© Sott.net
On this NewsReal podcast, Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley discuss some of the effects of lockdowns and their tremendous toll on people's lives.
Running Time: 01:37:20
Download: MP3 — 66.2 MB
Puppet Masters
On this NewsReal podcast, Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley discuss some of the effects of lockdowns and their tremendous toll on people's lives.
Running Time: 01:37:20
Download: MP3 — 66.2 MB
© Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Giovanni Angelo Becciu, former prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
Giovanni Angelo Becciu, former prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
The Vatican court also announced it will hold a criminal trial against nine people and four corporations in connection with the Secretariat of State's purchase of a London investment property.
The trial's first hearing will take place July 27.
Among those to be tried are several employees of the Secretariat of State: Fabrizio Tirabassi, who oversaw investments, will be tried on charges of corruption, extortion, embezzlement, fraud, and abuse of office.
Mons. Mauro Carlino, who worked with Tirabassi, has been charged with extortion and abuse of office.
At the center of the trial is the Secretariat of State's purchase of a building at 60 Sloane Avenue in London. It was bought in stages between 2014 and 2018 from Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione, who at the time was managing hundreds of millions of euros of secretariat funds. Mincione will also stand trial on charges of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of office, misappropriation, and self-money laundering.
Comment: Cleanup at the Vatican? Corruption, scandal and mismanagement has been its operation for decades.
See also:
- Vatican police raid top offices in financial investigation of major irregularities
- Vatican: Pope's security chief steps down over financial leak scandal
- Italy: Vatican Besieged by Reports of Money Laundering, Plot to Kill the Pope, at Delicate Time
- More Vatileaks scandal: Vatican owned properties used as brothels and massage parlors where priests pay for sex
- Questions about the Vatican's hidden finances and real estate dealings persist
- A priest, a banker and a spook walk into The Vatican's money-laundering rabbit hole...
- Dirty laundry? Two senior Vatican officials arrested in new VatiLeaks scandal
© AFP/Bertrand Guay
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky • Ukraine's embassy in Paris
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky • Ukraine's embassy in Paris
Speaking as part of his traditional 'Direct Line' televised question and answer session with the public on Wednesday, Putin said, "I believe Ukrainians and Russians are generally one people... we are a single whole." He went on to say that the deterioration in bilateral relations between Moscow and Kiev was regrettable, and criticized a new law being mulled by Ukrainian lawmakers that will deprive historic Russian populations in the country of 'indigenous peoples' status, blasting it as "a kind of weapon of mass destruction."
In a fiery rebuke to the Russian president's words on Thursday, Zelensky said he wanted to "finally dot the i's" when it comes to the question of the shared history between Ukrainians and Russians. "We are definitely not one people," he said, adding only that "we have a lot in common," including a shared history.
Comment: The common error is fictionalizing reality to undergird self-serving purposes. President Putin is one of few leaders who has a grasp on this concept and refuses to babysit those who don't.
See also:
- Ukraine has surrendered itself to control from West, no point in meeting Zelensky when decisions are made in Washington - Putin
- Putin spokesman Peskov blasts Zelensky for insinuating USSR started World War II: 'Insulting our grandparents'
© SOPA/Luka Dakskobler/SOPA Images/Rex/Shutterstock/KJN.jpg
Slovenian PM Janez Janša • First gay pride parade in Maribor, Slovenia
Slovenian PM Janez Janša • First gay pride parade in Maribor, Slovenia
Janša, who publicly backed Donald Trump in his attempt to overthrow the US presidential election result, leads Slovenia as it takes the EU's rolling presidency, steering the bloc's agenda for the next six months. He is a deeply controversial figure, whose political career includes being jailed while battling for Slovenia's independence from Yugoslavia and an overturned conviction for corruption.
The EU is facing daunting challenges as it seeks to rebuild out of a pandemic which badly damaged trust in its institutions, recalibrate its relationship with the US, prepare for the economic and political challenge posed by China and accustom itself to a starkly different relationship with its former member state, the United Kingdom. But speaking to a group of reporters from European newspapers, including the Observer, as Slovenia took over chairing the council by which member states help prioritise and form legislation, Janša drew on his experience of the Yugoslav federation when asked about the greatest risk to the EU.
© REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo
Soldiers of Karen National Union (KNU) stand guard during the 70th anniversary of Karen National Revolution Day in Kaw Thoo Lei, Kayin state, Myanmar January 31, 2019.
Soldiers of Karen National Union (KNU) stand guard during the 70th anniversary of Karen National Revolution Day in Kaw Thoo Lei, Kayin state, Myanmar January 31, 2019.
A spokesman for the military did not respond to calls requesting comment on the violence at Depayin in the Sagaing region, about 300 km (200 miles) north of the capital, Naypyidaw.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said "armed terrorists" had ambushed security forces patrolling there, killing one of them and wounding six. It said the attackers retreated after retaliation by the security forces.
Comment: Reuters slant on this story may be a little biased considering it ran with the headline Myanmar forces kill 25 in raid on town, with no mention of any aggression by the opposing side.
© Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Tusk speaks at a Civic Platform congress on July 3, 2021
Donald Tusk speaks at a Civic Platform congress on July 3, 2021
After seven years in Brussels, Donald Tusk is back in Polish politics and he's got one goal — to defeat the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
"I'm back in 100 percent," the former Polish prime minister and ex-president of the European Council told a Saturday congress of Civic Platform (PO), the troubled liberal party he founded in 2001.
He's now the head of the European People's Party, the EU's largest grouping of center-right parties, but he made clear that he's diving back into national politics to lead the charge against PiS — which has seen relations with Brussels sour thanks to accusations that it is backsliding on democracy, undermining the rule of law, curbing media freedom and unleashing attacks on the LGBTQ+ community.
Comment: Protecting children from highly sexualized propaganda materials is not an attack: EU declares itself 'LGBTIQ freedom zone' in response to towns in Poland & Hungary declaring themselves 'LGBTIQ propaganda free-zones'
© AFP
Afghan soldiers stand guard at a road checkpoint outside Bagram Air Base, after all US and NATO troops left
Afghan soldiers stand guard at a road checkpoint outside Bagram Air Base, after all US and NATO troops left
The insurgents have pressed on with their campaign to capture territory across Afghanistan's rural areas since early May when the US military began the pullout.
The fall of Panjwai district in the southern province of Kandahar comes just two days after US and NATO forces vacated their main Bagram Air Base near Kabul, from where they led operations for two decades against the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies.
Comment: The borders of the Empire continue to crumble.
- Déjà vu all over again: The Taliban tide rolls on ahead of US withdrawal from Afghanistan
- US spy agencies warn Biden of possible Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, ahead of withdrawal of troops
- US to evacuate Afghan interpreters & family, up to 50,000 people, before military withdrawal 'complete'
- Vietnam redux: Trump's withdrawal deal with the Afghan Taliban is a 'peace with honor' retread
"If you put yourself in an environment in which you have a high level of viral dynamics and a very low level of vaccine, you might want to go the extra step and say 'When I'm in that area where there's a considerable degree of viral circulation, I might want to go the extra mile to be cautious enough to make sure that I get the extra added level of protection, even though the vaccines themselves are highly effective,'" Fauci told anchor Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet The Press."
Localities such as Los Angeles county and St. Louis, Mo., have reinstated a mask advisory for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals indoors amid the delta variant's spread.
Fauci said that even though the vaccines are highly effective, they cannot be 100 percent guaranteed to prevent someone from getting infected with COVID-19.
The comments from Fauci come amid a spread of the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus first discovered in India in the United States.
Comment: "Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection. The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in [keeping] out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you." -Fauci
© REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the National Education Association's Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly in Washington, U.S., July 2, 2021.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks to the National Education Association's Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly in Washington, U.S., July 2, 2021.
A series of measures aimed at promoting the concept was adopted at the NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly, taking place virtually this year from June 30 to July 3. First reported by Christopher Rufo, who has been at the center of Republican-driven push to banish CRT from public schools, the plan will see the NEA "share and publicize, through existing channels, information already available on critical race theory (CRT)," as well as resisting attempts to "ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project."
Comment: Funny. For the last several months, CRT ideologues have been screaming on Twitter that CRT isn't taught in schools. Dr. "Ibram X. Kendi" even went so far as to say that it was impossible for him to be a critical race theorist, because CRT is only taught in law schools. These people are pathological liars.
Another measure will see the NEA backing and leading campaigns that "result in increasing the implementation" of critical race theory and other ethnic-centered studies "in pre- K-12 and higher education"
© Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Biden snapped at reporters earlier in the day when they asked him questions about Afghanistan, complaining that their questions were "negative" and that he wanted to "talk about happy things."
After being asked only two questions on Afghanistan, Biden exclaimed, "I'm not going to answer any more quick questions on Afghanistan. Look, it's Fourth of July."
Comment: Here it is on NewsReal's Rumble channel: