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Wrong, CBS and Other Media Outlets, Abrupt Antarctic “Climate Shifts” Are Not New or Necessarily Catastrophic

By Anthony Watts and H. Sterling Burnett | ClimateRealism | August 29, 2025

A recent CBS News article, “Abrupt Antarctic climate shifts could lead to ‘catastrophic consequences for generations,’ experts warn,” claims that Antarctica is on the brink of irreversible collapse due to climate change, warning that sea levels could rise by meters and that “catastrophic consequences for generations” are looming. This is false or, at best, deeply misleading. The actual data and history of Antarctic ice show that “abrupt changes” are neither unprecedented nor a reason to panic. Natural variability and cyclical shifts are being ignored in favor of sensational headlines pushing the increasingly untenable climate crisis narrative.

CBS was not alone in pushing the Antarctic climate crisis narrative. On 21 August 2025, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) joined the chorus of media outlets with alarming headlines warning of pending ice collapse, publishing a report claiming Antarctica is undergoing “rapid, self-perpetuating changes” that are “potentially irreversible.” Each of the reports cited a new Nature review led by Professor Nerilie Abram, as the source of the information for their alarming articles.

ABC’s article presents Antarctica as being in a state of runaway decline, with imminent threats to emperor penguins and global sea levels, parroting language from the Abram paper as if it were observed fact, rather than the speculative synthesis of research papers that the Nature study cites. CBS, ABC, and other media outlets are covering this story as if a tipping point is upon us—but a closer look at the evidence reveals otherwise.

CBS News warns:

Abrupt and potentially irreversible changes in Antarctica driven by climate change could lift global oceans by meters and lead to ‘catastrophic consequences for generations,’ scientists warned Wednesday. … After increasing slightly during the first 35 years that satellite data was available, Antarctic sea-ice cover plunged dramatically over the last decade.

Australia’s ABC News, meanwhile, uncritically repeats Abram’s claims and, describing the Antarctic as “rapidly, self-perpetuating” on the cusp of collapse, while offering little discussion of data—leaning instead on worst-case modeling and literature reviews.

Antarctic data and an examination of its history show that such events have happened previously, long before anyone was worried about human-caused climate change, and they are not self-perpetuating but rather, seem cyclical in nature.

The CBS article claims that “Antarctic sea-ice cover plunged dramatically over the last decade,” citing a “regime shift” since 2014. ABC News, echoing the same theme, refers to a sudden and supposedly “irreversible” decline. But both articles omit key facts, among them:

  • The “Abrupt” Decline Follows Decades of Expansion. Satellite measurements of Antarctic sea-ice began in late 1978. For most of the next 36 years, Antarctic sea-ice was stable or increasing, setting multiple record highs between 2007 and 2014. In October 2014, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported: “Antarctic sea-ice extent set an all-time record high for the third straight year.” This expansion occurred for more than 30 years during the period when the Earth was warming, contradicting claims that warming inevitably reduces Antarctic sea-ice.
  • The recent sharp declines since 2016 are real, but as the most robust satellite records show, these represent a regime shift within a variable system—not evidence of permanent or “runaway” collapse as one recent paper detailed.
  • Evidence of Antarctica’s history shows that natural variability dominates changes in  Antarctica. Longer reconstructions, stretching back to 1905, confirm that Antarctic sea-ice has experienced periods of large growth and subsequent declines over the past century. One 2020, study demonstrated that natural variability, including the influence of atmospheric and oceanic circulation, have likely played a role in any recent changes, as they drove such changes in the past.

As importantly as all this is, concern for the recent decline in sea ice is largely misplaced since, as even CBS news acknowledged in its story, [f]loating sea ice does not significantly add to sea level when it melts . . ..” As a result, neither the “record setting” expansion of sea-ice spanning the late 20th and early 21st century nor the recent decline significantly effect sea levels.

Perhaps that’s why the new stories tried to tie the sea-ice decline to rising seas indirectly saying the sea ice retreat, “ . . . does replace white surfaces that reflect almost all of the sun’s energy back into space with deep blue water, which absorbs the same amount instead.”

The problem here is, there is no evidence the earlier multidecade expansion of sea-ice or the recent decline has a causal connection to ice growth or expansion on mainland Antarctica, the latter of which could impact sea levels. Indeed, the record indicates that for some of the period when sea-ice was expanding, Antarctica was losing mass, and now, while it is in decline, Antarctica is gaining ice on net, reducing sea level rise.

Shifting focus from sea-ice to Antarctica’s mainland, the CBS and ABC News shift attention to recent ice losses on the West Antarctic ice sheet and in particular the declining Thwaites glacier.

When discussing ice sheets, both outlets repeat claims that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has crossed a point of no return. But they fail to mention that West Antarctica sits atop a tectonic rift system with elevated geothermal heat flux, which drives melting from below, regardless of atmospheric conditions. In short, subsurface volcanic activity or heating from tectonic shifts is melting the region’s ice from below, and causing increased flow into the sea.

Indeed, Direct borehole measurements, aeromagnetic surveys, and radar-based research confirm anomalously high heat flow in the region from beneath the mass. This subglacial influence helps explain why areas like Amundsen and Thwaites behave differently from the stable East Antarctic.

Also, the northern Antarctic Peninsula, which is frequently highlighted for its instability, extends north of the Antarctic Circle into sub-Antarctic latitudes. Its climate and dynamics cannot be generalized to the rest of the continent according to NASA Earth Observatory in 2014.

Climate Realism has previously discussed the causes and consequences of ice loss on the Antarctic peninsula and in the West Antarctic multiple times previously, here and here, for example, in each case debunking a media claim that humans are behind the loss.

Antarctica’s ice loss is important, CBS and ABC tell us, because the Antarctic Ice Sheet’s collapse could “raise sea levels by meters,” threatening “hundreds of millions.” But the actual rate of global sea level rise, measured by satellites and tide gauges, is about 3 millimeters per year as detailed in Climate at a Glance: Sea Level Rise. At this rate, it would take 333 years to reach even a single meter of rise.

The idea of meters of sea level rise by 2100 is rooted in computer models, not observation. Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concedes that melting the East Antarctic Ice Sheet would require thousands of years and temperature increases far beyond any plausible scenario this century:

Loss of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) is very unlikely over this century and beyond under scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions considered in this report. Complete loss of the EAIS would require sustained global warming significantly above the levels projected for this century, and would take thousands of years.

Putting the supposed amount of Antarctic glacier loss in context is important, because as a percentage of the continent’s total ice volume, recent reported losses from the continent are miniscule, contrary to media hype. See the figure below, as presented at Climate at a Glance Antarctic Ice Melt.

Figure: Comparison of satellite data for Antarctic ice mass loss. Cumulative ice mass loss on the left and that same data compared to the total mass of ice on the right.
Data source: http://imbie.org. Graphs originally by Willis Eschenbach, adapted and annotated by Anthony Watts.

Describing the ice changes in Antarctica as “irreversible” or “runaway” is nothing more than alarming speculation that ignores evidence to the contrary.

CBS, ABC, and the other mainstream media outlets touting the study’s warnings about the future also ignore the fact that contrary to the implication of the study, Antarctica is actually gaining ice at present and has for the past couple of years.

As discussed at Climate Change Weekly, In late April and early May, mainstream media outlets ran dozens of stories discussing the findings of a recent study that showed Antarctica’s ice mass was growing. The outlets called the ice and snow gain “astonishing,” “surprising,” and “shock[ing]” and said it “startled the scientific community.” That’s right, recent research shows that the Antarctic has not warmed over the past seven decades and that the vast bulk of Antarctica experienced substantial ice growth in the past couple of years, reversing the decline reported in Nature that  ABC, CBS, and other outlets are writing about. Glacial melt which had been contributing to sea level rise reversed itself over a period of three years, adding mass and cutting Antarctica’s contribution to sea level rise.

Any reporting that omits the physics, history, and current trends is incomplete and misleading. And any story that blames global warming for glacier melt in Antarctica and subsequent sea level rise, when the continent has not experienced warming, glaciers on the whole are growing and thus reducing sea level rise, is just false.

Both ABC and CBS also point to emperor penguin breeding failures as a result of climate change, implying an existential threat across the species. Yet the 2025 study making these claims conducted a regional and local survey of selected colonies from 2009 to 2024, reporting a 22 percent decline in those specific locations. It didn’t look at the health of emperor penguin colonies across Antarctic as a whole. The authors themselves specifically cautioned that their results may not represent the entire Antarctic coastline—a vital caveat that ABC and CBS’s stories lack. With emperor penguins living for decades, a 15-year record is simply too short to establish population trajectories. These penguins have survived warm and cold phases across the Holocene. To suggest continent-wide extinction risk by 2100 is not supported by the available evidence.

In the end, history shows that the expansion and contraction of Antarctic sea-ice are natural features of a highly variable system. Short-term losses are not proof of a “runaway” tipping point; rather, they are well within known ranges of natural variability.

CBS, ABC, and other media outlets are constructing a narrative of Antarctic collapse by cherry-picking short-term declines, ignoring decades of stability and increase, omitting key physical context, and leaning on speculative reviews. Climate Realism has factually debunked similar media scare stories in the past, here and here. The actual Antarctic observational record reveals a dynamic system—one that expands and contracts, shaped by natural variability, oceanic and atmospheric cycles, and unique geographic barriers.

The catastrophic claims ABC and CBS are parroting are not only unsupported, they fly in the face of decades of data and scientific understanding. Had the mainstream media displayed a little investigative curiosity, it would have questioned the recent study’s findings, since the evidence clearly shows Antarctic “climate shifts” are not a harbinger of doom but another chapter in a long story of natural change.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

Intel chiefs behind Russiagate should be arrested – Trump

RT | August 31, 2025

US President Donald Trump has said he would not mind seeing ex-FBI Director James Comey and ex-CIA Director John Brennan handcuffed and arrested live on TV due to their alleged role in the Russiagate hoax.

Trump made the remarks in an interview with the Daily Caller published on Saturday, stating that it would “not bother [him] at all” if the two former intel chiefs end up in custody.

“What they did is a disgrace. They cheated, they lied, they did so many bad things, evil things that were so bad for the country, and because they did something to me that should have never been done, nobody thought they’d ever do that,” Trump stated.

“They should be [arrested] because they’re crooked and they got caught,” he added.

The situation with Brennan and Comey is different from what the US administration had on its hands with Hillary Clinton, Trump suggested, apparently referring to the email controversy dating back to her tenure as the US secretary of state.

“Hillary’s a good example. We had Hillary cold. I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t want the, you know, the wife of a president, to go to jail, but she was stone cold guilty of things,” Trump stated.

The Trump administration launched a probe into the Russiagate hoax shortly after the US president assumed the post for the second time early this year. The investigation has been spearheaded by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has repeatedly pledged to get to the bottom of what she described as a “treasonous conspiracy” to delegitimize Trump’s 2016 election victory and a “years-long coup.”

Since mid-July, Gabbard has released multiple documents that allegedly expose a coordinated effort by senior Obama-era officials, as well as structures linked to billionaire George Soros, to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia.

Moscow has consistently denied any interference in the 2016 election, with Russian officials describing the allegations as a product of partisan infighting. The Russiagate scandal heavily damaged relations between Moscow and Washington, resulting in sanctions, asset seizures, and a further erosion of diplomatic engagement.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Corruption, Deception, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

COVID Vaccines ‘Unleashed Profound Harm’ New Peer-Reviewed Paper Says

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 29, 2025

A new peer-reviewed study suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19 shows signs of “deliberate engineering” and that these features, including the spike protein also found in the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, are responsible for widespread health harms globally.

The study, authored by 11 scientific and legal experts, was published in the fall edition of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

The authors argue that the man-made features of SARS-CoV-2 and the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are likely the outcome of controversial gain-of-function research, in violation of the United Nations’ Biological Weapons Convention.

Gain-of-function research, which increases the transmissibility or virulence of viruses, is frequently used in vaccine development.

According to the paper, the spread of COVID-19 — followed by the rollout of mRNA vaccines — resulted in unprecedented health harms, ranging from “autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular catastrophes to pregnancy complications and aggressive cancers.”

“Far from benign, these vaccines have unleashed profound harm, disrupting nearly every system of the human body and contributing to unprecedented levels of morbidity and mortality,” the paper states.

Dr. Andrew Zywiec, principal physician at Zywiec & Porter, is the paper’s lead author. He said the paper reveals a “pattern of harm too consistent, too pervasive to be dismissed as chance.” He added:

“The systemic toxicity unleashed by these interventions, manifesting as autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular devastation, aggressive cancers, and catastrophic reproductive harms, represents not merely a public health failure but a profound betrayal of trust.”

Joseph Sansone, Ph.D., a psychotherapist who filed a lawsuit to prohibit mRNA vaccines in Florida, said the paper is “extremely significant” as it is “the first peer-reviewed journal article stating that both COVID and the COVID injections violate the Biological Weapons Convention and that both COVID-19 and the COVID injections are biological weapons.”

SARS-CoV-2 virus ‘indicative of laboratory manipulation’

According to the paper, the SARS-CoV-2 virus “displays multiple genomic features indicative of laboratory manipulation,” including its furin cleavage site, which “enhances infectivity” and which is “absent in SARS-like viruses found in nature.”

Several other features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus “enhance immunological evasion and aerosol transmissibility,” making the virus “unusually durable … and five times more stable in air” than other respiratory viruses.

“These combined traits, along with the virus’s mutation patterns, are strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 could not have evolved naturally,” the paper states.

The paper cites two peer-reviewed journal articles by military scientists stating that SARS-CoV-2 contained “evidence of manipulation” that makes the virus an “attractive pathogen” due to its features, which resemble those of a biological weapon.

These manipulations “represent a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention,” the paper argues.

Enacted in 1975, the convention “effectively prohibits the development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpiling and use of biological and toxin weapons.” Nearly 200 countries have signed it.

Paper accuses Fauci of deliberately concealing SARS-CoV-2 origins

According to the paper, gain-of-function research involves “viral manipulation techniques” that can lead to the development of pathogens that are banned under the convention.

Yet, the U.S. government — particularly the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci until 2022 — has long been involved in gain-of-function research, “including a long-standing collaboration between U.S.-funded institutions and the Wuhan Institute of Virology” in China.

Proponents of the “lab-leak theory” of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 argue that gain-of-function research at the Wuhan laboratory and a subsequent leak led to the global outbreak of COVID-19, which was covered up.

In April, the Trump administration launched a new version of the government’s official COVID-19 website, presenting evidence that COVID-19 emerged due to a leak at the Wuhan lab. The CIA, FBI, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Congress and several foreign intelligence agencies have endorsed this theory.

The paper refers to Project DEFUSE, a proposal the EcoHealth Alliance and Wuhan scientists submitted to the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2018. Although the proposal was rejected, it described the creation of coronaviruses with features that enhanced their infectivity, including the furin cleavage site.

EcoHealth Alliance and its former president, Peter Daszak, Ph.D., collaborated with Wuhan researchers. Last year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) suspended all funding for EcoHealth Alliance after finding the organization had failed to properly monitor risky coronavirus experiments.

The paper states that Fauci and the U.S. Intelligence Community never disclosed the existence of the research. Instead, “they obfuscated what is, in fact, proof of intent to produce a virus much like the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The paper cites a Feb. 1, 2020, teleconference with Fauci and key virologists, including several of the co-authors of the now-infamous “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2” paper. The paper, which promoted the natural origin of COVID-19, was published in Nature Medicine in March 2020.

Although several of the co-authors of “Proximal Origin” expressed doubts that SARS-CoV-2 developed naturally, Fauci “aimed to suppress” such concerns during the Feb. 1, 2020, call.

“Proximal Origin” became one of the most-cited papers of 2020 and has been accessed over 6 million times. In 2023, The Nation reported that over 2,000 media outlets cited the paper.

The U.S. government, the scientific community and the media subsequently used “Proximal Origin” to promote the “zoonotic” — or natural origin — theory of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and to discredit proponents of the “lab-leak theory.”

“The deliberate concealment of critical genomic features delayed public awareness and pandemic mitigation efforts, potentially allowing wider spread and more deaths,” the paper states.

In May, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that paused gain-of-function research in the U.S. for 120 days while a new regulatory framework is developed. It also ended U.S. funding for such research in some countries.

Spike protein poses ‘potential for irreversible harm’

According to the paper’s authors, the development of SARS-CoV-2 — and the COVID-19 features that contain similar gain-of-function properties — resulted in significant harm to global public health.

The paper references statistics from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database which show a significantly increased incidence of myocarditis (151.4%), pulmonary embolism (43.6%), ovarian dysfunction (34.9%), hypertensive disease (22.9%), Guillain-Barré syndrome (14.9%), esophageal cancer (12.5%) and breast cancer (7%) in 2021, the year the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out globally.

Additional U.S. military data cited in the paper show “persistent elevations” in myocarditis, digestive organ cancer, brain cancer and other injuries between 2022 and 2025.

Reproductive harms also significantly increased following the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, the paper argues. It cites data from sources including the U.S. government-run Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), Pfizer’s 2021 post-marketing surveillance report and its Phase 2/3 clinical trial data for its COVID-19 shot, showing increased miscarriages, stillbirths and neonatal deaths.

The paper cites the spike protein in the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines as one of the likely factors for the increased incidence of cancers and other health conditions in recent years.

“Prolonged protein expression, exemplified by S1 spike protein detection more than 700 days post-COVID vaccination, underscores the potential for irreversible harm,” the paper states.

The paper argues that suppression of “proven or promising treatments” such as hydroxychloroquine in favor of universal COVID-19 vaccine mandates — and the policy decision to implement mass vaccination during the pandemic — further exacerbated global public health and had “damaging effects on public trust.”

Growing calls to suspend mRNA vaccines

The paper was published just as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ended its broad authorization of COVID-19 vaccines earlier this week, restricting the shots to people at higher risk for severe illness.

Earlier this month, HHS announced it canceled nearly $500 million in contracts and grants for the development of mRNA vaccines.

A growing number of scientists have called for the suspension or withdrawal of mRNA vaccines. The paper’s authors said their findings strengthen these calls. They stated:

“The surge in autoimmune diseases, aggressive cancers, pregnancy losses, cardiovascular fatalities, societal fragmentation, and the looming risks of advanced mRNA platforms demand an immediate halt to mRNA vaccine and biologic use, comprehensive investigations into the motives behind this unprecedented violation of public trust, and robust measures to restore safe therapeutics and ethical public health practices.”

Dr. Irene Mavrakakis, one of the paper’s co-authors and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, said the paper supports calls for “complete recall of all COVID-19 vaccines and biologics and a moratorium on all mRNA biologics.”

Mavrakakis also called for the “criminal prosecution of decision-makers who were criminally negligent and failed in their duties.” She said vaccine manufacturers should be stripped of the immunity they enjoy under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) of 2005.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist at Children’s Health Defense, agreed. He said gain-of-function research “will always have its cheerleaders,” but humanity faces “extreme risk and inevitably pays a heavy price for that research.”

“Labs can and do leak,” he said. “One singular event at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in late 2019 caused innumerable suffering and death. Until we can construct a leak-proof lab, we shouldn’t be assembling world-ravaging viruses in them.”

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.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Deception, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Burkina Faso rejects GMO mosquitoes: Bill Gates-backed anti-malaria project suspended amid controversy

By Willow Tohi – Natural News – 08/30/2025 

On August 23, Burkina Faso’s military government ordered the suspension of the Target Malaria project, a research initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aimed at combating malaria. The decision came after growing concerns from local and international critics about the project’s potential unintended consequences and ethical implications. Amid a wave of anti-Western sentiment and doubts over the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the move has significant implications for global health and biotechnology efforts in Africa.

Key highlights of the decision

    • Burkina Faso has ordered the Target Malaria research team to halt all activities and destroy all genetically modified mosquitoes.
    • The suspension reflects growing distrust of foreign-funded initiatives in Burkina Faso, a country that has shifted closer to Russia and Iran since a 2022 coup.
    • Critics argue that the genetic modifications pose unknown risks to public health and ecosystems.
    • Despite prior approvals from national biosafety agencies, the project faced mounting public resistance.
    • The decision marks a significant setback for genetic approaches to malaria eradication in Africa.

A decade-long experiment

Target Malaria, launched in Burkina Faso in 2012, was a research consortium led by Imperial College London. The project sought to use genetic modification to control mosquito populations and reduce malaria transmission, a disease that claims over 600,000 lives annually, primarily in Africa.

In 2019, Burkina Faso became the first country in Africa to release genetically modified mosquitoes into the wild. These mosquitoes were engineered to produce predominantly male offspring, aiming to curb population growth by spreading specific traits through wild mosquito populations. The project received financial backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest private funders of global health programs.

Regulatory approval, public resistance

The Target Malaria project had received approval from Burkina Faso’s National Biosafety Agency (ANB), the National Environmental Assessment Agency (ANEVE) and the country’s Health Research Ethics Committee. Communities in selected field sites, such as Souroukoudingan in Houet Province, had also signed off on the releases.

On August 11, 2025, one small-scale release of non-gene drive genetically modified male bias mosquitoes took place successfully, in accord with terms and conditions of the ANB and ANEVE permits. However, despite these clearances, the initiative drew mounting criticism from civil society groups.

A clash with military priorities

The suspension reflects broader tensions between Burkina Faso’s military-led government and Western-backed NGOs. Since seizing power in 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s administration has increasingly sought to limit foreign involvement in domestic policy, particularly projects tied to high-profile Western philanthropists such as Bill Gates.

Ali Tapsoba, a leading member of the Coalition for Monitoring Biotechnological Activities in Burkina Faso (CVAB), said, “The problem is the solution proposed by Target Malaria, which consists of eliminating the vector using gene-drive mosquitoes.” He added, “This technology is highly controversial, unpredictable and raises ethical concerns. More specifically, the impacts of gene-drive organisms on health and ecosystems remain unknown and potentially irreversible.”

Critics further highlighted that the modified mosquito strains originated in laboratories in Europe, raising questions of scientific neo-colonialism and external influence. In its defense, Target Malaria stressed, “The IRSS team, as part of the Target Malaria project, has operated since 2012 in compliance with the national laws of Burkina Faso. We have engaged actively with the national authorities and stakeholders of Burkina Faso and remain ready to cooperate.”

International reactions and implications

The decision to suspend the Target Malaria project in Burkina Faso has reverberated internationally, particularly among those involved in global health and biotechnology efforts. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has been embroiled in controversies over some of its initiatives, with advocacy groups accusing it of promoting genetically modified crops and industrial agriculture models that benefit large corporations while sidelining smallholder farmers.

A turning point in biotechnology and public health

The suspension of the Target Malaria project in Burkina Faso marks a significant victory for those skeptical of biotechnological interventions. This move highlights the deep ethical, environmental and political concerns surrounding such projects, especially in regions with a history of foreign exploitation. As Burkina Faso reasserts its health sovereignty, the decision raises critical questions about the true motivations behind such biotechnological solutions. The involvement of figures like Bill Gates, who have significant financial stakes in these technologies, further fuels suspicions. While Gates’ foundation claims to advance global health outcomes, the potential for these technologies to enrich developers at the expense of the communities they serve cannot be overlooked. This decision is a clarion call for more transparent and community-led approaches to public health, ensuring that the interests of the most vulnerable are not sidelined in the name of progress.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | 1 Comment

Israeli Sex Criminals Flout American Justice

By Kevin Barrett | American Free Press | August 31, 2025

When I saw her name was Sigal, I knew she was trouble.

I’m referring to Sigal Chattah, Acting US Attorney for the state of Nevada. It was on her watch that Tom Alexandrovich, arrested August 6 for soliciting sex with a 15-year-old, was allowed to flee to Israel two days later.

Alexandrovich is not just any Israeli. He is head of the Technological Defense Division at the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD).

Apparently Alexandrovich’s job description includes censoring Americans who are critical of Israel. In a viral X post by Shaun King, Alexandrovich is seen on Israeli television bragging about submitting 40,000 social media takedown requests on behalf of Israel with a 90% success rate. In the clip, Alexandrovich says he and the INCD censor social media users worldwide who post things that might “lead to demoralization” of Israeli genocide perpetrators.

Ironically, Alexandrovich, or someone like him, nearly censored Shaun King! When King posted the Israeli TV clip in which Alexandrovich brags about censoring critics of Israel, X immediately took down the post. Undaunted, King re-posted the clip. Again, it was quickly nuked. All day long King kept trying to post the clip. After more than 17 unsuccessful attempts, King’s post finally stayed up and went viral.

Why are Israeli sex criminals allowed to flee the US with impunity so they can return to their jobs in Israel censoring American social media users? In Alexandrovich’s case, the fact that the Acting US Attorney for Nevada, Sigal Chattah, is herself Israeli, probably has something to do with it.

As acting U.S. Attorney, Chattah had the authority to pursue federal charges carrying a mandatory 10 year minimum sentence. Instead, she chose to leave the case to local prosecutors, who inexplicably slipped up and forgot to confiscate Alexandrovich’s passport and impose electronic monitoring. The fact that Las Vegas was founded and is still run by a Jewish organized crime syndicate may help explain the oversight.

Alongside helping accused sex criminals escape justice, Sigal Chattah spends her spare time advocating for genocide. Al-Jazeera reports: “On her now-deleted personal X account, Chattah has referred to Palestinians in Gaza as ‘animals,’ called for wiping the territory ‘off the map,’ and suggested that ‘even the children’ in the enclave are ‘terrorists.’”

Sigal Chattah isn’t the first Israeli extremist Trump appointee to abuse an American law enforcement position. She isn’t even the first one named Sigal! In 2017, Trump appointed Israeli-born Sigal Mandelker to head the Treasury Department’s sanctions program. From that perch, Mandelker proceeded to slap “terrorist” designations on peaceful NGOs, including the Iranian-based New Horizon group that sponsored five conferences I attended beginning in 2013. Thanks to Mandelker, I was contacted by the FBI and told that if I attended the next New Horizon conference I would be arrested upon my return to the US. I asked the FBI agent why Israel gets to prevent Americans from attending scholarly conferences, and naturally didn’t receive a straight answer.

The two Sigals’ cases are unfortunately typical. Israelis, including the very worst Jewish-American sex criminals (who are automatically considered presumptive Israeli citizens) have been abusing the American legal system for decades. A 2020 CBS News investigation found numerous cases of pedophiles who brutally raped children as young as four and then fled to sanctuary in Israel. A group called Jewish Community Watch was then trying to track down sixty such individuals. According to CBS, “JCW’s chief operating officer Shana Aaronson… says there are elements of the Jewish community in the U.S. that are willing to help pedophiles escape.” (Elements like Sigal Chattah?)

Such degeneracy shouldn’t surprise us. Israel is the world capital of human trafficking and organ trafficking. It is the only nation on earth where prison guards caught on camera raping prisoners to death with sticks are national heroes. It is the only nation on earth where polls show that six out of ten men say forced sex with an acquaintance is not rape. It is the only nation on earth where a popular “right to rape” movement enjoys the support of much of the mainstream media. It is the only country on earth where all foreign agricultural workers are raped: “100% of Thai women working in Israeli agriculture report being sexually assaulted — 654 of 654 surveyed.” And of course it is the only nation on earth ever to commit a live-streamed genocide—a genocide that has been in high gear for almost two years, but which began with the Nakba (Palestinian Holocaust) of 1948.

It is long past time for the United States to declare war against the genocide-perpetrating perverts, annihilate their crime base in Occupied Palestine, and arrest the treasonous fifth column that has hijacked our country to enable crimes against humanity.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel blows up 80 booby-trapped robots in residential neighborhoods in Gaza City

Palestinian Information Center – August 31, 2025

GAZA – The Government Media Office (GMO) said that the Israeli occupation army detonated more than 80 booby-trapped robots in residential neighborhoods in Gaza City over the past three weeks, confirming that more than one million Palestinians in Gaza and the north refuse to be displaced to the south.

It added that the Israeli occupation army continues to commit systematic and grave crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, in blatant violation of international law and international humanitarian law.

The statement pointed out that these crimes include the targeting of unarmed civilians, including children and women, and the forced displacement of residents in a crime of mass forced transfer that meets all elements of war crimes.

The GMO stressed that detonating robots is part of a criminal pattern that reflects a scorched-earth policy during Israel’s ground operations against residents and civilian neighborhoods, leading to large-scale destruction of homes and property and exposing civilians to grave dangers.

The occupation army also continues to commit the crime of starvation against more than 2.4 million people in the Gaza Strip, including over one million in Gaza City and the north, by deliberately preventing the entry of food and water, in clear violation of Article (54) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.

The statement noted that this starvation policy has already caused the deaths of more than 332 people, including 124 children, stressing that this is accompanied by systematic destruction of what remains of the healthcare system, and deliberate targeting of essential elements of civilian life, with the aim of eliminating any possibility of normal life continuing.

The GMO confirmed that more than one million Palestinians remain in Gaza City, refusing to succumb to forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, affirming their legendary steadfastness in the face of the Israeli war machine.

The statement saluted the resilience of the heroic Palestinian people, strongly condemned the Israeli occupation army’s ongoing crimes against civilians, and held Israel and the US administration fully responsible for the continuation of this genocide.

The GMO called on the international community, with all its institutions and bodies, to take a serious and effective stance to immediately stop these crimes, halt the ongoing genocide, protect civilians, and hold Israeli leaders accountable for their crimes before the competent international courts.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

The Global Sumud Flotilla sets sail from Barcelona to break the Gaza siege

Palestinian Information Center – August 31, 2025

BARCELONA – The “Global Sumud (Resilience) Flotilla” set sail from the Spanish city of Barcelona on Sunday in a new humanitarian solidarity initiative aimed at breaking the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for years, which has intensified since last March.

The flotilla groups several international and humanitarian organizations, most notably the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Global Gaza Movement, the Convoy of Resilience, and Malaysia’s Nusantara Resilience Organization.

Participants finalized preparations to sail with dozens of ships loaded with humanitarian aid, joined by activists from 44 countries, along with European parliamentarians and public figures, including former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau and Portuguese left-wing MP Mariana Mortágua.

The flotilla’s steering committee said that this step aims to open a safe humanitarian corridor to the besieged enclave and to exert international pressure to stop the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

It confirmed that parallel actions will be launched from Tunisia and other countries on September 4, coinciding with large-scale demonstrations in several countries around the world in support of the flotilla and the demand to end the blockade.

This initiative builds on the efforts of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition since 2010, when the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara came under a deadly attack by Israeli forces while attempting to break the naval blockade on Gaza.

Since then, attempts to break the siege have continued, including the ships al-Dhamir (Conscience), Madleen, and Handala earlier this year, all of which were attacked and seized by Israeli forces.

Since March 2, Israel has continued to close all crossings leading into the Gaza Strip, preventing the entry of humanitarian aid, causing unprecedented levels of famine, according to UN agencies.

Although Israeli authorities have allowed limited quantities of aid to enter in recent weeks, they fall far short of minimum needs, while many aid trucks are looted by armed gangs operating under Israeli protection, according to governmental and human rights sources.

The United Nations recently declared famine officially in Gaza City, warning that it could spread to the central and southern parts of the Strip by September if the international community fails to take concrete action to contain the disaster and protect civilians.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Solidarity and Activism | , | Leave a comment

60% of Gen Z support Hamas over Israel, but majority of Americans support genocide: Survey

MEMO | August 31, 2025

Some 60% of Generation Z in the US favor Palestinian resistance group Hamas over Israel in Tel Aviv’s ongoing war in Gaza, a new survey found, Anadolu reports.

As part of a broad set of questions, the survey asked online respondents: “In the Israel-Hamas conflict, do you support more Israel or more Hamas?”

According to the online survey released this week, 60% of the young people aged between 18 to 24 expressed support for Hamas over Israel.

Among the age groups that sided with Israel were 25-34-year-olds with 65%, 35-44-year-olds with 70%, 45-54-year-olds with 74%, 55-64-year-olds with 84%, and 65 and older with 89%.

The poll also found that voters were evenly divided on whether Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, with a 50-50 split.

It also revealed that the slight majority of the respondents (51%) believe criticism of Israel is driven more by a concern for Palestinian human rights rather than antisemitism.

Conducted by The Harris Poll and HarrisX between Aug. 20-21 with 2,025 registered voters and a margin of error of 2.2% points, the poll has been widely cited as evidence of a fundamental shift in American public opinion.

Israel’s offensive has killed nearly 63,400 Palestinians since October 2023, devastating the enclave as famine spreads in the second year of genocide.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

The reek of desperation hangs over Albanese’s Iran conspiracy theories

By Samuel Geddes | Al Mayadeen | August 31, 2025

The Australian Prime Minister and his government are resorting to increasingly laughable measures to deflect public anger at their continued support for “Israel”.

A day after “Israel” had committed yet another massacre against journalists in Gaza, luring them with a strike on a hospital before eliminating them in a “double-tap” maneuver, the Labor government of Australia announced a major imminent foreign policy measure.

For a brief, fleeting moment, it appeared as though Anthony Albanese had listened to the demands of hundreds of thousands of protesters marching almost constantly throughout the country and was going to impose sanctions on the Israeli entity or even expel its ambassador over the Gaza slaughter.

Instead, the PM and his foreign minister, Penny Wong, engaged in a kind of public humiliation ritual, in which they asserted that Iran had “attacked” Australia by sponsoring the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue and a Jewish delicatessen in Sydney through a convoluted web of criminal intermediaries.

Based on this “intelligence” provided by the national spy agency ASIO, the PM then announced the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador and his staff and the proscription of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, an institutional part of Iran’s political system, as a “terrorist organization”.

When questioned live on national television on the specifics of what he was claiming, Albanese cut the figure of a lying schoolboy caught in the act, refusing to disclose any level of detail beyond the assertions themselves.

Scarcely a day has gone by, and already members of the Israeli government are crowing that they were involved in pushing Australia to take this action. Whether the Mossad was a source of the “intelligence” provided to the Australian Prime Minister is unclear, but to this and almost every other query for the specifics of the claims underpinning this major foreign policy shift, Albanese has steadfastly refused to comment.

The public reaction to the government’s assertions, at least online, has been less than charitable. Elementary questions of why, amid the full spectrum of military, economic, and political pressure on the country, Iran’s leaders would choose to pay local vandals in Australia to firebomb a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney deli, are curiously uninteresting to much of the country’s media, which is all too willing to accept the government’s assertions at face value.

What benefit would Tehran possibly achieve by doing this, in Australia, of all places? The only other country possibly more removed from the Islamic Republic’s circle of concern, at least physically, might be New Zealand.

Of course, many will, and already have, concluded that this charade has less to do with any actual facts than it does the government’s ham-fisted attempts to deflect growing public outrage at its obstinate refusal to impose sanctions on “Israel” or even censure it for its genocidal behavior.

For nearly two years, since Oct. 7, 2023, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, has made it a near-daily ritual that each successive Israeli atrocity, rather than being condemned, is deemed merely a source of “concern” to the government.

Albanese himself, when the question of sanctions against “Israel” is raised, clearly seems to resent even having to address the issue, at one point rhetorically questioning what sanctions Australia should impose, seeming blissfully ignorant of his obligations under the Genocide Convention.

The government’s total disengagement stands in marked contrast to the Australian public, which has kept up one of the most consistent routines of public protest in support of Gaza, anywhere in the world. Just weeks ago, despite attempts to ban it, a protest spanning the Sydney Harbour Bridge drew global media attention. Just the following week, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets around the country.

As of this week, tens of thousands of university students are voting in a nationwide referendum on whether to condemn the government for its inaction and to demand diplomatic expulsions and sanctions against Israel.

In May, the Australian Labor government was returned to power in a landslide election victory. The Liberal party, the official right-wing opposition, is widely considered unable to win back government even in the next election three years away, facing potentially as much as a decade in the wilderness.

Given its lack of any political rival, the government’s obstinate ignoring of public opposition to genocide hardly seems motivated by electoral calculations. In the face of an unstable Trump administration bringing the US alliance into question, it is more content to fall back on politicized narratives of “national security” written by the intelligence community rather than reacting dynamically to a changed world.

Whatever the real reasons for this government’s industrial-scale obfuscation, it speaks to a profound moral rot at the heart of its politics, rather than it needs to invent excuses to expel an ambassador, but cannot bring itself to expel that of an entity committing the defining slaughter of the century in real-time.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | False Flag Terrorism, Progressive Hypocrite, Wars for Israel | , , | Leave a comment

Zelensky threatens ‘new deep strikes’ into Russia

RT | August 31, 2025

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has threatened new strikes into Russia, days after claiming that Kiev possessed a brand-new long-range missile capable of reaching Moscow.

Zelensky wrote on Telegram that he had been briefed by Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, on the current battlefield situation.

“We will continue our active actions exactly as needed to protect Ukraine. Forces and means are prepared. New deep strikes have also been planned,” he said on Sunday, without providing further details.

Earlier this month, Zelensky claimed Ukraine had developed the long-range Flamingo missile with a reported range of 3,000 kilometers – which would be enough to reach not only Moscow but also Russian cities beyond the Ural mountains. The Ukrainian leader, however, said that mass production is not expected for the next several months.

British media outlets cast doubts on whether the Flamingo was developed in Ukraine, noting similarities with the FP-5 cruise missile produced by the UK-based Milanion Group and unveiled at an arms expo in Abu Dhabi this year. The UK has also been supportive of Kiev’s long-range strikes, having provided it with Storm Shadow missiles in the past.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that there is “nothing surprising” in the similarities, adding that “Ukraine has long turned into a testing ground for Western weapons. There are more than enough examples.”

On Friday, the Kyiv Independent also reported that Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched an investigation into Fire Point, the defense firm linked to the development of the Flamingo missile, after reports it misled the government on pricing and deliveries.

Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that the US had blocked Ukraine from carrying out strikes deep inside Russian territory. Throughout the conflict, some of Kiev’s Western backers have been wary of authorizing unrestricted strikes into Russia using Western-supplied weapons, citing concerns over escalation with Moscow.

Ukraine has regularly carried out long-range attacks inside Russia, which Moscow says frequently hit civilian areas and critical infrastructure. Russia has retaliated with strikes on Ukrainian military-related facilities and defense enterprises but maintains that it never targets civilians.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Shifting Sands of Asian Geopolitics

By Pranay Kumar Shome – New Eastern Outlook – August 31, 2025

The rapprochement between India and China represents a significant reset in the geopolitics of Asia.

Change is the explicit rule of human nature. Changes affect every aspect of human societies, it shapes our ideas, beliefs and perceptions of how one looks at the world. Change is an integral part of politics as well, particularly global politics. While the prospect of radical change in the strategic perceptions of two state actors may not take place quickly, what, however, happens is that the concerned state actors reach a sort of understanding to pursue their shared interests by setting aside differences and work on improving bilateral ties.

This is exactly what is happening between India and China. China and India, the world’s second and fourth largest economies and in possession of some of the world’s strongest armed forces backed by formidable nuclear arsenals have had an interesting relationship since the 1950s.

The bilateral relationship underwent a rough patch when Indian and Chinese troops clashed along the LAC or Line of Actual Control in the Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh in June 2020. The clash resulted in a number of troop casualties on both sides. The incident led to a precipitously decline in ties with New Delhi undertaking a slew of steps to protect its national interests and China retaliating in kind.

In addition to that, the situation along the border was tense with New Delhi and Beijing amassing more than 50,000 troops on both sides backed by artillery and other military assets. It seemed that India’s ties with China were back to the phase of the post 1962 period.

However, the thaw in the tense relationship started with the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024. The Indian and Chinese sides have held a number of bilateral discussions at the diplomatic and military level to defuse the crisis at the border and restore the status quo.

American Blunder

The restructuration of the Sino-India ties really picked up when USA, which enjoyed a warm and strong relationship with India committed a Himalayan blunder by deciding to indulge in brinksmanship. Washington’s decision to impose 50% tariffs on India, 25% for failure to negotiate a trade deal that is favorable to Washington and 25% as penalty for buying crude oil from Moscow and directly financing the ‘Russian war machine’ in Ukraine.

Foreign policy of a country is always framed behind closed doors with a trusted group of experienced advisors. This is the de-facto norm in most countries of the world. However, the second Trump presidency has upended decades of American foreign policy making by taking decisions on important global issues and partnerships in a highly public manner. This makes a complete mockery of the long standing conventions of international politics.

The economic warfare waged by Trump against India is a direct manifestation of this mercurial style. However, the American attempt to strong arm India into submission, did not work in the past, and won’t work now.

Caveats Remain

Notwithstanding the ongoing thaw in ties with Beijing, there exist caveats that hinder the full recovery and development of the relationship.  The first problem is the massive imbalance in the India-China trade relationship. With bilateral trade standing at over $100 billion, China enjoys a gargantuan trade surplus over India. Apart from this, China hasn’t provided market access to Indian companies and government in the manner India has demands. Lack of transparency in market access creates an asymmetry in the economic aspect of the relationship.

The second issue is the unsettled nature of the LAC. History is filled with incidents where major disputes flare up due to disputed nature of borders. With a 3,488 km border, resolution of pressing border issues, especially along the Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh sectors are the need of the hour. A consensus on patrolling and demarcation of the contested areas must be carried out keeping in mind the mutual sensitivities of both sides. In this context, more power must be given to the special representatives appointed for this purpose. Further, more Confidence Building Measures (CBM) at the diplomatic and military levels must be formulated to ensure timely resolution of the outstanding territorial disputes. In that context, the de-escalation in the Ladakh sector must be done expeditiously as troops of both sides continue to be stationed, undermining the prospects of normalcy.

Going forward, it is essential that the goodwill and trust between the two sides is restored so as to claim the 21st century as the Asian century.

Pranay Kumar Shome, a research analyst who is a PhD candidate at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar, India

August 31, 2025 Posted by | Economics | , , | Leave a comment

Benoît Paré: OSCE Observer Exposes Lies About the Ukraine War

Glenn Diesen | August 30, 2025

Benoît Paré, a French army reserve officer and former defense ministry analyst, brings his expertise and experience as an OSCE observer in Donbas.

August 31, 2025 Posted by | False Flag Terrorism, Militarism, Video | , , | Leave a comment