Islam - Current Day > Muslims Kill Evangelist while Preaching; ISIS appoints new leader; Raif Badawi out of prison! **UPDATED**

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Hardline Muslims Kill Evangelist at Open-Air Event

East Africa Correspondent | 

Morning Star News | 

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Uganda on the Map, Hardline Muslims kill evangelist at open-air event. ChristianHeadlines.com

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 8, 2022 (Morning Star News) – Hardline Muslims who grew furious at the preaching of a speaker at an open-air evangelistic event last week in eastern Uganda beat him to death and burned his body, sources said.

John Michael Okero was quoting verses from the Koran about Christ on Feb. 28 in Kadungulu village, Serere District when a Muslim identified only as Shakuuru grabbed the microphone from him. He and other Muslims started beating Okero as they accused him of blaspheming Allah by saying that he has a Son, misinterpreting the Koran, touching the Koran without ritual cleansing and disrespecting it by placing it under the Bible, an area source told Morning Star News by phone.

They beat him to death with iron bars, stones and sticks and later burned his body to a chant in the Ateso language referring to a thief who steals people from one religion to join a bad religion, the source said. Okero was 43.

Police were called but arrived after the assailants had fled, the source said. Officers began a manhunt.

Okero, a resident of Kapaala village, Palissa District, was frequently invited to preach at evangelistic events in predominantly Muslim Kadungulu village by a denomination undisclosed for security reasons.

The assault was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.

Uganda’s constitution and other laws provide for religious freedom, including the right to propagate one’s faith and convert from one faith to another. Muslims make up no more than 12 percent of Uganda’s population, with high concentrations in eastern areas of the country.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.

If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?

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ISIS appoints new leader

The terrorist group confirms death of previous leader in US raid on Syria

FILE PHOTO © Getty Images / Pictures From History

Terrorist group Islamic State has confirmed the death of its previous leader Abu Ibrahim Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi, announcing the similarly-named Abu Al-Hassan Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi as his replacement on Thursday.

A spokesman from the group confirmed the previous leader’s death and announced the new leader over ISIS’ al-Furqan Media, though the name had already been circulating unofficially on social media in the preceding month.

The previous Al-Quraishi reportedly blew himself and his family up during a raid by US special forces in northwestern Syria last month. 

Since his wife and children went with him,  how will he handle the 72 virgins?

According to a senior unnamed US official, Quraishi detonated the bomb at the start of the operation, leaving at least 13 people dead in the “clashes and explosions” that ensued, according to Syrian rescue workers. However, there were no US casualties, and US President Joe Biden called the raid successful.

The now-deceased Quraishi had led the wannabe caliphate since the death of previous leader and founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died in a similar manner during a US raid in 2019. While former president Donald Trump declared victory over the group, it had periodically surfaced to stage attacks in Syria and Iraq in the intervening years, and an Afghan splinter group called ISIS-K set off a bomb in the last days of the US presence in Kabul, killing hundreds.

ISIS-K also claimed responsibility for a mosque bombing in Pakistan leaving dozens dead.

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Update: 12 Mar 2022 - 10 year travel ban to be enforced!

Raif Badawi freed from Saudi prison

Quebec family jubilant after 10-year fight to free Saudi blogger jailed

for promoting liberal views on Islam

CBC News · 

Posted: Mar 11, 2022 12:15 PM ET

Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, shared hugs with friends and supporters in front of city hall in Sherbrooke, Que. on March 11, 2022, the day he was released after 10 years in prison. (Radio-Canada)

The Quebec family of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has confirmed he has been released from Saudi prison, 10 years after he was jailed for criticizing religious figures and promoting liberal views of Islam.

"After 10 years in prison, Raif is free!" Ensaf Haidar, Badawi's wife, tweeted, Friday.

As the news spread, Haidar was met Friday afternoon by cheering supporters holding signs bearing her husband's photo, and she shared a few tearful hugs outside city hall in Sherbrooke, Que., where she lives with her three children.

"I am at a loss for words," Haidar said, in an interview with Radio-Canada. "I would like to find the words, but I am just happy." 

"He is, I don't know how many kilometres away, but the important thing is that Raif is free," she said.

Haidar has been fighting for her husband's release for the past decade. She received a call this morning from Badawi, as he was signing his release papers.

"He is doing well. Even he doesn't know what to say," she said. "It's still a surprise for us, but a good surprise."

She said two of her children were home when she received his call.

"[They said] 'Mom is it true? Is it true?' Their responses were really touching," Haidar said.

"We were jumping everywhere we were running in the house," said the couple's daughter, 18-year-old Najwa Badawi. "It's a weight off our shoulders."

Release conditions unclear

Badawi's family had been anticipating his release, as his 10-year sentence had been served in full as of Feb. 28.

Following his arrest in 2012, Badawi was also sentenced to 1,000 lashes and a fine of 1 million Saudi Arabian riyal, or about $340,000 Cdn. 

Update: He was also sentenced to a 10 year travel ban to begin upon his release from prison. A Saudi Interior Ministry spokesperson indicated today that that travel ban will be enforced unless Badawi is issued a royal pardon.

Badawi's case made international headlines when he was whipped 50 times in public, and the remainder of the lashings were suspended following international outcry.

Haidar said she does not yet know the conditions of Badawi's release. 

Collette Lelièvre, a campaigner with Amnesty International Canada who has worked on Badawi's case for most of the last decade, said the organization is continuing to call for the lifting of the travel ban imposed on Badawi by the Saudi government, so he can join his family in Canada. 

This is great news, now if they can get him out of Saudi Arabia and into Canada, that would be fantastic.

In Sherbrooke, Que., where Raif Badawi's wife and three children live, supporters hold posters with the Saudi blogger's picture and play drums to celebrate his release from prison. (Radio-Canada)

The organization has planned a demonstration in Montreal for next Tuesday, to support Badawi and to call for more vocal action from the Canadian government.

"Now is the time to push," she said. "If we work for Raif, we also work for other human rights defenders and other political opponents [in Saudi Arabia].

She praised Haidar for her tireless work to secure her husband's freedom. 

"She has done so many things! Spoken to conferences, demos, travelled around the world to arrive to this point," Lelièvre said.

Big Pharma > J&J settle opioid suits for $26 bn; Moderna sued for copyright infringement; Purdue's Owners raked over coals, but no charges for opioid crisis

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Drugmaker to pay record sum in opioid settlements

Johnson & Johnson, along with three distributors, must pay out

to local governments across the US

FILE PHOTO: A pharmacist empties a prescription bottle of opioid painkillers that she filled for a patient at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, September 11, 2018 © Getty Images / John Tlumacki

Johnson & Johnson, as well as distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, announced on Friday that they would pay out a combined $26 billion to state and local governments in the US affected by the ongoing opioid epidemic. The payouts, which combined make up the largest opioid settlement in history, will keep the pioneer of these drugs out of court.

The settlement plan was announced amid a raft of opioid lawsuits last year, but depended on enough state and local governments coming on board. On Friday the companies announced that they had secured enough participants and would start distributing the money in April.

According to law firm Motley Rice, more than 20,000 communities will receive payouts from the $26 billion settlement, with 90% of the funds earmarked for “treatment, education, intervention, screening, recovery and prevention efforts that are needed to curb the crisis.” The 3,200 municipalities that brought the litigation against the drug firms cover 90% of the US population.

However, the settlement means that the vast majority of the US will not be able to take further legal action against Johnson & Johnson and the distributors.

Separate lawsuits brought by municipalities in Washington and West Virginia are in the trial phase, and the drug companies earlier this month reached a separate $590 million settlement with more than 400 Native American tribes and organizations.

Opioid addiction has ravaged the United States in recent years. Overdose deaths topped 100,000 annually in 2021, with opioids responsible for more than 75,000 of these deaths, up from 56,000 the year before. According to separate figures from American Families Against Fentanyl, some 78,795 Americans aged between 18 and 45 died from overdosing on this powerful synthetic opioid between 2020 and 2021. Fentanyl, the group claims, kills more 18- to 45-year-olds than suicide, Covid-19, and car accidents, and should be declared a weapon of mass destruction.

While much of the Fentanyl in the US enters the country illicitly, blame for the addiction crisis has been laid at the feet of drugmakers. Two major opioid firms, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma, have been on the receiving end of multibillion-dollar lawsuits in recent years, but J&J pioneered the development of these drugs back in the 1980s, and in 2015 was the US’ main supplier of the raw ingredients used to make pain pills like Oxycontin.

“As monumental as this accomplishment is, we must remember that we are still only in the beginning phases of this complex litigation,” Motley Rice attorney Joseph Rice wrote in a blog post on Friday. “The opioid supply chain is massive and numerous other companies and parties have yet to answer for their role in creating this crisis of addiction.”

It is very disappointing that the companies responsible for probably more than a million deaths in USA are able to avoid real punishment by paying a fine. Pharmaceutical companies know very well how many people are at risk of death from every medication they produce, and they produce them anyway even when the greatest benefits are to Big Pharma's bank accounts. It's good that some of those benefits are removed, but there should be people going to jail for these atrocities.

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Moderna Hijacked Technology for COVID-19 Vaccine, Lawsuit Alleges

By Jack Phillips

Epoch Times 

March 1, 2022 

Two biotechnology companies filed a lawsuit against Moderna this week and alleged the vaccine manufacturer infringed on patented technology in the development of its commonly used COVID-19 shot.

Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences, the companies, claim in a civil lawsuit that Moderna used “breakthrough technology Arbutus had already created and patented” to create the COVID-19 vaccine such as the lipid nanoparticle delivery system, according to a complaint (pdf) filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware. Genevant is owned by Roivant, a company that licensed the patents in question from Arbutus.

“Moderna was well aware of Arbutus’s LNP patents and licensed them for other product programs, but it chose not to do so for its COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, it attempted to invalidate several of the patents before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and when those efforts largely failed, Moderna simply used the patented technology without paying for it or even asking for a license,” the complaint read.

The two companies alleged that Moderna committed seven counts of patent infringement. They are asking for financial compensation from the company.

In a statement on Monday, Moderna denied the allegations contained in the civil lawsuit.

“Moderna denies these allegations, and will vigorously defend itself against Genevant’s claims in Court,” a Moderna spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “Our COVID-19 vaccine is a product of Moderna’s many years of pioneering mRNA platform research and development, including creation of our own proprietary lipid nanoparticle delivery technology, which has been pivotal to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The statement added: “Further, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1498, Moderna has notified the U.S. government about the accusation of infringement against sales to the U.S. government, so that the U.S. government can protect its rights in defending against any alleged liability to Genevant. ”

With the lawsuit, Genevant and Arbutus said they are not seeking a court injunction because it would “impede the sale, manufacture or distribution of MRNA-1273” in vaccines, said William Collier, the CEO of Arbutus, in a statement.

“However, we seek fair compensation for Moderna’s use of our patented technology that was developed with great effort and at great expense, without which Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine would not have been successful,” Collier continued to say.

COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

In late February, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said that orders of its vaccine rose to $19 billion for 2022 sales, which is up from the $18.5 billion that was announced a month before.

“We believe there’s a high probability that we’re moving into an endemic setting,” Bancel told CNBC last week. “We should still be cautious because as we’ve seen with Delta, which came after Alpha and was more virulent, [it] is always possible to get the more virulent variant of course.”

‘Scum of the earth’: Drug victims face Purdue Pharma owners

By GEOFF MULVIHILL and JENNIFER PELTZ

Today

Cheryl Juaire holds photos of her sons, both of whom died from overdoses, Sean Merrill, left, and Corey Merrill, after making a statement during a hearing in New York, Thursday, March 10, 2022. Victims of opioids and those who have lost loved ones to the addiction crisis are unleashing their emotions on members of the family they blame for fueling the deadly epidemic. Thursday's unusual hearing is being conducted virtually in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. It is giving people the chance to confront members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and tell them about the lasting pain that addiction and overdoses have had in their lives. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) — Angry, defiant and sometimes tearful, more than two dozen Americans whose lives were upended by the opioid crisis finally had their long-awaited chance Thursday to confront in court some members of the family they blame for fueling it.

They were unsparing as they unleashed decades of frustration and sorrow on members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over the course of a three-hour virtual hearing.

One woman played a recording from when she called 911 to get help for her overdosing son, then called one of the Sacklers the “scum of the earth.” Several displayed pictures of loved ones who died too soon because of their addictions. Many spoke about forgiveness, with some trying to find it — and others definitely not.

“I hope that every single victim’s face haunts your every waking moment and your sleeping ones, too,” said Ryan Hampton, of Las Vegas, who has been in recovery for seven years after an addiction that began with an OxyContin prescription to treat knee pain led to overdoses and periods of homelessness.

Dede Yoder poses for a picture with a photo of her son, Chris Yoder, after making a statement during a hearing in New York on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“You poisoned our lives and had the audacity to blame us for dying,” he said. “I hope you hear our names in your dreams. I hope you hear the screams of the families who find their loved ones dead on the bathroom floor. I hope you hear the sirens. I hope you hear the heart monitor as it beats along with a failing pulse.”

The unusual hearing was conducted virtually in U.S. Bankruptcy Court at the suggestion of a mediator who helped broker a deal that could settle thousands of lawsuits against Purdue over the toll of opioids, generating billions for the fight against the addiction and overdose crisis and giving Sackler family members protection from lawsuits.

Appearing via audio was Richard Sackler, the former Purdue president and board chair who has said the company and family bear no responsibility for the opioid crisis; he is a son of Raymond Sackler, one of the three brothers who in the 1950s bought the company that became Purdue Pharma. Attending on video were Theresa Sackler, a British dame and wife of the late Mortimer D. Sackler, another of the brothers; and David Sackler, Richard Sackler’s son.

Theresa’s and David’s expressions remained largely neutral as people spoke on video about the pain of losing children after years of trying to get them adequate treatment, about their own journeys through addiction, and about caring for babies born into withdrawal and screaming in pain.

Under court rules, the Sacklers were not allowed to respond to the victims, who were selected by lawyers for creditors in the case. Some victims spoke from a law office in New York; others were at their homes or offices around the country.

Jannette Adams told of her late husband, Dr. Thomas Adams, who was a physician and church deacon in Mississippi and a missionary in Africa and Haiti. He became addicted to opioids after pharmaceutical representatives pitched them, she said. After a terrible decline, he died in 2015.

“I’m angry, I’m pissed, but I move on,” Adams said. “Because our society lost a person who could have made so many more contributions. ... You took so much from us, but we plan to, through our faith in God, move forward.”

Tiffinee Scott poses for a picture with a photo of her daughter, Tiarra Renee Brown-Lewis, after making a statement during a hearing in New York on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Kristy Nelson played for the Sacklers a tense recording of a 911 call in which she summoned police to her home the day her son Bryan died of an opioid overdose. The dispatcher asked whether his skin had gone blue; she said it was white. She said she replays the call in her mind daily.

Thursday was Richard Sackler’s 77th birthday, according to public records. Later this month, Nelson said, she and her husband will visit the cemetery on what would have been Bryan’s 34th birthday.

“I understand today’s your birthday, Richard, how will you be celebrating?” she said. “I guarantee it won’t be in the cemetery. ... You have truly benefitted from the death of children. You are scum of the earth.”

Her words echoed a 2001 email from Richard Sackler, made public during lawsuits over OxyContin, in which he referred to people with addiction as “scum of the earth.”

Jenny Scully, a nurse in New York, gave birth in 2014 while on OxyContin and other opioids prescribed years earlier when she was dealing with both breast cancer and injuries from an accident. She was told her baby would be healthy, Scully said, but the little girl has had a lifetime of physical, developmental and emotional difficulties.

“You have destroyed so many lives,” she said, pulling her daughter into view. “Take a good look at this beautiful little girl you robbed of the person she could have been.”

Kara Trainor poses for a picture with a photo of her son, Riley, 11, after making a statement during a hearing in New York on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The forum was unconventional for the White Plains, New York, courtroom of Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who on Wednesday gave tentative approval to key elements of a plan to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company.

Other drugmakers and wholesalers and even a consulting company have also been settling lawsuits over the opioid crisis, which has been linked two more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades. But Purdue’s case stands out because it was an early player with OxyContin and is privately owned.

The settlement is estimated to be worth at least $10 billion over time. It calls for the Sacklers to contribute $5.5 billion to $6 billion over 17 years to fight the opioid crisis. That’s an increase of more than $1 billion over a previous version rejected by another judge on appeal. Most of the money would be used for efforts to combat the crisis, but $750 million would go directly to victims or their survivors.

The overall settlement, which still requires actions by multiple courts to take effect, provides more than $150 million for Native American tribes and over $100 million for medical monitoring and payments for children born in opioid withdrawal.

The plan also calls for family members to give up ownership of the company so it can become a new entity, Knoa Pharma, with its profits dedicated to stemming the epidemic. In exchange, Sackler family members would get protection from lawsuits over opioids.

The family also agreed not to oppose any efforts to remove the Sackler name from cultural and educational institutions they have supported and to make public a larger cache of company documents.

Purdue Pharma starting selling OxyContin, a pioneering extended-release prescription painkiller, in 1996. At the same time, Purdue and other drug companies funded efforts to get doctors and other prescribers to think differently about opioids — suggesting they be used for some pain conditions for which the potent drugs were previously considered off limits.

Over the decades, there were waves of fatal overdoses, first associated with prescription drugs and then, as prescriptions became harder to obtain and some drugs became harder to manipulate for a quick high, from heroin. More recently, fentanyl and similar drugs have become the biggest killer.

Purdue has twice pleaded guilty to criminal charges, but no Sacklers have been charged with crimes. There are no indications any such charges are forthcoming, although seven U.S. senators last month asked the Department of Justice to consider charges.

The Sacklers have never unequivocally apologized. Last week, they released a statement saying in part, “While the families have acted lawfully in all respects, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities.”

Following the hearing, a spokesperson for Mortimer Sackler’s descendants said the family would not make a statement; a representative of Raymond Sackler’s side of the family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The family of the other brother, Arthur, sold its share of Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue before OxyContin was developed.

Several speakers noted the lack of an apology, and some called for prosecutors to pursue criminal investigations.

“When you created OxyContin, you created so much loss for so many people,” said Kay Scarpone, who lost her son Joseph, a former Marine, to addiction a month before his 26th birthday. “I’m outraged that you haven’t owned up to the crisis that you’ve created.”

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Ozzone 6-9 > We will never receive if we ask with a certain result in mind, because we are asking out of our lust, not out of our poverty.

 

Climate Change > The Private Jet Hypocrisy - Pelosi & Kerry; The insanity of electrifying Ottawa's transportation

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Nancy Pelosi has spent nearly $500,000 on PRIVATE JETS

since 2020 despite claiming climate change is an

'existential threat' we have a 'moral obligation to protect

By KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 

PUBLISHED:  13:33 EST, 7 February 2022

Nancy Pelosi spent nearly $500,000 on private jet travel since 2020 despite its notoriously bad environmental impact and her insistence that the U.S. has a 'moral' obligation to address climate change.

Campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission show Pelosi's campaign paid the Virginia-based Advanced Aviation Team $423,707 between October 2020 and December 2021. Her campaign paid another $65,457 to California-based private jet provider Clay Lacy Aviation in January 2021.

The House Speaker has described climate change as an 'existential' threat and has even suggested, to the criticism of others, that the issue is more important than China's human rights abuses.

'Climate is an overriding issue, and China is a leading emitter in the world,' Pelosi said in September.

The Democratic National Committee has also voiced commitment to addressing climate change while spending hundreds of thousands to Advanced Aviation Team in recent years.

Pelosi led a 21-member congressional delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November where she said her commitment to addressing climate change comes down to her beliefs as a devout Catholic.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's campaign spent $489,164 on private jets from October 2020-December 2021

despite claiming climate change is an 'existential' threat and jet use being notoriously bad for the environment

'For me, it's a religious thing,' the California Democrat said just three months after spending $67,604.93 on private air travel.

'I believe this is God's creation, and we have a moral obligation to be good stewards,' she told the crowd at the conference.

Private jets produce a significantly higher amount of emissions per passenger than commercial flights, leading environmentalists to criticize its continued use.

Pelosi is also facing controversy for opposing rules that prevent lawmakers and their families from trading in the stock market after it was revealed her husband, Paul, traded millions just days after her comments.

Biden's climate czar John Kerry has also come under fire for his use of private air travel after the administration vowed to make climate change a key priority.

She has also been called out of touch after flaunting her freezer full of high-end ice cream during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when families were relying on government relief checks amid lockdowns and layoffs. 

Kerry ironically took a private jet to Iceland in 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle award for climate leadership.

He said in an interview at the time that his mode of transportation is 'the only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.'

Fox News calculated in August 2021 that Kerry's family jet emitted around 30 times more carbon in seven months than the average vehicle does in a full year.

Biden's 2020 presidential campaign spent more than $15 million on private air travel. 

The feeling of power and privilege that comes from flying in your own jet, whether owned or rented, must be overwhelming for the ego. 

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A Canadian city’s economic suicide to (not) avoid climate change

By Tom Harris, Dr. Jay Lehr |

February 14th, 2022|

The Rideau Canal, Ottawa

When we began this series of articles about the insanity of the Ottawa government’s efforts to attempt to save the world from global warming, many of our readers might have had difficulty locating Canada’s capital city on a map. Now everybody knows a lot about Ottawa as its tyrannical government lead by the ultimate Marxist Justin Trudeau has been in your daily news as a result of thousands of courageous truckers demonstrating over their loss of many of their freedoms. Hopefully, these demonstrations will set back the government in their plan to destroy their city’s economy on the way to replacing all the use of fossil fuels with hundreds of wind turbines throughout this relatively small area city of one million residents.

As you read more about the city government’s plan described in part below you will wonder, as we have, how politicians can be so idiotically harmful to the people they represent.

Electrifying Transportation

A major part of the City of Ottawa’s net-zero by 2050 plans involves electrifying its entire transportation system, both public and private.

On the public side, the City will spend $1 billion to roll out 450 new 40-foot battery-powered buses over 5 years (by 2027) and transition to a “fully zero emission bus fleet by 2036.” This will present huge problems for riders. Electric buses, which cost twice as much as diesel-powered buses, have a record of higher breakdowns and reduced range in winter weather. Therefore, the City would have to establish recharging depots throughout Ottawa, at great cost.

Most electric buses are powered by a lithium-ion battery. In addition to the large production and transport costs for the batteries is a sensitivity to temperature that makes using electric buses in cold weather challenging. For example, a change from about 10 degrees Celsius to about minus 6 degrees Celsius decreases electric bus range up to 38%. During this past winter, in Berlin, Germany, 23 electric buses broke down in the cold due to the batteries giving out. They had to be quickly replaced with other buses, often internal combustion engine-driven buses. At –10 degrees Celsius, Berlin’s electric buses were supposed to have a range of 130 km, but the batteries ran out halfway through their journeys. And Ottawa is much colder than Berlin.

Consequently, our (our senior author is a resident of Ottawa) transition to electric buses will jeopardize reliability, stranding commuters in our coldest weather. Moreover, bus batteries take two and a half to six hours to fully charge, with each charge only taking the bus about 200 km under optimal conditions. Steep hills, heavy loads and rough surfaces make them even more inefficient. On December 3, 2021, the City of Ottawa’s Auditor General committed to conducting an audit of the electric bus plans to be reported on in 2022. She has plenty to consider.

The City also intends to oversee complete electrification of personal vehicles in the City. Electric vehicles represent only about 1% of the vehicle stock in Ottawa today. There are good reasons for this.

The most obvious is that they are far less convenient and less useful than cars powered by internal combustion engines. ICSC-Canada board member New Zealand-based consulting engineer Bryan Leyland explained why:

“When the Model T came out, it was a dramatic improvement on the horse and carriage. The electric car is a step backwards into the equivalence of an ordinary car with a tiny petrol tank that takes half an hour to fill. It offers nothing in convenience.“

Leyland also describes why installing electric car charging stations in the city is impractical:

“If you’ve got cars coming into a petrol station, they would stay for an average of five minutes. If you’ve got cars coming into an electric charging station, they would be at least 30 minutes, possibly an hour, but let’s say its 30 minutes. So that’s six times the surface area to park the cars while they’re being charged. So, multiply every petrol station in a city by six. Where are you going to find the place to put them?”

Like the buses, electric cars are also costly. On April 13, 2021, the Canadian House of Commons environment committee published “The Road Ahead: Encouraging The Production And Purchase Of Zero Emission Vehicles In Canada,” a report in which they concluded that replacing gas vehicles with electric cars would be too expensive for most Canadians. “Higher battery costs were the main cause of the higher price for consumers” the committee said.

And besides the fact that electric cars have poor low temperature performance, there are also serious safety issues. The Bolt, an electric vehicle sold in North America by General Motors, has been tied to at least nine fires since early 2020, and Hyundai’s electric vehicles have been tied to at least 15 fires. We are also starting to occasionally see Teslas burst into flames, one as recent as November 2021 when the fire spread to the nearby garage of the owner’s home.

The cause of the electric vehicle fires is their lithium-ion batteries. These batteries burn fiercely, and in addition to the fire and heat danger, are extreme toxic fluoride gas emissions. These fumes are especially dangerous in confined environments. Since lithium-ion fires are a chemical reaction, they can only be cooled rather than extinguished and can end up burning for several days.

According to the Austin, Texas Fire Department Division Chief Thayer Smith, it takes 200 to 1,000 gallons of water to put out a typical gasoline fire while this can increase to 30,000 – 40,000 gallons of water for an EV fire. After severe damage to a parking structure in Germany, all lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride battery based electric vehicles have been banned from parking underground. Will the City of Ottawa have to close all underground parking garages if they go to all electric vehicles?

Concerns are also being raised around the world that widespread use of EVs will result in serious electricity shortages in the rest of society. Put simply, the grid and infrastructure just aren’t there to support the electrification of the private car fleet. For example, Toyota president Akio Toyoda warned on December 16th that Japan would run out of electricity in the summer if all cars were running on electric power. Robert Wimmer, Toyota’s head of energy and environmental research testified before the U.S. Senate in March 2021 and said, “If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification, it will require overcoming tremendous challenges, including refueling infrastructure, battery availability, consumer acceptance, and affordability.”

Of course, the reason the City wants to electrify its transportation system is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and protect the environment. But California engineer Ron Stein, co-author of the newly released book, Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping citizens understand the environmental and humanity abuses that support ‘clean’ energy, explains that, when one counts the emissions produced when generating the electricity to power the vehicles as well as the mining, material processing, manufacturing and transportation involved in making the vehicles, especially their very energy intensive batteries, there really is no significant emissions saving.

Stein and co-author Todd Royal also explain that lithium-based electric vehicle batteries rely on a mix of rare earth metals and cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite that require massive amounts of energy to mine, transport, process and refine, far greater than the extraction and transport of oil and natural gas. Mining and mineral processing also require large volumes of water and can pose contamination risks from mine drainage and wastewater discharge.

When mining rare earth metals, about 90% of what is pulled up from the ground contains uranium, thorium and other radioactive nuclides. This radioactive waste can pose serious risks if it is not properly disposed of. In China, for example, champion of rare metals, in Heilongjiang province, a carpet of toxic dust covers agricultural regions. And, of course, China controls most of the lithium and cobalt, which are often produced with child labor and near-slave labor, with practically no health, safety or environmental safeguards. Even the CBC reports that “there have been mass fish kills related to lithium mining in Tibet.”

ICSC-Canada Economics/Policy Advisor Robert Lyman explained:

“A recent United Nations report warned that the raw materials used in EV batteries are highly concentrated in a small number of countries where environmental, labor and safety regulations are weak or non-existent. ‘Artisanal’ cobalt production [cobalt is crucially important for solar panels, wind turbines and batteries] in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now supplies two-thirds of the global output of the mineral. Many of the mines employ child labor in extremely dangerous tasks. Up to 40,000 children [some as young as 4-years old] are estimated to be working in extremely dangerous conditions, with inadequate safety equipment, for very little money in the mines in Southern Katanga. The children are exposed to multiple physical risks and psychological violations and abuse, only to earn a meager income to support their families.”

Why would Canada’s national capital or any other city want to deploy a transportation system that is costly, unreliable and based on minerals and metals which are mostly limited to environmentally negligent human rights abusers such as China, Russia, the Congo and the lithium triangle in South America?

No other word but INSANITY can describe this plan for we fear will be a once great city brought to its knees by Marxist ideologues with no idea of the fraud they are supporting that carbon dioxide emissions are of any danger to society.

Authors

Tom Harris is executive director of the International Climate Science Coalition

Dr. Jay Lehr

CFACT Senior Science Analyst Jay Lehr has authored more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles and 36 books. Jay’s new book A Hitchhikers Journey Through Climate Change written with Teri Ciccone is now available on Kindle and Amazon.

Economics > US inflation hits 40-year high; India-Russia bypassing US dollar; Biden determined to raise the cost of oil

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Americans get more bad news on inflation

An inflation gauge monitored by the US government is at a 40 year high,

and the Ukraine situation could make matters worse

©  Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

An inflation gauge monitored by the US Federal Reserve made a year-to-year jump of 6.1% in January, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Friday. The increase is its biggest since 1982, and it’s the latest sign that Americans will continue to be impacted by the rising costs of goods.

The figure comes from the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index. According to the data, consumer spending did rise in January over the previous month, despite incomes largely staying flat. Consumers upped their spending by 2.1% while average incomes only rose by an average of 0.1%. In December, consumer spending had fallen 0.8%. 

American consumers could be hit with more bad news as the Ukraine crisis continues. When announcing his latest batch of economic sanctions on Russia over the country’s decision to attack its neighbor, US President Joe Biden acknowledged that Americans’ wallets could soon be affected. 

In his speech, Biden said there would be a cost for both Russia and the US, but his administration is working to push back against potential energy price bumps, which would continue a trend Americans have faced for a year now. Gas currently stands at an average of $3.57 a gallon – a jump from $2.68 per gallon a year ago.

Moscow’s military assault on Ukraine could also lead to complications in oil exports from Russia and lead to more price hikes for Americans, experts have warned. Products made in Ukraine, like wheat and aluminum, have also seen their rates rise, the Associated Press noted on Friday.

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With China and India onside, Russia, pushed by US sanctions, is undermining the US dollar as the standard for world trade. This could potentially be a major disaster for the American economy. Lower demand for the US dollar would deflate its value and provoke rapid inflation.

India wants to bypass dollar to keep trading with Russia

New Delhi considering switching to rupee-ruble settlements amid sanctions on Moscow

© Getty Images / MicroStockHub

India is in search of efficient tools to skirt around the latest penalties imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, as New Delhi looks to keep trade with Moscow going, Indian media reports.

Among the options reportedly being considered are making settlements via foreign financial institutions that don’t operate in countries that have supported the punitive measures against Russia, routing payments through minor Russian lenders unaffected by the SWIFT ban, and boosting its rupee-ruble arrangement.

Russian banking majors Sberbank and Gazprombank have been exempted from the latest sanctions so far due to their essential role in processing payments for the EU’s gas and oil imports from Russia.

“We are looking into this. Even if these banks face sanctions from the US, payments can be made in euros as these transactions are still being carried out until further sanctions,” said a government official, as quoted by The Economic Times.

The official added that the full impact of the latest penalties against Russia is yet to be felt.

Repaying Russian debt through a rupee auction held by the Bank of Russia is reportedly another option under consideration. Such a repayment is made through the exports of identified commodities and services.

In 2014, India and Russia agreed to make payments through the rupee-ruble trade after India faced a threat of secondary sanctions over a defense agreement with Russia. Washington has once again threatened New Delhi with sanctions over the arms deal this week.

Bilateral trade between India and Russia amounted to $8.1 billion in the fiscal year ended March 2021, with exports to Russia at $2.6 billion and imports at $5.5 billion.

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US plotting unilateral ban on Russian oil imports – media

The Biden administration reportedly plans to seek the ban despite gas price hike

© Getty Images / Igor Grussak

The White House reportedly plans to ban all Russian oil imports to the US, even if it cannot secure the EU’s backing on the matter, two people familiar with the issue told Reuters on Monday. US President Joe Biden will bring up the topic during a Monday conference call with his French, German, and UK counterparts in which he hopes to gain their support.

A senior US official confirmed to Reuters that if legislation banning Russian imports does pass, “it is likely just the US.” 

Europe is already dealing with record-high oil and natural gas prices due to sanctions placed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, setting an all-time record of €345 per megawatt-hour for natural gas futures. The US is also seeing energy prices surge, with gas expected to surpass its all-time high of $4.103 per gallon later this week. Global oil prices have soared to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, topping out at $140 per barrel for Brent crude.

These eye-popping figures haven’t stopped the US from racing to ban Russian energy imports. A bipartisan group of senators led by Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a bill last week to ban imports of Russian oil by declaring yet another national emergency, and the bill is expected to be fast-tracked. 

The House is also “exploring” the possibility of banning Russian oil imports, according to a Sunday letter from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and another massive aid package - this one totaling $10 billion - is expected to be sent off to Ukraine while Americans struggle to pay rent and put food on the table under significantly high inflation.

While America’s reliance on Russian oil and gas is less than that of Europe, with under 7% of its oil supplied by Moscow, a ban would still push fuel prices higher worldwide. The Biden administration has released 30 million barrels of oil from the country’s strategic reserves in an effort to keep prices down, while some Democrats have considered a temporary “gas tax holiday” to ease the squeeze on drivers’ wallets.

The White House is rumored to be planning a trip to Saudi Arabia to push Riyadh to increase oil production in order to lower the price at the pump for Washington’s European allies, according to Axios, though a White House official denied any such trip was planned. 

Any country or company in the oil business must be grinning from ear to ear. The staggering profits help with the Great Reset in continuing to move wealth from the middle class to the oligarchs. It's going to get worse before it gets better. In fact, it might never get better.

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Military Madness > Ukraine - Part of The Great Reset? Tony Blair defends his stupid decisions; Zelensky's a Puppet, not a Hero

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Declassified papers reveal extent of US military aid to Ukraine – media

Washington has gone to great lengths to prepare Kiev “to wage a hybrid war

against Russia,” a major US news outlet has said

Ukrainian servicemen move US made FIM-92 Stinger missiles to Boryspil Airport in Kyiv.

© AFP / Sergei Supinsky

The US has drastically increased its shipments of lethal aid to Ukraine since late last year, including weapons and gear for urban combat, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, after viewing declassified accounting for transfers and sales.

According to the Pentagon's paperwork, from as early as December Washington had been actively equipping the Kiev government with shotguns, special suits for explosive ordnance disposal and other items useful for combat in urban areas – that's more than two months before the Russian invasion occurred.

And over the past week the deliveries of American arms to Ukraine intensified further, with Kiev getting Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems for the first time and boosting its arsenal of anti-tank Javelin missiles, among other things.

The list has illustrated the great extent to which the Biden administration “sought to prepare the Ukrainian military to wage a hybrid war against Russia,” the Washington Post added.

The delivery of weapons to Kiev is “a continuous process. We are always, always looking at what Ukraine needs, and we've been doing this for years now,” according to an unnamed high-ranking US defense official cited by the paper.

After the Russian incursion, “we have just accelerated our process of identifying requirements and accelerated our consultations as well with the Ukrainians, talking to them daily, as opposed to periodic meetings that we did before this crisis,” he explained.

Some $240 million out of the $350 million in lethal aid that had been approved in late February has already been supplied to Ukraine, according to a senior defense official.

This adds to around $200 million in military assistance that Washington greenlighted for Ukraine in late December, sending M141 single-shot shoulder-launched rocket launchers, M500 shotguns, Mk-19 grenade launchers, M134 miniguns and other gear to the country.

The donation of hundreds of millions of dollars of military-industrial inventory to Ukraine is the whole point of this exercise. Of course, the government pays the military-industrial complex full price for these mercenary toys, which comes from taxpayers' pockets, and is part of the Great Reset - which is a massive shift of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, in effect, eliminating the middle class.

The demonization of Russia has already resulted in many billions of dollars of inventory moving to European countries. NATO and Washington are responsible for that. Also, NATO's hyperbole about Russian threats to European countries was beginning to sound a little flat, so they needed confirmation that their lies were actually true. Unfortunately, Putin was goaded into providing that proof. 

Moscow launched what it called a “special operation” in Ukraine last Thursday, saying that it was needed to stop the “genocide” in the Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, which broke away from Kiev in 2014.

According to the Russian side, the aim of the operation is to “denazify” and “demilitarize” the Ukrainian government, not to occupy the neighboring country.

Kiev has denied Moscow's justification for the incursion, claiming that an unprovoked war has been waged against it and rallying for international support.

Unprovoked! It has been provoked for 14 years since NATO announced that it intended to embrace Ukraine and Georgia - violating the post-soviet agreement not to expand eastward, and putting Russia's borders under immediate threat.

It had also asked the US to impose a no-fly zone above Ukraine on numerous occasions, but the Biden administration has been reluctant to fulfill the request, which would require NATO to target Russian warplanes over the country, potentially leading to a major war in Europe.

Biden is now encouraging European countries to send fighter jets to Ukraine. Each fighter jet that needs replacing is many tens of millions of dollars to the US oligarchs.

It seemed like a good idea at the time....

Tony Blair thought invading Iraq was 'the right thing to do'

The former UK prime minister said leaders making big decisions must follow their ‘instinct’

© Getty Images / Dan Kitwood / Staff

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has again defended his decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq post-9/11, by saying he thought it was the “right thing” to do at the time.

Speaking to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on the BBC on Sunday, Blair said geopolitics is “very complex,” more complicated than people want to believe as they “search for simplicity.”

“People often say over Iraq or Afghanistan that I took the wrong decision,” Blair said, adding that he had to do what he “thought was the right thing” at the time.

On the “really big decisions,” Blair said leaders have to follow their “own instinct” but that they must also “be prepared to acknowledge when you've got things wrong.”

He explained that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington he decided that the UK had “to be with America in this moment” and to respond to any issues related to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons with “a strong, strong stand.”

And, yet, there were no biological, nuclear, or chemical weapons! Your instincts were completely wrong because you had no compulsion to learn the truth. Typical Labour (liberal) ideology is, 'the ends justify the means, even when they don't'.

Blair is unlikely to find understanding among many of his compatriots. A recent petition, which called for the former PM to be held accountable for “war crimes” and to strip him of his knighthood, has been signed by more than a million people. The petition reads that Blair was “personally responsible for causing the death of countless innocent civilian lives and servicemen in various conflicts.”

This Chilcot inquiry, published in 2016, found there was no intelligence to back up Blair's pretext for launching the war in Iraq; that the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. It also concluded that Blair had knowingly exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein when making the case to MPs and the public for military action.

Blair did, however, admit that he “may have been wrong” about Iraq and Afghanistan, saying leaders don’t always know “how things are going to unfold” when they make a big decision.

Commenting on the war in Ukraine, Blair said it was “massively contrary” to UK interests, “to have a country, an independent sovereign country on the doorstep of Europe, essentially invaded and taken over.”

Precisely the argument Russia makes for invading Ukraine!

Moscow has claimed its recent invasion of Ukraine was needed to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the country, to protect the Donbass region and to defend Russia’s own security amid NATO’s expansion eastward.

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Macgregor: Zelensky Is No Hero, He's A Puppet That Is

Putting His Own Population At Unnecessary Risk

Posted By Ian Schwartz

On Date March 5, 2022

Ret Col. Douglas Macgregor said a neutral Ukraine would be good for us and good for Ukraine as it would create a buffer both sides want in an interview on Fox Business with host Stuart Varney. Macgregor called Zelensky a "puppet" and said he is "dragging this out" and using civilians as a shield by sending armed forces into populated areas.

"Surprisingly little damage, frankly. Much less damage than we inflicted on Iraq when we went into it in '91 and again in 2003," Macgregor said of Russia's shelling of Ukrainian cities. "Mr. Zelensky, I think, is postponing the inevitable in the hopes that we are going to rescue him, and we are not coming. President Biden has made that very clear."

"Zelensky is a puppet, and he is putting huge numbers of his own population at unnecessary risk," Macgregor said. "Quite frankly, most of what comes out of Ukraine is debunked as lies within 24-48 hours. The notions of taking and retaking airfields, all of this is nonsense. It hasn't happened."

"He's not a hero? Standing up for himself and his own people, you don't think he's a hero?" an incredulous Varney asked.

"No, I do not," Macgregor chuckled. "I don't see anything heroic about the man. And I think the most heroic thing he can do right now is to come to terms with reality. Neutralize Ukraine. This is not a bad thing. A neutral Ukraine would be good for us as well as for Russia. It would create the buffer that, frankly, both sides want. But he's, I think, being told to hang on and try to drag this out, which is tragic for the people that have to live through this."

"I am inclined to disagree with you, Colonel, but, you know, we'll see how this works out," Varney replied.

STUART VARNEY: Putin attacks a nuclear power plant. What's the strategy behind that? Is it just to intimidate innocent civilians?.

DOUG MACGREGOR: The strategy was not to attack any power plants or the power grid. The Russians have very carefully avoided interrupting any power. No damage to communications, no damage to any of the things that are essential like the water supply.

What you're seeing is that the Russians have now driven what is left of the Ukrainian forces who are taking refuge in population centers, cities because they have no mobility, no air defense, no air cover, no logistical infrastructure. They are now mingling with the population much as we've seen in the Middle East whenever we drove the Islamists out of business, they ran into cities, used people as shields, the civilian population, and tried to avoid being annihilated. And I think that's essentially what's happening today with the population being used by the Ukrainian forces to avoid destruction.

STUART VARNEY: Do you think Putin will pull what I would call a Grozny?

DOUG MACGREGOR: No.

STUART VARNEY: Grozny was the capital of a breakaway republic. He flattened out when the civilians resisted. Is he going to flatten Ukraine?

DOUG MACGREGOR: No, absolutely not. In fact, he's worked hard to capture most of it intact. Surprisingly little damage, frankly, Stuart. Much less damage than we inflicted on Iraq when we went into it in '91 and again in 2003.

No, I think they're just surrounding the Ukrainian forces, and they are annihilating them. And this is inevitable. And Mr. Zelensky, I think, is postponing the inevitable in the hopes that we are going to rescue him, and we are not coming. President Biden has made that very clear.

STUART VARNEY: Do you think the end is in sight?

DOUG MACGREGOR: Well, the end of this phase is still a few days away. The first five days Russian forces, I think, frankly, were too gentle. They've now corrected that. So I would say another ten days this should be completely over. But the question is, what is it that Zelensky is going to do.

The Russians have made it very clear what they want is a neutral Ukraine. This could have ended days ago if he accepted that, and then they could adjust the borders. But the eastern part of Ukraine is firmly in Russian hands. Again, the Russians are not seizing territory, they're destroying Ukrainian forces. That's their focus.

STUART VARNEY: Colonel, it sounds like you don't approve of Zelensky's stand.

DOUG MACGREGOR: Oh, I think Zelensky is a puppet, and he is putting huge numbers of his own population at unnecessary risk. And, quite frankly, most of what comes out of Ukraine is debunked as lies within 24-48 hours. The notions of taking and retaking airfields, all of this is nonsense. It hasn't happened.

STUART VARNEY: He's not a hero? Standing up for himself and his own people, you don't think he's a hero?

DOUG MACGREGOR: No, I do not. I don't see anything heroic about the man. And I think the most heroic thing he can do right now is to come to terms with reality. Neutralize Ukraine. This is not a bad thing. A neutral Ukraine would be good for us as well as for Russia. It would create the buffer that, frankly, both sides want. But he's, I think, being told to hang on and try to drag this out, which is tragic for the people that have to live through this.

STUART VARNEY: I am inclined to disagree with you, Colonel, but, you know, we'll see how this works out.

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Ozzone 6-8 > When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more