The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week approved Moderna’s mRNA respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for adults age 60 and older.
The FDA approved the drug without input from the agency’s independent vaccine advisory committee, which typically makes recommendations about such drugs, because the FDA didn’t see any “concerns or controversial issues” that would make input necessary to the approval process, the agency said in its approval letter.
Moderna is running at least 11 clinical trials for its new mRNA RSV drug on several other demographic groups, including young children, adolescents and healthy adults.
The vaccine, marketed under the name mResvia, is Moderna’s second-ever FDA-approved drug. It uses the same mRNA platform as its COVID-19 Spikevax vaccine.
“The FDA approval of our second product, mRESVIA, builds on the strength and versatility of our mRNA platform,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must recommend the drug before it can be used. The CDC’s advisory committee will discuss and vote on the vaccine at its meeting next month.
If approved, the vaccine will provide a second revenue stream for Moderna, whose first-quarter sales fell 91% compared with same-quarter sales in 2023.
The company said it expects to launch the vaccine in time for the 2024 fall vaccination season.
The FDA’s approval of Moderna’s mRNA RSV vaccine comes a year after the agency approved GSK’s Arexvy and Pfizer’s Abrysvo RSV vaccines for the same age group.
Abrysvo also is approved for pregnant women. Pfizer is seeking approval for its drug for adults ages 18 and older and is testing it on children and teens. GSK is seeking approval for Arexvy for people 50 and above and expects a response this month.
Bancel said Moderna’s shot has an advantage over the RSV vaccines now on the market because it comes in a pre-filled syringe, making it faster to administer and cutting the risk of administration errors.
Moderna said it hopes to capture part of what it predicts will be a $10 billion market for RSV vaccines, especially given its post-pandemic plummet in profits.
The company also announced last week that it is in talks with the U.S. government to fund late-stage trials of its mRNA bird flu vaccine.
Experts say efficacy exaggerated and safety concerns ignored
Moderna’s approval was based on findings from a Phase 3 study published in December 2023 of more than 35,000 adults across 22 countries that claimed the vaccine was 83.7% effective at preventing at least two symptoms of RSV, such as cough and fever, nearly four months post-vaccination.
Follow-up analysis by the FDA identified other cases and reduced the efficacy to 79%, the company said. That efficacy rate is in line with Arexvy, which currently dominates the RSV vaccine market, Reuters reported.
Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough wrote on his Substack that the efficacy claims were misleading.
“The absolute risk reduction for significant outcomes was far below 1%, meaning this product will not have a significant clinical impact,” he wrote.
Absolute risk reduction refers to the actual difference in risk between the treated group versus the control group.
Relative risk reduction, which is how the company presented its trial data, is a proportional measure of how much a treatment reduced the risk of a bad outcome relative to the control group. It tends to lead to overestimations of how effective a treatment is.
Data presented in February also showed Moderna’s shot has faster efficacy declines compared to the GSK and Pfizer shots, Reuters reported.
Moderna said there were no serious safety concerns identified in the trial. Adverse reactions reported in the clinical trial included injection-site pain (55.9%), fatigue (30.8%), headache (26.7%), muscle pain (25.6%), joint pain (21.7%), underarm swelling or tenderness (15.2%) and chills (11.6%).
There were also two cases of acute pericarditis, which occurred after 42 days. The investigator considered those cases to be unrelated to the shot.
There were no reported cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, which both Pfizer and GSK identified in their clinical trials and has subsequently proven to be “more common than expected,” with the other RSV shots, according to the CDC.
However, McCullough said that for all mRNA shots, there are concerns about myocarditis, auto-immunity, genomic integration and oncogenicity. The rapid approval process does not allow the necessary time to identify a lot of these issues.
He wrote:
“Our great concern was that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines ushered in the context of an emergency would set a new precedent for more genetic vaccines that depart from all safety standards set forth previously by the US FDA. …
“[The approval] was done without the full dossier of safety information required for a routine approval including 2-3 years of observation for standard vaccines, and at least 5 to 15 years of observation for genetic transfer technology.”
Because the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee didn’t discuss the data, there was no publicly accessible discussion of the vaccine’s efficacy and risk or space for public comment, which typically happens at such meetings.
The committee held meetings before the approval of both Arexvy and Abrysvo.
The FDA did not immediately respond to The Defender’s inquiry about the lack of an advisory committee meeting or possible concerns with vaccine safety.
RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild cold-like symptoms, but in some cases can lead to hospitalization and death in infants and the elderly.
The number of people who get RSV is unknown because the virus is rarely diagnosed unless one comes to a hospital and is tested.
Dr. Meryl Nass, an internist, told The Defender that among older people typically only those who are already ill or have very severe immune deficiency could benefit from an RSV vaccine.
“That benefit,” she said, “must be weighed against all the harms, including those from the lipid nanoparticle as well as the mRNA and any DNA plasmids or other extraneous production materials.”
She said that mRNA vaccines are typically expensive and the amount of spending that would be necessary to save one life could take away from other essential health spending.
McCullough said, “Rare illnesses which are mild should not be the target for mass vaccination.”
“In the case of respiratory syncytial virus, the illness is so mild and easily treatable with albuterol and budesonide nebulizers, it is hard to make the case for mass vaccination with a novel mRNA platform,” he added.
Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Children’s Health Defense, told The Defender that approval of this vaccine “is an absolute disaster in the making.”
“The clinical trial was too short (average 112 days) to ascertain any long-term sequelae to the vaccine. Even with that, the rate of serious adverse events was 2.8% or 1 in 36 vaccine recipients,” he said. “We can only expect the actual degree of damage will be much worse.”
Moderna conducting testing on pregnant women and their infants
A search of the federal clinical trials database also revealed that Moderna is testing its mRNA RSV vaccine on pregnant women and their infants, despite concerns raised among this group with other RSV vaccines.
The ongoing Phase 2 trial in pregnant women will consist of 360 participants between 28 and 36 weeks of gestation at the time of vaccination. The trial is designed to determine dosing and potential adverse events associated with the vaccine.
GSK halted the development of its RSV vaccine for pregnant women when it found a safety signal for preterm births among vaccinated women. In that study, for every 54 infants born to women who received the vaccine, one additional preterm birth occurred.
Neonatal deaths — the death of an infant in the first 28 days of life — also were higher in the GSK vaccine group, occurring in 0.4% of the infants in the vaccine group (13 of 3,494) and 0.2% in the placebo group (3 of 1,739), which they also noted was not statistically significant.
The FDA approved Pfizer’s Abrysvo for pregnant women in August 2023.
Pfizer’s own clinical trial data for Abrysvo, which is very similar to GSK’s vaccine, also showed elevated rates of preterm birth among vaccinated women, but the higher rates were not statistically significant, Pfizer said.
Still, the FDA limited approval of the vaccine for women in weeks 32-36 of their pregnancy to reduce risk and mandated post-market follow-up studies for both preterm birth and eclampsia.
The agency also labeled preterm birth as a potential risk associated with the vaccine.
Some members of the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee said they had serious safety concerns based on the clinical trial data, and four members voted against approving the drug.
And a recent preprint study shows a statistically significant safety signal for preterm birth associated with Abrysvo.
Clinical trials for the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines did not include pregnant women.
However, subsequent research found the mRNA administered to lactating mothers spread systemically from the injection site to breast milk. Other post-marketing studies of the COVID-19 vaccine found mRNA in umbilical cord blood and in the placenta.
Moderna also has several other active clinical trials for the drug, including among people who are not at risk from RSV-related illness, including children and adults, children ages 2-18, and healthy adults, among others.
It is also testing the drug among children ages 5-24 months.
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.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Aletho News | FDA, United States |
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I’ve long criticized our current US justice system – on all levels – as becoming much more about political justice than blind justice. The bizarre trial and conviction of former President Donald Trump last week on 34 felonies only reinforces my concerns.
The New York District Attorney, Soros-backed Alvin Bragg, has been notorious for downgrading felony charges against others to misdemeanor charges. According to a recent article in the Daily Mail, Bragg had downgraded 60 percent of felony cases to lesser charges, resulting in violent criminals being released on the streets and a crime wave across New York City.
But when it came to Donald Trump, Bragg lurched in the other direction, upgrading what normally would have been misdemeanor charges against anyone else to 34 felony charges against the former president. How can this sudden “about-face” be explained other than politics?
Jonathan Turley, who is no fan of Donald Trump, has been covering the trial closely and has found more than a little disturbing the exuberant celebrations of Trump’s conviction among the mainstream media and his political opponents. Recently, he wrote:
“The conviction of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan of 34 felonies produced citywide celebrations [which] extended to the media, where former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace that it was ‘majestic day’ and ‘a day to celebrate.’ When I left the courthouse after watching the verdict come in, I was floored by the celebrations outside by both the public and some of the media.”
Regardless of one’s view of Donald Trump, it is a disturbing development in our society when justice is treated more like a football game where you root for your “team” rather than a way of preserving our freedom and liberty in an equal way for all.
The real goal of the trial was political. None other than George Soros’ son Alex let the cat out of the bag recently when he advised fellow Trump-haters how to take advantage of the trial result. He posted on Twitter after the verdict, “Democrats should refer to Trump as a convicted felon at every opportunity. Repetition is the key to a successful message and we want people to wrestle with the notion of hiring a convicted felon for the most important job in the country!”
It was not about justice in any way. It was all about being able to call the likely Republican presidential nominee a “felon” so as to undermine his support among voters. In other words, election interference.
The market has a way of prevailing, however. The repeated attempts at using “lawfare” to remove Trump from the political scene have all backfired and actually have served to make the former president even more popular among voters. Immediately after Trump’s conviction on the 34 charges he began sending out fundraising appeals based on his “persecution” by the state of New York. As of this writing, he has, according to press reports, raised over $200 million for his campaign.
The politicization of justice is not limited to the Democratic Party. The wind sown by political opponents of Donald Trump may well become the whirlwind they reap when their own political opponents are in positions of power. When that is the case, we all lose.
Copyright © 2024 The Ron Paul Institute
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Civil Liberties | Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Human rights, United States |
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There are many situations for which it’s necessary to know your immune status against an infectious agent.
In May 2023, I reported on the ImmunoProfile® technology as a relatively inexpensive, in-home method of determining antibody “titers” for adults.
Now, this test is available for children as young as age 4. This allows ImmunoProfile titer testing to be used for proof of immunity for children for school attendance — especially for states like California, where exemptions are rarely granted.
ImmunoProfile testing for children can now also be used for daycare, summer camps and sports teams that may require vaccines for participation, but may allow the substitution of titers testing in some cases.
An antibody titer is a medical laboratory test that determines the amount of antibodies specific to an infectious agent in the bloodstream. The antibody level in the blood reflects the body’s past experience or exposure to an antigen or something the body doesn’t recognize as “self.”
In the past, an antibody titer required a physician-written laboratory order, a blood draw from a registered phlebotomist and multiple laboratory tests for each disease where vaccination is required — all of which may not be covered by insurance.
Each test may cost as much as $400, and multiple tests may be required to determine the full range of vaccines required.
In contrast, the ImmunoProfile test panel simultaneously measures antibody titers for 11 infectious diseases, requires no lab order or blood draw and costs $229 plus tax. This cost includes the physician’s prescription, 11 antibody titer tests, shipping and the confidential test report result. The result report has been updated to include date of birth, age and sex assigned at birth.
The 11 antibody titer tests include: diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae B, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, rubella, tetanus and varicella zoster (chicken pox).
I and my family have previously used the ImmunoProfile test with great success. We found the entire process to be easy and straightforward. All the steps for collecting the blood were clearly and graphically laid out in the instructions insert that came in the kit and in the instruction video.
Within two weeks, we had our results. Read here for more details about our experience including my test results.
The test is completed by a CLIA/CAP-approved (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments/College of American Pathologists) laboratory. Antibody levels are measured using proprietary equipment, cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and used globally for more than 20 years by multiple medical diagnostics companies, research facilities and academic institutions.
Measured titers are compared to standards for immunity as set by the World Health Organization.
All information is kept private. ImmunoProfile doesn’t sell your information or test results and all blood samples are destroyed 30 days after testing. ImmunoProfile performs no other tests, genetic or otherwise, on your blood spot samples.
ImmunoProfile provides a secure web portal for obtaining results after testing is complete. Test results are completely private and require two-factor authentication to access. Login requires a username and password, plus a passcode sent to your email address.
Each child must have their own email account for privacy reasons and to comply with parental consent on the website.
Only authorized laboratory personnel have access to patient information, which consists only of antibody test results.
Brian S. Hooker, Ph.D., is chief scientific officer at Children’s Health Defense and professor emeritus of biology at Simpson University in Redding, California.
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.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Aletho News | United States |
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Today, the largest protest against the World Health Organization (WHO) began, with an opening speech by Kazuhiro Haraguchi, a former Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications in Japan and a current member of the House of Representatives. The massive gathering aimed to highlight several critical issues, as Haraguchi delivered a powerful and heartfelt address that resonated with many.
Haraguchi began by addressing the grief and loss felt by countless individuals and families due to the pandemic. With a deep sense of sincerity, he extended his condolences and took responsibility for the failings of those in power. “I apologize to all of you. So many have died, and they shouldn’t have,” he said. His words reflected a deep empathy and regret for the preventable tragedies that have occurred, setting a somber yet resolute tone for the event.
One of the key points in Haraguchi’s speech was his criticism of the ban on Ivermectin, a drug developed by Dr. Satoshi Omura, which he believed could have played a significant role in combating the pandemic. Haraguchi questioned the motives behind the ban, suggesting that economic interests were prioritized over public health. “Why? Because they are cheap. They don’t want it because it will interfere with the sales of the vaccines,” he argued. This statement drew loud applause from the crowd, many of whom felt that corporate profits had taken precedence over human lives.
Haraguchi then shared a deeply personal story about his own health struggles. After receiving vaccines, he developed a severe illness, specifically a rapidly progressing form of cancer. “This time last year, I had neither eyebrows nor hair. Two out of the three supposed vaccines I received were lethal batches,” he revealed. This candid account of his battle with cancer, which included significant physical changes like hair loss, struck a chord with the audience. He recounted an incident where his appearance became a point of distraction in the Diet, with an opponent focusing more on his wig than the issues at hand.
Adding to the conversation, Haraguchi disclosed that he was not the only member of Japan’s National Diet to suffer adverse effects from vaccines. He mentioned that three of his colleagues had been severely affected, with some even hospitalized. “They are falling to pieces, some hospitalized. But they don’t speak up,” he explained. This revelation underscored a broader issue: the reluctance or inability of public figures to discuss their personal health challenges openly.
Haraguchi was particularly passionate about the attempts to silence those who question current policies and government actions. He recounted a recent incident where he was banned from speaking on Channel 3 after an interview with its president. “The other day, I spoke with the President of Channel 3, and I was banned. They are trying to silence our voices,” he stated. This attempt to censor dissenting voices highlighted a critical concern about freedom of speech and expression. Haraguchi urged the audience to remain steadfast in their resolve, saying, “They are trying to block our freedom, our resistance, our power. But we will never lose.”
In the conclusion of his speech, Haraguchi issued a rallying call for action. He urged the people to stand united in challenging the government and its questionable decisions. “Let’s overthrow this government,” he proclaimed, emphasizing the need for change and accountability. He called on legislators to continue fighting for the people’s lives and freedoms, “Let’s make it happen,” he concluded.
The protest that is happening right now (31st May 2024), which aims to draw tens of thousands of participants, marked a significant moment in the global discourse about pandemic management and health policies. Haraguchi’s speech, filled with personal anecdotes and strong criticisms, resonated deeply with the attendees.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Corruption, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | COVID-19 Vaccine, Japan |
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Scott Ritter. © David McNew/Getty Images
The US State Department has seized the passport of former Marine and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, he told RT on Monday.
Ritter was on his way to Russia for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) when he was pulled off the plane and had his documents confiscated.
“I was boarding the flight. Three [police] officers pulled me aside. They took my passport. When asked why, they said ‘orders of the State Department’. They had no further information for me,” Ritter told RT. “They pulled my bags off the plane, then escorted me out of the airport. They kept my passport.”
Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, who later served as the US and UN weapons inspector in Iraq. He is also a RT contributor, writing about international security, military affairs, Russia, and the Middle East, as well as arms control and nonproliferation.
He most recently visited Russia in January, spending time in Chechnya, Moscow and St. Petersburg, among other places.
The most recent post on Ritter’s Telegram channel put the Clooney Foundation for Justice on notice for its alleged crusade against “Russian propagandists.”
“Here I am. In your face. If telling the truth about Russia makes me a propagandist in your book, then I accept the title,” he wrote. “Bring it on. I’ll school you on the First Amendment.”
“You have zero concept of what free speech is. Try and arrest me and you’ll find out. In spades. It’s war,” he added.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | Human rights, United States |
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Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Monday that he is “not ready to stop” the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, claiming that President Joe Biden’s remarks about a ceasefire proposal were “inaccurate”, Anadolu Agency reports.
“I am not ready to stop the war,” the public broadcaster, KAN, quoted Netanyahu as saying during a secret discussion in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
He claimed that the details of the ceasefire proposal laid out by Biden were “inaccurate”.
“The outline that Biden presented is partial. The war will be stopped for the purpose of returning hostages and then we will have a discussion,” he said.
“There are other undisclosed details. We could cease fighting for 42 days to facilitate the return of hostages, but we will not give up our goal of complete victory.”
The Israeli premier declined to discuss the number of Palestinian prisoners who would be released as part of a proposed hostage swap deal.
“We will not agree to end the war without achieving its objectives,” Netanyahu said. “The number of hostages to be released in the first phase of the deal has not yet been determined.”
On Friday, Biden said Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave.
Biden called on the Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, to accept the proposal and urged Netanyahu to resist pressure from members of his governing coalition to reject the plan.
However, Netanyahu’s office reiterated on Friday that the government intends to continue its deadly offensive on Gaza until all of Tel Aviv’s war “goals” are met.
Hamas, for its part, said it will “respond positively to any proposal that includes a permanent ceasefire, a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction efforts, the return of the displaced and the completion of a comprehensive hostage exchange deal.”
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following a 7 October Hamas attack, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
More than 36,400 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 82,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on 6 May.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism | Israel, Palestine, United States, Zionism |
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Maldives, little island resorts © Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Maldives announced on Sunday that Israeli passport holders will be banned from visiting the small Muslim-majority island nation due to the war in Gaza. The country is one of the destinations of holidaymakers from the Jewish states.
“President Dr Mohamed Muizzu, following a recommendation from the Cabinet, has resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports,” the president’s office said in a statement on its website. “The Cabinet decision includes amending necessary laws to prevent Israeli passport holders from entering the Maldives and establishing a Cabinet subcommittee to oversee these efforts.”
Muizzu’s office added that the president has decided to “appoint a special envoy to assess Palestinian needs,” launch a fundraising campaign, and hold a nationwide rally in support for Palestine.
The Indian Ocean archipelago, known for its white sand beaches, turquoise lagoons, and luxury resorts, is a popular destination among Israelis. Nearly 11,000 tourists from Israel visited the islands last year, which amounts to 0.6% of total arrivals. This year, however, the number dropped by more than 80%.
Following the announcement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued an advisory, recommending Israeli citizens to avoid traveling to the Maldives and urging those staying there to depart.
“For Israeli citizens already in the country, it is recommended to consider leaving, because if they find themselves in distress for any reason, it will be difficult for us to assist,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The diplomatic relations between Israel and the Maldives have been suspended since 1974. Israeli tourists were allowed to visit the archipelago after the Maldives lifted the previous travel ban in the 1990s. The two countries moved to restore the diplomatic ties in 2010, but the normalization effort was abandoned two years later, following the toppling of President Mohamed Nasheed.
Several Muslim-majority countries, including Algeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, have banned Israeli travelers since the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas broke out on October 7. More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s operation in Gaza, which was triggered by a surprise Hamas raid into southern Israeli cities.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | Israel, Maldives, Palestine, Zionism |
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In an interview with UK media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made the claim that if former US President Trump gets reelected and cuts off aid to his country, he will become a “loser president” responsible for the US losing its spot as the World’s leader, but that has already happened and it was the US support of Ukraine that hastened it.
Since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, the United States and NATO bet hundreds of billions of dollars that they could propel the Kiev regime to victory by outfitting it with some of the best weapons in NATO’s arsenal.
Despite Russia’s larger economy, population size and military, Ukraine could win, the thinking went, by using the vastly superior NATO weaponry and training. Of course, the US and NATO didn’t hand over their very best weapons right away, but it would surely be enough to defeat the Russian army that was portrayed as ill-equipped and untrained in Western media outlets.
When that didn’t work, NATO and the US upped the stakes, giving newer and ostensibly even more invincible weapons to Ukraine, they too failed.
Now, armed with the best weapons NATO could afford to give away, and full permission to strike inside Russia despite the risk of escalation, Ukraine is still being defeated on the battlefield. The whole world has seen for itself that NATO weapons are not equipped with force fields; they can be destroyed and are being destroyed at an alarming rate.
Last year, Trump claimed that he would end the conflict in Ukraine “within 24 hours” though he did not specify how he intended to accomplish that. When asked who he wants to win, Trump would only say that he wants “everyone to stop dying.”
In his interview with the Guardian, Zelensky admitted that he had not developed a strategy to deal with Trump should he become elected, and seemingly admitted that his country would collapse without US support.
“Ukraine, barehanded, without weapons, will not be able to fight a multimillion army,” he said.
“Does he [Trump] want to become a loser President? Do you understand what can happen?” he added, then saying that if Ukraine loses, it means the US will lose its power in the world as well.
“This is not about him as a person, but about the institutions of the United States. They will become very weak. The US will not be the leader of the world anymore. Yes, it will be powerful, first of all, in the domestic economy because it has a powerful economy without a doubt. But in terms of international influence it will be equal to zero,” the Ukrainian President who has utilized Martial Law to stay in office past his term said.
Of course, the opposite is true. The longer NATO and the US remain involved in Ukraine, the more thoroughly the veneer of NATO invincibility will be shattered. If they continue to increase their involvement and escalate things against Russia, it will only expedite the fall of Western hegemony.
“This is a decisive defeat of NATO, the European Union and the United States” former UN weapon inspector Scott Ritter told Sputnik’s Fault Lines last month. “It’s as decisive as you can get without them being directly involved, and they can’t become directly involved because that is a suicide pill.”
Over the last few weeks, NATO nations started giving the Kiev regime permission to strike inside Russia, culminating in the United States agreeing to it last week, but that too has failed to result in any meaningful change of the battle lines.
“But [Kremlin spokesman Dmitry] Peskov pointed out, you start using long-range missiles against Russia, we’re just going to have to take more of Ukraine [to build a bufferzone]. That’s what he said and he specifically mentioned Kiev,” international relations and security expert Mark Sleboda told Fault Lines.
Peskov also told reporters that the United States is already involved in targeting and aiming their weapons at Russia. “[The weapons] are directly controlled by military personnel of NATO countries,” adding that constituted not just military assistance but “participation in a war against us.”
While Ukraine is not the only factor eating away at Western hegemony, it has played a large role, along with the US support of Israel and general economic trends.
“The world is changing indeed, not only because of the war on Russia in Ukraine but also the war in Gaza… the development of BRICS countries [and] the increase of the Shanghai Cooperation,” explained war correspondent Elijah Magnier on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour. “All these indicators lead to one reality, the beginning of the end of US hegemony.”
While Russia has shown that NATO’s weapons are not superior, it’s the Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, who proved they are ill-equipped for modern war.
“The US and UK are failing in front of non-state actors in the Red Sea… So how can we understand that the Americans are ready to start a war against Russia and then against China?” Magnier added.
Still, with no other hopes or lifelines, Zelensky wants the US to embarrass themselves further by continuing to fund his government, saying that the US losing will encourage other countries to act aggressively. However, Russia and Ukraine were close to signing a peace deal in Istanbul at the start of the conflict. According to Ukrainian officials close to the negotiations, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was sent to Ukraine to sabotage the deal at the behest of the United States.
Ironically, Zelensky says he recently asked Johnson to speak to Trump on his behalf.
Zelensky said he wanted to bring Trump to Ukraine to “see the results of what he brought to Ukraine.” Although Zelensky was referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin “he”, it would have been more accurate if he were referring to US President Joe Biden and/or Johnson, who really brought that destruction to Ukraine and Western hegemony.
“Fifty nations gathered to defeat Russia and they failed… Ukraine has been defeated and Europe is defeated,” Magnier concluded.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Militarism | NATO, Russia, Ukraine, Yemen |
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By Patrick Poppel | June 3, 2024
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine in 2014, there has been repeated talk of NATO’s expansion to the east and the advance of Western strategic missile systems.
At that time, the head of the Russian Institute for Strategic Research, General Leonid Reshetnikov, also mentioned this when he gave an interview for Austrian media.He spoke of the possibility that one day there could be American missiles in Kharkov. He also mentioned Ukraine’s possible accession to NATO.
We are currently seeing how Ukraine is successfully attacking several targets in Russia, which are located far behind the front, using Western weapon systems. This increases the radius of the zone that can be assessed as a conflict area. More and more new weapons with longer ranges are now being used. This development is very dangerous because Russia must respond to this situation. Russia cannot possibly accept this.
The deployment of long-range weapons in Ukraine reminds us of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis in the Cold War. At that time, the USA also could not accept the stationing of soviet nuclear weapons on Cuba. There are red lines in matters of national security interests and these must be observed by all participants in a conflict.
At that time, the crisis was resolved through the clear and deliberate actions of statesmen from the United States and the Soviet Union. Today, with the Biden administration, we have a completely different prerequisite. Since Obama and the Maidan coup, the flag has been pointing to escalation and President Biden is continuing this course.
It can be assumed that the West will supply all weapons to Ukraine that are requested. Now it is clear to everyone that Ukraine is being used as a battering ram against Russia. The attacks of the last few weeks have clearly shown that it is also about destroying strategic targets in Russia. The attack on the early warning system is the best example of this. Such an attack is unacceptable in the age of nuclear weapons.
Of course, the legitimate question arises as to whether this specific attack was carried out on Ukraine’s own initiative or on the orders of someone else. And if it was really Ukraine’s initiative, there should be clear consequences from the West, as this created a very dangerous situation.
It is always important to monitor the Western media, as political wishes and ideas are always discussed there. There has been repeated talk of the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons, especially since 2022. The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin also called for the delivery of nuclear weapons to Ukraine. This was, of course, an absurd request, but it was discussed for a long time in the media. So you can say that the smell of nuclear war has been in the air for at least 2 years. Since then, many reports on the topic of nuclear conflict have been produced in the German media. This is how Western societies are preparing for the possible use of these weapons.
The situation is really dangerous and, at the latest after the attack on the Russian early warning system, one should really consider ending this conflict as quickly as possible. Let’s think about what the next level of escalation is. If things continue to develop like this, we will be very quick to use tactical nuclear weapons. This point gets closer and closer with each passing week.
By continuing to support Ukraine and, above all, by supplying weapons with a longer range, it cannot be ruled out in the long term that the conflict could also affect other states in Europe.
There is currently discussion as to whether Russian military targets in Belarus should be attacked. This would of course also clearly drag Belarus into this conflict.
Particularly due to the threat to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, an extension of the conflict to the Baltics can no longer be ruled out. But then there would be a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia.
The greatest danger at the moment is that there is less and less inhibition to use larger and more far-reaching weapons. This spiral of escalation must be stopped by the West, otherwise the nuclear component of this conflict will become increasingly likely.
This development and the fact that we have already reached such a point also shows the inability of European politicians, who have not been able to freeze this conflict or find another solution since 2014.
It started with an uprising in Kiev and now we are on the brink of nuclear war.
Patrick Poppel, Center for Geostrategic Studies, Belgrade.
June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Militarism | Belarus, NATO, Russia, Ukraine |
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Dr. Michael Nehls, Physician and Molecular Geneticist, returns to The HighWire with shocking stats on vitamin D’s proven health effects on COVID-19 patients and how health regulators world wide censored this life saving information from the public from the early days of the pandemic. He also discusses lithium orotate, and how it may be helpful in treating those suffering from and at risk for the debilitating conditions of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
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June 3, 2024
Posted by aletho |
Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, Video |
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