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Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: 34% rise in lightning strikes across India in 2020-21 over previous years, leaving 1,697 dead

lightning
The number and frequency of lightning strikes is increasing globally. The proverbial bolts from the blue are killing more people every subsequent year. Between April 2020 and March 2021, 18.5 million lightning strikes were recorded in India. This was a 34 per cent increase from the 13.8 million strikes between April 2019 and March 2020.

These statistics were shared at a webinar on lightning strikes here today, organised by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth magazine. The webinar attempted to understand why lightning strikes were increasing in numbers, and their connection to climate change and growing urbanisation.

Some of the states that have been at the receiving end of these strikes are Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal. In Punjab, the increase in number of lightning strikes has been a staggering 331 per cent annually, while in Bihar — where 401 people lost their lives to lightning strikes during the year — there was a 168 per cent rise. Overall, 1,697 people were struck down dead by lightning in India between March 2020 and April 2021.

(Read more here)

Eye 1

Best of the Web: Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger: Website has morphed into playground for rich and powerful manipulators, and that's called 'propaganda

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger
© Getty ImagesWikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger wrote that the site is now “badly biased."
Wikipedia fails to reflect relevant viewpoints on hot-button topics and describes center-left establishment worldviews, its co-founder Larry Sanger said. This consensus reality is prone to nefarious manipulation by powers that be.

"There is a big nasty complex game being played behind the scenes to make the articles say what somebody wants them to say," Sanger said this week, blasting the current community culture at Wikipedia. "There are all kinds of tricks that people can play to 'win' it."

Sanger, who launched — along with Jimmy Wales — the world's premier website for reference materials, has become a vocal critic of his brainchild. He jokingly called himself "ex-founder," referring to both his criticism and Wikipedia's attempts to distance itself from his person. This week he talked about what he sees as a problematic change in the online encyclopedia to Freddie Sayers, the host of UnHerd magazine's show Lockdown TV.

Comment:


Eye 2

Best of the Web: White House 'flagging' posts for Facebook to censor over COVID 'misinformation'

Jen Psaki
© Samuel Corum / Pool via CNP / SpJen Psaki said Facebook needs to take decisive action against the posts.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday the Biden administration is identifying "problematic" posts for Facebook to censor because they contain "misinformation" about COVID-19.

Psaki disclosed the government's role in policing social media during her daily press briefing after Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on companies to purge more pandemic posts.


Comment: What they actually mean is that the whole narrative about the Covid pandemic and the safety of the vaccines is starting to fall apart. Normal people have started asking questions which is not a good sign for their outrageous lies.

They desperately search and track people telling the truth because it destroys the official story. The censorship is becoming more and more overt, to the point where the White House has plainly admitted it.

It is indeed a brutal battle for our minds and souls. Will people start to see through the lies or continue to believe in them?


The demand for censorship — and Psaki's admission of government involvement — follows a series of flip-flops from health officials who contradicted themselves throughout the pandemic on issues such as mask efficacy, as well as censorship of claims that later gained credibility, such as the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese lab.

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Cloud Precipitation

Best of the Web: Western Europe inundated with yet more heavy rainfall - Rivers burst banks in Belgium, France and Germany - At least 90 killed, 1300 missing (UPDATE)


Comment: Western Europe's endless 'river of rain' in the summer of 2021 continues...


flood
A sluggish storm system meandering over western and central Europe this week has broken records and brought flooding to the region -- and AccuWeather meteorologists warn this storm isn't done bringing wet weather.

Officials said Wednesday that firefighters continued to search for a man who was missing in the eastern German town of Jöhstadt after he was swept away by a raging stream on Tuesday night, The Associated Press reported. Jöhstadt is located near the Czech Republic border.

According to the AP, which cited a local German news source, the man disappeared after trying to secure his property from rising waters.

A disaster alert was issued in Hof County, also located near the Czech border, as the heavy rainfall flooded basements, uprooted trees and cut power across the area. Rainfall totals of 3.34 inches (85 mm) over 12 hours were reported. This area also received around 3.50 inches (89 mm) on July 9.

The flooding was not limited to eastern Germany with several areas in western Germany reporting flooding after another round of rain and thunderstorms on Tuesday.

Comment: Update: Yahoo! News reports on July 15:
Western Europe flooding kills at least 44

flood
At least 42 people have died in Germany and dozens are missing as swollen rivers caused by record rainfall across western Europe swept through towns and villages, leaving cars up-ended, houses destroyed and people stranded on rooftops.

Eighteen people died and dozens were unaccounted for around the wine-growing region of Ahrweiler, in Rhineland-Palatinate state, police said, after the Ahr river that flows into the Rhine broke its banks and brought down half a dozen houses.

Another 15 people died in the Euskirchen region south of the city of Bonn, authorities said.



People in region were asked to leave their homes.

In Belgium, two men died due to the torrential rain and a 15-year-old girl was missing after being swept away by an overflowing river.

Hundreds of soldiers and 2500 relief workers were helping police with rescue efforts in Germany.

Tanks were deployed to clear roads of landslides and fallen trees and helicopters winched those stranded on rooftops to safety.

About 200,000 households lost power due to the floods.

In Ahrweiler, two wrecked cars were propped steeply against either side of the town's stone gate and locals used snow shovels and brooms to sweep mud from their homes and shops after the floodwaters receded.

"I was totally surprised. I had thought that water would come in here one day, but nothing like this," resident Michael Ahrend told Reuters.

"This isn't a war - it's simply nature hitting out. Finally, we should start paying attention to it."

The floods have caused Germany's worst mass loss of life in years.

Flooding in 2002 killed 21 people in eastern Germany and more than 100 across the wider central European region.

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her dismay.

"I am shocked by the catastrophe that so many people in the flood areas have to endure. My sympathy goes out to the families of the dead and missing."

In the US for a farewell visit before she steps down following a federal election in September, Merkel promised financial aid for those affected.

"You can trust that all branches of government, federal, state and local, will join forces to do everything they can to save lives, avert danger and alleviate hardship," she said.

In Belgium, about 10 houses collapsed in Pepinster after the river Vesdre flooded the eastern town and residents were relocated from more than 1000 homes.

The rain also caused severe disruption to public transport, with high-speed Thalys train services to Germany cancelled.

Traffic on the river Meuse is also suspended as the major Belgian waterway threatened to breach its banks.

Downstream in the Netherlands, flooding rivers damaged many houses in the southern province of Limburg, where several care homes were evacuated.

In addition to the fatalities in the Euskirchen region, another nine people, including two firefighters, died elsewhere in North Rhine-Westphalia.

In the town of Schuld, houses were reduced to piles of debris and broken beams.

Roads were blocked by wreckage and fallen trees.

"It was catastrophic," said 65-year-old pensioner Edgar Gillessen, whose family home had been damaged.

"All these people living here, I know them all. I feel so sorry for them, they've lost everything. A friend had a workshop over there, nothing standing, the bakery, the butcher, it's all gone. It's scary. Unimaginable."

Weather experts said that rain in the region over the past 24 hours had been unprecedented as a near-stationary low-pressure weather system also caused sustained local downpours to the west in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Update: The Independent reports on July 16:
More than 90 people have died after severe flooding in western Germany and Belgium, as rescuers continue to search for survivors.

At least 81 of the fatalities occurred in Germany, while there have been 12 deaths in Belgium, according to local media reports.

A total of 1,300 residents remain missing in the Ahrweiler district in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the district government said.

In the village of Schuld and elsewhere, houses were swept away after rivers burst their banks following days of extreme rainfall.


Speaking from Washington on Thursday, Angela Merkel expressed her sorrow at the events unfolding in her home country, calling it a day "characterised by fear, by despair, by suffering".

Her potential successor as chancellor, Armin Laschet, the premier of the badly-affected state of North Rhine-Westphalia, blamed the climate crisis for the catastrophe.

"We will be faced with such events over and over, and that means we need to speed up climate protection measures... because climate change isn't confined to one state," he said.

Deaths have been reported in Belgium too, with the mayor of Liège ordering residents to evacuate their homes on Thursday. The Netherlands and Luxembourg have also been affected by severe flooding.



Yellow Vest

Best of the Web: Macron announces vaccine passport restricting access to stores, healthcare, public transit on national holiday: Protests erupt across France

macron protests vaccine passport frnce
French citizens react to President Macron's Covid announcements
France's President Emmanuel Macron announced on July 13th that a vaccine passport would be required to attend public events and non-essential activities.

Macron announced on July 13th that two island regions of France (Martinique and La Réunion) would return to the sanitary emergency status and adopt an 11 PM curfew.

The President also announced that starting July 21st, a vaccine passport would be required to partake in any non-essential activity with over 50 people (theatres, concert halls, festivals, etc.) This measure will apply to every citizen aged 12 years and older.

Starting mid-August, the vaccine passport will be required for any clients and employees of cafes, bars, restaurants.

Comment: Macron decides to announce restrictions the day before Frances biggest holiday, which celebrates its liberation from a tyrannical ancien regime. What better way to display his contempt for the French citizenry? But, there's a long way between announcement and implementation. Keep an eye on France.


Briefcase

Best of the Web: Spain's top court rules lockdown unconstitutional

spain top court
© GETTY IMAGES
Spain's top court has ruled that last year's strict coronavirus lockdown was unconstitutional. The ruling leaves the door open for people who were fined for breaking the rules to reclaim the money they paid.

But the court said it would not accept lawsuits from people and businesses who want to sue the government because they lost money due to the lockdown.

The government declared a state of emergency on 14 March 2020 to curb the first wave of Covid-19 infections.

At the time, coronavirus cases and deaths were rising and hospitals were quickly becoming overwhelmed. Since then, more than 81,000 people in Spain have died with coronavirus.

Microscope 2

Best of the Web: Top gain-of-function scientist Ralph Baric admitted viruses can be lab engineered 'without a trace'

Professor Ralph Baric
Professor Ralph Baric, University of North Carolina
A top gain-of-function scientist admitted in an interview last September that viruses can be lab engineered without leaving a trace.

Professor Ralph Baric, an epidemiologist at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and professor of immunology and microbiology at the UNC School of Medicine, has been studying coronaviruses for 30 years. In a video interview last year with Italian outlet Presa Diretta, Baric was extremely direct about his controversial work, and the implications for COVID19.

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Megaphone

Best of the Web: Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is the one maverick who can set Americans free from the Big Tech gulag

Trump figure,twitter drags
© Wall Street Journal/Shutterstock/KJN
Despite their historical disdain of the Soviet Union, Americans are now prisoners of their own electronic dictatorship that crushes political dissent. Can Trump's battle against Big Tech return free speech to the land of the free?

These days, there are no late-night knocks on the door signaling the deportation of some unfortunate 'comrade' to a penal colony on the outskirts of the empire for the crime of 'wrongthink'.

The overlords of Silicon Valley have effectively streamlined brutal totalitarian techniques, concealing the iron fist of repression inside the velvet glove of algorithms, fact checkers and ever-changing 'community standards'. But make no mistake, the result is the same: the disappearance of individuals who dare hold opinions at variance with those at the commanding heights of our technocracy.

USA

Best of the Web: Haiti police say assassination suspect is middleman living in Florida

jovenel moise mural
© ReutersPeople walk past a wall in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with a mural depicting President Jovenel Moïse, who was shot dead last week.
Items found at Christian Emmanuel Sanon's house include bullets, gun parts and US drug agency hat.

Police in Haiti say they have arrested a new suspect in the assassination of the country's president, Jovenel Moïse - a Haitian living in Florida who arrived on a private plane in June allegedly to act as a middleman between the alleged hitmen and the plot's unnamed masterminds.

As Haiti descended ever deeper into a dangerous political chaos, with notorious gang leader Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier calling on Haitians to "mobilise", the motive for the killing of Moïse remained unknown.

The latest suspect was identified by police as Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a Haitian in his 60s living in Florida who describes himself as a doctor and has accused his homeland's leaders of corruption.

"He arrived by private plane in June with political objectives and contacted a private security firm to recruit the people who committed this act," Haiti's police chief, Léon Charles, said, describing a private Venezuelan security company based in Florida called CTU.

Comment: More from RT:
The president's assassination triggered even more political chaos in Haiti, forcing authorities to approach both the US and the United Nations for security aid, asking them to deploy soldiers to guard infrastructure in the event of unrest, according to multiple reports.

While the US snubbed the request for troops, it has sent a team of various security and law enforcement experts to Haiti to help with the investigation.

"Today, an inter-agency team largely from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are heading down to Haiti right now to see what we can do to help in the investigative process," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed on Sunday.

That's really where our energies are best applied right now - in helping them get their arms around investigating this incident and figuring out who's culpable... and how best to hold them accountable.
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Syringe

Best of the Web: Dr. Yeadon warns: Children 50 TIMES more likely to die from covid vaccine than from virus

dr michael yeadon
Dr. Michael Yeadon, former Pfizer vice president, warns children are 50 times more likely to be killed by the covid vaccines than the virus itself.

"These covid vaccines are not safe," he told War Room, Wednesday.

"The gene based design makes your body manufacture virus spike protein, and we know and we've known for years that virus spike protein triggers blood clots," Yeadon explains. "That's a fundamental problem."

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