After all, given the fact the US has around 700 cases of Monkeypox (around 0.0002% of the population), that the entire world only 8000 “cases” (about 0.0001%), and that there have been just 3 reported deaths…well, you’d be forgiven for not realising there was a fight at all, let alone that we were losing.
It’s really more of a kerfuffle. At worst. Perhaps a fracas.
That is – of course – assuming there is any monkeypox “outbreak” at all, something we should never take on faith, especially in the post-Covid world.
Nevertheless, the NYT is sure…
There probably will be many more infections before the outbreak can be controlled, if at this point it can be controlled at all.
The US isn’t the only place getting a fresh batch of monkeypox fear porn this week.
Not to be outdone, two days later New Zealand announced their first monkeypox case was isolating at home.
And just 15 minutes ago, at the time of writing, The Guardian published a news story headlined:
Efforts to curb UK monkeypox outbreak inadequate, warn experts
So, what is the cause of mankind’s imminent loss to the monkeypox peril? Well they really couldn’t be clearer about that – we’re not testing enough.
The NYT goes on about this at length:
the response in the United States has been sluggish and timid, reminiscent of the early days of the Covid pandemic, experts say, raising troubling questions about the nation’s preparedness for pandemic threats.
Concerns over UN aid delivery amid fears Syria crossing may close
Idlib is run by an ‘Ex Al Qaeda’ HTS jihadis, financed and partly occupied by Turkey, and helped by UN Aid and various ‘dealings’. Separately Turkey’s dictator Erdogan is declaring daily he will invade Northern Syria again with a huge ongoing military buildup.
Russia needs to avoid a direct clash with imperialist Turkey, and may be seeking ways to contain Erdogan in exchange for allowing aid and ‘trade’ via the key BabAl-Hawa border crossing to continue, agencies speculate. Starvation diplomacy vs. military confrontation.
The crossing links Idlib directly to the Turkish province of Hatay, formerly Arabic, annexed by a rigged referendum in 1939 and Turkified over 80 years.
Lack of agreement regarding humanitarian aid deliveries is likely to affect more than four million citizens in Idlib, northwest Syria.
Syria as a whole is already blockaded by draconian US sanctions. Also Kurdish NE Syria, controlled by the AANES Rojava revolutionaries who defeated ISIS, is blockaded by Turkey, Damascus and Iraq and threatened again imminently by a Turkish invasion.
Residents of Syria’s rebel-held northwest may lose access to critical aid within weeks if the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) does not extend the authorisation for cross-border deliveries, which expires on Sunday, officials said.
The Idlib statelet was created by the deportation there of thousands of defeated militants from all over Syria when the Damascus regime finally won the disastrous war.
Almost 97 percent of the population in Idlib and across northwestern Syria live in extreme poverty, earning less than $2 a day and relying on humanitarian aid to survive [Al Jazeera]
The last aid deliveries from Turkey to Syrians in the rebel-held northwest took place on Friday, after the UNSC failed to extend humanitarian aid for another year by way of a Russian veto.
see also: Large Turkish military convoy enters northwestern Syria A large Turkishmilitary convoy entered Syria on Saturday through the BabAl-Hawa border crossing in northwestern Syria heading towards Jabal al-Zawiya with technical and armored vehicles, tanks, and bulldozers. video
“Russia pushed us to tents, to hunger, thirst, and heat. And now they want to deny us the food aid basket that barely sustains us for half of the month,” said Zahra Alrahmoon, a resident of the Ahl al-Tah camp in Idlib province for internally displaced Syrians……
Without an agreement, the aid deliveries stopped two days before Sunday’s expiration of the UNSC’s current one-year mandate for deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing from Turkey to northwest Idlib.
The decision is likely to affect more than four million citizens, according to Mazen Allouche, the crossing’s media office manager.
“It’s a prelude to a complete and uncontrollable famine,” said Allouche from his office.
BabAl-Hawa border crossing
Refugees will nearly immediately suffer the consequences of this vote.
Russia, a close ally of Syria’s government, has repeatedly called for stepped-up humanitarian aid deliveries to the northwest from within Syria, across conflict lines.
A police officer shot Marcelo Arruda, who was a member of the Workers’ Party (PT) of Brazil, when the victim was celebrating his 50th birthday. The officer was shouting slogans in favor of President Jair Bolsonaro. Marcelo drew a gun and shot him dead before dying.
Marcelo Arruda, who was also armed, shot back, killing Guaranho, according to a PT statement, witnesses and video.
Marcelo. moments before his death at his party on the theme of the Workers Party
A local official from Brazil’s “leftist” opposition Workers’ Party (PT) was shot dead on Saturday by a federal prison guard shouting support for right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, according to a state civil police report and a witness.
The murder occurred in the southern city of Foz do Iguazú, in the western region of Paraná, at the hands of federal prison agent Jorge José da Rocha Guaranho, who first showed up at the scene and then returned armed and began shooting at the PT leader, whose party was being celebrated on the theme of the PT and Lula.
Earlier, at a campaign rally, a man was arrested after throwing a homemade explosive into the crowd waiting for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Due to the threat, the candidate for the Presidency of Brazil used a bulletproof vest for the first time in an open act.
The death of the two men augurs badly ahead of an October election that many expect to become highly fraught in politically polarized Brazil. Leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the PT’s presidential candidate and currently leads Bolsonaro in polls.
Bolsonaro, who has long railed against Lula and his leftist allies, has floated the idea of not accepting any election loss, citing unfounded claims of election fraud and problems with Brazil’s widely respected electronic voting system.
According to a state civil police report and a witness who spoke with Reuters, Guaranho appeared at the party, uninvited, pointing a gun while also shouting insults at those present and words in support of Bolsonaro.
Before I get to the story, I want to thank Organic Consumers Association for the very kind and flattering words about my work……… — very heartwarming and impressive. So that’s that. Thank you, and I love you.
So last night, I was peacefully working on a philosophical article, and then I had the misfortune of reading the news. 😜
I mean of course we are being set up for yet another “two weeks to flatten the curve,” and of course they just barely let us breathe a bit for the summer—only to come down on us like a hammer later—but still. The terror campaign is in the air, and I hereby register my total contempt.
By the way, under the old normal, I would just ignore the lamentably irresponsible journos and their abysmally sensationalist coverage—but there is more to this than irresponsible journalism! Our psyches are still recovering from 2020. Remember 2020?
Well, it’s 2022. And we are happy to introduce the upgraded, shiny, invisible, “undetectable by PCR” but obviously very scary variant—in addition to moneypox, Marburg, the probably more dangerous-than-ever flu, the formidable giant African snail, the new tick-borne disease, and so on.
Anyone who cares about peace, democracy and human rights must worry about Turkey and the threat that the Turkish government poses to prospects of peace in the Middle East and beyond.
“Erdogan has promised a new invasion and cannot easily back down from his self appointed role as emperor of an expanding Turkey. Russia did give way and gave him Fly Permission to destroy and genocide Afrin in 2018, signing a new pipeline deal the same day. This time round Russia is acting tough in defending Syria and acting its role as ceasefire guarantor , but it can ill afford to antagonize Turkey who control entry to the Black Sea, etc. “
While Turkey’s NATO allies obediently echo Turkey’s rhetoric about Turkey’s “justified security concerns”, despite the absence of any justification, Turkey daily attacks the security of citizens in Syria, in Iraq, and within its own borders, and attempts to extend this insecurity to other parts of Europe.
Thousands of people joined a demonstration in Tel Rifaat town of the Shehba Canton on Sunday 10th Nov 2019 in protest at the Turkish state’s invasion and genocidal practices in northern Syria. 40% of the population of Efrin (Afrin) now survive in a semi no-man’s land, defended by the multi-ethnic SDF of AANES, after expulsion by the Turkish invasion, plantation and Turkification of their homes and properties
As British lawyers denounced Turkish complicity in Yazidi genocide, in a detailed report launched at the House of Lords, Turkey continued their assault on the border areas of northern Syria and Iraq, killing and wounding civilians and forcing the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to declare a state of emergency and build closer defensive links with Damascus and Iran.
And as Turkish planes terrorised villagers still trying to survive and eke out a living in the lands around Manbij and Tal Rifaat, Kurdish dissidents in Sweden and other parts of Europe faced new hostility as a result of Turkish extortion.
Turkish complicity in Yazidi genocide
The United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was written in the aftermath of the Second World War in the hope of making ‘never again’ a reality.
It is now nearly eight years since ISIS began their main attack against the Yazidis in August 2014, when over 5,000 men and older women were killed and over 6,000 women and children were enslaved.
This Yazidi Womens Brigade joined the SDF as they closed in on the ISIS HQ in Raqqa in 2018.”We can not remain impassive in the face of the genocide committed by Erdogan and his fascist state against the Kurdish people….
The report published this week was compiled by the Yazidi Justice Committee, which was formed by British human-rights lawyers in 2020 to look at evidence against states associated with the genocide with the object of holding them accountable in an international court.
For the international statesmen and women lining up to appease their NATO ally, Turkey, it should be essential reading.
There have been a few trials of individual ISIS members, but, as Helena Kennedy QC and Professor David Alton explain in the foreword, “An ocean of impunity exists in relation to the Yazidi genocide. As ISIS is a fictional state, it is deemed in law to be ‘a non-state actor’ and, therefore, cannot be prosecuted for genocide under current international law… However, there is legal responsibility under the Genocide Convention if a State knowingly fails to prevent genocide, fails to punish perpetrators, or is complicit in genocidal action.”
The report pulls together over 200 pages of evidence and makes the case for taking three states to the International Court of Justice: Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
While all three are shown to have failed to “take all measures reasonably available to them to prevent genocide” and also to “legislate for the prosecution of… known perpetrators of the genocide in their territory”, the case against Turkey is even more serious.
The report concludes, on the basis of the evidence, that “Turkey, prima facie, was also complicit in the commission of genocide (which is ongoing) by allowing fighters to cross its borders to join ISIS and allowing this group to smuggle oil and other significant resources to fund and fuel its operations and commit prohibited acts against the Yazidis…”
The report also argues that Turkey’s contribution to the Yazidi genocide is far from over.
It calls on Turkey to “comply with its obligations under international human rights law, and to immediately cease the unlawful targeting of, and indiscriminate attacks against, civilians and civilian objects, and persons hors de combat, in northern Iraq and northern Syria.”
And also to “immediately cease all forceful operations against the Sinjar Resistance Units (‘YBS’) – which are ostensibly characterised as ‘counter-terrorism’ operations… absent strong and cogent evidence indicating an immediate and present risk of armed attack against Turkey or its nationals (which to date has been wholly without basis)”.
This is a report that demands action, but it has not been a good week to get attention in British politics and media for anything outside the soap-opera of Boris Johnson’s resignation.
Political action in the UK could depend on Johnson’s replacement as leader of the Conservative Party and consequently, Prime Minister.
Aerial photo – a camp in Al-Shehba enclave where 170 thousand refugees from Turkey’s genocide in Afrin await a promised new invasion.. Why Why Why? The 2nd biggest NATO army starts artillery and deploys with its jihadi mercenaries to invade and ‘Turkify’ 5 big refugee camps of families it already expelled from Afrin. Families who survive constant blockades, drone and Artillery attacks..
Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, who has been described as a front runner, is hardly likely to try and hold Turkey to account. In October 2019 he shocked both NATO and the EU by defending the Turkish invasion following Trump’s withdrawal of US troops – and was accused of prioritising a post-Brexit trade deal with Turkey.
Here in Barcelona high July temperatures suck in a sea breeze.. So it never quite gets to 100 F, or 37.7 C. Even so with high humidity we humans suffer more.
But look at Córdoba, in the south of Spain. Meteored forecasts max temperatures over 40 C (104 F) for 15 days consecutively . And next Thursday to hit 46 C, or 114 F.
The Spanish record maximum is 47.4 C or 117,32 F.
And as there are always a few met stations with higher temperatures the Spanish maximum is at risk, depending on the exact position of a depression in the Canary islands, pumping hot air from the Sahara..
In the Sahara an area nearly the size of Europe is over 40 C every afternoon. They say that humans destroyed the climate by burning the forest and too many goats!
Andalusia is hellishly hot in July, but spare a thought for Africans, or those in the Middle East and India without air conditioning, as Climate Tipping Points tip and the heat becomes unlivable. see India heat wave kills thousands |
Check out Meteored’s predictions for Baghdad this week. 50 C is 123 F.
Every morning when I fire up my hip-hop happening State-surveillance apparatus aka Smartphone, a panel appears saying that it wants to pinpoint my location in order to improve my user experience. It is my considered belief that they don’t give a monkey’s chuff about my user experience.
On my bank’s website for online usage is a message saying “our first concern is for the safety of your money”.
I don’t believe that one either – not least because we’ve been arguing the toss about a mysterious standing order on my account that shovels €45 euros every month into the coffers of a company I’ve never heard of, and wasn’t authorised by me, and in which they’ve shown very little interest beyond a sort of half-hearted, “Nuffin ter do wiv me, Guv”.
When I Google the company, I am redirected to another outfit who investigate “inexplicable standing orders”. Curiouser and curiouser.
It’s now clear (following forced release under Congressional pressure) that Pfizer’s testing procedures for developing their Covid19 “vaccine” used a lot of blind eyes, cut corners, data sins of omission, and downright lies.
Further, FOIs put to the CDC in the US show without any doubt that Fauci’s little plaything casually ignored all VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) data that should have resulted in product recall immediately.
We have also known for some eighteen months that PHE (Public Health England) did exactly the same thing under the even more shambolic system that pertains in my homeland.
It is often said that the early bird catches the worm. When it comes to the viruvax plot, the early adopter was rewarded with a can of worms………..
The Free 