Society's ChildS


Sherlock

Best of the Web: Major internet cable cut in South of France - THIRD such incident this month

Bill Toulas
Bleeping Computer
Thu, 20 Oct 2022 09:25 UTC
internet cut
Screenshot
A major Internet cable in the South of France was severed yesterday at 20:30 UTC, impacting subsea cable connectivity to Europe, Asia, and the United States and causing data packet losses and increased website response latency.

Cloud security company Zscaler reports that they made routing adjustments to mitigate the impact. However, users still face problems due to app and content providers routing traffic through the impacted paths.

"Zscaler is working with the content providers to have them influence their portion of the path," reads a notice from Zscaler.

"If you experience slowness with specific applications, especially applications hosted overseas, please contact the application provider and refer them to this trust post."

Comment: Regarding the update at the bottom of the article: Considering sabotage may be the cause may indeed be speculative, but with 3 similar incidents in one month, and a number of others from just the last year, it seems rather reasonable to suspect that they may be linked in some way. It is also reasonable to suppose that these incidents are linked to the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, that, notably, also occurred this month:

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Eye 1

Worms for lunch: Hundred Dutch primary schools serve mealworms to children

Amari Roos
Sott.net
Thu, 20 Oct 2022 08:15 UTC
mealworms primary school
© RTV OostPrimary school students eat a mealworm instead of meat.
As part of the Dutch Food Week campaign, a 'teaching package' was developed in cooperation with Wageningen University & Research called "Taste Mission Adventurous Proteins". This 'teaching package' involves introducing mealworms and others insects to children in primary schools to promote 'healthy' and 'sustainable' food.

News site RTV Oost reports that a primary school in the Dutch city of Zwolle started serving a mealworm and other insects to children. One of the children said "it tasted like nuts". Other types of food were also served, such as a dish made of lupin beans.

The Dutch province of Overijssel made packages available to one hundred primary schools throughout the region. Their goal is to bring about behavioral changes through unprejudiced children. The idea is that if children respond positively to this type of 'food', the consumption of insects will have a future. If it does, however, it would be to our detriment as it is meat that provides our bodies the nutrients it needs, not plant-based food or insects possibly ridden with parasites.

Comment: See also:

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Sherlock

Best of the Web: Sabotage? Subsea cable CUT in Shetland, major incident declared

Severin Carrell
The Guardian
Thu, 20 Oct 2022 15:21 UTC
ship laying subsea cable
© SSEN/PAFILE: A ship laying subsea cable off the coast of Caithness in Scotland in July.
Islanders on Shetland face being without landline telephones, mobile and internet services until Saturday after a crucial subsea cable link with the mainland was cut.

Police on Shetland declared a major incident and were patrolling the island to reassure residents after the cable link failed on Thursday morning. It is thought the line was dredged up by a trawler. Engineers are working to reroute some services using other networks.

Maggie Sandison, the chief executive of Shetland Islands council, said the emergency was likely to last until Saturday, although some landlines and internet services - running via a Faroe Islands link - were still working.

The council's landline services were down; flights from Sumburgh airport in the far south of Shetland's main island were still operating on Thursday but all its network and mobile links at the airport had failed.

Comment: Despite this happening at the island before, all things considered, it's reasonable enough to be a little suspect about these incidents. Because, in addition, over the last decade, there have been a number of unexplained incidents involving the severing of undersea cables:

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Snowflake Cold

Energy bill surge: Consumers could shell out $14B more this winter

Daniella Genovese
Fox Business
Fri, 14 Oct 2022 06:53 UTC
woman/heater
© iStockHeating costs to rise
Consumers may be forced to collectively shell out over $14 billion more on electricity and heating costs this winter compared to a year ago, according to a new report from the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA).

It comes at a trying time for the country as consumers grapple with painfully high inflation, which just accelerated in September, jumping 8.2% from a year ago. That marked its fastest pace in four decades.

The rise in heating costs this winter will only exacerbate the pressure on households, according to the CEA. To bolster its point, the advocacy group cited recent data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimating how energy prices will increase across the board. EIA Administrator Joe DeCarolis, in a recent statement, said:
"Forecasting months-long weather and energy trends is not an exact science, but it's highly likely that global dynamics affecting energy commodities will lead to higher U.S. prices for heat this winter."
Households that rely on natural gas as their primary heating source are estimated to spend about $930 this winter, due to higher expected prices and consumption, which is a 28% increase over last year, according to the EIA.

Comment: Bad choices = mass consequences. The deciders will not suffer.

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Arrow Down

Most Germans say no to military leadership role in Europe, poll finds

John Vandiver
Stars and Stripes
Tue, 18 Oct 2022 00:00 UTC
Germans
© Alexander Riedel/Stars and StripesGerman protesters in Ramstein-Misenbach, Germany
A majority of Germans don't consider Russia a significant military threat to Germany, oppose a military leadership role in Europe for their country and prefer restraint on the world stage, according to a new public opinion poll.

The findings, released Tuesday during a forum in Berlin hosted by the Koerber Institute, showcase how little Russia's war on Ukraine has done to nudge many Germans out of a long-standing ambivalence about security matters.

"Our security is fragile ... Peace does not fall from the sky," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who struggled to explain the mixed public views over Germany's role in the world.

The findings come at a time when the U.S. is aiming to maintain unity in support of allied efforts to deliver weaponry and other support to Ukraine. In Berlin, some officials said German mixed messages have raised doubts about Berlin's resolve if Russia posed a threat to allies, such as those in the Baltics.

"Can we trust Germany?" Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks asked during the forum. "We are ready to die. Are you?"

Regarding Russia, 22% of German respondents described the threat it poses as "significant" compared with 50% who classified the country as a "minor" military danger, according to the Koerber poll. Meanwhile, 25% said Russia poses no military threat at all even as Europe faces the largest conflict on the Continent since World War II because of Russia's Ukraine invasion.

By contrast, the poll showed 66% of Americans viewed Russia a significant military threat to U.S. security and 26% considered the threat minor. Only 5% considered Russia a non-military threat to America.
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Sherlock

ABC News reporter James Gordon Meek 'resigned very abruptly' after alleged FBI raid of home

Brian Flood
Fox News
Thu, 20 Oct 2022 17:54 UTC
ABC News investigate reporter James Gordon Meek
© Twitter/James Gordon MeekABC News investigate reporter James Gordon Meek
Disney-owned network has not provided further information

Now-former ABC News investigative reporter James Gordon Meek abruptly resigned from the Disney-owned network following an FBI raid of his Arlington, Virginia, home and colleagues haven't seen him since, according to a new report.

Tatiana Siegel's story for Rolling Stone dove into the bizarre situation surrounding the Emmy Award-winning journalist.

"Multiple sources familiar with the matter say Meek was the target of an FBI raid at the Siena Park apartments, where he had been living on the top floor for more than a decade. An FBI representative told Rolling Stone its agents were present on the morning of April 27... The FBI cannot comment further due to an ongoing investigation," Siegel wrote. "Meek has been charged with no crime. But independent observers believe the raid is among the first — and quite possibly, the first — to be carried out on a journalist by the Biden administration."

ABC News told Rolling Stone that Meek "resigned very abruptly and hasn't worked for us for months," while staffers told the magazine they "have no idea what happened to Meek."

Comment: The New York Post is reporting:
James Gordon Meek, a 52-year-old investigative reporter and producer of Hulu's acclaimed documentary 3212 Un-redacted, has not been seen in public since heavily armed federal agents raided his penthouse apartment in Arlington in April, according to Rolling Stone.

The magazine cited "sources familiar with the matter" as saying that federal agents found classified information on Meek's laptop computer.

Meek's attorney, Eugene Gorokhov, told Rolling Stone: "Mr. Meek is unaware of what allegations anonymous sources are making about his possession of classified documents."

"If such documents exist, as claimed, this would be within the scope of his long career as an investigative journalist covering government wrongdoing," the attorney told Rolling Stone in a statement.

It is unclear which news story prompted the federal government to set its sights on Meek, whose groundbreaking reporting on the 2017 Pentagon coverup of the deaths of US servicemen in Niger served as the basis for the Hulu documentary.

"The allegations in your inquiry are troubling for a different reason: They appear to come from a source inside the government," Meek's attorney told Rolling Stone. "It is highly inappropriate, and illegal, for individuals in the government to leak information about an ongoing investigation."

"We hope that the DOJ [Department of Justice] promptly investigates the source of this leak."

Meek's whereabouts are unknown. Before working for ABC News, he also covered national security for the New York Daily News.

The Post has sought comment from ABC News and the FBI. The Justice Department declined to comment.

A spokesperson for Disney-owned ABC News told Rolling Stone: "He resigned very abruptly and hasn't worked for us for months."

Phone calls to Meek's family went unanswered.

Meek's last public statement was a tweet from April 27, in which he wrote one word: "Facts."

The tweet was a reaction to a post about the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to Rolling Stone, federal agents staged a lightning raid on his home on the top floor of the six-story Siena Park apartment complex that lasted around 10 minutes.

The agents were executing a search warrant that was approved by a federal magistrate judge in the Virginia Eastern District Court.

Last year, the Biden administration put in place a policy prohibiting federal investigators from seizing journalists' records without authorization from the deputy attorney general.

If agents got hold of Meek's records, the move would have had to have been approved by US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

Since the raid, Meek's neighbors have not seen him, Rolling Stone reported. Witnesses also told the magazine that it appears his apartment has been vacant.

Meek's reporting served as the basis for an acclaimed Hulu documentary about the Pentagon cover-up of the 2017 deaths of US servicemembers in Niger.ABC via Getty Images

ABC News staffers who worked with Meek told Rolling Stone that he "fell off the face of the Earth."


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Eye 1

CDC "highly likely" to add COVID-19 vaccines to childhood immunisation schedule in move that would indefinitely extend manufacturers' protection from liability

Will Jones
Daily Sceptic
Tue, 18 Oct 2022 19:18 UTC
israel children vaccines
© Nam Y. Huh/APA girl, 6, receives the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 at Lurie Children's hospital in Chicago, November 5, 2021.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) vaccine advisory committee is holding a meeting on Thursday at which observers have said it is highly likely the committee will add COVID-19 vaccines to the standard childhood immunisation schedule.

Alex Berenson writes:
I have not confirmed this plan with the agency. But the Federal Register - the official Government notice for the meetings - reports that "recommendation votes on pneumococcal, adult immunisation schedule, child/adolescent immunisation schedule and COVID-19 vaccines are scheduled." [emphasis added]
Alex suggests that the reason for the move may be to retain indefinitely the protection from liability for vaccine injuries the companies currently enjoy but which would lapse upon the ending of the 'public health emergency'.

Comment: See also: What are EU thinking? European Union approves Covid jabs for babies amid growing fears of winter wave

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Bullseye

Get woke, go broke: BlackRock stock downgraded over risk from ESG investing


Conservative Fighters
Mon, 17 Oct 2022 00:00 UTC
Larry Fink
BlackRock was downgraded by UBS analyst Brennan Hawken last week over the asset management company's adherence to the environmental, social, and governance movement, also known as ESG.

As several conservative state officials continue to pull hundreds of millions from BlackRock and other asset managers, Hawken slashed the target stock price from $700 to $585, according to a report from Barron's. Shares for BlackRock fell 1% last Tuesday on the news.

"We are downgrading BLK to Neutral based on environmental pressure to earnings and risk from the firm's ESG positioning," Hawken remarked, citing the potential for further lost business and increased regulatory scrutiny.

Most recently, South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis Lofits said that he would pull the state's remaining $200 million in BlackRock because of the company's "leftist worldview," through which executives "undermine" their fiduciary responsibilities. BlackRock, which manages $8.5 trillion in client assets, has taken "voting action on climate issues" against dozens of its portfolio companies, according to an investment stewardship report.

Comment: The above mentioned divestments may just be a drop in the bucket for a Monolith such as Blackrock, but they also may just be the beginning of a much larger movement to call truth to power in ways we have not yet seen.

See also:

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Biohazard

What are EU thinking? European Union approves Covid jabs for babies amid growing fears of winter wave

Stephen Matthews
Daily Mail
Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:55 UTC
baby vaccination
© UNICEF/UNI346553/Karahoda
EU health chiefs today approved Covid vaccines for babies, in a move likely to spark huge controversy.

The Bloc's drug watchdog gave the green light for children older than six months to get either Pfizer or Moderna's jab.

It comes amid growing fears of another Covid wave this winter.

British authorities have so far held out on approving jabs for infants despite massive pressure, due to concerns that the benefits don't outweigh any potential risks.

Comment: #PfizerLiedPeopleDied:



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Info

Retired military officials are finding high-paying jobs with the Saudi government and can make up up to 7-figure salaries working for other foreign governments

Lloyd Lee
Business Insider
Wed, 19 Oct 2022 04:20 UTC
michael flynn
© Lauren Victoria Burke/APMichael Flynn testifying on Capitol Hill on February 11, 2014. Flynn was one of hundreds of retired military personnel who took jobs from foreign governments.
Hundreds of retired military officials took high-paying jobs in foreign governments, at times making up to seven figures in salary and benefits, despite how some of the countries have been accused of human rights violations, according to a report.

A new investigation by The Washington Post found that more than 500 retired military personnel have taken jobs with foreign governments since 2015, and a majority of the positions were located in North Africa or the Middle East, including consulting jobs for Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense.

The jobs are also highly lucrative, The Post found through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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