Derrick Broze – July 17, 2022

New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice has issued a chilling warning about the potential dangers to human rights posed by the push for digital identity.

In mid-June, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, a “hub for human rights study” at New York University (NYU) School of Law, issued a 100-page report detailing the growing dangers of a reliance on digital identity around the world. The report, titled Paving a Digital Road to Hell?, examines the role of the world bank and other international networks which have been promoting the use if digital ID in recent years.

The report notes that the World Bank has been “energetically promoting biometric and other digital ID systems that are increasingly linked to large-scale human rights violations, especially in the Global South”. The researchers warn that digital identity schemes “promoted in the name of development and inclusion, might be achieving neither”. Despite ostensible good intentions on the part of some promoting these systems, they “may well be paving a digital road to hell.”

The press release for the report notes (emphasis added):

“Governments around the world have been investing heavily in digital identification systems, often with biometric components (digital ID). The rapid proliferation of such systems is driven by a new development consensus, packaged and promoted by key global actors like the World Bank, but also by governments, foundations, vendors and consulting firms.“

The report states that many of the digital identity schemes are taking inspiration from the Aadhaar system in India. This specific digital ID model has prioritized digital ID as an “economic identity”, according to the report. “The goal of such systems is primarily to establish ‘uniqueness’ of individuals, commonly with the help of biometric technologies,” the release states. This in turn allows for bringing in impoverished people from the “informal” or “counter-economy” to the formal economy. This also has the effect of “unlocking” their behavioral data that can then be used by governments and other parties.

The report also notes that the Executive Chairman of the influential ID4Africa, a platform where African governments and major companies in the digital ID market meet, noted at the 2022 Annual Meeting in June that digital ID is no longer about identity alone but,

“enables and interacts with authentication platforms, payments systems, digital signatures, data sharing, KYC systems, consent management and sectoral delivery platforms.”

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com

Evan Bush – August 3, 2022

New research is confounding conventional wisdom about life and death.

Researchers at Yale University used a new technology to restore cells in some organs of pigs that had just died, bringing the animals’ cells back to function. The findings, which were published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, raise profound ethical questions about how medicine defines death but also teases new possibilities for the collection of human organs for transplant.

“My eyes went wide,” Brendan Parent, an assistant professor of bioethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said about the moment he first read the new findings. “My brain went to all the crazy places we could go in 20 or 30 years.” Parent was not involved in the study, but was asked by Nature to write a commentary discussing the implications of the new technology.

The research is still in an early, experimental phase and many years from potential use in humans. It could ultimately help to extend the lives of people whose hearts have stopped beating or who have suffered a stroke. The technology also shows potential to dramatically shift how organs are collected for transplant and increase their availability to patients in need.

When the heart stops beating, blood flow is cut off from the body in a process called ischemia and a cascade of biochemical effects begins. Oxygen and nutrients are cut off from tissues. Cells begin to die. It’s a path toward death that causes damage that scientists have considered irreversible.

The new research challenges that idea.

“The demise of cells can be halted,” Dr. Nenad Sestan, a professor of neuroscience at the  Yale School of Medicine and an author of the new research, said during a news conference. “We restored some functions of cells across multiple organs that should have been dead.”

https://www.nbcnews.com

Alex Schadenberg  –  August 3, 2022

Health Canada recently released the Third Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada (2021). The data is gathered from the reports submitted by the medical or nurse practitioners who carried out the euthanasia death. There is no requirement that a third party or neutral person submit the reports to ensure their accuracy.

Comparing the Third Annual report (2021) to the Second Annual Report (2020), the report states that there were: 10,064 assisted deaths in 2021 up from 7603 in 2020, 5661 in 2019, 4480 in 2018, 2838 in 2017 and 1018 in 2016.

The report indicates that the number of assisted deaths increased by 32.4% representing 3.3% of all deaths in 2021.

When all data sources are considered, the total of number of euthanasia (MAiD) reported assisted deaths in Canada from legalization to December 31, 2021 is 31,664.

The report indicates that euthanasia represented 3.3% of all deaths, which was up from 2.5% in 2021. The data indicates a big difference in the percentage of euthanasia deaths between provinces. According to the data the percentage of all deaths that were euthanasia increased in all provinces notably:

• British Columbia: 4.8% in 2021 up from 3.8% in 2020,
• Quebec: 4.7% in 2021 up from 3.0% in 2020.
• Prince Edward Island 2.9% in 2021 up from 2.8% in 2020.
• Ontario: 2.7% in 2021 up from 2.1% in 2020.
• Newfoundland was the lowest with 1.2% in 2021 up from 0.9% in 2020.

The report indicated that due to the passing of Bill C-7 in March 2021, 2.2% of the assisted deaths were people whose natural death was not reasonably foreseeable.

This is the first Health Canada MAiD report since the federal government expanded eligibility for euthanasia (MAiD) in March 2021 by passing Bill C-7.

https://www.lifenews.com

ETH – July 26, 2022

Recession indicators are ringing and key commodities have plunged into a bear market, signaling a downturn may be on the horizon. And Nouriel Roubini dismissed hopes that an incoming recession will be shallow.

According to MSN, The famed economist, who called the 2008 financial crash, told Bloomberg that the economy is headed for a severe recession as well as a severe debt and financial crisis.

Roubini, also known as “Dr. Doom,” said debt ratios are historically high at 420% for advanced economies and climbing, while bailouts during the pandemic have resulted in “zombie corporations” that put the economy at risk.

In contrast, the stagflation seen during the 1970s was accompanied by low debt ratios, and the debt crisis during the 2008 financial crash saw falling inflation.

“This idea that it’s going to be short and shallow, it’s totally delusional,” Roubini said. His warning goes against other predictions on Wall Street for a mild recession, including those from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Pimco, Nomura, and BlackRock’s Larry Fink.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Alex Newman – July 22, 2022

The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for sustainable development informs government policies to restrict farming and transform the food systems in different parts of the world, said Alex Newman, an award-winning international journalist who has covered this issue for over a decade.

The 2030 Agenda is a plan of action devised by the United Nations (U.N.) to achieve 17 sustainable development goals (SDG). The goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were adopted by all UN member states in 2015.

Then-Secretary General of the U.N. Ban Ki-moon called the 2030 Agenda “the global declaration of interdependence,” (pdf) Newman said in a recent interview on EpochTV’s “Crossroads” program.

“In my opinion, [it] was a direct swipe at our Declaration of Independence … So instead of being independent nations, we will all be now interdependent.”

The 2030 Agenda “covers every element of human life, every element of the economy,” including global wealth redistribution not only within the nations but also among the nations, Newman commented. The Agenda “specifically says that we need to change the way that we consume and produce goods,” he added.

Goal number two on the 2030 Agenda deals specifically with food, Newman said.

In September 2021, the U.N. held the Food Systems Summit, which emphasized the need “to leverage the power of food systems” for the purpose of achieving all 17 sustainable development goals by 2030, according to a U.N. statement.

“Everyone, everywhere, must take action and work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes, and thinks about food,” the statement said.

https://www.technocracy.news

Samantha Kamman – July 21, 2022

A Christian organization commented on the potential harms of young children using social media without proper supervision amid reports that two sets of parents are suing TikTok over the belief the company could have done more to prevent their daughters’ deaths via an online challenge.

The Social Media Victims Law Center filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., in a Los Angeles County court on behalf of the families of Lalani Erika Walton and Arriani Jaileen Arroyo, two children who died while attempting the viral TikTok challenge known as the “blackout challenge.”

Participants in the challenge share videos depicting self-strangulation until they lose consciousness. Walton and Arriani, ages eight and nine, respectively, died after participating in the challenge.

The parents claim that their children became addicted to TikTok and that the platform promoted content that influenced the kids to harm themselves.

Paul Asay, senior associate editor of the Christian organization Focus on the Family’s PluggedIn.com, which helps parents navigate popular entertainment, weighed in on the controversy, stressing that social media comes with a “built-in irony.”

Asay told The Christian Post that these applications are intended to strengthen friendships but are also a “business.” He said the purpose of the business is to “keep their users as involved and engaged as much as they possibly can.”

He stated that this can be a problem for kids and teens using social media applications. The associate editor argued that children typically don’t have the ability to make “wise, healthy decisions for themselves.”

“Social media is designed to be addictive, in a way — designed to keep its users engaged with it as long as possible,” Asay wrote. “And, as this tragic story illustrates, content found on such sites can be damaging, dangerous and deadly — especially for children.”

https://www.terradaily.com

FCW – July 15, 2022

A bill from Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and its Senate companion would raise the federal government’s profile in the digital ID ecosystem.

A bill meant to ramp up federal government participation in the digital identity ecosystem is inching closer to passage. The bill is poised to be advanced by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and a Senate version was just introduced.

The bipartisan “Improving Digital Identity Act” was first introduced by Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) in 2020, but never never voted out of committee. It also didn’t get a Senate version in that session of Congress. Foster reintroduced the measure last year.

In the House, the committee recessed on Thursday before finishing officially recorded votes to report Foster’s bill and others out of the committee. That will happen when the committee picks back up on the markup, a committee aid confirmed with FCW.

Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) along with Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo) introduced a Senate counterpart on Wednesday.

The bill includes a few deliverables but the main impact will likely be felt from its proposed policy shift that puts the federal government more squarely in the digital ID business.

The legislation pushes the federal government to use existing authority to help Amerians “prove who they are online,” by providing opt-in ID validation services that “augment private sector digital identity and authentication solutions.”

The bill would also set up a task force on digital identity and establish a grant program at the Department of Homeland Security to support the creation of interoperable identity credentialing systems for digital identity verification on the state and local level.

This all comes in the midst of a government still grappling with increased identity fraud since the start of the pandemic. Identity fraud losses shot up from $16.9 billion in 2019 to $56 billion in 2020, according to Javelin Strategy and Research.

https://fcw.com

Ben Kelley – July 21, 2022

The State of Texas, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over its attempt to “transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”

The lawsuit, filed on July 14th, claims that “the Biden Administration’s response to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022), which ended the terrible regime of Roe v. Wade, is to attempt to use federal law to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic.”

The administration’s directive, released on July 11th, is a clarification of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), a law that forces hospitals to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay and protects doctors from being prosecuted under state laws if they perform a procedure that they deem necessary to save a patient from death or serious injury in an emergency situation.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s letter says that “emergency medical conditions involving pregnant patients may include, but are not limited to, ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features.”

Becerra’s letter goes on to state that an abortion may be an appropriate stabilizing treatment for pregnant patients with an emergency medical condition:

“When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life and health of the pregnant person – or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition – that state law is preempted.”

Paxton’s lawsuit disagrees with this assertion: “To the contrary, EMTALA ‘do[es] not preempt any State or local law requirement, except to the extent that the requirement directly conflicts with a requirement of EMTALA.’”

EMTALA does not codify any right or access to abortion, so there is no direct conflict between EMTALA and a state law banning abortion, the suit alleges.

https://www.cnsnews.com

Ben Johnson – July 19, 2022

With economic pressures squeezing middle-class families tighter than any time in a generation, congressional Democrats have decided to ram through a series of laws that would write left-wing positions on social issues into law, including a national bill establishing same-sex marriage.

On Monday, Democrats in both chambers of Congress introduced a bill to redefine marriage in national law, which they have dubbed the Respect for Marriage Act. The bill would prevent any state from exclusively protecting the natural family in law, in the (unlikely) event the Supreme Court overturns Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 opinion which created the constitutional “right” to same-sex marriage.

“The far-right Supreme Court is on a rampage against the freedoms of the American people,” asserted Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), a democratic socialist who identifies as gay. “We will not sit idly by as Republicans and their activist judges take our country backward,” insisted Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who also identifies as LGBT. “I look forward to bringing it to the [f]loor for a vote this week,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (R-Md.) on Monday.

“It really should be the Disrespect for Marriage Act,” Quena Gonzalez, senior director of Government Affairs at the Family Research Council, told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Monday. The bill merely says that “an individual shall be considered married if that individual’s marriage is valid in the [s]tate where the marriage was entered into.” At no point does it limit marriage to two partners. Democrats plan to pass legislation preventing states from criminalizing interracial marriage or contraception, positions that have no political constituency in any state. This follows the House passing two bills to expand abortion nationwide last Friday, although one or both bills appears poised to die in the Senate.

https://www.washingtonstand.com

WND Staff – July 12, 2022

When Joe Biden abruptly withdrew all American troops from Afghanistan last year, he left behind billions of dollars worth of American war machinery for the Taliban – the terror organization then taking over the country – to have and to use.

He also left behind hundreds of Americans, despite his promise that he would see to it that every one got out.

Further, there were thousands of nationals who had worked with the U.S. during its years-long presence there, and who were likely to face the wrath of the terrorists who took control of the nation, and installed themselves as the government.

The U.S., of course, originally had gone in because of the Islamic extremists who were threatening and killing people and destabilizing that part of the world. And carrying out 9/11.

Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, said in a report at Just the News that now the Taliban controls all 34 provinces – as opposed to about three-quarters as of the 9/11 date when Muslim extremists commandeered four jets and created terror in Washington and New York, costing nearly 3,000 American residents their lives.

“The State Department’s policy essentially normalizes Taliban control of Afghanistan,” he explained. “This is absolutely insane. If the U.S. is unwilling to support the Afghan resistance, then it’s effectively ceding Taliban control to Afghanistan.”

https://www.wnd.com