Rep. Clay Higgins released a preliminary report on the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Thursday. The report reveals disturbing lapses by federal authorities that raise serious questions about the integrity of the investigation.
Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA), a member of the House Task Force on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, authored the report after spending 20 hours on the ground in Butler County, Pennsylvania, meticulously examining the crime scene.
The report, dated August 12, 2024, and addressed to Task Force Chairman Mike Kelly, exposes a series of alarming FBI actions—or inactions—that appear to undermine the investigation’s credibility.
As reported earlier, Higgins’ report highlighted several critical observations from his investigation, shedding light on the events leading up to and during the assassination attempt.
One part of the report focused on the clean-up operation. The FBI moved quickly to eliminate all traces of biological evidence from the crime scene.
A coalition of 24 states has joined forces to support Arizona in its battle to uphold proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.
This united front comes in response to a controversial ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court on August 1, which struck down Arizona’s law requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
On August 1, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit issued a narrow 2-1 decision that struck down Arizona’s requirement for proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
The ruling allows individuals to register using a state form without providing documentation of their citizenship status, which could lead to widespread voter fraud.
Arizona’s law, enacted in 2022, was designed specifically to prevent non-citizens from voting by mandating proof of citizenship for state voter registration. The initial emergency stay by a different Ninth Circuit panel had upheld these safeguards, but the recent ruling has been interpreted by many as a significant step backward in election security.
“This is just another example of why the radical Ninth Circuit is the most overturned circuit in the nation,” said Senate President Warren Petersen.
“They routinely engage in judicial warfare to carry out their extremist liberal agenda that’s contrary to the laws our citizens elected us to implement. We will seek assistance from the Supreme Court to ensure only American citizens are voting in our elections. If this principle is not followed, democracy as we know it, and as our Founding Fathers intended, is in jeopardy.”
The Republican National Committee (RNC), joined by Republican lawmakers, has joined the fray, filing a brief with the Supreme Court seeking to revive key provisions of Arizona’s law. They argue that the lower court’s decision undermines the rights of legitimate voters and jeopardizes the integrity of electoral outcomes.
“The RNC has an interest in having its members’ rights as voters not undermined by eleventh-hour changes to election laws,” they stated in their brief.
On Thursday, the coalition, which includes 24 states and is spearheaded by Kansas Attorney General Kris W. Kobach and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, filed an amicus brief urging the highest court in the land to uphold Arizona’s right to enforce voter integrity measures that ensure only U.S. citizens are permitted to vote.
The states that have joined the coalition to support Arizona’s proof of citizenship law in the Supreme Court are:
Kansas
West Virginia
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
South Carolina
South Dakota
Texas
Utah
Virginia
The brief argues that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) does not preempt Arizona’s ability to enforce its voter qualification laws, particularly the requirement for proof of citizenship.
The coalition contends that the state’s sovereign right to determine voter qualifications, including the requirement that voters be citizens, is constitutionally protected and should not be overridden by federal mandates.
The Arizona law, which was enacted as part of a broader effort to strengthen election security, restricts individuals who are unable to provide proof of citizenship from registering to vote in state and presidential elections. It also limits mail-in voting to those whose citizenship has been verified.
These provisions were challenged in federal court, where a district judge ruled that they were preempted by the NVRA.
The coalition of states, however, argues that this ruling undermines state sovereignty and the constitutional right of states to manage their own elections. The brief highlights the dangers of non-citizen voting, noting that even small numbers of illegal votes can sway the outcome of close elections, citing the 2008 Minnesota Senate race as a prime example.
“Voting by non-citizens, both legal and illegal, is real. The typical rejoinder is to claim that few non-citizens vote. On its own terms, though, the answer at least acknowledges that the problem persists. But it also ignores that even small voting blocs can have outsized effects on electoral outcomes. That effect is most obvious in local elections. But non-citizen voting also has national effects. Al Franken, for example, won his Senate seat in Minnesota in 2008 by 312 votes—an amount small enough that voting by aliens likely decided the election,” according to the brief.
In addition to defending Arizona’s law, the brief warns that the district court’s ruling could have far-reaching consequences, weakening election security measures across the country.
The states argue that the Supreme Court should grant Arizona’s request to stay the district court’s ruling, allowing the state to continue enforcing its proof of citizenship requirement while the case proceeds.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team has been quietly editing news headlines in Google search ads to make it seem like major news outlets are on her side, according to a report.
The altered headlines — appearing on Google ads and paired with a “Paid for by Harris for President” banner — were changed without the news outlets’ knowledge, Axios reported Tuesday.
Nearly a dozen publishers were swept up in the faux headline campaign, including major companies like the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News, the Associated Press and PBS.
The altered headlines — all paired with a “Paid for by Harris for President” banner — were changed without the news outlets’ knowledge, Axios reported Tuesday.
Even smaller publications like North Dakota’s WDay Radio also saw their headlines changed.
The ads include links to real articles from news outlets, but the headlines and descriptive text had been edited to cast a supportive light on the 59-year-old presidential hopeful.
The headlines also called out Republican nominee Donald Trump. Google Ads transparency
For example, one ad that ran alongside an article from the Guardian shows a headline that reads “VP Harris Fights Abortion Bans – Harris Defends Repro Freedom” and includes supporting text underneath the headline that reads, “VP Harris is a champion for reproductive freedom and will stop Trump’s abortion bans.”
Another linking to an NPR story reads, “Harris Will Lower Health Costs,” with supporting text that says, “Kamala Harris will lower the cost of high-quality affordable health care,” Axios reported.
Spokespeople from the affected companies like CNN, USA Today and NPR — all of which have published flattering content about Harris in recent weeks — said they had no idea the companies were tied up in the campaign.
Nearly a dozen publishers were swept up in the faux headline campaign, including major companies like the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News, the Associated Press and PBS. Joe Rondone/The Arizona Republic via USA TODAY Network / USA TODAY NETWORK
“While we understand why an organization might wish to align itself with the Guardian’s trusted brand, we need to ensure it is being used appropriately and with our permission. We’ll be reaching out to Google for more information about this practice,” a Guardian spokesperson said.
Though misleading, the tactic does not violate Google’s policies because the fake ads are prominently labeled as “sponsored” and “easily distinguishable from search results.”
“They also include ‘paid for by’ disclosures so it’s clear to users who paid for them. It’s fairly common for advertisers to link out to or cite external websites, including news sites, in their ads,” a Google spokesperson added.
Google says the tactic does not violate its policies. Harris is hiding from the very same press that she is desperately trying to skew in her favor.The former California attorney general has refused to do significant interviews or news appearances since winning the presidential nomination more than three weeks ago.
Dr Benjamin devotes this lecture to the Mongols’ variable success in Asian military campaigns outside China
Korea
Goryeo (Korea), built their first Great Wall in 1033 to protect against nomadic invasions (mainly the Khitan and Jurchins). In 1219 they formed an alliance with the Mongols against the Khitan army. The Mongols subsequently demanded tribute in return for their military support. To enforce this demand, in 1231 Ogedei invaded the Goryeo, which surrendered after their capitol fell. Goryeo’s government Goryeo subsequently tried to outwit the Mongols (who were frightened of seafaring) by moving their capitol to Ganghwa Island. The Mongols retaliated by decimating the mainland. Following a popular uprising in 1258 (13 years before Qubilai Khan conquered China) and the assassination of his top general, the king made peace with the Mongols and agreed to pay them tribute.
Japan
In 1274 Mongols from the Yuan dynasty landed at Hakata Bay in Kyushui Japan with a navy of 3000 warships and 500 support vessels Qubilai Khan ordered his Chinese engineers to build in southern Korea. Their armada was manned by 1000 former Jin and Song sailors and 40,000 Song, Mongol and Korean troops. The 6000 Samurai who met them used siege engines to drive them back, as well as dispatching fire shipst to burn their Mongol ships. In the end, most were lost in a typhoon, in which 13,000 Mongols troops and sailors were drowned.
In a second invasion in 1281, the Mongols attacked at Hanari Bay with 900 ships (built in Korea) manned by 20,000 Korean troops and 20,000 Mongol warriors along with 3,500 Song ships with 100,00 troops were dispatched from Southern China. This would be the largest invading naval fleet prior to Normandy. They had reached a stalemate with the Samurai defenders when another typhoon destroyed most of the ships and killed nearly all the Chinese troops.
Burma
The Mongols first invaded the Pagan empire (Burma) in 1277. They were defeated by superior numbers and army elephants that terrified the Mongol horses. To forestall further Mongol invasions, the Pagan agreed to pay tribute and for 100,000 residents on the Pagan-Yuan border to be incorporated into the Mongol tax rolls.
Vietnam
Vietnam had been incorporated into China during the Ching dynasty and the Han dynasty subsequently incorporated the Red River Valley. The equal treatment of women under Vietnamese law made full incorporation by China impossible.
When pressured, the Vietnam government agreed to pay tribute to the Yuan dynasty but refused to travel to Beijing to offer formal submission. To punish them, Qubilai Khans warriors invaded Diviet (North Vietnam) from the north. Although the cities surrendered, the Vietnamese countryside (with its long of using guerilla tactics to resist foreign) refused to submit.
Indonesia
In 1289, a Mongol envoy presented in the capitol of Indonesia (Java) demanding that the king pay tribute and offer an Indonesian princes for marriage into Qubilai Khan’s family. Concerned the Mongols would try to control the Indonesian spice trade, the Indonesian king sliced off their noses. When the returned with 20,000 warriors, Indonesia, in the midst of civil war, were unsuccessful in defending Java from massive pillaging. The new government agreed to pay tribute but reneged on their commitment. This would be the last foreign campaign of Qubilai Khan, who died in 1294.
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While Israel increasingly isolates itself on the international stage, BRICS members Iran, Russia, and China are quietly coordinating a full-spectrum effort to support Palestine diplomatically and militarily.
The Global Majority is fully aware that the genocidals in Tel Aviv are trying as hard as they can to provoke an apocalyptic war – with full US military support, of course.
Contrast that combative mindset with 2,500 years of Persian diplomacy. Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, has recently remarked how Tehran is trying hard to prevent “the Israeli regime’s ‘dream’ of triggering an all-out regional war.”
But one should never interrupt the enemy when he is in total panic. Sun Tzu would have approved this maxim. Iran certainly won’t interfere as the US and G7 members pull out all stops to come up with some semblance of a Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel to prevent a serious military retaliation by Iran and the Axis of Resistance.
Earlier this week, that warning bore fruit: Hamas representative in Lebanon, Ahmed Abdel Hadi, reported yesterday that Hamas will not show up at the tentative negotiation round on Thursday – today. The reason?
The clear climate is full of deceit and procrastination from Netanyahu, playing for time while the Axis prepares a response to the assassination of martyrs [Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail] Haniyeh and [Hezbollah Military Commander Fuad] Shukr… [Hamas] will not enter into negotiations that provide cover for Netanyahu and his extremist government.
So the waiting game, actually a masterclass of strategic ambiguity to rattle Israel’s nerves, will persist. Beneath all the cheap drama of the collective west begging Iran to not respond, there is a void. Nothing is offered in return.
Worse. Washington’s European vassals – the UK, France, and Germany – issued a statement straight out of Desperation Row, where they “call on Iran and its allies to refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardize the opportunity to agree a ceasefire and the release of hostages. They will bear responsibility for actions that jeopardize this opportunity for peace and stability. No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.”
Predictably, not a single word about Israel. In this neo-Orwellian formulation, it’s as if the recorded history of the planet started when Iran announced it would retaliate for the assassinations of Haniyeh in Tehran.
Iranian diplomacy swiftly replied to the vassals, stressing its “recognized right” to defend national sovereignty and create deterrence against Israel, the real source of terrorism in West Asia. And crucially, emphasizing they “do not seek permission from anyone” to exercise it.
The heart of the matter predictably escapes western logic: If Washington had forced a Gaza ceasefire last year, the risk of an apocalyptic war convulsing West Asia would have been avoided.
Instead, the US on Wednesday approved a further $20 billion weapons package to Tel Aviv, showing exactly how committed the Americans are to securing a permanent ceasefire.
Palestine meets the BRICS
The Israeli provocations, especially the assassination of Haniyeh, were a direct affront to three top BRICS members: Iran, Russia, and China.
So, the response to Israel implies a concerted articulation of the trio, deriving from its interlocked comprehensive strategic partnerships.
Earlier on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi took a crucial phone call from Iranian Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, during which he adamantly supported all of Tehran’s efforts to ensure regional peace and stability.
It also signals Chinese support for an Iranian reaction to Israel. Especially considering that the assassination of Haniyeh was seen in Beijing as an unforgivable slap to its considerable diplomatic efforts, taking place only a few days after the Hamas chief, alongside other Palestinian political representatives, signed the Beijing Declaration.
Then, on Tuesday, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence in Moscow. What Putin told Abbas is a gem of an understatement:
It is well known that Russia today, unfortunately, must defend its interests, defend its people with weapons in its hands, but what is happening in the Middle East [West Asia], what is happening in Palestine – certainly does not go unnoticed.
Yet there is a serious problem. The US- and Israeli-backed Abbas is like some sort of broken reed, enjoying scarce credibility in Palestine, with the latest polls revealing that 94 percent of West Bankers and 83 percent of Gazans demand his resignation. Meanwhile, less than 8 percent of Palestinians blame Hamas as responsible for their current, horrible plight. Overwhelming trust is placed in the new Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar.
Moscow is in a complex position – trying to boost a new political process in Palestine with its instrumental tools of statesmanship, in a much more forceful way than the Chinese. Yet Abbas is resisting it.
There are some auspicious angles, though. In Moscow, Abbas said that they had discussed BRICS: “We have reached a verbal agreement that Palestine would be invited in the ‘outreach’ format,” and expressed hope that:
A particular format of a meeting could be organized and it will be devoted exclusively to Palestine, so that all countries would voice their views on the developments that are taking place … It will all be as relevant as possible, considering the fact that the countries of this association [BRICS] are all friendly to Palestine.
That, in itself, is a significant Russian diplomatic victory. The optics of Palestine being placed among the BRICS for serious discussions will have an immense impact all across Muslim states and the Global Majority.
How to calibrate a deadly response
On the bigger picture – the Axis of Resistance’s response to Israel – Russia is also deeply involved. Recently, a stream of Russian aircraft landed in Iran, reportedly carrying offensive and defensive military hardware, including the game-changing Murmansk-BN system, capable of jamming and scrambling all sorts of radio signals, GPS, communications, satellites, and electronic systems up to 5,000 kilometers away.
This is the ultimate nightmare for Israel and its NATO helpers. If deployed by Iran, the Murmansk-BN electronic warfare system can literally fry the whole Israeli grid, which is only 2,000 kilometers away, targeting military bases and also the electric grid.
If Iran’s response intends to really go off the charts – teaching the occupation state an epic, unforgettable lesson – that might feature a combination of the Murmansk-BN and new Iranian hypersonic missiles.
And perhaps some extra Russian hypersonic surprises. After all, Secretary of the National Security Council Sergey Shoigu recently went to Tehran to meet with Iranian Chief of Staff Major General Bagheri, exactly to round up the finer points of their comprehensive strategic partnership, including in the military field.
Major General Bagheri even let the BRICS cat out of the bag when he said, “We will welcome the tripartite cooperation of Iran, Russia, and China.” That’s how civilization-states unite in practice to combat the Forever War ethos built into the Western “democratic” plutocracy.
As much as Russia and China are supporting Palestine and Iran on several levels, it’s inevitable that the focus of the Forever Wars is now turned against all of them. Escalation is rampant across the board – in Ukraine, Israel, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, plus color revolutions from Bangladesh (successful) to Southeast Asia (aborted).
Which brings us to the key drama in Tehran: how to carefully calibrate a response that will make Israel regretful, but not lead to bleeding wounds from Iran to Russia and China.
The overarching clash – between Eurasia and NATOstan – is inevitable. Putin himself revealed it in stark terms when he said, “Any peace talks with Ukraine are impossible as long as it conducts strikes on civilian populations and threatens nuclear power plants.”
The same applies to Israel in Gaza. “Peace talks” – or ceasefire negotiations – are impossible while Gaza and sovereign nations such as Syria, Iraq, and Yemen are being shelled at will.
There’s only one way to deal with it: militarily, with smart force.
Iran, in consultation with strategic partners Russia and China, may be trying to find a third way. Project Israel is practically shutting down its own economy to safeguard the occupation state from a deadly response by Iran and the Axis of Resistance.
So Tehran may be pushing Sun Tzu to the limit – the waiting game, the psy ops, the unbearable strategic ambiguity – forcing Israeli settlers to stew in their underground bunkers until the whole, across-the-board, coordinated strategy is in place to deliver a killer blow.
Media outlets such as the WSJ recently started to peddle a narrative that the Nord Stream pipeline destruction in 2022 was allegedly orchestrated by a group of high-ranking Ukrainian officers led by Gen. Valery Zaluzhny.
Despite Western media efforts to implicate Ukraine, the United States still looks like the “main beneficiary and customer of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline,” says German political analyst and independent journalist Dr. Gregor Spitzen.
“This has been clear from the very beginning, both in terms of the basic Roman law principle of ‘Cui bono?’ [who benefits?] and the statements by President Joe Biden and Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that the US would not allow the pipeline to go into operation,” he tells Sputnik.
Efforts by German politicians and media to draw the attention away from the US by “throwing new and implausible versions into the information field,” while understandable – “if the US is found guilty of an act of state terrorism on the object of German property, the whole architecture of European security will collapse” – are still no less outrageous, Dr. Spitzen remarks.
“Germany’s attempts to pin the blame on Ukrainian saboteurs who acted without a clear mandate from their government, while at the same time taking President Zelensky out of harm’s way, looks legally flawless, but completely implausible,” Dr. Spitzen elaborates. “It can be predicted that the specific Ukrainians accused of sabotage will never be found. Either they will be found to have died of natural causes under suspicious circumstances, or they will have committed suicide.”
“This would be the best solution to the Nord Stream sabotage case. The pipeline is destroyed, US guilt is not proven, German politicians’ reputations are saved, Ukrainian political leaders are exonerated, and the specific perpetrators, who acted on their own initiative, are dead or missing,” he adds.
Former CIA operations officer Philip Giraldi also branded media efforts to pin the blame on Ukraine as a “cover story,” arguing that Kiev simply lacked the resources to carry out the Nord Stream bombing.
“The US did and had even stated its intention in advance to destroy the pipeline if Russia were to invade Ukraine. And there is also the involvement of Norway which is not plausible if it were a Ukrainian operation,” he said.
Both Spitzen and Giraldi suggested that the fact that the story about Ukraine’s alleged role in the Nord Stream bombing surfaced simultaneously in the US and German media hints at the likelihood of a coordinated effort to craft “an acceptable narrative regarding what took place,” as Giraldi put it.
“It suggests to me that they are coordinating some new approach in dealing with Ukraine and Zelensky though I am not sure what that might be,” Giraldi added.
Emissions would come down. It would create a high skill, high wage economy. And it would reboot industry, accelerate productivity, and deliver a boost to growth. For years we have been told that moving to Net Zero would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and billions of euros, dollars and pounds have been thrown at the companies promising to make that happen.
But hold on. Now it turns out that the green jobs are disappearing at an accelerating pace – and the investment in creating them will have been squandered.
There should be plenty of money to be made from heat pumps, especially in a country such as Germany where the Greens are part of the coalition government, and where a relatively new, well-insulated housing stock makes them more than a match for older gas or oil boilers. And yet, it has turned out to be far from easy. According to the German business paper Handelsblatt Stiebel Eltron, one of the country’s largest pump manufacturers has this week been forced to announce job losses. The reason? Sales have been weaker than it expected. Despite generous subsidies for homeowners, and €18.6 million from the state to support production, the pumps are falling flat, with only 90,000 sold in the first half of this year against an official target for 2024 of 500,000.
The trouble is, that is far from an isolated example. Shares in the German battery manufacturer Varta are down by over 80 per cent so far this year, and there are warnings that the company may not survive after making heavy losses on energy storage unit for hybrid sports cars.The Belgium chemical group Umicore announced a €1.6 billion hit last month as slowing sales of EVs hit its battery material business, and it decided to postpone plans for a battery recycling plant. Siemens Energy has announced big losses on its unit that makes the giant wind turbines that were to be built across the countryside and along every coastline. And of course, all the major European auto manufacturers have had to scale back their plans for electric vehicles as sales disappoint, and high-quality, cheap Chinese models take whatever few orders there are.
The list goes on and on. The companies that poured billions into building the industrial infrastructure for the transition to Net Zero are running into trouble one by one.
It is not hard to work out what has gone so badly wrong. Governments have tried to pick winners, backing new technologies before they have proven themselves in the marketplace, and then doubling down on that up with quotas and subsidies even in the face of consumer indifference. Even worse, they have thrown their support behind the wrong businesses, rewarding companies that tick all the right climate change boxes, rather than waiting to see which ones can make the best product at the lowest possible cost. Industrial strategy, as so often in the past, has been a recipe for disaster.
Right, now we are seeing the entirely predictable consequences of that. Money is being wasted on an epic scale, right across the continent. No one should be in the least surprised if many of the green projects the British government has backed turn out to be hopelessly uneconomic as well, yet our energy secretary Ed Miliband, and the climate change fanatics who put constant pressure on the Government to reach Net Zero harder and faster, are intent on pouring even more money into what will inevitably be an even larger series of white elephants. In reality, the “well paid green jobs” are disappearing fast, replaced with poorly paid “green redundancies”. Governments will be left with a huge bill for a costly series of mistakes – and the unfortunate workers who thought they were being offered a lucrative career will have to find something else to do very quickly.
Internet mogul Kim Dotcom says he’s not going anywhere after New Zealand’s justice minister said on Thursday that he will be extradited to the Untied States on charges related to his defunct file-sharing website Megaupload.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced that he had signed an extradition order for Dotcom, saying in a statement: “I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial,” adding “As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision.”
The extradition order comes 12 years after an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion. In 2017, the high court in New Zealand first approved his extradition – with an appeal court reaffirming the finding in 2018. In 2020, the country’s supreme court again affirmed the finding, however they also left the door open for further judicial review.
According to US authorities, Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios over US$500 million by encouraging people to store and share copyrighted material – generating over US$175 million for his website. He also faces charges of money laundering and racketeering.
The internet mogul says he should not be held personally liable for copyright infringement carried out on his site.
“New Zealand copyright law (92b) makes it clear that an ISP can’t be criminally liable for actions of their users,” Dotcom noted in 2017 following the high court’s decision. “Unless you’re Kim Dotcom?”
Megaupload was based in Hong Kong until 2012, when the US seized the domain and shuttered the site. It relaunched in 2013 as Mega, with a New Zealand domain name, however Dotcom has had no involvement in the company since at least 2015. The company’s chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, and chief technical officer and co-founder, Mathias Ortmann, both from Germany, along with a third executive, the Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, were arrested in Auckland with Dotcom in 2012, according to The Guardian.
Ortmann and Van der Kolk were sentenced to jail terms in 2023 under plea deals that avoided extradition, while Batato died in 2022 in New Zealand.
Needless to say, Dotcom’s supporters are out in force:
The decision to extradite you is a blow to justice. You fought against unfair persecution for over a decade. The U.S. wants to scapegoat you for issues they couldn't control. NZ should should protect you, not serve as a proxy for U.S. overreach.
Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor on Bornholm, Denmark September 27, 2022. Danish Defence Command/Forsvaret Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS/File Photo
BERLIN, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Poland received a European arrest warrant issued by Berlin in connection with the 2022 attack on Nord Stream pipelines, but the suspect, a Ukrainian man named as Volodymyr Z, has already left Poland, Polish prosecutors told Reuters.
He was able to leave as Germany had failed to include his name in a database of wanted persons, added the prosecutors.
The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of explosions in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
German investigators believe Volodymyr Z, a Ukrainian diver, was part of a team that planted the explosives, the SZ and Die Zeit newspapers reported alongside the ARD broadcaster, citing unnamed sources.
Polish National Public Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Anna Adamiak said German authorities sent a European warrant to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw in June for Volodymyr Z in connection with proceedings conducted against him in Germany.
“Ultimately, Volodymyr Z was not detained because at the beginning of July he left Polish territory, crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border,” she wrote in an emailed statement in reply to Reuters questions.
“Free crossing of the Polish-Ukrainian border by the above-mentioned person was possible because German authorities … did not include him in the database of wanted persons, which meant that the Polish Border Guard had no knowledge and no grounds to detain Volodymyr Z.”
Polish law does not allow for publication of the full name of suspects in criminal investigations.
Germany said its relationship with Ukraine was not strained by the Nord Stream inquiry.
“The procedures have no bearing on what the Chancellor (Olaf Scholz) has described as the support of Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s illegal war of aggression, as long as necessary,” the spokesperson added.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The German federal prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the media reports.
A married couple, a man and a woman – also Ukrainian diving instructors – have also been identified in Germany’s investigation into the sabotage but so far no arrest warrants have been issued for them, according to SZ, Zeit and ARD.<
The woman told broadcaster Welt on Wednesday that neither she nor her husband were involved, and that she was in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, at the time of the pipeline attack.
The blasts wrecked three out of four Nord Stream pipelines, which had become a controversial symbol of German reliance on Russian gas in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia blamed the United States, Britain and Ukraine for the blasts, which largely cut Russian gas off from the lucrative European market. Those countries have denied involvement.
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden all opened investigations into the incident, and the Swedes found traces of explosives on several objects recovered from the explosion site, confirming the blasts were deliberate acts.
The Swedish and Danish investigations were closed this February without identifying any suspect.
In the book ‘Dissolving Illusions: Disease, Vaccines, and The Forgotten History’, authors Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Roman Bystrianyk, provide a meticulously researched and footnoted account, challenging the prevailing narrative that vaccines single-handedly prevented masses of deaths. Their work is an eye-opening exploration of the forgotten history of infectious diseases, vaccination and public health policies.
The book was published in 2013. Ten years later, after more experience and research, the authors released a ‘10th Anniversary Edition’ to which the authors added more than 200 pages, more than 350 references and more charts to challenge traditional medical dogma.
Dissolving Illusions details facts and figures from long-overlooked medical journals, books, newspapers, and other sources. Using myth-shattering graphs, this book shows that vaccines, antibiotics, and other medical interventions are not responsible for the increase in lifespan and the decline in mortality from infectious diseases. If the medical profession could systematically misinterpret and ignore key historical information, the question must be asked, “What else is ignored and misinterpreted today?” the authors ask.
The book has an accompanying website, ‘Dissolving Illusions’, which provides charts, resources, free chapters and the following overview:
It wasn’t long ago when infections plagued the Western world. Smallpox, scarlet fever, measles, typhoid, diphtheria, whooping cough, and other diseases were once considered a tragic part of life. Starting in the mid-1800s, there was a steady drop in the deaths from all these infectious diseases, decreasing by the mid-1900s to very low levels. The elimination of these diseases is one of the most amazing, yet unsung, public health revolutions in history. That journey from disease cesspool to our modern world is a tale of plagues and famine, crushing poverty and filth, lost cures, individual freedoms versus state might, protests and arrests, and much more.
Dissolving Illusions paints a historic portrait with quotes from the pages of long-overlooked medical journals, books, newspapers, and other sources to reveal a startling history that has been disregarded. With this historic information and originally researched data in the form of myth-shattering graphs, Dissolving Illusions shines new light onto issues that are assumed to be clear-cut and settled long ago.
On Tuesday, Roman Bystrianyk joined PANDA, formerly Pandemics Data & Analytics, to highlight and discuss some of the information in Dissolving Illusions.
Bystrianyk has been researching the history of diseases and vaccines since 1998. He has an extensive background in health and nutrition as well as a BSc in engineering and an MSc in computer science.
Dissolving Illusions wasn’t just a solo effort, Bystrianyk said. “There’s a lot of people … a lot of people did a lot of gathering of data, there’s a lot of people that supported me and there’s all these brilliant doctors that have been lost to history that wrote a lot of stuff that was really important,” he said.
Bystrianyk briefly discussed the US data on measles. The collection of data on measles began in 1900. By the time a vaccine was rolled out for measles in 1963, the measles mortality rate had already decreased by 98.6%. “The vaccine came in way after the mortality rate had already dropped,” he said.
England began gathering data on measles in 1838. The mortality rate decreases gradually from an initial high and then significantly drops from the 1920s. From the mid-1900s the measles mortality rate in England is virtually zero. “They started vaccinating in 1968 in England and by that point, they had almost a 100% [99.8%] decline in mortality rate from measles,” Bystrianyk said. “So, basically, the problem was solved by the time they started vaccinating.”
Displaying graphs of the data for whooping cough, Bystrianyk demonstrated that it was the same – the mortality rate was already very low before the vaccination campaigns. Whooping cough is also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough.
In the US a vaccine for whooping cough was introduced in the late 1940s. “By that point [there] was already a 92% decrease in mortality,” he said. “In England, they began vaccinating in 1957 when they already had an almost 100% [99.7%] decline in mortality rate.”
Not only did the vaccines not contribute to reduced mortality but data from Sweden conclusively shows that the whooping cough vaccines were ineffective. In 1978, examinations showed that 84% of children who were verified to have the pertussis bacteria had previously received three doses of vaccine.
“[Sweden] deemed the DTP [diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis] vaccine ineffective and they were concerned about its safety so they discontinued vaccination in 1979,” Bystrianyk said. In the following 17 years, there was no increase in the whooping cough mortality rate. “So, despite having no vaccination programme, there was no problem in Sweden.” From 1981 to 1993, 8 children were recorded as dying from pertussis, 0.6 children per year. The odds of children dying from whooping cough in Sweden when there was no national vaccination programme were 1 in 13 million.
Bystrianyk also demonstrated that scarlet fever, typhoid, and tuberculosis (“TB”) show the same pattern of mortality decline before a vaccine is introduced. “The [vaccines] came in well after the majority of the problem has been solved,” he said.
Influenza (“flu”) shows a similar pattern. The US began vaccinating for flu in the late 1970s. By this time, there had already been a 90% decrease in the flu mortality rate. Showing a graph representing flu data in the US since national vaccination programmes began Bystrianyk said, “There’s no real decrease in death rate [from the flu] after 40 years of vaccination.”
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