Today's Must-Reads - 12 June 2024

Exposing the narrative with the latest news, studies, reports and articles!

Naked Emperor: Exposing the Narrative!

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Climate Change

• New Study: East Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Thickening, Gaining Mass – Especially Since The 1980s.

  Per a new study, more than 2200 historical aerial photos of a 2000 km stretch of ice in East Antarctica have been recently uncovered. The rare images reveal what the glaciers in this region looked like in 1937. Interestingly, the photos show all these East Antarctic glaciers have remained stable, thickened, gained mass, and/or increased in elevation over the last 85 years, with much of the growth and mass gains occurring since 1985. There has been no warming in this region since the 1950s. This suggests that “global warming” plays a minimal role in ice thickness changes.

Covid

• Fauci’s institute hid mpox gain-of-function plans from Congress and the media.

  For nearly nine years Anthony Fauci’s institute concealed plans to engineer a pandemic capable mpox virus with a case fatality rate of up to 15 percent, congressional investigators revealed in a new report Tuesday. In June 2015, a scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases received formal approval from the National Institutes of Health’s Institutional Review Board for experiments expected to engineer an mpox virus with high transmissibility and moderate mortality. A new interim report describes the obstruction and secrecy around the mpox proposal as a case study in how the institute “oversees and accounts for the monitoring of potentially dangerous gain-of-function research of concern.”

Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

• AN NHS medic who refused to get a Covid jab has won a discrimination case after her boss labelled her an "anti-vaxxer".

  Senior ultrasound specialist Gail Lauder caused tension with her colleagues who "reacted negatively" to her stance especially when she discussed it with patients, an employment tribunal heard. Her position - and objection to being told to keep quiet about it - led to bosses branding her an "anti-vaxxer", a label that the tribunal found to be "unfavourable treatment". The panel - chaired by Employment Judge Sandy Meiklejohn - said: "It drew on a stereotypical view that someone who was not vaccinated against Covid must be an 'anti-vaxxer'.

• The Confiscation of Reality.

  Over four years ago, Covid lockdowns staged a dramatic confiscation of present reality. The question is, did we ever get it back? Lockdowns both launched an assault upon present reality by physically removing us from it and piloted, through the impossible idea of Lockdown, the cycle of abstraction that continues to transfer the reality effect from lived experiences to theoretical constructions. If reality is sufficiently hostile and the ideas are sufficiently abstract, you can lock people away from present reality by the circulation of unbelievable ideas.

Economy/Energy/Finance

• Moody's Reviewing Six Regional Banks for Possible Downgrades.

  Moody’s said that because each of them is “a regional bank with a substantial concentration in commercial real estate (CRE) loans,” they face “ongoing asset quality and profitability pressures as higher-for-longer interest rates continue to highlight” what it called the unique pressures of CRE on banks' creditworthiness.

• Norway discovers Europe’s largest deposit of rare earth metals.

  Mining firm Rare Earths Norway says it has discovered Europe’s largest proven deposit of highly prized rare earth elements, potentially reflecting a watershed moment for both the Nordic country and the broader region. One of the few deposits not owned or controlled by China, the discovery of continental Europe’s largest rare earths deposit is considered a welcome boost in Europe’s bid to break China’s rare earths dominance. Demand for rare earths and critical minerals is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years as the clean energy transition picks up pace.

• "Seriously underwater" mortgages live in the South and Midwest.

  While most U.S. homeowners are sitting on a mountain of home equity after years of rising house prices, in some pockets of the country an increasing share of mortgage holders are underwater on their loans. The South and Midwest have the highest share of underwater mortgages, per Attom. That's because in these areas home values have fallen from their peak during the pandemic housing boom.

Health

• Cancer Incidence Trends in Successive Social Generations in the US.

  Is cancer incidence in successive social generations in the US slowing or growing? In this cohort study of 3.8 million patients with cancer ascertained by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, members of Generation X born between 1965 and 1980 have been experiencing larger per-capita increases in the incidence of leading cancers combined than any prior generation born between 1908 and 1964. These findings suggest that based on current trajectories, cancer incidence in the US might remain high for decades.

• Simply looking at greenery can boost mental health – new research.

  Simply directing your gaze towards natural elements, even in the middle of a city, can enhance wellbeing. The results were striking. Participants who focused more on green elements reported significant improvements in mood and reductions in anxiety compared to those who focused on grey elements. And they showed higher levels of positive emotions and lower levels of anxiety after the walk. They also reported feeling more refreshed and rejuvenated.

Middle East

• Israel Expects Far-right Gains in European Parliament Will Rebuff Criticism of Gaza War.

  Weakening of Green parties and major gains by far-right parties, especially in France and Germany, liable to help Israel rebuff significant measures that favor the Palestinians. Israel hoping new EU foreign minister's policy will be less critical of it.

Politics

• Hunter Biden found guilty. What comes next?

  A jury on Tuesday found U.S. President Joe Biden's son Hunter guilty of making false statements on a gun background check and of illegally possessing a firearm. Here is what happens next. Hunter Biden is facing a maximum of 25 years in prison, but the sentencing guidelines for illegally possessing a firearm, Hunter Biden's most serious offense, is 15-21 months and most offenders get less than that. He could also serve multiple sentences concurrently. Biden did not use the firearm in committing a violent crime, has no record and has been complying with terms of his pretrial release, including monthly drug testing. Those will likely be mitigating factors and legal experts said Hunter Biden may not be incarcerated.

• Why greens were the biggest losers in the EU elections.

  The reason why European voters have turned away from the green agenda over the past five years is not hard to fathom. It’s because during that time the impoverishing, immiserating reality of Net Zero has really started to hit home. The EU’s much trumpeted Green Deal, committing member states to various decarbonising rules and targets, has started to feel less like ‘a man on the moon moment’ and more like a boot on Europe’s neck.

Science

• The New Math of How Large-Scale Order Emerges.

  “Philosophers have long been arguing about emergence, and going round in circles,” said Anil Seth, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in England. The problem, according to Seth, is that we haven’t had the right tools — “not only the tools for analysis, but the tools for thinking. Having measures and theories of emergence would not only be something we can throw at data but would also be tools that can help us think about these systems in a richer way.” Researchers have developed theoretical tools for identifying when emergence has occurred. And in February, Fernando Rosas, a complex systems scientist at Sussex, together with Seth and five co-authors, went further, with a framework for understanding how emergence arises.

Technology

• Australia Pushes Ahead in the AI Arms Race.

  As Australia resists new laws to restrain AI weapons development, Australian companies are using real wars to test their killing power. Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, the conflict has become a testing ground for new weapons developments, particularly autonomous capabilities. Australia provided 300 of Australian arms company DefendTex’s Drone 40 loitering munitions to Ukraine in 2022, after field testing in Poland.

Vaccines

• Get ready for 2-in-1 Covid and flu jabs after new combined Moderna vaccine trial shows its better than single shots.

  The NHS currently uses Moderna's Spikevax vaccine alongside Pfizer/BioNTech's Comirnaty for Covid-19 for its booster programmes. But a newer version of Spikevax has been created and tested by Moderna, which includes a dose of flu vaccine. Experts predict these combination jabs could see patients only needing one jab for protection against both illnesses as soon as 2025, with equivalents being developed by competitors Pfizer and BioNTech.

• Former GB News presenter says Ofcom killed his career over Covid vaccine claims.

  Mark Steyn left GB News after the media regulator found two of his programmes, which featured discussions about the vaccine rollout, breached its guidelines. Mr Steyn, 64, has asked a High Court judge to quash the decisions, claiming they had a “chilling effect”. Ofcom had found that on April 21, 2022 statistics from the UK Health Security Agency were presented in a “materially misleading way” in a broadcast which received four complaints. It ruled that the show incorrectly “provided definitive evidence of a causal link between receiving a third Covid-19 vaccine and higher infection, hospitalisation and death rates”.