US campus crackdown: 500 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested
Press TV – April 26, 2024
US police have arrested more than 500 protesters during a crackdown against pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses across the country on Thursday.
Anti-riot police used chemical irritants and tasers against protesters, who set up camps in defiance of police warnings from Massachusetts to California, to protest against Israel’s savage war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Protesters were arrested at schools including the Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, Indiana University and Princeton University.
At Emory University in Atlanta, police clashed with protesters, including students from other Atlanta universities and area activists and arrested dozens of protesters, including faculty members.
Videos are shared on social media, showing officers using tear gas, tasers and handcuffs to detain protesters.
Emory’s vice president for public safety Cheryl Elliott said in a statement that law enforcement “released chemical irritants into the ground” to disperse the crowd after protesters ignored multiple warnings.
She said 28 protesters had been arrested, including 20 members of the Emory community, “some of whom have been released.”
“We are working with responding agencies to expedite the release of any Emory community members who remain in custody.”
At Emerson College in Boston, police also tore down an encampment there and arrested more than 100 demonstrators early Thursday morning.
Police detained 93 people at the University of Southern California.
And at The University of Texas at Austin, 60 protesters were arrested.
In the event, faculty members gathered at a rally and called for the school’s president, Jay Hartzell, to resign after he praised law enforcement for exercising restraint against the protestors.
The latest arrests which followed others at Columbia, Yale, Brown and New York University, came as a growing number of students joined the protests after President Joe Biden approved $26 billion in war aid to Israel on Wednesday.
Across the United States, groups of students and activists are now demanding the leadership of their universities to cut financial ties with Israel, whose brutal war on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 34,300 people since early October.
US & UK Reduced Naval Presence in Red Sea – Houthi Leader
Sputnik – 26.04.2024
The United States and the United Kingdom have scaled down their naval presence in the Red Sea despite lack of abatement in the intensity of attacks carried out by Yemen’s Houthis rebels on Israeli-linked ships, the rebel movement’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, said on Thursday.
“Our operations have not decreased, as the Americans claim, presenting this as their achievement, but rather the movement of their warships has decreased. There has been an 80% reduction in the movement of US Navy ships, not our operations,” al-Houthi was quoted by Iranian broadcaster Almasirah as saying on the occasion of 200 days of hostilities in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, al-Houthi said that since the beginning of hostilities in Gaza, they have attacked 102 Israeli-affiliated ships, an equivalent of one ship every two days.
“The American and British enemies have failed to ensure the movement of Israel-bound ships despite constant and intensive monitoring. As long as the blockade and aggression against the Gaza Strip continues, operations in the southern Red Sea will continue,” al-Houthi said.
Moreover, the leader of the movement also known as Ansar Allah said that there was an ongoing effort to expand and strengthen operations in the Indian Ocean in ways that “the Americans, the British, the Israelis, and perhaps the rest of the world cannot envision.”
His statements came a day after the movement announced attacks on a US ship and a destroyer in the Gulf of Aden and an Israeli ship MSC Veracruz in the Indian Ocean after a week-long standoff.
Houthis have been launching attacks on commercial and military vessels in the region for months, in response to Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. The attacks prompted the US to form a multinational coalition to protect shipping in the area, as well as to strike Houthi targets on the ground.
Daughter of martyr Al-Areer martyred along with husband, newborn baby in Israeli airstrike
Palestinian Information Center – April 26, 2024
GAZA – The daughter of martyr Refaat Al-Areer, Shaima, was martyred on Friday along with her husband, engineer Muhammad Siam, and their newborn baby in an Israeli airstrike that targeted their apartment near Al-Rimal Clinic in Gaza City.
Media sources said Israeli aircraft launched several attacks this morning targeting the headquarters of the International Red Cross, which houses displaced people, and a residential apartment near Al-Rimal Clinic, resulting in a number of martyrs and wounded.
The sources revealed that among the martyrs was Shaima, the eldest daughter of martyr Dr. Refaat Al-Areer, who was previously assassinated last December in a deliberate Israeli airstrike targeting his sister’s home in Gaza City.
Dr. Refaat Al-Areer was one of the pillars of the English Section at the PIC, and the supervisor of its Social Media Department. He was martyred along with his brother, sister, and her four children.
The martyr Al-Areer also worked as Professor of English Language at the Islamic University which was destroyed in the Israeli aggression. A number of its staff along with its President were martyred as well.
Al-Areer was one of the courageous voices who spoke and wrote in English about the Palestinian cause and refuted the Israeli narrative. He is the author of the book “Gaza Writes Back”.
He was also hosted in distinguished interviews with various Western media outlets.
UK APPROVED ARMS FOR ISRAEL DAYS AFTER IT KILLED BRITISH AID WORKERS
BY JOHN MCEVOY | DECLASSIFIED UK | APRIL 23, 2024
On 1 April, Israeli forces launched a series of airstrikes on a convoy of aid workers in Gaza, killing three Britons, a Polish national, a Palestinian, an American-Canadian dual citizen, and an Australian.
The Israeli Air Force carried out the bombing with a Hermes 450 drone. According to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, this drone may be powered by a R902(W) Wankel engine produced in Britain by UAV Engines Limited (UEL).
New court documents show that the UK government decided to continue arms exports to Israel on 8 April, one week after the strike on the aid workers who were employed by the charity World Central Kitchen (WCK).
The revelation will put additional pressure on the Foreign Office to justify its decision not to suspend arms sales to Israel.
‘Killed with British weapons’
Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq challenged the UK government today in court over arms sales to Israel.
Documents provided to the court show that the UK government has conducted five legal assessments of the situation in Gaza since 18 December.
One of those assessments, which covered the period 18 December to 29 February, was delivered to UK foreign secretary David Cameron on 28 March.
On 3 April, two days after the Israeli airstrike on the aid workers, Cameron used this assessment to recommend that the UK continue arms sales to Israel.
Five days later, UK trade secretary Kemi Badenoch authorised the continuation of extant licences and new licences to Israel, according to GLAN’s press statement.
The court documents further show that the UK government is capable of making “out of cycle assessments… where circumstances require” on Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.
However, such an assessment was apparently not conducted following Israel’s attack on the WCK staff.
Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a lawyer at GLAN, said: “The world has watched as 34,000 people have been killed, and more are being killed every day… Has the Government no regard for the immense loss of human life thus far, some of whom will have been killed with British weapons?”
Hermes 450 drone
The UK government is also refusing to rule out whether British machinery was used in the killing of the aid workers.
On 12 April, Kenny MacAskill MP asked in parliament whether the government had made an assessment of whether UEL engines or engine parts had been used in the strike. Trade minister Alan Mak said his department could not comment “on specific licences”.
On 17 April, Andy McDonald MP also asked whether the three British aid workers “were killed by weapons manufactured in Britain”. Foreign Office minister David Rutley responded simply that “we have strong export controls”.
UEL designs and manufactures engines for drones, specialising in Wankel technology which delivers an “outstanding power-to-size and weight ratio… ideal for tactical unmanned aircrafts”.
The company was established in Staffordshire in 1992, before being acquired by Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems.
Over recent decades, concerns have been raised that UEL produces engines and engine parts for Israel’s drone fleet, which is frequently used to support bombing campaigns over Gaza.
Made in Britain
In 2009, it was reported that the engines for Israel’s Hermes 450 drone had been manufactured by UEL. These claims were supported by information on Elbit’s own website.
British arms control officials subsequently admitted that they had licensed engines to Israel for onward export, but could not confirm that the engines had not instead been fitted to the Hermes 450 drone.
Since then, the UK government has continued to issue licences to UEL for exports to Israel. The most recent licence was seemingly granted in 2021, allowing UEL to export parts for military engines to Israel.
Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s Sam Perlo Freeman told Middle East Eye: “The evidence seems to stack up that it is a UK engine and, if it’s not, then Elbit need to clarify that… Definitely it seems to be based on a UK design at the very least”.
An Elbit Systems spokesperson told Declassified: “Elbit Systems UK, its subsidiaries and joint ventures, including UAV Engines Limited and U-Tacs, are not involved in the Hermes 450 programme”.
The company’s spokesperson, however, would not respond to a further question on whether Israel’s Hermes 450 drones use engines or engine parts produced by UEL in the UK. They said: “We have nothing further to add to the [previous] statement”.
A UK-based subsidiary of Elbit Systems and Thales also produces the Watchkeeper drone, which is modelled on Elbit’s Hermes 450 and used by the British army.
“The British government is, in effect, buying technology that has been ‘field tested’ on Palestinians”, noted campaign group War on Want.
‘A full, transparent explanation’
The day after the Israeli airstrikes on the aid convoy, UK foreign secretary David Cameron announced that he had “called on Israel to immediately investigate and provide a full, transparent explanation of what happened”.
On 5 April, the IDF published the conclusions of its investigation, claiming that Israeli forces had identified gunmen near the trucks and “mistakenly assumed that the gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles and that these were Hamas terrorists”.
The report continued: “Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not WCK employees”. The IDF chief of the general staff subsequently dismissed the Israeli brigade’s commander and chief of staff.
Israel’s self-exonerating investigation was led by Yoav Har-Even, the former head of the IDF operations directorate, and now the president and CEO of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Rafael is one of Israel’s biggest arms firms. It is owned and controlled by the Israeli state, and its largest client is the IDF. The investigation into the killing of the aid workers was therefore led by the CEO of a company which supplies many of the bombs that Israel is using to destroy Gaza.
The UK government has not commented on whether this satisfies its demand for a “full, transparent explanation”, and the extent to which the Foreign Office is pressing Israel on the matter remains unclear.
Mak recently told parliament: “We are carefully reviewing initial findings of Israel’s investigations into the killing”. He continued: “The findings of the inquiry must be published in full and followed up with a wholly independent review to ensure the utmost transparency and accountability”.
Prior to the attack on the WCK staff, at least 357 humanitarian-run sites in Gaza had reportedly been attacked.
John McEvoy is an independent journalist who has written for International History Review, The Canary, Tribune Magazine, Jacobin and Brasil Wire.
French Servicemen Promised Big Money for Fighting in Ukraine – Ex-Intel Officer
Sputnik – 26.04.2024
PARIS – French servicemen are being promised a golden parachute for participating in fictitious “resignations” to fight in Ukraine said Nicolas Cinquini, a veteran of France’s counter-terrorism intelligence service, to Sputnik.
Cinquini is currently searching for information about French nationals who fight in the conflict on the side of Kiev. According to his findings, French state agents may have been in Ukraine since the start of the special military operation in February 2022 along with ordinary French civilians who went to fight for the Kiev regime on their own.
“These are agents who remain very secretive and are difficult to identify,” the former intelligence officer noted.
“Sources told us that in the ranks of the French army, specialists were given attractive offers: a false resignation, a guarantee of reinstatement upon completion, and an income significantly higher than their usual earnings,” he said.
In February, French President Emmanuel Macron said Paris would do everything to prevent Russia “from winning this war.” At a conference on assistance to Ukraine, he raised the issue of transferring troops to the combat zone, but neither European leaders nor the opposition in his own country supported him. At the beginning of March, Macron also emphasized that France “has no limits or red lines” in matters of supporting Ukraine.
Later, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergei Naryshkin, said France had already begun training a contingent to be sent to the conflict zone; at the first stage it would amount to about 2,000 military personnel. Later, the SVR, citing Naryshkin, said a French military unit, should it be in Ukraine, would become a priority legitimate target for the Russian military. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu by phone that sending French troops to Ukraine would create problems for France itself.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier said in an interview with Dmitry Kiselev, the Director General of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent media company, that the deployment of European troops to Ukraine will not change the situation on the battlefield but will lead to dire consequences for Kiev. In response to Macron’s words about the absence of red lines, the Russian leader said Moscow will not have restrictions in relation to states with such an approach either.
US created Ukraine conflict – Shoigu
RT | April 26, 2024
The Ukraine conflict is Washington’s doing and the US is deliberately trying to prolong the fighting, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Friday during a meeting with his counterparts from Asian nations.
Shoigu is taking part in a gathering of military chiefs from members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a nine-strong mutual defense organization. The Russian minister used the forum hosted by Kazakhstan to reiterate Moscow’s position on the origins of its conflict with Ukraine.
He identified Washington as a major source of global instability, citing its record of military interventions abroad, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. The US also uses less direct financial and diplomatic tools to damage its opponents, including by fueling chaos in different parts of the world, Shoigu alleged.
“The US had first created, and now is deliberately prolonging the Ukraine conflict,” the minister stated. “As it signals purported intention to de-escalate, the West keeps pumping Kiev with weapons.”
Ukraine cannot properly control the donations, meaning there is the risk that they could end up with terrorist groups, Shoigu warned.
“They provide real-time intelligence, train Ukrainian troops, deploy Western military specialists and mercenaries on the battlefield,” he added, describing the involvement by various NATO members.
The US and its allies claim that Russia launched an “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine in February 2022, and they have since sent tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Kiev.
Shoigu accused the US of double standards regarding a nation’s right to self-defense. He cited Washington’s blocking of a UN Security Council resolution which would have condemned Israel for attacking an Iranian consulate in Damascus in early April. Tehran’s eventual retaliatory attack was the result of this obstruction, the Russian minister said.
Iran joined the SCO last year and was also taking part in the meeting in Kazakhstan.
Russia Never Threatened NATO, Has No Interests in Attacking Member States – Shoigu
Sputnik – 26.04.2024
ASTANA – Russia has never threatened NATO and has neither geopolitical nor military interests to attack the states of the alliance, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday.
“Russia has never threatened NATO. We have neither geopolitical nor military interests to attack the states of the bloc. We are simply protecting our people in our historical territories,” Shoigu said during a meeting of defense ministers of the SCO member countries in Astana.
Russia has always made maximum efforts to maintain strategic stability and balance of power in the world, the minister added.
The SCO was founded in 2001. India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are its full members. Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia are observer states; Azerbaijan, Armenia, Egypt, Cambodia, Nepal, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Myanmar, Bahrain, and Kuwait are dialogue partners.
US Plans on Military Infrastructure in Central Asia Threatens SCO Space Stability
The US intention to deploy military infrastructure in the Central and South Asia is direct a threat to stability in the SCO space, the minister noted.
“I believe that all those present share the opinion that the deployment of military infrastructure in the region by the United States and its allies is unacceptable. Such intentions must be regarded as a direct threat to stability in the SCO space,” Shoigu said.
Commenting on the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, Shoigu said that US-oriented military and political structures are trying to remake security system in the region to dominate this part of the planet.
Additionally, the minister added that the return of radical Islamists from the Middle East and North Africa to Southeast Asia creates prerequisites for new hot spots.
The United States uses the tactics of inciting hotbeds of instability in the world, generating security threats, while it simultaneously offers military assistance, Shoigu pointed out.
On Tuesday, the US Senate passed the $95 billion legislation with approximately $61 billion in Ukraine-related funding, $26 billion in Israel-related funding and $8 billion for Indo-Pacific security initiatives in a vote of 79-18. The Biden administration is reportedly readying a $1 billion military aid package for Ukraine sourced from the legislation.
“[The US] uses a technique that has been proven many times — inciting and maintaining hotbeds of instability in various regions of the world, generating security threats while simultaneously offering military assistance to neutralize them,” he said.
Continued Strikes by Ukraine on Zaporozhye NPP Can Lead to Catastrophic Consequences
Shoigu also touched upon potential catastrophic consequences caused by the ongoing Ukrainian attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).
“The ongoing strikes of the Ukrainian armed forces on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which could lead to catastrophic consequences, are of particular concern,” Shoigu emphasized.
The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant is located on the left bank of the Dnepr River and is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. It came under the control of Russian forces in early March 2022 and has since been repeatedly shelled by Ukrainian forces, raising international fears of a possible nuclear accident.
Blinken’s Failed Diplomacy: Feeble and Hostile Threats against China by Top-ranking US Officials Visiting Beijing
By Drago Bosnic | Global Research | April 25, 2024
On April 24, US State Secretary Antony Blinken landed in China and officially started his (hopefully) diplomatic visit. The relationship between the two countries has worsened significantly. Beijing’s peaceful overtures have been met with nothing but hostility in Washington DC. The United States is simply terrified of the prospect that China will overtake it. However, this has already happened in many ways.
When not murdering millions around the world, America is still trying to figure out whether public toilets should be “mixed-gender”, while China is busy building not just itself, but the world, too.
Most of the planet is perfectly aware of this disparity and is making it clear that cooperation with Beijing is a matter of choice, while having anything to do with Washington DC mostly boils down to coercion, as the political elites there are simply incapable of conducting “diplomacy” without resorting to arm-twisting.
Blinken is going to China precisely with such bearing, pompously announcing that he “arrives with a warning that the US and its European allies are no longer prepared to tolerate China’s sale of weapon components and dual-use products to Russia”. The political West insists that this is “helping Vladimir Putin rebuild and modernize his arms factories, enabling him to intensify his onslaught on Ukraine”. Caught in the web of its own endless stream of lies, the belligerent power pole is trying to blame anyone but itself. However, this is all futile, particularly when it comes to superpowers such as China. Beijing will certainly decide whether or not to do business with someone and the political West has no say in it whatsoever. Blinken will have three days to relay the US position and if that time will be used to make toothless threats and attempt blackmail, he should’ve certainly picked another country.
The mainstream propaganda machine thinks that the relations between the US and China are improving, citing Blinken’s planned attendance at a basketball game as the indicator of this.
However, the simple fact that none of the top-ranking officials greeted him when he flew in indicates something completely different. Blinken is supposed to meet Beijing’s veteran Foreign Minister Wang Yi tomorrow. The encounter is expected to last at least six hours and might even include President Xi Jinping. This will certainly depend on Blinken’s command of actual diplomacy, as the aforementioned threats he pompously announced are only for domestic consumption and are entirely void in China. The US might threaten with sanctions, but this is a two-way street and any reciprocal measures would certainly hurt America’s economic and maybe even national security interests. It’s entirely up to the US whether things will take such an unpleasant turn.
The troubled Biden administration reportedly raised the issue of the supposed “support” for Russia directly with President Xi Jinping, while US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen did the same during her recent visit to China. However, Beijing seems completely unconcerned, as it has repeatedly stated that Washington DC’s threats regarding its close ties with Moscow mean nothing, particularly as the US and its vassals and satellite states keep escalating their aggression in the Asia-Pacific. It seems that simply maintaining normal economic and financial relations with Russia now boils down to “helping” its efforts to push back against NATO aggression in Europe. After all, even if countries like China, Iran and North Korea are building closer ties with their northern neighbor, it can only be expected that everyone the political West keeps threatening will find ways to unite their forces and push back together.
“Let me stress again that China’s right to conduct normal trade and economic exchanges with Russia and other countries in the world on the basis of equality and mutual benefit should not be interfered with or disrupted,” Wang Wenbin, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, stated just before Blinken’s arrival, adding: “China’s legitimate and lawful rights and interests should not be infringed on.”
US officials insist that Beijing supposedly “gave up on the idea of sending weapons directly to Moscow thanks to their threats“. However, the entire claim is essentially a multilayered lie, as there’s no evidence whatsoever that China ever planned on arming Russia, let alone that it stopped doing so because of the political West’s pressure. On top of that, Washington DC is trying to disrupt the rapidly growing trade between the two (Eur)Asian giants, particularly through claims that Beijing is supplying so-called “dual-use” industrial goods. This is where the endless hypocrisy and mental gymnastics of the political West become most evident. While the US just decided to send dozens of billions worth of weapons to directly undermine Russia’s and China’s basic national security interests, it’s accusing the latter of “helping” the former by simply trading with it, as the so-called “dual-use” industrial goods can be pretty much anything.
Worse yet, the US and its vassals and satellite states are surrounding both Beijing and Moscow with long-range missiles and deploying troops not only in their vicinity, but directly on their borders. Still, according to their own admission, “the Blinken team is worried that China’s response to pressure over Russia could be to slow down progress in other areas of the bilateral relationship”. This also includes the (Eur)Asian giant’s close ties with North Korea, as the US wants it to put pressure on Pyongyang. Washington DC is particularly terrified of the prospect that Russia, China and North Korea are forming a more monolithic alliance that the political West will be simply hopeless to match. However, they have nobody else to blame but themselves. Constant threats and attempts to undermine all three of these countries left them with no other choice but to work together. After all, that’s one of the reasons why BRICS itself exists.
Blinken threatens China over Russia ties
RT | April 26, 2024
Washington is ready to introduce more sanctions against China over its alleged transfer of dual-use goods and components, which can supposedly be used by the Russian military industrial complex, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the US official recalled that Washington has already imposed sanctions against more than 100 Chinese entities and is “fully prepared to act” and “take additional measures.”
Blinken claimed that China’s alleged support for the Russian defense industry raises concerns not only about the situation in Ukraine, but also about a “medium to long-term threat that many Europeans feel viscerally that Russia poses to them.”
Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal had also reported that the US was drafting sanctions that could cut off some Chinese banks from the global financial system unless Beijing severs its economic ties with Russia.
The outlet claimed that US officials believe trade with China has allowed Russia to rebuild its military industrial capacity and could help it defeat Ukraine in a war of attrition.
Beijing, in turn, has accused the US of hypocrisy for providing billions of dollars in assistance to Ukraine while “unreasonably criticizing the normal trade and economic relations between Russia and China.”
“This is a very hypocritical and irresponsible approach,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbing told reporters on Friday in response to Blinken’s concerns about Beijing’s support of Moscow.
China has also vehemently rejected accusations leveled by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of “fueling” the Ukraine conflict. Beijing has instead blamed NATO for instigating the crisis by continuing its expansion in Europe and refusing to respect Russian national security concerns.
Following his meeting with Blinken, President Xi suggested that the US and China “should be partners, not rivals” and should strive towards achieving “mutual success and not harm each other.”
“I proposed three major principles: mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation. They are not only a summary of past experience, but also a guide to the future,” the Chinese leader was quoted as saying.
Beijing has maintained a policy of neutrality on the Ukraine conflict, with Chinese officials repeatedly stating that the country is not selling weapons to either Russia or Ukraine. Earlier this month, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning insisted that China “regulates the export of dual-use articles in accordance with laws and regulations,” urging “relevant countries” not to “smear or attack the normal relations between China and Russia.”
In December last year, US President Joe Biden issued a decree which enabled sanctions on foreign financial institutions that continue to deal with Russia. It targeted lenders outside US and EU jurisdictions that help Russia source sensitive items, which reportedly include semiconductors, machine tools, chemical precursors, ball bearings, and optical systems.
Why won’t Chris Packham have a real debate on climate?
By Paul Homewood | Not A Lot Of People Know That | April 25, 2024
On Sunday, the BBC did something unusual. It invited Luke Johnson, a climate contrarian, to join a panel with Laura Kuenssberg to discuss net zero. As followers of this debate will know, the BBC’s editorial policy unit issued guidance to staff in 2018 saying: ‘As climate change is accepted as happening, you do not need a “denier” to balance the debate.’ Although it did allow for exceptions to this rule: ‘There are occasions where contrarians and sceptics should be included within climate change and sustainability debates.’ Presumably this was one such occasion.
The other two people on the panel – Chris Packham and Layla Moran – are members of the climate emergency camp, so there was no pretence of ‘balance’. At one point, the exchange between Johnson and Packham became heated and when the latter invoked the recent downpour in Dubai as well as extensive wildfires in the ‘global south’, as evidence of the effect of anthropogenic global warming, Johnson challenged him to come up with evidence that extreme weather was caused by carbon emissions.
‘It doesn’t come from Toby Young’s Daily Septic [sic], which is basically put together by a bunch of professionals with close affiliations to the fossil fuel industry,’ replied Packham. ‘It comes from something called science.’ This was hailed by Packham’s side as a slam-dunk rebuttal of Johnson’s argument. The Canary wrote up the exchange under the following headline: ‘Chris Packham just humiliated Kuenssberg’s preposterous climate-denying guest.’ The London Economic, which describes itself as ‘a digital newspaper with a metropolitan mindset’, summarised it as follows: ‘With science on his side, Chris Packham was able to deliver a devastating put-down when challenged on the evidence of climate change.’
I can’t help thinking Packham’s ‘devastating put-down’ would have been more effective if it had been true. The people who put together the Daily Sceptic, a news publishing site I’ve edited since 2020, have no connections to the fossil fuel industry. If Packham and his allies are so convinced of the rightness of their cause, why invent reasons to discredit their opponents? A clip from the show including this claim was posted on Twitter by BBC Politics and retweeted by Laura Kuenssberg, getting, at last count, 845,000 views. And to think the BBC launched a multi-million-pound department last year to ‘address the growing threat of disinformation’.
What about Packham’s claim that ‘something called science’ provides all the evidence we need that extreme weather events are caused by burning fossil fuels? There’s really no such thing as ‘the science’, as in a consensus viewpoint among scientists that’s so incontrovertible no serious debate is possible. All scientific theories are just hypotheses and, as such, subject to challenge. Indeed, if it were illegitimate to challenge these theories, progress in science wouldn’t be possible. To pretend that the science of what causes extreme weather is ‘settled’ when it’s the subject of ongoing dispute suggests that Packham and his pals aren’t capable of having a proper grown-up discussion.
Full story here.
Toby Young actually understates his complaint, as there is no evidence that weather is actually becoming more extreme – something the IPCC admit.
It is very easy for these conmen to claim it is, and simply justify it with a statement that “scientists say”. But as Toby points out, they are unable to back it up with actual data and evidence.
The idea, fraudulently circulated by grant funded climate scientists, that global warming means extreme weather has always been by definition absurd. After all, does this mean that the Earth’s climate was ideal during the Ice Age, which would be the logical conclusion?
The simple fact is that there has always been unpleasant weather, storms, floods, droughts, and glaciation. If Chris Packham can provide evidence that these have all gotten worse in recent times, then let him present it.
If he can’t, the BBC should apologise for broadcasting false statements, exclude him from all future debates on climate change, and ban him from making any further such political comments if he wishes to remain as an employee.
‘A Dangerous Vaccine for a Nothing Disease’: U.S. Stockpiling Bird Flu Vaccines
‘Why is it called a biodefense project?’
By John-Michael Dumais | The Defender | April 24, 2024
With the recent spread of H5N1 bird flu to dairy cows in eight states — and the infection of a Texas dairy worker marking the second known human case in the country — public health officials are raising concerns over the adequacy and safety of stockpiled vaccines meant to protect against a potential pandemic, according to Barron’s.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains bird flu is a low risk to humans — the infected dairy worker only contracted a case of conjunctivitis (pink eye) — and that there is currently no known mechanism for human-to-human transmission.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), avian flu is responsible for 463 deaths worldwide over the past 20 years. The CDC reports only two U.S. cases of bird flu, and both were mild. No Americans have died from the virus.
Still, government agencies and Big Pharma manufacturers are building their capacity for bird flu vaccine production.
The U.S. government holds three U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved H5N1 vaccines in its National Pre-Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Stockpile.
The vaccines, manufactured by pharmaceutical giants Sanofi, GSK and CSL Seqirus, all contain mercury, a known neurotoxin, according to product inserts.
The same companies — plus Moderna — are working to develop new bird flu vaccines.
Federal officials said they supply several hundred thousand doses within weeks and 10 million more using materials on hand, and expect to produce 125 million doses within four months.
Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, suggested the agency has a “pretty low threshold” to deploy the stockpiled vaccines.
“We believe that, if we needed to, [our vaccines] would be reasonably good matches,” Marks said on April 1 at the World Vaccine Congress in Washington, D.C.
Given that all stockpiled vaccines were made for an earlier strain of H5N1, it’s uncertain how effective they would be against the strains that are circulating now, former FDA scientist Luciana Borio told STAT News.
“The FDA-approved H5N1 vaccines — licensed in 2013, 2017, and 2020 — do not elicit a protective immune response after just one dose,” Borio said. Even after two doses, “It is unknown whether the elicited immune response is sufficient to protect against infection or severe disease.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) program told Barron’s the agency could “ramp up production to make enough vaccine doses to vaccinate the entire U.S. population.”
A portion of the stockpile consists of “chunks” of premade antigens — good for training the immune system against specific strains — and adjuvants, the ingredients used to activate the human immune system when vaccines are administered.
However, despite its assurances of rapid vaccine delivery, ASPR did not detail its plans beyond claiming it could vaccinate about 68 million people, or one-fifth of the country’s population — using the two-dose regimen — within four months of an outbreak.
Internist and epidemiologist Dr. Meryl Nass, appearing with James Corbett on the April 20 episode of “Good Morning CHD,” said, “You’ve got a dangerous vaccine for a nothing disease,” noting the low number of human H5N1 cases reported thus far.
“It’s supposedly for a life-threatening illness,” she said. “Of course, pink eye is not life-threatening,” she said.
“The whole purpose of bird flu is to make you think the pandemics are out there, they’re coming for you all the time, and you need them [the health bureaucracy] to save you,” Nass said.
Sanofi vaccine contains thimerosol, PEG
Sanofi’s H5N1 vaccine, approved for adults in April 2007, was developed from a virus strain isolated from a Vietnamese patient in 2004.
“Our egg-based vaccine supply would well contribute to support a global influenza pandemic response should it arise either from A/H5N1 or any other influenza strain,” a Sanofi spokesperson told MedPage Today.
Each 90 microgram (µg) dose includes influenza virus hemagglutinin, 500 milligrams (mg) of porcine (pig) gelatin and approximately 98 µg of thimerosal, a mercury derivative (equaling approximately 50 µg of mercury/dose).
Other ingredients used in the development of the vaccine include embryonated chicken eggs, formaldehyde, polyethylene glycol and sugar.
Polyethylene glycol, or PEG, has been linked to the anaphylactic reaction in the COVID-19 vaccines.
The product warnings cited adverse events related to the 1976 swine flu vaccine, which included Guillain-Barré syndrome and other neurological disorders such as encephalopathy, optic neuritis/neuropathy, partial facial paralysis and brachial plexus neuropathy, as well as vasculitis and altered immunocompetence.
The initial clinical trial, conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, featured an experimental group of 452 healthy adults ages 18-64, of which 103 were given two 90 µg doses administered 28 days apart, resulting in 44% of recipients developing a protective immune response.
The other adults in the vaccine group received 45 µg, 15 µg or 7 µg doses. The product information does not indicate their immune responses. However, given that the 90 µg/dose version is the one stockpiled, it’s likely the lesser amounts were ineffective.
Experts at the time expressed concern over the large doses, compared to the standard 15 µg dose used in seasonal flu vaccines, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
The trials didn’t include anyone under age 18, which would indicate that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine for this age group are undetermined.
GSK vaccine approved for 6-month-olds
GSK’s H5N1 vaccine, approved in 2013 for people as young as 6 months, was made from the same virus strain as Sanofi’s.
According to GSK’s package insert, each adult dose also contains the adjuvant AS03, made of 11.86 mg DL-α-tocopherol (vitamin E), 10.69 mg squalene (wrongly blamed for Gulf War syndrome, according to Nass) and 4.86 mg of an emulsifier called polysorbate 80. The insert also lists 5 µg of thimerosal, which equates to less than 2.5 µg mercury.
Other elements used in the production of the vaccine — and still present in the doses — include ovalbumin or embryonated hen eggs (at least 0.083 µg), formaldehyde (at least 12.5 µg) and sodium deoxycholate (at least 3.75 µg).
Pediatric doses contain about half the adult amounts of each ingredient, according to the product information.
In the clinical trial of about 2,000 adults 18 and older, 91% of those between 18 and 64 and 74% of those over 65 who received a two-dose (0.5 milliliters each) regimen of the GSK vaccine developed an adequate level of antibodies, according to the FDA.
The package insert warns of adverse events like Guillain-Barré syndrome, fainting and “cerebral vascular accidents” and notes one case of pulmonary embolism.
Three subjects developed thyroid cancer on days 21, 29 and 223 after administration. Two subjects developed polymyalgia rheumatica, two developed psoriasis, and one of each developed autoimmune hepatitis, celiac disease, cranial nerve 4 palsy, Crohn’s disease, facial paralysis and other symptoms.
A pediatric age group of 838 subjects ages 6 months through 17 years participated in a clinical trial. In addition to frequently reported symptoms of injection site pain, swelling, muscle aches, headache, fatigue, gastroenteritis, fever and other symptoms, serious adverse events included one report of a febrile convulsion and one case of alopecia within seven days of administration.
In a randomized control trial in eight countries outside the U.S. for children 6 months through 9 years old, one death was reported (day 42) along with one case of hepatitis and nasopharyngitis (day 385), three cases of appendicitis (on days 8 or 9) and one case of thyroid cancer (day 84).
Other adverse events included alopecia areata (2 subjects), glomerulonephritis (2 subjects), hypothyroidism (2 subjects) and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (1 subject).
GSK recently said it could provide at least 200 million doses to governments worldwide in the event of a pandemic, according to Barron’s.
CSL Seqirus vaccine: 1 in 200 died during clinical trials
The most recent addition to the U.S. government stockpile of bird flu vaccines is CSL Seqirus’ Audenz for H5N1, approved in 2020 for infants and adults 6 months old and up.
The vaccine contains CSL’s MF59 adjuvant, which includes 9.75 mg squalene, 1.175 mg polysorbate 80, 1.175 mg of sorbitan trioleate, 0.66 mg of sodium citrate dihydrate and 0.04 mg of citric acid monohydrate.
Nass considers MF59 dangerous because it can stimulate autoimmunity. “This adjuvant has not been approved for most other vaccines,” she said. She noted that the FDA is willing to take more risks for a vaccine needed in a dire emergency.
Other ingredients from the production process include MDCK cell protein (at least 3.15 µg) and MDCK cell DNA (at least 10 nanograms), both from dog kidneys, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (at least 4.5 µg) and ß-propiolactone (at least 0.1 µg).
Each 5 milliliter (mL) multidose vial contains 0.5 mL of thimerosal as a preservative, providing 25 µg of mercury per dose.
Fatality from the clinical trials included 11 (0.5% or 1 in 200) from the experimental group, compared to 0.1% or 1 in 1,000 for the placebo group.
In a trial with children ages 6 months through age 17, 8% of vaccine recipients developed upper respiratory infections within 21 days of vaccination.
Among the adverse events noted in post-marketing reports were swollen lymph nodes, swelling, anaphylaxis, Bell’s palsy, convulsions, demyelination, encephalitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
“So 1 in 200 died [and] you want to take this vaccine for a case of pink eye,” Nass said. “This is an example of how … one bad decision sort of goes and rolls down a hill and snowballs to another.”
New bird flu vaccines in development
As concerns mount over the effectiveness of stockpiled vaccines, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies are racing to develop new H5N1 vaccines better matched to currently circulating strains.
Barron’s reported that the U.S. government has been working with GSK, CSL Seqirus, Sanofi and Moderna to develop vaccines that better match the latest H5N1 strains.
GSK, recipient of multi-year pandemic preparedness contracts to supply a bird flu vaccine to the U.S., Canada, the European Union and the WHO, said it would be ready to supply 200 million doses globally, “updated with the latest circulating strains,” according to MedPage Today.
In October 2022, CSL Seqirus announced it was developing another vaccine based on the “pre-pandemic” H5N8 A strain, as part of ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) program.
The new vaccine also uses the MF59 adjuvant.
One of the surface proteins of H5N8 is reportedly similar, according to Barron’s, to the strain of H5N1 that infected the Texas dairy worker.
According to MedPage Today, CSL Seqirus said it could scale up production at its California facility — built in a private-public partnership with BARDA — to deliver 150 million vaccine doses during an outbreak.
Sanofi also partnered with BARDA in 2019 to “expand pandemic influenza preparedness” using the same recombinant technology as Sanofi’s Flublok Quadrivalent vaccine. Leveraging its existing technology would allow the company to more rapidly deliver a pandemic vaccine.
Moderna said in March 2023 that it planned to develop a bird flu vaccine, stating its COVID-19 vaccine was developed from its H10N8 pandemic flu vaccine research. Moderna didn’t mention the bird flu vaccine in its March 2024 announcements.
However, the company reported on its seasonal flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, saying it had “demonstrated consistently acceptable safety and tolerability across Phase 3 trials.”
“Early studies done by mRNA vaccine companies on seasonal flu are promising, which could be good news here since mRNA vaccines can be made more quickly than vaccines using eggs or cells,” said Borio.
‘Why is it called a biodefense project?’
Linking to a 2023 Global Biodefense article discussing BARDA’s work with CSL Seqirus, Dr. Peter McCullough tweeted on April 23, “Why is the bird flu (highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1) human vaccine a US @NIH @BARDA project with CSL? Why is it called a ‘biodefense’ project?”
The Daily Mail raised similar concerns about the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) collaborating with the Chinese Academy of Sciences — which oversees biodefense labs like the Wuhan Institute of Virology — to develop more virulent strains of bird flu viruses, ostensibly to aid in the development of vaccines.
The White Coat Waste Project disclosed details of the USDA-China program in a February post showing numerous research project agreements beginning in April 2021.
A bipartisan group of Congress members on April 12 sent USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack a letter stating, “This research, funded by American taxpayers, could potentially generate dangerous new lab-created virus strains that threaten our national security and public health.”
Dr. Richard Bartlett, an emergency room director and former Texas Department of Health and Human Services advisory council member, in the April 10 episode of “The Defender In-Depth,” suggested gain-of-function research on bird flu viruses may be responsible for the current outbreak or could cause a future pandemic.
“After everything we just experienced and all the loss of life and bankruptcy and damage to the economy, families destroyed with COVID, why would you continue gain-of-function research?” he asked.
Nass told Corbett she was skeptical of the push for bird flu vaccines. “Every single time we’ve had an emergency and vaccines have been rolled out quickly, it’s resulted in disaster,” she said.
Nass cautioned against relying on centralized solutions pushed by public health authorities.
“They want you only to be able to get the solution they have made for you,” she said. “They don’t want it widely distributed where you have agency to decide whether you want it for yourself or not. … Don’t be scared. This is a scam.”
John-Michael Dumais is a news editor for The Defender. He has been a writer and community organizer on a variety of issues, including the death penalty, war, health freedom and all things related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
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Book Review & Summary
Calling of an Angel: The True Story of Rene Caisse and an Indian Herbal Medicine Called Essiac (1988)
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Lies are Unbekoming | October 17, 2026
On June 10, 1975, Dr. Chester Stock, a vice president at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, wrote to a Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse: “Enclosed are test data in two experiments indicating some regressions in sarcoma 180 of mice treated with Essiac.” The sentence sat in a letter from one of the world’s largest private cancer research centers, concerning an herbal tea an elderly English woman had learned from an Ojibwa medicine man at a northern Ontario mining camp in the 1890s. The tests were terminated the following year after Sloan-Kettering admitted, in sworn affidavit three years later, that they had prepared the injectable solution improperly from the dried material supplied — freezing and thawing the herb rather than boiling it as Rene had instructed. By the time Calling of an Angel was published in 1988, Rene Caisse had been dead for a decade, having treated thousands of cancer patients across fifty-six years in her Bracebridge, Ontario kitchen, never charging a fee, and refusing every offer — from Memorial Sloan-Kettering, the National Cancer Institute, Merck, Parke Davis, and private corporations dangling contracts up to $1 million — to release her formula before the medical establishment admitted her remedy had merit. … continue
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