Native American Indians might receive autonomous State within California
Supporters of a long-running effort to see California secede from the rest of the USA, have revamped their plans to include the creation of an “autonomous Native American nation,” which would encompass almost half of the new state.
The Calexit campaign held a rally at the California state capitol in Sacramento on July 4, calling for an end to the American “occupation” of the state. A statement released by the campaign said that US Independence Day was “no longer a day to celebrate.”
Calexit supporters were given the go-ahead in April this year to begin collecting signatures to get the question of Californian independence on a special 2021 ballot.
According to a map published by the Yes California ‘Calexit’ campaign, the long-term plan would see the state sliced down the middle from Oregon in the north to the Mexico border in the south.
The new version of California would take up the western, coastal half of the state, which is already home to two-thirds of California’s population. The inland, less-populated regions would make up the Native American ‘autonomous’ zone.
The boundary between the new California and the autonomous zone was decided based on the fact that most of the federal land is located in the eastern regions of California – but there are also be some recognized Native American tribes living in the western part of the state.
There have been many attempts over the years by various campaign groups to see California secede from the federal USA, but the idea picked up steam with the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016.
A 2017 poll, taken after Trump’s election, showed 32% support for California secession.
Instead of simply seceding from the USA, however, the new plans for Calexit involve creating a special Native American autonomous nation within the new independent state, creating a buffer zone between between Donald Trump’s America and the new independent California Republic, according to Yes California co-founder Marcus Ruiz Evans.
The current fake anti-Russian political climate in the USA, however, meant the connection to Moscow did damage to the Calexit campaign.
Another movement co-founder, Louis J. Marinelli, whose wife is Russian, explained at the time that while the new California was not requesting any military assistance from Russia, it would request “recognition” of independence if a referendum was successful.
Ruiz Evans told the Bee at the time that people had become spooked by the Russian connection and assumed the Calexit movement was somehow the work of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
RT.com / ABC Flash Point US Autonomy News 2018.
Hebron Wolfpack system tested Draconian Surveillance Technology in West Bank
A silent sentinel watches over every corner in the bustling streets of Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, where the ancient echoes of history collide with the modern hum of daily life.
This sentinel is not a person but a network of surveillance technology known ominously as the Hebron Smart Apartheid City, or officially known as the draconian surveillance technology called the Wolfpack sytem.
Designed by Israeli authorities, this system blankets the city in a web of cameras, sensors and even automated weapons, tracking every movement of its Palestinian residents.
Palestinians in Hebron are the most surveilled people on the planet, explains journalist and activist Mnar Adley, highlighting the omnipresence of cameras and face-scanning technology.
Adley says that the area, also known as al-Khalil to Palestinians, has become a testing ground for Israel’s surveillance apparatus, with advanced technologies like the “Wolf Pack” surveillance system in operation.
This system collects vast amounts of data on Palestinians, including their personal details and movements, creating an atmosphere of constant surveillance.
Izzat Karake, a member of Youth Against Settlements, echoes this sentiment, noting the discomfort caused by constant surveillance.
Wherever I go as a Palestinian, I can see cameras, he told MintPress while pointing out dozens of Israeli military cameras lining the streets. We are constantly under surveillance.
The Hebron Smart City, Adley explains, is more than just a collection of cameras and sensors; it is a symbol of Israel’s relentless efforts to control every aspect of Palestinian life.
Face-scanning cameras, known as Red Wolf, line every street, their unblinking gaze capturing the faces of every passerby without their consent.
These images are then fed into Israel’s Wolf Pack Database, a vast repository of information on Palestinians, all accessible through a mobile app, allowing them to track and monitor individuals with ease.
Amnesty International has condemned this mass surveillance project, denouncing it as Automated Apartheid in a scathing report.
The system, they argue, reinforces existing practices of discrimination and segregation, further eroding the rights of Palestinians in Hebron at the hands of Israeli authorities, which the human rights group says has a record of discriminatory and inhuman acts that maintain a system of apartheid.
The Israeli authorities are able to use facial recognition software – in particular at checkpoints – to consolidate existing practices of discriminatory policing, segregation, and curbing freedom of movement, violating Palestinians’ basic rights, the report concludes.
This invasive surveillance technology that targets and monitors Palestinians compounds an already existing segregated system of apartheid in Hebron, where the city has been split into two zones, H1 and H2.
These two segments of Hebron are separated by a militarized checkpoint that allows for the maintenance and expansion of an illegal Israeli settlement right in the middle of the Tel Rumeida neighborhood that overlooks the Palestinian city’s marketplace.
This is where Youth Against Settlements was born after a Palestinian building that was initially occupied first by the Israeli military and later by Israeli settlers was reclaimed for Palestinian use through a nonviolent direct action and legal campaign.
Once a bustling Palestinian neighborhood, Tel Rumeida now hosts over 700 illegal Israeli settlers, heavily armed and protected by the military.
The main thoroughfare, formerly known as Shuhada Street, has been renamed Chicago Street by Israeli authorities in an attempt to erase Palestinian heritage.
Each year, Izzat and his colleagues with Youth Against Settlements hold an annual march called Open Shuhada Street campaign that draws international attention to the illegal siege of the city.
Not only has Israel occupied and fragmented this neighborhood to make room for the Israeli settlers, but it’s altering this area to Judaize the quarter – meaning planning to expand its colonization of the area to ethnically cleanse and displace Palestinians out of here, so Israeli settlers can take over.
This military strategy is used to protect, expand and connect other Jewish settlements nearby in Israel’s quest to ensure an ethno-Jewish state.
Hebron has seen some of the most violent settler assaults against Palestinians, especially after Hamas’ surprise attack and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza. In many cases, the armed settlers are escorted and protected by Israeli soldiers.
Barbed wire covers Palestinian homes that are fenced in to protect them from Israeli settler attacks and harassment. But the intimidation doesn’t end there.
An AI smart-shooter sits atop a checkpoint on Shuhada Street, pointing directly at Hebron’s marketplace, where thousands of Palestinians pass by each day. Israel installed the remote-controlled automatic turret gun in 2022.
According to Israel’s Army spokesperson, the AI smart shooter is used as a dispersal measure as part of the Army’s improved preparations for confronting people disrupting order.
However, the introduction of AI technology, such as the smart-shooter, has only heightened tensions in the city. Residents walk through their own neighborhoods with a sense of unease, knowing that they are always under watchful eyes.
Just as Gaza has become a laboratory and showroom for Israel’s battle-tested weapons, the success of the Hebron Smart City facial recognition technology and database through Wolf Pack to track Palestinians will be used for Israel to continue to profit off of its illegal military occupation of Palestine and surveillance of Palestinian civilians.
This “Automated Apartheid” only further establishes segregation of Palestinians and expands Israel’s apartheid system and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Mint Press / ABC Flash Point News 2024.
>>> Mnar Adley is an award-winning journalist and editor and is the founder and director of MintPress News. She is also president and director of the non-profit media organization Behind the Headlines.
Adley also co-hosts the MintCastpodcast and is a producer and host of the video series Behind The Headlines. Contact Mnar at mnar@mintpressnews.com or follow her on Twitter at @mnarmuh.
How the True Creator is undoing and dismantling the NWO Virtual Reality
Although the NWO is in the early stages of implementation, the foundation was laid millennia ago, by the ones ruling the institutions and/or control the worldwide puppet governments.
It appeared ever so slowly and aspects of it seem to be unrelated, but it moves forward, involving various facets of life, such as: health, legal, financial, political, communication, media, marketing, education, social, trading, military, police and other systems.
The NWO will not happen overnight. The ruling elite is altering peoples’ health and structure in preparation for the implementation of the NWO.
Thoughts are being modified through all the services, activities and bombardments directed especially at the youth, who will be the examples for the NWO.
One thing has led to another, and, finally, the stage is ready for the implementation of the early stages of the NWO.
Terrorism has changed security systems and brought about the demands for obedience of the law and resulted in divisions of various nationalities and races of the world.
The United Nations and other national composite associations are being used to implement the NWO.
What will emerge will be self-appointed bullies over certain nations, who will take power much like schoolyard bullies overpower their classmates. Bullies will increase in all fields and at all levels.
Bullying will be the norm in the workplace, schools, organizations and on the streets. The very young are now learning to bully their classmates, which behavior is condoned. Older people are also encouraged and even rewarded for bullying.
The whole system is going mad. People are openly rude and disrespectful. Hating, bullying, looting and marauding are directly or indirectly encouraged by the system and by the socio-political environment.
The minds of people are changing. What we are seeing is reminiscent of the Anunnaki mentality and behavior before the collapse of their own social systems a long time ago.
Humans, animals and plants have been slowly poisoned and modified in various ways over the years until now, when it is time for more specific mind control and physical restraint.
For example, the alien force has begun implementing particular mind-control beams targeting certain travelers in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales in Australia.
Specific areas in Australia have been reserved for the higher echelon of the ruling elite. Already, a particular shire in Queensland has been selected to house a huge prison, four times the size of any other prison in the state.
Retired military and police are being encouraged and programmed to re-locate to the shire. Many more will soon be getting the “call” to move to the shire to be standby personnel for the NWO.
Prisons are being constructed in anticipation of resistance to the elimination of freedom as the NWO is implemented.
However, with all the increased programming for obeying the authorities being played repeatedly, it is doubtful that there will be much resistance to the NWO in Australia.
The programming can cause sleepiness, lack of concentration, irritability, sickness, all of which contribute to accidents and road rage, giving more excuse for greater police presence. More importantly, the programming also influences the mindsets of the victims.
It is worth mentioning that nearly all of the agents of the NWO do not even suspect what is happening.
For instance, police are programmed to believe that lower speed limits will reduce accidents and they are further programmed to want to increase revenues for the government by booking people for exceeding those speed limits.
Military personnel are programmed to believe that they are needed in foreign and domestic situations to help maintain a “better” world, and they are further programmed to abuse, torture and even kill any that interfere with this “better” world.
This is a very secret conspiracy, and very few agents of Darkness are entrusted with substantial parts of the plans.
The demiurges are very fearful of rebellion and overthrow by underlings. It is for this reason that nearly all False-Light beings are only given information on a “need-to-know” basis.
True-Light beings who are trapped in this Virtual Reality are restricted from receiving information due to the filtering systems imposed by Darkness to keep all beings ignorant.
True-Light beings are able to connect with the True Creator, despite the obstructions erected by Darkness, but such connections are not always easy, and do not last long in this realm of Darkness.
Physical relocation may not be feasible for everyone and one can gain inner strength from wherever one is located and in whatever situation one finds oneself, whether it be a war-torn country, a NWO infested area or a disaster prone territory.
Some of you may be inflicted with illnesses, injuries or other traumas. Understanding that the physical shell is only temporary and is not the real you can assist you to let go of the fears that bind you to this Virtual Reality.
People are being encouraged to turn one another in to the authorities for anything that is suspicious and might be considered as terrorist activity. Whether the accusations are true or unfounded is basically irrelevant.
What is important to the ruling elite is that people are turning in others for mere suspicions.
Travel will get more and more expensive, difficult and dangerous. Limits are being reduced on the basis that there are more accidents occurring, especially on the roads mapped out as NWO routes.
Oil prices are being manipulated in order to restrict travel and for other reasons. If this continues to escalate, very few people will be able to afford to travel overseas.
Those who can travel will be the rich and the privileged classes that are given advantages because they are favored by the Zionist system. Concentrated localities have been slated for the most control. Many things are going on simultaneously.
The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the sounds we hear around us can all be impregnated with various programming agents to help bring about the NWO.
The introduction of various seen and unseen things, audible and inaudible sounds that affect humans and animals, are molding people into certain categories of controllability. This is very real!
What is horrifying is that people are not aware of what is going on in and around them. This includes most of the agents who are ignorantly doing their alien masters’ bidding.
Most people are not aware that they are being affected, manipulated, used, controlled, influenced and subjugated against their wills.
he mind energy of people has been reduced and modified to such a great extent that they will be like robots, carrying out actions according to which buttons are being pressed to activate them.
In addition to controlling the physical world, the Anunnaki also control the astral world, so death is not a solution to what is rapidly approaching. Ironically, the living may envy the dead, yet the dead will envy the living.
Darkness will try to make True-Light beings lose confidence in their True Divine identities.
It is a crucial time to hold onto one’s Will and trust inwardly that the True Creator loves us despite our outward crude appearances and is rescuing us as quickly and painlessly as possible under the horrific circumstances.
Fear is a powerful, crippling agent. Fear can paralyze a person, destroy confidence and change one’s outlook. Fear can remove one’s focus and steer one off course. Fear can indeed do many destructive things.
Fear of poverty, loneliness, sickness, death, losing loved ones, injury, incapacity and other worries make up some of the ingredients of fear. Horror is used by Darkness to bring about fear.
Many have noted that Hollywood, television and other media now employ a lot of horror in their productions.
You have the power to overcome these artificially imposed fears in this world of Darkness simply by being a being of Light, a child of the True Creator.
Once you realize that your True Creator loves you and has resolved to Liberate you from this suffering, you can overcome these programmed fears (weaknesses) imposed upon you and you will begin to cope better.
These situations may or may not exist in your life, or may not have occurred yet. If your life is not crippled by them, you will be better able to cope even if you are not able to totally overcome your fears.
Once you have overcome your fears, you will realize that every child of Light is a warrior of True Love, Light and Power. This warrior ship is one of Love, Light, Power, Justice, Wisdom, Inner Strength and Perseverance.
It has nothing to do with the bloodthirsty, deceitful, murderous, cannibalistic, hateful, jealous, cruel, vengeful, power-hungry, controlling, exploitative, warring, covetous warrior ship sponsored by Darkness.
Connecting with the True Creator does not require a mediator, a church, an assembly, a congregation or a mentor. Inner Strength comes from within. Through sincere personal “desire” to reach out to the Creator, one can take the first step towards connection with the Light.
The rest will follow naturally as the Creator pulls you out of Darkness. This is very different from the haughty claims some make about being able to contact the Divine directly because they arrogantly believe that they are better and more spiritually advanced than others.
Fear of “god” is an Anunnaki imposition. They project “miracles” and visions to make the flesh-and-blood Anunnaki appear to be deities. They demand repentance and worship of them. They demand shrines, altars, sacrifices and atonement. They threaten to punish those who disobey them. They are ghouls, not gods.
What is important is that you re-connect with your Creator by sincerely wanting to do so and not give your Will over to Darkness. The rest will fall into place naturally.
Human are Free / ABC Flash Point News 2020.
Palestinian president to seek UN resolution to protect 2-state solution
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday Palestine will seek a UN Security Council resolution to protect the two-state solution.
Addressing a conference hosted by the Arab League in the Egyptian capital Cairo on providing support to the city of Jerusalem, Abbas called on Israel to abide by UN resolutions and signed agreements with the Palestinians.
![Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends the 43rd Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 09, 2022. [Royal Court of Saudi Arabia - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AA-20221210-29696867-29696859-CHINAARAB_COUNTRIES_SUMMIT_IN_SAUDI_ARABIA-1.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
We will go to the United Nations and its different agencies, including the Security Council, to counter the Israeli practices that violated all red lines.
We will demand the issuance of a resolution for protecting the two-state solution by granting Palestine full UN membership, and halting Israel’s unilateral actions, atop of which is the settlement building.
We will call for abidance by the signed agreements and UN resolutions and for holding an international peace conference. The Palestinian leader went on to call for Arab and Islamic support to the Palestinians in the city of Jerusalem.
Supporting Jerusalem and strengthening the steadfastness of those staying there and in its environs is a religious duty and a humanitarian and national imperative.
This weekends conference was endorsed by the last Arab summit, which was hosted by Algeria in November. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordanian King Abdullah II are taking part in the meeting along with representatives of international and UN agencies.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem – now occupied by Israel – might eventually serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.
In January 2021, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem declared that Israel imposes apartheid on the people of occupied Palestine, prompting other organizations to be more vocal about the colonial violence experienced by the Palestinians.
Politically, the apartheid designation is failing to gain ground, as evidenced by the EU’s recent refusal to describe Israel through the internationally-recognized legal definition of apartheid, which is akin to a crime against humanity.
While it is clear that Israel’s war crimes are ongoing rather than isolated bouts of violence, the EU’s approach consists of the absolute minimum focus on normalized atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The two-state compromise has allowed Israel ample time to further its territorial ambitions to control what remains of Palestine.
If the EU, which prides itself on illusory state-building in Palestine, continues to avail itself of the defunct premise, it may as well admit, unequivocally, that the bloc stands up for Israel’s colonization of Palestinian territory and, as a result of colonization, for the ongoing displacement of the Palestinian people.
The EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell thinks is not appropriate about calling out Israel’s Apartheid policies?
In 2017, Haaretz reported former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak as warning that the state was heading for a slippery slope of Apartheid. He had issued a similar warning as long ago as 2010.
Moreover, Zionist Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared in December Israel’s exclusivity in terms of it being a Jewish state: The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.
The government will promote and develop the settlement of all parts of the Land of Israel — in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria.
If Israel is endowing itself with apartheid policies as of inalienable right, through which it will prevail and finalize the colonization project to which the EU has proven itself to be so partial, then Borrell should have no difficulty declaring his allegiance.
After all, the EU’s purportedly pro-Palestine stance has repeatedly been exposed as a fraudulent farce.
Middle East Monitor / ABC Flash Point News 2023.
Beers and Wine contain Monsanto’s Roundup Weed Killer
Enjoying a cold beer or a glass of wine at the end of your day may not be so pleasant when you find out that you are drinking a harmful weed killer.
Roundup is everywhere. As the most commonly used agrochemicals in the world, Roundup and its main active ingredient, glyphosate, is showing up in places where people would not expect, such as food and their favorite drinks.
The past few years have revealed some disturbing news for the alcohol industry. In 2015, CBS news broke the announcement of a lawsuit against 31 brands of wines for high levels of inorganic arsenic.
In 2016, beer testing in Germany also revealed residues of glyphosate in every single sample tested, even independent beers.
The beers examined were from Budweiser, Coors, Corona, Guiness, Heineken, Miller, Peak (organic), Sam Adams, Samuel Smith (organic), Sierra Nevada, Stella Artois, Tsingtao and New Belgium. Ace Perry Hard Cider was also tested.
Roundup is commonly sprayed in vineyards to keep the rows looking tidy and free of so-called weeds and on grain crops (used in beer) as a drying agent just before harvest.
Glyphosate herbicides do not dry, wash or cook off and they have been proven to be neurotoxic, carcinogenic, endocrine disruptors and a cause of liver disease at very low levels.
With the findings indicating glyphosate contamination is common in over-the-counter beers and wine, the report recommends that, unless it can be proved otherwise.
The pesticide should be banned in the USA due to its many potential health risks and ubiquitous presence in food, water and alcohol.
This way it looks like the West calls poisoning your body with pesticides and chemicals, human entertainment, as the alcohol is widely sold in bars and restaurants.
Explain Life. com / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
5G Radiation not allowed in Israel where it was Developed?
Smart meters and mandatory vaccinations/pesticides are the “Final Solution” to the cattle goyim, especially the white Anglo-Saxon protestants! 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G use between 1 to 5 gigahertz frequency. 5G uses between 24 to 90 gigahertz frequency!
Within the RF Radiation portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, the higher the frequency the more dangerous it is to living organisms. 5G, developed in Israel, is exported, but it is FORBIDDEN in Israel?
Obviously if there are about 20,000 published studies showing harm from EMR, there
are going to be thousands of scientists who have done those studies who are aware of the acute dangers of impulsive, obsessive, and superficial dive into cell phones, smart meters, wifi, and 5G (led by the USA, and potentially prevented mainly by the IAA).
Here is a confirmation of most of the visible scientists who know how dangerous EMR can be, many of whom are warning about it (Maharishi warned about it, and said not to use cell phones, and told all the Rajas to tell all their Governors not to use cell phones).
So stating that ‘all EMR is harmless because some of it is good’ is ridiculous, and solidly established and massively documented as invalid.
I suggest not continuing to reduce your credibility ever lower in the community by continuing to use invalid arguments to oppose Maharishi’s knowledge (yes, he made it firmly part of his knowledge) and the thousands of good scientists who see through what is going on.
Alliant’s SM program is unique in the country for only half a dz signals/day, that has been confirmed by Dave Stetzer, the most reputable electrical engineer in the world opposing smart meters and dirty electricity.
Good to avoid both phase transition emotional extremes of ‘EMR is all fine’ and ‘Alliant’s SMs are deadly.’ Both are quite invalid. It’s good to opt out, it is not good to be highly concerned about Alliant’s smart meter program for health reasons.
It is good to be highly concerned about the health risk from 5G (and all its other problems). There also huge privacy and cyber security issues with smart meters and 5G, as well as major local control and rights/freedom issues with both smart meters or G5.
However, everybody who knows the Jews well, they always subscribe their enemies with poisonous products, camouflaged in a nice but evil package to lure their customers into their traps.
The Millennium Report / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
IMF warns that EU is on the Brink of Deep Recession
CORONAVIRUS will send the global economy into free fall, unleashing the worst recession since the 1930’s Great Depression, the International Monetary Fund has warned – and Europe is expected to bare the brunt of the economic crisis.
Global economic growth “will turn sharply negative in 2020”, with 170 of the IMF’s 189 members experiencing a drop in their GDP, according to Bulgarian IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.
The IMF anticipates the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression.” She said hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign aid would need to be mobilized to assist emerging and developing countries.
Ms Georgieva warned situation could continue to worsen if the global pandemic fails to fade in the second half of the year. There is tremendous uncertainty about the outlook: it could get worse depending on many variable factors, including the duration of the pandemic.
In a separate forecast, the European Central Bank has predicted the Euro-zone will experience a deeper recession than the rest of the world.
The European Union’s 19-member single currency bloc might not show proper signs of recovery until next year, according to ECB vice-president Luis de Guindos.
Germany, the EU’s largest economy, is expected to shrink by nearly 10% in the first quarter, while France is also expecting a hit by about 6% in the current period.
We will have to wait until 2021 to see a genuine recovery in economic activity. In any case, 2021 will not be able to make up for all of the downturn in 2020.
The ECB has unveiled huge stimulus plans to kick start the economy, paying banks to lend to ensure cash keeps flowing to companies and households.
Decision makers at the Frankfurt-based central bank have also committed to buying more than €1 trillion of debt to help reduce the cost of borrowing across the bloc.
Euro-zone finance ministers last weekend ducked a major decision on sharing the debt burden of fighting the Corona-virus.
The deal will open up precautionary credit lines of up to €240 billion, a potential €200 billion increase in lending by the European Investment Bank and a temporary EU unemployment scheme worth €100 billion.
But they failed to reach a deal on the so-called “Corona-bonds, a joint debt instrument designed to share the borrowing costs of the economic recovery.
The Euro-zone committed the EU to fund what would be a “temporary, targeted and commensurate with the extraordinary costs of the crisis and help spread them over time through financing”.
The biggest battle was over whether access to the European Stability Mechanism would come with the need to implement tough economic reforms or austerity measures.
Both Italy and the Netherlands claimed a victory after the meeting bought a temporary halt to the bitter row over the bloc’s response to Corona-virus.
The Dutch said conditions will remain in place and the Italians claimed the opposite, leaving the fudge unlikely to allow Rome to access the emergency funds in the future.
Express UK / ABC Flash Point News 2020.
European Union studying to prohibit Livestock animal Fur Farming
The EU executive has decided to buy time pushing back to 2026 a decision on whether to introduce an EU-wide ban on the keeping and killing of animals for fur.
The announcement came in response to a European Citizens Initiative (ECI) which gathered 1.5 million signatures calling to prohibit livestock farming for the sole or main purpose of fur production, as well as selling farmed animal fur and products containing it within the EU.
Citizen initiatives allow petitions that reach the one million signatures threshold to be discussed by the European Commission, which can decide to put forward a legislative proposal on the matter.
In this case, the Commission decided not to act immediately but to carefully assess the necessity for and feasibility of a ban on fur farming and the marketing of fur in the EU.
It was not possible to reach a consensus on this issue, European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare Stella Kyriakides told reporters, adding that fur farming remains an important economic sector for some member states, particularly in more rural and economically vulnerable communities.
In Europe, annual mink farming decreased from 45 million animals in 2014 to approximately 12 million in 2021, according to Brussels-based animal protection lobbyist Eurogroup for Animals. Finland and Poland are the EU countries with the most fur farms.
The ball is now on the court of the EU Food Safety Authority (EFSA) which has been asked by the EU executive to conduct scientific advice by March 2025.
After that evaluation, the Commission will communicate not before March 2026 if it considers it appropriate to propose such a ban. The EU policy-making will be guided firmly by science on this matter, concluded Kyriakides.
According to a senior EU official, the Commission will in the meantime not just talk on the phone with member states but take some practical steps, which will include on-site visits to fur farms.
For the NGO Human Society International, the Commission’s failure to deliver a ban today is inexcusable and condemns millions of sentient animals to lives not worth living on the EU’s remaining fur farms.
It is deeply frustrating and worrying that the Commission is side-stepping its responsibility for decisive action to end the outdated and unnecessary fur trade, said Joanna Swabe, senior director at Human Society International/Europe adding that leading virologists warn that fur farms present a very real pandemic disease risk.
However, for the animal welfare campaign group Four Paws, the Commission has now made it clear that it is open to an EU-wide ban on fur farming, and it is confident that an independent scientific opinion from [EU food safety body] EFSA will conclude that the current housing systems in fur farms are incompatible with animal welfare.
Green Euro News / ABC Flash Point News 2023.
Iran offers Scholarships for Students expelled for Protesting against Gaza War
Over 1,200 students at universities across the USA have been arrested to date as police moved to violently disperse campus protests calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The past week and a half has seen students put on probation, suspended, and in rare cases even expelled from some of America’s most prestigious educational institutions.
Iran’s Shiraz University is offering scholarships for American and European students facing expulsion for taking part in the wave of anti-war and pro-Palestine protests rocking Western universities.
Students and even professors who have been expelled or threatened with expulsion can continue their studies at Shiraz University and I think that other universities in Shiraz as well as Fars Province are also prepared [to provide similar conditions], Shiraz University head Mohammad Moazzeni said at a gathering of university students and professors.
Expressing solidarity with students over the bravery they have displayed, Moazzeni blasted Western countries’ police forces’ harsh treatment of the protesters, saying it exposes the true nature of Western civilization.
They exert a lot of violence in order to contain this raging movement and have even threatened to expel the students from universities and hinder their employment in the future, and such autocratic methods show the decline of global arrogance, using the term Iranian officials and military commanders often use to refer to the USA and Israel.
Situated in southern Iran, Shiraz University is recognized in rankings as one of the Islamic Republic’s top educational institutions. Its agricultural sciences and water resources programs presently rank among the top 100 in the world.
Nearly 100,000 foreign students from over 90 countries already study at Iranian universities each year.
In 2022, Iranian Organization of Student Affairs deputy-head Mohammad Javad Salmanpour said Iran has the capacity to increase its contingent of foreign students to 250,000 by the year 2026.
Iran is home to over 170 public universities, and some 700 private schools, with its educational institutions boasting strong science, research and technology, health and medical education, engineering, agricultural and animal sciences, Persian literature, Islamic studies, and management programs.
Last year, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute ranked Iran among its top ten powers in critical technology research, with the Islamic Republic touted as a global leader in six of 44 critical technologies.
Iran makes up between four and 7% of publications in areas including nano-scale and advanced composite materials and manufacturing, smart materials, advanced aircraft engines, air-independent propulsion, novel antibiotics and antivirals, and bio-fuels.
Over 1,200 students, faculty and staff at universities across the USA have been arrested to date in anti-Gaza war protests, with police cracking down on protesters demanding a ceasefire, and an end to US military, financial and diplomatic support for Israel’s operations.
Students are also calling on their schools to condemn Israel’s military campaign, to divest from companies linked to Israel, and to discontinue study abroad programs at Israeli universities.
Columbia University warned Tuesday that it would expel students who took over a building, barricaded its entrances and unfurled a Palestinian flag and a “Free Palestine” from a window.
Elsewhere, including Yale, the University of Southern California, and the University of Minnesota, students and staff have faced arrests, suspensions and probation.
In an address on Iranian National Teacher’s Day Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that crackdown on pro-peace and pro-Palestine rallies in the USA proves the correctness of Tehran’s policy vis-à-vis Washington.
This matter has revealed to everyone that the USA is complicit in the crimes committed by the Zionists in the massacre of the Gazans, which is an unforgivable sin.
The US government might say something that seems they are showing sympathy at times, but it’s all a lie. This has proven the correctness of the Islamic Republic’s stance, negative outlook and lack of trust in the US government.
Sputnik / ABC Flash Point News 2024
The American Agriculture Complex is on the Verge of Disaster
The shift of human capital, job creation, and business formation to metropolitan areas reveals that rural America is teetering on the edge of collapse.
The Economic Innovation Group’s (EIG) Distressed Communities Index (DCI) shows this significant economic transformation (from two distinct periods: 2007-2011 and 2012-2016) that occurred since the financial crisis.
Since the crisis, the number of people living in prosperous zip codes expanded by 10.2 million, to a total of 86.5 million, an increase that was much greater than any other social class.
Meanwhile, the number of Americans living in distressed zip codes decreased to 3.4 million, to a total of 50 million, the smallest shift of any other social class. This indicates that the geography of economic pain is in rural America.
Visualizing the collapse: Economic distress was mostly centered in the Southeast, Rust Belt, and South Central. In Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia, at least one-third of the population were located in distressed zip codes.
Prosperous zip codes were the top beneficiaries of the jobs recovery since the financial crisis. It took five years for prosperous zip codes to replace all jobs lost from the crisis; meanwhile, distressed zip codes will never recover.
EIG shows that less than only 25% of all global counties have recovered from business closures from the recession.
To highlight the weak recovery and geographic unevenness of new business formation, EIG shows that the entire USA had 52,800 more business establishments in 2016 than it did in 2007.
Five counties (Los Angeles, CA; Brooklyn, NY; Harris, TX (Houston); Queens, NY; and Miami-Dade, FL. ) had a combined 55,500 more businesses in 2016 than before the recession. Without those five counties, the US economy would not have recovered.
On top of deep structural changes in rural America, JPMorgan told clients last week that the entire agriculture complex is on the verge of disaster, with farmers in rural America caught in the crossfire of an escalating trade war.
Farmers are facing tremendous headwinds, including a worsening trade war, collapsing soybean exports to China, global oversupply conditions, and crop yield losses in the Midwest due to flooding.
This all comes at a time when farmers are defaulting and missing payments at alarming rates, forcing regional banks to restructure and refinance existing loans.
Today’s downturn of rural America is no different than what happened in the 1920’s, 1930’s, and the early 1980’s.
Zero Hedge / ABC Flash Point News 2019.
Europe indefinitely postpones planned Nature Restoration Plan
The European Union’s nature restoration law, which had set out to restore 20% of land and sea areas in the EU by 2030, has now been postponed indefinitely after a vote to pass the bill on Monday was canceled.
The nature restoration law was initially proposed in June 2022 and has spent the last several months going through the legal approval process in the EU. But following protests by farmers and a withdrawal of support from Hungary, the EU canceled the vote.
It seems that we don’t have a qualified majority anymore, because Hungary has changed its vote. We have to understand why they do that, said Alain Maron, a regional climate minister for Belgium, as reported by The Associated Press.
The European Commission had already previously weakened environmental regulations, including the proposed nature restoration law, because of the protests.
Laws on sustainable farm practices, such as crop rotation and reduced use of pesticides, have been weakened or scrapped altogether, the Associated Press reported earlier this month.
The agricultural sector is a very important sector, not only in Hungary, but everywhere in Europe, said Anikó Raisz, Minister of State for Environmental Policy and Circular Economy of Hungary, as reported by Reuters.
The decision to cancel the vote to pass the nature restoration law also comes ahead of elections for the European Parliament that are to take place this June, 2024.
According to the European Parliament, about 80% of EU habitats are in poor condition. The bill would have worked to restoring 90% of these degraded habitats to a good condition as well as enacting protections to prevent further degradation.
We condemn all Member States who are not supporting the law — at best, it suggests a deep failure to understand the situation we are in and what it means for the rights of citizens, the #RestoreNature coalition, which includes BirdLife Europe, ClientEarth, European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-EU, shared in a statement.
An online public forum on the law in 2021 showed overwhelming support from over 110,000 people and organizations, according to Carbon Brief. The law was agreed upon in November 2023 and passed a European Parliament vote in February 2024.
The vote that had been planned for Monday was to formally adopt the law via the European Council.
This final step is typically considered a formality; however, in the case of the nature restoration law, environmentalists are concerned over whether it will come to vote again at all.
The #RestoreNature coalition is calling for lawmakers to adopt the law before the EU Parliament takes its summer recess.
Eco Watch / ABC Flash Point News 2024.
Canada’s Mohawk Activists opposing Gas Pipeline project in British Columbia
Canada’s Liberal government said on Friday it was deeply concerned about protests by aboriginal activists that are blocking some key railway lines but rejected a call to send in the police.
Indigenous communities opposed to the construction of a gas pipeline project in British Columbia started interrupting rail traffic last week. Canadian National Railway Co, the country’s biggest railroad operator, is shutting operations in Eastern Canada.
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Transport Minister Marc Garneau told a news conference, that protests that deliberately prevent the operation of railways through illegal activity must be stopped right away.
It is about people’s jobs and livelihoods and about the transport of key supplies like food, propane, heating oil and chemicals for water treatment, (and) agricultural products for export.
The Association of Canadian Port Authorities said some ports were turning away vessels and shippers were beginning to reroute some cargo to the United States.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged what he said had been a really difficult week but dismissed opposition calls to deploy the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to end the protests.
Obviously we are not the kind of country where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters,” he told a news conference in Munich, Germany. We must ensure that everything is done to resolve this through dialogue and constructive outcomes.
Trudeau came to power in November 2015 promising to improve relations with Canada’s indigenous bands, many of whom complain they are marginalized and economically deprived.
Although some groups claim to have a veto over economic development on their lands, a court said last month they had no such right, because in fact the Royal Queen of England simply owns 90% of Canada on paper contracts.
However, the two cabinet ministers in charge of aboriginal affairs are preparing to meet with local indigenous bands in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. Garneau noted that blockades in British Columbia and Manitoba had already been removed.
The most damaging protest is near Belleville in the Ontario, the most populous of Canada’s 10 provinces. Andrew Scheer said unless the government ended the protests it would be setting a dangerous precedent that a small few can have a devastating impact.
USA Today / ABC Flash Point News 2020.
Yemen sanctions all ships cooperating with Israel
Yemen spokesperson Yahya Sarea warned of a fourth phase of escalation, announcing that the Arab nation would impose sanctions on all ships associated with and heading to Israeli ports if the city of Rafah is invaded.
Sarea confirmed: The Yemeni Armed Forces are following the developments of the battle in the Gaza Strip, including continued Israeli and American aggression, and the preparations for an aggressive military operation targeting the Rafah area.
He added: We are also following the offer presented to the resistance, in which the enemy wants the hostage card to be played without a permanent ceasefire.
Therefore, and in response to the calls of the resistance of the oppressed Palestinian people, and in light of the persistence of the Israeli and American enemies, the Yemeni armed forces, with the help of God Almighty, announce the beginning of the implementation of the fourth phase of escalation.
Sarea explained the fourth phase: First, the targeting of all ships violating the decision banning Israeli navigation and which are heading to the ports of occupied Palestine in the Mediterranean Sea, in any area within our reach.
Second, the implementation of this begins from the moment this statement is made, he said, stressing that if the Israeli enemy launches an aggressive military operation on Rafah, the Yemeni armed forces will impose comprehensive sanctions on all ships of companies that are related to supply and entry into the ports of occupied Palestinian of any nationality.
He stated that the group: Will prevent all of these companies’ ships from passing through the areas where the armed forces are operating, regardless of their destination.
The Yemeni armed forces, with the help of God Almighty, and then with the support of the great Yemeni people, and all the free people of the nation, will not hesitate to prepare for wider and stronger stages of escalation until the aggression stops and the siege on the oppressed Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted.
In a related context, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that Iranian-backed militias have mostly stopped their attacks on US soldiers in the region.
In a briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats, Haines noted that the Houthi’s, who announced their intention to expand the scope of their operations to the Indian Ocean last month, began launching naval attacks almost every day starting last week.
Haines stated: Iran-aligned militia groups in the region continue to plan attacks against our forces, but it broadly paused conducting such attacks though it is not clear how long that pause will last.
Haines pointed out that the situation in Gaza is another striking example of how a localized conflict can produce a global impact, stressing that the world has faced new security paradigms and humanitarian challenges in the past seven months.
Middle East Monitor / ABC Flash Point News 2024
Crickey Amigu di Natura 