Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Seismic storm hits Italy’s Campi Flegrei super volcano with strongest earthquake in 40 years
Russia Starts Tactical Nuclear Drills Near Ukraine
Russia on Tuesday announced the start of tactical nuclear weapons drills close to Ukraine, in what it said was a response to Western "threats".
Throughout its two-year offensive on Ukraine, Moscow has repeatedly talked-up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and its readiness to deploy them if it senses an existential threat.
The West has accused President Vladimir Putin of irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling.
Russia's defence ministry said Tuesday the drills were taking place in its Southern Military District, which borders and includes parts of Ukraine that Moscow claims to have annexed. It did not specify exactly where.
The drills are designed to test "the readiness of personnel and equipment of non-strategic nuclear weapons combat units to respond and to unconditionally ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Russian state," the defence ministry said in a statement.
It added they were a "response to provocative statements and threats by certain Western officials."
Putin ordered the drills earlier this month after a series of Western statements on the Ukraine conflict drew scorn in Moscow.
Russian officials pointed to comments by French President Emmanuel Macron about NATO countries needing to not rule out deploying troops to Ukraine and British Foreign Minister David Cameron saying Kyiv had the right to fire Western missiles at Russian territory.
Russia's Southern Military District is the command centre for its offensive on Ukraine. It is headquartered in Rostov-on-Don, 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the border with Ukraine and also includes parts of the country Russia says it has annexed -- the Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The defence ministry published footage showing trucks carrying missiles to a field where launch systems were prepared and troops at an airfield readying a bomber to carry a nuclear warhead.
It said this was the "first stage" of the drills, which involved practicing the loading of launch vehicles, driving to designated launch sites and loading planes with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles.
Dutch Jewish Journalist Fears Hamas Sympathizers in Netherlands
A prominent Jewish journalist whose family suffered in the Holocaust has expressed concern about rising antisemitism in the Netherlands where Hamas sympathizers have attacked universities causing millions in damages.
Frits Barend, 77, lives in Amsterdam’s suburban city of Amstelveen where a Jewish mother was forced to flee after she was threatened because her daughter serves in the Israeli army.
There have been numerous attacks against Jews in the Netherlands in recent months, with some families now considering to leave, perhaps emigrating to Israel.
There are still some 40,000 Jews in the Netherlands as more than 100,000 were murdered in the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah.
This killing Jews at the time were Nazis and their allies. Barend, known for presenting television and radio programs, said many demonstrators nowadays are inspired by Hamas “a terrorist organization that wants nothing more than to destroy Israel and kill all Jews.”
Hamas’ focus on the extermination of Jews and Israel makes it difficult to sit down with them to talk about a peaceful solution to the war in Gaza, he told the Christians for Israel channel on video sharing site YouTube.
He explained to presenter Sara van Oordt that his mother would have been shocked to see the massive police presence around the recent National Remembrance Day ceremony.
Klaus Schwab Steps Down As World Economic Forum Executive Chairman
'You'll own nothing in retirement and be happy'...
Wit the organization he founded 50 years ago bringing in nearly $500 million in revenue in the year ending March 2023 (and sitting on a neat pile of 200 million Swiss francs cash), Klaus Schwab will own some things as he reportedly steps back from his role running the World Economic Forum has has headed since 1971.
Semafor reports that Schwab announced his intentions to step down as executive chairman in an email to staff on Tuesday that was shared with Semafor by a person connected to the organization.
The change in his role is pending approval by the Swiss government but should be finalized ahead of the WEF’s annual meeting in 2025.
Schwab, now 86, will be transitioning to a role as non-executive chairman.
But Globalists should not worry about their agenda as Semafor reports that Schwab has seeded his organization with various family members to take up the tyrannical new world order torch - Schwab’s children appointed to high-ranking positions and his wife Hilde heading the organization’s foundationand awards ceremonies in Davos.
Cases Of Malaria Increasing In The U.S.
Imported malaria cases in three southern border jurisdictions more than doubled in 2023 from the year prior, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“During January–December 2023, a total of 68 imported malaria cases were identified from reportable disease surveillance systems in Pima, Arizona (18), San Diego, California (27), and El Paso, Texas (23),” the CDC said in a May 9 report.
This is 143 percent higher than the 28 cases in 2022 when there were three in Pima, 12 in San Diego, and 13 in El Paso.
“Because malaria case counts were higher than expected, enhanced case investigations were initiated,” said the agency.
The CDC found that 15 out of 68 cases occurred among U.S. residents. Two were found in newly arrived refugees and two among travelers with unknown immigration status. The majority, 49 cases, were identified among “other newly arrived migrants,” including asylum seekers.
Imported malaria cases in 2023 increased correspondingly to the entry of asylum seekers and other “migrants” into the United States via the southern land border, the CDC said.
The agency advised healthcare professionals to “obtain a complete travel history, consider malaria among symptomatic patients with recent travel through areas where malaria is endemic, and initiate prompt testing and, if indicated, treatment.”
Out of the 68 cases, 63 were hospitalized, with almost a third experiencing severe disease. The agency noted that severe malaria was more common among “other newly arrived migrants” than among American residents. No deaths have been reported.
“Approximately 2,000 malaria cases are imported into the United States annually, mostly among U.S. residents with recent travel to areas with endemic malaria.”
Malaria used to be a leading cause of death in the United States before being eradicated in the 1950s.
Russia: Zelensky ‘hysterical’ as Ukraine loses ground
Ukraine’s request for permission to use foreign-made long-range weapons against Russia is proof that Kiev has gone into full panic mode as Moscow’s troops continue to advance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky admitted that Kiev had found itself in a “most difficult” situation on the front line due to a Russian offensive in the border Kharkov Region. He also lamented delays in Western assistance and the lack of authorization to use Western weapons against targets on Russian territory.
“We are negotiating with partners so that we can use their weapons against buildups of Russian equipment on the border and even [on] their territory… So far, there is nothing positive,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Peskov noted that the authorities in Kiev and Zelensky himself “have been making many statements in recent days, sometimes in fact slipping into hysteria. This is due to the extremely unfavorable frontline situation of the forces of the Kiev regime.”
The spokesman also said Russia would continue its military campaign in the face of what he called “inhuman shelling of civilian facilities” on its soil. “We are taking appropriate measures, as President [Vladimir Putin] has said,” he stated.
The Ultimate Bait and Switch
UN: Governments Need Digital Identity Programs To Fight Climate Change
Digital ID: A tracking system
In an article titled “Why legal identity is crucial to tackling the climate crisis,” UNDP officials made the case for why digital identity is a key weapon against climate change. If governments assign digital identities to citizens, they explained, authorities can track populations more easily in an environmental disaster.
The UNDP further argued that countries which roll out digital identity programs will have more data about their taxpayers that can then be used in an emergency. Governments should know the income and health status of every taxpayer, as well as their education level. This would help authorities have a more “targeted response” to citizens during, for example, a weather disaster, according to the world body.
Digital ID: A way to ‘change behaviors’
But digital identity is not only for tracking taxpayer movements and backgrounds. It can also be used to track how much energy taxpayers are consuming, says the UNDP. Once a government has this data, it can force citizens to change their energy consumption habits, or what the UNDP calls “inspiring behavior change.”
“Leveraging digital legal ID data to track energy consumption, inspire behaviour change, and enhance sustainability measures can mitigate climate-related disasters,” the UNDP officials wrote.
This push for digital ID, however, is not a new one. The UN has had a years-long objective to ensure that every person is assigned a digital ID. One of the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to register all children under five with digital legal identities.
Digital ID: A tracking system
In an article titled “Why legal identity is crucial to tackling the climate crisis,” UNDP officials made the case for why digital identity is a key weapon against climate change. If governments assign digital identities to citizens, they explained, authorities can track populations more easily in an environmental disaster.
The UNDP further argued that countries which roll out digital identity programs will have more data about their taxpayers that can then be used in an emergency. Governments should know the income and health status of every taxpayer, as well as their education level. This would help authorities have a more “targeted response” to citizens during, for example, a weather disaster, according to the world body.
Digital ID: A way to ‘change behaviors’
But digital identity is not only for tracking taxpayer movements and backgrounds. It can also be used to track how much energy taxpayers are consuming, says the UNDP. Once a government has this data, it can force citizens to change their energy consumption habits, or what the UNDP calls “inspiring behavior change.”
“Leveraging digital legal ID data to track energy consumption, inspire behaviour change, and enhance sustainability measures can mitigate climate-related disasters,” the UNDP officials wrote.
This push for digital ID, however, is not a new one. The UN has had a years-long objective to ensure that every person is assigned a digital ID. One of the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to register all children under five with digital legal identities.
Digital ID: The center of a taxpayer's life
According to the UN’s vision, each individual’s digital identity will be tied to other aspects of his or her life, creating a kind of digital web. At the center of this web would be the ID, which would be accessible to government authorities.
Frontline News learned last year, for example, that GAVI, a UN-sponsored vaccination body, began pilot testing a program in Ghana that immediately registers the biometric data of every newborn. At birth, infants’ fingerprints are scanned, as are the voices of their parents or caregivers. These data are used to create digital identities that track each baby’s vaccinations and allow him or her to receive government benefits.
In May 2023, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for universal welfare, which he said governments should distribute to citizens according to their digital IDs. Those IDs, he explained, should be linked to private bank accounts:
Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries. Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design of social protection programmes.
Digital ID: Surveillance State
But the concept raises concern among opponents of digital ID, which is known as the successor to vaccine passports. Critics say that digital ID increases the probability of government surveillance and totalitarian overreach. For example, while a government can use a taxpayer’s digital ID to deposit money, it could also use it to lock their bank account if they haven’t paid their carbon taxes, another proposed reform by Guterres.