Oct 10

Today’s News 10th October 2023

  • Where Vacation Days Are Over & Underused
    Where Vacation Days Are Over & Underused

    While nations in Asia have in the past seen reports about their workaholic ways and failure to take off days from work, a 2023 release by Expedia paints a different picture of how employees in Japan and Hong Kong handle their vacation time.

    As Statista’s Katharina Bucholz reports, according to the survey carried out in early 2023, Japanese and Hongkongese have actually requested four extra days off work on average beyond the time allotted to them in 2022. This gave them a longer average real vacation time last year than workers in Germany and France. People in these countries had more days available to them, but failed to take them all.

    Some countries such as the United States rank towards the bottom of the list when it comes to the average number of vacation days allotted (and at its very bottom when looking at statutory leave with 0 days guaranteed). Despite this, the average American worker still leaves vacation days on the table, albeit just few at an average of 1.5. A more workaholic nation in Asia is Singapore, with 17 days allotted on average and an average of 2.5 unused days. Germany and French people have more unused days on average at four and 5.5, respectively. In these two countries, average vacation days allotted per year are also more numerous, however, at 28.5 each. Guaranteed by law are 20 days in Germany and 25 in France. In the U.S., Germany and France, between 10 and 14 public holidays are added to the vacation day tally as well. In Japan, this number is even higher at 16 days.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/10/2023 – 02:45

  • 6 Takeaways From AfD's Massive Gains In Bavaria And Hesse Regional Elections
    6 Takeaways From AfD’s Massive Gains In Bavaria And Hesse Regional Elections

    Authored by John Cody via Remix News,

    While the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Socialists (CSU) received the most votes in the regional elections of Hesse and Bavaria, the headline news story across Germany is the Alternative for Germany’s (AFD) overperformance in both states. The outcome of the election is reverberating throughout Germany, with implications for the federal level as well. On the issues of immigration, the economy, and green energy, the AfD is pulling ahead, while the ruling left-liberals will be left searching for answers after an election shellacking.

    Here are six takeaways from the election results and what they could mean for the future political landscape of the country.

    AfD may be stronger than the polls say

    With both Bavaria and Hesse combined, the AfD party will now have 70 seats, a 50 percent increase compared to its previous 2018 elections. The party actually did better than the polls said it would, which had already painted a rosy picture for the anti-sanctions, anti-immigration party.

    For example, AfD was polling at around 16 percent in Hesse, but actually ended up in second at 18.4 percent, while in Bavaria the AfD is on par with the Greens and Free Voters, where it earned 15.8 percent, making it the third-largest party.

    The party has for years had a stable level of support at around 10 to 12 percent, but in the last year, it has soared in the polls up to 23 percent and continues to hover at 21 percent.

    Many new potential AfD voters may be “shy” voters who are afraid to express their support to pollsters, meaning that pollsters may not be capturing the full picture. The party is, after all, facing a potential ban, openly mocked and attacked by the political and journalistic establishment, and supporters of the party along with politicians have been physically assaulted in the past.

    Furthermore, with the AfD’s success in local elections, it may begin to “normalize” the party in the eyes of voters, which could contribute to more open support for the party — and even a jump in the polls — going into the future.

    Germans are fed up with mass migration

    In the run-up to the elections, Remix News reported a new groundbreaking poll showing a huge majority of Germans wanted fewer migrants and also saw migrants bringing fewer advantages than disadvantages.

    If we look at the polling surrounding these specific elections, it only cements the reality that Germans are remarkably shifting against mass immigration.

    For example, in Bavaria, immigration was rated as the second most important factor by voters, behind the economy, with 48 percent of all respondents telling Infratest dimap that they “welcomed” that the AfD wanted to limit the number of foreigners and refugees more strongly. In Hesse, 42 percent backed the AfD’s anti-immigration policies. In Hesse, the issue of immigration was decisive for 18 percent of voters in terms of their vote, meaning that this was their number one issue.

    This polling data shows the massive disconnect between the left-liberal mainstream that promotes mass immigration in the media and culture and the actual sentiment of the German people.

    The AfD’s Robert Lambrou, who was second on his party’s election list in Hesse, leaned heavily into the issue of migration during the campaign. Notably, he not only called for faster deportations but stated that skilled legal immigrants should only be accepted in exceptional circumstances and then only from “neighboring countries that are culturally close to Germany.”

    AfD rises in the west

    The AfD has been historically strong in the east of the country, but with a result of over 18 percent in Hesse, it marks the first major breakthrough in the west of the country. The results come as the AfD recently broke the 20 percent mark in wealthy Baden-Württemberg, the first time it has achieved such a result in a western state.

    Notably, the German mainstream is now noting that the AfD’s rise in two Western states is not a fluke or a mere protest vote, with Taggeschau writing:

    To interpret the strong results in both states as just a protest election would be too short-sighted. More and more people are voting for the AfD out of conviction. The current situation benefits the party: Asylum and refugee policy concerns many people, and support for a more restrictive migration policy is growing, as data from Infratest dimap shows. At the same time, fewer and fewer voters in both states have a problem with voting for a party that is partly right-wing extremist. And it is not just in migration policy that it is increasingly being given authority: more people are also placing their hope in the far-right party when it comes to the issues of internal security, the economy and social justice.

    Such an acknowledgment from the state-run Tagesschau regarding the AfD is big news all in itself.

    Massive blow to the traffic-light government

    Besides the AfD, the other big outcome was how incredibly poorly Germany’s left-liberal government performed in the election. Now, the political fallout could be felt for months and even years.

    For starters, the business liberals of the Free Democrats (FDP) were completely wiped out and failed to obtain the 5 percent needed to enter parliament in both states. It follows a long string of election losses for the party, which has been accused of abandoning many of its principles in its coalition alliance at the federal level. The party is now suffering the consequences, with the results likely sending party leadership scrambling to avert all-out disaster. The FDP, which has already criticized its coalition partners at the federal level, will undoubtedly be seeking out a more independent path in the future, which could lead to a serious governing crisis for Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

    However, the SPD and Greens also fared poorly, particularly the SPD, which earned an abysmal 8 percent in Bavaria and only 15.1 percent in Hesse, both historic lows. The Greens earned 14 percent in both Bavaria and Hesse, a substantial drop in both instances from their previous election results.

    There is in all likelihood trouble ahead for this coalition, and the far-left Interior Minister Nancy Faeser could still lose her job over her party’s election debacle in Hesse, although there are currently denials from top party brass that this is a possibility post-election.

    The CDU could shift further right

    Of course, the CDU is also taking note of the AfD’s rise. The CSU, the sister party of the CDU, saw 100,000 of its voters shift to the AfD in Bavaria. In short, the AfD could quickly cut into the CDU’s base, especially over the issue of immigration.

    According to German state-run media outlet Tagesschau, it also sees the CDU potentially shifting its stance over the issue, writing: “These results may well lead to a shift in the policies of the mainstream conservative CDU towards a stricter stance on migration. The votes — and the preceding campaign largely focused on national rather than regional issues — may also force the government to revisit its policy of phasing out fossil fuels.”

    Will anything change?

    Despite the AfD’s surge and a mass rejection of the left, the two elections are notable for another key reason. In both Bavaria and Hesse, both governing coalitions survived. In Bavaria, the CSU can continue governing with the Free Voters, and in Hesse, the CDU could form a theoretical coalition with the Greens once again. In other words, the status quo was maintained.

    The AfD may have seen a serious boost in both states, but for now, all parties have vowed to never work with the party. In the short term, the AfD is working to create the conditions that make it increasingly difficult for ruling parties to form status quo coalitions. In the long term, it sees the only viable path to power through a coalition with the CDU. The big question mark is if and when that will ever happen.

    Many voters may agree with the AfD’s positions on a range of issues, but many are mentally conditioned to never consider voting for the party. The CDU and other parties are aware of this and will continue to hone their message to keep their voters from straying too far away, even if they plan to maintain the status quo once they achieve power.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/10/2023 – 02:00

  • Israel Shows Why Americans Have Right To "Weapons of War" For Self-Defense
    Israel Shows Why Americans Have Right To “Weapons of War” For Self-Defense

    Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

    As videos emerge from Israel about the recent invasion by Hamas, it should become clear that the Second Amendment here in the US is “Necessary to the security of a free state.”

    While gun control continues to be pushed by the Biden administration, Israel, a state lauded by gun control advocates for its strict regulations, has axed some of its gun control measures in an attempt to fight the recent terrorist invasion.

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    It’s no wonder that Israel has realized that their gun control measures are getting their citizens hurt or worse. Horrifying video from border towns near Gaza shows Hamas fighters going house to house looking for Israelis.

    Without access to firearms, Israeli citizens are helpless to defend themselves against these heavily armed fighters, resulting in kidnappings and killings.

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    While Israel removing some of its firearms regulations is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, gun ownership still comes with heavy restrictions and unnecessary bureaucratic red tape.

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    During the hours of the initial invasion, US Senators continued to tweet support for gun control while similar policies were resulting in deaths across the ocean.

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    Additionally, to those that say “that could never happen here” regarding the United States, be aware that the ATF recently notified FFLs in border states warning firearms dealers about straw purchases of 50 caliber and belt-fed firearms.

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    These threats are precisely why Americans have the right to own “weapons of war” for self-defense. Politicians who push gun control should realize that their actions will only empower criminals and terrorists.

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    *   *   * 

    We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 23:30

  • Online Child Pornography Skyrockets
    Online Child Pornography Skyrockets

    The amount of online child sexual abuse has skyrocketed in the past few years, according to the latest annual report of the UK-based NGO and watchdog, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). As many as 255,588 URLs were confirmed to contain images or videos of the abuse last year, up from 132,676 URLs in 2019.

    As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, this rise is partly being linked to the pandemic, when lockdowns meant more people – including younger children – were staying at home and turning online for longer periods of time than before. According to child safety experts, this increased exposure could have left them more vulnerable to communities of criminals looking to find and manipulate children into recording their own sexual abuse on camera.

    According to the report, “self-generated” content has become particularly prevalent in this time, with the number of confirmed URLs containing images or videos of “self-generated” material rising from 38,424 confirmed cases in 2019 to 199,363 in 2022.

    This is where children have been groomed and coerced into taking the images without the abuser present in the room, which have then been put online.

    Infographic: Online Child Pornography Skyrockets | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    These images are most often taken at home, in a child’s bedroom or a bathroom.

    The IWF notes that the term “self-generated” child sexual abuse is limited in that it does not fully encompass the full range of factors often present within this imagery, and which appears to place the blame with the victim themselves. They note:

    “Children are not responsible for their own sexual abuse. Until a better term is found, however, we will continue to use the term ‘self-generated’ as, within the online safety and law enforcement sectors, this is well recognised.”

    Of the 255,571 web pages actioned during 2022, over three quarters (199,363 or 78 percent) were assessed as containing “self-generated” imagery.

    This is a six percentage point increase on 2021 when 72 percent of actioned reports (or 182,281) were captured in this way. Girls aged 11-13 were the group that appeared most frequently in this content.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 23:00

  • China Makes Advances In Space Lasers, Microwave Weapons
    China Makes Advances In Space Lasers, Microwave Weapons

    Authored by Joshua Philipp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The People’s Liberation Army, the army of the Chinese Communist Party, recently announced a breakthrough on a key weapons programs that may change the nature of war.

    The Long March-2F rocket carrying China’s manned Shenzhou-10 spacecraft blasts off from launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China, on June 11, 2013. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

    Chinese scientists claim they’ve had unexpected success in developing a high-powered microwave (HPM) weapon, according to The Diplomat. The magazine notes that in January, Huang Wenhua, deputy director of China’s Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, was awarded for his research on directed energy, which HPM weapons use.

    HPM systems are able to destroy electronic equipment, and in an age when most combat systems—from tanks to planes, radios to satellites—rely on electronics, the weapons could change the way wars are fought. Warships will be fitted with HPM weapons to intercept incoming missiles.

    The HPM project, alongside other projects involving lasers and electromagnetic pulses, is part of the Chinese regime’s “Assassin’s Mace” (or “Trump Card”) program designed to defeat a technologically superior opponent by disabling or destroying the technology that makes the opponent superior.

    Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon consultant, wrote in his 2016 book “The Hundred-Year Marathon” that the first time the United States lost a simulated war game was when his team was asked to employ China’s Assassin’s Mace weapons as the opposition.

    He wrote that in the exercises, “whenever the China team used conventional tactics and strategies, America won—decisively. However, in every case where China employed Assassin’s Mace methods, China was the victor.”

    According to Richard Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, the Chinese regime’s new developments go even beyond the Assassin’s Mace program and represent an overall pivot toward “fifth-generation warfare concepts.”

    It is a shift toward the areas of cyberwarfare, electronic warfare, and space warfare, using autonomous weapons.

    The key to this shift, he said, is the Chinese military’s new Strategic Support Force branch, introduced in December 2015. Fisher said the new branch brings the military’s new weapons under one roof and demonstrates “the weaponization of broad information capabilities, plus the weaponization of outer space.”

    The idea of space warfare, in particular, was center stage during the Cold War. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, which is now ratified by 105 countries. It set laws on the use of outer space and banned any nation from stationing nuclear warheads in space.

    What the program did not forbid, however, was the use of conventional weapons in space, and China, in particular, has been developing weapons designed to destroy or disable satellites—which are the Achilles’ heel of the U.S. military.

    The National Interest, an international affairs magazine, reported on March 10 that “China’s military is developing powerful lasers, electromagnetic railguns, and high-power microwave weapons for use in a future ‘light war’ involving space-based attacks on satellites.”

    It cites a Chinese military journal from 2013, in which researchers disclosed the idea of placing a five-ton chemical laser in low-earth orbit. They wrote that “in future wars, the development of ASAT [anti-satellite] weapons is very important” and that “the space-based laser weapon system will be one of the major ASAT development projects.”

    The Diplomat article reported on March 11 that China’s developments on high-powered microwave weapons “would undermine the efficacy of even the most advanced U.S. missiles,” and “applications could also include its use as an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon or incorporation with missiles in order to overcome enemy air defenses.”

    Fisher said that by using the space-based laser platform, China would “realize the dream of Ronald Reagan’s strategic defense initiative,” as it grants them a large-scale defense system that could intercept warheads.

    Fisher said that overall, the threat of fifth-generation weapons systems is growing, and that Chinese military doctrine and developments are making a significant push in this direction.

    With its proposed laser system, in particular, he said that in a war scenario with China, they could “take down all of our satellites that we’re using to target China, to communicate with our forces, to conduct optical or electronic surveillance. We could very quickly become blind and vulnerable to Chinese strikes; and if we did launch our own strikes, these lasers could shoot down incoming warheads.”

    Fisher said this system would go far beyond the anti-ballistic missile system known as THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, that the United States is currently deploying in South Korea.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 22:30

  • One Of China's Biggest Commodity Traders Goes Missing 
    One Of China’s Biggest Commodity Traders Goes Missing 

    He Jinbi, the founder and chairman of Maike Metals International, one of China’s top commodities traders, has reportedly gone missing in recent days and is suspected to be in police custody, as reported by Bloomberg, citing sources close to the situation. 

    Colleagues have not heard from Jinbi for several days. The people indicated that Jinbi “was escorted by police for questioning in his home province of Shaanxi.” The reasons for Jinbi’s detention were not immediately known to the people. 

    Over the past year, Maike, based in Xi’an in Shaanxi province, and Jinbi have faced legal scrutiny by creditors, especially after the firm experienced severe challenges paying for imported copper. The company, responsible for a quarter of China’s copper imports, was crushed by repeated Coivd lockdowns last year and, a deepening property market collapse and ongoing economic slump. 

    Maike’s troubles outline how one of China’s biggest commodity trading houses has stumbled into a crisis as the multi-decade commodity supercycle for raw materials falters in the world’s second-largest economy. Also, banks have increasingly grown cautious toward the commodity sector, adding further pressure on Maike’s ability to raise additional capital. 

    In an interview last fall, Jinbi told the Financial Times, “We’re actively selling assets and equities to replenish our liquidity and reduce debt.” He said Maike was “breaking arms to survive,” an expression that means sacrificing parts of the business to save it from bankruptcy.

    “The entire private sector has encountered a lot of liquidity difficulties, and we are no exception,” he said. “Now it’s all about the survival of the fittest.”

    In February, Maike filed a request to a court for “preliminary restructuring” as it aimed to restart copper trading operations. Bloomberg noted Maike’s “continued absence from the market has weighed on liquidity in China’s copper trade.” 

    We noted in April, “And when Maike Metals International ran into trouble later last year, JPMorgan was left with around 30,000 tons of copper it had been financing for the trading company in Shanghai. In the end, the bank was able to sell the metal without major losses, the people said, but the episode highlighted the risks of trading in China’s base metals industry. Maike has since filed a request for a court-led restructuring.” 

    By July, ING Groep NV in Hong Kong sued Jinbi for $147 million in unpaid debt. The combination of Maike’s short-term obligations and illiquid property portfolio makes it very hard for the trading firm to raise additional capital. 

    Mystery still revolves around why Jinbi was taken into custody by police. 

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 22:00

  • COVID Reinfections Clear Faster, Including In Unvaccinated People: Study
    COVID Reinfections Clear Faster, Including In Unvaccinated People: Study

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Reinfections cleared faster than initial COVID-19 infections, including among people who never received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new study.

    Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (purple) infected with a variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (pink), isolated from a patient sample. (NIAID via The Epoch Times)

    People infected with COVID-19 for a second time cleared the illness a mean of 6.6 days, compared with a mean of 9.3 days for the initial infection, U.S. and British researchers reported in the paper.

    Researchers drew the findings from 1,796 first infections and 193 second infections.

    The difference held for a subset of 71 people who had two well-documented infections.

    Among that subset, the mean clearance time was 6.3 days, down from 9.2 days.

    “Immunity from a first SARS-CoV-2 infection affects the viral kinetics of a second SARS-CoV-2 infection principally by speeding up viral clearance and thus shortening the overall time of acute infection,” the researchers, including Dr. Yonatan Grad of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, wrote.

    SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

    The researchers also found that people who cleared infections quickly the first time also cleared them quickly the second time.

    “While prior infection and vaccination can modulate a person’s viral kinetics in absolute terms, there may also exist some further immunological mechanism, conserved across sequential infections, that determines one’s strength of immune response against SARS-CoV-2 relative to others in the population,” the researchers posited.

    The analysis was based on COVID-19 tests taken from players, staff members, and affiliates of the National Basketball Association between March 11, 2020, and July 28, 2022.

    Limitations include the population being primarily young, male, and healthy, though adjustments were made for age. Researchers also said that people who were infected multiple times “may differ in important immunological and behavioral ways from those who only underwent one infection during the study period.”

    Earlier studies have estimated strong protection from natural immunity, or prior infection, against severe illness, but that the shielding against infection waned over time.

    “This research supports the textbook expectation and other papers in that our immune systems clear SARS-CoV-2 faster 2nd time,” Kasper Planeta Kepp, a computational biologist who was not involved in the research, wrote on X.

    Vaccine Impact

    Like many U.S. businesses, the basketball association imposed harsher restrictions on unvaccinated players, leading to most receiving a vaccine. The association also imposed a vaccine mandate on workers.

    Most of the people with documented infections had received a vaccine. Of the 1,796 first infections, 1,095 were among the vaccinated. Some had received a booster. Another 574 had an unknown vaccination status. Just 127 were unvaccinated.

    Of the 193 people who experienced documented reinfections, 160 were vaccinated. Another 25 had an unknown vaccination status. Just eight were unvaccinated.

    A person was not counted as vaccinated until 14 days had passed following their second Moderna or Pfizer shot, or 14 days after a single Johnson & Johnson shot. That counting method has been used widely because vaccine proponents argue that it takes two weeks for the vaccines to have a full impact. Critics have noted the method obscures some infections, because infections do happen in the initial days following vaccination.

    The total number of people who tested, regardless of whether they tested positive, was not listed by vaccination status.

    Researchers said they did not detect “significant differences in viral kinetics” when comparing the vaccinated to the unvaccinated. Kinetics include the clearance time and the peak viral concentration.

    They also found that the kinetics of reinfection did not differ significantly based on the virus variant with which the person was infected. The study period covered the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants.

    The researchers were funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Yale University, the National Basketball Players Association, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Disclosures included one researcher with a consulting agreement with the National Basketball Association and Moderna, which makes a COVID-19 vaccine, and another with a consulting agreement with the league.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 21:30

  • Bumble & Tinder Top Dating Apps In US
    Bumble & Tinder Top Dating Apps In US

    Bumble and Tinder are the most popular dating apps in the US.

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, Bumble, which makes women initiate the conversation, has been making strides and has caught up to older service Tinder in the U.S., according to Statista Consumer Insights.

    The female-led company behind the Bumble app went public on March 10, 2021, raising $2.15 billion.

    In the Statista survey, 38 percent of U.S. dating app users said they had used Bumble in the past 12 months – the same number as Tinder.

    Infographic: The Most Popular Dating Apps in the U.S. | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In the following ranks were Plenty of Fish, Badoo and LGBTQ+ service Grindr.

    Casual platform Ashley Madison was the most popular paid service, reaching 40 percent of paying customers, an identical result with the premium subscription of Tinder, which appealed to just as many.

    9 percent of Americans said most recently that they were users of online dating services, while around 6 percent were using dating and matchmaking services offline.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 21:00

  • In US, Concern Over An Increasing Number Of Boy Victims Of Human Trafficking
    In US, Concern Over An Increasing Number Of Boy Victims Of Human Trafficking

    Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    When Elijah Muhammad was 12, his parents, members of an unnamed cult headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, received a call from one of the executive representatives of the group, saying that it was “the will of God” that Mr. Muhammad and his brother begin their “pilgrimage into manhood.”

    Lugging gallon jugs of water, illegal immigrants thread their way along footpaths just north of the Mexico/Arizona border. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times)

    His parents agreed and allowed Mr. Muhammad and his brother to travel 600 miles to Kansas City in the back of an 18-wheeler semi-truck.

    Once there, Mr. Muhammad began his “pilgrimage” by working a daily shift from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. as a dishwasher in a restaurant owned by the cult. During his limited downtime, Mr. Muhammad lived in a small apartment with “dozens of boys and men.”

    “One time, I showed up late for work,” Mr. Muhammad said during a TEDx talk. “Almost immediately upon walking through the doorway of the small diner, I found myself on the floor bleeding after being hit in the mouth with a Yellow Page[s] phonebook.

    “Attempting to stand to my feet, the man began to beat me on the back until I passed out. Acts of violence were not of rare occasion at all.”

    Mr. Muhammad was the victim of labor trafficking, which the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 defines as “The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.”

    It’s also a significantly underreported problem in the United States and is much more prevalent than sex trafficking.

    Trafficking, which is exploitation-based, is different from human smuggling, which is transport-based.

    Human smuggling is the act of bringing people into the United States involving “deliberate evasion of immigration laws, as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of noncitizens already in the United States,” according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    But, smuggling can lead to trafficking, and often does.

    Sue Aboul-hosn, the regional human trafficking prevention coordinator for the Florida Department of Children and Families, cited data from a Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) report that looked at data from 2012 to 2018.

    She said that 71 percent of trafficked victims are forced into labor, 20 percent are exploited for commercial sex, and nine percent experience both sex and labor trafficking.

    But 91 percent of trafficking investigations concern sex trafficking, according to the State Department’s Office for Victims of Crime.  Five percent of investigations were labor-related, and four percent were both sex and labor, Ms. Aboul-hosn said during a human trafficking summit in Florida on Oct. 3.

    And while sex trafficking of women and girls has received considerable attention, human trafficking of boys is growing significantly. It’s now almost identical to the percentage of girls trafficked—girls account for 18 percent of trafficking victims. Boys now account for 17 percent, the DOD’s 2023 Trafficking in Person’s (TIP) report found.

    Labor Trafficking

    According to the National Institute of Justice, determining exact numbers for human trafficking is impossible due to the “covert and criminal nature” of the practice.

    However, the Global Slavery Index, published by the International Labor Organization (ILO), is considered the most accurate.

    In its latest report, the ILO estimated that 49.6 million people are being trafficked globally—with 27.6 million in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriages. Women and girls make up a majority of those in forced marriages.

    Within the forced labor category, the ILO reported 17.3 million victims in the private sector, while 6.4 million are being exploited for commercial sex, and 3.9 million are in forced labor imposed by the state.

    Of the forced labor victims in the private sector, 11.3 million are men and boys and 6 million are women and girls. In the sexual exploitation industry, 4.9 million victims are women and girls and 1.5 million are men and boys. More than 3.3 million victims of forced labor are children.

    Forced labor human trafficking. (Courtesy of The Exodus Road)

    The United States doesn’t aggregate human trafficking numbers at the national level, “making the true number of cases reported difficult to ascertain,” however, the Global Slavery Index estimates suggest that on any given day, 1.1 million people are being trafficked in the United States.

    The estimate is based on National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) data, which separates labor and sex trafficking.

    The primary venues for labor trafficking in the United States are domestic work, agriculture and farm work, construction, restaurant and food service, and illicit activity (for example, forcing someone to smuggle drugs or commit other criminal activity), according to the Human Trafficking Hotline.

    The organization also found that while a fair amount of reported trafficking cases include U.S. citizens, such as Mr. Muhammad, more than half of reported trafficking cases (1,086 out of 1,741) involve foreign nationals.

    California, Texas, and Florida have the highest percent of reported cases at 12.8 percent, 8.8 percent, and 7.5 percent, respectively.

    New York came in at a distant fourth with 3.9 percent of reported cases.

    The State Department’s 2023 trafficking report found that while women and girls still account for approximately 60 percent of identified victims of human trafficking, “the percentage of boys … more than quintupled between 2004 and 2020.”

    Overlooking Boys

    Nearly twice the number of men than women are in forced labor situations, and illegal immigrant men and boys are especially at risk, according to ILO.

    “Imagine you woke up in a place where you don’t know the culture, you don’t know the laws, and you don’t know what resources are available and how to access them,” said Harold Henry D’ Souza, co-founder of Eyes Open International, in the State Department’s trafficking report.

    “Imagine that you thought you were going to achieve a better life for yourself and your family but find yourself on a floor with no bed. You’re working 16 hours a day. Imagine you have no food and no money because someone you trusted took the small amount of money you had ‘to keep it safe’ and provided you a one-bedroom apartment, then threatened you with arrest and deportation if you didn’t continue working without pay,” Mr. D’Souza said in the report.

    “Perpetrators in America use a variation of four words to silence foreign national victims. Traffickers shout to the victims, ‘I will get you 1) arrested, 2) handcuffed, 3) jailed, 4) deported.'”

    Illegal immigrants discovered in the bed of a pickup truck in Kinney County, Texas, on June 14, 2021. (Kinney County Sheriff’s Office)

    Ms. Aboul-hosn said a factor leading to the increased number of trafficked boys in the United States is that once an unaccompanied minor is apprehended at the border, they’re placed into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of Health and Human Services (HHS).

    “Usually, they are intercepted at the border, and they go through ORR, and ORR tries to find them a sponsor who they can go live with while they’re going through the process of applying for asylum or refugee status through the court,” Ms. Aboul-hosn said.

    “And through this process, there’s a lot of inadequate screening and supervision of the placement. … There are a lot of good sponsors out there who are doing it for the right reasons, but there’s some out there that are really just wanting to exploit the child.”

    The vast majority of sponsors are family members of the child who are also in the country illegally, according to ORR.

    Ms. Aboul-hosn said that in 2022, ORR released 55,960 children to sponsors throughout the United States and only conducted 8,618 home studies.

    “So only 15 percent of these kids, when they’re placed with a sponsor, had any type of home study or background being done,” she said.

    Once a trafficker has a child under their control, Ms. Aboul-hosn said they’ll keep that kid’s money and charge them for things like rent, food, and other “debts.”

    She said most of the boys being trafficked are traveling to the United States from the Northern Triangle countries of  Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The boys are usually 15 years or older, have no legal documentation, and little education. Most don’t speak English and distrust authorities, making them perfect victims for traffickers.

    HHS Failures

    In 2014, a teenager from Guatemala called his uncle in Florida, begging for help. He said he was being kept against his will and forced to work at an egg farm called Trillium Farms in Ohio. His traffickers told the boy that if he didn’t “pay back his debt,” they’d “shoot your dad two or three times.” His uncle agreed to help and contacted the sheriff in Collier City, Florida.

    The resulting investigation by federal prosecutors into Trillium Farms revealed that traffickers had detained approximately 45 people, and at least 10 were victims of trafficking, including eight minors. Four people pleaded guilty to participating in a human trafficking scheme, and one, Pablo Duran Ramirez, admitted that he knew some of the workers were unaccompanied minors, who’d been threatened or coerced. On June 19, 2020, Mr. Ramirez was sentenced to 37 months in prison, and ordered to pay a $67,232 fine. Trillium Farms was not charged in the case.

    Former slave Francisco Rodrigues dos Santos demonstrates how he clears brush with his sickle on a piece of land in Monsenhor Gil, Brazil, on April 8, 2015. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    In a press release after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman, said, “Ramirez exploited the desperation of migrant workers and, in some instances, their children for his own personal financial gain.”

    The other defendants, Ana Angelica Pedro-Juan, of Guatemala, Aroldo Castillo-Serrano, of Guatemala, and Conrado Salgado-Soto, of Mexico, also pled guilty to participating in a labor trafficking scheme. Mr. Castillo-Serrano, the leader of the scheme, was sentenced to 188 months in prison, while Ms. Pedro-Juan, who oversaw the victims in Ohio, was sentenced to 120 months, and Mr. Salgado-Soto, a subcontractor, was sentenced to 51 months.

    A separate investigation led by then-Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) found that HHS was responsible for releasing the boys to the traffickers in Ohio.

    “We’ve got these kids. They’re here. They’re living on our soil, and for us to just, you know, assume someone else is going to take care of them and throw them to the wolves, which is what HHS was doing, is flat out wrong,” Mr. Portman said. “I don’t care what you think about immigration policy. It’s wrong.”

    During Mr. Portman’s committee investigation, HHS told the committee that it had strengthened its procedures regarding children. However, the committee found more than 12 other cases of trafficking related to the Trillion Farms case and reported, “It’s impossible to know just how many more victims there are.”

    Unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS’s ORR by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

    In fiscal year 2022, DHS referred 128,904 unaccompanied children to ORR.

    “Approximately 72 percent of all children referred were over 14 years of age, and 64 percent were boys,” HHS reported.

    The children were mostly from Guatemala (47 percent), followed by Honduras (29 percent), El Salvador (13 percent), and other countries (11 percent) in fiscal 2022, HHS said.

    On Oct. 4, HHS reported that it currently has 10,818 unaccompanied children in its care. The agency noted that the average length of time an unaccompanied child remains in ORR’s care is 24 days, but “is working to further reduce length of care in ways that do not jeopardize the safety or welfare of the children.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 20:35

  • "A Real Trend": Trump Now Ahead Of Biden In Key Battleground States According To Polls
    “A Real Trend”: Trump Now Ahead Of Biden In Key Battleground States According To Polls

    After a summer replete with martyr-making indictments and other legal controversies, former President Donald Trump’s political vigor remains unassailable. Recent polls from battleground states and on the national stage delineate a narrative that leans in favor of Trump, showcasing his astonishing and perhaps unforeseen political resilience.

    “Trump can absolutely win a general election, that has always been true, and his odds get better every day Joe Biden is president,” pollster Nathan Klein of OnMessage told the Daily Caller. Trump has continued to make strides in recent polls, albeit with leads in many swing states situated within the margin of error, presenting a cautious optimism within his camp.

    Among states with the narrowest margins of victory in 2020, such as Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin—Trump is firmly ahead of Biden at 41% vs. 35%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from mid-September. Indeed, the shift in political currents has been noteworthy, all while President Biden’s approval rating languishes around 40%.

    States that were pivotal in 2020, such as Pennsylvania, where Trump currently leads Biden by 2 points, and Georgia, where he is ahead by 9 points, signal not just a tepid approval for the Biden administration but a potential recalibration of political allegiances and sentiments among American voters.

    “Remember, Trump lost Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin by a collective 40,000 votes. The hypothesis that Biden would have a breezy route to re-election if Trump becomes the nominee was, from inception, deeply flawed,” Klein noted.

    “As Biden’s likeability has waned, we’re seeing a real trend of voters being drawn back in by Trump’s policies,” he continued. “As Trump now sits on a small put persistent lead in national polls, if he continues to win back a few thousand of the voters he lost in 2020 the path to victory certainly exists.”

    Biden’s support has been on a downward trajectory across diverse demographic and political spectra. Crucial issues such as crime and immigration have been described by critics as “rampant mismanagement,” causing many Americans to sour on the administration. “Around 60% of Americans now disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration, an all-time high,” Klein added.

    In late September, a McLaughlin & Associates survey suggested that Trump would emerge victorious over Biden by 43% to 38% in a national head-to-head matchup.

    “We are positioned to win the presidency, and we must defeat Joe Biden,” emphasized John McLaughlin, CEO and partner of McLaughlin & Associates, echoing a robust confidence within the Trump team. McLaughlin ascribes Trump’s advantageous position to the American people’s “buyers’ remorse” and a comparative review of the records of both candidates, particularly relating to the economy, crime, and border issues.

    An aggregate of polls also has Trump wiping the floor with Biden. Via RealClear Politics:

    Kyle Kondik, a nonpartisan polling analyst, cautions about the predictive validity of these early head-to-head matchups but does acknowledge the current data’s indication of a “close and competitive” race.

    But can Trump solidify his lead and convert it into a tangible victory? According to GOP polling analyst Jon McHenry, even though other Republican nominees might stand a better chance against Biden, Trump could theoretically clinch victory on an economic basis. However, he recognizes that the situation is too tight to definitively forecast.

    “We have such a unique situation right now with both party’s leading candidates in negative territory on their favorable to unfavorable ratings — and the current and previous officeholder. Reelection campaigns are typically a two-step process as a referendum on the incumbent: first, does he or she deserve reelection, and second, would the other candidate do better? I think right now President Biden is losing the referendum, with voters disapproving of his job overall, and especially on the economy and immigration,” said McHenry. “But if the choice is between two candidates with 35 to 40 percent favorables, voters are likely to choose the one who had the better economy.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 20:10

  • US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion In Grants For LGBT Initiatives Worldwide
    US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion In Grants For LGBT Initiatives Worldwide

    Authored by Jackson Elliott via The Epoch Times,

    During the past three fiscal years, $4.1 billion in federal money from taxpayers has been flowing to LGBT initiatives in the United States and around the world, an Epoch Times investigation has revealed.

    From Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2023, the U.S. government issued more than 1,100 grants to fund LGBT-promoting projects around the world, according to the Epoch Times review of a federal spending website.

    The scope of projects varies widely.

    Plans to create a “safe space for LGBTQ youth and adults to seek support and resources” earned a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. government in 2022 for the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk, Virginia.

    A proposal for encouraging “diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities by promoting economic empowerment of and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia” also was a winning plan. To fund it, the U.S. government awarded Serbian activist group Grupa Izadji a grant of $500,000.

    An Armenian activist group, the Pink Human Rights Defender, received $1 million from the United States “to empower the LGBTI community” in Armenia, a tiny country next to Turkey.

    The federal spending website can be filtered to show entries that include specific keywords. A list of payouts filtered by using the keyword “LGBT” included 1,181 grants, 31 loans, and nine direct payments during the past three fiscal years.

    Overall, during the past fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the government issued 454,821 grants.

    Government grants provide free money for specific purposes. Federal loans can be repaid over long periods of time at low interest rates. Direct payments from the government give money to groups—they may be unrestricted, or for a specific use.

    Of grants connected to the keyword “LGBT,” individual payouts of at least $1 million totaled more than $3.7 billion combined. Many additional smaller grants also were awarded for LGBT initiatives but were not reviewed.

    When the list was filtered for grants including the word “transgender,” 574 were listed. In that category, grants that paid out at least $1 million totaled nearly $478 million. Seven direct payments and nine loans with the keyword “transgender” also were issued by the U.S. government.

    An independent researcher who asked to remain anonymous has been tracking how the federal government spends money on grants related to gender ideology.

    He started the work when he was laid off from his oil field job in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. After doing some digging, he was shocked to learn that, while he and his friends got little relief from the federal government, taxpayer dollars poured into LGBT activist causes, he said.

    “I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “We’re all getting laid off, getting exempted from all this COVID money that’s getting handed out to everybody, and nobody seemed to give a [expletive].”

    He now works at a politically left-wing oil company, he said. And his superiors likely would object to how he now presents his findings on social media, he told The Epoch Times.

    “I could write for 20 years about just the money that’s already been spent over the past three or four years,” he said.

    The oil worker-turned-investigator shares his findings on X under the handle Randoland.us. The account has more than 12,000 followers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

    “If you search for grants from the [U.S.] Department of Education with the word ‘equity’ in them, it’ll blow your mind how much money is being spent just on equity-aligned initiatives,” he said. He figures he’s uncovered about $240 million in “grants going toward equity initiatives.”

    Rainbow Revolution

    One discovery revealed an ongoing grant paid to Emory University so researchers can study “the rectal mucosal effects of cross-sex hormone therapy among U.S. and Thai transgender women,” The Epoch Times confirmed.

    Activists rallying to support people who identify as transgender gather on the steps of City Hall, in New York, New York, on Oct. 24, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    The project started in 2019 with a projected end date of July 2024. According to the government website, researchers will receive almost $3.5 million from the U.S. government to do the work.

    The project is categorized under “allergy and infectious diseases research,” with the stated purpose to “assist public and private nonprofit institutions and individuals to establish, expand, and improve biomedical research and research training in infectious diseases and related areas,” according to the federal spending website.

    Some small grants focus on studies that examine equally tiny portions of the population.

    One grant recipient examines the impact of alcohol on intimate partner violence in transgender and non-gender-conforming adults, The Epoch Times confirmed.

    A 2023 project received nearly $350,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to translate the Homosaurus—a thesaurus of LGBT terms—into Spanish.

    The Homosaurus website includes definitions for sexual terms such as: “anonymous sex,” “aromantic porn films,” “pederasts,” “children’s sexuality,” and “gay children.”

    The Homosaurus has reclassified as “fetishes” the words “gerontophilia,” “ephebophilia,” and “hebephilia,” Greek words that mean sexual attraction to the elderly, people 15-19, and children 11-14, respectively.

    The Epoch Times contacted the NEH about the grant but received no response.

    A rainbow flag hangs below the American flag near the entrance to the U.S. embassy in Moscow, on June 25, 2021. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)

    LGBT cultural projects in America that received funding include more than $333,000 for an LGBT radio and television “digitization and access project.”

    Another provided $324,000 to map “historical LGBTQ spaces through gay travel guides.”

    One grant offers $1 million “to advance the human rights and social inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people” worldwide. The money went to Outright Action, an American activist group dedicated to global LGBT advocacy operating in many countries, including Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Ukraine, the Philippines, Iran, and China.

    Another grant pays for a “social biography of same-sex desire in postcolonial Ireland.”

    One provides funding to chronicle contributions to “gender identity development” among Belarusian teenage girls in vulnerable families.

    LGBT Initiatives in Schools

    The government directed LGBT grants at American educational institutions, as well.

    And Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice isn’t happy about it.

    “The federal government is using the grant process to change the culture and climate in America’s public schools,” Ms. Justice told The Epoch Times.

    In her experience as a local school board member, she saw government-funded activist groups lead the ideological capture of schools, she said.

    “The grants go to ‘community partners,’ and ‘community partners’ then go in, and they work to change the procedure in the schools” to favor and teach LGBT activist worldviews, she said.

    Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty. (Tiffany Justice/Moms for Liberty)

    The federal government pursues this policy of “cultural revolution” against the will of more than 70 percent of Americans, according to polls by Moms for Liberty, Ms. Justice said.

    A recent poll by the group found that more than 70 percent of Americans want schools to teach basic educational skills and do not want gender ideology or sexual orientation instruction in classrooms, Ms. Justice said.

    Yet money flows to these projects.

    The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) gave $1.2 million to “LGBTQIA+ pride centers” in the San Diego Community College District.

    Another DOE grant of almost $1.6 million was awarded for North Dakota’s “indigenous, LGBTQIA+, rural and underserved school-based mental health needs.”

    A DOE grant gave $1.4 million to Boston College to study “mechanisms of health promotion in diverse youth through gay-straight alliances.”  In plain speak, the grant funded the promotion of gay-straight alliance clubs in Massachusetts middle and high schools.

    The Epoch Times contacted the DOE but received no response.

    “The federal government thumbs their nose at the American people and continues to push this ideology into our schools,” Ms. Justice said.

    “They’re doing it all over the world.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 19:45

  • McCarthy Would Entertain Return As Speaker In GOP Deadlock
    McCarthy Would Entertain Return As Speaker In GOP Deadlock

    Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) isn’t ruling out a return to his old post if the House Republican Conference is deadlocked on a replacement.

    In a Monday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, McCarthy – who lost his job as Speaker last week after eight House Republicans joined with Democrats, teased a return to the job.

    “Look, the conference has to make that decision. I’m still a member. I’m going to continue to fight and act,” said McCarthy.

    When Hewitt asked again what McCarthy would do if the eight GOP members who opposed him retreated, the former Speaker kept the door open.

    “Look, whatever the conference wants, I will do,” he said, adding “I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united. The eight, in my view, don’t look to be — it was a personal thing.”

    He expressed frustration with the Republicans who voted against a GOP-only stopgap proposal. The party’s repeated failure to pass a temporary funding bill that included spending cuts and policy provisions prompted McCarthy to pass a “clean” stopgap to avoid a government shutdown, infuriating the hard-line GOP members who then voted to oust him. –The Hill

    “They’re the ones who wanted a government shutdown,” McCarthy said of the GOP holdouts. “We wouldn’t be paying our troops while we’re putting out a carrier strike fighter there – 30,000 American men and women in our armed services in the Middle East wouldn’t be being paid right now? I mean, what weakness would we be at?”

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    On Friday, McCarthy refuted a Politico report that he planned to resign before the end of his term.

    “No, I’m not resigning. I’m staying, so don’t worry,” McCarthy told reporters on Friday, adding “We’re going to keep the majority, I’m going to help the people I got here and we’re going to expand it.”

    House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) are the current frontrunners to replace McCarthy as Speaker.

    The House GOP will hold a candidate forum Tuesday, and an internal conference election Wednesday.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 19:20

  • Over 100 Bodies Found In Israeli Kibbutz; Biden Confirms 11 Americans Killed & "Likely" More In Captivity
    Over 100 Bodies Found In Israeli Kibbutz; Biden Confirms 11 Americans Killed & “Likely” More In Captivity

    Update(1905ET): The numbers of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas has been revised upward to an estimated 150. By Monday’s end at least 900 Israelis have been reported killed and nearly 2,400 wounded since the Saturday surprise assault from Gaza. Palestinian emergency sources report 560 dead and over 2,700 wounded in Gaza has heavy Israeli bombardment of the strip has continued.

    In one single kibbutz near the border, at least 108 bodies have been discovered amid the ongoing Israeli search, rescue and recovery efforts: 

    Israeli volunteer rescue organization ZAKA said Monday night that it had discovered more than 100 bodies in Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border.

    “Large teams cleared bodies all day from kibbutz Be’eri,” the organization said. “There were weapons everywhere, grenades, and RPGs. We cleared 108 bodies and we are not done yet.”

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    The New York Times has also begun to piece together eyewitness accounts of the Saturday invasion into southern Israel, as more identifies of the kidnapped have come to light:

    The hostages were seized from homes in towns along Israel’s border with Gaza — including the Kalderons’ small village of Kibbutz Nahal Oz — as well as from military bases and an enormous outdoor dance party.

    They include civilians, soldiers, people with disabilities, children, grandparents and even a 9-month-old baby. The hostages are also believed to include at least one Palestinian resident of Israel, a bus driver who spent the night near the outdoor party after driving Israelis there, his family said.

    The capture of so many Israelis by Palestinian militants has taken the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into uncharted territory — not only in the sheer number of hostages, but also in the dire threats Hamas is making against them.

    And The Washington Post has verified some of the horrifying footage to have emerged, including summary executions of Israeli hostages in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas/PIJ incursion: 

    At least four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during their unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday were killed soon after being taken captive, according to videos reviewed by The Washington Post. Graphic video shared on Telegram on Oct. 8, and verified by The Post, shows multiple bodies in the street in Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel, just yards from where Hamas militants were filmed walking with several civilians who appear to be those same hostages.

    Huge swathes of Gaza are under rubble…

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    Netanyahu in a Monday speech vowed, “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”

    Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s involvement from the north appears to be growing.

    The US has issued a stern warning for the Lebanese Shia paramilitary group not to enter the conflict. President Biden on Monday said that at least 11 Americans were confirmed killed. He said there are “likely” more being held hostage. Many of these may be dual citizens. Here’s part of Biden’s statement:

    “It’s heart wrenching,” Biden said in a statement. “These families have been torn apart by inexcusable hatred and violence.”

    Biden said his administration is aware other U.S. citizens are missing and that they are working with Israeli officials to learn more about their whereabouts, though he didn’t elaborate on how many Americans are unaccounted for as the conflict rages.

    “The safety of American citizens — whether at home or abroad — is my top priority as President,” Biden said.

    “While we are still working to confirm, we believe it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas,” he continued. “I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts.”

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    Below is a brief review of other developments of the last 24-48 hours, via Academy Securities:

    • Israel has seized control of the communities around Gaza that were at the center of the horrific attacks by Hamas over the past 48 hours.
    • Israel’s Ministry of Defense has ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza cutting off electricity, food, fuel, and water to the region and has called up 300,000 reservists.
    • Israel flew in munitions from the U.S. over the weekend, including GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs and the expectation is that Israel will ask for small arms, ammunition, tank rounds, and Tamir interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
    • The U.S. is also sending the USS Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean to show solidarity with Israel and to discourage other parties from getting involved/supporting Hamas in this conflict, i.e., Iran and Hezbollah.
    • Hezbollah exchanged artillery and rocket fire on Sunday with Israeli forces raising concern of an escalation of the violence, but Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah BouHabib said that his government has been assured by Hezbollah that it will not join the fighting unless Israel “harasses” Lebanon.
    • While unconfirmed by U.S. intelligence (and denied by Iran), Iranian security officials reportedly helped plan Hamas’s attack and gave the “green light” for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.
    • Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that creating a Palestinian state was the “most reliable” solution for peace in Israel and could see Russia as a peacemaker (it has a relationship with all the parties involved).

    And thoughts on market-related impact via The Academy T-Report:

    How far does Israel go, given that this has shaken the nation to its core. The veil of safety has been pierced. Maybe the better question is how far can they go without turning a part of the world against them? While the most vicious and deadly battles will be fought in the streets (and underground) there will be information and misinformation campaigns trying to shift global opinion. Can you “win” the battle but risk “losing” the war? This will be tricky, and the relative small size of the Gaza Strip and a high population density will make it extremely difficult to be effective and not harm civilians. This will be a tough balancing act.

    Do others get involved? While many find it difficult to believe that Hamas acted alone, that remains the official line. This has not escalated into a battle for Israel on multiple fronts. Iran has not been brought into the war, which would up the ante significantly.

    While not directly part of this discussion, our increasing concern that our global adversaries understand that inflation has become an “Achilles Heel” and this will only make adversaries more aware of that.

    Over the next 48 hours, we should get answers to these questions, which will help from how the markets and global economy and companies will respond (many companies with operations in Israel have faced an incredibly difficult and scary weekend, that is continuing into this week).

    On markets fronts:

    Oil should be higher. There is risk to shipping. There is risk to whatever Iranian oil has been making its way to the market (especially if they are implicated in any way). The Saudis could increase production to help, but how this is being viewed on social media in the region could shape their behavior significantly (the information war will be important). Our inability, unwillingness, or lack of urgency in replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not helpful as our “insurance policy” was used and hasn’t been re-upped.

    Treasury yields lower. It doesn’t matter what oil does, yields will be lower. The price of oil is not in the Fed’s control right now, but the risk of economic slowdown is. The risk of escalation and spreading the violence is real and should keep investors focused on safety. Many (including us) thought treasury yields were too high before this, so look for a push to lower yields, regardless of what oil does. Oil is a secondary factor in the rates market right now.

    Stocks are a wildcard. I’ve been in the “bad news is good news” for stocks and that seemed to play out again today. I don’t know how much “bad news” stocks can take before the lower yields/higher stocks algos fail and we get a more traditional “flight to safety” like we had overnight. If things don’t escalate, stocks can continue to squeeze higher as so much negativity was priced in (while at the same time pricing in a hawkish Fed). I’d be reducing equity exposure here, still long, but this “bad news” has the risk of being really bad.

    * * *

    Update(1350ET): Casualties in the Gaza Strip are soaring (at over 560 dead) after a full day of very heavy, frequent airstrikes by the Israeli Air Force. For the first time Monday, Israel says it has pacified the border, with a military spokesperson announcing, “There are no terrorists crossing the fence from Gaza into Israel.” The confirmed death toll among Israelis is now over 900.

    “Since this morning, there have been a few encounters with terrorists. There have been none at all in the last few hours,” the military spokesman said. Israel earlier announced a full “siege” of Gaza, and there are signs a ground invasion could be imminent. Hamas and Gaza militants have announced holding at least 100 hostages, but now Hamas is threatening to execute them. Netanyahu on Sunday had warned Palestinian civilians to begin clearing out, but as some observers have noted, where will they go? 

    According to the latest from the Times of Israel on Hamas’ new threat to kill more Israelis:

    The Hamas terror group is threatening to begin executing hostages in response to Israeli strikes in Gaza carried out without warnings, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades says, according to Gaza’s Shehab news outlet.

    “From this hour, any targeting of our people in the safety of their homes, without warning, will be met with the execution of civilian hostages, which will be broadcast with video and audio,” says the spokesperson, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Obeida.

    A defense official reportedly told Knesset members in a briefing earlier in the day that Israel was not dropping dummy bombs on roofs of buildings set to be targeted, meant to warn civilians to flee.

    Via AP: A woman holds a photo during the ‘Jewish Community Vigil’ for Israel in London, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

    Many of these hostages, foreigners among them, are believed to have been kidnapped from the Saturday music festival which had been taking place in the southern desert, near the border with Gaza.

    Meanwhile more shocking footage has emerged as Hamas invaded the event and began shooting civilians at random: 

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    * * *

    Update (1100ET): Israel has confirmed its forces are now striking targets in southern Lebanon, as the conflict slides into the much-feared scenario of a two-front war… Hamas in the south, Hezbollah in the north. Interestingly, it seems that Gaza-based militants are trying to provoke Hezbollah’s entry into the war, given they need the firepower and for the IDF to be bogged down in the north:

    ALERT Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims Israel infiltration from Lebanon: official

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    According to CNN:

    Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a brief statement on Monday that its helicopters are currently striking in Lebanese territory. No further details were provided. 

    Earlier, the IDF said a “number of armed suspects” who “infiltrated” into Israel from Lebanon were killed, and that IDF soldiers were searching the area.

    The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers said in a statement on Monday that it has reported explosions near Al-Boustan in southwest Lebanon.

    There are also reports IDF heavy armor has been seen headed to northern border with Lebanon:

    Cross-border attacks are intensifying in the growing tit-for-tat:

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    * * *

    The total death toll among both sides as all-out war between Israel and Gaza militants enters its third day has topped 1,100 – with most of these deaths being Israeli, at an estimated 800.

    Israel’s defense minister has as of Monday ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza which alarmingly includes cutting off all supply of electricity, fuel, and food, but even water for a densely packed population of 3+ million people in the strip.

    Image via Fox

    Yoav Gallant said, “I have given an order – Gaza will be under complete siege.” He added: “We are fighting barbarians and will respond accordingly.”

    At the same time a statement from energy minister Israel Katz confirmed, “I instructed that the water supply from Israel to Gaza be cut off immediately.”

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    Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reportedly retaken all the southern towns and settlements which were hit hardest by Saturday’s shock invasion of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants from Gaza.

    A fuller picture of the devastation is still emerging. Israeli authorities have confirmed recovery of 260 bodies from the site of the desert music festival which was among the first to be invaded by Hamas gunmen…

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    Meanwhile, the IDF continues to pound the Gaza Strip on an unprecedented scale, with top Israeli officials increasingly voicing their approval for a ground invasion, which some say is imminent: 

    Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed at least 493, including dozens of children, and left 2,651 injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

    An incursion by Gaza militants of this scale has not been seen in Israel since the nation’s founding in 1948.

    But if an Israeli ground assault does ensue, it will be deeply controversial inside Israel given the likely high casualties the IDF will take on (as has been the case in prior high-risk ground incursions).

    There are emerging reports that Gaza-based terrorists have beheaded IDF soldiers:

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    At the same time, Hamas and PIJ terrorists are now holding some 100 Israeli hostages taken in Saturday’s cross border raids.

    According to Reuters, Qatar is currently seeking to mediate hostage negotiations. The Palestinian side has demanded the release of some 5,000 of their own who have been held in Israeli jails, sometimes for years.

    There are believed to be Americans (or dual US-Israeli citizens) currently in captivity in Gaza:

    A spokesperson for the NSC said the agency can confirm the deaths of “several” U.S. citizens, but did not provide a specific number.

    “We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected, and wish those injured a speedy recovery,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement shared with The Hill.

    Additional US media sources reported that so far four Americans have been confirmed killed. And later in the morning on Monday the State Department announced nine Americans have been killed.

    U.S. STATE DEPT SPOKESPERSON CONFIRMS THE DEATH OF NINE AMERICANS IN ISRAEL

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    BBC is also reporting that at least 10 British citizens are feared dead or missing. According to Israeli officials, the numbers of Americans confirmed to be in captivity could grow as more details emerge:

    Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, confirmed American citizens were among those taken captive but gave no details about them or those who had been killed.

    “Unfortunately, I can’t,” he told CNN. “We have a lot of dual citizens in Israel. I suspect there are several, but we’re still trying to sort through all of all this information after this horrific surprise attack and we’ll make sure to put that information out so that the loved ones of these people who were killed and who are held hostage, they know as quickly as possible.”

    On Sunday the Pentagon announced it is sending an aircraft carrier and warships near Israel in a “show of support” – also as Americans as well as dual passport holders and tourists scramble to get out.

    Ben Gurion international airport has come under a barrage of rockets fired from the strip, disrupting all flights in and out.

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    developing…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 19:05

  • What If UFOs Have Been A Cover For High-Tech Human Defense Research Programs?
    What If UFOs Have Been A Cover For High-Tech Human Defense Research Programs?

    Authored by John Ruehl via AsiaTimes.com,

    Could the decades-long pursuit of unraveling the UFO mystery potentially function as a cover for advanced government research and testing programs for innovative forms of propulsion and craft design? Moreover, might the recent rollout of official government hearings signal a gradual disclosure of some of those capabilities?

    This scenario is worth considering, as the process of investigating UFOs comes into sharper public focus.

    This year, fascination with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) has spiked. David Grusch, a former intelligence official who led the analysis of UAPs within the US military, told a congressional hearing in July that the United States had been collecting non-human craft “for decades.”

    At the first Republican presidential debate on August 23, candidates were asked about the US president’s responsibility to provide information to the public about UFOs. And on August 31, the Pentagon launched a new website providing the public with declassified information about sightings.

    Mainstream intrigue surrounding UFOs was born after the 1947 Roswell incident, the crash of what was initially described by the US military as a “flying disc” in Roswell, New Mexico, but later attributed to a weather balloon.

    To quell public fear and speculation, official government studies to investigate UFO/UAP reports, including Project Blue Book, Project Sign, and Project Grudge, were launched. While the US government feared air warning systems could be overwhelmed by reports, it was also wary of Soviet attempts to boost false sightings and promote conspiracy theories that could instigate panic and allegations of a coverup.

    During the Cold War, UFO reports became common, often coinciding with missile and rocket tests (a habit that continues today). Several Soviet and US military personnel also testified that UFOs were able temporarily to take control over missile and nuclear facilities.

    Official disinformation

    However, in 1997, the US Central Intelligence Agency revealed that the military had lied to the public throughout the Cold War about many UFO sightings to obscure its black projects and keep Moscow in the dark about technological advancements. Blaming sightings on natural phenomena like ice crystals and temperature inversions fueled public distrust toward the government and its claims about UFOs/UAPs.

    Many secret military aircraft were frequently mistaken for UFOs, such as the U-2 reconnaissance plane, introduced in the 1950s, which featured a gray frame that often reflected the sun. The SR-71 “Blackbird” meanwhile started service in 1966 and wasn’t declassified until the 1990s. Its distinctive shape, speed, and altitude capabilities were often mistaken for a UFO.

    The B-2 Spirit, introduced in the late 1980s, also had a unique aerodynamic design and its ability to control lift, thrust, and drag at low speeds often gave the appearance that it was hovering.

    Since the Cold War, secretive experimental military aircraft have continued to generate UFO reports. But unexplained phenomena have also fueled conspiracy theories.

    In November 2004 off the coast of San Diego, US Navy pilots filmed UFOs demonstrating rapid acceleration, physics-defying sudden changes in direction, and other feats in videos eventually released to the public in 2017. And despite formalizing a UFO/UAP reporting process in 2019, navy pilots and other US military personnel who have witnessed them have been hesitant to come forward because of fear of ridicule or professional repercussions.

    The US military’s reluctance to disclose UFO/UAP information is often linked to the need to protect classified technology. Military agencies can choose neither to confirm nor deny such information exists.

    But when the government transparency website, the Black Vault, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the navy for more UFO/UAP videos, it was denied because it would harm national security and “may provide adversaries valuable information regarding Department of Defense/navy operations, vulnerabilities, and/or capabilities.”

    Releasing these videos without additional information may also be an effective way for the US military to hint at its own new technological capacities for various strategic, political, and scientific reasons. Suddenly revealing these technologies could result in rising geopolitical tensions and trigger a reaction, while merely hinting at it may also serve as a deterrence to adversaries.

    Gradually preparing the public for emerging technologies is equally as important, while encouraging speculation about UFO/UAPs could divert attention away from classified projects.

    By clandestinely testing experimental new technologies on their own defenses without resorting to lethal forces, military agencies can also gain valuable insights into their capabilities and vulnerabilities in real-world scenarios.

    A 2021 report by the DoD’s intelligence agencies also noted that many UFOs/UAPs were “technologies deployed by China, Russia, another nation, or a non-governmental entity.” The New York Times broke the story days before an updated version was provided to Congress in 2022.

    An ongoing investigation by The Warzone meanwhile suggests there are a large number of hostile drones mistaken for UFOs/UAPs that the US government has until recently failed to confront.

    Being unable to properly identify another country’s experimental aircraft, by labeling it a UFO/UAP, would also demonstrate shortcomings in US air defense systems. Similarly, releasing documentation of US surveillance of other countries’ stealth aircraft and other technology would give them a better idea of US military capabilities and would alert these countries that they were being surveilled.

    Corporate involvement

    In addition to other countries, companies are also responsible for a significant number of UFO/UAP reports.

    The first drones were manufactured more than a century ago in the UK and US, and the capabilities of the private sector have grown considerably since then.

    Camouflage technology has made commercial drones increasingly difficult to clearly identify, and hundreds of drones by China’s largest drone maker, DJI, were noted to have entered restricted airspace in Washington in 2022 alone. And, of course, commercial drones can be purchased and used by other governments.

    Nonetheless, many of the technological developments concerning advanced aircraft stem from the US military and other agencies.

    Since the 1970s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has expanded on ideas developed by scientist and engineer Arthur Kantrowitz to use lasers to launch satellites without fuel or an engine, with successful tests carried out in the late 1990s.

    The US Air Force and NASA have both continued developing this technology in the 21st century, while NASA has also explored plasma propulsion technology that may have caused numerous UFO/UAP reports.

    The US Navy has pushed the boundaries of technology further with the development of laser-induced plasma technology, patented in 2018. This innovation can generate extremely high temperatures in the air, creating plasma that can be harnessed to form intricate shapes and lifelike optical illusions, even simulating aircraft performing seemingly impossible maneuvers.

    Additionally, the US military has developed the ability to produce sound out of lasers, which would add an additional layer of realism to UFO/UAP sightings.

    Over the last few years, increasing attention has also been brought to projects by Salvatore Cezar Pais, an aerospace engineer and scientist who has worked for the US Navy and the US Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD).

    Despite lacking empirical evidence and rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny, his alleged breakthroughs in propulsion and energy generation would serve as some of the most groundbreaking technological breakthroughs in history.

    Pais’ patents with the US Navy relate to the development of advanced propulsion systems that could potentially lead to rapid thrust technology and an abundance of clean energy generation. This includes a “craft using an inertial mass reduction device,” which was patented in 2018, while a patent for a “plasma compression fusion device” was also filed but later appeared to be abandoned.

    Nonetheless, documents retrieved by The Warzone through the US Freedom of Information Act reveal that his inventions are being considered for the Air Force, NASA, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

    Of course, like the late US president Ronald Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” missile defense system in the 1980s, Pais’ patents could be designed to bait adversaries into a costly arms race. That is not to say that these countries are not already developing their own fascinating projects.

    China has been drastically increasing its development of plasma technology in recent years, and alongside the UK, Germany and Japan, is developing Active Flow Control (AFC) technology to improve aerodynamic performance in aircraft. European entities have also recently made breakthroughs in plasma propulsion technology, which may boost UFO/UAP reports across the continent.

    Amid these developments, it remains crucial for the public to stay engaged and informed about UFOs/UAP – the more publicly observed the evidence is, the harder it becomes to manipulate. Considering the history of government audacity in crafting political and war propaganda, we should remain skeptical of the entities shaping narratives about extraplanetary intelligent life.

    A shift toward de-stigmatizing and embracing a public approach to UFOs/UAP, both domestic and foreign, is essential.

    Alongside the Black Vault, initiatives like the open-data Galileo Project, spearheaded by Avi Loeb of Harvard University’s Astronomy Department, are actively seeking evidence of extraterrestrial life and pushing our understanding of outer space.

    By involving the public in the search for answers, we can bridge gaps in understanding and move closer to demystifying these phenomena.

    This article was produced by Globetrotter, which provided it to Asia Times.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 18:55

  • Rabies Vaccines Airdropped From Planes Throughout The Southeastern States In October
    Rabies Vaccines Airdropped From Planes Throughout The Southeastern States In October

    The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is now airdropping millions of doses of oral rabies vaccines (ORV) throughout several Southeastern states, as wild raccoons and other wildlife are reportedly spreading the disease.

    Oral Rabies Vaccination sachet dropped from airplanes. (Courtesy of USDA)

    The program to scatter the vaccines in the mountainous forests of the Western North Carolina region is being coordinated between the USDA and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS). Affected counties include Buncombe, Haywood, and Transylvania counties.

    “Avoiding contact with wild animals and vaccinating our domestic animals and pets is the best way to prevent rabies, which can often be fatal,” said Erica Berl, NCDHHS Deputy State Public Health Veterinarian, in a press release. “The wildlife rabies vaccination program prevents the spread of rabies among animals in the wild, which in turn prevents humans, pets, and other animals from becoming infected.”

    The vaccine, RABORAL V-RG, comes in a matchbook-sized plastic packet which is coated in fishmeal, or encased inside a fishmeal polymer coating.

    “Humans and pets cannot get rabies from contact with the baits, but if they encounter them, they should leave them undisturbed,” said the USDA. “Dogs that consume large numbers of baits may experience an upset stomach, but there are no long-term health risks. If adults or children come in contact with baits, immediately rinse the contact area with warm water and soap.”

    More via the Epoch Times‘ Matt McGregor;

    The program began in August distributing throughout the Northeast to mid-Atlantic regions such as Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

    It continued into mid-September from mid-September to mid-October in Massachusetts.

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    Throughout October, the program will be dispersing vaccines by airplane, helicopter, and vehicle in the Southern states such as Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

    ‘A Serious Public Health Concern’

    According to the USDA, ORV distribution has taken place in the United States since 1990.

    In Canada, it’s been used since 1985, and in Europe, it began in 1980.

    There are 16 states in the U.S. distributing vaccines for raccoons.

    Texas uses them for gray foxes and coyotes.

    “Rabies is a serious public health concern,” the USDA said in an August press release. “While rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear, it also is 100% preventable. Human exposures can be successfully remedied if medical attention is sought immediately following exposure.”

    Ninety percent of rabies cases in the United States are found in wildlife, the USDA said.

    “Costs associated with rabies detection, prevention, and control may exceed $500 million annually in the United States,” the USDA said.

    The goal of the program, according to the USDA, is to keep raccoons from spreading the virus to states where it hasn’t been found or isn’t widespread.

    This undated electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows rabies virions, dark and bullet-shaped, within an infected tissue sample. (F. A. Murphy/CDC via AP)

    How it Spreads, Symptoms

    The virus is carried in the infected animal’s saliva and transmitted usually through bites and scratches; however, the saliva can also spread through the eyes, nose, and mouth, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

    Rabies affects the central nervous system, the WHO said.

    “In up to 99% of cases, domestic dogs are responsible for rabies virus transmission to humans,” the WHO stated in a 2023 Fact Sheet.  “Yet, rabies can affect both domestic and wild animals.”

    Children between the ages of 5 and 14 are often victims of rabies, the WHO said.

    “The incubation period for rabies is typically 2–3 months but may vary from 1 week to 1 year, depending on factors such as the location of virus entry and the viral load,” the WHO said. “Initial symptoms of rabies include generic signs like fever, pain, and unusual or unexplained tingling, pricking, or burning sensations at the wound site. As the virus moves to the central nervous system, progressive and fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord develops. Clinical rabies in people can be managed but very rarely cured, and not without severe neurological deficits.”

    The two main types of rabies are furious rabies and paralytic rabies.

    Furious rabies causes hyperactivity, hallucinations, a fear of water and fresh air, excitable behavior, and ultimately, after a few days, death caused by cardiorespiratory arrest.

    Paralytic rabies is what is found in 20 percent of human cases, and is a kind that is more subtle than the former.

    “Muscles gradually become paralyzed, starting from the wound site,” the WHO said. “A coma slowly develops, and eventually, death occurs. The paralytic form of rabies is often misdiagnosed, contributing to the under-reporting of the disease.”

    Diagnosis for detecting a rabies infection is limited.

    “Unless the rabies-specific signs of hydrophobia or aerophobia are present, or a reliable history of contact with a suspected or confirmed rabid animal is available, clinical diagnosis is difficult,” the WHO said. “Human rabies can be confirmed intravitam and post mortem by various diagnostic techniques that detect whole viruses, viral antigens, or nucleic acids in infected tissues (brain, skin or saliva).”

    Rabies is present on all continents except Antarctica, the WHO said, with over 95 percent of deaths occurring in Asia and Africa, though cases aren’t frequently reported.

    In the U.S., hematophagous bats have become the primary source of human rabies deaths, the WHO said, because rabies in dogs has been contained.

    “Bat-mediated rabies is also an emerging public health threat in Australia and Western Europe,” the WHO said.

    “Human deaths following exposure to foxes, raccoons, skunks, jackals, mongooses, and other wild carnivore host species are very rare, and bites from rodents are not known to transmit rabies,” the WHO said.

    A fruit bat is hanging on a tree at the Amneville zoo, eastern France. Recently, Vampire bats infected with rabies have caused the deaths of several people in a remote part of the Amazonian rainforest. (Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/Getty Images )

    Post-Exposure Prevention

    The emergency response to rabies exposure, the WHO said, is called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which involves extensive washing with soap and water for 15 minutes, including direct treatment of the wound; the injection of a “potent and effective rabies vaccine that meets the WHO standards,” and the “administration of rabies immunoglobulin or monoclonal antibodies into the wound.”

    “This prevents the virus from entering the central nervous system, which would invariably result in death,” the WHO said.

    *  *  *

    Remember… if you are bitten by a rabid animal and you become afraid of water, it’s over.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 18:30

  • Thoughts On Proclamation 7463, Or "Digital McCarthyism" On The Move
    Thoughts On Proclamation 7463, Or “Digital McCarthyism” On The Move

    Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

    On September 14, 2001, George W. Bush, exercising “the power vested in [him] as President of the Untied States,” issued Proclamation 7463, a “Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks.” That got the ball rolling on the construction of the surveillance state.

    At the time, the extreme measure seemed justified. Three days earlier, the United States had suffered its most devastating terrorist attack in history.

    But how about this: On September 8, 2023, Joe Biden quietly renewed the Bush era emergency measures for another year. I was told there would be no math, but that makes 22 years and counting that a vast array of surveillance assets have been mobilized against—against whom?

    When George W. Bush was president, they were focused on al Qaeda and kindred groups.

    Today?

    Today, that fearsome governmental power is still assembled. Increasingly, however, it seems to be focused against those the administration fears or dislikes.

    Traditional Catholics, for example, or parents upset with their local school boards.

    At the head of the list of potential “domestic extremists” are the tens of millions of people who support Donald Trump (not to mention, of course, Trump himself). A couple of days ago, Hillary Clinton took to CNN (it would be CNN) to say that something needed to be done to silence those misguided people who supported Trump. “Maybe,” she said, “there needs to be a formal deprogramming” of MAGA “cult members.”

    Apparently the FBI agrees. According to a much-cited article in Newsweek, the agency has created a “new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump’s army of MAGA followers.” That article suggests that the FBI is struggling to combat genuine threats without attacking people who simply support Trump and other populist candidates. I wonder, though, how scrupulous they are being in protecting people’s Constitutional rights to free speech and political dissent.

    Actually, I do not wonder. It is quite clear, as The New York Post observed, that the agency is deploying “some of the same counterterrorism methods honed to fight al Qaeda” in its scrutiny of Trump supporters and “AGAAVE,” i.e., “anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism” (an acronym that, as the Post suggested, “looks like a typo for a sugar substitute”).

    Let me reprise here something I wrote back in April of this year: As a working principle, the conviction that things are always worse than they seem is hard to beat.

    Along with the observation from William Dean Howells that the problem for a critic isn’t making enemies but keeping them, that mournful conviction that things are worse than they seem has the twin clarifying advantage of being psychologically helpful and empirically true.

    Both have stood me in good stead.

    That is to say, if Johnny Mercer was right that one should “accentuate the positive,” one should also avoid the attitude of Dr. Pangloss who, Leibnizian that he was, taught that this is “the best of all possible worlds.”

    As readers of “Candide” will recall, that rose-colored sentiment didn’t do much to protect Cunégonde.

    I was reminded of this constellation of mottos while reading Jacob Siegel’s long and meticulously researched “Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.”

    Siegel’s brilliant if melancholy overview shows in exhaustive detail how the U.S. government, abetted by the mainstream media and what has come to be called “elite” or “ruling class” opinion generally, has repurposed surveillance tools developed to combat terrorism and turned them against the American people.

    I know that sounds dramatic. In fact, it’s actually an understatement.

    We have been vouchsafed glimpses of life behind the curtain for a while now. Hillary’s Clinton’s recent CNN rant and FBI’s new, extra-wide category of what counts as “extremism” or incipient terrorism show that the threat is metastasizing.

    Siegel focuses mostly on developments in the United States. But it’s worth noting that the story he unravels is an international concession, proceeding, for example, with initiatives such as the Davos-inspired “Great Reset.”

    I have written about various aspects of the phenomena that Siegel aggregates in his sinewy and alarming essay. For example, I wrote about Matt Taibbi’s exposé of “Hamilton 68,” a shadowy group of anti-Trump activists who succeeded in publicly branding anyone or anything they didn’t like as emanating from “Russian disinformation.”

    “Instead of tracking how ‘Russia’ influenced American attitudes,” Taibbi notes, “Hamilton 68 simply collected a handful of mostly real, mostly American accounts, and described their organic conversations as Russian scheming.”

    Simply in terms of volume, Taibbi estimates that Hamilton 68 “may go down as the single greatest case of media fabulism in American history.” Virtually every major news organization in America was involved: NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

    Even fact-checking sites such as Politifact and Snopes, Taibbi notes, “cited Hamilton 68 as a source. The people at Hamilton 68 simply targeted individuals they didn’t like, individuals such as Devin Nunes, Mike Flynn, Tulsi Gabbard, or Donald Trump—and then smeared them as witting or unwitting stooges of Vladimir Putin.

    The whole scheme, Taibbi shows, was a splendid example of “digital McCarthyism, taking people with dissident or unconventional opinions and mass-accusing them of ‘Un-American activities.’”

    But Siegel shows this was the but the tip of the censorship iceberg. His essay shows that kindred developments stood behind the state narrative about COVID-19, the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol, “domestic terrorists,” as well as anything having to do with Trump.

    A critical moment was Jan. 6, 2017. It was then, in the waning days of the Obama administration, that Jeh Johnson, head of the Department of Homeland Security, placed the property of all 8,000 election jurisdictions under the control of the DHS.

    “It was a coup,” Siegel notes, that Johnson had been aiming at since 2016.

    At first, he was blocked by local authorities who explained that, as the Constitution stipulates, running elections was the sole responsibility of state legislatures. Johnson justified his action by invoking the emergency of (totally spurious) “Russian interference.”

    His success meant that in the final weeks of the Obama administration, “the new counter-disinformation apparatus scored one of its most significant victories: the power to directly oversee federal elections that would have profound consequences for the 2020 contest between Trump and Joe Biden.”

    But Siegel shows that the rot began much earlier. Remember the “Global War on Terror” mounted by the Bush administration following the terrorist attacks of 9/11?

    It was then that the Patriot Act and kindred initiatives (like  Proclamation 7463) licensed the construction of a sprawling surveillance network, ostensibly focused on foreign bad guys but soon repurposed in a way that “suspended constitutional rights and placed millions of Americans under a shadow of mass surveillance.”

    “The seamless transition from the war on terror to the war on disinformation,” Siegel writes, “was thus, in large measure, simply a matter of professional self-preservation. But it was not enough to sustain the previous system; to survive, it needed to continually raise the threat level.”

    And raise the threat level “it”—the deep state—has consistently done, such that anyone who challenges its diktats is regarded as an enemy. How did this happen? Americans didn’t choose to give up their liberties and constitutional rights. The choice was made for them.

    As Siegel writes: “Americans are no longer presumed to have the right to choose their own leaders or to question decisions made in the name of national security. Anyone who says otherwise can be labeled a domestic extremist.”

    Siegel’s essay is a tour de force whose richness and detail I can only hint at here. If I had to summarize his findings, I would emphasize three points.

    • First, that “after the pretense of fighting a foreign threat fell away, what was left was the core mission to enforce a narrative monopoly over truth.” We see that everywhere, whether the subject is Trump, Jan. 6, COVID, Russia, the joys of transsexuality, or the brittleness of the Constitution in the face of the perpetual emergency foisted upon us by the permanent state.

    • The second point follows that brittleness: “The pattern in these cases is that the ruling class justifies taking liberties with the law to save the planet but ends up violating the Constitution to hide the truth and protect itself.”

    • And that brings me to the third and most fundamental principle that Siegel has uncovered in this harrowing piece of work: That the ruling class, the elite that officiates over the ceremonies, perquisites, and directives of the deep state, are bound by one overriding conviction. “As a class,” Siegel concludes, “their highest principle is that they alone can wield power.” No one who reads this essay can doubt that this is true.

    As I say, things are always worse than they seem.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 18:05

  • Smith & Wesson Celebrates New Tennessee Headquarters After Ditching Massachusetts
    Smith & Wesson Celebrates New Tennessee Headquarters After Ditching Massachusetts

    Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters in Tennessee on Saturday after leaving its longtime home in Massachusetts for the more gun-friendly state.

    The company’s new digs in Maryville, TN are approximately 650,000 square feet, as part of the company’s $125 million relocation plan announced in 2021.

    The ribbon cutting event showcased renowned competitive shooter Jerry Miculek, who set an NRA record for hitting six steel plates with a 9mm revolver in 1.88 seconds.

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    “From where I stand, the next 170 years of Smith & Wesson are looking pretty good,” Smith & Wesson President and CEO Mark Smith said on Saturday during the grand opening. “It is something special here in Tennessee.”

    He cited a welcoming regulatory environment and close collaboration with the Tennessee state government as a crucial piece of the plan to relocate. The company has said the new facility would create hundreds of jobs.

    Tennessee has moved to loosen gun restrictions in recent years under Republican leadership. In 2021, the state passed a law to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without a permit that requires first clearing a state-level background check and training. –AP

    Smith & Wesson was established in 1852 in Connecticut, before soon moving its headquarters to Springfield, MA.

    Attendee view guns on display at the Smith & Wesson booth during the Latin American Aerospace & Defense (LAAD) conference and exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Thursday, April 13, 2023.Photographer: Maria Magdalena Arrellaga/Bloomberg (Getty Images)

    “Congratulations to Smith & Wesson on their grand opening in Tennessee. This move is a testament to their enduring legacy, their commitment to firearm excellence, and to the importance of preserving America’s gun industry and Second Amendment rights in a fair environment,” NRA Executive Director of Advancement, Tyler Schropp, told Fox News.

    “Representing millions of NRA members and gun owners, the NRA was proud to be the tip of the spear for the passage and enactment of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that saved America’s firearm industry,” he continued, citing the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that prohibits firearms manufacturers from being held liable if their products are used to commit a crime.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 17:40

  • The Welfare-Warfare State's War On Income And Savings
    The Welfare-Warfare State’s War On Income And Savings

    Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

    According to an article at CNBC.com, 60% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck. According to an article at Forbes.com, about a third of Americans were unable to save any money in the past year. According to an article at Yahoo! Finance, while financial advisors recommend savings of $1 million to $2 million for retirees, the average 70-year-old has only around $426,000 in savings. On top of that, consider how much the value of people’s money is debased each decade through the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve.

    Welcome to the welfare-warfare state way of life, which plunders and loots people’s income to fund the ever-increasing expenditures of welfare-state programs and the warfare-state programs of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.

    If we think back to America’s founding principles with respect to income, wealth, welfare, and warfare, we find that our American ancestors chose a totally different way of life than today’s Americans have chosen.

    Consider, for example, 1890 Americans. They lived without an income tax and an IRS to enforce it. Just think about that: People were free to keep 100 percent of their income, and there was nothing the government could do about it. Imagine if you were free to keep everything you earned. Imagine if that had been case during your entire work life. 

    When Americans were free to accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth, they obviously were able to save a larger percentage of their income. Wouldn’t you be saving more money if suddenly you no longer had to pay any income taxes whatsoever?

    Internal Revenue Service. Licensed under Creative Commons.

    Interestingly, as our American ancestors found themselves saving lots of money, that actually led to a higher standard of living for everyone in society. That’s because those savings were put into banks, which then lent them out to businesses, which used the money to invest in tools and equipment that made their workers more productive. That increased productivity brought lower prices for consumer goods, increased profits for businesses, and higher wages for workers. Thus, there was a harmony of interests in the unlimited accumulation of wealth and higher standards of living for people.

    Twentieth-century Americans chose to go in an opposite direction. They traded the right to keep everything they earned for a welfare state and then, later a national-security state. The idea of the welfare state was to have the government take a large share of people’s income and then use the money to take care of people. The idea behind the national-security state was to have the government take a large share of people’s income to protect them from the communists and, later, the terrorists, Muslims, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, Russians, Chinese, and many others.

    Our American ancestors, of course, refused to make that trade. They didn’t want the government to take care of them. They wanted to take care of themselves, with their own money and on a purely voluntary, charitable basis. They also knew that a national-security state (or what they termed “standing armies”) would inevitably embroil them in endless wars and crises that would mean even higher taxes (and lower savings).

    At the same time, our American ancestors rejected the plunder and looting that comes with a system of paper money and the Federal Reserve. That’s why the Constitution required that gold coins and silver coins be the official money of the United States. The result was the soundest monetary system in history, one in which people felt secure in saving large percentages of their income in longterm bonds.

    The question is: Which system do we go with moving forward — America’s founding system, which led to a massive increase in income, profits, savings, and charity? Or today’s system, which has led to poverty, suffering, and a vast welfare-warfare racket that has led to impoverishment of finances and spirit?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 17:15

  • Desperate Disneyland Slashes Children's Ticket Prices By More Than 50%
    Desperate Disneyland Slashes Children’s Ticket Prices By More Than 50%

    Disneyland is slashing ticket prices for children ages 3-9 by more than 50% for park entry early next year.

    Visitors on Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. in Anaheim, Calif., on Sept. 1, 2023. (Carol Cassis/The Epoch Times)

    The deal, which will go on sale Oct. 24, offers tickets for as little as $50 per child per day, and can be used between Jan. 8 through March 10 at Disneyland or Disney California Adventure. Current prices for children are $104 and up.

    The new deal is for 1, 2, or 3 day ticket packages.

    “These limited-time child tickets are a great value,” said spokesperson Kelsey Lynch on the Disney Parks blog.

    The deal provides significant savings compared to current children’s ticket prices, which are $270 for a 2-day pass and $340 for 3 days. Under the promotion, a 3-day child pass is $150.

    One-day kids’ tickets can sell for up to $179, which is the park’s “highest demand” date ticket, usually falling around Halloween or Christmas.

    The new deal has no blackout dates and will expire 13 days after the first day of use, if multiple days are purchased. That means customers will have to use their multi-day tickets within a two-week window after the first visit. -Epoch Times

    Adults will need to reserve their full priced tickets separately.

    That said, even lower prices aren’t going to convince many conservative parents to patronize the woke entertainment company.

    “I just don’t think we’ll be taking our kids back any time soon, especially after their new movie basically makes God into the bad guy,” one recent Disneyland visitor told the Epoch Times, referring to Disney Pixar’s latest movie reveal for “Wish,” which turns the movie’s God-like figure into an antagonist.

    In August, Disney came under fire for their upcoming Snow White remake, after the son of the man who animated and directed the original version called it a “disgrace” and labeled the “woke things” they’ve made up as “insulting.”

    David Hand—son of the animator and director of the original version who was known by the same name—issued a harsh rebuke of the remake, telling the Telegraph on Aug. 18 that Disney’s “woke” version is an insult to his father’s work.

    “It’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it,” Mr. Hand said.

    He said he disagrees with the entire concept, calling it a “disgrace,” suggesting that Disney is “trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier.”

    The aforementioned ticket discount also comes a week after the park lost a class action lawsuit alleging that Disney used deceptive practices over how they allocate reservations to annual passholders.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/09/2023 – 16:50

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