It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, June 12, 2022
The Reality Behind Conspiracy Theories and Domestic Terrorism
A Canadian Patriot Documentary
by Matthew J.L. Ehret / June 11th, 2022
Where “conspiracy theories” were once understood to be the driving force of world history (both for good or for evil), today’s dumbed-down populus has increasingly become induced to believe that the term is synonymous with either insanity at best, or domestic terrorism at worst.
The fact is that the behaviorists attempting to “nudge” humanity into a Great Reset of technocratic feudalism have set their sights on “conspiracy theories” as the primary threat to their agenda which they assert, must be destroyed and subverted through a number of techniques enumerated as early as 2008 by Cass Sunstein (counsellor to Biden’s Department of Homeland Security) in his essay “Conspiracy Theories”.
In this Canadian Patriot Review documentary produced and narrated by Jason Dahl, the true nature of “conspiracy theories” is explored from Ancient Rome, through the Golden Renaissance, American Revolution and our present age. Rather than seeing conspiracies as solely a negative term as is so often the case, we evaluate both evil as well as positive expressions of this fundamentally human process which literally means “two or more people acting together in accord with an agreed upon idea and intention”.
US cues upgrade of diplomatic mission to Palestinians
East Jerusalem consulate was closed in 2019 under former US President Donald Trump, who moved the diplomatic mission to the US embassy in Israel.
The Trump administration shuttered the US Jerusalem consulate, an office that for years served as the de facto embassy to the Palestinians [File: Ariel Schalit/the Associated Press]
Published On 9 Jun 20229 Jun 2022
The administration of United States President Joe Biden has signalled it is upgrading its diplomatic mission to Palestinians, which is currently located within the US embassy in Jerusalem, after former President Donald Trump downgraded the status of the mission.
The Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU), which operated within the US embassy in Israel, will now be redesignated as the US Office of Palestinian Affairs (OPA), and, while remaining in the embassy in Israel, will report directly to the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the US Department of State “on substantive matters”.
The PAU was created in 2019 when Trump decided to close the US consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, which had served as the de facto embassy to the Palestinians.
The move, while incremental, indicates the latest shift in the US’s approach as it seeks to mend frayed relations with Palestinians that emerged under Trump.
The Biden administration did not give any updates on pledges to reopen the consulate.
“The name change was done to better align with State Department nomenclature,” a spokesperson said. “The new OPA operating structure is designed to strengthen our diplomatic reporting and public diplomacy engagement.”
Following the closure of the consulate by Trump, the staff and functions of the mission remained largely identical, but the downgrade meant they fell under the US ambassador to Israel and the mission no longer maintained a distinct US-Palestinian bilateral track.
Palestinian officials did not immediately comment on the redesignation, which came as Palestinian officials said they expected to host senior State Department envoy Hady Amr on Thursday in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority’s seat of government in the occupied West Bank.
The closure of the consulate and the decision by Trump to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018 enraged Palestinians, who want occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Israel, which captured East Jerusalem in 1967 and later illegally annexed it, calls Jerusalem its indivisible capital.
Israel has said it would not consent to reopening the US consulate in occupied East Jerusalem and proposed that a consulate be opened in Ramallah instead.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rejected that plan, saying it will “only accept a US consulate in Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Mexican megachurch leader jailed in US for more than 16 years for child sexual abuse
La Luz del Mundo ‘apostle’ Naasón Joaquín García sentenced after admitting three abuse charges in Californian court
Naasón Joaquín García, the leader of the Mexico-based church La Luz del Mundo, was sentenced in Los Angeles superior court to more than 16 years for sexually abusing young women.
Photograph: Carolyn Cole/AP
Associated Press Thu 9 Jun 2022
The leader of the Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young female followers.
Naasón Joaquín García, 53, pleaded guilty last week in Los Angeles superior court to three felonies on the eve of a long-awaited trial
Prosecutors said García, who is considered the “apostle” of Jesus Christ by his 5 million followers worldwide, used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation – or damnation if they refused.
Judge Ronald Coen, who called García a sexual predator, said: “I never cease to be amazed at what people do in the name of religion and how many lives are ruined in the guise of a supreme being.”
The sentence came after nearly three hours of emotional statements by five young women García was charged with sexually abusing. They had once been his most devoted servants. But in court they called him “evil” and a “monster”, “disgusting human waste” and the “antichrist”. “I worshipped my abuser,” said a woman identified as Jane Doe 4. “He used me over and over again like a sacrificial lamb taken to slaughter.”
García pleaded guilty on Friday to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15. In exchange, prosecutors dropped 16 counts that included allegations of raping children and women, as well as human trafficking to produce child pornography.
The victims objected to the plea deal, saying they only learned about it at the last minute and were not consulted. They implored Coen to impose a stiffer sentence but he said his hands were tied by the agreement.
“The world has heard you,” he told them and their supporters. “I promise you that.”
Naasón Joaquín García, pictured here in 2018, leads a service at La Luz del Mundo in Guadalajara, Mexico. He has 5 million followers worldwide.
Photograph: AP Advertisement
The church, which is also known as the Light of the World, claimed in a statement that García pleaded guilty because he didn’t think he could get a fair trial.
“The Apostle of Jesus Christ has had no choice but to accept with much pain that the agreement presented is the best way forward to protect the church and his family,” the church said. It repeated its support for him.
García’s grandfather founded the Guadalajara-based fundamentalist Christian church in 1926. García took over as “apostle” after his father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, died in 2014.
Patricia Fusco, supervising deputy attorney general, praised the victims for their bravery in standing up to García. She said their courage had saved others’ lives. “They [the victims] trusted him. They thought he was basically God on Earth,” Fusco said. “We know, of course, he’s not God. Not even close.”
Patricia Fusco, supervising deputy attorney general, lowers her head as victims of Naasón Joaquín García speak of the plea deal.
Photograph: Carolyn Cole/AP
The victims spoke of how their delight at being invited into a secret inner circle with García. They said they were called angels and told they were García’s property and that his wishes were godly commands and they should serve the Lord without question. Bible verses were twisted to make them comply, they said.
But they were also told they would be damned if they spoke out – and so would anybody they told.
In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International.
Ripple effects from the war in Ukraine have generated a severe cost-of-living crisis which no country or community can escape, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday at a press conference to launch the latest report on the conflict’s impacts on food security, energy, and financing.
An estimated 1.6 billion people in 94 countries are exposed to at least one dimension of the crisis, with around 1.2 billion living in “perfect-storm” countries severely vulnerable to all three dimensions, the policy brief by the Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) has revealed.
The report calls for stabilizing record-high food and fuel prices, implementing social safety nets, and increasing financial support to developing countries. ‘A new reality’
The UN chief said the message is clear and insistent: countries must act now to save lives and livelihoods.
“Three months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we face a new reality,” he told reporters.
“For those on the ground, every day brings new bloodshed and suffering. And for people around the world, the war is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake.”
Furthermore, the crisis is amplifying the consequences of other challenges confronting countries, such as the climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, and inequalities in resources for post-pandemic recovery.
The increase in hunger since the start of the war could be higher and more widespread, according to the report.
The number of severely food insecure people doubled from 135 million prior to the pandemic, to 276 million over just two years. The ripple effects of the war could push this number to 323 million.
UNDP Ukraine/Oleksandr Simonenko Drone footage shows the scale of destruction in Irpin in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine.
‘Race against time’
UN trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who co-leads the GCRG stream on finance, presented the report. She said the world is in “a race against time”, and inaction will be more costly than finding solutions.
The cost-of-living crisis could spark a “cycle of social unrest leading to political instability”, she warned.
Some 60 per cent of workers worldwide have already lower real incomes than before the pandemic, meaning families are having to choose whether to skip meals, keep children in school, or pay medical bills, for example.
“The current food crisis may rapidly turn into a food catastrophe of global proportions in 2023,” said Ms. Grynspan, head of the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD.
Higher energy costs and trade restrictions on the fertilizer supply from the Black Sea region have caused fertilizer prices to rise even faster than food prices.
The report makes clear that the war’s impact on food security, energy and finance is systemic, severe, and speeding up, the UN Secretary-General said.
Although ending the deadly and devastating conflict is the only way to stop the “gathering storm”, the UN chief called for immediate action on two fronts: stabilizing global food and energy markets and supporting poorer countries in the crisis.
He said Ms. Grynspan and the UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, will coordinate two task forces on finding a “package deal” that would allow for Ukrainian-produced food to be safely and securely exported through the Black Sea, while Russian food and fertilizers would have unimpeded access to global markets.
The top officials have already begun working closely with parties in the two countries, and in Turkey, the European Union, and the United States, though the Secretary-General refrained from further comment to avoid jeopardizing the chances for success.
“Ukraine’s food production, and the food and fertilizer produced by Russia, must be brought back into world markets – despite the war,” he said. Support vulnerable countries
Stressing that there is no solution to the global crisis without also solving the economic crisis in the developing world, the UN chief called for greater resources to help the world’s poorest countries and communities at this time.
“Governments must be able to borrow the money they need to keep their economies afloat and their people thriving,” he said.
“The global financial system must rise above its shortcomings and use all the instruments at its disposal, with flexibility and understanding, to provide support to vulnerable countries and people.”
Climate justice is key to addressing the climate crisis
MARY ROBINSON Photo: Charlotte Burn Photography / St George's House 9 June 2022
At the St George's House Annual Lecture at Windsor Castle on 31 May 2022, Mary Robinson discussed the importance of climate justice as an indispensable concept, framework and guide for addressing the existential threat of the climate crisis.
LONG READ
Mary Robinson's speech
Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a pleasure and a privilege to be with you here this evening, for the first St. George’s House Annual Lecture since 2019 and on the happy occasion of Her Majesty the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Although we have all become familiar with and adept at using digital technologies in recent times, there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings and I look forward to a rich and stimulating conversation tonight.
My theme is climate justice, and why it is an indispensable concept, framework and guide for addressing the existential threat posed by the climate crisis.
Climate justice has been a priority in my public work for many years but its salience has increased significantly as a result of the intertwined crises our planet is currently enduring.
To understand this better, we need to acknowledge that our world has changed immeasurably over the course of the past three years.
The combined impact of the pandemic, the climate crisis, a brutal war on the continent of Europe and a fraying of the rules-based international order is being felt in every corner of the globe.
COVID-19 has claimed the lives of over six million people and untold numbers are still suffering the effects of their illness in unpredictable and destabilising ways.
The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated inequalities between and within nations, with the poorest and most marginalised in society often bearing the heaviest brunt in terms of health, psychological and economic impacts. Whilst we have witnessed remarkable feats of scientific endeavour and ingenuity in the rapid development of effective COVID-19 vaccines, we must also acknowledge a profound failure of politics, solidarity and coordination that has led to stark vaccine inequity: although 80% of people in higher and middle-income countries have received at least one dose, it is only 17% in low-income countries, predominantly in the Global South.
In the initial stages of the pandemic in Spring 2020, we heard many pious words from global leaders on the need to come together and act with common purpose in the face of this new, indiscriminate, existential threat.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, sought to harness this resolve through his call for a “global COVID ceasefire”. Yet three years on, it is clear that leaders have failed to heed his call: from the coup and civil war in Myanmar, to the ongoing agonies of Syria and Yemen, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and, most egregiously of all, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
And all the while, fresh scientific data continues to reveal the true extent of the climate crisis, the damage human activity has wrought on our planet and its ecosystems, and the relentlessly-closing window of opportunity that remains to prevent irreversible planetary catastrophe.
A common thread runs through these three disruptions: injustice.
It is profoundly unfair that people in Western Europe and North America have had three or maybe four COVID vaccinations by now when millions in Africa, Asia and Latin America have not even had one.
It is an offence unto international law and basic human decency that innocent Ukrainian civilians are being slain in their homeland on the orders of a Russian president in contempt of the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
At the same time, the way the international community has reacted to Putin’s invasion stands in contrast to its paralysis and passivity in the face of many other conflicts and violations of international law.
For too long, acts of aggression have been tolerated and unpunished by leading powers, including the permanent members of the UN Security Council, because the perpetrators are political or economic allies.
This is itself a profound injustice, resonant of historical hypocrisy and cynical realpolitik. I hope that the reaction to the war in Ukraine can herald a sea-change in global attitudes to ending impunity for war criminals everywhere.
Climate justice also challenges hypocrisy. It is a grave and worsening injustice that the impacts of climate change are felt the most by those people who are least responsible for rising carbon emissions and global temperatures.
Without justice, we will not have a fair, healthy and peaceful world. And without climate justice, we risk not even having a liveable planet for future generations.
Climate justice is a diverse concept reflecting the multiplicities and intersectionality of the climate crisis itself, but with a clear principle at its core. I identify five key layers of climate injustice:
Firstly, it has disproportionately affected the poorest countries, poorest communities, small island states and indigenous peoples of our planet;
Secondly, within that, it has exacerbated gender injustice. Women are too often excluded from and oppressed by decision-making bodies and institutions, meaning their perspectives are not heard when climate policies are debated – yet it is also women who are the ones building resilience in their communities;
Thirdly, there is the intergenerational injustice whereby young people and those not yet born may suffer the physical, material and psychological consequences of a wrecked climate because of the actions – and inaction – of their predecessors;
The fourth injustice is a subtle one. Industrialised countries built their economies on fossil fuel. Now our challenge – exemplified by the current war in Ukraine – is to wean ourselves off coal, oil and gas far more quickly than we’re doing and to provide a just transition for the workers that helped us to build our economies. And we need to support developing countries to bring themselves out of poverty in ways that help them to move to renewable energy but understand the immediate need to address energy poverty with an equitable transition.
Lastly, there is the injustice to nature herself. The oceans, forests, ice shelves and coral reefs that predate human existence and help sustain it today are at risk from our reckless behaviour, as is the wildlife we affect to love on television documentaries.
Delivering justice requires a concerted, holistic effort from all of us: governments, business, civil society, women’s networks, youth, faith groups, trade unions, investors and ordinary members of the public.
In particular, it demands that we do not act in silos but acknowledge different perspectives and draw connections between seemingly remote experiences, whether this is the impact of war in Ukraine on food security in Zimbabwe, or droughts and famine in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere on that continent, leading more people to attempt perilous sea crossings in the Mediterranean to reach Europe’s shores.
The climate crisis is not static, and a climate justice-driven response should not be either. We can see this clearly in the current debates on Europe’s energy security and the political imperative to end our dependency on Russian oil and gas.
There is a clear moral, strategic and environmental reason to do so: this is a fossil-fuelled war, where the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom have been buying over $600 million dollars of Russian oil and gas every day even as they also spend millions supplying Ukraine with vital military and humanitarian assistance.
In the rush to replace Russian fossil fuels, I hope that European governments – and I still very much include the United Kingdom as a European government in this context - will further accelerate the shift to renewable energy, rather than simply seeking alternative sources of fossil fuels.
Any increased use of Liquefied Natural Gas, coal and nuclear must be a strictly temporary measure, so as not to lock in long-term dependency.
Care must be taken to listen to African voices about the limited use of gas as a transition fuel for both clean cooking and wider purposes, but with a proviso it is time-bound and compatible with the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that we have a vanishingly small window remaining to keep alive the target of restricting global temperature rises to 1.5℃ as set out in the Paris Agreement.
There is no more space for new fossil fuel infrastructure - existing infrastructure alone will blow the 1.5℃ target. Compared to their grandparents, at the current rate of predicted global warming it is projected that a child born this year will live through seven times as many heatwaves, nearly three times as many droughts and twice as many wildfires.
Yet here again, the transition to renewables has climate justice implications that need to be understood holistically by a wide range of stakeholders far beyond the energy industry.
Clean-energy technologies such as solar plants, wind farms, and electric vehicles are mineral-intensive. Motors and turbines need nickel, chromium, manganese, and rare earths. New electricity networks require vast quantities of copper wire. Electric-vehicle batteries need lithium and nickel.
The International Energy Agency estimates that reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 will require a six-fold increase in mineral inputs, and a 40-fold increase in lithium supply.
This presents both an opportunity and a threat. The opportunity is for governments, investors, mining companies, and civil society organisations to come together to develop new investment models aimed at supplying a renewable energy revolution while building shared prosperity, public trust, and strengthened governance.
The threat is that we fail to protect the human rights of vulnerable communities in the transition-minerals boom, with an investment surge instead fuelling the destruction of livelihoods, environmental damage, and a global wave of land and water grabs by multinational companies.
Mining companies, the wider extractive industry and its investors have a clear responsibility to be at the forefront of efforts to strengthen human rights protection.
This is a matter of climate justice just as much as it is good governance and responsible investment. And it builds on the vision of a dearly-missed friend, Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations and my predecessor as Chair of The Elders.
At the turn of the millennium, Kofi already perceived that globalisation entailed profound shifts in political and economic power, the balance of - influence between nation states and corporations, and the need for a new, inclusive approach to promote prosperity and human rights as two sides of the same coin.
In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1999, Kofi outlined his plan for what has become the Global Compact, bringing together multinational corporations and the United Nations to work for the common good. His words to business leaders still resonate today:
“You can uphold human rights and decent labour and environmental standards directly, by your own conduct of your own business. Indeed, you can use these universal values as the cement binding together your global corporations, since they are values people all over the world will recognise as their own. You can make sure that in your own corporate practices you uphold and respect human rights; and that you are not yourselves complicit in human rights abuses.”
It is all too easy to pay lip service to these values, whether in the form of corporate mission statements, ministerial speeches or hashtags on social media.
Actually putting them into practice is a more arduous task requiring persistence and vigilance, especially in the face of short-term pressure points and the siren voices of political populism.
It is alarming, for example, to read the latest statement by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, that it will vote against the majority of climate-related shareholder resolutions at upcoming corporate board meetings – including proposals to make banks align their business models to a 1.5℃ scenario, and to direct companies’ lobbying activities around climate change.
Faced with the enormity and urgency of the climate crisis, this short-termism and self-interest is maddening.
But climate justice, like the great civil rights and emancipatory movements before it, is driven by hope just as much as by anger – and therein lies the key to its success.
Hope is a particularly precious quality to me in my current role as Chair of The Elders, because it reminds me of another dear, departed friend, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
In every context, “Arch” — as he always wished to be called — brought forth the South African concept of “ubuntu”, that shared sense of interdependent humanity that roughly translates as “I am because you are”.
But he also described himself as a “prisoner of hope”, which I still find the perfect metaphor for the persistent belief in the goodness of people and the capacity for change which is essential to deliver climate justice.
Speaking as an Elder, I have been particularly heartened to see how, in recent years, a groundswell of youth activists across the world have taken up the cause of climate justice, precisely because they want - and deserve - to have hope in their future.
Principled young women like Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate and the British ornithologist Mya Rose Craig have captured the world’s imagination and earned popular admiration.
This has led to a situation where, in many countries, public attitudes to climate change and the need for radical structural reform to models of energy production and economic growth are ahead of governments’ agendas and priorities.
I saw this on the streets of Glasgow last November during the COP26 climate summit, when people came together to demand urgent and radical action.
In the final analysis, COP26 fell short of what the people called for and what the world needs. Some progress was made in the Glasgow Climate Pact, but six months on this is looking increasingly fragile. Not enough leaders were in crisis mode last November – including the UK– and not enough of them are today.
This makes it all the more important that the drumbeat for climate justice continues and intensifies ahead of the next COP in Egypt this November. This will be an African COP, and African voices need to be heard from across the continent – which is the most vulnerable to climate change despite being responsible for just 4% of global carbon emissions. It must advance African priorities, particularly climate adaptation, finance, loss and damage and a fair, equitable just transition.
I have just returned from visits with The Elders to Rwanda and South Africa, where I heard directly from people on the front lines of Africa’s climate crisis who are developing plans for a just energy transition.
In Rwanda, like many African countries, the challenge is to bring access to energy to those without. In South Africa, the challenge is to transition away from coal in a way that leaves no one behind.
A bright spot at COP26 was the proposed deal between South Africa, the UK and others, to support a just transition away from coal in South Africa. It’s now critical that international partners follow through with the promised finance, much of which should be grants not loans. The rest of the world is watching, and we cannot afford for this deal to fail. Got right, this could be a model for other emerging economies to raise ambition this decade.
What really struck me on my recent visit was the need for a people-centred, holistic approach that includes women and young people, who have been excluded for too long from the debates on their future.
Within women’s networks, and youth networks, there is still an extraordinary amount of trust that is otherwise all too absent in the world right now. We need to empower these voices and harness their energy and commitment for the good of the whole planet.
At COP26, developed countries pledged to double adaptation finance by 2025 – which, if realised will increase support to vulnerable countries by billions. But the world has heard similar promises before which have never been realised, adding insult to the existing injustice.
Unless there is a major effort to drive the doubling of this adaptation finance commitment - starting now - it won’t happen; that is why we need to see a clear roadmap by COP27, and why the UK has a particular responsibility to step up and ensure that the promises made in Glasgow are delivered upon.
One of the most significant areas of unfinished business from COP26 was on loss and damage, and specifically on a new financial mechanism whereby wealthy countries help with the costs of climate disasters in the developing world, such as rebuilding and rehoming communities after devastating floods, cyclones or fires.
The United States, backed by the European Union, postponed setting up this mechanism, but nations have nevertheless committed to talk further on this between now and 2024, and the outcome of this dialogue must be a new fund.
Next week climate negotiators will meet in Bonn, Germany, to prepare for COP27, and as part of these negotiations they will hold their first “Glasgow Dialogue” on Loss and Damage finance.
I hope very much that this Glasgow Dialogue will be guided by the slogan by one of that city’s greatest modern writers, Alasdair Gray: “Let Glasgow flourish by telling the truth.”
We need to be crystal clear on this point: there can be no climate justice without climate honesty. Honesty about the science, honesty about the responsibility, honesty about the actions required and honesty about the speed with which we need to act.
This places a particular onus on leaders to act in good faith and with integrity to strengthen the institutions, cooperation and processes without which progress on climate action will be impossible.
People need to know that when their leaders sign a treaty, they will abide by their obligations under international law. This sends a signal to everyone else in society – in business, finance, research and the judiciary – that their government can be trusted and that they also have a responsibility to follow the same standards.
In the six months left before COP27, I hope that all leaders draw inspiration instead from the words of Nelson Mandela, the founder of The Elders and one of the greatest activists and statesmen I have ever had the privilege of knowing:
“Do not look the other way; do not hesitate. Recognise that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage and vision.”
AOC: America is a nation 'on the precipice... of fascism'
Common Dreams June 11, 2022 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on MSNBC (screengrab)
Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned Thursday night that the U.S. stands "on the precipice... of fascism" and that an attack on the Capitol like the one that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021 could happen again.
Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) comments in an Instagram Live video followed the first prime-time hearing held by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
The first installment of the public hearing, she said, revealed "new information, shocking information" including that "Republican members of Congress were seeking pardons before the insurrection knowing what they were about to do."
"There is such a concerted ring-wing operation to try to convince everybody that [the Jan. 6 riot and attack] didn't happen, that it wasn't a big deal," Ocasio-Cortez said. But, she stressed, "This was an attempted coup of the United States of America."
"When former President [Donald] Trump's own people told him 'No,' he was going to fire every single person down the chain until he found even a coffee fetcher," she said, "to overturn democracy." All this, said the congresswoman, "so that he could retain power."
"Those attacks killed people, traumatized people," the congresswoman said. And although Trump "promised his own people that he would pardon them... now they're going to prison," she said, adding that the former president "only cares about himself."
Ocasio-Cortez also singled out Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who on the day of the attack was tweeting the Speaker of the House's location knowing that the Trump-backed mob was looking for the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) "in that moment."
The focus right now, said Ocasio-Cortez, should be "on the bigger picture, which is that legally, structurally, institutionally very little has changed. Virtually nothing has changed" the behavior that led to the Capitol attack.
Directing criticism at Republicans, she said that "not only did they vote to protect it, they encouraged it... So, we are on the precipice, legally, of fascism." She added that "no law was ever passed to prevent this from happening again."
"I dislike the 'lesser of two evils politics,'" said the Democratic congresswoman, but "this is not about two different political opinions" but "about if we're going to have a democracy or not."
Republicans, she said, "are pretending that this never happened and if anything...the Republican Party has only grown more supportive and defending of what happened on that day with time" and "only committed hard to the lie" of an election Trump supporters falsely portray as stolen.
She noted that the Jan. 6 mob was "trying to kill people" and that "some people did die." Ocasio-Cortez also rebuked the 21 House Republicans who voted against giving the officers who defended the Capitol the Congressional Gold Medal.
Rejecting the notion the mob storming the Capitol was composed of "poor, white, working class people," she said that they "had resources and they were targeting the vice president of the United States and the speaker of the House as well as everybody who was in that chamber as well as everybody on that campus."
The GOP, she added, has "been committed to covering it up every day since."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweets at Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene wanting to know if they asked for pardons after January 6
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Drew Angerer/Getty Images AOC called out several congress members on Twitter asking if they'd asked for pardons after January 6.
Her tweets came the day after the January 6 House Committee alleged that several members did so.
"Just trying to clear some things up," the congresswoman from New York said.
In a Friday tweet storm, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked several of her fellow representatives if they'd asked the White House for a pardon following the January 6 attack.
Her first tweet was addressed to Rep. Matt Gaetz who took a jab at Rep. Jamie Raskin for his involvement in the committee.
"Hey @mattgaetz while I have you responding to my tweets, can you respond to one more for me: Did you ever ask Trump for a pardon? Let me know in the replies! You clearly know where the button is," she responded.
Gaetz didn't respond but Ocasio-Cortez continued calling out Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
"Hey quick question Boebert, did you ask for a pardon after tweeting the Speaker's location on Jan 6th?" asked the congresswoman.
"Maybe your friend @RepMTG can answer! Did either of you seek a pardon? Just trying to clear some things up," she added.
"Ok Sandy, $5 a gallon gas, 3+ million illegals crossing our southern border, no baby formula, inflation higher than it's been in both of our lifetimes, and this is what you want to talk about?" Boebert responded.
Fact check: Biden falsely claims US has 'fastest-growing economy in the world'
Washington (CNN)In a Wednesday appearance on the ABC late-night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," President Joe Biden made a dramatic claim about the US economy -- and repeated himself for emphasis.
"Look, here's where we are. We have the fastest-growing economy in the world. The world. The world," Biden said.
Facts First: Biden's claim is false.
The US economy grew by 5.7% in 2021, but more than 50 other countries had faster growth that year, figures published by the International Monetary Fund show; many of them are small or developing countries, but some of them are large or wealthy. In addition, the US economy shrank in the first quarter of 2022, while various other countries experienced growth. And while economic experts expect the US economy to resume growing over the rest of this year, a significant number of other countries are expected to grow faster.
Asked for comment on Friday, a White House official did not attempt to specifically defend Biden's claim that the US has the fastest-growing economy in the world.
Instead, the official pointed out that the 5.7% growth in the United States' real gross domestic product in 2021 was the fastest for the country since 1984. The official also pointed out that the International Monetary Fund has projected that, as of the fourth quarter of this year, the size of the US economy will be bigger relative to its late-2019 pre-pandemic level than any of the other six countries in the international forum known as the Group of Seven: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Those comments are accurate. But Biden said on Kimmel's show, three times, that the US economy is growing faster than that of any other country in "the world," not just growing faster than six particular countries. And that's inaccurate.
"Clearly the US has been the G-7 economy that has done best in terms of GDP growth rates since the inception of COVID, but is not literally the fastest-growing economy in the world over this period," said Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, a former International Monetary Fund official who is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank's Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. How the US compares
Biden took office in late January 2021. Among the dozens of countries that saw faster real GDP growth than the US in 2021 were Ireland (13.5%), Chile (11.7%), Turkey (11%), Colombia (10.6%), India (8.7% for the fiscal year that began in April 2021), Greece (8.3%), Israel (8.2%), China (8.1%), the United Kingdom (7.4%), France (7%) and Italy (6.6%), according to figures published by the IMF and the countries' governments.
(Many countries' growth rates were higher than usual in 2021 because their economies were rebounding from the 2020 economic crisis caused by the pandemic.)
An economic outlook released this week by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development projected the US would grow by 2.5% in 2022. That was lower than the OECD's 2022 projections for 11 other members of the Group of 20 international forum: Saudi Arabia (7.8%), India (6.9% for the fiscal year), Indonesia (4.7%), China (4.4%), Australia (4.2%), Spain (4.1%), Canada (3.8%), Turkey (3.7%), the United Kingdom (3.6%), Argentina (3.6%) and South Korea (2.7%).
We'll add one caveat. There are various ways to measure growth -- among other things, you can pick different start and end points and different gauges of economic activity -- and there are various complications involved in the data.
Laura Veldkamp, a finance professor at Columbia University's business school, said there is "no way" that Biden's claim is true if he was using "fastest-growing" in the usual way, referring to a percentage change. She said, however, that she would personally describe the President's claim as "misleading," rather than false, since "the word growth in conversation can mean many things."
We'll respectfully stick with our harsher conclusion. If Biden was citing some unusual or obscure measure of growth, he could have explained that. He didn't, and the White House didn't either when asked for comment.
ExxonMobil 'made more money than God' — Biden
US President Biden has criticised oil giant Exxon Mobil for not contributing to the nation's economy by pumping more oil to flatten gas prices.
President Joe Biden slammed ExxonMobil for not producing more oil, as soaring gas prices deplete Americans' wallets and the US leader's popularity ahead of midterm elections.
"Exxon made more money than God this year," he said on Friday, advocating increasing taxes on oil companies.
ExxonMobil reported massive profits in the first three months of the year despite lower oil and natural gas volumes, as crude prices rose after Russia's assault on Ukraine.
Oil companies "have 9,000 permits to drill. They're not drilling. Why aren't they drilling? Because they make more money not producing more oil," Biden said in comments at the Port of Los Angeles hours after the government released a devastating inflation report reflecting soaring energy prices.
And with the higher profits, "they're buying back their own stock, which should be taxed quite frankly. Buying back their own stock and making no new investments."
After a dreadful 2020 amid Covid-19 lockdowns that devastated petroleum demand, oil companies returned to profitability in 2021 and have continued to see earnings skyrocket this year.
ExxonMobil's first-quarter profits more than doubled to $5.5 billion, and revenues rose 52.4 percent to $87.7 billion.
The petroleum giant also increased spending on share buybacks by $20 billion, and while it has planned to increase capital spending in 2022, Exxon ruled out additional investment.
Biden, whose popularity has plummeted in the face of the highest inflation in four decades and sky-high gas prices.
Government data released Friday showed the consumer price index jumped 8.6 percent compared to May 2021, up from 8.3 percent in the 12 months ending in April and topping what most economists thought was the peak in March.
Energy has soared 34.6 percent over the past year, and fuel oil costs more than doubled, jumping 106.7 percent, the largest increase in the history of CPI, which dates to 1935.
Oil prices have mostly lingered above $100 a barrel after spiking to around $130 a barrel in early March shortly after the Russian attacks on Ukraine. American drivers are facing new record gas prices daily, with the national average hitting $4.99 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA.
Shireen Abu Akleh, one month on: ‘The days have not passed’
Journalists at the scene of the Al Jazeera reporter’s killing on May 11 remain in shock and trauma.
Palestinian protesters hold candles and a photo of slain Al Jazeera journalist
Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11, 2022 [File: Ariel Schalit/AP Photo]
The image of Shireen Abu Akleh’s lifeless body lying face down on the ground has not left cameraman Majdi Bannoura’s mind.
Bannoura was only a few metres away when Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin a month ago, on May 11. As her cameraman, and as difficult as it was, he knew that he had to film what he was witnessing.
A month later, Bannoura, who works for Al Jazeera and had a 24-year professional and personal relationship with Abu Akleh, is still in a state of shock.
“We still cannot believe that she’s gone, that we haven’t seen her for a month. We walk into the office hoping to hear her voice,” he said.
The killing of the 51-year-old veteran Palestinian correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic television has sent shockwaves throughout the world.
Abu Akleh, who also held American citizenship, was shot in the head while covering an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp, in the northern occupied West Bank, despite wearing a clearly marked press vest and helmet.
Al Jazeera described Abu Akleh’s death as “blatant murder” and said she was “assassinated in cold blood”. The network has assigned a legal team to refer her killing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
‘Much more than a colleague’
Abu Akleh joined Al Jazeera Arabic at the same time as Bannoura, in August 1997, a year after the network was launched. Back then, Bannoura filmed her first-ever appearance on camera with the channel in Jerusalem.
He also filmed her last, when she was transformed from a reporter into the story itself.
Upon hearing the first bullet, Bannoura began recording. He saw that his colleague, Ali al-Samoudi (who has now recovered), had been shot.
“Ali was injured and I started filming him, I didn’t see Shireen and I wasn’t aware of the size of the tragedy we were in,” he recalled.
“When I turned the camera towards Shireen, I saw her lying on the ground. I wanted to cross the street, but there was live ammunition being fired at us. I realised that the situation was very dangerous – that if I went out, I was going to get shot,” said Bannoura.
“I wasn’t processing what was happening, I made a decision within seconds to keep filming.”
Bannoura kept his eyes on Shireen’s body as he filmed, hoping he would see any sign of life, but to no avail. By the time she was dragged away and taken to a hospital, she was already dead.
Losing her, said Bannoura, has had a difficult and lasting effect on his life.
“Shireen was much more than a colleague, she was a friend to everyone, we had a lifelong relationship beyond just work,” he said between tears.
“She would come over, she knew my children. We spent more time together than we would spend in our own homes. It’s not going to get easier, whether a month or two months, or a year or two years, pass.”
‘An honour’
While Abu Akleh’s killing will continue to make headlines as calls for justice and accountability persist, those who were next to her at the scene are still reliving the trauma and horror of the event.
Local journalist Mujahed al-Saadi was standing next to Abu Akleh when she was shot. He says that he feels time has stopped
.
A protestor holds photo of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 15 in the Bay Ridge neighbourhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City in May [Alex Kent/Getty Images]
“The days have not passed. I wake up at night to the image of Shireen’s last moments, it stays in my mind,” al-Saadi told Al Jazeera.
Despite being in the direct line of fire himself, al-Saadi wishes he could have done more for Abu Akleh.
“I sometimes feel guilty that I, a son of the area, could not protect Shireen. I did not expect her to be martyred – I thought that I would be the one to die as I was in front of her, closer to the soldiers,” al-Saadi said.
“I went crazy because I felt that the bullets were intended for me,” he added.
Abu Akleh often conducted her television live broadcasts from the rooftop of al-Saadi’s home, and he accompanied her in the field on many occasions, particularly in the camp.
The father of two said working with her – after growing up watching her on TV – was an “honour”.
“Many people dreamt of merely getting the chance to speak to her, let alone work with her,” said al-Saadi, noting her coverage of Israel’s 2002 large-scale invasion of the Jenin refugee camp where he used to live.
“What shocked me the most when I started working with her was her modesty, despite how well known she was. She was patriotic. She was loved by the people.”
Abu Akleh’s funeral procession extended over three days, from Jenin to Jerusalem – one of the longest processions in Palestinian history – and included Nablus and Ramallah. That, said al-Saadi, was indicative of the respect for her among regular Palestinians who flooded into the streets to bid her farewell.
For al-Saadi and Bannoura, the chances of justice for Abu Akleh feel slim owing to the reality of rampant Israeli impunity.
“We have never seen any justice – from any international side or court. Even if we are journalists, we are Palestinians at the end of the day,” said Bannoura, adding that any Palestinian is liable to be targeted.
“We hope that Shireen’s case will be the moment that will change things moving forward.”
China calls COVID 'lab leak' theory a lie after WHO report
China has attacked the theory that the coronavirus pandemic may have originated as a leak from a Chinese laboratory as a politically motivated lie
By The Associated Press June 10, 2022, 4:17 AM BEIJING -- China on Friday attacked the theory that the coronavirus pandemic may have originated as a leak from a Chinese laboratory as a politically motivated lie, after the World Health Organization recommended in its strongest terms yet that a deeper probe is needed into whether a lab accident may be to blame.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also rejected accusations that China had not fully cooperated with investigators, saying it welcomed a science-based probe but rejected any political manipulation.
He also reiterated calls for an investigation into “highly suspicious laboratories such as Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina" in the United States where China has suggested, without evidence, that the U.S. was developing the coronavirus as a bioweapon.
“The lab leak theory is totally a lie concocted by anti-China forces for political purposes, which has nothing to do with science," Zhao said at a daily briefing.
“We always supported and participated in science-based global virus tracing, but we firmly opposed any forms of political manipulation," he said, repeating China's long-standing explanation for delaying or rejecting further investigations into the virus's origins.
Zhao said China has made major contributions toward virus tracing, sharing the most data and research results.
That “fully reflects China’s open, transparent and responsible attitude, as well as its support for the work of the WHO and the advisory group," he said.
The WHO's stance in a report released Thursday is a sharp reversal of the U.N. health agency’s initial assessment of the pandemic’s origins. It comes after many critics accused WHO of being too quick to dismiss or underplay a lab-leak theory that put Chinese officials on the defensive.
Following a tightly controlled visit to China last year, the WHO concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” the coronavirus might have spread to humans from a lab in the city of Wuhan. Many scientists suspect the coronavirus jumped from bats to people, possibly via another animal.
However, in the Thursday report, WHO’s expert group said “key pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing. The scientists said the group would “remain open to any and all scientific evidence that becomes available in the future to allow for comprehensive testing of all reasonable hypotheses.”
Identifying a disease’s source in animals typically takes years. It took more than a decade for scientists to pinpoint the species of bats that were the natural reservoir for SARS, a relative of COVID-19.
The expert group also noted that since lab accidents in the past have triggered some outbreaks, the theory could not be discounted. They said China has not presented any studies to WHO that assessed the possibility of the coronavirus resulting from a laboratory leak.
The new report is indicative of a more confrontational relationship between China's authoritarian Communist leadership and the WHO, which had initially been accused of being overly deferential to Beijing, particularly by the former U.S. Trump administration.
The coronavirus has killed more than 6.3 million people worldwide, forced dozens of countries into lockdown and upended the world economy. It was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and was initially linked to a traditional market where wild animals were sold for food.
China was accused of responding slowly and covering up the extent of the outbreak, before it locked down the entire city of Wuhan and surrounding areas in the first of a series of draconian measures labeled “zero-COVID” which continue today as much of the rest of the world is opening up again.
Last month, the WHO called “zero-COVID” unsustainable, pointing to increased knowledge of the virus and the cost to the economy and civil rights. China rejected the criticism as “irresponsible."
China was also accused of leading a disinformation campaign, suggesting the virus was detected elsewhere before the Wuhan outbreak and putting forward other theories aimed at diverting attention from China.
Investigations by The Associated Press found that some top WHO insiders were frustrated by China during the initial outbreak even as WHO heaped praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping. They were also upset over how China sought to clamp down on research into the origins of COVID-19.
Zhao appeared to imply that China would reject any criticisms or suspicions of it.
“Research on the origin of the virus must adhere to scientific principles and should not be subject to political interference," Zhao said.
