selling weapons to either Russia or Ukraine. Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning insisted that China “regulates the export of dual-use articles in accordance with laws and regulations,” urging “relevant countries” not to “smear or attack the normal relations between China and Russia.”
In December last year, US President Joe Biden issued a decree which enabled sanctions on foreign financial institutions that continue to deal with Russia. It targeted lenders outside US and EU jurisdictions that help Russia source sensitive items, which reportedly include semiconductors, machine tools, chemical precursors, ball bearings, and optical systems.
Why won’t Chris Packham have a real debate on climate?
By Paul Homewood | Not A Lot Of People Know That | April 25, 2024
On Sunday, the BBC did something unusual. It invited Luke Johnson, a climate contrarian, to join a panel with Laura Kuenssberg to discuss net zero. As followers of this debate will know, the BBC’s editorial policy unit issued guidance to staff in 2018 saying: ‘As climate change is accepted as happening, you do not need a “denier” to balance the debate.’ Although it did allow for exceptions to this rule: ‘There are occasions where contrarians and sceptics should be included within climate change and sustainability debates.’ Presumably this was one such occasion.
The other two people on the panel – Chris Packham and Layla Moran – are members of the climate emergency camp, so there was no pretence of ‘balance’. At one point, the exchange between Johnson and Packham became heated and when the latter invoked the recent downpour in Dubai as well as extensive wildfires in the ‘global south’, as evidence of the effect of anthropogenic global warming, Johnson challenged him to come up with evidence that extreme weather was caused by carbon emissions.
‘It doesn’t come from Toby Young’s Daily Septic [sic], which is basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry,’ replied Packham. ‘It comes from something called science.’ This was hailed by Packham’s side as a slam-dunk rebuttal of Johnson’s argument. The Canary wrote up the exchange under the following headline: ‘Chris Packham just humiliated Kuenssberg’s preposterous climate-denying guest.’ The London Economic, which describes itself as ‘a digital newspaper with a metropolitan mindset’, summarised it as follows: ‘With science on his side, Chris Packham was able to deliver a devastating put-down when challenged on the evidence of climate change.’
I can’t help thinking Packham’s ‘devastating put-down’ would have been more effective if it had been true. The people who put together the Daily Sceptic, a news publishing site I’ve edited since 2020, have no connections to the fossil fuel industry. If Packham and his allies are so convinced of the rightness of their cause, why invent reasons to discredit their opponents? A clip from the show including this claim was posted on Twitter by BBC Politics and retweeted by Laura Kuenssberg, getting, at last count, 845,000 views. And to think the BBC launched a multi-million-pound department last year to ‘address the growing threat of disinformation’.
What about Packham’s claim that ‘something called science’ provides all the evidence we need that extreme weather events are caused by burning fossil fuels? There’s really no such thing as ‘the science’, as in a consensus viewpoint among scientists that’s so incontrovertible no serious debate is possible. All scientific theories are just hypotheses and, as such, subject to challenge. Indeed, if it were illegitimate to challenge these theories, progress in science wouldn’t be possible. To pretend that the science of what causes extreme weather is ‘settled’ when it’s the subject of ongoing dispute suggests that Packham and his pals aren’t capable of having a proper grown-up discussion.
Full story here.
Toby Young actually understates his complaint, as there is no evidence that weather is actually becoming more extreme – something the IPCC admit.
It is very easy for these conmen to claim it is, and simply justify it with a statement that “scientists say”. But as Toby points out, they are unable to back it up with actual data and evidence.
The idea, fraudulently circulated by grant funded climate scientists, that global warming means extreme weather has always been by definition absurd. After all, does this mean that the Earth’s climate was ideal during the Ice Age, which would be the logical conclusion?
The simple fact is that there has always been unpleasant weather, storms, floods, droughts, and glaciation. If Chris Packham can provide evidence that these have all gotten worse in recent times, then let him present it.
If he can’t, the BBC should apologise for broadcasting false statements, exclude him from all future debates on climate change, and ban him from making any further such political comments if he wishes to remain as an employee.
‘A Dangerous Vaccine for a Nothing Disease’: U.S. Stockpiling Bird Flu Vaccines
‘Why is it called a biodefense project?’
By John-Michael Dumais | The Defender | April 24, 2024
With the recent spread of H5N1 bird flu to dairy cows in eight states — and the infection of a Texas dairy worker marking the second known human case in the country — public health officials are raising concerns over the adequacy and safety of stockpiled vaccines meant to protect against a potential pandemic, according to Barron’s.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains bird flu is a low risk to humans — the infected dairy worker only contracted a case of conjunctivitis (pink eye) — and that there is currently no known mechanism for human-to-human transmission.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), avian flu is responsible for 463 deaths worldwide over the past 20 years. The CDC reports only two U.S. cases of bird flu, and both were mild. No Americans have died from the virus.
Still, government agencies and Big Pharma manufacturers are building their capacity for bird flu vaccine production.
The U.S. government holds three U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved H5N1 vaccines in its National Pre-Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Stockpile.
The vaccines, manufactured by pharmaceutical giants Sanofi, GSK and CSL Seqirus, all contain mercury, a known neurotoxin, according to product inserts.
The same companies — plus Moderna — are working to develop new bird flu vaccines.
Federal officials said they supply several hundred thousand doses within weeks and 10 million more using materials on hand, and expect to produce 125 million doses within four months.
Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, suggested the agency has a “pretty low threshold” to deploy the stockpiled vaccines.
“We believe that, if we needed to, [our vaccines] would be reasonably good matches,” Marks said on April 1 at the World Vaccine Congress in Washington, D.C.
Given that all stockpiled vaccines were made for an earlier strain of H5N1, it’s uncertain how effective they would be against the strains that are circulating now, former FDA scientist Luciana Borio told STAT News.
“The FDA-approved H5N1 vaccines — licensed in 2013, 2017, and 2020 — do not elicit a protective immune response after just one dose,” Borio said. Even after two doses, “It is unknown whether the elicited immune response is sufficient to protect against infection or severe disease.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) program told Barron’s the agency could “ramp up production to make enough vaccine doses to vaccinate the entire U.S. population.”
A portion of the stockpile consists of “chunks” of premade antigens — good for training the immune system against specific strains — and adjuvants, the ingredients used to activate the human immune system when vaccines are administered.
However, despite its assurances of rapid vaccine delivery, ASPR did not detail its plans beyond claiming it could vaccinate about 68 million people, or one-fifth of the country’s population — using the two-dose regimen — within four months of an outbreak.
Internist and epidemiologist Dr. Meryl Nass, appearing with James Corbett on the April 20 episode of “Good Morning CHD,” said, “You’ve got a dangerous vaccine for a nothing disease,” noting the low number of human H5N1 cases reported thus far.
“It’s supposedly for a life-threatening illness,” she said. “Of course, pink eye is not life-threatening,” she said.
“The whole purpose of bird flu is to make you think the pandemics are out there, they’re coming for you all the time, and you need them [the health bureaucracy] to save you,” Nass said.
Sanofi vaccine contains thimerosol, PEG
Sanofi’s H5N1 vaccine, approved for adults in April 2007, was developed from a virus strain isolated from a Vietnamese patient in 2004.
“Our egg-based vaccine supply would well contribute to support a global influenza pandemic response should it arise either from A/H5N1 or any other influenza strain,” a Sanofi spokesperson told MedPage Today.
Each 90 microgram (µg) dose includes influenza virus hemagglutinin, 500 milligrams (mg) of porcine (pig) gelatin and approximately 98 µg of thimerosal, a mercury derivative (equaling approximately 50 µg of mercury/dose).
Other ingredients used in the development of the vaccine include embryonated chicken eggs, formaldehyde, polyethylene glycol and sugar.
Polyethylene glycol, or PEG, has been linked to the anaphylactic reaction in the COVID-19 vaccines.
The product warnings cited adverse events related to the 1976 swine flu vaccine, which included Guillain-Barré syndrome and other neurological disorders such as encephalopathy, optic neuritis/neuropathy, partial facial paralysis and brachial plexus neuropathy, as well as vasculitis and altered immunocompetence.
The initial clinical trial, conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, featured an experimental group of 452 healthy adults ages 18-64, of which 103 were given two 90 µg doses administered 28 days apart, resulting in 44% of recipients developing a protective immune response.
The other adults in the vaccine group received 45 µg, 15 µg or 7 µg doses. The product information does not indicate their immune responses. However, given that the 90 µg/dose version is the one stockpiled, it’s likely the lesser amounts were ineffective.
Experts at the time expressed concern over the large doses, compared to the standard 15 µg dose used in seasonal flu vaccines, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
The trials didn’t include anyone under age 18, which would indicate that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine for this age group are undetermined.
GSK vaccine approved for 6-month-olds
GSK’s H5N1 vaccine, approved in 2013 for people as young as 6 months, was made from the same virus strain as Sanofi’s.
According to GSK’s package insert, each adult dose also contains the adjuvant AS03, made of 11.86 mg DL-α-tocopherol (vitamin E), 10.69 mg squalene (wrongly blamed for Gulf War syndrome, according to Nass) and 4.86 mg of an emulsifier called polysorbate 80. The insert also lists 5 µg of thimerosal, which equates to less than 2.5 µg mercury.
Other elements used in the production of the vaccine — and still present in the doses — include ovalbumin or embryonated hen eggs (at least 0.083 µg), formaldehyde (at least 12.5 µg) and sodium deoxycholate (at least 3.75 µg).
Pediatric doses contain about half the adult amounts of each ingredient, according to the product information.
In the clinical trial of about 2,000 adults 18 and older, 91% of those between 18 and 64 and 74% of those over 65 who received a two-dose (0.5 milliliters each) regimen of the GSK vaccine developed an adequate level of antibodies, according to the FDA.
The package insert warns of adverse events like Guillain-Barré syndrome, fainting and “cerebral vascular accidents” and notes one case of pulmonary embolism.
Three subjects developed thyroid cancer on days 21, 29 and 223 after administration. Two subjects developed polymyalgia rheumatica, two developed psoriasis, and one of each developed autoimmune hepatitis, celiac disease, cranial nerve 4 palsy, Crohn’s disease, facial paralysis and other symptoms.
A pediatric age group of 838 subjects ages 6 months through 17 years participated in a clinical trial. In addition to frequently reported symptoms of injection site pain, swelling, muscle aches, headache, fatigue, gastroenteritis, fever and other symptoms, serious adverse events included one report of a febrile convulsion and one case of alopecia within seven days of administration.
In a randomized control trial in eight countries outside the U.S. for children 6 months through 9 years old, one death was reported (day 42) along with one case of hepatitis and nasopharyngitis (day 385), three cases of appendicitis (on days 8 or 9) and one case of thyroid cancer (day 84).
Other adverse events included alopecia areata (2 subjects), glomerulonephritis (2 subjects), hypothyroidism (2 subjects) and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (1 subject).
GSK recently said it could provide at least 200 million doses to governments worldwide in the event of a pandemic, according to Barron’s.
CSL Seqirus vaccine: 1 in 200 died during clinical trials
The most recent addition to the U.S. government stockpile of bird flu vaccines is CSL Seqirus’ Audenz for H5N1, approved in 2020 for infants and adults 6 months old and up.
The vaccine contains CSL’s MF59 adjuvant, which includes 9.75 mg squalene, 1.175 mg polysorbate 80, 1.175 mg of sorbitan trioleate, 0.66 mg of sodium citrate dihydrate and 0.04 mg of citric acid monohydrate.
Nass considers MF59 dangerous because it can stimulate autoimmunity. “This adjuvant has not been approved for most other vaccines,” she said. She noted that the FDA is willing to take more risks for a vaccine needed in a dire emergency.
Other ingredients from the production process include MDCK cell protein (at least 3.15 µg) and MDCK cell DNA (at least 10 nanograms), both from dog kidneys, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (at least 4.5 µg) and ß-propiolactone (at least 0.1 µg).
Each 5 milliliter (mL) multidose vial contains 0.5 mL of thimerosal as a preservative, providing 25 µg of mercury per dose.
Fatality from the clinical trials included 11 (0.5% or 1 in 200) from the experimental group, compared to 0.1% or 1 in 1,000 for the placebo group.
In a trial with children ages 6 months through age 17, 8% of vaccine recipients developed upper respiratory infections within 21 days of vaccination.
Among the adverse events noted in post-marketing reports were swollen lymph nodes, swelling, anaphylaxis, Bell’s palsy, convulsions, demyelination, encephalitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
“So 1 in 200 died [and] you want to take this vaccine for a case of pink eye,” Nass said. “This is an example of how … one bad decision sort of goes and rolls down a hill and snowballs to another.”
New bird flu vaccines in development
As concerns mount over the effectiveness of stockpiled vaccines, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies are racing to develop new H5N1 vaccines better matched to currently circulating strains.
Barron’s reported that the U.S. government has been working with GSK, CSL Seqirus, Sanofi and Moderna to develop vaccines that better match the latest H5N1 strains.
GSK, recipient of multi-year pandemic preparedness contracts to supply a bird flu vaccine to the U.S., Canada, the European Union and the WHO, said it would be ready to supply 200 million doses globally, “updated with the latest circulating strains,” according to MedPage Today.
In October 2022, CSL Seqirus announced it was developing another vaccine based on the “pre-pandemic” H5N8 A strain, as part of ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) program.
The new vaccine also uses the MF59 adjuvant.
One of the surface proteins of H5N8 is reportedly similar, according to Barron’s, to the strain of H5N1 that infected the Texas dairy worker.
According to MedPage Today, CSL Seqirus said it could scale up production at its California facility — built in a private-public partnership with BARDA — to deliver 150 million vaccine doses during an outbreak.
Sanofi also partnered with BARDA in 2019 to “expand pandemic influenza preparedness” using the same recombinant technology as Sanofi’s Flublok Quadrivalent vaccine. Leveraging its existing technology would allow the company to more rapidly deliver a pandemic vaccine.
Moderna said in March 2023 that it planned to develop a bird flu vaccine, stating its COVID-19 vaccine was developed from its H10N8 pandemic flu vaccine research. Moderna didn’t mention the bird flu vaccine in its March 2024 announcements.
However, the company reported on its seasonal flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, saying it had “demonstrated consistently acceptable safety and tolerability across Phase 3 trials.”
“Early studies done by mRNA vaccine companies on seasonal flu are promising, which could be good news here since mRNA vaccines can be made more quickly than vaccines using eggs or cells,” said Borio.
‘Why is it called a biodefense project?’
Linking to a 2023 Global Biodefense article discussing BARDA’s work with CSL Seqirus, Dr. Peter McCullough tweeted on April 23, “Why is the bird flu (highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1) human vaccine a US @NIH @BARDA project with CSL? Why is it called a ‘biodefense’ project?”
The Daily Mail raised similar concerns about the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) collaborating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences — which oversees biodefense labs like the Wuhan Institute of Virology — to develop more virulent strains of bird flu viruses, ostensibly to aid in the development of vaccines.
The White Coat Waste Project disclosed details of the USDA-China program in a February post showing numerous research project agreements beginning in April 2021.
A bipartisan group of Congress members on April 12 sent USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack a letter stating, “This research, funded by American taxpayers, could potentially generate dangerous new lab-created virus strains that threaten our national security and public health.”
Dr. Richard Bartlett, an emergency room director and former Texas Department of Health and Human Services advisory council member, in the April 10 episode of “The Defender In-Depth,” suggested gain-of-function research on bird flu viruses may be responsible for the current outbreak or could cause a future pandemic.
“After everything we just experienced and all the loss of life and bankruptcy and damage to the economy, families destroyed with COVID, why would you continue gain-of-function research?” he asked.
Nass told Corbett she was skeptical of the push for bird flu vaccines. “Every single time we’ve had an emergency and vaccines have been rolled out quickly, it’s resulted in disaster,” she said.
Nass cautioned against relying on centralized solutions pushed by public health authorities.
“They want you only to be able to get the solution they have made for you,” she said. “They don’t want it widely distributed where you have agency to decide whether you want it for yourself or not. … Don’t be scared. This is a scam.”
John-Michael Dumais is a news editor for The Defender. He has been a writer and community organizer on a variety of issues, including the death penalty, war, health freedom and all things related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
ByteDance Will Shut Down TikTok in US Rather Than Comply with Divestment Demand
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | April 25, 2024
ByteDance says it will not sell off its popular video-sharing app TikTok after President Joe Biden signed a law that will ban the platform from American users in nine months if it is not sold away from Chinese ownership.
Several sources inside ByteDance say TikTok is not for sale, Reuters reported Thursday. The company officials explained that while TikTok is only a small portion of ByteDance’s business, the technology used by the platform is also utilized across ByteDance’s other services. The company believes selling TikTok will hurt its other business.
On Wednesday, President Biden signed a bill that will ban TikTok in nine months if the platform does not divest of all Chinese ownership. Some 170 million Americans—including Biden’s own reelection campaign—use the platform.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said he believes the company can defeat the ban in court on constitutional grounds and argued the platform will not be sold or banned. “Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” Chew said. “The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail again.”
Senator Rand Paul also voiced hopes TikTok would prevail in court. “The censors who abound in Congress will likely vote to ban TikTok or force a change in ownership. It will likely soon be law,” Paul wrote in a recent op-ed published by Reason. “I think the Supreme Court will ultimately rule it unconstitutional, because it would violate the First Amendment rights of over 100 million Americans who use TikTok to express themselves.”
American politicians argue TikTok must be banned, or at least severed from ByteDance, because the app presents a national security risk. They claim that Beijing could utilize the site’s data and algorithm to wage an intelligence or disinformation campaign against Americans.
However, there is no proof China has used TikTok for any nefarious operations against the US. Additionally, Chew has argued that TikTok is a global company and not merely Chinese-owned. During a congressional hearing last year, the executive said that three of TikTok’s five board members are Americans, while 60% of TikTok is owned by global investment firms and another 20% is owned by employees. The remaining 20% stake is held by ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming.
Rumble Defies Global Censorship Trends, Takes Stand Against New Zealand’s Free Speech Crackdown
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | April 25, 2024
The CEO of Rumble, a free-speech YouTube competitor, says that global censorship levels are on the rise, but that what’s particularly noticeable are censorship demands coming from Australia and New Zealand – who seem to be following in the controversial, to say the least, footsteps of France and Brazil.
On the one hand, this is surprising, given these countries’ formal democratic provenance.
On the other hand, their actions over the last years, including site blocking at ISP level, constant demands for more stringent regulation to facilitate social media content removal, and even the draconian Covid – and post-Covid era measures, tell a different story.
Chris Pavlovski told Mat Kim that the FreeNZMedia channel has now become a deplatforming target in New Zealand, for reporting about leaked data from the National Vaccination Database, that a whistleblower, former Health New Zealand IT employee Barry Young, made available.
And the data Young gave to reporters and activists concerns Covid vaccine-related deaths and claims that these facts are being covered up.
For referring to Young, and referring to the data he provided to the public, a letter has been sent to Rumble to remove FreeNZMedia. It came from the National Health Authority.
However, Pavlovski said that the company has decided to refuse to do that, or to withdraw from the country, and will instead “challenge it and see what happens.”
Pavlovski went on to refer to this particular New Zealand case as “absurd” and “disgusting” – in that it bears resemblance to the Pentagon Papers. At that time, journalist Daniel Ellsberg emerged as a hero of free speech that was protected by the courts in the US.
But that was nearly 50 years ago, and things have clearly changed not only in faraway lands, but in the US itself, and whistleblowers face anything from deplatforming to life in prison.
Speaking about the case of Young, and FreeNZMedia, Pavlovski said that the whistleblower “has a statistics background, went through all the data, found the different batches of vaccines that had an irregular high death rate and published that, and gave out different interviews on doing it.”
Screenshot
Pavlovski said that he saw nothing that merits censoring the Rumble channel for basing its reporting on Young’s data, and called on the US State Department to “get involved immediately and start protecting US assets and businesses around the world.”
That would be an interesting turn of events, seeing as how the US treats those “assets and business” at home, where censorship is rampant; nevertheless, Pavlovski in this way essentially challenged them to react.
Liberal world order must be destroyed – Orban
RT | April 25, 2024
Western liberal hegemony has failed and must be destroyed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated on Thursday, suggesting it could end as soon as this year.
Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC Hungary) in Budapest, Orban criticized the existing “world order based on progressive liberal hegemony,” saying it has spawned numerous figureheads who are “not fit to be leaders,” with even “beauty pageants” knowing more about peace then they do.
He accused liberal politicians of building “hegemonic ideological control to which everyone must submit” instead of actual governing, while turning “state bodies into tools of oppression.” Such forces are a dangerous enemy whose time is coming to an end, Orban claimed.
“The progressive liberals sense the danger, the end of this era also means their end,” the prime minister argued. Their dominance could be overcome as soon as this year, Orban predicted, citing the upcoming EU Parliament and US presidential elections.
“The proponents of the old world are sitting in Brussels, and although it is not my business to interfere in American politics, I fear that they are also sitting in Washington. This is what we are doing this year. This year, we will try to drive them out,” the Hungarian prime minister said.
“This year, God willing, we can end the inglorious era of the Western civilization. We can end the world order built on progressive liberal hegemony. The progressive liberal world spirit has failed. It gave the world war, chaos, unrest and destroyed economies.”
The emerging world order will be based on true sovereignty, with countries driven by their actual national interests rather than a global ideology, according to Orban.
“Let the era of sovereignty come, let’s get back towards peace and security. Let’s make America great again, let’s make Europe great again,” he concluded.
UN expert calls for arms, oil embargo against Israel
Press TV – April 25, 2024
UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese has called on the international community to immediately impose oil sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel.
“At this point, Israel has reneged on its international obligations to a degree that warrants an imperative implementation of immediate and unconditional sanctions which should entail first and foremost an arms and oil embargo,” Francesca Albanese said during a press conference on Thursday.
Albanese accused the United States and certain other Western states of being accomplice to Israel’s crimes by sending military aid and weapons.
“Complicity with genocide is a crime on its own under the Genocide Convention, so definitely interested in investigating to what extent, the aid – political and military aid that has been granted to Israel by a number of countries primarily the United States, might amount to complicity. What I can tell you for sure is that this support is in clear violation, is in clear breach with the International Court of Justice interim order that ordered the suspension, among others, of the cessation of acts that might amount to genocide and unhindered access for the Palestinians to humanitarian aid.”
In January, the United Nations’ top court ordered the Israeli regime to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide in Gaza.
Albanese further said the European Union should impose sanctions on Israel, not merely on extremist settlers. “Settlers operate as part of Israel’s expansionism over what remains of historic Palestine,” Albanese said. “So it is Israel, not settlers per se, [that has] to be targeted by sanctions.”
Elsewhere in her remarks, the UN expert further said countries must do everything in their power to prevent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
“Israeli policies expanding the occupied Palestinian territory are unquestionably endangering Palestinian existence on their land, or what remains of their land. The focus of the international community must zero in on the most likely implication of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and states must do everything in their power to prevent it.”
Last month, Albanese told the UN rights body in Geneva that she believed that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since October 7 amounts to genocide.
Palestinians on Thursday mourned people killed in the Israeli bombardment of Rafah, the crowded city in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel says it is advancing plans for a ground invasion.
At the city’s Najjar Hospital, among the mourners were two men crouching, grief-stricken, in front of a white body bag.
Those killed in an Israeli strike on Rafah included Abdallah Nabhan, 33, who worked for Belgium’s Enabel development agency.
Brussels said it would summon Israel’s ambassador to explain the death.
Palestinian journalist Mohammad Bassam al-Jamal was killed along with his family members in an attack on their house in the city of Rafah. His death brings to 139 the number of journalists killed in the Gaza war.
Hamas ready to join Palestinian ‘national army’ if statehood achieved: Official
The Cradle | April 25, 2024
Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said in an interview published on 25 April that the group could potentially join forces with a Palestinian national army in the event that Palestine is recognized as a state.
“All the experiences of people who fought against occupiers, when they became independent and obtained their rights and their state, what have these forces done? They have turned into political parties and their defending fighting forces have turned into the national army,” Hayya told AP.
He also said that Hamas would be willing to join the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank with the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Fatah party, on the condition of a “fully sovereign Palestinian state” on pre-1967 borders and “the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with the international resolutions.”
He added that Hamas would be willing to “live in a state and establish a ceasefire for five years or more in order to live in security.”
Hayya said that Hamas has offered this solution repeatedly over the years.
“Today, Israel has hit the resistance with great blows, but has not ended it … they have not destroyed more than 20 percent of its capabilities … If they can’t finish [Hamas] off, what is the solution? The solution is to go to consensus.”
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and all its combat capabilities at the start of the war but has so far failed to achieve this goal. The Israeli army is now planning to invade the overcrowded southern city of Rafah, which it says is Hamas’ last stronghold. Nonetheless, the resistance group remains entrenched across Gaza with several other factions.
The US has been pushing the idea of a ‘reformed’ PA assuming control over post-war Gaza. The plan, which Hamas has rejected, would depend on the resistance group’s defeat and the end of its political leadership in the strip.
Washington recently vetoed a resolution for the recognition of Palestine as a full UN member state.
Dozens of Israeli prisoners, including high-ranking army officers, are still being held by Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades.
The interview comes as truce negotiations remain stalemated by Israel’s repeated rejection of Hamas’ main terms, which the resistance group continues to hold fast. These terms include an end to the war and a permanent ceasefire, a withdrawal of all troops from Gaza, a return of the displaced to their homes, and reconstruction of the strip.
“If we are not assured the war will end, why would we hand over the prisoners?” Hayya told AP.
Featured Video
Israel’s diamond industry is dying. That’s a billion-dollar problem for the IDF.
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
Mossad behind Italian ‘blackmail’ spying scandal
The Cradle | November 1, 2024
An Italian private intelligence firm that allegedly hacked government databases to collect information on thousands of prominent people, including politicians, entrepreneurs, and celebrities, is accused of working for Israeli intelligence and the Vatican, media reported on 30 October.
Police wiretaps leaked to Italian media show that Equalize, which employs former members of Italian intelligence, is accused of breaching the servers of government ministries and the police between 2019 and 2024 to collect information.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Equalize allegedly collected numerous classified files that contain sensitive information about prominent Italians to sell to clients – including major companies and law firms seeking information to gain an advantage over competitors, win court cases, or for blackmail and extortion.
Prime Minister Meloni described the alleged scheme as “unacceptable” and “a threat to democracy.” … continue
Blog Roll
Recent Comments
Bill Francis on Victoria Moves to Force Online… papasha408 on The Empire of Lies: How the BB… loongtip on US Weighs Port Restrictions on… Bill Francis on Chris Minns Defends NSW “Hate… Sheree Sheree on I was canceled by three newspa… Richard Ong on Czech–Slovak alignment signals… John Edward Kendrick on Colonel Jacques Baud & Nat… eddieb on Villains of Judea: Ronald Laud… rezjiekc on Substack Imposes Digital ID Ch… loongtip on US strikes three vessels in Ea… eddieb on An Avoidable Disaster Steve Jones on For Israel, The Terrorist Atta…
Aletho News- Israel’s diamond industry is going extinct. That’s a billion-dollar problem for the IDF.
- Iran says no basis for inspection of bombed nuclear sites
- How reporting facts can now land you in jail for 14 years as a terrorist
- Bill Gates, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla Ordered to Testify in Dutch COVID Vaccine Injury Lawsuit
- The vindication (and brutal punishment) of Dr. Reiner Fuellmich
- US Department of State Discloses Names of 5 Europeans Sanctioned for Censorship Against US
- The Epstein Saga: Chapter 1, Mr. Clinton
- Bill Clinton is in the frame again, but this time it’s Trump who put him there
- US Navy effectively becomes a tool of modern piracy
- EU Morphing Into Its Own Worst Enemy – Viktor Orban
- If Americans Knew
- The Faces of AIPAC: the largest pro-Israel lobbying org in the US
- Gazan Christians mark 3rd Christmas under genocide – Not a Ceasefire Day 75
- Israeli scams children with cancer out of millions fundraised for their treatment, BBC finds
- Casey Kennedy Fired from AG Scientific Amid Zionist Troll Campaign Over Track AIPAC Work
- The Hasmoneans: The Jewish Dynasty That Gave Us Hanukkah Is a Symbol of Murder, Not Heroism and Hope
- Int’l NGOs may be blocked from Gaza starting Jan. 1 – Not a Ceasefire Day 74
- From Churches to ChatGPT: Israeli Contracts Worth Millions Aim to Influence U.S. Public Opinion
- Who is the Pro-Israel Clique behind TikTok’s US Takeover?
- Medical Crisis in UK Prisons – 800 Doctors Warn of ‘Imminent Deaths’ Among Palestine Action Strikers
- The New York Times ignores an essential part of the Jeffrey Epstein story — Israel
- No Tricks Zone
- Merry Christmas Everybody!
- Two More New Studies Show The Southern Ocean And Antarctica Were Warmer In The 1970s
- Der Spiegel Caught Making Up Reports About Conservative America (Again)
- New Study: 8000 Years Ago Relative Sea Level Was 30 Meters Higher Than Today Across East Antarctica
- The Wind Energy Paradox: “Why More Wind Turbines Don’t Always Mean More Power”
- New Study Reopens Questions About Our Ability To Meaningfully Assess Global Mean Temperature
- Dialing Back The Panic: German Physics Prof Sees No Evidence Of Climate Tipping Points!
- Astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon Challenges The Climate Consensus … It’s The Sun, Not CO2
- Regional Cooling Since The 1980s Has Driven Glacier Advance In The Karakoram Mountains
- Greenland Petermann Glacier Has Grown 30 Kilometers Since 2012!
Aletho News 