U.S. Looks to Delay Order By Niger Junta to Leave Country

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

The Pentagon has announced it has no plans to withdraw its troops despite an announcement by the Niger Junta that the military agreement between the two countries was now over. Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said, “We want to see our partnership continue if there is a path forward.” The Pentagon also claimed it was seeking “clarification” on the order.

Excerpt from www.al-monitor.com

The Pentagon has not yet issued orders for US troops to withdraw from Niger, officials said Monday, as the Biden administration hopes to negotiate with the country’s leaders in a bid to offset Russia’s military inroads in Africa.

A spokesperson for Niger’s ruling military junta announced on Saturday that it was ending its counterterrorism ties with Washington following a tense meeting with senior US officials led by the State Department’s top diplomat for Africa, Molly Phee.

Did Boeing Whistleblower Telegraph His Own Death?

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

The Boeing Whistleblower, John Barnet, 62, who was found dead with a single gunshot to his head in his pick-up truck outside a hotel in South Carolina, may not have killed himself if one person’s claim is true. The alleged suicide happened soon after he had just testified in a case against Boeing. A woman only calling herself “Jennifer” made a claim to ABC News that, just before his death, he told her he wasn’t scared “but if anything happens to me it’s not suicide.”

Jennifer added, “I know he did not commit suicide there’s no way. He loved life too much, he loved his family too much, he loved his brothers too much to put them through what they’re going through right now…I think somebody didn’t like what he had to say and wanted to shut him up and didn’t want it to come back on anyone so that’s why they made it look like a suicide.”

Japan’s Interest Rates Turn Positive for the First Time in 17 Years

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

The seemingly perpetual negative interest rates of Japan came to an end suddenly after the Bank of Japan raised their overnight borrowing lending rate from minus 0.1% to 0% to .1%. This was the first rate hike since 2017 when the negative interest rate policies began.

Excerpt from finance.yahoo.com

… The negative interest rate policy, combined with other measures to inject money into the economy and keep borrowing costs low, “have fulfilled their roles,” Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda told reporters.

The bank has an inflation target of 2% that it used as a benchmark for whether Japan had finally escaped deflationary tendencies. But it had remained cautious about “normalizing” monetary policy, or ending negative borrowing rates, even after data showed inflation at about that rate in recent months.

Ueda said there was “a positive cycle” of a gradual rise of wages and prices, while stressing that monetary policy will remain easy for some time.

Although private sector banks and other financial organizations will make their own decisions about rates, he said did not foresee any drastic rises. The central bank will watch for any big moves in rates, which would cause confusion, he added.

Germany, France, and Poland Form Anti-Russia Pact

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

The heads of Germany, France, and Poland met in Berlin this week and vowed to stick with Ukraine in the war against Russia to the end, which includes expanding their efforts to buy war resources in the world market for Ukraine’s use against their common enemy.

Germany’s PM Olaf Scholz said, “Our three states are among the greatest political, military and financial supporters of Ukraine’s struggle against the Russian imperialist aggressor. We are closely and unshakably by the side of Ukraine. … Solidarity and common action are essential to defend liberty and peace in Europe. More than ever, our unity is what gives us strength.”

Excerpt from www.wsws.org

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met yesterday in Berlin to declare their united support for escalating war with Russia as NATO-backed Ukrainian forces are collapsing on the front.

The Berlin summit came as the European powers’ bellicose statements threaten to unleash total war between NATO and Russia in Ukraine. Only two weeks ago, at the February 26 Paris summit, Macron said the NATO powers did not rule out sending ground troops to Ukraine to fight Russia. A leaked recording of German officers then confirmed that Berlin is preparing to send long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine for strikes on targets deep inside Russia.

In a press conference yesterday, Scholz, Macron and Tusk said they were united in support of escalation plans. Having confirmed their staggeringly aggressive position, they ended the press conference after less than 20 minutes, taking no questions from journalists.

Spy Satellite Network Being Built by Musk’s SpaceX

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is apparently building a network of spy satellites for an American intelligence agency according to a report run by Reuters. In the report, Reuters cites unnamed sources within the U.S. intelligence community who are making the claim Musk’s SpaceX is building the spy satellite network.

While Musk’s company, SpaceX, builds surveillance equipment for the U.S. government, his social media company, X, continues to create a brand narrative that seems opposed to the very kind of powers his other company is enabling. In response to the rumors, the National Reconnaissance office told Reuters they are developing “the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen.”

Woke Makes You Sad?

Paul Collier March 19, 2024

A new study conducted by researchers in Finland concludes that people who adopt the ideology of “woke” are at a higher risk of also suffering from depression and anxiety. The study was conducted doing a survey of 5,800 college students and faculty to first determine who was “woke” and then who was suffering from anxiety and/or depression.

The lead study author, Oskari Lahtinen, said they conducted the study because “the arrival of a critical social justice (often called ‘woke’) discourse sparked much debate in Finnish media in the last couple of years. This debate was largely data-free and it could thus be considered a worthwhile question to study how prevalent these attitudes are.”

Dollar Tree Looking to Axe 1K Stores

Paul Collier March 18, 2024

Dollar Tree has announced unexpected plans to close a total of 1000 stores over the next few years starting with the closing of 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of this year. All of the closings are coming to its U.S. stores, none of its Canadian stores are included in the closing. The closings have been attributed to Family Dollar’s acquisition of Dollar Tree in 2015, which experts say has never panned out.

Canada’s High Court Rules Women No Longer Exist

Paul Collier March 18, 2024

The highest court in the land of Canada just let all the citizens know the government no longer recognizes women at all. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that using the word “woman” to describe a victim in a sexual assault case as a “woman” was “problematic,” because it may “have been unfortunate and engendered confusion.”

Justice Sheilah Martin, a woman herself, wrote the ruling, stating, “While the choice of the trial judge to use the words ‘a woman’ may have been unfortunate and engendered confusion, in context, it is clear the judge was reasoning that it was extremely unlikely that the complainant would be mistaken about the feeling of penile‑vaginal penetration because people generally, even if intoxicated, are not mistaken about that sensation.”

Excerpt from thepostmillennial.com

In a decision delivered on Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the use of the word “woman” to describe the victim in a sexual assault case was “problematic.”

According to the National Post, Justice Sheilah Martin wrote that the use of the word “woman” by a trial judge may “have been unfortunate and engendered confusion.”

The ruling came in the case of R v Kruk, which involved a 2017 charge of sexual assault against then-34-year-old Charles Kruk of British Columbia, Canada.

“Mr. Kruk was charged with one count of sexual assault from an incident at his home in the early hours of May 27, 2017. Earlier that evening, he came upon the heavily intoxicated complainant on the street. The complainant testified that she woke up in Mr. Kruk’s bed with her pants off, Mr. Kruk on top of her, and his penis inside her vagina,” the ruling states of the case.

EU Passes World’s First Comprehensive AI Rules

Paul Collier March 18, 2024

The EU has passed its AI act, becoming the first attempt by any major government to develop comprehensive regulations for the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). The regulations are scheduled to take effect at the end of May of this year. The details of the bill are still being sifted through as tech companies scramble to understand the regulations and adjust their business models accordingly.

Excerpt from cnbc

The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday approved the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the mediatized artificial intelligence at the forefront of tech investment.
Born in 2021, the EU AI Act divides the technology into categories of risk, ranging from “unacceptable” — which would see the technology banned — to high, medium and low hazard.
The regulation is expected to enter into force at the end of the legislature in May, after passing final checks and receiving endorsement from the European Council.
The European Union’s parliament on Wednesday approved the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the mediatized artificial intelligence at the forefront of tech investment.The EU brokered provisional political consensus in early December, and it was then endorsed in the Parliament’s Wednesday session, with 523 votes in favor, 46 against and 49 votes not cast.“Europe is NOW a global standard-setter in AI,” Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for internal market, wrote on X.
The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, described the act as trailblazing, saying it would enable innovation, while safeguarding fundamental rights.

“Artificial intelligence is already very much part of our daily lives. Now, it will be part of our legislation too,” she wrote in a social media post.

Dragos Tudorache, a lawmaker who oversaw EU negotiations on the agreement, hailed the deal, but noted the biggest hurdle remains implementation.

Gender-Affirming Surgery Not Helping Men

Paul Collier March 16, 2024

The Journal of Urology published a study that reveals men who receive “gender affirming surgery” to look more than women are not any less likely to attempt to commit suicide than men who, like them, identify as a woman but don’t get the transition surgery.

That surgery includes a process called vaginoplasty, which turns the man’s penis into an open wound where the penis once was that can never fully heal and requires forced “opening” for the rest of the man’s life. This particular process produces a higher suicide attempt rate than non-treatment, with 3.3% attempting suicide after this procedure while 1.5% do before the surgery.

Excerpt from www.newsbusters.org

A study published in The Journal of Urology indicated that the attempted-suicide rate among transgender women, so men, was twice as high after those “women” received a vaginoplasty than before. That’s right, it appears that surgically harming yourself doesn’t solve depression.

Journalist Benjamin Ryan tweeted about the study on Monday and pointed out how gender-transition treatment isn’t life saving. Though the study is from 2021, this is the first many of us have heard about it, likely because it’s results point out the fact that these treatments are the opposite of “care.”

Researchers analyzed data on 868 people who got their penis turned into a “vagina.” I placed air quotes around that word because the only one who can actually make a vagina is God. Nonetheless, the study also looked at 357 people who did the reverse and got their vagina turned into a “penis.”