[Forwarded from Monkeypox Up]
[ Video ]
WHO Chief “Concerned by the Scale and Spread” of Monkeypox as Cases Rise 77% in a Week

??@MonkeypoxUp: The WHO on Thursday (July 7) reported (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/m....onkeypox-cases-rise- a 77% weekly increase in the number of lab-confirmed monkeypox cases, to more than 6,000 worldwide, and two more deaths in parts of Africa where the virus has circulated for years.

The U.N. health agency said the mysterious outbreak continues to mainly affect men who have had sex with men, and that other population groups showed no signs of sustained transmission.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday (July 6) he remained "concerned by the scale and spread of the virus," noting that over 80% of the cases turned up in Europe. He said he would convene the next meeting of a WHO expert panel that is monitoring the outbreak for no later than the week of July 18.

[ Album ]
Shocking Footage Shows Thousands of Gallons of Fuel Leak at Navy Facility Days Before Contaminating Families’ Water

New videos obtained by Civil Beat appear to show the moment that tens of thousands of gallons of fuel burst from a cracked PVC pipe at a Navy fuel storage facility in Hawaii last November, before eventually contaminating the water supply for thousands of military families.

“It was like watching a scene from Titanic,” Army Maj. Mandy Feindt, whose family was impacted by the fuel leak last year, told Task & Purpose of the videos. She specifically took issue with the fact that the videos were not released by the Navy, which she said they likely knew about months ago.

“I just think there’s been this huge game of turning a blind eye,” she said. “Like, if you don’t tell us, it didn’t happen.”

? Source: Task & Purpose

(https://taskandpurpose.com/new....s/navy-red-hill-fuel
@G3News

[Forwarded from The Free Thought Project]
What makes this admission by the mayor so shocking is the fact that just two weeks ago, he said the exact opposite; “there is no cover-up.” Now he says “At this point, I don’t know what to believe and what not to believe.”

https://thefreethoughtproject.....com/uvalde-mayor-blo

Japan to Start Jailing People for Online Insults

Posting “online insults” will be punishable by up to a year in prison time in Japan starting Thursday (July 7), when a new law passed earlier this summer will go into effect.

People convicted of online insults can also be fined up to 300,000 yen (just over $2,20. Previously, the punishment was fewer than 30 days in prison and up to 10,000 yen ($75).

The law will be reexamined in three years to determine if it’s impacting freedom of expression—a concern raised by critics of the bill. Proponents said it was necessary to slow cyberbullying in the country.

But there aren’t clear definitions of what counts as an insult, Seiho Cho, a criminal lawyer in Japan, told CNN after the law passed. The law says an insult means demeaning someone without a specific fact about them—as opposed to defamation, which it classifies as demeaning someone while pointing to a specific fact about them. “At the moment, even if someone calls the leader of Japan an idiot, then maybe under the revised law that could be classed as an insult,” Cho said.

Japanese officials pushed a crackdown on cyberbullying after the death by suicide of reality television star Hana Kimura, who was subject to online abuse. Her mother pushed for more anti-cyberbullying policies after her death.

? Source: The Verge

(https://www.theverge.com/2022/....7/6/23196593/japan-j
@G3News

FBI, MI5 Name Chinese Government as Top Threat to Business

While traveling to London to meet with his British counterpart, the head of the FBI warned Western business leaders that their companies could be impacted by crime from Beijing.

During a joint press conference attended by executives in various financial sectors, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum cautioned that China presented the most significant threat.
“By volume, most of what is at risk from Chinese Communist Party aggression is not, so to speak, my stuff. It’s yours. The world-leading expertise, technology, research, and commercial advantage developed and held by people in this room, and others like you,” he said.

FBI Director Christopher Wray also claimed that China seeks to steal “innovation” from Western firms. “We’ve seen the regional bureaus of China’s MSS—their Ministry of State Security—key in specifically on the innovation of certain Western companies it wants to ransack.” He added, “I’m talking about companies everywhere from big cities to small towns—from Fortune 100s to start-ups, folks that focus on everything from aviation, to AI, to pharma.”

Wray pushed corporate leaders to work with the FBI and MI5, insisting “We’re not just in the business of articulating problems, we’re doing something about them, together with MI5, with the private sector itself, with other government partners.” He also warned that China is insulating its economy from potential western sanctions that would come if Beijing ordered the military takeover of Taiwan.

? Source: Libertarian Institute

(https://libertarianinstitute.o....rg/news-roundup/the-
@G3News

Israeli Drone Strike Kills Syrian Soldier Along Golan Frontier

On Wednesday (July 6), Israel carried out yet another attack on Syrian territory, this time an apparent drone strike along the Golan Heights frontier. The attack killed a member of the Syrian Army, according to local sources.

Details are still emerging, slowly, with Israel offering its typical refusal to comment on the incident. Israeli media, however, are pretty sure the soldier was secretly in league with Hezbollah.

There’s no evidence of that, at least publicly, but Hezbollah media reported his death, and that seems to be all that was needed for Israeli press to conclude he was part of their force.

? Source: Antiwar.com

(https://news.antiwar.com/2022/....07/06/israeli-drone-
@G3News

Russia Still Hasn’t "Even Really Started" Yet, Putin Warns Those Helping Ukraine

Russia is ready to engage in peace negotiations with Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (July 7), warning that those who reject such prospects should realize that prolonging the ongoing conflict would only make such talks more difficult.

“We do not refuse negotiating peace, but those who refuse should know that the further they refuse, the more difficult it will be to negotiate,” Putin said, issuing a warning to those who might think Russia has already exhausted its capabilities amid the conflict.

"We hear today that they want us to be defeated on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try. We haven’t even really started anything yet."

? Source: RT

(https://www.rt.com/russia/5585....93-putin-russia-hasn
@G3News

WNBA Player Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges in Russian Court

American basketball star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty Thursday (July 7) to drug possession charges on the second day of her trial in a Russian court in a case that could see her sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

The abrupt guilty plea by the Phoenix Mercury star and two-time Olympic gold medalist came amid a growing chorus of calls for Washington to do more to secure her freedom nearly five months after her arrest amid rising tensions between the United States and Russia over Ukraine.

A senior Russian diplomat said earlier that no action could be taken by Moscow on Griner’s case until the trial was over, and her guilty plea could be an effort by her and her advisers to expedite the court proceedings.

Griner, 31, was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport while returning to play basketball in Russia, and police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage.

Speaking through an interpreter, Griner told the court that she had no intention of committing a crime and had acted unintentionally because she had packed for Moscow in a hurry.

? Source: Associated Press

(https://apnews.com/article/bri....ttney-griner-russia-
@G3News

NATO Says It Has No Plans to Send Troops to Sweden and Finland

A NATO official told AFP on Tuesday (July 5) that the alliance has no plans to send troops to Sweden and Finland if they complete their membership process, which officially started this week.

“We don’t plan to have an additional presence in either country, they have formidable national forces. They’re capable of defending themselves,” NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana said.

“We don’t plan to have NATO bases in these two countries, because they have a very high level of military and strategic maturity,” Geoana added.

“We don’t have problems with Sweden and Finland as we do with Ukraine,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week. “If Finland and Sweden wish to, they can join. That’s up to them. They can join whatever they want.”

But Putin warned that “if military contingents and military infrastructure were deployed there, we would be obliged to respond symmetrically and raise the same threats for those territories where threats have arisen for us.”

? Source: Antiwar.com

(https://news.antiwar.com/2022/....07/06/nato-says-it-h
@G3News