US not solution but obstacle in way of resolving international issues: Iran
Press TV – July 19, 2024
Iran’s interim foreign minister says the United States’ unilateral approach to international issues has proven to be a failure, stressing that Washington is not part of the solution, but an obstacle in the path of peace.
Speaking to reporters in New York on Friday, Ali Bagheri Kani criticized the US’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and its export of weapons to Israel amid the regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
“The Americans’ claims that unilateralism can bring about peace, stability and security to the world have failed,” he said.
“Practically, the American’s approaches to the Iran nuclear negotiations, as well as the Palestine issue and the Zionist’s aggression against Gaza, demonstrated that they cannot be part of the solution, but they are themselves the main obstacle.”
The top diplomat also noted that the US is not qualified to be a “neutral mediator” as it disrupted the JCPOA’s implementation and is even “encouraging” Israel to commit more crimes in Gaza by providing the regime with lethal arms.
Bagheri Kani made the remarks after he attended two United Nations Security Council meetings focusing on the developments in Palestine and multilateralism.
He said that in the meetings, he had underlined the need for an immediate end to the Gaza genocide and highlighted the consequences if the regime committed a “strategic mistake” by invading Lebanon.
“The Zionists are killing and injuring 20 oppressed Palestinians almost every hour. Thus, the world should not remain silent and passive in the face of these continued crimes that are being normalized,” he added.
The interim foreign minister further hailed resistance as an effective element in the region, saying it plays a major role in creating regional stability and prevents the Zionists from escalating their offensive and massacre in the region.
Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 38,848 Palestinians, mostly women, and children, in Gaza, and injured 89,456 others in the besieged Gaza Strip.
US declares ‘mission complete’ for Gaza Aid Pier after delivering one day’s worth of food
The Cradle | July 18, 2024
The Pentagon announced on 17 July that the floating pier built off the coast of Gaza would be dismantled for good, declaring its “mission complete” two months after it started operations.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), told a news briefing late Wednesday.
“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” Cooper said, adding that nearly 20 million pounds of aid entered Gaza via the pier – the equivalent of about 600 truckloads.
For months, the UN and other human rights organizations have established that a minimum of 500 to 600 truckloads of aid need to enter Gaza daily to alleviate critical famine conditions. A large part of the aid that reached Gaza via the pier rotted under the sun for weeks after the US and Israel used the alleged humanitarian corridor to launch a bloody rescue operation in Nuseirat camp that killed nearly 300 Palestinians.
Cooper also announced that efforts to deliver aid to Gaza by sea would shift to the Israeli port of Ashdod. He added that, after US troops failed to re-attach the pier last week for a final time, about five million pounds of aid stranded in Cyprus and at sea will be heading to Ashdod.
“Having now delivered the largest volume of humanitarian assistance ever into the Middle East, we’re now mission complete and transitioning to a new phase,” Cooper claimed. “In the coming weeks, we expect that millions of pounds of aid will enter into Gaza via this new pathway.”
Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the floating pier would be replaced with a “dedicated facility” called Pier 28 in Ashdod Port without specifying a timeline.
He also claimed that the facilities will include a field hospital to “treat Palestinian children.” “This is a significant short-term solution that will address immediate humanitarian needs until a permanent mechanism is established to evacuate and treat ill children,” Gallant’s office said.
US President Joe Biden, who announced the construction of the $230 million structure in March, expressed disappointment in the pier’s ultimate failure, saying, “I was hopeful that would be more successful.”
After its launch in mid-May, the pier operated for fewer than 25 days, and aid agencies used it only about half that time due to security concerns, as the Israeli army has continuously targeted aid convoys and humanitarian groups operating in Gaza.
Barely any humanitarian aid has entered Gaza since the start of May when Israel violently took control of the Rafah crossing after Hamas accepted the terms of a US-backed ceasefire agreement. Tel Aviv is also in control of another six land crossings into the besieged enclave, which could allow for the delivery of necessary assistance that has been rotting on the Egyptian side of the border.
Russia Ready for Ukraine Peace Talks With Focus on Clear Security Agreements
Sputnik – 17.07.2024
Russia is ready for negotiations on Ukraine and European security issues and will incorporate safeguards against dual interpretations in any future European security treaty said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“We are ready for negotiations, but considering the sad experience of talks and consultations with the West and Ukrainians… I hope a treaty will be reached at some stage on European security, and in this context the Ukraine crisis will be resolved,” Lavrov stated during a press conference following a UN Security Council meeting.
“We will, of course, be very careful with the wording and will incorporate safeguards into this document against repeated unscrupulous, unreliable interpretations,” the foreign minister added.
Lavrov emphasized that, unlike China, the West does not address the root causes of the conflict in its initiatives on Ukraine.
“This already concerns the content of the dialogue; China has very clearly indicated in its first initiative the need to start with addressing the root causes of the current crisis in Europe and to work on agreements to eliminate these causes,” he said.
He noted that “no one at the Copenhagen or Burgenstock meetings even mentioned the root causes.”
Thus, the West is trying to push through Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan by all possible means.
“A course has been set to push through at any cost the so-called Zelensky plan, which has a clearly defined form of an ultimatum,” Lavrov emphasized.
Lavrov’s comments were in response to a question about Russia’s possible participation in the second summit on the Ukraine conflict and the outcomes of the recent conference in Switzerland.
On Russia-US Unofficial Contacts Regarding Ukraine
Russia and the United States have held unofficial and so-called “second level” expert level contacts to discuss issues related to the conflict in Ukraine, Minister Lavrov added.
“I will tell you in confidence — we have had unofficial contacts with the Americans involving political experts, political experts who know each other and understand the policies of their governments,” Lavrov told the press conference, adding that Ukraine was on the agenda of such contacts.
Despite the fact that the two countries are holding phone conversations from time to time, there is nothing significant in these talks, he noted.
On Russia’s Readiness to Work With a New US President
Russia will be ready to work with any elected president of the United States, the foreign minister claimed.
“Once again I want to say: we will work, we will be ready to work with any American leader that the American people elect and who … will be ready for an equal, mutually respectful dialogue,” Lavrov said at the press event.
On Israel Seeking to Involve the US in Regional Escalation
It appears that Israel’s goal is to involve the United States in the escalation of tensions with Iran, the minister observed.
“The sense is that they want to provoke them into full-scale involvement with Hezbollah. The purpose of such a provocation, analysts suggest, is to draw the United States directly into the involvement of its armed forces in this [regional] conflict,” Lavrov emphasized.
Russia hopes the West will do everything to ensure that such ideas, “if they exist in the Israeli leadership,” will remain only ideas.
Moscow is doing everything to “calm down the situation,” Lavrov added.
On the Nord Stream Explosions
Russia will continue seeking the truth regarding the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Lavrov said.
“We will pursue the truth – since I’ve mentioned the Nord Streams, we’re going to seek the truth,” he highlighted.
Too Little, Too Late, Wrong Science: A Critique of Salmon et al.
40 years of failed science is enough. I’m asking Siri, Kennedy and Bigtree to make the right science happen. They can do it.
By James Lyons-Weiler | Popular Rationalism | July 11, 2024
In their recent publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, Salmon et al. finally acknowledge what many of us have known for years: the so-called comprehensive vaccine safety studies have been woefully inadequate. However, their proposed solution—relying on post-market surveillance—misses the mark entirely in a stunning manner that cannot stem from a lack of self-awareness – and raises more questions than it answers. This critique will expose the fundamental flaws in their approach and underscore the urgent need for long-term, randomized clinical trials.
Historical Context: Decades of Malfeasance and Fraud
For over three decades, the medical establishment, spearheaded by figures like Dr. Stanley Plotkin, has assured the public that vaccines are the most rigorously tested medical products using retrospective studies. Yet, Salmon et al. now concede that prelicensure clinical trials often have “limited sample sizes and follow-up durations” and that there are “no resources earmarked for post-authorization safety studies.” This admission not only undermines the credibility of these long-standing claims but also highlights a systemic failure to prioritize safety.
They ignore, however, all of the work done over the years by critics like Brian Hooker, Mark Blaxill, myself, and many, many others that not only demonstrate the fatal flaws in reliance on retrospective studies, but their intentional and therefore criminal abuse in the hands of people working in and for the CDC bent on hiding vaccine risk.
The Mirage of Distorted Retrospective Studies
Retrospective observational studies, the cornerstone of Salmon et al.’s proposed solution, are a poor substitute for robust, prospective research. These studies are rife with potential biases, including selection bias, selective reporting, recall bias, and confounding variables. The findings of such studies are highly dependent on who conducts them, the study design, and adherence to the data analysis plan. Repeated analyses and adjustments for presumed confounders often lead to the convenient disappearance of associations with adverse events via p-hacking.
The Case of Aluminum and Asthma
Consider the association between aluminum exposure from vaccines and persistent asthma, as detected and reported by Daley et al. Despite identifying a positive association, the authors acknowledge the potential for residual confounding and the small effect sizes. This illustrates the inherent limitations of retrospective studies. Moreover, Frank DeStefano’s study on his way out of the CDC linked aluminum to asthma, raising serious questions about the integrity of the surveillance data. Denialists like Paul Offit tried to arm-wave away the result, preventing the next necessary steps, and 1) Finding safe ways to help patients remove aluminum, and 2) Removing aluminum from vaccines.
Ignored Historical Evidence
Before the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was established in 1986, adverse events like eczema were recognized following vaccinations. Post-1986, it seems there was a collective amnesia within the medical community regarding these associations. Similarly, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) was first noticed after the swine flu vaccination campaign in 1976. It took 30 years for HHS to put GBS on the table of vaccine injuries. This pattern of intentional lost knowledge is unforgivable. These historical data points should not be ignored or downplayed, yet they have been consistently overlooked in favor of maintaining the vaccination status quo.
The Mechanistic Black Box
One of the most glaring deficiencies in vaccine safety research is the lack of understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying vaccine-related adverse events. Salmon et al. admit this gap, yet they continue to rely on epidemiological data without pushing for mechanistic studies. Yet, in my experience, in reading the literature, these claims result in appeals to ignorance. It is almost certain that knowledge exists that can link vaccines to these conditions; the same authors use argumentation and influence to cast doubt on such studies, or, again, in my experience, they ignore them altogether.
This approach is akin to trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing. Without a thorough understanding of the mechanisms at play, we cannot develop safer vaccines or provide accurate risk assessments. By arguing from ignorance, they reveal their goal.
The Danger of Mandates
The insistence on full-population vaccination mandates, without adequately addressing safety concerns, puts public health and public trust at risk. The denial of potential vaccine risks and the imposition of mandates ignore the very real experiences of vaccine-injured individuals and, of course, studies that have found associations. Found associations via retrospective studies become “mere associations”, and are dismissed. In Popperian terms, the retrospective studies fail to provide a critical test. This approach not only fuels vaccine hesitancy but also undermines the credibility of health authorities. Mandating vaccines without comprehensive safety data is a reckless disregard for individual health and autonomy.
Call for Accountability
It is high time we hold those who have held the keys to databases and conducted sham studies accountable for decades of inadequate safety surveillance and research, as well as for scientific fraud. A prosecutorial investigation into potential scientific fraud at the CDC over the past 40 years is warranted. This investigation should focus on whether there has been success at efforts designed to provide systematic destruction of scientific findings via study manipulation and records destruction, a systematic failure to conduct and report comprehensive safety studies, and whether conflicts of interest have influenced vaccine policy and research. I would also investigate the VSD for data manipulation; the CDC and the vaccine industry have had exclusive control over that dataset far too long.
By exposing these issues and demanding scientific rigor, we can begin to rebuild public trust and ensure that our vaccine policies genuinely serve the best interests of public health. In a sane world, readers would be encouraged to contact their congressional representatives and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to demand an investigation into these long-standing issues.
A New Approach: Independent, Prospective RCTs
Recognizing the failures of the current system, independents and advocates have long proposed an alternative: a large, prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) funded by the government. I disagree. Such studies should only be done by independent research institutions funded through grassroots fundraising. These trials would run for four years and match vaccinated and unvaccinated children to avoid confounding variables and isolate the effects of childhood vaccines on chronic health conditions. This rigorous approach is necessary to provide definitive answers about vaccine safety and to restore public trust. I’m calling on well-funded individuals and organizations like those run by my friends Siri, Kennedy, and Bigtree to pull together, perhaps under the Vaccine Safety Foundation, and fund the studies needed.
We’ve built the infrastructure to do it, including independent journals and an independent IRB. Siri, Kennedy, and Bigtree have sufficient limelight to raise the millions needed to conduct these studies. Lawsuits, reporting, and campaigns are priorities, but I will never trust a study conducted by or funded by CDC. Neither should you.
Aaron, Bobby, and Del – Let’s hold a podcast and raise the funds. I’d be happy to participate in the design of the study and design of analysis.
I’ve tried for ten years to raise funds for such studies via IPAK. I’ve done my part for the sake of objectivity and science for the kids. You guys have the public’s attention. Use the systems we’ve built to safeguard objective science.
Conclusion: A Demand for Real Science
Salmon et al.’s admissions are too little, too late. Their reliance on flawed retrospective studies and post-market surveillance is inadequate. What we need are long-term, randomized clinical trials that can provide definitive answers about vaccine safety. The public deserves transparency, accountability, and a commitment to rigorous, unbiased research. Anything less is an abdication of our responsibility to protect public health.
References
1. Daley MF, et al. Association Between Aluminum Exposure From Vaccines Before Age 24 Months and Persistent Asthma at Age 24 to 59 Months. Acad Pediatr. 2023;23(1):37-46.
2. DeStefano F, et al. Childhood vaccinations and risk of asthma. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2002;21:498-504.
3. Institute of Medicine. Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2011.
4. McNeil MM, et al. The Vaccine Safety Datalink: successes and challenges monitoring vaccine safety. Vaccine. 2014;32:5390-5398.
5. Glanz JM, et al. Cumulative and episodic vaccine aluminum exposure in a population-based cohort of young children. Vaccine. 2015;33:6736-6744.
China suspends arms control talks with Washington
RT | July 17, 2024
China has frozen arms control talks with the US in response to Washington’s continued weapons sales to Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said.
The US and China held a long-awaited round of nuclear non-proliferation talks in November, the first such meeting since 2018. While the talks produced no concrete results, they were seen as a crucial step in defusing tensions between the two superpowers, after Beijing severed almost all military communication with Washignton a year earlier, over then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said that China would not discuss a new round of consultations with the US.
“The responsibility fully lies with the US,” Lin explained. “Over the past weeks and months, despite China’s firm opposition and repeated protest, the US has continued to sell arms to Taiwan and done things that severely undermine China’s core interests and the mutual trust between China and the US.”
“This has seriously compromised the political atmosphere for continuing the arms control consultations,” he said.
The US State Department has authorized more than a billion dollars worth of weapons sales to Taiwan since the last round of US-China arms control talks, according to figures from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Most recently, the department approved the sale of hundreds of Altius-600M and Switchblade kamikaze drones to Taipei, prompting Beijing to impose sanctions on US arms giant Lockheed Martin.
China considers Taiwan a part of its sovereign territory, a position referred to as the ‘One China’ principle. The US recognizes, but does not endorse, this policy. Beijing views American arms sales to Taipei, expressions of support for Taiwanese independence, and pledges of military assistance to Taiwan as violations of the ‘One China’ principle.
China maintains that it will peacefully reunify Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, while reserving the right to use military force if necessary.
Lin did not rule out a return to nuclear negotiations in the future. “China stands ready to maintain communication with the US on international arms control… but the US must respect China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for dialogue and exchange,” he said at Wednesday’s briefing.
Taiwan must pay for defense – Trump
RT | July 17, 2024
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has indicated he would be less willing to defend Taiwan from mainland China than his Democratic rival and incumbent US President Joe Biden.
It is “stupid” for Washington to offer protection to Taipei for free, Trump insisted in an interview with Bloomberg recorded on June 25 but published in full on Tuesday.
“I know the people very well, respect them greatly. They did take about 100% of our chip business. I think Taiwan should pay us for defense,” he said.
The self-governed island of Taiwan, which China views as part of its territory, produces an estimated 90% of the world’s super-advanced semiconductor chips.
“I don’t think we are any different from an insurance policy,” the former president stressed. “Taiwan doesn’t give us anything” despite being “immensely wealthy,” he added.
According to Trump, protecting Taipei would also be problematic for Washington due to purely geographical reasons. “Taiwan is 9,500 miles (around 15,000km) away [from the US]. It’s 68 miles (just under 110km) away from China,” he explained.
Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai responded to Trump’s comments by saying that the island of 23.5 million is dedicated to boosting its defenses and “willing to take on more responsibility” for its own security.
“Taiwan has steadily strengthened its defense budget and demonstrated its responsibility to the international community,” he said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Cho expressed the belief that “as long as we continue to demonstrate [these efforts], we will receive support from more countries.”
The premier thanked the US several times for paying attention to the issue of Taiwanese security, stressing that Taipei and Washington have “good relations” despite the lack of any formal ties.
Officially, the US accepts the One China policy, which states that Taiwan is an integral part of Chinese territory. However, Washington has been backing Taiwanese pro-independence forces and supplying weapons to the island. Biden has pledged on several occasions that America would defend Taiwan militarily if it were attacked from the mainland.
Beijing vigorously opposes contacts between Washington and Taipei, repeatedly calling the Taiwanese issue its “red line.” The Chinese authorities have said that they would prefer peaceful reunification with the island, but have warned that a military scenario cannot be ruled out.
A poll published earlier this year by the Taiwanese National Chengchi University showed that more than 80% of the island’s population was not seeking independence, but wanted to maintain the status quo with mainland China.
Iran rejects claim about Trump assassination, asserts will pursue Soleimani case legally
Press TV – July 17, 2024
Iran has roundly rejected claims of devising plot to assassinate former US president Donald Trump, but vows to pursue legal channels to consign him to justice for his ordering the assassination of the Islamic Republic’s top anti-terror commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani made the remarks on Wednesday after US media alleged that American authorities had obtained “intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Trump.”
It followed an assassination attempt against Trump that took place while he was campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump survived the attempt, suffering an ear injury.
Kan’ani said Iran strongly rejected allegations of any involvement in the armed attack against Trump or claims of harboring any intention to take such action, Kan’ani said.
The Islamic Republic considers such claims to be a product of malicious political goals and intents, he added.
The country, however, is determined to legally pursue Trump due to his direct role in the assassination of General Soleimani, the spokesman asserted.
Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), and their companions were assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
The commanders were highly revered across West Asia due to their key role in fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region, particularly in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations also reacted to the US media report earlier on Wednesday, considering its claim to be “unfounded and malicious.”
The mission, nevertheless, asserted that “from the Islamic Republic’s standpoint, Trump is a criminal, who should be tried and punished in court for [issuing] General Soleimani’s assassination order.”
“Iran has chosen the legal pathway to hold him accountable,” it stated.
Kremlin Saw Nothing ‘Particularly Good’ for Russia in Trump Presidency, But Dialogue Existed
Sputnik – 17.07.2024
MOSCOW – During the presidency of Donald Trump in the United States, nothing particularly good was done for Russia, new restrictions were introduced, but there was a dialogue between the two countries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
“Under Trump, nothing particularly good was done for Russia; on the contrary, more and more restrictions were introduced under Trump. But, nevertheless, there was a dialogue,” Peskov told reporters.
The topics of Russia and personally Russian President Vladimir Putin became an integral part of the US election campaign, Kremlin spokesman said.
“Traditionally, during the election campaign of the United States, especially in recent years, Russia and President Putin personally are an integral part of this election campaign. The topic of Putin and the topic of Russia is always on the agenda in election debates,” Peskov told reporters.
The Kremlin does not share the forecasts of Polish President Andrzej Duda that Russia’s victory in Ukraine could lead to a war against the West, Peskov said.
“No, we do not share such forecasts,” he told reporters.
US claims Russia threatened by ‘democracy’
RT | July 16, 2024
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has rejected Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s call for resolving the “root causes” of the Ukraine conflict, arguing that Moscow illegitimately fears a “functioning democracy” in Kiev.
Lavrov spoke at the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday, describing Russia’s military action in Ukraine as the consequence of a security threat by the US and its allies.
“The problem with the formulation from the foreign minister is that there’s no one in Europe that is threatening Russia,” Miller said at a State Department press briefing. He insisted that there is no military threat to Russia by NATO and that no one has threatened to take Russian territory.
“What Russia seems to see as a threat is a democracy functioning on its borders. And that’s just not a legitimate view,” Miller added. “We reject that view.”
Miller did not specify which country he considered a functioning democracy. Multiple US officials and foreign policy pundits have described Ukraine that way in the past, especially following the 2014 US-backed coup in Kiev.
The new Ukrainian authorities, “midwifed” into place by US envoy Victoria Nuland, sicced nationalist militias to kill and intimidate dissidents in Odessa and Kharkov, while triggering a civil war by sending tanks to pacify Donetsk and Lugansk.
Since Russia intervened in February 2022, Vladimir Zelensky’s government has suspended all elections and banned most opposition parties, while taking control of all TV stations. Zelensky’s own term expired in May.
Last month, at the so-called “Peace for Ukraine” conference in Switzerland convened by Zelensky, Polish President Andrzej Duda called for dismembering Russia, describing the federation as a “prison of nations.”
“Russia remains the largest colonial empire in the world,” Duda argued, advocating for his neighbor to be “decolonized” among some 200 ethnic groups living there.
In late 2021, Moscow sent the US and NATO a comprehensive security proposal in line with existing international treaties. In February 2022, Washington and Brussels rejected it, ignoring what Russia described as its “red lines,” at which point Moscow said it would have no choice but to resort to “military and technical measures.”
Russia also considers Ukraine to be unlawfully occupying parts of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, all of which voted last September to join Russia. President Vladimir Putin has conditioned any ceasefire talks on Kiev’s withdrawal from the administrative borders of these regions and a legal commitment to never join NATO.
Groups blocking aid to Gaza got donations from US and Israel – media
RT | July 16, 2024
Several groups that have been blocking humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza have received financial support from donors in the US and Israel, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
The three organizations described as ‘far-right’ have reportedly slowed down aid supplies by either blocking trucks on their way to Gaza, or by causing traffic jams and even standing in front of Kerem Shalom, the main crossing into the Palestinian enclave.
According to inquiries into crowdfunding websites and other public records conducted by the news agency and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim, three groups, including one accused of looting or destroying supplies, have raised over $200,000 via contributions from the US and Israel.
Mother’s March has reportedly raised the equivalent of over $125,000 through the Israeli crowdfunding site Givechack, the AP and Shomrim found. The group also raised some $13,000 via JGive, a US and Israeli crowdfunding site.
The report claims that the organization doesn’t not raise money directly, but works via an allied group called Torat Lechima, which says its goal is to “strengthen the Jewish identity and fighting spirit” among Israeli soldiers. A third group, Tzav 9, raised over $85,000 from just under 1,500 donors in the US and Israel via JGive.
The report alleges that the donations have been incentivized by making them tax-deductible. It noted that practices of this kind contradict a pledge by the US and Israel to allow unlimited flows of food and medicine into war-ravaged Gaza. Donations continued even after Washington introduced sanctions against Tzav 9.
“If you’re on the one hand saying you’re allowing aid in but then also facilitating the actions of groups that are blocking it, can you really say you’re facilitating aid?” Tania Hary, executive director of Israeli nonprofit Gisha, told AP. She said Israel has shown a “lack of coherence” in its Gaza aid policy.
Сommenting on the report, the US State Department told the news agency that Washington was committed to ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Neither US nor Israeli officials commented on the fundraising efforts by the far-right groups.
Nine months into the war in Gaza, the issue of humanitarian aid deliveries to the territory is of increasing importance. Earlier this month, a group of independent UN human rights experts accused Israel of conducting a “targeted starvation campaign,” saying that 34 people, most of them children, had died of malnutrition in the enclave since October 7.
The Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva slammed the reports as “misinformation,” saying Israel had helped to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The diplomats claimed that members of Hamas “intentionally steal and hide aid from civilians.”
US Senator Menendez convicted in corruption trial
RT | July 16, 2024
US Senator Bob Menendez has been convicted of bribery, fraud, and of acting as a foreign agent, in a ruling that will see the New Jersey Democrat potentially serve decades behind bars.
A jury in New York on Tuesday found Menendez guilty on all 16 counts of bribery, wire fraud, extortion, acting as a foreign agent, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy. Two New Jersey businessmen – Wael Hana and Fred Daibes –were also convicted on multiple charges, while a third – Jose Uribe – already pleaded guilty and testified against the Senator during the trial.
Menendez’ wife, Nadine Menendez, was indicted alongside her husband last year, and will be tried once she finishes breast cancer treatment.
Prosecutors accused Menendez and his wife of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for using Menendez’s power and influence as Senator to serve the interests of a foreign state actor (Egypt) from at least 2018 to 2022.” In a deal brokered by the New Jersey businessmen, the couple received envelopes of cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, and a no-show job for Nadine.
In exchange, Menendez used his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to end a “hold” on US military aid to Egypt, to pass sensitive government information to Daibes, and to pressure prosecutors into investigating several of Hana’s competitors in the Halal meat business.
“It wasn’t enough for him to be one of the most powerful people in Washington,” federal prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said during his closing argument earlier this month. “Robert Menendez wanted all that power and he also wanted to use it to pile up riches for himself and his wife.”
Menendez did not testify in his own defense. His lawyers argued that the government could not prove that the Senator aided Egypt as a direct result of receiving the cash, gold, and gifts, and that he was acting in the interests of his constituents by aiding Hana and Daibes.
Menendez is the first sitting member of Congress to be charged with acting as a foreign agent. After his verdict was read out, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on his fellow Democrat to “do what is right for his constituents, the Senate, and our country, and resign.”
Menendez has represented New Jersey since 2006, and is up for reelection this November. However, he announced in June that he would not seek the Democratic Party’s support, and would run as an independent.
His political future hinges on the outcome of a sentencing hearing in October. Menendez faces a potential prison term of 20 years for each charge of extortion and wire fraud, and a total of 222 years in the unlikely event that the maximum sentence for all 16 counts is applied consecutively.
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New Book
The Garlic Book — 2026
Lies are Unbekoming | November 5, 2026
What The Garlic Book shows
The book is in four parts.
Part One, The Record, treats the history of garlic as evidence. From the clay garlic bulb placed in an Egyptian grave nearly six thousand years ago, through the Ebers Papyrus, through Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Pliny and Galen, the Arab physicians under Avicenna, the medieval herbals, Culpeper, and the plague years, to the last era in which Western physicians prescribed garlic as a matter of course, which ran from 1850 to 1945. It closes with the living traditions that never stopped using it, and with the folklore of charms, vampires and the evil eye.
Part Two, The Chemistry and the Evidence, sets out what is known about why a clove has no smell until it is cut, and why the order of crush, rest and heat changes the medicine. It then reads the clinical evidence against the historical record — bacteria, blood and vessels, cancer epidemiology, metals and fatigue — and names the trials that went against garlic as directly as the trials that went for it, including the 2007 Stanford trial funded by the US National Institutes of Health which found that raw garlic, garlic powder and aged garlic extract moved LDL cholesterol no more than placebo did. It then turns to onion, garlic’s closest relative, and reads the newer evidence published since 2015, before closing with the whole of the record through the terrain lens.
Part Three, Why Medicine Set It Aside, asks the question directly. One chapter contrasts the pharmaceutical model of isolating a single active compound with the folk model of combining whole plants, and reports what the garlic evidence says about which model works better. One chapter examines the economics of research on a plant that cannot be patented. One chapter — Fire Cider — tells the story of a folk preparation whose name was taken into a United States trademark by a Massachusetts company in 2012, and won back by three herbalists in 2014 who documented forty years of prior use through Rosemary Gladstar and her students into the older tradition.
Part Four, Garlic in Practice, is the working manual — the kitchen pharmacy, traditional uses by body system, a full chapter on safety and interactions, and a complaint-by-complaint practical guide. The book closes with The Trial That Was Never Run — a one-chapter reading of the whole evidential architecture.
At the back: two appendices (a traditional list of uses, and a preparation quick-reference), a full bibliography, and a live index.
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- LAPD Pilot Will Track Vehicles In San Fernando Valley
- Britain’s Online Censorship Law Now Comes With a Crisis Plan for Your Posts
- NATO’s “Nordic model” brings Arctic confrontation closer to Russia’s nuclear bases
- Using nuclear weapons, the US-Israeli alliance still can’t beat Iran
- Sunset on the Quality of Western Propaganda: Arrival of the Dr Strangelove Moment
- Ukrainian general accused of protecting crime bosses
- US-‘Israel’ alliance faces growing rupture after midterms
- If Americans Knew
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- No Tricks Zone
- New Study: The Net Fossil Fuel Contribution To Rising Atmospheric CO2 Has Been Zero For 500 Years
- Germany’s Green Energy Transition Becoming Increasingly Expensive…Another 6 Trillion Euros!
- Sudden Stratospheric Warming, Powerful El Niño Combination May Lead To Extreme Europe Cold, Energy Crisis!
- Two New Studies Find Thwaites Glacier Melt Cannot Be Driven By Human Activity Or A Warming Ocean
- E-Cars Reduce CO2 Emissions By Only 41% Compared To Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles
- Predictions Made By Renowned Climate Professor Over Past Decades Have Been Proven To Be Poor
- New Study Suggests Large Regions Of The Pacific Ocean Have Been Cooling For The Last 80 Years
- Germany’s Green Energy Debacle: High Energy Costs Force Kahla Porzellan to Close After 182 Years!
- New Study: 50 Years Of The Most Aggressive ‘Net Zero’ Policies Can Only Affect The Global Climate By 0.03°C
- US September “Heat” Was No Record…Many Records Set Decades Ago
