Today’s News 15th May 2022

• Mapped: The World's Population Density By Latitude
  Mapped: The World’s Population Density By Latitude

  When you think about areas with high population densities, certain regions spring to mind. This could be a populous part of Asia or a cluster of cities in North America or Europe.

  Usually density comparisons are made using cities or countries, but this map from Alasdair Rae provides another perspective. This world map depicts population density by latitude, going from the densest populated coordinates in deep red to the sparsest in light blue.

  

  Why Certain Latitudes (and Regions) Are More Densely Populated

  As Visual Capitalist’s Anete Lusina details below, numerous factors affect an area’s population density. These can range from topography, or the physical terrain characteristics of the place, to more direct factors like an area’s climate, which can impact both the survivability and agricultural potential.

  Political, economic, and social factors are also at play⁠ – for example, there is a natural lack of livelihood opportunities in sparse areas such as the Amazon rainforest or the Himalayas.

  

  High-resolution version

  Breaking down the population by latitude, we see the population becomes more concentrated near the equator. In particular, the 25th and 26th parallel north are the most densely populated latitude circles. Around 279 million people reside in these latitude lines, which run through large countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, the United States, Mexico, and others.

  Despite their large landmasses, many of these countries do not themselves have very high population densities. Since density measures the ratio of people to physical space, countries with vast but sparse regions like China and India are less dense than imagined.

  Out of the top 10 most densely populated countries in the world, only a couple can be found on the 25th and 26th parallel north⁠—Bangladesh and Bahrain. For a size comparison, Bangladesh is 1.55% the size of China, and Bahrain is only 0.01%.

  The Future of Population Density Near the Equator

  Looking ahead to 2100, the UN projects that the global population will rise to almost 11 billion. This would increase global population density from 59.11 people per square kilometer in 2022 to 80.82 per square kilometer in 2010.

  However, the projections show that Asia will not be the biggest contributor to this growth. Instead, the most considerable jump in population is predicted for Africa, set to grow by almost 200% from almost 1.5 billion people today to 4.3 billion in 2100.

  The equator runs right through the middle of Africa and crisscrosses countries like the Congo (both the Republic and DRC), Kenya, Gabon, Uganda, and Somalia.

  As Africa’s population expands, this means that at latitudes near the equator, there could be even higher population densities coming. Or course, this largely depends on how the world’s fastest growing cities⁠—most of which are in Africa⁠—shape up over the coming decades.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 23:00

• Watch: Colorado School Board Cuts Off Mom For Reading Out Sex Scene From Book Available To Students
  Watch: Colorado School Board Cuts Off Mom For Reading Out Sex Scene From Book Available To Students

  Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A Colorado mother was cut off at her local school board meeting after trying to read out a sexually explicit passage from a book she said was available to children in the school district.

  

  The mother, identifying herself as D. Barnes, spoke at a March 16 school board meeting for Adams 12 Five Star Schools, which serves Denver’s northeastern outskirts. She told board members that she was “very concerned” about the material that children have access to through their schooling.

  “I do not favor book banning,” she said to the audience, many of whom had spoken before her either in support or opposition to the district’s policy regarding “gender non-conforming” and transgender students. “But I do want to tell you that pornography does not belong in our schools.”

  Barnes specifically took issue with two books: “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe, and “Lawn Boy,” a young adult novel by Jonathan Evison. She said that young children have access to these titles “via online resources that Adams 12 made possible.”

  “Alison Bechdel writes ‘Fun Home’ about discovering masturbation soon after her first period,” Barnes began reading from “Gender Queer.”

  “I discovered around the same age followed by the further realization that my ability to become aroused was governed by a strict law of diminishing returns, an elaborate fantasy based on Plato’s Symposium. The more I had to interact with my genitals, the less likely I was to reach a point of satisfaction. The best fantasy was one that did not require any physical touch at all.”

  She then continued to read a section detailing the use of a new sex toy and various associated quotes.

  It was at this point that the board decided Barnes was “out of order” and demanded she stop reading. “This is your first warning,” a board member said.

  “This is a book that is accessible in Adams 12,” the mother protested as that board member asked her to refrain from reading further. “This is what you allow in our schools. This is what you allow for our kids to have access to. This is pornography and this is grooming for pedophilia.”

  Another board member suggested restoring Barnes’s time so long as she agreed to keep the content “appropriate for K-12.” The apparent irony prompted several attendees in the audience to speak out in frustration.

  “But it’s in the library. You made it appropriate,” a man yelled.

  Barnes moved on to describe her feelings when she discovered “Lawn Boy” was available to high school students in the district.

  “I was livid, I was angry, I was hurt that this was accessible to our children,” she said, arguing that the book should be treated the same way as “Playboy” or “Penthouse,” which don’t deserve a place in schools in the first place, she added.

  The video of the four-hour meeting has been on the Adams 12’s YouTube since March, but has recently gone viral on social media after a two-minute clip of the exchange was shared by popular Twitter account LibsofTikTok.

  In a statement regarding Barnes’s comments, Adams 12 said the district has just one copy of “Lawn Boy.”

  “Members of the community have the opportunity to challenge school library materials currently held in district-managed schools,” the district stated. “At the current time, one copy of ‘Lawn Boy’ is held at one of our high school libraries and ‘Gender Queer’ is not held in any of the school libraries of district-managed schools.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 22:30

• The Deadliest Countries For Journalists In 2022
  The Deadliest Countries For Journalists In 2022

  Two more journalists have been killed in Mexico. , which as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, is the country has been named the deadliest for media professionals in 2022 to-date.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While the media is reporting the Mexican death toll as eleven, Reporters Without Borders still counts the total as eight as deaths are verified before they appear in the count.

  Statista’s chart therefore reflects the latest figure by the source, in case the deaths of journalists in other countries have also not yet been verified and posted on the website.

  The organization reports that a total of 27 journalists and media professionals have been killed this year because of their job, including seven journalists killed in Ukraine.

  Additionally, Reporters Without Borders counted 62 journalists that have been imprisoned this year so far because of their profession.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 22:00

• D'Souza's "2000 Mules" Grosses Over $1 Million On Rumble In First 12 Hours
  D’Souza’s “2000 Mules” Grosses Over $1 Million On Rumble In First 12 Hours

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

  Dinesh D’Souza’s new documentary hauled in over $1 million on a streaming website in just 12 hours.

  

  Viewers paid to watch “2000 Mules” on Rumble and its platform Locals after the movie became available to rent on May 7 at noon, Rumble announced.

  “The success of ‘2000 Mules’ on Rumble is a great sign for creators who do not want to be silenced or censored for their speech,” D’Souza said in a statement.

  “Supporting creative independence is core to our values, and we are thrilled to offer creators a new way to distribute and sell movies independently,” Assaf Lev, the president of Locals, added.

  The film was screened at theaters across the country before it became available to stream online.

  Described as an expose of “widespread, coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 election,” the movie draws on cellphone location data paired with video surveillance that captured people dropping ballots off at drop boxes, boxes situated outdoors where people can drop off ballots.

  While some states allow people to gather ballots from certain people and drop them off, the volume of ballots inserted into the boxes and the fact that the people—described as mules—went to multiple boxes to drop ballots off, showed what happened was illegal, filmmakers say.

  “The mules are instructed to do three votes over here or five votes over there, 10 votes over here, they spread it around so as not to raise eyebrows and not to raise suspicion,” D’Souza said on EpochTV’s “Crossroads.”

  The scale of the operation was enough to tip the 2020 election, he said.

  Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have urged supporters to see the movie.

  Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) called it “revealing and sickening” while Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) put it forth after being asked for recommendations for a good war movie.

  Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) was among those watching the documentary at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s resort in Florida, calling it afterward a “great work by some serious investigators.”

  But not everybody has agreed.

  Many elections officials say they investigated claims of voter fraud and substantiated few of the cases.

  Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said during a recent debate that his office investigated complaints, including video footage showing a man dropping off ballots into a drop box.

  “We investigated, and the five ballots that he turned in were all for himself and his family members,” he said.

  The Michigan Secretary of State’s office, meanwhile, told The Epoch Times that the movie did not show anything illegal.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 21:30

• US Hits Grim Milestone Of 1 Million COVID Deaths
  US Hits Grim Milestone Of 1 Million COVID Deaths

  More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has hit another grim milestone.

  

  805 days after the CDC recorded the first official Covid-19 death in the U.S. on February 27, 2020, President Biden mourned the death of one million Americans, speaking of “irreplaceable losses, each leaving behind a family, a community forever changed because of this pandemic.”

  “As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow. To heal, we must remember,” Biden said in an official statement.

  Of course, Biden could not help but politicize the event and spin a victory lap…

  When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available.

  In the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President’s term ever recorded.

  — The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Except not even the mainstream media could let that lie slide…

  “It’s just not true that ‘there was no vaccine available,’ at the time Biden took office,” CNN wrote.

  “About 3.5 million people were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and about 19 million people had received at least one vaccine dose as of Biden’s inauguration day on January 20, 2021, according to statistics published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

  And Biden’s Chief Medial Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci could not help himself, lamenting that many of those deaths could have been avoidable if only people had listened to him…

  “The idea of one million deaths in an outbreak is historic in nature, Dr. Fauci said in an interview with PBS, adding that “It’s estimated that, if people had been vaccinated to a much greater extent right now, that vaccines would have avoided at least a quarter of those deaths, namely about 250,000,”

  As Statista’s Felix Richter details below, after a brief respite in the spring/summer of 2021, when vaccinations and warmer weather combined to slow down the spread of the virus and consequently the number of deaths, the Delta wave that hit in late summer/early fall made things worse again. As the following chart shows, the rate of Covid deaths re-accelerated in late 2021 and early 2022, before thankfully slowing down in the last three months.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While it took just 50 days to go from 800,000 deaths in December 2021 to 900,000 on February 3. It has taken twice as long to go from 900,000 to one million Covid casualties.

  Ans finally, we note that more Americans have died from COVID during President Biden’s term than died during President Trump’s.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 21:00

• Court Rules California's Gun Sale Ban For Those Under 21 Is Unconstitutional
  Court Rules California’s Gun Sale Ban For Those Under 21 Is Unconstitutional

  Authored by Gabrielle Stephenson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that California’s ban on the sale of most semiautomatic weapons to adults under age 21 is unconstitutional.

  

  In a 2–1 decision (pdf), a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s law violates the Second Amendment rights.

  The Second Amendment reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

  “America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army,” U.S. Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote for the San Francisco-based appeals court. “Today we reaffirm that our Constitution still protects the right that enabled their sacrifice: the right of young adults to keep and bear arms.”

  A summary of the court ruling reads, in part: “The panel held that California’s ban was a severe burden on the core Second Amendment right of self defense in the home.” It also says that historical record showed that the Second Amendment “protects the right of young adults to keep and bear arms, which includes the right to purchase them.”

  The decision by Nelson and U.S. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lee, also a Trump appointee, reverses a ruling by San Diego-based U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, who in November 2020 (pdf) declined to block the law’s enforcement.

  “[T]he district court erred by holding that the California laws did not burden Second Amendment rights,” Nelson wrote in the opinion on Wednesday.

  The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said it is reviewing the court’s decision. In a statement, a spokesperson said it was committed to “defending California’s commonsense gun laws.”

  The California law, California Penal Code 27510(a), took effect in July 2021, banning the sale of long guns and semiautomatic centerfire rifles to anyone under the age of 21. Law enforcement officers and active-duty military service members would be exempt from the ban. But those with hunting licenses would not be exempt.

  Plaintiffs who brought the case challenging the law had argued the measure infringes on the Second Amendment rights of adults aged 18–20.

  “We are delighted that the Ninth Circuit has vindicated the rights of 18- to 20-year-old adults to keep and bear arms,” Haley Proctor, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday after the ruling.

  The Firearms Policy Coalition, who were among the plaintiffs, on Twitter called the decision a “huge win.” The non-profit group said the ruling makes it optimistic age-based gun bans will be overturned in other courts.

  U.S. District Court Judge Sidney Stein, an appointee of President Bill Clinton who was temporarily assigned to the panel from the Southern District of New York, dissented. He said the state of California gave “substantial and substantiated justifications for its enactment of the semiautomatic rifle regulation.”

  Stein said the ban did not place a “severe burden” on gun rights for young adults, pointing out that they can still obtain semiautomatic rifles from family members, or borrow them from others.

  He also said that those under 21 are “disproportionately more likely to commit violent crimes in general and gun violence specifically than older adults.” He wrote, “While 18 to 20-year-olds comprise less than 5 [percent] of the U.S. population, they account for more than 15 [percent] of reported homicide and manslaughter arrests.”

  Nelson had noted in his opinion that plaintiffs pointed out that only 0.25 percent of young adults are arrested for violent crimes.

  “In other words, California’s law sweeps in 400 times (100 [percent] divided by 0.25 [percent]) more young adults than would be ideal,” he wrote. “Because it regulates so much more conduct than necessary to achieve its goal, the law is unlikely to be a reasonable fit for California’s objectives.”

  Hunting License Requirement ‘Reasonable,’ Court Rules

  Matthew Jones, from Santee in San Diego County, is the lead plaintiff in the case. He originally sued in July 2019 when he was 20 years old, saying he wanted a gun to defend himself and for other lawful reasons, but didn’t want to obtain a hunting license.

  The hunting license requirement was passed in 2018, when handgun sales to those under 21 were already prohibited. The requirement came after a mass shooting where a 19-year-old man opened fire on Valentine’s day in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people.

  In 2019, another 19-year-old man in April opened fire at a synagogue in San Diego County, killing one and injuring three others, including an 8-year-old girl. In response, the California legislature moved to ban sales of semiautomatic centerfire rifles to anyone under 21, and the measure was signed into law in October 2019.

  Jones’s lawsuit was filed before the California ban came about. The lawsuit was later amended to also challenge that law.

  The 9th Circuit panel said in its majority opinion that an outright ban on semiautomatic centerfire rifle sales to those under 21 went too far. But it said the state can require the underage adults to obtain a hunting license in order to purchase a semiautomatic rifle. It said the license requirement would be “reasonable” for increasing public safety through “sensible firearm control.”

  “It’s one thing to say that young adults must take a course and purchase a hunting license before obtaining certain firearms,” Nelson wrote in the concurring opinion. “But to say that they must become police officers or join the military? … It is a blanket ban for everyone except police officers and servicemembers.”

  Democratic state Sen. Anthony Portantino of La Cañada Flintridge, who wrote both laws, said he was disappointed the semiautomatic ban was struck down but was pleased the hunting license requirement survived.

  “I remain committed to keeping deadly weapons out of the wrong hands,” Portantino said. “Student safety on our campuses is something we should all rally behind and sensible gun control is part of that solution.”

  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 20:30

• Here's The Official Explanation For Mars 'Doorway'
  Here’s The Official Explanation For Mars ‘Doorway’

  The Brits have ‘debunked’ a photograph taken on May 7 by NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars which resembles a doorway cut into the side of a cliff.

  

  There are two explanations; it’s a small, naturally occurring rectangular gap, and it’s a tiny, naturally occurring rectangular gap.

  In a statement to Science Live, France-based planetary geologist Nicholas Mangold says it’s less than 3 feet (1 meter) high – which he quipped lends itself to the trope of Martains being exceedingly short.

  

  Professor Sanjeev Gupta at Imperial College London told the Daily Telegraph that it’s even smaller – measuring roughly 30cm by 45cm. (11″ x 17″), and caused by small fractures in the rock.

  “There are linear fractures throughout this outcrop, and this is a location where several linear fractures happen to intersect,” according to the scientists.

  One can also look at the surrounding area via gigapan, where a similar ‘cave door’ can be seen to the left.

  

  Curiosity is currently climbing an 18,000 foot mountain, Mount Sharp, the crater of which the rover landed in August 2012. The odd photo was taken on Greenheugh Pediment, which notably has rough, ‘gator-back’ terrain that resembles reptilian scales.

  

  

  

  So, the Mars rover photographed what appears to be a door – only it’s not a door – near some very odd looking terrain.

  As VICE notes, “The door-like formation is just the latest in a series of weird extraterrestrial features spotted over the decades by interplanetary explorers, robotic and human, that have sparked the imaginations of onlookers. Earlier this week, people marveled at new images of claw-like scratches that stretch for hundreds of miles across the western hemisphere of the red planet, which were captured from outer space by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. These are not the markings of some giant Martian cat in search of a scratching post, but rather ancient fault lines.”

  

  Maybe when Elon gets there he can investigate?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 20:00

• Visualizing Durham's First Trial: The Michael Sussmann Case Timeline
  Visualizing Durham’s First Trial: The Michael Sussmann Case Timeline

  By Petr Svab via The Epoch Times,

  As the trial of former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann approaches, The Epoch Times presents a comprehensive timeline of Sussmann’s activities before and after the 2016 election. The cybersecurity lawyer faces one count of lying to the government for allegedly claiming to an FBI official that he was providing information while not representing any clients, when in fact he was representing the Clinton campaign. As a result of the alleged lie, the FBI was put at a disadvantage in grasping “the politically-laden and ethically-fraught nature” of the information, according to special counsel John Durham, who’s been tasked to review the FBI investigation into supposed collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to sway the 2016 election. The FBI investigation, partly concerned with the information provided by Sussmann, discovered no such collusion.

  Sussman joined the Department of Justice in the early 1990s and for 12 years fulfilled several roles, mostly related to prosecuting cybercrime. He then became a partner at Perkins Coie—a large law firm whose lawyers often represent the Democratic Party—where he advised tech companies mainly on cyber-related issues such as compliance with government surveillance requests. One of the companies Sussmann advised was Neustar, which used to provide Domain Name System services and had access to non-public and proprietary internet traffic data.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 19:30

• NOAA Study Finds Cleaner Air Leads To More Atlantic Hurricanes
  NOAA Study Finds Cleaner Air Leads To More Atlantic Hurricanes

  If you blinked, you may not have noticed “the science” changing on a key issue yet again.

  This time, it’s the issue of hurricanes and what causes them. 

  As any “woke” environmentalist or climate activist will tell you, man made climate change/global warming is definitely the sole, if not major driving cause behind hurricanes occurring with increased frequency and in larger sizes.

  Except for one little thing: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just found from a new study that cleaner air is actually brewing more hurricanes in the Atlantic, according to a new AP article. 

  The new study “links changes in regionalized air pollution across the globe to storm activity going both up and down” and found that a 50% decrease in pollution particles and droplets in Europe and the U.S. is linked to a 33% increase in Atlantic storm formation over the past couple of decades.

  Got that? Cleaner air, more hurricanes, in the Atlantic. In the Pacific, the opposite is happening: more pollution and fewer tycoons. 

  

  NOAA hurricane scientist Hiroyuki Murakami backed up the findings with computer simulations. Murakami found that previous thoughts on aerosol pollution cooling the air were accurate and showed a direct link to hurricane formation. Hurricanes need warm water, warmed by the air, for fuel. 

  Aerosol pollution peaked around 1980, the report says, and has been falling since. This means that cooling that masked some greenhouse gas warming is going away and sea surface temperatures are again rising. It has also pushed the jet stream north, the report says. 

  Climate and hurricane scientist Jim Kossin told AP: “That’s why the Atlantic has gone pretty much crazy since the mid-90s and why it was so quiet in the 70s and 80s.” He said the aerosol pollution “gave a lot of people in the 70s and 80s a break, but we’re all paying for it now.”

  AP continued: 

  While aerosol cooling is maybe half to one-third smaller than the warming from greenhouse gases, it is about twice as effective in reducing tropical cyclone intensity compared to warming increasing it, said Columbia University climate scientist Adam Sobel, who wasn’t part of the study. As aerosol pollution stays at low levels in the Atlantic and greenhouse gas emissions grow, climate change’s impact on storms will increase in the future and become more prominent, Murakami said.

  In the Pacific, aerosol pollution from Asian nations has gone up 50% from 1980 to 2010 and is starting to drop now. Tropical cyclone formation from 2001 to 2020 is 14% lower than 1980 to 2000, Murakami said.

  Kristie Ebi, who studies health, climate and extreme weather, concluded: “Air pollution is a major killer, so reducing emissions is critical no matter what happens with the number of cyclones.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 19:00

• Florida Judge Orders Vandal To Write 25 Pages Of LGBT Fiction
  Florida Judge Orders Vandal To Write 25 Pages Of LGBT Fiction

  Authored by Brian McGlinchey via Stark Realities,

  In a jaw-dropping example of government imposing woke mythology on an individual citizen, a Florida judge recently ordered a man who defaced an LGBT mural to write a 25-page essay centered on a thoroughly false premise—that the 2016 massacre at the gay Pulse nightclub in Orlando deliberately targeted the LGBT community.

  Though that baseless narrative is still embraced by opportunistic activists, pandering politicians, lazy journalists and those they’ve misled, it’s been well-established since 2018 that self-described “Islamic soldier” Omar Mateen chose the club at random and that he viewed his attack purely as retaliation for civilian casualties caused by US military interventions in the Middle East.

  Coming a day after the chilling announcement that the Department of Homeland Security has established a “Disinformation Governance Board,” the judge’s use of coerced false speech as a form of rehabilitation added a bizarre twist to what had already been an Orwellian week in America.

  It’s safe to say Florida circuit judge Scott Suskauer has no idea he’s compelling false speech by 20-year-old Alexander Jerich, who pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and reckless driving after using his truck to do a burnout on a Pride flag-themed mural spanning an intersection in Delray Beach.

  

  Video of Jerich’s Burnout Was Posted to Social Media

  Like countless others, Suskauer has likely been misled by relentless repetition of the false Pulse narrative across both traditional and social media. Whatever his good intentions, Suskauer’s directive puts Jerich in an awkward position. His assignment is due June 8—the same day Suskauer will hand down his final sentence.

  Though Jerich has already paid $2,000 to repair the mural, the president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council urged Suskauer to imprison Jerich for a year. Prosecutors are seeking a 30-day jail sentence and five years of probation.

  Jerich is thus under intense pressure to express ideas about the Pulse attack that match the judge’s profoundly flawed understanding of it. (Jerich’s attorney, Robert Pasch, did not respond to a request for comment.) In addition to instructing Jerich to research the 49 people killed in the Pulse attack, Suskauer said, “I want your own brief summary of why people are so hateful and why people lash out against the gay community.”

  Even double-spaced, 25 pages equates to a very hefty 7,000 words or so—all centered on the false premise that Omar Mateen killed those 49 people because they were part of the LGBT community.

  Pulse Nightclub Chosen at Last Minute

  Omar Mateen’s attack on Pulse was undeniably horrific, and stands behind the 2017 Las Vegas massacre as the second-deadliest mass shooting in US history.

  However, while it was a tragedy for Orlando’s LGBT community, Mateen didn’t target that community. Indeed, this wasn’t a hate crime of any sort; it was a terrorist attack on a nightclub chosen at random and without knowledge of its gay clientele.

  How it started for 20yo Palm Beach County Trump supporter Alexander Jerich…

  1/3 pic.twitter.com/dvgnf8bcMz

  — SFDB (@sfdb) June 17, 2021

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  That’s been abundantly clear since the 2018 federal trial against Mateen’s wife, Noor Salman. Charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization, she was found not guilty on all counts after prosecutors failed to prove she knew what her husband was planning.

  Some good did come from the trial: It exposed a wealth of details about the attack—details that starkly contradict the perception that Pulse was targeted because of its gay clientele. As it turns out, Pulse wasn’t Mateen’s first or even second target. He’d initially intended to attack the Disney Springs retail, dining and entertainment complex, but was apparently deterred by the security there.

  Tellingly, as he looked for a new target, he searched the internet for “downtown Orlando nightclubs;” he didn’t include any LGBT terms in his searches. He first started driving toward an Orlando nightclub called EVE before settling on Pulse only about 30 minutes before attacking.

  In Salman’s trial, prosecutors acknowledged the complete lack of evidence that Mateen knew Pulse was a gay nightclub. Indeed, Mateen seemed confused by what he found at Pulse: According to a security guard at the club, before opening fire, Mateen asked where all the women were.

  Mateen’s murderous stay at Pulse spanned approximately three hours. Over that time, not a single witness heard him say anything about homosexuals or Western culture. The 17-page transcript of Mateen’s conversations with 911 operators and police negotiators that night is particularly illuminating.

  Mateen said nothing about gay people or the nightclub. Rather, he proclaimed his allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS), repeatedly condemned US airstrikes in the Middle East and portrayed his rampage as an act of retaliation:

  • “What’s going on is that I feel the pain of the people getting killed in Syria and Iraq and all over the Muslim (unidentified word).”

  • “They need to stop the U.S. airstrikes. You have to tell the U.S. government to stop bombing. They are killing too many children, they are killing too many women, okay?”

  • “You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people. What am I to do here when my people are getting killed over there? You get what I’m saying?”

  • “Even though it’s not fucking airstrikes, it’s fucking strikes here, okay?”

  • “You see, now you feel, now you feel how it is.”

  • “My homeboy Tamerlan Tsarnaev did his thing on the Boston Marathon…okay, so now it’s my turn, okay?”

  • “The airstrike that killed Abu Wahid (the “military emir” of ISIS in Iraq’s Anbar province) a few weeks ago…that’s what triggered it, okay?”

  

  Mateen’s social media posts tell the same story—he rails against U.S. military actions in the Middle East and says nothing at all about gay people. Shortly before his attack, he wrote, “You kill innocent women and children by doing U.S. airstrikes…now taste the Islamic State vengeance.” Significantly, the Pulse attack is nowhere to be found in the 2016 report on hate crimes published by the Florida attorney general’s office.

  Finally, those journalists who’ve most closely studied the case overwhelmingly reject the anti-LGBT theory of the attack, including those at liberal outlets like Huffington Post (Everyone Got the Pulse Massacre Story Completely Wrong), Vox (New Evidence Shows Pulse Nightclub Shooting Wasn’t About Anti-LGBTQ Hate) and NBC (What Really Happened That Night at Pulse).

  In the face of all that, proponents of the anti-LGBT theory of the Pulse attack can only cling to the baseless assumption that Mateen concealed his true motivation. However, as Glenn Greenwald wrote in his comprehensive dismantling of the Pulse mythology, “That never made sense: The whole point of terrorism is to publicize, not conceal, the grievances driving the violence.”

  In a culture where perceived victimhood is now a source of political power and leverage, the Pulse mythology is too valuable for many to surrender. However, whatever benefit that accrues to the LGBT community from the counterfeit characterization of the event has a cost that goes beyond stoking excessive fear among and on behalf of LGBT people. Chief among those costs: Falsely proclaiming the Pulse massacre an act of anti-gay bias buries the truth that it was a terrorist attack perpetrated on random Americans and precipitated by U.S. interventionism abroad.

  Of course, hiding the horrific domestic consequences of America’s regime change addiction serves the interest of the government, which helps explains why the FBI fought to keep Mateen’s phone call transcript—and his explanation of his actual motivation—under wraps. After all, whether it’s Pulse, 9/11 or other attacks, the less Americans realize terrorism on U.S. soil is a bloody byproduct of an interventionist foreign policy, the better for the national security establishment and defense contractors that champion and benefit from it.

  For everyday Americans, however, the false narrative about the Pulse terrorist attack helps perpetuate the policies that led to it—and, in so doing, increases the likelihood that such horrors will continue to be visited upon random American innocents again and again.

  Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. Read more and subscribe at starkrealities.substack.com

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 18:30

• Ten Dead After Gunman Livestreams Mass Shooting At Buffalo Supermarket
  Ten Dead After Gunman Livestreams Mass Shooting At Buffalo Supermarket

  Update (1849ET): Two law enforcement officials told AP the gunman had been identified as 18yo Payton Gendron. One of the officials said the FBI is questioning the suspect.

  * * * 

  Update (1832ET): During a press conference, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said 13 people were shot, and ten people died in a “racially motivated” mass shooting. 

  Gramaglia said that an 18yo white shooter drove from “hours away,” equipped with military gear, and opened fire in a Tops Friendly Markets on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo. 

  The U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York said the mass shooting is being investigated as a hate crime. The FBI is also investigating the incident as an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.

  BPD Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia gives an account of what happened at Tops on Jefferson Ave. in Buffalo. The shooting is being investigated by the FBI as a hate crime and as an act of racially-motivated violent extremism.

  Updating here: https://t.co/qiqtpeOYLB pic.twitter.com/xbUV7hxESp

  — 7 News WKBW (@WKBW) May 14, 2022

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  * * * 

  AP reports at least ten people died after a gunman opened fire at Buffalo, New York, supermarket.

  BREAKING: BPD on scene of a mass shooting at the Tops in the 1200 block of Jefferson Avenue. Police say multiple people have been struck by gunfire. The shooter is in custody. Motorists and residents are urged to avoid the area.

  — Buffalo Police Dept (@BPDAlerts) May 14, 2022

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  A gunman dressed in a military uniform reportedly opened fire in the parking lot and inside the Tops Friendly Supermarket at 1275 Jefferson Avenue. 

  

  Police told NBC New York the gunman had military-style body armor and two rifles. 

  

  #BREAKING Several people wounded during shooting attack in a supermarket in Buffalo, NY.
  Suspect arrested, described himself as a white supremacist and anti-semite in an online manifesto pic.twitter.com/F2ZPSWUSCb

  — Guy Elster (@guyelster) May 14, 2022

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  The Daily Mail notes the gunman live-streamed the shooting. This is an unconfirmed screenshot of the video. 

  

  NBC points out the supermarket is situated in a “predominately Black neighborhood, about 3 miles north of downtown Buffalo. The surrounding area is primarily residential, with a Family Dollar store and fire station near the store.” 

  Local news WIVB’s Kelsey Anderson says “15 Peacemakers” have arrived on the scene, “along with other organizations to keep the peace.” 

  Im told about 15 Peacemakers are down here right now (yellow shirts), along with other organizations to keep the peace. They’re now giving out water to anyone who may need it. Lots of emotion here tonight @news4buffalo pic.twitter.com/Np74GSRoRb

  — Kelsey Anderson (@4KelseyAnderson) May 14, 2022

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  New York State Governor Kathy Hochul tweeted that she’s “monitoring the shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo.”  

  I am closely monitoring the shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo. We have offered assistance to local officials. If you are in Buffalo, please avoid the area and follow guidance from law enforcement and local officials.

  — Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) May 14, 2022

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  *Developing

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 17:52

• Plane Erupts Into Flames After Crash Landing On Miami Bridge  
  Plane Erupts Into Flames After Crash Landing On Miami Bridge  

  A single-engine Cessna 172 lost power shortly after takeoff and crash-landed on a bridge in Miami Saturday afternoon, hitting one vehicle and erupting into flames, according to NBC Mami.

  The Cessna, with three people on board, lost power shortly after taking off from Fort Lauderdale en route to Key West. It went down around 1300ET on the Haulover Inlet Bridge in Biscayne Bay in Miami Dade County. 

  

  Video of the incident posted on social media shows smoke billowing out of the crumpled plane flipped upside down while a dark red SUV had severe front-end damage.

  Awful private plane crash in #mia @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/LjJg7bgUtM

  — Alex H (@lexSayzzz) May 14, 2022

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  Fire Rescue officials told NBC Mami six people were injured, including two from the plane who suffered traumatic injuries. Three others were injured with non-life-threatening injuries. A sixth person was injured, though their status is unknown. 

  Drone footage shows a man jumping out of the mangled plane to rescue at least one other person trapped inside. 

  so this just happened … about an hour ago Boat Zone’s drone caught the immediate aftermath of a plane hitting a car on the Haulover Inlet, the plane catching fire, and a couple people escaping #surfside #haulover #miami pic.twitter.com/wsG2hsis2I

  — Seabass Chen (@seabasschen) May 14, 2022

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  Another video shows the chaos on the ground. 

  I received as #Miami #plane #crash . Not sure about the date pic.twitter.com/okzSzGhBhl

  — Hubert Melin ✈️🛩🚁 (@HubertMelin) May 14, 2022

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  The FAA will be investigating the incident. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 17:30

• India Halts Wheat Exports As "Food Security At Risk"  
  India Halts Wheat Exports As “Food Security At Risk”  

  India prohibited wheat exports effective immediately, saying the nation’s food security was under threat, partly due to heatwaves that damaged yields in the country and disruptions to global grain markets in the Black Sea breadbasket region. 

  The notice was published in the government gazette by the Directorate of Foreign Trade on Friday. It read, “there is a sudden spike in the global food prices of wheat arising out of many factors, as a result of which the food security of India, neighboring and other vulnerable countries is at risk.”

  India said it was still committed to exporting wheat to “neighboring and other vulnerable developing countries which are adversely affected by the sudden changes in the global market for wheat and are unable to access adequate wheat supplies.”

  

  The move by the world’s second-largest wheat producer comes as food protectionism runs rampant worldwide as countries limit or restrict exports of food staples to rein in domestic prices. 

  Wheat futures are expected to jump Sunday evening and add to record-high food inflation, crushing emerging market economies the hardest. High food prices have already resulted in inflation riots in several countries, one being the ongoing social instability unfolding in Sir Lanka. 

  Before the export ban, India was expected to be one of the top-10 wheat exporters for the 2022-23 crop season. Removing all (or part of) India’s expected wheat exports creates a massive hole in the global supply and demand. Wheat prices will rise further, and quickly #OATT pic.twitter.com/XG7OKuyMxX

  — Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) May 14, 2022

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  The ban comes as no surprise considering India has been mulling trade restrictions this month as heatwaves have damaged wheat yields.

  *INDIA MULLS RESTRICTING WHEAT EXPORTS AS HEAT DESTROYS CROPS

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 4, 2022

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  Wheat production this year in the South Asian nation is expected to decline after rising for a half-decade. Other top-producing wheat countries will experience production drops by the end of the growing season and may exacerbate the fall in global wheat production. 

  

  “We now have an environment with another supplier removed from contention in global trade flows,” Andrew Whitelaw, a grains analyst at Melbourne-based Thomas Elder Markets, told Bloomberg. “The world is starting to get very short of wheat,” he added. 

  “We should carefully map the requirement of India’s domestic food security”: Economist Vijay Sardana on India’s wheat export ban pic.twitter.com/rnFplorzZE

  — NDTV (@ndtv) May 14, 2022

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  A Mumbai-based commodity dealer with a global trading firm told Reuters the ban is “shocking.” The trader added: “We were expecting curbs on exports after 2-3 months, but seems inflation numbers changed the government’s mind.”

  Add protectionism to the list of what could spark even more chaos for global food markets. If countries continue to place export restrictions on food, the crisis could deepen.

  Energy crisis -> food protectionism -> economic vapor lock -> global famine https://t.co/ROH6RWVyAx

  — Doomberg (@DoombergT) May 14, 2022

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 17:00

• House Panel To Hold First Public Hearing On UFOs In Decades
  House Panel To Hold First Public Hearing On UFOs In Decades

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The House Intelligence Committee’s subcommittee on counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and counterproliferation is set to hold a public hearing next week on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), also known as UFOs, marking the first time such a hearing has taken place in over 50 years.

  The hearing, which will assess what risks UFOs pose to national security, will be chaired by Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.).

  “Congress hasn’t held a public hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UFOs) in over 50 years,” Carson wrote on Twitter on Tuesday alongside black and white photos of what appeared to be mysterious flying objects.

  “That will change next week when I lead a hearing in House Intelligence on this topic and the national security risk it poses. Americans need to know more about these unexplained occurrences.”

  The hearing will take place on May 17 at 10 a.m. ET and can be watched online.

  Witnesses will include Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald S. Moultrie and Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott W. Bray.

  After the public hearing, a closed, classified hearing will follow that will focus on the Pentagon’s Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, which was established in November 2021 and replaced the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.

  That group’s role is to “detect, identify, and attribute objects of interest in Special Use Airspace and to assess and mitigate any associated threats to safety of flight and national security,” according to the Department of Defense.

  

  In a statement, Carson said that Americans “expect and deserve their leaders in government and intelligence to seriously evaluate and respond to any potential national security risks—especially those we do not fully understand.”

  He added that since joining Congress, he has been “focused on the issue of unidentified aerial phenomena as both a national security threat and an interest of great importance to the American public.”

  The upcoming hearing follows a nine-page public report (pdf) issued in June 2021 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in conjunction with a U.S. Navy-led UAP task force that outlined 144 reports of UAPs.

  Those reports dated back to 2004 and state that 11 of the 144 observations caused “near misses” for military pilots.

  The 11 “documented instances in which pilots reported near misses with a UAP” were cited as examples of current “ongoing airspace concerns.”

  “UAP pose a hazard to safety of flight and could pose a broader danger if some instances represent sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary,” the report reads.

  However, the report notes that, with the exception of one instance where officials were able to determine that the UAP was airborne clutter—in that case, a deflating balloon—defense and intelligence analysts were unable to attribute incidents to specific explanations.

  “UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security,” the report states, while noting that the phenomena “probably lack a single explanation.”

  During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the Defense Department is “committed to being as transparent as we can with the American people and with members of Congress about our perspectives” on UAPs and will try to “make sure we have a better process for identifying these phenomena, analyzing that information in a more proactive, coordinated way than it’s been done in the past.”

  He said the Pentagon will also attempt to “mitigate any safety issues” that arise since “many of these phenomena” have been sighted in training areas and training environments.

  While many will no doubt be eagerly awaiting Tuesday’s hearing, Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) questioned the move in light of current events taking place across the globe.

  “With China and Russia developing hypersonic weapons and the Biden administration leaking alleged U.S. military operations in Ukraine, we have far more serious intelligence threats than flying saucers,” Crawford said, according to CNN.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 16:30

• Egg Prices Soar As 10% Of Nation's Hens Wiped Out By Devastating Bird Flu
  Egg Prices Soar As 10% Of Nation’s Hens Wiped Out By Devastating Bird Flu

  Food prices are rising across the U.S., but the latest sticker shock at the supermarket is in the eggs and poultry aisles, as the deadly bird flu wreaks havoc on the country’s egg-laying hen flock. 

  Inflation data tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found a dozen of eggs jumped 23% in April compared with the month before to $2.52. Prices reached levels not seen since early 2016, a period that followed the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak of 2014-15, which led to a 50% increase in egg prices in the second half of 2015.

  

  Since January, the outbreak has spread to 32 states, killing more than 37 million chickens and turkeys. Of that, 29 million egg-laying hens have died, or about 10% of the U.S.’ total flock of 300 million. Bloomberg says the bird flu is “shaping up to be the worst outbreak of its kind.”

  “When the outbreaks first started, the jump in wholesale values was being driven primarily by demand, as there was a bit of panic and short covering going on in the marketplace. But at this point, so much production has been removed from the landscape that it’s more of a supply-side issue,” Karyn Rispoli, an egg market reporter at commodity research firm Urner Barry, told CBS News. 

  Breakfast has become the most expensive in years. It’s not just eggs, orange juice and wheat prices are also soaring. 

  

  Egg prices could be headed higher as there are no indications the avian influenza spread is under control. This is just another sign that food shortages could get much worse in the second half of the year. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 16:00

• Newsom Proposes $18 Billion Relief Package To Offset Inflation
  Newsom Proposes $18 Billion Relief Package To Offset Inflation

  Authored by Vanessa Serna via The Epoch Times,

  As inflation increases, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed an $18.1 billion Inflation Relief Package May 12 that includes direct payments to state residents.

  “This inflation relief package will help offset the higher costs that Californians are facing right now and provide support to those still recovering from the pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement.

  

  The following is included in the package, according to the news release:

  • $11.5 billion in tax refunds, including $400 checks to every registered vehicle owner in the state, capped at two checks per individual

  • $2.7 billion for an emergency rental assistant for low-income tenants who sought state rental assistance prior to March 31

  • $1.4 billion to assist residents with past-due utility bills, including $1.2 billion dedicated to electricity bills and $200 million for water bills

  • $933 million for hospital and nursing home staff, including $1,500 to workers who delivered care during the COVID-19 pandemic

  • $750 million for free public transit for up to three months

  • $304 million for more affordable health coverage for middle-class families, including for families of four earning up to $166,500 annually

  • $439 million to halt the diesel sales tax for 12 months

  • $157 million to waive preschool and childcare fees for low-income families—resulting in $595 in savings per month per family

  Aside from the $18.1 billion package, minimum wage is expected to increase to $15.50 per hour beginning Jan. 1, 2023, according to the governor’s office.

  The proposal will have to be voted upon by lawmakers before passing.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 15:30

• TikTok Sued Following Death Of 10-Year-Old In Viral 'Blackout Challenge'
  TikTok Sued Following Death Of 10-Year-Old In Viral ‘Blackout Challenge’

  The family of a 10-year-old girl who allegedly participated in a viral ‘TikTok’ challenge in which people choke themselves until they black out has sued the Chinese-owned social media platform, Bloomberg reports.

  

  Nylah Anderson, was found unconscious in her Philadelphia bedroom on Dec. 7 and was rushed to a pediatric intensive care unit, where she died five days later, reads a Thursday complaint filed in federal court – which we’re guessing will be used to justify more regulations at some point.

  According to the complaint, the dangerous stunt “was thrust in front” of Anderson when TikTok presented the viral challenge on her “for you” page.

  The “algorithm determined that the deadly blackout challenge was well-tailored and likely to be of interest to 10-year-old Nylah Anderson and she died as a result,” continues the complaint, which also names parent company ByteDance as a defendant.

  TikTok does not comment on ongoing litigation, a company spokesperson said. In a previous statement issued in response to Anderson’s death, the company said “this disturbing challenge, which people seem to learn about from sources other than TikTok, long predates our platform.” 

  TikTok remains vigilant in its commitment to user safety and would remove any content related to the blackout challenge from its app, the spokesperson said, adding “our deepest sympathies go out to the family for their tragic loss.” -Bloomberg

  The lawsuit alleges that at least four children have died while participating in the blackout challenge, where people choke themselves with household items such as a rope or cord until they black out for a few seconds in order to experience a euphoric rush once regaining consciousness.

  “Social media giants like the TikTok defendants have seized the opportunity presented by the digital wild west to manipulate and control the behavior of vulnerable children to maximize attention dedicated to their social media platforms and thus maximize revenues and profits, all while shirking any safety responsibilities whatsoever,” the lawsuit reads.

  The case is Anderson v. TikTok Inc., 22-cv-01849, US District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 15:00

• Biden Oil And Gas Lease Sale Cancellations Draw Strong Reaction
  Biden Oil And Gas Lease Sale Cancellations Draw Strong Reaction

  Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  As gas prices continue to break records, the Biden administration’s cancellation of two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet has drawn clashing responses, including an accusation that the administration is “blatantly lying.”

  

  One political figure who weighed in was Donald Trump Jr., who recently campaigned with successful Republican Senate primary candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio.

  “Looks like Joe is doing a great job of making inflation his top priority,” he wrote in a tweet.

  The Cook Inlet oil and gas lease would have covered 1.09 million acres in the Cook Inlet, a body of water connecting Anchorage with the Gulf of Alaska.

  A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told The Epoch Times the Cook Inlet sale was canceled due to a “lack of industry interest in the area.”

  “I’m not sure that’s completely accurate,” Kara Moriarty, president and CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA), told The Epoch Times.

  “A lot of times, companies don’t want to tip their hand about participating in lease sales. The only time you really know if there’s interest or not is when you have the lease sale.”

  “As the former Natural Resources Commissioner for Alaska, I know there is no way they could have confirmed ‘no interest’ until they held the lease sale,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who said the Biden administration was “blatantly lying to the American people.”

  Both he and Moriarty referenced correspondence on the Cook Inlet sale from AOGA, which represents more than a dozen oil and gas producers in Alaska, as evidence of industry interest.

  “The nature by which this announcement came to news—from the White House’s ultra-left climate czar Gina McCarthy, just down the hall from the president, [and] not the Department of Interior—raises further questions over who is crafting these disastrous energy policies,” Sullivan said, referencing the accidental email to a CBS reporter from a Biden administration official that first revealed the Cook Inlet lease’s cancellation.

  Moriarty told The Epoch Times that “baffling is the nicest word I can come up with” for the cancellation.

  Some local environmentalists, by contrast, expressed strong support for the decision.

  “I’m very excited that we aren’t going to see an oil and gas lease sale that would really hurt our local economy,” Liz Mering told The Epoch Times.

  Mering is advocacy director and inletkeeper of Cook InletKeeper, an Alaskan group opposed to oil and gas leasing in the region. Its website states that it seeks to “accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to an equitable, renewable energy future.”

  The Interior spokesperson told The Epoch Times that the two Gulf of Mexico leases were canceled because of “delays due to factors including conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales.”

  In June 2021, Louisiana federal Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee, struck down the Biden administration’s pause on oil and gas leases. That pause had commenced with Executive Order 14008.

  Yet in January, District of Columbia federal Judge Rudolph Contreras, an Obama appointee, ruled that the November 2021 federal offshore oil and gas sale, the largest in history, was invalid. He argued it violated the National Environmental Policy Act because it didn’t take greenhouse gas emissions into account. The Biden administration didn’t appeal the ruling.

  The administration announced its plans to resume lease sales in March after an appeals court ruled it could incorporate a raised “social cost of carbon” factor when assessing permits.

  When he was a presidential candidate, Biden’s promises included “banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.”

  The latest lease cancellations come as inflation and high gas prices wrack the nation.

  AAA reported that regular gas on May 12 averaged $4.418 a gallon, the highest average price it has ever recorded.

  Diesel is also at the highest price point ever recorded by AAA, averaging $5.557 a gallon.

  “Prices for gasoline, diesel, and other products are high and climbing. Further, those high prices are raising the cost of other goods and services, and here we are with extraordinarily high rates of inflation at both the consumer and producer levels. The actions of this administration suggest little relief anytime soon,” energy economist Karr Ingham told The Epoch Times.

  He said Biden hasn’t yet provided the next legally mandated five-year offshore leasing plan. The current plan ends in June.

  “At this late hour, were they to set this new plan in motion today, it would be a year or so before it is in place. That means a significant gap in the time period during which companies may be able to reasonably make plans and allocate capital to drill new projects in these areas. So, in many respects, these canceled leases were the ‘last hurrah’ before that plan expires.”

  Lawmakers in Impacted States React

  Senators and representatives from Louisiana and Alaska, two states affected by the cancellations, have voiced anger and disgust.

  “Pres. Biden has killed more energy lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s killing jobs, has killed America’s energy independence, and is fueling inflation that is killing Louisiana families. And he’s doing it on purpose,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) wrote in a May 12 tweet.

  Kennedy’s senior colleague, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), voiced his concerns in similar language.

  “President Biden’s administration is actively making high gas prices worse,” Cassidy said. “When we need to unleash American energy production, the Biden administration kills opportunities at every turn.”

  “Rather than using American energy sources to help solve the problem and lower prices, the Biden administration continues to carry out policies that only benefit Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and other apparent allies of this White House. It is past time for the administration to put Americans first,” said Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who serves on the House Natural Resources committee.

  Sullivan said: “The timing and nature of this decision display a disturbing disregard for the pain American families continue to feel at the pump, for the hard-working Americans whose livelihoods and communities depend on the American energy industry, and for the grave consequences, these policies have on America’s energy and national security. As Gina McCarthy celebrates this decision from the White House, rest assured Vladimir Putin is popping corks in the Kremlin.”

  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) hasn’t yet commented on the decision.

  The Epoch Times has also reached out to the only Democrat representing Louisiana, Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.).

  Different Views From Environmental Activists and Industry

  Some environmentalists in and around the Cook Inlet celebrated the cancellation.

  “There’s a lot of tourism industry that would be really harmed by this lease sale,” Mering said.

  She said locals have fought oil and gas activity in the area since the 1970s when Cook Inlet’s Kachemak Bay was protected from drilling enabled by state leases. Commercial fishermen helped lead that pushback.

  “There has to be more and more pushback as climate change hits Alaska.”

  Moriarty noted that the Cook Inlet has been producing oil and gas for six decades. It generated 293,000 barrels of oil in March. All the oil produced in Cook Inlet is refined at the nearby Nikiski refinery.

  “There’s no evidence that production from Cook Inlet has hampered our ability to coexist with commercial and sport fishing interests,” Moriarty said, arguing that oil and gas had helped diversify the Kenai Peninsula’s economy beyond the norm in Alaska.

  Referencing the fight over oil in the 1970s, she said that “trying to pick out one incident negates the longstanding tradition we have of coexisting in Cook Inlet.”

  Yet environmental activists present a contrasting narrative.

  “This news means that the waters of lower Cook Inlet, which nourish the Gulf of Alaska as well as a watershed the size of Virginia, will continue the essential ecological function they’ve served since the last ice age. The people of this region who fought this lease sale will also continue their role in the ecology of placemaking, honoring our collective dependence on clean water,” said environmental activist Marissa Wilson of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

  Josh Wisniewski, a fisherman in the Lower Cook Inlet, also praised the decision.

  “Our fisheries, our quality of life, and regional economy depend on the health of this wild landscape we are privileged to live in. We now have the chance to build on this moment and seek a permanent withdrawal of this region from all future oil and gas lease sales to protect our home waters for future generations.”

  In an interview with The Epoch Times, Wisniewski conceded that oil and gas are currently valuable to the larger state but argued that it “doesn’t make sense in this particular context.”

  “We’ve got existing oil and gas infrastructure in different places.”

  Yet AOGA’s Moriarty argued that Cook Inlet’s production is particularly critical for use within Alaska, including for jet fuel at Ted Stevens International Airport.

  “We should be thinking about, ‘How do we get our next barrels of oil from the United States?’” Moriarty said, arguing that greater energy independence was vital to national security.

  “The U.S. supplies the cleanest barrels of any major producer on the globe. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have been declining steadily for more than two decades now and continue to do so,” said energy economist Ingham.

  “Constricting U.S. production in no way means those barrels will not be consumed—it just means those barrels will come from somewhere else, and that somewhere else will not produce that oil nearly as cleanly as the United States.”

  He speculated about the motives of Earthjustice, which praised the cancellations as “good for the climate” in CBS coverage.

  “Is Earthjustice in favor of acquiring America’s energy needs from countries and regions who produce dirtier barrels than the United States? Or are they simply anti-U.S. oil and gas, and ultimately, anti U.S.-consumer?”

  The Epoch Times has also reached out to the Environmental Defense Fund, often seen as a left-wing environmental group, and to the Property and Environmental Research Center, a free-market environmental group.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 14:30

• Russia Signals It Wants To Exchange Brittney Griner For Notorious Arms Trafficker
  Russia Signals It Wants To Exchange Brittney Griner For Notorious Arms Trafficker

  Russia for the first time appears to be intentionally signaling Washington concerning WNBA star and Olympic champion Brittney Griner, who has been held in Russian detention since her arrest at a Moscow airport three months ago on drug charges (based on customs agents saying they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil as she arrived from New York).

  It seems the Kremlin may be ready to negotiate another prisoner exchange, following the late April release of US citizen and former Marine Trevor Reed, which in return saw Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko freed from US custody. Yaroshenko a Russian civilian pilot who had been serving a 20-year sentence in the US on drug smuggling charges.

  Multiple Russian state-run outlets on Friday cited “unnamed government sources” which said Moscow is looking to see Washington hand over a notorious arms trafficker named Viktor Bout. Gazeta.Ru was the first to claim that negotiations between the two sides have already started, though no US government sources are confirming this.

  

  “Currently, talks are underway on exchanging Bout for Griner,” a source was cited in the reports as saying. ” And TASS wrote: “Russian entrepreneur Viktor Bout who was sentenced in the US for arms sales may be traded for American basketball player Brittney Griner who is accused in Russia of drug trafficking, a source in the Public Monitoring Commission confirmed to TASS on Friday.”

  “Earlier, a source of the Gazeta.Ru news outlet reported that a process preparing for such an exchange had started,” the report continued, citing the successful Trevor Reed deal.

  But who is Viktor Bout? Yahoo News describes the high-profile case which saw US agents travel across the globe to nab him over a decade ago as follows:

  Bout, whose exploits earned him the nickname the “Merchant of Death,” flooded fierce conflicts in Africa and the Middle East with weapons, U.S. authorities say. He was arrested during a sting operation in Thailand in 2008, extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles and providing aid to a terrorist organization.

  Reports: Russia wants to exchange Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap for convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout.

  ➡️ https://t.co/M8rU8SUrkL pic.twitter.com/JbsIFwMI01

  — Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 14, 2022

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  US officials previously alleged continuous Russian attempt to thwart his extradition:

  After Bout’s arrest, the U.S. alleged that his Russian allies tried to block his extradition from Thailand to America by bribing key witnesses to give false testimony. Since his 2012 conviction, Bout has been at the top of Russia’s prisoner exchange wish list and has been linked repeatedly in the Russian state media with potential swaps involving jailed Americans that haven’t come to fruition.

  Currently there’s speculation that a Wednesday visit of US ambassador to Russia John Sullivan to Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow may have included a Griner-for-Bout deal as a central topic of discussion.

  This week Griner appeared in a courtroom outside of Moscow and was photographed for the first time. Her request to be placed under house arrest was rejected, and her detention extended by 30 days.

  Russia wants arms dealer Viktor Bout exchanged for US basketball player Brittney Griner.

  Bout is jail in the US for arms smuggling. Hollywood made a movie about his exploits, Lord of War, starring Nicholas Cage.

  Griger was convicted of drug smuggling in Russia. pic.twitter.com/eXNvY4gaEb

  — Sentletse 🇷🇺🇿🇦 (@Sentletse) May 13, 2022

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  The 2005 film Lord of War was largely based on Bout’s exploits…

  

  “The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is among the highest priorities of the U.S government,” a State Dept. statement indicated eariler. “The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained US citizen Brittney Griner.” It explained: “With this determination, the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens will lead the interagency team for securing Brittney Griner’s release.” The statement was issued after the US declared here status as “wrongfully detained” abroad.

  Whether or not the substantial rumors that talks for a prisoner swap involving Griner are accurate, it’s clear that the Russians are at the very least signaling hard via this flurry of state media reports.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 05/14/2022 – 14:00

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