Signs Of The Times RSS

1. US officials concerned over unexplained bird flu infection in man

   This year in the United States, 14 people have tested positive for avian influenza, or bird flu. Nine of those became infected after coming into contact with poultry, and four got the virus from exposure to dairy cows. The source of the remaining, most recent case remains a mystery. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the case on September 6. Initially detected by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, it is the first known case of human bird flu in the country with no known exposure to a sick or infected animal. On Thursday, health officials said they hadn't determined how the person acquired the virus. "Right now, evidence points to this being a one-off case," said Nirav Shah, the CDC's principal deputy director, during a news briefing.

2. BEST OF THE WEB: 29 unmarked mass graves from Israel's genocide identified thus far in Gaza, the majority are unrecorded

   Comment: A larger version of the graphic can be found here. Thousands of families continue to bury their children in random mass graves, a phenomenon brought on by over 11 months of systematic killings of Palestinians by Israel in every Gaza Strip governorate. The situation is worsening as a result of the Israeli occupation army's constant targeting of people who attempt to enter these makeshift cemeteries to bury their loved ones. Euro-Med Monitor has released an infographic design that shows the locations and dates of approximately 30 randomly established mass graves in the northern, central, and southern governorates of Gaza, containing roughly 3,000 dead victims of Israel's genocide in the enclave. The graphic also depicts 120 random mass graves in which three or more people are buried, and which were established in the Gaza Strip between now and last October.

3. 'Massive terror attack': Belgian deputy premier condemns the pager bombs in Lebanon, Syria

   The Belgian deputy prime minister on Wednesday "strongly condemned" attacks on Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria. Writing on X, Petra de Sutter described it as a "massive terror attack" and a "brutal escalation of violence." "Silence is not an option. An international investigation is called for. The bloodshed must end," she said. Belgian member of the EU parliament Marc Botenga also wrote on X, asking: "Why do not our governments condemn as a terrorist attack the act of exploding pagers (utilized by doctors and nurses too) in supermarkets and public spaces, killing inter alia a 10-year-old girl, and injuring thousands of people?"

4. Germany 'has stopped approving war weapons exports to Israel' - 11 months into the genocide, and just prior to its elections

   Germany has put a hold on new exports of weapons of war to Israel while it deals with legal challenges, according to a Reuters analysis of data and a source close to the Economy Ministry. Comment: Note that, for now, this is just a source. And there's good reason to believe that this is likely related to the election, in which the ruling party is expected to lose a significant number of votes, because of policies such as being the second biggest supplier to Israel's genocidal war of terror on its Gaza concentration camp. A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel due to legal and political pressure from legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law. The Economy Ministry has not responded to requests for comment. However, the German government did issue a statement after the Reuters story was published.

5. Trump dodges falling piano, swinging death blade, spiked pitfall trap on way to rally

   LONG ISLAND, NY — The tension of election season reached a new high today with conflicting reports of further attempts on the life of the former president, as Donald Trump dodged a falling piano, a swinging death blade, and a spiked pitfall trap on his way to a campaign rally. The latest series of deadly traps matched what has become a disturbing pattern along Trump's pathway to election day, with experts speculating that the former president may find himself dodging multiple assassination attempts per day over the next several weeks. "It's almost as if there's some unseen force out to get him," said one campaign insider. "Some members of the media have started accusing us of being paranoid, but after that huge wrecking ball swung just barely in front of Trump's vehicle yesterday followed by him narrowly avoiding stepping into that mote filled with hungry crocodiles outside Mar-a-Lago the day before, we're all starting to think something fishy is going on."

6. Astronomers detect hundreds of supernova remnants using novel method

   Using a new method exploiting the capabilities of the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), astronomers have detected 307 new supernova remnants, including seven rare oxygen-rich ones. The finding was presented in a research paper published September 10 on the preprint server arXiv. Supernova remnants (SNRs) are diffuse, expanding structures resulting from a supernova explosion. They contain ejected material expanding from the explosion and other interstellar material that has been swept up by the passage of the shockwave from the exploded star. Some supernova remnants showcase strong visible light oxygen emission, and due to that, are known as oxygen-rich SNRs. However, oxygen-rich SNRs are rarely found, as to date, only eight such objects have been identified in our galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds. Moreover, the nature of these SNRs and their connection to specific supernovae (SNe) is still not well understood. Now, a team of astronomers led by Timo Kravtsov of the...

7. Polish city urged to evacuate as floods batter central Europe

   The mayor of a Polish city has asked all 44,000 residents to evacuate, as widespread flooding continues to batter central Europe. Nysa mayor Kordian Kolbiarz asked people to head for higher ground, citing the risk of an embankment breaching and releasing a cascade of water into the town from a nearby lake. The death toll from the floods that hit over the weekend rose to at least 16 on Monday, with seven confirmed fatalities in Romania. Casualties were also recorded in Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.

8. 7 people killed in wildfires in Portugal

   At least seven people, including three firefighters, have died as wildfires continue to rage across Portugal, according to local news outlets. Parts of the country have been ablaze since the weekend, with temperatures in some areas topping 30C (86F). The northern and central parts have been worst affected. The firefighters - two women and a man - died while tackling a blaze in Tábua in Coimbra, central Portugal, the country's civil protection authority said. More than 5,000 firefighters have been tackling the wildfires that Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said are "raging across the country".

9. Facebook scrapes photos of kids from Australian user profiles to train its AI

   Facebook has admitted that it scrapes the public photos, posts and other data from the accounts of Australian adult users to train its AI models. Unlike citizens of the European Union (EU), Australians are not offered an opt-out option to refuse consent. At an inquiry as to whether the social media giant was hoovering up the data of all Australians in order to build its generative artificial intelligence tools, senator Tony Sheldon asked whether Meta (Facebook's owner) had used Australian posts from as far back as 2007 to feed its AI products. At first Meta's global privacy director Melinda Claybaugh denied this but senator David Shoebridge challenged her claim.

10. On September 10, Israeli settlers became illegal migrants

    We are used to seeing Israel indulge in exactions under the pretext of its security, and the Anglo-Saxons defending it at the Security Council. As a result, we witness crimes without any judicial consequences. This situation is now over. The International Court of Justice has swept aside Tel Aviv's reasoning, and the State of Palestine has become a full member of the United Nations. It will therefore no longer be possible to turn a blind eye to the situation of the Palestinians, and they will have the capacity to prosecute their tormentors. On September 10, 2024, Israeli settlers, who claim to be fulfilling a divine plan by settling in the West Bank (Judea-Samaria, in their words), went from being Israeli citizens living in disputed territories to illegal immigrants in the sovereign state of Palestine. At the opening of its seventy-ninth session, the United Nations General Assembly implemented its resolution ES-10/23 of May 10 [1]. The State of Palestine has become a full member of...

11. Putin orders third troop expansion of war, making army 2nd largest after China's

    For the third time since the Ukraine war began in February 2022, President Putin has approved an expansion of Russia's military, on Monday signing a decree to boost the number of soldiers by 180,000. This means Russia's armed forces will include 1.5 million active servicemen going into winter. It is also a clear signal that Russia doesn't plan on reducing the intensity of the fight in the Donbass anytime soon. This will bring the overall number of military personnel within Russia's army, including all reserve forces, to over 2,300,000. Putin had previously sign-off on two prior expansion waves: an increase of 137,000 in August 2022 and another expanse of 170,000 in December 2023. In the fall of 2022, when Ukraine's much-hyped counteroffensive was in full swing, Putin had called up some 300,000 reservists to join the fight. With this latest troop increase, Putin could also be signaling NATO that Russia will not back down, at a moment the US and UK are mulling approving Ukraine's use...

12. Closing hatches before rains founder the Western Vessel

    The war is lost, and the struggle to keep the 'enforced pretending' going is breaking through, to be seen by all as a false reality. Israel is entering the next phase of its war on Palestine by completing its takeover of the Gaza Strip - from the northern border to the Netzarim corridor. It is likely that they intend for this area to then gradually be made available for Jewish settlement and annexation to Israel. In a piece titled, Annexation, Expulsion and Israeli Settlements: Netanyahu Gears Up for Next Phase of Gaza War, the Editor of Haaretz, Aluf Benn, writes: Were the takeover to proceed: "Palestinian residents who remain in northern Gaza will be expelled, as suggested by Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, under threat of starvation and under cover of 'protecting their lives'." Netanyahu and his supporters will see this move, Benn suggests, as a lifetime achievement: Expanding Israel's territory for the first time, after 50 years of Israeli withdrawals. This will be the Israeli...

13. India won't capitulate to American demands to ban RT and Sputnik's national hubs

    Compliance would amount to damaging its own soft power and grand strategic interests. The Hindu cited unnamed government sources to report: "U.S. officials have spoken to the Ministry of External Affairs about joining their actions against what they call 'Russian disinformation', by revoking accreditations and designating their journalists under the 'Foreign Missions Act'. However, while the Ministry has been silent on the issue, government officials said that the debate on sanctions is not relevant to India." The US should have known that India wouldn't ever capitulate to its demands. The decades-long Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership has been rejuvenated over the past two and a half years since the special operation began after India stepped up to preemptively avert Russia's potentially disproportionate dependence on China. Time and again, India has responded to American pressure to distance itself from Russia by redoubling their relations, which is predicated on accelerating...

14. Witness statements reveal alarming 'drone' incursions over Langley Air Force Base as dronebusters failed to intercept objects

    Liberation Times has obtained twenty-two witness statements and an incident report through a Freedom of Information Act request, following December 2023 'drone' incursions reported over Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. These statements come from members of the 633d Security Forces Squadron, who are responsible for guarding Joint Base Langley-Eustis. Witnesses reported observing the so-called 'drones' 'moving at rapid speeds' and displaying 'flashing red, green, and white lights'. Concerningly, one witness stated that their dronebuster 'failed to register' one of the objects, while another was unable to use a dronebuster 'due to not having a visual'. The objects were spotted in various areas around the base, including the flight line, which is used for servicing and maintaining airplanes, as well as for parking ramps and hangars

15. "Active suppression of witnesses": CIA lied about "Havana Syndrome," whistleblower documents reveal

    The CIA has consistently lied to the American public about anomalous health incidents (AHI) for the last several years and may be guilty of obstruction of justice, according to documents recently released by the U.S. government. Often referred to as "Havana Syndrome," AHIs became widely known when American officials and their families living and working in the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, first reported symptoms which include balance and cognitive problems, insomnia and headaches. Salon reported in March 2023 that a then-newly obtained declassified report, prepared for the director of national intelligence by a panel of experts, appears to show conclusively that "Havana syndrome" — a cluster of unexplained symptoms experienced by diplomats and government personnel abroad — is not a naturally occurring health problem. The new information verifies the former report. A whistleblower filed a complaint last year with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's Inspector...

16. How it's done: "If I can do it, I'm going to perp walk your kid" - Florida sheriff

    Florida sheriff publishes vdeo "for public embarrassment" after boy arrested after threatening violence at school, showing off arsenal An 11-year-old boy in Volusia County, Florida, was hauled off to the county jail and publicly shamed by the County Sheriff after threatening to shoot up a school and writing a list of names and targets. "He had written a list of names and targets. He says it was all a joke," said Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood in social media posts. "Volusia Sheriff's Office deputies recovered a bunch of airsoft rifles, pistols and fake ammunition along with knives, swords and other weapons he was showing off to other students in a video. For his actions, Carlo "Kingston" Dorelli (age 11) is charged with a felony (making a written threat of a mass shooting)." Chitwood published the suspect's mugshot and a photo of the seized weapons. He also posted a video of the suspect being booked at the jail, found below.

17. SOTT FOCUS: BAC Consulting: The Mossad Front Company And The Hezbollah Pager Explosions

    The name of the Budapest-based firm 'BAC Consulting' first cropped up in a statement by a Taiwanese manufacturer, Gold Apollo, whose label appeared on the pagers that exploded across Lebanon and beyond yesterday. Gold Apollo said it did not manufacture the devices and that they were made by its Hungarian partner, BAC Consulting. "The product was not ours. It was only that it had our brand on it," Gold Apollo founder and president Hsu Ching-kuang told reporters at the company's offices in the northern Taiwanese city of New Taipei on Wednesday. "We may not be a large company, but we are a responsible one," he said. "This is very embarrassing."

18. BEST OF THE WEB: Hezbollah's '9/11': Iranian ambassador among 1,000+ wounded after Israel remotely detonates pagers - UPDATE: New wave of electronics explosions rock Lebanon

    Update(10:50ET): An eyewitness tells Al Jazeera: "There's more than 400 men here. Their pagers exploded, the ones they use for communication." There are regional Lebanese media reports of over 1,200 Hezbollah operatives injured. Reuters is confirming that Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani is among the wounded in the series of pager explosions, based on a report in Iran's Mehr news outlet. Follow up reports say he was only lightly injured. Some of the explosions happened in Syria as well, reports say. There are reports of civilian deaths in Beirut, including children. Some of the explosions happened inside homes, where the pagers were on shelves or bedstands.

19. African leader survives assassination attempt

    The man who tried to kill President Azali Assoumani has died in custody, according to officials in the Comoros Comorian President Azali Assoumani has been "slightly injured" in a knife attack at a funeral of a religious leader at Salimani, a town just outside of the capital, Moroni, according to authorities in the African island nation. Friday's attempted assassination was carried out by a 24-year-old police officer who was captured and found dead in his cell the next day, Reuters reported, citing Comorian officials.

20. Heavy rains cause severe flooding in Mexico City

    Puddles, flooding, fallen trees and disruption to transportation are some of the effects left by the heavy rains and strong winds recorded in Mexico City (CDMX) during the course of Monday, September 16. Among the most affected municipalities are Tlalpan, Iztacalco and Venustiano Carranza. In fact, the Secretariat for Comprehensive Risk Management and Civil Protection has announced that the rainfall recorded this afternoon could continue to cause damage, which is why it has asked the capital's population to follow all official recommendations. (Translated by Google)

21. Historic snowfall in the Alps - over 5 feet of snow dumped

    It can snow any month of the year here in Montana, but what's going on in Europe right now is historic. Many higher elevations in the Alps have been buried under three to five feet of snow. Like Montana, while snow in the Alps this time of year is not uncommon, this amount of snow in September is rare and record-breaking. Even some of the valleys in Austria are dealing with two to three feet of snow. Toward the ski areas, some of the settled snow depth is greater than 5 feet, indicating that the snow totals were even higher. A strong north flow across Europe has created their version of a pineapple express. Moisture from the North Atlantic hit the Alps similar to moisture streaming in from the Pacific and slamming into the cascades or Sierra Nevada, where snow totals can reach many feet more frequently. Not all snow, this storm has created equally historic flooding with dams bursting, power knocked out, and it was responsible for at least 18 deaths. As this snow melts, more...

22. Sinkhole swallows minivan in Tarzana, Los Angeles

    A van was stuck Tuesday night in what appeared to be a sinkhole on a Tarzana street. This report aired on Sept. 17, 2024.

23. Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is erupting again in a remote part of a national park

    One of the world's most active volcanoes is erupting again in a remote part of a Hawaii national park. Kilauea erupted briefly Sunday night in an area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park that's closed to the public. The volcano's middle East Rift Zone eruption then resumed Monday night, U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. Eruptive activity increased early Tuesday but there is no immediate threat to homes or infrastructure, the observatory said. Volcanic gas known as "vog" may reach downwind subdivisions near the park, the observatory warned. The park encompasses the summits of two of the world's most active volcanoes: Kilauea and Mauna Loa. But the eruption's location in a remote wilderness area more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the nearest road doesn't make public viewing possible, according to park officials. During a Tuesday morning helicopter overflight, geologists said they observed fountaining eruptive fissures and active lava flows on the floor of...

24. Top BBC presenter paid for 'worst' class of child rape footage, public outcry over 'lenient' 6 month suspended sentence

    The attorney general is coming under pressure to ask for a legal review of the suspended sentence handed to former BBC presenter Huw Edwards. Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice has told The Independent that he is writing to Richard Hermer asking him to appeal the six-month suspended sentence for the disgraced BBC personality who previously admitted three charges of "making" indecent photographs. The court heard that the 63-year-old paid up to £1,500 to Alex Williams, 25, who sent Edwards 41 illegal images, seven of which were of category A, the very worst kind.

25. Billionaire music manager Diddy finally jailed on sex trafficking and racketeering indictment

    Sean "Diddy" Combs headed to jail Tuesday to await trial in a federal sex trafficking case that accuses him of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes protected by blackmail and shocking acts of violence. The music mogul is charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. The indictment against him lists allegations that go back to 2008. He's accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed "Freak Offs." The indictment also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.

26. 50% of prostitutes in Germany's brothels are Ukrainians fleeing the war - Welt

    Half of the prostitutes in brothels in Germany are Ukrainian. This is stated by the publication "Welt". Journalists quote a social worker in charge of prostitutes named Mia: "Previously, Ukrainian women were little represented in this environment. Most of the women we work with in Berlin actually come from Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, and now with Ukraine. In brothels now fifty percent, I would say. There are a lot of very young women who came here because of the war."

27. Utah resident captures eerie close-up footage of flashing UFO: 'I was blown away'

    A Utah resident has been left shocked after capturing what appeared to be a triangle-shaped multi-colored UFO flashing in the night sky. The unidentified Reddit user, who goes by Cruxstew on the platform, uploaded a 50-second video of the May 2 sighting from their home in Southern Utah. The video showed a small orb in the sky rapidly changing colors. As the resident zoomed in on the object, the light flashed between red, blue, green and white in a matter of seconds, and appeared to have an aura surrounding it. 'I was blown away by what I saw,' the person wrote on the UFOs Reddit channel. They also claimed that this video is just one a dozen unidentified phenomena that lit up the Southern Utah sky that night.

28. Psychopaths: Control through Calculated Ferocity

    Chapter 4 of Karen Mitchell's thesis - the core attributes of the dark personality Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here "It is truly terrifying being up against them. It is also isolating. It is also very difficult to describe. Once you know the type you can recognise it, even when others can't see it. They are highly dangerous people." (Category 2 participant) Now for the stuff we've all been waiting for. Chapter 4 of Karen Mitchell's thesis summarizes the results of her study, listing each of the core attributes of the persistent predatory personality, with quotations from her various participants. But first, an important point: "the data indicate that all adults of DP are equally as exploitative, dangerous, manipulative, and self-focused." In other words, it's not as if non-incarcerated predators are just "a little bit" psychopathic. No, they're the full deal. They just differ in other ways.

29. Awwww: Canada's Trudeau faces setback as party loses second seat in crucial Montreal election

    Canada's ruling Liberal Party lost a once-safe seat in a Montreal parliamentary constituency, preliminary results showed on Tuesday, a result likely to put more pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to quit. Elections Canada said that with 100% of the votes counted in LaSalle-Emard-Verdun, Liberal candidate Laura Palestini had been beaten into second place by the separatist Bloc Quebecois candidate, Louis-Philippe Sauvé. Palestini received 27.2% of the vote compared to 28% for the Bloc and 26.1% for the New Democratic Party candidate. The election was held to replace a Liberal legislator who quit. The result will put more focus on the political future of Trudeau, who has become increasingly unpopular after almost nine years in office. The Liberals are trailing badly in the polls to the right-of-center Conservatives, who blame Trudeau for rising prices and a housing crisis.

30. Rare skeletons up to 30,000 years old reveal when ancient humans went through puberty

    An analysis of around a dozen teenagers who lived during the Paleolithic reveals that they hit puberty around the same time modern teens do. Most ice age teens started puberty around the same time as humans in modern times do, according to archaeologists who studied the skeletons of adolescents who died in Europe between 10,000 and 30,000 years ago. But physical maturity was delayed in some individuals, likely because of their challenging and hazardous lifestyles. An international team of researchers studied the skeletons of 13 adolescents recovered from seven archaeological sites in Italy, Russia and Czechia (the Czech Republic). In a study published Sept. 12 in the Journal of Human Evolution, the researchers detailed their use of "maturation markers" on the skeletons to estimate different puberty stages in teens who died in the Upper Paleolithic period.

31. Shrinking island, vanishing polar bears — the climate scare stories that turn out to be false

    Looking back on more than 20 years of climate agitation, two themes emerge: a stubborn unwillingness by campaigners to acknowledge any inconvenient science, and ever-shifting favorite stories, first elevated and then dropped by the wayside. The one constant: a fixation on scaring the public, which has in turn shaped bad climate policies. At the start of this century, the polar bear was the emblem of climate apocalypse. Protesters dressed as polar bears, while Al Gore's hit 2006 film "An Inconvenient Truth" showed us a sad, animated polar bear floating away to its death.

32. Trump points finger at Democrats over latest 'assassination attempt'

    Former US President Donald Trump has suggested that the rhetoric coming from the Democratic party depicting him as a threat to electoral democracy has probably contributed to the recent attempt on his life. On Sunday, the Secret Service spooked a gunman who was hiding in bushes at Trump's golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. The suspect fled in a car and was detained nearby shortly afterward, thanks to an eyewitness who described the vehicle to the police. In a lengthy interview on X Spaces on Monday, Trump offered his account of the dramatic events and commented on the fact that it evidently was a second attempt to kill him in the span of roughly two months. The first incident occurred at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania in mid-July, when a bullet fragment grazed Trump's ear. "Well, there's a lot of rhetoric going on right now. A lot of people think that the Democrats, when they talk about 'threat to democracy' and all of this... And it seems that both of these...

33. US media merged with intelligence services long ago - RT editor-in-chief

    The "freedom of speech" the US trumpets applies only to those who support official narratives and obey instructions from its intelligence services, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has said, following the latest crackdown by Washington on Russian media. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against the news outlet on Friday, accusing it of engaging in "covert influence activities" and "functioning as a de facto arm of Russian intelligence." Earlier in September, Washington imposed sanctions on Simonyan and three other senior RT employees over alleged attempts to influence the 2024 US presidential election. Simonyan asserted that the latest attack on Russian media is a clear effort to clamp down on the information space ahead of the November vote.

34. Lavrov ridicules 'divers on little boat' Nord Stream-sabotage theory

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has laughed off "ridiculous" claims by German media outlets that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by a small group of divers on a "little boat." The Nord Stream pipelines, which transported Russian natural gas to Germany and other parts of Western Europe via the Baltic Sea, were sabotaged in September 2022 in a series of underwater explosions near the Danish island of Bornholm. Multiple Western media outlets have reported that a small team of pro-Ukrainian divers was responsible for the sabotage, having rented a yacht to sail across the Baltic and destroy the gas connectors.

35. Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, and the Armageddon Agenda

    The next president of the United States, whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, will face many contentious domestic issues that have long divided this country, including abortion rights, immigration, racial discord, and economic inequality. In the foreign policy realm, she or he will face vexing decisions over Ukraine, Israel/Gaza, and China/Taiwan. But one issue that few of us are even thinking about could pose a far greater quandary for the next president and even deeper peril for the rest of us: nuclear weapons policy. Consider this: For the past three decades, we've been living through a period in which the risk of nuclear war has been far lower than at any time since the Nuclear Age began — so low, in fact, that the danger of such a holocaust has been largely invisible to most people. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the signing of agreements that substantially reduced the U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles eliminated the most extreme risk of thermonuclear conflict,...

36. Slovakian PM accuses world of ignoring Ukraine's 'Nazi troops'

    People eager to condemn the atrocities committed by the Third Reich are at the same time turning a blind eye to Ukrainian troops wearing Nazi symbols today, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has lamented. The head of the government gave a speech at the holocaust museum located at the former site of the Sered concentration camp on Monday in western Slovakia, in which he highlighted the need to educate new generations about the crimes committed by Nazis during World War II before bringing up the Ukraine conflict. "We all talk about fascism, Nazism, while silently tolerating units moving across Ukraine that have a very clear label and are connected to movements that we consider dangerous and forbidden today. Since it is a geopolitical fight, nobody cares," Fico said. "I want to pay tribute to the victims, not with pathetic speech, but I want to call for action," he added. "The international community should recognize that troops using Nazi insignia, who often appear to act as such,...

37. BEST OF THE WEB: Bombshell whistleblower report exposes major security failures in first Trump assassination attempt

    With Donald Trump now the target of two assassination attempts in two months, a new whistleblower report released by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has unveiled a series of alarming security lapses by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and other federal agencies during the attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. The report, based on information provided by multiple whistleblowers, highlights a pattern of incompetence, mismanagement, and inadequate preparation by the agencies responsible for safeguarding one of the most high-profile figures in American politics. The report reveals that systemic failures, poor decision-making, and a lack of proper resource allocation within the Secret Service contributed to what is being described as a near-catastrophic breach of presidential security. These findings have sparked a call for urgent oversight and reform of the agency, raising serious questions about its ability to protect national leaders. Gaps in Security Protocols and...

38. Fact check: Harris campaign social media account has repeatedly deceived with misleading edits and captions

    A social media account run by Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has been repeatedly deceptive. The @KamalaHQ account, which has more than 1.3 million followers on the X social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has made a habit of misleadingly clipping and inaccurately captioning video clips to attack former President Donald Trump. The Harris campaign deploys @KamalaHQ as a kind of irreverent attack dog, using jocular posts to draw attention to controversial, incorrect, or dubious comments by Trump and his allies. But the account, which the Harris campaign calls its "official rapid response page," has itself made inaccurate comments on multiple occasions. Below are eight examples of false or misleading video posts from the account since mid-August, including three from the latter part of this week. All of them have previously been highlighted by an anonymous rebuttal account called @KamalaHQLies, which itself has more than 268,000 followers.

39. US Congress to hold 'huge' UFO hearing

    A massive flying disc was recently spotted above a missile base in Montana. The Senate Armed Services Committee is preparing to stage a new hearing to boost the credibility of the Pentagon's division charged with dealing with unidentified flying objects, a senior lawmaker has said. The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was founded in July 2022, with the help of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat. She told the Daily Mail on Monday that she's working to schedule a hearing within weeks. "It's a priority for me because I think it's very important we continue to make things publicly available. "The Armed Services Committee intends to host a progress report on how many unidentified aerial phenomena [UAP] we've assessed and analyzed, give examples of what we have identified and give examples of what we haven't identified."

40. The rate of depression among Americans has reached a new high

    According to survey data, three in ten people in the United States had been clinically diagnosed with depression at a point in their lives in 2023. As Statista's Anna Fleck points out in the chart, this is the highest rate since the question started being asked, up 10.6 percentage points from 2015. The rate of increase was particularly steep in the first year of the pandemic, jumping up from 22.9 percent in 2020 to 28.6 percent in 2021. Meanwhile, 17.8 percent of respondents said that they currently had depression in 2023. These averages hide figures even more extreme, as Gallup data reveals how rates among women, young adults, as well as Black and Hispanic respondents have risen particularly fast. According to the survey, 36.7 percent of women report having been diagnosed with depression in their lifetimes versus 20.4 percent of men. For young people aged 18-29, 34.3 percent had been diagnosed with depression, while for 30-44 year olds it was 34.9 percent. Lifetime depression...

41. Grocery rationing within four years

    There is a lack of public comment and debate about Kamala Harris's call for price controls on groceries and rents, the most stunning and frightening policy proposal made in my lifetime. Immediately, of course, people will reply that she is not for price controls as such. It is only a limit on "gouging" (which she variously calls "gauging") on grocery prices. As for rents, it's only for larger-scale corporations with many units. This is nonsense. If there really are national price-gouging police running around, every single seller of groceries, from small convenience stores to farmers' markets to chain stores, will be vulnerable. No one wants the investigation so they will comply with de facto controls. No one knows for sure what gouging is. Don Boudreaux is correct: "A government that threatens to punish merchants for selling at nominal prices higher than deemed appropriate by government clearly intends to control prices. It's no surprise, therefore, that economists routinely...

42. Russian Collusion? The Tenet Media psy-op seeks to demonize and de-legitimize Western alternative media sources

    As a liberty writer and economist I have been working within the alternative media for almost 20 years now. I was there at the inception of what we consider the modern counter-media movement, when a scattering of radio hosts, writers and video bloggers started to come together to create perhaps the greatest unsung information revolution in decades. It was this era in which the mainstream corporate news started to lose their audience by the millions. This was also the advent of the Ron Paul movement and the return of a more true conservatism that would eventually shake up the Republican Party and the "Uniparty" paradigm. Neo-cons are not conservatives, they are leftists and globalists in disguise. We all know that now, but back then it was an uphill struggle to get the average conservative voter to understand they were being duped. Today, most Neo-cons are abandoning the Republican Party to vote for Kamala Harris.

43. Sour Note: Taylor Swift's endorsement of Harris backfires as more voters turn to Trump

    Taylor Swift's post-debate endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, appears to have completely backfired. A new post-debate poll from YouGov released Saturday found that while 8% of voters said Swift's endorsement made them "somewhat" or "much more likely" to support the Democratic ticket, a significant 20% said they are "somewhat" or "much less likely" to vote for former President Donald Trump's opponent after Swift spoke out. The majority of respondents, however - 66% - said Swift's high-profile endorsement made no difference in how they will vote in the upcoming November election, according to the NY Post. The Grammy-winning artist made waves on Instagram to her 283 million followers shortly after Tuesday night's presidential debate, stating, "I've done my research, and I've made my choice." She encouraged her followers to do the same, emphasizing that "the choice is yours to make." Swift praised Harris as "a steady-handed,...

44. BEST OF THE WEB: A once-in-1,000-year rainfall event from an unnamed storm floods homes and forces rescues in North Carolina -18 inches of rain in 12 hours

    Floodwater surged into homes, stranded vehicles and forced water rescues in coastal North Carolina on Monday after a tropical storm-like system dumped historic amounts of rain in a matter of hours. "It's probably the worst flooding that any of us have seen in Carolina Beach," Town Manager Bruce Oakley told CNN of the tourist town not far from Wilmington. "We've had to rescue people from cars, also some from houses and businesses." Emergency services fielded dozens of calls for rescue, Oakley added. Carolina Beach was placed under a state of emergency Monday after a "historic" 18 inches of rain fell there in 12 hours at one station, a once-in-1,000-year rainfall event, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington. More than a foot of rain in 12 hours was reported elsewhere in the area, a once-in-200-year rain event.

45. BEST OF THE WEB: Floods in Myanmar leave over 236 dead, 77 missing and 631,000 displaced (UPDATED)

    At least 19 people were killed in Myanmar after heavy rains triggered floods in and around the war-torn country's capital city, with rescuers moving some of the 3,600 people displaced to safer areas on boats, according to the national fire service. Adverse weather brought on by Typhoon Yagi, the strongest storm to hit Asia this year, has killed more than 230 people in Vietnam and Thailand, and flood waters from swollen rivers have inundated cities in both countries. Myanmar has been in turmoil since a military coup in February 2021, and violence has engulfed large parts of the impoverished country. An armed rebellion, comprising of new resistance groups and established ethnic minority armies, is challenging the well-armed military, amid a crippling economic crisis that could be exacerbated by the floods.

46. Super Typhoon Yagi hits Vietnam killing over 290, with 38 others missing - 17 inches of rain in 24 hours (UPDATES)

    Super Typhoon Yagi uprooted thousands of trees and swept ships and boats out to sea, killing one person, as it made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, after leaving at least 23 dead through southern China and the Philippines. The typhoon hit Hai Phong and Quang Ninh provinces, packing winds exceeding 149 kilometres (92 miles) per hour, Vietnam's National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said. In the Hai Duong province, a man was killed when heavy winds brought down a tree as the storm approached landfall, according to state media. In Hai Phong, AFP reporters encountered streets filled with fallen trees, metal roofing and broken signboards that had been ripped off properties.

47. Meteor fireball over England on September 14

48. Debate 'was rigged' - Trump

    Former US President Donald Trump has criticized the "dishonest" moderation of his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris by ABC News, saying he would only consider a rematch if it were hosted by "a fair network." Speaking to Fox's Sean Hannity immediately after Tuesday night's debate, Trump claimed that he emerged from the encounter as the victor. Informed by Hannity that Harris reportedly wants a second debate, Trump seemed dismissive of the idea. "She wants it because she lost," Trump told Hannity. "You know what happens when you're a prizefighter and you lose, you immediately want a new fight... maybe if it was on a fair network I would do that."

49. BEST OF THE WEB: Severe floods in Central Europe turn deadly in Poland and Austria - 17 killed, mass evacuations underway (UPDATE)

    A firefighter has died during a flood rescue in Austria, one person has died in Poland and four are missing in Czech Republic, police say. Storm Boris has swept by central and eastern Europe with rainfall raising river levels and causing flash floods in dozens of areas in the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland. In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday morning, "We have the first confirmed death by drowning, in the Klodzko region" on the Polish-Czech border. Following the heavy rainfall Międzygórze dam in south-western Poland has overflowed. One photo posted on X showed the dam before the floods - and a video posted by Polish TV showed it overflowing overnight.

50. Desperation - Attacks on RT reveal the sad truth about the West

    With their crusade against their own dissidents, the US and its allies betray the desperation of their collective propaganda machine. The US and its ever-loyal followers Canada and Great Britain have launched a fresh information war offensive. If "fresh" is the word: In a new season of the long-running, apparently never-ever ending Russia Rage show (aka "Russiagate") that at least the American "elites" simply cannot get enough of, it is again - drum roll - RT that is the target. This time, it stands accused not "merely" of spreading "disinformation" (that is, any information Western governments do not like) but of intelligence work as well. And then some. Such as trying to influence the American elections (yaaawn) and somehow being linked to collecting volunteer contributions for Russia's war effort in Ukraine - a form of outreach, by the way, which is exactly the same as what Ukrainian organizations do. There also is an even more terrifying revelation. It has dawned on some...