Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 440
March 28, 2023
Ebola Likely Leaked from a Lab as Well
Dr Mercola
Story at-a-glanceIn December 2013, Zaire Ebola hemorrhagic fever broke out in Guinea and over the next three years spread across West Africa, ultimately killing 11,323 people. It was the largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak in historyAccording to a paper published at the end of December 2014, the Ebola epidemic was traced back to a 2-year-old boy in Meliandou, Guinea. Supposedly, the boy had come in contact with an infected fruit bat in a hollowed-out tree. However, no Ebolavirus was ever detected in any of the bat samples collected from the areaThe senior author on that 2014 paper was Fabian Leendertz, a renowned virus hunter with the Robert Koch Institute in Germany. Leendertz was also a member of the World Health Organization team that investigated the origin of COVID-19, concluding without evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was of zoonotic originIn late October 2022, Sam Husseini and Jonathan Latham, Ph.D., published a new analysis, in which they highlighted the holes in the zoonotic origin narrative and laid out the evidence pointing to a lab leakCuriously, many of the same individuals, companies and organizations involved in the Ebola epidemic have also been linked to the alleged creation of SARS-CoV-2In December 2013, Zaire Ebola hemorrhagic fever broke out in Guinea and over the next three years spread across West Africa, ultimately killing 11,323 people.1 While Ebola epidemics occur on a near-annual basis, this was the largest and deadliest in history.2
Of the five Ebola viruses known to cause disease in humans, Zaire Ebolavirus, first identified in Zaire in 1976, is the most dangerous, with a fatality rate ranging between 53% and 88%,3 depending on the variant.
[…]
The Virus Hunter That Assigned Zoonotic OriginAccording to a paper4 published at the end of December 2014, the Ebola epidemic was traced back to a 2-year-old boy in Meliandou, Guinea, named Emile Ouamouno. Supposedly, the boy had come in contact with an infected fruit bat in a hollowed-out tree.
This, even though no Ebolavirus RNA was ever detected in any of the bat samples collected from the area. Interestingly enough, the senior author on that paper was Fabian Leendertz, a renowned virus hunter with the Robert Koch Institute in Germany.
Leendertz was also a member of the World Health Organization team that investigated the origin of COVID-19.5 As you may recall, they also concluded, without evidence, that SARS-CoV-2 was most likely of zoonotic origin and dismissed the lab leak theory as not worthy of further consideration.
Lab Leak Suspected From the StartHowever, just as with SARS-CoV-2, suspicions and rumors that the Ebola outbreak was the result of a lab leak were present from the start. Some scientists even suspected the virus might be a weaponized form of Ebola.
[…]
In late October 2022, Sam Husseini and Jonathan Latham, Ph.D., published a new analysis7,8,9 in Independent Science News, in which they laid out the evidence pointing to a lab leak. They also dissect Leendertz December 2014 report, highlighting the holes in the zoonotic origin narrative. In fact, there’s evidence to suggest the outbreak in in Meliandou wasn’t Ebola at all. H
[…]Was Ebola Experimented On Before the Outbreak?As detailed by Husseini and Latham,12 “persistent rumors in the region linked the outbreak to a US-run research laboratory in Kenema, Sierra Leone.13 This facility studies viral hemorrhagic diseases, of which Ebola is one.”
The Kenema lab, which has been run by the U.S.-based Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium (VHFC) since 2010, is located about 50 miles from the village in Guinea where the Ebola outbreak first emerged.14
The founder and president of the VHFC is Robert (Bob) Garry, who was also part of the group of virologists who in the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic concocted “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” paper15 in which they dismissed the lab leak theory and insisted zoonotic origin was the most plausible, despite the lack of evidence.16
As recently as November 2022, Garry still insisted SARS-CoV-2 “emerged via the wildlife trade.”17 In that same article, Garry drew parallels to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, claiming that conspiracy pundits were wrong about Ebola being leaked from the Kenema lab, because “we did not have EBOV [ebolavirus] in our laboratory and therefore could not have released or engineered it.”
According to Garry, the Ebola and SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks are both victims of “guilt-by-proximity.” However, in a March 11, 2023, interview on the Decoding the Gurus podcast, Kristian Andersen, vice president of the VHFC’s Kenema lab18 and another “Proximal Origin” author, clearly refuted Garry’s claim:19
[…]
So, what do we make of this? Garry claims the Kenema lab didn’t have any Ebola virus and Andersen says they did. Both are top executives at the lab and ought to know what was studied and what wasn’t. So, who’s telling the truth?
Was Kenema Lab Involved in Biowarfare Work?According to Husseini and Latham,20 there’s good reason to believe the Kenema lab was working with Ebola before the outbreak in Guinea, some 50 miles from the lab. For starters, the Guinea outbreak was the first time Zaire Ebola emerged in West Africa. All previous outbreaks of this most-lethal strain of Ebola occurred in the Congo basin, in the central African equatorial zone, some 3,000 kilometers (approximately 1,864 miles) from Guinea.
“Hence Zaire Ebola’s appearance in West Africa was a striking and very unexpected development,” they write. How did it get there? Ebola is not highly contagious as transmission typically requires direct contact.
[…]
Zaire Ebola is also the preferred species used by research labs studying Ebola-type viruses, as it’s the most lethal and therefore has the greatest biowarfare potential.
[…]
More Biowarfare Connections and Ebola TrialsHusseini and Latham point out that in 2014, when the Ebola outbreak occurred, Metabiota was a VHFC partner. As detailed in “Evidence of Pandemic and Bioweapon Cover-Ups,” Metabiota was hired by the WHO and the local government of Sierra Leone to monitor the spread of the Ebola epidemic, but clearly were not up to the task. A 2016 CBS News report detailed Metabiota’s bungled response.30
2014 was also the year when Metabiota was entrusted with the operations of U.S. biological research labs in Ukraine, with funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and:31,32
Pilot Growth Management, cofounded by Neil Callahan. Callahan is also a cofounder of Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, and he sits on Metabiota’s board of advisersIn-Q-Tel, a CIA venture capital firm that specializes in high-tech investments that support or benefit the intelligence capacity of U.S. intelligence agenciesRosemont Seneca,33 an investment fund co-managed by Hunter Biden34Metabiota’s founder, Nathan Wolfe, is also tied to EcoHealth president Peter Daszak, Ph.D., a prime suspect in the COVID pandemic who worked closely with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China, where SARS-CoV-2 is suspected of having originated. Wolfe has also received more than $20 million in research grants from Google, the NIH and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, just to name a few.
Of all the scientists, companies and organizations involved in this kind of research across the world, how is it that the same short list of names pop up both in the Guinea Ebola case and COVID-19?Aside from the Kenema lab’s obvious biowarfare connections, and the possibility of Ebola being experimented on there, several Ebola treatment trials were also taking place in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, about 190 km (118 miles) from Kenema, right around the same time that Ebola broke out in Guinea.
[…]
Biosafety Is Lax at Kenema LabLatham and Husseini also review the lackadaisical approach to biosafety at the Kenema lab, despite working with extremely dangerous pathogens:36
[…]
Another oddity that doesn’t fit the nature of a natural outbreak was the fact that hotspots were broadly spread out. There was no epicenter. Moreover, according to WHO Ebola coordinator Philippe Barboza, Metabiota staffers were “systematically obstructing any attempt to improve the existing surveillance system.” MSF also complained they got no cooperation from Kenema.
[…]
Genomic TestingLatham and Husseini then delve into the genomic testing results, which suggest there was a “hidden” or unreported outbreak in Sierra Leone, which only later spread into Guinea. That doesn’t prove it came out of a lab in Sierra Leone, however. But unique features in the Makona strain of Ebola that caused the Guinea outbreak suggest the virus may have undergone some form of manipulation.
[…]
Via https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2023/03/28/ebola-lab-leak.aspx/
French Keep on Protesting Despite Police Brutality
During the tenth day of protest against the Macron’s pension reform, the spirits of the French continue to burn throughout the country.
Telesur
On Tuesday, thousands of French citizens continued to stage protests against the pension reform proposal that President Emmanuel Macron persists in imposing by force.
“France is not ruled by sticks… As most people say, this is all madness,” said Senator Jean-Luc Melenchon, who is also the historical leader of the leftist organization “Unsubmissive France.”
He made reference to the refusal of the Macron administration to accept the “mediation” proposed by the leader of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), Laurent Berger, who seeks a dialogue to “find a way out” of the prevailing social crisis.
“Making proposals was useful… However, this government wants nothing except to force its bill,” Melenchon recalled and mentioned Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
“Her attitude leaves us with only one possibility and slogan: ‘Let her go!,’ the Unsubmissive France leader concluded.
[…]
During the tenth day of protest against the Macron’s pension reform, the spirits of the French continue to burn throughout the country.
On Tuesday morning, the police violently attacked a citizens’ march in Nantes, which sparked a spiral of indignation that left a bank branch on fire and attacks on an administrative court.
In Rennes, where some 22,000 people took to the streets, the first clashes with the police appeared at the beginning of the afternoon after a relatively calm morning.
The police used a water cannon and tear gas against the French, who improvised umbrellas and shields during their march. People set street furniture on fire and threw stones at the police.
France will live a new day of protests called by the main unions of the country against the pension reform promoted by President Emmanuel Macron. pic.twitter.com/YoOeqvOjMB
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) March 23, 2023
[…]
The History of US Great Plains Natives
Episode 22: Late Period Cultures of the Great Plains
Ancient Civilizations of North America
Dr Edwin Barnhart (2018)
Film Review
Most conceptions of Plains natives come from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows. Between 1883-1913, Buffalo Bill took thousands of shows across the US and did three tours of Europe. He performed at Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Many of the performers belonged to the Olgala/Dakota tribes. For a few months, even Sitting Bull participated.
At present Buffalo Bill is seen as an exploiter. At the time, he was viewed as a champion of native and women’s rights.
The Great Plains is 1.1 million square miles, stretching from Canada to Texas and from the Rockies to the Mississippi River. The western half is too dry for farming but produces abundant grass for bison. The eastern half, which has major rivers and fertile valleys, resulted semi-permanent agricultural villages.
The Great Plains is divided into five regions:
The Northwestern Plains (low rainfall territory east of the Rocky mountains from western Canada to Texas)
The area is associated with thousands of years of hunting of both modern bison and bison antiquus. Head Smashed In in Alberta was a bison jump site for 5,500 years starting in 6000 BP. Bonfire Shelter Teas was a bison jump site from 9,700 – 800 BC. During the mid-Archaic period (around 1 AD), native hunters began herding bison into corals and killing a smaller number with atlatl spears.
The bow and arrow arrived on the Northwestern Plans around 550 AD. Effective at a longer range, it was safer (ie the animal was less likely to charge) and the shooter could fire from a variety of positions.
It was here the Spanish explorer Coronado first made contact with Great Plains natives in 1541. He found them living in round grass dwellings and seasonally farming and hunting bison. During hunting season, they lived in tents made of bison hide and hunted with large packs of domesticated dogs. Coronado left a few horses in Quivera.
In 1560 the Apache were the first natives to master horseback riding. They used horses to wage war and raid the farming villages of their neighbors (Commanche, Ute and Caddo). Horses also allowed them to track bison for hundreds of miles.
When Juan de Onato visited the Northwest Plains in 1631, he found teepees and teams of 20 or more dogs trained to haul sleds with 50-100 loads between camps.
In the 1700s, European fur traders introduced guns into the region and pitted Northwestern Plains tribes against each other.
The Middle Missouri Valley (includes eastern North and South Dakota, western Iowa and Missouri)
This area incorporated hundreds of mid-size farming villages along 800 miles of the Missouri River.
The Central Plains in eastern Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska,
Comprised of both agricultural villages and bison hunters, this area comprised the valleys along the Missouri, Loup, Platte, Republican Arkansas and Red Rivers. All were full of both agricultural villages and bison hunters/ Around 1250 AD, people of the Central Plains began replacing their rectangular earth homes with circular ones.
The Southern Plains (in wetter regions Oklahoma and Texas)
These tribes were heavily influenced by Pueblo neighbors.
The Northeast Periphery (tall grass prairie lands of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, eastern Iowa and Central Canada)
Divided into northern Sioux speakers and southern Caddoan speakers, this area flourished around the time of the Hopewell culture east of the Mississippi (500 AD).* The first houses on the plains appeared here, showing clear Hopewell and Woodland influences (with rectangular houses, burial mounts and stone pipes and pottery). Peoples were semi-sedentary and went on bison hunts every winter and went camping in the mountains every summer to hunt small game and collect fire wood. Farming hoes made of bison scapulas found in every Northeastern Periphery village.
Between 700-1000 AD, village life was greatly expanded with the spread of corn farming from the Mississippian civilization. Originally a tropical plant which only grew as far north, corn agriculture was concentrated among the southern Caddoan speakers. The northern Sioux speakers were more dependent on bison.
*See When Hopewell Culture Covered Entire Eastern US
Can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5713021/5712782
March 27, 2023
Will Pakistan Support US Mercenary’s Plot To Recruit Afghan Refugees As Fighters For Kiev?
By Andrew Korybko
Former construction worker-turned-mercenary Ryan Routh brazenly told the New York Times about his plan to purchase passports from Pakistan for facilitating the travel of Afghan refugees to Ukraine as fighters in its “International Legion”.
The New York Times’ (NYT) damning report about “Stolen Valor: The U.S. Volunteers in Ukraine Who Lie, Waste and Bicker” contained an intriguing detail that most readers might have missed regarding a US mercenary’s plot to recruit Pakistani-based Afghan refugees as fighters for Kiev. Former construction worker-turned-mercenary Ryan Routh brazenly told them about his plan to purchase passports from that country in order to facilitate this. Here’s the relevant excerpt from their report:
“With Legion growth stalling, Ryan Routh, a former construction worker from Greensboro, N.C., is seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. Mr. Routh, who spent several months in Ukraine last year, said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest. ‘We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,’ he said in an interview from Washington.”
The reason why he’s resorting to illegal means for getting those refugees to Kiev is because that former Soviet Republic’s authorities have thus far refused to grant visas to any Afghan fighters. Routh said in a separate interview earlier this month that “Most of the Ukrainian authorities do not want these soldiers. I have had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa.”
Pakistan is already suspected of indirectly arming Kiev against Russia at the behest of its American overlord so the precedent is established for suspecting that it could support Routh’s plot. The fascist post-modern coup regime might therefore very well end up doing this despite Ukraine literally being against it if their shared US patron signals its approval, which is why it’s incumbent on Islamabad to issue a statement in response to the NYT’s latest report so as to urgently clarify this scandalous matter.
Remaining silent after one of the world’s leading Mainstream Media (MSM) outlets informed millions of people about this plan comes off as extremely suspicious. While it’s possible that Pakistan can still end up supporting Routh’s proposal even if it publicly denies any interest in doing so, its leadership should at least understand the soft power importance of reacting to this. The very fact that they haven’t suggests that they’re either not monitoring the media or could care less what the rest of the world thinks.
Either way, Pakistan’s silence is worthy of suspicion. Russia should consider raising the issue, whether directly via its diplomats or indirectly through the media, in order to prompt its non-traditional partner to say something about this scenario. If Islamabad goes along with Routh’s plot to let him purchase passports for those Afghan refugees who are interested in fighting for Kiev as mercenaries, then it would represent the latest instance of Pakistan’s “mission creep” in the NATO-Russian proxy war.
[…]
Via https://korybko.substack.com/p/will-pakistan-support-a-us-mercenarys
Jabbed pilots’ roll call of death and injuries
By Sally BeckTCW
‘MAYDAY! Mayday!’ is something no airline pilot wants to say, and no passenger wants to hear, but this month Virgin Australia, Emirates, United and Southwest airlines have all turned back aircraft or made emergency landings because air crew have suffered serious health incidents. A British Airways pilot died of a heart attack just before he was due to fly a plane from Egypt.
Here’s the timeline:
· March 3: Virgin Australia crew received a memo describing why flight VARA A320 from Adelaide to Perth returned 30 minutes into the journey: ‘The First Officer [co-pilot] became unwell. A return to Adelaide was considered the best course of action by the captain.’
· March 11: United flight 2007 from Guatemala to Chicago was diverted because the captain had chest pains, landing at George Bush airport in Houston.
· March 12: It is reported that a British Airways pilot collapsed and died in a hotel in Cairo, Egypt, shortly before he was due to fly.
· March 13: Emirates flight EK205 from Milan turned back because the co-pilot felt unwell 90 minutes after take-off.
· March 22: Josh Yoder, President of US Freedom Flyers, an organisation fighting vaccine mandates for airline staff, tweeted: ‘On a Southwest flight departing Las Vegas, the captain became incapacitated soon after take-off. He was replaced by a non-Southwest pilot who was commuting on that flight.’
According to pilot and medical aviation doctor Jackie Stone, airline pilots have Class One medical clearance. This means they are extremely fit and extremely healthy, with less than a 1 per cent chance per year of having a medical incident that could immobilise them. They receive extensive annual medicals and are grounded if an incapacitating condition is picked up.
This makes the above highly unusual, and the favourite explanation for this increase is vaccine injury. Especially as we now know vaccines can cause myocarditis, heart inflammation which can cause heart attacks, and blood clots, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes, although authorities claim these are ‘rare’.
Glen Waters, a member of Aussie Freedom Flyers, a group fighting aviation vaccine mandates, is a former captain with Virgin Australia whose career was terminated on its twentieth anniversary for refusing the Covid jab. He said: ‘Injuries in aviation following Covid-19 vaccination are occurring and data is not being vigilantly collected or reported. We have a growing list of anecdotal post-vaccination injury reports from pilots, and other staff, across the airline industry.’
Captain Lee Maisey, who worked for Jetstar, New Zealand (owned by Qantas), was fired after 13 years for not being fully vaccinated. She not only suffered vaccine injury but felt her employer was unsympathetic. She said: ‘In November 2021, I reluctantly took a first dose of Pfizer vaccine because I was threatened with being fired. Ten days later I was walking on the beach when my feet went a funny colour, then my legs started going numb and tingly. By the end of the day both arms and both legs were just fizzing.
‘My heart would miss beats and I’d have palpitations.
‘Then came the insomnia. I lay down in bed and my eyes just didn’t shut. It was like that all night. I found out later that this is a side-effect of the vaccine.
‘I told my bosses at Jetstar what was happening. They were not sympathetic. They arranged for me to speak with an aviation medical doctor over the phone. His response to my side-effects was “Yes, that’s normal.”
‘The second was the head of medical. I spent over two hours on the phone, and I was particularly worried about the insomnia. On any other occasion that would be enough to pull my medical [clearance to fly]. I asked her if this would happen, and she said: “It’s up to you.” Which I found remarkable.’
International airline pilot Brit Malone (not his real name) was injured by the AstraZeneca vaccine, not recommended by the FAA but available to pilots outside the US. He was advised not to have another AZ vaccine, but his airline then insisted he get a dose of Pfizer so that he had received the recommended two doses.
Mr Malone said: ‘I succumbed to pressure and had the first dose of AstraZeneca. While I was flying, I was aware of this pain forming in my leg. I didn’t pay too much attention, I go to the gym a lot and thought I’d pulled a muscle.
‘I woke up one morning and found a blue line up the inside of my leg. It was a blood clot. I was off work for three months on blood thinners. It’s been confirmed by a number of specialists that it was vaccine-related.’ Mr Malone has since been diagnosed with cancer and has a 17cm tumour in his liver.
Josh Yoder of US Freedom Flyers said:
‘To ensure passenger safety the pilot medical should be updated to include d-dimer tests, which pick up blood clots, and troponin tests, which measure troponin proteins released when the heart muscle has been damaged.’
Many airlines mandated Covid-19 vaccines even though pilots are not allowed to take part in drug trials and are allowed to receive only approved medication which has been in general use for a minimum of 12 months. The Covid vaccines were, and are still, experimental and we are currently in phase four trials, so pilots should have been exempt.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s recommendations are followed globally by all aviation governing bodies. The FAA website says: ‘The FAA generally requires at least one year of post-marketing experience with a new drug before consideration for aeromedical certification purposes. This observation period allows time for uncommon, but aeromedically significant, adverse effects to manifest themselves.’
Some airlines, especially in Australia and New Zealand, simply sacked pilots refusing to have a Covid vaccination with the result that those still in service and suffering health conditions potentially caused by the jab are trying to hide it. Glen Waters said: ‘The most worrying is flight deck crew failing to disclose medically significant conditions for fear of losing their pilot’s licence.’
Airlines are aware that Covid vaccinations are being questioned for causing serious adverse events but have chosen to ignore all safety signals.
Dr Kate Manderson, the principal medical officer of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), says she has no concerns about Covid vaccinations although she is aware of the case of American Airlines pilot Bob Snow, who suffered a heart attack last year, six minutes after landing his plane in Dallas, Texas. Citizen journalist and entrepreneur Steve Kirsch talked directly to Susan Northrup, who is the Federal Air Surgeon for the FAA, the top medical officer. She has never talked to Snow either although Kirsch provided her with Snow’s phone number. Bob Snow says that he has never been contacted by any authority for information about his vaccine-induced heart attack.
In June 2021, I reported that four British Airways pilots had died unexpectedly but BA refused to confirm or deny whether vaccines were implicated.
Fed up with negotiating with their airlines, pilots are fighting back. Qantas pilot Alan Dana, who set up Aussie Freedom Flyers, and former Virgin Australia captain Shane Murdock have launched a legal action on behalf of pilots, engineers, ground staff, and cabin crew, against Qantas and Virgin for breach of contract and unfair dismissal. They say aviation staff cannot be legally injected if they are being coerced, while both airlines argue this is not the case.
[…]
Via https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/jabbed-pilots-roll-call-of-death-and-injuries/
Major update out of France! With now over 3.5 million people on the streets, the police are now getting crushed and retreating. Cops dragging unconscious and dead police out of action
Major update out of France!!
With now over 3.5 million people on the streets, the police are now getting crushed and retreating. Cops dragging unconscious and dead police out of action.
This is turning into a true civil war and the tide is turning in our favour… pic.twitter.com/ENVNmVkGDV
— dana (@dana916) March 26, 2023
Largest Protests in Israeli History as 1000s Take to Street
Protesters at in central Tel Aviv demonstration, on Saturday. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum. Image source.
Zero Hedge
Update (2045ET): Massive protests have erupted across Israel tonight after PM Netanyhau fired his Defense Minister, a day after he called on the Israeli leader to halt a planned judicial overhaul that has fiercely divided the country.
As a reminder, Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies. But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition.
Gallant’s dismissal signaled that Netanyahu will move ahead this week with the overhaul plan, which has sparked mass protests, angered military and business leaders and raised concerns among Israel’s allies.
“The country is facing the greatest danger since the Yom Kippur War,” writes former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“I call on the prime minister to withdraw Galant’s dismissal letter, suspend the reform and begin negotiations until after the Day of Independence.
Israel’s Consul General has resigned.
[…]
#BREAKING The police chief of the Tel Aviv district joined the demonstrations against Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/YoAr3qJO3S
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 26, 2023
[…]
Haaretz reports that amid the unprecedented protests that erupted in Israel on Sunday night, several Likud lawmakers and ministers call to stop the highly controversial legislative process of Netanyahu’s judicial reform.
Additionally, as Nadav Eyal notes, for the first time in history, Israel’s main union, as well as leaders from the banks and the entire business sector, are about to declare a general strike demanding that the government stop the plan to overhaul the judicial system.
Will there be a military coup in Israel?
Mutiny in the Israeli army following Netanyahu's decision to fire the defense minister — Barak David
— Iran Observer (@Iranobserver01) March 26, 2023
[…]
Transport Workers’ Strike Paralyzes Germany
German workers on strike, March 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @1WhiteRabbitt
Newsletter“The Federal government and local authorities have categorically rejected a socially balanced collective agreement,” the Verdi leader Werneke revealed.
On Monday, Germany’s largest transport unions, the Berlin-based United Services Trade Union (Verdi) and the Railway & Transport Union (EVG), began a 24-hour strike while negotiations for a wage increase are underway.
Shortly after midnight, train, bus, and airplane services were completely paralyzed at the national level. German workers are demanding wage increases of over 10 percent in order to recover the purchasing power lost in recent years.
According to EVG, over 30,000 workers from some 350 towns joined the ongoing strike, which has managed to paralyze the population’s mass transport.
“Until now, the Federal government and local authorities have categorically rejected a socially balanced collective agreement,” the Verdi leader Frank Werneke revealed.
Strike in Germany pic.twitter.com/C2BnqiO25z
— Jose Nicolas Gasque (@NicoGasque) March 27, 2023
“That is why we now take the initiative. It is better to send a strong signal now than to have weeks of labor disputes with the corresponding consequences,” he added.
“Despite many workers’ difficult financial situation, we are on strike because we were not offered anything that we could seriously negotiate on,” the EVG Collective Bargaining Director Kristian Loroch said.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for responsibility from employers and unions to reach “good solutions” before the start of the third round of talks for a collective agreement involving 2.5 million public service employees.
[…]
Via https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Transport-Workers-Strike-Paralyzes-Germany-20230327-0008.html
March 26, 2023
Some Birth Control Pills Increase Risk Of Breast Cancer By Up To 30%
Peter Dezeley via Getty Images Amanda Prestigiacoma
Daily Wire
Hormonal contraceptives come with an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford.
The study, published in PLOS Medicine on Tuesday, showed an increased risk of around 20-30% in breast cancer linked to current or even recent use of hormonal birth control pills, including combined oestrogen and progestogen birth control pills and progestagen-only contraceptives.
The study’s abstract said the findings show that “current or recent use of progestagen-only contraceptives is associated with a slight increase in breast cancer risk,” which is “similar in magnitude to that associated with combined hormonal contraceptives.” Notably, progestagen-only contraceptive use has substantially increased in recent years.
Researchers also found that the risk of breast cancer in pre-menopausal women taking these forms of birth control increased with age. “Given that the underlying risk of breast cancer increases with advancing age, the absolute excess risk associated with use of either type of oral contraceptive is estimated to be smaller in women who use it at younger rather than at older ages,” the paper said.
The new findings, combined with past research on hormonal contraceptives, “suggest that the 15-year absolute excess risk of breast cancer associated with use of oral contraceptives ranges from 8 per 100,000 users for use from age 16 to 20 to about 265 per 100,000 users for use from age 35 to 39.”
This heightened risk is found to gradually decrease in the years after women stop taking the contraceptives.
[…]
How Zelensky was Prevented From Making Peace in the Donbas
By Felix Abt
Covert Action Magazine
There are two Volodymyr Zelenskys: the one we have known since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, who has since been celebrated every day in the Western media as a hero with a spotless white (or green) vest; the other, who was less well-known prior to this significant escalation of the war, which, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, began in 2014. (Here are details on the actual start of this war in 2014).
After all, prominent British, German and other European media already referred to the “Panama” or ”Pandora Papers” to describe the “former” Zelensky, who was not yet the illustrious governor of the American empire, as being highly corrupt. His hero status may abruptly end though, if and when Washington decides that he is no longer useful (e.g., when war results do not meet expectations despite massive NATO support and involvement) and the media start digging for dirt on him again. Wanna bet?
What the same media bubble fails to mention, however, is that Zelensky was elected to office with a large majority of the votes, with massive financial support from the richest Ukrainian oligarch at the time (who had stolen huge sums of money and was therefore banned from entering the United States) and with the promise of bringing peace to the Donbas. It may surprise you—but he actually tried.
Zelensky’s original peace missionHis plan probably also had to do with the fact that he, the president of Jewish faith and Russian mother tongue, himself belonged to the minority. He learned fluent Ukrainian only late, when it became politically unavoidable for him.
Long before he became president, he had campaigned as a comedian against discrimination of the Russian-speaking minority. For example, in a 2014 television appearance, he declared, “In the east and in Crimea, people want to speak Russian. Leave them alone, just leave them alone. Give them the right to speak Russian. Language should never divide our country….We have the same skin color, the same blood, regardless of language.” When he took the highest office in the country, he tried to implement his election promise.
However, this was a Herculean task in view of the very strong ultra-nationalist forces and the “fascists who overran the country”” (according to the Jerusalem Post) who opposed his peace mission. The influence of these circles was (and is) so great that, from schoolchildren to senior citizens, all western Ukrainians were processed to hate Ukrainian citizens of Russian descent and to believe that it is good to slaughter them. Even in schools, students were goaded by their teachers to use slogans like these against Russian-speaking Ukrainians: “Hang the Muscovites,” “Put the Russians on the pyre,” and “Drink the blood of Russian babies!”
Peaceful co-existence instead of final victoryZelensky could only have achieved peaceful co-existence between western and eastern Ukraine if he had been permitted to negotiate as he originally desired with Russia and with representatives of the largely Russian-speaking Donbas. He also needed the backing of his supporters in Washington because the radicals leading the fighting in eastern Ukraine threatened him and said they would only accept a “final victory” over the Donbas.
But they did not want him to negotiate with Russia—and thus strengthened the position of the extremists. The western Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and even told Zelensky that he would sign his own death warrant if he talked to Putin, so the only result in the end was war. We currently experience that in Ukraine, and there is no end in sight.
In addition to the threat to his life, Zelensky faced direct obstacles to his peace mandate on several frontsZelensky was met by irate members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who protested under the banner “No to surrender” when he traveled to the Donbas in October 2019 to campaign in Russian-speaking rebel-held areas. Zelensky argued with a soldier from the Azov Battalion about the president’s demand for a troop withdrawal in a videotaped exchange. “I am the president of this country. I am 41 years old. I am not a loser. I came to you and told you: withdraw your weapons,” Zelensky pleaded.
Despite his personal appearance on the ground, Zelensky encountered even further resistance: The same far-right forces set up an armed checkpoint to prevent or at least delay a withdrawal of the Ukrainian military. Thousands of far-right and nationalist demonstrators, cheered by the liberal intelligentsia and carrying flares, also marched in Kyiv.
Suffering in Donbas acknowledged by Zelensky, censored by Western mediaKatharine Quinn-Judge of the International Crisis Group explained that Zelensky’s ex-press secretary, Yulia Mendel, acknowledged the suffering in the Donbas because “Zelensky had promised during the election campaign to treat the residents of the Russian-backed enclaves as full Ukrainians”—a misstep for the U.S.-favored far-right nationalists, who oppose equal rights for all Ukrainians.
Yet journalists in European countries are intimidated and prevented from reporting on Ukrainian terror and suffering in the Donbass by being defamed, losing their jobs, and even threatened with imprisonment. This explains why Europeans are generally unaware of the years of violence that the Ukrainian military and neo-fascist groups have inflicted on the population in the Donbas.
Moreover, the political and media elites in the West do not care that dissent and freedom of the press are suppressed in Ukraine. The few independent journalists who dare to report on the situation in the Donbas, where the Russian-speaking majority has been targeted by Ukrainian forces since 2014, bother them all the more.
After German journalist Patrik Baab dared to report from the Donbas, German universities and media accused him of ”legitimizing Putin’s war of aggression with his mere presence.” As a result, he lost his job as a lecturer at the University for Media, Communication and Economics in Berlin.
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The Most Revolutionary Act
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