This Week's Must Reads - 20-26 May 2024 - Infected Blood Scandal Was Not an Accident

A summary of this week's most interesting news, studies, reports and articles

Naked Emperor: Exposing the Narrative

Welcome to your weekly dose of curated news and insights from across the globe!

I spend hours each day gathering new information and interesting articles. I then pick the most fascinating topics to write about but that leaves a lot of information that I’m not sharing.

Below is a selection of this week’s best articles and information. This slimmed down summary is for all readers but more comprehensive daily summaries are for paid subscribers only.

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Climate Change

• Half of Americans think climate change will destroy planet in their lifetime. The survey of 5,000 Americans, split evenly by state, revealed that 48% of all respondents believe they’ll live to see climate change destroy the planet. Respondents in Hawaii were the most likely to agree (66%), with Vermont (59%) and New Mexico (56%) rounding out the top three states most concerned about the effect of climate change in their lifetime.

• World Bank launches plan to decimate global farming under excuse of cutting carbon emissions. The globalist-led World Bank issued a report recently that proposes the idea of making drastic cuts to global agriculture production in order to achieve "net zero emissions." The plot involves centralizing the world's farms in the hands of just a few wealthy individuals who plan to cut almost one-third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions by radically altering the way food is grown. The report touts the proposed changes in nice-sounding terminology that claims food production will continue in such a way as "to feed a growing population." The reality, though, is that the proposal threatens to eliminate large swaths of agricultural production that in turn could lead to famine and starvation.

Covid

• Federal health officials expand punishment of EcoHealth over Wuhan virus lab. The Biden administration has delivered another blow to the firm that sent taxpayer money to the Wuhan virus lab, announcing it has suspended EcoHealth Alliance’s president from being able to work on government-funded projects. Dr. Peter Daszak also faces a more permanent debarment from federal funds, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS said he “lacks the present responsibility” to get government money. The move comes a week after HHS suspended and began debarment procedures against EcoHealth itself.

• US Congressman Ron Johnson tells Fox News that Covid was “pre-planned by an elite group of people…Event 201 that occurred in late 2019”.

• Fauci Under Fire After New COVID Emails Released. Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, faces renewed scrutiny by Republicans after the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic combed through emails from Dr. David Morens, Fauci's former senior adviser. The committee, led by Republican Representative Brad Wenstrup, alleges evidence raises "serious questions as to whether Dr. Fauci took part in a conspiracy amongst the highest levels of [The National Institutes of Health] NIH to hide official records related to the origins of COVID-19."

Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

• NJ gym owner who defied COVID shutdown cleared of all charges after years-long legal battle. A New Jersey gym owner who defied the Garden State’s COVID-19 restrictions was cleared of more than 80 charges relating to a series of pandemic-era confrontations with police — and he celebrated by posting on social media that the governor could “suck his d–k.” Ian Smith and Frank Trumbetti — co-owners of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr — racked up the summonses after they kept their workout spot open in May 2020 despite Gov. Phil Murphy’s mandate to close non-essential businesses.

• The Pandemic Treaty Will Compound Past Mistakes. This article, by Michael T. Clark, explains why developing country delegates should vote no, and why prudent national, provincial, and community public health leaders everywhere should welcome a decision to scrap the current proposals, undertake a serious reflection on what just happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, and begin anew. Michael T. Clark is a specialist in the political economy of international relations. He has held a variety of positions in international diplomacy, business, research, and the international civil service, including more than nine years as Senior Coordinator for Governance and Policy at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

• Simon Case admits Government failed to tell public about alternatives to lockdowns. The head of the Civil Service has admitted to the Covid Inquiry that the Government failed to be open with the public about alternatives to lockdown. Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, said there was a “failure of transparency” over what other options ministers looked at before locking down the nation for a second time. Giving evidence, which had been delayed owing to illness, Mr Case compared officials making decisions in No 10 to “boiling frogs” who were “trapped into a way of thinking” that stopped them taking “decisive action”.

Economy/Energy/Finance

• Commercial property is weak link in euro zone finance, ECB says. Commercial real estate (CRE) companies have been hit by a triple whammy of higher borrowing costs, falling demand for office space in the post-pandemic age, and more expensive building materials. Their problems are now starting to spread to their backers in the form of rising default rates on loans and looming losses on investments, the ECB said in its twice yearly Financial Stability Review (FSR). The central bank for the 20 countries that share the euro said commercial property prices were down 8.7% year-on-year at the end of 2023 and may have further to fall.

• Falklands warning as Putin and Xi eye up British territory after huge oil discovery. The Falkland Islands, at the centre of a bitter sovereignty dispute between Britain and Argentina, are sitting on top of a “mind-boggling” quantity of oil which at current prices would be worth an incredible £33 trillion, an expert in the region has said. And Dr Chris Sabatini, senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House, has warned Russia is ready to push the boundaries of international law in a bid to get its hands on valuable natural resources - while acknowledging that one way or another, the oil would end up being extracted by one nation or another.

• America’s 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs: bad policy, worse leadership. The global trade system is disintegrating as you read this. Although it is unfashionable to say so these days, one of the great accomplishments of the past half-century was the remarkable decrease in global tariffs. This reduction, from average levies on imports of more than 10% in the 1970s to 3% today, helped fuel a boom in international commerce and a near-tripling in global gdp per person. The more that countries opened up, the more they flourished. So it is deeply regrettable that President Joe Biden has decided to impose tariffs of 100% on electric vehicles (evs) made in China.

• Biden releasing 1 million barrels of gasoline from Northeast reserve in bid to lower prices at pump. The sale, from storage sites in New Jersey and Maine, will be allocated in increments of 100,000 barrels at a time. The move, which the department said is intended to help “lower costs for American families and consumers,″ follows a mandate from Congress to sell off the 10-year-old Northeast reserve and then close it. The language was included in a spending deal Congress approved in March to avert a partial government shutdown. The Energy Department said the sale of 1 million barrels, about 42 million gallons, was timed to provide relief for motorists as the summer driving season begins.

• Reaching the end of offshored industrialization. Moving industrialization offshore can look like a good idea at first. But as fossil fuel energy supplies deplete, this strategy works less well. Countries doing the mining and manufacturing may be less interested in trading. Also, the broken supply lines of 2020 and 2021 showed that transferring major industries offshore could lead to empty shelves in stores, plus unhappy customers.

• Biggest US retailers cut prices as inflation hits shoppers. Prices are dropping for thousands of items at Target and Walmart, as US retailers’ results indicate fatigue among some consumers after three years of high inflation. Signs of weakness have turned up in other corners of US retail. Home hardware retailer Lowe’s on Tuesday reported a 4.1 per cent decrease in same-store sales during the first quarter as customers cut back on big renovation projects. The department store chain Macy’s reported that comparable sales were down 1.2 per cent at the stores it owns. While customers have been benefiting from strong wage and job growth, “inflationary pressures persist, and they’re feeling that pinch”, Macy’s chief executive Tony Spring told analysts.

• Entry into force of Digital Identity Regulation. The rules on establishing a European Digital Identity entered into force on Monday. They will pave the way for all EU citizens and residents to have a personal European Digital Identity Wallet in 2026. The European Digital Identity Wallet will consist of a mobile app issued in each Member State. It will allow EU citizens and residents to identify online in full security to access public and private online services all over Europe.

• Latest immigration figures provoke urgent warning. THE latest figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that net migration for the calendar year 2023 was 685,000. In response, Migration Watch UK warned that immigration continuing on this scale will lead to population increases totally beyond our capacity to provide the housing, services and amenities needed. Existing strains and stresses on infrastructure and services will be made worse. The resulting rapid demographic change will change the nature of our society and ancient communities and make integration nigh on impossible.

• In the US, Asian women earn more the White men.

• Oil, Gas Drilling Activity Slips in the U.S.. The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday. The total rig count fell by 4 to 600 this week, compared to 711 rigs this same time last year. The number of oil rigs stayed the same this week, after rising by 1 in the week prior. Oil rigs stand at 497--down by 73 compared to this time last year. The number of gas rigs fell by 4 this week to 99, a loss of 38 active gas rigs from this time last year. Miscellaneous rigs stayed the same at 4.

Health

• US cow-derived H5N1 virus flown to Porton Down under strict security for UK testing. A new unit set up to tackle H5N1 is testing imported samples of the virus at the high-security laboratories at Porton Down, in a race to understand if it poses a substantial risk to British livestock. Virus extracted from sick cattle in the US has been shipped to three secure UK laboratories in Porton Down, London and Weybridge, Prof Ashley Banyard of the Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA) told The Telegraph.

• Infected blood scandal 'not an accident', with 'catalogue of failures' and 'downright deception' by NHS and governments. From the 1970s, 30,000 people were "knowingly" infected with either HIV or Hepatitis C because "those in authority did not put patient safety first", the inquiry's report said. Around 3,000 people died. The response of the government and NHS has "compounded" victims' suffering, said inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff. This included the "deliberate destruction of some documents" by Department of Health workers, in what Sir Brian described as a "pervasive cover-up" and "downright deception".

• And the Cancer Keeps Rolling In. It is much easier to blame the usual suspects—pollution, bad water, unhealthy food, toxins in general, messy lifestyles, no exercise, and now, of course, climate change. Not only is the Covid vaccine not a suspect, but no vaccine is. In fact, no FDA-approved medication is. Big Pharma can once again hold the bloody dagger behind their back with a big grin on their face, “What, me worry?” Nope, you’ve played the game well Mr. Big Pharma, you’ve got us all (or most) under your spell. No matter how obvious your implication may be, you are off the hook.

Middle East

• Raisi's chief of staff describes downed helicopter's final moments. “There was fog on the ground, but not in up the air where we were advancing with the helicopters. However in one small compacted area, there was a small patch of clouds above a cliff. In terms of height, this cloud was on the same height as our flight’s height. It was there when the now-martyred helicopter pilot, who was also the commander of the fleet, that told the rest of the pilots to ascend above the clouds. We were the 3rd pilot, behind the president’s helicopter. We came above the clouds, we advanced for approximately 30 seconds. Our pilot suddenly realised that the main helicopter carrying the president is missing”.

• During an interview with CNN, the prosecutor for the ICC tells the host that a senior leader told him that the ICC “is built for Africa and for thugs like Putin”, when discussing the recent arrest warrants for Israel’s leaders.

• Biden administration signals it will support push to sanction ICC. The Joe Biden administration will work with Congress on possible sanctions against the International Criminal Court after its prosecutor announced it was seeking arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas officials, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Tuesday. Congressional Republicans have signalled they plan to introduce legislation that will impose costs on the court for its decision and are expected to force a vote on a measure that could lay bare the divisions with the Democrats over the Israel-Hamas war.

• Why Realists Oppose the War in Gaza. At first glance, you might think that foreign-policy realists wouldn’t care one way or the other about what Israel is doing in Gaza. Yes, it’s a humanitarian disaster and possibly a genocide, but is brutal behavior all that rare in the conduct of international politics? Aren’t realists the first to point out that in a world with no central authority, governments are going to take the gloves off if they think they will benefit and that no one will stop them? Yet prominent foreign-policy realists have been highly critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the Biden administration’s support for it. Isn’t it odd that adherents of a hard-nosed and unsentimental approach to world politics are suddenly talking about morality?

Politics

• At least three U.S. citizens - accused of being CIA agents - are arrested in Congo after failed coup: Three people killed in shootout at presidential palace and home of close ally. Video shows what is thought to be two of the men groveling for mercy on the ground as they were surrounded by government forces following a shootout in the capital Kinshasa on Sunday. Reports in local media suggested the arrested men were CIA operatives although the US ambassador in the city was keen to distance the US from any involvement.

• New court ruling is no ‘victory’ for Julian Assange. Today’s UK High Court ruling on the Julian Assange case was a much-anticipated one. The two judges were called to decide on whether the WikiLeaks founder could mount a new appeal against his extradition to the US on charges of leaking military secrets under the Espionage Act. If Assange had lost his right to an appeal, he could have potentially been handed over immediately to the US authorities for deportation. That scenario has, for now, been averted: the two British judges ruled in Assange’s favour, upholding his right to appeal against his extradition to the US. Yet the ruling falls short of what Assange’s supporters have been demanding for years: his immediate and unconditional release.

• Pope Francis on U.S. border crisis: Migration "makes a country grow". Pope Francis told CBS in an interview airing Monday night that the solution to record numbers of undocumented immigrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border was "to open the doors to migration." "For an immigration policy to be good, it must have four things: for the migrant to be received, assisted, promoted, and integrated. This is what is most important, to integrate them into the new life," he said.

• The Manchester Bombing Cover-Up Continues. Will the truth about the UK secret state’s connections to the Manchester bomber ever be revealed? Not if MI5 and David Cameron can help it. The security service has been decidedly unforthcoming in revealing what it, and other UK intelligence agencies, knew about Salman Abedi in the months and years before he detonated his bomb at the Ariana Grande concert on 22 May 2017. Evidence has emerged that MI5 and MI6 encouraged radicals such as the Abedis, and other British-Libyans based in Manchester, to fight in Libya, and allowed them to travel to the country, a hotbed of terrorism, for years afterwards.

• What on Earth is a ‘global majority’ person? The National Trust is once again under fire for its absurd virtue-signalling. Now it is promoting an ‘inclusive’ walking project for those it calls ‘global majority’ Brits. Leaving aside the ridiculousness of an ‘inclusive walk’ as a concept (the great outdoors is, famously, already open to everyone), you can be forgiven for wondering what on Earth the National Trust means by ‘global majority’ people. The use of ‘global majority’ here is a reference to the fact that the world’s population is 85 per cent non-white. It is a phrase that is fast being adopted by socially conscious types as the new, even more politically correct version of ‘ethnic minority’ or ‘BAME’ (black, Asian and minority ethnic).

• Biden's daughter Ashley has finally admitted her diary about 'showers with dad' as well as fears she was 'molested' is real. Now we know for certain: the diary, like the laptop, is real — and its contents are alarming. So why isn't the media all over this? In 2019, Ashley Biden, the then 37-year-old daughter of President Biden and his wife Jill, wrote in her journal about showering with her father at an inappropriate age as well as her fears that, as a child, she was sexually abused. Explosive stuff. Not that you would have heard about it, thanks to a near-complete, years-long media blackout.

• Former Secretary of State, Ben Wallace - Foreign Office HQ is where British interests go to die. The Foreign Office seems to be governed by two principles. The first is “not to upset anyone”, even if it comes at the cost of Britain’s national interest. The second is that it has an overwhelming “duty of care”, not to UK citizens but to its own workforce. But these positions catch up with you. If you stand for nothing, you end up eventually being found out. And this week, in the Security Council, the Foreign Office was found out. In what world was it the correct thing to do to stand in silence for the Iranian president? A man who ordered the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of innocent Iranians during the aftermath of the Revolution. A man who exported drones to Russia and Hamas to kill our allies and friends. For too long foreign secretaries and ambassadors have been held back by a culture more interested in consensus and health and safety than actually being agents for our national interest.

• Are the US and China really decoupling? The US is no longer buying Chinese electric vehicles and China is no longer buying US Treasury bonds. Is this the start of the great decoupling we keep hearing about, with the two superpowers squaring off into rival camps? As China draws closer to Russia and Iran, the US is “friend-shoring” its overseas economic linkages with global allies. Perhaps not — it is an election year, after all. President Joe Biden’s announcement of tariffs on Chinese EV imports, which came just a couple of weeks after he imposed tariffs on Chinese steel, has been made with one eye on union votes.

• Israel Lobby Funded a Third of Conservative MPs. Some 126 of the Tory party’s 344 MPs have accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups, Declassified has found. The revelation comes as Rishi Sunak calls a general election in which his unequivocal backing of Israel could cost the party votes. The value of the donations or hospitality amounts to over £430,000, with the organisations paying for sitting Conservative MPs to visit Israel on 187 occasions. The main funder is Conservative Friends of Israel, a parliamentary group which does not disclose its own sources of funding.

• Lucy Letby denied permission for baby murders appeal. Letby, of Hereford, was convicted in August 2023 of the murders of seven babies and the attempted murders of six others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde, said they had refused Letby's request to bring an appeal at a short Court of Appeal hearing earlier. The full reasons for the judges' decision were not made public, with the full details of Letby's appeal bid also unable to be published for legal reasons. Dame Victoria said: "Having heard her application, we have decided to refuse leave to appeal on all grounds and refuse all associated applications.

• Germany’s authoritarian turn - A desperate establishment won't tolerate dissent. Just five years ago, the 70th anniversary of the birth of the post-war German democratic state was accompanied by euphoric celebrations across the country. This week, by contrast, few Germans were in the mood to party. Aside from the Federal Republic of Germany’s economic woes, the prevailing opinion is that German democracy isn’t in very good health. Once one understands the ideological premises of the German constitution — that the state must do whatever it takes to protect the status quo from any threats arising from the masses — the nation’s authoritarian turn starts to make sense. Far from being an aberration, this is exactly what the German post-war system was designed to do all along.

Science

• The universe is made of experiences, not things. The scientific materialist worldview robs reality of its colour, temperature, smell, leaving us with a picture of reality that is radically at odds with our common sense understanding of the world. Helen Yetter-Chappell proposes an alternative: Reality is made of experiences, woven together into an experiential tapestry, that persists even when we aren’t looking.

• Mysterious 'Anomaly' Buried Near Giza Pyramids Baffles Archaeologists. Slowly but surely, the ground is regurgitating its secrets. The history that lies buried beneath the swirling sands of time yields, piece by piece, to technology. But one such piece, in a well-explored region, has archaeologists a little baffled. Near the famous ancient Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt, ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography have revealed a large, two-part structure, buried and concealed under a burial ground that has sat (more or less) undisturbed for more than 4,000 years.

• How Neanderthal language differed from modern human – they probably didn’t use metaphors. The Neanderthals became extinct around 40,000 years ago. We populated the world and continue to flourish. Whether that different outcome is a consequence of differences in language and thought has been long debated. But the evidence points to key differences in the brains of our species and those of Neanderthals that allowed modern humans (H. sapiens) to come up with abstract and complex ideas through metaphor – the ability to compare two unrelated things. For this to happen, our species had to diverge from the Neanderthals in our brain architecture.

Technology

• Pentagon says Russia ‘likely’ launched space weapon. The United States has blamed Russia for launching a spacecraft capable of attacking satellites in orbit, the Pentagon said late Tuesday as tensions over space weaponry ramp up. "Russia launched a satellite into low Earth orbit that we assess is likely a counter space weapon," the Pentagon's spokesman Pat Ryder said, adding that the spacecraft was dispatched "into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite." This year, U.S. officials briefed that Russia was developing a type of nuclear anti-satellite weapon, a revelation that sparked consternation among space policy wonks due to the cataclysmic impact on the global economy a detonation would have.

Ukraine

• Putin starts tactical nuke drills near Ukraine. Russia on Tuesday announced it has started tactical nuclear weapons exercises near Ukraine, as Moscow again accused the West of being "provocative." The Kremlin's Southern Military District troops "are practicing combat training tasks of obtaining special ammunition for the Iskander operational-tactical missile system, equipping launch vehicles with them and covertly advancing to the designated position area in preparation for missile launches," Russia's defense ministry said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.

• NATO’s boss wants to free Ukraine to strike hard inside Russia. Nato secretaries-general do not normally attack the policies of the alliance’s biggest and most important member country. But Jens Stoltenberg, whose ten-year stint in charge is coming to an end, has done just that. In an interview with The Economist on May 24th, he called on nato allies supplying weapons to Ukraine to end their prohibition on using them to strike military targets in Russia. Mr Stoltenberg’s clear, if unnamed, target was the policy maintained by Joe Biden, America’s president, of controlling what Ukraine can and cannot attack with American-supplied systems.

• Putin wants Ukraine ceasefire on current frontlines. Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines, four Russian sources told Reuters, saying he is prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond. Three of the sources, familiar with discussions in Putin's entourage, said the veteran Russian leader had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decision to rule out talks.

Vaccines

• Moderna and Pfizer In Talks With U.S. To Make a Bird Flu Vaccine. The disclosure came amid a run-up in shares of vaccine makers. Moderna stock spiked in Wednesday trading, climbing 13.7% over the course of the day amid swelling concerns over the avian influenza outbreak in U.S. cattle. After the market closed, the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dawn O’Connell, said on a press call that the agency is in conversation with both Moderna and Pfizer about making avian influenza vaccines using messenger RNA-based technology.

• The UK Covid Inquiry begins its investigation into vaccines. Anna Morris KC read out the yellow card data - 2,688 fatalities, 468,250 reports (300,000 of them were serious).

• The Story of Operation Warp Speed Gets Worse. Operation Warp Speed institutionalized central planning backed by billions of taxpayer dollars as the lead response to that which is said to threaten us. Central planning always and everywhere fails during times of tranquility, yet we’re expected to believe that it works during times of uncertainty? To believe the obnoxious conceit that informed Operation Warp Speed is to believe that the federal government should always plan the drugs and vaccines of tomorrow. Why not? If federal largesse is so effective when all of us are theoretically losing their heads, why not keep government in the picture when there’s calm? Readers know the answer.