Peckford 42

Shiraz University head says students who who are expelled over their actions during recent protests are welcome to continue their studies at his institution.

The head of an Iranian university offered students expelled from American colleges while participating in the recent anti-Israel protests that have rocked campuses across the US in recent weeks free tuition to come to Iran and enroll at his school.

Mohammad Moazzeni, the head of Shiraz University in the Fars region, made the offer in an interview with the state-owned Press TV.

“Students and even professors who have been expelled or threatened with expulsion can continue their studies at Shiraz University and I think that other universities in Shiraz, as well as Fars Province, are also prepared,” Moazzeni said.

Earlier this week, the NYPD arrested more than 280 people at anti-Israel protests at Columbia University and City College of New York.

Protesters at Columbia broke into and occupied a hall on campus early Tuesday morning.

The recent waves of protests began a little over two weeks ago when anti-Israel protesters set up a tent encampment on the Columbia campus. Similar protest encampments spread to campuses across the country over the next two weeks.

These anti-Israel protests have become hotbeds of antisemitism and support for Hamas terrorists.

Several universities, including Columbia, have threatened to suspend students who violate campus policy in the course of the protests.

[…]

Via https://peckford42.wordpress.com/2024/05/02/iranian-university-head-offers-free-tuition-to-us-protesters-who-get-expelled/

Eric Toussaint

The five founding member countries of the BRICS, [1] created in 2011, are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They account for 27% of global GDP, 20% of global exports, 20% of global oil production and 41% of the world’s population.

Furthermore, at the summit in August 2023, it was announced that the BRICS group would be enlarged, and the acronym of the enlarged group changed to BRICS+. Six more countries were to join: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran and Argentina. Finally, following the election of Javier Milei in November 2023, Argentina withdrew. If we add the five new members to calculate the weight of the BRICS+, the big change compared with the previous situation concerns oil production. The BRICS+ accounts for 42% of world oil production and 51% of greenhouse gas emissions. A few more figures: the BRICS+ account for 29% of world GDP, 25% of world exports and 45% of the world’s population.

•  There has been talk for years about the possibility of the BRICS launching a new currency. What’s the latest?

Despite hopes that such a measure will be on the agenda of the next BRICS summit, to be held in 2024 in Kazan (capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, part of the Russian Federation) under the Russian presidency of Vladimir Putin, the creation of a common BRICS currency was not included in the final declaration adopted at the BRICS summit held in August 2023 in South Africa. [2] It is true that in his closing speech at the summit, the Brazilian President announced that the BRICS had spoken in favour of a “working group to study a reference currency for BRICS.” [3] He also declared, “the creation of a currency for trade and investment transactions between BRICS members increases our payment options and reduces our vulnerabilities.” [4]

The Brazilian economist Paulo Nogueira Batista, who represented Brazil at the IMF from 2007 to 2015 under President Lula, and who was then vice-president of the New Development Bank (created by the BRICS) from 2015 to 2017, is among those hoping that the creation of a BRICS currency will be on the agenda at the 16^th BRICS summit. In a communication dated October 2023, Paulo Nogueira Batista said:

“President Putin himself, as well as President Lula, have often spoken of de-dollarization and the possible creation of a common or reference currency for the BRICS. Since at least 2022, Russian experts have been working on the topic. The reason Russia is the originator of the idea is quite clear”. [5]

Of course, Nogueira alludes to the sanctions Russia has been under since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and especially since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Paulo Nogueira Batista goes on to summarise some of the progress made and the many obstacles encountered and concludes :

“It is our good luck to have Russia presiding over the BRICS in 2024 and Brazil, in 2025 – precisely the two countries that seem to be most interested in moving towards the creation of a common or reference currency. If everything runs smoothly, the BRICS may be able to decide to create a currency at the Summit in Russia next year. By the Summit in Brazil, in 2025, the BRICS will perhaps be able to announce the first steps towards its establishment.” [6]

But there are other voices. Neoliberal economist, Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the South African Reserve Bank, is far less optimistic than Paulo Nogueira. Here is what William Gumede wrote in Business Day newspaper on 21 August 2023, at the time of the BRICS summit:

“Kganyago has cautioned over the practicality of establishing a common currency in a trade bloc in which the members are spread over vastly different geographical locations. The success of the euro, the common currency of the EU, has been partially based on geographical proximity, similarity in economic and political institutions and regimes, and individual economies giving up their national currencies.

A BRICS currency will also require a BRICS central bank, commonality in monetary policy, alignment of fiscal policies, and synergy between political regimes across the trade bloc. Yet as things stand the BRICS currencies have mismatched central banking regimes and are not easily convertible — unlike the EU when the euro was established. China and Russia’s central banks are also state-controlled, whereas SA, India and Brazil have independent central banks. A big question is whether China or Russia would surrender sovereignty over their national currencies, which would be crucial to the success of a common currency. “ [7]

We might add that it is hard to imagine India under Narendra Modi, who is likely to win the elections in May 2024, coming into conflict with the United States by endorsing the roll-out of a common currency, especially since Sino-Indian economic and military confrontations continue. Confronted with China, India is strengthening its relations with Israel, Washington, Australia and Japan, while supporting Russia in selling its oil and remaining a member of the BRICS. As Kganyago pointed out, India is keen to retain sovereignty over its currency. The same is true of Brazil, as monetary sovereignty enables both countries to maintain or strengthen their influence in their traditional areas of economic influence — Brazil with its neighbouring economies: Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, etc. and India with Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, etc.

I feel it is more crucial to assess what is currently in place than to speculate on the likelihood of a common BRICS currency materialising someday. What is certain is that, beyond the rhetoric of the Russian and Brazilian representatives, in practice, there has been no progress to date in setting up a common currency.

•  In a nutshell, what is the New Development Bank? What is the share of each BRICS country in the New Development Bank and how does it work?

The NDB was officially created on 15 July 2014 on the occasion of the 6^th BRICS Summit held in Fortaleza, Brazil. The NDB granted its first loans at the end of 2016. The five founding countries each have an equal share of the Bank’s capital, and none has veto rights. In addition to the five founding countries, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt are also members of the NDB. [8] Uruguay is in the process of making its membership effective. The NDB has a capital of 50 billion dollars, which should be increased to 100 billion dollars in the future. The position of Chairman of the NDB is rotated. Each country has the right to hold the presidency in turn for a 5-year term. Dilma Rousseff, the current president, is Brazilian, and the next president will be Russian and will be appointed in 2025 by Vladimir Putin, who has just been re-elected president of the Russian Federation until 2030. The New Development Bank has announced that it will focus primarily on financing infrastructure projects, including water distribution systems and renewable energy production systems. It insists on the “green” nature of the projects it finances, although this is highly debatable.

•  What does Paulo Nogueira say about the New Development Bank?

The Shanghai-based New Development Bank, in which Moscow is a shareholder, is complying with the sanctions against Russia and has not granted any loans to the country since 2021

In view of his responsibilities as Brazil’s representative at the IMF and subsequently as vice-president of the New Development Bank (NDB), it is worth publishing a large extract from Paulo Nogueira Batista’s comments on the new bank created by the BRICS:

“The Bank has yet to make a difference. One reason is, frankly, the type of people we have sent to Shanghai since 2015 as Presidents and Vice Presidents of the institution. Brazil, for instance, during the Bolsonaro administration, sent a weak person to become President from mid-2020 to early 2023 – technically weak, Western-oriented, with no leadership, and without a clue as to how to conduct a geopolitical initiative. Russia is also no exception, unfortunately – the Russian Vice President is remarkably unfit for the job. As the saying goes, rot begins at the top. Weak Management has often led to poor hiring of staff.

These internal problems of the Bank were compounded by broader political hurdles, among which tense relations between China and India, the sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014 and, especially, since 2022, as well as the political crises in Brazil and South Africa. These macropolitical issues within and among the founding members have also hurt the NDB.

Brazil has now sent Dilma Rousseff, a former President of Brazil, to become President of the institution. She has, however, less than two years to turn around the Bank. Not enough time. Thus, the future of the NDB lies largely in the hands of Russia. This is because Russia will have the opportunity to appoint a new president for 5 years, starting July 2025. I hope Russia will this time be able to send a strong person for the job, someone of high political standing, technically sound, and with a clear view of the geopolitical purposes that led the BRICS to create the NDB.” [9]

Paulo Nogueira’s hopes that Russia will give the NDB much greater strength from 2025 onwards need to be qualified by two major factors. Firstly, developments in the war in Ukraine and the international sanctions imposed on Russia by North America, Western Europe and Japan. Secondly, the NDB’s decision on 4 March 2022 to stop granting loans to Russia. The NDB has chosen to respect the sanctions by Washington’s partners and has refrained from granting new loans to Russia due to fears of a credit rating downgrade, since nearly 7% of NDB liabilities are in Russia (the downgrade by New York rating agencies did indeed transpire in mid-2022). This can be verified on the NDB website under the section, All Projects and in particular under all projects in Russia where it can be seen that the last project financed by the NDB in Russia dates back to 2021.

•  What other disappointments did Paulo Nogueira express about the New Development Bank?

Getting back to Paulo Nogueira’s assessment of the NDB’s weakness:

“Why can it be said that the NDB was disappointing so far? Here are some of the reasons why. Disbursements have been strikingly slow, projects are approved but are not transformed into contracts. When contracts are signed, actual project implementation is slow. Results on the ground are meager. Operations – funding and lending – are done mainly in US dollars, the currency which also serves as the Bank’s unit of account.”

The New Development Bank lends mainly in dollars

How can we, as BRICS, credibly talk about de-dollarization if our main financial initiative remains predominantly dollarized? Don’t tell me that operations in national currencies cannot be done in our countries. The Interamerican Development Bank, the IDB, for instance, has had for many years considerable experience in operating in Brazilian currency. Why the NDB has not tapped into that experience beats me. One can expect Dilma Rousseff to start solving these problems.

The NDB is also far from being the global bank we envisaged at the time of its creation. Only three new countries have joined the Bank after more than eight years of existence – Compared with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the AIIB, led by China, was established more or less at the same time as the NDB, which has had more than 100 countries members for some time. Furthermore, governance in the NDB is poor, rules are not respected by the management. The Board is ineffective. Transparency is not observed, the Bank is opaque, and little information about loans and projects is made public. HR is weak. Many important positions in the Bank remain unfilled, discouragement among employees is rife leading to staff departures, and thus the total number of staff is falling.” [10]

This highly critical observation does not come from an enemy of the BRICS, but from a committed supporter of the vital need to bolster BRICS initiatives.

It is worth noting that in April 2023, the NDB’s most recent borrowing on the financial markets took the form of US dollar bonds [11] rather than the renminbi as was the case at the very start of the bank’s activities. This is further proof that the NDB’s practices and the BRICS strategy are not in line with the stated aim of resolutely reducing the role of the dollar in international trade. For the years 2020-2021, 75% of the NDB’s borrowings were in US dollars. The NDB management has announced that it will reduce its dollar borrowing and lending in the future, to 70% of assets and liabilities by 2030 (an unambitious target). This remains to be seen.

[…]

Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/are-the-brics-and-the-new-development-bank-an-alternative-to-the-world-bank-imf-and-policies-promoted-by-imperialist-powers/

Click to access WHO-letter-to-Biden-signed_5-1-24.pdf

By Dr Meryl Nass

All 49 Republican Senators have written to President Biden and told him to withdraw US support from the proposed Pandemic Treaty and IHR Amendments. https://sovereigntycoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/WHO-letter-to-Biden-signed_5-1-24.pdf

Please share this with every official you know. Explain the danger. We need our Representatives to sign on to HR1425, which is the companion bill to Ron Johnson’s S444, the bill from which this letter originated. We need our elected representatives to protect us from the WHO d’etat.

Neither of the two WHO-proposed documents is in a final form. How can nations make a decision to turn over health sovereignty to the WHO with treaties that are not even completed 3 weeks before the meeting at which they are scheduled to be voted on?

Neither draft document provides any value to any of the 194 member states of the WHO. Instead, they put the keys to lockdowns, information control, medical mandates and a library of potential pandemic pathogens into the hands of former terrorist and WHO Director-General Tedros Abhanom Ghebreyesus and his staff of clowns masquerading as serious scientists and doctors.

Here is the WHO’s Executive Director and top infectious disease doctor, Mike Ryan, who can barely speak in a coherent fashion. Watch the video.

And never forget the Spy Doctor, Jeremy Farrar, is WHO’s Chief Scientist. He took a 2/3 cut in salary to move to the WHO to inveigle developing countries he had funded as Director of the Wellcome Trust into supporting the WHO Treaty and Amendments. He also started CEPI with Bill Gates in 2017 at Davos. CEPI is the NGO grabbing billions of tax dollars to roll out unlicensed vaccines in days, not years, with no liability for the manufacturer, the nation, the doctor and the WHO. When not jet-setting between G20 meetings, Davos, the World Bank, etc. he was answering to his boss during COVID, the former head of MI5, who herself is now co-president of Chatham House.

He almost single-handedly invented the bird flu “crisis,” and poisoned several thousand subjects in the Recovery and Solidarity trials he funded and helped initiate, overdosing them with HCQ in order to sink the drug, prolong the COVID pandemic and clear the pathway for remdesivir and COVID vaccines. As the WHO website states,

Dr Farrar was the founding chair of WHO’s R&D Blueprint and the founding director of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) that led on to the work of the RECOVERY Trial and the UK COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium.

There is plenty more dirt on Jeremy but I’ll stop now.

Then there is propagandist Maria Van Kerkove, who worked under the notorious Neil Ferguson predicting millions of deaths from the H1N1 swine fu in 2009 at Imperial College, and has been a lead fear-monger on bird flu.

During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Dr. Van Kerkhove worked directly with WHO’s Global Alert and Response and Global Influenza Programme to support the pandemic response. Her main activity during the pandemic was to coordinate the WHO informal mathematical modelling network for H1N1pdm under the leadership of Professor Neil Ferguson…

She specialized in field research to gather data on the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI/H5N1), with a focus on transmission risk from poultry to humans.^[11]

Van Kerkhove has been an honorary lecturer at Imperial College London since 2015.^[11] She has been Scientist, Technical Lead MERS-CoV at WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, since March 2017. She is currently the head of the Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit in the WHO Health Emergencies Programme.

Neither of the two proposed documents explains why we need pandemic governance, nor why we would choose such governance from an organization best known for:

• its ineptness,
• its lack of qualified staff,
• its capture by Bill Gates and the Pharma industry,
• its massive failures providing on-the-ground assistance for pandemics,
• and its corrupted medical advice.

Now we need to make the rest of the world aware before the WHO votes coming up in 3 weeks.

[…]

Via https://merylnass.substack.com/p/all-49-republican-senators-have-said/

 Approx. 22 Min

Madison Area Lyme Support Group

Greatest Medical Scandal in UK

Andrew Bridgen speaks to an empty, bought-out Parliament about excess deaths

4/18/24

“We are witnesses to the greatest medical scandal in this country in living memory, and possibly ever: the excess deaths in 2022 and 2023. Its causes are complex, but the novel and untested medical treatment described as a covid vaccine is a large part of the problem. I have been called an anti-vaxxer, as if I have rejected those vaccines based on some ideology. I want to state clearly and unequivocally that I have not: in fact, I am double vaccinated and vaccine-harmed. Intelligent people must be able to tell when people are neither pro-vax nor anti-vax, but are against a product that does not work and causes enormous harm to a percentage of the people who take it. I am proud to be one of the few Members of Parliament with a science degree. It is a great shame that there are not more Members with a science background in this place; maybe if there were, there would be less reliance on Whips Office briefings and more independent research, and perhaps less group-think. I say to the House in all seriousness that this debate and others like it are going to be pored over by future generations, who will be genuinely agog that the evidence has been ignored for so long, that genuine concerns were disregarded, and that those raising them were gaslit, smeared and vilified.

One does not need any science training at all to be horrified by officials deliberately hiding key data in this scandal, which is exactly what is going on. The Office for National Statistics used to release weekly data on deaths per 100,000 in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations—it no longer does so, and no one will explain why. The public have a right to that data. There have been calls from serious experts, whose requests I have amplified repeatedly in this House, for what is called record-level data to be anonymized and disclosed for analysis. That would allow meaningful analysis of deaths after vaccination, and settle once and for all the issue of whether those experimental treatments are responsible for the increase in excess deaths.

Far more extensive and detailed data has already been released to the pharma companies from publicly funded bodies. Jenny Harries, head of the UK Health Security Agency, said that this anonymized, aggregate death by vaccination status data is “commercially sensitive” and should not be published. The public are being denied that data, which is unacceptable; yet again, data is hidden with impunity, just like in the Post Office scandal…..”  Go you Youtube link for entire transcript.

_______________

Things are just as bad in New Zealand.

Journalist, Liz Gunn and leader of the NZ Loyal Party has been targeted by the New Zealand Employee Relations Authority and received a letter from a lawyer to take down whistleblower Barry Young‘s content about the COVID injuries and deaths or go to jail for months, face a 40K fine, and face a police raid where they will confiscate her equipment.  Scroll to the 5 Min mark to hear about Young’s details including the fact he will be in the Wellington District Court on April 23.   

She warns that she is the ‘canary in the coal-mine,’ and represents what is going to happen to everyone in New Zealand.  I would add – for the rest of the world if we don’t stand up & refuse.

Gunn also states she’s had an internal saboteur, those who mercilessly troll her work, and attacks even from within the freedom movement. The government itself has shut down the NZ Loyal Party’s bank account that she is a part of, and has required extensive amounts of paperwork stretching the already small voluntary staff.

Gunn has already been raided arrested (as has Barry Young) but both were released.

[…]

Via https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2024/05/03/sos-for-uk-new-zealand/

Former President Donald Trump will address “Libertarian Party concerns” later this month at the group’s national convention in Washington, DC, the party announced Wednesday.

“Libertarians are some of the most independent and thoughtful thinkers in our Country, and I am honored to join them,” Trump, 77, said in a statement.

The Libertarian Party’s unprecedented decision to give the presumptive Republican nominee for president a platform at the third-party group’s 2024 nominating convention will allow Trump to court voters beyond his GOP base.

“We all have to remember that our goal is to defeat the Worst President in the History of the United States, BY FAR, Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said.

“If Libertarians join me and the Republican Party, where we have many Libertarian views, the election won’t even be close,” he added.

“We cannot have another four years of death, destruction, and incompetence. WE WILL WORK TOGETHER AND WIN!”

In 2020, Trump blamed Libertarian Party candidates for siphoning votes away from his past presidential campaigns, and he accused libertarian voters of “wasting their vote.”

The party had ballot access in all 50 states in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, with its nominees receiving 3.3% and 1.2% of the vote in each campaign, respectively.

Angela McCardle, the chair of the Libertarian National Committee, argued that having Trump appear at the convention serves the Libertarian Party’s needs as well.

“For 50 years, we’ve been trying to get our candidates on the main stage with major party POTUS candidates and we’ve finally succeeded in bringing one to our stage,” she said in a statement.

“We will do everything in our power to use this incredible opportunity to advance the message of liberty.”

The group plans to provide Trump with a list of the party’s top 10 issues ahead of the May 25 event, in hopes that it will influence his policy positions.

The party has invited President Biden, 81, to appear at the event as well.

Trump’s slated appearance at the convention has divided the party, with the two leading candidates vying to head the 2024 Libertarian presidential ticket holding differing views on hosting the Republican.

“The Republican Party wasn’t smart enough to reject Trump. Libertarians absolutely should reject him and his grift,” Chase Oliver, who has won five Libertarian primary contests, wrote on X.

“If he isn’t willing to actually debate the Libertarian candidate, he shouldn’t be on a stage that was paid for by party members,” he added, arguing that party members should give Trump “the one finger salute” at the convention.

Michael Rectenwald, who has won two primary contests, called Trump’s upcoming appearance an “opportunity” to share the stage with a major party candidate and “educate Trump on the principles of the freedom philosophy.”

“[Trump derangement syndrome] is for the faint of heart,” he added.

The former president said he is looking forward to speaking at the convention, which will be “attended by many of my great friends.”

[…]

Via https://nypost.com/2024/05/01/us-news/trump-to-address-libertarian-party-concerns-at-groups-national-convention/

 

By  Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

The first post-authorization safety analysis of Pfizer’s Abrysvo RSV vaccine found the average time between vaccination and preterm birth was three days. Two-thirds of reported cases occurred within a week.

Episode 14 Joseph in Egypt

The History of Ancient Egypt

Professor Robert Brier

Film Review

The Hyksos were significant for introducing Egypt to the horse and chariot, both a significant advantage in warfare. Brier believes there is fairly strong evidence there were descendants of Joseph and his brothers mentioned in Genesis chapters 37-50.

The Bible depicts Joseph, who is skilled in dream interpretation, telling his 11 brothers about his dream of  11 sheaves of wheat and 11 stars bowing down to him. In response, they tie him up and sell him to some Ishmaelites as a slave. They take him to Egypt and sell him to Potiphar. After Joseph rejects advances from Potiphar’s wife, she accuses him of attempted rape and he’s sent to jail along with the pharaoh’s cup bearer and his baker.

While there, Joseph explains dreams to both of them, in one case predicting the cup bearer’s release and in the other, the baker’s execution. When both dreams come true, pharaoh summons Joseph to interpret the pharaoh’s troubling dreams about seven lean cows devouring 7 fat cows and 7 thin ears of corn that devour 7 lean ears of corn.

Joseph explains the dream foretell 7 years of famine, which the pharaoh overcomes through 14 year of careful economic planning. As a consequence the pharaoh makes him vizier (prime minister) of Egypt. When  the famine comes, it hits the entire Middle East, and his brothers travel to Goshen (the region occupied by the Hyksos) seeking food. There Joseph is eventually reconciled with his father Jacob and his 11 brothers.

There’s no archeological evidence to confirm any of this, but but it’s consistent with 1) an an ancient Egyptian story “The Tale of Two Brothers” about a false rape accusation, 2) an ancient inscription near Awan about the failure of the Nile to rise for seven years, resulting in seven years of famine and 3) the appearance of the ancient Egyptian word “Abrek”* in the Genesis account.

*Genesis refers to people calling out “Abrek” to salute Joseph wherever he goes. It means “heart to you.”

The film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492823