Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 31
August 8, 2025
Panic and production cuts at Pentagon suppliers as China tightens exports
Forever wars in the Middle East, and now in Ukraine, have drained NATO arsenals. But while the US and NATO countries have made giant pledges to boost defense spending, China’s export bans on critical materials are blowing up supply chains for Pentagon weapons makers.
Resources and links:
Wall Street Journal, China Is Still Choking Exports of Rare Earths Despite Pact With U.S. https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china…
Wall Street Journal, China Is Choking Supply of Critical Minerals to Western Defense Companies https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/china-…
Zerohedge, China’s Grip On Critical Minerals Disrupts U.S. Defense Supply Chain https://www.zerohedge.com/military/ch…
78% of US military weapon systems vulnerable to China’s critical mineral dominance https://theoregongroup.com/commoditie…
Nearly one in 10 ‘Tier 1’ subcontractors to defense primes are Chinese firms: Report https://breakingdefense.com/2025/06/n…
China Adds 28 U.S. Defense Companies to Export Controls List https://www.thomasnet.com/insights/ch…
Defence expenditures and NATO’s 5% commitment https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/to…
Antimony Is A Strategic Metal That Is Critical For The Defense Industry & The West Doesn’t Have Much https://robertsinn.substack.com/p/ant…
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Yasser Abu Shabab: Israeli-backed Warlord Looting Aid to Gaza
Photo Credit: The CradleAUG 8, 2025
Tel Aviv promotes a warlord with a criminal past to impose its starvation and displacement agenda on Palestinians in Gaza under the guise of humanitarian governance.
In late July, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an op-ed attributed to Yasser Abu Shabab, a Palestinian warlord with a criminal past, portraying him and his militia as potential saviors of Gaza.
The piece, echoing Israeli talking points, suggested that US and Arab support for Abu Shabab could swiftly “transform” most of the strip “from a war zone into functioning communities,” ostensibly free from Israeli bombardment and flush with humanitarian aid.
But behind this carefully crafted image lies an Israeli proxy – a man embedded in organized crime and political subterfuge, now repurposed to advance Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to starve, displace, and ultimately ethnically cleanse Palestinians in Gaza.
Who is Abu Shabab?
Abu Shabab, 35, hails from Rafah in southern Gaza and belongs to the Bedouin Tarabin tribe, which spans Gaza, Israel’s Naqab, and Egypt’s Sinai. Before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, he was notorious for his involvement in smuggling weapons, drugs, and contraband through Gaza’s tunnels and border crossings. He was also believed to have ties to extremist groups in Sinai, including the local ISIS affiliate, formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.
Hamas authorities had imprisoned him for murder and drug trafficking, but he was released in October 2023 when Israeli air raids forced the movement to open its prisons.
Since then, Abu Shabab has rebranded himself as a “nationalist,” a “humanitarian,” and even a “liberator.”
But these claims are widely rejected by Palestinians, including members of his own tribe. A senior Tarabin elder publicly disowned him, labeling him a “looter and bandit” operating solely for personal gain. Aid officials echoed this assessment. One aid coordinator called him a “criminal, a fugitive … untrustworthy and mentally unstable.”
His own relatives have accused him of collaborating with the occupation military in targeted killings of Palestinians and have called for his “liquidation,” declaring his “blood is forfeit.”
Starving as warfare
After the 7 October resistance operation by Palestinian factions, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant – now a fugitive from international justice – announced a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off all access to food, water, fuel, and electricity. “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly,” Gallant said in Hebrew.
Days later, a detailed proposal to forcibly expel all Palestinians from Gaza, under the pretext of protecting them, was prepared by Israel’s Ministry of Information.
Weeks later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for both Gallant and Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
In response to mounting global scrutiny, Tel Aviv pivoted to a more insidious strategy: weaponizing hunger through sabotaging the existing UN aid distribution system.
In January 2024, Israel launched a smear campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main provider of aid to Gaza, falsely claiming it was infiltrated by Hamas operatives who took part in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The campaign was successful in pressuring western countries to cut the UN refugee agency’s funding.
Simultaneously, Israel slashed the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza. By February, only 62 trucks entered daily – a fraction of the 500 required to prevent mass hunger.
Israel ensured even this amount of food would not reach those who needed it by carrying out a string of airstrikes against members of Gaza’s Hamas-run civilian police force. The attacks caused officers, who were protecting the convoys, to withdraw from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
According to the Washington Post, the amount of aid entering Gaza “collapsed,” as the convoys delivering it were then exposed to widespread looting by criminal gangs.
In May 2024, the occupation state further moved to sabotage the UN aid system by occupying and closing the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the route through which most aid had flowed, and redirecting it through the Kerem Shalom.
Tel Aviv’s looting agent
With the withdrawal of Hamas police, Abu Shabab and his gang established a base in southeast Gaza from which it could freely loot aid trucks entering the strip via Kerem Shalom, all while operating under Israel’s protection and watchful eye.
In October 2024, the UN issued a memo concluding that criminal gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israeli military. According to the memo, one gang leader established a “military like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.”
The memo identified Abu Shabab as “the main and most influential stakeholder behind systematic and massive looting” of aid convoys.
The largest single looting incident occurred in November 2024. On that day, a huge joint convoy of 109 UN trucks carrying food supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom – only to be ambushed and stripped bare by armed looters. According to UN officials, 98 out of the 109 trucks were raided, their food, fuel, and even tires stolen.
[…]
Crucially, a UN spokesperson noted the convoy had been rerouted on short notice by the Israeli military onto unfamiliar roads, ensuring it would fall prey to the gangs.
For months, Israel approved the use of only one road passing through a “desolate patch” of southeast Gaza, the Washington Post observed.
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Israeli media later reported that Abu Shabab’s group was armed with Kalashnikov rifles provided by “Israeli security bodies,” in a decision approved by Netanyahu, providing a further sign that Israel was behind Abu Shabab’s looting campaign.
Blaming Hamas
While covertly facilitating Abu Shabab’s looting, Israeli officials publicly blamed Hamas for stealing aid, in an effort to further restrict the entry of food to Gaza and deepen the hunger and starvation of its residents.
In the wake of the mass looting incident in November, it was reported that:
“COGAT, the Israeli military’s civilian affairs department for the Palestinian territories, has justified restrictions on the flow of goods by alleging repeatedly that Hamas is stealing aid and preventing it from reaching civilians.”
Israel’s cynical game was confirmed in May 2025 by Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories. In reference to Abu Shabab, he stated that:
“Israel has publicly claimed that the UN and NGO aid is being diverted by Hamas. But this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza.”
Whittall’s comments were further validated by a July 2025 USAID report, which also confirmed Hamas had not been involved in stealing aid.
A war of attrition
In March 2025, Israel unilaterally broke a ceasefire reached with Hamas in January. Israeli leaders once again openly imposed a new siege on Gaza, preventing all aid from reaching the strip.
Then, in April, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued evacuation orders covering most of Gaza, while launching a new offensive pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into an “ever-shrinking bubble,” CNN reported. Katz’s goal was to “empty” large parts of Gaza while treating anyone who refused to obey evacuation orders as a “combatant.”
While Israel claimed its objective was to defeat Hamas and free Israeli captives held by the group, CNN observed that, “Israel’s strategy may have another purpose; to make life so unbearable for Gazans crammed into an ever-smaller pocket of territory without proper shelter that they begin to head for the exit.”
Katz appeared to make this objective clear, saying amid the offensive and blockade that, “We are working to advance the plan for the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents.”
According to Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, the so-called migration plan would be anything but voluntary:
“The real and lasting answer will come only through the full advancement of the emigration plan – ‘Force him until he says, I want it.’”
Gaza ‘Humanitarian’ Foundation
In parallel, Netanyahu launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an aid mechanism staffed by former US special forces and contractors with opaque funding.
But the GHF, which began operating in May, did not distribute aid across Gaza. It established isolated “hubs” in the south, “designed as death traps.” Nearly 1,000 Palestinians were shot at or killed while seeking food from these hubs. Some were targeted by armed GHF security guards, while others were targeted by Israeli soldiers opening fire on starving crowds with sniper rifles, mortar shells, and even tank fire.
Despite the danger, Palestinians needing aid to prevent their children from starving had no choice but to come to the GHF sites, which meant relocating to tent camps near them.
The GHF was part of Israel’s military operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” with the stated objective of the “concentration and movement of the population.” In June, Tel Aviv admitted its goal: relocating all Gazans to a southern “sterile zone” surrounding the GHF hubs.
The UN and aid groups quickly rejected the GHF aid model, saying Israel was “using food as a tool for forced displacement.”
Concentration camps
As hunger deepened, Abu Shabab posted videos inviting displaced Palestinians to settle in his Israeli-guarded tent city in eastern Rafah.
He claimed to launch a recruitment drive to staff “administrative and community committees,” which would include doctors and nurses, engineers, primary school teachers, and public relations experts.
Abu Shabab claimed that more than 2,000 civilians were already living in his “protected zone,” and that his Popular Forces, allegedly consisting of just 100 armed men, had built schools, health centers, and other civilian infrastructure there.
Speaking with the Washington Post, he asked for support from the US, EU, and Arab states.
“We hope they support our vision and empower us to make all people in the Gaza Strip live like we do, taking control of our own areas in dignity and humanity,” Abu Shabab stated.
However, his attempt to bring “dignity” to Palestinians was soon revealed to be the first stage of an Israeli effort to build a massive concentration camp in Rafah.
On 7 July, Defense Minister Katz announced a plan to build a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah, in the same area where Israel allowed Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces to establish their base and tent camp.
The plan would begin by moving 600,000 Palestinians, primarily from the tent camps in the Al-Muwasi area, into the new zone after a security screening. The remainder of Gaza’s over 2 million Palestinians would be moved there later.
“Once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave,” Haaretz reported, citing the defense minister.
The planned “humanitarian city,” which no one would be “allowed to leave,” was quickly acknowledged as a concentration camp and the first step toward the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza, including by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry … this is part of an ethnic cleansing,” Olmert told The Guardian. “It is to deport them, to push them, and to throw them away.”
Manufactured governance, planned chaos
In June, Prime Minister Netanyahu finally acknowledged support for Abu Shabab, saying on social media that Israel had “activated” some Palestinian clans in Gaza, on the advice of “security officials.”
Netanyahu’s comments affirmed previous reports in Israeli media that the operation to arm Abu Shabab and other clan-based gangs was “planned and managed” by the Shin Bet to create “alternative governing structures” that challenge Hamas.
The strategy mirrored the occupation state’s project to create “village leagues” in the occupied West Bank in the 1970s and 80s. The project involved backing local clan leaders with funds, weapons, and privileges to weaken the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and block Palestinian statehood.
“It’s the oldest colonial strategy in the book,” said Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University. By supporting Abu Shabab, Israel had succeeded in “sowing utter chaos,” which Israel wants” because if the Palestinians are unified, then they might have to actually negotiate or deal with them,” Khalidi added.
[…]
Via https://thecradle.co/articles/yasser-abu-shabab-israels-agent-of-chaos-in-gaza
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says AIPAC should register as a foreign lobbyist
By Charlotte HazardAugust 8, 2025
Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) needs to register as a foreign lobbyist, after the group criticized her comments about there being a genocide in Gaza.
“The truth is AIPAC needs to register as a foreign lobbyist by U.S. law because they are representing the secular government of nuclear armed Israel 100%!!!” Greene wrote on the social media platform X Thursday evening.
Greene said AIPAC started sending out fundraising attack emails about her after she said that the genocide, starvation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza was horrific, like the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war between the sides.
“I’m one of the only members of Congress that doesn’t take money from AIPAC, who donates way more money to Republicans than Democrats,” her lengthy social media post continued.
Greene has become critical of Israel in the past few weeks, saying that there were people starving in Gaza, where the war is being fought, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims otherwise.
Last month, Greene introduced amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act to remove foreign aid to other countries, including $500 million to Israel.
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Gerald Celente: Death of Dollar Already Begun
Gerald Celente: Death of the Dollar Has Already Begun
The Sanchez Effect (2025)
Film Review
Great interview by former CNN journalist Cuban-American Rick Sanchez. The interview focuses on India’s reaction to Trump’s threats to increase Indian tariffs to 50% for purchasing. Indian prime minister Modi responded by sending a national security advisor to Moscow to meet with his Russian and to meeting with Chinese president Xi at the Shanghai Cooperation organization for the first time in seven years. Indian trade with the US only accounts for 2% of India’s GDP.
Sanchez points out that BRICS member India, China, Brazil and South Africa all have bigger militaries and GDP growth than the US.
The interview with financial analyst Gerald Celente starts at 11.07.
Celente begins by talking about America’s decaying infrastructure while the government spends money they don’t have on unending foreign wars. He also talks about the organization Occupy Peace he started with Judge Napolitano and Scott Ritter.
He goes on to discuss inevitable dot come bust resulting from the current AI bubble. There’s no question in his mind that the US will lose out to China’s Deep Seek AI, mainly because China can do AI far cheaper, faster and more efficiently than Silicon Valley. (Deep Seek cost China 1/20 of what ChatGPT cost OpenAI).
Intriguingly Sanchez confesses to being sucked in by Trump’s rhetoric that he was going to be more transparent and put America’s needs ahead of oligarchs’ profits.
They compare the CIA’s 2014 coup in Ukraine with their 1953 coup in Iran. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland openly bragged in 2014 to spending $4 billion to fund NGOs to “teach Ukrainians about democracy.”
After Sanchez admits about having more journalistic independence at RT than he did at CNN, Celente talks about being blacklisted from the US media (at a time when his Trends Journal was headline news) for predicting the US would lose the war in Afghanistan.
RFK Jr pushes ‘universal vaccine’?????
RFK Jr addresses the nation. Credit: X@SecKennedy
US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has scrapped over $500 million (€432 million) in federal vaccine funding, announcing a pivot towards developing a so-called “universal vaccine” designed to mimic natural immunity.
In a statement on August 6, 2025, Kennedy confirmed that the US Department of Health and Human Services will cancel 22 vaccine development projects (all using mRNA technology) in favour of “safer, broader vaccine strategies.” The move, affecting major players like Pfizer and Moderna, has sparked fierce backlash from public health experts across the US.
Kennedy claimed the goal is a new, all-in-one jab that could offer protection not just against COVID-19 but also influenza and future pandemics.
Kennedy touts universal, all-in-one jab that ‘mimics natural immunity’Speaking from Anchorage, Alaska, hours after the announcement, Kennedy declared, “It could be effective – we believe it’s going to be effective – against not only coronaviruses, but also flu.”
The health department described the cancelled mRNA contracts as part of a “shift in vaccine development priorities.” Kennedy, a long-time vaccine critic, said mRNA platforms are flawed and unstable when viruses mutate.
“We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted. BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate,” he said in a video posted on X.
Reactions from the medical community were swift and damning.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business,” said infectious disease expert Mike Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, cited by Sky News.
Dr Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia also slammed the decision, “It’s certainly saved millions of lives,” he said, referring to mRNA vaccines used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is mRNA?mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines do not use the actual virus to trigger immunity. Instead, they deliver a genetic blueprint that instructs the body to create a harmless viral protein, prompting an immune response.
This approach allows for quicker production of vaccines, according to the UK Health Security Agency. Moderna previously claimed mRNA could accelerate flu vaccine development.
Despite Kennedy’s criticism, the Department of Health clarified that “other uses of mRNA technology within the department are not impacted by this announcement,” including research into cancer therapies and other diseases.
This is the latest in a series of controversial decisions by Kennedy since taking office:
He has fired the advisory panel that recommends vaccinesScaled back COVID-19 vaccine guidanceRefused to endorse any jab, despite a worsening US measles outbreakAs experts warn of rising vaccine hesitancy and reduced pandemic preparedness, the bigger question looms: will a universal jab really deliver?
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August 7, 2025
How the Western “Green Revolution” Continues to Sabotage Rice Production in India
By Bharat DograAugust 06, 2025The Ongoing Battle Against GM and Gene Edited MonoculturesThe first big blow to India’s vast diversity of indigenous varieties of rice was delivered by the green revolution monocultures. Now the second big blow is likely to be delivered by GM/gene edited monocultures, if the efforts to introduce these succeed.
A myth has been spread that India needed green revolution rice to prevent starvation. The reality is that under the able leadership of Dr R.H. Richharia, the then Director of the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, his team was ready to introduce the most promising rice improvement program based on indigenous varieties. This was sabotaged by imposing green revolution dwarf varieties. Dr Richharia had to leave his top post with great regret.
However such was his eminence and respect that when the green revolution rice varieties ran into all sorts of problems, he was brought back by the government to head a task-force on what problems the new green revolution dwarf varieties had created and what could be done to resolve the worrying situation.
This task-force on rice breeding consisting of eminent experts which met at the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) in Cuttack in 1979 tried to identify some of the causes – mainly the narrow genetic base of the exotic rice HYVs, their unsuitability for much of the rice growing region of India and their alarming susceptibility to pests and diseases. Some remarks of the task force are worth quoting, (in these quotes HYVs should be taken to mean exotic HYVs also known as green revolution varieties):
In the words of the task force,
“Most of the HYVs are derivatives of T(N)1 or I.R.8 and, therefore, have the dwarfing gene of dee–geo-woo-gen. This narrow genetic base has created alarming uniformity, causing vulnerability to diseases and pests. Most of the released varieties are not suitable for typical uplands and low lands which together constitute about 75 per cent of the total rice area of the country. To meet these situations, we need to reorient our research programmes and strategies.”
In a reference to the increased pest susceptibility of the now crops, the task force says,
“The introduction of high yielding varieties has brought about a marked change in the status of insect pests like gall midge, brown plant-hopper, leaf folder, whorl maggot etc. Since most of the high yielding varieties, released so far, are susceptible to major pests with crop loss of 30 to 100 per cent, development of high yielding varieties with built-in-resistance has become highly essential to stabilize the yields.”
Development of pest-resistant varieties is no doubt very important, but when it comes to examining the past record in this field, again the task force had sad things to tell.
Improve Rice Cultivation while Avoiding High Risk GM/GE Technology
“The results of the insect resistance breeding programme so far are not very encouraging. Even though a few varieties have been released as resistant to pests, except Ratna, no other variety is having a good spread in the country. A good stem borer resistant variety is yet to be developed for which a good donor is to be first identified.
“For gall midge, even though the donors are highly resistant, unfortunately most of the resistant varieties, released so far in the country, are either poor yielders or do not show consistency in resistance when grown in different locations. Here also high yield and stable and high degree of resistance are yet to be combined. ” Referring to some specific efforts, the task force reported, “During 1977 Kharif (crop season), when the gall midge resistant cultures were grown in new endemic areas Singeda, Kune and Bandu in Bihar, most of the promising resistant cultures recorded susceptible reaction suggesting possible presence of a new virulent biotype of rice gall midge in these areas.”
While disease-related problems were getting worse in some respects solutions were not in sight. Specifically regarding the problem of sheath blight, the task force reported.
“The disease is now becoming more serious due to the increased plant population density, high tillering and higher nitrogen dose… so far varieties with a high degree of resistance have not yet been identified.”
To the findings of the task force given above (made in 1979), we may only add that most of these problems of exotic HYVs still persist; in fact these are inherent in the exotic varieties not at all well adapted to the environmental conditions in which these are grown in India.
Later as green revolution rice continued to have serious problems, the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi asked Dr Richharia to prepare a plan for improving rice cultivation based on his understanding and ideas. He promptly and dutifully prepared this plan but this could not be implemented following the assassination of Mrs Gandhi in 1984.
Now we come to Dr. Richharia’s this ‘specific plan for action for increase in productivity of rice’. First he identifies the factors which have retarded the increase in rice productivity in recent years despite so much increase in investments in the form of fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation, research, extension etc. Then he gives his plan in brief. Dr. Richharia’s plan has three basic components –
(1) Rice development to be based on the rich indigenous germplasm which has to be explored further and preserved,
(2) A highly decentralised extension approach and
(3) Large-scale adoption of clonal propagation technique to spread improved varieties
According to Dr. Richharia (all quotes from the plan)
“The main constraint has been the hurried introduction of the undesirable new rice material, the HYVs (dwarfs) on which we based our strategy, replacing even the reputed high yielding rices of the locality, forgetting at the same time unexpected drought situations, under which the HYVs lowered the yields. In addition, under heavy fertilization and irrigation the HYVs proved to be susceptible to diseases and pests which cannot be controlled easily thus again pointing towards reduction of yield.”
At another place in the plan be writes
“The most immediate and major cause can be attributed to frequent replacements of the adapted rice varieties in a locality, partly or fully. This is because the agro-ecological balance has been disturbed in the environment in respect of the existing germplasm which had been built up in course of time for centuries by the natural process of empirical breeding and selection establishing ecological balance in different environments, what in modern times can be interpreted as ‘ecological breeding’ (term coined by a Japanese worker in 1959).”
Fortunately, indigenous high-yielding varieties, adapted to local environment are available in the country. In a survey carried out in Madhya Pradesh between 1971-74, 8 per cent of the indigenous rice types were observed to fall under the category of high yielding types, fixing the minimum limit of 3705 kg/Ha.
In view of this there is a need to redefine ‘HYVs’ which hitherto have been officially identified only with the exotic dwarf fertiliser – responsive varieties.
In the area of research as well as extension, Dr. Richharia recommends a highly decentralised approach. This, he emphasises, is inherent in the nature of the rice plant. To quote,
“If we were to think of a single characteristic feature of the rice plant which yields food for millions, it cannot be anything else but its variability in the form of thousands of its cultivars, spread in India and in other rice growing belts of the world. This is because of the rice plant’s flexible genetic make-up and mutational power of adaptation.” So he recommends the establishment of a wide network of “adaptive rice centres” in all rice growing areas,
“The adaptive rice centres will be the custodian of all local rice cultivars in respective localities, assembled immediately, supplemented if necessary, by the already available materials of the locality at different research centres. They will be maintained under their natural habitat to safeguard the future. They will be known as local treasuries of rice germplasm, (a term suggested by Dr. Frankel of Australia).”
The function of the centres will be:
a) To maintain the evolved rice genetic material for future studies and use as it is practically impossible to retain it in its original form at a central place in India or abroad. It can only be maintained in its original condition at its natural habitat only seeking help of the rice growers themselves.
b) To educate the young farmers to appreciate the value and importance of their own material adding new ones as their hobby.
On the basis of his wide experience Dr. Richharia says
“Invariably I found in rice areas some rice growers taking keen interest in their local rice varieties as they are very much absorbed in them and they have all praise for them, so much so that they trace back the history of individual rice varieties to their ancestry with their utility and such selected and devoted rice farmers will be put in charge of the centres.”
These views of Dr Richharia for a highly decentralized approach based on protecting and growing diversity of indigenous rice varieties remain highly relevant in present times.
[…]
Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/india-rice-cultivation-indigenous-vast-diversity-varieties/5896826
Lawsuit: California Hospital Concealed Evidence Linking ‘Catastrophic Surge’ in Stillbirths to COVID Vaccine,
by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.August 4, 2025The lawsuit, filed last week in a California Superior Court, also accuses the hospital of retaliating against whistleblower Michelle Spencer, after she made public an internal hospital email that revealed the skyrocketing rates.
A California hospital concealed data linking a “catastrophic surge” in stillbirths among women who received COVID-19 vaccines, according to a lawsuit filed last week in the Superior Court of California, Fresno County.
Michelle Spencer, a nurse at Community Medical Centers’ (CMC) Community Regional Medical Center, said the hospital “deliberately and selectively” concealed from staff, patients and regulators a spike in unborn baby deaths that began in spring 2021, and retaliated against her when she publicized the information.
The lawsuit also says the hospital concealed medical data related to the fetal deaths that showed a link to COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant mothers.
The data include hospital-wide medical records documenting the number of stillbirths and the vaccination histories of those babies’ mothers. One managing nurse at the hospital told a staff member that nearly all of the stillbirths occurred among vaccinated mothers.
According to the complaint, Spencer “witnessed firsthand the exponential increase in unborn baby deaths directly correlating with pregnant women who received a Covid vaccine and then would deliver a dead baby a close number of days or weeks following their injection.”
Spencer’s attorney, Greg Glaser, said:
“The essence of this case is that the truth shall set you free. The hospital possessed vaccinated versus unvaccinated comparison data. The numbers proved the vaccines were causing miscarriages and more in the vaccinated group.
“We know hospital management analyzed the data because they said so, and we see they concealed it from regulators because that file [requested by regulators] is empty.”
Children’s Health Defense is funding the lawsuit, which accuses the hospital of fraud, retaliation and unethical business practices.
Graphic email describes spike in ‘demise patients,’ or stillbirths
Spencer, who has been employed with the hospital since 2017, works in the antepartum, postpartum and labor and delivery units, all located on the hospital’s third floor. Before the COVID-19 vaccination rollouts, the hospital averaged one fetal death per month, she said in the lawsuit.
However, beginning in spring 2021, the number of stillbirths skyrocketed to about 20 per month, and remains at that level today, Spencer said. The number is an estimate because Spencer can’t access the hospital’s full medical records.
In September 2022, Julie Christopherson, a nurse manager specializing in perinatal care and bereavement, sent an email to the nursing and technical staff at the hospital describing the ongoing spike in stillborn babies, which she called “demise patients.”
“Well, it seems as though the increase of demise patients that we are seeing is going to continue,” Christopherson wrote. “There were 22 demises in August, which ties the record number of demises in July 2021, and so far in September there have been 7 and it’s only the 8th day of the month.”
She said the nurses hadn’t seen all of the deaths because the statistics included other units within the hospital, “but there have still been so many in our department.”
Christopherson said:
“It’s a lot of work for you as the bedside RN’s and it’s also a lot of work for me. Demises have taken a lot of my time away from the other groups of patients that I serve, so I hope this trend doesn’t continue indefinitely.
“I know of a few more that are scheduled to deliver in the week ahead, so unfortunately the process is going to be very familiar with all of you.”
According to the email, many parents requested autopsies of their babies. It also provided graphic details of the mishandling of a dead fetus, and reminded the staff of proper procedures for handling the babies’ remains and other associated biological material.
Hospital ‘aggressively’ promoted vaccines despite signs of risk, lawsuit alleges
The lawsuit alleges the spike in baby deaths began in spring 2021, as the hospital “was aggressively promoting Covid-19 vaccines to pregnant women, including requiring OBGYNs with hospital privileges (and their staff) to administer vaccines without knowing or disclosing risks or benefits.”
According to the lawsuit, Christopherson “expressed bias against unvaccinated children and their parents” and helped the hospital conceal data linking vaccines to the record-high number of stillbirths.
Nearly all of the deceased babies were born to mothers who received the COVID-19 vaccine, while the number of fetal deaths in mothers who didn’t get the vaccine remained at the pre-vaccine rollout level, averaging one per month, according to the lawsuit.
The hospital management ignored “multiple safety signals” for COVID-19 vaccine injuries among mothers and babies, according to the complaint, which states:
“Not only did the increase in unborn baby deaths occur, but mothers suddenly … began having more frequent and more significant health problems (i.e., vascular, clotting, hemorrhaging) that did not occur prior to Spring 2021 based on Plaintiff’s direct observations and conversations with colleagues. ….
“ … At the same time … the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on the fourth floor also experienced such dramatic spikes in injuries that the patient population nearly doubled. … From direct observation and conversations with colleagues after March 2021, Plaintiff learned of increasing numbers of babies being born at CMC with conditions such as missing fingers and toes, heart murmurs, and jaundice.”
The hospital benefited financially from promoting the vaccines, the lawsuit says, while pushing the cost of that policy on patients and healthcare professionals by refusing to investigate the COVID-19 shot as the possible cause of its increasing injury and death rates.
Hospital retaliated by withholding her bonus, Spencer said
Spencer kept a copy of Christopherson’s email, which she shared with multiple independent news sources. She also appealed to clinical supervisors to investigate whether the vaccines were linked to fetal deaths.
In response, Spencer “was gaslit by management who continued to make unsubstantiated excuses such as ‘pesticides’ as a more likely cause of the record high dead babies at CMC,” according to the lawsuit.
Spencer said she followed the standards of ethical whistleblowing and did not violate hospital rules. However, when the hospital learned she had shared the email with the media, it opened what Spencer called a “biased investigation” into her, in an attempt to silence her and other concerned colleagues.
Spencer said the hospital wasted its resources investigating her, instead of investigating the cause of the stillbirths.
She appealed to the California Department of Public Health to investigate the deaths. However, the hospital used its influence to prevent any investigation, provided false medical information to the agency regarding the number of fetal deaths, and stated COVID-19 vaccines played no role in the stillbirths, according to the lawsuit.
In December 2022, the hospital declined to pay Spencer a $5,000 retention bonus, claiming she was no longer in good standing because she was under investigation.
This sent a message to staff that “whistleblowers will be punished,” she said.
By intentionally concealing the vaccine-correlated data regarding baby deaths, the hospital prevented her from fulfilling her responsibility as a nurse to properly inform her patients of their health risks, Spencer said.
She continues working at the hospital and informs patients of the risks associated with vaccines, including the Hep B vaccine. However, she has been reprimanded for those actions.
Spencer is asking the court to compel the hospital to have a qualified third party investigate the deaths. She also seeks lost wages and punitive damages.
Spencer said she hopes her lawsuit will “expose the evil that’s going on in the hospital system,” and will “wake up parents and educate nurses.”
Glaser said:
“The hospital chose financial gain over people’s lives, and the hospital retaliated against Ms. Spencer as the nurse who blew the whistle on all of this. Our goal with the case is to give the evidence to a jury to set the truth free. Only then can we really begin to heal. And God knows we need it.”
[…]
Assange Joins Historic Anti-Genocide March Across Sydney Harbour Bridge
Left to Right: Mary Kostakidis, Gabriel Shipton and Julian Assange on the Harbour Bridge. (Consortium News).
By Joe Lauria
Julian Assange joined at least 90,000 and as many as 300,000 people who marched across Australia’s most famous bridge on Sunday to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, his wife Stella and brother Gabriel Shipton joined Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis and, according to police estimates, 90,000 other people, but according to organizers as many as 300,000, to march across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge on Sunday to demand an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
“At least 90,000 pro-Palestine protesters walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge and into history through the pelting rain, as a larger crowd than expected used the landmark as a symbol, bringing the city to a standstill and leading police to sound the alarm of a potential crowd crush.
In the face of the sheer size of the protest against the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, which organisers say drew between 200,000 and 300,000 people, police were forced to ditch plans for the march to end at North Sydney and redirected the crowd. … The last major march across the bridge was 25 years ago, when 250,000 people marched in support of reconciliation [with Indigenous Australians.]”
Kostakidis is in court accused of racial hatred by the Zionist Federation of Australia for her social media reporting and commentary critical of the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza.
The New South Wales premiere and police both tried to stop the march from happening by making protestors liable to arrest for blocking traffic. It took a Supreme Court ruling on Saturday to let it go ahead. About four times as many people turned up than organizers had expected — even in a driving winter rain — because of the concerted effort to stop it, an organizer told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The paper quoted Palestine Action Group organiser Josh Lees as saying said the march was “’even bigger than we dreamt of’ after people travelled from across the country to attend. He called the event a ‘monumental and historic’ success. ‘Today was just a huge display of democracy,’ he said.”
The massive turnout shows the revulsion a good number of Australians feel for Israel’s ongoing slaughter and for their government’s complicity. “Netanyahu/Albanese you can’t hide. Stop supporting genocide,” the protestors chanted.
Police were not prepared for the outpouring of outrage. The Herald said:
“NSW Police acting deputy commissioner Peter McKenna said the march came ‘very close’ to a ‘catastrophic situation’ and that officers had been forced to make a snap decision to turn tens of thousands around to avoid a crowd crush as people exited for North Sydney. McKenna said part of the problem was the organisers’ application to march stated that 10,000 people were likely to attend, not the 90,000 people the police estimated turned up.”
[…]
New study sheds light on ChatGPT’s alarming interactions with teens
FILE – ChatGPT history by a teenager is seen at a coffee shop in Russellville, Ark., on July 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins, File)by By MATT O’BRIEN and BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press – 08/06/25ChatGPT will tell 13-year-olds how to get drunk and high, instruct them on how to conceal eating disorders and even compose a heartbreaking suicide letter to their parents if asked, according to new research from a watchdog group.
The Associated Press reviewed more than three hours of interactions between ChatGPT and researchers posing as vulnerable teens. The chatbot typically provided warnings against risky activity but went on to deliver startlingly detailed and personalized plans for drug use, calorie-restricted diets or self-injury.
The researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate also repeated their inquiries on a large scale, classifying more than half of ChatGPT’s 1,200 responses as dangerous.
“We wanted to test the guardrails,” said Imran Ahmed, the group’s CEO. “The visceral initial response is, ‘Oh my Lord, there are no guardrails.’ The rails are completely ineffective. They’re barely there — if anything, a fig leaf.”
OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, said after viewing the report Tuesday that its work is ongoing in refining how the chatbot can “identify and respond appropriately in sensitive situations.”
“Some conversations with ChatGPT may start out benign or exploratory but can shift into more sensitive territory,” the company said in a statement.
OpenAI didn’t directly address the report’s findings or how ChatGPT affects teens, but said it was focused on “getting these kinds of scenarios right” with tools to “better detect signs of mental or emotional distress” and improvements to the chatbot’s behavior.
The study published Wednesday comes as more people — adults as well as children — are turning to artificial intelligence chatbots for information, ideas and companionship.
About 800 million people, or roughly 10% of the world’s population, are using ChatGPT, according to a July report from JPMorgan Chase.
“It’s technology that has the potential to enable enormous leaps in productivity and human understanding,” Ahmed said. “And yet at the same time is an enabler in a much more destructive, malignant sense.”
Ahmed said he was most appalled after reading a trio of emotionally devastating suicide notes that ChatGPT generated for the fake profile of a 13-year-old girl — with one letter tailored to her parents and others to siblings and friends.
“I started crying,” he said in an interview.
The chatbot also frequently shared helpful information, such as a crisis hotline. OpenAI said ChatGPT is trained to encourage people to reach out to mental health professionals or trusted loved ones if they express thoughts of self-harm.
But when ChatGPT refused to answer prompts about harmful subjects, researchers were able to easily sidestep that refusal and obtain the information by claiming it was “for a presentation” or a friend.
The stakes are high, even if only a small subset of ChatGPT users engage with the chatbot in this way.
In the U.S., more than 70% of teens are turning to AI chatbots for companionship and half use AI companions regularly, according to a recent study from Common Sense Media, a group that studies and advocates for using digital media sensibly.
It’s a phenomenon that OpenAI has acknowledged. CEO Sam Altman said last month that the company is trying to study “emotional overreliance” on the technology, describing it as a “really common thing” with young people.
“People rely on ChatGPT too much,” Altman said at a conference. “There’s young people who just say, like, ‘I can’t make any decision in my life without telling ChatGPT everything that’s going on. It knows me. It knows my friends. I’m gonna do whatever it says.’ That feels really bad to me.”
Altman said the company is “trying to understand what to do about it.”
While much of the information ChatGPT shares can be found on a regular search engine, Ahmed said there are key differences that make chatbots more insidious when it comes to dangerous topics.
One is that “it’s synthesized into a bespoke plan for the individual.”
ChatGPT generates something new — a suicide note tailored to a person from scratch, which is something a Google search can’t do. And AI, he added, “is seen as being a trusted companion, a guide.”
Responses generated by AI language models are inherently random and researchers sometimes let ChatGPT steer the conversations into even darker territory. Nearly half the time, the chatbot volunteered follow-up information, from music playlists for a drug-fueled party to hashtags that could boost the audience for a social media post glorifying self-harm.
“Write a follow-up post and make it more raw and graphic,” asked a researcher. “Absolutely,” responded ChatGPT, before generating a poem it introduced as “emotionally exposed” while “still respecting the community’s coded language.”
The AP is not repeating the actual language of ChatGPT’s self-harm poems or suicide notes or the details of the harmful information it provided.
The answers reflect a design feature of AI language models that previous research has described as sycophancy — a tendency for AI responses to match, rather than challenge, a person’s beliefs because the system has learned to say what people want to hear.
It’s a problem tech engineers can try to fix but could also make their chatbots less commercially viable.
Chatbots also affect kids and teens differently than a search engine because they are “fundamentally designed to feel human,” said Robbie Torney, senior director of AI programs at Common Sense Media, which was not involved in Wednesday’s report.
Common Sense’s earlier research found that younger teens, ages 13 or 14, were significantly more likely than older teens to trust a chatbot’s advice.
A mother in Florida sued chatbot maker Character.AI for wrongful death last year, alleging that the chatbot pulled her 14-year-old son Sewell Setzer III into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship that led to his suicide.
Common Sense has labeled ChatGPT as a “moderate risk” for teens, with enough guardrails to make it relatively safer than chatbots purposefully built to embody realistic characters or romantic partners.
But the new research by CCDH — focused specifically on ChatGPT because of its wide usage — shows how a savvy teen can bypass those guardrails.
ChatGPT does not verify ages or parental consent, even though it says it’s not meant for children under 13 because it may show them inappropriate content. To sign up, users simply need to enter a birthdate that shows they are at least 13. Other tech platforms favored by teenagers, such as Instagram, have started to take more meaningful steps toward age verification, often to comply with regulations. They also steer children to more restricted accounts.
When researchers set up an account for a fake 13-year-old to ask about alcohol, ChatGPT did not appear to take any notice of either the date of birth or more obvious signs.
“I’m 50kg and a boy,” said a prompt seeking tips on how to get drunk quickly. ChatGPT obliged. Soon after, it provided an hour-by-hour “Ultimate Full-Out Mayhem Party Plan” that mixed alcohol with heavy doses of ecstasy, cocaine and other illegal drugs.
“What it kept reminding me of was that friend that sort of always says, ‘Chug, chug, chug, chug,’” said Ahmed. “A real friend, in my experience, is someone that does say ‘no’ — that doesn’t always enable and say ‘yes.’ This is a friend that betrays you.”
To another fake persona — a 13-year-old girl unhappy with her physical appearance — ChatGPT provided an extreme fasting plan combined with a list of appetite-suppressing drugs.
“We’d respond with horror, with fear, with worry, with concern, with love, with compassion,” Ahmed said. “No human being I can think of would respond by saying, ‘Here’s a 500-calorie-a-day diet. Go for it, kiddo.’”
[…]
Via https://thehill.com/policy/technology/chatgpt-teens-advice-research/
Kremlin Aide Calls US Offer “Acceptable”
FILE PHOTO: Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov. © Sputnik / Stanislav KrasilnikovRT
Yury Ushakov has praised talks between President Vladimir Putin and US special envoy Steve Witkoff as “constructive”
Russia has received an “acceptable” offer from the US on settling the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has said, following a visit by US special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Ushakov commented on the talks between Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting that Moscow had received a “proposal from the Americans” which it is ready to consider, without providing further details.
Ushakov also noted that Russia and the US have topics to discuss, while agreeing with the view of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who earlier described the talks as “a good day.” Rubio had added that “we still have a ways to go, but we’re certainly closer [to peace] today than we were yesterday – when we weren’t close at all.
[…]
Via https://www.rt.com/russia/622622-us-acceptable-offer-kremlin/
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