Russia-Ukraine updates: Moscow rejects demand to hand over Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

DW – August 12, 2022

Leading Russian politicians are rejecting the G7’s demand that Moscow hand control of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which has been occupied by Russian troops since March, back to Ukraine.

“No and no again,” Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, answered when asked about the possible handover, according to the Russian Interfax news agency. To ensure the safety of the nuclear power plant, he said, complete control over the facility is necessary.

Kosachev’s sentiment was echoed by the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, who accused Ukraine of “nuclear terrorism.”

“And all the statements of support by the G7 foreign ministers are nothing but sponsorship of nuclear terrorism,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Ukraine has accused Russia of firing at Ukrainian towns from the site in the knowledge that Ukrainian forces could not risk returning fire. It says Moscow has shelled the area itself while blaming Ukraine. Russia says it is Ukraine that has shelled the plant. The security situation around the facility, which has been occupied by Russian troops since March, has deteriorated in recent days, with fresh shelling reported at the site on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the German government has expressed concern about the ongoing fighting in the area around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.

Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said Berlin had “no findings of its own” that could confirm any of the conflicting accounts coming from Kyiv or Moscow, but Berlin was calling “on all sides to stop this highly dangerous shelling.”

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also supported call for demilitarisation of the area starting with full withdrawal of Russian forces, and urged IAEA to visit. “Zaporizhzhia facility must not be used as part of any military operation,” he wrote on Twitter.

https://www.dw.com

WEF wants to use AI to automate censorship of “disinformation”

TCS Wire – August 11, 2022

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has revealed its latest scheme: they want to use AI to automate the censorship of whatever they deem “hate speech” and “disinformation.”

According to an article published by WEF, there is an urgent need to utilize “human-curated, multi-language, off-platform intelligence into learning sets” so that AI can detect online abuse before it ever reaches mainstream platforms.

The Forum says this is necessary to stop the proliferation of everything from child abuse to extremism, disinformation, hate speech, and fraud.

“Supplementing this smarter automated detection with human expertise to review edge cases and identify false positives and negatives and then feeding those findings back into training sets will allow us to create AI with human intelligence baked in,” the WEF article reads. “This more intelligent AI gets more sophisticated with each moderation decision, eventually allowing near-perfect detection, at scale.”

The article continues, with the author stating that there is a lag between when new novel abuse tactics are created and when artificial intelligence can actually detect them. Thus, trust and safety teams should move towards incorporating human-curated AI into the content moderation process so that no such abuses can even be posted.

While such AI would undoubtedly be good in preventing the spread of child abuse material, it’s alarming that the WEF is promoting using AI to stop supposedly harmful “disinformation” from ever being posted in the first place.

The Forum has increasingly come under scrutiny over the last two years, with many waking up to just how influential the organization has become regarding global and regional governance.

Such AI-driven censorship would, of course, be highly effective in reducing such scrutiny.

https://thecountersignal.com

Horrifying drought causing widespread crop failures throughout the United States and Europe

ETH – Aug 11, 2022

(OPINION) We really are reaching a major crisis point. Thanks to soaring fertilizer prices, insane weather patterns, and the war in Ukraine, global food supplies have been getting tighter and tighter. So we really needed a banner year for agricultural production in both the United States and Europe in 2022, and that is not going to happen.

In fact, unprecedented drought is absolutely devastating crops all over the northern hemisphere. A lot of people are complaining about how high food prices are right now but just wait. If some sort of a miracle doesn’t happen, agricultural production is going to be way below expectations in both the United States and Europe, and that is going to have very serious implications for 2023.

Let me start by talking about the nightmare that is starting to unfold in Europe. According to CNN, it is now being projected that farmers in Italy have lost “up to 80% of their harvest” because the drought has become so severe… In Italy, farmers in some parts of the country have lost up to 80% of their harvest this year due to severe weather anomalies, the Coldretti farming association said Thursday.

How are those farmers going to survive? Many farmers in France are facing similar losses because they have only been receiving a fraction of the rainfall that they normally get… In France, where an intense drought has hammered farmers and prompted widespread limits on freshwater use, there were just 9.7 millimeters (0.38 inches) of rain last month, Meteo France said.

That was 84 percent down on the average levels seen for July between 1991 and 2022, making it the driest month since March 1961, the agency added. Crop failures in France would be a really, really big deal because France is normally “the fourth-largest exporter of wheat” in the entire world…

France is the fourth-largest exporter of wheat and among the top five exporters of maize globally. Poor harvests due to drought may heap further pressure on grain supplies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused global shockwaves. The situation in Germany is also extremely dire.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Dozens in China infected with Langya virus; Chinese medical portal censored over herbal remedy doubt

(AFP) – August 11, 2022

Dozens of people in China have fallen ill with a new virus that is also found in shrews, a report has said, but there is so far no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

The infections were found in China’s eastern Shandong and central Henan provinces, affecting 35 people, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine this month.

The virus is called Langya henipavirus or LayV, and patients reported symptoms that include fever, fatigue, cough, nausea and headaches.

Some people also developed blood cell abnormalities and impaired liver and kidney functions, the report said.

Research findings suggested shrews may be a natural reservoir for the pathogen.

“There was no close contact or common exposure history among the patients, which suggests that the infection in the human population may be sporadic,” according to the report.

But it also cautioned that its sample size “was too small to determine the status of human-to-human transmission for LayV”.

Patients were mostly farmers and cases were found with help from a detection system for people with acute fever and a history of animal exposure, it added.

Further investigation is needed to better understand illnesses associated with the virus, according to the researchers in China, Singapore and Australia who were involved in the paper.

https://www.terradaily.com

Is religious liberty ‘hanging by a thread’?

Rev. Robert J. Pacienza – August 8, 2022

Several years ago, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby sparked a significant public debate when he said that our “religious liberties are hanging by a thread.”

Are they? Well, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia have issued similar warnings – and for good reason.

As the president and CEO of D. James Kennedy Ministries, and the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in South Florida, I’m concerned about the curtailing of religious liberty and the negative effects of this trend on all citizens – religious and non-religious alike.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The Constitution is clear: Religious freedom extends not only to beliefs, but also public actions based on those beliefs.When religious freedom is upheld, the conditions are set for all of society to flourish. Yet, when religious freedom – the freedom to be Christian, atheist, Buddhist, or otherwise – is threatened, every other freedom is threatened as well.

Yet, in spite of religious liberty’s enshrinement in the Constitution, a number of political trends and Supreme Court rulings have diminished its legal stature. Chief among these threats is the effort to redefine religious liberty itself. Progressives have made a concerted effort to reduce the “free exercise” of religion either to private piety or the semi-public worship that takes place within the four walls of a church building.

https://www.wnd.com

Death of Family: Majority of Babies Born Out of Wedlock for First Time in History

Kurt Zindulka – August 10, 2022

The majority of babies were born to unmarried mothers in Britain for the first time in recorded history, the Office for National Statistics revealed on Tuesday.

ONS figures showed that there of the 624,828 live births recorded in England and Wales last year, over 320,000 were born out of wedlock, compared to 320,713 that were born to married parents or those in a civil partnership.

This means that 51.3 per cent of live births were born to unmarried women, the first time a majority of babies were born out of wedlock since such record began in 1845.

Up until 1978, the percentage of children born out of wedlock was less than ten per cent, however, this increased to 34 per cent by 1988 and has been over 40 per since the turn of the millennium.

The head of health analysis at the ONS, Dr James Tucker said: “This follows the long-term trend of declining marriage rates and increasing numbers of co-habiting couples seen in recent decades.

“However, caution should be taken in interpreting the numbers as we don’t yet know the full impact of the pandemic on marriage and civil partnership statistics.”

The data showed that women are waiting until older ages, with the majority of babies (372,222) being born to women over the age of 30. Conversely, the number of children being born to women under the age of 30 has fallen to half of the rate seen 50 years ago.

he increasing age of mothers has coincided with the government introducing a raft of policies geared towards increasing female participation in the workforce rather than raising their children at home.

One main area that the government has disadvantaged traditional families has been to levy taxes against individual earnings instead of families as a whole, meaning that families which rely on a single income of £50,000 will take home less money than two salaries of £25,000, thereby incentivising women to work rather than stay at home with children.

Should the supposedly Conservative government wish, it could make tax allowances transferable to mitigate this impact, however, so far, it has refused to even consider introducing policies to improve family life.

https://www.breitbart.com

Planned Parenthood is Spending So Much Money Lobbying Congress for Abortions It Just Set a New Record

Micaiah Bilger – August 11, 2022

The billion-dollar abortion chain Planned Parenthood appears desperate. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, and the November election does not look good for pro-abortion Democrats.

A new report from Open Secrets, which tracks lobbying and election spending, reports the abortion chain’s political arm, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, has spent an “unprecedented” amount of money on lobbying this year.

In the second quarter of the year, the pro-abortion group reported spending a record $569,000 on lobbying U.S. Congress to pass legislation that would force taxpayers to fund abortions for the military and force states to legalize the killing of unborn babies for basically any reason up to birth, according to the analysis.

Other lobbying efforts included the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court and legislation that would punish pro-life pregnancy resource centers for supposedly “misleading” advertising, the analysis found

According to Open Secrets:

Planned Parenthood Action Fund spent over $739,000 in the first half of 2022 on federal lobbying on issues including abortion access, with about $170,000 spent in the year’s first quarter. This comes after the organization reported a 4,000% increase in donations after the Supreme Court released its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization majority opinion in June.

The analysis pointed out that pro-life organizations also spent more on lobbying in the second quarter this year, but pro-abortion groups “consistently spend more money on federal lobbying” than pro-life groups.

https://www.lifenews.com

Gaza Area Violence Escalates as Israel Strikes Terrorist Targets

Julie Stahl – August 5, 2022

After days of being on heightened alert, Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip saying it had eliminated a number of Islamic Jihad terrorists.

Dubbed “Operation Breaking Dawn,” it began with Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killing a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad northern brigade commander named Tayseer Jabari.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued a joint statement saying that the operation was “aimed at removing a concrete threat to the citizens of the State of Israel and surrounding Gaza and harming terrorists and their emissaries.”

The IDF issued a statement saying that Jabari was “entrusted” with making decisions in the PIJ and had carried out anti-tank missile attacks against soldiers and civilians recently.

The IDF also said it had targeted about 10 PIJ operatives, including a terror squad on its way to carry out an anti-tank missile and sniper attack. The IDF also targeted “military bases and buildings” it said were used by “terrorist operatives.”

In an off-the-record briefing, an IDF spokesperson told journalists that Israel had acted against an “imminent threat” that “was very viral against our forces.”

Within two hours, Hamas confirmed eight dead and 43 wounded. Hamas issued a statement saying, “the resistance will defend our people” and “the resistance is united and will say its word in full force.”

And on Hezbollah’s al-Mayadeen network, a Jihad terrorist leader Al Nakhleh vowed to target Tel Aviv with missiles.

Reports said all Palestinian terrorist factions were mobilizing to fire rockets into Israeli territories.

https://www1.cbn.com

NYU School of Law Warns Digital ID “Paving a Digital Road to Hell”

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

Driest July in memory imperils Europe’s crops

Patrick GALEY – August 3, 2022

As much of Europe bakes in a third heatwave since June, fears are growing that extreme drought driven by climate change in the continent’s breadbasket nations will dent stable crop yields and deepen the cost-of-living crisis.

The European Commission on Wednesday urged EU member states to re-use treated urban wastewater as irrigation on the continent’s parched farms, after France and parts of England saw their driest July on record.

In France, where an intense drought has hammered farmers and prompted widespread limits on freshwater use, there was just 9.7 millimetres (0.38 inches) of rain last month, Meteo-France said.

That was 84 percent down on the average levels seen for July between 1991 and 2022, making it the driest month since March 1961, the agency added.

The southwestern region of Gironde, already devastated by last month’s wildfires, saw a maximum temperature of 39.6 degrees Celsius (103 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, with Meteo-France predicting a peak on Thursday.

Animals, including lions and monkeys, evacuated two weeks ago due to the blazes there returned to their zoo on Wednesday.

Farmers nationwide are reporting difficulties in feeding livestock because of parched grasslands, while irrigation has been banned in large areas of the northwest and southeast due to freshwater shortages.

Environment Minister Christophe Bechu said July’s rainfall represented “just 12 percent of what’s needed”.

https://www.seeddaily.com